Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #102: New Format, New Me: How to Double Down on YOU with Heather!

Episode Date: April 7, 2021

Welcome to the new format! You spoke and I heard you. Now that we have moved to a 2 episode mode, we can really reflect and focus in. We are entering the new normal and options are finally opening up. I am so optimistic for the future and for YOU! Your questions today are on how to explain a resume gap and how to pivot in your 40s. Let’s dive in.   Send Heather feedback on her podcast format here! To inquire about my coaching program opportunity visit https://mentorship.heathermonahan.com/    Review this podcast on Apple Podcast using this LINK and when you DM me the screen shot, I buy you my $299 video course as a thank you!    My book Confidence Creator is available now! get it right HERE   If you are looking for more tips you can download my free E-book at my website and thank you! https://heathermonahan.com    *If you'd like to ask a question and be featured during the wrap up segment of Creating Confidence, contact Heather Monahan directly through her website and don’t forget to subscribe to the mailing list so you don’t skip a beat to all things Confidence Creating!     See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Come on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals. We'll overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow. I'm ready for my close-up. Hi, and welcome back. I'm so excited that this is our first new dual episode week for creating confidence. And I asked you what you wanted. And you know it's so funny, I heard from a lot of you.

So thank you so much for giving me your feedback and direction. the show's for you. So I am trying to give you exactly what you want, but I had 99.9% of people respond back and say, hey, break up the shows, do the interview in one time slot, and then do the pre and post on another. And one person, one, one listener said, no, don't break it up. So to that one listener, gosh, this is going to stink, but hopefully you will grow to adjust to the new format and you will like it and everyone else will like it. Please let me know your thoughts again. Love to hear from you. Love to hear your feedback. So you heard earlier this week, I sat down with my friend Amy Moore, who I love. She's an amazing person and author. Her new book,

13 Things Strong Kids Do is amazing. If you have a child or you have a child in your life that you love, having gone through this pandemic, it is 100% certain they have struggled mental. Who hasn't, right? I mean, the ups and downs of the last year, and I'll tell you, I was reflecting on this today. One year ago today, we were all on lockdown. And I know some people are still restricted. But for the most part, many of us have so much more freedom and understand that there is an end to the, it's just we're in such a better place. And I had to remind myself that sometimes we get so busy and caught up in the moment that we're living in. we forget that perspective that, you know, I was praying for a time like this a year ago, literally going to bed crying, praying, holy cow, please let us survive this. In the beginning, we didn't know what was going to happen.

It was so scary. And to just realize how amazing it is that I can go jump in the car, take my son to dinner, you know, run outside, go to outdoor spin class socially distance from people. I'm having business meetings. I'm having live events. I mean, a year ago, I can't even imagine that this would be happening. And to be living it now is so freaking exciting. I'm so optimistic about the future and hopeful, and I hope you are too.

And I've seen a lot in the past couple weeks so many new business opportunities. I'm getting so many speaking inquiries for on-site events and booking on-site events. It's just mind-blowing. And, you know, making the decision that I'm going to be traveling again and being. in front of so many people again, I decided to get the vaccine. You know, these are decisions everyone individually needs to make. I got my first shot and it was super easy. It just felt like someone punched you in the arm the next day. You know, it was sore. And I'm getting my second one this week, which I'm super excited about. I can't believe I'm so excited to get a vaccine. But I just feel

like having that protection and not having to worry that, you know, if you're at a live event and someone, you know, runs up and touches you, you don't want to. to freak out or, you know, just feel like something really awful could happen. So I'm, I'm so excited about the potential of everything to come. And just in this last month, I've seen such a seismic shift in people and the energy out there in the cadence with business and opportunities. It's really starting to feel like 2019 again, which I freaking love. I don't want to go back to 2019 because that means we'd have to go through 2020 again. But, You know what I mean.

And I was watching Gary V. had a post on social this week, and it said, you know, we're not going back to normal. There's a new normal. And his point was just that, yes, live events are happening. And yes, people are back in person to person, everything. However, you know, moving forward, if you have a really important event with your child and some big meeting comes up, you just let them know. I'm going to zoom in for it. and people will be much more understanding of that. And I do, I think he made a great point.

I can tell you this, live events are going to be epic. And everywhere you go, people are going to be having huge events and this is happening this year. I guarantee it. But his point was that when you do have personal situations that are important to you, in the past, you wouldn't have just dipped out and not done it. Now you have this option to just zoom in. And that's a really fantastic option. And so in the end, you know, the future so bright for 2021, as things pick up and start impacting your life in this positive way and this momentum continues, we also have this great new out for things by having that opportunity to zoom in.

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slash confidence free. But again, the blessing, I just got asked to speak at an international conference in May, and I'm zooming in for it. They didn't even ask me to fly out. So there are major blessings with Zoom as much as I've complained about it and been over it, I am really grateful for it too. So a lot to be grateful for it today. And to the point about Amy's book, if you have a child, if you have a child that you love, make sure that you get them this book and sit down and talk with them. If you didn't listen to the episode yet, go back and

listen to this week's interview with her. It's so good. And as a mother, I had so many questions. And she fires right away with tactical solutions, very specific ways to handle. The challenges that kids are up against. And my son had an in-person meeting with someone this past week, and he was getting nervous going. And it's so normal for people who haven't been doing a lot of in-person to feel anxiety or nervous. And it went so amazing. And he said, oh, my gosh, everything went so great and so much better than I thought. And for all of us, I have a client I'm working with right now who's prepping herself for her first in-person event in over a year and speaking at this event, And she's got herself all worked up in a tizzy about it.

And it's the same thing, whether it be with my child or with myself or with my clients, everyone gets a little bit nervous around these things. And then once it's done, it's so much better than you could ever imagine. And I promise you that your in-person meetings are going to give you so much joy, so much energy. They're going to be so much better than you had a plan for or expected. And that I know for sure. So you've got to let me know if you love the new format or if you don't like the new format, definitely DM me. Go to my website, Heather Monaghan.com. Give me feedback. I always want to hear from you

and hold tight because we're going to be right back. Hi and welcome back. I'm going to start firing off some answers to the questions that you have submitted whenever you want me to answer one of your questions on the show. Just DM it to me, shoot it to me at Heathermonahan.com and I'm on it. Okay, here we go. I know you are producing. major content right now and might not have time to see this message. Okay, pause right there. Yeah, definitely. I actually had to bring on a new assistant just to manage messages on social media. Guys, it was such a time suck for me, but I don't want to miss. There's so many great opportunities that can come to you in the DMs. If you're not checking your DMs on social, you are missing the boat. I've had so many unbelievable opportunities come to me, speaking engagements, business opportunities, consulting, you know, so many paid business opportunities through DMs that you can't

ignore them. It's just, it doesn't make sense to. So I had to invest in someone. So that's their full-time job. Is there in LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, they're on all these social media pages, just checking my DMs, updating a live Google Doc for me and then sending me emails daily, hey, high alert, get to this one right away. Do you want me to respond to this one? at a meeting, et cetera. So it's been, this is our first week doing it. And oh my gosh, I'm so optimistic about this. I'm so excited. So, okay, back to the question. I know you're producing major content right now. I might not have time to see this message, but I did because my assistant sent it to me. I wanted to reach out and ask, how should I explain a gap in employment during

the pandemic, yet still be seen as someone that can move up and forward in their position. I started my own company during this time, but I've struggled to get clients. Now I'm being interviewed for great positions. How do I explain the gap and still look like a leader? That's so easy. Number one, always tell the truth. Stand in your confidence. Know your worth, right?

Know that you're valuable as an employee. Look at your past reviews and recommendations of your work. Just stand in that. Know how good you are. And when you walk in there, people can relate to real people. And people want to do business with people they know like and trust. So do your homework on the other person. find out what points of interest that you can connect around or commonalities that you have so that you can speak as people and connect as people.

And when you get to that part of your resume or backstory, you know, you're going to share the truth. And you're going to say, I'm not sure how COVID has impacted you and your family. Hopefully you guys have been healthy. You know, I would ask the question, right? I'd put that out there. And when they said, you know, oh, yeah, we're doing okay as, you know, it's, you know, it's. been tough, but we're okay, I'd say, well, I'm sure you understand the roller coaster that has gone on for so many of us, and that does not exclude me. I lost my job due to layoffs or whatever the

true story is. And what I chose to do was pivot immediately so that I could add value and charge my worth from a computer screen, which was challenging. I didn't have a client acquisition strategy. I didn't have a database of potential clients. I never wanted to go to work for myself. But what I did immediately was I pivoted from this very challenging situation and started building value from home the best I could while I was working with my children, you know, in Zoom school. It's been chaotic to save the least.

And I'm just so grateful now we're back at a time where I'm able to have the opportunity to sit here with you, have the opportunity to work for an established company and bring my best self to work, knowing this is where I belong, having tried it the other way. You know, I would just, I'd be really direct and lead with that truth. And people are going to completely understand. And if they don't, they are not your people. There's zero chance that I would sit down and interview someone right now and they would explain to me how difficult the pandemic was for them and how they tried to get a business off the ground and it didn't work. I would have empathy. I'd also ask questions though. I'd say, so tell me what was the challenge?

part for you that you couldn't get it off the ground. I'd be curious. I'd want to understand more. So if you're a designer, it's normal to say that you're not great at marketing or client acquisition strategies, right? I wouldn't think you are. I wouldn't think that's your strong suit. So it's okay to explain that. Be honest, tell the truth, relate to the people. They're going to relate to you. Hey, Heather, hope all is well. I was thinking about, oh, this is somebody wanted to repost my quotes. Here's what I'll tell you. I get a lot of people sending me questions asking if it's possible to use my content. As long as you don't change it and you tag me, that's great.

I don't know why anyone would ever, I don't think you have to ask that. I wouldn't ask that, right? I've shared other people's quotes and other people's content and I just tag them and I put hashtag repost. Okay, loving your content. Thank you for sharing. Thank you. I'm curious if you can share some thoughts on pivoting in your 40s. I'm turning 40 next week.

Shout out and want to switch out of sales client management. I'm not sure where to even begin on this. I'm done with my NBA in November and want to move into a business planning role or procurement. Is education enough to make this move? You don't even need education to make this move. Just do, right? Take action. People get so caught up in the, what if I fail?

What if this doesn't work? What if there's some secret strategy and sauce I should know about and have? have. There isn't, right? Pump the brakes. I googled every freaking thing I've done. I googled how to write a book. I googled how to launch a podcast. I googled how to land a TEDx talk. I googled how to land an agent. Just Google it and take action now. Take massive action now. You're going to figure it out along the way. Or invest in yourself. Hire a coach. Hire someone to teach you how to do it. Those are the two glaring options to me. Drop everything. Start Googling and take a massive action to make these things that you want to happen happen.

Surround yourself with people who are your champions and cheering you on and stretching you to grow and to go bigger and or invest in yourself when I wrote a book. I knew I'm stuck. I don't know where to go from here. Boom. I hired an editor, right? Hire someone that's written 19 books if you want to write one. Hire someone that's been the places that you want to go if you're willing and ready to make

that leap. Go all in. When I wanted to write my second book, which is coming out in November, I Googled how to find an agent. And once I landed my agent, she said, you need a book proposal. And I thought, I have no idea how to write a book proposal. But I knew I could find people in the world that are experts in that. And I did. And I invested a lot of money in hiring the best because I wanted the best book proposal.

So if you're ready to go to that next level, double down on you. It's the best investment you will ever make. And that is fact, my friend. All right, until next week, let me know what you think of this new structure and two episodes. I've done so many interviews, you guys, over the past few weeks. It's crazy. I'm just backlogged. I also wonder if I should start doing, just putting more interviews out.

I have so many. So let me know your thoughts. I can't wait to hear from you. So grateful for you and so optimistic for all of our future. Until next week, I'll be creating my confidence. and I know you will too.