Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #112: The BEST Way to Navigate Change And Diversify Your Revenue with Heather!

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that change is a CONSTANT. And how do we deal with it!? Better yet, how do we take change, make the pivot, and use it to our advantage? What can it teach us? That’s what I’m here today to talk about! And then I answer your questions on how I got my own business started, diversified my revenue streams, and chased one opportunity after another.  Rate, Review, and Subscribe to the podcast 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, you're 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. You're back here with me today. Okay, a lot going on in Miami, Florida. Let me get you up to speed. It's super important. I want everyone to understand. I am not judging anybody else, hoping you're not judging me. I've just decided that we live in this really weird time where things are different depending on where you live. I am just sicken by what's happening outside of our country right now. So many people are sick and dying and it's horrific.

However, in our country now that so many people are vaccinated, I personally am vaccinated, feel fine and did not have a bad experience. Thankfully, hope that you have the same. But what's happened here in Florida is it's just become, I can't, literally, if you look out my window right now, it looks like 2019. People are everywhere. People don't wear masks. It's very, very different.

So the example I wanted to give you, which is, this is just mind-blowing to me, is, okay, back in 2019, I used to go spinning all the time. I love spinning. I used to go to flywheel, okay? Pandemic hit. I got the Peloton Deluxe. delivered to my apartment, thankfully. Even though I love being around people, we couldn't. You know, we were on quarantine and couldn't leave the house. And so flywheel ends up closing,

went out of business. I was riding my peloton by myself in my bedroom, crying my eyes out most days. And then, you know, things started getting better. I ended up hiring a trainer after quarantine had ended and we would work out outside at a park socially distanced. And it felt safe and at least it got me out of the house and it made me feel optimistic, right? So those are the first kind of initial changes. And then things started opening back up. That was probably around December. Maybe it was January, but, you know, so it was months after things had slowly started opening back up, workout places started opening up here that I felt safe going to. There had been other ones that I wasn't going to go to that didn't, you know, use protocols or

whatever. Okay. So here's what I did is I heard SoulCycle, which used to be a competitor to fly wheel, by the way. They had stayed in business and they had rented out a rooftop of a parking garage. Brilliant, right? And P.S., you know, it's so interesting about this, why didn't someone think about this back in 2019? We live in one of the most beautiful places in the country. And in the winter, why wouldn't we work out outside? It's gorgeous. You feel so grateful. You taken the views, the trees, the sun. It's literally unbelievable, but no one was pushing themselves prior to the pandemic to think a new way, to think, is there a different or better way for us to have a spin class versus in a dingy room, you know, with people sweating on

one another. Hello, the outside option, much better. So let's pause for a moment and all challenge ourselves to look at our businesses. How can we innovate them? Let's not rely on external factors like a pandemic happening to drive us to innovate. Why can't we innovate today? I leave that question with you today. I will work on that myself later on today. Okay. So I went, I was so nervous, right? Anytime some things do we get super nervous. It's just fact, right? So I was so nervous. Just like I was so nervous the first time I went to meet the socially distanced trainer at the park. I was super nervous. I didn't, gosh, I just, I was so scared, right, of being outside, being near the virus. I didn't know what to expect back then.

things had just been so bad during lockdown. So fast forward to, it was December or January. I went for the first time on the rooftop. And I was super nervous, but it was very safe. Everyone had masks on. We were outside the whole time. All the bikes were socially distanced. Everyone kept their mask on until they got on their bike.

They had temperature checks. It was super safe. I felt safe. Anyways, this is prior to being vaccinated. So after I went once, I'm like, forget it. I'm doing this all the time. So I went all in and I went every day that I could go. And it was so fun because it gave you this energy that you're near people.

It was a sense of normalcy, right? And amplified because you're outside and the ocean air and the views. It was magical. Literally pure magic. One of my girlfriends would come with me sometimes. And it was just I couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy, you know, so grateful. Gosh, if anything, that's what this one terrible year of this pandemic has taught me is

that to just be grateful for being around people, to be grateful for help, to be grateful for beautiful views and being outside and, you know, things that I didn't used to spend a lot of time thinking about. Okay. So then I went all in. We were doing spinning outside. And for months, that's just how it was. Okay. Well, change just keeps coming left and right. All of a sudden, about a week ago, they announced that it was getting hot and people were complaining. There's a lot of New Yorkers that have moved down here and are taking classes with us. And they're not used to the weather, right? I've lived here for 16 years. So we're definitely, if you live in Miami, you're used to this really hot weather. I'm not saying it makes it easier, but you're used to it. A lot of the people

from the north that have moved down here are not used to it at all. And so it started to get some summer type of temperatures, you know, hitting high 80s, low 90s and high humidity. So a couple of the classes, people were freaking out because we're still on the rooftop. We're in the blazing sun. There's no umbrellas and people started getting upset. So a week ago, two weeks ago, they told us we're going inside. So in the same garage, it's sort of like a warehouse. They have these humongous doors and they put us in this. They moved us the whole class from the rooftop down to floor two. We went into this indoor socially distance with the doors open, but you had to wear masks to ride because technically you're inside. That was super hard. So it's hot in there. It's hard to

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I can work out with a mask on, even though I don't like it. Toughen up. You know, if we can get through a pandemic, we can get through this. So that went on for the last week. And then Ron DeSantis made this announcement that masks were going to be optional based on business. I believe that's it. Don't quote me. Google it and check it out.

And people were pointing to the date of July 1st. So some people started saying, oh, you don't need to wear masks anymore. You know, it just depends who you are, what you believe, whatever. And for me, even though I'm vaccinated, I'm vaccinated. I have a 13-year-old son. I believe in wearing masks. I believe that we protect ourselves and do, you know, what we can. Okay, so today it was the first day.

I went to spin class and they announced you don't have to wear a mask anymore when you ride. So you walk into the same warehouse that we've been working out in with the doors open. Everyone has a mask on when they arrive. The bikes are socially distant. I'm trying to explain to save a visual of what it's like. Once you get on the bike, you can take your mask off. So today was a first time, and I took a video of it. And it's literally a video of everybody with no masks on working out inside together.

And it was so exciting. I felt so hopeful that, wow, here I am. Not only a month ago did I not know this would happen, but a week ago I didn't know this would happen. Change is happening so quickly these days. And it's so hard to predict because we've never been in this situation before. But I hope that this gives you some hope that things can change no matter. where you live, no matter what your circumstances are very, very quickly right now, because things are changing rapidly everywhere. Some of it's good. Some of us not so good, right? So,

interestingly enough, to the point of change, had this unbelievable spin class. Everyone was going crazy because everyone was so grateful that we didn't have to wear the masks and we appreciated that much more now. Pump the brakes. As soon as class finishes, our instructor says, well, I have an announcement to make. We're all moving back into the old studio. effective next week. I thought, wait a minute, this is too much change. I'm the biggest advocate that there is for change, but I thought, I just, I don't, I can't take it anymore. Why can't we just stay here for a little while? But nope. So more change coming. We're moving back in to the studio they used in 2019. I'm not sure what that will actually look like, but it's going to be interesting.

So change is coming. Some of it's good. Some of it's not so good. But change is the one constant. It's the one thing you can count on and it's coming rapidly for you. So hold tight. Be hopeful and I'll be right back. So one of the questions that I got sent to me this week on Instagram actually in a DM was asking me how when I first launched my business over three years ago right after I got fired, what did I start selling and what is the evolution of revenue in my business? Wow. It's been crazy to say that. lease in the pandemic year and coronavirus year, just like everyone, that really, ooh, that hurt. Okay, so here's how it started out. I wish I knew then what I know now. My life would have been

very different, but I didn't. Okay, so I had never worked for myself before. So I just knew I wanted to sell something. So the first thing I wrapped my head around, which, gosh, I left money on the table, was I wanted to write a book and sell that. That was what I just got clarity on it. That's what I wanted to do. However, I didn't really, I mean, I got the book out super fast. I wrote it so fast in just a few months and self-published, so it got out to market, you know, and I think the whole thing took me under six months. It was really, really fast. But still, that's a long time to not, you know, I'm living off of all of my savings. And, you know, I would not recommend that for anybody. But for me, that's what I thought in the moment I came up with. During that time, I signed on

with Perry Ellis, which is a clothing line. I was their brand ambassador. I was, I would wear their clothes for them, promote their clothes on social media. So that was my next business deal that I inked to grab revenue. During that time, I was promoting my book coming out, and that's when I learned that the speaking business was a thing. I hadn't previously known that. And that's when I got hired for my first paid speaking gig. So this is all in that first year where I'm writing the book.

I get the book done. I bring it to market. That was about six months. I signed on with Perry Ellis. They started paying me for a brand partnership. and I started showing up and getting paid for speaking engagements. Then a skincare company had come to me and pitched me on being the face of their brand and their company and developing a line with them.

So I started working with them. Newsflash, this deal actually ends up falling apart before it went to market. But that was just another revenue stream I was working on. Then I started working on brand-sponsored deals. Duncan Donuts reached out to me and they hired me to do a series of live events in different marketplaces where I, along with other women, were on business panels for them talking about being working moms. And it was basically paid speaking engagements through the Dunkin' Donuts brands on their location. I also did a brand sponsorship deal with a bank promoting small

business loans. And that's when I launched my podcast. So my podcast, I would get paid via endorsement deals, live reads and ads in my show. Then I learn more about the speaking agent business and started, I went and did a deal with APB speakers, GDA speakers, big speak. I started marketing myself to all the speaker bureaus. GDA really started promoting me. APB started sending out emails in my speaking business really took off. That's when I got paid and hired to interview Sarah Blakely live on stage. That was Q4 2019 and things, just the momentum was picking up and accelerating.

I decided to do my own live event with one of my good friends in Boston. That was a new revenue stream for us. During that time, I launched my video course. That was a new revenue stream for me. Then I launched affiliate partnerships. That was a new revenue stream for me. I mean, it was like one thing after another. And then I had partnerships brought to me.

So companies that I had worked with like Scribe Media, which is the company that I wrote and self-published my first book with, they said, Heather, when you send us the opportunity or intro us to people who want to write books, you'll get a referral fee. So I started doing all these affiliate partnerships with brands and companies I personally could attest to that they were great to work with. So that was a new revenue stream for me. Then the pandemic hit, right? And everything stopped. And that's when I launched my coaching revenue stream.

Then I launched my consulting business where I went and started working with companies on revenue generation, how to accelerate revenues, how to improve their sales team and organization for ultimate ROI. impact. I started doing one-on-one executive coaching. I started doing group coaching. Those are all three new revenue streams. Then this launch of the concept of virtual keynote speaking, that was a new revenue stream that I developed during the pandemic. Then Harvard hired me. That was a new revenue stream as teaching revenue stream. Oh my gosh, it's so crazy. If you could see how many different companies do direct deposit into my bank account. It's very weird. Okay. Then I started working with a company called Engage and they're a speaking platform and they book me for speeches so I get money direct from them as well. Then I started doing social media sponsorships. I actually worked with a

straw company. I worked with a green company. I worked. I did a deal again with Dunkin' Donuts. Then I just did my first forum, which was a YPO forum, which is a three-hour virtual workshop. That's a new revenue stream for me. Literally, I did the Harper Book deal. That's a new HarperCollins leadership pays me for writing my book. Every time I hit a benchmark, I get paid. So, I mean, it has just been crazy one thing after another. Never knew any of this stuff was coming. It's been just by trial and error.

And a lot of it I didn't even know existed, but I figured it out because I wrote the book and started promoting it, I figured out the speaking business. Because I launched the podcast, I started getting brand deals. because I started making money in the speaking business, I did an event. I launched my own event. Because I launched my video course, I learned about affiliate partnerships. One thing just kept leading to the next thing, and it's been very messy. Oh, and then I landed a board seat. I'm on the board of directors of health link, and that's another revenue stream for me. So it's just been one thing after another, you know, and that wouldn't have, my board seat wouldn't have come if I hadn't

launched my online coaching and consulting program. That's how I met the CFO of that company. So one thing just keeps turning into the next. And that's why I'm super optimistic about the future because all these crazy revenue streams, I never could have forecast any of them back in 2018 when this was all happening. But they unfolded and the opportunities arose. Some of them have been more profitable to me stronger ROI than others. But still, I love the diversification of not being dependent on just one thing. You know, it's really, that's a lesson I've learned from the pandemic, too. Being all in and dependent on just one thing is a no-no.

We want to diversify. We want to have different opportunities out there. And we want to be making money while we sleep. I definitely do. I'm sure you do too. Okay, if you like the show, I would love to hear from you. Please shoot me a note at heathermonahan.com or on social media. I'm on all social channels.

Would love to hear from you. If you could share it, subscribe, like, leave a review. It means the world to me, and it helps so, so much. Let me know your questions. Shoot me a DM, and I will answer them live here next week. Until next week, I'll be creating confidence. I know you will too.