Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #175: How To CULTIVATE Your Community And Watch Them Advocate For YOU with Kacia Fitzgerald

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

In This Episode You Will Learn About:  Getting real with your audience Embrace feedback and use it to grow Being relatable over being perfect Resources: Website: kaciafitzgerald.com Listen to EmpowerHER Podcast Join her She Goes Podcasting Course Facebook: @Kacia Fitzgerald Instagram: @kacia.fitzgerald Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com  If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Show Notes: I am BEYOND excited to introduce my friend and today’s guest, Kacia Fitzgerald. She created one of the most popular podcasts, EmpowerHER, which is designed to teach people to chase their dreams, get aligned, and cultivate their community. She understands the importance of authenticity and how being REAL is what grabs the attention of others. Leaving perfection aside, Kacia teaches us how to build a community and let that community build up you. So what are you waiting for? Click play! About The Guest: Kacia is an ex-corporate professional turned online health coach, business mentor & podcaster obsessed with helping women take purpose driven action toward building lives they really love. She got started in network marketing in January 2014 as a side hustle until she saw the potential and decided to go all in. Now her podcast, EmpowerHER has millions of downloads and she leads a community of 1,000s of passionate women who are chasing their dreams. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

in our society and culture, it's like we had this idea that if we wait until it's perfect, then we're not subjective to anyone's judgment. And for me, I'm like, I found it to be the opposite. I don't want it to be perfect because I actually will have more rootability if it's not perfect because people are like, she's more like me. She's not trying to pretend like her shits altogether. She's just being really transparent about it. And it's created a lot of that like grassroots marketing and support, which I'm so grateful for. But it's also been partially intentional. I'm on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we'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 for you to meet my friend today. This is so exciting. My girlfriend, Keisha Fitzgerald, not only is she an amazing person, an amazing woman, a great friend, but her podcast, Empower Her Podcasts, has over 4 million. downloads, guys, that's massive way beyond where I am currently. Hello. She's also the CEO and founder

of Sheiko's company. And she's an unbelievable person, the most off the charts energy. And she's got such a great story not only around how she addresses and embraces change and constant innovation in her life, in her business, in her world, but also her ability to create community and just so many other things that you're going to learn today. So Kasha, thank you so much for being here. Heather, you know, I just adore you. I'm so excited and honored to be on your show and dive into all the juice today. This is going to be so much fun. Okay, so I want to start off with when I first met you. Was that in 2018? Yeah. I had just started my podcast and someone in my community had mentioned your first book that you did. And they're like, I feel like you would love this person.

I like creeped through the book and I was like, oh, she seems totally. my jam. And then remember I sent you a DM, a video DM on Instagram. And I was like, this is creepy, but I feel like we should connect. And then I had you on the show. And you like instantly, I was like, I love this woman. So here we are. Oh my gosh. So and for everyone listening right now, this is such a good strategy. And this is another way that you separate yourself from a lot of people. When someone wants to reach someone, they'll just send a text message or text DM. The fact that you showed yourself in that video and your energy and we were just unique and funny. It's so caught my, it caught me off guard, caught my attention, but you're not going to not respond to someone

like that. So I just thought it was super smart your approach. Thank you. It's interesting because a lot of people, I mean, especially you know in the podcasting space, if for anyone listening into this that's getting pitched all the time, I get so many emails and it's just copy and paste, it feels the same where it's like constantly asking like, how can I be different, but also how can I be honest and and genuine and real? It's like, you know, I wanted you to be on the show. So I'm just going to be myself about it. And be like, if you think this is weird, then I'm not going to be your jam anyways. And I think that's served me really well in the podcasting space and in entrepreneurship because I'm just, I'm not afraid because what's the alternative? You just don't say yes. And okay,

I move on, right? Keep it moving, sister. You know, and that's also, you know, you being unique and different. And that's what I believe has made your Instagram following so unbelievably engaged. I mean, it's amazing. Yeah. It's, thank you so much. Your so sweet. I think what's really helped me in entrepreneurship in general is I've really focused on cultivating community and then listening to whatever the community wants and then just creating the products or the programs or the services or whatever that they're literally telling me that they want. So it's almost like a lot of times people, come to me that are in the entrepreneurial space and they're like, Keisha, I have this amazing idea. I'm going to create this and then I'm going to launch it out into the world. And I'm like,

what if you tried to co-create with your audience? Like what if you brought them along and it was more like, come with me, let's figure this out together. Come with me. Let's create this idea. Rather than look at me, I figured this out. Look at me. I launched this thing. And that approach has served me so well because I cultivated the community around the podcast, was starting it just three years ago. And from there, I was able to then say, okay, we're going to launch this membership program. And we were able to get thousands of women into it. And then they were all telling me they wanted to launch a podcast. I'm like, let me create a course for you.

And I think sometimes in our society and culture, it's like we had this idea that if we wait until it's perfect, then we're not subjective to anyone's judgment. And for me, I'm like, I found it to be the opposite. I don't want it to be perfect because I actually will have more rootability if it's not perfect. Because people are like, she's more like me. she's not trying to pretend like her shits altogether. She's just being really transparent about it. And it's created a lot of that like grassroots marketing and support, which I'm so grateful for.

But it's also been partially intentional, right? Straight out the gates of like, I'm not going to try and pretend like I know exactly what I'm doing. But I do know that community and making people feel like they're seeing and heard and loved and understood by me has been, has catapulted earning millions of dollars in the online space, right? So it's unbelievable what you've done. And I do want to get more into creating a community.

But first, I want to take a step back because what people don't know or might not know about you and they hear that you have 4 million downloads in three years, which is insane, you were not always in the entrepreneurial space. Yeah. Yeah. So my background was actually an IT project management and corporate recruiting. So my last job was in downtown New York City at Google, which was actually by standards of most people would be great. and I actually had great managers and career trajectory. I made great income. I wasn't in a situation like you were in, Heather,

or maybe some people listening in where they're like, oh, like this job sucks or I'm just like, there's nowhere for me to go from here. I actually had a ton of opportunity, which is really interesting because I think there's this unique challenge where when everything is actually really good, but you feel this gut feeling that you want more. And our tendency is to want to shove that feeling down

of like, well, I should just be happy with what I have. On paper, it makes sense. sense. If I compare myself to so and so, I'm doing so great. But I just felt like I was always out of alignment and I just wanted a different path for myself. And I knew that it wasn't right. So that jump, right, of leaving the corporate world, which I left in 2015, to jump into the entrepreneurial space was because of this idea that it could be even better than what was already good. Because my back wasn't against the wall. I wasn't forced to be scrappy. And which is why I think a lot of people are so inspired by your story, myself included, but that really actually wasn't my story of

like bouncing back and like getting after. I was like, things are pretty good. But damn, like, what if I could have even more, right? And there's actually a lot of people that can connect with that kind of feeling. Maybe someone listening into this right now where you're like, wait a second, this relationship's good, but I could, I know I can have better or my health is good, but I know I could be in a better situation. My career is good, but I could be in a great company. That leap is still really scary, but I've done that leap so many damn. times now that I'm just like, let's go, right? To me, that sounds harder than what I did, right?

Because like, for me, I didn't have a choice. You had to figure something out, right? You had a choice. So how do you get yourself from, okay, I've got an idea. Maybe there's more for me. I'm not sure what that looks like. I'm not even sure what that means. How do you get from there to actually handing a resignation and taking a step out

the door? Yeah. So for me, I'm a huge proponent of trying things on the side, like just trying things on for size and being willing to be more. curious. So it doesn't feel like this, I'm forced to make this work type of thing if that's not your actual situation. So for me, I was like, gosh, like, what is this feeling that's telling me like I'm not in the right lane? And I tried for so long to just like shove it down and pretend like it was okay. But eventually you just can't shove it down anymore. I just think

everybody has a unique vision for their life and goals on their heart. And I think it's our job to figure out how to get out of her own way and actually put that out into the world. And so for me, I just decided that uncomfortable feeling was actually a gift. And I'm like, okay, let me try something on the side of this job and just see if I'd be interested in that. And it turns out to me the first thing that I tried on the side ended up taking me down this path towards this like full-time entrepreneurial life because I loved it. And I help a lot of podcasters launch podcasts that want to build personal brands or start businesses because I'm like, what is the harm in just trying it on the side if you

love it that gives you an indication to go that way? If you don't love it, it's still feedback because now at least you can say like, I scratched the edge of maybe doing this thing. And I know it's not for me that I can keep proceeding down this path. And sometimes it's almost like the fulfillment that we're craving in our life comes from us having a lot of things, like different streams of passion and different streams of fulfillment and also different streams of income too. So so much pressure isn't on, I have to stay.

But more so I could tap into this idea that was like, if I try this out on the side, I'm either going to like it or I'm not. Either way, I'm going to decide that feedback is awesome. And if I love it and I continue to build this thing on the side, then I can gift a future version of me options and choices. And I knew that I wanted options and choices later. I didn't know what those options and choices would leave me to, but I knew I wanted that. So I could kind of toggle with that in my head where it felt still safe to do it on the side because it wasn't as much risk of like jump in the net will appear, right? Yeah, no, I definitely, I think that that sounds like a better situation and very, very smart.

Okay, was now, was your first side hustle the beach body venture? Yeah, yeah. So my first business was in January 2014 that I started, which was in network marketing, building a business on the side, which was before and after work. And then about a year into it, I had surpassed my salary with Google. And I was like, well, this is like an opportunity cost situation, right? Where I was like, okay, this business is growing. I've been hustling my face off.

So now I don't have enough time to continue doing. it at the rate that I was doing it. So I was like, worst case scenario, doesn't work out. I go back. Best case scenario, it blows up even more. And then I never ever go back. So I started that business in January of 2014 on the side. And I left the corporate world in April of 2015. So just over like about 14 months afterwards. How did you scale that side hustle business that fast? I knew who I was talking to. Right. So like I kind of was speaking to this idea of everything is good, but you want great or you want more options. A lot of people, my competitive advantage was essentially that I didn't sell it the way that everybody else was selling it. A lot of people were selling this idea of build this into a six figure business, you know, retire from your job, like help your significant other do X, Y, Z. That's a lot of the network marketing culture is sold this like, quote unquote, life by design thing. I was like, that doesn't work for me. Because my target demographic, a lot of them are newer in their career path and they just want like $500 a month would change their lifestyle. Let's sell the side, like the side business opportunity. And then I just got a lot of people

that were invested in that side business opportunity. And then some of them, of course, went on to do even more with it. But I just kind of tapped into like the ethos of the people that I was talking to, which is like not everybody actually wants that. And that risk or the perceived risk of I'm going to change my career path and I'm going to jump into entrepreneurship can feel really freaking intimidating for someone that went to school, got the job, is working on their way up the corporate ladder. So I think because I sold something that felt like it was a lower barrier of entry, and I went really hard on that specific niche that I was able to attract a lot of people

that connected with my story. And from there, taught them basically how to duplicate that and did that for a few years. And then I realized that I had that alignment thing come up again where I was like, I want to build something of my own. Like, this is not my own. Now what else can I do? So that's been the path. If your anxiety, depression, or ADHD are more than a rough patch, you don't need just another meditation app.

Takayatry makes it easy to see a psychiatrist online using your insurance in days. Takayatry is 100% online psychiatry practice that provides comprehensive evaluations, diagnoses, and ongoing medication management for conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, insomnia, and more. Unlike therapy-only apps, Takiatry is psychiatry. That means you're seeing a medical provider who can diagnose mental health conditions and prescribe medication when it's appropriate.

All their 600-plus clinicians are in network with major insurers so you can use your existing insurance instead of paying monthly subscriptions or out-of-network fees. You'll meet with an experienced licensed psychiatrist who takes the time to understand what's going on, builds a personalized treatment plan and can prescribe medication when it's right for you. Your care stays consistent and evidence-based. Head to tachiatry.com slash confidence and complete the short assessment to get matched with an in-network psychiatrist in just a few minutes.

That's tachiatry.com slash confidence to get matched in minutes. When you want more, start your business with Northwest registered agent and get access to thousands of free guides, tools, and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business. All in one place. Build your complete business identity with Northwest Northwest Registered Agents has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. They are the largest registered agent and LLC service in the U.S. with over 1,500 corporate guides, real people who know your local laws and can help you in your business every step of the way. Build your business fast with Northwest registered agent and get access to thousands of free resources,

forms, and step-by-step guides without even creating an account. Sign up for a free account to begin managing your business hub with lawyer drafted operating agreements, bylaws, resolutions, membership, certificates, bills of sale, and more, all at no cost. Northwest is your one-stop business resource. Learn how to build a professional website, what annual filings your business needs to stay in good standing, and simple explanations of complicated business laws. With Northwest privacy is automatic. They never sell your data and all services are handled in-house because privacy by default

is their pledge to all customers. Don't wait. Protect your privacy. Build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit Northwestregisteredagent.com slash confidence free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at www. West registered agent.com slash confidence free. You were building up the beach body business while still at Google.

Then you leave. What was the difference like for you year two of that business because you were all in versus when you were just moonlighting in it? It grew by $100,000 a year. So whoop, boop, boop. Yeah, it grew. And then I got to a place kind of more of like the mental capacity. And I was also in this like really unique situation where my now fiance, Sina, was full time at NYU dental school.

while I was building that business on the side and then eventually full time. So I was financially supporting both of us. So I wasn't willing to like I saw how much it was taking off. And I was loving it for at least a couple of years. I was really loving it. And I saw the trajectory. So I'm like, I'm just going to keep going with this.

Like this makes a ton of sense. I'm making great impact, great income. But the idea was essentially, I'll find something else that I want to do as soon as now we kind of get him settled. So it was like taking turns with that. And once we did,

that's when I didn't know what I wanted to do next. So I started the podcast with the intention of let me cultivate community outside of this thing that I'm already known for, which I think is powerful for people listening. And if they're wanting to make some sort of shift, even in their career, it's like building this brand on the side, trying to differentiate myself from that space so that I could open doors for a future version of me to do something that wasn't that was the whole plan with it. Wow. And so how the idea of starting a podcast.

Where did that come from? And what was the strategy on the podcast? How did you get it up and running so quickly? I listened to and learned from a lot of podcasts. I just loved the medium. And I knew that it was kind of the wave of the future, just in terms of like people being on the go. And I thought there's not a lot of podcasts

that are in the personal development space where it didn't feel like someone was so many steps ahead of me or even my target demographic of who I wanted to serve. Like I felt like it was a lot of people that were looking back in hindsight to tell you, how they navigated something years ago. And I was like, wouldn't it be interesting to have someone that instead of this whole, you know, like, look at me, look what I did, let me teach you, which is so helpful to have

those stories. But I was like, what if I was just brave enough to say like, I actually don't know what I'm doing? So I'm going to go interview everyone on the topics that I'm trying to figure out in real time and just be really open about it. And it was like, come with me. And I think because it was a little bit different than a lot of podcasts where people really did have a lot of, you know, more expertly positioned. advice. I positioned myself, like we're on this journey together. And if I felt like I was lost,

I'm Googling books of like, how do I figure out how I'm lost? Like, what do I do? How do I build confidence, right? Okay, let me figure out how to do that and just find other people that are a couple steps ahead of me and say, hey, teach me everything. And while you're teaching me, you're going to be teaching this whole community. And that I think really gave that rootability of the podcast early on and it felt very authentic. And I didn't struggle with the imposter syndrome of trying to pretend like I knew what to do because I wasn't pretending. I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. So I'm going to find someone that does and then I'll interview him on the show. And that worked really well. And it was fun. Like you said, it's different. You're owning a white space.

Nobody was out there doing that. I also like you had shared with me the last time we talked about some of the different strategies that you use to get your community to start advocating for you. Can you share that. Yeah, absolutely. So it's the unsexy stuff that a lot of people aren't willing to do. But for example, I think it's really important when anyone that's like an entrepreneur in this, in any type of space where you've got an online presence, it's teaching people how to interact with you has been so helpful for me. So for example, if I'm asking someone to share the podcast and, you know, share it on social media and tag me, I'm explaining why. So it actually gives them like more skin in the game to do it, right? It's not just share it on Instagram because I want you to tag me on Instagram. It's like, hey, I'm creating this content.

Like podcasting sounds sexy, but like, and right now it's fun because there's two of us. But when you're creating an episode by yourself, you're like by yourself. I'm like, I'm sitting in a room pretending like I'm talking to someone. It sounds cool, but it's actually kind of weird, right? And when I would educate my audience on the why, I'm like, if you share this, then I know you're resonating with this and I can actually create content that's going to help you. So it's really helpful for me because otherwise this is just a one-way conversation. So it's almost like when people can connect the dots of, oh, that makes sense. Or, oh, when she tells me to share this, this is the why behind it, like the why behind the call to action has been really helpful.

And then I back it up with like crap tons of gratitude and appreciation where every single time that someone shares the podcast for the first time, like on Instagram, for example, you've got that section that's like message requests of people you've never talked to before. Every single one of those people gets a personalized voice message from me. It takes about 15 seconds per person. I do it every single freaking day. And I get to as many responses as I possibly can. But everyone that's brand new, that's like one of the first things I do is I hit all the brand new people because I want them to understand that it actually does really matter to me.

And again, it's that difference. It's that tiny little thing that's really easy to do. Also really easy not to do. But I'm like, gosh, if I do this, it makes people feel like so important and valued. And that's why the message has spread so quickly without, you know, without having to pay for advertising or anything like that. It's just been so grassroots. And you've never done paid promotion.

Not yet. No. That's unbelievable. The only shows that I personally have seen or I'm aware of that have had any type of growth similar to what you've experienced are spending tons of money, you know, to be promoted on other shows, spending tons of money on ads. It's just, it's really powerful. You're putting the work in.

You're creating the community. You're grateful to them. And you're responding to what it is that they want. And it's so smart. I'm just, I'm so blown away, but I'm so blown away by it. Did you go into the speaking next? Is that what you started doing after that? So the other thing, too, is I did my podcast for a year before I monetized it, which was a long time, right?

And I think that's important to talk about to you because a lot of people come into the space, especially because I help a lot of podcasters now monetize their podcasts, where like, they start it and they want to monetize it quickly. You can do that. There are definitely ways to do it. But my mindset was like long-term play of let me just cultivate the community, because I didn't actually know how I wanted to monetize the community, if I'm just being honest, because I had a business that I was building and I still earn income from that business, although I'm no longer building it

anymore. So I could drive traffic to that, but I knew I didn't actually want the podcast to be about driving traffic to a previous business. So I just tried to cultivate the community and get to understand what they needed. And a year later, I launched a membership community. And I started my company, she goes, and the intention was that it was going to be a live events company. And I started it in January of 2020. Oh my gosh. So curveball. But what happened instead of it becoming a live events company, it took this pivot where a lot of women started reaching out to me saying, hey, COVID just happened. I'm starting to realign with like, what do I actually want to do in my life? I think I want to start a business. Like, I mean, we saw how many new entrepreneurs came into the

space around that time frame. And a lot of them wanted to start podcasts. So I was like, I know how to start a podcast. I've started one. Let me just create a course that can help them go from an idea to launching their podcast. And I came up with the idea on a walk with my fiance. I asked him if he would do the tech side of things because he was a dentist and he also happens to be really great at tech. So like if you teach the tech side, I can teach the marketing, the content, all of that. Let's go back and I'll just sell it and then we'll create it. So I had a sticky note and I had four like points on it and I went live and I sold the course out in 24 hours and then I built it while they were in it. And then I used all, made sure I poured into all of these, these women that were in this first

Bata round, got raving testimonials from each one of them and then used that to sell the next round. And now it's like a machine. But it started with me being like, hope this works. And I was like, I was really honest. I was like, hey, you guys, just full transparency. This is the idea. I know I can do this. I've done this with my own podcast.

I'm only taking the first round we took. believe it was 25 women and I was like, we're only taking 25 women because I want to make sure I give you like everything and let's go. So they would ask questions and I would literally take those questions and then I would add it to the content and recreate the content. So by the next round, all of the questions from the first round were added into the course content and then just over and over. What's interesting to me is that when you said monetization, the first thing I thought of was ads, right? Like just assume that you're talking about ads. And it just is so eye opening to think there's so many different ways to monetize something. It doesn't have to just be this one way. Yeah, well, because there's,

obviously there's ads like sponsorship deals and there's affiliate marketing and there's creating your own products or there's driving traffic to your existing products or even for people that are like in consulting or even speakers that listen into your podcast. It's like driving traffic to your brand because you don't know who listens into your podcast. It's like, wait a second, I need a speaker at this event. So it's like there's like six major ways that you can monetize on podcasts. And it and most people, I actually, I have some great sponsorship connections, but I make more money selling my own products than I do from sponsorship deals, even with the amount of downloads that I have now. That's unbelievable. Good for you.

Really leaning into these different ways to monetize. It's just reminding me like that. That's another opportunity. Sometimes we think that things are so fixed, but there's another smarter, better way with a stronger ROI right behind it. Yeah. I think it's cool to have these types of conversations to you. I'm just like thinking of, you know, anyone that's even listening into the show where sometimes until you, you don't even like hear it. You're like, wait, oh my gosh, I could do something like that or I have

this that I could sell or I can monetize in this way. This could be really fulfilling. This could be really impactful. But when we're so close to what we even know so well, we forget, right? I mean, you've built like a huge audience in speaking career and books off of teaching about confidence, which is something that you've been able to build for yourself. And now you get to teach it to so many other people. It's just, it's really powerful. And I think sometimes we forget that, that there's a lot of people that would love to know what our first three steps were. And sometimes we get so far away from it, we forget. Yeah, it's so true. All right. So where do you go next after you launch the podcast course? Yeah, so I launched the podcast course and then naturally was listening to that community.

And then a lot of people that were existing podcasters were coming to me. And they're like, whoa, you grew your audience, you monetize. Like, how do I actually do that? And I created something else to help them scale, grow, monetize, figure out how to work with sponsors, that type of thing. From there, and now we're moving into back to like a more of a business membership for women that want like simple tactical tools that are building businesses on the side because that's the demographic I love helping. I think there's a lot of people that are in the business coaching, selling sales type of things that assume that everybody wants to build a six figure, seven figure, whatever business, but I don't actually think that's the truth. I think a lot of people love the idea of building

something on the side that maybe their stay at home moms that also want to have another stream of income and impact and fulfillment. that's the next base that we're moving to and then live events, which is what I've really wanted to do. And then personally, really expanding my speaking career. So all the things, right? Starting the year with a wardrobe refresh, Quince has you covered with lux essentials that feel effortless and look polished. They're perfect for layering, mixing, and building a wardrobe that lasts. Their versatile styles make it easy to reach for them day after day. Quince has all the staples covered from soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like designer pieces,

without the markup to 100% silk tops and skirts for easy dressing up to perfectly cut denim for everyday wear. Their wardrobe essentials are crafted to last season after season. Their Italian wool coats are real standouts. They're beautifully tailored, soft to the touch, and built to carry you through years of wear, not just one season. The quality shows in every detail, the stitching, the fit, the fabrics. Every piece is thoughtfully designed to be your new wardrobe essential. And like everything from Quince, each piece is made from premium materials and ethical trusted factories that are priced far below what other luxury brands charge. I can't tell you how much I am loving my new cashmere sweater. It's a staple for sure, and I can't wait to give one to my

best friend for her birthday this year. It is timeless, gorgeous, and the softest thing I've ever touched. Which Quince pieces are you interested in? I mean, from the bags to the denim, to the sweaters to the jackets, they're all incredible luxury high-end products without the high-end price. Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Don't wait. Go to quince.com slash confidence for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash confidence to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash confidence. All of the things. And then during all of this time, I really like this element with your relationship, with your fiancee, with what happened with his career and with the moves along the way. If you can share that because I feel like it all affects and impacts and is really part of that whole idea of embracing change.

So it's interesting because my fiance, Sina, is a dentist, still has his license, although in April, he, was like, Kish, you know, I've played this out. I've done all the procedures that I'm going to do. We know that I don't want to own a physical clinic and I don't want to do this anymore. Like, I already played it out to what it's going to be like for the next 20 years. And I feel like I'm wasting my potential doing this career path. Wait, I want to stop. I want to stop you there. What was it do you think now, because you know him so well and you were there? What was it that got him to go to the school and go down that path so seriously to end up resulting in him not liking it? Yeah. So first for sure was societal. cultural family pressures, right? So he's Persian. A lot of the Persian culture is very title-based,

right? I think a lot of people in general are very title-based of like these are the right types of, you know, titles that you should have. You should be a doctor, a dentist, a lawyer, whatever, XYZ. I think he felt it was the right path. I think he used to, I mean, we've known each other for 13 years since we were little babies. So since we were 19, 20 years old. And I think he cared a lot more about external validation than internal validation early on. So this path made sense to him. And he also has a very linear brain. So it was like, okay, go to undergrad, get this degree, do this job, work my way up. I can do this. I'm going to make great money. It's stable. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Check, check, check. And then he got there. And I think simultaneous with him going through this career path, while I've been

having all of these twists and turns and also him seeing how lucrative and more importantly, how fulfilling this path can be, that he was like, wait a second, I don't get that type of joy and fulfillment in contrast to my future wife. And I don't want to do what she's doing, but there's something there that maybe I could do something in my own lane. What really gave him, like, the decision to actually do it in April was we had another idea. And I think this is so interesting because sometimes an idea pops up into your head to force you to make a change that otherwise you might not have made, even if it's not the right change. And what I mean by that is we had this idea of we had hundreds of women that are in our,

in my community that have started podcasts, right? And we're like, what if we decided to build out our own podcast network? And we match make sponsors with podcasters. And maybe at some point in the future we'll do that. But that idea, he got so excited about that idea and his business brain started going full bore of like how we could actually do it, that he was like, I would so much rather help you build this and then figure out what else I want to do than stay in. in this career path that we already know what's guaranteed. And so I was like, put your notice in.

Like, just quit. We'll figure it out. Right. So he did. And we're so fortunate, which I should also disclaimer, of course, we're fortunate to be in a position where my income could support both of us, even if that wouldn't have worked out. And what happened is we started going down the path to building out this podcast network thinking that was going to be in alignment. And then I started to think and play out, what's my day-to-day life going to involve in one year and two years? What am I going to be doing on a typical Wednesday, and I didn't like the answer of what that was going to be building out a podcast network. It's like, I don't want to do the task. Like, I'm just, I'm not interested in it. So we played it out. I was like, that's actually not the right move,

but we had to get a little bit further down the process to realize that it actually wasn't the right outcome. And then from that, we saw the blessing, which was that's what actually got him out of dentistry. Turns out he's interested in real estate investment. So now that's the path that he's going down and has a huge, huge trajectory of his whole big game plan with that now. So it's been a lot of evolution. And I think a lot of it is just being, again, willing to try it on for size on the side and detach a little bit from the outcome, thinking that success is that the outcome is you continue doing that for years.

I think him leaving and us wanting to start a podcast network was ridiculously successful. And we didn't even start the network, right? it was successful because it got him out. And then we got to readjust and say, what do we actually want to do? I also think one of the things that's important for everyone listening is this just highlights to me how important it is the spouse that you pick. Oh, gosh, yeah.

And again, I'm sure he has his own thought and everything, of course, and his own talents. But the fact that he was running side by side with you and watching you step into this unknown and watching you pivot and grow and watching you try and then watch who succeed and succeed and have this joy, he's saying, that's possible for me.

And so often we don't think of who is that person that we're spending a lot of time with. Who is this person that's really close to us? And if that person's living in fear and if that person's saying, no, everyone else is going to think that we're idiots if we do that. Even if you don't think that way,

it can see in sometimes and you just don't even notice it. It's so interesting because it is like we're becoming the byproducts of the expectations of the people that we're around, especially a significant other that you're spending so much freaking time with. But it's even your best friends

and your family, and then whose content you're consuming? Like, it's like, it's so powerful to think about how much content you have to consume from people that are a couple steps ahead of you that you can borrow belief from in the process towards getting where you want to go so you can build up that belief in yourself. And if you're living with someone who's constantly telling you, you can't do this from their frame of reference projecting their own insecurities onto you, it's so freaking hard. And so many women and men alike are in situations where that's the environment.

that they're in. And to that, I say, like, find other people that are going to say, yep, I'm down this path. Right. Like, just like you and I, whenever we talk, you're like, you can do this. I believe that you can because I've done it. Let me show you the way. Like, hey, you can do it this way. Keep going. You got this. Versus people aren't going to give you feedback if they haven't done what you've wanted to do in a way that's actually useful for you. So when Sina jumped into the entrepreneurial space and was like, now I'm going to do this whole real estate thing. I was like, by the way, you're going to feel like you suck. Like, you are going to feel like you have no idea what the hell that you're doing. And you're going to do this thing that we do as

humans where we compare ourselves to a prior version of ourselves. And we were crushing it in that thing. It's like when I was at the top of my game in this network marketing business and I knew how to do it, I felt so confident. And then when I shifted gears and I was like, let me create something new. The confidence partially transferred. But then I still felt like I sucked. because I had no idea how to do it. So I was like, Cina, if you're feeling that way, like, welcome to the club.

Just part of the path. Keep going. And thank goodness you articulated that for him, because that, for me, that was one of the hardest things, similar to how you felt really secure in the network marketing.

I felt like that, you know, I got this thing on lock when I was in media. I knew everybody. I knew who to call. I knew the timelines. I didn't even have to think. It was crazy because I had 20-something years of expertise in it.

Starting over, even just the first thing I did, which was right, the first book, it was so scary because I felt like such a knucklehead. Like I had to keep Googling everything. How do you write a book? How do you pick a name? What is legal?

Like, what am I allowed to do? How do I get an ISPN number? How do you, what's the best way to market a book? I mean, literally starting with zero knowledge. But to your point, somewhere down this whole journey that I was on, I stopped and said, hang on. Were you always an expert in media? No.

I remember the first day I started selling radio when I was 20. and I was knocking door to door and I didn't have the answers and I had to go back to the office and say to my boss. I don't know how to respond to this question, right? And so suddenly I said, okay, wait a minute, I see myself now. I'm this person again. I'm just a beginner version of me, but there's going to be a future version of me that's going to be the badass that I ended up getting to. It's just I've got to go through this step first and it's uncomfortable at first. Yeah. And I don't know if this was helpful for you, but I know for him and for me too is I. I looked back and I was like, okay, you've built up confidence and you believe in your ability to figure things out, that's probably enough. That's probably actually all you really need to know. It's like for anyone that's listening into this, that to your point has seen success in a career

path that's making a shift or has seen success in a relationship, it is now in a different position now. It's like you've done it before, even if the circumstance was different, just believing that that in itself will help you be resourceful enough to figure out the next thing is like the driving force for me because I'm like, I have no idea how to host a thousand person event. I've literally never done that. So I'm like, I'm hoping that like the confidence and just the belief

that I can figure things out, that I'm resourceful enough. If I don't know the answers, I'll find someone who does is going to catapult me to see success in the next thing. And if it doesn't, then I'm going to learn something anyways. So then we go on.

I like to go back to, you know, when I'm going into like how you're creating this new live event business, okay, wait a minute. Why am I doing this? And start reading some of the feedback that you've got from your podcast or, you know, some of your products that you created and how you change people's lives and how it meant so much to them. And it was a catalyst for some big change.

When you connect with those, why? Oh my gosh. It's just, it pushes you to follow through. And even though you might be saying, okay, I don't know what that next step is, I've got to get this done for this person because I know they're out there and I know this event is they make all the difference in their life. It's so true. I have like an album on my phone where I screenshot things that people say because I'm like, sometimes, right? Yeah, it's so helpful. Because sometimes you're like, I suck or you get someone that says something negative. And it's like, don't make this mean something. Like, don't make this mean more than it needs to mean.

Just move on. Look at the stuff that's positive. Keep going. Oh, my gosh. Yes. I have on my phone, I call it fam love. And anytime Bob Berg, who's a super famous author of the book Gogiver, he just left a review of my book on Amazon.

I took that screenshot and it was so thoughtful and beautifully written it. And I put it right in my fan love file. I was because anytime I have the next time some hater comes at me, which is every day. you know, I'm going to say, oh, thank you. I'm going to go read my Bob Berg review, you know, Poundstampal. So I'm totally with you on that one. All right. So tell me about side business. Yeah, I'm so excited about this. It's a membership community that we're launching that is for women that want to get started in building a business on the side of whether that's a full-time corporate job or that's a business that they already have or they're whatever, raising kids, whatever it is that they're doing that requires a good chunk of their time and they want to do this thing on the side. what I've found is a lot of people feel as if it's one or the other or that they have to be like balls to the wall and like hustle, hustle their face off to make something work. And there's certain seasons, I believe, where you have to really put a lot of grit and like build up

that resilience. But I do think that there can be a lot more flow in doing something with the intention of it being a side business. So it's all about helping them lay like the basic step by step fundamentals while having an emphasis on the actual joy of the process of creation and doing it all in community. So it's a membership, has this awesome like roadmap for women that are starting businesses. And then we plug them into an ecosystem where they have access to like live calls every month so they can get their questions answered in real time and things where there's different like discussion opportunities and threads in this platform where they can exchange services. For example, I don't know how to do TikTok,

but I know how to do LinkedIn. Let's exchange services, that type of thing for people that are just getting started in business. So that's what we're launching and I'm very excited about it. Oh my gosh. And you still have the podcast course as well. Yep. So have the podcast course and we alternate between the one that helps you go from idea to actually launching, which is she goes podcasting our intro course. And then we've got amplified, which is the one that helps you grow scale and monetize for existing podcasters. So we alternate those every month within the company and then have cypiz school and event soon. So yeah. Oh my gosh. I can't wait for the event. is going to be off the charts because you literally have the best energy of any person I've ever met in my life.

And it's going to be, oh, I can't even wait. I'm so excited. Where does everybody find you? How can people keep up with you? Yeah, you are the best, Heather. You're such a huge supporter and I just am so grateful for you. So my favorite social media platform is Instagram. It's at cacia, cia.com. My podcast is Empower Her Podcast, which is a Monday Thursday podcast and everything is at cache Fitzgerald.com. All right, you guys, you have to check out. You're going to love her show. And I've been on her show twice because the minute I called her and said, oh, my God, my book is coming out and freaking out. She's like, come back on the show immediately.

So go listen to that episode, check it out. It's so good. And the vibe, what you're learning. You're just, you're going to love it. And I know you like podcasts because you're here with me now. So definitely check out empower her podcast. And stay up with Keisha on Instagram. You'll be learning so much about building community by watching what she does.

Kasia, thank you so much. I can't wait until I get to see you soon. And I'm so excited for this event. Thank you so much, Heather. I love you. I appreciate you, girl. I love you too. All right, till next week, keep creating your confidence. You know I will be. I'm on this journey with me.