Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #410: What To Do BEFORE You Get Fired: Build Your Brand, Find Opportunities, & Stay Resilient with Heather!

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

In This Episode You Will Learn About:  What you need to start building your brand today How to not be caught off guard if you are fired or laid off Why you need to ask for HELP when you need it The step by step list for getting back on your feet Resources: Visit heathermonahan.com Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com  If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Visit CBDistillery.com and use code CONFIDENCE for 20% off. Show Notes:  When I was fired, I was totally blindsided. I was not prepared and that terrified me. But being fired ended up being such a blessing! I was able to turn that tragedy into OPPORTUNITY. And so can you! So you aren’t caught unawares like me, here is what I wish I knew back then. I’ll share all my best tips for building up your own brand, generating new opportunities, and building a solid support network. Start creating your confidence now! And if you have been fired, remember that you are in GOOD company!  If You Liked This Episode You Might Also Like These Episodes: #373: Become LIMITLESS: Unlock Your Brain's Full POTENTIAL with Jim Kwik #1 Brain Coach #397: REBUKE The Negativity: Be The Joy You Want To See with Heather! #376: My Top Tips to MASTER Positivity When Things Keep Going Wrong with Heather! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash Monahan, all lower case. Go to Shopify.com slash Monahan now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Monahan. I'm always stepping into uncertain and seeing where it takes me. I don't know what the next five years are going to look like, but I know that I'm going to be helping people. I'm always stepping into uncertain and seeing where it takes me. I don't know what the next five years are going to look like, but I know that I'm going to be helping people. I'm going to step into my power and my truth and my confidence. I'm going to put myself in uncomfortable situations and keep showing up every day,

amping my light up and being the best version of myself that I can. Come on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals, overcome adversity, and set you up for a better tomorrow. That's a no-signal dance. I'm ready for my close-up. Hi and welcome back. I'm so glad you're back here with me this week. Okay, I've been receiving some messages very recently about getting fired. A number of people seem to be laid off, have lost their jobs, and I'm getting a lot of questions about it. So I wanted to read one of them, dive into it. Actually I'm gonna get into two of the questions that

I received and hopefully give you some good direction and advice. Here's where I'll start though, and I was thinking of naming this episode something like, if you've been fired you need to listen to this. But here's the reality is you need to listen to this before you're fired, right? Because this is I wish I had known this before I was fired. I would have leaned into my personal brand so much more. I would have invested in myself so much more before I got fired. I would have started the side hustle before I got fired so that there wouldn't have been so much pressure when I actually got fired, right? And again, I get it like I didn't have that foresight when it

happened to me so I was kind of caught red-handed like oh my gosh what do I do now? I haven't been building anything. I'm not prepared for this. I didn't anticipate this coming. I guess in some ways I did, but not logistically. Like I hadn't planned it out. So first and foremost, if you are in a job, you're doing something that maybe it's not your life's work, your life's passion, whatever, start building that passion business on the side. Start investing in your personal brand. Start elevating your profile online. Lean into LinkedIn, for sure. Start building an email newsletter, right? Like create a conversion mechanism

so when you go as a guest on podcasts, you can send people your free e-books so you can bring them into your community, right? Start developing your community, your name, your brand. Really start leaning into that because there's such value. Gone are the days of only a media company has a brand or only a media company has a community.

Every individual is a media company these days and whatever is unique, special about you, you can teach to other people. You have value, right? No matter who you are, there's something, whether you're a great cook or you know how to work out or you're a great salesperson or you know, there's always something unique about everybody. You just need to lean into it,

own it, start elevating it, and be willing to not have it all figured it out. Right? Like I remember when I started, I've changed my brand so much over the last six years since I got fired. I just, I evolve it. I change it. My first book was confidence creator. My second book was overcoming your villains. The podcast is creating confidence.

I give talks on confidence. I give talks on sales. I give talks on leadership. It's always changing and evolving depending on the needs in the marketplace and the problems and solutions you can bring forward. So don't stay fixed in this idea that you have to launch this perfect brand tomorrow and staying one way for the next two decades and you know you have to have it all figured out. No. It was funny when I was

in Saudi Arabia one of the women from my mastermind was with me and she said Heather I've heard you say countless times done will always be better than perfect. Just always will be, right? Like perfect timing doesn't exist. Now is the perfect time. Move, go, right? Jump, leap, make it happen. Whether it's if you think you're ready or not,

that's irrelevant. You're never gonna be ready. You just need to go. And I say that all the time, especially done is better than perfect. Done will always be better than perfect, because it is. However, she heard it from somebody else, one of the gentlemen, the unicorn billionaire

founders that I was interviewing. And he said, if you're even 30% the way there to getting something figured out, that's the time to go. There is no such thing as 50% figured out or 60%. That doesn't exist. Then you're too late to the game and for whatever reason the way he verbalized it it hit home for her And she said I finally got it what you've been telling us for so long the way he said it connected with me So that's a good reminder that you might say oh, I'm saying the same things other people are I'm teaching the same things other people

Are there's not enough value what I'm saying wrong Everybody vibrates on a different frequency. Everybody has different life experiences and connects with different kinds of people. Whether your voice is different, the way that you conduct business, the way that you handle yourself, you will connect and relate with some

that others can't connect and relate with. So it's on you, it's your job to bring forward your brilliance, your experiences, and know that you're doing it at a completely unique way through the lens of your experience, your life, your situation, and that's going to connect with people that other people can't reach. So it's on you to bring it forward. Lean into that personal brand.

You already have one. Start holding the pen and actually taking control of it. That's what I wish I had done before I got fired. When I started podcasting an online store was the furthest thing from my mind. Now I'm selling my group coaching on the regular and it is just so easy. All because I use Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business from the launch, your online shop stage to the first real life store stage all the way to,

did we just hit a million order stage? Shopify is there to help you grow. Whether you're selling scented soaps or offering outdoor outfits, Shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system, wherever and whatever you're selling. Shopify has got you covered. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms and sell more with less effort. Thanks to Shopify magic, your AI powered all star.

I didn't know what I was going to do when I got fired. Launching my own business seems so intimidating. I didn't know how to set up a website and I really didn't need to. Shopify does it all for you. And they make it so easy. It was that breakthrough moment for me that I realized I can do this. I can go to work for myself. Thanks to Shopify. What I love about Shopify is you don't need to have all this technology information ready to, you don't need to know how to plan and run things.

You just need to go to the platform, turn it on and know what you're selling. And Shopify is going to help you figure out the rest. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the U S and Shopify is the global force behind all birds, Rothy's and Brooklyn and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries, including your girl right here. Plus Shopify is award-winning help is there

to support your success every step of the way because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash Monahan, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash Monahan now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Monahan. No matter what stage you're at, they're going to make it easy.

Okay. So let me guess like me, you get stressed out during the work week. Maybe some nights it's even really difficult to fall asleep because you have so much to do, so much pressure on you, being a parent, working, dealing with difficult clients, traffic, just all of the regular headaches that everybody's dealing with. I got you on this one. I decided to try a different approach because I was sick of feeling anxious and stressing out about falling asleep at night. Well, that's where CBD from CB Distillery came in.

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for 20% off. That's cbdistillery.com code confidence, cbdistillery.com. I would have made my life so much easier if I had started a couple of years before I got fired building my side hustle, building my personal brand and really owning and rocking it. Right? So make the investment in yourself. The best investment you will ever make is the one that's in you. Okay. But now let's get to these individuals that have been fired, have been laid off.

Okay, so I got a note from a woman that said, I lost my job last week. Do you have any fast tracking for escalating a job search in 2024? I know executive positions are not typically posted, but it's more through your network. Trying to get too overwhelmed as this is day one, but I feel like a giant clock is ticking and I know a search can take several months. Any suggestions would be so appreciated. I'm going deep on your podcast and they're so very helpful. Thank you. Okay. So here's what I want you to know. We don't know anything, right? And again, it's so much easier for me to sit here six years later. I get it.

So I want you to know you're not alone like I felt so scared so lost so much pressure I was crying. I literally cried straight the first day. I couldn't stop crying I went under a weighted blanket like I was a hot mess and so I completely get it But I want to give you fast forward six years. I don't feel like that anymore, right? Like so there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train. I want you to feel hopeful I want you to try to take some pressure off yourself. Now, I totally get I'm a single mom and there was massive financial pressure on me

to perform and create revenue and figure out a way to pay for my son. And yeah, that stuff is all real. But when I look back now, and especially as I read this note from this woman, I can hear the pressure in her voice, right? Overwhelmed. I know a search can take several months.

How do you know that? You don't know that, right? And I understand it's the biggest thing that you can do and it's very, very challenging is to shift your mindset, to start coming at it from a stance of there is opportunity everywhere, right? And again, I did not feel like that when I got fired. I'm telling you what I wish I had known. Right. I didn't know this. I wish I was able to grasp this. All right. Some of the things that you can do, and this is, I talk about this all the time,

it's the same things around building confidence. Number one, fire your villains. If you have negative people in your life, you need to get rid of them right now, especially if you've just been terminated, laid off, whatever it is, because you're feeling low, right? So you need to clear the deck, clear the queue. If you've been letting some people hang around your life that really have no business, they're not supporting you, challenging to grow, and they're to cheer you on, get rid of them.

That is mission critical right now because the biggest enemy you probably have is in your head right now, right? Like you're probably the one that is giving yourself the hardest time because you're going through a big transition and it's scary and it's uncertain. Here's the real hack. I started thriving when I started seeing the uncertainty as possibility. And again, that was hard. It didn't happen overnight, right? But I trained myself. I surrounded myself with content

that would support this initiative. I got big into Joe Dispenza's books. I invested in myself, right? I've invested in myself. The best investment you're ever gonna make is the one you make in you, right? Take that risk, take that chance. Know that done will always be better than perfect.

Hire a mentor, hire somebody that's been where you wanna go, right? Clear the deck of all the negative people in your life. Fire them, put yourself first. That is not selfish, it's selfless. Because the more you take care of you, the better you're gonna be able to show up, perform, think, and produce the results you want,

and then you can take care of everybody else, right? So those are the first steps that I would suggest leaning into. Next, I would say, you know, meditation, working out, like all that getting outside, surrounding yourself with people that are your champions and cheer you on, have a quick call with them every day, check in with them, hold yourself accountable,

set specific goals, journal. I'll walk you through the exact steps I took. I remember I got fired. I drove walk you through the exact steps I took. I remember I got fired. I drove home and cried the whole way. And then 24 hours later, I realized nobody had contacted me. That's when I went to social media and I posted, I have just been fired. That post went viral.

Now, here's what's key to it. I let people know I was in a situation where I was available and I needed some help, right? Strong people ask for help. I asked for help. People told me to take that post down. They said it was pathetic, but I checked in with the one voice and opinion that matters, my own. And so I want you to know that you might have an answer that doesn't resonate with everybody else. That's okay. It's what resonates with you. So people called me. they said, take the post down Heather, it's not a good look. And I said, you know what, I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't hurt anybody.

That lady fired me because she didn't like me. I'm leaving the post up. Thank goodness I did. That post went viral. It landed me on the Elvis Duran show. So I raised my hand, I posted, I've been fired. I told people I needed their help and I wanted to hear from them that day.

People reached out to help me. me convert those opportunities in the moment. When someone reaches out and says, I want to help give them a task that they can do, ask for a review of your work, an introduction to somebody, ask for one specific thing. Froggy from the Elvesteran reached out to me and I said, get me on the show. I had no idea what I was going to say on that show, but I did know this. I needed to start swimming in a pool bigger than what I had been in, right? The only way to do that is to go to new places with new people and put yourself in uncomfortable.

And so I jumped on a plane, flew to New York, went on the Elvis Durant Show. Halfway through that interview, he said to me, well, obviously you're writing a book, but I wasn't. But he spoke this conviction and this truth and this confidence into me and I said I was. The next thing you know I'm jumping on an airplane and I google how do you write a book and all it says is you have to just sit and be disciplined and right and I said I can do that and I did it and then I hired an editor, someone who was light years ahead of me, someone who had written 19 books and I made the best investment you'll

ever make, the investment you make in you. And I doubled down and we got Confidence Creator done in months time. And as I was about to go to marketplace with it, my family said, don't launch this book. And I made a good decision. I called my editor. I said, I can't launch the book. He said, why? I said, my family doesn't want me to.

He said, how many books have they written? I said, none. He said, how many have I written? I said, 19. He said, who do you think you should listen to? And I got real clear that day that maybe I'm not going to make everybody happy, maybe I don't know what the path is for my future or my

life, maybe this old life that I had that seemed so certain all really wasn't, but right now I'm stepping into mad uncertainty and I'm just gonna have to tune into the one voice that matters my own and I don't know what I'm doing, but something tells me I'm going to figure it out along the way. And I'm so grateful today that I did that, right?

Stop making it about you and start making about the one or two people you can impact and think about, okay, who can I help if I write this book? And yes, there are three errors in my first book, but I'm so proud of it because I'll be the person on her deathbed when I'm 100 years old and say, I wrote that imperfect book that helped millions of people and I am so grateful I did it. Don't be the person that sleeps on the great ideas inside of you. Be the person that brings them forward, imperfection and all. You don't have to have it all figured out to get started.

You don't have to have it all figured out to get started. You don't have to have it all figured out to take the action and start building momentum. Journaling was super helpful for me because I was able to notice these incredible opportunities that started showing up. The minute you clear negative people from your life, you make space for positive people to show up and help you. You ask for help. You tell people what you need. You convert opportunities in the moment.

You step into uncertainty and start seeing it as possibility. When everything is uncertain, anything is possible and start embracing that. And again, I'm telling you that was not the norm for me. It was hard, right? But like anything, it's a discipline. It's a muscle you can build. And the more that you step into it, the more it becomes normal. The more you start embracing it, the more you get excited about it. There's a very fine line between fear and excitement. Lean into being excited and listen, I still don't have it all figured out, right?

Here I am six years later. I've written two books. I have over 400 episodes of my podcast. I am now a board member with HealthLinked. I launched a coaching and consulting company. I'm a keynote speaker, international keynote speaker now that I got back from Saudi Arabia. I'm always stepping into uncertain and seeing where it takes me. I don't know what the next five years are going to look like, but I know that I'm going

to be helping people. I'm going to step into my power and my truth and my confidence. I'm going to put myself in uncomfortable situations and keep showing up every day, amping my light up and being the best version of myself that I can. I'm going to make tons of mistakes along the way. I already know that. And that's how you start figuring out new solutions is seeing different ways to step into that possibility.

I just invested in myself again this weekend. I was actually on Mindvalley, which is a great platform. I spent a ton of money on a new program that I thought, you know what, this is something I could learn. This is a way that I can become better. So if you're in a situation where you're saying, how do I get better? How do I get myself to do this?

I haven't been fired, right? Start investing in yourself. Start hiring coaches or communities where you can become part of something else. Start learning different skill sets and stepping into new situations. Not only is it empowering, not only will it build your confidence,

it's gonna teach you new and different ways to do things. And you'll start stacking these experiences on top of your other prior experiences, and they're gonna be unique and special and different to you. And you're gonna be able to teach them differently to other people. So, you know, take that step, make that investment, double down on you. The more you can take that pressure off yourself, I know it's hard but always

and forever if I get a good night's sleep, take the pressure off myself, I'm gonna see solutions and figure out things that I couldn't see previously. Right, take care of you, put yourself first, get some sleep, go to work out, surround yourself with people who challenge you and put yourself first, get some sleep, go to work out, surround yourself with people who challenge you and cheer you on, clear the deck on the negative people. Don't break promises to yourself, hold yourself accountable. Have a cheerleader and a teammate you check in with weekly

to help you stay on your plan. Set an intention for each day and have goals, very specific goals, write them down. You might not hit them all, and you might. It's irrelevant, but you've gotta start swinging for the fences, if not now, write them down. You might not hit them all and you might. It's irrelevant, but you've got to start swinging for the fences. If not now, then when, right? Like if you're not going to do this, now is the time to step into it.

One of the things that I know this woman who reached out to me was saying, you know, she's saying it's overwhelming and she thinks a search can take a long time. One of the things I'd recommend doing if you're looking for, you know, going back to like a traditional corporate job, get a recruiter. There's millions of them out there and they've got a pulse on what opportunities are out there. Also, I just spoke for an amazing company. It's called ad amazing.

And this company is exploding and they picked up so many people who are laid off from Twitter. So just because one door is closing doesn't mean there isn't another emerging business that exploding at the same time. You just have to figure, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only do that looking back, right? So the more you can expand your network,

the more you can learn and read and start having conversations with people in different industries, you'll start seeing where your talents could be used in ways you never had imagined before that are in growth phases, even if the current company that you're working for wasn't in one, right? You've got to pick your head up and start seeing things differently.

Put yourself into the Elvis Duran situations of the world where you know nothing about them, or it's a completely different industry. Get out of your bubble and start reaching out to people that you haven't previously, and you'll start unlocking doors that you didn't even know existed. Meet a different guest each week. Paying off in details. Confidence cleared. Your business was humming, but now you're falling behind. Teams buried in manual work, taking forever to close the books. Getting one source of truth is like pulling teeth.

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That's netsuite.com slash Monaghan to get your own KPI checklist. netsuite.com slash Monaghan. Okay. Another question that I got. Well, I'm trying to get my own side hustle up and running full-time. I work a full-time job, but it's just not going anywhere. I've been looked over so many times. I'm discouraged and I'm over it. I'm tired of helping the rich get richer. I need to be putting all of my hard work in my pocket, not someone else's who doesn't care. That said, I know I can do

the work but I'm not the best at branding, promoting myself for my business. How do I grow successfully on my own? Alright, well number one I would say this, you're super clear that you don't want to be where you are. That's awesome. Right? Love that clarity. So give yourself a date that you're leaving that job by. Cause the sooner you can get those negative people in negative situations out of your

life, the sooner you're going to create opportunity for positive people to show up. Right? The villain can be the job, right? The villain can be the person or it can be the job. Your villain is actually a job. If you're at a low vibration every day going into a job you don't really like, you're never gonna be bringing about the opportunities

that you're really worthy of. So we get to get you out of that job. So let's set a deadline for you, whatever that's gonna be, and start working against that date. Get clear on it, write it down, hold yourself accountable, map it out, cross the days off, make it real, start taking tangible action steps every day to elevate your brand, to reach out and find out where else you could apply your skills and talents, start the side

hustle, whatever that business could be. Now when you talk about, I'm not great at branding or promoting myself in my business, I wasn't either until I did it, right? And then it wasn't always perfect. It still isn't always perfect, right? But that's okay. There is no such thing as perfect. We're all flawed.

We're all gonna make mistakes. And the only way we're gonna figure it out is by testing and trying. Data doesn't lie. The results are gonna be your truth-teller. You're gonna look at the analytics. You're gonna look, I use Shield Analytics on LinkedIn to show me what's working and what's not working.

Algorithms are always changing, right? Sometimes storytelling is working, sometimes video is working, sometimes hashtags are working, sometimes they're not. These are all things you test and try and they evolve and change over time. Step into the uncertainty and start testing and trying. Teach something, add value, help others.

And as you do that and you make it out serving others, you'll see you'll build your community. You'll see that you're gonna start getting DMs. People are gonna ask if they can hire you, right? Like you've gotta take the messy action to put yourself out there. No one's got it all nailed down. Nobody's doing this perfectly, myself included.

Test and try, start showing up on the regular, start being disciplined, put the work in, step into fear on the regular and watch how you begin to grow your business, grow your personal brand, and open doors that previously didn't exist for you. I hope that helps. I hope that some of these ideas could be helpful for you.

I promise I wish I had known about these things. You can go to my website. I've got a 30 day free accountability partner. You're going to get an email from me every day for 30 days. It will help. It'll keep you focused on different tasks you can take every single day. Again, open your mind to investing yourself and maybe becoming a part of a community

like I just did at Mindvalley or hiring an actual coach to work directly with you to hold you accountable and advance you, right? Look at the ways that you can invest in yourself to elevate yourself. You are worthy, you are deserving of more. And you know what getting fired is the biggest jump off point in the world for you to take off.

Oprah Winfrey fired, Mark Cuban fired, JK Rowling fired, Steve Jobs fired. And look what happened to them. You are in good company, my people until next week. Keep creating your confidence. You know, I will be. I wanna make a lot of money. I decided to change that dynamic. I feel like I'm in my house. I couldn't be more excited for what you're gonna hear.

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