Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #67: Converting Opportunities & Blowing Up The Lanes With Heather Monahan

Episode Date: August 11, 2020

“Don’t limit yourself to one lane…there’s so much beyond that if you choose to blow up your lanes and start seeing the potential that’s outside of the small bubble so many of us operate in��. In short, don’t sell yourself short. You get to decide what comes next, how you want to show up and where you want to lean in.  Heather takes us behind the scenes of one of her virtual talks and demonstrates how she blew up her own lane again and again to create more opportunities and how to do it all confidently and authentically.  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.

I'm on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals. We overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow. I'm ready for my close to. Hi, and welcome back. I'm so excited that you're back here with me yet again this week in this crazy thing called 2020. So, few things today.

Today is a different episode. Wait a minute, number one. Let me tell you that. And this is kind of crazy and I'll just cut to the chase. I had two interviews lined up for this week, and both of them had to reschedule. And now that I'm doing this executive coaching, my schedule is really, really busy during the week. So I'm filling up, you know, the majority of my schedule on Sunday for the next week. It's really hard for me to pivot if someone needs to move.

Where in the past, it was a bit easier. I had more flexibility with my schedule. So that poses new problems, right? It's sort of interesting when you work for yourself and your trust. trying to figure all these new things out, you just think, oh, you know, it'll work out. And okay, I finally hit a patch where it's going better. And then, oh, no, that's not going to work anymore. It's, you know, one step forward, two steps back. One step forward, two steps back. So as I'm accelerating and working more on my coaching clients and my individual one-on-one coaching, I've been

leaning into this more and that's picking up. It's starting to take away from other sides of my business. So it's an interesting balance when, like any, company, you need, need, need must have multiple revenue streams. You must continue to have a personal brand and have reach and show up and, you know, you don't want to just disappear into the night, immerse yourself all into one thing, which is what I've been doing. Plus, I have, my book has deadline dates now with Harper Collins leadership for my new book coming out next year. So, you know, I've got to deliver on those different things. And I've been working really diligently on these click funnels now, which I told you about, which we're supposed to be up and live, they are not.

Yeah, they are not. We ran into tons of problems with integrations and stripe accounts and so many things you don't even want to know about that I don't want to know about that now I do and have sucked hours out of my week. But again, this will be a passive income strategy that once up and running and then optimized will be able to set and run. So there's so many things like this that I try that sometimes work out and sometimes don't at all. And then sometimes go great. Like my speaking business was just taking off and then the pandemic came. Right.

So there's no way to prepare for so much of this. But what I do know is not changing, not evolving is not an option. That's death for any business for anyone in any leadership role. So I know that you need to constantly evolve and change. There's just times when it's harder and versus times when it's easier, right? So the good news is I'll share a good story with you. It's really exciting. I met a really fantastic young woman, gosh, I don't know how many months ago now, maybe six months ago. And she had me as a guest on her podcast, which is a great podcast. And right thereafter, getting to know her a little bit,

her father became very sick with the coronavirus. And I'd seen it online and was, you know, DMing her and messaging her to check on her. And ultimately, her father passed away. from the coronavirus, which was heart-wrenching. She's a young girl in her 20s. And, ugh, awful. And so I called her the day that it happened. I was just heart-wrenching. It was just so sad.

My heart broke for this young girl, you know, having to deal with all of this amidst the pandemic. And she's this big job at a marquee brand. I'll leave it at that. I won't get into detail. And so anyhow, she's this huge job. And all this pressure and all this sadness of someone losing their dad, this man she idolized. wonderful human being and doctor and just heart-wrenching. And anyhow, I stayed close to her during that time because obviously, you know, that's when

people need people and need support and need to know that someone's looking out for them. And as time passed, you know, over the last couple of months, she's started to feel better and wanted to get back to work. And we were talking one day and I said, you know, this is it. You just got to launch your own company. you're far too talented. You know, let me be your first client. But this woman is so talented, so organized, so strategic.

She's such a great delegator. She's a great leader. She's got a team of people. You know, she's got it going on. And she moves quickly, and she's really good in areas I'm not. And so, and she's got experience working for a marquee brand, getting trained there, plus bringing her own unique talents and flavor. And she's a very kind person on top of it all.

So I said, you know, if I could do things differently, I would have started my own business in my early 20s not worked for and made other people rich, I would have done that for me. So I want that for you now, especially thinking that her dad was no longer here. Someone needed to give her that direction and advice that I wish that I had had, right? So I gave it to her. And, you know, anyone can listen to your advice and take it or leave it. And she listened and she shared that she was scared and that while she wanted to do it, you know, there's all these questions and doubts. And we kept talking and, you know, probably we would speak at least once or twice a week. brainstorm and she'd always give me tips and ideas for my business. And anyhow, to make a long

story longer, during this process, someone else had reached out to her and said, hey, do you know anyone else that can manage social media? I like what you do. Who manages yours? So she said, well, I'm actually thinking of launching my own company. Anyhow, she ends up calling me and says, well, I've got another woman now on top of you that wants me to do this. What do you think? And I said, why don't we launch both at the same time? You'll be doing the same work, building out the same teams for very similar brands and just jump on it and do this at night on the weekends when you're not, you know, doing your day job, which she's doing remotely, of course, now, which makes it easier too. And she already had built out teams, already had this skill set, already had these talents.

And now she just needed to launch them for her own initiative under her own company name. And she just did. And so I was so excited for her, so proud of her. And for me, really excited to, because I've been working with so many different contractors or individuals, here or there are interns. Everything's broken. It's not united under one umbrella. It's just me shooting off things here or there where I can. And then I just fill in the gaps. I do the rest. Well, now she's much more holistic. She's beyond organized. And she can touch my podcasting business. She can touch my social media. She can touch my automation. She can touch my email and drip campaign. She can touch my brand wording, my website, everything. So she she's really well versed in all of these

different functionalities and elements of a business. And so she's already, you know, putting together these Google drives and, you know, showing me how everything's going to live on one page so anyone on the team can jump in and check off as something's done. Anyhow, we're in the very, you know, initial stages right now of just setting this up. But I can already see just her leadership and organization and ability to delegate really well is going to, in the long run, you know, not in the short run because in the short run, we've got to make sure that she brought on the right people for the team and that they understand my brand and they understand me and my voice. And that stuff takes time.

And I get that. However, one of my biggest issues when I just work with individual contract workers is I'm not a big piece of their business, right? So they treat you that way. You know, they'll get things done when they can and they'll, you know, throw something together for you. But it's not, this is something bigger picture. It's a bigger opportunity for her. And she knows that. And she's approaching it in that regard.

So there's a sense of to me, I'm not there yet, but in the horizon, I can see that this woman is going to take so much work off. And it's menial work that I'm doing. You know, me sitting around researching my podcast guest ad nauseum can eat up hours of my week. Me sitting around writing copy for my social media posts does eat up hours every single day. Me sitting around trying to write drip email campaigns when I have no experience doing that. it's just not even effective or efficient. So, yes, I had to do that because I don't want to just throw money in the dark at, you know, crazy ideas.

But now I found someone who's actually an expert in it and will and is building a team to help support me and will begin to understand my business. And I know, again, it's not going to be this month, but, you know, in the coming months, I truly believe I'll be able to see that change. And when that actually happens, wow, that's going to free up my schedule immensely. and allow me to do things that I'm good at, you know, creative things where I can create more and write more and, you know, go after an amazing guest that I wanted to find that I just haven't had the time to lean into or, you know, do some bigger things that I know I can accomplish and do when I get everything else organized and off my plate. So I'm super excited about that.

Another thing that I wanted to share is I brought someone on for very cheap to try this automation because I had been hearing about these automated campaigns. on social media and how people were making fortunes off of it and it was driving downloads it was driving meetings it was driving new business clients etc and so i did it on the cheap just to give it a shot and it failed not one conversion not one anything a completely negative experience and i was sharing that with her and she said can you shoot me over and show me what you did and i did and she said hither this number one the copy's terrible number two the targets were not correct you know and i'd never done it before she's done it. And so I said, do you want to try to test it with your own thoughts? And she said,

just give me a test. She launched her first test today. So top of mind for me right now. And I just have been back and forth on social media today with, I'd say probably seven potential business opportunities now, because we don't have this mapped out big enough yet, the work will come back to me. I'll now send a calendar link back to reply to these people who have raised their hand to express interest to these automations she sent out and then I'll see if it's, you know, okay, is there a business opportunity there or not? And then we'll refine it and optimize it from there. But this is an opportunity to drive business. This is something that I didn't have to touch at all, at least until now, when we have, you know, six or seven people raising their hands

saying they're interested. So this already just today is better than what I had been doing for the past month when I hired on the cheap someone to try this. So just because you're trying something and it's not working, it doesn't mean it's not the right platform or the right. strategy, it might be the wrong messaging. It might be the wrong person managing it. Right. There's so many levels to evaluate that our gut reaction sometimes is, oh, this another thing didn't work, toss it out the window. Well, we might not have been managing it correctly, utilizing it correctly. The answer might be in the weeds, right? It might be in the copy. Maybe it was all about the copy we sent out. And I'm not a copywriter. So it's just, it's so interesting from a business

perspective just to see you constantly need to innovate, you constantly need to evolve and change and try new things. However, that can be challenging sometimes because there's so much out there. It is flipping overwhelming. However, I will go back to you, I'm super grateful that four years ago I launched my personal brand and started investing in myself. That was a really critical investment that pays off now because if I didn't have that, I couldn't go do this automation thing because I have 85,000 followers on LinkedIn, right? So if you haven't built a relationship with the community, if you haven't been posting and investing in yourself and branding yourself, if you didn't do that four years ago, like I did do it today, there's value there. You have something to say,

you are an expert in your own way, you are unique in your own way. It's time to start raising your hand and showing up because you are only building more value in yourself for today, tomorrow and for your future. And that's why I continue to show up every single day. That's why I continue. That's why I have my podcast. Hello. That's, you know, these are all extensions of your voice and your exposure and your messaging and you're helping other people. So definitely, if you haven't done it yet, raise your hand, jump in and start today. It's critical. During times like these where everything is uncertain, everyone's stuck at home. I saw it today, Michelle Obama came out and said she's depressed. Who isn't depressed? Right. It's a really difficult time for

everyone right now. But if you can take a step back and say, okay, five years from now, when I look back on the pandemic and let's say we're in quarantine for a year or whatever it is, we're supposed to be inside, what did I accomplish during that time? I hope you invested in you. I hope you took action and built your brand. I hope you took action and found new and innovative ways to bring your message to life and to convert it into revenue and value for you. I hope you took action. That's the bottom line, right? So I'm continuing to take action. Some weeks go better than others, as you know. Some have been pretty tough. Okay, so here's what's interesting. I had this reschedule this week, which didn't come to fruition. I'm actually doing one of these

interviews this weekend, and this person happens to be a friend of mine. So I'm actually excited for it. So for this week, I was talking to my producer. I said, oh my gosh, I have no fresh, exciting interview, but I have something that would be interesting that I'd like to try. So you have to let me know what you think. I do a lot of virtual speeches. and while I will always love on-site so much more, but, you know, it's still as fun to do a virtual speech. And I get a lot of sales teams reaching out to me asking me if I can do a one-hour talk for them. So that's what you're going to listen to today. It is not the whole talk because that would not be kosher, but you can take a listen behind the scenes of what it's like being yours

truly when I show up to do a talk from my living room on my Zoom with people all over the world. This talk was in London, Brazil, Miami, and I miss Singapore and somewhere else. I don't remember where else, but all over the world, salespeople. And my background, I started out as a salesperson. I was in sales leadership and I was a chief revenue officer. And that's my jam. I can do that with my eyes closed. And luckily I can because this was the day, as I mentioned, that my mentor had passed away the night before. And I did not sleep very much. And I was crying and I looked horrible. And I thought in the morning, do I really think I can pull this off right now? Because I believe it was an 8 a.m. EST keynote. And I woke up and I just thought, I don't think I can do this. And then I reminded

myself, what would Bob say? And Bob would say, come on, kiddo, you've got to do this. They need you. and it made me smile when I thought about that. So I showed up. And actually in the beginning of this talk, I was, I cried a little bit because I told them. I said, listen, I'm going to tell you that I look like H-E-L right now. And I kind of feel like it. And here's why. And it choked me up.

But then once I started my talk, I was okay. And these people asked a ton of questions. And it was a fun group. So hopefully this puts a little kick in your stuff today. I hope it does. It didn't mind. I listened to it back. and I usually don't listen to my talks back.

And it made me smile. So I hope it makes you smile too. Hang tight. We'll be right back. I put to work the fact that I was different and I stepped into that and it worked. Got into the radio business when I was in my early 20s and had the opportunity to become an equity partner and a $25 million property as long as I was willing to move for it to Saginaw, Michigan. When you want more, start your business with Northwest Registered Agent and get access to $1,000,000. thousands of free guides, tools, and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business.

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into a $55 million property in under three years. And I had finally set myself up as a poor girl who now had some cash. So I was really excited about that. But when you're driven by scarcity, you say, I need to get back to work. And so I wanted to go to that next level. And I saw an opportunity at a publicly traded company that Billy mentioned. And I ended up taking a step. back for a much smaller role as a DOS initially in order to prove myself to them. Because I saw that they weren't connecting the dots. There were some opportunities that I was seeing at that company on the outside that sometimes you can't see when you're in the grind every day. And I thought, oh, I can leverage this for opportunity for me. I went in. I proved myself in the first year.

I went back and I called a meeting with the president of the company. We sat down for lunch and I put myself in his shoes and I knew he hated change. I knew that he hated working hard. I knew that he wanted to look good and drive value for shareholders, but it was a constant struggle for them. I crafted my pitch around those pain points that he had. And I said, listen, I know that you've got this long history here and that you guys have done business this certain way and it's paid massive dividends and I'm so proud to be a part of this legacy. However, I see an opportunity for you to potentially double the company's revenue moving forward. I'd be the one that would do all the work. I would answer to you. You would be the one getting all the credit and you would drive the value for the shareholders. Would you be

interested in looking at an opportunity like that? Well, of course he would. People, right? And he smiled, but he ends up saying no. So I was a young girl back then. I said, well, forget this. I'm out of here. And I went and just found another job and called a meeting again to sit down with him and said, I wanted to meet with me one last time. I've been offered a really big job back in Boston, and I'm going to take it, unless you've decided that you want to move forward with my proposal. He excused himself from the restaurant and went outside. He came back in and offered me their newly created VP of sales position. I asked, where did you go? And he explained to me he had to call his father, the CEO. He wasn't the ultimate decision maker. And I learned a critical lesson in that moment. So often we spin our wheels as

salespeople before we ever really qualify who the ultimate decision makers are. And I was making a pitch to someone who could tell me no, but could never tell me yes. And I don't want you to make, don't spin your wheels and don't ever take a no from someone who can't give you a yes. So over the next 14 years, I more than doubled the company's revenue alongside my team. And we went from 100 million annually to in excess of 200 million annually at the time that I eventually got fired. During my tenure there, I was promoted three different times, won lots of awards, and the CEO that I worked for became ill. He elevated his daughter to replace him. She was my arch nemesis, the CFO, and fired me immediately. In that moment, and I know a lot of

us in this call and in this world are struggling right now with furloughed and losing job and fear of loss. And I have so freaking been there. I am like a ninja in this space. But when it first happened, I was paralyzed, sitting on my couch, drinking chardonnay under a weighted blanket, wondering what the heck I was going to do to get out of this mess. I had bills to pay and I had no idea where revenue was going to come from. First thing I did, which was really smart, was I asked for help. I put it out on social media. I have just been fired. And after 14 years, I want to know if I've ever impacted you. And I need your help today. And that post went viral. And people told me I was crazy.

They said, why would you tell people you got fired? But I just thought, if people don't know you're available, how can they know to help you? So I showed up as a real version of me, something that I hadn't done much of when I was in corporate America. A lot of people showed up to help me. And ultimately, Froggy from the Elvis Duran show, a huge radio show, showed up and said, how can I help? And here's another lesson I learned.

When someone offers to help you convert that opportunity. in the moment. Even if it's just a small ask, people get busy. People's lives are changing so fast. You can't circle back two weeks later and say, hey, I was wondering if you're still up for helping me out. So when he tweeted at me, let me know how I can help. I tweeted right back. Get me on the show. And he did. And so I went on the Elvis Duran show and halfway through the interview, Elvis said, well, obviously you're writing a book. And I said, well, obviously, but I wasn't. How would I write a book? was the chief revenue officer. I was the sales driver. That's what the lane I thought I belonged in. So I got on the plane and I googled, how do you write a book? And it said, you have to sit down and

write for X amount of hours a day. So I figured, I'm unemployed. What else am I going to do? I need a product to sell. And if this huge personality believes enough in me that I have a book and that I can do that, I should at least try. So I sat down every single day. Remember, I told you, hard work is not a problem for me. And I started writing. And I didn't know if it was good and I didn't know if it would ever come to light. But I started writing. And then I mocked up a book with a piece of paper and I just signed my name at the bottom. I started visualizing what will this look like if I really have a book? But I know one thing. I know I can sell. And I thought, okay, there's probably lots of good books out there and people don't know how to sell them. But I am a

hustler and I will find a way to sell this book and make myself some money. So I figured, I better find someone ahead of me. And if you don't have someone ahead of you in your life, tap a freaking mentor because I tapped an editor and I hired a man that had written 19 books. And the minute I had him working with me, we moved so much faster because he taught me the hacks. He told me what I was missing.

And eventually we brought to life my book, Confidence Creator. Super proud of that. So I self-published that book. I didn't know how to self-publish. So I Googled that too. And I figured it out. And you know what? it's perfectly imperfect because done will always be better than perfect. There are three

mistakes in my book, one of which is my son's age, which is so embarrassing. However, I own them and rock them. Thank you, Billy. I own them and rock them because I'm proud that I'm a freaking author. I thought I could just be good in this one lane and getting fired taught me. They could take my paycheck from me, but they couldn't take my skills. They can't take my unique talent. They can't take my experiences. They can't take my stories. They can't take my network. And they can't take what's special and unique about me.

I took all of those things and I blew up the lanes. And I took my talents to become an author. And that book went number one on Amazon. The first week we released it. And I was so freaking proud. I can't tell you. And that experience taught me, don't limit yourself to one lane or one approach or one way.

there's so much beyond that if you choose to blow up your lanes and start seeing the potential that's outside of the small bubble so many of us operate in. So I googled, how do you sell books? And it said, speak. And I had been speaking for 20 years in corporate America. I didn't know people got paid to speak, by the way, because I had my head down in one little media world. And in that world, they didn't pay people to speak. So I started cold calling, dialing for dollars. That was easy. I knew how to do that. I cold called all day long and I pitched myself to companies. I'd love to come in and talk about collaboration, innovation, and confidence in the workplace. And they'd say, yeah, come on in. And I would sell my books and sell my books. And then one day I called and someone said, sure, what's your speaker fee? And I thought, I'll get right back to you. And I googled, what are speaker fees? And I found out people get paid from $5,000 a speech to $500,000. So I started Googling about the speaker business and I found out you need an agent. So I sent an email to Harry Walker Speaker Agency to the president because don't take a no from someone who can't give you a yes. Remember

that lesson? So I went to the president and I said, I'm going to put myself in his shoes. I'm going to go study his site. I'm going to find a white space he's not servicing and I'm going to show him how I can drive a new revenue stream and add value to him. And that's what I wrote in my email to him. And he replied back, wow. you're right. You would take up a white space. However, there's a lot of chief revenue officers and executives that are speakers on my team. I don't know that you're unique enough. And I took the screenshot of my book, Confidence Creator, trumping Donald Trump on Amazon's bestseller list. I was number one. He was number two in that screenshot, marketing. And I sent him that in the email. And I said, do you have any authors on your roster that trump trump for number one on business biographies? And he wrote back, touche. I do not. Yes. I will add you to my roster. I leveraged that one image of him putting me up on his roster alongside presidents and all these amazing people.

And I took a screenshot of that and I sent it to GDA speakers. And I said, listen, I don't know if you've heard, but I've been added to Harry Walker's lineup. I'm doing a lot of speaking and driving new revenue streams and I'd love to do that for you. And then I'd leverage GDA to get APB. And then I leveraged APB. These were all the steps that I took.

I didn't know what I was doing. even know what I could eventually get paid. But one of those leveraging moments led me to the opportunity to interview Sarah Blakely live on stage in September for the hypergrowth marketing conference. That image of me with Sarah Blakely on the stage, mind you, I got paid 10,000, she got paid 150,000. So we had some growth potential left within us. But that moment of people seeing me side by side with a billionaire allowed my speaking business to take off. Things were going really well. And then the pandemic hit. And all of the speaking engagements I had for the remainder of the year were canceled. All of my revenue disappeared overnight. I got on my

peloton because for me, I am my most creative when I'm moving, when I'm exercising, and we all have, maybe you meditate, maybe it's when you hold your child or your pet, but figure out where your creative space is. We are all creative, by the way. I had been told for a long time in corporate America. I was a revenue driver and I wasn't creative. That's BS. I jumped on my Peloton and I thought, what are the things people ask me for? What are the questions that I get from people? And I started thinking, I get a lot of DMs on social media asking, would you ever mentor me? Would you ever coach me? Do you offer coaching programs? And I had never had interest in that. I was constantly traveling from my speaking engagements. I had a podcast. I was all over the place. I

couldn't physically handle coaching people. There just wasn't enough time. And I thought, well, there's lots of time. Now I'm stuck at home indefinitely. Okay, I don't know what a coaching program is. I don't know anything about the online education business, but that didn't stop me from writing a freaking bestselling book. It didn't stop me from launching a major speaking career. Close my eyes and let's go. And I put a post up on LinkedIn and I said, I have no idea about the coaching business, but I am willing to 100% guarantee results because I am that confident in me. If you are looking to go to the next level in the month of May during this pandemic, I will be the person to take you there.

I'm only accepting 15 clients and click the link below to send me an email that you want to apply. I sold that program out. I didn't know what the program was, by the way. So I started Googling coaching programs and researching and trying to figure out how can I add value. I didn't have a website. I didn't have anything. I was going on PayPal, sending email invoices. It wasn't good. But what I figured out is there was a need in the marketplace and people knew like and trusted me. And I had value and expertise. I had to figure out how to repackage it. I had been offering that through speeches. How could I now bring that live through a computer and show specific value to the people I was working with?

And so I started asking them, what are you struggling with? How can I bring that? value to you. How can I deliver results for you? And while everyone had different challenges and initiatives and goals, there was this through thread that I saw. They all struggled a bit with their confidence because of the uncertainty that was in the world. They all struggled a bit with how to get to that next level when things were so unknown. If your anxiety, depression, or ADHD are more than a rough patch, you don't need just another meditation app. Tachiatry makes it easy to see psychiatrist online using your insurance in days. Takayatry is 100% online psychiatry practice that provides comprehensive evaluations,

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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 talkiety.com slash confidence to get matched in minutes. And I thought, well, I might not have all the answers. There's more power and numbers. Let's start with a team meeting and introduce one another. And let's start connecting.

And those connections started people doing business together. And those connections held people accountable on these weekly calls. And pretty soon it wasn't me hitting people over the head saying, you need to go do this, it was my team motivating and encouraging one another. Then we created a LinkedIn group. Then I started servicing daily emails to keep them motivated and focused on driving forward and taking chances and being more confident and stepping into who they really are. And then out of that, I got a DM. Would you ever do private one-on-one executive coaching? And I asked one of the people on my team, what do you charge for that? And she said, anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 a month, Heather.

And I thought, oh my gosh, here I am chasing these individual clients for low dollar amounts when I need to shift my business and look, but I wouldn't have figured it out if I hadn't jumped in to begin with. Through the past few months, now I have, I learned all about Shopify and digital marketing and click funnels. And I'm learning about this whole digital path to purchase that I knew nothing about on May 1st when I launched this. Is it perfect? No, but I guarantee my results. And I'm why. watching and learning from the feedback that I get from my clients. Yes, I launched an executive coaching program and it's way more profitable than my team program, but I wouldn't have gotten

here if I didn't take the first step and jump on the Peloton and think about what is it that people ask me for that I wasn't able to deliver previously. What value add can I bring to life? So now that we're at 30 minutes, I figure I could open it up for questions for you guys. happy to, I'm an open book. So if there's any questions that you have, I'm happy to answer them. Billy, do you want to take over? Sure. Heather, it's funny because my text messages as you're speaking are going off with all the ladies in this company. And I'm seeing she's such a badass. I love this woman. She's brilliant. So I haven't had this level of interaction before. So kudos to you. You know, Heather, I think I'll ask the first question. At our company, we do a really good job of

empowering everyone. And we've run program for empowering our female salespeople, our female executives. And I know you have the hashtag Boston Heels. Can you tell us a little bit about that? And this is important to note. The year before I got fired in corporate America, I made a crazy decision to start investing in myself. And if you guys haven't invested in yourself, and I don't care if you're a man or women, whatever, it's irrelevant. Invest in yourself and put your best foot forward. To that end, I launched my website, Heather Monaghan, I did a $20,000 photo shoot because I thought, if I'm going to do something, I want to go big and make it really impactful. And on that site, I decided a lot of people grow up with rich parents that have things handed to them.

Maybe the people I used to work for. I thought I want to service and support the people like me that didn't grow up with that. So I just provided all the hacks that I had learned. You want to get to the Csweek? Go to my site and check it out. I'll tell you exactly how I did it. You want to sell million-dollar deals. I'll tell you how I do that too. You want to overcome objections. So I created that from a place of give-back, but also of elevation for me.

I thought, I've got a voice and a story to share, and it's not being serviced just in this bubble. I want to go bigger. And that's the time when I also hired someone to help me with my social media, which I knew nothing about, but I could see the more omnipresent and visible I can be in social media, the more I can pull clients towards me. The more I can launch and step. into a personal brand, which is separate from the company brand, which is smart, by the way, I'm going to be able to connect with potential talent to pull them. I'm going to allow people to get to know me before I'm ever showing up on their doorstep trying to sell them radio. And that initiative, thank goodness I did that a year before I got fired. However, that comes into play

with probably why I did get fired. But that's okay because that brand that I had built was the catalyst that already had me up and running to launch my book, have an audience, to sell my book to, to inevitably launch my speaking career and then inevitably my coaching career. So, you know, all of that started with this hashtag that I originally used, which was hashtag boss and heels, which meant when you show up as a leader as the real you, when I was younger, people would tell me, don't wear your hair down, don't wear a dress, don't bring attention to the fact that, you know, you're a younger woman, you know, wear glasses and wear your hair in a bun. I'm just wearing a hair in a bun right now because I had a rough night last night and I was crying.

But darn, too bad. I didn't show my blowout like usual. But, you know, people would tell me look a certain way, which was the opposite of how I wanted to look. And I did what they told me because I thought, I want to get ahead and I want to break the glass ceiling. That was bad advice. Because the more I would step into a fake version of me, the version they wanted me to be, that dim your light version, the less I separated from the real powerful. me. So hashtag boss and heels means you want to rock a red dress with your hair down. Rock it. Show up as you.

If you're a guy and you want to wear flip flops with purple hair, I say rock that. But show up as who you are because the more you do that, the more you attract those right people to you. You're very confident and it comes across dynamically now. What was the flip? So how did you go from this shy, younger and learning away to becoming this? confident superstar. You know, along the way, I was so driven to make money initially, that drive would push me into fear. And one of the biggest things for me to build and create confidence is stepping into fear. Every time I do it, I become more stronger. Every time I do it, I become more confident. I now see fear as a green light that means go. So whenever I walk into that

fear, I say, oh, I'm about to go to the next let's go. I get excited about it now. And that's a really important pivot. But when I was younger, I didn't know that. I was just chasing the check, right? So chasing the check did push me into fear. The fact that I pitched a job that didn't exist. You know, these things, these steps I took in my work life were driven because I wanted money, but they were actually creating confidence within me within that segment. I didn't have the perspective big enough yet that confidence is different in different places, right? I'm really confident as a mother, but I'm not as confident in my personal relationships. I'm super confident at the gym, but I'm not as confident with my spiritual practice. There's all these different parts of our life

and there's ebb and flows to all of it. And the more that I start to appreciate and understand, I'm not perfect. And that's okay. And I celebrate that. The more compassionate I can be towards myself and accepting I can be towards myself and the more I can become confident in all of those different areas. Thank you. There's two people asking the same question, really. And I love that line. Don't take a no from somebody who can't say yes, type that as soon as you said it. What they're saying is, sometimes you've got to pitch somebody which is lower down the food chain and they've got to get the answer from the CEO. What's your tips of getting the decision from higher up? Well, you saw how I did in that one instance. I'm not encouraging that's for everyone, but I was willing to

quit. I was willing to walk away, which that's a really big, you know, that's really big. And that strategy might not always work for you. However, I'll give you the one that I use when I go to a hotel. And if you guys don't ask for upgrades when you go to a hotel every time you check in, you're missing the boat, right? So here's a good story. I was in Canada, in Toronto for the NBA All-Star game. My son's a huge basketball fan. I had a reservation at one hotel that was really far away from the arena and it was like negative, I don't know, negative 50. It was something crazy. The coldest I've ever been in my life, my son and I left and it was so cold. I couldn't get to the Uber and I, my tears were freezing because when you're that cold, does tears come out? And I grabbed my son's

hand and I saw a Fairmont right next door. I said, we're going this Fairmont. Of course it's going to be sold out, right? I mean, it's the NBA finals or All-Star or whatever. So I go up with tears coming out my eyes and my little boy next to me and I walked up to the front desk and the woman said, can I help you? And I said, I don't know who I need to speak to, but I am alone. I am scared and I am a really difficult situation. I need a room here. I also know the hotel business and I know you guys hold back rooms. There has got to be one hotel room in here. And if you could please help me, she said, I just, I can't do it. And I said, I totally understand. I completely understand you can't. Can you get someone over here that could? And so I asked her for her help. I asked,

asked for help, right? I was honest, and I created some type of bond between the woman and I. I used empathy in that instance and understanding. And she went and got the general manager who actually can make that call. I explained to him what was going on. Anyways, of course, there was one room. They gave us a room. So what I want to share about that story is, I asked for help. I showed up real. I made a connection point. I didn't fault the person saying no, but I asked for their help to bridge the gap to get me to the person that could say yes. So if you're dealing with a low-level decision-maker and you want to get to the CEO, I would put myself in their shoes, right? The more that we can have empathy for them and understanding for them and get them to say back to us, that's right. So that's a tactic I just learned

from Chris Boss, who's an FBI negotiator, and I want to share it with you. It's a really strong tactic. So you're sitting with a low-level person wanting to see-o. You've immersed your self and studied how that company works. You've got to do the work before you can have a conversation, right? You've asked open-ended questions. You've allowed this woman to feel heard. You're nodding your head. You're taking notes. You're asking more questions. And how does that make you feel? Wow, that sounds really hard, right? So you're understanding. You're letting her empty her cup to you. She's giving you all the information you need to connect the dots to go where you need to go. She's saying, it's really hard because I can't tell you yes. And getting a meeting with a CEO is hard.

He doesn't really want to talk to me. And you say, gosh, that sounds really difficult. You're in a tough spot because you can't say yes, but you don't want to say no. That must be really frustrating for you. That's right. That's exactly it, Heather. Okay. So now you're creating a bond with this person.

They're beginning to trust you because they feel heard. You're understanding their pain. So the more you can create that, you're going to create a situation where this person wants to help you. So then I would ask, is there something that, I could do that could help? Would it be helpful to you if I reached out or is there a person close to that person that maybe you and I together could go to? Would that solve the problem? Start asking and offering solutions and a helpful way to support that person and maybe she'll say, you know what, yes, go direct. All right, I'm going to tell you, this is the assistance name.

Go to her and figure it out because there's always a back channel that you can get to if you have someone on the inside that wants to help you. You know, I really want you to. I really want you to take on board. I mean, Heather comes across as this incredibly confident human being, but she's been through the same journey that you're all going through. And it takes time. There's no hacks. There's no shortcuts. She'll give you some tips on our website. But in anything you want to achieve, you've got to outwork everybody. That's what I heard. It's what I've always believed. You've got to teach yourself. You've got to grow. You've got to make sure that you're learning every single day. I've got five books on the go at the minute. It's crazy. If you're not

learning and if you're not using this time appropriately, you're going to miss out on it. And I don't want any of you to miss out on anything. I want you guys to have, legacy's being said a few times here. And I think, you know, let's make sure that we're all leaving an amazing legacy. I hope you loved the talk. I hope it was a good time for you. Please let me know. Shoot me a DM. Post about it. If you do, I will always re-share and repost your stuff. It means the world to me. It helps the podcast so much. And as always, if you can leave me a rating and review, it would be so, so much appreciated. I appreciate you being here every single week.

Please let me know what you thought of this episode, being that it's so different. And if you liked it, I'll incorporate more. I've got tons of behind-the-scenes clips that I can share with you, but I need to know if you liked it or if it gets the big thumbs down. So shoot it at me straight and keep creating your confidence. Until next week, I'll see you then.