Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #72: Amy Morin Returns to Share How She Harnesses Mental Strength in Her Business

Episode Date: September 15, 2020

The psychotherapist and star author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, Amy Morin, gives us a backstage look into her business and how she uses her own techniques to achieve success. Menta...l strength can look like the foresight to prioritize only the best business opportunities or it can be 6 pack abs! It comes in all forms and Amy discusses it’s necessity in our personal, parenting, business, and even fitness lives. Join us as Heather and her mentees dive in deep with Amy about all things mental strength and how to lean on it when anxiety, fear, and uncertainty abound.  About The Guest: Amy Morin is a psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international bestselling author. She's a highly sought after keynote speaker who gave one of the most popular TEDx talks of all time. Her books, 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do, 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don't Do, and 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don’t Do have been translated into more than 30 languages. She's a columnist for Inc., Forbes, and Psychology Today and her articles on mental strength reach more than 2 million readers each month. Finding Amy Morin:  Website: https://amymorinlcsw.com/ Buy her books: 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don't Do 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do 13 Things Strong Kids Do (releasing in 2021) Listen to her new podcast: Mentally Strong People with Amy Morin Instagram: @amymorinauthor To inquire about my coaching program opportunity visit https://mentorship.heathermonahan.com/  Review this podcast on Apple Podcast using this LINK and when you DM me the screen shot, I buy you my $299 video course as a thank you!  My book Confidence Creator is available now! get it right HERE If you are looking for more tips you can download my free E-book at my website and thank you! https://heathermonahan.com  *If you'd like to ask a question and be featured during the wrap up segment of Creating Confidence, contact Heather Monahan directly through her website and don’t forget to subscribe to the mailing list so you don’t skip a beat to all things Confidence Creating!   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 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. Hi, and welcome back. I'm so glad you're back here with me again this week. So it was a crazy weekend for me. We went away to a really great resort with a bunch of friends of ours and a lot of kids
Starting point is 00:00:28 and had such an amazing time. And we really have not been doing very much because of COVID. And it was so, so fun to get a change of scenery, to be outside, to be with people we haven't seen in a long time. It was really, really exciting. However, any time you do that, of course, when you get back home, you're unorganized, you're behind. You know, I took the entire weekend off and didn't work at all, which has not been my normal
Starting point is 00:00:55 during COVID. So I'm super behind. And we actually ended up extending the last day of the trip. And it was funny, I had been on a waiting list to stay and check out on Monday. It was a holiday weekend. And they said, you know, I'd call down every day. How are we looking? How are we looking?
Starting point is 00:01:13 Nope, no luck, no luck. And we literally packed everything up. It was Sunday. And we were leaving. I called the car up, brought all the bags downstairs, got the kids together. And we were driving back home. I have friends that are in from Massachusetts and are staying with us. And my girlfriend says, let's do one last stop by and just see.
Starting point is 00:01:35 And this just goes to show you have to ask. You just have to. And it was so good. Even though I've been calling every single day and asking ad nauseum, she was right. We're leaving the building. Why not ask one more time? And thank goodness she did that. We walk up to the front desk.
Starting point is 00:01:52 We ask. And he says, actually, we just got two cancellations. Now, when I tell you, we had been staying in the smallest room with two little boys and had mattresses everywhere and it was just complete chaos in this room that we had. So when they said that they had two rooms, we said, oh my gosh, that would be ideal because everybody could be in their own, you know, regular bed. And that would be so great for a great night's sleep. And then to go back home, that way would just be perfect. We said, what are the rates like? And, you know, what are the rooms like?
Starting point is 00:02:24 well, it ends up, it was so surreal and crazy. The rates were better than when we had booked, you know, a month in advance for our trip that we had just been on. And the rooms were bigger and better. It was so bizarre. So it was one of those surreal moments that you just remind yourself. Keep putting out there into the universe what it is that you want and keep showing up and asking for it even when you've been told no, 900 times. Because that's exactly what happened to us. We had the greatest time.
Starting point is 00:02:52 So glad we stayed that one extra night. was so nice and everyone had an amazing time. So we get home this week and things have been crazy because we live in a two-bedder apartment and have so many people here. And it's just, it's been so fun and so crazy. So work has been super intense this week, one of those weeks where you're doing a lot of the legwork, but not seeing a lot of the fruition that you want to see, which can get super, super frustrating, but I've been doing this for a long time. And I know that that's usually right when you're about to break through on something big. You just have to stay committed to that process, knowing that, you know, I'm always looking for a better way to improve the process, automate the
Starting point is 00:03:35 process, optimize the process. However, you can't just give up on the process. You know it works. And until you find a better way, you just keep burning it up and taking swings at it. So that's kind of what this week has been like, which has been a bit frustrating. And I'm a little exhausted. but, you know, we just keep showing up. You really never know what the next day is going to hold. And I've seen that enough times in my life that I'm just showing up, putting the work in, and hoping for the best, knowing that things will start coming together. They will start clicking.
Starting point is 00:04:13 Then today, I had a call with my publisher and the publishing business. It has been going through some major challenges, which I wasn't aware of. I guess I hadn't been paying attention to this that there had been a significant hit in book sales, in hardcover book sales specifically because there, essentially for months now, has been no in-store opportunity to buy, right? So people are only buying things online, which means they're not, you know, just picking up a book as they walk through a mall and see Barnes & Noble. Or, you know, it made a lot of sense once they explained it to me,
Starting point is 00:04:46 but it also puts tremendous pressure on the publishers, on the printing presses. and, you know, people are scrambling. Now, that's not unlike any other business. I feel like most businesses right now are going through these really hard times and questioning what's going to happen. But I'm new to publishing, right, this really older established business. I'm new to it, super excited about it. And these are sort of the rookie pains that you go through.
Starting point is 00:05:13 It was a tough call today hearing about, you know, what expectations are and delays that are happening and funding that's being. cut and again the same things that we're seeing in so many different industries but this happening in this really new to me industry that you know I self-published my first book and so going with a traditional publishing house is super exciting to me and I'm so excited and grateful to get to work with experts now but now seeing them go through a hard time and it just reminds me that in the end it's really up to you and you alone to sell your product whatever that may be whether it's coffee or books or services or speeches or whatever. You know, you've really got to figure out what is that
Starting point is 00:05:54 process and how can you speed up that process to fill those pipelines to accelerate revenues? And I've just been thinking about that a lot today that as much as I'm grateful to be with a great publisher and so excited for that experience, in the end, it is own me to sell those books. And I'm going to just constantly challenge myself and think. And the good news is I have some time, the books coming out in 2021, that what are those best practices and how can I reimagine them? How can I come up with a different, better way that someone hasn't seen yet? How can I approach this in a way that I know will accelerate success for my book sales? Because that is my goal, is to get that book into as many hands of as many people out there that need it.
Starting point is 00:06:41 And it's funny, speaking with someone about this today, that the challenge is finding who you're right, qualified best potential clients are and matching those people up on a quick call with you so that you can show the services that you deliver and, you know, move forward in a business partnership. Sounds easy, but given all the noise and the disparity and audiences and differences and differences out there, it's not always easy. You know, it just, it takes a lot of testing, a lot of trying, and that whole attitude that I will just keep getting back up and swinging and figuring it out and keep getting back up and trying something different and just a commitment to not giving up. So don't give up on whatever your dream or a vision is. It's all about taking that next step and
Starting point is 00:07:26 staying committed to it. So I'm right there in it with you. I promise you that. So today's a little different. I did something like this a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to give you guys a behind the scenes again. As you know, I have a group mentoring program and one-on-one executive coaching and consulting program that I launched in May during quarantine. And it's been going great and it's amazing and I'm so proud of it and really love the people I work with and have been able to help a lot of people in really impactful ways. And it's been great. So one of the things I like to do to add value for them is I bring in a guest speaker each
Starting point is 00:07:59 month. And I had tap my friend Amy Morin, who's the bestselling author of 13 things mentally strong people don't do. She's actually launching her brand new podcast. This week, you've got to listen. I'm actually one of her guests. She's an unbelievable speaker, unbelievable human being, and her TED talk has 15 million views. It's one of the most viewed TED talks that's out there.
Starting point is 00:08:21 So you got to check her out. She's a really impressive person, and she's actually a licensed therapist, and that's how this all started for her. So anyhow, she and I became friends over a year ago through a mutual friend of ours, and we've always wondered how we can work together and partner on events and do things together. She lives further south in Florida than I do, but we are pretty close to one another. And I had asked her, I said, hey, can you dial in for me on one of my Zoom team meetings on a Friday? And she said, yes, but it ended up, you know, there was no Wi-Fi one time.
Starting point is 00:08:55 And another time she was traveling and another time, you know, life was going on, whatever it was. So she had scheduled to attend my talk and essentially let everyone ask her as a therapist and this best-selling author questions. And it's so fun. you get to kind of pull the covers back and understand what really goes on and ask your own questions. So I was so excited for it. She ends up reaching out to me the day or two before we were scheduled to do it.
Starting point is 00:09:22 And she says, you're not going to believe this. I have to go to Miami for a meeting. What do you think about me coming over to do it? Otherwise, I'm going to be driving in the car. And I said, you know, absolutely. I haven't had hardly anyone in my house since quarantine hit. But, you know, I know she's very safe. and obviously trust her. And I said, sure, come here and let's do it here together. So it ended up,
Starting point is 00:09:45 it was so fun. It was fun just to see other people and be around people that you haven't seen recently. And I was so grateful for her doing this for me and for my team. So I wanted to give you guys just a little insight into how she answered the questions that my team asked her and find out what you think. I really love the advice that she imparted on all of us and just appreciate so much that She came here. She came to buy condo. She showed up and dropped some major values. So I'm hoping that you take a lot out of this combo. Let me know what you think. Here it comes. We're honored today to have Amy Morin up in Miami Beach. And welcome, Amy. Thank you. Thanks for having me here. So I have to tell you guys is so funny. Amy and I met a little over a year ago
Starting point is 00:10:38 through mutual friends in New York, and we were going to be speaking at a live event that never came to fruition. And Amy's taught me a lot over the past year, year and a half. And one of the things that she taught me that was super helpful was we were on these calls with these people that were not treating us great. And there was a lot of really influential people on these calls.
Starting point is 00:11:02 And Amy and I would always find ourselves after the call texting privately. Like I didn't like that. And she would say, I don't get a good feeling either, Heather. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. And finally, Amy said to me, that's it.
Starting point is 00:11:12 We're pulling the ripcourt on this. We don't feel good about it. We have to trust our guts. I won't go in all the details, but she was so right. And it was such one of those lessons that I wanted so badly to be a part of something so big, with so many big names. And it was such a big opportunity that I was trying not to listen to my gut. And Amy just gave me that great reminder that, hey, we always need to listen to our gut.
Starting point is 00:11:35 We both feel the same way. We're out of here. And it was, that was such a good life lesson for me. Well, some of those things, we put in so much time and so much energy, it was tempting to just say, if we just hang in a little longer, we'll make it happen. But, ah, it was frustrating. And I knew if it was already that frustrating, the only thing that would make it worse was making it that frustrating, plus one more day.
Starting point is 00:11:53 And she was so right. What we came to find out was not good. So it worked out great that we pulled out of that. And then randomly, Amy was in New York. I was in New York. I had been wanting to have Amy on my podcast for a while. and we were messaging and she said, hey, I'm in town. I said, oh my gosh, I am too.
Starting point is 00:12:10 We were supposed to be doing that live event that day. That's right. But wouldn't you know I get a DM from a stranger that says, I'm here for your event, and they never heard that we canceled the event. So I felt so bad that I invited the woman up to my suite, and she ended up being the nicest lady. And then she sat with us as we recorded the podcast, and she kind of got her own private session,
Starting point is 00:12:34 which ended up to be like the greatest thing. was a great day. Yeah, because I remember she answered the door. And when she wasn't listening, Heather says, I don't know her. I just met her five minutes ago. But she ended up great. It all worked out well. And to that end, so as you guys know, Amy was in Maine without Wi-Fi and couldn't come on once. Amy was gracious enough to change dates when Chris Voss needed to take her date. And then two days ago, hey, I'm in a meeting in Miami. I don't know how I'm going to dial in. What do you think? Should I dial in from the car or come over? And I said, come on over.
Starting point is 00:13:08 And yet again, our crazy experiences, here we are. Right. Pass crossed at the right moment again. Seriously. And just so you guys know, Amy's launching her new podcast, which you've been recording a ton of episodes for. Yes. And when is that coming out?
Starting point is 00:13:22 It comes out September 14th called Mentally Strong People. And we've been interviewing lots of really cool people who exemplify mental strength. And so I know that you guys are all familiar with her book. 13 things mentally strong people don't do. and her TED Talk, which has 14 million views currently. It's insane. I'm so proud of her. And just to give one more personal testimony and story on Amy,
Starting point is 00:13:46 when I was giving my first TED Talk, well, TEDx talk, I was super nervous and practicing like a maniac, and I recorded it into my computer, and I emailed it to Amy. And I said, could you do me a favor? And will you listen to this and tell me what you think? And this was like three weeks before. And a couple of people had said to me, don't really like the beginning and I was like, whatever, you know, peace out. And then I sent it to
Starting point is 00:14:10 Amy. Amy sent it back to me and I don't remember verbatim. But she said something like, Heather, you can do better than this. The beginning isn't really what your potential is. Like, I know that you can challenge herself to come up with something. And then she gave me like a ton of compliments and then closed with, I know that this isn't done yet. It's not where you're actually going to take it and you are absolutely going to kill it. And for some reason, maybe because she has 14 million views on hers or maybe it was the approach she used with me that was able to connect with me that other people hadn't used, immediately I just started to work on I'm changing the beginning of this talk and ended up that the beginning came out so much better. So thank you so much for that. Thank you for approaching
Starting point is 00:14:50 me in the right way and then also spending the time to listen to my talk, which meant so much to me. So we're not at 14 million views yet. We're at 30K. We've got a little way to go. But nothing to sneeze out though. 30K is really good. So we're going to move on from that. Now, Amy, so not only does she have this huge TED talk, not only does she have the most amazing book that's been translated into how many languages? More than 40 now. It's a freaking franchise and how many iterations of the book do you have now? So there's three. We did the first one and we've got two spin-offs and then the kid's book comes out next year. So it really has become its own entity, its own franchise, its own business, which is unbelievable to me because I know how hard it is
Starting point is 00:15:27 just to get one book to sell, you know, X amount of copies, right? It's very challenging and to see the trajectory that you've gone on over the last four years? So 2014 is when my first book came out. So it's just amazing to see what can happen with momentum, hard work, commitment, and just continuing to do the right thing. And that's why I'm so grateful she's here today to talk to you guys, to answer your questions. And I know everyone's got a lot of questions for her. So I don't know who wants to open up first. Could you maybe think about or share with us three things that you think differentiated yourself from, because there's a lot of books out there, there's a lot of TED talks out there. So what three things do you think really contributed to your success?
Starting point is 00:16:11 Oh, good question. Well, congrats on your book. That's exciting. Thank you. Nerv-wracking it is when you're almost there and you're like waiting for the book to come out and so many emotions that come on that. As far as what made it stand out, it started out as an article, the 13 things mentally strong people don't do that went viral. I think the reason it went viral was because it was about what not to do. And it was one of the first articles that said, you know, had the word don't in it. So I think that's what helped it get started.
Starting point is 00:16:38 And then I think as far as my book sales and book translations, I think one of the things that helped, I'm a therapist, but I also talked about my own struggles. I didn't want to sound like I was perfect. But I came out and tried to be authentic and say, it's not that I'm awesome or that I learned these things because I am a therapist. I learned him through my own life experience. So I think that helped. And I think the same with my TEDx talk.
Starting point is 00:17:01 when I gave the talk, I remember stepping off the stage. My voice cracked the whole time I was so nervous, and I remember stepping off the stage thinking, I hope nobody sees that because I definitely didn't sound mentally strong. I sounded like I was terrified, which I was. But that has turned out to be one of the things that has helped propel it, is that people heard that in my voice and were able to say, yeah, you were scared and you did it anyway.
Starting point is 00:17:23 So I guess I would say just being myself and not trying to pretend like I'm, like I have it all together when I definitely don't. I think we get all. empathize with that because we all don't have it together hardly ever. So Amy, I know that you do a lot of work with kids and given this time that we're living in as my son is in the next room doing Zoom school, what are some of the things that we can do as parents, you know, whether as a parent or as an employer, like what can we offer people that are challenged during this difficult time? So I think one of the biggest things for parents in particular is to an opportunity to show your kids that
Starting point is 00:18:00 right now is a great learning experience. This is life. Life is weird, but how do you deal with it? I see some parents that are trying to pretend like it's normal. Some parents that are so stressed out, but they're not talking about it. Other parents who feel like they can't get through this, because how am I going to work, plus have my kids work from home, and there's no doubt it's stressful. So I think it's an opportunity to acknowledge how you feel. There's huge power in just labeling your emotions. When you say I feel anxious, it takes a lot of the sting out of that. Or when you say I'm angry, just acknowledging it. And you don't even necessarily have to say it out loud, acknowledging it to yourself helps. But to talk to kids about their feelings too, I think it's a
Starting point is 00:18:33 wonderful opportunity just to introduce more emotional vocabulary in there to say, is it boring? Is it exciting? Is it anxiety provoking? Are you frustrated trying to do this from home? So I think having more of those conversations. And then just taking a look at what are your coping skills, how do you deal with all those feelings? Because for parents and kids that are spending a lot of time at home these days to figure out, what are your coping skills? Are you binge watching Netflix? Are you reaching for comfort food? Or are you? you finding healthier things, you do yoga in the living room, or you know, Zoom with a friend, or you go out for a cup of coffee with a friend when you can. I think it's a great opportunity to teach
Starting point is 00:19:09 kids, all of those things, the healthy ways that you deal with those feelings. Okay, well, Amy just basically gave you the juxtapose of her life during the pandemic versus mine. I was eating all of my son's Eminem's and binge watching Netflix while she was getting in the best shape of her entire life. Tell them about your fitness program that you launched. Yeah, so as an experiment, last summer, it was in 13 months ago, I had run into this person who got six-pack abs in 30 days when it was a man. So I thought, I wonder if women can get six-pack abs in 30 days. So I decided to try it and reach the goal.
Starting point is 00:19:44 So my fitness trader said, we should do a course together. And so we created a fitness course. And since then, I've been on a journey to maintain my abs because it was a lot of work to get them. And the man that I met who'd done it, he just did it for fun. And then he let him go. And I thought, oh, no, if I do this hard work to get six-back out, there's no way I'm letting him go. So the first 30 days were terrible, and it was a lot of hard work.
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Starting point is 00:23:21 But now she's taking it to it. There's a new iteration here. Now she's taking it into health and fitness. Now there's a coaching. It just keeps evolving. It's not stagnant. Those are the things that I'm hearing from her is how can I grow it beyond just one thing? And what are those potential other options we're not considering right now?
Starting point is 00:23:36 Because I would have never thought to launch a fitness product out of 13 things. But it all aligns together. It does. And it was the first thing, the first tangible evidence I could give of mental strength. I can talk about mental strength. and what it means to be mentally strong, but the physical strength, that's why I could show a picture before and after picture.
Starting point is 00:23:54 And then people were really like, oh, I can actually look at the results and then to say, okay, here's a tangible item I can sell related to that, which is a course. Nobody wants to read a book about fitness. You actually want to do the fitness activities. So it just made sense to say,
Starting point is 00:24:06 let's add this other products and see what happens. And it helped me reach a new audience that maybe wouldn't have been people to read my book in the first place. It's amazing. Such a great idea. I'm sure you've probably had a ton of ideas as well. So how do you differentiate what's an idea you're going to run with and what's one that you're going to kind of shelve and then how do you sync with some? Yeah, I'm glad you asked that because that's actually one of the problems.
Starting point is 00:24:27 There's so many opportunities to build apps and to have mastermind courses and to build more courses out. And you get so much input from people who don't necessarily know your business and you get bombarded with ideas and invitations in your inbox from people who say, you know, I already have this available. You could just jump on board. It'll be simple and easy. So I think it's a matter of trial and error in figuring out. you know, what brings the most revenue, but also what's going to be the biggest time suck for you. You know, I created a course a few years ago and I've never updated it. It lives on my website. Generates money every month. I don't advertise it. It's just sort of something. If somebody comes to
Starting point is 00:25:02 my website and they're looking for more, they can access that. And that was a good use of my time. At the moment, I was building the course, I wanted to pull out my hair because it didn't feel like it was a good use of my time. There was no knowing if it was going to be, but it turned out to be a great use of it. Same with the podcast. I don't know for sure. What sort of revenue stream that's going to bring in. So again, sometimes it's trial and error, but I think if you have too many streams of revenue, it's hard to do any of them well. So sometimes what I learned from my 30 day fitness challenge was if you make one thing your priority for 30 days, you can pretty much accomplish whatever you want. So I think if you take one revenue stream and you say for the next 30
Starting point is 00:25:38 days, I'm going to put everything into this, you can get it done and feel like you did it well as opposed to always having something on the priority list like number five. You just will never get there. and then you'll learn over time which things bring the most revenue what was we all make mistakes. I've certainly invested way too much time in certain things and I just didn't get a good return on it or scrapped it halfway through like the talk because it just wasn't going to be worth it. And I think just trial and error and recognizing, okay, sometimes you don't know until you get there. And there's different theories on, you know, the minimum viable product, whether you should churn out a course when you know it's not good or you should work on it for another six months until you feel really good about it.
Starting point is 00:26:17 different theories on that. And then sometimes it'll surprise you, the opportunities and invitations that come your way. I've really never expected to become a speaker, but that's turned out to be a huge revenue source for me is speaking. And then, of course, during the pandemic, that has shifted since we aren't doing large events. So it's about staying flexible as well. And I guess just anticipating knowing that, yeah, as the market shift, as things change, you know, your book, you'll get tons of advice from other authors about how you really make money. I had some people say, you don't make any money on your book, you only make it from speaking. I had other people say, you know, you only speak to sell copies of your book. And I remember in early days thinking, wait, who's right and who's wrong. But obviously
Starting point is 00:26:56 nobody's right or wrong. It's just about building a business model that works for you. And I'll go back to, you know, what Amy's taught me, which is just focus on working with good people that you feel good about. And when you really know that in your heart, good things will happen. And just trust yourself that, yeah, we're going to try things. There's trial and hour. Keep surrounding yourself with good people and keep following your intuition and things will work out. My question is around authenticity. So I think you have kind of had a real authentic service, found a real need that you can serve in a very valuable way.
Starting point is 00:27:28 How have you kind of navigated that when there are peers around your competitors that are in that same space, huge brands, perhaps not as valuable of a service that they provide? And how do you cut through that noise? And how do you say true to yourself to not get wrapped up? in all of kind of that bright and shiny marketing services that are out there. So I don't know how you've managed to kind of walk that tightrope and do both. Good question.
Starting point is 00:27:54 It is tough. And you know, you see those people that are selling their $3,000 course for $99 when you just buy it today. And, you know, these people that have these fancy click funnels and they give away a free product and it takes you somewhere else. And they used to be the webinars that, you know, always tried to get you to come in. And it is frustrating. I'm a therapist and there's tons of self-help gurus out there who are selling products and they are way better at marketing than I am. And they have fancy design teams and social media graphics and they know exactly what they're doing. But for me, what sold my products is word of mouth.
Starting point is 00:28:29 It's been huge. That's what sold my books. My book didn't hit a bestseller list until two years after it came out. It hit the Wall Street Journal, USA Today bestseller list two years later. And it was just because of word of mouth. We didn't have a huge campaign going on. It was actually after my publicists were really far out of the picture. There was no gimmicks, no nothing. And that's how I saw a lot of online courses, too. And so I firmly believe if you create a good product and you say what you're going to deliver and then you actually deliver it, people will talk about you. They'll say good things about you. It's those clickbait things and people fall for them and end up feeling like I just spent all this money and got nothing. They'll talk about you in a not so good way. And they're going to advise people not to go there and tell them to steer clear. So I think those things often work
Starting point is 00:29:11 in the short term for people. They might make a lot of money really fast, but I think when you're playing the long game, people are going to like it because they trust you and that you've built a brand that they know is reliable. So even though I have 14 million views on my TEDx talk, I have like 20,000 followers in Instagram. I've never hired a social media marketing team. I post when I can, that's sort of a thing. And my newsletter following is minuscule compared to most people that advertise, you know, they've got two million readers every month on their newsletter, that's sort of a thing. I don't even have a blog on my website. I've just always done things sort of my own way, but I find that when you deliver things, when you say, hey, this is what I'm going to teach you,
Starting point is 00:29:48 and then you actually teach them and it's of value, people will come back. They'll tell their friends. They'll recommend it. They'll buy it for their friends. And your long game will definitely stand out that way. I'm a new parent. I'm a young parent. I'm in my early 30s. I have an 11-month-year-old daughter. And one of my biggest fears is having her grow up into this new world where it's very digital. it removes the human interaction, the human touch. And at the same time, there's just so much coddling everywhere in terms of like a victim mentality or in terms of entitlement. So I'm doing my best because, you know, it's hard.
Starting point is 00:30:26 You work all day and you come home or you go into the living room and it's so easy to turn on a Disney movie and let her entertain herself. And you feel so guilty about it because you know that those early months and those early years are so critical for that growth of just the confidence and having them interact on a physical level. But just wanted to hear if you had any thoughts about early stage parenting in the digital world and then how to avoid a scenario where society is just so abrupt about trying to make, you know, young individuals feel like, hey, there's a, there's a safe space here. Or, hey, you know, someone owes you something or let's all talk about, you know, using our words correctly and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:31:07 Great questions. And I think in a pre-COVID world, we were telling people, you know, don't you screen so much. Now we're telling kids sit behind the screen all day to go to school. It's a weird message. It's a weird world that we're in. But I'm a therapist and I spent most of my career as a child therapist, but then I saw adults after that. But just rest of sure, I never have had any adults come in and say, you know, I'm scarred for life because my parents let me watch too much TV or anything like that. So I think it's really about, you know, cut yourself some slack for sure. And as long as we raise kids so that they recognize their feelings, and then they know how to cope with those feelings,
Starting point is 00:31:40 I think the rest is much easier to do. So if you have a kid who knows, gosh, I feel anxious and I have a skill to deal with my anxiety, whether it takes some deep breaths, I go for a walk, and then they can recognize somebody else's emotions to say, gosh, when I say that, that makes my dad really sad. They're going to be way ahead of the game.
Starting point is 00:31:58 I think that trumps pretty much all other academic skills and the other skills that we look at. If you just teach them to manage their own emotions, as parents, we tend to calm kids down, We cheer them up. We take way too much responsibility. If you buy my book, there's a whole chapter on how to not take responsibility for the way kids feels, but instead give them those skills so they can be responsible for their own emotions.
Starting point is 00:32:19 And then when they have a problem, they'll talk about it, and they'll be much more likely to know how to deal with it in a healthy way. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. You're welcome. What are some of the coping mechanisms that kids can use with anxiety right now? Yeah, anxiety is huge. Sometimes people will say, you must see so many people with depression. I see way more people with anxiety and depression.
Starting point is 00:32:38 For kids to know anxiety is healthy, it's normal. We're supposed to be anxious. When your friend says, go jump off that bridge, your anxiety should kick in and you think that's a bad idea. So we don't want them to think anxiety's bad. It's a good thing. It's supposed to keep you safe, but that sometimes we have false alarm bells. You might be sitting on your couch and your anxiety skyrockets for no reason.
Starting point is 00:32:56 And just recognizing that, okay, is this real or is this a false alarm? And so we often talk to kids about anxieties to recognize, do you have a real anxiety alarm or more a false one. Maybe you're nervous about giving a talk in front of the class. Giving a talk in front of the class isn't actually dangerous, but your brain's reacting as if it is. And how can you calm yourself down? We want to teach them how do you calm your brain and how do you calm your body? So it might be a matter of coming up with a saying to calm your brain. Maybe it's something really simple like, I'm okay. And you repeat that over and over. So as all those thoughts about this is awful, the kids are going to laugh at me. You just say,
Starting point is 00:33:29 I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, kind of drowns them out. And then to calm your body, sometimes it's a couple of deep breaths. Sometimes it's imagining that you're in your happy place on the beach, wherever it is. And for kids to recognize when my heart beats really fast, that means I'm anxious, but it doesn't mean anything's wrong because sometimes kids will say when my hands get sweaty and my heartbeats really fast, I just feel like something horrible is going to happen. And for them to know, no, that's just sort of your brain had a little bit of a false alarm. Like when the mom burns toast and the smoke alarm goes off sometimes, the house isn't actually
Starting point is 00:33:59 on fire. That's a false alarm. And we teach them those sorts of things just to recognize. You're supposed to have some anxiety. It doesn't have to be awful. You can tolerate some anxiety, but you also can calm yourself down when you feel that way. Oh, I love that false alarm. That was so good.
Starting point is 00:34:13 The majority of the issues I've had in building my business have been mostly in here. I have a lot of fear, imposter syndrome, et cetera. I guess I'm just curious. For some tips and, you know, coping mechanisms are just kind of little things to kind of help break that cycle or be more realistic with myself. I don't know. Good questions. Good questions. And so yeah, so sometimes a lot of people come to see me for therapy and they're like, you know, do I need to do any help with productivity? Do I need more motivation? And often the answer is no, you've just taken on too much stuff. We don't need any productivity tips there. You're trying to fit 30 hours of work into a 24 hour day and hopefully you sleep in there somewhere. So I think maybe some self-reflection at the end of the day. Every day you just ask yourself, did I, did I fight off more than I could chew? And if you did, then how do I do better tomorrow?
Starting point is 00:35:00 And maybe keeping track of how many things you say no to me, I find it super empowering now to say no to more things than I say yes to. And I'm getting better of that is still something I'm working on too. I have exciting opportunities that come my way that five years from now, somebody would have asked me to do it. I would have been one of the biggest opportunities of my life. But now I have to say no to it. So I feel like our brains take a while to catch up with what level of success that we're at. And so even though it sounds like you're really successful, your brain isn't quite there yet. So you're still probably accepting things that you don't need to accept. And so just to remind you're becoming more aware of that, that at the position that you're in and the opportunities you have coming your way, you should probably be saying no to a lot. So maybe at the end of the day, you ask yourself, what did I say no to today? And it's painful sometimes to turn those things down because you never know. Maybe that was a huge opportunity that that person presented. But until you really focus on the things you're supposed to focus on, it's hard to you won't make any progress. There's a good book to Essentialism, Greg McCown, wonderful book that just talks about, you know, saying no to more
Starting point is 00:36:03 things than we actually say yes to so that you feel like, okay, in fact, the subtitles, the discipline pursuit of less. And I think for people that are a little bit anxious and super high achievers, that's tougher to do. It's tougher to say no to more things and it is to say yes to them. It's that fear, right, that, oh, what if these opportunities are going to stop coming and suddenly I'm going to miss one? So I have to take everything because we're still operating from a place where we weren't getting that many opportunities. That's a really good reframe to just think of it as your brain hasn't hot up where you actually are yet.
Starting point is 00:36:32 What type of ideas or what type of suggestions do you have for business owners and trying to convince people to come back into the office? Anything you can recommend to alleviate their fear? I think the biggest thing for people who are scared is we all feel better when we have a sense of control. If you ask somebody, are you more likely to get an accident when you're driving or when you're the passenger, we all are like, oh, the passenger, because we think it's as a driver and we aren't going to get rear-rended. It's not true. I might have an equal chance
Starting point is 00:36:59 whether the driver or the passenger, but when we have a sense of control, our anxiety goes down. So I wonder if there's a way to give employees some sort of sense of control, even if it's what hours you work, or if it's, you know, which office you sit in or who cleans your chair. I don't know. You may be able to come up with just some small things so that people feel like I'm in control of this. And it even sounds like you invited them to come back. You didn't mandate it. Because I think when people think, oh, I have to do this, then anxiety is going to skyrocket. So I think anything you can do to make sure that people feel like they have some sense of control and not just an illusion of control, but some actual control over a few things to help keep themselves safe.
Starting point is 00:37:33 I think their anxiety will go down. Amy, is there something too, because when I'm listening to you describe that, it seems to me we create these new habits. And like after quarantine, the habit is just to be home. You don't even, and I've seen my son and I get in a rut where it's even just to leave the house seems like, oh, gosh, you want to leave the house where before I would leave the house 20 times a day, it just seems like a new habit now. Yeah, I think so. I think we all set these weird habits for ourselves and then we just do today what we did yesterday. You just keep repeating it.
Starting point is 00:38:02 And I found for me, one of the best ways to get out of a habit is to go to a completely different environment. So for people who say, okay, if I'm stuck in and right at home, maybe I can go to an office, maybe I can go somewhere else. I mean, I can do something different. It sort of forces you to hit the reset button if you just say, okay, how do I establish a new sense of normal for myself? And often it's just a new environment. For me, I usually, usually, you know, it's usually. spend part of the summer in Maine and part of the summer down here. Habits are completely different in Maine than they are down here. I do the same work.
Starting point is 00:38:29 I do a lot of the same things. But something about being in a different environment there compared to here, I don't know. I just do things differently. Yeah, that's good advice. I was thinking of going to even just like an outside coffee place or something to do work just to get myself out of the rut of staying inside all day. Yeah, absolutely. Our environment plays a huge role on how we feel, how we perform.
Starting point is 00:38:48 So sometimes just physically change where you are and see what happens. Getting into the space you're in right now, looking back, what would you have said was the number one priority to give your transition from a doctor to a coach and really put yourself out there? What's the one thing you would have focused on for that 30 days? As I transitioned from being a therapist in an office to coaching people. Yeah, and making yourself out there. Because you said a lot of your business came from word of mouth. Yeah. And so actually that's how it started. So I had a friend who was a coach and she encouraged me to do coaching. She's a therapist, but she said, you don't want to do therapy anymore, do coaching. And so actually last summer, I was looking at office space in Miami because I thought, oh, I could do one day a week. I wanted to stay relevant. My publisher wanted me to stay relevant in terms of still seeing people. I'd taken a break from it. I wasn't doing any coaching at all. And so I was looking at office space. And in the meantime, I got an email from somebody that said, I'd like you to be my coach.
Starting point is 00:39:51 And to be honest, I sort of made up a number. I added an extra zero to what I would have gotten as a therapist per hour. That's awesome. Good for you. You have to have a four hour minimum as opposed to therapy. It was 50 minutes. And he said, no problem. And so he, that's why I was in Miami today.
Starting point is 00:40:05 He flies into Miami still once a month to see me. And it was the boost that I needed to know, oh, I don't have to be a therapist, you know, billing an insurance company. I can add an extra zero and people will still come see me. And then it just bloomed from there. And it was a matter of then saying that, you know, now I get to say no to people. who come to me for therapy or for coaching because I don't have enough space. It's not something I really want to spend a lot of my time doing, just a little bit of my time.
Starting point is 00:40:28 So I added it to my website as something I do, but I don't do it a lot. And I just try to be picky about it. I really wanted to spend 30 days focusing on coaching. I'd write about it. I'd create more content around it and link from other websites. Like I said, I don't blog on my own website, but I write for Business Insider, Forbes, Psychology today. And I can link back to it.
Starting point is 00:40:50 And so rather than reaching out to PR people or trying to get a mention in a magazine, I just create the content myself. I would focus on probably creating 30 pieces of content in 30 days and linking back to my own website and seeing what would happen. That's excellent. Last question, very impressed with how quickly you were able to get the six packs, right? Because that's definitely an area that I would like to work on. What kind of a diet did you have to accomplish that? The biggest thing for me was adding protein.
Starting point is 00:41:18 I didn't eat meat. I wasn't morally opposed to it. It just kind of grows to me out. So the first day I met my trainer, he said, can you eat chicken? And I was like, yeah, it's not a problem. And he said, oh, really? You know, normally with a vegetarian, I have to, I'm like, yeah, that's fine. I just don't love it, but I'll do it.
Starting point is 00:41:30 So I just added two protein shakes. It was low carb, low fat. I ate a lot of salad and a lot of chicken and a couple of protein shakes a day. I wasn't hungry ever. I'm still not hungry. I still eat a lot of eggs and a lot of chicken and protein shakes, but I ate salad and everything else, too. So now my diet is not nearly as strict as it was. hasn't really been an issue.
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Starting point is 00:43:04 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. Northwest Registered Agent.com slash confidence-free. During your journey and even maybe now, what have been the kind of negative thoughts that have popped up kind of automatically in terms of either being discouraged,
Starting point is 00:43:40 feeling maybe this was in the right direction or maybe I shouldn't be doing this? And how did you cope with that? I guess you have the blessing to be a therapist. You kind of know some of those tools and tricks to kind of help shift your thought process and then shift your actions. But I'm curious, what were your struggles? And are you still kind of in periods of struggle today in terms of things that you feel
Starting point is 00:44:03 negative about? And then, you know, you catch yourself and then are able to shift. And how are you doing that in a, I guess, like the day-to-day state? And have your tools and techniques change in your entrepreneurial journey at all? Yeah. Sue, I guess for, you know, I still had that voice in my head that says, you know, like, who are you to do this? Or what makes you think you could be successful?
Starting point is 00:44:22 Or when I have, when I try a new revenue stream and it's clearly not working out, then I have that voice that says, see, told you you couldn't do that. All these other people have a huge team behind them or they all know what they're doing. And here you are, you know, trying to make something out of something that doesn't make sense. So, yeah, I still struggle with that on a regular basis. But now I have some successes behind me. So when I have that, I just remember, okay, because this part of the thing, you know, my new venture is a podcast.
Starting point is 00:44:46 I'm like, oh, nobody's going to listen to your podcast. And I'm like, duh, 14 million people watch your TED Talk. Maybe they will listen to see your podcast. But before I had that, even when I wrote my first book, I just remember thinking nobody's going to read this. This is awful. I'm a therapist. I'm not an author.
Starting point is 00:45:00 And even though I was a therapist helping people deal with their negative thoughts, I dealt with all the same things. And I'm writing a book about mental strength as I'm thinking, you have no business writing a book for so many levels because I felt like I probably wasn't good enough as an author, but also who am I to say how to be mentally strong. So it was a matter of just working through fear and knowing, okay, if I can just put it out there, it's scary, but what's the worst that's going to happen? Somebody's going to make fun of me.
Starting point is 00:45:23 Yeah, they do sometimes. But that's okay. I can handle that. And knowing, I guess, the difference between recognizing when it's intuition saying this is a bad idea versus just a lot of anxiety. So the talk that we were going to do and it was intuition saying this isn't going to work out well, it was much different than when I'm trying to launch something and I'm thinking, oh, this isn't going to work, nobody's going to buy it.
Starting point is 00:45:44 And knowing the difference between the two, that just because it's scary doesn't mean it's your guts or that you should be listening to it, that you don't have to be confident all the time. Using a lot of the same skills I teach other people in terms of mental strength and knowing, okay, I can get through this. It feels scary. Also to remember, too, when you launch something and it doesn't work out, nobody really knows.
Starting point is 00:46:03 I think we think, oh, if I put this article out there and nobody reads it, it's so embarrassing. Well, if nobody reads it, nobody knows you wrote it, and it's not a big deal. But I have so many friends who don't want to write something. because they think, what if it's bad? Nobody will talk about it and you'll move on and you'll write something. They'll remember when you do something good. And so if you launch a product and nobody buys it, so what? I mean, you might be out time and money, but it's not going to be all the humiliation and thoughts about your complete failure and you can never succeed that might run through your head. That's super helpful to know that you're still going through it. And I'm curious, do you have a big
Starting point is 00:46:32 kind of goal or vision that you haven't yet made that leap? It's still kind of out to there. And are you still thinking like how big or how much impact you want? want to have and kind of what are your thoughts about making sure that your message, your authentic message in tools and techniques are impacting as many people as possible. Yeah. So sometimes people will say to me like, you know what you need to get to the next level. And I have to say when people say that to me, I just look back at them. I'm thinking, you know, I'm from a trailer park in Maine and you talk about getting to the next level. Like I wrote a book. Why do I always have to get to the next level? I feel pretty proud of where I am most of the time. And so I think there's that pressure sometimes to feel like
Starting point is 00:47:10 you should always be doing something else. If 50 million people aren't reading everything you do, then somehow you're a failure. Sometimes it's just about backing up and saying, that's okay. Like I make money on selling books and talking about things. Like, I think that's pretty awesome. So sometimes I just have to back up and remind myself, pretty cool what I get to do. I don't have to get up and go into the office. But that's my joy in life is that I don't have to go into an office.
Starting point is 00:47:35 I can get up anytime I want. And I get to go to bed anytime I want. As a kid, I just try to never. remember what that feeling was like. I hated school. And on Sunday nights, I felt physically ill. And sometimes I actually threw up on Monday mornings because I hated school that much. I don't ever want to feel like that. So for me, success is knowing that on Monday morning, I don't have to feel like that ever again. So even if I never made another dime on this, I feel like now I have the skills to say I can make money doing a lot of different things. And so
Starting point is 00:48:01 even if nobody buys my books tonight, this whole mental strength thing disappears, I have skills so I can figure out other ways to make revenue. So I don't ever have to do that. I'll feel like that again. But you also go on a wave runner every day at 4 o'clock. Yeah, that is part of my, part of my team. That's great. That's great. The insider said, we need to know. How do you take care of yourself?
Starting point is 00:48:19 You journal, do you meditate? And I said, actually, I just take my wave runner out. I live on a sailboat most of the time. So life is pretty calm and relaxing. So I don't need to get out my yoga mat and relax more. I need to get on a jet ski and go fast. And that's how I take care of myself. I read that on one of the articles.
Starting point is 00:48:36 It's good to see that. Thank you. Well, I just wanted to say that, you know, based on some of the things that Amy said, she is just like everybody else here, right? Everybody that doubts themselves, everybody that wants to find hacks to get to the next level. And it takes, you know, doing the hard work, keep putting in the disciplines that we all know we need to do and just keep going. And I also like the idea of celebrating where you actually are instead of constantly looking at where we're going next
Starting point is 00:49:03 because sometimes as overachievers, we might not be doing that. and there is a lot to celebrate. And all those celebrations are also proof that you are able to achieve success. You are able to get there, which just, you know, those are the building blocks for all of our future. So thank you so much to Amy for being here today. Thanks for having me. This was fun. I don't get to talk about the business aspect of what I do very often.
Starting point is 00:49:27 So that's fun. Oh, I'm so excited. And don't forget Amy's new podcast is going to be coming out, guys. We definitely check that out in September. It's going to be fantastic. All right, everyone. Have a great weekend. I hope you enjoyed meeting Amy as much as I enjoyed just hanging around with her, being with her.
Starting point is 00:49:47 This is actually the second time. She's been on the show. I did a more formal interview with her last year. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. We get more into her book and the principles of her book. Today was more about her just answering these Q&As and really relevant questions to today that we're all struggling with and dealing with, which I'm super. appreciative she made time for. Okay, so I got a couple of questions sent to me on LinkedIn and on Instagram and DMs and I always answer your questions here. So if you have them, fire away. Okay,
Starting point is 00:50:18 let's get going. Thanks for getting back to me, Heather. I guess I wanted to talk about asking for a promotion or more money at my workplace with my job being fully remote. I love your tips on how to build confidence and be a public speaker and I think I'm pretty confident, but I am so nervous because I feel like asking for something like this over the phone is even more intimidating. I think I feel this way since I can't see my boss's reaction. It's interesting. A little premature, but I do want to raise before I hit the one year mark. I'm afraid to ask since I've started. I have written down all successes and daily journals with bullets of things that I did that day. I'd love some advice on how to kick those nerves to the curb and take action on a phone call conversation and where to start.
Starting point is 00:51:00 Should I send a calendar invite when I'm ready or just call him out of the moment? blue. I've never asked for a raise before other than a part-time job I had. So this is new to me. Okay. So first of all, I would suggest a Zoom meeting, right? Because she brings up a good point. When you can't see someone's reactions, you're at a disadvantage. So for me, I want to be able to read the other person and feel more connected to them and have them look into my eyes. The more that they're connected to you, the better chance you have of getting what you want. right? And I would absolutely not blindside somebody on this. I would send a note and say, hey, is there a good time for you and I to get on a call next week? I'd like to get 30 minutes
Starting point is 00:51:41 for your time for a Zoom meeting. There's a few things that I would like to discuss with you and really want to get your full attention. You know, you don't need to say exactly what it is that you're asking for because you'll do that in your pitch in the process when you're live with that person. So you get on their calendar. You do all your homework. So the first thing that I would do is I'd go back and look at what were the job expectations, when I was hired. What have I delivered on? What have I over delivered? Where have I fallen short? Now, the other thing I'd look at is any follow-up feedback emails from your boss. So if you have any, oh my gosh, this was amazing, you did this great, or I want to do a review for you and tell you how
Starting point is 00:52:15 great you are, blah, blah, blah, gather all of that at a high level, put it into a document. You want to be able to send that back to him and say, hey, I compiled a lot of your feedback. You know, anything that's essentially going to justify and give credibility to what your claims are on the great job that you've done, I'd also gather reviews and recommendations from current clients, from people that you've worked with collaboratively during this virtual time at the company, whatever. So you want to basically put together a file that's justifying everything that it is that you're putting down there. Now, numbers don't lie. So if you are in sales or, you know, you have specific numbers you have to hit and you've hit those, that's easy. but also it is nice to have the color behind it in regards to feedback, testimonials from clients, peers, and supervisors. So I'd work on putting all that together. Then I'd put myself in that boss's shoes and run through the pitch. So think about what he cares about. And I'm making this up, but maybe a lot of people on the team are struggling with morale and you're super positive. Maybe a lot of people aren't hitting numbers, but you are. Maybe some people are leaving or just essentially
Starting point is 00:53:23 lay out the land in regards to how he sees it, think to yourself, what is important to him, is commitment and loyalty important to him, is keeping people around important to him, is mentoring and promoting people important to him, whatever it is, map it all out, right? Because what you want to do, in order to get someone to do what you want, you need to get them to want to do it. So, you know, for me, I used to work for someone that hated change, petrified a change. But I knew he was, more petrified of me leaving the company than he was a change within the company. And I would leverage that to my advantage. You have to figure out what are the pain points that your boss has.
Starting point is 00:54:04 What is the value add that you bring? So maybe it's that to find someone to replace you will cost $30,000 from recruiting, from potential fallout and hiring the wrong person from lost relationships, lost deals. Really map out the scenario. Be thoughtful about your scenario and really create that blueprint so that you know where it makes sense and what you should be bringing up to your boss. Take the time to do this the right way. When you do, you're really in a no-fail situation. So that's what I'd always done when I was back in corporate America is I'd put myself in his shoes. I'd go through all the scenarios, run through all the potential objections and how you will overcome them, right? We don't have the funds right now. I completely understand that. However,
Starting point is 00:54:47 we aren't even in Q4 yet. And I know that we haven't finalized budgets for. for 2021. So if something is important to you, I know you can make that happen for 2021. Isn't there somewhere that you can look on your expense lines, that you could shift some dollars to make this work? I want to stay here. I want to be with you. I want to grow with you. I'm committed to working for you. You know, like there's different ways to overcome objections, but you first have to write them all down and start mapping out what they may be. You can't do the face-to-face, so you want to get on that Zoom call, you want to connect to them, you want to empathize with their challenges, I'm sure this must be a tough time for you with so many employees
Starting point is 00:55:25 trying to get a hold of you. I so appreciate your time. Right, you really want to acknowledge them. You want them to empty your glass. How are you doing? How are you holding up in this time? I know you have kids. How's the remote learning going? How are things happening for you? This must be a really difficult time for you. Let them empty their glass and tell you how they're doing. And then that information you garner from that exchange, you can actually use to your advanced. when you start pitching yourself for that job. So that's how I would do it. Wish you luck. But, you know, the best way I've ever done it is from day one setting up the situation that I will be asking for a raise. I will be asking for a promotion. On day one, when I went to that company I used to
Starting point is 00:56:06 work for, I said, I need to be CEO of this company. And here's why. And then I took a much lower position. But I had let them know from the beginning. You're going to need to check in with me every couple of months to reevaluate where I'm at because I'm going to be far exceeding your expectations and I'm going to want to get promoted and I'm going to need to make more money because I deserve it. However, I took this job because I knew it could make an impact here and make a difference and I'm really excited to do it with you. But just check in with me every 30 or 60 or 90 days because we're going to have to revisit this. You know, I set that tone. So set that tone. Hey, I'm going to raise the bar. I'm going to go all in. I'm going to do a phenomenal job for you. You got a real deal right now.
Starting point is 00:56:44 but when that happens, I just want to know that you're in this with me, that when I show you how valuable I am, that you're going to pay me for that value. Right. So first, you have to completely believe it and then you need to convince the other person. Okay, that was one question. Here's another. I'm reaching out because I feel really lost and would love some advice. I graduated college a year ago, started my first job. I'm only in my early 20s. I know I have a long life ahead of me, but I am feeling super stuck in my career and I am just not happy in my job. Ooh, that's a no-no. Problem is I have no idea what I want to do and I have a hard time pinning down where my talents are. If you happen to have any advice, what would it be? I would really find it
Starting point is 00:57:24 so helpful. Any guidance you can give. Okay, first of all, what are the things you used to love to do? Forget about money for one minute. When you were younger, what did you want to grow up and be? When you have free time right now, where is it that you want to spend it? Do you love painting? Do you love working with children? Do you love writing? Figure out what it is that you love to do when you have to do when you have you pull money out of the equation, and that's an indicator to what you need to end up doing. Doesn't mean you'll not make any money. Now we have to figure out how you can leverage your talents, your passions, and what you really want to do, and connect that to a revenue stream.
Starting point is 00:57:59 If you are adding value and you are doing something good to your best of your abilities, and it is your strength, there is a way to find some form of monetization through that. Now, maybe today you can't quit the job that you're in and go jump into this dream job, but you can start mapping out a plan on how you can get there. Maybe you say, okay, I really don't like this job. I'm not with good people. It's so negative. Okay, listen, let's go find something else for right now,
Starting point is 00:58:29 knowing the long-term goal is to get to where you really want to go. But I've gone through so many different phases in my life of, you know, working at different companies, doing different things, now working for myself, my entire. higher business changing six months ago, five months ago because of the pandemic. You know, there are going to be so many iterations of you and your career and that's okay. You know, it's about embracing who you are and getting real with yourself on what you like to do where you want to spend your time. And again, if it isn't going to happen today, that's fine.
Starting point is 00:59:02 It's just about knowing that it will happen in the future. And what does that plan look like to get you there? Yes, I don't love the job I'm in today. I'm going to go find a better company to do a job like this in because I'm qualified for it. But my real goal is to be an artist and I want to sell art or to be a curator and an art gallery or, you know, start looking at these industries, start talking to people about it, people in your network, people that you know, start putting it out to the universe, what it is that you really want to do and start watching how things start connecting for you.
Starting point is 00:59:36 But it all starts with you getting real with you. And journaling is a great way to do this, you know, when. When are you your happiest? What are the things that you're doing when you're really happy? And I'll tell you, 20-something years in corporate America, I never thought I'd write a book, never thought I'd be a professional speaker, didn't even know that was a thing, never thought I'd be a host of a podcast, I never thought I'd give a TEDx talk, never thought I'd sign with a publishing house, all these things I never thought about.
Starting point is 01:00:04 So just because you are in the situation you're in right now doesn't mean you'll always be in it. It means we need to start opening up doors and figuring out where it is that you want to go so that you can start connecting those dots to get there. It doesn't happen overnight. It happens with getting clarity and taking action now to move you there for your future. And I stayed way too long in a job and a company that was not serving me. And yes, I was very good at it.
Starting point is 01:00:34 But just because you're good at something doesn't mean you should stay there, right? Like get real with you. are you happy? What do you like to do? And just because you're good at X doesn't mean that should be your career. You can take your unique talents and go wherever you want with them. And don't forget that. I wish I had known that when I was in my early 20s. So keep up with me. Keep creating your confidence. And I will see you back here next week.

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