Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - Visibility Is the New Security Part 1: Why Hard Work Isn’t Enough Anymore with Heather

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

What if working hard isn’t enough to protect your career anymore? In Part 1 of this series, I break down why visibility is the new security, how to use AI to move faster, and how to stop waiting to be noticed, start becoming known for what you do best, and build a personal brand that creates opportunities. I also share lessons from my own career reinvention and why your value doesn’t disappear when your title does. Tune in and get ready to rethink how you show up, make your expertise known, and create your next opportunity. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why visibility is the new job security and why doing great work alone isn’t enough. How to use AI as a competitive advantage without losing your human edge. Tips for prompting AI for strategic thinking instead of generic answers. Why you don’t need to become an influencer to build a powerful personal brand. Ways to make your stories, experiences, and point of view more memorable. Why your skills need to be portable in a rapidly changing workplace. What being fired taught me about reinvention and resilience. The 3 lies that keep talented people invisible. Self-promotion isn’t bragging when you’re sharing your value. Why you need to build belief before brand, message, and revenue. Check Out Our Sponsors: Sequencing - Right now, sequencing.com is offering our listeners up to 10% off your full Genome test, plus free shipping. Go to sequencing.com, and use promo code CONFIDENCE for 10% off. NetSuite - If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get our free business guide, Aligning for the Agentic Era: How AI Is Changing Everyday Work at netsuite.ai/MONAHAN. Monarch - Write your own money story with Monarch. Use code CONFIDENCE at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50. Hostinger - Go to hostinger.com/CONFIDENCE and use code CONFIDENCE for 10% off now. Resources + Links Learn more about Mindstone Rebel: mindstone.com/rebel Explore Sandcastles: sandcastles.ai Read Stanford’s 2026 AI Index Report: Stanford 2026 AI Index Report Call my digital clone at 201-897-2553!  Visit heathermonahan.com Sign up for my mailing list: heathermonahan.com/mailing-list/  Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com  If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Follow Heather on Instagram & LinkedIn

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Get your free guide at netsuite.com slash Monaghan, net suite.com slash Monaghan, net suite.com slash Monaghan. Welcome back. I have such an important episode for you today, especially if you've ever felt overlooked, underestimated, or uncertain about what your next move should be. Here's what I know that I wish I'd understood

much earlier in my career. Doing great work is not enough, especially when no one knows about it. I recently hosted a free live training, and it was so powerful I knew immediately I needed to get it to you. This is episode one of our series. Visibility is the new security. The world is changing fast right now, especially with AI,

and I don't want you sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what happens. I want you positioned to take advantage of what's happening and create more opportunities, more income, more freedom, and more control over what comes next for you. In this training, I'm sharing what I believe you need to do now to stop being the best kept secret in the room and become someone people know, remember, and want to work with. And I'm giving you some my best AI secrets and prompts, including how I'm using it right now to move faster, create an advantage, and make what I already bring to the table more valuable. Like you can. I'm also taking you behind the scenes of my own reinvention from getting fired in my 40s to discovering opportunities I didn't even know existed for me.

Because sometimes the thing that feels like the biggest setback is actually forcing you to see the bigger opportunity. So if you know you're capable of more, but you're not sure what your next move is, or how to position yourself for everything that's changing right now, you need this episode. I can't wait for you to listen to this training. Let's go. I'm on this journey with me. Each week when you join me,

we are going to chase down our goals. Overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow. I'm ready for my close-up. I've gotten so many messages in the last two days from people asking about AI and my AI event that I just got back from. So I wanted to open and share a little bit right quick just because I wanted to give you guys some value and help you with AI because I did attend this AI intensive. It was put on by a company called Mindstone. Rebel is their product.

It's incredible. I highly recommend I am blown away by the product. However, for everyone here, here's the most important thing. Stanford just came out with this huge research paper all about AI and evaluating AI over the last year. couple of years. And it's 90-something pages. But the bottom line and the summary of the report, and you can Google it, it's a Stanford AI report, 2026, is essentially that 80% of people in United States are not using AI or they're not using it correctly. That is a material advantage to anybody who is using it and using it correctly. So I want to give you guys at least a concept

of what using it correctly today means, because it's going to continue to change. It's going to continue to evolve, but I want to set you up for success now because this can be a differentiator for you, no matter if you're in corporate America, no matter if you are unemployed, no matter if you are an entrepreneur, if you are using AI every day, which you need to be, I'm challenging right now to please start using AI every day. But if you start using AI every day, you're going to be at the top 20% of the business world. So why not give yourself that gift, right? So here is a the basics of how 80% of people are using AI. They are using it as a Google tool. No, that is not the way to use AI. Right. And again, AI is going to continue to evolve and change. It's going to keep

getting cheaper, getting easier to use. It's going to continue to change. But for right now, the way to use AI on the most basic level starts with the prompts that you're using. And someone reached out to me the other day, they said, Heather, I was fired. Can you take a look at my resume and I sent it to me. I wasn't going to look at it. I said, send it to me. I knew who the person was. I worked with them before.

I uploaded it into my AI of choice, which for me, I use co-work, flawed co-work. And I uploaded this resume into my AI. And I said, you are an expert resume writer. You've been doing this successfully for 20 years. You place anybody and everybody into the most incredible jobs and land them the biggest and best offers. This individual happens to be in the aesthetics industry, and I want to position this individual as top 1% and ensure that we deliver an incredible senior level executive C-speed executive opportunity, knowing all that you know about this person, the industry, and your expertise, please ask me any questions that you might have that could better suit you or enable you to land this person the ideal job, create the best possible resume that there is for this person to land a job and have multiple offers.

and then create three different versions of the resume so that I can look through, see which one I like, don't like, and continue to ask me questions to improve it. The AI came back, we went back and forth a number of times. I pushed back on AI, and then we came up with one solid final resume. I took that one solid final resume, and I uploaded to chat G. Which has a very different brain, and I did the same thing. So I went back to this individual within five minutes,

with two mind-blowing resumes this person couldn't believe. And he said, why is your AI so much smarter than mine? It's not. And so I want to share this with everybody. If someone put me into a Ferrari and told me to drive it, that car wouldn't be the greatest car in the world. It would be a terrible ride probably because the driver isn't driving properly. AI is the exact same way.

So we all have that same opportunity. It's all in the prompts that we use. It's in the skills that we save. It's in the workflow and automations that we save. And it's in the agents that we create. That is right now where we are with AI. Again, it's going to continue to change and evolve. But if you can even just start with using the prompts that will set you up for success,

and so I put together just this basic template for everybody to use, which is, one, ask for help. So you're asking the AI for help. And this can be for anything. You're looking for a job. You want to improve revenues. You want to find out what you're good at. You want to change your resume.

It could be for anything. So number one, ask the AI for help. I recommend Claude Co-work and then go to check. at GPT after. Define the authority. You want to make the AI take on the persona of X, a therapist, if you want to talk to a therapist, you know, the best resume writer ever. It's a consultant from McKinsey and you've got over 20 years of accolades, but you want to make it the most grandiose thing, the best of the best in some type of an industry. So you define who they are. Next, you're going to set the interview rules.

And this is where a lot of you guys ask questions. We had so many people sending questions for today's. Thank you for doing that. Continue to send me questions. We will answer them all. But when people were asking, how do I differentiate myself in a world of AI slop? We saw that question so many times.

Here's a thing. Again, it's back to who's bribing. Don't be the slop. The slop is people saying this, create a post for me. Yeah, I'm going to give you slop. But if we do it like this, if we say, I need your help,

you are the world's best content creator that's ever lived. You work for Mark Zuckerberg for 20-something years. You won awards. from Facebook, Google, qualify how excellent this individual is. Then we say to them, now you are going to create a post on my feed, interview me specifically to what is different, unique, special, or a POV that I could provide on this industry.

Let's go back and forth and then share your reasoning as how you came up to this. That's an important piece because AI does have a tendency to lie sometimes. So we want to see the methodology that AI is using to ensure that the information is correct. Okay, so define the authority, set the interview rules, and again, you're going to push back, you want to understand the methodology, and it's okay to say, this is a six out of ten. I'm looking for a ten out of ten, do better you can. Because the more you push back on AI, the more they'll give you other iterations, they'll give you other ideas, other POVs. And then that's for you to take, and as a human, put your own human lens on it and say, oh, I like this angle or I like this tool.

Right. So for me, I use AI a lot for hooks because I have, I might be good at storytelling and giving my perspective on something, but I don't know the greatest hook. So I connected my AI to sandcastles, which all they do is pull hooks, whatever's trending online. So AI doesn't have to be slop if we're not sloppy. Right. So leverage your intelligence, leverage your human experience. That's what makes the AI great is you. And I think too often right now people are getting caught up in the idea. of AI is just all the same thing everywhere. That's because people aren't driving it like a Ferrari. Don't drive it like a Volkswagen if it's a Ferrari. Not that I've ever driven a Ferrari, but I'm sure it drives better than a Volkswagen. Okay, so that was, I got so many questions on that,

and that's just like a tip of the iceberg. But if you even just use that, if you're using AI in that regard and through prompts like that, you are with the top 20% in the United States right now because 80% is not using it that way. So please do not use it like Google anymore. The reason why we're here,

is I don't want you guys to be invisible. I mean, it is without of a doubt, one of the scariest things that you can do to yourself. I was invisible for a long time as an executive in corporate America. And when you are not visible online, when you are not visible in elevating yourself, really rocking and owning that unique person that you are and being proud of it,

you are overlooked, overlooked for promotions, overlooked for salary increases, overlooked for opportunities. You can't even fathom. We'll get into a few of them that are available out there. And I promise you, you're going to say, oh, Heather, that might just be you or maybe it's just because it happened that way for you. The reality is for the last seven years, I've been working with countless executives, countless entrepreneurs, countless unhappiness people in corporate America, whether it be through my books, my podcast, for through my big coaching programs. And I have so many examples, testimonials, case studies of people who have had unbelievable breakthroughs.

This is not about me. this is about shining your light so that people can find you in the world. And that's what I want for all of you. I want to share the secret that's giving me an edge over people who feel invisible in their career, one that's helped me build a personal brand, text me no matter what happens at work, no matter what happens in any industry and get seen as the expert everywhere instead of just another person looking for work without needing a big following or household name to start. Again, that's something I hear people say you need to be a social media influencer.

I am not a social media influencer. I'm a former C-suite exec that has expertise in leading teams and sales and revenue generation. I just share it online. I am not an influencer and you don't need to be an influencer either. You just need to be yourself, position yourself for the leader that you are and share your expertise and get out of the way. It truly is that simple. Okay, why are we doing this?

We are doing this for freedom. And this is super important. This is me and one of my best friends and our boys. And here's the thing that's so different now. I led a lifetime in corporate America where freedom was not the thing. And I don't know how many of you, does anybody else feel that way with corporate America, that it can be a little limiting, right? So it was always, this is what you have to do, Heather.

And this is the work trip you have to be on, regardless if my son had a soccer game or, you know, my son had an event that I wanted to attend. It was company first, company first. And again, when you make it to a certain level in a company, you do get freedom. I'm not going to lie, right, because you're the one calling the shots. But if you haven't made it there yet, when you start elevating yourself, when you start becoming visible, you flip the script on the game and you start gaining freedom because people start realizing other companies, other industries can see. And that's when you really start stepping into some power,

which is what I want for everybody here. Okay. Why is now the perfect time to master these concepts? This is incredible. Never before has it been cheaper to or faster to create social media. content. Never before has it been easier to research something. Oh my gosh, you could research anything in minutes and have documents delivered to your email literally within 60 seconds that can help you figure out what podcasts you want to go on, what audience you should be in front of. All of this is at your fingertips. Again, if you use it correctly, you are at the absolute right time right now. I have a very good friend of mine is an executive assistant and has been her whole career. And three months ago, she came to see me speak at an event in Texas. And when we left

the event, we were having dinner. And I said, what are your thoughts on the environment right now? She said, it's terrible. She said, my job's going to get replaced. I'm not stupid. I know in the next couple of years, I won't have a job. I said, so what do you think you should do? And she said, I don't know. I'm frozen. And I don't know about anyone here, but getting stuck is a real thing. right? It happens to everybody. You've been doing something one way for so long. It's hard to fathom doing it another way. I felt that same way in corporate. And I said, I said, what if we look at it differently? What if you start learning AI now and you build yourself up and share yourself online as the executive assistant whisperer and you manage all of the executive assistants, not only for an entire company, you could do it across an industry. You could create a platform. that makes it simple for a plug-in-play for any industry. And you could make that your own business or side hustle, or you could stay in corporate and oversee thousands of executive assistance

because now you have AI agents that can help you. We still need a human touch point. And she hadn't thought about it that way yet. Now, listen, she hasn't leaned into it yet, and maybe I will bully her with sending her this video to remind her, I think more of her, I think better than she's thinking, and I want her to think like this. But the reality is, if we don't do something differently,

now, if we don't open our eyes for the opportunity in front of us, I promise you it will pass us by. We all saw the examples of Blockbuster, BlackBerry. I mean, they can go on and on the different businesses, different industries, the airlines that have gone out of business, these all happen because a resistance to change and a resistance to capitalizing on opportunity when it's in front of you. This is the minute. Take action now. done will always be better than perfect.

Okay, day two, we're going to get into the roadmap and the framework and day three, overcoming obstacles and to get you results faster. Okay, I'm not going to give you a gut feeling because this is not about a gut feeling. However, I always do believe in my intuition, and I hope you believe in yours. It's the most important voice you will ever hear. But we're going to back things up with truth. We're going to show you some real examples, and we're going to show you some credibility. Okay, we're going to share my playbook on how to build a bold person.

brand, not just theory. And the importance of bold is, bold is unique to you. Bold is different for me, but it's authentic to me. And that's what we want to extrapolate from everyone here is what's real for you. What are your real stories, your real POV, your real experiences and expertise? Because that's what's going to make you successful. Or that's what's going to create AI slot. That's your choice. I'm voting for making you exceptional. Okay, more importantly, I'm showing you how I ended the fear of financial uncertainty by using this three-step framework. And we took this photo today out of my Stripe account. This is just, and again, it doesn't matter if you're in corporate America or if you are

in corporate America with a side hustle or if you're in corporate America looking to leave or if you are starting off as an entrepreneur. That doesn't matter. When you elevate yourself, your leadership, your persona, your personality, your POV, opportunities start coming to you. That's how the whole thing started for me to begin with. Eight years ago, when I started getting in a lot of trouble in the C-suite, a new boss. That's what happened to me.

My old CEO became ill out of nowhere and stepped down from the CEO position, changed the leadership immediately. And overnight, I was fired. So that just because you don't want it to happen, it's not going to happen, there's so many things happening around us that we have zero control on. We have to focus on what we can control. An industry ship nobody saw coming. That's exactly what's happening in the marketplace today because of AI.

Okay, in the last year, or the last two years, 654,000 tech workers have been laid up. These are real numbers, and they're really scary for those people that didn't have a personal brand set up or weren't visible online. 55,000 U.S. layoffs in 2025 by 2030, 92 million jobs displaced. These numbers are so massive that, again, it doesn't mean that these people, will not have jobs, but things are going to change so rapidly that if you don't get ahead of it and lean into it now, you don't want to be the one that was a victim of it. Sitting on the sidelines trying to find a job, it's always much easier to be ahead of it. So I'm hoping that we can be

proactive today instead of reactive. And again, you're the top 20% just by being here today because you're showing up open-minded to doing it differently. Okay, uncertainty doesn't ask permission. It just happens. That is certainly what happened to me. It continues. use to happen to me in my life. And the more we step into uncertainty and realize when everything is uncertain, anything is possible, the more we can approach it from the right mindset. Once we have the right mindset, then we can take a deep breath and put strategy and tactics into motion and we can get different results, which is exactly what I want for you. Okay. It's so important to build your own moat now before you ever need it. Sadly for me, I really hadn't done that. I mean, I was a few

months into doing that when I did get fired. Luckily, a couple of great things happened. They didn't seem great at the time. I'll share those with you in a minute. But they ended up being catalyst for me to pick up some momentum to start believing that there was another outcome possible for me. And once you start believing that, that things don't have to go just the way they have been going, you can open your mind up to the possibilities, which are endless. This is definitely the way I grew up. I don't know about you. Let me know if you felt this way. The old playbook was work hard. Keep your head down. Stay in your lane. Pay attention to the rules and the job description you're given, right?

Stay loyal to one company. I was at one company for 14 years. Let your resume speak for you and wait to be noticed. That is definitely how I grew up. There didn't seem to be much other option other than that. The new reality today is work hard and become known for it. Shine your light so other people can see you. Stay portable.

loyalty doesn't flow both ways. And again, stay open-minded. Your skill set, your unique talents can be applied to various industries and opportunities. Just because you've been in one industry and one role for a long time doesn't mean that you're limited or cap to that. It means the complete antistice. And this is this cat speaking personally, I thought I would never succeed in anything other than sales and sales leadership in corporate America in media. And what I was limiting myself on was saying, hey, what skillsets do I have that could maybe be applied to different industries? How could I look at these differently?

What other skills sets do I have that I haven't thought about yet? And I'll talk you through a little bit about how that epiphany happened for me, but it took a while. And I know people see me now and say, yeah, right, Heather, that took a while. I promise you, that took a couple of years. Create strategic visibility on purpose. Again, this is all intentional. It starts with the intention and you having the intention today. that you are going to elevate yourself to be visible and seen for the talent that you are instead

of hiding from it. Visibility is the new job security, right? Because then it's irrelevant what happens around you. The more visible you become, the more people get to know, like, and trust you. They want to do business with you. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. Remember that. That is key. And that is something that translates everywhere to any industry and any opportunity. Growing up, money in my house was scarce, and the conversations around it were a little stressful to say the least. That shaped how I handled money for years. Monarch didn't just change that. It gave me the chance to rewrite that part of my story and start a new story.

Here's the thing about lifestyle creep. It's silent. You don't even notice it happening. My savings rate had quietly slipped 20% and I never noticed. until Monarch put it right in front of me. Now it's like having a financial advisor in my pocket. The AI Weekly Recap catches spending spikes and net worth shifts before they become a real problem. And when I want a straight answer, like, how much did I spend on travel last suburb? I just ask Monarch's AI assistant.

Write your own money story with Monarch. Use code confidence at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch core half off at just $50. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code confidence. I still remember my first real move online. I didn't have a website. I had a LinkedIn profile and a lot of nerve. And for way too long, I told myself a website was something I'd get to eventually. It felt expensive.

It felt like something you needed a developer for. So I put it off. Here's what I wish someone had told me back then. That delay cost me opportunities and revenue. The moment I finally had a real professional website, one place where people could see my work, my books, my speaking, all of it. The conversations changed. People stopped asking, what do you do?

And started asking, when are you available? That's when Hostinger asked me to try their AI website builder. I actually sat down and played with it. I typed in what I wanted, a clean professional portfolio that actually looked like me. And it built a working first version in minutes. No developer. No code. No three week back and forth with a designer, extra fees.

and it doesn't stop at launch. So when you're sitting there thinking, okay, it's live, now what? You actually have help. If you've already got a site, they make switching over easy too. What I really love is that it's all in one place, your domain, your website, your email, your marketing, one account, one login. And plans start at just $3 a month. Building your online presence doesn't have to cost you thousands of dollars up front.

You can start small and build as you grow exactly like I did. Hostinger, build your vision step by step. go to hostinger.com slash confidence and use code confidence for 10% off now. 47% of employers say they're less likely to interview a candidate they can't find online. That's a game changer stat. And if you want to start being found by others, flip that script and flow on them. So they come looking for you because I get DMs all the time and say, you're always in my feed.

I have no choice but to reach out to you. to talk to you about having you speak at my event or work with our company. I can't get you out of my head. And when we change the tide on people, we don't have to chase them down. They start showing up and looking for us. I have so many examples of clients that I've said to me, just completed Heather's program. I have to say it's life changing.

She planned out daily steps. Challenges gave me clarity, help me find strength and create more confidence to pursue my goal. Again, it's not just about the things that I've done. It's about the fact that anyone, can do this if you're willing to invest in yourself, take action, which I believe you are because you're here today. Okay, people are going to get left behind. We know this and it's going to be the 80% that isn't leaning into this opportunity right now. So many people voice their concerns

about what's happening in the marketplace and that's exactly why we're here for the next three days. Okay, we got a couple hundred questions over the last week. What are the top strategies for building a brand when you have a solid body of work in your niche, but you're only getting started in gaining visibility. Take action now, be consistent now. If seven years ago was the right time, today is the only time. I felt that way when I had the opportunity to interview Gary V for my show, he was telling me that 10 years before I started posting, he was posting. And I felt frustrated and jealous. But he said, stop feeling that way instead challenge yourself to go now. If then was the ideal time, now is the only time. And so take action now, be consistent and make that commitment. The

only failure is a year from now, two years from now, you haven't changed and you haven't shown up. That is going to put you in a really challenging situation. Okay, the number one question, how to create an authentic grant. We can get into more of that, but I'll tell you a lot of people struggle with that. The irony is, and I want you to know this right now, I did an analysis on my LinkedIn this morning in preparation for this. The top performing posts this year, the top five or ten, guess what they are? Are they about me talking about leadership, me talking about how to be a great keynote speaker or me talking about personal branding. No, they're about my son.

So what's interesting is we want to reach people at scale because that brings more businesses, opportunities into our lives and allows us to be seen for who we are. It isn't necessarily going to be the way you think it's going to be. I never thought people would be jamming with my content because of my 19-year-old. But they are. And people when we first got on today were saying,

congrats to your son. You guys know my story. because you're a part of my story. And when I share that online, you relate to it because you have kids. Don't limit or count out the family portion of your life. And you don't have to tell all of it. You can tell what you're comfortable with. But one of the things I try to do, and this is just a half,

I try to tell a story about something first in my life. It could be a breakup. It could be about my best friends and not seeing them. It could be about my best friends and spending time with them or could be about my son. And I try to tie it back to business. One of the things that I found a lot of success in this year is my son is going through graduating high school, end of basketball in high school, applying to colleges and trying to play basketball in college, which, by the way, he is. I'm so hyped and so proud of him, him going to Europe or the summer,

and then him moving away to college. And so I take all of those little microcosms, and I turn it into, after my social media partner, Claude, co-work, helps me find the right hook, because that will help your post immensely. Once I find that, I tell the story, whatever is going on, right? Because stories sell facts tell. People want story. And so I tell a real true story that's unique to me in my life, but may be relatable to a lot of people.

And then I connect it back to a business lesson. So one of the things that I've been talking a lot about now is realizing, and this is an epiphany I had, we're always going through reinvention windows. I had to reinvent myself when I got fired up for you. Now at 51, I'm having to reinvent myself as my son's leaving and going to college. There's so many different reinvention moments and that's really relatable to people. So when we can share a personal story, tie it to some type of a business lesson, not only do people relate to it as parents,

they might relate to it as executives, entrepreneurs, business people as well. So that's something to challenge you to come up. Okay, how do I stop being overlooked by potential clients or by bosses? Okay, first of all, if you're working with someone that's overlooking you or makes disparaging comments to you or is not treating you, right? Those are not your people. I work along side by side with someone like that for a long time. I highly recommend I wrote a book about it.

Fire your villain, overcome your villain, and get yourself out of there. This is one of the best ways possible. Elevate yourself so others can see you. Your people are out there. You're never going to find them if someone's taking up a space with negativity next to. Okay. And then back to the AI Slash. off again. We know that the whole world reinvented itself when the internet came out, social media

came out, everything was reimagine and reinvented. This is that next wave and they're saying this is bigger than ever. So we know the stats are showing us we've got to move on. This is one of the best times in history to build real influence and income fast if you know how to position yourself right now and use the tools that I am going to share with you. I have an unfair advantage right now because for the last year I've been speaking at AI conferences. I am not an AI expert. P.S. And by the way, I don't think anybody is an AI expert. It's too new, right? To be an expert in something, you need to have X amount of years in it. I find it comical that the whole world is claiming to be AI experts. I think we're all AI beginners, maybe other than the founders of these companies that are, you know, founding these massive companies because they have been at it for 10 plus years. But other than that, we're all beginners. It's going to come down to who's willing to get comfortable being a beginner, get comfortable, being uncomfortable. And that was me the first time I showed up to give a key. note at an AI conference and I said, I'm not an AI expert, but I know that I'm an expert in leading people and changed management. And I turned it on to how can this relate to business today?

That's all you need to do. Amherse yourself in the technology, test and try it, find different ways to apply it to your business. And as you do it, realize the unique skills that you bring forward that could help you bring it to the world. Basic credibility. When I got fired, I never knew I would speak for Tony Robbins. This is either last summer or the summer. before I don't remember. But yes, I did speak for Tony Robbins many times in Dean Graziosi. I've taken some incredible stages over the last few years. I am blessed beyond measure to do it and help people all around the world. But I never knew that was an opportunity for me. Remember, I saw myself only in the sales and sales leadership lane. I didn't even know speaking

was a business, much less a multi-billion dollar business that I should have been in a long time ago had I picked my head up. So please pick your head up today. Okay. Your questions were rebuild five things and none of them are lack of talent for any of you. How do I build an active engaged, profitable brand at 67? How do I rebuild my life as a single mother? How do I get recognized after a layoff when ATS systems block my resume? And we got one response in Arabic and that just shows how universal everyone's challenges are, right? It's not unique just to the U.S. Everybody is struggling right now. And shout out to my people, the Arabic people, because I'd been to the Middle East many times over the last two years.

And hopefully that's where this is coming from. Okay. Showing up live puts you ahead of most people already. That is for you. You investing your time, energy, and effort and showing up for yourself, shows to yourself you matter. And hopefully you at least take a couple of the ideas I share today and each over the next three days to take action and create your brand, elevate yourself because you're worth it.

People who show up move first. And right now, the market is shifting. We need you to move first. Okay, most people will take this training and do it themselves. A small percentage, one to two percent of you will want to fast track your success. I'm here for that. For those people, I've got a special invitation at the end. But I promise you, either way, this is a free training, and I will bring you more value than

many of the courses experts are selling you out there. Okay. If you don't know who I am, well, first of all, I hope you know who I am. But if you don't, I'm Heather Monehan. and I'll just give you a quick backstory. I came up in corporate America. I was an equity partner in my early 20s, sold that company for a $30 million profit.

I took a big step backwards and went and took a VP position for a publicly traded company because I knew I wanted to run that company. And so I took a big step back, was awarded a smaller position, did really well in a six-month period. And then I was bored,

and I called the president of the company, and I said, I'm going to resign. I need to meet with you and talk this through. I pitched him on a job that didn't exist. He said no. And so I just started dialing to leave that company. I was awarded another position. I called the president back again.

I said, let's meet for lunch. I was going to resign. And I said, have you thought any more about my proposal? He said, no. I said, great. Well, this is where we shake hands and part friends. I'm going to go take another bigger job in Boston. And he said, hang on.

He left the restaurant, came back five minutes later, and awarded me the position. VP of sales for the company. Here's what I learned in that moment. Never take a no from someone who can't give you a yes. He needed his dad to be there, the CEO of the company. And so I was taking a no from someone who was blocking me from getting to the real decision maker. Never let that happen for you.

And I saw some of the questions in there earlier. Why am I not getting promoted? Why am I not getting the race? Why am I not getting seen? You're probably taking a no from someone who can't give you the yes and they're blocking you. So don't get blocked. find a workaround, find a way. So I got promoted. I was promoted three more times. I became the

chief revenue officer of that company. We acquired six different companies during my tenure there. We more than double the company's revenue. We were doing incredible. I was named one of the most influential women in radio. And 30 days later, I was fired. And what had happened was the CEO I worked for who had been so good to me became ill. Immediately his daughter took over. She never liked me. I was not her people. She fired me immediately. The problem for me was I had an 18-month non-compete, which meant I had to leave the industry that I was an expert in.

And that was really scary because I'm a single mom, and I have, I like nice things, right? So I got a lot of bills. And that pressure was daunting. So I went under a weighted blanket. I grabbed a bottle of chardonnay, not a glass. And then within 24 hours, I noticed nobody was calling me. So I did something.

the people thought was crazy. I posted to social media. I've just been fired. If I've ever done anything to help you, I need to hear from you now. And that post started going viral. Friends started calling me saying, take that post down.

No one's ever going to hire you. And I checked in with the one voice and opinion that matters. And that's your own. And I thought to myself, I don't feel pathetic. I don't feel like a bad guy. That lady didn't like me and frankly. I don't like her.

So I kept the post up. The post landed me on the Elvis Duran show. Again, I never knew any of this was going to happen. And halfway through that interview, he said to me, well, obviously, you're writing a book. And I said, well, obviously, but I wasn't. I accepted his conviction and confidence in me in that moment. And I beg you, whenever you see potential

and someone speak it into that person, he changed my life that day. I didn't know I could be an author. I didn't even know that was legal. I had no idea. I thought you had to have a literary degree. I had no clue, but I jumped on that plane to fly home and I Googled, how do you write a book? And it said, you have to write.

And I had just been fired. So I had some three times. And I went home and I wrote. And then I invested in myself. I hired an editor, someone who had done the thing that I wanted to do. And within five months, I had held myself accountable in front of Elvis Durant in the entire audience that day that I would have it done by the end of the year. And we did. And then the week before I published it, I told my inner circle, my family, my mom stopped

talking to me, my sister, who was the smart one in my family, told me I was going to be sued and that I had to shut it down. And I made a good phone call that day. I called the editor, the guy who had done the thing I wanted to do. And he said, do you think anyone's ever told me I shouldn't write one of my books? I said, no. And he said, yes, Heather, of course. They always do. People always tell me I'm crazy for writing my books or doing the thing. He said, that's on them. And their self-limiting beliefs back to them. And why don't you listen to me. I've written 19 books. Your family's written none. And so I decided that day, never to take direction from someone who hasn't been where I'm going. And I launched that book in the first week it came

out. It trump Donald Trump for number one on the business biography list. Shout out. I have the screenshot to prove that one. Thank you. And it got some momentum. That led me to my keynote speaking, because I googled, how do you sell books? And then my speaking started taking off. And then I gave a TEDx talk. I got promoted to Ted and then COVID it. And so I looked at my DMs. And when people are asking you to solve problems for them, that's a business. And so I saw people were saying, could you coach me? Could you teach me to do what you do?

And so I just took action and launched a coaching program during COVID and said, I've only got 20 seats available. When it sells out, it sells out. And that program sold out. And I over delivered and I got the testimonials from there. and I started a new coaching program. And I just kept moving forward and stepping into uncertainty to basically continue to reinvent myself.

And the more I did it, the more at work, the more momentum I got and the more fearless I became. So till today, I see fear as a green light that means go and go faster. I'm doing the slides right now. I felt fearful about it this morning. But the more you step into these things, the easier and easier it will get. Have you ever wondered what your own DNA could tell you about your health, your risk,

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That's exactly what AI is doing to business right now. AI isn't just opening new business opportunities. It's changing the way businesses get work done. The questions they ask, decisions they make, and the routine tasks that they can hand off. That's the idea behind NetSuite next, the next generation of the business management suite trusted by over 44,000 companies with AI woven into every tool you already rely on. It surfaces insights when you need them, puts agents to work on routine tasks and problems, and it lets you ask complex questions about your business and natural language, just like talking

to a colleague, but technology is only part of the story. AI is also changing how people and teams work together. That's why I want to tell you about a new expert-created business guide you should download today. It's called Aligning for the Agenic Era, how AI is changing every. day work, and right now it's absolutely free. In this guide, you'll see how AI could reshape work across your organization and how you can prosper from it. If I were still running those teams today, this is the guide I'd be handing to every leader on the team. If your revenues are at least in the seven

figures, go to netsuite.com slash Monaghan. Get your free guide at netsuite.com slash Monaghan. NetSuite.com slash Monaghan. NetSuite.com slash Monaghan. Okay, so here are some, the team wanted to share some of these things with you. Chris Boss endorsing my book, Chris Boss has been a guest on my podcast. Many times, Overcome Your Villains. It's a gift to everyone that feels they are not living to their potential, but don't know how to take the steps. Just got to take action, my friends.

Okay, David Meltzer, for anyone looking to defeat their superpower and stop being their own worst enemy, which so many of us are, Overcome Your Villains is a must read. The simple process is sure to have you defeating your villains in no time. And it does. So, okay, I did everything the old way the playbook said, right? I did everything right at work and my world still fell apart. I almost think it's because I did everything.

So right, had I stayed real low and stayed real small, probably nothing would have happened until the day the radio industry started declining, which has happened, by the way. Me getting fired from that company and that industry has been the greatest gift. And I want you to know that so many people look around and say, business is tough these days, this is tough these days, not all industries are. We're only looking at that microcosm that's in front of us.

And when I was in the radio business, we were in full-blown decline, as they still are. Most of the companies are penny stocks now. So it was a complete blessing for me to get out of that industry and get put into an industry that is booming. There are industries growing out there. There are places you can apply your talents where you can be in a growth mode.

Don't settle for a toxic environment where there's cuts happening every day. There are opportunities out there. You need to pick your head up and start realizing how your talents can apply to those and start taking action now. Okay. I thought I ruined my son's future the day I got fired. That's a true story too. And I felt like I was carrying a lot of weight. The craziest thing now is I realized that was the best thing for him. He's seeing me reinvent myself. And to this day, this guy has wanted to play in the NBA. And everyone tells him he's nuts and that he has no business. My son, it lives in Miami, Florida, which is a sick, competitive marketplace for basketball.

I mean, it's insane. And he won MVP of the Miami group program, which there was kids. My son goes to private school, or he did. But there was kids from all the public schools everywhere competing in that. And he won MVP. And I was so proud of him because everyone counted him out except him. And so the most important voice that you're always going to have is the one you have within yourself. He never counts himself out.

a heat guy continues to motivate me. But remember, our kids are watching. And when we reinvent ourselves, when we step into opportunity, when we get scared and we go forward, they're going to do the same thing. Okay, I didn't lose my value the day I got fired. I lost my title. The value came with me.

And that was something I didn't understand when it happened. I thought I lost everything. I remember I used to say, I lost everything. I lost a paycheck and a title. That was it. I lost nothing that matter. My intelligence, my expertise, my personality, my network, my experiences, and the investments I had made into myself over time,

you can take those unique skillsets, that network anywhere, and turn it into value, especially when people can see you. To anyone that thinks your step back is going to let the ones you love down, know that it's setting them up for their own comeback. And that's what I mean by Dylan with pushing forward with basketball. And yes, he's playing in college, which is incredible. And it will not shock me if that kid makes it to the NBA, I swear. Okay, opportunities come for you when you are seen.

So this is me and Stephen Bartlett in Riyadh a year and a half ago. And I had the opportunity to, I gave a keynote in Riyadh. I interviewed a number of different people. One was the princess of Saudi Arabia, wild AAP. I couldn't have predicted, again, any of this stuff happening. But it came because I started speaking. Then I launched a podcast. But I didn't piece any of these things together.

And I've been blessed to have so many incredible opportunities. that I had no idea even existed. I didn't know you could make money doing these things. I didn't know anyone in the world wanted to hear from me in Saudi Arabia, but it turns out they do. And when you start making it about the people you can help and stop thinking about yourself,

things become a lot easier. You step into the fear and you get going. And I will tell you, I was very scared going out to the Middle East the first time I went. But like anything, you know, once you do something once, it's not that scary anymore.

And you start doing it on the regular. And now I've gone many times. Okay. This is what happens when accomplished people finally get seen. Again, this is not me and I don't have some special deal with the world. This is anyone who steps in and does this work. One of my clients, my past clients, Erica Glenn, Heather did a lot to help me gain confidence and taught me the importance of building a personal brand.

The brand continues to pay off. I just finished my second TEDx and I'm leveling up again. And this is someone who was at a Fortune 10 business as a senior leader and was not living her best life. So she started elevating herself, creating opportunity, attracting new offers and opportunities and stepped into an incredible new world that she created by attracting attention to her when previously she had been hiding herself in the corporate organization. After my role was eliminated, I was shaking my first call. My company was introduced and made its way into an incubator. I can't see the words down there. So this was my client, Sarah, she was in corporate. She was,

unhappy. She had this concept and idea of what was afraid to launch it. It literally took her one month to get traction. She ended up leaving and starting her own company. Okay, you might be thinking, I don't have the expertise. I don't have the time. These are all excuses, by the way. I will just call you right out. And they're all excuses I had as well. I'm scared of what other people will think. It's too late for me to start. None of this is true. And this is why we're here right now. Oh, this is, we're back to giving me credibility. Okay, Brandy Chastain, Olympic gold medalist, having stumbled, fall down, been my own worst enemy, and even scoring an own goal in the World Cup, I know that negative thoughts and beliefs create barriers to excellence.

However, embracing these moments as opportunities for greatness can truly change the course of your life. And I think this is so cool because this is someone, you know, most of us have on a pedestal because the work this woman's done and the accomplishments are extraordinary, top 1% of the world. But she admits she still doubts herself. You are not alone with doubting yourself. You are not alone with struggling with challenges and not seeing the opportunity and doubting that you're good enough for them.

Even the best of the best in the world feels the same way. It's on each one of us to face it and move forward anyhow. Okay, big it personal. Answer these three questions right now. What is one accomplishment from the last 12 months that no one outside your immediate team knows about? I'm not seeing you right. You can at least fake it on your phone.

Okay, I want you to write it down because I want it to be real. What's one accomplishment from the last 12 months that no one outside your immediate team knows about? These are important because oftentimes people aren't sharing their wins because they're afraid of what other people will think about them. And I want you to flip it around, flip it and see it the other right. Maybe when I share my wins, I can help somebody else see the potential within them. I can help somebody else understand that unlocks available for them. so please see it differently. Please write it down.

Okay, what's one opportunity you didn't get that you were more qualified for than the person who eventually got it? I mean, I can tell so many for me that it's wild AF, but I know that we've all been there and we've all been frustrated. And so it's about saying,

why did that happen? Why do we allow that to happen? And how can we do it differently now moving forward? So you don't have to be frustrated they can be excited. Okay, what's why? one thing you want that you haven't asked for. Now write that down. Why haven't you asked? Right? So much about this whole world we're in is raising our hand and letting people know what

it is we can do, the value we can add, the offer that we can have that can help somebody else. What is that one thing that you want that you haven't asked for? Because oftentimes people don't know we want that. We have that opportunity to share with others or that we're, available to do that. So what is that one thing? Because I want you to start taking action on it. Okay, three lies that are keeping talented people stuck. We want to bust through all them. Hard work alone will protect me. It won't. I hope that I can reach you with that message because performance without visibility is risk. And I lived it firsthand. Self-promotion is bragging. No, it's not. Self-promotion is sharing with others what is possible for them. When we stop making it about

ourselves and start making about the audience and the people we can impact, the community we can impact, that's how we make the world a better place. I challenge to do that. It's too late for me. I love this one. And I wondered it too at 43, but now at 51, I don't wonder it. The reason why is, which makes no sense, the math doesn't math, right? It masks for me because I've already seen it. I know I doubted at 43 that I could do it. So now that my son's leaving and I'm thinking, how can I reinvent myself again? What is that next big thing that I want to do that? I can take on to reimagine this. I know it's possible.

I know age has nothing to do with it. And I want you to know that same thing for you. Okay, doing your job well only gets you 10% of the way. This is so interesting. And this is research from Harvey Coleman. The pie model shows you performance is 10%. Image is 30. Exposure is 60%.

So performance gets you respected. Exposure gets you remember. Beating the ATS. A brand so visible. someone makes a call before they even know you're available. And that's for anyone that's struggling to find those jobs. You need to start sharing who you are, reverse the flow, and attract people to you.

And there's so many ways to do it. All right. The visibility game has never been neutral, especially for women. And this is the same with pay gap. I see this in my speaking business. I see it everywhere. And definitely I am paid much less than my male counterparts.

It's all about how we show up. asking for what we want and leveraging our expertise without apology. And too often women specifically, and it's not unique to women, but it happens specifically in a big way with women, as I'm challenging all ladies to stand up, go bigger and shine your light because the ladies coming after you need it. The average successful startup founder is 55. That's wild. I wish I had known this when I was younger.

Vera Wang started her fashion empire at 40, Colonel Sanders, at 65. Your decades of experience, pattern recognition, younger competitors can't buy. It's so funny because whenever I work with companies, the young people always sit there and say to me, I feel like I can't add value or speak up. I don't have any expertise like everyone else. And the senior level exec say, I feel like I'm too old and I can't relate to the technology piece and no one cares what I'm saying anymore. So again, it's both sides are struggling with the same thing, self-doubt.

When the reality is the expertise is needed and the fresh new eyes are needed. And when we come together and collaborate as one, that's where real success and innovation happens. So when we make things about how we make people feel, we are on to something, right? Because that's emotion, that emotion creates action. It creates opportunity. It resonates with people. So again, that starts with being that authentic version of you and shining that light on who you really are. People do business with people they know like and trust that make them feel good.

Okay. The math is horrifying. what has staying hidden cost you over your career? And it's scary to think about it like this. I was challenging myself to do it. I don't know how many missed promotions I had, but at least $15,000 every time that you didn't get it, every time you didn't pitch yourself for it.

One client you didn't land at least $5,000, if not $50,000, $500,000. One raise you didn't negotiate, $10,000 every year compounding. And as we let that go on, it's missed opportunity. it's missed vacations for your family. It's missed freedom. So write your number down, write down and be real with yourself.

What has not shining your light cost you, cost your family and cost your life? Because we need to change that now. Okay, your three unden eyeball wins. Okay, five minutes again, a result you created, Revenue Grove, a turnaround, a launch, anything, landing a new client. I'm certain each one of you have wins.

A problem you solved that others couldn't. This is your unique value proposition and a challenge you overcame that shaped who you are today. All of these things contribute to your unique value proposition, ways that you should feel proud, why your POB is important and needed, why your expertise is valuable. Most people build a brand before they rebuild their belief.

That's the problem. And this is why a lot of people fail with it and give up, most of them just give up. The sequence does matter. belief in yourself, creating the message and revenue follows. I haven't seen it any other way. So the confidence to show up and be the real authentic you because a vanilla watered down version doesn't work.

I tried social media before I decided to step into who I really was and I really didn't get any success from it. And then I got fired. So that was an interesting lesson. Hence the post, I just got fired. That was like the most real I could be in that post went viral. Okay, then to brand the message people remember, and that's communicated from that authentic, real, transparent version of you, not from the AI slot, as we discussed, and monetization,

the language that turns visibility into opportunity. And when you start getting momentum from the confidence and from the messaging, it's inevitable the monetization comes. You just need to start with your belief first. I'm sure you're afraid to be judged. I'm sure you're afraid to be criticized. I was too. I was doubted enough.

But the thing is, the only one that doubts us that can really stop us is ourselves. So I'm asking you to overcome that villain, the one in between your ears, which we all struggle with. But when we can fire that, identify it, and say we're moving forward. Anyhow, that's where real success starts happening.