Habits and Hustle - Episode 148: Heather Monahan – 2X Best-Selling Author, Top 50 Keynote Speaker 2022, TedX Speaker

Episode Date: December 28, 2021

Heather Monahan is a 2X Best-Selling Author, Top 50 Keynote Speaker 2022, TedX Speaker. After spending over a decade in high-stakes sales Heather risked everything, stood up for herself, and got fired. She then took that momentum and completely switched gears becoming an author and public speaker despite what everyone in her family/friends was telling her to do. The fact that she’s telling her story and giving advice here on this podcast may have clued you in that the decision to go through with what she felt was right and having the confidence in her own conviction to pursue a new goal went very well for her. Heather isn’t your average mentor on entrepreneurial ventures. She’s got the sales experience. She knows first-hand how she’s let herself down, how she’s hidden her light, and what it took to claim her space, “blow up her lanes,” and come out on the other side successful. I’m not saying you should do anything to get yourself fired, but maybe give this a listen and see what else you might be motivated to do. Youtube Link to This Episode Heather’s Instagram Heather’s Website ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email [e-mail]  📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Pressure. Today in the podcast, we have Heather Monahan. Heather is a best-selling author, a keynote speaker, a podcast host, and so much more. She used to be a former C-suite executive media and she was named one of the most influential women in radio in 2017 and Thrive Global named her a limit-breaking female founder in 2018. Heather's podcast, Creating Confidence, is a top 100 show in business category on Apple Podcasts. Heather was also recently named one of the top 40 female keynote speakers of 2020 and a top 50 keynote speaker in the world, 2022 by Real Leaders.

And her new book is called Overcome Your Villains. And it's available now, and we talk all about it in this podcast. Enjoy. Heather, you have now what two books, right? Your first one's called Creating Confidence. My first book is Confidence Creator. My podcast is Creating Confidence.

You are right there, though. And my new book is Overcome Your Villains. Right. And my new book is Overcome Your Villains. Right. Your new book is Overcome Your Villains. So it's you twisted it around the podcast and the name. How come you did that? Was that like a show? My first book I I self published. I was 2018. And when I googled how do you sell books? It's at speak and go on podcast. So I started pitching myself to every podcast in the world. That landed me on the Lady Gang in LA and our episode did really well. So I reached out to the CEO of Podcast One and said, I want to come in and thank you. So I went in to thank him and he offered me a show with Podcast One and I had my book with me to give him a copy that day. And so he said, why don't we create it

off the same name, confidence creator, but creating confidence with Heather Monahan. I said, all right, let's do it. And that's where the name came from. And the rest of history. Are you still with podcast one? No, podcast one sold a little over a year ago. But who are they sell to?

I don't remember the name of the company, but there was a transition there. And I was really close to the founder, norm of podcast one and the leadership changed. Okay, so they just kind of like, kind of, yeah, we are both mutually friends with Jordan Harbinger, correct? Yes. Yes, because he's still with them, though. He's still with them, he is.

Yeah. All right, well, that's great. So, okay, so let's talk about that. Let's talk about creating confidence. It's a great beginning because that's how you kind of like enthrage your way into this. What you have a whole three-step program. So would you please explain and tell us in your opinion, what's the best way to create confidence? I'll tell you, I truly believe for every person it's different. And here's why for 14 years, I was running side by side with a woman that hated me,

who was always trying to set me up and sabotage me. Until I got that woman out of my life, I was never going to be a very true confident, I might appear confident in certain situations, but I wasn't really gonna be confident about myself as long as I was allowing someone to treat me so poorly in my life or so long. So for me, until I fired that villain from my life, I wasn't going to create confidence. Some people don't have

a villain in their life, right? Some people are around good people that support them and like them, but maybe they're running a negative tape in their head or maybe they're apologizing for everything and always putting them so you know, I feel like there's there are so many potential situations to create confidence in someone but that recipe for everybody is going to be a little bit different. So what's your recipe? Well for me the number one thing is to fire your villains or overcome your villains but the three-step process that I share in my new book is all around beliefs, action and knowledge. Number one, distilling that whatever belief that you're holding down to the most simplistic shred

of fact that you can find, immediately number two, taking action and three, being very intentional about the knowledge that you're surrounding and you're supporting yourself with. Yeah, I mean, I'm a big action person myself. I think that that's where a lot of everything comes from. The belief is very difficult, right? Because I feel like if you say, you know, some people have a more of a, their self-esteem

is much more poignant where they can have those beliefs about themselves that are not so limiting or not so negative, I guess you would call it. How would you tell people to build a stronger belief system or get away from their limiting beliefs or their negative self-talk about what they are? Well, I can tell you what I did. For the first two decades of my career, I came up through corporate America.

I was a cheap revenue officer in media and I was getting a lot of value from external things. My title, my paycheck, awards that I was winning, and the more that you allow those things to hold value in your life, the less confidence. True confidence you're going to have within yourself because you're starting to detach from it and associate it with things outside, which was a horrible recipe for me. It took me ultimately getting fired at the end of 2017 by that woman that I mentioned that hated me so much for me to really stop and say, okay, I feel terrible, I'm miserable,

I'm scared, I'm full of self-doubt right now, panicking, I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm a single mom, and I had to really get clear on if I want to create the most confident version of myself, the most powerful version of myself, which I needed in that moment, and I couldn't find her, right? She definitely wasn't there. She was actually under a weighted blanket, you know, drinking chardonnay, feeling bad for herself. And so I thought, okay, where do I begin?

And I created a 30-day plan, and I suggest this for anyone going through a really, you know, hard internal struggle. I mapped out 30 days just because it was seemed like, okay, I can't look a year from now. I don't know what I'm going to be doing in five years, but I can handle four weeks and 30 days. And so I started writing down, you know, what are the action steps I can do? I know that I can practice gratitude. I know that if I work out and put myself first right now in this window, it's going to help

give me the energy that I need, like truly breaking it down to like inch by inch day by day to try to turn myself around and then setting a very clear goal of, you know, I want to be a 10 on the confidence scale right now, I'm at a one. I've been there before. I know I can't get back there. So I started writing down, how would you speak to your son? I've got a 14 year old son when this happened. I guess it was about nine or 10. It was Dylan, right? Yeah, I've it was about nine or 10. It was Dylan, right? It was Dylan, yeah, exactly.

Because I have a Dylan also. A great mindset. I think a like. Yeah. And so, you know, I thought, how would I talk to my son? I wouldn't say, you knucklehead, why did you do this? You blew it, which was some of the things that I was saying to myself in that moment. How did you not see this coming, Heather, you know, getting so angry at myself?

Instead, I would approach it with my son as, this is a learning experience, something wasn't right for you in a situation, and now another door is going to open. We don't know what it is yet. So I started pretending it was happening to my child so that I could rewrite the way I was speaking to myself, and I wrote it down, and I would read it to myself every day. Another thing I did during this time was journal, and starting to reflect on and get those feelings outside of me onto paper created a little bit of space, right? And then I started looking back at my life and career, what other times have I gone through really low moments and what were the steps I took then and how did I get out of them. And then I started realizing, wait a minute, I've seen this movie before. I've seen when

hard times have come. And not only have I survived them, but I've thrived movie before. I've seen when hard times have come and not only have I survived them, but I've thrived after them. So I started saying, okay, I just don't know what that next step looks like yet, but I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to rely on you taking massive action, asking for help was I went on social media and posted, I've just been fired, I've ever helped you, I need to hear from you now. And that post went viral and landed me on the Elvis Rancho, which is where I got the idea to write my book. Wow, okay, so, hey, first of all, why did that woman hate you so much? Did you ever find out or do you know why she hated you so much?

Okay, this is such a good question. Someone asked me this last week, I believe in facts. I don't believe in opinions, right? Just to be fair. So I can't factually say what the reason was. I can tell you that I'm an overachiever. I just won most influential women in radio two weeks before she fired me. There's a lot of facts showing that me being at that company was beneficial for the shareholders and the stock price. Yes, yes, and yes. However, this woman did not like me. When I was coming

up, I had been at that company and working with her for 14 years. Her father was a CEO. She was a CFO, I was a CRO. So I was all about, let's spend money, let's invest in our clients, let's invest in our product. She was all about, let's cut money, let's put more money to the bottom line.

So we were always seeing things from an opposing angle. But over time, as I became a more powerful version of myself, as I started taking bigger stages in our industry, I thought she started resenting me more. This is my opinion, but my general sense was she was one of those women that they might put on a good face that, oh, I'm on the board of women empowering women, but secretly behind closed doors, don't give that girl, you know, the next bump and pay, don't give her the next opportunity, hold her back anyway you can.

You know, I'm bringing this up for a good reason, because I think that, I know it's the popular thing to talk about how women supporting women is all. It's a very hashtag social media friendly thing to talk about, which I find very interesting interesting because I'm a woman and I know that not everyone feels that way. There's a lot of competitiveness, there's a lot of catty-ness that goes on.

It's not all like one for one and all for all or whatever that is. And there's a lot of like, that happens a lot. So it's not just about, you know, I just feel like sometimes in my career as well, it's been much easier to not deal with certain women because there's so many other nuances that go on that it doesn't, women don't always support women. Nobody wants to talk about it.

I'm so glad you're bringing this up. It's like the elephant in the room. Totally. It's more popular to say women supporting women, which is great when that happens and I love that, but it is not the norm, especially in corporate America, it is much more normal to find women that are trying to sabotage you or hold you back. I'm just saying, when someone says that, I agree with you, I think it's not the norm where everyone's just like, you know, hurrah, like let's do it, because there's such a competitive

thing. But yet, like, I don't, this is what I just have a problem with in general. That people don't like to talk about things that are like unpopular or not considered to be like positive thinking. When the reality is still the reality, it's still the elephant that nobody's talking about. Right? So like, the truth is like, how do you overcome those types of scenarios because it happens a lot So how how do you take how would you do that like besides because what happens like you're right? You're like you're confident

Especially diminishes when she's the boss is kid, right? Like you don't really have a leg to stand on unfortunately Right, so what are some strategies that you can tell women who are like-minded, who know this happens? How did they deal with it? So I'll tell you what I did that was wrong and what I learned from it so that hopefully people don't make the same mistake. For a while, when I started noticing she was disliking me more and more and trying to sabotage me, I started thinking, maybe if I dim my light a little bit, it will allow her to feel a little bit more comfortable and she her to feel a little bit more comfortable

and she can start showing up in a more positive way. So I truly became, whether it was intentional or unintentional, like a B-rate version of myself, I started shrinking back in meetings and not speaking up so much, not trying to get ready to go into a meeting to look my best or feel my best, I thought, you know, kind of fly under the radar, Heather, and just let your your results speak for themselves. And what I learned was me, dimming my light, did not amplify hers at all. Me, dimming my light made our environment a more dark place. And it made me feel a heck of a lot worse about myself.

She ended up growing empowered during that time because I was shrinking away and she felt that much more empowered to do whatever crazy stuff she wanted to do to me. So things actually got a lot worse. Me turning a blind eye to bad behavior was the wrong decision because I was teaching her how she could treat me and that I would let her get away with it. So it wasn't until I finally had that big realization. I said, you know what, I'm gonna start dialing my light back up. I'm gonna start going in as my most powerful version of myself.

I want that seat at the table. And when I have something to say, I'm gonna jump in. And I'm gonna say something. And for a while, she had started to ignore me in meetings and she would walk by me instead of greet me. I was the only other woman in the seat with her. And I would see the guys kind of sn the sea sweet with her. And I would see the guys kind of snicker and laugh a little. And finally I said, that's it. I've had enough.

So I put on my red dress. I spent extra time getting ready to really, you know, pump myself up to feel that I played my power playlist on my way to the meeting. And I decided I'm going to call her out. And so she walked in with saying hello to everyone and walked right by me. And as she sat at the head of the table, I said, Hi, good morning. I think you missed me. I'm here. I'm really excited to be a part of the meeting today. And, you know, I just smiled. I wasn't being rude, but I was letting it be known that I would not be ignored anymore and that I deserved to be seen. And I think that's probably the day she decided she was firing me. But for me, it was that pivotal moment that I started really becoming a competent version of myself. I love that. So to have a certain sense

of this, why not me kind of mentality for them to actually go after their, whatever their dream is. Did you, like, like, before you did all the sales stuff, what did you want to do what you're doing now? What would you say you're doing now? Besides your right books and you do a lot of speaking, what would you say your job is right now?

Like, what is the career title? Is there one or? Yeah, I mean, really the speaking business is that's what I'm best at and that's what I get paid the most, right? Other than my board seat, thank God for my board seat. But, you know, to me, it's really the speaking. That's something I did for 20 years in corporate America

and I never got paid for it back then. I had no idea it was a business, but it took me stumbling around and trying to figure out this whole entrepreneurial world that I fell into someone offering to pay me for a speech, which opened my mind to, oh, hang on, this is a business I can lean into, right? It took Elvis Durant telling me to write a book for me to say, I can write a book. Well, I'm not an English major. I'm the salesperson. What are you talking about? So I kept stepping into this uncertainty in these unknown areas, me launching a podcast like where was that? I had never planned on any of this stuff. I always saw myself in the C-suite in corporate America running somebody else's company.

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And then, so I guess I guess so how my question is well not really a question is like so you basically I also find that I feel that people always compartmentalize and and put people in certain lanes like if I'm in the fitness business I can't I'm in the fitness business there's no way I could do this plus be good at that that that, that, that, that, right? And so people always think that, you know, they listen to what other people tell them of what their place is. And you didn't do that nor did I. And it's just frustrating. So how do you like, what kind of advice do you tell people? How they can stop kind of listening to other people about putting themselves in that one dimensional box? Oh my gosh. So I love that you brought up the labels and the lanes and I did, I lived my life that way.

Growing up I was the social one and the social one gets into sales. And that's what you're good at and stay there. And when I got fired, so many people said to me, just go back and get another leadership position in corporate America and sales somewhere, how they're like, what? You're good at it. Don't walk away from what you're good at. And I doubt, I wondered, a holy cow, should I take that as my direction, should I do that? But I'll tell you, I had to break out of what I was familiar

with to start seeing what was possible for me. And I hadn't done that in so long, and it was so incredibly scary, because it was so different than what I was used to and I felt like I can't see that next step. I don't know where I go next. I'd stumbling is like the best word I can share of what it felt like during that time, making tons of mistakes and not knowing what was going to happen next.

So that whole journey for me of letting go of those labels, deciding just because I'm a social one, doesn't mean I can't be a smart one, doesn't mean I can't be any kind of one I want, and I'm now decided, I live my life lanelessly. There's no lanes. I'm gonna go wherever I want and bring my unique skills and talents there and see how it turns out for me

because I don't know until I try it. But the one most powerful thing I can tell people other than blow up the lanes, take your talents wherever you want to go, and you can be successful at more than one career and more than one thing, just because you're good at sales, doesn't mean you're not a great writer, right?

But you happy willing to step into it and take that chance. But the other piece of advice I would give people is never take direction from someone who hasn't been where you're going. And that was a mistake I made. When I first got fired, my family was saying, never take direction from someone who hasn't been where you're going. And that was a mistake I made. When I first got fired, my family was saying, oh my gosh, you can't be an author.

Are you crazy? You can't do this. You're going to get sued. And it was funny. I called my editor right before I was going to just bail on my book and give up because my family was saying, you know, don't do this. And I called him just to make a plea. And he said, well, I've got one question for you.

How many books is your family written? And I said, well, none. And he said, how many have I written? And I said, 19. He said, who do you think you should be taking advice from Heather? And it was like this epiphany moment that here I was, almost turning over a huge decision in my life

to people who had never even written a book before. And so he changed my mind. He also asked me to reconnect with my why. He said, why are you writing the book? And I said, because I wish I had a roadmap years ago to help me create confidence. And I know there's people out there that this will help. And he said, has that changed from the conversation with your family? And I said, no.

And it was, you know, the light went on. And I said, okay, I'm gonna move forward with this book and I'm so grateful that I did. Right, because your sister wasn't really in your book, your tell your sister, your mom. And so are you guys on good terms now about this or like what's happened since? Yeah, no, for, you know, initially my sister's an attorney.

So she was just giving me legal advice. Right, she's nervous for you. She was nervous for me, right? So I completely, it's not that she's bad or you. She was nervous for me. So I complete it's not that she's bad or she's right or I'm wrong. It was just a decision that I needed to make. She was trying to protect me. And while I'm grateful for, you know, her protection, I had to say I'm I think this is willing going to go to go to go for it anyway. So yeah, no, we're we're not on bad terms or but it was it was just so it was so clear to me that she knew she had the right answer from me from her

vantage point and I had to be willing to say maybe that's the right decision for her But I'm gonna still step forward not knowing what's gonna happen and give it a shot and the first week that book came out It trump Donald Trump for number one on the business biography list list on Amazon. And yes, I have the screenshot to prove that one. But it was that serendipitous moment of, oh yeah, I am so glad I'm in forward with this. That is so amazing. That was cool. Why do you think that was? Why do you think that that was like that it had was instantly very successful?

You know, because every, oh sorry, go ahead. I think that when you are a first first time author and it's so out of the box for you that anyone in your life is going to be curious as to is this thing a flop, you know, is this thing any good, but that curiosity was it definitely stimulated people in my old industry that I had just left and I had been there for two decades, right? So I had all these people, I'm sure many of them wanted me to fail. I'm sure many of them wanted me to succeed, but there was this water cooler talk around it.

So that definitely sparked some curiosity. And then I just think that that whole topic of creating confidence and can you actually create it, you know, that's something that I know I have been curious about for a long time in my life. And I think that title really grabbed people's attention. I agree. I think that confidence now, I feel like everyone's talking about it, right?

But probably when you wrote it, it wasn't as popular, right? Like, and now everyone's like, how to create confidence, confidence, confidence. You know, but that's great, great for you. I mean, on your path, though, there must have been, you know, failures, right? Not, it wasn't probably all just like, you know, rainbows and unicorns, right?

So, beyond, you know, one of the big failures I had when I first got fired was number one, was doubting myself. You know, I spent too much time and energy thinking, what if I fail? What if I, what if I can't succeed? Maybe I should go back that whole questioning that was just a waste of energy, which that was a fail in itself.

But then I decided, okay, I need to partner with a big name. If I partner with a big name, I'll be back. Again, trying to get confidence from outside of me, right? So I tracked down the CEO of Perri Ellis International, and I partnered with his company, which I thought was a great idea. I had this idea that I wanted a clothing line for women in business that had inspirational and motivational messaging all throughout the clothing on the inside,

not on the outside for everyone else to see, but for you to see when you put your blazer on or your sweater or whatever. And they loved the idea. Yeah, I loved that. I wanted to take it to QVC and sell it on QVC because sales is my thing, right? I'm a guy can do this.

We'll have a new revenue stream for the company. They were going through a challenging time. They were looking for new revenue streams. They had never done anything like this. They're like, we're all in. Why periolis of all the companies out there? Well, getting to an ultimate decision maker of a large clothing company is not easy.

And I went to the same spin studio with the CEO. So it made it, he was in my backyard. I met him once before. I just felt I can get to this guy. Totally. He's in my community. So anyways, what I kind of forgot about is when you start dealing with a billion dollar company,

they don't move as fast as you do, right? No, they do not. So for the next nine months, we worked on this clothing line, this concept, the pitch deck for QVC, the actual pitch, nine months went into this. I got us the meeting with the head of the Clothing Division for Women at QVC. And I was so nervous for this pitch because I just felt like this is my multi-million dollar idea. This is my business.

This is everything right here. And it's kind of funny now thinking back on it. And so we went to the pitch. I was so excited. And at the end, we were done. She said, Heather, I get why you. And we get you. And we think you'll be great on air.

Perialis not you. This is not new. It's not different from the clothes that we see on our show already. Go create a product, a shirt, a tie, a something that we don't have on air, partner it with Heather's concept and Heather and we'll put you on. We walked out of that meeting, and they looked at me and said Oh, we can't move that fast, you know We can't go create something new. We've already got you know whatever it is nine months in. I just I just don't think This is gonna work and so it ended up all of this time and all this effort for this really good idea Just kind of disappeared overnight. Oh

God that is a cute idea. I loved it. I loved that. I must have been very disappointing though. Well, it's frustrating when it's like I said before. I'm in this unknown space. You have a great idea and you're like, I know this can work, but you need that partner. You need that person that knows the clothing business. I've never made clothing before and it's trying to figure out how do you connect those dots and put those pieces together and sometimes they just don't connect. So why didn't you go find another clothing company or try? Well, it's so funny to say that. So I launched my podcast in 2019 and Kim Gravel who was a personality on QVC was someone

a PR person pitched me to have on my show. I agreed and I went to Atlanta to interview her. She and I headed up and while I was there I told her my idea that I had done had worked on the year before and she said Heather I love this idea. Let's you and I do this idea So we went back you know, I designed a new deck and we went back and came up and did all the work And this was right before pandemic and she went and pitched it without me and she because you know She's working with these people every day has a trust and credibility.

And she came out and said, OK, they love the idea. They love you. They love me. But they don't think the product that we had sketched out was unique. It was the same exact feedback that I had done. And I just, for whatever reason, I wasn't refocusing on that I need something so unlike what they have on air.

And so then the pandemic hit and there was all these issues with China and supply chain and whatnot. And so I just haven't picked it back up again. But I still feel like it's some of those ideas that you have out there in the world. You never know when that door might open again. And so it would still be a great idea to pursue. No, totally. I have a lot of those things that I kind of like tried.

And like it's just, it was just a miss by a little. And it's like still in my head. I have a QBC thing also. It's like, oh, it's so very annoying. It's totally annoying. And then how, what's the, what's your, like, so how did you deal with failure? And how would you, how do you overcome it?

Like I think that to me is like people's a lot of, a lot of people's problems. They don't like to fail, right? So do you have any advice on how you did it or what you think that people should do? Yeah, I'm big into taking action. So for me, taking action is going to solve all my problems, right? I'm one person away from or one not going to door away from that next opportunity. So to really fail would be staying stuck in that failure moment. I don't stay stuck.

I just, I force myself to take action. I actually have a book, chapter in my new book, Overcome Your Villains called It's the Octopus Revenue Strategy. And it's all around so that you don't find yourself in that stuck place with, oh my gosh, this concept just failed. Now what do I do? And so what I've been doing and what I've learned

over the last couple of years is to have multiple ideas up and running. And plenty of people will tell you, well, you can't be in too many places at one time. And yes, I agree that at different times you have to focus in on when you're going to book launch, you want to focus in on book launch, right? You don't want to be running all over a place,

filming podcasts and doing speeches. But so there are windows to focus in on one thing, but it's critical to have multiple opportunities up and running. And that's really what has helped save me to keep me going when different things like a global pandemic occur. And you say, oh my gosh, speaking events are gone.

Right, but I'm on the board of health link. But right, but I've launched my consulting business, right? But I launched, so when you have these different elements up and running, at any point in time, you can lean into different ones. Right, so your whole strategies have a lot of balls in the air at the same time, so don't rely on just one. I've seen it hurt too much.

It's too painful when you're relying all, and I was relying all on that job that I've worked for for 14 years, right? And that was a great learning all. I was relying all on that job that I've worked for 14 years. That was a great learning lesson. Don't think that everybody else is going to have your back, the company that you're working for is going to have your back find different ways to what problems can you solve outside of work that you could potentially charge for, what business model do you have with in your mind that maybe you can start exploring so that someday, one day, that could

be a legitimate business that you could walk away from your day job. Do you think though that drive, obviously you're very driven and ambitious? I mean, that's obvious, right? Do you think that that's more of an innate quality or someone can actually learn to become that? Because I feel like, I think that's,

I ask that question to a lot of people because I do think that there's something to be said for people who are just naturally more, like have more of a fire in their belly because of their past or for whatever reason it is. Well, I think I have an unfair advantage. I grew up poor. And anyone that's grown up poor,

if you have a desire never to be poor again, you will be driven like no other. I mean, there's just nothing that's gonna stop you from that, right? So I do believe people that had tough childhoods have typically an unfair advantage. So I'm grateful for that now at 47 that I have a lot of distance from it,

but I can look back and say that was a blessing. But I've also seen people, I'm sure you've seen people like this too, that seemed, you know, to kind of just be like,ing by not pushing themself. And then some life change happens, something, it could be a death in the family, it could be a termination, it could be anything or a health issue. And then suddenly that light inside them is ignited and everything changes. So you're saying that you think that something big has to happen

in their life to kind of ignite it, or it doesn't just like happen. I don't see it organically happening. I was doing a virtual speech the other day and a woman came on screen at the end to ask a question. And she said, Heather, you know, I've kind of been coasting along in my day job for years, now actually 13 years.

And I have this idea that I want to pursue and I just, you know, to go all in and do it. And I mean, it was unbelievable listening to this woman. She was telling us she's not happy for 13 years with what she's doing. And she has a great idea, but she's so scared to jump. And so I asked her to do me one favor and to drop in the chat the date that she's giving herself to pull the trigger. What is that specific date that you're actually going to commit to a date? And when she wrote down out 90 days from today, now you'll start building a plan.

Now you're going to force yourself to find a way to actually get there, but you have to commit to those dates or, you know, accountability to push yourself when you're not going to do it on your own. Yeah, I love that. This episode is brought to you by Nerds Candy. Calling all the stylish, trend-setting nerds out there. The sneaker heads and makeup beans. The film buffs and reality TV lovers.

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Get the taste of raspberry and dark chocolate for the all warm, all fuzzy, all self-care, zero self-doubt you. Grab a with love today. Vitamin water, zero sugar, nourish every you. Vitamin water is a registered trademark of glass O. So let's talk about the book title this time. It's the overcoming your villains.

So we talked about that woman that was obviously a villain of yours. You also talked to the call the leaps, was it called leapfrogging villains? Leapfrogging villains. What is that? What's leapfrogging villains? Okay, so that's so funny. So my first book, that was one of the titles of a chapter in my first book. And I'm a big fan of data doesn't lie,

right? The data is not going to lie to you. So, I would receive so many DMs about that chapter in particular that I thought, this is a sign that I need to remember this name. So, when I signed on with HarperCollins leadership and we were talking about throwing around different titles, I said, no, the title is Leap Frogging Villains. And they say, why? And I said, because the data doesn't lie,

people resonate with that. So they took a one step further than I did. And thankfully, they went to market. And they tested 10 different names. Leap Frogging Villains was one. Overcome your villains was another, along with eight other titles. And boy, were they right, the data didn't lie.

It was 90% voted for overcome your villains of the sample audience that they went to, and the froggy villains had like 3%. Or it was something so mind blowing. So as much as I was attached to it emotionally from my first book, I said, no, I totally support the data. Let's move forward with overcome your villains. Wow. That's a big difference.

Huge. Yeah. I wonder why. I like that. I mean, I think it's catchy. And a lot of times, the titles that do the best are the ones that you never think will do the best. And the ones that they spend all this money and effort and time and putting all this time

and effort into, they're flops. They're so many things outside of your control with a book launch that I feel like, we'll smith launching a book the same week that you launch your book, not great timing, right? But there's so many things that you just can't control and you have to turn it over. But my friend John Gordon who has, I think, five New York Times bestselling books, he's shared with me, hey, you're putting a lot of pressure on wanting to make this big first week and make all these lists the first week.

He said, Heather, it took me five years for my first book to hit the New York Times best seller list. And when I heard that, you know, it made the point to me that this doesn't have to just be a short game. It's fine for it to be a long game, too. Yeah, no, it's true. There's a lot of pressure on a lot of people, especially people though who've had big books,

like big, big names, there's a lot of pressure to make the New York Times best, like you know what, you have a finite window usually. And then if you don't make it, you're kind of shit out of luck. You know what I mean? Like that's just the reality of it. It's very competitive though now.

I mean, it's a different time than it's ever been, especially with social media, and everybody now is putting out content, so much content. How do you so do you, how do you kind of create content that's unique or different or that stands out? That's a really, I think people would love to know that. So is your hard to do? It's one of the hardest things to do and you know this because it is so noisy out there. It is so competitive out there, but one of the things I just go back to my, you know, back to my corporate America days, I always wanted to own a white space, whether I was pitching a client and differentiating myself from the competition or helping them develop a marketing campaign so that they could differentiate themselves.

So don't stay in that competitive water that everybody else is in. So if everybody else is a fitness model, I don't wanna be a fitness model, I wanna be a fitness head to this figure. Similar, I'm using you as an example, like differentiate it somehow. So for me, I'm not a fitness model,

but you know what I mean though, there's so many things that I need. I see some fitness model model, but yeah, you know what I mean, that there's some. I don't need. I see some fitness model. So for me, that's the social media, because Instagram is all visual, right? So that's where everyone shines in that space, right? So 100%. Go on, sorry.

It's everywhere. So I want to own that white space, and I look at social media, and I see everybody's, the number one revenue generator, their number one sales leader. And that was my expertise, right? I had over two decades of expertise in it. So I could go online and say that. I saw so many people imitating Grant Cardone and imitating all these personalities.

And I thought, that's a really competitive space. Even though I feel like that's my strength, I don't think I want to lean into that and I thought do you see anybody out there? How they're talking about or owning the space of getting fired? No one now. I don't see anyone talking about getting fired So I decided I'm going to change up my marketing I'm gonna change up my content and I'm gonna test what does it look like leading with? Getting fired And so that content started spiking because so many people were not talking about. They felt shame around getting fired or embarrassed and like, who's this lady?

She's putting it out there, you know, for everyone to see. And the more I would lean into that story and into that content. And it doesn't happen just to be retelling the story. It can be talking about, you know, here's how it became an author. It started with the pivotal moment of getting fired and it led be talking about, you know, here's how I became an author, it started with a pivotal moment of getting fired and it led to here, or, you know, the different learnings or relating to news topics or whatnot around bouncing back from termination. And that's allowed me to find a small white space that I can own. Yeah, I think that's very smart. I'm a big believer in that, right? Because otherwise,

it's just like, it's, it's, it's the real me too. Like, okay, you're doing that me too. You're, you're a dog, my dog, like it's extremely difficult. Having, I think carving out a niche like that, something also, like a niche that you did with getting fired, everybody has been a lot, most people have been in that situation. And it's like a gut-wrenching feeling, right? So it resonates with people. And it's good to have some kind of place where there's someone that relates to them and how they dealt with it and succeed it.

So I think that's a very smart, I like that, a super smart to do it that way. Well, it was risky. People did not think it was smart when I put the first post up, when I posted, I have just been fired. After 14 years of constant promotion, I was told I am no longer needed today. If I've ever helped you, I need to hear from you now. So many people called me and said, you look pathetic. Take that post down.

Again, they cared about me. They thought they were protecting me. But I decided, no, I feel, I don't feel ashamed. I didn't steal money from the company. You know what, people need to know what happened. And when I saw that post went viral, I thought, there's something here, and I'm gonna keep testing it and see where it takes me.

Yeah, no, I really like that, that's great. How would you, how would you, I wanted to ask this earlier, and I kind of just like, leapfrog, I guess, to the leapfrog question, but negative thoughts with people, right? That's why they are a failure, a fear, maybe going forward, doing anything. Use talk about it in this book,

overcoming your villains about going from negative thoughts to neutral thoughts. What is that? Talk about that. I love that. I learned that from Trevor Mwad, who was a guest on my podcast. And his expertise and specialty is working with athletes and teaching them instead of focusing so much on, okay, you had a horrible game, you're down in the dumps. Let's talk about how you're going to be number one this year and how you're going to turn it around. So many people can't, it's a vast leap to go from really negative to oh oh my life's gonna be great, but they felt I can actually look at the facts and say,

today was one day and tomorrow's a new day and tomorrow could be better. Right, just kind of dialing down that toxic positivity that many people want to have or wanna make a jump to and just can't get themselves there. And that idea of like, let's look at what the facts are, what is shifting into neutral, look like for. And is that something you could do today? And it's much easier to go from really low to neutral. It's a lot easier than going from really low to

positive. Yeah. No, I think that's true. So when you do your motivational speaking things, because now you're talking about getting fired, do you go to companies and talk about when you get fired? Who are you talking to or what's your topics? Yeah, so I talk about a lot of things, sales and sales leadership, that's really my expertise. It's funny, this whole confidence thing, I've only been doing this for a little over,

it's almost four years now, so I don't really consider myself an expert at it, but I do consider myself an expert, in regards to corporate America, and running businesses and driving revenues. So I do a lot around innovation, revenue generation, sales, collaboration with teams. I do a lot of that. That's more of my company stuff.

But then I do a lot of MLM companies and just going bigger and going for more stepping into fear. How can you innovate and find new ways to sell in your community? I've been doing a lot of those MLM type talks lately. And then, you know, gosh, it runs again. Doing a women's conference, they do like me to speak about confidence. That's definitely the topic people want to hear about. Yeah, for women conferences, for sure. For sure. Well, I think sales, though, your background, though, is in my opinion, every company, everything you do, not you personally, everybody,

requires an element of sales. You're gonna sell yourself, you're gonna sell your products, you're gonna sell whatever the hell you're doing. I think that's a very, very important foundation of anything, you know? I mean, so you come by, like your background is so important for everything else moving forward.

I think I always tell people, they have to like learn and master sales to do anything. And so. It's so funny that you say, I couldn't agree more. I was speaking for a financial company a couple of weeks ago and in the pre-qual's leading up to it, I said, okay guys, I do think we need to get into sales.

Oh, Heather, we're not in sales. I said, hang on, like let's back it up for a moment. And it doesn't, it's an industry thing. They don't like saying sales, they feel sales is a dirty word. They want to talk about relationships. I said, okay, let me get some clarity. Are you commissioned? Well, yes, we're commissioned, Heather. Okay. And you have goals and expectations around revenue generation annually. Correct. Yes, correct. Okay. So we'll talk about relationship building. But it was funny, you know, I just was trying to understand how Dacy sales is negative, but they see relationship building as positive when at the end of the day they want to accelerate revenue, they want to close more business, but they don't want to put that tagline on it, and that many people

feel that way. However, I'll remind people in any exchange someone's sold, right? You're either going to sell your husband that you're going out to dinner or he's going to sell you that you're making dinner tonight, right? Like the smallest exchange is somebody will always be sold. So at least being aware of it and not associating it with a negative activity, the way I like to see it is selling is helping. It's not my job to be so presumptuous to decide that I can make a decision for you, whether I should offer you this or not. I don't know what your situation is. I've got to empower you with information and then you can make that best decision for yourself.

Yeah, no, I think so too. I don't know why I don't even understand why it's a dirty word. It's the most essential thing in the world for business. Like, everybody else, in my opinion, to be honest, I know you don't agree with this in your book, you say everyone could be replaceable, but you know, you're unique, which fine is true. But at the end of the day, in a company, the first people to go are the people who are

not good at sales. I mean, it's the people who actually are the sellers or the ones who are in sales who always keep their jobs because they're making money for our company. So if you don't know how to do that in the smallest or the biggest way, then you're screwed. So I don't understand why that's a bad word at all. No, me neither. I mean, so I actually, because this is a very much about for entrepreneurs, I want you to talk about sales. I want you to talk about some really important, easy strategies where people could, maybe they don't really know are the best not the best, but some great strategies for sales. Oh my gosh, just a couple of basic ones. I'll share with you. Number one is really leaning into instead of just seeing your customers as your customer base, how can we turn them into

raiding fans? The more that you focus on over delivering and creating a unique experience that nobody else is delivering. And I'll give you an example on that. The more they're going to walk away from you and say, I love that company. I love those people. I'm going to tell my friends about that company. And now they're becoming an extension of your sales worth. And that's when you really know that you were starting to make it, right? I want people out petitioning on my behalf, selling my speeches for me, selling my books for me. Because that books for me, because

that's really that instead of one-to-one strategy, one-to-many, and the more that we can start looking at, how can we change up the way that we're doing it so we can go one-to-many through as many different outlets, partnerships as possible. So an example that I'll share with you is Soul Cycle, you know, is my spin studio that I've been going to ever since the pandemic allowed us back out again And one of the things they do here. This was just from yesterday They recognize every time you reach some benchmark whether it be 50 rides or 100 rides or whatever it is And not only do they shout you out in class, right? Which makes you everyone's kind of cheering for you and you feel a part of

Community community is so important, right? They want you to feel a part of something so you're driven to go back there and spend $40 on a bike again the next day, right? So it's all around selling you on this idea that you have to be back there, but they also, they put it in writing, they give you a handwritten note, that's unique and different, nobody does that anymore. It's unexpected because you're not charting your progress necessarily and they are. So they're allowing you to be seen and say, wow, not only do they care about me, not only are they cheering me on, but they're leaving

me notes to let me know that I'm seen and I matter here. And so, you know, it's more than just the encouraging word. It's going that extra mile. So of course, when I leave, I mention to people, oh, you guys need to join my sole cycle family. I'm starting to talk, I'm going to start to go out and advocate for them, and they're not even asking me to do it, and that's really where you change from being a customer to be, you know, an engaged advocate for their business,

and that's one of the best sales strategies that I could share with anybody is finding ways so you can activate your customer base. That's great, give me one more, I like that. Well, another one is we live in a review and recommendation society, right? ways so you can activate your customer base. That's great. Give me one more. I like that. Well, another one is we live in a review and recommendation society, right? And so while people might not know that,

they're not necessarily getting these reviews from clients. And many people will say to me, well, I don't want to ask. I don't want to bother them. It's not a bother. And again, it's not for you to determine if it is a bother for them. So many people like to help other people, right? I'm one of those people, you're one of those people. So the next time someone, one of your clients says to you, hey, I just wanted to say Jennifer, great job on that. I really appreciate

it. That's the open door for you to say, you know, it would mean the world to me if you go my LinkedIn while I'm in lead that for review for me. It really helps me grow my business and give me credibility. I'd love to do that for you. It doesn't cost them anything, and it takes them 60 seconds to do it. And you're developing a portfolio that you can then share with potential clients of, let me show you some of the impact that I've had with customers in the similar industry to you.

And you can turn that over to them. And somebody else attesting how great you are is always gonna come over as more credible, more real, and more valid than you saying it. That's a great one. I love that. See, I think what you should be doing is doing a sales book. Yeah.

People have been asking me to write Compens Creator 4 sales people to do a version of that book just for sales. People are something that I'm definitely thinking about. Yeah. Because this is, I think that, I mean, I don't know you very well, obviously. But I think that is your strike zone. Because what you even explain those two you said it was such confidence and a sort of this to me Like you really kind of you feel like it's in your bones like you know this shit You know, yeah, that's what over 20 years will do to you. Yeah

Exactly, and you live in Florida correct. I'm in Miami the 305. Oh, wow. I you live in Florida, correct? I'm in Miami, the 305. Oh, wow. I just got back from Miami. It was humid there. It's a little hot, that's for sure. Yeah, it's very hot. Well, I think this has been great. You gave us some really great, practical, tangible, good information that people can kind of integrate

into their life. And that's what this podcast is about, giving people things that they can actually do. That's not just like chitter chatter, but things that are much more implement. They can implement. So I appreciate that. And your book is called Overcoming Your Villains, a People Can Buy It Wherever. And where do people find you if they want to have more information on your Heather and your book and everything else that you do. I'm at Heather Monahan all social media my podcast is creating confidence with Heather Monahan you can find it anywhere where you get

your podcasts. Awesome. Well thank you for being on this podcast. Well thank you for having me. No it's amazing awesome and we'll have you one again if that's cool with you. Of course I would love it. Why don't you have the sales book? All right, I'll write the sales book for you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have it's in hustle. Time to get it rolling.

Stay up on the grind. Don't stop. Keep it going. Have it's in hustle. From nothing in the summit. All out, a host of budget of fuck going. Visionaries, tune in. You can get to know.

Be inspired. This is your moment. Excuses. We in heaven at the habits and hustle podcasts. Power by happiness. This episode is brought to you by the YAP Media Podcast Network. I'm Holla Taha, CEO of the award-winning digital media empire YAP Media, and host of YAP Young & Profiting Podcast, a number one entrepreneurship and self-improvement podcast where you can listen, learn, and profit. On Young & Profiting Podcast, I interview the brightest minds in the world and I turn

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