Ep 35: Breaking Through Self-Sabotage: Transforming Your Business Mindset
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/bitchandbrainstorm/episodes/Ep--35-Overcoming-Overthinking-and-Self-Sabotage-with-Bara-Mann-e2to4fa
Hey there Brainstormers!
Welcome back to the Bitch & Brainstorm podcast. Today, I'm excited to introduce you to a special guest, Bara Mann, a transformational life coach and certified positive intelligence coach. In our conversation, Bara shared her mission to help individuals overcome self-sabotage and overthinking, empowering them to live joy-filled, confident, and action-oriented lives.
Connect with Bara: https://www.baraco.org/
Introducing Bara Mann
Bara kicked off our discussion by explaining her passion for helping people identify and tackle self-sabotage. She recognized a unique challenge: most individuals who self-sabotage aren't aware of it and wouldn't likely attend a seminar on the subject. So, how do we reach these people effectively?
Cracking the Code of Self-Awareness
We dove deeper into how you can incorporate self-awareness into your messaging. One idea we discussed was creating engaging quizzes that help individuals recognize signs of self-sabotage without naming it directly. Such tools could serve as a fun, interactive lead magnet while highlighting actionable steps to take control over one's mindset.
The Power of a Name: Meet Sally
One of my favorite personal strategies is naming my inner self-saboteur. My "Sally" helps me stay aware and counteract sabotaging thoughts. Naming your inner critic can make the process a bit more tangible and relatable, reinforcing self-awareness.
Building the Right Message
For those looking to overcome communication barriers with potential clients, it’s crucial to align their language with what resonates with the audience. Whether through testimonials or direct client surveys, understanding their underlying emotional triggers and language can fine-tune messaging for greater impact.
A Quiz with a Purpose
Creating a questionnaire or personality quiz can be an excellent way to engage your audience. As we discussed, framing questions such as "Is this overthinking or self-sabotage?" can help individuals understand their behavior better. Leveraging tools like tryinteract.com can automate responses and tailor follow-up strategies accordingly.
Marketing Self-Sabotage in Corporate Settings
Bringing these strategies to corporate environments can pose unique challenges. It's essential to address self-sabotage without labeling it as such – opting instead for terminologies aligned with productivity, growth, and workplace harmony. A dual approach addressing both organizational goals and individual self-improvement can resonate well.
Crafting a Successful Speaker Journey
Bara also shared her aspiration to focus more on speaking engagements as a way to elevate her message and impact. We explored strategies to establish presence as a speaker, such as creating a compelling speaker reel, marketing oneself through a speaker page, and building a consistent profile across professional platforms.
Wrapping Up with Action Steps
Our insightful chat left us with a clear call to action: emphasize speaking opportunities and explore creative frameworks for addressing self-sabotage. If you're struggling with any similar challenges, reshaping your messaging and leveraging platforms like AI to refine your language can be illuminating steps toward engaging and expanding your audience.
Thank you for joining us in this vibrant discussion. Stay tuned and stay inspired!
Elaine "The Brain" Turso
TRANSCRIPT
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Bitchin Brainstorm podcast. I'm your host, Elaine, the Brain Turso, and I'm here with Bara, , and she is going to, , kind of introduce herself and tell us what is keeping her stuck because we're going to use my Pop Rocks to help her get unstuck with whatever it is that is keeping her stuck in her business.
So tell us more about you, what you do, how do you help people?
Hi, Elaine. Thank you so much for having me on. My name is Barra Mann, and I'm a transformational life coach and speaker, certified positive intelligence coach. And I help people overcome overthinking, overcome self sabotage, so they can live lives filled with joy, confidence, inner peace, and action.
Hey, well, what is keeping you stuck with that then? What's going on, girl? Tell us all the things.
Some of the things keeping me stuck are One, I want to say my ability to reach the right people and the scale of people that I want to reach to be making as big of an impact as possible. And I think that one of the issues there lies in my messaging.
I've got a great talk on the self sabotage solution, but I've realized recently that I think most people who are self sabotaging don't want to go to a talk about self sabotage, right? They think
they don't probably even realize that they're self sabotaging.
Yeah. Okay. So, as a, , Sally is my self saboteur's name, , like, I've been through this whole thing of, , recognizing when my self saboteur is coming out, and I can be, and I conveniently named her Sally because, , I love, , alliterations.
And so has to start with the same letter. So her name is Sally. I apologize to anyone I know named Sally. I really don't think you're a saboteur, but mine's name is Sally. And, , it's really interesting how I even got to that place. , the self awareness, I think, is really important to even realize that you're doing it.
And we can't change it if we aren't aware of it. So. My question for you is, , are you doing any messaging around self awareness at all?
I don't think I really have recently done my messaging around self awareness. I think awareness used to be one of the things that I talked about. I don't think it sounded very exciting.
Okay. Have you ever, I don't know why. Okay. So one of the things, , this is our first time meeting. So one of the things that happens is that I get like little flashes of information and I just had one come through. So yay for you. , have you ever done a quiz? Where you can ask people like is this overthinking or is this self sabotage or is this this or is it self sabotage like being able to identify the behaviors and is it this or is it that?
Have you done anything like that before?
I haven't. Well once I did a this or that like Instagram story series that people really liked.
really like the idea of what you're talking about.
Yeah, if you were to put in like all of the things that are keeping people stuck, overthinking, analysis paralysis, mindset, self sabotage, inner critic, all the things, and if you were to Name them, like give them a personality.
, you could create a personality quiz and use it as kind of a lead magnet. People love quizzes. And , and then allow that to, so I use tryinteract. com is the quiz builder that I use. It is no longer free. FYI, just so that you're aware. But here's what I'm able to do. with a quiz on Tri Interact. So I'm able to connect it to my CRM, which means that when someone takes my quiz and based on their answer, I can automatically put them in my CRM and automatically send them the result.
, even though they're going to get it on a results page, I want to make sure that I also send it to their email. With a call to action. The results page will have a call to action button at the bottom as well. So typically what I do is like the first half is, , telling them more about that personality type and then I will kind of cut it in half with some little dots and then I will have like a little introductory to who I am and how I can help them and maybe there's an event or a program or something that I want them, what do I want them to do next?
They could download a PDF, they, I don't know, whatever, you get to decide what that looks like, but you can have a call to action at the bottom where they're like, click to kind of go to the next step of some sort. , it could even be to connect with you. whatever, whatever you want that to be. Now, the cool thing about that is then I can filter them out because of their answer.
Based on their answer, I have automated sequences ready to go that are going to continue to address their quiz results. So you could have a whole series of emails going out talking more. And in specific detail about self sabotage. Oh, and by the way, here is my next event that you could come to or here is an opportunity to work with me or whatever you want that to be, but it will kind of drip it out where you're continuing to address that specific concern that was identified in the quiz.
So it's very cool. I'm not going to lie. It will be a labor of love. Okay. It will be a labor of love, but. Creating quizzes has been a really great lead magnet for my business and other businesses that I have helped with this. , so FYI, if you need help with that, I can help you, but just know that, , there are some really, and you'll get analytics, you'll get to see what their answers are.
Like you will be able to have all of the information, , from this platform.
Thanks. Yeah, that sounds fun. One of the big tools that I do use. Is, , sending people to the saboteur assessment through positive intelligence's website and then having them through that. That's usually my discovery call process is like, go through this and really understand the way it's affecting your life.
Okay. But it's not that fun. So.
Got it. So we could make it a little more fun, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting thing. It's hard for me to see the. Personality types like yeah doing that that initially what I was understanding is like is this self sabotage or is this like actual logic, you know, , and then just getting people's like understanding of self sabotage and then maybe that could lead them into like Yeah, actually, here's this quiz to really understand why that you're sabotaging.
You could do that too. Yeah. So, I mean, I feel like there's, , like multiple ways that you could address it, , kind of the this or that, or having, you know, giving them personalities and kind of like the movie Inside Out. Freaking love that movie. Like, and all of just the little personalities that are kind of living inside of our head, right?
And, , What would it look like if self sabotage was inside of our brain? Like, what would they look like? What would their character look like? And you know what I mean? I feel like there's some really fun ways that you could kind of bring to life. , This, the idea of self sabotage where it helps people feel like they're not alone, they're not the only one.
When I tell people that my self saboteur's name is Sally, people love it. They're like, oh my god, that's so great, I need to name mine too. So, it's, it like, it does this thing where it makes it, normal and okay to have it, but it's just the awareness of it. And then how can you help them overcome it? So they're identifying that there's an issue, but now what, how do I get rid of it?
That's where you come in. Yeah. And what will happen in their life or in their business? As a result of that, how will everything change? Once they identify and address their self saboteur, like what does that messaging look like?
Are you asking me that question?
, how it looks is they become more productive.
They can, okay. They have so much more time for the things that they want to do and the things that they need to do. They experience more joy, more fulfillment, their relationships get better, their work gets better, their mental well being gets better.
Okay. Yeah. And so. If you were to go down the, the why, why, why, why, why, so why is that important?
Okay, great. Why is that important? And really, because like, that's where your messaging is. And if you are able to, , I don't know if you've ever received testimonials. Where you can see what are people actually saying one of the best pieces of advice I got a really long time ago back when I was a photographer, and I really wanted to help women overcome their body image issues right and and get photographed even though they wanted to lose weight first and all the crap, all the bullshit.
, she said, use their words. Well, I'm like, well, how do I, how do I get the words? So I did a anonymous survey and I had like 43 ladies reply. , and basically tell me all the baggage, all the things that were keeping them. unhappy. And then looking at what are the people saying that have had a photoshoot done, what are their words?
So then I was really able to kind of craft this messaging around people feeling unappreciated was like nber one. They felt unappreciated at home and their relationships at work and all the places. , they were overwhelmed with family who was ill. So having chronic illness or a parent who was sick, having kids who were sick, having a spouse in the military.
, there were so many just like, and the financial burden and all of the household duties and everything was just laying on her shoulders. And my messaging became kind of this like, I'm going to give you a day off. Like I'm going to give you an opportunity to not worry about any of that shit. You're going to be pampered.
You're going to be loved on. You're going to feel beautiful. And you're going to get to see yourself in a way you've never seen yourself before. And once I started using that kind of messaging, holy mother, like that. was the smartest thing I did for, because I was doing like boudoir photography, right? And that's a very vulnerable position to be in.
And trying to, I didn't want to be in the, in the field of convincing people, but I felt like I had to be because women really wanted to do it, but they really needed you to tell them that you wanted them to do it. And, Because they weren't going to volunteer to do it. Like it was this really weird dynamic, but once I was able to like figure out that messaging, everything changed for me.
So I'm wondering if, if we did a little deeper dive into some market research and really find out what are people really struggling with and, and, and have this kind of anonymous sort of survey and really allow people to talk. just dpster dive into their feelings and what's really going on underneath.
What is the, this, the, not the surface pain, but the deeper level shit that nobody wants to talk about, because then you can start talking to them and using their words and they're going to go, Oh, Oh my God, how does she know? How is she in my head? How does she know that I'm struggling with that? Because I don't talk about that to anyone.
We got to get like down to there's surface level pain, and then there's like deep seated pain. And we got to get down here, because this stuff doesn't really matter. It's what they tell everybody, but it's not what really matters. This stuff down here is really. How you can help them bridge the gap from I am, I am sabotaging my success to I am thriving in my business and in my life and my career and all of the things.
Yeah, one of the things that I struggle with is interviewing the right people because it's like I'm just pulling on Instagram that people are answering a lot of times. They're people who are like minded to me or like already have done some work and made some progress or there are people who are really struggling, but like not would ever consider investing in coaching at this point in their lives.
Yeah. So it's like, maybe I wonder if you have tips on that. How do you get that interview from the right person who is a real. Potential client or example of a potential
client. So I have, I have, , the, the questions that I used, , were about, oh, please let me get one of my books.
I did this thing a really long time ago. It was a complete bomb, but, , what I was able to do was I used, I did this thing, are you familiar with ACEs? Adverse childhood experiences. So there was a. , a study done a long time ago, , by a doctor who, , created this quiz called Adverse Childhood Experiences.
And the reason that it came about, and this was like in the 80s, was he noticed people who were overweight, they were like, this was like an obesity clinic. People that were identifying as obese. had traa. So it was, wow, the more traa they have, the more it affects their health in some capacity. So he created 10 questions.
, , if anybody in your household before the age of 18 swore at you, put you down, et cetera. , did they push you, slap you, throw things at you? , did they touch you inappropriately? , Did you ever feel like you weren't loved or weren't important, , that you didn't have enough to eat, you had dirty clothes, you weren't cared for enough, if your parents were separated or divorced, , if your mother did, you know, horrible things, hit you, kick you, et cetera, if anyone in your household had a problem with alcohol, drugs, et cetera, if anybody had ever been to prison.
And if anyone had, , attempted suicide, had a mental illness, et cetera, this is, I'm not joking. I did this. This was like 2018, 2019. So what I did was I wanted to know, based on these questions, how did. This affect the mind of an entrepreneur. I couldn't find any studies on it. So I did it myself and I was able to utilize.
I just use like a Google form really is what I did. Because at the time I didn't have all this fancy. tools that I have now. So I used a Google form and it was all anonymous and I asked them which ones they could say yes to and then I asked them in what ways were they struggling in their business or career.
Guess what was on there? Self sabotage. Right. And, , and then I asked them about their coping mechanisms. How are they coping with their traa? Because it's usually in the form of smoking and alcohol and social media and, you know, addiction of any kind is a coping mechanism to traa. And then I wanted to know, , how did it like to the next level, how did it interfere with their life or their success today?
And it was like having trust issues, not feeling good enough, , feeling alone, having anxiety and depression and PTSD and, and kind of this insecurity and things like that. So I really like. I wanted to know all of these things, , again, having it be anonymous. One of the things when I did with the photography clients was I also asked their income range.
I asked about their family size. I asked about, , you know, are they married or separated or divorced or widowed? Like I asked those questions too. And the reason I wanted to ask the income question, and it was just like a range. What's a range was so then I could say how many of these people are actually what I would consider to be qualified clients because I wasn't cheap.
Right. I was a more kind of expensive photographer, if you want to call it that. And so would I, it's not that I wouldn't, , care about the opinion of someone who made 20, 000 a year, but they're not my ideal client. Someone who is making maybe 60, 000 a year was more of my ideal client. And her answers may have had more weight and I may have used her words more.
more because she was an ideal client, kind of self identified ideal client without really realizing that. So you could ask those questions like, are you an entrepreneur? What kind of career do you, you know, if you have, m, , um, , do you work in finance or real estate or I don't know, like whatever those questions are.
And it's really, , designed to get inside the mind of your ideal client. You have an opportunity to ask them any question that you want. And if you make it easy, yes and no's or multiple choice, the more you will get people to take this quiz, this survey, if you will. And then again, you can have, you know, , I would, if you're going to have a, , where they fill in their own answer.
I would be really, , like very specific and only have a few of those. , because the more they have to type out, you may get very sparse answers. , and then, but some others will take the time and actually really truly fill it out. So you just kind of have to weigh what's really important to you and what you really want to know about the, These potential people and I would share in different Facebook groups.
I wouldn't just rely on Instagram. I would also Be sharing it on LinkedIn. I would be sharing it. Where are professionals? Where are the people that are most going to identify with you? So, I would probably move this off of Instagram, and I would use Facebook groups, LinkedIn, Blue Sky, Twitter, wherever else you might hang out where you can, you know, do have a link of some sort, but that's what I would do.
And I had made a goal that I wanted 200. And by sharing it in groups, I had a lot of people rallying around me and sharing this link in all of these groups that I wasn't a part of. And I'm like, this is awesome. So I went with like 220 surveys. Because I really wanted the, I wanted the data in order to really, , to use this for, for good in order to really have a good quality nber of people and of the data, the more I had, the better I was able to help people.
That was a very long version. I'm sorry for that. But like, it just, , but that's what I did.
Yeah, I think I have two questions like for myself. One is what are the clients and people saying themselves? And then another is what is their corporation going to want to like, what do they care about? So what kind of talks are they going to want to host? Because I think That's some feedback I've gotten in some places.
People actually love coming to the self sabotage solution, but for certain spaces I've been told like Well, people here aren't going to want to admit that they have a problem with self sabotage because that's going to make them be seen as weak and the organization might be on a similar note. So it's, yeah, what's going to get people really excited to come here and then learn how to deal with this stuff because it does so much more than just help you with self sabotage.
What words are going to resonate with you so I can communicate to you why you want to be there.
Right. So if, if you didn't use self sabotage, what are some other words that you would consider?
Well, for the problem, I like, I like the word self sabotage. I really like overthinking. I think that resident, a lot of people have experienced overthinking.
I don't think a lot of people are interested in investing their money to fix their overthinking problem, which is funny because. Or their time, you know That's one issue that I try to kind of speak to because I think one big obstacle is a lot of people think well I don't have time to do this work. I have all this other stuff and it's like Yeah, but if you put in a little time right now, like, very quickly, you're going to see that you're gaining more time than it's costing you, because you're going to get so much more efficient with everything.
Yeah, that can be a really hard thing to get across to people.
Well, I think you also said product, you know, being more productive, having more time, finding more joy, improving your mental well being. So if you instead, instead of focusing on self sabotage, like we, it's, it's sell them what they want, give them what they need.
They don't know that they may have a problem with self sabotage, they may feel unproductive, not consistent, which I see all the time with business owners, when I talk to them, it's, I need to be more consistent, I need to be more consistent. And they sabotage being more consistent because there's a deeper seated fear of the fear of success.
What if I can't keep it all? So they sabotage their, their own business because there is an underlying fear going on. So what if instead of talking about self sabotage, if you really kind of related it to productivity, , getting more time back, making more money, , finding more joy, improving your mental well being, like all of those things that you talked about as this is what the big benefit of this is, and just talk about the results.
They don't, and then there's not going to be this perceived, people are going to judge me if I'm at this class talking about self sabotage. I'm going to learn to be more productive. I'm going to go learn to be, have better mental well being. I'm going to go so I can gain back some more hours in my day.
I'm going to go because I want more joy in my life. So now it kind of removes this stigma of you're going to be judged if you go to a class about self sabotage. Yeah, absolutely. Right? Yeah. So what would that look like?
That's a great question. I'd love to find a way to like, capture that in like a talk title, you know, I think, , And to make it fun, because I think productivity is great for the employer.
Right. But are most people thinking like when they hear productivity in a workspace. Are they going to want to show up for that talk? They're like, I'm not going to, this is my lunch break. I'm not going to take my time to be more productive for you. It's like, yeah, but to be more productive in every aspect of your life, to have more time doing the things that you love and the things you need to do for work.
Yeah. And how do we push this into one talk title? I also love alliteration. That's kind of where the self sabotage solution came from, but it's like, well, what's the powerful version of this the employer loves and the employee loves? Yeah.
, to me, what's coming through is like, superpowers. So how could we translate all of those things into finding your superpower and your zone of genius, things like that.
, also what else is coming through? , it's almost as if you have two different like audiences, right? Employer and employee, or I don't know if you work with entrepreneurs as well, but, , being able to talk to those audiences in a completely, and they're going to want different things. , the other thing I think of like in corporate America is kind of this idea of work life balance, which doesn't actually exist.
A friend of mine. Who was a boundaries coach is like, no, it's work life boundaries. , but people are looking for the, they, they Google work life balance, right? And so again, it's, it's give them what they want or sell them what they want, give them what they need. They don't know that they need boundaries.
They think they need balance. So if you were to look at it in that term, what are they Googling, but what do they really need?
Yeah, that's a good idea to look for what they're googling.
Yeah, so you can answer the public. com, answer the public. com. , I believe, I think, I mean, the last time I looked at it, it's been a while, but you can look up like a topic of what are people googling when it comes to self sabotage?
Like, what are they looking up? What are they looking up when they're looking at productivity? What are they looking up? What, how are they getting to? These sorts of results. , the other thing I would encourage. is ask chat GPT and just say, I don't want to use the word self sabotage. So how can, how can I reframe it?
And to be a positive and ask it, say, give me 10 titles, talking titles, speaking titles, or whatever. That will help address these issues. So give it a list. You could even give it an outline of your presentation and say, I want to create a new title for this talk. These are the things I'm going to talk about.
Don't use the word self sabotage, right? Just see what it shows, what it brings up. And if you're like, I hate all of those, give me more, you know, but it can be that kind of tool where it can help you see things that you never thought of before.
You know, I can specifically ask it, let's help, help me frame this in the positive.
Yes, exactly. Exactly. And then you can also ask it for feedback. Like what messaging should I use? What should I include that's not already there? Is there something I should eliminate from this talk in order to really deliver, like, and, and my audience, my ideal audience is employees, business owners, et cetera.
Like, tell it all the things and allow it to give you that feedback. Because like I said, you may see something that you never thought of before, which I've been pleasantly surprised and go, I didn't even think about that, you know, because our brains are only, you know, they're wired to kind of think one way.
And sometimes it's nice to get a fresh perspective and dig a little deeper on that and, , and see what comes up.
Yeah. It can be fun too to like have these interactions. Yeah. AI sometimes. Yeah.
And I just asked it yesterday. I said, I, I, , I'm doing a new little thing called friends business bingo, which has been very fun.
And I did some of the challenges yesterday and which brought out a new idea for me. And I was like, Oh, Ooh, this is fun. But like, what are all of the different follow up strategies. Like, what are all of the different things? And so I asked it to give, and I said, give, tell me all of the different follow up strategies, but give it to me as if they're quiz answers.
So then it generated the Care Bear, who's the nurturer, and then it generated the, , the architect, and then it generated, like, so it was, like, very cool how it, I was like, oh my gosh, those are so fun. And something that I never would have thought of using the word care bear. And I love the care bears. I grew up with the care bears, but I never would have thought of, Oh, I should use it as a care bear as a, I never would have thought of that.
So it was just something fun to just kind of get you thinking outside of the box. Yeah. Yeah. But then you just keep on going with it and go a little deeper and go a little deeper and, , ask it to refine or change, or I hate that. Change this, change that.
And so then I would think once you kind of have that new kind of working title, test it out and ask people, you know, clients of yours or anybody that you know, if you're in a mastermind or coaching program or something like that and say, how does this title resonate with you? What do you think the topic is going to be about?
And also, might you need a tagline in order to kind of help? , and I think it's important to kind of provide additional information in the title of your talk so that people really truly understand, you know, maybe what they're going to get out of it. And I wouldn't use self sabotage.
Yeah, I'm thinking that tagline could work well too for like, Maybe the title is more focused for the business, but then the tagline is more focused to their employees to want to go.
Cause I, even though it's two different audiences, I have to speak to both of them if I want one of them to pay for it, but I used to come to it.
Right. Right. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And so having, you know, employees who are not sabotaging, how does that help the employer?
It helps them, , with employer attention.
It helps them with growth, , with productivity.
Which is all equates to dollars.
I mean, honestly, that's really what it, what it generates is more dollars because if their employee is more productive and is, you know, not overthinking, not sabotaging themselves, you know, it's all going to just generate, , more.
For the client, for their, you know, for, for the customers in the long run, which is gonna help them generate more revenue.
Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm . Have you done. , like gone into a company and really like had an opportunity to, , interview staff and like really find out kind of what's really going on and being able to assess any of that.
The kind of the kind of equate it to like Tabitha's takeover. Did you ever see that show back in the day?
No, I didn't. And I haven't had the opportunity yet.
Oh my gosh, I could see that being like a big thing for you. So back in the day on the E network, cause it was, or Bravo or one of those networks, , I think it was Bravo.
There was a show called Tabitha's Salon Takeover. So she had been on another like a haircutting competition and she has like an Australian accent. She's kind of a hard ass, which made me love her. And they gave her her own show where she would go into hair salons that were struggling. and take over and say, I'm going to fix your hair salon.
And nine times out of 10, the reason why their salon was struggling was because of the owner, but the owner couldn't see that they were the problem. They thought the problem was all their employees. And they're like, no, right? It's Taylor Swift. Hi, I'm the problem. It's me. Like the owners can't even identify that they are the problem.
But it wasn't until somebody else came in, kind of the outside looking in, interviewing all of the staff, and really find and even had like hidden cameras, like what's really going on here, and then offering training to the employees so that they could improve their skills, which will then turn around and help the salon generate it.
Thank you. You know, revenue and marketing and like all of that other kind of stuff. So she, I mean, this was like, , a week or two week, like gig where she's going in and like helping identify the issue. But nine times out of 10, it was the owner of the salon. And so being able to go into a corporation and find out what's really going on, is it at the top?
Because a lot of times they think it's everybody else, but they never think it's themselves. Right.
Yep, I've been with corporations like that.
Yeah. And so, is that something that you could offer as an additional, , kind of a VIP experience of, let me come in and find out what's going on with your team and why it's not working?
And because a lot of, they may think it's self sabotage, but maybe it's not. Maybe there's something much, much deeper where you can kind of have that outside perspective looking in and saying, this is not self sabotage or overthinking. This is, you're a bad leader and you need Simon Sinek or Brene Brown in here, you know.
Have you ever thought about doing anything like that before?
, no, not at this point. I think to me, yeah, the most impact I care about impacting most people. So you can make the greatest impact if you can speak to that person at the top, right? But if that person, if that leader is also coming to that training that their employees are coming to, that can help them make the shifts too.
So ideally, I would get to work with a group of the executives at the company, or actually maybe even middle level management. Okay. Would be ideal, because they are like really affecting people's lives. They are. , but If I can just get in there and speak to everyone in the first place too, then I can see who it trickles over to and who it resonates for.
Yeah. , you can go from there.
Okay. So where do you do most of your marketing then?
Well, I'm kind of on a pause and going to be shifting that up. , organic is pretty important to me. And I think that's where I really want to shift. , and I think it's important to, because the social media thing, it doesn't work well for me, both from a results standpoint, and also from a energetic standpoint, , it takes too much of my energy and then results in me being less productive and making less impact
on my clients.
So do you do any blogging or podcasting or, , do you have a book or how else are you getting yourself out there? Are there other ways? I
have had a blog in the past. Okay. Put that on hold. Okay. , it was really impactful, but not enough people were seeing it. So I was putting too much energy into something that maybe people could see.
It's like, I might as well be spending this energy on my own book, but haven't felt called to start that yet.
, going on other people's podcasts, but have yet to feel the pull to start my own podcast. I know that's at some point. Okay. , I think right now my next step might be connecting with people I know in different organizations.
I'd like to shift to my work being more speaking and then from the speaking that bringing in the clients. Okay. , so it's more of the speaking opportunities to pursue.
Yeah, are there have you joined any organizations in order to help you with that or any I know there's like websites out there where you can like create a speaker profile and things like that.
Have you done anything like that yet.
Okay. , I feel like I someone that I know who her whole job is her business is to help people with finding speaking gigs. And then I have another friend. whose business is to help people find podcasts that are like in your target audience to she's like a booking agent, I guess you could say.
And so I'm happy to connect you if you would like those resources. , but there's I know, , do you have a speaker page on your website yet?
Okay. I see that as a top priority for you.
Right. , do you have video of you speaking where you could make like B roll? I don't really.
, most of the speaking that I've done has either been smaller or private.
Okay. So that is something that, yeah, I know would benefit me a lot.
Okay. So here's, here's a suggestion. Okay, , could you get a group of friends into a conference room and have somebody record? in a professional capacity of you delivering your talk. Okay, get yourself all dressed up as if you're going to present.
You need peep the backs of people's heads. You need an audience shot, you know what I'm saying? And being able to have somebody, , but having that recorded and then having them create you a speaker role so that, , a lot of places want something like that. So I would make that like a priority for you is, is doing that and hiring a videographer and telling them this is what I need.
And to combined with your friends and their friends, as models where you are, you need that kind of like audience so that it looks, I don't want to say so that looks like you're legit, but it kind of does. So, , do you happen to know any, , videographers in your area?
, I think I may have just met one, so.
Yay, that's a coinkidink. I love that. , definitely invest in that. And then update your website with a speaker, like speaker, speaker, speaker, make a one sheet and have one for speaking, have one for podcasting, have one for networking, , but being able to, , have these docents with, you know, titles of your talks, a little bio about you, , Mel Robbins has a really great speaker page.
If you want to kind of look at hers as maybe like a, , as a example. I just looked at it yesterday because somebody was asking on my, in my Facebook friends was like, where is Mel Robbins speaking right now? I really want to go. And I'm like, well, I Googled it. Cause I'm like, well, did you ask, like, did you go investigate?
So I went to go investigate and found, , you know, how like Google will give you like this little AI smary now.
, there was the letthemtheory. com or whatever. And so I clicked on it to see if I could find any. Upcoming speaker things, but her, she had a speaker page and I was like, Oh wow. Like how much does it cost to have Mel Robbins come and speak?
Yeah. Right. Like pretty penny, but she has like approved images she has here. Click if you would like her to be on your podcast, click here, if you would like, you know, whatever, so you can like request different things on that page. So it could be like kind of a. So, take what applies to you, but kind of use or other speakers that you, , have seen or respected or whatever, and just kind of look at their pages and go, Oh, I like that element.
I want to, I want that on my, on my page too. But having a, having a B roll of some sort will be really helpful, , for people who are looking for speakers. And then any sort of, I would be putting stuff on YouTube. As well, and utilizing that SEO because YouTube is a search engine. , Pinterest is a search engine.
And even though TikTok may be going away, we just don't know yet. , it is also a search engine. So, putting those things on there. With and I would put it into Descript. I would transcribe it. I would ask it to provide you with a smary and keywords and a title and use all of those to create. , content out there.
I would be, , creating like a little, , what is the word? Like a, I don't know, , like a very short, very short clip that you could use. Is that a GIF? I don't know. It's like a short little, , It's a it's a moving video, but something that you can have is like the background to a page on your website. So where it's like 10 seconds, maybe right so it kind of just cycles through.
But having that of you speaking, you know what I mean. I'm having that interactive element to it. Mm hmm.
So if, if that is your intention is to become a speaker, then let's get you like changing all of your stuff that you are a speaker changing, you know, and how to book you like putting that on all your profiles, updating all of the things that need to be updated.
And also notifying your clients, notifying your community, notifying your email list. Hey, this is what I'm up to. This is how you can support me. This is what I would love to talk about. This is who you, you might know that you, I would love an introduction to. You got to let people know what you're up to because, , they want to be supportive.
So communicate with the people that you've connected with before and just let them know that you've had some updates in your life and, and you would love their support. And this is what support might look like. Yeah.
you. Yeah. They want to be supportive.
I do that once a year. I will reach out to people that I've connected with before in like the last year and I will send them like, this is what's new in my life.
And I would love to have like a reconnect. And one year I kept track and I sent, I had done 312 connects one on ones, which is a by the way. , and. I just reached out and I said, this is what's going on in my world. And I had so many people schedule second, I call them a second date. You want to schedule a second date.
And then also, and I said, I would love to, what's new with you? Like reply and tell me what's going on in your world and how can I support you? And a lot of people replied and kind of gave me their top 10 of things. And I'm like, I didn't make it about business. It was all personal and just, you know, I traveled to Paris and, and where have you gone and just allowing people they wanted to share about their experiences that they had in Paris or something like that.
So I kept it all personal based. And, , but invited people to connect again with me and included my calendar link so they could do so. So consider maybe doing something like that just to update the people that are already in your community and in your network and your contacts and like, hey, this is what's going on.
And definitely update your LinkedIn profile, because we know when you do that, it does update your contacts and lets them know, because then people want to send you congratulations. And then if they do, it goes into your DMs, which then you can reply back and say, Hey, just an FYI, if you ever come across someone in this kind of field, I would love a connection with them.
yeah, that's a good idea. And I think even a simple update like switching to like speaker and life coach. Yeah Live coaching speaker.
Yes, exactly. Exactly. So, utilize those things to your advantage. And, it's like, you know, kind of the same concept. If you spend a little time in advance, you can save a little time later.
You know, I would think this would be time well spent that will, that will pay, that will have its payoff because then you will start to attract people to your profile that are interested and are looking for speakers. Learn English for free www. engvid. com
Yeah, although my experience has been in the past that whatever updates I make tend to attract people looking to sell things to those people, so.
So here's what I learned. Somebody gave me this advice once and I, mmm. I will pass it along because maybe the advice was not for me. I'm a firm believer of that. Sometimes I receive stuff that is not for me. He said to me, cause I always complained about LinkedIn. I was like, God, LinkedIn is the bane of my existence because all I get are dirty DMS or pitch slaps from people that want to sell me something.
I don't know you. I'm not buying anything from you. I'm not booking a discovery call with you. You know nothing about me. So he said to me, he said, Those are people that want to connect. So what if you turn it around on them? Well I would love to connect with you and here's what I do. And I'm like, Martin.
But, , he used it as a way to turn it around and pitch them right back. And here's my calendar if you'd like to schedule a consult. I was like, you are braver than me, sir. You are braver than me. And a lot of them, I mean, I don't know if LinkedIn has cracked down on it or not, but a lot of them were just like, you know, they were auto responders.
They, you would, you know, approve a connection and then automatically get in a DM. And you're like, Literally, you did not have time to type that.
It was literally an automation. I
really enjoy your profile. You don't even know anything about me. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So I hope that they are cracking down on that because it is the thing that made me not want to use that platform was all of the, the, , unsolicited sales pitches.
They're not authentic. And I am a firm believer. I love automations, but I will not automate building relationships with people. That's not how to do it.
If it's not genuine and authentic, I'm not replying. I can tell that as a canned message, there is no authenticity in that whatsoever. It's all about you.
I'm not interested. I don't even reply. So
Got to pick our battles, I guess. Yeah. All right. So action moving forward. What's going to be your priority?
, my priority is emphasizing the speaking.
, yeah. Emphasizing the speaking is my definite priority. And then also experimenting with, , AI to help me generate the title for
fantastic.
Okay. Well, I, , look forward to seeing what you do. Don't forget, send me updates when you get your speaker reel done. Send it over. I would love to look at it. , but thank you so much for being a guest on my podcast. It was lovely to meet you and I hope that this was helpful in some way.
Thank you so much.
It was. Thank you for having me.
All right. We'll see you guys later. Have a great day.
