Transcript of Confidence Classic: Stop Waiting for a Breakthrough and Start Building One With Heather!

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Success often looks easy from the outside, but on the inside, it can be a real test to your self-confidence. It's all about getting knocked down 14 times, then picking yourself back up for lucky number 15. Don't give up too soon on you. I'm on this journey with me each week. When you join me, you are going to chase down our goals, overcome adversity, and set you up for a better tomorrow. I'm ready for my close-up. Tell me, have you been enjoying these new bonus Confidence Classics episodes we've been dropping on you every week? We've literally hundreds of episodes for you to listen to, so these bonuses are a great way to help you find the ones you may have already missed. I hope you love this one as much as I do. Hi, and welcome back. I'm so glad you're back here with me this week. Thank you for being back here. Okay, so I've been receiving a lot of messages on social media lately asking me, hey, can you give me an intro to someone to launch my speaking business? Hey, can you give me the shortcut on how to get ahead? In business.

Hey, how do I get my business to the next level? Hey, how do I break into the speaking business? Okay, here's the thing. Number one, if there was some magic bullet that just worked, you know, in a mystical way for everyone, wish I had it. I don't. I'd be a multi-billionaire with a B, which would be freaking phenomenal. So, uh, we aren't there yet, kids. So that— so I don't have that magic bullet for myself. Much less, you know, the ability to monetize it and sell it to you, right? Because I would, I definitely would. Here's what I know, and I can just tell you from my experiences, is in most businesses you need to brand yourself, right? So you need some credibility, some name recognition, some level of expertise that you're perceived as an expert or as a brand in some regard so that people know what you stand for and they know what you offer, they know what problem you solve. Then you need to devise some type of a customer acquisition strategy that's repeatable. Right? You want to lather, rinse, repeat. And this happens— it doesn't mean you have to know exactly what that is today, but you do need to test and try to innovate, right?

I'm always trying different things to see what could work, what could be better than what I'm currently doing, what competitors are doing, what people are doing in different industries to acquire clients or up-level clients or sell them more products and services or raise your rates. You know, there's so many different ways to grow your business. Having teams of people sell your products, new distribution points, right? There's so many different ways. For me, one idea that I came up with was selling autograph books because personalization is big and a lot of people aren't doing that. You know, the majority of my competitors do not sell autograph books. So I went out and made a deal with a local bookstore, Books and Books in Miami, and anyone that wants Overcome Your Villains or Confidence Creator autographed or even personalized written out to you, you go to the website, you fill out the form, the form, you request personalization, you request an autographed copy, and Books and Books takes care of it for you. So I worked out a deal such that I go there every other week and they print out the list of the requests and I sign them all there while I'm in the store.

I literally signed 500 books last week or 2 weeks ago when I went over to the store. So, you know, it's a different model. Am I saying that's gonna be the biggest differentiator for me? No, but to me, personalization is important. I get a lot of messages about that, so Pay attention to the feedback you get from your customers, you know, your team members, and start saying, hey, how can I show up a little differently? Maybe it's a little bit more work, but maybe it brings a lot more value, right? So, so those are some of the differences that you can bring into your business model. And again, test and try, test and try until we can find better, uh, more innovative ways to acquire clients, uplevel clients, add more distribution points, et cetera. So. I keep getting these messages and it just reminds me that on the outside looking in, things look easy to other people when in reality they're probably not. It's probably a lot of work. That doesn't mean there aren't times where literally mystical occurrences happen, right? Like you meet that one person that opens the door to so much opportunity for you and they open the door for you, right?

They invite you onto their show and it's a huge show and then that show leads to so many others or You know, this partner invites you to a meeting with Walmart and your products get added at Walmart, right? Those are game-changing moments. They, in my life, don't happen every day. So what I've learned to do is to do the work so that I can establish the credibility, do the work so that I have the experience, the understanding, and the know-how to start building and repeating, building different businesses, opening different doors. And moving into different opportunities. So I'll start with, I'm gonna give you a couple different examples of this. The first one I'll go to is when I first got into podcasting, right? And again, these can apply to any business model. It's not just about podcasting, right? This is about getting into business and achieving some level of success. So, you know, when you first are looking at a business, I remember I was first looking at podcasting. The reason why I looked at it is When I wrote my first book, Confidence Creator, in 2018, and I was Googling how to sell books, it said to speak and it said to go on podcasts.

And I hadn't done a lot of podcasts, right? So you have to start somewhere. So I knew it wasn't gonna be an overnight, you know, uh, magic pill for my book, but I thought I might as well start now. I wish I had started 10 years ago in podcasting, but I hadn't. So I started going, pitching myself as a guest to different podcasts. I started on small podcasts first. Right? Because those were easier to get on. And I figured the more that I would show up and do it, the better I would get. And then I'd understand how can I add more value to larger shows? How can I better be a better guest, add more value to their listeners, and start to understand not only how to pitch myself, but then once I landed the shows, how could I add value so people would want me back or refer me to other people, or so I could convert those opportunities on the show when I'm in front of a new audience their listeners into book sales or into my email program, which is driving their data back to my website so that I own their information and then can communicate directly with them.

That's all about conversion, right? So to me, podcasting was gonna be an opportunity for me to grow my brand, for me to sell my books, for me to reach a larger audience and begin being realized or recognized as an expert or a credible business person. Those were kind of my initial thoughts. So I was doing these shows initially in 2018. I was getting some success and I was learning, okay, if I don't have an offer, it's a wasted opportunity. So put some kind of an offer out there, a free ebook to drive people back to your website. I'm gonna do an autographed book giveaway today for, you know, 5 listeners. Bring some value so you can separate yourself from other guests, number 1. Number 2, you can offer something to the audience to get them engaged, to remember you, and get them reaching back out to you 'cause you wanna bring them into your fold. So over time, over a year really, I, I did more and more shows, hundreds of shows, and I started landing bigger shows. I went on the James Altucher Show, I went on the Dr. Drew Show, I went on Lady Gang, I went, you know, I started going on some really much bigger shows over a year.

Now I will also say this, for 25 years I was in the media business, the radio business, right? So I had a lot of contacts. And I had been at thousands and thousands of audio events, shows, podcasts. I knew this business, but the funny thing was I knew it from the other side, right? So that was an advantage to me is that I knew the business. I knew what the listening audience patterns were like. I had some ideas on how to grow audience, how to pitch myself because I'd been in this business for a long time. I was a chief revenue officer, so I was in charge of driving revenue to the shows. Now I was sitting on the other side. I was getting behind the microphone. It's completely uncomfortable, by the way, right? Anytime you put yourself in a new situation, I didn't know how it would turn out. I thought, I've gotta give this a shot and I'm gonna be frustrated if I don't do it and, and miss this opportunity. I'd rather just, you know, go into it messy, give it a shot and see, hey, I'll know eventually if it's working or not, right?

And you will too. You'll start seeing, okay, there's some signs. This is, I'm getting some traction. Or you're gonna start saying, I think I'm starting to waste time. These are the things that I learned along the way. I did waste a lot of time. I didn't convert a lot of audiences. I didn't add a lot of value at first, and I started learning through doing it wrong, how I could do it better, and learning by looking at people who are ahead of me and listening to their shows to see what they were doing differently, right? So again, a lot of work. I mean, literally thousands of hours in on this. And then I'll never forget, I ended up out in LA. A good friend of mine from the media business connected me to a few people at PodcastOne. Where she had a great relationship and she had a lot of credibility. She said, listen, this woman Heather Monaghan is a great friend of mine. She's an amazing talent, really smart person. I think you should put her on some of your shows. She'll add big value and she's unique and different. They said yes. That's how I ended up on the Lady Gang Show, which is a really, really huge show for female audiences.

Millions of listeners, millions of downloads to every episode. And that's really important because you want the larger the audience you're gonna reach, if it's the right demographic, the more opportunity you're gonna have to bring those people into your fold, to get them to follow you on social media, get them engaged with your free products on your website so you get their email address, or get them to buy your book, right? I wanted to do all of those. So we did a book giveaway, we did a free product giveaway for my free ebooks, and something else, and a social media contest. So we were engaging at all different levels. The Lady Gang was super appreciative because I was doing book giveaways just for their audience. So I was adding value for them and for their listener base. And it ends up, I, they released the show right away. I was still in LA, it was, I was out there for a week and I saw that it hit the Apple iTunes chart. It was like at number 8 on the society and culture. And it was next to Oprah Winfrey had a, an episode that dropped the same day.

Her show was like number 7, we were number 8. And I thought, oh my, okay, wait a minute, that's a sign, right? That's noticing, wait, something's working here because we just hit, you know, top 10 on society and culture next to Oprah. Ding, ding, ding, this is a sign. So I got into my business mind and I thought, how can I leverage this moment in time, right? When you see a sign that something is like, whoop, wait, this worked, something's good here. Leverage it? How can I leverage this for a new opportunity? How can I leverage this for more opportunity? How can I engage more? How, how can I take this one micro event and turn it into a macro event or a series of other micro events like a domino effect that I can benefit from? So I took a step back, I went to my hotel and I thought, wait a minute, this is a PodcastOne show. I'm in LA, they're headquartered here. I called my friend that helped me to get the opportunity. I said, I just wanna let you know how well this episode did that you got me on. I sent her the screenshot, right, to give her the proof.

She said, holy cow. She said, you should really go in and meet with the CEO right now since you're there and since your episode went top 10 on the Apple iTunes chart. I mean, this is huge, Heather. I said, great idea. That's what I'm gonna do. So I called his office. I got on the phone with his executive assistant who was so sweet, by the way. And it's always so important to, you know, treat the gatekeeper with care and be nice and, treat them like human beings. And, and so that's something that I've always done in business. So I'm speaking to her for a little while on the phone telling her about the episode, right? I was getting her super excited. I'm sharing my story of what happened, how I went out to LA and I went on her show Lady Gang and we went top 10 and we're next to Oprah. And she was so fired up and excited for me too. And you know, I was sharing with her that I had been fired and I didn't know what I was gonna do. Anyways, we end up on, I'll call for like 10 minutes.

And at the end I said, make a long story longer, I'm calling to speak with the founder of your company. Is there any chance he's in town this week? I'm here and I'd just like to come in and thank him personally for the opportunity he provided me to go on this show and, you know, and make top 10 on, on the Apple iTunes chart. And she said, hang on a second. And she said, could you get over here this afternoon? And I said, yes. She said, then come over as soon as you can, and I'm gonna find a way for him to see you. And she was just so, you know, so wonderful and so charming and so cool and just, she was great. So I literally jumped in a cab, I went right to their offices, which were 10 minutes from my hotel, luckily, or serendipitously. I got into a meeting with the founder. We hit it off immediately. And within 10 minutes of me being there, he said, Well, you need your own podcast, Heather. And of course I had thought about it because at this point I had been doing podcasts. This was now the beginning of 2019.

I had been doing podcasts now for a year. I had gone on some really big shows, had some good signs that it was working. I had learned enough about behind the scenes on how to add value and differentiate myself. And so when he brought that up, I just went for the close, right? You're never going to get another opportunity to be in front of the ultimate decision maker and have them give you buying signs. When that happens, you've gotta go for the close. So I said, you read my mind. Exactly. Absolutely. I pulled out my book. I showed him my book. He loved the COVID He said, this is the COVID art for your podcast. Let's do a show together based off Confidence Creator. Let's call it Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan and let's do this show together. And I said, done. And it was all because this Lady Gang show, his show had done so well with me on it. That it opened his mind to the possibility that I could have my own. Meet a different guest each week. Hey, y'all, it's Jade, confidence creator.

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Confidence. I ask you to try to find your passion. Then what I wasn't prepared for was, you know, I lived in Miami, they were in LA, and they were a lot— very large podcast network at the time, back in 2019. And so legal had to get involved, accounting had to get involved. Anyways, this went on for months. Finally, in May, in May of 2019, my show launched and, and it was great because I had lined up Gary Vee as my first guest, which that took months too to do, by the way. That was not easy. I know a lot of people think that I just fell into that one. No, that's not the case, right? So what I had done behind the scenes was the minute I thought that we were really gonna have a show together and launch a show together, I thought go big or go home. You know, everyone was telling me it's too late to launch your own show. You're too old. It's too competitive in podcasting. Market is saturated, right? All the naysayers thought they're being helpful, giving me their negative Nelly attitudes. And I remember thinking to myself, no, if I just go really big, I can make a lot of noise, get a lot of attention, and rock the podcasting world and make this show, you know, noticeable or, or worthy of being noticed.

And so I started DMing Gary Vaynerchuk like crazy. I took a Google alert out on his name, and one day I opened up my mailbox to see that he had just started a wine company with a partner, and I didn't know the partner. So I went to LinkedIn where I had been showing up every single day since 2016. So I had credibility, I had expertise, I had a real persona there and value on LinkedIn. If you're not showing up on LinkedIn, start showing up now. Huge opportunity for customer acquisition, partnerships, and connecting with random people like I did in this day. I messaged this guy Traudi, and he messaged me right back. I had reached out and said, hey, saw that you're starting a wine company. I was in the wine business for years. I've launched a lot of different products in many different marketplaces. I'd love to share with you some of the things that worked and some of the things I would definitely steer clear of based on my expertise. And if you want, I, I'll jump on a free call with you and just share it. You know, if this is of value to you, you know, let's set up a time.

If not, best of luck. He wrote back, yeah, I've never been in the wine business. Let's do it. We get on a call, we're on a call for an hour, we hit it off. I'm just, you know, sharing every insight that I have with him about the industry. And at the end he says, Heather, how can I help you? And I said, it's so funny that you ask. I still didn't know when my show was gonna be launching, but I knew I was gonna have a show. And I just said, listen, I'd love it. I'm launching a new show. I'd love to have your partner Gary as my first guess, can you help to make that happen? And then we had to jump through so many hoops with his team and Gary's team and, you know, but that was a starting point. So again, on the outside it might look like, oh, she just falls into these things, but it's not, it's not falling into things. It's really about putting the work in, being strategic, keep showing up, you know, ignore the nos, stay focused on getting the one yes and keep doing the work.

And my keynote speaking is exactly the same, if not even harder. And I've shared this with you a few times, but at a high level, again, this can apply to any business. When I, I'd been speaking for 20 years in corporate America, so I've been putting the reps in. Number one, put the reps in whatever it is that you wanna do, whatever you wanna build, you gotta put the work in to test and try and see what works, what lands and what doesn't, and improve your craft, right? That's bottom, like baseline number one that you have to do. I had done that for 20 years, so I was a very good speaker. However, I didn't know it was a business. Cut to, I'm trying to launch a speaking career and I'm thinking, well, I've been doing this for over 20 years, I'm great at it, I'm a speaker. Suddenly I'm in a new world called professional speaking and they count me as ground zero because I hadn't been considered a professional speaker even though I had been doing it, taking swings, taking reps for 20 years. That was frustrating, but I thought, okay, new hurdle, gotta overcome it.

Let's, you know, find ways around it. So I, I started thinking if I could get a TED Talk, that would be a way to break through the noise, break through the clutter. So I started speaking for free as a professional speaker at first because people didn't want to hire me because I didn't have an agent, I didn't have a name, I didn't have a reel, you know, I wasn't known. And so I started speaking for free and then taking that footage and posting that footage on social media to create opportunities, being really strategic about the hashtags I used and the people I was engaging with to make sure they'd see my content. To promote myself as a paid speaker for their business. And I started pitching myself to speaker agents once I had some content created so I could show what it was like seeing me speak and, and headlining different events. I started gathering reviews and recommendations of my speaking, right? These are all things you should do in any business to leverage and set yourself up for advancement and to appear credible and as an expert in a field that people would want to hire you for.

So I mean, all these things did not happen overnight. I ended up landing a TEDx Talk, you know, after over a year and a half of pitching myself. I was told no hundreds of times. I finally landed one, and that TEDx Talk got promoted to TED. So then I had the ability to send— and that TEDx Talk was a lot of work, by the way, it's a crazy amount of work— but anyhow, so I would then send agents a link to TED, Heather Monaghan, and they could see my TED Talk because my TEDx was promoted to TED. That gave me more credibility. Then I started marking myself online as a TED speaker, which gave me a lot more credibility. Then I started leveraging that TED Talk and sharing clips on social media again. So it's like a ladder that you're climbing, right? All these different steps go into ultimately landing you some agents, ultimately landing you some paid gigs, ultimately landing you some great reviews and recommendations of your speaking. And then and you learn along the way. I learned I had to craft a few different speeches for a few different audiences. I had to focus on what the takeaways would be for them, what was unique and different about me, what were my audiences saying about me, so people could have an understanding of what they're gonna get when they invest their money in my speaking.

And then I had to show up constantly and consistently as a speaker on social media, on my website. So start looking through that lens of the person that's gonna land on your website or on your content. What does your profile look like? What does your website look like? I remember an agent said to me, I go to your website, Heather, and it looks like you're an author and a business person. Doesn't look like you're a speaker. And that was really powerful advice and perspective because to me, I thought it looked like I was a speaker, but he was saying, hit me over the head with it when I show up on your page, which that now if you go to heathermonahan.com, I hit you over the head with the fact that I'm a speaker and an author, right? So, that can constantly change and evolve. When I first launched my website in 2016, I was a C-suite executive, so it looked different. And I keep adding and layering on and innovating and changing. And that's the key, right, is keep evolving, keep changing, keep moving towards what works, you know, start moving away from what doesn't and test and try different things.

And then you get advice like that man gave me, you know, a couple of years ago to say, you don't look like a speaker on your website. I think you need to update this. And every time you have to update, it's an investment, right? So none of this is easy. It's that ladder that you're climbing to get to that next level. So yes, I do get frustrated when I get these notes on social that say, hey, give me the one trick that I should apply to make the one intro for me that I need to get me into the speaking business or to land me a podcast. Or I haven't found that it's one intro. That hasn't been the case. In my life. I mean, there were moments when I landed the Steve Harvey Show, I thought, this is it. This was the one thing I needed to do. And then his show got canceled, right? And then it was like, that was over and nothing really huge came out of it, right? So it's so funny to look back in the moments that I thought this was the door I've always been waiting for to open for me, and then it wasn't.

So don't get hung up on the one magic pill. Keep Putting the reps in, keep showing up and swinging, keep deciding that done will always be better than perfect because you're going to learn something from it. You're going to meet someone, you're going to tip a domino that's going to tip another one that's going to tip another, that's going to build momentum for you so you can start to take off. Meet a different guest each week. Confidence Cleared.

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Confidence creator. I ask you to try to find your passion. Choose. So I actually have a chapter in Overcome Your Villains that I wanted to read to you today. It's reading time. That sounds so funny to me cuz I was never a big reader in my life. Until I got fired. That's really when it changed. So it's, it's kind of crazy. All right. But this is in Overcome Your Villains. And if you haven't listened to Overcome Your Villains yet on Audible, please go and get it. You will love it. I do behind the scenes every chapter. That's incredible. Don't believe me? Go look at the reviews. Go to Audible, go to Amazon, read the reviews of what people have to say about this book. It is changing lives. I'm so flippin' proud. And yes, I practice what I preach. I'm always asking for reviews of my work. And you should too. Okay, Chapter 7: Find Certainty Within. "If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you can't." —Dale Howard. March 5th, 2020 was my last live speaking engagement. I had the opportunity to speak at an international finance conference, and I was nervous.

I had never spoken at a finance conference before, and this was my first time addressing an international audience. Double whammy. Because I have learned to trust myself, however, I knew I would find a common thread to join me with the audience. The day before I was going to speak, I racked my brain hoping to find a way to connect with them. That's when I remembered that my ex-husband had worked in the finance industry, and while I had not been in that industry myself, I did have an insider's peek into how competitive it was. I could empathize with their challenges. So I decided to open with that story to relate and connect with them, and it was a hit. By the way, off-grid right here, always open any talk with a personal story. It helps draw your audience in. Anytime we can find a common thread between ourselves and others, we develop connection and relatability, and that is powerful. After the event, I went to the cocktail party. This was my first speaking engagement for a new speakers bureau, and I wanted the feedback to be off the charts. I worked the room shaking everyone's hands.

I had no idea that just one week later, COVID-19, which had been in the news, would make this simple gesture taboo. And asking for feedback. The feedback was fantastic. I was so proud. I had stepped into the unknown again and it had paid off. It is amazing how fast things can change in our world and how incredibly unexpected it can be. That's why we always need to get up, dress up, and show up. Then on March 7th, I received the email from my literary agent that she had accepted the 15th version of my book proposal. Yes, that means that on my 15th rewrite, it was finally a go. I don't wanna downplay this. For one full year, I had worked hard to first land my agent, then write and rewrite and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, my book proposal, all in the hopes that one day I would be able to get a publisher to say yes. But I've got to admit, there were times near the end of this year-long process that I became frustrated and started second-guessing whether I had targeted the right agent and if I was good enough for the big leagues. I can still clearly remember my agent's feedback on the 14th version of my proposal.

While she saw a major improvement, she still knew I could do better. I was frustrated. So much so that I had secretly decided that if version number 15 wasn't the charm, then I was going to move on to find someone else who I hoped would believe in me 100%. There was no science behind this decision. I had no experience writing book proposals, and this was the first time I had worked with a literary agent. I knew only that I had been told no 14 times when I thought the proposal, especially the latest version, which I thought was fantastic, should have gotten me a yes. This doesn't mean that I thought this agent was a villain. She was definitely not that. It simply meant I was wondering if I could ever be the right fit for her, and maybe her for me. The fact that this was my first time working with her and my first time working on a book proposal put me in some unfamiliar territory. I was uncomfortable, confused, and not sure where to turn next. I was questioning everything, including myself. I reluctantly revised the proposal one more time, sent it to my agent, and waited.

Out of the blue, I got the yes. Just like that, my reality changed completely. I had no idea that version 15 would be the charm. And now I can see that my agent believed in me completely. As she told me, she knew the proposal could be better, and she was right. Just remember that if I had thrown in the towel at version 14, you wouldn't be hearing this today. Success often looks easy from the outside, but on the inside, it can be a real test to your self-confidence. It's all about getting knocked down 14 times, then picking yourself back up for lucky number 15. Don't give up too soon on you. As all this was going on, we were entering a global pandemic. I was so excited to get a yes from my agent that I didn't even think about anything else but celebration. The next step was for my agent to send her a letter to her target list of ideal publishers describing who I was what my new book was about, and asking if they wanted a copy of the proposal to review. She sent out 15 letters and we waited. The following week, the virus began to spread across the US.

We began to receive feedback from publishers. Some of the feedback was positive and some negative, but we did have several publishers that were interested and even one that was very interested. My agent sent out the 15th version of my proposal to the interested publishers And we waited. One of the ways I relieve stress is to take action. Sometimes that can mean going for a workout. Other times that means preparing for the worst. I had ordered water, protein shakes, canned foods, paper towels, toilet paper, and the bare necessities for survival. Before taking action, however, I always ask myself, what is the grief to gross ratio? In other words, what's the work put in versus the potential outcome. If the potential outcome is greater than the amount of work required to make it happen, then I move ahead. Conversely, if the amount of work going into it outweighs the potential outcome, then it's time to reevaluate. When deciding if I should act on something, I ask, what is the grief to gross ratio? Next thing I knew, I received my first no from a publisher. Then another and another. Given the timing of this feedback, at the same time I was in quarantine with my son, with all of my speaking engagements canceled, my number one revenue stream, by the way, I was beyond down.

I jumped on the phone with one of my good friends to vent about my current situation when I was reminded, it's not how many nos you get. The truth is you really only need one yes. That shifted my focus immediately. Yes, I had received 4 nos, but my agent had sent out 15 pitches. I only needed one of them to come back a yes. I was suddenly feeling optimistic. This reminded me of playing softball when I was a kid. As a pitcher, when I would throw 3 balls, instead of worrying that I was about to walk the batter, I would celebrate that now I only needed to throw 3 strikes to get that batter out. It's all in how you view the opportunity in front of you. During this time, my son's school was moved to virtual. He was on Zoom technology for his classes. The transition went okay, although the first week was definitely an adjustment. Becoming my son's Zoom school lunch lady and principal, making sure he logged in for class on time, was a lot more work than I had ever expected. As the virus took hold, I took action and ordered a Peloton.

If you don't have a Peloton, please get one in case of emergency. The monthly fee over a 2-year window was reasonable, and again, worst-case scenario, if I was going to be locked up with my 12-year-old son for months, I knew I would need to be able to work out. I had no idea how the situation was about to play out. This was by far my best move yet. Not only did the Peloton give me a great workout with fantastic music, upbeat instructors, but it also gave me the chance to give virtual high fives on the screen. No matter where everyone else was, we were able to cheer one another on and have a sense of normalcy and team. This was truly a godsend while we were stuck in our small apartment indefinitely. Another week went by, more nos, and then one yes. Yes. The yes was from a small publisher, and the deal wasn't great. They cited the current pandemic as the reason for their low offer. So suddenly I was convinced I had shopped my book proposal at the wrong time. If only I had gone to market 6 months earlier when the economy was strong, I would have gotten more and better offers.

At least that's what I thought. After going down this track for another week, I started to open my mind to the idea that maybe this was actually the right time. Maybe given the tremendous crisis we were all going through, this was exactly the right time for my book and the tools needed to overcome adversity and leapfrog villains. That is what I chose to focus on. Done and done. Immediately after that change of mind, I received two very strong offers from major publishers. This was an interesting conundrum to be in all of a sudden. How would I choose which publisher to go with? I remembered how I felt at my old job in corporate America when some people wanted me there and others really didn't. It is a terrible feeling. I figured I would rather be with someone who is into it to win it with me versus someone who was only somewhat interested. I wanted committed, not just interested, and there is a big difference, and you should want that for you too. I had individual phone calls with each of the publishers. They were each fantastic in their own right, and they were both all in.

They both wanted me and my book. That was a great feeling. I then took a step back and outlined the pros and cons of each publisher. Then I called my agent and asked ask her her opinion. She's an expert. In the end, we both agreed that HarperCollins Leadership was the right fit, and we agreed to the deal. Then crickets. It's so hard when you're new at something and you don't have anything to compare it to. I started to wonder if they didn't want me anymore. Can they even do that? Will they pull the offer off because of the pandemic? Was my timing so terrible Would I ever hear from them again? If you do this to yourself, then know you are not alone. This old habit was rearing its ugly head again. My entire life, I have believed that no communication means worst-case scenario. I needed to remind myself that no communication is simply that— nothing. Instead of making assumptions and putting words into others' mouths, I needed to be patient. Which is definitely my weakness. I asked my agent what was going on. She reached out to them. Turns out publishing companies were not set up to make the move to virtual, and they were far behind on getting contracts done.

Mine was on the to-do list, but they didn't know when they would get to it. Patience was clearly something I was gonna have to work on. The ups and downs during quarantine came fast and furious. Some days I was so grateful to have my son and our health and our great view, Cut to the next day when I would have a nervous breakdown and lose my mind because an unexpected package that was supposed to be delivered didn't come. My stress levels were at an all-time high, and I started to feel trapped in our small apartment. Our washer and dryer broke. The tires on my car went flat. My dishwasher broke. I forgot to make my son's lunch countless times when I had meetings and he was in his room on virtual Zoom school. The blinds in my bedroom fell off the rod and I couldn't fix them. No one would come to the house to fix them because of quarantine. But that wasn't all. When school finally opened for in-person classes, they sent my son home with a fever and we were told to quarantine yet again. My son's dog died unexpectedly. My mentor passed away.

The air conditioning in my car went out. Two of the keys on my Mac keyboard broke while I was writing this book. It felt like Murphy's Law over and over again. One day, my son and I got off the parking garage elevator to go to our car, and it was gone. I started crying. My son stopped me and asked me, why would someone steal our SUV when we are flanked by sports cars on either side of us? I stopped crying. Then I grabbed his hand and we walked right back to the elevator. We had gotten off on the wrong floor. These were not my finest parenting moments. Then I remembered a strategy that I had taught myself in years earlier. When you are facing a difficult time, focus on something that you're looking forward to in the not-so-distant future. Once you reach that, create something new to focus on and look forward to again. Dylan and I focused on the upcoming Michael Jordan Netflix documentary, The Last Dance. Which we were both looking forward to seeing. While I had started off quarantine mostly optimistic and healthy, that ship had officially sailed. I began eating worse than I've ever eaten before.

I was downing bags of peanut M&Ms, and before I knew it, I had gained at least 15 pounds. My clothes weren't fitting. I wasn't really leaving the house much, so I was able to hide it a bit, but I wasn't feeling good. That was a powerful realization for me. Going out in public was the way I held myself accountable. With that accountability removed, I realized I was going to have to create a new approach. With any goal, we need to hold ourselves accountable, and that clearly included my health. With all this insanity going on in the world around us, it also became evident that we wouldn't be going back to normal anytime soon, which meant I needed to find a new way to drive revenue from inside our apartment. I did a few virtual speeches and it was good, but they didn't pay anywhere near as much as my in-person events. I needed more. I decided to jump on my Peloton and figure it out. I'm my most creative when I work out. That's when my best ideas come to me. When are you your most creative and likely to solve problems? It's important to ask yourself that question.

On the bike, it hit me. I needed to go back to the messages where people had sent me DMs on social media and see what they were asking me for. Amidst great uncertainty, we can always find certainty within us. I ran to my computer. I started combing through my LinkedIn messages. Within an hour, the answer was clear. A lot of people have been asking me if I consulted, offered executive coaching, or would be a mentor. That was it. I had no idea what someone would charge for these things, but I knew speed to market is critical to success. If you can solve a problem for others, then you have a product or service to sell and you are in business. I put a post on LinkedIn announcing my new group coaching program launching May 1st. In the post, I said, you asked, I've delivered, I've got you on this one. I offered 100% money-back guarantee because I knew I would work hard and I would overdeliver, and that would take the fear out of buying. Then I said, send me a DM if you want to sign up. I'm only allowing 10 people in the program this month.

Next month, the price goes up. I gave a call to action to move now. Within a couple of days, that program sold out. I was shocked. I was excited. But one thing, I had no idea what this new group coaching program would look like or how I'd run it. Mm, now what do I do? I went back to my old trusty friend Google. I researched other similar offerings and decided on a weekly group coaching call coupled with individual strategy sessions during the month. I knew I would need to collect an arsenal of testimonials from happy clients to promote and grow this new business. We live in a review and recommendation world, and it is critical that you have testimonials of your work. Don't have any? Start asking for them now. That first month, I overdelivered for what I was charging. I was spending all my time on one-on-one coaching calls. It was not a scalable business model. The good news is I received amazing testimonials to promote my business for the next month. I also learned the hard way that I had to pull back some of the offering to make the program work, both for me and my clients.

That's the key. In any business transaction, both sides have to benefit. When one side benefits but not the other, It's not sustainable. Now, how was I going to convey this change and not lose clients or revenue? Undervaluing ourselves is always the wrong answer. I want to be perfectly clear. This time was beyond awful for everyone. My son would constantly remind me during the pandemic that everyone was suffering. I understand that we may have had it better than many others and that others may have had it better than us, but here's what I know. It was a very hard time for the world, and I am not minimizing that. What I am trying to do is provide you with the understanding and beliefs you need to be prepared to take on the current and future uncertainties that we are all certain to encounter and build a better future for you and the ones you love. And no matter if you are a single parent like me, or you found yourself alone and isolated, or happily married or frustrated, we can all be proud that we made it through. Holding the belief that tough times are temporary and there will be better days ahead will carry us through these difficult moments.

Key takeaway: Never rely on one revenue stream, one form of customer acquisition, or one means of delivering your product or service. Constantly challenge yourself to innovate how you monetize your business, acquire new customers, and solve problems for your client base. Change and uncertainty will be our constants, but we can always find our certainty within ourselves. So that was, gosh, that was a long chapter, right? Oh my gosh, Heather, Overcome Your Villains, love it. That was chapter 7. I hope you liked it. And it just tied into this theme that I was talking to you about today. You know, that on the outside, things might appear really easy and that, you know, it's just miraculous how people find success. But it's really more like a ladder and a climb and, you know, trial and error and mistakes and putting the reps in and showing back up again. And the key is not to give up. Pay attention to the signs, pay attention to what you're learning, see where you're building momentum and keep taking action. And just like I break down for you in Overcome Your Villains, a 3-step process: beliefs, action, knowledge. Stick to the 3 steps.

They work. When you put that process in motion, you are destined to find success. Thank you for being with me this week. If you like the show, please share it. Tag me when you do. You are immediately entered to win the Audible version of Confidence Creator or Overcome Your Villains. I'd love to give it to you. And if you don't win, please go buy it. Both of them are so good. Check out the reviews online. Start building your reviews for your business, for your brand. You are worth it. Can't wait to see you next week. Keep creating your confidence. I decided to change that dynamic. I couldn't be more excited for what you're going to hear. Start learning and growing. Inevitably, something will happen. No one succeeds alone. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Come on this journey with me.