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Mike "C-Roc" Ciorrocco. Co-Founder of blooprinted (new tech product), CEO of People Building Inc.

Mike "C-Roc" Ciorrocco is the Co-Founder of Blooprinted, best-selling Author of ROCKET FUEL Convert Setbacks. Become Unstoppable and the powerhouse behind the "What Are You Made Of?" podcast.

He has been featured by Yahoo! Finance as one of the Top Business Leaders to Follow in 2020 and is on a mission to build people. He is driven to inspire others and he measures his success on how he is able to help others achieve greatness. C-Roc had a fire lit in him at an early age. That fire has ignited him with a fierce desire to compel people to see the greatness inside themselves using past life events to fuel their fire.

www.mikecroc.com

www.blooprinted.com/vip

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-ciorrocco/

https://www.youtube.com/c/MikeCRocCiorrocco

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Transcript : Vision in Word

Marlana: Mike's C-Roc Scirocco is the co-founder of Blooprinted, bestselling author of Rocket Fuel and the powerhouse behind the What Are You Made Of podcast. C-Roc has a fierce desire to compel people to see the greatness inside themselves using past life events to fuel their fire. Welcome C-Roc!

C-Roc: Hey! Marlana. Thanks for having me. I always start every interview with gratitude. Because it means the world to me, first of all, that people want to have me on the show and also to your audience. Thank you for showing up and listening or watching.

Marlana: Well! I think what you're going to share is going to be very valuable. So, in the way I look at it is I think there's two parts to this because I think part of it is bouncing back from setbacks and disappointments, and the other part of it is using it as fuel. So, talk to us first a little bit about the first half of it. How do we bounce back?

C-Roc: Well, first of all, I don't like bouncing back - I like bouncing through. So, I don't want to go through something negative, setbacks, discouragement, my own screw ups unless I'm going to be better off than where I was when I started. And so, like the word resilience, is not even powerful enough for me because I don't want to go back. The definition of resilience is to come back, I don't want to come back, I want to go through further. So, everything pretty much that I do Marlana is thinking about going beyond what most people would talk about, because most people talk about what makes them comfortable. And they don't want to get out of this zone where they feel safe. I want to be dangerous. And with the things that I'm trying to do not run out in front of a bus dangerous, but you know, thinking big to get out of the comfort zone type thing. So that's, you know, as far as doing that, I think it's a proactive approach, understanding that when you know, something like you're going for something or even just living your life, that you're going to run into things that aren't going to go the way you expect them to. And let's face it, that's really what a setback is, it's not really a bad thing. It's just something that happens that you're not expecting to happen. So, if you start to expect those things, and realize those things are to kind of guide you, maybe make you switch course, slow down, speed up. Then once you realize that proactively when they come, it's not that feeling in your chest, like, oh, I can't believe this happen. You're expecting these things that happen at some point and understanding that they are for you, not against you.

Marlana: When you go after things, when you make goals, do you look at the goal and then think okay, how can I push this farther?

C-Roc: Yeah, I mean, one of the things that I do is I do set a goal. And I think Is it big enough, because you know what people don't realize in life and that there's a secret to happiness, the secret to happiness is really having something to look forward to, that you're going after, or going towards. And it has to be big and like audacious because otherwise it's not exciting. So that's what makes you happy. Like one of the things that I want to do. I'm looking forward to taking my family to a Caribbean Island, with all inclusive, we haven't done that in a little while. And we're fortunate to be able to do it when we do it. But I want to be able to do that, well, I don't want to use the money that I have. Now I want to figure out a way to do it with Gilgit. How can I get that money? So, that gets me excited, and makes me happy to think about, okay, we're gonna go to that. So, I think what I'm really talking about is putting things out in your future causing and creating your future, and then moving towards that, and that makes you happy when you do that makes you excited. Just think about when you don't have something to look forward to, how that feels.

Marlana: That's true. And you know, once I heard somebody say that, in order to be happy, people need something to hope for, something to do and something to love. So, if you have those things, according to what I read, you'd always be happy. And so that kind of plays into what you were saying about having something to do and look forward to. So then how do we use these setbacks as fuel?

C-Roc: I'll tell you a quick story. You know, I came from a broken home, I don't remember my parents together. And I went through a lot of child support battles, custody battles, jealousy from one step parents and like all these different things that were going on, and there's a lot of broken people around law, alcohol, drugs, abuse, suicide, people that use drugs for anxiety and an overdose like just wild things as a kid that I shouldn't have really experienced, but I did. And so, when I was eight, I decided my mom was moving on to our third marriage and I didn't want to really learn another man's rules or move into another man's house. So, I said let me get my dad's house to try. And he had just moved on to a second marriage. And I thought that was a good move, but it ended up in the long run. Not a bad move because I get a lot of fuel out of it. But I ended up going through a lot of abuse. My stepmother was jealous. My mom, there was some conflicts that I don't know the whole story. But they dealt with a lot of conflict that poured down on us children. And when that happened, I went through abuse to the point where some of the stuff that I was seeing in here and I would want to sleep with my baseball bat when I was nine years old. And living in a house, which is supposed to be your safe haven your home and having to sleep with a baseball bat, because you're just not sure what's going to happen. It's not a good place to be as a kid. So, I dealt with that. And I got fruit flies flying around. If anybody else deals with fruit flies, we put two times a year we get like fruit flies to station. So, if you see me waving, that's what it is. Anyway. So, what happened after a while I realized this is not an ordinary situation. Like you can't be in a situation like this. I'll go to other friend's houses and realize; they don't deal with this stuff. Why am I dealing with it? I want that life. I want the happiness. And so, I told my mom what was going on. And she quickly filed court papers to get me back to her house. Because one thing about my mom's house it was a loving environment. It was not abusive, even though she had no money. She was poor. She did marry three times. She's not perfect. Nobody is, but we had love, right. And so, when she did that, she told me Listen, "you need to stick to your guns, because when you believe in something and you want to do something, people are going to try to talk you out of it. They're going to have their own agendas, and you're going to have to figure out a way to not let them guide you in that way. You need either cause and create your future, somebody else will." So, I remembered her saying that and when my dad finally got the court papers delivered, one day I came home from school after waiting weeks for this to happen. The tension in a place you can feel it, like it's thick, and I'm like, oh boy! Here we go. So, he told me to go to my room. And my dad, my hero. He was a Mason, he had his own masonry business, very successful big forearms and rough hands. Like he shook his hand. You know, he was a hard worker. And it used to carry water $100 bills were Italian, we don't care, while it's nice to carry water $100 bills or the rubber band around it. And he used to flash it all the time and show me it. And I thought that was the coolest thing as a kid. So, he comes back with these court papers and says, "Hey! It says here what you want to move back with your mom. You know, I don't understand this. You have everything you need here. We have money" because he was successful. "We have money to go places, I don't understand this. And your mom's not well off. She's got no money. She's got men coming in and out of the house. Why would you want to do that?" And I'm like, I'm sticking to my guns. I kept thinking in my head stick to your guns. I said, "I made my decision up." He said, "Okay!" So, he takes the water $100 bills out, peels went off, crumples it up and throws it at me and says, "here, you're gonna need this when you're living on the street to your mother one day." And the first thing that went through my head Marlana was, what did I just do? Like what nuclear bomb that I just set off. I had this thing in my mind, Oh my gosh! I can't believe what I just did! And it's kind of funny thing, when you're abused, you sometimes will go to this place where you're like, you don't want to disrupt anybody's life. You don't cause any problems. You don't… you also worry about what's going to happen to the abuser. If you tell people, it's a crazy thing. So anyway, the next thing that came to my mind pretty quickly though, was I'm not going to need that money. Like I know how to make money. I'm not 11 years old, I sold golf, golf balls on the golf course next door to the golfers for 25/50 cents, and I know I can make money, I'm not going to need that $100 I'll show you, kind of things. So that went through my head and 30 some years I drove off of that the best I could do and be the best I could be at everything sports schoolwork, I needed to prove him wrong. And I don't know if that's healthy or not. But what I was doing, I found out later on in life, after analyzing going through a bad business deal, losing a million dollars, I started realizing there's something happening in my life. That's extraordinary. And it's that anything that comes my way that was slow me down or stop me, or try to my own screw ups discouragement from other people being bullied as a kid bouncing from school to school, I was taking all this and this is the carrier, I was taking all this and stored it in my fuel tank, instead of my trunk where most people keep it. Most people keep it in the trunk where it weighs them down and slows them down and stops them. I didn't do that, I would put it in my fuel tank and use it, convert it into fuel motivation, whatever you want to call it. And I would blast off from that. So, I call that the rocket fuel law. It makes you unstoppable if you can figure this out proactively. And so that's how you do it. The other thing is, once you get your engine refined and you start realizing your mindset, all the reading that I do and the development that you do for yourself, your engine gets to a point where it's refined, and there's some kind of line of demarcation you cross, where you don't use that toxic fuel anymore. Like you need something else more high octane in your tank, because otherwise you're just going to hit a ceiling and you're not going to get very far. And that extra high octane rocket fuel is the stuff we talked about when we started the show, which is causing and creating your future. And the stuff that you're looking forward to, that's pulling you forward and it pulls you forward faster than the old toxic fuel pushes you. So I hope I covered that and answered your question there.

Marlana: You did. I love that you shared that story and I know that you have some ideas around people telling their stories and tell how and why that's important. And also what keeps them from doing that much. Talk to us a little bit about that.

C-Roc: Yeah, you know, in 2019, my stepfather, George, who I left them, most of my mom's third husband, he ended up being my mentor and a great father to me. Thank God for George. George passed away of a sudden heart attack in 2019. Coming out of the woods hunting in the wintertime, it's something he loved to do and gotten his truck and texted my brother and said, hey, I got out of the woods safe. And then after that, he passed away. And the two weeks following that were very difficult, obviously, anytime you lose a parent, and I went, shortly thereafter to a thing called the TEDx growth conference in Miami, Grant Cardone filled out this Marlins stadium with 30, some 1000 people. And I went to that, and there was a guy named Pete Vargas that stood on the stage. And he was sharing his story about him and his father. And I felt like everybody else in the crowd had just disappeared. It was just me and Pete, he connected with me on that level. And I listened to the story. And I was super inspired by his story. I said, you know what, I got a story to tell. If he can do that with me, I can do this with other people. And I need to do this. It's like an obligation to do this. Because if I can make people feel the way Pete just made me feel that story, I could really impact the world. And so, I realized that why haven't I been doing that? And that was like the catalyst for me to start really going after it and becoming known globally. But I realized, what were the reasons, and I realized there was a few reasons. One was, you think your stories are ordinary, and that nobody really cares about an ordinary story, they want to see extraordinary stories, when actually, that's not the case, because more people will connect with you when you're tall, talking about a story of something similar that they went through. The second thing is you're embarrassed, you know, I used to go on vacation to this jersey shore motel, with my mom and my stepfather and the four kids that we have that in our family, and then also we brought friends and we would stay in a small little hotel room with two beds, and sleeping bags, I don't even know how we all fit six of us plus friends in this room. And we would go with black trash bags as our suitcases. And so that was embarrassing, demand away. You know, I didn't know that we didn't really have money. But it was kind of embarrassing that carry your suitcase in the black trash bag or pull up to school in some of the types of cars that we had, which were beat up hand me downs. And so, a lot of people won't share their story because maybe they're embarrassed by that kind of thing, or the abuse that they went through, the drug addictions that they had, or the people around them had. And so, you know, I found out Wait a minute! If you're embarrassed, like what your stop and impacting other people, because you're worried about you, you're being selfish. Mm hmm. And the other one, which was the most important one was that you underestimate the power of your story to inspire and impact millions and millions of people. And that hit me hard. And I really set on, like, set out on a journey from that point saying, that's not going to happen anymore. I'm going to get my story out the people, I'm going to relate to people and I'm going to have content to go, and which is my mission, everything filters through this mission of all people are unstoppable to live in the life of their dreams. I'm going to use my story, to guide people in my mission, and impact this planet.

Marlana: I love all that. And you know, it's interesting, because I always tell people when they're thinking about a personal brand and building one, that it's never about you, your brand is not about you. It's about the people that you serve. And if you have something to say, something to share, somebody needs to hear it the way you're going to say it. And it needs to come from you. By doing that you can affect people, show them that what's possible. And I think that's so powerful.

C-Roc: Yeah, what you just said, it's not about you, it's about the people you're serving. And I'll tell you a quick thing. You know, I go to speaking events. I do a lot of podcasts 300, some in last 12 months. And some podcasts, there's nobody that ever listens to them. some podcasts that is the first episode I've done first episode for people before, but also been on ones that have hundreds of 1000s if not millions of people watching. Same thing with live stages. And it doesn't matter to me, I don't get more excited, less excited for any of them. Because I care about the person that's on the other side of this. And if one person or any, it doesn't matter 10,000 people but one person, I care about that person, it's not about me because the other part if you're worried about the amount of people obviously you want numbers, right? But at the end of the day, it's selfish to think just about yourself, your ego gets in the way. So, what I do is I have very high intention that when we get off this call if I'm on a 10,000 show, I want every person that hears my voice to feel it. I want them to be shaken so that to tell people, but if it's a show that only it's the first episode and I had no listeners yet, I want that podcast hosts to say look, I had care On my first podcast, I mean, you guys got to find out about this guy like it, he shook me and not stopped talking about it after the interview. So, I have that intention because I want to make that person feel. Well, the way my heroes made me feel. And that's important to me. So, it's, but it's not about me, it's about what impact that can have for other people. And by the way, when you do that, if you're a speaker, coach, trainer, salesperson, and you get nervous to talk to people or talk in front of people, the only reason you're nervous is because one, maybe you're not prepared. And number two is because you're worried about yourself more than the people that you're serving or speaking to.

Marlana: And it's the power of one, it's the affecting, the one changing, the one connecting with the one. And by doing that you will affect many, eventually. I know you have programs and processes and all this kind of thing. So, tell us a little bit about Blooprinted. What that is?

C-Roc: Yeah, Blooprinted it's spelled b-l-o-o instead of the color, we just switched it up a little bit. Blooprinted is a marketplace, like Pinterest, or Amazon where you would go and search for just success blueprints. And I say just success blueprint because it's not products and stuff on there. It's blueprints to success. In any vertical, any industry, any lifestyle, travel hacks, writing a book, starting a podcast, starting a business, we have physical trainers on there. dieticians, real estate people. So, if you want to accomplish something in life, and you want to figure out how to do it, you don't want to learn it, you just want somebody to tell you how to do it, this is the place for you. And when people go here, they'll search...

Deana Jean, Intentional Excellence Consulting LLC

Deana Jean is a Success Coach, Business Consultant & the Founder of Intentional Excellence Consulting LLC. She is also proud Breast Cancer Survivor & Brooklyn native.

Through her work with IE, Deana empowers women executive leaders and women entrepreneurs to get out of their heads and into action so that they can reap the abundance and success that they are destined for!

https://www.instagram.com/intentionalsuccesstribe/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/637217950162409

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio: Ariza Music Productions

Transcript : Vision in Word

Marlana: As founder of Intentional Excellence Consulting, Deanna Jean empowers Women, executive leaders, and entrepreneurs to get out of their heads and into action so that they can reap the abundance and success they're destined for. Welcome Deanna.

Deanna: Hello! How are you?

Marlana: I'm well, you know! Fear is an interesting topic to me. Because I feel that every time we go into unchartered territory for us or level up, or anything like that, fear kind of packs its own bag and wants to tag along for the trip. So, are there fears that you see that reoccur with people?

Deanna: I do. So, the interesting part for me is that I really work specifically with kind of one group, and I work really, really closely with women who are very high achieving, right? So, these are the women who are always raising their hand for the extracurriculars, always the class mom, always the one volunteering for the extra thing. Always the one that everyone else goes to for help, for support, for encouragement, for advice. But when it comes to their own thing, my experience has been that these type of women kind of freeze and they get into this analysis paralysis. What I work with a lot of my clients on is, getting under kind of what creates that analysis, what's under that layer of, "I can't do this until it's completely perfect", and what I found most often is that fear is the most consistent thing, is different types of fear. But it's always some type of fear. So, a lot of times what I'll see is that the fear comes from always feeling like everything has to be perfect and feeling like in many instances, there's imposter syndrome, and there are limiting beliefs, and the feeling that they may be found out that all of these ideas that all these people have on them, the way that they may be on a pedestal, that one day somebody is going to realize that they are not as great as they think that they are. So that's a big part of what I see with a lot of the clients that I work with.

Marlana: Interesting! And it seems that these types of fears occur in women, but not so much in men.

Deanna: Hm! Very, very true. I've done a lot of research on this and kind of investigation and a lot of market research on this. What I found is that as a society, in the society that we live in, right? I'll use our Western culture. Men are conditioned to do it right, it's like their birth right to ask more questions, to assume that the only reason that they don't have it, is because they haven't taken it, not even asked for it, but taking it right, and that everything is always up for negotiation. As women, we are not, even in your strongest household, right? There can be a lot of excitement around women's empowerment, still, there are cues that we get that tell us that we should ask instead of taking, that we have to make room, that we have to be considering when we're thinking, "how is this going to make someone else feel? If we have more, does that mean someone else has less, and is that okay?" It becomes a selfish thing. So oftentimes, it's almost like a reprogramming, and I speak to these experiences. So candidly, and in such a transparent way, just because these have been my experiences as well, I found that as women, there's so many differences that we can look at, and that we can figure out and ways that we can isolate ourselves. But I find that that is a common thread across women, that a lot of times we're battling with that. So, yeah, I see it a lot.

Marlana: How much of it do you think is imposed by society, and how much of it is self-imposed?

Deanna: It's a great question. I think that the societal norms create kind of the self-imposition, I think that the societal norms are where it starts, but those societal norms for us always, also, tell us how we should be thinking about things. I think it also comes back to just some of the subconscious things, subconscious marketing. All those things create the type of thoughts In the thought process that we participate in, right? So, as an example, in high school, I had a single sex education, I went to an all-girls school. That was very, very strong on women's empowerment (girls), women can do anything, right? Going into that school and going into that situation, I found myself to be a confident young woman. I had very good grades, I was able to speak well, I was able to make very strong and intentional connections. But the environment that I was in, in a cued school versus the environment that I was in in that single sex school, the environment was actually what made my thoughts change around what was possible, because there was evidence of it. I didn't have to consider and think about in my head, the fear of raising my hand inside of the classroom and thinking about if I was going to be ridiculed, or if I was going to be looked over, if I was going to be talked over, because we were all women in the classroom. So that fear didn't exist as much because it wasn't present. I think that actually allowed us to be able to have a different thought process that triggered us to be thinking about that differently as we grew in those very, very formative years, so that when we were put back into environments where there were men and women, folks that identify as men and folks that identifies women together, our thought process was still the same as it had been back in that school, because we had evidence of the fact that we were smart, that the things that we said mattered. But oftentimes, the hardest part about fear is that it is more prevalent in our heads than it is in real life. Right? Fear is really, false expectations and false ideas that actually appear real, and most of the time, they're in our head. So, the way to diminish fear, I talk to my clients about is actually not to say, "I'm re" and to do things that make you brave, but it's actually action, it's just doing something, it's putting one foot in front of the other, because when you're in action, it's hard to be focusing on action in fear at the same time. So, if you require yourself to consistently be in action, first of all, it diminishes the fear because you can't think about both at the same time, and you have both the same type of energy, but every time you take action, you are actually creating experiences that debunks the fear that was in your head.

Marlana: Hm!

Deanna: So, I think that the two, they play a hand in one another.

Marlana: So, I know that you have forced four steps to doing it scared, so talk us through them.

Deanna: Yes, yes, yes! So doing it scared for me, again, I work with a lot of these women. A big part of the reason why they don't move forward in life is because they are really, really fearful of getting into action. So, there are three things that all of my clients before we even work together, because the work that I do is very… you know! Get into action. We uncover things, and we spend time understanding why we act the way that we do. But once we began working together, we're in action. So, there are three commitments that everyone has to make before they can work with me. The first is that they have to commit to the idea that done is better than perfect, that whatever it is that they're going to do, instead of staying in their head and trying to get it perfect. Getting it done is better than making it perfect. Why? Because by getting it done, you're going to learn how to do it again. The second thing that they have to commit to is that they actually have to believe that you cannot make progress, in the process that you don't participate in. They really and truly have to believe that if you don't believe that, then you can't get into action, but when you think about the idea that, "okay! If I want to get closer to perfect", or "if I want to improve, I actually need to physically, intentionally be doing something right, in order to make progress." And then the final thing, which is always the hardest for the women that I work with, is that they have to commit to giving themselves grace. And gotta give yourself grace. Because if you don't give yourself grace, you're not even going to begin the process, you're going to be looking for that perfection. And a lot of times this resonates with women, because I typically say to them, you should give yourself the same type of grace that you extend to others. And that usually is a light bulb, right? So those are the three commitments that we make. Then, we talk about getting into action and it's called Firing How You Fire - the Strategy is Ready, Fire Aim. The first way that you fire is that you have to make sure that whatever goal it is that you're working on, whatever thing it is that you're trying to do, that you have to make sure that there's clear what around it right? So, like your goal, whatever you're setting, has to have really actionable milestones. A lot of times we can't get into action, because what we're thinking about is so aspirational, right? I want to make a million dollars, right? I want to be in a loving relationship, versus thinking about the actionable things that we can actually do to get closer and closer. Also, the way that we can be able to get low hanging fruit that allows us to feel that success, right? So, the what, when you're creating that clear what and why, and what has to be clear and has to be actionable. And then the why, this is the key, the why behind whatever you're doing, has to be stronger than your fear. That's the only way that you can get into action with it, right? So, if you're saying, "All right! I want to start my own business", right? And you're fearful because you're saying, "a first-generation entrepreneur like me?", right? "No one in my family has ever run their own business, I don't have my MBA, I don't have the pedigree of an entrepreneur". And let's say that the why that you are telling yourself of why you want to do this is because you want to make more money, for many of the women that I work with, that's what they'll say, but their making more money is not strong, and in the fear of failure around them not being a successful entrepreneur, because you can get another w two job and make more money. And have more security than you would as an entrepreneur, right? So, what we do is we dig under the layers, you have to get to the why that is greater than your fear. Most of the time, it comes down to things like, being able to have freedom of time, feeling like they are valued for what they bring to the table. That's step one, that largest step one is creating the clear what. Know why you're what has to have really actionable milestones, and then your why has to be great. The second thing is that you have to identify for yourself in order to get into action, what your zone of genius is, and you have to actually lean into that. So, a lot of the women that I work with, they take their gifts for granted. And they take them for granted because they come easily to them. Right? A lot of times the things that come easily to us were like, yeah, "that's just something that I do, I never… that's just who I am. That's how I was born", right? And they don't attach a value to that. Oftentimes, we don't realize that the gift that we have, that's been embedded inside of us, there are people who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to do the thing that we do, because they don't have that gift. So, we have to clearly identify what our gift is, and be really, really clear about communicating it. That second step is important because by identifying your gift and being able to communicate it, it actually gives you so much confidence. And it helps you to understand how to be working in that zone of genius, how to be doing that thing. So, for me, one of my gifts is the gift of connection. So when I decided that I was going to launch my business, I used my gift of connection in order to be able to launch my business, if I would have tried to launch a business by fundraising, that didn't require connections, what if I would have tried to launch this business, by just doing a bunch of research or trying to follow someone else's model versus using my gift of connections? It would have been disingenuous, and I wouldn't have enjoyed it. So, second thing is that you have to lean into your gift, because your gift is the thing that you love to do. Even when it's really hard, if you're walking in your gift, you're still going to push forward, you're still going to enjoy it. So, step number two is walking in your guests. The third thing is identifying and leveraging your gaps. This is hard. Because these are the things that actually for many of us as women that completely stopped us, right? We're like, "oh! You know, I don't do digital marketing. I'm not great with numbers. I'm not cool with my words. So, because of that I can't possibly do this thing." Here's what transformational about this, this framework, is that in our instance, your gaps, the things that you don't do well or don't enjoy doing, actually become your superpower.

Marlana: How is that?

Deanna: Oh, yeah, she's like, "how do you do that? How?" Because those are the things that you actually need to build what we call a success tribe around right? So, for me when I was going to become an entrepreneur, I knew I did not enjoy, I did not like it. I was not good at digital marketing and putting all the pieces together. In one scenario, I could have said, "alright! Well! Every business on my hands I have all these pieces, so if I don't do this, well, I can't be a good business owner." But what I did is, I use my gift of connection. Okay, I'm using that to find and build authentic relationships with people who are really good at that and loved it, and it was their zone of genius. So, by me now finding those people, building authentic connections with them, bringing them into my tribe, now, I've actually found an opportunity to bring people in, that love doing this. So, I'm giving someone else an opportunity to kind of live and own their zone of genius, but I'm also freeing up time for me to work in mind. As business owners and as women, a lot of times we don't like to delegate things, when we have our hands on everything,

Marlana: I think we're also taught that along the way that we need to be able to do everything.

Deanna: And you have to do it yourself, right? You know, my mom and my aunts (God bless them). They come from a generation of "you clean your own house", you make all the meals, and you work too. You don't have people come in and do that stuff. It's a different world that we live, in a different time. So, being able to build a success tribe that allows for you to be able to find and understand the things that really, really and truly are, your zone of genius, but allowing others too working with yours, is super, super helpful. And it's empowering.

Marlana: It's almost like building your own board of directors so to speak.

Deanna: That's exactly what it is. That's what I tell people, your success tribe is like your own personal Board of Directors that just opens up all types of opportunities, right? And then step four, final step is executed, often execute the best way to the ministry or members to get an action. So, I can't just do it one time, you got to do it as a session many, many, many times. Why? Because that's the only way that you can lean into done is better than perfect. Because every time you know, you're going to be able to get better at it. That's really the only way you can lean into giving yourself grace, because you know that you're learning. So, the next time you can get better at it. You have the receipts; you have the data. So, the four steps to get what and why. You also want to make sure that you identify and that you really, really lean into and leverage your gifts. You want to identify and lean into your gaps and deploy what we call your success tribe to support those areas that you're not as strong in as them having limiting beliefs around them. And then finally, you want to execute off them. So those are the four steps, those I love that max.

Marlana: Love that, and I think too, sometimes it forces us, or at least it should force us to look at our business not as a static thing, but as a fluid thing that keeps morphing and changing. And each different level will require something new from you, and a reassessment of what you're doing.

Deanna: Absolutely reassessment! New team members, new ideas. You know, a lot of the women that I work with, when they come to me, they're either executives that are starting their own businesses, or they are women who have started their own businesses, they may be first generation entrepreneurs again, like myself, and now it's time to scale. And that for them is actually more fearful than starting a business. It's like, "Alright! I did this thing, Was it a fluke? I have this thing; I'm working for myself." And you know, I have a coach who says, "for an entrepreneur, a six-figure salary is like an entrepreneur's poverty, right? Because if you make six figures and you're working for someone else, you have your benefits, you have your paid time off, all those other things, but all the expenses that go into being an entrepreneur, if you're at six figures, don't get me wrong, you have a business. But what you get to take home, and what you get to bring out of that is diminished, right? The only way that you can get to that six-figure profit line, which is where we want all entrepreneurs to be able to be in my business, is really by having a scaling model that requires you to get into action, and to lean into your fear.

Natasha Bowles Professional Services

Natasha Bowles is a naturally insightful powerhouse of a woman with perception and vision that looks to make the impossible, possible. As an entrepreneur, writer, mother, speaker, executive assistant, consultant, and digital nomad, she has provided freedom and exceptional support to her clients since 2016. Often referred to as "Wonder Woman" by her peers, tempt her with your hopes and dreams, and you'll often be met with a smile and the words "That's crazy! Let's do it!" This attitude led to the creation of Natasha Bowles Professional Services, a remote staffing agency that supports the growth of your business and dream. Natasha's staff supports everyone from C-Level executives to creative types such as podcasters, authors, and coaches.

http://linkedin.com/in/natashabeingww

On this episode of Your Iconic Image, Natasha talks to us about what we need to have in place for our brand to be a business.

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Marlana: Natasha Bowles is a woman that makes the impossible, possible. She's an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, executive assistant consultant, and the powerhouse behind Natasha Bowles Professional Services. No wonder she's referred to as wonder woman! Welcome, Natasha.

Natasha: Thank you!

Marlana: So, you are deep in all things business, and you make the lives of some very busy and very successful entrepreneurs seen.

Natasha: I do.

Marlana: Recently you and I had a conversation and you had mentioned in there that just because you have a brand doesn't mean you have a business. So, first tell us what you mean by that.

Natasha: I love what you do and people that create brands. So many people have an idea, then they spend all this money getting their brand created, they get an email, they get logo, they do all of the stuff and you're like now what? Just because you have a brand doesn't mean you have a business, because having a business is actually more than just having a name, connections, where people can reach you. You have to figure out how this people gonna reach you. What am I gonna do once they reach me? Who's gonna help them out? Those standard operating procedures are so important and it's a step that so many people skip. What is in my mind is how many people skip this step, and also the step of getting additional help. Most companies that fell in the first three years, fell because they don't have standard operating procedures, they don't have back-office help, and they don't know what to do.

Marlana: So, at the very list, what should we have in place?

Natasha: At the very list you need to have your plan of action (your business plan). That needs to go, actually that needs to happen before your brand even happens, you need to have a business plan. So I suggest, there are tuns of resources online to get a business plan together if you don't know how, or you can hire a business attorney – they can help you get a business plan, and there are also business coaches. That's actually something my team and I pitch to people. We've come to situations like; "okay guys, what are you doing here?" and we've actually helped them do step by step business plan and we charged them a fee. It's a one-time fee, so definitely put that in your budget if you don't know how to set up a business plan.

Marlana: Okay then, Let's say we have a basic business plan, how many things can we tackle on our own and how many things should we be handing off?

Natasha: So, I always recommend, and I actually give credit to Michael Hyer because it was his idea. I think the best way to do this personally, is just like, take a week of being you and have a book with you everywhere you go. Everything you do, everything you do, even the tiniest small stuff, jot it down, and you can go make a little diagram where you put the stuff that you do, that you love – the stuff that you have to do, the stuff that you don't love. This makes you figure out the stuff you don't know how to do, that's the important thing. So, as soon as you figure out those things, like what you're all day every day, how you're spending your time, what you're doing to make your business work or even not work, cause sometimes you figure out this's what's not working for us, then that's the time to hand off stuff. Often, it's at the very beginning, especially if you're working at stuff, you don't know how to do. You don't know how to do accounting? Hire it out, even if you just hire it out like; I don't like them, but I have Path Works services, is not that I don't like them…

Marlana: Hm! There is not such a thing

Natasha: Right! And I will contact them to say I do. The thing about them is that they really are helpful, but also at another level you really have to know what you are sending them and stuff like that, so they are not always the best if you don't know what you are doing, or you need to be sending them, but there are a lot of accountants that do. I think a lot of people don't understand when they start a business, when they get the brand together, stuff like that is that (Covid had open this up a little bit more) that any and every kind of support that you need is available out there, you don't have to hire a full-time accountant, you don't have to hire a full-time secretariat, you don't have to hire a full-time office manager – none of those have a full-time positions. Most executives is between forty and sixty hours per month.

Marlana: Hm!

Natasha: So, when you are actually using only hours to do work, most executive are only to get paid between forty and sixty hours. Most small business owners can get started for twenty hours a month, and that covers everything they could possibly need. So, a lot of people are like, "well I can't afford getting help" because they are thinking of the traditional way of getting help, paying taxes and all that stuff. Honestly, you can contract it out, you can get any kind of help. You can even get or hire board members and they would sit on your board. They give each company ten hours over a month.

Marlana: Its interesting that you bring this up because I was thinking as you were saying it, originally, well what about people who are just starting and are like I can't afford to do that, but you are saying that at any point, you should afford to do that.

Natasha: At any point you should be able to afford to do that because you can make an investment of $500 a month and get help from someone. Someone that knows what they are doing, knows what happens, and knows how to answer questions for you, can actually get a lot done in ten hours a month. Like I said, for most busy executives can work for forty and sixty hours a month, so these guys they are running eight figure companies, nine figure companies can do it in forty to sixty hours, a small business can be done in ten hours and that's a 5 USD investment.

Marlana: So, then, my next question is, because you said if you found somebody that knows what they are doing, and I know that you know what you are doing, what if you are not available for somebody, how do they find somebody that knows what they are doing?

Natasha: There are lot of companies that do what I am doing, so I am not the only one and there are a lot of VAEs. I actually support, I know that some people don't, I know that some people get bad about that people; "okay let me go to another country that will do for a very very cheap". I have never met such people; I have several that I have contacted in the past that sent tasks to me. A lot of them are smart, capable, amazing. They don't always know US law or US business procedures. Often, I will say, "please don't skimp on hiring. You could hire someone at my level for example, and just interview people – ask them, do you know how to do this? This is my business. Tell me how you will do this.". So, I have a lot of people that I show them the hows, and the whys, and the whats. I even manage, and they are able to use more hours of simple work at that level, but they also have someone that's supporting those people, and making sure that everything is done right. There are multiple ways you can find people, I'm not on Facebook anymore, but there's a lot of VA groups on Facebook, you can join VA groups for a discussion. But I do recommend that when you are hiring someone or you are looking for someone to help you, ask them, send them a task. You may even have to pay for it, even if it's a real task that you need done actually, I do recommend giving them $10 for doing it and you should expect there's a lot of negativities around that, but for $10 to actually find out if they know what they are doing. I recommend sending them a task and say, "hey! This is what I have to do next week." For example, you are a photographer, you say; "I have these clients, Covid shut down the place we booked originally, I need a place that is Covid safe, that has what we need. These are the recommendations, I need you to find me a list of five places that will be within a driving distance up here", and that will be a good task you can give to someone and a good example of wether or no they can actually do the work.

Marlana: That's a great advice! When we are having an initial conversation, are there any red flags that if they say this or if they do that, you think well you better move along to somebody else?

Natasha: If somebody says they could do everything, that is a huge red flag because no one can do everything. You want assistance, but if you do need multi-people support, pick a company like mine, that has a team. I can do a lot of things because I have worked with a lot different clients,I learned a lot from working with each one of them. I don't like to do social media, I know how, but I'm not passionate about it, so I'm not giving my best effort on it, but I have someone in my team that can do it. I can do basic text, not passionate about it, I don't like it, somebody from my team can do it. So, if one person tells you they can do everything, then that's actually a red flag because I think… I don't know if you ever heard what my grandfather said of those things, he used to say all the time was he is a jack of all trades, a master of none.

Marlana: MH!

Natasha: So, someone who tells you they can do everything, is probably not a master at anything.

Marlana: You know! I think that's with any business because I know even when in photography, I've seen people's websites and things like that. They will list; "oh, I photograph- babies, weddings, interiors, portraits, landscapes", then you're not doing any of them well.

Natasha: Right!

Marlana: So once we find someone, do we have to make a long-term commitment? Can it be a shorter-term commitment?

Natasha: You don't, and actually anyone that want you to sign a long-term contract, that's difficult to get out of, I would take that as a red flag because you shouldn't. Honestly. First of all, I don't think it takes you three months to work well with someone, so I usually recommend that when someone wants to work with me, I do recommend that let's sign three months together and see what happens, and I mean unless we're completely not clicking from day one then I recommend they stay for 3 months and either one of us can end it with a 45 days written notice, so that way they are not committed for years and I mean things can happen, COVID happened and a lot of my clients had to scale back. I didn't really lose anyone and there had a couple of people that we changed what they were doing and then had another person ,like okay; what are you able to do now during this time and needed someone at that level and if you want to settle back with me later, I'm available, I'm here because it wasn't in their best interest to stay at work so if someone tells you, you are allowed to do a contract for like a year, don't do that. So you need to be, you need to have the type of contract that will protect you with both sides and also you need to be building that relationship that's meaningful so that you can stay with that person when you are not required to.

Marlana: So, if we can't find a company like yours, that is multi-tasking, and we have all of these different things that need being done, cause part of my brains kicks into – oh my gosh! What a nightmare to be dealing with all these vendors for different things! Or is that not as bad as my brain is currently making it up?

Natasha: It really depends on whether or not, like, I have a couple of clients that use multi-people and like I said, 160 hours is a full-time job. Unless if you need a full-time, you can afford, but there's no such thing, there really isn't. If people tell you they are, then they are lying to you. So let's say you need a full-time unicorn, you know you can have an accountant that works 48 hours a month, you can have an online business manager that works 48 hours a month, you can have a social media manager that works 10 hours a month, I mean you can have 1 full-time employee.

Marlana: With your company, what services to you take care for your clients?

Natasha: We pretty much do take care of everything. And one of the things I offer that makes people sort of like pay us more is, I manage all that. You don't have to worry about managing all the different vendors, someone is doing your social media, someone is doing all of your back-office stuff, someone is doing your travel agent stuff, someone is doing your calendar stuff. Even with us, we've helped so many people start business, we can even be there from the beginning (this is how you set up your business) because we know how. I wanna know how my clients are, so that I can share that with my other clients and anything I learn I take to my next client. So, that's one of the things I offer, like I mentioned there are people who don't like to manage people, so I recommend using Trello, Asana, 17 Hats and so many out there but I kinda recommend using project management if you are going to be managing a lot of people.

Marlana: What if we have already built this personal brand? I know a business brand is a little different than a personal brand, same principles apply and vary. So, let's say we have this personal brand and we have developed it, can we work backwards to make it into a business?

Natasha: You can! Yes, you can definitely work backwards to make a personal brand into and actually I thought about my social brand. My story is, I became an entrepreneur, so definitely, you can make a personal brand into a business brand. There's never a bad time to start that, once you realize that this is bigger than a hobby, I would like for it to be a business, that's when you start making it into a business, and it's a little less difficult starting from scratch, so it's difficult to do a re-model. So, that's when I will recommend getting help more so even starting a business, it's kind of re-defining your brand into a business.

Marlana: Which is so important. You know! I have people that I work with too, that, they kind of stumbled into their personal brand, and it's kind of like a runaway horse. They are trying to put the saddle on, and they are trying to put the reins on so they can steer it, but the horse is already moving.

Natasha: Right!

Marlana: So, I know it's easier, I can still go-in there and do what I do with that, but it's a little more difficult for the business under that.

Natasha: Yeah! Like I said, it's a type of remodel a lot harder to deal with than that of total build.

Marlana: Okay! If somebody needs to start today, and they are starting from scratch, what would be your advice? What's the one thing they should take away from this conversation, that they need to start with?

Natasha: My advice is, if they are starting today, the one thing they really really need to take away is, decide what you want, decide where you wanna be, decide where you want this to be, what do you really want and then go from there. If you say I want a 8 figure business, let's get you being started, and my Grandfather used to say, "begin as in the finish", always begin where you want to finish, you can scale it to where you are right now ,if you want a 7 figure business, you need to treat your business as a 7 figure business from day 1.

Marlana: Is it the same advice, if the horse is already moving?

Natasha: It's the same advice when the horse is already moving. Even when the horse is running, you gotta know where it is going.

Marlana: Love it! Alright Natasha, that was a great advice, with that, I just have four final questions for you. The first one is, what's the best piece of advice you were ever given?

Natasha: The best piece of advice I was ever given, was by my grandmother and she always used to say, "no matter what is happening in your life, remember this too shall pass."

Marlana: Yeah, you know! Similar to that, I read recently something I felt it was beautiful that said,...

Lisa Kipps-Brown - Glerin Business Resources, Inc.

Author of the books Disrupt Your Now and Boomer Cashout, Lisa is a refreshing change in a world full of self-proclaimed experts who throw jargon around like candy. She helps entrepreneurs solve big picture problems with disruptive strategic thinking and no gobbledygook. A pioneer in business use of the web, she started her web & marketing strategy company in 1996. When few people knew what Amazon was and two years before Google existed, she was already reimagining businesses and even sold an online business right before the dot-com bubble burst. Other achievements include saving companies from bankruptcy and tripling CARES Act funds for rural communities via innovative campaigns.

Lisa's straight talk combined with a natural talent for transforming basic ideas into disruptive strategy & valuable collaborations has people like Forbes 30 Under 30-listed blind PhD chemist Dr. Hoby Wedler calling her a "cognitive powerhouse." Steve Sims, author of Bluefishing, says she's a unicorn who bridges the gap between digital natives and digital immigrants.

https://lisakippsbrown.com/

https://disruptyournow.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisakippsbrown/

My latest book, Disrupt Your Now: The Successful Entrepreneur's Guide to Reimagining Your Business & Life

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio: Ariza Music Productions

Transription : Vision In Word

On this episode, we discuss how to get out of your own way!

Marlana: Lisa Kipps Brown helps entrepreneurs solve big picture problems with disruptive strategic thinking and no gobbledygook. She's also the author of the book Disrupt Your Now. Welcome Lisa!

Lisa: Hello, Marlana! It's so good to see you. Thanks for having me.

Marlana: So today we're going to talk about getting out of your own way. Because I think that's a problem that most of us have at some point or another, sometimes multiple times. Why do you think we do that to ourselves?

Lisa: I think a big part of it is that we just overthink everything. And not just entrepreneurs, but everybody. You know, if you think about it, you can usually give other people better advice than they can give themselves. And then at the same time, you're screwing up your own life, or you're making poor decisions. I just think that we're so close to our own problems, that we can't see the forest for the trees.

Marlana: Do you think that it's even possible for us to recognize that we're putting these roadblocks up for ourselves or not?

Lisa: I'm sure that some people do. And I know that I do. But even when I know I'm doing it, a lot of times, I still am totally lost in what I should be doing. Because once again, it's just like, we're just so close to it. You know how like a painting, if you stand really close, and you only see a small part, you're not seeing the whole thing, and then

you back up and you see the entire vision. And you're like, "oh!" I really think that's what it is. Last weekend at Brandon Straza, (his three C coaching event), we talked about this topic a lot. And every single person there has the problem. I mean, I've been an entrepreneur for 31 years, and I've owned my current business for 26.

And there are other people there had been in business for decades. We're all the same. So, if anybody out there is feeling like a weirdo or loser, don't, you're just normal.

Marlana: Is it better for us to have somebody kind of, give us that bird's eye view, so to speak?

Lisa: Yeah, I think one of the biggest mistakes that I made in my own entrepreneurial career is not having a coach earlier. I kind of always looked at a coach as rah rah, you know, you can do this. And I'm like, I understand business. And I don't need any motivation. I don't need all that. But what I didn't understand is, in pro sports, even Tiger Woods has a coach. Hello! He knows how to play golf, he still needs a coach to help them dial in on the very small points. That's what I realized, that's why I started working with Steve Sims at the end of 2018. Oh my god! It's been three years. But yeah, Steve is the first coach I ever had, and I would highly recommend a coach or coaches, and masterminds to listeners.

Marlana: So, in your opinion, what will a good coach do?

Lisa: A good coach is not… it's kind of like a therapist, they're not going to tell you what to do. They will give you advice and so forth. But more than that, they'll kind of help you discover yourself and they'll ask the right questions to help draw out of You what you may know about yourself, but you may not be consciously aware of and sometimes they will help you advice-wise. Actually, help you formulate steps and so forth. I really do look at them more as a therapist and more of somebody to force you to take that step back. Also, for accountability, because hey! Let's face it, it's really easy to go to have a to do list and at the end of the list half the stuff hasn't gotten done. And so having a coach who's gonna sit there and go, "did you do what you're supposed to do?" It makes it a little bit more critical that you get it done because you don't want to get fussed at.

Marlana: Hm! So, what is the difference between them and an accountability partner?

Lisa: Well! An accountability partner to me is more a peer like maybe your same level, and you each are telling each other what you want to achieve, then helping each other make sure they do it. A coach should be somebody well above your level. And as a matter of fact, as you progress, you should continue to move on to other coaches..doesn't mean that you have to ditch the one that you're currently working with. A lot of people I know have multiple coaches, but you need to be working with someone who's well above you in the food chain, so that they will push you to think differently and at a different level of success than you may be thinking of. And when I speak of success, I'm not talking just money, I'm more into a full life and living life. You know, I look at it as why be an entrepreneur, if you can't live life like you want it, that's why money isn't the main thing for me. For some people itIs, maybe they just want to build something up really fast that they can sell. There's nothing wrong with it, but you should always have a coach who is several levels higher than you.

Marlana: In the people that you've encountered and worked with, do you see the same situations arise over and over again?

Lisa: Yes! definitely! Yeah! Somebody will come in, and they'll have a problem or a complaint. And we'll think we get it resolved. What happens is, there'll be a different problem or complaint that they have with themselves later on, what they don't understand is, it's all caused by the same thing. And hey! I am the worst at that, that's why I recognize it and other people. I'm really bad about having my list of things that I'm going to do and letting something blow that up. That should never be like that, I don't know, I think mine is kind of middle child syndrome wanting to. But so, I'm bad about doing that. But I'm also really bad about getting focused too much on some small detail that really doesn't matter and being a perfectionist, and over overworking it. It's a total waste of time because nothing will ever be perfect. Those are my two biggest those are the two ways that I get in my own way the most.

Marlana: Hm! It seems like perfectionism comes up for a lot of people.

Lisa: Yeah. And a lot of times people think that they're a procrastinator. I used to think I was. I'm like, "why am I such a loser? Why do I procrastinate so much?" and I realized it's not really procrastination, it's more fear of not being perfect, so, it's like, I'm kind of like, or I'm getting better about it. If I can't do it perfect. I don't want to do it at all,

or I'll put off getting started on something because of kind of that subliminal fear, fear of failure. Not that I really think whatever I'm going to do is going to end up being terrible. I don't think that but that it won't be as perfect as I as the level I hold myself to.

Marlana: So how have you gotten past that?

Lisa: Just really, really trying to be conscious of my own thoughts that I quite it's kind of like someone who's on a diet or not on a diet, but somebody who complains about not being able to lose weight, to slow down, to taste your food because a lot of people eat really fast, and they swallow it. They never even really enjoyed what they were eating, they don't taste it. So, it's kind of like, the same thing for me. Take a step back. What am I thinking about? What am I feeling and trying to figure out? I know this sounds all like psychobabble. I'm not in the psychobabble at all, I'm like totally no BS, so, I don't mean it like that. It really does help if you can try to get in tune with what you're actually feeling and thinking.

Marlana: Do you think a lot of people too are constantly looking to the next thing and not enjoying where they are right now?

Lisa: Yeah, I do think that, and I also think a lot of we entrepreneurs have shiny object syndrome. It's just so easy to go, "oh my god! That is perfect." If I just do that everything is going to be awesome. And then you set off down this road towards nothing again. And so, what happens is you end up scattered all over the place instead of sticking to one thing. I'll give you an example though, of how the perfectionism thing really affected me recently if you'd like.

Marlana: Yes!

Lisa: So, when I was writing the book Disrupt Your Now I tend to be a lone ranger. The last book I wrote before this one, I wrote it in three days because everything was already in my head, and I just had to get it out. So, this one I'm not only was writing it with someone else, I had a coach who is watching me. That's pressure, and then I ended up interviewing 50 entrepreneurs in it, so all of a sudden, I started! I didn't even realize I was feeling it. I just felt like I was having a meltdown. I didn't understand what was wrong, but I realized that I was afraid what if all these people who were involved in the book after it came out were like, "this is crap" I was bored in it or didn't think it was up to par and I really freaked myself out. Thankfully I had a friend around, but you know, I'm married. My husband's cousin could have done it, but typically spouses and significant others, it's hard for them to do because you just have all that stuff in between. So thankfully My friend was here, and she peeled me up off the floor and gave me a good cup of talking to and got my head on straight. … You know that's like what you're talking about an accountability partner, that's where an accountability partner will come in.

Marlana: Hm! So now that you brought it up, tell us about Disrupt Your Now. What's it about? Who's it for?

Lisa: It's called Disrupt Your Now: The Successful Entrepreneur's Guide to Reimagining Your Business and Life. You know how you meet entrepreneurs all the time, they may be very successful, they have the right cars, they live in the right houses and everything, but they are miserable to the outside world, they may seem like they've made it, but they just are miserable. It may be because of time, or they may feel trapped, they may be breaking because a lot of times we're not as financially successful as we are, because we've overdone it. This book is for those people to help them figure out what it is they really want out of life, so they can use their business to help them get it. The book evolved over time, it ended up nothing like I had envisioned it was going to be initially, but I love what it ended up being. It's kind of like a bathroom book for business. It's a whole bunch of short stories, and you can pick it up and start reading anywhere if you want to. It's not like something that you have to read from the beginning to the end. The other thing I really like about it is that I have entrepreneurs of all types, I have people from Steve Sims, the real life Wizard of Oz and Jeffrey Madoff, who owns the premiere video production company in New York City. He has clients you may recommend, I mean, may recognize like Ralph Lauren, and Tiffany and company. I mean, Ralph Lauren has been his client 35 years. So really, really high-level entrepreneurs down to, I have a teenager who's on the autism spectrum, and is owning his business for three years, and a guy who has spent 15 years in prison for armed robbery. So, there are people of all types, because I wanted people to come away and realize, "if they did it, I can do it". If everybody is hugely successful, people tend to focus on what their life is like now, not what it was when they were scraping up.

Marlana: So, all these people are actually people who have gotten out of their own way.

Lisa: Exactly, yes. That's what a lot of the stories are..what was going wrong? And how did they figure out? How the hell did they get out of their own way to do it? So, a lot of it even if it doesn't explicitly say that, that's kind of what's going on?

Marlana: Is there a common thread to a lot of the stories?

Lisa: The biggest common thread to me is to always be ready for opportunity, and learn to recognize it, because the greatest opportunity in the world can come along. But if you're not ready for it, you can't seize it. Like if you meet the right person, or if the right project comes along. So, you have to really dial in what you want, learn the most that you can about it, become a real expert. And you have to learn how to recognize opportunity, because it's not just going to come up and knock on your door and go, "Hey! I'm opportunity. Do you want me?" Usually, the biggest opportunities that people in the book came across or things they weren't even expecting, they weren't even looking for. But somewhere along the way they had prepared themselves to be ready for that moment in time and to recognize it.

Marlana: What do you think the difference is between opportunity and shiny object syndrome?

Lisa: Well, shiny object syndrome is more when I kind of look at it as more of a bit of that procrastination. But it's when you know what you need to do, you know what you're going after. But all of a sudden, it's usually more of a tool or an app. It's like, "Oh my god! Here's this awesome app! Here's this awesome, awesome social media platform!" If I just go and start using this and use it all the time, then I'm going to be this huge success, rather than focusing on the thing that's our goal. I'm not telling people to never change their course, their vision and all that because I'm a big believer in constantly evolving. My business has never been the same year to year. I mean, when I started it, I had two babies and was caring for an Alzheimer's patient. So, my life back then was a lot different than it 12 years ago when my kids were moving out and growing up, but right when I was positioned for everything to be about me. My mother got Alzheimer's, and I became her caregiver. So, that's one of the main reasons I started my business, was so that I could shift and make it fit my life. That was a great question, I want people out there to be able to differentiate between shiny object syndrome, which is just a distraction that's delaying you, versus taking stock of where you're at and making an informed decision and some kind of shift or pivot.

Marlana: Hm! It seems like in there, that's knowing what our core values are, things like that, and what our hard noes are, will also help eliminate some of that.

Lisa: Yes, and I have it broken up into five sections. The first section is you What do you want out of life? What is important to you? What motivates you? What are your core values? And also, what are your weaknesses? How can you take your weaknesses and turn them into strengths, the second part goes out a little bit like to your network and the people around you, who you surround yourself with?and learning to recognize opportunity. The third part is more about learning to think creatively and think differently. Fourth is about more of the actual operations like delegation and stuff. And then the last part is about a higher purpose about business being more than money. Because, if money were the answer to everything, we wouldn't see all these wealthy people with all these problems. So, at the end of the day, when you reach your goal financially, you still have to live with yourself, you're still the same person, and you still have the problem, your same problems, except maybe not financially. So, you have to understand what you really, really want. So that you'll be happy being with yourself.

Ani Agrawal, NK Patent Law

Ani is an intellectual property attorney with a diverse background in patent prosecution, patent litigation, and related IP advising. His current practice focuses on patent and trademark prosecution before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in foreign countries. Before obtaining his law degree, Mr. Agrawal worked in cryogenics research and taught organic chemistry for over 6 years at the University of Illinois Chemistry Department. Previously, Mr. Agrawal spent 6 years involved in intellectual property litigation work for numerous corporations and universities across a wide spectrum of technologies, managing several attorneys in IP litigation matters. He regularly volunteers time with local entrepreneurial groups in both the Triangle and Charlotte.

https://nkpatentlaw.com/professionals/ani-agrawal/

https://nkpatentlaw.com/

NK Patent Law, for all your intellectual property needs.

This should not be misconstrued as legal advice, for that, please speak directly to an attorney.

www.marlanasemenza.com

On this episode, we talk about your photos and the law. What can you do with them? Who owns them? And more!

Ani-Agrawal

Marlana: Ani Agrawal is an intellectual property attorney with a background in patent prosecution, patent litigation, and related IP advising. His current practice focuses on patent and trademark prosecution before United States patent trademark office and in foreign countries. Welcome, Ani!

Ani: Hi, Marlana!

Marlana: I am really excited to have this conversation with you because nobody talks about the legal aspect of using images and the ramifications of over stepping and crossing over the line. While this conversation is going to be based on the law and what things are from the legal standpoint, we do have to let people know that they should not be construed as legal advice, for that they will need to speak to a legal attorney.

Ani: Yeah! That's right.

Marlana: So, let's start with the very basics. I see an image online, whether be on Facebook or wherever and I decide "you know what! I really like this image and I want to use it." So, I take a screenshot and I use it. Legal or illegal?

Ani: You should always presume that that is illegal. Copyright is really established as soon as an image or a song, anything is created. There is a copyright associated with that image and that is true whether they federally registered them or they've simply published it on their website. The creator has copyrights in that media they have created and that extends to them whether they have federally registered them or not. So, anytime you see an image you should always operate under the assumption that there is copyright associated with it.

Marlana: So, even if it's something that's non descriptive like flowers or a sunset, I should make that assumption?

Ani: Absolutely! So, the subject matter is not important in this case. It can be a person, it can be a sunset, an animal, an ornament. It makes no difference. The photographer or the creator of the image has rights in that and that's true regardless of the subject.

Marlana: What about photos of me? If a photographer sends me proofs or I see my images being used on the photographer's website or in a social media, can I take a screenshot and use them myself?

Ani: Actually you cannot! That is a common point of confusion. People think; "well! The photo is of me, obviously I will have full rights. It is the same image I see on the mirror every morning, so there should be no restrictions, it's my face, it's my property." That is not the case. What happens is, when a photographer takes a photo of you, they own a copyright in that photo. So, absent some sort of work for hire agreement where ownership is transferred to the subject of the photo, absent any agreement like that, the copyright is presumed to be held by the photographer. You have to have the permission from the photographer, some sort of a license to be able to use the photo and it could be that you could use it for personal use or commercial use but that is the permission you have to be given by the photographer and provided a license by them because they are the copyright holder even though it's your face on the picture.

Marlana: I think that's a mental shift for a lot of people because even if the image is of you, we're not talking of you. We are talking about something thats created by someone else and that entity. You did mentioned that all images are copyrighted upon creation, correct?

Ani: That is correct! Whether they are federally registered or not.

Marlana: Okay then, what is the difference between a copyright and a license?

Ani: The copyright is (and I keep mentioning this) the absence of some sort of work for higher agreement. A copyright is owned by the creator of the artwork, photograph, music. They own a copyright and if you have any license to use any copyrighted material, that is a right for you to use this image personally on your own personal website, for a business reason to advertise our product or service. For example, we could use it on our law firm website, but we will need a license from that photographer to use it for a business purposes. Licenses can vary dramatically in what they allow. Some can allow you the rights to modify the image, some you can use them freely but you have to give credit. There is creative commons licenses, I think there is seven different kinds of those which allow a wide variety of use. Some licenses you have to give attributions but you can use the images freely, and some licenses you can use for personal use but not for business. So, a copyright is a complete ownership over the image. A license will specify certain ways you can use that image and in a certain time period. It may not be exclusive, it may not be aimed after that.

Marlana: So, if I have a license, let's say I have a four years commercial license, do I need a copyright?

Ani: If you have a four years commercial license for an image, do you need a copyright? The question is what you wanna do with that license? If your license provides you the rights to use the image the way you want to, then you wouldn't need a copyright. You could use the image without infringing the copyright, but if you step outside what's permitted by that commercial license, for example; you may not have the rights to resell this image, that will be a copyright violation because that is not encompassed by your license. So, depending on what you need to do, if the use is fulfilled by the license, then you wouldn't need a copyright. Anytime you step outside the license, it's not a free for all to do with the image what you please.

Marlana: So, what does that mean for me as a user if a photographer retains a copyright?

Ani: If you are the user you have a license to this image, if the photographer is retaining the license it means that thy can use the image in whatever manner they need to for the business or personal use. They have full ownership of the rights and they retain those rights in the image. So, often you'll be on the photographer's website, often you'll see pictures of their work that they have taken. It is possible that those pictures, most of them are of people other than the photographer of course and in most of those images is very likely that the subject of the photo doesn't have rights to those images or has a limited license for personal use, and the photographer maintains all the rights. So, they are able to use that image to say; "look at the good work I do" to kind of show their breadth of clientele. The owner of the copyright retains full rights even when a license is granted to a licensee.

Marlana: So, just to make this clear for everyone, let's say a family photographer takes these beautiful images of your family and you decide "Gosh! I really would like to use these in my business to either help promote what I'm doing on a billboard or any kind of those things", can I do that?

Ani: You can if you have the license from the photographer to use that image for a commercial purposes. Absent that license, you don't have the right to use it just because it's your child. It can be a picture of your own kid and you have no rights to use that image without a license allowing, in your example, a commercial use license.

Marlana: Let me ask this, does it change at all when there is the minor involved?

Ani: It does not change in terms of copyright ownership, the same rules apply. Now there could be other states that issues are involved when it's the use of a minor and you're identifying who the minor is, there could be some states law issues that come into play there, but in terms of federal copyright law and copyright ownership there's no difference whether the subject is a child or an adult.

Marlana: Which then brings me to the next odd thing that happened fairly recently, and everybody can look the details of this by just Googling JayZ sues photographer. The abridged version of this is, the photographer photographed JayZ's original album cover, I believe he is either selling an image of some kind, or using that image in something he is selling. JayZ is suing him because he is saying that he never agreed to the sale of his likeness or for it to be used in this manner or things like that. Is what the photographer doing just based on this information illegal?

Ani: What the photographer is doing in this case – I'm familiar with the case, is not illegal because like we've been discussing in this podcast, the photographer has full rights in these copyrighted images. From what I know, I think this was the Reasonable Doubt album and this is back in 1996. Neither party was flush with cash and tying all the legal lose-ends, so this was done in a traditional subject-photographer relationship where the photographer owns rights in the photos. The photographer was paid for this photoshoot and was paid for the specific photograph that was used in the album cover, but all of the other photos that were taken during that photoshoot are all owned by the photographer and as far as laws are concerned he has the right to use them in whatever way he sees fit. Now, what JayZ is alleging are States Rights Issues. He is alleging rights of publicity and privacy rights, that are being violated. Interestingly, JayZ is not arguing any federal violation of the law. These are just States rights issues that he is saying "my rights of publicity, I'm a famous person and you are using my likeness without my permission" because the photographer is selling prints of these JayZ photos from that shoot for thousands of dollars, he is making quite a bit of money from these images. At the end of the day is possible that JayZ is able to successfully prevent him from continuing to do this based on these rights of publicity – these state-law-issues, but JayZ would still not have rights to use these photographs of himself for his own use. So, he may be able to alledge his States rights to prevent the photographer from continuing to use his likeness, but he still will not own these photographs. Up until now, at least the law is clear that these photographs are owned completely by the photographer.

Marlana: Does it change at all when someone is famous or well recognized?

Ani: Yes! That's where the Rights of Publicity come into play. You know, if you'd just sell a bunch of pictures of me, no one would buy them, but if you were to use photographs of somebody who doesn't have the kind of notoriety that he has, it would be tough for them to allege that they are suffering some monitory damages because you're using their likeness without their permission. So, the rights of publicity come into play, more so when you have famous people.

Marlana: Does that speak to the fact of the brand or the reputation, things like that? Is that kind of the area that we're treading in?

Ani: Yeah! That's a good question! How famous is famous? When are you famous enough to allege rights of publicity? There is no clear line on that. I mean, you would have to state the facts and try to make your case that I am famous enough. Fortunately in JayZ's case, that's not the borderline case. All of this could have been avoided if back in '96, they contractually agreed that JZ would own the copyrights in all these photos, and it's treated as a work for hire situation then the photographer wouldn't have any of these rights and this would have been a nonissue. Conversely if JayZ had signed off maybe for a discounted price of photography fees, saying "I will wave my rights of publicity and give you the right to use these photographs", then it would have been clear also that the photographer had the right to use these photos. My reasoning on facts is that there was no legal agreements in play at the time, so, the default is, the photographer owns the copyrights and can do with them as he pleases.

Marlana: So, tell us a little bit, because I've never heard of rights of publicity. Tell us a little bit more about what that really means.

Ani: It comes out of a right to privacy, and what it is, its really comes out of a common law doctrine, it's not a federal law. Different states have different rules and there are even some outcomes. Some states, some photographers where they are not subjected to rights of publicities being asserted against them, so, it's kind of a state's patchwork of laws. I think maybe about half of states have something like this, New York and California do have it, and it says that to exploit somebody's public persona for financial gain is essentially a violation of their rights. That's what it stems from. Again, it's not a federal law, it's not uniform across all the states and it differs between all the fifty states, but there are twenty five having them.

Marlana: Interesting! What about people who think, well I'm going to just use this image and if I get caught I get caught? First of all, people need to know that there are always ways to track images and the other thing we need to dive into is, let's say you do get caught using the image you don't have the license to use, what's the best case, and what's the worst case?

Ani: First of all as you said, there are always ways to track these images. Many images are imbedded with metadata,. I know for Windows for example, you can right click on the image file then go to "Properties" and its EXIF or reader data. Often times it lists the copyright holder and even includes a copyright notice in that metadata. There are programs that can kind of scroll through the web and pick these up. Big players in the image industry have these kind of programs. People can do reverse Google searching, where you submit a picture of a photograph and a photographer could certainly do a reverse Google and see where their images are coming up. Even if somebody scrubs the metadata, they are absolutely not in the clear because there are other ways to check these photos. If this happens and you get caught, chances are you will get in a best scenario, the photographer (the copyright holder) reaches out to you and says "I want to make you aware, this is our photo or image. Please take it down immediately and don't use it in the future". That's the absolute best scenario! What I've usually seen is you get a DCMA take down request from the copyright holder and understandably, they want a financial compensation for the commercial use (for example) of their photograph or image. If it gets proven that you knew that you were infringing somebody's copyrights (and that's called willful infringement) if it's proven that your infringement was willful and that copyright is registered you can actually be subjected to statutory damages of USD $150,000 per infringed image. So, for every image you infringe, if it's willful and they have it federally registered copyright, you can be set as statutory of a USD $10,000. The clients I've seen usually that's not alleged, that's sort after, but it's definitely in the thousands. So, that could have been avoided easily by searching for public domain images or simply purchasing an image. Some of these images are inexpensive, it's USD0, under 00 for many high resolution ones. Instead, they get these letters demanding thousands of dollars and if it's a big enough player, they can take them to court and you've got attorney's fees. If the infringement is willful, you can be liable for the copyright holder's attorney's fees as well. It can get very expensive very fast for something that's pretty easy to avoid.

Marlana: What is the one thing you would like everybody listening to this to kind of remember and take away from this conversation?

Ani: With respect to these images, whether they are photographs or digitally created images, I think what you need is to always assume that the image is copyrighted, but I think if you operate from that framework, you'll always be playing it safe. There are ways to use (I'll just use Google for example, because I'm familiar with it) there's ways to search images by license type. So, you can search only for images that are in the public domain or all images that have free for personal use licenses attached to them. Any time you see an image, whether it has a copyright notice on it or not, just assume it's owned, and you don't have the right to use it.

Marlana: When in doubt, you don't have them!

Ani: That's right! Especially with copyrights because like I said, that's established at the point of creation, point of publication. You are not required to file on it. There has been cases people will see the infringement, then they will register the copyright and then they will sue for infringement. Now you are infringing a federally registered copyright. So, it's always just safe to always assume you don't have the right to use the image, and there's plenty of very inexpensive images out there that you can get a license for and plenty of free images as well.

Marlana: Great advice! Okay Ani with that in mind, I've got four final questions for you.

Ani: Yep!

Marlana: The first one is, what's the best piece of advice you were ever given?

Ani: Best piece of advice! I was actually thinking about this this morning. One time somebody told me that if you are worried about something, try to remember what you were worried about a week ago and I often find out that it puts things in perspective for me because I can barely remember what I was worried about a week ago. So, chances are, what's bothering me now it's not gonna be a long term issue.

Marlana: Love that!

Ani: Yeah! One bigger piece of advice I got from a dear friend.

Marlana: Share us one thing on your bucket list

Ani: Bucket list! I mean, there are of course many places I wanna travel to but there is one thing I would like to do, which is to have a chance to savage a connection with my relatives who are still in India. I have a lot of cousins who I haven't seen in a long time, people I haven't met yet, I think it would be great to be able to just go there...

Raquel Borras

True To You Branding

Raq The Boat

RAQVISION

Founder of True To You Branding

Founder of Raq The Boat YouTube channel where I have candid conversations with our youth.

Founder of RAQVISION. A youth social network for kids ages 17 and under.

www.raqvision.tv

https://www.youtube.com/c/RaqTheBoat

I wouldn't be where I am right now…if it wasn't for the fact that I was so vulnerable.

I shared my story of having struggled with depression when I was in college. I attempted suicide while I was at UCLA…

There was a point that I told people I didn't graduate for medical reasons and that was that.

I knew I had to expose myself…and that was probably the best thing I could have done.

It was really spontaneous….we had just been at a conference where we were discussing our mental health…and we were talking about how it's important to share those stories…then it was mental health awareness month…

As leaders we need to do what we can to change the narrative.

I just grabbed my phone, hit record and just shared my story.

I went ahead and posted it and I almost had a mini panic attack in that moment…

It was amazing…how many people were calling me, texting me, messaging me saying Thank You…

There was no going back in that moment, that's for sure, because of the feedback I got.

(The scariest part was) The judgement….I was actually…pleasantly surprised how supportive everybody was.

I'm not that person anymore.

I share my story…in a way that's not heavy…it's just a story. An experience that I had that's helped me and gotten me where I am today.

I feel that there needs to be more of us suicide attempt survivors that are in a really good place so that we can share the skills and the tools and…how we were able to get over that hump…

Too many kids think it's the end of the world if something happens…you can overcomes it. And once you're on the other side, beautiful things can happen.

Your struggle can turn into your superpower.

You have to respect where you're at and if you're not ready, you're not ready.

You might be missing out on your purpose by not sharing.

If your share, people out there are going to respond in a way that you just don't know where it will take you.

I have a 20 year old and 17 year old and they will share with me, but its' because I've been so open and share with them. I feel that as adults, if we share more then maybe our kids will know that it's okay to be open and share more.

There is a fine line of sharing too much in the moment. I feel that there's a respect level as well.

The only reason I was able to share…was because I had build a community that I really trusted and there was respect there….I felt I had a community that was going to embrace me.

You will have people that don't support you and that's ok.

A lot of them are the parents. I started RaqtheBoat…and it started out with the parents that I knew…and it steamrolled.

Because I'm on Instagram and I'll repurpose a little bit…I have 16/17 year olds reaching out to me on their own to be on the show.

RaqTheBoat is…I thought, no one is having conversations with our kids…with adults, there's more of a structure and I didn't want structure. I will…hit the..record button and just start asking questions and have the conversation go where it may.

RaqVision came about because my friend had a…community…and we need to do the same for our youth…17 and under. We facilitate rooms…Justin Guarini from American Idol, Rob House…Michael Ray…and they facilitate these room with these kids…

I want any kid who comes onto this platform to walk away a better human.

We need to get away from the vanity metrics and a lot of these kids are basing their worth around how many people are liking their posts or if a video goes viral.

To have these adults come in who have had struggles. For example, there's Kyle Green. He had a kid at age 16, a mother on drugs, a father that was non-existent…he talks about adversity…here he's written tow books and is a motivational speaker…

I think kids get in that space of 'nobody understands'

I see a huge shift because it then gives them permission to be able to be vulnerable.

We need to change the narrative…and a lot has to do with adults.

I feel that a lot of us are doing this disservice to our youth by putting ourselves out there in this perfect way.

Saturday….Pepper…was in town…on Saturday, I got to pick her up…we had never met…to be able to have that experience that I've only met through zoom…I don't want to just be lip service…I really want to be able to build a friendship…that's when it feels really right…to have them open up and talk to me…

I love that I have no idea of what's going to come of this next week.

I thought vulnerability was a weakness…now I realize it takes a lot of courage to be vulnerable…so I understand why a lot of people don't do it. But, once you do it, there is something so empowering and liberating about it.

Your inner circle and people you trust….maybe start opening up more to those people.

If you start sharing little snippets, you'll see what your audience gravitates towards.

Oddly enough, every time I've seen someone open up a little and show some behind the scenes….that's where everyone applauds you.

If I can help one person by sharing my story. That in itself is powerful.

If you're speaking from the heart and have good intentions, then…people can sense that.

You'll always have people…who are haters or judge. And I have to remind myself that those are people who themselves are going through something or they have insecurities…

Now I realize that it's important to have my message be to the people that matter.

Just being comfortable with who you are….that's the underlying message.

Wherever you go, there you are.

I want to skydive

A disco ball and a paint brush

YoutUbe RaqTheBoat

raqvision.tv

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Stephen Scoggins

The Journey Principles Institute (7 Companies in all)

Stephen Scoggins is an award-winning, successful, multi-million-dollar serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, and creator of Transform U, a proprietary Life Mastery System dedicated to guiding others toward lasting breakthroughs in any area of life. Stephen has helped Fortune 500 leaders, professional athletes, entertainers, hardworking individuals, and everyone in between to exceed their wildest expectations in their life, business, and career.

https://transformuevent.com/

https://stephenscoggins.com/

Part of my story is…being homeless and overcoming a lot of childhood adversity….and I had an interesting mentor that poured into me at about the age of 13/14.

He said 'What's the difference between a rich man and a poor man?' And I was like (at 16) 'Money, of course.' He said 'Absolutely not. It's the way they think.' He followed up with 'Do you want to learn to think like me? Or do you want to continue thinking like your father?'

My father was a hard working individual..he was not good with money..he wasn't necessarily good with relationships. Steve was incredibly wealthy..he employed a few hundred team members across states…and one of the things he helped me become aware of was the way in which I was thinking about myself…opportunities…my future…

As you go through life…you begin having experiences…that get you starting to believe you are 'less than' because someone in front of you is 'more than.'

The number one thing that holds most people back…is the way they think. If you take that a level deeper, what I'm really saying is their ultimate level of self awareness. How aware are you of your strengths, your struggles and your blind spots?

In almost every case they all but ignore their blind spots.

If the secret is in how I think, how do I better understand how I can think and then how can I reprogram myself?

What has to change in me? That's the simple question most people forget to ask themselves.

We have a tool that we use to identify things that are kind of hidden under the surface….there's a number of tools you can use to at least take the first step in better understanding yourself. the tricky part is, when you're reading through the results…it's maybe better to walk over to your spouse or your friend and say 'what do you think about this sentence?'

There's trust in wise council with people that you admire and trust.

I would not go out and try and get a third party opinion from someone who's consistently trying to take life from you.

In my journey, the person that I thought I was, was the person I was allowing myself to be.

If I believe that I'll always be a construction guy and that I'll never be an author and I'll never be a speaker, and as a result I should never try, then nothing's gonna change.

If someone who believed in me…said I see you and you're dynamic…passionate, bold…you might have a skill set at speaking. Now I've got a decision in that moment…to say 'what if?'

I believe that it's 80% change and 20% foundation.

I'm a high DI…in that high drive, that immaturity side…I was pretty aggressive…had I left that unchecked…that limitation determines the level of motivation and also the level of maturation that you actually have.

The awareness starts 'this is the limitation', 'this is what has to change', this is what I've identified' and then it comes down to putting in the work.

I believe you can change about 80% of your DNA. If nothing else, taking it from immaturity to maturity. The other 20% is…the way God made you.

You have to go on a self awareness journey…without condemning yourself

When I first dropped out of high school, no one asked me why I was dropping out….they proceeded to condemn me…they didn't know if I didn't do that, we weren't gonna eat or have shelter.

…I got cocky and arrogant and boastful…and as a result, I proceeded to lose everything. Ultimately leading to me being homeless….I was chasing the affirmation of others in general.

In order to beat imposter phenomenon …you have to acknowledge it exists…and then you have to ask yourself why? Why do I feel inadequate at times? For a lot of us, it's because we are trying to measure up to someone else's expectations. And as a result, as you being to remove those expectations of others and just see yourself as a work in progress, then you're able to give yourself credit for the little bit of confident wins you get along the way.

…there's one major difference in those two Stephens. It's the way in which they perceive the world.

All of those things are a level of awareness that may be bridging the gap between the person you are now and the person you ultimately want to be. In order to become that person, you have to lay out a strategical plan to become that person.

If you can focus on the steps and not the expectations, then a lot of times what will happen is, you'll build self confidence along the way and you'll realize…this is simply a journey. Be at peace with the journey.

Phase one for me was all about practicalities and necessities….how do I make sure I get to eat this week? How do I make sure I don't have to sleep outside?

It was about 5-7 years before I even gave myself the permission to dream. We have forgotten to give ourselves permission to dream.

Phase two is now I have some hope, some dreams and aspirations.

And then phase three became Oh, I've got something here, maybe I can scale it.

You test it, then you scale it.

Now that I know how important it is, the one message I would give to everybody is…give yourself permission to dream.

It's a phase journey…Phase one, gain perspective. Phase two, remove roadblocks. Phase three, organize a plan. Phase four, you work your plan. When you put all that together, it's GROW.

We try to put a cookie cutter framework around the process and what that does is eliminate the ability to meet people where they are and understand how they got there.

There's 7 levels of mastery…in order to achieve mastery, at anything, that is a process. So the blind spots and struggles you have today can be worked on to the point of almost inexistence…but you'll uncover new ones.

Stuck is not making progress. Unstoppable is nothing more than consistently making progress. It's persevering through that stuff.

Any specific struggle you have is going to show up in negative behavior attributes you exhibit. And that's the place to start.

The first major roadblock I had specifically was pride….pride went from pride all the way to insecurity. Insecurity driven by fear.

One of the tricks I've used in the past is to say 'Why?' five times.

You identify the pattern, you say I need a principle to override the roadblock.

Principles govern promises.

At the end of the day, your level of achieving your aspirations…comes down to whether or not your willing to put in the work to get them.

Ed Mylett said 'I've gotta keep the promises I make to myself.'

People let the fear of the unknown shape the potential of their future rather than defining what they want..and simply beginning to answer the questions 'what baby steps can I take today?'

Transform U is an amazing 3 day experience. We don't do pitch fests. We do application. We teach you, we train you and then we basically show you how to apply it consistently….it's not a one-size-fits-all…we shape it based on (your) need….you wind up with an actual one on one transformation.

TransformUlive.com

Be willing to do today what others won't so you will have tomorrow what others don't.

Speaking even in Europe in the Scotland area

A cellphone and a microphone. I want to spend the rest of my life giving back to the person I used to be.

StephenScoggins.com

IG: stephen_scoggins

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Amanda Hall - I am the co-founder of Girls With Goals Who Give and I also have my own confidence mentoring business under my umbrella company The Hall Group.

Amanda Hall is a business mentor, speaker, and entrepreneur who helps women grow their network and industry influence. Her 3 B's framework on Belief, Boundaries, and Balance, empowers those facing self-doubt to step into their uniqueness with confidence.

Amanda is in the top 1% of a direct-to-consumer business as an entrepreneur and business leader. She has coached hundreds of women on her team to grow their business and increase their revenue. Her coaching and training results have led her team to be one of the top 10% teams in the company.

Amanda is also the co-founder of Girls with Goals Who Give. This community organization teaches ambitious female entrepreneurs how to build deep and authentic relationships to attract more opportunities to their lives and businesses effortlessly. In partnership with VaynerMedia, Amanda and the Girls With Goals Who Give team facilitated a networking experience for a select group of employees to provide an opportunity for collaboration, connection, and inspiration.

Amanda speaks to women on discovering their core values and building confidence around what matters most to them. She educates her audience about standing firm in their beliefs and creating boundaries to live a more balanced and fulfilling life.

https://girlswithgoalswhogive.com

bit.ly/byamandahall3bs

There are things that you can do initially, because it is a big, overwhelming feat…and so many people feel overwhelmed when they get started…but you've gotta start somewhere.

It starts with really figuring out what your personal brand is.

You're not your business. You're not your children. You're not your husband. You're not your family. You are you. And what most people overlook is that we all have unique gifts that we can tap into….and people are attracted to those unique gifts.

It's figuring out 'what makes me unique? What are my stances, my opinions? What makes me really passionate? What makes me really angry? What makes me feel alive? Energetic?…'

Figuring out what you want your brand to represent…and getting started there.

I call myself the extroverted introvert…we didn't really share a lot. It took a lot for me to get over the hump…

What I realized is…it's not really about being an introvert, it's more about saying to yourself, 'why am I even doing this in the first place?'…there must be a reason. Is it because you're trying to be the go-to in your market?…

Then saying to yourself, if it's this important to me, then I'm going to step out of my comfort zone little by little and share some pieces of me that I know are going to help that person.

My brand is all about…shedding the armor, shedding the self doubt and just being you.

Say what you want to say…while adding value to the world.

…I can't say those things and not put myself out there. So, little by little I started to share stories.

It's more about letting go of the ego and knowing that you're just there to serve.

I hate to break it to you, but not everyone is going to like you and you have to be ok with it.

A lot of people are people-pleasers, they want everyone to like them…and that's no way to live. It's an exhausting way to live.

Finding your people…your personal brand…allows you to discover who you want to spend your time with. Who you want to spend your time on. What you want to say 'yes' to. What you want to say 'no' to. It makes your life a lot less complicated.

In order for you to be of value and service to others, you need to take care of yourself first.

For the purpose of serving your audience…it's important to think about what that end goal is.

Write to that one person. Every single thing you write is dedicated to that one person.

You see what's clicking and what's falling flat by the engagement.

I'm an interesting human when it comes to the way I set goals. I'm more of an intuitive….when I sense my business or my brand is ready for the next level, that's when I set the next benchmark.

I tend to write 6 emails or 6 posts at a time.

Every personal brand will evolve. Some will pivot completely…other times it really does remain the same it's just that other elements are potentially added in.

It's really just stories…and many times we are talking to our previous selves….which is why we can speak so confidently about it. Because we went through it.

As we're going on our own journey and evolving, so does our content.

In my personal experience, people know like and trust you already on your account….they follow you for a reason…so I think people really appreciate watching a brand evolve and grow or pivot…stick with the same account and show other people what can be done.

There have been times when I've gotten a batch of photos back and said..this one speaks to…but for the most part, it will align with…the messages that I'm sending through my emails..and I'm choosing photos for it.

I started out really heavy photo…then I started playing around with video…Video content is king.

Have fun with it. At the end of the day, it's not so serious.

So many women have fear.

Start by getting uncomfortable.

As with any fear…peel that onion. Figure out where and why that fear is coming up. Asking the question…Why? several times.

Let it become a teacher instead of letting it overcome you.

It's not 'I am'..it's that fear is teaching me….if we can't get past our fears, we can't grow….what can I learn from it and how can I get past it?

Be you. When you are trying to mimic someone else or use someone else's words, people can read that from a mile away.

Figure out the message you want to share and know that somebody, many bodies, are going to love what you're telling them….and you'll start to find your people.

I love to help women…who want to feel fulfilled, valuable….finding out what makes them tick…and leaning into those things.

I give them permission to let go of the should's…and lean into their strengths.

Saying no is self care.

A family trip to South Africa. In the jungle, in a treehouse

Sandals…and some kind of energy aura.

byamandahall

girlswithgoalswhogive.com

@girlswithgoalswhogive

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Elyse Archer, She Sells

Elyse Archer is the founder of She Sells, a coaching program for women in sales who are revolutionizing the way sales are done. A thought leader whose insights have been featured in major media including Forbes and Inc, Elyse is passionate about empowering women to sell in a way that leverages their natural gifts and helps them build wealth along the way. She is an international keynote speaker and host of She Sells Radio, where she shares best practices from female entrepreneurs and sales professionals who have accomplished extraordinary goals.

Prior to founding She Sells, Elyse served as a Partner in an 8-figure international sales coaching organization, where she helped sales professionals achieve their goals.

Outside of She Sells, Elyse is also a founding team member of Brand Builders Group, a personal branding strategy firm. Her client list includes New York Times bestselling authors, top 100 podcast hosts, and 8-figure entrepreneurs as well as leaders who are earlier in their journey and committed to scaling their influence, impact and income.

Learn more about Elyse at

www.ElyseArcher.com

Instagram: @elysearcher

FB: https://www.facebook.com/elysearcherpersonalbranding

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/elysearcher/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ElyseArcher

Listen to She Sells Radio: www.Elysearcher.com/podcast

It's the biggest challenge most people bump up against…you're always selling yourself.

One of the biggest challenges…is a lack of confidence in yourself.

Other people's view of you will just be a mirror of your view of yourself.

For so many years, I would look for validation from the outside….my sale's manager…men…you name it.

I looked to clients to validate what I had was good.

I woke up one day and realized that no one's going to validate me until I validate myself….What am I waiting for? I'm giving my power away to other people….That was a big mindset shift for me.

Things that may seem small and unrelated, like complimenting yourself.

How often do we look in the mirror and focus on the one thing we don't like?

I would get off a call…and if they didn't buy, I would beat myself up over it. And I didn't realize how much I was degrading my confidence and my self worth.

Complimenting yourself. Speaking to yourself as someone who has the sales that you desire, who has the type of clients you desire, who brings in the amount of money you desire…because what you describe you prescribe.

When you say anything that follows the words 'I am…' it is a direct command to your subconscious mind to make that more of your reality.

So, whatever you want to be a reality about yourself, then say it. Say it out loud and say it to yourself.

She Sells has kind of taken on a life of its own and now I get to teach things I never thought I would teach.

What I found was, so much of what's taught is 'use this script', 'use this process', 'say these words', 'do this thing' and you must get this result. When I tried that…I would get incremental gains…but I still felt stuck.

So many make it look like they have it all together on the outside, but on the inside, they are struggling…

I didn't realize how important the inner game was to the sales game until I started doing a lot of my own inner work.

I have a client in financial services….you would look at this woman and think she is the most confident person in the world…she's also a spin instructor…in her class, there is a leader board in the front of the room…if she notices that she is rising to the top and she finds herself in that #2 spot, her automatic reflex is to slow down. Because what would it mean if she was #1? ….this stuff goes deep….she realized that same phenomenon that's happening in my spin class is happening in my company.

We have to learn to become the person who has the sales that we desire, who has the clients we desire, who has the opportunities that we desire and that starts from the inside out. What thoughts would that person think? How worthy would they feel? What actions would they take?

I was stuck…for 10 years….when I learned how to create the thoughts of a woman who has a 7 figure business, how to feel worthy of the money I desired and take those actions…in 6 weeks I went from having $10K months to $100K months.

It's that they actually learned to feel worthy of what they want and practice that feeling and release the limiting beliefs that are holding them back from what they want.

I have yet to find anyone who doesn't have some sort of limiting belief…

One of the biggest things I see for women specifically is a challenge with receiving…you have to feel comfortable receiving money. You have to feel comfortable receiving that acknowledgment…and for a lot of women, there have been a lot of contingencies with receiving.

You can have the money if I can backhand you…

We so often learn that if we receive something, there's conditions, or it comes with punishment.

So many women….beautiful, vivacious…learned that there was a target on their back…so they learned to minimize who they were..they learned to play small

When we feel afraid to ask for money, when we feel afraid to be visible, that's actually a part of you…that's actually your inner child….that's part of you that learned early on it's not safe to receive…

We all have something, whether it's micro trauma or something bigger, that we suppress and hold in our bodies.

I use archetypes a lot…that Goddess archetype…every woman has that in her.

When we feel afraid…that's our little girl…and she's just trying to protect you and trying to keep you safe….but, we can't have her running the show.

I had a lot of baggage that I didn't know I was carrying around…and that 7 year old had a lot of say…

The other big piece is healing the relationship with money.

I could not understand why, for so many years of my life, I could make money but was in constant fear of it going away….I was always a top producer…but I was in constant anxiety that there would never be enough…

Money's just energy…and money, energetically, for a lot of people represents security…whatever issues you learned from your parents…those issues will play themselves back out in your relationship with money.

There's so much healing to realize it's not actually about the money….we can learn to heal and create a new relationship with money.

If you want to know what your relationship is with money…write a letter to it and tell it how you feel about it…listen to that language. If that was a human, would they have really wanted to be around me?…If you wanted to have the most beautiful, loving, intimate relationship with someone, how would you talk to them?

When you start to think of it as a person, it will always respond to you in kind. It's just energy. So whatever energy you put out towards it, it's going to be mirrored back to you equally.

It doesn't matter what you're selling. You income will never exceed your level of self worth.

Stop avoiding what's hurting you.

…it was in the process of deciding I was no longer available to struggle..and that involves looking at it head on…and stop numbing and face it head on…you will experience a level of freedom…of possibility…opportunity that you cannot even fathom right now.

Trust yourself.

Write a NY Times best selling book.

A sales planner/ journal and a crystal.

@elysearcher

She Sells Radio

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio: Ariza Music Productions

Deborah Driggs

From her start as a Playboy Centerfold and Covergirl to her life as a Screen Actors' Guild member and later, achieving the Top 5% in her industry as a member of the Million Dollar Roundtable, Deborah Driggs has had to clear many hurdles in life. While it may seem like Deborah's success came easy to her, nothing could be further from the truth. Rather, she has had to overcome a number of challenges in life to get to where she is today. What is true - and a part of her character - is her willingness to take risks, maintain a positive attitude, and never take 'No' for an answer.

www.deborahdriggs.com

I started out as a performer at a very young age.

I learned discipline and coaching really early on.

My goal was to go to the Olympics as a figure skater…I got most of my life lessons early on from the coaches in my life.

I had sport figures as my mentors and who I looked up to…I was obsessed with the athletic mind.

If they can do it, I can do it! That was the mentality.

Those lessons and that discipline…kind of carried me out throughout my life.

The way I got into the entertainment industry was no accident because my first addiction as a kid was attention….I was seeking that so desperately.

When skating went away, the next step was dance then cheerleading…so I landed a spot on a professional cheerleading squad which propelled me into morning shows, radio shows, talk shows, interviews, promotions…

There was a lot of pushback….I got all the reasons why I shouldn't pursue that.

One in a million people are successful…well that will be me. And that was how my mind worked.

Because of my age, I had no fear…The older I got the more fear I got.

The minute somebody would tell me 'no' or 'that's impossible' I'd go 'Well, there's gotta be a way.' I just never took 'no as the final answer.

I had three agents…all of them wanted to sign me…I went on an audition for a commercial and I booked it…and I thought 'there is no stopping me now' I thought I could do anything.

I'd beg…see if I can get my S.A.G. card. Just give me one line. I was relentless…that's the kind of mentality I had.

I went on an audition for a show…called Charles In Charge…to play his girlfriend…okay are you ready to read?…I start to read for the part and he just stopped me in my tracks….and he's like 'You know, when you walked in this office, I would have hired you on the spot..but you don't know how to act.' And I took that very seriously and said 'What do you suggest I do?'…

I enrolled myself immediately into a two year Meisner technique…

While I was doing that, I get a call form my agent that I should go and audition for this new book that Playboy was coming out with…they gave me a robe and told me to take everything off…I said 'I'm not here for that.'…

Back then, they were looking for scars, tattoos, birth marks, piercings…back then it was a big deal…

I'm gonna leave my undergarments on…it doesn't go well at all…that afternoon I got a call that they were interested in shooting me for a centerfold and I thought 'I think they are confusing me with another girl…'

We all decided it was a good thing for me to do because at that time, Playboy was the number one magazine in the world and everybody wanted to be in the magazine.

They got over a thousand submissions a day.

It changed everything….everybody wanted to meet with me.

I got on the Oprah Winfrey show, the Bob Hope special…while I'm doing this, I'm in this two year Meisner acting program…

So I'm trying to be taken seriously as an actress and all this Playboy stuff is starting to happen…

The thing that was cool about it was, I booked my first film and it was all cause I was studying and trying to be better as an actress…and here was another opportunity for me to have a coach in my life.

I would just keep going. Even if things got really bad…I had that mindset….She would say if you really take this seriously and do the work, you could have a really good career.

I met my husband in acting class…I slid away form the seriousness of what I was doing…then we decided we were going to move to Park City, Utah…a year later I was going through a divorce….I'm 40 years old, broke, 3 young kids…now what do I do?

So I had to reinvent myself several times.

…they would want to look at property, so I decided I was going to get my real estate license so if someone bought a piece of property, I would be in on that deal…

I interviewed the top 3 realtors…and chose to be an assistant to them rather than me trying to build a business and trying to compete…

I've never worked in an office. I don't think I know how to work a fax machine. I barely know how to do email…he said 'are you good with people?' and I said 'Yeah!'…if you could manage the people…and manage the listings…I'll teach you how to do everything else….and I was really organized…

I want you to list my house…and I'd walk back to the office with a $3 Million listing…

Here I had this $3Million listing and I didn't know how to use the scanner…

If someone says 'if you just do it like this, you'll have a little more success…' I take that to heart.

If somebody gives me a valuable direction, I listen….I'm constantly growing and learning.

I did have a place at the table in business. I made a place for myself.

2008 happened and…now what?…I had to start over again.

I reached out to someone who has done my was-band and my life insurance…I had referred them a lot of business…what if I get a referral fee?…and they said no. Go get your license….so here we go!…

I didn't really jump in until July 2011 and by mid 2012 I was the number one agent….and I qualified to be in the $Million dollar round table. And that is only because…be cause I didn't put my phone down until I had one 1 deal a day. I was relentless.

Now I'm finding, be really careful what you say because what you put out there is what you get.

I realized I didn't have to be the expert in life insurance. It all went back to, are you good with people?

I prepare people for unexpected life events.

You use whatever you can…that propelled me into a whole different segment…

I think my success came from the continual learning, continual growing, continual hustling. The using whatever I could to propel into the next.

Different threads.

When you meet somebody and you have an idea of who they are and then you find out something completely random and you go 'oh, wow..really??'

I could be in meetings and I could always tell the one person that knew.

You can't take it seriously. If I take it seriously, if I get weirded out, then they'll be weirded out.

Don't wait. Do it!…at 40 I thought…I'm so old…it's over…I didn't do all the things I said I was going to do…don't do that…you can start over at any age.

It all looks good when it's working well and it's successful…I didn't even take the time…to celebrate because I was so nervous that it was all going to taken away. I lived in such financial fear.

What was the one hurdle you needed to overcome? For me it was financial fear. And I never knew that I had so much fear around money until I started making a different kind of money…I always made enough to get by…but I never had more than enough…this is an opportunity to learn and grow…what came out of it…the opportunity it allows me now…it gives me the opportunity to give back.

I think I've come full circle…I'm doing print work, I just worked on a film, I write a weekly blog..I have 3 books…I formed my own publishing company…and I'm just really enjoying this time and embracing where I am right now.

It's so cool to be 57 and go…I'm just getting started…it just makes you want to grow more.

The more money you make, the more opportunities you have. It's just deciding on what opportunities you want to jump on. It's not about money…it's about opportunity.

www.deborahdriggs.com

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio: Ariza Music Productions