126. My three top tips for success in business

I was recently asked to present to a group of business women about my own business journey so far - the good, the great and the learnings. In this episode I give you a re-enactment of that speech, which includes quite controversial advice!

Transcript

Hello. Hello. Welcome to That Voice Podcast. Welcome back if you're a longtime listener! Something a little different for this episode. I decided to share with you one of my keynote speeches, I did a couple of weeks ago. And the reason for that is it was on a topic a little bit different to what I normally present on.

I normally present on presenting on voice, on confidence. This time I was asked to share my lessons in business to a group of women starting out in their business. And I thought, Oh, this is new for me. And I recently celebrated four years in business. And so during that time, there are plenty of lessons that I've learned and I came up with three main areas. And so for this episode, I will dive into what I said at the keynote, the actual one wasn't recorded. So this is like a, a reenactment, if you will, of what I said. And here we go.

About two months ago, I did something pretty crazy. Picture this, a beautiful clear day in Thredbo, thick powder snow covering the mountain.

It's a place called Dead Horse Gap. Sounds ominous, right? And I'm with a group of adventurers ready to hike to the top. We're told the first bit is uphill. Hmm. Well, The first 90 minutes was uphill and the higher we got the colder it became and the faster my heart was beating out of my chest. My Pilates classes had not prepared me for this. Step by step to the beat of every motivational song I could remember. I've got the Eye of the Tiger, although it wasn't the tiger. It was my spirit animal, the snow leopard. I called down to walk by my side. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Through the snow head down as the wind blasted in. And finally, after a super steep bit at the end where I edged up sideways, I made it to the top.

Yay. There wasn't much cheering. I completely broke down. Tears were streaming down my face and turning into icicles before they even hit my chin. I was crying so much because I was just so proud of myself, not just because I climbed a snow covered mountain, but because I climbed a snow covered mountain where it was minus eight degrees at the top, and I did it wearing this.

Podcast side note: that was where I revealed the picture of me standing at the top of the mountain in my leopard print, bike pants and sports bra.

You might have been wondering where the crazy part came in. Over the five day expedition. We also sat in ice baths and dipped in the Thredbo river, before dawn and besides snow.

And this isn't a presentation about the benefits of cold exposure, of which there are many. I'm sharing this story because I reflected while I was back in the chalet next to the fire, I reflected why I broke down in tears on top of that mountain. And it was because I had just achieved and endured something.

I didn't think any human could, let alone little old me from inner city, Brisbane. Who'd only ever done one ice bath before embarking on this expedition. And I thought far out: what else is there that I don't think I can do that I absolutely can?

Podcast side note: I did a whole episode on this. why I climbed a snow covered mountain in my underwear. You can check that out.

And that quote by Henry Ford really hit home. You know how he said, If you think you can, or you think you can't, you are right.

And I reflected on my business journey so far. Did I think I could build a half a million dollar business by myself from scratch? Did I think I could learn the tech, go randomly viral on social media and win a Young Entrepreneur of the Year award? Hell, no! I felt like I was throwing spaghetti against a wall and just praying something stuck.

And you might feel like this at times, but I'm sure you can also recall times when you've done something you previously didn't think you could do. And if you've done it before, you can do it again. Before I share my top learnings in business with you, a few basics about how I started my business. I've always been one of those unusual people who loved public speaking.

I did speech and drama as a kid. I was always asked to thank people on behalf of the class at school. And mom said, I'd spend my weekends giving speeches into the mirror, using my hairbrush as a microphone. If you've seen me on TikTok, you'll see not much has changed there. I was a TV news reporter for Channel 7, 10, and the ABC. Worked in PR for a water and sewage company, urban utilities. And then four years ago left to start my own voice and speaking coaching business. And at the time people said I was so brave leaving a great job with good, super, and I realized that many people are working for retirement.

Anyway, I wasn't scared of being poor. I'd survived on two minute noodles and goon all the way through uni and was honestly quite happy. And I was renting out my car park and Airbnb being my spare room where I'm speaking to you from today. And here I am four years later being asked to talk about my business and I thought, I can't just say the spaghetti against a wall thing. As much as I do love carbs. So I thought a bit harder and I put it down to three things: backing yourself, trusting yourself, and nurturing yourself.

When you back yourself, trust yourself and nurture yourself, then you'll create a thriving business you love. So first up we have backing yourself and there are three ways to do this. First up, back yourself to take action. Take action. Action creates motivation and inaction breeds fear. I know business can be really overwhelming, especially at the start.

And you feel like you need to do all the things. It's just about taking small action. When I first started, I was coaching from the entrance of my apartment and this room, the spare room, which is now my office, was my Airbnb room. And there would be like half- naked Austrian men walking out in the middle of a session. Some clients got a lot more than what they paid for.

I was working at appointments on the phone. I was giving paper receipts. I don't think I even had Instagram, TikTok. Wasn't even a thing. It's the old Rome wasn't built in a day, yet progress over perfection has been my mantra. I had to have zero followers on TikTok before I had 350,000.

And since the end of 2019, I have posted almost 1000 TikToks to get to episode 125 of my Podcast. I had to post Episode One.

Consistency beats short lived virality, every time. Consistency, beats virality. Virality, virality? I have to check that one, especially when people are looking for a trusted authority. So every Tuesday I send a newsletter to my list.

If you're listening to this and you're not on my newsletter list, then get in touch. I can easily add you.

So every Tuesday I send a newsletter and I know a lot of people just hit delete when it comes in yet when they think, Oh, I need help with a presentation or I wanna get more confident to make videos in my business. Oh, somebody, it would be great to get somebody to talk to my team about speaking confidence.

I'm top of mind. They know I'm not a fly by night, I'm reliably on their feed and in their inbox. And I will reliably be there to help them achieve their goals. I see business owners stress and overthink, putting out a single post that let's be honest, with the algorithm at the moment. Probably no one's going to read! The worst post you can do is the one that's never posted.

The worst kind of post is the one that never sees the light of day or lives on the feed momentarily and then you overthink it and hit delete. And the next way to back yourself is to back yourself to learn new skills. When I first started my business, I was paying $3,000 a month for a company to maintain my website.

I wasn't even earning $3,000 a month at that stage! And the changes took ages and ugh. Look, I've never been a techie person, but I backed myself to learn new skills. And I bought a course about how to build a website. I sat up for hours and hours, well into the night and slowly like stopped the videos a hundred times.

It was a very slow process to build this website. And now I have full ownership over my site. I can build pages and make changes quickly, and that's enabled me to get programs from idea to market it and selling in a couple of hours, in some cases. Every day, I'm learning something new, still trying to learn Facebook ads and TikTok ads, but I'm getting there. Next back yourself to be that woman. Be that woman who believes in herself, that woman who sets an example for our daughters.

Mirror work has had the biggest impact on me to be that woman. Every morning, I look in the mirror, come bed, hair, or breakouts. I look in my eyes and I say, I'm so glad I'm you. I'm so glad I'm you. Today. I choose an ally, not an enemy. Today, I choose an ally, not an enemy, and you and me babe, are going to slay the day. So be that woman, you are proud of roll your hips and free that feminine intuition, that trust, which brings me, to trusting yourself.

The word confidence comes from the Latin word "confidere" which means, to trust. Having confidence in yourself means trusting yourself. Trust yourself, firstly, to know enough. I'm always hearing from clients saying I'm worried. I don't know enough. And I say, what is enough?

We are always on the middle step. There are always people who know more than us and people who know less than us in any given field and this feeling, that feeling of imposter syndrome, it does strike a lot of people, especially women at any stage of success. When Jodie Foster won the Oscar for best actress in her role, The Accused, she told 60 minutes, she thought it was a fluke and was worried

people would come to her house and knock on her door and say, excuse me, can we have that back? It was meant to go to Meryl Streep. so lean in to what you do know not what you don't and say yes to opportunities to speak, say yes to that podcast, say yes to doing that live on social, say yes now and panic later, because it's not the person who knows more than you, who gets more than you.

It's the person showing up more. And showing up can be scary, which is why you need to trust yourself to be okay with not being liked. If you stick your head up, someone is going to want to shoot you. In Australia, especially if you grow too tall, there are people ready to cut that poppy down. So stop worrying about what people will think.

Except some people will think you're hot shit and others will think you're actual shit. And that's okay. Speaking of shit, I actually had one guy Photoshop, the poo emoji onto my head and call me Australia's most condescending woman.

I used to work for a sewage company. So I thought that was quite apt. It's funny. It was on TikTok. I am live streaming this podcast episode on TikTok as I'm recording. Look, the hate hurts. But the positive does outweigh the negative. And I turn lemons into lemonade by doing news readers. Spoofs of my hate comments is an example:

good evening, because you are so goddamn, annoying. It's worth my time to tell you how annoying you are. It's therapeutic. PS: nobody cares.

And remember, it's so much easier to comment on content than to create content. And I learned to not let strangers on the internet dictate my self worth. Granted, it was after several sessions of crying on my therapist's couch.

All right. Now, trust yourself to know what's best for you. Know what's best for you. There is advice flying in from all directions, especially when you first start in business from friends, from family, from speakers at events, from podcasters, and you can choose to be the pinball thrown around by whatever anyone else thinks you should do.

Or you can choose to be the queen of your life who has great advisors, but trusts herself for the final say. I quite like Brene Brown's take on this. She says it is easy to throw tomatoes from the stands. If you're not in the arena, getting your ass kicked on occasion, I am not interested in or open to your feedback.

So trust yourself to know enough, trust yourself, to be okay with not being liked and trust yourself to know what's best for you. And that's why I started going on silent retreats. Silent retreats are like taking a bath for your mind to sort through the crap and listen to the most important voice of all: your own.

Back yourself, trust yourself, and finally, nurture yourself. And this has been the biggest one for me. I strongly believe and have seen this to be true in my business. When I feel good, the business thrives. So prioritize whatever makes you feel good. For me, it's meditation, Pilates sleep. I've cut way back on wine. I used to be like a couple of glasses, a night kind of girl. I've cut back on that. You know, when you're in business, there's no such thing as work life balance. It's about creating a life by design. And for me, going to a gym class is just as important for my business as coaching a client.

The next way you nurture yourself is through the people you surround yourself with your tribe. We're like flowers. Are the people around us watering us, helping us grow, or are they like pesticides? Are they killing us? Another way I like to think of it is like helium balloons and ankle weights. If you have people lifting you up, you're going up. If you have people weighing you down, you're going down.

If you have an equal number, you are going nowhere. And this is probably the most controversial advice I'll share with you today. And it's this: Surround yourself with delusional people. Surround yourself with delusional people. If someone is constantly negative, telling you to be practical, to be realistic, I believe that's bad advice, especially if they're not in the arena, getting their ass kicked. Surround yourself with delusional people who believe in your delusional dreams.

I had people pre COVID telling me that voice coaching online wouldn't work. Who had the last laugh? When I coincidentally had an online course beginning on the 16th of March, 2020, it was My Six Week Voice Makeover, cohort one. So right when in person events were being canceled, I was getting more signups than ever before.

People didn't even know what TikTok was, and those who did mocked me for being on a kid's dancing app. 350,000 followers later. It's the number one driver for clients to my business. And it's not kids. It's mainly executives wanting me to bring fresh non- corporate training to their teams. So surround yourself with delusional, positive people. And finally nurture yourself by investing in personal development.

When you're in business, you are the most valuable asset. And the more you invest in yourself, the more your business will thrive. In the last 12 months, I've spent more than $50,000 on coaching. $50,000. And that has come back tenfold in my mindset, in my confidence and my bank account.

If you are looking for something to grow and nurture yourself and you wanna get out there and have the confidence and know how to speak up for your business, then join my program, called Speak Up For Your Business. It's limited to just 20 business owners. And if you are listening to this podcast episode and you get in touch, I will be able to take a little bit off the investment for you. Just mention this podcast episode.

So, if you back yourself, trust yourself and nurture yourself, you will have success in business and above all be joyful.

The best advice I ever received was to follow the bread crumbs of excitement follow the bread crumbs of excitement, not doing things because someone said you had to, but because you want to.

Extreme mountain bike riding would be something out of my comfort zone and something I think I can't do. Yet unlike ice baths, extreme mountain bike riding is something that doesn't really appeal to me. Fire walking in Hawaii is next on my list. Your business is the same. No one knows better than you.

And if you're not doing things that excite you, that light you up, that bring you joy, what's the point? James Clear says in his book, Atomic Habits, that every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. So if you wanna be joyful, those actions need to be joyful.

And when you are truly lit up by what you do, others will see that. They will hear it. They will feel it. And as a result, you'll be energized to back yourself, to trust yourself, and to nurture your beautiful self.