Special Comeback: My Copywriter Interviews ME!

And we’re BACK baby! Quite literally. I had a baby and had every intention of keeping this show going while I was on leave, but… life surely LIFE-ED me.

On this special comeback episode, we flipped the script and my copywriter, Sara Vartanian (who knows my business and my offers better than anyone), took the host seat to interview ME about the biggest rollercoaster of a year in biz (and life) yet.

From ending a partnership, rebranding the podcast (again), rebranding the biz (again), launching a new program with a new launch model… to moving my family across the state, and OH, having a baby right around the corner from turning the big 4-0… you know there’s a ton of learning tucked into all this.

Tune in for a candid convo about all the things, like planning live events, evolving programs, listening to your community, trusting your intuition and more. Buckle up — with postpartum brain, you know Heather’s bringing all the good Sager Side Notes for this one :)

Episode Highlights:

• Heather’s “big why'’ for helping others be seen, heard, and make an impact.
• The Signature Talk Accelerator (STA) Backstory,  why we started again from scratch.
• The power of asking for feedback 
• The importance of knowing your strengths and adapting to suit them 
• How hiring additional support in your team allows you to focus more on what’s really important in your business and enjoy the creative process (hint: was it worth hiring a copywriter for the ENTIRE year?!?)

EPISODE  SHOW NOTES👇
https://heathersager.com/episode226

Chapters

• 0:00 Lessons From a Business Overhaul
• 6:01 Creating the Signature Talk Accelerator
• 17:31 Evolution of Frameworks and Launch Strategies
• 29:42 Online Engagement in Contextual Learning
• 36:21 The Power of Feedback and Empowerment
• 44:26 Changes in Running Live Events
• 53:50 Personal Growth and Business Strategies
• 1:05:55 Simplifying Strategies and Commitment to Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I found that people were really falling into what I call the planning trap or the perfection trap. I talked about this on the podcast before. We'll link to the episode where I detail those. But what I found is because building a talk in a new way is uncomfortable because it's new and there's so much pressure to get it right. In my programs I created the space where people really could avoid it and do the f***** which would show up on the live calls and talk about hey, I have this opportunity, how could I pitch it or how could I do this, and they would want to brainstorm. We had a lot of fun around all these other things, but there was this avoidance of the thing they needed to do, which was to rewire how they thought about their topic and relearn how to communicate. This is the podcast for the entrepreneur who wants to make a big impact, who doesn't shy away from hard work but also wants to enjoy life along the way. Hi, I'm Heather Sager, former executive turned entrepreneur, and I've spent the last 20 years working with premium brands on sales, marketing and communication, and I've learned that when you become a magnet with your message, you only need a hint of hustle to achieve your goals. Get ready to be inspired and ignited each week with tangible strategies on sales, speaking, marketing and so much more. This is the hint of hustle podcast. Let's go Well. Hey friend, it has been a hot minute, but I'm back. Baby, I am back. The podcast is officially back. I am ready for an incredible another year with you here on the hint of hustle podcast. This is the premiere season, premiere of 2024.

Speaker 1: 2:07

I've taken some time off, obviously, to have this little baby nugget, who actually is sitting behind me right now sleeping in his stroller. We just got back from our morning walk and I figured what a great time for me to sneak in. Hopefully he does not wake up here in the next couple of minutes, but it has been a fabulous, fabulous. I don't know how many weeks 10 weeks, 11 weeks. I do not remember how old my baby is because evidently we have to count my weeks, which, as a mom of an infant baby, don't ask me to do those things. Side note to the side note, I go to his pediatrician appointments and they ask me his birthday and I literally stare back at them Half the time. I forget his name and his birthday, which makes me sound like a terrible person. If you don't have children, you might be judging me a little bit, but it's a very, very normal thing, this mom brain. Anyways, I am back. I am so stoked. So much has happened in these last 10 or 11 weeks again, I don't remember the number I am just so stoked to share it all with you For this comeback episode.

Speaker 1: 3:10

I want to do things a little different because my brain is a little mushy and there's been a lot happening. There's really been. It has been the most wild and incredible year that has been so fundamental in learning about myself, foundational in rewiring how I operate in my business, redoing literally everything in my business over the last year. There are so many fricking lessons and I did not have the energy or the insights to be able to talk about them in a way that would be helpful back in October and November. But now that I have some space, I have some great lessons to learn from the year.

Speaker 1: 3:49

But I just did not want to ramble on a mic just between us. I wanted to really be intentional about this. So I asked my copywriter, sarah Vartanian, who is with me all of last year and some I mean she and I have been working together now on the copy in my business for more than 18 months. She is incredible. She knows my voice, knows my business, knows my offer better than anyone. I asked her to come on and interview me about the roller coaster year, where we overhauled everything in the business, so I'm going to kick it over to that interview. Sarah is going to take the reins and interview me and I hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 4:25

This one's so so good. We just wrapped up in the interview earlier this morning and there are so many nuggets in there that you're just going to love it. It's from pivots to perfection, to planning for modeling your programs, to listening to your intuition and making changes, to simplification, to engaging your communities. How do you get better at doing that? When do you make decisions? When do you pull the ripcord on something we cover so so much? I hope you enjoy this, this interview where I switch sides of the microphone and I'll be back next week.

Speaker 1: 4:59

I have some really incredible episodes lined up this year, including a ton of incredible case studies, a live coaching call I'm going to be sharing, where I help a business owner nail their signature talk topics. I have some guests coming to talk about visibility and omnipresence without the hustle. I have a lot in store for you for the next few months. I cannot wait to share them with you. So thanks for being list for the show. I hope you enjoy this interview and I'll talk to you in the interview, but then I get next week. Bye, fred.

Speaker 2: 6:01

So, heather, you and I spent the last year and a half working together. We got to work on launching the speaker society and then you brought me on for the entire year to work with you, which was a blast, and I distinctly remember at this time last year sitting with you. Well, with you, I say, we're in boxer where we spend most of our conversations, and we were talking about this evergreen funnel we were going to create for the speaker society. But I remember we were like going back and forth. It was kind of a long conversation, like I think I got up, got a cup of tea, came back to the couch, kept going because it just felt like it was almost like we were pushing it and it wasn't quite right and you weren't quite loving it, right, like you're like, okay, I want to do this evergreen thing, I want to bring people into my offer, but I'm not sure that this is what I want to do and I even, like I looked up the title before our call. We had how to deliver ridiculously effective presentation, so your message always lands with your audience and we liked it. But we're going back and forth talking about how you'd always bring these people into speaker society.

Speaker 2: 7:03

But there was this moment during our call when you were like, wait, this problem that always happens is that people come in, they're super excited, they have these best intentions, but then they put off building their talk and, of course, when they put off building their talk, then they don't actually get the thing that they wanted when they came into the speaker society, which is getting on more stages, getting out there, so time stretches they don't hit their goals, and you were like they just need to create their damn talk. And so from that, that sticking point led to the creation of the signature talk accelerator and I want to know if you'll share how do you think? By identifying that, like, how did you come to that conclusion that I'm going to go from bringing people into this program, the speaker society, where they do it all, to really narrowing down on. This is the one thing that has to happen before we can do the rest. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Okay. So what a freaking throwback. Also, all of our conversations are long. I don't do anything short, sarah, okay. So looking back to when we made that decision around going into the accelerator, here's what's fascinating.

Speaker 1: 8:15

The online space says the first program that you create will not be the program that, like I don't know, grows. It will not be your big moneymaker in long term. It's not going to stick with you long term. I always thought that I was the exception to that rule, which I think all of us do. We think, like our first love child of an online course is the thing Prior to starting the speaker society.

Speaker 1: 8:42

Like I had a hard time letting go of that to build the speaker society. So I had I'll just phrase it as I had a lot of ego wrapped up in my program and how I was teaching it. And here's the funny thing Actually I say ego wrapped up into it, it wasn't really that it was had a lot of really happy students, so it was hard for me to identify was people were joining the program. So my prayer program and the speaker society and they were showing up on the live calls. Like we had really highly attended live calls and we always got great feedback. Everyone loved it. They loved the community, they loved my coaching style. They were always getting really great takeaways to use in their business and a lot of times those takeaways were on the perimeter of speaking. They weren't always necessarily speaking related, because they have a lot of business experience and a lot of business thoughts, so people would bring their questions. So what I actually found is this moment right now that I'm reflecting on that. I'm going to say it better than I would have said it at the time. I found that people were really falling into what I call the planning trap or the perfection trap. I talked about this on the podcast before. We'll link to the episode where I detail those.

Speaker 1: 9:54

But what I found is because building a talk in a new way is uncomfortable because it's new and there's so much pressure to get it right, in my programs I created the space where people really could avoid it and do the fun shit, which was show up on the live calls and talk about hey, I have this opportunity, how could I pitch it or how could I do this, and they would want to brainstorm. We had a lot of fun around all these other things, but there was this avoidance of the thing they needed to do, which was to rewire how they thought about their topic and relearn how to communicate. So in that moment, when we were on a boxer and we were rambling around all these ideas for this very fancy and complicated funnel, I remember sitting here going Holy shit, what's the problem we're actually trying to solve? And the problem was the avoidance of creating that first shitty rough version of a talk. That's necessary so that we can get to refine it. We can't perfect something that you haven't started, and so we have to get people into that. So that's really where the accelerator came from, because my thought is, like I can just trap them in a room, like I do virtually with my private clients, and like rattle it out of their brain so we can get to the part of refining it. Oh my gosh, I thought that would be a game changer. So that was where we started the brainstorm.

Speaker 1: 11:15

One of my favorite activities is the wouldn't it be cool if? And then I come up with the most ridiculous ideas. And the wouldn't it be cool if we could teach it live? And originally, if you remember this originally, I'm like wouldn't it be cool if I taught it like live over eight weeks? And then it was like, wouldn't it be cool if we actually did it like six weeks? I'm like, could we do it in a month? And then I remember telling you what if we could do it in three freaking days? Like is that even possible? I remember that.

Speaker 2: 11:44

It turns out the iteration of like what if, what if, what if? And then we got to the three day part. Now, when you were thinking about the three days, how did you know? And that's my question mark, because we didn't totally know until we did it.

Speaker 1: 12:04

But how did you figure out?

Speaker 2: 12:05

let's say what you're going to put in there so that you knew that people would come in and get their talk done in those three days.

Speaker 1: 12:13

So let's let's I'm going to. I was like, is there a metaphor I could use in this moment? But no, let's just go for a mental visual. So, picture for a moment. Okay, here we go. Picture fruit by the foot, is that? Do you have that in Canada? Okay, a fruit rollup, a really long fruit rollup, right?

Speaker 1: 12:31

And what was happening in my original program or when I've been teaching, speaking over the last, I mean a very long time I was trying to teach people the entire fruit by the entire journey, which this might be a terrible metaphor, because we all will shove that entire fruit by the foot in our mouth, but, like, let's just ignore that fact for a minute this entire fruit by the foot, right, I was trying to get everything I knew around speaking, giving them all these little tics, tactics, strategies, teaching them pitching, teaching them how to title their talk, teaching them how to get on stages, how do we adapt it to the different stages, how do we make money from it, how do we market ourselves? And the truth is speaking programs that I see online for how to become a professional speaker. They cram all that shit in. However, the majority of professional speakers out there in the world are not making money. I can't remember what the actual statistic is. We should put that in the show notes on the episode. But, like the average speaker, salary across the board was super freaking low. So I started asking myself the question like what is the difference when it comes to me and what I've done, and what I've done with my clients? How is it that we're able to be profitable? What it comes down to is so many people are teaching marketing they're even teaching sales, quite frankly, and this is hard blow on a lot of people's egos. But getting on a stage and getting booked is not hard. It is not hard. Actually, getting on the stage is the simplest part of it all.

Speaker 1: 14:01

But where I realized there was a huge gap in this whole online market is there was no one teaching how to build an effective talk. Not a marketing talk, not a schmucky like here's how to do a webinar, slide by slide, but teaching really good, persuasive, entertaining field, like what you see of the people that you see online, that are huge influencers, that are just really magnetic with a microphone. Nobody was teaching that. It was all through the lens of how to be a good marketer. I just thought that's not what I'm here for. I know the people I want to serve really want to make an impact, so I'm not willing to sacrifice the talk. I could be like every other speaking program and condense how to build your talk into one module, but that would be doing my clients a disservice because they would still just be fumbling, trying to figure it out, falling back on their ways of their natural communication skills. Not the communication skills are going to take them where they want to go.

Speaker 1: 14:58

So back to the fruit by the foot. I had to chop it in half. I do essentially say all right, I have to be willing to. This is going to sound weird, but downsize the promise of the program, which terrified me because I'm like well, the promise is everybody wants to get on stage, they want to get paid, that's what they want, that's the whole thing. But then I realized it's my responsibility to get my people to fall in love with the idea of becoming that magnetic communicator. That fundamental communication skills has to be the destination and if it's not, they're in it for the wrong reasons. And what I find is my person. They're actually here because they want to make an impact, so they care about those things.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Versus, if I were to go out and be like everyone else and say, hey, here's how to get paid, hey, here's how to get on more stages, here's how to be omnipresent. It was attracting a shortcut mentality. So what I had to do to get it down to three days was to kill all the darlings. Is that the expression? I don't know. I hate those, but I had to go. All right, I have to leave those other things alone and just focus on the talk, which, funny enough, sarah I don't know if I share this with you that was the original promise of the very first beta program that I put out. It was just the talk. I added everything else along the way because I got a little distracted by all the fancy stuff online, so I had to get back to my roots and teach what I know, which is a high quality talk that gets resolved.

Speaker 2: 16:32

I love that and I think, as you're saying, you had to get back to your roots that you had in this program. You were able to lean on this framework that you had created way back then, so it wasn't a really new right. In some ways you just had honed in on the specific way that you taught. Do you want to talk about the framework a little bit?

Speaker 1: 16:52

I OK, so I, this is one of the things. I laugh. I mean, OK, I don't know if other people do this or if I'm just super weird.

Speaker 2: 17:00

Well, I know I'm super weird in this specific area.

Speaker 1: 17:04

But I I recreate the same damn thing over and over and over and over again and I thought maybe I'm like huh, I'm being really, it's like stupid, I'm being inefficient. Why am I like recreating, don't recreate. But what I've realized is actually that recreation process for me is when I start recreating the same thing over and over again, it tells me oh, this is an actual thing. Okay, side tangent, haven't had one of these yet. So here we go, back in my corporate days.

Speaker 1: 17:34

I worked for this guy, brandon, who now runs this company called Cardone Ventures. He's like a big fricking deal online. You should Google him, brandon Dawson. I worked on his team. That was the company that I worked for for years not Cardone Ventures, but his old company. But I used to build his presentations and I used to plan all the events for that organization. It's part of my role and I remember when I first got started I knew nothing about content.

Speaker 1: 17:58

I knew nothing about building presentations or events. I was planning events, but I looked at the content. On stage was not my wheelhouse, but Brandon. He was a CEO and this was one of his, like, most important projects. So I started working with him shoulder to shoulder like every single day, and he was a huge or is a huge dreamer entrepreneur, a lot of big ideas and he's like an external processor. So I had to learn very, very quickly planning this really large skill event Vegas that he would have all these wild ideas. But I learned that just because he had the idea and sit it out loud doesn't mean that he's really tied to it. So I learned in working with him for I mean, 10 years we worked together but I learned fairly quickly that if he would have an idea and then he would bring back up a version of that idea three times within a specific time period, I knew that was the idea that I need to act on and I realized everything else. I could just forget that, even said it, he would forget it too and we would just not worry about it. So, like it was a three times rule. So I had forgotten about that.

Speaker 1: 18:59

And then in my business I realized I had kept recreating the same frameworks or laying things out in the same way, and I had this moment because so many people teach online efficiency and batching and being blah, blah, blah I was like, ah shit, I'm doing it wrong. Like why am I redoing, like recreating all the time? And then I realized, no, that process is actually a clarification process for me, pointing to exactly what my big good idea is. So, coming back to my framework, I originally created this framework for how to build a magnetic talk back in 2016, back when I was in corporate building presentations. At the time, I wouldn't have called it a framework At the time, I wouldn't have been able to articulately tell you what the elements were. But when I was actually back in 2012, that large scale event, we did that every single year and we would have I don't know 20 to 30 speakers which were employees of the companies. They would teach workshops and they didn't know how to speak and I was responsible for making sure the content was high quality. So little me.

Speaker 1: 20:03

At the time, 2011, 2012, I was an event planner, again just learning about content. Well, I evidently was responsible for it. So I sat in the boardroom and made everybody come pitch me their presentation and I would just give them feedback. And then I started to notice these patterns and themes and I just decided to be the person who would develop an expertise in this. So, even back then, what I was asking questions on were all elements that are still today in my framework for the talk building process.

Speaker 1: 20:35

So yeah, it's not new. So fast forward to now. What I've gotten is way more detailed with it. It used to be just broad stroke categories that I would talk about and I would teach elements in, but now I've got to the point where it's categorized but then it's also systematized where it's step by step. So it's just gotten better and the way that I'm teaching it now is even clearer. So I went on lots of tangents on that one. But yeah, that's been the evolution of my process of recreating, and what's in the program of the accelerator today is just a hell of a much better version of what I had.

Speaker 2: 21:11

10, 15, 15. I love that you call this out the backstory of that, because right now, if you look at like STA, when you go in there, it seems so simple, right, like here's a simple six steps. This is what you're going to go through, but the evolution to get to that place where it looks like it's simple, and all these systemized processes in it, is years in the making. But it comes back to what I feel like was our sort of theme for the year, heather, which was like how do we simplify this? And even hearing how we pulled apart what was the speaker society so that you pulled out the talk, that also allowed some simplicity to happen, because it became really clear then, right, the Singular Talk Accelerator is about my messaging and everything else is about market and monetizing, and I think from there we had a lot of clarity around where to go with the launch plans and where to go with your website, because we also wrote your website, like this past year.

Speaker 1: 22:09

So let's talk about that.

Speaker 2: 22:11

So once we pulled out from Singular Talk Accelerator that this is going to be all about messaging, that really helped clarify the launch, like what we were going to do for the launch. So we did something a little bit different with the launch becoming the known authority, the private audio training, Instead of doing a webinar. How did we come to that and how did you come to that? Knowing that we wanted to do the known authority, how did we narrow into that?

Speaker 1: 22:37

Okay. So this is where a couple of things come into alignment. So at this point in time when we, early last year, we were trying to figure out okay, the accelerator, this is the path we're going to go, like once it was clear three days it was like let's go, but at that time things were very there, was still a lot of decisions being made. So if you're a new listener to the show, kind of back up for a second. I dissolved a business response partnership in January of 2023, which was on the coattails of a very fast marriage into that business partnership in the summer of 2022. So I'm on this like iteration of oh crap, rebuild exciting thing, rebuild exciting thing, rebuild exciting thing. Like it was so liberating, so exciting, so refreshing, and also it was really tired, like tiring. Emily and I were laughing for like we're so tired as we're both rebuilding our companies. So thinking back in this moment is we had put a lot of money and a lot of time and energy building up the SpeakerCo to now dissolve the SpeakerCo. I was sitting there in that position of going. Am I going to keep the name of the SpeakerCo? Are we like this program we had built, which was an iteration of Speak Up, to Level Up, like are we going to keep this? So I could have just said nope, we're going to ask that program, build the new one. However, the community I had built up over the last, the prior four years, they were still showing up, they were still asking questions around their message. They were still showing up, working on their messaging, their marketing, their monetization, and so it became clear to me around okay, they're still in need for this, but we have to separate those two things out a bit. So there's a little backstory on that. There was a need, but we had to separate them. So, finding that distinguishing factor of signature talk accelerator, we're going to build that first draft of your talk and then the speaker society is the backend membership to refine that message, market that message, monetize that message and continually work on that process, because the talk's not done the first time. We build it Spoiler, just like I said with the program, the first program you build is not the one that you're going to maintain. The first talk you build is not the first one. So I had to have something to really help people develop the skill of speaking.

Speaker 1: 24:50

But at that point in time I needed money. Let's be real, solving the partnership, hiring you on to support with the launches. We didn't have a launch in November, december, january. I was going to launch the speaker society as speaker co in February, but now retooling everything Literally this is all happening at once. I'm like I don't have the energy to do a webinar.

Speaker 1: 25:18

Looking at the month of March, which is when we wanted to launch, I knew from experience March is spring break and as a mom at home, I had two kids now three but I had one kid in preschool and one in second grade and I am unwilling to work over their spring break and we were traveling that year. So I'm like I can't do it spring break. I always hear everyone else around the country, around the world. They have their own versions of that. So in my head I'm like how is this going to be helpful? How is this going to be helpful? I plan a launch, but people are also trying to do what I'm doing, which is be with their kids and family, and none of the weeks align in the month of March and I couldn't wait till April. I needed the money in my business. So I think we've all been there before around like when is the right time to launch.

Speaker 1: 26:04

I don't think that they're like that question is dumb. I think it's a poor quality question that only leads you down rabbit holes of going this isn't going to work for me, so instead, the question that we ask is how could this work for us? So I said you know what the reality is. I don't attend shit live. Why do we place the expectations on other people that they need to be there live? Why do we get so upset when our show up rates are low, knowing that we don't show up to shit either? We're building stuff in our business. So I just asked the question and, going back to what's the problem I'm trying to solve, the problem is I needed people to go through my launch content in order for this new, very kind of out of the box container of a program to make sense for them. So I'm into podcasts. Obviously, I have a podcast.

Speaker 1: 26:51

I had been hearing these whispers around private podcasts at the time. People really weren't using them for launches yet. I think it had started happening. I had seen one very large influencer using it right about the week before I dropped mine. So we were building in tandem. But I thought why not just make it so people can listen when it's convenient for them, also make it convenient for me that I could teach it without having to be live. So we came up with this brainchild of a launch and it was the epitome of building the plane as we fly. I think half the time we were flying without the plane. We were trying to get the plane to catch up.

Speaker 1: 27:33

But we decided to do the private podcast launch. We called it an audio training, not a private podcast, and that's where we started. And then we started adding elements to it. But the premise or the reason for it was I needed something to work within my schedule and my life and I knew my audience needed the same and fun enough. It was the whole reason why I was doing the accelerator in the way we were. I wanted to do it in more of a jump in get it done mentality so people can move on and get to the good parts of marketing that talk getting themselves out there. So they were both unique formats around how I was teaching, and so I felt I mean, heck, we're doing everything new. Why not just try a new launch model?

Speaker 2: 28:16

That was yeah, let's go for it. And what was really interesting that we added into as we were having these conversations back and forth was a chance for folks to also get coaching from you, because we know that when people have that chance to bring you questions and sort out some of their questions, that those were people who were more ready to take the leap into the center of talk accelerator. So we came up with some of those. We kind of figured out what was going on right, like those hesitations or objections that were happening that would make someone say I'm not ready for this. Do you remember talking about that?

Speaker 1: 28:56

I don't know if I remember that exact conversation, but what I here's what I will say, I think. I think one of the struggles a lot of people have around speaking is most people are fairly good at conversations Around their topic, right, it's easy to sit in front of someone and just start talking and it becomes really clear around oh, this is oh, no, no, no, they're thinking about it this way. No, it's actually this way and you can have a dialogue. And that's why I think most people struggle to make it a talk, because it's a monologue, not a dialogue. And when I think about digital courses or I think about launches, that's a big struggle that a lot of people have is but what are people thinking? So we get all up in our heads trying to shove everything at them like a fire hose, assuming everyone's thinking the same thing, and they're really not. So, taking another page from my playbook of my history as a speaker, most of the sessions that I have done over the last 20 years have been facilitated workshop style presentations, and what I have built in, I mean my old company. We launched a I don't know if I've ever talked about this publicly it's called the Learning Development Center in Scottsdale, arizona. That was one of my big projects I did in 2015, 2016. And so we were there. We had condos right around the corner, so I would go and stay in Arizona for while we were learning these trainings. But I would lead workshops that were sometimes single day, sometimes two week boot camps. But I would build these relationships in this container live with a group, and what I always, always did with these groups is my opening of these, whether I was teaching the entire time or I was opening and my team was teaching the remaining sessions. I had this knack for pulling out of the room through questions around where people were starting from. I would ask open into questions, but very strategically, and so people don't go off the rails. But I would always get to know the room so that I could curate what I was doing. Even though I already knew what I was doing, I can make it feel very, very custom. I did that, naturally, so I'm a really, really talented facilitator and I love that style.

Speaker 1: 31:01

Transferring over to the online space we don't have a lot of opportunities for that and especially on Zoom rooms or when you're teaching a digital course, you have to make a lot of assumptions. So in my program in the society and back and speak up to Lavalab. I would get people in the sessions pull stuff out of them and we had time because these were 10 to 12 week programs. Ultimately, these were containers that people would be in for six to 12 months. So there was time for that. But there was not time. When you only have three days, I could not go into those three days not knowing where people were at. It wouldn't set them up for success and it would definitely not set me up for success.

Speaker 1: 31:38

So, out of that necessity, to need to know where people were and how they were feeling about this idea of a signature talk and are they even ready for a signature talk? Do they even know their topic? That was a big one. They needed to know their topic before we got to the three days because we could not waste any precious time trying to figure out what's the thing I want to talk about. No, we got to build the damn thing that you're talking about. So, out of sheer necessity, we had to infuse engagement into that launch. We had to be asking them questions, we had to find out where they're at, we had to figure out what they were worried about, and we did that in a lot of different ways, through surveys, through we think we retitled this like five times, but we eventually called them green room coaching sessions, where people can come and talk to me live. But that it was a clear necessity for the three days to function well, because if we waited, if we waited till that moment, I don't think it would have gone.

Speaker 2: 32:33

I think that's something really unique that you do and that the way these launches went, so many times people want to get all that messaging and that information. You know well in advance and I get it because obviously it's maybe less of a hustle during that time, the sprint. But I think what you do really well and then you know we had a fun partnership with over this last year was that we had some really core, foundational things we knew we were going to do. Okay, so we had our sales page mostly built out, but there was space Mostly mostly, but there was always a space to get information or get this feedback from folks and we built in these touch points so that we could be really responsive. So one you had, you know, the coaching sessions, but, like you said, I believe that on the, when they signed up for the audio training, we also asked them a question about, like, why they came, and that really helped us write invitation emails to have people come. So while we had some emails ready, we also had this space to say, okay, you know what we need to add this in or we need to pivot here.

Speaker 2: 33:33

I remember also from those green room talks what kept coming up was people were saying, like, do I really need a signature talk?

Speaker 2: 33:40

And it was kind of like stuck on that word right, like it felt scary and we were able to, you know, change that and say let's have a just like a damn good talk and address that.

Speaker 2: 33:51

And we addressed the whole topic piece about like how do you figure out what to write through those, through emails. And again, we wouldn't have had that information if you hadn't have, you know, having some live time with them and if we hadn't been asking questions along the way and been hoping to hear things. You did the same during the signature talk accelerators here and we were able to get them to come and watch you in action, which was awesome. And at the end, you know, at the end of every day, there was that survey happening as well, where you were finding out like what was it, I think, what went really well, like at your aha moment and sort of where you were feeling stuck. So you could have a look at that and actually prep, like get ready for the next day, and you've come in with a story that just seemed to pull everyone back together every morning. I remember that during the sessions, so something okay.

Speaker 1: 34:34

So this is what's weird sharing some of these things because I want to be cautious around. I know I am very uniquely wired. So if you're listening to this and you're like, oh, like, I got to do it this way, I'm not saying this is the best right way to do it. In fact, I do not believe in a best right way to do this. I've hammered on this so so many times. I think we all have to know our style, know where we thrive, know where our skill set ends. That's, I think, a big one. I know that I'm really really good thinking on my feet because for years I've thought on my feet. When I started facilitating workshops in person, I was not, so I said the wrong thing. I like got some pretty bad, probably reviews in it. Right, I've always been a good, like good speaker. I don't think anyone would ever put me in the bucket. I was a terrible speaker, but I was always good, but it was not good at that. So I've developed that skill as we went. And the one thing that I've had one of the many things we're all great at certain things right but one of the things I'm really good at and I've noticed this thing in my entire careers. I'm really good at connecting the dots. If I had to thought about this years ago, I'm like if I had to summarize what my very, very unique skill is. I don't even think this is a thing. It's the skill of creating context, which sounds very, and by that is, I make sure that anything that I bring up it's not stuck in a cycle. I'm able to help people understand how the thing we're talking about or how the thing somebody else just talked about connects to other things. It connects to them, it connects to the bigger picture, it connects to what I'm about to say. I'm always the connector of ideas.

Speaker 1: 36:21

Back when, before I started as an actual like content speaker, I was an emcee. This was like. This is how I got started. I was emcee all the time. Back in my days in Miss America, people would bring me in shows or emcee their fundraisers Like I was the emcee. Or when my nonprofit days, I would emcee our auctions. Or when I started in corporate, I would emcee the staff meetings. Or I would help. Back in high school, I was the mistress of ceremonies at our high school graduation pre thing. Like this. That's what I do.

Speaker 1: 36:53

It's been a role that I've always been drawn to and I think it's because I'm really good at making sure okay, this piece of content is coming, or we're fundraising on this thing throughout the entire program, if you will. That keeps people engaged, but it also helps people connect the dots and that draws more interest. It draws more awareness. There's just so many things around that, so I have to start with that piece. This is naturally how I see things. It's how does this connect to something that you will care about? That is how I'm driven, that's how I teach people to communicate. That's the whole under route of my program, of the style that I teach, taking a long time to teach people how to do what I do, naturally, but with that, with the program.

Speaker 1: 37:37

So I remember we were working on this really the night before. We were like okay, we know, we wanted to do a daily survey and, let's be honest, part of the daily survey is I wanted to check in. Did I break people's brain? I needed to know, like, are they okay? Like, is it good? I didn't eat the kudos, like, I got those in the sessions, but I needed to make sure, like, what they were learning.

Speaker 1: 38:02

So we started out, I think the first, past the questions the team came up with. They were more survey based, and what I've learned a very long time ago with surveys is I find surveys mostly unhelpful, unless we go. What are we going to do with this? What are we going to do with this information? So, coming from that place, I remember sitting there looking at the questions, going, okay, what am I going to do with this? Well, what do I need to know to be able to enter in day two to set them up for success? Because what was really important is they had to get the stuff done on day one in to happen successfully. If we clogged up their brain and got stuck on day one, the rest of the three days were screwed Like it wouldn't happen. So I had to think about where are they going to get stuck and how do I get them unstuck as quickly as possible.

Speaker 1: 38:58

So I needed transparency into their mental health at that moment, into their comprehension, into their like energy levels and their outlook around their ability to get this done. Those were all big things. So I said, okay, what could we ask them? So, yeah, we asked questions around. It's my favorite. What are you proud of accomplishing today? What are you? What are what's still feeling like sticky for you.

Speaker 1: 39:25

What was your biggest aha of the day? Those were the three that I remember off the top of my head, but the one I didn't. I'm glad I added this question in, but the one that surprised me the most and the one that got me just gives me body chills right now of just this big warm hug, is that question of what are you the most proud of Because I could never anticipate this the answers, especially by the end of day two and day three, were business winners going holy shit I'm. And the the. What they were sharing was I've never finished a course before or I've never. I would never have gotten this far had I not had this pressure cooker.

Speaker 1: 40:07

So in this um coattail of the question around where you stuck or where you challenged, it was like, uh, I use this expression a lot, you know how, like when you rip off a bandaid, how it stings for a second, and then you go put your hand on it and for some reason, that like warmth of your hand. I don't know if it actually does anything, but it just makes us feel better about that Right. So what happened was, I added, like where's your agitation? Where is that challenge that you're having? And then I followed it up with but what are you most proud on accomplishing today? It reminded them what they have accomplished, not just where they're challenged and that, that proud of moment.

Speaker 1: 40:42

What created the sense of empowerment in the group? People like sat up taller. They had a little bit more swagger coming in to the second, especially third day. They were tired as all hell, but they were feeling damn proud of themselves and it wasn't just oh, heather, you're amazing, this is the best thing ever, although we did get a lot of that. There was so fun in the chat of people like how is this happening? Like it's wild, but they felt so competent, they felt so empowered and they felt so excited If they could accomplish this in three days, like what they could do next unstoppable. So I think I don't remember what your original question was, but yeah, oh, feedback, the feedback really really created. It wasn't Okay, it was for me, but really it was for them. I did the feedback so that it could help them keep going and I think that was that was something that even we had Agreed.

Speaker 2: 41:49

I don't think we realized how powerful it would be for the folks as well and I know being there alive because I attended to do it myself, the talk, but also to, you know, take down notes as your copywriter and make observations. And I really did see that in the chat, like that change from that first day. They were super excited but unsure, like what's going to happen, and the way that they would start to say, like like these moments moments especially that you know, going from context that you were, which you were just talking about recently that that was a huge piece for them, where the chat was flying and going and they were like everything is making sense now and the excitement that they would have. And by the end you know that we had like tears, but good tears, right In the group. It was good.

Speaker 1: 42:37

It was good. There were some troubling moments of tears. That was the event that I got to named it Spicy Heather.

Speaker 2: 42:45

They also. Yeah, they came up with the Spicy Heather as a headline for you a title for you. I can say yeah, which we could lean in.

Speaker 1: 42:53

That was that. Should we just? I'm actually curious from your perspective what instigated that name Spicy?

Speaker 2: 43:00

Heather, my gosh, I'm thinking back. I think the thing was that you you called you had some real talk. Essentially it's called it where you're like listen, it's totally normal You're feeling like this, but we're going to do this anyways. Essentially, I'm like I, you know, it's okay. That's what you're feeling that's totally valid and totally fair. But we're going to move forward and you're going to get there and you're going to see something along those lines. But you always deliver it with like a good story and a smile.

Speaker 1: 43:43

It's the, it's the direct, it's the direct of. You're not doing that. That's not no, no, you also started us off then.

Speaker 2: 43:48

I thought that that was really interesting too that you called out those traps and you mentioned them earlier in this conversation around like perfection and planning trap. You actually called us out to that at the beginning of the whole three days to say here's where you might get stuck along the way and how that's not going to happen, like it's not going to happen here under my watch in three days, but these are the things that may happen or that you may be feeling like. And nobody disappeared, nobody dropped off, everybody kept showing up and I thought that was really key, like really interesting too, and I think that speaks to so much about the, the energy that you bring. And you were able to hold that group for a day, because it wasn't three hours, it was a day. We were in a workshop like, for it was like what seven or eight hours other than lunch break, somewhere in there.

Speaker 1: 44:38

It was yeah, fairly Okay. So it technically was 10 to four, no, nine, no, nine or 10. I think it was maybe a nine o'clock, no, it was 10, 10 o'clock, 10 to four, each day, something like that. Where it was like a no, it was nine to three and then one to four. That's what it was. It was two, three. So you all know, structurally in my brain I looked at it as blocks. I had six three hour time blocks, two a day and a lunch in the middle. But the reality was day one and day two I stuck around over lunch and did hot seats Day in the evening of day two. Day three and four, I think pretty confident, and you stick around as well. Five other questions and calls yeah, it was a content, right.

Speaker 1: 45:23

I stuck around and did hot seats. I stuck around to make sure everybody felt good, everybody got mic time, everybody got practice, everybody got feedback. They were long days and, funny enough, the group did not know at the time but I was six weeks pregnant facilitating those three days.

Speaker 2: 45:40

So I was riding off out, and then let's fast forward now. So we had to the fall. You did it again, and this time I know that you had Crystal supporting you during it. How did it change from the first iteration to the second iteration, and in terms of what really do you feel like changed in Saint George's Dark Accelerator, but also how we launched it and put it out there and we had to get it done.

Speaker 1: 46:06

Ooh, OK, so we have so fun part. If this would be a great we have a whole debrief episode of the live experience with Crystal. I'll not, I can't be the episode number, but we'll link to it. But OK, content-wise and experience-wise, here's the big difference in my mentality going into the two. It had been a long time since I had been doing live events. I mean, my whole career was built off of live events, in-person workshops or live facilitated webinars. The recorded route is great, but I just thrive live, in the moment. I just love that, that being able to interact with people, go off of it. I'm just very talented in that way and it's just easier for me. So back in the spring, when we launched it for the first time, I remember I'm like this is my zone, I love the live.

Speaker 1: 46:57

And as we went into the fall, the big change obviously is I was very pregnant. So when we planned all of STA, when we got everything together, I didn't know I was pregnant. I found out I was pregnant a couple days before the accelerator. We re-ran it. So all of that planning was in the new era of Heather doing live. Let's do live events. Let's just screw it all. We'll just do live, we'll do things differently than everyone else. And then we moved across the state and I was very pregnant and I had the very big realization of we're moving away from all of our family and all of our support system. Next year I'm going to have a newborn baby. I can't run full day sessions live. It's just not in the cards for me and sure I could problem solve for that, I could hire a nanny or I could. But I just had the realization of, ok, it's time to maybe rethink and say is that what I? It is teaching live, what I need, or is there a different element? And what dawned on me at that time was I think I could actually do this a little differently. So when I went into the fall I haven't shared this publicly, but here was my plan.

Speaker 1: 48:10

Ok, side note back in 2020, I attended a Brennan Brashard event. I attended HPX Live. I brought my husband, my sister-in-law came with us. We went and did the whole rah-rah Tony Robbins jumping up and down like wah, so on fire style, and that was right before the world shut down. And at the event he sold his certified high performance coaching certification. And I remember like first, I remember just watching his whole pitch from the stage and analyzing it. I took all these notes around how he pitched. What resonated with me, what didn't.

Speaker 1: 48:43

I remember talking to James, my husband, about it and I was like no, I just don't need that. Like it's fine, I'm a great coach, but I couldn't get it out of my head. I'm like there's something about having a toolkit for coaching style. I'm naturally good at it. I've been coaching for years but I kind of felt this pull to do something a little differently. So we get home on the airplane and, without even being prompted, my husband's like you want to do that program, don't you? I'm like, no, I'm not going to spend $10 grand on this thing. I'm not going to be doing life coaching in my business. And I remember him going. But is that something that would be valuable for you? I'm like, well, yeah, I want to learn specific tools for coaching. I think I would use them in a different way. And he's like, well, don't worry about the money, we'll figure it out. You should sign up. I'm like, oh, so I'm so excited I was going to attend a five day live in person event with Brian Bouchard.

Speaker 1: 49:30

I was like, oh, fired up. It was in May of 2020. And then we all knew what happened March, it was pushback, and then it was pushback and then it was not obviously going to happen. So, brandon, he had to convert. He had been teaching CHPC for years and he had to convert to virtual and he had also had just moved to the. Where did they move? Puerto Rico. He had moved to Puerto Rico, so he had to build out a studio and bring in people to figure this out.

Speaker 1: 50:00

So I watched in real time a big name in the industry, pivot, to teach a live seminar multiple days. He converted to four days virtually, so I'd experienced that. And then, fast forward, he does two certifications a year. He then did the certification again in November of 2020. And me needing adult time in November of 2020, as I was navigating Zoom Gintergarten and wanting to not crawl under a rock and be done, I'm like I got to do this thing again. So I signed back up for the certification to run through it.

Speaker 1: 50:31

And here this is where the all point comes in. I was fascinated because you know what he did. He did not teach the four day live, he got on live, la la la, so excited and he's like all right, now it's time to learn. Session one Boom, he hit play and it was the trainings module, training lesson from what he delivered in May of that year. And then afterwards he came back on live and engaged in the group and did all the questions in live engagement. But the actual training was recorded and I remember thinking, do people know? This is recording? Like in the moment I'm like wait, hold on. And then I'm like he's a genius because he's wearing a black polo shirt for both. So I don't know that some people notice. But I remember thinking, holy shit, efficiency. And here's what's important is, some people could have taken that away of like, oh, he's lazy, he's phoned it in, what is he doing in the background? But he did an awesome job. He has the same skill of creating context and he said, hey, I'm going to hit play on a video because this is the certification, because this is a training. I know that I can get excited and I can phrase these in a lot of different ways. I want to make sure we get this right and you learn this the right way. So for the training portion, I'm going to hit play and his 12 lessons. They were all recorded.

Speaker 1: 51:49

Ok, so circle back into fall of, or summer of 2023 for me. As I was going into it, I'm like I love the live. I don't need to teach live, I just need to coach live. That is my jam. So I had intended to run future accelerators, so future being 2024. I had intended to run it live but have all the lessons do that same thing where I'll take the little piece and play record.

Speaker 1: 52:18

So, going into the fall accelerator, I knew the production level had to be better. The timing had to be very clear so that I could carve out those specific lessons as a replay. There's a lot more fluid in April, so I had to be a little bit more structured. We had to up the production level, which you can hear all about that in the other podcast with Crystal where she interviewed me on that. But that mindset was all different. I was thinking ahead around all right, I'm going to teach this live in 2024, but I won't be able to be physically like available for the entire life. So that was the biggest difference in the content between the two.

Speaker 2: 52:55

I'm going to pull back out into the whole year now, because we went from January to the difference in the fall and there were definitely these periods of hustle you had in your business. I know you had some rest periods too. You had built-in rest periods for travel with the kids, your move and things like that. How did you make it happen during that hustle Like what supported you to be able to hustle during this time, be fluid, to things that were happening with life? You know your pregnancy was coming up. I know you had baby bricks a little bit early as well, and also your move, but also the response to getting feedback from folks through these trainings. How did you manage those times of hustle?

Speaker 1: 53:48

So it comes back. Okay, come back to a couple of things. I know myself really well. I've been doing a lot of personal development work and personal awareness for the last 20 years. So I know that I thrive under pressure. I know that I'm great under a deadline. I know that I'm good in a like sprint mode. I need to recovery time. But after doing so many events in live workshops and stuff for years, I know that about myself. Had I not known that about myself, or had I not enjoyed the hustle, I would have approached last year differently. So I think, side note, human design taught me a lot about that.

Speaker 1: 54:26

As a manifestor, I go into these big urges where I just I have no idea where the energy comes from, but it's just, it's go mode, it doesn't even feel exhausting. I'll have people reach out and be like, oh my gosh, you must be exhausted. I'm like, no, I feel alive, I'm excited, like I am good, but then I need to go into a season of rest. So I think the difference for me in this last year is I actually anticipated that and I knew when our sprints were like we were all in, and then I actually blocked out rest on my calendar, which I had never done before, and I'm not talking about vacation time, I'm talking about like carve out, and the goal of it was to do whatever the hell I wanted. That was, and that was weird for me, having weeks of having no commitments. That that was. It was actually really wonderful. So, even though we were sprinting a lot last year, I probably worked the least amount I have ever worked in my business in the last five years well, actually in my entire career this last year and that felt really good. It was fun. It actually was really fun to hustle I it was funny though you and I would be up boxing.

Speaker 1: 55:34

I remember it got to the point when my pregnancy pretty quickly. Actually I had really really bad heartburn. So I was pretty much I was no good after three o'clock in the afternoon. I really was no good after two o'clock in the afternoon, but I couldn't even sit here at my desk Like I pretty much was pants off, bra off, in bed by 435 o'clock most nights and my boys were so sweet to come in bring board games.

Speaker 1: 56:01

We would like do monopoly time together, but those would be the times where you, sarah, are a night owl and you would be like kids put to bed sipping on your tea at your computer, having your ideas. So you would be like pinging me on the Google Docs and the Boxer and so I would be in bed doing all this for my phone. So what it was kind of this funny like yin and yang is we would hustle, but it was like hustling at different times of the day. So I would be like doing my quote unquote hustle of getting stuff done or the design on the website. We rebuilt everything on show it and dummy me decided I'll do it myself, which I'm actually very glad I did. So we were doing that, but it was just, it was fun. It was fun.

Speaker 1: 56:45

But I think the big part around all of it is it was for a reason I saw very clearly as the year progressed it got more and more and more clear of why and how all these things connected together. But the moment I decided to do the accelerator and then the clarity that came from it, the first time I saw the future of what my business could look like, and as the year progressed it got more and more and more clear. So the things we were hustling for I look at last year was the year where we pretty much bulldozed everything and rebuilt in the scrappiest. But also it was sexy. We had some sexy stuff we built, but scrappiest and sprintiest way, but those shitty rough drafts that we built.

Speaker 1: 57:30

Oh my God, sarah, last year we ran our own version of the accelerator. What we're talking about and why I do for people with talks. We did that in my business last year. We condensed probably five years worth of things to build in business into a year so that we can get to the good shit which is now let's refine it, let it breathe and let it work for us. That's what we did, which is what we help with people do with their talks. But yeah, last year was that in the intensive, so that this year there's more space to actually build upon it, which I'm very excited about. I hadn't really thought about that.

Speaker 2: 58:02

Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2: 58:03

So I'm gonna ask a question then, around having a copywriter in your business, since you were talking about what we built, these foundational pieces, how did investing and having a copy partner strategist in your side for the year help you get there? Because I know that when originally I came in, I came in on the launch with you for Speaker Society and then we had talked about having some VIP day spread throughout the year, but it actually ended up becoming a monthly thing. It evolved and I know we didn't have necessarily this big giant launches. But I wanna come back to the foundational pieces we built and what that was like for you and I guess what you'd say.

Speaker 1: 58:43

So I had never thought at the beginning of last year, when everything was happening, I'm like having a we won't call it full time, but having like a dedicated copywriter, I'm like I don't need that much right. I'm like I'm good with words. I got like it's fun, like it's launch-based right and the idea initially when I had contacted you to help me build all my launch copy for the first launch of Speaker Society that in 2022, I'm like, oh, it's so great. I love hiring a copywriter because it's like you get all the assets ready and then you can reuse those. On Rens, and repeat my friend Caitlin, who's a copywriter, she wrote my very first sales emails. Well, like the second time I launched sales emails for Speak Up to Level Up and I use those puppies for years, over and over and over again on launches. So I'm like, yes, I'm gonna invest in the asset. That's gonna work. The problem being, I changed the asset right and then I had to change positioning and then we had all these other things happening.

Speaker 1: 59:34

So what was interesting is, every year in my business I'm sure, like with most business owners, I've set out and I've had this big-ass financial goal. I sit down and say revenue goal, divide that by price of the program. That's the target for a number of students. How do I break it down by quarter? And I do the math. I you'll support this claim. I build spreadsheets in this weird obsessive way, mapping out my business possibility pathways, like it is the thing. It's how my brain works. I need to do it. My husband lasts me all the time because if I am having a stress day, he's like do you need to build a list in my business? My version of a list? Does I need to do some business math? Like I just need to see the path. I need to see the path of possibility through the numbers. And we did that a bajillion times but we kept changing. So what was wild was when we started the year, I had that even with all the craziness, even with the partnership shifting, the program shifting, I still had this like and we're gonna do this big-ass year. I had plans for the fall launch, big-ass numbers. And as the year progressed, it started becoming abundantly clear to me that I don't need the big-ass numbers. I need the foundation to grow so that I don't go insane in the process.

Speaker 1: 1:00:56

And it's so funny because I see a lot of people online right now there is this coming of age happening for a lot of entrepreneurs who've been in business seven to 10 years. I've seen just three in the last week who are publicly declaring I am firing my staff, I'm going back down to the simplistic, I am burning all these things. They built their businesses really, really fast and a lot of them did not have any kind of professional experience or managing teams or anything on the beforehand. So they were learning how to become a leader and learning how to think strategically and learning how to keep up with that at the same time, and they were freaking exhausted. Well, so, rightfully so. So I see this trend happening a lot right now For me. I've already had the big team. I mean, at one point, my team at my old company. I had like 60, 80 people collectively across our different verticals working in our training teams. We were responsible for the learning of I don't know 1600 full-time staff all over North America. Like I've had the big thing, I know what it takes to run a big team.

Speaker 1: 1:02:01

The gap was how do I get from where I am now to that big piece? I haven't been able to actually step into that role as a leader because I've been in this do or a mode. So last year what I realized was my goal isn't to step into that big leader role. My goal is to work when my kids are at school. My goal is to do things that keep my brain working and keep me alive in creativity and having fun. I want to be able to go out and buy the car that I want and not have to worry about things. I want to take my kids hiking here in Oregon Like I have. I wanna go, experience things and I know this is really cliche because everybody talks about this, but it became a bit of a clear for me that I wanna have a nice, large-sized business, but I want it to feel good in the build. So last year I made a.

Speaker 1: 1:03:00

The really clear decision is I would far rather pay you to write the copy so that I could show up in the launches and just have fun and be creative. I could do what I do best, which is ramble out. I fricking random ideas in my morning walks and then by the next morning there is a epic email written and you wrote it and it's in my language and it's my story and it's so awesome. I'm like, well, hot damn, that's just like perfect. It's like a magic staples, easy button. It was wonderful.

Speaker 1: 1:03:32

And so I remember when I'm like, can we do more of this? I need to add more days. Wait, what if I just kept you on retainer? It's exactly what I did to my virtual assistant, dorothy, years ago. She's been with me and finally I was after probably about six months. I'm like, hi, what would it take for me just to have you full time, like, instead of having to worry about projects or hours, can I just pay you and just not have to worry about it and know that you have a handle? So she's been full time on my staff for four years, I think. So that's for me. I'm like, sarah, can I, can I have you right? And obviously you still have a full business and other clients. But for me it was the peace of mind, it was the ability for me to stay in my wheelhouse and, quite frankly, it just gave me my time back.

Speaker 1: 1:04:16

I took the entire month of July pretty much off, when I had this baby early because I've been talking about it in the last couple episodes of the podcast. Before this little hiatus. I did not pull out my laptop for seven weeks. All I had to do was to look at a couple of things on my phone in a Google Doc, or you all would just text me the specific question and it was good, like I did not have to worry and money was still coming in. A hella. An entire promotion, actually, too, happened while I was on leave, one of which while I was giving birth, so that's pretty cool. So I'm really I'm very grateful for you and I'm very happy about that investment, but like pain to be able to not just get my time back but have it go towards something that will give me more time back in the future. All of these copy assets we created, all the systems we created. It's gonna serve me and continue to serve my business and my clients.

Speaker 2: 1:05:13

So yeah, I'm so happy. I loved our Voxer conversations. You know that I starred so many of them and I've saved them, which allowed me, though, to exactly write in your voice and collect things, and I have a whole bank of Heather stories to be able to collect it.

Speaker 1: 1:05:33

I remember it just like that.

Speaker 2: 1:05:35

So let's wrap this up, so if somebody's listening, or they wanna come back and they're in this spot where they're like how do I, what can I do next? If I need to simplify, when do I need to start thinking? What would you wanna tell them?

Speaker 1: 1:05:51

Ooh, okay, I love that you brought it back to this idea of simplify. So, first and foremost, even when your intention is to simplify, notice that you're going to most likely do the opposite. That happened to us all the time last year. We're like keep it simple, keep it simple, and then I'll send you a. I sent you like a map of, like the most complex funnel on the planet and I remember you blessed your heart, sarah. You're probably like how is this simple? Okay, so in our effort to simplify, sometimes we actually over complicate because we're trying to make everything clear. So, just, you have to have the humility to go to question yourself Even in the middle of executing a plan. Just because you have it planned does not mean you need to finish the plan. And then, in fact, that was something that I think we did really really exceptionally well last year was, even when the plan was already in motion, we were willing to question it. We were willing to say how can we make this simpler? And I think, coming back to your question around the hustle piece, how was I able to hustle so much? It's I'm able to discern when I look at a 2D list, I'm always clear around what absolutely has to happen and what would be gravy. And sometimes we get to the gravy, but for the most part we're just executing on the has to happen moments. So if you're looking to simplify, you have to discern that when you come up with a list of things, you have to know I'm not going to do all of these things. And when you cut that down, you still have to know you're not going to do all of those things. Really stripping back what you're doing and doing so cliche and generic, but, it's true, few things better. That's where the simplicity comes from. So I think a couple of things that come to mind. Beyond that is, 2024 is not the year to try testing out a bunch of different strategies to see what sticks. That strategy never works, like it never works because you're just testing out a bunch of things half-assed and you're just waiting for something else to tell you what's going to work.

Speaker 1: 1:08:04

In my experience, anything can work if you want it to, and, granted, this might be terrible advice, so take it with a grain of salt, but I would just say choose the fucking thing you want to do and commit to making it work. It's not about doing it in an exact way. It's about asking questions to make it more effective. So there's a strategy you want to do. If you want to do webinars, or you want to do a challenge, or you want to do a live event, or whatever it is that you want to do, I'm going to say ignore what other people say of going like those strategies don't work. Or you have to listen to your audience. Fuck that. Okay, you're an entrepreneur and you have ideas. For a reason, you have to choose the strategies that are going to light you up, choose the thing that you want to do and then have the humility to say how can I ask questions like we talked about with surveying to say how do I bring my audience in a way that's going to work for them? How do I listen to make sure that the strategy is going to be effective? Because that's the takeaway we decided last year that these things were going to be successful.

Speaker 1: 1:09:02

I am not surprised. The accelerator was a rock in success. I am not surprised. The fall one was the success. I'm not surprised that our presale of the new on demand version has been a smashing success. Like. Those things are not surprises to me. I'd already decided they'd be successful. What was surprising was the journey that people had in the process, and that was just by being curious, asking questions. So I think that is the takeaway you can simplify, but you have to have the balls to say, all right, like this is the path I'm taking and then commit to it and not get distracted by a bunch of extra things because somebody else told you you needed to.

Speaker 2: 1:09:35

All right. Well, on that note on simplifying and getting clear and having the humility, I think, yes, that's a huge takeaway and I know as a comparator, I wish more people did that. And I wanna really say that one of the things I loved at working with you, Heather too, is that you're so good at that humility part and also that you were so open, because if I sometimes could call back to you and say, hey, Heather, remember how we said about making this simple? Or I remember, like four bucks ago, we said we were going to X, Do you still wanna do that? And we're like oh, yeah, yeah, then we'd park something. So we were like totally willing to park something sometimes and say we'll come back to that.

Speaker 1: 1:10:12

Yeah, yeah, oh man, what a year, what a year. Hey, sarah, thanks for being my host today.

Speaker 2: 1:10:20

Thanks for having me on here to chat with you. Thanks for the last year.

Speaker 1: 1:10:23

Yeah, okay, well, for I'm gonna take back over hosting abilities. There's some follow-up episodes, so if you're new around here and you're liking what we're talking about, we'll link down below the recommendations of follow-up episodes. I talked about a lot of things today that I went in more depth on in specific episodes last year and maybe even prior to last year, so we'll link to those and, yeah, see you again next week. Y'all, I'm happy to be back.

Speaker 2: 1:10:48

Bye, friends ["History of the Hustle Podcast"].

Speaker 1: 1:10:59

Well, thanks for listening to another episode of the Hint of Hustle Podcast. That flew right by, didn't it, gosh? I hope I didn't say anything super embarrassing today, but if I did, it's pretty much on brand. If you loved today's episode, be sure to scroll on down wherever you're listening from, and if you haven't yet left a review, it would mean the world. Hit those five stars. Tell other people who are prospecting podcasts how awesome this show is. Give us a little love. We would appreciate that. And hey, if you're hungry for more of what we do here on this show, you can peruse all of the past episodes, grab the show notes and find out the latest free resources to help you get seen, heard and paid for sharing your expertise. Head on over to heathersegarcom. You can also grab the link wherever you're listening to this episode, and we'll see you in the next one.