Podcasts about alright i'm

THE LOVERS PART 1   ELVIS IS GOD The second coming played a rhapsody Rubbery legged both white and black Kept the preaching to a minimum Blood and sweat poured down his sunburned neck His eyes shut tight and his soul was pure Jet black hair and karate pose Sang a song about a mystery Reverberated 'round the globe Side-burn Jesus was pumping gasoline Curled his lip and shook his ass Drove his truck up to the Temple The vendors said they'd take a pass Said "Get your sorry self on back to Memphis Don't want to hear no blues by whites" The sneering scarred out face of slavery Flew across the sky at night They cleaned him up and took his picture But the colonel betrayed his very soul Treated the King like a whored out marionette But you can't kill Rock and Roll The last temptation in the Holy Land Desert sand and neon lights People come from near and sunder See him sing three shows a night They say he's dead but thy're not right Elvis Is God Dave Linantud: Vocals, guitars, bass Ryan Bowen: drums Brian Lutz: engineering Drew Mazurek: mixing   THE GLOW As Jesus sighed the Romans sharpened spears He asked the Holy Ghost he said "What the hell am I doing here?" With the hand of Satan they bought a business ain't that nice Jesus said "Here's to you, Satan" and melted everlasting life in a knife By the firelight they sand and they turned with a toast To raise glasses of hearth to the heavenly ghost A line made of footprints they melted the snow That was frozen to iron by the heat from the glow The old man coughed the spit froze to his beard A piss drunk Cassanova wasted from the years His words were slurred and broken he raised his flask again He said "To everyone who hurts, give from your own pain." He was slain By the trashcan he sighed and he turned with a toast To raise glasses of pain to the heavenly ghost A line made of footprints they melted the snow That was frozen to iron by the heat from the glow So we dance by the firelight and sing songs of joy No government can crush our musical toy No war can kill melodies hovering free Let the magic of music release you and me Dave Linantud: Guitars, bass, vocals Ryan Bowen: Drums T. Chris Johnson: Fiddle Produced by Brian Lutz Mixed by Drew Mazurek Engineered by Greg Humphries   ADAM & EVE Angel White's a killer works for the state Life's so funky, Angel White's is great 'Cause my homeboy pulls the switch ozone in the air Picks his paycheck off the floor right nect to the electric chair The morals of a scoundrel and the science of a bill He'd push his only brother from a high up window sill His duty is to Jesus to murder the ones that kill He's sanctioned by the government and probably always will Dawn is young and free in many different ways She wants to give the love she never got in younger days She ran down to the city fell right through the floor Lost her light to smack and went from lustrous to a whore So what a little money never hurt that's all it took Shadowed by the executionarium she shook He met a little lady why a flowing like a brook They fell in love like lovers do and put it in a book Because they're gnarly rascals Adam & Eve 23rd century lovers Adam & Eve Will they find salvation, baby, Adam & Eve Full of resignation, baby, Adam & Eve The sun comes up almost every day Nothing lasts forever as the old man wants to say Hum that woeful weddig dirge so he can say his piece Cross that bridge to the abyss and sit down for the feast In the corner look it, someone turns to moves and stops to see A picture of a frozen smile that's fractured by the glee He looks back to his drink and thinks I'm glad that isn't me The old man sucks his whiskey down collapses by a tree Because they're gnarly rascals Adam & Eve 23rd century lovers Adam & Eve Will they find salvation, baby, Adam & Eve Full of resignation, baby, Adam & Eve Dave Linantud: Guitars, bass, vocals Ryan Bowen: Drums Produced by Brian Lutz Mixed by Drew Mazurek Engineered by Greg Humphries   MY OWN ELECTRIC CHAIR I'm the man who pulls the switch For the killing son of a bitch He murdered now he'll die He might kill again or lie I'm alright bit uptight execute Monday night Tuesday night watch a fight execute I'm alright I've heard of atom bombs And I've heard of protest songs But when a man will kill and rob I've got to do my job First we shave his head get rid of all that hair Then we strap him down to the electric chair Alright I'm the man who pulls the switch profit from a nervous twitch When all is done and through should I kill me too First we shave his head get rid of all that hair Then we strap him down to the electric chair So first I'll shave my head get rid of all my hair And get what I deserve in my own electric chair In my own electric chair Dave Linantud: Guitars, vocals Ryan Bowen: Drums Greg Humphries: bass Produced by Brian Lutz Mixed by Drew Mazurek Engineered by Greg Humphries   HE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY He's frightened she's coming his way He's speeding he don't know what to say Last night he planned today Right now he don't know what to say How many times can a man shrink in life How many times can he fail to meet his wife How many times can he turn his back on love She ain't happy no help from above He turned and watched him walk away He stuttered he don't know what to say She sighed cigarette ash float away She cried he don't know what to say Yeah yeah yeah He sat his brain melted away He watches she don't know what to say She sleeps her time come today He wakes he don't know what to say Yeah yeah yeah Dave Linantud: Guitars, vocals Ryan Bowen: Drums Greg Humphries: bass Produced by Brian Lutz Mixed by Drew Mazurek Engineered by Greg Humphries   DREAMGIRL Hold this a second for me please while I scrape the blood off of my knees Yeah please excuse me if I sneeze I just came in from overseas I been thinking about you every day been writing down every word you say I keep your fingernails under my bed I keep a picture of your face inside my head I ain't seen you in a while but I remember the way you smile I like the way that you paint your eyes but most of all I like your style I like your fashion sense and your taste in clothes And the powder falling out your nose And them earrings you gave me last July And the tattoo of Catwoman on your thigh Dreamgirl give me your hand Dreamgirl hell I'm your man You remind me of damage in your hair you remind me of the damned in what you wear You remind me of your momma in your breasts You remind me of drugs when you sit at your desk I love the way you shaved your head I love the way you make my bed I love the way you crashed my car I love the way you melt candy bars Dreamgirl give me your hand Dreamgirl hell I'm your man I remember when you bought your farm and how you took me by the arm And then you smashed that fire alarm you showed me you did possess some charm But they wouldn't let us share a prison cell I chalked the days and said oh well When we were free we played mandolins And reminded ourselves of original sin You are my dreamgirl yeah it's true Sometimes I wish that I was you I know you wish that you were me I just came in from over seas Dreamgirl give me your hand Dreamgirl hell I'm your man Dave Linantud: Vocals and guitar Rob Hornung: Saxaphone Ryan Bowen: Drums Brian Lutz: bass Produced by Brian Lutz Mixed by Drew Mazurek Engineered by Greg Humphries   THERE'S DEATH IN HER HEART She's a woman, man, she used to be a beauty Hard living's made it hard for her to see She build up a wall that crashed like thunder She felt sadness far as her eyes could see Freedom's a lie and so is independence She's spent her life being controlled She didn't even know that til this instant Yeah but she won't giveup any of her sould She chuckles softly as she prays to Jesus "I'm sorry, God, but I've wasted my whole damn life It's him or me, God, I fear I'm coming to meet you" There's death in her heart When the morning sun comes up on her companion She feels a hate that she cannot explain "A romantic whore" she thinks and drops a dozen She don't know that Baby Blue's checked in She chuckles softly as she prays to Jesus "I'm sorry, God, but I've wasted my whole damn life It's him or me, God, I fear I'm coming to meet you" There's breath in her heart Dave Linantud: Guitars, vocals, bass Rob Hornung: Saxaphone Ryan Bowen: Drums Produced by Brian Lutz Mixed by Drew Mazurek Engineered by Greg Humphries   SHADOWS Long stemmed rose in a vase that knows Of a mournful and regrettful melody In a city by the shore in what used to be Baltimore There was a boy no laughter flying free Now that boy is a man long stemmed rose in his hand To his beloved he gets down on his knee She then just laughs a little but worse than that He cracked her and watched her flying free I saw them walking outside again "I'll never love you" is what she said to him I saw them walking in from the clouds The shadows in the windows growing dim I saw them walking outside again "I'll never love you" is what she said to him I saw them walking in through the clouds The shadows in the windows growing dim Dave Linantud: Guitars and vocals Brian Lutz: Bass Ryan Bowen: Drums Produced by Brian Lutz Mixed by Drew Mazurek Engineered by Greg Humphries   GREETING CARD Walking in the dark Waiting for the sync to kick the new Blowing on a spark Banners reading "loss" when lies turn true A thunderstorm will rage in the dark but I'll still scream for the sun A million hopes lie shattered in the dusk build them back one by one Reaching out my hand Stumble blindly fall and taste the ground Crack an awkward joke Smiling at the bummers all around A greeting card that's stuck to the floor From dreams that spill from a whiskey glass The sunrise blanked by the clouds of the storm Sitting by and I watch the world spin past It won't last Watch the goings on I just don't feel part of this at all Turned away and gone Save me from the summer of the fall A greeting card that's stuck to the floor From dreams that spill from a vodka glass The sunrise blanked by a castle n the shore Sitting by and I watch the world spin past It won't last Dave Linantud: Guitars, vocals, bass Ryan Bowen: Drums Produced by Brian Lutz Mixed by Drew Mazurek Engineered by Greg Humphries   TO BE A BADASS My lifelong quest is to be a badass But it's made a mess of my whole damn life Oh to be to be a badass Or to be a chump That is life I've been around I've seen the worst That folk can do And do to you Such a shame Here in this rat's nest That is this life That is this life It's time to go To get to gettin' It's a bit more fun When you just don't care Everything conspires with nothing All the time everywhere I can’t recall the sound of laughter If when it’s free for all to hear I can’t recall I just can’t remember So I have to ask you What’s it like to fear And when it’s done and when it’s over Then I will laugh and I will cry Because then I won’t have to wonder Or ask the question What’s it like to die? My lifelong quest is to be a badass But It’s made a mess of my goddamned life Oh to be to be a badass Or to be a chump That is life Don’t be a chump Take my advice Dave Linantud: Guitars and vocals Brendan Tobin: Bass Ryan Bowen: Drums Produced by Brendan Tobin Mixed by Brendan Tobin Engineered by Brendan Tobin  

Alright I'm just gonna be brutally honest here writing the podcast descriptions is my least favorite part of doing this show. Every time I go to write one my mind just goes totally blank. Not even sure what's supposed to go here. Maybe doing the funny moments makes it harder. Also Evan was totally right I thought this was like a Hannah Montana type situation last week. Funny Moments; Evan doesn't understand Inception, Give me the Urcc, Tattooing yourself as a baby, Shit Henge

Stewart Fullerton is joined by comedian and millennial icon Emily Wilson, star of The Emily Wilson Show and a star of her life! Join them on this journey where they discover Emily is the first person to discover going to therapy (who knew!). They discuss all things important like who the fuck is going to clean up Kylie Jenner's birthday flowers and why Gwenyth Paltrow is truly the worst. Alright I'm exhausted after trying to spell Gwenyth! Tune in y'all!    Follow Emily Wilson on Instagram Watch "I Am A Woman" by Emily Wilson Follow Stewart on Instagram Follow Stewart on Twitter Rate, Review & Subscribe to Staying Humble With Stew on Apple Podcasts

Today on the podcast the guys start off with Jong's non-spoiler review of Sha... wait no we don't (MC)... we start with the fact that Jong finally saw the first 2 John Wick movies! I get super excited and discuss everything that he liked about it, no negatives... ok maybe a few but mainly positives because it's John Wick! Then we jump into the non-spoiler review of Shazam, it's awesome go see it April 5th. Jong had the chance to attend the early Fandango screening of Shazam, I didn't... sadface. He shares all the positives of the film, the negatives, and why it might possibly be his favorite DCU film to date! Plus we get mad about Zack Snyder's recent comments regarding Batman vs Superman and Justice League, reactions to the new trailer for season 2 of Krypton, and more! Oh and some minor reactions to the new Netflix film Triple Frontier and AMC's Into the Badlands. We also ask the question, is TWD back to being good??? Check it out! Alright I'm out, back to you nameless podcast description writer. (MC) Umm anyway, if you want to follow the guys on Twitter, follow them [@mynamejong](https://twitter.com/mynamejong) and [@ProducerMike975](https://twitter.com/ProducerMike975). If you have a question or topic that you'd like the guys to discuss on the podcast, please email comicastpod@gmail.com.  Take a moment to rate or review the podcast on any of your favorite podcast platforms as well! The more ratings and reviews, the more people can join the guys on their comic book filled journey.  Look out for more content coming to [comicastpod.com](https://comicastpod.com/) too!

Alright I'm back more excited than ever

At the beginning of the year I set an intention that I wanted to learn how to sing and some of that was because I wanted to explore accessing my voice more getting in touch with speaking from my voice and really feeling the energy of my voice and hoping that Wanda will help me get over some of my fear of public speaking but also just released some blocks around really speaking my voice and in the beginning of the year I had somebody that was assisting me on getting me on podcasts. And so she had reached out to somebody for me to be interviewed on her podcast. And so then she interviewed me on her podcast her name is Ariane and she actually is a voice coach. So at the end of the podcast, I told her what my goal was and I hired her to become my voice coach so we would talk every about every week sometimes twice a month. We would do singing lessons and so we built this relationship and then I interviewed her on my podcast for episode number ninety one which was claiming your voice the power of your voice and in the podcast, she said something that stood out to me and she was talking about the Avatar course. I became curious about it. I had heard her talk about it several times but then she said a couple of things on the interview that stood out to me. At the end of the interview, I asked her about the Avatar course -- in which she told me she would talk to me about the Avatar course and we set up a time to talk about it. I knew that I would benefit from this course but had a lot of resistance around going to the course. I mean leaving my family going by myself. I just felt resistant to it. But at the same time, I felt like this calling like I knew that it would help me. And I knew that it would bust through some of my blocks that I felt like I had been experiencing. And you know she told me that the course was July. At this time, it was the end of June and I thought "I can't make it happen that quickly." It was too much of a mind shift for me to just be like "Alright I'm going to leave." But then we talked about a couple of things. She said, "You know your evolvement will help your family will help your son." And that really resonated with me. So I said to my husband, "I need to go on this trip. It's these dates." He said, "Okay." I booked my trip and I was ready I was ready to go but I was still feeling a little fear and resistance around it. Three weeks later I get on the plane fly out of Florida and I get there. It was different from any other personal development or self-development course I had ever been to. There were people from all over the world. It was very unfamiliar. There weren't a lot of people who were my age (I'm 37). So a lot of people were either older and there actually were kids there that were doing this work too. And I had really had no idea what to expect. So you know I signed up I got the books and I started doing the workbook. And then you get assigned to a one-on-one mentor. I didn't know I would get one-on-one attention like that. Essentially what we did was we really dove into our blueprint what beliefs have we formed what ideas do we have about our identity the world our self and just through asking questions through the question in the workbook and through different exercises just exploring what comes out right. And it was really profound. I mean the number of breakthroughs I had. I don't think I've ever had that many breakthroughs in my life so much so that I started feeling unstable like I was feeling under rounded and they actually had to walk me through like a five-step process of getting more grounded through actually touching physical things like they had me pick up an object and hold it and describe what it felt like and then compare it to another object that I had picked up and describe what the difference between the two objects just so I could get more grounded and present in the room because once I kind of busted through my old belief system maybe feel really in balance and I guess I'll just tell you a little bit about a process that they took us through it I'm jumping way ahead to the work. But all breakthroughs begin with a breakthrough in belief. So it's like what beliefs are you operating from. And I consider myself somebody who's pretty introspective I guess. I do this work with clients so I ask myself these questions all the time and I could spew out my living beliefs pretty easily. Even the woman that was working with me was like wow this is this seems pretty easy for you. But the big difference for me was understanding the origin of the belief and I've done this before with clients and things like this but this was different because once we identified what a belief was we looked at it and we looked. Is this helpful or is this impeding? Now it is interesting because some beliefs like there is a belief I had that I'm fortunate. And while I thought that would be helpful I realized it was actually impeding. And the reason why is I was settling for things because I'd go Well I'm fortunate or at least I have this. And it was actually an impeding belief rather than a helpful belief. So if you can identify like okay like is this belief impeding or is this helpful. A lot of the beliefs we have. They came from society our parents, teachers, maybe even the sports arena siblings culture religion and they were using the term in this course indoctrination meaning you didn't deliberately choose to have this belief this belief was kind of imposed on you in some way. So the next layer was to uncover. Was this something that was deliberate or was this indoctrinated. And so if we take my belief I'm fortunate I picked that up from someone along the way. It wasn't something that I think I intentionally chose. That's different from me but really choosing the belief. But I probably heard someone or somebody say along the way. Well, you should be lucky for what you have or you're very fortunate. And while that is true I was actually using it in a way that was impeding and therefore it wasn't deliberate. So the other piece is that if your attention is on these old beliefs or these beliefs that are impeding it robs some of your attention and if you don't have free attention then you don't have a choice. So a lot of the time we don't actually sit down and take out the trash that's in our mind. We just keep going. Imagine if you had a car and you never took it in the shop to get fixed. Like obviously that car wouldn't run well but also if you know were experiencing you know a bumpy path and you took it into the shop. The first thing one of the first things you would probably do is lift up the hood and a lot of time we don't investigate our beliefs or our thoughts or what the inner workings of our mind we just kind of keep going and we're not really taught this these skills in school and it's quite uncomfortable. I mean I felt very uncomfortable because some of it is like it's surprising you don't even know what's going to come out sometime. But in the end it was so freeing. Afterward, I could literally feel a release and then I did feel like I had more free attention and then I can direct that attention towards what I want what I want to create. OK. So you might be thinking Anna all of this is great. You know some of it makes sense some of it might be a little bit confusing but like. Now what. What do I do? How can I identify what are some of these beliefs that are blocking me and part of my blueprint that isn't getting me the results that I want. And that's a great question because there is a process so essentially you know I used to think that that is true that your beliefs create your reality. But now I understand that it's an experience. Reality is an experience right. So like if you and I go to the same movie we each are going to have our own experience of that reality. So whatever your experience is is the reality that you're creating where does your experience come from? It doesn't come from the movie out there it comes from your own internal experience. So, if something is hard or let's say you're stuck in some area in your life whether it be health relationships your family a business your career. Look at that. The first question is what would I like to change? So then you identify what you would like to change so if you have a moment I would say pause this and write down what is it that you would like to change. The next question is what belief might someone have in order to experience a let's say fear of talking to people that you don't know though if you have a moment pause this and write down the question and write down your answer the next question is how do you prove that this belief is true. So writing down like behaviors habits patterns tendencies that you do to prove this belief to be true. So I'm going to give you an example. This was an example taken from the workbook. It's called resurfacing techniques for exploring consciousness resurfacing by Harry Palmer. So the guide asks, "What would you like to change?" STUDENT: My fear of talking to people I don't know. GUIDE: What belief might someone have in order to experience a fear of talking to people. He doesn't know. STUDENT: People might say something bad. GUIDE: How do you prove this belief to be true? STUDENT I've got examples. I've seen it happen. I've done it. (keep going until there is a breakthrough) GUIDE: What other belief might someone have. In order to experience a fear of talking to people he doesn't know? STUDENT: I might say something stupid. GUIDE: How do you prove this belief is true? STUDENT: I said something really stupid to my friend's wife. GUIDE: What other belief might someone have in order to experience a fear of talking to people he doesn't know? STUDENT: Don't talk to strangers. It's good advice for children. Aha. I just realized something. It's not because I don't know them that I don't talk to them it's because they don't know me. I'm the stranger. The belief is strangers are dangerous.   This is a beautiful process. That's the end of the process. But it doesn't always end there. But the idea is to keep asking the question about what belief might someone have in order to experience the fear. You can do this around comparison. You can do this around any area that you're stuck and then you want to ask yourself the question how do you prove that believed to be true and you keep going with it. Now I'm going to tell you another step that I've integrated on my own with this question is to almost all beliefs are motivated by three things they're either motivated by modeling someone like we saw somebody do it or we heard somebody do it. That was in our sphere most likely growing up that had an influence on us in some capacity. My mentor my mentor that was there told me a great story about this she said that when she was in her 20s she had this fear of birds and she couldn't figure out where it came from me you know and it was just like you know she was she had this fear of birds and she said and then one day she went back to her hometown. She lived on her own at the time so she went back and visited her mother and she saw that her mother was afraid of birds and she realized oh that belief wasn't mine. It was my mom's and because she was able to understand that that belief wasn't hers. She could let it go. Another motivation behind forming beliefs is resistance so there's resistance behind some behavior. So let's say your mom was super unorganized and then you became like a neat freak. So you're kind of do the opposite or obedience like somebody said like you know you should grow up and get a 9 to 5 job and you just like follow the rules. So identifying where the motivation of that belief began. So that's a step that I've been adding to the equation it is part of the process but this is a really big process but I just wanted to give you a snapshot and share a little bit about some breakthroughs that I had with the intention of hoping that you can get use out of this and if you have any questions you can always reach out to me. If you want to set up a complimentary coaching call to learn more about this process and how I can help you go to annagoldstein.com/coach

Hi. Alright. How we doing? It looks like I'm in a small prison. Hello, Facebook. Is this working? Welcome to The Katrina Ruth Show. Okay. Three people here. Hello, three people. I might be the smartest person in the world right 'bout right now. Oh my goodness, Leah. I'm feeling all the feels. I'm in the airport. I'm at my gate. I'm in such a weird ass mood that I didn't even want to hang out in the lounge. The lounge in Bali is pretty shit. The wine is terrible, it'll poison you. So I'm just in the room. The holding room, where you're gonna board the plane, but I've come kinda early, so I don't have to board for a while. I was so in a weird, grumpy, anxious, bizarre place all day, and then I was like, "I'm not even going to sit in the lounge, I'm going to sit on this gross ass floor, in this skanky airport boarding room, since that's the mood I'm in." And I feel fantastic. Now, I'm going to advise to you, that I might be the most intelligent person in the world from an engineering standpoint, and the reason is, I don't have a tripod in front of me, but yet I'm not holding the phone. How is that even possible? "How is it possible," you ask? Well, I'll tell you. I might even show you, but I'm a little concerned that if I show you ... Can't even have any more coffee, 'cause my heart rate's already like frickin high as fuck today. I'm in an anxiety day today. I'm concerned that if I show you my arrangement here that I won't be able to get the phone back in again, but I'm too excited at myself, so I'm gonna show you. Are you ready for this ninja-ri? Are you guys ready for it? Check it. So there's my Chanel luggage case. It's beautiful, isn't it? Chanel. And there's my purse, and there's the airport lounge, and there's the gross ass carpet that I'm sitting on, and here's me. Okay, now the phone's telling me off for rotating it. So aren't I intelligent? Because, I had the phone stuffed here, I had the phone stuck behind that. I'm so impressed at myself. I'm just like, "Look at me." Sometimes I think I'm just a little school girl. I'm like, "How am I the age I am?" I walk around in little shorts, with Nike's on, looking like an escaped backpacker, and then sit on the floor. I don't know. I just feel like one of these things is not like the other. Something's wrong in this picture or something, but at the same time, obviously I fully embrace, and love, and accept myself. But I just have that feeling of I'm not a real adult, and somebody's gonna come along and knock on the door and be like, "Listen, we've heard that you're actually passing yourself off as a grown ass adult slash entrepreneur, and you're really not doing it quite right. But good luck to you." Right. "How's the nail?" It looks gross. There's some congealed issues there. The Balinese man at the gym yesterday, like the gym manager dude wanted me to go to the clinic. I'm like "Fuck that, I'm not going to a frickin clinic." So now I'm just letting it do what it wants and we'll see what happens over the next few days. So I nearly called this live-stream ... I was gonna call it something about how critical it ... and now, by the way, I look like a crazy person because as far as the rest of this waiting room is concerned, I'm talking to the back of my handbag right now cause they can't see the phone. But check out the new top, it's good isn't it? It's good. So I nearly called this live-stream something about ... By the way maybe you can just chuck that call to action straight in, go right into the CTA. Whose joined break the internet? Okay, I keep being like, "What the fuck is that loud noise?" And I was getting really shitty about it. It sounds like a massive vacuum cleaner, and then I realised it's a plane landing. I'm at the airport, it's probably okay for a plane to be landing. And, they take your water off you though when you check in to the ... You actually have to check into the waiting room in Bali. You've gotta check in, and they search your bags before you can just wait to get on the plane, and then they take your water off you. It's super annoying. So, now I'm live streaming which means I always want water, and I'm sitting quite far back, because otherwise the top of my head's cut off. So, I'll just lean down. So, what was I saying? Oh, whose joined break the internet? We'll talk about that in a moment, that is next level. I almost convinced myself that I shouldn't livestream today, because my energy's not super crazy, and high vibrant badass like it was yesterday. And, then I was like, "What is this bullshit story? This is how I'm feeling today, I'm gonna show up as who I am today." Do you think they could possibly quiet down with the announcements, when somebody's trying to livestream? People can figure their own shit out at the airport. Okay I'm getting side tracked already. So my other title that I had in mind, was that I could call this livestream something like, "How critical it is to lean into the feelings that are coming through you." But, then I reminded myself to always go with what was originally coming out, which in this case was, "It's okay to feel what you're feeling." Reason being, yesterday as you might know I did one of the craziest, bizarre ... The [inaudible 00:05:42]. And then, I gotta say, this waiting room area is massive, and as soon as I went live people came and sat near me. What's that about? Why did they not sit on the other side of the room? So, now I've got that slight feeling of self consciousness, where I'm like conscious that people can sort of hear me and are probably like, "What the fuck she's doing." At the same time, like fully committed to being as crazy as possible, and waving my arms around in the air if that's what comes out. "Hello from Norway." But, tell me if you've joined Break the Internet. That shit is just gonna rip the soul right out of you. Which doesn't sound ideal, to be honest. It's not really what I meant. It's not gonna take from you. You won't lose your soul. What I should do is stand up. I'm gonna sit here in a zen like fashion. Do you think I should sit here like this for the rest of the livestream? Could do. I want this phone to be a little bit higher. Actually I don't want [inaudible 00:06:30]. I just want the phone to be a bit higher, but I've gotta push this trolley back. This Chanel case back. But, I don't want that ugly red chair in my stream. What's Break The Internet all about? Well I'm glad you asked. It's in the pinned comment Melissa. You read the pinned comment below the pre work dropped last night, it was madness. It was madly amazing. I'll talk about it in a moment, but there is details about it in the pinned comment right there. It's my new programme, it starts in two days. But, you get into the Facebook group straight away. It's a ten day intensive smack down. And, the first module, which we do on Friday, is about getting angry. Getting angry with yourself for not speaking your truth, and not sharing your true message. So, when I say it's gonna rip the soul right out of you, it was less than ideal wording. I didn't mean you're gonna lose your soul. I meant it's gonna help you to unleash your soul. It's gonna unleash the fullness of your soul out of you. Ashley stole the shenanigans with actual work. The pre work, I'm really impressed with myself for the pre work to be honest. I mean I just like allow it to come through me, and download it. And I was like, "Fuck me, that was a good exercise." And wait till you see the follow on one. There's more pre work coming. So, you don't want to wait till Friday, because like Thursday and Friday I'll push it as hard as far. I'll be promoting everywhere, I'll be like join, join, join, before we start. Obviously so you don't miss out. You don't want to wait till then, you may as well join now, and you get to be in on the energy at that group. We should seriously just level as fuck already, and get to enjoy the pre work of being prepared. And, what Break The Internet's all about is, it is about unleashing your core, unadulterated, unapologetic soul and truth. But, here's where today's energy mood comes in right. Because, I honestly nearly didn't go live. I could've gone live on the way to the airport, from the car. I keep looking for my water. They ruined my groove, they took my water off me. So, ridiculous. I'm a business class passenger and I'm without water. I'll survive. So, yeah my energy and my mood today, it's been really weird. Yesterday I was in this kind of crazy like hysterical other worldly dimension shift thing that was going on. If you didn't watch my livestream from yesterday, it was seriously one of the most bizarre things that I've ever published on the internet, and it was just like a crazy explosion. I was completely in another dimension, another place. I watched the whole replay myself. I was pretty funny. I thought it was quite funny. But, I also dropped some amazing gold. I just cannot recommend highly enough, like how deeply you need to watch that livestream. In fact Mim, if you're still here grab the URL from that live yesterday and drop into a comment here a well, so people can find it easily. Otherwise, you can find it on this page, or on my personal trainer page, cause that's where I actually did it from. So, then today ... Actually today started fine, and then early on in the day I started to feel that anxiety rising up, and that kind of like disconnectedness. And, there are a couple of things that maybe could have brought that one, or called me ... Yeah, my little stickers. Wasn't that [inaudible 00:09:26]. There were a couple of things that kind of maybe contributed to that, but then nothing like where it was really valid, or worthy of going into my anxiety mode. And, I did my journaling, and I did my blogging, and I did all the things that I usually do, and then went over to the gym, and by the time I got to the gym I was seriously like having a full on anxiety day, where it's kind of hard to breathe, and you don't really want to communicate with people, and you have to kind of talk carefully and more carefully. And, I don't know if it was because I was coming down from the high and the trip of yesterday. From all the places I travelled to yesterday. Or, it was like whatever random shit that was going on in my head. Or, it's just nothing at all. So, then you try and shift it. And, I know how to shift it, and we always know how to shift it. But, at the same time you kind of like, "It's not fucking shifting." And, it's just kind of like melting a little bit, a little bit. And, when I feel that way I do, do whatever I feel I need to do in order to shift, or in order to let it go. But at the same time, I understand that it is what it is, and there's two parts. So, one of the practises or processes that I'll go into when I feel something like that, something that I don't really ideally enjoy feeling, or what I'll be feeling is kind of just getting back to groundedness, getting back to face. So it's kind of like ... Actually I'll give you a good example, frequently when clients come to me and they're freaking the fuck out about money, like they've got serious money shit going on, and there's kind of like a fear and panic reaction going on. I always bring it back to two things for them. I say, "Okay, number one. Can you get through today? Like, are you able to get through today, and is there action that you can take today. Can you do today's work of being you." And the answer is like of course, of course I can survive today, of course I can get through today. Not just get through it, but also take the action that you need to be taking. And, then number two. Do you have faith. Like, go big picture. Do you have faith? There's the big picture that I'm not going any [inaudible 00:11:17]. I'm here to stay, I am gonna run this thing, I'm gonna create everything that's inside of me, and I'm gonna bring my vision to life. And, 100% I've had client's, friends, me, my family ... I don't know, I don't really as them that stuff. But, the people that are in my circle, are definitely gonna say yes. Ultimately yeah, I can get through today for sure. Right. There's a child looking at me. And, I do have faith in the big picture. This kid's coming up to see what I'm doing, cause they think I'm talking to a handbag right now. So, those are the two things that you'll want to look at right. And, that's easy for me to rule off, and it's easy for me to say or share with clients when it comes to the money side of things. Because, I'm not in that space anymore, but I'm teaching from a place of when I was in that space right, and when I did go through that, when that was my reality and that was just how it is. And, so I remember, and I was caught up in that before I broke through my business. I'm not kidding there's like 3 children like just ... They're all right here, kind of like. And then their parents came up and got them. And then the parents are also kind of half looking at me, like, "What the fuck is going on?" I swear to God, I've gotta give myself credit for being able to tune this stuff out and just keep going, like give me a love heart [inaudible 00:12:29] for support please. Because, not only am I having an anxiety day, but I'm dealing with the fact that this waiting room is full of people looking at me like I'm crazy, cause I'm talking to the back of a bag. And, I'm still paranoid because I believe in this message, and I want to bring it to you right. So, I need the love hearts even extra today, and the flying Katrinas thank you. Okay, so it is kind of easy for me to rule that off right. Because, I'm not in that place of anxiety to do with life anymore. It's long past, but I was there, and I was there for quite a while. Thank you for the love, I so appreciate it. I was there, and I was there for quite a while. Okay, I just realised something terrible. I realised my lighting went out, and I could look even more bright in light than I do right now. One second. How did I not notice that, that went out? Look how much better it is. Alright, let me put this back in here. One second, just jam it back in. That's so much better, I'm so excited, I'm such a lighting addict. Alright, now my comments have disappeared though. There they are. Yeah, maybe somebody needs to hear what I'm saying, exactly Nicole. Thank you. I feel way better with this lighting, that's improved my mood by 14%. So, I remember the feeling, and I know that that's what gets you through. So, then when I go into random ... I don't know how to do the sparkler filter anymore, I swear to God, these filters are just all messed up. Should I try it? When I go into this mood now. Let's try it. When I go into ... Nah, it doesn't want to let me do a filter. You know what, I think it's because when you're in the Creator app, the Facebook Creator app which allows me to have the show banner down the bottom, as opposed to when I do it through the page's app, then you can do more fancy things. That's what I think. Okay, no the fricken light has gone off again. Okay, so what I was trying to say is. When I'm in this anxiety place relevant to whatever shit that's not about money, but whatever it was just about. Just that feeling that I come back to that same stuff right. Yeah, I don't know why. They need to fix that in the Creator app though Leah. It's annoying. So, I come back to the same stuff. Let's get that red chair out, I don't like that red chair. And, it's essentially, "Can I get through today?" Like, can I not just like survive the day and not die, that's not what I mean. But, more like can I do what I need to do today? Can I still do my inner work? Can I still message from this place? Right? Hello, that's what I'm doing right now. So, a lot of us including myself have been guilty of feeling like, if I'm feeling that way, if I'm feeling stuck, or if I'm feeling disconnected, or if I'm having an anxiety attack, or whatever it is that you may be experiencing. It might not be anxiety, I know a lot of people who do though. But, then we think I can't show up today, because I'm not in my zone, and I'm not in my vibe. And that's the story that I was telling myself relevant to live streaming. I still did my blog, and then after that I did you know, my personal stuff, I answered my messages, I packed my shit up and got myself to the airport. Spoke to a client on the phone, that sort of thing. But, when I thought about going live, I was like, "I just have ... Like I've got to much of this going on in here, and I didn't ... I felt worried that I wouldn't bring a powerful message, or it would make me feel upset or something like that." Like I was really buying into the anxiety being in charge of me, rather than me being like, "Hey, you know what? This is just something that is part of my experience today and I can still show up, and it is what it is. And it's okay." And, I shared over an audio message with one of my best friends a little bit about what I was feeling. And, actually I was not happy with her answer that I got back. It made me super shitty I triggered. I was like, "Fuck off, that's not why I was sharing my words. I was sharing for a solution." Just being transparent as fuck right now. I wasn't sharing looking for an answer to why I'm feeling what I'm feeling, like I shared what I was feeling, and I said why I feel I'm feeling that way. But, then I was like, "Yeah an but I also know this." Like coming back to faith, and coming back to groundedness, it brought me back to [inaudible 00:16:18], so I ... So, it's kind of like coaching myself, sharing everything on the audio which is what we all do with friends. And then she kind of came back with, "Oh well, the reason is blah blah blah. And what you need to do is blah blah blah." And I was like, "Um, I'm already fully aware of that, actually all I wanted was empathy." But, then I was like, "Okay, so if I'm not gonna get empathy from somebody else if I feel like they're nice, and they're just tryna like school me on something that I'm already fully aware of, then where am I doing that to someone else. Right. So, everything's always [inaudible 00:16:46], so I was shitty, but then I was also like, "Clearly this is coming from inside me." But, it still didn't shift it, so it was still ... And, so after that, that's where this title for this livestream came from. Because, after that I was kind of sitting in the car on the way here to the airport and I thought, "At the end of the day, it's okay to feel what I'm feeling, but I don't have to shift that in order to be a good person, or be an indulged conscious person. I also don't have to be the crazy ass motherfucker that I was yesterday travelling to other places. Actually still in a state of super flow, even while feeling all this stuff. But, it's just the different angle, or a different side of the same point. Okay, are you guys not commenting anymore. Is that what's happening? Somebody leave a comment so I know this is working. Either you're just enraptured by what I'm saying, or the comments have stopped working. Let me check on my laptop. Okay, so that's where the title came from. That's what I was trying to say. It's okay to feel what you're feeling, but more than that. I think that we get to lean into what we're feeling, and by that I mean just ... Okay you're listening, thanks Sherry. We get to lean into what we're feeling. Enraptured. You're so funny. Perfect, good. See, I'm getting into my little self conscious mode, because there's so many people looking at me right now. And, also because I'm feeling like a self conscious day anyway. My growth is like phenomenal today, I'm just growing stronger on the inside moment by moment right now. I'm gonna get on the plane. I'm gonna have some fricken wine. No not the rapture. It's a different rapture from yesterday. Yesterday I blogged about being in the rapture, which is when you're in the deep collective unconscious, you're in the super flow. I do need the heart shower. I think I just need a lot of hearts. If you were here I would need a cuddle and a kiss, and a marshmallow. Not to speak like a marshmallow. Some people know what that means. Yeah, yesterday I was in like the full power super flow. You guys saw that on the livestream. I was kind of out of control, and crazy. Thank you for the love. Today is actually still ... It's like a follow on from it, and it's still a deep connectedness. It's just that sometimes you have those shitty feelings that you don't want to feel, and what I'm trying to say is, that's not bad or wrong right. What if we literally just went that's how I'm feeling today. It is what it is. Can I analyse it? Sure, but doesn't matter. Haven't agreed to my marshmallow demands. Can you repeat them here, cause did I miss them, or did I just comment back with a smart ass reply. I don't know what you mean. You know, so we can analyse we can come up with, "Oh I think it's cause of this, or it's cause of this." We can do state shifting stuff, like okay it felt a bit better after doing my workout, it felt better after getting my tunes on. I felt a lot better after I ate actually. Beautiful salad with chicken and beef and mango in it. It was amazing. Exhausted from workload. I don't have any workload at all. I feel like I do no work at all. I don't think. I just laugh emoji, but what was the request. I don't think I'm exhausted at all from workload, I definitely don't have much of a workload. I feel like I do no work, but then I clearly work all day, but then I play all day. It's all just a [inaudible 00:19:49] mish mash. And, hang on. Now I'm accidentally watching my livestream. That's a mistake. Alright I'm trying to read these comments, and they're half coming up on the phone, and half on the laptop. So, what was the point I just half finished. It's fricken okay to feel what you're feeling right. You're allowed to feel it, because what I was trying to do earlier today was probably push it away. Like, I was sort of trying to state shift. The reason I try anyway, you either shift your state or you don't. But, it was more in a mindset of, I don't want to feel like this. This is annoying me. I want to push it away, I want to get rid of it. So, that's like a resistance, and as I was driving here. I hate driving here honestly. I suddenly went to myself, "Well, what if I just let that feeling fully wash over me?" It's okay to want to be a human burrito in my mind. That's exactly right [inaudible 00:20:48] You wouldn't want to do a burrito bed here in Bali, you'd probably lose 14 litres of sweat. And, I'm definitely getting wine as soon as I get on the plane. Or as soon as [inaudible 00:20:57] anyway. But, I mean even from talking about it now right. It's actually shifting even though I surrounded the idea that I needed to shift it. Maria says, "Let's all drink wine." Right. So then I surrendered the idea. I was like, "Okay, this reminds me of whenever I'm getting my tattoo worked on ... I speak about that a lot. How if you try to not feel the pain of it, if you try and avoid the pain of it, then it hurts more. And you give it power over you. Whereas if you lean into the pain, and go okay, "Let me just allow myself to feel all of this pain, let me allow it to kind of wash over me and threw me." Then, all of a sudden you go, "Aw, it's not that it doesn't necessarily have any pain attached to it, but it's probably less painful than what it was before." And you take the power out of it, because you're not trying to hide from it and run from it. And so that's what I realised I got to do, an hour or two from when I was on the way here. Oh they're boarding. I think they're boarding. It's alright I've got priority boarding, I just like zoom straight in when I'm ready. So, I just let myself surrender to it. I actually gave into the anxiety on the way to the airport. I was like, "Okay, it is what it is, but don't feel that I have a very good valid reason why I should be feeling like this. But I do feel like this, so okay maybe that's my experience today?" I'm still fine, I'm still in full love and acceptance, I'm actually still connected and charged with super flow, I've still created amazing content today. I know I'll have an epic time on the plane, I always do. I typically go into super, super flow when I'm in the air. [inaudible 00:22:26] And, yeah. That was it really and I was like "Okay, it's cool." Because, it would be all passed tomorrow and probably be the best fucking [inaudible 00:22:34] ever tomorrow, but there's no rule ... Half of all these people are such sheeps, they all just get up and do what they're told. 100% of the people just got up. Please not be my derro time. No there's actually one guy who's sitting over there, he didn't get up. He's like, "[inaudible 00:22:51] I'll do exactly what I want, I want to sit down until the last minute." So, yeah I think that a lot of times we think we shouldn't have any emotions that we have maybe labelled as negative right? And, what if there was no negative emotions because there's not. There's just not. They all are here for a reason and they're all here to service right. So what if all emotions were there to teach us something, or guide us something, or to bring us back closer to our soul. And I realised that when I actually surrendered to feeling anxious and surrendered to feeling like I couldn't quite breathe properly, and I was in a slight state of panic and I just wanted to be like, "I want to be like super fricken happy and excited again." When I surrendered to it I allowed it to teach me something. And, I don't really know what that was yet. I don't know. Maybe I'll never know. It doesn't matter. But, it actually allowed me to connect back to my soul because I was being with what is. I was allowing myself to be what I am, and recognising or realising that there's nothing I need even at emotional state in order to be enough, or be good enough right. I'm completely loved and accepted. I'm completely [inaudible 00:23:56]. I'm completely still able to move through the day, show up, do whatever I feel called to do. Be present and in attendance in any circumstance or [inaudible 00:24:05]. Or, alternatively watch a movie and drink a wine on the plane. Whatever it is I feel called to do. But, then now ... And so now, I obviously got on and did the livestream and I was in the airport already for an hour before doing this live, and I did go to lounge for a little bit and I was nearly gonna live there but the wifi wouldn't really work. And, I was kind of, "Oh, I think I should just leave the livestream for today, let's just get on this plane and you know tomorrow's a new day." And then I was like, "You know what? I'm gonna just do the thing right. I'm just gonna talk about it's okay to feel what you're feeling." And now, like literally right now in this moment, I'm noticing I shifted because I surrounded [inaudible 00:24:41]. Like, I feel happy. I feel upbeat. I feel a slight little [inaudible 00:24:45] in there of that anxiety. But, I feel like it's totally 100% fine and I mean it. If it comes back, or if it doesn't and I go into like la la marshmallow land. Do you know what I mean? Whereas before, I felt like it was scary, or bad, or wrong. Somebody's coming to get me, what's happening? Excuse me. Yes. Final call already. Final call already? Okay how did that happen in one minute? They must have an empty plane. I don't know how that happened. Okay, so. The pre work has dropped. I want to read about it to you. How the fuck did they get to final call already? The pre work has dropped for Breaktheinternet.com. It must be an empty plane. And, you've gotta read about it in the pinned comment. It's my 10 day smack down intensive. It is about getting back to your soul, and getting angry. There's a bunch of comments here in the pinned comment about what people said about the pre work. This is ... Like I could read it all out, but I don't think I'm prepared to do that to miss the plane. So, it's for the crazy certified crazy badass, who has not been showing up fully as themselves. Okay, there's the rest of my head while I pack up. Who has not been doing the damn work, and who is ready to do the damn work? Let's do this thing. Okay, shit. I'm literally the last person. How the fuck is it, that I always miss planes ... I never miss planes. I always nearly miss the plane, when I'm like the first one at the airport? Because I'm live streaming. Alright I'm gonna totally go, because there's nobody else here. Don't forget, live is now press fucking play.

Oh, what's up, Facebook? Welcome to the livestream. Super grainy, isn't it? Can I turn this light on? Yes, please. Thank you. Okay, that's a bit better. I am on my way out. I'm going out. Got some cool stuff happening tonight. I've been tearing some shreds off today, people, mainly off my own self. What's up, Kitty? Hey, who else is there? Ooh, how do I share this? Hey, Declan. Hello, people of the internet. How can I share this livestream from my personal page into my Daily Asskickery group? I feel like an idiot, like I think I should know how to do things on Facebook at this point in my career. Hi, Candice. Can somebody share this into the Daily Asskickery Facebook group? Ooh, actually I have an idea, one second, pause yourselves right there, I'm going to bring it in a moment. I'm going to exit out of this screen and see if I can share it in my Safari browser. All right, I'm so intelligent, I'm so impressed with myself. So I'm in a cab, I'm here in Bali, there's a little bit of Bali, I'm always in Bali, you know that, I'm probably going to move to Bali. I'm heading out to a beach club, badass beach club. My friend just messaged me and said, make sure I get one of the daybeds if I get there first. We're going to do so may shenanigan-y things, it's just how it has to be today. It's getting to about that time of life o'clock, isn't it? It's getting to shenanigan o'clock, I would say. I've felt the kind of fury just building up in me. If you read my blog post that I published 20 minutes ago, you will understand. Now, I know I just exited the fricking screen, but I've got to get one more thing and I'm going to put it in the comments. I'll tell you in a minute, I'm pretty angry at myself, I'm actually going to do an entire ... The first training module for my new course, which is called BreakTheInternet.com, and don't go to the URL, because there is ... Well, there probably is breaktheinternet.com, but I'm just calling it that because it's just how it came out. So it's not my URL, all right? So my new course is BreakTheInternet.com, and it is a 10 day smack down, it's going to be full on, I've got so much energy and passion. The first module is called Get Fucking Angry, because I'm fucking angry, I am so fucking angry at myself right now. It all started, actually my awareness of my own shittiness, at my own self started so the link, don't click on the link, whatever you do, do not click on links that I give you. All right, there's some Bali views for you. It was a pile of a stones, I hope you enjoyed it. What one did I tell you about the other day? No, fuck that shit, that can come later on in the week, it's actually amazing. I just can't follow a plan. It was a three day plan, it was a four day plan, whatever fucking plan it was that my team had that I agreed to, that it was my plan maybe, but then I pre planned something and then I just wanted to smack myself in the head, basically. I'm going to get angry at you for you. I'm happy to get angry at you [inaudible 00:03:25]after this and yell at you if you like? Well, no I won't because I'm going to be at Fins meeting amazing people and having the best time ever. I'm going to go meet so many cool new people tonight. Last night I went out with people who I've never even met before. Like just put myself in a brand new situation, 100% new people. New people that were just created yesterday, I created them into my own reality. I mean, my team don't know yet about this because it is Sunday. Christian, what's up? It is Sunday in Australia so I've actually done something behind my team's back and possibly Broman Kelly will be on it because she's like a bloodhound that one. She's on everything. My brother definitely won't be on it because he'll be like, not checking his WhatsApp, but I did message him on WhatsApp and I said on the WhatsApp, I said, "I'm sorry I couldn't do it I was dying," and then I sent him a link to my post that I just put up. Not even an hour ago and the post if you missed it, you must read it. Can somebody get the link to that post, if you're on your laptop computer. Get the URL to that blog so people can read it. It's called you snivelling, whiny, little bitch. And you're going to read it and you're going to enjoy it. I'm rebelling against myself first and foremost, but I did initially put a picture up with that post that said Fuck you, I won't do what you told me. Then I took it down and changed the photo because I didn't want my team to think I was saying fuck you to them, but really I meant it to my own higher self. Still I have just screwed up the entire plan for the, possibly year. But fuck it, we'll do all that anyway. We'll do the faith and peppers thing because it's freaking amazing, but right now I've got some limbs to tear. Limb from limb. Oops, I just punched the roof of the taxi. Lily Bangkok knows what's up. She was on it like white on rice. It was crazy, the whole... I don't even know what that expression means, it just popped of me. What does that even mean? I think I got it from a movie. You can see that I'm coming back to life. I'm like one of those little dehydrated towels, you know when you check in at an amazing high end hotels in Bali, they give you one of those small dehydrated towels and then you put it in some water and it comes to life. That's basically what I am. Declan says I'm worth rebelling against. Thank you, I rebel against myself anytime I like. It's been festering away at me. It's been quite a disgusting internal situation, hence your whiny, snivelling little bitch. Of course, as usual, I didn't even notice that it was happening and it's just, like it is an old freaking pattern that I've done several times. Which I got somewhat triggered by when I was called out on that the other day. On a joint livestream and somebody said to me, you've already done this same story three times before. Can you just get some new material or something? Which I thought was a little bit cheeky, but true. I always appreciate getting called out, only if it's true and by the right person, but I was still kind of shitty about it. Now I'm just having to own it and that's the truth of the matter. Then I got called out again, two days ago, by the same person. I was like fucking hell, you're right and I knew that. So I probably shut down all my Facebook ads and all plans and all of everything and I've just been sitting in my own disgusting-ness. I'm not going to say enjoying it, but I've been marinating, marinating in my own disgusting-ness because I fucking deserve to. I needed to feel it. There's a field, enjoy the field. Blake what's up? I have a lot of respect for you Blake. Everybody should follow Blake. Leah said I thought you said tampon instead of towel. No? Not at all, but it's actually kind of the same analogy. Alright, so I've just been marinating in my own disgusting-ness. I've been sitting in it. It's actually kind of true in a physical sense as well because in Bali most of the time, you're just covered in black sweat and who knows what else. So, it's true in many senses of the word that I meant my own emotional, what's a good word for it? Snivel-ery? Wussiness? Diluted horror, diluted horror. That's how I feel about it. Marinating in my own diluted horror. It's not been fun to marinate in. It's been quite vial up in here. I've still had a lot of fun mind you, I've had a fabulous night out last night, been to many fantastic things. But I've been conscious and aware of what a sell out I've been being. I've had so many good titles through me for live streams and blogs. I'm going to write about myself being a sell out tomorrow. I'm going to get some memes, I'm going to make some freaking memes. Okay here's a rice field, we should all look at it. Check it out. This is where I use to live, look. Right down that street, down there. Actually it was over a fence and you had to climb over a fence and down a hill and roll down it sideways, but I lived there anyway for a year. I had many coffees, possibly several too many, but it was required. I had to kick myself in the iron ass, I had to take my own advice. You know, sometimes I'll say to my clients, look you need to slap yourself on each cheek and pour a backard of cold water on your head and remember who the fuck you are. That's relatively what I had to do today. I'm going to get you the comment now because I'm not explaining it very well, but I think you get the idea which is that we should all just take a moment to pause at the horror show that has been the Katrina Ruth show for the past week and a half. I guess it's not too bad to have only lost your way for like 10 days, and now I can return to being a badass. But it's been a horrible 10 days, hasn't it? Hasn't it been disgusting? Have you noticed? Who's noticed? I just can't even understand what was going through this crazy head of mine. I really can't bear the sight of myself, except that I fully love and accept myself. So I am quite happy about the whole situation, regardless. Because I'll come back stronger, and more powerful and more excited than ever. Wait right there, wait one second, don't go anywhere. Okay, I'm back. I'm going to see if I could put a...what's happening here, it's very bumpy on this road. Okay, I just left a comment. You can read that comment at your own leisure, it's quite long. But it tells you about the new programme. You're going to need to jump on it quickly. I was so behind..because there's a top 10 bonus that's going on with me this week. But that's the whole sales page right there, deal with it. It's also in the P.S of the blog that I just posted. If you need a bit of a slap up the ass? Cheek? In the ass? Wherever you like your slaps, you're going to want to go and read that blog post. What it's about really, is we're so...Okay this is a cool wall, did you see that wall with the girl on it? Man, I need to come back and have a photo shoot on that wall one day. You were the first one Lily, actually I don't know because I didn't log in and look at my PayPal or anything. But you were the one that commented so you might have been the first one. I don't know if anybody else just bought it on the site and didn't bother commenting. But I didn't have a sales page. I don't even have an infusion self link. I went old school. I still know how to do things old school on the internet before I had staff. So sneakily logged into my own PayPal which I never do and which I probably don't even think I know how to get into anymore. I made my own subscription links to my own payment buttons and then I just put the mother fucking PayPal button right here on the internet. Like a crazy person, I know, I'm out of control. Somebody needs to control me. It's perfect timing because I'm going out and I'm going to be totally out of control, and do all the things...okay here we are. We've arrived. I'm going to keep going, I'm going to get the money out though, for this taxi driver who's probably what on earth on up to. Britta, I know you'll appreciate the title of that blog, I saw you press like on that blog. I felt you'd be quite happy with it because I feel like you are somebody like me that enjoys a good ass kicking. Particularly when it comes from their own self. I wrote it for you from my high self for your high self which is really roughly the same thing because we are one in the same person. Let me put my air pods in so that not everybody else to listen to me while I stand out this front of a beach club and shout out [inaudible 00:11:46]. So we're definitely going to go meet some new fabulous people tonight when she gets here. We're going to do many interesting things. Thank you. Alright, thank you. Good, how are you? Good thank you. Alright, alright, I'm just waiting for my friend. Alright, so, look at the lighting. I look amazing. This is way better. I should hang out here all the time. Alright, where should I sit? Let me just perch over here. Look at all these scooters, it's scooter central. Why don't I do more live streams outdoor in Bali? Okay, so you gotta read that, Britta you're going to be in there anyway, you've got to read that...Okay, have you seen my tattoos down my side? Because I feel like this tops highlight them really well. Okay, my phone just told me I was in rotate. Rotate, I'm trying to rotate. Here you go. It's just a good view with that top on. Okay, am I making any sense. Have I said anything that relatively noteworthy or interesting? I'm going to make a meme and the meme is going to be "Don't you hate it when you accidentally wake up boring as fuck" or something like that. Don't steal my meme you meme fanatics because that meme is coming tomorrow. I'm going to kick so much fucking ass this week that's it's going to be ridiculous. So you needed that blog, everybody needed that blog. Somebody needs to get the blog link and put the link here into the comment-y thingy thing. Anyway, so then what happened? I'm just going to drop Patrick in it, why not? He messaged me and said he didn't really care for my Facebook ads, that's what happened. This is probably where it all started. It started before that, okay? It started like...it started the second I said yes to thinking that a goal could rel...like, at all remotely be about money or about, what's it called, growth and numbers. Growth about tearing shit up on the internet and all the things that I already said in the blog which I probably don't need to report about [inaudible 00:13:47] anyway. That's when it all started. I got myself side tracked by the idea that I might do things purely for growth reasons. Sometimes, I just forget and then I run the same fucking script [inaudible 00:13:59]. Update my hard drive, I don't know what's going on in this whole software programme. It's quite disgusting. We already talked about that and about how disgusting it is. Lily you're a legend, thank you. Everybody read that blog that Lily just popped in, or it's just like the post that's underneath this livestream when you jump off. So it was festering away, I've been feeling like a clipped, like a clipped fucking eagle. Like an eagle with it's wings clipped, and I get angry. I'm like an angry eagle with it's wings clipped. I'm surprised more people haven't had their heads...aw thank you Claire...I'm surprised more people haven't had their heads ripped off by me, but probably because I've been in Bali, I've been quite happy. So it was festering away, and I was marinating in my own disgusting-ness. At the same time I was having just the best time ever in Bali because I always do. And becoming super Bali flow and super flow, and then I was just underneath it I like, just shitty and I'm going to punch a bitch soon and it's probably going to be my own higher self. Meanwhile, I was trying to tell myself some pretty little story about whatever, so then, yeah that was what was going on. Then I stopped selling. Like 10 days ago because I was bored with everything. I was bored with the whole entire internet, every single one of you. I'm sorry to tell you, but when you're bored with other people it's because you're bored with yourself, so. I stopped selling. I don't think in 12 years online that I've ever had a 10 day period of not selling, it's unheard of, it's unseemly, it's unbecoming, it's uncouth, and it should not happen. It's just been a horrible thing to behold, to be quite honest with you. But at the same time it's been an amazing, powerful reminder. Amazing, powerful reminder. Amazing, powerful reminder. [inaudible 00:15:35] Amazing, powerful reminder. And I'm so grateful now, I'm so excited to smack myself down [inaudible 00:15:42] myself up. Oh wait, and everyone joining breaktheinternet.com as well. Don't go to the URL. I have to keep explaining that. I don't know why I like to complicate things, but it's just funny. The sell is in the comment that's not pinned, but it's at the bottom of the blog as well. There is no sales page, you got to go...I just went old school, I put a PayPal straight on Facebook. I'm such a rule breaker. Anyway, all that was happening and then, yes, we're going to drop Patrick in because then he messages me and he's like Listen. He didn't say it exactly like this but this is relatively the tone. I don't really care for your Facebook ads, is what he said. He didn't care for them at all. He said it in a more subtle way than that, but I was like "tell me more, tell me exactly what you mean, tell me right now." I was very demanding about it. My night is going to be so epic Shannon. We're going to tear shit up. And my friend who is coming down to meet me is quite the irreverent one as well, so it's going to be, going to be interesting. We're on a mission, a mission to have all the fun, it's going to happen. I already warmed up for it last night, so tonight is getting even bigger night. Yes, he said that in an even nicer way. Sort of nicer? It was nice...it was to the point, it was direct. It had to be said, and I was like, "Whoa, people don't call me out on shit, but okay you do and you can and you're probably like the only person who can." And I was curious, I was straight away curious because he was very subtle about what he said. And I knew exactly what he meant though straight away. Because I was like, "I god damn knew it". And so I just wrote back and I was like "fuck" and by "fuck" I meant "I know exactly what you mean". And then I said, "tell me more" and then, yeah, basically I just had to confess and admit that I am the most boring person on the entire internet. It's quite sad to admit, but it's just the truth of the matter. Alright I'm looking around to see if I see anybody that I know. Not yet. I think I'm fairly noticeable though just perching up here and people are going to see...Lily's just dropping links. She should be on commission. She's just dropping freaking PayPal links. You can read the whole description as well, or you can just do what Lily did and click the PayPal link and buy things without reading anything. Yeah, so we basically established that I'm the most boring person on the internet. And I don't know how I've gotten away with everything that I have gotten away up until now while being so lame. I love and fully accept myself anyway because, just like if I gain a bit of weight, I still love myself. It's not self love if I gain weight, and it's also not self love based on if I become the most boring fucking person on the internet. Which is exactly what happened. But I will kick my own ass. Okay, I feel like why is she not here and should we go on a little hunt for her? Okay she did tell me to go in and secure a day bed and I haven't done that. I'm just meandering and lurking out the front. It is what it is. What else do I even need to tell you? I don't know, I'm like giving away my main content for tomorrow already. Don't you just hate it when wake up fucking boring, but I'll try to break it down for you a little more. I don't know where I'm going with this however [inaudible 00:18:46] tonight is just going to get lit up because I've got the energy that's coming through. It's going to keep exploding this fire inside of me. You know that I'm about to go into mad as fuck super flow now, right? So that's why I'm actually really grateful that I've turned boring because now I got angry at myself and like I said the first module of training is going to be called 'Get fucking angry'. So it's going to result in incredible content, incredible super flow. I'm going to reverse age even faster than I already have. I didn't need to write reverse age into the description of the other, I'm going to edit that in. So that's one of the things that you get, reverse ageing. And if you think I'm even remotely joking, then look at my skin. Look at this glow, I'm nearly 40. Well I'm 38, I'm nearly 39. So I'm not making it up. I'm just telling you the truth as I see it and as I create it and as I write it. So you will get the reverse ageing included, that's a free bonus. That's a free bonus for the first 10 people, thank you Greta, it's all the alignment. It's the alignment and my happiness. And that's even with the disgusting-ness of the past 7 days, mind you. Imagine how good I'm going to look by the end of this week. There's people literally right there while I'm saying this. [inaudible 00:20:00] a woman who also reverse ages because she's amazing as fuck and one of my bestest friends in the world since forever and a hundred years. Okay, what was I up to. So you're going to get a top 10 bonus, you get a 1 on 1 call with me. Top 20 bonus, you get the 1 on 1, no...if you're in the 10 you get the top 10...top 20 bonus you get 5 days of my journaling, that can be a little frightening for some people but it is what it is. Top everybody bonus, you get reverse ageing. I'm going to say the average will be 2-5 years in a 10 day period. And I'm not joking, okay? Whoops, maybe I am in trouble, I just got a WhatsApp that came at the top of my screen that said all of your Facebook ads have now been turned off, please advise when you're free to discuss. I was like “oh, shit”. Am I being watched? Technically I'm in charge of this company because it's my company and I created it, but when you have a team and you give them licence to do things, as a rebel without a cause, and I have many causes. You then naturally start to fill obliged to just rebel against your own team. Even though they're there to help and support you. But actually, actually what their role is obviously to help and support you, to be all that you are. And if I'm not being the craziest f- creator and breaking all the rules including my own rules and doing mad ridiculous shit on the internet, then nobody's ass is going to get paid in this business. That's the reality and do you know what else is going to happen? I'm going to tell you and it's probably going to upset you because it's directly about you. If that happens, my world my potential implode, I would never actually go this far. But let's just play it out and as a result of that, considering that I created this reality and it's my reality, all of you would disappear. And you would just be done, your characters would be eliminated, so actually I'm just sitting here, outside of the beach club, waiting for my friend, saving fucking lives. And I think you could send me a love heart shower for that. And also, I said an intention two days ago, okay I'm definitely getting high, I'm starting to trip. I never need anything because I just create the trip inside myself. Only two days ago, I said an intention that I was going to do a hilarious fuck life stream on the weekend and I forgot about that. It definitely didn't happen yesterday because I was being insanely boring, and just a disgusting sight to behold, like we've already discussed. And now I've just realised that I've slipped into performer, entertain mode. And their playing one of my top songs. Okay where is...where is she? She's still not here? Hang on, wait. No that's not her. Yes we've found a person. Okay I'm going to have to go. Would you like to appear on my live stream? It's been quite out of control. Alright, I've found somebody who's going to get up to all sorts of shenanigans with. Oh, yeah. This is the amazing Melissa Withers, and it's going to be crazy, if you, well, if you would have seen this live video, you would have seen that I was probably on a lot of shit. [laughter 00:23:16] and said a whole lot of shit is about to go down. So that's basically the entire story, we have to go. This many people we have to go and find a bed. Watch the replay, read the comment, buy the thing. It's going to sell out. Exactly what she said. Alright, yes. Bye bye. Good luck.

This Episode’s Focus on Strengths This week Lisa speaks with Adam Seaman. They chat about the difference between strengths and talents, as well as practical applications for your top strengths. This interview is a great introduction to what you can do with Clifton StrengthsFinder. Adam’s Top 10 StrengthsFinder Talent Themes:  Strategic, Individualization, Ideation, Intellection, Input, Adaptability, Command, Activator, Empathy, Futuristic Lisa’s Top 10 StrengthsFinder Talent Themes:   Strategic, Maximizer, Positivity, Individualization, Woo, Futuristic, Focus, Learner, Communication, Significance Resource of the Episode You can reach Adam through the Talent2Strength website. He also posts helpful thought leadership on Twitter. You'll definitely see his Intellection in action. Strengths Tools You'll also find lots of StrengthsFinder, leadership, and team tools on our Strengths Resources page. Subscribe To Lead Through Strengths To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published. < Here's a Full Transcript of the 30 Minute Interview Lisa Cummings: This episode is about stepping back and understanding: what the tool of StrengthsFinder is, and what is it like for a team. Let's start with your opinion on why it is so awesome. Adam Seaman: Great. My goal is to get other people as excited about it as I am. I don't always reach that goal of course, but it's the striving for it, and sometimes I succeed, and I call it "green lit" when I get somebody as excited about it as I am. StrengthsFinder stands out to me; one of the reasons is that it really gives that language that people can describe themselves with. I hear this all the time. It's like, "oh I always knew I had that quality, but I didn't know there was a name for it." Then they'll say, "and I didn't know other people had it or didn't have it, I just assumed everybody was like me." Those are some of the reasons why I really like this tool. The other is that it really dials into the individual, so instead of it being "I'm one of four colors", or "I'm one of 16 letter combinations", you have one in 278,000 chance of somebody having the same top five themes as you have. Those are just some of the reasons I really, really like this tool. Lisa Cummings: That's so crazy. Any time I cite that number or the chances that someone else will have the same top five talent themes in the same order as you is 1 in 33 million. That just blows people's minds, and they think, "Okay, so this isn't going to be a training where you come into my team and talk to people about the four boxes you can put them in." It makes people so receptive to StrengthsFinder compared to other tools. Adam Seaman: Yeah, I think it really makes them go, "Alright, this is serious, serious, stuff here. It really does dial into the individual." But then, it does create a little bit of a barrier because there are 34 themes that it measures you on, and learning all 34 is more daunting than learning four colors or something like that. That's definitely one of the challenges for people - to really access this tool deeply. But once you do...and this gets into another thing I really love about this...is most assessments you read it and you're like, "Alright, I guess that's accurate, I guess that describes me, and then what do I do with it?" You file it away because you don't want to throw it away, but what do you do with it? So you just file it away, and that's the real shame that I try to correct with StrengthsFinder. Lisa Cummings: [laughing] You give them strength shamings. Adam Seaman: [playing along] I do. I just shame them. If I'm in a grocery store and somebody is like, "Hey, I just took the StrengthsFinder" you know, as people do when they're in the grocery store. Lisa Cummings: [jokingly] Definitely. When you're picking out butter. That's when I do it. Adam Seaman: Yes, it's in the butter aisle. Lisa Cummings: So to get back to serious stuff for a second, you said something about a personality assessment kind of notion, and so for people less familiar with StrengthsFinder, they often assume this is a personality assessment. I know that you view it in a different way, that you look at StrengthsFinder as so much more than that, as do I. So tell us about how you get people beyond that basic view of it. Adam Seaman: For me what this captures is this idea that we all live in our own self-world. Lisa, right now you're in your office in Austin, Texas, your side of the world. You have your experiences going on, the things that are happening inside of you. Then I'm over here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have my own concerns or issues or things I'm thinking of. So we're kind of in our own self-world. That's actually the term for this, it's a German word, and a German biologist came up with this word. It's called umwelt, which is kind of a cool word. Lisa Cummings: Umwelt. Adam Seaman: It's U-M-W-E-L-T. So it kind of roughly translates to this idea of self-world. For me what I love about StrengthsFinder is it helps describe what's happening in your own self-world. In my head, and in your head, we both share the Strategic Talent Theme, so we're always playing through if-then scenarios. We do it so fast, that we don't even know we're doing it. What would be really interesting if this were possible, is if somebody else who didn't have Strategic very high at all were to somehow transplant into our heads, kind of like a Freaky Friday kind of thing, then they were to have to get into our heads, or just take your head with Strategic and Maximizer. They're going to have this flurry of thoughts coming at them at such a high rate of speed; it's just going to be overwhelming for them. It's cool to realize that within each person, there's a whole lot more going on than what we ever could tell, or even just ask them about. It's like if I know your top five themes, and I know your number three is Positivity, which it is, I know that your knee-jerk reaction is going to be to look for the upside of things. It's what shows up when you show up. Lisa Cummings: That's so true. I love the Freaky Friday thought where if you as a teammate...if you said, "Alright I'm going to do this at work, and I'm going to try to get into Freaky Friday mode as much as I can, where I'm imagining what is it like in that person's head and how can I relate to the world the way that they are so that I can understand what would be relevant for them, or what they care about, or how they make decisions, or how they think about the world." So it's kind of cool as you were talking about the power StrengthsFinder brings, I was thinking man you could almost turn that into an application exercise where you're trying to do it as if you had Adam's invention. Now that you're telling us this with Futuristic number 10 and Ideation number 3, why don't we get you to share with the listeners what your top 10 talents are, or at least the ones that you resonate with most. Then they can get a feel for, if they're new to StrengthsFinder, what these words even sound like...and how do people resonate with them before they even know the definitions. Adam Seaman: Before I do that, I just wanted to riff on a point that you made. I'm using musical terms, because I know you're a musician, and I have like two musical brain cells and they don't even talk to each other, so I'm not a musician but I speak your language because I have Individualization number two, just as you have. Lisa Cummings: So you can riff with me; I like it. Adam Seaman: Before moving onto that, I just wanted to delve a little deeper into this idea of knowing what's going on inside of somebody, that umwelt or that Freaky Friday thing is. I don't have Achiever very high at all; it's way, way down in the 20's or 30's even. So when I'm around somebody that has Achiever, I now am able to do something I wasn't able to do before StrengthsFinder. I am able to say, “Hey, I think I might be a speed bump in the middle of your day, trying to get things done, so you just feel free to tell me if you need to move on.” I'm this ideas guy (Ideation), I like to talk and brainstorm and be philosophical. People with Achiever, unless it's balanced with some other themes... they don't really have time for that, and it's that awkward moment that I just now know to be able to say, "Hey, if this isn't of interest to you, I'm not going to try to slow you down,” because I know inside of their head is this need to get things done, to rack up points by crossing things off their to do list, and I don't take offense to that and I'm trying to tailor myself to their need. It amplifies that point you were making about when you work with people and you understand not only your themes, but you understand their themes, then you're able to really get the relationship to be optimized better. Lisa Cummings: Yeah, I totally agree and I think it's one of the most useful things. When you have that person at work who frustrates you, it's that moment where you can go, "Alright, I know their talents now. Their talent themes are this, this, this, and what are they likely thinking about right now?" You're making up a hypothesis but by knowing the talent themes and by knowing the definitions you can really start to make some good guesses about what they care about and how they process the world, and then instead of seeing them as annoying teammate, they can become the, "Well that person's bringing a perspective that is actually really useful to the team, and although it's not my favorite place to spend my head, and it would be painful for me to live there, that's where they live." I think it helps people. Sometimes it's just tolerating each other when they didn't before. Sometimes it's appreciating and partnering way more than they ever thought they would or could do. Then when you get really deep, you start to get an eye for what's working in the world. I always call it, notice what works to get more of what works, and you start to see, "Oh yeah, that must be what it's like for them, that really works in this situation." Then you can leverage it more and actually get more productivity out of it for the team. Adam Seaman: All of that is great. If you get an appliance and it comes with a user's manual, and it describes here's how you use this appliance, and here's what you don't do with this appliance, and here's how you get the most life out of it. We as individuals have user's manuals, except they're not written. We have to work with somebody or marry them or live with them for years to just even get a glimpse of this is how their user's manual works. But if I know someone's top five StrengthsFinder themes, I'm going to have a really good sense of what's in that instruction manual. The idea is, understand your user's manual and understand the people around you's user's manual, and you can find ways to best work together. Lisa Cummings: I love that you raise the idea that these are patterns of thoughts and behaviors and feelings that come naturally to us. Sometimes they're going to serve us, and sometimes they're not. I know my Maximizer gets me in trouble all the time, and when I over commit and I start to see my calendar get so overloaded, I realize there is a drive in me, and I feel that it comes from my Maximizer talent, because it wants to keep making everything better, so there's always something else I'm adding to the list or trying to tweak or trying to create this new thing or develop a new product or whatever it is, it's unending. Once you can name it and say, hey that's the one that's talking, you can narrow it down and strategize more easily than when you feel spazzy and out of control. Adam Seaman: There's so much to talk about here, this is where I geek out on this stuff. I want to make sure at some point we talk about why your top five themes or why your StrengthsFinder results are not actually your strengths. You definitely touched on it there with what you just said, so I want to circle back. I'm also mindful that you asked me a question that I haven't answered yet, which are what are my top themes. I'm happy to skip it, but I don't want your audience to think that I was just ignoring you and I'm a rude guest. Lisa Cummings: You're such a kind guest. What are yours? Adam Seaman: My number one is Strategic, as you mentioned earlier. I already talked a little bit about that one. My second one is Individualization, now is that your number four? Do I have that right? Lisa Cummings: Yup. Adam Seaman: Okay. So Individualization is this quality of looking to tailor things to the person, so I don't like doing things en masse, and your Maximizer theme is more likes to do things in block operations and very efficient, whereas the Individualization theme is one-by-one, case-by-case, what's unique about this person. My number three is Ideation. This is a quality of always wanting to think outside the box, so sometimes in my mind ideas start flowing and I call it popcorning because when I get in this mode, when you're making popcorn that point where the kernels start popping really fast. That's kind of what it's like in my head, it's like an explosion of ideas, and I get really excited by it, things are really best for me when I can be creative and original, and I don't like doing things by the book. So that's my creativity theme there. My number four is Intellection, and Intellection is about going deep, looking for insight. Several themes look for truth, Intellection looks for wisdom, whereas maybe Connectedness theme looks for spiritual truth. Or the Analytical theme looks for factual truth. So my Intellection is looking for wisdom and insight. Cool story about this one because when you learn your themes, you get the names of your themes and you don't quite know what they mean. When I was learning about Intellection, I read it, and it seemed like it fit, but when I went back and re-read it, something stood out to me that didn't before. What it was, was a description about how I can be in a social situation, but be checked out to the point where somebody would come up to me and say, "Adam, are you okay? Is something wrong?" I would say, "Yeah, everything's fine, and in fact more than fine." I'm in my lab, I call it, when I'm intellectualizing. I'm just thinking about something, but the thinking face doesn't really look like a happy face, so to somebody outside of my head, which is everybody, it doesn't look like I'm really having fun, but inside of my head there's a party going on. They just weren't invited. Then they might say "Hey what's wrong" and I might say "You just crashed my party. Everything was going good and now..." Lisa Cummings: Womp womp. Adam Seaman: Yeah, one of those. Lisa Cummings: This is one of my favorite ones when teams are together and they talk about some of these things that their talent themes might lead them to do or think or say or look like, I love asking that question. Focus is a good one, that's my number six, where people talk about the mode they get into when they're in their Intellection mode or they're in their Focus mode, then I ask people, "What does that look like on you? How will your teammates know?" Just hearing the story you said, is exactly what it sounds like in the trainings, where people go "Oh, that's what he's doing. Now I get it, and now I know when he made the crash-your-party-face, that's what that means" and it's so insightful to know that about people that you actually need to be productive with every day. It's like having magic secrets to the universe.  Adam Seaman: Right, it's kind of like that self-world concept I was talking about. To somebody looking at me it might look like, Adam's not having fun, maybe somebody has Includer, and they want to make sure that I feel part of the group. To them I don't look very engaged, but what they can't see is that I'm at my most engaged when I'm in that space. Now if somebody knows I have Intellection, they won't be as off-put by it or as concerned about it. I know time's ticking here, so I'll go onto my number five which is Input, and this was the hardest one for me to understand. We use the word Input like let me have my Input or let me give my Input, as something you put out into the world. This is one of the reasons why you really have to understand Gallup's standard definitions for the themes, because sometimes the label doesn't fully describe what the word is about. In fact, most of the time they don't. They don't give you enough context just looking at the word, you really have to understand the description. What Input is, is it's not about what I put out into the world and give my Input, it's what I Input into myself, it's what I collect. One of the things I learned that was very useful from the master StrengthsFinder coach, Curt Liesveld, is he said, "What you collect are things you deem to be useful or that have utility." It was really cool because what I collect, and it varies person to person. I collect quotes and I collect theories and models and tools and concepts; I love that stuff. I've developed a really good sense for what's a useful quote or what's not, or what's a useful model or concept and what's not. I've learned how to use my Input theme a lot better, because I understand it a lot more. There's a lot more to say about each one of these themes, but those are my top five. That's all I stayed with for the longest time, but I'm starting to really appreciate the value of looking into your top 10, your number 6-10 themes, because it's kind of like a basketball team and your main players fall out, they're either injured or they're not the right player for the situation. You can go to your bench and bring in a specialist when you need it. You can start to see traces of someone's themes and how they communicate and that's when you really start to feel like you're getting to know this tool so well is when you can hear vespers of the different themes. So Command is my number seven, Activate is my number eight, Empathy is my number nine, Futuristic is my number ten, and we just hit 30 minutes in six seconds. Lisa Cummings: Look at that, you are so precise. I'm still standing back thinking, I've never heard the word vespers, it sounds like a funny pronunciation of a Vespa scooter, and that's a clue of Intellection right there, or my lack of. Let's end this show with your view on talent and strengths. Adam Seaman: So good. Here's the big secret about StrengthsFinder, or one of them, because there are several secrets. Lisa Cummings: [dramatically] Ooooh. Adam Seaman: Did you just say "Ooh"? Lisa Cummings: Yeah. The more you listen, the more you learn. Adam Seaman: [laughing] That's great. When you take the StrengthsFinder, one of the most powerful insights is to realize that your top five, these 34 themes of talent that StrengthsFinder measures, are not strengths. It gets into the definition of a strength, and the definition of a talent. A strength is an activity in which you have consistent, near perfect performance. So you do an activity regularly with high quality. That's when you know you have a strength, and this is Gallup's definition for a strength. I'll come back to that, because we're going to break it down. Lisa Cummings: Break it down. Adam Seaman: [preparing to beatbox] We're going to break it down. Lisa Cummings: I think you have some other talent themes in there. [referring to beatboxing] Adam Seaman: Well, beatboxing would be, if I could do it consistently and near perfectly would be a strength, but it's not. It's less than a strength. So a talent, and these themes of talent, the definition for those is this: a recurring pattern of how you think, how you feel, and how you behave that “can” be productively applied. I put the can in quotes because it can be productively applied, this pattern of thinking and feeling and behaving, but it can also counter productively be applied. It's not always productive. Anybody listening could look at one of their themes and say, "Yeah that theme sometimes gets me into trouble." Sometimes it's not productive, it's counter productive. Let's take a theme like Positivity, your number three. What could possibly not be great about Positivity? I'll just ask you Lisa, are there times where Positivity is not acting in your best interest? Lisa Cummings: I'll tell you the most trouble I had with my Positivity talent theme was, early in my career as a manager, I realized that people started responding in a way that led me to believe that they thought I didn't think through issues, that I was giving the Pollyanna view of what we were going to do and that naively I was leading my team forward through some decision without any thinking behind it, the [rah rah voice] "Oh yay we're going to do it, let's go". I realized I needed to actually say the decision factors out loud, because maybe my excitement, maybe my energy level about a change, and I'm always thinking about messaging something and how to get people to a new future...so I see how that could all get really blurry and lead people to think that the substance is lacking behind it. With my Strategic talent theme, I'm thinking so quickly through those things, I might need to catch people up to "Oh, okay, look here was my thought process, there were a lot of factors in the decision, I considered X Y and Z, I realize there are a couple of risks associated, and this is the decision and then back to the yay-part." Even though it doesn't really sound like that, I realized I needed to actually acknowledge either the thought process or the risks that had been considered, or the facts behind things so that people didn't assume I was trying to play team cheerleader with no substance. Adam Seaman: Yeah, see it's that kind of insight that I think StrengthsFinder can help reveal, that you might not have ever had in any other way. You have this pattern called Positivity that allows you to take any situation and identify, almost like a reflex, whatever the situation is, your immediate reflex is to say, "Well what's the upside?" or "This is a good thing, because of this…" That pattern is going to play out, it's going to do what it's going to do, and then sometimes that pattern is going to be the perfect match for the situation. Positivity is my number 32. I know that for me, there are many occasions where I wish I had that ability to see the upside; it would have helped me persevere more. So there are times where that theme of Positivity is the perfect match for the situation. The point is that, this is true for any of the 34 themes, that they are patterns that play out in us, they're patterns for how we think, how we feel and behave, but our situations that we're in are always changing. That pattern in one situation may be a huge benefit, but in another situation it would be the last thing you want to have happen. That's one reason why our themes of talent, our top five that we get from StrengthsFinder, they are not strengths yet. There's a lot more to say on this, but I want to pause and see if you have any thoughts on that. Lisa Cummings: Yeah, I love the way that you describe it. The part that you said that really got me there, that I thought was cool was, "Look it would be kind of sad, if you got your report and you had nowhere to go, because you've arrived. You have your strengths. Voila. You're done." But instead, if you realize, "Okay these are your talents, it's telling you about your natural patterns, there's an infinite amount of stuff to go do to nurture them, to feed them, to make them get applied in a work situation in a way that really serves you." That's the growth part that's really fun that allows them to turn into strengths so they can be productively applied. What do you think a world would look like if everyone knew his or her talent themes? Adam Seaman: If I'm in a place where I'm being fed, where I'm known for what I'm good at and my teammates are setting me up for success and I'm able to do as much as possible, even though you can't get it perfectly, but as much as possible I'm able to do the things I love doing, that I'm good at, that I produce good results, that when I'm doing them I feel that flow state where I don't notice time passing, that that's what a situation like that would look like. Lisa Cummings: I love that you're talking about the food element, because when I do StrengthsFinder training, I'm always using the terms starved and fed, because I think the talent themes act different ways, they show up on you differently. If you are feeding them, and you're nurturing them and you're working on them, compared with when you're starving them out or you're squashing them down because you don't think they'd be valued in that environment, or it isn't valued in that environment, so it's not getting any attention and it's starved. I think that would be a cool way to end also, to talk about what that looks like on the job, when strengths, when someone's talent themes are consistently getting squashed or offended or not valued or not used, and how you've seen that show up. Adam Seaman: The first thing is, you have to recognize in yourself what is your state of happiness or satisfaction? Then realize a couple things. One is something I heard called the law of two feet. The law of two feet says if you don't like something, if you're not in a good place, relocate. Walk away, go somewhere else. That's the promise that I see in StrengthsFinder, is that if people really embraced it as more than an assessment then they could really help each other find that better fit. Like as a manager, I could see that hey, this person is struggling here, what can I do to shape their job a little bit more so it plays more to what they're like. It's not like you totally have this complete makeover, but a little bit at a time, you could shift your environment so you can free yourself up from the things you hate a little bit at a time to spend more time doing those things that you really enjoy. As that happens, you increase your value. Lisa Cummings: As a people manager, there's a lot you can do to shape and continually shape the job of people on the team by individualizing a little bit at a time. It's not to say that this is a custom job for everyone, and I can afford to make yours exactly what you'd like it to be. We know that the business world isn't like that; you have a corporate strategy, you have business objectives to meet, and inside of that there's a lot you can do to shape the rule to match the person on the team. As a person, I love that you are highly accountable with the law of two feet because it's up to you, this is your career, your life, and you get to shape it a little bit at a time until it is what you want it to be. People have a lot more leeway to do that than they often give credit for. I love to quiz people when they push back on that, and I ask them about the job description when they got hired and say "Okay, remember back to the job description, now how many people in the room have the exact same tasks and responsibilities as when you were first hired into that role?" Even though many people have only been in that role for 18 months or some short time, they laugh and say "Oh, no, it's significantly different." There you go, proof positive. Rules shift and change all the time, so why not be actively shaping it towards the activities you enjoy, the way you want your personal brand to show up in the world and at work, and if you're consciously going after, and even sharing with your manager, "Hey, I'd love more opportunities in this area. If a project comes up, please consider me." It's making them aware, because managers aren't mind readers. They don't know that person's interested in it. So having StrengthsFinder as a language for describing an aspirational work place they'd like to live in, things they'd like to see more of, it can be hugely powerful in the way that tasks are assigned and projects are given out person to person. Adam Seaman: [Emphatically] Truth. You want to find, what is the highest best use for the qualities that you possess. Lisa Cummings: And if you help your teammates produce at their best, obviously you're going to meet your goals in a bigger way, your business is going to be more successful overall. Also day to day, you're around people for, if you're physically around each other, you're around them for eight hours a day or more, so wouldn't it be better if you helped people and supported them, if you knew their talents, if you did the Freaky Friday, to call back to that. Then you could support your teammates in becoming their best, and that would also help them, help the business, and help you not be around grumpy people all day at work. Adam Seaman: That sounds like a great final note to end on. That's a drop-your-mic moment right there. Lisa Cummings: It's a good thought for bringing it all around. Adam Seaman: [rapping tone] So you need people to check themselves before they wreck themselves. Lisa Cummings: Yes, back to a rap as well. That's where we're going to drop the mic. It's been such a blast rhyming with you Adam. Adam Seaman: This flew by so fast, and it's because we're playing to our strengths. We're both talking about something we love and we're passionate about, and so I hope that as a result, some other people are getting green lit about StrengthsFinder. Lisa Cummings: Yeah, that's the ultimate call back as well. So getting green lit, I don't know what they're getting bit by, but they're getting green lit. Adam Seaman: They're getting bit by the strengths bug. Lisa Cummings: Yeah, bit by the strengths bug. We'll link to Adam's company, Talent2Strength, so that you can look him up and see more. With that, remember, using your strengths makes you a stronger performer at work. If you're putting a lopsided focus on fixing weaknesses, you're probably choosing the path of most resistance. Instead, claim your talents and share them with the world.

#98: Finding Your Niche & Brand in Consulting With Rhodes Perry   Jenn T Grace:              You are listening to the Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional Podcast, episode 98.   Introduction:              Welcome to the Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional Podcast; the podcast dedicated to helping LGBTQ professionals and business owners grow their business and careers through the power of leveraging their LGBTQ identities in their personal brand. You'll learn how to market your products and services both broadly, and within the LGBTQ community. You'll hear from incredible guests who are leveraging the power of their identity for good, as well as those who haven't yet started, and everyone in between. And now your host. She teaches straight people how to market to gay people, and gay people how to market themselves. Your professional lesbian, Jenn - with two N's - T Grace.   Jenn T Grace:              Hello and welcome to episode 98 of the podcast. I am your host, Jenn Grace, and as this is airing we are right around Thanksgiving time here in the US. And we're at the end of November of 2016, and I'm shocked really at how fast this year has actually flown by. I feel like the first part of the year felt kind of slow and sloggish, and now- I don't know, since September it's just really whizzing by. So I'm excited to be in episode number 98, and it has been multiple years in the making to get here, so this podcast will be turning four at the I guess beginning of January in 2017, it'll be four years that I have been doing this which seems a little bit crazy, but all good nonetheless. I have been keeping up with the promise of having interview, after interview, after interview, and today is no different. And the interview I have today for you is with Rhodes Perry of Rhodes Perry Consulting, and we had just a really kind of awesome conversation about personal branding; shocking since that is indeed the title of the podcast. It was really just kind of being an LGBT advocate, and a change maker, and a change agent, and really how that can be something that you can utilize as a benefit to yourself as you grow a business, or continue to grow your career in whatever avenue that might look like.                                     So rather than blabber on unnecessarily, I'm just going to dive right into the interview with Rhodes. I really think you're going to love it, and if you would like an introduction to him personally, feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn, on Facebook, Twitter, go to my website, contact me however it is easiest for you to just reach out and get in touch with me. That would be awesome and I would love to put you in touch with him. So without further ado, please enjoy this interview.                                     Okay so let's just start off with telling the listeners just a little bit about who you are, what you do, how you came to be in your business as it looks today.   Rhodes Perry:             Sure. So my name is Rhodes Perry and I'm an LGBT strategy assistance guru. Basically what that means is I'm a management consultant, coach and speaker, and I work largely with clients who are in executive, HR, or diversity positions. And I really help clients transform their organizations into ones where LGBTQ people know that they're valued, and they know that they belong in the workplace. And I work all across the country, most of my clients are based in New York City. I'm actually living on the west coast so I also have a number of clients in the Bay area. And I've been fortunate, and much of the work that I do is informed by my time working in the LGBTQ movement as an advocate and building alliances with other social justice leaders. And I center a lot of that work around improving the lives for LGBTQ people and really focusing on raising awareness around the specific needs of transgender and gender nonconforming people, and as an advocate I help secure a number of victories, most importantly allowing same sex couples to marry. I also helped increase the number of states that prohibit LGBT workplace discrimination. And one thing that I'm really, really proud of during my time in the LGBT movement was starting the conversations with the Department of Education and protecting transgender and gender nonconforming students, which now if your listeners are aware of, there's federal guidance that basically mandates that most schools- schools receiving public dollars protect transgender and gender nonconforming students while there's a number of states that are putting forth lawsuits to protest that. And that work really inspired me to take the jump to work for government in an executive type position to take policies that have been passed at the state and local level, and take a look at them and implement them. So I had the opportunity most recently to work for New York City. I helped the systems that focus on foster care and juvenile justice look at these policies and from soup to nuts really take the spirit of these policies and develop a plan to basically implement them, to bring them into life, and to really make sure that staff are set up for success in understanding how to respect their LGBTQ peers as employees, but also to deliver services that are respectful for LGBTQ people that are dependent on them. So that's just a little bit about kind of my background and how it led me to recognize that there's a huge need for supporting many of these systems that aren't necessarily Fortune 500 companies which are absolutely ahead of the curve, at least in terms of developing policies and having staff to drive and implement them. But in smaller businesses, a lot of startups, and especially in government settings there's- I would say that actually looking at policies but in particular laws in states that mandate protecting LGBTQ, both employees and then folks dependent on receiving government services. There's not a lot guidance and there's definitely not a lot of support in making sure that these systems are compliant with the law. And so my business really helps fill in these gaps, and it's a lot of fun to really inspire people that want to do the right thing, just aren't sure where to start. I'm getting them started but also making sure that these policies are being implemented and sustainable over the long term.   Jenn T Grace:              Okay I feel like you've said so much already, so in thinking about you as just kind of an individual contributor in so many ways to policy and advocacy, and just kind of your career, and now founding your business; do you think that some people are naturally born to play an advocacy type of role? Or do you think that it's something that you have to consciously recognize of 'this is something that I really want to pursue and I'm going to kind of dedicate myself to doing it.' Because I think that there might be a couple of schools of thought to that, so I'm just curious how your path kind of came about to recognizing that your voice is really an important voice to be heard to eventually get to the place now where you're kind of filling those gaps in the marketplace.   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah, I think that's a great question, and I don't know if it's being an advocate or just a change maker. Maybe those are one in the same, but really I think when I look back on my career, most of my work has been entrepreneurial in nature, and that seems to have been coupled with being an advocate, and just trying to- whether it was working for government and trying to improve either employees treating each other with respect, and letting each other know that they value one another, or looking at the service delivery side of things and just kind of saying, 'We could be doing better, especially when looking at serving LGBTQ populations.' I see a lot of opportunities. In the past I certainly tried to take advantage of those opportunities and help those systems. But I think part of myself is identifying as an advocate absolutely, but looking at my business now it's really taking some of those skills and thinking about people that want to do the right thing, they want to be able to retain discerning LGBTQ talent, they want to be able to develop products that will appeal to LGBTQ markets. It's looking at those folks who definitely want to be identifying as- or they don't identify as an advocate most likely, they definitely don't want to be seen as pushing an agenda, but they need help in making a business case, or they know it's the right thing to do and they need some support around how to approach their leadership to get buy-in and to both do the right thing, but also to help their businesses out in performing better and having a competitive edge. And so I don't know if that answered your question necessarily but that's kind of how I see my role right now, is that I absolutely gained some skills as an advocate and I'm trying to translate those for businesses that are interested in having that competitive edge.   Jenn T Grace:              And from a personal brand standpoint- so many of the things that you were talking about in your kind of opening introduction of who you are in terms of different types of- whether it's the Department of Education, or whether it's working with the city of New York, or wherever it might be; in those settings you were still yourself, right? So you're still Rhodes Perry and people know you as your name. Did you consciously think about the advocacy work or change making work, however we're calling it because I think it is all kind of the same as you alluded to, did you look at that as you were doing those individual things in thinking about like, 'Okay here's just another kind of notch in my belt of things that I can do and things that make me a strong leader and a strong thought leader in this particular space.' And then as you kind of created your company, and calling it Rhodes Perry Consulting, obviously you're putting a big stake in the ground of this consulting is based on you as an individual. Was that kind of a conscious thought process? Did you model it after others that you kind of saw in the marketplace? What was just kind of going through your mind? And the reason why I'm asking is just thinking about people who might be in similar situations right now where they're thinking, 'Really this whole personal branding thing here, there's something to it and I should probably be pursuing this.' And I'm just trying to give them some guidance from people like yourself who've already done it.   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah I think that that's a great question. I think that why I chose my business name to be my name in terms of personal branding is so much of my past work has been about building relationships, building coalition, and building trust. And I think that my work in the past speaks for itself, and the folks that I had the pleasure of working with really benefited from what they learned. In starting my business many of my clients are those folks that I have worked with in the past, and so that's just a huge benefit for me. Also as I was making the jump I knew I wanted to focus in on equity in diversity and inclusion work, and I wasn't quite sure that time- how that could continue to evolve. In just this past week I had my first business anniversary so I've been in business for a year, and even over that period of time a lot of things have changed, but my name and my brand have absolutely attracted my dream clients I guess to work with who were specifically looking for support on doing the right thing, and either wanting to develop a policy, more taking a policy and actually implementing it and sustaining it over time, that that's really where I see a niche in providing this kind of mentorship, and accountability even more so than delivering skills. Because a lot of the folks that I do work with I've known for some time, they have the skills to do this work, they really need that kind of support and role modeling, but especially just kind of knowing the work that they need to do, but basically being held accountable, and having those kind of frequent check-ins. So I think that [Inaudible 00:12:00] thinking about maybe starting their own businesses, I think it's always good to- if you're not sure on a killer name that will be super clear on what you do, starting out with your own name and you can always kind of build off and build a 'doing business as' name later on down the road when things become a little bit more clear with who your niche market is, and what specifically you are doing.   Jenn T Grace:              And your website URL is Rhodes Perry, so I think that there's a lot to be said about just having your name rather than having the consulting on it because if at any point in time you chose to pivot and go in a different direction, then the URL always remains the same, and for the most part our names don't change. For the most part.   Rhodes Perry:             Right, for the most part.   Jenn T Grace:              Of course there's exceptions.   Rhodes Perry:             For your viewers, I am transgender and that's something that I talk about openly with my clients because a lot of the work that we're focusing on right now is how to support transgender and gender diverse employees, or people that businesses might be serving. So that's something that I am open about, and so I have changed my name, but that was a long time ago. But yes, there are times where if you are someone who's transitioning, or maybe you're thinking about getting married, maybe before you buy your URL, if you are planning to change your name, maybe hold off on that before you do.   Jenn T Grace:              I ended up buying all- everything I could before I got married, and thought that I was going to change my name, and then I was like I wasn't sure, and then I was going to hyphenate, so I ended up with probably 25 URLs that all cost like $10 a piece, and then eventually over time I'm like, 'Alright I'm just going to stick with the one.' And then just as a random side note is that the reason why it's just not www.JennGrace.com is because there's a photographer I believe who has that- or a videographer who has that already. So I was like, 'Well I'm just going to have to put the T in there reluctantly.' But it is what it is and at least I know that I'm not changing my name anytime soon so it does allow for that kind of pivot as we were talking about, because you never know- especially as entrepreneurs and I think as the landscape- especially as it relates to LGBTQ, the landscape is always changing, and we really have no idea what- we could predict, but we really have no idea what's on the horizon and how that is going to impact what type of consulting we're doing, or coaching, or what topics we're speaking on, and I think that that's kind of a- to some degree a fool proof way of just kind of protecting your brand over the long haul.   Rhodes Perry:             Absolutely.   Jenn T Grace:              So in looking at just kind of the many facets of what you're doing. I was poking around on your website before, and I'm curious on a couple of things. Like the first thing I'm thinking of is how people find you, and then recognize that they need your help, especially as like the individual change maker. Because there are opportunities- like you were saying, the Fortune companies are definitely ahead of the game in so many ways, but at the same time they're so not ahead of anything in terms of just- kind of like the changing landscape of business. So it takes- they're like moving a Titanic versus I think entrepreneurship where you're kind of navigating a speed boat on a day-to-day basis. But how do you get in front of those individual people who really need your help, and they're really going to be that internal champion, and that internal voice that's really going to make change in their respective industry, or organization, or wherever it happens to be?   Rhodes Perry:             I think that that's a great question. A few ways. One, I've been fortunate, as I had mentioned just having a lot of rich relationships from previous jobs. So many of my clients come to me word of mouth, and looking at business models over the long term I'm looking at other ways to market as well. So I also get a lot of referrals through online advertising. I do basic Google Ads. But one of the main ways of actually reaching out to newer audiences is locally I go to a number of different chamber of commerces in the Portland metro area, and also in Seattle just to build my network here because I recently moved from New York City out to Portland as I was starting my business. And so that's a really important way of just connecting with a number of businesses, but especially smaller businesses that haven't necessarily been thinking about the culture of their organization, or just want to be more competitive in reaching out to discerning diversity candidates proudly. So those are some of the ways that I get my name out there. Also through collaboration. I've been working with a number of other diversity and inclusion leaders here in the Portland area, and just looking at different projects where we can collaborate. By doing that I've had the opportunity of establishing newer relationships, both with the county and city government here, but also with a number of larger businesses in the area. So that's been helpful. But I do work across the country, so I try as often as possible to go to conferences, and when there's an opportunity to speak just to share a little bit more about the work that I do. So those are just some of the few ways that I try to get out there.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah and so I feel like on your website you have supplier diversity highlighted as something that you are educating around and helping people with. It is something that I have certainly brought up many, many, many times in the past on this podcast, but never- maybe actually it was probably episode six or something, and we're on- I think this is episode 98 probably. So it was a long time ago.   Rhodes Perry:             Congratulations.   Jenn T Grace:              Thank you, it's been many years in the making. But one of the things that I feel like is a missed opportunity, and I'm sure from a supplier diversity standpoint you might be coming from a different direction, but as a diverse supplier yourself. Somebody listening to this, who the majority of listeners are part of the LGBTQ community in some form or another, what are they missing by not really kind of having an understanding of what supplier diversity is, and what that can mean to them as a business, but also for just kind of the community at large?   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah I think- well one was supplier diversity, and one of the things that I do is educate my clients that I work with. So- and this is especially important for some of the county and local governments that I work with. So when folks are wanting to implement LGBT specific policies, they want to provide better services, one of the first questions that I ask is looking at contracts that they issue to diversity suppliers. So woman owned businesses, minority owned businesses, and sure enough with most government agencies they have set asides for those diverse suppliers. And so one of my first questions that I ask is encouraging them- well one, asking them if they know about the NGLCC, the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce certification that certifies LGBT owned businesses, and almost 100% of the time most people aren't aware of that, most of my clients are not aware of that certification so I do a little bit of education around that. And then I've had success in New York with some of the agencies there of doing set asides for LGBT certified businesses. So there's education happening on that side with my clients, I also work volunteering for the chamber of commerce here, and just supporting some of the LGBT certified businesses, and those businesses that are owned by LGBT people but aren't yet certified. And I explain a little bit about the work that I do largely with local and county government agencies around encouraging them to do these kind of set asides, also letting them know that many Fortune 500 companies have diverse supplier offices, staff that are looking specifically for LGBT owned businesses for a wide variety of services. Everything from printing, to professional services like I do, and just letting them know that one, the NGLCC is a great resource. They offer certification, they provide a ton of information to help you grow a business that's thriving, and I think with that- I've at least encouraged a few to go through the certification process because it does give LGBT owned businesses a competitive advantage, and if you're lucky enough to live in a state like Massachusetts and you do contracting work with state, there are set asides for those LGBT owned businesses, and I think that that's a trend thanks to the great work that the NGLCC is doing that I think more and more states will be trying to either pass executive orders through the governor's office, or legislation to actually provide the economic opportunities for LGBT owned businesses, which historically have been disadvantaged because of discrimination. So maybe that's a little bit more than you wanted, but I know that you talk about this a lot. So did that answer your question?   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah, yeah and it kind of leads into my next question a little bit. So we met through a mutual friend, and Jill Nelson has been a guest on this show as well, and I don't remember it but I will put it in the show notes of what episode that actually was. But we met at the NGLCC national conference in Palm Springs just a couple months ago, and one of the things that I wonder from your perspective is being an LGBT certified business, there's a lot of advantages to that from a business development standpoint. But in your perspective, how or how not do you feel like it maybe it is helping or not, just from a personal branding standpoint to be able to say that you are a- because you can say that you're an LGBTQ owned business, and that's got its benefits in and of itself for people who want to work within the community, but having that additional credibility of saying that you are a certified LGBTQ owned business. Where or how are you kind of using that, leveraging it? Is it part of your kind of daily conversation with people? I know that you're part of the local chamber so that kind of adds like another element to it. But just from a branding standpoint is it helping you in terms of attracting the right type of clients?   Rhodes Perry:             Yes, I think for the nature of the work that I do it absolutely helps me, it brings more credibility to the work that I do, it opens up a number of new doors that I wouldn't necessarily have had access to. Because of the work that the NGLCC is doing and continues to do, they're really expanding their reach, and I think for corporations that are aware of the certification, and for some of the government agencies that I work with, they're becoming more aware of it, maybe more because I'm constantly talking about it. But it is helpful. I would say though that if I were in a different industry- I grew up in the state of Florida, so if I was in a different industry and I still lived in the state of Florida, I think that there's still a long way to go. One in having this be an advantage, because stigma and discrimination still exist, there's a lot of education that professionals like myself have to continue doing to break down some of those barriers. And so I'm aware and I'm conscious that it's not always an advantage for every business owner, and that there could be challenges with that. One of the things that did give me hope and inspiration though is that when we were at the conference in Palm Springs, which was wonderful and it was great meeting you there, is- and I can't remember the business owners' names, but they are from Georgia and they were honored- I think they were the premier business at the conference, they're a pet store, right? And so they're in Georgia which as a state- it's a state that lacks a number of protections for LGBT folks. They're very out about who they are, it's a gay couple, and they're having a really positive and profound impact on the community just for holding that space, and they give back to the community, I think that they give back to a youth LGBT youth center there. So I digress a little bit but I do think that even when you are in a state or even a region of the country that might not be so LGBTQ friendly, there's still a power to certification, and being an LGBT owned business, and showing the possibilities for other emerging LGBT entrepreneurs that being out can be an advantage, and that there's strength in numbers. So I'm a huge proponent of the certification, but I do recognize that there can be or still are limitations to it as well.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah, absolutely. So I was looking it up while you were talking, it's Tailspin and they are in Savannah, so they're even in a more conservative area than maybe Atlanta would be. So yeah, and they were awarded an SBA award for like the best small business owner or something like that. So I think that you bring up a good point of depending on where we are geographically. So I'm in a really progressive state being in Connecticut, you're in a complete- especially going from like New York to Portland, I feel like there's so much differences even though New York is fairly progressive I would say. But how do we make it attainable? Because I have listeners in all fifty states, I have listeners in many different countries; how do we make it something that feels attainable to the person who might be in Savannah, or might be in Little Rock, who maybe they feel like they're alone, or they don't have a chamber of commerce that's really kind of focused on business impact, but maybe they have a pride center that they can go and be involved in. Is there something that you would say as kind of a natural step that they could take to just kind of finding their community of people that are looking to build companies and businesses even if that formal structure doesn't exist?   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah I think that that's a great question, and the first thing that came to mind is an online organization. Though they are based in San Francisco you probably know of them StartOut. So they provide- they're in the process of launching a virtual space for LGBT entrepreneurs to connect, and that certainly isn't a silver bullet in solving the kind of actual face-to-face connections that folks in certain parts of the country may be desiring just because they feel isolated. But I do think that at least online it's an excellent resource to start and just kind of building connection, talking about some of the challenges that they may be experiencing because of where they live. And chances are they may be- I grew up in Palm Bay, Florida so they can be in Palm Bay, Florida and maybe they're connecting with someone in Missoula, Montana which is actually a pretty progressive place. But they're able to span the distance and just have the commonalities of talking about some of the challenges of being in a less progressive part of the country, and kind of weighing the benefits and the costs of whether it's getting certified as an LGBT owned business, or if they're providing a service, and it's a place where people are actually going to a physical brick and mortar location, do you put a rainbow flag on the front of your door? These are things that I think as LGBT owned business owners we have to consider, but I do think StartOut is a good place to start.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah I feel like that's definitely some good feedback and tips there. So going back to kind of looking at the national landscape, since you do have experience kind of looking from a very high top down level, from a national perspective, in looking at the different fights for equality that are occurring kind of all over the place, I do find it shocking especially when I run into an LGBT person who isn't aware of just the level of discrimination that's just completely justified and fine by people in terms of workplace discriminations. So if we look at different states and different cities even within states. So you have Massachusetts where they're including LGBT suppliers in government contracting, which is the only state still, right? I think they're working on it in New York but it's not there yet. So that's happening in Massachusetts but then meanwhile you hear from people in Nashville who are still being fired because they came out, and this is somebody that I absolutely should have her on the show at some point, Lisa Howe who received an award at the NGLCC conference in August, and was commenting on how the second she came out after being an NCAA coach for like sixteen years, they fired her promptly thereafter. So- and that wasn't that long ago, that was only a couple of years ago. So if we're looking at the differences in each individual state, if somebody's just trying to figure out how can I make a name for myself because they want to grow their personal brand, they want to maybe establish a business, and make that kind of natural leap that seems very natural that you made in terms of like doing all this great work in different types of pockets and then you kind of created a company around it. Is there any kind of words of wisdom that you can provide them that would vary because if you're in California the fight there is way different than Tennessee versus Connecticut. Like I think of Connecticut being the second state with marriage equality in 2008, and I remember going to NGLCC conferences in 2009 and 2010 and talking to people who were in far less progressive areas thinking, 'Marriage equality is so not even on our radar. We are focused on economic opportunities because we don't have to focus on our basic rights to get married.' So what might be just a- I don't know, some advice or something that you might have learned along the way to kind of provide inspiration to people regardless of where in the US that they might fall, and how non-progressive or progressive that area might be.   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah I think that if folks are interested in starting a business, if they have the entrepreneurial spirit and they're LGBT, absolutely look into it and take action because by simply holding space, by creating your own business, you are creating economic opportunities for many people, and especially our own communities, our own LGBTQ communities. And I think that so many of us have had experiences of discrimination, or at least perhaps being treated differently as employees in the workplace, and knowing that if we had the opportunity of having our own businesses, or when we are creating our own businesses, or even for many of your listeners in our own businesses, that we have values that are embracing a spirit where we want everyone to bring their whole selves to work. And I think that because of the economic disparities that still exist for LGBTQ communities, one of the most powerful things we can do is if we have the ability to start our own businesses, and prioritize looking at folks within our own LGBTQ communities who have historically been disadvantaged and trying to prioritize ways of bringing job opportunities to folks in our own communities. I just think it's a real game changer for us to look at this aspect of the next era of the LGBT movement, and I think entrepreneurship should be a part of it. In my past I worked with a lot of LGBTQ youth, and so many young people that I had the pleasure of working with are entrepreneurial in spirit. Every day is a day of surviving and just to- we prioritize ways of translating those skills into skills where young people can at one point be their own bosses, I mean again I just think it's a real game changer and we should be examining aggressively ways to add this as a part of the work that the LGBT movement continues to do for the next era. Because I think just looking back over the past twenty years we have as a movement accomplished so much and so quickly, and yet I still look at the work that so many national and state and local LGBT groups are doing, and it's almost as looking at the young people who are protesting and resisting police at Stonewall, so many of those challenges still exist today when you look at family acceptance, or just trying to get an education in school, and dealing with things around bullying. We still have a long way to go and I think that the work that we do as business owners can help absolutely extend economic opportunities to more folks within the LGBT community.   Jenn T Grace:              So in looking at kind of a what's next, or what's on the horizon for you personally and for your business, like especially since you're just celebrating your first year which is so exciting. If you looked at what you were expecting to accomplish in your first year versus what you did accomplish and what you hope to accomplish in the next couple of years, how does that all kind of line up with what your vision was when you set out to do this?   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah I surprised myself in the first year. I've met many of my goals in terms of working with a number of clients that I didn't imagine working with, at least in my first year. So I'm happy with that. I really do over the next few years want to pivot more into offering services online, and so I'm starting to do that now with webinars, and I'm looking at next year having more of a master class available for executive HR diversity professionals that are doing the work but need additional support. And so I'm just looking at ways right now of creating more virtual communities, and I'm most excited about that just because there's only one of me and there's only so many hours of the day that I can make available for clients, and so I think this is another opportunity of just expanding my platform and really helping those folks that they already understand the importance of doing this work and they need that additional support. So I think that that's going to be- at least for my business, a real game changer and so I'm excited about that. And I also think making more time in my schedule to speak and go out to a number of different communities, especially- I'm really excited about going to more colleges and universities over the next year and talking more about entrepreneurship for LGBTQ folks, and I'm very, very excited about that.   Jenn T Grace:              That's awesome. I feel like the sky is the limit. I would love for you to reference back to this a year from now. Like throw it on your calendar and say a year from now to come back and listen to this, because my question is what do you perceive- and I don't want to deflate us at all, but in thinking about all of what you're setting out to accomplish, and I think that this is a question that the listeners are interested in, is what do you see as the potential kind of big hurdle, or some kind of road block that you feel like there's a chance that you're going to have to overcome in order to get to that next stage of what you're hoping to accomplish? Because I would imagine that there's probably a lot of similarity with what you think yours is and those who are listening. It makes us all human.   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah I think that a road block for me is I get excited by all of the opportunities, and I think as entrepreneurs we want to do all of the things all of the time. And so one just for me is finding my 'no' when it could be working with another great client, but to build in the time to- like I said, like really trying to expand more of my virtual presence. That takes time on the front end to do that, and so I think the biggest challenge is to kind of build in the time where I could be working with more clients right now doing that one-on-one engagement, but trying to just find my 'no' sometimes so that I can have that space to imagine and dream how to grow my business in a way that can help more people. And I think that having talked with other entrepreneurs early on in the journey, I know that that's a challenge for many of us, and so maybe offline we can talk more about how you kind of navigated that as well, because I know that you're doing such awesome work for so many folks trying to do a better job with marketing to LGBT people, and so I would love to chat with you about that.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah I feel like it's an ever evolving thing that everyone goes through, and if I look at- go back and listen to the first episode of this podcast which was in January of 2013 I think, it is a very, very different animal. And they're all available for people to listen to and laugh because it just takes time to kind of refine your message, and really I think learning to say no is probably one of the hardest things, especially as very stereotypically ADHD type of entrepreneurs where we're all chasing shiny objects every day, and especially when we're all coming from a place of truly trying to serve and really trying to help as many people as we can. I think that's where it becomes difficult to say no, because if you're looking at it from a purely dollars and cents standpoint of 'I have a threshold that I need to make $10,000 to go speak here, and if they don't meet it, then I don't do it.' That is not how at least the people that are on my show, and myself included, that's not how we operate. It's a matter of like, 'How can we accommodate? How can we make sure they still hear our message? How can we-' and then it just- it's a struggle and I think that we all kind of go through it even if it does look more polished on the outside. I think most of us are still kind of struggling with that day-to-day behind the scenes. At least for me anyway.   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah absolutely.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah and I think the audience kind of needs to hear these things and just kind of hear of the struggles that lie ahead as they're kind of figuring out what their voice is, and what platform they should be on, and how they should go about growing their personal brand because I think that personal branding, it's been around forever, but I feel like it just becomes more and more important in this day in age, even more so as an LGBTQ person because there's so much more at stake, and I think that all of us whether we want to or not, we're all kind of representing the community in our way. So if you do something stupid, or I do something stupid, suddenly it's the LGBTQ community that's stupid because of something ridiculous that you or I may have done. Even though that is so not what it should be, ultimately unfortunately that is just kind of the reality of it. So we all kind of have to navigate that tricky landscape as well.   Rhodes Perry:             Right, absolutely.   Jenn T Grace:              Oh good stuff. So if you could go back in time and maybe give yourself one piece of advice. Not necessarily the audience as a whole, but just really thinking of yourself. Is there kind of something that you would say or do that you think might have shortcutted some of the challenges that you've unnecessarily faced?   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah I think absolutely for me is- for my younger self to trust myself, to trust my entrepreneurial spirit. In looking back I'm glad that I had all of the experiences that I had leading up to the point of starting my own business, I think if I trusted myself and knew what was on the other side of having my own business, I probably would have done it maybe ten years earlier. You know? And it was really a fear of what the 'no' was, and I think going to college kind of slowed down the process of having my own business, because I actually- I had my own business before I went off to college, and then it just was the programming of getting a good job, and contributing to the workforce, and I didn't realize that I could be doing that as a business owner. So I don't know if that resonates with any of your listeners, but I definitely- I think for myself could have used that kind of pep talk maybe a decade ago.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah I would imagine that hits home for many people.   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah.   Jenn T Grace:              So in kind of parting here, anything that you would like to share in terms of how people can get in touch with you, how they might work with you, just kind of any number of ways just to make sure that we get a good kind of plug here for people to contact you.   Rhodes Perry:             Yeah thank you. Well my website is www.RhodesPerry.com so there's the personal branding there. And on December 1st I'm offering a webinar for my target audience which is executive HR and diversity professionals on setting vision for- a diversity and inclusion vision that's inclusive of LGBT employees and folks that are served by businesses or government agencies. So that's December 1st and if you go to my website, on my blog there's more information on how to register for that, and you can also just contact me at Rhodes@rhodesperry.com and I can share more information that way. And I also offer a free quarterly newsletter that just kind of keeps people in the know of what I'm up to, I offer a ton of free information there on just strategies on how to engage LGBT employees, how to develop an LGBT policy, how to sustain change over time; all of that stuff is included in my quarterly newsletters. And I just love to hear from folks, so if people have questions I'm available to just provide value and help people kind of get started on that path of building more inclusive workplaces.   Jenn T Grace:              That is awesome. And so for anyone listening, this is episode 98. I'm pretty sure I screwed it up earlier when we were talking, so you can go to the website at www.JennTGrace.com/98 and that will get you a transcript for today's interview, and then all of the links that Rhodes was just talking about. And I feel like it might be important to note that Rhodes is spelled R-H-O-D-E-S, not like Roads like a road. Just because I feel like- I want to make sure it's clear and people can find you, so that's good. Awesome.   Rhodes Perry:             Thank you so much, thank you for having me on the show.   Jenn T Grace:              You are very welcome, it was a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If there are any links from today's show that you are interested in finding, save yourself a step and head on over to www.JennTGrace.com/thepodcast. And there you will find a backlog of all of the past podcast episodes including transcripts, links to articles, reviews, books, you name it. It is all there on the website for your convenience. Additionally if you would like to get in touch with me for any reason, you can head on over to the website and click the contact form, send me a message, you can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all at JennTGrace. And as always I really appreciate you as a listener, and I highly encourage you to reach out to me whenever you can. Have a great one, and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Netflix Book Club Episode 69 comin atcha! We watched a recent indie - thriller of the trapped in a house/keep you guessing variety called The Invitation. Directed by Karyn Kusama and starring a bunch of people you've seen in things before, The Invitation made for a pretty interesting conversation. If you enjoyed They Look Like People I would suggest giving this a shot. Alright I'm in the midst of a tour and have been sitting in a coffee shop for too long getting this up so enjoy! Follow us on Twitter, like the Facebook Page, yada yada yada. NEXT WEEK - WE TALK DELIVERANCE.

The 6 Steps to using Content Marketing to create your Personal Brand Intro:                          Welcome to the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, where you'll learn how to do business with and market to the LGBT community in an authentic and transparent way. We're talking about an $884 billion lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. We'll help you grow your business, gain market share, and impact your bottom line. And now your host; she teaches straight people how to market to gay people, and gay people how to market themselves. Your professional lesbian, Jenn- with two N's, T. Grace.   Well hello and welcome to episode number 78 of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I am your host, Jenn Grace, and today we are going to talk about personal branding, content marketing, and being an author all in six simple steps. So content marketing, personal branding, authorship are completely intertwined in what I want to talk about today. You don't have to have one to do the other, there's no kind of contingency on any of them. But what I want to provide to you today are basically six steps into providing a framework for all of this to make sense. So I want to talk about taking an inventory of what you've already done, strategically coming up with some kind of content plan, mind mapping your ideas, putting those ideas into an outline, planning and scheduling your time, and then getting it done. So that is what we're going to talk about in today's episode, I hope you enjoy it.                                     The last couple of episodes that I've been sharing with you have been around planning to become an author in 2016, and talking about confidence, and the most recent episode we talked about the five fears that new LGBT authors have and how to conquer them basically. So I'm kind of going along the theme of authorship in this episode, however it's much bigger than that, and what I mean by that is that the topic of today's podcast is around content marketing, and it stemmed from my second week's class with the authors that I'm working with right now. So as I mentioned in the last podcast, they are working with me from February 1st through April 30th, and each week we're going through a lot of information almost to probably an overwhelming degree for a lot of them. But we're trying to cover a lot so they can ultimately have a book at the end of the ninety days that we have together. And one of the things that I was talking with them about in the last week is about taking an inventory of the content that they have, and how they can basically apply that to potentially their book and telling their story. So as I was thinking about that, I was thinking how can I share this information, and not really what I talked about in the author program itself, but kind of how can I share information around content marketing bigger and more broadly? So basically what I want to cover is content marketing kind of from a big picture level, and how you can use that in your business. So in building your personal brand really. So one of the things that I have been doing for a really long time is working with businesses around content marketing specifically. And content marketing is a little bit of a buzzword and kind of has been a buzzword for a couple of years now I would say. But really when we're talking about content marketing, it's around blogging, and podcasting, and writing for other people's blogs, guest posting, putting out newsletters, and being on other people's podcasts as being interviewed there, and doing videos, and all these types of things that basically are content that you're putting out to the universe. So if you're building your personal brand, you have to find what you stand for. So if we're looking at- and this all kind of ties together in terms of authorship. So as part of your personal brand, you could absolutely be an author. You don't have to be, but being an author is certainly going to help you catapult your personal brand.                                     So if we're talking about content marketing as it relates to personal branding, and really building your personal brand, it's really a matter of identifying what it is that you want to talk about. What is your niche? And of course starting with the obvious of what's your business? So what is it that you do? I know that there's a lot of business owners listening to this, so it could vary. You could be an accountant, you could be a financial advisor, you could be a consultant, you could be a motivational speaker; there's just a bunch of things that you could be doing. And I know for myself that when I started off my business, I've been in business since 2004, but it's absolutely morphed and changed shape a variety of times over the years. And this most recent iteration of my business being a professional lesbian began in November of 2012. So I'm going into the fourth year here, and in doing so everything I've done to this point has really been around content marketing. And I don't necessarily- I wish I could say that this was really intentional in the beginning, but it really wasn't intentional until probably about a year, maybe a year and a half in, where I realized that your personal brand stands for so much more. So if you are beginning your kind of personal brand journey now, you can be looking to get a domain name that has your name as the domain name. So for me I have www.JennTGrace.com. And a side note, a funny little fun fact is that I could not get www.JennGrace.com. So I had to throw the 'T' in there to make sure that I could get something as close to my name as I could. And it is my name obviously, but I really would have preferred Jenn Grace, and not sounding so formal with the 'T,' but alas I wanted to make sure my brand all matched, therefore I had to go with the Jenn T Grace on everything. So that's kind of how that happened. But I would encourage you to make sure you have your domain name. I know that most of the people that I work with right now already have it. There are times- I'm actually working with a client right now who cannot get her name no matter how hard we tried. We even tried to negotiate with the person who owns it via GoDaddy and they're not willing to give it up even though they're not using it. So there's a lot of variables with that kind of stuff. But you can do- depending on what you're doing, like if you're trying to build a platform for speaking you could do- put 'Speaks' at the end of it. So I could do www.JennGraceSpeaks.com for example. Or you can do JennGraceAuthor. There's a lot of different variables, but you really want to try to get as close to your name as possible and make it simple for people to find.                                     So that's just kind of a small simple tip in terms of having a home base if you will to drive people to. So if you have your website and it's not your name, that's fine too. If it's your business name, and you want to start putting out content, then as long as you have a place to bring people back to, that's the end goal. You don't want to be posting all of your blog posts just on LinkedIn but not on your own website. You want to make sure that you're driving people from social media, from the interwebs to your website so you can work on getting people to subscribe to what you're doing and all that kind of stuff.                                     As I had said I was not completely intentional about it when I began. I really began wanting to do this podcast, so I was having a couple of conversations in one day with some really amazing people and thought, 'Wow they have such brilliance to share. I need people to be a fly on the wall to listen to this conversation and hear their great wisdom.' And it was shortly thereafter that day I was like, 'That's what I need to do. I need to do a podcast so I can interview people, and I can talk about these really interesting things, and really just allow people to kind of see the inside look at all of what makes these LGBT leaders and allies amazing people. So it did start off with just a podcast and then I realized, 'Alright so if I'm going to do a podcast, I'm definitely going to have to do some blogging here,' and then the blogging turned into writing a book, and the book turned into creating videos, and it all kind of transpired from there. But one of the things- and this was what I wanted to talk to you about today is really just trying to take an inventory of all of the things that you've done in the past that could tie into your personal brand. So if you're looking at your career path. So you may have had three businesses by now. Just because business number one doesn't have anything to do with business number three, the common denominator there is still you, and you being the brand. So if you may have worked for an insurance company, and happen to be a rock star, and you got a whole bunch of awards for what you were doing, but now you are running a fitness empire. Yes, the two of those things have nothing to do with one another in any way, shape, or form, but the common piece there is you. So how can you leverage the fact that you were an award winning insurance agent maybe, and now you're an award winning fitness guru. So it's a matter of trying to find ways to marry the two of those, and the first place to start is by creating a list of all of the awards that you've ever received based on what jobs you held, what roles you were in, what business you happened to own at the time, and all of that kind of stuff.                                     From there what I would recommend is gathering articles. So I guess we can say that was number one. Number one is what are the awards that you've won, and gathering all that stuff. So number two would be looking at any articles that you've been featured in. So thinking about articles in the newspaper, or a magazine whether it's industry specific, or whether it's a national magazine, or a local newspaper versus national paper; going in and trying to find all of those places that have either focused on you specifically, or they have mentioned you, and start that list. So now you have two lists going.                                     So the third one would be is blog posts. So where- if you have guest posted on other people's blogs, where has that been? Do you have a concrete list of all the places that you've contributed? Make a list of that. Same thing with podcasts. So if you've been interviewed on other people's podcasts, write it down, get it in a list. So at this point- so we're basically looking at a variety ways, a half dozen ways of gathering places that you've- taking an inventory of all these different places that you've been published, or you've been talked about, or the awards you won, the articles, the blog posts, the podcasts, all these different places. This is all kind of the foundation for what could be a content marketing strategy. So a strategy- it has to have a strategy behind it. You can just start saying how great you are on social media, or how great you are on your website, and only doing that. So it's just one piece of the puzzle is getting the inventory of this stuff.                                     The other thing I would say in terms of taking inventory is reviewing your website copy; so any of the writing that's on your website whether it's the 'About' page, or maybe it's a 'Services' page, or your 'Home' page. Grabbing all of that information too, and just reviewing it and seeing what type of content you have there, is there opportunity for you to weave in some of the other things that we talked about? Is there a way for you to weave in articles, or blog posts, or podcasts and make them very natural in part of that conversation? So reviewing your website, reviewing your blog content. So are you getting the most mileage out of your blog content? That is a huge, huge question for so many people. Or are you getting the most mileage out of past newsletters? Are your past newsletters currently blog posts? Or are blog posts into newsletters? So if you're going to create a piece of content, find a way to use that piece of content in 1,000 different ways. There are so many different ways that you can use it, may as well leverage all of it. So to me, if I'm going to work with a client and I'm going to convince them that they need to spend their precious resources on sitting down and spending two hours on writing a piece of content, and they're a very busy CEO that needs to be focused on sales calls and all kinds of stuff, and that two hours of time is really valuable to them. I'm not going to just say, "Hey thank you for writing this 600-800 word piece of blog content," posting it on the blog, and then just leaving it at that. It's far more than that. It's looking at that blog content and saying, okay how can we re-purpose this? Can we pitch this to a publication as some kind of guest post? Could we talk to other people in our space and say, 'Hey I have this interesting information, is this something you want to put on your post?' Or oh the newsletter is going to come up in a couple of weeks, can we put this information in the newsletter? Of course all of these different scenarios you have to modify the language a little bit, but the substance and the meat of that information remains the same. So if you're talking about a specific topic, maybe the intro and the outro of that topic change a little bit based on the audience, and where it's going, and if it's an article versus a newsletter versus a blog post. In looking at it that way, yeah we're going to have to change the content a little bit to make sure that it resonates with the audience. So yeah we'll have to change the content a little bit to make sure it resonates with the audience, but ultimately it's re-purposing that one blog post that you may have spent two hours on, and putting it in six, seven, eight different places to really start to gather and create more traffic to your website, and ultimately the hope would be to convert leads once people get to your website. So convincing them that they should pick up the phone and call you, or to download something, or reach out to you.                                     So another piece of this is thinking about the strategy for your content. So I just said it's kind of like step one. So step one is basically taking an inventory. So step two is more of what- how can I strategically use this information? So we just talked about how you can use your website content, your blog content, newsletters, podcasts, all that kind of stuff is intertwined, and really kind of in harmony to drive your end goal. But in terms of a strategy, one of the things that I did- and I know a lot of authors who are doing this now, is when I started writing on my blog in November of 2012, it was really starting off with the podcast, but when I started writing I knew I was going to use the information at some point somewhere else. And again I didn't really- I wasn't coming from a personal branding side of things. I wasn't trying to figure out how to build my personal brand. All my goal at the time was to help educate people, and it's still a huge, huge part of my goal is to educate people on LGBT stuff. But I knew as I was writing these blog posts that I would do something with them eventually, and it wasn't fully thought out, but in hindsight, and something you could learn, is that if you say, "My end goal is to have a book by the end of 2016. And I write to my blog twice a week," maybe it's once a week, maybe it's once every two weeks, maybe it's once a month. Whatever the frequency is, so you can put that content together each week as you go throughout the year so by the time you get to the end of the year, you have all of the content available, you basically just have to marry it all together into something that creates a book. So if you're talking about one topic that goes in with the second topic, you're going to have to create- going in and adding paragraphs and making sure that the flow is right, and making sure that the chapters flow well. But the beauty is that you would have all of that information to work with rather than sitting there in November saying, "Crap I said in 2016 I'm going to write a book, and now I have to write 30,000 words. So it's a matter of really thinking strategically; instead of having to write 30,000 words at once, how can I write thirty blog posts that are 1,000 words each and marry them together into a book by the end of the year? So it's really thinking from a big strategic level of how to do that. So as I mentioned in my first book which is, 'But You Don't Look Gay,' and it's The Six Steps to Creating a Successful LGBT Marketing Strategy. What I did is when I first started, the first half of that book really is a lot of information about who the community is, the buying power of the community, some of the bigger marketing tips of understanding why people use the rainbow in their marketing, giving some data, and that kind of stuff. All of that information was taken from past blog posts. And again, I didn't have the strategy at first for how I was doing this, so it was completely disjointed when I started working with it, but the content was all there. So I probably had I would say 15,000 words to work with probably at the very least, and I was able to move things around, and really just bridge these thoughts together, but it was a little more cumbersome because when I was writing it to begin with, I wasn't writing it with an end goal of, 'I'm going to put this in a book.' However probably midway through 2013, I guess maybe it was even in early 2013, I had the thought of creating a series of blog posts that all tied together in one topic, which happens to be the six steps. So I think when I was doing it I had created five steps. So it was what are the five steps to creating a really good strategy? And I would write it saying, "Okay so this week we're going to talk about step one of five," and I would write a blog post about it, sometimes it's 600 words, sometimes it's 1,000 words, and then I would say, "Come back next week and we'll get into number two. And then we'll get into number three." So it was a series that lasted over the course of five weeks, and that one- that information is the second half of that first book. So it was so easy because I had already written it with a natural flow from chapter to chapter essentially. So because I had that in mind of, 'I'm going to make a book, like this is definitely going to be the foundation of my book,' it was really, really easy to take those blog posts that really already flowed well together, and putting them in the second half of that book.                                     So going a little bit further along, I created my second book in 2014, and that one is, 'No Wait, You Do Look Gay,' and it's The Seven Mistakes that Prevent People from Being Able to Sell to the Community. And that one was very artfully crafted over the course of probably ten months, maybe a little bit longer, of here's all the things that I want to include in this book, and oh by the way I have six months of blog content that I have to come up with. Let me make sure it's both. So in essence, somebody could go to my website and go through every blog post I've ever written, which is over 400 at this point, it's probably closer to 450, which would be a total pain in the ass of having to go in, and try to find things, and sometimes it's logically setting up for the next thing to read, but most of the time not, and not intentionally, just how the website's structured. Or you could just buy the book for $10 and make it easy on yourself, and have it laid out beautifully for you.                                     So I guess the thing that the book has that the blog posts don't have is there's additional content and context for building the business case, and building the business case for this book itself. So from that standpoint, this is something that anybody can do. So I know that I've been talking about authorship, and really becoming an author in 2016, but you can totally be tag-teaming this approach. You could be working on a content marketing strategy, and working on a book at the exact same time, and using that same information in both places. And of course for- I don't know if it's an ethical reason, I don't even know what to call it. You don't want it to be completely identical. So I made sure that when I was writing both of the books that I'm adding a little more information in the book because I want people to feel like they're getting a value from it. In the grand scheme of things, you can probably figure out 85% of it on the website itself without ever having to get the book, but again it's the convenience and the ease of having the book to look at, and to guide you through the process.                                     So if you already have content, and going back to that inventory of taking an inventory of where you've been seen, but then also things that you've produced, there's probably a good chance that you have the foundation- a big foundation of being able to put a book together in a relatively short period of time, because you already have a lot of it, you just have to start putting it together like a puzzle. So in terms of the content marketing strategy- So there's taking the inventory, and then there's having a strategy for what you're going to do with that information. And the content marketing might flow into a book, maybe you don't want to write a book, and that's fine too. I think that a lot of people have it in mind that they can sit and just spend an hour and write 600 words for a blog post, and that doesn't have to do anything else, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.                                     So if you do want to go down the road of creating a book, and again this is probably applicable if you're just trying to figure out a content marketing strategy. The third step would be figuring out basically what your outline would look like. So if we think, 'Hey we started at the top, we took an inventory of everything we have, and now we have these stacks of stuff that we can use and they're all over here on this side of the desk, and now we are strategically looking at what we want to do with this information whether it's just producing on the blog- I guess podcast too, on the blog or podcast, or producing a book with this information eventually. The next piece would be coming up with an outline. So even if you don't want to write a book, it still would be in your best interest to have some kind of road map, or some kind of outline to follow, which could be part of the overall strategy. But having some tactical road map that basically says, 'Okay on Tuesdays I'm going to write communication tips, and on Fridays I'm going to write marketing tips. And every other week I'm going to do an interview.' So that way you at least have an outline for what you're trying to accomplish. And I use those examples because when I started my blog I was writing twice a week, and I'm not going to lie, it was a lot of work. But now four years later I have 450 blog posts that are just kind of out there in the universe, and when someone goes to Google and they're looking for something around LGBT and marketing, a lot of times I'm the one that shows up because I have so much information out there for it. But you can save yourself a lot of time and headache if you come up with an outline. So I was doing my Communications Tuesdays, and every Tuesday I would write something about a faux pas that people say or do, or a term that you might not want to use, or one you would prefer to use. And then on Fridays it was very tactical and marketing driven. So what's a step to launching a successful strategy? What's step one? What's step two? And those were always on Fridays.                                     So if we're looking at it from that standpoint, you can take route one, or route A, whatever we want to call it, and say, 'Alright I'm just going to focus on getting content out there. I'm not trying to do a book.' So pick a day of the week that you want to release your blog, podcast, whatever it happens to be, and pick a theme, and then go from there. And they don't have to tie together, but if you want to figure out how to use this for a book down the road, actually put together an outline of a book. So you don't have to have any of it written, don't get stressed out about, 'Oh I don't even know what I would write.' Just start putting together an outline of your thoughts, and from there you can totally create this outline that turns into your roadmap of, okay chapter one has to be on general high level who the LGBT community is. Chapter two can go into the more nitty gritty details of the LGBT community. Maybe it talks about the 'L' of the community. Chapter three talks about the 'G' of the community. Chapter four, the 'B.' Chapter five, the 'T.' Chapter six, okay now you know all this information, why is it important? I guess really think through what people ask you the most about, what are those common questions? What is your process and your methodology for how you walk a client through whatever product or service it is that you sell? Because that's really going to be the framework of what could be your outline to your book, and also an outline as part of your content marketing strategy.                                     You may be listening to this and thinking, 'I have never written an outline for anything, let alone a book.' So what I could recommend doing is mind mapping your ideas. Mind mapping is really just grabbing a piece of paper, writing down your central idea in the center of it, and then just branching off, drawing lines that come out from that center that are different pieces of information or topics around your business that you would want to talk about. And if you just go to Google and type in 'mind maps,' there are tons and tons and tons of information, and pictures, and how to's of actually creating a mind map. But it's really simple. Grab a piece of paper, write in the middle 'LGBT marketing,' and from there what are all the pieces that people would need to know about LGBT marketing? It could be the same thing for financial advisors. So if you're an advisor and you're listening to this, circle financial advisor, that's who you are, you're in the center of it. Who are the clients you work with? What are the questions they ask? Where are you doing business? All of the things that could be beneficial to your end customer to hear. Or maybe your end customer- maybe you're not trying to get customers, maybe you have a different goal of your book. But regardless, starting with the mind map, and then from the mind map you can create an outline because then you can start grouping things together. So even though it might look like a big, crazy, chaotic mess of information on a page, you might look at it kind of high level and say, 'Alright for some reason there's a lot of chatter about marketing tactics. Let me just grab all of those and put them aside in one place.' Or 'There's a lot of chatter about words that you shouldn't say. Let me put all those on this side of the page.' And then eventually it becomes really clear, 'Oh wow, there's actually a story arc here, there's a structure here. I couldn't see the forest through the trees before to see that there's a structure, but there's totally a structure.' So really from that mind map stage it's a matter of creating- it's going back to the outline. So you either create the outline first, or you use a mind map to help you create the outline. So those are kind of like steps three and four kind of combined.                                     And then from there you just plan and schedule your time of essentially how you're going to get it done. So if you decide that, 'Hey my outline has enough for fourteen chapters, I'm going to try to write 1,000 words each for each of these fourteen chapters. So now we have 14,000 words.' That's great but how are you going to do that? Are you going to block out time on your calendar? Are you going to reserve certain days of the week to focus on your writing? Are you going to write say every morning from 8:00 to 8:30, and when 8:30 hits, the buzzer goes off, you're done? Are you going to do it for four hours on a Friday? Are you going to focus one day a month? There's a million different ways you can do this, you just have to do it with what works best for you. For me it used to be focusing on writing for a little bit every day. I used to do usually between 8:00 and 9:00 AM, I would do my writing. And then once that was up, I was done, and I moved on. And now I really morphed into- by the time I get to the place where I want to write something, I have it in my mind pretty concretely, and it's just a matter of getting it out of my head and on paper. So I wrote a blog post- one of the January blog posts, I ended up writing it in like 21 minutes, and I do time myself just to see, whereas when I first started this about four years ago, that easily could have been something that took me three hours to do. So of course you basically- you get better as you go through. And it takes a while, there's a lot of process involved, but it's a matter of scheduling it and make time for it.                                     And then of course the last step would be if you're going to schedule it and make time for it, then you have to actually do the work, that's the big piece. So you actually have to get it done. So that could be just using a Word document, that could be getting a product like Scrivener, which is a product specifically for writing whether it's blog posts, books, whatever it happens to be. It's a really helpful tool, I happen to love it. I'll make sure I include a link in the show notes for that, and just as a side note the link for today's show would be www.JennTGrace.com/78 for episode number 78.                                     So yeah, so I know I just kind of spewed out a lot of information all at once, and maybe it didn't come out- I'm thinking as I'm talking it became more clear as I went along, but it's really what we're talking about, is the six steps to creating a content marketing plan that could eventually evolve into a book. Or the six steps to creating a book that could evolve into a content marketing plan. So it's really just those six steps of taking an inventory, creating a strategy, outlining and then mind mapping, or mind mapping and then outlining depending on what your process is. Planning and scheduling, and then getting it done.                                     So yeah, that I'm sure I have raised far more questions than I have answered, but I hope that today's episode gives you at least a little bit of a framework of how you can use content marketing in your business, how you can use it as part of your personal brand, how you can have that evolve into being an author by the end of 2016 if that's what you're trying to do, or if you're listening to this podcast and it's 2017, it's all still applicable. Everything I'm talking about is totally an evergreen topic, meaning this is something that you can do regardless of when in a period of time this happens to be that you're listening to it. So for anyone listening to this, I would strongly encourage you to reach out, whether you leave a comment in the blog post that this podcast is on, whether you comment on it in LinkedIn, send me a tweet, send me a note on Facebook; wherever you happen to be, I probably am too, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this because I really am thinking I would like to go into more detail on content marketing from a really big picture level, and just helping give you kind of that step by step advice. I am currently working with a fair amount of really large companies who I'm helping with their content marketing strategy, and it's something that I really love doing. And to be perfectly honest, I've never really marketed it. Like it's not something- like to me I'm teaching straight people how to market to gay people, and gay people how to market themselves. That is my tagline, I'm still sticking entirely true to that, but because my business is built on content marketing, I do have a lot of companies that reach out to me to say, "Hey, how did you do that? How did you build it? Can you build it for us?" And of course I would love to build it for them, because as long as it has some tie into what we're talking about in terms of the LGBT market, then it's a win-win for everybody, and that's kind of how I prefer to do things.                                     So anyway, if you want to reach out to me on social media, by all means please do. If you want to contact me, you can do so on my website. And if I threw out things that are not clear to you, please email me and ask for clarification, and I can certainly do a follow-up episode about this. And yeah, we can kind of go from there.                                     So I hope you enjoyed today's episode, and we will talk in episode number 79. Talk to you soon.                                     Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If there are any links from today's show that you are interested in finding, save yourself a step and head on over to www.JennTGrace.com/thepodcast. And there you will find a backlog of all of the past podcast episodes including transcripts, links to articles, reviews, books, you name it. It is all there on the website for your convenience. Additionally if you would like to get in touch with me for any reason, you can head on over to the website and click the contact form, send me a message, you can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all at Jenn T Grace. And as always, I really appreciate you as a listener, and I highly encourage you to reach out to me whenever you can. Have a great one, and I will talk to you in the next episode.   [End of Audio 00:34:35]