Podcasts about vanessa it

Welcome back to another episode of The Energy Upgrade! This week, I wanted to share important reflections on the topic of self-doubt. I'm calling out to those women who feel the same pull I do to reconnect with our true selves. It's about time we stop being overly concerned with others' opinions and the constant people-pleasing. This path hasn't been serving us. I wanted to dive deep into recognizing and overcoming the internal barriers that prevent us from achieving a more significant impact, using our voice more authentically, and aligning our actions with our true selves.In this episode, you can expect to hear about:- Inner fears: The common fear of failure and the less-talked-about fear of success or being in the spotlight. - Listening to the nudges : The importance to stop resisting when your soul is calling for more and to listen to your body even when your mind cast doubt and fear.- Taking aligned actions: The positive impact of taking actions that match our true beliefs.Tune in to learn how facing your fears, taking actions that resonate with your soul, and staying true to who you are can revolutionize your life. Discover strategies to escape the traps of self-sabotage, leverage your unique talents, and make the impact you're destined to create. I hope you enjoy the episode, until next week!Episode Highlight:"You need to be okay with being seen. More pictures of you, more stories of you on social media, in your brand, on your website, with your clients, all of it. How does that land for you? Because a lot of people deep down are scared of being seen for who they truly are in the most authentic version of themselves. Putting yourself out there actually takes a lot of courage and there's a lot of unhealed part of us that will be resisting and that's where self sabotage enters."- Vanessa It's not too late to register to UNAPOLOGETIC!Join the event here: https://vanessagrutman.coach/unapologetic Learn more about my coaching programs:- Energy Upgrade New Generation : https://www.vanessagrutman.com/energy-upgrade-new-generation- Femme Biohacker : https://www.vanessagrutman.com/femme-biohacker- Allure : https://www.vanessagrutman.com/allure- Book a connect call : https://calendly.com/vanessagrutman/connect Other helpful resources here for you:- 7-day liver detox: https://vanessagrutman.myshopify.com/products/functional-medicine-detox-7-day-protocol - Book your FREE Connect Call with me: https://calendly.com/vanessagrutman/connect 

- Download my FREE EBOOK highlighting the 5 nutritional supplements everyone should take and why here: https://www.vanessagrutman.com/opt-in-916fa0bf-a807-4f95-b8ee-440af66d41c5
- My website: https://www.vanessagrutman.com/
- Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vgrutman/
- Find my professional page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VanessaGrutmanIHP
- Join me on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vanessagrutman
 
Disclaimer: Vanessa Grutman, IHP does not treat, cure or diagnose disease. This show doesn't offer medical advice. Always verify with your physician before undertaking a new protocol or trying a new product.

Welcome to a very special episode of Let's Talk Love! In this episode, Robin is in conversation with two relationship experts, John Kim and Vanessa Bennett. John and Vanessa are not only therapists but also partners and co-authors of a fantastic book titled, It's Not Me, It's You: Break The Blame Cycle. Relationship Better. John and Vanessa generously share their personal stories, experiences working with clients, and practical skills to help you navigate your own relationships in a healthier and more fulfilling way. We highly recommend reading their book and tuning in to this podcast to gain valuable tools to apply in your own life. Enjoy.We want to hear from you! Send us your anonymous questions for the Podcast as well as our weekly IGTV Live Ask The Experts Q&A. https://realloveready.com/submitaquestionJoin us for In Bloom: A Love and Relationships Summit on April 14 & 15 in Vancouver, BC. An intimate weekend of in-person or virtual learning, growth, and community with keynote speakers Esther Perel, Dr. Alexandra Solomon, Terry Real, Danielle LaPorte, Dr. Ish Major & Terri Cole.You don't want to miss this. Get your tickets today!: https://realloveready.com/in-bloom-a-love-and-relationships-summitLearn more with John & Vanessa:It's Not Me, It's You: Break the Blame Cycle. Relationship Better.: https://a.co/d/flFbIC4It's Not Me, It's You podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/its-not-me-its-you/id1540853767https://www.theangrytherapist.com/https://www.vanessabennett.com/FOLLOW JOHN: INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTERFOLLOW VANESSA: INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TIKTOKFOLLOW RLR: INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTERWatch the podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/realloveready Credits: the Let's Talk Love Podcast is hosted by Robin Ducharme, recorded and edited by Maia Anstey, and transcribed by Otter.ai.

Max: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the recruitment hackers podcast. I'm your host, Max Armbruster. And today, dialing in from Johannesburg, South Africa, I'd like to welcome now to the show Vanessa Raath, who is a global talent sourcing trainer and our paths almost crossed in London a couple of weeks ago. She's a world traveler. And we're going to talk about the difficult art of planting doubts in the minds of unsuspecting candidates and talents. And how do you turn a passive job seeker into an active one? How do you mess up their world?Vanessa: How do you play with their minds?Max: That's it. How do you play with their minds? So Vanessa, thanks for joining me for this, hopefully, entertaining discussion.Vanessa: Sure.Max: And before we get going, could you tell the audience a little bit about your background? How did you end up in this recruitment function? And as a global talent sourcing trainer? What was the journey to get you there?Vanessa: Awesome. Well, first of all, Max, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. Always nice to be a guest on a different podcast. So my journey was an interesting one. I've done quite a few things in my career. I'm actually a qualified teacher, which leads into me working now as a trainer and helps immensely. I've also worked as a scuba diving instructor in Thailand. So you pick it up and pretty much done it.I've taught unruly school kids in the UK, taught unruly holidaymakers how to scuba dive in Southeast Asia and in East Africa, came back to South Africa and kind of fell into recruitment like everyone does. Went for an interview at a recruitment agency, and they said, why don't you think about recruitment, and I was like, I'm not sure whether I've got the wardrobe, but I'll give it a bash and see how I go.Vanessa: And the rest is history. I did 13 years working in both the recruitment agency space as well as finishing off doing internal head of talent acquisition for a tech company, and that is where I pretty much taught myself how to source because I realized I couldn't find tech talent, just relying on job boards and LinkedIn anymore. And it was time to actually branch out, look for passive talents in different places where they were spending their time.And yeah, getting into the psyche of your reach out and persuading people to leave jobs that they were probably really happy in in order to come and join your organization. So three and a half years ago, I launched my own business, and that's what I've been doing ever since. So yeah. Good times. I'm very happy.Max: It sounds like your background as a teacher would be perfect training--Vanessa: Absolutely.Max: -- to go into training. And then, of course, your natural curiosity. And what I heard is like you were driven by the needs of the business like we need to go--Vanessa: Absolutely.Max: --go beyond Indeed and LinkedIn, which is a lot of what your training is focused on, I gather. So if people want to find out how to source talent outside of the beaten track, they should come to you rightVanessa: Yes.Max: --for new ideas. Now, let's talk a little bit about those passive job seekers, people who are maybe never heard about you before, and didn't even know that they were looking for a job.Vanessa: Until I found them and told them that they were looking for a new job.Max: You are like, hey, I've got news for you buddy. So the transition from the awareness stage to the consideration stage, which is one that I guess, if it happens smoothly, in a perfect world, you would just send a job description, and they would fall in love with it. And then they'd be like, well, great. Yes, I love the package. I love the job description.Vanessa: Now you see that sounds like recruiting was 10 years ago, and it was super easy, and we all should have worked harder, and we all should have made more commission and retired sooner. Now the game has changed. The goalposts are different because sending a candidate a job description isn't good enough anymore, because you first got to persuade the candidates that they need to leave the job that they're in.So you're now selling to both candidates and clients. Because before, it was easy enough to go and find these people on job boards, they were on the market, they were putting themselves out there, but now the landscape of recruitment has changed, and now everyone's kind of passive talents, which has made our jobs so much more difficult.Max: Yeah. The fact that they were maybe less actively looking, is that observation based on data? Because it seems like everybody's on, in my world, everybody's on LinkedIn all the time. But I guess it depends on the kind of talent pools you're going after. Because I'm dealing with HR professionals. So of course, they're on LinkedIn.Vanessa: Beautiful. So you and I are both so lucky because our target database is HR and recruiters and those people are on LinkedIn all day, every day, right? So when I'm trying to sell my training to recruiters, that's where I'm posting. But if you've got someone who's a Java developer, why would they go to LinkedIn? The only thing that's going to happen is that they're going to be harassed by recruiters trying to recruit them.That's not going to enhance their career. If a Java developer was to spend some time on GitHub, and they could look at other people's code, they could learn from other developers, that would be much more beneficial to them and their careers. So that's what we've got to think about, who's on which platforms more than others.Max: So, maybe walk us through the journey of engaging with somebody on GitHub. For example, somebody who's not looking for a job, because it sounds extremely creepy to me that I'm an engineer trying to inspire my work. And randomly someone is contacting me a little bit out of the blue. So how do you make it less out of the blue?Vanessa: This happens all day on LinkedIn too remember, it's not a platform thing. So my training is all kind of like, try and find someone's email address, because I prefer to send someone an email than in-mail. So on GitHub, for example, you can't actually even connect with developers, they've taken away that functionality, you cannot message someone through the platform. So you have to find an email address.So for me, when I reach out to a candidate, I'm never going to say, I just saw you on GitHub. I'd maybe say, I saw you on GitHub, I had looked at your Twitter feed, well done on something you'd achieved, and also watched your training video on YouTube around how to build a new repository using Java, something along those lines. So it's more of a holistic view of, I've really done my homework about you, I've looked at you on all of these platforms, let's start chatting. And that kind of gets a lot of attention and a lot of response from candidates because I've gone the extra mile.Max: Personal.Vanessa: Yeah, and I've personalized my outreach message. So first of all, we've got to work on getting a better response rate from passive talent, which is something that most of the teams that I'm training at the moment are struggling with. So for me, it doesn't matter which platform you find people on, always have a look at them across multiple platforms, because that will help you to personalize that outreach for them.Max: Are there tools that you use for that, or you're just basically researching them on these platforms to see if their names come up?Vanessa: So what I generally do is I use an X-ray technique, where I go to Google or one of the search engines. And I will write a Boolean search string and our X-ray into one of these platforms, in order to find people who potentially have the right tech stack that I'm looking for, for one of my clients. I predominantly source in the tech space. But you can do this on several platforms using the X-ray technique. And then what I normally do is activate some chrome extensions in order to be able to find people's contact details, like email addresses. Because emails, let's face it have a far higher response rate than in-mail.Max: In-mail?Vanessa: So I'd rather choose that route, yeah.Max: Okay. And what if you were able to get their phone number, does that happen?Vanessa: You know what? When people sign up for these platforms, they're generally signing up with an email address, not a phone number. So it's actually easier to find an email address, and you can find people's phone numbers, it's possible. It's not impossible, but it's just not as easy as finding an email address. And let's face it, you're going to find an email address with more regularity than you will a phone number.Max: Right. So it's more scalable and I also suspect that sending a cold email will be more, well, it's a bit intrusive to make a cold call these days, because most of them are telemarketers--Vanessa: Or financial advisors.Max: Right. So but I suppose you could also do that. And then the reason I asked about phone numbers is because the phone numbers also open some new windows such as WhatsApp, so you could also use WhatsApp for engagement.Vanessa: Absolutely. Max: Yes, you use that.Vanessa: Yeah, yeah. I do. I mean, WhatsApp, it's really popular through Africa and Europe, but I actually found Facebook Messenger a lot more effective in the US. So it's just understanding which platform works better for people. A lot of my friends in the US also prefer signal or telegram to WhatsApp, because they're not supporters of Mark Zuckerberg and Meta who owns WhatsApp. So yeah, it's just understanding the psyche of where you're going to find people.Max: Yeah, I'm on all of them just in case.Vanessa: Me too. That's what we do as recruiters.Max: No secrets for Mr. Zuckerberg--Vanessa: Yeah, he's welcome to listen in on my conversations really.Max: You too?Vanessa: Yeah, I don't really give a shit.Max: Great. Well, so that initial email, where you show that you've done your research, you personalize the outreach, then when do you get off email into a phone call? How far can you use the written form in bringing them into consideration for a job? Like how long are these correspondences? How long would you be recommending that a recruiter goes into these correspondences considering that well, we all have limited time and, I guess it's like, in sales, you have to know when you've lost the deal. So you can move on to the next one.Vanessa: Yeah, exactly. Max: The same thing. So of course, you can always advocate for more engagement, more personalization, more emails, more everything. But we've got a finite amount of time and resources. So how do you know when to stop? What's the right amount of correspondence? And how do you know when to stop?Vanessa: So basically, my best should I say tip around this is to automate this process because we all don't have enough time for this. So what I do is I advocate putting candidates into a five or six email reach out a campaign, where a lot of recruiters, I've been training on this, this morning, and we'll send a very long email upfront, and then a second or third email saying, hey, did you read my email with that kind of passive recruitment that's going on.Where if you break up the information that you would put in that very long first email across five emails, or six emails, of breaking it up into bite-sized pieces, thinking like a marketer, you actually get a better response rate. So I normally use my tool for automating emails is something called SourceWhale. I use that really all the time whenever I'm trying to get hold and source new talent. And I usually run it over 10 days.So I send people five emails over 10 days, at varying times of the day, varying days in between each message. So it's something that I don't really need to think about. Because as soon as I get the new role, I've set up the campaign, I don't know the personalization that needs to be added in. And then the campaign runs in the background. So I literally can be delivering like four hours' worth of training and finish the training and I come back to a whole lot of responses. And there are people who've answered the automatic email that's gone out from my outlook with my signature looks like me to them. It's brilliant.Max: You can go scuba diving, in the meantime, come back--Vanessa: Absolutely.Max: -- inbox full of candidates.Vanessa: Yeah, there we go job done. So for me, the trick is to automate because you're never going to remember who you've messaged, and who you need to message again. Those kinds of things.Max: And these, you talked about personalization, and then automation. And sometimes these are in conflict. If you're automating everything, then there's no personalization. Vanessa: It depends which tool you use  Max: But there is some customization you can do on those email templates where you have certain fields that you can fill with tokens.Vanessa: Yeah, absolutely.Max: So that is automated. I mean, it feels personalized, even if it's somewhat automated. So to illustrate that, it sounds like that's what you're doing, right?Vanessa: Absolutely, yeah.Max: So what are some of those fields you might be using?Vanessa: So for me, like one of the fields would be that maybe where the person's currently working? What is their current job title? What is the qualification? Their certification? Maybe something I could find out about what hobbies they do? I could relate it to maybe it's something similar that I do, they could go and verify that by looking at my social presence online, and definitely the person's name, I think we tend to forget about that one.That's also a good custom field that you can fill in, and maybe a link to like a GitHub repository, if it's someone who's in the tech space, YouTube channel, whatever I can find on the person, I'm going to tell them that, hey, I took the time, I did my research, I really want you. So one thing I'm definitely not going to do in my reach-out message is say, if you know anyone else that you can send my way, please let me know because--Max: Oh, really? I do that all the time. It's not a good idea?Vanessa: Not a good idea because the feeling coming back from candidates is, why do recruiters always ask me to do their jobs for them? So if you know the candidates, and you've placed them and you've got a good relationship, by all means, pick up the phone, phone them, who do they know? But if it's in your first reach out to them, or in your reach out campaign, I normally will end with that in my last email. So if I haven't elicited a response, at least, it doesn't harm in asking, but I wouldn't ask for anyone else, because I want that person to feel special, I want them to think I want them.00:15:27  Max: And sending these hundreds or maybe 1000s of emails every month, you must be getting a lot of responses?Vanessa: So first of all, I'm not sending 100 or 1000s of emails a month, because I recruit in a very specialized tech industry, and they aren't that number of people that are around. I don't agree with that kind of just bulk spamming people with templates. So yes, I'm getting loads of responses, but it's manageable.Max: Okay. Yeah, it's not in the 1000s. And I was going to ask you, how do you capture that on the way back because I think that we're actually at the infancy of what the technology will be able to do where you'll be able to read the email, read the response, organize the data semantically.Vanessa: Well, basically SourceWhale does that. So SourceWhale reads the email, and it tells me whether it's a positive response or a negative response. And then I can respond directly from my email accordingly. So I could say, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I could say, well, let's meet, here's my Calendly link, let's make an appointment. So I think these things are far more intuitive than we give them credit for. And they keep on pushing out improvements out there. So it's one of those things that always amazes me, it's very intuitive, it's using a lot of AI, and makes me think that maybe one day robots will roam the Earth, I'm not sure.Max: No doubt.Vanessa: -- maybe not in my lifetime, but--Max: I'm working on that with my colleagues.Vanessa: Yes, please keep me posted.Max: We've talked about the technology, the automation, which is so important. But now let's get into a little bit of psychology. So an answer you should be getting for most of your candidates is thank you very much. I'm not looking, I'm happy where I am. And that's human nature, we get comfortable with the familiar and we want to stay where we are. So where do we go from there?Vanessa: So for me that response is good because any response is good. Let's face it. Someone's going to respond, you've elicited that response by what you've said and that's amazing. So if they say they're quite happy a lot of the time, it's because in the tech space, people are working on a project, and they've still got a couple of months left on their project. So what I would go back to with them and say, how much longer do you have on this project? Is this a long-term thing? Please shout as soon as you hit into the support and maintenance phase, which everyone in the tech space hates, because they know that their skills are stagnating, and they not learning anything new. So you kind of play to the doesn't get stuck kind of people. But if it was--Max: The innovation pace, how fast are you innovating right now? What are your big milestones? Are things moving fast?Vanessa: Exactly, exactly. For someone who wasn't in the tech space, just to give you an example would be, when is your next round of bonuses or grades, let me know when you can chat, and then I'll tell them something that they couldn't refuse. So I'd know something from the hiring manager, that would be a potential hook.So something that would be unique to that company. If you ever want to learn this new skill, or you ever want to work internationally, or you want to get asked to sponsor you for this international qualification or certification and like, global techs, whatever, whatever, then you just let me know. So as long as you've got the response first, you can go back with any of those kinds of hooks that would entice people to want to come and work with you.Max: Yeah. Sometimes we'll engage engineers who are working in a service environment where they're doing project-based work and say, wouldn't you be interested in moving to the product side where you're working on a product for a long time? So actually, it's kind of like the opposite of what you were describing. It's like saying, don't you want to do service and maintenance on the same product for a long time, because it's not necessarily boring for everybody. It could be fun.Vanessa: Exactly, exactly.Max: Great. Great, great, great. What about some dirty tactics? Like would you plant a seed in someone's mind on the quality of the company they're working in?Vanessa: Like, I think that's a bit of a low blow, to be honest. I don't know whether I'd be brave enough to go there. But what I would probably do is play on the fact that surveys at the moment are showing that people want to work for companies that are making a difference. So they don't want to just sit in a bank where they're going to make the bank loads of money.I'd rather say, this is a startup, we focused on solving global world famine, and we would love you to be a part of that because that really is going to be a role where there's going to be a good purpose behind it. And I think I would maybe use the reverse psychology to say, not just to say, actually, you just making a bank more money, but come and work somewhere where you're going to add value and actually have an impact on the world.Max: Yeah, because everybody's got a moment of doubt, where even if they're comfortable in their job, and the money and the people, they'd be like, oh, what should I do with my life?Vanessa: That's a big picture exactly. And you want to like kind of tap into that.Max: Okay. Well, all great stuff, gold, I hope the listeners are paying attention and taking notes. I end my interviews, usually with the same question for everyone, which is one of the mistakes that we have made in the past on the hiring front. And ideally, in order to illustrate that with one specific case of someone you hired, which didn't work out, for whatever reason, and as painful as that was to walk back on the origin of that mistake, and then what we can learn from it?Vanessa: Sure, okay interesting. So I mean, it does happen. I'd actually rather have someone not start, then someone starts, and then be appalling. So there was a situation when I was working for an agency, and I was tasked to go and find someone who was going to be a housekeeper. And I interviewed this lady, and she seemed great and she was battling. She hadn't had the most, should I say, stable medical history. She'd been in and out of the hospital but assured me that everything was fine.She was in remission, she had actually suffered from cancer. And she'd got the all-clear. And my gut kind of was like, I don't know about this lady. I don't know whether I'm giving my client a forward pass here. And she actually started with the company. And within two months, the cancer was back and she was back in the hospital. So I probably shouldn't have put her forward for the role, but she was desperate for work, she had medical bills to pay off.But there was always that niggle that something else was going on wrong. And what actually transpired was that she didn't actually have cancer, she had a drug dependency issue on prescription medication. So for me, the niggle that I didn't follow through on was my gut feeling of there's more to the story than what I'm seeing. So it was early on in my career when I was still working in an agency. One thing that I kind of carried through for the rest of my career was, if there is a niggle, if there's a gut feeling, go and dig deeper, maybe do that extra reference check on the candidates.And, maybe don't be so generous and give candidates the benefit of the doubt. And if you do something that I have done, and what I learned from it is that one's guts are actually never really wrong. And that's probably why we work in the industry that we do because we have a good gut feeling of our people and we know who we're going to connect with and who's going to do a good job. And we sometimes kind of push that to the side because we've got deadlines, and we need to put a bomb in the seats and things like that.Max: Oh, the innocence of people who have never worked in recruitment, we we'll never have that again.Vanessa: No, of course not that I'm sure everyone's got a similar story. They were all duped by someone, given a story, but this is something to remember, I think.Max: I mean, and that does happen very often. Candidates, they're not stupid. Often some are smarter than the recruiters, and they know what not to say and what truth to hide. And got to pay very close attention to those details.Vanessa: Yeah.Max: Thanks, Vanessa.Vanessa: My pleasure. Thank you.Max: Well, where can people get a hold of you?Sure. Guys I'm not difficult to find on the Internet. So I'm on any other social platforms. My website is vanessaraath.com--Max: Double-A.Vanessa: -- And yeah hit me up. If you want to talk about talent sourcing training. I would love to work with you and your teams.Max: Thank you very much.Max: That was Vanessa Raath who was reminding us of some of the beautiful technology that is available at our fingertips to create email sequences and treat the passive candidates like something that should activate you rather than you being passive in front of it as well. I hope you got something out of this interview. I certainly did. And that you'll be back for more to listen to some of the hackers of the recruitment industry.

Episode #005 - 5 Tips to Conquer Your Fear of Selling Show Description This episode is all about actionable tips to help conquer your fear of selling and transform it into a routine part of your business that feels good. Show Notes [00:00:00] Terrica: Welcome to the marketing cocktails podcast. We're your hosts. Terrica Strozier, that's me a brand designer and sugar attic and Vanessa Shepherd a launch strategist and content creator. With the love of all things Disney each week, you'll hear our behind the scenes conversations and expert advice on marketing and launching your next offer while doing it all ethically and organically. And given that bro marketer advice, the book. Thanks for spending some time with us today. Grab a drink and let's jump into today's episode. Welcome to episode three of the marketing and cocktails podcast. Today, we're going to give you some practical tips and tricks on overcoming your fear of selling. I know that this is a really weighty topic for many business owners as we try to find that comfortable balance of selling, but doing so in a way that feels good and true to us so let's dive right into this episode Vanessa: Alrighty today, we're talking about ways you can overcome your fear of [00:01:00] selling. If you have a business, your goal is probably pretty likely to make money. I know most people say, but the only way to make money is to sell something. Either products or services. So what really happens if you're really like definitely afraid of selling, you're probably going to not make as much money and you're going to become managing a hobby instead of running a business. But if you're ready to ramp up your income, then you need to overcome your fear of selling. So we're going to go over some tips for being able to reframe your selling mindset and overcome your fear of selling to the people who are going to absolutely love what you have to offer. Once they get to know you. So the first tip we're going to run with is don't think of it as selling, think of it as having conversations. So if you're worried about being perceived as someone who's pushy, hard selling, you know, the used car salesman that everybody hates, then you can start off by simply having a conversation and getting to know the other person. [00:02:00] You're not gonna be able to convince everybody to buy the first time you meet them, just like in real life, you know, become friends immediately. As you're going to be able to ask them questions about their business, maybe about their personal life, whatever it is that's going to help you really understand them in a better way. By asking those questions, you'd be able to qualify them as potential prospect or somebody who is not a good fit for you. And then you can follow up with them at a future time. And what we're talking about, having conversations, it's not something that. It's just one method. So there's so many different ways to communicate with people that you can find what works best for you. So some people might like to go and. Have conversations in DMS on Instagram or Facebook. Other people are email people. Some people are face to face people. I think people love taking phone calls. it's a matter of finding what method is that you're most comfortable with and that you're just like [00:03:00] feeling that this is a way that you can actually have a conversation and get people to know you a little bit better. Terrica: so I'm gonna ask this question, cause I know you have a good answer. And it's one thing that I, struggle with a little bit when I first started is having the conversations for some people. once they, like you said, they kind of, you know, get into it, find a commonality and just kinda like talk to someone like they would in person. But then there's a lot of people who say, Well, I don't have anybody to talk to. I don't, I don't have an audience, where do I find the people?, Do i have to basically enact the digital version of cold calling , do I just go into somebody's DMS and be like, Hey, how you doing? my name's Terrica, nice to meet you. does that work? Is that sleazy? Vanessa: With that high pitchy voice to dude that's awesome. Please don't do that. Yeah. Calling cold [00:04:00] calling drives me a little bit. Nuts. It does work for some things. It works for some industries. If you're a salesperson, you will spend half your life, cold calling people, but. The people who wind up, the MLM, people that hop into your DMS, they find you on Facebook and they're just there to try and sell you. Those are not people who are open to having conversations. And those are people that almost everybody hates so much so that they get mad from Facebook. So if. And everybody has had this problem. Everybody will have this problem. And it depends on how big your network is or how small it is or what your, I don't know how comfortable you are with going out and talking to people. You can find somebody to talk to. Just about anywhere and everywhere and yeah, it's going to be hard and it's going to be awful and it's going to feel gnarly. And there's something in your brain. That's going to tell you that I have nobody to talk to you like ever. Cause I never leave my house and I walk around my bathroom and nobody wants to talk to somebody who's walking around their house in their pajamas all day, but you have to get [00:05:00] out of your head. So think about how many Facebook groups are you in. Or how many people do you know in your family, your circle of friends, your alumni from school, there's so many different ways to tackle it. That if you really start to think about it, you can probably find at least one person to talk to. Even if it's just a friend to be like, okay, I have this thing. I'm trying to find people that I can. I talked to you about this thing. Do you know of anybody? That type of conversation helps too. That's the type of conversation that salespeople have to have all the time. I know when I was in sales and I thankfully did not have to cold call that many people, because there was always somebody that I could talk to who could refer me to somebody else. And it started with, just talking to people that came into the store that would actually reach out because they found our information through awesome marketing materials. But those times when it was kind of dead and dry and I had to start finding people and pulling them out of the woodwork to talk to you, then I would go [00:06:00] back to the people who I had either already talked to or people I like, sort of knew I'd strike up conversations with them, even if it was just like a, Hey, hi, how you doing kind of angle to get in, to be able to talk to people. So even though things feel hard, conversations are hard. I dunno, especially on a Monday, like there are times where it's going to feel like awful, but know that that's completely, honestly normal and everybody has that thought that I have nobody to talk to. But yet when you really start to think about it and journal it out, write it down, make a list of all the different people that you could talk to. Even if you think that those people. Would have nothing to do with what you're offering. I've made a list of people and been like, these are the people I know the chances of them actually buying what I'm selling are pretty much slim to none, but nine times out of 10, when I talked to those people, those people know other people that I can talk to. Terrica: That's true. a super [00:07:00] easy way that I've done this and. Ironically, I did this when we were in a creation phase. one of our upcoming offers is while I be classified as an introvert and just say this guy's not all introverts are antisocial just means that you don't get your kind of fuel from people. You get your fuel from yourself. So, I said, you know what, I'm just gonna write a Facebook post on my personal one. I'm just going to put it out there. I'm going to let people then come to me. Cause I know that at this point, I don't really remember. I think I have maybe 500 to 800. Yeah. Facebook friends. I'm like, somebody is going to see this post. Somebody will like it. Somebody will comment. And because they comment and it'll show up in like their feed and then somebody else will see it. And I don't really have to do any of the hard work. Minus respond to the people who already felt some visceral reaction and say, [00:08:00] Ooh, yes, I have that problem. Or, Oh, I have a solution for you. And then I'm like, Now I can just use, like Vanessa said my own community online without having to pick up the phone and talk to anybody, or I don't even have to reach out to somebody and send them like a text message. I just put a post and said, Hey guys, this is what I'm doing. do you think it's a good idea? what could make this better? and you have an easily warm audience. These are people where you are used to talking to, like you said, you went to school with them, you know, them through something and then. Sometimes I always like at the end to put like a little simple, just piggybacking off of what you said call to action. Hey, if you know somebody else tag them, let people work for you. Vanessa: And that's like the power of people, the power of networking, even if you're not like, quote unquote networking, we're going out to mixers or whatever. It's a matter of just letting people, putting it, putting your offer out there or putting what you're do out there or who you serve, or some little snippet of. What you're doing. [00:09:00] It's amazing that just putting it out there, how other people that are like, Oh, I might not need that, but I know a guy right. Might do that. Or who might need that, or I don't need that now, but I'm gonna save that info and then we'll come back to it later. Exactly. There's so much, so much power and conversations. It's awesome. Okay. So the next thing we were going to cover is why you should offer your help instead of just hard selling people. Hey, hard selling. Can you sell? So think about what is the end result, right? Every product or service, every product or service out there solves one problem or a problem or two problems, but it should solve at least one. And if it doesn't, you have a problem with your product service. So approach each potential lead with the idea of helping them solve a problem instead of selling them on your product. Helping has a more positive connotation than selling days. And that kind of frame of thought makes it easier for you to [00:10:00] start qualifying conversations when all the qualifying conversation is, is just something that can help you assess whether or not the person that you're actually talking to could be a good fit for you, or maybe they could be a good connector for you. Terrica: So the connector is that person that's going to be able to connect you to other people who are. A good qualifying fee for whatever it is you're selling. Yeah. That's, I'm an approach. I've all I'm gonna say. I've always taken because after my first was like my second yeah. Job, but I was working at six flags and my boss just put me right on the front line and I was Terrica. There you go. Get people to come to our booth and buy these customize t-shirts and bags. I'm like, Well, don't how to get these people over here. I don't even want to talk to these people. I want to go in the back in the hide. but one thing that I quickly learned and I reframed was at my core. I always loved to help people. Usually when I talk to people, I'm always Oh, you need help with that. Sure. I was, I was that kid. I [00:11:00] was a teacher's pet. I'm going to run and help everybody. So I realized that it the same way if I reframed it and figured out. What their issue was or what they were having a problem with or what could I solve then that problem solver in me immediately activated I connected with people a lot easier. It felt more comfortable for me. And then on the other end, people. Felt that authenticity. Cause I'll say this don't fake help people if it's not in you and you are a hard seller, then go at it like that. Cause people will at least respect you for coming to them directly and a direct approach then that kind of, twofold approach where you, you put that facade up, you act one way when you really try to do another, and then people feel so slighted and just taken advantage of at the end of the day. But what I've always done. And as I. Worked through many other jobs. [00:12:00] After that, I went through the perspective of helping, because that made me connect with people easier. They connected with me and they're like, you're working for me. I'm with that, let me help you. Let me buy a couple extra shoes. You're so helpful. you know, that's a good deal. You got me a good deal. I was only gonna buy this one pair of pumps, but you know what? I could use that pair of flats in those boots over there. Let me do that. I mean, Oh, one time I had a customer come. Yeah. I mean, they were just going to buy a few things. They left spending a thousand dollars, when I worked in banana Republic, but it was because they were like, you're just so helpful. You helped me pick out things. You gave me the best deals. You didn't sell me on it. You told me what the flaws of it were, you know, plus the pros and I made an informed decision, so sure. Sign me up, take my money. Vanessa: I think how many supervisors hate when you point out the flaws of a product or service and that's so crucial, I'm the same way. So I'm also, I help her or as people in my family call me grandma's pet. Cause I help so much. [00:13:00] Grandma grandma's pet. Well, I grew up with my grandparents and I was a lot of the time with around cousins. And that was just, that was our family dynamic. It was fine. so yeah, grandma's pet morph needed. Teacher's pet, which morphed into, you know, somebodies pet out there. It's kind of a, I don't know. My family's weird. It's fun, but helping, helping isn't a bad thing. So it's all the helpers out there. Other people will make you feel bad for being a helper. Don't feel bad about being a helper. That's who you are naturally embrace it. but I had the same thing, like working in retail sales bigger kind of sales environments. I was always the person who would help people figure out what they came into the store for first and then connect them with what they wanted. And nine times out of 10, they bought something else. Or if they didn't buy something else on the spot, those, those buggers came back and they brought like 10 of their friends and they would only deal with me. I had people. Oh, my gosh. It's so fine. So I had people when I worked in, in, at Skechers, they would come in. And they only wanted to deal with me [00:14:00] after one good experience. They were like, no, we don't want to deal with anybody else. I had to have my butt hauled out from like deep backstock. Cause I was assistant manager. I wasn't just like a sales person then. And my job that day was to like help unload this gigantic shipmate. So I was covered in all the cardboard dust and the dot that like the gnarly dust that comes with a deep stockroom. I like, what do you mean I need to be out on the floor. This is, this is not what I'm dressed for today. Like, this is not cool, but the people didn't care that I looked kinda gnarly. They were like, Oh, sorry, we pulled you away from something, but we really need your help. And I helped them and they were awesome. They went away a couple months later they came back and they kept buying shoes. Yeah. It was amazing. I was like, how many pairs of shoes do you need? I like shoes too, but holy man, what are y'all fitting at? Army is awesome, but that's the power of. Helping people connect to them with the right product, how they tell him about the pros and cons about everything on the floor. I actually took those experiences with that one kind of family. I would trained my staff on how to do the exact same. [00:15:00] There was one person. She took it to heart cause she was also kind of like a natural helper, a little bit integrated as well. And she became our top performing salesperson. And then I had her work with other new people. I'm like kept the cycle kind of continuing for as long as I was in the store. It was really cool to see the power of just being able to help somebody instead of sitting there hard, selling them on every feature and benefit of the actual product. Terrica: Well, at that point , in my last position, I have people who are willing to leave where I was because. I said that I was leaving. They're like, well, I guess it's time to go. And I'm like, you didn't come from me. They were like, yeah, I didn't. But I stayed because of you. Vanessa: Oh, that's powerful. Terrica: but at the one thing I always like to connect and, this'll be my mantra is that at the core of helping you connect with the individual for who they are, there's no fluff for everything. It's a genuine connection. I see [00:16:00] you have a need, I have a solution. This is where it is. And in that is that little bit of empathy. I see you having a problem. Let me give you a helping hand. I'm now in business that helping hand comes with. A price tag, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing because at that point, people are still grateful for a solution to the problem that may be having. they're having issues with that. They're willing to compensate you. Like, Hey, all my guys, you helped me so much. I'm more than willing to pay your price. that's not a big deal. You don't have to be, It doesn't have to be an issue. That was an issue for me for a while is that I will help people. And then at the end I'm like, and, and, and it costs 200 bucks. Can you pay that? Please? I'll send you an invoice and I felt so bad cause I wanted to do it for free, but free. Doesn't keep a roof over your head free. Doesn't fill your stomach and free. Won't keep electricity on. So at the end of that, you still have to get paid [00:17:00] and you're worth getting paid. You're always worth getting paid. Yes. But that goes, all of that kind of goes into this thing of people are like, Holy crap. I need to have conversations and you need to help people. And that sounds like really, really, really big. So it's like a big meaty thing. It does sound that way, but the best advice we can give you is to start small. So you're not going to try and conquer all of these things or, you know, Selling or launching something huge in a single day, you're going to start small. You're going to talk about your business. Maybe it's a family and friends or people, you know, that might fit your audience or who might just be like a good connector person. Vanessa: You can also spread your reach and your local community is by networking in person or, whether that's at a business event or just the people you meet. It's amazing how many conversations you can strike up in a grocery store. Just put that out there or hair salon, like in the line at the checkout [00:18:00] and. Terrica: You bond over people magazine cover, and then that sprouts into a whole nother conversation. And the end of the day, they're like, it's so nice to meet you. You're like you too. And then your head you're like, I don't know that person. How did we end up? Vanessa: I've had my husband say this same thing. How do you know that lady? I don't. And he's like, I you're fooled me. I would've thought you guys were friends or something. You get to know people really quickly just by, just by talking to people. And if you think about it, that way you can network online, you can, use social media or groups or whatever. It's whatever you're going to be able to do to just connect with one person. Pick 1% a day, 1%, every few days, whatever frequency you're going to be comfortable with. Start small and take it one step at a time. And they basically just rinse and repeat like all of those steps until you have this well oiled networking machine that is able to produce leads or [00:19:00] connections, that'll help you take the business. You have stay and grow over the longterm. And that's another thing I kind of wanna emphasize. You want to make sure that you're doing this in a way that's, ethical. I'm not sleazy. I'm not gross because if you, if you do it the other way, you know, the gnarly way that makes me feel gross and cringy on the inside sales men, way. Those guys, the sleazy guys, the bro marketers, they're out there for quick sales and a quick buck, make a million today and just take their business. Start another one tomorrow. The rest of us who want to do things the right way who want to grow something that has a future in it, has legs and provides for our family or provides for the next generations, whatever your dream is. Those being able to build a business that fulfills that longterm dream takes doing things the right way, doing things ethically, treating people like people, being respectful, being, kind, being. Just helpful at the base root of it, because if you're not, then your business isn't [00:20:00] going to last very long. Terrica: That's, that's so true. and I always look at the people who are willing or I'm going to say willing at that point, their focus is to make the quick buck, like, how am I going to make my next, dollar that in that transaction of. So speech and communication, everything, because it's a transactional internet. Every conversation is a transaction, but in, during that process, I almost feel like they failed to see the individual there. That person doesn't have. a face, really that person doesn't have any feelings. They're just an end to me means to an end. There we go other way around. but that's what that is. And that's why when you come out of the situations you feel as on the consumer and you feel so icky and you're either like, Oh, that was. Like the most [00:21:00] revolting process or you feel like, Oh man, I feel like I was stripped of everything because they don't see you anymore. You are just a body and I always push, you never want to have that in business. You won't have a sustainable business like that. Nobody wants to feel like, Oh, all I am is a dollar to you. That's like in a comparison, I went to a small college rather than a big college. Cause I said, I don't want to just be a number. I want you to see my face. I want you to know who Tara is and I want to matter. And I want to be able to go to somebody and be able to speak. And you'll like, Oh, Hey Tara, how you doing? You got an issue rather than, Oh, Hey, your number zero zero zero one five two. How are you today? Having been somebody who has gone to a small college and a big university, I can testify that. Yes, the small ones you get, they get to know you a little better though. Pro-tip, it's really hard to skip class at a small institution. [00:22:00] They know you and they'll be like, and then have you ever had parents or other people come. Well, what happened is something happened with your family? Didn't want to come to class. I was just tired that day, but I can't tell you that crap, that doesn't work. but definitely start small. I. Fell into the trap of, of selling and it feeling really overwhelming. So I did absolutely nothing for a while. I just put my website up and I just hoped by some divine intervention that people would just come my way. that didn't work people. Sorry, I didn't go viral. He has a dream like reality. It's a movie, it's a good movie, but it's just a movie. Right. And so. I love this approach because in going through these, these tips that we're giving you to, overcome [00:23:00] your fear of selling, you also find ones that just feel really good to you. And any, I'm not gonna say any action in business, cause there's some ones that just don't feel good. Pay taxes. Don't feel good. Doing finances don't feel good. That tedious admin stuff for a lot of people don't feel good. I get that. But something as vital to your business is selling, you should find some Avenue that a part of it feels good so that you can do it over and over and over again, because you're going to have to, yeah, it brings us through a really good point. Vanessa: To, to find the way that feels good, but to find that thing that feels good to find just what feels natural to you too, you're going to need to focus on your goals. Like, why are you in business? Why did you create these products and services? Why, why do you want to help those people? What, whoever your people are to solve, whatever problem that your product and service. Solves. And what's your timeframe for meeting those goals? Like you need to [00:24:00] know kind of what all of those things are so that you can go, okay. So I need to sell this thing. I want to do it by X date. I want to do this many sales, even mapping out something as simple as that. That's setting a goal basically, and giving yourself this like reasonable deadline, and that's going to help you be motivated to sell instead of, I don't feel like it today. So I'm going to binge watch Netflix shows and pop some popcorn and then just curl up my blanket and hope that tomorrow is a better day when really. Every single day that you take one small action and you only have to break it down and do one thing a day. Talk to 1% day, take one step every single day. So that you're working towards that deadline. You're working towards those goals. Be able to fulfill them. If you have a supportive spouse, talk to them. If you have a business partner, talk to them. If you have somebody who's just helping to keep you accountable, who's [00:25:00] just a really good friend and a really good support. Talk to that person. Share your goals with them. Share your deadlines, share why, what makes you motivated? Speak it out loud, right at your journal. Whatever's going to help you to stay focused on why the heck are you doing this in the first place? because when other people wind up asking you about, well, how's it going? what progress have you made? Are you making progress? How's it feeling you're like, who have you talked to today? All those lines. I know sometimes they feel like a hassle. You're like, Oh, I didn't talk to anybody today. I feel really guilty. Don't it's okay. Just know that you need to take one step today, but being asked about your progress, that helps you. That helps keep you motivated, even if you don't realize it because there's somebody else out there who's in your corner, who can actually like, they want to see you succeed as much as you want to see you succeed. If that makes sense. Yeah, exactly. And setting those goals and even getting to the point. Terrica: Like you said that you want to [00:26:00] sell, maybe you're per out there. And it's the service of one-on-one service book, X amount of clients, this month. Cause then it'll help me meet my revenue goal. I want to sell X number of products cause that will help. Then you can take that plan of action and then Institute ways. To sell the, helping meet that goal, but then you can do them in ways that maybe don't take as much effort. Maybe you take the time to go line, and then you say that life, and then you break it up into pieces where there's part of it, where you address questions that are, issues for your potential client. And then you schedule those to go onto your Instagram or you put them on IGTV and you push people to that. Did you have to get on a call and talk to him? No, but you had to do the work on the back end to still push your message out there. So that's still a form of having a conversation and you still have a form of, selling, you have a call to [00:27:00] action at the end of that, and then people can still drive, but you still, so in the midst of it have to do something because doing nothing, it's no results. I'm a Testament of that. lack of planning gets, you no, results. Sometimes you can, pull some shit together, we've all done it. I pull a paper together and like two hours and sometimes, it flies. Sometimes it flies, sometimes it doesn't. But when you get into. Presenting offer or selling. You don't want to rush those things. You don't want to just pull it out of your butt and be like, Hey, I have this thing now. I do agree that sometimes done is better than perfect. You don't have to agonize over it, but you need to have a plan in, in motion , to get this traffic that you want to have these conversations you want to, as a good transition to the next step to get people excited about what you have to offer. Vanessa: Yeah. And if you [00:28:00] are one of those last minute people it's okay. We've all been there. We've been last minute people to mandatory, especially with school projects. I don't know. Anyway. but if you're always a last minute person and you're never planning. You're not building a longterm business. You're not thinking about how to set up that foundation. And we're going to keep coming back to that week after week, we're going to come back to building this foundation. So if you're, if you're really not excited about your products and services, a you're, you're walking down the wrong path, man. if you can't be excited about the products and services or the people you're serving, then you may be picked the wrong offer, the wrong product, the wrong service, the wrong people. You need to be able to cut through all of the crap and all of the hardship and all the overwhelm and the gnarly newness that comes with building your own business. You need to be able to be excited about your products and services. You need to be able to be excited about even some of your audience and some of the people you're serving [00:29:00] granted, you're not going to be excited about all of them. They're going to be hiccups. They're going to be things that's fine. That's human nature to have that thing. But at the core of it, if you can't be excited about your products and services, And you're not proud of what you're offering. You're doomed to failure. Terrica: Oh, I mean, for sure. and I'm gonna continue to use real world examples, but how many times have you walked into the store? And there's a sales person that come in and they're like, hi, welcome to store X. How are you doing today? Just look around, tell us what you like. Maybe we'll help you. Maybe we won't. Vanessa: I'm a robot man. Terrica: Oh, you don't want to be here. you don't seem interested in a product if I ask you questions, you don't have any answers. Right. I'm going to leave. I'm good. I'm going to go across the street to the store that comes in and says, Hey, how are you today? What are you looking for? Oh, okay. They seem a little more upbeat. Oh, I'm looking for, you know, A new computer come this away. Let's show you all [00:30:00] these things. Oh my gosh. Have you seen our new model? It's amazing that vibrancy right there. I'm like, Ooh, I'm a little into why they are. They like super excited about this product because they be commissioned or they're super excited. Cause it's amazing. I don't know, but I'll listen to you and they will tell you. One way or the other I've actually had salespeople. Vanessa: It'd be like, yeah, I'm just here to pay for my school. Tuition. The product is great. I use it. I actually, I get it. I got a discount on it. I'm gonna, I'm gonna use it. But I'm really excited about commissioning and hooking up with the product. I've had people tell me, it's hilarious. They're blatantly honest. And I thought it was hilarious because in my, yeah, I never would have done that, but I've also had the other people, when you walk into, I don't know, Some store and they're like, Oh my gosh, I love this thing over here. What do you need to do with this product? Oh, that was, it's not for you, but I love that one, but if I was you and I only need to use it for it. Yeah. I use this other one over here. Those people you can call are excited about what they're [00:31:00] doing and what they're selling. Yeah. And you just, you, when there's an excitement behind it, either you put all your blood, sweat, and tears to creating it, and you just are excited about the solution that it provides for people. I'm excited for the value, excited that you're finally finished, that is out in the world. Take that. That energy and put it into your delivery. When you have conversations, when you write your emails, when you get on live, because people feed off of that energy, they're like, Oh my God, they're excited. They're pumped back. This has to be good. Like at least if nothing else, I gotta go read the sales page because they're coming with this crazy energy. Like every time I see them talking, they're so excited about it. Because they realized the value. at that point I've had people talk to me. Oh my God, this is the best one. I'm like, sure. It is. It is no. Let me tell you why. It's amazing. All right, go ahead, Nikki. Going [00:32:00] after awhile, it does sound kind of good. Okay. Keep going. Ooh. Can I test that even though you were like, I'd rather be anywhere else, like driving with dumpster fire instead of being here buying missing, but by the end of it, you're like, I'm so stoked for whatever it is. I just bought it. Yeah, exactly. And even if I don't buy it, I show appreciation to the person like, Hey, I chose it this time. Maybe it really wasn't in my budget. Like I really even can't make it work, but man, do I appreciate the energy you brought the information you brought. The even answers to some of my problems or my questions that you had Oh my gosh. Even if I don't buy now coming back again, it goes back to that story that you get people to do good experience. They're bringing like 10 people, like I didn't buy today, but y'all, she's amazing when she's on the floor so much energy. She's so helpful. You [00:33:00] gotta go. Like you just, even if you buy one thing, come on and go with me because unfortunately in. Business right now, whether it's brick and mortar or online finding that really just good overall experience. It's hard to find it's not as common as it should be. And so when you give that just amazing energy and that solution, like people remembering you, it sticks in the brain. And even if they don't buy right now, they'll come again. Terrica: Next time. Maybe they really can't afford it, but they're like, I'm saving her, come back again and see what she's offering. Like maybe in like a couple months, that's when I have a little bit more, available. Vanessa: And we see that happen all the time in the online space, offline space. you'd be really surprised how many people are just like I, so vibe with your energy that I saved, like I, I worked an extra [00:34:00] job. I did this thing and I saved up and I'm here because I'm excited that you're excited. Terrica: Yeah. And that's so amazing. That's so validating when someone comes to you and says that they were willing to go those routes, positive routes, like guys, don't go get a new credit card. max it out. Put yourself in crazy debt, but people are willing to make, you know, do sacrifices or work more or take time, whatever, because they feel like your service or what you have to offer is so valuable that they're willing to do that. That's validating, it's humbling. It's like, Oh gosh, this is why I do this. Vanessa: Yeah. And if, and if you're somebody who's feeling like, Oh my gosh, I could never get to that point. You'll get to that point. You absolutely will. Because , when you're proud of what you're offering, it's so much easier to get into selling mode. it's so much easier to have conversations with people. And all it takes is like doing your market research, understanding your audience's pain points, being able to relate to people on a human level, don't be a robot I'm creating that product or service is going to alleviate [00:35:00] those pain points, just making whatever it is you're offering the absolute best. It can be don't over promise and under deliver under promise and over deliver every single time you're going to blow people's minds every single time. And your excitement will become contagious. Among your followers, your fans, and even people you don't know because those followers and fans are going to go tell 10 of their friends and they're going to come back your direction. And it, it all comes back in, in a big, huge circle, which is pretty awesome. Kind of as a bonus tip, ask for testimonials from happy clients or people who just told you how much they loved your thing. whatever it is you're selling, whether there's a product that they love, do your website, that darn social media posts, those are all testimonials, save them. if you do nothing else at them, you should be using them in your marketing. And we will get into that more later. But if you do nothing else with them, read them when you have a moment of doubt. Let those happy testimonials lift you up because [00:36:00] reading the success stories and the kind words will do wonders for if you're having a moment of doubt, if you're not feeling as confident as you were, a couple of months ago. So those things help more than you realize, just like pick you up and to both your business and to helping your marketing. Terrica: Oh, yeah. I have a whole note section with good things that people say Vanessa: I've saved every like little letter or no or whatever for my whole career, which is a long time. It's been crazy. And also remember to be yourself, just be yourself. When you're promoting your business offerings, don't try to copy your competition. Please. Don't become a carbon copy of somebody else online. That's that's, that's weird. That's getting into robot territory, don't do that. Don't try to emulate your favorite mentor guru for a marketer. Next door don't do that either. Nobody likes that. They also hate it and most people will come after you legally, not a good thing to do. You. At your [00:37:00] core are unique. Your people will be attracted to you because you're unique. I have people who come to me just because I like bright colors. I have a love of travel, a love of Disney. I have a weird quirky personality, and because I am the ultimate marketing or that people have met and people come to me because that's me and they're okay with it. Even if I have my moment of doubt and I'm not good with it on some days. Because I'm unique. And because Terrica is unique in her own way, people come to her because she's got teal hair. And because she's helped filler at delivering an awesome customer service that they make, she asked tough questions, like a bajillion times over people come back. They're like uncomfortable as hell. And you're like, crap, they're never coming back. And then they'll come back and be like, Here's the thing, ask me some more questions. I dare you. I'm ready for you this time. It's amazing, but people will come to you because you're unique. Every single [00:38:00] person out there is unique. And as long as you're yourself, you're not trying to be somebody you're not, you're not trying to fake and it totally tell you make it. People will come. They'll find you. And it's just a matter of. You might not have a conversion problem. You might have a traffic problem. Just being able to get in front of enough people. And sometimes that takes time and that is totally okay. You're going to make it work out. Yep. For sure. So, We're going to wrap it up for the day, but if you need more action tips for confidence selling you're to want to join our membership group, launching made simple where we'll be discussing all things. Launching marketing was fancy products and services we've been talking about and even touching on how to fine tune your marketing for increased profits. Oh yeah. You can increase your profits. We'll help you out. One of the topics we cover is sales. It's embedded into the core of marketing. It's a good half of the process. Awesome. and that whole process. Of making sales easier when you have the right [00:39:00] sales copy and the right tactics in place. And that's something we definitely cover inside of the core of launching made simple. And we're constantly giving our students lots of action steps that they can put to use right away with feedback to help keep improving their offers, their funnels and their launches visit. She's got vision.com to join, and we can't wait to see you inside the group. Thanks for listening. Y'all you can find the show notes at she's got vision.com/podcast. If you've enjoyed what you've heard today, please leave a review and subscribe to the podcast. And because word of mouth is still the best marketing Avenue. Please tell a friend to share it. If you do, don't forget to tag us. Yeah, she's got vision on all platforms until next time. Y'all we're wishing you much success. I remember there's always time for cocktails.

Episode #002 - Busting Marketing Myths: Part 2 Show Description In this episode, we're busting these marketing myths: "content is…?" and "You don't need a marketing plan". Myths can be so damaging to entrepreneurs and business owners who decide to make decisions based on them. We've heard both of these myths so many times in online business, and it's about time that someone set the record straight! Show Notes [00:00:00] Terrica: Welcome to the marketing cocktails podcast. We're your hosts. Terrick astrologer, that's me a brand designer and sugar attic and Vanessa shepherd and launch strategist and content creator. With the love of all things business each week, you're here, our behind the scenes conversations and expert advice on marketing and launching your next offer while doing it all ethically and organically. And given that bro marketer advice, the book. Thanks for spending some time with us today. Grab a drink and let's jump into today's episode. Welcome to episode two of the marketing cocktails podcast. Today's episode is going to be a continuation of the first and we're just rounding up the final three marketing myths. The ones we'll do tackle today. Our content is blank. We all have a definition that can probably fit in there. Everyone is your customer, and lastly, you don't need marketing plan. So let's dive in. . So , you use the word content a lot. And that seems to be as [00:01:00] confusing, a word for people as marketing is, and that people are like, content is just the written stuff, right? So my content is just blog posts, but I hate blogging. So I guess I have no content. And then I heard people, no, your content is, what people. Read about you, what they see. Oh, you mean my Instagram and my Facebook. So that's my content. So my content strategy needs to be centered around the first place. I want people to find information about me and there's this business owner back end. that's YouTube for me. And someone else's like, Oh, I don't do videos. So I guess it's Instagram for me. And so we know that content is more. Then social media. Cause there's some people killing it right now and they have no social media presence at all. And that blows people's mind. And they're thinking I'm wasting all my time on Instagram [00:02:00] and someone's making six figures in your in box and I'm like, yeah. But if that's where your people are and where your people connect, put your time and energy there. So what else. Would you say about content? Cause I know that it's literally you're baby, you know, digital baby, I guess Vanessa: I love content you can tell because, , I just spent the last 10 years deep diving into basically content in front of break it down to a nutshell. Content is cool. Content is I really want to simplify it. It's every single message that you put out into the universe. So it's every time you open your mouth to tell somebody about you, your business and your brand that's content, you're creating content just by talking. We're creating content right now and all we're doing is yapping at each other. It's all the stuff you write down. So your invoices, the way the stuff you put on them, [00:03:00] that is also a piece of content. The, blog posts you put out there. The stuff on your website, the stuff in your emails, the stuff on your videos, on your podcasts. Every time you send people have a box or a message or a Slack message, all of that is technically content. And people over complicated. They're like, well, content is only, blog posts or videos or whatever. Nah Nah it's, everything, every single thing. There's so many different forms of what's called media or medium. and that's the format that your content comes in. So if you are writing it down, Then that's written or text based content if you're doing a video and that's obviously video content, same word. if you're doing a podcast or an audio snippet, anything is, that you can, you, hear it only. That's audio content, you can get, visual. So that's if like when Tara designs pretty awesome graphics that go up on, [00:04:00] Instagram, like all those pretty designed things. It's visual. Anything that's really graphical visual content. you can mix and match others media together. If you write, say you're doing a Rob blog, I like blogging. I'm old school. yeah, blog posts. I'm going to write that content down. I might record an audio for the people out there who hate to read and there's lots of, yeah. Are there, I might do a video for all the people who. Hate to read. They don't really want to listen. They want to see somebody's face as they're conveying the information. And I might do some infographic infographics, or maybe I'll do up some pretty pictures or maybe I'll do app like pins or little other visual elements. I'm gonna put them all into one post. I just created four different types of content. Put it into one delivery vehicle and put it out in the universe. Terrica: And we see this so much. At least I feel like my ads are flooded with [00:05:00] content planners, content strategy, content, content, content. It feels like one of those, neon signs just flashing at you like seven, 11 time. and I wonder, cause I struggle with content. I can create all day. You say Terrica design this for me. Sure. My nose is into my laptop and I'm focused, but then you say, stop doing that. And write something for an audience. Oh, I have to get out my artist's brain and say stuff to people. Okay. I have no idea what to talk about. And so, you know, I just sit there and then there's crazy gaps. And anybody, if you, if you find me on Instagram, there's going to be gaps. I'm just telling you, I'm human. I'm getting better though. So what is your. Advice to people when it comes to developing a content [00:06:00] strategy, not just as a whole, because I feel everybody's telling you that, but one that feels good or is in tune with what they like to do. Can someone say if I don't want to be on Instagram? It's fine. my business won't implode on itself. If someone finds me and they're like, she doesn't have an Instagram, she's not reputable. Or if I just want to do video. Can I just live on YouTube and never write anything else again in my entire life? Vanessa: Technically all those situations are, could be true. And we could probably, if we think long and hard to come up with the right names, I'm really bad with names, by the way, I just didn't stick in my head. It's awesome. but we could probably come up with lists of people who they were, they went through a really simple process. They were like, okay. So I want to get into online business and I need, I know I need to put something out in the world to tell people what I do. What do I like doing actually, do I really love doing, [00:07:00] because if you're going to create content for the internet, you gotta love doing it because you might do it for a while before somebody ever stumbles upon it and goes, man, you are the next hot thing. And you become this overnight sensation, which doesn't actually happen. Almost everybody. Who's an overnight sensation has been doing something for awhile. Anyway, I digress. a good example. We had a conversation when we were hashing out. Do you even want to be on Instagram are your people even on Instagram or , do I have to be there? Cause everybody out there is telling me I have to be on Instagram. Cool. That's awesome. I know you don't have to be on any one platform. You have to be where your people are. You have to decide that. So by looking at things, we figured out your Pinterest, it was like blowing up continually, even when you do nothing and you're inconsistent, your Pinterest still blows Terrica: up. Yeah. Vanessa: And so we know there's a good segment of your people on Pinterest. And the great thing about Pinterest is it's very visual. Which meets your designer, inner artist [00:08:00] and it can pull it out and we can automate that. So you don't have to spend hours at the scheduler and you can continually just keep designing and popping it up on your blogs. That auto feeds to Pinterest, and you never really have to touch any of it. and that works and that will work for people. You get clients through there, you get people at least inquiring. Finding it, maybe they send your pin to a friends and kind of refer you that way. we know that you don't like writing things down and that's totally okay too, but you have no problem picking up your phone and recording a video and putting it up on a live. So then you're kind of fine becomes I love designing things. I am totally comfortable doing impromptu videos when I feel like it. The mood strikes her that again, that's the artist flow. It's pretty awesome. And that's what I'm going to do because I know my people watch my videos and I know my people, I love my designs. So those are the two things that I'm going to tackle this year. And that's totally fine [00:09:00] because that works for you and it meets your people where they're at and how they want to interact with you. Me on the other hand, my people and what I love to do, I can write all day long. I could probably speak things out, but there's going to be a lot of ums and AHS because I overthink everything and I go down and cute little rabbit holes, not very efficient. If you just want to learn one thing, I have to really focus. It's fine. So I write, I have had many, many, many blogs over the years. People always find me. They always find the stuff and it drives traffic for freaking ever. It's awesome. you won't catch me jumping into video cause I, I don't know. I still have to learn how to do that stuff. When all the rest of the people of the world that were super into video hopped on, I was out writing things down and doing degrees and doing research. So. I write my people find me. It's fine. I also like to design kind of findings or I might take photos and I'll put those up again. That's a visual form and people like it, the audience [00:10:00] responds well to it. So we keep doing it. To grow and to kind of meet more people over time. For both of us, we're going to have to take on another form of another medium. maybe we'll take on, maybe you'll start getting your videos transcribed and that'll be your written form. And maybe all start, I don't know, recording audio of my blog posts, but to be able to grow and reach more people and bring them people in, in different ways. Eventually they'll have to get to the point where you've created this like initial. layer of content. You add another medium on top of it. You're not exactly creating brand new content, but you're kind of beefing what you have created up. And I think a lot of people miss talking about that, everybody's like, you have to create new stuff all the time. There's, there's like a drop of truth to that because technically if I take my blog posts and. read it or verbalize it. I'm creating new content, but it's not reinventing the wheel. It's [00:11:00] reusing what I have. It's multiplying that first piece of content to make it even better. And do you use it in a different way so that it connects with even more people? Yeah, Terrica: it does to me and guys to anybody's listening. I really thought that you had to create something new. and I say that because I come from, obviously the designer world, and while some people have templates and things like that, your clients are always wanting you to come out with something new. the dreaded words. something that pops something that stands out. So then your brain automatically goes when someone says, create content, that's new, like something new every single time. And my brain is slowly, it looks like the iPhone emoji where the little fragments are just like flying out into the universe. So my brain looks like, and then I met Vanessa and she's like, You know that you don't have to always create [00:12:00] something new. And I was , alright, I'm a skeptic. Explain it to me. And she breaks it down and I won't break it down into everything that she does. Cause guys that's a little bit of genius, but regardless is that just the example that she gave you don't have to create something new. I created an email. For in, for a sales, sequence that I then repurpose to a blog post that I'm then repurposed again, into an Instagram. Post or maybe two, not quite sure. And I still kind of go back and Oh, I can add to that. Let me take a little piece of that and do that. And my brain never went there before and now I'm like, wow, this is like freaking amazing. Maybe this is how all these people, we like. Fan girl or fan boy over, this is what they're doing on the back end. nobody's, I mean, so we know that people have teams, so yeah, there's [00:13:00] that, but minus that maybe there is this person who's killing it at, you know, who's a solopreneur and it, every time you turn, you're like they have some new content, how they're doing it in your life. This is how they're doing it. So guys, that's your win for today? Go back through some old content, see what you can repurpose, and now you have a whole new batch of content to put out don't you love us. Awesome. also this, I feel , goes into another one. of our myths. And so maybe we'll tackle two things at once. And one of them is that because we're talking about putting out content to your audience and people feeling that they have to be everywhere, which. is in line with the idea that everybody is your customer. So you should be everywhere. Like literally we all need to clone ourselves and be a little bit of everywhere so that we can sell to everybody so that we can make [00:14:00] all of the money. So that's one myth. That's not the case guys. So number two is, well, if it works for another company, it should work for me. And I use this example cause I've heard it like 15 bazillion times as well, targeted for everybody. Everybody can walk in target. There's something for everybody in target. So if it works for them, then I can sell to everybody. I don't have to pick a niche. I don't have to focus on anybody. I don't have to read the data. I'm just going to sell to everybody. And then I'll make all of the big books. That's what's going to happen. Vanessa: It's so wrong. It's so wrong. It's so wrong. It's Target's not for everybody. We love target. I'm very sad that they're no longer in Canada. They broke my heart with their marketing strategy. That's a whole tangent for another day, but that's [00:15:00] fine. target doesn't target everybody. If you think about it a little ironic. Yeah, it's fine. target goes after really specific audience. They're not going to find the people that go shop at Walmart. They're not going to shop at target. A lot of them a. Can't afford it. And a lot of them v. Just won't vibe with it. Yup. target actually goes after more specific customers than say Walmart or some of the other department store kind of one stop shopping kind of places target really goes after that middle class. A person in the upper middle class person, even those people that are the Starbucks drinkers, the Apple product users, fixer upper levers. Those people have a little bit more income. They have a little bit of a higher standard, probably have more professional job. They have drive a nice car. They're not the people who are really struggling, struggling to make ends meet. And they're not so frugal that they [00:16:00] want to save money continuously. They still enjoy saving money as well. Who doesn't, but they're not. So cut coupon, clipping driven that they're going to be more inclined to go shop at Walmart. So the lesson in all this is that even when it looks like a company goes after. Like everybody out there, you know, a store that offers more than one thing for sale, it looks like they could, anybody could walk in and find something that they need. But if you look close enough, you can tell that that's really not the case. And so you can use that information to kind of help you in your business by knowing that you need to get really specific about who your customer is, what their pain points are and how you can actually help solve their problem. By focusing on that one customer and your problem solver, you'll be able to have no problem growing your business. Whereas if you focus on everybody, it'll feel like you're trying to go [00:17:00] after everyone and everything and chase things. And people won't really know what you do, how you do it and who you serve. And that is really, really confusing to a customer. And it turns them off really fast because they there's nothing there to be a memorable. Even if your brand is pretty awesome, Terrica: at Vanessa: that Terrica: is exactly what I was thinking in marketing to everyone. Because at that point you become a Jack or a Jill of all trades, at least on the outside, looking in. It seems as if you offer everything, you do everything, but your business. At that point gets a little lost in a sea of what? Everything, everything that's out there. Nobody thinks, Oh, Hey, I need someone who's amazing marketer and really good at Facebook ads, who do I call? They go to, Joe blow over here a [00:18:00] year or a Susie Q over here. But they don't think about you because there isn't that specificity there, that that's what you offer. And that's where your zone of genius is. Now I will say the normal ideal client avatar. It's not my jam at all. I don't feel as Vanessa: It really drives her nuts. People like she's, she's not kidding. It's hilarious. Terrica: I don't feel that you need to know that your customer is. 35 to 42 year old woman who lives in New York city or a similar metropolitan area makes between 58,070 $5,000 a year has 2.5 kids, probably a dog kids are in private school. She drinks Starbucks and she really loves Panera. And she shops at [00:19:00] anthropology and gilmore girls is her favorite show, ever all those details while they're great. And they can be connecting points in your community. If your audience has someone to taste or, and you know where they are in pop culture or socially or whatever, that's great, but I don't feel like you need to have any of that. What you need to have at the core is. What are your ideal customer values? What are these people value? Like you noted, what is the problem that they're having so that you can address in your offers? The, solution to their problems in a way that connects with them in a way that you understand who they are as an individual. And it's in line with the type of business you want to run. If you want to have an ethically focused business, well, you want people who aren't, you know, shady as fuck. nobody wants to work with those people. So to me, knowing. Who you want to serve [00:20:00] and then crafting your offer so that you can show up in the best way to connect to them is how you can really build a profitable business. And at that point you're not selling to everyone. You may not sell to us, you know, such a specific. Sector of people that this crazy ideal client avatar that I gave. And I'm sorry, people, if you've created that and it works for you, then kudos, it works for you. I just have a different perspective on it. Neither one is right or wrong. they're. Accurate to both of our experiences, but going forth to me at the core of everything is people. So. There's an easier way to attack it. so you can work with people in different niches, but at the core of it, they have the same value. So that's the kind of central, focus. and I think that's what works that you don't market to everyone you can diversify you work with, but still have that core. That is true. [00:21:00] Vanessa: Absolutely and there's all these exercises that are floating around out there. Some of them are really helpful and you're absolutely right. Like the ideal customer avatar doesn't work for you. It does work for other people. It does work for some, like some of our clients and some of the people I've worked with. And it can be a really great exercise to go through, to find commonalities. if you're, if you've come to a point where. those values, you've kind of picked a evaluates focus and you know, your values and, you know, the problems that you, people are having new. You've built an audience around that, and you've got to a point where you're looking, you're like, Holy crap. I need to find like some common threads pulling out that ideal client avatar exercise can be helpful for that. It can be helpful. when you're actually like looking to target somebody with say Facebook ads, because it allows you to think. In really outside the box ways for how to reach those people, through platforms where. It's really hard to reach people like in Facebook ad land, [00:22:00] you can't, I can't plug in value based, things into, ads manager in hope to heck they, I find the honest, ethical people who, you know, are just there to make a difference in the world. That's that's not something I can target, but I can target based on some of those other interests. So that's where some of those exercises come in, really helpful. Kind of a, maybe later points in, growing in marketing or business and with really specific strategies. So don't become like super overwhelmed. If you are hearing about some of these exercises, through courses or through, YouTube videos or wherever you're picking up your information, but just know that some of them are super beneficial for different things. And it's okay if, if one of them or a few of them don't feel like a great fit, find a way to. Kind of craft a picture of who your customer is that feels good to you and run with it because the most important thing you can do is find a way to market yourself and talk about your business and connect with other people in [00:23:00] a way that feels really natural and just really comfortable and like almost effortless. because if it feels like a struggle, you're not, you're a, you're not going to do it. And B you're, you're going to feel rehearsed and nobody wants to connect with somebody who feels like a walking, like robot. Kind of delivering their sales page over and over and over again that nobody wants to do that. Don't do that. Just be yourself, connect with people, connect with those real people and they'll come, they'll come flooding in. They'll find you. They always do. Terrica: So now that we got a little bit more into the marketing piece, I feel like this is a good transition point, to go into our. Next myth, which is that you don't need a marketing plan to truly effectively market your business. And to really craft a business that's profitable because [00:24:00] that's what everybody, at least I hope everyone's in goal is to have a profitable business. You can make money, but if you spend more money than you make, then guys, it's the point. You barely break even at that point. but the end goal. Is to have a successful business that brings in revenue and is profitable. So with those goals in line, can you do that without having a marketing plan? Vanessa: Yeah. So that's a great question. and it kind of comes down to this, no matter how fantastic your product is or your services, it won't sell itself. And the best way to sell something is to make a plan. You need a solid plan. And when we communicate about things that you need to sell, it's called marketing. It's awesome. It's all it is. Marketing is just communication. It's just like finding [00:25:00] a, an Avenue or two or three or however many kind of fit for you that communicates, what it is that you need to sell that product or service marketing. And a marketing plan is really just like a set of. tools and tactics that you're going to use to win your customers, attract them, win them over. And basically you're defining a way to achieve your sales goals. So a marketing plan is basically an action plan that includes your marketing budget. And a lot of people are like, Whoa, I'm not big enough to have a marketing budget. That's actually very wrong. So. You have a budget for your household, you know exactly how much you need to spend on, you know, keeping a roof over your head and all those fun things. You ha you need to have a client, a budget, and upon for your business of how you're going to use your finances. And even if you don't have a big budget, you still need to dedicate a small portion of your budget. It's not a portion of the profits. You're actually bringing in to reinvest back into marketing [00:26:00] yourself so you can attract more people. A lot of people, miss actually having, any sort of marketing budget, they bring money in and they're like, I just need to make money to pay my bills and that's it. And they take all that money and they put it towards their bills. I forget to pay their taxes. They forget that, they need money for all the, all of these, the tools that they're using and that they actually need money to reinvest back in marketing. don't skip that step. Figure out exactly how much it is that you need to make for yourself, how much you need to spend on the tools that you're using in your business and budget, in a set percentage that you need to make to be able to cover marketing expenses that you can actually invest in ads or some, some promotional mechanism that fits where you're at right now. Because if you don't do that, you're not going to ever have the budget. And you're going to [00:27:00] feel really, really stuck, really, really fast, best way you can grow your business is to actually invest in your marketing one way or another. because in, in this super noisy world, it's really hard to stand out. If you don't, it's really, really hard to. put yourself out there in a way that actually hits people where they're at, unless you have like a bajillion friends. and even then it can be really hard for people to stand out and stand up consistently and hit, big, crazy goals that almost, you hear everybody wanting to achieve. Terrica: Exactly. I think, marketing plans sound so huge in theory. Because many people associate them with a business at a higher level ones that are really detailed and have this whole scope and plan of action. And people are really small and in their head, [00:28:00] they're like, I just need the next client. I'm not thinking about anything marketing I'm on Instagram, but that's it. So. That's that's my focus and I'm not looking at anything else, but the reality is a marketing plan can be simple. It's in correlation with where you are in business. Of course you wouldn't have a marketing plan or a budget of an eCommerce business. That's done a million dollars in sales that, that just doesn't even. They're not even on the same plane and that's fine. but you do have to have a plan of attack and it actually reminds me that going to go down memory lane when I was in high school. And I went, I was in a Vanessa: magnet program in math and science Terrica: magnet program, and we had a coordinator and she would come in [00:29:00] and check with you midway to see how your grades were doing. Um, because we had to maintain a B average to be in at other. Otherwise we went on academic probation and then eventually, if you didn't do it, you were dropped from the Academy. But one thing she said, and it was her mantra and I'm pretty, pretty sure you've all heard this somewhere, but if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. So at some point there needs to be a plan of attack, even if it's just that, I'm going to invest in later so that I can schedule all of my Instagram posts. And eventually when I get to. X amount, whatever you it's is down the road. When I launched this product and I finished and I do want to put some money in ads, or I do want to maybe, maybe you're in the wedding industry and you want to advertise. And one of the publications, that's your that's in your marketing plan. You need to know [00:30:00] how much that's going to cause when you're going to do it, how are you, how you're going to do it. Like it doesn't have to be this huge thing guys, but you do need to have Vanessa: a plan. Absolutely within your marketing plan, at the basics, it includes like a budget, a calendar. Cause you need, you need to create content. Let's also address that to market yourself. You need to communicate to communicate is create content, content, communication, same thing. so having a calendar, like an editorial calendar where you can. Easily really easily see at a glance and chart out. Okay. Like how many emails do I need to write for this? What are my emails going to be about? When am I going to send them, am I going to do social media for, marketing this product or service? What, which social media channels am I getting used? How, why, what do I need to create for them? a calendar can help me all of that out in one place. So that super easy to reference, for all of our, students inside launching made simple. We give them a tool like a [00:31:00] content calendar tool, where they can map out all of their blog posts or videos, all their Facebook lives, other emails, every little piece of content that they need to actually market themselves. Again, map it out in one spreadsheet and just start working on it and assign themselves deadlines and due dates. And that helps those people stay on track to actually map out every little step that they need to take. To promote their product or service and, and to steer clear of all the shortcuts and hacks that are really shiny and distracting, it helps them to get consistent, stay the course, and it's helped people to grow, in so many different ways. We have so many different people inside. all of our courses and it's really, really cool to see that the basic strategy it's kind of timeless things like creating a marketing, marketing plan and creating a content plan. That's what helps establish that foundation for your business. That's what helps you to achieve success? it's not, jumping on the latest [00:32:00] trend and, and trying to hack it and trying to see what works it's investing in. The things that are going to be profitable. Once you invest your time, effort, and energy into it, that it's going to return you something on it. The other end, like when we approach how to market any of our, services or any of our, our products, we're thinking about. Okay. If I invest time in promoting this thing, what am I going to get back out of it? will it actually help me to move the needle? It is not going to help me move the needle. I'm not going to do it. If it is something that's going to move the needle a little bit. Okay, awesome. That's another step in the right direction. That's another step along the journey to get people to where you want them to be. And so that's, that's kind of the way you need to think about your marketing plan. What are the steps that you need to take? To stay consistent to communicate about your product or service and what are the tools that you need to be able to go from point a where you're starting out now to point B and [00:33:00] where you want it, where you want and need to be. Terrica: So I feel like since we said, this is going to be a two for one that you brought up some interesting points in that. In the courses and other educational material that we have out there, that it helps people not have to hack their way to a marketing plan or any of that, like a gear, this roadmap to get there. But when someone's either first starting and they don't really know the lay of the land, And they feel like they have to hack their way to success. As we wrap up today's episode, we spoken a lot on the need for a marketing plan in your business. And I know many of you were thinking that's easier said than done. So you know what? We're helping you with the done part. And we [00:34:00] are presenting to everybody, our new offer launching make simple. It not only gives you direct access to our brains, but exclusive access to our course library that contains everything we've created and will create on marketing strategy. Facebook ads, sales, funnels, tech and so much more. You'll also learn in here how to plan your content around your sales, how to plan a strategic launch so that you're not wasting time and just throwing spaghetti against the wall, how to choose the right offer and how you promote that to your audience and the most strategic way possible. How do you drive traffic to your offer organically and paid all of that? It's going to be. In lodging make simple. And you know what? I know this probably sounds like this is like a thousand dollar course. It's not guys want to make knowledge affordable and we want you to really grow. So we're offering it right now for a [00:35:00] limited time, only $147 for an unlimited access pass. Yes. You heard it right. $147. So if you're interested. Go to she'sgot vision.com/launchingmadesimple. Well, the link will also be in the show notes and we would love to see you in there. We would love to help grow your business and guys, you know what? I want you to make money. We want you to be fulfilled in your business and we want you to be, be aligned and we're here to help. So if you're on the fence about this, or if you have any questions, you're welcome to send us an email at hello, and she's got vision.com. Or find us on Instagram at she's got vision. As soon as the DM, Terrica: Thanks for listening. Y'all you can find the show notes at she's got vision.com/podcast. If you've enjoyed what you've heard today, we love it. If you'd leave a review and subscribe to the podcast and because word of mouth is the best marketing avenue, please tell a friend to share it. If you do, [00:36:00] don't forget to tag us at she's got vision on all platforms until next time y'all we're wishing you much success. And remember, there's always time for cocktails.

What we're talking about in this episode Strategies to help you tackle the fear and difficulty of the unknown  How to set yourself up for success in the new year through small steps every day Why you need to give yourself a break, stay focused and take the first step Learn the easiest place to start when making a change for the better The importance of community when presenting your highest potential    Episode Summary Despite what you may have heard, you don’t have to overhaul your lifestyle to gain more energy, balance your hormones and heal your gut. You can accomplish big transformation through little changes, and Vanessa and Adam Lambert are here to explain how. The creators of Bee the Wellness, Vanessa and Adam are dedicated to creating transformation through adventure, personalized diets, functional fitness, and mindful fearless living.  Vanessa and Adam want you to cultivate an environment and community that can hold you at the possibility of your highest potential so that you can make the changes that you want to see happen in the new year. Today they are here to share some amazing tools and resources to help make your transformation possible at any level.  While we are often afraid of the unknown, Vanessa and Adam are here to encourage you to step into growth, gain control over your time and energy, focus on one habit at a time and take the leap to find the change you have been searching for.  Real-life can often bubble up and zap your strength and ability to stick to something hard. Vanessa and Adam are here to help you audit your life, get clear on your goals, and find ways to create progressive habits that allow you to evolve and better yourself as you go. Are you ready to take the first step towards transformation? Share your goals for the new year with us in the comments on the episode page!   Quotes “You can choose to be subject to your circumstances or you can choose to dictate your circumstances.” (9:39) - Adam “No matter what, if you step out of your comfort zone and into the discomfort of growth one more time, I have never looked back and said ‘man I should have stayed there’.” (15:31) - Adam “You kind of have this idea about more and more being better and better, and I think for us and this year particularly, we are really stepping into staying yes powerfully, and really saying no powerfully as well.” (23:33) - Vanessa “It’s just really about taking bite-size chunks and really staying in the success mode so that you can perpetuate that feeling of having success and having a feeling of completion around the things that you set out to do.” (29:41) - Vanessa “Focusing on that identity piece is such a crucial point of transformation and surrounding yourself with people who see you as your highest potential or see you as your next potential is such an important part.” (46:20) - Vanessa   Resources Mentioned Bee the Wellness Website Bee the Wellness Podcast Follow Bee the Wellness on Facebook | Instagram Join the Bee-Fest 2020 Here Get Dr. Mariza’s Free Vitality Bundle Here   Other Resources: Check out the full show notes page Keep up with everything Dr. Mariza Follow Dr. Mariza on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube

My guest today is Vanessa Foss. Vanessa has been planning and managing conferences for twenty-five years. She's the founder and president of Kunverj, an event planning and management company. Vanessa and her team run one of my favorite events of the year, the Information Architecture Conference. In this episode, we discuss what it takes to manage such an event. Listen to the full conversation https://theinformeddotlife.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/the-informed-life-episode-21-vanessa-foss.mp3   Show notes Kunverj ASIS&T Information Architecture Conference Cvent platform Euro IA Conference SoftConf Slack Mailchimp Zoom RDAP Conference Kunverj upcoming events Read the full transcript Jorge: So Vanessa, welcome to the show. Vanessa: Thank you, Jorge. Jorge: For folks who don't know you, please can you tell us about yourself? Vanessa: Okay, my name is Vanessa Foss. I run a company called Kunverj; it's an event planning organization. I started it about two and a half years ago, but I've been running conferences for over 25 years. I worked at ASIS&T for that time. And so I ran the IA Conference and the ASIS&T Conference and two others. So I was there from their inception, and you know, I was just able to do something that I really love doing, which is organizing things and also getting to meet different people. And that was very important and is still very important to who I am. I started running conferences, and how I got involved in all of this was that I went to University of Maryland, and I was studying engineering. And on my first internship, I was like; I cannot do this. This is not for me. And so I drifted, and I ended up at ASIS&T. And when I was there, I was very fortunate to have a great boss who allowed me to do, you know, just look around and basically do what I was interested in. And you know, I was fascinated by event planning. And he just said, okay if you are, then just basically showed me the tools and I was able to do it. And so I was very fortunate to have had someone to mentor me like that into something that I really enjoy doing. And the great thing was, a few years ago, I thought back on it, and I was like, wait just a minute, you've always loved doing this. I've organized a lot of family functions when I was in my teens. I did one of my older cousin's wedding. I organized the whole thing before I turned 18, before I went to college. So I realized that this was something that was a part of me, but I didn't realize it was there because in the days when I was go was growing up if you were good at math, people said okay, you be an engineer, and so that's where my mind… You know, that's where the culture and everything was pushing me. But my mind is was not there. And then now that I'm older, I was able to realize you know, this is something that I always wanted to do. Jorge: You and I met at the IA Conference. You said that that you love organizing things and meeting people, and we met through the conference, right? So I can definitely see that I see you and your team every year working so hard, and you've talked about event planning, and I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes with the stuff that you all are doing and I'm wondering if you can unpack a little bit what event planning is and what goes into it. Vanessa: Okay, there are different aspects of it. At least for my company, we also select venues for the conferences. So there's that end of it, where we use a software called Cvent, and so I will basically go in and say, “I want to go to this area or this part of the world.” Because I do European IA [Conference] also. And it will give me all the venues that it has available based on the criteria that I put in. So once I have that, then I sent out an RFP that describes the conference, in an RFP and then send it out to the venues, and then they respond to me. The biggest aspect about the event planning is the getting the logistics behind it. And so I have software that was designed for event planning that was designed by ISS. And basically they will take all of the information that I want and then spit it back out to me in a unified way. So when people register for the conference, you know, it takes registrations in, it takes what they've registered for, and then it spits it back out to me. When I have the venue information, I enter it into that system, and then I'd say, “well, this room I would like it to be set up this way, and this is the AV I would like in this room.” And that's so all of that information comes together from that system and it tells me and the hotel and all of the other players what goes where and how it's done. So it's it's a great system. It was designed by Russell Evans, and it's proprietary, so he basically will design it for your needs. So if I wanted to tweak it in any way, it would just get updated. So there's that aspect of it. And so when we get the attendees' information, we get the hotel information, and speakers' information, it all comes together in a big package. And so we just basically run reports on what information you would like for that day. Jorge: Well, that's fascinating. I wasn't aware of the fact that it was all managed together in a single platform. Does that include things like submissions for talks? Vanessa: No, submissions… On that end, that's another aspect. I am very fortunate because I work with a lot of volunteers. And for each conference that I do, their set of volunteers that I work with, and we basically have been using one submission system call SoftConf. And so its solicits, you know, we would solicit to come the submissions, and people were just basically go in and put their talk in, and it helps us with peer review, with getting… We have to enter all the reviewers in there. And so it's a process where it helps us to send out to reviewers different papers, different submissions, and then they give us their reviews. But you know, that's basically handled by the volunteers, for the program, like the chairs of each event that I run, they are usually responsible for that. So it's really not that much on me; I just know that aspect of it. Jorge: So the part that you and your team are managing has to do with the infrastructure; the place where the conference will happen, the registrations, all that stuff. Not the content per se. Vanessa: No, no, we don't get involved with the content. We just… We do everything. All the logistics is basically making sure that people have the right badges, and like I said, all of that is generated from the software, the event planning software. So either… It keeps track of the accounting, it keeps track of every aspect on that end, you know, basically churning information out. They send whatever criteria, you know, put in at what you know what you need at that time.  Jorge: I've had a little bit of experience in the content side of this equation. I was program chair for a conference once, and have organized a couple of events — much smaller events — myself, and one aspect of event organizing and management that I'm aware of is that the needs of the team that's organizing the event change over time. There's a period of time where you're gathering the content and planning for the event, and there's a period of time where you have to do very intense marketing and getting the word out, and there's a period of time when you're gathering registrations, and then there's the event itself. And I'm just aware that it goes through stages, and I'm wondering if your information needs vary over time and if you can talk a little bit to that. Vanessa: Oh, yes, you know at the beginning like I said right now we work with volunteers in terms of getting the program itself, but there's so many different aspects, and it depends on what's going on at the time. And after the program is set, we do have to work on promotion, like you said. The timeline varies. At one point speed your work… You're always working on the badges and making sure that people, when they registered, they get confirmations and that end of it. But then there's the end of making sure that the event not only happens, but it happens in a way where the user experience is good. You know, if you've booked a large room and you somehow don't get the registrations that you thought you were going to get for that room, you do have to change the basic setup of the room. And so it's amazing how people's perception it's really… You have to work with what they're seeing, so if you have more registrations, you set the room up in one way, if you have less, you set up in another way so when people walk in the room always looks full. And that's a very important thing because that builds on the energy of the conference, where people feel, “there's a lot of people here, but you know, it's still great that I can still talk to people.” So that part of the conference is very human-related, and you have to make a lot of judgment calls in terms of, “Would it be better if I did this?” Jorge: Where does the buck stop for that sort of decision? Because I know that when working with teams of volunteers, it can often be hard to coordinate and make sure that everyone is aligned in the same direction for things like these decisions that you're talking about. The figuring out the layout of the room, and who gets to speak where, and at what time… Who has the ultimate decision-making authority for an event like the IA Conference? Vanessa: No, the chairs decide who speaks and when. I just decide where and how. So, like I said, you know, I do five conferences, and all five are volunteers. And you know, they all have chairs. And those chairs are very important, because they work very hard. And so it's very important to me that they get the type of conference that they want. So we do spend a lot of time getting to know each other and understanding that when someone says… Like if a chair says to me, “Vanessa, I would like this,” you know, and I feel like I can't do it, I will say to them, “You know, this can't happen because we don't have the budget for it or this cannot happen because this is how it's going to be viewed, and here are my reasons why.” And so we talked about it, and we work out a compromise where they can still get what they want, it's just that going to be maybe at the time that they want it and how. Jorge: That coordination with the team of volunteers, the chairs, and the other folks who are working on the conference… I would imagine that communication between the teams changes over time, right? Like I would expect that before the event, a lot of communication would happen over email, whereas during the event itself, folks must be communicating more in person. How do those communication needs change as time goes by before and during and after the conference? Vanessa: Okay, before the conference, at six months before the conference, there is a monthly or bimonthly phone call. There's a lot of Slack activity. We use Slack a lot. And the great thing about Slack is that we can speak to each other and it just can be for like a few minutes. It's just like texting, but texting in a forum where others can see it. So it's… There's a lot of that. And at the event itself, we use Slack. Basically say, you know, there's something going on that someone needs to know, we'll send them a notification. They get it, you know just like that. So there's a lot of that. We do a lot of phone calls. There's a lot of room conversations that happens over the period with each team. So, you know, you meet with the user experience team, you meet with the sponsorship team, and we discuss what the chairs would like to see happen because it's basically about the chairs of the conference. Jorge: You also talked about the promotion of the conference. Is that something that is on the chairs and their team, or is this something that Kunverj helps them with as well? Vanessa: It is the chairs in their team. I will go in Twitter, I go to LinkedIn, I go to Facebook, and if I don't see a lot of activity I will say, “Well, you know, there should be more of this.” But they drive to conversation. I'm a passenger that's aware of what's going on. So if I see that they should be making a right turn at this point, you know, I'll just interject that, you know, this should be happening at this time. But they're basically driving the car. And I think that that's very important because every year for all the conferences that I do, every year you get different chairs coming in and they have a right to bring their own slant on something. And so it's very important that we don't keep things at the same every year. You know, there are standard things that we do every year, but how we do it, it should be the chairs' vision and how it should be done. Jorge: In a conference like the IA Conference, or the Euro IA Conference — and I speak from experience here, having been to both of those — those are conferences that are long-running and have developed a set of traditions. And for the most part, the chairs are people who come from within the community that has already participated in previous events. Vanessa: Yes. Jorge: But to your point, for many of them — perhaps for most of them — this will be the first time they've ever been responsible for organizing a conference. It sounds like Kunverj is also providing a structure for where you can tell them, “You know, by this time, you should be getting this many registrations.” Is that fair? Vanessa: Oh, yes. And that that goes back to the system, the software that is designed for me. I will print out weekly registrations, and it will say, “This is where we were last year.” We can go back for at least from the beginning of any of the conferences. It'll say, “This is where they were at this time, and this is where you are.” So basically gives you an idea of whether doing better or whether you're doing worse. So if you're doing better, you know you continue to do what you're doing. If you're doing worse, then you will say, “Well, what can we do?” And this is probably where Kunverj comes in and says, “Okay, well, let's let look at where we are, and let's try to see why we are where we are. And what can we do to make these numbers go up. What can we do to promote this more?” And so we do have that conversation. It happens at a weekly basis probably, at that time. Because before that, we watch, and we put our promo codes or we do different mailings just to make sure that it happens. But if none of that is working then we have to re-evaluate where we are and say, “Okay, let's let's do more of this. So let's do less of this.” Jorge: Are the mailings something that Kunverj takes care of, or is that something that the program chairs have to look for a system to send things out like emails? Vanessa: Well, we use Mailchimp. You know, we have Kunverj's account, and so it's used for that. I said it depends, there are times when Kunverj has done it, and there are times when the chairs are done it. And so it depends on the chairs. It's a very fluid thing. And this is one thing with event planning: you run into a problem and you become very rigid. You have to work with personalities, and you have to understand that if you have someone who wants to do this, then you just basically guide them. And then you have people who are like, “Well, I don't really care to do it.” And then you have to do it. So it just depends on the chairs and the different years, but you know, we have we have Zoom, we have Mailchimp. We provide it to the events and say, “Okay, you know, you can use this for your communications, or if you want us to do something, we will do it.” But it's all driven by their need. Jorge: I'm hearing you describe this and thinking how much of a people business this is and how much experience comes into play. Because what you're talking about requires a lot of very subtle gauging of people's abilities and capabilities and bandwidth and being able to be there to help the thing happen, but also picking up the pieces that they might not be ready to provide for. Vanessa: Yeah. You know, most people don't know their limitations, or sometimes they don't know themselves. And so we have to gauge what's going on and what's you know what that person's about and in a gentle way do certain things for them. You know, “Let me help you do this. This is what we should be doing right now, and it's not happening. Do you need help, or should we do this?” And not necessarily make them feel like they're not doing a good job. Because the one thing with work with volunteers is that when you volunteer for something, your schedule might be clear at that time, but life happens. And so, it's just basically understanding that life happens. And so at this time, this chair might have a problem, and they're responsible for social media. Are they responsible for the other communications? And if they're having a problem… There's no… You know, family comes before volunteering. Your job, your paying job comes before that. So you're having a hard week. It's just basically understanding that you can count on us to do this. I know that you signed up for it, but you can count on us to take care of this for you. Jorge: This is so fascinating, what you're describing here. This idea that you have to be able to gauge people's ability to do the things that they need to do in order for the event to be successful, and to be able to fill in the gaps where they might not be able to perform to the level that is required of them. And what strikes me is that being able to gauge that sort of thing is something that for a lot of folks — myself included — takes time. Like, it takes time for me to know whether someone is able to come through with their commitments. But when you're working in an environment where you have a date that you have to meet for that conference, you're working under time pressure. So you don't have a lot of time to get a sense for people's abilities and the degree to which they meet commitments. And I'm wondering if you've found and — I don't know if to call it tricks or shortcuts — to finding out that aspect of people's personalities, you know? Whether they can, whether they're biting off too much or taking on more than they can chew at any moment? Vanessa: Well, you know the good thing about the IA Conference and also the Euro IA Conference, I speak to the chairs at least a year before the event. So within the first two to three months, when the timelines and demands are not great, you get a feel for how people work. Because you know, you have small little deadlines, and so you get an idea of well, did they reach this deadline? And some people are very truthful, you know, some people know themselves, and they'll say well this is my flaw, and this is something that I want to work on, that I want to get better. The thing about being a chair for a meeting… And this is my feeling, I think that people, when they volunteer, they should leave with a skill they didn't have before. They should be… If they're not good with timelines, when they're finished they should leave with that skill, you know. They should leave the conference with not just putting on a great conference, but they should have gained something from it. Personal achievement. And so, when we speak the first three or four months before we really kick everything into gear, because nothing… You know, at the beginning all you're working on is basically getting a theme and choosing your team, choosing different volunteers to work with you. And you get to observe that whole process. By three months you get an idea of, “Well, this person's going to be the type of person who's going to be on top of everything or this person is going to need a lot of help to do what they're trying to do.” So, you know Jorge, it's about relationships a lot. It's a lot less about relationships where you learn a lot about personality types and understand if the main thing is everyone's trying to do the best job that they can. And so as an organization Kunverj, we have to get the best we can out of them. Jorge: I love this idea of, it's not just that you're going to be putting on a good show, it's that you're going to grow as a person because you've done it. And being on the lookout for that is really admirable. You touched on the IA Conference, and I was hoping that we would speak a little bit about that event in particular. I consider to be my home conference in the sense that it's one that I try to go to every year and where I have ongoing conversations, where I find the greatest alignment with my own professional interests. And I was hoping that you would tell us a little bit about the upcoming IA Conference. Vanessa: Right. We are going to be in New Orleans, and we have three wonderful chairs that are working on this conference. The IA Conference is… And I'm going to push a little bit about it because I think it's a great event. But it's not only an event. It's like coming home. And I'm not an IA, and I'm an organizer. But I just… Sometimes I sit at the registration desk, and I watch their interactions between the attendees, and it's always amazing to me, always amazing to me to see people who are considered like the rock stars of the IA community, and they are so approachable. That people have their first meeting, they can approach them, and everyone is always reaching out to each other and whether it's exchanging ideas, you know, it's just a great event in that way. You know, no one's new. No one's in there because if you are, you know, they'll pull you in. I constantly hear this all the time:** “I found my tribe.” So it's a great event where you learn a lot, and you also get to meet great people. People that you might have read their books and you know, you can talk to them about it. Everyone's always approachable. So it's a fairly large event, but it's still like a family then, because it's coming home. And you probably have experienced Jorge, every time you've gone. You know, it's like, “Oh, I haven't seen this person in a year, but I can still talk to them like I've just talked to him yesterday.” Jorge: Well, I for one, want to thank you in particular for enabling the infrastructure that allows this tribe to gather, and that allows this conference and this learning to happen. Like I said, I see you there every year. Usually super busy, making sure that everything is running on time and that things are working well and that every need is provided for. And it's an invaluable service, and I am very thankful that you do that and that you've been doing it year after year. Vanessa: You know, Jorge the bottom line with all of this is that I have a great love for people. And so every time… It's like having a dinner party, but it's just bigger. What these people, you know, they're coming to your home, and you want to make sure that they have… You know, that everything is just right for them. And so with all of the conferences — and it's not just the IA Conference — all the conferences, that's the type of participation that I like to have, where I feel like this is my home, and I'm trying to prepare the best meal and the best experience for everyone coming into my home. And you know, with the IA Conference, the Euro IA Conference, and the RDAP conference that I do, these are all people that I've been working with for a long time. And so there's a sense of family there. There's a sense of… I'm not an IA, but I have learned so much from this community, the IA community, especially from the IA Conference. I see people that are so great, and they show so much empathy towards each other, and you know, the want to mentor and to help is always there. It's hard work, but it's very rewarding when you get to see the better side of human beings. Jorge: Hear, hear. And folks can experience this at the IA conference. You mentioned it's going to be in New Orleans, and it's in the middle of April, right? Vanessa: April 14th-18th. We have wonderful workshops, and it's going to be at the New Orleans Sheraton, and it's going to be an amazing conference. Jorge: Do you have a sense for when registration opens? Vanessa: Yeah, we're hoping to have registration open at the end of November. Just so did we can make sure that everyone gets a chance to register this year or next year, depending on your company's budget. But we will be opening right after Thanksgiving. Jorge: Well, Vanessa, where can folks follow up with you if they want to find out more about what you're doing? Vanessa: Okay, I have my website at kunverj.com/events, and it will list all of my upcoming events. Jorge: I look forward to seeing you in New Orleans in April. Thank you so much for being on the show, Vanessa. Vanessa: Thank you, Jorge.

This week, the Grue-Crew present two films from IFC Midnight. We start off the New Year with a tale of Hazing Horror and a yarn about a college girl out of her element. The first film this week is PLEDGE from directors Daniel Robbins, featuring a trio of college nerds looking to join a fraternity only to choose the worse option possible. The second film is RUST CREEK from director Jen McGowan, featuring a college girl lost in the Kentucky wilderness running from drug dealers with only a meth cook to aid her escape.  Doc Rotten and Vanessa Thompson from Horror News Radio along with Jeff Mohr from Decades of Horror: The Classic Era share their thoughts about this week's awesome collection of streaming horror films. Gruesome Magazine Podcast - Episode 049 PLEDGE - RUST CREEK Pledge A group of college freshmen pledge an exclusive fraternity but soon realize there's more at stake than they could have ever imagined. "Once you get into the meat of it - the hazing - and the things that take place after that, that’s where the tension really ramps up and the characters really stretch their legs, especially our three potential club members. We see some really strong acting from (Zack Weiner, Phillip Andre Botello, and Zachery Byrd) and some really strong character development." - Vanessa "It’s really well made; it looked really good and I didn’t see a weak spot in the acting anywhere. … It’s a well-told story." - Jeff "I really liked this film. I had a good time with it. … The environment that they find themselves in is presented in such a seductive way that they are all in until they realize that they shouldn’t be and it’s too late." - Doc Director: Daniel Robbins Cast: Zachery Byrd, Phillip Andre Botello, Aaron Dalla Villa Release: OPENING IN THEATERS AND VOD ON JANUARY 11TH from IFC MIDNIGHT Rust Creek An overachieving college student gets lost on her way to a job interview. A wrong turn leaves her stranded deep in the Kentucky forest. The woman must defend herself against the harsh elements and a band of ruthless outlaws. She is forced into an uneasy alliance with a strange loner who has unknown intentions. "I loved the Sawyer character because … (she) really shows her character and personality in small moments, in quiet moments. You see her strength and her perseverance and her willingness to do whatever it takes to survive and not give up." - Vanessa "Micah Hauptman as Hollister just oozed sleaziness and immorality. He was the stereotypical backwoods, bad guy and he did it so well." - Jeff "The director did a great job! I’m definitely looking forward to seeing whatever Jen McGowan (will put) out next because I think she has quite the eye and the knack for telling a story." - Doc Director: Jen McGowan Cast: Hermione Corfield, Micah Hauptman, Sean O'Bryan. Jay Paulson Release: In Select Theaters & On Demand January 4th

This week, the Grue-Crew tussle with a sluggish but piss-off demon, brave a sinister love triangle and muster the courage to out-smart an advanced A.I. First up is the possession film It Lives Inside from directorJeff Hall, featuring Rett Terrell struggling with a demon looking to consume his life. The second film, Dead Love from directors Colin Floom and Greg Nemer, follows a pair of doomed lovers in a supernatural romance. Rounding out the show is the imaginative sci-fi thriller Tau from director Federico D'Alessandro, featuring a killer A.I. with the voice of Gary Oldman. The hunt is on for the diamond in the rough. Doc Rotten from Horror News Radio and Jeff Mohr from Decades of Horror: The Classic Era are joined by Rafe Telsch and Vanessa Thompson.  Gruesome Magazine Podcast - Episode 034 Tau - It Lives Inside - Dead Love SHUDDER MOVIE RECOMMENDATION Use my promo code - GRUESOME - for an extended 30-day FREE trial of Shudder to check out Ruin Me and Still/Born! Enter the promo code at http://gruesomemagazine.com/shudder to get your first month free. It Lives Inside A chronic sleepwalker reads from a mysterious book that foretells his impending demonic possession. He then struggles to hold his family together as the ancient evil threatens to consume everything he holds dear. "Actually, (the toddler) was a pretty good actor. He provided a lot of takes on the scenes. … He was a lot of fun." - Jeff "It’s a lot of normal stuff shot in a very straightforward, normal way, not too much flare to it, although there are a couple scenes where it ramps up, that’s nowhere near enough to give us what we need." - Doc Director: Jeff Hall Cast: Rett Terrell, Alissa Rose Ford October Coast release August 7 on VOD and September 4 on DVD Dead Love In a secluded mountain town, a young man unwittingly falls in love with a mysterious funeral director who is guarding a dark secret. "... the acting was good, … especially Nicole Elizabeth Olson. … and it had an interesting premise." - Jeff "It benefits from having a good cast. I liked all four of the leads and the characters were interesting." - Doc Director: Colin Floom, Greg Nemer Cast: Elias Harger, Kate Linder, Nicole Elizabeth Olson The classy, haunting and effective festival favorite making its VOD debut 8/21, followed by a DVD release in October. Tau A woman is held captive by a scientist in a futuristic smart house and hopes to escape by reasoning with the Artificial Intelligence that controls the house. "Definitely, definitely check it out. It’s a great sci-fi, a great story, really harkens back to some of the older sci-fi stories that you would read." - Vanessa "It all makes perfect sense. I can’t find a logic hole in it anywhere." - Jeff "It really is interesting how the Julia character (Maika Monroe) and Tau interact. That’s when the film really shines." - Doc Director: Federico D'Alessandro Cast: Maika Monroe, Ed Skrein, Gary Oldman Currently available on Netflix

This week, the Grue-Crew face the final seance, survive the apocalypse and conjure the spirits of the dead. First up is the ghostly feature Dead House from director Andrea Mugnaini, featuring Andrea Fachinetti in the lead role. The second film, Office Uprising from director David M. Rosenthal, the unlikely pairing of Theo James and Forest Whitaker must trek across the country during a mysterious "apocalypse" to save someone dear to them. Rounding out the show is the spooky film Occupation from director Anthony Scott Burns where Thomas Mann's character creates a device that allows the living to speak with the dead - with horrifying results. The hunt is on for the diamond in the rough. Doc Rotten from Horror News Radio and Jeff Mohr from Decades of Horror: The Classic Era are joined by Rafe Telsch and Vanessa Thompson.  Gruesome Magazine Podcast - Episode 030 Occupation - Office Uprising - Dead House SHUDDER MOVIE RECOMMENDATION Use my promo code - GRUESOME - for an extended 30-day FREE trial of Shudder to check out Ruin Me and Still/Born! Enter the promo code at http://gruesomemagazine.com/shudder to get your first month free. DEAD HOUSE (aka Beautiful People) In a mansion in the woods, the peaceful life of a medical scientist and his family is upset by a three masked men raid. During an endless night of terror and violence, the unthinkable happens: the house is invaded by inhuman monsters. Fear will unveil the true nature of each character, forcing them to wonder..."Who is the real monster?" "To make something like this shows no respect for the genre at all. " - Vanessa "It is rare that I am so offended by a film as I am about Dead House." - Doc Director: Brini Amerigo Cast: Danny Cutler, Alex Lucchesi, Alex Southern OFFICE UPRISING   An employee at a weapons factory discovers that an energy drink turns his co-workers into zombies   "You don’t have to worry about trying to figure this movie out." - Vanessa "I particularly like Zachary Levi in a role very different from what we’ve seen him do before." - Rafe "It’s light, it does have some gore in it, enough to please gorehounds, I think. The performances are witty enough and funny. " - Doc Director: Lin Oeding Cast: Brenton Thwaites, Jane Levy, Karan Soni, Zachary Levi   OCCUPATION A small group of town residents has to band together after a devastating ground invasion. As they struggle to survive, they realize they must stay one step ahead of their attackers, and work together for a chance to strike back.   "You get a strong female lead and a strong male lead who are at odds sometimes, so it’s nice to see that friction between them." - Vanessa "One of the best alien invasions movies we’ve seen in quite a while" - Rafe Director: Luke Sparke Cast: Dan Ewing, Temuera Morrison, Stephanie Jacobsen  

This week, the Grue-Crew ... First up is the sci-fi feature Astro from director Asif Akbar featuring aliens and kick-boxing. Of course, it does. The second film, Sequence Break from director Graham Skipper, takes the Grue-Crew on a mind-bending trip in a video arcade repair shop. Where else would you go? Rounding out the show is the mind-breaking Spanish feature The Night of the Virgin from director Roberto San Sebastián featuring a lead Vanessa calls our latin McLovin. All you need to know. The hunt is on for the diamond in the rough. Doc Rotten from Horror News Radio and Jeff Mohr from Decades of Horror: The Classic Era are joined by Rafe Telsch and Vanessa Thompson.  Gruesome Magazine Podcast - Episode 023 The Night of the Virgin - Sequence Break - Astro SHUDDER MOVIE RECOMMENDATION Use my promo code - GRUESOME - for an extended 30-day FREE trial of Shudder to check out Downrange and Still/Born! Enter the promo code at http://gruesomemagazine.com/shudder to get your first month free. Astro A science-fiction story of a billionaire's private space exploration program returning to Earth with an abducted extraterrestrial from a newly discovered alien planet.   "The fight choreography was really good." - Rafe "I enjoyed the martial arts fight scenes." - Jeff "At the core, there’s something interesting here." - Doc Director: Asif Akbar Cast: Gary Daniels, Marshal Hilton, Courtney Akbar   Sequence Break A surreal sci-fi romance wherein a beautiful young woman and strange metaphysical forces threaten the reality of a reclusive video arcade technician, resulting in bizarre biomechanical mutations and a shocking self-realization.   "It’s a strange rollercoaster ride." - Vanessa "Some of the dialogue really popped for me." - Rafe "(I loved) the relationship between Oz and Tess, I thought Fabianne Therese and Chase Williamson did great jobs. It was very believable." - Jeff "I like how the film wrapped up and came back to (the relationship)." - Doc Director: Graham Skipper Cast: John Dinan, Lyle Kanouse, Fabianne Therese   Night of the Virgin " La Noche Del Virgen" In this horror-comedy, at a New Year's Eve party, Nico, a naive twenty-year-old, sets out ready to lose his virginity at all costs that same night. In the middle of the party, his gaze crosses Medea, a cunning and attractive mature woman. The film is releasing on June 12th via Cleopatra Entertainment.   "I was twisting and turning as I was watching certain scenes because they were getting under my skin, but then I couldn’t help but laugh at some of the dialogue and then some of the songs that they choose to play and some of the things that happen to this poor guy who just wants to get out of this apartment." - Vanessa "It’s pretty much three actors in one location and they do a phenomenal job with this. Whoever did the set dressing deserves plenty of praise for making this absolutely disgusting apartment." - Rafe "This is not for everyone. There’s some incredibly graphic stuff going on here in lots of ways. But, I loved this! I laughed. I cringed. I gagged. I laughed some more. I cheered. And I was creeped out. What else can you ask for?" - Jeff "I will never forget this film. It has scarred my brain. … My eyeballs hurt because this film, I think, may have stained them." - Doc Director: Roberto San Sebastián Cast: Javier Bódalo, Miriam Martín, Víctor Amilibia