AUTHORITTI U S D $ 0 0 0 5 . 0 SEPTEMBER 2022 | ISSUE #57 90+ PAGES The magazine INDUSTRY EXPERTS have been waiting for! It ITakes t Takes Systems Systems To TScale o Scale PAGE P19 AGE 19 Unlocking Uthe nlocking the Motivational MMind otivational Mind PAGE P54 AGE 54 Discover Dwhich iscover which Archetype is Adriving rchetype is driving your Manifesting yCar our Manifesting Car PAGE P67 AGE 67 Personal PBranding ersonal Branding on oSteroids n Steroids PAGE P87 AGE 87 Knowing How KYour nowing How Your Brain Works BCan rain Works Can Help Your HSales elp Your Sales PAGE P38 AGE 38 MICRO MICRO MICRO DISRUPTORS DISRUPTORS DISRUPTORS MIKE THOMSON and BRIAN EDGHILL
EDITOR'S NOTE By Mary Henderson |
I believe that we will start to see a lot of Micro Disruptors moving forward It’s the fastest way to build a brand and tribe
People shy away from ‘disrupting’ because of fear of attention. In today’s economy, if you don’t do it, your competitor will That is for sure. I hope you enjoy this issue of Authoritti5 0
Welcome to another outstanding issue. This month, the featured topic is Micro Disruptors. When you think of the word disruptor, what comes to your mind? When I think of the word disruptor for some reason, I think blue ocean. We live in a fluid world. On one hand there is opportunity galore, on the other hand there is so much competition and very little room to stand out. But what if disrupting an industry doesn’t have to be as profound as Netflix disrupting Blockbuster. It can be subtle, almost unnoticeable but just like the pebble that drops in the ocean, the ripple effect reaches far and wide. I found the perfect story to feature in this month’s issue on the topic ‘Micro Disruptors’. Two young guys who happened to be best friends, super smart, uber cool with really big hearts, who are disrupting the recruitment industry using digital platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube and on top of that humanising the entire recruitment process from the candidate to the client.
Meet Mike and Brian. By the time you finish reading the featured article, believe me, you will want to know them. It’s not that they have created a revolutionary product, they just used common sense. They recognised that every human owns a phone so why not connect candidate and client using our most precious asset. But instead of interrogating a candidate in a boring interview, they decided to highlight the hiring manager so he or she can sell the company to the candidates SmartTV and Hired was born and hiring managers became centre stage. The candidates get to watch the hiring manager articulate the values and uniqueness of the company and the role up for grabs and the candidate gets to choose if they want to apply for the role or not This way, the candidate gets a different perspective It’s genius Micro disruptors don’t re invent the wheel. They just disrupt an industry or a market by understanding the end user and they leverage what already exists In Mike and Brian’s case, it’s the mobile phone and social media.
All of us can disrupt any market or industry right now. All it takes is understanding the end user through a different lens To do this successfully, I believe it starts by understanding the end user with absolute compassion and empathy. Therein, lies the key to Micro Disruptors
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 2 SEPTEMBER 2022 EDITORAUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE
Photo by Melinda Hird
CONTENTS E2DITOR'S NOTE C4OVER STORY G19ROWING, SCALING AND IMPROVING YOUR BUSINESS: JOHN KNOTTS It Takes Systems To Scale C25AREER DEVELOPMENT: GINA RILEY From TV Broadcaster to Entrepreneurship How one journalist went from telling others’ stories to writing her own N38EUROSCIENCE: OMOZUA ISIRAMEN Knowing How Your Brain Works Can Help Your V4Sales6IRTUAL ASSISTANT: LINH PODETTI What a Virtual Assistant can do for Marketing M5Managers4IND&BODY: MARY MACDONNELL-HOCKLEY Unlocking the Motivational Mind A60UTHENTIC SELLING: MIRNA BACUN Sales is not a Destination but a Journey M67ANIFESTATION: MARIA DAVIS Discover which Archetype is driving your Manifesting Car P73ERSONAL DEVELOPMENT: LOUISE TAYLOR M8Hidden1INDFULLNESS: FALGUNI KATIRA 4 Secrets to Successful Living V87IDEO MARKETING: DENNIS YU Personal Branding on Steroids T98OOLBOX: JAN SANTOS TikTok Tips You Need To Know! B104USINESS TOOLS P105ODCAST OF THE MONTH S106UBSCRIBE TO AUTHORITY5.0 MAGAZINE T107UNE IN TO THE AUTHORITY5.0 PODCAST AUTHORITTI5.0 AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 3
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 4
B Y M A R Y H E N D E R S O N
Mike Thomson and Brian Edghill
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 5 WE WANTED TO WCHANGE E WANTED TO WCHANGE E WANTED TO CHANGE HOW HIRING IS DONE HFOR OW HIRING IS DONE HFOR OW HIRING IS DONE FOR EVERYONE EEVERYWHERE. VERYONE EEVERYWHERE. VERYONE EVERYWHERE. ,, ,, ,,, , THAT’S THE TMANDATE. HAT’S THE TMANDATE. HAT’S THE MANDATE. SO THAT'S THE SMISSION O THAT'S THE SMISSION O THAT'S THE MISSION WE'RE WON. E'RE WON. E'RE ON.
Mary Welcome to Authoritti5.0. It's so awesome to have you guys here! Mike & Brian Thanks for having us, Mary. Mary You're welcome. So let's get straight to it. You guys are best friends, and on top of that, you're the most beautiful, heart centered guy I think I've ever met. I just absolutely love what you stand for You're like the yin and the yang So let's start with how you both decided to start a recruitment company What was that moment when you both said, “Hell yeah, let's do this!” Mike, I'll start with you Mike I'll kick off by saying that I know Brian's my best friend, but I don't know if he feels the same way yet. So maybe you're uncovering an issue that we'll talk about afterward. Aside from growing up together and playing hockey and being in high school, Brian was the one that got me into the business. When I graduated from school, I was looking for a job like everybody else doing everything that way on LinkedIn. I came across Brian's profile and realized I hadn't seen him or connected with him in a couple of years. And I saw that he was in recruitment, although I had thought he was in finance.
So I remember writing him and saying, “Brian, what are you doing in HR? I thought you went into finance.” And he wrote me back immediately that it wasn't recruiting; it wasn’t HR. It was much more sales, and they happened to be hiring. So he suggested getting a beer and chatting about it. And fast forward 15 years later, my entire working professional career has been with Brian. And we did recruit together and evolved to do sales together. Then we both left that company to run an office together. Then, during the pandemic, we really had our “aha” moment because we made a decision to work for someone that we didn't really get along with or see ourselves aspiring to be. But we put that aside because the opportunity was so great. We evaluated the opportunity for what it was and valued that higher than the people But it got to a point where Brian and I were thinking “Why are we doing this? There has to be a better way to do this ” What we do is advise people to make decisions on whom they're working for That was the spark, if you will, of the conversations for us to start this agency We built on those conversations, and we saw the market moving in such a way that the candidates were in more control and there were more jobs available than there were people to fill them. We saw massive inefficiencies, and we knew there was a better way to do this. We wanted to change how hiring is done for everyone everywhere. That’s the mandate. So that's the mission we're on.
Mary So Brian, do you agree?
Brian
Are you best friends or is it all smoke and mirrors?
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 6
Of course, we're definitely best friends. It's been a long time running, and it's been a lot of fun. Mike and I were talking the other day about having done this for so long and especially working for other people, you can kind of get a little jaded And over time, we appreciated the lifestyle we were able to live, and the work/life balance But what's most exciting is we're actually having a lot of fun right now And that's taking a different approach and getting to work on the business, not just making some strategic decisions and setting things up properly It’s also seeing our clients’ and candidates’ feedback, which has been through the roof positive, and it lets us know that we're on the right track. So we're going to keep going with that. Mary Oh, my God, a lot of people can't say that they have fun in their job. So this issue of Authoritti5.0 is obviously about micro disruptors. And to me, you are both the perfect living example of this. And I love that term micro disruptor because it's such a subtle way of penetrating a traditional market and leveraging obvious tools and mediums so that you can stand out. It's different from the blue ocean strategy, which to me is something different in a crowded market; it's almost like a reinvention. This is not reinventing. This is something you are just leveraging to bring your brand out, so you can be top of mind. And I think Spark Recruitment is definitely a micro disruptor, and a lot of readers of the Authoritti5.0 magazine and listeners of the podcasts are service based businesses and industry experts. They would value learning how you guys have subtly disrupted the recruitment business or sector, and what the reaction has been in the market So maybe just walk us through why you've disrupted a market, but ever so slightly, because you are using tools and mediums that are in our face every day, even though most people are not using them Mike I can start, and Brian, you can jump in, but you know, we're not doing anything that hasn't been done before. It just has not been done in the recruitment space. We see recruitment as a sales and marketing approach. It's very simple to see that you're selling an experience, you're selling a job, or you're selling an opportunity, but we don't think of it that way. When you think about how marketing and sales strategies have evolved as consumer behavior has changed, that's well known, and they've leveraged different content strategies and different delivery mechanisms to reach the right buyer at the right time on the right platform. Now let's talk about recruiting and think about what we're doing to attract top talent. We write a job description, we post it online, and we ask people to apply. It's been the same way for as long as I can remember I've been doing this for 15 years, and it probably was done another 15 years previous to that The underlying issue is that it works when there are more jobs or there are more people than there are jobs available So when they need to work, they're waiting for people to be hiring so they can run to them What happens now in the labor market of tomorrow, there are more options for people to work everywhere. So the power dynamic has shifted in that relationship; organizations have to think now about how they can sell this better. And a lot of people are struggling with that. We saw this as an opportunity to say this is an inefficient process. Marketing and sales gave us the blueprint on how we can do this.
We need to apply that in this industry. And from a micro disruption perspective, rather than looking at this saying we're going to tackle this problem all at once, we're focused on the job description. We're focused on a small component of the hiring process and saying that we need to digitize and personalize it because what you're selling in a job is the people, the human aspect, the human connection. There is no mention of the people in the job description, which is a flaw right off the bat. You don't know who your boss is, you know nothing about them in a job description, maybe their title is there, but that's it. So Brian and I decided to prove that we need to be moving this way by showing there's a better way to sell a job And we have to humanize and digitize the job description So though it's a daunting task, I think that within a year, we're going to change the way that everybody hires If we start small and realize that we can change and we can disrupt this aspect of the process, that will get us closer to disrupting and changing the entire hiring process.
Mary I love how you've used the word humanize as well because in that process between a job becoming available and actually filling that job there requires human interaction and intervention. And the other thing that I found as I was going through the corporate landscape is that one key thing is always missing in that process, which is understanding my core values as a human, as an individual. What do I truly stand for? What do I believe and what are my dreams and my desires; what do I yearn for? Can that employer match that? It's not the other way around, because when you are chasing money, you put all of what you are aside. In other words, you don't matter. You are just chasing the money to survive. So you're actually bringing that human element so I can decide if I love what this person stands for. Do I love their energy, the fact that they love their job? So it gives me more depth and breadth about the organization and the attitude in the organization, rather than just applying pen to paper and hoping for the best. You are right. That dehumanizes the whole process. What are your thoughts, Brian? Brian Yeah, I totally agree And a big part of why we started doing this is we have some amazing clients who are very inspirational leaders in their own right And by them just putting out a job description, they're doing themselves a disservice They have a competitive advantage in who they are, and people want to work for them, but they're not seeing them They're just seeing a black and white job description. So, as Mike said, leveraging video and making campaigns for people like this has been a really awesome thing for us. We've been having a lot of fun with it, and it all began during the pandemic when we started toying around with things like Zoom. We were doing Zoom interviews with candidates and sending them to clients, and it was so cool. We've usually just gotten a résumé. Now we can see them on video, and we got to talking. And Mike wondered what if we took this video approach and did it on the other side? What if we showed candidates who they'd be working for? So we've been running with that, tweaking and fixing, and just having a lot of fun with it. SUCCESS IN AS IN THESE MOMENTS TO UNDERSTAND PEOPLE.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 7 I SEE
HUMAN CONNECTION, HAVING
RECRUITING
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 8 “WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY TO DO THIS.”
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 9
Mary It's amazing I was having lunch with a colleague the other day, who has a media company; she told me that the future is YouTube. Like hands down, she said; just don't even think twice. She even encouraged me greatly and told me I need to get serious about establishing my YouTube channel. Now I have a channel, but I haven’t taken it seriously. So you both have established Spark TV, where you are now streaming live on YouTube and on LinkedIn. And even though these platforms have been around for a long time, you've decided to take recruitment on the air Of course, social media has so many amazing benefits for all of us to leverage Did you see that as an opportunity because social media is something that you guys find natural, or is it because you felt that candidates on social are actually looking for their next gig?
It's not about a recruiter selling a job; it's about us putting people out there in the right position so they can resonate with the right candidates. That's why we leverage YouTube and LinkedIn: Those are more powerful job descriptions than anything you're going to read You’ll witness somebody talking about who they are, giving their origin story, and saying what they believe about their leadership style, their future, and their purpose That's going to get people interested in working for them. And, although we tend to sell jobs based on their technical aspects or the rational reasons about the salary or the title, people make decisions emotionally. And how you can do that is through storytelling, actually creating those moments for the human connection to happen. And that's what Brian and I are doing. There’s already enough technical knowledge or competency skills out there, but there's nothing that speaks to the emotional side of the buying process And that's what we're looking to do Mary I just love that, and I truly believe in merging the masculine and the feminine systems together, which is exactly what you've done. Maybe you haven't even realized it, but merging those two is what makes Spark so special. The other thing I want to share is that I've watched the interviews that you do When you bring the job description to life through the hiring manager, there’s energy and passion that the hiring manager has in those interviews, which is so different from what a candidate would experience sitting in their office. An office is so sterile; there's nothing emotive there. It’s even intimidating. And so when someone can see the hiring manager using their hands and leaning in and things like that on a camera, it makes such a big difference. Brian, what are your thoughts on that? Brian Yes, absolutely. Mike and I have come across some who get their hands on this and have been blown away And it's a very subtle, simple idea And as Mike said, it's almost like us just getting out of the way, but until you witness it, especially for yourself, you don't really understand it So, we're seeing are candidates having the opportunity to look at YouTube and watch their potential future boss, but not be in a pressure cooker interview, not be sitting in an office where they're worried about answering questions. They can sit back and relax. They're not on video. They can spend 30 minutes and take this person in, rewatch it if they want, and then decide if they want to apply. So you can really get an understanding of who someone is and pick up on subtleties without having to feel a defensive interview posture It's completely changed the way that people are able to understand who they may be working for rather than in that generic interview setting
Mike Yes, we've been leveraging social for as long as I can remember in terms of finding out the information we can about clients and candidates. And we've been making a lot of assumptions about who they are and what they're like based on their profile. So when we actually turned on a camera and saw them, the power of that was a huge “aha” moment for us Rewinding back to our original recruiting approach when we were on the phones talking to candidates, we weren't telling them about this sales director job We were telling them about our client We were selling them on needing to work with Mary because she was X, Y, and Z. And then Brian and I took a step back and said, “Why are we selling someone like Mary when we're obviously biased?” Let's let them sell themselves Let's create a platform where we can let them be genuine and authentic and just broadcast that. So rather than us selling people, let's create a platform so they can sell themselves. And that's how the future of recruiting is going to look.
MORE MORE HUMAN HUMAN SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER
MAGAZINE | 10 Mary It seems so obvious, right? We use the word humanizing a lot I think you guys wear a T shirt that says something about humanizing Brian More human. Mary More human, that's right. It seems so obvious, but it's not about being obvious. We use the word humanize and sometimes I wonder why we do. We already are human, but I think we have forgotten to be humans. We almost have this robotic approach to life. It all starts with what we've been told about our future life go to school, get an education, a great job, and married Buy the house and get a mortgage, and have five kids And one day we wake up, and we realize that's not what we want I think that's why we step into this notion of a midlife crisis because it's like people get to midlife and wonder what happened I love the idea of humanizing the job description, of bringing the hiring manager on air, and almost reversing that hiring process where the hiring manager is selling themselves. They're talking through the experience of what it's like to work in their organization. I think you have to bring that energy into a conversation because this applies across all industries And as I mentioned before, companies talk about their values and their mission statement, but how many people genuinely follow and align with the mission statement and the values of an organization? I would say almost zero. We don't put enough emphasis on the value of the human who's applying for the job, the hiring manager, the team that the hiring manager manages, or the organization. There are so many layers to value, so I'm a big believer in that idea. And I always use this example of interviewing a guru or a marketing director and finding the right one, but they are a hardcore vegan And this person gets the job and finds out that one of the products the company manufactures is tested on animals
The point is that there is just one micro aspect of the company that doesn't align with this new person's value system, but that person now becomes the employee from hell, because the noise they will make will be exponential or because the values weren't aligned. So I think that when we are disrupting markets, it's not just about disrupting industries. It's also ensuring that we as humans all bring our truth to the table Are you seeing that take place in your approach with Spark?
Mike It's taking some time, Mary, and it's a behavior change. If you ask somebody to tell you their story, what's the default people go to? They tell you where they went to school, where their job is, and things that would appear on their résumé. What we're trying to do is to break that mold. No, not where you went to school; tell me something about yourself that's not online. What do you stand for? What are your values? Tell me a story of a proud moment you had and why it was proud. And you see people light up a little bit more when they can tell you something that's authentic and real, because nobody asks them that when they're looking for a job Everybody just wants to evaluate what they have done And can you help me right now? That's the hiring process where, but to your point, the labor market of tomorrow is different than it was in the past. They want to have a strong connection with the people they're working with and to do that, they need to get to know them.
AUTHORITTI5.0
And the only way to get to know them is to ask them the right questions and give them the confidence to be their authentic selves and not the interview version of themselves. Brian and I find that we're almost storytellers in a way. Everybody claims to want the unicorn rockstar candidate. We give people confidence that they have a unique story and that they're all unicorn rockstars. We help them uncover that version themselves and get that confidence. We had a guest a few weeks ago, and she put it brilliantly when she said, “Your story is the ultimate differentiator because nobody has your story. Nobody has your story and your background. And the most unique thing about it is when you can realize that there is no competition.” Mary You're absolutely right. I remember a couple of years ago, just before COVID, I had a meeting with a Fortune 500 company here in Australia The CEO's EA made a time for me to come and meet with the CEO So I walked in, and I sat in this massive boardroom It was just ridiculous And he walked in, was well over six feet tall, a real alpha guy eating his lunch He said he was just going to eat his lunch while we talked, and I said, “Oh, that's fine. No problem.” His reply? “I didn't ask you for your opinion.” We were sure off to a great start, and I actually decided to laugh. I was like, OK. Then he said, “Listen, I've got 15 minutes.” By the way, they invited me in; it wasn't a sales call. So it sounded like “You've got 15 minutes. So, just tell me what you can do and how you can help us.“ And I was thinking “What's this guy on about?” I paused for about three seconds, and I said, “Before I tell you how I can help you and what I can promise you, I want to share something in my story that I want to start this conversation from.” And his HR director was sitting in the room, and they just looked at each other. They were like, “Where's this going?” And so I shared my story of how I am doing what I'm doing And it was not about credibility There was a genuine moment in my life that was profound, and that's where I started the story from It took me about eight minutes to share the story The CEO got up off his chair; he stood up this six, six guy And he said, “Mary, that was amazing. Can I just give you a hug?” And I answered, Of course!” So he came around, gave me the biggest hug, and the HR director said, “I was just about to cry.” Holy Moley. So we sat back down, and an hour and a half later, we were still having a conversation. But when I left that meeting, I was thinking that stories are critical. That's the connection point. If you can tell a story, you've won me. Even if you are not the right candidate, I will never forget you. And that's the key with stories. Is that what you guys find? Mike Yes. I was going to say there's a story I tell that summarizes the power of storytelling when it comes to the candid side. Brian and I were recruiting for a director of finance role for a small healthcare startup. I was interviewing this woman who had worked in large enterprise environments her entire career for over 10 years She was overqualified Generally, from the recruitment standpoint, if we're hiring for a startup, they want someone from a startup because they feel like there are lots of differences I knew we were in an uphill battle, but I was really rooting for her, so I asked, “Why do you want to work in this environment, given your background? What’s your motivation? Why would you want to work here?” And she paused. And she said to me, “Mike, this is going to be embarrassing, but I am a single mom and I have a 13 year old daughter. And I see signs in her that she wants to be an entrepreneur. She should be an entrepreneur. She's very confident. She's smart. She leads. And I don't have that experience to guide her through that journey. I want to get that experience, so I can be a better role model and guide for my daughter to go on that journey. And then she stopped and said, “I'm sorry. That's probably not what you wanted to hear.” And I said, “That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Now I know more about you as a person than any candidate interviewed for this position. I just got goosebumps. You talked about motivation, about selflessness You talked about all of these goals that you've been able to share with me by opening up and being authentic ” I always ask candidates what their story is Why do they want this job? And I tell them to ask themselves “why” a bunch of times until they get to the real reason because that's a differentiator that’s going to make them be memorable to recruiters and hiring managers. And Brian and I both get excited when we uncover those stories about them, so we can tell them on their behalf to the right audience.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 11
Mary You guys are both really dynamic. And when you are in this micro disruptive space, there's a lot of energy that just is constant There's so much excitement around what you guys do I can feel it I see it And people are actually experiencing it So on a day to day basis, how do you balance that? I'll start with you, Brian, because you seem to be a little bit more grounded. Brian Yeah, you're right. And we are having a lot of fun, and there is a lot of excitement. But it's managing and delivering for clients, which is ultimately our biggest mission, even though we're also on a bit of an educational mission. We’re trying to get people as often as possible to really touch this experience and be involved because I find we can talk about it And we do; we geek out a lot till we're blue in the face, even though not everyone wants to hear about staffing But we do find when we see these moments with candidates and clients alike that it just clicks for them and they understand Mary What do you guys think really genuinely is separating you from everybody else? Is it because you're leveraging social media? That you are humanizing the job description experience? Is it both of you together? What do you think it takes to actually disrupt a market, but subtly? It's not noticeable, but suddenly everyone's asking, “Who are these guys?” What do you have that's creating this domino effect? Mike The way we see hiring is vastly different than everybody else Most agencies that look at hiring think of ownership They have candidates; they have access to this group of people who are the best It's very Mary Do you want to add to that, Brian?
territorial, so they think they “own” those candidates. Brian and I are more of an open system in saying the role of recruitment has changed It's not about owning any candidates It's about getting out of the way and creating a platform and a brand for each person who's looking at hiring We create the experience People ask the whole time, “What's your specialization?” We say hiring. We don't specialize in sales people or recruiters or engineers, and people who say that are operating recruitment agencies from a decade ago because everybody has access to the same people. The role of the recruiter is how well you can market your client authentically to the right audience at the right time. And we see the value of combining content that is genuine and authentic delivered in social media to the right audience. And it sounds simple, but that's where Brian, the mad scientist, has all of the ways to do this in terms of how we're going to reach people, the content we're going to come up with, and the timing And that's really the secret sauce behind it; it's really about storytelling That's what makes us different.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 12
Brian Yes. There are a few “aha” moments along the way, and one of them is when we talk to clients, when we have them on video, we say, “Imagine you're in a café having coffee, and the best candidate comes and sits down across from you How would you get them to come work for you? Would you stop saying anything and just slide over a job description across the table? Or would you go into your pitch in the story?” We work in an industry that is very people centric, but there have been years of process put on it that have dehumanized, and now everyone's very metrics based. Everyone's just been so disconnected. And our job is to break down some of these barriers and get out of the way to put these people directly in touch.
Mary I think that because you guys have got such a strong sales background as I do, we all have this underlying similarity: We actually understand how to dissect people You really need to start the relationship with a person before you can even think about selling And this is what you guys have done so beautifully You've taken your sales background with its understanding of the human aspect of sales, and you've applied it in this industry so that you can sell hiring essentially, but you're not even selling hiring. You're really bringing the best out of the hiring manager and the candidates, so that all of the technologies are behind the scenes. They're not forefront AI, the technologies that are now the forefront of recruitment. You are saying that we have to unpack the humans first and connect them. And then technology can take care of itself at the back end of your leveraging technology to get that message out. What are your thoughts on that?
THERE ARE A FEW “AHA” MOMENTS ALONG THE WAY, AND ONE OF THEM IS WHEN WE TALK TO CLIENTS SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 13
AUTHORITTI5 0
Brian I guess going back to your point around sales people and their common traits, I think for Mike and me, our journey has been a slow one from salesperson in a fairly regulated company to something that was a little bit more entrepreneurial. A lot of this brainchild happened because we weren't working within the confines of that rigid space. So whether you are someone looking to be a micro disruptor, or you're a business owner, you want to empower your people and not keep them in a cage. Let them have a voice and take chances and change things up, and let your sales force come forward with a new idea instead of just dictating to them and making them get out and sell I think giving people the opportunity to brainstorm and work things out in the lab and try new things is the best way forward for a lot of organizations
SEPTEMBER 2022
AUTHORITTI5.0
MAGAZINE | 14 Mike I consider both Brian and myself to be sales people and marketers in training. We're learning the marketing side of the business, but we're sales people at the core. And as a sales individual, it's important to understand the value proposition of anything you're looking at selling. When it comes to hiring, if I'm representing a client, their value proposition of every job is the individual. It's always the person. It doesn't matter how much it pays, what the title is, or who it's for If the boss and the individual don't have chemistry, it's not going to work So the value of every job is the individual who is hiring Brian and I recognize that fairly early on in our career, and we've taken that approach now and just continue to tweak it and massage it as we go to what Spark has become Mary Where do you think that the recruitment industry is heading? You are disrupting it, ever so slightly, and there are going to be other industries that are going to look at you as an example and think, “Wow. I want what they've got.” I see that what you guys are doing is becoming the norm. I think a lot of people will start copying your version of how hiring is done, humanizing the whole process, which is the way it should be. But where do you think recruitment is heading? Brian Yes. I think both of us would agree. We've been swimming upstream for a while now. I think it's becoming more and more automated, becoming recruitment by numbers. It's a big volume game It's hard for me to say that I don't know if it's going to continue going that way with AI and numbers What I do know is the more it does, the more it benefits us, because I think our process stands out that much more when we can give a really different look to both candidates and clients I don’t know whether we're going to become macro disruptors; for now, maybe it's micro disruptors, but I'd love to see it go that way We just have a lot of work to do to get there. Mary Mike, do you want to say anything to that? Mike I think there's a massive overhaul coming from a content perspective in the higher end space. The fact that we still only have job descriptions would be equivalent to companies only using coupons in a mall to try to sell their products or services. The fact that they haven't evolved a better way of creating content around selling a job is the
MAGAZINE COVER change that's coming I think the job description will be dead in five years, and the future of hiring is going to be completely the way we consume content as consumers We're not looking at reading a generic full page to see if we're interested in doing some sort of action We want to know information fast We want it on video I think technology's going to play a massive role in recruiting, but not in the way that it's being leveraged right now. I see success in recruiting as in human connection, having these moments to understand people. We need to leverage technology to create more of these meaningful connections instead of deferring to technology to replace them. Rather than sending a generic résumé into a tool that's going to generically scrape it to figure out who the best matches are to have conversations with, there’s going to be a better way of figuring out how we can broker those meaningful connections. No more résumés. No more job descriptions. I see a future where both of those are digitized, and we leverage technology to create better mechanisms to allow for those meaningful connections Mary I absolutely love that Given where you guys are at and what you have been able to achieve thus far, the people who are going to listen to this podcast and read the magazine may be inspired to do something like that in their own industry What advice would you give another business owner? Let's just say they're in real estate. What advice would you give them on the importance of having the courage to disrupt?
Mary Mike? Mike There are two things that Brian and I see at the cor we're exploring this, and it probably works for anyb The micro disruption is the first. You attack everyt with this sense of curious optimism. Whenever yo looking at something and you think it's daunting a would never work, right away you're not going to anything because you failed. Whereas if you loo anything with curious optimism, you're thinking, This could work if we tried it. And then the second phase comes in where you bal ambition with patience and think you’re going to something with curious optimism, but it's not goin work tomorrow, at least not perfectly We have to the course and be consistent with it, have ambition grander scale, but know that it's going to take some to do it So Brian and I attack the transforming, the organizations hire, and the entire process, including own, with a sense of curious optimism and balancing ambition with patience. Oh, and Brian is way bette balancing ambition with patience than I am.
Mary Why do I sense that somehow? Mike Maybe five, six times a week I will call Brian and say, “Before you even send it, Brian, I'm going to throw something on you. This may be crazy, or it might be brilliant. I need you to tell me and then pitch.” And he'll tell me it’s going to work. There's something here. And we work like the yin and yang of the partnership. We try to it out. It's never just no; it's more like answers with the question “What if it was this one?” “That's interesting ” And then we build, and we keep going to see it And we decide if we want to try this a few times to see if it works or not And that's where we of balance that ambition page Mary Well, I think curiosity and imagination are the two faculties that we've been given. It's just that most of us are not using them to our optimum. If we did, we would be like you, Mike, saying “I got this crazy idea,” but that's where magic lives in those crazy ideas. So I actually think you are onto something. S
WITH
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE SCOVER EPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 15 and I want ould meet , and what ind for me y Oh yes. That would be awesome. Yes. Mike I feel like he had such an interesting life and obviously we know the last bit, unfortunately, but I would really like to get inside his process in terms of how he attacked life the way he did and had at least as it appeared for most of it such a positive outlook He would be a very interesting individual to have a conversation with Mary His creative process That would be amazing Yes Brian Here's where the yin and yang come in. The first person who popped into my head was Albert Einstein, just because obviously his history and just being curious to talk to someone like that for very different reasons. I think if you put Robin Williams and Albert Einstein against one another, and then have someone with the type of depth to understand their perceptions on things, it would be amazing.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 16 WE WORK LIKE THE YIN AND YANG OF THE PARTNERSHIP. WE TRY IT OUT. IT'S NEVER JUST NO. IT'S MORE LIKE ANSWERS WITH THE QUESTION.
Mary Amazing Oh, you guys are such rock stars I absolutely love you both I love what you stand for Everything that you're doing is just so amazing and beautifully articulated So I just want to wish you guys all the best and thank you so much for being on the show You can contact Mike and Brian here: www.sparkrecruiting.ca www.linkedin.com/in/mikethomsonrecruiter www.linkedin.com/in/brianedghill SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE COVER AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 17 Mary is an internationally recognised Personal Branding and Online Specialist who helps industry experts turn their knowledge, wisdom and skills into a 6 figure+ online business and become a recognised brand in their niche or industry Mary is also the founder of Lights.Cameras.Action an end to end coaching program designed to get industry experts to commercialisation in 24 weeks. She is also the founder and Editor in Chief of Authoritti5.0 Magazine. WRITER'S PROFILE CONTACT MARY: @MaryHendersonCoaching www maryhendersoncoaching com @@MaryHendersonCoachingMaryHendersonCoaching
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE QUOTE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 18
By John Knotts
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE GROWING, SCALING AND IMPROVING YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 19
ItTakes ItTakes Systems Systems ToScale ToScale
Over the last several months of this year, we focused on the different aspects of the business scale. The reason people struggle with scaling their business is that it is not just one simple activity it is a system of systems approach that allows for the successful scaling of your business. A system is two or more things working together as part of a mechanism or an interconnected operation. Sometimes these things are very interrelated and interoperable, while other times they feel very “bolted” together. The more seamless the system, the smoother it operates as a whole However, when a system is very seamless, it is hard to see what impacts what From the articles this year, you may have noticed how strategy builds to an operating model, which drives your organizational structure, which runs efficiently and effectively with an operating system. People, processes, and technology (PPT) all fit within these four areas of business scale and money makes it all happen. All of these things, working together, operate as one system of systems. It takes a system thinking mindset in order to understand and work within this structure There is no “one system solution ” Online, you will find sites proposing five to seven distinct systems, but that just is not realistic. I am not going to define your business systems aside from saying that your business itself is a system of systems. Building a systems thinking mindset occurs through individual activities and by working with others in a collaborative environment. Coursera has a free course called, Developing a Systems Mindset. You might consider taking this free course. There is also a popular 34 minute course on Systems Thinking on LinkedIn Learning. Individually, there are three activities that you can employ to develop your mindset. The first is centered on the questions you ask. Seasoned systems thinkers lead with curiosity and are always asking why to determine how things fit and work together Examine your day to day activities are you spending more time telling people what to do, or are you asking questions? Do questions that you ask simply clarify your lack of understanding, or are they designed to get at underlying structural relationships and patterns?
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE GROWING, SCALING AND IMPROVING YOUR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 20
SYSTEMS-THINKING MINDSET
Instead, I want to share two concepts with you: 1) Building a systems thinking mindset, and 2) Mapping your systems. Both of these things occur simultaneously. So, do not consider them to be a two step process.
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE GROWING, SCALING AND IMPROVING YOUR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 21
Being ever curious leads to watching for and examining the systems around us. This trains the eye to spot systemic processes in our personal and professional life. Lastly, when we talk about systems mapping below, we will talk about making “connections” with “nodes ” These are called “loops ” Every day, try to identify one loop that you witness either at home or at work From a collaborative approach, there are also three ways to build your systems thinking mindset. The first is to obtain a personal and professional coach or mentor. As you identify and map systems, you can discuss these and what you are learning with a seasoned systems thinker. The second way is to get involved in some type of book club or group that discusses books and the ideas associated with these books. I belong to one such group, called, Executive Book Review (www executivebookreview com) This free program has volunteer faculty members that read and present a professional book while engaging the audience in application discussions. The last was made famous by Napoleon Hill, with his concept of the mastermind. Forming learning communities with other systems thinkers can help everyone in the group build their systems thinking mindsets.
The most popular systems mapping approach is to show how nodes (or items) in a map are connected via loops to each other Some system maps show directional or causal influence with arrows, and some can show if this impact is positive or negative. More structural (or scientific) models follow a general growth model, often depicted by a triangle. Others use a circular approach where all the nodes exist on the outer circle and straight lines are drawn to connect each node. A key aspect of systems mapping is to forgo your desire to solve problems and simply immerse yourself in the apparent chaos of the system. Once you begin to map the chaos, what really is happening becomes clearer and easier to understand Your business, regardless of how simple and straightforward it is, is inherently complex and confusing. As your business grows in revenue, it adds exponentially to that complexity and confusion. This makes it harder and harder to scale your business to meet growth.
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE GROWING, SCALING AND IMPROVING YOUR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 22
SYSTEMS MAPPING
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE @successincubator GROWING, SCALING AND IMPROVING YOUR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 23 As a personal and professional business coach and consultant, John Knotts has been growing, scaling, and improving businesses for over 25 years. John portrays himself as a Success Incubator with his company Crosscutter Enterprises His deep thought leadership on #business and #success can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and his website, www crossctr com CONTACT JOHN: CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S PROFILE One of two things happens: 1) Growth is hampered because of your inability to handle more growth. 2) The business starts to break. Neither is a good solution. It is through systems and systems thinking that we are able to bring all the elements of business scale together. ARE YOU STRUGGLING WITH BUSINESS SCALE TODAY?
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 24 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE QUOTE
By: Gina Riley SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 25 HOW ONE JOURNALIST WENT FROM TELLING OTHERS’ STORIES TO WRITING HER OWN From TV Broadcaster to Entrepreneurship
First, I want to thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your career transition story. I find it inspiring and know it will strike a chord with many people. Would you give me a quick overview of your career journey so far? Then, we’ll take a deeper dive into where you’ve arrived today.
Sure! When I started my undergrad at Duke University, I planned on studying public policy I quickly became fascinated with psychology, and chose that as a major, instead I also took a lot of English classes, which served me well during my journalism career While in college, I had two summer public relations and marketing internships with the American Kennel Club (AKC). I learned the AKC not only oversaw the big dog shows we see on TV (ones I competed in growing up, by the way!), but it’s also a 140 year old historic organization with extensive brand partnerships and collaborations. My first job out of college was with the AKC, working on a rebranding project to help expand knowledge and educate the public about their extensive welfare work, medical research to prevent diseases within certain breed lines, and creating new initiatives to diversify revenue streams.
I invite you to read on about her career transition journey that ultimately led her to entrepreneurship and coaching.
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 26 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Weather chief, journalist, and world class communications expert, Kristy Siefkin, arrived at a place in her career when she felt restless and stuck. Obvious prescriptions about the roles people take after a significant career in television news and broadcasting weren’t resonating. What was the process that helped her get unstuck? How did she shed the feeling of being trapped by creating and launching her own company, Kristy Siefkin Communications? Full disclosure Siefkin and I had our first strategy call in December of 2020 to discuss ways I could help her career transition plan Our process was upended once we uncovered her true passion which did not align with making a corporate move Siefkin set out to make a transition most people make when they leave television news and broadcasting roles in marketing, communications, or public relations. A dogged researcher and deep learner, she held eighty five informational conversations to figure out exactly what the next ideal job would look like. The result of all that research left her with something that just didn’t feel right.
SOMETHING
This informed my next career move working for another national nonprofit, Guide Dogs for the Blind, where I became the manager of community resources It was wonderful to promote an organization that pairs guide dogs with blind handlers for life Because we were providing a free service, my job was to recruit and onboard hundreds of volunteers to fundraise in their communities and build partnerships with schools and philanthropic organizations. Here, I developed formal training and consistent messaging for our speaker’s bureau program and trained a few thousand people across the US and Canada to be messengers for the organization. I started to dabble in video content creation by combining forces with a production team in the Bay Area to make educational videos about guide dog services and programs I realized, ‘OK this is really what lights me up!’ It was the combination of communications and the creative element of storytelling. These first two jobs were the catalyst for my decision to pursue my master’s degree in multimedia journalism at the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco. At this point, you are five years into your career, and you continue to receive signs and have experiences that storytelling, developing messaging, and now communicating through video are your calling. When I was asked by senior management to be a spokesperson at a national media event, I got a taste of what I really enjoyed doing communications. This influenced my entire career path. One of the AKC executives said something that really Yes, that is right! Another pivotal moment came while I was working on my master’s degree. A news director at a local San Francisco station saw my green screen classroom work and invited me to intern. This led to my first freelance television job and let me tell you, it was baptism by fire I was a full time student, worked at the station forecasting and reporting the weather, and was what’s called a “One Man Band journalist” I wore the hats of a news car driver, videographer, reporter, and editor It was an incredible opportunity at a top five station in the country that opened the door to work at another network owned station in San Francisco. What did you do after you completed your master’s program?
I took my first multi year contract job in Phoenix with the Fox affiliate station and spent ten years doing every single on air job, except for sports. While I ultimately became the Weather Chief leading a team, I reported from the field, anchored the news, and even did a little traffic reporting I loved being in the community, making connections with people, and telling their stories Aside from my work at the station, I was regularly using my skills as an emcee and keynote speaker, helping raise awareness for nonprofits and fundraising events. All this fueled where I am today helping people improve their messaging and become better spokespeople for themselves and their organizations. Some would say earning a way into this type of position would be exciting and satisfying. What started to change and made you think about making a career transition?
stuck with me: “You are hiding your light under a basket.” What she meant was that I was doing an excellent job crunching data, writing business plans, and generating revenue streams, but I was meant to shine in the communications space
ONE THE AKC EXECUTIVES SAID THAT REALLY STUCK WITH ME: “YOU ARE HIDING YOUR LIGHT UNDER A BASKET.”
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 28 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT
OF
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 28 Aside from my work at the station, I was regularly using my skills as an emcee and keynote speaker, helping raise awarenessfornonprofitsandforfundraisingevents.Allthis fueled where I am today – helping people improve their messaging and become better spokespeople for themselvesandtheirorganizations. ,, ,, ,,, ,
As we get further along in our careers, job satisfaction becomes more and more important. We want to feel a sense of joy in what we do before our head hits the pillow at night. Yes! I wanted to feel invigorated and not drained by my work I am happiest when I am working hard and working on something I really enjoy. I was tired of feeling flatlined in a lot of ways. What really caught my attention were people who created their own masterpieces and then launched their own companies. This was really enticing to me. But I initially resisted going down this path because I am from a traditional household where people stay in one place their whole careers. This was modeled for me. It was the safe play. But we all know the world and our careers no longer have the certainty of earlier generations.
It sounds like you went through a long process to become unstuck and figure out your best course of action. I committed to evolving so I could pursue the thing that lights me up It was a true metamorphosis I had to let go of the stability, title, and salary knowing in my heart of hearts it would come if I was brave enough to go down my own path and pursue something that really inspired me
I STARTED FEELING SAD THAT I IWASN’T STARTED FEELING SAD THAT I WASN’T MAKING THE CONTRIBUTION I MWANTED AKING THE CONTRIBUTION I WANTED TO MAKE IN THE WORLD. THIS TINTERNAL O MAKE IN THE WORLD. THIS INTERNAL DISSATISFACTION WAS A GOOD SIGN DIT ISSATISFACTION WAS A GOOD SIGN IT WAS TIME TO MAKE A WCHANGE. AS TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE. ,,,, ,,, ,
Initially, I thought I'd apply my skills in a corporate setting because a lot of people leave journalism and go into public relations or become the director of communications for a company. I took it for granted this is just what people in my line of work transition out to do. But my heart wasn’t in it, and I started exploring options by conducting informational interviews and then working with coaches to unpack the direction I was meant to take. I had meeting after meeting with people who did communications in corporate settings, those who were lobbyists, and even teachers … none of which made me feel excited. I think I conducted about eighty five interviews in all!
Being in the anchor position was a dream come true and I feel very fortunate to have had that experience. Eventually, the work removed me from what was truly driving me and what prompted me to pursue journalism in the first place. I've always been a lifelong learner and a big piece of my fulfillment in life is getting to meet new people, research, and help tell people’s stories I found these elements were missing and I felt stagnant in my job I was motivated to find more creativity in my work and wanted to keep learning and growing I wanted to be exposed to new challenges and problems I started feeling sad that I wasn’t making the contribution I wanted to make to the world This internal dissatisfaction was a good sign it was time to make a change What were your initial career transition goals? What did you think you would do next?
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 29
At least I’d put myself out there to do it.
I also had a backup plan in case I failed and knew the world would not fall apart if I gave this a try
I knew I had to take control by investing in the work that excited me and that I loved if I could only be brave enough to do it. So, I started reflecting on what I wanted to offer, journaled, listened to podcasts, and took a lot of notes. I asked myself what my program would look like, and I started to feel alive again. This creative time started to reinforce what I needed in my life and career It takes a lot of courage to make this leap, where does your bravery and strength come from? As you can tell, it took a very long time, a lot of reflection and journaling, to get to the point when I was ready to make the leap. This might seem overly dramatic, but it really came down to either accepting the safe path right in front of me or realizing I’d never reach my full potential if I chose not to try the entrepreneurial path. I knew I had to try and make a go of it even if I failed.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 30 You mentioned you worked with coaches during this time. How did it help you in your process? While I connected with a few great coaches, initially, I didn’t get where I needed to go. Some of the initial advice was to conduct informational interviews! This appealed to the journalist and researcher in me, but it never led me to make a move. As I was conducting informational interviews, it became apparent that a corporate career transition was going to box me in. I discovered you through a referral. Before I ever met you, what was appealing was you had a system in place. That is how my brain works. I like to follow a process with additive building blocks that help you get a result. It gave me hope I had not had in a long time. So, you’ve mentioned us working together and your initial intention was to make a corporate career transition. We used the YouMap® to help us unpack your unique value proposition on the front end of the process. What was that like? What did you learn about yourself? What I like about the YouMap is it really ties into my psychological background I liked digging deep into who I am and what I am about. The YouMap brought to the surface traits I knew I had and affirmed the direction I was heading. I recently printed out the work we did together to remind myself of my top strengths. I can see how my strengths of “input”, “communication”, and “harmony” are all about researching, consuming, and conveying information while bringing people together and sharing information with others. I also have the rare strength of “competition,” which shows up as me constantly trying to better myself and help others be better versions of themselves so they can compete in today’s marketplace What really flipped the switch for me was the personality assessment within the YouMap. I am “ an idealist” who is extremely cerebral, and verbal and needs a lot of quiet, reflective time to create. This tied to the entrepreneur I thought I could be. I had a desire to create something from scratch, think deeply about it, research it, and then apply all my other strengths. The YouMap gave me the confidence I should pursue the entrepreneurial path because it would tap into my strengths and personality. I could also tell that making a corporate move would lead to dissatisfaction I started to get an image of you being a caged hummingbird! I couldn’t see you in a cubicle doing a PR or communications job and being happy Nothing was making sense based on who you are and what lights your fire This is a hard place to come to when you’ve invested a lot of resources to figure out your career path! I came to a place where I realized I couldn't live with myself if I didn't hold up a mirror and tell myself I needed to start my own company, which was not the original purpose of us working together!
For the longest time, I thought something was wrong with me and I needed to just accept that there are specific types of jobs I should transition into I mean, it is called “work” for a reason, right? But my struggle inside was real because I knew it did not have to be the case I saw people pursuing their own paths by starting up companies or consulting. They were able to focus on their areas of passion, and I wanted to, also.
Did you create your program while working full time? I can tell you I didn’t sleep much! I built my coaching practice, worked full time, and continued to do research by volunteering in ways that helped me further test ideas for my program I interviewed amazing content experts who needed a way to showcase their thought leadership through video or keynote speeches. One person that stood out was a Nobel Prize winner who was one of many with brilliant messages, research, and stories to tell. Most of the brilliant folks I spoke with weren’t getting the accolades or the attention they deserve because they couldn’t communicate it well. This is what I had in mind when I created the GoTo Speaker Method™ training program. I am passionate about teaching people how to communicate effectively in any setting on stage, in a board room, or in front of a news or web camera. This includes everything from crafting messaging and sound bites that break through our noisy multimedia landscape, to presenting with confidence, authority, and a signature style. All of this is a signal you are the expert in your space and elevates you to become the “ go to” person clients want to engage within your industry.
THE FIRST STEP WAS REALIZING AND BELIEVING I HAD TA HE FIRST STEP WAS REALIZING AND BELIEVING I HAD A GOLDMINE OF KNOWLEDGE SPECIFIC TO MY GINDUSTRY. OLDMINE OF KNOWLEDGE SPECIFIC TO MY INDUSTRY.,,,, ,,, , SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 31
How did you go about developing your program?
Over the years, I have tested out my model and frameworks with a PR firm and run hundreds of people through my methodology across multiple industries, including real estate, technology, medical, culinary, and hospitality. The feedback helped give me fresh ideas so that I could add high impact elements and launch my program with both feet on the ground
Then, I started mapping out my process on giant pieces of butcher paper on the wall. I mapped out my client’s journey from start to finish. What were the challenges they would face and how would I address them? At the end of their journey, I was confident they would experience a transformation.
The first step was realizing and believing I had a goldmine of knowledge specific to my industry Then, I had to get to work building my model and frameworks to help my clients achieve success I'm a huge proponent of note taking and have a notepad in every room, in my car, and in my purse Whenever I have a thought about something related to my business, I jot it down or take a screenshot. This plays to my “input” strength. I read books and listened to podcasts. Over the course of several years, I started to think about my framework by grouping ideas into themes. I was drawing from my work from the AKC, Guide Dogs for the Blind (with my speaker’s bureau work), and my work as an emcee and journalist. I started to see that 20 years of expertise could help others expedite their process of becoming a better speaker and avoid many of the growing pains I’d experienced.
I realized what was limiting me in this entire process was myself and my thought process. This was ironic given my psychology background and all the exploration I've done. I'm a big proponent of self improvement. I was preaching to others through the coaching work I was doing what I wasn't willing to do myself! I was encouraging people to take these brave steps and yet I wasn't living it fully until I was willing to leave the predictable behind. Working with you for career coaching and then Mary Henderson as my business coach helped give me the confidence to embark on this journey. Anytime I felt like I was slipping, you would help me get back on track. I also think surrounding myself with other entrepreneurs in Mary’s program has been helpful in that we trade stories about our bumps and bruises along the way and learn from each other Most of us who are entrepreneurs made a big, scary leap and likely felt stuck at one point
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 32 IN ANY SETTING – ON STAGE, IN A BOARD ROOM, OR IN FRONT OF A NEWS OR WEB CAMERA. TEACHING PEOPLE HOW TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT
I love the name of your program! Thanks! When I did my research, I consistently heard people say they wanted to be thought of as an expert in their space or industry. No matter if you are a pediatrician, interior designer, or pastry chef, people want to be the “go to” expert and the first person who comes to mind in their field for interviews, as a panelist, or even for keynote speeches. Walk me through your methodology How do you help your clients realize a transformative experience?
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 33
Clients would feel confident my process would yield results and be the answer to their long term struggles What are your program offerings?
I work largely with mid career subject matter experts who have reached incredible heights within their careers, but they desire to take their ‘know, like, and trust factor’ to the next level and become a thought leader by communicating in a more charismatic and dynamic way.
Speaking as an introvert myself, I empathize with other introverts who allow themselves to be held back by the negative messages that get stuck in their heads. I like to turn the narrative around and help introverts stand out and attract positive attention based on their expertise and personal stories. For those of us who are introverts who might not like the spotlight, we can learn how to keep the focus on our subject matter expertise and our audience. Many introverts are very empathetic and connect well with audiences by customizing their messaging that really resonates.
Individuals in my one on one coaching program create a signature speech and a short video series, because as you well know Gina, we’ve gone from in person meetings to needing to be able to communicate dynamically over Zoom or short videos you can use on your social media channels
Anyone can write bullet points for a speech but what makes you stand out is to ensure everything you say reflects your uniqueness as an individual. I start at the foundation of the client’s values, strengths, and how they want to be perceived. Then we do a gap analysis between the way they communicate now and plan for where they want to be. Then, we work to get rid of stumbling blocks and false perceptions they may have around communication and around leadership. These are powerful exercises!
Leaders or experts oftentimes discount they have something unique to offer. If they break their frameworks and expertise down to the micro level, they can visualize their unique value proposition. A lot of people struggle with impostor syndrome, especially high achieving individuals They have a wealth of knowledge but don’t consider their offering as different or great Once I started looking around at potential competitors, I quickly realized there are a lot of self proclaimed experts within a given space who are not experts at all. There is little to back up what they do. Doing this research can really give you confidence in knowing you have something special. Just because somebody gives themselves the label of being “the best” at teaching something or leading in something doesn't mean they are. Look to see what they are really offering, and you’ll realize you do have a lot to offer, and your frameworks will yield a result for your clients. One thing I really aligned with your Career Velocity program is you were able to articulate the micro moving parts to get to a result. In turn, I realized when I fleshed out my own methodology, and broke it down into micro pieces, I would build the same trust in my process
I have one program geared toward creating speeches and presentations, and another program that is geared toward media training and preparing spoken messages for media interviews, podcasts, panel interviews, print interviews, television, etc. Both programs are informed by the Go To Speaker Method™ I created.
When did you feel ready to launch your program?
Once I signed up with Mary Henderson’s coaching program, I was able to accelerate and launch so much faster. It sounds like you created your GoTo Speaker Method™ to serve not just individuals, but groups. That’s right. Not everyone has the time or budget for an intensive, 1 on 1, multi month program. I wanted teams to have access to my methodology in a condensed period of time, so I created corporate team workshops. After these workshops, companies will often hire me to work one on one with their leaders who need to prepare for a keynote, conference, Q&As within the company, or speaking in front of investors in person or over video
Connecting with our audience is what it is all about. Being memorable! We know our brains light up, we become more memorable, and we can move people into action by using tactics backed by psychological research I leverage TV news principles and psychology by teaching how to create compelling spoken communications I also teach people how to set up their camera, lighting, and microphone so they can shoot and record their own high quality videos They can also use the videos on their website, to submit to a conference, or to try and land podcast guest spots. This way, a person can provide visual proof about how they communicate and show up. This can really help someone rise in their career and connect with other thought leaders. A unique aspect of your program is linking the psychological ways to connect with the audience married up with the speaker’s unique strengths and experiences. That is brilliant. There is a reason we tune in to the same TV stations, podcasts, and social media channels. There becomes a core connection generated by the speaker that keeps people’s attention and ultimately their trust.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT
There is something new and fresh every day What I've had to learn to do on this journey is plant seeds and water them and be patient Check on them and give them a little more sunlight In short, I’ve had to be patient! For entrepreneurs, there are constant pivots and ups and downs. I’ve had to maintain faith if I continue to work hard, put out a good product, and remain committed to serving with a client centric focus, good things will happen.
Working in the news is fast paced with quick turnarounds
The first step is to get a coach! My job and career were pieces of my identity, and I needed an outside perspective to reflect my natural gifts Get guidance and support, whether that is a coach or a group of individuals who are in the same boat so you can help each other Find ways to get to the core of what is making you unhappy because for me it was about the lack of fulfillment and feeling like I wasn't using all my gifts. I would also advise one must realize there will be trade offs. What are you willing to let go of to get to what you enjoy? For me, the drawback was having a lack of stability but that was countered by the idea of the joy of constantly creating, serving, and learning. Take a step back and see within your current job if the pain points are outweighing the joy. You must be willing to jump off the cliff and trust your wings will spread as you jump.
I like how you ended with the commitment toward the client and service because I think a lot of people look at becoming an entrepreneur to become famous. If that’s your intention, there are a lot less stressful and time consuming ways to become famous than becoming an entrepreneur! If you're truly coming at it from service, the importance of notoriety will fall down the line. You’ll naturally attract the right attention What is your advice to people who have felt similarly stuck in their careers? Perhaps they are twenty years along and starting to feel restless like something isn’t right?
What has been the hardest part of your journey?
This has been years in the making, but when I made the commitment to myself, it took me several months to shore up my methodology so that I could launch my website I think most people could launch a program in six months with true dedication It helped when I left my corporate job that I was able to line up some communication and training consulting gigs to keep the lights on Perhaps someone could do it faster, but the reality is many of us are creating a program while holding down a full time job for income and benefits.
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 34
"VENTURE FIRMS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BACK PEOPLE WHO CAN MOVE THEM WITH EFFECTIVE STORYTELLING. IF YOU CAN COMMUNICATE MESSAGES CLEARLY, MEMORABLY AND SUCCINCTLY, YOU WILL RISE ABOVE THE COMPETITION. IN THE CASE OF A LEADER WHO NEEDS TO GENERATE FUNDING, THEY ARE A TRUE SPOKESPERSON WHO MUST INSPIRE INVESTORS AND BOARDS OF DIRECTORS."
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 35
It is all about these leaders conveying they are relatable, believable, clear, and relevant Today, it’s not enough to just have a nice message written down. We expect your face to appear on the video. There's plenty of research about how expressions and body language impact our ability to trust someone. Coaching someone to present well from message to tone to presence gives a leader the opportunity to connect with and influence their audience regardless of their industry. I’m a firm believer in practicing what you preach, so I also continue to work as a professional communicator, myself I regularly deliver keynote speeches and emcee local and national events for professional and charitable organizations Every time I speak professionally, I learn something new to teach my clients What is great about continuing to be an emcee and keynote speaker is you walk the walk and show how it is done Really, what a lot of executives need is the day to day help presenting to their board or a group of investors when they do a dog and pony show. They come to a place they must convince people to invest in their company when what they really need is for these decision makers to invest in them personally. They need to be convincing, likable, and trustable to get people to open up their wallets. I love that point, Gina! Venture firms are more likely to back people who can move them with effective storytelling. If you can communicate messages clearly, memorably, and succinctly, you will rise above the competition. In the case of a leader who needs to generate funding, they are a true spokesperson who must inspire investors and boards of directors Today, leaders must be believable, trustable, and inspirational All these traits are conveyed through dynamic communication It’s not enough to lean on a great product or service to ensure your success
CONTACT GINA:
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CAREER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 36
CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S
Where can people find you? They can find me at www kristysiefkin com All the details of my GoTo Speaker Method™ program are there I also love to customize training (it’s the creative in me!) so I welcome people to reach out and discuss how exactly I can help them I post a lot of free, educational content about communications, thought leadership, public speaking, and video on LinkedIn and Instagram: Leaving a TV station “Chief” role to pursue wearing all the “chief hats” of her own company, Siefkin is pursuing her own happy ending by writing her own story, chapter by chapter By facing her self limiting beliefs, tapping into her strengths, and pursuing work that feeds her intellectually and creatively, she no longer feels stuck She feels challenged, hopeful and excited If you are feeling stuck and want help with speaking, presenting, or media training, reach out and connect with Siefkin! PROFILE
@ginariley https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristysiefkin/ https://www.instagram.com/kristysiefkin
Gina Riley Consulting & creator of the Career Velocity™ System. She is a career transition coach who helps leaders customize their career stories to land jobs where they can leave a legacy. She is an Executive Search Consultant for Talence Group. ginarileyconsulting.com
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE QUOTE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 37
OMOZUA ISIRAMEN KNOWING HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS CAN HELP YOUR SALES AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 38 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE NEUROSCIENCE
BY
It may seem obvious to say, but it's important to point out that at the core of any business transaction is two living, breathing, feeling human beings Both buyer and seller, boss and employee, or client and provider are driven by the emotions, biases, and functions of their brains of which they probably are not even aware Becoming knowledgeable about how your and others' brains work can help you understand what drives motivation and action, how to build trust, the decision making process, and how communication happens with words, and body language which can ultimately, help you succeed in sales or any profession.
Dopamine. A hugely powerful neurotransmitter that, apart from other things, is responsible for addictions However, your brain releases it also when you encounter people whom you feel generally care about you So, when writing sales proposal introductions, include information that will make the prospect feel this way to stimulate the release of dopamine. Thanks to neuroscience advances, we now know exactly what chemicals are invoked at what point in the sales process According to the article, Neuroscience and Sales: How to Increase Prospects Engagement with Psychology, below are the brain chemicals activated and when: Cortisol We produce this chemical when feeling stress or fear Its release often results in shutting down the rational brain and acting on impulse You can stimulate it by speaking about the main problem or pain point your solution targets.
NEUROCHEMICALS
Read on to see what you need to know https://www.cirrusinsight.com/blog/neuroscience sales increase prospects engagement
Endorphins and Dopamine. Endorphins counterbalance cortisol. They stop us from feeling pain or discomfort. If you present your solution as the best counterbalance to the problem, your prospect's brain should release endorphins to reduce the perception of fear and make them feel better Serotonin and Oxytocin The first chemical makes us feel happy; the other motivates reciprocation. Targeting both with a call to action could help elicit a positive response from prospects.
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 39 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE NEUROSCIENCE THE
INVOLVED IN THE SALES PROCESS
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 40 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE NEUROSCIENCE
OUR BRAINS MOVE AWAY FROM FEAR AND TOWARDS PLEASURE BRAINS ARE DRIVEN BY EMOTION
There are two types of problems a customer can have, positive and negative. A negative problem is where there is a standard of performance or a need not being met There is also a positive kind of problem that can be solved by showing the customer a better way or solution that they may have not been aware of Both can move their brains towards pleasure and trigger the buying process.
Because its priority is always survival, your brain is wired to move away from danger and towards pleasure. Those motivating forces; staying away from pain and moving towards reward are fundamental motivational drivers of all human behavior. So a really powerful way to start a conversation early in the sales process is to find out the customers' problems and challenges In other words, what do they want to move away from?
Tell Stories Use testimonials from real customer successes and positive experiences to appeal to other customers videos on your website of your best customers telling the stories of how you and your company helped them solve a problem or meet a need.
Use Visual Images You can activate people's emotions by using self explanatory, relatable, emotion evoking pictures and videos in your presentations, in your proposals, and on your website. This is why you see pictures of cute puppies and kittens, happy families, or a silhouetted couple holding hands in marketing materials.
According to science, people's brains release oxytocin when they hear and are engaged in others' stories According to this article, solid stats only activate two language regions of our brains Stories, on the other hand, fire up five additional regions This also works because of brains like conformity.
Whether you know it or not, our amygdalas control a lot of our behavior and decisions. The amygdala is an ancient limbic system structure primarily responsible for processing memory, decision making, motivation, and emotional reactions Your amygdala acts as your brain’s threat radar and alarm You may have heard the saying “we decide on emotion and justify with logic.” Research proves that true. Even when we think we are making logical decisions based on information, we have free will and almost always choose based on emotion People buy based on emotion and then justify it with facts and logic
So, when you are trying to motivate and incent people to act and make decisions, you want to appeal to their emotions. There are several ways to do this:
You may have heard this referred to as their "pain point." Try to determine the impact on their business or themselves as an individual and how can you help them move from a place of discomfort or dissatisfaction to a place of satisfaction comfort happiness etc , by solving that problem for them Then, you will want to talk to them about what a good solution might look like and how you can provide that.
Use the Element of Surprise Brains remember anything unique, surprising, or out of the norm much more than just normal product information and facts and figures For this reason, it can be beneficial to develop a USP (unique selling prospect) for your company Find a unique aspect of your service or product and emphasize it or promote or pair an important concept with an unexpected analogy or image.
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 41 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE NEUROSCIENCE WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO MOTIVATE AND INCENT PEOPLE TO ACT AND MAKE DECISIONS, YOU WANT TO APPEAL TO THEIR EMOTIONS
It’s no surprise that gaining the trust of prospects is a vital element of success in sales in every business relationship really While you may think of trust building as a social process, it’s just as much a neurological one in the brain The hormone and neurochemical referenced above, oxytocin, is central to establishing trust and connecting emotions in any relationship, including business. In one experiment, researchers showed that increased oxytocin in the brain reduces the fear of trusting a stranger an example of moving away from pain and towards pleasure Science shows that increased oxytocin in the brain is associated with greater relaxation, more willing to trust others, and psychological stability. So, increasing a client's oxytocin is key to establishing trust. Some ways to do that are: Establish Credibility Make your client feel comfortable Provide hard reliable information and data and establish yourself as an expert Credibility reduces the fear that humans are naturally prone to develop in unfamiliar situations. Show Empathy Be attentive to and show genuine concern for your client Ask about their needs, problems, and goals Then really listen Remember buying is an emotional decision Customers don't buy from people when they don't feel heard. Be personable. Don’t deliver a memorized sales pitch. Have the basic key points in your memory to draw upon, but make it an interactive exchange. Step in their shoes, be truthful and honest, build connections, allow the prospect to talk and explain themselves, and listen
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 42 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE NEUROSCIENCE
Make eye contact but not too much. Research shows seven to ten seconds is normal Smile Lean a little forward when speaking Slow down your speech and speak with expression, but again, not too much Use the person's name and mirror the words, phrases, or industry terminology they use.
Body Language Is Communication Too Your nonverbal communication is just as crucial as your verbal communication Scientific studies confirm that body language is important when it comes to forming relationships first impressions, forming new relationships, and maintaining old ones.
BUILD TRUST
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 43 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE NEUROSCIENCE
Furthermore, in well directed studies, the people who participate give their overt, informed consent and agree that the data gathered in the study can be used in specific ways With such protection in place, this kind of data gathering is really no different ethically from participating in a focus group
Let's be clear I am not talking about anything unethical or subliminal here While there certainly are valid ethical concerns, using neuroscience can never take away a person's free will There is not a "buy button" in the brain that neuroscience can tell us how to flip.
Neuromarketing is really just a natural extension of existing methods such as brain imaging, or measuring physiology such as hormones or perspiration that complements classic marketing methods, such as surveys, interviews, and ethnography that have been done all along.
Fueling consumerism as consumer debt rises is a valid ethical concern. Simply put, every form of marketing is — to a certain extent — a similar way of subconscious influencing. Every argument against neuromarketing is thus an argument against marketing in general. It’s not really about what neuromarketing does, but what researchers, marketers, and politicians do with the information it produces.
IS NEUROMARKETING ETHICAL?
What we are talking about here is often called neuromarketing or consumer psychology. These terms basically refer to using an understanding of how the human brain works to more effectively market products and services
CONTACT OMOZUA: Email: takeaction@omozua.com Website: https://www.omozua.com/
CONCLUSION: Selling and marketing have become about psychology as much as they are about strategy, goals, and numbers. Today selling is closer to science than art. The neuroscience of today can tell you a great deal about how to be a better salesperson by understanding how the brain operates and makes decisions. Understanding your brain can improve every aspect of your life from being a more effective leader to having more meaningful relationships.
Omozua Isiramen is a Neuroscience Transformation & Peak Performance Specialist who provides sales professionals, business consultants, executives, and leaders with a comprehensive methodology to decode their own unique brain signatures so they can elevate their personal and professional lives in all areas by attaining neuro agility and emotional mastery. Her Programs, Brainification and The ManYOUfest Code help individuals and teams to develop brain fitness and mental flexibility to have a fast, flexible, and focused mind to reach their potential
CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S PROFILE
linkedin.com/in/omozuaisiramen/ AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 44 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE NEUROSCIENCE
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 45 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE QUOTE
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 46 WHATA VIRTUAL ASSISTANT CANDOFOR MARKETING MANAGERS BYLINHPODETTI
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 47 When marketing trends and social media algorithms are constantly changing, do you find it hard to keep up with all your deliverables as a Marketing Manager? Well, what if you had extra helping hands from a Digital Marketing Virtual Assistant? It may just revolutionize the way you work. Some of the most common roles we hire for include:Design and source social media content (Canva, Photoshop) Basic video editing (iMovie, inShot) Manage social media schedule/calendar Schedule social media posts Improve online presence Respond to messages and comments Manage Facebook Groups Schedule YouTube videos Upload Instagram and Facebook stories LinkedIn lead generation Update social media reports Social media research Pinning and uploading posts to Pinterest Outsourcing social media management can be one of the biggest time savers for Marketing Managers. Having a Virtual Assistant to manage your social media schedule means that you can outsource the following tasks: Writing social media captions, video descriptions, and blog articles Researching Instagram hashtags Designing email campaigns Designing social media banners, blog banners, infographics, and Instagram Story Updatingtemplateswebsite content Preparing video transcriptions Basic video editing Content creation doesn’t just stop at designing graphics for social media, it also involves: Your only role is to review and approve the work or provide further feedback and your VA can take care of the rest. SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT CONTENT CREATION 1. 2.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 48
Joining similar LinkedIn Groups Contributing helpful information to these LinkedIn Groups Initiate a conversation via Direct Message (only when relevant) Lead generation is an area that falls in between the Marketing and Sales Department. While the Sales Team can manage their own outreach, Marketing should still invest time and resources into an effective Lead Generation Strategy to close the loop between all the online inquiries and subscribers. A really great strategy we implement at Outsourcing Angel is our LinkedIn Lead Generation plan. Essentially, whenever we collected a new email subscriber or website inquiry lead, our Marketing Virtual Assistant would connect with this person and their company’s page on LinkedIn, Instagram, and ThisFacebook.allowed our Virtual Marketing Assistant to actively comment and stay in touch with these leads by: This activity eventually resulted in the conversion of some of our most valuable clients. It’s definitely a great example of an ‘outside-the-box’ lead generation strategy that we wouldn’t be able to implement without the assistance of a Virtual Marketing Assistant.
Transcribing meeting minutes Admin Virtual Assistants are highly requested and Marketing Managers can benefit from having a Marketing Virtual Assistant that can take on the admin work too. This includes the following tasks: These are the types of repetitive tasks that are essential to the day-to-day running of the business but can impact your work efficiency and marketing deliverables. Without a Marketing Virtual Assistant to take on these tasks, you’ll end up being the bottleneck of your business. 4.
Creating presentations PDF conversion, splitting & merging Basic Invoicingbookkeeping&payment reminders
Database
Liking, commenting, and sharing their social media posts
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 49
ProjectDataFollow-upsmanagement&remindersentry,transcriptionmanagement- schedule, templates creation, etc Email and calendar management Booking appointments and making travel Creating,arrangementsstoring, and organizing documents
Sending special occasion greetings (birthdays, Organanniversaries)izingeCards and gifts
LEAD GENERATION AND SALES EXECUTIVE AND ADMINISTRATION 3.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 50
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 51 Updating site plugins Scheduling blog posts Updating website products Updating site information Designing website banners What do people see when they visit your website? Hopefully, a well-designed, and well-maintained page with lightning-speed loading time! ⚡ Hiring a Virtual Assistant to manage these basic website tasks can free-up Marketing Managers up from things like: Outsourcing these tasks can be particularly important for businesses that don’t have a dedicated website developer. WEBSITE MANAGEMENT5. Responding to customer emails and support tickets Sending follow-up emails and reminders Adding content to your FAQs Updating CRM with customer information Compiling reports and feedback about customerHavingsatisfactiongreatclient support and response time ensures happy customers and more referrals. So having a Virtual Assistant to take care of incoming inquiries at a superb level will set your brand up for customer loyalty and lifetime Thevalue.client support tasks that a Marketing Virtual Assistant can also assist you with include: As long as you fully equip your Virtual Assistant to know everything about your brand and communication style, you’ll have a great customer support representative on your side! CLIENT SUPPORT MANAGEMENT6.
CONTACT LINH: https://linhpodetti.com/
@linhpodetti
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 52
CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S PROFILE
Linh Podetti is a serial entrepreneur, currently the founder of Outsourcing Angel, a virtual assistants agency and the co founder of Dawn Media Productions, a video marketing agency. Linh is passionate in helping entrepreneurs achieve freedom by empowering them to build a business that will free up their time to be with their loved ones.
There’s no doubt that hiring a Virtual Assistant will take time and cost money, but considering the amount of time that it gives back to Marketing Managers or even entrepreneurs and business owners to focus on self improvement, high yield work, networking, and even self care, it’s a cost that will bring an immense amount of value in return.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE QUOTE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 53
By: Mary McDonnell Hockley
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 54 UNLOCKING THE MOTIVATIONAL MIND
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MIND & BODY
TYLER’S STORY Tyler was keen to share a life changing experience He told me how schoolteachers had dismissed him and how parents had little to no expectations for him Together they created a negative narrative in which there was no room for success. I asked Tyler what happened to turn his life around. “Someone asked me what I wanted.” Came the reply. It was at that point Tyler realized he was in charge of his own narrative. He did not have to play the victim. By taking charge of who he surrounded himself with, and undertaking something positive each day, Tyler created a commercially successful business But something was lacking “What’s missing?” I asked “Direction” he replied It was clear from the conversation that the following directions were not missing; it was a smokescreen for the real problem Using an early version of my Mind State System our work together revealed a lack of entitlement and an inability to enjoy or celebrate his success. It was time for him to enjoy the hard work and the win. The coaching empowered him to feel connected and to create meaningful personal change. While appreciating all the success and accolades of his business life he also came to honor the insider the real person he was, with a deep transformational motivation to be fulfilled and happy
The motivation to make change happen is empowering. It focuses attention, directs energy, and provides purpose Of course, knowing the theory is one thing but learning from experience is even more powerful as it creates a motivational path into the future
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 55 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MIND & BODY
Tyler’s story illustrates how motivation changes and develops over time When you reach your destination, the emotional landscape can be quite different from the one you imagined The initial euphoria of achieving your goal is frequently followed by a period of deflation You ask, ‘Is that it? ‘What’s next?’, or possibly, ‘What am I doing here?’ Consider the number of high performers who are business owners, athletes, or rock stars who reach the pinnacle of their careers only to sell up, retire and then start over. The motivation to succeed is ingrained in their DNA. They are addicted to the challenge. If you lose that type of drive it is time to address what is happening to you right now. For Tyler, the issue was an underlying belief that he was inadequate He was unable to enjoy his success because in his formative years other people had imposed their limiting beliefs on him Those negative voices entered his system and became part of his internal dialogue He had no inkling of how to celebrate, appreciate or recognize his considerable achievements The impact of reaching his goal, not feeling how he expected to feel, and the return of this old self talk in the form of unwanted internal dialogue put Tyler into a frozen state In such circumstances, any positive mindset is compromised When your worldview changes due to opportunity or circumstance the result can be so profound that it triggers stress and anxiety; in such circumstances, it is essential to address your emotional state and revisit your values and beliefs
CHOICES
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 56 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MIND & BODY
AND JUSTIFICATIONS
If you are to find your positive energy and mindset, it is imperative to address the blocks or obstacles your subconscious has created to protect you As Will Storr observes, “consciousness is a battle between reason and emotion emotionality is usually in charge of what we thinking and what we're doing”
The emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) empowers you to respond to the challenges in your negative self talk It will let you re engage with the structure of your daily life, imbuing it with intent and purpose. It explores your relationship with the people that surround you. It seeks to enable you to re-engage with both your psychological and physical environment. It does so with a gentle somatic technique. You follow a guided tapping sequence that clears subconscious blocks. Seeing the mind body as an interconnected system during an EFT session you will tap on points associated with the small intestine, bladder, gall bladder, stomach, kidney, and spleen each of which can store stress The tapping releases residual anxiety It leaves you focused, centered, and calm and once again able to reconnect to your motivational mind
POSITIVE ENERGY
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 57 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MIND & BODY
RELEASING
QUOTE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 51 marymcdonnell hockley AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 58 CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S PROFILE Mary heartspecializesMcDonnell-Hockleyinovercomingissuesoffearandanxiety.Sheisacenteredcoachwhothrivesonhumantransformationandwitnessingpeoplefulfiltheirdreams. CONTACT MARY: www.marymcdonnellhockley.com Did any part of Tyler’s story resonate with you? If so, maybe the time is right for you to take positive action… Website: https://www.marymcdonnell-hockley.com www.linkedin.com/in/marymcdonnell-hockley AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MIND & BODY
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 QUOTE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 59
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 60 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHENTIC SELLING B y M i r n a B a c u Bn y M i r n a B a c u Bn y M i r n a B a c u n SALES SALES SALES IISNOTA ISNOTA SNOTA DESTINATION DESTINATION DESTINATION BUTA BUTA BUTA JOURNEY JOURNEY JOURNEY
The content creation person had one style, one personality, and one energetic state in which she was creating/repurposing content
This was a recipe for disaster in so many ways
Soon, I took on a content repurposing person, a lead generation person and I was focused on sales I also took on two more people to help me with the delivery
First of all I didn’t actually need these team members (just as I actually didn’t need to scale) Secondly, I didn’t realize that the reason that I THOUGHT I needed all these people working with me was that the process to getting clients (sales) was broken down into different phases: 1. 2. 3. Soon, what happened is: 1 2 3 All of this the process of getting clients that were broken down into pieces and three different people in charge of each of the pieces resulted in that process of selling is a hot mess. Broken and energetically unaligned.
Lead generation Sales
You see, seven years back, I started my first online business It was a LinkedIn consulting business, and my clients had amazing results with the strategies I was sharing I was focused on real, organic, long term, and sustainable results for my clients, and after a year or two I had so many awesome testimonials from my clients that I had to create a whole new web page just for that. I called this web page “The Love Wall”. Even though I come from Croatia and actually don’t need a business making 8 figures a year, I saw myself as still “fresh and new ” in the space, and I, naturally, started investing money into programs and mentors so I could “scale” What was funny was the fact that every program I enrolled in had the same idea hustle and grind, sell as much as you can, and have a huge team
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 61 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHENTIC SELLING
In my last article, I introduced you to the concept of “The Path of Agreement” which literally changed the way I do sales today In this article, I want to share my view and experience on the process of ethical and energetically aligned selling, in hopes it will remove some of the pressure most of you feel when we talk about sales
Content creation phase
The lead generation person had another style, personality, and energetic state in which they were doing lead generation I had a completely different style, personality, and energetic state in which I was selling
That will get you to grow
So I did what they said because I thought that was what I was supposed to do.
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 62 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHENTIC SELLING
And my audience felt that. Everyone feels a process of selling that’s energetically broken, whether they are consciously aware of it or not After almost a year of trying to put it all together, I realized that this way of selling is just stressing me out and most importantly it wasn’t getting me the results I wanted I decided to dismiss my team and go back to the drawing board Very soon after that, I enrolled in one of Bob Proctor’s programs and started to learn more about energetic alignment and how our subconscious mind works. That was the same time I got introduced to the concept of “The Path of the Agreement”. And then, as I started to do my content, lead generation, and sales again, I had a lightbulb moment
The most important thing I realized is that all of these things you do is a part of ONE sales process I don’t believe that there is such a thing as “creating content”, “lead generation” and “sales” That’s actually ONE sales process
The first time someone has contact with you or your content that is the start of the sales process. Sales PROCESS. Lead generation is continuing that one sales process. Talking to people in DMs is continuing that same sales process. Getting on sales calls is continuing the sales process. Delivery of your program is continuing the sales process Upselling is continuing the sales process Do you see where I am going with this? Now If all of these things are actually just one sales process, then this process is energetically aligned to who you are and is a must. What does that mean? It means that if you break down this ONE process amongst different people in your team you need to be aware of who you are bringing into the party The energy of your business carries mostly your energetic signature, and if you are doing this sales process by yourself you need to be energetically aligned from finish to start That means the same vibes and emotions throughout the whole process from creating content to delivery But, what if you have people working for you that are not energetically aligned to themselves, to you, or to your business? Shit happens, that’s what happens.
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 63 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHENTIC SELLING
You write warm, connected, and caring content and your audience energetically connects to you There is an appointment setter that’s disconnected energetically from himself and your business and his focus is to just book calls. Your audience feels friction because they feel the discord between the content and the person they are talking to in DMs. The appointment setter somehow manages to book a call and on the sales call, there is a closer whose only intention is to sell and enroll people. He is pushy, guilting and shaming your audience for not being where they want already and enrolling them in your program A good example is taking on appointment setters or closers for your business from another company. Let’s say you are a coach helping people heal trauma. You take on an appointment setter or a closer to do a part of the sales process while you write content What happens energetically looks a little bit like this: 1 2 3. That process is energetically broken and by the time your audience, who connected to you in the first place, come into your program they have disconnected themselves from you, they’ve been traumatized in the sales process and the resistance they feel even though they wanted to work with you is HUGE Now you got your client but the energetic state of that client is broken, detached, and suspicious What are the results of your program going to be take a wild guess So, the point of this article is The more you sell in alignment with who you are, the less you’ll have to break down the sales process into pieces and create energetic friction. The more you focus on the sales process being an energetically aligned journey for your audience, the easier you will “sell” and enroll people that truly vibe with your mission. The more people enjoy your sales process, the less you have to sell because the experience of the journey does the selling VS hard core pitch on the sales call
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 64 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHENTIC SELLING
@mirnabacun @myr.bacun AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 65 SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S PROFILE Mirna Bacun is a 7 figure business owner and a former LinkedIn lead generation expert. Today she focuses on teaching service providers the art of authentic selling through DMs, 1:1 and group sales calls by using the power of science and neuroplasticity. CONTACT MIRNA: AUTHENTIC SELLING So, focus on the WHOLE sales journey your audience will go through and make sure your team members vibe with it the same way you do. AND THEN YOU’LL SEE MAGIC HAPPEN IN YOUR BUSINESS.
S H U N R Y U S U Z U K I The world is Tits he world is Tits he world is its own omagic. wn omagic. wn magic. SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE QUOTE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 65
by MARIA DAVIS
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MANIFESTATION
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MANIFESTATION AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 68
No way! You can’t have that! No one else around you has ever had that! Not possible. This archetype is in you when your power oozes out of your solar plexus. It’s located in the midsection of your body.
The Four Archetypes are:
The language it uses: The Victim
Imagine your car. What type is it? What color is it? Those are clues!!! But let’s leave that information for another article For now, let’s tap into the archetypes that are present in your manifesting power. The passengers that ride in your “philosophical manifesting car” are part of the unconscious bias which prevents your manifesting power and magic from materializing. In this article, I will discuss the four primary archetypes that stop manifesting deadly in their tracks I’ll show you how to identify them, their language, and how we can flip them, so they are our biggest “energetic” cheerleaders and motivators. What all archetypes have in common is they are uncomfortable with change. It’s safer to stay where they are than you transform and receive.
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MANIFESTATION AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 69 You don’t need it! What about everyone else around you they need it more!!! I have all I need Why do I want more? You’re acting from this archetype when you don’t feel worthy of receiving more. The prostitute archetype will give it all away I won’t really believe that it is possible. Everyone else’s needs are more important than their own. It has no boundaries with time, money, or energy. It’s busy fulfilling everyone else’s dreams and doesn’t have time to cater to its own. It locates at the sacral chakra uncomfortable with having more and doesn’t identify with anything outside of what they know. The language it uses: It’s not safe! It’s scary! You don’t need it! What will you do with it? You will be different! You won’t belong anymore!! When this archetype is in fear, it stops from taking inspired steps. It’ll feel like a shaky wonky root chakra that is, your connection to earth and family of origin, including your ancestors. The language it uses: The Prostitute The Child
I'll let you in on a little secret. We tend to sit in one of these archetypes at any given time It’s called being human. How do we flip them to their easy and accessible thriver counterpart and manifest like a hero?
The Victim becomes the Warrior by taking action on the inspired next steps. The Child becomes the Lover when self care and support systems are implemented. The Prostitute becomes the Queen/King when she/he commands the energy around them. The Saboteur becomes the Magician when we know that we are magical. When we engage in curiosity, belief, and imagination. Who do you think you are? No one will want that! You’re not good enough! As soon as it gets close to manifesting, it breaks the spell on some level. This archetype is located at the heart chakra. It doesn't know how to receive. So, instead, it breaks its oath to itself and stays where it is, with what it has! It doesn’t feel enough. The language it uses: The four archetypes listed above are known as the Striver archetypes. Victim, Child, Prostitute, and Saboteur.
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MANIFESTATION AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 70
They felt heavy, didn’t they? Did you see yourself in any of them? They have this repellent and resonating force too Ok, which one called you if any?
The Saboteur
www.linkedin.com/ in/mariadavis8 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MANIFESTATION AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 71 CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S PROFILE CONTACT MARIA: Maria Davis from Maria Heals, teaching leadership and personal development. Sharing practical magic to entrepreneurs so they share their gifts with a wider audience and make more money. www.mariaheals.com YOU ARE THE MAGIC. So, back to the car. If you had a total sum of four people in your car, who would be driving? Who would be the passengers? I use this exercise as a circuit breaker to make the unconscious conscious. When we develop awareness, manifesting is easy. Dive into the depths of your stories to reveal the true nature of your unique magic! You’re welcome!
SEPTEMBER 2022 QUOTEAUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 72
HIDDEN SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 73 BY LOUISE TAYLOR
The shy boy at the back of the room, watching in awe as his brother plays the guitar on the stage A superstar Always the one who is chosen for the big roles Perfect. Or so it seems. The shy boy is thinking. Observing. Wishing he was on that stage. Knowing he has something amazing to offer. But still. Holding back. He claps and cheers with the rest. Always an encourager. Kind and generous. Popular. But still…. feeling frustrated. I’m wondering why you’re hiding when you know deep down that you are extraordinary. When you dream up ideas that no one in the world ever thought of before. When you see things others can’t see but don’t speak up. When you can do things others can’t do, but you do these things alone. Like writing or painting or mathematics or making movies. What happened to that curious child, that 13 year old sassy teen? When did you begin to shut it down? At what point did you start to say no to yourself?
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 74
I’m a big fan of the hidden and gifted leaders I understand trying to please, making sure I fit in and not stand out; In case someone doesn’t approve Or restricts you Or limits you Or worse criticizes you Make sure you say the right thing at the right time in exactly the right way. And it served me. For a while. Until it didn’t. This ability to speak in multiple languages articulate in all sorts of situations. Like a chameleon. In Boardrooms. On stages. With clients. With family. Making sure everyone is happy. It worked. It was viable. It was profitable. And yes there were positive outcomes. Society teaches us not to stand out. To fit in. To please. This teaches us to confirm and to be slaves to systems.
We learn to say yes early and be rewarded for staying with the flock. To conform. To behave.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 75
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 76
expression?
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 77
There is merit in rules. And in having order. Some rules keep us safe. But some do not. We are no longer in times where we can be hidden. No longer can we ‘play it safe.’ Are you ‘set apart’ for greater things? Are you in full expression and congruency and externally? Which relationships give you the freedom to fully be authentic? Which ones don’t? When are you going to stop hiding your light? When will we see and hear your unique Then, my friend you will start to make real noise. Then you will tap into the deeper gold within. Then you will find your financial reward. Then you will find your perfect client or job. Then you will be interested and you will stand out. Then you will inspire people. You will have more impact. You will get promoted. You will feel empowered. You will lead with power. You will market with confidence and certainty.
internally
You will be seen. You will be known. So are you backstage? Have you been waging a war within yourself? Are you tired of not producing everything you were born to produce?
AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 78
Maybe what you have to say has never been saying. And this will be your SIGNATURE. We have the ability to draw from a higher source. A place of great and unsearchable things that others don’t know. These are the secret keys of the Kingdom. The keys of David. The combination of heaven’s wisdom. And as we unlock one, we unlock one after another. Your spiritual intelligence is the missing piece of the puzzle. The very thing that has caused you to halter. Or to stall. When you unlock your higher self, it is like unlocking a vault that you alone own. The first step is being open to what is ahead, that you can’t see in a natural sense. The next step is to sharpen your sword. Iron sharpening Iron. To then being around people who ‘speak eagle’. Those who pioneer. Those who dream and push forward, rather than shrink back.
@louisetaylorglobal SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 79 Louise Taylor is a globally respected Speaker, Peak Performance Coach and Neuro strategist and Creator of Neuro flow™ system, Money Mindfit™, Sales Mindfit™ and Clarity Programs. Louise specialises in helping individuals and companies to develop a positive money mindset, emotional agility and approach leadership & business challenges with innovative commercial and people strategies. CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S PROFILE CONTACT LOUISE: www.louisetaylorglobal.com For more free tools and entrepreneurial drivers, go to: www.louisetaylorglobal.com The last step is to begin to understand and learn what has been hidden, even from yourself. Isaiah See I am doing a new thing in you do you not perceive it?
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE QUOTE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 80
444 Secrets STo ecrets STo ecrets To Successful Successful Successful Living Living Living B Y F A L G U N I K A T I R A AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MINDFULNESS AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 81
The time has come for you to break away from living compartmentalized lives and start enjoying the immense benefits of holistic living. You’re not your title. You’re not your accolades. You’re not your successes. You are YOU! You have your titles and all other things because of being you! And the earlier you start learning how to be you, fully, the better. Because when you truly discover your true nature and begin to tap into your limitless potential, you can enjoy success in all aspects of life and not just one. This concept may be contrary to popular beliefs, but you’re different because generalizations don’t apply to YOU. Are you living a SUCCESSFUL but STRESSFUL life?
Work strategies are great, but what is your LIFE strategy? It’s high time you stopped letting yourself, your family, friends, or loved ones suffer just because you feel you’re working to make them happy and comfortable. You can make them happy and comfortable without sacrificing your presence or the quality time you should spend with them. Because in the end, it all boils down to how well you were able to BALANCE your life and purpose.
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MINDFULNESS AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 82
Are you sacrificing too much for your success?
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MINDFULNESS AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 83
It’s
4.
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MINDFULNESS AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 83
● You
● You
● You are
play ● You feel like you cannot afford to take a break to
and reflect ● Your
More than 75% of executives lack the work life balance that they so much long for. And when you experience emptiness in one aspect of life, it slowly but surely creeps into other parts of your life. So, if you’re very successful at work but have a shaky relationship with family and friends, your work will soon begin to suffer and vice versa.
1.
2.
3.
Let’s face it without becoming successful in all essential areas of your life, you’re miserable. And overall success cannot be achieved without doing the inner work and releasing the limiting beliefs that hold you back. Have you ever experienced this… find it difficult to break your macro goals into strategic micro actions? are trying to go East and keep driving West? experiencing mental burnout while trying to combine work and meditate efforts are not aligned with your intentions? finally time to… Acknowledge yourself, seize the opportunity that is set before you, and kindle your growth. Measure your capacity, address all your concerns, and pledge to act. Accelerate your effort, celebrate your wins, and transform yourself one step at a time. Optimize your skills, widen your scope of growth, and nurture your soul.
@aasthabhagia AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2022 MINDFULNESS AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 85 CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S PROFILE
These bulleted points are essentially four sides of a wheel. No matter which side of the wheel you find yourself on, you can find the right balance and enjoy life more. A balanced life is a real recipe for a successful life. If you understand the importance of leading a holistic, visible, and balanced life, then you’re starting from the right place. The remaining ingredient is your READINESS to do the work and enjoy the benefits. Get yourself a mentor or a coach that has a proven track record of success and balance and start your journey towards long-lasting success today.
CONTACT FALGUNI: www.falgunikatira.com
@falgunikatira @falguni aastha
Falguni Katira is a professional transformation coach that helps leaders change their habits and thought patterns barring them from their path to holistic success Clients who participate in her coaching program are positioned to adapt to change and maintain their competitive edge in all the dimensions of life, including spiritual, intellectual, career, finance, love/ relationship, family, social, and health / fitness
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE QUOTE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 86
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIDEO MARKETING AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 87 PERSONAL
In June 2017, Elliot Drake, an 18 year old living in Indianapolis, awoke to news of his father's suicide. 5 years later, in August 2023, this 23-year-old man sold his stake in a company he founded, Connected, with 87 employees and a valuation of $30 million. Looking at Elliot now, you'd never know the difficult and painful circumstances he endured, which planted the seeds of his eventual success. He doesn't talk about them, since he doesn't want pity I believe his story has incredible value, dear reader. And I was able to convince Elliot to let me share it with you. Rewind to June 2017, I get a frantic call from Jeremy Miller, a concerned friend of Elliot's, who explains the dire situation. I put him on a plane the next day to Phoenix to stay in our corporate housing. Holding back the tears, Elliot learns to make one minute videos to tap into his emotions and even find gratitude You can see in these videos how he's learning personal branding from many angles not just his story but that of clients that we gave him to work on. He's making one minute videos recapping his knowledge and zeroing in on his WHY. He vowed to be a LIGHTHOUSE to other young men going through difficult circumstances-- to give them a voice, let them know they are loved, and even provide career opportunities.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIDEO MARKETING AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 88
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIDEO MARKETING AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 89
Two weeks after leaving home, making a gratitude video and explaining the power of networking in Phoenix, AZ: Because Elliot learned so quickly, we put him on webinars and eventually stages, where he thrived. Even at the very first mastermind, he attended Mark Lack's Personal Brand Accelerator he had the courage to go up to the speakers and make one minute videos interviewing them. I was impressed with that courage, which I never had as a teenager. Speaking at a conference on personal branding in Singapore in August 2017:
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIDEO MARKETING AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 90
4 years ago, explaining how to build a 3x3 grid: Building funnels via Facebook video remarketing in Indianapolis, October 2017: Teaching how to structure your content with oneminute videos, Phoenix AZ, February 2018: How the Facebook algorithm really works, Phoenix AZ, February 2018: Attending first mastermind in Newport Beach February 2018: Speaking at St. Vincent College, Pittsburgh, PA in February 2018: How to build authority by leveraging the authority of others, videos, and ads, Indianapolis, December 2017: SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIDEO MARKETING AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 91
M a c Interviewing Cole Hatt Newport Beach, Marc 2018: Interviewing Mark Lack at his mastermind in Newport Beach, March 2018: Teaching at GoDaddy HQ in Scottsdale, AZ, March 2018: Speaking at Traffic & Conversion Summit in San Diego, March 2018: Speaking at VendastaCon in Banff, Alberta CA in April 2018: Teaching Facebook ads in San Diego with Naveen Jain, April 2018: Dinner with Naveen Jain (billionaire founder of Viome), San Diego, CA, March 2018: SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIDEO MARKETING AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 92
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIDEO MARKETING AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 93
At 87 employees with $7 million in ARR (annual recurring revenue) and a $30 million valuation, he sold his stake in the company a bittersweet moment. I caught up with Elliot in Miami last week to celebrate his achievements via a day of golf and good food: Teaching how to build a personal brand at Mark Lack's workshop in Newport Beach, May 2018: Making more trainings at the Blitz house in July 2018: 8 months later, he started his own agency on the side, helping high profile entrepreneurs with their personal brands via Facebook ads Feb 2019, speaker reel and promo on how to build a successful ad agency: Teaching how to build retargeting content sequences in September 2019 in Singapore:
Speaking at the BlitzMetrics Mastermind in September 2019 in Chandler, AZ: After a whirlwind education of 2.5 years, flying across the globe to learn from the best, Elliot starts a company teaching salespeople, coaches, and entrepreneurs how to build their personal brand on LinkedIn and generate leads. He turned it into a SaaS (software as a service) that had mid ticket implementation programs. Over the next 3 years, he worked 60 hours a week (you know what that's like) without stopping to take a breath hiring the executive team, doing his own marketing videos, running ads, guiding product development, and speaking at events.
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIDEO MARKETING AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 94
And he remarked how none of this would have been possible had he not had the hands on training in our program or the life altering events that put him on that path. We believe that everything happens for a reason as Gavin Lira likes to say. And that the apparent negatives in life can turn into blessings later with the perspective of time. He is taking some time off to catch his breath and conquer the next mountain, which will likely leverage his experience in starting a SaaS company and knowing how to scale it up through hiring up a sales team and running marketing campaigns. You'll likely find it at landclients.com. which then attracts your ideal clients and other resources He mentioned how important the principle of #LDT (Learn, Do, Teach) is, which his life embodies. He learned digital marketing in depth to then become a world class professional. And only then was qualified to be able to teach others how to do it
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE VIDEO MARKETING AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 95
I asked Elliot why he waited 5 years to begin his new venture of landclients.com. He said that too many coaches and consultants jump straight to selling "millionaire secrets" before they have done it themselves. Only those who have credibly accomplished something have the right to teach others how to do that one thing. You wouldn't trust a weight loss coach who was fat, would you? The world of social media marketing and personal branding is a dimly lit marketplace of peddlers loudly hawking snake oil potions of all types. We want to flick on the stadium lights so everyone can see what is real in plain daylight. The rats will scurry, while the true experts who have experience and results will be visible. I'm so glad that Mary Henderson started Authority Magazine to highlight the quiet leaders who don't need to shout You'd more likely trust the calm expertise of a surgeon over the antics of the carnival barker. And because we believe that our brands grow from what others say about us instead of us beating our chests louder it's time to edify people like Elliot, who have put in the hard work, have the results to show for it, and are willing to openly teach what they do. The true expert doesn't have secrets. Elliot and I were on a plane from San Francisco to Singapore a 15 hour flight. And we joked about how there is not an ebook called "777 secrets" for commercial pilots The heart surgeon didn't go to a weekend mastermind called "Cardiac Club" to learn the 3 weird techniques to perform a triple bypass. We as coaches and experts should wipe away the fog and share what we know openly. Let our knowledge stand for everyone to inspect. Look at Elliot's Facebook and LinkedIn as examples of his development over the last 5 years chronicling hundreds of unvarnished stories from disappointments to surprise wins. I admire the courage of folks who are willing to share their moments good, bad, and ugly. One time, Elliot modified a saved audience in one of our Facebook accounts. I think it was the Golden State Warriors. And while he thought it was affecting just one campaign, it affected every campaign in the account that used that particular audience. He made a video owning up to the mistake and fixed it We didn't get fired and instead, got commended. Another time, Elliot made a video about how his personal brand got him a car. By being well known in certain circles, he had the trust to be able to pull off a deal that an ordinary teenager wouldn't be able to do.
@dennisyu SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 96 CONTRIBUTING WRITER'S PROFILE CEO of BlitzMetrics, a digital marketing company which partners with schools to train young adults We offer courses, implementation, and consulting My personal mission centers around mentorship from my experience with helping people from all walks of life grow their expertise in digital marketing, sharing his insights from managing campaigns for enterprise clients like The Golden State Warriors, Nike, and Rosetta Stone. CONTACT DENNIS: VIDEO MARKETING I encourage you to follow Elliot on LinkedIn to witness his techniques in action. And reach out to commend him on his incredible achievements so far! Connect with Elliot here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotdrake
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE QUOTE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 97
The Toolbox AUTHORITTI AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 98 SEPTEMBER 2022 TOOLBOX
by Jan Santos AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 99 SEPTEMBER 2022 TOOLBOX YOU NEED TO KNOW! TTIKTOK TIKTOK IKTOK TTIPS TIPS IPS Nowadays everyone wants to be popular on TikTok but we do not know which TikTok tips we can become popular on TikTok very soon by following them. So today you should take a look at these TikTok tips below to figure out the best tricks that are suitable for you.
SEPTEMBER 2022 GET TO GTHE ET TO GTHE ET TO THE PPOINT POINT OINT TELL A TSTORY ELL A TSTORY ELL A STORY USE UTRENDING SE UTRENDING SE TRENDING SOUNDS SOR OUNDS SOR OUNDS OR SSONGS SONGS ONGS Don’t drag people along for the entire 60 seconds. Short, sweet, and quick-to-the-point videos are more popular. While everyone loves a good trending dance video, stories are the most likely pieces of content to go viral from unknown accounts. If you have a crazy tale to tell, let us hear it! TikTok favors videos that engage with already wellperforming sounds. Think about the sounds you always hear on your For You page.
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 101 SEPTEMBER 2022 TOOLBOX
just be
check
TikTok the top trending hashtags with anyone who comments on your videos. Like their comments, reply back, and out their content if they have into content that is already popular on the such as a popular dance or showing off something unique about your house, or brand. on trend sure it.
to put your own spin on
on the Discover tab. Engage
any. Lean
AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 102 SEPTEMBER 2022 TOOLBOX START SENGAGING TART SENGAGING TART ENGAGING HOP ON A HTREND OP ON A HTREND OP ON A TREND USE UTRENDING SE UTRENDING SE TRENDING HHASHTAGS HASHTAGS ASHTAGS
app,
business,
Don’t be afraid to hop
actually lists
a
TikTok is a great platform for brands –providing you know how to use it. If you want to learn more about how to navigate TikTok or you’re looking for more TikTok tips and tricks stay tuned for the next article! Jan Santos @thecreativescoopjansantos @thecreativescoopjansantos OLBOX ach The nd and nd ve nding ness by nt . E CONTACT JAN: AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 103
Ready to supercharge your business communication?
AppOf
Available on Amazon: through-Storytelling-ebook/dp/B07CV2PFYJhttps://www.amazon.com/Storyworthy-Engage-Persuade-
author of the rock opera The Clowns and the musicals Caught in the Middle, Sticks & Stones, and Summertime. He has written comic books for Double Take comics. He is a columnist for Seasons magazine and has published work in Reader's Digest, The Hartford Courant, Parents magazine, The Huffington Post, and The Christian Science Monitor. He was awarded first prize for opinion writing in 2015 by the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists.
Get the most out of your meetings Otter makes team meetings more productive and collaborative with automated meeting notes and transcription that include key takeaways. Plan Connect your Google or Microsoft calendar and schedule your Otter Assistant to auto join Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet to take and share meeting notes. You can even join your virtual meetings directly from Otter. If you are running late or can’t make it, no worries Otter Assistant has you covered Engage Otter records and takes notes for everyone so that you can fully engage in the conversation. Meeting participants can highlight notes and also add comments and assign action items in the Takeaways panel No need for separate email follow ups!
Capture With a single click, you can add a meeting slide directly in the Otter notes. Collaborate Meeting notes include a summary of keywords and a NEW Outline (Beta) to help you quickly navigate the meeting notes. Search, read the notes, and playback the audio. Assign any additional action items or add comments or questions to the notes.
Matthew Dicks is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Something Missing, Unexpectedly, Milo, The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs, and the upcoming novels The Other Mother and Cardboard Knight, as well as the nonfiction Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Art of Storytelling. His novels have been translated into more than 25 languages worldwide. Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend was the 2014 Dolly Gray Award winner and was nominated for a 2017 Nutmeg Award in Connecticut. Matthew was also awarded first prize in 2016 and second prize in 2017 in the Magazine/Humorous Column category by the CT Society of Professional HeJournalists.isalsothe
Book Of TheMonth TheMonth
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE BUSINESS TOOLS AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 104
PODCASTOF THE MONTH
NAME OF PODCAST: Between the Before and After (The Stories that Shape Us) Jon McLernon We LOVE stories, especially real life stories that we can relate to This show is about sharing peoples’ stories of overcoming significant obstacles and adversity in their life The show can be gritty and vulnerable, but it is also hopeful, inspiring, and entertaining It’s an opportunity to explore the stories that take place between the “before” and “after” photos The powerful experiences that shape whom we become We dig into the obstacles we overcome, and HOW we overcome them And ultimately, we want to shine a light on our powerful human potential and the possibilities that lie within us Learn more at: https://anchor.fm/coachjonmclernon/epi sodes/S05E06---The-dream-she-couldntpursue-became-the-source-of-PURPOSEMary-Hendersons-story-e1mi616
SEPTEMBER 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PODCAST OF THE MONTH AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 105
JOIN MY FACEBOOK GROUP EXCLUSIVELY FOR INDUSTRY EXPERTS https://www.facebook.com/groups/industryexperts IT'S FREE TO JOIN AUGUST 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PROMO AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 106
DON'T MISSOUT. GET YOUR FREE COPY AUGUST 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PROMO https://www.facebook.com/groups/industryexperts WHEN YOU JOIN THE INDUSTRY EXPERTS FACEBOOK GROUP AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 107
T TOTHE AUGUST 2022 AUTHORITTI5 0 MAGAZINE PROMO AUTHORITTI5.0 MAGAZINE | 108
