Transcript
Luisa Hogan: For years, I've built my business around an old version of me, an old identity. What people expected me to work in my old experience, the old sector I worked in.
Luisa Hogan: And after a while, it became the story I told myself of, that's the person you have to be. But soon enough, I realized actually there's a new version of me that's emerging through this wonderful business that I've built over the last 10 years.
Luisa Hogan: And it's time for me to step into that. And today i'm going to talk about a real personal journey about what it takes to step into a new version of you and let go of the old stories that you tell about tell about yourself to yourself.
Luisa Hogan: Welcome back to the second voice podcast, where we uncover the conversations that leaders don't have out loud. And I'm your host, Louisa Hogan. And this is season three, the start of season three. I can't believe we've made it to three seasons.
Luisa Hogan: I feel like that's such a huge achievement. And I am so excited to bring you a little bit of a fresh season with some new ideas brought in as we explore how leaders talk to themselves, what leaders, what challenges leaders face in building their businesses or leading teams and what that sounds like from a real perspective. But today solo episode, I'm getting really deep and personal about my journey in building my own business over almost 10 years. I can't believe Vermello is almost 10 years old, but I want to talk about the stories that I have been telling myself that I only recently started changing as I've looked forward as to the new way forward for my business and for me and what I want to build. and how long I've been repeating some stories to myself about who I am and what my business is about and what, you know, I'm, I'm meant to be doing.
Luisa Hogan: And it's really interesting because Um, many of you are already know my story of how I built for Melo. I started the Melo after I was, I had inherited a CEO role to a failing organization. And over the period of a year, I had to try and save it or close it. And that organization eventually did close. But the story I was telling myself then was nobody's ever going to want to employ a CEO who was responsible for winding up an organization.
Luisa Hogan: And how wrong I was because over the last 10 years, all I have done is work with CEOs who want to not go through the same thing. And Vermello was born from, well, I am going to start my own work and so and try and help other leaders through this situation.
Luisa Hogan: And the story I told myself then was the kind of people I need to work with are people in the kind of sectors that I had worked in. i had predominantly worked, I had done some corporate stuff, but some community services stuff um education staff. So I thought I had to work in that space. I had just worked in a consulting practice.
Luisa Hogan: So, you know, I thought these are the kinds of people that are to want to work with me. It was also where my network was. Everybody I knew were in those sectors. So of course, when you're starting a business, you're going to tap into the network and the people that you already know. And you have to do that, especially if you're starting a service-based business, a consulting business.
Luisa Hogan: So that's what I did. But because of that, it became this story that I told myself. Then the other story I started telling myself was on my pricing. Because I worked with, you know, maybe 60 to 70% of my clients were in the community services, not-for-profit sector at the time.
Luisa Hogan: I thought that I had to have a, my fees had to be at a reasonable base for those kinds of businesses to be able to afford me.
Luisa Hogan: And I want to tell you an interesting thing. That story I told myself, even after I started shifting to working with more corporates, big, you know, medium enterprise that are actually national across the whole of Australia. i started working with founders who are scaling their businesses.
Luisa Hogan: um I'm probably now more like 40% community sector, not-for-profit sector and 60% other kinds of businesses. But for almost 10 years, I never raised my prices because the story I had told myself was I have to be affordable so that these businesses can afford to work with me.
Luisa Hogan: It's wild to me. And I only realized this. so i didn't do that for 10 years. i only realized this over the last couple of years where I'm like, actually, no, the kind of work that I do is amazing. And I'm working with so many people that I can raise my fees for the for the work that I'm doing. I deliver some really great outcomes and I can raise my fees for that. But it's amazing how that story you tell yourself can hold you back.
Luisa Hogan: And the other thing I was doing, because I, you know, my experience over 15 years experience, executive experience was in a mix of medium enterprise and not-for-profit community spaces, large not-for-profits and community spaces, and then a couple of small ones.
Luisa Hogan: I had told myself the story that that's who my clients had to be. And I started shifting away from that and realized actually that my expertise isn't held by the, by the story that I told myself about who I was allowed to work with.
Luisa Hogan: And those stories came from working in those spaces. And you know, when you're building your career, you know, and well in the old days, cause I don't think Gen Z's do this. Gen Z's are so much more amazing at just being comfortable with switching. So if you're a Gen Z listening to this, I hope they are sometimes. you're so I'm so amazed by you, how you can switch through careers, but you know, I'm a gen X elder millennial and for us, it was about you pick your career and you pick the sectors that you work in and you build your way up through that. And so the story that I told myself was even though I'm building my own business, like I'm stuck with the kinds of clients that I'm used to working with. And it's, it really started to hold me back because I started to,
Luisa Hogan: not so much enjoy some of the work that i was doing but it was the story that i kept repeating to myself but then there was also this realization that i was protecting myself it was a little bit of a comfort zone i can work in those spaces so easily like with my eyes closed i know how those those organizations work i know the issues that they have like they're all the same issues if you go from one um sector to the other. They're like, that's a similar issues. I was just in this old um comfort zone and I was protecting myself from looking silly. Like, because if I step out of this area that I work in and start finding clients or working in this area, what if I don't get it? What if I look silly?
Luisa Hogan: And it's so strange because I even went out Before I even started my business, I had, I've got an MBA. And the reason why I got an MBA is because I wanted to be more credible in, um, ah more corporate spaces and meet people in the corporate area. But it's so funny because you know what I did? i stayed stuck in that space of community services, not for profit and medium medium enterprise, because I thought that's what I know.
Luisa Hogan: And I never pushed myself out of that comfort zone. And the interesting thing was when I really started to realize how much I've shifted and how I've started to stop telling myself those stories is I went to a huge event and it was um, ah corporate women event. It was, it was mostly all women there, but they were all CEOs in the corporate space.
Luisa Hogan: There were hardly any there that were in. um, the old space that I used to work in. And it's funny, I knew a number of them there. And it was in that moment. was like, actually, I know a few people here. So that was one.
Luisa Hogan: But when I first walked in, I felt like the imposter. I'm like, what am I doing here? These are all like, these are all people who are so much more important than me. And I felt this moment of like, what am I doing here? This is not the space that I work in. And then I realized, actually, I know a few people here and be
Luisa Hogan: I don't have to prove anything to these people here. I don't have to fit in with them because I am me. I don't have to be anything else than who I am. And I don't have to be ashamed about my past, but also not afraid of stepping into this new visibility, new way of being that isn't necessarily the CEO. I'm not a corporate CEO.
Luisa Hogan: But I'm building my business to be an amazing scaled, huge consulting practice. That's going to do so well in the space that I work in. Right. So it was then that I started to go, oh man, what have I, what have I been doing? Why do I, so why do I think that it's, you need to put yourself out of your comfort zone for a minute to realize, Hey, i've I've been sitting in my comfort zone for such a long time and I'm protecting that comfort because it's easy for me.
Luisa Hogan: And so over the last couple of years, I've really been committing to raising my fees to what I deserve and not being afraid, not letting that first voice tell me, Oh, you don't deserve that. They're not going to want to pay that to you. You're going to lose clients. You're not going to get any work. You're going to have to hustle for more work. I'd like let that go. I'm like, Nope, this is my fee. If you can't afford it, uh, you know,
Luisa Hogan: that's bad and maybe we can work something out, but my fee is my fee because these are the outcomes you're going to get and that fee deserves that outcome. And I started also looking forward and it's it's like I rebranded Vermello. Vermello, you know, it's nine and a half years old. It's had the same logo, the same branding colors for nine and a half years. It just became the same thing, but it was stuck in the old version of me.
Luisa Hogan: And why I set up for mellow and I started to really look forward, hopefully, especially after i wound up my second business, I started looking forward and go, Hey, like, here's my opportunity to focus fully on one business again and go, what is the direction that I want this business to take?
Luisa Hogan: And I knew that the branding wasn't right anymore. And I wanted it to step into this new identity that I have been building. And especially with looking to scaling and where I want to go with my business in the next three years, it's not where the business has been and it's in the same space, but it's evolved. And my work has evolved. My knowledge has evolved. My expertise has evolved. The people I've worked with have evolved. And I need to stop telling myself that old story That baseline of where I've come is no longer my baseline. I have a new baseline. I have a new identity. I have a new fresh perspective of where I want to go. And I'm so hopeful and excited.
Luisa Hogan: And yes, some people might be looking at me going, this is new. Well, absolutely darn right. It's new because That's what you do as you grow and evolve. You're never going to be stuck in the same place unless you tell yourself all of those stories all but all the time. And you get stuck in those old stories of who you are, who you're supposed to be, who knows you, who's your network.
Luisa Hogan: And now I'm growing my network to people that I would never have engaged with 10 years ago, never even thought of engaging with them and networking with them and still keeping in touch with some of the people that have been so important in my journey and been in my network over this time.
Luisa Hogan: But I'm so excited to to expand myself. this This year has been so much about expansion and visibility for me. And it is about time that I step away from those old stories that I told myself.
Luisa Hogan: But there's there's work that needs to happen internally, where if you want to go through something like this too, the work that you have to do internally to allow yourself to do this is you have to really start switching off that self doubt switch and start going, what's true here?
Luisa Hogan: What's a fact, what's the reality? And then you have to go where do I actually want to be? And is this baseline that I've been at holding me back?
Luisa Hogan: And this, Is this identity going to be the thing that always brings me back to that baseline of this is what I can charge and these are the people I can work with and this is the way that my career is going to go And you need to be able to turn that self-doubt off and work on that internally so that you can step into this new version of you that's becoming. And so many triggers have happened for that internally for me and where I've, you know, speaking at the Women Thrive Summit, you know, to so many thousands of people.
Luisa Hogan: starting this podcast, this is season three. i didn't know if I was even going to get past season one. i am fully, this, this season is fully recorded up until the end of season three and in the start of season four, by the way. And now I have the space to add extra bits like this in to the season so that you get the max out of the, these podcast episodes, little short clips.
Luisa Hogan: And so the internal work that you have to do is going, ah Is this my reality? What's my baseline? And how can I step into this new version of me, which is going to be uncomfortable by the way and scary and a way out of your comfort zone. And you have to not be afraid of failing and not be afraid of looking silly and looking cringe because you're going to feel cringe when you step out of your old identity and into a new one.
Luisa Hogan: And then it becomes your new baseline. And then you're probably going to have to do the work again. So what does the real me look like for me now? Well, I'm not an old CEO that worked in the community sector and medium enterprise. I'm not that person.
Luisa Hogan: I'm a 10 year business leader who works with executive teams and founders across multiple sectors and they all want to work with me. I'm an amazing speaker. I do amazing speaking work and I am not speaking for free anymore. I have decided that I don't speak, I speak at four strategic free events a year and the rest of my events will have to be paid because I need to step into that version of myself that does a great job at speaking in events and inspiring people.
Luisa Hogan: I am a podcaster and somebody who has their own ideas and likes to talk to other people with their own ideas and their own journeys. I'm also my I am the CEO of my business. It's scaling. I've got a couple of associate consultants who are working with me. i want to grow that business more, and I'm going to have a wonderful steady leadership hub where people can go to and experience experiential programs that they can learn how they operate under pressure and then work on what to do about it. So I am so excited about that, about building those resilient leaders who are capable of performing well under pressure and understanding what their triggers are and how they actually perform under pressure.
Luisa Hogan: So I'm that CEO. I'm that podcaster. I'm that speaker. I am somebody who's thinking about things every day and learning every day. I'm a mother. I became a mother halfway through my business.
Luisa Hogan: When my business was five years old, I became a mother, which is wild too, because I am not that same person who started that business, but I was still stuck in that identity. It's so wild. Even thinking about it just makes me laugh. And I am all of those amazing things. I, I, you know, i have an amazing husband who I met just before I started this business and he's seen me grow through all of that. So that's what the real me looks like now. I'm excited to bring this me, my new branding that I launched a few months ago, one new strategy for my, for my company.
Luisa Hogan: It's gone from, and this is the other thing I've, I started my business as a sole trader as of this year. It is transitioning to be a company structure.
Luisa Hogan: It's not going to be just me anymore. Even that is stepping into a new identity, a new me. I'm not a sole trader doing my little service coaching business. I'm not a coach. That's the other thing. I kept calling myself a coach and then I thought about it.
Luisa Hogan: Well, I am really not a coach. I don't coach people through things and ask the right questions, get them to come up with the answers. I mentor people. I bring my own experience, my my own learning that I commit to every day, multiple diplomas and degrees and a master's degree. That's what I bring to to the work that I do with you.
Luisa Hogan: But I don't just want to be a mentor. you know I'm also a consultant, an advisor. I do advisory work. Wow. 10 years ago, I'd never have said those things about myself. Never.
Luisa Hogan: So, If you are sitting there and you are waiting to step into a new version of you and you don't know what to do, my advice to you is to look deep within yourself, understand what your baseline is. Imagine who you want to be and then ask, is that person going to accept what I'm accepting now?
Luisa Hogan: Does that act person accept the fees I'm accepting? Does that person accept the contracts I'm expecting? Does that person accept the promotion I'm accepting? And when you can put yourself in that future version and then look back to what you're doing now, and if that person would say no, then you should not be doing that thing. And you need to start leveling up what you're doing with your decisions.
Luisa Hogan: So short and sweet today, the second voice inside every leader is only as powerful as the stories that you tell yourself and that you're allowed yourself to keep telling about yourself. And the moment you stop believing those old stories about you,
Luisa Hogan: is when you finally get to choose, this is actually me. This is actually me. So i hope you enjoy season three, amazing leaders that I'm speaking to.
Luisa Hogan: They all have their own journeys, some incredible, powerful journeys, and also some great advice and great lessons from experts in all of these areas. I'm sure you'll enjoy them and I will see you at season three.
Luisa Hogan: Take care.
