Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Don't Let NO Stop You
13 Plays6 years ago
Andrea Waltz, co-author of 'Go For No,' shares answers to things no one thinks to ask her. This time we had fun learning more about how she started, her unusual strategy to achieve her goals. You might feel like you’re listening in on a private conversation. It's not every day you hear people talk so openly.
Sending Love + Light !!
xo Shari
📌 PS... Links mentioned in the show are no longer available... effective 2024
🤍🤍🤍🤍
Shari and her brilliant guests… go beyond the surface... sharing decades of Organizing, Lifestyle + Business Brilliance... and the reality of living in the REAL WORLD. ✨
Brilliantista ® podcast is like having coffee or tea with your BESTIES… the ones who understand you, cheer you on… and aren't afraid to offer tough love when needed.
Real-life conversations and practical tips on everything from… organizing your home (hello, less clutter, more joy!), lifestyle (developing healthy habits), and business tips (work-life balance)… to navigating life's challenges. We laugh, we cry, we learn... and we embrace imperfection.
Are you ready to create the life you want to live… and elevate your brilliance?✨
Press play… make some new BESTIES… and let's make it happen... together!
🤍🤍🤍🤍
xo Shari Kuster 🤍
BRILLIANTISTA Instagram… https://www.instagram.com/brilliantista/
Show your love 🤍🖤 Follow + Review 🖤🤍
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Andrea Waltz and 'Go For No'
00:00:01
Speaker
Brilliantistas, I am so excited for you to have an opportunity to join us today on today's podcast with Andrea Waltz, the author of Go For No. Yes is the destination. No is how you get there. Ladies, I just have to share with you, this is probably one of my favorite interviews so far. And I'm going to feel so bad as I say that because I have interviewed some incredible women on this podcast. And I know in the future, we're going to be interviewing some more amazing women.
00:00:28
Speaker
But there was something about this interview that really
Uncommon Perspectives on Success
00:00:31
Speaker
lit me up. And it was the fact that with this conversation with Andrea, we really dug deep into conversations that probably most people don't talk about when setting goals, how you achieve success. And it's not all what most of us think about. And so as we dive into this conversation, you're going to learn a little bit different perspective, probably both from Andrea's side as well as my side, on how we obtain success.
00:00:58
Speaker
And a lot of it had to do with fumbling forward. So hopefully this will bring some insight to you as well as some great actionable steps that you can begin to implement on your journey as well. And know that you're not going through this process alone. We are all divine human beings. We are all on a journey. We're all figuring it out.
00:01:18
Speaker
and we're just here to share some insights maybe insights maybe some tips but really we know that this journey is individualized and we embrace that and we just want to bring a perspective and hopefully the perspective that helps you move your needle forward just a little bit further and really helping you
00:01:37
Speaker
to find happiness and find peace inside of yourself, knowing you are exactly where you need to be, doing exactly what you need to be doing, and you're surrounded by people who love and support you on that journey.
Sherri Custer's Entrepreneurial Journey and Podcast Mission
00:01:49
Speaker
As we get ready to dive into this interview with Andrea Waltz, I just cannot wait for you to meet her.
00:01:59
Speaker
You're listening to the Brilliantista podcast, where women elevate women who desire success in business and life. Each week, I'll share valuable insights, actionable steps, and powerful interviews with brilliant women who open up to share the wisdom, tips, and strategies behind their success, helping you to elevate your own. I'm your host, Sherri Custer, a stay-at-home mom who built a seven-figure business with zero experience, but the willingness to figure it out.
00:02:31
Speaker
All right, ladies. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I am, again, excited to bring you another incredible woman. Before I had the opportunity to see her live, actually during a Facebook live of a friend of mine, and I just knew right away, I want to interview this woman. I want her to come on our Brilliantista podcast because this woman
00:02:53
Speaker
truly did through her book change my perspective as I was moving forward in my previous business. So I was really excited when she said yes, that she was willing to jump on our Brilliantista podcast and share some insights and we'll get into some of those great questions and really get some juicy stuff and hopefully help you on your journey as
Overcoming Rejection with 'Go For No' Strategy
00:03:15
Speaker
well.
00:03:15
Speaker
So before I begin, let me just share with you her official bio so you understand exactly who this woman is who's joining us today. So starting off with, this is Andrea Waltz. And Andrea Waltz is the co-author of Go 4 Know. Yes is a destination. Know is how you get there.
00:03:37
Speaker
Along with her husband and business partner, Richard Fenton, she has made her mission to liberate people from fears of failure and rejection, sharing an entire new mindset about hearing the word no. Okay, ladies, how often do we love to hear the word no? Never.
00:03:55
Speaker
They have spoken all over the United States in the US, teaching the go for no strategy. This is actually a strategy that she shares in her book. They've helped people to embrace this concept of hearing the word no and allowing them to move forward.
00:04:11
Speaker
I know that in the industry that I was in previous, it was just this constant like, if I enrolled somebody in my business and onto my team, right away, I wanted to help them and empower them. I would always recommend this book. So because we do here now and gosh, you know, if we're going to be paralyzed by hearing it, that's not really the best setup for strategy of success. So I love this book and I'm really excited to have her on here.
00:04:38
Speaker
But in addition to being a co-author, I love the fact that she has really made this a business. But not only that, it's doing something that is helping women overcome fear and building confidence, which I think that's something we all need in our back pockets. I visualize we all walk around with a tool belt and Andrea's book and Andrea's journey and her story are part of that tool belt that we get to walk around with right now.
00:05:06
Speaker
So welcome to the podcast, Andrea. Hey Sherry, it is so good to be with you and I really appreciate that introduction. So sweet and I just loved it. Well, you honestly, I know you probably meet people all the time and they know who you are, but you have no idea of the impact that you had on them.
00:05:27
Speaker
And I still to this day remember hearing that book. It was like, go for no. I was like, you know, question, why go for no? And then instantly, before even reading one single sentence in your book, I realized, ah, that's the majority of what we go for. And we always say it's like the batting average.
00:05:47
Speaker
You know, we've one out of 10, two out of 10, three out of a 10 out of 10. You're, you're a rock star in the baseball industry. So you really helped to bring that perspective, um, into place. Well, thank you so much. So is there anything that you want to share with our audience before we get started so they can understand a little bit more about you, maybe a little bit of background?
00:06:08
Speaker
Sure.
Andrea's Career Journey and Entrepreneurial Insights
00:06:09
Speaker
Well, I was a reluctant entrepreneur. I guess that's the first thing people should know. I was actually my dream. This is going to sound a little strange, but I wanted to be in law enforcement when I was young. And I specifically wanted to be a crime scene investigator. So as I was in college getting my bachelor of science degree in criminal justice,
00:06:37
Speaker
I was working full-time at LensCrafters and I thought that I was going to graduate and become kind of, I guess, a rookie crime scene investigator. That was my vision. And this was before the TV show CSI, so it was like not really even as popular a thing as it is today.
00:06:59
Speaker
I found out that the jobs were very few and far between, very slim. And it was suggested to me that I could maybe, if I worked hard enough, get an unpaid internship. And I really had no desire to do that. I wanted to start earning money. And simultaneously, I had met my now husband at LensCrafters, who convinced me that the better idea was for me to quit my job
00:07:25
Speaker
and at LensCrafters and launch a business with him. And that's exactly what we ended up doing. Now this was after I kind of decided that crime scene investigation was not for me and I pursued full-time managerial employment with LensCrafters. So a few years had gone by, but eventually I did leave become an entrepreneur and have been doing that now for about 20 years. So I didn't start off with having any idea of
00:07:53
Speaker
business and being in business for yourself. And so I have literally failed my way to success, so to speak, although I'm truly, I guess, a success in progress because I never feel like I've truly made it.
00:08:07
Speaker
I love that. I love that. I'm a success in progress. So everybody, there you go. There's your hashtag success in progress. I love the fact that you shared, this isn't what I thought I wanted to be when I grew up. You had a whole different vision, which don't you wish that somebody would have told you that long before you went through the whole process of, of learning and figuring that out.
00:08:27
Speaker
Absolutely. And you know, it's, it's interesting though. I definitely, the one thing that I, that I had that served me really well was I was so naive and I wish sometimes that I can go back there and tap back into that because my naivete
00:08:49
Speaker
at every turn. And especially in the beginning served me because it was like nothing really seemed impossible or difficult or off limits. It was all I was always kind of like, okay, yeah, let's try that. Let's do this. And I'm probably 20 years as an entrepreneur now, unfortunately, far more cynical and far more jaded and far more, you know, okay, well, that's not going to work. And I have
00:09:14
Speaker
to work so much harder now, Sherry, at keeping an open mind sometimes. I definitely that is a struggle. And so having just that fresh, open mindedness and being naive, I think can really serve you. Yeah, you and I, we have that in common. I'm not 20. I'm not 30. I'm not 40.
00:09:39
Speaker
let's just say, we'll call it there. And yeah, you're right. It's like you have this, this, oh my gosh, yeah, let's do this. Let's do that. Let's figure, you know, whatever, we'll figure it out. Just, just, just, just, you're just gonna go do it. And you're so right. And then yeah, it's like, why? Why do we have to
00:09:56
Speaker
do we have to know what we know? It changes everything. So yeah, definitely an asset that you have as the younger you are, the easier it is. It's easier to jump in and do something because
00:10:12
Speaker
You're not in resistance to the knowledge that you have that, oh, that's going to be difficult. That's going to cost you a lot of money, or that's going to waste you a whole lot of time, or whatever else we figure out along the way. So I'm glad you shared that. I'm sorry. I have to jump in and tell you one of my favorite quotes related to that is, fear dresses itself up as practicality.
00:10:34
Speaker
And I love that quote because I think a lot of times that because of what you just said, which I completely agree with, we are on the same page. I think sometimes us being so practical can get in our way. And I think when you start digging into it, it really is fear, right?
00:10:53
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And we visualize the small child who seems fearless, who has no clue that the car could come along and hit them, or some total stranger is going to come and grab them, or whatever, you know, fears you have as a mother. And they're just clueless. They're just bouncing around. And like you said, you know, we try to get back to that place because
00:11:15
Speaker
That is the place we get to explore. That is the place we get to literally figure it out and just see what happens versus preparing our minds and saying, oh, this is going to happen. How do we know? How do we know that's going to happen? We have no idea. Yeah. Oh, that's great. I love that. I find it funny because I follow people and I've been following people probably over the last eight years on social media.
00:11:38
Speaker
And some women who were in their early 30s are now in their 40s. I was with a bunch of them this past weekend, just watching the transitions of exactly that feeling of, I can do anything to, oh my gosh, like, why would you do that? That would not be good. Just really watching it even happen. And there's the girl who wrote The Champagne Diet.
00:12:02
Speaker
I just watched her go through a transition. I thought, Hmm, interesting. So we do evolve, but yeah, trying to stay as youthful as possible, especially if you want to be an entrepreneur because it is, it's, you know, it's failing forward. Absolutely. Well, let me ask you this question. Your husband said, let's do this business. Let's, let's make this happen. Like,
00:12:24
Speaker
Did you have some things in place that made you say, OK, I want to do this? Were there skill sets that you had that said, let's jump in and I'm going to leave my job and move forward? Not particularly. Actually, I didn't wing it. Yeah, I did have one thing and that was I definitely believed in it's funny because we were really a team and we still are. But I definitely believed in his skills.
00:12:54
Speaker
I didn't necessarily believe in my skills in marketing him, but that was our plan. So our plan was to launch this speaking and training company. And my husband's
00:13:04
Speaker
great, amazing speaker trainer. And so our basic fundamental premise of the business was to market him as a speaker and trainer. And I would do the marketing, he would do the presenting, and that was our plan. And it was for very specific niche businesses. Back then it was for retailers, anyone that you would find
00:13:24
Speaker
And walking through your average mall was a potential customer for us. So I basically started cold calling large companies, The Limited back in the day, JCPenney, and I mean, literally any hot topic, I mean, anybody that you'd find in the mall, cold calling them, finding out who the executives were, sending them packages, trying to get hired.
00:13:48
Speaker
I knew that I could do that pretty well. I mean, I wasn't sure exactly what the results would be, but I totally had belief in Rich's ability to deliver. Luckily, we managed to pull it off. We had a couple things go right. One of them was I ended up meeting amazing executive of JCPenney at a networking event, San Francisco. And that meeting led us to getting their business and that pretty much opened the door for us to get other clients because it was
00:14:17
Speaker
Kind of the situation, once you have one client, it's so much easier to get others. It's just having that first like, well, who else are you working with? And it's really difficult to say no one, right? So that first client was so big. So really the answer to your question is I didn't have much, but I did have a belief and a willingness to try it. And I knew that, Hey, if it didn't succeed, that there was always just figure something else out. So I did have that night would take going for me.
00:14:47
Speaker
I was told this by a friend of mine when I first stepped into a position of sales. She says, if you believe in what it is that you're offering, it's never selling if you truly believe in it. So what you did is you were the salesperson who believed in your husband's ability to help people.
00:15:06
Speaker
And there was no question. So I think
Personal Overcoming and Self-Inventory
00:15:09
Speaker
that even this past weekend at Amy Porterfield's event, she said, I really struggle with sales. But if I was asked, and I can't remember the gentleman's name who said to her,
00:15:21
Speaker
Do you feel that offering your students this, you can actually truly help them? And she said, absolutely. Like this is something I really, really believe in. And he says, so then why are you struggling? And that was the moment she realized, oh, it's believing that you truly can, not trying to convince yourself along the way that you can.
00:15:47
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, you do have to have that belief. And I think the biggest challenge is at least I've seen this from entrepreneurs. And I see this right now helping people is I'm kind of
00:16:01
Speaker
in my coaching group helping a lady who's in real estate and she has some big challenges ahead of her. And I said, you need to really remember your value because you've lost it and you're just focusing on selling people.
00:16:18
Speaker
you're not looking at what you're bringing to the table and having that to sell those to serve attitude. One of the things that I believe in doing is kind of a twofold thing. One is really focusing on your character and who you are as a person and writing down your best character traits. And sometimes we just
00:16:39
Speaker
have to, I guess the best word is, reparent ourselves. And that is really being the support person that we need and deserve. And writing down our character traits, saying, I'm a person of high integrity. I'm a person who wants to help other people. I like watching people succeed. When we write down our character traits, it just reminds us of who we are.
00:17:01
Speaker
And then the other thing I had her do is write down the things that she has to offer, just the actual kind of tangible more of the services thing. I can do this for you. I could do that for you. And that's more of like the business thing. So I think tapping into both of those really is powerful. It's kind of that twofold. It's not just the business side, but it's remembering who you are as a person.
00:17:24
Speaker
And I think when we tap into that, we recognize, not only am I a good person, but I deserve success and I deserve to be making sales and to earn a good living because of the value I provide my customers and who I am as a person. Oh my gosh. Okay. I could literally drop the mic right now and be done.
00:17:44
Speaker
Like that, seriously, seriously, Andrea, there's so much focus on marketing and your business and all these other aspects, but hit rewind. You can hear it again and again and again. Like that's huge. When you said the word trades, I connected to that in a big way because life hit me, hit me really hard back in 2012.
00:18:07
Speaker
And it was from Bell's Palsy. I was at the top of my game feeling alive, feeling amazing, doing great, leading a team. Life was fabulous. And then when the Bell's Palsy hit, I was one of those people who was hoping, oh, this is only going to last a couple of weeks, maybe a month, maybe two months, and it's going to be gone. And it never went away. And for me,
00:18:30
Speaker
It tipped away at anything that I felt I had to offer. I almost felt like there was some type of punishment that I was going through. I was like, maybe I wasn't supposed to be doing this. So there was a lot of crazy talk that happened inside of my head that I wasn't supposed to be in this industry. I wasn't supposed to be doing this. And I remember one day, a friend of mine told me to sit down and she says, you know, if you could go back and have this not happen, would you? And I looked at her and I was like, yeah, like, I don't want this. Like, this is terrible.
00:19:00
Speaker
And she just looked at me and she goes, well, then you're not done healing. And to be honest with you, and she knows this, I was flipping her a bird under the table. I'm like, how dare you? How dare you have any idea what I've been through? Like, why would I want to suffer this way?
00:19:15
Speaker
But what I did at that moment was I took those few little words and I said, okay, then there is a reason, like there is a reason this happened. So let's try to just process. And I realized at that moment, there was one thing I had never done.
00:19:31
Speaker
And that was give attention to me, to take inventory of figuring out who I am. What do I have to offer? Exactly that word traits. What are the traits and the values that I have to bring to the world?
00:19:48
Speaker
And was I being punished? No, I wasn't being punished. There wasn't a punishment. No, I didn't do anything wrong. Whatever it is, whether there's a reason or not a reason, but I took a moment to pause to figure myself out. And at that moment, talk about, and this was until, it took till 2014, so two years for me to do that. And it kind of was because I was about ready to get up on stage in front of 5,000 people. And I figured like, what do I have to offer?
00:20:18
Speaker
And that's what it went down to. So taking that time, taking that moment to create that inventory, and I believe you would probably agree, it becomes your foundation. It's your strength. It's your pillars. It's who you are to a core, which then of course comes your intent. What is your intent in doing what it is you're doing? Absolutely. Yeah. Are you a goal setter? Do you set goals?
Vision-Driven Goal Setting
00:20:41
Speaker
I am probably the worst goal setter on the planet.
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah, I don't set goals like I should. I kind of operate on a vision of what I want my life to look like and what I have learned and
00:21:09
Speaker
One of my fatal flaws is that I'm very good at knowing what I don't want. And this is something that I intend on working on a lot in the future even. And that is, I'm like the classic. My husband says, you know, where do you want to go to dinner?
00:21:27
Speaker
This is like ridiculous. I will say, well, and so I'll think about what we've had the last few nights and I'll say, well, you know, last night I made lasagna, so there's no way that I want Italian tonight. So I'm like very clear on what I don't want. And then I'll be like, and I know that I don't want Mexican food. It just doesn't sound good. But
00:21:48
Speaker
ask me what do i want there's two it's like there's too many choices and i'm just not sure and i don't wanna make a decision and so the reason i bring that up is because goal setting has been challenging for me sometimes because i'm not really clear on what i want.
00:22:07
Speaker
So I've kind of spent a large part of our business, and I really appreciated you saying in the beginning that we built a business on this idea, and we really have. The times in my life where I've kind of really gotten clarity on what I've wanted to do, I've been a better goal setter.
00:22:26
Speaker
And I don't even really write them down. It's just kind of almost like, okay, well, let's just start executing. So in 2006, one of the big moments of clarity for my husband and I was we had been working in our business together. I was the marketer. He was the presenter.
00:22:46
Speaker
in the retail industry. And after about five or six years of that, he was totally burnt out and he was so tired of doing it. And I was kind of like, well, this is our life livelihood now son. So, you know, like, let's just keep going. And he said, I really think that you need to
00:23:05
Speaker
speak with me and let's start doing more of go for now and if everything that we did Sherry people loved to go for know the best it wasn't the only thing that we would go out and teach and train but it was the thing that people resonated with so finally we decided that I would speak with him we would become a speaking team we would kind of do the marketing together and
00:23:25
Speaker
And we were going to create the world of go for no like when you came to our website it was going to be the world of go for no speaking and training and tell us seminars and webinars and products and just everything that you can imagine just like bring people in and so I basically ever since then kind of set out to create that.
00:23:46
Speaker
And with no kind of perfect goals for what that looks like, what the time frames are, we've had a goal to sell one million copies of our book.
00:23:58
Speaker
forever. And I remember the timeline goal was, gosh, it was probably like August of 2009 is when we wanted to hit that goal. And then we realized we were definitely not going to hit that goal, like not by any stretch of the imagination. So we said, okay, we still have the goal, one million copies, but there's no time limit.
00:24:17
Speaker
So we're just, we're going to set on the path. So the very long convoluted answer to your question, do I set goals is I've kind of been executing a vision and I have a lot of tiny small goals along the way, but I'm not really a goal setter.
00:24:36
Speaker
Okay. So this is not a moment of intervention or whatever. Like I'm going to help you be a better goal setter. I don't mind any intervention you have to give though. No, I don't know. I have zero intervention because you use the word I use, which is vision. I don't know what to ask for. I don't know what to go for. Like I'm sitting there going like, what does your goals look like?
00:24:58
Speaker
Should I ask for those kind of like, can somebody just give me a multiple choice selection and I'll figure out which one I want best? And in timelines too, I know the smart goals every time. And by the way, that was air quotes, smart goals. It's like, okay, really? I've achieved so many things. You've achieved so many things.
00:25:19
Speaker
Never once, pen to paper, guys, just going to tell you, never once, pen to paper. It's the decision to take the action, right? You took action on something you were being pulled to, whether it meant because you had to, whether it meant you decided you didn't want to do something, and so you did something else.
00:25:39
Speaker
So I'm so glad you said that because success does not necessarily have the formula that says you must write down your goals. So for those of you who do write them down, they're working for you. And for those of you who are like Andrea and myself, you're not. And doesn't mean you can't achieve your goals. So I love that you said that. So glad you said that. Sorry, no intervention today.
00:26:04
Speaker
It's one of those where me too girl, me too, me too totally can relate to that. Yeah. And especially in my previous network marketing world where I was like, well, the goal is the next rank. I don't know what else I need to write down. Like, am I supposed to write something else down? I don't know. Like I know how many team members it's going to take to get there. So.
00:26:24
Speaker
Basically, you've just made it easy for me. So I don't know what else I'm supposed to write down. So awesome. Do you have kind of a routine that you kind of go through on a daily basis or creature of habit or do you like to shake things up? I do have probably my grounding routine is to write down everything that
Daily Task Management with a Spiral Notebook
00:26:47
Speaker
I
00:26:47
Speaker
can possibly think of or need that needs to get done in a spiral notebook. It's like my kind of my daily Bible and I rely on it so much that my husband he like if there's something that he thinks he can casually ask me
00:27:06
Speaker
like, Oh, yeah, can you try to remember to do x, y or z? I always tell them I say if it does not get in my book, it will not get done because I live and die by what is in my book, I write everything down so that when I start my day, I basically look and see, okay, what happened yesterday? What were all the things that I didn't get to? Alright, so today, and and I'll have everything written down. So like, for when I came in today, it was
00:27:34
Speaker
you were in my notebooks here. I mean, I knew that we were gonna talk today and I knew everything else that was going on. And so that is kind of how I manage things. But other than that, I really do like spontaneity and I like to go with the flow and I do believe theoretically in batching things. And yet I'm just also someone who like, when I say batching things, this idea of
00:28:04
Speaker
trying to get all of my podcasts or things done in a certain day or do these things. I believe that there are certain tasks that you can batch to be more effective. But yet, I'd like really to have fun. And I have definitely, while I am not officially diagnosed, some serious attention deficit going on. So if I have to sit still and do anything for more than a couple hours, I have to mix it up.
00:28:33
Speaker
And that's just a challenge, right? Oh my gosh. We could be, this is, you're the first person I have ever spoken to that ever, which is kind of crazy being you and I probably talk to a lot of people. You're the first person I've spoken with that I could literally probably have a conversation that says me too, me too, me too.
00:28:52
Speaker
I'm with you 100%, so totally relate again. No intervention here to help you with any of that because I think we're both looking for, like, should we change? Do we need to change? If it's working, right? If it's working, can we be better? I don't know. You probably think like I do. Would I be more efficient? And by the way, so I will, full disclosure, I'm actually a former professional organizer.
00:29:18
Speaker
Oh my gosh. I know. Sounds crazy, right? And people say, you're so organized. You're so organized. I said, here's what I am. I create flow.
00:29:27
Speaker
I create ease. That's what I create. I'm not going to sit there and shackle myself or anyone to a structure. I want movement. And because we are, here we are, we're energy beings, we have to move. Things happen, life happens, but I just try to create and help things to flow. And when I say organization, some people instantly go to a closet like, oh, organize my closet.
00:29:56
Speaker
I've done organization for small businesses, for large, very, very, very multi-billion dollar companies. But where the hiccups are happening, where flow does not exist, and also for people. So just helping them. I love the word flow. Yeah. So I so agree with that. And I have never been able to put it into words about of how I kind of like my day to go. But yeah, it's got a flow. It's got an ebb and flow, right? You just have some
00:30:26
Speaker
some periods where you, and I mean, I think that you're right about the energy. We have to go with kind of the type of person that we are and the type of energy that we like. And when you do start to shackle yourself, if you're not that type of person, it just doesn't work. I mean, you do, I fully believe in the concept of sabotage. And I know that any time I don't want to do something and I know I will sabotage it.
00:30:55
Speaker
I'm okay. Oh, where have you been my whole life? Where have you been my whole life? What I really love is anyone who listens to this podcast, there's got to be 50% of the population who's going to relate to this. I just feel that there's not enough spoken.
00:31:10
Speaker
Into this conversation as much as the very nice organized. Here's my day planner Here's my this I mean by the way, here's my planner. It's sitting over here. I actually just Sorry, Shaleen Johnson. I love you. I think you're amazing. I bought your books. I attempted to do it all I used three of her daily journals and
00:31:32
Speaker
and they were maybe five percent filled out and it just didn't work because you have to find what works for you and it just didn't. So I'm going to donate them. So somebody who is not like me will get benefit from them. But I love that fact that it's not it's not a one size fits all. It's not a this is always my joking song is always this is how we do it. It just isn't always how we do it. So I love this conversation.
00:32:02
Speaker
So, give us an example of some of the things outside of this podcast that you might put on your list that you feel would actually make it into the notebook. Oh my gosh, Shari, literally so, so many different things. One of the things that Richard and I are
Writing and Self-Publishing Course
00:32:21
Speaker
digging into a whole little side fun business is because we wrote Go 4 Know and it's been really successful all these years. We're creating a writing and creating we've created a course called how to write a short book that sells forever. And so in addition to everything that I'm doing for Go 4 Know,
00:32:41
Speaker
A lot of what I do is studying and looking at book publishing. And so a lot of the things on my list are related to helping people self-publish books, doing things for our course for students who are going through and learning how to write and publish and market books.
00:33:01
Speaker
We do a lot of book coaching. So for example, tomorrow we are interviewing a gentleman who is a ghostwriter for consultants. And he wrote a book on the different types of stories that you can use to include in your book. So a lot of the things in my notebook that maybe wouldn't necessarily relate to go for no relate to books, actually.
00:33:24
Speaker
you would be writing down just like different tasks, like read this, check on this, listen to things. interview this person, read this, write this blog post. Absolutely. A lot of different tasks. Yeah.
00:33:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you and I, I don't know if you did this, but way back when somebody who had captured my attention that I thought, gosh, I wish I could just be a fly on the wall and just walk around and see what does their day look like? Probably more so like, so that I could say, Hmm, I want to do that too. But I know that a lot of people, that's what they want to know. I remember
00:34:02
Speaker
even thinking about when people would say, and I write everything down on my list and I would think, well, see, my list looks like this. My list looks like drop off dry cleaning, you know, pick this up. Don't forget to read this. Don't forget to pick up this. Oh, recheck that email that told you like, you know, your thing, your Zapier has just been disconnected for some reason, like check on Zapier. It's like, this is what the list looks like. And I thought, it doesn't really look like the needle
00:34:31
Speaker
is gonna move forward by any of these tasks, but if I don't do some of these things, things will fall apart. So that's some of my list, right? And then some of my other list. Yes, yes, I have all those things on my list, yes.
00:34:44
Speaker
Yeah, right. So speaking of lists, so when I was building my website, which I think I have built four different websites because all that were same, you know, same domain, but they were, when I was in network marketing, it was one thing. When I was transitioning, it was another, but this would be the task, build website.
00:35:05
Speaker
Build website, build website. And so like every day it would transfer right to the next, to the next, to the next. And then of course it became like, oh my God, I don't even want to look at that anymore. I'm so over that stupid flipping website until I connected with Asana. So I do like the digital world. I'm a digital girl. And so Asana, A-S-A-N-A, which by the way, they're not a sponsor of this podcast.
00:35:33
Speaker
When I discovered that and was taught how to break down what actually are the tasks, so instead of it being a to-do, it was like the task. Oh, it changed everything. It was, you know, write 10 bullet points for your bio. Okay, well, there you go. That's a task. I can be done with that today, right? And so breaking that down, what a huge difference that made. Do you do anything like that?
00:35:59
Speaker
Um, I get pretty micro as well, but I really like that idea. And, um, yes, I do absolutely break it down because you have to, if you just, I know exactly what you're talking about. You just kind of put this big giant bullet point on your to-do list and it's like, well, where do I begin? So it's okay. Write copy for homepage, write bio.
00:36:21
Speaker
figure out what products you want listed in your product shopping cart. By the way, I did hop onto your website and read your bio and I just want you to know that I'm super jealous that you had a DeLorean.
00:36:36
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Okay. So I have to tell you, so going through one of my favorite things to do having a DeLorean was go to do a drive-thru, which I mean, everybody thought like there were these super expensive cars. They weren't super expensive. There was just very hard to get to come by.
00:36:53
Speaker
And yes, it was a brand new one. It wasn't like it was, you know, umpteen years later, it was all in the time in which they had to come out in that very short little window. But it was so funny because yeah, you know, like they'd hand you your soda and your window is like this little tiny itty bitty little window that isn't even as tall as a soda, but you master it. After a while, you're like, yes, you take it and you bring it in on an angle.
00:37:18
Speaker
But people would like stand there like with a soda and look at you like, how are you going to get this into that car? So yeah, it was it was a lot of fun. Very stylish, very, you know, it wasn't like a super fast car or anything. Yeah, I liked it. It was fun. It was it was a lot of fun. So yes, one of my fun facts.
00:37:38
Speaker
So going back into your business, do you have a team? Do you work with a team of people? Are you a solopreneur? That's a great
Business Structure and Operations
00:37:45
Speaker
question. So we have a young woman who has been our, it's funny, I call her assistant. She's not a personal assistant. She's more of a marketing assistant and she has helped us with every
00:38:01
Speaker
project, every bright shiny object, every everything for the last probably six years. And it's kind of gone up and down. She's worked for us full time. She had two babies. And so she was gone for a while and then kind of took a break for a little while while Richard and I reconfigured our business and figured out exactly what we were doing. And now she's back with us kind of on a part time basis while her kids are kind of
00:38:30
Speaker
still getting used to going to preschool and that kind of thing. And a team is so important. I've got people probably in every little nook and cranny that you can think of just in terms of
00:38:46
Speaker
of technology tasks and things like that. But that said, I'm a big believer, and probably to a fault Richard and I both, in really understanding technology and having some measure of control over things. There's a lot that I just do myself. Like for example,
00:39:06
Speaker
I fundamentally built the my entire go for no training course online training course myself because I wanted to know I wanted to operate it and I'm involved in customer service and I wanted to know how it worked and both Richard and I are very
00:39:23
Speaker
particular about our brand and what we say and you just like to be able to make changes quickly I think that's probably the biggest thing without having to wait and wait till Monday and call like some company and say hey I need you guys to
00:39:39
Speaker
log into our website and change this. I mean, if you want something changed, when you're an entrepreneur, you want to be able to pivot like immediately because you come up with some idea and it has to happen now, or there's some problem and you've got to fix it now.
Technology's Role in Business Control
00:39:53
Speaker
So yeah, we definitely use freelance independent contractors, accountant, I mean, just as many people as possible to kind of take the load off
00:40:04
Speaker
Curious. Did you use a platform like Kajabi? That's exactly what I use. Okay. So just a shout out for anyone out there. If you're going to build a course, you don't need to go and hire some web builder who's going to figure, you know,
00:40:24
Speaker
write code for your course and everything else, use Kajabi. I had an opportunity this past weekend to meet with some of the members of their sales team as well as some of their corporate people as well. And, you know, there's just technology advances and we got to stay connected and know what's out there because you wait around long enough, you can have things do it for you. And I love that.
00:40:49
Speaker
The scary part of it and the thing that I am very mindful of, and I'm proud of my parents because they've kept up with things and my mom uses, has a smartphone and she kind of stays up on things is,
00:41:08
Speaker
As soon as you decide that you're done that you don't want to learn things what happens is it makes learning everything else that much more difficult so it's kind of like if you never use a regular telephone.
00:41:23
Speaker
Then the transition from regular telephone to cell phone, if all of a sudden I handed you a cell phone, I said, go ahead and make a call. At least if you had the telephone as your underlying foundation, you'd say, oh, how do I dial the telephone number? Now, if you had never used a telephone, you wouldn't even know that question to ask, right? And so I think that's why technology is being willing to learn is so important because
00:41:47
Speaker
that basis of knowledge just keeps building and building and building. And eventually, if you're just out of it and you just say, that's it, I don't care, I don't want to learn it, then three years from now, somebody is going to make a comment and they're going to say, well, it's just like kajabi, but it has some features like Asana. And you'll say, I don't even know what you're talking about. What does that mean? And now you're so far behind it. It's just almost impossible to catch up. So that building on that foundation, even if you're slow, is so important to me.
00:42:16
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that is, that's incredible advice. Definitely. And you know what? You're so right. I thought you were going to go down the path of, you know, your brain is a muscle. Keep, you know, keep using it, teach it something new. But what you just said is so right. And I, I've been saying all along, you're either going to jump in
00:42:35
Speaker
Figure it out or get run over by those who already know and 100% agree to know to know to know to know to know and then to know what else is out there that's next because I remember building so here's my My first website I ever built Was not because I said I want to build a website. That was not my intention. I
00:42:56
Speaker
I was tired of sending these long emails, providing all kinds of content to somebody with some potential interest in my business. And it was like, oh my gosh. And I told my husband, I said, I wish there was just like one place where I could just put all of this stuff and it would just be there. And he looks at me and he goes, we'll build a website. And I go, dude.
00:43:17
Speaker
I mean, Word is my forte. Like I can type a Word document or type an email. And he says, well, the Mac has some type of thing that allows you to build a website. We were in the middle of breakfast. I jumped up out of breakfast. I thought, there's a solution to a problem I have. I'm going to go figure it out.
00:43:36
Speaker
And I think I emerged three days later and said, ta-da, you know, here it is, but not without kicking and screaming and swearing and hating life and calling myself lots and lots of names and just wanting somebody to run in and do it for me.
00:43:55
Speaker
But I didn't and I had a post the other day that I said I said you know I'm a two-year-old sometimes and you know thank God nobody comes and sues me and gives me whatever I want because on the other side I'm a stronger human being so anyway but that was my first journey and and it was called I web
00:44:12
Speaker
And once I learned iWeb, I thought I had nailed it, got it. And then all of a sudden all these other applications started coming out and I thought, well, now I'm going to learn this one and Weebly and Wix and WordPress. And so yeah, so here we are, right? We got to keep moving and advancing and, and not be afraid. And it's not that I had any major skillsets. Well, and I like that you said, I like that you brought up the, the afraid because I dragged my feet on getting online, the online course, I should say.
00:44:41
Speaker
for way too long. I saw the handwriting on the wall, and we had created a lot of fun products for Go 4 Know, a CD training program, an affirmation CD, and we even did our own documentary movie a few years ago, and so we had a DVD.
Taking Action and Launching Courses
00:44:59
Speaker
But obviously, we all know that online training is huge, and I just couldn't decide, couldn't decide.
00:45:08
Speaker
That's why I think events can be so powerful. We ended up going to an event last year. There was a woman there who, this is crazy, she is making over a million dollars a year teaching dog agility training, not just dog training, dog specifically the agility piece of it. So talk about a profitable, interesting niche.
00:45:33
Speaker
And she's doing phenomenally well. And she was just so, her attitude was so just do it. Just launch it. And the event was called LaunchCon. It's by a guy named Jeff Walker who wrote a book called Launch. And it's all about just launching your products and services. And something finally, the switch, I guess finally flipped because I really am open. And I believe in
00:45:59
Speaker
testing and trying and failing very, very much. I mean, our whole business is based on being willing to fail. I just could never take action on it. And then that
00:46:09
Speaker
one event just kind of gave me I guess that permission to just do it and finally make a decision. So I did drag my feet way too long. So I appreciate getting the credit for it. But sometimes, you know, to the timing was just right, because I was finally in the right state of mind. And I was so by the time I signed up for for kajabi and started digging into I was so ready. And my mind was so open. I was so poised to knock it out. And
00:46:39
Speaker
Even my regret, I have to say, you know what? It all happened. The timing all happened the perfect way. It just unfolded the way it was supposed to unfold. So I'm not even going to cry over, oh, I could have done it a year earlier. No, it's all fine.
00:46:54
Speaker
Oh my gosh. It's like the, you know, the close of yesterday's podcast. But my guests said, uh, you know, we are, we are where we're supposed to be doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing. And that's, that is, um, that's exactly what you just said. So it's huge.
00:47:10
Speaker
Absolutely. The name of his course was again. Oh, so this is, uh, it's called launch launch launch. Okay. So Amy Porterfield just announced a workshop. Actually it's a workshop called finish. So it's all over revolving around courses and how many people think that they're going to do a course or they sounds like a great idea, but what are they even going to teach to begin with?
00:47:35
Speaker
And so sometimes you need that push, that little like, okay, go, like ready, go, launch, you know, go and do it. And my husband and I, we've, you know, I've gone back and forth. I thought, I have a lot of skill sets in consulting. I have a lot, I mean, I don't know about you, but you probably feel like you have all kinds of different things you can offer.
00:47:59
Speaker
I'm that person who just seems to have this huge plethora of passions and skill sets, and it really was a matter of figuring out what, you know, what was I strongest in was one, but the other was what am I most passionate about? What could I spend hours talking about? What could I spend hours digging in?
00:48:20
Speaker
And I think that that's something that you have to do. And I know you were, you had that guidance of you were very passionate about the go for no concept, which is why you built this beautiful company surrounding that concept, which is, that's huge. And there's so many different ways that you can help and support people just in that one concept. So having that
00:48:41
Speaker
It's so important. Ultimately for me, it was a combined passion for us, my husband and I, and that was huge passion for marketing and getting people's messages out there. That's my passion. And I am huge on the visuals. So because I always said, you know, a picture's worth a thousand words, but a video is worth millions. And that's the industry we've been in for 25 years.
00:49:07
Speaker
We had to adjust, we had to change the concepts of where we were putting the attention into video as opposed to doing, he's the editor on the show called Fixer Upper, which of course is no longer recording any new seasons and lots and lots of shows. So Tiny House, Big Living, those are some of the most recent ones. But that's been a lot of what he's done for years, telling those people's stories.
00:49:31
Speaker
a lot of reality type television, not so reality. And then also big corporations and done a lot of documentaries and told some really good stories. And I love that about what he's done. And then I'm the eye for how do we help to tell the individual stories. So I loved working with him on the documentaries when we were working together on those.
00:49:52
Speaker
And I love helping people when they, you know, when they start a business or they're trying to figure out, you know, their why, their passion, their direction. And that's, so we just combine that. It's like, so now we're, we're, we're actually putting together a course as well.
00:50:07
Speaker
A shameless little plug here, but it's like that process of figuring it out is my point to sharing that is, you know, some people know exactly what they want. They just need to figure out the how. And then some people, they figured it out how, but they're not exactly sure what.
00:50:23
Speaker
So have grace have grace. Well, I know we're kind of coming to the end of our podcast time because we don't want to I know we could probably go on and on and on forever and ever and and and like I said, you know, like I said to you before we even started the reason this podcast even exists is
00:50:43
Speaker
It's been that opportunity that I have had on my journey to connect with people like, like Andrea and being able to say like, I get so much out of these conversations. I get so much knowledge and wisdom and richness that it was just all pouring into me. And now having the opportunity to have a podcast, which again, everything is figureoutable.
00:51:07
Speaker
have no idea, right? And even the preparation was just kind of like, I think I waited long enough that Zencaster came out. It was like, we're using Zencaster because that was a whole lot easier than navigating that whole Zoom and the three other apps that we had to have to combine.
00:51:22
Speaker
But yeah, figure it out and then just do it. So I'm glad you're here with me today. Thank you so much. Wow, you are so, so welcome. So I want you to have an opportunity to, as we sit here with the women that are sitting in their spaces right now surrounding us in this space,
00:51:45
Speaker
I refer to this as, you know, we're all in a beautiful retreat together. We're all learning and growing. And this was an opportunity for you to share and to help other people. What else could you add that you would want people to walk away from this podcast, even in a call to action or something
Embracing Rejection and Pursuing Goals
00:52:05
Speaker
else? I think I would have to be go for no related and because it is my passion and I love sharing.
00:52:14
Speaker
Yes, love sharing the wisdom of Go4Know. And probably my favorite piece of advice that I like to give is Go4Know is all about not saying no to yourself and being willing to let other people say no to you. In other words, to face rejection.
00:52:33
Speaker
And not just face it, but to really go for it, to really go out there and intentionally open yourself up and be willing to hear a no in order to achieve your goals and dreams. And my overriding concern in my business is that people don't do what they want to do, live their goals and dreams, pursue something because
00:52:56
Speaker
They just assume they're going to get told no. They talk themselves out of it. They get one no. They assume it's never. And so the thing that I always say to people is go out there and just start hearing no more often. And even if that is an everyday life, it doesn't have to be a business situation. You don't have to, I'm not telling you to go out and start prospecting 100 people a day in your business or anything scary.
00:53:23
Speaker
But just start practicing, even if you walk into a restaurant and you and your significant other get sat in the horrible table in the very back of the restaurant. And there's, of course, the cute table up in the front with the flower on it in the window. And just take that courage in that moment to ask for that better table, see what happens. And the worst thing that can happen is that you'll get to know
00:53:49
Speaker
The best thing that can happen is you'll get a yes and you will have built your courage and your confidence in that process. So that's what I wanted to leave people with is just to go out there and try.
00:54:00
Speaker
Yeah. Oh my gosh. What a great analogy. I have goosebumps. You have to build that muscle and practice, practice, practice. Did you say at some point ask for a discount? Yes. You never know what you can get until you ask for it. But somebody said something and I think they said they got it from you or they made the decision to do it because of your book. But they said every single time they buy something, they always say, do I get a discount? Do I get a discount?
00:54:28
Speaker
And I actually did that this weekend multiple times. I think we were like in a little sub shop or something like that. And I said, I said, is there a discount that you're offering today? And the guy's like, well, let me see. And I thought, wow, this really does work. And like you said, the only thing that they could do is say no. So. That's so funny. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Just have fun with it. Yeah, but just have fun with it. Yeah. It's like, and don't ask the question. Does this dress make me look fat? We don't need to go there.
00:54:59
Speaker
don't need to go there. Oh my gosh. So I have loved, loved, loved getting to know you and I have a feeling we're going to be talking more because I'm probably going to be calling you and saying, okay, what do you think? Okay, this is me. Are you doing this too? So yes, we have to do that.
00:55:15
Speaker
You know, I have a feeling it's just so nice to know that there's somebody else out there that's like me. I am going to wrap this call and just, Andrea, I am thankful beyond words to share every single minute, every single juicy little minute of this time with you because I know I walk away feeling better. I know that you have provided something that other people can walk away and actually take action on.
00:55:40
Speaker
And yes, go for no, go for no. Don't be afraid. Like you just said, it's all about building that muscle and building that confidence and not having to live a life of smallness, but living to the greatest potential that you have, living out your brilliance and being the brilliantista you are definitely meant to be. So thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much.
00:56:06
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Brilliantista podcast. If you love the show and have a moment, please let us know by leaving a review or subscribe to the podcast. Truly, this would mean the world to me and my team. And remember, ladies, share this with your friends because that's what friends do. If you want to stay connected, go to brilliantista.com and join our Facebook group. You can also find me on social media at Sherry Custer or Brilliantista on all platforms.
00:56:32
Speaker
Most importantly, I hope you heard something today that inspires you to elevate your brilliance. Bye for now, Brilliantista. We'll be back next week.