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EP566: Claire Chandler - How To Attract Ideal Clients By Being Fully Me
129 Plays6 months ago
“The dent I want to make in the universe is really to end workplace misery.”
Claire's story is incredibly inspiring. She's not only a corporate survivor but also a cancer survivor. She went from climbing the corporate ladder to carving out her own path as an executive leadership advisor. What sets Claire apart is her mission to help organizations keep their top talent while fostering authentic leadership.
One of the key points Claire shares is about attracting ideal clients. It's not about fancy marketing tactics or sales pitches. It's about being authentically you. Her journey of building genuine connections with clients by simply being herself, it works like magic. Claire also shares the challenges she faces in scaling her impact. She's honest about the struggle of letting go and trusting others to carry the torch while maintaining the authenticity that defines her work.
She envisions a future where she's recognized as a go-to expert in leadership transformation. She dreams of empowering leaders worldwide and making a profound impact on organizational culture.
So, if you're looking to attract ideal clients and make a real difference in your industry,
Explore her books on Amazon for in-depth knowledge and practical strategies:
Visit her website to learn more about her services and approach to leadership transformation:
Connect with Claire to stay updated on her latest insights and discussions:
https://www.clairechandler.net/
Check out Claire’s latest book Growth On Purpose:
https://www.growthonpurpose.com/
Visit eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.
Recommended
Transcript
Transforming Leaders to Change Culture
00:00:00
Speaker
The dent I want to make in the universe is really to end workplace misery by helping convert and transform the leaders at the very top of an organization because they have the biggest impact on the culture that is the absolute foundation of their business.
00:00:17
Speaker
I believe in truly being my authentic self because I can't walk into a corporation and try to help leaders get out of their own way and embrace authenticity if I'm not being fully genuine.
Podcast Introduction with Nikki Ballou
00:00:33
Speaker
Welcome to the Thought Leader Revolution with Nikki Ballou. Join the revolution. There's never been a better time in history to speak your truth, find your freedom, and make your fortune. Each week, we interview the world's top thought leaders and learn the secrets of how they built a six to seven-figure practice. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.
Guest Introduction: Claire Chandler
00:01:03
Speaker
Welcome to another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. I'm your host, Nikki Baloo. I'm glad we have an exciting guest lined up for you today. She's another one of our exciting emerging thought leaders, the one and only Claire Chandler. Welcome to the show, Claire. Thanks, Nikki. I love the enthusiasm. It's great to be here. Great to have you here. So, Claire, tell us your backstory. How did you get to be the great Claire Chandler?
Claire's Personal Journey and Passion Reassessment
00:01:28
Speaker
Oh, how much time you got, right? Uh, so I'm a self-professed corporate and cancer survivor. So I spent the first 20 years or so of my professional life in corporate, uh, as a full-time corporate employee. Uh, and then in 2011, I was, uh, you know, the drill. I was fully on the corporate hamster wheel traveling three weeks out of every four, uh, you know, going 150 miles an hour, got the call.
00:01:58
Speaker
Got diagnosed with cancer, had to, you know, full stop on everything in my, in my career, take a month off, have surgery, deal with all of that. And it was in that time off that I, I had to reckon with the reality that I wasn't really doing what I was passionate about. That while I was enjoying a good career and ascending the corporate ladder and had a wonderful team and enjoyed the people that I worked around, um, my heart wasn't in it.
Founding of Talent Boost and Leadership Focus
00:02:26
Speaker
So I used that great gift of that time off that cancer gave me to kind of reassess where I was Reevaluate what I wanted to do and got healthy went back to work You know sort of negotiated a peaceful separation And that was highly amicable and then jumped into the entrepreneurial unknown so the first couple of years I
00:02:51
Speaker
I didn't have a firm plan. I didn't have a brand dialed in. I didn't have a unique selling proposition, any of those things. So I spent the first couple of years really just sort of honing what it was that I wanted to do of all the things that I could do. And it took until about 2013 for me to found my company, Talent Boost.
00:03:11
Speaker
And fast forward to today, I'm an executive leadership advisor and I focus on helping large organizations continue to expand without losing their best talent.
Mission to End Workplace Misery
00:03:23
Speaker
Well, you answered my next question, which was what's the big problem you solve for your clients? So you help people expand without losing their best talent. Gosh, darn it. How cool are you, Claire Chandler? You kind of are a bit of a mind reader, eh? You got ahead and they keep a loop. But this leads to my next question. What's the dent that you're seeking to make in the universe? Having been on the inside of
Serving Large Corporations and Talent Retention
00:03:50
Speaker
corporate America,
00:03:52
Speaker
I kind of got inundated with people saying how miserable they were at work. And there's a reason we have memes around, well, if people really enjoyed it, they wouldn't call it work, right? So the dent I want to make in the universe is really to end
00:04:12
Speaker
workplace misery. And to find the best way for me to do that is by helping convert and transform the leaders at the very top of an organization because they have the biggest impact on not just the level of engagement of their employees, but also on the culture that is the absolute foundation of their business.
00:04:34
Speaker
Damn, end workplace misery. How cool are you? And you want to convert and transform the top leadership. Girl, you got it going on. I'm loving this in a corporation. Okay, so these big corps, they're your peeps. They're your big clients. They're your ideal client, right?
00:04:55
Speaker
That's correct. Yeah, they are my bread and butter. Oh God, you answered my next question! How cool are you? Oh my God! So currently, Claire Chandler, oh you awesomeness you! How are you currently attracting your ideal clients?
Attracting Clients Through Authenticity
00:05:11
Speaker
Tell me!
00:05:13
Speaker
The way that I attract my ideal clients, ironically enough, is by being completely me. Going from a full-time employee where I had a salary, day in and day out.
00:05:26
Speaker
to forming my own business and having to build that out of a foundation of nothing other than my name and my personality. I found that the more I leaned into that as my unique selling proposition, right? That when you work with me, I'm the person in the room with you. And I bring all of my experience and my perspective and my knowledge and my methodologies and all of that is great.
00:05:53
Speaker
But it's really through this lens of, I believe in owning my walk, right? I believe in truly being my authentic self because I can't walk into a corporation and try to help leaders get out of their own way and embrace authenticity if I'm not being fully genuine.
00:06:13
Speaker
So when they work with me, they get a hundred percent of me. They get me and all of my quirky uniqueness and they get out of their own way because I kind of disarm them a little bit and get them to bring down their walls.
Building Business and Importance of People
00:06:28
Speaker
Damn, like you answered this series of questions so well. It's almost freaky, freaky deepy. I love it. This is great. So share with me kind of like your, when you get in front of clients, I get that they fall in love with who you are because they see, yeah, this lady is representative of
00:06:56
Speaker
the problem that I have, good people like her leaving. So she knows why and she can help me. I can totally get that. But how do you get those people to know who the heck you are?
00:07:10
Speaker
So you're talking from a, from a business development and from an awareness. Yeah. Yeah. Attracting attention point of view. Yeah. Yeah. It's certainly not, uh, this is not a story of overnight success, right? I didn't, I didn't leave the, the, the safe, comfortable walls of corporate and instantly build a business where it is today. It has been literally a 10 year journey, a 10 plus year journey.
00:07:34
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And I think part of it is not just continuing to be authentic, but really being okay with not speaking the language of corporate, not talking like, you know, it's so funny because invariably all of my clients get to two realizations. They will ask me pretty soon in our engagement, are you sure you have an HR background? Because you don't talk like somebody from HR, from human resources, right? And the other thing is when I talk with them one on one, especially executive leaders,
00:08:04
Speaker
Every single one of them at some point during our relationship together says, why does this always feel like a therapy session? And I think that is part of it. I've tried and fallen short on every marketing and business development tactic you can think of as a solopreneur. And what I found attracted the right people into my orbit. And when I say right people, people who click with me,
00:08:29
Speaker
Right. People where we have a chemistry where we deeply can care about each other and do some amazing work together and still be friends by the end of it. Right. And so for me, what has been most successful is not just being authentic, but showing up, not looking for an answer to their problem in the first conversation.
00:08:50
Speaker
but really just to listen and give them the gift of I've been where they are. I've been an executive leader. I've been within corporate. I've had conversations with employees just like theirs who are struggling and suffering and don't want to live like that anymore. And so when they show up to a conversation with me and they're bracing themselves for where's the sales pitch and they don't get one.
00:09:18
Speaker
Those are the people who kind of pull closer to my orbit, right?
Engaging Clients Genuinely
00:09:24
Speaker
I post a lot on social media, specifically on LinkedIn. I have a few books. I'm working on my latest one now. And I do podcasts. I have great podcast conversations like this one we're having now where people listen and it takes one thing I say to resonate with them. And then they go, yeah, you're talking to me.
00:09:47
Speaker
you're speaking exactly to my pain. And let me go reach out to Claire and see if I can get on our calendar. That has been, for me, the most successful way of bringing clients or prospective clients, I should say, closer to my orbit.
Challenges in Scaling and Growth
00:10:05
Speaker
Just talk to them like I'm real, they're real. And if this resonates, let's talk about it, because I'm here for you.
00:10:18
Speaker
This is really, really good. And I'll tell you this, you know, my business coach, mentor, this man named Mark Farmuse, he was Tony Robbins' director of coaching and training for five years. He grew Tony's coaching business from zero to over 30 million and helped the rest of the organization add over 100 million in business. And then he worked with an organization called Clients on the Man until just recently moving off on his own. And he always has said,
00:10:44
Speaker
to me, it's a people game. It's not a numbers game. It's a people game. And my father, my late father, God rest his soul, he would tell me when I was growing up, son, life is about people, not about money. He'd even look at me when I was eight. I remember he told me, business is about people, not money. And this smart alec eight-year-old, I'd go, oh, dad, come on. Now I got you, dad. Business is about money. Without money, there's no business, dad. What are you talking about? I was so proud of myself. Eight years old, I got my dad. He'd go, yes, son. But without people, there's no need for money.
00:11:12
Speaker
Business is about solving problems for people for profit. That's the purpose of business, P to the power of four. Problems, people, profit, purpose. And I'm like, wow, that was deep. It took me a while to really get that.
00:11:28
Speaker
And Mark always share that with me is don't wreak of commission breath when you go into a conversation. That doesn't mean don't ask for the sale because you should ask for the sale. The right thing for the client. And believe me, I have no compunction. I don't care if, you know, I will ask if I think it's the right thing for the client.
00:11:45
Speaker
It is so beautiful to hear you say this. I mean, you and I were kindred spirits. I kind of felt that from the moment you got on the session. So it's a beautiful thing to hear you share your view on this. Would you share with us one of your biggest client success stories? So I've been working with one company in particular that has really kind of
00:12:13
Speaker
I don't even know how to describe it. It's such a labor of love, and I mean that in such a good way. I was having a conversation with their head of HR just the other day, and we've been working together now for about two years, and he said, are you still enjoying working with us? Now, just think about that. He's the client. He's paying me to come in there and help him kind of transform his business and all of that.
00:12:37
Speaker
And he's always checking in to make sure that I'm still getting fulfillment from the relationship, which is one of the reasons that I gravitate toward him and that I could just continue to work with this amazing organization. But when I first got in there and started to work with them, they were about six months post merger. They had gone through a pretty significant combination of two
00:13:00
Speaker
legacy organizations. And those two organizations, even though they had been in the same industry, and we've heard this story before, they could not have been more different from a cultural standpoint. One was highly bureaucratic, very rigid, had a lot of best practices, but couldn't get out of their own way. The other one was the cowboys of the industry. They had no rules. They had no rhyme or reason. They couldn't replicate
00:13:23
Speaker
the successes that they had, so they also kept replicating their failures, right? And so I was brought in initially to help them restructure their HR organization because in mashing up these two cultures and bringing some people in from outside,
00:13:41
Speaker
That isn't enough, right? You can't just put people in the same room and set it and forget it and hope that everyone is going to sing Kumbaya and figure out how to be true guides to the business. And so when I first stepped in, they had a very high vacancy rate and they had an employee engagement rate around 27% just within human resources. And so in working with them, I did a lot of sort of
00:14:07
Speaker
Outside perspective assessment, and I don't mean diagnostically, although I did employ some of that, it was really having one-on-one conversations with every member of that team to understand where they were. I deeply believe in any client engagement. I need to meet people where they are.
00:14:25
Speaker
and not just try to sell them on, this is the future state you want to be at. And they keep jumping for it. They can't quite get there, right? So you want to meet them where they are. So I had a lot of one-on-one conversations, brought in a lot of my best practices. We did a re-org, we did a redesign, and all the things that came with that to help people really feel like they were co-creating a better environment, a better structure, a better way to work together.
00:14:51
Speaker
And by the end of that phase of the project, I continue to work with the organization today, but for that sort of microcosm first project, they went from a 27% employee engagement to 100. Wow. Yeah. And I just loved being part of their journey. I am not sitting here today, Nikki, and telling you, well, it was because of me, they went from 27 to 100.
00:15:16
Speaker
It was because of their relationship and because they were open to having conversations in a different way, looking at things from a different angle and even putting some people into different roles to play better to their strengths that they got there. You know, I always say those results that my clients get, they get those results. I'm here to help facilitate that, get them out of their own way and unlock what is already amazing inside of them. But yeah, that to me was one I was super proud of.
00:15:46
Speaker
Listen, the coach is important, but the players are the one who play and win the game and ain't the coach. The coach is sitting on the sidelines, you know, doing their best to like, infuse the player with belief, infuse the player with some tweaks that are in their blind spot that'll help them move. But this sounds super califragilistic, brilliant. I love it. I love it. So Claire, as an emerging thought leader,
00:16:10
Speaker
A woman with a massive desire to make a huge dent in the universe. What's the biggest challenge you're currently facing in scaling and helping way more people?
00:16:21
Speaker
Well, the biggest challenge is there's only one of me and there's so many of them, right? I think a lot of solopreneurs or even entrepreneurs of smaller companies will tell you that is the hardest part is to let go. I think most entrepreneurs can relate to the fact that we're control freaks, right? No, not us. I know, right? Yeah, I resemble that remark too. I mean, we don't go out into business for ourselves so that we can go work for somebody else and give up control again.
00:16:49
Speaker
It is partly maybe solely because we are control freaks. And so my biggest challenge is I absolutely believe in what I do. I love the opportunities that I get to work with some amazing people and help their organizations go from good to phenomenal.
00:17:08
Speaker
but there is only one of me. And so I am continuing to tackle the challenge of letting go of the things that are in the background that I don't need to be dealing with. Everything from administrative to some of the growth, right? Some of the initial conversations. And then ultimately, I think that that's gonna open up an even bigger challenge, which is I love the work. I love the delivery of that relationship.
00:17:36
Speaker
And it's not just being the senior partner on the account, the account manager. I love the actual doing of the work, the rolling up of my sleeves, getting into the same room with executives and their teams and unlocking for them what has been standing in their way. So that, I think, will continue to be my challenge. And it is one that I am tackling head on this year.
00:18:01
Speaker
because I have to resolve it because I do believe that the best way for me to take what I find to be a fulfilling business and like just get my heart exploding with the impact of it is to find a way to steal it.
Impact vs. Recognition Dilemma
00:18:16
Speaker
We should talk offline. I've got some thoughts to share with you, but I love what you just shared. I think what you're doing is amazing. I think you're amazing. And I think it's super, super important that top level thought leaders like you get to scale. And I understand exactly what you're saying, run into it with tons and tons of people. So what frustrates you the most that you're not yet a household name?
00:18:49
Speaker
What frustrates me is there are still so many people who are
00:19:06
Speaker
tripping over themselves as leaders and stumbling in the face of competition as organizations and continuing to convince themselves as individual contributors and middle managers that this is the best that it's going to get. There are so many more organizations that if they just knew
00:19:26
Speaker
What I know if they just made at least, you know, even a couple of little tweaks and got out of their own way and stepped more into being genuine about who they are and what they want.
00:19:40
Speaker
And yes, that all leads to, if only they knew me, right? But that's really what frustrates me is a lot of people are banging their head against the wall over things that they don't need to be doing that. And they could get out of their own way and their engagement could skyrocket and their people would help them solve problems and see around corners. So yeah, it frustrates me that more people don't know
00:20:03
Speaker
that there are solutions out there, there are people out there, there are thought leaders out there who can pull them out of their own forest.
00:20:11
Speaker
Girl, you should totally be world famous. You should totally be world, like at the level of skill, the way you speak. Listen, I'm in the business of interviewing thought leaders. I've had the top thought leaders in the world on my damn show. I've helped people become top thought leaders. I don't say this every day. So I want you to get, this is a unique event for me. I'm very impressed by this interview. I'm really glad you came on. It's a great show. I think everyone's gonna love it. You should totally be world famous.
00:20:38
Speaker
And I would love to help you get there because you are awesome. You are super califragilistic, fantastic. Nikki's impressed. I don't say this every day. So a year from now, five years from now, Claire, what would be your absolute dream for your business, for your fulfillment? So imagine your business is exploding. It's scaled to where it's supposed
Vision for Impactful Leadership Connections
00:21:02
Speaker
to scale. It's gone supersonic.
00:21:04
Speaker
What specifically would have you crying tears of joy? I know I like it. I love it. No, I love it. Just keep it, keep it going. I love it. My, my, I would say my next plateau, cause I don't want to say the pinnacle because I'm always striving, right? I'm sure you are too. Um, I would say that the next plateau for me, that next pinnacle is, is re like literally having
00:21:31
Speaker
all the right leaders in all the right organizations having me on their speed dial. There is very meaningful work that happens when we get together in the same room, not just one on one, but with their teams and on stages and all of that sort of thing. But I could let all of that
00:21:50
Speaker
I could, you know, get to a point, and I have to if I'm going to scale my impact, right? I can get to a point where I can let go some of the daily doing, some of that team dynamics, some of that, you know, multiplying engagement and business growth and all those sorts of things that we have achieved together. And just focused on being that leadership therapist, which, you know, tongue-in-cheek is sort of my tagline on my LinkedIn profile, but it is true.
00:22:18
Speaker
If that's all I got to do day in and day out, is literally talk to these amazing leaders and give them that place, because that's what my best clients come to me for. They come to me in the off hours, it's typically on their drive home from a particularly stressful day or high impact day, and they just need a place where they can talk to somebody off script,
00:22:44
Speaker
off-brand, they can unload, they can unpack, they can get out of their own way and they can understand one or two different things that they can do or see in a little bit of a different angle and then re-energize and re-engage with their organization. If that's all I got to do day in and day out on my next plateau, it would blow my mind. I love it. Okay. So Claire.
00:23:11
Speaker
How do people find out about you, get ahold of you, buy your books, tell us about all of that right now.
Promoting 'Growth on Purpose'
00:23:18
Speaker
Yeah, so my existing books are all on Amazon. They're all linked from my website, so clarechandler.net.
00:23:24
Speaker
My company website is talentboost.net. LinkedIn, as I mentioned earlier, is my social media platform of choice. And my latest book that I literally just handed off to the publisher last week is called Growth on Purpose. And your audience, that is not a sales pitch. They can go to growthonpurpose.com. They can get on the waiting list to preregister for the book. They can take a quick scorecard that is totally free.
00:23:51
Speaker
and learn a little bit more about some of the things that they can do very quickly and very simply to expand their business without losing their best talent. I love it. We're going to make sure all that's in the show notes. I'd like a copy of one of your books if you wouldn't mind sending me one and signing it for me. Absolutely. I'd be honored and I'll return the favor.
Endorsement and Wrap-up
00:24:09
Speaker
I'll do the same. So, listener Claire Chandler is the real deal. Take advantage of what she's offered you here.
00:24:19
Speaker
and make sure that you go buy some of her past books. I recommend that you go find her on other shows and listen to her. This is how good she is and that you go and consume everything she has to offer because this is a smart woman and when you consume the
00:24:41
Speaker
intellectual property of smart people, you become smarter. You become smarter. When someone's able to explain something with passion, with purpose, and yet clearly and concisely as Claire has done, it clarifies your own ability to think about the things that matter to you. This is the definition of top-notch thought leadership.
00:25:06
Speaker
And I just want you to understand, listener, this is, this is not an everyday occurrence. Like there's a lot of famous people that come on the show that are not nearly as clear as Claire and you could benefit from doing this for yourself. Claire Chandler. It's been fun having you on the show. It's been a real honor. God bless you. Thank you. Same here. Same to you.
00:25:29
Speaker
And that wraps up another exciting episode, the podcast, the Thought Leader Revolution, to find out more about today's amazing guest, the one, the only, the legendary Claire Chandler. Go to the show notes at thethoughtleaterrevolution.com and check out the show notes.
00:25:45
Speaker
or go to wherever you happen to listen to this episode. Maybe you listen on iTunes, maybe you listen on Audible, maybe you listen on Spotify, maybe you listen on Google Play, wherever it is, go to the show notes, check it out, find out more about that. Until next time. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.