2020's Ask Me Anything with Bernadette Boas

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Hello and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negative mindsets so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches you want in life. Join us here live every Tuesday at noon Eastern and dialogue with us at 818-572-2910. You can also chat with us at BlogTalkRadio.com. Shedding the Bitch, or share your stories on our website at sheddingthebitch.com. Whatever the bitch is that's holding you back from living your life to the fullest, it's not worth giving up the riches in life that you deserve. So call in now and let Bernadette Boas know what's holding you back. 818-572-2910.

Happy, happy, happy New Year! I know last week, I guess it was, um, January 1st? I didn't think so. Maybe I just wished you all a Happy New Year early, because today is January 7th. It's the first Tuesday of the new year, and I hope your celebrations were fabulous. I was just talking to Deborah, and she was mentioning that sadly she got the flu the day of New Year's Eve, which obviously impacted her going into a New Year's Eve celebration, though now it's behind her, is what I told her, to look on the positive side if there's a way of doing that, which there always is. So I hope all of you have had an absolutely beautiful entry into the new year, and, you know, if this week is your first full week back to work, back to school, maybe it's is the kind of the first, not only full week, but yesterday was the first day that you have gone back since the new year. Because I was also mentioning that it was beautiful that the holiday fell kind of in the middle of the week because then you had the option of taking a couple days before the holiday and a couple days after the holiday, which gave you a full week or even 2 weeks with Christmas the week week before. So, this is my first couple of days back into work and for the new year. I did, you know, of course I worked sporadically throughout, but it was actually very nice to just kind of shut down, go quiet, even for that long stretch of time. Gave me at least opportunities to kind of really consider what it was that I wanted to do and work on and accomplish this year. And so oftentimes I try to work with you in December to get you ready with your plan documented and ready to go by the time the new year kicks off. But I'll be honest with you, I said I'll have it done before, you know, the Wednesday of the first week of the new year. And that's totally okay. Because as we always talked about, even throughout the year, you're hitting the reset button, button, you're changing your getting new opportunities presented to yourself. Things happen that cause your plans to change. So don't stress if you don't have your plans laid out and documented. I would just stress to make sure that you do. And we're going to actually spend the rest of the month talking about all the different aspects of getting your New Year plan in place, such as time management, We're going to talk about daily routines and how powerful they are and how much they support what it is you're trying to accomplish, and a number of other great topics for the balance of January. But today is our first 2020 Ask Bernadette episode, and of course, if you're new to the program, let me tell you what it's about. Our Ask Bernadette is basically you can ask me anything. Whether it's about your career, whether it's about your business if you own your own business, if it's about any aspect of your life. If I can't answer them, if I don't feel that I am the expert that you need, then I will find that resource for you, especially if you've posted it on Facebook or Twitter earlier in the month. We definitely have time to do that for you, and then we'd still be able to talk about it here on the First Tuesday of the Month program, I would just ensure I had that expert on with me in order to address your specific question, story, or challenge. And then, as I basically just explained, even though you're sending me questions all throughout the month, you're reaching out through LinkedIn, you're reaching out through Facebook, through Twitter, through ShannonTheBitch.com, We then bring them together here onto our program in order to dig deeper into those questions, those topics, those things that you're interested to learn about. And you have an opportunity to join in on the call, you can, and the show, you can always call into 1-818-572-2910 to be part of your question being addressed Or if you're listening live and you have a question that, you know, you suddenly came up with, you can always call in and we will make it a priority to address your question while you're here on the program. So feel free to do that at any time. I'm also watching the chat room throughout the program, so you can always go to blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio Scroll into today's episode live, and then there will be a chat room right there, and we keep an eye on that as well if that's your preference for reaching into the program. All right. So let me see what else. Excuse me. Next week we're going to be talking about our Shift to Riches Formula. Last week I gave you my Shift to Riches plan. It was actually a template that you can go and use to define your SMART goals and to also define your— what I call a victory plan. And it's an acronym for different aspects of your life that you should consider when defining your goals, such as vision, insights, aspirations, so forth and so on. So you can— I put an A in there and there's not an A in there, but you can go back to that episode. Let— I want to say yes, last week, to our Shift to Riches Plan for Success, and go out to shendingthebitch.com and you can find the template there that you can download and use for yourself. Now, our Shift to Riches Formula, which we'll talk about next week, is the actual step-by-step kind of shedding process that I even experienced, and now I use with my clients for the last 8 or 9 years. And it's very distinct steps, almost like, you know, the 5 stages of grief that you go through in order to really make a shift, make a change in your life. So if you're looking for something new, something different in your life, then there's some things that you need to be working on and doing in order to work your way to those changes and those shifts that you're looking to, to gain. So we're going to dive into that Shift to Riches Formula on next week's program, and then— excuse me— and then the week after that, we will be discussing the power of habits. So why is having very routine, disciplined habits each and every day lends itself greatly to your achievement of your goals. Now we've had some other great programs, you know, over the weeks, let alone years. But it recently, we wrapped up 2019 with an encore presentation actually of Accessing to Success. So basically looking back and looking at your year and really doing the work needed in order to not just throw the year away and start a new year, but to actually figure out what worked, what didn't work, what do you want to bring forward into the new year, what do you want to leave behind. So assessing to success. We've had conversations regarding shedding the high school trauma bitch. And basically what that means is there's things and there's belief systems and values that you— that are ingrained in you, that you have carried with you ever since childhood. And a lot of us who have those type of traumas and drama in high school, and they carry forward and they define who you are unless you've acknowledged them and decided whether to shed or hold on to them. So we had a conversation about that. And then of course, because it was Thanksgiving into, into the holiday season, we talked about giving thanks and using thankfulness to create riches in your life. There's a lot of great episodes of Shedding the Bitch, both with just, you know, yours truly having a conversation with you, as well as great guests that we've had to cover all aspects of career, business, and life topics. So be sure to go out to sheddingthebits.com. You can scroll down and find the radio channel there. You can go to Apple Podcasts, download them all there. You can also go to BlogTalkRadio and do a search on Shedding the Bits Radio, and you'll find all of our previous episodes out there as well. So on that note, we have a packed, packed, uh, Ask Bernadette episode today because— and they're deep questions that you've asked. So I am going to be throwing a lot at you in a short period of time. We even had a fourth question come in literally minutes before I got on the— onto the program. So we're not going to be able to address that, I don't think. And if not, then I'll just write up a blog post to ensure that you have the same information that Dorothy asked. Because, of course, and I will include a conversation over the coming weeks, because, of course, it is job performance review time. Just as you guys all ask about goals and time management topics toward the end of the year going into a new year, the beginning of the year also has people reaching out to me regularly, and I mean regularly, regarding either job searches or their performance reviews, how to you know, how to write them, how to plan for them, how to, you know, defend them, whatever the case might be. So we will definitely need to work a conversation in on that in the coming weeks. All right. And then if you ever have a topic for us, please be sure to reach out to us via Facebook or Twitter and let us know what topic, you know, is of interest to you, what question you might have. And I always very fluid in defining the topics that we're going to talk about in any given week because I want to really kind of tune into what is on the top of your mind. So feel free at any time to suggest topics. All right, today we're going to be talking about a number of things. I have someone asking about how to answer that number one awkward question, predominantly in a job interview, but you can get it in, in your social world as well, and that is I'm going to keep it a secret until we come back, and you'll hear what that number one question is. We're going to talk about a business owner who needs help assessing their business, different than what we talked about a few weeks ago. This is really what should she be looking for in her business this past year to lend itself to this year. Then, of course, podcasts are all the rage, and you can be on Facebook or LinkedIn and constantly see people and ads for podcasts. So this particular individual, he's asking about whether or not he should be doing one. If you would want to reach out to us and follow our discussions, follow our posts that Deborah of Parker House Virtual Services— she always does a great job in our social network on Facebook and Twitter— then you can hashtag with us #AskMeAnything. Or hashtag #AskBernadette, and of course hashtag #ShedTheBitch. So we're going to take a commercial break. I'm going to get a glass of water. I didn't bring one into the studio with me. And when we get back, we'll dive into these questions. We'll be right back.

You are listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. We are inspiring individuals around the globe to discover, confront, confront and shed their bitches of fear, insecurity, and negativity so they can create the riches in their career, business, and life they deserve. Be sure to check out Bernadette's book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch: Shifting from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business, available on Amazon and sheddingthebitch.com. We also want to thank our sponsors, North Georgia Tax Solutions, who offers a broad range of tax services for small small to corporate size clients. Go to NGTaxSolutions.com to learn more. And Parker House Virtual Services, who provides virtual assistance and social media support for small to medium size businesses. Email Deborah Parker at deborahparker.va@gmail.com for more information. To become a sponsor or advertiser on our program, email us at media-relations@sheddingthebitch.com. Shedding the Bitch Radio airs every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Be sure to go to blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio and follow the program for all of the updates and announcements of our guests and show topics. Now let's return to Bernadette and Shedding the Bitch Radio.

Welcome back, everyone. We're going to dive right into this because we have a packed set of questions today. And we only have 3, but yet they're very deep. They're very deep questions that you're asking about and are very reflective of a new year, which is great. And as the year goes on, they start to kind of stem out into topics that range from money to relationships to family to, you know, business to career, which is always what we love to do. But our first question came to me from someone who's been doing a lot of job interviews. I talked on one of our episodes that many people, especially those looking for jobs versus those hiring, many people looking for jobs, they think that the last quarter of the year, October, November, December, but especially November, December, is not a good time to look for a job. And I poo-pooed all over that. November, December is an awesome time to look for a job because of the fact that hiring managers are looking to have their team in place by January 1st, or they're looking to spend their budget in the previous year going into the new year. There's a number of reasons, but it's a very active time for job searches. So I've had a number of people, and I'm not a career— I'm not specifically a career coach. My primary is business slash, if you want to call it personal, executive and leadership. Yet, you know, I've been a hiring manager since I was 20. 18, so I certainly can speak volumes in regards to what you need to be doing around that. So this question came about, and I actually love it. This question came about, he, you know, he was looking for the fact that, "What do I say when they ask me to tell them about myself? It feels very awkward," he said. Now, you know, we could probably all relate to that, and this doesn't even just pertain to business. You know, when you're out socially networking, maybe you're, you know, dating, whatever the case might be, you know, and someone says, "So tell me about yourself," you're kind of like, "Ooh, you know, blah." You're not sure what to say, and/or you just start spewing stuff from all over the place, and that's not specifically, you know, going to be enticing. It's not going to be informative. It may not be something that is relevant to, you know, the job. Now, understand something, though. The answer to this question doesn't necessarily simply have to spell out or contribute directly to the job because the question is really there for them to get to know you, and that, again, is in a job situation or a social situation. People are looking just to kind of find a connection with you as a result of your response to this question. So if you're asked about it, recognize that they're not looking to trip you up because that's what I get a lot from when people ask me questions about an interview. And then in this— when it comes to this question, people feeling so awkward about it, they're thinking that it's a trick question and/or that the hiring manager is looking to just find fault in them. They're not. They're not doing that. If they are doing that, then you need to run and you need to not have anything to do with that company. But 99.9% of the people asking you this question are simply looking for a number of things. They're definitely looking to connect with you. They're definitely looking to learn more about you. What synergies do you have not only to that person but maybe to— say it's an HR manager interviewing you first and they know a lot about the hiring manager who may interview you next. So they're looking to kind of find those connections, find those synergies, find those commonalities. They're also looking to see how you handle that question because Trust me when I say, and you understand, that the person asking it knows it's an awkward question because they don't even want to have to answer it. So recognize that they are also looking to see how you handle that question. Now, the way you respond to it tells you a lot. It tells you your communication style. You know, do you all of a sudden— and communication, keep in mind, is not just verbal. Communication is, you know, you're physical, it's verbal, it's movement, it's everything. So if all of a sudden you do become awkward or unnerved or impatient or angst about getting the question, or maybe you, you know, your eyes light up because you're like, oh my gosh, I get to talk about myself for the next you know, hour of this interview. That is what they're looking for. They're looking to see how you handle it and they're looking to see how you communicate and how you actually get down to the question or the direction at hand. So, you know, are you someone who, when given that question, you know, like I said, big eyes, are thrilled to be able to talk about yourself? Or are you going to be well aware that, well, you want to talk about yourself personally, and it may, you know, I want to tie it to this job opportunity that's presented to me. It also reveals to them how you see yourself. It's, you know, the stories you tell and the mannerisms in which you tell them, which is your physical, your nonverbal mannerisms tells a great deal about who you are and how you feel and see yourself, and that's key. Do you overshare or do you undershare? Do you get defensive and closed up, or are you extremely shy and introverted? They're reading all of this. One big thing that they're looking for in this question is also, you know, are you a complainer? Do you use that question as an opportunity to raise up situations or experiences you've had in the workplace, and as opposed to them coming across as, you know, kind of, I had this problem and here's how I addressed it or solved it, it comes across as complaining, as bitching, as not appreciating, not appreciating kind of what that situation presented you. So it's a great It's a great question to learn a lot about. You know, and even, are you a strong storyteller? Now, you may not think that that is relevant to your job. How well do I tell a story? But it's relevant personally and professionally because it also indicates to the other person the type of person you are. So, for instance, if you're, you know, a storyteller who all of a sudden paints this great image And, and, you know, regarding the situation, the experience, the encounter that you're talking about, that tells somebody that you're very creative, you think outside the box, that you can weave— you can weave things together that are very simple for other people to understand. If you're somebody that, you know, kind of breaks it down into very specific, you know, a sequence of dates or sequence of experiences or sequence of milestones, You know, you go from college to your first job, maybe doing math, and you're very methodical. It tells a person a great deal about the type of person you are. If you've ever related to DiSC, you know, D-I-S-C, it tells them where you might fall in that. It points out so many great things. And so how you go about answering it is something that you should prepare for. Don't let it be a shock. 9 out of 10 interviews are going to have this question, if not all of them, "Tell me a little bit about yourself." It's a great opportunity for the hiring manager to kind of sit back and get their thoughts together while you're answering that question. So, you know, definitely prepare yourself for it. So how can you do that? Well, a few things. Make it personal. Without oversharing. And when I say without oversharing, what I mean by that is don't be closed off or secretive, or don't be afraid that you're revealing things about yourself that are going to be used against you, for instance. At the same time, you don't want to— you know, you don't necessarily want to overshare about how you spend your weekends or what kind of trips you go on or, you know, what your social life is like or your relationships at home, good, bad, or indifferent. So you want to, you know, tell them about, you know, your childhood. For instance, I would sit there and say, you know, "Well, I am a, you know, I come from a family of 12 from Philadelphia. I went out on my own and went down to Florida where is where I really, you know, got ingrained in corporate at a very young age, and I had these great bosses." So you just kind of share about who you are while at the same time you're kind of tying it to business, but you're not. Let me give you a great example of this. A very dear friend of mine, my best friend in the world, is down in Miami. And she's been with this company for a number of years now. She's not interviewing, so please nobody listening get that idea, should you know her. But, you know, she was very apprehensive as she was going out to interview, and again, it's been several years. But she realized there was this connection that her hiring manager and the big boss of the company were diehard college football fans and of competing teams to hers. So she was like, "Okay, well, you know, I'm not sure how I can use this," but, you know, she's a huge, huge Gator fan. Well, it's been great to watch how over the last several years she's ingrained herself into a wonderful, you know, work environment as a result of that connection around football that started at the very early stages of her employment and even going back to the interview. So that's what is really great about answering this question. It's, you know, find ways to let them know about you, learn about you, and to gain that those possible connections. You know, you might share a story that highlights who you are in regards to your beliefs, your values, what's important to you, what you look for in employers. You can, you know, answer that in this question versus waiting for it to be asked or you ask it. You could also include tidbits about your working style. You know, you could be sharing, you know, things about yourself. For instance, you know, I would share that, you know, from the time I started in corporate, I've never really worked in an office. I wasn't dedicated in an office. I was— I always had a traveling job, which gave me the opportunity to travel the world, to learn different cultures, to learn different business acumen, you know, around the world, that kind of thing. So don't be shy in regards to, you know, sharing who you are just prepare and frame your response in regards to the fact that it's kind of relevant to them learning about you for a business purpose. And I would say things like sports and hobbies, you know, and things like travel, you know, those things are very good mechanisms into making connections with people, especially in a work environment. You know, think golf. You know, if I were to advise my brother, for instance, should he ever be looking for another job, I would certainly have him leverage his golf, and not only the fact that he golfs, but that he's a very, very good golfer, and he, you know, has traveled to wonderful golfing venues. So just think about it and really leverage talking points that create connection. And then keep in mind, go back to those other talking points that I had. Be sure that you are focused, that you're not going off on tangents, that you're not complaining or gossiping in this response to this question. Make sure that you're showing them how you communicate, both verbally physically, you know, in all aspects. This should be a fun question to answer versus the norm, which is everybody feels so awkward with it. And again, both business and social, you can use these tips and advice for. All right, so I hope that answers your question and/or for anyone else that has that question. And I'll be sure to capture these talking points on a blog post as well because, as I mentioned, the questions that we got today are extremely relevant for this time of year going into a new year. And there's a lot of people out there job hunting, and there's a lot of hiring managers looking for people, even those that aren't looking for a job but might consider making a move should the opportunity present itself. All right, I'm going to take a quick break. We're going to come back. We're going to talk about from a business owner's perspective, yet please, anyone in corporate or anybody even staying at home, the answer to this will also provide you tips and advice as well in regards to how do you account for last year going into this year from a business ownership perspective. We'll be right back.

You are listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. We are inspiring individuals around the globe to discover, confront, and shed their bitches of fear, insecurity, and negativity so they can create the riches in their career, business, and life they deserve. Be sure to check out Bernadette's book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch: Shifting from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business, available on Amazon and sheddingthebitch.com. We also want to thank our sponsors North Georgia Tax Solutions, who offers a broad range of tax services for small to corporate size clients. Go to ngtaxsolutions.com to learn more. And Parker House Virtual Services, who provides virtual assistance and social media support for small to medium size businesses. Email deborahparker@parkerhouseservices.com. Deborahparker.va@gmail.com for more information. To become a sponsor or advertiser on our program, email us at mediarelations@sheddingthebitch.com. Shedding the Bitch Radio airs every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Be sure to go to blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio and follow the program for all of the updates and announcements of our guests. Guests and show topics. Now let's return to Bernadette and Shedding the Bitch Radio.

Welcome back everyone. Excuse me, uh, we are addressing your questions, um, on our Ask Bernadette episode, which is the first Tuesday of every month. You can post your questions, stories, or challenges out on Facebook on Twitter. You can, uh, LinkedIn with me on my profile. That is where I get 99% of my questions, uh, is through LinkedIn. So don't hesitate to reach out to me there. You can also send me an email at bernadetteboas@sheddingthebitch.com. We just want to help, so we just want to be sure that you have a way to reach out to us, and don't hesitate to do so, so you get the information that you need. All right, our next question, as Coco decides to get comfortable on my lap. Our next question is for those business owners out there, yet these tips and advice can pertain to those in corporate as well as you can translate them into what you can do to assess yourself, you know, from a life perspective. So it was a business owner who had asked about accounting for what I did last year in my business for this year. I feel I'm not looking at the right metrics. I'm not looking at the right information. Now, that is a great question. It's an important one. It's one that I would only raise a flag that if you're asking that at the end of the year, I'm concerned about what you were doing in assessing yourself on a regular basis, because there really isn't much difference. It's more just as a summary at the end of the year, because I would hope that you're assessing on a weekly, monthly basis and making changes, throwing out things that aren't working, adding new things to test those out. If your metrics aren't coming in where you want them to be, you're trying to understand why and what adjustments need to be made. So assessing should be happening on a regular basis, and you define the regular for yourself. You know, some people when I talk to them, and I'll mention to people, assess yourself on a daily basis. They'll be like, yeah, sure, Bernadette, I'm sure you do that. Well, I would hate to disagree with you or argue with someone, but I do. On a daily basis I'm looking at my budget. I'm looking at my overall financial plan. I'm looking at what content is working or not working. This past year I will acknowledge that it was heavily, 95% focused on my script writing. And very little on my business. But in the years past and going into 2020, if you saw my desk right now, that is definitely kind of my approach is to look at things on a daily, weekly, monthly perspective, and then of course on a quarterly basis. Because if you look back at 2019 right now, I don't know about you, but I'm sitting here going, where in the world did it go? It went so fast. So if all of a sudden, if you're not doing that, and say, let's get, you know, let's get pragmatic. Say you do it on a monthly basis. If anybody did anything minimally, I would say do it on a weekly is the minimum, but let's say you do it on a monthly basis. Well, that's only, 11 opportunities you have, basically, before the end of the year to really kind of assess what's working, what's not working, and making the changes needed for you to accomplish your goals. That's not a lot of, like, research or analysis or assessment. It's not a lot to do before all of a sudden you're into the second half, all of a sudden you're into the fourth quarter, all of a sudden the year's over. So I'll get off my soapbox right now and get down to this question. But you decide right now going into this new year, how often are you going to assess? And then let me help you with defining what is it that you should be assessing, all right? So that's where this question leads us, is what are those top questions you should be asking yourself and/or even pull your team together in order to really determine if the plans you put into place are working for you or not. So the very first thing, obviously, would be the numbers, would be the quantitative, depending upon your business, but every business has revenue and it has profit, at the minimum, let alone all the other details in between., you can look up profit and loss statements and really get into all that nitty-gritty. If you're a corporate professional, say you're in sales, you definitely have quantitative metrics that you, you know, should be and are required to be tracking on a regular basis. And I will say, for those business owners, take something from corporate, and that is, if you are in sales or responsible in any area for the financial outcome of the business. You're looking at it daily. It's not a weekly, monthly, quarterly. It is a daily. Then it leads up to a month, rolls up to a month, weekly, monthly, and quarterly. But you are constantly being asked, you know, what, you know, who you're meeting with, what, what is working, what's not working, where are you with your revenue, with the profit and expenditures. It's a daily, daily thing. So keep that in mind, business owners. So look at your numbers and ask yourself, are you happy with those numbers? Now, in January, it's really— it could be a tricky month for a lot of businesses and the type of business that you're in, because it could be the fact that, you know, your business doesn't ramp up really until the March-April timeframe. But maybe your business, especially let's say for cruise, January is your business. January, February, March is your business. So you have an immediate ramp to yours. But other businesses, you know, the first quarter isn't the glut. Retail, for instance, everything happens in retail in the third quarter. Is that right or wrong? You know, it's just— That's history, that's pattern, that's where it is. So you ask yourself, after you've looked at all the numbers that you've defined for yourself— and if any of you business owners need to really get a handle on what are those numbers that you should be doing other than maybe revenue, profit, expense, then feel free to reach out to me. But, you know, you need to then say, are you happy, you know, week 1, month 1, with your results? Are you happy week 2, month 1 with the results? Are you happy week 3, month 1? If not, what are you going to change? What are you going to do about it? Uh, did I meet the goals defined? And if not, why? So looking back on last year, because it's talking about how do I account for what I did last year into this year, you know, looking at last year, did you meet the goals that you laid out? And what I would want you to do is, you might have changed the goals you had on January 1st by the time you got to even October. But what I want you to do is not just look at the final numbers that you decided on in October. I want you to go back and make sure that you had reason and thought behind why you even changed them from January, why you even changed them maybe from March. Really go back and reflect. Did I change them because I was nervous, I was scared, I was desperate? I wanted to make sure that at least my P&L looked decent. Did you have good reasoning behind making those changes? And then, are you happy with how the results came out? Did you meet the goals that you landed up with? And were there any surprises? Were there any things good, bad, or indifferent? All of a sudden, you know, at the beginning of the year you might have thought that you had, you know, 2, 3 really strong— I'm drawing a blank on the word I want— but, you know, steadfast clients that you had a certain number that you were going to be able to hit as a result of those clients. But then all of a sudden in May or June, that client had to stop doing business with you for a particular reason, and now you've lost that revenue that you depended on. So, you know, what surprises were you hit with last year that you weren't expecting? Maybe May, June, this big-ass, you know, client came that you never expected, and that's a, you know, beautiful, wonderful surprise. That you got. Now, from those surprises, what can you learn from? You know, what— now, what would you do if— should a client all of a sudden pull out from doing business with you so you're not surprised the next time? The new client that came is a beautiful surprise. Is it a new industry? Is it a new type of client that now creates an opportunity for you with other similar type of companies, similar type of businesses. So you would really want to just dig into all of that movement that was going on in your business. Apart from the numbers, which is the huge one, because, you know, you, you can't take stories, you can't take qualitative stuff to the bank, you have to take the, the quantitative. So after you look at the quantitative, the hard numbers as they might be called, You want to look at your projects and initiatives. What projects and initiatives did you, you know, plan to do, and did you do them? And if you didn't do them, why not? And if you did do them, you know, how did they turn out? Did they work for you? And if they didn't work, why didn't they work? And if they worked, great. What now, and how can you use those findings, those results in the coming year? If they worked for you, How can you replicate, how can you repeat that result in your business? Now, some people might say, well, projects and initiatives don't really have quantitative numbers against them. But I would argue that certainly they do. Everything has an ROI, return on investment. Everything you could look at, even if you don't have to spend money to do it. Your time is money. Somebody's time is money. You might not have to buy materials or supplies or anything like that, but at the same time, your time is money. So if you did have an initiative and it required your time or someone's time, then that's your quantitative measure. You take that hourly pay for that individual, and you quantify it, and then you determine, is there an ROI on it? Did I do a project or take on an initiative? Uh, you know, we're going to be talking about starting a podcast. One of those things that you need to look at is, you know, is that going to be fruitful for me? Is that going to give me a return on investment if I were to go out and do a podcast? It's not a product you're selling, right? So it's not in your traditional revenue profit, but it is a project or initiative that you might take on that you have to define and calculate whether or not there's an ROI for your business. And then you need to look at, did it deliver what it is that you were expecting or wanted? Say you go out and you do a social media, which is so all over the board these days, what social media should look like, what you should be doing in your particular type of business.— what works and doesn't work for certain types of geographic, demographic areas. You want to make sure that whatever project or initiative you take on, you think about, did it deliver what you wanted, and what adjustments did you have to make? Excuse me. And were they, again, were those investments profitable? Again, all that information from the previous year can be then carried forward into this year. Then another area that rarely do business owners look at, and it always shocks me, and maybe because of the fact that I come from corporate, so this is one of those huge things that I felt fortunate that I learned in corporate that I carried forward into my own business, and that is to really look at your clients your vendors, and your partners. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, you need to look at whether or not, you know, who you're working with, what you're delivering for them or what you're selling them, what your relationships are, what your partnerships and agreements are, what maybe your strategic positionings are with those clients, vendors, and partners are suiting and serving your business the way that you had planned and expected them to. So, you really want to look at, am I working with my right clients? Did I optimize my client base? A lot of people work very reactively with their client roster. They say, oh, okay, so last year I did $10,000 with this client. I'm going to do $10,000 this year, and I did it in one particular type of product or service, as opposed to saying, ooh, what are all the different things I can get from this one particular client, especially after I've proven myself? And, and that goes to assessing last year into this year. Last year you provided one product or service, it went really well, it served them really well, and now you should be looking for more and more opportunities and planning that you're going to take that $10,000 client to a $40,000 client based on X, Y, and Z. So again, you look at your clients, you look at your vendors. Am I working with the right people? Not just from a cost perspective, which is the number one focus business owners have is, oh, well, did I get the best margins from that, from that vendor for the products and services that I needed? That's not the, that's not the value vendors bring. They bring whether or not there's a great relationship, they deliver what they're supposed to, they work on with you to even find more opportunities. You know, they're strategic vendor relationships, not just, you know, people that do, you know, and service you. Uh, the same with partners. Did you even have partners in your business? Did you have the forethought? When I started my business as a coach consultant and I went looking to partner with other coaches and consultants, they all like, you know, slammed the door in my face going, why are you reaching out to me? We're competitors. And I, you know, I thought, oh my gosh, how ridiculous is that? I wanted to do, um, business with and partner with other coaches and consultants. So if I couldn't help someone, I could recommend someone else to that person. Because trust me when I say, that business owner or client that I do that with is always going to remember me doing that. It's always going to remember the fact that I was willing to go and propose another coach or consultant who can serve them better.— so when they do need what I can provide them, I'm going to be top of mind to them. So there is so much that you should be looking at from a business owner perspective from last year that you can carry forward this year. And say you didn't have that type of partnership arrangement last year. Fine, your assessment now told you that, and now you can incorporate it into your plans for the new year. And then, of course, you want to be looking at what did you do right for your business this past year, and then what mistakes did you make? So, what did you do right? Why did you do that? And, you know, what kind of provoked you to do that particular thing, and why did it go right? What was the impact of that right, of that thing that you did that definitely was beneficial to the business? How did your team think about it? And think about the fact that if your team found that it was right, and that's what made it right, well then there's more team digging you're going to also want to do into the new year. Because it actually benefited the business, which benefits the employees. Then the mistakes. You have to look at what mistakes did you make. And this has to come from all aspects, not only the quantitative, the projects and the initiatives, the clients and the vendors. It has to come from your leadership. It has to come from you as the business owner, you know, or the corporate professional. What did you do right, and what mistakes did you make that you could change going into this new year? If you weren't that coach, that mentor, that collaborator, that team builder, that servant leader, in ways that you had wanted to be and/or were pointed out to you that you weren't, then what could you be doing and what strategies could you be incorporating in your plan for this year? So all of that information you could be kind of working through to kind of get to the final, all right, so from all of that, what am I going to bring into the new year and how is that going to define my, my New Year plan for my business. We're going to take a break, and when we get back, we're going to get into podcasts and what you need to know about them. We'll be right back.

You are listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. We are inspiring individuals around the globe to discover, confront, and shed their bitches of fear, insecurity, and negativity so they can create the riches in their career, business, and life they deserve. Be sure to check out Bernadette's book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch: Shifting from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business, available on Amazon and sheddingthebitch.com. We also want to thank our sponsors, North Georgia Tax Solutions, who offers a broad range of tax services for small to corporate-sized clients. Go to ngtaxsolutions.com to learn more. And Parker House Virtual Services, who provides virtual assistance and social media support for small to medium-sized businesses. Email Deborah Parker at deborahparker.va@gmail.com for more information. To become a sponsor or advertiser on our program, email us at mediarelations@sheddingthebitch.com. .com. Shedding the Bitch Radio airs every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Be sure to go to blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio and follow the program for all of the updates and announcements of our guests and show topics. Now let's return to Bernadette and Shedding the Bitch Radio.

Welcome back everyone. Excuse me. I was going to say I apologize for that sudden reversal in thought about taking a commercial break. But all of a sudden in the past 20 minutes, something in the air is getting into my throat. So I apologize if I'm hacking on you. All right, so let's dive into our last question. It's all about podcasts. We know it's all the rage. I have someone asking about whether or not he needs one, and if so, then how does he get started? Now, according to Podcast Insights, as of January 2020, so it's a recent, a recent survey or review, there are just over 800,000 podcasts. But, they emphasize, There are 450 million blogs. So I even had my mentoree that I've been mentoring for years ask me several weeks— several months ago actually about blogging. I never even considered anything like that. Is in the corporate world, never even considered it. And so when I got this latest question about podcasts, and I found this fact, this piece of data, I thought, geez, I need to go back to him and say he might want to consider a podcast. But because it is very relevant, you know, if you're looking to kind of get above the noise, blogs are great. Blogs are great sources of content for your viewer,— and they're easy for a lot of people to do because they can be writing and doing a blog in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning, whatever the case might be. Podcasts take a little bit more of a different spin, but at the same time, if there's only 800,000 of them out there, which sounds like a great deal of content, and it is, what it's pointing out is there's just still a lot more room in the podcast world. To get recognized and to have your content presented to potential listeners and viewers than blogs. So it might be your single strategy, or you might incorporate podcasts as part of your overall strategy along with your blog. That's something for you to decide. And that's really what I told him that he needs to start thinking about— you know, when it comes to him considering whether or not he should be doing a podcast. The big question is, do you need it? Is it something that's going to serve you? And if so, how? So you need to kind of lay out almost your business strategy for doing a podcast. What value would you be bringing your listeners? What would you be talking about? You know, what about— what, what action do you want this podcast to bring you? So let me give you a real basic, for instance. You know, people will tell you, if you are an author or you want to be a speaker in any way, shape, or form, a book is like a business card. So, you know, having a book, even if you self-publish it, is kind of your business card, is your entry point into finding speaking engagements and finding coaching and consulting engagements and finding clients. And podcasts are being kind of leveraged in that way. And that's even different than blogs. Blogs aren't— blogs are a great way to get to know you and for others to learn about you. They're not as, in my opinion, they're not as strong of a business card as a book or even nowadays a podcast. Because a podcast now with your voice, and sometimes they're videoed, so with your person, creates an immediate brand connection, an immediate connection to you, even more so than a blog. We're going to ignore that and we're just going to keep talking because I want to make up for the time that we were delayed. So from there, what you want to do is go through a number of steps. And I'm going to be posting this as a blog post as well, so you can go to sheddingthebitch.com for this more detailed information. You want to detail an umbrella topic. You want to kind of say, okay, what will my— What will my podcast be about? I saw something earlier, a podcast earlier that was about baking. Now baking does cover all kinds of different areas. So there's tons of things that that person could be talking about on a podcast. And you want to make sure that whatever topic you come up with, and that's why I call it an umbrella topic, you need to be sure that it's going to be able to cover multiple episodes. Podcasts can be a short-term, short-episode podcast, meaning 6, 12, 15 weeks, whatever the case might be. But some people want to use podcasts weekly forever. I've been doing my podcast, Lost Radio Show, for years. So you want to decide on that topic that will carry you through multiple episodes. Then you want to find a name that is relevant to that podcast, to that set of topics that you are talking about. And then choose a format. And when I say choose a format, you could be conversational like this is right now. You could be interviewing experts. You could have a co-host and it be a bantering back and forth. Or maybe even a review. Maybe the two of you provide reviews, opinions, you know, a number of formats that you can come up with. You want to decide what format is most suitable to you. Is it more of a mystery, whodunit? I mean, nothing's more popular right now than crime, murder mystery type of investigative podcasts. Then the next thing you need to be thinking about is, am I going to be doing this daily, weekly, monthly, on top of the fact that I might do it for 6 episodes or year-long degree of episodes. I mentioned video. That's one thing you need to consider. Do you want to just audio something or do you want to also present it as a video podcast? All of these things will play into some of your next steps. Then from all of that, you can lay out an outline, a format that you're going to use on a regular basis that's repeatable, that you now have whether it's 30 minutes, 60 minutes, which is something you need to decide on. You have your outline of how your podcast is going to present itself. Are you going to have commercials? Are you going to have sponsors? Are you going to go look for partners to— fund your ability to have this podcast. All kinds of different things to be considering around a podcast. And then you get down to some fun stuff. You're creating art. You're creating some promotional materials around the podcast. You're creating an intro, maybe a commercial, and then definitely an outro of your show. So it introduces you, and then it kind of ends and closes out the program for you. And then the hard part comes, is when you need to go and research and buy the equipment. And this can be very confusing and very complicating for people. Buying a microphone is one thing. Buying and deciding on which editing, recording, sound, What software and equipment you want to use, that's a whole other exercise in frustration sometimes. Because you want to— it's a big investment in some cases, and you want to make sure you're making the right investment and you're putting your monies in the right places. Then you need to be thinking about— again, can be confusing— where to deploy it. For instance, there are programs kind of platforms such as BlogTalk, such as Livestream, Apple Podcasts. So there's platforms that not only host your show, but they also market and promote you. So there's platforms where you can say, yes, I'll be one of your podcasters, and they'll create a website for you, and that's where they'll host all your shows, and they'll market you and all that kind of good stuff. You could choose to do it on your own and record it, edit it, and, and host it on your own, and you create your own web page or website on your own. Then of course there's all the services you can syndicate it out to. It just so happened I was on iTunes, and yes, they transitioned over to Apple Podcasts, but then I was surprised to find that, well, from there other streaming services picked up the program and have put it out onto their streaming services. So there are a number of things in that regard that you need to be thinking about and looking into. And then of course there is marketing, marketing, marketing your program. And I'm fortunate to have Deborah of Parker House Virtual Services helping to promote and market the program out before and after the show. But the one key differentiator that I would have you thinking about is the moment you decide to have a podcast, write a book, do something, start talking about it. Start sharing it. Start marketing it. Don't worry if you don't even have a name. Don't worry if you don't have any artwork. Don't worry if you don't have the topics you're going to be covering. Just start talking about it. Get people interested and then sticking to you to learn more as you work through. It takes time to set up something. It is easier than a number of other channels I have to, for myself I'll say. But there is time and effort that has to go into it, even just to do the research on the equipment, to buy the equipment, and set it up. So do what you need to do to learn all the facets of your podcast. But as you're working it, start talking about it. Don't be afraid that you start talking about it and you don't do it, because you could always just, you know, kind of communicate out that you're, you know, no longer going down that path. But the sooner you can get people attuned to it, sticking to it, interested and intrigued in what it is that you're going to be doing, the better opportunity you have to build your base as you then deploy it. And that's also a great way to then attract partners and sponsors and other people that maybe want to even fund your program. But last thing I'm going to add to this, because I just thought about it, if you want sponsors and partners, identify that up front. And then start working it. You may decide that you don't. The purpose of your podcast is not going to be for that. It's going to be to promote the book that you have coming out. In my case, it's the book, it's the script, is why I do this. It's not to gain the partners and the sponsors to fund it. Now that's changing for 2020, but for the last 7, 8 years, that hasn't been my objective, is to be paid to do this radio show. Um, I've done it because I love it. I've done it because it's sort I've done it because I know the change and the support it's providing you. And I've done it because I wanted my brand out there serving my book and my script and a number of other projects. As we move into 2020, you'll see the program taking on sponsors and partners and that kind of thing because we're at a point where we're set to do that. So define your plan for your podcast just like you would for any other business or initiative or project. Make sure it's a complete plan of which you start working on it bit by bit, and don't go rushing through it to where then you're unhappy with it. Do it in the pace that works for you, but then have a due date, an end date that will get you accountable to to meeting that objective. All right, and then I'll look forward to having you right back here next Tuesday at noon Eastern time when we get dirty about our Shift to Riches formula and what you could do to create riches in your world in this new year and beyond. Have a good week, everyone. Talk to you next week.

Thank you for listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. Join Bernadette every Tuesday Tuesday at noon Eastern as she helps you shift your bitches to riches. And the dialogue is always going on at sheddingthebitch.com. See you next week.