5 Tips to Empowerment, Increasing Revenue and Success

First time I say that. First time I say that. First time I say that. But keep in mind there's a couple of keywords in this little banner here. Shedding is the keyword, okay? And I'm just going to talk to you briefly about where that came from because then you'll understand what we're going to talk about today. And I'm one who likes to educate and I like to train people, so when you come to my workshops, whether it's for 5 minutes or for 5 days, you're gonna leave with tools and resources and advice that you can actually use within your business or in your life. Okay, fair enough? So I do put you to work. No, but that's okay. It won't be painful. Where this came from very quickly, because we only have a short period of time to get you all educated, but is the fact that For 25 years I was in corporate. I held various roles, predominantly all in management, all the way to a global vice president role in my last company. And yet the day they let me go 3 years ago, I couldn't understand why I was so happy. I mean, I literally walked out the door the minute they told me I was losing my job. I didn't even let them finish. They opened up the mouth and said, you 'No, we need to talk.' I went, 'No, we don't.' And I packed up my bags and I walked out the door. And I'd been with the company for 12 years, been in corporate for 25. It was what everybody knew me to be. It was what I knew to be. And yet that day when I walked out, I was the happiest person in the world. So doing a little bit of soul searching over the, you know, coming months, I realized it was because I was such a nasty person for for so long. I mean, I was the corporate bitch. And trust me, if you ever came across one, whether they're in business or in life, times it by 10, that was me. Okay? And yet, it was so horrifying to me to really understand that, that I said, oh my God, I've got to apologize. I have to figure out, you know, why was I, why did I become that way? And then at the same time, At the same time, I needed to really kind of apologize for the roadkill I left in my life. Because here this day that they actually let me go, I really was able to let all of that go because I no longer needed all of that in order to be successful. And yet I thought I did 20, 25 years ago when I purposely decided to become a bitch because everyone around me was, and I saw that as success. Define your own definition for success. But don't make it that, okay? So I went ahead and I wrote the book merely as an apology. But yet, as I started talking about it and sharing my story with people, they would tell me, "Well, Bernadette, I have a lot of fears and insecurities and angst and attitudes myself that prevent me from really going after what it is I want to do in my life. And therefore, I can relate to the fact that once you shedded all that junk out of your head," you were able to really pursue what really makes you happy and what's really your passion. So now I spend every day of the week, every day of the year educating and training and motivating and inspiring individuals, men and women, to shed all of that angst, attitudes, negative mindsets, fears, insecurities, unworthiness. And those are what I call bitches. So when you see shedding the bitch, it's really not about person. I'm working to change that word's definition to mean it's your own internal junk that you need to shed because it's holding you back from living the full, rich life that you need to live. All right, so with that little bit of grounding, what I'm going to talk about and share with you today is some 6 tips on really how can you use the best you to increase and maximize your business, okay? Who has not heard the saying, people like to do business with people they know, like, and trust? Right. Who hasn't heard that saying? Okay, so everybody has, and yet I can pretty much guarantee you that there might be some people in this room that have trouble maybe engaging with clients or with prospects, not trouble being that they don't have the personality, but more so because of the fact that they're fearful of, you know, cold calling or prospecting, or they don't like to do that close because they don't want to ask for the sale and they don't want to get that no, you know what I mean? So I wanted to provide you tips to kind of say, okay, if you really get grounded with yourself, because all of those fears are just, just little in your own head that aren't real. And therefore, all you have to do is kind of work to push through them, and you'll realize that once you've shed them, you will be able to pursue whatever it is that you want in your life, okay? So I first, you know, suggest that if you don't spend time— how many of you are mothers? And how many of you are dads or husbands? I didn't want to leave the guys out. And I applaud you for being here too. On your break. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, if you're like anybody else, and me included for 25 years, I never took any time to really kind of focus inward. I was so busy living, I was so busy just kind of like trying to survive, I never really spent a lot of time inward. And those of you, if you've ever been in corporate, would understand you don't have a soul. They don't want you to have a soul. And that's what I'm working to change, by the way. But they don't have, you know, you just don't have time to go, well, wait a minute, you know, I'm feeling this like insecurity or this intimidation or feeling unworthiness and I don't understand why. Or I'm fearful of asking for a raise or those things that I deserve and I don't understand why. So what I suggest to people is even if you spend 5 minutes a day just focusing on you. What is it that's making you happy in that day? What's kind of holding you back? What's got you all kind of junked up in the stomach? Just think about it. Because if you can think about it and focus on it, and then really see what the purpose or the reason is for it— like when I started writing the book, I was uncovering things I never thought I was going to have to admit to myself, let alone the world. And yet, when I did, it was just so freeing because I realized that that fear or that insecurity or that feeling of unworthiness was so unfounded. It was just what I created in my head. And therefore, the minute I started pushing through it and taking risks, I realized, you know what, that's not as painful as it was. Now, stand-up comedy, that was painful. That was painful. I didn't do that. I did it once and I'll never do it again. But so if you could just spend a little bit of time on yourself each and every day, and then, you know, I went from spending 5 minutes— I kind of like won't get out of bed now, um, until I kind of get myself grounded, kind of whatever kind of mood am I in. Am I tired? Am I feeling good? Am I all angst up? And if I am, then I just sit there, I do my affirmations, I pray, I kind of just create the day in my head that I want, and then I get myself out of bed. And then during the day, I do the same thing. I just— the minute I'm just feeling junk, I was so excited coming here because I love doing this stuff. But at the same time, I really want to make sure you guys are getting stuff. So then I start questioning myself. OK, is this really going to be valuable to them? And then I just went, you know what? You did your homework. You know the group, the kind of women that are going to be there, and men. So don't worry about it. So you have to just do a lot of self-talk. The next thing too is, how many of you— and be honest about this— as business people but even more so as individuals, women and men. How many of you have goals and objectives laid out for yourself as to what it is you want to accomplish in business or in life? More than I expect. Who uses them? Who actually acts on them? Who tracks them and measures them? Okay, notice the hands going down more and more. I'll tell you what, if I could leave you with anything today, And if you need help, assistance, a big kick in your butt, call me up. I'd be more than happy to do it. Because that in itself is going to give you more clarity, more focus, more energy, and more security, more confidence, knowing what it is you're trying to do, why you're trying to do it, and how you're going to get there. And I literally— I brought a couple things on my own. I mean, I literally every day will lay out exactly what I need to do. To do. You know, Friday, today, is these and rock Chateau Laune. It's like, welcome to the day. Rock Chateau Laune. Because, you know, because I have an oil change on here. I did that this morning. And it gives me so much, because I'm going to go home, back to my office, I'm going to put it down on my desk, and I'm not doing anything other than what's on this piece of paper. And if someone calls me up and asks me to distract from this, I'll kind of consider it, you know, which is more important to my goals, right? I was telling Monica, if you were to come into my house, you would see my walls covered in big Post-it paper. No lie. With my goals, my major to-dos. I only have 3 major, major areas that I work on. And then what, you know, what my ultimate results need to be in order to support that. Get something, anything, and every day focus on what are the 3 things you want to accomplish in a day and make sure that you get done to make it a really productive day. It'll also keep you from being distracted and all that kind of good stuff. And I spend hours talking about time management and organization and all that, and if you ever want any of that conversation too, just let me know or go to my website. I got a lot of stuff there. Okay, know and understand— I can't I can't even read anymore, your value and your worth. Okay, how many of you actually assign an hourly rate to yourself regardless if you bill by hour? No. I would recommend it. Okay. I know what I would recommend. All right. Okay, what I mean by that is this, the number one time management tip you could ever be given is this one. If you ever want to question what it is you should be working on, and when you should delegate or when you should hire or when you should just not do it, give yourself an hourly rate, meaning what is your time worth against what your projection is. So if you're looking at, you know, if you're looking at doing $100,000 this year, there's 2,000 hours in a year, typically 2,000 hours, take out vacations and stuff like that, it's 2,140 less vacations, less time off, okay? And then divide that, those hours, that bottom line hours into that $100,000. That'll give you your hourly rate. If you work on anything during your revenue-creating hours when your clients are alive and well and breathing to write you a check, then you need to look at it and go, should I be doing email, which has no value on it, or should I be making phone calls that have $100 an hour on it attached to it? Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. Okay, I'm going to move on from that, but that's a great That's it. If you need further clarification, I'm here, I'll hang out afterwards and then you can always call me. Okay, don't allow your customers to manage you. Lead them. What I mean by that is if you decide that you only can see customers in a certain hour time slot in order to keep you organized, then you manage them and that's your hour. They don't need to know that you blocked out the rest of your time to go to the gym during the day. I do that. To go to the dog park. I do that. Did you run errands? I do that. Because you know what? I spend a lot of hours at night working or on the weekends. Manage your customers, don't let them manage you. That'll be your number one revenue-generating bonus there. We talked about goals and expectations. And then acknowledge and reward yourself. I don't know why I didn't— oh, I also meant to say too, I mentioned affirmations and prayers and all that. This is my gratitude journal, plus it's just my journal. I write all the time. But I always, you know, when I have something holding me up and I don't know what it is, this is the cheapest therapist you'll ever come across. Right here. Just get it out of your head and write it on a piece of paper or put it on your computer or do something. The best way to work through a problem or decision or just some junk is in a journal. And I carry these two things around with me everywhere I go. You'll always see a journal with me. And then the last one is acknowledge and reward you. We work so hard and so much that sometimes we forget to kind of put some rewards out there for ourselves, that if we land that client or if we accomplish that big task or whatnot, you know, I deserve something. I need to— especially we work on our own, right? Someone mentioned, you know, you work in your house by yourself all the time, so you don't even have anybody there to kind of, you know, reward you. So make sure you put that in your plan. Plan too. That should be part of your plan is to reward yourself. Okay? I could go on forever, but I can't. But anyway, thank you very much. I appreciate it, and thank you for having me today. Thank you very much.