Ask Me Anything about your Career or Business for tips and advice!

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/sheddingthebitch 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.

Good day, good day, good day everyone and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio. Yes, I am indeed Bernadette Boas and I am so excited. So excited that you are here on our Ask Me Anything episode. This is when I take your questions, stories, and challenges that you might post on Facebook on our Shedding the Bitch page, maybe even on Twitter. I get a lot through LinkedIn in a private direct message, as well as you can always DM me on our Facebook and then post them out on Facebook anytime throughout the month, and I'll be answering them. As soon as I get them, while at the same time I kind of bring them all together and bring them right here onto the Shedding the Bitch radio program, which is the first Tuesday of every month unless we have an exception like we did last month. So you'll have to go back and check out that episode. But the first Tuesday of every month, I am providing you tips, advice, sometimes tough love when it comes to your career, maybe you have a business or anything in regards to your life. And if I'm unable to answer the questions, then I make sure that I bring in a— one of the many experts that I have within my network. So you're in great hands here within the Ball of Fire coaching environment. So be sure that you are posting, DMing, or even emailing me at BernadetteBoas@balloffireinc.com We want to certainly be sure that you're getting the information that you need. Okay, so like I said, this is Ask Me Anything. Seriously, ask me anything, and we'll be posting all of this recording as well as the video that we're doing out onto our YouTube channel, which is Bernadette Boas Shed the BTV, as well as on BlogTalkRadio and our sheddingthebitch.com, obviously. And then you can download the podcast anywhere you stream, including Apple Podcasts and all the other platforms. So just check all of that out there. Now I just have a few announcements I want to make before we get into all of this. We've had some great, uh, episodes, great guests, great topics. Last week we talked to Tammy Lynn Guns, and she helped us really understand how to navigate through obstacles with ease. We can all use a little ease, can't we? At the same time, Mark Hernandez came and joined us and talked to us about the Body Code. Are you familiar with it? Because I wasn't. So it was a fascinating discussion about how you can use the Body Code to really work through through any ailments that you have, both physically and emotionally, even spiritually, and all other aspects of your life. So you definitely want to check out that episode with Mark Hernandez. And then prior to that, we had Joanna Wright, who was talking to us about how you can actually get into real estate with zero dollars and zero dollars of your own money if there was money to be needed. So, uh, Joanna Wright of Bottom Line Wealth, check that episode out as well. And you can check out all of our episodes on BlogTalkRadio. You can check them out on sheddingthebitch.com as well, as I mentioned, on YouTube, Bernadette Boas, Shed the B TV, as well as on any of the podcast streaming services. Okay. I also want to thank our sponsors really quickly. We have Deborah Parker of Parker House Virtual Services. She provides virtual assistance and social media support to small to corporate size clients. You can reach out to her personally and tell her I sent you. She's my social media guru. You can reach out to her at deborahparker.va@gmail.com, as well as always have to thank Debbie Snelling and her team at North Georgia Tax Solutions. Where she provides full-service financial and tax services to small to corporate-size clients. And you can learn all about her and her work at NGTaxSolutions.com. Now, keep in mind, it's not just, uh, North Georgia. She works all over the country, so be sure to check her out as well. All right. Now, today is all about your questions and your challenges that you might be having. And like I said, you can at any time, even during the broadcast, at any time you can comment. If you're watching this on BlogTalkRadio, you on our Shedding the Bitch page, you can scroll down and there's a chat room right there. If you happen to be watching the video on Facebook on our Shedding the Bitch page, you can also throw a comment in there with your question, story, or challenge, and you can DM me right there in Facebook, okay? And I'll get back to you quickly. I and as quickly as possible. So don't go without getting the support that you need, okay? And you deserve, quite frankly. And that's what I talk about all the time here in this Shift to Riches and Shedding the Bitch community. You deserve all the riches in life, uh, and in your career and, and in your, um, business. All right, so let's see what we have lined up. Here is a recap— or I shouldn't say recap— here is a preview of what's to come when it comes to your questions. We're going to talk about a question from someone, um, regarding— let me say it specifically— with so many people starting new businesses and everybody being online, especially in my industry of multi-level marketing, how do I stand out? It's a, it's a definitely a common, common question and a challenge, and even more so these days, considering the amount of people that are not only online that weren't before, but at the same time, there's many that have been pivoting and shifting the direction of, you know, where their, their career or business is going. Corporate professionals are leaving to start their own businesses. Those that had a business that might have gotten hit hard by everything that is going on— we don't use the C or P word, figure them out for yourself— but we, we like to stay focused on positive and on moving forward. But with everyone, you know, even with their own businesses, but they might have struggled over the last several months, they're making changes too. And of course, everyone from kids to seniors are all online these days, so there's definitely a lot to be talked about there. Then another one was that I got was, I'm ready to expand and want to hire a couple of people into my profession professional services technology business, but am sure how to do it right. I've been burned before. Who hasn't? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. So you are not alone. You are not alone. And then the last one is, I've been sending out resumes, reaching out on LinkedIn to recruiters, and I'm not getting any responses. What do I do? And again, yes, there's a lot of noise going on out there. A lot, a lot, a lot. But quite honestly, I want to kick off with a personal story of mine and actually an experience that I've had over the last week and a half. Many of you who follow either our Shift to Riches community within our private Facebook group or anywhere you've been following Shedding the Bitch or me personally, you might have seen and/or heard about this story and experience that I'd had for about a week. At the same time, Anytime there is a good story or a hard story or experience, I personally always want to take lessons from it and really sit and kind of consider what is this experience trying to tell me, trying to teach me, trying to course correct me. And so I thought I would share that with you today and let you kind of take note, uh, not only of the lessons that I learned through this, through this experience. At the same time, it's a really good, uh, tool in your toolkit of how you really should look at every situation that you, um, are handed. You know, every, every struggle, every success, every hardship every, you know, whether it's joy and/or pain, there's always a time to sit and consider what is this trying to tell me, do for me, teach me, course correct me, so forth and so on. And I make it a practice on a regular basis so I stay grounded. At the same time, I, I don't take things for granted. I try not to take things for granted. And I try to learn, uh, you know, in all the, all the life, uh, situations that come before me. So let me, let me get into it. So, uh, a week ago Sunday, uh, after having 3 or 4 days of very spotty electricity, which means AC, Wi-Fi, as well as light, due to tremendous amount of storms that were coming through Atlanta, we actually had had multiple trees going down over a number of few days. We had a transformer blow and we're right by a major hospital. So fortunately, when that happens, we get quick response. But it was 3 or 4 days from Wednesday through Saturday where, you know, there were hours, if not a full day, without, you know, any way of working, without any way of cooling down, without any way of communicating unless you really charged up all your all your devices in advance. Anyway, so that was, that was fine. And I kind of just went with the flow and knew that everybody was doing the best that they could. And I was, you know, really considering, you know, the hardship that many people were experiencing, especially those that had damage from the tree falling down, the tree on top of a car, so forth and so on. Sunday morning, it was a beautiful night after a tremendous amount of storms the day before. Uh, beautiful, beautiful night, beautiful morning. Got up about 7:00 AM, and I have always— I have, um, always had a fear of trees falling because I've had a good number of them falling, not only here on my property at my home but just in my lifetime. And yet at my home here, I am blessed to have so many trees around me right on top of the city of Atlanta. But at the same time, they do bring their risks as well as their beauty. So I'm sitting there Sunday morning, kind of getting started with the day. I let Coco out in the yard, and the next thing you know, I was sitting down. I'm not even sure what I was doing, and I just heard what I was very familiar with, and that is of a tree or something breaking, and then the thud. And so I ran out into the back of the house, nothing. And that's where, uh, kind of a good bulk of the trees are, so nothing. Looked around the house, I was like, oh good, good, my house is still standing. Uh, then I went out front of my house and looked to the left and I noticed, you know, just a whole bunch of, of shrubbery, uh, of tree limbs sticking out everywhere. And so ran around the corner and noticed that these 3 huge limbs had fallen down off of a tree that sits right on top of my house. Now, blessings included the fact that yes, it did some damage to the gutters and the fascia and some of the shingles on the roof and whatnot. Did some damage to a small fence over at my neighbor's Um, apart from that, the house itself was untouched, which again, blessing. Okay, um, but it did take out my electricity, uh, which meant I knew that it took out, you know, pretty much everything in my home. And I only prayed that it didn't take out the neighborhood. I mean, it's not my fault, but at the same time, you don't want it to happen. So long story short, it did not. It was only my property that was impacted. And to make an even long story shorter is, so then Georgia Power shows up and tells me, well, it wiped out your whole, you know, electrical meter and a number of other things, and you're going to have to get it all, you know, repaired and most likely replaced, which is going to require the city, which is going to require permits and require inspections. And we're not talking a day or two, we're talking 4 or 5 days. And so I said, hmm, that's not fun. At the same time, I thought, okay, all right, well, it is what it is. I can't, you know, of course, when it comes to the city, you can't force much there other than, you know, speaking out as much as possible. So I just stayed calm, cool, and collected, as I would suggest anybody does when it comes to difficult times. You just stay calm, cool, and collected. So you're logical and you're kind of grounded when it comes to you trying to solve the problems. Okay, so I just, I said, okay, so, you know, I asked, I drilled George Palmer. Okay, what do I need to ask, you know, any of the electrical companies that come, you know, to my property? What do I need to make sure I understand? What do I need to know? What do I need to tell insurance? You know, so forth and so on. Now, the biggest concern I had is I had my main house on my property as a rental property, furnished rental property, for like 6 months, you know, plus. And I had people moving in. This was Sunday. I had people moving in Wednesday. They weren't going to occupy necessarily until Wednesday night, Thursday morning. But they were going to be here. And I thought, oh my gosh, if this takes 3 or 4 days— so that was my pressure point right there, was how do I take care of, you know, these renters? And it was a family with kids, so I knew they would need to get settled and need to be comfortable and need to be really confident that the house was in order. You know, there could be a couple things left over on the outside, but at the same time, electricity is very important. So I kind of said, okay, that's my, that's my why, why I need to get this done, you know, as quickly as possible, as logically as possible, as sanely as possible in order to ensure their, their confidence level. And so I had— I immediately got people out. I paid for them to come out on a Sunday, electrical people to really understand what was going on. And of the 3, I then selected one. Who said, "Well, we are excellent." They weren't the most expensive, they weren't the cheapest, they were right in the middle. "We are excellent at, you know, getting the work done, getting the inspector scheduled, you know, in advance, pulling the permit, so we can get this done in 1 to 2 days. 1 day of work and then the second day of inspection and whatnot." So I challenged them as I did the other 2. When I was told, one of them said, you know, it could be 5, 6 days. One of them said 4 or 5 days is typical, and these guys were saying 1 to 2. Remember, my why was to get these renters in and not lose months and months of rent. So the next thing you know, I did ask the questions that I, you know, thought were appropriate to the one that said 1 or 2 days, and I went with the 2. I said, let's look on the outside. Is 2 realistic? Even 3 would be okay., but it's too realistic. And they said yes. So, um, got the— got a quote from them and went with them. And then also had all the other people coming to look at the AC unit, to look at the chimney, to look at the roof, you know, so forth and so on. Um, and yet— so this was Sunday morning. Well, I'm sorry, the, uh, the electrical services group that committed to 2 days was Sunday afternoon. They said, we'll be here first thing in the morning. Just, you know, get— feel certain that insurance is going to cover everything. And I said, okay. So by Monday morning, I had that certainty, and I gave them a ring. I said, okay, we're ready to go. And the kind of the middleman I was talking to who assigned the workout, next thing you know, he says, they're not going to be able to make it today. They're stuck on a job. I said, wait, you just committed late Yesterday, I mean, only like an hour and a half has gone by from a new day. Um, what happened? And of course he couldn't give me an explanation. So the next thing you know, it's Tuesday. Um, so I'm now 2 days without electricity, air conditioning, and 90-degree-plus weather of Atlanta, and Wi-Fi. And so now it's Tuesday, and, uh, the gentleman, the gentleman shows up at like 7 AM to work on the all the electrical stuff. And by 3 o'clock, I'm kind of hanging out, and I was up in where I, where I live in my guest house, and I thought, oh, it's awfully quiet. So I came down, and the next thing you know, I'm told the electrical guy was gone. He didn't have a part. He'll be back tomorrow morning. I'm like, I thought the inspector was coming tomorrow morning at— I think they said at like 9:30. And no, no, we haven't even been able to pull the permit. All right, so I'm going to fast forward. Uh, fast forward to, um, the, uh, work was done by Wednesday early morning. Uh, the inspector is now needing to be scheduled. The permit had been pulled, but at this point it doesn't matter because the work is done and the inspection is what's going to be critical in order for Georgia Power to come back out and hook up. Well, all of a sudden it's Wednesday night, It's Thursday, I'm being told it's 10 o'clock, it's 2 o'clock on Thursday, it's 5 o'clock on Thursday, um, and they don't— and then all of a sudden, um, Friday morning they authorize a FaceTime inspection. I'm like, why couldn't you do that on Tuesday? If you're just gonna walk around the house, you know, FaceTiming the guy, why couldn't we have done that on Tuesday? And then of course now I have to— then that was done, and now I have to wait for Georgia Power. And Georgia Power, you know, regular updates: it's going to be 11, it's going to be 5, it's going to be 7:45. So as you can imagine, uh, you know, and, and the lights did come on late Friday night. Well, as you can imagine, uh, there was a great frustration on my part. At the same time, I did stay as calm, cool, and collected as possible. And said there, you know, I can't, I can't get myself all worked up about this. I can't get all stressed about this. I can't get all angry about this. It's just going to create more heat physically, emotionally, spiritually. It was going to cause more heat, which was going to cause more discomfort. And plus, I've learned over the years, and one of the lessons I've learned over the years that you definitely get more with honey than you do with vinegar. So it wasn't going to pay for me to go and start, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," and, you know, what I'll call bitching, you know, people out and getting angry and raising my voice, so forth and so on. That doesn't mean I don't get pointed and challenge commitments, which we'll talk about with lessons learned. But at the same time, it wasn't going to do any good. Actually, it probably would have slowed things down had I really started agitating the situation. So I didn't, and I just remained as calm, cool, and collected while I sat on my couch pretty much staring at walls. I did, you know, pull Wi-Fi from my phone's hotspot, which cost me you know, getting re-upped on personal hotspot usage. And my lovely neighbor did throw over a cable to me, and so I could hook up a fan and at least have a fan to cool me down. So I want to, you know, I want to end this in saying that there is a lot of lessons that anyone can take away from from this type of experience and situation. And that would be, uh, you know, if you— well, before I get there, if you look at all the things about commitments were made and, uh, broken, um, uh, there was even times where people didn't show up when they said they were going to be showing up, or they left without notifying, or they, you know, where you think you're asking all the questions but yet again, it doesn't turn out the way you want it to turn out. So the lessons I walked away with, and actually I was kind of considering them each day, was the fact that the first big one was I should go with my gut. When I got 3 quotes in one day, and one of them was, you know, 6 to 7 days, one was 4 to 5 days, and then all of a sudden this, you know, this Unicorn shows up saying it's 1 to 2 days. I should have gone with my gut, which told me, and I challenged them and asked them a lot of questions about the fact that how do you get it done that quickly when everyone else says they can't? How do you influence the city to pull permits and get inspectors out here when other people say they can't or they don't? You know, how, you know, where in writing can I get this? Yet at the same time, we, you know, they can't commit. And yet, I, you know, I should have held them to the fire and gone with my gut because yes, they can't commit. They can say 1 to 2 days, but I, you know, all the bells and whistles were going off going city permits, inspection code, you know, this electrical code that should have all, all kind of told me, Bernadette, you're not getting it done in 1 or 2 days. Now, fortunately, I did after a day and a half, I did call my renters, keep them up to date on what was going on. And I actually suggested to them, you might, you know, you should consider making a change. I don't want to lose you coming in, but I don't see this getting done by Wednesday. And even if it is, you know, it's putting a lot of pressure on you and your family. And so they respected that and went on. And unfortunately for me, they did have to cancel the lease and go elsewhere. Now, that was a— that's a hit, a big, big hit, and one that insurance doesn't necessarily take care of. So go with— go with your gut anytime you're getting information, especially when it's across multiple sources and one of them just, you know, jumps out, you know, screaming to you, "Ah, something's not right here." Go with your gut. You know, there is no such thing as fast money, overnight success. Expediting the government. No such thing. The next thing that I would say is get your commitments in writing. Now, of course, this doesn't apply to whether the permit in the city was going to show up. It more so had to do with when I initially got their quote. Their quote— when I initially got the quote, I didn't necessarily have them send it to me right then and there and kind of approve it. That this is the work they're going to do for this price. So when they actually showed up and they sent me— and I kept asking for the quote— I got a quote that was about $1,200, $1,300 higher. When I asked them for commitments as far as when they were going to be there and they said they were going to be there at certain times, leave at certain times, notify me, get updates, so forth and so on, I should have gotten those type of things in writing or I wasn't going to be paying that full, full payment. And yet, as much as I do that for my business, I did not do it here in my personal life. The other one would be, you know, that you ask a lot of questions, even the questions you don't know to ask. You just kind of either get online, do research, Google the heck out of things to kind of get an understanding of, okay, what are you in for when it comes to something like this, whether it has to do with insurance or has to do with code of any kind or policy procedures that need to be followed. It doesn't have to do with just a tree falling down on your house, has to do with anything in life. Just figure out all the aspects of the situation or challenge you're going through and try to find the questions that you need to be asking. Try to find the people you need to be asking, and don't just take it from, for instance, you know, the people showing up at your door and giving you estimates and giving you quotes and telling you how it's going to be done, go and seek out friends, family, experts, and ask them, what should I be asking? Like I almost did— well, like I did with Georgia Power, as far as they could, you know, tell me kind of the whole processes and procedures. So anytime you're hit up with a challenge, go with your gut, get things in writing as commitments and agreements and due dates, you know, timelines, that kind of thing, as well as any, you know, questions that you have. And, you know, and just stay calm, cool, and collected throughout it, because you getting— you getting emotional, you getting angry, you getting scared, you getting concerned, whether that is dealing with— dealing with the situation or talking to, you know, higher-ups or talking to certain people 'Cause even the— there was a whole thing with the insurance company, a misunderstanding that was conveyed from the adjuster to the insurance company. So you just, you know, want to be as calm, cool, and collected as possible. And get a notebook if you need to. Anytime you have a creative idea or a challenge to work through, you know, I'm big on journaling, as you all know. So just be sure that you are working all of that. And working it logically in black and white and really considering, you know, a complete view of the situation so you can get all the information and the answers that you need in order to make decisions that are necessary and to understand kind of how that situation is going to play out and be resolved. Okay, but I would, you know, Friday night I couldn't tell you how happy I was to lay down on the couch when I heard that air conditioning kick in. It was fabulous! And I, you know, I won't take AC for granted again because, oh, it was a hot one, that's for sure. And at the same time, a lesson for me as well is to be appreciative of asking for help, asking for neighborly love, and asking for support from those around you as well as, you know, your extended network. And I did. I, you know, yes, I sat there and I said, oh, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. But when push came to shove on certain things, I kind of pushed and shoved and said, hey, I need some help. And, you know, to get through this. Okay, all right, let's move on.

Okay.

The next question would be, with so many people starting new businesses and everybody being online, especially in my industry of multi-level marketing, how do I stand out? And this was actually brought up on an Ask Me Anything several months ago, different industry, but basically the same question. And right now it's being asked a lot because people are trying to figure out, you know, with everybody, all the businesses pivoting and changing You know, what do they do to kind of break through the noise? Because there is a lot of noise out there. Forget the media stuff. Just if, you know, from a business perspective, LinkedIn, Facebook, have you noticed just the barrage of people? Like on LinkedIn, you know, they're not even saying hello, you know, please connect with me. They're like, hello, I'm Bernadette and I sell this, this, this, this. And, you know, can you, you know, get on a phone call? I'm sorry, I don't even know you. What do you mean, can I get on a phone call? Um, so, and then on Facebook, you know, barrage, barrage, barrage of ads for, you know, whatever you've Googled. Facebook's picking up on that and throwing it into as an ad, uh, online. So if you are all of a sudden pivoting and shifting and, and changing course and you're trying to get visibility, you know, whether it be online or in your network or beyond your network, it's, it's a challenge. It's an absolute challenge. So this is what I would, would say. I would say stay the course as far as really living your purpose, your mission, your mission and your vision for your yourself and your company or your business or your career. Um, you know, you don't want to all of a sudden shift and pivot to be somebody you're not, to be serving people that really don't fit with you, to be selling products or services that aren't, you know, aren't your core. Don't get desperate in these times like right now. There are two types of people. There are people that are very desperate and struggling, and there are people that are, are seeing the abundance that is out there, and they're getting very focused and very clear and very determined to enrich themselves, not change themselves. So go back to your purpose, your vision, your mission, your goals for yourself and for your career or business. And stay the course. Now, from there, what you wanna do is you definitely want to look at whether or not you are showing up in a very unique, different, quality-driven, results-driven way than your competition, because that's what they are— not just other people out there, but your competition. So if you're concerned about standing out and breaking through the noise, then look at how you're showing up and see if there's a way to amp it up because nowadays you just have to amp up everything. So amp up and look at how do you reach out to people? How do you engage? How do you build relationships? How do you deliver your products and services? And I don't care if it's a widget or if it's a service. Both, both ways. How do you actually deliver that? How do you, you know, how do you look at the impact, the results, that the ROI that you're giving your customers? Look at whether or not there's something bigger and better and different you could be doing to drive out even more of an irresistible offering, product, service, business, and you. Make you an irresistible you to where, despite all the noise, you're going to pop. You're going to find a way to pop. Now, you could look specifically at how you are literally showing up. What does your brand look like? What does your website look like? What does your LinkedIn profile look like? What is your social media What does your online presence look like? Is there— you could get, you know, very down and dirty into the business saying, is there a way for you to get even nitchier than you are? So even I'm going through that right now, is as opposed to looking at just corporate professionals and business owners, is there a niche within that that you could, you know, that I could be looking at? You know, is there an even smaller niche that you could be serving? And then therefore your messages are going to be a lot more clear and they're going to be able to pop to just that smaller niche. It's almost like if you look at when people go too wide and narrow, because you can only do so much. You only have so much time, you only have so much money, you only have so So many resources. So if you're too wide, you're only going to go narrow in how you, um, market to them, how you pursue them, how you present to them, how you close them, how you onboard them. And again, I'm talking widgets or services of any kind, okay? I'm talking about whether you're in your career or whether you're serving a, you know, running a business. It doesn't matter. You know, even you corporate professionals can be really looking at how am I showing up every day? How is my personal brand delivering to my teammates, to my employees, to my bosses, to my leadership team, to the other companies within the organization, to the other companies within the industry? How am I showing up in, you know, in the business, but also online and out? In the social world and find ways to deliver even that much greater, better, richer, bolder, all in the name of serving other people. Because in order to receive, you need to serve, right? In order to receive, you need to serve. One of my favorite— I guess it's a passage or scripture is serving others serves me. I almost like, what? Serving others serves me. And at first when I heard it, I thought it was a very selfish, selfish statement. Serving others serves me. I'm not going to serve others just for it to serve me. And then I really sat down and thought about it. Well, wait a minute. Give to others, help others. Serve others, and the benefit that they get from that is going to serve your heart and soul and everything else in your life, um, that much greater. So look at— if you want to stand out, look at how other people are showing up and find ways to amp up even bigger, better, greater, richer, bolder, everything. All right, and you will, and you will of, you know, you will pop. And again, that niching also is going to allow you to stand out to fewer people because you're looking for quality, not quantity. So even, you know, on, on Facebook with all these groups popping up, and, and, um, on Instagram and even in LinkedIn, it's not about— it's not— it is a numbers game as far as, you know, how effective you're being with this the numbers you have, but it's not a quantity game because again, you can't serve all the people that you're going after. You want the, the number of people that you have to be the most, the best quality that fit what it is that you do and who it is that you serve. So look at your purpose, your vision, your mission. Now you could also get testimonials from individuals. So again, widget or services, of any kind. Go to your customers and ask them, how do they serve you? And then provide those testimonials on your LinkedIn profile, on your website, in your content, in your contracts, you know, in, in the work that you do. Let other people know how you're showing up for your, for your customers, and that will also, you know, help them to see that they want to work with you versus somebody else. Okay, um, let me see. Okay, the next question is, I'm ready to expand and want to hire a couple of people into my business, and it's a professional services technology business—

know it well—

and I'm unsure of how to do it right. I've been burned before. Okay, there's two, two different things there of which do overlap. So is, I'm unsure of how to do it, I'm unsure of how to do it right, slash been burned. Okay, so there's I'm not sure how to do it and I'm not sure how to do it right, uh, are two things you're going to want to delineate here. And this is why, um, I can tell and, and share with you how to, you know, what are the steps that you need to do in order to hire an individual, especially the right person, the perfect person, the ideal person for your job. What often happens, whether it's in one's business or if it's in a company from a hiring manager, what often happens is people get desperate for help and for, you know, feet on the ground. They get greedy, meaning they don't want to pay. They get insecure, meaning they don't necessarily want to hire someone that is smarter, more ambitious, better than they are. So a lot of factors come into play that make it— make the differentiation between knowing how to hire somebody and doing it right. So you need to be sure that one, you know the steps to take in order to hire the ideal person, but then you need to ensure that whether it's you or someone else is the hiring manager, you need to ensure that they are making the right decisions based on how you define that ideal client to be, okay? You can't let other factors play into, you know, why you are getting burned. You're getting burned because you may not know how to do it, but you're actually— if you do know how to do it, you're not doing it right because of a number of reasons. So you could sit down and say, okay, what is it about the hiring process? I don't know, and really get a good understanding of that. Okay, and be okay with the fact that, you know, if you're a business owner, even if you've been in business 5 to 10 years, there are some companies that it's not like they have hundreds and thousands of people. You know, they might have a handful, they might have a dozen, but they might have turned over the responsibility for hiring to somebody else. So, there hasn't been a lot of time or experience around You know, the mistakes and the things that work, the things that didn't work. So, you know, give yourself a break, be easy on yourself, and just make sure you're really evaluating that you understand what it takes to hire the ideal person. But then more importantly, because that's easy. All right. There's a lot of experts out there that can help you with that. But then when you go to implement it, you need to ensure that you're following your own recipe. For getting the ideal person. And that's where a lot of times people fall short because they get desperate, they get insecure, they get greedy, so forth and so on. They get biased. Bias plays a huge role. So you really need to ensure that you know both the right way— or I'm sorry, you know both the way to hire the ideal person, but you also need to know the things that could turn out not to be right and for you getting burned. Okay, so, but let me give you a few ideas. First would be you really need to know, um, what you need— or I'm sorry, you need to know what you want, um, and what you need. But at one point it's going to turn into what you want versus what you need. So you may want X, Y, and Z when it comes to an employee, but you need ABC, and you need to really delineate between the two of them. Because we might want somebody who is, you know, someone might say, "Oh, I want somebody who's really engaging and bubbly and—" and young. And, you know, I'm not even concerned about how experienced they are, so forth and so on. But what you need for that particular role, it's professional services technology, right? With no disrespect to my fellow professional services colleagues and peers, there's some roles within professional services technology that you're not going to find bubbly and engaging and and yes, young, but at the same time, the level of expertise or experience you need, you know, may take young off that— that's what I want, but that's not what you need in order to get that right person for that position. So you really need to understand what you want versus what you need, okay? And make sure that you take out and kind of move over to the column of the ideal individual from both of those lists, so to speak. Okay, so understand and know what you want and what you need. Okay, there also is— you need to go back when it comes to finding the ideal client for any, for any situation. You still have to always go back, and you guys hear this from me all the time. You have to go back and to your vision for your business, maybe your mission. For a lot of company businesses, you need to go back to your goals. You need to go back to your why, you know, you're in the business or following the career that you're following, or hiring the person into a career that you're hiring. You need to go back to all of that because again, if you're all of a sudden, you know, listing out what you, you know, what you want versus what you need and it doesn't tie back to all the things that you stand for, your values, your traits, your quality, qualities, the type of culture you're building, your leadership style, the way you want, you know, the entire team to be engaging and collaborating and working together, so forth and so on. And if you're over here working in isolation of coming up with a job profile or job description of someone you need to hire and you're not at all taking it back and filtering it against everything that the company stands for, you're going to have a lot of times where you're burned down. You know, it's plain and simple. You're going to get burned. So you really want to ensure that you're, you know, even starting with your, you know, your vision, your mission, your goals for the company, even your goals for this role and position. And then, you know, you can then say, okay, then what do I want versus what do I need in this individual? Then you just want to work your way down to mapping out who your ideal candidate employee would be for that particular role. Now, I would warn people to not come up with an ideal profile for just anybody that works for you because they're going to differ, obviously. Roles differ in characteristics. They differ in skill set and in responsibilities and in experience and expertise. So you really want to, for each of the roles that you, you would be hiring, really come up with a profile of that ideal employee for that particular role. Okay, and that's kind of fun because you can actually, you know, use visuals if you want. Some people map it you know, doing a mapping diagram. Some people, you know, just write out a bulleted list. Again, it's going to come back to how you even process and work through ideas and questions and challenges. So, however it works for you, just map out, draw out, list out your ideal candidate before you go and then formulate it into a job description. And so the job description is pretty tactical. So then you go and post it in the right places, and we won't get into all that, but you post it out there in the right places. And then you, when it comes to the key, what is going to be, then you start getting resumes in. And it just so happens we're gonna have a conversation about that, but you start getting, you know, applicants in and And that's going to be where you differ from, you know, knowing how to do it, because now you do. You've done all the right steps. You've put it out there in the right places, which you've done research to figure out where the right places are for not only your industry, your company, but even for this role, because that'll differ as well. And now you're, you're going and you're receiving in applications. And now comes when— whether or not you're gonna do it right and whether or not you're gonna get burned or not. And that has to all do with then the interviewing and, you know, really qualifying and challenging and providing scenario-based type of situations for a candidate, and then sticking with that ideal profile. All right, not getting desperate, not getting greedy, not getting insecure. Not, you know, getting worried that this person's smarter than that person and it's a threat, and therefore— or, you know, that this person doesn't agree with my, you know, beliefs, or, you know, doesn't agree with how we do things around here. Now, there's red flags that you're gonna need to pay attention to, of course, but as long as you know and you go back to your vision, your mission, the culture, the qualities and the traits and the values you're looking for, and that ideal profile, and then staying true to that and not compromising because someone costs too much or someone's, you know, very ambitious and, you know, and, you know, looking to grow, and that's a threat, so forth and so on. You know, we also— it's a whole different subject, but as hiring managers or leaders in you know, in corporate or in your own business, you know, your goal should be to hire better and smarter and more creative and more ambitious and more, you know, innovative than you are. Because, you know, you want people in, you know, in your company and in your network and in your circle that are going to complement and even enrich enrich what it is that you and the others bring to the table. You're not looking for copycats. You're not looking for, you know, to create, you know, a replication of everybody. You want to have the confidence to want people that are smarter and more ambitious and even younger and, you know, more or less experienced. So forth and so on. Okay, wait, there was a reason why I had this part. Hold on a minute. Oh, and okay, that's why I had it. Okay, and then the big thing for hiring managers and leaders out there is you need to understand the marketplace. You need to understand the marketplace to understand that what you want and the need that you have is because there's 5 generations of workers out there right now. There are, there's 5 generations of workers. We're not going to go through them. You can actually go out to look up for the Purdue University study of the marketplace, the workplace, and you'll— and just say, you know, Google in 5 generations of workers, Purdue University, and you'll find the summary of these, the 5 different groups. And of course, you probably know them. But at the same time, you really need to understand them because then that, you know, those characteristics need to be kind of bounced up against that ideal profile that you came up with. Because like the example that I gave is there might be some roles that sounds good that if you had a young individual, you know, when people think technology, they think it's all like millennials. Sitting there, you know, at a computer and being creative and innovative and oh my gosh. And yet there's a role out there that also says that type of, you know, mindset or degree of experience is not going to fit this role that I have that needs to be more experienced, expert, grounded, so forth and so on. So you really want to also understand the marketplace to come up with that ideal profile as well, so you know, you know, also who's going to be sending in the resumes that you're going to need then need to make decisions against. Okay. All right, let's move on. Okay, let's see. I've been sending resumes out, reaching out on LinkedIn to recruiters, and I'm not getting any responses. What do I do? Well, first off, you definitely need to recognize the environment that we're in right now. You know, millions of people are without jobs, so the marketplace is flooded. Now, that's not to say that you have any excuse to not go after and not, you know, do what you need to do in order to find the ideal job. Now, you know, employees also run the risk of being desperate, being greedy, being insecure, and, you know, grabbing at the first thing that comes to them, especially if it has a nice, you know, money attached to it. As opposed to waiting until you find that ideal company, that ideal manager, that ideal role that really will allow you to build a career versus just having a job. So, but when it comes to the resumes and why you're not getting responses, recognize that the marketplace is flooded with resumes. Recognize that the resume process is very automated, meaning you're scanning in most cases, or you're entering into a portal, your resume and your qualifications and all that kind of good stuff. Recognize that those systems use keywords and a number of other things to spit out only those applications that met that criteria of the keywords, of the, um, maybe the education level, maybe the experience, um, filters, whatever the case might be. So if you're not getting responses from recruiters, it's not only going to be because of the flood of work that they have, it's going to be because your application may not be popping up into their, into their folder that got filtered out by the automated software that they're using because your keywords and the way that you either entered in your information or the resume that you scanned in didn't have things that tied back to their job description. Okay, it all, you know, so don't get discouraged. Figure out what it is that recruiters are doing or hiring managers are doing and how they're doing it that will ensure that your resume is getting popped up. You might have to rewrite your resume. You might have to have very, you know, many versions of your resume that Because what you should be doing is you should be taking that job description that you, that you want to apply to, and you need to be mirroring it against your resume. And you need to ensure that you're not lying and you're not making up things that you know that you haven't done. But obviously, if it's for a position and a role and a skill set that you know that you can fill, well, you're one of the— you'll want to ensure that the keywords and the words they're using in their job description you have in your resume, because that is what they're using to pop, you know, to have your application pop out because you're saying things that, you know, mirror what is in their job description. You're using words that are in their job description. You're giving them, you know, experiences and companies and skills that are in their job description. Even when it comes to, you know, things that they write about, you know, travel or working remote versus working in an office, so forth and so on. The software applications, especially where the recruiters are concerned, is, you know, filtering out based on what criteria they've put into it. So you, you know, so it might not be that they even saw your resume. They may not, they may not have ever gotten it on their desk, whether you mailed it, whether you emailed it, whether you scanned it, or whether you entered it into a portal. So you need to ensure that you're looking at and really understanding how your resume is reflecting what they're looking for in their job description, and then it just becomes a numbers game. It becomes a numbers game. You need to just really have an idea of who it is that you want to submit your resume to. Get your ideal employer, you know, ideal company, ideal hiring manager, ideal job and role. Get that really clear and start, you know, sending it out to them. You can always try to reach out on LinkedIn, send them a note, you know, ask, ask questions, just not Hi, you know, have you seen my resume? I sent it to you, you know, 5 days ago. I haven't heard anything. You know, you might reach out to a recruiter and say, hey, do you have 5 minutes for me to pick your brains and get some advice or thought leadership on where the direction of, of this industry is going? You know, don't always consider that it has to be about you getting a job. It could be that you just need to learn more and ask a lot more questions of not only recruiters but hiring managers, of senior leaders within companies, not only the one you're targeting, but it could be where you've come from. You know, you could have gone back to them and said, hey, you know, I just want some ideas and suggestions as to where you think I should be looking, what roles I could be pivoting to based on your knowledge of me, so forth and so on. But don't think the crickets is because your resume is not good enough. Somebody might never have seen it, so don't get discouraged, don't beat yourself up, just simply understand that there are certain things that they're looking at and they're looking for, and it's a matter of whether or not you did the work to research them, to build a profile around them, to compare it to their job description, and make sure your resume, which is you, right, is a fit for them, and then ensure that your resume reflects what it is they're looking for, and then submit. All right, that was it. That covered everything. So if you ever have a question or story challenge that you're dealing with, please do not sit there and and kind of take it on yourself. Reach out. You can DM me on Facebook, you can send me a LinkedIn message, you can email me at BernadetteBoas@BallOfFireInc.com, you can post a comment on our Shedding the Bitch Facebook page, you can, you know, do a number of things. You can join us for the first Tuesday of every month is our Ask Me Anything episode, and you can always call in at 1-818-572- 2910, especially— well, obviously when we're live. And there's a number of ways you could be reaching out and making sure that you're getting the answers and the support that you need and deserve. All right, so for everyone here in the Shedding the Bitch community, thank you so much for joining our Ask Me Anything episode. Go to blogtalkradio.com/shedthebitchradio. You can go to Shedding the sheddethethebitch.com. You can go to Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your podcast, and you can even check out my lovely face on our Shedding the Bitch YouTube channel, which is youtube.com/bernadetteboasshedthebtv. And all of our videos of our episodes are there as well. Be sure to subscribe and follow us everywhere. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, BlogTalkRadio, and I'll look forward to being right back here next Tuesday at noon Eastern time with you. Take care, everybody. Have a rich week.

Bye. Thank you for listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. Join Bernadette every 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.