Ask Me Anything... like Paula, who wants to know how to overcome stage fright!

Are you ready to create riches in your work and life? It's time for Shedding the Bitch Radio and TV, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches in life you deserve. So let's welcome your ball of fire host, Bernadette Boas.

Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone! How are you? And welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio. Yes, I'm Bernadette Boas, and today is our Ask Me Anything episode, which is a lot of fun. Basically the first Tuesday of every month, throughout the month I'm collecting your questions and your stories and maybe some challenges that you're having, maybe opportunities that you just need some, some insight and guidance on, and I bring them right here into our Shedding the Bitch Radio. NTV Ask Me Anything episode. So we have a number of questions that we're going to go over today. I'll give you a highlight of them, and at any time I'm actually live. I'm live on BlogTalkRadio, I'm live in our Shading the Bitch Facebook page, I'm live out on our Shading the Bitch TV YouTube channel, and even LinkedIn. So at any point in time, if you have a question, feel free to post it. You can even call me directly at 1-818-572-2910 should you want to talk to me directly, and we'll make it all work. All right, but the questions we're going to talk about today, um, in no particular order, is, um, someone wants to know— actually, Jackie wants to know about a website that she is contemplating either replacing her website, um, or modifying the one that she has, and she's not really sure what she needs to be looking for in a website developer. So we're gonna talk about that. We're also gonna talk about a situation that hopefully not many coaches and consultants deal with out there, but Barbara has a client who she's been working with for about 3 months, I believe she said, and the client is asking for a refund. And we're going to get into that. I have some of the details from Barbara, but we'll get into some of the more details around that and some tips and some, some suggestions. And then Paula wants to know how to overcome stage fright, but more so in even the smallest of settings. So if you can relate to any of these questions, plus if you have a question of your own, then definitely be sure to reach out and let me see what I can do to help you with that. OK, and I'll be going back and forth between the between the channels. Excuse me, I have lost my paperwork. And we'll, you know, I'll go back and forth to make sure that I'm paying attention and I see any of the comments or the needs that you might be having within your own business or life. Okay, all right, so first, before we get started in regards to your questions, let me just do a few thank-yous if I could. I need to thank our new and ongoing viewers and listeners. It's the ongoing that we've had for a good number of years who are sharing and tweeting and commenting and reviewing and rating and subscribing to our podcast on any one of your streaming services, including right here on BlogTalkRadio, or you're subscribing to our Shedding the Bitch TV channel on YouTube. 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So Debbie Snelling and her team are just fabulous, and they've been a longtime sponsor of everything we do here in the Shed in the Bits community. So, um, please go to ngtaxsolutions.com to learn more about that and tell her I said hi. And then a newest in the last couple of weeks is a local here in Atlanta, Georgia, but at the same time you need to know about him and his team. Uh, it is Up Top Roofing Company of Atlanta, and they are just absolutely fabulous. And he's been a follower and a listener, um, to the Shedding the Bitch community for the past, I would say, 5 or 6 years. And, uh, came to me and said, I want to support you, I want to sponsor you. And so I couldn't be more proud to have Up Top Roofing of Atlanta joining as a sponsor. You can reach out to Jay and his team at up-toproofingofatl.com. Yahoo.com. All right, okay, let's get into your questions, shall we? I'm going to take a look around just to make sure we don't have any others, um, happening on the— any of the other networks. And I don't have Deborah with me today, so, um, bear with me as I make sure that we have all of our bases covered. But we're going to first get into this question in regards to stage fright. So, you know, how many of you might deal with it yourself? And it doesn't even necessarily mean stage fright, and the anxiety that comes along with it isn't necessarily just linked to a big stage or you doing public speaking. It could be when you're out in a social gathering. It could be when you're job interviewing. It could be when you're in the middle of a, maybe a conference, and they open up the room to questions and you're, you know, needing to raise your hand. Stage fright can come in many, many forms, big or small, and at the same time, that anxiety, both physically and emotionally, can be very debilitating. At the same time, there's some that just kind of get very jittery and very anxious. I know for myself And then I'll get into answering Paula's question, but I know for myself I used to suffer from this significantly. And, you know, people would always look at me thinking, oh, well, she's so outgoing and gregarious and she always appears very confident. And yet I would say even up until about 8 years ago, I was doing public speaking. I was doing, you know, presentations in front of the in front of rooms. I was in conferences raising my hand. At the same time, that total dry throat, breaking out in a rash, being jittery, being all in my head, going blank at times— I certainly have experienced it all. So I definitely related to what Paula was asking about, and I'm sure many of you might actually, you know, deal with it yourself.. And so if I can provide you any type of insights and tips, then I'm really happy to do that. Now, keep in mind too, if you have stage fright in any form, you're not alone. It used to be, you know, people would say, oh, it's like 99% of people will say that stage fright is their number one fear. It actually over the years has kind of pivoted and adjusted, and the latest is around 73%. Find any type of public speaking or any type of presentation, you know, skill is frightening, is, you know, leads to anxiety, 73%. So that's a good chunk of those individuals and probably has a lot to do with what's happened over the last couple years because so many of us, a good majority of us, have had to pivot from, you know, being kind of in our offices doing our own thing to going online. And this is a form of presentation, speaking, definitely an area where people gain a lot of fear and anxiety and stress when it comes to getting on video, when it comes to putting a microphone in front of them. So, you know, I'm glad to see though that so many have taken on this form of education and entertainment to where the numbers have come, you know, down greatly to just 73%, but that's still high. And so we definitely want to, want to work on it. So I want you to kind of keep in mind a few things, Paula, and anyone else that deals with stage fright. And again, it could come in the form of just small anxiety, and oftentimes people will tell tell you that, you know, those butterflies in your stomach right before, you know, you're gonna go and get on a stage or have a microphone in your face or have a camera in your face, those are actually more energy and more positive than they are, you know, negative and stress and anxiety. I don't know about you, but I used to get the butterflies in my stomach all the time, and trust me when I say they weren't good butterflies. They were nauseous and, you know, anxious butterflies. I'll, I'll even remember, um, Barbra Streisand. Uh, and if there's one person on this earth that I just absolutely adore and I could get, you know, starstruck from, it's Barbra Streisand. And I, I'll never forget when she was interviewed a good number of years ago now, but she would talk about just how debilitating It was the thought of her going out on stage and performing on stage, and I just found that absolutely stunning, absolutely stunning. And then at the same time, people were sharing with me over the last 25, 30 years that, you know, anything with a microphone in my hand, that would be very natural for me, that would be very easy, that would be very comfortable. And I was like, yeah, no. So Anyway, so here are some things that I want you to be thinking about and considering. Is one, just know that— and keep in mind that 73%— just know that if you are on a stage or you are on, on, you know, camera, or you are on a radio show with a microphone in your face, um, a vast majority of people would never consider doing it. And so you're in kind of a small percent that is open and courageous and willing even to push through their anxiety and their stage fright to do what you need to do because you know it's important and you know you're making a difference. So just kind of hold on to that. It would be my first tip is just to hold on to that idea that you're doing something that many people will not do. And at the same time, the second thing I would want you to be thinking about is as others are observing or listening, they're sitting there going and saying to themselves, I would never do that. And they're kind of applauding your courage. They're applauding your guts to get up there and do what you're doing. So kind of take both of those perceptions, your own perception that you're in a small percent, and then the persons and persons who are listening or watching you they're not seeing if you're anxious. They're not looking for whether or not you have beads of sweat running down your face, or that you're dry and you're, you know, kind of having a hard time, you know, getting the words out. They're not looking for rashes on your chest. That's all your head game, um, because they're looking for you— it's because you took that, that, you know, that courage and that gut. They're just looking for you to give them whatever it is that they, you know, showed up to hear or to see or to learn or whatever the case might be. So just be comfortable in the idea that you're one in a million, one in a few, and that people are kind of looking to you or listening toward you in order to learn or grow or make a change, whatever the case might be. All right, so those are just a couple of more, you know, conceptual, perceptual type of tips that you can kind of hang on at, so you can believe in yourself enough to where then you're not uncomfortable with it. All right, and that brings me to my 5 Ps, and I use this across the board with, for an overall general communications. It could be, I even use it when I talk to clients about selling, but the 5 Ps is very applicable in many, in many ways. And the 5 Ps are plan, prepare, present— I'm sorry, I'm missing something. Plan, prepare, practice. I missed practice. Plan, prepare, practice, present, and process. And the practice piece of all of that is really critical. So, the plan, obviously, plan. And that will make you feel more comfortable and confident. Prepare, meaning now that you've gotten maybe a plan laid out, now you want to prepare what it is that you're going to be presenting or speaking about or educating or interviewing, whatever the case might be. And you're now getting, you know, kind of more comfortable and more knowledgeable about the actual content that you would be talking about. And then you want to practice, and this is where I want to emphasize practice, practice, practice, and practice. Because the more times that you get in front of a microphone, whether that's on a stage, you know, behind a computer, in a classroom, the more comfortable you're going to get. Because you guess what? You are going to probably fumble. You're going to probably, you know, get stressed out and anxious. You're going to maybe forget things. You're going to maybe, you know, kind of flop in some cases. But each one of those experiences shouldn't pull you down, they should lift you up. So you get to the point where you're more and more and more comfortable. And I remember specifically when I was presenting to a relatively large group, a relatively large group of people. It was at a business networking event, and it was for a particular organ— a global organization that had a chapter here in Atlanta. And there I was, and at first kind of you know, that normal, you know, butterflies in the stomach, little hives on my chest, though maybe no one else noticed, the dry throat. And as I'm presenting and as I'm up in front of all of these people and somewhat in my head, all of a sudden everything just disappeared. I call it shedding in a lot of cases, but all of a sudden everything disappeared. And I realized afterwards when I really thought about, okay, what changed to the point where I never feared and I never got anxious again and I never got in my head again. But what was it? And it ties back to practicing. It tied back to the fact that I had done that particular presentation so often, so many times, in various formats, in various ways, in various size of, of audiences, that I, I knew it kind of became part of me. And therefore I was able to relax and lean into it as opposed to kind of be in my head about it. And so practice, practice, practice, Paula, as much as you can when it comes to overcoming your stage fright. All right. And then I want to break down practice into two parts. Practice on your own. And I'll never forget, I used to take an improv class and an acting class and then a comedy class, and they all had the same tip, and that was if you're working to memorize— now improv you don't, but in, you know, if you're working to memorize or get comfortable with content, then, you know, move at the same time. So walk at the same time you're trying to memorize something. Walk at the same time you're trying to kind of formulate, you know, your messaging. And so I would go down to Piedmont Park— I'm here in Atlanta, Georgia— I'd go down to Piedmont Park and I would, you know, have my outline, and in one case it was a script, and I I would just walk in circles while I'm memorizing my lines. And, you know, maybe some people in the park thought I was a lunatic, but at the same time, it really does help you to not only memorize it but actually kind of embed it into your being. So definitely practice, practice, practice. Now, being that I touched on acting classes and whatnot, the last tip, Paula, would be you know, look into other types of edutainment, I'll call it, education entertainment. So like I mentioned, I took a comedy class. It involved writing and then, you know, performing. I have taken improv classes. I've taken acting, like formal, like a play type of acting classes. I've been part of Toastmasters. I've been part of the National Speakers Association, or NSA. Where they also have programs that kind of walk you through creating your, your presentation all the way to practicing it and then getting on a stage and presenting it. So there's a lot of different forms for you to be able to get over stage fright. All right, I hope that answered your question. If anybody else has any questions in regards to that, you can leave comments, you can, on any one of the platforms that we're we're broadcasting, as well as you can reach out to me on Facebook, LinkedIn, or you can just email me at BernadetteBoas@BallOfFireInc.com. Okay, all right, so our next question would be from Barbara in regards to a coaching client, and so let me make one little switch up here. And make sure I have what I need for her. Um, so the situation was she has a 6-month program. It is a combination of one-on-one, but primarily like you get like one one-on-one and then the rest of it is, um, group coaching, uh, large group coaching. And so she had been working with this client for about 3 months in this group, and then with the one-on-one— the one-on-one might have been one a month. Um, and then all of a sudden, 3 months into the 6, she got a, uh, call from one of her clients in that group asking for a refund, and it caught her very much off guard. And so she didn't feel that she handled the initial conversation very well and basically did whatever she can to get off the, off the phone and then reached out to me. And so I'm asking kind of, what do I do in that type of situation? Well, the first thing for any coaches, consultants, service providers, anyone that would have these type of arrangements, longer-term arrangements with a, with a customer or client, you need to get anything and everything down in writing into an agreement, a contract, whatever you want to call it, and make sure that it's, you know, not only airtight as far as it lays out everything about the conditions and the terms and the duration and what's expected and what's— what can they expect, but what do you expect from them. Just making sure that all that detail is laid out, because if if, um, Barbara had had it laid out, then she would have had something to refer to to answer the question that her client was asking her. However, she does— however, she has a coaching agreement. It doesn't speak to refunds, um, and, you know, because she auto— just automatically assumed that her programs would be non-refundable, which is perfectly fine. However, you want to get that language and that verbiage in writing, and that's part of your onboarding or even your, your closing of that, that customer. And they're agreeing, reading it and agreeing to it, and therefore signing it, and then therefore they're bound by that agreement. Uh, so the first thing, you know, just looking at things business-wise and logically, it all comes down to detail. It all comes down to terms and agreements and what did you have in place in order to— for this person to understand what their rights are and what they could be expecting should they decide to, you know, kind of terminate an agreement prior to it ending. Now the, the next level of that though gets into more the person and the actual coaching itself, the actual partnership outside the kind of legal jargon, business contract aspects. Because the first thing I asked was, you know, although she hung up the phone very quickly, there had to have some degree of conversation as opposed to her just hanging up the phone, which she didn't do. And I would propose no one do that. You know, kind of, this is a time where if something is thrown at you that quickly, suddenly, unexpectedly, this is when you definitely need to just ground yourself from a mindset perspective and breathing perspective. So mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, just get yourself grounded and have a conversation. Like, make it a conversation. Don't get defensive. You don't want to get emotional about it. You want to just especially if you are a coach, you just want to start peppering this individual with questions. Uh, so give me an idea, what's going on? What's hap— what's happening? Has something changed over the last, you know, couple of weeks, months, even maybe days? Has something all of a sudden changed? Um, um, the first things that I asked Barbara was, on a regular basis, it might not be weekly or whatever the frequency of when she would meet with with this individual, whether it's one-on-one or group, but more so, you know, frequently do you touch base on whether or not, you know, she's gaining value, she's getting benefit, she's comfortable, she's getting what she needs, expectations of the program are being met. Are there those frequent questions to ensure that you have a pulse on exactly what is your customer's experience with you during your program, or an event, or a, you know, a more, you know, consulting contract perspective. You definitely always want to be monitoring the customer's, you know, results, the customer satisfaction of what it is you're delivering on. You don't want to be surprised at the end, or in this case, the middle, to where all of a sudden, you know, someone's raising up concerns or issues or missed expectations. And so that, you know, those were a number of questions that I asked Barbara to consider and to kind of then go back to this individual to learn more. So she also wants to really understand what is going on with this individual because, you know, there might be something in there that is new or sudden or hasn't been addressed. That can be. So it doesn't have to be an end-all, you know, end-all that, you know, she wants a refund, that means it's over. Um, it could be the fact that it's a call for help and it's a call for attention on whatever it is that she's dealing with. So you definitely want to, you know, get into, um, what is driving this this decision? What is driving this sudden, you know, disruption or, you know, pulling out of a program that you invested in? You know, is there, is there things that we should just adjust and adapt and pivot? Is there, is this calling out a different business issue or personal issue that we should be addressing and maybe, you know, kind of making an exception to however you might have your program structured, so I can support you? Is it that all of a sudden maybe she came into a significant major financial situation and she just can't afford to continue? But, you know, Barbara had not gotten into depth of questions to kind of really understand the, the situation. And so fortunately she did reach out and we were able to talk about it so she can go back to this individual and effectively talk through it. The one thing that I really want to point out, and I made sure Barbara looked at herself before she even spoke to the client, was, you know, were the expectations of whatever it is that you laid out, were they being delivered? Were they being met? You know, were you keeping the promise or the commitment that you made around what it is this program or service is supposed to be delivering, or this product is supposed to be delivering. Because there would be, you know, a significant reason why someone 3 months in of 6 months would all of a sudden, you know, kind of put the brakes on everything. And so any one of you out there— coach, consultant, service provider— would definitely want to be looking at kind of internally yourself individually, your program, products, and services, And then, you know, kind of the business agreements and contracts and terms, and then the client. And, and in the client, you need to then ask a lot of questions to really understand what the current situation is. Now, if Barbara had had very clear terms and agreements within her contracts, then that would have immediately said, well, Barbara, you signed this agreement that says there's no refunds. Um, you know, or that there is a refund but it's, you know, significantly reduced. However you might handle, um, someone possibly asking for a refund. Uh, then I, then I kind of summed it up with asking her this. Um, well, first, before I get there, I'm sorry, before I get there, I then also said, okay, so are there considerations that, you know, both of you can make in order to effectively come to a decision as to where you're going to go next with your relationship, with your partnership with the program. So what I meant by that is if this individual, you know, just has to get out, you might say, well, I would be open if you would to providing a testimonial, you know, even a video testimonial, or, you know, some type of review or some type of content that I could be using to, you know, promote this program and to, you know, advance this program going forward in exchange to giving you a refund, even if you had, you know, your contracts even say refunds are, you know, are not accepted. Um, so there's things that you can, you know, really make sure that you can work with and consider with your client just so you kind of can maintain that relationship, maintain that partnership. Because again, you really might not never figure out what's actually happening. And it could be that, you know, they return 6 months later, a year later, and then you'll even know better and more about what it is you need to put in your agreements. For that, that individual doesn't mean you have to cut them off permanently. Um, you know, and then, and then again, I, um, then had her consider, you know, how, you know, how important is it that you don't have a disgruntled, um, client should you say there's no refunds? Uh, and you just kind of, you know, kind of lay it out like that. Now I'm not talking about You know, I'm not talking about something that, you know, would cost, you know, minimal amount of money, um, and, you know, it would not have a big impact on you, but it could on them. Um, you know, I'm, I'm talking about these bigger investments that, that individuals make in coaches and consultants, in service providers. Um, but how important is it for you to kind of maintain that relationship with this individual that might drive to what you decide as far as, do I, you know, provide some form of a refund or some form of something in consideration of her request, or do I just leave it as, you know, hopefully what your, your agreement states. Now the other thing for all of you online course providers, and pretty much like DIY type of programs and offerings where it's all your IP is put out there, maybe trickled out on a weekly basis, monthly basis over a period of months. What you also want to look at when it comes to refunds and a situation like Barbara has is the fact that if they have any of your IP, meaning that like the next 3 months of IP, they already bought the first 3 months. Let's look at it that way. They already bought the first 3 months of IP, but if there's, you know, available to them all 6 months of your IP and now they're asking for a refund, that I would get a little bit stricter on because there's a cost to your IP. Now you might say, well, they can't do anything with it, you know, on their own. You, you know, again, it's your IP. And there's a lot of things people can do with someone's, you know, intellectual property. So I would, you know, kind of lean on that. If you did open up to where someone can access all the program's intellectual property and assets throughout their program that they purchased, you know, that would be a whole different decision you might make as far as a refund or not. Because there's many programs out there that if she's only paid for 3 of 6, well then, you know, the 3 months is done and paid for and she hasn't accessed anything and nothing's been available to her for the following last 3 months. Okay, make sense? And again, you can always reach out to me at BernadetteBoas@BallOfFireInc.com if you have further questions in regards to that. Okay, let me just take a glance. Around. Um, all right, so then our last question was about, um, that we have so far, but again, you can always, you know, call into me at 1-818-572-2910 while I am live. Um, and, and/or if you go out onto Facebook or into, um, on Facebook, you're going to see the StreamYard live broadcast, you can comment there. Out on our YouTube channel, Shedding the Bitch TV on YouTube, or again, go right into blogtalkradio.com if you're listening to it, and you can scroll down, there's a chat function right there, and I can see your questions. Or you can call 1-818-572-2910. Shedding the Bitch Radio and TV is brought to you by Ball of Fire Coaching. That serves female coaches, consultants, and service providers who are struggling to break through the money and time ceiling and get clients in the door and money in the bank, and so they can create riches in their work and their life. So you can always check us out at balloffirecoaching.com. All right, let me just grab a drink. And our last question is around website development. Excuse me. So Jackie reached out and she asked about the fact that she didn't say if she was revamping or wanting a whole new website. She just asked, what do I look for when it comes to a website developer? And so the first question, um, that you're going to want to look at is whether or not you're doing a, a new website or you're going to revamp your website. And why I say that is because not all website developers are the same. And I would certainly, if I was revamping, I would certainly want to make sure that someone is astute enough and creative enough to leverage what already exists and yet bringing it up, bring it up to date, not just technically, not just feature function, not just, um, you know, the version of, of the website, but the look and the feel and navigation and the imaging and the fonts and the branding, all of those things, um, versus someone who's doing it from scratch is also a whole different set of questions that you're going to want to look at when you are interviewing and qualifying website developers. They're not all the same, and you definitely will get what you pay for. So I'm not saying that you have to spend outrageous amounts of money. At the same time, this is not an area necessarily that you want to nickel and dime, okay? And keep in mind coaches, consultants, and service providers. You're entrepreneurs, you're CEOs of a business, and at times you need to invest. You need to circulate that money that you're, that you're earning, that you're gaining, that you're saving, and you need to make investments in your business. And on your website, you absolutely need to look at it as an investment and make sure that you are are doing the due diligence to identify the right person to work with. So let's talk about revamping first and why I think that's kind of different, because again, it's not that it's different, but you might find someone who is, you know, really good, even master, um, at taking someone's website. And I mean, because maybe these are cost-conscious individuals, businesses, and they just want someone to revamp what they have. And again, that takes kind of creativity, that, that, that takes willingness to do it because many don't want to touch other people's websites. I had that issue a good number of years ago, is I reached out to a number of website developers and they didn't want to be responsible in touching my website and possibly breaking things that were there. Now my situation, and this was with Shedding the Bits my situation was the developer had hardcoded a lot of my WordPress site, therefore I couldn't even make changes. They wanted to kind of control and manage it. That would be a really good question to ask. It's certainly a lesson I learned, is you definitely want to ask, are you going to have full control and, you know, capability and management of your site, or does it need to be managed by a third party? What percentage, um, do you want it to be managed by somebody else or yourself? And I will acknowledge that at the time I was delegating everything. I was like, I do not want to manage it, I do not want to be the one creating it. And yet I didn't say, so hardcode everything. And that's where communication is vital, vital, vital, um, with service providers such as website developers. They're very good at what they do Sometimes they're so good that, you know, they, they take it upon themselves to do things thinking it's in the best interest of their customer. They're not doing it maliciously. At the same time, it may not meet your needs. So you want to be sitting down and drafting a whole slew of questions that you're going to discuss with anybody, and you're always going to want to get multiple, multiple proposals. But going back to revamping, so you want someone who can work with your, with your structure that you have, um, while making recommendations of what might be, you know, the latest features and functions and navigations and, and flows to your, um, to your— to a website that you might want to consider for your revamped one. Um, and then, you know, you want to ask, um, you know, simple, you know, simple questions, although they may not be simple to most, in regards to what are you required to provide versus what are they automatically able to go and do. So there's new plugins, there's new widgets, you know, I'm not a website guru in any way, shape, or form. I've just had enough experience on my own over the last 12 years. So you really just want to understand, okay, from a revamping perspective, What is it I need to provide you? What are you going to be able to do on your own? You either revamped or new, you want to kind of design and lay out what it is you need from your website. You might not be the one kind of designing exactly where they're going to go and exactly how they're going to be presented, but at the same time you need to say, okay, I need a contact form, I need a blog, I need a place for my podcast, Now, you know, with podcasts and videos and those type of things, you know, then there's conversations that you need to make sure that your, your website developer prospect is asking around. Okay, so how many of your podcast episodes do you want to bring over? How many videos are you going to want to bring over or have? Because all of that, you know, the storage is a huge, huge element today versus 3 years ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago. So, um, you just want to really kind of lead what it is that you need from your website, um, individual, uh, and then ask them, you know, all the questions in regards to it. You know, how can you make it look and feel and touch and do, you know, all of these things that I need? How long is it going to take? Um, You know, how, how much does the storage or the movement or the, um, actual extraction of content— how does that impact the scope of the project, even the price of the project? So that's kind of revamping. When it comes to you doing a new one, the first thing I, I told Jackie was, um, when I gave her both ideas, is I said, well, first go and research 10, 15 like websites, meaning if, if you are a coach, say you're a money coach, say you're not only a coach but you are, you have a book, you have a podcast, you do, you do evergreen online course products versus live products, meaning live launches or live coaching. So forth and so on. So, you know, you want to look at a good 10, 12, 15 other sites and really pull down. You should have a journal that's just about your website design, and you should make notes of what you like, what you don't like, you know, kind of what was that website or multiple website domains that I can use as examples and provide this website developer. Pretty much for 100% of what it is you want this website to look like. But then you're hoping that you get on a call with a potential and they're drilling you for all types of questions. How big, how small, how wide, how many images, how many posts, are you going to have a blog or are you just going to have a podcast page, is this just a podcast website, or is this a full-blown, you know, your entire business type of website? Because people are breaking them apart nowadays. And then you want to ask some questions like the flexibility of the website, the capability of you managing it versus someone else, um, uh, you know, the, um, the length of time it's going to take for this person to develop it. What do they need from you? What do you need from them? Um, you know, just kind of really just drill into it just like you would any other type of service provider that might do work for you, maybe at your house, maybe on your person, you know, or for your kids. Just really dig in and definitely, definitely get multiple quotes, get multiple proposals, get multiple understandings of how these people communicate. A lot of these, a lot of these service providers, they're global.. And so like right now I just started working with someone who's in the Philippines, um, and I was woken up at 5:00 AM because it's 12 hours in advance. So it's 5:00 PM for them. That's not their fault. I just didn't even consider, uh, so then we kind of just talked through, all right, so what are the working hours for both of us? Or if, you know, if she's going to work off hours from me, then that's fine. Just make sure that the communication lines are open, um, and then decide kind of, you know, how are you going to communicate? Is it going to be email? Is it going to be Vox? Is it going to be Loom? Is it going to be a Messenger text? So you definitely want to also get into where they located, what are their hours, how many hours a week are they going to be working on you, on your project, how do they best communicate, how best do they track issues.. So we can, you know, also track resolutions to those issues. You want to get into all of it. Okay, but for you, first need to really consider what is it you want and need from your website. Now the other last point I'll make is, you get, you know, the number one thing you could do is when it comes to finding these individuals is you could put out a, a bulletin out onto Facebook, on Twitter, onto Nextdoor.com, onto LinkedIn, and ask. And also state in these posts that you're not expecting to hear from any website developers or whatever other service provider, but you know, you're not looking for solicitations, you're looking, looking for firsthand references and recommendations to individuals for you to then be able to trust the, you know, the persons and the referrals that you're getting versus having to open up, you know, Google and just trying to find it on your own, because that could be challenging as well. And there's just too many resources and too many forums and communities and, and post boards where you can actually, you know, find recommendations from other people. So it can cut down a good amount of of both your time and your due diligence. The due diligence still needs to be there, don't get me wrong, but at the same time you can trust if several people recommend the same person. And then you can look for that person on LinkedIn, on Fiverr, on Upwork, on Facebook, and see where they're, where they're getting projects. So you can also look at reviews and ratings and that type of thing. Okay, all right, let me take a glance around and see if there's any Any other types of comments or feedback? Um, and let me see, uh, and just know that at any point in time, if you do have a question, as I said, um, Ask Me Anything is the first Tuesday of every month. And, um, basically if you go out onto Facebook or Twitter or even send me a direct email at bernadetteboas@ballifierinc.com— majority of my questions come through LinkedIn. A direct message through LinkedIn. So at any point in time you send me a question or a story or a challenge, I'm going to respond to you immediately, but then I'll just pull them together and bring them right here onto the first Tuesday of every month, and that's basically where we get our, our questions. So don't worry that if you're watching this in replay or listening to it on replay, that you lost the opportunity to get some help. Nope, you can still post your question or send me, send me your question or challenge. Okay, um, all right, I think we're good. And, uh, let's see, um, yeah, we're good. So for everybody here in the Shedding the Bitch community, brought to you by Ball of Fire Coaching, feel free to go out and learn more about what we do within not only Shedding the Bitch but our Shift to Riches and Powerhouse Mavericks communities, go to ballofirecoaching.com to do that. And I'll see you next Tuesday at noon Eastern time for another episode of Shedding the Bitch Radio. Take care, everybody.

Bye. Thank you for taking part in Shedding the Bitch Radio and TV with Bernadette Boas. We would love to know what your biggest takeaway was. Go to Shedding the Bitch on Facebook or YouTube and leave a comment. You can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts and YouTube so you don't miss a single episode of the show. And with your input, we can help other powerhouse women just like you find the show and decide if it's right for them. Learn more about Bernadette at balloffirecoaching.com. See you next week.