Branding Coach Breaks Down Expert Power | with Christine Blosdale

Most creators know they should be showing up with confidence and authority online. But if you've ever found yourself saying, I don't know what my niche is, I do a little bit of everything in my business, or I'm afraid to charge what I'm worth, then today is the episode for you. My guest, Christine Blossdale went from AOL columnist to radio host to international branding coach. And she's helped countless entrepreneurs and creators uncover their authentic voice and claim their expert authority. In this conversation, we'll talk about how to overcome imposter syndrome and stop undercharging, why most creators get their messaging wrong and how to fix it, and how to get past perfectionism so you can finally launch that book, that brand, or that business. Plus, if you listen to the end, you'll hear Christine share a free resource packed with tools and tips to help you show up confidently online. So if you've ever wondered, who am I to do this? This episode is your answer. Welcome to the Creators that Crush podcast, the show that moves you from crushed to crushing it. As a content creator, I am your certified high performance coach and host, Sean Butner. Let's get into this episode. Hey, Christina. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad that you are here.

I'm so excited. I've been counting down the hours, the minutes, the seconds to be with you. Sean, thank you so much.

Awesome. Okay, so for the folks at home today, we're talking about how to own your expert power. And I just wanted to, I was curious, could you share your journey of maybe starting out without owning your expert power, how you figured it out and what ha the magic that happened afterwards?

Yes, I will. I'll try and make a very long story short. Okay, so when I was little, I was very lucky that my mom really appreciated my opinion and so much so that like when she would get ready to go to work and my mom was a single parent, we were very poor and so she had to work at night and so she would get dressed and she'd, you know, be putting on her makeup and her clothes and she would ask my opinion, like, how do I look? Or what do you think about this top? Or. And I would be really honest as the four or five year old is and say, I like that. But those boots would go better with this outfit and that, you know, and she actually listened and changed. Like if, if I said if I said that doesn't go, she's like, okay, so at a really young age, I got that feedback that my opinion was very valued. Right. And so that started me sort of down the road as a little kid of being very aware of things and also stating my opinion. Like, if it was something that I liked, I said why I liked it.

Right?

I wasn't that shy that way. And so as you go up through the years, you go to school and you don't know what you're gonna do. I graduated high school, as so many young kids do, and they're like, what do I do? And I knew I wanted to be a teacher, and I am, by being a coach, I'm a teacher, right? But I wanted to be a teacher. And back then, in the olden days, the horse and buggy days back then, there were no, they weren't coaches. I mean, there was like football coaches, but there wasn't a coaching industry. So basically I just, I was just trying to find myself. And I did become a coach. I came a became a fitness coach. You know, when you're 19, 20 years old, you look amazing. And so getting clients is like shooting fish in a barrel because you're like, you've got this hot body, you're like, you're super fit. And so I did that for a while and I really loved that one on one. I loved working with my clients. And so that progressed for a while. And then I got kind of a little tired of that. And I lived in a beautiful part of the world in San Diego, which is, which was especially back then. It was just gorgeous. And. And then I did a drastic move back to Los Angeles and I got, I got really lucky. America Online, that was the thing back in the day, there was no real social media. It was America Online. And they were looking for authentic writers because that's all they had. They didn't have video authentic writers to write columns. And one of the spaces was an entertainment column that they wanted. And I was like, well, I could do that. And I got the gig. And I did it not as Christine Blasdale. I did as a cartoon character because I thought she could take liberties. She could be vampy, campy and saucy. And it's not me, it's this Hedda Hoppery looking character, completely anatomically incorrect. And her name was Beatbox Betty. And because Betty always had a martini in her hand and was a little sloshed, but brutally honest. So I did that for a while and then I was like in the whole Hollywood thing. Loved it, had great experience. And then 911 happened. And when 911 happened, I was like this. I felt like my job was very shallow. I felt like it Was in the great scheme of things, you know, I was like, what's going on in the world? And who really cares who Angelina Jolie is dating? Although I cared because I had a little crush on her. But that's. That's another story. But. But I just was looking for something else that had more value to my life. And I came across the radio station in Los Angeles, as you do channel surfing. And it was just unique and different, and it was not like corporate media. And later I found out it was a nonprofit radio station, community sponsored. And so the hosts of the programs got to really say what was on their mind, and they were having a completely different conversation about 9, 11 and about the history of US politics in the Middle East. And I was like, wow, strategy. I didn't know any. They didn't teach us any of this stuff in school. They still don't. And so I went in there and I said, thank you. I wanted to say thank you to everybody that worked there. I came from a place of gratefulness. I didn't come for a job, but I ended up work. I ended up working there. Basically. They said, come and volunteer for a while. I did that with no hopes of getting a job because I was. I knew I had my AOL stuff. And that thing where, you know, something opens up, somebody's leaving, hey, Christine, you're a writer. You can come in and write and produce shows. So I started doing that. And then that moment, it came. Sean Warehouse. I was behind the scenes. I was the wizard of Oz behind the screen. And the show host could not come on because they were sick. And I got told by the program director, you need to host a show. Drive time Los Angeles. And I said, no. I said, oh, no, no, no. Somebody else has got to do it. And they're like, no, Christy, you're the only person who can do it. And I reluctantly went into the studio with the headphones on, or the cans, as they say in the industry, pulled up the microphone, and then the on air light came on. And it completely changed my life. Like, I fell in love with radio, with audio, with the art of the interview, with communicating with an audience that I couldn't see and I couldn't really get feedback on, but I knew I could feel them, if that makes sense. I could feel them. And so I was free to talk about whatever I wanted to talk about. And so I got into wellness and mindset and some. A little bit about health and. And then also challenging some of the narratives that were being tossed around at the. At the Time of that. Of the time of our lives. And it just connected. It really connected. So I was there for a whopping 20 years.

Wow.

And after, you know, 20 years of meeting some amazing people, interviewing some gorgeous minds, um, towards the end there, podcasting came around, and I thought, wow, this is cool. Because in terrestrial radio, you do an interview and it's gone. You had to have listened to it. If you miss. If you missed it, you missed it. And so with podcasting, I thought, wow, I could do a really great interview and it stays around, and people could access it years later if they wanted to. And so I started doing that, and I found that the people that I was interviewing and meeting, they. Many of them were authors and small business owners, and they were really talented, but they were missing something. So either their website just wasn't hitting it, or their messaging wasn't coming across, or they were sitting on some great content that they didn't even know existed. And so that's when I started doing some of my coaching. So that's a. That's actually a long answer to your very first. Oh, it's.

It's beautiful, though. And it all.

It's like, why I'm the way I am.

So, yeah, I think what I found really interesting as you're. You're talking through that, is how it's been like a lifelong journey of honing your opinion, you know, but you, starting with your mom, going to AOL to write now on, you know, on and on and on, helping people find their point of view. Because I feel like so much. We'll get into this next question, but so much of what crushes creators is they don't really have a really pointed point of view when it comes to how they create. But in your opinion, how do creators get this expert, he owning their expertise wrong or that point of view wrong? Where does it go sideways for him in general?

Well, and a lot of times they don't. They don't know. They're just throwing spaghetti on the wall and hoping something sticks. It's like, well, I'll try this. I've talked to some people. I said, so what is it that you do? What is it that you get paid for or you want to get paid for? And sometimes they'll say, oh, you know, I do a lot of stuff. I do everything. And that's fine, because as creators, and John, you know this because I'm a creator machine. Like, I'm like the giving tree. You know, I keep. I just keep making stuff. Webinars, workshops, courses, buzz, podcasts. I've got three, right. So I'm constantly, I'm constantly creating, but you need to have it funneled towards a goal. Right. And so what I find is that I try and create things, projects that are going to boost or support my expert authority as a coach. And so that's what I try and hone in on with my clients, is that we need to find out what it is and, and we need to create an avatar of you. Like who do you want to step into? Not maybe who, where you are right now, but what do you, where you see yourself down the road a year from now, six months from now, and they may have a completely different opinion of, of how they're going to be perceived. And I'll be sitting there looking at them and I go, you have a multi million dollar business, you just don't know it yet. And then they go, well, tell me more. And then we go grow. And I just say, this is what we can do. You can do this, you can do that, but it's still, it's very focused. You have to stay focused. If not, you'll spin all those plates and you'll drop, you know, you'll drop some along the way or you'll break.

Yourself in the process.

I think, yeah, see a lot, yes, people give up. People give up because also they say, well, I've, you know, I've, I've got a, I built a website and how come I don't have clients or, you know, I post on social media. That's not the, that's not the thing. It's. You could do all those things and still be hearing crickets. You need to get out there and it doesn't matter if you're a baker, if you're a coach, if you're an author. I want them to get to the point where they claim their expert authority and they claim their place so that they feel comfortable. And we get rid of that imposter syndrome that stops so many people. We get rid of all those negative thoughts. Thoughts because people could smell it. They could smell desperation and they can smell the imposter syndrome and they'll run. So we want to create that environment where we're very confident in what we do. And as content creators, you know, that's the beautiful thing, is that you can create your brand, you can create which is you, you can create your brand and you can create your expert authority who just need help sometimes along the way.

Absolutely. So I like to ask, what does a creator that crush look like when they own their Expertise, like, are there any characteristics or what's the work that they've had to do in order to fully own their expertise? Because I know in my practice as a coach that so many people might be accidental creators in that I want to be a coach and I want to help people in my own special way. And now I have to do social media and the website and all other things to kind of support it.

I think it's. I think it's really important to spend your time focused on where your potential clients, customers or your audiences. Sometimes as creators, we just. We're like, I'm just creating. I'm creating. I'm creating, you know, all this content, creating a blog, I'm creating a, you know, videos. The thing is, is that where your target audience is, right? You need to be on that platform or you need to be there where they are. Okay. And I also say you need to be offering content if it's a product or a course, a book. You need to be creating something that your target audience actually wants and needs, not what you want to give. You know, I'll tell you something. I've got five, five books that I've published and all bestsellers. Four of them, the first four were all about podcasting. It was about why you want to have a podcast as a marketing tool for your business, how you can use a podcast to meet amazing people like yourself, Sean, and even a book. I wrote a book about the importance of being a podcast guest to help in your branding and your expert authority, which is. It's beautiful. But my target audience, there's a small sliver of people that actually are equipped or want to have a podcast of their own. But what I found was that they, the overwhelmed entrepreneur, content creator, needed help with social media and branding. Because if you don't have your branding down, all the stuff that you build, you're building a house on sand, right? So that's why I wrote in the last book. That's why I wrote the social Media and branding survival guide. And the subtitle, I put the subtitle in there purposely because I'm a humorous person. I'm not very serious. Digital marketing, so irresistible. Even your existence will want to follow you. Right? So I created this and it's a small. It's a short read. It's. It's super fun. But I created that because that's what my target audience actually needs and wants. They want tips on branding, they want tips on social media and how they can get the word out about their business.

Hey, it's Sean, before we get back into this episode of Creators that Crush, I wanted to invite you to a free 30 minute call. If you are struggling with creative burnout, with confidence, with trying to make progress on your creative endeavor. And so on this call, spend 30 minutes talking about one of your big goals or aspirations, or we'll talk about something you're struggling with. And the whole goal of the call is to get you moving, list some personalized habits or tips. And so I just want to interact with people and that's why I'm inviting you on this free call. So if that is interesting to you, please go to SeanButner.com and you'll see a button right at the top of the page called schedule my 30 minute call. We'll get it all set up and we can help you start to progress again. We can help you go from crushed to crushing it as a content creator. So with that, scope that out and we'll get back to the episode. So two questions I have. First one, then, as a new creator or even as someone that's established, how do you go about researching your audience? Because that in itself could be very overwhelming on like, where do I look? If you don't know what platform your audience is, what platforms are you researching? How do you think through that?

So if you have the ability to work with either a coach or a mentor, like someone like myself, where I'm able to see, I'm able to see what your skill set is and then also able to go, oh my gosh, your audience is xyz. That's great. If you don't have that ability, then you actually really need to sit down and say, what? What is it that I do and who do I do it for? Because. And we're all different. There's like, you know, there's I in the beginning, really focused on a large demographic. I was like, well, I can help all entrepreneurs and I can help, you know, all small business owners and I can help all authors and I can help. And then I realized looking at my numbers and looking at who is attracted to me, and I don't mean like, you know, physically attracted, but I mean, who's attracted to the way that I work. It's 99.9% of women. And during COVID we had an explosion, a renaissance of women starting up businesses because they were underemployed or they were unemployed. So. So I find that when you actually take a look at who is responding to your content and who is engaged with your content and has the biggest return on investment. And the investment is your time, not just money.

Right.

So we go after those things. And when you start doing that, you'll start seeing who your, who your audience is. Now, do I market myself only saying I'm a coach only for women? No, because there's some amazing men that come into my life and amazing male clients. I have one right now who's in my accelerator program, who's kicking it, who's doing so well. But I know that my messaging also really needs to be focused on those women who are struggling right now. So a lot of it is, a lot of it can be trial and error. But if you can narrow that down and use Chat GPT to help you, you know, use AI to help you, there's no shame in that. I use it, I abuse it.

And you should, everybody should.

I think I do. I, I, I, but I, it's all in the prompt, as you know, it's all in how you, how you direct your questions and guide your AI buddy. If it's Chat GPT or Perplexity, one of those programs, but it's a great tool because you can knock out. You can say, go to my website, look at all my stuff, here's my content, here's my blogs. You tell me who my audience is, you tell me who my target client would be and it'll spit it out. You can tell it, you can tell it. To be brutally honest with you.

Oh, really?

Yeah, that's helpful. Okay, yeah, you can say now if this is a crappy idea, I want you to tell me, don't beat around the bush. But here's what I'm thinking. What do you think? I love, I love asking. Especially for entrepreneurs who are coming up, they struggle with pricing. The more creative you are, sometimes it's really hard for you to say, oh, I have one client, she was charging so little for an hour long session. I was like, this is an hour of your life force. And she's a gifted psychic. And I'm like, you're charging too little. And if you charge too little, people are gonna think you're not worth it. Because they were like, that's all you're charging. And I said, now you don't have to go crazy, but you need to make it worth your while and you need to value yourself and the work that you do. And again, once we get rid of that imposter syndrome, cause that's what holds those pricing prices down, those fees, then the person can feel a little bit more comfortable saying, this is my rate, this is what I ask for. And that's a great feeling. That's a great, great feeling.

Totally. It reminds me of a mentor who says something like, if you can't make money, you can't sustain the mission. It's something like that. You can't make money, you can't sustain the mission. And like, the whole point of being a creator is to create. And a lot of us don't want to work a corporate job or, you know.

Right.

So, okay, I'm curious then, when it comes to deep diving into this imposter syndrome. So I, you know, in my coaching practice, I help creators level up their performance. And I noticed that, you know, there's so many ways that we devalue ourselves. Whether that is, I don't belong here, I don't have the skills to do this, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't, or I don't know what's next. And that gives me a lot of anxiety. How does that show up for your clients or your business? And how do you handle that?

It shows up all over the place. And it does not matter how many degrees they have on the wall, their stature, it's, it's a problem across all genders, all ages, and it's something that creeps up from time to time. Some people can, can kind of work through it, and then others, it really holds them back. So what I find is that a lot of times it's something that's happened to them when they were much younger, very young. It's either the people that they were raised with, right? The parents, their, the community, the society that they grew up in, or it could even just be someone that said something a little nasty on a playground, you know, in the sandbox. It could be that. And what happens is that we hold that story in our head of somebody who said, you're not smart, you're stupid. Right? So what I like to do, and this is, this is an exercise your listeners can do if they have imposter syndrome. And it's, it's, it's a little bit of a mind warp. But first of all, you have to realize it's not about you. Whatever was said to you or about you was someone else, number one. Number two, you need to show up for your community, your clients, the people that you say that you want to serve, that you want to help. If you're a fitness coach and you're, you're, you're saying that you want to show up for people to make them healthier and happier and Live better lives. Well, if you're not coming forward because of that imposter syndrome, then they're losing out. And so what I do is I'll take a lot of my clients and I'll change the focus from them and how they look, what people are going to think about them, all those different things. And I'll shift it to, who do you want to serve? Are they. Are they kids that you want to help? Are they struggling moms that you want to support? Are they creators, content creators that you, you want to help? Right? And so we focus on them. And then all of a sudden, it's like, it's like, if you're a parent, you may not take the greatest care of your. Your health. You might eat junk food or, you know, have bad habits. But when it comes to your kids, all of a sudden, when you, when you shift it to your kids want, you know, you want to be around for your kids and, and you want to be a grandparent one day or whatever you want, you want to be a support mechanism for them, then it changes your. It changes the way you look at it, right? It's not just about you and it's not about you. It's about you being there for someone else. So that actually really helps a lot of people.

I love that. Extending the benefit of doing the thing the outside yourself is like that. I love that. Masterful. How is this helping the people you want to help? How is it helping your family? How is it helping society or the world at large? You know, we can get lost in our own stuff. And it really, like when you're like, oh, like, I feel weird showing up and helping creators, but, you know, there's a whole bunch of terribleness happening at a global scale right now in this moment. And you're like, that's actually like that little insecurity maybe isn't as biting or what seems important, you know, so this came up while you're. You're sharing that too. I was watching a psychiatrist give a talk, and they said that they did a study on all the popular kids in schools across all sorts of backgrounds and locations and countries or whatever. I found that the most popular kids in high school were the kids that liked the most people. And that was the one common factor. And I love that reframe of like, actively showing up, trying to figure out, how do I like you, Christine? Or how do I like you? Or how do I like this process in my business and how that shifts your confidence in a way. Like, if you try this out for Yourself and you're like, how do I like? How many people do I like? Why do I like them? You feel good doing it in a weird way. It gets you out of your head and gets you outward focused versus inward focus. And I'm a car holding introvert, so I am very prone to that self analysis.

Absolutely the same.

What have you found surprising or something that you really loved in your work? Helping people find their authenticity and show up and build their brand and their businesses.

It's not a surprise anymore. And I think because not to be woo woo, but the energy that I put out attracts a certain client to me, a certain person. And I've been really lucky that the people that are coming into my life, I actually really like, like, you know, they become deep, long friends with me. And so. But what I surprised at is, is sort of like the, the layers of an onion that when we start digging into who they are and, and what they're capable of, you see the light bulbs go off in their heads. And I'll say, you know, you could if you, if you took your business. Here's a, here's an example. I have one client is a brilliant tarot reader, right. Cards. Cool. And her whole thing was about dealing with, dealing with those subconscious things that hold us back. And that's very important, right? Super important. But I was talking to her and as I was talking to her I was like, you know, um, there are lots of entrepreneur small business owners who would love to get a tarot reading about their business. If, if expanding is a good idea, I'm thinking about changing the name of it. You know, can you give me some ideas? Because she's really, really good and, and she said, you mean I can do tarot for business? I go, yeah, why not?

Yeah.

You know how many millions of people that would really love to have an insider's, you know, a little bit of a little help when it comes to making decisions. Should I continue this way? Should I do this course? And she's like, oh my gosh. And I said, yeah. And I said, you can also, you can have those clients on a rotating, you know, on a long term basis and just adjust your pricing because again, you don't want to be too expensive because you want people to keep coming back at you. And she's like, oh my God, I have a whole new it. It like it woke up a part of her brain that she didn't think existed. And so now she's going to be, now she's doing, putting that into her business. So yeah, I love. I just love the light bulb moments when. When I see people light up and go, oh, I can do that. Yes, you can. It's your business. You can do anything. Yeah.

Follow your heart.

Yeah.

Yeah. I love this thought, too, that has come up a couple of times as we've been talking about following your intuition or listening. Sometimes when people work with you, they need a little help to pick up on, oh, it's this idea, but maybe matched in a different way that's adjacent to what you're already doing. And we do that through action and through trying and through meeting people. So I think that's really amazing.

And also, you need to be able to stumble and to fail people who are so terrified of failing. And I hate failing. It's not failing when you try something out and it doesn't work out. It's just you tried something out, it didn't work out, you stumbled or, you know, you fell off your bike, you know, your metaphorical bike. But every time you do something like that, you actually learn. Right? And what I find is that sometimes people are so afraid of trying something and it not working out that they won't try anything. So I always say to my clients, don't be afraid to try something and see how you feel. See what comes of it, right? If. If it comes back to you as, oh, my God, I really love. I really actually love having my own podcast. I thought it would be too hard or I thought I feel icky. I really like it. Okay, well then, now let's take that and make it even better, right? But don't be afraid of failure. Again, I hate the word failure, because there's no such thing.

I agree, it's only when you give up at its failure. But I do think too, one of the best pieces of advice I got early on in my career was that if you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough. But it's a problem if you're making the same mistake over and over. But I often think of that particular piece of advice when I'm like, I don't know if this will work out. I'm like, I will never know. And the sacrifice of potentially having something great happen, it's too big, you know?

Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and. And if you're considering working with Sean or myself or another coach or mentor, realize that we're here to save you time, energy, money, frustration. Because there's a long way to do things, and then there's a shorter way to do things, and we're here to Help you get there much quicker.

We are the examples of what not to do in many cases.

Exactly.

Second to last question. Any last thoughts for content creators that we didn't cover today that you wanted to share?

Yes. So for those people who are listening, who are drawn to your show, Sean, who are drawn to the podcast because of the. The possibilities, but they're still feeling like, oh, I don't know. I don't know if I'm. If I'm somebody that can create these things. Right. Or I. I don't. I don't. I don't have enough experience. So who, again, who am I. Who am I to do this? I'm. Or I'm too old. I'm too fat unto this. I'm to that. That's my little saying that I have for those people. I want you to know that there is an audience for you, no matter what it is that you're passionate about, as long as you're passionate about it, and you start building up your repertoire. Okay. Of what you're passionate about, then you have an audience. There is an audience that's interested in. On TikTok, there's. There's a guy that. All he does is he takes an egg. Have you seen that guy? He takes a raw egg, and he's got a scalpel and the video. Oh, it's. The guy's got so many. He's got, like, I don't know, like a million, 2 million followers, whatever, and he'll just. He'll go live, and he's. And he's got a scalpel and this raw egg, and he's just chipping away at the outside shell without piercing the.

The. Yeah.

So, I mean, this person is making a living taking a scalpel to an egg. Okay? So if he can do that, right, then you can pursue your dreams. If you want to be a coach, if you want to be a speaker, if you want to be an author, if you want to be a podcast guest or a host, you can do it. Just find the right people to guide you. Right? That's the important thing. Find the right people to guide you.

All right, final question. What did you love about our discussion today? Or what did you take away from it?

I love you, Sean. I love you. You. You bring such great energy. And energy is so important, that vibe that. Because it's palpable, it's. You can. You can feel it, you can see it, you know, and you can hear it, and so that's just gold. And. And you can't. You can't necessarily Teach that to somebody. That's something that comes from within. So that's been my favorite part, is that this has been a fun little roller coaster ride with you. We lifting our hands up out of the cart, right?

Definitely. I. I definitely. So I'll just say I love you too. See, I love you showed up. Great energy and a lot of great information for creators to help them crush it. So with that.

Oh, wait. Oh, I want to, I want to give your listeners a gift as well. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's possible. So we may reference, I said a little bit about the. The book that I needed to write for what people really wanted, the social media and branding survival guide. Now, of course, yes, people can get it on Amazon if they want. Yay. But even better, I have the ebook version or the PDF that has clickable links to all the resources that I throw out. And this is chock full of different resources. So these are the tools, software, some AI programs that I use that are free and they're all my tips and tricks for people who are looking to establish their brand or expand it. And some tips and tricks for social media. And that book I would love to gift to your audience through that special link that will be in your show notes.

Thank you so much. Yeah, it's awesome.

Absolutely. Let's give them something that will help, that can help them and that they can start doing right away.

Yeah. Oh, definitely. So as Christine said, check the show notes for this amazing gift from her. Thank you so, so much for the gift, for your energy, for being here. And with that, we'll see you guys on the next episode of Creators that Crush podcast.

Crush it. Yeah.

What an episode with Christine. I really enjoyed talking to her about how expertise and showing up and owning your expertise relates to so many things that I talk about here on Creators that Crush from Imposter Syndrome. From valuing your services and your good that you put out in the world, to role modeling your best self, to get out of your hat and to serve. So I felt really aligned with Christine. She brought a lot of great energy. I really enjoyed this. I hope you did too. And if you did love this episode, you'll probably love these, this previous episode with Kevin Michael about podcasting. I hope you enjoy that. And we'll see you guys in the next episode of Creators that Crush. Take care.