Cindy J: The Visibility Wiz

Thank you for listening to the Business Blast Podcast. So for all my listeners out there that have been wanting to do your own podcast, I'd like to introduce to you Anchor. Anchor is a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, distributing, and monetizing your podcast. So before I found Anchor, I had never actually done a podcast because all the research that I had gathered made it seem very complex. Then I found Anchor, and Anchor makes podcasting extremely simple. So if you want to do your own podcast, go to anchor.fm/start. I can't wait to hear your podcast. Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Cindy J. with us. She's the visibility whiz that guides entrepreneurs to thrive as they go up the ladder from being the best kept secret to trusted and in-demand online authority. So welcome to the show, Cindy.

Thank you for having me.

Of course, pumped to have you here. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Cindy, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Well, basically, whenever I was 35, I had what I call my first mentor slash coach, and she told me, your life is your choice. I thought this woman was completely 100% crazy because at that time I was going through what I call my hell years. And in the 2 years prior to this statement, I had been very ill and almost died. Both of my parents died. 2 of my grandmothers died. My father-in-law had lung cancer and double pneumonia and almost died. My brother-in-law got murdered. My husband of 17 years told me he didn't love me but was going to stay with me for the sake of my children. And my teenage daughter was getting involved into gangs. I felt really alone. I was a mess. I was depressed and I actually did not see any hope for my future at all. And I kept pondering on this statement, though, because it really intrigued me. And then the more that I came to realize that I couldn't change all the crap that was happening, I couldn't change all these outer circumstances, but that I did have full power over my thoughts and my actions and my responses to how I dealt with all this crap. And so embracing the words, "Your life is your choice," was really the beginning of me transforming into who I am today, which is living a happy life with a wonderful husband, a good family, and having a successful business that I love where I get to help people gain confidence and build the business of their dreams.

Thank you for sharing that with us. The next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

You know, being the visibility whiz, one of the things that I hear the most is, how do I find my clients? And at first glance, this really seems like a perfectly reasonable question, but whenever you think about it, it's actually could be a mindset issue. Whenever you say, how do I find my clients? It's like people are walking down Main Street and you're the shop owner and you're running outside and grabbing them and pulling them into your store and saying, look at all this good stuff I have in my store. And if a shop owner did that, you would really be appalled. You'd think, oh my God, what is this dude doing? And so whenever you're thinking you have to go find them, this is sort of the mindset. A better question is, how do my clients find me? And what do my ideal clients want from me? And then what you do is you get very visible and you share your valuable information, you share your expertise, and you allow your clients to get to know you, like you, and trust you. And this is allowing them to find you. So the bottom line is to focus on getting seen and providing value as you share your knowledge and expertise and give your ideal clients the respect for them to make their own decisions on coming to you.

I love that. And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.

I think it's just be you. I see people in any industry, they do this all the time. They either try to copy every single specific detail of all of their mentors, or they do the opposite. They try to do nothing like their mentors because they don't want to, quote unquote, copy them. And they think that all of this is not their knowledge. So I think the best piece of advice is to really learn to relax into who you are with your own unique perspective of all the knowledge that you've gathered throughout your years. And then deliver it with all of who you are, your quirks and all.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

That other people really don't know what's best for me. They don't know how I should act or how I shouldn't act, and to learn to trust my intuition and tune into my own truth. Um, I would also say confidence is not a place that anybody arrives It's simply a state of being, and it's being willing to do things that you're not comfortable with until you're comfortable with them.

And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

As Abe Lincoln stated, "A man's about as happy as he makes up his mind to be." And I believe the key to happiness is simply choosing to find any and everything you can to be happy about. Don't look outward to other people or circumstances or things because they really don't bring real happiness. They bring temporary moments of joy. Happiness is truly an inside job, and it all goes back to what I stated in the beginning. Your life is your choice. And also, I believe that we all have a desire, a deep desire to be loved and accepted for who we are. So we turn ourselves into pretzels trying to be who other people want us to be, thinking that this is going to make them love and accept us, thinking this is going to make us happy. And truly, whenever you learn to trust yourself and be who you are, and you learn to love and accept yourself for who you are, that you'll find the true happiness within, and then other people start loving and accepting you truly for who you are.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

You know, I've read tons and tons of books, definitely all of the classics, and I love them all. But I really think that the book that touched me the most was written by life coach Mary. She's known as America's inner peace coach. Her book is called The Power of Inner Choice: 12 Weeks to Living a Life You Love. And this book really helped me to find my own inner peace. And despite whatever chaos was happening around me, but most of all, I had struggled for over 10 years to find some sort of peace surrounding the circumstances of my mother's death. So I really— it took me a long time just to accept her death and the circumstances. And with the strategies that Mary outlined in this book, it really helped me to find a place of peace with my mother's death.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Eleanor Roosevelt. "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." And I love that because it goes back to everything. Your life is your choice. The key to happiness. You can use that word inferior and put any emotion in the world in it. No one can make you feel loved without your permission. No one can make you feel successful without your permission. No one can make you feel angry without your permission. You know, it's completely interchangeable. So it goes back to owning your own thoughts and owning who you are.

And thank you so much for coming on, Cindy. The last question that I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find you online?

You can visit me on my website, CindyJHolbrook.com. And I also invite you to join my Facebook group, Get Seen, Get Known, Get Clients.

Perfect. Thanks again for coming on, Cindy. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

It's been great.