Ep. 118/ Terry Rice On How He Turned A Tragedy Into A Professional Vision


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Terry Rice used to drink “every night” and was eventually laid off. He felt “devastated” and was too embarrassed to tell the story of why he left his job at Facebook. Terry is now a high-performance coach for entrepreneurs, a keynote speaker, the host of the podcast "Reclaim and Advance” and a judge on the TV show “60 Day Hustle.” He shares his story of resilience and transformation, through navigating the tough transition from corporate life to entrepreneurship and overcoming his battle with addiction and how losing a son has clarified his life’s vision..


We discuss the importance of personal branding, shedding light on how he balances building his brand and his business with credibility and authenticity. I’ve always admired Terry’s candidness—he doesn’t just focus on the wins but also the struggles and lessons learned along the way. Together, we unpack the art of sharing valuable insights, the role of accountability partners. Plus, we get real about the pressures of social media and why it’s okay not to have a laundry list of accolades to be impactful.

You will learn:

  • Advice on making a vision for your business & life - 14:12

  • How to develop a routine in your life that brings results  - 18:47

  • Importance of scheduling time for filming efficiency - 20:03

  • How accountability partners can help with taking action - 25:08


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I talked with high-performance coach Terry Rice. We discuss Terry's inspiring journey from corporate layoff to thriving entrepreneurship, his insights on personal branding, and the crucial role of accountability partners. Learn how to navigate difficult experiences, nurture your network, develop a routine and stay authentic in your professional journey. Featuring tips on personal resilience, digital marketing, and success strategies for entrepreneurs. 

About Terry:

Terry Rice (@itsterryrice) is a high-performance coach to entrepreneurs, keynote speaker and author.  He's also the host of Reclaim + Advance, a podcast that helps entrepreneurs overcome setbacks and perform at their highest level.

Prior to becoming a creator-entrepreneur, Terry’s previous experience includes internal consulting roles at Adobe and Meta.

In addition to his role as Director of Growth and Partnerships at HeyCreator Agency, Terry is an instructor at New York University, speaks at events for leading companies - including Amazon and Google - and has been featured as a subject matter expert by Good Morning America, Fast Company and the Wall Street Journal.

He is a guest judge on 60 day hustle.

Based in Brooklyn, he is a husband, father of five children, and is an advocate for mental and physical fitness.

In this episode you will learn:

  • Advice on making a vision for your business & life - 14:12

  • How to develop a routine in your life that brings results  - 18:47

  • Importance of scheduling time for filming efficiency - 20:03

  • How accountability partners can help with taking action - 25:08

Quotes from our guest: 

  • "I think once you become an entrepreneur, there's this pressure to be exceptional, right?... I want people to not fall for that, to put out content that expresses who you are, how you help people, but not feel like you have to be at a certain level before you're worthy of attention and clients.” - 10:45

  • “But that's one of the best things I've done for my business, is having that accountability, because it forces me to actually take action. And I know someone's gonna be waiting for me on Friday to see how things went.” - 25:39

  • “Go back to your vision that you have for the future and then write down the five people that you already know who could help you achieve that vision for one reason or another. And then by design, block off time every week to find something to do to help them or some way to check in.” - 28:13

  • “When I reach out to people, I try to approach with an offer, not an ask, even if I do need something.”

  • “Having a clear vision of what my future wanted to look like made it much easier to get through challenging moments that I was experiencing at the time. So it's really just saying, Hey, utopian situation, what is my future going to look like?”

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TERRY’S LINKS:

Terry’s Website

60 Day Hustle 

Reclaim + Advance Podcast


Kim (00:02):

Today you're going to hear from Terry Rice, a high performance coach to entrepreneurs, and he is a guest judge on the TV show, 60 Day Hustle plus, he hosts a podcast Reclaim and Advance. He's going to share how you can nurture your network and share advice on how you can make a vision for your business and your life with really great tips on how to stay accountable and develop a routine. Plus he shares how he turned a personal tragedy into his own professional vision.

Kim (00:30):

Welcome to the Exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Do you work for yourself and want to supercharge your business while still having fun? Well, this is your go-to podcast part MBA Part Cheer Squad. Every week I'll be joined by top business owners who share the secrets to their success. After I found myself working during childbirth true story, I quit my executive media job to bet on myself fighting the fear and imposter syndrome to eventually earn six awards, an in-demand speaking career and features in Fast Company and Business Insider. Now I'm here to celebrate all you rock stars betting on yourself, and I want to help you win. Tune in every Wednesday to hear from remarkable founders and don't miss our Solo Friday episodes, a treasure trove of video and podcasting mini masterclasses with me. Exit the Grind, enter success on your own terms. Don't forget to subscribe today and grab my free video tips at my website, kimrittberg.com.

Kim (01:32):

So you're going to hear today from Terry Rice and Terry Rice has been on the show before. He has so much amazing advice for entrepreneurs. He's somebody every time he talks, I'm taking notes even if we're having lunch. Actually, we spoke at the same speaking engagement in Las Vegas last year for Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and we had a breakfast at some breakfast pancakes place in a massive Vegas hotel. You know how everything in Vegas is massive and I just love what Terry brings. He always comes and drops a lot of great advice, so you're going to be hearing so much from him. And then one other thing I wanted to flag, we talk a lot about growing your business and if you're looking to grow your business, I have an awesome download, 10 tips to make, videos that bring in clients and a bonus how to shine on camera. So make sure to grab that. You can grab that at kim rit berg.com/newsletter or in the show notes here and now on to Terry.

(02:23):

I'm really excited to have back on the exit interview, Terry Rice. Terry Rice is a high performance coach to entrepreneurs, a keynote speaker and author. He's also the host of Reclaim In Advance, a podcast that helps entrepreneurs overcome setbacks and perform at their highest level. Prior to becoming a creator entrepreneur, Terry's previous experience includes internal consulting roles at Adobe and Meta. In addition to his role as director of Growth and Partnerships at Hey Creator Agency, Terry is an instructor at New York University. He speaks at events for leading companies, including Amazon and Google, and has been featured as a subject matter expert by Good Morning America, fast Company and Wall Street Journal. And he is now a guest judge on the TV show, 60 Day Hustle. He's based in Brooklyn and is a husband, father of five children and an advocate for mental and physical fitness. Terry, thank you so much for joining us.

Terry (03:11):

Thanks for having me back. I think getting invited back is a sign that I did well enough the first time, so I appreciate that

Kim (03:18):

Just well enough. And I'm going to let listeners in on a little secret. I became obsessed with Terry. No, I'm not going to say obsessed. Obsessed, makes it sound like I'm a super creep fan. I really started to admire and Terry when I took his digital marketing workshop years ago at General Assembly in New York City and since then we've stayed in touch. We are friends. I think of him as someone I go to for advice. And I just think Terry is a very, very smart person. And Terry and I have actually spoken at the same speaking events in the past. We were in Vegas last year and we had pancakes together at some random place in Vegas. Anyway, all to say I think very highly of Terry, and I'm psyched to have him back on the show because so much has happened in two years. It been two years since I had you. So I'm going to jump right in. Talk to me about this TV show you are on called 60 Day Hustle.

Terry (04:04):

Well, before I do that, let's say congrats on two years. I remember when you launched this podcast and you had all these ideas and all these plans, I was like, okay, let's see how it goes. And clearly it went well. So congrats on that because I don't know the stats, but most podcasts don't last until next week. So for you to be doing this two years later, I commend you on that. So thank you for what you're doing and how you're helping people.

Kim (04:24):

Thank you. I know so many people who are like, I'm going to do this, I want to do this. I'm like, great, let's do it. And then they're like, oh. I mean, the truth is it took me a year to greenlight my podcast. So by the time I actually did it, I was like, this is happening. And I'm one of those people that if I say it's happening, it's happening. I'm very, very persistent and very, very focused. It's been great. I can't believe I'm at, what am I at episode 100 and I don't even know it. It's in some folder number, but I'm really glad to have you back. And I love, I will say we're talking about performance. Terry is here in a tank top looking super strong, and if you follow him on LinkedIn, you'll see all of his workouts. So it's really inspiring me to lift some weights.

Terry (05:03):

Well, that's also how I'm so efficient, right? Because I didn't bother changing after the gym. I just popped right on here. But I'll answer your question in regards to 60 Day Hustle. So 60 Day Hustle is a reality show where millennial entrepreneurs compete through a series of challenges to win a hundred thousand dollars for their business. So real money that goes into their business. And I was opposed by my buddy Rudy Mauer, who's the host of the show to be a judge on there. I've known Rudy for a while. I met him on a platform called Intro that you can hire experts on. He hired me, we talked and just hit it off. And I've maintained that relationship ever since. And it's great being on the show. It's a lot of fun. But I think it's really a testament to nurturing your network because often we'll meet people at an event at some kind of quick one-off consulting session, but we don't take the time to nurture our network. So by me staying in contact with him over the years, that's how I got on the show. And it's been a blast since it started airing.

Kim (05:59):

I literally wrote down Nurture Your Network, and I was thinking yesterday how I need to send an email to people that I've met through the podcast and through other stuff. So it's a really, really, really good reminder to stay in touch with people. And I think one thing you're also always good at is, I forget what the phrase is, but you have the give before the take. So I think you're one of those people who performs that, how can I help you? What can I help you with? And then I think it ends up coming back.

Terry (06:23):

Yeah, there's a book behind me called Give to Get by Mo bundle, and that's essentially what the theme is. And when I do reach out to people, I try to approach with an offer, not an ask, even if I do need something. And it just takes a few more minutes of creativity, of critical thinking, thinking, how can I provide value to this person in exchange for their help as opposed to just asking them for help.

Kim (06:45):

And the contact Rudy who, so he's the host of the show, right? Correct, yeah. And so what's his background? How did you meet him originally? I like the idea of the Nurture Network, nurture your network, and I like to hear how it comes into play in real life.

Terry (06:57):

Yeah, you got to look up Rudy Mauer online. He always wears red. Everything is red. He lives in Florida. He wears a red fur coat around as well. So that's his thing. Red pill, blue pill, choose the red pill. But his background's pretty interesting. Both his parents were Olympians or at least associated with the Olympics, and they very high profile. They're traveling the world, but they didn't have a lot of money and he got frustrated. So he taught himself a skill in this case, digital marketing that would help him make money for the family. That's when he started his agency. Fast forward, he's now working with Jordan Belfort, Mike Tyson, Hulk Hogan, all these huge brands as a celebrity marketer and also has an agency where he supports brands as well as a mastermind where high performing entrepreneurs go to learn how to grow the business. So that's how I met Rudy. But yeah, he's almost like a comic book character. How he commits to this role so much is so disciplined in how he approaches his business that he's found on success.

Kim (07:51):

I love that there was a lot of red in his photos. Okay, so I love talking about pivots on the show. Talk to me about what inspired your pivot from corporate to self-employment.

Terry (08:00):

Yeah, I love answering this question. What inspired my pivot from corporate to self-employment? Alcohol, I drank too much. I used to drink every day, every night for years. Keep it real here. No, so I just got laid off and it's been 10 years since I had a drink, so I'm good there. But it's one of those things where you think your world is crashing down. And I'm glad to say this on this podcast because I know it's called exit interview. Not everyone was like joyful during their exit interview. Some people it's like, Hey man, you can't work here anymore. That type of exit interview. So I want to address those people with the way that I approached it. And back then it was devastating. I thought my world was over, I lost my identity, which was a Facebook employee back then, and I was just too embarrassed to tell the story of why I left Facebook and what I'm looking for in my next role.

(08:45):

So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to try consulting. Lemme see how that works. Consulting led me to teaching at a school named General Assembly, which is where I met you, and got me comfortable talking front of people as well as creating videos. So that's how my speaking career launched as well as my paid content creator career launched as well, all from getting fired. So it wasn't a planned pivot whatsoever, but luckily a lot of things fell in the right place and I leveraged a lot of resilience and just strategy and ended up in a good spot. Well,

Kim (09:12):

I was laughing because I thought you were going to say what you wrote in, I have a pre-interview form for anybody who doesn't know I'm taking you behind the scenes, pulling the curtain back, but that you were fired and you were too embarrassed to try corporate again. And I think that's really interesting because I actually think the other that it's very hard for most people to be so public and put yourself out there so much. And I think one of the hardest parts of self-employment, I actually find the sales part a little more challenging than the marketing part. But at the beginning, I actually think a lot of people struggle with the public aspect of the marketing, of putting yourself out there so much where actually in corporate you can kind of hide even if you're doing your job well or not well or whatever, you're in a cubicle or in an office.

(09:55):

You don't have to post on LinkedIn, you don't have to be on Instagram. You don't need anyone to know what you're doing. So I think there is that public versus private mental challenge for people. So I thought it was interesting that you said you were embarrassed to go for corporate again, but I think a lot of people feel like launching a business is a very hard, but also, I don't want to say embarrassing, but it's a little embarrassing for people feel a lot of weight on putting themselves out there on social media at the beginning.

Terry (10:20):

Yeah, let's talk about that because you just have to be good at your job if you have a nine to five. So pretend you're an accountant and someone's like, how's like, oh yeah, she's good, she's good, she's good enough. You don't have to be like, oh, Kim has been doing this since 19 blah, blah, blah. She's been featured in this and has, it's like you're just like, oh, Kim, she's good. That's all you have to be. And you don't even

Kim (10:41):

Have to be good. Let's be honest. You have to be okay.

Terry (10:44):

Okay. Seriously. But I think once you become an entrepreneur, there's this pressure to be exceptional. You have to have all these accolades and so forth. And I think that's where the pressure comes from. And what I want to do is invite people to just not fall for that. To put out content that expresses who you are, how you help people, but not feel like you have to be at a certain level before you're worthy of attention and clients, because again, at a nine to five, it's just like they're good enough and they get paid. So I just want to get rid of all that pressure that people might have to seem exceptional online. You already are exceptional. Just because you didn't win a tell doesn't mean you're not good at your job. You just didn't win a tell yet.

Kim (11:20):

But if you did win a tell like me, you should definitely brag about it all the time.

Terry (11:23):

If I want a telly, yeah, you definitely hear about it. I try to find excuses to slip into conversations like I'm going to use the phone, also knows the telephone. By the way, did I tell you about the telly?

Kim (11:33):

Actually, I had a Zoom with a publicist and she was like, you want six awards? You need to put them behind you in your zoom frame. I was like, oh yeah, I do. I shall. And now I do. But yeah, I like that

Terry (11:45):

I almost bought a fake award off of Amazon just to have it in the background. I have one now you can see over my shoulder. But that's what I mean. People want to seem exceptional, so they're buying fake bowling trophies off of Amazon to seem like they want something, but

Kim (11:57):

Think you're right. And I think it really boils down to reminding people. And this I feel like helped me when I first started to show up on camera because the reason why it took me a year to launch this podcast is the same reason it took me a while to show up on social media was like, who wants to hear from me? Who am I? Who cares? And then I think when I really unlocked it was like there are a lot of people who actually want to learn what I have to teach. I don't need a million trophies in my background. I don't need to be featured in blah, blah, blah to actually bring people value. And I feel that way for so many of my clients. I have a lot of clients who are super smart and they're not necessarily, maybe they don't have trophies, maybe they haven't been featured in huge publications yet until they work with me.

(12:36):

But I do think the things they say bring aha moments to me in our sessions. And I'm like, that's a really interesting point. You should put that on social media because other people will find it interesting and helpful. And I like your attitude about it that if you have something to share with the world, share it with the world. And I think that that's definitely in my world, how I was like, okay, I don't care if I think I'm being judged, whether I am or I'm not, that doesn't matter. I actually do know that this information will help people. And then over time, I've had all sorts of people, definitely the people who in my head I thought were judging me, be like, oh, I saw that thing you posted about what to do with your hands while talking, super helpful. I'm like, oh, okay. In my mind I'm like, you were one of those people I thought would think I was pathetic, but that's cool. Anyway, so I like that that comes around.

Terry (13:21):

Well, I think it's funny, and I know you have a next question, but I think it's funny when people say that and you're like, well, why didn't you like or comment? You know what I mean? Can I get some feedback on this stuff? Why do I have to have lunch with you to hear this information when you could have just liked or commented on the post? That would've been nice too.

Kim (13:35):

Then I just go to their feed and I'm like, thank you for telling me how much you liked this video and mention it, link to

Terry (13:41):

It. There you go. I

Kim (13:42):

Just that. Right. That is funny. Talk to me. I know you focus so much on resilience and growth and accountability and all of that. I think you're somebody who really has a strong clarity of purpose and focus both in your personal life and professional life. I mean, I know this because I know you, but I also know you share that publicly and I think tens of thousands of other people feel that way too, that they know you. But talk to me about what you'd recommend for people to create a vision, creating a vision, both for their professional life but also their personal life. It has to

Terry (14:12):

Start with a reason, and I'll share my reason and it's going to get dark, but then we'll zoom back out. So I didn't have a clear vision on my life for the first 40 years almost of my life. And then unfortunately in 2017, I lost my son tj, and that was clearly very difficult, a hard experience to go through, but it also makes you stop and pause and think, how do you want to move forward in the world effectively? And that's when I started just learning more about this basic stuff that people just don't do, having a personal philosophy, creating a vision and so forth. And I realized having a clear vision of what my future wanted to look like made it much easier to get through challenging moments that I was experiencing at the time. So it's really just saying, Hey, utopian situation, what is my future going to look like?

(14:58):

Not just what job do I have or how much money do I have, but how am I showing up in the world? What circles am I associated with? What kind of content am I putting out there? What am I doing on the weekends? What am I doing the weekday? All that stuff. Because when you have that vision, then you create new neural pathways to help you get there. And one thing I do to connect with my vision on a daily basis is in my journal, I do what I call future casting where I write down something I want to happen in the future as if it has already happened. So I'll say, Hey, next week Kim and I are flying to Germany to speak at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium about how to create great content on social media. So excited. We bought out the first row of the plane here, we're going to be in the first class with all our kids, got the snacks and so forth. So I literally, I connected my vision every single day. And then after that I write down, okay, what will you do tomorrow to get one step closer to the vision? Maybe it's text Kim and see how she's doing so I can nurture my network. So that's basically what you do is you get very clear on what you want life to look like and then realize success leaves clue, so you can reverse engineer how you got there.

Kim (15:54):

I love the idea of future casting, and thank you for sharing that story. I feel like you didn't use to always share that personal aspect of your story all since you've been running your own business, since you've been working for yourself. So I really admire that you've owned it and really processed it and sharing it in a way that's helpful to other people. I know, I'm sure it's really hard to think about and talk about it first, and thank you for sharing that.

Terry (16:19):

And I didn't want to double click on that because I never talked about it before because I didn't feel comfortable. I was like, oh, when I become more successful, I will. People are at the top. Martha Stewart can say, yeah, I did time in jail. And it's like, oh, cool, Martha, but if I do, it's like, whoa,

Kim (16:34):

I don't trust him.

Terry (16:35):

I dunno if I trust him anymore. So that's why I didn't talk about that or abusing alcohol. But then I realized I'm like, I'm not showing up as a full version of myself and therefore I'm not getting rewarded for all that I am. And I think when you hear my story, you're like, man, it's kind of remarkable. This guy's even stated upright sometimes because of all the loss I've gone through and all this stuff. So I'm saying this because right now there are people listing, they're probably embarrassed to admit some things from their past publicly. What I've realized and what I've learned is people give you opportunities when they feel connected to you, and sometimes that connection is made by sharing some kind of vulnerable, even painful moments. So if you've gone through some stuff, you putting it out there might feel embarrassing, but it might also be how you separate yourself from everyone else's doing the exact same thing.

Kim (17:20):

Do you feel like you need to make sense of it first? I feel like for me personally, I have to take stock of something, not a fixed meaning to it, but sort of sort it in my mind and in my life and in my goals and my future casting. I feel like there's some moments in my life that I actually, I don't talk about because I don't feel like I have made sense of them yet of like, well, what is the takeaway? Or what did I take from that? So then I'm like, oh, I'm not going to share that. But do you feel like it took you the time to make sense of it, that how it fits into your life and how it drives you forward?

Terry (17:52):

I think I had to not necessarily make sense of it, but just really realize it's part of my story and I didn't choose that part, but I get to choose what happens next, and I want to share that narrative as well, because certain things that'll happen, it'll never make sense. If you're driving down the street and someone hits your car, you can't say, oh, well God's will or whatever, you know what I mean? It's like if you try to make sense of it, you're kind of going in circles sometimes. Not always, but sometimes.

Kim (18:16):

And I shouldn't use the word sense because obviously what happened to you is senseless. There's a lot of things that are senseless and meaning,

Terry (18:22):

Well even that I can't triggered, but I can't get triggered. Little things like that or else, how would I actually function in society? You know what I mean? And I'm not trying to be insensitive to anyone who has gone through something and they have to pause and reflect on that, but at certain times it's like, okay, you said a thing. You didn't mean anything harmful by it. So to look back, no, I don't have to make sense of things, but I do have to make sense of how I will process it going forward so I can still show up effectively in the world for my kids, for my wife, for everybody else as well.

Kim (18:47):

And talk to me as I talked to you with your biceps and your triceps in your tank top, talk to me about developing a high performance routine.

Terry (18:56):

It's really simple. You just go to the gym six hours a day. No, it's really simple. I'll give you the process. What is high performance to you? First of all, you have to define that, and that's why you have to have the vision. What routine will get me there? So if my vision is I want to be a bestselling author in five years, part of my routine has to involve writing. If my vision is I want to be able to take my shirt off when I go to the beach this weekend, part of my routine has to be going to the gym. That's how I feel comfortable. So it's really you just saying, what do I have to do to become the future version of myself? What would that person be doing this year, this quarter, this month, this week? And then just put that on your schedule.

(19:34):

So on my end, I have four living children. I want to have a closer relationship with them, but as you know, kids are talking all over each other all the time. So part of my routine is having one-on-one time with my kids every weekend I will take them out of the home and go somewhere. So that's high performance. It's not saying, you got to stay up till midnight, born in the midnight, blah, blah, blah. It's like, no, dude. How can you be the best version of yourself and just schedule it? So it's basic to understand the whole premise. It's just more challenging to actually commit to it.

Kim (20:03):

I do find the time of actually scheduling it so important for myself and for my clients. They're like, I just had a call with someone earlier today, actually a team, and they were saying, how do we make sure we are setting aside time to film each week? I said, look at your calendar right now. Identify when is a time where your team is there that you can siphon off 30 minutes or 60 minutes. Is it Wednesday morning? Is it Thursday at 12? Is it Monday at nine? I can't tell you that part, but I can tell you, you have to identify a block of time. And I also, sometimes what I do for myself and I tell for my clients is then have a backup time. Because a lot of times the hour you think you're going to have goes away. Maybe there's an emergency, a client thing, a kid thing, but what's the backup time? Maybe it's at night, maybe it's at night when the kids are sleeping, and that's okay sometimes. But I do think your point of the blocking on the calendar and then the small milestones, there was something the other day, I just put my speaker reel up on LinkedIn. I finally got my updated speaker reel, and I think it's important that we all pause and pat ourselves in the back sometimes. I was like, I'm a speaker. I willed this to happen.

Terry (21:12):

You spoke at a Berkshire Hathaway conference in Las Vegas. You're definitely a speaker.

Kim (21:16):

And we ate pancakes beforehand.

Terry (21:18):

We did. There were good pancakes.

Kim (21:19):

I think it's one of those things that it's the blocking and then it's the small milestones to get where you want to go. It's like now I'm a speaker, but two years ago or two and a half years ago, I was speaking at very small things, trying to build it up. And then it's time to be like, okay, the small milestones that you need to meet are those calendar blocks, and then you will look back in a year or two years or three years and say, wow, this happened. But I have a lot of clients, a lot of people come to me and they want to do this. They want to be on video or they want to have a podcast. I'm like, great, these are the things we need to do together. And it's all the things you're saying. It's identifying the goals and then it's working towards those goals and then working backwards from what you see in your future. So all to say I agree.

Terry (21:57):

Yeah, and the last thing I'll say is I think celebrating those small wins is so important because I mean, they stack up the big wins and so forth. We get that, but it's the daily momentum that you're celebrating like, okay, I got three pitches out. That's a win. I said no to this opportunity. That might be a win too. Protecting your time. So literally just doing a mental or even jotting it down, a recap of your wins for the day, that's how you should be able to sleep well at night and just realize, look, I didn't get the huge win today, but gosh, this is exactly what the future version of myself will be doing today in order to get there.

Kim (22:28):

And I love one of the things you just brought up, actually, I've been thinking about over the last three weeks. I said no to a massive speaking opportunity, thousands of people in the audience, but it didn't work with my personal life and it didn't work with the larger vision. I have two kids and there's a lot going on, and sometimes I have to say no to a traveling speaking opportunity, hopefully not often. And it was hard. I want to say yes, but I was like, I don't think I can. I just don't think it makes sense at this time. And it was one of those things I'm like, I also have to acknowledge another opportunity will come along. This one came to me, another one will come to me. And I think it's understanding, celebrating the wins. Hey, they're coming to me and then not beating myself up over sometimes saying No is a win.

(23:14):

It's being like, I accept that whatever the abundance mentality, I accept that more things will come my way. And saying no to one thing does not mean that things won't come again. In fact, it means that opportunities are in volume. Over the past year, I've had X opportunities and you have to say no sometimes, but I do correlate that with a little bit of the celebrating the wins, but also celebrating, sticking to your self rules. I have certain things in my head that I'm like, no, I'm not going to do that. If one card in the house of cards is going to fall because of that, it's a no.

Terry (23:49):

What I love about this is I suspect maybe a year ago you would've said yes to it. It's like, here's this thing. You're like, yes, I'm out. But now you're like, you know what? That serves a former version of myself that doesn't exist anymore. I'm ascending. I'm not going backwards, so I can't take this even though it does pay well,

Kim (24:03):

A hundred percent. I definitely felt that way and I'm like, you know what? Good for me for being in the 2024 position where this just happened to not work for me, and that's okay. And not looking back. Talk to me about accountability partners. I know that accountability partners are important to you.

Terry (24:19):

Yeah, so I mean, there's this report or study from the American Society of Training Development that says if you have a goal and you meet with an accountability partner just once per week, your chance of success goes up by 95%. And I want to be clear, it doesn't mean you're 95% likely to hit the goal. It means your chance of success goes up by 95%. So if the chance was 50 before, now you're up to whatever, do the math, but it doesn't mean if there's a 95% chance you're going to hit it. So just having that accountability partner I think is good. Just first of all for yourself because planning what you want to do that week. So I normally have three big goals each week, and then there might be three to five subtasks underneath those goals, and I share that with my accountability partner and vice versa.

(25:00):

So just having to have something to deliver to this person puts accountability on my end, and then knowing I have to talk to 'em on Friday, Hey, did you get it done or not? That helps. But my accountability partner is like, it's funny because we also just talk about personal stuff and sometimes we're just complaining about things like, oh, this dumb client did that, so and so forth. And we're not negative people, but we're giving ourselves the space to vent. And sometimes just getting out those frustrations is helpful. So I think if you have an accountability partner, if you can just bake in some light therapy or at least a good listener, that'll be good too because they're going to know everything that's going on with you. And if you can express some emotions, then they might be there to support you with that as well. But that's one of the best things I've done for my business is just having that accountability because it forces me to actually take action. And I know that someone's going to be waiting for me on Friday to see how things went.

Kim (25:48):

Who is your accountability partner?

Terry (25:50):

His name's Antonio Neve. He's, you can find him on LinkedIn. So Antonio is a really very, very successful public speaker. And it's funny because he's speaking maybe 30 times a year, so doing well. Then he is talking to me the other day. He is like, man, I want to spruce up my LinkedIn content. I was like, I wouldn't even bother, man. You're doing good. Why are we focusing there? But top performers, they always want to optimize what's going on, and I can respect that, but from what I've seen, I'm like, man, that's goals. So it's good to have an accountability partner that perhaps maybe has a strength in areas that you want to develop because then they can support you on the way up as well.

Kim (26:25):

Yeah, I love that. And then I want to shift gears, but first I want to follow up something back up that you had mentioned earlier. Can you give a couple of examples of nurturing your network? I think a lot of people listening have a network varied people working in it and that they don't know how to necessarily nurture it. Besides a once a year Merry Christmas email or I don't think the actual tangible, how do I nurture that network? What does that look like? Can you give us some examples of what that looks like for someone?

Terry (26:52):

Yeah, I mean, there's the most basic stuff where it's like, Hey, Kim, it's your birthday, happy birthday. Or Hey Kim, just checking in. Want to see how things are going? You can do that. I mean, don't sound as bored as I do when you're doing it, but that alone is helpful. Or I mean, what I've done recently is one of my buddies, I subscribed to his newsletter and I realized there was a typo in his footer and I was like, Hey, Jim, by the way, there's a typo in your footer, not the biggest deal in the world, but I know you want to present yourself, so you might want to fix that. So that's a good way to check in. Or if you're on LinkedIn, you see they announce something like, Hey, I just landed a speaking gig. Hey Kim, congrats. Just want to say that's amazing and so forth.

(27:27):

What I also like doing is this, and this is a bit darker, if I see someone got laid off again on LinkedIn, I'll DM them and I'll say, oh man, Kim, I'm sorry to hear that happen. You probably don't want to hear this now, but I got laid off of before was one of the best things that happened to me. So keep your head up. Losing that job is not the value who you are as a person and how you show up in the world. And I'm doing that because that person's going to come up again. They are going to bounce back. And I love knowing that the last message they got from me was of support during that time. Same thing, that they get a new job. Hey Kim, congrats on getting that new job. Oh, that's awesome. I just want to say that's amazing.

(28:01):

That way. Again, it's a good reason to check in. So if you can find legit reasons to check in, that's great. If it's just like, Hey, Kim, how are you doing? That's great too. But what I would highly encourage everyone to do now we're getting very tactical, is again, go back to your vision that you have for the future and then write down the five people that you already know who could help you achieve that vision for one reason or another. And then by design block off time every week to find something to do to help them or some way to check in. That way you're in constant contact with people. So I did that exercise myself and I was embarrassed to see how often I was not nurturing these high value people. And that's why now to your point, I block off time on my calendar to do so.

Kim (28:40):

No, I think it's a really good point. I think we all have networks that are powerful and we're not activating them in the way. And I now realize I'm like, I need to read a book on that. I need to be better about that. I also liked your point of, I do the same thing with when people are laid off, I reach out. I'm like, how can I help? I also think when my dad passed away, I remember when people showed up at the Shiva or sent us notes, and you remember when people show up when you're in a bad place. And I think it's along those lines of when you were saying reach out when someone's laid off and in the same time congratulations, but especially in the bad times because you do remember that it Sears in your memory a bad moment in your life. And so it doesn't have to be a death, but it can be a job loss or just something that sucks. And I like your point of saying, Hey, I've gone through this. We all go through this. Keep your head up. I'm here for you. Or if you can offer some help, let me know how I can help.

Terry (29:29):

It's amazing the outsize returns you can get just by being a good human. That's all you have to do is be a nice person and all of a sudden you're exemplary in other people's eyes.

Kim (29:41):

He's so great.

Terry (29:42):

Yeah, it's like he liked my post and it's like, okay, if you say so.

Kim (29:46):

And then the last thing I wanted to ask you about, I want to talk to you about the personal brand. What do you think about the term, first of all, what do you think about the term personal brand?

Terry (29:56):

I think it's changed a lot over the years because we all have a personal brand. We've always had a personal brand because a personal brand is what people are saying about you when you're not in the room. And then personal branding is how you encourage that conversation. I think the challenge you've had recently over the last couple of years is people are just inflating their brands to the point where it's ridiculous. Someone's going to say, sought after speaker in their LinkedIn profile. It's like, well, how come I never see you speaking anywhere? If you're so sought after, why can't anyone found you? I found you on LinkedIn, but no one else is finding you. How come you're not speaking? So when people are just making things up and inflating their stories, that causes challenges on my end. But again, it's like why are we under so much pressure to make it seem like we're exemplary?

(30:37):

I've done this, I've done this. No dude, I'm just really good at accounting. If you need an accountant, you should consider me. Why can't we just say that? I don't know why, but I think for personal branding to work these days, it has to also bleed over to character branding, meaning what do you actually do? How do you show up in the world? And it's going to overlap. But if I say something like, I missed this meeting, I had to go pick my daughter up from school. Here's how I explain it to my stakeholders, and I'm so glad I have a flexible job. That's character branding. It's not personal branding. And I think the more that we do of that, the more we'll get rewarded for who we are and not just what we do. Because personal branding is like, here's what I do. I'm also character branding is more like, here's who I am internally and how that shows up in the world.

Kim (31:19):

So you recommend people should incorporate their values and how they exist in the world into the things that they're talking about and posting about?

Terry (31:27):

I can say it's worked for me. I mean, there are other people that you'll see on channels like LinkedIn and Instagram. They just talk about the same thing every time. It is often someone's like, here's how you get more followers on LinkedIn. That's how they get more followers. So it gets meta real quick, but there are some people listening who are like, dude, I don't want to do any of that stuff. And I'm like, okay, cool. I hear you. What I think you could potentially do though is if you don't want to tell your own personal stories, talk about a book that you're reading. Hey, I read this book called Gifted Grow. It's awesome. That's you telling personal parts of your business too. But I think if you want to be a speaker, we, if you want to be a media personality or get featured by the media, then yeah, it helps to have some more meat on the bone by telling these more personal stories.

Kim (32:04):

Yeah, it's funny. I think about, because I'm working with people and sometimes people are very experienced and some people are kind of newly onto social media. Actually, my thesis is that I don't like the word personal brand. I don't have any problem with what it does and how we build it, but I actually think it creates a weight that is unnecessary because it's like, Hey, don't be too self-conscious as you post on social media, but treat yourself like a Nike sneaker or a bag of sugar because you are a commodity. And so I think the idea of, Hey Sue, you're a really good consultant. You've been doing great as a consultant, and now you have to create a brand around yourself. And they're like, I'm a really smart consultant. What are you talking about? So I think I feel like it'd be helpful to call it, and this is part of my thesis that I'm going to lay out.

(32:54):

It's like maybe calling you're professional perspective or your professional POV, because I think there is that element of when you have to think about yourself like a third party until you've been doing it for a long time, I think it's very hard until you're doing it for a long enough time now I'm like, oh, Kim Rittenberg, is this online? It's okay. It still is very close to who I am as a real person, but I can kind of hold it aside from me. I'll give an assignment to my video editor or to my assistant, and it's like, Kim says this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, this. I'm an executive producer of video, so I can give notes where I'm the third person and it doesn't matter. But I do think where people are starting to build their brand, it is kind of like a weighty exercise to be like, well, who are you? How do you want the world to perceive you? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Terry (33:38):

I agree, and I think it's often almost a waste of time or it's overdone. And give me a moment to unpack that because I had an experience the other day where this company reached out to me in regards to a brand deal. They wanted me to do X, Y, Z, doesn't really matter, right? And I'm sitting down to the proposal for them, but I was like, oh, shoot, I didn't write my LinkedIn post yet. I got to do that first. Then in my head, I'm like, bro, you post on LinkedIn to grow your business. This company is literally saying, we would like to do business with you, and instead of actually finishing that part, you're trying to get more likes in comments, go get some money. So what I would say is where people kind of overdo it sometimes, they're spending so much time building their brand, they're not building their business.

(34:17):

So I think on certain platforms, again, I'm picking on LinkedIn, you can just leverage it to build your credibility, have a good bio, a good photo where you're looking smarter, whatever it is, put out some good content. But then once you have that credibility, you can directly reach out to people. You can DM people instead of hoping they see your next post, hoping they like it, hoping they comment, hoping they dm. You can say, Hey, Kim, by the way, I see you live here in Brooklyn, and I created this guide on four ways to keep your kids entertained when it's raining outside. Can I share it with you? Great. There you go. I'm approaching with an offer, not an ask, but I'm not hoping you saw that poster. I'm like, if you live in Brooklyn, it's raining right now. I got this thing. It's like, you know what I mean? It's like just build the credibility and then do some very targeted outreach. You'll grow much faster.

Kim (34:59):

I love the idea of there's all these different ways to be building your business that don't involve, obviously I'm a content person, but there are all these things. I have some people come to me and I'm like, just comment. Just make connections, start commenting. And actually, we had a really good guest on the show called Brett, named Brad Zoic, who's a LinkedIn expert. He's a ghost writer for executives on LinkedIn in SaaS companies, and he said, first start commenting and connection requests, max those out. The content will come, but really build that. And so I love what you were saying about that, Terry, this has been so fun. It's always fun to chat with you. It's better in person over coffee or lifting weights, sort of just kidding.

Terry (35:34):

I'm down.

Kim (35:35):

How can people

Kim (35:36):

Connect with you?

Terry (35:38):

Yeah, yeah. Well, on social media, it's Terry Rice. Literally, it's Terry Rice on all platforms. LinkedIn to find me, Terry Rice, and also go to my website, terry rice.co. I would highly encourage you to sign up for my newsletter because every week I share tips on how to build your business and personal resilience and just five minutes,

Kim (35:55):

Minutes. I love that. Terry, thank you so much.

Terry (35:58):

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Kim (36:03):

Thank you for joining us. Don't forget to exit the grind and enter success on your own terms. This is the exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Don't forget to grab my free download, how to Grow Your Business with Amazing video at kimrittberg.com and linked out in the show notes. I love to hear your feedback. Make sure to submit to me what you learned from the show and how you are crushing it on your own terms. Connect with me on Instagram or LinkedIn at Kim Rittberg, R-I-T-T-B-E-R-G. And this show is edited by Jillian Grover and produced by Henry Street Media. I'm your host and executive producer Kim Rittberg.

Kim RittbergComment