Ep.74/ How to Get Speaking Engagements with Heather Monahan
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Looking to get more speaking gigs? Heather Monahan shares how to get speaking engagements (savvy ways you may not have considered!), how to fine tune your topic and when to start (hint: start before you feel ready). She also reminds you–everyone’s nervous when they are speaking, even Beyonce!
Heather Monahan has been named a Top 50 Keynote Speakers for 2022 by Real Leaders. She was a chief revenue officer in media and won awards like the Glass Ceiling Award and was named one of the most influential women in radio in 2017, until she was suddenly fired and she took that moment to reinvent herself. After posting to LinkedIn that she was fired, she was invited to be a guest on a huge radio show and then wrote a book called Confidence Creator. In promoting the book, she kicked off a lucrative speaking career.
You will learn:
How to get speaking engagements
What to charge to speak
How to team up with others to grow your speaking business
Whether or not to cold call event organizers
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Are you interested in landing speaking gigs or more speaking gigs, but don't know where to start?
Heather Monaghan, who went from laid off sales executive to national speaker, has a huge amount of incredible tips you have not heard before.
Everyone’s nervous when they are speaking, even Beyonce! Today, Heather Monahan shares some very savvy ways to get speaking engagements, how to figure out what to talk about and when you should start intent. It is before you think you are ready. Heather was a chief revenue officer in media. She won awards like the Glass Ceiling Award. She's been named one of the most influential women in radio in 2017 and Thrive Global named her a limit breaking female founder in 2018 until she was suddenly fired and she took that moment to reinvent herself. She posted to LinkedIn that she was fired. She was invited to be a guest on a huge radio show and then wrote a book called Confidence Creator. Heather's speaking career began initially to promote the book, but now it's become a lucrative career in itself.
In this episode you will learn:
How to land your first paid speaking gig.
Embracing your unique messaging and connecting with your audience.
Why the most important thing when you are speaking is believing in yourself.
Quotes from our guest:
“Everyone feels nervous before taking a big stage. Beyonce feels nervous.”
“Take messy action.”
“So there's a very fine line between fear and excitement. I always say to myself, I'm excited. I'm excited. And you start speaking that out into a truth.”
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Kim (00:02):
Are you interested in landing speaking gigs or more speaking gigs, but don't know where to start? Heather Monaghan, who went from laid off sales executive to national speaker, has a huge amount of incredible tips you have not heard before. When to start, what to talk about and super sharp ways to find speaking gigs. And we don't mean just Google it. 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.
(01:24):
I have been doing a lot of speaking engagements over the past year and speaking was on my vision board. That word actually makes me laugh because when I was a kid, I used to collage. I was like a really crafty and arty kid. But now I really more do resolutions as a list and less of a vision board. But speaking was absolutely on my resolutions list. I had it on my list. I did a lot of the behind the scenes mindset work to know not only my ready, not only did I deserve to be on the stage, but once I do it, I'm going to work so hard and I'm going to crush it. So once I started actually pushing myself, making myself available to people, letting everyone know that this is what I'm doing, it has snowballed and it's been so amazing. I've done many speaking gigs over the past year in different states, Arizona, Orlando, Orlando's in the state of Florida.
(02:13):
I know that I flew to Las Vegas, Nevada, and I recently wrote for Fast Company an article about how to land speaking gigs. One of the biggest bits of advice, both from me and other experts is to start showing up online in social media content, video posts, photo posts, let people know that you are an expert and want to teach. People who are booking for events want to know you're available and they want to scout you. They want to spot you. So from that article, when I started doing research, I realized I knew I had to bring in Heather Monahan. Heather Monahan was a chief revenue officer in media. She won awards like the Glass Ceiling Award. She's been named one of the most influential women in radio in 2017 and Thrive Global named her a limit breaking female founder in 2018 until she was suddenly fired and she took that moment to reinvent herself. She posted to LinkedIn that she was fired. She was invited to be a guest on a huge radio show and then wrote a book called Confidence Creator. Heather's speaking career began initially to promote the book, but now it's become a lucrative career in itself. Heather shares some very savvy ways to get speaking engagements, how to figure out what to talk about and when you should start intent. It is before you think you are ready. And Heather reminds us that everyone is nervous. Heather, I'm so glad you're joining me today. Thank you for coming on.
Heather (03:36):
Thanks so much for having me.
Kim (03:37):
So Heather, I'd love to start with your advice for people who want to get speaking gigs.
Heather (03:43):
Okay. First of all, get clear on what do you want to speak about? What problem do you solve? This is selling anything. So what's your unique value proposition? What's different about you? Why would someone want you to speak for them? What are the deliverables? Put yourself in the shoes of the person that would ultimately be hiring you. So you want to think of what companies or what organizations or what universities would be that right fit and then start taking action. So many people will say, well, I want to have my website done. I need all the headshots and the one page and the deck and the testimonials and the video reel. And yes, it's great to have all those things, but you need to start accumulating those things, meaning you need to start speaking. I remember I spoke for years in corporate America, but once I got fired, I was speaking for free. At first, I just wanted to get testimonials. I had never thought about pursuing a speaking business prior to this. And so having testimonials, having real feedback of what people get from your speeches and having them speak to it is incredibly valuable as well as inspire you and educate you as to the value that you're bringing. So you can start saying, wow, I'm a great fit for that industry. I bet I'd be a great fit for this one too. But start making the call, start putting your name in and start asking for the opportunities.
Kim (05:04):
And talk to me about your own personal experience. I know you were fired and then you sort of had to pick yourself up and that kind of launched your book and your speaking career. Can you tell me a little bit about how you went from being a corporate executive, a very successful sales executive to now being a public speaker?
Heather (05:21):
So I was a chief revenue officer of a media company. I had been speaking for two decades. I didn't even know it was a business because in the media world, you don't hire speakers. People want to come speak and perform for us. They wanted us to promote their brand. So I just wasn't aware by the way of dollars in the speaking business for everyone that's watching and listening. So I just wasn't aware of it. So I had the chops, I had put the reps and I had given thousands of speeches, but I didn't know, oh, this is an industry and how do I market myself and whatnot. And so when I got fired, I put a post up on social media, it landed me on the Elvis Duran show. Halfway that interview, he said to me, obviously you're writing a book. I had never thought about writing a book, but he spoke this confidence and this belief into me.
(06:05):
And so I started writing a book When my first book Confidence Creator came out, I googled, how do you sell books? And it said, go on podcasts and speak. And I thought, great. I've been speaking forever. That's easy. And I just started cold calling dialing companies and pitching myself and basically saying, listen, if you buy X amount of books, then I'll come in and do a speech for your organization. And so I started landing more and more speaking engagements, getting more and more testimonials. Companies started promoting me, Hey, Heather's coming to speak on this event. So it's an interesting compounding effect that the speaking business has because the more events you speak at, the more other people are promoting you to their audiences. So you're getting more reach, more opportunity. The more you position yourself as a speaker, the more testimonials you're getting, the more reels you're getting, getting footage of you at different events and all of these things help you. It doesn't happen overnight. It happens over time. It really took first year and a half of working really hard until I started to feel like I'm starting to get some traction. Ultimately, it wasn't until I gave my TEDx talk that my speaking business didn't really take on.
Kim (07:05):
And in terms of, you had mentioned earlier about understanding what it is you're going to talk about. So you were writing a book, so you knew that the topic of the book was really going to be the focus of what you talked about.
Heather (07:15):
Yeah. My book had come out at the time that I started speaking. So I made the book Focal Point because I wanted to sell copies of the book because at that point in time, I didn't understand how much revenue was around the speaking business. I thought I was using it as a vehicle to market the book. It's a great vehicle to market books. But then when I started realizing, hey, I want the fastest to revenue, it was clear to me that the speaking business was the better option, but at first I didn't know that. So just like most people, you start out as a beginner first. You fumble around, you make mistakes, and then you start figuring it out over time. But it definitely took me a little bit of time to start figuring it out.
Kim (07:53):
And speaking of revenue, so talk to me about how you went from doing gigs for free, encouraging people to buy your books, which is the normal path for a lot of people to then jumping into paid gigs. How did that switch happen? Tell me more about that.
Heather (08:05):
It happened organically. It wasn't like some big strategy. So I was speaking at more and more events. I was speaking for free at first, and then one day I called the company, pitched myself, and they said, what's your speaker fee? I googled Speaker Bees. Gary Vaynerchuk showed up for $350,000 for a keynote. This was in 2018 or 19 at the time, so this is a long time ago. He was already making a lot of money. He's making much more now, I'm sure. But I realized, wow, this is a huge business. So I started researching it, right, you need to do your homework. And I started learning about speaker bureaus and speaker agent and associations, and I started seeing some of the fees that speakers were charging, and the gamut runs anywhere from 5,000 to 500,000 or Oprah charges over a million. So there's a huge
Kim (08:49):
Gap
Heather (08:50):
In regards to what different people charge and different people are landing for fees and everything. See, online isn't accurate. I'm on so many sites that I've never even agreed to or sent my information to, and their numbers don't match. So everything isn't always exactly the way it seems. However, what I've learned now at this point in my career is one, women get paid a lot less, sadly other than Oprah, but two, there is a gap and there's a differentiation based upon who is most softer, and that can happen for various reasons, but for me personally, I've been doing all this free speaking. I landed my TEDx talk. I got promoted to Ted and really took off. That's when I landed one of my first big events that was a paid event to interview Sarah Blakely live on stage in Boston for a sales conference. And that came from a friend referring me, heard about the organization was looking for speakers, and he happened to know the person in charge and just mentioned, Hey, I think you should take a look at this woman. They vetted me. And then once you start landing paid speaking, there's agents there, you start having conversations, you start pitching yourself. And that's when I really leaned into, I wanted to show up on the speaker bureaus. I wanted to get agents, and I started pitching myself to all the different bureaus and agents at that point.
Kim (10:03):
At that point, how big was your social following?
Heather (10:06):
Oh gosh, that was in 2019. So I mean I probably had, I would think at least a hundred thousand followers or I probably had six figures, but nowhere near where my following is now.
Kim (10:19):
And so what are your thoughts on, for people who don't really have huge social followings, but they can speak and they can teach and they can bring value in terms of advising them to get gigs, whether they're paid or free?
Heather (10:29):
I'll use my friend Ryan Leak as an example. He's light years ahead of me in the speaking business. I mean, this guy has taken the biggest ages. He has such a small social media, probably he's an incredible speaker. Most people outside of the business aren't going to know his name. He's like a Gary Vaynerchuk or some big brand, but he's killing it, making a fortune, doing an unbelievable job, and he's booked out solid, I don't even know for a very long time. And so success doesn't have to look one way, and this isn't just for the speaking business, this is for any business. The way that I've approached speaking is unique to me, but that's not the way my friend Ryan does. He doesn't lean in much to social media. He has an agent that he has exclusivity with, and they book him multiple times a week, year round.
(11:14):
He's always booked out. He has to turn things down all the time. What drove his business was, first of all, his ability. He's an incredible communicator, incredible speaker, but he had this relationship with an agent who saw him speak and said, oh my God, I trust you. I like you. I want to work with you. Let's sign an exclusive. Let's have this agreement together. And that exploded, and it's been so beneficial for both of them. So his journey is so different than mine. I went exclusive with a bureau once and canceling it because it ended up not being beneficial. It wasn't driving more business to me, it was locking me out of other business. So at that point in time, for whatever reason, it wasn't benefiting me. So I went back to the way that I've done it, which is the majority of my inquiries come through LinkedIn through my website, but I am with 15 different speaker bureaus and different agents. I do get booked a lot through agents, but I haven't found that one particular agent that I just want to be exposed with.
Kim (12:07):
Great. And then when you started, what were you getting paid for the beginning speaking gigs?
Heather (12:12):
Well, I started for free. Then I would throw out random numbers, like 5,000 for this one. Then covid hit, and so I went back to free again. I didn't know, I wondered, can I convert to virtual? Because I will tell you virtual is completely different than speaking in person completely. And so once I had done a few virtual events, I started feeling comfortable charging. So then I went to 5,000 on virtual, and then slowly I started talking to my friends who were in industry and they were charging 10,000. So I went to 10,000. And then here's what I've learned. There's different pools of business out there. So an association's going to have a very large budget, and you can do your homework. When you get an inquiry from someone, go research that company and see past speakers, that's going to be indicative of what type of budget they have.
(12:58):
You'll start seeing, there's certain speakers that speak for free and because like, oh, I see everyone in that roster everywhere. I bet those people are all speaking for free, and not that there's anything wrong with that. I have a lot of friends that do speak for free. Their goal is to expand their reach. They want to sell product and services to a community. So their goal is to speak everywhere and anywhere for free to increase their brand, increase their reach, and then convert on their own, which is a great business. There's lots of opportunities where you're allowed to sell from this stage and people are actually selling services, selling programs from states. That's a whole other business. Then there's people like me who are paid to go and speak. And again, not that any one of them is right or wrong. It's around where are you in the journey at that point in time, what makes most sense for you?
(13:40):
But what I learned is there's certain universities that big budgets and certain universities that have the zero budget. There's certain events and entrepreneurial events that have budgets and some that don't. You need to do your homework if you want to start charging and make sure that you're swimming and fishing in that right pool. For a long time, I was just getting bombarded with leads and from LinkedIn, I had no idea the lens of which to look through. So if I quoted 20 or $30,000 to a certain company, they were saying, that's crazy. We've never paid over five. No, we don't want to work with you. But then I started learning associations and different businesses that you could look and research if they've had some big name speakers, they've got huge budgets, and typically they've got a roster. So the more that you do your homework and are told about it, you can kind of figure out what their budget potentially could be.
(14:27):
But it is very rare that an inquiry will come in and they'll tell you their budget. They typically don't. But actually the reason why I know Oprah's B is I was so sick of people telling me I was too expensive and I got on a Zoom call with an association. I said, listen, before we even begin, I know you're going to tell me I'm too expensive, but I'm just going to tell you I'm worth it. And they said, we just hung up with Oprah's team. I find it hard to believe that we're going to think you're expensive and the whole place, we're all dying laughing because it's all relative. It depends on the type of speakers that people are pursuing. You might be on the high end or you might be not even showing up.
Kim (15:00):
I loved your point about researching. What would you recommend? Someone's like, okay, I want to start researching. I want to start pitching. Where do I start?
Heather (15:07):
I mean Google. I use Google for everything right now. If you have ai, you have chat G P T as well. But one of the things that I've learned is this, identify competitors. I say competitors because they're not really competitors, but maybe people who could speak at similar conferences that you could get a list of 10 and start following them on social media and they're going to hashtag the events that they're at. Write those down. Those are leads for you for next year or for their next event. And form relationships with other speakers so that you have someone, I have three different speakers. I work in the same tandem with that. When I speak for something, they're not going to probably want to have me back six months later. They probably won't want to have me back till next year. So I offer up another individual.
(15:46):
That's a great compliment. If I'm speaking on building confidence and connection and innovation in the workplace, my friend Alex Carter, that's a negotiation specialist, is a great person to come follow up and give a speech next after that. So start working in T with people who are similar but a little bit different and can add value after you. And then they do the same. They start feeding you business, but you also want to look at the speaker bureaus, go to these speaker agent websites and start looking at, you'll see, read the testimonials of different speakers. You get the name. That's the lead of the actual person that hired them to speak for me. I started getting hired for MLMs, and so then I'm like, you know what? I did really, really well at these M L M events. I'm like, I'm going to go down the rabbit hole and pull a roster of all M L M companies that are out there. And then when I have free time, I reach out to them on social media and I send 'em a thing, Hey, I spoke for your competitor, went really well. Their feedback would love to set up a meeting and talk about doing one of your events. So there's a lot of different ways that you can leverage resources and research and contacts in the speaking business.
Kim (16:47):
I love those tips. I sort of landed it in the way that last year someone called me, they found me on a podcast, and then they said, I'd love to have you come. I probably can't afford you. I was like, I, oh, what's your budget? I was like, I'm sure you can afford me. And I started getting paid. And then once you get paid a few times, you're like, oh, I'm worth money. Not that it doesn't equal my inner worth, it just equals my bank account worth. And that made me realize there are all these other opportunities, but I think me and others get stuck on, okay, now where do I start? I look for associations and conferences and competitors. And so I think people can get lost in the whole, there's so many opportunities that it feels like, how do I even find them? So I appreciate your input on the research. So start Googling associations and conferences who have people who are good and good for your message, receptive to your message. The right people who can find value in what you're talking about.
Heather (17:40):
Take a Google alert out on speakers, wanted female speakers wanted, speakers, wanted innovation, whatever it is, leadership, whatever it is that you're going to be speaking about. So every morning when you wake up, you're going to get in your inbox. It's going to tell you, oh, looking for speakers. And you can start applying. I mean, listen, take messy action. That is always going to be the answer. Done will be better than perfect. You'll start figuring out where you're landing. You've got to start showing up and going for these things. Don't just sit around thinking that some agent's going to come knock on your door and solve all your problems. Like my friend Ryan, right? That happens to 0.01% of speakers,
Kim (18:15):
And I would love your input. I talked to someone else and I asked 'em about pitching. What are your thoughts on pitching yourself? Should you have your assistant pitch? How do you do the reach out?
Heather (18:23):
No one's going to sell me better than me. That's just my opinion. So I would rather, if time allows, I would rather pitch. But of course that isn't always going to be the case either. What I've learned with the bureaus and agents is if they have someone who's similar but charges more, they're going to pitch that person over you. Even though you're on their roster, they get paid on commission. If you're not one of the premier paid speakers, you're probably not going to get pitched very much. So in those situations, you want to be showing up, pitching yourself, committing to here's why I'm different. Here's why I'm going to, here's my deliverables. Here's how I can best support you. Here's how I can add value. That's another differentiator. I always tell my clients, listen, if you want me to post after the event so you have a longer tail on how successful your event was, how happy your employees are, I'm happy to do that. I'm happy to mention in my newsletter, try to find different ways that you add value to help support, or if they're selling tickets, let 'em know, I'm happy to help. I've got relationships in my community at this place or that place, or think about different ways that you add value to actually benefit potential partner and make it easy to work with.
Kim (19:31):
That is so smart, Heather, because one of the things that I was talking about with someone I know about opportunity, I spoke and then they might bring me back, is coming back and doing a session where I'm speaking, but I'm a video expert and I have production background and I don't do as much now production, but I do. And so I have been talking about it with someone and coming and actually producing content for some of the VIPs who are paying. So you're getting me speaking. I'm prepping you to be on camera. I'm teaching you what to say, and then I'm coming up and you're actually going to leave with content. And then that's obviously, I'm going to charge a lot more for that. I have to pay for my people and my time. But that's really smart. To your point about adding value, not just what do I want, how do I get paid, but that's something people need. They need content, and I'm going to show up and be content in a box. And so I really love your point about adding value and thinking outside the box. Those ideas of selling, they all want attention. And if you have a big social following, use it. And if you don't have a big social following, figure out how else you can support. So I love those ideas.
Heather (20:25):
Exactly. I taught with a professor during Covid for two years at Harvard, and he also teaches at bc, but this would be a great example of if you don't have a large social following, he's got all of these students. So thinking your network, challenge yourself say, who do I know that I could reach out to and ask them to share that in their classes, in their network. It doesn't to just be the, I have 1 million followers on Instagram. No challenge yourself to think, oh, I know someone at the Rotary. I know someone at the chamber of Commerce. I can call and ask for a favor. It doesn't have to just look one way, challenge yourself to say, how could I reach more people that could potentially meet this opportunity?
Kim (21:05):
And that gave me an idea also, it's like you have a podcast. I have a podcast offer to promote the event of the podcast. Whether or not you have a huge or medium or small listenership, it's still more places. It's still more word of mouth. And then I also think to your point, they really appreciate that you're on their team making them realize we're on the same team. I want your event to go, well, that's why I'm partnering with you. And so not just as a give me money and I show up, but this is a partnership. We're on the same page and I want you to grow.
Heather (21:32):
Exactly. And the more that you have that relationship, not this transactional showing up to speak, the more they're going to empty their glass to you. So my example that has been really beneficial to me has been, I started working with Verizon a little over a year ago, and we developed a real strong partnership where we were doing a number of different things together. As that partnership grew and that relationship grew, the woman that I worked with started telling me, well, there's 30 different organizations within our organization, Heather, that hire speakers. I did not know that, right? Because companies I had worked with didn't have that many types of divisions. So she would spend time teaching me, okay, so there's a group on the Hispanic community, there's a group on this one and that. And she'd start laying out all, and they all have budget. So then start changing the way they think. Do a great job for a few different major organizations, and you could spend all of your time just navigating around making it easy on yourself and on the team. If they like working with you, they'll help pass you around to different people where you can add value to all these different niches within one organization.
Kim (22:39):
I love how you're framing that because in the same way when you go to a new job and you just check in on a fellow department, you're like, can I learn about what you do and how we interact? And you kind is asking questions. It's the same with that. I ran into a friend and she's like, oh, I should pitch you to my company. I'm like, oh yeah, I didn't realize you book speakers. And she's like, oh, I generally book celebrities, but I also help with these other events. And she started telling me and I said, okay, how could I fit into this? And she tells me what they're focusing on. And then I'm now realizing, oh, these are other areas where this corporation could use me, which is different than that one. And you are getting information by just expressing curiosity and partnership. And so Heather, this is, so many gems are being dropped here. I feel like we're going to spark so many people speaking careers from this conversation. Well, I
Heather (23:22):
Hope so because here's the thing, and a lot of people will say, well, I am not going to speak because it's already been said. So-and-so sounds like me, and they're way ahead of me. No. And I want people to know, here's why. Everyone has their own backstory. Everyone has their own relatability or lack of relatability. So if one person is so big in doing so well, it doesn't mean that you won't service a different niche or connect with a different audience that needs that message so badly and isn't tuning into it from that person. You've got a message on your heart. You've got to share it. That's why we're all hearing you want to share that message to help others, to benefit others, to teach others. Don't sell yourself short and think, oh, there's somebody else out there already doing no. Show up and do it from the lens of you and watch how many new people you connect with.
Kim (24:05):
That message is so perfect and resonant. I think I work with you do a lot of, I don't want to say it's gender, but I think as women, we have struggled more to put ourselves out there and be like, I deserve this. I am ready for it. But I spoke recently at the Fast Company Innovation Festival and I was nervous, I was excited, I felt prepared, but this is like, these are serious business people. This is a real thing. I'm really excited. But I showed up and I wore a red dress and I had so much fun. I danced on a stage and I did a workshop on how to create great video, and I made it very engaging. Teaching interactive, teaching interactive. And the truth is, I think that this has been through the podcast and just through me being a video person, I've been really aggressive about being like when I show up, you're getting Kim Rutberg.
(24:49):
You're not getting some random video expert. You're not getting some random branding person. You're getting me. I studied improv comedy in my twenties. I'm fun, I'm loose. We're going to have fun, but I make sure to bring that because I'll tell you on the main stage was Ray Dalio. On the main stage was a Netflix executive. On the main stage was Tracy Ellis Ross, insane names on the basement floor speaking on the main stage. But I was in a workshop room with other really great people speaking to 200 people, not 500 or 700. But I came and I delivered, and I overprepared. I always over prepare and someone gave me a testimonial. I didn't see it until later. She was like, Kim was the most engaging person at this conference. And it just goes to show, just show up and do your best, show up and believe that you are worth it and you deserve to be there and you don't know how you're going to be received.
(25:39):
Because I knew I was going to do well. I really like what I do. I really have high energy and I really believe in people, and I believe that other people can show up on camera and be creative and grow their business with video. I very much believe it's so strongly, just like you do about confidence. There's no way I can't boost you up a little bit and make you get on your camera and grow your business. But that was a real mindset shift. I was really, this is a big deal. Even though the stage wasn't that huge, I wasn't the keynote. It was a big deal for me. And to get that sort of feedback. To your point, don't tell yourself you're not good enough. Don't tell yourself you're not ready for it. And I left three days later and I said to my mom, I'm like, mom, can you believe this is happening? I can, but this is crazy. And I celebrated. I was like, I deserve this. I work really hard and I'm good and I'm fun and I make other people feel good. I deserve this.
Heather (26:28):
Oh, it's so good. I'm so proud of you, and you're so clear on your why and who you're helping, and I think that's what propels you forward. For anyone listening right now, everyone feels nervous before taking a big stage. Beyonce feels nervous. She channels her inner Sasha fears. So think of it this way. When you feel nervous, I'm in good company, I care. So there's a very fine line between fear and excitement. I always say to myself, I'm excited. I'm excited. And you start speaking that out into a truth. I write down three other times I was nervous for something and it worked out okay. I didn't die. I didn't fall off the stage. Remind yourself, take the pressure off yourself. I remember my 10 x, I was so nervous. I said, if you don't walk out there right now, you'll never forgive yourself. If you go out there and blow it, I'm going to be so proud of you.
(27:12):
And then I walked out because I just took all the pressure off I always have. Lavender with me would calms me. I write on the bottom of my shoe, put the work in. Get yourself prepared for it. Don't just try to wing it and hope for the best. Visualize. Go to the venue ahead of time, talk to the people, qualify calls with the client ahead of time so that you know what you're walking into. You can better understand what their goals are. The more you work on something and the more effort you put it, the more successful you're going to be and the better you're going to feel about it.
Kim (27:38):
Yes, a hundred percent. And my kids are little. They're eight and six, and I made sure to say to them, mommy is going to speak in front of 300 people. My first speaking gig was not 20 people. It was 300. And I'm like, mommy thought she was going to throw up. Truly. Mommy was breathing deeply and telling herself, you're not going to throw up. You're actually going to crush this smile. You're doing it. It's fun. I tell myself, smile, you're doing it. It's fun. If you didn't want to do it, you wouldn't be doing this. And so I love your idea of everyone's scared. Even Beyonce gets scared. That's why she has Sasha Fierce. Heather, this is fantastic. How can people connect with you and follow you,
Heather (28:12):
Heather Monahan everywhere. You can go to my website, heathermonahan.com. My podcast is Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan. You can get my books and everything else at my website.
Kim (28:21):
Awesome. Thank you so much. And you can learn more information@heathermonahan.com. Heather m o n a h a n.com. 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.