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Moving from Chaos to Clarity (with Marianne Renner) · The Daily Writer

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, welcome to episode 121 of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Kent Sanders, and this is the show dedicated to helping you share your message, increase your impact, and grow your business through the power of writing.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: I live in the Midwest, specifically just outside of St.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Louis, and several months out of the year we have pretty cold mornings.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Occasionally I'll forget to go outside early and start my car so I can unfog the windshield.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm running late, that means I'm driving down the street with fog or maybe even some ice on the windshield, which of course is not a very good situation.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: You know it's pretty hard to navigate when you don't have clarity.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's exactly the message that today's guest is going to be sharing with us.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: Her name is Marianne Renner, and she's going to give us some tips for moving from chaos to clarity in our businesses and lives.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: And she's got a lot of great stuff to share in this conversation.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Before we do that, though, I want to mention that today's episode is brought to you by Convert Kit.
1:04
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1:09
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1:13
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1:21
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1:24
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1:31
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1:35
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1:38
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1:44
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1:46
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1:50
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1:52
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2:01
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2:08
SPEAKER_00: To take advantage of the special offer and start your free 30-day trial with Convert Kit, go to Kent Sanders.net slash Convert Kit.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's get on with today's episode.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned earlier, I'm really excited to have Marianne Renner on the show today.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: We've been planning this interview for a while, and I'm really glad we were able to make it happen.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Marianne is a highly sought after leadership coach, keynote speaker, and author of the Chaos to Clarity Success Journal.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: With years of understanding human behavior, Marianne uses a unique blend of problem-solving techniques and communication strategies to help clients root out fears, doubts, and limiting beliefs so that they can get real results.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Marianne has owned two businesses, founded a non-for-profit organization for at-risk youth, and was a bodybuilding champion and highly sought-after fitness instructor, having led two youth dance teams to win gold medals in the National Junior Olympics.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, as you can see, Marianne is really well suited to be talking about success and clarity.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: Some of the topics in our conversation include why we get stuck in chaos, how journaling helps us get clarity, how writing a book has helped Marianne's business, and so much more.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Make sure to check out the show notes at KentSanders.net slash one two one.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get to the conversation with my friend, Marianne Renner.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Marianne, thanks so much for taking time to be on the show today.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: I have known you on the internet, as they say, for two or three years now, so it's really fun to be able to connect with you.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: Sort of, it's not really in person, but it's more live than Facebook is.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: I know.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Ken.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to be here.
3:53
SPEAKER_01: And it is fun to see you.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: I want to say, I want to use the phrase in person also.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: It's not live, it's memorex.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who's like under 35 will have no idea what I'm talking about.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: Probably with that reference, but it's okay.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: I'll put a link in the show notes.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: So this podcast uh on smart business writing is all about, of course, business writing, which we think of as being an outward-focused thing, you know, writing for clients, customers, websites, things like that.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: However, one thing that I noticed about your Chaos to Clarity success journal, which is really awesome, by the way.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: So congrats on the launch of that.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: That's such a great resource.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: One thing that I really noticed about that as I was going through it is that you're taking sort of a counterintuitive approach to success because it's really starting with ourselves and inviting us to look inward before we're then looking outward.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: So, in a sense, we have to write for ourselves before we write for other people.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: How can a journal format like this help leaders to be more successful?
4:55
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, so many great nuggets there that you referenced.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: You know, when you talk about writing for ourselves first, um, you know, I started out my journey as a newspaper reporter.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: Really?
5:07
SPEAKER_01: And yes, yes.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: I was my formal education, my bachelor's degree is a journalism major.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: I started out, I worked, wrote for a daily newspaper in northern Minnesota, and it was kind of cool.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: I wrote lots and lots of stories about other people's lives.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: But what I didn't realize was that the biggest story of all that I was writing was the story of my own life.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: And not with a uh pen and paper or a laptop or a typewriter, but I was writing my story with every thought that went through my mind about who I was, who I was capable of becoming.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: And here's here's the thing, and we were talking a little bit about this before we started the recording, that, you know, when clients come to me or or I'm working with leaders in organizations or business owners, you know, we want, give me the the five-step process to being a better writer, or you know, give me the 10 steps to starting my own successful business.
6:08
SPEAKER_01: And I liken it the whole process to building a house.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: And when you want to build a house, you think, well, I want these this awesome kitchen with granite countertops, and I want a master suite with a whirlpool tub, and because that's why we want the house.
6:25
SPEAKER_01: And you know, we need a kitchen and we need the bedroom for sure.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: But if we don't have a solid foundation, the whole thing comes crashing down.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: And we don't think about that because we're we're excited about you know building the house and the foundation and with regard to what we're talking about is the mindset.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: And that's what this journal is all about from chaos to clarity, and it's you know, getting internal clarity around you know how you need to be thinking about your success, because oftentimes we're not thinking about that internal clarity.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: We're really focused on, you know, that upstairs rooms of the house.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: How does somebody know if they are stuck in chaos?
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Because most of us probably have a view of ourselves that that goes something like this I'm doing okay, I'm I'm getting by, you know, I'm not an axe murderer, so therefore I must be an okay person.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: And hopefully there's no axe murderers listening to this podcast.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't assume so.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: We don't we don't assume so.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: But we all tend to think of ourselves as I'm doing okay, pretty much.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: So what kind of a mindset does someone have when they're stuck in chaos?
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And I'm asking you this question so that we can kind of self-identify that maybe we're not doing so so okay, and maybe our mind is in chaos and we need something that can help pull us out of that.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, great question, Ken.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing: our lives are filled with chaos, and chaos is the biggest thief in our lives.
7:51
SPEAKER_01: And for the reason you you just stated, we may not always recognize it.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: It robs us of our goals, it robs us of our dreams, and it robs us of living the lives we were meant to live.
8:03
SPEAKER_01: And here's how it sneaks in and steals from us it shows up in the form of fears, doubts, limiting beliefs, uh, and and negative stories that we tell ourselves over and over again in our minds.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: That is really powerful because anybody listening to this probably can identify okay, this is a story that I'm telling myself about myself, or maybe even this is a story that someone else has been telling me my whole life.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any examples of people that you've worked with or things that you could share with us in terms of examples of here's a story that is a limiting belief, a story that is chaotic or a story that's bad, and how can we begin to to lift ourselves out of that negative story?
8:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: So here's the thing when when people come to me, usually they're in, they have some form of pain point, and they may be uh miserable in their job.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: So people come to me, they want to start a business, grow a business, they want to change a career path, and they'll say, you know, where I'm at right now, it is sucking the life out of me, sucking the life energy out of me.
9:15
SPEAKER_01: And they'll say, Well, tell me about that.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: Well, my boss is a tyrant.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I don't like the projects I'm working on, I don't like the team I'm working with.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: And I'll say, Well, what do you like about your current situation?
9:29
SPEAKER_01: And that's when people stop dead in their tracks.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking of a particular client right now, and you know, he loves to tell the story.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, he'll he says, Well, Mary Ann, I just told you what I didn't like about my job, and now you're asking me to tell you what I like about it.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: But here's why this is so important.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: What you focus on expands.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: And it's not to say that there are those things that you don't like about your job, it's not to discount the reality, but where do you want to place your focus?
9:58
SPEAKER_01: And if you can start to focus on things that you like about your current situation, more things to like will show up.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the things that I talk about in the Chaos to Clarity Success Journal is writing down three things you're grateful for every day.
10:16
SPEAKER_01: Because we want to start changing those habitual thought patterns of I'm so miserable, I don't like this, I'm so unhappy, and start focusing on things that you're happy about.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: Because what you appreciate, appreciates.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Man, that is so true.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: And that reminds me of in fact, it's one of my favorite quotes of all time.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of our listeners has probably have probably heard of a guy named Earl Nightingale, who once said, Love him.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Become what you think about.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, all of you know, in his program The Strangest Secret, which I think is from the 1950s or something, he talks about how all of the world's and all of history's greatest teachers have basically said the same thing that your thoughts determine your destiny.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: So how does this work in practice?
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's say someone is stuck in a it could be a relationship, it could be a job, it could be a situation where they're miserable, they start to to become more grateful for what they have or the good things in their lives.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: How does that actually manifest itself in a better situation?
11:21
SPEAKER_00: Is it because it changes the heart of that person?
11:24
SPEAKER_00: And then that gets reflected in their their job and their relationships, and other people pick up on that, therefore better things start to come their way.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Is that sort of how that happens?
11:35
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think so, Ken.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I I it's a little bit like I was just talking to my brother over Thanksgiving.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: He grows his own popcorn.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: And I sound fun.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: I know, and it's delicious.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: And I said, his name is Don, but we call him Goose, that's his nickname.
11:49
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Goose, when you plant one little seed, how many ears, how many ears do you get?
11:55
SPEAKER_01: He said, I might get one or two ears on a stalk.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: I said, How many kernels are on an ear?
11:59
SPEAKER_01: He said, three, five hundred.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: I said, from one seed, you might get six hundred to a thousand kernels.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: He said, Yeah.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: I said, How does that happen?
12:10
SPEAKER_01: That's the part you can't explain.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's the miracle.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: That's somebody else's, that's somebody else's job to figure that one out.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: So I can't exactly explain that piece of it, but I do know that there is science um that shows that those results happen.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, the client that I was referring to, he loves to tell this story because when he came to me, he was working as a uh program coordinator in a six-person office, and he started to change his foundation and do do this work.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: And in less than six months, he landed his dream job, he doubled his salary, he eliminated a almost five-hour round trip commute.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: Um, and he would say to me, Marianne, every day I have to pinch myself when I go to work.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: That's just what happened in the first six months.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: That was three years ago, and since then, he also uh received two job promotions.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: The job he's in now, which is two or three jobs later, he loves even more.
13:13
SPEAKER_01: He has essentially tripled his salary in the three years that we've been working together, and he will tell you it's from doing this work.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: That's really amazing.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I love about your journal is that it's very simple.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: And when I say simple, I truly mean that as a compliment because you know, you and I, we're both around a lot of authors in the 48 Days community, and and and we sort of run in the same circles online to a large degree.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: And it's so easy when you're writing something or when you're creating a program or a course or whatever or a speech or a talk, it's so easy to make it more complicated than it needs to be.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: And I was so thrilled when I'm looking through your book, and there's so much white space, there's so many blanks, and that is refreshing to me.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: So I love the fact that you have simplified the process for creating a better mindset, for getting our attitude correct, for getting our heart correct.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: And that's not an easy thing to do.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: So just from like one author to another, you've done a great job putting this together.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: It's such an effective, simple and really great tool just for accomplishing that.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate that.
14:22
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Kent.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: You know, the thing about simple is simple works.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, you know, in anybody who has been on one of these really complex uh weight loss programs where you have to have, you know, the right percentage of cottage cheese with the right vegetables, and then you measure this, and then you weigh that, and then you know, these um organic compounds have to work together, it doesn't last very long.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: Because the more complicated something is, the more we we just don't have the energy.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: And these principles are so simple, and we've heard about them over and over, but you gotta do the work.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: It's simple, but you gotta do the work.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: And if you do, it works.
15:04
SPEAKER_01: And it's not just uh this one particular client, but I've seen this happen client after client after client, and I'm also seeing it in my own life.
15:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I told you I was a journalism major.
15:16
SPEAKER_01: I worked in marketing communications for most of my career.
15:19
SPEAKER_01: And when I start, I I actually have um a history of uh depression since I was 11 years old.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: And I discovered these principles after a lifelong search of relief from the mental emotional pain.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, and what I discovered when I started seriously applying these principles was that not only did my mental health improve significantly, but all aspects of my life transformed.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: Relationships, financial, my I was led to this business, um, which is not, you know, journalism, it's kind of a long, long journey from that.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: But I was led to the work that I love.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, spiritually, uh, relationships, every area of my life transformed.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: And so I figured if these principles work for me, maybe they'd work for other people too.
16:13
SPEAKER_01: And so I started seeing these results over and over with my clients, and then I finally decided to put it in a book.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: So there are people listening to this who probably have a little bit more of a cynical view of life.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: So they're listening to you and they're listening to me as well, and they're saying, okay, that's great, but I don't really believe in those woo-woo, you know, kind of principles that life actually is what you make it, and you can actually change your circumstances.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: What would you say to that person who is really skeptical of all these kinds of things and they're just sort of cynical about life?
16:46
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that you could say that would that would help to shift their thinking and to help them embrace this simple yet really, really effective approach?
16:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't know if I should say this, but the truth is, no, I don't.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if if listen, I'm not in the business of trying to convince people.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'll share my story, I'll share the story of my clients, and you know, then people can make their own decisions.
17:13
SPEAKER_01: But, you know, I I really don't think you can try to convince someone who who thinks a certain way because you're talking about changing your thinking.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, I I I really, I really don't.
17:27
SPEAKER_01: I will say this, you know, if you're open, you know, give it a try because like what do you got to lose?
17:35
SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, and and I asked that question because I think I used to really be in that category of very much kind of a skeptic.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean like a faith skeptic, I mean just a person who is a little bit more cynical, maybe a little more negative, and so forth.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: But the more time that I have spent around people like you and a lot of other the other people that we mutually know, the more that I have learned that wow, you can really make life way too complicated.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: And life really is pretty simple.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And we do have the power to change our thinking and our mindset and our attitude.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't have to be some big complicated thing.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: You can just life is uh life actually is what you make of it.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, um I I mean I I like to re I'll say it again because I I think it's worth repeating.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: What you focus on expands.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: And you know, yeah, I mean, honestly, I'll tell you, when I started um to shift my thinking to more positive, um, and by the way, in the beginning, I can't remember if we were recording or not, but we were talking about uh confidence um and self-esteem.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: And you know, the other trend that I noticed, uh because I I started kind of noticing trends and patterns with my clients in conversations, and and in addition to focusing on what is making people unhappy, the other pattern that I noticed was, you know, people are really good at pointing out the one or two things that they did wrong in a particular day.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: Right.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: Um, I blew up at the kids, I missed a deadline, uh, you know, my my my boss and I got in an argument.
19:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and I say, you know, focus on the hundred things you did right.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: We discount the fact that we did a hundred things right.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, I got the kids out the door on time, I got myself out the door on time.
19:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, and again, when you start to focus on those things uh where you're successful, um, your brain starts to look for way more ways to be successful.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, the other thing is there is science.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, 20 years ago there wasn't quite as much science, but there actually is a lot of brain science today that's that's proving this stuff.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: There's a great book called The Happiness Advantage by a Harvard researcher named Sean Acor.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: And um, he's it's a great book.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: It covers a lot of this kind of um thinking, positive thinking, and happiness.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, and he backs it up with research.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: There's actually a Harvard, a course at Harvard on happiness.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and yeah, so there is a lot of research behind this, I guess, you know, is the one thing I would say to those folks who are a little more skeptical.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: And I I would throw in my two cents as well.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: I have a gratitude practice every day.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: I simply write down three things I'm grateful for.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: I typically do that in my journaling time and when I'm thinking through what I want to accomplish for the day and setting goals and that kind of stuff, and it really does work.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we those of us who are more analytical or more skeptical in nature can question everything.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: And I would suggest to everybody listening, don't question it.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: Just just do it and see how it actually does change your heart.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: It changes your mindset and your attitude and your perspective.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: And just those little simple things can make a huge, huge difference.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you know, can it's really the only thing we have control over.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: What we choose to think.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I had one of I had a client the other day.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: I asked her, you know, what's your biggest aha moment or your biggest takeaway from this experience?
20:58
SPEAKER_01: And she said, realizing that I I have a choice.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, I have a choice in what I think, I have a choice in my own happiness.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, because we we often feel uh like we don't have a choice.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: We feel stuck and we feel like life is happening to us.
21:15
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, but here's the deal what holds us back is not the government, it's not the stock market, is not the lack of opportunity or what family we come from, or um, you know, our our economic status.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: It's the stories that we tell ourselves who we are, you know, what we're capable of achieving, who we're capable of becoming.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: So many people that go through life and and they speak to themselves in a way that they would never ever speak to other people.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, I hate myself.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm such a loser.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm never gonna accomplish this.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Why am I this?
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Why am I that?
21:52
SPEAKER_00: And those man, that language really affects your mentality and your emotions.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: So Yeah, you're you're so right.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and I always I'll say, uh, you know, sometimes it's even more subtle than that.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we do something that, you know, I tell people, celebrate your successes, and they'll say, I don't have any.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: And I'll say, you know, did you eat a healthy breakfast?
22:14
SPEAKER_01: They'll say, Well, yeah, but that's no big deal.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: And I say, What do you do when your child comes home with, you know, a little stick figure that he drew on a piece of paper and he shows you, look what I did.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: Do you say, Oh, that's no big deal?
22:28
SPEAKER_01: It's just a stick figure.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: Is that what you say to your kids?
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: You you celebrate their success and you encourage them and celebrate even the little wins.
22:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: And that impacts what they do next.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into the book a little bit.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh, one question that I wanted to ask you about the book is you have a really unique cover.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: You have a diamond on the cover, which I love.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: It's such a fun cover design.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: Tell us about what's going on with that diamond.
22:57
SPEAKER_01: So the book is from chaos to clarity.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: And I was really trying to think about, you know, what represents clarity.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing about the diamond.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: And I love, I just talked to this a friend of mine, a new friend I met at a business networking event.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: She owns a jewelry store.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, her name is Karen.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know, Karen, I said, tell me if I'm wrong.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: The diamond started its journey as a piece of coal deep, deep down in the earth that persevered under pressure for years, day after day, year after year, persevered under pressure.
23:35
SPEAKER_01: It's the pressure and the heat until one day it emerges as the strongest, most beautiful, brilliant substance on the planet.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: And each one is unique.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, no two diamonds are alike, just like your fingerprint or your DNA.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: And the most valuable diamond of all is that which has great clarity.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, what a perfect metaphor, not just for clarity, but for the human journey that we're all on.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: You know, none of us are strangers to pressure and and proverbial heat in our lives.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: None of us are strangers to um, you know, persevering, going through difficult times.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: We're all unique.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: We all have that brilliant beauty within that needs to come out, that needs to emerge.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: And once we gain clarity around that, that's when we can show up in the world as our true unique selves and share our gifts and step into the work and the businesses and the lives and contributions that we were meant for.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: But it's hard to do that without clarity, isn't it?
24:50
SPEAKER_00: If you don't really know what your purpose is and what you're trying to accomplish, who you are as a person, it's it's really hard to add a lot of value to people because you're you're just stuck in that that mindset of chaos.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, clarity is the path.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: And it really starts, you know, I always say there's two kinds of clarity.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: There's internal, there's, or there's two kinds of chaos.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: There's internal chaos and external chaos.
25:14
SPEAKER_01: And the internal chaos, what we're focusing on here, is again, it's those limiting beliefs, it's the doubts, it's the stories that we tell ourselves.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: And there are lots of tools and strategies to try to reframe those negative thoughts into new empowering beliefs.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Wow, I love that.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, your book is definitely a great tool to do that for sure.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: So we have a lot of writers listening to this podcast.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: Can you talk about the the other side of this book?
25:41
SPEAKER_00: So we've talked a little bit about the content and the purpose of the book.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: What about the book from a business standpoint?
25:46
SPEAKER_00: How has writing a book helped your business?
25:48
SPEAKER_00: How has it helped to expand your audience and reach more people?
25:52
SPEAKER_01: You know, the the book has been really amazing.
25:55
SPEAKER_01: It has far exceeded anything that I ever expected in terms of the impact on my business.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: I really, in fact, you know, I really wasn't even thinking about, you know, podcast interviews like this and a lot of outcomes.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: I wrote it because um I wanted something to give to my clients.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: I was, I mean, literally, I was having conversation after conversation where I would say to my client, my client would say, Oh, I'm so miserable.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: I hate all this and that.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: And I would say, go get a notebook and write down three things you're grateful for.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: Or they would say, you know, I really blew it today, you know, I'm no good.
26:31
SPEAKER_01: And I would say, get a notebook and write down three successes from the day.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: And I finally said, I'm gonna quit telling them to go get a notebook and I'm gonna create one for them.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: So that was the impetus of the book.
26:43
SPEAKER_01: And um I was getting ready to speak.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was a keynote speaker at a conference, a women's business conference, and I said, I'm gonna get this done in time.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: I wanna give this as a gift to everyone at the conference.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: And um, so so I really had uh extra motivation to get the book written, and I did.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: And as soon as I got back from that conference, um, there was a local newspaper article written about the book that I didn't even know was coming out.
27:11
SPEAKER_01: And so I thought, oh wow.
27:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, instantly, without even realizing it, there was a lot of buzz around the book.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: And so I asked our local mayor, I said, would you come speak at my book launch reception?
27:25
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Absolutely, I love your because I had given him a um autograph copy and he said, I love it.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: And I said to myself, okay, I guess I'm gonna have a book launch reception.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
27:35
SPEAKER_01: So I invited him before I even knew I was going to do it.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then it's just been, you know, one thing after the other.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: A lot of doors have opened up.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: And for me, you know, the the greatest thing about it has just been the opportunity to spread this message and spread this word.
27:52
SPEAKER_01: That's that's what's been most powerful for me and I'm really grateful for.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: I think that is a great lesson for anybody who's listening who has not published a book because you had this idea and you were already working with clients, so you had, you know, the book came out of an existing need, and you just took the bull by the horns, and instead of waiting around for 10 years, you just said, I'm gonna make this book.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: And then you did it.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: And it's opened a lot of doors, and things have happened because of the book that would not have happened otherwise.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: So I think that's a wonderful lesson for everybody listening.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Just do it, and you know, you can write more books.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be like the world's most perfect book because so many of us, we just wait around all this time and assuming that someday we'll get to it or someday we'll make this perfect product or whatever, but you just did it and put it out there and look at all the cool things that are happening.
28:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you gotta jump.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: You gotta just, you know, leap and the net will appear, as they say.
28:47
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you referenced 48 Days and the 48 Days community, and I tell you, I'm so grateful to Dan Miller and the entire 48 Days community.
28:56
SPEAKER_01: I've learned so much through that community and from Dan.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, one of the things that I learned is that you can't wait until you feel fully ready.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: You've got to just jump in.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's not like when I started out in marketing, if you were gonna create anything, it was like pretty permanent, you know, and and you really worried about the content.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: But now, I mean, you update your website, you can update versions of the book pretty easily.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, you just just go for it.
29:28
SPEAKER_01: It's not like you're chiseling out the Ten Commandments and stones of tablet.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is permanent, really.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can always change it and adjust it and update it, which is cool.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, as we start to wind this down, let me uh ask a couple of final things here.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: One is uh before I hit record on this, you mentioned that you have a resource for our listeners that they can download.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us more about that?
29:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, if you want something right away, um, you don't want to wait for Amazon to deliver your book, go ahead and go to my website.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: I have a limiting belief worksheet.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, and what this does is it helps walk you identify because lots of times people aren't even sure of their what their limiting beliefs are.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: So it helps you identify what those limiting beliefs are, it helps you reframe them into new empowering beliefs, and it helps you change those habits.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: So you can go to Marianne Renner.com slash belief and you can download that right now, get a copy of that and start working on that immediately.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to encourage everybody to do that, and I will have a link to that in the show notes because your book is so good, and I'm also gonna have, of course, a link to your book and your website and all that all that stuff, because it's just a great tool for changing your mindset, it's a great resour resource, and I so appreciate the fact that you took initiative and you took action and you made something.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that in itself is a huge accomplishment, so congrats.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, anybody who's thinking about writing, I encourage you, if it's your book, if you're looking to get into a business to do some writing for someone else, just get out there and and just start doing it.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you're working on your foundation while you're work building the upper rooms of your house.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: How can our listeners connect with you on social media, website, uh anything of that nature?
31:17
SPEAKER_01: You can find me on Facebook, and I've got a private Facebook group.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: And if you're interested in doing this kind of work, you are welcome into the group.
31:25
SPEAKER_01: It's called Move from Chaos to Clarity.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: And we'd love to have you every day.
31:31
SPEAKER_01: People are in there and we're supporting each other, encouraging each other.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're helping each other grow their our businesses and find more clarity in every area of our lives.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: So you can find me there.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, or my my web uh Facebook page is uh Marianne uh Renner Life Coaching.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: You can find me on Facebook as well.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: I'll have links to all that in the show notes.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Marion, this has been a blast.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad that we've had the opportunity to connect here on the podcast.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: And um, I just appreciate how you're such a positive, inspirational, and encouraging person.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: The world needs about 10,000 more people just like you.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: So I really appreciate that.
32:09
SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you so much, Ken.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: And you know, good luck.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: I just wish all of your listeners so much happiness and so much success and abundance.
32:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh, all of the all of the happiness and abundance in the whole world to everyone.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks so much for doing this.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: We really appreciate it.
32:25
SPEAKER_01: Oh, my pleasure.
32:26
SPEAKER_01: It's been so much fun.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Mary Ann.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: If you've listened to this podcast for any length of time or any previous interviews, you know that I always like to end our interviews with three takeaways.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: Well, these are my three biggest takeaways from my conversation with Mary Ann.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: Number one is the power of creating your own book.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: You're going to hear me talk a lot about this on the podcast, which is the importance of writing your own books and creating your own content.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: And Marianne talks about the power this has had for her business.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, there are a lot of tools for creating your book today.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: There's amazing opportunities for authors and entrepreneurs to get your content out there for people who need to hear it.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you haven't thought about it before, this is the year to finally get that book moving.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: It's 2020, and by December the 31st, 2020, I would love to see you have a book out there into the hands of people who really need to hear your message.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: So make that a goal this year.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: There's really very few goals that you could have as an author that could be more important than writing a book.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: So get on it, get busy, make it happen.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: Number two is the importance of clarity in your business and life.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: I am so thankful that Marion sat down and wrote a guide for us to help give us clarity in our businesses and lives.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, whenever you don't know where you're going in life, life is way more complicated and frustrating.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be honest, I spent most of the last couple of years searching for clarity, going from this project to the next project, and not really sure of what my goals were.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: But once I got clarity about what I wanted and what my real skills and talents were and how I could best serve clients, then things started to radically change for me and my clarity in life.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to reiterate what this whole episode's been about, which is the importance of getting clarity in your life and business.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Then finally, number three is the value of journaling.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: Mary Ann's book, Chaos to Clarity, is designed to take you through a process where you're answering questions and just doing some thinking and processing through things.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: And that's a really valuable habit to get into.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: Whether you use her book or whether you just grab a regular blank journal, whatever process you decide to go through, I encourage you to do some self-reflection several times a week.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: I personally do this.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: I use a process called Morning Pages that uh an author named Julia Cameron wrote about extensively in her really phenomenal book called The Artist's Way.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: It's where I simply sit down and I write three longhand pages in my journal several times a week.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: And I've got to tell you, that process has really been, and I know it sounds like I'm exaggerating when I say this, but it has been radically transformational for my life.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: I find that almost without fail, when I do that, when I get to pages two or three of doing that, I get some kind of insight about something that is really, really key and important.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: And I just find that the habit of sitting down longhand and writing that out, even though my handwriting is horrible, doing that long hand and taking the time to do that about 15 minutes or 20 minutes or so, that has a radical effect on my day and on my mindset and on my attitude.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: So I'm so glad that Marion has created a resource where we can sit down and just think about things.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: And again, whether you use her book or something else, I just want you to do it.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: So I I just really want to reiterate the value of journaling.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, a few episodes from now, I'm going to do a whole episode just on the value of journaling and why it's beneficial and how to get started.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, those are my thoughts, but I would love to hear what you think about this episode.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: You can do that a couple different ways.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: First of all, you can head over to KentSanders.net slash one two one and you can leave a comment on this episode, and that's also where you'll find the show notes and links for this episode.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: Also, you can head over to Apple Podcast and leave a rating and a review for the show.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: I always appreciate those, and those help the show to get discovered and help those who need the show and who would benefit from the show to discover it as well.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: I want to give a massive thank you to Marianne Renner for taking the time out of her busy schedule to be a guest on the show.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you check out her worksheet that'll help you create new, empowering beliefs, and you can find that at Marianne Renner.com slash belief.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: Here's a preview of what's coming up in the next few episodes.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: In episodes 122 and 123 that'll come out next week, I'm going to be talking about seven business writing trends for 2020.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: These are surprising trends that you need to know about if you're going to be writing in business.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: Then the next Friday on episode 124, I'll be doing an interview with Dr.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: Wayne Purnell about his excellent book called The Significance Factor.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, guys, thank you so much for listening.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you taking time out to check out this interview and to support the show.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.