Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / Overcoming Imposter Syndrome and Finding Your Purpose with Lasada Pippen

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Overcoming Imposter Syndrome and Finding Your Purpose with Lasada Pippen · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

0:00
Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
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Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs.
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I'm your host and the founder and CEO of Mylance.
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Today, I'm joined by Lasada Hippen, a former engineer turned
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keynote motivational speaker and business coach.
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He helps entrepreneurs avoid the six core failure points that
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cause most small businesses to struggle.
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He's in Atlanta with his wife and two kids.
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Lasada, welcome to the show. Absolutely, Bradley, thank you
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for having me. Excited to be here man.
0:32
Awesome. Excited to have you.
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So give us a little bit more context than what I already
0:36
shared of where were you? Where did you come from?
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How did you get to where you are today?
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Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question.
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Most of the time when people here former engineer, computers,
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tech, all that kind of stuff, they wonder how in the world did
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you go from that to keynote and motivational speaking and always
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tell people it was, it was actually an interesting journey
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for me. So I, I did computer engineering
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for a little bit over a decade actually.
1:02
And I didn't leave engineering and technology because I had a
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bad ball suddenly, because it was a bad job, I didn't leave
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because it was bad pay. The one thing that drove me to
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leap into keynote speaking and coaching was one word, which is
1:17
purpose. I I left for purpose.
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That was something I always tugging at me while I was in
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corporate America and I just couldn't shake it.
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And so it got to a point to where I couldn't juggle doing
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both anymore. So I needed to make a decision
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and I said, you know what I want to go after what I believe is my
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purpose and what I believe I'm sort of called to do per SE.
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And so I went at it full time and and have a look bad, but
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it's been an interesting and a fun journey for sure.
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One thing that I hear from so many people, especially ones
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that, you know, when they're in that corporate world and then
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they want to go out on their own and especially speakers and
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authors and you know, big, big time coaches.
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There's that imposter thought, the imposter syndrome of, you
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know, do I have what it takes and am I really going to impact
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people? It holds a lot of people back.
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And I'm curious to what extent you've navigated that, dealt
2:12
with that. How have you overcome that?
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Did was it there for you? Yeah, absolutely.
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Yeah, it was, it was definitely there for sure.
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And this is sort of where I have to credit my wife.
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She was the one who was pushing more than I was.
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And I remember feeling one day I was like, man, I, I, I feel like
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a total loser that somebody else is pushing me towards my dream
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versus me clawing and fighting towards my dream.
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And so I, I remember having that feeling one day.
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And I remember she just stopped helping me one day, literally.
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And we laugh about it now because she would tell me that,
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hey, I stopped because I, I didn't see the passion, I didn't
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see the fire, I didn't see the fight.
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And I felt like I was being too pushy and pushing you more to do
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it than you were wanting to do it yourself.
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And when I look back over there, Bradley, I, I just realized that
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it was, it was actually fear. It was fear, it was imposter.
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It was, why would anyone listen to me?
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What value do I bring? What do I have to offer?
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It was all of those things playing in your mind and your
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thoughts and they, they literally keep you on the
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sideline. And I had to navigate that.
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And I leaned on my wife heavily and told her, I said, hey, give
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me the keys back. I'll take the keys and I'll
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start driving from here. And yeah, I had to navigate that
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mentally, internally, build up confidence, self esteem, a lot
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of kind of stuff and, and just believe in the process.
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Believe that you are actually valuable and that you have
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something to offer, you know? So I'm curious about this
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because it sounds like she was pushing you and that kind of
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made you feel insecure, right? Of like, I need this external
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force, but then you're like, OK, or she just stopped.
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And then did that give you then permission to ask for support in
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the way that you wanted it? Like how did that go?
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Well, it it, it, it was more so that when she stopped, I
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realized that nothing was going to transpire.
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Nothing was going to happen. I realized that she was pulling
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all of the weight. And I kind of had an epiphany
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with myself when I kind of sat down, I was like, why is she
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pulling all of the weight for what I want to do?
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You know, this, this is this is one of my dreams.
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This is one of my goals. And why is she pulling all of
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the weight? And so when she stopped, it kind
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of shined the light on me and was like, dude, you're just
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sitting on the sideline, dude. You've been a total loser, dude.
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Like if nobody's pushing or cheering you on or encourage you
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to do it, what are you just not going to go after it?
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And so that was kind of the lightbulb moment for me was when
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I realized that she stopped. I, I didn't want to carry the
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feeling of someone having to push me to do something that I
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wanted to do anyway. It, it didn't feel right.
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It just, it just felt so weird having somebody to push you to
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do something that you want to do that you hoped for and, you
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know, would think about a Daydream about all day.
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And, you know, you got these opportunities in front of you
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and it's like, yo, you're not even taking advantage of the
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opportunities. And so, yeah, that that was the
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feeling was was that you don't want it as bad as you say you
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do. Until she got out of the way.
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That's when I was able to realize that it's like, oh, I'm
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the problem, not her. It's me.
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Yeah. I.
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Mean she was a mirror for you, right?
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She was, yeah, she was, yeah, Yep, she was a mirror.
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She she turned the the mirror around to me, not even knowing
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that's what she did. But that's exactly what
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happened. And so when I saw it, I was
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like, man, I didn't like the picture.
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I didn't like the picture that I saw in the mirror and I didn't
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like the picture that would be produced in the future.
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And so I was like, man, got to get on it.
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Got to do better than this. So yeah.
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So you were shown that fear was holding you back.
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And then you're like, OK, like we got to change something here.
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When that mirror was kind of after, you know, after you got
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that glimpse in yourself, how did you overcome the fear?
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Because it's still there, right? It's not like it went away.
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You just became aware of it, which is the first step to
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overcoming anything. But then what did you do to
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actually take that next step and do it anyway despite?
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The yeah, absolutely. You know, I, I don't know where
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I learned this from, but, but I heard this thought one day.
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And I wish I could credit the person where I heard this.
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And the, the thought was simply this is that you can have fear,
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but you can't have doubt. And so I was like, Oh my gosh.
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I was like, man, this is a, a light bulb moment for me.
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So what I realized is that it is OK that fear can also coexist
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with your force, with your passion, with your purpose.
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Fear can coexist with this thing.
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And I realized that if I sat around and waited for fear to go
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away, I would never make a move. So I had to do it with fear.
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I had to lean in that you know what, fear is just going to be
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on the passenger side. And we'll figure it out as we go
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along. And it eventually subsides
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because you eventually build self esteem, you eventually
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build confidence and you eventually realize, you know,
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like, oh wow, I do have work, I do have value and so forth.
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And literally for me, it was just taking a leap of faith,
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like just jumping. I was like, you know what, Hey,
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man, I just, I just got to do it.
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So I put in a two week notice one day and I said, hey, no
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going back. I burned, I burned, I burned all
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the bridges, I burned all the boats.
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There was no way back. And so, but I did it with fear
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coexisting with me. It's not that it left so, and
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there are even some sometimes now that even, you know, there
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are moments to where I have fear.
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You know, if I'm stepping on a huge stage and you know, it's a
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totally new audience, sometimes there is fear there.
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But I realized that, you know what, I've been doing it with
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fear this long. It's it's no different now.
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And I convert that fear into excitement and go forth and
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Rock. You know what I mean?
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How do you convert that fear into excitement?
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Well, because I realized that it's an opportunity.
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I'm like, hey, what, Why are you fearful of an opportunity?
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This is a great opportunity. You know, this is something
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you've always dreamed of. You've always imagined you're,
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you're built for this moment. You're ready for this moment.
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And so take advantage of the opportunity instead of being
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afraid of the obstacle that is there.
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And so you turn that around and that becomes excitement when you
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look at it from the lens of an opportunity versus, hey, this is
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an obstacle that I have to navigate or hurdle.
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So you just look at it through a different lens pretty much.
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Yeah, I, I love noting that you're that fear doesn't go
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away, right? You do it despite the fear.
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And that's actually what courage is.
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Yeah, right. Courage is doing it anyway.
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When you have the fear and saying I hear you, fear, I got
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you and we're going to do this anyway.
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And that's what true courage is. And I think every single
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business owner has navigated that.
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There's no way unless you're literally like, just don't have
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that. I mean, everyone does.
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You just absolutely have to like you're putting yourself out
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there. There's some fear of rejection,
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of judgment, of criticism of all the things, and the only way to
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navigate it is to do it anyway. I mean, I know I faced it myself
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over and over and over again. Yeah, no, totally.
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You're, you're absolutely right. And, you know, I think honestly,
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when, when you sit down and think, and I, I would think a
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lot of leaders, CEOSCEOSI would think a lot of them probably go
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through this thought process is that when, when you sit down and
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you actually think what's in front of you, you start, you
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start to question yourself. At least for me, me, I did.
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I had so many questions about myself.
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I didn't have the background of, you know, motivational speakers.
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I didn't have past business owners.
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I didn't come from that. So I didn't have a blueprint per
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SE to look at to observe and say, oh, this is how you do
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that. I had nothing to really lean on.
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It was literally, you know, having to dig in and having this
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unwavering belief in yourself and what you bring and accepting
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your uniqueness, which is another thing that that you go
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through is that you compare yourself to other people.
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Like, oh man, this person is so good.
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That person is, you know, killing it and crushing it and
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so forth. And you start to compare
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yourself to this other person, But you got to embrace your own
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uniqueness and and go through it that way.
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Yeah, I love that concept because how many other, you
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know, we have lots of fractional CMOS, for example, that listen
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to this, that are in our community and they're like,
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damn, I'm just another fractional CMO out there.
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There's millions of us. And I'm like, yes, and you are
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the only one with your unique set of experiences and skills.
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The. Only one, right?
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And when you embrace that and use it as your differentiating
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factor, it doesn't matter how many other fractional CMOS are
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out there. But if you just think of
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yourself as one of you are the million, you know, everyone's
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the same, then you take that mindset forward and yeah, it's
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going to be impossible to differentiate yourself with that
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mindset. Yeah, absolutely.
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You, you know what? I had to find Bradley.
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I had to find the smallest thing that differentiate me as a
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speaker, as a coach. I had to find the smallest thing
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because you're right. As CMO's experience, it's the
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same thing. In the speaker world, you feel
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like there are so many speakers, there's so many experts, there's
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so many people who's going after this path or who's in your pool
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per SE. And you know, I was like, you
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know what, no, I'm, I'm not in the pool.
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You know, even though there's a lot of people in the water, it
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doesn't mean that I'm in the same pool.
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And you know, so I had to find the smallest thing that makes me
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different. You know, there's some people
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can say the exact same thing, but it can sound totally
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different. Yeah.
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And that one factor can be what makes you different.
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Oh, I like the way Lasada says it or Bradley says it this way.
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I want Bradley for this, you know, because Bradley says it
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this way, even though it's the same message.
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But there's something different. There's something unique about
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you that you got to lean into. Yeah, absolutely.
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What was that thing? Like what you said, you had to
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find the smallest thing that was different, that made you
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different as a speaker. What was that thing?
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Yeah, for me it was energy. It was, you know, I, I would get
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so many people afterwards like, Oh my God, I just love your
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energy. Like, wow, your your energy is
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amazing. Wow, you have such dynamic
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energy. And you know, I, I realized
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like, hey, I, I might not say the the best things or I might
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not say the most wisest mind blowing things, but I always
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come with something novel and my energy always say this, it's
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unmatched. My energy is unmatched.
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And so I realized like, oh, that's that's what makes LASADA
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LP is is that energy right there?
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Nobody can produce the energy like I do.
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Yeah, they can be dynamic and all this kind of stuff, but it's
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going to be different than Lasada's energy.
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I mean, what a cool example because it's not necessarily the
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most tangible thing in the world, right?
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It's not like you had this experience that made you be able
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to talk. Like I think everyone may think
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about what needs to be different.
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They're they're thinking this like big experience, their skill
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they have or whatever. And it's like, or I had to work
13:10
for Elon Musk for whatever. It's like.
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No, it could be energy. It could be just how things
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land. It could be your vulnerability.
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There's that means an infinite list of things that could be
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different. That, that, that's right.
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And they think of it like in a, in a simple football analogy, I,
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I love sports, right? So yeah, I, I grew up running
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track and playing basketball, but I, I love watching football
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and so forth. So if we just use a simple
13:30
sports analogy, right, 32 NFL teams, there are 32 NFL
13:35
quarterbacks, right? We can say that Tom Brady was
13:38
the greatest quarterback to ever play football, right?
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Tom Brady was slow. Tom Brady could barely move.
13:45
You know, it's not like he had a cannon of an arm like a like a
13:48
Brett Favre or a Dan Marino or something like that.
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So but why was he the greatest is because he found what made
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him unique. He found that it was between the
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ears for him at the line of scrimmage.
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This is what makes me great. This is I can process faster
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than anybody else. You know, maybe all the
14:04
quarterbacks, they're great also.
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You know, they got a cannon of oil.
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They can scramble, they can move around, they can run a four, 340
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or whatever it is, but they don't process the way that I do.
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And so if you find that, if you find that thing that makes you
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unique, that makes you different, that is game
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changing, man, that that is game changing in any market, any
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field that you're in, if you find what is your uniqueness?
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And somebody else in Tom Brady shoes who gets picked what, in
14:28
the seventh round of the draft, right, will be down on himself
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and like, shit, I don't know if I'm going to make it or
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whatever, you know? And he was the opposite.
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He's like, I'm going to prove all you guys wrong.
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That's right. That's right.
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I love that man. Yeah, that underdog mentality,
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right? Yeah, 'cause and, and honestly,
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I think everybody probably feels like an underdog going into the
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business world as a solo you. You probably feel like the odds
14:55
are stacked against me to win. And frankly, I think they are
14:59
right. Like the odds show, most
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businesses don't make it past 2345 years.
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That's right. Yep, they fail.
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They fail and I think honestly, the only failure is giving up.
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Like I'm a, I'm a big believer in that.
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Like you have not failed unless you've literally just given up
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and gone back to whatever you're doing.
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But the odds are kind of stacked against you because of it's
15:21
challenging it Like all of these things that we're talking about
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and I love, I love that we're hitting on the softer side of of
15:28
the business world and the emotional side and the imposter
15:31
thoughts that come along with it, differentiating yourself And
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right, there's all the tactical stuff.
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We talk about that a lot on this podcast because people love
15:37
that. But it's we don't really talk as
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much about what is the experience emotionally like to
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put yourself out there amongst the see millions of people that
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are trying to do it too and finding your world that's
15:50
successful. That's absolutely right.
15:52
Yeah. I, I want to give you 2 lines,
15:54
Bradley, that have been powerful me, one that I created on my
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own. And then 2 was by somebody very
16:03
famous, very popular, Albert Einstein, right?
16:06
He was asked one day, you know, hey, would you consider yourself
16:10
the smartest person in the world?
16:12
And we all believe that Albert Einstein, you know, super smart
16:15
guy, you know, we believe that he's a genius and so forth,
16:17
right? But his words were astounding
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for me. His words were were simply this.
16:22
He said, it's not that I'm the smartest person in the world.
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He said, I just simply stick with the problems longer.
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I was like, Oh my gosh, I was like, that is mind blowing.
16:33
So he himself even experienced like, no, I'm I'm not the
16:36
smartest person in the world. No, I'm not a super genius.
16:40
But because I stick it out longer, it means that I will
16:44
probably succeed more than most because a lot of people will
16:49
quit. A lot of people will stop.
16:50
Like, just like you just said, that's the only failure is if
16:52
you quit, if you give up. And so he when he said that I
16:56
was like, man, that's, that is mind blowing.
16:58
That's absolutely amazing. If you just stick it out, you
17:00
can actually make it, you'll eventually make it.
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And the other line was just simply this is I, I realized
17:07
that you you don't have to be the best in order to give your
17:09
best. You do not have to be the best
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to give your best. You can give your best every
17:13
single day. Yeah, I love it.
17:16
I love it. I also had a guest on the pod
17:18
and we were talking about essentially failing or we're
17:22
really getting the no getting rejection right.
17:24
And that's just part of going out on your own that I think
17:26
most W twos you don't really experience much rejection in a,
17:30
you know, 9 to 5 corporate job. That's right, yeah.
17:33
Right. And, and we're talking about if,
17:36
if you knew your big break or the money or whatever it is was
17:40
on the other side of 1000 Nos, how quickly would you get those
17:45
thousand Nos? You'll probably just keep going,
17:49
right? You're you're probably trying to
17:52
blaze through it. Exactly.
17:54
You're like, give me a note, give me a note, give me a note.
17:55
Like, bring it right. Like, let's go.
17:59
Yeah. And I think what we're basically
18:01
saying, like Einstein, or I mean, they talk about this
18:03
Edison too. It's a light bulb, right?
18:04
It was like, how many times did he get it wrong and get it wrong
18:08
and get it wrong and get it wrong?
18:09
And I think 99.999% of people would have given up.
18:12
That's right, That's right. You know what's, you know what's
18:15
funny is that have you ever heard of Quitters Day?
18:20
Yeah. OK.
18:22
So interesting. There's a dedicated day just for
18:25
quitters and it's the third Friday of January every year.
18:33
I think next year is going to be January 9th or or something like
18:36
that, but it's the third Friday of every January every year.
18:40
It's called Quitters Day and I, I think, I think that is so
18:43
amazing that they have dedicated a day just for the people that
18:47
quit called Quitter Day. I'm guessing it's a New Year's
18:51
resolution thing for people that settle these big goals.
18:53
And then like two or three weeks in, they're like, yeah, I'm,
18:55
I'm, I've done with this, like. Yeah, they, they, they tie it
18:59
into that, you know, but I, I, I think it's beyond that a little
19:02
bit, you know, I think Quitters Day is beyond just January, you
19:05
know, is it, it could have been anybody.
19:07
It could have been Thomas Edison, just like you mentioned.
19:09
He could have experienced A quitter's day and never made
19:12
that, that light bulb. Think about Vick's Formula 666.
19:18
People always wonder what, what did they get this number from?
19:20
Well, it took 666 times for them to get a formula correct.
19:25
And now they're Vick's Formula 666, you know, so 665 times ago,
19:32
I'm sure there were so many times, so many opportunities, so
19:34
many desires even to want to quit.
19:38
But they, they persevered and they, they hung in there.
19:41
They stayed with it. Yeah.
19:42
I mean, I experienced it myself. I, I've been wanting to start a
19:45
business since I was pretty much in high school.
19:47
And I would, you know, spin up these websites and get a problem
19:50
I was excited about. And every single time, whether
19:53
it was like a few weeks or a few months in, I would stop like I
19:57
would, I would run into my first big hurdle in the business.
20:00
And I just didn't persevere through that.
20:02
And I would stop and I would stop and I would stop.
20:04
So it was probably 12/13/14 times I got all excited about a
20:08
business idea, of course, bought a domains fun of a website, all
20:11
the things you like, don't really need.
20:12
And then I would stop. And when I started my Lance in
20:15
2020, I just told myself I'm not stopping.
20:19
Like I don't care what it takes. I'm doing it like I will just,
20:23
and five years later, here we are.
20:25
Like I just committed to myself, no one else.
20:28
Like I am freaking doing this thing and no one's stopping me
20:32
and nothing's stopping me. And it'll take different, it'll
20:34
take different paths and that's OK.
20:36
I don't care, but I'm just not stopping.
20:39
Yep, Yep. I love that.
20:41
Did you ever, did you ever identify what were the blocks or
20:45
what, what was the thing that kept making you stop?
20:48
Did you ever identify that when you launched My Land?
20:51
I honestly haven't really spent time thinking about it.
20:54
It just off the cuff with you. I think it's most likely the
20:57
same thing that you were talking about early on.
20:59
It's just fear. It's like fear that I don't know
21:02
what the hell I'm doing. Fear of looking stupid, fear of
21:06
failing. I had always been successful in
21:09
my life and just whether it's like good grades in school or
21:11
getting the job I wanted or getting promoted, whatever.
21:14
And there's just nothing like going out on your own and
21:17
putting your own name in front of it with no branding behind
21:21
you, no one else behind you. And just like having it be me.
21:24
So yeah, I think I was just scared.
21:26
And I would use the hurdle as the excuse of all I just like, I
21:30
can't get through that. But I think it was mostly fear,
21:34
yeah. Yeah, and that you know what?
21:36
That's interesting how fear it doesn't matter where it stems
21:40
from. Like it's, it's still the same
21:43
fear. Like what I just heard you say
21:45
is that you, you were successful most of your life, you know,
21:49
from good grades again, promotions and so forth.
21:51
Whereas my mom was the opposite actually, you know, I, I didn't
21:55
have that, that type of background.
21:58
I, I had to overcome the things to actually make it happen.
22:03
But it's the same fear, though. It's so it doesn't matter where
22:06
it stems from, you know what I mean?
22:08
And what's interesting in your story, and I'm curious to hear
22:10
to what extent this resonates or not for, for you, you, it sounds
22:15
like you really had to earn every single thing that you got
22:18
along the way, right? And so you, you built the muscle
22:22
of I'm going to go after, no, nothing's handed to me, right?
22:26
Because in business, nothing's handed to you, right?
22:28
So you start building that muscle and then there's still
22:30
fear, right? But for me, I actually had a
22:32
decent amount handed to me and I actually had my identity tied to
22:36
my success. And so the fear for me was if I
22:41
quote, UN quote, fail, get rejected, get told I'm stupid,
22:45
that actually feels like it's my identity and who I am versus
22:50
this is my business separate from me.
22:53
And so that was that felt terrifying at the thought of
22:58
quote UN quote failing because it felt like me, I am a failure
23:03
versus the business is not working out and I am separate
23:07
from that. And that feels absolutely
23:10
terrifying when that's the case. And that's a big thing I've
23:14
worked through over the years to separate myself from the
23:17
business. Yeah.
23:18
And that's powerful. Is that, And I think I knew this
23:23
part early, is that who I am and what I do are, are, are two
23:28
different things? Yeah.
23:30
They're, they're, they're not the same thing.
23:32
Is, is what I do and who I am. They, they operate in two
23:36
different lanes. A lot of times what we do is we,
23:38
we blend them together and we do tie our identities to what we do
23:44
and to whether we are successful or failure.
23:46
And we take it personal. We, we bring that upon
23:49
ourselves, you know, instead of separating and segregating that
23:53
out. Yeah, someone asked me.
23:55
It was pretty recently. They asked me like they're like,
23:57
what do you do, Bradley? And you're right, just an
23:59
open-ended question. And I was like, well, I like to
24:01
play sports and I go to the gym and I like to cook and I like, I
24:04
like play with my dog and I like all these activity and like the
24:07
salsa dance. And they're like they kind of
24:09
gave me this funny look. And I'm like, I know what you're
24:11
asking me, but like, I am not my business, you know, like I have
24:16
other shit that I do and I'm going to tell you about you.
24:19
I just thought it was funny like.
24:21
Absolutely. Yeah, Yeah.
24:24
Alright, so tell I'm gonna bring us back to you were this
24:28
engineer you, you know, you said you gave your two weeks and
24:30
you're just like no back doors, right?
24:32
Like I'm doing this thing. Yeah.
24:35
What did the next few months look like for you to figure out
24:39
who you serve, Get your first clients?
24:41
Like, get some money coming in the door?
24:43
Like, that's the most terrifying part for so many people.
24:46
Like what's your story? Yeah, it looked like hell.
24:50
If, if, if I could describe hell, That's what it looked like
24:53
for me. I was, I mean, I was so scared,
24:56
man. I was.
24:57
The thing is, so the, the way that I, when I made the leap, I
25:02
had some stuff lined up in the pipeline, right?
25:05
So that gave me the courage and the confident was like, oh, if,
25:09
if I can have stuff lined up like this, then that means it
25:13
will continue. It would just continue to be
25:15
lined up right. That was so not true.
25:17
I had a great month. I had one month that that that I
25:21
made my decision on because I had a beautiful month lined up
25:24
in front of me. And so I said, you know what?
25:25
That's, that's a pretty killer month right there.
25:27
I said, yeah, let me get my two week notice and I'm out after
25:30
that, Brad, man, I probably didn't get another event or
25:35
another booking until about four months after that.
25:38
And so it literally was like, I jumped, I lead, it's going well.
25:42
It's going to continue this way. But then it just flat lined.
25:46
It's just like it took a hard dip and I was so scared, man.
25:51
There was so many times to where I even this is how scared I was
25:55
is that I applied for contract jobs.
26:01
So I was trying to go back. I was trying to get back in
26:04
corporate. I was trying to swim my way back
26:07
to shore. I'm out in the middle of this
26:09
ocean. It's like, oh, it's, it's not as
26:12
easy as I thought it was going to be.
26:13
And so I'm trying to swim by the shore.
26:15
I mean, there was even jobs that I took.
26:19
I took this job one time and I only lasted 2 weeks because I
26:23
remember telling the guy, I said, man, hey man, I, I need to
26:26
apologize for you for, for taking this job.
26:28
I actually took somebody else's place.
26:31
I took somebody else's spot. I said, I don't have it anymore.
26:35
I said, I'm not going to be the best fit.
26:38
And I said, so I apologize for wasting your time and taking an
26:41
opportunity for somebody else who probably would have
26:43
appreciated this opportunity more.
26:46
But I was so scared that I didn't know what to do because I
26:49
couldn't see, OK, how am I going to, how am I going to get
26:52
booked? How am I going to, you know,
26:54
keep the calendar full and so forth.
26:56
And so I was so scared, man. And then it started to pick up
26:59
again. And so there was a lot of ups
27:02
and downs, a lot of mountains, a lot of valleys and so forth.
27:05
And you just got to navigate and weather those storms.
27:08
Like literally, I know, I know, we've probably heard that
27:10
before, but you, you literally got to wait the storm out, it'll
27:13
pass and then get back out there and get up, get on the grind.
27:16
And so I went through that for probably good solid 18 months
27:21
when I first jumped out there of just just up and down feeling
27:24
just as just roller coaster ride.
27:25
It's like, Oh my gosh, Nope, I don't want to do it no more.
27:27
I want to quit. And so, you know, but I
27:31
outlasted it. So I have more endurance then my
27:34
obstacles need. So that's that's, that's how we
27:37
got to fix it. Yeah, and just goes immediately
27:40
back to what we were just talking about, right of like,
27:42
you just got to outlast it and just keep going and going and
27:44
going. And doesn't mean you don't get
27:46
terrified along the way and even take AW two job and then you're
27:50
like, actually, this wasn't right.
27:52
This was my fear doing the talking and I don't, I don't
27:54
want this right. Yep.
27:56
And, and my fear won the conversation that day big time.
27:59
I applied and I was like, yes, I'll do it.
28:02
I'm be a committed engineer, so forth or whatever.
28:05
I got in there, man. I realized I was like, man, just
28:07
it's not me I can't do, I can't make a decision out of fear like
28:10
this. And so, yeah, yeah, I had to
28:12
back out. Love it.
28:15
Cool. So what in the, IT sounds like
28:17
you had those moments and obviously you're here now, so
28:20
you figured out the method. You figured out a way to get
28:23
clients to get speaking engagements, to pay the bills,
28:26
to like bring money in the door. From a marketing, business
28:29
development perspective, maybe especially in the first like 2
28:32
to three years where you started to see that ramp up, you started
28:34
to see some success. What were the most effective
28:37
business development marketing efforts that got you clients,
28:40
Speaking engagements, all the things.
28:42
Yeah, so I, I, I did a ton of things.
28:46
Brought Bradley honestly, I I did, I did snail mail, I did
28:49
cold e-mail outreach. I did LinkedIn.
28:53
I did videos to where I would just, you know, personalize
28:57
videos to people. I went door to door.
29:00
I, I did the whole driving in my car, go to this building, go in
29:04
there, talk to somebody. I did everything literally.
29:07
But what I found to be the most effective is the performance
29:12
itself. And I realized that the
29:15
performance itself has no competitors almost.
29:18
And, and what, what I mean by that.
29:19
So if, if, if I'm giving a speech, if I'm on stage, there's
29:21
usually a decision maker in the audience, There's somebody
29:25
there. And if there, if there's not a
29:26
direct decision maker there, then there's somebody who's
29:29
close to a decision maker. And so if you go and if you are
29:34
great at what you do, not average, but if you are great at
29:38
what you do, that will begin to create so much noise that you
29:42
won't have to hunt anymore. So I went from hunter to hunted.
29:50
That was kind of the the transition for me.
29:52
That's what worked the best. If I deliver dynamically, if I
29:56
give great value, if I feed the audience very well, if I do
30:01
that, then I will have people come up to me.
30:04
Hey, you know, we run company, it's over here.
30:07
You know, we would love to have something like this at our
30:09
company. Hey, I'm going to connect you
30:11
with the CEO or the the HR director or so forth and we can
30:17
talk about how how we can bring you in.
30:18
That has worked wonders for me. It's about simply crushing in
30:24
your job, in your field, in your role, being as great as you can
30:28
possibly be, and people will talk about you.
30:32
Yeah, no, amazing. I love that.
30:33
And it kind of taught a lot of the people that come on the show
30:35
are coaches or consultants and they they say basically the same
30:38
thing a lot of the times, like be amazing with your clients and
30:42
you will never be and your books will never be empty.
30:45
Right. It's yeah.
30:46
How it goes from a marketing perspective of putting yourself
30:50
out there, right? You mentioned a bunch of things.
30:52
Which one of those was effective at at least getting your foot in
30:56
the door with so that you could then put on a great performance
31:00
and get referrals and get word of mouth from there?
31:02
Yeah, totally. The door to door, actually going
31:06
in the buildings. You know, I, I, I will walk in
31:09
schools, I will walk in Superintendent offices, I will
31:12
walk in corporate offices. I would just walk in the door
31:15
and when I first started, that was the only method that I knew.
31:20
I didn't know anything else. So I leaned into what I knew and
31:23
I leaned into it heavily. And so I will walk into the
31:26
door. And then another thing again, I,
31:28
I don't know how, how people feel about this, but I was
31:32
willing to give something away for free just for the
31:35
opportunity so that I could be recognized, so that I could be
31:40
acknowledged or seen. And I believe that I was good
31:44
enough to where, Hey, if you just see me, if you just give me
31:47
an opportunity, then I believe that we can make it and build it
31:52
from there. But going in the door, you know,
31:55
it's, it's, it's really old school is because most people,
31:59
you know, it's we, we don't meet people face to face as much as
32:04
we used to. So me going and put in my voice
32:08
with a face with a name, you know, it's, it's easier to
32:12
delete and toss out a piece of mail or e-mail versus oh, that
32:18
that person actually showed up. I remember shaking hands with
32:22
that person. I remember feeling that person.
32:24
I remember how tall that person was.
32:27
You see what I mean? Like, and so going in these
32:29
places, walking in there, scared as heck, but walking in there,
32:34
that's that's what created the momentum for me.
32:37
And then I started to Add all these other outreach efforts
32:41
and, and marketing and so forth. Yeah, yeah, I love it.
32:45
I mean, I think there's also just very few people that are
32:48
willing to do that. That's.
32:50
Why, like, yeah, you stand out just by being willing to walk
32:53
into a building and be like, I'm here, like someone talked to me.
32:56
Like I, you know, like just people probably listening to
32:59
this are like, damn, he did that.
33:01
You know, it's like, yeah, he did.
33:03
And that's so it takes, right. You got to be willing to do the
33:05
things that other people aren't willing to do.
33:07
That's right. Yep, that's right.
33:09
I, I have this saying is, is what I tell people.
33:11
I say, hey, do daily what everyone else only does
33:14
occasionally. Yeah, do it daily.
33:17
Everyone else is going to do it occasionally.
33:18
They're going to do it when they feel like they're going to do it
33:20
when they're excited. They're going to do it when they
33:21
fear is not present. No, do it daily.
33:24
Do daily what everyone else only does occasionally.
33:27
And that is a total shift in mindset.
33:31
And if you want something bad enough, you'll do whatever it
33:33
tastes to go get it. And so that was the stage I was
33:36
in. I didn't have clients, I didn't
33:38
have people knocking on my door. It's not like opportunity was
33:40
were flooding me. You know what I mean?
33:41
Like you, you can't be demanding when you're not in demand.
33:46
You, you can't do that, you know?
33:48
And so, yeah, I, I had to walk in places.
33:51
I had to face the possibility of rejection.
33:54
I had to face the possibility of like, who, who, who the hell are
33:58
you and why are you in here? All of those thoughts, you know?
34:00
But again, you got to do it coexistent with fear.
34:04
And so that that's what it was for me, was literally walking in
34:06
buildings, door to door, knocking on them.
34:09
Yeah, and what I, what I really hear is it doesn't matter how I
34:12
feel, right? If my vision, if I wanted badly
34:16
enough, it doesn't freaking matter how I feel.
34:18
I'm not going to listen to my feelings.
34:20
I'm going to go after it because my clarity of vision, my pursuit
34:23
of that vision, is much more important than how I feel any
34:27
given day. That's absolutely right.
34:29
Yep. Knowing what you want, being
34:31
clear about what you want, and knowing what it takes to produce
34:34
the outcome that you want. And for me, I knew that's, this
34:38
is what it takes. This is what it's going to take.
34:40
And so I have to do with it. My, my emotions have never got
34:44
at me correctly. So it's hard for me to listen to
34:47
my emotions when they're usually wrong, you know?
34:51
So I'm like, because, you know, I mean, emotions are like the
34:56
weather, man. I mean, you, you can feel good.
34:58
I mean, in the next 5 minutes, you may feel totally different
35:01
than what you feel right now. Even you and I, Bradley, like
35:03
you just don't know, you know? So it's like you can't rely on
35:07
those feelings, no. No, not at all.
35:11
What did you give away for free? Now what we give away is we give
35:16
away a 45 minute, 30 to 45 minute assessment, which is like
35:20
a solution road map, what we build and we create for you.
35:25
We give away a free assessment. Also, you can come into our
35:30
coaching practice if you're totally confused about what do
35:34
you want to do. I don't know my message, I don't
35:35
know my audience, I don't know how to get paid, I don't know
35:38
how to deliver, I don't know anything.
35:39
You can take this free assessment that we have, you
35:43
take it and we build a free solution road map for you and
35:48
you decide if you want to go forward with that road map or
35:52
not. But it's totally free.
35:53
It doesn't cost you anything cool.
35:55
Back in the day when you were walking into buildings and it
35:58
was kind of early on for you, did you give away something for
36:01
free then and if So, what was it?
36:03
I didn't have nothing that that was that was a funny thing bro
36:07
is that I didn't have nothing. I remember making these little
36:11
Flyers. I wish I had one to show you,
36:13
but I remember making these little Flyers that I had with
36:16
probably some content and some copy on there.
36:18
That's totally irrelevant now, but I will walk in with a with a
36:23
flyer here and there. But I didn't really have
36:25
anything. And, and I think that's what
36:26
made it really hard too, is that I didn't have a demo video, I
36:29
didn't have a highlight reel, I didn't have a reference, you
36:33
know, So what I needed the most, if I'm walking in there versus
36:37
giving something away, what I needed the most was somebody to
36:40
give me an opportunity. And if you give me an
36:43
opportunity, then I could give you something for free.
36:47
You know, I could do the speech for free.
36:49
I could, you know, motivate and inspire your people.
36:51
I can do this for free. I just needed the opportunity
36:54
though, but I didn't have much to give away at the time.
36:57
Yeah. So did you do a bunch of
36:58
speaking engagements for free in those early days?
37:01
Oh yeah, totally. Yeah, You know, so when I was in
37:03
corporate, I was also doing speaking.
37:06
So when I launched, when, when, when I leaped on my own, I
37:09
wasn't new to speaking, but I wasn't known.
37:12
Nobody still nobody knew me. I wasn't discovering anything
37:16
like that. So for 6-7 years, I was speaking
37:21
for free. Man, I never tried.
37:23
Seven years. Yeah, six or seven years
37:26
alongside my engineering career, I was using, I was using PTO.
37:31
I was using my own money. I would get my own flights.
37:34
I would use my own gas. I would get my own room,
37:36
whatever it took. I was doing that for free.
37:38
I never asked for a penny. And I think, I think a part of
37:41
that was because probably because I was, I was afraid for
37:44
a long time. I didn't think I could ask
37:46
anybody for money. And so, yeah, I was doing that
37:50
for free for a long time, man. Put in the grind, Bradley.
37:53
Like I put in my hours, I put in the work.
37:57
You know what I mean? To, to stand on stages.
37:58
Now I can look back and be like I didn't take no shortcuts.
38:02
Nothing was handed to me. I, I put in the hours, I put in
38:06
the work, I put in the preparation.
38:09
I put in all of whatever it's going to take to get me on these
38:12
stages today. I'll put that time in.
38:14
I'll put that work in. I'm totally confident about
38:16
that. Yeah, so impressive, so cool to
38:20
hear about the journey. And it's a fascinating concept
38:25
to think around 'cause I'm always, I'm always a big
38:27
believer and don't work for free.
38:30
And you have to get the opportunity, right?
38:34
I, I totally see that. And I've, and I've shifted my
38:38
mindset a bit on because like, look, I'll offer a free
38:41
consultation, I'll meet with a customer for free.
38:43
I'll, I'll give them a Lincoln strategy or all right, so I say
38:47
don't work for free, but there's got to be a foot in the door
38:50
somewhere where you can legitimize yourself.
38:53
Yeah, totally. And even furthermore, like, is
38:56
it, is it only about the money? Of course, like for like for me,
39:01
like it's, it's, it's kind of a rhetorical question, but for me,
39:04
it's not just about the money. I genuinely want to deliver high
39:09
value to you and your people, right?
39:12
I want to satisfy you. I want to satisfy your audience.
39:17
I want to make sure you're completely happy, Isn't it?
39:19
That's the last thing that I ever talked about.
39:21
It's it's, it's money is if you don't ask, are you?
39:26
I really won't tell, but most likely you're going to ask.
39:29
But yeah, it's just not always about the money per SE.
39:33
The money comes when you are sure with what you offer and the
39:38
value that you bring, the money will come.
39:41
Yeah. And so then there's this, the
39:44
person who's scared to ask for money because they're not used
39:48
to it. They're not comfortable with it.
39:50
Money makes them uncomfortable. Maybe deep down they don't know
39:52
if they're worthy of it. I end up pulling them.
39:55
The opposite of saying ask for way more than you think you're
40:00
worth. Because.
40:01
You are adequately valuing your output right.
40:06
And so it just it feels it's a really interesting conversation
40:10
because there's no perfect rule of thumb where like you're
40:12
totally right. Anyone who's aligned with their
40:14
purpose, It's not about the money, and I want every single
40:19
person on this planet to be being paid for the value that
40:23
they bring. Absolutely, because if if the
40:27
opposite happens, that that feels different.
40:31
Like I, I've been to, you know, restaurants, I've been to
40:34
grocery stores before and even even work with people, you know,
40:39
for consulted what, and some sometimes it just feels like
40:41
they charge you for every little thing.
40:43
If you want an extra napkin, that's going to be $1.50 cent,
40:46
whatever it is. It doesn't even matter how low
40:49
the price is. It's the principle that you're
40:51
charging for every little thing, you know.
40:53
So it's to me that communicates something totally different.
40:56
That communicates, hey, I need money and I want to get all of
41:01
the money I can out of you. I'm not really concerned about
41:05
the value that I give to you. And so I, I would rather
41:09
approach it the other way. I'm in purpose or on purpose.
41:13
I'm for purpose. I'm not going to work for free.
41:16
That's not exact. That's not what I'm
41:17
communicating at all. But I don't, I don't feel like I
41:21
need to charge you for for every little thing, you know, 15
41:23
minute call, 25 minute call. Oh, I need to charge you for
41:26
that. Like, no, why?
41:28
You know, like let's, let's have a relationship, you know, we'll,
41:31
we'll figure the money out later, you know what I mean?
41:33
So yeah, I just think purpose prompts money.
41:37
And when you're in purpose, when you're working with purpose,
41:40
you're going to make more money than if you're just working for
41:45
money. Of course.
41:46
And then that's the dichotomy of of all of it is that when you
41:49
actually, even if you really care about money, if you are
41:52
able to put it behind your purpose and go after the things
41:55
you love, are good at, passionate about, care about,
41:58
the money's going to follow. You just kind of.
42:00
Like not you just got to have it not be at the forefront of what
42:03
you do because then everyone feels that and it feels gross,
42:07
right? When when someone just wants
42:08
money from you, you're like, leave me alone, right?
42:11
That's right. Yeah, it's weird.
42:14
But if you're just like, hey man, I just want to add some
42:15
value to you. You might being like, you might
42:18
end up saying like, take my money, like I want to support
42:20
you. Really.
42:22
That's absolutely right. Yeah.
42:24
You know, if you're clear about what you offer, you know, if
42:27
you're clear about you're sure, you know, that you bring value
42:31
and you're confident in that, say your price with confidence.
42:36
Yeah. Just just kind of like, like you
42:37
were just saying like, yeah, like put a high price on there,
42:42
that it's nothing wrong with that.
42:43
I think that's totally awesome. Put a value on there.
42:46
It's just don't lead with that though.
42:48
Don't lead with money. Yeah, you know, we get to, we
42:53
get to wrap this up, unfortunately.
42:55
I could talk to you forever, you know, tell the the listeners if
42:59
they want to work with you, if they want to chat with you, if
43:02
they want to hire you as a speaker or a coach.
43:05
Just a minute for self promotion of like really what you do, who
43:08
you work with, where they can find you.
43:09
Yeah, absolutely. Easiest way to find me is if you
43:12
visit lasatapippin.com/coaching or lasatapippin.com/home.
43:19
Either one of those URLs will bring you straight to me.
43:22
You'll be able to see exactly what we do from keynotes to the
43:27
coaching service that we offer. As well.
43:29
We help individuals who aspire to be speakers.
43:33
We help executives with communicating a clear vision, a
43:37
clear message for their corporations.
43:40
And we also help professionals who want to have better
43:42
communication skills because we know that communication skills
43:46
can up your salary, can up your income by at least 20% by having
43:51
communication skills. So we help craft, communicate,
43:54
and cash in on your message. Wow, so cool.
43:59
Amazing. All right, well, and we'll get
44:00
those links in the show notes as well so people can find them.
44:02
No problem. Lasana, it's so good to have you
44:06
on the show. I love this conversation.
44:07
I said I could do it forever, but yeah, just to really
44:10
appreciate your time, your energy and bringing your
44:13
insights to the show. Yeah, absolutely.
44:15
This was awesome. Bradley enjoyed the conversation
44:17
thoroughly, man. And like you said, this can
44:19
continue on and on and on. So yeah, thank you for having
44:22
me. This is awesome.
44:23
Yeah. You're welcome, of course.