Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / She Drove Her Company Into the Red — Then Sold It Five Years Later with Mindy Gibbins-Klein
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to another episode of Founder Unfiltered, the show of
- 0:04what founders think but never say.
- 0:06It's what founders don't really talk about.
- 0:09It's the identity crisis when you go from operator to leader.
- 0:12The weird shame of self promotion, the gap between who
- 0:15you are and who your business needs you to be.
- 0:18My name is Bradley Jacobs. I'm your host, the founder and
- 0:21CEO of My lands. Today I'm joined by Mindy
- 0:26Gibbons Klein, who's a founder and author supporting
- 0:30entrepreneurs to become thoughtful leaders.
- 0:32She's helped over 1400 leaders write their own books, author of
- 0:3615 books herself, and delivered 2 Ted X talks.
- 0:40She's coached over 50,000 leaders in 18 countries.
- 0:44And she's also the founder of Giving 1% Project, encouraging
- 0:48people to consider their regular charitable giving.
- 0:51Mindy, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, pleasure to
- 0:55be here. So I'd love for you to really
- 0:58start by expanding on the introduction of really what
- 1:01makes you you, What makes you unique, what makes you stand out
- 1:04in a sea of coaches and thought leaders and authors.
- 1:09Well, I was what they call an accidental entrepreneur.
- 1:14I had three redundancies or layoffs in corporate, which was
- 1:19an interesting time. And after the third one, I
- 1:23thought, I'm not willing to play this game anymore.
- 1:25I had two little kids. I I just didn't want to keep
- 1:30banging my head against a wall and be a slave to the corporate
- 1:34world. So I set up on my own without a
- 1:37plan really. So most people would be like,
- 1:40where's your business plan? And we're Oh yeah, that would
- 1:42have been nice. But it was, you know, needs
- 1:46must. So after I set up, then I
- 1:49started learning what it was like.
- 1:52And I was lucky I had some money from these, you know, layoff
- 1:55packages and I started networking, which is something I
- 2:01recommend to all business owners, including or especially
- 2:06those who think they're introverts and, you know, aren't
- 2:10comfortable. We have to do it.
- 2:12We, we have to get known of all the things that I've done across
- 2:17my several businesses, meeting with people, chatting with them,
- 2:21getting them to understand just building relationships.
- 2:25I'm sure you'd agree, and most of the listeners would agree.
- 2:29That's the top skill and is essential.
- 2:32And it's also a lot cheaper than advertising.
- 2:36Amazing. So you run companies.
- 2:39You sold the company. Walk us through maybe one of the
- 2:43learnings from turning the company around, selling the
- 2:47company. What did you learn about
- 2:48yourself? What did you learn about
- 2:49business? Turning it around sounds very
- 2:53grandiose, although I did do that, but that was after I took
- 2:57it into the red. So my publishing company, I am
- 3:03joined a company that somebody else founded and you know, he
- 3:07wanted me there and we ran it together for about four years,
- 3:10five years. But then he wanted to move in a
- 3:14different direction. So I bought him out and within
- 3:18two years or three years, the, my company, I was the sole owner
- 3:23at that point, was making a loss for the first time in its
- 3:27history. And I know why it happened.
- 3:30I, you know, listened to people who didn't understand my
- 3:34industry. I made certain decisions.
- 3:37I, I was a bit reckless. I got a bit trigger happy with
- 3:42printing books that, you know, we didn't need.
- 3:46So we, yeah, we made that loss. And then it took me 4 years to
- 3:50crawl out of the red. And I can't believe that we
- 3:54stayed in business. But it, it was again through
- 3:57relationships that was, that was that saved us.
- 4:02So I spoke to suppliers, partners, even clients and, you
- 4:07know, arranged things and people were, you know, really, really
- 4:12helpful. So after four years we were back
- 4:16in the black and I realized that I was not the best person to run
- 4:21that business. You know, I'd taken it over
- 4:23because my Co founder wanted to leave, but it wasn't really my
- 4:29pride and joy. So I started seriously looking
- 4:34to sell it, which I did five years later.
- 4:39Wow, what a story. So that must have been
- 4:42incredibly challenging to buy out your business partner and
- 4:47have four years as an unprofitable business.
- 4:50And what was that like? I mean, how did you navigate
- 4:53that emotionally? Well, you know, the good thing
- 4:56is that while you're in it, you don't realize it's going to be 4
- 5:01years. It's kind of like the pandemic.
- 5:03You know, we took it one day at a time.
- 5:05How long is this thing going to go on?
- 5:07You know, it's very similar. So it was just one foot in front
- 5:12of the other one month and the next month one quarter 1, you
- 5:16know, and I was trying lots of lots of things to reduce costs
- 5:20and get more revenue in and improve the bottom line and
- 5:25stuff kept happening. But I guess I was determined.
- 5:29And The thing is, I was determined to keep the company
- 5:33going. It wasn't a pride or ego thing.
- 5:36Like I say, I, I didn't have a big ego.
- 5:38I thought I wasn't even the best person to run it.
- 5:41But I just couldn't let it fold because we had at that time, I
- 5:46think about 100 authors and I just, their books would just go
- 5:51away. They, they, I thought, we can't
- 5:53do that. You know, having authored some
- 5:56books, you know, we know people have authored books.
- 5:58When the publisher goes bust, it creates a real problem.
- 6:02So I'm doing everything I could to keep it going.
- 6:05I didn't tell a lot of people at the time what was happening.
- 6:09I just, I didn't want to worry people.
- 6:12So I had some sleepless nights and I took it all on myself.
- 6:17But I also knew that I I had the strength and resilience and
- 6:21determination and we were going to come out the other side of
- 6:25it. And yeah, that it all worked
- 6:28out. Yeah.
- 6:30Where did that self belief come from?
- 6:33I think that's something people can really struggle with.
- 6:35From what I've seen and experienced myself, that
- 6:38confidence, like we're going to figure this out and I'm going to
- 6:40be the one to do it. Without divulging my actual age,
- 6:45I grew up in the working world of the 1980s and that was a real
- 6:52thing. I I feel really blessed to have
- 6:55been coached by people and had bosses who were really on the
- 7:00ball. And, you know, I don't know that
- 7:02can do attitude and not like, you know, Wall Street, although
- 7:09I did work on Wall Street when I worked in New York.
- 7:11But that wasn't for me. Although I think growing up in
- 7:16the States, I was very lucky because I was kind of imbued
- 7:20with this sense of can do and must do and, you know, keep
- 7:26going and optimism. And one of my bosses was very
- 7:31lucky to be trained personally by Tony Robbins, who I then
- 7:35started to follow. So there are some great teachers
- 7:38out there. And if you get the learning
- 7:41early on, it stays with you for life.
- 7:44So I was very lucky. Really what I'm hearing you say
- 7:48is that's a necessity that you feel like you got lucky with,
- 7:52but you learn from a bunch of managers of we're going to be
- 7:56able to figure this out in this kind of optimism, this
- 7:59positivity, which can be really challenging, especially when
- 8:02things aren't going well, right? And, and So what would you say
- 8:09to a founder who's in a tough spot right now with their
- 8:11business? Maybe they're questioning
- 8:13things, they're not getting the results that they want to see.
- 8:16What do they do? Read the right books, listen to
- 8:19the right podcasts. So in one of my books, The
- 8:24Thoughtful Leader, it's my flagship book.
- 8:26I say choose your influences and your influencers.
- 8:30Many people think they're choosing their influences, but
- 8:34but they're not. You know, if, if you're
- 8:36triggered by something you're reading or you, you're doom
- 8:40scrolling and things like that, well, you can choose to, I call
- 8:46it the power of the UN Unfollow and unsubscribe and unplug if
- 8:53necessary, you know, and, and go towards the more positive things
- 8:58to feed yourself. We need to be strong and that
- 9:02you know, that's our, our sort of best skill.
- 9:05The most important thing for the founder is to be strong and
- 9:09centred and grounded and as confident as can be.
- 9:13So we need to do everything we can to foster that.
- 9:18And then everything else comes from that.
- 9:20If you want to inspire people, you need to inspire yourself
- 9:231st. And so take a look at the things
- 9:25that are dragging you down and change those habits.
- 9:30I'm laughing about it because it, you know, I'm making it
- 9:32sound really easy. I also still get caught up with,
- 9:36you know, the doom scrolling and and the, you know, but I notice
- 9:40it and I have blocked so many accounts and and, you know,
- 9:46things that don't actually serve me so I can serve others.
- 9:51It does come down to our systems, our habits, our
- 9:55beliefs, our behaviors which are influenced by the people around
- 9:59us. I mean, it's in such a big way,
- 10:02right? Yeah, yeah.
- 10:04I mean, the people around us and the influencers and influences
- 10:10that we're looking at and listening to every day.
- 10:13With some clients, I tell them to do an audit and look at the
- 10:17pages they're following and look and notice when they get
- 10:20triggered and lots of things like that, they don't realize
- 10:25that they've, they've sort of, you know, accumulated all of
- 10:29this reading material and they're not listening to
- 10:32empowering and inspiring content.
- 10:35So what do we think's going to happen if we're not feeding
- 10:37ourselves the right things, right?
- 10:40If you think about those four years that were incredibly
- 10:43challenging, not as not profitable, and then you turned
- 10:45it around, was it changing your habits, changing your influences
- 10:50and influence, influencing and influences, or were you like
- 10:54what changed? I had to become even more
- 10:57humble. So I, I really didn't want to
- 11:00share what was going on with many people, but I had to, in
- 11:07certain instances where I had suppliers and we had terms and
- 11:11we had, you know, bills that were due and I needed to be open
- 11:16and honest with them. And once I did that, most of
- 11:21them have been there. If you know, most business
- 11:23owners have had those moments and we can relate.
- 11:26But, you know, if we think somebody's just trying to avoid
- 11:28paying a bill, that's not very nice.
- 11:30But if they explain exactly what's going on and there's a
- 11:34ripple effect from something else or, you know, a pandemic, a
- 11:38war, a, you know, crisis, then we can begin to talk about these
- 11:43things. So that was part of it.
- 11:46I also got very good advice and brainstormed with the contract
- 11:51lawyer who had worked with me on just contracts.
- 11:55I say just contracts, but you know, she wasn't advising me on
- 11:59anything else. But I just happened to open up
- 12:02to her and we had a really good conversation and we came up with
- 12:06a strategy to make sure that we weren't leaking so much money.
- 12:12And that wasn't her job. But obviously she cared and we
- 12:16passed each other a lot of business.
- 12:18And you know, that that was one of the best things that happened
- 12:23because in a conversation, I, I just said, hey, you know, I,
- 12:26I'm, I'm at a loss. And we figured it out together.
- 12:30And then you after that turn around, you decided you're not
- 12:33the best person to run the company.
- 12:35Why not? Even before that, I felt, you
- 12:39know, a bit unsure. It's just, you know, we all have
- 12:43our favorite things that we like to do usually because we're good
- 12:46at them. And when I joined that company
- 12:50initially, it was in a sales and marketing capacity.
- 12:54And that's my skill set. That's my, you know, superpower,
- 12:59whatever you want to call it. Operations and commercial stuff
- 13:02was not it. And they didn't thrill me.
- 13:05And I didn't want to be the managing director, but I was the
- 13:09de facto managing director because there was no one else.
- 13:13And I was willing to do it because like I say, you know, he
- 13:16wanted to go and I, there wasn't anyone else and I couldn't find
- 13:19someone else that short noticed. So I took it on.
- 13:23I think I didn't know what I could do it.
- 13:28Well, obviously I, I wasn't the best person because I, you know,
- 13:31I drove the company into a lost situation, but I also knew that
- 13:37I wasn't enjoying it. It wasn't my passion because I
- 13:41was running the coaching company and, you know, I wanted to be
- 13:45coaching and speaking and training 100% of the time.
- 13:49And this publishing company was taking up.
- 13:53Well, I know exactly how much time because when I sold it, I
- 13:56freed up 35 hours a week of my time.
- 14:00Yeah, so. But at the time, I just put my
- 14:03head down and did it because you know that that was important to
- 14:07keep it going. And I just, you know, whatever
- 14:10it takes, I did whatever it took.
- 14:12Mindy, I'm curious. I'm hearing you take radical
- 14:16ownership for taking the company into the red, right?
- 14:19You're like, I did this. They're like, OK, yes, maybe,
- 14:24right. You were a leader at the time
- 14:25and that's what happened with the company.
- 14:27Maybe no matter who the leader was, that was going to happen.
- 14:30There's a million other things at play, market forces and
- 14:33competition and pricing and on down the line that contributed
- 14:37to that. And yet I'm hearing you take
- 14:38this like I did this. OK, Brad, it's one of the values
- 14:44that we have at The Thoughtful Leader is take ownership, take
- 14:48responsibility, no hiding, no playing the blame game.
- 14:53You know, if every leader, if you just think about leaders in
- 14:59business and leaders of countries, if, if they actually
- 15:03took ownership and took responsibility and took the
- 15:07blame at times, we then they could move on.
- 15:11Then they they develop more trust and it's just the way I
- 15:16operate. So, you know, I don't, I don't
- 15:18beat myself up about it. I'm telling you what happened
- 15:22because we need to be self aware and I can tell you what I'm
- 15:28great at at the same time. So it's balanced out.
- 15:31It's just one of those things as the leader of the company, the
- 15:35book stopped with me. And for any, you know, company
- 15:39owners or leaders listening, the book stops with you.
- 15:42That's just the way it is. It is and I, I love it.
- 15:46I also think it's really empowering for a leader to say I
- 15:50am responsible for the company's success, meaning it is on my
- 15:55shoulders and I can dictate whether we succeed or, you know,
- 15:58I don't want to say fail because I don't really, really believe
- 16:00in that, but you know, have a more negative outcome, right,
- 16:04that we don't want. So it can be empowering and it
- 16:08also can be a really challenging spot, right?
- 16:10For obvious reasons. And I heard you say, I don't
- 16:13beat myself up about it. I'm just telling you objectively
- 16:16what happened, right? You're a little bit removing
- 16:19your, let's say, identity. You are not the company.
- 16:22The reality is as the leader of the company, you contributed to
- 16:25these, you LED these results. And that's where my next
- 16:29question comes in, 'cause it's this really interesting nuance
- 16:33where when you're in full ownership, full accountability,
- 16:36it's a beautiful thing and it can easily lead.
- 16:40Not in your case, I'm hearing you draw a beautiful distinction
- 16:43in a boundary, but for other people can really lead to this
- 16:46shame of like I'm bad or I'm a bad leader or making it about
- 16:51me. And then the I see taking a deep
- 16:54breath like these personal feelings of like I'm not good,
- 16:58right? So.
- 16:59Yeah, it to someone with, you know, who hasn't got a robust
- 17:04sense of, of self, self esteem, you know, understanding of self.
- 17:11You know, I, like I said earlier, I was blessed to, to
- 17:15have worked with people, very talented people, a lot of
- 17:19personal development from an early age and that sustains me
- 17:24And and that's, you know, that's always going to be there.
- 17:27I appreciate not everybody has that, but you know, even in a
- 17:32one person business and and I've scaled my business up, my
- 17:36coaching business and I've scaled it back to the point
- 17:39where right now it's just me and a few freelancers I use for
- 17:44things, but it's me and yet I am not the business.
- 17:49So having that separation, you're right, is really
- 17:52important. Equally, I turned that business
- 17:56around. And so if someone's listening to
- 17:58us now and thinking, oh, we've got this problem, that problem,
- 18:02you know, the staff problems and the economy and what?
- 18:06Yeah. And if you are taking complete
- 18:08responsibility, you could take responsibility for the good
- 18:12stuff as well. You know, I mean, balancing out
- 18:17the, the pride and, and you know, versus ego.
- 18:22I mean, I would never want to come across as arrogant, but
- 18:25with that contract lawyer friend of mine, we came up with a
- 18:30really good idea and a really good model, which turned the
- 18:35company around within months. And I'm really proud of that.
- 18:39So you can also take ownership of the good stuff.
- 18:45I feel like the ownership of the good stuff is for some reason,
- 18:49maybe you can tell me why it seems like it's frowned upon in
- 18:54our society where people are so quick to be overly humble and
- 19:00diminish their accomplishments. And like, oh, like, oh, I had a
- 19:03whole team behind me and I, I, I hear this all of the time.
- 19:10I'm like, no, what if you would have just owned that you were an
- 19:11amazing leader, that you did this, I mean.
- 19:15Look it, it could be performative.
- 19:18It could be somebody thinks they should sound humble or be a
- 19:23servant leader. One of these things that's fine.
- 19:27We also need to be strong and exhibit that kind of leadership
- 19:36quality that that people want to follow.
- 19:40My personal feeling is that being too humble and focusing on
- 19:44being a servant leader is not all that inspiring.
- 19:49I'm not saying people need a bully or a bulldozer, but it,
- 19:53it, there is something about a strong leader showing the way.
- 19:58I mean, I, I teach this in my classes.
- 20:02Do we know where the word leadership comes from?
- 20:05You want me to share a little snippet?
- 20:07Please do. The word leader comes from the
- 20:11old English, I think it's pronounced Lidar, and it means
- 20:17to show the way ahead. And we need to actually stop,
- 20:23see the way ahead, know where we're going, and then we can
- 20:27lead others. We can, you know, shine that
- 20:28light and show them the path. That's what people do want.
- 20:32So it's it, obviously I talk about thoughtful leadership, but
- 20:38that doesn't mean shrinking back and and being nicey nicey and
- 20:43and not being a strong leader that gives people confidence.
- 20:47So it's both. Yeah, I mean, you even see it.
- 20:50I'm a big sports fan. You see, when the coach wins the
- 20:53game or the championship or whatever it is, and they get
- 20:56interviewed and probably the first thing they say, they might
- 20:59like, think, you know, God or Jesus or something like that.
- 21:02And then they're like, oh, I, I could have done it without this
- 21:05team, right? Or it's really like, those are
- 21:07the guys on the field or something like that.
- 21:09And it's an interesting balance of like, it's true, you want to
- 21:11give credit to the team, but at the end of the day, the coach,
- 21:15they're not winning without that coach.
- 21:17And if, if any solopreneurs are listening to us claim it, own it
- 21:23because it is all about you. I mean, you are not the
- 21:27business, but you are very closely aligned with that
- 21:31business. And those mindsets like, and I
- 21:35hear it all the time of, oh, it's a really tough market out
- 21:39there. And they're they're kind of
- 21:40blaming the circumstance and the situation.
- 21:44And I always come back and I say, look, it may not be the
- 21:46market that we had a number of years ago where, you know, VC
- 21:49money was flooding and whatever, but there are plenty of people
- 21:53winning big. They have plenty of clients
- 21:56growing their businesses, customers scaling, hiring.
- 21:59So you can either decide it's a tough market and like, throw
- 22:03your hands up in the air, or you can be like, I don't give a
- 22:06shit, right? And in fact, I even tell people
- 22:09it's like, this is the opportunity to stand out because
- 22:11if there's a little bit less business to go around than there
- 22:13was four years ago, you need to be one of the winners.
- 22:16So how do you get to be one of the winners?
- 22:19Are you asking me how do we get to be one of the winners?
- 22:22Sure. Yeah, let's.
- 22:23Do it my My background and my work is all about people
- 22:31expressing their best insights, their wisdom.
- 22:36How do you get to be one of the winners?
- 22:38I'll use a very hackneyed word, visibility, which obviously
- 22:44leads to, well, should lead to credibility unless you're
- 22:47visible and people are like, but good visibility for the right
- 22:51reasons with the right stuff leads to credibility.
- 22:55And you know that it's just a fact that we need to be seen.
- 23:01Like I was saying earlier, like right at the beginning I was
- 23:04talking about networking. So you don't need to be seen by
- 23:08hundreds of thousands of people. It really depends on the market,
- 23:13but what I look at is how to be seen by a few of the right
- 23:17people. I, I love chatting this what
- 23:20we're doing now, my favorite thing, favorite thing in the
- 23:22world. And I do this all day long.
- 23:25I have about 25 conversations per week, about 5 a day on
- 23:29average. And we chat and we see where it
- 23:32goes. Obviously, you know, we had a
- 23:34point today and we're, we're filming and stuff.
- 23:37But you know, one of the biggest mistakes people make is they
- 23:42think I need to be everywhere. And I need, you know, hundreds
- 23:45of thousands of followers and you might do really well with a
- 23:50handful. So when I when I did run the
- 23:54publishing company, we had a few stand out books.
- 23:58So this is a parallel with being a business owner and obviously
- 24:03they're all business books. So what happened was people
- 24:06would say, well, how many copies did he sell?
- 24:09And I would say, well, I have no idea, but I had an idea.
- 24:13But you know, I wasn't going to say it was like 1000.
- 24:16It didn't sound that impressive. I was just telling the story
- 24:19today in fact to somebody and I said this particular book we
- 24:23were talking about, I think it sold 1000 copies, but the author
- 24:27took a copy to a meeting with ACEO and it impressed that CEO
- 24:33so much it led to $1,000,000 deal.
- 24:37So does it matter that the book only sold 1000 copies?
- 24:41So the parallel is, you know, if you only have 1000 contacts on
- 24:45LinkedIn and somebody says so all you need 20,000.
- 24:48Do you or could you make sure that you have a chat or a
- 24:54conversation with as many as possible in that 1000?
- 24:58There is gold in them hills in those contacts.
- 25:03You know, there's, there's gold just sitting there.
- 25:05So that's what I believe anyway. I couldn't agree more.
- 25:11And I our product helps people show up on LinkedIn in an
- 25:15authentic, genuine, resonant way, not for clicks and
- 25:21impressions. And I was like, I don't care how
- 25:24many impressions your post got, I just, that's not what we're
- 25:27going for. We're going for quality, like
- 25:29the right people. So yeah, I love so much of what
- 25:32you're saying. And I'm curious if we can double
- 25:35click on visibility. I mean, it's, it feels like it's
- 25:38everything, right? It's like you could have the
- 25:39best product service in the world, but if you're not
- 25:42visible, it almost doesn't matter.
- 25:43Like you have to be willing to get out there.
- 25:46And obviously you believe this. So in such a big way, what holds
- 25:51people back the most from being willing to put themselves out
- 25:57there and be visible in the market?
- 25:59OK, so first let's talk about the only two ways in which we
- 26:05can communicate and that is spoken or written.
- 26:09That's it. So if we talk about speaking
- 26:14podcast interviews, some people freeze, I guess I, I'm lucky to
- 26:19have been on a stage from an early age.
- 26:21Some people get very scared about speaking, looking at a
- 26:25camera, speaking on a stage. So all of those things, you
- 26:29know, it's a known fear. I suggest people do it anyway.
- 26:35Get out of their comfort zone, get training, get hypnosis,
- 26:39practice, be bad, have fun. I laugh at myself when I make a
- 26:45mistake on stage. Happens all the time, happens to
- 26:48everybody. So if if you don't laugh, then
- 26:52you know, the audience is uncomfortable.
- 26:54Be a real person. So that's, you know, speaking
- 26:57and being filmed and I get it, it's real.
- 27:00I also understand people's fear of writing, even though I work
- 27:06with them to help them through it.
- 27:08Most, most people, if they've not written before, they might
- 27:12have a limiting belief that comes from, I don't know, a
- 27:15teacher might have said, Oh, you're not good at writing.
- 27:19And what she meant was your spelling's bad.
- 27:21Hello, we have spell check now, you know, run it through AI, run
- 27:26well, don't do that. Maybe, but there's there's a
- 27:28difference. And I think if somebody hasn't
- 27:31done a lot of writing, it can be scary.
- 27:34And they're thinking, oh, you know, I'm exposed.
- 27:37The same with speaking. If you do a video, people are,
- 27:41you know, going to see you X number of times.
- 27:44So I had to just get over myself.
- 27:46I've done so many videos and the TE DX talks are out there and
- 27:51yeah, I look at it and I think, oh, I made this, you know,
- 27:55facial expression or too bad, I was getting my message across.
- 27:59And what is the alternative? You don't do it and then nobody
- 28:05gets to hear what you have to say.
- 28:07So I usually land on the fact that if someone has an important
- 28:13message and they don't share it, they are doing their market and
- 28:18themselves and their creator a disservice because we were put
- 28:24on this earth to help others and to share what we've seen, what
- 28:29we've experienced and and you know, insights that can support
- 28:33other people on their journey. I really, I think it's very sad
- 28:38when people don't. Yeah, no, I couldn't agree with
- 28:41you more. One thing you said is be willing
- 28:44to be bad. And I think that's what holds so
- 28:49many people back is their fear of yeah, that they're not going
- 28:53to speak while their content's not going to resonate.
- 28:55They're going to be judged. People are going to disagree
- 28:57with them. I had someone comment on one of
- 28:59my posts. She disagreed with me on
- 29:01something and then she sent me Adm almost like to back down a
- 29:05little bit. She's like, I just want to let
- 29:07you know, like where I was coming from.
- 29:09And I'm like, it's OK. Like, you can disagree with me.
- 29:11It's fine. Like, I kind of welcome it.
- 29:13It's like, it's a good thing, right?
- 29:16Creates this conversation, which I think is valuable.
- 29:18But the willingness to just have that happen and be a beginner,
- 29:22be bad, be judged, feels like the biggest thing.
- 29:28I'm going to paraphrase Winston Churchill, who said something
- 29:32like, you have haters. Good.
- 29:35That means you're saying something.
- 29:38Yeah, it, it, yes, it, it is annoying and we take it
- 29:43personally in this sort of thing.
- 29:44But I, I do believe that communication online could be
- 29:51more respectful in most cases. So, you know, block or report
- 29:58something or, or just like I say, just unfollow and don't
- 30:03respond. Don't let it affect everything
- 30:07is really funny because I found myself saying over the past few
- 30:10weeks to friends and family, you know, when something goes wrong
- 30:14and they go and I'll say don't let it ruin your day.
- 30:18So it's really, you know, move on.
- 30:22Very easy to say. I sound very glib.
- 30:24I'm telling myself this numerous times a day.
- 30:27Right, right. And when, when someone, if
- 30:30someone really gets upset with me, especially online, I usually
- 30:34try to think about what their day might be like.
- 30:38And like almost like create a scenario of like, oh, maybe they
- 30:40got in a fight with their partner or their kids having a
- 30:43temper tantrum that day. They didn't sleep at all last
- 30:45night, whatever. Because it's usually not about
- 30:48me. I'd say actually, it's never
- 30:50about me, right? If they're saying something
- 30:51rude, hurtful, mean, whatever it is like, that's not about me.
- 30:56No, and and you can be the bigger person and, and you know,
- 30:59you can let it go. One of the things that I
- 31:02encourage clients to do is step back.
- 31:05Don't respond, especially if somebody is putting a review on
- 31:10your book and people want to, you know, go back and say, yeah,
- 31:15but, you know, don't get into that.
- 31:18If it's really offensive, you can get things removed.
- 31:21I assume that goes for LinkedIn, Facebook, et cetera.
- 31:25There's there's no need for rudeness.
- 31:29It's really I just, I, I'm a bit of Pollyanna.
- 31:32I just surround myself with lovely things, lovely thoughts
- 31:35and lovely people. And.
- 31:37And it sort of perpetuates that lovely mood.
- 31:41But some people have, you know, a chip on their shoulder or
- 31:45they've had a bad day, like you say.
- 31:48So you decide, you know, am I going to let this ruin my day
- 31:51now? Yeah.
- 31:53When you said be willing to be bad and you said well luckily I
- 31:56was put in front of people at a young age and as an important
- 32:01point I want to double click on because my guess is you weren't
- 32:05a world renowned speaker your first time.
- 32:08No, I was so nervous. What happened was I was a
- 32:13trainer and I do think there's a difference.
- 32:16I'm still a trainer more than a speaker.
- 32:19I I enjoy both. But I had a good grounding for
- 32:23three years doing a six day residential training program on
- 32:30my own. After the first few months, six
- 32:33days of training sales people on a sales methodology and I was 23
- 32:39years old. So talk about baptism by fire.
- 32:45I was really lucky to have had that experience.
- 32:48And I'd done a little acting as a kid.
- 32:50But the first time I put speaker in my profile because, oh,
- 32:55that's you're supposed to call yourself a speaker, not a
- 32:57trainer. I got a gig and I can picture it
- 33:01and I can remember how it felt. And I really had to kind of
- 33:05master my breathing and my emotions and everything.
- 33:09And I thought, yeah, I've done a great job.
- 33:11And I watched the video. Normally I don't.
- 33:14And I thought, I thought that was good.
- 33:16You know, I'm, I'm, I'm not one that beats myself up.
- 33:19You know, like I said, someone said, oh, you were really good.
- 33:23You sounded nervous, but you were good.
- 33:25And I thought, oh, OK, well, that's your interpretation, but
- 33:29that's not going to stop me. And I went on to do a whole lot
- 33:32more speaking, ran the Professional Speaking
- 33:36Association in London for two years and continue to speak and
- 33:41train. You just keep, keep going.
- 33:44And you know, not every gig is going to be perfect.
- 33:47Not every piece you write is going to get traction or land
- 33:50the way it needs to. So it just all goes into the
- 33:54pot. And I think for professionals,
- 33:57let's say you've been in a career for 10:15 20-30 years.
- 34:01You didn't really need to be that visible, right?
- 34:04Because you were an employee of a company.
- 34:07Then you go out on your own either soul printer, founder,
- 34:10writing a book, whatever it is. And you're like, shit, I've
- 34:13never done this before. And I have this community of
- 34:17past Co workers, past managers, all of these people who are
- 34:21maybe now part of my community that I don't want to look stupid
- 34:24in front of. I don't want to look bad.
- 34:27But I'm new get. Over it, get over it, get over
- 34:30it. And I, you know, that's that's
- 34:32that's not a self help or personal development strategy.
- 34:37That's Mindy saying, you know, do you really want to spend time
- 34:40with that mantra or would you rather have something more
- 34:44empowering? I mean, Speaking of mantras,
- 34:47before we finish, because I want to run out of time.
- 34:50I wonder if people have words that they say to themselves.
- 34:55So people listening. I was lucky to hone mine with
- 34:59Tony Robbins date with Destiny. And over the years, I've just
- 35:04repeated it a million times to myself that I find that really
- 35:08important because, you know, we are talking to ourselves all the
- 35:11time in our heads or out loud depends if we're, you know,
- 35:15working from home and we can in fact feed ourselves again back
- 35:22to that phrase with something empowering and we can create it.
- 35:26So I would recommend that wholeheartedly.
- 35:29If anybody wants my tips and the, the structure of those kind
- 35:33of statements, just contact me because it's been so, so helpful
- 35:38for me to repeat it over and over.
- 35:41And it's kind of gone in as as a very, very strong belief.
- 35:45Amazing. Are you willing to share that
- 35:46mantra or is that a private thing for you?
- 35:48I have a very long version which is more along the lines of
- 35:53Napoleon Hill and think and Grow rich that that kind of format.
- 35:57But the short version? Wonder if I can remember the
- 36:00short version. So the purpose of my life is to
- 36:05be a source of inspiration and joy, to share my abundant
- 36:09energy, and to encourage others to speak their truth and live
- 36:13their truth. Wow, so that's what you say to
- 36:17yourself all the time. Good, bad, doesn't matter.
- 36:21When I remember, sometimes I get caught up, you know, and I
- 36:24think, oh, you know, or if I'm having a moment, you know, we
- 36:26have a moment, I will just, you know, take a deep breath.
- 36:30I'm really into breathing and deep breaths and then say that.
- 36:37And, and it's just because it's familiar.
- 36:39It's like, you know, some people are really into their prayers
- 36:42and things like that. But the reason why this is
- 36:44different is, you know, it's personal.
- 36:48Mindy, we get to wrap up here in a minute.
- 36:51I'd love an opportunity for you to self promote.
- 36:54How can people find you? Where can people find you?
- 36:56How do you work with people? What does that look like?
- 36:59Thank you. So funny because the my first
- 37:01instinct was, oh, you know, be humble, be a servant leader.
- 37:04Like scratch that. Most people can find me on
- 37:11mindygk.com, so I know that will be in the show notes.
- 37:15I've aimed to put the business links and the charity link
- 37:19through that. I'm very happy to chat with
- 37:23people. Hopefully they've got that
- 37:24message. So just connect LinkedIn.
- 37:28I'm obviously happy to be followed.
- 37:31I have a few connections left at any time because just when I was
- 37:37heading for the hundreds of thousands, they kept it at
- 37:3930,000. So believe it or not, I'm almost
- 37:44always at capacity. But people can reach out, send
- 37:47me an e-mail, we'll, we'll connect.
- 37:49If somebody wants to have a chat, we'll have a chat.
- 37:51But mindygk.com, people can Google me as well and you know,
- 37:57find articles, blogs, videos, all sorts of things and my
- 38:02books. So yeah, that that's, that's the
- 38:06best way to to reach me, I think.
- 38:09Awesome. Well, we'll certainly link
- 38:11everything the show notes and really appreciate your time,
- 38:14energy, insights with the audience.
- 38:16I really enjoyed getting a chance to talk to you and learn
- 38:18from you. So I really appreciate it,
- 38:20Mindy. Thank you, I've had a great
- 38:22time. I wish we could go on, but we
- 38:24can. I know there'll be Part 2.
- 38:28Maybe see? Alright, thanks, Mindy.