122 – Fear Held Her Back … Until It Didn’t with Hallie Sherman of Speech Time Fun
Hallie is a licensed speech-language pathologist working full time in the public schools. In her “spare” time, she blogs and creates digital resources to assist busy speech-language pathologists to make their jobs a bit easier.
She started this entrepreneurial journey 5 years ago. At that time, she didn’t have a permanent job and used her blog as a therapeutic outlet.
Back then she kept her blog anonymous to prevent having issues while finding a tenure track position.
In truth, Hallie didn’t think anyone would read it! But as time went on, she built a following and loyal customer base just by providing content her audience loved.
After over 3 years of blogging, she finally revealed her identity and her audience no longer has to admire her incognito!
Hallie’s Story
The purpose behind Speech Time Fun. [4:08]
How Hallie’s journey began. [4:53]
Why Hallie wanted to remain anonymous. [7:32]
She still had fear even after her first sale. [9:03]
Getting caught up in the story and feeling like she was lying. [11:16]
The big turning point to overcoming her fear. [12:02]
The grand reveal process. [13:23]
Recognizing her gift and being rewarded for it. [18:55]
Business Building Insights
Be sensitive to your audience. [3:24], [25:30]
Details on her blog topics. [6:23]
Doing a Grand Opening as a homebased business. [16:13]
Overcoming fear from an internal place. [17:56]
Looking back on her journey – 20/20 hindsight. [20:03]
What she recommends as an approach for others. [20:52]
Starting LIVE broadcasts. [22:38]
Productivity/Lifestyle Tool
Teachers Pay Teachers [8:31]
Dropbox – Online document storage and sharing
Canva – Create designs for Web or print: blog graphics, Facebook covers, and more.
Talewind – Scheduling, monitoring and more for Pinterest
Recommended Reading and Listening
PODCASTS:
Contact Links
If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcript
Hi there.
Speaker:You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 122.
Speaker:When I made my first sale,
Speaker:I realized I had something here,
Speaker:but I was still too scared to put my name on
Speaker:it. I was scared to own it.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee,
Speaker:Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to the gift to biz unwrapped.
Speaker:And now it's time to light it.
Speaker:Welcome to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop
Speaker:and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Mona height.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or
Speaker:are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. And today I have the pleasure of introducing you to
Speaker:Holly Sherman.
Speaker:Kelly is a licensed speech language pathologist working full-time in the
Speaker:public schools in her spare time.
Speaker:She blogs and creates digital resources to assist busy speech language
Speaker:pathologists to make their jobs a bit easier.
Speaker:She started this entrepreneurial journey about five years ago,
Speaker:and at that time she didn't have a permanent job and
Speaker:used her blog as a therapeutic outlet back then she kept
Speaker:her blog anonymous to prevent having issues while finding a tenure
Speaker:track position in truth,
Speaker:how he didn't think anybody would read it.
Speaker:But as time went on,
Speaker:she built a loyal following and a loyal customer base just
Speaker:by providing content that her audience loved.
Speaker:After over three years of blogging,
Speaker:she finally revealed her identity and her audience no longer has
Speaker:to admire her in Cognito.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:Hailey, I cannot wait to hear all about your experience.
Speaker:Welcome to the show.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:So I like to start off by A little bit of
Speaker:a creative way in that I like to have you describe
Speaker:yourself through a motivational candle.
Speaker:That's something that us creatives like to do.
Speaker:So if you were to tell us what your ideal candle
Speaker:would look like,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the quote
Speaker:on your candle?
Speaker:Sure. The color would be purple.
Speaker:Not only is it because it's my favorite color and the
Speaker:color of my brand,
Speaker:but the color represents creativity,
Speaker:imagination, royalty,
Speaker:and even sensitivity.
Speaker:And I think all those are great attributes of an entrepreneurial
Speaker:and a creative entrepreneur.
Speaker:And you must be able to stand out yet,
Speaker:be sensitive to those who are trying to serve.
Speaker:And a quote that I just love that I think resonates
Speaker:with me and my brand and everything about me is beauty
Speaker:begins with the moment you decide to be yourself by Coco
Speaker:Chanel, because I had a lot of struggles.
Speaker:And as we're going to get into today with revealing my
Speaker:identity and putting a face behind my business and being truthful
Speaker:to my audience.
Speaker:And so once you realize that what you are capable of,
Speaker:you can do so much more.
Speaker:I 100% agree with you and that quote.
Speaker:So I'm really excited to get into that.
Speaker:I think that is the key being yourself,
Speaker:but you said a word that's really interesting Holly,
Speaker:because I've never heard anyone talk about it this way before.
Speaker:And that was,
Speaker:you said,
Speaker:be sensitive to your audience.
Speaker:We always talk about,
Speaker:well, you need to know who your customer is.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:you need to know who you're talking to,
Speaker:but in terms of being sensitive to your audience,
Speaker:I've never heard it stated that way.
Speaker:Can you expand on that a little bit?
Speaker:Sure. Since I am a speech pathologist in the school and
Speaker:I'm serving speech pathologists in the schools,
Speaker:I get the struggles that my audience is going through on
Speaker:an everyday basis.
Speaker:I'm there with them.
Speaker:I'm in the trenches.
Speaker:I know exactly what is going on.
Speaker:And even if it's not happening to me,
Speaker:it's happening to a friend,
Speaker:a coworker it's happened to me in the past.
Speaker:And I'm very sensitive on the fact that a lot of
Speaker:my audience is spending money out of their own pocket to
Speaker:pay for resources,
Speaker:to help their students,
Speaker:which is going towards my business.
Speaker:It's not like they're getting funding from a school or a
Speaker:district and things like that.
Speaker:I'm very sensitive on the fact that my audience wants to
Speaker:be better and do more and have more free time to
Speaker:devote to their families and things like that.
Speaker:I'm very sensitive of all their different struggles because I have
Speaker:it as well.
Speaker:And that's why I created my business.
Speaker:I realized that I had a strength,
Speaker:a strength that was,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:my lesson planning.
Speaker:Didn't take me that much time that I was easily able
Speaker:to look at my students and come up with a quick
Speaker:idea fast.
Speaker:And that was why I started this whole entrepreneurial journey.
Speaker:But I'm sensitive in the fact that I know what struggles
Speaker:my audience is having,
Speaker:which is leading them to find me.
Speaker:Okay. So let's do take this back from the beginning.
Speaker:I kind of did a quick rundown in your intro of
Speaker:everything that was going on with you.
Speaker:And now you've shared a little bit that you'd identified that
Speaker:you had something that came really easily to you,
Speaker:but let's talk a little bit more about this.
Speaker:Your company's called speech time fun.
Speaker:And let's talk this all through.
Speaker:How did this all get started?
Speaker:Sure. About five years ago,
Speaker:I was hopping from leave replacement to leave replacement.
Speaker:The teaching job market in New York is still pretty rough.
Speaker:And back then it was even more rough.
Speaker:There was not many jobs.
Speaker:And I was having from leave replacement to leave replacement.
Speaker:And that was still putting myself out there each and every
Speaker:year, putting my resume out there.
Speaker:Let me stop you when you say leave replacement,
Speaker:like a maternity leave,
Speaker:like I was filling in for someone else.
Speaker:Oh, got you.
Speaker:Okay. So yeah,
Speaker:so I was filling in for other people's positions.
Speaker:I wasn't having my own position because there weren't any at
Speaker:the time.
Speaker:And I was getting a little down on myself.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:here I am.
Speaker:I've put in my time,
Speaker:I'm seeing people around me getting jobs.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:what am I doing wrong here?
Speaker:And I didn't know where I was going to go.
Speaker:I thought maybe I would start my own private practice.
Speaker:So I created a website thinking I was going to start
Speaker:my own private practice.
Speaker:I didn't know where it was going to go.
Speaker:I just knew I needed to do something different than what
Speaker:I was already doing.
Speaker:And I realized that I had a strength.
Speaker:I was talking to a few coworkers and friends of mine
Speaker:and they were up till 11 o'clock at night lesson planning.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:that doesn't take me much time.
Speaker:And that got me frustrated because here I am,
Speaker:I was not the one with a full-time job and they
Speaker:did. And so I decided to,
Speaker:it was right around the time when Pinterest was becoming popular.
Speaker:I think back then I needed to apply for an account
Speaker:and I decided to blog and pin it.
Speaker:And I saw all my pins starting to travel and people
Speaker:were starting to read it.
Speaker:I was realizing I had something here.
Speaker:I had something people wanted and needed.
Speaker:And so what were the topics of your blogs?
Speaker:It was Just different quick speech therapy,
Speaker:ideas that using what speech therapist already had in their rooms.
Speaker:Like at that point,
Speaker:I wasn't making my own digital resources.
Speaker:I was just sharing strategies and materials that I found.
Speaker:I would find various iPad apps that I would use with
Speaker:my students and share it on my blog and different things
Speaker:that would benefit other speech pathologists,
Speaker:struggling to come up with ideas for themselves to meet the
Speaker:different needs of their students.
Speaker:Speech, language pathologists have a different caseload each and every year
Speaker:when it comes to their students,
Speaker:it's not like a classroom teacher where there's a curriculum we're
Speaker:kind of thrown in and basically told,
Speaker:do what you got to do for your students.
Speaker:And we're given no direction by any boss,
Speaker:administrator, anything.
Speaker:So we have to be creative.
Speaker:We have to kind of try to pull things together,
Speaker:using the limited resources that we are given.
Speaker:So I,
Speaker:on my blog,
Speaker:I shared all these different tools using index cards.
Speaker:And I would find things at the dollar store and share
Speaker:how they can fund creative idea.
Speaker:And I would share it on my blog and because of
Speaker:Pinterest people found it.
Speaker:But back then since I was still looking for a full-time
Speaker:job and I didn't think anyone was gonna read my blog
Speaker:anyway, I decided to not put my name on it,
Speaker:thinking, I don't think I needed my name on it.
Speaker:First of all,
Speaker:and I didn't want to be Google-able in case like a
Speaker:potential job was looking for me.
Speaker:I didn't think that it was a positive thing at the
Speaker:time. I thought it as a negative,
Speaker:You kind of did it consciously,
Speaker:but not really because you just didn't put your name on
Speaker:it, but there was the reason because you didn't want to
Speaker:be found in case that would interfere with an opportunity for
Speaker:some position,
Speaker:but it was kind of either way.
Speaker:You really didn't give it too much thought.
Speaker:Right? I didn't think anyone was going to read it.
Speaker:How long did it take to get traction?
Speaker:Couple of months,
Speaker:within six months,
Speaker:I saw,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:my pins floating.
Speaker:And that was when I started getting the social media accounts
Speaker:going. I was like,
Speaker:I got something here.
Speaker:So even with no one knowing who I was,
Speaker:I still had a Facebook account.
Speaker:I had an Instagram account and a blog following back then
Speaker:people were commenting on blogs.
Speaker:So I knew that people were reading and I was growing
Speaker:a Pinterest following.
Speaker:So I got to see the numbers growing and even like
Speaker:page views on Google analytics.
Speaker:I saw all that going and I'm like,
Speaker:huh? After six months I was like,
Speaker:I have something here.
Speaker:And then I found out about a website called teachers pay
Speaker:teachers, and it's like Etsy,
Speaker:but for teachers,
Speaker:it's a digital selling platform where people can have their own
Speaker:stores on their website,
Speaker:just like Etsy.
Speaker:And I created a store for myself and started creating digital
Speaker:resources that people can purchase and download and print it out
Speaker:and put together themselves to use in their therapy rooms.
Speaker:And I thought,
Speaker:who's going to buy this from me.
Speaker:You're doubting yourself the whole way through Weren't you Holly?
Speaker:The whole way.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:no one knows who I am here.
Speaker:I am.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I don't even have a full-time job yet.
Speaker:And when I made my first sale,
Speaker:I realized I had something here,
Speaker:but I was still too scared to put my name on
Speaker:it. I was scared to own it.
Speaker:Why? Partially,
Speaker:because of the job situation,
Speaker:I was afraid of being Googleable.
Speaker:And I really honestly was afraid of what people might think.
Speaker:What coworkers might think,
Speaker:what friends might think,
Speaker:Even though you are getting traction and you were obviously responding
Speaker:to people's comments on the blog.
Speaker:So you were seeing all of this positive reinforcement,
Speaker:but you were still anxious about getting it.
Speaker:Yeah. I was still just worried about what people would think.
Speaker:If they found me,
Speaker:I thought of it in a negative sense in the beginning.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Why did you Like okay.
Speaker:If they know that it's me,
Speaker:then this will all go away.
Speaker:But as long as they don't know it's me,
Speaker:it's all good.
Speaker:Yeah. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker:I thought that maybe if they knew it was me,
Speaker:they would say I'm not buying from her now.
Speaker:Yeah. That's really interesting.
Speaker:Oh, wait,
Speaker:give biz listeners,
Speaker:is this resonating with you?
Speaker:Is there something that you're thinking of doing and more than
Speaker:likely you're not even starting and hiding behind it,
Speaker:like how he was doing,
Speaker:but is there something where you just keep thinking to yourself?
Speaker:Oh, it's for everybody else,
Speaker:but I'm not deserving or it's not for me.
Speaker:Just think about that a little bit as we carry on
Speaker:with this conversation.
Speaker:Okay. So you have everything out there.
Speaker:You're starting to put out some courses and people are actually
Speaker:opening their wallets and spending money with you.
Speaker:That had to be so exciting.
Speaker:Oh, so exciting back then on their app,
Speaker:it would go searching when you get a sale.
Speaker:And when you first heard that first touching you like,
Speaker:wow, that can't be mine.
Speaker:Something must be wrong.
Speaker:I, I had to check,
Speaker:I had to go on the website.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:wait. And I realized I had something.
Speaker:I realized that people were enjoying what I was providing into
Speaker:the world.
Speaker:And over time it made it easier to stay hidden.
Speaker:I was afraid that my audience would be mad at me.
Speaker:If I all of a sudden came out and reveal my
Speaker:identity. I even had friends and coworkers purchase from me not
Speaker:knowing it was me.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:Did you ever have conversations where someone would say,
Speaker:Oh, you should go to this site and check it out
Speaker:and see,
Speaker:and then it was really you.
Speaker:It was me.
Speaker:It happened several times.
Speaker:And that's what made it harder to reveal my identity because
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:okay, now I'm really hiding things from people.
Speaker:Now It gets to the point where,
Speaker:because there are people that know you,
Speaker:that it's almost dishonest.
Speaker:Then if you don't say,
Speaker:well, it's me<inaudible> and I was just so worried about being
Speaker:figured out.
Speaker:At that point,
Speaker:I was so thrown into the mix of hidden and no
Speaker:one knows who I am.
Speaker:I had the secret identity and it was just easier to
Speaker:stay hidden because I was afraid of it.
Speaker:Now what people that I knew that bought from me with
Speaker:think when they realized that I just took their money and
Speaker:didn't tell them that I did Thinking must've come to a
Speaker:point where it's like,
Speaker:it's either now or never,
Speaker:because at some point you're just into D if you don't
Speaker:say something soon.
Speaker:Yeah. And then I had,
Speaker:my big turning point was when a bunch of other speech
Speaker:pathologists, bloggers,
Speaker:teacher pay teacher sellers,
Speaker:they came together and they went to a national convention.
Speaker:I didn't go because how could I go?
Speaker:No one knows who I am.
Speaker:And I was sitting back,
Speaker:looking on social media,
Speaker:watching them,
Speaker:grow their businesses and do amazing things.
Speaker:And I couldn't be a part of it because no one
Speaker:knew who I was.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:I need to do something about this.
Speaker:But I was still too scared.
Speaker:So the following year I decided to go myself.
Speaker:I was still anonymous,
Speaker:but I was like,
Speaker:I'm going to go and see what happens.
Speaker:And when I was there,
Speaker:I had numerous conversations with customers,
Speaker:with fellow entrepreneurs in the same industry as myself.
Speaker:And they were like,
Speaker:what are you scared of?
Speaker:You're holding yourself back.
Speaker:Like, they were almost like,
Speaker:they're mad at me.
Speaker:I'll never forget this.
Speaker:They said to me,
Speaker:I don't trust you.
Speaker:I don't know you.
Speaker:How can I work with you?
Speaker:I don't know you interesting.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:huh? I was like,
Speaker:here I am.
Speaker:I have all this credibility because I have all these products.
Speaker:I've been blogging for three years.
Speaker:Now I should have credibility.
Speaker:But I didn't because no one knew my name.
Speaker:No one even knew that I was a licensed speech pathologist.
Speaker:They trusted me when I said that I was,
Speaker:but there was no proof because they couldn't check my credentials.
Speaker:Even. And after that conference,
Speaker:I came home from Denver.
Speaker:I sat down with my husband.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:I'm revealing my identity.
Speaker:This is it.
Speaker:I'm done.
Speaker:I'm doing it.
Speaker:And I started doing little teasers on social media and I
Speaker:got together various other bloggers in my industry.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:will you help me out?
Speaker:And they were like,
Speaker:yeah, we'll help.
Speaker:We'll make this big.
Speaker:Like, we're going to really showcase that.
Speaker:You're a real person.
Speaker:Since we met you now in person.
Speaker:And I did a whole big giveaway and a whole big
Speaker:party on my blog.
Speaker:And on social media,
Speaker:I made a big,
Speaker:and I was like,
Speaker:I'm going to do this.
Speaker:I'm going to do this.
Speaker:Right. And I've been in the last,
Speaker:what two years now.
Speaker:I've been still making up for lost time.
Speaker:And in the meantime,
Speaker:I've been now hopping on Facebook lives,
Speaker:doing webinars.
Speaker:I'm speaking at conferences.
Speaker:Now I'm now on your podcast.
Speaker:All these things would have never happened if I was still
Speaker:anonymous and I've made it my business to go above and
Speaker:beyond to make up for lost time.
Speaker:Because three years went by that I lost that.
Speaker:No one knew who I was.
Speaker:I couldn't share stories.
Speaker:I couldn't show that I was a real person and be
Speaker:sensitive. I couldn't be sensitive when I was anonymous because I
Speaker:was afraid to reveal too much.
Speaker:So now I'm so able to do so much more.
Speaker:Now that I reveal my identity.
Speaker:Okay. I have a million questions here now.
Speaker:Of course it's so heart-wrenching that you were the one holding
Speaker:yourself back and people were just open to you already just
Speaker:meeting you at that conference and saying,
Speaker:yes, yes,
Speaker:yes. Go for it.
Speaker:So you go home,
Speaker:you talk to your husband,
Speaker:but still inside,
Speaker:you had to be so anxious and so nervous.
Speaker:But what did you do?
Speaker:You, didn't just like a little bit reveal your identity.
Speaker:You made it this big thing.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:if I'm going to do it,
Speaker:I'm doing it right.
Speaker:And I'm doing it well,
Speaker:and I'm going to own it.
Speaker:And if people call me up and they asked me,
Speaker:Hey, why didn't you tell me I had a story ready
Speaker:to go?
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:exactly what I said to you,
Speaker:that I was really nervous.
Speaker:And it can be a true story.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:everyone can relate to this.
Speaker:I think everybody in N the few,
Speaker:maybe 2% of the population who has no self doubt ever,
Speaker:if that even exists,
Speaker:can totally relate and understand.
Speaker:There's a such been a situation in their lives where that's
Speaker:happened to talk to us a little bit about your party,
Speaker:like what you did on social media.
Speaker:And the reason I'm asking you,
Speaker:this is I'm a big advocate.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we have a lot of listeners who only have online shops,
Speaker:okay. They're never going to have a brick and mortar,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:any of that.
Speaker:And I try to explain to them that you too can
Speaker:have a grand opening.
Speaker:It's not only for physical locations for them to have a
Speaker:grand opening when they're starting their business.
Speaker:So this is kind of similar in terms of your party.
Speaker:And this is the grand opening of you,
Speaker:Holly Sherman.
Speaker:Right? Talk a little bit about what you did.
Speaker:I had a week long love blog giveaways.
Speaker:I was giving away my free resources.
Speaker:I was giving away gift cards.
Speaker:I had people donating to me.
Speaker:I reached out to people and I was like,
Speaker:Hey, I'm doing this big reveal.
Speaker:I'm going to get a lot of traffic because people are
Speaker:so curious to know who I am.
Speaker:Would you donate to me?
Speaker:And so many people were like,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:and they donated resources.
Speaker:They donated,
Speaker:like, I think I got some iPad app gift codes to
Speaker:give away.
Speaker:I gave away so many different things like a week long
Speaker:of events.
Speaker:And so how did you promote it?
Speaker:Pinterest. I back then,
Speaker:I wasn't doing Facebook ads,
Speaker:just using social media back then.
Speaker:The algorithms.
Speaker:Weren't that crazy.
Speaker:When you say back then,
Speaker:what year was this?
Speaker:What year was your reveal?
Speaker:2015. Okay.
Speaker:So couple years ago,
Speaker:year and a half,
Speaker:two years ago,
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:Okay. So no ads,
Speaker:really no money spent.
Speaker:It was all social media and organic messaging,
Speaker:really By asking other people to help donate.
Speaker:I was also hoping that they would share it on their
Speaker:social media to bring people to my blog posts,
Speaker:where I went through my story.
Speaker:I show pictures on myself.
Speaker:I shared little snippets of information.
Speaker:I never shared before where I went to college.
Speaker:The state that I live in,
Speaker:I was still nervous about giving too many details away.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's also something that we all probably struggle with how much
Speaker:to reveal,
Speaker:because we still want to have some things private,
Speaker:but I just gave away enough of information that people knew
Speaker:I was credible and they can trust me.
Speaker:And I just showed my face.
Speaker:I had to get used to taking selfies.
Speaker:That was something I was not comfortable with.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Okay. So that is the logistical.
Speaker:If you will,
Speaker:now, internally Holly,
Speaker:like in your heart,
Speaker:how do you get yourself to do?
Speaker:I just had to do it.
Speaker:It was like a band-aid.
Speaker:I had to just rip it.
Speaker:Like when I came home from that conference,
Speaker:it was honestly in like a two week span.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:I'm just doing it.
Speaker:I'm going.
Speaker:And I haven't looked back ever since I'm in the momentum
Speaker:has just continued to grow.
Speaker:And I see the feedback and the results when people were
Speaker:saying to me,
Speaker:thank you so much for revealing.
Speaker:And thank you so much for helping me with a,
Speaker:B and C and your blog posts in your resources have
Speaker:given me so much motivation and inspiration that keeps me going.
Speaker:Otherwise. I haven't had a chance to sit back and say,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:people know who I am now.
Speaker:Right. Tips for people.
Speaker:Well then who are in this type of a situation,
Speaker:it sounded like you didn't even let yourself think.
Speaker:You just said,
Speaker:okay, I know I've got to do it.
Speaker:I'm going to put this together.
Speaker:You clearly strategized and planned the reveal because you had the
Speaker:whole structure and the rollout and all of that.
Speaker:But then when you actually did it,
Speaker:did you just like,
Speaker:shut your brain off and say,
Speaker:we are in performance mode.
Speaker:I'm not thinking I'm going to just do this.
Speaker:Yes. And I realized that I had a talent and something
Speaker:that I should own and be proud of.
Speaker:And when I started telling people,
Speaker:I started getting that elevator speech going like,
Speaker:Hey, this is what I do.
Speaker:And I started telling people and people were like,
Speaker:wow, that's awesome.
Speaker:You have to teach me how to do it.
Speaker:And that was the responses I kept getting.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:why was I scared?
Speaker:What was I afraid of?
Speaker:And no,
Speaker:one's given me any negative responses ever since then.
Speaker:And that's kept me going well.
Speaker:And now you're seeing what you were missing out on by
Speaker:not revealing yourself earlier,
Speaker:which is really,
Speaker:I've never heard anybody do this before Holly.
Speaker:And it's just so interesting for everybody to see that they're
Speaker:just keeping themselves back.
Speaker:However, what I would say also is you did prove that
Speaker:you had something that an audience wanted.
Speaker:So it was kind of nice for you in that situation
Speaker:back then to just test some things out.
Speaker:If you didn't feel comfortable with getting your name out and
Speaker:truly you had a good reason just in case,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:for the position,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:to get a position,
Speaker:if that would conflict or whatever,
Speaker:but would you say that maybe it was good in the
Speaker:beginning? You just should have come out a little bit.
Speaker:Oh, definitely.
Speaker:Once I saw the first pin go viral,
Speaker:I should have revealed my identity.
Speaker:Once I realized that I had something that people wanted,
Speaker:I should have owned it.
Speaker:I shouldn't have never looking back.
Speaker:I take back so many mistakes,
Speaker:but everything happens for a reason.
Speaker:I truly believe that I needed to go through the motions
Speaker:of being scared and going to this conference and realizing that
Speaker:I was missing out on so many opportunities,
Speaker:because I realized in my heart that I wanted those opportunities.
Speaker:I didn't think that five years ago,
Speaker:five years ago,
Speaker:I just wanted someone to read my blog.
Speaker:That's all I cared about.
Speaker:Would you recommend for somebody in your situation to test the
Speaker:waters behind the scenes like you did,
Speaker:and just,
Speaker:if they get traction,
Speaker:then come on out.
Speaker:If someone's really nervous and they just want to test system,
Speaker:or would you just recommend coming out right from the start?
Speaker:There's definitely benefits for both.
Speaker:If you are hesitant and nervous and worried about whatever reason,
Speaker:whether it's a full-time job that you have at the time,
Speaker:or if you're not sure if people are going to like
Speaker:whatever you're producing and you're nervous,
Speaker:put your name on it,
Speaker:then try it out.
Speaker:Why not?
Speaker:But don't wait three years.
Speaker:Once you see that people are investing and liking your stuff,
Speaker:put your name on it,
Speaker:own it,
Speaker:put a personality behind it.
Speaker:That's been the best thing I can do.
Speaker:Even just doing an Instagram story.
Speaker:People say to me,
Speaker:wow, I love your accent.
Speaker:You're clearly from New York.
Speaker:And no one was able to do that before.
Speaker:And so many people are like commenting back,
Speaker:like, Oh,
Speaker:I have a cousin that lives in New York.
Speaker:I love hearing your accent.
Speaker:And then people are able to connect with something as simple
Speaker:as that,
Speaker:that I couldn't do before.
Speaker:And that could lead to more sales and growing my audience.
Speaker:And now I'm able to do so much more.
Speaker:That sky's the limit.
Speaker:I couldn't be in this situation if I didn't put my
Speaker:name on it and my face and my personality.
Speaker:Yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So I think we've gotten the message down in that.
Speaker:You just do it,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you don't think about it.
Speaker:If this is the direction that you're taking,
Speaker:you just go ahead and let yourself be out there.
Speaker:And don't second.
Speaker:Guess yourself,
Speaker:just be yourself.
Speaker:And back to your point with your candle quote is be
Speaker:yourself. And don't try to be anybody else because when you
Speaker:try to be somebody else,
Speaker:it comes across as inauthentic.
Speaker:You can spot it a mile away,
Speaker:right? So just be yourself.
Speaker:Some people are going to love you.
Speaker:Some people may not so much,
Speaker:and that's perfectly fine too,
Speaker:but now you're also talking about this whole live aspect.
Speaker:You're going on Instagram,
Speaker:you're doing stories or Facebook live or whatever.
Speaker:That's a whole nother realm,
Speaker:right? Because that's not just saying,
Speaker:okay, I'm this person behind the words that's putting your face
Speaker:in front of a camera.
Speaker:Yes. That was scary in itself.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:for someone who is scared to put their name on anything,
Speaker:to then be raw and real on live video,
Speaker:it was a whole nother ball game.
Speaker:But I realized that I had to,
Speaker:in this industry,
Speaker:I had to stand out.
Speaker:I had to fight algorithms and I had to put myself
Speaker:out there in order to see the growth and sales that
Speaker:I wanted.
Speaker:And I felt like I deserved.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:you just decided you were going to do it.
Speaker:And that's it.
Speaker:I did it once.
Speaker:And I saw the response and I was like,
Speaker:I got to keep going in the beginning.
Speaker:I was a lot more consistent.
Speaker:I was doing Periscope,
Speaker:I think once a week,
Speaker:maybe twice a week.
Speaker:Not so much as much now as I would like to
Speaker:be since,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:now I'm on summer break,
Speaker:but I was working full-time and I have a three-year-old.
Speaker:So it was a little difficult to go Facebook lives and
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:But I always tried to do like a daily Instagram story
Speaker:to get my audience,
Speaker:to see me get fresh ideas.
Speaker:I like to stand out and just be present and in
Speaker:their inbox or whatever I to do daily.
Speaker:Periscopes When Periscope first came out and now I'm doing Instagram
Speaker:stories and Facebook live too,
Speaker:but you're doing daily Instagram,
Speaker:which is awesome.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:the stories and people.
Speaker:It's so interesting because when you are just yourself,
Speaker:in fact,
Speaker:I did a story real quick,
Speaker:right before we jumped on,
Speaker:do you know that it's social media marketing day?
Speaker:Oh, I didn't even know that.
Speaker:Yeah. We are recording June 30th.
Speaker:For those of you who are tracking time,
Speaker:because the show won't actually go live until next month,
Speaker:actually, August,
Speaker:I believe.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:live is so important these days and you attract people that
Speaker:you wouldn't be attracting anywhere else.
Speaker:And they really see to your point,
Speaker:Holly, about,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a personality,
Speaker:someone that they can relate to.
Speaker:And just People want to feel like they're buying from their
Speaker:best friend or their neighbor or someone they know that's otherwise
Speaker:they would go to these big businesses and things like that.
Speaker:They want to buy from people they know and can trust.
Speaker:Absolutely. There is a big shift now,
Speaker:I think from the big chain stores now to more personal
Speaker:one-on-one buying just like you're talking about so thrilled that you're
Speaker:talking about Instagram stories and the nice thing about all that
Speaker:live too is it's not expected that it's going to be
Speaker:perfect. You're not going to necessarily brand everything.
Speaker:And so what if coffee spills off right Desk?
Speaker:People just want to see real people want to see that
Speaker:you're a real person.
Speaker:You stumble on your words that you make mistake.
Speaker:Your phone might ring in the middle of a webinar.
Speaker:It's happened to me.
Speaker:And you just got to keep on going and trust that
Speaker:you're providing such great value that your audience is going to
Speaker:eat up and love and keep going and keep doing it.
Speaker:Absolutely Comments or recommendations or wisdom for people who are sitting
Speaker:on the fence and say,
Speaker:yeah, yeah,
Speaker:Holly, I hear what you're saying,
Speaker:but I'm still nervous.
Speaker:That's about it.
Speaker:The more you can connect with your audience,
Speaker:the more they're going to connect with you and be willing
Speaker:to share what you're doing with their friends and tell people
Speaker:and buy more and more and more.
Speaker:If you want those repeat buyers and people to really resonate
Speaker:with your business and what you're doing and what you stand
Speaker:for, you need to put yourself out there and share it.
Speaker:Don't be afraid to take a selfie.
Speaker:Don't be afraid to do an Instagram story with your face,
Speaker:showing, do a Facebook live,
Speaker:put your name on your blog.
Speaker:And with the nice photo,
Speaker:don't be afraid to put yourself out there because you'll never
Speaker:know what you're missing out on.
Speaker:Unless you try.
Speaker:And from someone who's been there so much opportunity has been
Speaker:presented since showing my face and my audience really appreciated it.
Speaker:They said,
Speaker:thank you.
Speaker:And they're able to really connect with what I'm doing and
Speaker:what I'm standing for.
Speaker:And I'm also able to stand out more from my competitors
Speaker:because I'm able to put my personality with my branding.
Speaker:So I say,
Speaker:do it,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:Shelly. Excellent point.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:couldn't have been said better.
Speaker:And you just brought in a great comment at the end,
Speaker:in terms of standing out from your competitors because no one
Speaker:else can be you.
Speaker:So let's even say somebody was trying to do something to
Speaker:you. No one can still do it in your way.
Speaker:Everybody is themselves.
Speaker:So everybody can have that advantage.
Speaker:Everyone has a different,
Speaker:unique story that brings something different to the table.
Speaker:And unless you share your story,
Speaker:no one will know that.
Speaker:Okay. I want to swing out into something a little bit
Speaker:different, cause we've really talked about how you just need to
Speaker:get yourself out there in front and take the chances and
Speaker:take the risk.
Speaker:Let's talk a little bit now about your blogging and creating
Speaker:courses and all of that.
Speaker:What do you think in that whole journey in terms of
Speaker:putting that out there?
Speaker:What types of traits or what resources,
Speaker:or what did you pull from yourself to get that taken
Speaker:care of?
Speaker:To do that?
Speaker:I like to look at the struggles that I've had in
Speaker:my field and I write about it.
Speaker:I share,
Speaker:okay, this is a problem.
Speaker:And this is how you can solve it.
Speaker:This is how I solved it.
Speaker:And by using my own personal experiences and sharing stories and
Speaker:tapping into the,
Speaker:and using the language that I know my audience is using,
Speaker:people are reading it and liking it and able to try
Speaker:it out for themselves because they can relate to it.
Speaker:Probably exactly.
Speaker:Do you have any tools that you can share with us
Speaker:in terms of what you're doing?
Speaker:Do you have a three-year-old you mentioned,
Speaker:so life is probably full of lots of demands on your
Speaker:time here and there and everywhere.
Speaker:What do you do in your work day?
Speaker:Are there any tools or anything that you're using so that
Speaker:you can get everything taken care of and produce as you
Speaker:are My cell phone?
Speaker:I just takes photos wherever I can,
Speaker:and I batch them out and I use lots of folders
Speaker:in a Dropbox app on my phone that can connect to
Speaker:my computer this way.
Speaker:When she goes to bed,
Speaker:I can easily transfer everything over and use.
Speaker:I love using Canva to keep my branding and tact and
Speaker:make quick templates for myself.
Speaker:So I can easily make Pinterest images of my resources that
Speaker:I create and have my blog post ideas.
Speaker:So that's something that just saves me a lot of time.
Speaker:I just use my templates with my colors and my fonts
Speaker:and all that stuff.
Speaker:And then I also just love anything that automates my business
Speaker:as much as possible.
Speaker:So I use a lot of tailwind.
Speaker:It's a scheduling platform for our Pinterest.
Speaker:This way I can set it and forget it.
Speaker:I have all my pins of my blog posts and my
Speaker:teachers pay teachers resources scheduled out for a month.
Speaker:And I don't have to think about it.
Speaker:I love also using meet Edgar to schedule out my Facebook
Speaker:and Twitter posts.
Speaker:So this way I can also set it and forget it.
Speaker:So anything I can really keep as automated as possible because
Speaker:I'd like to be able to sleep and eat and I
Speaker:work a full-time job.
Speaker:So I need to be able to automate as much as
Speaker:possible. Oh my Gosh,
Speaker:we didn't even talk about that.
Speaker:We're so stressed with time and I totally agree with you.
Speaker:I'm not as familiar with tailwind,
Speaker:but I understand a similar thing I think,
Speaker:to meet Edgar,
Speaker:but it's for Pinterest.
Speaker:Yes. The other thing that's so great about meet Edgar is
Speaker:it will continually rotate your posts if you want to.
Speaker:So that's really helpful too,
Speaker:for timing.
Speaker:You have it down Pat And I also loved meet Edgar
Speaker:cause you can schedule different categories to different times of the
Speaker:day in different days of the week.
Speaker:So I know how my audience is feeling on a Monday
Speaker:morning and I can post something specific in that kind of
Speaker:category of coffee,
Speaker:tired, stressed out,
Speaker:upset the weekend's over,
Speaker:and I can schedule out different things based on their mood
Speaker:and interests.
Speaker:Underline that here in terms of posting and the types of
Speaker:posts that you're doing,
Speaker:where Holly is saying,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:she understands that her audience might need a little jumpstart on
Speaker:a Monday morning.
Speaker:And so any posts that are more related to that can
Speaker:jump into the Monday mornings.
Speaker:What does that for your audience?
Speaker:Think about that.
Speaker:Just not posting,
Speaker:not just putting things up in the timeframes that you want,
Speaker:but what is the specific topic of the post and how
Speaker:does that then link into what your customer might be experiencing
Speaker:at that point in time?
Speaker:Excellent comment,
Speaker:Hailey. All right.
Speaker:Is there a book or another resource that you tap into
Speaker:regularly to help you enhance your posts or continue your learning?
Speaker:I'm always listening to podcasts every time I'm in the car
Speaker:going somewhere.
Speaker:I have a podcast going so that I can always learn.
Speaker:I always try to stick to a topic,
Speaker:whether it's blogging or Instagram or Facebook ads.
Speaker:And I will create my,
Speaker:a little playlist for myself and whenever I'm on the go,
Speaker:or if I'm going for a walk with my daughter in
Speaker:her stroller,
Speaker:I'm listening and learning and taking in as much information as
Speaker:possible because algorithms are always changing.
Speaker:Social media is always changing.
Speaker:There's always new tools out there.
Speaker:I want to be the first to know it.
Speaker:Totally agree.
Speaker:Well, I'm hoping you're listening to ours because it was especially,
Speaker:you're going to be on.
Speaker:Are there a couple of others that you would reference?
Speaker:I love social media examiner.
Speaker:That's always a good one.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Michael, Stelzner yours.
Speaker:Amy Porterfield.
Speaker:Those are some just to name a few that I listen
Speaker:to regularly.
Speaker:AskPat Those are all my favorites too.
Speaker:Holly. Absolutely.
Speaker:You guys are my go tos.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Give his listeners just as you're listening to the podcast today,
Speaker:you can also listen to podcasts and audio books with ease.
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to
Speaker:get an audio book on me for free.
Speaker:All you need to do is go to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and make a selection.
Speaker:That's gift biz,
Speaker:book.com. All right,
Speaker:Holly. Now I would like to dare you to dream.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:The ability to continue to share my gift of creativity and
Speaker:passion. I want to keep helping busy speech-language pathologists that are
Speaker:seeking assistance.
Speaker:I know that they're always looking for creative ideas and I
Speaker:hope to always have those ideas to over a long haul
Speaker:because I love giving back to a field that I love.
Speaker:I truly love what I do.
Speaker:I love helping my students each and every day.
Speaker:And I hope to just keep that momentum going.
Speaker:I hope to always have the energy and drive and the
Speaker:ideas to keep flowing so I can help the audience that
Speaker:I'm trying to serve.
Speaker:Fabulous. And what is your favorite venue?
Speaker:Is it speaking or what's your very favorite part?
Speaker:I love it all.
Speaker:I don't speak live as much as I,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:would love to just because of time,
Speaker:but I have some live speaking events coming up in the
Speaker:future in the next few weeks,
Speaker:actually, now that I'm off for the summer,
Speaker:I try to book a few,
Speaker:but I love any way that I can teach.
Speaker:I've done a few webinars.
Speaker:I love being able to just share free,
Speaker:valuable ideas.
Speaker:I don't need anyone to necessarily buy anything from me.
Speaker:I just love helping and sharing and helping others learn and
Speaker:grow Beautiful.
Speaker:How can our listeners get in touch with you?
Speaker:If there was one single place you would direct people to
Speaker:because they're out walking their dogs or in the car or
Speaker:something, and they can't look at the show notes page right
Speaker:now, if there was one place you would tell them to
Speaker:look that they can remember,
Speaker:what would that be?
Speaker:They can visit my blog speech time fund.com
Speaker:and there's links there to find me on,
Speaker:well, my social media platforms,
Speaker:if you want to see what I'm doing over there to
Speaker:get some ideas.
Speaker:And if you really want to dig deep into my blog
Speaker:and you can probably find the blog posts where I revealed
Speaker:my identity as well.
Speaker:Oh, that would be fun.
Speaker:So you can look in the search tab and try to
Speaker:find it To do a little research,
Speaker:find that link and put that over in the show notes
Speaker:And as well.
Speaker:So if anyone wants to get an idea of what to
Speaker:do, they're more than happy to do that.
Speaker:And you can also send me a message.
Speaker:You can send one through my blog and I'd be happy
Speaker:to give anyone any guidance or tips or just a motivational
Speaker:speech if you need.
Speaker:Hello, thank you so much.
Speaker:That's wonderful that you offer that up.
Speaker:My pleasure.
Speaker:I really Have enjoyed speaking with you.
Speaker:I think that this topic is something that so many of
Speaker:our listeners,
Speaker:a lot of people everywhere,
Speaker:but especially our listeners who are really,
Speaker:they have that desire way deep down to do something more,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:as you talk about,
Speaker:you're not in it for getting the sales,
Speaker:you're in it for sharing what you know,
Speaker:helping others make their lives easier,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:So many people who are listening can relate,
Speaker:and this is a story,
Speaker:Holly, it's very unique.
Speaker:It's different than I've ever heard before.
Speaker:And I really appreciate you being genuine and real and authentic
Speaker:and sharing.
Speaker:And I think we're going to help a lot of people
Speaker:here today.
Speaker:So for that,
Speaker:thank you so much.
Speaker:And Holly,
Speaker:that your candle always burn bright.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:Where are you in your business building journey,
Speaker:whether you're just starting out or already running a business and
Speaker:you want to know your setup for success.
Speaker:Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,
Speaker:access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y
Speaker:slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting gift
Speaker:biz quiz to four four two,
Speaker:two, two.
Speaker:Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
Speaker:next episode.
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Speaker:make sure to jump over and subscribe to the show on
Speaker:iTunes. That way you'll automatically get the newest episodes when they
Speaker:go live.
Speaker:And thank you to those who have already left a rating
Speaker:and review by subscribing rating and reviewing helped to increase the
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Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward,