Episode 59: Building Connections with Megan Dowd

Today's Guest: Liz Svatek

 Liz is the CEO of Warrior Women Inc, a seven-figure personal growth business founded upon women unleashing their inner warrior and becoming the most powerful versions of themselves. She is the creator of the warrior women mastermind, a transformational program bringing women together nationwide. And she is the host of the Conversations with Warrior Women Podcast, which is globally ranked in the top 1.5%. Liz travels worldwide, speaking, healing, and empowering women to lean into their limitless possibilities and reclaim their power.

From this episode:

"I think when we use that term (hustle), people fill their calendars, but they're not filling their calendars with meaningful items, projects, or tasks that move our businesses or personal lives forward. Everybody here, all the listeners, know my why is because my nieces and nephews block time for their games or to take them to dinner or lunch or take them on their trips for their sports."-Dr. T

"The hustle thing is a very old paradigm where we think we have to work harder and harder to keep up with men to keep up with the money, all the things, and I think letting that go and being in a more intuitive space, women are receivers. So being in a more intuitive place to receive things to be a little more slow, deliberate, calm, and connected is really who we are. And when women are in that space, you don't have to hustle. The clients come, and the opportunities arise because you are aligned and chill-hustling. You know, people get turned off when you're overly in people's faces and chasing them down. That's not the energy you want to bring to a situation. You want to get more receiver energy and be there and connect. So I don't think we need to hustle. I think we need to drop the hustle." Liz Svatek

https://www.lizsvatek.com/

https://sheangelsfoundation.org/

Today's Guest: Juan Carillo

Juan Carillo is a small business owner and entrepreneur with experience creating business plans, raising capital, and managing projects. He has led his microbrewery's social responsibility strategy, which has been able to fund student scholarships, connect volunteers to nonprofits, raise funds for local causes, and provide an outlet for artists and entrepreneurs to showcase their work. Juan has over ten years of experience in the nonprofit sector. His most recent role is Senior Director of College and Career Development with the Boys and Girls Club of central Orange Coast. Under his leadership, the organization's impact grew from 40 to 2500 high school youth served annually. Juan led the program's expansion to four cities in Orange County and managed relationships with districts, community organizations, corporate partners, and foundations. In addition, he led the development of yearly program goals, metrics, evaluations, and strategies that met organizational grant and donor objectives. Juan has an MA in social entrepreneurship from Pepperdine University.

From this episode:

 "I think when we allow people in their communities to find their solution, they want that solution; they want to figure it out. And you can make change faster by infusing resources, or as you said, being that conduit that facilitator exponentially. And I think people get the whole concept here a little confused, social responsibility, what does that look like, community-based activities." -Dr. T

"For me, it's about having listeners understand that I think we have the opportunity to change the world. And it's our responsibility to find how we're spending our time and spending our money to drive that and make that change. And I think it's what we'll see in the next several years; this social enterprise movement has become at the forefront of how we engage as consumers and how we want to engage with companies. And I believe we will see some of the best innovations from Orange County or Southern California that will impact the world. "-Juan Carillo

https://www.revhuboc.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanecarrillo/

Today's Guest: Nona Prather

Nona Prather works with professional speakers and consultants who want to find more paid speaking opportunities. She is the author of 24 Ways to Get Paid to Speak and runs a booking agency, Prather Marketing. She specializes in setting up marketing plans for professional speakers through phone calls, email campaigns, social media, and marketing materials. 

From this episode:

It's this old dilemma of getting paid or doing it for free. And, you know, I have to tell you some of the biggest rewards I have received for finding the target-rich audience, the people that are my ideal clients, I've shown up for free to do a speaking engagement. And I've made more money out of that speaking engagement that was free."-Dr. T

"You cannot speak on anything; you are not the expert on every topic. So I always say choose three industries that resonate with your message the most and dive deep into those—one of my clients. Frank King always says the riches are in the niches because he plunges deep. He works in the construction industry. And that's where most of his gigs come from. So if you can become that go-to expert in the industry that you're targeting, that's the best way to keep yourself busy and get those gigs happening, and bring those association meetings and get the word out that you are the experts that people want to hear from."-Nona Prather

https://prather-marketing.com/

nona@prather-marketing.com

Today's Guest: Lisa Sakai

Lisa Sakai founded One Vision Retirement with two ideas: a client-first approach and a focus on advice and planning permission. It's simple to cut through the noise and provide thoughtful, customized financial advice tailored to your personal situation. With the heart of a servant and the mind of a teacher, Lisa is always available to help you when you need her most. But especially when you think you don't need her. Lisa runs a virtual practice. So she can serve clients all over the country. She works with female professionals to leverage their dollars. So they have a lifestyle they love now and in the future. Lisa lives in northern Arizona and loves trail running, cooking, reading, traveling, food kickboxing, and spin class.

From this episode:

 "When I plan, I know exactly what I'm going to do. And I do it in business, too. When we create a program that we do, as we've just launched something new at Kaleidoscope Media Services, our whole technology platform is KMS powered, and I will tell you, we are so excited about it that you can feel it. And it's so much easier to build the relationship and talk about this is what we're doing—not selling anything. I'm just talking about what we're doing. And that's why you started talking about this whole bucket list and getting down when I first met you. But, still, I also think this piece of you allows people to have this insecurity because we all have insecurity about our finances, like do we have enough? Am I doing it right? Am I doing it wrong? And we do walk in going; I'm going to be embarrassed. And I love that you're like, let's change the conversation. Let's change our language around it."-Dr. T

"Bucket list planning could be seen as goal planning, but I actually dig really deep into the why of the goal and the bucket list item. It's not a goal for 30 years from now when you might be hanging it up and deciding you want to do something different. It's the goal that we're going to try to accomplish now. Because how do you know who you are in retirement if you haven't experienced anything now? You don't know what you like and don't, so we build it into your planning. So it's a great motivation to save because it's part of your savings strategy. "-Lisa Sakai

https://www.onevisionretire.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisasakai/

Today's Guest: Wanda Allen

Wanda Allen is an international speaker, coach, corporate trainer, author, and award-winning business owner. She's the author of Follow Up Savvy and Follow Up Sales Strategies. Wanda had a 25-year corporate career where she held the position of Senior Vice President for 15 years. She has a sales background and worked with sales teams throughout her corporate job. She gained extensive training in business development, maintaining client relationships, and customer service. She has a vital skill set for developing systems and applied this skill to the follow-up process. What she teaches is tried, tested, and proven. After leaving the corporate world to pursue her business ventures, Wanda founded Follow Up Sales Strategies. She's an expert in helping entrepreneurs, business owners, and sales professionals increase pipelines, improve sales performance, and strengthen relationships by developing strong follow-up skills. 

From this episode:

"When I find I'm very passionate about my work. Like, I love what we do. It's helping people grow their businesses; it's creating time and freedom for them. And it's all these things that I love. And I find that I'm really not entering a sales call; I'm entering a relationship. And when I'm thinking about it and doing a service, the fear sort of goes away because I'm coming in at a different angle."-Dr. T

"You are asking the prospect questions rather than you talking, talking, and throwing everything you can do and how great you are. That's the turnout. So, there's a saying, be more interested than interesting. So be interested in the prospect. So, where are you in terms of your follow-up? What habits do you have? Where do you struggle? Where are you successful? It's whatever your product or services, so prospects will put them at ease. And listen, we like people who are interested in us that feed our ego, we all have an ego, and that person will be a lot more likable. So it's putting the focus on the prospect because truly, you want to find out how you can best help them and where they are, you know, it's called meeting them where they are, yes, and, you know, working from the same page."-Wanda Allen

https://followupsalesstrategies.com/

Today's Guest: Karen Abrams

Karen is a UCLA-educated entrepreneur, Master theta healer, gifted, intuitive, and international best-selling author. For 20 years, she has helped entrepreneurs and professionals release self-sabotaging habits and gain confidence, financial security, and personal fulfillment. Karen works with clients worldwide to transform their subconscious beliefs and break free from the trapped emotions, traumas, and limiting mindsets to build the financial and personal success they desire and deserve. She is known for integrating her energetic work with practical tools to produce powerful results. Her insights and healing abilities have made her a rising star on radio podcasts, the International telesummit circuit in the human potential movement.

From this episode:

" I had a lot of self-doubts, just everything crept in, and yet, other people around me always said, you're great, you're so successful. And all of that support and all of that conversation for me, I was almost fearful because it put me into a position of OK; now, I have to be successful. And it wasn't until I turned the corner or finally said, wait a second. It's OK. I don't know everything. It's OK, and I became OK with making mistakes. OK, with, quite frankly, looking stupid on stage, you got to make mistakes. And then you realize I'm OKOK. This wasn't the end of the world. " -Dr. T

"As much as we don't want to feel jealous, we feel jealous. And one of the things that I found out about jealousy is that it's really just about being stuck. And so that when you feel jealous, go, Oh, where am I stuck? It's OK that you're jealous. But where am I stuck? That is because then you can do something about where you're stuck. So anytime I get triggered that way, that's where I go straight to that. And I also do this other really wonderful thing. That is, I say, I acknowledge, accept, and I allow it. So you say I get that I feel jealous that so and so is doing better than I am. And I feel like I'm ten times as smart as they are, right? And I say I acknowledge it; I accept it. And I allow it. And what that does is it takes a judgment out because we judge ourselves so harshly. So that's why I do all this inner critic work and inner bully work." -Karen Abrams

https://thinktheta.com/

Today's Guest: Sarah Michael

Sarah Michael is an expert on feminine sales power. She works with women entrepreneurs to lead their businesses powerfully without being pushy. Sarah has combined her practical business expertise with years of marketing and sales experience. She has created the feminine sales power method out of her own experience, learning to sell herself in a way that leverages her feminine side. Sara supports clients in selling their services by crafting conversations for any context. The context articulates hard-to-describe and intangible services in a way that people get and want to buy. She helps her clients skyrocket their confidence and income with high-ticket programs that sell like hotcakes; Sarah speaks and leads workshops throughout the country and worldwide on leadership, sales, and marketing. She holds a degree in English from Kenyon College and a master's of Communication Arts from New York University.

https://sparklingresultscoaching.com/

Don't forget to sign up for Sarah's Feminine Sales Power event using the link below!

https://sparklingresultscoaching.com/fsp/?ap_id=Kaleidoscope

From this episode:

"We have to be out there doing things; we have to be taking bold steps; we have to know the direction. I brought up that distinction of the perceived because of precisely what you're talking about.  You can do things all day long and fill your calendar. But what is that bold idea, that concept, that is moving you forward and getting you closer? Instead of Googling or watching another YouTube video, TikTok, or whatever, we often do that because we don't know what we're doing." -Dr. T

"I love that you differentiate between perceiving the hustle and actually hustle; that's where we cannot lose the masculine side, which is work, which is doing, which is action. And sometimes, especially women, if they learn about their feminine side, they overcorrect into what I call the high feminine. And it's something I will teach about at my event in a few weeks. No results are produced in the high feminine; it all flows all the time. And that's not going to work. So we need some work. I think the hustle mentality of more, more, do, do, do. It's never enough massive action. Coaches talk about huge effort because it gets the universe's attention. Yeah, you're going to make 150 calls, like, check her out; she must be serious. So the universe helps you out a little; you can achieve the same results in bold action, pose, get the universe's attention, take three to five aggressive acts, or make 150 phone calls. And I believe it's so detrimental." Sarah Michael

Today's Guest: Dr. Luiza Dreasher

In the studio today is Dr. Luiza Dreasher. Dr. Luiza's mission is simple. She wants to transform workplaces one cultural difference at a time. That is why she often thinks of herself as a bridge builder and a connector. Her journey into the world of cultural differences began many years ago when she left Brazil to pursue her Ph.D. in the United States. She has over 20 years of experience researching, teaching, and writing about diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural competence development. Her global and domestic diversity expertise has led to consulting jobs and training for numerous audiences, including the United States Department of Defense, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Treiber Foods of Brazil, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, and numerous other higher educational institutions. Dr. Luiza is currently the president and CEO of Mastering Cultural Differences. As such, she works with leaders to help them create organizations where all employees feel valued and respected and that they belong. She is also the author of Mastering Cultural Differences: Strategies for Leading a Global Workforce. And in that book, she provides incredible insight into cultural differences impacting today's organizations and best practices for increased performance in the global economy.

https://www.masteringculturaldifferences.com/

https://www.masteringculturaldifferences.com/the-global-academy

https://www.masteringculturaldifferences.com/purchasebook

From this episode:

"Hustling is following your instincts and heart, and don't give up. I so agree with you. Over the years, I've had so many people on the show, and we talk about hustle. It's interesting because I would say for the majority of people, it's about having that purpose, driving towards that purpose, and knowing what's important to you. And I think it's also about having the courage just to put one foot in front of the other; I think culturally, there is a vast difference between how people see hustle here in the United States and other parts of the country." Dr. T

 "The reality is, you don't know until you ask. So understanding the other perspective and finding ways around it, for example, in some cultures, it is inappropriate for an employee to say no to his or her supervisor. So knowing that, how can I get to the answer? Because the bottom line is you need the solution. Is the project going to be done by tomorrow? You need to know. But instead of putting them in a situation of them having to say no to you, in my training, I tell my leaders to avoid yes or no questions and give them options, how many days do you need? Is an option A, B, or C? Let them choose what is closer to reality, as opposed to putting them in a place where they have to say no to you. And, of course, as a leader, you have to have that understanding and be flexible enough to navigate this situation."  Dr. Luiza

Today's Guest: Megan Dowd

Megan Dowd is a neurodiverse entrepreneur, business strategist, coach, and storyteller. With her human-first biz second approach, she is helping new and seasoned business owners build a better human connection with themselves and their clients, leaning into who they are and what they stand for. After nearly a decade as a professional actress and a Jill of all trades in that industry, Megan decided to go into business for herself. There she learned that the skills she acquired in acting reciprocated into business. Megan started MD and CO in 2018 and celebrated leveraging her client's strengths, transparency, values, and building a connection. She also made Hello, CEO in 2020, to help support neurodiverse entrepreneurs to build where they can thrive in a business world that isn't one size fits all. It's so true. She is also the founder of the original Spicy Soapbox, where she candidly discusses various topics. Offline you can find her cold drinking brew cuddling with fluffy cats, and eating plenty of snacks.

https://withmegandowd.com/

From this episode:

"I think many people are leaving corporate America because they are coming up with really good ideas to help with the current environment; the ideas have to be different. You cannot do business the same anymore. I don't care what industry you're in, and I think people are going in having these ideas and constantly being shut down. And that, to me, affects people on an intense emotional level when they know this could shift a business." Dr. T

"One of the things I do with clients is rather than starting with like, what are the things you value, we begin by digging into their stories, we start by digging into peak experiences, we start digging into moments of transcendence, and what are the actions? What are the behaviors? What experiences made you feel like the most human you are? And from there, what is the language? This is where the acting comes in, and I get to get really nerdy about it. My acting training was in classical theater. So, give me all the language, and let's dig into the language. And the most significant thing is, it doesn't matter how I define the word; how does it feel in your mouth? How does it feel in your body? So, it's semi-somatic work because it doesn't matter what it feels like, to me, it doesn't matter how it sounds, to me, it doesn't matter what connotations I have, it matters to you, it's the cause we can always finesse the external expression, that's easy. Find the internal expression first, and get your version of that language in your body. And then we can finesse the external. That's complex, but it's in the grand scheme. It's easy. It's complex, but it's easy." Megan Dowd

Today's Guest: Melissa Reaves

Melissa Reaves is a Seattle-based executive storytelling mentor; she helps leaders shine by utilizing the power of professional storytelling skills that she uses on stages across the world. She has a new book coming out entitled How to Tell Great Stories in Business, and pre-sales are going to happen in August. 

From this episode:

"We have a responsibility when we're on stage if we've been invited to talk, no matter the situation,  to come from our authentic perspective because many people do the same thing we do. But it's our story. And the way we're teaching it and being authentic out there.  It gives goosebumps when people tell that great story. And I've seen amazing people on stage tell exceptional stories and bring you to tears, but they also bring you to laughter. It's like this balance between tears, laughter, and connection."  Dr. T

"Are they going to remember your pie chart when you leave the room? Are they going to remember the story of the problem that the customer is having that you're solving? So opening with the story, opening with the narrative is what they're going to remember. And that's then going to set up all the graphs and charts to be much more interesting, right? Because now it's not just a statistic; it now has people underneath it. And you now are more emotionally engaged. So that's more leaning in, in a business context." -Melissa Reaves