How to Use Storytelling to Make $$$

Kathryn Finney: Welcome back to Build a Tam Thing, the podcast where we teach you how to use entrepreneurship to build a life that you love. I'm your host, Catherine Finney. Today, we're talking visibility with Christine Blasdale, the expert authority coach. She's showing us how to stop playing small, our message, and make our brilliance impossible to ignore. So let's build out loud and build bold. Welcome, Christine. Christine Blosdale: thank you so much. I'm very excited about being on the show. Can I say first, like right off the bat, I love your branding. I love your branding. I love the message. I love the energy behind it. And so that's why I was very excited about coming on the show to be with you. Yeah. Kathryn Finney: Thank you. Kathryn Finney: I so appreciate that, especially coming from an expert like yourself who's seen a lot of brands. And so just, I think the first question for a lot of folks is how do I tell my story, right? How do I even start with storytelling? Christine Blosdale: Thank you. Christine Blosdale: Well, we need to understand the importance of story and how we, you know, as humans, we tend to connect with that, the hero's journey. know, Joseph Campbell, I think, explained it very well. One of the reasons why Star Wars was such a huge success was it was the hero's journey. And that goes back to Greek mythology and to stories that have been handed down, you know, generation after generation. And it's so that we can connect on a human level with as many people as possible who've experienced something like that. Maybe not the same thing. Maybe they haven't encountered Darth Vader, but they've encountered a Darth Vader in some respect in their life. And it might be overcoming an obstacle or an illness or a circumstance, right? And so I always like to... pull out from my clients what their story is on why they got started in their entrepreneurial journey, why they chose to do this as their business, to spend their time, their energy, their money, their focus on their particular craft. And once we peel the onion layers away, we find that really that nugget, right? I am, I'm a coach and I've always wanted to be a teacher. But when I went to school, after school, went to college and I went to become a teacher. And then I saw how much they were paying teachers as soon as you get like, I was like, Because I pictured myself being a high school teacher and helping young kids out because I felt really awkward in school. And I wanted to help those kids that were the awkward ones, which we all are really. But then I saw how much. Kathryn Finney: You're like, I'm not about that. Kathryn Finney: Where did you grow up? Where did you grow up? Okay. Christine Blosdale: Los Angeles. I grew up in Los Angeles. Yeah, I live now in Australia, but I grew up in Los Angeles. And during a time, too, that was actually very cool. It's a very international place. My mother was from North Africa. My father was from California. So odd mixture there. But I always wanted to teach because I had a really amazing teacher as a kid who found out what my gem was, right? And then expanded on that and encouraged that. And I had encouraged my whole childhood from my mom, from my grandmother. Those were the two women in my life that said, you you're amazing. You're like, you're the most amazing thing ever. You can do anything. And so I had that as a young person, but I know that not everybody had that, right? And there are some really gifted, talented human beings walking around that didn't have that support, but their gift can really impact the world, their clients, their customers, their community. So my job now as an expert authority coach is to help bring that out and to shine a light and basically pick those jewels that they have in their crown that they don't really realize that are there. And then we want to showcase that and make people feel confident. in their choice to be an entrepreneur. So I love what I do. I absolutely do. Kathryn Finney: So where do you start? How do you uncover your jewels? Because I think for some people, a lot of people actually, when you ask them, like, OK, talk about yourself. Many have challenges figuring out exactly where do I start talking about myself. So what are some, I don't know, maybe prompts people can use to sort of get started crafting their story? Christine Blosdale: Well, the very first thing is I have just a 30 minute get to know you chat, right? A discovery call, strategy session. And in that 30 minutes, I'm able to get an energy imprint. I work intuitively. I don't market myself as a psychic, but I work intuitively. And so I'll know immediately when I'm speaking to somebody if there's a hint of imposter syndrome, maybe, if there's some doubt, or if they... work off of a scarcity mindset. So there's some things that some obstacles that we need to overcome first before we can put ourselves out there. If you have imposter syndrome, it's very difficult to connect with an audience and give that confidence so that they'll want to be in your world. They'll want to buy your program or they'll want to be associated with you. So we work on that right away. And there's some exercises, some things that I do. with people, especially when it's imposter syndrome. And imposter syndrome happens to everybody. It actually occurs to people who are high achievers more so than who you would think, right? So these are people that have, because they think, well, if I just get another credential or if I work harder or if I'm like that person, there's a lot of comparison thinking that goes on. Kathryn Finney: Why? Christine Blosdale: Sometimes it's low self-esteem. Sometimes it's, they're very accomplished in life. And it's that one thing some kids said when they were five years old on the playground, that one thing, and we forgot about it, but it's locked in our subconscious, right? It's that thing of you're not good enough. You're ugly, right? Kids are kids can be cruel. So those things, and if it's an, if it's an authority figure that says something to you, that shuts down that little shine, that little light that you have. If it's a parent or a teacher or someone with authority, quote unquote authority, then that is even a deeper cut. And so then as we grow older, we assimilate, we try and fit in, we try and please other people, right? And then we go after maybe careers that are not our passion, but it's to please somebody else or to, it's what everybody thinks I should be doing. And so you have a really unhappy individual. And then when they're ready to become an entrepreneur, all that baggage is there. So that's the very first thing in that strategy call. I kind of work with somebody and find out if that's something there. The other thing that we do is I look at what they've already got. Right. What do you already have? Do you have a website for your business? Do you have, are you on social media? And I'll take a look at that and I'll immediately get a feeling and a vibe for them. Then I will do this very crafty thing. And this is, I'm holding in my hand, it's a one sheet, but it's, call it a media kit. And the media kit, not only does it help you when you're ready to be interviewed on shows or when you want to pitch yourself for a speaking gig, whatever it is that you want to apply for, let's say. This media kit reminds you as the entrepreneur, what you're all about and it puts you in a good light. So I work with people in creating their media kit. I'll say, we're going to get the best photo we can of you. You're going to get a professional photo, a professional headshot. You're going to wear something that you feel really comfortable in. If you know that the image that I have that I use and it opens doors all the time for me is it's an image of me with my mouth open, my eyes are closed. It's a joyous Christine Blosdale: image. I've got my headphones on and my microphone. And that right there tells a story before I even open my mouth. And on that media kit card, in that card, I also have a mini bio. It says all of the things that the accomplishments that I'm really proud of. I put that in there and I have a few images, business shots that that remind me more importantly about the work that I've done and I've already accomplished. Kathryn Finney: That's interesting. Yeah. Christine Blosdale: And I tell people to have this because it's important to be reminded. And I just keep it by my computer. And I tell my clients, do the same thing, keep it by your computer. Kathryn Finney: You know, just to... Yeah. Kathryn Finney: You know, it's interesting you bring up your picture and it, think what most people think, particularly those who are transitioning from sort of corporate world into entrepreneurship. They think of like the traditional business headshot, right? The boring, like you're in, you have like a gray background and you have like a blue, you know, this real, real basic. And I think what your photo brings out is that particularly in the entrepreneurship space. Christine Blosdale: Heheheheh, yeah. Kathryn Finney: particularly when you yourself are the brand, you actually have to be the brand. And so how would someone who's coming from that corporate gray background, black or navy suit, hair, very basic sort of space, how can they sort of start to think of themselves, even just starting with the picture as a brand? Christine Blosdale: Well, first I say you need to get a professional headshot, okay? And wherever you live, there is a professional photographer that you can work with. It doesn't cost that much money. It's one of the best investments you can make because out of that photo shoot, you might have one, you might have several pictures that you can use on social media. You can use it for your books, for your courses, for your website, definitely. And I always say, know, don't feel uncomfortable with that photographer. Hopefully you have a good relationship with them. But bring props if you feel like it. know, if your particular field has something that's really cool about it, you know, if you're a chef, you know, you want to be wearing your chef coat. Maybe you have, you know, knives in your hand or something, but you can bring props with you. So it's not just that you're just sitting there in a suit looking straight at the camera. Now some professions do call for a bit more, maybe a bit more serious tone, just depends on your business. But like with when I'm looking at the cover of your book, there's joy in your face. You're not looking even, you're not even looking straight in the camera. You're looking somewhat off into the future, which is this joyous, excited look. And that would make somebody, if you're walking in a bookstore or at the airport and they see that cover, it would, that would make them want to grab it. Right. Cause it's not just a title of a book. It's not just words on, on the cover. It's an actual human being. And the energy is, fabulous. So that's what it's, everybody's different. Right. I have one client who's, um, she's actually a brain, uh, a brain coach. she works on trauma and, helping people overcome anxiety and depression and all of that. And she was looking for a title, right? So I have, my title is the expert authority coach. You might have your own title, right? So she was looking for a title and, after talking to her and creating her media kit with her, I said, so you are. Christine Blosdale: You're a brain coach. Okay. That's cool. But when people hear that, it sounds very sterile, very clinical, right? Like, yes, it's like you gotta, yeah, it's like you gotta scrub up to talk to her. Right. And I said, I said, how about this? Because it's true. She's lovely. This woman is so gentle and kind and she really wants to help people sometimes so much. She forgets to ask them to pay her. Right. Okay. So I say, Kathryn Finney: It sounds like a neurosurgeon. That's I think. Like a neurologist. wouldn't... Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Christine Blosdale: How about you're the brain coach who cares? And she went, my gosh, yes, that's me. So in the title alone, when somebody reads it or sees it on you know, in a pitch or on her website, the brain coach who cares, they know immediately that this is a heart led woman who is very intelligent. She's got all of the degrees up the wazoo. She's written many books. but that she actually cares. And so that might bring somebody who's struggling and needs that human connection, it might bring them closer to her. So that's what we do. And I do that with all my clients. I'll just say, I think this title or this way of referring to yourself might be a bit more relatable and authentic. And authenticity is what's winning right now. We see old Hollywood is drunk. crumbling, politics are crumbling, the Kardashianism of celebrities, you know, the rich and famous. We're finding out that there's some weird going on and they're not our heroes. They're not our idols that we thought they were. And so we're looking around and we're like, are we it? Are we the heroes of the story? Yes. Yeah. Kathryn Finney: Yeah. It's interesting that you bring that up because, you know, we are coming out of, and I think you alluded to this, period of time where like marketing has really driven everything, right? I mean, it has driven everything to the point where authenticity has become secondary, sometimes even less than secondary, right? And now people are seeking authenticity, right? They're seeking these sort of genuine connections and these sort of genuine people. But we're still coming out of this period, right, of inauthenticity and then also this period of people filling imposter and imposter syndrome connected a bit to that period, previous period we were just in, right? Because it's very hard to fill. Kathryn Finney: authentic when you're in this period in which everything is being marketed to you that's not authentic necessarily. And so how does one kind of get over that imposter syndrome, especially in a time period where we need to be authentic? Like how do you go from feeling like an imposter to authenticity? Like what are some tools there? Christine Blosdale: First of all, have to realize you have to stop beating yourself up because that just makes it worse. Okay. It's like if you've, you know, if you've got a scratch or an itch and you scratch it and you keep scratching it and you keep scratching it, it's just going to make it worse. So beating yourself up for, having that or for feeling that it's not beneficial. Second of all, you need to realize that a lot of people, a lot of very successful, high achieving people. encounter imposter syndrome. So it's not some weird thing. It's not some disease or anything like that. It's something that we all go through. And sometimes we might experience it a lot or it might be long periods of time and we don't have any of that feeling. And then all of a sudden we're asked to stretch. We're asked to do something that we're a little uncomfortable about. We're asked to do something that maybe we've never done. that could be scary, that could be considered scary, because it's like, that's big, right? And then what happens is that we tend to make ourselves feel small so that we don't go after that opportunity, right? Because it's safe. It's safer to stay small. It's like, no, that's going to be too much. And what are people going to think? What if I mess up? What if I do a horrible job? Or what if I fall on my face? What are people going to think, right? And what we have to do is we need to do this one major shift. And this tends to work for most of my clients when I walk them through this. And I say to them this, it's actually not about you. And they'll look at me and they'll go, excuse me, just, wait, I just, I'm paying you to be my coach to help me on my brand and my business. And you're saying it's not about me. And I say, hold on. We are working on you and how you're communicating your message. But I said, when you're, when you're experiencing that imposter syndrome, those moments of fear, it's not about you. It's about the people you claim you want to help and serve. Christine Blosdale: So if we focus our attention on us and, my gosh, how I look, I've got a wrinkle. I need to lose more weight because I can't, I'm too fat. I'm too old. I'm too this, I'm too that, right? We'll stop ourselves. And when we stop ourselves, we're not serving the community or the people or the clients that we say we want to serve. If you're a fitness coach and you have imposter syndrome, so bad that you're not going to step out and you're not going to... create those videos and you're not going to go and meet people because you're worried about what people will think or if you mess up, then your clients are out there that are not going to get your wisdom. They're not going to get your training. They're not going to get your expertise. And so they're losing. So what we do is we just shift the focus instead of on you and how you look. We shift it to the people or the community, the audience that you say you want to help. If you get into this business to help people, let's focus on them. And if you don't show up, they don't get the help. Kathryn Finney: That's a really interesting way to of reframe it, right? Instead of it being from a place of scarcity, which you had mentioned a little bit before, it's coming from a place of abundance, right? Of that you have this zone of genius, this gift, and by you not putting your gift out there because of your own fears of judgment and so forth. Kathryn Finney: you are literally doing the world a disservice. It's very Marianne Williamson, a little bit of, know, when you like, right? When you let your light, I'm very LA. When you let your light shine. mean, I love her. But when you let your light shine, you give other people permission for their light to shine, too. And so it's, you know, making that connection, I think it's so important for people. How does storytelling translate into Kathryn Finney: revenue, because I think that's what a lot of people are interested in knowing. Like, okay, so I tell my story, I put my imposter syndrome to the background, I'm letting my light shine. Okay, so how does this connect with my bottom line? Christine Blosdale: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Christine Blosdale: So we, for the most part, most of the entrepreneurs that I work with and myself, we don't have just one signature story. We don't have just one Ted talk. We've lived our lives. I'm turning 61 in like two weeks. And in 61 years, I've had a lot of things happen. I've experienced a lot of things. I grew up in Los Angeles. Kathryn Finney: home. Christine Blosdale: Five years ago, I moved to Australia to be with my wife during COVID. We've all experienced COVID. So we all have these stories. New South Wales, near Sydney. So we all have stories. And what I like to tell people is we want to hone in and make our stories applicable to the situation. So I'm not going to be, if I was, let's say on a Kathryn Finney: What part of Australia decided to cure? Okay, yeah, yeah. Christine Blosdale: on a podcast that was, I don't know, if I was on a podcast, let's say about, was a Christian podcast, right, and it was all about faith and all this. I'm not going to go into a story that is going to be completely unrelatable. I'm going to choose a story that has that Christ-like moment, maybe a moment when I witnessed something that was Christ-like, that was kind and beautiful, right? So you're gonna choose your stories appropriately. What I'll do is like when I'm talking to someone about imposter syndrome, I will give an example, I will give a story of when I experienced a major imposter syndrome situation. And that was after 20 years of being, working at a radio station in Los Angeles, a big one, as a producer, as a host, as a million dollar fundraiser. I was approached by the management, the executive management of the network, and they said, we need you to become the general manager of the station for just a short time. And I was like, are you kidding me? Like, I knew the people I worked with. was like, I don't know the first thing about FCC regulations and budgets. Kathryn Finney: You're like, I don't know about that. Christine Blosdale: It made me like dry heave. The thought of an Excel sheet just made me, I was, I was like, and then I to deal with board members and volunteers and, the public and what are they going to think that Christine, that crazy Christine, that conspiracy theorist Christine, right? Cause I'm on radio. I talk about all kinds of things, but I was so terrified about the backlash and what people, and also that I would fail. And this is a place that I loved. I mean, for 20 years. And I said, well, no, you know, I don't know. Why did you pick me? Why did you come to me? And they said, we want, we walked around the radio station and we asked everybody, who is it that you trust the most? And they said, your name came up every single time. And I was like, uh-oh. Kathryn Finney: Wow, you're like, looks like I'm being the manager. Christine Blosdale: Because my imposter syndrome was yeah, my imposter syndrome was saying no, no, no, no. I'm just a small little I'm just this little thing here a cog in the wheel I don't want to be pushed center stage like that and then I realized I needed to step up for those people and For the station because it's and I kept saying it's only for a short amount of time Okay, so maybe I won't have to get into the excel sheets and budgets and everything. Okay, so I said I said, okay And that short amount of time turned out to be a full year because they couldn't find somebody appropriate for the general managership. But in that full year, man, I grew, I learned so much. I was very successful still raising funds, but I got to have an experience as a manager in leading people. got to be a leader of the staff. and communicate and stand up for people's rights. And it was a great experience. But if I let that imposter syndrome take over, I would have never experienced that. And maybe they would have hired, maybe they would have put somebody in there that would have, you know, not been good for the station. So I tell that story because I want people to understand what it feels like, that imposter syndrome, so that they can go, you know what, I've experienced that. I've been asked to do something that I felt Christine Blosdale: was too big for me. And when I stepped into that, I did feel good. I did learn a lot. Right. And so we want to we want to challenge those moments in life. Kathryn Finney: I'm trying to think of some of my many imposter syndromes or imposter times, especially being a little black girl growing up in Minnesota, like inherently I was imposter since birth. But yeah, think the different times probably one would be when I had my first book deal and I had started this Christine Blosdale: yeah! Kathryn Finney: little blog called the budget fashionista. This was over 20 years ago. This is before blogging was really blogging. It was so long ago, there was no WordPress or anything like that. was what you see is what you get. We didn't have that. had to like actually code in order for something to show up. I mean, this is like, this is the stone ages. I know I'm sure our listeners fingers are hurting understanding what I to do. And Christine Blosdale: my gosh, that's right. Kathryn Finney: I was approached from an alumni network that I'm a part of, one of the schools I went to. One of my fellow alums was a literary agent and he had heard me speak at this event on sort of people from this institution who was doing different stuff. I don't even know why I was speaking, because at that time, blogging, the internet, the internet was there, but blogging, concept of online media was so not new. Christine Blosdale: Yeah. Yeah. Kathryn Finney: But it was in my neighborhood at the time I was living in New York City. And I was like, okay, well, you know, I'll come talk. And he asked me, had you ever thought about writing a book? And I was like, no, I don't even know. What does that mean? Like, what does it take to actually write a book? I had like no clue what it meant to actually write a book. And he's like, well, I think the site that you're doing, I think there's a book there. I think there's people who are interested in shopping on the budget. Kathryn Finney: This was in 2002. So this was before Target even had their like little budget fashion lines. Like people didn't feel like they had to do budget that much in 2002. This is before the 2008 crash. And then everybody definitely had to be on the budget. Everyone was living, know, housing market was hot. Everything was like really great in 2002. And so. You know, I had to pause because I had no idea what that meant. Christine Blosdale: Right. Right. Right, right, right. Kathryn Finney: like to write a book. To me, an author was somebody who was very author-y. They wore tweed jacket and had suede elbow patches. I just never really thought of what it meant to actually write a book. This seemed like such a daunting task. And I just was like, And then my husband at the time was like, didn't you just write a graduate thesis that was, I don't know, like Kathryn Finney: 200 pages, and you had to do a lot of research for that. So now you're just literally writing a book about how to shop on a budget, which is something that you've been doing your entire life. This should be fairly easy for you. And I realized at that moment, it's like, yeah, I mean, why couldn't I do this? And this kind of jumped in. But I do think at times we question ourselves. I think it's definitely women. think definitely people of color, I think other folks who come from marginalized, other marginalized communities where we're not the quote unquote norm, the average, whatever that may be, we do kind of question, right? Because we're not given that privilege of just thinking that wherever we're at, we belong. And so how, I think these tips of like how to get over that is really important. And it seems like it's very much like you just, Christine Blosdale: Mm. Yeah. Christine Blosdale: Mm. Mm. Kathryn Finney: Just fake it till you make it basically. Like, you just do it. Christine Blosdale: Listen, listen, if there's people, if there's creators on TikTok making a really good living, just showing you how they feed their kids on $20 a day, come on now. know, the creator economy has opened it up quite a bit. And I totally understand what you were talking. When you were talking about the idea about writing your book, your first book, it was the same thing with me. I I I dreamt about writing a book. I was like, I can see myself on the back cover and I just wanted, I would love to be a published author, but I thought the same thing. I thought you had to write a Tom Clancy novel. I thought you had a smoking jacket and a typewriter and a scotch and a cigar. I put it off for years, for years and years and years. then I was like, you know what? I don't have to write a big book. I can write a little tiny baby book. Christine Blosdale: and I wrote my first little baby book. And then I've written five books since then. And here's the thing, I'm not a writer. And people go, what do mean? I'm a talker. But with technology now, I can take the things that I speak on, the podcast episodes, the webinars, the workshops, the speaking events, I can take those videos and turn it into a readable, enjoyable book or books. And so that's what I do, because I thought of looking at a blank page makes me crazy. So you do it your way, right? You do it your way. When you have passion, when you have your subject matter that you really love and dig, it's not work. It's fun, right? It's fun. But yeah, I had that same feeling that I was like, it's going to be so hard to do that book. I need to be, you know, where's my smoking jacket? Kathryn Finney: Where's my smoking jacket? Where's my suede patches? know, typewriter. I don't even know if they, do they still have typewriters or those still around? Someone has one. You know, I think this, that leads also into sort of this saying that you have about magnetizing your brand, right? And figuring out, you know, one, getting over the imposter syndrome, two, telling your story, right? Christine Blosdale: typewriter. Christine Blosdale: There's somewhere, yes. Kathryn Finney: And then three, like making that story compelling enough to others that they will want to join in or buy or participate in whatever it is that you're doing. What are some real tactical ways that entrepreneurs can magnetize their brand? Christine Blosdale: I think there's quite a few different platforms that they can use. Once they've kind of dialed in their brand, you do want to do that before you go on. But there is so much stuff that's happening on social media, obviously, that you can take advantage of. creating your own podcast is like a fabulous marketing tool, as well as being a guest on podcasts is super smart. But I would say the very first thing Is to just like you're creating your stories your signature stories and the stories you're developing those stories That you can pull from easily so it doesn't feel made up the same thing is what you want to do for your for your brand and I've got i've got different clients who they just they When you ask them what it is that they do they're like, I do everything for everybody. I do a little this I do that or when they describe what it is that they do, it's so vague that you don't really know. So that's the key. If you can hone in on what it is that you do, right? If I need a heart surgeon, I'm not going to go to somebody who's a doctor and they go, I do everything for everybody. you know, no, I want to have a specialist. Yeah, no, no, no, I want a specialist. Kathryn Finney: I do some brains, do some lungs, you know. Christine Blosdale: So ask yourself that question, what am I a specialist in? Okay? I have a quiz that people can take. It's 10 questions, super easy. It's a couple seconds, you can do it. And they're the 10 questions that you should actually be asking yourself anyway. And one of them is if you were to Google yourself right now, what would show up? And more importantly now with ChatGPT, if you were to ChatGPT yourself, what would come up? And you want it so that you've done enough, you've created enough content, you've got enough stuff out there digitally that when you put your name in there, that what comes up is what your message that you want. If it comes up and it's not clear and it's like, you know, Christine does a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Then your, your, your message is diluted. So check into chat GPT, check into Google, but check into chat GPT, especially because more and more people are using it. I use it's like my right hand now because I use it for research. use it for feedback and all of that. So, do that, but then take the quiz too. It's expert authority quiz.com. You can take it and you get rated, what kind of expert authority you are. and it gives you some helpful feedback as well. Kathryn Finney: I'm gonna take it. I'm definitely gonna take it myself. mean, like literally after we, the podcast ends, I will be taking it and posting my results. But I think that idea of like Googling yourself, chat, GPTing yourself, clotting yourself, whatever AI tool that you're using is so important. I think many of us are kind of maybe a little bit afraid to do that. like see what does the... Christine Blosdale: Yeah, it's fun. It's actually it's fun. It's actually good. Christine Blosdale: Okay, good. Kathryn Finney: world see me as, right? And I would also add in there that it's not even so much what the world sees you as if the world doesn't see you at all, because there's also people who have no presence online. now, unfortunately, you have to have some sort of presence. And so how do you... Christine Blosdale: Mmm, yeah, yeah. Christine Blosdale: Bingo. Bingo. Yes. Kathryn Finney: How do you create that presence? Like, let's say, again, you worked for 20 years at Amazon. I'm gonna pick on Amazon, because there was just a New York Times article out that they're gonna be getting rid of close to half a million jobs, right? Yes, I know. It's all being replaced just in the New York Times. I think it was yesterday, maybe yesterday or this morning that they're gonna be doing that and replacing people with both AI but... Christine Blosdale: Jesus. Christine Blosdale: And they already pay like no taxes, so this is great. Okay, okay, this is fabulous. Good to know. Kathryn Finney: They pay nothing, right? No taxes, nothing, right? This is fabulous, right? So let's say I worked 20 years at Amazon and I just learned that I'm gonna not have a job. I'm gonna be one of the half a million people who are not gonna have a job. And I go online, I haven't had to pay attention being online because I've been a company person, right? I've worked for Amazon. I haven't had to think of my brand outside of internal. Christine Blosdale: Jeez. Kathryn Finney: you know, discussion. So now I have to think of my brand external or actually have to think of my brand and own my brand as me, the individual, not me who works for Amazon. Where do I start? Christine Blosdale: You have a discovery call with me. You talk, no, you work with a, work with a, a coach that can help you or a mentor that can help you so that you don't go down. So you don't, so you don't spend a lot of time going down paths that are not going to, don't, don't do what we call shelf help. Don't just, I'm going to get this course and I'm going to study this and that and get the certification. Because time is not on your hand. Like right now you need to pivot. Kathryn Finney: Yeah, yes, you take the expert quiz. Christine Blosdale: Right. And so we want to pivot in a way that feels in alignment with you, but also in a way that you can get up and going relatively quickly. And that means first solidly getting your brand together, your business model together. Are you selling widgets? Are you selling services? You know, what is it that you're doing building that business platform so it makes it easy for people to book time with you or to pay you, you want to have all those things in alignment, and you want to also tap into those things that are going to help get the word out about your business. But you first got to be real solid about what it is. You know, I do this thing where I say, if you want to be successful in business, don't offer someone who wants a sandwich a stapler. And that means is that we as entrepreneurs, a lot of times we go, OK, this is what I'm going to offer. this is my business. I'm going to push this out in the marketplace. And then I'm going to just, 50 % off in the month of October, know, 50 % off this stapler, right? It's the greatest stapler in the world. It's fantastic. It's a special stapler. And your clients or the world, the customers are sitting there going, I don't want a stapler. I want a sandwich. I'm hungry. But but this is, so you need to tap into what your audience, your target audience, What is it that they actually need and want? If not, you will spend years circling around the stapler thinking that this and then you're like, how come I don't have any sales? How come nobody's calling me? How come nobody's booking time with me? Because you're trying to push something that people don't want. So go after what people want and need. And usually it's around the pillar of three. It's either health, wealth, or love. And love, I'm not saying, you know, get an escort service together. I'm not saying that. I'm saying love, love comes in a lot of different ways, right? Love of community, love of nature, right? Love of self, right? So if you have a business that can help people in any of those three pillars, it's much better than pushing the stapler, if that makes sense. So that's why I say, yeah, and that's why I say it's important to work with, you know, either myself, Kathryn Finney: Yeah Kathryn Finney: Yeah. Our community. Yeah. Yeah. Kathryn Finney: No it does. Christine Blosdale: or a coach or a mentor who can guide you to that place. And don't overburden yourself with taking all these different courses and certifications and all that stuff. Not yet. Get clear on where you want to go. Kathryn Finney: Health, wealth, and love, building a business in those areas. I think on that note, that is an amazing place to wrap up this episode. Thank you so much, Christine. This has been illuminating. The Expert Authority Quiz, I'm like literally heading there right after our conversation. And, you know, I think giving entrepreneurs that sort of framework to think of where to sort of base their Christine Blosdale: Thank Christine Blosdale: Hahaha, good. Kathryn Finney: business idea and those three core areas is just so incredibly important to helping people sort of hone in on what their core genius is there's only genius and also to be able to tell their story and so thank you Christine so much and thank you. Christine Blosdale: Yeah, we want more successful entrepreneurs out there. We want you to be successful. So go after those dreams. again, don't be shoving the stapler to people if they want a sandwich. Feed them. Kathryn Finney: Don't sell staplers if they're hungry for a sandwich. They want a good sandwich. Well, thank you, freedom. Thanks, Christine, for reminding us to stop hurting and stop hiding and start shining. If this hits home with you, subscribe, share, and leave a review. Keep showing up, keep standing out, and always keep building the damn thing. Until we talk again, bye. Christine Blosdale: That's right, feed them. Thank you, Catherine.