PODCAST

In the inaugural episode of the Launch Yourself Podcast, I interview Pamela Slim, author of Body of Work and Escape from Cubicle Nation. She walks us through her current launch strategies for a successful book launch.

The success of Pam’s first book, has helped many unhappy corporate workers become thriving entrepreneurs. She has been instrumental in my own career – first from afar, providing me with the idea that you can create your own work path outside of the traditional route, and then as a mentor and coach – helping me define my own body of work.

In this episode, Pam will share so many rich nuggets of wisdom, not only about her current book launch strategies, but also about how to define your own Body of Work.

Topics discussed include:

• Career development post-economic “apocalypse”
• Specific details about her book launch including:
  • Activities to reach new markets while still engaging and interacting with your fans
  • Converting fence-sitters into fans
  • Obstacles that have come up during this launch and how she’s tackled them
• The power of networking and tactics to consider when you make the Big Ask

Resources Mentioned During this Episode:

• Pre-purchase Body of Work
• Escape from Cubicle Nation
• Pamela Slim - Pam’s new online home
• Press details page – good model for any launch
• Tim Grahl of the OutThink Group

Want to get in touch with Pam?

• Twitter: @PamSlim
• Facebook

More about Pam Slim

Pamela Slim is an award-winning author, business coach and speaker. She spent the first 10 years of her business as a consultant to large companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab and Cisco Systems, where she worked with thousands of executives, managers and employees.

In 2005, she started the Escape from Cubicle Nation blog, which is now one of the top career and business blogs on the web. In the last 8 years, she helped hundreds of entrepreneurs to start successful businesses.

Pam’s first book Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur was released in Spring, 2009 and won Best Small Business/Entrepreneur Book of 2009 by 800 CEO Read. Her new book, Body of Work, gives a fresh perspective on the skills required in the new world of work for people in all work modes, from corporate to non-profit to small business.

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Emily Sandford from Authentically Emmie and Authentically Social, is featured in this episode. She is a well-known blogger in the fitness and wellness category, and also has a thriving social media business. We chat about her own big launch – moving from a stable corporate job into launching her own social media firm.

Emily has been by my side as I launched my own business – through all of the ups and downs, helping keeping me on track and striving for more. She has helped thousands (or more!) of women feel comfortable in their own skin, and extremely open about sharing her struggles with her weight and confidence. (Spoiler alert – she continues to smash through them!).

In this episode, Emily shares how she knew it was time to walk away from her stable job, how she prepared for the leap, and how things have been since.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• The mindset of an “IBMer” to a solopreneur
• The moment of clarity, when she knew that it was time to leave the corporate world
• Letting go of the “shoulds”
• Her pre-planning into action for her launch – what worked and what didn’t
• Continued struggles and wins

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THIS EPISODE:

• Authentically Emmie – Emily’s online home and blog
• Authentically Social – Emily’s company
• Where we met: Jenny Blake’s Make Sh*t Happen Course
• Ladies Home Journal featuring Emily

Want to get in touch with Emily?

• Twitter: @Authemmie
• Facebook

MORE ABOUT EMILY SANDFORD

Emily Sandford is the blogger behind Authentically Emmie and has been featured in Ladies’ Home Journal, Shape Magazine, the New York Post, Prevention Magazine, the AP, and more. She is also the owner of Authentically Social, a social media marketing consultancy for health/wellness, fashion/beauty, and lifestyle companies. Founded in 2012 after eight years of traditional brand management experience, her results-oriented social media, blogger outreach, and community management plans have earned Emily clients across the United States.

Emily was recently named Amazing Woman of the Year by Stiletto Women – a Forbes-ranked leadership-centric lifestyle company for modern working business women. She serves on the Board of Directors for both the Junior League of Lexington and AAF Lexington. She received her undergraduate degree and MBA from the University of Kentucky.

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Paul Angone from All Groan Up and author of 101 Secrets for Your Twenties, is featured in this episode. Paul tells us how he marketed and launched his book, on a short turnaround time.

Paul landed his book deal after his post 21 Secrets from Your 20s went viral – being read by more than a million people in 180 countries. Paul has a background in “traditional” marketing – but walks us through how he leveraged his skills in marketing to go on a book tour, getting the word out, and landing his book on bestseller’s lists.

In this episode, Paul reflects back on his recent book launch – what worked well, what could have been done better, and what he’s working on now. And keeps me giggling throughout.

Topics Discussed Include:

• How to talk about what you’re doing and selling
• What marketing really is (hint: reinforcing your message)
• Fear of a dull launch
• Learning how to have grace
• What to do when you’re out of books
• The power behind creating a launch team
• How to make the ask

Resources Mentioned In this Episode:

• 101 Secrets for Your Twenties
• AllGroanUp
• Where Paul and I are in cahoots together – Jenny Blake’s Life After College

Want to get in touch with Paul?

• Twitter: @PaulAngone
• Facebook

More About Paul Angone

Paul Angone is a speaker, humorist, the author of 101 Secrets for Your Twenties, and the creator of AllGroanUp.com, a place for those struggling with “what now?” His work has been featured on the Huffington Post, SiriusXM radio, The Chelsea Krost Show, Collegiate Magazine, Relevant Magazine etc. with his article 21 Secrets for your 20s having been read by over a million people in 180 countries.

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Jenny Blake from JennyBlake.me and Life After College and author of Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want, is featured in this episode. Jenny shares her story of expanding her brand and online presence through the launch of her new website, JennyBlake.me.

After running a very successful blog for eight years, Jenny launched a new website under her own name, hoping to share new sides of her and reflecting the various ways in which she helps her clients. Jenny is a sought-after speaker and coach, and has personally helped me launch my business and expand my own realm of possibilities.

In this episode, Jenny shares the behind the scenes story about her website launch – why she decided it was time, figuring out who she is with a new story to tell, what went according to plan, and what didn’t work as well as she had hoped.

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TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Expanding past your current niche market
• Branding is more than just picking colors and fonts
• Figuring out what your value is – who am I without that story?
• Fear of not being unique enough
• Commitment to quality when things don’t happen as you’d hope them to
• When to spend money on a rebrand or website launch

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• JennyBlake.me
• Life After College
• Life After College the Book
• Jenny’s creative director: Adam Chaloeicheep
• Jenny’s Toolkit of amazing goodies and useful templates
• Website Launch Template
• Blog post: Speak Like a Pro

Want to get in touch with Jenny?

• Twitter: @Jenny_Blake
• Website: JennyBlake.me

MORE ABOUT JENNY BLAKE

Jenny Blake is a bestselling author, career and business coach and international speaker who helps people move beyond burnout to build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. With two years at a technology start-up as the first employee, over five years at Google on the Training and Career Development teams, and two  years of running her own business, Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of organizing information to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.

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Shannyn Allan from FrugalBeautiful.com is featured in this episode. Shannyn shares her story of going from owning her own business through re-entering the traditional workforce. She talks about why she decided to shut down a successful freelance business to rejoin the cubicle nation, concerns she had along the way, and how she made it happen.

In this episode, Shannyn does what many of us would consider, a “reverse launch” – going back to traditional office environment. She shares what she has learned while working for someone else and how she hopes to take that knowledge and blaze her own career path.

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TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Transitioning from her own business back to being an employee
• How to make the “unpopular” decision
• Things to consider before making the leap
• What it is like to go back to the traditional workforce after being on your own

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• FrugalBeautiful.com
• RockStarBlogging.com

Want to get in touch with Shannyn?

• Twitter: @FrugalBeautiful
• Facebook
• Website: FrugalBeautiful.com

MORE ABOUT SHANNYN ALLAN

Shannyn is the creator of FrugalBeautiful.com and a full time Social Media Community Manager (a job she snagged through her experience as a blogger).  She has authored an ebook on blogging for freebies and side income at RockstarBlogging.com after getting freebies, free trips and paid vacations from her blog.

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Monica McCarthy from ShowandTellStories.com and MonicaMcCarthy.net is featured in this episode. Monica shares her experience of breaking up her main brand into smaller components to serve different purposes and audiences.

Monica talks about her current success factor – shifting to create more depth and meaning in her work, fears that she struggles with on this new adventure, and how to launch a movement – not just another product.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• For your business, do you keep everything under one roof or many homes? Why and how to choose the best approach for you; showcase or sell?
• Do what you’re “supposed” to do… even if the product/service isn’t a good fit for you
• What are you trying to do with your business
• Letting down your anchor – going for depth and meaning versus masses
• How does the fear show up and/or creep in?
• Being able to take care of self

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• ShowandTellStories.com
• MonicaMcCarthy.net
• Coming soon – new community/movement site: CheshireParlour.com
• Monica’s web designer and brainstorm partner: FurtherBound

Want to get in touch with Monica?

• Twitter: @MissMMcCarthy
• Website with what she delivers: ShowandTellStories.com
• Personal website: MonicaMcCarthy.net

MORE ABOUT MONICA MCCARTHY

Monica McCarthy helps prolific organizations and artists share their message with multimedia storytelling. Her boutique video production company, Show & Tell Stories, creates dynamic cinematic experiences as well as offering strategy and development consultations. Monica shares her own stories of misadventures and musings on philosophy, acting, and travel over at MonicaMcCarthy.net and loves to say hello on twitter @MissMMcCarthy.

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Tal Gur from TalGur.me, Passively Free, and several other sites is featured in this episode. Tal shares his experiences with launching – including his biggest launch from being $34,000 in debt to being financially free through passive income.

Tal talks about what made him successful along his journey, exactly how he went from debt to financially free, and what steps he took to create his diversified passive income, so he can focus on things that create more freedom.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Financial freedom through online passive income
• One advertiser created the road to financial freedom
• Commitment and time needed before it becomes “passive”
• Deadline to success
• Why the right timeline matters
• Accountability from those around you
• Fitness and business
• Expenses are less than passive income = financially free

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• TalGur.me – Tal’s main website where you can find all of his projects and more about him
• PassivelyFree.com
• The interview that Tal did with me on Below Zero to Hero (and be sure to check out all of the other great interviews!)
• Goals Software that he created to help you keep on track

Want to get in touch with Tal?

• Twitter: @Tal_Gur
  
• Facebook
• Main website: TalGur.me

MORE ABOUT TAL GUR

Tal Gur is an online entrepreneur, world traveler and a coach. He is originally from a Israel, though he feels at home in many places.

In 1996, at age 21, He took a long motorcycle trip in Australia and immediately fell in love. Years later he went back to complete his Master’s degree and adopted Australia as a second home.

Since his move to Australia, being inspired from the sheer enjoyment that came from pursuing his Australian dream, he found himself constantly seeking new challenges, overextending himself in all aspects of life, ultimately resulting in very fulfilling journeys.

Here are Five of them:

1. He created financial freedom after being in $34,000 of debt
2. He completed an Ironman Triathlon in New Zealand after quitting smoking.
3. In 2009 he quit his 9-to-5 desk job and went on a non-stop 4 year round-the-world
4. He surfed around the world in places such as Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, and Sri Lanka
5. He coordinated building a new home for a local family who lost their house in a mudslide in Peru

Tal is now adopting the U.S. as his new and third home.

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Kelly Gurnett from Cordelia Calls It Quits is featured in this episode. Kelly shares her experience going from a full-time gig that she got comfortable in, to transitioning her writing business into a side hustle, to finally quitting her day job to become a full-time freelancer.

Kelly shares her very personal story of knowing when it was time to follow her dream and push herself out of her comfort zone, how it all worked (and what didn’t), and how she partnered up with the right people to help her get to where she wanted to go, faster.

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TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• How to make a side hustle work with a full-time job
• Something on the side to test things out without needing to take on every freelance gig
• When feeling caged in a good job, leads to having to try
• Her wakeup call when she knew she had to take action
• Leap in a smart way
• The universe’s devious sense of humor – staying on track when things don’t go as planned
• Energy management versus time management
• How to land a mentor

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Kelly’s website: CordeliaCallsItQuits.com
• The new career website for millenials that Kelly manages (and I’m a contributor at): CareerMeh.com

Want to get in touch with Kelly?

• Twitter: @CordeliaCallsIt
  
• Facebook
• Personal website: CordeliaCallsItQuits.com
• Services-to-hire page

MORE ABOUT KELLY GURNETT

Kelly Gurnett runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do. She also appears in all these other places online. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook and and hire her services as a blogger extraordinaire here.

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Ginger Winters from RambleRamble is featured in this episode. Ginger shares her corporate world marketing experience launching multiple apps – everything from how to determine how an app should be positioned to marketing with the big boys, and everything in between.

Ginger shares her story of her almost failed first app launch – well, failed until it had to go back to the drawing board after one year of hard work, to being able to successfully launch several apps at once. Pondering doing an app to increase your business visibility or revenue? Take a listen first…

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TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Determining the purpose of an app
• Push notifications
• The timeframe of creating an app
• Best lessons learned when creating an app
• Pricing structure
• Long tail or the immediate sale
• How do you market an app
• Minimum entry spending dollars to advertise BIG
• What are you providing to the end user?

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• iTunes Store
• Google Play Store
• Windows App Store
• Ginger’s website: RambleRamble
• Ginger on Twitter: @RambleGinger

Want to get in touch with Ginger?

• Ginger’s website: RambleRamble
• Ginger on Twitter: @RambleGinger

MORE ABOUT GINGER WINTERS

Ginger is a book marketing pro by day and a blogger by night. She rambles about figuring out who she is as a woman, mom, wife, and career lady at RambleRamble, a place she calls a little introspective, a little quirky, and a lot of rambling. Oh, and she spends ENTIRELY too much time on Twitter @rambleginger.

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Mac Prichard from Prichard Communications is featured in this episode, all about rebranding his business. Mac shares the process he and his team went through to take their business to the next level.

Mac shares their rebranding approach, having to let go of some of the activities that weren’t paying off as big as they could, and how their new brand and direction was successful in providing even more value to their clients.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• How his company figured out who they are and who they wanted to be
• Get clear on who they serve and rebranding process
• How to create a collaborative work environment
• The importance of having clear goals in the decision making process
• Making difficult decisions to free up the needed time to focus on the “right” things
• Why it matters: even better service to our customers and great response from new customers
• Because clarity around who we were and the value we offered and understand how you can solve your customer’s problem drives success
• Be able to grow and diversify client base post-rebranding
• The importance of reinvention throughout your career
• How a political campaign is like a start-up
• Being an entrepreneur is a marathon

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Mac’s Company, Prichard Communications, providing public relations and communication solutions for nonprofits and foundations in the health and human services sectors
• Mac’s List - a client of Prichard Communications that deliver the best (and the most comprehensive in my opinion) job leads and job search tools for the metro Portland, OR area
• The Prichard Communications Blog

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH WITH MAC?

• Company Website: PrichardCommunications.com
• Mac on Twitter @Mac_Prichard
• Mac on LinkedIn
• Mac on Google+
• And be sure to get a glimpse of Kaiser on Instagram

MORE ABOUT MAC PRICHARD

Mac started Prichard Communications in 2007, after a career as a public relations strategist and spokesperson for public and nonprofit agencies and elected officials. He and his seven-person team in Portland, Oregon, now serve health and human service foundations and nonprofits across the United States.

Mac writes about nonprofit communications on the Prichard blog and you can connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Mac lives in Portland’s Hawthorne district, inspiration for many of the characters and sketches on “Portlandia.” He is often spotted in Southeast Portland taking Instagram photos while walking his dog Kaiser, a Weimaraner.

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Jessica Lawlor from JessicaLawlor.com is featured in this episode where she shares her experience about starting her blog over from scratch when she realized her niche was too small for her and all about how to #GetGutsy. She talks about the fear that comes along with starting over, going against the “pro blogger’s” best advice, and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.

Jessica shares how her community has created her current brand (Get Gutsy), and the opportunities that being online can lead to.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Getting out of a “niche”
• Going against the conventional success methods and advice with blogging
• Finding something that can grow with you, as you grow and expand your interests
• How to define #getgutsy
• Using a blog to showcase your skills that lead to opportunities
• Fear as a barrier to reaching our big, scary goals
• How her brand grew from a last minute decision into a fan-favorite brand
• Authentic brand creation
• Where inspiration comes from for blog topics
• Engaged fans versus huge lists – what carries the most value
• What should I be doing? Being online is your introduction to so many opportunities

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Jessica’s Website: JessicaLawlor.com
• General vs. Niche Blogging Article
  
• Get Gutsy Essay Contest

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH WITH JESSICA?

• Jessica’s website: JessicaLawlor.com
• Jessica on Twitter @JessLaw
• Jessica on LinkedIn
• Jessica on Instagram

Credit: Stephanie L. McNeil

MORE ABOUT JESSICA LAWLOR

Jessica Lawlor lives by the saying, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” She blogs at JessicaLawlor.com about getting gutsy- stepping outside your comfort zone to reach your goals and live a life that makes you truly happy. By day, she’s a public relations professional in the tourism industry and by early mornings, nights and weekends, she is blogging and pursuing her side hustle- freelance writing and blog management. Her writing has been published on Ragan’s PR Daily, Muck Rack, Brazen Careerist, Mediabistro, Business Insider and AOL Jobs. In her free time, she is a runner and newly obsessed with hot yoga.

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Tamara Murray from HelloImTamara.com and OurLeapYear.com is featured in this episode where she shares her experience leaving a high-paying corporate job to take a “leap year” – a year off to travel around Latin America while finding alternative work resources and learning about different cultures and environments. She shares her “aha moment” of deciding to take a year off with her husband (and their dog!) which involves retirement planning, of all things.

Tamara talks about her adventure – from learning how to transition from a corporate work mentality, to trying new ways to earn income – including what has worked, and what is still a work in progress.

Episode artwork taken by Tamara from OurLeapYear.com.

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TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• What inspired taking a leap year to travel and work different
• How they prepared, financially and mentally for the travel year
• What it is like living in a different country and moving several times
• How to find a place to live while on this adventure
• Creating alternative work solutions while “on the road”
• What has been working work-wise, what hasn’t worked out as hoped
• Creating an online course – lessons learned (platform – SkillShare)
• Fear around transitioning back into a “traditional” workforce post-travel

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Online: HelloImTamara.com
• Travel Blog: OurLeapYear.com
• Travel inspiration and links to blogs of other full-time travelers
• More information about how to budget for this type of adventure
• Tamara’s book with practical advice for new managers titled Awesome Supervisory Skills
• The Ted Talk that inspired it all: Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off
• Favorite Quote About Why You Should Get Started

  It’s often attributed to Goethe, but is actually by W. H. Murray:

  Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

  Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!’

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH WITH TAMARA?

• Online: HelloImTamara.com
• Travel Blog: OurLeapYear.com
• Tamara on Twitter: @tamaramurray
• Tamara on LinkedIn
• Photos of Holly, our dog on Instagram

MORE ABOUT TAMARA MURRAY

Tamara Murray is a mentor, strategic communicator and full-time traveler. She spent the past decade helping social-change nonprofits and other do-gooders with their communications, eventually becoming a vice president at one of the nation’s top public-interest communications firms before the age of 30. It was her dream career — until 9-to-5 blues, a TED talk, and a conversation with her financial planner set her on an unexpected course.

In October 2013, Tamara and her husband set out from their home in San Francisco with just two backpacks and their 15-year-old dog. Their destination: Latin America. On their sabbatical, which they’ve dubbed their “leap year,” Tamara is soaking up Latin American culture, meeting interesting people, and taking her Spanish to the next level. She’s also experimenting with new projects in an effort to re-imagine what her work and life could look like. Currently in Argentina, she’s written her first book — called Awesome Supervisory Skills: Seven Lessons for Young, First-Time Managers – is teaching classes online, and is researching her next project.

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Dana Sitar from WritersBucketList.com shares her experience with creating a crowdfunding campaign through Ingiegogo. An experienced launcher, Dana decided to tackle a new approach to raise funding for a series of courses to help people self-publish their work, without losing rights or spending a lot of their own money.

She shares what she learned from the experience, advice to consider before tackling your own crowdfunding campaign, and what’s next now that the fundraising part of the process is over.  Also, tune in to find out if her campaign was a “success.”

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Team publishing for self-publishers
• Using the platform
• Choosing the platform – fixed or flexible funding
• Does audience size or list size matter when going through a campaign
• How to measure campaign success outside of dollars raised
• The critical skillsets you need to be successful with crowd funding
• Preparing products in public – the pros and cons of it
• Making big changes – does your audience notice?

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Ingiegogo Campaign – it’s not live, but you can see the ins and outs here
• Epub Courses that Dana is offering as a result of the campaign
• Seth Godin Kickstarter Campaign to self-publish
• Paul Jarvis Kickstarter Campaign Cancellation
• Writer’s Bucket List Book
• Catherine Caffeinated, this post in particular

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH WITH DANA?

MORE ABOUT DANA SITAR

Dana Sitar is an author, blogger, and digital publishing coach to entrepreneurial writers and writerly entrepreneurs. She shares resources, tips, and tools to get budding writers out of their head and onto the page through coaching, courses, and the DIY Writing community at WritersBucketList.com.

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Jessica Williams from Prichard Communications and Mac’s List, shares her experience of her professional life launching with her personal life. Leaping into the unknown because she just knew she was in the right place, working through new work tasks, and successfully growing her client’s reach by over 50% – several years running.

She shares what she learned on her journey and how great it was for her professional launch to create and ignite a personal launch, at the same time.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Ways your professional launch can foster a personal launch
• Taking a leap of faith into the unknown
• Building a website and list over 50% through relationships and connections
• Trial and error and figuring it all out
• Being in the job that you are supposed to be in
• Navigating difficult situations and coming out on the other side

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Prichard Communications
• Mac’s List

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH WITH JESSICA?

MORE ABOUT JESSICA WILLIAMS

Jessica Williams is an account director at Prichard Communications where she works with nonprofits and foundations in health and human services. She is also the account director for “Mac’s List,” a service of Prichard Communications and an online community connecting talented jobseekers with employers who offer rewarding work. She writes for the “Mac’s List” and Prichard Communications blogs.

An avid adventurer, poetry enthusiast and nature walker, Jessica is often found practicing yoga, wandering the streets of Portland, or playing with her dog. Jessica has worked in sales, marketing, and communications since she graduated from Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 2003. She has a master’s in strategic communications from the University of Oregon and is a certified yoga instructor. In 2008, she locked eyes with a killer whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – she can’t let it go.

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Kent Wyatt co-founded Emerging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) after a difficult career transition when he relocated to Oregon. He has thrown the doors wide open and brought transparency back into the realm of local government to help others launch their careers and grow and get involved.

He shares his “launch” moment – which starts at his future retirement party. How he makes career decisions and navigates the path of career and life with Pearl Jam at the end of the line.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• The retirement party impact – making genuine connections
• How we can make a longer impact
• Who Kent will invite to play at his retirement party
• How ELGL launches other people’s careers
• How to turn informational interviews to career success
• Being proactive – is it generational? Why are we so hesitant to do it?
• How do I get involved? What do I look for in an association?
• Sticking out in the job market

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• ELGL Website
• Mac’s List
• Thank You Notes

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH WITH KENT?

MORE ABOUT KENT WYATT

Kent is the co-founder of the Emerging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) and a senior management analyst for the City of Tigard. His duties for Tigard include risk management, franchise management, state and federal affairs, and special projects.

Kent founded ELGL after experiencing a difficult career transition following the move from Virginia to Oregon. ELGL is a nationwide organization of more than 450 members from 20 states who are committed to connecting, educating, and communicating with all stakeholders in the local government arena. ELGL connects through monthly forums, Twitter-sations, webinars, social media, and most importantly, face-to-face.

Prior to moving to Oregon, Kent lived in Richmond, Virginia and worked as a senior legislative analyst for the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Kent graduated from Elon University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a master’s degree in Public Administration.

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Kevin Kermes from All Things Career, shares his experience launching several different launches including new sites and a podcast, all at once. He talks about how he determined it was time to spin off into new brands, how he managed fear, and how to figure out what your audience really wants.

Kevin pulls back the curtain on his business and shares how he starts with the audience he has and continues to provide incredible value to them before launching into new space.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Why doesn’t engagement scale

• How is everything we are doing, going to help the people who are coming to us for advice?
• Keep moving, start moving
• Collective mindshare isn’t getting out to the people
• You are not your market
• If it’s not valuable to your market, stop wasting time on it
• If you’re looking for a reason to validate why you aren’t moving forward, you won’t move forward – you’ve already decided
• Instead of mitigating fear, how to become aware of it
• When people call you out on mistakes, it creates an opportunity to listen to your audience
• Fear can pop up at any point during the process
• How to reach out to your clients to understand what they need and how you can provide it to them
• Your knowledge that is so innate to you, is very useful to others
• Being consistent and testing
• The importance of engaged fans instead of numbers
• Creating your own business inside of your career
• Capturing your work so you can delegate

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Ryan Lee: niche-ing down twice
• Ramit Sethi – Zero to Launch
• Get Promoted Course sales page – and focusing on outcomes and being true to you
• 1000 True Fans
• Podcast Episode mentioned: Kimberly Palmer on the Economy of You
• Red Thread Thinking (book)
• Alexis Grant
• Delegating tools mentioned: Camtasia (screen recording), Wistia (video), Odesk (freelancers)

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MORE ABOUT KEVIN KERMES

Kevin Kermes is the Founder of All Things Career, a leading online media and publishing organization. As the purveyor of online resources such as Career Attraction, CareerMeh, Every Veteran Hired, ATC has published more than 30 different career focused training programs. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, LinkedIn, Business Insider, LifeHacker, The Muse, Brazen Careerist, Monster, Career Builder, Military Times and more.

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Emily Kapit is the founder of ReFresh Your Step – a career advisory company that she started after leaving the Finance industry to go out on her own. Through many iterations of her company, she has successfully scaled her original service of providing resume services to be a full career advisory with a staff of people working with her.

She shares her launch motto, which is growing organically – without being afraid to change directions and taking the blinders off. Following her own advice, she walks us through how she has scaled her business and her ultimate networking strategy.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Different iterations of the company
• How and when to scale
• How to get deal with the growing pains and change of scope
• This is the way it needs to be, deep breath and let it go
• Reframing the change to clients
• ABN – Always Be Networking
• Not networking, but connecting with someone with commonalities
• Marketing without marketing
• Reaching out to groups that you would naturally want to join
• Asking around the well-connected people in the community
• BNI organization – networking connections
• Reframing when things don’t go as planned
• There is always going to be the next step without a safety net
• Planning – being strategic and the growth potential is there

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MORE ABOUT EMILY KAPIT

Emily Kapit, MS, CPRW, ACRW, is the founder, lead resume writer, and head career strategist at ReFresh Your Step, LLC, a career advisory firm based in Miami, Florida with clients located nationally and internationally.

Emily specializes in writing highly tailored, targeted resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles and other professional documents. She is one of South Florida’s only Certified Professional Resume Writers (CPRW) and one of very few ACRWs (Academy Certified Resume Writers). In addition to written documents, she also collaborates with clients on targeted job search strategies, effective networking tactics, and comprehensive interviewing techniques.

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Stacey Winget is an events and casting photographer in the Los Angeles area for her own photography studio, Stacey Winget Photography. After having a successful career in the world of entertainment in casting and producing, she decided to listen to the advice the universe was giving her, and decided to turn her side hustle into a full time business.

She shares her first year struggles, how she managed the leap into entrepreneurship and her best advice to others who are looking to start their own photography business.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• A choice between two different paths
• In the long term of my life, this is what I want
• Flexibility in my career choices
• Having a safety net – financial and support
• How networking helped create success
• Missteps along the way
• Finding the right specialty and how I could find those customers
• Capturing moments, not setting them up
• How to build a business around a specific niche; how do I reach the people I want to work with?
• When you’re trying to figure it out – worrying about the “wasted year”
• How to navigate social media and the question of oversharing pictures of other people
• Getting a schedule together and structuring your day

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Andy Cochrane
• Liz Law Jewelry

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MORE ABOUT STACEY WINGET

Stacey Winget is a photographer in Los Angeles with past experience as a casting, entertainment executive and producer.

She began her career working in the casting department at Fox Broadcasting Company for 8 years and ultimately became a casting executive covering shows such as House and Bob’s Burgers. She then moved to the media entertainment company BermanBraun, where she eventually was the sole editor and primary writer for the film and television community-based website, Screened.

Stacey has also produced several projects crossing over different mediums. In 2011, she produced an album and a music video for the band Darin Bennett and the Requeim. The song ‘Holdin’ Me’ is the theme song for the new Discovery Show ‘Warlocks Rising.’ The music video for the same song was featured in several film festivals and on countless music blogs. She is also working on production of an interactive short film and episodic series with director, Andrew Cochrane and the children’s Halloween book, ‘The Trick or Freaks.’

Currently, she runs an independent photography business in the Los Angeles area that focuses on events and production stills. Her experience in the entertainment industry helps guide her interactions with high-profile clients and event guests.

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Tina Lee is the founder of MotherCoders – a non-profit helping working moms grow their coding skills in the Bay Area. After having her first child, Tina had a difficult time being able to increase her coding skills while looking after her young one. An epiphany – she probably wasn’t the only mom who needed childcare assistance to find the time/space to learn.

Her organization just finished their first beta test and are in the process of raising more money for round two… and also figuring out what the next stage will look like. She shares her struggles, ideas, her measures of success, and the best advice she has for anyone starting a non-profit (or any other venture).

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• On-ramping moms into new careers in a technical economy
• At a moment of despair, you have empathy for others who may be experiencing the same thing
• Pilot – raised money to cover costs of the concept, but no profits
• Time and food was donated
• Pricing going forward to offset costs as a non-profit
• Figuring out what their eco-system will look like – what their sweet spot will be
• Making their platform available to the people who need it, without cost being a barrier
• Keep tinkering and learning
• Leap of faith not knowing what the payoff will be
• Figuring out a way to make this work financially for our family
• Having the runway to fail, learn and tinker
• Guilt that comes with being a working mom
• Being terrified everyday… also known as being an entrepreneur
• Success is a moving target
• You cannot be awesome by yourself – social capital is important

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MORE ABOUT TINA LEE

Tina Lee is the founder of MotherCoders, a non-profit organization whose mission is to create a more dynamic, sustainable, and inclusive economy by on-ramping moms to technical careers. She started MotherCoders in September 2013 — 4 months after her second child was born — when she wanted to get more proficient in computer programming and couldn’t find a resource that worked well for her given her work and parenting responsibilities. After surveying her options, Tina had a hunch there might be other moms like her out there, yearning for a learning experience that involved lots of social interaction and support from like-minded peers. MotherCoders just wrapped up their pilot program and are fundraising for more classes.

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Tanya Geisler is a leadership coach and leading expert on the Impostor Complex - having helped hundreds of people be more of who they are supposed to be and step into their starring role. Having successfully launched several different programs, products and coaching services, Tanya’s approach to launching is to focus not only on over-delivering, but also on listening to her audience’s needs.

In this episode, Tanya shares the launch of her free ebook which you can get here, 12 Lies of the Impostor Complex (and One Truth) – which was the culmination and philosophy of all of the work that she does.  But the ebook is really just a primer to her biggest launch ahead – her program, Step Into Your Starring Role. This will be the fourth time she launches this program, but each iteration has a different focus, target audience, and core deliverable – with the same life-changing content.

TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Understanding what the Impostor Complex is
• Some of the myths we tell ourselves that are really the Impostor Complex speaking
• Step Into Your Starring Role – a comprehensive coaching program that helps you move past the Impostor Complex
• How to launch… and why we hold ourselves back
• Slipping it in the water launching – and why our results are a direct reflection of our approach
• Why being able to talk about yourself is essential as a coach or business owner

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Tedx Talk on Owning Our Authority and the Impostor Complex
• Step Into Your Starring Role Program
• Board of Your Life

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MORE ABOUT TANYA GEISLER

Tanya Geisler is Leadership Coach (CPCC, ACC) with a penchant for clarity and an abhorrence of the Impostor Complex. She’s coached hundreds of people who were ready to step into the starring roles of their lives. The 12 Lies of the Impostor Complex (and One Truth), The Joy Pages, created Board of Your Life and the transformational 12-week Step into Your Starring Role program, is a blogger for the wildly popular The Daily Love, has served as contributor and was featured in Canadian Living, and is an in-demand TEDx speaker who talks with great passion about the Impostor Complex, personal leadership, on all things joy, meaning and purpose (just try to stop her).

It is her indomitable belief that if everyone knew their own unique recipe for their personal brand of joy, they’d hold the key to shining in their life, in their work and in their life’s work. (It really does change everything.)