Transcript
0:00:00 - (Wendi):
And the very first time I actually dress rehearsed because I was actually booked to speak in front of 300 people. And this was very early on. I went and stood in Lifeguard station at 6 o'clock in the morning so I would have elevation and I was like talking out to the beach. Nobody was there. Maybe just a couple people watching the sunrise and like to actually embody it, to get what it feels like to, like, be addressing and talking without seeing faces looking back.
0:00:28 - (Wendi):
So that was really helpful for me. That made us a big difference. Difference.
0:00:32 - (Marcia):
It's interesting you talk about impersonating somebody because that is typically my go to. I don't. I took drama lessons from the time I was eight, so I've never been afraid to speak in front of people. But when I talk to people, I ask them to say, who do you really admire as a speaker or who you admire as a performer? Is it pink? Okay. How does she stand? Right? Does she have that confidence? Just imagine I'm not going to look at her and then imagine that you're her and just kind of embody it. And then eventually you'll get your own style.
0:00:56 - (Marcia):
Right. But sometimes you have to sit there and say, she could do that. I can do that. Welcome to the Illuminating Wisdom Podcast. I'm your host, Marciana Ryan Weldon, and I'm a lawyer, business strategist, corporate trainer, and executive coach. Each week I'm going to bring you my favorite entrepreneurs, thought leaders, legal professionals, and other coaches who will inspire, educate, and empower you.
0:01:20 - (Marcia):
Have you ever wondered how to turn fear into your greatest strength? Wendy Blumweiss knows exactly how to do that. She is the coach's coach. We're going to explore her journey from fear to success, her framework for reinventing yourself. Talk about some of the key sales and speaking mistakes people make, and generally talk about the importance of why everybody needs to have a book. So, Wende, it's so great to have you here. Thanks for being with us today.
0:01:44 - (Wendi):
It's a great honor to be here with you, Marcia.
0:01:48 - (Marcia):
So I know that we have a hard stop. This may be one of our shorter episodes, but I know it's going to be packed full of wisdom and you've had more than one career, so we're going to talk about that in a minute. But a lot of times people need to know how somebody got to where they are so briefly. What's the single most impactful thing that's happened in your personal life that led you to where you are today?
0:02:08 - (Wendi):
Professionally, I will say there's One thing comes to mind if I were to just come up with the catalyst, a moment in time. I had a lot of anxiety. I mean, I just always did. And I would wake up in the middle of the night. I just, I don't know, I just carried like a heaviness inside my body. And I remember waking up and it was. It was common. I'd wake up and I was having a panic attack. And this time was different.
0:02:44 - (Wendi):
When I woke up, my chest was tight, I couldn't breathe. And literally, I did the math. I thought to myself, I feel like I'm dying, like in my body. I'm so frozen with fear. And most of the women in my family lived to be 90. Plus. My great grandmother lived to be 99. My grandmother, 90s.
0:03:13 - (Marcia):
Wow, what a blessing.
0:03:15 - (Wendi):
And a blessing, but also for me, when I was having this revelation to me, I thought of it as a curse. And I get goosebumps even sharing this story. I was 45 years old. So I did the math. I said, if I were to live to be 90, double my age, that's 45 more years of living in stress, anxiety, fear, often thinking about taking my life. It just choked me up. And it panicked me to the extent that I remember saying one word.
0:03:55 - (Wendi):
And that word was no. I didn't scream it out loud or anything, but I felt like I did. And I said no. I had no idea what yes would be. But the next morning I felt different. And the next morning I started to ask myself this, this different questions. In this one question in particular, what if I. Everything I know to be true? What if it's reverse? And then I thought, I went, I turned on the TV because I liked noise in the background. I went, I picked up the remote to turn on the TV and I put the remote down.
0:04:37 - (Wendi):
I went to call somebody. So it was just a nervous habit to start talking on the phone. And I said no. So those things started to happen that day and became a catalyst to really completely change my life.
0:04:56 - (Marcia):
So it's interesting that you say that because so many people need a near death or what they think is near death to change and reinvent themselves. And you have developed. You are an author, a speaker, a writer, you are so many different things we're going to talk about today. But. But one of the things that you've talked about is reinventing yourself. How do you reinvent yourself after when you're in your mid-40s? And I think it's really important because so many people will say, I'm too old to Change, you know, this is what my life is. It's too hard.
0:05:28 - (Marcia):
I don't have the time. You know, for you, it was almost a life and death experience. For me, similar. My life changed when it was a life and death experience. But let's not have people almost have to die, right? So what does it mean to reinvent yourself? Especially? I think 40 is the new 20. But when you're a little bit older than, than, you know, just getting out of college or just getting out of high school, when your whole life is ahead of you.
0:05:52 - (Wendi):
Yeah, for sure. Well, it actually, it changed for me with taking small steps. You know, that morning when I woke up, I just. I said to myself, what are the things I hadn't been doing? And I started reading. I had read a lot of material, but it was all pertaining to the pharmaceutical industry. It was all medical. That's what I read. I didn't read anything on personal growth. I didn't even know there was a category of personal growth.
0:06:19 - (Wendi):
And so I started just on embarking on a new journey to discover who I was. I think the quality of our life, it boils down to the quality of the questions. And I started asking different questions like I did that day, and it started. A new path started to reveal itself. I had a successful career, but I didn't know that there was anything else or what anything else could look like. Although I always had a little bit of a side hustle thing going on.
0:06:52 - (Wendi):
So I did always have that because there was a creative side. Right. I was in such a conservative industry.
0:06:59 - (Marcia):
Because you're in pharmaceutical sales.
0:07:01 - (Wendi):
Pharmaceutical sales, highly regulated. And so I would do things on. On the side, and that fulfilled me. But I allowed more of that. More of that, please. More of the side hustle, more of the. Of the joy from the other things. And I figured out that you could make some money from some of those things. And when I learned that I could make a little bit of money, I thought, well, okay, I started selling T shirts and I put inspirational messages on them.
0:07:31 - (Marcia):
And the first inspirational message you remember putting on a T shirt.
0:07:35 - (Wendi):
What was one of the messages?
0:07:36 - (Marcia):
I remember one of the first ones, if you remember.
0:07:39 - (Wendi):
Well, it was all around this one question. What is your destiny? My destiny is to be strong. My destiny is to be powerful. My destiny is to be strong, powerful, courageous, and fearless. So that was the message. I had a lot of messages, but that was one of my first.
0:08:00 - (Marcia):
So speaking of messaging, you know, there's always a talk, and I know you've talked about this, that people need to have their personal mission, vision, values, etc. How do people develop that? Because I think you can't really figure out what your destiny is or what you're supposed to do. And the reason that so many people are so miserable in their jobs is because they're not living to what they're supposed to be doing, that they've never really asked themselves those questions. So if you would say, you know, what the difference between the mission statement and values and why is that important for somebody to determine?
0:08:31 - (Wendi):
Well, because otherwise you're in your head, right? And your head will always like, you know, it could screw you up. But when you drop into your heart and you follow your heart, that's when anything and everything is possible. So when you do start to reflect on a mission statement of any source, for me, it was like starting to set intention. We had a company mission statement. I mean, they recited it every time we had a company meeting.
0:09:00 - (Wendi):
Why not have an individual mission statement? And I made up something just really super easy. My mission is to inspire men and women around the globe to tap into their power, unleash their brilliance, and to make a difference in the world. And you don't even have to know what all those details are. It just gave me my why. But I also printed my mission statement. And I printed two copies and I framed it and I put one on my office desk and I put one on my nightstand.
0:09:39 - (Wendi):
And then when I started to speak, because I was so afraid, right, I would take my mission statement with me and I would actually walk up on stage with it framed and I would speak my mission statement. And so to me, it was a, it was a big deal actually creating a mission statement.
0:09:56 - (Marcia):
And I think everybody should do that, you know, their mission statement, their vision statement, because that's your guiding principle. You know, I have like my own little slogan is if it's not a hell yes, then it's a hell no. I mean, unless I'm being paid and I have to do it right, or it's against the law. If I don't sit there and think about that, then you're going to be all over the place. And I want to say something that's really interesting. You said you used to go up on stages in fear and you had to hold your mission statement one of the other. Because you are a multi passionate, multi hyphenate like I am.
0:10:25 - (Marcia):
You also basically run a speaker's bureau. And you know, and I first met you in Clubhouse years ago when you were talking about getting people to speak. So how do you go from I'm afraid and I'm trembling on the stage to basically holding massive events with hundreds of people and helping people learn how to speak?
0:10:45 - (Wendi):
Well, you know, it started slowly. All I did was like, all right, I need to be around speakers and coaches, and how could I do this? And I thought, I'll just start a Facebook group and I'll name it Speakers and Coaches. And that's what I did. And lo and behold, people started requesting to come into the group. And it just happened. It has a snowball effect, right? So just a little bit at a time. And I knew that I needed to. If I want to be a speaker, I need to be surrounded by speakers. If I want to be a coach, I need to be surrounded by coaches.
0:11:24 - (Wendi):
But because I did put up my shingle pretty quickly, you know, I started to. Started to coach as a side hustle, because the T shirts. People started asking me about the messages on the T-shirts. And, you know, it's. I think life is all one big experiment. And I did think of it like a clinical trial. It's like research. It might just. It might not work out. And let me just test it. I surveyed people.
0:11:50 - (Wendi):
You know, one thing I will say, I'm really curious. I'm curious about people, and I care about people. So those two things have been with me from the time I was a young girl. And being curious will take you far, you know, if you're willing to test things out and you're willing to fail and explore. And that's what I did with the speakers group. I didn't know how to run events. I wanted to be a speaker. I didn't know who was actually going to hire me to be a speaker.
0:12:17 - (Wendi):
But I figured, you know, I did take a lot of doctors out to dinner, and I put on medical events, and they're hard. That's a hard group to get out. And I was successful at that. So I did have a reference point. If I can get the doctors out, then maybe I can get two or three people out.
0:12:36 - (Marcia):
When you talk to people who want to be speakers, but many people know that public speaking is the biggest fear besides death for some people. What's a tip that people probably have never heard of before that could help them be more confident, whether they're speaking on stage, whether they're speaking at a meeting, whether they're walking up to somebody at a networking event. Any particular tips that we may not. We've all heard, you know, imagine them naked. Imagine them, you know, in funny clothes, whatever it is. But Is there something else that we, that we may not have heard that that's a, that's one of your go tos?
0:13:10 - (Wendi):
Well, I mean it was simply that I had somebody, Marianne Williamson, actually I liked her style. I liked her, I liked her body language when she spoke, she commanded the room and I would play her on YouTube and then I would follow her and pretend I was her. And I would like to literally pretend that I was talking in my room. And the very first time I actually dressed rehearsed because I was actually booked to speak in front of 300 people. And this was very early on. I went and stood in the Lifeguard station at 6 o'clock in the morning so I would have an elevation and I was like talking out to the beach.
0:13:49 - (Wendi):
Nobody was there. Maybe just a couple people watching the sunrise and like to actually embody it to get what it feels like to be addressing and talking without seeing faces looking back. So that was really helpful for me. That made a big difference.
0:14:05 - (Marcia):
It's interesting you talk about impersonating somebody because that is typically my go to. I don't. I took drama lessons from the time I was eight, so I've never been afraid to speak in front of people. But when I talk to people, I ask them to say, who do you really admire as a speaker or who you admire as a performer? Is it pink? Okay. How does she stand? Right? Does she have that confidence? Just imagine, imagine looking at her and then imagine that you're her and just kind of embody it. And then eventually you'll get your own style, right? But sometimes you have to sit there and say, she can do that. I can do that. Right? It's the.
0:14:35 - (Marcia):
I can do that. And you spilled it up. And I love the idea of just. I love the idea of the elevation because a lot of people don't think about that, right? They stand in front of their mirror. But standing up in front and speaking out into something is actually a really, really good tip. What do you think is the biggest mistake that new speakers make?
0:14:56 - (Wendi):
Wanting to share everything that they know when they go up on stage, like so they lose themselves. So you need a system. And I always say like three points or five steps max. And to use something like an acronym or like this is three steps so that you can really stay on point instead of going in a million different directions.
0:15:21 - (Marcia):
That's great. Now you also believe that everybody should have a book. I didn't believe that until you helped me become a two time best selling author. So kudos to you and a lot of People that are listening may be lawyers, they may be coaches, they may be entrepreneurs, high achievers. Does everybody really need a book? Or at least a book chapter?
0:15:44 - (Wendi):
Well, here's what I say about that. We live this one life. This. This is it. We are history. We are our ancestors. And sharing your story, you have no idea that. That one story that you share, how it could really impact and change someone's life. And we can do it. Like we have the resources to be able to do this right? Or you just need to find somebody who has done it and then let them mentor you, get into a group program or some sort so that you can write a book.
0:16:24 - (Wendi):
But you just never know. And it lives way past your lifetime, forever. And now it's in the digital universe. So I do think that the messages, I believe every person has value. Every person that is here is called. And whatever their lesson is, that last thing that they would be, like, thinking or wanting to say or put on a billboard, you know, that. That one message that they think, like, why not put it into book form so it can help somebody else?
0:16:57 - (Marcia):
Now book is really intimidating to a lot of people. Right? It's like a whole book. Right. And I know that when I worked with you and with Patricia Wooster, I was able to do a chapter which made life much easier. And I know that you have had openings for future books. I don't know if you want to talk about that briefly or not.
0:17:14 - (Wendi):
Sure, yeah, sure. I mean, this is our life's work. Patricia and I, you know, the. The idea that 15 CO authors or collaborators can come together and share their story for, and to be a force of good in the world and also to grow their business and to highlight their expertise. Like, it's, you know, all of those things, you know, for sure. Writing a chapter. I wish I would have known about writing a chapter. It was so hard.
0:17:47 - (Wendi):
When I wrote my first book, I overspent. I spent $10,000 15 years ago to write my first book that is really low quality. Like, when I see it now on my bookshelf, I'm like, look at that book. It's barely a book, right? The ink, the paper, the book cover, all the things. Um, so I would have never done that. Like, I would have saved a lot of money. I would have made fewer mistakes. And that, that is why, like, you know, get with an expert that knows what to do.
0:18:22 - (Wendi):
And then 15 people coming together in community, if each person has 1,000 people on an email list and maybe two people have an email list of 10,000 you know, like Patricia and I like, you know, have much larger list then your story, your expertise, your message is reaching. Instead of who's ever in your database, it's multiplied by 15. So you reach a lot more people.
0:18:48 - (Marcia):
So not only do you actually impact people, but you can use it to benefit your business. And I, and I know that also helps you get booked for speaking. Right. So a lot of people, you know, want to listen to this podcast, may want to be speakers, may want to be, may not want to be authors because they've never thought about it. But what I always say is that it is really helpful to be able to say you're a best selling author and doesn't have to be a New York Times or Wall Street Journal bestselling author because everybody gets their books from Amazon right now. So, you know, the bestselling Amazon author is a great feat.
0:19:18 - (Marcia):
Now you do work with a lot of coaches and you know, you talked about kind of reinventing yourself in your mid-40s. I imagine that a lot of the coaches you work with are in their mid-40s and up and probably have to, they're on Facebook because they want to check on the grandkids and they might be on Instagram because they want to look for stuff, but they don't really think about themselves marketing themselves on social media.
0:19:41 - (Marcia):
Right. And I know this is a big push that you've been making recently yourself. What are some tips that you have for people that might say social media is not for me. I'm not trying to dance on TikTok. I don't want to, I don't want to put myself out there. I'm afraid to be on camera. I just want to do my coaching and use word of mouth. Is that good enough these days or do you really need to do more?
0:20:04 - (Wendi):
Well, I think we all need to do it because I believe that we are in a creator economy, bar none. Even if you work for a company, it is your walking, living, breathing resume. So you want to put out who you are in the world because if you're going for an interview, someone is going to check social media and it represents confidence and it shows so much about your character to actually be able to step into, you know, speaking, to be able to talk, to be able to communicate. Right.
0:20:42 - (Wendi):
Most jobs, careers require you to communicate in some way, shape or form. So you have a highlight reel of you and listen when you, you want to do it when you don't have any followers, like you want to experiment and play around with it. I, I started a YouTube channel many years ago, like 15 years ago. And most of the videos are turned off. Some of the old videos are still on. So you can just see, like, wow, like, she got herself a speaker and that's her right.
0:21:17 - (Wendi):
You know, we're not hiring that. But, you know, I, I find that, like, it helps you improve your communication. Even if you're having a hard conversation with a friend or a family member, like, just get on camera and start to experiment again. Life is an experiment. And then when you land on something and you do something, well, you'll be really proud of yourself. And you can check the box that, like, I'm willing to be seen.
0:21:47 - (Wendi):
Most people don't want to be seen. I didn't want to be seen. I was the girl in the back of the room. I was the girl that, like, you know, don't see me. I'm insecure.
0:21:57 - (Marcia):
All those surprises to me. But okay.
0:22:00 - (Wendi):
But the thing is, but the one thing that I was, was studious. So, like, that's how I like, stepped in. Like, you know, my A was the way that I was seen. But don't, don't talk to me, you know, so, but, and so social media was hard for me. It really was hard for me. But my mission, of course, I had it, like, printed in my, in my frame. It was no longer about me. Like, what if somebody's message changed my life?
0:22:27 - (Wendi):
Somebody's book, somebody's story changed my life. So if I'm withholding the transformation that I've had in my own life and I am not sharing it, I'm doing a disservice to the other person. Person that could be having their breakthrough.
0:22:46 - (Marcia):
Absolutely. I love that. Now, you talked about a book that changed your life. I'm going to put you on the spot here. What's the. What's your number one? Go to Personal Transformation book.
0:22:57 - (Wendi):
Okay.
0:22:58 - (Marcia):
To recommend. And then what's one that you recommend either for leaders that you coach or entrepreneurs, besides the ones that you've written. And if you want to go ahead and, and name some of the ones that you, your anthologies, feel free to do that. But besides those. Personal Transformation book, because you talked about, you started reading when you're trying to figure out what am I going to do?
0:23:16 - (Marcia):
And then one for leaders or entrepreneurs.
0:23:19 - (Wendi):
Okay, so. And this book, I think, was only digital and it was written in the very early 1900s. Everybody thinks about, thinks and grows rich. But this particular book was about your forces and how to use them. So I actually took the thick book like this and had it printed. Because there wasn't even a printed book anywhere. Christian Larson.
0:23:46 - (Marcia):
I love that.
0:23:47 - (Wendi):
I've heard it.
0:23:47 - (Marcia):
I've heard it read on YouTube, actually.
0:23:49 - (Wendi):
Oh, you have?
0:23:50 - (Marcia):
Because the name was like, that sounds familiar. I've heard it, and I think it's been taken down since then because I listened to a lot of those very old books, those old metaphysics books from the early 20th century on YouTube.
0:24:02 - (Wendi):
That's what I, you know, I wanted to. I wanted to keep going deeper and deeper and find the old work, not the new, the, you know, the trending titles. So that really resonated with me. And I like how to part. I like the instructions, like, what to do. I mean, I was eager, I was ready, I was open. Now guide me. I don't have a guru here.
0:24:27 - (Marcia):
Right at home.
0:24:28 - (Wendi):
I need a guru. So Christian Larson was my. It was my. Was my guru. Right.
0:24:35 - (Marcia):
So some of the Christian Larson works links, at least in the show notes also.
0:24:40 - (Wendi):
Okay, great.
0:24:42 - (Marcia):
Because it's very useful.
0:24:44 - (Wendi):
And then as far as leadership books, and he's written so many. I don't even know how many. 50, 80. 80 books. You know, leader. Everything is leadership. I can tell you the latest book I bought from him, but it is John Max. So John Maxwell. The way he talks about. There's one thing that he always talks about, and he talks about bringing value, no matter what you're doing, is that you bring excellence and you bring value.
0:25:14 - (Wendi):
How can I bring that? People are like, how do I make more money? How do I become a multimillionaire? Like, all those things. But I love that he really talks about value and he lives it. You see him live it. And he's written a zillion business books.
0:25:32 - (Marcia):
Absolutely. What are you reading right now? Oh, talk a little bit about Unleash Academy, because we are both in that. You've given some. You run it, and you've given some book recommendations. I'm still reading one of them right now. But the funny thing is that I tell people I'm reading it. They're like, I'm reading it too. So there's a lot of business people that are reading, you know, the book that you recommended. But what are you reading right now?
0:26:00 - (Wendi):
Well, so, you know, I have read Shiny Ball, and I like to read. I like to listen to audio.
0:26:09 - (Marcia):
That's what I do also.
0:26:10 - (Wendi):
But I will say right now, for me, I am completely obsessed with podcasts, so I actually feel like I get the authors that I would listen to. I'm really focused on health and your wealth. Right. And really focus on a woman who is 63 years young and thinking about reverse engineering the end of life. Like this is something I talk about a lot, reverse engineering. So you reverse engineer your, your future identity, your future self and like peel it back.
0:26:43 - (Wendi):
And so I am listening to podcasts because I get the author and then I get to hear him on the fly, how he answers the questions, like why people listening to this podcast right now because they get, you know, the, all the ins and outs of the, the topics and the questions that you ask. So I would say that's what I'm listening to. And I'm listening to it. What I'm most interested in is biohacking and our next co-author book. We have two of them and one of them is called Biohack Entrepreneur.
0:27:23 - (Wendi):
And I'm very interested in biohacking and how it relates not only to your health but to your productivity. And you hear about biohacking a lot at the same time in the world of entrepreneurship. So I'm really quite fascinated by it. I've been involved in it for a lot of years, I would say 15 or 20 years, but now, you know, reaching my mid-60s. Now I'm really interested in it for aging and for health and for productivity because I believe our most productive and our highest earning years. Most people think that they're in your 40s and 50s.
0:28:06 - (Wendi):
I am, I am stepping into that. I believe they're in your 60s and 70s. That there is a paradigm shift that is happening right now. So it's never too late to change your career or leave a career and become an entrepreneur, to become a best selling author, to become a professional speaker and also make a really good income. Six figures and seven figures like never before are available and then to make a bigger impact in the world.
0:28:39 - (Wendi):
So that's really what I'm leaning into. I'm all in. I'm having conversations every day around this. You can see like I got super fired up about it.
0:28:49 - (Marcia):
You guys can't see, by the way, Wendy is in her 60s, but she really looks like she's in her mid-30s. So. So clearly she's doing something right. And one of the things that you do is you have a morning routine and I see you all the time on Instagram lifting weights now. There's a lot of this morning routine used to be a thing and then there's a little bit of a backlash. And some people like you can just roll out of bed. You don't need a 17 step morning routine.
0:29:12 - (Marcia):
Why is a morning routine important to you? And what's in it? You talk about kind of having this stellar morning. What does that mean? Or a stellar productive day?
0:29:20 - (Wendi):
Well, I want to say that I've always thought morning routines were vitally important, but I actually think that evening routines could be even more important. So how you really transition into sleep so that you wake up and that you're willing to do a morning routine. So an evening routine is what creates. So the first step to a morning routine is having an evening routine. And it doesn't have to be a lot. It could be taking a bubble bath, it could be just reading, it could be writing your gratitude, doing a couple breaths of gratitude or something.
0:29:56 - (Wendi):
But to do something that will be a springboard for your morning routine. So that's like rule number one for the morning routine and then the morning routine, the very first thing. Because I believe like, you know, we start things small and if you, if you try to do a ten step morning routine, it's not going to work out too well for you. So hydration is a no brainer, right? But just start with one glass of water. But hydration is really important and I'm learning about it. I'm learning about the importance of having salt in your water that has minerals in it.
0:30:30 - (Wendi):
So you know, adding that piece in there, making sure you have electrolyte. So it's like all of a sudden your water is like a whole thing. It's just not a mindless thing, it's a sacred thing. Right? But our body is 70, 80% water and so is our brain and so is the planet. So, if you get your water in, I say, kudos, you've won. So I talk about these five things in the morning. So in the morning it is like clearing out any stuck energy.
0:30:57 - (Wendi):
So that's forgiveness and that's water like, or that's like, you know, whatever, like jumping on a rebounder or going for what do, do some clearing work so that you're not carrying the residue from 10 years ago or from yesterday into your day. And then also commit. So you commit to your water and then you stack your wings like you start. I'm so proud of myself, like being proud of yourself first thing in the morning. I'm so proud of myself. I drank my water today and really started a dialogue like that with yourself.
0:31:30 - (Wendi):
And then the morning routine incorporating reverse engineering, which I'm really passionate about as well. So you know, thoughts become things. So if you can have a conversation with your future self. I am talking to myself right now at 100. So I'm 100 years old and I'm communicating with myself. And so. But you don't have to do that. You can communicate with yourself like December 31st of this year, you know, and just have a conversation.
0:32:00 - (Wendi):
Starting with, I'm proud of you because. And then name the things, like not the goal, but the process. I'm proud of you because you got out of bed earlier. I'm proud of you, girl. I'm proud of you because you had some setbacks and that guy really wronged you and you like, let it go. I'm really proud of you for that. I see the work that you're putting in and I'm proud of you. And listen, sometimes you screw it up and I'm proud of you for like owning your shit too and like being okay with that.
0:32:34 - (Wendi):
So the morning routine for me is not like it used to be, like a really structured thing. I do meditation for 20 minutes, I do breath work, then I go for a workout and do all the things and I do my weight training because one of the biohacks is like, we gotta be strong, you know, and so this body has gotta hold me. And that's the thing that drives me to actually make it to the gym in the morning and lift weights.
0:32:59 - (Marcia):
Got it. Now, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about selling, because some things that people hate more than speaking are selling. And you work with a lot of mission driven entrepreneurs. And I think for some people who have a mission that they want to save the world, they want to make the world a better place, they're heart centered. It's very hard to sell and it's very hard to charge what you're worth.
0:33:22 - (Marcia):
What are some things that you've seen in the people that you've coached and in your various masterminds that stand in the way of people selling and marketing themselves and charging what they're worth. And what are some tips that you might have to overcome that?
0:33:37 - (Wendi):
Well, it's really important, right, the whole thing around money. And especially if you work for a company and you're given a paycheck, right? And it gets automatically deposited in your bank account. So you're really not doing a whole, like, you know what you're doing at work and your career and all those things. So if you work for yourself, it's a whole different story. And that is where you know, you have a title when you work for a company and all those things.
0:34:02 - (Wendi):
So you're like, okay, so. And you knew what you stepped into what your salary was. You work for yourself. You know, it's, it's very, very different. And you are having money conversations with almost everybody that you're working with. So it takes a, it takes some dress rehearsing, it takes some identity work, it takes some exploring your self worth and what the old money stories were and how you grew up and whether your, your set point is scarcity or abundance. And let's face it, most people's point is scarcity.
0:34:39 - (Wendi):
Absolutely. So it's a, it's a, it's a thing and it requires you to do work around specifically that. And because I work with coaches and help them craft their offer and set their pricing, just about 100% of the time, I'm helping people raise their prices or to even like step into. Well, first off, they're brand new, right? You have to have conviction, so you have to have experience. I don't believe in like you're going to have a high ticket offer like out of the gate. You have no experience.
0:35:15 - (Wendi):
I don't believe in that right now. If you have experience, you have results, you can talk about client results. That's a whole different ball game. Then by all means, then you got to stair step yourself up in price. But first you got to get clients, first you got to get results. So I believe just like get a, get, get a number in there. Like what's the number that you can embody, that you can look somebody in the eyes with complete conviction, that you can get them a transformation because that's where the, the tone of the tonality of your voice, it's the eye contact that you make, it's the examples that you share, it's your languaging, all those things.
0:35:54 - (Wendi):
So you have to practice. And I mean this tip I share is that you know, have that conversation with that potential customer first, with yourself, without the customer standing there. Pick up your phone, use the audio app and dress, rehearse, speak it and then listen to it to hear the congruencies. Did your voice go up? Did your voice get soft and back like, you know, so like listen to it and practice and start somewhere.
0:36:26 - (Wendi):
Sales. You'd be doing a disservice to hold back a transformation or something that's in your bag or some resource that you have that you don't offer to another. It's a disservice. So you have to reframe how you think about sales. I call it the new sales paradigm. I call it stop selling and start sharing. Sharing, sharing who you are, sharing your story, share why you're passionate about doing what it is that you do. And then your body is not thinking, I'm selling them, I am sharing with them.
0:37:02 - (Marcia):
Now you talk about, share your story. This goes across everything that you talk about, whether it's your books, whether it's speaking, whether it's selling. Some people will sit there and say, I don't know what my story is, or how do I pick my story? And I know we hear this a lot on the mastermind that you run, where people are like, what am I going to talk about? So what is, you know, what is a guiding principle for you for somebody who's sitting thinking, okay, now she's told me, I've got to be on social media. I should write a book. Maybe I want to speak and I got to sell.
0:37:31 - (Marcia):
The theme is, what's your story? Who are you? How do people figure out who they really are?
0:37:37 - (Wendi):
Well, okay, so simple. To make it simple, just take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle. What's the worst thing that's ever happened to me? You'll think of a few things. And what's the best thing that's ever happened to me? So just like, even start there so you can start getting a reference point. Because, like, our filter, we're going to remember most of the bad stuff, like, and some of that is great for storytelling, but you don't want to go into, like, a wound, right?
0:38:06 - (Wendi):
Which, and I did in the beginning, I was like, crying on stage because I would start talking about me. My story of my really tough upbringing. But then I learned how to suck it up, right? And to be able to share it from my scar and not from the wound, not from an open wound, and not while you're going through it either. So you look back in, and when you see that I've been able to transcend beyond that, I'll be able to tell that story, and maybe somebody else can relate to it.
0:38:35 - (Wendi):
I can possibly share that story or the best thing that ever happened. But here you have to be careful. If you're sharing the best thing without sharing that there was a journey to get you there, then people won't really relate to the best thing. So you really want to look at your life. And I create this timeline, which you look at every 10 years of your life, and you start thinking about what those highlight reels are.
0:39:02 - (Wendi):
A lot of them are painful, but just get them out. And then if they're still healing to do, then do the healing work around it. You can do that through Journaling or, you know, go to your retreat. You host these retreats, like, find a way to clear the energy so that you can get to your story and just start practicing in sound bites, sharing the story. And take note how receptive people are. You don't want to practice on a stage, right?
0:39:31 - (Wendi):
You just want to practice, which is sharing it. And that's why I love YouTube. YouTube, you have you actually a private, unlisted and public. If you put it in private, you can make a video, you can put it on YouTube, no one will ever find it. And you can just watch yourself telling a story, like telling your story. And you can look at that and you, you can see the progression as you get better. If you put it on unlisted, the only people that can find it are the people you send it to. Like, I put some on there on unlisted.
0:40:02 - (Wendi):
But you have to get out there and just practice it, speak it, write it. And another book, I'll throw out a book that's really helpful to get unstuck and to start writing or reflecting on yourself. And that's the artist's way. Julia Cameron. Yeah, the artist way is really helpful to start doing reflection work. And a lot of top authors, a lot of people just around the world have used her work.
0:40:33 - (Marcia):
Fantastic. Well, you've given so many tips, it's hard to summarize them all. You've talked about the importance of sharing and not selling and how it's a disservice not to share your story. You've talked about rehearsing how you speak and where to do that. You know, you've talked about the importance of writing a book and how that can help with your business. You've talked about getting out there on social media and how to practice that.
0:40:58 - (Marcia):
If there's one thing you want people to remember more than anything else, and this is the second to last question, if they remember nothing else or if there's something you didn't get to say that you want people to know, what.
0:41:09 - (Wendi):
Would it be to just breathe? Like, if you need a very quick toll, whether it's standing on stage or having a hard conversation or getting through a day, it is the first thing we do when we're born. It's the last thing we do before we die. We know that disease and don't like a lot of oxygen. Right? Oxygen oxygenizing our cells. And so just breathing is usually the answer to a lot of questions that we have in life.
0:41:40 - (Marcia):
I love it. The last question is, how can people work with you?
0:41:44 - (Wendi):
I am Wendy with an I and it's Blum B L U M and it's also Weiss W e I S S so I use both normally. Wendy Blum, you'll find me anywhere. Wendy Blum and my website wendyblum.com as speakers and coaches, who do you work with?
0:42:05 - (Marcia):
With and who do you serve?
0:42:06 - (Wendi):
Oh, I work with men and women entrepreneurs, leaders, speakers, coaches really, to help them step into their visibility. They do what they do so that they can impact and make a difference in the world. And there's so many ways to do that. Book on stage, social media. There's never been a time where we have all these resources available to us as a business owner and entrepreneur.
0:42:41 - (Marcia):
Fantastic. Well, Wendy spoke about retreats. This episode has been brought to you by the release Reset Reinvent Retreat, which has actually now been postponed till February because we were going to have it decimated by Hurricane Barrel. So we're going to be giving a percentage of the proceeds to Treasure Beach, Jamaica. But we'll be doing it from February 15th to the 21st. And now you've listened to Wendy. You know why? She's my coach.
0:43:06 - (Marcia):
So thanks so much Wendy for being with us. And we'll have all of the links to where people can work with you and find your work in the show notes. Thanks again for being with us. And if you guys thought this was helpful, please make sure you share it. Share it with an aspiring author, an aspiring speaker, an aspiring coach, whether they're new to it or whether they've been in it for a long time. Trust me, you will learn a lot from Wende.
0:43:26 - (Marcia):
Thanks again. Thanks so much for joining us. Stay tuned for the next episode. If you like what you heard, subscribe and share it with others.
