SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to What With Amber Do. With your host, Amber Howard, your weekly dose of guidance, inspiration, and strategies to have your small business and whole life thrive. We bring you incredible guests who share their real life experiences of being an entrepreneur so you can have your whole life work. Now, here's your host, Amber Howard.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Welcome back, everyone. Welcome back to What Would Amber Do? It is really my privilege this morning to be intro to be interviewing and speaking with Marie Mason, who is a virtual event manager, digital marketer, business strategist, coach, radio talk show host, TV producer, and owner of Liberty Virtual Solutions. I don't know how you have time to do anything else, Marie. It's such a pleasure to have you here this morning. Thank you for being on the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Oh, it's my pleasure, Amber. I couldn't, I was excited and thrilled I was able to connect with you and be able to be on the show. So yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Yeah, you are like a wealth of knowledge on how to, you know, as an entrepreneur. So I'm really excited to be able to bring that to everyone who listens to the show. Thank you for being here. My pleasure. We start generally in these conversations with like, how did Murray get to today? You know, tell us a little bit about yourself. What's your journey been like to get to where you are in your business today and just in life, really?

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Um, I actually started off as um wanting to be a teacher to make a difference there because um children are our feature. And I always um was impacted by the teachers I had growing up, and I could tell the difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher very quickly at a very young age. And I wanted to be one of those good teachers. Um and I also liked the Mary Poppins movie, the original, not to be mistaken to the one that was later on in the year, and um been always told you remind me of a modern day Mary Poppins. And we're like, okay, I'll go with that. So um, because I always sang and always dance and I always do all sorts of stuff. I was always um out of a box thinker uh at a very young age. And everyone was like, Why are you trying to change things? This is because you know, I I like to make that shift. I like people to realize, let's think out of the box, let's do something different, because you know, the same old, same old can work, but let's shake things up a little bit, let's do something different and move forward. And I carried that on into all of everything I did. Um, and that made a big difference in my life because I'm one of those people who do think out of the box. So um, but it wasn't always fitting for for teachers because they like to have that structure and they like to have the certain methods that they want you to teach. So that didn't fit for very long. So I taught for 20 years in various different preschools and daycare centers. I also had um for five of those years my own home daycare, ran that while my son was little um from 18 months to first grade, and then went back to teaching somewhere else for a little while and realized after a couple of years I was done with teaching. I said, at least teaching young children. I wanted a new venue. So in 2016, when my mom uh fell and broke her hip for this uh it was a second hip because the first one was years, 10 years of the prior. Um, I had to literally leave my teaching career and start to go help her. And I had to be her care primary caregiver. And she lived two hours away from me at least. So I had to travel back and forth between DC and Charlesville, Virginia, and sometimes it's up to about three hours, depending on traffic. As everyone knows, this area can be kind of filled with traffic. And so during that time period, I need to find a job that was A, flexible with my family schedule, B flexible in case I need and that I could take with me in case my mom ever needed me again, so I wouldn't have to leave a job. And one I realized, and the third one was I realized I really wanted to work for myself. And whenever I worked for myself, I always did better working for myself and stayed longer at it than I worked for somebody else. And I was tired of people because one of the things I learned quickly at the job, you're only you only are paid with the job position's worth, not what you are valued at. That's my business owner mindset kicking in. So you if you want to be paid what you're valued at, be your own boss. That's my biggest tip. So there, so in that journey. I also did administrative work for three different CEOs of different companies, um, and wore mini hats doing those jobs as well. And I've also done lots of babysitting and had my own pet sitting business, and I did a lot of things. Pet babysitting business actually was my fun money during college. So I did that all the way through college. Um, and I started at a very young age. I was 11 when I started babysitting, and I did that all the way into my 20s, and I did pick it up here and there in between because sometimes you know you need that in between money, extra money and fun money. And I've been trying to teach my son how to pet sit. So we've had three um three um families that like to uh have our face services on occasion. So we have very loyal clients, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

So getting them started early. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yeah, yeah. Well, you have to be you have to teach them the ropes and they don't know, and so you have to show them how to do it. And you have to the only way to do it is if you teach them. So yeah, he definitely has an entrepreneur spirit, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

So I love the the analogy or kind of the imagery of Mary Poppins for you, Maureen, because as you were speaking, it's like when I think of Mary Poppins, I think of someone who's like the provider of all things, right? Not only like in and the you know, you and I have only spoke a couple of times, and you know, it's been a pleasure each time, but you really are someone who is up to upbeat and and looking at the positive things, and you know, but I think of her bag and like how she just had everything in her bag that you could ever possibly need, and you just like you know, you she just would reach into that bag and she would have what's needed.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yeah, like a layup always kind of surprised me. How did that lay up fit in there? Was my I was like always puzzled me on that one.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

And I'm sure I'm sure you know, there's no surprise that you know Hermione Granger has a similar kind of bag in here in Harry Potter, right? Because I'm almost positive J.K. Rowlings probably saw Mary Poppins as a child. Yeah, I'm sure she did. But yeah, like when you're talking, it's like one of the things I also hear is like that that that flexibility, like that willingness to pivot with life. And like, and and it takes a certain amount of, you know, we talk about that sometimes as entrepreneurs or people, and it sounds easy, but it takes a lot of courage to be the kind of person that, like, okay, these are the circumstances, you know, I'm now I'm now a young mom, I've now got young children, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take this, these skills as a teacher, and I'm gonna run a home daycare and I'm gonna teach in this capacity. And then, oh, look, I go back into the workforce, not quite what I want. And then your mom gets ill, and you know, that that ability to be able to flex, pivot, um, the circumstances are happening. And and it, you know, I know from the work I do with people in resilience how important it is to be able to just kind of flow with what's happening in life and not have, you know, be able to reimagine almost, you know, you're still looking to achieve your goals and the things that are important to you, but kind of not being attached to what it looks like as you achieve them.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah, well put, yeah. And it does take, it does take um it also takes cooperation with people in your family. And sometimes that's not always easy. So you you you kind of can sometimes your differences of of how you how you vision things and how they vision things can conf conflict conflict. So um a lot of it is just working working through that. And and it sounded easy, but it was a struggle because we did, because my family and I were we had some differences of how I were going to how we were going to go around doing that. And um sometimes you just have to learn to to stick with your guns and just kind of say, This is this is how my vision is, this is how I wanted to accomplish, this is and and it's going to take time and it's it's starting to really pick up. Uh, this year I've really picked up 2021 has made a big, I mean, I had some success in 2020 and some, but with COVID, it just kind of wiped everything, everything away. So what do you do then? You make a slight little tweak, slight little pivots, make sure that you learn to fix the holes that you that you had in 2020 and you move forward. And and so I did that. I fixed a whole lot of holes, I rebranded, I did a whole bunch of other things. And ever since I've really I've actually had somebody made a compliment to me yesterday on a call, and he was like, I am going to applaud you on something because he does he does something similar to me, but a little bit different uh with the virtual events, and he's like, You really narrowed down your niche and you have a totally different perspective than any than we do, and yet you're doing it incredibly differently than we are. And I just wanted to applaud you because not everybody has that has the ability to do that, and so he was very complimentary, and I was like, Oh, he might become a client. So there you go. But anyway, but the point is though, it just kind of he wants me to consult with his his um virtual event management team. So I'm like, oh my gosh, this is a different twist I had not thought of. So anyway, but you know, you just have to you never know what opportunities are going to be available. And I keep telling people, you have to be ready to say yes to an opportunity if you feel like it's the right thing for you at that time. That's my my mess, you know, and you have to be knowing what it is, you know, if the if the right opportunity presents itself, things are gonna line up and it's gonna move very quickly. And it just and you just know when it's the right thing because your gut will tell you, okay, this is the right move, let's move forward. And that's how everything is has been in my life. I've gone with my trust in my gut instinct a lot in my life. Doesn't mean it steered me wrong directions occasionally, but most of the time when my gut instincts are right on spot on, I roll with it. So there you go. That's one other tip.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

So you know, for those of us, and you know, I think learning to trust my gut has you know not come easily to me and it's taken time. Um sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between like what is like your gut instinct and and what is like the voice in your head or past paradigms or you know, default ways of doing things. Um you know, you talk about niching down, and it's come up in a lot of conversations lately. And I think, you know, so talk to me about virtual events, talk to me about webinars, because I know like every time I go on Facebook, every time I go on LinkedIn, every time I go on, like there's just like we're inundated with all of these different strategies on how to grow our businesses and how to reach our market and how to make a difference for people. And what was it about virtual live webinars and and virtual live events that had you be like, you know what, this is for me anyway. And I know we can only ever speak from our truth, but this is for me the best way for me to support people and other entrepreneurs. And I love how you and we'll talk about heart-centered entrepreneurs, but like in a moment, but this is the best way for me to serve heart-centered entrepreneurs and growing their businesses.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Okay, great question. Because one of the things is I I like you said, there's so many webinars out there, and I have would in the beginning I had the um fear of missing out syndrome. I don't know if you can relate. So I would jump on every webinar because I'm more like, oh, I want to learn that and I want to learn that because when you're new, getting going in the business, you really you don't know what you want. So you have to learn to figure that out. So when I was new, I was jumping on every webinar I could and realized I really need to focus on what I need to learn at that time instead of jumping on every webinar. But during the process of jumping on every webinar, I realized there were good webinars presentations, and then there were some ones that, oh my gosh, I know where you could fix this, this, and this. And when I realized that, I'm like, oh my gosh, people really don't know how to do webinars. And they didn't know, and and here's one of the things that I've learned they weren't attracting their ideal audience. Uh, and and that's and that was my concern because everybody is jumping in on the bandwagon with webinars because we're stuck at home. And the reason why I did that also was because it is so much easier to focus on the um sharing a message one to many on a webinar than jumping on lots of individual calls. So uh, and you this way it's like acts like a filter so you can find out you can filter the right people to your packages and the right people to your offers and the right people to your services rather than trying to throw up throw, and I'm not saying throw up as being sick, but throwing up out and throwing out into the universe and trying to catch the wider net and just getting everybody to your webinar. How about we just focus in on the ones that are right for you? Because wouldn't it make sense if you're having because here's one of the things I've learned people complain to me, well, I had like 50 people or 100 people sho uh sign up, but only like 40 to 60 of them show up, and I'm like, I know why. Because one, they're not clear in their target market, and two, their messaging is not clear, and three, they're not their um their presentation might be a little bit off. I mean, as and also the landing pages, if they're doing something on their landing pages, it's gonna show up. If this and here's the here's one of the things I've learned if their messaging is not speaking to their ideal audience, that's where they're gonna get uh the the results that they're getting. You know, that's the difference of it. And that's something that I help with. I help make sure I help with the presentation, I also help them make a powerful talk, I help them rock their talk, actually. Um because I help them practice, I help them make sure that their slides are correct. If you're not clear to your audience, you're not going to get the registrations on your offers. If you're not clear and you're not confident, then that's gonna show. So does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 15:20

So the Yeah, it really it does. And I think I remember once I used to I used to host live events like back in the day and like introductions to a program for people. And and I would say to them, like, we we're inundated with information all the time. And in a moment, it'll be like you'll see something, like, oh, that'll seem like a really good idea. Yeah, I'll go do that thing next Wednesday night. And then, like, you know, our brains are fickle. The next five minutes we found something else to be interested in, right? So if and if they're not really clear on why, you know, next Wednesday at 7 p.m. coming to your function is like, or your webinar or your event is is critical or vital to them being able to achieve whatever it is that they're wanting to achieve, then what's predictable, I think, is that just people are gonna get distracted and move on to something else or something else is gonna come up. And even like I've had it even when people have paid for events. And like to me, it's not about making money and I want to make money. I mean, money is what allows us to be generous and create in life and and all of those things. But my commitment is that people actually get the training, or my commitment that people actually get what they need, the tools that they need in order to be able to achieve what they want in life. So I want them to come to the event, right? I want them to be there. So I really get that. So talk to me a little bit about like, you know, because there's like five-day free, you know, oftentimes people like the strategy of having like a five-day free challenge or, you know, um, versus like a webinar versus is is there a in your opinion, in your experience, does it differ depending on the audience? Or uh, you know, is there a style of webinar that you think or type of live event, virtual event, sorry, that would be um is more effective?

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Well, I think a lot of it depends on what it is that you're trying to accomplish. So I think what it is is begin with the end in mind, as an old phrase I've used for over 25 years. Excuse my apologies. So my the point here is where are you going to funnel these people to? Are you going to be funneling to a course? Are you funneling into your offer? Are you discovering to a discovery call? And what is it that's going to be attractive to your audience? Keep all that in mind. So um as far as as far as that answer is concerned, I mean, that's really what it really boils down to is um, and also what is your purpose? So, for example, a lot of people when they do Facebook Lives and do those like five-day challenges or whatever, that's the purpose for that is to grow your audience in your Facebook group. That's the primary focus. That's what they want to. They want more people in their group, and the best way to attract them is to draw a reach. And the best way to draw reach, what do people do? They like free, they like challenges because it gets them motivated to get going. Okay, and that's a good way of doing that. So that's if so, if that's your purpose and your desire, then I go with that. If your purpose is to upsell to a service or a um product, for example, because some people do products, then my suggestion, and you want to reach the one to many and you want to do it in a more streamlined, organized way, but still have fun with it. Uh, and I always say have fun with it because it's key. If you're having fun and you're showing people how easy it is to have fun and do what you're doing, they're gonna eat out of your hands like that. So my so with that in mind, webinars are your thing. Okay. If you want to showcase other speakers, you can do webinars, podcasts, or summits. And summits are another way to attract a larger audience as well, because you can have a lot more people on those on those webinars as well. And they're gonna be different webinars, and people are gonna go and pick the ones that they like the best to, you know, that works for best for them. But they some will stick throughout the whole whole event. So those are the three areas I also feel like are great. Podcasts are another venue because Comcast, you can sit there and nurture your lit your group. So the Facebook live Facebook challenges are great to grab the attention and grab and grab your audience. Then the podcasts are great for nurturing your group. Okay. The webinars are a great way to do a one-to-many so that you can sell your services. And then the summits are another way to educate your audience, but also grab a more larger audience. That's sort of like the chain that I think works really well. And if you follow that format, I think you're gonna find you're gonna have a much wider reach and you're gonna do it organically. So, because here's the thing I not I've had people tell me that actually do the ad spin. And some people who do the ad spend, if you're not doing uh ads that are of the right ads for your audience, you're not gonna get as as good of a reach. Okay, so you need to make sure that you have something that else in mind to do something through this kind of format. And I'll be honest, video isn't for everybody, okay? Because some people who are really, really camera shy, I I can tell you this much. I'm not camera shy, but those who are, and I know a lot of people are, you don't have to always use videos to show your face. You can just use it to show the presentations too, but when you're getting started, uh and and that way it takes the scary part out of that video when you're getting started, even on Pacas. You don't even have to show your face, you can just do an audio. Um, so find a comfort level where you're at, and then work your way forward. Um, just because you want to make sure that that's the right tactic. Because these videos, webinars, um, Facebook challenges and summits and web podcasts, all of it, you know, all of it is all a tactic. The key thing is figuring out what your strategy is. And you need to know what your strategy is first. There's a difference between strategy and and tactic. The strategy is your plan, and the tactic is how you get there. That's the simplest way of putting it. So you need to figure out the strategy. What is your plan? When I say begin the end of the line, that's your plan. You want to take your clients to the next step to work with you. If that makes sense. That's the simplest way of putting it.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Yeah, I love that. And I think it's important. Like one of the things that I teach people in my building blocks for success course is uh in the I I think we're running that workshop on um on the April 17th is like decomposing. So like in order to have a good plan, you need to break your goal down or your strategy down into you know kind of bite-sized pieces so that you can properly estimate, understand, you know, the the amount of time or like the different action steps involved. If I, you know, I like to say to people, if I just said Marie, but go build me a house, you'd be like, Wow, I don't know how to build your house anymore. But if we like actually broke it down and said, okay, well, you know, or like how much is it gonna cost me to build a house? Well, one, you know, I've got to understand the requirements and what do we need in the house, but then like what the the the foundation and then the walls and the structures and the roof and the landscaping and the the appliances and the furniture, like when you start to break it down, the brain likes small pieces. So I think I think you're really right. And I I I I I a hundred percent agree. Start with the end in mind. And I also think like it's super important, and I know that you talk about this yourself, like having measurements and metrics, right? And and one of my favorite ones from the world of project management is like done, one, and who? Like, how do I know if I'm done when I'm done?

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Right?

SPEAKER_01 23:26

What's my exit criteria for something? How do I know if I won? Like, how what's my success criteria? And those might not be the same thing, right? Like the exit, and then who determines? Like if you're working on a project, you know, it's a little bit different as a response or something like that. But you know, how do you know as entrepreneurs, how do I know that I did a good job today? What's my measurement for whether I didn't I did my job as the the CEO of this company? What does that look like in terms of measurable actions that I took, right? And how do I know if I'm actually moving the needle forward towards the things that I say are important, whatever, whether those are quantifiable measures, like you know, people served and money, or it's something more qualitative in terms of like the quality of your life or the quality of people's experience working with you. But I think it's really important to be able to actually measure, to be able to measure our our success.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Right. So is that what you so you're wanting to know how I how I do that? It's how I sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

I'd love to hear how you do that.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Okay. So um really what it is is for one, um when I'm working with a client, uh, it's different from when I'm working for myself. So when I'm working with the client, when the client says, okay, um, you did a good job, we're finished, you know, that kind of stuff, we're ready to move on to the next step, or we're ready to move on to the next project. That's when I feel like it's a good success because when they're satisfied with the end result, then that's a good measure of success. You can pat yourself on the back, you've done a good job, you've you've you can you've satisfied a client's need, and they're satisfied, and that that makes you feel good in the in the long term. So to me, that's my first measure of success, um, is when I when my when I have uh approval from the from the client. Um, but for my own measure of success, and that is, and that is when we are working on our marketing campaigns and are getting getting um we're always trying to add new business, right? Because that's if you do you need to keep that pipeline full. And if you're not keeping that pipeline full, your business goes flat. Am I right on that? I mean so you have to keep it full. So you constantly have to add new business into your into your pipeline. And um when I close a sale, that's a measurement of a success. When I add to the pipeline to me, that's a measure of success because that's the sales funnel. Okay, and then I it depends on what it is you're trying to focus on. So bye hun, have a good day. Sorry, I have to say goodbye to my husband. So you guys are gonna get to see some of my family life mixed in today. Hey, that's the beauty of working from home, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:09

It is the beauty of working from home.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

So, anyway, um, but uh thank goodness he's willing to do something. We appreciate that about him too. So uh, and always make sure you guys appreciate the people around you, especially your family, who are supportive of you. So, yeah, this is my tip. So uh, but that that that's one of the things, but where I lost track.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Maybe you're talking about like your measures of success, like you know, like if you close the sale or if you bring more people into your pipeline, keeping your sales funnel.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

It just depends on what it is that you're trying to do. Like if you're doing content, like um if you have a content that gets a lot of views, is that a measure of excess? So a lot of it is like a quantitative, something that you can can measure and be it's quantitative. So you have to know what that amount looks like. What is it that's your goal you're trying to reach? So, for example, if you're trying to reach, for example, you want to add in 20 new clients this this month, for example. That's just a round figure, okay? What is that gonna look like? How many people do you need in that pipeline? So I always look at it as you look at you need to have three times as many people in your pipeline to be able to reach that goal. That's the one out of three. So that means you need to have 60 people that you need to contact or connect with or somehow have you know a conversation with, and whether it's chat or on a Zoom call or whatever, you need to have that many to get 20 people in your pipel in your pipeline who are ready to consider your offer. Okay. So that's one measuring stick. So that's one measuring stick, okay. And then it just depends on where you are. So how many people do you want to to uh click on your offer? You know, you gotta have that number in mind. So you have to qualify, you have to quantify that. That's that's what it's called. So that's one of the things. I mean, that's the same thing with anything that you're doing. If you're doing the sales funnel of like how many people do you want to um go into your course, for example, how many people want do you want to have that, you know, numbers. Now you can't control the numbers. I can tell you that up front. That's my experience. You can't control what other people decide to do, right? It's just like when you go to look at it this way. When you go, this is just a business owner mindset perspective. When you go to a restaurant and the and the the um waitress asks you, do you want dessert? Yes or no, right? They're not married to the results, they don't go crying to the cook, oh, they said no. Okay, it's just like going to the kid. If you're gonna ask offer the kids kids uh two choices, you know, vanilla or chocolate ice cream, you know, what is they'll usually go and lean towards their favor, right? Whatever that is. So it's chocolate. So anyway, or coffee if you have that as an option. But anyway, but just saying that's just to say that you know, you have to give them a choice, you know. Um, and you're when you're sharing your offer, you're literally just doing that, you're sharing your offer to somebody, and they have a choice, yes or no. And and you have to not be married to the results if they say no. What you do is you just find another avenue of what it is that they want, you know, and and sometimes it's going in there and saying, So what is it that you know, take a poll, maybe send them a poll and say, so do you like doing getting newsletters and and do you like getting blog posts? Do you like getting videos and podcasts and stuff like that? And find out what they want. And this is where the need space selling comes in and find out what they need. Because if you know, and if and that's where sometimes research also comes in too. Find out what's trending, find out what's going on that people are demanding right now, because what's demanding today might not be demanding tomorrow or next week. So you need to kind of keep up on that. So check what's on the trending, and there's ways of doing that online, and then on top of that, you know, build those relationships with them. Don't just sit there and sell to them all the time. Sprinkle the free offers, sprinkle the free something free, but don't make it all free, okay? Because that's they're gonna just expect free. You're gonna want to sit there and nurture them and say, Oh, does this information help? You know, see if this, you know, find out if this is something you relates to you. Find a way to connect with your audience, build that relationship, build that know like and trust factor. If you don't do that and establish that, you are not gonna have them grab your offers and not, you know, and here's a here's a sales um process that I have been taught by books over the years, and that is this. Um you're going to want to make sure that you take them through a journey where they say yes to everything, and it starts with something small and works its way up to the big offer. So if they say yes to your blog post or newsletter, they're gonna say yes to your and they say yes to your um podcast. If they then what they say yes to a small low priced offer, you got them hooked at the low price offer, what's good chances of them be saying yes to a bigger offer?

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Yeah, I think it's all inside of like, you know, delivering value to people, right? And and like, you know, and and and when you're delivering value to people, when people are actually like getting whatever it is that you promised to provide them, because you know, we have needs, all of us, things that we want. Um it just makes sense from a relationship point of view that you would have the next thing for them to step into. Because if they like working for you and or working with you, or like they like learning from you, or they like your content, then it's actually being of service to them to provide them another avenue to continue their own development inside of whatever system that you work in. Um it it all really for me comes back to to just being of service and being a contribution and and finding the you know what's gonna what's gonna make the difference over there where that person is, what's gonna serve them.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

It's really great. So talk to me a little bit about you know being heart-centered. You talk about that, you talk about working with heart-centered entrepreneurs and like that's your you know, the kind of people that you're looking to attract to yourself. What is being heart-centered mean to you, Marie?

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Heart centered means it's not all about the money, it's not all about gimme, gimme, gimme, and and you know, I'm just there to sell because heart centered is that they're there to serve the community, they're there to like with my audience. When I do the I'm there to serve my our community at home. I hope you're okay because you sound like you're wincing in faith. I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Yeah, my shoulder's just a little bit, it's fine.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Yeah, it's from sitting here in front of Zoom calls all day. I think that's called Zoom fatigue. They're actually there is probably something called Zoom fatigue. There is. That's a new thing now, actually. Now they're claiming they're making that claim that everybody working from home. So um, but long story short, though, um, heart center really means that they care about their audience. They're not focused so much on the me, they're focused on their clients, they're focused on let's get the best outcome for them. Because when you're doing it all me and you're beating your chest, um, people are only going to be attracted to that briefly, and then, but it's not going to show that you're being your authentic self. When you're caring about others, it shows about being your authentic self, and that's what people are attracted to. That's why people are attracted to my radio show because I'm me a hundred percent. I mess up, I will sit there and make it a funny, but I will turn it into something funny. I call it my Marie-isms when I make mistakes, uh, and I have my own words, and I've been doing that since I was four years old, so probably even younger than that, but definitely since I was four. So I just call them Marie-isms now. But anyway, so but I mean, we all make mistakes, we're all human. But if and I tell people, you know, I'm gonna be blunt, I'm gonna tell it like it is up front, and you what you see is what you get, and then I don't have any other pretenses. I want to make sure that first that we can connect with you and make sure that we can work with each other, and then how can we work with each other? So those are the three areas I work with with my within my clients, but also that's that's sort of the impression that I get from the people that are heart-centered, they're the same way. So we there's synergy there, you know. You can you could tell when you could connect somebody like you and I connected. So, and and that once you have that connection, that's that authentic relationship. And that authentic relationship, when you build relationships, you build lifelong friendships, you're gonna have people that either are gonna refer you or they become your loyal clients or customers who have depending on what you're selling and doing. So that's my my focus. And I also don't just work with entrepreneurs, I actually work with hard-centered coaches. Um, and we can so yeah, so that's another thing I wanted to mention. But yeah, so I prefer coaches because they tend to um be more focused on helping others and and they're more um understanding, you know. So yeah, that's the other reason why. But hopefully I've cleared that up pretty quick.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

So yeah, it's so great. So what would you say? You know, I think maybe a good place to launch off from here, like is what would you say to people who are starting out, right? Like, you know, someone who's contemplating making a shift out of their corporate career or someone who is um, you know, maybe they're looking to close one business or they've never been an entrepreneur, you know, maybe what has surprised you on this journey as you've become, you know, became your own, created your own business and started working for yourself, Marie?

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Uh, that's a great question. Um it's hard to answer, because we're always most critical of ourselves, I guess. But um, as far as my own journey, um, I learned a lot of life lessons and business lessons. And I've learned a lot from my mistakes as well as from my my even more so than from my successes, um, because I learned how to fix holes along the way. So there you go. And I learned to make pivots, and I think what it is is don't be afraid, just because here's one of the things when you're just getting started off, um, I'm gonna the best thing I tell my students, because I actually have a business academy that I'm actually getting ready to launch. I actually have a mastermind coaching group right now. I didn't think you'd know that, but well, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

I didn't know that. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Yeah, so I have a business academy and a business with with about six regular students and 10 total. And uh, you know, the it's a numbers game. Not everyone's able to make it because of time commitments, and we get that. So um but it's the ones who want it or there almost every week love it and they're getting success. I've been doing it since I launched it in November, not a and they're in the beta testing group. And um, it took me three years of mental ping pong, uh, because you know we do have that mental ping pong. And I will tell you, if you're doing that mental ping pong right now, go with your gut. If your gut's telling you it's a good thing, and and and here's what I tell people weigh the pros and the cons. If the pros outweigh the cons, that's a good sign it's something you should go with. And that's an that's a good measuring stick. And then also, if your gut's saying, I really want to do this, but I just don't know how, find help. Go to us coaches. Hello, we're here to help you. We're here to help clear the cobwebs away from the mental ping pong. We're here to help you get focused. And I'm telling you, I have all my students are saying, Where were you a few years ago or a few months ago when I was getting started? says I was playing mental ping pong. So there you go. People need you, and and you will find them. And when and when this when the student is ready, the teacher will show up. And that was something I've learned all my life, even as a teacher. So there you go. When the student's ready, the teacher will show up.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Absolutely 100% agree with you on that. And uh, you know, for anyone listening to the show today, or or just listening to the show, if you uh need any support with your virtual events, Marie's your girl. There'll be information to connect with her and her team in the show notes. Marie, I'm sure this will not be the last time that we have a conversation on the show. Thank you so much for being here today and sharing just a wealth. You know, you're just a wealth of knowledge and you know, just so generous in your willingness to share it with my audience today and with me. And it was a wonderful opportunity to connect with you again. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Would you like me to share my calendar link? So if anyone wants to schedule a 30-minute call, they're welcome to do that.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Yeah, that would be great. Yeah, do that, and I'll include that in the show notes as well.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

Perfect. So it's calendarly.com forward slash Marie V Mason for a 30-minute consultation. It is just really to get to know you and if you answer some of your questions, and then we can to see where you want to go from there. So, yeah, so that's the best way to do it. So all right.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

Well, also make sure that that's in the show notes for everyone if you weren't able to capture it. And just thank you for being here with Marie and I today and for listening to the show. And Marie, just such a pleasure to have you here with me this morning.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Thank you, Amber, for having me on the show. It's been a pleasure as well. I was excited to come to join you all. So, yeah. So, anyway, wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Have a great week, everyone.com. And for information about Amber Howard and Associates' offerings and services, visit Amber Howard Inc.com.