#56: Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan

[00:00:00] Hala Taha: You're listening to YAP, Young And Profiting Podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Hala Taha and on Young And Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life.

[00:00:22] No matter your age, profession, or industry, there's no fluff on this podcast and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value for my guests, people who are much smarter than me on their given topic, by doing the proper research and asking the right questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of ex FBI agents, negotiation coaches, world famous cartoonist, self-made billionaires, sleep psychologists, CEOs, and best-selling authors.

[00:00:49] Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity, how to gain, influence the art of side hustles and more if
you're smart and like to continually improve yourself. You'll love it here at Young And [00:01:00] Profiting Podcast today on the show I'm chatting with Heather Monahan.

[00:01:03] Heather is a confidence expert. Having learned a ton of hard lessons on the topic in her own life. During the corporate client, she's worked in corporate America for over two decades and is one of the few women whohave reached the C-suite. And after being abruptly fired, she switched gears to becoming a speaker, author and competence coach, and she's more successful than ever stay tuned to hear Heather's inspirational story and learn practical ways to boost your confidence.

[00:01:30] Hey Heather, welcome to Young And Profiting Podcast.

[00:01:33] Heather Monahan: Thanks so much for having me.

[00:01:34] Hala Taha: So glad to have you here because you are what I like to call a girl boss. You are one of the select women who have broke the glass ceiling and you've entered the C-suite in the past. You were the chief revenue officer for Beasley Broadcast Group from 2015 to 2017.

[00:01:51] And before that you were. EVP of sales. And from my understanding, you achieved extraordinary success in your twenties and you are [00:02:00] completely self-made. You weren't really brought up with a silver spoon in your mouth. So tell us about your journey. How did you end up becoming a C-suite executive and what's the path that you took to get to where you are today?

[00:02:12] Heather Monahan: Yeah, I grew up poor and. Mother was a single mom, four kids. She worked three jobs. She wasn't around much. So I started a paper route when I was 10. I started busing tables at a diner. After that, I got into the fast food restaurant business, which led me to become a waitress and then a bartender. And then I got into sales at the gala winery.

[00:02:32] And from there I took an equity partnership position, moved to Michigan by myself when I was 25 years old and I turned a $25 million property into a $55 million property. And under three years. I left there and joined a publicly traded broadcasting company in Florida and pitched them for a job that didn't exist.

[00:02:53] I pitched them on VP of sales because I saw the opportunity and the need within the company. I was awarded that

[00:03:00] job and then I was elevated to EVP. And then I was elevated to chief revenue officer. And during my 14 years at that company, I had more than doubled the company's revenue. When I got there, it was a hundred million annually.

[00:03:11] And when I left, it was in excess of 200 million. And then when the CEO I worked for 14 years became ill. He elevated his daughter to replace him and she fired me immediately. And that's a little over two years ago, I went out on my own. I wrote and self published my first book, Confidence Creator, which Trump for number one, business biography.

[00:03:32] And then I went out to promote my book and I started speaking because I found out that's how you sell books. And I had spoken for 20 years in corporate America, but I never had been paid for it. And I started getting paid and that really has become my primary revenue stream. My number one revenue driver.

[00:03:48] And I've been speaking all over the country for the past two years and I ended. Getting my own podcast show, Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan, which was a number one, new and noteworthy on Apple Podcasts [00:04:00] in the business category. So that's been doing really well. And I just finished writing my second book and now I'm working on a book proposal to sign a deal with the publishing house.

[00:04:09] Hala Taha: That is amazing. You've had such an awesome journey. I can't wait to dig into so many things that you talked about. Let's start first with when you were fired, because that was a very pivotal point in your life. You were in corporate and getting fired, I think is what triggered your entrepreneurial journey.

[00:04:25] Tell us how you reacted to getting fired. You got fired. What did you do? I know it was very impressive. And I'd like you to share that story with our listeners.

[00:04:33] Heather Monahan: Sure. It was awful. I've never been fired from anything. I'm an overachiever type. A I couldn't even fathom. I was associating initially the sense of shame, a sense of negativity with that event, which now in hindsight, I realize.

[00:04:49] It was a complete blessing and a gift and a great opportunity. The way Gary Vaynerchuk framed it up for me was it was a micro challenge, a small challenge in a moment, [00:05:00] but the macro opportunity is that I'm a talented person and I can succeed anywhere. Now. I didn't see that in that moment, I just.

[00:05:07] I'm a single mom. I have a massive mortgage. I live on the ocean in Miami. I live a very expensive life because I've always made a lot of money and I've never doubted that wouldn't continue. But in that moment, That money just disappeared. And I didn't know. Okay. How will I make money? Who's going to pay my bills.

[00:05:29] I'm a single mom and I just, I panicked and I went under a weighted blanket. I bombed a ton of Chardonnay and then. I think it was a day or two days later, I said, forget this. No, one's even calling me. I'm going to go on social media and I'm going to post about it. And I had so many good friends call me and they said, you look like a loser.

[00:05:49] Take that post down. Have you lost your mind? And I said, no, I don't know for me, I just feel like this is the right thing to do. And I'm not taking the post down. And the post went viral [00:06:00] and it basically. After 14 years of continual advancement success and recognition, I have just been fired and it feels horrible.

[00:06:11] And if I've ever helped you in any way, I really need to hear from you today. And I received thousands of messages, not only of support and saying, Hey, I've been fired too. So I really felt I'm not alone. But then people offering, Hey, if you want to meet so-and-so do you want to come work at this company?

[00:06:29] A lot of business opportunities that arose, and one pivotal tweet that I got was from froggy from the Elvis Duran Show. He tweeted at me. Hey, Heather, love your stuff, love what you're doing. If I can help in any way, let me know. One thing I learned during this time is that you need to convert that opportunity in the moment.

[00:06:47] Don't wait and say, oh, in a week or two, when I figure it out, I'll get back with you because here's what happens. People we'll get busy and they move on. And that was a really important thing that I learned. I tweeted [00:07:00] right back at them. Thanks so much for the offer. Yes. I would like to be a guest on the Elvis Duran show.

[00:07:05] And when you come right back at someone with. And your direct they're probably going to deliver. And he did, he got me on the Elvis Duran Show. And halfway through that interview, Elvis said to me, we'll obviously you're writing a book. And I said obviously, but I really wasn't. But that was the catalyst that got me to write my book.

[00:07:22] Hala Taha: Wow. That's so amazing. It's so awesome that you put yourself out there and that even though other people told you to take that down, told you that it was shameful, that you got fired, you just did it anyway. And something positive came out of that. It's always really good in general, I think to be transparent on social media, because that's what people connect with.

[00:07:41] People connect with pain and people that are real about things that go on in their lives.

[00:07:46] Heather Monahan: Absolutely.

[00:07:48] Hala Taha: So let's talk about bullies because you've dealt with a lot of bullies during your corporate journey. Tell us a story about someone who gave you a hard time and any of the lessons that you learned in terms of what [00:08:00] works and what doesn't work well when dealing with bullies at work.

[00:08:03] Heather Monahan: Oh my gosh. So this is my whole TEDx Talk is about the woman that bullied me in corporate America. I'm super proud of it. If you haven't seen it yet, go to YouTube and type in Heather Monahan. It's the first thing that will pop up. It's 10 minutes. So good. And first of all, this isn't the first time I was bullied, I actually was bullied by another woman at work in my early twenties, who would just say horrible things about me because of how I looked.

[00:08:29] She told me I shouldn't wear my hair down. I shouldn't wear skirts. I shouldn't wear dresses. She was just horrible to me back then, I took it. I just turn the other cheek. And actually when I was older in corporate America and I. The chief revenue officer, it was the CFO that was bullying me and the one leg up she had on me as it, she was the daughter of the CEO.

[00:08:51] So I feel that she probably felt she could get away with whatever she wanted, since she was a relative. And so I recognize that. And so I would turn a [00:09:00] blind eye to it. I tried to look away and ignore it, but over time it really chipped away at my confidence. And until I made the decision to say, Listen, dimming my lights, not making her light brighter.

[00:09:11] It's making the situation worse. She was being more. Awful to me, the demand she would put on me. She would ignore me in meetings. She would not follow up with me. She wouldn't respond to my emails. It made it impossible for me to get my job done. So I finally, after another time driving home from Naples, Florida, three hour car ride crying saying, I can't let myself be treated like this anymore.

[00:09:34] I'm so frustrated calling the president of the company, complaining about it and him saying, oh, you just know how she is. Just ignore her. You're better than. That's all BS. When people tell you that, because they don't want to deal with the real issue and they don't want to deal with the toxic environment.

[00:09:50] So finally, I had to decide I'm going to do something different and I'll never forget the next meeting. I knew that I'd be in with her. She was actually interim CEO at this [00:10:00] point because her dad was really sick. And so she couldn't fire me yet cause she wasn't the CEO, but she somewhat had the title and she was feeling real good about herself.

[00:10:08] And I decided. Tomorrow morning, I'm getting up extra early. I'm going to wear my rocking red dress. That is fire. I am going to do my hair. I'm going to go in there with confidence. I'm going to listen to my playlist that I listened to. Every time I'm going into something big, I'm going to call her out when she ignores me and I'm going to do it in a very professional manner.

[00:10:32] And I did it. I walked in there looking like a million bucks. Everyone was saying, you look amazing. Because these people had seen me 14 years. They were used to, I don't usually put an effort like that to go to work. And I just decided I want to lead with my best foot forward today because I am dropping the hammer.

[00:10:49] And she walked in after me and walked around to say hello to everyone and walked right by me. And I raised my hand. I said, good morning. It's so great to see you. I think you [00:11:00] missed me. Hi, and I made it known that I'm not going to allow you to ignore me anymore. And a couple of people started laughing because everyone knew she hated me.

[00:11:09] And that wasn't a newsflash, but the fact that I wasn't going to allow it to go on anymore, caught attention. And in that moment, things shifted. I ran that meeting. I just stepped into my power. So done with her treating me like crap. And she ultimately fired me shortly thereafter, but like I said, I'm grateful to have fired that villain from my life.

[00:11:33] Because since the day she's been removed from my life, I've literally taken off. And I can't believe how being around a negative person, not only wears you down and chips, weight, your confidence, but it blocks you from opportunity. And I've seen that firsthand in my life.

[00:11:49] Hala Taha: Yeah. And so I listened to your book and I know that you're an advocate for standing up for yourself.

[00:11:55] And basically I think you call it like dumping water on your [00:12:00] villain or something along those lines. And you have a great story of a Rottweiler and a lesson that you learned of how to deal with it. Yeah. Stray dogs that try to attack you. And I think this really could set the lesson in for my listeners.

[00:12:13] If you could share that.

[00:12:14] Heather Monahan: Yeah. Okay. So you brought up two different stories. One is from the book, which is, that was the woman. When I was younger, she bullied me. When I was back at the gala winery, she would always comment on how I shouldn't look like this. I shouldn't dress like this constantly putting me down and attacking me.

[00:12:30] And what I talked about was throwing water on the evil witch. So that was the analogy of, the wicked witch of the east that you throw water on her and she dissipates. So that was the example, but the Rottweiler story, I actually utilize that in my Ted Talk and in my book, true story, when I was dating a police officer in my twenties, and I would run alone every day.

[00:12:50] I'm been a big runner my whole life until I threw out my back. But he would say to me, You need to be smart. You're out alone all the time. One of these [00:13:00] days, you're going to have a dog come for you and you need to know you can't outrun a dog, Heather. And I understood. I said, so what do I do? And this is a police officer.

[00:13:09] He's seen this stuff, I trusted his expertise. He said, you run at the dog. You hold your hand high with authority and conviction and you run at that dog and you tell that dog to go home. And I said, okay I'm sure it's not going to happen. Wouldn't you know, it was only a few weeks later. I was out for a run and a Rottweiler broke free from its fence and came barreling at me.

[00:13:35] Barreling. I swear it was huge, but I remembered instantly you can't beat the dog. You're not going to be able to outrun the dog turn and run at the dog. And I did, and I turned right around instinctively rose my finger in the air and chase that dog down. So close to the dog wasn't backing off, but I knew I was implementing the correct strategy based on what he had told me.

[00:13:57] And right before I got to the dog turned [00:14:00] around and whimpered crying his way home. It was crazy. It's such a true story. It really happened. People ask me all the time if that's just, made up, but no, that's a real story. So I like in that story as an analogy to how I manage that bully at work, that woman, me rocking that red dress and calling her out is me chasing that dog down and.

[00:14:26] I don't see it any differently. It was making this decision to lean into me, stand up for who I am and show my dominance in this situation. And it's really, it's incredibly empowering. And when you do that, become that really strong version of you, things will play out that will lead you to where you're meant to be.

[00:14:45] Hala Taha: Totally. I love that. Really just showing your dominance over people and letting them know that you're not going to take this bad behavior and the way that they're treating you. I think that's really great advice. So you are an expert on confidence. You've grown, such an [00:15:00] amazing career. And part of that is because you are so confident and confidence can really impact the people that we meet and it impacts our dating life, our social life, or professional life.

[00:15:10] What got you interested in the topic of confidence and how did you decide that, you were going to use this as a way to launch your entrepreneurial career?

[00:15:19] Heather Monahan: I had no idea that's what's most important for everyone to know. I had no idea what happened was when I got fired, I posted about being fired froggy, got me on the Elvis del Rancho and Elvis said, you're right.

[00:15:31] When I left New York, I Googled, how do you write a book? And I saved, actually I printed it out and saved it. So it's so crazy. Now, two years later to be able to look at that, I didn't know how to write a book and it basically says you just have to sit down and commit to writing a few hours every day.

[00:15:48] To get a book done. So I did that and I just leaned in whole heartedly to it. And when I first sat down, I started writing about how much I hated that woman, the woman who had just fired me and that evolved in [00:16:00] just a couple days, time to me remembering, Hey, there's other times, like when I got divorced, I felt like this I hit rock bottom and I had to come up.

[00:16:08] Or during the recession, when we had to lay off 25% of our workforce, and I didn't know how I was going to pay my bills or when I got arrested, there were all these low moments in my life that I started remembering, and they felt similar to how I felt now being fired. And I realized, wait a minute, the one common thread here is that I've dealt with adversity my whole life in tough times, but I've always learned how to bounce back from them at the core of that really has to do.

[00:16:35] Having confidence within yourself and I'm going to lay out a roadmap so that everybody has those same tools that I've been able to find within me.

[00:16:44] Hala Taha: I think a really cool lesson from this is the fact that Elvis Duran, he asked you if you're writing a book and even though you weren't, you said yes, and you just leaned into that without knowing if you could, or if you would.

[00:16:56] And I interviewed this guy, his name's Richard Moore, he's a sales [00:17:00] grew and he does something similar where if somebody asks him about a project, even if. Doesn't know if he can deliver. He says, I'm your man, and that just provides confidence in the other person that he could do the job. And then also it puts them on the hook and make sure that he has confidence in himself to actually get anything done.

[00:17:17] Is there a lesson in that you want to share in terms of just leaning into something before, if you can actually do.

[00:17:22] Heather Monahan: Everything I've ever done that has been the case. And isn't it the case for you too? When you think back, I'm sure launching your podcast, you didn't know if you were going to be a good podcast host or, any time you want to go to that next level, you have to be willing to do that.

[00:17:36] What was beautiful about Elvis was he had such conviction and he was so clear that I was writing a book. It made me feel confident and sometimes. You can get that sense of confidence and belief through others when others believe in you so much. And it was just so clear to him, he was so sure of it. It became clear to me too.

[00:17:56] And so I really borrowed his belief in [00:18:00] me in order to be a catalyst. For me to go on and try something new and I'll tell you, I don't remember who it was that told me maybe it was ed my let, when we're babies and children were born, just stepping into fear and seeing it as excitement and evolution like a baby doesn't lay there and say I've never crawled before.

[00:18:19] I don't know if I should give this a shot. And then once they're crawling, they don't say I don't know if I should try to stand up. They just do. They step into the fear. And when you look back on your life before people put limitations on you and you accepted them before people told you, you shouldn't try this before people told you to go get in one lane, we innately knew continually to step into the fear, step into the unknown, and that's how our life would accelerate.

[00:18:48] And so it's interesting. Based upon who you surround yourself with, if you follow your passions or don't, what story you tell yourself, you could be the one that's holding you back, or you could be surround yourself with people [00:19:00] holding you back, or you could be in a situation where, you're not tapping into your real talents, but what I've learned is that in the past two years, I've grown more as a person, as a professional.

[00:19:12] Than I ever had in the last 14 years at that company. And that's really sad for me too. Understand that now. Cause I can imagine how much further I would actually be in life. If I had been leaning into the fear, if I had been going to the next level, every time that I got up to bat, but I hadn't been, I had been.

[00:19:32] Holding myself back. So I could continue to fit into an environment that I had really outgrown. So it ends up being a real gift to say, listen, if you're not scared today, you're not pushing the envelope. You're not growing. We were not built or born to just sit somewhere and be stagnant or even really to shrink.

[00:19:50] So why not step into that fear? Why not ask that person on the date? Why not write that book? Why not launch that show? And then one of the things that I use as a tool when I [00:20:00] get scared or, should I do this or should I not? I say, what's the worst that's going to happen. And when you start laying it out for yourself, if I launch the show and the show stinks, I can evolve it and change it.

[00:20:09] I can ask for help. I can hire someone that could advise me. I could cancel the show if I want to. But I'll never know if I don't take that opportunity and give it a shot.

[00:20:19] Hala Taha: Yeah. It's stop fearing the outcome and just get started and things will work out. I love that advice. That's great advice.

[00:20:25] Let's talk a little bit broader right now. Just about confidence in general. I think a good way for my audience to really understand. How you define confidence is to basically compare and contrast a confident person versus an insecure person. Could you do that for us?

[00:20:42] Heather Monahan: Oh gosh. Yeah. So insecure person is trying to make other people happy and focusing on what other people think about them.

[00:20:51] So they're going to accept people's limitations. They're going to dress a certain way that they think will make other people feel good. All of those things actually make you [00:21:00] feel lesser than right. Cause then you start questioning yourself. Then you stop hearing your own inner voice. It's just heart wrenching.

[00:21:06] And we all know somebody like that. And that person just keeps circling around the bottom of the drain. They don't understand why they can't change their life. They keep asking questions that can't be solved. And it's so obvious to those outside of that person what's happening. A confident person, conversely.

[00:21:23] Listens only to their own voice. You might have conversations with others and hear people out and appreciate their opinions. But at the end of the day, you go back into your own self and say, what is my answer? Okay. I understand that those people are telling me I shouldn't launch my personal brand, which I did four years ago, because I could be in jeopardy of losing my corporate position.

[00:21:42] It turns out I was right to continue to listen to my inner voice, even though it was upsetting those around me. Because in the end, I wasn't meant to be in corporate America anymore. I was meant to be an entrepreneur. And I know that now, but the key was listening to myself. Dress the way you want, because it makes you feel.

[00:21:59] Then you'll [00:22:00] stand taller, then you'll feel more confident, listen to your advice and opinion over everyone else, because that's the one that matters. And that is what will steer you to where you're meant to be. When you really start stepping into who you truly are, instead of who you're pretending to be, that's when things confidence takes off your life takes off and things just improve overall.

[00:22:21] So that confident person is the one that tunes out the other noise and tunes into them.

[00:22:26] Hala Taha: That's a great definition. And according to you, one of the first steps to kickstart our confidence journey is to establish a baseline. And I know journaling is something that you've used and you consider an invaluable tool to help you set a baseline.

[00:22:41] Could you explain how you use journaling to improve yourself?

[00:22:45] Heather Monahan: Yeah, I'm so grateful that I journaled across most of my entire life. It's crazy because number one, that allowed me to write my book very quickly cause I had so much material, but number two, it allowed me to get to know myself at different times in my life.[00:23:00]

[00:23:00] We forget right. 10 years ago. There's no way we can remember. Thought and felt we might think we can, but we really can't. And I know that firsthand because when I got fired, I dove into my old journals and I looked at the journal I have from when I got divorced a decade ago. And the way I spoke to myself was horrible.

[00:23:20] I called myself a bad mother and how could I have broken my home, horrible things about myself. I was attacking myself and it was so enlightening to learn that negative self-talk and how it held me back and affected me at work in all these different areas of my life. Because as I put myself down, I was more willing to dim my light at work as well.

[00:23:41] All these things are connected, which held me in an environment that was toxic that I shouldn't have made it. Another thing that I learned from journaling was I saw a pattern that while I would want things, and there was a good story in my book, which I'm sure you're familiar with. I really wanted to speak at this conference in New York.

[00:23:59] And [00:24:00] again, this is back when I just spoke, for free at events, but I wanted to take this one stage, cause I knew I could add value. It's called the LOAC in NYC and it's a media event and I had attended. And I had become friends with the founder and the owner of the event. So it's not crazy for me to think that I'd be able to speak.

[00:24:18] I just had to ask him, no, I never asked him yet. I would journal about it all the time. I hope one day I could speak there and do nothing about it. Okay. So this was, it's so frustrating to look back. Frustrating. However, it's an enlightening because it made me realize if I'm doing this in this scenario with my speaking, where else am I doing this?

[00:24:39] Where I want something, but I am not acting on it. So what ended up happening was that man came to a conference that I was speaking at and he texts me during the speech. So when I got off the stage, I saw my phone and it said you are an incredible speaker. And that was the man that I wanted to speak for.

[00:24:56] So in that moment, I ran back to my hotel room [00:25:00] and I prepared a formal email. And I asked if I could speak at his event. And I don't think he said yes for that year's event, but he put me on for the next event. So I ended up getting what I asked for maybe not immediately, but all he needed to hear was that I wanted to do it.

[00:25:14] So I wondered, oh my gosh. If I had asked this guy five years ago, when I felt this the first time I could have spoken at five of these events and where would that have led me? So I started looking back and saying, if I'm doing it with speaking houses, this issue showing up for me and how is it holding me back?

[00:25:30] And it really allowed me to observe so many different areas of my life, where I wouldn't ask for what I really want it.

[00:25:37] Hala Taha: So that's a huge lesson for everybody listening out there. Don't just wait to ask for help. And don't wait to ask for help only when you know, they're going to say yes, right? You want to ask for help when you don't know if they're going to say yes or no, you want to take that risk.

[00:25:51] Heather Monahan: And it's not even just help it's for whatever you want.

[00:25:54] I wanted to speak on that stage. I didn't need his help. I just needed him to say yes, you can have the opportunity. I wasn't even [00:26:00] asking him to pay me. I just wanted the green light. Whatever it is that you want. I remember for some reason, thankfully, when I went to that media company to work for them, I saw the opportunity for a VP of sales.

[00:26:13] I saw the company, didn't have one. I mentioned to someone on my team, wow, there's no VP of sales here. I got to pitch myself for that job that doesn't exist yet. And the guy said, oh, I've been here so much longer than you. They've heard pitches from everyone. They're not gonna know. And I said really well, I haven't pitched it yet.

[00:26:29] I'll get it done. And for whatever reason in that situation, I felt confident enough to go for it. I asked and ultimately got the green light when other people hadn't gotten it. It's about figuring out, wait a minute, why am I not asking if I really see this opportunity? If I want this, what's holding me back from it.

[00:26:48] What's the worst that can happen. I'm told no, I pivot and redirect, I ask a different way. I ask a different way. Whatever it is, but I've just learned over time. Number one, put out to the universe, what it is that you [00:27:00] want first and foremost, and then find a way to go get it.

[00:27:04] Hala Taha: Yeah. And it's really hard for people to hear.

[00:27:07] No, I hear that a lot from my listeners and people take rejection. So personally, do you have any tips to get yourself back up on the horse after you've been rejected?

[00:27:16] Heather Monahan: Oh my gosh. I have a million tips for that. So sales. All about a numbers game. If you got another. No, that means you're getting one step closer to a yes.

[00:27:24] So there are so many different things that can go on. When you get to know you could be asking the wrong person, right? You can't take a no from someone who isn't able to give you a yes. And that's really important to understand. And I'll go back to that. VP of sales. I was asking the president of the company for a month.

[00:27:41] I was pitching him. My idea for VP of sales. He kept saying. What I ended up finding out was he was not the ultimate decision maker. His dad was, and his dad didn't even know I was asking. So do you see how that no came across as a no to me, but it really wasn't a note because that person wasn't able to say yes to me, he had to [00:28:00] call his dad to get approval and permission.

[00:28:02] And his father said yes, as soon as he heard the idea. So be sure you're dealing with the ultimate decision maker. Number one, put yourself in that other person's shoes. What are they afraid of? Why would they say no? What would the hold backs be? What is their fear? What are their limitations? And the more you can relate to them and understand what could be holding them back, the easier you can handle and overcome those objections, make it about that other person.

[00:28:27] When I pitched the president of the company, I talked about how it was going to make him look great, how it was gonna make his job so much easier, how his revenues were going to be larger than they ever had been. How has growth was going to be massive and how he'd be featured in the wall street journal for all the success he was creating.

[00:28:42] I made it all about. And the more you make things about the other person, how it's going to benefit them, the more you make it attractive to them and make it their idea. People like to feel that they're in control, feel that it's their idea and feel it they're not threatened by the other person, so solve their problems, [00:29:00] make it about them and be empathetic to their situation.

[00:29:03] And that's going to help you to move things forward. Be sure you're dealing with the ultimate decision maker. And if you get a no ask for feedback, Ask a question don't just walk away, you need to find out why can you explain to me why you didn't feel good about agreeing to this today? I'd love to understand a little bit more because to me it seems like such a great idea.

[00:29:21] If you could help me understand the more you get them talking and sharing information with you, the sooner you're going to be able to get yes.

[00:29:28] Hala Taha: I love that. Let's go back to something that you mentioned earlier with the journaling. When you notice that you had a lot of negative talk to yourself since the early days humans learned to get lunch or be lunch, our natural negative bias has kept us safe from danger.

[00:29:45] So this is something that's like totally hardwired in us to be negative because it really protected our survival. In 2020 that doesn't matter anymore. And we actually need to stop allowing this negative bias to take over our mind. [00:30:00] So how do you suggest that we think more positively and stop talking to ourselves so negatively, like you mentioned before, that you are doing to yourself.

[00:30:09] Heather Monahan: Sure. I was really bad at this in college and I was seeing a therapist and she said to me, oh, so what happened? I said, oh, I went out partying and stayed out too late, drank too much, didn't get my work done, whatever. And I'm so mad at myself and I'm such a loser and she said, wow, how's that working out for you?

[00:30:24] And I said, what do you mean? She said, beating yourself up like that. How's that working out for you? And I started laughing. I said obviously not very well because I'm sitting here in a shrink's office right now. And that was an epiphany moment for me that night. Anytime last night I ate my son's nacho chips and after I thought, oh, why did I just do that?

[00:30:43] I'm going to be an FB, which is code for fat bastard. And I start getting negative. I say, oh, wait a minute. How's that working out for me? I just keep asking myself that question. That psychiatrist asked me that day. How's it working out for you? Okay. Wait a minute. If I beat myself up, I'm going to wake up the next day, feeling [00:31:00] badly.

[00:31:00] I'm going to go do something negative again. I can change that right now. I'm in charge. It doesn't work out great for me. When I beat myself up, I'm going to go pull a paper that I have written down a bunch of affirmations. And I read those to myself with frequency because frequency is what sells you on your own message.

[00:31:19] And I'm going to continually own those. I am powerful. I am confident. I am good enough. Whatever your affirmations are that you need to hear in that. Have them written down, pull them out, read them over and over with frequency and you will ingrain that message in yourself.

[00:31:37] Hala Taha: Yeah. And there's something cute that you do with your shoes?

[00:31:40] Heather Monahan: I think that relates to this. Yes. So my son, one morning before school, just to annoy me, he came out of his bedroom with his basketball sneaker and a Sharpie, and he said, I need you to write something on my shoe at 6:00 AM. And I was so annoyed with him, like we're late for school. And he said, no, write this.

[00:31:59] And I said, what is [00:32:00] it? And he said, you can do all. And it was actually something he learned from Steph Curry. And I said, but why am I writing this? He said, because mom, I might go into the game super confident and feeling like a million bucks. But after the first quarter, if I'm not hitting my shot, I'm not going to be feeling so hot anymore.

[00:32:16] And it's going to affect how I play. And if I take risks and if I, really get aggressive on defense, he said, so I need to be able to pick myself up at any moment during the game. And the best way I can do that is to remember how I feel right now. Cause right now, Super confident. And I know I can do all things.

[00:32:33] So now I do that same. He taught me the little guy's so smart. He taught me to, yeah, whenever I'm going into a scary situation or something where I'm questioning my confidence, I always write on my shoes. I can, I will. And I'm going to get it done. And right before I went on from my TED Talk, I looked at the bottom of my shoes.

[00:32:51] Freaking out the idea of walking onto that circle and that ticker going in my face and having, like Eminem, it's you've got that [00:33:00] one shot, one opportunity. You got to make it work. And that pressure was massive. And I looked down at my shoes and I grabbed lavender because that's something that always calms me.

[00:33:09] And then I said to myself, if you don't walk out there right now, you will never forgive yourself. If you walk out there and you blow it, I'm going to be so proud of you. And then I just closed my eyes and I win.

[00:33:20] Hala Taha: That's awesome. It's so good to have little reminders, just boost your confidence because we can't be confident all the time.

[00:33:27] It's just totally impossible. And just having those little notes probably really helps you get back on track.

[00:33:34] Heather Monahan: Absolutely.

[00:33:35] Hala Taha: Let's talk about people and confidence. People have a lot to do with how we feel and it's really two-fold. So we have accountability partners which can help support us in our journey of confidence.

[00:33:47] But then we also have people that we might need to remove from our lives. Can you talk about how we need to shape the people around us to ensure that we can be confident as often as possible.

[00:33:58] Heather Monahan: Yeah, it absolutely [00:34:00] is going to impact you. The people that you spend your time with, that you work with your family members, it's really critical to do an assessment of the people that you're spending time with and how you feel around them.

[00:34:12] And there's a chapter in my book about this, where. I had a girlfriend who was very condescending to me. She was very nice. She would always want to, as a single mom, she want to help me watch my son. She wanted our kids to play together. She'd pick up my kid from school if I couldn't make it, she was a quote unquote, great friend.

[00:34:29] But when I was around her, she'd say things like you're not married yet. Or when are you. Together really negative, slightly negative things that hurt. And then when I'd leave her presence, I wouldn't feel so good about myself. I'd start questioning myself and it took another girlfriend pointing it out to me saying, listen, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be around that girl anymore.

[00:34:48] The way she talks to you is really negative. And I just get a negative vibe around her. And I realized, so did I, but I was seeing her as a friend because she would help me with my [00:35:00] son and I made a decision. You can either create boundaries with somebody or you can fire them from your life. And I choose the latter.

[00:35:07] I fired her. I just, I was no longer available to go to lunch with her. I was no longer available for play dates. I just knew that this woman. Was not going to change. It's who she was. And I had been closing my eyes to how I felt as a result, of her comments and I started feeling a lot better, and take a look at work and the people that you're surrounding yourself with at work, if you're around people that are, stabbing you in the back and keeping you out of conversation.

[00:35:33] You may need to have a sit down with them and get really clear on how you want to work together in a collaborative fashion and communicate better. But if they're not willing to honor that, maybe you shift divisions, maybe you start updating your resume to find another job, but the sooner you remove negative people from your life, the more empowered, positive, and confident you are.

[00:35:53] Hala Taha: Yeah. And honestly, these could be your childhood friends. I personally had a girl who I'm still [00:36:00] good friends with, but I've distanced myself because I just felt like she didn't believe in me. And it's a red flag. When for instance, you start a podcast and your best friend won't listen to one episode.

[00:36:10] You know what I mean? I know, and then I realized like me, that's not my best friend. So how about self care? There's two parts of self-care our external and our internal. Can you talk about how self care is really important when it comes to exuding confidence?

[00:36:24] Heather Monahan: Yeah, for me, working out is my top priority for me.

[00:36:29] It's so important. Yeah. When I don't do it, I don't feel great inside, outside. And my energy's low, just, when I don't make myself that priority and I'll never forget when I first got divorced, I used to think, oh, I can't hire a sitter to go to the gym. That's so selfish. And for a while, I acted like that.

[00:36:46] And I realized I was negative. I was, not in a great mood when I was with my son at night because I was angry. I wasn't going to the gym. So finally I said, forget this, I'm hiring a sitter. I'm going to the gym and guess what happened? I got home and I was [00:37:00] happier and I felt better. And I had more energy and my son was happier being around me.

[00:37:04] So I really, changed the way I saw it. Selfish to put yourself first, it's selfless, because then you're able to give so much more to others and be a better version of yourself. And for me, that all starts with making myself a priority. And that means for me, going to the gym, working out and getting in.

[00:37:25] Hala Taha: How about looking the part, how can we look confident? I know that you are a proponent of doing your hair, getting dressed up is a different for men and women when it comes to looking apart.

[00:37:37] Heather Monahan: I don't think so. Listen, here's the thing in Jesse Itzler is such a great example of this he's super, super competent, Jesse.

[00:37:43] Sara Blakely's husband. He was the founder of Marquis Jets, the author of Living with a SEAL, incredibly massively successful entrepreneur and very competent human being. He is known to always wear ripped t-shirts and jeans and flip flops. And, you would [00:38:00] think, oh, he's not dressing the quote unquote part, but that's how he feels.

[00:38:04] His most confident, it's about what dressing, the part means to you. For me, I love wearing red and I love wearing bright blue colors, really impact my mood. And that's something special for me that I gravitate towards. And I like getting dressed up. I wouldn't feel my most confident in ripped t-shirts and flip-flops and jeans, so I guess it's really about the person.

[00:38:26] And how do you feel your best? Because when you show up that way, You exude it and you step into it. It's going to be a little bit different for everybody, incense, I think since are really powerful. I have a certain perfume that if I'm feeling a little off, I wear it because I do that anytime I feel nervous.

[00:38:43] And so it begins to ingrain this habit in me that when I smell that scent, I know, okay, we're about to go to the next level, let's get this going. And when I step into getting my hair done and, investing in me in that outwardly way, getting a new outfit, getting a new dress, I did that for my TED Talk.[00:39:00]

[00:39:00] I shopped so many different dresses to find the right one, but that makes me feel really excited and good. And when I get dressed that day, I say, wow, I love this dress. I'm so excited for it, but not, and again, I, and I just use Jesse as this example. He's not that way. That doesn't mean anything to him. He doesn't care if he wears the same, t-shirt 17, different events.

[00:39:20] It's not going to affect them. So it's more about you and what resonates for you? A lot of people talk about posture and how you stand affecting your confidence. And, I don't. No it anymore, but I see footage of me speaking and I stand incredibly straight. My posture, I nail it's because I feel so good and confident out there.

[00:39:43] But then I've looked at some footage of when I was speaking a decade ago and my shoulders are rolling forward. So there is something to be said for how. Stand and how you project yourself that people will interpret as confidence and will in turn make you feel more confident. So throw those shoulders [00:40:00] back, put your head up, make eye contact and smile.

[00:40:03] Hala Taha: I love that. I think that's great advice. Another tip that I heard in your book that I thought was really interesting was the fact that you don't say, sorry anymore. You don't apologize for yourself anymore. Could you share with us why you don't say I'm sorry too often, these. Sure. So again, everyone has different issues.

[00:40:21] Heather Monahan: One of my issues was I used to apologize for everything. If I was at the gym and someone bumped into me, I would say, sorry, and I know that, somebody like this, or it's you, everybody knows someone like that at your mother. It's, your friend down the street. Sorry for everything that is literally putting yourself beneath everybody and blaming yourself.

[00:40:39] It wasn't my fault. That guy bumped into me at the gym. Why would I be accepting blame and apologizing? So I made a small pivot and I started saying, excuse me, which was empowering and positive. I was equal to that. And then I took it a step further and I started thanking people. So if I was late for a meeting, I would thank everyone for their patience.

[00:40:58] I didn't make it about [00:41:00] myself. I made it about the other person and a way to be grateful towards them. And that was a really strong shift for me. However, this is so funny. As I mentioned to you, I just interviewed Chris Voss. He talks about using the power of apologizing to calm someone down. He believes in apologizing.

[00:41:18] And again, everyone has different issues. So if you don't have an issue apologizing all the time, you can use Chris's strategy, which when he sees someone very angry and almost hostile, he walks up to them and says, I'm sorry. Hi, I'm Chris and that, sorry. He feels really jars them in the moment and we'll get them to take a breath and step out of their situation.

[00:41:40] Everyone does not have the same issues. Obviously, Chris doesn't have an issue apologizing for everything, but I did. So for me, that was the right pivot was to stop apologizing all the time. And in fact, when he explained that strategy to break, a tense environment, I don't think I'd even take it on because I wouldn't want to head down that slippery slope to start apologizing.

[00:41:59] Hala Taha: [00:42:00] Yeah. And I think it depends on the situation, women and I myself, I say, sorry, all the time. I was just in the coffee room before I was getting a tea and somebody came up behind me and I said, oh, sorry. Even because I was pouring first when I was there first, like it's just silly. And I think that you are totally correct when we say I'm sorry for no reason.

[00:42:20] Puts us in a more negative place. It puts us down one level, and instead of saying, I'm sorry, like you said, say, excuse me, you can say thank you instead. Or just anything that's going to put you in a more positive place rather than I'm sorry, which is just, I think puts you in a negative vibration, in my opinion.

[00:42:38] Okay, last question. Before we start to close out, what's your opinion on manifestation? So you're confident you believe in yourself. Do you do any visualization or manifestation in conjunction with being confident and believing in yourself?

[00:42:54] Heather Monahan: Oh my gosh. I interviewed Sara Blakely, the CEO of Spanx, and she attributes her.[00:43:00]

[00:43:00] Idea of coming up with Spanx completely to manifesting it. And once I heard that I went all in on manifesting. I watched the movie, the secret, I, I met with John Assaraf from the secret and he attributes all of his success to manifesting. So there is something to this. And I used to think of that as woo, hippies talk and I didn't understand it, but once you start seeing very credible successful people, attributing their success to manifesting, there is a power to it.

[00:43:28] And it's so funny. I got Facebook serves us up, different images from seven years ago. And today it's served up an image of my son and I at Justin Bieber concert, doing a meet and greet when my son was probably four or five years old, fast forward when my son was nine years old, we ended up sitting in a restaurant right next to Justin Bieber, and I started thinking to myself.

[00:43:52] Oh, my gosh, what are the chances of that happening, right? Where we manifesting those things that he wanted to meet him. And that it just [00:44:00] so interesting to me, the power of our thoughts and how our thoughts impact. Ourselves and the world and putting things out there I go all in on, and that is essentially manifesting.

[00:44:11] That this second book is going to, I'm going to get a publishing deal on it this year. And I talk about these things all the time. I also have. Sheets of paper, where I write down all of the very specific things I'm manifesting. And I actually have a picture of a home that I'm going to buy that is on that table as well as a picture of my bank account and the amount of money that's going to be in it.

[00:44:33] So I go all in on manifesting and people do it differently. Some people do vision boards, some people have images of things. Some people just use words, but I truly, and wholeheartedly believed that, which you put out there. You begin to believe you begin to attract and you'll start seeing these things happen in your life, and it will give you that proof that you're looking for, but it's definitely worked for me.

[00:44:58] Hala Taha: Yeah, I totally agree. I [00:45:00] love to manifest and I think that. The law of attraction isn't necessarily real or anything like that. I think the extreme focus and clarity that you have, like when you actually write something down or you have a picture of something, it's just like a goal that's so clear.

[00:45:15] And I think the problem that people have is that they're actually not very clear on their goals. And I think that manifestation helps you just be clear. And then I also think that the universe works in wonderful ways.

[00:45:28] Heather Monahan: Absolutely.

[00:45:28] Hala Taha: Yeah. So the last question I ask all my listeners is what is your secret to profiting and life? It doesn't have to be money in terms of profiting. You could be anything.

[00:45:39] Heather Monahan: What is my secret to profiting in life? I'm going to look at it from a revenue perspective because that's what pops into my mind first. Profiting in and around business. To me, it's really critical to have multiple revenue streams, so one of the things that when I was fired, the first thing I thought about was, what am I getting? If I go to work for myself, what product [00:46:00] or service am I going to sell? And the first product I came out with was my book, Confidence Creator. And then. Product was available and out I had a revenue stream.

[00:46:09] How can I accelerate that revenue stream? I started speaking to sell more books, and as I did that, I found out speaking as a business and I started a secondary revenue stream there, which was my speaking revenue stream. So now I had book sales. Then I had the speaker stream. Then I was out promoting myself, my speaking and my books, and I found out going.

[00:46:30] As a guest on podcast is a great way to sell a product. So I went and did the LadyGang Show in LA and that show went to number 20 on the iTunes chart. I took a screenshot of that and I sent it to the founder of podcast one. He responded to my email. I asked if I could come in to meet him and thank him.

[00:46:50] Face-to-face for the opportunity to go on his show within five minutes in that meeting, he said, you need your own show. So I created another revenue stream there with my podcast. [00:47:00] So I'm constantly looking at different ways to evolve my business model innovated, and grow it instead of just looking at.

[00:47:08] What I did in corporate America, which is I had one revenue stream. It was my job that I went to work. I was on a salary and if I achieved certain goals, I would get a bonus. But when that went away, everything was gone. What I'm building now is a multi-tiered model where if my book sales stopped tomorrow, or people just don't buy books anymore, I'm still okay. Because I have multiple revenue.

[00:47:33] Hala Taha: That makes a lot of sense. That's a really smart strategy. I totally agree. It's too risky these days to just have one stream of income and where can our listeners go to learn everything about you and what you do?

[00:47:45] Heather Monahan: Absolutely. So my website is Heather heathermonahan.com. I have my free accountability partner program there.

[00:47:50] You can sign up for it and I will drive you crazy to achieve your goals and deliver. You can get my book Confidence Creator on Amazon or on Audible. [00:48:00] You can find me at Heather Monahan on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

[00:48:05] Hala Taha: Awesome. Thanks so much, Heather. It was a great conversation.

[00:48:08] Heather Monahan: Thank you.

[00:48:09] Hala Taha: Thanks for listening to Young And Profiting Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to write us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Follow YAP on Instagram @youngandprofiting and check us out at youngandprofiting.com. And I can chat live with us every single day. On YAP side on Slack.

[00:48:27] Check out our show notes are youngandprofiting.com for the registration link, you can find me on Instagram @yapwithhala or LinkedIn, just search for my name, big thanks to the YAP team for another successful episode. This is Hala signing off.