Habits and Hustle - Episode 170: Julie Solomon – Branding Coach (Named Top Brand Expert by FORBES), Host of the Influencer Podcast

Episode Date: June 7, 2022

Julie Solomon is a Branding Coach (Named Top Brand Expert by Forbes), and Host of the Influencer Podcast. She isn’t shy about the stumblings she’s had along the way. In this episode, Julie shows us all about how she racked up $30,000 in credit card debt, determined to make things right for her family set off to start a business blogging, and how she turned a humble following, even smaller than most other bloggers she knew at the time, into a career. She’s all about branding! Finding your niche and using whatever you’ve got to pull ahead. If you’ve never really understood how to sell yourself, or maybe you’ve pushed yourself a little too far into a pit and are looking for some inspiration to get yourself back out of it, Julie has you covered. Don’t miss it. Youtube Link to This Episode Julie Solomon’s Website – https://juliesolomon.net/ Julie Solomon’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/julssolomon/ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email [e-mail]  📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I got this Tony Robbins you're listening to habits in hustle. Press it. Today in the podcast we have Julie Solomon. Julie is a speaker, a business coach, and the host of the top rated podcast, the Influencer podcast. And she's the author of the upcoming book Get What You Want, How To Go From Unseen To Unstoppable, which I love that title. Julie has launched several successful online programs, including Pitchet Perfect, The Influencer Academy, and The Shine Mastermind, which teaches clients how to master the important skill

sets needed to take a personal brand idea and turn it into a profitable and a very sustainable business. In her weekly podcast, the Influencer podcast, she offers real-time coaching, straight-talk and conversations about business growth and personal development to millions of listeners worldwide. I really enjoyed this podcast with Julie. She's extremely knowledgeable about how to build

a personal brand and online marketing, which is so valuable in today's time. Digital marketing, email marketing, very, very valuable information. I really hope, and I think that you will get a lot of really practical information if you're somebody who's trying to build a brand or just want some business tips. There's something in it for everybody.

Enjoy the podcast. Let me know your thoughts. Leave me a comment and enjoy. All right. So today on the podcast, we have Julie Solomon, who, hello, who also is a podcaster. It's called the influencer podcast, which is a very good podcast. If you really want to learn something, I definitely recommend it because I was telling

Julie before we started when I was listening to some of the episodes, it was such valuable information that you give, but we'll get into that in a moment. She's obviously a speaker, now an author of the new book called Get What You Want. I love the title. Thank you. And a business coach. Yeah. And you do it all. I do it all. And a mom and a mom. Mom and two. Mom and two. Well, thank you for being on the podcast. Thank you for having me. So let's start with the beginning. How did you let the whole process, because now this is a new book for you,

and your book actually, like I said, it really resonated with me, and lots of things were very familiar. You talk about having an origin story. So why don't we start with what is your origin story and importance of having one? Yes, so I'm gonna back up just a little bit to talk about what is an is an origin story,

and then mine. An origin story, and I shared in the book, is really a story that we all have. It is essentially the stories, the beliefs, the thoughts, that make up how we think and feel in the world today. So based off of where we're from, how we were raised, who were raised by any type of, religious affiliation we may have,

it makes up a lot of how we look at and see the world from our own specific lens. And we, and kind of the Hollywood round, we see origin stories a lot with comic book characters, right? They all come from this, you know, this situation and they have this hero's journey And kind of the Hollywood realm, we see origin stories a lot with comic book characters, right? They all come from this, you know, this situation and they have this hero's journey and, you know, they're saving the world with their hot bodies. And so I talk about that in my book.

And my origin story was one of, you know, small town girl was raised by two people that did not have college degrees. My dad literally wore a blue collar to work every day. My mom, when she was 16, she ran away from home and married my dad. And it had my brother when she was 17. So it was a lot of that kind of cultural, small town way of living.

And it was also one of just scarcity. And it was one of just a very, you know, not a lot of culture. I wasn't, I didn't, everyone in my town was basically just small town's Baptist Christian. If you were Catholic, that was weird. So you can imagine like anything else outside of that. And it was a very kind of scarce, sheltered environment.

And so I was taught at a very young age, just to believe that as long as you have enough money to pay the bills, that's really all that you should be thinking of, that it's not really normal to think outside of the box, or to think creatively, or to really do anything other than what you're seeing day to day. And so when I was seven, my parents divorced and my mom moved to Nashville and then a few years later she married my now stepdad. And he had the exact opposite of my life, very, very wealthy man, you know, hard working, built his business from the ground up. And from that I was privileged enough to then be thrusted into this whole new society that I never even existed. And he was very, very kind to enroll me into a private school.

So I could get a better education. And then from there I started meeting people from all different walks of life. You know, a ton of my friends at Rajuwa, I was telling you about that earlier. I started going, you know, to ball and ball and bot mitzvahs. I didn't even know, like, how to say or spell that from where I started going to bond mitzvahs. I didn't even know how to say or spell that from where I was from.

And so it was opening my eyes up to this new possibility and to this new way of living. But at the same time, I still felt, because of my origin story, I don't belong here. This is not mine. I always felt like I was on the outside looking in. I was here, but I wasn't really here. And I didn't earn any of this.

This none of this is mine. So I was given this privilege, but it was really hard to feel worthy of these new opportunities that I started to have. And so this kind of double-edged sword of being able to have possibility, but then not feeling worthy of it, and feeling that all I really was worthy of

was more of this scarcity kind of blue-collar working mentality. It caused a lot of this tug of war to me that I would think big. I always wanted to get out of the small town, I always had dreams of moving to New York and moving to Los Angeles, both of which I ended up doing as I got older. But there was still this kind of upper limit fear of you're a fraud.

Someone's going to find out that you're not supposed to be here. Who do you think you are? It was kind of that internal dialogue was playing out, even though I was relentless in my desire to want to have something more out of life. You know, it's interesting. I find that that happens. Like that's a lot of people who come from your background have that.

And it's kind of, how do you tell people when you talk on your podcast and all the experience that you have, how did you break out of that for your own story and change your origin story? Yeah. Because those thoughts become your reality, right? Yeah, they do. And your body, yourself, you become those thoughts.

So how do you do that? How do you change that? Because that does change its trajectory of your entire life. Yeah. I think it can show up in different ways. For me, fortunately and unfortunately, it came with some really tough lessons and some rock bottoms. So one that I can talk about professionally and I kick off the book with this is that

I get a call from my husband on a cell phone. I'm sitting at the dinner table and just working and I get a call and I answer it and I say, hello, and he just said, hey, babe, when were you going to tell me about the credit card? And I was frozen because unbeknownst to him, even though he knew at that moment, I had been hiding over $30,000 of credit card debt from him that I had acquired over three years. And the reason for the credit card debt is that I was this new mom. I felt alone in loss. I was, you know, having postpartum stuff. And then that just kind of transpired into this delusion

that spending and buying things would feel some kind of void inside me. And before I knew it, I was three years in and $30,000 in. And now my husband had found out. And so in that moment, I had to really get honest with myself about why am I so afraid to be honest about myself about why am I so afraid to be honest about money? Why am I so afraid to be honest about spending? Why am I so afraid to be honest about managing money?

Why am I so afraid to be honest about my fear around money? Why do I have fear around money? And so it was that rock bottom moment of not only having to start to mend my marriage and thank God he didn't leave me in that moment and he stuck with me to get through that, but then also had to start getting really honest about a lot of these things that I think I had just kind of pushed down and just told myself, it's fine,

I'll figure it out, it's not a big deal. Everything will work out, some financial, very God person will come down from the sky. And it will be fine. It was just years of kind of numbing myself into this delusion of everything was fine. And then it all kind of hit to this point. But the gift of that, and we can talk about this, is it was that moment at the kitchen table where I made that decision that whatever this is, not to say that my life is all horrible,

I have a lot of great things about my life that I love, but I also have this really dark part that I need to face and if I don't, it's just gonna keep rearing its ugly head. And so I made the decision at that moment to then go and to start to really look at myself in new ways and look at this challenge that I had and from that I was able to kind of, you know, come out of the ashes and build the business that I now have today. So, but did you try to figure out why you had that, what you became is like,

it was like you were kind of a spending addict, like to kind of fulfill something absolutely new that you felt like you were not good enough. Yeah. And so you're buying a lot of material things. Yes. What were you buying? Lipstick, lip gloss, you know, and that's the other thing. I think it's a great question because I kept justifying my spending habits because I would say to myself, what's not like I'm going down to rodeo drive and buying, you know, 15 pairs of Louis Vuittons, I'm going to Sephora, I'm buying a $30 lip gloss. Right. But over time, it adds up.

It adds up. And so it didn't, and that didn't even matter. I mean, that was just a way that I was rationalizing my very sick behavior. Right. But it was, no matter what I was spending, I was spending and I was hiding it, and it was actually causing a lot of detriment to my life.

But more than that, you were feeling a whole of that you had. Right. I'm not feeling worthy of not feeling seen, of not feeling heard of, you know, I think also to this void of shame that I had around, you know, I would always say these things to myself of like, well, I've never been good with math, I'm not good with numbers, you know,

the society that I grew up in, it's like the man takes care of that. So I was always waiting for this like other thing outside of me to come in and take care of the finances. I didn't need to learn about savings. I didn't need to learn about budgeting. Somebody else is going to come and do that for me.

And then I'm just going to be like, I guess the woman, whatever that meant, you know, whatever that meant. And so I think that, you know, starting to realize like, well, what does that mean? And that's actually not the reality of my life at all. And like, I need to really unravel what this is and get to the root of why I have such deep shame around money and around being honest about money

and around just even my lack of understanding of some financial things at the time, which is totally okay because you don't know what you don't know. No, exactly. And so then what's the first step? Because if you're or is your story and the story that you tell yourself and the thoughts are, I'm not good enough, you have shame, you come from this, you have a lot of limiting beliefs, let's say. Okay, now you acknowledge it. That was a way, having to tell your husband, that was a way to confront somebody and put it out there.

So from that moment, there's a lot missing between that to getting where you are now. So how do people, what is it, what's the first step after the acknowledgement to start building a different origin story? Yeah, so for me, it's the awareness is the first step being aware of the reality of the situation as it is. And just really, really giving yourself the gift of being present enough to be aware, because if you are in doing mode, if you do not give yourself the time to be still, to pause, to think and feel, if you're just constantly going and deflecting

and ignoring, you can't be aware. So it was the awareness. And then the second step for me was accepting it, which I think is the hardest thing, at least it was for me, and I think for a lot of people, it's easy to be aware of something and then just wanna go and fix it,

but to really like sit in that uncomfortable acceptance of something of, this is what happened, I did this, I created this, I accept that I have gotten myself here. Now, what am I gonna do about it? Right. And that's the third step for me, which is those action steps. So for me, it was, you know, starting to figure out

more about budgeting, I took a lot of classes on finances. I went to conferences. I love to research things. I'm like a sponge. So it was the courses and like anything that I could get my hands on. And then also being mindful of, I want my husband to be a part of this, but I also don't want to put it on him because this is not his problem. This is my, this is my challenge and really wanting to own that.

So once I started to be aware and accept what my strengths and weaknesses was, then I could then go and get help. I went to therapy as well. I started to also talk to financial planners and advisors to be like, hey, I'm going to need support along this path. I am not someone, I don't have the learned behavior of properly managing money in a way that I don't overspend. So I'm going to need guidance and support in this way.

Not in a way that makes me feel like a financial toddler, but a way that helps me be in support of my goals and where I want to go. No, I get that. So that's kind of also to me, that helps me be in support of my goals and where I want to go. No, I get that. So, that's kind of also to me, you're taking action on the behavior. But still, or are you saying you taking action at all on the behavior is helping repair your belief system and who you are?

Yes. Because you're taking ownership saying, this is what I'm bad at, and I'm gonna get better at this to build your confidence a little bit more. Correct. It's when we allow our origin stories to dictate our lives is when we know that we're in trouble.

Right. For me, it was the awareness of what the origin story was and those beliefs. And why? And why? And why the belief systems that I were having to say look the origin that's passed anyways that is from the origin of my existence so I see that thank you for teaching me what I needed to know now you can stay there and I'm going to create a new story and

I'm going to create a new script and I believe that when you change the script the script changes yeah and so that was the gift of me being able through action to write a new story, and to set new limits, and to create new boundaries, and all of those things that came with it that allowed me to live in a more healthy parameter around money. Keep coming back, you got plenty of space! Oof, not how you would have done that. You like working with people you can rely on, like USAA, who has helped guide the military community for the past 100 years.

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Nerds, shake things up! Shop now at nerdscandy.com So then, after college, because you were a publicist, weren't you, for music? Yes. Was it just music? Music and books. And the books, right?

And books. I saw you, like, music. I saw Dave Ramsey and a bunch of, was that in New York? That was back in Nashville. So I did music PR in New York, and then I did book PR in Nashville. And that was the other thing too. It was like here I was working on books about Dave Ramsey, which is all about financial freedom and savings.

And that's the irony, right? It is. Life is like that though. It is. I mean, sometimes the universe will put exactly what you need right in front of your face, but if you're not aware, you're not going to see it. Exactly. I think also not just to be aware, but be honest with, like, it is to be aware, but being honest with yourself, because I think people don't want to, like, kind of face reality a lot of times.

That's why they're deflecting, and that's why it's being aware of your weaknesses, your strengths, and so are you a person that believes, because there's like two different ways of thinking, right? One is to go all in on your strengths, then like kind of like find someone else to like help you with your weaknesses, to kind of balance it out. Or, or I think you are this kind of person because you just said with the finance, that if you, if you are aware and you know what these weaknesses are, you help lift up those weaknesses to balance out your strengths.

What do you, like, is that what you believe? Yeah, I would say so. I believe that if you want to be a leader, whether that's in your home or in a business or whatever it is, there's going to be pieces to that puzzle that even if you're not the person that is in charge of that piece of the puzzle, I still believe that you have to understand it at least conceptually.

You have to understand the inner workings of how something works, why it is the way that it is to get a grasp of understanding. So you can be, I believe, responsible and have the ability to respond to things. Now, you don't want me doing taxes, but I can conceptually understand why we're paying the taxes that we're paying. You don't want me, you know, filing your taxes, but I can conceptually understand what my CPA needs in order to file the taxes on the behalf. So like you have to, like, and this is what I talk about, too, and I think I did a podcast. I was a Patrick Bet David, I don't remember, but it was about certain things like being curious or interested.

You may be someone who's a total introvert, let's say for example, but like if you're in sales, you have to like take that weakness and you may not be a 10 out of 10, but take that, you know, to what a 10 and make it a 4, right? So you don't have to be like a superstar in these weaknesses, but you at least have to bring it up a little bit more. Yes. And to kind of at least make it manageable so you can win. Right. And it also allows you to understand at a deeper level what kind of support you actually

need, which is going to actually help you save time and money in the long run. You know, before I was aware of certain things, I would just hire out everything because it was just like fix it, fix it, fix it, fix it. Yes. Throw and spaghetti at the wall. I don't want to deal with it, just fix it. But if I don't understand conceptually what I actually need to meet my goal and reach my goal, then I may be giving somebody a job or a task

that I don't even need. I may have, I may pay for a coach or a consultant or some kind of freelancer on my team or hire someone that may not even need to be there in the first place. That's, and you can waste a lot of money doing that. A lot, and I have a lot of really expensive mistakes on that stuff. A hundred percent. And that's where I think we can set, it's a good segue into, you know, you talk about

this too, like creating a blueprint for yourself, right? So if you have a clear mind, you have a clear vision of where you're going. Otherwise, you're just like throwing darts at the wall. Yes, right? Yes. So then if you're in public, so if you're now doing PR for all these different people, how did you ricochet into like, from being that to where you now, like you are a business coach, you have this podcast, which is very, very much about educating and telling people how to build their own brands and business stuff, influencers. Like there was like, give us the meat before that. I mean, so how did you go from being that PR person and having this blueprint to being this person?

Yeah. So around the time that, you know, the money situation happened, and if I can remember, this was probably around 2015. At the same time, coincidentally enough, I was really losing my zest and my love and my passion for the PR work. That industry as a whole was just changing dramatically, social media was becoming more of a thing.

I was living in Los Angeles at the time, which was the mecca of Not New York for the PR? No, I had lived there and then had moved back to Nashville for some time and then met my husband and moved to LA. So I had been doing PR that whole time. Who are you working with, by the way, with company? In New York, a company called Press Here, publicity. Oh, no, I don't know. And then went in-house with Harper Collins and did book publicity and you know, like the early teens moved to LA started freelancing and I was just losing my zest and I was seeing that this whole world of influencer marketing and social media and all of that was coming up.

And I got into blogging because when I first moved to LA, again, I was alone and doing nothing, but spending money behind my husband's back. And so didn't have anything else to do. So I did the one thing that every woman does when she moves to LA, which was start a blog back then. That's what you started with. That's what I started with. Oh, you're blogging about. Motherhood, lifestyle, fashion, just what again, throw it, just testing things out, you know, whatever kind of felt good at the time. And what was great about that is that I started to, it ended up kind of being a case study

of sorts because the very content that I was creating ended up being the type of content that I started coaching people on a few years later. I just didn't know that that's what was happening. So I was able to quickly monetize my blog because of my experience as a publicist in really understanding the marketing side of things. And so I had women that started coming up to me and saying, you know, how is it that you have like just a few thousand followers

and you're making all this money and I have hundreds of thousands of followers and I'm not really making any money. And it's because they weren't looking at the influencer marketing world through that lens. Everybody at that time, they were just more focused on like being popular and having a lot of followers. They weren't treating it like a business. So I started to get more excited about that while at the same time started to lose my passion for PR. And I was working with a PR client at the same time started to lose my passion for PR. And I was working with a PR client at the time on a book.

It was extremely stressful. My entire body broke out in high. As you know, your body will tell you what is going on with you. I was exhausted. My quarters all levels were shot. I was just, I was a disaster. And I remember looking in the mirror and I was just like, who is this person? I don't even, I recognize a disaster. And I remember looking in the mirror and I was just like, who is this person?

I don't even, I'm recognize this person. And it was that kind of moment of exhaustion that gave me the clarity about the pivot that I needed to make. And I think a lot of times for people, they don't think they can get what they want because they don't know what they want. But I always say, if you know what you don't want, you know what you do want because you know what you don't

want. And so for me, it was getting clear on like whatever this is, I don't want this anymore. But you needed to go through that to know it. I did. And so you have to a lot of times kiss a lot of frogs to get to that Prince Charming. I hate that expression, but it's the truth. That's true. Right? Like you, how you figure out what you want is by doing a lot of shit that you don't want to do. That you don't want, right? And if you didn't do that PR, you would never even know that that was something that you didn't want to do, but you got a lot of transferable skills from that.

I got a ton. I mean, it laid the foundation for 100% now. For sure. And you used them. Like, talk about, and it was in the book, this story to me, I was just blown away by the remodeling story. Yeah, yeah. Because that, you took a lot of the same,

those skills from PR. Right. Who just tell that story? Yeah, so I hit the rock bottom with the money. I was having all of this, you know, this kind of identity crisis with the PR side. It's all I had ever known and done. Well, at the same time, I was in this really kind of identity crisis with the PR side. It's all I had ever known and done. Well, at the same time, I was in this really kind of special

and unique time in Los Angeles of now being around all of these influencers and these bloggers, really they were called bloggers at the time and these content creators. That's right, there's some change in the name. Yeah, that wanted to kind of grow this thing. And so it was kind of a domino effect of these things happening at once.

So I had told myself, I said, look, if I'm getting this, this inkling to stop PR, I'm not passionate about it anymore. It's okay to have permission to pivot your passions. I knew that my purpose was to impact and connect and communicate, and that was never going to change. But my passion was changing. But I had to make money from it. Now I had this death that I had to pay off and I had to hustle and figure this out quickly.

So. And you were vlogging and all that blogging? Yes, blogging and doing YouTube and all of that stuff. And so I realized I started to get invited to some blogger events and there were always brands that were there. And what was interesting was that the majority of the bloggers

at the time would just be sitting in the corner, like talking to each other, or looking at their phone scrolling, and then you would have these brands, and the brands are the money, that would be sitting over here and no one talking to them. So just being who I am and with my background, it's very natural for me to go up

and start hopping conversations with brands, and it's all part of marketing and networking and if you're If you're in sales you're in sales whether you want to admit it or not or believe it or not. This is all sales all of us You can sell yourself all day all day long and even if you're an entrepreneur your salesperson. Yes You are and so people don't like that name, but that's what it is, but it's the truth Yeah, and so I just started to say hi and connect and build relationships with these brands. And then I would say, hey, I have an idea. You know, I would love to create content for you.

I do, I talk about motherhood stuff and lifestyle stuff. And so little by little, I would start making deals, 500 here, $1,500 there, $2,500 there. And I had told myself I was like, if I could just make $5,000 a month, you know, on this side hustle. That would, that for some reason, that number was the number that I made up and told myself that that's gonna be the parameter. If I can't get to that, then it's gonna be a waste.

But if I can just get to that, then I can start to kind of supplement. I don't have to take on as much PR work and then I can slowly build to what I need. So I got to that point and I started to get there consistently and then I started to get to $10,000 a month and then $15,000 a month and then $20,000 a month and then I kind of stayed around that $15,000 to $20,000 and it was still kind of a little bit of PR work, mostly monetizing my platform, but I didn't really have a big platform.

And so I knew that I had to and kind of at the time people were coming to me and kind of at, they were, they're like, how are you doing this? And, and so during that time and people are kind of paying attention, I, at our house, my son was becoming, he was going from being a baby to being a big boy and we needed to transform his room. And because I was in all this debt, I was like, well, I can't ask my husband to like, hey, I know I owe our family $30,000, but do you now wanna pay for all this new furniture

that I want to do for my son's room? So I was like, okay, so I'm gonna have to figure out how to get this room furnished. So I started pitching brands about, you know, I think my pitch was like, I stay, you know, a work from home mom has to, you know, renovate her home and create the work life balance that's needed to not only be able to work successfully from home, but then to also be a mom. And the majority of people were like, no, like cute, but no. And again, you have to, I didn't have a lot of followers. So I couldn't fall back on this big

follower number. And then I also wasn't the content creator that was sitting front row at Fashion Week. Or, you know, I wasn't, there was nothing about me as a content creator that stuck out. The only thing, and I didn't realize this at the time, the only thing that stuck out for me that was my secret sauce was my understanding of pitching and how to pitch myself. And so I got a lot of nose, which I'm cool with getting, you know, in order to get it, yes,

you got to get a lot of nose first. So people kept saying no to me. And instead of just saying, okay, never mind, I was like, well, why are they saying no? Like, there has to be something that they want that they find valuable. They just don't find what I'm initially pitching them value. Right.

So I got curious and I asked, I'm like, well, what would be valuable to you? And everyone had an array of different answers. But this one brand said, well, press in media. Not only traditional media, but like blog hits and, you know, social media hits. Like, we would love to get some big press. And, you know, unfortunately, Julie, like, you don't,

you have like 10 people that look at your website. So like, you can't do that for us, but that's what we would love. So then I was like, okay, well, huh. So like, I may not be able to give them that through me, but maybe I can give them that in some other kind of way. So then I was like, well, let me pitch some media outlets that have the .com side and the blog side

to see if they would be interested. So by the way, I want to make a point why I want you to tell the story. It's because it is about taking your, I think, your transferable skills as a publicist. Yes, that's everything that it was. Right. And you're now using it for something else that you gained maximum value on what you'll continue.

Yes. So then I went to media and I went to, at the time, it was like mom.me and pop sugar moms and modern moms and all these mom sites. And some of them were interested, but at the time, they were just so hungry for content. Like any of them were like, sure, if you wanna write this article, sure.

But at the time, people magazine, and specifically people.com, were starting a like mom-focused the transaction. Area on the dot com side. So they were interested, and I was like, okay, well people magazine, like we're not effing around, like this is a big.

Better than all the other ones you mentioned. I'm combined So I went back to this brand and I said okay, so people calm is interested in this Wanted to throw that out there to see what you think and they were like, oh my gosh. This is so great like, you know Yeah, let's do this, but then I started thinking well, what if I could get like more than just a room done Like let's just see and this is where like I'm thinking big, you what if I could get more than just a room? Done. Let's just see. And this is where I'm thinking big. Go big or go home. And so I went back to people.com.

And I was like, well, I know that I originally had mentioned my son's room. But what do you guys think about kind of doing an entire home makeover? And if we did that, how big could we make this? What are the options? And people were like, well, we could put it on our.com. We could have links that link back to the brand retailer site. We could do a scroll of photos. Just letting me know what's available.

And so then I went back to the brand and I said, OK, guys, so people's interested in this, but in order to do it, we're going to have to do the entire house. And if we do that, you're going to social media, you're gonna get.com. Of course, you have anything that I can offer you as well. They will link it back to your retailer site. Then, of course, at that point, it was just a no brainer. Yeah.

And you got a 250,000 dollar. Yeah. So, what ended up being an idea and it up becoming over $250,000 in furniture. We re-redid my son's room, our bedroom, the living room, and this little office room that we had. And then also the company, which was world market at the time, they're amazing. They were working with another company called Deckerist,

which is an interior design firm. And so then they brought the interior design firm on. And I got it completely designed and that was comped as well. And then I got media too. Amazing that they didn't like because a lot what could have happened too is there would be like this is a great idea let's find someone who's a bigger influencer or a celebrity and just put it in there. Well that's ended up I was the first person to ever do this. So if you look back now that's what they we did this together and then they were like oh this is amazing.

So then they started going decorist in World Market. They started going after all, like the people from the bachelor, the bachelor red, like a lot of big reality stories have now done this very formula that I didn't even know that I was creating, but because I was the first, I set the tone for the whole thing. Yeah, amazing. And at the time, that really, it goes to show that just people weren't thinking in that way. And as you said, with my skill set of pitching, I didn't even know another way to think. That's the only way that I knew how to think when it came to marketing. And

then when other content creators and bloggers saw this happen, they were like, what have you, what is going on? And then that, this was 2016. Okay. And then that cracked open, what became my very first course called Pitch It Perfect, which teaches bloggers, content creators, influencers, anyone who wants to work with brands, because people like to label themselves, however, but it teaches you how to do the very thing that I share in the book, which is think of a really great idea, pitch it to somebody who wants it and make a lot of money doing it. Yeah, no, I think that's great.

And that's why I wanted you to tell the story. That was your first course, too. And that course has now gone on to, it's a multi-seven figure course. Wow. And there's a good reason for it, though, because you're teaching a very valuable skill to people that may come easy to you because you have those skills, but that could be the kind of the stop and start for somebody because they don't know, you don't know what you don't know, nobody does, right?

And that can open up a whole like plethora of other opportunities for somebody. And I think it's important to share this because the biggest thing that probably someone watching or listening to this right now, they're probably saying like well, easy for Julie to say, she was a publicist. Of course, it worked out for her. But it's also like, but I wasn't all of those other things and a lot of those things didn't work out for me. So instead of already giving yourself a reason to not try and just to kind of like cop out of it,

think about what do you have. Yeah, you may not have PR experience, but what is unique to you? And the great example that I love to give, one of my students who actually, if you walk into an Ulta store right now, you're gonna see her beautiful face splashed all over the inside of an Ulta,

her niche is her curly hair. That's literally all she pitches all day, is the hair on her head. And from, yes, she's a curly hair influencer. And she gets every deal, every curly hair product deal, it's going to her. And she was the first of the kind to think about using her curly hair.

So now there's this whole niche of curly hair influencers that work with all of these brands that are targeted for curly hair. And so I just, I think that's important because it's literally the hair on her head. But that's all that it is. And so if you think that you don't have a niche or if you think that you don't have an expertise,

just look in the mirror, you may be surprised with what you find. No, I think that's exactly why I love the story. Especially with the curly hair one too. I mean, it's true. People don't see themselves, they're very limited a lot of times because they're because of their color.

They're origin story. And they're origin story. So then let's go through, I know I kind of like fast forwarded to the pitch, pitch perfect, but let's go into the blueprint because I think that's very important, right? Because you're all about creating a path for success to get what you want. That would be a major step I very important, right? Because you're all about creating a path for success to get what you want.

That would be a major step I would imagine. Yeah, right? Yeah, and the first step that I see in the blueprint is, I started where I was with what I had. And I gave myself the freedom to do that. I didn't shame myself for not being like that person or that person or not having 100,000 followers or whatever thing that I could make an excuse,

I literally start with what I had it. And that's the same thing with like the curly hair. It's like, what do you have? Do you wear glasses? Are you plus sized? Do you have some kind of niche? You know, I have thousands of students now that have gone through the program.

And it's like every, I have a scuba diver. I have, you know, a bartender that became really well known as this cocktail connoisseur, and she makes all of these exquisite, amazing, beautiful cocktails, and she gets sponsored by spirit brands and liquor brands and glass companies. You name it, and they're working with her. So it's about, and she got to leave her bartending job

to become the top in her field in the serena. So what is it that makes you special and unique, even if you don't think it's special and unique? What is that thing that you have that someone else could see of value? So it's about starting where you are with what you have, giving yourself the permission to pivot, giving yourself the permission to test different things out. That's another step. Another step is when it comes to... How do you do that, though? Giving yourself permission to pivot? No, to test things out.

How do you tell somebody to test things out? You do it. So it's like, hey, I'm going to test out this video and see if it works. And that's why I still have... This is all social media base you're talking, right? Or it can be. It doesn't have to be. So it's like, let's say if still have a social media base you're talking right or it can be it doesn't have to be so it's like let's say if somebody says I want to be a writer well then you got

to write so you start testing it out start writing things out seeing how it feels seeing how it sticks most importantly to you first you know how does it feel for you it does it feel an alignment does it light you up does it feel like you know? Does it feel like, you know, excited? Do you feel expansive when you think about it? Or are you just like, you know, but you're not gonna know, you're not gonna be able to tap in and tune in to any of that until you actually test things out. And so I gave myself permission to just pitch things.

And it's like, maybe it was horrible. I don't know. It's those people are, they're too busy thinking about themselves. They're not gonna be thinking about, oh gosh, that horrible pitch, that girl sent us. Like, they're not thinking about that. So you have to kind of get out of your way a little bit and we all do this.

It's very normal, but we think that like the world revolves around us and we get so worried and nervous that we're gonna say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing or mess up. But give yourself permission to be messy. Give yourself permission to test things out.

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All on America's largest 5G networks. Get with the power of boost and get the iPhone 11 for $49.99. Boost mobile. Highly verification required. New customers only at one per power. High-eaf verification required. New customers only at one per line. The addition of restrictions apply. See boosebobled.com for details. Yeah, you know, I said something.

I did that thing recently where I said the two biggest, like two big life lessons have been for me is that caring what people think and then actually thinking that they care. Right. There's nobody cares. Nobody does. People are so, like, are so focused on themselves.

Yes. That, like, they're not paying attention to you. Yes. But again, it's like, people need that constant reminder because they don't even give themselves that shot to try because they're so caught up in looking stupid and feeling like they, you know, like they look that they're gonna embarrass themselves.

Like, rejection to me is always much better than regret. I would always try it for sure. And so I like what you're saying. I think it's extremely important for people who are not thinking in this way. Just start thinking that way. Yeah. And I think also too with that said,

another key to my success has been to learn from my nose. I get a no, I'm not gonna just go and meld and squal. Or like, if you're gonna be putting yourself out there, it's actually insane to think that you wouldn't here a no. Like, you should actually expect no's. And for me, if someone gets a lot of no's, I'm like, yes, because that means that you're making a lot of pitches. Yeah. Because you can't get a lot of nose if you're

not making a lot of pitches. And for every, and I tell all of my students, for every yes that you get, I want you to anticipate and expect 100% at least 15 nose. Yeah. So that is always my thing. And it's like, if you're not pitching 30, 50 people for one project or at one time, you're not pitching enough. And I think that's the other thing is that either people here know and they just let that completely freeze them up or they'll pitch once or twice, it didn't work. So it doesn't work.

It's like, no, that's like saying, hey, I got in a car and backed out, but I didn't make it to the highway. So driving a car doesn't work. Yeah. No, I think it's very true. You didn't even get a car and backed out, but I didn't make it to the highway, so driving a car doesn't work. Yeah, no, I think it's very true. You didn't even get on the street. No, and I think exactly. And I think that's very true. Like, if you're not getting a lot of noses because you're not pitching enough,

Yeah. Right. You're not making a lot of offers. You're not giving people a lot of options to work with you. And if you're not going to be your biggest fan and root for yourself, then who else will? Mm-hmm. Right? Like, if you're not confident,

you can't expect someone else to be confident in your skills or hiring you or making you an expert if you come to the table kind of without feeling that way. Right. And even if you kind of don't feel that way, like kind of, I know of this whole like fake it to you make it, but the more you act as if you become

that person. Absolutely. And I love that you touched on confidence because what I have discovered, and I don't know if you've experienced this too, I mean, I'm sure you did with your tech talk, but for me, confidence, I feel like people wait, they tell themselves like,

I have to be confident first to do x, y, and z. So once I'm confident, then I'm gonna be able to write the TED Talker, write the book, or speak on the stage, or make the picture, whatever. But for me, I've learned that confidence actually comes from clarity, and clarity comes from the action of testing it out and trying it. I'm sure that you speaking on that TED Talk stage gave you a lot more confidence than you had before you walked on the stage. Yeah, 100%. And I think, well, I was very, by the way, super, super scared.

Of course. The biggest, my biggest fear, I hate public speaking, which is why, and I got it very differently. They came to me versus me having to apply. And, you know, for a very brief moment, I was going to say, no, because it was so scary for me. The idea is very fearful, public speaking, but that's why I said yes. And I went on that stage very, very fearful, but that's sometimes how you get over your fear is by actually putting yourself in the fire, right? Because nothing's ever as bad as you think it's going to be, right? Like you think, oh my god, this is going to happen. But like, it's always worse in your head than what it really is. And then you finish something and then you're like,

wow, I actually did it. Wasn't that bad? And that action is momentum-based and then that builds on confidence. People are not gonna be confident by sitting on their couch eating bomb bombs, watching Netflix and thinking that, oh, it's gonna come to them one day. Doesn't happen that way.

It doesn't. And also looking outside of themselves, like I can't tell you how many times I'll have a student who's kind of more new to everything. And I can tell that she doesn't have the confidence yet because she's afraid to try. And she's like, Julie, do you have any programs or podcast episodes, or can you direct me to somewhere

on Google where I can figure out how to be more confident? And I'm like, girl, confidence is an inside job. Yeah, like no, I don't and I'm gonna put this back on you That as much as you try to look outside yourself to find it It's it's not gonna come until you put yourself in the fire to take that action and to remind yourself Oh, wow, I'm still alive today. I didn't die. This is great 100% I think also now the word confidence is being used so much and does all you think is confident podcast. There's confidence this, there's confidence that and the reality is

exactly to what you just said is what I say, which is don't look outside because you have the power to be your own confident person by just doing just doing shit. Right, you know, that's the best way. Like, there's no like magic pill. There's no like real formula, but like you doing create confidence. Yes, period. And even the word, it's like confidants. It's like you confiding in yourself

for the answers and for the guidance. Absolutely. So now I'm missing where I was gonna go with this though. You were talking about the blueprint and how we took, yeah, so continue with this whole continue with that because that's very important to getting what you want. Once you have the blueprint, then what do you do? Then you can start putting it into action. And so you know, you've given yourself permission to go for it.

You're testing things out. You're opening it up. And then at that point, it's about making the offer. So whatever offer, and this could be something, it's like even if you're just a stay at home mom, we're always pitching something, whether we realize it or not. We've got to pitch our children on what we want them

to eat for dinner. We've got to pitch our husband on what television show we were watching tonight. We're always in that mindset. So like you could even test it out at home first. Just kind of try out if you're wanting to make an offer out in the world, start small, make an offer to your husband and see what happened, and see if you can end up

getting what you want in the process of collaboration and negotiation and putting it out there. If he says no, OK, you can wait, you can pivot, you can try to ask the question in a different kind of way. So I know what I was going to ask you after that was the resistance part, kind of on that whole like dunk tailing off of that confidence thing a bit. You call it something in your book, resistance.

A resistance spin. Yes. Yeah. What is that? Yeah. And why, and like that happens, I'm sure. So let's talk about that? Yeah. And why? And like that happens, I'm sure. So let's talk about that. Yeah. So a resistance spin comes up that, you know, and it kind of has to do with whenever we are

expanding out, whenever we're trying something new, or whenever we are growing to a next level. So whether you're starting out or whether you've been doing what you do for a while, but you're going to that next level, you're always gonna have a full on identity crisis. So it's like, you kinda have to plan for that. You have to plan for the anxiety, the fear, the like, oh my gosh, what am I thinking, what am I doing? Now, you kinda have two choices at that point. You will start to try to resist

because that's the natural way that the brain wants to try to keep us safe. It's by like, nope, we can't do that. That's dangerous. That's new. That's big. Let's stay small. Let's stay safe.

And so you can go into the resistance bin where you just keep resisting any kind of support, opportunity, new ideas, new possibilities that come your way. Or you can be aware of like, oh, I see it. I'm having a resistance bin. I'm just in the spin. It's not, it's something that's kind of happening to me

right now, but it's not necessarily real. It's kind of highly delusional. We completely created ourselves and then freak out as to why it's happening. Right. Tailspin, all thing. And so it's about being aware that that's what it is. And you can see it in moments of, you know,

let's say if something great happens and then all of a sudden like you start to get knots in your stomach, you know, or a lot of times things will happen to me. If I feel like I'm expanding or, you know, I'm hitting this goal that maybe I once thought was impossible, I'll start to kind of get a knot in my throat. Because it's like, oh, you're speaking your truth, you're speaking up, you're speaking out, and that's that that safety resistance wanting to kind of hold me back. And so, great, I see that you're there, I'm aware that you're there, but I'm going to let you pass and know that this is just temporary.

And then I can go to that next stage. So that's what I call the resistance pins will come up, and they're just those moments of you having this identity crisis of, am I good enough, am I smart enough? Can I really pull this off, am I capable enough, all of those things that come into place? Isn't that more like imposter syndrome though? It can be, yeah, that can be a part. Perfectionism can be a resistance spin,

control can be a resistance spin, complacency, distraction can be a resistance spin, imposter syndrome, that's a big one for me, can be a resistance spin. It's good for a's a big one for me, can be a resistance spend. It's good for a lot of people. Yeah, and we're talking about that I think at the beginning of this podcast. What are some ways then?

Let's just stay with that for one second. When this happens, this whole resistance spend, imposter and scrolling is a resistance spend. That's a big one. Well, that's a distraction. That's a big distraction to kind of get away from what you're feeling. I think people use that all the time.

What are ways that people, what about you? Not about ways. What do you do when you feel that impostor syndrome? And how do you get yourself out of it? Yeah, so there's two reasons it spends I can get in. So the first one with impostor syndrome is, and I talk about it in the book a lot, that these old stories and belief systems for my origin story will come up of like, you don't

belong. Who do you think you are? I mentioned that earlier. Like, you're a fraud. You're going to be found out, which is like my biggest fear of being found out, which it gets highly like being found out for what. Right, right. But it's like, you know, the thing with the credit card is a perfect example of like, I manifested being

found out and then I was found out. Right. So when those things come up, I'm first aware because I'm so clear of what that story is now that when I have those thoughts, I'm like, okay, this is what's happening. If it's at night when I'm asleep, I will sit up, I'll get a glass of water, I'll try like a breathing technique or something just to try to calm my nervous system down. It doesn't happen often. Not. It's happened very recently because I have a book coming out and I've never done

this before. Right. So just to be completely candid, like there's been moments like that that I'll, you know, sometimes when I'm watching something, like I was watching this show called We Crast, We Crast, recently. I just watched it. I loved it. Yes, I thought it was fascinating,

but because he was expanding at such a high rate. I didn't tell you how you're talking. Yeah, and then I just start, I was like, oh my gosh, like, this is possible. Like, what if this had, like, you know, it was just this irrational fear that I had. And so I had to like, even though I love the show, like in that moment, I had a stopwatch.

I was like, this is not making me feel good. So really tough. You're not resonated with you, right? Yeah. It resonated like his desire to dream big, but then him overspending. Oh my God. And that's my trigger.

And so it was just that fear that was coming up. And he got ousted for it. And he did. He got ousted for it. So I've been there. I know that. So that was that was coming up. And he got ousted for it. And he did. He got ousted for it. So I've been there. I know that. So that was a thing for me. And then I think, whatever environment you're in when those things come up, if you can

try to do the antithesis for that. So for me, a lot of times, I try to move my body. Because when I am in movement, when I'm in physical movement, and it doesn't have to be some hit class, I can literally just be walking outside, the energy moves. And so it's hard for me to stay in this frozen fear of anxiety or whatever the resistance is when I'm not resisting physical motion.

So to me, movement is key, water is key, breath. I mean, very basic things that we can do helps me a lot. The other distraction that can happen, the other one that can happen to me is distraction, specifically with either busy work or scrolling. So I can get lost in the scroll really easily or I can start, I'm like, okay, so I have this big thing that I wanna do,

but it's scary. So I'm gonna go over here and do all this little stuff right now, and then that makes me feel accomplished and good, I'm checking stuff off the list, but is this busy work really getting me to where I wanna go? Probably not. So after laughing, because that's how I felt yesterday, and then I was so overwhelmed, I went to Costco,

when the worst day possible, at five o'clock in the evening, when like I should be doing like actual things that I need to get done. I'm gonna go to Costco. Yeah, I know the end was two hours, you know, but I'm at least gonna Costco to buy paper towels for like an Instacart, but yeah, yes, you know. And it's amazing, it's just the awareness, you know, because you can laugh about it,

because you're like, I know exactly what I'm doing. It doesn't mean that you're gonna get it right or perfect every time, but at least you notice, okay, I did that, I know why I did that. I'm gonna go easy on myself for doing that. And now tomorrow, I'm gonna try to commit to a plan to at least focus on this thing that and maybe big and scary and maybe avoiding it, but I know that it's important

to get me to where I wanna go. Well, I think it's very hard for a lot. I mean, no one's perfect. I mean, like all this is great and great and said in theory, but we're all human beings. And we all have our things that trigger us, all things that we fall to. And as long as you're doing well, most of the time, you're allowed to have these rush hour, cost go for three hours. And to your point, you have to be able to give yourself like the permission to be like, not great all the time.

Right. Because it's normal. Right. You'd be like, very like weird and abnormal if you were going to be consistently good all the time. I mean, we're not robots. And I think there's also a difference between giving yourself a break and a resistance spin.

And only you're gonna kind of know where that fine line is. But sometimes I do just need to watch Netflix and just take a break. Yeah, totally. You know, sometimes I just need to watch a show and kind of zone out because my mind has been going a mile a minute so long.

But that's when you also have to have the awareness to really be in tune with your body and check in with your thoughts and feelings and your physicality, just to say, okay, am I kind of sloughing out right now because I don't want to deal with life or am I taking a break that's actually be Juvenating for me? Yes, I agree. So when you say, get what you want as a title of a book, right?

Are you talking about then strictly get what you want as a personal brand in any kind of career, or like your personal life? Is it very much about what you get what you want overall? What is your... Yeah, to me, it's more about you getting what you want out of your life because that trickles into everything. Yes, there's some business and branding stuff in here because that's what I do and I love to teach on it.

But this really does start with the inside job that is you. And it's what is keeping you stuck from you getting what you want. How can we work on getting to the other side of that? So that you're in a place where you feel aligned, you feel excited, you feel confident, you feel worthy to get what you want. And then that changes your relationship with yourself,

your relationship with other people, your business, how you lead, how you show up in the world, your beliefs about yourself, and your ability to impact no matter if you want to be this global leader or if you just, you're your mom and maybe you're part of the PTA and you just want to be able to make more of an impact in that group. There's nothing is too small based off of whatever is relative to you. But you are, since you do kind of like focus a lot on the podcast on personal branding and business because you know, that's like you said, it does of course trickle through. Like I mean, it does. Everything bleeds into each other. Can we just talk, we just talk about this?

I think it's very important for women, especially, who to negotiate on their own behalf. Like, for example, when you're doing this remodeling thing with a cost market, or in any brand deal, right? Or a lot of different things. People tend to, women especially, tend to not be their best PR people all the time, or their best like agents, let's just say. Can you talk about some ways and strategies that people can become better at negotiating for themselves? Yeah. Because I think that would be very helpful. Yeah. You bring up a great point because I think for a lot of women, we feel that negotiation

is sleazy or slimy or salesy, heaven forbid, we sell anything. And we have this very negative connotation, but honestly, when you think about it and maybe think back into your own life, really anything that you've negotiated, it probably hasn't been sleazy or slimy. It does come from an authentic place because most people are been sleazy or slimy. It does come from an authentic place because most people are not sleazy and slimy. Most people want to do the best that they can and be the best that they can

and really come from a service-based place. So if that is you, which I'm sure it is for anyone that's listening to this, I have this kind of magical question that through my years of negotiating things for myself and then just teaching the art form that is negotiation, this is a magic question that really opens up the possibility to negotiate,

which is just negotiation is nothing but just a compromise. I've like, how can two people kind of meet and agree and everybody win? So the question is, what would it take? That's it. What would it take to do this collaboration with you? What would it take for us to go to the movies? What would it take to get that new puppy that I want to get? What would it take to buy this house? What would it take to meet for lunch tomorrow? What would it take? And that question alone, it opens up so much possibility because what it does is that it it provides consent for the other person

to then respond to you and it also empowers the other person to give you their thoughts and feedback. And the more that people feel like they are part of the solution, the more excited that they're going to be to find and create a solution. So it's not just this one-sided thing where I want to make sure I get what I want, but what would it take to make sure that we can both get what we want? But what happens a lot at times is for women, they end up taking less than they deserve because they don't want to be that salesperson or they're uncomfortable. Yes. How do you, what do you say to people or yourself, and what do you do to kind of overcome that like awkwardness?

to people or yourself, what do you do to overcome that awkwardness? Because to negotiate on your own behalf, it could be very uncomfortable. Do you have any strategies for that? You're not just acquiescing to the first bid, so to speak. When it comes to numbers and pricing with negotiating. The biggest issue that I see a lot of women make is that they will either throw out a number and accept that or they will throw out some kind of number that is actually a lot lower and a lot less than what they really want.

Or they will accept the first offer that comes to them. There's no negotiating in that. There was no, you're just throwing out a number excepting an offer. So the first thing that I always tell women is that if you throw out a number and someone immediately says yes to you and does not negotiate with you You're underpricing yourself. Yeah, that's always the first sign It should be a little like I don't want to say painful But like when money is an exchange of energy

It should be a little uncomfortable for you to throw a number out and also a little uncomfortable for this person to say, okay, I'm ready to step up and kind of go here. It's all about the perceived value. And so the, it first starts with you. You have to value yourself enough to put out into the world what it is that you want and to be unabashedly to own that unabashedly. The second thing is don't put out a number. I think what also helps women and this is what I teach in my program. Instead of just putting out a number, put a range out because that's gonna give you some negotiation room

and some wiggle room to have more possibilities of negotiating. If you just throw a number out, you lose any power to negotiate because you're just basing everything off that number. That's one number. Whereas if you say, okay, I have this idea or I want to collaborate with you on this. And here are a couple of things that I could do.

And this would cost here to here. What are your thoughts? So case of how many courses do you have? I know you have the pitch it. Yep, I have a course on pitching. And then I have a membership. And, I have a course on pitching and then I have a membership and then I have higher level coaching opportunities. So what do you get with a membership?

What's a membership? So you really do a lot of personal, do you do personal coaching, like one-on-one or is it all in groups? Yeah, I can do one-on- one and I will do one on one, but those are rare. I only offer like several of those throughout the year. And then I have more group container.

So I have a mastermind that's a group container that also does involve one on one coaching inside that container. So it's a group gathering, but then you get one on one coaching in there. So what's with these masterminds? I know a bunch of people love these masterminds online. That's what I was saying here. But you do a lot of online marketing.

Yes. That's really what I think is that your sweet spot. Yeah, yeah. Everything that I do is online. It's all online marketing. So like, you know, then I didn't even get into it. So you're very good with like giving people the tools to build their personal brand.

So when this whole get what you want, it's really great for that. Like you're really, really lining up the steps before you make that you need to build these things. Because people don't, there's a lot of like people think, Oh, yeah, you just do this. Well, no, no, no, no, no, it's not that simple. Right. But okay, so what, what is these masterminds? Why they important? What do you learn in them how expensive are they I just want to understand this yeah so a mastermind is typically I mean I think

that that word's been thrown around a lot and I think that a lot of people have created versions of whatever they think that is for them which is all fine for me a mastermind is a group of masters that come together to, and when I say masters, they're people that are at the top of their field, their leaders in their field, they're great at what they do, and they come together and bring their minds together to support one another in getting to that next level. Also, every mastermind can have its kind of like, you know, based off of the host of the mastermind, they're going to have their flavor and their flair and kind of like, you know, based off of the host of the mastermind,

they're going to have their flavor and their flair and kind of what they focus on. For my mastermind, the focus is on visibility and brand awareness. So the women in my mastermind, they come to me, they're all multi-six or seven figure earners. They don't women by the way. They're all women. They've done very well in their business, but they have this one little problem. No one really knows who they are on a national scale. So they can't get a book deal. They can't speak on the stages. They're not, you know, when someone thinks about the wellness industry, they're not thinking about them. So they, they've already laid the foundations of their business. That's good. What they're wanting support in is visibility, exposure, impact, and really being able to influence on a greater scale.

Got it, okay. So they come together and then with me hosting it, we support one another and raising that visibility. And so what they're really learning are ways to kind of lay that groundwork, which I can teach, but then they're also learning from each other. And I think a true mastermind is not really a coaching container as much as it's a

Collaboration container and networking container for the people in the mastermind to learn and grow from one another I like the way you just described that and so how long do these last? How much of these costs? Yeah, so it depends on the host and how it is There's some that can last for a year. There's some that can last for six months. That's long. Yeah, for a year. Wow. And so you join a mastermind at how often do you meet, like once a week, once a month, once a... Yeah, my mastermind is six months. I have done them in a year, but I feel like that's kind of too long. Just me personally, that's just too long. But six months, I think, is a great sweet spot from what I've tested. And I've also been in masterminds that are a year, longer, six months, and they both have their spot from what I've tested. And I've also been in masterminds that are a year long or six months

and they both have their values. But you've been in some too. Yeah, I've been in a ton. And it's helped you a lot for sure. Really? That is like, I tell anybody, like you want to grow your business on like a bigger scale, get in a mastermind.

That's where you, that's where I've met everybody, that's where I've networked, that's where I learned. Because you're putting yourself in these really intimate spaces to learn about the intricacies of how other people have been able to build their business. Absolutely. In a way that you're never going to hear that on a podcast episode or, you know, on at some big conference, you're getting really intimate with the inner workings of how people

have grown and scaled. And just the insight, if you get in the right room with the right people, the insight that you can learn is just, it's priceless. Wow. And just the people alone that you meet. And so, how many have you done, would you say? I have done one, two, I've done three,

I've been in three masterminds myself, and then I have hosted, this is my third year of hosting a masterminds. So which masterminds did you do? So I did one that was hosted by a woman named Melissa Griffin who's actually no longer in the online space but that was the very, very first one I did and then I did two more that were peer-based.

So we were all kind of the hosts. So there was a group of us that came together from various masterminds and said, let's just create our own and then we'll meet once a month and we'll do our in-person retreats and we'll kind of co-create it and co-host it together. And how many people were in this mastermind? About 15 of us. I had to you find them, like what was the process of finding them? Being on people's emails, and then I got an email in my inbox that said, hey, I'm launching a mastermind. If you qualify, you know, based off of this, this, and this, you can apply.

And that's what I did. So then you started your own, your own mastermind. And that's six months long. Six months long. And masterminds can range their high ends. They can range anywhere from, you know, typically about $25,000 upwards to 50, 60 grand a year for them. And then it's so, so then you meet, like you know, typically about $25,000 upwards to 50, 60 grand a year. For them.

And then, so then you meet, like you said, give me the parameters of how you meet, like would it be you said once a year? Yeah, so how we do it is once a month we will have a call that is specific to a certain topic. So, you know, podcast visibility or, you know, how to get a publishing deal or, you know, whatever, whatever the collective group is most interested in learning, we'll curate it around that, but it's always around for mine. It's always around PR, visibility, media, branding.

Do you put the content together? I do. So you put all that content together and you say, OK, people, I'm just making the thing. Would you guys want to talk about? You figure that all out and you say, OK, this one's going to be about podcasting this call or it's going to be about, okay, continue this. Brand aware and that sort.

It's going to be about this or that. And so sometimes we have guest speakers, which is great because it allows them to meet really influential people. And that again is just based on my own network of people that I know. Sometimes it's me just hosting it. How long's the call by the way? About 60 minutes. It's about an hour.

And that's once a month. That's once a month. Okay. Because here's the thing. When you're just starting out or when you're like a, you know, a low six figure or high five figure owner, you may have more time to go to more coaching calls, but people that are running businesses and have a team

and they don't have time to get on 15,000 coaching calls. Like, that are running businesses and have a team and they don't have time to get on 15,000 coaching calls. No, they do not. They want to get in network, hear from other people, build those relationships and get out. Do you know what reminds me of forum and why PO? Do you know what why PO is?

Young presidents, organizations. Yeah, I have an idea about what it is. It's very similar to that kind of model. Yes. So is there qualifications for people to get into the mastermind or can any job blow just say, hey, I want to be in this mastermind? The way that we do it, it's application only. Okay. You have to have a solidified business in the marketplace. It is making multi six to seven figures because we want to make sure that people are kind of on the similar level. Right. For mine, you have to be a woman. And that would help.

And then you have to specifically, like brand awareness has to be something that's a main focus for you. Like if you're focused on, you know, funnels or like wanting someone to help be like, there may be other things that we offer for that, but that's not what we're focusing on in the mastermind. Got it. You have to be somebody that wants to be networking

and meeting people and that sort of thing. And then we have in-person retreats, one retreat during the six month periods, we get to meet in person. So one time. One time. For how long? For a weekend.

And who decides where to go? I guess you're like, OK, we're going to go to wherever. Right. This crazy day. For each day. For each day, it's about two days. And then one day is typically, you know, us kind of deep diving, working together on stuff.

It's also great because it gives women time and space to like, like, not be distracted by life and kids and everything else. Like you're really giving yourself this time to be here, to work on your goals, to work on your vision, to meet other people. And it's really just creating what is like a sacred space for that time.

And then we've got, we have fabulous dinners, and gift bags, and all kinds of fun stuff. But every mastermind is different. I always tell anyone if they're interested in joining a mastermind, the big thing for me is that you want to make sure that you're joining a mastermind that is led by someone who has done what it is that you are trying to do.

Yeah. They don't just talk about it, but they've done it. So if you want to write a book, go be in a mastermind by someone who's actually written a book. Absolutely. If you want to speak on a stage, go be in a mastermind with somebody who's spoken on stage. If you want to launch a successful podcast,

go be in a mastermind with someone who has actually done that. I think a lot of times people get burned in masterminds because they join these masterminds that either the format's not right for them or the leader isn't the right person that they needed to lead them. It doesn't mean the leader is bad or wrong or anything, but it's just that it's just not

right for what they need. So that's always the big thing for me. You want to make sure that the person has done what it is that you're trying to do. And then you want to make sure that the container and the way that it's set up actually lends to support for you. So it's like, how many coaching calls do you have? How many in-person retreats do you have? Like, do I have the space and in-person retreats do you have?

Do I have the space and capacity to show up for these things? Is this important to me? What do I really want out of this experience? Also sized. So so far, we've got one call a month, one retreat for a couple days. What else do you get for the mastermind? In mind, you do get access to once a month,

20 minute private, one-on-one coaching calls. I have team members on my team that are coaches. And so those are for just like, again, the resistance spins. Any kind of just like mindset, like, oh gosh, this thing happened. And I can't seem, get on those calls with Renee and Becca who are amazing coaches on my team. They will support you through that process and kind of any of those triage moments that you can have.

And I think that's important. And some members take us up on it, some members never do them. You know, it's just really just there if you need it. And then they also get, we use Slack. So they get Slack access to a private Slack channel. Talk all of them together. All them together to talk.

We also, how many women did you say go into? It's usually between about 12 to 18. Last year we had 18. This year we have 14. That's still a lot though. It is it's manageable. I think that if you start to get over 20 that's when it becomes more of like a YPO situation and not really more of an intimate setting. Well YPO is chapter based right. And in that chapter how it works is you have forums. And people break out into their forums

and you become very close with the forums. Not so necessarily the chapter. And the forums are usually like six people, seven people. But it's very concentrated. It's like four hours or more every three weeks that say once a month or I can't remember how much. But there's there's a very very particular like guidelines and you cannot if you cannot miss it or you get kicked out you cannot

do that you can answer your phone I mean and it's very concentrated. So that's why I was curious it seems similar in the sense of like like minded people who have the same level in terms like people who are in the same ill-success-wise right not the same industry that's not the same in just all we've got people we have online coaches I have a dairy farmer in my mastermind I have a cattle rancher yeah they know each other and they're launching this podcast together but she's like the top cattle rancher and then the other one's the top dairy farmer in their space, and they wanna build more awareness for the ag agriculture space. That's great.

And then you come up with all the content for the call. The content, yeah, the container, how it's modeled, how it shifted. And I also too, we're not as structured with what you were just mentioning. If someone can't make a call, I'm not kicking them out. Like I let your adults, like, this is here for you. If you, you know, you kinda, I'm not kicking them out. Like I let your adults, like, this is here for you.

If you, you know, you kind of, you get what you put in. So, you know, we do have certain members that they're not gonna miss a call. And that's how I always was in a mastermind. Like if I'm investing in a money. Right, I'm not missing a call. I'm not, but then you have other people that are like, whatever.

Yeah, I'm good. I got what I need. I'm gonna go back and kind of do my thing. I'll see you guys soon. And it's nothing personal. Everyone just does what's best for them But on a call if you're leading the call Do you guys all have like I and like an itinerary that you guys are following? There's kind of a topic or theme for that call, but there's not there's not an itinerary and people ask questions and talk amongst each other

So which are you more of a moderator? um A little bit, but I also guide the conversations be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be, I'm for the support too. So you find a lot of obviously a very big value in doing these things. So a million percent. I mean, wow, okay, so I don't even know how long this podcast has been going.

I think I've covered like everything and then some. I was going to ask you all about like email marketing and all this other stuff, but God knows how long is it been? I was 15. Oh my God. Oh, Lord, I'm so sorry. I'm like going on and on. Yeah, I mean, I think we can, if you wanna touch upon the importance of like,

when you build like, when I was saying to, saying to you earlier, that when you build personal brands, like a lot of people are missing very like key components and when I was listening to your podcast, you had someone on that you guys are talking about email lists and the importance of building this,

if you wanna build a personal brand. We don't have to spend a ton of time on this, but let's just touch upon it because I know how value I found value in it. And if people are listening to this and they are trying to build their personal brand and trying to get what they want and they want to, you know, they want to be able to kind of self-actualize. This is a very big piece of it. So can we just touch upon that quickly? Yeah, you know, email this is a very big piece of it. So can we just touch upon that quickly? Yeah, email marketing is a huge part to brand awareness for various reasons, but I think for the main reason is because when someone

subscribes to your email, they are raising their hand to say, I want you to email me. I want the content that you're creating. I want you to come into my inbox, which is a very intimate and private space to get access to someone's inbox is insanely valuable, way more valuable than a social media engagement followers could ever be. And so that's really the importance that I think that for someone that wants to, and it's about getting clear on what you want to do, if you want to write a book, if you want to create your own products or services

or offers of any kind in the future, if you want to write a book, if you want to create your own products or services or offers of any kind in the future, if you want to speak on stages, if you want to be able to target your ideal audience in a more engaged and impactful way with the hopes of converting into something, then you absolutely need an email list. And so that's why email lists have been around for ever since email has been around. They're not going anywhere. And that's why I wanted to bring it up. The conversion is super high with an emailist versus focusing on just using social media

platforms. Correct. Because that to me is a fickle business you're relying on like Mark Zuckerberg or whoever it is to change that and then you're kind of screwed. Yes. So you have to take ownership in your stuff. And that's why when I listened to that, I was like, you know what, this is a very, I'd like to just even talk about just a little bit because it is really important.

If you're selling anything, if you want to have a voice or connect to your audience, yeah, it's super important. It's super important. And it's kind of what I was saying about earlier, even if you're someone who you don't manage, like the inner workings of setting your email, marketing campaign up, or you don't manage the day to day of the backend of it, you at least need to understand it conceptually.

You need to understand how it works, what's the strategy behind it, how it's gonna work to help you get your goals and how you can better improve on it. What information do you put in an email marketing? Like what do you put in these emails or the new, it's like a newsletter based on. It is, I mean, it really just depends on what you're focusing on

and what you're potentially selling at the time. I mean, I always say that your most valuable pieces of information need to go into an email. With my emails, for example, I do, whenever I have a podcast episode come out, I send an email about it. This helps build up the podcast numbers. It allows my email list to know

that there's a new podcast to listen to. A lot of my listeners are on my email list, so this is their weekly reminder, and I've been doing it for so long. They expect it. They know that every Wednesday, they're gonna get an email from Julie that lets them know about the new podcast episode.

Love it. And so give some ways people can start building up their email list. Yeah, so I think the easiest ways to get started and what I talked about on the conversation that you're mentioning is they're called freebies. It's a free piece of content that you create that allows someone to opt in to your email list. That is typically the lowest barrier of entry in the easiest way to start building an email list. You want to create quality freebie, quality free content that's going to make someone be

interested to opt in to receiving more. And you want to do it in a way that that content, it's not just some random piece of content that you're creating, but it actually, that content actually relates back to the services, the offers, the podcasts, whatever it is that you have that you're wanting to generate more traffic awareness conversion from. And so by the way, you are a really expert in online marketing. You're like a wealth of information. I swear.

So you have to write a newsletter that you put whatever information in there. How do you get people to open that letter, the newsletter? Because I think a lot of people don't get that open, right? Yeah, I mean, you can do your best with making sure your subject lines are attractive with building that no-like and trust over time, but it's really, they've got to be interested

in opening it. And so those were kind of, I think, the two key areas. Your subject line is juicy enough, are they just like you a lot that they're opening your emails? How did you get your podcasters to get onto the email list? I created freebies. So at the end of every podcast episode, if you wanted X, Y and Z, head over to this link and get this freebie. And then that's how you can build the list from that.

Those, what kind of freebies did you give away? Whatever the episode topic generally was, since I'm so education based, a lot of what I teach or strategies or tips, great checklists or how-tos. And so if somebody wanted to take that content with them, when they left that the show, they could download it in a freebie form. Amazing. Julie, I really enjoyed this conversation with you. Thank you for having me. It was fun. It was great.

I learned so much, and I loved your book at what you want. Thank you. Yes. You're welcome. And you can get it wherever you love to buy books, wherever books are sold. It's going to be there. We also have an Audible, which I recorded,

and I highly recommend for anyone who maybe you don't like to read books, but you like to listen to books, which I know a lot of podcasts would just do. You can definitely check it out on Audible. It's also great to kind of the way that I love to learn because there's a lot in here at the end of every chapter I have. It's like basically, you know, where you can write in it. There's a lot of like workbook and how to stuff in here.

You could listen to it and then write it at the same time. That helps me kind of learn. I love that. There are a lot of exercises. It's very actionable and you did it at the same time. That helps me kind of learn. I love that. There are a lot of exercises. It's very actionable. And you did a great job with it. Thank you. Your first book, and it's very well done.

And like I said, I like it because it gives people very much actionable ways to do what they need to do to be successful. So not just a bunch of like, blah, blah, blah. Fear, self-exactly. Fear, blah, be yourself. Yeah. Be yourself exactly. Exactly. Exactly.

You are enough. Right. So be authentic. Exactly. So is that easy? Then none of us would be here. Exactly. Well, thank you.

Where are people find you just on Instagram? Yeah, so I tend to hang out most on Instagram. It's at Jules, J-U-L-S, Solomon, S-O-L-O-M-O-N, and then Julie Solomon.net is my website where you can find all the other information, and then of course, the influencer podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much.

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