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What is Your Message?

We're gonna have a special guest to really talk about the role of branding and storytelling. So I think that we have Judy Carter on the line. Hi. Hi. Judy Eyes is such a good book. It is. Oh, my God. Oh, my. What is that book that you're reading? Judy Highbury book. Is that your reading? Shameless self promotion. So? So, Judy, tell us about what you do and help you help companies. Well, you know, people complain that Oh, I have no personal lives. My business goes into my personal life. I'm doing work at home. Well, get. Really? That's the way it is now. And so I suggest using stories from your personal life to enhance your business because everybody's throwing around, um, this term authenticity, right? And how do we be authentic? We'll tell some really stories from your life. And every single person in business needs to stories on Lee too to Yeah, you can. You can ride on if you have two great stories you can write on those two greats got stories and they're different. One is the story...

about your journey from mess. So success, and then the other story that you need, and usually they overlap. I could talk more about it is. And this needs to be all over your website everywhere is your client or your customers story of their journey from mess? And then how you came in is the hero and took them to success, right? And so why is it important to have both of those stories that I think that's a really important point? Well, you know, your business is not about you. If it just about you, enjoy you and yourself and not connecting to anybody because you're narcissistic, that's going around, especially here in Los Angeles, on that's why you know, I used to be a stand up comic, and I've trained stand up comics. And, you know, um, what I've learned is that yes, you talk about your own life, but on Lee as it relates to the audience. So the audience is very important. And I've learned everything I've learned really from my 18 years or headlining stand up comedy clubs and Vegas in Atlantic City Is that to get the audience to react, make it about them. Right? So when you really understand your messes, like, for instance, um, I started getting more personal with my blog's about my life. And I started remembering a mess that I had a speech impediment. Now here I had a speech impediment, and now I'm a paid professional speaker. Well, so when I started sharing that all sudden my phone started ringing, people wanted me to help them. Why? Because they felt if I was somebody who was truly experienced a mess like that and I brought myself from, you know, listing, which is really mean, why they call it list. Do they really need that? SPS? Do you know what I'm saying? Stuttering? You really see the tease because you know you have. You can't even say what it is you have. They should say you have a speech book. So? So all of a sudden, my income increased 40%. Why? Because I created this authentic commitment to my customers that if I could take myself if I could share some part of my life where things were a mess, then they felt that I would understand them. And and here's the key to a having a message, which is your brand, it has to be very clear. And if you Look at this message of you By Judy Carter. No, look at the word message. Right. You can't spell message without the 1st 4 letters. What are they mess? You can't have a message about a mess. So if you're going around advertising your business of look at me and hear my great prices and look at me, Emma, CFO or CEO and I've been a c p A. Well, nobody gives an S h I t. About that cause you're not making yourself original by having the same acronyms after your name. You're selling the probably the same products and services. What makes you different is exactly this word. What is your mess? Right? Exactly. And you know, what I do is when I get introduced in front of audience, they sell these really nice things. Like Chris was saying. And then I start saying that three business is the 1st 1 went out of business, second was kicked out of business. And so again, I become I become authentic. I become vulnerable. They like that. So, Judy, do you think you could work with one of the members here and help them figure out what their messes and what their their story might be. Sure. So? So, Karen, let's start with you. Okay, So what could your story be like? Tell Tell Judy a little about you. Maybe shouldn't be craft the story. Well, I think the story that I share a Sfar as how all of this Yogi Stream got started was I had a health scare 2.5 years ago, and basically the doctors told me that I was what they called skinny fat. And if I didn't change my life, I would follow suit with my parents, who both died of heart problems. And so I started a fitness and health journey for myself. And now, 2.5 years later, I'm a yoga instructor and I teach other fitness things, and I work individually with people as, ah, license, mental health therapist. And my goal now is to help people understand that you can be in a really bad space physically and healthwise and come out of it. Well, your story is very compelling, and it really starts. Not with your own health care, but it's what I call eureka moment usually are messes air in our childhood in our childhood something happens and that makes us truly commit to having a certain life. And when. How old were you when your parents died? When when your last parent died. My father died three years ago. My mother died when I was 25. 25. That's a very vulnerable age. That must have devastated you. It was intense. That moment at her funeral. I would start your story that moment. Um um And be there. And I coach people how to tell a story. You don't tell a story. You are your story. And when you are watching your mom at an early age, um, how old was she? 61? 61. Okay, My mom was 60 to 60 as well. And, um, and I when my mom died, I made a promise to myself that I was going to help. My mother died not knowing who she was, not knowing her contribution. And that's why I coach people. And I'm committed to people know their message while they were alive. And that is probably at that moment. What I call your eureka moment is when you made a commitment to yourself when you made a commitment to maybe other women, other people, that you were not going to let this happen. That because here's the thing. All of our messes air a time when we're powerless, you must. A 25 must have felt so powerless, right? Absolutely. And when we feel powerless, it's It's a very disturbing chilling for any, any person in business or just in life. Would you say that's when you made your commitment? I think so. Looking even a little bit away from the funeral when the phone call came that she'd had the heart attack. That's the crystallized moment, Aziz. You said that when that phone call was made and I was the first person that got the information out of my entire family. That's the moment that just clicked for me. You're awesome. You know why? I mean, I talked to a lot of people and they go, Well, I don't remember. My mom died, but, you know, I went on life. Everything was okay. That's what How usually people handle it. But you're really awesome because you know that exact moment. And And if you speak because I always think if you are in business you have to speak because that is a way to really promote your services and your products and and to and that more than telling people your brand telling people your message. That story makes us truly understand your level of commitment to your clients. And and this is going around a lot. The why why we We do the job we dio and every single person listening as something similar. Perhaps not a death, perhaps. Sometimes it's It's It's a small thing. Sometimes it's a big thing, but we all have a point in our life where we felt powerless and, you know, if you looked at every single business, such Steve Jobs was adopted. Group grew up, disconnected a disconnected man. And what does he do? He creates products. Get that connect us all. So you're that story. There's a There's a strong message in that about living healthy. And then, of course, the next story when you found yourself going down your mother's path and go, this is unacceptable. And then you turn to the audience and say, and this is unacceptable for you. You don't have to go to that patch. There is something you can do and let me help And now we understand your passion. It's not phony, you know, Right? Yes. I'm really ready to start the new yoga now. I'm really excited. I know. I'm sell you and something you want to add question from chat from Scott Hamilton. This is an interesting one for you, Judy. He says, What do you do when you haven't experienced to miss? I can't think of anything significant in my life that I would consider a miss. And so I guess what do your strategies? That there hasn't been something massive and momentous, but there's much that he has to still have a miss. It just doesn't know it's a miss. Uh, well, if if if if you look at yesterday, just looking yesterday. Okay. What did you try? Use messes all along every step of the way. Um, because, um, we're all trying to make money, be healthier, have decent relationships. And every day there's something stopping us. So if you're not used to getting in touch with the more personal side of yourself, such as, you know, um, major event, Start with what were the messes of yesterday? I'm happen in a mess right now with, you know, with the contract and something's happening every day. There's a mess now. Sometimes your mess, um, can be something small. And from that, like one of my big stories in my talk is when I'm going to the airport for a big audition and my planes cancelled. That's a mess. And I go stand in line with a lot of angry people. And it was at that moment that I decided I didn't want to be another angry person in line, shouting at the gate attendant and I decided to do something different and make a humor choice Back became my message for 10 years of speaking on stress reduction. So I would say, Um, we don't always look for those messes. On the other hand, we need we. If you can't rescue people from their messes than you are not in business, there's no you have to have a story. Uh, what I call in my book the message of you a credential story which says that, um, like when I was teaching stand up comedy, I go, Well, I had this kid come to me. He had, um, and act about how Cooley was with girls and how hip Iwas and I went Look, you're a nerdy little bar mitzvah boy. You know, you're kind of chubby. Why don't you just be who you are? Be authentic. Talk about that. Okay. His name is Seth Rogan. So it worked really well. Um, and so he used bad advice of, uh, being exactly who he was. And he used that and became a very different sort of movie star. Or when I talked to some, uh who Sherri Shepherd, who was dropping the F bomb all over the place is a comic. And I said, Wait a second. Let's focus on your opinions. You have opinions, express them. And now she is on the view. So these kind of stories or my my, my Ah, see p a. Who was doing these? Oh, my God. She was doing these power points and speeches. And you just wanted poke your eyes out with a pencil. Always. She was so boring. She wanted to get new clients, so she talked about retirement was all numbers and graphs and show me my next graph. And it was like, Oh, so we work out. What? Her personal mess Waas Her personal mess was her mother when her father died. Her mother didn't know how to handle any kind of financial matters, and she lived in chaos. And her mother was like a hoarder. And she just went, I will not live in chaos. I am. You know, she made that decision. I I will, you know, learn how to handle finances. And now when she speaks, I asked her, Hey, Becky, how's your speech was going? You know I'm not doing that anymore. What? Well, I'm more clients, and I I could get I now every time I speak, I have 40% of the audience wants signs up to use my services because they're connecting really with her emotionally. And as we talked about before, that's the way decisions are made. So, Judy, I want to switch gears. So let's say you can tell your own personal story. But how do you connect with the customers mess that and that transformation that you did. How do you get those stories? Because a lot of people, either they won't ask or the client doesn't want to give it. So how do you do that? Well, you have, Teoh. First of all, you have to know who your customer is and what problems they have, because if you and where your product or service is fit in. So for the last example I gave with my friend Becky, the C p. A. Because her passion was with retired women, Um, like her mother, we focused on just that. So we redid her branding and you call up and ask people, What are your problems? Every speaker I coach, I The first thing they do is Who do you think you want to speak? Teoh. You don't know. Make something up. Okay, Now call three people. If you're speaking toe entre preneurs, ask them what a bad day is and then see, how are you going to help them? Because if your product or service is in your business, it's not helping one of these three helping someone improve their finances, their wealth then, or their health or the relationships. What are you doing? Do you know that's the only thing people want? People want to buy something that helps them in one of those big areas. So So you mention those three things again. It's health wealth with the three health wealth and relationship people will spend money if you're gonna help them in any of those areas. And, um, so you have to ask, go out and asked people, and you might be surprised what you find. So you So, for instance, I was coaching a pharmaceutical guy, and he worked for a midsize pharmaceutical company. And he spoke to other farmer companies trying to enroll them to partnership with with their company and again statistics boring a lot of stuff about his company. Well, what drugs do you dio? So we found out what drugs he did. I was in college, or this is now This is now. Okay, Jake. What call? It didn't inhale, right? I know I don't take drugs. I used to I take acid, but now I'm taking antacids. Certainly changed way. Uh uh. Um never interrupted baby Boomer, because now we can't get our place bad. Oh, so anyway, so I said to him, What What are you What does your drug do? And he says, Well, are drug um really cures massive infections. And I said, you need a story. You don't have to use the person's named, but he got this beautiful story from this woman whose life that they saved and she had four Children. And then it ended up that my mother, he might who died for a massive infection, having had that drug, my mother, I mean, I was so enrolled. And so I'm coaching him and I'm crying and I'm so connected. And you know, of course, also, you know, he we also made a lot of jokes about himself as well. So you know, that's the whole trick in speaking or humor is to make fun of yourself, right, But have appreciation for the story of your client. What are their stories? Collect them, gather them, and then be able to put them on your website. Make your bio take. That's rather than your bio on your website being Ah, this happened. This happened, this happened. This happens like bullets. Who cares? Have a story, Find your story and put that on your website as your bio. Thank you so much for being a Where can people get in touch with you and get one of those coffee mugs? This is a fan or David to be, but it's judy carter dot com. And at judy carter dot com, you're welcome to fill out this question. Air that really ask you some interesting questions that will help you reveal your messed a success story? Judy, thank you so much. Have a good day. YouTube. Bye Bye bye. I thought that was really very, very enlightening. I know that Judy's ah, stand up comic there used to be. But I think that everybody's got understand their story because, as we talked about before in branding people really do connect with emotions. But you'll notice that when I got to talk in the very beginning, I told my story about I wanted a business kicked out of business. Even in my intro. Chris, you talked about. He's had success and failure, and I can't tell you how many times have introduced where I give him that exact intro and they cut out and failure because they don't know this person who's talking for us. Couldn't have Philly. We've all has failure, so it's very, very important. Critical importance. So let's talk about now. They've heard Judy. Let's revisit once again our brand and again we're in the workbook here, So let's revisit our brand. We all talked about what our brand really was but giving what Judy just said about your the mess. When was the pivotal moment? And I really appreciate your story, Karen and I like this whole idea of skinny fat. And that whole thing who wants to say when they're really moment of truth really was because for me, I had to Moments of truth. One was when I left IBM, and I want to go work for one of my clients. And then a year later, he fired me. That was the first moment of truth. Second moment. Truth was in 1995. When I woke up, I blurred vision. I found that I had diabetes. And that was another moment. Truth. And I was also very skinny. So I think we all have those in our lives Can one of you don't want to put you on spot? Who has a moment? Truth? Yeah, Tiana, um I went through a pretty traumatic separation and divorce with my husband at the time, and only husband. I've had to be clear about that. Um, but I needed some sort of self soothing mechanism, and I'd always loved music, but I never got the chance. Actually. Learn how to play, and and so I reached out to my local music store, which happens to be the store that I now manage and and learn to play an instrument and learned music as a form of therapy for myself and used it to get through a really, really difficult time in my life. And now, as I'm going through health issues with my own mother, who has Alzheimer's at a very early age, it's also completely traumatic for myself and my family. So it's been something that music has helped me so so hugely to cope with those things. Now I'm able to help other people and to reach out and say, Hey, you know, music's not just pick up a guitar and be Taylor Swift. It's usedto suit yourself toe, have that therapy that you need and to be calm because there is so much medical benefit to making music and leaving, just listening to music. If you can't make music yourself so as we go through this, think about maybe your one word or your brand might change because the deeper that you can connect with people in emotional basis, the more they buy from you. What do you think? Arena? That's my story. And what was your like, Moment of truth, he said. You know, I really gotta go out and I gotta help people in the media. Well, I always wanted Teoh be in media. I never thought that I could. I was always really no kind of shy as a kid on the eldest of four. And so, you know, as I started having siblings, the attention started to going other places. So I just I wanted to be out there, and I always loved story. And so I I wanted to know how people got started with their their businesses and what their stories were. And so I that's what my business is about hearing other people's stories I love, you know, being a being a viewer and being audience member. And so that's part of what I do in the media as the go to person Teoh, where people can hear about other people's stories. So one part of your brand could be I want to get your story out there or your story deserves to be heard. There's something like that. So did you want to anything Karen's? We talked about with Judy. Any initial reaction that I just think that that linking it back that far because I linked at much shorter I linked it to three years ago. She linked it back a whole lot longer ago than that. And so, of course, that my brain sitting here going 100 miles an hour with all of that going, there's a whole lot mawr that can be added to my story that provides a lot of depth and can really, truly connect with people more. Because the people that I talked to who are having health issues that want to improve where they're at their stories, air long their stories have been things that they've been dealing with for years, and now this will help them to not feel quite so alone and isolated. Right, Right, Well, what about your story? What was really your moment that you could get to your brand? So I looked at really large corporation for five years, but I wasn't ever really satisfied. I didn't feel like I was making a difference. And my my father on the restaurant business in Japan and when we were growing up, he was really well to do? Um, then the economy head. And he made really bad investment choices. Think so. He didn't understand. In bank of is just giving him, um and he dosed overnight a $2 million just out the door. He also co sign the loan for his brother. Just a lot off bad financial decisions. So, um, when I got my c p a, I said, Well, I can I never want that to happen to anybody else. If somebody really cared about my parents, that would have never happened. They would bean well by now. So, um, that's why I wake up. And I enjoy my job every day because I get help people and make sure they don't have that kind of experience of my parents went through and again, all these stores are really important because people are much more likely. We're all listening that story we're saying, God, that's happened to someone that we know. And again, if we can connect with that, then our brand really real go. Uh, we really go that much further. The next step really is how do you take whatever's in your mind as you express your brand to make sure that the rest of people in your company are expressing it the same way. If you have other people in your company right and they don't say exactly what you're going to say, then you should all be saying different stories. You'll have to say the same brand story with the same kind of emotion. So this really wraps up the first part on sales and marketing. How to improve your sales ever selling again.