244: The Secret to Becoming a Sought-After Thought Leader

Melissa [: 00:00:00

Hey, hey, hey, I hope you guys enjoy these what I'm calling podcast shorts for my burnout to all out community. This is just a little peek behind the curtain of the coaching that goes on inside of my programs. We're bringing to you some of the best nuggets and coaching I'm giving, within hot seats of all of our different programs, whether it's our LinkedIn Method Academy, our Mini Mastermind, Business Basics, all the way up to our higher level Mastermind. If you're hearing some of these questions, and you're like, man, I wish I could get my burning question answered by Melissa. Hey, guess what? You could be featured on my podcast. If you've got a question that you want answered and you submit it to my team and we pick it, we will bring you here to the podcast for our podcast shorts and, do a hot seat with you. Where can you submit your questions? Send them to team burnout to all out.co. We'll make sure we drop that in the show notes for our podcast shorts.

Melissa [: 00:01:02

And I hope that you guys find as much value in the shorts as our clients do inside the program. Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business? You've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, and you're ready to make it happen while living all out. Guys, I'm Melissa Henault, your trustworthy corporate dropout turned 6 figure business burnout turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business, and you're listening to the Burnout to All Out podcast. On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice, and action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur. Let's dive in. Alright. Let's go to miss Cynthia.

Cynthia [: 00:02:16

Hey, Melissa. There's a lot here, and, I feel like I've got a lot of catching up to do. I was really gaining a lot of momentum up until March, dedicating probably a minimum of somewhere between 10 and 15 hours a week to this course, but continuing to work full time and a half. And then when I hit the piece where I really needed to capture and answer all the questions taken care of before I could potentially risk putting some things in writing because of contracts and other things that are changing simultaneously. So all that to say, I've accepted this as a process. I'm not gonna be where I expected to be, but I didn't know what I didn't know by the end of the month. So I'm in it for the long haul because what got me here was the question and the realization that in the next 2 years, the end of 26, a lot of things will be changing for me. A lot of contracts coming to ends, leases that would have to be renewed.

Cynthia [: 00:03:28

I'll be 62 years old and got real excited about the possibility of doing a big shift until I started watching you and your people was the first time that I thought this can really happen. Like I can really recreate myself. Just a little bit of information for 35 years, I've been in some capacity utilizing my license as a marriage and family therapist. Okay. For the past 15 years, I specifically have had an all women's intensive outpatient mental health and wellness clinic. Back in December, brought my team together and I said, we've got 2 years on this, this, and this. I need for each of you to examine what your long term vision is for yourself as female entrepreneurs. I'm not really sure what this is gonna look like for me.

Cynthia [: 00:04:18

I think that created a lot of fear, but at the same time today, I know who's in and I know who's out. And I'm really excited about those possibilities. And I'm confident. I have no idea where I'm gonna be in 2 years. But I love what I'm learning. So here's where I am. Some of the challenge for me is flipping the information and attempting to fit what seems like somewhat of a different experience for me into your model. I need some clarity and I need some direction.

Cynthia [: 00:04:48

I've spent 2 and a half months really trying to make some decisions and then figure out how to language that. But at the end of the day, here's where I am. I do have the profile for my personal brand, but I still have a lot of questions, Melissa, because I've never looked at it through that lens. So Shepherds Meadows is an intensive outpatient program. I have that brand. I had built that brand for years. I've had 5 different professionals helping me with that. So there's that piece and then there is the mental health and wellness collective, which is private practitioners that I bring in and help them build their women centered practices.

Cynthia [: 00:05:33

So the branding for me, I have done a lot of good hard work as a result of what I'm learning from you all and the research, but I'm still not clear about what my target value is. Does that make sense? I have a really strong profile and I'll do my profile audit week after next, But I'm still not telling anything.

Melissa [: 00:05:59

Yeah. So what I'm hearing is sometimes you guys can feel a little bit lost when you don't have an end product or service that you're selling. When in actuality, it is the biggest advantage, Because you don't have an ulterior motive to sell anything. This is your free pass to be a thought leader and bring value to your future ideal client. Okay. And I know Isabelle was at our live event 2 weeks ago, and she heard me tell this story. On the outside looking in, people could have seen with the first business that I launched that it was like an overnight success because I just decided to lean into a product and an ecommerce company. And seemingly overnight, it went viral, and I made all this money, and I got out of corporate.

Melissa [: 00:06:43

Well, the reality was, for a year and a half previous to it, I was already the brand. I not knowing I was gonna come across a product that I could get behind, I was really passionate about health, wellness, clean eating, and this was on Facebook when I first got started, but it doesn't matter. It's the same principle. I was bringing value in what I was passionate about and that I had knowledge of, especially having a doctorate in pharmacy, becoming the thought leader in the health and wellness space with no ulterior motive, just sharing value, value, value for a year and a half. And then one day, I came across some products in this health and wellness space after my second child and could not believe the impact that the nutrition and the supplements made on me. And as a Pharm d, understanding a lot of the science behind it, especially coming from a clinical space, Overnight, I was enthusiastic about this and was ready to just sharing with the world about it. Immediately, my business skyrocketed seemingly overnight. Why? Because I'd already built a personal brand of no love and trust in that space before I had anything to sell.

Melissa [: 00:07:57

So instead of feeling lost with what you put out right now because you have nothing to sell, I'd rather you take a step back and ask yourself, what am I the subject matter expert in? What do I help people with that changes their lives right now? How do I transform people's lives? What is it that I do? And then how can I share it relentlessly and bite sized nibbles on LinkedIn, so that people see me as the thought leader in this space? That they're going to my page to learn because I'm bringing so much value with nothing to sell right now. So that you're building social proof, you're building credibility and authority. One of our greatest stories with the PharmD that was in our program 2 or 3 years ago was she knew that she was gonna be getting out and she wanted to teach other health care practitioners how to launch virtual functional medicine practices. She had no idea what it was gonna look like. She didn't know what it was gonna cost, what she was gonna call it, or anything. But she got to work on the platform being very clear about being the subject matter expert in that space, and began to build her authority so that 3 to 4 months later, when she did know what she was gonna sell, what what it was gonna look like and what she was gonna price it, when she put it out to her LinkedIn network and did a little webinar workshop, she closed over a $100,000 in sales for people investing in it in that 1 month. And so, again, from the outside looking in, it could be like, wow, She was a one hit wonder. Like, overnight, she opened up shop and everybody bought it, but people didn't see underneath the iceberg of the credibility that she was building over time so that when she did come to market, her network saw where is the expert.

Melissa [: 00:09:50

It was a no brainer. Why wouldn't they invest? And so what I want you thinking about is a blank canvas of recreating your personal brand as you go into uncharted territory excitingly with who's gonna come with you. You don't have to know your end destination, you don't have to know what you're gonna sell, to know what you're wildly passionate about. That you are an absolute expert on, that you can begin bringing value to your network on. Does that make sense?

Cynthia [: 00:10:23

I've heard everything you said. I'm gonna have to write it down.

Melissa [: 00:10:26

So what I would think about is not knowing your industry really well, you're the one who certified and been doing this for a number of years, is I would start thinking about from a content perspective. Think about certain buckets of topics that you are constantly working with clients on. Maybe there's or patients. Maybe there's a certain formula that you and your team work through when it comes to how you're working with your patients or your clients. Like, for me, when I launched the modern entrepreneur, it one day it didn't exist and the next day I created it, and it was something that had never been done before. And it was me launching a program about how bodies build businesses. So it's a business mentorship where we don't focus on business, And it's everything outside of business that most entrepreneurs aren't focused on that's actually holding them back. There was a day where the program didn't exist, and then there was a day when it did.

Melissa [: 00:11:19

What was the difference? I actually sat with a huge white Post it. You know, those big Post it that you can put on the board. And then I got individual tiny Post its. And I started brain dumping what is the inner work, the energetic work, the psychological work, the body work. What are all these things that I've been doing over the past 2 years that have really helped me become more resilient and more successful as an entrepreneur outside of business strategy? And I started just dumping it all out on Post its, and then putting it on a big old board, and then stepping back and realizing that those post its could fall into categories. When I step back, I started to realize, gosh, it's really mind, body, and spirituality. I it was nervous system regulation. It was spirituality around purpose and impact.

Melissa [: 00:12:05

So there's these areas that when it comes to, like, nervous system regulation, there's different modalities that you can work through to regulate, whether it's breath, it's tapping, it's energy, sound. When I step back from the inner work of blocking, what was the inner child work and the shadow work that needed to be done. And so give yourself permission to step back and just brain dump all the modalities and the work that you do and have done for the past couple of decades. And try to see if you can't get the buckets up on the wall and categorize them. That's like the first big exploratory creative step. And from there, you might start to see some themes because that's what I did for modern entrepreneur. I step when I finally stepped back and found, like, general buckets of categories, Then from a marketing perspective, I realized, okay, here's my marketing campaign. I still don't know what this program's gonna look like.

Melissa [: 00:12:58

I don't know what it's gonna be priced. I don't know how long it's gonna be, But I do know that there's these three areas that are really important to be successful. Mind, body, and spirituality. Those are gonna be my 3 buckets of content where I'm gonna start teaching in these areas on social media. I'm gonna start talking about the inner work. I'm just gonna start talking about the shadow work. When it got to spirituality, I started talking about purpose and impact, whether you believe in God or spirit, you name it. But I got into the weeds of the different buckets of what I knew was necessary to get the transformation.

Melissa [: 00:13:32

And then over time, I figured out what the program was gonna be. And by the time I went to market to sell it, I built some credibility behind it before I launched it and sold it. Because people were seeing me as that thought leader and expert because I was sharing in those categories. Hopefully, Cynthia, this is helping you brainstorm a little bit. I think this is permission to think outside the box, permission to have a blank canvas, to really step back from, like, every thing that you have done over the years and look at it globally as to, like, what are some key themes and how can I break this down into categories of content and expertise that I can bring out on the platform? And don't be attached to selling anything. Just freedom of blank canvas of your knowledge and expertise right now. That makes sense?

Cynthia [: 00:14:22

I will go ahead. Okay.

Melissa [: 00:14:26

Thanks guys so much for listening in on today's podcast episode and I can't wait for you to see my upcoming guest in the next episode. You are going to love this keynote speaker. Hey, here's the deal. If you like this, please subscribe and leave a review. And you want the latest online business growth strategies and exclusive LinkedIn pro tips sent straight to your phone? Text the word update to 704 318-2285. That is text the word update to 704-318 2285. Can't wait to see you guys. Come find me over on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever you like to hang.

Melissa [: 00:15:13

Cannot wait to hear how you are enjoying and applying what you're learning. You guys reach out to me over on social because I love hearing what's resonating with you. When you reach out to me and you send me those personal DMs, they really do impact the content I continue to bring forward to you. So again, come find me, melissa_henault over on Instagram, melissahenault over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.