The Power of Strategic Networking with Keri Laine

Ross: 00:06

Hello, and welcome to the Modern Profits for Entrepreneurs Podcast. I am Ross B. Williams, your host today. And we are super excited to have our special guest Keri Laine with us, Keri say hello.

Keri: 00:19

Hi.

Ross: 00:20

Keri is amazing. She actually has come from the corporate world, which is a little different than what we're used to. In this podcast series. Keri has been many, many years in the corporate world, helping it taking major companies into public transactions and acquisitions and mergers, and is now gone independent to build her own firm and become a strategist to help many more of these companies do this on their own. So Keri, how are you doing today?

Keri: 00:51

I am so awesome. Especially to be here with you. This is super fun.

Ross: 00:54

Fantastic. So I wanted to ask you, as I know, a lot of people have been afraid to take that leap from their comfortable corporate jobs into their own entrepreneurial space. What was that like for you? And what, what made you want to take that leap?

Keri: 01:09

Well, it was terrifying. I will say it was super-excited. It's something that I had planned for many, many decades, I knew that I wanted to do this before I even went to college. And I think when I actually took the leap, what I didn't expect and I wasn't prepared for was letting go. A lot of my identity and validation, and fulfillment actually came from working within a team and doing what I did in an organization where I knew what my impact would be. And when I went on my own, I realized I was now doing it on my own. And I missed the team aspect, I missed, I missed the pressure, and I missed the really stressful days that actually when I was in corporate, I didn't really you know that those were the harder times, right? But when I went on my own, I had this

01:53

exhale this release, but also this void in a way. So it was, it was, it was a little bit of a tougher transition than I thought in the first few weeks.

Ross: 02:02

Yes, it can definitely be a tough transition. And a lot of people go through that. And a lot of people have that same fear, which is why they don't take that leap.

Keri: 02:09

Yeah.

Ross: 02:10

And I love how you said you had that void. It's almost like you have to learn how to organize your freedom.

Keri: 02:15

I had panic attacks when my calendar had nothing on it. The first Sunday night, I sat down to organize my week exactly that. And there was, there were no meetings. And I felt this like welling in my chest and my throat and I stopped and I tried to understand what was happening. And I was like, it's because I actually am free. And I have figured out what to do with it now. And it's now me versus me. It's like me creating my own agenda. And that was very, very new.

Ross: 02:38

Awesome. And what do you, how did you go about creating that agenda for yourself?

Keri: 02:42

Honestly, it took, it took a little bit, I didn't know what to do. There were many days where I called other business owners that have gone through this. And I had sat staring at my wall till lunch. And I wouldn't move because I didn't know what to do. But for me, what I learned is I needed to be around people and I needed routine. And so I had to get out of the house, I had to find an office space that was collective. And I needed to just make sure that my day had some kind of consistency to it. And that is what ended up structuring the momentum for me to be able to fill that time differently.

Ross: 03:12

Awesome. So basically, you're just, you're just putting some structure in there. And then that got rid of the anxiety and the pressure and then your calendar filled up.

Keri: 03:19

Yes.

Ross: 03:20

Amazing. So tell us a little bit I want to backstep into, in the corporate world, what were you doing with these big companies and whatnot.

Keri: 03:29

So I started, and HR and essentially grew through leadership roles. And the companies that I supported and served were ones that were industry disruptive, they were growing at rapid paces. And they were trying to go public. So my role as the HR person was to take their people in talent structure and create it to be optimized in a way that investors would want to buy into the organization. And it's a totally different mindset than running a normal HR function or department. And so as I grew in my roles, I got into the C suite. And then I got to take on multiple perspectives. So whether it was more financial and more operational software, I started to lead integrations that were international, and my experience really came from bringing three companies public, over 25 mergers and acquisitions internationally. And so that was my corporate world impact. And yeah, that's, that's what I did.

Ross: 04:24

Awesome. So you started off basically helping keep the talent which is their employees, and their talent focused, and onboard so that investors would want to buy these companies.

Keri: 04:34

Yep.

Ross: 04:35

And then you moved up into the C suite where you were helping the CEOs and the CMOS and the CFOs. And all those big and O's come -

Keri: 04:44

The leaders -

Ross: 04:45

the leaders step into their roles and become more effective.

Keri: 04:49

Yes. And then the next stage that I didn't even anticipate at that time was the board or investors so I started interfacing between those people that were putting money into the company, or those people that were the GM

05:00

governance factors, leading the executive teams and the senior leadership team. And that's where my role was to serve the company and the C suite or the senior leaders. But my customers and the people that I was really focused on was helping those investors and those board members realize their returns greater money, more money, better return on, on what they were putting your money into, so

Ross: 05:20

In what I know, a lot of problems that entrepreneurs face is

05:25

they're super creative, and they have all these ideas. And a lot of times they run great businesses, but they, they're not CEOs. Even though they are running their company, they don't know how to be a CEO, what would you say is like one thing that they should do, so that they can act more as a CEO and run their business smoother?

Keri: 05:44

So from the time that I was inside the organizations, a lot of my time was spent executive coaching. So that means one on one, helping them think like a CEO and shifting their paradigm from being a founder or an inventor or somebody that was growing a business and turning it into that business mindset. And that's a very emotional and skill like skillful shift. And so I would say just get coaching, get coaching and get that education for yourself on how to think in a different mindset, as opposed to just being a founder or somebody that's starting something. It's a business mindset, that's totally different.

Ross: 06:18

It's a business mindset is there's not like was like a certain set is like steps that they take each day? Or how would they look at that differently, when they're looking at their business,

Keri: 06:27

I think it's more of an emotional, internal intrinsic shift. So if you have created something, it's your baby, and you're very attached to it, so the decisions you make are from the foundation of you love it so much. But when you think of it like a business, you have to put a framework that's more objective. And that's more based on outcomes and more of a strategic mindset that may not agree with your internal love for the company, you might have to make harder decisions. And you might have to make, like people, a lot of entrepreneurs, for example, will hire their friends or their family. And at a certain point, that can be one of the most toxic situations that you get into, but then they don't know how to fire them or manage them. And so they get into the cycle where they're stuck, and they're not thinking a business leader would think are you performing? Are you doing your job? If you're not, then I have to hold you accountable. And that's where, that's where the business minds set is a little bit different than what would otherwise be like a founder or an owner-type mindset.

Ross: 07:13

Right? So they have to basically shift from, from the emotional love, and to the functional finance.

Keri: 07:19

Yeah, and bit of a detachment in a way, which is hard.

Ross: 07:22

From emotion to sometimes logic.

Keri: 07:24

Yeah.

Ross: 07:25

Right, yeah, that is a hard shift for a lot of people. And, and, and they do say like, sometimes some people have on the bell curve, they're more emotion, they make their decisions based on emotions. Some make it based on logic, most of us float somewhere in that middle range where it's a little bit of both. So as a CEO, they're probably leaning more towards logic, stats, data,

Keri: 07:43

Yes.

Ross: 07:44

Function where the founders are more towards love emotion.

Keri: 07:48

What I've seen a lot is when we bring in leadership team, so founder may become either a board member, or they might bring in a CEO to give that offset. And what they'll say is, but they're so cutthroat, they're just there's looking at numbers, they're just looking at the business. And you know, they're not really seeing it from the same perspective. And even though that's what the owner wants, what they're seeing is that shift of somebody coming in, that's not attached and has that objective mindset and can look at it from a completely different perspective. But that's what makes the business run in a way that creates more revenue and profit for not only the founders, but the company overall.

Ross: 08:24

That's amazing. Yeah, I mean, I've actually never heard it, worded that way, where it's like, “Hey, the entrepreneur is treating it like a, like, it's their baby, like it's their child, where the CEO is treating it like it's a business.”

Keri: 08:34

Yeah.

Ross: 08:35

And it's so true.

Keri: 08:36

Those that have kids, the analogy I use is, you know, we raise our kids to let them go. When we start companies, a lot of times we hold on to them, but it's really no different, you have to raise it to let it go to be able to scale, you only know what you know, to a certain degree. And you know, that old saying what gets you there won't or what got you here won't take you there. A lot of times, they haven't seen what the next level looks like. And so if you want to scale to a certain plateau financially, or from an employee count size, a lot of them never experienced that. So they don't have the fabric or the experience to make that kind of an impact. And that's where they really need that mind shift.

Ross: 09:08

Yeah, absolutely. It's, and we say that all the time, like, it's one set of skills and structure to get to seven figures. It's a totally different set, they go from seven to eight figures, and even another set of skills, or go from eight figures and nine figures, and so on.

Keri: 09:21

Here's the, here's another example. So we have what we call ‘founderitis’. So if I started the business, and I get to a certain level, the next step is right, to get more capital to get more people to put money into your company so you can continue to grow. There's points where we will keep the founders out of those investor meetings because they get so impassioned about it, that the investors know that they're extremely biased about the product. And what happens then is the investors get turned off. And so there's, there's a tipping point where if they can't get that under control, they actually end up losing more control than they want faster than they would want anyway. So really interesting psychologically.

Ross: 09:59

Yes, I

10:00

you've basically helped with: 2728

10:15

doing this as a service for other companies.

Keri: 10:17

Yes, my role in goal in this new world is to help impact as many organizations as I can, if I'm a part of the team, I can only do that with one company, because I'm embedded.

10:30

What I want to do is legacy work, I want to be able to impact more companies at a greater scale. And so that was my vision and dream to go out on my own so that I could do that for multiple companies at a time. And then also the executive coaching piece, and really making sure that the mindset is right to be able to accomplish what those goals are.

Ross: 10:47

Right? So helping those executives basically think,

Keri: 10:50

Yes.

Ross: 10:51

think proper, and make that mind shift. And then I love that you said, the legacy shift as well. I know a lot of the people that I work with entrepreneurs and coaches, consultants, they, they a lot of them want to leave that legacy behind. Which kind of comes back to like, one of the things I always talk about is the personal brand, versus the business brand, right? So when we look at that personal brand, some people are like, Why do I need my personal brand? Well, in today's day and age, as you know, your face is everywhere, it's on you know, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, you have all these social media. So a lot of times, that's the easiest way to attract those new clients is through your personal brand. But if you ever tried to sell that personal brand, someday, you're, you're gonna get 10 cents on the dollar for it, because it's attached to your name, which is why you need the corporate or that business brand, side by side. So and a lot of people then reverse that and say, “Well, why do I need the personal brand, then if I want the business to sell?” and I always tell them, I'm like, “Well, when you're building them both side by side, if you ever sell the business, you now have a strong personal brand followings or lists that you can inject a new business or new idea into, and you don't have to start from ground zero again.” So that's kind of one of the things that I love is when we're building these brands, that we're building them side by side. And I love that, that you kind of said that with the CEOs having that shift. And a lot of the people I work with, as they're building these personal brands, they have to make that shift in that CEO role. Because they actually their end goal is to sell their business.

Keri: 12:23

Yeah, a lot. Well, see. And that's the other thing that's interesting is sometimes it's not, but those are the people that are in it for multi-generation like I want to pass my company down to my grandkids. A lot of the real fiery entrepreneurs are the ones that do want to sell, and they have a lot of ideas. So they want to constantly re-innovate, and they don't want to invent more. And so you do want to build it with the idea that “Here's where I'm gonna scale. Here's where I'm gonna flip it, and then here's, I'm gonna move on to the next one.” And they gotta be ready for that. So

Ross: 12:48

Yeah, we call that the SOS shiny object syndrome.

Keri: 12:51

Yeah.

Ross: 12:52

all of us entrepreneurs have it.

Keri: 12:53

Yeah. Like, “What's over there? That's pretty Oh, so is that.” Yes.

Ross: 12:58

It's crazy. I mean, because we just were naturally like ideas. And, and there's innovators in the creators. And we have so many ideas that sometimes that's the hardest thing to, for us to do is to have that focus, like, “What is it that I do?” and they're like, “I do this, and I do this, and do this.” And, and so it's really hard to get that focus and select that one thing and build it and then build the next and then build the next we try to do it all at one time. And we just say, you know, you don't have to pick, you don't have to get rid of all your ideas. You just have to pick one,

Keri: 13:27

Pick one…

Ross: 13:28

and run with it.

Keri: 13:29

Now

Ross: 13:30

How do you fight or combat that SOS shiny objects syndrome?

Keri: 13:33

Right now, there's just shiny things everywhere. It's like there's just glitter and bling and sparkles. Like it's just the world is shining. Everything's shining. I'm, I'm still right there. Like I have a lot that I know I want to do and can do. And as the ideas keep coming to me, I find that I get caught in this paradox of indecision. And I know what I'm really passionate about. And I know what I'm most fulfilled by. And I think that is where I'm leaning most to start, which is the executive coaching. And it is really helping that single leadership mindset, or the team mindset. And then from there, the business can grow. And I have all these ideas for products and software and books and all that stuff. But that was where I started to get distracted as I wanted to do so much. And I was excited about all the ideas. They'll come, eventually, right but right now,

14:19

blinders kind of put the blinders on, just focus on what I love, because that's why I went into this. And that's the other thing that I find interesting about the entrepreneurial space is we all go into business because we love doing something. And then we start creating a business and the idea of shift and are things we need to know shift and things we learned shift but we all went into it because there's one thing we're really passionate about and that is where I found in my process getting back to the root Why did I want to go on my own because I love helping leaders think differently and become their most authentic self so that they can be the best leader possible. And in that way they can do anything whether it's flip companies grow companies bank

15:00

companies build five companies, whatever that may be. I love that I love the lightbulb moments when I'm coaching somebody. And many times they're people that are far smarter than me or have done way or seeing way more than me. But there's that pushing of thought, where I'll see them kind of sit back and say, like, “Well, I didn't think about it that way.” And that is what gets me really excited is being able to see the expansion of their thought process.

Ross: 15:20

Right, yeah, there’s light bulb moments when they know like, you just changed the whole business. Right?

Keri: 15:26

That’s the impact part.

Ross: 15:27

Yes.

Keri: 15:28

Right. And I think that's where if you're, if you're entrepreneurial, that's where you want to head, everybody creates or thinks of an idea that they want to turn to a business because there's an impact. That's where that authentic passion comes.

Ross: 15:38

And I love what you said about helping them so they can help people because, you know, I've said this before, too, if, if you could help 100 leaders, you can impact a million people.

Keri: 15:50

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Ross: 15:51

Or more.

Keri: 15:51

Yeah.

Ross: 15:52

Right.? So I think that's a super cool philosophy that like, if you impact the leaders change the world, right? So I think that's really cool.

Keri: 15:53

I think the, the, you know, when people say, “What, what did you want to do when you grew up? Or what was your end goal?” Remember, there's a point where I had a conversation with my dad, who was one of my coaches. And I imagine that if I was this flame, and I was this light, and I had certain expertise and skills that I was gifted with, and I could take my light and bring it to your torch, right? And I can help light you more. What I want to do at the end of my career, and the end of my life, when I'm laying there looking back saying, “Did I do enough? Was I happy? Was I fulfilled? How did I spend my time? And can I go in peace?” I want to look back and see an inferno. I want to look back and see a sea of flames of people and organizations and companies and employees that just lit up because of, however, I could take my flame to theirs. That's, that's really the big goal.

Ross: 16:50

So everyone's hold on their torches high.

Keri: 16:51

Yes. Yeah.

Ross: 16:52

Or is that where your mom calls putting a fire in your bridges.

16:56

So I love that. So what? What, um, so why we're taking it back. And you were talking about your dad being your coach, and I'm sure you've got other mentors along the way. And I've had many myself, what was the probably the moment in your life that you felt most the biggest shift for you?

Keri: 17:13

Okay, so we're going there. We're going there. Interesting, because like I said, I tried to encourage people to be their authentic selves, right? And when I thought about my own journey, what I realized is there was a part of my story that I was hiding that I was afraid to think about, and I was embarrassed of. And what if I'm going to be my most authentic self the same way I tell other people to be, I have to own that. And I have to accept it. And I have to embrace it. And that was that I dropped out of high school. And it might be wondering, well, “How does this correlate?” Well, that was my first decision to recognize and listen to my own inner voice that I wasn't productive. I wasn't happy. I wasn't executing. I wasn't, I wasn't, you know, I just wasn't accomplishing much. And I was not I didn't have great grades. I wasn't very social. And if you look at me now I'm extremely social. I went through after I did go to college, I ended up getting my masters a straight A student, I now teach at a graduate school at Rollins now. So like, my life took an entire shift. But that moment, when I told my mom, I was going to drop out, and she could have said a million things she could have said “Absolutely not, you have to stay in,” or “Why don't you? Why don't you get better grades? Or why don't you like going to football?” she could’ve said anything. What she said was “Okay, I support you, but know your plan.” And I had to go think about what it really would mean to transition out of high school because I still wanted to get my diploma, I didn't want to just drop out. But I wanted to work full-time. And I mean, I was only 16. And I had to figure out how to do that. And so navigating the impressions of other people swimming upstream, doing something different, being on my own and having it be very unconventional. I think those were the first marks of what would lead to this entrepreneurial type, love and career.

18:54

And that's if you think about it, what a lot of us do when we start businesses, we're stepping out into something that is very foreign and scary and lonely. But we're doing it because we're following something that's a calling within us. And even if it's not acceptable from society, or even if it's not something a million other people have done, it doesn't matter. If you know that it's the right decision, and you have the right support, then you can really do anything. You just have to figure out how. And I think that's where that spirit originated from me. And I think it was a big shift.

Ross: 19:21

Awesome. So you know, I love that you said your, your mom told you “Have a plan.”

19:27

And what's interesting now is what are you doing? You're helping CEOs and CFOs and CEOs make a plan, right? You're helping these corporations make plans to sell you're having them make plans to have these mergers and acquisitions. So,

19:43

you know, to connect those dots back to being 16 years old, and you had to make a plan that if I'm going to drop out of high school, what am I going to do instead? And now you're basically the plan master.

Keri: 19:55

full circle, right? That's crazy if you put it that way. Yeah.

Ross: 20:00

But that's super cool. So you still got your diploma and then you went to college got your masters. And so you did all the things that really people want, you just knew that the the high school thing wasn't for you that there had to be another way to get to your goal. And that you could probably do it better, smarter and faster than the school system could give you.

Keri: 20:19

Yeah, and I don't really know exactly what the root of it was, I don't know. I just think it was a matter of

20:25

there's, there's an intuition that I think we all have that oftentimes gets, we don't listen to it, or it gets silenced by other people's expectations. And if you can get to a place where you're quiet, and you can find what that is, I think that was really,

20:40

when I looked back, and I remember it. That was really it was listening to that. And yeah, the non-traditional, totally non-traditional path. And if I think about my career, where I've had my most successes, it's been taking the non-traditional path, it's been the one standing up saying, No, we're going to, here's the better way to do it. It's not what you would expect or what the, you know, the rest of the leadership team understand. But this is the way and it's usually not the standard, typical way. And somehow those ways still work. Sometimes, like you said better faster.

Ross: 21:09

And it's about also having the confidence to stand up and say there's things that you know, like, Hey, this is a great idea. It might be against the norm. It might not be what we've been taught, it might not be the same path everyone else is taking. But I believe this path will be better.

Keri: 21:25

Yeah.

Ross: 21:26

And relating that into the corporate world. And analogy to the entrepreneurial world, I think is brilliant. It's amazing.

Keri: 21:32

or so employees to: 4000

21:47

We laugh about the story now, by the way, because we're all still friends. But the

Ross: 21:50

people to: 4000

Keri: 21:54

it was the hiring process and the orchestration of it from an inside HR operations standpoint, it was crazy. But I go in there one day, and this is right when I was getting my masters. So I had all these big dreams and big ideas. And the owners were known to think that HR meant payroll and benefits only. And I knew at this point, it could be more. And I believed that I could pave that way. And I built this whole gap analysis, this big old presentation. And I went into the CEO’s office who I didn't have a relationship yet it was kind of scared of. And I gave him the presentation of the very last slide was the slide of risks. And there were four of them.

22:26

And the last one was him. And I remember I told my mom, I was doing this on the way to work, and she's like, “You realize you're gonna get fired. Right?” And I had to think about that, going back to listening to your authentic self. I said, “Yeah, but you know what, Mom? If I do, it's not the place for me anyway.” And so if I go there telling him that I believe that this is the right answer, and he's walked me out, okay, that's where I'm meant to go.

22:47

But I went in there, and I said it in the last bullet, I said, “You know, what you are the last barrier, if you don't shift your thinking and believe that we can do more and be more from an HR standpoint, you're not going to get the most out of the company.” And he sat back and like I was like shaking. I was in my early 20s too like, I really didn't know what I was doing. But I was so convicted. And he just said, “You know what you're right.” And that became one of the moments where I had, what I look back and call my playground experience, I got to build whatever I wanted to I had gained full credibility from him at that standpoint. And it was one of the most fun times in my career because I really got to learn what my function could do, and the impact it would have on the business and having his support was everything. And he'll look back and tell you now that there was so much that he had seen and believed in wanting in his companies, but he never thought that he would accomplish so much from just the HR function, and had we not had that conversation company and the direction might be totally different. So it was one of those moments where

23:46

I think not being afraid to fail and being like you're saying, like standing up for what you believe in and having the confidence to do it. I that was a moment where moving forward,

23:56

I sort of gained the sense of

23:59

you can't go wrong. And if something goes wrong, and it wasn't meant to be you have to stand up for what you know, is right and true. And do it with facts and do it with research and a plan. But if you do that, how can it be wrong? You know, so,

Ross: 24:13

Right. Yeah, I mean, if it's based on on your true beliefs, and on an end, you have good intentions, and everything's in place, and you're just you're just basically lining up all the details that they need. And sometimes it's not up to you to decide, but it's up to you to show them.

Keri: 24:27

Yeah, absolutely. And then it's your decision if they say no, you can decide what to do from there.

Ross: 24:31

But also at least you know, you gave them all the information they needed to make a good decision.

Keri: 24:36

Yep.

Ross: 24:37

So it's on them. So that's pretty awesome.

24:40

So those were like two major changing moments in your life and then So you went from there and expanded into the next realm.

24:50

What's in the future for you like would where do you see

24:54

yourself going?

Keri: 24:56

I see the firm becoming one where

25:00

It is.

25:02

It's not just me, I see being able to develop other people to think the same way and have the same frameworks and processes that I know work. And deploying a force, if you will, back to the whole torch lighting, if I could have people lighting other torches that are under either the Carolyn Brand, or whatever the concept is, I know that facts, data, to your point, measurements and tangible information is extremely critical to making decisions. And so there is far away idea of a software platform that I'll be using to help define and measure the framework of talent and the executive team that will help people with more facts and data. And, you know, one of my lifelong goals has been to write a book, so I'll be doing that or multiple of those.

25:47

And I think that the end goal really would be being able to buy my own businesses through my own investment means where I can do what I've done for other companies just do it for companies that I own. And so I think that would really be the long term long, long, long-term goal. So,

Ross: 26:08

I love that. And I love that you say frameworks, right? So for me, from my, the marketing standpoint, personal branding, we use a lot of frameworks to help people like come up with their messages and their offers, and even their websites and their social media, like we use tons of frameworks. And it can be adapted and curved into any niche, any industry. So, I love that, like you're using that on the other side of the fence, where it's not necessarily for the creatives, but for literally the structures of these businesses and frameworks of that nature. And that's super cool.

Keri: 26:41

So what has you asked me in the beginning kind of the decision-making process and how to focus on that shiny object syndrome and all that. One of the things that has grounded me and my thoughts are, it's the idea of the originally, the book, but it starts with the framework of what I believe works for businesses, and it takes lane, right, which is my name, L A I N E, but it has to do with being in charge of the direction of your career and your life. And so if you are driving your career forward, you have to pick a lane, sometimes you're in the fast lane, sometimes you're in the slow lane, sometimes you got to switch lanes, sometimes you're in a dirt road, sometimes there's accidents, and detours. And there's this whole journey that we all go on when it comes to our careers. But every letter of L A, and E has a,

27:32

a concept to it. So like l listen, you've heard me say a couple times, like listen to yourself, listen to your mentors, listen to advice that's given to you listen, when people tell you that you could improve in certain areas, you have that listening capability, then that's really the foundation, the beginning of where all of your inspiration, growth, and evolution can go, I won't go through all the letters. But that's the idea that the framework will build these theories and themes that I can use to help other people so

Ross: 27:57

And for those people that want to take the fast lane,

Keri: 28:00

Yes.

Ross: 28:01

So how do you

28:04

really, the people who are in this, their nine to five jobs are in their corporate jobs, and they really want to take the leap of faith and go out on their own, and follow their true passion, their dreams and build that legacy? What piece of advice would you give them to make that leap of faith and take action,

Keri: 28:22

I think there's two things, one would be start now and do it on the side, meaning you don't have to have clients, but you have to get involved in educating yourself on what your business would do. And if for example, for me, part of what I want to do is, is teach and speak. So keynote speaking, I started volunteer teaching, that's ultimately how I got to teach at Rollins, I did that on the side on my own time at night. And I started it for free and ultimately ended up being paid for it. And so just start to donate your time towards what you want to do so that you can build that momentum. And then network. It's all about who you know, and priming your network with people that you know would buy or be a part of or on your team for your business, start that process. Now to that way, when you do rollover into it, you can flip the switch, because that's one of the hardest parts is getting that sphere of influence around you and that sphere of support.

Ross: 29:10

I love that. Yeah. So basically, two pieces of advice, if you want to make that shift and go out on your own education,

29:19

practice, right as like on the side. So that way, you still have your support and your structure and your bills are paid before you go out there and simultaneously build your network. But what I love and I want to touch on this more

29:32

is that

29:35

network isn't just networking for potential clients. It is networking for a support system and education system, a referral system, and then yes, maybe clients but I think clients actually from this perspective might be the last phase.

Keri: 29:52

It absolutely is. So how I categorize it and I almost went at it with a strategic mindset, who is going to

30:00

You understand me? Who do I want to look up to? So my very first Master's class, I walked into the teacher, and said, “I want your resume one day.” And he immediately took me under his wing and has been a mentor of mine ever since. But he and I have stayed connected. And that has been one of my, I think strategic parts of it is, who do you want to be? And how do you surround yourself with them, but then also, who's going to open doors for you, they might not be in your space, they might not do what you do. But they might know other people that, that can or that will. And if you can build an affiliation with them, and the way that I went about doing that was what can I do for you, that would meet people that I knew one day would open doors for me, I had no idea how I wanted to start them saying “What can I do to help this person be successful?” and sort of pay it forward in a way, and then you build that relationship, you build that trust, and if you give parts of yourself, people tend to want to give back when you need it. And so finding those people that will open the doors for you. Then there's other connectors as the honey hive people, it's who do you know, that has all of the influencers or has the capital or has whatever the big hive is that you will one day need, there's one person in the middle of that, that you should know. And you might not necessarily develop long friendships or anything might not always be fun and football games and cocktails, but those lunches, coffee dates, meetings, and just building that connection is so important.

Ross: 31:20

I 100% agree. And it's funny, I actually did the same thing.

31:25

It wasn't the intent, right? So I didn't go in there with a like, I gotta do these two things. But they are the same two things I did. So when I knew I was ready to leave my job and go out on my own. I actually started at night, taking, I bought courses, master's classes, and all these different things that I was doing at night and, and practicing the skill sets of building funnels and websites and writing ads and doing graphics and all this stuff. Just literally in the evenings.

Keri: 31:53

Yeah.

Ross: 31:54

I was replacing my TV time.

Keri: 31:55

Yeah.

Ross: 31:56

But I was also using my vacation time to go to conferences.

Keri: 31:59

Yes.

Ross: 32:00

So I was taking all my extra money and all my vacation days and going to conferences for the sole purpose of meeting people. And when I went to these conferences, they said, “What do you do?” I said, “I'm here to discover what you do.”

Keri: 32:10

Yeah.

Ross: 32:11

And that's it, like “I don't, I don't know what my next step is, but I just want to meet I'll meet you –

Keri: 32:15

Right.

Ross: 32:16

and see what you're doing. And then really what happened, and this was all accident. All the people I met I started meeting the, the keynote speakers, I started meeting the award winners, I started meeting all these people that in this world are actually famous in this world, right? They're, you know, micro-famous, maybe, but at least in this little niche. And then when I actually did go out on my own, I had people to call to ask for advice. Like when I got stuck, I'm like, What do I do when I was when I hit a road bump, they'd help push me over it or give me that motivation or confidence. And then when I launched my first event, in the entrepreneurial space,

32:57

I had two dozen people ready to speak at my event that were professional, high-level speakers that no entry-level person would have ever had if I hadn't taken the time two years in advance

Keri: 33:07

To go collect them and keep them.

33:10

I think I used to go to conferences and wander and one conference changed everything. For me, we're actually winning with a plan. Like I said, I want to meet three people of this category. And I tried to get the attendee list ahead of time I want to meet these three vendors. I you know, yes, it's there's parties, and there's all fun things, but the intention of meeting certain types of people categorically, it was almost like a scavenger hunt. And it gave me so much focus, but it made it that much more fulfilling and the return on that conference, changed everything. And that has been how I've approached every conference, you know, there's happy hours that I think there's a lot of functions in the community, for example, like if one of the organizations around town will put on a, you know, Christmas Holiday Charity Party, okay, it's great to go and have fun and do that. But what's the purpose of that? It's not always selling ourselves, right? I It's who am I going to meet and who am I going to help? And who am I going to introduce other people to because then you have a bigger purpose than yourself. And that kind of stuff always, somehow has a way of coming back.

Ross: 34:08

I love it. And I am officially making a conference scavenger hunt. Every conference I go to moving forward.

34:16

Probably already did that like not structured but I am structuring one from here on out.

Keri: 34:21

It’s so fun.

Ross: 34:22

Conference, scavenger hunts, let's go. Keri it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. I want to just thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule and sharing all this wonderful information for our audience. So on that note, do you have any final thoughts for our audience today?

Keri: 34:40

I think just

34:42

if you have the dream, follow your passion, the paycheck will come. Just follow it. And if you're afraid

34:50

I think if you choose to be brave, even when you don't feel like you are nobody's gonna know the difference. And eventually neither will you and then you'll just start

35:00

To realize your goals you just have to start moving to get that momentum.

Ross: 35:02

Awesome so get on the fast lane, start moving, and follow your passion.

Keri: 35:06

Yes.

Ross: 35:07

I love it, thank you so much for your time today.

Keri: 35:09

Thank you.

Ross: 35:10

Awesome.

Keri: 35:11

Tada!