Ep 046: Be Avant Garde. Dare to Go First.

Ever wonder what success actually means? How do you get it? And how do you keep it?

We all want it yet sometimes it feels only some of us get to have it.

Hi, Teresa Blair here. We are two badass entrepreneurs, bestselling authors, coaches and business mentors, who have had success filled success, questioned our own success and reclaimed it. Let's be real for a hot minute. 2020 has been a roller coaster ride, and many of us have started to wonder if they'll lose the things that made them successful. So we got curious, Ron real about what success is truly about?

Can you put it in a box?

How can you get it?

Can people take it away? Or are you the one with the power?

Does it mean the same to all of us? Or are we the ones that create it?

From PGA golf bros to doctors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and spiritual mentors, we get together to meet with successful people from around the globe to dissect success for vibrant conversations and interviews. Make sure you click the subscribe button on the app store because each week we will drop a new episode to bust through the myths around success and dissect its true meaning. Who's ready for the most badass and massive uplevel in their business? It is back what's back momentum land Teresa's signature six month business and mentorship accelerator is now open for enrollment

10 entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to join us exclusive experience that kicks off December 15. This VIP program includes two to one coaching, monthly masterminds and training sessions plus unlimited access to get your questions answered in real time.

Imagine where you can take your business and the six months that we will work together

ready to give your business the momentum you desire. Head to Teresa Lambert coaching comm backslash momentum to secure your coveted spot Hello Hello and

welcome back to another fantastic episode of dissecting success. My name is Teresa Lambert I'm here with my fabulous co host Blair Kaplan Venables. We are quite the team plan I two peas in a pod two peas in a pot. And the other thing that we both also are, I would say at least, are thought leaders. And this is something that we want to dive into today because I think sometimes we get so caught up in looking what everybody else is up to, or replicating how people do things and how they show up and and what they bring to the world. But I truly believe that the magic is in our own unique essence to magic is in daring to be the past and to go fast, daring to have the conversations that other people don't want to have or feel uncomfortable having. I truly believe that thought leadership, being avant garde going before everybody else is the way to lead yourself to massive business momentum, massive wealth, in your life, in your relationships, in your finances, in your health, in your everything. And it leads you to make the impact you actually want to make. And I'm rather fired up about this topic if you can't tell. So Blair, thoughts on thought leadership?

Yeah, like, I love your passion. You know, followership is so important in business, especially when you're an entrepreneur. So thought leadership, which is the expression of ideas that demonstrate you have an expertise in a particular topic or area or field goes beyond having that expertise. But being the expert, the known expert, and when you are a thought leader, something happens, you start getting mentioned in the media, and clients start coming to you, instead of you having to go look for clients, people start knowing who you are, they start hearing your name, your company name, you start growing in a way that you can't grow if you don't harness that thought leadership aspect. And you know, thought leadership is, you know, a form of public relations. It's a form of publicity. You know, publicity is a part of thought leadership publicity is getting mentioned in the media. But when you you know, if you have goals to scale your business and go beyond the traditional what we think capacity is or the nine to five, and you have those goals to make a global impact and to make a difference, and to give your business the velocity it needs. You need to focus on thought leadership and you need to have a thought leadership strategy, a thought leadership strategy. So what What does that look like? What's the thought leadership strategy? Well, there's no right or wrong way to do it. And you know, public relations, publicity, social media marketing, this, this whole marketing pie. This big pie has all these little slices. And all together when they work together, it builds that thought leadership. You can't just do one thing over and over again, there are many things that you need to do to stand out. Now, what is it that you're going to do? I mean, let's talk about Teresa and her fabulous suite of services, right? And then there's the stuff that we do collaborate, collaborate, collaboration wise, well, a little stutter there. But like, she wrote a book called achieve with grace. And she built out a suite of services, paid and free workshops and tools that have to go around achieving with grace. That is what she's known for. She's known for achieving with grace, let's talk about that for a second. What are you a thought leader in Teresa?

Well, 100%, achieving with grace, succeeding with elegance, and as my brand evolves, and as I've been known for that, well, I'm diving deeper into right now is how do you set yourself up the strategies, the systems, the tools, the, like, the context of the how, so that you actually can replicate or create, I want to not say replicate, I want to say create, because it's going to slightly look different for all of us. This idea of, or this idea, this vision, VT of elegant success, which to me means that yes, we work hard. But sometimes hard, like hard work and hustle aren't the same. Hard work doesn't have to feel hard, hard work can feel like ease and flow. Okay? So I think sometimes what we get very caught up is in the like, you know, you might hear this idea of succeed with elegance. And that's why I talk about it so much. And this idea of achieving with grace. But the thing is, like, I'm known for it, because I show you how you can actually practically implement that back into your life into your business, and lead yourself and create tremendous success for yourself in a way that feels really freaking awesome. Where you can show up at ATM with a beautiful pearl necklace to a podcast because you love it so much.

She looks she looks very pretty.

Yeah, look very elegant success today, right? But I think the thing around that is that vd it's about, it's a way of life, it's about being it's a way of being it's a way of life, it's a way of doing things that is different. Because what we have known in the world, is that if we hustle and grind, we succeed, and that it's hard work. And it's a struggle. And so I'm known for flipping the script, I'm known for saying, let's put the definition of what success with elegance is what success is. I mean, that's why we started this podcast. Let's flip it on its head. Let's start by looking at what's our vision? Who are we what are our values, and then we create the all the things, the systems, the tools, the strategies, the messaging, the way of how we do things around that concept of who we are going to be to make all this epic shit happen. And see, you can still swear, when you're known for elegant success. This is the thing This isn't about a box. It's about positioning something in a new way. And living. The fact that we can succeed with elegance, we can succeed without the hustle, we can succeed without burning out. We can have so much fun in our businesses while we're building them. Even on the roller coaster, right? We call entrepreneurship, even when some days are tough, even when we have to put in hard work. We can do all that. And we can do it in a new way in a different way. And that's what I'm known for. To help you do success differently to help you do it with elegance.

I love it. Oh my gosh, front row seats to Teresa's TED talk right here.

It's coming.

So something that's really important about thought leadership is the ability to influence others opinions. And that's what Teresa is doing. And she's showing you like she transitioned from this very high powered hotel job, taking a seven figure business to eight figures into her business coaching. And she is changing the narrative about what success is and what you need to do to succeed and she's done it Before, and she did it for someone else's business. And now she's doing it for her business. And she coaches our clients on how to do it. She is changing the narrative. She's influencing opinions she's influencing, positively impacting the way things are done. Teresa is a thought leader in business development and business coaching and business growth. And so take a moment listeners out there to really think about, what are you a thought leader in? What do you want to be known for? What legacy Are you leaving, but I'm a thought leader in social media marketing, I didn't choose to be that I guess I was lucky. It's a blessing and a curse to be a thought leader when you don't plan on it. And you know, being a social media marketer since before it was a profession. And using it as a public relations tool has been a really beautiful blessing in my life. You know, for the first half of my career, I wouldn't even admit I did social media marketing, and I called it everything else. I had social media, PR, it's publicity on social media, it's digital communications, I just didn't call it what it was. But now we're in this era where social media marketing and marketing like social media marketing is marketing, social media, PR is PR like it is all under one umbrella. And social media is one of those tools. And you know, I do more than just, you know, social media marketing, like I do have a public relations company. I am a writer, I am a speaker. I'm the founder of the I am resilient projects. And, you know, November 2021 is when our first book is coming out. And you know, I'm seen as a thought leader in resilience, and I've been talking about resilience since way before the pandemic, I've been strengthening my resilience muscle way before the pandemic. And so how do you build thought leadership and what you're passionate about? Talk about it talk about that topic. I talk about social media empowerment. I talk about resilience, all the goddamn time. I talk about it on podcast interviews with Theresa on other people's podcasts, and articles written about me in articles I write on social media, to anyone who will listen to the stranger in the grocery store. Just kidding. I keep my head down at the grocery store. Actually, I've really come to love instacart sidebar, I recently had to delete skip the dishes and doordash because I was ordering way too many blizzards. So if anyone ever knows where I live and wants to send me a cookie, dough Blizzard, extra cookie dough, I will happily accept. But I had to delete those apps, I digress. What I do is I really take those topics that I want to be known as that topics that I want to leave a legacy behind in. And I embody it. And I don't have to try because I naturally love social media. I live in pre social media, and I'm not like the other social media experts. My whole thing is about strategy and public relations and relationship building and F the algo like, I am not the I'm not like all the other social media experts out there. You know, resilience, like I'm not like all those other resilient experts. I'm not a psychologist, I tried to become a psychologist, I was on the way to becoming one and I realized I probably need one. So I'm going to go into public relations, you know, but I'm a real human who's going through real hard shit. I've navigated a lot of difficult things. And I'm still sober. And I'm resilient AF. And so people know me in the two topics of thought leadership of resilience, and social media. So think about it. If you are an expert in a specific topic, and you want to be known as that thought leader, you want those clients to flock to you. Are you talking about it everywhere you go every time you open your mouth? Are you posting about it on social media and a storytelling organic way where you're not shoving it down people's throats or I guess in this sense eyeballs, shoving it down eyeballs. Imagine that. You know, like Teresa is Teresa is a great example. If you follow her on Instagram, Teresa Lambert coaching. You'll see whenever she has something about to drop, she is consistent. And she is persistent. And she's elegant in the way she delivers. And it's always educating. She mixes up how she tells her messages. And you know what she stands for, because she's showing up as the thought leader.

And I love like all of the things you just chat and thank you This makes me feel so special to you know, it's always like never forget how like just a side note and never forget the small moments of gratitude. And that will build memories like somebody that you love dearly, even if it's your business partner and business bestie like Clara's to actually acknowledge that to see that to point it out to you, you know, I think that sometimes we go past those moments. So I just wanted to, you know, some moments of like feeling really deep, deep gratitude, I love you so much I love what we do together. But you know, to your point with, with all of that, too, I always say like, there is a message in the messy, right, there's a message in the message, there is a message for you, when you start to see that things aren't working for you the way they've worked for other people. This is a key place, the point where you notice, where you create the awareness that something isn't working for you the way it's working for other people that to you, it's experienced as messy, that is a message. And that is a big fat message that is literally like screaming at you. This is your moment, this is your moment to choose, do you dare to do it differently. And this is where you start your thought leadership journey truly. And, you know, Blair, whether she wanted it or not started talking about resilience. And she is like, to me, she's a thought leader in resilience, entrepreneurship. So I would actually add that because I've been having a front row seat to all of blessed, many big losses. And we spoken about this throughout, and Blair gets asked all the time, how she does it, how she's navigating all of this, and how she still manages to grow her business amongst it all. And, and this is why I really want to like, tune into something that plesae said, and something that you really, that I really want to invite you to anchor into, is that when you are being who you are, when you stand for what you stand for, right? Like when you show up, when you curate the experience in which you show up on social media, when you when you choose to take action in your life with such deep intention that is so rooted in who you are, you become a freaking rock in a wild river. Because this is what life is to me. We're all rocks in a wild river. And sometimes we turn into the river and we go around the world rocks. I mean, who knows. But the thing is, that's where our strength is really rooted. So you can talk about the tough things and still have your business growing. You can be, you know, in your shower, in tears, crying and sobbing and screaming, maybe because it seems like nothing's working, and still show up for your clients and still show up online. Right? Like I think that so often we we think that the people who are thought leaders have all their shit figured out. And the difference really is we've all made one distinct change in our lives, we show up as who we are. And we share the message of what we stand for. And when you do that, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what other people think. It doesn't matter if there's a result behind it. Because this gives you a conviction. That is like no other. And that is why people hire you to hire you for who you are being and what you stand for. Not for all the results you've created not for the amount of money you have in your bank account not for the accolades or the awards, you hang up on your wall, people will hire you, as a coach, as a speaker, as a, you know, social media expert as a copywriter as though whatever, right? Like they will hire you. Because you are showing up in a different way because you are being who you are. And that inspires people to move.

Yes. So good. Let's talk about showing up for a second. two things. One, you may have noticed I showed up a lot. Well, you know, grieving my mother, when my mother, you know, passed on, I showed up to the things that filled me with joy. I looked at my schedule, I cleared away the things that didn't fulfill me during that time. And I kept the things that did because it fulfilled me during a very difficult time. But to showing up. Showing up is a really important part of thought leadership, showing up and doing the thing. And it doesn't mean like, you know, for example, something big happens and you need to reschedule that's fine. You're still showing up as that leader saying, hey, I need a moment. I never really take time off. I mean, like I do, I don't want to glorify that but it's been a really weird year with like all the loss we've had and moving but Last week I was just I had a really hard day I'm navigating my father's end of life I just dealt with my mother's I'm still managing her estate. And one day I just had a whole bunch of stuff to do for both parents and it felt like a lot, it felt like very, very heavy. And so I decided to cancel all my meetings and take a day and I am so proud of myself and so so I showed up as a leader that day, knowing that I had to do a do something for myself. And showing up doesn't just mean like showing up for your clients or for yourself, but it means being present. It doesn't mean like you physically logging on to that zoom call or you showing up to that meeting. But your your mental state needs to be in a position where you're ready to show up. And part of also being a thought leader is professional development. One of the reasons I stand out from a lot of the social media experts that I know is that I do all sorts of different personal and professional development. I'm always evolving I'm always reading I'm always listening and going to things I'm listening to things I'm learning from private coaches group coaching, I'm always working on myself and no matter what I'm learning I can apply it to my business to elevate me and you know, I'm I've spent lots of money on coaches and programs, but I've also attended a lot of very impactful very influential free events. And we all know that free is my favorite four letter F word. And guess what? We might have something free for you. We should do Yeah, sure. Do you guys remember like I mean, if you've been following along for our all these episodes, you might remember last year we did something called velocity. Remember velocity was early this year. I know time has like last year, it has no essence in pandemic you know, I went to summer camp as a kid for all you listening I went to the neighbor the Jewish community camp, it was based out of Winnipeg, but a Lake of the Woods and it was on an island and it was very like outdoorsy and as you got older you go on canoe trips and into the woods and you never were allowed to take your watch because back in the 90s we didn't have cell phones and the biggest like tagline there used or like was always said was time has no essence in the woods. So I grew up with that time has no essence in the woods mentality. Like you know, I'm camping, you know, who cares what time it is, and but now with pandemic, it's like time has no essence and pandemic. But regardless of that, Mark your calendars my friends, because on November 30 we're doing a free we want to call it a masterclass.

I think it's a master class

free masterclass called velocity, and you're going to learn for free from us, you're going to tap into our brains, you can sign up and show up live. Or you can catch the replay. And we're going to dive in. And last last time we ran this it was so impactful people, you know, implemented, what we taught, their business grew, their business grew exponentially. You know, some people turned into clients, but it was just so fun. Because you know what, two heads are better than 110 heads are better than two. And beyond about it,

I love it. And velocity, you know, this time November 30. Again, we'll drop the link so you can sign up for it, just reserve your seat, you can hop into the Facebook group where the life will be happening and where you can catch the replay. And we'll do loads of incredible activation afterwards. Like honestly, like to me I'm so excited because I'm you know, I've ran all my master classes for the year, this is the only last one that I'm doing for the year. That might be a final download. You never know. But I'm so excited for this because velocity is really dear to my heart. But what I've also realized and pledges said that you know, there's two of us and the last six months we've ran momentum, which is our six month business mentorship accelerator, which was incredible. And it's been so so much fun. It was so grateful for the incredible entrepreneurs that were in this first round and it's happening again in January and again you can join us for that if you like but the thing is that between black I we have like so much knowledge and the funny thing about the last six months was that I didn't even realize how much the two of us actually have to share. Like this is this is the thing right? Like sometimes we we don't even know but I'm both Blair and I were in a training called avant garde by Melanie and Leah and there's something that she said and I want to bring this back she said, you know and I think this ties into the thought leadership piece. She She said you know, it's not about being the best. It's about being one of the greats. It's about walking with people that are successful and so this is an invitation to come and sit at the table with a blind eye to come learn from us to come learn with us to be in a space with two of the great leaders of this world and I truly believe that we are and we are different and we're different duel and we have different vibes and even plan I have such different people in itself and then yet we have so many things in common and so many beliefs and faults in common and that's what I love about the magic of us together and velocity would rocked rockets the laughs I mean I was just like having the best time ever so I'm just so excited and I'll be just back from Costa Rica after like ridiculous retreated I'm going to anabolic station so who knows but let me tell you, this is going to be a next level velocity like velocity 2.0 you want in so they want to know how to build a business strategy with velocity and create out big freaking momentum in your

business. And like yeah, some of you may have been a velocity last time come again, you're gonna learn something new. We promise and you know what I'm not gonna say I can't commit to anything. Any promises but you know, there may be an opportunity to be a guest on this podcast that may have that opportunity. So mark it down November 30. You can head to Teresa Lambert coaching comm slash velocity velocity. And something we are going to focus on during velocity is thought leadership. It is thought leadership and it's not something where I read a book and I'm teaching you something I read it's something that I've built practice preached and grown my business with it's how I've ended up in Forbes and on some other top tier publications and it's how my business comes to me and it's how I've had multiple five figure months and how we've had multiple five figure launches and weeks Yeah, so yes,

it's magic. Honestly, it's magic like Come hang with bland I it's a three I think three hours it's going to be three hours it's life you get to ask questions, and then we have something special planned for after like honestly, if you want support from the two of us if you've been listening if you've been feeling the pull if you want to get an idea of what it's like to work with Glenn I what it's like to be in our energy together live seeing our lovely faces, then come join velocity so we'll drop the link in there of course if you're like dang I already was in velocity. I love you too. So much anyways I want to work with you momentum is happening. You can drop in any time. Again, link is in the show notes or hit us up. Send us a DM connect with us. If you can't figure out how to get the link for velocity and you want to have a send it to you DMS from La Land on Instagram or at Teresa Lambert coaching was so easy to get a hold off like honestly if you want to connect with us if you want us to to you know give you the information you need an Instagram link

okay so my name is now Blair Kaplan Venables, but when Facebook first became a thing, I looked up all the other Blair Kaplan's, and I added all of them to Facebook, because I'm really easy to find, but there are other Blair captains, but most of them have gotten married and changed their name.

That's why I'm saying find out under Ed Blair from Playland on Instagram.

They're from Blair land. Here I am, get a one way ticket to the Blair show. Thanks for tuning in to another fantastic episode, chatting about thought leadership while we dissected success with you, and with that piece.

That's a wrap for another episode of dissecting success. enjoyed this episode. Make sure to subscribe to black carbon Venables and Teresa Lambert's podcast dissecting success on the App Store.