S5E15 – Mindset Tactics for Business Breakthroughs with Erin Diehl

• (00:40) – Show intro and background history
• (07:23) – How she apply improv to help companies
• (13:43) – Deeper into his business  strategies
• (17:03) – Commercial break (Leadfeeder)
• (17:40) – Few takeaways from her book  
• (19:41) – A practice example of her approach
• (24:31) – Why most of our thoughts are negative
• (26:11) – How to break this mindset
• (33:11) – Feeling free in life as a way of unlocking
• (35:52) – The importance of reading as a freedom activity
• (39:26) – Commercial break (TYKR)
• (50:14) – Guest contacts

Transcription

[00:00:00.000] – Show Intro

Introducing Payback Time, the podcast for entrepreneurs looking to build and scale their startups, gain access to actionable tips, proven strategies, and valuable data that can help you avoid mistakes, skyrocket sales, and optimize profits. Your business breakthrough may just be an episode away.

 

[00:00:17.580] – Guest Intro

What does improv comedy have to do with business? Believe it or not, more than you think. My next guest used improv to increase sales and level up her mindset. In this episode, we walk through real-life examples, and we use me as a case study. This is a fun one. If you want to achieve bigger results with your business, it all starts with mindset. Please welcome Erin Diehl.

 

[00:00:41.040] – Sean

Erin, welcome to the show.

 

[00:00:42.600] – Erin

Thank you for having me, Sean. I’m thrilled to be here. I’m loving the vibe. I’m ready for it.

 

[00:00:48.760] – Sean

All right, before we dive into what you’re working on today, could you tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know?

 

[00:00:55.460] – Erin

Yeah, this is a good one. So you can’t find this on the You can’t find it on my website. But I was a contestant on the Price is Right, and I won a bird bath in 32 wine glasses. No one likes a bragger, Sean, but that was my take home prize. And I got to tell you, I didn’t cash in because guess what? I was like, 24 when I won this. You got to pay taxes on your gifts.

 

[00:01:23.120] – Sean

Shut up.

 

[00:01:24.260] – Erin

Yeah, I lived in Chicago. I’m like, What am I going to do with a bird bath on the 30th floor of a high-rise building? And I was like, I don’t even really have a kitchen to store these wine classes. So I didn’t cash in. But I did come on down. It was Drew Carey, and it was so fun.

 

[00:01:42.840] – Sean

No kidding. That’s awesome.

 

[00:01:45.170] – Erin

Yeah. Thank you.

 

[00:01:46.290] – Sean

As a kid, I used to watch… I remember summers. You didn’t really have responsibility when you’re 12 years old. I’m watching Prices Right and Getting Good at… How much does that thing cost that? I will never buy.

 

[00:01:57.530] – Erin

Yeah. And to be honest with you, I went with an ex-boyfriend of mine, and he was a huge Price is Right fan, and I had never seen the show. I was there with him in the audience. And then they make you interview before you go inside to the studio. They make all the audience interview if you want to be chosen. We both interviewed, and I was the last person to come on down. I was looking to him the whole time to help me in the audience, and I had never watched an episode, which is crazy. Now I’ve I’ve seen it multiple times, but it was one of those things that just happened, and I got a story from it, and he was very upset that he was not chosen, but I was.

 

[00:02:41.810] – Sean

I love it. You’re the first person I’ve ever met that’s been on that was chosen to be… Yeah, that’s awesome.

 

[00:02:49.510] – Erin

Yes. Put that in the show notes, probably. A link to Drew Carey. That’s my claim to fame.

 

[00:02:55.790] – Sean

From Prices Right to insert, and we’ll get to that in a second. Yes. On that note, if you could take a few minutes here, tell us about your career background, and we’ll lead up, and we’ll talk about your book.

 

[00:03:07.530] – Erin

Yeah. Well, it all started when I was in my family’s living room at the age of three, trying to become the host of Double Dare, which is a Nickelodian show, which was on in the ’80s and ’90s. I’m an ’80s kid. I loved to host things. I loved to perform. I was in My mom was in community theater. I was a dancer. I went to Clemson University, danced on the dance team there, and graduated with a degree in communications because I told my parents since the age of 13, I was going to become a talk show host. Every parent’s dream. This is the early 2000s, right? There wasn’t really… The Internet existed, but it was like that crack, crack, scratch, aol startup, and I literally I had no plan post-college. All I knew was that Oprah Winfrey, my idol, lived in Chicago, and my dream was to become her. So naturally, post-graduating with a media communications degree, I told my family, I’m moving to Chicago. A twist of events, found a job, found a series of jobs that were not, believe it or not, in talk show hosting, but I found improv comedy as a hobby, and I started to just immerse myself in the art form.

 

[00:04:33.410] – Erin

I loved it so much. The moment I walked in the doors of an improv class at Second City in Chicago, I just knew this was where I was supposed to be. I felt the most aligned with my inner child. You and I were talking about that. I felt so free, and I knew that I had a spot in improv in my heart. I knew that it was supposed to be there. I I ended up getting a full-time job at a recruiting firm. I was doing business development at a recruiting firm, which is a very hard job. I’d never done sales before, and I was really studying improv very heavily at this time, and I saw everything in my class and on stage just spill over into my professional life. I was a better listener. I was more empathetic. I was quicker on my feet. I was so in the moment with my clients, and that built trust. I knew there was this opportunity to create something bigger using improv. The idea for improve it was born. We are a professional development company that uses improv comedy to train leaders and teams to be their highest self through play.

 

[00:05:46.200] – Erin

Thank you. We started in 2014, 10 years ago. We’ve been in business 10 years. Wow. Yeah. Got 22 improv professionals between New York, Chicago, LA, some in Charlotte, North Carolina. I now live in Charleston, South Carolina. We travel all over the world. We have worked with Fortune 100, Fortune 500. We’ve worked with small Mom and Pop shops, but we do soft skill training workshops using improv, comedy, keynotes. And now in 2024, I wrote a book, and we’re doing book clubs. And it’s been a crazy journey. I literally could write a book about it, and I did. And It’s the most fulfilling thing to witness humans let go of their inhibitions, get what I call fun comfortable. That’s being comfortable with the uncomfortable. We’ll have a freaking blast. That’s my next book, by the way, TM, Trademark.

 

[00:06:47.700] – Sean

We’ll put it on the short list of names there, correct?

 

[00:06:51.560] – Erin

Yeah, but it’s been a wild ride, and I’m here for it. It’s been such a journey, and I know you have a lot entrepreneurs listening to this show and a lot of people who are either starting their business, in their business. I know that if I didn’t take the leap to do this, it would have been the greatest regret of my life because it was such a calling. I feel we have helped so many people over the past 10 years, and we’re going to continue to do that for decades to come.

 

[00:07:23.960] – Sean

What I love here is you took a passion of being in front of a camera, and whether it’s acting or of comedy or improv, and you applied it to the business world. And I know there’s people out there listening to this, probably, that are like, How do I marry those two? Like, Okay, creative and business. Well, you You’ve got a great example there. What I’d like to do next is, because my audience is very tactical, they like to dive into what are strategies I can actually use today? So you, for example, you were calling businesses, you were recruiting a manager, correct? Now on that side, just to dive in a little further, were you calling organizations to build a relationship and say, Hey, we can help build spots for you?

 

[00:08:12.070] – Erin

Exactly. Yes. On the bringing in the business side. Sometimes helped with recruiting, but more business relationship building.

 

[00:08:20.460] – Sean

So you would go out and you would reach out to businesses and say, Hey, we want to partner with you. When you need roles, we are your go-to, and we can help fill those roles. Nice. Walk us through, what does the conversation look like? How did you apply improv to those conversations?

 

[00:08:39.330] – Erin

That’s such a good question, Sean. I love that, actually. This is such a good tangible. I’ve never been asked this in this way, so this is really interesting. What I started to see, first of all, getting in the door from a recruiting agency to any type of business is very hard because there are so It’s so competitive. There’s so many people out there. So here’s what I did differently. This is going back to the inner child work, Sean. Okay. I infused play In my approach, I had a really amazing boss. She is actually a case study in my book of Selfless Leadership. She’s the case study. She pulled me what I call out of this shame hole because I didn’t have a great before her, and she saw my strengths. The thing that she saw about me was that I could talk to a wall. Now, here’s the deal. She knew I never had sales training. Let me even just share this quick side story. Sure. I never interviewed for this job. She saw a video that I created when Oprah Winfrey was casting for her own talk show on the own network that I created as a interview that I had to get people in the public to vote for me to get into the next She saw this video, said, I want to hire her, and called me and said, Are you looking for a new job?

 

[00:10:07.380] – Erin

I said, It’s funny enough. Yes, I was going to ask you to help me because they were in a staffing agency finding a new job. She goes, Well, I’m talking about internally here. I got a job in two phone calls from literally that Oprah video. That’s awesome. So Jen knew. She literally knew. This girl, she’s outside the box. We’re going to use that strength. And so Jen and I would get really… We would create funny promotions, we called them, where either we would go to existing clients and let’s say it was Halloween. We would dress up as witches. This was the 2000, like 8, 2014 era.

 

[00:10:48.660] – Sean

Wicked is just going through the roof.

 

[00:10:50.790] – Erin

We dress up in witches costumes. We showed up in our existing clients. We created root bear bottles with their own labels that said witches Brew, and we gave them to our clients with our logo on it, and we showed up and gave them Halloween gifts. So they’re loving it. We’re showing up at their office in costume. They’re coming down. We’re giving them this gift, and they’re just laughing. So these are clients that we had previously Those are our warm leads, right? And so there’s improv at play. I’m using a character. I’m being outside of the box. I’m using my imagination, and I’m building trust because I’m bringing something to the scene, right? I’m not just calling like every recruiter. That’s one example. Now, those were warm leads or people we’d work with before cold leads. We would do similar things. I remember my very first month was March, St. Patrick’s Day. I dressed up with leprechaun little ear buds. I would go in people’s office and we’d bring them gold coins, and we’d have some type of slogan for it. We’d leave it at the front desk for them if they wouldn’t come down and meet us, and then we’d follow up with an email.

 

[00:11:57.880] – Erin

Then sometimes there weren’t holidays, so we wouldn’t We had a cupcake company that we worked with that created a special logo for us, and we would drop off these cupcakes at people’s offices, and they were individually wrapped, and we would leave a handwritten note and say, We’re going to follow up with you. I have clients at Improve It that I had from my recruiting days of leaving a cupcake. I literally have clients from 2012 that I left a cupcake on their front desk at their office with a handwritten note that became my recruiting client at the company I was working for, that when I left to start my own business, followed me and are still clients with me today. And that’s how improv. I mean, it was relationship building. It was being able to be creative and think outside the box. Once I got in the door and had those relationships, I was just able to listen. I remember going to mini lunches with our client, developing really great relationships. And Jen and I would always joke, we’re like therapists because we’re just listening a lot. I developed so many great relationships there. And the good thing was I was recruiting for administrative roles, most of the time through HR departments.

 

[00:13:16.890] – Erin

Sure. Well, the blessing is that HR is also who hires professional development companies. I had this network of clients to pitch my new business to who loved the idea. I I’ve been friends with those people because I created such relatable relationships and friendships during my time in recruiting. So it was just this amazing thing to witness.

 

[00:13:43.660] – Sean

We’re going to dive into that in a moment, but I want to say something here, and I do this all the time. I break the fourth wall and talk to the audience. So what Erin is talking about there is really setting yourself apart with B2B sales. B2b is not easy. Everybody would agree with me on that. How do you break through? Everybody’s got the same pitch or the same email or the same message on LinkedIn, and you just shoot and spray. Out of 100 people, you hope one gets back to you. It’s such a waste of time. And what you’re doing there is lean into something that means something to you or something that’s fun. For you, it’s acting, it’s improving and going into character. And it’s like, yeah, if I’m in a company and there’s a group of people that come in and they’re dressed up. It’s like, who is this? And what are they doing? I’m done working for the next 15 minutes, and I have to get up and find out what’s going on, right? And that makes a memory. I mean, you’ve got a Bright attitude, bright personality. It’s like, oh, then you make an impact on a more personal level.

 

[00:14:50.620] – Sean

My name is, and this is what I do, and this is how we can help you. It’s like, Got it. Doing something like that, if you do that to 100 people, you’re going to probably get in the door more than once. Totally.

 

[00:15:04.640] – Erin

And Jen had this approach as well as my leader. She was such a outside of the box relationship builder. She genuinely listens to people. So we would go to networking events, and I would see people who are competitors. And I’m not saying anything bad about the recruiting industry, but sometimes in that space, it’s a little used car salesman. People are walking around handing out their business card to anybody with a hand. I just was like, Man, I don’t want to buy from you. I’m literally in your same space. We’re competing right now, and you just handed me your business card. I just felt very icky in this transaction. Our approach at networking events was, again, outside of the box, playful. We would go, we would mingle, we would have fun. If cards came up, we would give them. But our approach was always, who’s on the panel? Who’s talking? Because those are leaders within large organizations. Let’s make an impression with them and have a great conversation and follow up with them after and remind them about something that we had in common in that conversation. Make it personable, make it useful, make it brief.

 

[00:16:18.400] – Erin

That’s called the Pub method, by the way, personal, useful, and brief. A dear friend of mine, Erin King, developed that, and I use that all the time in sales transactions because sales should not It should be transactional. It should be relational. That’s really what it taught me was I can bring these improv skills in and make people feel seen, heard, and valued. That’s one of the biggest tenets of improv comedy, yes and. I’m going to listen and add value to what you said, and hopefully at the end, we’ll work together. But you’re going to remember the feeling that we had in this conversation versus me telling you that I could help you find temporarily A staff or a direct hire.

 

[00:17:01.850] – Sean

Right. All right, folks, let’s take a quick break.

 

[00:17:07.090] – LeadFeeder Ad

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[00:17:38.870] – Sean

All right, back to the show. Let’s dive into the book a little bit. What are some of your favorite key takeaways that you’ve highlighted in the book?

 

[00:17:47.010] – Erin

It’s so funny because every person who reads it takes away something different. But if I had to pick my own things, I really love part one because you can’t get to part two or part three without part one. And part one is all about self-love. There’s many chapters. Every chapter ends with a tangible takeaway, an activity that you can do by yourself, and then the same activity, you can apply it with your team. They’re rooted in improv comedy. But I would say one of my very favorites that’s easy to do right here right now is called New Choice, which is an activity pulled from the improv stage. But the good news is you don’t need a stage or a scene partner to make it work because, Sean, the scene partner is your mind, mind, mind, mind. That’s your mind being blown right there. But it’s really easy.

 

[00:18:40.520] – Sean

I love the fill-in echo.

 

[00:18:41.910] – Erin

Thank you. If we have your producer-I do all my own sound effects. Yes, exactly. If we could get your editor guy to just make a little blah, blah, blah right there, that’d be cool.

 

[00:18:51.470] – Sean

Ricardo, we’ll see if we can get the budget for the postproduction Special Effects.

 

[00:18:55.920] – Erin

Thank you. Yes. Please call Paramount. We need the best The best of the best. But this activity is super easy, and you can do it with a partner or you can do it alone. It’s an activity that helps you get out of negative self-talk because the premise of the book is the more love that you give to yourself as a human being, the more love that you can give to leaders, people, people you lead, teams, communities, organizations in your life. Then the more that you’re doing that outwardly, the more you’re attracting back what it is you want. It uses humor, it uses leadership techniques, and it uses spirituality. Just going to call it what it is.

 

[00:19:39.300] – Sean

Can you walk us through what does that look like? Because I know there are people, and I’ve been in those moments, too, I have to admit, where I’m calling on people. In my business, we don’t sell directly to our customer. You could call it a low touch SaaS, like Netflix. Netflix doesn’t reach out to you and say, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Hey, you should use us. It’s like, you want to be able to share the tool with your friends. And if you really like it, then you become a subscriber on your own. But we sell through channel partners. And I tell you what, I’m reaching out to channel, but whether they’re YouTube influencers or bloggers or whatever, and the amount of nos I get is just profound. It’s ridiculous. And then I’m like, Okay, don’t get down about it. They’re the ones missing out. But it’s like, you got to have that self-talk moment. Snap out of it. You got to It’s a great product. It’s not me.

 

[00:20:31.700] – Erin

It’s the- Exactly. Okay, so we’re going to do a new choice together, Sean.

 

[00:20:35.700] – Sean

Okay, let’s do it.

 

[00:20:36.950] – Erin

We’re going to use this exact example. Okay, so when you’re in that head space, when you’ve heard seven nos today, what is a statement that you keep repeating in your mind? What is something that keeps… What’s something negative that pops up-time and time again? And then I have a statistic to prove why you’re not alone in this. But tell me what that statement is.

 

[00:20:59.040] – Sean

Because I get a lot of no answers, but when I do get a response, it’s like, I don’t know if it’s really for me. I don’t know if the stock market is really… Even if they’re promoting finance, they’ll be like, Well, I don’t know if stocks are really a safe place to be. And it’s like, I could talk for the next hour.

 

[00:21:19.140] – Erin

Okay. What goes through your mind, though, when you hear them say that? What limiting belief about yourself do you say?

 

[00:21:26.900] – Sean

Well, I might think something like Gosh, is this not as attractive this business, as I thought it would be? That’s probably the deepest, darkest thing I could say. And I don’t say that anymore because I revert back to our testimonials. That’s always a good way to snap out of it, but that would be one for you.

 

[00:21:49.380] – Erin

Okay, so is this not as attractive of a service is what goes through your mind? This isn’t an attractive service. This isn’t an attractive service. So when you start to say that, You’re going to clap just wherever you are, or it could just be like, put your hands together, because it’s going to disrupt the pattern in your brain. Tell yourself new choice. So that’s the first step. The second step is you’re going to forgive your sofa giving yourself that negative talk, and I’ll talk about that in just a moment, but know that that is a huge part of this, is forgiving yourself because everyone talks negatively to themselves. So just telling yourself, I forgive myself, and then quickly reframing that thought. So instead of, this isn’t an attractive business, what could you say instead that’s a more kind, loving, positive thought?

 

[00:22:37.780] – Sean

Well, in that case, I alluded to a moment ago as I revert back to our testimonials and those comments that are like, I never knew it was this easy. And, oh, my gosh, where were you? And in the fun ones, I remember buying this XYZ stock seven years ago because my next door neighbor said it’d be the new hot tech stock or pharma stock. And if I would have had Tykr, I could have avoided all the pain and trouble. And it’s like, I’ll see comments like that, and I’ll smile or I’ll laugh and be like, Yeah, I’ve got something here that’s doing something. It’s solving problems, and people like it.

 

[00:23:10.420] – Erin

There you go. Okay. And the moment that you say, This is an attractive, you’re going to say, I’m doing something that is solving problems and people like it. And you’ll think in your mind about those testimonials, okay? I’m doing something that is solving problems and people like it. I just haven’t found the right people yet.

 

[00:23:30.830] – Sean

To help promote it, right?

 

[00:23:32.670] – Erin

Yes, exactly. That is the thing that I want you to repeat in your mind is, I have something that people like. I have something that people like every time that you start to go down this negative spiral when you’re trying to find people to help promote it. Now, here’s the thing. I want to just take a step back because I didn’t talk about why this is so important. I actually do a talk on this It’s based off the book, but there’s scientific data to back this up. There was a study from the National Science Foundation in 2005 that the average human thinks between 50,000 to 80,000 thoughts per day. And of those 50,000 to 80,000, we think 6,200 thought worms or thoughts that come together to form little sentences. Of those 6,200 thought worms, what percentage of those do you think are negative?

 

[00:24:31.580] – Sean

I’d say for most people, it’s probably greater than 50%.

 

[00:24:35.810] – Erin

Yeah, it’s 80% and zero. Wow. Here’s the other kicker. We are repeating, they found in this data, We are repeating the same negative thoughts 95% of the time. So when you start thinking, Oh my gosh, this isn’t as an attractive of a product for people to help promote, you’re You want to squash that with that new choice and know when you forgive yourself, that it’s okay because 95% of the time we’re repeating these 80% of the negative thoughts. This is according to a study by the National Science Foundation that measures heard this in multiple humans. So you are not alone in thinking these negative thoughts, but the bigger picture here is the more that you talk negatively to yourself, your thoughts affect your your words, your words affect your actions. And so it starts with self-love, and that’s why I love that activity so much, because we, as entrepreneurs, as leaders of small teams, of leaders of large teams, we carry a lot of weight. We carry a lot of things on our shoulders day after day. We carry the weight of our businesses. We carry the weight of people’s salaries and insurance. We carry the weight of making sure our clients are happy.

 

[00:25:57.820] – Erin

It all falls back on us. And if we’re in a negative space, if we’re not giving love to ourselves, the person who came up with these ideas and who’s guiding the ship, how can we guide the rest of the people on board?

 

[00:26:11.670] – Sean

Right. Your team is going to look at you and, Can I follow this person? And can I trust the path they’re steering in? I have to admit, we’ve hit those moments, finding product-market fit with a SaaS product is very difficult. Because you’re not, as a human being, selling it to people. The product has to just be that darn good. And getting there takes a lot of time. It’s just like, man, you go years and years. But fortunately, in our case, we’ve broken through walls and been able to get to the next level. But it really was a mindset thing that needed to happen first before the breakthroughs could come second. And that was a pattern that always happens. So it’s funny. We’re using this episode as my own case study.

 

[00:26:58.810] – Erin

No, but it’s so I’m good. You know what? I do the same thing on my show. I’ll have on these… I’m not saying… I mean, I am an expert. I’m an improv comedy expert.

 

[00:27:06.870] – Sean

But I don’t have- You, doggone it, you are an expert.

 

[00:27:08.420] – Erin

Yes, I am an expert. New choice. But it’s so funny. I’ll have people on my show, too. And I just feel like, I’m like, Wow, that was amazing coaching. Thank you so much. You’re like, Okay, but it’s helpful because you need real examples. There’s something else that, if you’re okay, I have another tangible. Sure. People should have. Sure, please. If that’s okay, because I feel like this leads into just envisioning what you want because you mentioned mindset. This is what brought this to my mind is the mindset is so important of a leader, the mindset of your… Literally, we’re thinking 50 to 80,000 thoughts a day. We are walking around in our own minds. Why don’t we make it a nicer place to be? And part of that is if you want your thoughts to match your words and your words to match your actions, you have to know where you want to go and the place and what you envision it looking like, which is a lot of manifesting or mindset. But I created this thing called the Ideal Day. My last name is deal. It is spelled D-I-E-H-L, I-D-I-E-H-L. But it helps you envision what a day, a wonderful day in the life of Sean would look like.

 

[00:28:30.480] – Erin

Can I use you as the guinea pig one more time and do this exercise with you? Because I think it will help your audience. Okay, so the I, an ideal day, is your I am statement. So let’s take your I am statement from New Choice that you just did. So it was, I am attracting- I am attracting new retail investors every day.

 

[00:28:53.380] – Sean

And literally, we are. That’s the purpose of our company. Bring them in, show them that they can do this every on their own. For context there, just to give you a quick segue, stock investing can be very intimidating for people, and we remove that.

 

[00:29:10.220] – Erin

I love it.

 

[00:29:11.400] – Sean

So you know you appreciate this, too. We do have a fast-growing segment of our audience being female, and women are taking control of their investments, especially in the household, and it’s blowing the mind of the husband who’s like, Well, I just put my money in my company’s 401k, and that’s But you get the female who’s like, Well, I’m outpacing you by three-fold now. So there’s that. Yes.

 

[00:29:36.180] – Erin

I love that. Okay. So that bleeds into what I love is you are even giving me more credibility about why this I am statement is so good. All right, the D. The D in ideal day is what are you going to do first? So if you had the most perfect day planned, what would you do first? Right after you wake up, you brush your teeth, what would you do first after How do you describe that?

 

[00:30:00.930] – Sean

Well, I’m a very rigid person, and my wife knows this about me. It’s like, out of bed, breakfast, to the gym, let’s go. I have to hit the gym every morning.

 

[00:30:11.560] – Erin

Okay, love it. So that’s your D. Idi is intake. What is the content or the type of content that you’re going to intake in the beginning of your day?

 

[00:30:22.210] – Sean

When I’m working out, I’m always listening to something educational. So I’m hitting the body. I do a lot of CrossFit or weight lifting, but I’m also listening to something educational. So it’s like a one, two punch hitting me every morning.

 

[00:30:36.560] – Erin

Love it. Okay. The E is your environment. So what is your ideal work environment? If you could work in the most perfect place, where are you and what are you wearing?

 

[00:30:48.860] – Sean

Well, I’m there. I’m living it. I’ve got a T-shirt on talking about finance, and my audience appreciates that because there’s no suit and ties allowed. We don’t want to be, right? And I work from home. I actually started working from home way before COVID. Probably been doing it 10 years now, and I love it. Zoom is great. We’re on Zoom right now, but my team, we’re using Slack, Zoom. It’s perfect. And in networking, everything’s digital. So I’m in my happy place for sure.

 

[00:31:17.380] – Erin

I love it. Okay. The H stands for how you want to feel. If you had the most perfect feeling that you could feel during the day, what would that feeling be?

 

[00:31:28.200] – Sean

Productive. I I love it when you’re just knocking things out that produce revenue or generate more value for customers. And it’s like, bam, bam, man, when you’re knocking things down. There are some days I know you probably have them, too. In our case, it’s very technical business. So we run into technical issues and you’re like, damn, I’ve been at it for three hours here. We can’t get a break. You’ll have those moments, but that’s just the nature of the beast. But yeah, a really good, productive day of just knocking things out. It feels great. Okay.

 

[00:32:01.090] – Erin

And then the L is the last thing you do before you go to bed. You hit your head on the pillow. What’s the L?

 

[00:32:09.720] – Sean

Really? Just hanging out with my wife. We’ll be watching a TV show or a movie. We wind down a family guy quite a bit. We’ve got darker, sarcastic personalities. So that’s our jam.

 

[00:32:23.190] – Erin

So good. I love it. So that’s it. If you can cast out your ideal vision and know the mindset that you want to have, start the day with a I am statement in the day, knowing what’s the last thing you want to do, and you have that vision of the way you want your life to look, which it sounds like you’ve crafted it. You’re doing it, which is so cool.

 

[00:32:44.360] – Sean

I’m fortunate, yeah.

 

[00:32:45.770] – Erin

Yeah, but you know you’re not fortunate. You need to take that in, Sean. You’re actually, you created this. You manifested this life that you wanted and you made it happen. So take that for a moment because you You deserve it.

 

[00:33:00.870] – Sean

I appreciate that. I thank God as well, because I tell you what, I’ve worked, and you probably not as much as me, but I’ve worked quite a few jobs I did not love. And even a few of those in there I wasn’t even good at. And I’m like, Gosh, I just want to be an entrepreneur so bad. And I knew, you’ll appreciate this, I tried, in many cases, side hustling ideas, and I knew I wasn’t going to settle. I knew I wanted something that’s subscription-based because I always liked… I I always admired Salesforce and Netflix and Mailchimp. And I’m like, I’m not doing anything else. That is what I want to do. And there’s so many other ideas that came to mind. I’m like, No, just keep that corporate job you don’t love. And you know something’s going to come together. So I bootstrap Tykr three years working a corporate job. And then finally went full-time in May of… Gosh, it’s almost been a year now. It was May of ’23. So yeah, now I’m one in the dream, literally.

 

[00:33:58.250] – Erin

That is awesome. And See, there you go. You had to take it back because you had to rethink about all of the things that you’ve done to get you here, which is so cool. And somebody listening today to hear your Ideal Day and want all of those things, and you’re showing them and inspiring them to do that. So that is awesome.

 

[00:34:19.140] – Sean

Right. Thanks, coach. You’re welcome.

 

[00:34:21.930] – Erin

I like how I turned this podcast to your interview, but no, I totally… This Ideal Day is truly a game changer. I have to tell you, there’s variations of it. The idea that I have for my own last names version was sparked through The Artist’s Way, which is a book by Julia Cameron. It’s such a good book. It helps you creatively unblock yourself, find out what it is you want from your life. The Ideal Day, she has a variation of it. I did that in 2017 and took it. Probably two years ago, I was digging through my books and I saw the visions that I had casted, and literally everything I wanted in that Ideal Day came true.

 

[00:35:11.540] – Sean

That’s awesome.

 

[00:35:12.550] – Erin

Yeah.

 

[00:35:13.320] – Sean

That’s awesome.

 

[00:35:13.810] – Erin

You can think it, you can say it, you can do it. That’s really what this whole work is about, is the mindset work. But you can’t be an effective leader. You can’t pour into somebody else’s cup if your kettle is completely dry. You have to give to yourself first. The reason I even wrote the book is because I burned myself to a crisp. I went through a massive healing journey of my own and knew that I went through it for a reason to share my findings with other people and help them guide themselves back to themselves, ultimately.

 

[00:35:52.490] – Sean

Just to zoom out a bit, there’s a lot of people out there on the surface level, they can overlook and underestimate how important mindset really is. And when I talk to entrepreneurs, it is a big part of what they do and what value they provide to others. And the end result, of course, how successful their business is. Getting that mind right is a big deal. And even when I was younger, even my 20s and part of my 30s, I was like, yeah, that mindset stuff is a bunch of BS. It’s like, no, you have to get yourself in the right mindset because there’s a domino effect that happens thereafter. And I really like you walk me through a few different examples here. Your book, it sounds like, sorry, has these frameworks really written out in detail so the listeners here, they could dive into the book and really extract these tutorials, apply them to their own life.

 

[00:36:46.980] – Erin

Yes. And that was my goal with it. I love books. I’m such a book nerd. Even growing up, back to my inner child, I read every single Babesitter’s Club book. There wasn’t an untapped Babesitter’s Club edition, Baby Sister, Little Sister. I did it all. That was when I was six years old. I was just plowing through books, but I loved books. And as an entrepreneur, I read several books that completely changed my life, that got me to become an entrepreneur, actually. The Entrepreneurial Roller Coaster by Daryn Hardy is a great one. The compound effect by Dieran Hardy played a huge role in the building of my business. But what I would do with those books is obviously would highlight them. If they had activities, I would do the activities and I would flag the pages, and I have books on my shelf now that have Post-it notes after Post-it. That’s what I wanted my book to be. I wanted it to be tangible. I wanted you to feel something. I wanted you to take action and hopefully laugh throughout the way. I do think it’s a little funny. I wanted that. I wanted you to feel like you’re talking to me.

 

[00:38:00.240] – Erin

I me, but I’m giving you advice, and it’s up to you to take it. So that’s the purpose.

 

[00:38:07.070] – Sean

I like how you describe the book, because I tell you what, I’ve read a few books, and I’ll pick it up, and it’s just bluff and filled with case studies that are just surface level. And the whole time I’m like, give me a formula. Give me the three steps or the five steps. And knowing that as you described it, you have posted notes and you’re writing in this book and highlighting. It’s like, okay, that’s That’s the type of book I’m looking for and the type of book my audience is looking for. They want to know, how do I get tactical today to start moving the needle?

 

[00:38:41.220] – Erin

Yes. I got a couple more books in me, but I’m like, I will always keep that formula because I don’t like just talking to talk. You need to give people… I love that you’re the same way. I love tangible things that I could do right now, like new choice, you can do it in a meeting today. You can literally just put your hands under the table and tell yourself, Okay, I’m not going to think this thought. I forgive you. Boom. Here’s the new one. Ideal day. Take this, write it down, and go back and actually do it and implement it and try to make your days match that, figure out how you can match your life to that frequency. I promise you it can happen. You just have to take the action to do it.

 

[00:39:25.980] – Sean

Right. Let’s take a quick commercial break. If someone tells ask you to buy a stock, the last thing you should do is buy that stock. The first thing you should do is ask why. Unfortunately, a lot of influencers on YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, or some other social media app are giving really bad stock recommendations and investment advice. The question is, how do you determine if what these people say is good advice or bad advice? That’s where Tykr can help. Tykr quickly cuts through the clutter to determine if a stock is a good or bad investment. But don’t take my word for it. Check out our Trustpilot to see what our customers have to say. As of today, we have a Trustpilot score of 4.9 out of 5. Get started today with a free trial. Visit Tykr. Com. That’s T-Y-K-R. Com. Again, Tykr. Com. All right, back to the show. A lot of great teachings in here. We’ll promote your book at the end of the episode, but we got to get to the rapid fire round. Yes. Yes. This is the part of the episode where we get to find out who Erin really is.

 

[00:40:27.600] – Erin

Here. I’m here. I’m ready. I’m I’m ready. I’m ready.

 

[00:40:30.780] – Sean

You ready? All right. If you can try to answer each question in about 15 seconds or less. Here we go. Okay. What is your favorite podcast?

 

[00:40:38.870] – Erin

The Gold Digger by Jenna Kutcher.

 

[00:40:40.830] – Sean

Okay.

 

[00:40:41.590] – Erin

Nice. She’s an entrepreneur. G-o-a-l, not Gold. G-o-a-l. Gold Digger.

 

[00:40:45.910] – Sean

Gold Digger. I’ve heard of this. Yes.

 

[00:40:48.500] – Erin

Yes. It’s wonderful for female entrepreneurs. She’s like the O-G, Female Entrepreneur podcast host.

 

[00:40:55.420] – Sean

Nice. All right. What is a recent book you read and would recommend?

 

[00:40:59.850] – Erin

I’m reading it right now. It’s called Change your schedule, change your life. Super tangible, but gets you on a sleep-eating schedule that optimizes your productivity and performance.

 

[00:41:13.880] – Sean

Love it. That’s my I am. All right, this is a fun one. What is your favorite movie?

 

[00:41:19.270] – Erin

Okay, it’s Big by Tom Hanks. Well, not by Tom Hanks. With Tom Hanks. Big with Tom Hanks. Yeah. Again, favorite childhood movie. I mean, I just love that movie. He’s manifesting. He’s speaking what he wants into life, and he becomes it. But it’s really… And it’s fun. It’s playful. It shows him embracing his inner child. So we’re back to the inner child, Sean.

 

[00:41:41.050] – Sean

What? I’ll see the post on Facebook every once in a while, and I’ll show What is it? The Genie, the machine. Yes. Oh, my God. And the caption will say, If you know, you know. And it’s like, Oh, yeah.

 

[00:41:54.590] – Erin

I got to go Google that on my Explorer page on Instagram immediately. Because that… What is it called? I know that little thing you’re talking about. He had a name.

 

[00:42:03.560] – Sean

You put the quarter in, right? I forgot the name of it.

 

[00:42:06.760] – Erin

Zimpler or something? I don’t know. Something like that.

 

[00:42:08.600] – Sean

Okay.

 

[00:42:08.700] – Erin

Something like that. But the Wizard. Yes. You’re now going to see the Wizard. And I know the whole thing, down, down, baby, down by the roller coaster. Sweet, sweet, baby. No, I’m not going to let you go. I could keep going.

 

[00:42:21.600] – Sean

But anyway, I know the whole thing that him is best to know. That’s the first time Big has ever been mentioned on this podcast.

 

[00:42:27.550] – Erin

Thank you. Good call. My dog’s name is also Big. Deal.

 

[00:42:31.270] – Sean

Is he a small dog? Is there an irony? He’s an apolipoodle. Yeah. I figured.

 

[00:42:36.630] – Erin

And the middle initials, Sean, are F-in.

 

[00:42:39.410] – Sean

Okay? All right.

 

[00:42:41.110] – Erin

There you go.

 

[00:42:41.850] – Sean

I love it. All right. More serious questions here. What is the worst advice you ever received? You got to have at least one.

 

[00:42:51.930] – Erin

I got to have one. I know. Okay. I remember I was babysitting before I moved to Chicago, and I told the woman, I’m going to move This is right after I graduated with a communications degree. She goes, Oh, that’s going to be hard. It’s a very expensive city. I wouldn’t do it. And that just made me want to move even more. I sold my car, got a job at a bar, and I took a free internship at a casting agency and got cast in a off-Broadway play that I made $50 a night, three nights a week. So basically, I was showing her what I’m doing.

 

[00:43:28.260] – Sean

That’s right.

 

[00:43:29.260] – Erin

Yes. But honestly, if I didn’t move to Chicago, I don’t know what would happen. I wouldn’t have any of this. That’s right. Yeah.

 

[00:43:35.160] – Sean

That’s actually- I love that story. That’s fun. With that equation, what’s the best advice you ever received?

 

[00:43:40.940] – Erin

Same thing. As an entrepreneur, I had a mentor His business is Parallel. It’s a managerial training company. I was set up on a coffee with him, and I was like, Man, I’m just afraid to leave my job. I’m afraid to go do this and go full out. He goes, Rip the bandaid. When you have to eat, you’ll make it happen.

 

[00:44:04.760] – Sean

Yes.

 

[00:44:05.640] – Erin

I freaking ripped it. My husband knew this guy. I came home and told him, my husband, I’m like, I’m quitting my job. He was like, What? Brad, But I did it slowly. It was a slow rip, and I’ve never looked back. I’m very happy I got that advice.

 

[00:44:23.990] – Sean

Good for you. That’s awesome. Very inspirational. All right. Thank you. Stepping into the time machine. Here we go. I’m If you could go back in time to give your younger self advice, what age would you visit and what would you say?

 

[00:44:36.120] – Erin

So much younger inner child work is happening in my life right now. So let me think about this. For some reason, the year, eight years old comes up because I moved when I was eight, and I moved to a completely new state, didn’t know a soul. And I think my advice would be, Stay true to you. And I would tell little Erin, You don’t have to conform. You don’t have to pretend. You just have to be. It’s actually going to be a much easier life if you lean into who you are versus try to be somebody else. It took me 40 years to figure that out, but once I figured it out, out. It’s been much easier. It’s been an easier ride, and I wish I knew that it ate, and it could have saved me a lot of pain and a lot of struggle, but that’s life. You got to learn the lesson. So I learned it, and hopefully- You made it to the other side.

 

[00:45:31.350] – Sean

There you go. Yes.

 

[00:45:32.650] – Erin

Great question. That’s a really good question.

 

[00:45:35.740] – Sean

On that note, there’s a lot of people… I’ll talk to friends who have a younger sibling, or I have customers that have a kid that’s in high school, college, and they’re just not finding themselves, and they’re trying to conform or duplicate or be like somebody else. It’s like, no, forget all that. Just own you. Just be you and run with it. Oh, man.

 

[00:45:58.440] – Erin

I have a five-year he’s almost five, and I watch him be him all day. He has no filter. He is very quirky, super dramatic, shocking to no one. He’s so funny, too. I’m just relishing this time with him because I know once he gets into school, it’s going to be different, and he’s going to have some shifts in question. But my dad always… I will give this prop to my dad. My dad is his own person to a fault, but he always said, Being weird is best. He goes, Because being normal is completely boring. It is. I was like, You’re right. He really taught me to lean into my weird. They never told me to tame myself. They just let it fly. Smart. Yeah. I’m grateful. I have great parents. They did the best. As you grow, you’re like, Okay, certain things. You’re like, What? Why did we do that? But they did the best with what they had and what they knew. I will say the best thing they did was just allow me to be me and not try to… When your 13-year-old says, I’m going to be Oprah Winfrey, they’re like, Good.

 

[00:47:14.270] – Erin

My mom was like, Yeah, you’ll annoy the crap out of somebody until you make it happen. She’s like, I believe you well. They never said… It wasn’t until I was like, Yeah, about to graduate college. My dad goes, Well, you ever thought of a plan B? I’m like, Now you’re asking me this, 20 grand in college loans later. There is no plan B. There’s no plan B. There is no plan B. They’ve just clapped the whole time.

 

[00:47:37.990] – Sean

That’s awesome.

 

[00:47:39.470] – Erin

Yeah. My dad’s entrepreneurial. He just retired, actually, owned his own business. He’s just one of my business heroes. He’s really taught me it’s all going to work out. I don’t know if there’s another book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Have you ever read Rich Dad, Poor Dad? Oh, yeah. Okay. So So I grew up with a rich dad, even though he didn’t really make it until later in life, his mindset was always, We’ll figure it out. And he did. That’s cool. And I’m so glad. And by the way, if you’ve not read the book, Rich Dad does not mean that he is rich. It just means that he has this entrepreneurial mindset, yes. And it’s a really fantastic book for any of your listeners who haven’t read that. It’s such a good book, but I’m grateful for those lessons.

 

[00:48:25.760] – Sean

I love that little snippet there of your parents really letting you you and leaning into it, because I’m sure that was a big factor that really helped you have the courage to get into improv, because improv can be very intimidating for a lot of people. And you’re just like, Bring it on. And your mom and dad are probably big, big thanks for that.

 

[00:48:45.140] – Erin

Yeah. No, truly. My mom is also like, she taught voice and piano out of my house. She was in community theater. She put me in community theater when I was three. So I’ve got my mom super creative. My dad is very business-oriented in an entrepreneurial mindset, so I think I got the best of both. But yeah, and I will tell you, improv scared the living crap out of me, Sean, when I first started it because I grew up on stage with a script. I grew up dancing with choreography. I really had to expose myself to it. For anybody listening who’s terrified of it, because a lot of people are, just know that’s absolutely normal. But the more you start to do it, the more it starts to really good. Then the more you start to feel good, the more you want to go. I had many horrible… I’ve been with my husband 15 years. We haven’t been married that long. We’ve been married for 10. But he saw some of the worst shows I’ve ever done in my life when I started my improv career. And then he saw the best shows, but you have to have the really shitty poopy show.

 

[00:49:53.640] – Erin

Sorry, I don’t know if you can swear on your show. The really poopy shows to be be better. And so it really taught me to be okay with failure. And I mean, I still we’re human. We all feel what failure feels like when it happens. But it taught me to bounce back much quicker.

 

[00:50:15.180] – Sean

I love the close here. We went a little longer than expected, but filled with a lot of key takeaways. But I do have to ask one more question. Where can the audience reach you?

 

[00:50:24.370] – Erin

Yes, you can find everything on my website. It’s erandeal. Com. I have a podcast, too, the Improve It podcast, so check it out on there. And you can get the book, all the socials, all the things on it’sarandeal. Com.

 

[00:50:40.640] – Sean

We’ll make sure to promote all your links down below, but that book is definitely getting added to my list. I love the tangible, the tactical we did today, and I want more of it.

 

[00:50:51.170] – Erin

Thank you, Sean. I hope it serves you. Thank you so much.

 

[00:50:55.740] – Sean

All right. Thanks, Erin. We’ll see you.

 

[00:50:57.330] – Erin

Thank you.

 

[00:50:58.550] – Sean

Hey, I’d like to say thanks for checking out this podcast. I know there’s a lot of other podcasts you could be listening to, so thanks for spending some time with me. And if you have a moment, could you please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star review. The more reviews we get, the higher this podcast will rank. All right. For the next episode.

 

[00:51:16.620] – Erin

We’ll see you.