#003 – In this episode, Erin and I discuss how impact can’t be measured in numbers. We talk through feeling the fear and doing it anyway, building a community one person at a time and the cost of not posting.
This is part 2 of the two-part series. Hope you enjoy the episode!
Have a question/comment or just want to chat? Email me at [email protected]
Highlights from this episode:
[1:27] Monthly reputation check in
[3:15] Impact can be invisible
[4:46] How to become comfortable with celebrating yourself
[10:26] Dead leaves allow for new leaves
[12:30] Weird not wide
[16:40] Cost of not posting
[20:27] When can we invest in ourselves
[22:32] Who’s worth the investment
Connect with Erin:
Website
Shift Starters Podcast
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A little bit about Erin:
Dr. Erin Baker is a transformational coach and strategic advisor to high-performing, heart-centered leaders and entrepreneurs who want to make a positive impact in the world while also creating a life they love.
Erin exceeded the 200k revenue mark in 2020 from their coaching practice.
Erin hosts a podcast called Shift-Starters and runs a membership based Facebook group
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Transcription:
ERIN BAKER
There’s the cost of not posting. There’s the fear around what if I don’t post and for me, oftentimes that becomes a greater fear.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
You are listening to the spicy Chai podcast. I’m your host, Mahrukh Imtiaz. And I’m on a journey to create inspiring, helpful and meaningful content. This podcast is not going to showcase high-profile individuals spouting college advice, like find your passion or hustle harder. Instead, my mission is to bring you the voices of people who are just a bit ahead of you. People you can relate to, and the people who will inspire you to put your own voice out there.
So grab your cup of Spicy Chai, and let’s get this show started.
Hello, so just wanted to let you know before we start the interview, this is a part two of a two part series. And although they’re not really connected, it will help you get a background on the guest. Erin, if you listen to part one, the link is in the show notes. And if not totally cool, I appreciate you.
Thank you for listening to this. And yes, enjoy the show.
ERIN BAKER
And then making sure yes, I am I take a look on a regular basis just to kind of make sure I’m on balance. If I struggle, I’m actually really good at sharing the vulnerability on the this is the struggles. You my my harder struggle is struggle, my harder thing to share is the wins. Right? So when I put out a few weeks ago that I had in two years made 280,000 and even saying here today well actually in the last few weeks now we’ve crossed 300. That’s hard for me the powerful vulnerability. So now I have recognized that that’s my my thing to work on. And I go back and look. And I actually will look at my posts and say Okay, where am I right now? Where’s the balance? Because it can over rotate.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I love that you have check in points like constant check in points. You have that with yourself when you’re being you when you’re getting a project. You have that with yourself when you’re posting. How do you establish these check in points? Like for example, someone who’s just like starting off? Who has no clue? How do you self aware?
ERIN BAKER
Yeah, does one start?
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Okay. Well, you know, because people talk about metrics a lot. Okay, know your metrics know who you’re talking to. But that gets overwhelming. How do I know? This is where I should check. This is where I need to just kind of go with the flow.
ERIN BAKER
Yeah, so I don’t there’s there’s a piece of it. That’s regular this piece of it. That’s intuitive for me at this point. But I adopted something that I learned from so the conference we met at forefront was by this guy roommates at and he has a course called Success triggers that I took many years ago and I it’s more about corporate. But one of the things he talked about, excuse me, it was a reputation check in that’s monthly. And I applied it in my corporate job of like it was really a reflection of the last month. What was my reputation that I can tell right? And what reputation do I want to cultivate? And so it helped guide me forward? It was a very similar thing I do with myself now and reputation, not quite the right word. But it’s that same idea of like, okay, how might I have been perceived over the last couple months? Where is the balance? How do I want to show up in the next month, especially right now I’m in the process of launching a couple programs. And so that shifts the balance a little bit towards where I need to, you know, focus on being more in the power, sharing a little bit of vulnerability, but more on the power side of things. And it shifts things a little bit more away from my personal life into the professional life. And so I can plan for that. And I can start making sure I’m showing up that way. And then I can go back at the end of the month and say well, how did that go?
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I really liked that the reputation check in and almost like setting it up weekly on a calendar invite. Just kind of Yeah, who loves systems?
ERIN BAKER
Yeah. And I will say I never look at the feedback. That’s one thing I don’t do. So when I was doing my 90 Day Live challenge, I had a whole spreadsheet of like likes and comments and shares and I realized how much that took me out of just a place of pure sharing into a place of let me get the engagement. And the thing that I have come to learn is it is not about the engagement numbers because maybe in one something like tick tock where it’s like views are important. I am speaking to a very specific ideal client. And of my Facebook followers. There’s only a small mall subset that are my my people. So I can’t really gauge the impact of a post that’s geared towards my ideal clients in comparison to a post that’s about, let’s say, my wife and I had our eight year dating anniversary, right? There’s that’s just gonna get more engagement.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
That’s very true. Yeah, it’s because it was right. Right.
ERIN BAKER
And it’s, it’s looking for what do I see down the line? So do I hear about that post from I had a client the other day talk about a live that I did early on in the pandemic about thriving during the pandemic that she never forgot. And now I know, okay, that was a good one, right? Or a client came to me, during the pandemic, I went live during all of April, and someone who’s now one of my favorite clients reached out didn’t even though she was following me, reached out and said, Hey, that one live you did on its concept called check engine lights really hit me, are you? I know, we’re former co workers, were you interested in working together? So for me, I am very aware that my impact is pretty invisible. Because my people may not be interacting.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Right. But they are consuming.
ERIN BAKER
They are consuming. So. Yeah, I went to before COVID Had I went to a meet up and on the elevator, a woman said, Hey, that thing you posted on LinkedIn was really, really impactful. And wait, wait, wait, I posted on LinkedIn when. So I’ve come to this idea of instead of worrying about who’s watching or how many people are watching, just assuming that they are and not knowing when it’s going to come back to me in the form of a client or someone joining a community of mine. And just assuming that if there’s something that impacted me, and I put it out there, it’s going to impact somebody else. Right?
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Hello, hello. So I’m going to just take a pause and touch on something Erin said here. One thing to mention here is that she actually went live for 90 days. And within those 90 days, she didn’t find a lot of value and go into nitty gritties of feedback, like engagement followers likes comments, but she did show up consistently for 90 days. And after that, she did a quick check in and gather feedback. So it’s important to set a timeline of 90 days, six months where you do things consistently without judging yourself, you’ve hit that timeline, that’s a point where you can go ahead and check in, she talked about the reputation check in you could do other check ins, but make sure you post consistently first. Okay, back to the interview. And there are a few things that you say you said there that I would like to unpack a little bit. Sure. So first thing you talked about your wins and how you’re very comfortable with your wins. That’s very, very, very common thing. Yes. Especially for the beginner entrepreneurs like I want to talk about wins, I don’t want to show off. My parents told me if you show off your you’re gonna stop succeeding. I’m scared. What if I don’t grow? How do you get over that? How do you continue sharing your wins? Because I know it’s very important.
ERIN BAKER
So there’s a couple of things. And I want to say this, I cannot emphasize this mindset enough. I feel the fear and I do it anyway, all the time. I think there’s this misconception that we have to get over our fears before we act. And we just don’t always and so sometimes I will close my eyes and hit post. And then I’ll run away from Facebook for a day and hope and pray. I also you know, the program I did for posting on Facebook was I was given some prompts of how to post write the post this one thing today and I let myself go well, Varian who was the person who was running the program told me to post this so I gave my like, I have permission. So it’s okay, right. But even deeper than that. I am very aware that people hire people based on what they think they can do for them. So I’m coming at this from the coaching perspective as a one on one service provider, right? So people hire me, because they think I can get them where they want to go. Right right. I hired my mentor because I knew what she had done in her wins. If I don’t put those out there how are people going to know that I can help them
Mahrukh Imtiaz
right so like attracting your people,
ERIN BAKER
right so like if I don’t put out there how much money I’ve made, and there’s someone out there who wants to hire a coach to help them make more money. That’s true. I they won’t they won’t know right? If I don’t put out there that I’m fully booked in my one on one practice. That’s actually intentional. Oh, it’s it’s hard for me to put out there. It’s intentional to create though Oh, she must be really good. Great. Yeah, right. And so the more I can remind myself that this is a service to my potential client, I am signaling to them, that I can help them this then it becomes so much less about me and me bragging,
Mahrukh Imtiaz
right? This is a service to other people, you putting your wins out there helps other people and even if it’s not thinking of you as a coach or someone that they could hire, it’s someone that they would like to follow just because your wins are somewhere they want to get at like, for example, me losing weight. Currently don’t plan to be a weight loss coach, but someone right, want that result and might want to follow me. Yeah, if I don’t put my win out there. How will they know? So
ERIN BAKER
totally, and there’s a there’s a an effect, right? Where they can see, oh, she lost weight that she must have some sort of thing figured out about life. Right together. And I will say one of the things that I also really adhere to one of my mentors, his name is Rich Libin will say constantly, it’s not bragging if it’s true. We have this societal thing against talking about our wins as if they’re egotistical. But it’s just truth. I created this much money. It’s bragging if I say I created this much money, and I’m better than you and they don’t even know boo boo. Yeah, no, but so many of us use. Yeah, so many of us are afraid of that, that people are gonna perceive us as filling in that last part of the sentence. Right. And I’m better than you.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
And that also goes back to NFP, there are certain people who still will, you know, yeah, yeah, they might be was oh my god, what a bragger. Or I’ve seen honestly some comments as well, when people are in their nice car and talking about it. And there’s people commenting like, Wow, what a show off. Right. And but that says more about the commenter? Yes. So there is a possibility that people will think that, but it’s about you understanding that there’s a difference.
ERIN BAKER
And they’re not your people that exactly are not your people, right. And so there’s, here’s another metaphor, I really like. A lot of us are trying to prevent the dead leaves from falling away from our tree. And the problem is those dead leaves, those are hurt on not our people, right? Don’t allow for the growth of the new leaves. Right? So we’re trying so hard not to lose the people who aren’t our people that we can bring in the people who are. So there’s somebody out there who’s going to see that car, that nice car, and they’re not gonna say show off and go, How did that person do that? Let me follow them.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Exact right? One, that exact car, I want that journey. And it goes back to even posting because, I mean, I had this problem. When I started posting, there were two or three people in my mind. And I was like, I don’t want them to see it. Like I don’t. Yeah, I don’t want those two or three people to see my posts. And then I remember like, this was a Wednesday wonders conversation. Everyone was like, Well, yes, those three people will see it regardless, you can block them, yes, I can block them from my social media. They’ll see it regardless. But what about those strangers that you might not even know of that might get some value out of those posts that you’re not even thinking about?
ERIN BAKER
Right? Yeah, it’s, it’s who’s missing out. And I think what you say to also brings up another thing that’s really important, when we start making content, it’s really easy to want to speak to everybody. And a lot of content creators do have these bigger aspirations, right? I’d love to reach 1000s, hundreds of 1000s Millions. And the more you try to speak to too many people, the more you’re not gonna be able to say anything is the it’s called, like the least common denominator programming problem, right, as you’re trying to find the thing that’s most appealing to the most people, which becomes completely boring, and not actually you. And so it’s really about for me, yeah, I would love to eventually have this huge community. And I don’t know what that means. I know if it’s 1000s or more. But I’m building it one person at a time. And I’m thinking about that one person I can impact and and then other person I can impact and like, the more I can speak to those few people. That’s the real impact.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Yes. And that that brings up like the idea of scarcity versus abundance. Because for me when I started thinking, Okay, well, maybe I should talk to this one particular person, someone who wants to lose weight, someone who wants to be a content creator or somebody who wants to also make a lot of money doing traveling for cricket. Very, very specific things, but I was like, I can’t find many people who want all those three or four things like what are the chances I will find that But what I’ve noticed is there are so many people out there who want those exact things. So people who fit in that niche, so people that haven’t even tapped, they’re like, Oh, I really like that, because you fit into all four categories.
ERIN BAKER
Yeah, so it’s a lot more people out there than you think. And yeah, the more you can go, so we’re not wide is another thing rich, Levin says, you know, the more you can tap into those things that are truly you, the more you’re going to actually find the right people, and that there’s more people out there. And then I like this concept of one of the reasons I’ve been, I’ve moved away from posting in my Facebook group that I was giving you a lot of free content there into the regular Facebook realm now is this idea of the splash zone, right. So there’s the people in your world that don’t necessarily fit all four of those, right there right on the periphery. And there’s something about you, that they’re really attracted to. And that happens to me on my Facebook, too. So a couple of my one on one clients don’t fit, who I quote unquote, market to, but they were in the splash zone of receiving my content, there was something relatable and turns out, I really just like coaching people, I like humans a lot. So we ended up working together. And I think about just even if they’re never my clients the impact I can have, by really focusing on that core niche of people and then that splash zone, and then that’ll get bigger and bigger. And it’s better to me and my world to have deeper impact with fewer people, then kind of be somebody that people kind of like, for a million people. Right?
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Yes. I love that. And the other thing that you mentioned was you posting on on Facebook, so like, you know, so you have a lot of personal contacts and your Facebook, your family, your friends. When people when they start off, that’s where they really start, they start with their personal pages, not a lot. Not everyone creates another extra Instagram or Facebook, they want to leverage their networks. But then there’s this thing of, but I don’t want to I’m okay with strangers, knowing all my content, I don’t want my family and friends to know. Right? How do people get over that fear?
ERIN BAKER
I don’t know how you get over that. I don’t think you get over that fear. I think you decide whether you’re willing to. So there’s this other concept of, you know, we talked about the people who would be missing out if you didn’t post, right, because of those three people you don’t want to see. There’s the cost of not posting. There’s the fear around what if I don’t post? And for me, oftentimes that becomes the greater fear. The cost of not helping people for me, my heart can’t. Right. So the cost of not posting or the fear of what if I don’t outweighs the fear of what happens with friends and family? And yeah, granted, there are some people in my family that don’t get it. And if they want to have a conversation, sure, why not? You know, my wife’s uncle at one point said that my posts are intense, but he loves me anyway. And I just I remember having that oh, God, I’m intense. And that we been like, he’s not my people. He’s my family that he’s my extended, you know, in law family. But yeah, I don’t get past the fear that this is a huge, huge mindset shift on everything is if you can realize that we can still feel fear and do things anyway. And that the more we try to get over our fears, and then don’t that’s actually creating a negative thought spiral, right? Like, why can’t I get over this? What’s wrong with me, I must not be courageous enough. And the more we try to tamp down a fear, it’s like, if I tell you to not think about white bears, what do you do? Do think all you’ll do is think about white bears. So if you’re telling yourself, don’t be afraid, all it’s going to happen is that fear is going to well up and project itself even more. So it’s about being able to hold that fear. And I have all kinds of other strategies, which is for another day of how to like minimize those fears, because that they still happen. Agreed. But the cost of not one is huge. And if I’m connected to my why, again, why am I here? Why am I serving? Right? It’s it’s a lot easier to handle the the things that I’m scared of,
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Right. And the common theme with you is again, you feel the fear and you’re still extremely scared and you do it anyway. And the one thing that you did that weird was investing in yourself. So you invested in yourself before your business gave back from my understanding, is that correct? Yes. So there that’s also another thing I hear a lot with beginner content creators don’t To invest until you start making money. No. And I want to agree with that exactly. So what would you say to people who say that like, Hey, I’m only going to invest in myself once I start making money? What would you say?
ERIN BAKER
Oh, there’s so many things. First of all, you’re telling yourself a story about when you’re worth investing in. Ooh, I love that. Right? Yes. The other piece is, I couldn’t have done some of these things alone, I just couldn’t have stretched myself, I wouldn’t have done a 90 day live challenge. You know, I think about there’s two really main things when you’re building a business, and it’s your yourself. And it’s the strategy of what you’re doing. And I actually break it into four different asses. But there were things strategically, I didn’t know what to do, I could have looked around, but everybody in their brother wants to sell the formula. That’s true, everybody. And they’re competing formulas, right. And then on the self, I couldn’t have known where I got in my own way, right, I couldn’t have known where I had limiting beliefs where I had fears, where I had doubts. And so part of me just really couldn’t have gotten to a place where my business was ready to pay for my coaching, without the coach. So I personally think the minute you start building something, it’s time to invest. And that doesn’t mean you have to invest in a one on one coach. And there’s a lot of different coaches who will sell a whole lot of things. So you want to know what you’re looking for?
Mahrukh Imtiaz
And that’s the other question. Yeah. How do you know the difference between there’s this is the coach for me, where is this? Like, you know, how do you know what’s a good coach? What’s a good investment?
ERIN BAKER
Yeah, so this is where I have really leaned into a couple things, one, connection, right, connecting with the person and seeing have they been there? Do they get it? Have they done the things that I want to do? Or did they have similar ways of, you know, have they gotten in their own way, that kind of thing. But that’s actually less important to me, then one thing that I think it’s fundamental, and I think you will not hear this from a lot of coaches, my job as a coach, and so I work with mission driven business, right, and some people who are startups, leaders, that kind of thing. The one thing I believe in, is that there are as many ways to build a business, as there are people on this planet. And so my job is not to hand somebody a map. My job is to help them develop their own. Right. And so I help them think through and that doesn’t mean I give them the menu of all the possible things they could do. I also, I only work with people who are self starters enough to go out and do their own research and say, here’s a bunch of different strategies, right? And then we come back, and we experiment, and we go, okay, I tried, I tried LinkedIn for a bit, didn’t like it. It wasn’t about fear. I just didn’t like it. And so I moved on to a different strategy. And my mentor is doing the same thing with me, right, building up my own. What’s fun for me building up my own trust in my decision making process, building up my own strategies and processes for finding my path. And so I would say to anyone out there looking for guidance, don’t hire that person who’s going to give you the four step formula, because yes, that formula worked for them. But that worked for them under very specific conditions that are only relevant to them. Right? Go find the people who will help you develop your business your way, there is no reason for us to be stepping out as content creators, as coaches as leaders into more visibility, if it isn’t something that’s lighting us the fuckup I agree. And the only way to know what led to the fuckup is to do it your way.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Agreed. Agreed. And that’s something I would like to break down a little bit. So say I’m starting a tic tock, you know, and I now I’m I want to invest in myself, I want to find a coach. Yeah. Where would I go? Like, do I go to Google? Do I search best coaches? Do I Instagram coaching and then go to hashtag like, could you break it down for someone who, let’s say was listening to this and really wouldn’t want to find a good coach?
ERIN BAKER
Hmm, that’s a good question. Because I build my business, for the most part through word of mouth. And so for people who come to my Facebook, I would say, if you’re looking to invest in a coach, it’s go follow someone Who’s doing what you’re doing? Right. So there are content creators all over the planet on Facebook, one of your former mentors, right? The holistic psychologist, yes has blown up. I would say before deciding who to hire, go find content that you resonate with. And you’re bound to find someone who is a coach who has the same content. So follow your your curiosity for content and you’ll find a coach. I like that follow everything and follow everything go down the rabbit hole, right? That’s what I did with my current mentor is I actually found her you recommended a book called the prosperous coach, which was written by Steve Chandler and rich Litvin. I looked up reg live, and afterwards found out he had a very, very nice British accent. And he was very attractive, even though I’m mad, I was gonna say, Oh, really queer. But then I saw a video he did with this woman named Christina Berkeley, and I went down the rabbit hole of everything rich ever did, I went down the rabbit hole of everything Christina ever did. And lo and behold, those are my two mentors. Now I’m in. I just finished my second year working with Christina as my one on one coach, and I’m in Rich’s community of high level coaches. And it’s because I went down the rabbit hole. And just, as soon as I saw all their content, I was like, I know enough now to reach out and explore. And I did that with some other coaches too. And they’re not necessarily my coaches. And a lot of it was looking for. I’m a critical thinker on this. How much do I agree with what they’re saying? How much does that align with my own philosophy of how I want to grow my business so rich, and Christina as well come from pure service. They talk about you can build a business without marketing and it doesn’t have to be salesy and it’s it all comes from this place of heart that appealed to me. Not necessarily I don’t have to mark it, but like that, that it’s possible to have a truly service based truly heart centered business and be successful. Yeah,
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I really like that. I’d like to add that there are times when people don’t even post that their coaches like when I reached out to Dr. Nicola para the holistic psychologist, I can DM her. Hey, are you? Are you available for one on one coaching? And see? She said yes. So a lot of times, yeah, people who are searching just when you connect with just DM them? Hey, yeah, one on one coaching, what are your charges? What are your rates? Or can I talk to you just conversation?
ERIN BAKER
Yeah, absolutely. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people. And you never know when you might actually spur someone to become a coach. Say I have a the the forefront I went to before the one I met you at I met a friend and she’s an artist. And now she’s doing coaching because somehow some way someone started asking her for advice on building an art based Instagram business. And so now she’s into coaching. And it’s because somebody gave her that Oh, so you never know. Yeah. So you never know you when you might spur someone to expand their services.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I really, really love that. All right. Well, it’s been a great conversation. So I’m Yes. going to ask you one final question. Okay, Aaron, two years ago, who was diving into this entrepreneurship world? What advice would you give her? What is something that you know, now that you did not know two years ago?
ERIN BAKER
What’s immediately coming to me, and it came up again today in a conversation is this stuff takes time. And one of the things I didn’t know until I experienced it was that you’re always planting seeds. And the expectation of the new content creator or business owner is that there’s this payoff really quickly, right? I put something out there and it gets a return, right. And my business, I worked really hard to plant a lot of seeds, but so much of my and I did really well my first year, but so much of this past year and the pandemic was seeds I planted last year. And I went to a conference right before the main lockdown and six months later, someone I met there says, Hey, I have a potential client for you. I used to coach her dad. So it’s a conflict of interest. Are you interested? I didn’t go to that conference to get clients. I went for other things. And so what I want to say is, you’ve got to be really thinking long game you’ve got a knot you don’t know what seeds you plant will will spring up you don’t know when they’ll spring up. You’ve just got to have faith and it really does take just like 90 Day Live took 90 days to figure out if I liked going live. It takes years and I’ve heard from people, you know that it can take a couple more years than you think like some of my coach friends really didn’t build their communities took 568 years. So just be committed to doing things that you just don’t know if and when they’ll pay off. And I guarantee some of them well, I love surprising, surprising times.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
It’s, it’s it goes back to working hard every day. But having the patience long term is when this will work out in one way or the other. So thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you so much for Hi, it’s me again. So you can clearly see that I didn’t ask Erin, where you can find her online. Oops, my bad. Anyway. So basically, let me tell you now, you can go to her website, Erin e r i n m. m for Mikayla Baker ba ke r.com.
All right back to the episode. Being a wonderful self. The common theme definitely was feel the fear and do it anyway. I love that. So for those of you who have subscribed to the show already, thank you so much. And for those who haven’t, please subscribe. Today I am meeting people like Erin, having great conversations with them and there’s so much gold that I don’t want you to miss. So please hit the subscribe button and I will see you next week.
Hey you thanks for listening to Spicy Chai. I really appreciate it. And to make sure you never miss an episode subscribe to the podcast, the obvious. And if you want to learn more, head over to mahrukhimtiaz.com and until next time my friend hit the record button or you know the publish lots of love from your favorite.
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