340 Life Update! This week was CHAOS (a true 10x leap!) + LinkedIn Success Strategies
A crazy month of Septemberβ¦
How I balanced motherhood and my business
It's a solo show! Catching you up on where I've been, how wild September has been, and what I'm doing to recover.
Kelsey also chats about...
Event Dress Codes: how I feel about formal attire (& why our upcoming event is a casual vibe)
The Balance of Motherhood and Business - it's a constant juggle
My current LinkedIn Posting Strategy & the results that I am getting + learning experience
The T.A.P.E Framework for posting & creating content
Resources Mentioned:
Book Recommendations: 10x is Easier Than 2x by Benjamin Hardy.
Practice Better Summit: https://sites.practicebetter.io/summit
Huberman Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5lNlCvQ3dHrGr9Aphr2wE1?si=7f141e6fa2224c2eο»Ώ
Birth Story Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/322-revealing-my-entire-birth-story-visionarymama/id1333216975?i=1000647945005
Elora Entrepreneur Event
The WAVEβ’ Meetup in Elora, Ontario is your chance to escape the everyday routine, spark creativity, and fuel your entrepreneurial spirit alongside 14 other fellow female entrepreneurs. It's not just another day at the officeβit's a day designed for ambitious women ready to make waves in their industries.
Part coworking, part retreat, part connection.
Ready to Make Waves?
Join us for the WAVEβ’ Meetup and prepare to end the year with purpose and plan to enter 2025 with unstoppable momentum.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 25TH 10-2PM
Get Your Ticket: https://app.moonclerk.com/pay/6q2txs2nudxq
Episode Time Stamps:
[00:00] How inspiring interviews can ignite your visionary potential.
[13:57] How booking speaking gigs can convert into more Instagram followers
[18:42] Testing out a new content creation framework called T.A.P.E - Truth, Alternative, Proof, Engagement Strategy
[24:11] Preparing 3 presentations last-minute
[36:32] Entrepreneurship and health journeys are non-linear growth.
[38:23] Great reads on entrepreneurship, mindset and learning
[52:07] The power of a mastermind can help you overcome business limitations.
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You are listening to the Visionary Life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Reidl.
Each week, I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures, and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship.
This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires.
If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode, it's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us. You know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up.
I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down, down inside of you.It's in you. It's in all of us.
Let's dive in. Hey, visionaries. Welcome back to the show.
I am so glad that I'm publishing this episode, because I've definitely been away the last couple weeks, as most of you know. Cause you've been around the show for a while. I am in a season of motherhood and really gifting myself the opportunity to be less strict with my routines after eight years of being mega consistent in the business.
And so hence why you haven't seen an episode from me. But here I am.I am sitting down while my little guy is napping. It is a Friday as I record this, and I don't usually have care on Fridays, so I'm sitting down.
There's a loose plan, but I just want to fill you in on what's been going on, where I'm at, what's coming up, and just connect with you guys, because it's been a couple weeks. So let's dive into today's episode. It's a bit of a random show, but sometimes these solo random shows end up being the ones that I get the most feedback on, the most comments on, because it's just real talk.
So I want to first start by sharing that. Oh, my goodness. I am a little bit tired.I stayed up later than I ever have since having a baby last night.
So we went to a cancer fundraiser in Kitchener, close to where I live. And my mother in law had actually purchased a ticket to buy a table at this fundraiser. And it was a girls night out. It was hosted at a golf course, and it was a black tie event, so I borrowed a dress from my sister in law. I literally looked in my closet. I don't know if anyone feels this way after becoming a mom. You don't know what fits.You have not worn fancy clothes in a while, right? Like, for the last year and a half, really, I have not been dressing up because I was pregnant. So if I was going out while pregnant, I was wearing specific dresses that fit my belly.
And then in the last nine months of Freddie's life, I'm getting puked on, I'm getting spit on. He's eating hummus and throwing it at me. And so I don't wear nice clothes, and I don't go to a lot of fancy functions. So when I got invited to this black tie event, I'm like, oh, my goodness, I either have to go shopping. And I don't know about you, but shopping with a nine month old doesn't sound like my dream come true day. First of all, I do not love going to the mall.I think I've been to a mall maybe twice in the last five years, which is almost kind of comical. And I also don't love shopping online. So where that leaves me is that I just don't really have nice clothes.
So I knew I'd either have to go shopping or borrow. So thank goodness, Leslie, I owe you a big, big round of applause for saving the day and sharing your beautiful, sparkly, long black dress with me and bringing me jewelry and bringing me a clutch purse, because the only clutch that I seem to have had was this little coach purse. Sorry, guys. I'm laughing to myself. Cause it's like I'm good at many things.I'm definitely not good at styling myself. So I'm just gonna admit that to you, that if you meet me in real life or if you see me at an event, I will not be the best person, the best dressed person in the room. But that's fine. Something's gotta give in life in this stage and wardrobe and style, and having a perfect makeup look and having good hair is what's got to give in my life. So it's all good.
Hey, visionary. I want to interrupt this episode to share a little bit more about one on one coaching. I work with clients who want to stay on top of the latest marketing trends, who want to bring more ease into their marketing funnel or just build a marketing funnel in the first place, because maybe you don't have one yet and ultimately take the effort and overwhelm out of your marketing plan. I know your energy is limited, and you just want someone to tell you what to do? Should you be on threads? Should you be creating on TikTok? How do you grow an email list? What does SEO mean? Anyways, this is why I offer private one on one business and marketing coaching for business owners like you who need.
Help with their marketing strategy.
You can head to kelseyreidl.com privatecoaching to learn exactly what it's going to look.
Like if we decide to work together.
And I'm excited because I can give you the precise strategies that will take your business to the next level this year. So if you want to learn more, kelseyridel.com privatecoaching of course, it is a bit more of an investment than any of my other courses or offerings, but my private clients are seeing crazy results. Christina landed a six figure consulting contract. Emily signed six clients in one day. Barb had a Black Friday sale that generated a lot of money, and these are all based on the strategies that we've implemented. So kelseyridel.com private coaching, you can learn all about it. You can see all of the amazing, visionary businesses that I've worked with and supported over the last decade, and I can't wait to see see your application come through. Kelsey Rydell.com privatecoaching now back to the episode.
Anyways, so this coach purse that I had from ten years ago, I went to put my iPhone in it, and it's like, you know, back then, iPhones were so small, so the new iPhones don't fit in these old coach clutch purses. So anyways, thank goodness some of my family and friends have really good style and are willing to lend me their stuff because I was able to have an outfit brought to me, I put it on. I felt good about myself. And, you know, besides the fact that my boobs are imbalanced right now because I'm feeding off of one boob. So to wear a low cut dress that was, like, showing off my chest, I was like, wow, people are gonna wonder what the heck's going on. But anyways, that's the season we're in. We are just doing it imperfectly. We are having fun.
So we go to this fundraiser. It was so fun. It really gave me a lot of insight on how to host epic events. And I have an invite for all of you coming up to come to an event. Not a fancy event, don't worry. But it was just so well run. There was a vendor area, there was the way. Let's just rewind from the moment you walked into this golf course venue.
There was a photo shoot opportunity. There was somebody handing out an agenda so that you knew exactly how the night was going to go. There was somebody handing out glasses of champagne and kind of just welcoming you with a big, bright smile and saying thank you for coming. And then there was visually so much to see. When you walked into the room, there was a beautiful patio that you could step outside for fresh air. There were speeches, but not too many speeches. There was a mix of serious talks, but also, like, really inspiring fun talks as it related to cancer research, and there were door prizes, but as they were calling out the numbers, they were cracking jokes so it didn't feel very monotonous. So anyways, yeah, just some really cool insights and takeaways.
But why I'm telling you this is that I stayed up till about 1230 or almost 01:00 a.m. last night, which, if you know me, is like staying up all night because I'm usually in bed by nine, maybe 09:30 p.m. so it was a stretch. But I feel like once in a while it is so nice to just get out of the house and let loose, whatever that version is for you. I probably do this like once every couple of months. I just give myself permission to just go ham, like, eat whatever you want. Like, I basically just ate cookies for dinner last night and cake pops because that's what I wanted to do. I've just been coming off a busy week and I had a glass of wine, I had a glass of champagne.
I just indulged and had fun and laughed and forgot about, you know, the stress of whatever was going on in my brain. So sometimes letting loose can just be so, so therapeutic. Now, why did this feel so good? Why was I needing to cut loose a little bit? I actually just came off my busiest week of work since having Freddie. So I've been taking a modified maternity leave, which, honestly, at this point, I don't even know. As an entrepreneur, I work every single day. Whether I know it or not, I'm always thinking about business. I have my laptop open, Freddie goes to bed, and I am, like, diving right into my emails. I'm responding to clients, I'm building websites, I'm helping to facilitate a discussion.
I'm looking for opportunities. Like the brain of a business owner never shuts off. And if it's not one thing, it's the next. And even when we tell ourselves to take a day off, my husband has been telling me that since I finished my last presentation on Wednesday night. And here I am working and yesterday I was working even though I needed a rest or wanted a rest. But it's okay. Like, this is who I am at my core. I take micro rest all the time throughout the day so that I never actually feel burnt out because I just try to weave good stuff through my days.
But anyways, rewind a little bit. So I would say July and August was pretty steady for me. I was working on finishing a lot of one on one client contracts and I also was taking a lot of time to enjoy my life. And what I noticed about August, and I actually told my business besties this, Krista and Steph, is that I turned on Google Ads in August because I realized I had a few openings for new coaching clients. And so I previously was not taking on new ones just because I had a full roster of almost 14 clients all through the spring and then into summer. And then come August I was wrapping up a bunch of contracts. So I turn on Google Ads and all of the sudden my applications for one on one clients go drastically down, which is really odd for me because I'm normally getting a few applications a week and getting on discovery calls and seeing if it's a good fit. I turn on the Google Ads, applications come to a halt, which is really weird.
I'm like, you'd think by turning on my Google Ads I know how to optimize them. You'd think that I'd see more. But in discussing in our little business group chat, I really think that when people are searching for a business coach or a marketing coach, they are sensitive to the sponsored ad. Like to the person who shows up at the top who's paying for a Google advertisement. I really think my secret sauce was in being the number one or number two or number three on Google for organic search. And the moment somebody saw an ad, I think they were a bit sensitive. It's like, oh well, is Shedden really that good that she'd be on page one of Google or is she just paying to be there? So all that to say, I ended up recently turning off my Google Ads. But what I was observing was that over the course of August, I was actually getting more speaking opportunities and opportunities to do facilitation and training for B two B clients.
So corporate trainings and less one on one coaching. So I was kind of just like leaning into this, following the nudges, exploring different contract opportunities, some of which I'll share more about in a future episode. But it was really exciting to me to be asked to speak on stages and to do more like consulting training for groups of franchisees, or for groups of independent contractors, for a financial agency. And this is something that's been on my vision board for a couple of years and something I've been chatting with my husband about, like how can I make a greater impact? Like how can I work with a headquarters who facilitates trainings for hundreds of franchisees across North America? And so these types of opportunities started to open up. And what I was seeing too was that speaking gigs were coming back virtual. So back in August and early September, I actually started to book a few speaking gigs into the calendar. And just as it so happened, they all landed within a 24 hours period. I don't know, I didn't realize this at the time, but the first speaking gig was for a community of vintage store owners.
So people who have antique shops, who have thrift shops, consignment shops, vintage stores online, in person. And so I booked that speaking gig and the topic was how to convert your Instagram followers into a paying client or paying customer, and then how to upsell to them. And so I booked that one first and that was awesome. The second speaking gig was part of a larger contract that I signed back in the spring, and it's a twelve month contract where I'm delivering marketing training to a group of franchisees. And so they, I let them vote on the topic each month and they wanted to talk about experiential marketing, so offline marketing strategies and how to create in person experiences that convert into customers. So we booked that gig for the night after the vintage community, and that was going to be a two hour training. So that's a long time. And then so funny, because I've been feeling very, just disenchanted by Instagram lately.
I've been on Instagram for eleven years. I used to build my business a lot on Instagram, but lately I just use it for fun. I post with a lot less strategy these days just because I just try to keep it light. I post what's on my mind, but I'm not necessarily trying to sell my services to people on Instagram. And I just feel less and less enthused by it, you know, like it's just a weird world on Instagram. Or maybe the world that I'm in with coaching and consulting people are like announcing how much money they make and then trying to sell you the dream and that's how they're making the money. And I, they don't understand the difference between revenue and profit and they're telling you they make this much, but their profit is actually so much less so. Regardless, I was just like, Instagram's a weird world.
So I have been, over the past few years actually diving more into Twitter and LinkedIn, but I was the definition of a passive user of LinkedIn. I found people I liked, a lot of them in the natural health space because that's my background and I would just follow them. I absolutely loved seeing what people in the natural health space were posting on LinkedIn in order to build their personal brand, which then helped them build the product based business. The examples that I always give are of midday squares. They have a three person founder team. They all build a personal brand, but it makes me want to buy their product. Like, I was working at Starbucks the other day. I was wanting to grab a snack.
While I was there. I saw they sell midday squares. And I buy that product because I genuinely love the founders and the story that they tell. And I've actually had them on the podcast. If you scroll back, two years ago, I interviewed Jake Carl's, Nick Saltarelli and Leslie Carls of midday Squares. We did an in person interview in Toronto at the Canadian Health Food association conference, and I just love them and they are making waves. They are so good at connecting with their customers. They will literally voice note me on Instagram.
Like, how cool is that? And so I really admired what they were doing with LinkedIn in that space. I also interviewed Mike Fada. He is the founder of Manitoba Harvest, had a nine figure exit. Now he is a mentor to CPG founders, and I love the way he does LinkedIn. It makes me feel really connected with him. I love seeing his daily updates. So finally, at the beginning of September, I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to lean into LinkedIn more. I'm on here every day.
I love the platform. I wonder what opportunities await if I just start posting more. And so I gave myself a loose challenge because. And I say loose because I'm in a season of motherhood. Like, I am a full time mom. I work as a mother, and I also am working full time as a business owner. Like, it is this duality that I love holding. But that also means something has to give.
And if that means I break that challenge that I gave myself and don't post one day, that's okay. I'm not in a season of perfection. So anyways, I start posting regularly on LinkedIn, and I'm following a framework that I always follow, which is to share something that's like a truth or a spicy take. And then I share an alternative. So, like, what is my version? Or what is my opinion on what's a better way? So truth and then alternative. And then I share proof or a story. Like I open up for content on why I'm sharing this or a success I've had or something that recently happened and how I applied this truth to my life. And then I ask for engagement.
So I call this the tape framework. T a p e share a truth. Share the alternative to that truth, then share some proof or a story, and then share engagement. Like asking for someone to comment or a call to action or where to go to sign up. So the tape framework. And if you scroll back in my LinkedIn post, I actually explain this further and share an example of it. So I sit down every day in September, I write these posts, and I just start seeing, like, is anyone listening? Are my impressions going up? Who's commenting? And I'll tell you, for the first couple weeks, barely any comments, barely any engagement. I'm like, yeah, I know my people are on here, but like, am I inspired to keep posting? But I keep posting and I keep commenting on other people's posts.
You guys, I looked at my impressions and, you know, this is an arbitrary metric. Like, what is an impression? Did someone actually read it or they just see it? But it's incredible. Over the past four weeks of posting consistently, I've gone from like 10, 20, 90 impressions a week to upwards of 2000 impressions a week. I went from not having many conversations or DM's that were impactful to landing a speaking gig at practice better summit with 10,000 attendees. With Mark Hyman as the keynote speaker, I reconnected with people I haven't talked to in a couple of years. I am having really insightful discussions with people that I otherwise don't have a connection with on any other platform. And so I'm feeling really lit up around LinkedIn. If you want to find me on LinkedIn, I'm just Elsireidel.
You can find my profile. And what I did initially was I just went and like, zhuzhed up my profile. I got a new profile photo. I made a banner on canva.
Hey, visionary. I want to interrupt this episode to invite you to an in person event in Elora, Ontario. If you're tired of the same four walls of your home office and you're ready to be inspired by a community of like minded women, then I want to invite you to spend a half day with us, engaging in the delightful company of other female entrepreneurs in a cozy cafe while masterminding connecting and having some time for that focused work that you've been craving. The wave meetup in Elora, Ontario is your chance to escape the everyday routine.
To spark creativity and to fuel your.
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So get out your phone right now.Mark the day in your Google calendar and I can't wait to see you there. Kelseyreidl.com mastermind to grab your ticket.
Updated my tagline, the links, so I made sure everything was relevant and exciting. And then I just started posting. Like, the only way to learn a platform is to post and get your feet wet to study what catches your attention. So I know a lot of my clients right now. I don't know if it's my energy or my energy with their energy, but we're all feeling lit up around LinkedIn right now. So that's really, really cool. And I honestly think I can attribute and you know, maybe I should do a little bit of background digging. But this is where I got the initial message about speaking at the practice better summit from the founder of that clean life who is now the growth head at practice better, which is a patient software.
And so Abigail reached out and she said, hey, do you have any interest at speaking in speaking at the summit? And so I actually took this message and I ran with it. I sent her examples of my work. I gave her immediately three topics that I could speak on. And I took this message really seriously because I'm like, I would love to speak at this summit. So, because that would be probably one of my biggest virtual stages, I really wanted to show up and try and prove that this would be a valuable decision for practice, better to bring me on as a speaker. And so all this to say, I said yes to the opportunity. When they offered it to me, they wanted me to speak on one of my topic ideas, which was five ways to make to, sorry, let me restart that. Five ways to sign 25 clients in the next 25 days.
This is a topic that I've delivered in many ways, shapes and forms before, over the last, I don't know, however many years that I've been teaching it, probably about four years that I've taught this, and this time, I just knew. I just wanted to refine the material and make it specific to health professionals. You guys, I spent so long preparing the slide deck for this. Like, I really poured my heart and soul into it. And it just so happens, when they gave me my speaking time for the practice better summit, it was smack dab in the middle of the Tuesday night presentation and the Wednesday night presentation, it was Wednesday afternoon. Okay. Just needed some coffee there. So, of course, I don't have a choice.
The summit dates have already been announced. So I'm like, yes, that sounds good. So now I have three unique presentations in the span of 24 hours. I had people say, like, most people would burn out after one presentation, but here I was just in this crunch time. So a few weeks leading up to the presentation, I start assembling my brain dump documents, where I basically just am, like, starting a document called practice better summit notes, vintage seller, community presentation notes, and then the other franchisee thing that I was doing, and I just start dumping ideas. Like, any time I felt like I had a clear thought process going on, I would just scribble notes, I would type things up, and I would start building the slide decks. I'm a very visual person, and so I just use Google Slides, and I would take slides from old presentations, dump them in, and just start putting together my ideas. I knew that I could have started preparing earlier, but I am somebody who works better under pressure.
And honestly, a lot of these gigs didn't get booked until weeks before. So couple weeks leading out to these three presentations, I'm starting to feel like, all right, I need to schedule a little extra childcare. I need to ask my husband for support, and I do well. But obviously, without that, like, intense time pressure, somehow my brain just doesn't feel like I need to stay up late in the weeks leading up. Then I'm about seven days out, and I'm like, holy shit, I am full time moming. But I also have these three presentations coming up. I'm probably going to need to really kick things into high gear. So I start, you know, taking time in the evenings and anytime Freddie's napping, and it's my first priority to build out these slide decks.
And I have due dates to send out the final slide presentations and to get organized. So I'm going. I'm going, I'm going. When Monday hits. So this is the Monday, before my Tuesday and Wednesday presentations, I am, like, full blown, like, panic mode. I'm looking at my calendar. I know I have time scheduled in, but I'm also a full time mother. And I'm going to keep saying that because it's like, if you've been in that situation where your kid basically dictates your schedule, you're kind of making plans also with the.
I guess also with the open mindedness that plans could change, and you have to be accepting of that, and you have to lean into your kids schedule because they kind of tell you what they want, and I'm okay with that. So we lead up to Monday. I decide to get up early on Monday. I'm pouring into my presentation. I get up early on Tuesday. I set my 05:00 a.m. alarm clock. And that's my best working hours.
Five to 07:00 a.m. five to 08:00 a.m. so I'm working again. I show up for the presentation on the Tuesday night. It goes really, really well. I was super, just grateful. Christina, if you ever listen to this, I just admire the business you've built. Thank you for trusting me to come into your community.
But I'm feeling a little. I don't know how to describe it. Like, if you ever feel unwell, if you don't sleep enough, even if you're taking care of yourself. I even went for a trail run on Monday night with our local trail running group. I'm like, I will never sacrifice my health at the expense of work. That is one thing that I feel very strongly about. And if you're inside of our wave mastermind community, you know, that's a pillar that we really prioritize, too, with all of us female entrepreneurs that are in there. And so I'm starting to feel a little thrown off just because when I don't sleep that great, I just feel generally, like, acidic in my body, if that makes any sense.
But I get through the presentation Tuesday. It's so much fun. I also set my alarm early for Wednesday, and again, I'm kind of like, oh, my God. Not sleeping well. But I have to cut into my sleep hours just temporarily to get these presentations done. Side note, my husband goes to work every morning at 07:00 a.m. so really, it's like, once seven rolls around, I am full time with Freddie. Tuesday morning, I am, like, hanging out with Freddie.
I am just kind of trusting that I have my shit together, and I'm just, like, with him. And I know that or, sorry, this would be Wednesday morning. I know that my cousin is coming over to watch Freddie at 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. rather. And so I just want to be present with the little guy. I don't want to be distracted, but I'm feeling so overwhelmed. Like, am I prepared? Even when I get through this practice, better presentation, the summit, with, like, thousands of people signed up, I have to then not take a break and get right into building that final slide deck and practicing for my seven to 09:00 p.m.
presentation. And I just feel this, like, heaviness, this weight. And I start just bawling my eyes out to Freddie. And it's so funny. Kids, they have this beautiful ability to just pull you back to what's important. Because I'm in Freddie's room with him. We're just hanging out. I'm having a moment where I'm, like, talking to him.
I'm like, mommy's overwhelmed. She's got so much going on. And I'm doing this for you, buddy, and it's gonna be good, right? And he just looks at me, and he starts hysterically laughing. And if you know Freddie, he is the smiley as little guy, and he's just looking at me, giggling nonstop. Here I am just, like, crying my eyes out, feeling the weight of everything I've said yes to, and he can't help but laugh at me. And I just thought, this is what matters. Trust, Kels, that you can lean on your years and years of experience. Even though you're not the most prepared or practiced in this moment, you are practiced.
And I just had to keep telling myself that. And so I get all ready. I am talking to my cousin who's watching Freddie for the day, and I'm like, please don't use, like, the jolly jumper or that little rolling cart that Freddie has during my presentation, because I work in the basement. Our house is not that soundproof. And I'm like, I get distracted so easily. I don't know if anyone else feels that way. It's like my squirrel brain. So I'm like, if you guys could just be quiet or even, like, go out for a walk from two to three, that'd be awesome.
So I sat down. I'm feeling really hyped for my presentation. The practice better team is so awesome. Beth and gloria and jen and abigail, you guys are all amazing. They made me feel so welcome when I went into the virtual backstage. I'm ready. I'm prepared. And they come on Beth introduces me.
She's the head of content with practice better. I kid you not. My neighbors decide to bring over their entire lawn care team. I didn't even know they had a lawn care team. At 02:05 the moment I start my presentation and start speaking, there are weed whacking people going by my window, there are lawnmowers, there are people talking outside, and I'm like what the actual heck? And I'm like so distracted as I start talking. I think I covered it up well, but I'm like, no, they can't do lawn care for the next hour. Like, is this a joke? Who knew that if you're a speaker at an event and you work from home and give virtual talks that you need to be texting your neighbors saying, yo, please don't do any lawn care this hour because I'm giving a talk that's really, really important. Anyways, long story short, the talk goes amazing.
I get great feedback. People telling me it was the best talk all day. They learned a lot. They are reinspired to dive into their marketing strategy again. I am just so, so grateful to everybody who commented and left me positive feedback. Honestly, it meant the world to me to hear that. And I felt so reassured that I was on my path, my experience and all of the practice hours that I have spent recording 350 podcasts, giving free talks for the last ten years. Being a speaker in my previous life at Vega, giving talks and delivering workshops, going on Instagram Stories every day for eleven years, like, it made me think, you know, thank goodness I practiced in micro moments because when the macro came, I didn't have to be the most prepared per se.
But when I showed up to talk, I was so excited and so zestful about my material, so felt so good about it. And I gave out a bunch of free bonuses at the end. So tons of new Instagram followers, email subscribers, and yeah, it was really, really cool. So overall, I just felt so good about the summit. Closed my laptop immediately, had to go on to a client call. We had a mastermind call, so the day was not over. Then I went upstairs and I was back into mom mode because my cousin went home. And so I took a little break, waited for Dave to get home at five, and then I had 2 hours to basically cram practice and get prepared for my two hour presentation that evening.
So all this to say, it went really, really well. I was so brain dead at the end. Guys, let me just tell you, I came upstairs to my husband, my brain hurt. Like I had to take a tylenol. I don't know what was going on. Coffee wasn't working. I drank espresso right up until, like, 07:00 p.m. that night.
But I felt like my capacity to do it was there. I feel as though, as entrepreneurs, our capacity can increase over time and it changes over time, but it's like, previously, I don't think I could have had the capacity to do all of that, but I've been able to stretch it slowly and to make sure I'm saying yes to the right things. And when the right things fail your time, you will find your capacity, which is really cool. So that was a little bit of the story of those three presentations. I'm grateful that they're overdeveloped. Definitely gonna celebrate this weekend. I celebrated last night by going to this charity function. And yeah, it is unfortunate because I'm like, oh, I'll take Thursday Friday off, but I had a lot of work commitments that I had put off and said, I'll get back to you on Thursday.
I'll get back to you on Thursday. And, you know, Thursday came and as much as I wanted to rest and sleep, I had a lot of commitments. And then, you know, still got to get up early to be a mom and to get stuff done. So today is Friday. As I'm recording this, I'm like, I really want to catch up with the crew. And I guess I can't take a break because here I am chit chatting with you. So let's pivot a little bit. I want to chat about a book recommendation.
I've talked about this before, but if you are in need of a book that is going to inspire you and stretch you, I want to talk about the book. Ten x is easier than two x. It is such a great book written by Benjamin Hardy. If you're an entrepreneur in a season of stretching yourself right now or wanting to stretch yourself, it is such a great book. And I would recommend doing this as a book club because it's so fun to have accountability as you're reading a book. If you're like me and you often avoid reading because you're always just like, I'm too tired. I'd rather watch YouTube, which is what I like to do at the end of a day, rather than read. I started reading the book in conjunction with Krista and Steph, and you hear me talk about them a lot because we all love chatting business together.
And it's funny, I just flipped over my phone. It's Friday morning and I see that they're in our Marco Polo chat and I'm like, oh, I got to check in with them. We just kind of have a constant dialogue. But we read this book together and I really, really loved doing that because it held me accountable to getting through the book so that I could update and keep up with the conversations that we were having inside of the book. And honestly, I think the biggest takeaway from me is that our journeys as entrepreneurs, our journeys on our health trajectories are not linear and they don't have to be. And instead, we can look at growth as a quantum leap. So instead of saying, I just have to keep posting podcasts, I have to keep doing what I've always done, it's like, is there a roundabout way to get ten x results? And I really felt that in my speaker's journey, it's like I could have started booking speaker networking meetings and I could have started putting together a talk and building landing pages and signing with speakers bureaus. But for me it was like, well, what if I already have connections that are with people who facilitate summits or who have, maybe it's a connection for talking at a Toronto based university, or can I lean on talks I've already done for corporations and just send them a message? And it's like these ten x ways of getting the results you want without trying to see it as a linear approach of like, I'm starting at the base, so I wanted to share that.
But overall, I think it's such a good read and it talks a lot about how to focus your time on and as an entrepreneur, how to really like go back to first principles thinking and to talk about how we can get caught in these scarcity mindsets versus thinking in a larger facet. So I found it really interesting. Wanted to share that with you. And again, if you want to do it as a book club, I think it's a really cool book to share with a couple of your business besties, to have that accountability, to get the book done and actually read it and reflect, because we know that some of the best ways to learn and to integrate information are to actually teach it back. And actually, that reminds me of a Huberman Labs podcast that I listened to, and it's about how to become a better learner. I believe this was an episode that was aired in August or September of 2024. I will actually link it in the show notes, you guys, if you are. I'm not usually a listener of Huberman Labs.
Like, I listen to the occasional episode if it sparks my interest, but this episode was so good. He really. Andrew Huberman breaks down how to learn better, but also how to teach better. So if you are someone who's a teacher, a workshop facilitator, or you just want to get better at committing new information to your memory, I found this episode so relevant. I thought some of the most interesting pieces were that sleep is so freaking important. So if you're not a good sleeper, it's like that is step one to integrating new information. Also stopping to test yourself every once in a while. It's like, if you're learning from a podcast, pause the episode and be like, okay, can I remember what they just taught me? So that was really, really cool.
Teaching information back is super important. Putting on theta wave music like I am someone who loves EDM or binaural beats or theta wave, just like that. Pulsing music as I'm working or doing deep work and of course flipping off notifications. But yeah, it's great episode if you're looking for a podcast to get you to focus and learn in a more efficient manner. Side note, speaking of, like, theta wave music, that's actually what I put on during my labor. And I found it so helpful to get through contractions and to just put me in kind of that, like, hypnosis state. I did hypnobirthing, which I found really effective, and then adding the music on top of that was a savior. And if you haven't listened to my birth story episode, you can scroll back.
I aired that back in the spring of 2024. All right, I think in wrapping this up, I mean, I have so much I want to say, but this is just more a random show. Just giving you an update. I feel like I have a little bit of a sniffly nose just from staying up too late and from having a glass of wine last night. So don't want to bother you with my nasally sounds, but the last thing I want to share is that in dreaming up how we were going to host some really cool in person events, Emily and I, she's the co facilitator of the mastermind that I run, which is a weekly meetup of canadian entrepreneurs, and it is the best. We have such a great community. We were dreaming up hosting some in person stuff, and Emily just moved to a small, very charming town of Elora, Ontario, and we decided it'd be really fun to host a fall inspired meetup there. So right at the end of the fall, as people are starting to kind of like, wind down their visioning for their business in this calendar year, and get inspired for the upcoming twelve months.
We thought, what if we brought together 25 entrepreneurs, rented a super cozy cafe, had a really delicious tea and coffee and sandwiches, lunch with snacks, and got us together in a super vibey space to go through 4 hours of first off, just connecting with one another and getting to know everyone's businesses and sharing wins and challenges from the year. And then going through kind of a exercise like our wave framework of dreaming up our wealth goals, our ambition goals, our vision and our energy. That's the wave. And kind of getting just like the good vibes and brain juices flowing. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love having guided prompts for dreaming of the next step for our life, the next dream leap that I want to make the ten x leap. Like do I want to do more speaking gigs next year? Do I want to sell more online courses? Do I want to dial in on my personal brand? And so we're going to do that. And then we're actually going to go through an exercise of declaring what we want to call in for 2025. And we're going to do this super cool group feedback session where you're basically going to walk out with hours worth of feedback, but we're going to compress time and get you hours worth of feedback from the 20 others in a matter of minutes.
It is such a cool exercise and if you've never done it with us before, I actually learned this from my friend Brandon Fong at a retreat that I went to in Utah last year. So it's going to be such a great day. And then we'll wrap it up. We will close out with some really cool exercises and just grounding into our visions and goals and start tossing out some tips and strategies for coming into the new year and just hitting the ground hard. Whether you have a goal around your business or your finances or your relationships or your health, we've got you covered. And one thing that I want to end on is that Emily and I are no strangers to the event space. And right now we're both in seasons where we are mothers and it's not necessarily realistic for us to get on a plane and to go to a big event or conference, even though I love, like I always give myself a really big budget every year to go to conferences, but I'm in a season right now where I need micro events that pull me away for a day, but that I can come back and be with my family in the evening. And so this is like a mix between a day long retreat slash a little bit of co working, collaborating, but also just networking and getting around a room full of people.
You can leave it to Emily and I to curate a room of female entrepreneurs. We'll do the hard part. We'll bring everyone together. We'll organize a lot logistics. You get to show up and just trust that there are 19 other women that you are there to meet and to potentially explore connections with. So one thing that we felt really strongly about, because we see a lot of these other events that are happening, and a lot of them are like. Like I was describing my event last night. It's like a black tie function, and you feel like you have to dress up, but that's not necessarily the season of life or even the vibe of the event that I would want to go to.
I want to show up wearing normal clothes, not feeling like I'm underdressed or that I have to be some polished version of myself, like in couture, and have the latest style. We want to have very, like, for lack of a better word, down to earth, grounded events. I mean, the name of our mastermind is wave. We have this beach analogy that is generally, like, you know, salty hair right out of the ocean. Just people who love the earth as much as they love their businesses. That's the vibe we're bringing. And so just know that if you are coming to our Allora event, like, you can just come as yourself. I was literally just playing in the dirt with Freddie.
We have, like, this little area between our backyard and the river where there's this berm and there's an upside down wheelbarrow. And I took Freddie out there. We were both in bare feet. The wheelbarrow is upside down. So we're just standing in the dirt, playing with the wheelbarrow wheel, like, running around. Freddie's feet are dirty. I'm sitting on the ground, my butt's getting wet, and I'm just like, this is the life I want, right? This is the life that is for me. It may not be the most glamorous in terms of the way I look each day.
At the time of recording this, I'm wearing a oversized t shirt, and I still have my glasses on, and my hair is in a topknot. It's like, you know, this is where we're at. So if you are a fellow mama and you're feeling like you want to come to an in person event, you might be scared. You might be feeling like, well, shit, I'm an introvert, but I know I need to get out in order to unlock that next level, send me a message on Instagram. Dm me the word meetup or elora, a code word that I know you might be interested. We only have a couple tickets left. We have already welcomed so many people. We have Heather coming, crystal coming, Miriam is coming.
Dana is coming. Kate is coming. We have Kristen coming. Oh, my goodness. I think there's already been 16 tickets sold, which is insane. So at the time of recording this podcast, Lisa is coming. I want to pull up the whole RSVP list because I know so many of you listening are going to be joining us there. Rachel is coming.
Melanie is coming. It's going to be an epic roster of people. We cannot wait. If you want to snag one of those last tickets, be part of what could be our last in person gathering of 2024. Definitely send me a note. And my goodness. If you guys want to chat about anything else or go deeper on LinkedIn or my practice better talks, or maybe you want to lean into a speaking career. I love chatting with you all and I hope this episode was valuable.
It's all over the place, you know, that's just where we're at. And just know that I love you guys and I look forward to getting back to a more consistent recording schedule. I believe we had a successful hiring of somebody to help with nannying with Freddie because I realized I was like, oh, my gosh, my mother in law and my cousin who watch him two days a week are both unavailable starting October. So I think our nanny search was successful. You know, Care.com for the win. So if anyone is in a similar vein where they're looking for care, care.com was very helpful while we look into other options. And that's it for today. So love you guys so much.
I hope this episode was insightful and we will see you next time. Oh, and by the way, I recorded this outside. So if you're hearing wind in the background or if you heard wind in the background, that's because I am sitting outdoors. It's a little windy, but it's September 27 and it's really nice outside, so we're gonna soak in this gorgeous weather. All right, guys, that's it for today. We'll talk to you soon.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of visionary life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis, so it would mean so much me if you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either itunes or Spotify. It just takes a second, and if you don't want to rate the show. You could also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice tagging. Melseyreidal.
I'll catch you in the next episode.
Hey visionaries. I want to quickly interrupt this episode to talk about masterminds and why they are so powerful. Let me start with a quick story. I used to have such a scarce mindset around investing in my business. I thought that spending money on courses or professional development or retreats, I thought that was an expense against my business. And yes, technically it is. But when you really look at it, it's an investment in the growth of your business. And something that I'm super proud of is that I now have a dedicated budget, and I recommend this to all my clients, too.
For me, it's about ten to 20% of my take home profits that I am allowed and willing, and I am giving myself permission to invest in personal growth, professional development, joining masterminds, going to conferences, taking courses. So this means that if my business was earning, say, 100,000 a year, I would invest ten to $20,000 into professional development. I know that sounds like a lot. For example, today my business earns a quarter of a million dollars. So this year I am looking to spend a little over $30,000 in things like going to retreats or joining masterminds or becoming part of professional networks where I know the up level is imminent. So this is why you've seen me.
Go to places like Park City, Utah.
And spend seven days with high level entrepreneurs just dreaming and thinking.
Because I had the budget set aside.
And I thought, you know what? I need to get in the room with people who can see beyond my current limitations. This is why I recently purchased a course on Google Ads. And I wanted to up level my knowledge and how I could support my clients even better in this area of digital marketing. And each year, I also choose one mastermind to invest in. So I just invested well over five figures into joining a three month mastermind. And the reason I tell you all of this is because I truly see a trend that those business owners who are willing to reinvest, join groups, and not be afraid to get in the room with new people every single month, or at least every single year. Those business owners who are afraid to do so, their businesses, they feel lonely, they stagnate in their ideation, and they're constantly trying to do everything themselves rather than finding a group of people who can support them and help them rise up much more quickly. So this is where masterminds come in.
One of my favorite quotes is from Napoleon Hill. He says, mastermind groups multiply the mental powers of all participants, so one plus one does not equal two in these groups. And I could go on and on, but basically what I'm trying to say is business masterminds are the perfect way to up level your business. So if you don't already know, my co facilitator Emily and I launched Wave the mastermind about twelve months ago, and we are so excited to be rolling out fresh new programming. We have brand new content coming at you, guest speakers like Stu McLaren, who is a membership expert. We have someone who's talked to us about how to become predictably lucky. We talk about business finances. We talk about how to make sales fun and easeful.
There is so much juice coming up, and I don't want you to miss out. So if you're a driven female entrepreneur, find me on Instagram and dm me the word mastermind so that I can invite you to a free session, no strings attached. I just want you to get a vibe for what happens inside of these groups. So again, you can dm me. I'm elsieridel on Instagram. Just send me the word mastermind and I'll send you an invite. Or head to kelseyreidl.com mastermind. You can learn all of the details, see what's going on, and you can.
Apply for a free discovery call.
So again, kelseyreidl.com mastermind or dm me the word mastermind on Insta.
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