Val  0:06  
Hey, it's time to crank up the truth! I'm Val Selby. And over the decades of working online, I've learned a most important lesson. Mindset owns your business. It procrastination, imposter syndrome and a lack of focus have been blocking your biz. And I'm here with powerful volume ready to help you see choices that you're making. Get ready to own your personality, and use your expertise to create the business of your dreams. Now is the time to make changes and live your best life. So let's get to it!

Val  0:42  
Hello, everyone. We're back for another episode, and we have another guest. I'm excited for this because as you all know, I end up having guests on at exactly the time that I need to hear information. And then you get the information that's shared with me in a more pointed effort, but with actionable tips. So today, I have Angela Mulrooney, here, and we are going to talk about some branding. And we'll see where that goes. Thanks for being here, Dr. Angela.

Angela  1:14  
My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Val. I appreciate it.

Val  1:17  
So if you wouldn't mind, can you tell the listeners about yourself and what you do?

Angela  1:22  
So what I do is I help people to pivot to profitable entrepreneurship. And I'm known as the arsonist because what I'm really good at doing is hounding people matches to burn down all the things that are keeping them from being able to step into their full potential to be able to fully make that pivot. Because pivoting is scary, a lot of people, you know, they, they've had a successful career, most the clients I work with are 55 plus, and so for them to let that go and move into an entrepreneurial role where they are fending for themselves or having to sell themselves for the first time in their life, it's really scary. And so it's really easy to keep these leashes to our old ways of doing things. But once we actually burn away those leashes and unleash ourselves into our full potential and fully step into what we are masterful at in our niche, that's when things really start to change for people. So this is what I do on a daily basis, but it's not what I've always done,

Val  2:11  
Right? I was looking at what you've done over it's like, wow, oh, yes, you have had an entrepreneurial experience, like so many of us have. And I don't even like to call it pivot. It's okay to change, period. And I think that that's one of the hardest things and especially I'm 50 years old. So yeah, I feel like I'm in the pivot mode again. And, and knowing that you have permission, and it's okay to go from, would you, would you have the dance? You had dance and dentist? I'd be like, totally different things. And that's okay, because it brought you to where you are right now.

Angela  2:50  
Hmm. Well, leaving Dentistry was not my choice. So I wanted to be a dentist since I was two and I was 32 when I got injured after building this beautiful practice that was referral based. So that was a force pivot. And it was really brutal, because that's what I thought my life path was set to be was to be a dentist, right? And it was for me Dentistry was playtime, like I didn't even know how much dentists made when I got into dental school. I just want to play with teeth.

Val  3:16  
So and especially to be I mean, there's not a lot of us in the world that know exactly what we want to be, and come out of school and everything still, with that love. So I'm so sorry that happened to you. That was horrible.

Angela  3:31  
Yeah, but it definitely it set me up on like, looking back, of course, in the moment, things sucked, and they were dark, and I hated it. But it set me up on a path to be comfortable with reinvention and be comfortable with pivoting and be comfortable with burning things down when they didn't work, or I didn't like them anymore. And it was funny because when I, my first pivot out of Dentistry was to professional dance. But I've been a professional dancer since I finished dental school. So I had these two careers that were in parallel. So I didn't run away and join the circus, like a lot of people thought. I just went back to something else that I wanted and stepped away from an industry that was breaking my heart at the moment. And then I took a year getting my head on straight and then built my business coaching company for dentists. And that grew. And I built that on LinkedIn. And so as people saw that grow, then people started to ask me how I could help them with their LinkedIn in their personal brand. And so that's where unleashing influence came from. So it's been a bit of a twisty journey of really trying to figure out what what my potential was without a drill in my hand because that's, again, what I saw that I was supposed to be since I was two. It's been interesting, but it's also given me so many tools to help other people to fearlessly like I've looked at worst case scenario many times, you know, and so now when people are like they have this backup plan that they can go back to and they want to pivot now it's easy for me to help them to be able to pivot because I can tell them what worst case scenario looks like and they're not even close to that, right?

Val  4:57  
You did not have a ripped out of your hands, okay?

Angela  5:01
Yeah, exactly. 

Val  5:02
You do have that to go back to. Some of us don't have that option. Oh, man, I just have to say it's hilarious that you call yourself the arsonist because my husband's a Deputy Fire Marshal.

So as soon as I saw that, I was just like, Oh, yes, we have to have a conversation just because that is too silly. There's extra connection. I totally get why you're why you're calling yourself the arsonists. I love it. I firmly believe that mindset owns our business. So you are talking exactly what I hope to bring my listeners with. We have to be open to what's next. Yes. And not stuck in our ways. I know for me with over all of the years, there were plenty of times I was stuck in my ways. And looking at it, like, I have to make this work. I've put so much time into it. I have to make it work. Because of all the time I'm put into it. Do you have any tips for getting past that idea?

Angela  6:03  
Yeah, and that's honestly one of the hardest things even when people have pivoted, and they're already stepped into and committed to their new thing. It's hard to let go that past identity, not just the things that they were doing, but the identity of who they used to be like, if you were a C suite executive, and now you're an entrepreneur, really reinventing yourself, even though you're taking all your, your tools that you've developed over those years and using them, giving yourself that new title can be super scary. So a lot of people will do what I used to do, which was like, Well, I used to be retired dentist and now I do this because I felt like that was still hurt my credibility. And it's like, I haven't touched teeth since 2013. So but it was still I was so tied to it. So I get when people are entrenched in that, and it is hard to let go of it. But when you start to figure out, you know, what am I really meant to do in this world? What am I uniquely talented at, and what I recommend is write out all the skills that people are willing to pay for that you could do right now. So for me, like being able to do dentistry, not on the list, because my hand doesn't work properly, but you write out all the skills that you have, and then take them and put them on little sticky notes, and put them on a wall or a sticky board, whatever you can, and put them in order of what you love most and what you hate. And then when you get to the love section, put them in order from top one to bottom 10. And look at what comes out in the wash with that. And what you'll find is your top three things are probably what you should be doing with your life. Even if you haven't been paid for them yet, they're things that you love, there are things that you could be paid for focusing on that and figure out how you can develop a service offering around that. That is your Nisha mastery. And if you can think about it, and you're like, you know, if I could only do those three things for the next five years and be completely happy with myself, you know, you're in the right place, because that is what is going to bring you joy. And when you are joyful in your work and you're doing what you feel like you're meant to do, the right client starts showing up, the money starts showing up, the ability to be efficient in your work, start showing up. And so you're able to scale your business very quickly. Because you're not held back by all these turbulent thoughts that are going on. They're like, maybe I shouldn't be doing this, what if I should have been doing this instead, that person said I shouldn't do this at all, like, I'm insane for leaving this. And so when you get muddled up with all these thoughts, that's what tends to drag you back and not actually fully step into your potential. And a lot of people need hand holding with that, like the clients that come to me, are highly, highly accomplished in the world. But they scare themselves when they step into the entrepreneurial role because they don't have the same validation, right? You're getting measured when you work for someone else. When you're an entrepreneur, you have to come up with your own set of measures. And oftentimes, the adrenaline rush is what we're measuring how we feel is what we're measuring instead of the outcomes. And then when you look back on a year and go, Oh, I didn't make enough money, or I didn't achieve what I want to achieve, then it starts to get really scary. And you go oh, maybe I should run back to where I was instead of pursuing this. Right.

Val  8:55  
Yeah. Back to the comfort zone. Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. So you work in LinkedIn, a lot. Still, it's hard when there's so many different platforms, and especially changing directions. I feel like I think that that's part of you know, because like I said, I mean, I'm in transition mode. I know it. I feel like I've been in transition mode for a few months, but my friend and I started another business and it took off. And that left me with my business going. What do I do who you know, but who am I without this business? Am I just gonna be just a partner? Do I need my own business? Am I not an entrepreneur if I don't have my own business? Yeah, my hotel room this weekend is gonna have like, post it notes all over it. They're gonna be going What are you doing?

Angela  9:43  
Yeah, I recommend those little one inch by one inch ones, the little colorful ones. They're awesome for that little exercise. You can only write like one thing on Yeah, it becomes easier.

Val  9:53  
Yes, exactly. So how did you really dig into to what your final stages now in, in working with the branding and, and all of that, because you did it over the years. So that should be one thing that I also would like the listeners to pay attention to is our overnight success could take a decade or

Angela  10:19  
so I started building brand after brand around my different talents once I lost my ability to do dentistry because I really didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. So I was like, Okay, I have this professional dance background I need a year, I want to get your off from dentistry because it's just breaking my heart right now. So I built that company, and it became the second largest Applebee's Latin company in six months in my city. And then I built the dental business coaching company, because I'm like, well, I should use my dental background and all the weird like I went through some really strange experiences in that short period of time that I got to practice and be an owner. So like I can use that to reach back and pull people forward in my industry. And then when the social media agency came to fruition, I had only officially opened it in January of 2020, January 17 of 2020. We know what happened on March 17 of 2020. And my team looked at me and they went well. You know, everyone around us is getting laid off. So if you need to lay us off, we totally get it. And I'm like, Nah, buckle in, we're going to take this to the moon. Yeah. So my dental company got devastated because Dentistry was shut down for depending on where you were from a month to three months, yeah, that that dance company got shut down because we weren't allowed to gather, especially in Canada. And then the social media agency blew up. So by 10 months into the pandemic, we had 14 full time team members. So I was like, Okay, pick the right pony.

Val  11:43  
This is yeah, thank goodness, it was already saddled.

Angela  11:50  
And then I decided to sell my house and sell everything I owned and buy a one way flight to Nicaragua and start new life. Because all my work was online. And by that time, I'd actually already sold one of my companies, I sold the dance company because I was like, you know, I just don't want to do this anymore. So I was going to hedge my bets on to two of my companies. So I bought a flight. And about three months into being here, I was back to working 100 hours a week, and city and Paradise. What am I doing? Like, the whole point of me moving to Paradise was to reset my life and not be addicted to entrepreneurship and all these things that I'm like, okay, wherever you are, there you are, right. So myself followed myself across the world, and I was still the same person. And the stuff that I burned down, I just built more stuff in its place. So I was like, You know what this is, this is a problem, I have a problem, I have an addiction. And if I'm going to do something about it, I need to do something drastic about it. So I was like, Okay, I know, I need to burn more things down. But I want to do it with intention, because obviously selling one company selling my house moving countries was not enough seemed pretty extreme to a lot of people. But it obviously wasn't enough. So I was like, Okay, what is it that I can do? So I can take, I just want to have one company. Managing 14 full time creative is not my idea of a good time. So I just want to have one company, I want to take it to a million dollars, I want to have one offer that I can drive. And I can work 12 hours a week, changing the world is what I know and helping other people to do the same thing. So the exercise I told you about the skills, that's what I did to figure out what my Nisha mastery was, and what I figured out my top three things, whereas one of them is I'm amazing at cracking people open. So they can tell me their stories. And I can see all the pieces and I can pull it together and give them a mark up a product put into the marketplace, then I'm really good at helping them to start lighting the fires and get rid of those things that don't belong in that niche of mastery, and then helping them to fully step into their niche of mastery and like really own who they are. So I was like when I realized that I'm like, okay, that means I should not be owning a social media agency. That means I should not be running a dental coaching company. So I started divesting those sold those off, and just kept the Unleashing influence name and fully niched into what I do best. So that's how I ended up getting to where I am today. But it took that process of burning away those last few companies. It happened over a four month period, it was pretty fast. Yeah. Because I was like, once the rose colored glasses broke, who was like, Oh, I cannot see what I'm seeing. And I need to do something right.

Val  14:18  
Once you're aware, you can't be unaware. And especially like you said, being in paradise and going I am not even outside in paradise. I I mean, I could just picture it sitting in the house doing exactly what you did. It doesn't matter where we are or what we're looking at. It's like yeah, here we go 14 hours.

Angela  14:35  
And that was the point of moving because I'm like, Well, my companies are online. So I might as well be somewhere else in the world instead of sitting in a snowbank in Calgary. Yeah. So

Val  14:42  
yeah. And there's there's so many women, we start businesses, specifically to get our time. And then we bury our time even more because I we just tell ourselves, we're like, well, we're working on our business. We're doing this it's growth. Well, it's not an hour commute anymore. So I can put that hour that I was commuting back into working on the business like No, no, there's only so many hours. And we really need to have control of doing them how we want to. Yes.

Angela  15:14  
And it's easy to drown in your own ambition, especially if you're really passionate about what you do. It doesn't feel like work, right? And then, you know, if you need to escape something, you're like, Well, I have something to work on. So you're like, Okay, I can use work as an excuse to get out of things. And then suddenly, you're working, again, 100 hours a week. Yeah, yeah. And one thing that I found for people who are addicted to entrepreneurship, if you can get your workspace out of your house, so that you have set hours that you go in to, like, right now I'm sitting in a co working space, that actually really helps to break that cycle of addiction, because, well, Parkinson's Law. So if you have X number of hours to do something, it'll take you X number of hours, give yourself 10 hours to do it, it'll take two hours, if you give yourself an hour, you'll probably get it done in an hour. So the same thing happens with your work life balance, if you give yourself only a certain amount of time to go somewhere to do it. That actually helps. And it was funny, the last five months, I went back to Calgary, and I was working out of my house again. And the same thing started having to be like, I get up and beyond the computer on my phone at 7am. And at 10pm, I was back on my computer or my phone, what is wrong with me. And then here, I give myself three hours a day. That's all I'm allowed to come into town, I sit down in the co working space, do my three hours. And when it's done, I'm done. I go home, and I don't open My Computer again. And that has made a tremendous difference. And for a lot of entrepreneurs. It's easy to be like, well, I can write off part of my house. But if you're losing that work life balance because your workspaces in your house, and it's you know, you're always like reaching for the computer. Yeah. work outside your house. Yeah. And 300 bucks a month it costs to get a co working space,

Val  16:49  
right? Yeah, we've even talked next house because my husband's like little over three years from retiring, of having a separate space outside of the house like a she shed or something that would just be the office, because it's great that I have my own office here. That was a nice step in the right direction from working in the dining room, right. But even so it's so easy to walk on paths and go, I'm just going to check something here and get back in that horrible habit of not taking the time off that I have scheduled, which has made a difference. Because like you said, if I scheduled eight hours of work, I'm going to get it done in eight hours, even if I could get it done in three. And then go take a walk, do those things that I want to be doing that I tell myself I want to be doing. But I'm not prioritizing. Yeah, there's always something we could be doing on our business, always something more. That is amazing that you get to run away and go enjoy paradise. And now you're doing exactly what you want to be doing it as well and helping women or helping people I should say, I'm not sure if you just stick with women. Yeah, I'm pretty 5050 on that. Awesome. Awesome. Do you have any other last tips that you would like to share about maybe the work life balance that seems to be where we went?

Angela  18:05  
Well, the work life balance really comes from also knowing what you want to achieve? Right? So if you if you can have those three things that you are really great at? And those are the only things that you say yes to so when I was starting to break my habit of being able to do all these things, because I have an expensive skill set because of dance because of

Val  18:26  
the management business, hard of it and everything. Yeah,

Angela  18:29  
exactly. So when you're trying to actually get yourself to let go of the extra things and just niche down, I recommend putting those three things that you're allowed to say yes to in front of your computer. So if you have a whiteboard, friend, you have those three S's and if someone asks you to do something that is outside of those three S's, how have other people that you can refer to, and start saying no to the things that don't align with where you're trying to make yourself into. Because especially if you're trying to build a personal brand, like you have to be known for something, if you come across as a Jack or Jill of all trades, you're a master of nothing, people want masters, and they will hire you, they will pay you a lot of money. If you are a master of something and you can get them quick wins, you can give them the ability to execute fast and get consistent results. So if you are wanting to make that niche, get those three things written out, and start saying no to anything that's outside of it. And it's hard, because at first you're like, I'm leaving money on the table, right? What if no one actually wants these things? And what you'll find is it probably take about a month of saying no and purifying yourself. But then everything switches so for me when it switched, it was end of September of 2021. But that was when I made the final divestment. And now I just had unleashing influence as it is now. And it was January of 2022 When I opened my bank account and I just got a deposit from a client that I hadn't even started working with. And the deposit was for more than I would have made in a month working as a full time dentist Ipsum so it was good money. And it was funny because up until that point, I had kept saying yes to people who are like, Oh, I can't afford it. So I'm like, Oh, I'll make you a deal. I'll give you a payment plan over the next five years like, and then once I made that final divestment, what happened was I started getting messages in my inbox. And people started saying, Hey, I've heard what you're doing, when can we get started? They weren't saying, Hey, I've heard what you're doing, how much does it cost? They had already heard about some of the people I've been working with, and they wanted to work with me, regardless of the cost. And it was the C suite executives, those kind of people that I really had been wanting to work with that I knew I would be masterful with, that I had been, you know, begging to work with me until that point, now we're knocking on my inbox. So it's so funny, when you actually start saying no, when you get those things aligned of where you actually want to go, the right stuff starts showing up. But you have to create that path for it. Because if I was still saying yes to all those other things, then I'd be like, Oh, I can help you kinda, but I don't know if I really have time. And now this is all I do day in and day out. So people come to me, they get in and out in nine days, they get their business in a box, they get launched. And they have success over and over and over again, because I chose to niche and decide to say no to everything else.

Val  21:11  
Yeah, yeah. And I have some clients that have the hard time of saying no, and gain out of that, because the money's there. And it is hard to turn that money away when it's right there. And it's in your face, and you're like, I need money. But as you just said, if you're working on those projects, there's no time to be working on what you actually want to be working on. Because we only have so much time. And then I know from personal experience, when I've done in the past, I get angry, unhappy, but really angry too. And it's like how can you be angry when you're making money? It's like, because I'm not doing what I want. I'm not doing what my passion is, and especially if you figured it out, like you figured it out, and it would have made you miserable to be doing the other things.

Angela  21:55  
Absolutely. Yeah. And when you're not doing it, you have this you have like cognitive dissonance because you're like, Oh, but I shouldn't be doing this. But this is what I want to do. And people on the altar, like you should totally be doing that you've invested so much in that that question about your path, right? Like if you've really dug a path, and you're making good money, and you've been doing it for 20 years, it is unfathomable to outside people to watch you go and try and do it on your own doing something different, because they just go, well, you're losing all your security, you're losing maybe your insurance, you're losing this regular income. But the thing is, once you get over here, and you make it work, you can scale way past that, and work less hours work, make way more money and actually have complete choice in your work, which is a beautiful thing when you can actually get there. Yeah.

Val  22:41  
And freedom and freedom and the freedom that we all talk about money. Yes. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here and have this conversation and bringing things that I love to talk about. And I love that my listeners can hear from you in a different perspective, because you never know when that when that wording is gonna resonate. Absolutely. Perfect. So I'm going to have all of the information so you can go and connect with Dr. Angela at unleashing influence.com. Follow her on her platforms. We'll have all of that information in the notes. But thank you so much for being here. My pleasure. Thanks, Phil.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai