03. A networking pro who wants to do her own thing
Morgan just quit her dream job. She spent years rocking a start-up by helping young entrepreneurs turning their dreams into reality. But now it's time to work on her own dreams. This episode tackles the insecurity that comes without a title and company as a safety net. Phil and Lauren help our guest define her edge, pinpoint her audience, and have the confidence to articulate her skill set.
Episode transcription
Phil: Here we go. Hi everyone. I'm Phil.
Lauren: And I'm Lauren.
Phil: This is Brand Therapy, the podcast where we talk to ordinary people in a lot of different industries about some of the challenges they're facing with their businesses and their brands.
Lauren: In today's episode, we get to meet someone who's really interesting and is at kind of a crossroads of her life?
Phil: Yes. I think a lot of people will be able to relate it. I have to stop saying that, now of course people can relate to it. It's why they are on the podcast, but no, it's true.
Lauren: It is true.
Phil: We pour ourselves into jobs that we have, that essentially make other people's dreams a reality and it's kind of like, I think a lot of people get to the point in their lives where they're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm not doing anything for me. I need to do something for me right now. And Morgan is that person.
Lauren: I think also Morgan's kind of, I don't want to say having an identity crisis, but I think for the first time in a long time she's looking at herself and kind of thinking, okay, how do I talk about what I do without the sort of comfort of my company behind me.
Phil: It's funny because I could say to Morgan, who do you know who's an expert at, you know, this topic? And she'd be able to rattle off 10 names cause Morgan knows everyone, she's connected, she knows all the important people. Makes me seem like I don't know anyone.
Lauren: Don't you think it's so funny how titles mean so much?
Phil: Yeah, with self-esteem, I know well and not to me because I don't, I've never really had that corporate experience, but it's true. Titles have more weight than they really deserve.
Lauren: I agree. Cause I can totally imagine her having a conversation and feeling really confident by saying I'm the blah, blah blah blah at this company versus being out on your own. It must feel kind of intimidating.
Phil: Even summarizing things in one sentence is immensely useful for Morgan and I think you'll be able to hear in this episode when that light bulb moment goes off. We should get to it. Let's do it. Let's listen to our conversation with Morgan.
Lauren: Here we go.
Phil: You were in my top three people that I first thought of when we thought about this project.
Morgan: Wow.
Phil: I know and I'm not just saying that because Phil doesn't just say things. I thought of you for this because of an email that you sent out to your network, to your friends. I'm assuming it's your friends. I'm assuming I'm one of them, but it was what? Yes, end of November. I just loved this email you sent, asking your friends for help. Let's get to that in a second. I want to because it was a really well written email and I think there's a lot of people that can learn from that. But tell us about you. Who are you? Who is Morgan? I know who you are. We've met at events, you know a lot of important people, but let's hear it from you directly. How do you summarize your brand, your expertise, your career?
Morgan: I honestly don't know how to answer that question to be completely honest with you because my identity is so tied into my job for the last five years. It was the best job in the world and as you said, I know a lot of really awesome, cool, smart people, but I don't know how to tell people yet about myself without talking about that job. So it's a really weird space to be in. And I say it's the best job in the world because I was given so much trust and autonomy to build this community of young entrepreneurs and I did everything from online community management to running events and partnerships and sponsorships and everything in between.
We were started up ourselves. So you wear many hats and I was very lucky that that's the job kind of evolved and I did get to create it based on my skill set and expertise, but I am in a weird spot and struggling right now to talk about myself without talking about my job, so I don't really know if I have a full answer to that question if that's okay.
Phil: Yeah, it's perfectly okay. You've kind of given us the nuts and bolts of the situation, but now I'm going to ask more of a touchy feely question. How does it feel to be in this position of vulnerability? How does that feel to pour yourself into this job that you've had for so long and then now you're on your own?
Morgan: I'm really excited. I've done a lot of work around being excited about the unknown and not being afraid of it. I'm very lucky walking away from this job. I have a very strong network and community behind me and that's why I reached out a couple of weeks ago with that email asking for help because I knew everybody that I selectively reached out to would really show up for me because I've been able to help support them in the last five years or so.
But it is, if I'm being honest, it is a little scary and I'm in my head a lot about what value do I have not attached to this brand and to this organization. I've asked almost hour to hour between, this is so exciting, I'm going to kill it, I'm going to launch my own business and it's going to be great. And then I'm like, oh wait. Does anybody even care? Because I'm not attached to this organization anymore.
And this is day one honestly for me. Being quote unquote fun employed. So I'm still really trying to figure things out, but I have to say honestly, I'm excited.
Lauren: I think on this call we should try to figure out what that elevator pitch is. Who are you and more importantly, what do others need? That's how whenever Phil describes the brand, you probably heard him say this. A brand is something you love paired with something others need and I think we need to figure that out for you.
Phil: You've put so much energy into doing this for others. Hello, this Brand Therapy, we're going to do it for you today. We're going to work together as a team today to figure out that elevator pitch and I think through this process people are going to find this useful for themselves because we're so quick. Think about this, right? It's so easy for all of us to give someone else advice. You don't have to be a quote unquote brand strategist or brand expert to give someone else advice on their business or on their brand, but why is it so hard to do it for ourselves when usually we know ourselves better than we know anyone else?
It's still hard. It's too close to us. This is kind of like the art of figuring out how do we communicate who we already are, who we know we are. How do we put it into words and like you've already highlighted, how do we convey the value quickly because people are busy. And if we can get it down right, you know, distill it down to one sentence, it increases the likelihood that pay attention.
Morgan: I think a lot of it comes down to it's your ego, right? And you feel like you don't deserve to shine and you don't deserve to be out there and you don't deserve to be, oh, we're facing and telling your story. You kind of, your ego is always kind of saying like, well, who cares? Like why do you matter? And not the kind of work that I've been doing the last few months to fight against because I know I have a story to tell and I know I've skills and I have talents that are helpful to people and it's time for me to build my own brand and do those things under my own brand that I get to control.
And it's a big part of why I made the decision to leave my job that I loved because there were things that I probably couldn't talk about publicly or couldn't post on Instagram that were important to me personally. But because my brand was so ingrained with this organization, it wasn't really appropriate. There's things you want to talk about, but when you're responsible for a brand that's not yours, it's not cool to get personal or touchy feely or share the thoughts and fears and things that are rattling around in your brain that I think I've seen a lot of people on social right now doing it being quote unquote authentic or being real and sharing the ups and downs of their daily life.
And that's what's most interesting and exciting. It's not the pristine, perfectly polished brands anymore. People want to hear, you know, you're real, your real shit. And I couldn't really do that so closely attached to this large organization and professional brand.
Lauren: So Morgan, I think we should, get personal.
Morgan: Oh, okay.
Lauren: So I've been hearing you say a lot of things about your skill set and what you're good at. But let's shake that off for a second and let's talk about what you love to do.
Morgan: I will touch back to my job for a quick second. No, not, I was very lucky to do what I did because I did truly love it. I'm great at bringing people together and creating an experience where people can have fun and connect and have great conversations and you don't have to be a really successful entrepreneur for me to, you know, get you into a room and have a good time. You know, I've been doing this since I was in high school and in college and my best friends when we were in college, we threw the best parties on campus, that's what we were known for.
That brings joy to me to bring people around a dinner table and have delicious food and great conversation and really create a space for connection. So I'm absolutely great at that and I'm really great at relationships and what I think is referred to now as soft skills.
That was always really frustrating for me working for the last nine plus years in the startup and tech space. You know, people were always paying big money for tech roles and someone like me who could really help build relationships through partnership, sponsorship, sales, retention, all of that stuff, they're soft skills and they're not, I think they're more valuable than being able to code or something like that because you can teach someone things like that. Whereas what I have I believe is it's just something that, it's a part of my personality. It's a part of my being and I think it's something that is super valuable.
Those are the first few that comes to mind. I'm sure there are some other things that I'm good at, but those are what I know I'm great at.
Lauren: Do you think of yourself as kind of a matchmaker? Can you see potential and sort of look at two people separately and think, hmm, I think, I think you guys could do some good business together.
Morgan: Absolutely. I do that every day. All day long. I've never used the word matchmaker. It's more of a connector and community builder. I get so much joy out of introducing two people whether it's, you know, they were within the organization that I worked for or outside of or just personal friends of mine and making that introduction and then kind of following up in a couple of weeks to see what has happened. I mean I've introduced people that have sold businesses to one another. I've introduced people that like now go on vacations and trips together and they're best friends. I've introduced people that are now roommates. That thrills me to be able to introduce people that can find shared value amongst one another and really help take each other to the next level. Whether that's in their business or their personal life. I am absolutely, I do consider myself a matchmaker or connector for sure.
Phil: Beautiful, pause. I want to touch on something beautiful that just happened. You know, through this process of figuring out how to put your brand into words, what we're also doing is listening to what you say conversationally. So is also useful to have Lauren here who doesn't know you as well. We're listening to what you say in conversation to us and you said something that I feel should be the wording on your home page.
You said, I get so much joy introducing two people that I know will create something amazing together. That phrase could change. I get so much joy introducing two people. That's you. You know, you could sit in front of your computer and be like, what should the, you know, the text be on my homepage. But that's it. That's you in a nutshell. And you said it just in conversation as you start to explore how you feel about all this. I thought, I thought I love the wording of that is really cool.
Morgan: Awesome. That makes me so excited.
Lauren: One thing that I just think we should probably be conscious of or think about is because those soft skills often aren't taken as seriously as you know, more of those tangible skills when they are super valuable. I want to make sure we're staying away from wishy washy words and so this example that Phil just brought up about the joy of introducing two people, that to me says so much more than using the word connector. Connector paints this image of someone who's a socialite, who's kind of like, you know, jumping around from group to group and not being strategic and not thinking about business opportunities. So really be conscious of those examples of what brings you joy and those concrete instances of where you are making things happen.
Phil: It humanizes it in a way, doesn't it? Because the word connector reminds me of something you'd put between two cords that you're plugging into the wall. I don't know, it’s too rigid. It feels like a piece of technology, not a person. When you said joy, I was like, ooh, that's a human quality. And that is so you, so you.
Morgan: Yeah, so I think I use that word connector because it's still related to this space I've been in the last five years and the startup tech entrepreneur space, but it does sound rather mechanical. Whereas introducing people, it really just makes me so happy and it's more fluid than that.
Lauren: Yeah, and I, I really want to make sure that everything you're saying and putting online is not even, it goes beyond the introduction. You're not just introducing two people that you think we'll get along. You're actually thinking ahead about how to enhance each other's businesses, how to make people more money, how to open them up to new business opportunities. Because I want people to see beyond the initial introduction. That's ultimately what I want to come across on your site and social media.
Morgan: Sure. And I think there's a lot of work that goes into an introduction before it actually happens too. I think why I do it so well is because I'm curious about people and I like people a lot. Like I'm genuinely interested. I think like the tagline on my Instagram right now is professional people watcher, and I'm just genuinely curious and I want to know about you. So I have this kind of working rolodex in my brain at all times of people and who they are and what they do and what they like to do and what their interests are and then listening to people is a big part of that.
So when I meet you, I'm kind of doing all that intake and I want to get into kind of what you're working on. What are your challenges, what's keeping you up at night? And those are the kind of two data points I guess you could say. Are those the two pieces of information that I'll use, do you know who you are and what do you need help with to be able to connect the dots and introduce you to the right person to get that done. Whether it's, you know, selling your business or looking for someone great to go on a trip to Italy with.
Lauren: Stop. Because we're going to play a fun little game. Phil, you're there.
Phil: I'm here
Lauren: Always looking down at your phone. I never know if you're engaged.
Phil: Usually I'm not, you know, usually not.
Lauren: Okay, let's play a quick game. Let's try to come up with as many words that rhyme with brand in the next 20 seconds go. Bland grand and stand. You failed the first trial.
Phil: Strand.
Lauren: Well, thankfully we don't have to rhyme for our day jobs. We actually do brand audit consultations. It's like this episode but on steroids.
Phil: And you get a detailed brand audit recap at the very end of it that will help you put everything we discussed into motion. Achieve those goals. philpallen.expert/therapy where you can get a special promo.
Lauren: For 15% off.
Phil: Yes. Okay, let's get back to the show.
Lauren: Yep.
Phil: Okay.
Lauren: Would it be safe to say that you solve problems through meaningful introductions?
Morgan: Yes. That's the truth for sure.
Lauren: Phil, do you like that?
Phil: I love it. Yeah. I love it. Just still it down to one sentence, baby, and let's make something happen. What are the next steps? What do you need to do? Are you, are you looking for a job? Are you building your own brand that you want to monetize what's next and let's figure out what we need to do to make it happen.
Morgan: So to pay the bills I have a plan that has two parts I guess. I am going to be formalizing a bunch of referral partnerships, great service providers that I know I still want to stay in the space of working with founders and forward thinking brands. So basically when I'm having these conversations day to day with this network that I have, you know that I can connect them to the right people and then it's kind of, you know, passive recurring income, which is awesome.
And then I'm also going to be starting my own consulting practice where I work with, so very selectively, two to three founders or, or brands at a time or I can have a big impact on you, community events, partnership sales and retention.
Lauren: Okay. I'm going to be honest for a second. I am not a connector like you at all. I actually get very, very anxious and I'm not the best with like networking and socializing, but I can tell you're really good at it and you and you've, you've kind of broken it down into a science. So have you ever thought about offering a service where you actually teach people within companies how to like meaningfully network?
Morgan: No. And I love that. And I could do that with my eyes closed. And this is why I'm so grateful for this conversation because I just don't, and myself like the valuable skill set. So this is awesome. I could totally do something like that. It never crossed my mind.
Phil: Yeah, because it's so everyday for you, it's so every day it's so natural. It's such a part of you, your personality, the way you see people, the way you treat people. To actually break it down as a service is kind of like, it almost feels too easy. But at the same time, I mean, just little what we do, you know, we listen, we sit here or listen and we figure out, okay wait, no, no, you can make money doing that. You know? So it's kind of fun
Morgan: If I'm being honest, being known and having a microphone in my hand or hosting an event or whether it's on camera. I love that shit. That's what excites me and if I'm able to build a brand in addition to, you know, start running these businesses while I get that off the ground, that would be my dream scenario.
Lauren: I see you like a modern day Dale Carnegie, you're in the new world and you know that social media has a whole extra layer of complication to social interactions that unfortunately for people like myself makes it even more challenging to navigate. And I just see how you would break it down in a nonjudgmental way that would be useful for people in businesses and it would even improve day to day office relations between colleagues if they know how to better communicate by email and by text and you know, in in person meetings. So I really like this angle for you. It excites me a lot.
Morgan: I've been following close a lot of people that are now in this coaching space, which I don't know if that's the right place for me. I've thought about it for a very long time, but starting, Monday I'm fun employed so I need to think about how I can make income now and fast and do that in a genuine way. But I think the long term plan and with your help being a brand personality is really my dream scenario.
Phil: There's something else I want to bring up because we have you on the phone that I think is something you did. I mentioned this at the beginning. I mentioned your email. Hopefully you're okay with me. Just like I'm mentioning a few things that you did very strategically in this email, but I wanted to just bring this up because I think it's one of your strengths and I think it's something you need to incorporate into what you do next. But it's that it's that lack of fear to ask for help.
The email you sent and I love that you bolded and underlined this sentence you said, I'm about halfway down. You said this email came to me and I, who else did you send this to? Even before I read this, I was just, did you hand select a group of people?
Morgan: I did. I hand selected all that small group of people that I've gotten to know very well over the last five, six, seven years through my job or people that I've worked with on a partnership basis or just because I had been traveling so much. I mean you know, people all over the place, but just people I felt I could trust because when I sent that email, I still wasn't sure what was going to happen. Was I going to stay, I was going to leave. So it needed to be a very small group that I trusted and good, give me feedback or help me, but kind of discreetly.
Phil: I want to know what this email did for you, but let me read it so people have some context. You bolded and underlined. I'm asking you for help in a few ways. One, when you encounter an incredible founder or company that wants to build a strong relationship or strong relationships with other startup founders and business owners, introduce me. Two, if you know that exciting organization or brand that wants to build audiences and loyal customers through community in person experiences and events, introduce me. Three, if you see something in me, a skill set or a quality that I should be harnessing to start my own thing, tell me for the last five years I've done nothing but think of others and how to build, build, build in, hustle, hustle, hustle for my job. It's time to think about me. I probably need your help most on this one.
So I want to know what that email did for you, but wait, I have to just say something. The questionnaire you filled out that gives us information on you before we have this conversation as a podcast guest, you didn't know who your audience was. Am I right? Right. If I'm thinking back to this questionnaire, you weren't sure who your audience was, but what's so funny to me is this email you sent to your, your your network, you outlined calls to action for who your audience is. I think you know who your audience is and maybe even from this conversation you do. So question one is what did this email do for you? And two, who is that audience?
Morgan: So I sent that email if it's like really late on it Saturday night, it might've been like 2:00 or 3:00 AM and I was going to save it as a draft to send like first thing Monday morning. And I was just like, screw it, I'm just going to send it. So I went to sleep and I woke up that Sunday morning and almost everyone I email responded and it was amazing and I'm so glad I sent it because their response was so tremendous and people, it's the format of most of the emails that I got back or one congratulations, I'm so proud of you. Second paragraph, you know, here are x, y and z people I want to introduce you to. And paragraph three was, and here's what I'm working on, let's talk about how you can help me. So everyone's introductions and ways of wanting to help me and lift me up.
So I keep using this word is very validating the way you guys have seen some qualities in me. The response to that, the email that I got, it was really validating and gave me the confidence to kind of put the wheels in motion to really make the decision to leave my job because people were approaching me or seeing me outside of the job I had had for the last five years and giving me ideas for ways I could work with them or with other people moving forward.
So I was like, oh damn, I can do this. This might actually be a thing. And also gave me the idea for my consulting practice because I got many replies that were uh, one person in particular emailed me, called me and texted me, in the wee hours of the morning and they were like, come work for me. And that wasn't the only response I got like that.
I'm with essentially a full time job offer, but I don't think I want to go work full time for anybody. So I was like, wait, maybe I can figure out a way to work with all of these people, you know, in project based capacities. And that's how the idea for my consultant practice ultimately came about was the response from that email.
Phil: I think it would be a shame in this opportunity and in embracing the unknown to just go and hand over your soul to make someone else's dream happen. This is your moment. You've already been doing that.
Morgan: Yeah, you said it. I'm done building someone else's dream for sure. That's like the underlying theme and all of this. Absolutely.
Phil: I love it. It's amazing. Embrace that. And I think, I think you already know. I think you already know what you need to do. So now it's just a matter of taking action.
Morgan: Right.
Lauren: Another thing I thought of is that there are so many small agencies like us for example who offer creative services and we're so busy in the day to day that we don't have time to think about finding clients. We just, we've been fortunate that we've never actually had to advertise or promote other than Phil speaking. So you might want to consider looking even on LinkedIn and throughout your, your network for those kind of creative directors, graphic designers, developers who are looking for client projects. Cause that would be a really, really easy introduction for you.
Morgan: That's a great idea. I love that. And I think that kind of falls into the, the referral stuff too. Cause like even there's probably people I meet on a day to day basis that should be working with, with you guys and just being able to kind of like spend highly vetted quality leads your way for so long. I, that's just what I did every day and I didn't realize that it could actually be something that I could monetize.
Phil: Sounds good to me. Sounds great to me. So, okay. So we've talked about some good stuff. I think you've got some ideas moving forward. What is going to be your next step? Where are you going to go from here?
Morgan: Yeah, so I'm in the middle of putting together my website on Squarespace, but I mean there's nothing there right now, but I think after this phone call I will have a much clearer vision of what that that needs to look like. I had an idea and tell me what you think about this given up. Monday is my first day of fun employment. I think I'm going to start like blogging and blogging or whatever platform I might choose about that kind of fun unemployment experience and like what it looks like the actually launch a business kind of day to day. The ups and downs like oh my gosh, this is so exciting to the next day. Holy Shit, this is really scary. I can't do this.
Because I feel like so many people you see out there all of a sudden it's like they have a brand and they have an audience. You don't really see the uphill climb or the creative process of what it actually takes to get it done. So I think I might just like document my experience to a much larger audience than and list of people.
Phil: I think people are so quick to only want to publish on social media, what's good about their, but we don't even care about that. We care about these moments of vulnerability. We appreciate the honesty that hey I don't really know what's about to happen cause we can all relate to that. So I'm all for this idea. Lauren, what do you think?
Lauren: I love it. I want to make sure that when you are writing these entries, even if it is a commentary on what you're going through that day or that week or, or that month, even, make sure that there's always some sort of a lesson in there. That way it takes it from a personal almost journal like entry to something that's actually useful for another person who's in the same situation but maybe doesn't have the soft skills that you have. I don't know if you're a fan of interior design, but if you haven't already be sure to go to Emily Henderson's blog. She does such a great job of telling stories that have lessons in them. It's funny, it's charming and it feels like a snapshot of her brain but is also really, really useful.
Morgan: I love stuff like that. If I can actually walk away from you know what you've presented and go and do it myself, I think that's the best.
Phil: Awesome. Morgan how do you feel about all of this?
Morgan: I'm really excited. I'm like buzzing.
Phil: Yay.
Morgan: Sweating a little.
Phil: Yay. Sweat is good and buzz is good. You're gonna you know if we can just have a conversation that makes you want to actually go and do something that I think we've done our jobs and I feel really jazzed about where you're going to go and take this.
Morgan: Thank you guys. The timing could not be more perfect.
Phil: You're amazing. Thank you so much for hanging out with us and being honest and giving us so much to chat about today and we are all very excited for you. We are like your little cheerleaders over in the corner.
Morgan: Thank you and thank you for your work and seeing me there and with me. You guys rock.
Phil: Okay. What do we think about for Morgan?
Lauren: For Morgan, this all came down to confidence. She's got it figured out. She even has the pieces in place. I think she just needs to believe in herself.
Phil: Yeah. Because she's put so much energy into other people that she's like, wait, I have to think about me. How do I do that? You have to relearn how to do that.
Lauren: Yeah.
Phil: I think that a lot of people can also relate to this situation, this conundrum where we all feel like we need a job. We we need to go work for someone else. That sense of security when in actual fact the road to happiness is doing what it is you want to do. If you want to go work for someone, great. Lots of people do it and it can be really rewarding, but there's a lot of us that are entrepreneurial at heart. I think Morgan is one of those people.
Lauren: And what's really cool is that Morgan has already identified the like introducing people normally doesn't have a value attached to it even though we all know it's valuable but it's intangible, but it's cool that she's thinking ahead and is already seeing that as a potential issue on overtime.
Phil: This has given me lots of ideas. I hope it's given you lots of ideas as well. If you've enjoyed this episode with Morgan and hanging out with us, we want to hear from you. Send us a tweet. I'm @philpallen.
Lauren: I'm @thelaurenmoore.
Phil: And you should also use the #brandtherapy. Wow. So much fun.
Lauren: Phil, you always forgot to say this.
Phil: Yeah. What, leave us a review in iTunes?
Lauren: Leave a review five stars ideally, well it can be four is acceptable. A five is better and give them the option of five only. Only five, five stars or bust and don't forget to subscribe as well.
Phil: Yeah, amazing. Thank you guys for hanging out with us. We are enjoying this. We will see you back for the next episode later.
