Katie (00:01):
Hi everybody. Thank you for tuning into the Hustlenomics Podcast. I’m your host Katie. And today I am talking with Dolores Hirshmann. She is an internationally recognized strategist and coach. She’s the CEO of masters in clarity and has helped clients clarify their idea worth sharing, design their communication strategies and implement business growth systems. So Dolores, thank you so much for coming on the show today,
Dolores (00:23):
Katie for hosting me.
Katie (00:25):
Absolutely. So that’s a pretty incredible bio and I would love for you to kind of expand on that and tell us a little bit more about who you are and, and how you got here today.
Dolores (00:34):
Well, thank you. So first of all, I’m going to address my accent because that’s kind of where people kind of start thinking, thinking, I wonder where is she from? So I live in Massachusetts, in the U S but I am originally I was born and raised in Argentina. So I’ve been here. I probably most of my adult life, I’m married to an American and we have four children. So I’m here because I think all my life, I’m a creative I’m 100% creative. And to, to make the story short, when I graduate from high school, I had no clue what I wanted to do. Actually I wanted to be an actress, a famous actress, but I’m back in Argentina. My dad was like, well that’s great. Go to business school and then we can talk and you get imagine. And every year at university I would tell my mom, I don’t like this.
Dolores (01:20):
Like this is boring. And she’s like, do you have a better idea? And I know. So then she’s like, keep on going. And the truth is, you know, cause sometimes there’s this idea that we have to be loving every single moment of everything. And I don’t know that that is absolutely true because in my experience, you know, I, yeah, I did love all about business school, but I definitely loved some things. But what business school gave me is a foundation and a framework where I can make ideas come true so I can be creative and turn them into something. So I got to this point because I have started multiple businesses. I had, I had a clothing company, I had a software company, I had actually I ran a school for six years. I ran an after school program teaching languages. Cause I’m, I raised my children, I’m bilingual with Spanish and English and other people wanted what I was giving my children.
Dolores (02:14):
I’m not sure I’ll build a school right? Why not? But you know, as I, as I got older and my kids, you know, started going to school and then high school and I had more time, I started asking myself what do I really love and what really is a problem I want to solve in the world and I’m wanting to find my own true sense. So I actually went back to school and started coaching. And so today where really love to do is so that question that keeps me up at night, which is why do people with great ideas and great ways to fix a problem or or, or help someone else, right? Why is it that some of these people incredibly talented don’t really realize the impact they can have? And the answer to that, or at least answer that I found is that many of these people don’t have the structure or the knowledge or can clearly communicate to the market so that the right clients can come to them. And that brings me to today. So today in my business, I combine all the things that I hate in business goals. I’ve come very handy and the last 20 years of launching businesses my way because I just do it the way I feel like it. And so I teach that, but I also, I’m a coach so I help clients understand how are they uniquely wired, what makes him happy, what makes him feel passionate and I help them grow their business their way with clear communication and systems will growth.
Katie (03:41):
That’s amazing. And I absolutely want to jump into all of that, but I would love to kind of get your perspective on after going to business school and then starting all these different businesses, what’s something that you didn’t learn in business school about being a business owner that kind of surprised you?
Dolores (03:56):
Oh, so, so much. I think business school, to be honest, business school was a great thinking foundation and I banded in for kind of learning like supply and demand and economics, micro and macro, like like hardcore things that yes, they were not fun, but they actually play a role in my business today. I didn’t learn anything about starting a business in business school, but I don’t think there’s one thing that I’ve learned in the last, especially the last six years with this business that I can say that I learned in business school there were foundational things, but the living of starting a business, I dunno, there’s only one way to learn is to do it.
Katie (04:40):
Right. Absolutely. That’s so true. Real world experience. And so when did you officially start masters in clarity?
Dolores (04:47):
So most of the clarity started, it actually started under a different name, but we will say they started January, 2014 so it’s been about six years. This is my sixth year.
Katie (04:58):
Okay, great. And it’s such a cool name. So this is kind of a broad question, so feel free to break it down however you would like. But what does clarity mean to you and the context of being a business owner and growing your business?
Dolores (05:09):
Absolutely. I think clarity’s kindness in all contexts, personal or professional in business clarity is the key that unlocks your potential. What I mean by that is that a clear engaging communication strategy or message if you want, is the one thing that will get people to say, Oh, I need her. Because we tend to hide in complex language. That makes us sound really cool, right? But it doesn’t matter how we sound as long as the person out there listening to you says out loud when they hear you, she has a solution to the problem that I have.
Katie (05:53):
That makes a lot of sense. And you know, it’s kind of a big word and a big idea, you know, getting clarity and for someone who is maybe feeling a little stuck or just doesn’t even know what they don’t know, have some practical strategies that you may be use with your clients to kind of start breaking through some of those walls and get the clarity that they’re searching for.
Dolores (06:12):
Absolutely. And there’s two steps and let me give you a little bit of context. So I’ve been at TEDx organizer and I’ve coached a lot of TEDx speakers and I realized in that space, you know, they under 18 minute Ted talk style, you must be clear on the core idea that you are trying to share or you won’t be able to deliver an efficient and engaging talk. So this is that I’m going to share right now actually I learned by volunteering as a Ted TEDx organizer and is ask yourself what is a question worth asking? We all have different questions. You know, someone could say, my question is why do women still die of cancer? Specifically, I have a client that I’m working with right now who has found a drug for a specific kind of breast cancer. And the whole research of this drug was him asking himself why in 2019 do we still have this problem? And so the question led to the answer, which is the clear message to develop a drug, blah, blah, blah, X, Y, Z. So that breast cancer is something like it’s an old DC, there’s and old condition. And so what I’m saying to the audience is, what is a question that you want to figure out for you, Katie, what would be yours?
Katie (07:34):
Probably why are more young women not starting their own business?
Dolores (07:39):
There you go. So, so then what is the answer to the question?
Katie (07:43):
Probably the, some, some societal pressures and fears, money, things like that.
Dolores (07:49):
Yeah. And so what is the solution that I do bring? I’m, I’ll, I’ll say it for you. I mean, again, we, we’ve recently met, so I might not be totally accurate, but, but it’s like to inspire women to start the business by bringing women that have started businesses, right? Maybe three or podcasts so that they can see what the roadmap looks like, what the process looks like. And so what I just did in that same, and there’s a very clear framework to actions. So that outcome, so write that down for the audience if you’re listening to this, to space. So that space. And so first fill out the end of the sentence, the outcome. So what is it that you achieve with whatever action you’re going to take. So for me, when I take my action, if you want my clients gain clarity and grow their business and the action that I personally take is I guide service entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs to clarity of message and business models so that they can grow their business.
Katie (08:53):
That’s amazing. I love that. For me, I love a good formula cause it feels so steady and solid. Anybody can do it. Yeah. So that’s fun.
Katie (09:02):
Yeah. That’s awesome. So when you’re working with clients or working with people who are crafting their Ted talk, which I definitely want to come back to because I’m so in love with Ted talks, but do you see some of the same issues cropping up, some similarities that you just see over and over again that people are really struggling with across the board?
Dolores (09:18):
Yes. So here’s the thing. It’s easy for us to talk about what we do. Oh, I coach people and I do it this way. And we can go into details of all the ways that we do it because of all the courses we took or degrees that we have. Right? But, but that’s about what you do and it’s really not about what you stand for. So here’s the thing and I’ll give you a, again, give us a little bit of context. In 1996 and I’m dating myself, I graduated from business school and interestingly enough at that time, 1996 before Amazon existed, I graduated with a thesis that was titled in Spanish, well translated. It was titled marketing on the internet relationship marketing. And that is very true today, that when we are communicating with our audiences, it’s all about engaging them in little bits of information about our work so that eventually they decide to work with that.
Dolores (10:18):
We, I call it building the trust funnel. And so everybody across the board is, is happy to meet you at a cocktail party and like drill down in 30 minutes time, every single little detail and technicality of what they do. And you just overwhelm the other person, right? And nothing happens really because the other person’s just trying to politely run away. But what would it look like if you run into someone at a cocktail party or you’re speaking from stage or you’re doing a little post online or whatever it is that you’re doing. They’re all kind of the same. And you give just enough information for the other person to be curious enough to one more. And so when you say, what do you do? Well, I help people grow businesses. Oh my God, how do you do that? Well, blah, blah blah. So you want to create an environment where the audience, one person or a million people, it doesn’t matter, are pulling information from you.
Katie (11:22):
Right. So that’s finding a balance between sharing and creating a sense of curiosity. Right,
Dolores (11:28):
Exactly, exactly. And creating a sense of space for the other party to engage. Okay, that’s really interesting. I mean, will I cross the border? You asked me what is the common denominator. Nobody does it that way because it’s all about the more I speak, the more information I give you right now, the more chances you are to work with me wrong.
Katie (11:47):
Yeah, very interesting. I tend to go back and forth with this issue myself of how much to share, how much you keep back. You know, with being online and social media, we all tend to kind of overshare sometimes and it’s great to have transparency and it’s finding that balance of connecting with your audience on a vulnerable and authentic level, but still not oversharing so much that there’s no curiosity or mystery or anything like that. So that’s really interesting. And what are some of the ways that you think is most effective to build that trust funnel? Do you like social media, email lists, speaking in public? Is there anything in particular you think is really highly effective?
Dolores (12:23):
Yeah, so, and this is where, where my coaching comes in. So I will answer for me, I also answer how I coach my clients. So, so each one of us is wired differently and we must honor who we are. And so to, to tell an introvert that the only way they’re going to grow their businesses to be on a stage every week is kind of killing them. Right? Like not well thank you. I really get that nine to five and to tell an extrovert that the only way that they’re going to grow the business is writing the blog post. Again, same reaction. So, so as I coach it is like there really is no wrong way to raise your visibility. There’s, there is the intention of racing your, that’s what literally we’re talking about the beginning of a trust funnel is, is, is getting out there somehow.
Dolores (13:14):
So I, I call that raising your visibility, so it’s about understanding who we are, what kind of action we would take on an ongoing basis. For example, if you are a small crowd kind of person, I would coach you and say, why don’t you create a dinner group and once a month you go for dinner with local women. Let’s say that women is your target, that you’ve, you find a local that every month you invited women to have dinner with you and you just have a dinner for 10 people and you get to meet new people and every month people can bring more different people. Right? That’s a way of visibility. It’s not fancy. It’s not very high tech. It’s a little bit old fashioned, but it’s actually sure way of getting people to know who you are and what you do want to refer you.
Dolores (14:02):
That’s one strategy. Obviously the social media is out there and you can use it, but you don’t have to use every platform, manage one on one and go deeper in that. I personally answer it for me. Now I do. I’m mix and different times of my business I’ll do different kind of methods depending on what is going on in my life and what kind of commitment of my time I want to give. So I’m doing a lot of things. I’m doing Facebook ads. I’m actually doing a launch coming up in September. I am speaking at least once or twice a month in person I am doing podcast which I did over the years. But now I’m like, you know what man, I didn’t, how many people can I talk to? I have a team member who reaches two, five to 10 people every single day in LinkedIn. On personal note, this is not a machine does not a bot. I’m always obviously doing newsletters, which I do consider. I’ve been doing that for many years. What else do I do? I write articles and blogs every week and I post in other publications. That’s what I do right now, I think. Yeah, that’s cool.
Katie (15:09):
So that’s so exciting because like you mentioned, it’s different for everybody. So there’s so many different avenues that you can make work for your personality and your business. And there’s always a way to reach out to people. So how did you get involved with TEDx and Ted talk?
Dolores (15:23):
That’s a great question. So I think I shared with you, I started a lot of businesses and then I tried to figure out, well what is my thing? So I went back to school and became a coach and ICF accredited and all that. And so when I launched my coaching practice, which I was happy to, I love coaching. There was something that was missing. I was like, like I dunno, I love my work, I love my clients and business was doing well, but there’s just a part of me that was missing and I couldn’t figure out what what it was. So, and I teach this as well. So I started asking myself what would I do for free all day long? And the answer to that question was I will hang out with ideas and people with cool ideas. And so I had already been part of a TEDx event here in my community as a co organizer.
Dolores (16:06):
And you know, everything comes together. Like when you call it in your mind, suddenly certain deputy shows up. So I was in that process of trying to figure out, okay, so what is it that I need to add? Or like where can I volunteer, what can I do to fulfill this part of me that wasn’t totally happy. And a group of people reach out to me and said, you know, we know that you have the capacity to organize an event cause I was certified and all that. And then we will be your team if you are willing to lead an event here in town. And it was the answer to the question. I was, I was, I had like what would it do for free because TEDx organizing, it’s a free thing. And so I said yes and I ran one of the largest events in the East coast for three years, consecutive in 2015, 16 and 17.
Dolores (16:53):
And we were in a pause right now just because of bandwidth really. But that’s how that began. And what happened is that sometimes you say yes to volunteering or doing something in that way and it gives you so much. Right. and what it gave me is it gave me an understanding of how much I love working with in the communication space and helping people clarify their messages and their talks and how much people are hungry for this kind of platform and to be seen in order to grow the business. Kind of that whole focus that my business now has in helping people getting on stages. We actually have a speaker booking services, don’t we do all that was born out of that yes. To volunteering that I did.
Katie (17:38):
Very interesting. Yeah. And I’ve sure you’ve heard hundreds of Ted talks and you know, over the years that you’ve been working with them, has there been one or maybe a couple that’s really stuck out to you that spoke?
Dolores (17:49):
Yeah, there’s one that I always comes to mind and it’s not a, I mean he’s well known but it’s not like popular, popular and it’s called embrace the shake. I can’t remember who the speaker is. Shame on me. But I, I, I watched that talk live when I was at the Ted event, I want to say it was 2013 or maybe 2014, but it’s about this guy who is a pointy yeast. I don’t know you know, the kind of painting. They didn’t do little dots in Spanish. His Pantages Mo, and he’s that kind of painter. And in doing that kind of work, he’s hand was like the muscles were so strained from this tiny dots that he starts shaking and he got very depressed, you know, all kinds of drama because he could no longer paint the way he wanted to paint because his hand was shaking so much until he allowed the shake to inform the stroke and he embrace the shake to develop a new kind of art form for him.
Dolores (19:03):
So instead of little dogs, he started, you know, allowing whatever it was that he was creating to come through a stroke that was a lot less accurate. And in doing so, he created obviously amazing works of art, but it was about stopping the resistance of that thing that bothers you. And embracing it and allowing it to create amazing product. So, so as, as as extracting that idea of how does that mean? How do I take his experience into my life is like this, this, this idea of whatever is not perfect is exactly your perfection.
Katie (19:42):
Oh wow. I love that. And it’s all about changing your perspective. That’s so powerful. So you have something on your website called clarity TV and it looks so interesting. It looks like there’s some interviews going on with some pretty incredible people. Do you mind telling me a little bit about that?
Dolores (19:56):
Oh, absolutely. Thank you for asking. So career to me, something that was born last November and it’s just in the early stages. I actually haven’t even converted into podcasts yet. It’s gone. It’s coming. And it’s just me asking people that are out there, most of them are serves entrepreneurs or speakers or authors and asking them about, you know, their clarity journey, right? How kind of, what you are asking me to some extent, but what is the, what has been their process of arriving today and how do they find clarity?
Katie (20:30):
That’s awesome. Yeah. I’m going to check that out and we’ve had some incredible people on, so I’m sure that’s gonna be,
Dolores (20:36):
They’re fun to listen to. The one that you should definitely listen is, I mean there’s many, but Dana Wilde, I don’t know if you know about her, she’s a rock star, but she has made training our mind or mindset if you want. But she, she has a very straightforward, easy to fall away to really understand how is it, how when we manage to our, our thoughts we really can transform our lives, but in a very practical way.
Katie (21:05):
Yeah, I love that. That’s something I’ve been really working on personally, so I’ll definitely check that out. And since you were talking about mindset and you know, clarity and all that stuff and you help your clients with that as well, do you kind of have like a routine or some rituals or anything that you do throughout the day or the week that kind of really helps you get in business mode and be productive and all that stuff?
Dolores (21:25):
Yeah, I’ll, I’ll share, but I’m not rigid. So there’s a couple of rules that are pretty clear. Like I do know working weekends and I stopped working at five o’clock pretty much five, six max everyday. I as a, as I have four kids, I now have to go into college as of this year and two at home and I can see the end of the, the, the face of motherhood. And so I’m trying to make the most of it. So that’s kind of rule number one. And as far as my daily routine, it comes and goes. It depends on the stages of where I am. But I try to have something in the morning that anchors me, whether it’s exercise and you know, it could be yoga, it could be biking. I love to bike, I do bar in the winter or walk and I try, I’m not diligent about it, but when I do it, life changes is to write morning pages in the morning. That comes from, I don’t know if you know about morning pages. Have you ever heard of that?
Katie (22:19):
Yeah, I’ve, I think I’ve heard about it before.
Dolores (22:21):
So morning pages. So Julia Cameron was a, is someone that wrote something called the artist’s way. And if you’ve never checked her the artist’s way, spend a 16 or $20 on Amazon and buy her book. It’s amazing. And it’s basically a 12 chapter or 12 week program that reawakens your creativity. But one of the exercises that she, she suggests is an exercise that you can incorporate for life. And we really will, it has changed my life and it’s every single morning when you wake up, write three pages of stream of consciousness. This is not a bestseller. This is nobody should meet. It really is really remove the noise from your brain, put into paper. I’m walking through your day kind of pier headed for some people. Meditation is really hard. I’m, I can be one of them cause I’m very active. I’m very kind of antsy. So this is a great alternative way of meditation.
Katie (23:21):
Very interesting. Yeah. And you mentioned networking on the weekends and not after five o’clock. Are those boundaries something that you’ve always had or did it take a while for you to set those in place?
Dolores (23:31):
I have to say, so I’m lucky in that when I’m, so I met my husband and want to stay. Then we moved up here before I had children and so I moved to kind of a suburbs of Boston or South of Boston. And so I’ve been working from home since 1998 which is kind of unheard of because nobody did back then. And so I had an office, I worked for a nonprofit in New York and I worked from home. So back then, you know, I had a nanny that would take the baby until five o’clock and then had a baby. Like you can’t work. It’s very hard to work with a baby. And so that kind of naturally created a routine and discipline for me. And it has stayed with me over the years. Of course there are exceptions or sometimes that I need to fix something or, or I’m in the middle of a launch and maybe I’ll do some work. But honestly, Katie, you have to say it’s rare. I have clients in Australia right now that I’m working with and they have created a calendar so they can meet with me at 4:00 PM East coast time and they wake up at 6:00 AM their time because they know that I don’t really work past five o’clock.
Katie (24:40):
Yeah, that’s really interesting. I’ve just recently started working with clients that are in different time zones, like, like Australia or you know, in the UK. So it’s like that’s been difficult for me trying to figure out those different times and everything. But that’s great. That’s something that I struggle with putting those like putting the computer away at five o’clock but I think the older I get, the better I’m going to get at it. That’s my plan. So what’s some goals or exciting things that you’re working towards in the future with your business? So I’ve been
Dolores (25:08):
Coaching people how to engage audiences from stages for many years now. And I mostly work privately, but I have been asked repeatedly to teach people how to use my framework is really seven steps to write a Ted talk that is engaging. So I’m launching up your talk and it’s a 10 week program that you literally walk away with your talk that’s coming up now. So I’m super excited about that and I actually, one of the things that I am incredibly proud of what we’re building is that I recognize that out there there’s a lot of coaches and consultants that will tell entrepreneurs what to do but they’re not that many formal organizations that will help you do it or do it with you or do it for you. And so masters in clarity now has a whole agency and one of the things that is kind of coming out of the both, we’ve been doing it with our clients for the last year and now we’re opening it to the public is a speaker booking service. Basically what we do is speakers or entrepreneurs come to us, they want to speak more and they want to be seen. So we create a strategy for them and our team will research, pitch and book people on stages on a monthly basis.
Katie (26:23):
Yeah, that’s really valuable. I’m sure so many people are going to be very excited that you guys are offering that.
Dolores (26:28):
We’ve been doing it for TEDx speakers for now five years where we help them. We do the work of research and pitching and get them on a tech stage. But now we’ve expanded it to other stages.
Katie (26:39):
Awesome. And people can find information about that on your website. Yes, masters
Dolores (26:44):
In clarity.com
Katie (26:45):
Awesome. And you’ve mentioned tons of amazing resources, but is there anything else like books or podcasts or courses or anything out there that you have found helpful that you might recommend to the listeners?
Dolores (26:57):
So definitely check out the artist’s way. By all means. If you’re stuck in your creativity, check that out. Yeah, so there’s so many. I’ve worked with Stu McLaren, I love him from tribe. He’s been great at helping me create a leveraged business model. I’ve worked with Fabienne Fredrickson, there’s so many people out there doing amazing work. So yeah, you shouldn’t, there’s no reason why you should do this alone.
Katie (27:22):
Yeah, I absolutely agree. 100% and where can everybody find you? Online?
Dolores (27:27):
Masters in clarity.com and masters in clarity on Instagram, masters in cavity on Facebook, and the Lotus version on LinkedIn.
Katie (27:37):
Okay, fantastic. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today and taking the time to chat a little bit.
Dolores (27:43):
Thank you for having me.
