After more than 20 years producing award-winning stories for ESPN, HBO, CBS News, Weekend Today and the Olympics, Valerie Gordon now helps audiences and clients discover the power in their own story and the Art of Storytelling for Impact and Influence.
As a career and communications strategist, Valerie works with high-achievers, using story to build their brand, manage their message, perfect that presentation and advocate for themselves as they ascend the leadership ladder.
The stories we put out to the world impact the way people see us and the opportunities we’ll get, while the stories we tell ourselves influence our course of action. Stories are universal connectors, creating a meaningful and memorable experience for audiences of all sizes.
Partnering with corporations, Valerie helps bridge the talent gap, encouraging executives to lead with authenticity and empowering women to not only take a seat at the table but to impact the agenda.
Her client list includes women’s leadership groups with Pfizer, Citibank, Prudential, Mass Mutual, Aetna, Dealer.com and YES Network among many others.
Her innovative keynotes and workshops offer audiences the story strategies to speak up and stand out and create a successful next chapter in their career story.
Storytelling is a universal, gender-neutral language that can be applied to all roles and lines of business. Valerie’s presentations have impact a wide range of industry including finance, mortgage lending, executive leadership and sports media.
Katie (00:00):
Hi everyone. Thank you for tuning into the Hustlenomics podcast. I’m your host Katie, and today I’m so excited to be talking with Valerie Gordon. She is the founder of Commander In She, which is such a cool name. So Valerie, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I’m really excited to chat with you.
Katie (00:00):
Hi everyone. Thank you for tuning into the Hustlenomics podcast. I’m your host Katie, and today I’m so excited to be talking with Valerie Gordon. She is the founder of Commander In She, which is such a cool name. So Valerie, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I’m really excited to chat with you.
Valerie (00:14):
Thank you for having me, Katie.
Katie (00:15):
So do you mind telling the listeners a little bit more about yourself and everything that you do?
Valerie (00:19):
Absolutely. So my background actually is in media. I was for more than 20 years at television producer producing feature stories. Those stories that teach you about people that you might not have known, athletes, Newsmakers celebrities, everyday, regular real life people, those stories that make you laugh and cry and motivate you. And I had this terrific career that I loved and had pretty much reached all my goals and found myself wondering what was going to be my next chapter. It wasn’t that it wasn’t a wonderful job, but I felt like I had done it and had faced after a couple of decades, the feeling of, you know, what’s next? And a little bit of disillusionment and disappointment and wanting to move on from that. And it was through those moments that I was able to really take stock of what I knew how to do, tell great stories, and what I was passionate about, which was helping women better tell their stories.
Valerie (01:17):
Because over the course of my career I had seen so many terrific women leave the workforce and I wanted to see how I could help them and merging those two ideas, which of course any great business idea takes some time to come to fruition. I created commander in Xi, which is a career in communication strategy firm and now what I do is I use storytelling to help women advance in their careers or their businesses by understanding how to harness the power of story in everything from how we speak of ourselves, how we network, how we negotiate, and how we plan for that next great chapter of our careers.
Katie (01:54):
That is amazing. So I always like to ask this question because I find the answers are really interesting. What made you choose to go out on your own and start your own business instead of just finding another job, working for somebody else that might’ve been a more fulfilling or interesting to you at that time?
Valerie (02:10):
I think it was because I didn’t see what I most wanted to do as an actual job. In fact, I didn’t even really know what the job was. I was facing after more than 20 years of really hard work in the corporate world, a little bit of of burnout and I mentioned disillusionment and I needed to give myself time and space to think about what would come next. So I actually never really set out to be an entrepreneur. I mean, running my own business was never an original goal of mine. I saw a problem. I saw too many talented women not believing in themselves, holding themselves back, opting out of the workforce. And I wanted to create a solution to that problem. And the only way really to do that was to do it on my own. And so the, the idea of becoming a career communication strategy him kind of evolved from creating my first workshop called what’s your story, storytelling strategies for success, which I began doing actually on the side when I was still working full time and seeing how I could use storytelling as a device to help other women succeed at work and as it is with most businesses.
Valerie (03:17):
You take one step and then another one and then another one and the business evolves and that’s really how it happened with commander and she was seeing a demand for that kind of content and figuring it out step by step. As I’m sure you and your listeners are well aware, making many mistakes along the way and you figure it out as you go along.
Katie (03:37):
That’s awesome. So how long were you kind of doing the side hustle as well as your full time job at the same time?
Valerie (03:43):
It was probably at least a year and a half, but I think the idea had been in my head for a long time. You know, it’s funny, Oprah talks about this, this feeling of kind of getting hit in the head with a, with a pebble, like an idea or something. It just strikes you one day and it’s like a, a pebble on your brain and kind of dings you a little bit and you’re too busy to focus on it. You’ve got too many other things to do and then maybe a larger bubble comes and hits you again. Or maybe now it’s a rock and it’s like these little clues to hate. You’re not paying attention to what’s most interesting or important to you. And so the idea I think had actually been in me for a number of years before that where I just didn’t know what to make of it. And it wasn’t until I kind of created the space around it to think it through, what is this?
Valerie (04:28):
What even is this idea and how might I do it that it came to fruition. And so that started with the first workshop that I created, that I began doing on the side while still working full time and network TV and just market testing it. What does the audience think of this? How is this working? Who might I bring it to? And giving it some of the attention it deserved to make it better, but to be honest, and I think many business owners and entrepreneurs would probably say the same thing, that when I decided to do it full time, when I decided to leave the corporate world and launch my own gig, I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready at all. I wasn’t sure about the name of the company or the logo or if I was even being clear on the services that I was providing.
Valerie (05:14):
And at some point you just have to do it even when you’re not fully ready. Because I think if I had waited until I felt fully confident and ready to do it, I don’t know that that day would have ever come. Sometimes you have to jump in, try it and fix things along the way. And now after two years of running the business, I can say clearly that I serve corporations largely through their women’s groups or their leadership and development initiatives. And I speak at conferences about the power of storytelling. And the many ways we can use it to build careers and build our businesses and find better success and what I like to call our next chapter.
Katie (05:53):
I agree 100% I would’ve never been ready myself. And you know, just the idea of not knowing completely where you’re going. I have, I’ve completely evolved my business in the year that I’ve been full time. So I think that’s normal and I think everybody should be okay with that because that’s just what you have to do sometimes. But you mentioned the market research, which I would like to kind of talk about a little bit because I think that’s a great tactic to do before you kind of jump in full time. Do you kind of test the waters and see what’s going on and what audience you want to serve. So what were some of the tactics that you used for that market research for that first workshop you did?
Valerie (06:24):
I was lucky in that I was already pretty involved with a number of professional women’s organizations and had gone to a number of conferences and always there was some takeaway. I would go to these conferences where you’d hear these high performing women speak and you were always very motivated by their journey and what you learned from them. But then you would go back to your own desk, your own job and that breath of fresh air, that motivation that you got at the conference would kind of go away. And I knew that when I started speaking to audiences that I wanted to be very specific in giving the audience tools that they could use so that they could take that breath of fresh air and that motivation back with them and actually change up their story so that they could take the steps to get to wherever it was they wanted to go in their career.
Valerie (07:12):
So I was lucky that through some of these organizations I was a part of, I had a number of connections where I said, Hey, can I come speak to your group about storytelling strategies? And I’ll have to be honest, Katie, that even though I thought I was offering something of great value and I was willing to do it entirely for free, nobody wanted me to speak. I mean it wasn’t, it wasn’t easy to find gigs even doing it for free. So I took what I could get and it took a number of tries and requests to be able to even get the opportunity to speak in front of people and for people to see the value in what I had to offer. So my best advice to anyone who’s looking to, you know, market research is just a big way of saying, testing out your idea in front of people whose opinion you know, you, you care about.
Valerie (07:58):
So whether it’s a group like that that you can get in front of, whether it’s colleagues or coworkers or an entrepreneurial networking group that you can be a part of, or just a group of friends to say, Hey, what do you think of this? And then of course, be open to the honest feedback I’m doing. That first workshop definitely showed me that there was value in the idea, but I had a lot of things that I needed to address and fix and that was, that was huge to be able to have that feedback and just the practice of doing it. And the more I spoke, the better I got at it, the better. Finely tuned the idea became, I expanded the number of workshops that I was offering and now I had some momentum under me and people did want to start listening to me speak and then I got to a point where I could start charging for speaking because now I had a number of engagements under my belt, but it certainly wasn’t like a snowball effect that took off right away. It definitely some took some time.
Katie (08:57):
Right, right. And your background is in TV production and even working for somebody else. I feel like sometimes that could be, you know, we’re always behind the scenes and you kind of were behind the scenes of the TV production, making it all come together and making it happen. So what’s it been like having that role and then moving to the front, being the business owner, being the speaker, being in front of people. Was that a big shift for you?
Valerie (09:19):
Well, it absolutely was a big shift and I’m sure you can relate to this and the idea that now you’re doing it all on your own. You know, I had always worked as a, as a collaborative team and very much liked to be the ideas person and content and delivery was my forte. But you know, when the, when your computer goes down, there was an it person there to be able to help me read, reboot it. There was a marketing team that I would partner with. There was a social team and that’s been the biggest challenge for me. And I’m sure for most solopreneurs, I’m certainly your listeners as well, would say we have to do it all. We have to do it all from the content creation and the delivery to the marketing, social, you know, social outreach the business planning, the sales, the logistics.
Valerie (10:08):
And when my laptop goes down, I mean all I really know how to do is turn it off and on again and hope that works. So that to me is the hardest part of, of working for myself is having to do it all on your own. But at the same time, it’s been a wonderful learning opportunity. I’ve learned so much in the past two years simply because you are under own and you have to figure it out. The one area that I found most surprising, and perhaps some of your listeners who were previously in the corporate world, might say the same that I do miss, is the collaboration, the collaboration of having colleagues around you. Whether they’re, you know, friends or not to be able to pop into someone’s office and say, Hey, what do you think of this idea? And to get that immediate feedback. Because as you know, when you’re on your own, you’re trying to figure that out in a little bit of a void. And so I found, and I’m sure you have as well, that having groups of likeminded people, whether it’s an entrepreneur community or a mastermind group, has been terrifically helpful both in goal setting and accountability, but also to have those people to bounce ideas off of. And that’s been my biggest learning experience. And also my biggest recommendation to anyone who wants to work on their own is don’t forget about the, the power of collaboration.
Katie (11:27):
Absolutely. And so where have you been finding these communities online, on Facebook or you know, other places? Where have you found most of the people that you’ve connected with?
Valerie (11:35):
I really like LinkedIn a lot as a, as a platform. I mean, I will say probably my closest groups are with people that I knew, even if it was a sort of a six degrees of separation. So right now I have a writer’s group because I blog weekly at commander and [inaudible] dot com and I’m working on my first book, which will hopefully be this summer. And that writer’s group is through just a group of women that I knew through my community. We all write on diff different ways and different things, but we hold each other accountable. We meet once a month online to talk through what we’re working on. Then I have an entrepreneurial community that I largely met through LinkedIn contacts. I’m fairly active on that platform and that was through reaching out to individual content creators. I just really liked what they were sharing.
Valerie (12:19):
They are fellow storytellers. They use it in in different ways and through messaging them and following them, we’ve kind of created a small community where, again, some of these are one on one conversations and some of them are group conversations, but we just help motivate each other. And I hate using this as a verb, but ideate together, come up with ideas. I think you’ll find that there’s any number of mastermind groups out there, whether you need business support or whether you need goal setting or community support. So the trick really is to find the people that aren’t going to tell you what to do. You know, I hate people to say, well, you should just do this. Well, you could do that. Doesn’t mean you should do that. But the people that kind of get you and are in the thick of it too and know what you’re going through and that support has been really helpful. Particularly if you work like I do from work in a home office and I’m by myself most of the day. And sometimes you need to be able to have other people to bounce ideas off of and talk to, you know, other than the the dog.
Katie (13:25):
Oh, I totally agree. I’m really lucky my dad runs his own business as well, so I swear I’ve called him more times in this past year than I have in my entire life. But just having that community there, it’s, it’s so helpful. I agree. And this kind of wrapping up a little bit about your background, I always love asking people this because sometimes when you’re struggling in a position that you really don’t like, or you have a bad boss or any kind of situation, you feel like you’re wasting your time and you’re not getting, moving forward or getting anything useful out of it. But I like to think about life at any experiences we have with there is some use we can find in it and there’s something we can take away from it. So even though you had a great career and you enjoyed what you did, you still wanted to move on to a new path. So were there any tools or skills that you took from your previous positions or jobs that has really helped you as a business owner?
Valerie (14:13):
I mean absolutely. My background is storytelling and it’s something that I’ve been able to capitalize on. But for people who aren’t quite sure how to use their background to fulfill their passion or whatever they want to do next, I think it’s a great idea just to take stock of what are you good at and not only what you like to do, what comes naturally to you, but what have people told you over the years that you’re really good at? Kind of keeping that assessment might provide clues as to how to bridge the gap between their, what’s past and and here, the present and what you’d like to build in the future. And because I’m such a big believer in storytelling, and I it for my career related workshops, I like to always think about, well, what is the future story we’re trying to tell? You know, what is the value that you want to bring out to the world and how do we use our past successes and our present talents to be able to write that future story?
Valerie (15:10):
Everyone has some type of carry over. You have skills and experience that you can apply. And for me that was knowing about how to tell a great story. I understood what made a story meaningful and memorable and how stories can be used to impact and educate and entertain. But I also saw the number of ways that, that women in the workforce were capitalizing on their stories. They weren’t speaking of themselves in a way that was going to get that next job or they were telling themselves stories. You know, oftentimes we tell ourselves stories in our own heads about why things are the way we they are. And so my workshops are designed to get both into that external story, how to use actual storytelling devices to speak of ourselves in a way that’s going to impact the audiences we speak to. Whether that’s an audience of one or a hundred and the influence of the stories we tell ourselves inwardly.
Valerie (16:07):
If you kinda think about as like your internal narrator, that subjective narrator that’s voicing over your day. My workshops focus on both of those kinds of storytelling. So one day I might be running a workshop at a college about presentation skills for their graduate students. On the next day I might be running a workshop for small business owners about content creation and how to make their story stand out from anyone else’s selling a similar service or product. Or I might be sitting down with a group of women talking about how to recast that narrator that’s voicing over your story in your head if you happen to have a particularly pesky one. So it’s storytelling and all different types of the word. It’s the stories that we tell ourselves and to others that’s going to lead to our future success. And happiness.
Katie (17:01):
Absolutely. And you mentioned storytelling devices, and I would love to kind of delve into more of what you do and your workshops and everything that you do with commander and feed. So when you say storytelling and in a business context, what does that mean? If you don’t mind breaking that down for people who are still a little nebulous about the idea and how are you helping people work that into their business and into their brand to really connect with their clients?
Valerie (17:25):
Well, it’s something I love to talk about, Katie, and you’re absolutely right that storytelling is such a big buzzword in business today. All companies want to figure out, well, how do we better tell our story? Or how do we use storytelling to make data come to life? And so it’s one of the parts of training that I love to do. The stories are what makes stats interesting. I mean, there’s actual scientific study, a story’s effect on the brain. It kind of infuses the information with what they say is like a bit of stickiness. You’re, you’re far likely to remember it if you have somewhat of an emotional connection to the story. So as it relates to small businesses, we talk about what are the details of your story that you might imbue with the product that you have or the service that you’re marketing to make a better connection to your consumer.
Valerie (18:15):
Who really is your audience? Because when it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter how good of a story you have, if it doesn’t have meaning to the audience, the audience is the most important factor in any story. More so than the narrative point of view or conflict or climax or resolution, all those storytelling components. So I really focus on what are the specific details of the business or the person who I’m assisting with, you know, in their career that make them stand out. What’s the journey story? So we use again, those elements from the past story that can highlight our present skills and opportunities and building into that future chapter of that future story. What’s the optimal outcome? What are we hoping to achieve here? And how are we conveying that with words that are clear, concise, and convincing? And that’s really what you need to do.
Valerie (19:11):
If you think of as a business owner, your consumer is your audience, what’s in it for them? And I actually do have a, a simple exercise I use pretty much across the board if you’d like for me to talk through it. So I’m one, I draw from all different types of storytelling. John Rose in my workshops and one of the simplest ones is one I use everywhere because it’s so good. It’s basic reporting. If you might remember from, I don’t know, sixth grade, you remember the five w questions, who, what, when, where, and why. And those are the basic questions of, of journalism, of reporting. And then of course there was the how they always do the how and after. So that’s how reporters start to learn how to report a story. What happened, who was there, where did this happen, why did this happen, et cetera.
Valerie (19:58):
Well, I realized as I was building my first workshop that these stories are absolutely key to these questions are absolutely key to any story. And what I love about these questions is they can be used in so many different ways. So when you think about networking, for example, how you introduce yourself to someone. We use these without even realizing it. We say who we are, that’s our name. Of course we say what we do, our role or the, you know, the business. We say where we do this, the name of our company or business or location. And the, when in this case is typically since when, so I’m, I’m a business owner. I run a communication strategy firm called commander and she since 2017. And those are the real basic points of our story. Who, what, when, and where. The problem is, and most people know this, telling people what you do actually says very little about who you are, which is why the next two questions are so much more important.
Valerie (21:03):
Why do you do what you do? And then when I asked this question in a workshop, particularly in the corporate world, I can see the thought bubble over everyone’s head, which is like, well, I get paid to do what I do and I have to get paid to, you know, or in living and, and earning money is a perfectly good reason to have a job. But there are any number of ways that you could earn money. There are any number of types of businesses you could run. Why this one? Why does it matter to you? Why is it important? Why are you good at good at it? We can ask that why question in so many different ways and to try to get at the crux of the story. If you’ve ever heard anyone say, well what’s your why? You know, trying to figure out your why is like your life purpose and where do you even start with that?
Valerie (21:49):
So I ask a number of why questions kind of like an annoying four year old, you know, they’re always saying why, why, why to get at the root of why did we choose to do this particular thing. And even if the first answer is, well, I don’t know, we can delve into it further. And that’s where the story typically of merges. So it’s all based on going beyond what you do into why you do it and why you do it well, that’s the key to your business. And then the how that H question was always like attack on. But I liked the how a lot, particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The question I would ask is how do I offer value? So how am I bringing value to my audience, to my buyer, to the consumer, whatever it is, whoever it is you’re trying to reach, how do I bring value? And it’s particularly important in networking conversations so that you’re not just introducing yourself and getting that person’s basic bio as well. But if there’s a connection and how can we be a value to each other? That’s how relationships are built. So I use the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions in many different ways in my workshop. But I always like to use it to be able to get at the root of someone’s story. Why do I do what I do and how can I be a value?
Katie (23:11):
I love that. I’m going to absolutely use that for myself. I think that’s fantastic. And I’m praying this come across this women who are saying, I’m just not interesting my stories on it and they’re probably, you know, telling themselves that even though it’s not true, but how do you get kind of across those roadblocks for pooper? Like I just don’t have anything interesting to say.
Valerie (23:32):
Well, first of all, I think everybody has a story. And so I don’t buy that. I call, I call BS. I think oftentimes we don’t think we have an interesting story because we fear that our story isn’t big enough. Right? Like, well, I’ve never been homeless or overcome cancer or you know, I don’t have any of these very dramatic story elements, therefore I’m not interesting. But really it’s the small details of our story and the meaning they can have to the person we’re talking to that create those connections and make us relatable and valuable. And I’ll give you an example. When I talk to audiences of very busy women in the corporate world, one of the stories I share is about a very busy morning when I left the house and couldn’t find my travel coffee mug and didn’t realize until I was driving down a driveway and heard this funk and saw all this like Brown liquid across my windshield that I had left it on top of my car.
Valerie (24:32):
Now that’s not a story with any real consequence, but when I ask if anyone else in the room has ever done that, and I’m always surprised like more than half the hands go up and if you haven’t raised your hand because you’ve never done that, you still understand the crazy busy morning emotional state that got me to leave my coffee mug on top of my car. There’s a relate-ability in that very small story detail. So I think sometimes we feel like our stories need to be built on these huge dramatic swings when sometimes it’s the small details that make us most relatable. My feeling is that every story should be authentic. Meaning it’s, it’s yours. You know, it’s true. It’s relatable that it has some value to the audience there. There’s a reason why you’re sharing it with that particular audience and that you should speak of what you know, your experience, wherever life has taken you is valuable. And for anyone who thinks they don’t have a story I’d be happy to to have a call with them. And ultimately I will be offering my, what’s your story workshops online, which would allow people the opportunity to delve in and realize, not only do I have a story, it’s a pretty good one because it’s mine.
Katie (25:49):
Yeah, I love that. And once we’ve kinda helped people craft that, what are you doing next? Are you helping them put together a copy for their website or their blog or social media? What’s that next step? Once you’ve kinda got that, that story idea down.
Valerie (26:02):
So what I do is I offer content creation and coaching for people to use these storytelling strategies, whether they are looking for the right words to distinguish their story on their website or create a LinkedIn profile that helps them stand out because our words matter, the words that we choose to use make up our story. If you just call yourself a hardworking, dedicated individual, you’re not standing out from hundreds of other people. So we try to get real specific on those strategies and also the idea of creating your next chapter. I can’t do that for anyone, but I can put the idea in your head of what active authorship is and that not waiting for someone to tell you what happens next. It’s the goal setting. And plot planning, actually going through what is the plot of the story to get me there, to get me to that next chapter and for anyone stuck, that idea of turning the page and, and how to move on from a situation that isn’t working for you, which by the way, I say that’s one of those great, unlikely story elements. Dissatisfaction is a terrific thing. It really is. Whatever you’re dissatisfied with, that’s a catalyst for change. So I never would have gone off on my own and created commander and she, if I hadn’t reached a level of feeling done and a little dissatisfied and a little burned out from a 20 year corporate career, it was not a pleasant thing to go through. But that’s how we actively author our next chapter by using those story elements and propelling the narrative forward.
Katie (27:41):
Absolutely, and for people who are listening, who are interested in doing this exercise and want to start crafting their story, but they feel that maybe they’re not a strong writer or they would like to improve their writing, do you have any like tools or resources that they could refer to to kind of help them increase their skills and get that story out there in a way that would connect with people?
Valerie (28:00):
Well, I would definitely hire a writer and there’s no shortage of them that you can find on LinkedIn or or Fiverr, but just make sure that that writer is listening to you as you get clarity on your story. You don’t have to be your own wordsmith. You just have to know what you’re hoping to achieve. So when I talk about actively author in your story, it’s more the visualization in your mind, that creation of where I would like to go next. And then if you are, if your project requires you to come up with those words to really make that story shine again, we’re talking about biography material or a web content. There are any number of talented writers who can bring that story to life. You know, if you struggle with the words, but the only way to make it authentic is it has to come from your original voice, your original ideas. And then ideally, ideally pairing with someone who can just make those words and thoughts flow.
Katie (28:54):
Perfect. That’s great. And I’m, I’m also interested in the aspect of your business as a speaker and holding these workshops and for people out there who have a skill and have a story that they want to share that they think people would find helpful, what are some ways that they can start breaking into that field of speaking and hosting these workshops? I know you mentioned you started out doing it for free. Do you think that’s a good way to kind of break into it?
Valerie (29:18):
I have to be honest. I think it’s the only way, unless you are considered such a highly regarded and well known thought leader or you already have a name and there’s nothing wrong with doing it for free. In fact, there’s still a number of times when I worked for not for profits and we’ll, and we’ll certainly take on assignments that I want to do just because they’re important to me, but there’s any number of opportunities to speak. Whether you start with your local chamber of commerce or a small mastermind group or a professional organization or a college or a high school, you have to get in front of people first to know what you’re talking about and how it’s being received. So I let anyone know if they’re interested in doing it, just get up there and take the opportunity to do it in front of any group.
Valerie (30:01):
And when you finally understand the value in what you’re offering, then you can start to put a number on it. But there’s any number of speakers out there who will tell you it’s not an easy industry to make a lot of money in, which is one of the reasons why you have to consider what is the value that I’m providing. Once you have a name or perhaps if your record, you know, represented by a speakers Bureau, that becomes much easier. But for just getting started, I would say in my first year and when I was doing this kind of as a side gig, I did probably 12 speaking engagements and maybe a quarter of them were, were paid. So most of them were, were free. By the first year I did it full time, I doubled the number of engagements I did and maybe half of them were paid by my second year in business. I had tripled to the ad original number and nearly all of them were paid except for the ones that I chose to do for no fee. So it does take time, like any business, but you have to start with the first step. And the first step is just getting in front of people and seeing how the audience response.
Katie (31:07):
Yeah. That’s great. Awesome. So you mentioned early on in the episode there as a business owner, we kind of have to wear a bunch of hats. We have to do a lot of things by ourselves and I’m always on the lookout for anything that can increase my productivity or just help me be a better business owner. Has there been anything that you use in your daily life that you just can’t live without, that the listeners might find helpful in their daily life?
Valerie (31:30):
I’m always on the lookout for that as well, so I should be asking you the same question. So for me it’s two things. I’m, I, I’m not a big app user as far as setting my schedule. I set an index card, it’s a large one of those big index cards for each week. And I have a, a series of class that I put on it. I like to see it written out and be able to cross things off. So I hold myself accountable to for new business inquiries each week. And for followups, people that I need to follow up with. I hold myself accountable to one blog post a week, which at the time when I first started writing, I had a lot to say and it was easy and those ideas kept coming out of me. There are some months where I sit down and I just come up with ideas so I’ll be able to fill them in.
Valerie (32:12):
But after doing it for two years, I have over a hundred blog posts now on commander and xi.com so it does add up. So, so my system is really old school, it’s just my index cards. But my sort of mental productivity system is something that I, I just blogged about and posted today. It’s about having big goals but not getting overwhelmed by them by considering what’s the bite size portion of that goal. And the way I came up with this was literally I was out with my family playing mini golf and we went out for ice cream after and I wanted the ice cream. But I didn’t really want the ice cream because I wasn’t supposed to be eating ice cream. But I still wanted it. And the place where we went had this little teeny tiny little cone called the putt putt cone, which was like smaller than a kitty cone, but bigger than a tasting sample.
Valerie (33:03):
And they scooped it out with this little tiny melon baller. I mean it was so cute and adorable and it was like a three byte cone and it was the perfect size and it completely satisfied my desire for ice cream at night. What does this have to do with goals? It got me thinking about how easily we can get overwhelmed by the portion size of what we have to accomplish as entrepreneurs and how to break that down into bite size steps. Now what’s the bite size version of this goal was talking to someone today who wants to write a book but she’s never really written before. So yeah, so maybe we start with a blog post or a post on her favorite social media platform or a media account. What’s the bite sized portion of needing to lose 15 pounds? It’s, you know, getting up and going to the gym three days a week and by breaking it down into smaller goals that at Leeds helps me mentally, you take the first, next step, each time over and over again and all those steps will add up to get you to your destination.
Valerie (34:02):
Awesome. I love that. And do you have any recommendations, podcasts, courses, books, anything like that that the listeners should check out? There’s one in particular and I actually think it’s the woman who introduced us by Carolyn keel called beyond six seconds. And Carolyn as a side gig runs this podcast where she stares, she shares stories of everyday people and it’s named beyond six seconds because six seconds is the amount of time that a person typically uses to make a decision about someone, you know, looking at a resume, we decide very quickly in six seconds, is this person right for the job? Or six seconds in meaning someone, we kind of determine what their story is. But Carolyn’s point is six seconds is not enough to know anyone’s story. And what I love about her podcast is she’s a great interviewer and she delves into all sorts of fascinating stories of everyday regular real life people. So I know she was the person who got us together and I do highly recommend her podcast for anyone interested in hearing a variety of different stories.
Katie (35:02):
Okay, great. And I would love for you to share how everybody can find you and get connected with you online.
Valerie (35:08):
Absolutely. Yeah, you can follow me@commanderinshe.com that’s my website. It does have hyphens in between commander in she.com that’s a play on commander in chief. For anyone who didn’t get that, we should all take command of our own careers, our own stories. You can also follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at commander in Shi, no hyphens and I do spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. You can find me there as Valerie J Gordon and I look forward to hearing from everyone.
Katie (35:38):
Fantastic. Well Valerie, thank you so much for coming on the show today. It’s been so great to talk to you
Valerie (35:44):
And thank you so much for having me today, Katie. It was a pleasure to talk with you.
