SDH 218: Getting Comfortable with Being Loud and Putting Yourself Out There with Heather Havenwood
How do you progress professionally in a male-dominated industry as a female? How do you get comfortable with self-promotion?
Today Heather Havenwood tells you how in this episode! Heather wrote the book, Sexy Boss, which is about the emotional rollercoaster she faced while working in the information marketing business, between 1999 and 2001; a then male-dominated industry. She hadn’t written Sexy Boss with the intention of it becoming a New York Times Best Seller but just wanted one person to benefit from reading about her experiences. She hadn’t gone on a huge marketing and press junket for the book’s launch, but three years after it’s publication, it became number one on Amazon! To have that happen organically meant the world to her, and she’s glad her book empowered women to take control of their success, money, and sex lives!
Once her book took off in 2015, and the spotlight was on her, she was forced to learn how to get comfortable with self-promotion. She said that in general it’s easier for men to be self-promoting, and for women, it’s counterintuitive to talk about how great they are free. She also found it hard to ask media outlets to come on their platforms to speak about her and her book. She said that mindset stemmed from her mother’s Southern, Baptist philosophy of not inviting yourself to the “party”, but wait to be invited. But Heather realized that as an entrepreneur, you cannot wait for opportunities to present themselves, and she had to go after them herself. She got over her fear of telling people how great she was by starting out on podcasts. After writing her book Power Guesting, she has been on over 300 podcasts, TV, and radio interviews in the last two years!
She had also started her own podcast in 2013, titled after her book, but it never really took off. She assumed that podcasting wasn’t the great promotional platform that everyone made it out to be. However, after appearing on her friend’s podcast in 2015, she gained a client that paid her $5,000 to coach him on starting a business. That was the ‘aha’ moment that told her that while hosting her own podcast may not be in the cards, appearing on them could become a lucrative practice for her personal brand, and business ventures. She then made speaking platforms her go-to marketing tool!
Learn more about how Heather built her brand, and got comfortable just showing up to the party!
In this episode, you will…
Get comfortable with self-promotion
Take note of what media platforms are lucrative for you and your business
Learn to constantly stay on the media radar
Know how to sell hope and confidence
Find what you’re good at and build a business from it
Be able to sell your business
INSIGHTS
“I drive therefore I am… I’m a promoter… When I work with clients, the one thing I’m teaching them is how to drive their business…how to push it out there… And it’s uncomfortable for entrepreneurs…Entrepreneurs are usually selling themselves..their art…[I help] them un-collapse their baby…and then sell it.” -Heather Havenwood
“How do you expose your visibility and profitability with your baby…the feedback is usually [are people] buying or not…that’s pretty much what my elixir is: how do I help the entrepreneur sell their product and services, and not get all weird about it. And it’s definitely harder for women than it is for men.” -Heather Havenwood
“What actually are you selling? Are you selling hope? Are you selling strategy?...At the end of the day, that’s what most products are selling…What had you buy [something] was confidence. That product will give you the confidence to do x, y, and z. You have to remember why people buy…Hope and confidence are the number one and number two that people buy.” -Heather Havenwood
RESOURCES
*3 FREE CHAPTERS OF SEXY BOSS LINK!* (askheatherann.com)
Sexy Boss Inc. Website
Heather Havenwood LinkedIn
Sexy Boss Inc. Facebook
Sexy Boss Twitter
