Expert in You: Transforming Coaches into High-Earning Consultants with Ann Carden

Freddy D: 00:02:21

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming an incredible business growth expert marketing and sales strategist and consultant Ann Carden as the CEO of Acarden Inc.

And the Expert in you attraction marketing and media agency and brings over 43 years of experience in business, marketing and sales with an impressive track record of building seven successful businesses, selling five of them.

From launching a global business before the Internet era to helping hundreds of entrepreneurs scale their success, Anne has made a lasting impact as a consultant, speaker and best selling author. Her book Expert in youn became a number one international bestseller and she shares her expertise through her podcast and magazine of the same name.

She's been featured on major media outlets like abc, NBC, CW and Fox, recognized as one of the top coaches in the world, and recently inducted into who's who in America. With a wealth of knowledge and a passion for helping entrepreneurs thrive, I'm thrilled to have her here today.

Freddy D: 00:03:35

Welcome, Ann, the founder of Expert in youn to the Business Superfans podcast. Excited to have you here this afternoon, Ann.

Ann Carden: 00:03:44

Thanks Frederick. I'm happy to be here.

Freddy D: 00:03:46

So tell us a little bit about your story of where you started from and how did you end up coming up with Expert in you.

Ann Carden: 00:03:54

That's a great question. Let's see, 35 years ago I left my corporate career and my corporate income to be a stay at home mom.

And we were struggling financially and I started looking for a way to make money and that is how my first business started.

Since then, I built multiple businesses, sold them and I started coaching and consulting about 15 years ago and I fell into a lot of the wrong strategies and things that just were not helping my business.

And I was part of a coaching organization and everything they were teaching people were having to learn their stuff to go out and build a business coaching business. But they were all struggling. And I thought, what's wrong here?

And I took a step back and I kind of figured it out and I thought, Ann, you're trying to learn stuff that's really not in your expertise here. It's stuff you're trying to do. Things that don't really align with you and what you know and your knowledge.

And I started looking around and everybody else was doing the same thing. So as I took a step back, I thought, okay, and where's your expertise? Where does that lie?

And then how can you structure, how can you still take the things that you've learned from them, but structure it in a way that it can help you move your business forward?

Because I kept getting kind of stuck in my business and all of a sudden my business exploded once I figured that whole thing out and they started really sending me other coaches and other consultants to help them. I really was helping them build their and I would say to these coaches and consultants, what was your background?

Like why didn't you decide to become a business coach? And they might say something like my background was in music. Okay, that doesn't align, right? Or doesn't.

I started looking at that and I thought people need to be taking what they're already great and building a business around that is their fastest pat. So out of that my was where the entire brand came from.

Freddy D: 00:05:46

Interesting story. So what is it they specifically do in helping these coaches?

You work primarily with coaches, is that correct or you work also with business owners or is it hybrid of both or business owners that are coaches?

Ann Carden: 00:05:57

It's really both. So I, so what I really help people do is build out either a new revenue stream.

So maybe they have been running a business but now they want to build a whole nother revenue stream helping other people with what they've learned. So more coaching, consulting maybe another professional service that they want to offer to build a new revenue stream.

Maybe they want to get out of their business and this is their next step. I work with people coming from corporate that they are ready for something different or they're maybe they're retiring or they. And they want to.

For example, I have a client that's a surgeon and a practitioner, a specialist. And she has built out a concierge business practice and she's been the first person to do it in specialty.

Now she's creating a coaching business and a coaching model to help other specialist be able to build out a concierge model.

So I take what they're already doing or have already done or what they're great at and I help them really design a premium business around that because they're already experts, they already know their stuff and I help them build out what is going to be their revenue model. I call it their million dollar offer, their branding, their marketing strategies and systems, their sales process and then even building their team.

And how are they going to scale this and how are they going to keep growing it? So really an A to Z coach. But I also work with people that are wanting to level up.

So maybe they feel like they haven't really been working as an expert, they really haven't been working in their skill set and their knowledge. They have so much more opportunity. They want better clients, they want bigger deals, they don't know how to do that.

They want to be a more premium player in the market. I help them structure, restructure, and then how they can grow and scale that. But all around professional services.

So it might be an agency owner that decided, I want to create a consulting arm of my business. We're doing all the done for you services, but I want to consult, I want to be a trusted advisor. I don't want everything to be done for you.

I want to leverage my skill set and my expertise and teach people, teach their teams or run their teams, Manage their teams. Not manage, but advise their teams. And so that all becomes another revenue stream or a completely new business.

Freddy D: 00:08:19

Interesting. You've got a unique approach of really working with these people to find another niche.

And it's really an extension of what they're already doing, but it's just repackaging it into a revenue generating machine.

Ann Carden: 00:08:34

Yes, absolutely. A lot of people go out and they try to learn something new. It's like, okay, I know, I want to. We see this with business owners a lot.

I worked with business owners for years before I started working and with professional entrepreneurs. And what I would see is business owners would not maximize what they were doing.

And so then they would decide to start another business or add something, but it was a completely different business. And so now they're trying to run two businesses. We see this even a lot with entrepreneurs, but the businesses aren't connected in any way.

Freddy D: 00:09:05

They're not complimentary.

Ann Carden: 00:09:06

No. And they're not complimentary at all.

So one of the things I help people do is build out what I call their million dollar core system, their core offer, and then from that they can build off. So now I actually have an agency where we do a lot of done for you services.

We can write their book, we can get them published in the media, we can launch their podcast. There's a lot of things we can do with them.

Those are all done for you, but were a natural fit to what I was already helping people do, but I was sending them away to go get it done somewhere else. And I said, okay, that doesn't make sense. And so I built off of that.

Now I'm really running two businesses, but they're so connected that it doesn't feel like I'm running two businesses.

Freddy D: 00:09:48

Interesting. And that's really clever of what you're doing because you're helping that customer of yours really scale.

You're controlling their growth process because of the fact that you're tracking what's happening. And you can say, okay, you need to just like an airline Pilot has got an autopilot system that automatically tweaks and adjusts.

I have a friend that's a retired airline pilot, used to fly from Phoenix to Maui, and he would say that the plane would adjust every second because of the wind and everything else happening. That if it didn't do that, it would never arrive to Maui, be someplace out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

So what you're doing is you're helping them tack back on course so that through the different programs that you're offering, which is really cool.

Ann Carden: 00:10:35

Yeah. One of the things too is business marketing. Sales is always changing. Right. We have disruptors like AI coming into the market.

And so when they're trying to run their business and build their business, they don't really have time to learn all the business stuff, all the marketing stuff, all the sales stuff. They're trying to be good at their skill set or hone their skills. But it's my business to learn business.

It's my business to know what marketing is relevant in the market today. That is my business. So that's where I put a lot of my energy and my focus and my time.

And so now I am able to take the most relevant things for them and they don't have to go out and still try to learn all those things. I can just help them implement those things. And so it's just a faster path for them to be able to have somebody helping them along the way.

Freddy D: 00:11:24

That's great. When I was working recently with an interpreting and translation company, I had a business coach that was helping me just keep me accountable.

More importantly, brainstorm. Because it was a frustrating situation.

It was a husband and wife business and they had reached a plateau and they had no technology, no systems in place. Every 90 days, somebody was quitting on a multitude of things that they did wrong. So I got involved to help turn that business around.

And I had somebody helping me to just. Sometimes it was just I needed that person to vent.

Ann Carden: 00:12:00

Right.

Freddy D: 00:12:01

He'd listened to it and he said, okay, now that you got that off your chest, what are you going to do about it?

Ann Carden: 00:12:05

Right.

Freddy D: 00:12:06

Wait a minute. I just talked to you for that.

Ann Carden: 00:12:09

Yeah. I don't believe anybody climbs the mountain alone. And I think the people that try to climb the mountain alone are just really.

They're doing it the hard way. They're. It's just so much easier when you have somebody. And yeah, I definitely am an accountability partner to people as well.

Keeping them on track and keeping them on course. Look, everybody hits ditches, right?

I was Just actually having this conversation with my husband, you can be going along, things are great, and then all of a sudden a disruptor comes or this little thing called the pandemic. And all of a sudden you're in a ditch. Right. You run off in the ditch. And having somebody that maybe has been through things before. Yeah.

I'd been through everything over 40 years in business, so I can't bring up much that I haven't been through and worked through.

And so having somebody that has been through a lot of that and has overcome all the fear and the mindset things and they are just able to help you get through that. I hate to say like a therapist or a counselor, but sometimes.

Freddy D: 00:13:06

Sometimes it's what it takes. It's what it takes.

Ann Carden: 00:13:08

Feel that way. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:13:09

Because I was dealing with personnel issues and the way they were managing the company and some events happened and I ended up running company completely had full authority and we scaled in one year by a million dollars. We're talking interpreting and translation.

So we're talking a dollar a minute for a phone call, getting an interpreter or getting a Spanish in person interpreter for $70 an hour. Those kind of transactions multiplied many times is a significant amount.

Ann Carden: 00:13:36

Right.

Freddy D: 00:13:36

But one of the things that we did was we turned around the culture. And so I started empowering the team because I'm a firm believer in the team is the extension of the soul of the company.

Ann Carden: 00:13:50

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:13:51

So if they're not empowered and love the company and love who they're working for, that tonality comes across to prospective customers and existing customers and you're going to sense something is off. If the tonality is off, you can say, not sure about this company. Something's not there. Your subconscious is going to be doing right.

And where somebody answered a phone or an email and says, and we're super excited you call, how can we help you? Bridge your language, communications, et cetera. Whole different mindset, whole different approach. So what I created is I created superfans.

First of the team that transcended to. We were working with independent interpreters. So they don't work for us. They're independent contractors. They can work for multiple agencies.

So it was now recognizing them because of the fact they're the front line. They're the ones going to the hospital.

Ann Carden: 00:14:45

Right.

Freddy D: 00:14:46

Because if they're not brand advocates for this company, the hospital's going, why are we dealing with these guys? Maybe we should look at somebody else. So totally get what you're talking about.

I bring that up because I think what you're Doing is you're helping these businesses create their own superfans from within the people that they're dealing with.

Ann Carden: 00:15:06

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, again, as business, if it's going to be successful, it has to be successful on all fronts, from how your clients feel about you to how your employees feel about you.

Freddy D: 00:15:17

Suppliers, you can distribute all of it.

Ann Carden: 00:15:20

Yeah. People, when you're on their podcast, how they feel about you. It's all part of it.

Freddy D: 00:15:25

Yes, it's all part of it. And it's.

So that's one of the things that I'm excited to have you on, because bring that to the equation of how you're helping your customers, your business coaches, create super fans of the people that they're helping, which is in turn promoting their success.

Ann Carden: 00:15:42

Yeah, absolutely. And it reminds me of when I worked with small businesses when I first got started.

Many now coaches and consultants, I haven't really seen the same thing because they really have a heart to serve, and so that's their whole thing.

But when you talk about a small business, I worked with contracting businesses for a long time, plumbing companies and roofing companies, and some of the basics that did not get done when I first would start working with them, that we would have to make sure. Even you mentioned the phone call, even from the very first phone call, how people were treated, how they treated their employees and how.

How they treated their customers. I even see it a lot online with a lot of entrepreneurs.

They work really hard to get business in the front door, but it's going out the back door as fast as it's coming in, because.

Freddy D: 00:16:29

Absolutely.

Ann Carden: 00:16:29

Because they're not doing what they need to do within that business to create super fans with their clients. And so all those things have to be looked at in a business.

It's not just one thing that makes a business go, but it reminded me of when I worked with a lot of small businesses and that just the things that weren't happening, that needed to happen. And for a lot of them, they just have to learn that along the way. They have to learn what it really takes.

But how many businesses don't even open their doors anymore? I mean, I am blown away by when I go to a business and they say they have hours on the door and yet they're not there.

They haven't opened, they don't answer the phone. We're seeing it all across America where I'm like, how do these people stay in business? We also are seeing the same thing.

So we have to be out there helping these people do a better Job.

Freddy D: 00:17:24

Agreed. So share a story, Ann, of how you've help transform somebody that was looking to become coach and work with other businesses.

And what's the story that transformed them to where they're now? They've achieved the goals that they were seeking.

Ann Carden: 00:17:42

Yeah, I could tell you so many, but one of the goals or one of the ones that it was in my earlier days and he was a referral to me from a past client and he had been trying to launch a product. And so this is just sort of how I mold things and how things work, which is why I'm telling this story.

He was trying to launch a product that he was bringing to the US From Europe. And he knew his target audience. He had a business before. Not in the same thing, but he had businesses before.

So he wasn't new to business, but he just could not get this product off the ground. And his marketing was wrong. His offers were not put together in a way that he could hit the money or the level that he wanted.

Everything was just off. His sales process was off. So we restructured everything. His offer originally was about $4,000.

And I said, one of the problems that you're going to have. He wanted to work with chiropractors. I said it was a machine.

One of the problems you're going to have is chiropractors don't need another thing and they don't need another thing to do. So if you're going to sell this to them, you have to make it a really sweet deal and you have to make it something they really want.

And he was trying to almost sell it like, this will be great for your patients. Well, chiropractors care about their patients, but they still max out on their time. They still can only do so much. Right.

They don't want to put out more money. And so we restructured all of that so that he was now targeting the chiropractors and how much revenue it could add to their business.

And the benefit is what it would get to do for their patients as well, and how they could sell this is a whole nother thing. But the other thing we did with that, we changed all the marketing, we changed the package.

And I said, let's turn this into a consulting offer that includes the product because. And let's put some marketing with this.

So he put about $500 worth of marketing stuff, brochures and some signage, and got some materials made for them that would go with the package.

Again, we recreated everything and then we put together a consulting where he trained the staff so the staff could run it, and the staff could be building out another revenue stre inside the chiropractor's office.

The chiropractor didn't have to do anything except say, this person needs to know how to do this, or he could mention it to the patient and what it would do for them and how he thought it would be good for them, and then the staff could take it over from there. So we restructured all of that. So we took it from a $4,000 offer to a $25,000 offer.

And then we changed up his sales process so that he funded the chiropractor so they could make very low monthly payments. We showed them the kind of revenue they could create. And long story short, he went from zero to almost a million dollars in a year with that offer.

Also, he was getting paid in full when they bought. So he was now selling $25,000 a shot every time he sold one of these. And that also gave him the money and the resources to now grow faster.

So he hired some sales teams and they were able to go out and he was able to grow that and scale that really fast. That was just one example. But I look at what people are already doing and where's the opportunity there? Well, that could be.

Maybe they've not done a business, but I look at what have you been doing, what is your expertise, what is all of that value that you have? How can we put something around that and build around that?

But then what are you trying to do or where do you want to go and how can we level that up? So, yeah, so that's just one story.

Freddy D: 00:21:12

That's a great story. Because you created value. You basically simplified the process of getting that implemented into the chiropractor's practice.

And you removed the time constraints for the chiropractor because he didn't have to get involved or she didn't have to involve in managing it.

The person came in, did the implementation, did the training get everybody up to speed, helped everybody understand how to position it to market it to the patients. And yeah, I'm sure he became a super fan of you.

Ann Carden: 00:21:47

Yeah, there it was just follow up. And then I think he actually went on and did it in dentist office and went did it in spas.

I only worked with him for a short time, but after that he was able to take that same exact process and just change who he was selling it to. The whole process still worked and he was able to go into different verticals. So I don't even know really what he did beyond that.

But that's what he did in the timeframe that I worked with him. So yeah, yeah.

Freddy D: 00:22:14

That reminds me of years ago when I was in charge of global sales for a software company and I was responsible for taking a product that existed, nobody knew about it, and grow it. And I grew it from 0 to 3 million at the company in a three year window. The challenge was, was similar.

I was working with independent distributors or what we called value added resellers back then. And they were all over in Europe, Asia, et cetera.

These are independent people that are representing I'll say 12 different watches, you know, and how do I get my watch mind share and sold within their teams. I would go out to there. So I traveled a lot and would spend time getting them see the benefit to take on the product.

Two was training their sales team how to position it, how to sell it with all the other products that they sold and what was a differentiator. But where the difference was is we would recognize the distributorship, who sold the most and all that stuff.

That's what most of the vendors were doing in our space. I went one step further and I actually recognized the individual salesperson of that agency that was the one that's selling the most of our product.

So I recognized him as my superfan for promoting the product. So I was actually his superfan, recognized him and then recognized the distributorship.

And what that would do is that would motivate other salespeople within that distributorship. Wow. Nobody else did that. None of the other competitive vendors did that. I did as something I had learned from somebody. And that was a game changer.

That's when we scaled, like I said, from 0 to 3 million net to the company in $5,000 chunks. We had set up 60 resellers around the world. And I'm still friends, we're talking 20 some years later, I'm still friends with some of those of people.

Ann Carden: 00:24:09

Yeah, it's.

It's amazing how much can be done with even just an outside perspective or an outside person that can just see things you can't and can help you implement things faster. And I love that story. I, that's such a great story.

Freddy D: 00:24:25

Thank you.

So let's go back to what's your ideal customer and how do you work with them so that our listeners, if somebody's interested in reaching out and looking for help. How would you work with somebody? Let's say pick me. Okay. How would you take me? Put me on a hot seat?

How would you turn around and look at what Is it that I'm doing and how could you help somebody like me or somebody that's. We're dealing with a lot of solopreneurs and small to mid sized businesses.

I've got some people that I've done some work with and talk with that do wellness stuff. Some people do with the mindset.

One person is a business coach that I just interviewed on a show that is from the Navy and he's just launching his coaching business.

Ann Carden: 00:25:09

Yeah, those are all great people. And I've worked with a lot of mindset coaches and obviously business coaches.

So one of the things that I do is really take them through a process of first of all, if they have anything that they're already doing, then I look at that and I see where their bigger opportunity is. Almost everybody has a bigger opportunity. Sometimes they have fallen into particular strategies or something that they see out there.

Funnels is an example. I help people work at a really premium level. So they're playing in kind of in blue ocean.

So the way I can do that with them is because I'm taking what they're already great at and I'm helping them build a business around that. I don't typically work with people who are trying to learn something and then I want to learn something to be a business or to build a business.

I want, I'm in training to be a life coach so I can be a coach and build a business. Those are not my people. My people mostly are in the B2B space. If they're not in B2B like mindset coaches, I'll move them into B2B.

I'll move them into business because that's where their bigger opportunity is, that's where the more money is. And I help people get high end clients. That's my whole motto. I help them build a premium high end business.

So most of the clients that I work with, $25,000 might be their low offer. And I've helped clients get $400,000 clients. It's working at that higher end. So what I would do is really look at what are they currently doing.

Are there shifts that can be made to level up what they're doing and really reposition them in the market? Create a higher value offer, a higher value business model. So those are the first two things we look at.

And then now how are you going to market that and how are you going to go get clients? Typically the marketing strategies that we use are very high impact.

So it's either you're speaking in some form or you're writing your book, you're getting in the media, you're speaking your thought leadership on social media, you might be getting on stages, you might be running virtual events, you might be hosting your own podcast, you're getting on podcast. It's all what I like to call a high impact marketing strategy where it's a one to many type of approach to the strategies we use.

And that also levels them up and levels up their visibility in the market too. So it kills a lot of birds with one stone.

So those are the marketing pieces and then helping them obviously put the sales process in place to close those higher end clients. From there, if they want to scale, I have a four step process. It's premium offers, it's positioning, promote and then profits.

So those, that's the four buckets of my accelerator and different people come into me in different phases and they may not need. They might already be selling something at a hundred thousand dollars, but could that be 250 or could that be 300?

So I look at those things first or do they just need to add more, more offers to what they're already doing? I look at just everything that they're doing and everything they have and really help them define what that new business or new model looks like.

So whether they're just getting started in business, helping them build all those pieces out, or they're scaling their business, helping them level that up and get out of being in the mainstream and move them to the blue ocean or top of their market. That was blended.

Freddy D: 00:28:41

No, that's fine. But that's important for our listeners. Somebody that's interested in your services or wants to know more.

At least now they have an idea of what it is that you're doing and how you can potentially transform not only their business, but ineffectively. Their life.

Ann Carden: 00:28:56

Yeah. Oh, it's life changing. I think you mentioned a mindset coach. I think of one of my mindset coaches who was brilliant.

She had been doing it for a long time, but when she came to me, I don't think it was probably even getting to maybe $50,000 a year, maybe $60,000 a year. And she just kept getting stuck. But she was selling her services so low that she had to have so many clients.

And so we moved her into the business sector, we restructured and repositioned everything and she, she closed a $50,000 client with mindset coaching. So it's just knowing how to put the pieces together, which was just almost unheard of for a mindset coach.

But it's also why I Love the business sector. It's what I know anyway. I'm more of a B2B person, but it's what I know.

But I also love it just for the fact that it helps them build a more simple business and they can get paid a lot more and there's such a need for their expertise. So yeah, whatever sector they're in.

Freddy D: 00:29:55

Well, absolutely, because having been in sales for decades, it takes the same amount of effort for selling a hundred dollar item as it does $100,000 item. Same amount of follow up, same amount of time, same amount of engagement. It's the same thing, but the ROI is different.

Ann Carden: 00:30:14

It's easier to sell high. People don't realize that. But when you're selling very low, you're dealing with a different type of client, a different type of mindset.

A lot of times you're dealing with people that might not have the money. Like they're having to decide do I want to pay my electric bill or do I want to invest in this.

When you're dealing with higher caliber clients, they're looking for the shortcut, they're looking for the speed, the money's not a factor. That's a very different mindset from what most people experience because of the way they structure their business.

And there's such a great pleasure to work with too, because they actually require less because you don't have to drag them on the bus.

Freddy D: 00:30:55

Yeah, no, I totally agree. I just recently fired a client.

Ann Carden: 00:31:00

Well done that.

Freddy D: 00:31:01

We've all done that. And people don't realize that they need to do that.

Well, sometimes that client is draining you and costing you money and you're not seeing it because you're into it. You're into the weeds, you're not looking outside. And that's where an external person can change.

But this particular company was in a service business and I got recommended by the business coach that I had talked about. So I worked with this other guy and had again, no CRM in the company.

Was working with folders and Excel spreadsheets and no follow up strategy, et cetera. What's in the construction industry.

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That business been around 30 years, did great work, but it was a family run.

Ann Carden: 00:32:01

Right.

Freddy D: 00:32:01

Very short mindset. And I put systems in place and things like that. And some of the people got it.

They had one person that wasn't family and he was getting at what I was doing. But it got to the point where they felt they couldn't control it anymore because they didn't understand it. It was like, wait a minute.

They had never gone to any events with general contractors and stuff like that. Come to one and says, look, here they all are, you know, 50 general contractors in one spot. It doesn't get better than this.

Ann Carden: 00:32:33

Right.

Freddy D: 00:32:33

In six weeks, I put together a $1.1 million bidding opportunity for him of multiple contractors that he had never even approached. But he couldn't see it. He didn't understand what was happening. I just basically said, this isn't going to work.

Ann Carden: 00:32:48

People stay stuck in their ways. They're not willing to change or they're not willing to. You can't help clients like that. Yeah, no.

Freddy D: 00:32:56

Just like you're saying, because he was losing control because he didn't understand how to use the CRM, Wasn't computer literate.

Ann Carden: 00:33:03

Right.

Freddy D: 00:33:04

And it was just beginning.

Ann Carden: 00:33:06

Refused to learn, right?

Freddy D: 00:33:07

Oh, yeah. Totally refused to learn.

Ann Carden: 00:33:09

You know, you said sometimes we had to fire people. And I just look at it this way. Life is too darn short. And I don't want to be drained by clients. I've had those clients and they drained me.

And at some point you have to say, it's not worth it. No amount of money is worth it. So go. Clients that will appreciate you, will implement, will do the things.

And part of the reason why I help people do it in a higher end market is because those higher caliber clients are those people. They get it. They already get it.

Freddy D: 00:33:40

Well, they leverage their time. That's the bottom line. Time is the most. I keep telling people, time is the most expensive and limited resource that we have.

You can't buy more of it and you can't buy it back 100%.

Ann Carden: 00:33:55

You'll never get more. So make good use of it.

And I, for one, don't want to be going to bed at night thinking about my clients, having bad dreams about them, because it's not going well. That is not something that I want to live.

Freddy D: 00:34:10

No. I mean, yeah, I could say this guy went and I took him to a meeting with a bunch of women, and he was dropping F bombs.

And I was, okay, this is gonna be a long day.

Ann Carden: 00:34:19

Yeah, yeah.

Freddy D: 00:34:21

So, yeah, laugh about it today.

Ann Carden: 00:34:23

Kind of figure those things out as you go. But if you have the idea, if you don't just take everybody because they're breathing and they have money.

You can build a business that you absolutely love.

Freddy D: 00:34:34

And you brought up a great point there, Ham, because you need to really look your ideal client. Because as you just said, you don't want necessary buddies breathing and can pay for it.

You want to really work with somebody that wants the transformation.

Ann Carden: 00:34:48

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:34:48

That wants to go from this level to that level.

And it really doesn't matter what it is that you're marketing, it's still the bottom line is even if you're doing remodeling or services or you're selling technology, whatever it is, that recipient that you're talking to has got to be open minded that says I need to do something to transform and go from this level to that level. If they're not even open minded, it doesn't matter how good you are, you're not going to pass go.

Ann Carden: 00:35:19

Well, not even that. You'll totally lose confidence in your skill set.

When I first started in the coaching space and I was working with people just trying to get my feet wet and trying to really figure out my business and I was working with people who I wanted their success more than they did. So that doesn't ever go well. Right.

Freddy D: 00:35:38

Right.

Ann Carden: 00:35:38

And it broke my confidence. It was one of the reasons why I took a step back and said, I'm not loving this. Why did I work so hard all those years to learn what I've learned?

And I can't get them to do anything. I can't get. I can't get this.

I can't get them over the finish line with this or they won't implement or it's a consistent complaining or whatever it was. And I just thought I must just not be very good at this.

Even though I knew I could help them, I knew I could help them make money, I knew I could do all that. And it just broke my confidence. And then when I started working with the right people, it was like, oh, wow, I'm pretty good at this.

I know how to help people and I can get amazing results.

Freddy D: 00:36:21

Yeah, no, you bring up a great point.

Because I was selling and sometimes when I was selling technology and multitude of other things, I helped a bath remodeler that does those fiberglass drop in things. And I went to some guy's house for a project in a condo in Chicago and I never sold this stuff before.

back in: 2008

Ann Carden: 00:36:50

Huh.

Freddy D: 00:36:52

It was just because I Had a conversation with the guy. Yeah, but there's been times where, you know, I didn't get the sale and all the buy signals were there and everything else.

And then you go, what did I do wrong? You know, our minds sometimes can be our worst enemy because the negative self.

Ann Carden: 00:37:08

Talk if we don't learn how to manage them. That's for sure.

Freddy D: 00:37:12

Yeah. Our negative self talk, you go and you gotta slap yourself upside the head a couple times and go, okay, wait a minute. Get back into the game.

Ann Carden: 00:37:20

Yes, 100%. We all have those moments too. And I think that's an important thing for people to know too.

It's kind of like I said, you'll be going along, going along. Things are great. You're going up the mountain, you're going up the mountain, all of a sudden you fall into a big cave or something.

It's like, what happened? What happened?

But you have to be able to pull yourself out of that and keep moving forward and push through any fear and take big risk and take big bold moves. And you just have to know that's how business, I mean, that's how life is too.

Freddy D: 00:37:50

Sure.

Ann Carden: 00:37:50

That's how business is.

Freddy D: 00:37:52

When you work with that customer that appreciates it and it becomes your superfan because you've helped transform and grow their business, they're going to tell all of their colleagues and that's going to attract more business for you as the coach or whatever business that you're into. So it's all full circle.

Ann Carden: 00:38:11

Yes, 100%. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:38:13

So, Hannah, great conversation we've been having. Unfortunately, our clock is kind of running up here. So let's talk about how can people find you and do you have an offer for our listeners?

Ann Carden: 00:38:25

Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things I love to do is if you like what I'm talking about and you maybe want to do this in your business, it resonates with you.

Book a call with me@acarden.com and let's just have a conversation.

I often have workshops that I'm running that I can invite you into or maybe you just want to jump in and get started and we can talk about what that looks looks like. So that's the best way. I'm actually putting together a brand new website for expert in you.

It's not quite ready yet, so you can go to annlcarden.com and that's my personal website and there's resources on there and you can grab my books on there. So there's a lot on that website that you can get my podcast, and I have a magazine that just came out, so a lot of resources.

Freddy D: 00:39:10

Very cool. Very cool. And it's been a pleasure having you on the Business Superfans podcast.

Great information for our listeners and great conversation that we had. And we definitely look forward to having you on the show down the road.

Ann Carden: 00:39:25

Thank you so much. It's been fun.