On this episode of Convos on Confidence Bridgett McGowen welcomes herself! In this solo episode Bridgett answers her questions she usually asks her guests including how she got started in the public speaking world, how she became a published author, going big or going home, how to remain confident, and more!
1:26
How did Bridgett get her start in the world of public speaking?
7:30
Has Bridgett always wanted this as her career?
10:00
Confidence in a go big or go home moment.
15:20
How does Bridgett remain confident?
17:20
What is one thing that Bridgett wishes she could change?
19:18
What do people get wrong about confidence?
22:00
Being confident means?
Listen and Subscribe to the Convos on Confidence Podcast with Bridgett McGowen on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and the CLNS Media Network mobile app.
(upbeat music) - Welcome to Commvos on Confidence, the podcast that gives listeners a window into the lives of some of the most confident people on the planet. Join me, your host, Bridget McGowan, as I have conversations to reveal the secrets to my guests' confidence. As an award-winning international professional speaker, an award-winning author, and an award-winning publisher, I sit down with go-getters from All Walksfly, backgrounds, and professions. They took the risks, they made the tough choices, and they pursued the opportunities, and now they encourage you to confidently do the same. Welcome to Commvos on Confidence. (upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to today's episode of Commvos on Confidence. I am your host, Bridget McGowan, and not only am I your host, but I am also your guest today. This is a special edition where I am going to interview myself. I am going to ask myself those hard-hitting questions that I have asked a number of my guests, and we're gonna start off with what it is that I do, or what business or industry I'm in, and then what problem I solve. Well, since 2001, I've been a professional speaker, an international award-winning professional speaker, and it was my life as a speaker that led me to becoming a publisher. So I have taught, I taught for my alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, Go Panthers, PV, you know. I also taught for Lone Star College, when it was called North Harris Montgomery Community College. I'm dating myself, and I also taught for University of Phoenix at one time. I was teaching at all three places simultaneously. How did I do that? I just had no life. (laughs) Obviously, I had no life, and I just worked, worked, worked around the clock, got very little sleep and pushed forward. And then I became a faculty development consultant for an edtech company back in 2009, where I traveled the country and did all kinds of workshops and conferences and webinars with faculty members at two year and four year institutions. I would tell people, I teach professors how to teach. I love that job. I was on a team with some of the smartest, most innovative, exciting, interesting people you will ever meet on the planet. Really fantastic colleagues. And anyway, I ended up going through some transitions at that company. Everybody went through some transitions at that company at one point or another. And one thing led to another. And the next thing you know, I was laid off. And I thought to myself, it was April of 2016. I had been on all kinds of stages, partly because of my time at that job, but also are in that position. But also prior to joining that company, I traveled extensively and had spoken to all kinds of crowds. And so I said, you know what? Hey, you love to speak. Not only do you love to speak, but you seem to have audiences who enjoy it. It's not enough to just get on a microphone, but you need to have people who enjoy listening to you. Why don't you do it? Just become a full-time speaker. And it was being a full-time speaker and then having the opportunity to speak at a conference in 2019 where Oprah was also speaking. Yes, I am name-dropping. And I got the brilliant idea that I would write a book. The conference said, hey, do you have a book to sell in our conference bookstore? And I thought the same store where Oprah's books will also be sold and where 13, 14,000 people will be in attendance? Yeah, sure. I had been blogging and writing articles and newsletters on the topic I was going to be speaking on, which was effective presentation skills. So I thought, hey, you have 10 to thousands of words. I combed through. I got the best of the best, pulled it together, got an editor, found a cover designer, did all the things, got the book together and the book ended up selling out at the conference. I'll never forget. I did my presentation. People rushed out of the room. There were hundreds of people in the room. They loved the session. Several people rushed out. A few people stayed back to talk with me. Actually quite a few people stayed back to talk with me. And I remember people started trickling back into the room and I thought, I don't know what they're coming back for because I've got nothing left to give. They said, "Bridget, your book's not in the bookstore." I said, "Hold on there. Hold on for a second." A real hot big fat second. That book is in that store. I got off the playing yesterday. I went straight to the bookstore. I checked to make sure it was there. I came back today. I took a selfie with the book on the shelf in the background. The book is there. I worked night and day to get that book done because I had a tight timeline. The book is in there. I don't know what you're talking about. Listen, let me get my spiel out and then they said, "Bridget, the book was there." It sold out. We're checking to see if you brought extras with you to sell us and that's when it hit me. That's when I said how many other speakers are out there? Solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, small business owners, coaches, consultants, because I'd done all of that too. I'd been a consultant. I was and still am a coach with a company and then also for myself. I said, "How many are out there where they are leaving money on the table? They have all of this expertise. They have all of this knowledge. They are getting on stages. They are working with go-getters everywhere and they're not putting this expertise in a book." So that was May of 2019 and then in December of 2019, seven months later, I launched the award-winning hybrid publishing company, Pressed49. And Pressed49 falls under my company, my umbrella company, BMH companies. So that's what I do. I'm a professional speaker. I am a publisher. I am a coach. I am all the things. And what I do is I make people, I transform people into the most confident persons in the room. I empower professionals to be the most engaging, dynamic, incredible communicators ever. And as authors, I empower them to realize that their words matter and their words should be out in the world. So the second question is this, is this what I always wanted to be? Did I always want to be a professional speaker? Did I always want to be a publisher? Well, I will not say this is what I always wanted to do or be. I won't say that. But what I will say is the writing was on the wall. I was that student who got talks too much on every single report card in elementary school. So being a professional speaker, check, that made sense. And then I was also that student, that child who loved books. Check the publisher box. When we went to Walmart, I grew up in a very small town in Southeast Texas. When we went to Walmart, I did not want chips. I did not want a candy bar. I didn't want a toy. I did not want a doll. I wanted a book. And I had stacks of books. And I would read multiple books at once. And I still to this day will do that. Still to this day, I am reading multiple books at one time. I'm reading scale or fail right now, as well as Carrie Washington's "Thicker Than Water." I am reading an Alex Hermosi book right now. It's the big purple one. And I can see $100 million as part of the title. I am reading what got you here, won't get you there. I am rereading. I know why the Caged Bird sings by Maya Angelou. I am reading multiple books at once right now. And so if any of those titles grab you, please go get yourself a copy. And look through the press 49 catalog as well. You'll see some good ones there. Our favorite projects right now include Kamala, The Motherland, and Me, for obvious reasons. It's an Amazon number one new release. But I didn't grow up always wanting to be a professional speaker or always wanting to be a publisher. However, it just makes sense when I look back on things that I loved to do as a child that I would also do what I'm doing now. Now, the next question is to tell you about a time in my business or in my profession when it was a go big or go home situation. And I simply had to be confident. Oh, do I pick only one? I would say probably the lay off. Probably getting that email and the subsequent calendar invitation from a VP at that ed tech company was my go big or go home moment. Now, let me tell you how silly I am. I had been working on a series, a webinar series. That's what it was. I had been working on a webinar series. And it felt like there was something else that went along with it. It was at a blog or podcast or something. And, anyway, I had been working on this for a number of months. I was so excited about it. And I had not gotten any feedback from any higher ups about the project. And so when I saw that this VP had scheduled a time to speak with me, I thought, yes, she's finally getting around to let me know what she thinks of it, what's working, what's not working, what might we tweak or what have you. And I just was like, this, this is it. Great. She finally found 30 minutes on her calendar. Yeah, right. She was on my calendar to let me know thanks, but no thanks to us. It's been, it's been real good luck, nothing personal. You don't have a job anymore. Oh my goodness, that hurt, that hurt. And so my big, my go big or go home moment was, do I look for another position in corporate America? Do I go back to teaching? Do I do something different? And the answer was the latter. The answer was the latter of the three. My friend, Kyla Givhand, is the wife of one of my coworkers who was with me at that ed tech company. And she told me, "Bridget, you should, you should just launch your own business." I said, "Dude, do what?" And I'm telling you, when I started, I was in the middle of alphabet soup. I didn't know the difference from a URL between a URL and an EIN and LLC and a hole in the ground, right? I mean, I'm all in this new world of establishing the company and figuring out the vision and figuring out the mission and who's my target client and where do they spend time and what is my business plan and how am I different and how do I stand out and why me and what do I know about business and marketing plans and strategizing and oh my goodness. But it wasn't a go home situation. I had to go big. I had to figure it out. Yes, I received a severance package and yes, my husband is gainfully employed, was at the time still is and you know, we didn't change anything. I remember one of my coworkers who was still at the company made a comment because she and I formed a friendship over the years and she made an assumption that I drastically shifted our lifestyle. We had made these big shifts because of our financial circumstance changing. I said, no, changing of a thing. I'm going to figure it out. And so that's what I did. And that was back in 2016 and so much has changed. So much has changed and so much growth has happened. If you're not growing, then what are you doing? Has it been uncomfortable? Yes. Have there been days where it's been scary? Yes. There's been days where I wanted to go home, right? The question is go big or go home. When did that happen? And do I have those moments? You bet. Have I had a moment in recent days? Probably so. But you find the strength. You figure it out. And let me tell you, let me tell you, you always have a choice. You can sit in the sadness or you can stand in your strength. You can have that moment of doubt, of fear, of questions. You can have that. That's fine. But do not stay there. Do not stay there. Next question. How do I remain confident? How do I stay on top of my game? Oh, goodness. You know, remaining confident is not a 24/7 gig. Even those people you see where you think nothing can tear them down. Nothing can get in their way. Nothing is going to stop them. I know they are on it 24/7, 365 all day, all night. Let me tell you something. If they keep it real with you and you know I will, if they keep it real with you, they will tell you that remaining confident means being okay with taking a moment. I remain confident by embracing this attitude and I want you to embrace it too. And here it is. Your adversity is your advantage. Your adversity is your advantage. Yes, there will be a setback. There will be a rejection. There will be a denial. Your setback is your time to come up. Your rejection is your time for a redirection. Your denial is your time to say do something different. Your adversity is your advantage. Again, take the moment, be sad, be mad, get angry, but then get on fire. What's one thing that I wish I could change or something that I could get a do over for? I wish I could change the way I got into business, right? Now I'm thankful for the layoff. I know had it not been for the layoff, I would have never seen or known what it would have been like to be my own boss, to be an entrepreneur, to launch businesses, to figure it out. So I don't want to change that. I don't want to change the layoff, but I would change how I started things. I know so much more now, right, and we've heard it before, the cliche hindsight is 2020. So yeah, there's that at play, but I would have read so much more, I would have surrounded myself more with people who are doing business and they're doing it right. And they are vulnerable, and they tell you the good and the bad. So my do over would be how I launched the business and being more strategic about things and it's impossible, but having the knowledge that I have now, if I'd had it then so many things that I would have done differently, but I could do over for how I launch things. But one thing that people get wrong about confidence, that's our next question, what do people get wrong about confidence? It kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier, where it's not a 24/7 thing. When you see people who show up and show out, plug in the title of one of my books there, one of my award-winning books, yeah, yeah, there I go, dropping it, dropping again, dropping the hot stuff, dropping the hotness. When I think about those people who show up and show out all the time, and you see them, and you'll see one after another, after another, after another on social media, they won this, they secure it this, they confirm that, they got this, they, you know, you think geez Louise, I'm not doing anything, I'm falling short, but what people get wrong about confidence is the fact that it is not 24/7, and it's okay to not feel confident sometimes. You don't have to show up and show out all the time, just when it matters, yeah? Show up and show out when it matters, but don't feel like you have to be on incessantly, and don't feel like you have to be in competition with everybody. It's not a competition, it's not a fight to the finish line. There is room for everyone. Sit in what is uniquely you, crush it, rock it out, and only the way you know how to crush it and rock it out. Now one thing you can do today to be more confident is embracing what is uniquely you, and what I mean by that is connected to what I said earlier in terms of seeing any of your adversities, any of your difficulties, any of your challenges as being your advantages, as being your unique value proposition. Don't see it as a shortcoming, don't see it as a downfall, see it as a come up, right? So that's the one thing you can do today to be more confident is to see what may seem like a disadvantage, flip the script, and see it as an advantage. And then for the final question, complete this sentence, being confident means. I will tell you right now, this answer is probably going to trip you out, but I'm going to keep it real with you because that's what I do. You know, that's what I do. I keep it real all the way live, 100% being confident means not worrying about whether they like you being confident means not tearing one way or the other. If they do or don't, you see, oftentimes people will worry about they like me was a good was and not good am I okay, being confident means not worrying about whether they like you. It's not giving a damn if they do or don't, because when you show up as you when you get it, you're all when you don't worry about what everybody else has gone on, but you move is silence and you while the crowd, when you know that you have unique talents and unique gifts and that you are doing your best, don't worry about trying to be the best, but do your best when you do that, that is when your confidence shines. Oh, all right, so there you have it. That is my take on confidence. Thank you so much for tuning in. I am your host, Bridget McGowan. I'll catch you next time on the next episode of combos on confidence. Thank you for listening to today's episode of combos on confidence for more strategies on how to be more confident in everything you say and do. Pick up a copy of the award winning book show up and show out 52 communication habits to make you even more unforgettable by yours truly, Bridget McGowan. It's available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or wherever you love to purchase your books. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]
