I met Suzie of “Schmooze with Suze” at work, and instantly felt like we could chat all day long about marketing and business and what it means to be a woman in today’s world. When she asked me to come on her podcast to talk about Imperfect Taylor, I couldn’t say no. In this podcast, we talk about being yourself, showing up imperfectly on social media and in real life, going after your dreams, and how to approach producing social media content in strategic ways.
You can follow Suzie at @schmoozewithsuze or visit her website https://schmoozewithsuze.org/ to see what she’s been up to and who she’s been chatting with.
You can find the transcription of the podcast, but if you’d like to listen to it, visit Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts and look for “Schmooze with Suze”.
Suzie (00:01):
I can remember the first person I blocked on social media. She unabashedly took to my comments to give unsolicited feedback, judgment, and suggestions. She wrote that I was sharing too much personal information. I would never find a husband if I kept this up. She complained that I should show a better version of myself online like everyone else. And I remember calling my sister to complain about it. Mommy is being so mean to me. You know, can block her. Said My much younger sister. No, no, I hadn’t known that. So when did the generational divide stop affecting how we show up in real life and online, and that’s what we’re going to tackle today. Hi, I am Suze coming to you with a dose of culture values and global citizenship and where we might tackle those topics. Others may consider off limits. A little about me.
(01:00):
I’m a busy Gen X mom who quite frankly wanted to grow up like the Brady Bunch, but how could I being raised in the shadow of Schindler’s List? So this means I’ve spent a lifetime navigating these mixed messages. We get hit with daily those conversations where we wonder if it’s safe to speak our minds. Can we share our experiences, voice our fears and concerns, or should we just keep our mouths shut? Well, too bad I need to know, but I’m no expert, so I’m going to schmooze the experts and get their thoughts. Why? So when we engage with our kids, colleagues or the countless committees we interact with, we can do it with competence, kindness, confidence, and maybe a bit of humor. If this sounds like your cup of coffee, welcome to Schmooze with Gen X means that I lived before the internet, so I had the first version of the internet.
(02:01):
It was amazing. I could communicate not on the phone, I mean it took up a phone line, but whatever the screenshot and the information, I remember aol.com and then getting my first.edu, which meant that I didn’t live at home anymore. And then creating my first creative email address. And the coolest part was being sent stuff, forwarded the jokes, the news, the communication, and then the chain mails and that prince from Nigeria. So I got a little cautious and about a decade after me, my mom got her first email address and she started to forward to me all the forwards from 10 years prior and calling me for tech support. And somehow I knew this was just the beginning of what would become the end of our relationship across communication lines. So it was only a matter of time before she found Facebook and asked to be my friend. The thing is that after living away from her for so long, the real life version of me and the sanitized online version of me had meshed into one authentic person who after enough therapy, self-acceptance and coaching had created a community, one that I didn’t think my mom could handle. I shared more so that more of us could feel less alone. And that’s when the unsolicited commenting began. Here I am nearly half a century old and I stumble into Taylor. Hi, Taylor Hayes. Hi, how are you? I’m living the dream. How are you?
Taylor (03:51):
I’m great. I’m great.
Suzie (03:53):
I met you through a professional affiliation. I came to work one day at a job that I accidentally stumbled into, which is how most of my life has worked. And when I met you, your smile lit up the room. Your energy was effusive. And so I started to follow you on social media. That’s the new way that would become friends with people. We don’t actually hang out with them in person, right? So I am old enough to be your mom, and I have kids who are frankly quite annoying to hang out with. And so I would never say, Hey Taylor, you want to come to my house and hang? I would hang out. Oh my God, I would pay you $15 an hour and not be there. Do you get it? You want me to? It’s called babysitting. Yes. Stop. Get closer to the mic girl, because that’s really it. We’re going to get comfortable. But when I started to follow you on social media, I discovered that you like me, were unabashedly, your so self the one I met in person and the one that you are showing the world are the same version. And so I remember when I finally saw you again in person, I was like, I’m just curious, does your mom complain about you sharing too much?
Taylor (05:09):
Yeah, she definitely did in the beginning. And then I think she kind of got used to it. She was like, you know what? This is Taylor and this is the way Taylor’s going to live her life and do her thing, and I’m just going to have to watch and consume it. I don’t know. But yeah,
Suzie (05:23):
So you go as the handle imperfectly taylor or imperfect Taylor. Imperfect Taylor. And I love that. Thank you. Because it starts off with you sharing your mistakes.
Taylor (05:37):
Yeah.
Suzie (05:37):
So how did imperfect Taylor start?
Taylor (05:40):
So it started, I graduated college with $60,000 of student loan debt. And I had gotten a new job with a little bit of a pay raise and kind of realized, wow, I really need to start managing my money, budgeting, whatever. And I stumbled upon a couple personal finance blogs and honestly they just motivated me to want to pay off my student loan debt. So I started an Instagram for that. And actually the name of that was Imperfect Finance because my mentality was, okay, I know I can pay off all of this debt, but I also know that I’m going to make so many mistakes along the way because I’m new with money, I’m getting my very first paychecks and I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m so determined I’m going to figure it out anyway. But that’s where the imperfect came along. And then after I paid off my debt a couple years later, I didn’t really want to talk about money anymore, and I’ve always been passionate about personal development. So I was like, okay, how can I segue this? How can I pivot so that I still feel aligned with the content that I want to produce? And so I was like, you know what? Imperfect Taylor, I am still very much imperfect. That’s what I like to share online. Why not round it out and make it all about personal development? So that’s imperfect Taylor.
Suzie (06:58):
And if we take this experience as a work in progress, so the generational divide, what I think about with my mom, I remember the very first time that I knew the internet was going to be a barrier between us was literally the first time she sent a joke that from the first time I had gotten it 10 years prior with one FWD, right? Colon, FWD Forward. Yeah. Got it, got it. My mom, by the time she got email, it was one of those forward 30 of them, but she didn’t know that you could delete that, so she would just send with all the attachments. I want you to imagine that this is how I was introduced to my mother being introduced to the internet. And so this joke that you could see the forwards of 10 years worth till you scroll to the bottom. At that point we as a society had already accepted that this was politically incorrect. Yeah, but she was 10 years behind. I’m not even kidding. I want you to try to put yourself in that position. Have you ever been in that circumstance with your parents where they say something and you’re like, okay, so let me just show you where the goalposts are now all the time.
Taylor (08:10):
Yeah.
Suzie (08:11):
So it doesn’t matter what the age difference is, we’re all dealing with that generational gap that comes with our parents having been raised differently than we were.
Taylor (08:20):
Absolutely.
Suzie (08:22):
So now she’s sending me the jokes. I’m like, this is so obnoxious. And then the forwards became the commenting on my social media and I never had MySpace, so I got very lucky. I went straight to Facebook.
Taylor (08:36):
Okay. Is that lucky? I don’t know.
Suzie (08:38):
And I’ll tell you why. It was lucky because back then it used to say Susie is with the box, and so you would like, Susie is working on her new project. You didn’t have this. It wasn’t a blank space. There was a prompt. It was a
Taylor (08:59):
Status, right? Yes. Okay. I remember this.
Suzie (09:01):
The status.
Taylor (09:02):
They don’t have them anymore. No.
Suzie (09:04):
Interesting. No, now it’s a post. So we went from our status, our personal status, to just a general post. And for me it was like once the information became available, now I had entered this space of growth mindset where everything was a learning opportunity, but I was raised with this ideology that you want to put your best foot forward and never show mistakes.
Taylor (09:32):
Yeah.
Suzie (09:33):
How about you?
Taylor (09:35):
I think I was too, and I think my parents were very much like you kind of got to put on a facade. And I don’t think that they ever explicitly told me that it was just in their actions and honestly, maybe the ways that they spent their money that I learned like, oh, okay, if you buy this sort of car, if you have this sort of house, you have status. You know what I mean? I don’t know. I think that I kind of growing up just wanted to be myself without the facade. And it took me a long time to shake that though, because I think I also learned that growing up, if you are, and this is going to get deep really quick, are you ready?
Suzie (10:18):
I’m ready.
Taylor (10:21):
As a woman, it’s important to be pretty. I think I learned that very, very young. And so I’ve tried to shake all of this stuff because honestly, it’s just exhausting and it’s so much easier for me to be myself. So why don’t I just do that on social media? Why don’t I just be myself on social media and give people permission to also be themselves?
Suzie (10:42):
So more of us feel less alone, more supported.
Taylor (10:49):
I hate the facade stuff. I hate it.
Suzie (10:53):
Yeah. And the more you do it, the more you’re perpetuating the cycle of a facade. And I think it was when I had my daughter, it wasn’t so much when I had my son, but you’re right. As a woman, I have to stand with the permission to say I can’t heal what I don’t feel. So for me to really know what I want to move towards changing, I have to really be honest with what didn’t work. So back to the perception of what perfect looks like. So yours was a suggestion. It wasn’t so frontal. My parents who were immigrants, my mother specifically dressed to the nines makeup at all times.
Taylor (11:34):
Oh, well, let me tell you. My mom always had her nails done, her hair done her beautiful outfit to work.
Suzie (11:41):
Did she have a standing hair appointment?
Taylor (11:45):
She was always getting her hair done, always getting her nails done. My mom is beautiful woman and she actually loves to spend time on the way that she looks, but I just was like, I can’t, it’s just not me. I don’t know. Are you like that? Do you like to spend your time that way or do you follow in your mom’s footsteps in that way? Or are you kind of just like, I’d rather show up more effortlessly?
Suzie (12:06):
Fascinating question. I think that part of it is me wanting to be as different as possible. So I love fashion. So that’s something that is deeply ingrained. Both my grandmothers were seamstresses, and so I learned very quickly that I like the way fabrics look, felt. I appreciated that. Is art beauty, take it or leave it, take it or leave it. It depends on my day and my mood, but I want to say that what I did pay attention to, not so much that, but back to the financial, right? Yeah. What kind of car you drive, what kind of house you have, what kind of clothes you wear. She was very beautiful when she went to work professionally. I remember my mom also used to wear these suits to work with big giant shoulder pads because it was the shoulder pad age, but I didn’t learn about financial literacy.
(13:09):
I remember seeing my dad specifically my dad, never my mom doing the bill paying with a checkbook at the table, and he would write the checks and he would put them in the envelopes with the bill, with the stamps, whatever. It was once or twice a month, however he did it. But he never showed me or told me what he did. So I didn’t know anything about that. And I was very fortunate that my parents paid for my college education. I went to a state school. And so the greatest gift I feel that any parent can give their child is paying for their education if they can afford it. And if not, the idea of loans of credit, cards of debt, of good debt and bad debt. Nobody told me anything. So at 19 years old, I got to a college campus. I transferred from another school, and this was my first school in the United States. There were tables, those six foot tables set up all around the campus square around the fountain, and every bank was offering a credit card with a free key chain, a free T-shirt, a free, there were no gift card, water, whatever it was. I didn’t know anything about this, so I went for it.
Taylor (14:26):
It’s awful that they do that, honestly.
Suzie (14:28):
Do they still do that?
Taylor (14:29):
They did it when I was in college. Yeah. I had a PNC credit card for a long time, and then I ultimately closed it. But yeah.
Suzie (14:39):
So yeah, I remember that the bank that I had, the credit card no longer exists, but it was years after that credit card company was closed that I was still paying off that debt with interest at rates that were in collections. So in my late twenties, I remember being paralyzed with fear because now I had no financial literacy. I had tons of debt from accrued credit cards that I didn’t know about balance transfers. I didn’t know that if you pay the minimum, I remember being in a paralyzed position where I would just leave the bills piling up and be scared that you would pretend if you close your eyes hard enough, you hide under the cover, they’ll just go away. But financial debt is one of the most debilitating things in a person’s life. Yeah. So tell me, you share these parts of yourself that started with financial literacy and then you create this website, right? And perfect tailor, that’s your brand.
Taylor (15:45):
Yeah. And I talk about, I got laid off, I got fired from a job. We could talk about that because oh
Suzie (15:52):
My. Let’s talk about that, right? Gosh, how old are you? Can I ask you?
Taylor (15:55):
Yeah. I’m 30.
Suzie (15:56):
30. Okay. Yeah. I didn’t get good until I was 30, by the way. Nothing good happens until 30 and nothing really starts to really be like, oh, I’m really unbelievable till 35. So you have five years to really invest in thriving, right? You’re already growing, but for anyone to tell you, when I see those 30 under 30, I want to vomit. And PS, for all my friends who are 40, under 40, I just want to say don’t think I didn’t notice that. Most of you don’t have kids just FYI. So it’s a choice and I respect that choice, but I feel like it did give you a little extra time. It probably did. And emotional bandwidth.
Taylor (16:33):
Hey, they might have intentionally, if you’re really focused on work and you don’t want to have kids, I mean…
Suzie (16:38):
Let’s talk about that afterwards, but let’s do this.
Taylor (16:42):
Remind me, what was the question.
Suzie (16:43):
Again? Oh, the question was you started with financial literacy and then your brand became imperfect Taylor and the transition, right? Was this happening while you were gainfully employed? Did you have a nine to five job when you said, I’m going to take this emotional experience that is debt and how I learned and how I had to self-teach and the tools that I accumulated, the resources and I’m going to compile them and put them together for someone else, package it up for them while you already had a job?
Taylor (17:18):
Yes, I did.
Suzie (17:19):
Okay. Tell me how has that happened? How does someone become a freelancer?
Taylor (17:25):
I have this weird relationship with work and I can’t tell if I work to avoid things or I work because I genuinely just really love to work. I’ve always worked mornings, nights, weekends on my side hustle here.
Suzie (17:40):
At what age did you start working?
Taylor (17:41):
25? I think it was that I started the Instagram and that’s when everything changed for me. I graduated college with a degree in computer information systems because my dad told me, frankly, if you want to make money, that’s the route you want to go in.
Suzie (17:59):
Just FYI. In 1998, my roommate graduated with a master’s in computer information systems. Really? Because, and by the way, it was exactly the right field, but that was it. And when people say that, the first thing I think of because I think of this person, it’s because she wasn’t good with people.
Taylor (18:17):
Interesting.
Suzie (18:18):
And people who are not good with people can’t go into customer service. They have to go into computer information systems so they can deal with computers and not other people. They end up usually in HR back office. So that’s so interesting that your dynamic personality, I would not see you in that field.
Taylor (18:38):
I felt so out of place the entire time.
Suzie (18:41):
I’m not surprised.
Taylor (18:43):
I felt so out of place in a lot of ways. I’m grateful because one, it was lucrative. Two, I learned a lot of computer things. So coding and stuff that I can now apply to my website, it all connects thankfully. But I was so out of place and my confidence was lacking, my belief in myself, which is really, it is sad, but that’s why I needed a creative outlet. I’m a creative person. And so I actually teared up on my way home from, actually, I was on my way from my corporate job to my ice cream job that I had gotten on the side in order to pay off my student loans down faster. That’s the job I got fired from. And I had the idea to make imperfect finance before imperfect Taylor, and I got tears in my eyes. I was like, holy cow, this feels like something that’s going to be a huge part of my life. And now it’s been with me for so long and now it’s imperfect Taylor, and I can’t imagine not having it. It’s just been, I love it.
Suzie (19:46):
How often do you blog?
Taylor (19:48):
I try to blog once a week on my website, imperfect taylor.com. I try to create as many reels as I possibly can. Lately I’ve been really loving the B roll content of filming me, doing my daily life and then doing a voiceover on top explaining which take a little bit longer. And then I also have to have the idea come to me for them. So I do them a little less frequently, but that’s what I feel is most authentic to me as well.
Suzie (20:18):
You’re taking what your lesson is and you’re showing yourself doing it and explaining,
Taylor (20:24):
And then I think people really like it. I think people, it’s not the most viral esque content. I guess maybe either. I’m not good enough at it yet or what, but it feels the most like me, and that’s good enough for me right now.
Suzie (20:41):
Oh, I love it. I don’t think that it’s just enough for you. I think that viscerally, and I’ve said this to you, it’s interesting. I don’t follow a lot of people. I read a lot of things and I listen to a lot of podcasts and I find that I am listening to thought leaders and stakeholders and these global voices because I for a long time, remember that at the crux of how I developed this growth mindset, we all have some version of baggage that comes with us, whether it’s trauma, tragedy, generational, personal, but the first thing is understanding that you can’t heal what you don’t feel. So you have to name it and you have to deal with it.
Taylor (21:31):
And so head on.
Suzie (21:31):
And a lot of what I really love is that I started the reverse, right? Because I was raised and I think I was always so scared that my voice would get sort of drowned out. A lot of it is historical generational trauma. My grandparents are Holocaust survivors. So knowing that I was always, I think really loud the lead in the school play, and I wanted to be very forward facing and out front. The thing is that what I didn’t realize is that I am actually an introvert, really. I’m an introverted extrovert, so I do really well. I love people. I love getting to know people. I love stories. I love thinking about how stories impact ourselves and each other and community. And I don’t mind getting up in front of a whole audience auditorium and speaking, but when I’m in those groups of people where you’re mingling and you have to make the small talk,
Taylor (22:38):
I am the same way as you.
Suzie (22:41):
I am paralyzed.
Taylor (22:43):
I can’t stand it, and I feel so out of my element and I can’t be myself. Yeah. Do you feel that way?
Suzie (22:50):
Because it’s surface? Yeah. And I’m not a good surface person.
Taylor (22:54):
No. I’m hard on my sleeve. Yeah. And I think that’s maybe why you say, when I watch your content on Instagram and then I see you in person, you’re so similar. And it’s the same. I don’t know how to express myself any other way than to, and actually how many times I’ve turned to my boyfriend and said, who I’ve been with for six years, and I’m like, do I embarrass you with any of my content? Some of this stuff is so I sometimes feel like I’m embarrassing myself by being so open and honest and vulnerable. But it’s never stopped me. I just hit post anyway like, well, this is me, and if I’m this way, other people have got to be this way.
Suzie (23:37):
Okay. So when I found that I was pregnant, I went and I got a degree in early childhood education because I didn’t know anything about kids, frankly. I didn’t like kids and I didn’t think I was going to have kids. And so I figured at least they would teach me birth to five and I’d have keeping him alive and safe covered. I can’t say beyond that, but alive in developmental milestones should be hit. And I’ll know what I’m aiming for.
Taylor (24:03):
He’ll be self sufficient at 5.
Suzie (24:03):
Exactly, exactly. He’ll be a free range kid, but he’ll be old enough to tell on me. At least. I think that’s what the motivation is, that after five, they can tell if you suck as a parent, and now we’re raising kids to be able to tell if you suck as a parent. So that brings me to what you just said in terms of sharing too much. So I have asked my husband like, okay, is it too much? Because his gig is pretty public, and so I wonder is what I’m doing or saying since it’s the View, in fact, funny story. But when we were first dating, I used to sit with him at sports events and shoot my mouth off about things I know nothing about. Okay. It turns out I know a lot about things I know nothing about. And I got him a T-shirt that said the opinion of the woman to my right or my left, depending on where I was sitting, do not express the feelings of the man wearing this T-shirt.
Taylor (24:59):
That’s amazing.
Suzie (25:01):
And so I asked him, when I do my things online, does that bother you? And he was like, no, you’re your own person. And I thought, okay, that’s great. It sounds like you want to be included. So I’ve started to include him in these things. And you know what? The feedback on those are even more unbelievable because people really appreciate when we have our disagreements as a couple. And I do crowdsourcing because they’re very normal, very real disagreements.
Taylor (25:33):
I love your content with your husband. Do you really? I’ve seen a couple of ’em, and I’m like, I feel like I’m in your kitchen
Suzie (25:39):
As you should. I love
Taylor (25:41):
It.
Suzie (25:41):
Yeah, I love it. And I get people who tell me, this is such a dumb argument that I have also, and you know what? Every time we have this dumb argument, literally I wonder, but it makes me feel like we’re very normal people that these silly disagree, right? Because you know what? We let the big things go sometimes because that is definitely not going to be resolved in the moment, but a little bickering. I mean, it’s fixable.
Taylor (26:07):
Yeah, absolutely. And can I just say, I love that your husband doesn’t say that he’s embarrassed by you because my boyfriend doesn’t say he’s embarrassed by me. He’s like, nothing you ever do embarrasses me. I’m like, wow. There’s no way. Of course I could find a way to embarrass him, I’m sure. But that support him just saying that and allowing me to be myself even more so, yes, just gives me the permission again, it means a lot to
Suzie (26:35):
Me. It does. It does. And now that I have kids, and that’s an interesting thing I asked my son because one of the core values that I like to address is marginalized communities, global citizenship. I think it’s very important that we went through a period of time, or at least that I’m aware of, where we didn’t talk about truth with our kids. We gave paragraphs of what history was in textbooks and we didn’t flesh any of it out. And now kids are coming awake in the society and they don’t understand where it comes from. All this disagreement, this discord. And we’re saying, okay, well it didn’t just show up. It’s been here all along. We just forgot to tell you to look for signs of it that you could stand up and speak out. So that’s been my motivation. So I turn to my son and I say to him, with all this antisemitism, that’s sort of one of those matters that I feel education is the most important thing. When we talk about how to Desi community, it’s usually because people are too scared to ask questions. So let me put forth all the information, and I open the door to questions, ask all your questions. And I said to him, does it embarrass you? And he was like, no, you’re like a modern maccabee. I was like, what? And then he was like, can I be on your show? Can I be? And now my kids want to be on reels sometimes to share information. They see it as an educational outlet.
Taylor (28:09):
That’s awesome.
Suzie (28:10):
Okay, so while I’m telling them, please don’t do those 22nd reels, the kinds that we create. So let’s talk about that. As a content creator, you’ve become a brand, and I like your brand a lot. A lot of what you offer is resources that are online that are available for free. And what else you have is coaching opportunities. So let’s talk a little bit about the coaching.
Taylor (28:40):
So lately I’ve actually been thinking about potentially doing some sort of life coaching. So TBD on that, because people have been reaching out to me,
Suzie (28:49):
Being a life coach.
Taylor (28:52):
People just are like, I really love the way that you communicate and you seem so non-judgmental, and I would love to just talk to you about what I’m doing with my life. And you give your opinion literally.
Suzie (29:04):
Well, Nietzsche says, the brain that created the problem is the brain that contains the solution. There you go. And so I personally am a life coach. Actually. I know you’ll find that hard to believe. Not all I do. Not at all. That’s the whole point. So therapy is the negative 10 to zero. That’s the depression, that’s the anxiety, that’s the things that you have to first feel before you can heal once you get to the zero where you’re at a baseline. Coaching is the zero to plus 10 is how I look at it.
Taylor (29:34):
I love that. I’ve never heard this before.
Suzie (29:36):
I love that. I’m giving a shout out to Dr. Elliot Rosenbaum, who is the founder, the American School of Life Coaching here in Jacksonville. So if you are considering it, I will say that that is an excellent program. But when he described it like that, the zero to plus 10, we’re not talking about the survive, we’re talking about the thrive. And in order to thrive, I can’t tell you what to do. I can ask you the questions and you are the one that’s flourishing with your own answers. But you’re right. It’s easy for me to sit here and see from an outside perspective what you’re experiencing imperfect Taylor, she’s stumbling messily through it and sharing graciously so that we don’t repeat those mistakes. So the coaching, let’s talk with two things. One, personally, I have a brand that I’m not doing a great job of managing personally.
(30:33):
It’s not my niche. I started off having someone who did it for me because her job was quicker, faster, better. She did marketing and PR and I hired and whatever, but it wasn’t, she moved on to other things. And now someone like me that’s mid brandand, if I tell you that I can’t find someone, I’ve tried two other people who have said, you know what, I can’t. I only work with new emerging brands. I can’t pick you up. I would need to start from scratch. We need to start with your whole color palette and your logo. And she wanted to restart. And I was very uncomfortable. And I said, but I personally selected this. We’re not talking about somebody that I hired to do my logo. Everything about schmooze with Sues is a hundred percent me. The woman that worked with me at the beginning, she was the one who connected the dots on how to do an interview on a podcast because I had never done that before. And she had experience. But now here I am, and there’s a lot of people with a lot of podcasts and a lot of social media content who are wondering or getting the response, getting the feedback from people. So tell me imperfect Taylor, how can you help me?
Taylor (31:48):
How can I help you? What put it all out there? It does not need to be refined or perfect or anything you can refine as you go, but you have to have your content out there consistently. It sounds, you’ve heard it a thousand times, and it sounds so cheesy, but even right now, like recording this via video, you eventually get that up somewhere. Are you clipping it up and putting those as reels?
Suzie (32:16):
No. And that’s what’s so interesting with captions. I started it at the beginning. If you look at season one, gorgeous captions with clipping and all that beautiful stuff. Yeah. The problem is that you have to have a social media calendar and you have to upload it and you have to, okay, so I’m telling you that this is the stuff that over and over we’re hitting a wall.
Taylor (32:37):
Yeah, it’s a hang-up.
Suzie (32:39):
Of people telling me that there’s a format. But I am a girl like you who has historically built the plane while I’m flying it. That’s what you
Taylor (32:47):
Got to do.
Suzie (32:48):
I don’t have time to have a five-year business plan laid out before I get the job done. I’m already in the process of working and building. I need to get the message. I’m just the vehicle. I’m so passionate about making sure that every one of my guests, their voice, their message, their content is shared. And so I feel guilty that I’m not doing the job of getting them out there as best as I could. So if I wanted to work with someone who is a professional who does this, right? I get what you’re saying for a self-starter. So now I’m level two.
Taylor (33:27):
Yeah.
Suzie (33:28):
Now what? Level
Taylor (33:29):
Two.
Suzie (33:29):
Level two.
Taylor (33:30):
Well, I was just going to say, do you have a little bit of money that you could pay somebody to help you?
Suzie (33:34):
That’s the question. What does that mean? Then people tell me, oh, you could get a virtual assistant. I don’t know what that means. Get a content creator. What does that mean? I just thought you told me to create my own content. So break it down for people like us who want people like you who are telling us the truth. Because I see pricing here, that’s very reasonable.
Taylor (33:56):
I know.
Suzie (33:56):
And when you said a little bit of money, yeah, I want to invest that money myself. I talk about that in the first episode of this season is the should I save, spend or invest in myself? And so I have invested, and I know my husband doesn’t listen to my podcast. $30,000 so far
Taylor (34:18):
Over the course of how long?
Suzie (34:19):
A year. Okay. That’s like a salary.
Taylor (34:22):
Do you feel like it’s been helpful? I don’t know.
Suzie (34:23):
Okay. Have you listened to all of my episodes? Have you subscribed?
Taylor (34:27):
I’ve subscribed. Okay. I’ve listened to a couple episodes.
Suzie (34:30):
Right? And then the clips.
Taylor (34:31):
I love
Suzie (34:31):
Your clips. Thank you. Right when I do a clip, but
Taylor (34:34):
Right. So hiring somebody a thousand percent, that’s something that I do, which I think is you’re alluding to on my website. I can take your content. Just give me a clip. Just give me your podcast video and I can chop it up into 15 different pieces of content that will then put on a social media tool. You might not be interested in it. You don’t have to be. This is what I would do is we would just get a syndication tool for you. And that way we put the 15 clips that I just created off one podcast on every single one of your social media channels and plan it out accordingly, whether it’s three times a week for the next month or two months until you do another podcast episode. Then we do another 15 clips so that you’re constantly getting your content out there and also getting the face of your podcast guest out there as well, which I know is really important to you getting their message out. You can also transcribe your podcast and make blog posts on your website. Gosh, there are just so many different things you can do. You can get testimonial posts, can get them talking about their experience after the podcast with you, and if they had a good time or not. Of course they did. Even sharing the behind the scenes of your studio
Suzie (35:46):
Here, not a single one. Did I do of any of these? The B-roll. You are the first one to say to me, just grab B-roll everywhere. Yes. Yes. And I’ve started to do that.
Taylor (35:53):
Yes, it’s the best thing ever. So easy to, and then even a, oh, this is what my day looks like when I go into the studio. And then you take shots of you getting ready in your bathroom at home, right? Making your breakfast, getting your kids out the door to go to school. Oh my gosh. Driving here, just little clips. People would be like, that’s freaking awesome. I see the behind the scenes and it’s enticing for other people who might want to come on your show one day. Oh, this is how Susie’s day looks when she goes into the studio. Cool. That’s what I can expect when I show up.
Suzie (36:24):
Oh, wow. See all of those things that you just said, and not one of those people who I hired gave me any of this, and two of them I noticed did it for themselves.
Taylor (36:39):
Interesting.
Suzie (36:40):
And they showcased me, but they didn’t do it for me. They did like a highlight reel for themselves, but they didn’t. So it’s interesting because the things that you’re saying I was expecting to get at the very beginning, and I guess part of it was my fault that I wasn’t very clear on what I thought I wanted and I didn’t feel like anybody was very clear on what they were expecting to give me. Right. So I’m glad to hear that you’re saying that picking up for anyone who’s out there, and this is the beauty of a podcast, so many of us are finding that this is an excellent resource for sharing our vision, our values, and our community resources. We’re sharing each other’s stories, which makes us feel less alone, which goes back to what I liked the most about you. So as a loudmouth in my twenties, I saw all the problems out in the world and I went out and I told everybody in the social action universe how we were going to, yeah, nobody cares what a 20 nothing year old with no life experience has to say to the global community.
(37:46):
I realized that back to this life coaching. First I had to fix myself. And once I fixed myself, I had to become okay with whatever the brave space, the safe space in my family was going to be. Because you can’t fix them. You can only fix your boundaries in relation to them, but then you can go to your community and to society and to your city. So you started with yourself, so you did it the right way. And what you’ve done is you’ve shared everything with your family or your community, your society, to kind of give them the cheat sheet. Yeah. Right.
Taylor (38:27):
Yeah. It’s okay to be yourself. And I think a lot of us are really just scared to show up as we are is kind of sad because that’s really all that we have. I don’t know.
Suzie (38:39):
Yeah, I do. I do. So let me ask you, who inspires you?
Taylor (38:44):
Oh my gosh, you prepped me with this question before and I was thinking about who I was going to say, but when you just asked me that I like, oh my gosh, why am I going to get sad? I’m going to tear up. I would say my mom, she’s so goofy and weird and I know I talked about her earlier with the whole facade thing, but she’s also the person who told me we did have a facade. We did try to keep up with the Joneses. How crazy that we did all that. And look at us now. Life is so different than we could have possibly imagined, but we’re ourselves and it, she’s just helped me. I think realize that just who I am as a person is plenty enough.
Suzie (39:36):
Oh my gosh. It’s more than enough. When you know better, you do better and you are better and you live better and your relationships are better. I think that is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. The idea that this woman has come to accept that those notions were not exactly a value add. They were like the very bare minimum. And over the years, instead of saying like, stop, it’s just keep being you, the more you that you can be. That’s exactly what our goal is for every generation that comes after us.
Taylor (40:12):
Oh, I can’t wait. Hopefully one day I get to have kids and I can just watch them totally be themselves with the confidence to do freaking anything. And really quick, when I was growing up and playing basketball, I was super competitive and I always was very, not to compare myself to Caitlyn Clark because she’s incredible. But you know her, right? Yes. And her attitude on the court and stuff, and she rubs a lot of people the wrong way. But she’s incredible. And there’s no denying that. And when I was growing up, I always had very similar attitude. So competitive and I hate to lose
(40:48):
And I feel like people I don’t know because I’m a woman or whatever. It made everybody uncomfortable and it was like, don’t be that way, Taylor. Don’t be that way. Even though that’s what made me so great when I could just be myself on the court and be competitive and be so into it and serious. My confidence was through the roof when I could just be myself. So I just think when I have kids one day, if their natural inclination is to be super competitive and intense, I’m not going to shut them down for that. I’m going to let them do whatever they want to do that makes them happy. And if they’re competitive, great. If they’re super serious, great, whatever. Be yourself. As long as you’re a good kind person, what does it really matter?
Suzie (41:30):
Oh my gosh, I have three rules. Be happy. Be kind, and always do your best. And my job is to plant the seed so that my kids will grow wings, right? We used to picture it as vines, but I don’t know when I replaced those vines and I wanted wings and exactly what you just said, I want my children to see that the mistakes I make are what makes me authentic, what makes me resilient? What creates tenacity and what creates grit? Because those are some of the qualities that I fear we may be lacking in society when we don’t let people fail and figure out how to work their way out of it. You are giving people the beginning, but the rest is up to them, and I’m so grateful that I get to learn from you. Likewise,
Taylor (42:21):
Susie. I love this.
Suzie (42:23):
Thank you so much for coming on, and I will be reaching out to you because I’ve been like sniffing around you for a while. I really do want to work with you. I don’t know how, I just have to figure out how. Yes, absolutely. But that’s what I’m looking forward to.
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