priority for development this year?
Is it a personal, business, family, career?
I'd say a mix of personal and business.
I'm really working to deepen personal relationships
this year and business relationships.
So lots of following up, lots of active listening,
asking people, how are you doing, checking in with people
and really strengthening those connections
that I've made over the years
and honoring those connections.
Those are huge personal power steps.
So that's a big one.
I like the category.
So, all right, if you had three books or three resources
to recommend to visionaries, what would they be?
Three books or three resources.
Okay, so the first one would be
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay.
It's a book all about how you are the most powerful person
in your life and any change that you make starts with you.
The second would be The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.
And that is all about putting those steps into action,
how to live your best life.
So with those four agreements.
And I'm not sure I have a third.
Those two are kind of my top two.
I'm stumped for the third idea.
Hey, that's concise.
It's like, give me the three steps to get to Starbucks.
And you're like, well, it's right next door.
I mean, like even better.
I don't need three steps.
So great, those are excellent resources.
I'll share one of our growth goals for this here,
if you don't mind one that I wanna publicly hold myself
accountable so we make it happen.
One of the things that I'm hoping our team
will get in the position to do is when we talk
about these resources in the front end of the program,
I want my team to get the resources posted on Twitter,
tagging the author and saying, we're talking about you live
on Vision Pros right now, come and join us.
And maybe these individuals, these authors
and the Robert Kisakis of the world will jump in with us
and a little bit derail our episode,
but wouldn't that be cool?
That'd be very cool and a great way to promote yourself
on social boost social engagement,
because not only will you be connecting with the author,
but anybody who's interested in that author is going
to see what you're posting as well.
So it's a great way to grow your brand
and grow your audience as well.
Absolutely, so honoring the theme of relationships, right?
And looking out for our relationships.
So everybody will be right back.
I'll do a proper introduction for Christina Lawrence
and thanks for tuning into Vision Pros.
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
With Jackson Calame, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
Hey there and welcome into Vision Pros Live.
I'm your show host, Jackson Calame,
founder and CEO of First Class Business.
Today is Casual Tuesday and probably Taco Tuesday.
We need to make the most of both.
Anyway, I'm excited to have Christina Lawrence on board.
We're gonna be talking about Beyond Words,
which makes me think maybe we should just meditate
the entire time and not use words.
No, that's not what it's about.
It's about using our words intentionally.
It's about building genuine connections
through the power of your own personal story
and why your personal story matters so much to others.
If you don't believe that, well, blessings to you.
Probably not your show and your cup of tea.
I believe it 100%, hence why the podcast,
there it is, is named Vision Pros.
Vision is all about story
and our ability to convey that to others.
So that's why I'm happy, super happy
to have an expert on to talk to us about that.
Before we bring Christina on stage,
we're going to talk about the sponsors.
These are affiliates of mine.
These are people that I work with and believe in.
Neither one of them pay for their sponsorships, by the way.
Secret alert on that.
If somebody did, you'd be, feel free to ask me how much.
I think it's, I was watching a YouTube video
on, I think it was Think Media, and I was thinking,
they said that Envision partnered with them on the episode.
I wanted to know so badly, you know,
what does that agreement look like?
How do they structure the payment that occurs between them?
Is it just an affiliate link?
Do they get free access to software, et cetera?
Maybe I could ask them too,
but I found myself a little bit hesitant and scared to ask,
what if this ruins my relationship with them forever?
What if they don't appreciate the fact
that I'm asking that publicly of them, et cetera?
I'm telling you right now, you can ask us anything you want
to about what's going on with our business.
We'll be happy to talk to you about it.
So sponsors, The Wellness Shop 365
and what Sean Lechuga has built.
I really want to show the new page.
So Cynthia, si tienes acceso a la página nueva
que estamos construyendo en Go High Level,
sería fantástico.
I was just asking, I'm putting her on the spot,
seeing if Cynthia has access to the new page.
This wheel right here,
the 365 Harmony of Life Wheel Assessment,
this is their core for what they do.
They instruct people on how to find wellness beyond health,
beyond the typical vitamins and the things that you can eat
and also the workout plans, which are all important,
but also looking at the all encompassing factors of joy,
spirituality, creativity, finances, home cooking,
home environment, relationships, et cetera.
They have a beautiful family.
I appreciate what they're putting down
and what they're creating.
It's going to be fun to see how far The Wellness Shop 365 goes
over the course of this year.
Pay attention, it'll be fun to watch.
Then there's Melissa Gray with The Law Spot.
And thelawspot.com is where you can go for legal advice
from somebody who is not only an attorney
who can get things done, but she's also high,
she's a high nurturer.
She believes that law does not have to be complicated
and she's able to simplify that for people
who need to understand it better.
And when I say need to understand it,
the worst part about legal counsel is we sometimes
as entrepreneurs don't go to it until we need it,
at which point it can be a little bit too late
or we're in a position where we kind of just have to take
first come first serve wherever we hire.
And sometimes those retainers can be astronomical
and the templates that are out there
aren't necessarily bad to have in your back pocket,
but having somebody who's there to protect you
when you need it matters, because you just never know
when somebody is going to be coming after you
legally speaking, or when Apple is gonna patent your software
like they did when I was co-founder,
junior co-founder of Restaurant Connect.
And whoa, like what a shock, what a day,
what a scary situation.
Instead of spending four hours wasting my time
on that reality and I had legal counsel that I could trust
and confide in, I probably could have spent 30 minutes
on it, calm down faster and gotten back to work right away
rather than trying to read the entire document myself.
So there's a lot of benefits to having the right person
by your side to free you up to focus on your vision
and the fulfillment of your vision.
Then there's the water project,
I wish I had my water bottle beside me.
How many of you have thought that?
And yet there's millions of people who don't even have access
to clean drinking water, something that I take for granted
every single day.
And this water project, their program,
they actually have built this kind of like a Kickstarter
crowdfunding campaign where these communities
are selected based on how difficult it would be for them
to access help.
And in addition to that, how many people live
in the communities, you get to see that
and you get to see what the planned project looks like.
And if you contribute to the project,
they give you updates to let you know
that the project comes to fruition.
And I think that's just one of the most amazing,
transparent causes that I've seen.
And it allows me to know that what I've contributed
has gone to people who absolutely need it.
Plus we've now created a system
that will create generational impact,
possibly for decades to come by allowing people
to have their basic needs met.
So if you have a cause that you'd rather see supported,
and by the way, here's a little bit of an insight
into the progress for the wellness shops brand.
You can see the landing page that's under construction,
this new logo, this is what resonates with Sean
as a visionary leader of the brand.
This is what he knows the vision needs to be.
And we honor that.
And the right people, of course, will be attracted to that.
And the 365 Harmony of Life wheel will get adjusted as well
into a UX UI user experience user interface
that will allow people to say, wow,
I wanna know more about that.
One of the challenges that his brand is going through
right now is one that I see 99% of entrepreneurs faced with.
They've put so much content on their website
because of search engine optimization
that doesn't really matter that much,
especially for smaller brands,
that you're verbal vomiting on your potential prospects.
And then they're getting confused and saying,
well, I really liked what he was or what he said.
But when I go to the website, oh, overwhelm,
the confused mind says no.
And so we're helping him pull back all that content
and reassess how do we position all of this
so that it's clear where each component belongs
so that the audience can then say,
you know what, I do wanna learn more about that.
If your brand is suffering with that,
then I highly recommend getting help.
First class business, of course, can do so.
Personal plug, probably first time
I've ever done that on the show.
Then there, again, we've talked about
the water project already.
If you're not in a position to give back,
then we would ask that you just share it
with those that you know.
And also, if you have a cause that's more important to you
that's bigger on your heart and mind right now,
then please share that so we can support you
and what you come across.
There's 8 billion people to help in this world.
We wanna make sure that we're doing our part to do so.
So without further ado,
I'm gonna go ahead and share screen real quick
and steal that control.
I wanna go over to Christina's bio
because she is the biowriter.com.
That's her website.
And you can always pause the video if you're watching.
I love that she practices what she preaches.
Her story is her bio.
And yes, she's got her experiences baked into this.
She probably also has a resume.
In addition to this, she has a LinkedIn page.
But when it comes to talking about her about section
and what she does, she very clearly articulates her values.
She articulates who she speaks with
and what types of person that she is.
Some of the words that really stood out to me
were creative expression, empathy, and honesty.
And expressing your experiences with,
I'm sorry, let me just read this part.
Her love of people on the stories they share
by intuitively capturing your experiences
with gentle empathy and pinpoint precision.
Not everybody wants gentle empathy.
And so if you're like, well, I wouldn't want that.
Well, you wouldn't be a good client for Christina.
On the flip side, the people who love the empath,
that love somebody who nurtures them through things
and that appreciate somebody who's crystal clear
with what they do, they're gonna gravitate towards this
very quickly.
And that type of clarity is going to help any visionary
attract the right tribe, the right audience,
the right supporters, the right builders,
the right prospects to come and belong with them.
So without further ado, Christina Lawrence, champion,
scholar, bio writer, radio host, anchor, reporter,
welcome to Vision Pros Life.
Thank you so much for that warm welcome.
Much appreciated, Jackson.
And thank you for having me on the show.
And thank you to everyone who is tuning in and listening.
I appreciate the support and the encouragement.
So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Absolutely.
So let's dive right in.
Christina, in your own words,
what's your vision for those that you serve?
What do you hope to see them accomplish or become?
So my vision for the people that I serve is that,
first of all, in my presence,
they feel safe enough to express
and celebrate their own authenticity
and feel safe enough to express who they are as people.
And then the next step in that evolution
is to feel safe enough and confident enough
to express that to the world
through their social media pages, their about pages,
if they're going to be speaking at an event,
being confident enough to share their bio with their audience
and feeling centered and grounded in what they're doing.
Wow.
You know, who came to mind with that is JP Sears.
I don't know if you know who that is,
but he's a comedian, long red hair,
does these videos to open people's minds
to different paradigms that are hilarious.
He's gone a little bit of a political tangent,
but he had serious insecurities with who he was
before he became a comedian
and started going down this entrepreneurial journey and path.
And I know what that feels like too,
to bottle myself up and to not want to put myself on stage
and to want to keep it even cool, et cetera.
You know, I want to make sure my hair is perfect
and all that stuff, right?
We all have levels of imposter syndrome within us,
but what you described reminds me of him.
So you said to express and celebrate
their own self-impression, was that the word choice?
Their own self-expression and their own-
Self-expression.
Yeah, and their own authenticity as well.
And authenticity.
I love that you keyed in the word celebrate.
It's one of the most overlooked powers
that's, you know, we are often told about hype and excitement
and people want to be entertained
and those fade fast.
Celebration on the other hand, I heard Glenn Morschauer,
best talk I've ever heard,
motivation to talk, was present for it, it was so good.
Talked about the power of celebration.
Do you mind talking a little bit more about that?
Why do you choose that word?
What's it mean to you?
I choose the word celebrate
because we're all unique people.
We're as unique as fingerprints
and our time on earth is short, really,
if you think about it.
And life is too short not to celebrate who you are,
to not fully embrace who you are as a human.
When you embrace your own humanity
in a way that's honest and true to you,
what you do is you create that beautiful ripple effect
and you encourage other people to do the same.
And I feel like if more people had the courage
to embrace their authenticity and celebrate
that authenticity, again, that would create
that beautiful ripple effect and encourage others
to do the same and bring more joy to the world
and bring more happiness to the world.
I feel like that's needed, especially in times like this.
I agree.
I have to be a little bit irreverent
because something came to mind
and I love your coaching on this.
So authenticity is one of those words
that you're always gonna be challenged on
by a global audience, right?
People are gonna have their feelings about it.
But if I stand up right now and I decide to look
to see if I have lint in my belly button live on camera,
that's not necessarily being authentic, right?
Just because I feel like I have to share that
with the world, right?
There's airing our dirty laundry.
There's going off topic into territories
that maybe aren't healthy to talk about.
So where do you draw the line between being honest
and open about everything that happens in your life
and being authentic?
This is a powerful question and thank you for asking
because when I was crafting my own bio,
I struggled with this too.
I thought how much of the story do I wanna share
because there's sharing and there's oversharing, right?
Some things are private to me and they don't need
to be shared with an audience.
And to be quite frank, the audience doesn't necessarily care
about those details.
So it's easier for me to identify that in another human.
This is-
I hope I go viral for belly button lint, right?
I'm a dip name.
Go ahead, sorry.
No, that's fine.
Or like wild curly hair from your walk, right?
But again, there's sharing and there's oversharing.
And when I was creating my own bio,
I had to ask myself the same questions
that I would ask a bio client.
That really helped me.
And I wasn't sure if I should mention the fact
that I'm divorced.
That's a private thing.
But I do know that when I read stories of people
who have gone through similar experiences
and they are thoughtful in how they express that,
it helps me better understand myself and feel less alone.
So it is a bit of a line to walk.
However, when you have the courage to share personal details
about yourself, like, you know, I'm divorced
and I lost my dad, you know,
those are two things that soften me to my audience.
I'm not so polished and unapproachable
that people can't relate to me.
I've experienced these real human things
without going into excessive detail
about how it shaped and affected me.
Thank you for that.
You're welcome.
It's one of my favorite subjects, ironically,
because of the impact that I've been blessed
with the opportunity to grant thanks to the hard realities
and lessons that come from two divorces, you know?
And so not think like, I'm not grateful that I'm divorced
and yay, wonderful, there's a difference between that
and grateful for the experience and learning.
So when I was before I faced my first divorce,
we were in the process of throwing the D word around a lot.
I was very close to publishing two different books.
They were both 80 to 85% ready to publish.
And I was watching a clip of Jimmy Fallon
and I imagined me being on Jimmy Fallon.
I was sharing about this book and I thought,
what if he asked me, what does your wife think
about this book?
You know, what does she feel about it?
And I would have said, oh, my wife hates me.
You know, like that would not have been
the time to share that.
You know, and I felt a real empathy for all the celebrities
that go through this process.
And I was like, I don't want that right now.
I was also very close to launching my podcast back then,
but it was gonna be called Talking in Circles,
driven around principles.
I'm talking about principles over and over,
but same thing.
I was like, this is not the time for me to rock the stage.
Not for what I knew about how to share about myself.
It wasn't that I wanted to be inauthentic,
the exact opposite.
I wanted to make sure that I knew how to talk about
my reality in a way that was respectful to my children,
that was respectful to the mothers,
in this case, the mothers of my children,
that addressed reality for what it is.
But there was a lot to ponder and think through
about how am I going to lead?
And for me, it was a season of pause,
where in order to be authentic and thoughtful,
I needed to take space to understand
how I was going to lead through that.
I don't know if you face something similar.
It sounds like we're pretty much aligned on that.
Any further thoughts before we move into your vision?
No, I'm glad that you brought that up,
because had we done,
I wouldn't have been ready for this interview,
say in 2020, right?
Things were still quite fresh,
and I still had some healing work to do on my end.
And that goes back to your original thought and question
about how much do I share?
How many details does the audience really need?
And there are places for more details,
and maybe you want to expand upon your experiences
in an e-book or a physical book,
but your bio is not necessarily the place to tell
four or five stories about how your divorce impacted you.
So I'm very glad you made that distinction,
that you waited until you were ready to share your story,
because being authentic requires a level of vulnerability
that many people are not comfortable with.
However, when you are not authentic and vulnerable
and you get on camera, people can sense that.
They can feel it.
They can really feel it.
Even if you're getting on a sales call with somebody
and you're not being completely honest about who you are
and what you represent and the value you provide,
people will pick up on that.
So it's important to be centered and grounded
and confident in who you are
and the experiences you've had in your life.
Absolutely.
I would add vision pros that sometimes people
will feel honored and grateful that you held back.
And that's that song and dance of knowing when to push
and to pull, when to guide, when to be guided.
So there's, for instance, if you've got children
who are in the process of getting married
and they're in the courtship phase
and they want to pause their engagement,
that's a healthy choice.
That's an opportunity to pause and reflect.
That doesn't mean, and maybe there's something
they don't wanna share about themselves.
You're in a relationship that seems great.
Like if you haven't earned that trust yet
or that trust hasn't been established,
then sometimes you have to be willing to be patient
in order for the relationship to make sense.
So while we could say, oh, well, I just,
I wanna be as authentic as possible so that I can,
if it's so that I can, that selfish motivation
might not be in the best interest of the other person,
which could then lead to the relationship moving forward
in a way that, well, doesn't go as well as you might hope.
So lots to consider in relation to authenticity.
I will share one more story on that.
That's John Mayer.
You can look this up.
John Mayer was interviewed and asked about,
who was this particular love song about?
I think it was Your Bodies of Wonderland.
Yeah, what was that song?
And so he's always asked that question.
I thought, man, to be grilled on that over and over
for the rest of your life,
like what an interesting dynamic to have to live with.
And he was known as dating lots of different celebrity women
too, which complicates and magnifies the challenge
of dealing with that question.
But if a singer faces that over one song,
as an entrepreneur, as your vision comes to fruition,
not to scare you off, but to help you prepare yourself,
you're going to have important conversations with people
and people are going to want to know little details
that may be unexpected to you.
I don't think that when he released that song,
he was probably thinking,
oh, everybody's gonna ask about who this is.
I know when I've written songs,
and then too, what if you get that?
What if you break up with somebody
and that song meant so much to you
and now you have to sing it over and over for 30 years.
They go through a lot more difficulties
than we sometimes imagine.
All right, let's digress.
What's, to a better topic, what's your vision?
Christina, what do you see for yourself?
Gosh, my personal vision is to deepen my relationships
with people that I have in my life
and people that I'm about to connect with.
I'm big on understanding the value
of relationships and connection.
Connection is what helps keep us alive and sane.
I mean, without it, we wither and we, you know,
we not to be gruesome about it,
but without connection, we perish.
So my vision is to provide a safe container
for people I have relationships with to come to me
and to let me know what's going on in their lives
and keep me updated and not just professionally
but personally as well.
I really want to establish myself as a container
that people can come to and explore their own vulnerability
in a non-judgmental space
because that is what I would like provided to me
from people in my circle.
So it's said that you need to be what you desire.
Right?
And that's what I desire.
I desire to have a safe space.
And I do, I have so many wonderful people in my circle
who have supported me through this entrepreneurial journey
and I want to give back to them
and help them feel like they're not alone
in this journey as well.
Wow.
I absolutely love the power you just threw down too
for people.
It can be so easily overlooked,
but the intentional dedication to preparing
for the people that you're about to connect with.
And also knowing how much to prepare, right?
And get back to how much to share.
And who to do that for if you had a line of 8 billion people
for instance in front of you.
It's like, whoa, how do you put yourself in a position
to where you can authentically show up
for each one of those individuals?
And a lot of people would say you can't.
And I beg to differ,
but we'll leave that question for you, Vision Pros.
We'd love to hear from you.
If you have an idea of how you can authentically connect
and prepare for people at scale,
don't hesitate to drop that in the comments.
We'll be happy to engage with the further of the conversation.
So let's dive into your worst leadership experience ever.
What does that mean?
I'm glad you asked this question
and I stumbled a bit on it when I was thinking
about how I would answer,
but it ties into the last topic that you discussed
about 8 billion people lining up to speak with you.
My worst leadership experience ever had to do with a client
and we didn't establish proper boundaries before we started.
This is central to maintaining your own integrity,
your own energy is self-care and boundaries.
So we didn't establish those proper boundaries
and he wasn't responding to my emails,
wasn't responding to my correspondence,
but calling at very inconvenient times.
I would be in meetings, I would be scheduled
and it was a stressful experience for me
not being able to be there for him in the way that he needed,
but we didn't establish when good times would be to connect.
So that was boundary number one.
Boundary number two, we didn't sign a contract either.
I'm a big believer in signing contracts
and setting those expectations and boundaries ahead of time.
So there's no confusion,
there's no misalignment ahead of time.
So again, and I own this experience,
I own my role in this because I was the one
who could have created the contract.
I was the one who could have set the expectation
or set the boundary ahead of time
that I'm only available certain hours of the day
and if you need me after hours, we can certainly arrange,
but I need to know ahead of time.
So that way I can be there for you.
Again, setting those expectations and being super clear
in communicating what I need
and him being clear about what he needs.
So boundaries are super, super important in business
and in life.
So lesson learned, set good boundaries before you begin.
I love that and lesson learned, lesson to expand on as well
and you expanded on it and one of the ways
that most people don't look at and that's,
if you're contract bound, like if you're a person
who needs to have that written agreement,
but you put that on the person who's not contract bound,
you can expect a template back that may not reflect very well
what their own thoughts and feelings are too.
But also that's that nature of like,
if you don't understand legal agreements and how they work,
the contracts can very much get in the way
of fantastic relationships
when you're an amateur with contracts.
Two, about the boundaries and times.
So we offer unlimited call support,
unlimited support with our programs.
And on that, I always tell my clients,
we offer unlimited support with boundaries.
So it's my job to keep, in my case,
this is not for everybody, right?
Everybody's different, but I joke with my clients
and I kind of make fun of the world and I say,
listen, this device right here,
this I control who gets through to me and who doesn't.
There's 8 billion people out there.
I'm not gonna control people and say,
hey, you have to call me at this time
and you have to call me at this time and you have,
golly, I don't get it.
And I'm like, no, as entrepreneurs,
we gotta set our own notifications and boundaries.
So if my client calls me at two in the morning
and I happen to be up working,
I'm like, I'm gonna answer just like it's two
in the afternoon.
If they call me at two in the afternoon and I'm busy,
I'm gonna get back to them in a timely fashion.
And ideally they would schedule in advance what we need,
but they have no restrictions to talk to me.
And because of that law of abundance mentality,
one, almost nobody calls because it's 2024.
Two, when we set a constraint with people
that you can have one hour of my time per week,
people want two hours.
And people take an hour and 15 minutes, not just the hour.
And then they feel like you didn't give them enough
and like you restrict because you did restrict them.
So there's different ways to look at that
and evaluate for you as a visionary.
You don't have to follow exactly what the world says
just because one bank provides 24 seven service
does not mean that you have to provide 24 seven service.
So a lot of realities on that.
I'll give one contract example that I love
because business owners, and maybe this will help you
with yours as well, Christina.
Maybe it won't.
Maybe we agree to disagree for the audience's sake too.
But companies like DocuSign are destroying small businesses,
absolutely destroying them.
PandaDoc as well.
I appreciate what they're trying to do,
but the challenge is perception for consumers is reality.
So if I've worked with 10 different pest control companies,
plumbers, roofers, et cetera, that have all used DocuSign
to put their contracts together,
and I had a bad experience with said entities,
then my natural inclination in the future
is to absolutely scrutinize all future contracts
that come across to me in that exact same format.
So what ends up happening is two people
end up going to battle,
and they end up kind of fighting over the process,
not based on the existing relationship,
but based on the subconscious baggage
of the reality of what's occurred in the past.
When it dawned on me that, wait a second,
what are the big players actually doing in the market?
What are the companies that are actually successful?
And I realized that, you know what?
Christina and I, and the rest of you,
we all use services all the time,
like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pandora, et cetera,
and they all have agreements that we bypass and agree to,
but they have it right here.
Subscription terms, offer terms,
I doubt any of you clicked on this and read through it,
but it's there.
There's probably 1% of you who did it,
and in the case of our company,
we've designed our contract in an exact same fashion
with that type of terms and conditions
that doesn't stall the relationship
and digressing a little bit.
I also do a video walking my clients through,
here's our contract, here's why we do what we do,
what you need to understand of how this language works,
because I never want somebody to dive in
without understanding our service,
because we're not a simple music program.
People aren't trusting us with their visions.
So there's an ebb and flow to this,
and I love that you brought this up, Christina,
because it's one of those dynamics of business
that people don't like to talk about
because it can be such a high conflict reality,
and there's strong opinions related to it,
but strong opinions delicately held
give us the opportunity to optimize what it is we're up to.
Do you have any alternative thoughts to that?
No, I hear what you're saying for sure.
I would have to agree to disagree about DocuSign.
I use DocuSign, I love DocuSign.
It's made my business a lot easier,
but I feel like the meat and potatoes
of what we're talking about is,
do what works for you in business.
That's the most important thing,
and tap into how you feel,
and if you've had a bad experience
with some of these larger contract providers,
like you've developed your own system,
and I think that's fantastic.
I appreciate how transparent you are with your clients
because people are starved for time.
They don't have time to read the terms and conditions anymore,
really, they're just onto the next,
onto the next, onto the next,
and being as transparent and clear as you can be in business
is something we can all get behind
and something we can all appreciate.
So I appreciate your insight and feedback on that.
That's amazing.
So you do have an alternative view,
and I appreciate that.
That's huge because,
and it captures the essence
of what's most important about this,
which is my villainization, if you will,
or what can be heard is that of the docuSigns
and the proposifies,
is not to say that the program is bad,
it's the implementation.
It's the process of how people choose to implement it
and use it, and I would also caution people,
I never said don't read it.
I said most of you won't read it.
I read almost every single thing that I sign,
and I often send back changes, highlights,
things that I need adjusted,
and say, if you wanna work together,
then we need to work through this.
So be diligent, be very careful
as you listen to these types of advice that we provide.
And by the way, I'm not legal counsel.
So never follow my legal advice.
That's not my territory.
With that, all that said, thank you again.
I picked up something too that I get to add
to my optimizations, thanks to your viewpoint.
What's your best leadership experience?
Oh, my best leadership experience.
The most recent one that comes to mind is,
I wrote a bio for someone who is,
she's starting up a mental health program,
a 10 week online mental health program.
And I met her at a networking event
and she shared her story,
and I'm connected with her mother.
And it was such a beautiful story that she shared.
I was emotional at the meeting.
I was emotional meeting her.
And when they chose me to create a bio for her
and for her program, I felt so inspired
that I said the words,
I feel like I'm the perfect person to do this.
I feel like I'm the perfect person to write your bio.
And she wholeheartedly agreed.
I wrote the bio and it just came so naturally
and so authentically that it just felt like ease in business.
Nothing was difficult about it.
And that's the most recent experience that I've had.
There are others I could go on,
but I don't want to monopolize your time,
but that is the most recent one.
Just feeling so aligned with my clients and their missions
and the fact that I can be this safe container
for them to express and then present that to them
in a way that they can feel professional enough
to present that to the people who need to connect with them.
I very much appreciate the,
I feel like I have rather than,
you're not forcing the issue.
You're not saying this has to be the way that it's done.
You're just expressing clarity
that you had that strong desire
that conviction that that would be an opportunity,
but respecting the fact that she also had to feel that way.
So that's a really neat story.
What's, if this was the last lesson
you could ever share with visionaries,
what's the powerful lesson
that they can learn from your experience?
Oh man, this is the best thing that I came across
is the knowledge that in the infinity of time and space,
there will never be another you.
There is only one you.
I've said this before, you're as unique as a fingerprint
and your story is as unique as a fingerprint.
And Jackson, there's only one of you
who's delivering this podcast in the way that you do.
And there's only one me who's writing bios
in the way that I do.
Of course there are other podcasters on the planet.
Of course there are other bio writers on the planet,
but the way we do it is completely unique to us.
And having the courage to celebrate and embrace that
and share that is so huge to your own confidence and peace.
I'm not gonna cry.
I'm gonna agree though.
I love it.
So yes, and that crying, that celebration.
Man, I wish I remember the coach's name
that talked about how you should cry every day.
You should laugh every day.
And it's all about feelings and the opportunity
that we have to feel and how we often take that for granted
or suppress that capability.
And what a beautiful concept and way to live.
And for me, I'll also say what a beautiful truth.
So with that said, let's dive into building genuine
connections through the power of your story.
Again, beyond the words,
what does beyond the words mean to you?
Let's start there.
Well, beyond the words to me meant,
how do people feel after reading your story?
Words are one thing, but feelings are quite another.
And when someone reads your story
and is interested in what you do,
and they connect with you based on those experiences
that you've shared, that's a feeling.
That's a feeling of inspiration.
That's a feeling of now I really wanna connect
with this person.
And it's a feeling of, oh, I feel understood.
This person knows where I'm coming from
and can relate to where I'm coming from
and respects where I'm coming from.
So to me, beyond words meant the feeling that you inspire
in other people based on your shared experiences.
Love that.
And so let's move towards the building
the genuine connections through the story.
So let's actually dive towards the higher end,
the more advanced side of this.
So what are entrepreneurs missing?
What are visionaries missing in terms of their story
not helping them genuinely connect?
What are some of the elements they can change
that they may be overlooking?
Sure, one thing that comes to mind immediately
is the order of how you share your experiences.
Some people, it doesn't have to be told chronologically
is my point.
Like a movie.
Right, some people think, okay, I was born,
I went to this school.
Like they just have a laundry list of accomplishments,
which is great.
There's nothing wrong with your accomplishments.
Of course, celebrate them, highlight them.
However, if that's the only thing
that you're sharing with people,
that can come across as a bit off putting.
It can come across sometimes as arrogant.
I know more than you do.
So therefore you should hire me.
And that's not, again, that's not a great feeling
that you inspire in your audience.
But if you're willing to intertwine
your professional experience
with some of your personal experience,
it makes you more relatable as a human being
and paves the way for that genuine connection.
It's a way for people to relate to you
beyond just what you do.
It's a way for people to relate to you
based on who you are as a human.
Absolutely.
I was in line at a networking event
and I walked up behind this guy in line
and I said, nice jacket, dude.
And he turns around like swag, like right.
And he's like, oh, you got, oh.
We're wearing the same jacket.
And so we had this buddy buddy thing immediately.
And the way he turned around all dazzly.
I can honor that.
That's part of my personality too in the right moment.
And so I didn't say hi, how are you?
Hey, excuse me, can I find out your name?
There's nothing like it.
And so the stories that we share for our bios,
they can be dynamic like that.
In fact, if you wanna capture more attention
then learning to share your story
with a more dynamic voice matters.
In fact, entrepreneurs that are married,
one of the fastest ways to send your marriage
down a spiral towards hell and divorce
is to fall out of love with the story of how you met.
In other words, just cause you've told the story
1,000 times per year.
The moment we start introducing that,
I hope this doesn't break anybody's relationships too.
I hope it helps you facilitate
a healthy conversation about this.
But if you're happy to say, oh, we just met
when we were in high school, that's felt.
That's felt by everybody.
If, oh, yeah, we, it was 10 years ago.
Here we are now.
That's felt.
Somebody feels that.
And everybody feels that in reality.
So even though you've shared what you do, who you are,
how I got to work at Video Power,
and you're like, I got to work in Video Power.
We were the number one YouTube ad agency in the world
running some of the best, most viral campaigns of all time.
I have an opportunity to share that as though it was today.
That's a gift.
That's actually, it's not just a gift.
It's a learned skill that took a lot of practice
to be able to get down to,
to put myself back into that true emotion.
The same applied to writing.
Christina?
I would say so, yes.
And I'm glad you brought up the topic of couples
and how they met, because this is a question
I ask every couple that I meet.
I ask, how did you meet?
What's the story of how you met?
And most people kind of say, oh, well,
they'll give that response that you gave.
Maybe we met 10 years ago, or maybe we,
they don't give a lot of detail.
And sometimes I have to, I don't say dig,
but I gently prod, you know, oh,
what were the circumstances surrounding your meeting?
How did you feel when you met this person?
What was the look or what was the feeling that you had
when you first saw her or him?
And yes, it does apply to writing,
because it's important to have that emotional impact
in your bio or any piece of writing that you're creating,
whether it's a landing page or a bio or a website,
any piece of web, any piece of, pardon me,
of words needs to have that emotional impact.
That's how we create that genuine connection
is through that emotional impact.
And otherwise it's very dry, it's very bland,
it's very inauthentic.
It doesn't feel like you're trying to connect.
It just feels like you're checking it off a list.
So having that emotional impact is key
when it comes to any sort of content you're creating.
It's super key.
I made a couple of statements today
that put me in what's called the Holy Fool territory.
Malcolm Gladwell talks about this and talking with strangers
and it's the guy who screams the world is falling apart.
And it's usually those people who save society
when it actually is,
but sometimes it gets lost in translation,
what the person means.
So when I said you might be on a fast track towards hell,
or I said pretty strongly, hell and divorce,
that's again coming from somebody who's twice divorced,
how to learn some hard lessons about realities
with marriages and honoring the process of communications
with everybody involved in those realities.
And my goal and hope on that is for you to realize
you have the opportunity to turn around
and go the opposite direction.
You have the opportunity to work on these things.
If you find yourself facing that reality,
then instead of waiting years to try to figure this out
or laying after the fact, act today.
Start making those positive changes.
And if you improve the quality of your stories,
the way you tell your stories,
the way that you feel about your stories,
it can very much amplify your entire year.
It can amplify everything about who you are
and therein lies the opportunity.
So Christina, any final thoughts before we wrap up?
Yes, just one.
I appreciate so much what you just said
about the power lying within you.
Something Louise Hay says, she's since deceased,
but she says the point of power
is always in the present moment.
You get to choose within your here and now,
you get to choose your next move,
your next thought, your next action.
And I think a lot of people forget that
in the minutia of everyday life,
they're pulled in a thousand different directions.
But if you sit with yourself long enough
and ask yourself the question, what do I need right now?
Or what do I feel comes next?
That is the point of power.
That is the point of personal power.
And you're always in control of yourself
and you're always in control of your next step.
So thank you for highlighting that.
I love that.
I appreciate your power and brilliance.
If you wanna reconnect with Christina Lawrence,
the BioWriter.com is a great place to go.
We'll also have links in the show notes
on the landing page so that you can see
what are the resources she has offered there.
Again, if you've got a comment,
or if you have somebody that comes to mind
that could really benefit from this story,
AKA any entrepreneur who's trying
to share their story effectively,
just know that again, I'm not here to scare people,
but the statistics shouldn't be ignored.
96% of businesses fail within 10 years.
The 4% who survive are often struggling tremendously.
And most of the time, they're so focused
on their product or their service
and what it is they want to deliver today
and how they want to deliver
and why everybody should love it.
They disconnect from that story.
They're not connecting with the market on why it matters.
Why them out of the other million options
that we have online, why slow down
and take my time with this person?
How can I connect with them?
Most of them are struggling tremendously
with that very, very fundamental step.
Some people love to use the word basic,
I do too sometimes, but it's fundamental.
And if we're missing the fundamentals,
we're missing the foundation,
we're going to struggle to make the impact
that we want to make.
I would love to see, heal entrepreneurs on that path,
the same that Christina is as well.
We both want that for you.
That's our ultimate goal.
Also, feel free to connect with us on social media,
like, subscribe to get notifications
about the next events coming up.
And if you have a vision to share on visionproselive.com
in the top right corner, there's a be our guest button.
You're welcome to apply.
We would love to hear your story.
We'd very likely love to have you on the stage as well.
Everybody have an excellent rest of your day.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well
and invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time.