Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where
we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five
Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders
and experts who will share not just their expertise,
but the milestone moments that have reshaped
their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in
the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome
to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership. I'm your host, Sheila Slick.
And today, my special guest is Sarah Berry. Sarah
is founder of Out of Office, and she's a corporate
trainer and an on -camera educator that helps
others build their online presence with fearless,
low -effort, high -impact video. Sarah launched
a program called Invisible to Iconic. I'd like
to welcome her to the show. Thank you so much
for having me. I'm excited to be here. I am too.
And you've created momentum. We've been talking
about the exciting part of the beginning of the
year and then how you keep that momentum in the
months that follow. I'd love to learn a little
bit about you and your journey, that turning
point, that milestone moment that led you to
what you're doing today. Yeah. So you mentioned
I'm a corporate trainer. That has been my career
for 20 years now. And that is something that
I sort of just stumbled upon. And when I was
in the corporate world, I always felt like I'm
pigeonholed here. I can't do anything else but
teach people. That's what I have to do. It's
a label that's been slapped on. And I can't do
anything beyond that. On the side, I was doing
graphic design. That was my little side gig.
But I didn't really know what. I always knew
I wanted a business, but I didn't know what that
would be. Now I look back and I see that through
line of you can educate people in your business
and still use those skills that you used to have.
And the turning point for me was when I started
posting online. It's literally all it took was
talking to other people. I would dream up these
businesses in my mind. I would think, oh, well,
one day I'll just have the courage. One day I'll
have. you know, an online presence. People will
be able to search my name and something will
come up. But until you do something about it,
it feels like this super far away dream. And
so I would just keep planning. And it wasn't
until I did a 100 post challenge on LinkedIn
where I said, I'm going to post 100 times in
a row. Didn't have to be daily. Didn't have to
be, you know. super heavy on the content creation.
It was just to get into the rhythm and get rid
of the sort of like cringe feeling that we have
when we're first exposing ourselves to the world.
Everybody on LinkedIn was already a former coworker
of mine. So that was kind of the cringe factor
there. But I felt like if I could just express
the creative thoughts I have and let my audience
sort of guide me there, what do people even want
to hear from me? And that became the turning
point for me. I was like, wait a second. I've
been educating. I've been a creative person.
I've been all these things all along. Now I'm
just doing it for other people. And up to that
point, I was helping large businesses with their
almost like TikTokification of their online training.
So if someone comes in as a new employee, maybe
make a little video for them, a day in the life.
That felt really fun for me. But I felt like
it was even more fun to do that with small business
owners, getting them comfortable on camera, getting
them to kind of like distill the things that
they do into small videos. And I felt like that
was so rewarding to be able to do that. I didn't
know that, though. I didn't know that that was
my calling. I didn't know that that was the thing
I wanted to do until I started just posting online,
which a lot of people won't do. A lot of people
will shy away from it. It's called imposter syndrome.
100%. So many layers and levels to imposter syndrome,
too. Yeah. And even you that had been working
with video, you kind of had to overcome that
in order to start publishing your post on LinkedIn.
And I loved what you said about the 100. And
I've heard that numerous times. I'm actually
doing that with this very same podcast. My first
milestone was that 100th episode. And I think
100 is a great number because it shows that you've
been consistent and perhaps you'll start seeing
results if you haven't already. So don't give
up unless you've tried something 100 times. That's
exactly. You might have read the same book that
I did. Million Dollar Weekend was the book that
I heard this in originally. So I was listening
to the audio book while on a walk in 2024. I
was taking daily walks. I need to get back to
this now that I think of it. The daily walks
were great. And I would just listen to an audio
book. So when I was listening to this, it was
the whole premise is just like you said, do something
100 times without analyzing the results yet,
because we have a tendency to talk ourselves
out of things that we haven't even seen the proof
of yet. I think we all have an example we can
think of where you put in maybe five tries on
something, 20 tries on something. You see it
with podcasts a lot. You see it with YouTube
channels. There are so many YouTube channels
and podcasts in the graveyard with three episodes.
I think it's something like the stat was 90 %
never get past episode three. And then of the
people remaining or episodes or channels remaining.
I think 90 % of those don't get past episode
20. So in reality, we're trying a bunch of little
things, but we're never really sticking to one
thing long term to really see if it's going to
work for us. And I feel like that changed something
in my brain positively. It was a really good
challenge to do. And it made me stop thinking
of all the details, the imposter syndrome details
that we think of where we don't believe in ourselves.
Well, I think if I could do 100 shorts. Yeah,
that would be pretty awesome. That would probably
take me a while, right? Because then, I don't
know, I think with video sometimes you're not
just listening to yourself like you are with
a podcast. I think the imposter syndrome is twice
as much with video than it is with audio. Now
that's just my personal experience. And I think
it's great to step out of your comfort zone.
So if you start a 100 -day challenge, I would
be the first one. to sign up. Yes, it's so good
for us. I will say for video, like you said,
we're analyzing. There's a lot of self -critique.
A lot of the clients that I've worked with have
said the same thing when they're first starting
is, I can't even look at it. That's kind of a
quote that I hear a lot. And I know from my own
experience, and of course, each person is a little
bit different, but I have that track running
in my mind when I'm recording. Oh gosh, the way
I said that sounds awful. Oh, what am I even
saying? It's like constantly checking and self
-editing. And then when I go back to watch the
clip, I'm remembering that moment of when I was
self -critiquing. And I'm like, wait a second.
I actually am coming across perfectly fine. There's
nothing wrong with what I'm saying. But I was
automatically editing myself and making myself
feel like it was wrong or not good enough. But
I'm watching it back and I'm just thinking this
is perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with
it at all. So I think we overdo it with the self
-critique as well. It's natural. It's not something
to, you know, beat yourself up about. But I do
think that seeing yourself on camera enough times,
you do get used to it just like you would for
your voice. We all hate our voices recorded,
right? It's the same thing. But yes, amplified.
Think if you do it enough times, though, you
get used to it. But I have some methods to get
around it too. So to remove the emotion factor.
What are three skills or qualities that you believe
are most impactful in either your journey or
someone else's journey wanting to take on video
and getting out of that comfort zone? That's
a good one. And I feel like depending on when
you ask me, it's going to be a different answer
each time almost, like what season of life I'm
in. I think self -belief is a big thing. And
seeing kind of the bigger picture, I think a
lot of times we focus on, like I said, the negative
or like one. moment rather than looking at the
big picture, you've almost got to have a bigger
purpose. So even just to take it back to the
100 post challenge that I did, my bigger purpose
was to be consistent, not to go viral, not to
have one post be this big thing. And I knew that
I had that on the horizon. That was what I was
aiming for. And I believed that I could do it
as long as I stuck to it. So that's definitely
one thing. I think it kind of goes along with
it, but the proper mindset, a positive mindset.
When I teach video, I'm not teaching the tips
and tricks. I'm not teaching here's how to edit
because without the right mindset, it doesn't
matter if you know the greatest tool. It doesn't
matter if you know how to record properly or
have the best lighting or any of these things
that I get asked questions about a lot. It's
more about the right mindset. okay, I know I'm
doing this for a reason and I know I can do it.
That's going to matter so much more. And a lot
of people skip that foundation. And I will say
a lot of the questions I get just prove that.
And then the third thing I would say is that
there may be something about knowing when to
pivot is a really good skill to have. I have
done this a lot with my content where I want
to make it easier on me. I don't want content
to be a difficult thing. I want it to be low
effort, high impact. always iterating that to
make it easier on me, but also easier for my
audience where they feel like they still are
getting something really amazing out of what
I have to say and put out into the world. So
what you're doing now is a program. Yeah, I have
a couple of things. The main one is the program
where I help people not only get on camera in
the first place, it's like a safe place to practice.
we do recording sessions. So I'm able to record
with them where they feel like it's almost like
three phases. So the first is getting past the
mindset, you know, gunk that keeps us from expressing
ourselves. Second would be recording together.
So we're kind of co -owning that, doing recording
sessions and then splitting those into clips
that they can then post on social media easily.
And then the third would be where they've got
the training wheels from me. Now they're putting
it into a system where They don't feel like they
have to pull out their phone every day and record.
It's more like we can batch record. And once
we batch record, we've got enough content for
the next sometimes two months in advance, which
I think is pretty amazing because it can be a
lot to feel like you're recording shorts all
the time. So I do have people record longer bursts
of video. That way that can be split into clips.
I think if you're starting with the short clips.
That's a recipe for burnout. And I try to keep
people from doing that. But ultimately, they
can do whatever they want. It's similar with
any sort of content, right? If you're just waking
up in the morning and you're saying, what should
I post today? You're going to get burnt out pretty
quickly. But if you put that into a nice system
that works for you, a workflow that works for
you, OK, every third Thursday, I'm setting aside
time on my calendar and I'm going to write. my
posts for next month. But I'm also going to,
you know, look at my entire planning. What platforms
am I on? Do they all work together? So kind of
lifting it up and looking at it from a bird's
eye view rather than what random things should
I post about today? Which again, is it an exhausting
place? I think people start there and then they
realize they may say to themselves, well, that
didn't work. I must not be good at video. which
isn't the case. You just didn't have a system
behind it. I love that. And you could probably
also help podcasters. And there's a lot of podcasters
that perhaps are only using audio and they're
wanting to use video. Yes. I actually was a guest
on a podcast last month, and the host is typically
used to an audio podcast. for special exception
for me, made it a video podcast. And I said,
why don't you just do this going forward? So
we'll see if he does that. Well, I may turn this
one into a clip or two. Yeah, there you go. So
where can we find you online? How can we connect
with you? So currently everything is on LinkedIn.
Um, so, and I'll give you my, well, you have
my profile. You can probably put that in the
notes. Um, cause you know, LinkedIn likes to
put the complicated long string in your URL.
Um, but yeah, I post on LinkedIn four times a
week. I post an article every week, which is
more of a deep dive into the topics that I talk
about that particular week. And then my next
venture, which is a bit, I won't say scary because
I'm used to video, but I am going to be starting
a YouTube channel, which is. new for me because
it you have to be a little bit more strategic
I think with YouTube and it's more long form
so we'll see how that goes I'm excited for it
but no channel name to give you yet well I think
it's gonna go great Sarah how can you go wrong
correct that's a great mindset to have so I'll
be your first subscriber share as soon as you
have a channel name yeah I would go close to
what you already have so that you keep your branding
intact you've got from invisible to iconic I
love that yeah I don't know there's a lot to
yeah and I think that's been a maybe people can
relate to this it can be a struggle too when
you you create a like I created my business name
in 2018 and then I created invisible to iconic
in 2025 and even in between there I had little
side adventures and it's like okay what what
is my naming and wording now, obviously these
things can be changed. I'm trying not to be in
a place of overthinking it because I think that's
what prevents us from making any sort of momentum
forward. I think iconic is beautiful. I do too.
I love that word. I look forward to following
your new channel. What would be one, just one,
because you gave us a lot of good tidbits, piece
of advice that we could do to take action today?
Grab a friend, get on a Zoom chat. This is video
specific. Grab a friend, get on a Zoom chat and
just talk business, talk your opinions casually.
Forget that the record button has even been pressed.
And after that. Just take a breath. And then
you can run that through an AI tool of some sort
to grab some clips from. And then, voila, you've
got clips. It's the easiest thing you can do
at the beginning because you're going to be more
relaxed with a friend or a former colleague,
whoever, someone that you're comfortable with.
Well, I'm going to do that with you. Welcome,
my friend, Sarah. I feel very comfortable with
you and a great conversation. I'm going to take
you up on that challenge and then see if I can
do it 99 more times. Yes, exactly. Well, thank
you so much for joining me today. Thank you.
And thank you all for tuning in to another episode
of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership.
Until next time.