Make Marketing Suck Less

I've noticed a disturbing trend that too many business owners and speakers are abdicating their leadership role in their industry in favor for the four hour work week, or in pursuit of their next seven, eight, nine figure launch.

If you're a business owner, you are a leader. If you're a speaker, you are a leader.

On today’s podcast episode, I’m chatting with Lena West about just that. Lena knows what it means to lead and to be a powerhouse in your field. She shows women entrepreneurs how to discover their inner CEO and leverage that knowledge to build a business that loves them back. I kind of love that.

A unique blend of coach, techie, marketing whiz, cheerleader and intuitive guide, she helps women entrepreneurs get real about business growth and what it truly means to show up for yourself and your business.

On today’s episode we cover:

• • Why you need to protect your confidence
  • How to step into leadership as a business owner or speaker
  • Lena’s CEO DNA method
  • Why we need to stop trying to fit into the mould of leadership
  • Lena's mission to reclaim the power of words like 6-Figure, CEO, Thought Leader, and Expert from the Internet bro culture

Michelle:  Welcome to the podcast, Lena

Lena: Michelle! Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I'm so excited. I'm so … I'm buzzing over here.

Michelle: Yeah. You were one of the first people I wanted to talk to as I started thinking about his topic of leadership and power and how I see so many business owners and speakers really not showing up for their industry and for their people in a way that shows leadership. Before we go there, tell me a little bit about you, your business, what brought you to be doing the work that you do today.

Lena: As you mentioned, I really do a lot of work with women entrepreneurs. That is my life's work. It is something that gets me out of the bed every single morning. I'm passionate about it. I've been passionate about it. I've been self-employed, gainfully self-employed since 2004, full-time. No investors, no rich relatives, no rich husbands, no nothing. Just doing it on my own and building as I go.

I coach with women entrepreneurs. I consult with women-owned companies and women-led organizations, and a lot of what I do is around taking back leadership, putting them back in the CEO driver's seat. A lot of times I'll refer to myself as a high performance business growth coach, but that's code for I help you to get out of your own way so that you can take action and not build a business based on her or him, but based on you.

Michelle:Ah. I love that. I really do want to focus in on that leadership piece. Why do you feel that business owners and speakers struggle to step into leadership?

Why do business owners and speakers struggle to step into leadership?

Lena: You know, I think it's because we've been handed down this actual graphic and image picture of what leadership looks like. Also kind of this bill of goods of what leadership is. We've all been told that leadership and even being a CEO looks like male, white, corporate, right?

Whether we want to admit or not, we've kind of bought into that. We secretly are always trying to retrofit or reverse engineer ourselves into this model that doesn't look like us, doesn't represent us, and is completely outside of where we're going, but we keep striving for …

We all see these articles on the internet that talk about, “The most successful people wake up at 5:00 a.m.” We're all trying to squeeze ourselves into that box.

I'm here saying leadership looks however you look.

Let's talk about you. Let's find out who you are in a deep, deep, deep way. That's my CEO DNA method. Then let's build a leadership model that works for you instead of trying to box you in, instead of having it work against you.

I think that's why so many people struggle, because they're trying to fit themselves into this box that … What if my picture doesn't fit your frame?

Michelle: I love that. My picture doesn't fit your frame. You're right, because there's all of those medium articles like, “Oh yeah, get up at 5:00 a.m. and do this routine and you will have your most productive day ever.” I know for me personally, getting up at 5:00 a.m. to have a morning routine sounds like the worst thing in the world.

Lena: Let me tell you something. If somebody is doing something at 5:00 a.m., this place better be on fire, because I am not getting up at 5:00 a.m. to do any of that.

It's not going to happen, but that's what we think we have to do. You and I can talk about this, but the listeners need to understand that right now we're using 5:00 a.m. as a euphemism for any type of goal or any type of standard of being that we try to fit into that is just not us.

Michelle: Yeah. I noticed for me I was once working with a client and she was talking about leadership. I said, “I don't think a lot of women entrepreneurs identify as leaders. They don't think of themselves that way.” I realized for myself that I wasn't thinking of myself as a leader. It was just that, “Oh no, no, no. Not me. It couldn't be me.”

Lena: It kind of breaks my heart a little bit to see that, because we are leaders. I look at you and I'm like, “Michelle is making it happen with this 3 Word Rebellion.”

Everyone is talking about that and they're loving the webinars that you're putting on about it. That's leadership. That's energy in motion. It's when we think we have to look like, “Oh, I've got to look like what Michelle does. I've got to do webinars and I've got to have my version of 3 Word Rebellion.”

It's when we think we have to have those things, you're not Michelle. Stop trying to be Michelle. How about being you? You're not Lena. Stop trying to be Lena. How about being you? You're fabulous.

The one question to ask yourself about leadership

I think when we put ourselves, again, into these molds and we do the compare and despair, and we're looking at other people and we're trying to measure up, we never take the time to say, “What does leadership look like for me? What does that look like for me?”

That may look like teaching. That may look like writing. That may look like speaking. That may look like consulting. It might look like channeling. Who knows what your leadership looks like? Nobody will know if you don't look into yourself and say, “How do I want to be in this role? What does leadership mean to me?”

Michelle: Those are very interesting questions that honestly, people listening should journal about those questions. What does leadership mean? As you were talking, it sounds like you're really tapping into this idea of self-leadership first.

What does leadership mean?

Lena: Yes. I was just speaking with a client before you and I got on this interview. I was talking about one of her programs, and I was like, yeah, this other program here is really all about self mastery. You can't be leading anybody else to do anything about anything if you don't know who you are.

People are always like, “Lena, you're so powerful, you're so this, you're so grounded.” It's because I know who I am. That doesn't mean like, “Oh, I know all the positive things.” Oh no, honey, I know all the stuff about me and my little habits and my little ways and how I can be. I know all of those things too.

It's not just about oh, embrace the positive and completely bypass the shadow. It's look at your entirety. Look at who you are and self manage before you start trying to lead anyone else to do anything.

Michelle: love that idea of looking at the shadow side of yourself, looking at the dark side of yourself and being okay with it. Hey, it exists. If I look at it I can actually do something with it or about it or work with it, instead of being like, “Oh no, no, no. Not there. Not there. I can't go there.”

Lena: Instead of it blindsiding you, if you don't manage your shadow, every single chance it gets, it will hit you. You'll get hit. You'll get dinged. Like I know, I'm a New Yorker born and raised. I've got a little bit of attitude. Okay. What are you going to do about that? Instead of having my attitude blindside me, I will start, I have started to see it before it even really kind of comes up with other people, mostly.

I'm not perfect. I'll catch myself. You know, your shadow doesn't have to run your life as long as you're informed by it and you think, “Okay, I could do this thing because this is my shadow wanting to take over and take control of this scenario because this triggers me,” or whatever, or I could choose to do something else.

If you don't look at your shadow and you don't know it and you don't know how it manifests in your life, you won't even see it coming until you've said something or done something and then it's too late and now you're in apology land.

Michelle: Oh my gosh. Yes. Mine was always like sarcasm and irony. It seems like, especially when I was a teacher, I would hear that all the time. “Well Michelle is just so sarcastic.” I'm like, “What? Me?” I didn't really see it in myself. That was just my sense of humor. I was like, “Oh yeah. Now I can see that,” and I can actually address it so that people understand that

I'm very plain spoken. I can be a little sarcastic. Usually I'm doing it in the service of humor. I don't actually mean everything I say. It helped me really kind of work with what was a perceived weakness, or the darker side of my personality. I love that. I know you are embarking on this new project, this new endeavor that I would love to talk about, because I think it really gets to the heart of leadership and power.

When you hear words like the four hour work week or your six figure launch, your seven figure launch, what's your funnel, Lena?

Lena: What's your funnel?

Michelle: What does that make you think about?

Reclaiming the Power of Words

Lena: You know, I think it's … Well, okay. Let's talk about … people need to probably understand that last week I wrote this Facebook post that was basically like, “Listen. I'm over all of the nonsense. I'm over the misuse of terms that we really need to reclaim and take back and re-imbue with some high vibration energy, because these terms, six figure, seven figure, CEO, leader, expert, all of these terms have been kind of trampled on and misused.

When I hear those terms I really hear phrases and words that are in need of saving, in need of reclaiming, in need of resuscitation. I wish they weren't laden with this energy of abuse and gas lighting and taking advantage of people and manipulating people.

I hear those terms and I hear them for where they are, but when I hear them I think, “Gosh, we've really got to liberate those terms. We've got to liberate them from …”

One of the things that I said in my post is they don't get to do it. This internet bro culture, and I don't mean just men, for any men listening.

I'm talking about the bro culture in the online business world. They don't get to take these terms from us, trample them in the mud, sully them and then move on to the next hustle.

They don't get to do that to the people who really want to use these terms to describe. Listen, I've made six figures. I've made seven figures. You can learn from me. I'm an honest person.

What happens is we hear six figures, we hear seven figures, and then what we do is we shut down and not only do we shut down so we're not even receptive to something that could potentially help us, but we then go and lump that person who just used that phrase or those phrases in with every other person who has abused and misused those phrases. That's wrong.

Michelle: Amen, first and foremost. I'm totally on board because I've seen how those words have been used in such a language of manipulation, getting people to buy a $3,000, $4,000 self study course where I'm just like, “$3,000 for a course? Are you kidding me?”

It's all in this promise of, “Oh, you will impact millions of people and make seven figures.” Honestly those terms on their own, there's nothing wrong with saying, “I'm the CEO of my business. I am a thought leader. I am an expert,” especially when you know that you are owning those words in the most authentic and genuine sense of it, but the bro culture has totally taken them over to a point where you feel like you can't use them.

Those are deadly words you cannot say if you actually want to attract the clients you most want to work with.

Lena: It's outrageous. We're on Word Hippo. We're asking our friends to review copy. We're looking for other words and it's ridiculous.

I should be able to say, in complete and utter honesty and the sincere desire to support other people to get there, if that's their goal .

We can go down this whole other leadership thing of everything's got to be a million dollars, and no it doesn't have to be a million dollars. You don't have to have that goal. I should be able to say, “Listen, I'm a seven figure business owner. I can show you how to do this and it's not nearly as hard as you think.”

I should be able to say that and be cool with it and be in integrity with it and attract people who have not lumped me in with all those other suckers who have used these terms and abused these terms, but say, “Wow, here's someone who really wants to show me how.” That's what I'm in the process of doing, taking these terms back so that we can start to feel comfortable. Let's make them uncomfortable. We've been uncomfortable for years, for the past 10 years we've been uncomfortable.

Let's make them uncomfortable now. Let's make them go to Word Hippo and figure out what to say.

Michelle: Oh my gosh. I love that. There's just such a … it's integrity and it's the ethics and it's saying, “It's okay to want those things.” It's okay to want to be a six-figure entrepreneur or a seven-figure entrepreneur, and it's also okay not to do that, because I think that goes back to the self leadership and understanding how you lead and what it is you want.

Lena: Yes. You know, just like right that same train, right along that same track is also representation matters. I need to see that, “Oh, Dr. Michelle Mazur. Okay.” I know that you're not big with doctor. You have it in your bio and that sort of thing as you would think you would. Great. That's not like, “Everyone must call me Dr. Michelle.” I always use it when I introduce people to your work because I want people to know she probably doesn't look like anybody that you think is a doctor, and yeah, she's a doctor. Accept it. Deal with it, because I think people need to see themselves in other people so that they can say, “Oh, wow.”

Instead of like, “Oh, she's this, she's that,” how about, “Wow. That's possible for me.” People need to see, I think, in leadership we need to start calling ourselves and comporting ourselves as leaders because people need to be able to see themselves in us. At some point we're not going to be here on this planet anymore. We need to be starting to pave the way for other people to be able to see themselves in us, and then ultimately be able to see themselves ultimately as leaders.

Michelle: Really you are talking about embodying the role of leaders to empower others to lead.

Lena: Yeah. If I can't call myself a leader and I can't get myself, I can't unpack my baggage, I can't do the work to get to call myself a leader or an expert or CEO or a thought leader or any of those types of terms, if I can't do the work to get myself there, what makes me think my daughter is going to be able to do it? What makes me think my niece is going to be able to do it?

This is not just about online business and internet bros. This is like some real talk right now. This is business. This is commerce. We need to get ourselves into alignment because this is not about us anymore. This is about what are we leaving and who are we bringing in. If we can't show up for ourselves and do the work, what can we ask anyone else who's coming up behind us to do?

Lena: I always tell my clients, “I don't ask you to do anything I haven't done, or anything I'm not doing myself.” It's why I love Tanya Geisler's work because she prepares you for that. She prepares you for that, to deal with that imposter complex. No, you don't get to dictate this. I say what I do. I say how I show up. If I want to claim CEO and if I want to say I'm a leader, well then dammit, that's what I am.

Michelle: Especially with Tanya's work, but what I'm hearing from you, it's about claiming and naming it. I am a thought leader. I am a speaker. I do think that is a part of how we own our own power.

It's that we claim it for ourselves and we take back those words. My final question for you, I can't believe how quickly this interview went, but how do you either personally or when you work with your clients, how do you have them step into their power?

How Do Business Owners Step Into their Power

Lena: One of the first things that I tell all my clients, and I mention it in my presentations and also in interviews like this, I'm always talking about protecting your confidence. If you think about it, as an entrepreneur, every single thing you do comes from confidence. When you're putting a sales letter together, you've got to be confident in what you're selling.

When you're having a sales conversation with a potential client, you've got to be confident in how you're coming across. When you're on stage, you've got to be confident in your delivery and in your material. When you're pricing you've got to be confident that you're delivering the value that you are assigning to your offering.

Every single thing that we do, from the time we turn our computers off to the time our computers off … from the time we turn our computers on to the time we turn our computers off is based in confidence.

 I just do a masterful job of protecting my confidence. That can look like so many things. The first piece is who is around you, making sure that the people around you … I don't do frenemy stuff. I don't do frenemy energy. I don't believe in frenemy nonsense.

I'm like the Taraji P. Henson. I am cheering for women. I am there. I am genuinely wanting everyone to win. If I can support someone and they ask me and I can do it and I've got the time, energy and the bandwidth, I'm the person. I will go and I will do it. That's who I am and that's who I allow in my orbit. If you're not that person, I have no time, space, energy or availability for you at all. It starts with the people that you surround yourself with.

Then it also starts with protecting your confidence. Before I got really good at the confidence game, if you will, I used to read my testimonials every day. I have a book that … no one can see us now, but it's probably about three, two inches high. It's jam packed with testimonials going back from 2000, the year 2000, where people have written to me and said positive things.

When I feel low, I go and I open that book and I read stuff and I think to myself, “Not everybody's crazy, girl. You've got it.“

Michelle: Oh my gosh. I love both of the things you mentioned. I know when I first started my business, I struggled with the whole frenemies, comparison thing. I would stalk competitors to see what they were up to and what they were doing. It just always made me doubt my own capacity. I have a PhD. I understand communication and how people process messages. There's one thing I know in this world, is messaging and how people receive messages.

I'd look on other people's sale pages and I'd be like, “Oh my gosh. I can never get up there. I can never be like this person.” I'm like, “Michelle Ann Mazur, what are you doing?”  

Finally, I sat down and I just put a Google doc together of all of my testimonials and the results that I got my clients. That was by far the most powerful thing I've ever done in my business for when I'm just feeling a little unsure of myself and having to show up and be visible.

Lena: Absolutely. I will tell people, “Listen, if you want me to do a properly analyzed balance sheet, I'm not your person. Do you know what I'm the best in the world at? I'm the best in the world at showing people their energetic blueprint, showing them how to build a business that loves them back.”

I can make them money. That's not the problem. People think, “Oh the challenge is I want to make money with my business.” Believe it or not, the money is secondary. I need you to tell me what you want to do. If you can tell me what you want to do, I can show you how to make money doing it in many, many, many different ways.

The money is the last part of the equation. I wanted to mention something. You mentioned you were stalking your competition. I don't even believe in competition, because of the only time … Think about it. The only time I can compete with Michelle is if I'm trying to be Michelle, right?

Michelle: Yes.

Lena: The only time competition exists is when somebody is being inauthentic.

Michelle: Amen. Yes. Oh yes, Lena. Completely agree. I think that was a lesson that I had to learn in my business, because I'm like, “I'm the best in the world at helping people craft their three word rebellions.” I know that about myself. Being able to own that in some way, it eliminates the competition. It also just makes me see those people as colleagues, people that I want to have on the show and interview because I want to support them. That's really where leadership starts.

Lena: There you go. There it is. There it is.

Michelle: Lena, how can people connect with you online?

Lena: Well, I am doing … I always say to Michelle, “It's not three words yet. It's not three words.” It's not three words, but it's a rebellion. I am leading my own rebellion to take these terms back, the six figure, seven figure, CEO, leader, thought leader, all those terms that have been abused and maligned, I am kind of leading this informal rebellion and so far over 100 people have said, “I have your back. What do you need? Avail yourself of my resources.” People are having me on their podcasts, all that good stuff. If people want to find out …

By the way, just for the record, there's no funnel at the end of anything that I'm doing. My business is good, do you know what I mean? I've got multiple revenue streams, I've got multiple businesses. My business is good, so I'm not trying to trick anybody into selling anything. This really is more of the culture of the online business world, because I'm having to do so much work to unpack.

If people want to follow us on the journey or join us, we've got people who are unpacking what these words really mean so that we can bring that to light. If anybody wants to follow us on the journey, they can sign up at lenawest.com.

There's no website. I haven't had a website in seven years, but there is a sign-up form for you to put your email address in and like I said, there's no funnel. There's no offer. There's no pitch. There's join us and take these terms back and send these internet bros over to Word Hippo and let them start figuring out some other terms that they can co-opt!

Michelle: Yes. I do recommend that everyone who is listening who wants to reclaim those words join Lena. I have already signed up myself because I believe words have power, and we have given that power to those internet bros. It's time to take it back. Thank you so much, Lena, for being on the show. This was an amazing conversation.

Lena: Thank you so much for having me, Michelle. This is great. Thank you.