How to Use Your Voice to Share Your Expertise and Build Your Legacy -

Shannon Baker

So I want to thank everyone for tuning in this week. I’m excited to have this chat with today’s guests, which is Miss Jasmine Haley. So I’m just gonna let Jasmine introduce herself because we’re going to talk about speaking to no build not only awareness of our brand and share our expertise, but building a legacy with speaking. Actually we met on Clubhouse and the vibe has just been great ever since there. From Clubhouse to Instagram, the coffee chats to today, having Miss Jasmine on the podcast. So Jasmine, tell us a little bit about your background and how your business has transformed from where you started to where you are today, because you’ve had a pivot in the way you brand or market your business.

Jasmine Haley

Oh, yeah! First of all, thank you so much, Shannon, for having me on the show. I’m so thankful to you. And yes, it’s true. As soon as we met on Clubhouse, the vibe was there, otherwise, I would have totally disappeared. I have met some interesting folks needless to say.

So I started my entrepreneurship journey in 2016, started publicly speaking in 2015 . I decided to go the route of entrepreneurship after becoming extremely burnt out in teaching. I was teaching full time at a community college and I was teaching in the dental hygiene program. So I am a licensed dental hygienist. I have been in the dental profession since the age around 16 or so. I went to a specialized High School for that. But what I had come to realize at that point, when I decided to go into entrepreneurship was there weren’t any other teaching programs that were near where I lived. My family and I were not in a position to move. But I also knew that my health was dependent upon me leaving the toxic work environment that I was in. And when my mother died unexpectedly and when I really started taking a look into legacy and what that meant for me and how I was living my life, I knew that I needed to jump out on faith, take what were my God given talents, and use that to create a business. And so that’s what I did in the healthcare field.

I created my business that was focused solely on me speaking and hosting events. And then I would do some consulting on the side for dental professionals that were interested in doing what I was doing. And then in 2019, after my last event that I hosted for my business, I knew that I needed to branch out and grow my business outside of the dental field. And that was when in 2020, I decided to rebrand as a breakthrough to excellence network. Now mind you, my rebrand was April, 1 2020. Okay. And everything was shut down by then I had to cancel all the events that I had planned. And I had to figure out how to have a business that was completely online. That was not something I’d ever done before. I had partially had it but it wasn’t fully. So it’s been a wild, crazy, amazing journey from teaching students to having my own business in the healthcare field, pivoting to what I do now. And what I do now is that I help experts, expert brands, expert professionals, expert entrepreneurs, take their expertise to the stage, build a sustainable source of income through speaking.

Shannon Baker

Awesome! And it’s funny that you said April 1, because I launched this podcast on April 1 and was like this is going to flop because my listeners are not driving to work because every body is home right now. Yep. But we stayed the course. Still here, so we’re good. So kudos to both of us and anyone else that is listening that has had to pivot. And you know, keep building the business and keep pushing forward through, you know, this past year and a half, almost two years now. And really, to me, that’s what building a legacy is all about. So you mentioned legacy as you started to really kind of make that pivot in your business. So when you say legacy, what does it mean to you?

Jasmine Haley

I feel that every entrepreneur should be legacy driven. And I’ll explain to you why. Um, you know, a lot of us are thinking about, you know, what we leave behind for people and we never really are fully cognizant of what we’re doing in our everyday, today. We have so much stuff on our plates. I’m a wife, I’m a mother. I’m also a business owner. I also have, you know, other activities that my family and I participate in spiritually. There’s so many things that take up my time, and to be legacy driven will help us to stay focused. So I have four main reasons why we should be legacy driven.

The first one is, we have to decide what’s truly important to us right now and then living it. One of the things that I learned after my mother unexpectedly passed away, was that she never had the opportunity to fulfill any of her dreams or goals, she attempted, but she never did, there was things that I found out after she passed away that she was ashamed of in regards to her ability not to achieve those goals. And it was seeing that and seeing how her hopes and dreams were no longer there, that I needed to be in a place where I was living my life and gratitude for the sacrifices that she made.

Number two, being legacy driven is when you start thinking about long term success, and not currently what is happening in your life. At that current moment, if I was to take a look at my life, and look at my circumstances growing up in the projects, no one in my family, any of my siblings had attempted to go to college and succeed at it, I was the fifth child out of six. Like if I looked at all of those things that were barriers, right to me achieving my goals, I would have never been able to consider actually going for them. So when you’re legacy driven, you’re thinking about the long term success, and you’re never basing your decisions on your current circumstances, because those things can change at a split of a second.

The third thing is that we need to focus on our next phase of life and not so much the end of our life because we want to be able to contribute to having an overall fulfilling life. Now, a lot of us are thinking about, like, Oh, I need to make X amount of money so I can save it for x, y, and z. But they never take the time to take a vacation right now. Right? They never take the time to connect. And then finally, when we are legacy driven, we have a fulfilled life along with having a business. There are so many entrepreneurs right now that are burnt out. There’s so many entrepreneurs that have a beautiful curated feed, but ultimately, internally inside, they’re unfulfilled. And so, you know, I know what that feels like by being burnt out. And I think that when we have more entrepreneurs that focus on being legacy driven, we’ll have more entrepreneurs who are more courageous and brave with achieving their goals now, because they understand how life is finite.

Shannon Baker

And I think what has really helped us click is that our thinking is very closely aligned, because you do call it legacy. And I call it intentional living.

Jasmine Haley

I love that. But it’s true.

Shannon Baker

It’s true. We need to build our business to support us and not to suck the life out of us. Which, you know, if you’ve got that hustle mentality, and you’re just looking at the money piece, and all of us didn’t start our business about money. Success to me isn’t about how much money’s in the bank. My business is successful when there’s money in the bank. But more importantly, I can spend time caring for myself, I can spend time caring for my family, I can take that vacation and not worry about my business, you know, going out of business while I’m away for a few days. That’s that legacy/ intentional business that we’re, we should be pursuing. So I’m definitely loving this conversation so far. So knowing that that’s what we want to build, how does speaking help us to start to build this legacy with our business?

Jasmine Haley

I personally feel and I’ve seen in my own business, that speaking is the most powerful tool that we can use to amplify our brand and our expertise. It’s the most powerful one is the reason why Clubhouse blew up,it’s the reason why people get so excited when you leave them a voice memo instead of writing it out to them, right. It’s the power of connection, and you can’t get that in written form. It just you’ll never be able to get that. So when it comes to speaking, you can make an impact and then transformation and amplify what it is that you’re most passionate about, and what’s most important to you. So I think the biggest thing though, that we’ll have to worry when we say okay, well speaking is is amazing, is that intimidates most of us, and it prevents us from really going out there and sharing our message. The number one reason is fear. And we have to understand that when we are speaking, yes. Are we taking some risks by being open? Do we have to embrace vulnerability? Absolutely through this process. But it’s like a muscle. Once you start exercising it more, it will strengthen. And it is something that I have loved to do do since 2015, really 2012 with me teaching full time, but 2015 professionally. And it’s what I’m helping other people do as well, I hope that you don’t turn your back on it. And give it a try, okay.

Shannon Baker

And it is amazing! It’s like, once you start speaking, it’s like you get addicted to it, because it’s so I know, for me, I had some of those fears. But once I did it the first time, and then you get the feedback of how it’s helping people. And then it’s, it’s almost like it’s a drug, like you want more and you want more. And it just, it that craving just grows to where you shift your focus to pursuing more of those opportunities. So some people have that fear of speaking because they think I can’t get up and speak in front of 1,000 people or you know, a room with 50 people and all eyes don’t want me, etc. But one thing I appreciate you mentioned in one of your IGTVs is speaking isn’t just an opportunity that you can get on the stage. So what other platforms fall under the category of where we can speak to share our expertise?

Jasmine Haley

Oh, there’s so many, there’s so many. So you could be as you had stated in person on stage, you could be at a virtual conference or virtual summit, you could be in a Clubhouse room. I know many of you get wrapped up on how many people in the room. Who cares, exercise that muscle, okay. You could be in an IGTV Live, LinkedIn Live, Facebook, live, Instagram Live, these are all forms of public speaking.

So the point is, is that when you first go out there, and you start speaking, no one’s really gonna put you in front of 10,000 or 1,000 people. Like they’re not gonna do that! Most organizations want to make sure that they are hiring somebody that could handle that first. So you should be looking for smaller stages to exercise that muscle. And know that as you start building that those bigger stages will come. But don’t think that as soon as you go out and say, Okay, I’m ready to, you know, share my message, that it’s going to be 1,000 eyes on you right away. It could be on social media, right. But there’s a lot of things that we built up in our minds that keep us away. And I’ve got some myths that I’ll share shortly. But there are some major myths that we tell ourselves that prevent us from sharing our message. And the longer we wait. Right? The longer the longer we’re putting ourselves between actually seeing our goals fulfilled.

Shannon Baker

Yes. So let’s talk about what you call mind trash, those fears that pop up for all of us that hold us back from pursuing speaking opportunities, or the opportunity to really share our expertise. I would say the number one is that you have to have a perfect look. You have to have a perfect accent, you have to have perfect clothes, all of those things. I felt that when I was breaking out into speaking at that time, there were no other African American dental hygienists on the speaking circuit. So I felt like what I must have my hair straight, I have to be a certain kind of look. Most of the women that were speaking at that time where 40s and 50s, white women, I look nothing like ’em, Okay. My journey was completely different from them. But what I needed to understand and what I want the listeners to understand is that people care more about how you make them feel. They care more about your delivery. Dr. Mya Angelo mentioned that people remember more about how you treat them more than anything, right. And so it’s the same concept.

Jasmine Haley

If you’re able to reach the hearts of your audience, it wouldn’t matter what you look like. And so, this I would say the second myth is that you need to be an author of a book, have a New York Times bestseller, you know, have all of these major accolades in order to become a speaker and that’s not it. You do need to get best visible and share your brand with others but you don’t have to have some massive award for you to be able to say, okay, now’s the right time for you to speak. I think the third thing that I would mention is that people feel like they need to have Some sort of sad traumatic story, or impressive story within their own life to get up and share. And what people have to remember is that you just need to be your authentic self. And you have to connect with people’s hearts. And that’s the part that’s missing.

A lot of people think that, Oh, well, because I’m an expert, I can just get up, get up there and talk. And it’s beyond that there’s educational methodology that’s involved, you need to be able to capture people’s mind and heart in a shorter timeframe. So that’s why it’s so important as the term that you mentioned, you have to be intentional, right? You have to be legacy driven. Because you’re going to think beyond just Okay, I’m gonna get $5,000 for the speaking gig. Let me share my stuff, come buy more, you know, like, it’s beyond that you’re talking to humans. And you have to be able to connect with people from all walks of life. And that is possible.

Shannon Baker

Oh, definitely. And, I mean, think about it. And one way that both of us have carved the lane to share our expertise is through podcasts. People forget, a podcast is a platform where people can, can hear you. I mean, how many of us listen to someone’s podcast, and then when we actually get to talk to that person. We talk to them as if we know them because we’ve gotten to know them through their podcast. That’s the power of our voice! Which is why Clubhouse has had such a huge impact on people making connection because you get to hear the personality that you don’t get, you know, just reading someone’s words on a blog or reading their book. There’s no emotion behind the words. But when you hear them, or you see the person with their gestures, and all the things that come with them, that is what leaves the mark, like you said, to make the that connection.

So it just shows that speaking is the missing piece that we all really need to embrace, and we can use social media to practice. Yeah, it’s like let go of all the perfection rules. Yes! it doesn’t. It doesn’t work, it doesn’t help.

Jasmine Haley

I’m so glad that you mentioned that. I forgot to mention that. And podcasting is such a big, big arena when it comes to publicly speaking. And as entrepreneurs, we shouldn’t shy away from sharing our story to as many people that are willing to listen. So I love the fact that you did share that because that is a big one as well.

Shannon Baker

Surely, and it’s made a change. I think I mean, how much do we do we listen to now opposed to say podcasts weren’t as popular three, four years ago. Now, they’re like the next biggest thing. And they’re going to remain that way because now even as podcasters we’re shifting to the space of people are now starting private podcasts in addition to their regular public podcast.

So speaking is definitely a part of all industries, because that’s a big umbrella, everybody can get into speaking. That we all really need to embrace so that we can continue one to stay relevant. Because if you’re not relevant, you can’t build that legacy. Right? And to really carve that lane and share our expertise, because that’s the way to reach people that normally we probably would not, you know, get their attention, or get in their earbuds, so to speak for them to hear us.

Jasmine Haley

And the podcast episodes that are recorded, they last forever, like as long as they have them up, like someone can come back and listen to you. So I will put the same amount of effort that you put into your lives with speaking on stage as the same exact type of effort when you’re showing up on a podcast. I’ve been podcasting since 2016. The one that I have right now is my third. And even the podcast that I have retired is still getting hundreds of downloads every single month. And even though it’s retired, I know that the power of the interview and the and the changes that you know, the stories that we were telling not so much changes, but the stories we were telling, it’s what’s shaping the lives of people still today.

And so when we look at speaking, there’s three things that come up when we when we want to grow within our own speaking its visibility. podcasting can do that, social media can do that. Speaking on stages can do that. It’s impact. You’ll get that from my heart centered entrepreneurs and of course it’s your income. So what you’ll be surprised with though is that once people start getting on stages, in person or virtual, they have no idea how to build sustainable source of revenue from that. And that’s what leads people disgruntled. I don’t need to do that podcast and I don’t need to do that. I don’t need to do this IG live. I don’t need to but if you understand the power of your voice. If you structure your business found foundation to support the speaking that you’re doing, you will see the build up as far as far as your revenue and your business.

Shannon Baker

And the key is you have to be patient with the process because you’re not gonna have one speaking engagement, and then all the money is just gonna come flying in out of no where. Everything is a process and it takes time, but you have to be consistent. Yeah, speaking of consistency, I know you’re a systems person just like me. So, share with us what is one system either in your life or in your business that you cannot live without?

Jasmine Haley

Whoo, oh, this is a hard question. Shannon, you got me with this one.

Shannon Baker

It gets everybody, don’t worry.

Jasmine Haley

Oh, boy. I’m gonna say for now, at the time of this recording, it will be my calendar. And it will be my calendar, I cannot live with that. So whether that would be me sending out you know, appointments for people to to sign into my calendar. certain times for us to chat, like I live in breed that, whether it’ll be written form or digital. And I know I couldn’t go through my day to day without that. I think I can make it without the other tools that I love like with contracts and invoicing and things of that nature. The calendar, I can’t live without.

Me either! If I can, I can wing it with everything else. But if it’s if it’s not on my calendar it is out of mind. Literally is not happening. But that is great! And this has been a great conversation. So you all need to connect with Jasmine online to get more tips because she’s shares fabulous tips about how you can pursue speaking and she has a new course, it’s a one on one coaching program.

Jasmine Haley

Yeah, it’s a full three month consulting program where I’ll take you from the hoota to the toota. And we learn from head to toe everything you need, whether it’s creating your signature program course, negotiating your fees, protecting your intellectual property, positioning your brand as a speaker; we go through everything so that you’re not you’re not thrown out into the wolves.

Shannon Baker

So what you definitely need to do is connect with Jasmin! So where can they find you online?

Jasmine Haley

They can find me on Instagram, Facebook, @jasminhaley, Jasmine without an E or they can go to Jasminehaley.com.

Shannon Baker

And I’m gonna drop the links to where you can find her in the show notes as well so that you can just click it and make sure you connect with her, talk to her. Don’t just follow and not just chat. The whole point, in order for you to be known or be considered as a speaker it all comes down to your connections. Because one thing with networking and growing a business it’s not who you know, but it’s who knows you that opens up the door to the opportunities for you. Speaking is the way to do that. But it starts with your network. So Jasmine, thank you again for sharing these nuggets with us today!

Jasmine Haley

Thank you for having me Shannon! I’m so appreciative. And I appreciate the chat. So thank you.

Shannon Baker

You’re welcome!

To hear my chat with Jasmin listen to episode 82 of the podcast. Click below and tune in on your favorite platform.

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