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Tara McMullin: I started my very first blog back on Xanga in 2003, and I might be your internet grandma. I used my Xanga blog to share what I was thinking about my senior year of college and process a lot of the reading that I was doing about my field of study, contemporary and postmodern Christian theology. And it was also full of personal updates and the musings of a 21-year-old young woman. Through my Xanga blog, I got to connect with people online. Some were old friends from high school, others were strangers from the internet.
And I had the most incredible debate teacher, Mrs. David. She was this tiny little four-foot Indian woman. And she’s to wear her red sari. But she was just like, “Suzanne, you have to make your point. You have to speak clearly. You have to convince the audience that what you’re saying is like what they have to believe.” So I really learned quite young to really hone in on a message that landed, which when I think back like now that I think back to it, I’m just like, that was such a great training ground for what I do now as a branding consultant and coach. So that was kind of the early days.
Tara McMullin: Yeah. Well, and I think that curiosity and passion is so infectious too, and it’s so like connective. When someone shows up with the level of curiosity and exploration and passion and excitement that you just naturally bring into a room, it’s like we all want to lean in and hear more, right? And then that just I assume, because this is my experience anyway, that that feeds you. Right? And so it’s like this positive feedback loop.
Tara McMullin: Yes. As a hardcore introvert, that is my experience as well. Yes, you have completely described my experience in a bunch of different ways. But yes, so that feedback loop, yes to seeing people’s eyes light up. It feeds you and it keeps you going and it shows you what’s important about how you’re using your voice, the words that you’re using, the concepts that you’re putting out there. And it does make you so much more confident the next time you go to step up and speak up as well.
So I’m just really conscious that when I connect with people online, I see them like that. I’m not really looking at me. I’m looking at them. And so that helps me to show up authentically. I think that if I’m constantly looking at myself, and how I look and what I’m doing and all the rest of it, then it may come across as inauthentic. But because I’m like that little kid that’s running into the circle going, Oo my gosh, guys, guess what? I’m totally like that online as well. And so I think something that I really value is that whenever I speak at conferences, or I meet people, they’re like, oh my gosh, you’re exactly the same in person as you are in real life. And I’m like, yeah, why wouldn’t I be.
And so for me, I think that I love seeing that
Suz Chadwick: Oh my gosh, it feels like such a long time ago now. I mean, I don’t even know, like stores has been out for what? Is it http://hothookup.org/college-hookup-apps a year or two? This is this might sound odd to some people. I don’t look back on a story before I post it. And so what I mean by that is the only reason I’ll go back on a story is just to write out the captions. But filters will be your best friend. So if you ever feel like . So whether it’s a cat or it’s like a beachy filter or whatever it is, that is definitely something that I use all the time because I’m not always wearing makeup and I don’t always look amazing but it’s not going to stop me from showing up. And you can totally just show up like exactly how you are as well without a filter. Let me just say that.
But just putting it out, there would be a great project for me. And so I really, really appreciate you sharing it. I want to shift gears a little bit. You are a very natural brand builder. You are a very natural speaker. And we’ve already identified that you also have a lot of confidence. But that doesn’t mean you don’t make mistakes. We all make mistakes. So I would love to hear about a mistake that you’ve made kind of “speaking up” for your brand, for your business and how you’ve done things differently since.
So that was something that I really felt I needed to speak up about, and really make sure that my brand was identified as being a brand that stood up for things as well. It’s not just about business. We have to really decide now, well, not even now, but we have to make sure that our values are reflected in everything that we do not just compartmentalized to what feels comfortable at the time.
And I do think that because I do sharp as a confident person, and I am a confident person, people do look to me to help them form messages that they believe and that they want to represent but sometimes they don’t know how to talk about. And so I’m totally okay with that. I’m okay in the discomfort of things. I also know that sometimes it just takes a little bit of time. I don’t think that you can ever land on something immediately. I do think that that message and that understanding and that education evolves over time, as well. So does that answer your question?
And it’s definitely making me think more about what else could I do? Where am I drawing the line in the sand? What other impacts could I have? Can I think more about what that looks like? And so I do sort of think it’s something worth looking at. I always say to my clients that make sure that you’re reviewing your business strategy and your brand strategy and your marketing strategy and all that every year like the market evolves, and we’ve got to move with it. And I really feel like that social conscience needs to be one of those things that we’re reviewing with our business.
What Works is produced by Yellow House Media. Our production coordinator is Shawn McMillan. This episode was edited by Marty Seefeld. Our production assistants are Christian [Rumbek ] and Lou Glazer. What Works is recorded in what is now known as Lititz, Pennsylvania, which is on the homeland of the Susquehannock people. The Yellow House is located in northwestern Montana on the homeland of the [Navajo ] Nation.