Carol:
Welcome to the Midlife Career Rebel, the podcast created for high-achieving professional women to gain the clarity, confidence, and courage they need to go after and get the life and career they want. I'm your host, Dr. Carol Parker Walsh, lawyer, social scientist, brand strategist, executive coach, entrepreneur, and midlife career rebel. Each week, you'll learn strategies to manage your mind, navigate the challenges of midlife, and take control of your career so you can thrive doing the work you love. So if you're ready to tear up that rule book and create your own, you're in the right place and I can't wait to show you how.
Carol:
Hey, hey, hey. Welcome, rebels. Welcome back to another episode of the Midlife Career Rebel, and I am so excited about our guest today. She is Beth Nydick, and she's a former TV producer and New Jersey-based publicity and business strategist expert who develops entrepreneurs and media personalities to go from undiscovered to unforgettable, and Beth's 20-plus years of media experience and her own TV Cocktail segments make her the perfect professional to take your business to the next level. Beth is also the co-author of the top-rated cookbook, which is so fun. It's such a beautiful book, actually, to look at and to read. Clean Cocktails: Righteous Recipes for the Modernist Mixologist. I love that.
Carol:
Beth has spent over 20 years working in media, NBC, MTV, VH1, with OPRAH, Warner Brothers, Viacom, and Universal as well as being an online entrepreneur, and she's been featured in OPRAH, Parade, Forbes, Inc., Nylon Magazine, Tory Burch, and Better Homes and Gardens plus has made some appearances on The Dr. Oz Show, The Chew and The Tonight Show. We're talking street cred here, people, and she's here today to talk about her own career journey and to provide us some really great insights on how to take all the lessons of your 20-plus year career and pivot it into digital entrepreneurship.
Carol:
So listen. You, midlife career rebels, who are ready to escape your 9:00 to 5:00 and create your own economy, I want you to pay close attention because Beth, I know, is going to drop some incredible nuggets of wisdom and all kind of information that you're going to want to take notes on and re-listen to this over and over again as you begin to take that journey. So with that, Beth, welcome. Thank you so much.
Beth:
Dr. Carol. Thank you so much for having me. You were so fun to be with. I can't wait to have this little conversation.
Carol:
Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I totally agree, and just like we had the conversation before and I felt we jived so well.
Beth:
Totally.
Carol:
It was so much synergy and I love that. I love the power and fortitude, and particularly, for women in midlife, not sinking off into the shadows, but continually to step into your brilliance and glory. So, yes, definitely sisters in that regard, I believe. So I want to get started talking about how you even got into media. I mean, what was that journey like with that illustrious career that you've had and all those appearances and things of that nature? How did you even get into media?
Beth:
Well, I first got into it actually by being an actress. To go back way back, my parents sent me to an acting summer camp and I spent eight weeks in the woods playing and learning how to do acrobatics and singing and doing... So I've always loved to be in front of the camera, but as I got older and I wanted to actually have a job, acting wasn't for me, but behind the camera was because, I always say this and I'm sure a lot of your women are listening too, you can take a crazy situation and make it really small and manageable. That's what a producer does, and if anybody like me took those... I don't know if you did, you take those job tests in high school?
Carol:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Beth:
Like what you could do. Mine always said PR. Every time I took one, it said PR.
Carol:
Interesting.
Beth:
But I didn't want to sit behind a desk at 20. So I really leaned into what I was good at, which was talking, selling, and creating stories. So I'll tell you a quick story. When I was in college, I happened to be in LA. My sister lives there. I went to the comedy store, and who was on stage is Jaylen. He's trying out some jokes. He's making fun of my girlfriend and I, and he's like, "what are you studying?" I was like, "TV." And he said, "What are you going to do with your life?" I said, "Work for you." The next day, I had an internship interview and I interned with him that summer so-
Carol:
Oh my gosh.
Beth:
But I tell that story because it's really an insight into who I am, and what I'm about is really asking for what you want. No matter who it is or what the situation is, when that opportunity comes to you need to take it. So I had that opportunity. I turned that into... I worked in The Brady Bunch movie a little bit. I worked on Empire Records. I know I'm dating myself early Mid90, and then when I came back to New York, because LA was at that time too slow for me, but I got jobs with Viacom and VH1, and still, it was creating stories, creating ideas, and that's what I really loved.
Beth:
So when I decided to stay home for a few years of my kids and my husband was like, "Okay, now what are you going to do?" I really leaned into the things that I could do naturally. So the women that are listening, what are you actually good at? Go ask your friends. Be like, "Tell me three things I'm good at." They're like, "You make a great roast chicken." Great. Then thinking of being in the food space. "You're really organized." My mom just hired an organizer for her closets. There's so many things that you could be doing that we're so scared of like, when we are in that space in our lives, to make the wrong decision.
Beth:
But if you lead into what you're innately good at, and since it's really hard for us to do that for ourselves, go ask your... I don't want to say ask your best friend. Ask the your friend who is your friend of me or doesn't actually like you because they'll tell you the truth. [inaudible 00:06:05] about that.
Carol:
Right. Right. Right. Your best friend will be like, "You're good at everything."
Beth:
Right. Exactly. "I love your stuff." So I'm always the one that's like, "Tell me how much I suck." Because everyone's going to tell you how great you are. "Oh, you did a great job in that podcast. Blah, blah, blah." I'm like, "Tell me I said um too many times. Tell me I, um..." See? I just did it. Tell me I didn't make sense. Tell me I rambled on whatever it is. But as my story goes, I really realized what my strengths were and how I can see other people's businesses, what the holes are, and how my history and my knowledge can really change the trajectory of somebody's life by helping them change their business.
Beth:
Media happens to be the conduit that I do it with because I think it's the most fun, and I do still like being in front of the camera. So I use all of my in front of the camera social proof that it's for my clients. They see that my systems work and everything I do, but I need that both sides. I need that creative side and I need that strategic side. So when you're thinking about what you want to do, how you could take those fundamentals of your work, whatever you've been doing, and really change them into those things that you've always wanted to do maybe since you were a little girl.
Carol:
I love that. I mean, you've dropped so many great things. I want to unpack some of that because I think it is so important, and I just want to kind of lean in on it. One of the things that I love that you said, and you talked about like the three things you're good at, that even you talked about like finding what, I'm calling the through thread, like what are the things that if you look back over your life that are constantly coming up for you. Right?
Beth:
Oh, yeah.
Carol:
It sounds like that was something that kind of led you or was a guiding North star for you always. It's to always lean into like, what are the things that are key popping up, and it means something and listening to that. Was that kind of how you put that together to help you move forward?
Beth:
Exactly. I was the speaker for my family. Any family thing that happened. I was the head of my youth group. I spoke at 10... I was a speaker, so I can get up and command a room, but what do I want to do once I'm there? Right? What is the things that I want to change? Before the pandemic, I did a lot of speaking, but I really loved that connection, that one-on-one, that impact, because I felt like speaking wasn't it. Yes, I can go speak. But now, I use speaking like being on podcasts and being communities to educate somebody else's audience on my products, and then hopefully, they come and buy them and work with me. But I had to realize that I like it smaller at this stage in my life. Right? 20 years ago, I wanted it to be bigger.
Carol:
Yeah.
Beth:
But that doesn't mean I'm not like working on TV shows for me to be in. That doesn't mean I'm not pitching myself every day to be on Good Morning America and the Today Show and Drew Barrymore. But that is really looking at what those things are that don't make you nervous, that come to you easily and that you can really build something around.
Carol:
I love that. So to kind of break it down, it's like you see the bigger topic of speaker, but then you ask yourself, "What do you like to speak on? What do you want to be known for? Where do you want to speak? How do you want to show up?" I love that because what it does, it takes the blinders off. It takes this kind of narrow vision of, "To be a speaker requires me to be on stage." As opposed to, "No, there's multiple ways that I could do speaking and still honor what's the best part of me, what's the most talented part of me, so that I'm really staying in my zone of genius."
Carol:
So I love that, that really, when you figure out the thing, you want to go through and ask yourself some more questions like, "What is it, and what do you want to do, and how do you show up?" I think that's absolutely brilliant. I think the other thing that you mentioned, too, was asking for what you want, which particularly, I believe women at midlife, a lot of us have been raised not to be seen, not to ask for what we want, not to be bold. I remember my mother even telling me at some point... She was a good Southern Belle. "Don't be too smart in the class or I may not find a guy who likes me because I can't be smarter than him."
Carol:
So we've gotten these either subliminal or societal messages of not saying, asking for what we want like not standing up in Jaylen and saying, "I'm working for you." You know what I mean?
Beth:
Yeah. I had-
Carol:
Which I think is fabulous.
Beth:
Well, I'm from Jersey so that does give me like a [inaudible 00:10:21] -
Carol:
A little advantage?
Beth:
Yeah. You have to look back at where you come from. Honestly, my parents did not give me those parameters. I was not supposed to look like a... Be a cute little girl. I was not supposed to be quiet. I was supposed to be loud. I was supposed to ask for what I want. My parents are entrepreneurs. So I watched them create businesses, and I would like... My dad was one of those guys.... I love... My dad's the... Everybody who meet my dad, it's like the mob. You're in the family. Hugs and kisses. He's just the best. But he also enjoys toys. So my dad had a cell phone when they came out.
Beth:
So I was legit like hop in the car with him all weekend long and just listen to him talk on the phone, and I learned how to create, and how to sell, and how to do all these things. But what I didn't learn was that there were parameters and that you couldn't do things because my dad didn't do that, and my mom always had little businesses. She sold pocketbooks. She did this. She did that, but it was like my mom didn't go to college and that didn't let her stop her even in the '80s and '90s. So I struggle. Honestly, I do. Some people are like, "Well, that's the best."
Beth:
I'm like, "No, I struggle with how do I set those parameters for myself for success." Instead of trying to get out of them, I still need those to kind of maneuver around. But one of the big things for me is, and that's like you said, the line that goes through, is just telling people what you want to happen. For me, it's accountability. Like if I'm going to be like... So I don't know if I had told you. I was on Drew Barrymore recently.
Carol:
Oh.
Beth:
I was in the audience. I did a segment from the audience. I have been telling people that I want to be on Drew Barrymore since it came out, and when it came out, I can't tell you how many DMs and emails. "You're on. You made it. You did it. You did it." But that's only because I told them. So guess what? I have a new dream, right? I have a new thing I'm telling everybody. So I want to be on Drew Barrymore making cocktails. I want to be on Good Morning America making cocktails, helping entrepreneurs.
Beth:
Whatever is that thing that you want to be doing, if you keep it to yourself, it's a dream. If you tell everyone, it's a possibility, and that's true line from my life.
Carol:
Ooh. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. That's gold. That's gold. I love that. If you keep it to yourself, it's a dream. If you tell other people, it's a possibility. That's a quotable. That's a quotable.
Beth:
That's quotable. We'll have to make a quote out of it. But it's true because you don't know... I didn't know jay was going to be like, "Oh, come work with us." I didn't know that I was going to tell some... Like I've had this happen to me, and I hope that the women that are listening, you think about this too because if you tell 10 people in a room that you want to do X, what if somebody can help you do that? If you hadn't told that person, then they would never know and be able to help you.
Beth:
So it's opening up to your network, opening up to your community, tell everybody and their brother the... I don't know if it's the energy around, however you want to do it, but you're creating the possibility for people to, for people to support you in the success of your goal, and that's really what it comes down to. So we always talk about marketing message and media message like my brand message is that you create the, your own opportunities for success, and to me, part of that is telling everybody what you want, because then, there's that possibility of success.
Carol:
Yeah. It's like putting it out there in the world. I always tell people the universe works with you, not for you, and so to me, that's like part of that like put it out there and move in that direction. Let everybody you know so the universe can work with you and support you and bringing that to fruition as opposed to you keeping it to yourself. I love that so much. I love it so much.
Beth:
And people want to help. I have to tell you that. When we were in the throes of figuring out who our book agent was for my cocktail book, I went to my Facebook page, and this is something that I have all my clients do. So I'm going to challenge your audience, right? Challenge, challenge, audience. I want everybody to go to their Facebook page, their towns' Facebook page. It could be your alumni association, your high school. Just the place that people know you for you and ask for what you want. What I do is I put in, "Who do you know that works in television and podcasting."
Beth:
I make all my clients do it on every community like if you come to my workshop, you'll you're going to do it because I'm going to make you do it, but it's a tool that I use to not have it be so scary. Oh, so what I was saying was that when I was doing that for my book agent, I literally put on Facebook, "Who knows a book agent?" Eight perfect strangers that live in my town put me in touch with their friends who are book agents. No, they don't because-
Carol:
Wow.
Beth:
... I think that we get in the space where like, "No one's going to help me." Everybody wants you succeed then they'll tear you down. But everybody wants you to succeed, and people who have known your whole life, or know your cousin, or saw you at the supermarket. Helping out your community is what people are really doing. That's what they really want to be doing. So if you allowed the space for somebody else to help you, which means you get out of your way, you stop being terrified because this is all terrifying. Life is terrifying at times, right?
Carol:
Yeah.
Beth:
But you can lean into what you want to have accomplished and allow other people to hold you up. Like you said, the universe goes, "I got you. You made that step. Now I can help you make it the rest of the way."
Carol:
Yeah. So how do you help people? Because I'm sure you get them, right? You even said it's terrifying. How do you get people who are like, "I can't do it." Or they're afraid, and I'm not saying people who are like afraid of their own shadow because they probably would run from you screaming because it would be too intimidating.
Beth:
Yeah, too much. Yeah.
Carol:
But the people really want to do it but still are grappling with, "Well, what if I'm embarrassed or what would people say?" And all of these limiting beliefs and all those things that hold people back from actually moving forward and putting that out there in the world. How do you help people kind of think through that, get over that, or move through it?
Beth:
I have a little exercise that I do. So either you do it before you open your eyes in the morning or drinking your coffee, close your eyes and you sit, tell yourself that you're going to be brave. "I'm going to be brave until I have that meeting, and then I'm going to go climb to bed and hide under the covers. I'm going to be brave until 2:00 and then I'm going to go for a walk." Whatever it is. Let's set you up for success. "I'm going to face whatever this hellish thing is because you and I know that's not as hellish when you actually do it."I tell my clients this. I've been on national TV a whole bunch of times. I want to throw up every single time.
Beth:
If you ask any actress or person that's on TV a lot, most of them feel the same way. That's why you go back to being brave. Whatever that mantra is, that's for me. You guys could all have it. Please share it with everybody. Close your eyes. "I'm going to be brave until 11:00." Then guess what? At 1:30, you're like, "Oh, I'm brave until 1:30. I forgot 11:00." And it just moves quickly.
Carol:
Wow.
Beth:
But the other side of it in complete honesty. If you are too scared of your shadow, then you need to support somebody like us, and that's a great goal. You know you're not somebody who's going to step out front of the camera and do all the things that you see other people doing. You feel like it's too much for you, then stop torturing yourself, go work with somebody else like somebody like has a has agencies and brands like we do, and then when you're ready or if you ever get ready, you'll see it. But in the meantime, you'll learn all the stuff you need to learn. You'll support somebody who you fully are committed to because otherwise, why would you take the job, right?
Carol:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Beth:
There's a couple really big people in my space and in the marketing space that their number two is their number one, right? And they support them just as much, and I'm seeing a lot of those women that have been working under somebody else for a couple years, coming out and creating their own brands, and it's so amazing to see they just needed to do it differently because, in what entrepreneur space and the digital space that I'm in, like it takes a while to get yourself going and to actually make some money and actually do it.
Beth:
But if you can find somebody who you really like and who you don't mind working with day in and day out, it's an opportunity, and I think too many people don't pass that up where it's actually a great place to start.
Carol:
Oh, I think that's so awesome. So if you're not feeling it, partner with someone. So help them and support them until you do feel like you're able to step up and go in that direction. I love that. I think that's absolutely wonderful, and I love the exercise, too, about being brave. I heard Viola Davis say once that... Because people ask her, how did you go from all of the hardships she had to be able to be successful in her life too, and she said something very similar. She said, "The thing that I told myself is I do not want to leave this earth or on my dying bed think I wasn't brave. Right? That I just wasn't brave in my life." So I love that as exercises. It's like, "Listen, I'm going to be brave until 11:00."
Carol:
I'm going to be brave until the next two minutes, and I think that's so brilliant. I think that's so brilliant. So one of the things that you said that you had found yourself when you're in media, counseling other colleagues and about business and helping them to understand and kind of activate their own maximum potential, right? Finding that maximum potential. I think we talked a little bit about that in terms of the through thread. What are some of the other things you do to help people really see what it is that they have to offer, what it is that they really have to bring to the table that I think, so often, we kind of say, "That whole thing, or doesn't everybody do that, or that's not special?" We kind of poo-poo our brilliance sometimes.
Beth:
Oh.
Carol:
How do you help people really see their maximum potential so they can actually leverage that to move forward?
Beth:
I appreciate that so much because my mom will be like, "How's your day going? What are you doing?" I'm like, "Oh, I have three calls, four calls." She's, "Do you just talk all day?" I'm like, "Yeah, that's basically what I do. I just talk all day."
Carol:
Like I'm a master talker, mom.
Beth:
I'm a talker. I think my answer is when you work with somebody you trust and that you can pull your full trust into somebody else's vision of you, can then step into your vision. So they talk about holding space. I have a lot of conversations where the answer, the response is, "Well, I thought that, but I didn't know if it was true." Because, everyone listening, you already know you're special. Deep down inside, underneath all the self-esteem and all the other trauma you've had that, you know that you're special and you know that you have things to offer.
Beth:
So if you can find somebody to create that space that you can step into that and be known as the best speaker in the world, the best podcaster in the world, the best educator in the world, that becomes really big. If you could be, the best educator you could be, the best podcaster you could be, it's a different pressure level. Right? I think that we get into this with such a high-pressure level. There's no pressure except the pressure you put on yourself, maybe some family pressure.
Beth:
But when you have somebody who can see who you can be and they can see the space that you can take up and allows you to see it also, that's not only a good coach because that's really what we're all looking for in the space. But it's also giving you the opportunity to then step into that because there's no more barriers like I'll get a lot of responses from clients like, "Why do you have so much confidence?" I'm like, "Because I can see it."
Carol:
Right.
Beth:
If I can see it, this producer can see it, this person who's going to buy your products can see it, I'm the every woman. If I can see it, everyone else can see it. I can just see it because I've been doing this longer, but it's about having somebody else have that space for you because this digital entrepreneurship that we do is not to do it alone, and I know that from, unfortunately, experience. I spent the first five years on my own and it was really hard. It was really difficult. I cried a lot. So I was, "Oh, there's networking communities? Oh, there's women that do this?" I'm dating myself again but this was like 2009.
Beth:
We didn't have what we have now. So the women that are listening and that want to step into that, there's so many opportunities for that, and it's finding that one person that you can call and say, "I'm having a day. You need to talk me off the ledge." And t you do that for that person, or it's that group program that you're in and you can really express yourself because the what advice I give everybody who wants to do this is that you have to understand that this is personal development before entrepreneurship. It really is.
Carol:
Yes. Yes.
Beth:
The more that you develop as a person, the better an entrepreneur you'll be. So if you're going to step into this, and authenticity is a... I hate that word because it has so many bad connotations now. But if you're going to a hundred percent, just be your messy self, that's the win. That's the goal. It's to be your messy self. I used to never do any live without my hair straight, and makeup, and this... You should go look at my Instagram. I'm not like that anymore because I realized that people just want to be messy with me, and if you allow, that's where the real success is and that's where the money comes in. Let's be real.
Beth:
We'll do all this stuff, but you actually want to get paid because people... They say this in marketing and it's true even though people say it all the time. People are just want to be in on you, and if they're in on you, it doesn't matter what you're selling, and it's honestly true. I've had met people and had conversations and they're like, "Just whatever your product is, I'll take it." And you're like, "What?"
Carol:
Wow.
Beth:
You know I think that got a wive's tale. It happens to my clients all the time because they're just themselves and they're messy and they're showing their messy kitchen and making... When I was in the food station, how many things I burned, and I would get thousands of comments from my burnt cookies better than the meal I took four hours and 17 plans and did all this things. So I guess it's really just about being yourself, being open for change because everything in your life right now will be different three years from now when you step into what we do.
Carol:
Yeah. I love that.
Beth:
Everything.
Carol:
It reminds me when you were talking about cooking. There's a recent new show on about Julia Child. So all of a sudden, I remember watching her when I was young, but just seeing some of these old clips of her, you talk about authenticity and just being yourself, I mean, she would flub or she would do a technique and it didn't work, she's like, "Oh, no one's watching in the kitchen and cameras. Just pick it up with your fingers. Yeah."
Beth:
Exactly.
Carol:
I loved how she was just who she was, and she didn't try to be something different for camera. I mean, I think she was the originator of doing that. Somewhere along the line, we've lost this idea. Honestly, I think it's Instagram and social media, this idea of perfection.
Beth:
Oh, influencers. Yeah.
Carol:
Oh, yeah. This idea of we have to be perfect and camera-ready at every moment. We've kind of lost this ability just to be real and just to be ourselves, and I think you're right. People want to connect to people who they can relate to, and when you are real and messy like they're real and messy, then it opens them up to have permission to go after things without feeling they have to be perfect and everything has to be right before they step into what they're doing next. So I absolutely love that.
Beth:
Exactly.
Carol:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Beth:
Exactly. So I was bullied as a kid. It goes back to my... Can you tell I'm dealing with something? I'm like looking through something right now.
Carol:
But we all are. We all are.
Beth:
We all are, but I'll share it with your audience. So I remember being probably 12, 13, 14, and I had, it was a Jean jacket and Jean skirt, but it was yellow and orange with purple rockets on it, and my mom called it costume. She goes, "Oh my God, you're wearing your costume."
Carol:
Your mom. I love it.
Beth:
[inaudible 00:25:24] like... You know what I mean? So I definitely have like a block around building a community because I wasn't accepted by my community. I was, thank God, I had lots of love at home and a big family. So I didn't feel it as a kid like it never got into my self-esteem, if you could tell. It never really bothered me that way. I was more like, "I just didn't understand why you didn't like my outfit." So I guess... Maybe bullying, that was such a different word. Maybe I want to take that word back away, but I wasn't accepted as much, and my parents moved me around.
Beth:
I went to public school, private school, public school so I was moved around a lot. But I had this big block that no one wants to be my friend, and I had a big friend issue a couple years ago. So I just tell myself to be brave, and to show up as myself, and to just ask for I want, and that's the stuff that gets me through the day, and it amazes me how those are the three things that people latch onto when I talk, and that come to me from. It's just actually like my coping mechanisms when I need help.
Carol:
But I think people long from community. I really do, and I think... Let us be real. I mean, I had an interesting childhood myself and wasn't overly accepted. I personally grew up in a very predominantly White area in California, and then when my parents divorced, we moved to a predominantly Black area in Chicago, and interestingly enough, I was not accepted in that community because I had grown up very differently and I spoke differently and had a different affect. At least that's what they told me. So it was hard for me to fit in, and so I think a lot of us probably can tap into... And girls are hard anyway like you know.
Beth:
Oh God.
Carol:
Young girls are a little bitchy. Let's be real.
Beth:
Mean. Yup.
Carol:
Then while you're trying to figure yourself out in the middle of all that, and top of it, it can be really challenging. But I think it's why when I read studies or reports, how they talk about how powerful it is when women work together in community, and I think it's because either we didn't have it or we missed it or we longed for it or just didn't know how to do it in a way that was supportive, that we go faster. We achieve more when we actually can lift each other up and we can help each other and utilize each other's skill sets in a way that maybe the mainstream doesn't necessarily accept. But I agree with you in terms of what you said before.
Carol:
I always have a coach and I always have a community. I think having somebody who gets what you're going through but also somebody who can talk to you off the ledge, as you said, when you're like, "What is going on." Its so important, particularly, in the entrepreneurial journey, in the digital space when we have moved so isolated into just working one on one, through a camera or by ourselves to really kind of create that community for ourselves. So in terms of people who are thinking about making the leap and transitioning, coming out of the security of whatever they're doing into this digital nomad land and running their own business, what do you think some of the biggest challenges that they're going to have to face that maybe they can avoid in that process?
Beth:
Education, I think, is the first step. I think it's really asking all your friends, who they work with. It's asking your friends who've done this for a while. "Can you go to the library with me for an hour?" Again, asking for what you want. I went to plenty of libraries with my friends. I think that's the first step because coming into this, understanding that it's a strategy, a framework, and it's a [inaudible 00:28:53]. So when you come into, into, into the entrepreneur and especially in the digital space, there's so much to do. So you can really categorize what you want to be doing. Right?
Beth:
You have to do social media marketing, some sort of brand, and then your story. So what I tell my clients, and actually, anyone that works with me is, "I want you to pick four pillars of information that you're going to talk about." So I talk about wellness like eating well, cocktails. All that kind of stuff. I talk about media, what's happening in the media, what's happening in publicity. I talk about being brave and opportunities. so if you can pick the four parameters and the four topic ideas that you talk about and then outline them out, and I mean like here's wellness, what are the five things under wellness you want to talk about? And really five things for each of those five things.
Beth:
I have that big [inaudible 00:29:41] from high school, that big outline, and that is the framework of your first year of business, and then whatever's in there, finding the right person, and you have to spend money. Google is not going to teach you it, and it's going to take too long. So finding the right coach, right? Finding the right friend. Finding [inaudible 00:29:57]
Carol:
Yes. Please do not Google your way through this.
Beth:
They're like, "Well, can I just Google how to write a pitch?" I'm like, "Yeah, but you're you know,"
Carol:
Right.
Beth:
It's like, "Can I Google a recipe too? But if you can't cook it right, it's going to be bad. Same thing with pitch."
Carol:
Right. Right.
Beth:
But really understanding that this is not something that you can do alone. Take that back. You can do it alone. It's going to take you five years to do it alone because I know that I tell this story too. I remember talking this woman, Jenn Scalia, she's an amazing coach.
Carol:
Oh, I love Jenn. Yeah.
Beth:
I didn't want to spend the $1,500 in 2012. It was a lot of money for us then, and I didn't realize what she could do for me, and I even told... We're friendly. So I told her I'd be in a totally different business. I probably would still be in the food space. I would probably be making twice the amount of money I'm making now. So when you come into this space, asking your friends who they're working with, find somebody who you really vibe with, and I know I'm going to kill a lot of people's spirits, but I want you working one-on-one with them.
Beth:
I want you to have a group capacity as also a one-on-one capacity because you need that when you're starting out, and then again, it's just to be brave, lean on your friends, and if you can start by journaling your origin story, everything can come out of that.
Carol:
Yeah, that is so good. I just want to harp with this point, because I think women who... When you're in the corporate space, you don't think about coaching the same way as entrepreneurs think about getting coaching. when you're in this space, you don't blink an eye to hire someone to help you with something or to get coached. But when you're in the corporate space or in the business space, it's not very common, and so, like you say, the idea of investing $1,500, listen, I know people today to invest $1,500 were like, "What?"
Beth:
It's a lot of money.
Carol:
It seems really crazy that you would pay someone for something that you think you could Google or just ask your friends or kind of DIY it all the way through, and like you said, you probably can piecemeal it and take 10 years or you can shortcut it and take half a year when you really get the support. So I love that. I think that is so critical that we have to invest in ourselves. I love the message of that. You got to invest in yourself. You got to get the support. Get to the people who know what they're doing so they can help you get to where it is you want to go. It's just the bottom line, and it's interesting to me too, because we wouldn't think about that for doctors, plumbers, hairdressers, dentists, or things of that nature.
Carol:
But when it comes to starting a business, we're like, "Oh, I'm smart. I can figure it out." Like, "It's not. Stop that and get someone." Also, I love that you talked about professional development. I always say that this stuff is an inner and outer game like you got to do the inner stuff, the mindset. You got to step into something different and be something different. You got to be brave and figure out what that means in addition to the tactical thing. So I love that and I love community. So that education, the bravery, the investing yourself, all of that, I think is absolutely goal.
Beth:
All together to go. Right. Together, it's like figuring out what that one thing is and then write a book about it. Write a pamphlet about it. Create a video series about it. Something, and just go with that. I feel like a lot of women who have been in corporate for so long feel like they need to go full force into something. Spend the first six to eight months really honing what you want to do with that coach. I don't know about you, but I've made bad coaching decisions.
Carol:
Oh, yeah.
Beth:
I've hired the wrong person, right?
Carol:
Yeah.
Beth:
I want to give that caveat. It does take a little while. Ask all your friends, and I was going to say when you're talking to prospective coaches, in my opinion, if they don't have their own coach, move on,
Carol:
Agreed 100%. 100%. Yeah. Because they have no idea what it means to be coaching. They don't believe in it and they're not getting coaching. So they really can't provide the best coaching for you. I completely, completely agree with that. Yeah, and I love like going back to the two thread. I call them your drivers like what are your themes or drivers, and so really understanding those pillars that you want to be known for, that you want to talk about. It makes things so much easier when how to really frame your conversation around things that matter as opposed to everything that moves, and so-
Beth:
Right. But I also want everyone to think about it in quarters because they also get stuck when people are coming in. Well, I don't know what the right thing to do is. Okay. Let's take that off the table. What's the right thing to do for the next three to four months? That's it.
Carol:
Yeah. Yeah.
Beth:
Right? There's three quarters. So this is what you were going to do for... Now, we're in the middle of second quarter. Second and third quarter. Right? That's it. You don't make decision... If you do something for the next six months and you don't like it doesn't work, guess what? You're still building your brand. You're still creating an audience. You can pivot to something slightly different because I don't know many people that their first thing out of the gate is what they're doing 10 years later so-
Carol:
Yeah. Nobody. No one including Oprah.
Beth:
So true, and Gayle, and Gabrielle.
Carol:
Right, Right. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I love that. I think that is one of the things that keeps people from moving forward. It's like the fear of decisions, the fear of decision making, which I think really is the fear of making the "wrong decision." I try to tell people there's no such thing as a wrong decision. It's a learning opportunity. You're going to trip and fall multiple times, and that your best job is to see like what worked and what didn't work. Evaluate the trip. So not to go that way again and to go a different way. So yeah, this fear of getting it wrong or failing or making the wrong decision is going to keep you stagnant and not moving forward, don't you think?
Beth:
Oh my God, yeah. I think every decision you make is wrong. Just go with that. It's going to be wrong. Along the road, some of it's not going to work out like you hired a VA, they didn't work out. Wrong decision? No. You learn something. Move on. But if you are deciding that everything you're going to do is going to get screwed up. Right? And everything that you're going to do is going to like... So it just takes the power out that. "I don't want to [inaudible 00:35:45],-
Carol:
I love that.
Beth:
... everything's going to get screwed up." But if you take the power away from screwing up and you're like, I'm just going to try." what is this going to do? It's going to create the opportunity for my next thing. That's it. Because we get into... I'm sure... I work with a lot of ladies who transition away from corporate and they're building a different brand, they're doing... To be completely, I love that we could actually have a real conversation. I'm jealous sometimes of those women that came from corporate because I never had a... I've had a corporate TV job. Very different than a corporate marketing position, and I don't have the skills. I don't have the account management skills. I don't have some of the organizational skills.
Beth:
So I want to give it back to your audience to think about those skills that you do have that a lot of people in our space don't have that you can lean into, and that, doing account management is a skill and a job. Doing all the things that come naturally to you is a skill and a job that you can create in the digital space from your corporate experience. So don't discount that stuff because, us, ladies who never had any of that stuff, I truly believe that if I had more of those skills, then I would be able to, not do my job better, but I guess to really organize my business in a different way that just might be easier for other people to understand.
Beth:
Because when I bring somebody in to like... I bring a new VA in or I bring a new person into work, it's like I have to kind of work through it because my style is not like the regular corporate style.
Carol:
Right. Right. I love that. Yeah. Another quotable. Every decision is wrong.
Beth:
Yeah. It just is.
Carol:
I think that's so awesome. It definitely changes your whole perspective in about trying anything because it's all going to be wrong and you're going to learn from it. So I think that's amazing. I want to talk a little bit about your book, Clean Cocktails.
Beth:
Oh.
Carol:
I love it. First of all, like I said, it's a beautiful book like the pictures and the recipes and the story in there are so amazing. I love how you kind of said it's like clean living, kind of meeting dirty cocktails.
Beth:
Yeah. Clean in a dirty world.
Carol:
Right. Exactly. Exactly. What was the impetus for you doing that book, and what is that about?
Beth:
So at that time I have, I was a nutritionist, a health coach, and I was seeing people one-in-one, and it's therapy. Anyone that's a health coach out there, it's mostly therapy and I was not qualified. I'll tell you quickly. My last client came to me for her health and wellness for food and everything else, and about three months in, she started telling me how her husband was wearing her dresses, and ultimately, he left her for his best friend.
Carol:
Oh, wow.
Beth:
I was like, "Is this is a movie?" And I was like, "I think you need a therapist-therapist." If I-
Carol:
Right. I'm a health coach.
Beth:
I don't know how to handle that. I could support you and make sure you eat healthy, but-
Carol:
Right.
Beth:
And I had some eating disorder pieces. So it was really I was disillusioned with the hypocrisy that a health coach could really help you with these other things that are going on in your life, and I just knew it wasn't for me. So I wanted to find a different way to still be in the health space and be able to help more people in a fun way. So I looked to my audience. What were they asking me? What were they talking to me about? They want to know what they could drink. They were like, "Well, if I eat healthy all week, can I have a glass of wine on Saturday night?" and I was like, "Well, not really because this, that, and the other thing."
Beth:
So my husband and I actually had a Cinco de Mayo party in my house with my friends, and I had made two of my favorite cocktails because I was a bartender in college and they were going crazy over them. They're like, "There's no sugar in these?" It's all fruits and vegetable juices and herbs and spices and kombuchas and teas and all that stuff. I literally sat in my dining room right there, and I was like, "This is a book that." I just knew it was a book.
Carol:
Wow.
Beth:
So I spent the next month telling my friends again, asking for what you want, because I know that I like to do projects like this with other people, even though at this point in my life, the universe is telling I need to do things by myself. But back then, I knew I needed to do with other people, and I would meet somebody at Starbucks, tell them my book idea. They'd be like, "That's great. Let me think about it, or I want to be involved in it." They never texted me back. They never got back in touch with me until I met my co-writer. Her name is Tara Roscioli. Her company's Highway 2 Well. She was all in.
Carol:
Wow.
Beth:
Within weeks, we had talking to agents and we had the proposal done, and I just knew because she followed up. She asked me again, and then also, I kind of evaluated what was she was good at and what I was good at, and we didn't know each other, but we both felt completely comfortable with each other and had real conversations off the bat. So we both knew that there the energy between us was something good. We just needed to funnel into something great, and the cocktail book was it. At that time in the market., I had seen, because I had most of the recipes that were from college and I already had seen... I kind of investigating the space, there was nobody doing healthy cocktails.
Beth:
At that time, the bars in New York city weren't doing healthy cocktails yet. So I was at the right time, had the right idea. Everybody we told was like, "That's amazing. When can I come try the drinks?" We had an amazing agent that got us in front of publishers. We legitimately brought full drinks to the publishing meetings. So we got them a little drunk and we got a deal, and through that, there's a publicist through the publisher. So they have 27 titles. We're this very small book. They were like Joan Collins like huge, and so I just kind of leaned into doing our own.
Beth:
We had hired somebody for a little bit. Didn't really come into anything. So all those women out there that are listening, talking about hiring PR firms and nothing happening. I know exactly what that's like. Then after I started getting real traction for the book, I was like, "Oh, maybe I should be doing this. Maybe this is what I should be doing." And I started doing keynote speaking and I was so tired. I'll say this. I'll say it. I was just so tired of talking to overprivileged women about not drinking a bottle of wine and eating chocolate and having the salads.
Beth:
I was doing it for so long. I couldn't do it anymore, and I would go to these talks and they would ask me about business, and I would come home and my husband would be like, "Please change what you're doing. This makes you so much happier." And I started helping my friends. Like I said, I would go to the library and help my friends out, and one time, my friend Wendy said to me that I helped her more in two hours than her $20,000 a month coach.
Carol:
Wow.
Beth:
I was like, "There's $20,000 a month coaches?"
Carol:
Wow.
Beth:
Like, "I didn't know that." I changed her whole business. I changed everything for her by just giving her my ideas. So I went home, talked to my husband about it, and changed everything I did the next day, honestly.
Carol:
Wow.
Beth:
I haven't looked back, and it's been an incredible ride. I support the most amazing women in all different facets of entrepreneurship. I had work with therapists. I work with financial planners. I work with food bloggers. I have an amazing older woman who's an author that wrote this most beautiful illustrated book. I'm actually going to see her movie on Thursday.
Carol:
Oh, wow.
Beth:
Like my home, it's eclectic. I have an eclectic roster of clients and a couple media celebrity clients that I can't talk about, which is very exciting. But I really... Everything that I was always good at, I do every day, and I love it, and being able to use the cocktail book, like I said, to show social proof that my systems work to get me where I want to be and plus like who doesn't want to make bourbon cocktails at 9:00 in the morning on Omaha this morning? Like for real.
Carol:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every day. Twice on Sunday. So I want to just close up by asking you a question that I love to ask my guests, generally, to get their perspective. It's what does a being a career rebel mean to you?
Beth:
In this space, I think it's really showing up as yourself, unabashedly. I guess my to be rebel, I did clubhouse for a long time. I did every Friday, and I would start helping people that would ask questions and I'd be like, "Can I give you a little Jersey love? Can I just be real with you and be honest with you?" And I gave it like that moniker so no one got upset. But I think for me, I tell it like it is. I'm not going to be mean, but I'm not going to sugarcoat it, and that's what people respect. That's what people like, and that's what gets people to the next rung instead of keeping them treading where they are. Because I find so many times coaches, some coaches want to keep you in their roster, so they keep you there.
Beth:
Right? They keep you in that space. I want you to go do it on your own because there's plenty... I know there's plenty of more coming. I'm not worried about that part, but I know that you are my best calling card if you can go out and do it on your own and give me a great testimonial and they can see you doing it. The other flip side of that, it just makes me so happy. It honestly does when people have that breakthrough or I get the call after the... I had a client who put on CBS this morning, I mean last week, and she was just so happy. She was like, "I did it right. The talking points were amazing. They loved what I did."
Beth:
She was like a kid in a candy store, and... Got the chills just talking about it. For me, that fills up so many of the pieces that I need, and selfishly, it just makes me feel good about myself and what I can do and what I can help people do. Because I think a lot of coaches also gets in consultants and everything else get stuck in this like, "I need to make an impact on the world." To be completely honest, like now, I'm Dr. Carols in and all of her. Your people are in my... I told the mafia. It's all in the family. I care about my people.
Beth:
On the outside people, when you're ready to come in, then I'll care, but I really don't. I really care about the people that are in my circle and that are in that community of women that just want to like support each other, get things done, be very open and honest about it and have a nice cocktail once in a while.
Carol:
Yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that. This has been amazing. So Beth, where can people find you? How can they reach out to you? How can they connect with you? We'll definitely put all of this in the show note so-
Beth:
Thank you.
Carol:
But what's the best place for people to reach out to you?
Beth:
So you can find me at Beth Nydick on all the social media platforms. Instagram is my favorite place to DM me, but I would encourage everyone to please go to bethnydick.com. Right there, you can download the Get Media Now Magazine, which happens to be 10 pages of articles and worksheets to get you in your business ready for media.
Carol:
Fabulous. What an awesome gift. We will definitely put that in the show notes so you can get it. Beth, Thank you so much, so much. This has been an amazing conversation and-
Beth:
Thank you.
Carol:
... I appreciate you taking the time to be on the show.
Beth:
Oh my God. I love you.
Carol:
So that's it. This is awesome. We had a great conversation again. Something you're going to want to listen to over and over again, and listen, until next time, have an amazingly rebellious week. See you soon.
Carol:
Hey, if you're loving what you're learning on the podcast, then you've got to come check out the Career Revel Academy. It's where you'll get the individual help and support. You need applying the concepts of strategies you're learning here and so much more. You'll be joined by a community of other rebels just like you, and I'll be there as your guide every step of the way. If you're genuinely looking to change the course of your life and career, I promise you, this is the place you'll want to be. Just go to www.carolparkerwalsh.com/career-rebel-academy. I can't wait to see you there.
