The topic that we're covering today, I'm not gonna lie, it's a little cringe worthy. Like, it really just gets under my skin. Maybe it's because I'm a people pleaser. And the idea of firing somebody never sits well with me, I don't like confrontations, like I am that person that like runs in the opposite direction. When I know I have to have a hard conversation. But we really, really need to talk about this today because and this concept really came to me that maybe we just
need to fire ourselves. And I know that sounds a little weird. And you're like, What in the world? are you even talking about? That doesn't make sense. How am I going to fire myself? Trust me, I'm going to break down some of the thought patterns that I know I am not alone and having in some of the things that I have overcome, that have helped me become a better podcaster. And it's because I fired myself. So let's get right to it.
Welcome to the Proffitt Podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the time saving shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?
So I'm totally aware that the concept of firing yourself is very foreign. So I thought I would give you a really practical example, that I hope nobody else can relate to. Because this was not a good feeling when it happened to me. But the truth is that it did happen to me. And it was just so crazy. So over a decade ago, which makes me feel very, very old, I was just getting started in my corporate job. And if you haven't heard the story before, I used to work for a very large general contractor.
And I was an accounting clerk, I started as an admin, like out on a job site, I will still like remember this, remember my very first day, starting in a job site trailer, and I was kind of an admin on the job. And then the the chief, she wasn't the Chief Financial Officer of the company, but kind of like our region, she was our controller, and she just was the most intimidating woman will ever meet. And she stood five foot tall
without her heels on. And I mean, like, or no, sorry, that was with her hills, she might have been like five too. So she and I'm like, for reference, I'm about five foot seven. So this title person just shot basically the fear of ever, like all the things like it, she was she was very intimidating. And she interviewed me and was like, I'd love for you to have like, come work for me as an accounting clerk. I was like, Okay, I don't have any accounting training, except for what I
took in college. And you know, it was accounting one and accounting two like that, was it? Surely that's fine, you know, we just need, we need bodies that can process invoices, and you know, you want the job or not? Yes, absolutely. So I started working with them. And this was a few months prior to them making a huge transition in
their accounting software. Now, stick with me for a second, I promise, I'm not going to bore you with all the things the nuances of how we processed invoices and the things that we did I kind of feel like, you know, Angela Martin from the office. She was kind of like that, I don't know why people who are in accounting often get like, portrayed in movies and TV shows to be kind of uptight and boring. Or maybe, you know, just kind of someone you don't really want to hang out
with, you don't want to deal with. But that was kind of the idea that I had was like, Oh my gosh, like, is this gonna be something like, Am I going to hate my job whenever I get started? And then they're talking about this new accounting software? like this just sounds really overwhelming. Do I really want to do this, but I went into a very optimistic because this was right after the downturn of the economy, right? Like
everything kind of crashed in 2008. And it wasn't a great time to graduate in 2009 from college when they're like, oh, basically, there's nothing on
the job market for you. And I had a newborn and all the things so this was 2011 when I start working for this company, and they were like, yeah, pretty soon we're gonna transition to this new software and I will never, ever forget Get because it scared the crap out of me having only been in this job for a little while somebody said to me, someone told our boss actually, they said, maybe you should just let go of everyone in your department because it's just going to be easier to
work with people that don't have the habits that your people do. Because there were already processes and systems in place that they had been using, probably for several, several years before I even got there. Right. Like I was taught their previous accounting software, I learned the systems, I read the manuals, like I did all the things, I knew all I knew all the processes, and then they were like, oh, but we're about to scrap
all of that. And everything. Like as we know it right now will be different when we launch this new program, because it was going to affect the entire company, not just our department, but the entire company. And they said, you should just fire all the people in your department, it just be easier to train brand new people. And I remember it scared me so much. Because I thought, what if they do? What if they say, oh, you're just taking too long to learn this? Or you know, you have all
these old habits? Because we were questioning everything about this new system. It didn't make sense to us. Why would we do it that way? when, you know, they had been doing it? Well, before I was there a certain way. And it's the old system made sense to us. Right? It was our habits, what we knew it was it was our process, not only for us, but for other people that had to sign off on invoices and approved payments and all the things So long story short, I made it through the
transition. It was really, really hard. Like I can tell you like if I were to sit in on a job interview and ask someone like, or someone asked me like, what's, what's the hardest thing that you've faced in this was, you know, and obviously my old job like, what was the hardest thing you faced in the corporate world? It would be transitioning from one software program to another with the company. It was a nightmare. I made it through it. And then I only work there for so
long. So I have that experience under my belt.
But what does this have to do with podcasting? Like Krystal, you just told us as long story? What does this have to do with firing yourself? How is this even applicable to what we do in the podcasting space? Well, I want you to ask yourself, what old habits are, what old mindset Do you have from other periods of your life? Maybe it was a corporate career, maybe it was a childhood identity that you had or other some other kind of
baggage that you need to let go of? And instead of just proposing that question to you, and then just saying, Okay, that's it. That's all I have for you today. No, no, of course, I'm gonna give you some examples of my own journey. And maybe you can identify with or at least relate to some of the things that I'm going to share. But I really, really wants you to ask yourself, what habits? What mindset are you bringing, what kind of baggage are you bringing into your podcast that's
holding you back? Because I see you out there. You know, if you're listening to this, and you're like, Oh, I don't want to walk through this. I get it. It This is gonna make you a little uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable. Like I said earlier, like firing someone if you've ever had to fire someone. I'm sorry. It's not. Okay. Here's another like, quick, quick story, I promise this one won't be as long. I was the student
manager in college. In our little office, I work for the the Office of Student Affairs like the Director of Student Affairs, the people that do like fraternity life and all that, like he kind of oversees make sure people don't get in trouble and just a whole bunch of stuff. He was a pretty big deal in the Student Center. And I worked in his office and I was an assistant to his assistant. And I became a student manager there, y'all I had to hire, and then later fire one of my best
friends. Oh, my God, huge, extra cringe worthy, because I couldn't let them know that I was gonna let them go beforehand. I didn't know what to say. And we continue to hang out and be friends after that. But it was just like, Oh my gosh, whenever she told me, she's like, No, you have to let him go. I thought, Oh, I don't think I can do this. That's kind of what this may feel like for you in letting go of some of the baggage that you're holding for yourself.
So I told you, I'd give you some examples. So some of the identities that I have had to shed over the years as really just to help me become a better podcaster and a better speaker.
One identity that I had ever since I was a little kid is You talk too much. Oh my gosh, this was me. This was me. I was told as a kid Like I would if I ever got in trouble in class, it was for talking with someone else, or, you know, raising my hand too much to you know, add something to the conversation like it was just a blanket, you talk too much. But now this is what's the full circle moment of having
this previous identity. I'm literally literally getting paid to teach other peoples how to use their voice. And to talk more. Do you see? Do you see what I'm saying here? Like, if I would have held on to the identity of like all Krystal, you talk too much, you shouldn't have a podcast? What? That's literally the exact opposite of what comes natural to me. I've always loved talking. Yes, I will tell you growing up, I probably should have
shut up more. And I probably should have listened a whole whole lot more to my parents and my teachers and my coaches, and like all the really like important influential people in my life. But I've always loved talking. So if I would have let that identity just hold me back. We wouldn't be
here today. We wouldn't. So if you have an identity like that, from your childhood, maybe it was you know, you, you are more sporadic than other people, maybe you you know, I don't know, I could think of a million other things that we could place on a child and say, Oh, you are too much of this. Don't let that hold you back. Ask yourself, how can I apply that to my podcasting journey? or How can I really use that as energy as motivation as inspiration for the people in my
community. So the identity of I talked too much is not something like I embrace it fully now. And I help other people use their voice as well. So that's one.
The next one is really funny, because I still get told this a lot, and I can't help it. It's just something. It's something that comes natural to me, and that is I'm too loud. Y'all. My husband will still tell me all the time. My husband's name is Seth, shout out, babe. I'm just, I know you're gonna crack up via this. But he, okay, I wake up first, how wake up at 5am he
45 - 6am, something like that. It's well into my probably second cup of coffee. I will go and have a conversation with him. He's like, you know, he's in the shower. He's getting dressed or whatever. And I'll say, Oh my gosh, I just thought about this. And I'm just like, I'm going a million miles an hour already. Because I've had my coffee. I've already done my morning routine. And I'm just I'm awake. And he will look at me and say, babe, you're so loud. Why do you why why do you have to
be so loud in the morning. And it's just not something I think about like, a whisper to me is like someone else's scream. It really is. I don't know how to be a quiet person. Because that is naturally not who I am. I'm a loud person. And this is something I was told repeatedly again, as a kid, like You're so loud, you need to be quiet and I'm just like, I don't know how to be quiet. But at the same time, me being loud is what led me
to being a leader on the volleyball court. It is like that was the reason like I was encouraged to lead like chance I know if you've ever watched volleyball you know you like you go your bump set spike, you hit it you block it you know you do something that's really awesome. You AC other team. Oh my gosh, y'all I had such a good serve Him as volleyball so much. But I would like you
know, throw up the ball, I'd hit it. And I had this killer serve that, you know, whenever it hit the ground and nobody touched it, that's called an ace. We would have these little cheers and I would lead them if I'm you know, one of my other teammates did it. I can't even remember what they were, oh my gosh, I really wish right now that I could come up but it was always something that was like ah, Ace, and we clap or do some other kind of silly cheer in the middle. But I led a lot of
those because I was the loudest. So that helps me gain confidence as a leader. So I took this one little aspect of my personality that a lot of people would see as negative. She's just loud, like you're loud. You need to be quieter. But instead of changing this thing about my personality, this thing of who I am as a person, I embraced it and said you know what, I am loud. And that means I can lead people on the core. It means I can lead people on you've heard this story
before. If you listen to podcasts. I mean, that's the reason why I became a cheerleader. Like, I didn't have the best jumps. I didn't have the best form. But you can bet your bottom dollar, I was
the loudest one on the field. People would tell me, we can hear you on the like, on the visitor side, you know, in the football field, you have the home side, you have the visitor side, my friends would say, Oh, we knew exactly where you were, we heard you, when we were walking from the visitor side over to our field, we knew exactly where you were on the field, because you're so
loud. So those moments of leading teams, making sure that I was encouraging my teammates gave me the confidence to be the motivator and the cheerleader that you know today as your podcast coach, it's something I want 100% embrace, and I wouldn't have the same confidence if I didn't have those experiences. So I don't let the identity of I'm too loud. Hold me back. I embrace it. So again, if you have something, some sort of baggage, some sort of identity that people told
you all your life, you're too loud. How can you embrace that, and bring that in to what you're doing part of your message, part of the delivery of what you are trying to say and how you're trying to make an impact with your community. Use it and embrace it.
Okay, this next one. Oh, this next one just makes me laugh, because it's still true to this day. And that is I don't have the best writing or grammar. Now. Okay. I'm gonna give you my secret. Because at this point, I don't like this hold me back because y'all I have published. I mean, just for this podcast alone, we've published more than 200. And this is Episode 271. Okay, this is Episode 271 of this podcast. But on top of that, I have published show notes for this podcast, I've written sales pages, I've created a course and I've published two books. But I've also been told, you don't write really well. And your grammar isn't the best. That doesn't even count how many emails I have written in the past four years either. But I had the identity for a while I will never forget, this was my senior year of high school. And we were part of it was like the honors English class or whatever that counted for high school credit and for college credit. And I'll never forget my friend who is a phenomenal writer. And she does amazing things right now, as a public speaker. She's a news anchor for crying out loud, shout out, Kaci, you're incredible. You're amazing. She's a news anchor. And she just always wrote so beautifully. And I would listen, you know, we'd have to read our papers sometimes out loud in class, and I'd listen to what she wrote and think oh my gosh, like, she is so freakin good. Why can I not write as good as she does, you know, she'd get a plus plus pluses on her paper while I'm like, you know, a C plus or a B minus. And I'm just crossing my fingers and my toes. I'm like, please just let me get an A in this class. And I just remember, I wouldn't get the best grades on my English papers. So I would think I'm just really not a great writer. And then on top of that, my grammar isn't all that great. I don't always know my sister in law. She is also a writer and she is more of like a technical writer. She works with contracts all the time. So she really understands the English language as far as correct writing I'm almost call it like academic technical writing. She really understands that grammar. Oh my gosh, she and my husband's grandma actually helped me edit my very first book. And I will never forget thinking I how do y'all know this stuff? The dangling participle. What the heck does that even mean? I don't know these things. So I would have this identity of I'm not a good writer. I don't have all the right grammar. But yet here I am. I'm not a trained writer. But I've published two books. And I keep showing up. I keep publishing blog posts that are good enough. I keep writing emails every single week. I keep showing up because I don't let that identity hold me back. I still show up just as I am. You won't see super fancy words like a dangling participle. I laugh every time I say it. It's so funny. I don't know why it's so funny. I guess because it almost sounds like a dirty word. We don't know what it means. I don't know maybe. Maybe this is just my personality. I this is another thing is I like to bring humor into my content. And that's a strength of mine is taking something and laughing at myself. Write that self deprecating humor is like, Hey, I'm an idiot when it comes to English language, but I can make you laugh about a dangling participle. It's a gift. It's a gift that I have. But I don't let that hold me back. So if you have some sort of identity, you got a bad grade and chemistry or you were told you are dumb, or you you're not good enough at what you do to have a podcast about that. Shed that identity, fire yourself, that's really what I want to go back to is like, you got to fire that version of you and just say, Look, I know that we loved being a specific way on our corporate career, we like to talk in a certain way that sounded so professional, but if you're not trying to be that person today, you don't have to be, you don't have to be when it comes to showing up behind the microphone, you can be exactly who you are. And that is
okay.
And then the last point I wanted to make is the accent, y'all. This is the one that I hear. Most often when people complain that they don't love like they don't. I was gonna say they don't like that was like a live love like, but like in love words, mash. People will tell me various degrees of I don't like my voice, or I hate my voice. Or I can't do this because my
voice is too shrill. My voice is this my voice is that I have an accent, I don't use the words that I you know, would make me sound smarter and blah, blah, blah. I've heard it all. I've talked to hundreds, if not 1000s of entrepreneurs at this point in my journey. I have heard all the reasons why you don't like your voice. And I can tell you I had some of those exact same thoughts. Whenever I first started. I thought oh my gosh, I sound
like a country bumpkin. Heck, that no one no one is gonna want to listen to those were the first thoughts that I have. If you go and read my book, if you read started binge worthy podcast, the introduction. That is the first thing that I talked about in the book, I talked about how I got made fun of when I went to school in Texas, okay, I didn't go to an out of state school. I didn't move across the country. I moved four hours away from my hometown. And I was in a school in Texas.
And I get made fun of because of my accent. So I had this identity of man, she's just the heck, she's just the country girl. And she's probably never going to grow out of that. And maybe you thought that before it's like, oh, this girl's definitely from Texas. Her accent is a lot thicker at times. And sometimes there's just one word that will come out. Shout outs Kathy, my girl. Oh my gosh, she thinks it's so funny. Whenever I say the word heal. It's h i l l. But I guess you can't
tell the difference between that. And H e. l. Hill and Hill. I can't I can't really tell the difference either. But I know what I'm talking about. But that's the thing is, I could have let that hold me back. I could have said, Ah, you know, I just my accent is way too thick. I don't know that I need a podcast as people, people won't like it. They won't really like my accent. I'm just going to hold off. I'm just going to keep pushing back. Nope, I fired that version of
myself. And I said, No, you're not going to let that hold you back, you're going to keep going because you are meant for bigger things. And you have a message that only you can share to the people that only you can reach. And they have important messages that they need your help to get it out of them, to help them market it, help them share it, help them understand how to launch it.
And those are the reasons why I've pushed past all of those identities, I have fired those versions of myself that other people have labeled me You talk too much or too loud, you're really don't have the best writing or the best grammar and your accent is way too thick. I fired those identities.
So maybe the analogy of firing yourself isn't right, right. Maybe instead it should be shedding all of these old identities so that you can create new ones. And the thing that I want to leave you with is really thinking about yourself and none of this is cheesy, but it's like being a caterpillar turning into a butterfly or
something else like motivational, whimsical. You know, like one of those cat posters or something like that, like, that's really what I think of is how can you shed all of these old things that are holding you back and keeping you from starting your podcast or keeping you from leveling up your
show? Maybe the thing of like, Oh, you know, I really want to have this big guest on my show, but they're gonna think I'm an idiot because I don't know all the things or to know on my topic, but I know having them on my show would be a really Big deal, like, forget all of that nonsense, embrace who you are, because that is why people will listen to you. Right? That is why people will come back to your show. And that is how you stand out from all the other podcasts out there, whenever
you can just be yourself. And you can show up exactly who you are exactly how you were meant to show up in this world. That's what people are drawn to. So don't let these other identities hold you back from sharing that important message that you have. Who y'all this felt like a tough love and a cringe worthy and all the things like this, this was really good. I was like, I am excited to share some of these things with you that I don't
often talk about. I mean, I usually tell other people's experiences, but I, I really enjoy sharing this part of who I am with you. Because I want you to know you're not alone. If you've been told you talk too much or too loud, like you're really not qualified to be doing what you're doing. I've been told all those things too. But I've shed all of those old identities that were holding me back from moving into and stepping into where I'm supposed to be right now in my journey.
And it's kind of like, um, that caterpillar stepping out of my cocoon and turning into a butterfly because that is really, really what podcasting is for me. I have totally embraced the leader that I'm trying to be to help you share your important message.
So make sure you go to the show notes. KrystalProffitt.com/episode271, I'm just going to have basically the highlights of all the things that we talked about here today. But I want you to shed all of those identities that are holding you back. And if you want to know more about what this process looks like, or how you can really step into creating a podcast that it's going to have a really impactful message in a very simple way. Make sure you check out Proffitt Podcasting, this
is my digital program. You've probably heard me talk about it before, but I'm gonna have a link to it in the show notes. And if you're ready to share those identities and take that next step, we would love to have you in the program because we have a lot of fun. And I tell a lot of personal stories about what my podcasting journey has looked like.
But I also share with you ways that you can do some of the inner work to understanding your audience better, and really making that deeper connection that will help your message have a bigger impact. So again, go to KrystalProffitt.com/episode271 for today's show
notes, but that's all I have for you today. So if you have not already, make sure that you hit that follow button wherever you're listening to this podcast, leave us a rating and review if you have not already we so appreciate all the reviews that we have and I read every single one of them. And as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.