Transformational Leadership and Identity Deconstruction with Sydney Ryker

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So today we have a really inspiring transformational leader in our midst. I'm very excited to introduce to you Sydney Riker.

So Sydney Riker is a powerhouse entrepreneur and transformational speaker who has been at it for many, many years. She began her journey eight years ago sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Can't wait to unpack that. Sydney has been the driving force behind a health company with over. Get this, folks. 7000 customers and multiple eight figure global sales organizations that she supported as a speaker and leader.

Sydney's identity deconstruction method. We're going to unpack that too. This identity deconstruction method empowers individuals to shed societal conditioning and rediscover their true selves. Awesome.

With over seven years of experience and speaking to more than on more than 100 stages worldwide, she's inspired audiences from beauty professionals to corporate teams. And one of her well known talks is soul selling. Really cool. I watched one of her presentations online that you just have to go and see at her website, sidneyreicher.com dot. Combining ancient wisdom with modern business strategies, Sydney fosters both professional growth and personal transformation.

As a spokesperson for Selfpublishing.com and author of the forthcoming book Becoming unpretty, she helps purpose driven individuals share their stories. Welcome, Sydney. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much. So happy to have you. So as you know, I like to start out with a question on what is a book that was written by women that significantly influenced your life? My gosh, it was so funny because when you asked this, I was like, oh God, I gotta go.

Like look through my history of what I've read, but immediately. Queen's Code by Alison Armstrong. I don't know if you've ever heard of it or read it. I feel like I have. Keep going. Yes. This book, you guys, it's like a story, right? Yeah. Most transformative book I've ever read. I read in, like, two days. The book is, like, $70, but it is worth every penny. And it's all about. Alison Armstrong is a professional in women and men's development.

And so she writes this kind of like a fiction, but an educational fiction story where she's really teaching women how we can treat men and how we can interact with men in a really healthy way. And I think for us in this new generation of being in the workforce with men and interacting with them, it was just so transformative for me and how we can really help to be empowered but also empower men at the same time, which I think is a lost art.

So that would be my most influential story I've ever read by a woman. Oh, I love it. So Queen's Code by Alison Armstrong. And I did read this book a long time ago, probably eight or nine years ago. And what I remember about it is the importance of sort of the feminine balancing the masculine. Right. And the beauty of us being in our feminine as women, as leaders, and that when we over masculinize ourselves, that our connections with others, in particularly men. Right.

And especially in romance, goes down the drain. But we can see it happening, right, Sydney, in everything, when we forget our true self, which is feminine. You know, all of us have masculine. All of us have feminine, but. Right. Yeah. It's so true. And I was just talking. I had someone reach out to me that I was managing him for a few months on this team, and he reached out to me and he told me how in need men are of the nurturing, motherly support and love.

And it was because I had sent him some supplements in the mail when he was sick. And I think that we forget, as women that mentioned appreciate the feminine. They love the nurturing nature of the feminine. And if we can infuse that into. This is what I do a lot with people as well, is helping them infuse that into business and not make it a bad thing, but make it our strength.

And I think that as women, we, because we've been forced into these masculine roles in a masculine world that's been designed and.

And built by men for the last, however many centuries, us finding and returning to the feminine has been one of my biggest challenges, but also one of the greatest gifts and the greatest gift to my, you know, my, the men in my life as well. So, yes, I think it's so important to see it as a strength and to actually boost it up and enhance it as much as we can. Oh, I love that. And, you know, and I. We're on the same page, Sydney, because I do believe that that's what business needs right now.

Right. Is the wisdom of women. And it is that nurturing component, is that empathetic component. It's the component of us that sees the beauty of everything in the world and feels everything in the world. And then has wisdom come from that? Right. That we have a different sense. So I'm so happy to have you here, and I'm so all of our listeners, I had the opportunity to meet Sydney in April. We were. I think it was April, yeah. We were at the entrepreneist founders weekend in Orlando.

Beautiful weekend, beautiful place. And you were speaking in front of this incredible room full of visionary women founders. And you were speaking at the time on behalf of selfpublishing.com, which we'll come back to. And I just was inspired by your leadership in the room, your ability to connect with the audience. And I could tell. I can tell now, using your language, you were soul selling. And then, of course, I didn't know that your full time job wasn't self publishing.

You are a transformational speaker and leader, and you are able to use this skill across many platforms. And that's, I think, such a wow, remarkable gift to be able to give to others, to businesses, to founders who may be, are, you know, maybe aren't as comfortable in that seat, and we can learn from you at the same time.

So tell us a little bit about how you got from being on the floor, sleeping on a mattress, to when I saw you a couple months ago, you know, in front of a great big room of people and inspiring us all. Yes. Oh, my gosh. So I, like I said, I got started at 21 years old, and I actually grew up in a very small town in Montana. We always say, more cows than people there.

And I remember watching movies as a young kid and being like, I'm going to move to California or to New York and, like, make my dreams come true and become this, you know, become someone that is inspirational and motivational and a good role model for women and a breath of fresh air for men. And. And that was. That was what I wanted to do and create. And so I booked a one way ticket to California I had $50 left in my account when I arrived, and I ended up having no job, no place to live.

And one person that I knew in the whole state, and I called this girl, I had met her on instagram the week prior, and I convinced her to let me move in with her. And I happened to meet the right person at the right time because she took me under her wing for the next four or five years, introduced me to her mentors, who were multiple million dollar earners at early thirties. And I got put into the right place at the right time and with the right work ethic, I started to learn sales.

I started to be mentored by high integrity leaders. I started to leave people double my age very quickly and build sales teams and help people with their health and wellness. And, you know, over the years, I grew a massive, massive organization in, you know, eight or nine different countries. Had a lot, a lot of fun, but I got to the place two or three years ago.

I don't really know when, but I remember feeling like I had, I had been on so many stages, I had been propped up as this, you know, mentor at 24, 25 years old, but I felt, and I had all this money, but I felt no fulfillment. And I felt like I had had, like, the soul sucked out of me slowly. And it wasn't until I found my way to a spiritual advisor and had like a really dark time, like a dark night of the soul kind of thing.

Feeling very lost, losing a lot of people in my life, bad relationships, the whole thing that I was like, I gotta make a change because I've gained the world, but I've lost my soul.

And so I seeked out mentorship

from my spiritual advisor, Mitch. And he, you know, sitting with him for 3 hours a day over the last two, three, four years. And slowly but surely I was able to really return from the hardcore masculine back into my feminine. I was able to balance the physical and the spiritual wings of the bird, if you will. And I was really able to figure out how to become fulfilled and happy without needing all the success to do that. Still being able to have the success, but not needing it to be okay.

And so there was a huge piece of that that was identity deconstruction. And what happened was all the skills that I had learned from being in sales and network marketing and building these teams and speaking on stages every week. With the help of healing and with the help of spiritual guidance, I've now been able to marry the two and feel much more fulfilled, make a lot more money, and not literally need any of it to be okay. And I think that's the big honor and win.

And now I have the super great honor of having space to speak and having space to write about the things I care about and have conversations like this. I love it. Well, and I. Sydney, there's so many things here. So tell us more about Mitch, because I know he's a big part of your journey, and we all need mentors, right? We all need those people in our lives to help us find our way and. Sounds like he came into your life. And who is he, and who is this person?

And how did this person make such an impact? Yeah. So he was actually introduced to me by my first mentor that I moved in with years later, and. And I saw her transform in front of my eyes from being a powerhouse businesswoman to now becoming a very skilled and talented full time artist within, like, three years, and. And had a massive transformation. And I resisted him for a long time. I didn't want to talk to him for quite a while, a couple years.

And I finally got on the phone with him, and I learned he was like a normal guy out in Colorado. He used to play baseball. He was a NASA space engineer where he worked on the Hubble project. He has a really high iq. He's like a Mensa IQ, which is one of the top zero 1%. And so just this really brilliant man who found his way to ashrams and found his way to sanskrit lineages and ancient practices. And so he's been able to marry the two as well.

The feminine and the masculine, the physical and the spiritual. I started to just sit with him, and honestly, what's so cool about him and his approach is it's completely opposite of everything people teach in the western social media world. Accountability, hitting your targets. What did you do this week to get closer to your goal? None of that. None of that. And because there was none of that, there's been no, hey, you need to do your practices this week. Hey, you need to meditate.

Hey, you need to do that. Nothing. It's been, hey, let's explore the nature of reality together. Ask any questions you have. And if I've had direct experiences that I can share with you, I'll share them with you. And because of that approach, the reverse approach, the eastern philosophy, I've made more progress than I've ever made any other way. And so it's really taught me how we can succeed in a way that's opposite of what we've been taught in western society. And the less we grab for things.

And the less we try for things, sometimes, the more we find the right things we're supposed to be doing. And so he's just been such a. I mean, he's been the backbone of everything I've done and everything I continue to do, all my speeches, all my books that I'm going to be writing. He's just, he's my sounding board for those things. And it's, you know, everyone needs a mitch, I always say. Everyone deserves to have a Mitch because he's, he's the embodiment of love.

He's like, no conditions, no strings attached. And to have that safety is just such a cool model to have. And to be able to try and model myself after absolutely. In the force for good models that I developed, there's a part of it that's very analytical and linear. And then there's the question of who are you being? And there's three things. Be wise, be formative, and be of highest and best use.

And so it is what you're talking about, those listening from within and cultivating a relationship with something larger than yourself. And when you have that, you can come from a completely different place. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it's a, it's. I wish I had a term for. It's like putting words to the word list. It's like this spiritual strength.

Strength is not the word, but it's like when people come from that place that you're talking about, that place that's so stable, so secure, doesn't need validation, doesn't need explanation, doesn't need anything. It's like that is that, to me, should be the goal of all of us to achieve is coming to life from that place of service and just that being so solid in who you are, being so solid in who you are and what you're doing.

Because when we come from that place, we're able to serve, we're able to show up and we're able to do it without needing anything, needing the validation, needing the attention, needing the love, needing the things that all of us are working to seek and find in life. Usually, which, of course, those things were just trying to fill the holes, right? And if when we're in that place and we act from that place of that wholeness, it's different.

And when you build a company and you lead a team that you're coming from that whole loving place, then it's like you said, then of course the customers come, right? Of course the right team members, the ones that really, really are going to help fit into your culture, into your vision. That's when the flywheel starts to go, and it's at the same moment you're less attached to it. It's like that goes, and it's, you know, and I'm okay if it goes or doesn't, you know. Yes, my, um, Mitch.

Mitch shares with me this great, uh, like, circular quote, almost, where it's, keep showing up for the lovely possibility without being attached to the outcome. Yes, it's, how can we. How can we just keep doing that? How can we be completely unattached to the outcome? Keep showing up, keep serving, keep operating, you know, and, uh, and when we do not detach but have non attachment in our lives, we can create magic.

And I think it actually loops back, Coco, to being in the feminine and realizing that the feminine is receptive. And so if we're trying to force things to happen all the time, we can't actually be in the feminine and receiving what we're supposed to be receiving without having to do anything, be anything, just because that's our nature, is to receive. Yes, it is our nature to receive. Even though we've forgotten it, society has forgotten it. Right.

What you talk about with identity deconstruction, shedding the societal conditioning, where we think that we have to prove. We think that we have to demonstrate our belonging and our worthiness. Talk to us more about this identity deconstruction and what this method is and how you use it.

Yes, well, first I'll share, I mean, I guess, kind of a story. The perfect way for me to show identity deconstruction for myself is showing up on this zoom or this podcast. Prior to deconstructing identities, I would have woken up at 06:00 a.m. to wash and straighten my hair and probably put some extensions in, and to put on all this makeup and to wear the perfect shirt so that I looked perfect.

And then I was always perfect so that I felt like people would approve of me or take me seriously, or think I was smart, or think I was beautiful, or think I was enough. And that was my way of operating for a very long time. And with identity in general, that's what we do. Along the way, we come up with strategies to figure out how to get what we need or what we want, which is usually love, attention, affection, care that we didn't get growing up. And so we seek that out in tv.

We seek that out in food, we seek that out. Some people in porn, we seek that out through buying clothes, through gathering information, through having a nice house, through having the perfect husband, through having the great being a good mom. All of these things, we take on these identities, and then we say, I am a bad mom. I am pretty, I am smart. I am the strong guy. And we build up these identities, and we build them up and build them up and build them up, and we attach to them.

And identity deconstruction is the opposite of that. It's taking away, and it's asking yourself, who am I without being pretty? Who am I without being smart? What am I?

Like, what? Who am I without my career? And when. When I did this practice with my mentor, many times, he had me write I am and align on my paper. And he said, just write I am in a line and fill your whole paper with all the things that you are. And then he said, are you always smart? And I said, no, I definitely make them decisions. Are you always pretty? I'm like, well, definitely not now. When I wake up in the morning, are you always going to be a sister? And I said, well, yeah.

He said, what if your sister dies? I was like, okay. I said, well, I'll always be a human. He said, what about when you die? I said, I won't be human. Then all that's left when we take away these identities we've created and constructed to be good enough is the I am, which is our awareness, which is our consciousness, which sounds really deep, but it's true.

And so when we realize that the essence of who we are without all those bells and whistles, the trinkets and la la las that we've picked up along the way, we realize that we're these eternal, loving, kind, caring, passionate beings. And when we don't need all those identities, when we can release them and take them away until all that's left can't be taken away, imagine how we'd operate in the world. We'd be so much more kind to each other. There wouldn't be war.

We wouldn't be dealing with all those politics stuff that is going on in the world. We would be, our entire identity would deconstruct, right? And that's challenging for most people, but that's what I'm doing myself. And then sharing with others and teaching them how to do is, how can we not need any of those things to be okay? Right? What's, you know, interest. There's so much depth to that in just being able to show up in a moment and acknowledge, you know, this is the moment, and I am.

And the power of that. And you're talking about being able to consciously say, I identify what I think I am in this moment, or I identify what I think I was in the past, and then to be able to break free, right? Because so much of our desire for change or better life or whatever it is, and again, it's helping us release that holding back. And if we can let go of those things, then we can show up anew in the I am, right? And I see it practically.

So this is all very esoteric, but, like, I see it for myself, right? Very practically going through different stages of my business growth and having to, like, am I bad if I don't show up in the office every day, right? If I don't do as much, if I don't, you know, scrub the toilet, am I bad? You know, like, am I a poor leader? Like, if. What if I, you know, and now I, the company that I own, the company that I own, I no longer go to the work anymore. I'm just an investor.

And, you know, and so, you know, and I participated on a very, very, very high level. And so having to let go of who I am, right, in order to make room for all of that and the growth that has come for others, for the service of my business and for the service of a larger vision has. And now I have a much larger vision for what's possible for me. I think it's all related, right? As business owners, right? We have to let go of what we think we have to be right now to make room for the next.

Thing, especially as women, because there's such an expectation of even just having to look professional, to have people take you seriously, right? Just even that alone. But you know what you said about am I a bad leader if I don't clean the toilets and all those things? I went through a huge. As people deconstruct their identities, as we take these things away, I went through a huge existential crisis that continues constantly of, well, then what's the point of doing any of it?

Just be a shitty leader, and I just won't do any of the work, right? But what happens is we almost have to completely deconstruct to the point where we have nothing left. And then from there, we build up from selfless service.

And so then everything becomes about not what can I get from this, but what can I give to this? How can I show up? They call it Seva. In ancient lineages, Seva is selfless service. How can I show up and mop the floors with zero attachment to the outcome and zero of anything in it? For me. And it sounds like you're in that place of, like, being a selfless servant and a steward of the businesses that you're a part of. And when you are, you actually work harder. You actually put more energy in.

But the come from is not because you need it to be, okay? The come from is not because you need the love or the attention or the validation. You don't need any of that. It's because it's coming from that selfless service and that place of, you know, showing up without being attached to the outcome. I certainly hope so, Sydney. I hope so. You know, I try to come. My question I ask, which maybe is similar, is how. How can I be of highest and best use? And sometimes it is cleaning the toilet.

Yeah. You know, like, I'll be honest, that doesn't very often happen, but you know what I'm saying? Like, it could be anything if you're showing up authentically in the moment. And you can. You can really, you know, so, so tell. I want to make sure people also, I think they're gathering from us what you're saying. And how does this affect showing up when you're speaking, when you're leading, when you're selling? I mean, it's every. I always think that speaking is like.

It's kind of like probably like marriage or having a kid. It, like, it amplifies everything that you do on a daily basis. So when I go on stage. Yeah, that are my insecurities get amplified. Right? The things that are my biggest, biggest gifts that I get to overcome are amplified. And so again, I just go back to my becoming unpretty, which was my biggest identity. Deconstruction that I had to go. The biggest one I picked up was becoming a pretty girl.

And that has showed up in everything I do in life and especially on stage. I would not go on stage without a spray tan and my full face and makeup and my eyelashes, my extensions and my hair. And so my process has been, how can I go on stage is completely me and can I finally get to a place where I'm comfortable in that? Right.

And what I found is the more and more I do that, the more authentic I show up and the less I'm even worried about how I look, because I'm going on stage to be of service to these people. And for me, I used to get so anxious, I used to get so nervous, so in my head, overly practicing my talks and things like that. And as I've started to deconstruct my identity over time, it started to fall away. I've started to speak more from my heart. Prepare less, not care less, but prepare less.

And really showing up from that place of how can I serve the audience? How can I show up? How can I serve? How can I be of highest use? And when I ask my friends, you know, my divine friends, for that, I can do that. And so I think, again, very esoteric. But as we go into our life, as we go into being a mom that day or being in the office that day or be on stage or showing up for a sales call, it's, hey, divine friends, if there's any of you out there, can you help me?

Can you just help me show up from my highest and best and be of the most service? Because I know I can't do it all myself because I'm just a human being. So can you help me? And when I ask for the help, I receive the help. And then I just got to trust that whatever comes out of my mouth, whatever I'm doing and saying is going to be the highest and best that I can deliver in that moment. And that comes through in speaking, that comes through in our businesses.

But for me, it's become a lot less how can I do the right things and how can I just deliver whatever message is supposed to be delivered to the, to the people. Yeah. And through you. And so one of, so I have a belief that if you're listening within and you're following that guidance, you just, you end up going everywhere you're supposed to. And I'm, I'm very sort of intrigued by your journey, Sydney, because you have found your way on, on stages. Like, that's your gift.

Yeah. And like, every gift, every gift we have, there's like, there's like a dark side and it's like a, you know, it's a part of it that's really heavy and burdensome. And it's beautiful for it to listen to you talk about your, you're allowing that gift to be your transformation, that it becomes your journey of transformation so that you're willing to let go and try new things in the thing that you're so good at that you might be perceived at being so good at. And it makes me.

And what I'm going to think about after this conversation are the places in my life where I need to really lean in and deconstruct myself, where I've decided I'm so good at it in this place, or I've got it so figured out right. This is the place that if I let myself I could really grow, right? Yes. Because I'm seeing that with you. I mean, look at you go. Totally. Thank you. Well, it's a constant. It's a constant. Not challenge anymore. I don't see it as a challenge, but it.

It's an honor to deconstruct. That's how I've had to really start looking at it, because it's so challenging and difficult in moments to be. Like. Whatever you're thinking could be. The thing is, like, the thing you don't want it to be, and that's how, you know, it's the thing you want it to. It needs to be. And for me, it was like my worst nightmare to have to go on a stage without doing my hair. You know what? And, yeah, everybody different.

But I think the deconstruction process, it's an honor if we can look at it as an honor, and it's only bestowed on those who are brave enough to face the challenging things so that we can be the best versions of ourselves and find our way to what we're supposed to be doing. I think if we can look at it from that stance, more of us will start to do it, because we are then of higher service to people.

And while you're of extremely high service, you may be of higher service in another area as you deconstruct certain things that you don't even know about yet. And that's the exciting piece, right? Is that we get to. We don't even know what's around the corner for us as we deconstruct and what that will look like. And for me, I never thought it would be speaking or writing or anything like that, but here we are. I love that. So tell us. I know you've. How did you learn? Because.

Okay, so now I want to sort of become a little more concrete. So, speaking is a skill that founders and leaders can use, and you have been able to leverage that in a really big way. It's elevated your career. It's elevated other brands. You've been able to really, now people pay you to come and speak on their behalf of their brands.

And so for those of us who want to get better at speaking and getting out there and speaking more, whether it's on podcasts or it's on stages, going to conferences, being on panels, what is it that you would suggest for us?

Great question. I recommend if you don't, let's start with people who don't have the opportunity to go get on a panel or a stage yet as a keynote, because that can be, unless you have a lot of experience, it can be a little more challenging, starting slow or easy. I would say start to create environments where you can be speaking to lots of people in a structured way.

And so if you're a leader, get your team together and start doing a weekly call with them where you are presenting information and educating on something. Maybe it's divisions of your team. If you have a larger organization with like five people per division, if it's a smaller team and you have five people total, do a weekly call where you can show up and train on a skill set or a mindset or something like that. That's what I used to do with my sales organization every single week.

On Mondays we would do an hour long training or a 30 minutes training and I would train on something new, some sort of skill set. And what that did was it allowed me to have to think of an idea every week, have to write a training for it and deliver a talk. When I told my mentor back in the day that I wanted to be on stages because I saw the people in the front held the mic and they made the money, he said, I said, how can I practice? He said, go run trainings for your team.

And so I recommend put yourself in environments where you can kind of control it. You know who's going to be there? You. You make the education, the curriculum. Act like you're on stage, act like you're presenting in front of 5000 people. Then what you can also do. Something else I did was I would do weekly calls and then during COVID I would do daily calls for 15 minutes. So I learned how to have a topic every single day. Repetition, repetition, repetition is the mother of skilled.

And so I started to do that every single day. Then it started that I started making so much money that the company was like, hey, let's get you on stage. And I would do a five minute share of my story and it would be so scary but I would do it and I would practice it and I would practice it and practice and practice it. And then you get one step closer, right? So you can do some of those things within your company or your organization.

If you have a team, then I recommend diversifying and going onto podcasts. So like what I like to do is I like to do an outreach strategy. I create a list all the podcasts I would love to be on my dream 100, right? Yes, yes, yes. Out to them, just like I did with you. And I was like, I want to be on this podcast. I reach out, this is how I can offer value to your audience. Right. Here are my ways of speaking that I can do that.

So you reach out to those companies, then do the same thing with stages and start to reach out. And again come back to, how can I be of the most value? Don't say, hey, I want to be on your stage. It'd be really cool, blah, blah, blah. How can I add value to this person's stage? Can you go volunteer your time and be on a panel locally? Can you go to bni meetings? Can you like getting out there? I don't even care what it is.

Put me in front of the stage and I will execute and I will perform and do what I have to do until I get good enough so someone will pay me. Right. Just from that approach. You just have to start getting out there, getting scrappy, being willing to do it for free for a while until you're able to do it for pay. Right. But it's the only way to get better at writing or speaking or whatever it is you're doing is by just doing it. Doing it a million times. And it's.

And it is when you're at the point where you are now, it's not a big deal to make another call and do another outreach. But the first time, probably the first 50 times, it's hard, right? It's so hard. And it's. It's so. It's all that inertia. But you have to know, every time you're doing it, it's like you're. You're actually setting yourself up for a whole lifetime of getting to do whatever it is you want to because it's transferable.

Now, you have courage to do this hard thing, but it means you can do another hard thing, too. And so it's really. I love what you're talking about. And so much of what you just said, too, about starting with your team. Like, if you have a team of two, team of three, you can do this. And you could talk about your purpose and your value and your culture and your vision and your product and what makes it special and, you know, your philosophy and mindsets for your company. We call them mantras.

You know, your impact mantras. And so, like, you can come up with all that, right? And then it starts to take on a life of its own. So I also like to think about the. Of course you're good at this, Sydney. If you. If you were doing this every day with your team for 15 minutes, of course you are, because you had 365. Or maybe it's 250 if it's just Monday through Friday, you know, iterations a year versus the person's like, well, maybe I'll try it this week, maybe I'll try it next month.

Who gets five iterations a year? Of course you're going to be better at doing it and more confident and, you know, look more seasoned because in fact, you are, right. Yes. And another thing that just came through. Go live online. Yeah, right. If you don't have a team, go be on Facebook Live. Go be on Instagram Live. Go on TikTok. Like put your face online. Be online. Talk to the camera. Talk to yourself on camera. Record in front of yourself.

There's really a million ways to do it, but you have to practice. And, and, and it was even down to me acting like when I was on a sales call, I was practicing. I was practicing presenting my product. And it's like that's now, that's what I do for these companies on stage. And it all comes down to repetition and being willing to be bad enough long enough until you're good enough. That's it. Like, can you be willing to be so bad at what you do and not care and just bust through it eventually?

And those are the people who have the success, right? All the greatest of the greats of started where we all did, which is nothing. And they just were willing to look stupid and fail more times than all of us. A lot, right? Fail a lot. Yes, yes, yes. Sound stupid, make mistakes. You know, even looking back, it's so embarrassing to see what I've put on. I'm like, oh, I know.

And I look, I feel like very much, Sydney, I'm in that, you know, I've been a healthcare entrepreneur and, you know, I'm in, I'm in exit right now. By the time this, this comes out, I will have exited. But it, you know, this is all very new to me, you know, so I launched a fourth worst for good about a year ago. And, you know, it's just practice. I'm just trying something new and it's awkward and weird and I'm with you, right. It's like.

But I actually what I, what I, what I think and what I believe this is back to your point about finding who you are. I like talking to people one on one. Yes. And I enjoy, I love doing these podcasts because I learn, I get to, you know, I get to pick who's on the show, right. And the questions you ask, you get to learn whatever you want. I get to decide, you know, what I'm going to learn and it's always exhilarating for me.

It's always fun, and, you know, and I. And I. And I don't know where it ends, where it goes, right. We just. We just listen to our wisdom and follow it. And here we are, Sydney. And I also think for people who are listening, if you are like, I never want to get on stage ever, don't do it. If you don't want to do one on one podcast, don't do it. Like, I think we feel sometimes that we have to do things, but you love doing this podcast. You may not like getting on stage.

For me, I don't ever feel as myself as I do on stage. It is amazing. I love doing me one on one podcast interviewing people. I'm not as savvy. I don't. And it doesn't light me up as much, but being on stage does. And so it's also, like, try it all. Find out bad at everything and be good at everything eventually, but then. Then assess, do I really want to do this right? Because it'll take you on a whole different path. And so I think it's.

It's. When we know thyself, it also comes down to, what do we actually want to do in this never ending business landscape of opportunity that's so wide? And everyone says, you should do this and should do that. What do you actually want to do, exactly? What are your strengths? And I love what you said. I have a mentor, Regina Thomas, our mama Jean. I don't know if you know her. Oh, you got to check her out. If you don't know her. You got to know her. She's like another queen's code kind of lady.

And she calls it pleasure research. And it's where she always. She says that we have. I don't know, is it 86 keys on a piano? And that we usually play only, like, two or three? And how cool would it be if we tried to play them all? And who knows? You don't have to play all of them all the time. But, like, yes. You know, and. And then you might discover, I do like podcasting. No, I'd rather write. No, I'd rather make Excel spreadsheets.

Like, and then how do I find a team, a Sydney Riker, to come out and speak on my. On the behalf of my company? Right, right. And sell the crap out of whatever it is. So I want to pivot now to selfpublishing.com, because that's where I first saw you, and you were doing an amazing talk about that. And I know you're an authorization and you have a book coming out in December, and I'm an author with a book coming out in December. Oh, my gosh. Stop. Isn't that cool? Isn't that cool? That's so good.

So I wanted to hear more about what is selfpublishing.com? let's start there.

So selfpublishing.com is kind of like the best of the publishing industry. They are an organization where we help people self publish their books so that anybody who wants to publish can publish without a literary agent or going through more of the traditional publishing route. So if you're listening and you're not familiar with publishing, traditional publishing is really great nowadays. It's very different than the nineties, but it's very great if you have millions of followers.

You have really high credibility companies or brands. It's great for that. If you don't have that and you still want to get your book out there and you don't want to give a bunch of rights and royalties and upfront fees to a company, we will help people with the entire process, from writing to editing, publishing, and marketing their book without taking any rights or royalties on the back end of that process.

And so, you know, we have a ton of successful clients who have gone on to create author careers, to grow businesses from their books all through self publishing, which is just such a cool gift. And now going through their process myself, you know, I feel like I can genuinely speak to it, and it's been such a magical experience. And also they've made writing process a lot easier than I thought it would be. I never thought I could write a book, and now I want to write like, ten or twelve books.

So, you know, it's a really cool, really cool program, and it really is. I was, I looked at it when I first met you back in April, and I was already further along, and so I decided I really couldn't use those particular services. But it seems like there's, but there's a marketing piece also, which, so if somebody's already got a book, right, there's a marketing piece that could also plug in. Is that. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, so actually, we worked with someone this weekend.

I was just at another event speaking for them, and this guy who owns a really cool virtual assistant company, he came up to me and he goes, hey, for physical therapists, actually, he said, he was like, hey, I already have my book completely done. I have the COVID done, I have the description done, and I just need to put it up somewhere and market it. And I was like, why are you just sitting on this thing?

So we helped him and we took him and we're going to, he started our marketing program, and so we're going to get him all, you know, uploaded, published on Amazon and Ingramsparks and really support him with, sorry, my thumbs up, with ramping up his marketing efforts. Because I love the quote by Robert Kiyosaki, rich dad, poor dad. He says, I want to be a best selling author, not a best writing authorization.

And I love that quote because so many of us as entrepreneurs, we don't care about writing the best quality book, like being a literary genius. We want to get a book out there that will grow our business and that we can sell a lot of copies of or generate a lot of business revenue to our business. And so with someone like him, we want to be able to give a lot of awareness out there in many different avenues and many different streams.

And so that's how we can, we can support him a lot, whether it's through podcast outreach strategies, social media strategies, running ads to the book, SEO optimization. I mean, we have a pretty thorough marketing program just because a lot of those people that we're working with in the marketing sector, they're the big business guys and gals that want to really drive revenue to their companies that are multiple seven, eight figure, nine figure organizations.

And so we support people pretty in depth with that. And it's really fun to see what's possible when we can have a big marketing budget. That's awesome. So if there's any, if you're listening and you have a book that you are thinking about writing, thinking about publishing, or maybe you're starting the book or in the middle of it, go to selfpublishing.com. it really is a great resource. And you can, there's like, you know, different tiers of service.

So you could go all the way from having somebody else write it, from it for you, a ghostwriter, to having somebody just guide you, to having editing. You know, there's a, there's a lot of different options. And having just gone through the journey of writing a book myself, and I did the audio last week. I did. Oh, my gosh. Cool. How long did it take you? It was three solid days. I have a 75,000 word book. So it's, it's a pretty hefty book.

And, um, and it took me three days to do the initial, and then I came back and did some retakes on Friday. It was magical. Just, I can't wait, to. What's it called? It's called a force for good. Oh, my gosh. I would love to get it once it comes out. Oh, you betcha. You betcha. I'm going to invite you to be on my launch team, girl, I'd love. To be on your launch team. For real? Yes, please. Please invite me. So tell us about being unpretty, returning to our naturalness. Your book.

Tell us about that. So it's funny, I actually, because we're on the topic of books, I wrote the book, and then I've almost finished it, and I was like, this is. I sat with Mitch, and I was like, I don't think I wrote the right book for what this is supposed to be. And so I went back to the drawing board and rewrote the book. And so I just completed. I'm in editing right now, but it's. But it's really a lot of. I mean, a lot of what we talked about today, identity, deconstruction.

How can we, and how have I. What is the actual process that I've been through of deconstructing an identity? How do we do it? What are some practices we can use along the way? And how can we, as a culture, as an.

As a world, return to our naturalness, which can be not just the way we look, but the way we are with each other, the way we treat each other, the way we treat ourselves, the way we operate in the world, our priorities, the way we interact on social media, like, all of these things, right? A lot of it's not natural. A lot of it's synthetic. A lot of it's artificial. A lot of it's our highlight, real. How can we return to our true essence and which is love, quite honestly?

And how can we do it together, and how can the book be a holding of hands, if you will, in that process? Because I think we all need our handheld through the process. We all do. We need each other. You know, we need each other in the world. And it is. It's such an important part of our journey to find ways to connect with each other, with truth and authenticity and love. Business leaves love. It does. I think that there's such a lack of commodity of love and business.

And I think it's something that it is our job as women, like, going full circle to the beginning of this episode. I think, if anything, we have the job of bringing more care and compassion and love into the workspace. And I'm telling you, when we do, I got firsthand experience of the men appreciating it, feeling like they need more of it. And imagine if they felt respected and appreciated, how much better they would do in business, how much better we would do in business. We'd all thrive.

But it comes back to us leading the way and spearheading that, I think. I could not agree with you more. So how can our listeners work with you? How can they be in touch with you? Tell us about your services and what you would like us to do next. Yeah, so, I mean, there's a few different ways you can find me under Sidney Riker, on any platform, on social media. If you want to connect and get connected to the SP selfpublishing.com team, reach out to me there.

I can get you connected with the team. If you are needing someone to speak on your behalf for your company, I'm here. If you need a keynote on stage, I'm here to give me a shout@sidneyreicher.com. dot. You can find it a little forum on my website under the speaking tab.

And then if you want to pre order my becoming unpretty book, you can go to that website as well. And it's going to be there for pre order. Yeah, you got to go preorder her book. Okay. Go to sydneyreicher.com and you'll see, as you scroll down the page, you'll see you can. There's like a click to pre order. And the other thing that's right, there are these daily, free daily practices. Right? Those are, those are recorded by my mentor, Mitch.

So you guys can get access to, like, what it would be like to have a meditation session with Mitch, which is so special. I was going to rerecord them in my own voice, but I was like, it's so special to have it from his because he's been doing them for 30, 40 years. So if you guys want to go download those, those will always be free for anybody who wants to use them. Wonderful. Unbelievable. So I just have had such a wonderful experience talking to you today, Sydney.

Your heart is wide open and golden and bringing goodness all to all the stages that you fill. And as you travel around the world, because I know you move around, you really are a force for good. You really are making the world a better place. And, you know, I'm honored to know you. You have to let me know next time you're in New York. I will. I'll let you know. And hopefully I have a place there soon. I'm so excited to have gotten to be here with you today. You're such an incredible inspiration.

And honestly, I feel like I just found a new female role model. So thank you so much for everything you're putting. Oh, well, thank you so much, Sydney. Thank you to all of our listeners. Thank you for being here on the wisdom of women show and the world is made better by women led business and let's all go make the world a better place.

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