Heather Monahan – Founder & CEO of Boss in Heels and Author of Overcome Your Villains

Heather Monahan 0:00
When you shine a light on shame is when you ultimately extinguish it. I am unwilling to give up

Kara Goldin 0:07
that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be, I want to be just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don’t get knocked down knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control.

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Kara golden show, though, join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go Let’s go. Hi, everyone, its Kara golden at the Kara golden show. And I’m so excited to have my friend and next guest here and another author that is on our show with her second book and Heather Monahan and she is such a rockstar I’m so so excited to have her here to talk a little bit more about who she is and what she’s done. So we can all be inspired and learn from her but also talk about her new and latest book called overcome your villains, which is so so awesome. And just like the best picture, by the way, Heather, I absolutely love it. I was so excited to see that you picked that because I remember when you were thinking about what the picture was going to be on the book, but you just look so strong and awesome. In that picture. It’s a it’s a, as my 16 year old son would say it’s a good or so it’s a it’s definitely a good one. So today we’re talking with Heather, in addition to the book, she’s the founder and CEO of Boston heels and also the author of confidence creator. And she started her career in the corporate world, like many of us and spent years climbing the corporate ladder in media. And from there, she started her company, Boston heels, and it’s a global community and lifestyle brand dedicated to helping others gain confidence. We all need confidence at every point along the way, no matter where we are in our journey. And Heather is just like I said, So educational, so inspirational. Her book is so awesome. And I am so excited to jump in and really hear a lot more about her entrepreneurial journey. And the one other thing that I will say about Heather and about Heather’s journey as well, I consider you an entrepreneur today. A lot of what you had done previously, he wasn’t necessarily like an entrepreneur, but you were living that entrepreneurial journey. And I think like that’s the thing that people have to think about, especially today when so many people are thinking about starting their own businesses. And maybe they think I don’t have the experience to be able to do that. I mean, that was the key thing that I thought about when I was reading your book and thinking about you when we were getting ready for this interview today. I think it’s super awesome. So awesome. Congratulations, and welcome. Welcome. Welcome, Heather.

Heather Monahan 3:14
Oh, Kara, thank you so much. Thank you for all of your help. Thank you for welcoming me here. And thank you for all your support.

Kara Goldin 3:20
So great. So talk to me about little Heather. So who were you as as a kid, you talked about it a little bit in the book. I’m not going to spoil it but but like you strike me as someone who has always had tons of energy and motivation, but talk to me a little bit about who you were as a kid.

Heather Monahan 3:38
Yeah, I am. As a kid, I was not very confident at all. I was super competitive and very driven. You know, I always wanted to be heard and be seen and I grew up poor. And that was a real driving factor in my life. I had a job at nine or 10 years old, I had my first paper route and then bussing tables and then waitressing and bartending and you know, I just worked my whole life. That’s the one thing I knew was make money so that you don’t have to struggle so that you can get out of this situation. So for me, that was just a real driving factor that ended up you know, in the end, it was a gift, it didn’t feel like it. You know, during that time, it was, you know, definitely challenging during my childhood. But when I look back, it’s so clear that from the time I was nine until I graduated college, I was refining my sales expertise in sales skills. And that was really the foundation of my business success in corporate

Kara Goldin 4:35
America. That’s awesome. And where did you grow up?

Heather Monahan 4:39
I grew up in Western Massachusetts, and never been there. You might not want to go.

Kara Goldin 4:45
One of our investors actually grew up there. So Ken Sadowski Have you ever met Ken now? funny because I know you’re in Florida now he spends most of his time in Miami. Oh, you should totally Meet him.

Heather Monahan 5:00
i Yeah, I have to I have to meet and then of Western kid living in Miami. Yeah, that’s perfect.

Kara Goldin 5:07
Terrible. Yeah, he’s like one of my favorites. So he actually prior to being on our board and being an investor in our company, he was at vitamin water for years. And he’s sort of a legend in the beverage industry. And he still goes back there quite a bit, but he’s, but he’s spends most of his time in Miami. So I definitely have to connect you guys separately. Super fun. So So you were waitressing. I read and and what I also waitressed, I talk about that in my book when I was through college, I figured you know, I always told people eventually I was going to do something else. But I was waitressing. And I looked back on, you know, the ability to actually serve customers and really understand what people want on the other side of the table, I think oftentimes, are at the table often, you know, I think back on those waitressing days, it’s such a great skill. I mean, maybe it’s sales, but it’s also like, you know, engagement, right? And understanding how do you make problems go away quickly, right? Maybe the kitchen screwed something up, but you’re not going to be it’s not going to be very helpful for you to actually say, hey, this wasn’t me, this was all them, right? Instead, it’s just fixed the problem like things like that, I think were so key. What do you think you learned from, you know, waiting tables and kind of being in that world,

Heather Monahan 6:31
being a part of a team, being a leader on a team, right? You know, realizing that it doesn’t matter the position you’re in, you can show up as a leader, you can show up as a problem solver, right? You can you can begin to lead, no matter where you are. age wise, or position wise, that was one of the things that when I look back on working in restaurants, it was so fun, right? You’re with this huge group of people. And everyone’s somewhat like minded and fast paced, and like you said, you know, fixing fixing problems and finding solutions and 86 this and you have to come up with, you know, how are you going to handle that for your customer that’s sitting out there waiting for that order. It was a lot of fun. And it taught me how to work and move quickly in a fast paced environment with like minded people. And, gosh, that team building really resonated with me so much so that, you know, I was ultimately duplicating that for teams in corporate America years later. That’s awesome.

Kara Goldin 7:29
And then you went into the radio business. Talk to me a little bit about that.

Heather Monahan 7:34
Yeah, well, this is a long time ago, holy cow. I, I graduated college in 96. And this was probably three years after that I and I first went into the wine business for a couple of years, and then when to radio. And so I kind of just stumbled upon the business. I was at a networking event met a gentleman had no idea who he was. We didn’t even have Google back then. Right? So you couldn’t research people. And I was chatting this man up. And he offered me a job. I went to work for him the next day. And he taught me the radio business, which was really, you know, all around advertising and marketing companies and basically knocking on doors and selling. And so within the first year working for him, I became his number one salesperson. And right at that same time, my boyfriend cheated on me. And I was devastated. And I went to work crying and I my boss was this great man. He was the owner of the radio station. He said, sit down with me, tell me what’s going on. I explained everything. And he said, Do you want to move away from here? Make a lot of money and make a name for yourself in business? I said, yeah, um, oh, my, you know, Sign me up. I want to get out of here right now. I wanted to flee from this boyfriend. And he said, You can’t ask me where we’re going. You’re just going to get on a plane with me and know that I’m going to drop you off and you’re going to run the company. And I said, Okay, I’ll do it. He said, Oh, my God money. Yeah, it was crazy. And I would have never done it had this boyfriend not cheated on me, right? Because I thought I was marrying him. And and so it’s one of those moments in life where when you’re in it, you can’t see you’re just devastated, upset, you know, and trying to escape the upset. But when I look back, this man gave me a gift that I would have never taken that I would have never boarded that plane, which ended up dropping me off and Saginaw, Michigan, and we bought a $27 million operation. And my job was to scale revenues as rapidly as possible so that we could go ahead and flip the company to another Radio Group, which we did. We sold it for 55 million in under three years and netted almost 30 million for myself and my partners. I was a small equity partner, but it was still it was it was a great opportunity.

Kara Goldin 9:50
Yeah, and you knew nothing about. I mean, first of all, you knew you didn’t know where you were going, but also you were you hadn’t run a company before you were in You know, in this business of flipping companies by any but you just went and tried, because something I always talk about is when you think about what do you have to lose, as my dad used to say, always think about what’s the worst that can happen. And if you really, like, think about the downside, if anything you do you start to realize like, it may, it probably won’t even end up to be that bad. Instead, you’re going to go and do something, and then that ended up to be great. And if nothing else, it would have been a great learning experience. But that’s an awesome story. I love it.

Heather Monahan 10:34
Well, I’ll tell you, when I think about that time I worked because I didn’t have the experience or expertise. As you mentioned, I knew the one thing I could do is outwork everybody that that part I knew. So I just I worked seven days a week, and I was the first person in the building every day in the last person to leave. And just that work ethic alone really built up some credibility for me at a very young age. You know, all of my employees were older than me, all my employees were more senior than me. So I look back, and I totally respect what I did. But oh my gosh, I would not want to go back and do that job today.

Kara Goldin 11:07
Yeah, no, absolutely. And so you’re you’re hanging in Michigan. And then what how long did you live there?

Heather Monahan 11:14
Just short of three years.

Kara Goldin 11:16
And then where what happened after that.

Heather Monahan 11:18
So they had the company that purchased us wanted to force my hand to stay and run the company after my partner’s left, which I was never going to do, because I was only there for the equity piece and for you know, to work with my old boss. So they forced our hand by putting a non solicit that he could not hire me for three years of time, from the time we close the deal. They thought that would make me stay but I was leaving Michigan, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. And I asked my old boss that I trusted, I can’t work for you any longer. Where do you think I should go? And he said, Well, if you can’t work for me, you can work for my one friend in the radio business, George Beasley he’s in Florida, fly down, meet with him. And within no time, you can run that company. And he was right. I flew down to Florida, I met with Georgia sun. And I took a big step backwards to run a small operation within their large company. And then once I proved myself within that first year, I pitched myself for a job that didn’t exist VP of sales, and I was awarded that position.

Kara Goldin 12:21
That’s amazing. So you were there for 14 years, and something happened to you?

Heather Monahan 12:27
Yeah, over 14 years, I was promoted three different times, I became the chief revenue officer of the company. And I was named one of the most influential women in radio in 2017. And a couple of weeks later, I was fired when the CEO that I had worked for for 14 years, became ill he decided to replace himself with his daughter who had been our CFO, and also my arch nemesis. And she fired me.

Kara Goldin 12:53
Amazing. And then and so you found yourself for the first time fired? And how did you feel about that? At that? Did you just horrible, yeah, screwed and you know, everything else?

Heather Monahan 13:07
Yeah, you know, I remember that day, I cried for three hours, it’s a three hour drive from her office, back to my home in Miami, I cried that whole ride home and I remembered thinking, I’ve lost everything. Everything I’ve worked for my whole career. You know, I built this huge team, I built this reputation. I just felt like I lost everything. However, it turns out, I lost one thing, which was the paycheck, but they can’t take any no one can ever take anything else from you. I also I remember that day thinking, you know, I’m replaceable, how am I replaceable. I’ve also learned you’re not replaceable. No one is replaceable, you know, people can go ahead and get rid of you and move on with their business. But it will never be the same as it was when you were there because everyone’s unique, talented and different. Right. And so it’s been a wild ride to be gone from there now four years and look back on that company now and see the trajectory of my business versus the trajectory of theirs. It’s just it’s been, it’s a crazy, crazy time that I would have never, I would have never picked this, you know, I was never gonna raise my hand and leave that company to go try to write a book or try to you know, start a company, I would have never done that. And it’s just been a really unexpected and, and bumpy but exciting ride.

Kara Goldin 14:23
That’s awesome. So you decided to start your own business after 14 years? Why did you do that? I mean, what was sort of the thinking, you know, why not just go work at another, maybe a competitor or whatever? I mean, what was sort of the thinking behind it?

Heather Monahan 14:40
Well, the first thing, you know, in full transparency, when I became the chief revenue officer, I had to sign a very binding agreement in order to you know, get into the C suite. So I four went the opportunity to compete against that company for 18 months, anywhere in the world. So I had I I might, you know, I’ve said, Okay, I want the job, I’ll sign this. So I had signed that a couple of years earlier, when I got fired, I knew I had to leave the industry that I had expertise and a strong reputation. And so that was part of the upset, right? Sure, it would have been great if I could have gone across the street and competed against them, because I would have buried them. And I was so fired up about it. That would have been ideal. But that opportunity was not on the table legally, I had, you know, four went that opportunity. So I remember getting home and thinking, Okay, I can’t stay in the industry that I’m an expert in. I have to start over as a beginner somewhere. Where do I want to start over as a beginner. And it was not clear for a while, but I ended up I put up a post on LinkedIn saying, I’ve just been fired. And if I’ve ever helped you, I need to hear from you. Now, that post went viral, and I had so many opportunities as a result of it. One of them was from froggy from the Elvis Duran show, he tweeted at me, hey, if I can help, just let me know. And I tweeted back, get me on the show. And he said, Okay, so I flew to New York, I had no idea what I was gonna say. But I just knew if I stay in this one bubble that I’m in, you know, the radio business, the people I know, I’m not going to create anything new, I’m not going to find a new opportunity. If I step out of my bubble and enter into, you know, a different arena, I could find new and different opportunities. So that was my attitude going on the Elvis Duran show halfway through the interview, he smiled. And he said, Well, Heather, obviously you’re writing a book. But I wasn’t, I was never gonna write a book I had grown up in my family. I was the social one, you know, the sales one. And I had a sister who was the smart one, you know, she had her PhD. And you know, she had perfect LSAT scores. She was the one that was supposed to write a book, not me. But in that moment, someone who I looked up to and really thought a lot of basically transferred confidence to me transferred his belief in me that this was possible for me. And that just always reminds me that in any moment, anyone can change the trajectory of somebody else’s life. And he changed my life in regards to what I thought was possible for me, I jumped on the plane, and I Googled, how do you write a book? And it basically said, you just have to sit down every day and write, there’s nothing else to it. Yeah. So I thought, you know, I got fired, I’ve got some free time right now, I don’t know what I want to do. So I’m going to sit down, and I’m going to write and that’s what I did.

Kara Goldin 17:28
I love it. So that was the first book confidence creator. And what were the things that people were saying about that book? And I know you had so many people that wrote back to you and love that book. And and what what did you learn kind of about yourself that maybe was unique or, or a gift that you had, maybe a resilience that you had that that other people didn’t have? Right, that you felt like you had to share with people?

Heather Monahan 17:56
You know, it was funny, it was so often I received the response from people after reading that book, holy cow, this is my story, too. I really identify with the story. And I used a compilation of my lowest moments in my life, to showcase how I learned to leverage confidence from them and how the reader can to so I was very vulnerable, sharing about my divorce about getting arrested. I mean, everything in anything negative that’s happened in my life. And I’ll tell you so many people love that. Right? They love that piece of wow, you know, you were willing to put that out there. I’m proud of you. I want to do that too. But what’s interesting for me is I had walked around with a lot of shame my whole life, because I felt I had been poor and I hid that from people I had been arrested, I hid that if I had been divorced, I hid that. So the more I began to put that stuff out to the marketplace and be vulnerable, the better I felt about myself, that was a competence creation moment, because I no longer had to hide under this idea of what if someone finds out in that’s when I basically learned when you shine a light on shame is when you ultimately extinguish it. And that was my biggest takeaway. Yeah.

Kara Goldin 19:07
And I find too, when you’re showing your own vulnerability, it opens other people up to be able to show their right but that it’s like, it’s almost like wait, did I just say that? Right? And they’re reading about you, you took the first step to show your warts, right. And now you’re, now you’re opening them up to share theirs. And I think we all need to be able to do that. Because that’s how you that’s how you break through on so many, you know, challenges that you’ve had, maybe you didn’t think that you could write a book, but then you did. And you share with people sort of what you learned along the way. It really wasn’t that hard. This is the part that was the hardest and I didn’t expect it, whatever it is, and I think like that, that is what I think that you’ve done and and the other thing that I want to really call attention to is when you were sort of This moment where it was almost like you were stuck. It sounds like you went, whether it’s LinkedIn or onto any other social platform and just shared, right, you shared sort of this challenge that you were having. But you asked for help. And I think like, that’s another thing that we think like, we can’t ask for help. Because people don’t want to be helpers. People, maybe you’re a little embarrassed about a situation that’s happened to you. But figuring out how you can sort of share or ask for help in a way, there’s a lot of people who won’t respond, but you only need a couple. Right? And that’s it. And that’s exactly what you did. But I think that’s brilliant, on so many levels. And we all need to like learn from that. I

Heather Monahan 20:43
totally agree with you. Now. However, Karen, I’m sure you know, this, when I put that post up. So many people that loved me, called me and said, Take That post down, you look pathetic, know what no one’s gonna want you if you’ve been fired. And I had to wrestle with that idea of, do I feel like this post is okay, is this post, okay, for me, I know, it’s not for my family, and some of my friends and they, they don’t want me to have it out there. But making that decision to say I’m gonna listen to the one voice that really matters my own and that that was a challenging moment, but I’m so glad I left that post up. And you’re right, by asking for help you give other people the opportunity to help you, which makes them feel happy and excited. You know, they’re, they’re glad if they can if they want to fit the time. And like you said, some people will, some people won’t, but give that opportunity. You know, it’s not on us to decide what other people you know, is possible for them or what they want to do. But extending that opportunity was definitely the right answer.

Kara Goldin 21:41
Yeah. And I often think I talk a lot about, you know, when I decided to leave tech after a successful career in tech and decided to go, in their mind, start a beverage company. I mean, the number of people who said, What are you doing, I mean, this is crazy, this is stupid. What I figured out later on is that oftentimes, when people tell you take that post down, or, you know, you shouldn’t do that, that’s really stupid. They’re actually talking about their own fears. Right? They’ll never admit it, but they are, and they don’t want you to take some kind of risk. I really think that most of the time, it comes from a place of like, love or trying to be helpful, but they don’t really know. Right, and you have to make your own decisions as to whether or not something is right or wrong, or that you’re doing it for other reasons that maybe they can’t actually embrace or visualize in some way. So I think that it’s, there’s so many stories in, in your journey that I just absolutely love that are very inspirational, and that we can all learn from so you talk about in your book about the villains. So talk about, you know, tell everybody a little bit about these villains and, and who are they? And do you believe everyone has these villains?

Heather Monahan 23:04
Yes, I totally. I believe that I mean, you unless you live in a bubble and you’re agoraphobic and not leaving your house. Yes, you have villains, and some of them are easy to spot, right? Like this woman that hated me for 14 years at work. People that roll their eyes at you, you know, they give you dirty looks say rude things we know those people are obvious villains. The harder ones to spot are the ones that appear to be friendly. But after you leave them, you’re second guessing yourself, you’re feeling drained of energy, you’re not feeling your best and you start seeing that’s a pattern that’s going on and on. I had a girlfriend, who I call a sneaky villain. And again, it doesn’t mean they’re bad people it means they’re bad for you. Right? It has nothing to do about who they are just how you respond to them. And I had a girlfriend who were very nice and did nice things for me. But every time I spent time alone with her I would get home and I was constantly feeling bad about myself whether it was oh, I weighed too much or I shouldn’t be doing this job or I should be married or I should I should I should and I kept noticing this about myself when I would journal at night and I finally decided I’ve got to create some boundaries and space between her and I it didn’t need to be a big falling out or anything it was just more you know, I’m busy I don’t have time right now. Thanks for understanding and slowly I create that space and I started feeling a lot better about myself you know that’s one way of firing a sneaky villain is creating boundaries and creating space. But the biggest and most challenging villain any of us will ever face is always the one that lies between our own years

Kara Goldin 24:35
Yeah, no I think that that that is so critical but I think when you we all have I call them doubters right you have the you all have the somewhere that they want to surface right and and when you have people around you that are the villains I guess it’s like you’re more likely, if you hang out with them if you allow what they say to effect You, too, to those, those people’s words or feelings that they will surface, what’s inside of you that is so dangerous and won’t allow you to be the best that you can possibly be. And so I think you talked about separating yourself from from those people, but also kind of developing call it thick skin, but also, you know, don’t care. Like you have to figure out how not to their noise in your world. And I think that that was another thing that I really got out of your book, too. You also talk about your three step process, which I absolutely love. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Heather Monahan 25:40
Yeah, that’s my back process, which is around beliefs, action and knowledge. And it is a proven three step process that can help anyone overcome a challenge or adversity. And it starts with number one, your belief so we can use me getting fired as an example. That was a challenge, right, that I faced, I faced adversity. The first thing had I known to have this process back then, which I didn’t, I would have analyzed the belief, right, I walked out of there, and I thought I lost everything. So if I were to dismantle that belief, to the only only what is factual, right, that’s so that’s the first thing you want to do, no matter what challenge you’re facing, D mantel, that belief to what is there for back many times, you’ll see there’s no fact right. So for me, I had lost something I had lost a paycheck, but I didn’t lose my network, I didn’t lose my reputation by skill set, you know. So really look into that belief, because so often it is not true, it’s a lie. Next thing is immediately take action. And this is where a lot of people get caught up. You and I are not like this, we are definitely action people. But some people aren’t right. So for me, I had a harder time dismantling the beliefs to finding out you know, what was the truth, but then it’s easy for me to take action. So when you know, you looked at the belief, you got to the core of what’s real, you take some step of action, for me that was putting the post up on social media to say, I just got fired, I need some help. You know, in any situation, it can be anything small or large. But the key is to take the action step to build momentum and start creating opportunity. And the third part of the process is knowledge and really the knowledge that you’re surrounding yourself with. And to your point earlier, you know, not asking people who haven’t been where you’re going for directions, right? Surround yourself with knowledge that is credible, positive and useful to you, asking, you know, someone in the beverage industry that took a big risk and found success. Let me ask you what you think about this concept of me leaving Silicon Valley and starting this company, right, starting to surround yourself with people who actually have done the things that you want to do and are far ahead of you, and are probably gonna be willing to pull you up and cheer you on along the way.

Kara Goldin 27:48
Yeah, absolutely. But also, I think, the other piece of it too, that I think you do really well as you go outside of your industry. So you weren’t sitting in the radio world, right, which you had grown up in, you were actually expanding your network to be outside. And so I think oftentimes, it sort of speaks, I guess, to the villains that are out there, maybe people, you know, think about you and one way and I think when you go and do something totally different, you go create a company, you go work in a different industry, you can, in some ways, recreate yourself, right, and bring the good, that, that maybe you know, the skills and all the things that you had, but into this new industry, too. And again, I think it’s it’s a great opportunity. And your book is, like talk so much about this, and it’s just so inspiring. So I absolutely loved it. I loved. You did a TEDx talk, too, which was so so good. If people haven’t seen it, they should definitely go check it out for sure. The other thing that I just wanted to mention, too, that I admire you so much for as I see your pictures of your mother of a of a teenager is a teenager yet or Yeah, or teen. Yeah, yeah. And so, um, I have four that are a little bit older. Now I have one that my youngest is 16. But you know, I think like, the thing that I’ve learned is that you actually sharing so much about your journey and your career. I didn’t know until my son was 12 how this was like, sort of wearing off on him in a good way knowing that, you know, as he says, Mom, you’re badass. Like you just go figure this stuff out. You’re not You’re not afraid of anything. I’m like, no, no, I’m really afraid. I’ve had all kinds of bad things. You just have to get back up again. That kind of attitude and that kind of discipline to go figure out. How do you move forward? It reflects on everything you do. And I think it’s just it’s really I love seeing your posts on social because every once in a while I get to see you with your son and it makes be really happy because I’m sure that it’s, you’re a positive influence on him, especially in a world where women are not supposed to be able to be heads of companies. And maybe there’s not enough of us or whatever that is, but you’re out there doing it and setting an example for the next generation. And, and I think it’s great. So

Heather Monahan 30:21
Well, thank you so much for saying that. I’ll tell you, that’s not always the response I get from people. And it’s an interesting conundrum. Because to your point, the other day, my son was having a tough time at school and I wasn’t having the greatest day and and he came home and he was kind of complaining about school, you know, like, oh, gosh, I’m behind and this man, I can’t believe me, I get it. You know, I’m behind too. And, and we were commiserating and feeling bad and said, You know what, we need to go put on eight mile and watch Eminem, you know? And like, Let’s shift our mindset mom and like, get and I was like, Oh, my God, you get it? Yes, you’re right. That’s exactly what we need to do. Right? Let’s, let’s change our mindset. However, I’ll never forget this. I went on the Dr. Drew show a couple of years ago, and we were talking off air and he said, Oh, gosh, Heather, you know, what does your family think about your book? And I said, My mom doesn’t like it. And he said, I totally get it. And I said, Hey, why? How do you get it? He said, My child’s writing a book right now. And I’m scared to death to see what it says. And I said, Well, why? He said, Let me ask you a question, Heather. He goes, fast forward in your life, 25 years, he said, you get a call from your son. And he says he’s writing his first book. And it’s going to be a deep dive into his past and his learnings. He said, and there’s going to be chapters about how you disappeared and weren’t around because you were traveling, promoting a book and starting a company, and you weren’t around as much as you used to be. He said, You have to understand there, there is the potential for these moments. And it was, it was interesting. He wasn’t being mean to me and telling me not to do it. He was just saying there’s two sides to anything, right? Like, you could be excited for your child to write a book. But you might also be nervous to say, oh, gosh, was I really there enough? You know, these are just all the questions. I think that swim around in our head. Some days, I feel like I’m doing the greatest job. And other days, I’m like, oh, gosh, I hope that I’m serving this child.

Kara Goldin 32:10
No, you’re I think you’re, you’re doing a great job. Well, I just found out my daughter is who’s in college is opening for a very, pretty well known comedian. And so I’m just so this, like, sort of tops the I’ve got a book, but this sort of tops it because I know I’m part of her act

and to poke fun about, you know, various things, it’s like I’ve developed I’ve heard parts of it, but I’ve developed thick skin over over the years. Because again, it’s like, you know, you can’t let it get to you. And I think it’s like her opinion and and, and we have a great relationship. But it’s just anyways, super, super funny. So I wonder what Dr. Drew would say about that one.

Heather Monahan 33:07
For her, I’m really excited for her. That’s an amazing accomplishment in a very I know,

Kara Goldin 33:11
we’ll, we’ll see what happens. So but it’s but you know, people are like, even I had announced it on Twitter yesterday that she got this and people are like, how do you? How do you raise a kid to go do stuff like that? And I’m like, I think you just do what you want to be doing? Right? Like she’s majoring in storytelling. She’s, you know, anyway, she’s, she’s an incredible she’s doing what she wants to do and what she’s passionate about. But I think, Where does she get that from? I think it’s just me doing what I do every single day and not really knowing what I’m doing. I don’t know what the puzzle totally looks like. I’m sure you would say the same thing. It’s like you’re instead just trying to figure things out. And

Heather Monahan 33:56
that’s the epiphany that I had is that I never knew successful people didn’t have it figured out to me. I always thought the people that were super successful knew that the roadmap but that’s what I’ve learned is and grateful to you sharing that that. Gosh, the amount of success you’ve achieved is amazing. However, you didn’t know how to get there. You figured it out along the way. And that’s just it’s so eye opening to me.

Kara Goldin 34:20
No, it’s It’s so so true. Well, everybody go and pick up this book, overcome your villains by Heather Monahan. It’s so so good. And it’s at I’m sure it’s at bookstores, but it’s on Amazon and it’s also on Audible. We talked about that too. So everybody pick it up and definitely follow Heather on social she has an amazing I know you’re on Instagram and LinkedIn for sure. But definitely, she’s just such a rockstar. Where else anything else that I missed on on where people can follow you and find you?

Heather Monahan 34:54
Well, you can go to overcome your villains.com and when you preorder my book you get $500 Bonus bundle for free my competence video course the overcome your villains workbook, the first chapter of the book you get I mean, you get so much a 30 day email program so definitely go get that added value because it is not going to be up for long.

Kara Goldin 35:16
Awesome. That’s so great. Well, thank you again, Heather and, and also your podcast. Tell people all about your podcast too. It’s so good.

Heather Monahan 35:25
So yeah, if you haven’t heard Kara on my podcast, you got to go to creating confidence with Heather Monahan and check out the Kara episode. So good.

Kara Goldin 35:33
Awesome. Well, thanks, everyone for listening. And thank you, Heather. We’re here every Monday and Wednesday with incredible people, founders, CEOs, people who are sharing all of their learnings very inspirational people always and please get a chance to read my book, which I can’t believe it’s been a year since it came out undaunted, overcoming doubts and doubters. And also, hopefully, you’ll subscribe to the podcast and share it with others and all of that stuff. So thanks, everyone have a great rest of the week. Before we sign off, I want to talk to you about fear. People like to talk about fearless leaders. But achieving big goals isn’t about fearlessness. Successful leaders recognize their fears and decide to deal with them head on in order to move forward. This is where my new book undaunted comes in. This book is designed for anyone who wants to succeed in the face of fear, overcome doubts and live a little undaunted. Order your copy today at undaunted, the book calm and learn how to look your doubts and doubters in the eye and achieve your dreams. For a limited time. You’ll also receive a free case of hint water. Do you have a question for me or want to nominate an innovator to spotlight send me a tweet at Kara golden and let me know. And if you liked what you heard, please leave me a review on Apple podcasts. You can also follow along with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at Kara golden thanks for listening