- CEO Story: Rachel loved serving others and being part of other people’s joy which led her to the hospitality and special events industry. There came to a point though that she was burned, and the joy was not there anymore. And so she took time off. Then she discovered that she is at her best, she loves helping people get money. She loved Coaching and Consulting and going to conferences. Helping people succeed drove Rachel to her entrepreneurial journey.
- Business Service: Delivery speeches to any industry to serve others. Burnout and how to bring back joy into your life.
- Secret Sauce: Being vulnerable and being happy, putting happiness first, and how it is related to any aspect of the business.
- CEO Hack: A daily email; Notes from the universe
- CEO Nugget: (1)You owe it to yourself (2) It's a privilege to impact other people and to get better
- CEO Defined: You have a great responsibility to make a difference and be in charge
Website: http://www.rachelsheerin.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelsheerin
Facebook: Rachel Sheerin – Speaker, Trainer & Coach
Instagram: https://web.facebook.com/RachelSheerinSpeaker/
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Transcription
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00:25 – Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.
00:51 – Gresham Harkless
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Rachel Sheeran of rachelsheeran.com. Rachel, it's awesome to have you on the show. What I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Rachel so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Rachel is a speaker trainer and sales coach who is an expert in the hospitality industry. She is on a personal mission to help people sell more, be happy, and define success on their own terms. Featured in Inc. Magazine, This Week in Weddings, Lodging Leaders, and more, Rachel's clients include hotel sales teams, catering companies, meeting planners, and more. And if you're Looking to inspire your audience, supercharge your sales team, and build a life that's bursting with joy and profits, Rachel is your guru. Rachel, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
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01:40 – Rachel Sheerin
Absolutely.
01:41 – Gresham Harkless
All right, let's do it. So the first question I had was just to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.
01:47 – Rachel Sheerin
You know, I fell into a job after college. I loved serving others. I loved being part of people's joy. And that really brought me to the hospitality and special events industry. And I loved it. I mean, nights, weekends, full time. It was awesome. I worked in, you know, different venues in and around Philadelphia, as well as Charlotte, North Carolina, which is my home and my HQ, and long story short I loved it until I didn't love it. And I think that's a really common story for high performers. Oh, you're going, you're going, you're climbing the ladder of success, new titles, new comments in your salary. And all of a sudden, what you have loved, that joy you get out of work advantaged for me and I experienced burnout and so a few years ago I said, you know what I can't do this anymore.
You know my employer at the time I was trying to negotiate a few months off, you know, please hold my job. It wasn't working out. And I get that. As a CEO, they needed to do what was best for a company, you know, I had helped build. And so I took some time off. And what I really discovered, My CEO story was what was bursting out of me anyway. When I am at my best, I love helping people get money. I believe that money's freedom. And I also realized that the whole coaching, consulting, training side of things, I always loved trainers. I loved going to conferences, watching speeches, and getting inspired. And you walk out of there and you're like, I'm a changed person. So the 1 thing that I realized though, was I thought I could do it better. And that's how I became a CEO. And it's what I love seeing other CEOs do.
03:30 – Gresham Harkless
I love that. And I, the ones that I do drill down a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more about like how you're serving these clients. I know you touched on it a little bit, but could you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing?
03:38 – Rachel Sheerin
Yeah, absolutely. I really have 2 main components of, you know, my business. The first 1 is keynote speeches. You know, I deliver speeches typically in the hospitality industry or to any industry that serves other people. So it could be things like the medical industry, government, and social services, you know, anything from salons to wedding planners to caterers to hoteliers. And if it's your job to make people's day better, to serve others and you have that servant's heart, I want to help you with that. Because a lot of times what we see is a massive amount of burnout. Burnout, again, it's when joy leaves your work, it leads to high turnover rates. The medical industry is 74% year over year. And when you think about, you know, let's think about your mom going into the hospital. We don't want the 3 out of 4 brand-new nurses doing that, right?
We need to keep great people in their positions so that they're competent and they're qualified. Now doctors, experience burnout, they stick around a long time, which means they're miserable to work with and they're miserable in their life. That's not fair either, but they probably have so many student loans, they can't quit. Absolutely. So I really focus on 2 very main keynotes. 1 is about burnout and how to bring joy back into your life, and also prevent it for other people. Know the signs. I call burnout, depression, really successful cousin. And it is true because everything looks so good. I was a 6 figure earner, award-winning director, executive, all this stuff. And boy was I miserable. I was crying on the way to work. Sometimes it was tough. So keynotes, I love it. It's motivational. It's high energy. It's very real talk. I'm very low BS when I talk about it.
And I think people really respond to that. On the training side of things, just like I said, I saw people training and I said, this is boring. This is like being in school. And I understand, I think school has its place, but adult learners were combating, you know, iPhones, tablets, meetings, chances are, you're sitting next to somebody in a training class, everyone clicks up when they sit down. I'm a professional behavioral analyst. So what I do is I bring in professional assessments prior to arriving. I assign seats to people who naturally conflict in behaviors. And I love it because people are nervous. And by an hour in, people are understanding, not other people themselves. Give me 2 hours, to understand others. Hour number 3, appreciating others. And then we build on sales, profits, happiness, and communication from there.
Because to me, the killer of every single team, it's not talent, it's not skill, it's not education, it's likeability in its communication. But if we don't break down those barriers in a real way, I'm not here to talk to you like this. And please look at the slide with all these, you know, sentences on it. Boring, and super lame. A lot of my slides are going to have memes or videos or Saturday Night Live skits. And I bring energy to it because what I'm here to do is help people sell more and be happy. Even if you're not in sales, right? When people sell more, you represent that company all the time. And I do believe employers want their employees to be happy. They just don't know how to do it. And I come in and I try and help them with that.
06:48 – Gresham Harkless
I wanted to touch a little bit deeper on that likeability piece. Could you talk a little bit more about that and what you mean by, you know, most organizations are kind of struggling with that?
06:56 – Rachel Sheerin
Absolutely. So, you know, you think about it, when a new leader or team member comes onto a team. What is the first thing that the manager or maybe somebody introduces about them? Is their experience. You watch all their kind of repertoire that might fit in and make this person a logical fit. But studies show only 21% of your success in a job is your experience and your education. 21%, over 70% is gonna be your soft skills and communication skills. I think engineers do a great job as an example, not to pick on them, but engineers, I mean, their genius is walking around, right? I specifically don't do math and they love to do math. What a bunch of weirdos. I love, that they are so intelligent, but if nobody likes you, then nobody cares. And you can really see that a lot of times in very dominant personalities, you know, the president right now and Hillary Clinton, right?
They both ran for president, 1 won, 1 did not, and you can see that everyone in the world has an opinion about them. And really only ignorant people might say that they're stupid. They're not, you know? It's the way they go about things that makes them so polarizing. And you see that all the time on high-performing teams. People are competitive. People are driven. People do have the same goal in mind. And yet they completely have an obliviousness to how they're coming off and the value of being light. Or, you know, it's like a great artist, right? You may meet them extremely talented a visionary. Oh, my art should sell itself. No, story sells, personality sells.
And yeah, you don't have to be… I'm not asking you to change yourself and become the Walt Disney or… I mean, look at Steve Jobs, right? Likeability wasn't high on his list. I reserve the right to say most people are not Steve Jobs. I mean, they're not. And so we've got to work on that a little bit. And I think especially for high leaders, when they start having a product, a business, a really successful service, they tend to top out around that 3 to 5000000 mark and they struggle. And it's always people and they're always losing people and hiring new people and then blaming the people when they leave. And that cycle's got to be done. It's, it's got to be over because that's our responsibility as leaders to really work on ourselves and then hope to influence others.
09:12 – Gresham Harkless
Thank you for expanding a little bit more upon that. And now I wanted to ask you for your citrus sauce And this is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or sets you apart. So give us an example of your secret sauce.
09:21 – Rachel Sheerin
Yeah, absolutely. I would say to me is being vulnerable and being happy. I think that when you look at corporate training, I think that the chances of you finding somebody talking about happiness for employees in and outside of work. I couldn't find it unless you're going to have some PhD doctor come in who's going to talk about the science of happiness. And I got to be honest, Grash, I don't have time to care about science. It's not my strength. And We're all moving forward and very, very busy. It's 1 thing to know that it should work, but it's another thing to feel it. And I think that my secret sauce is really putting happiness first and understanding how related it is to every aspect of a business. If you're happy, service is better. If you're happy, profits are better. If you're happy, daily life is better, retention is better. I mean, oh my God, people lose weight, they sleep better, they look forward to coming in.
How many people have you worked with that when they arrive, you're like, oh no, you should have stayed home. And it's every day. So I think the happiness from an actual how I do what I do, or back to that secret sauce, putting happiness first for sure, but also just living by the 4 agreements, which I know is a great resource. Growing up, I loved to talk and I was terrible at following through. And what I realized was that if I'm going to live the kind of life I am and serve the way that I want to serve, I've got to follow through. And I do everything the second I finish with a client. You know, I don't care if it's pulling an all-nighter. I can sleep on the plane ride home, but I want to make sure that they're getting everything. And it keeps me in line, too.
10:56 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And it kind of reminds me of this quote. I think I heard a long time ago where a kid was sitting in class and everybody was asking like what do you want to be when you grow up and he said he wanted to be happy and then somebody said you didn't understand the question. It was like no you really didn't understand the question because that's something that I'm achieving to do so it's great that you have that you try to impart that upon you know the people that you're training and you're leading.
11:15 – Rachel Sheerin
So true that's awesome I love that quote.
11:18 – Gresham Harkless
Yes absolutely So now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.
11:28 – Rachel Sheerin
You know what? I'm going to go a little woo-woo on my hack. It's not an app. It's not a book, though. I love a lot of those things. It's actually a daily email. If you Google notes from the universe, it is an email that comes out daily and it's by this guy named Mike Dooley. And Mike, I've never met him, Kind of an odd guy, definitely in connection with the universe, does a lot of retreats in Peru. And the long story short is this email, have you ever had something delivered that's so simple, that it just blows your mind for a day? Or how about a week? Or how about a year? Or how about your life? These notes from the universe emails arrive every single morning. I'm an Eastern standard. So it arrives around 3.30 in the morning. It's the first thing I look at in the morning. That's right. I break the rule of no email first thing. And I only read this 1. And the way it is, It's a note literally from the universe, telling you some kind of universal truth that's out there.
A few days ago, 1 really, hit me hard. And I shared a lot of times with my clients or with my Instagram followers. And it was about how time, the record time for climbing Mount Everest is just a little under 9 hours. Talk about something I didn't know. What am I doing with my 9 hours? Why am I going to limit that? It's like Beyonce and I have the same amount of hours in the day, which, okay, but you could climb Mount Everest in 9 hours, you know? Like what? Come on! And I think that there are lessons you don't have to do anything if you miss It's no big deal, but they're always waiting there and for somebody who wishes they were a meditation guru, but never meditates It's a great mindful pause to start your day off with. So Google notes from the universe, sign up. You can always unsubscribe, but I think it's a game changer and it does help with happiness for sure.
13:09 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. And I think like you mentioned simplicity, sometimes the simplest things are the things that make the most impact. So, now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?
13:24 – Rachel Sheerin
I would say that you can own the privilege and the joy of influencing others, that you owe it to the world, to yourself, to go big in whatever ways you really feel called to and be unapologetic about it. But it really is, it's such a privilege. You know, it's a privilege to get to be here with you. It's a privilege to get to wake up in the morning. It's a privilege to be able to influence other people. And if somebody gets something from 1 of these hundreds of podcasts they're doing, Gresh, like a victory achieved. This is what it's all about. So go get after it. I just heard a Jim Rohn quote and I don't think I'll ever forget it. And it said, don't wish life was easier, wish that you were better. And I was like, yes, we have the privilege to get better. And we have the privilege to influence others. And when we make it, that's showing other people they can make it too. So own it and dig into the joy of being somebody who can influence the world and change it.
14:22 – Gresham Harkless
There you go. I definitely agree with that when you're operating in your unique brilliance, so to speak, and you're being authentic to yourself. As you talked about, you definitely can give people permission to do the same and it makes the world a better place. So I think that's definitely a great CEO nugget. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question which is the definition for being a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show, but I wanted to ask you, Rachel, what does being a CEO mean to you?
14:44 – Rachel Sheerin
That's such a good question. I would say being a CEO, I would say being CEO to me means that you're, you have a great responsibility to be in charge of your life, to influence others, and to make a difference in the world. You know, we are not the cog in the wheel, we're the entire machine. And that's an awesome responsibility with the right perspective.
15:07 – Gresham Harkless
Absolutely, and that definitely rings home and it rings true. So I truly appreciate your time, Rachel, for taking your time out with us. What I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and then also how best people can get ahold of you.
15:21 – Rachel Sheerin
Thanks. Yeah, I would just say, thanks for listening. Keep listening. As I travel around the country, working with everything from small businesses to larger ones in training clients, annual meetings, that kind of stuff. The 1 thing CEOs have in common is hunger. And I love being around hungry people. So make sure you're running with hungry people and listening to the podcast. If you want to reach out to me the best way, I love email. So please email me. Hi at RachelSheerin.com. If you want to see very cute pictures of my pitbull. You can catch me on Instagram at Rachel dot Sheeran But I just really appreciate it and I'm cheering you guys on wherever you're listening to this You may be struggling you may be having a bad day. You may be having a bad day, you may be having a bad week, a month, hopefully not a bad year, but you've got it. You've done the hardest part and not started. So don't give up. There are others out there cheering you on too, but you got this.
16:13 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Great reminder and thank you so much again, Rachel. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:18 – Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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