IAM213- Podcast Host Helps Show People They’re Not Alone In Their Struggles

Finding the fantastic” between the hustle of surviving life and achieving it. Colleen Dee Tiberius Shumaker is real and authentic. With a twist of learning disabilities, she calls her superpowers, her goal is to show people they are not alone in their struggles, and they matter. She is able to do this through her podcast called “Finding the Fantastic” where she sheds light on everyday stereotypes, and the troubles that those bring, to help galvanize and motivate people’s individuality.

• CEO Hack: Not being ashamed of collecting content such as documenting videos
• CEO Nugget: You are not as stupid as you think you are
• CEO Defined: Being able to create a company that breaks boundaries of stereotypes

Website: https://findingthefantastic.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findingthefantastic/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/findingthefantastic/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-shumaker-137b4b38/

Full Interview

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

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 it is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

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 Colleen Shumaker of Finding the Fantastic. Colleen, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Colleen Shumaker 0:36

Thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:39

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Colleen so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing and Finding the fantastic between the hustle of surviving life and achieving it. Colleen Dee Tiberius Shumaker is real and authentic. With a twist of learning disabilities, she calls her superpowers, her goal is to show people they are not alone in their struggles, and that they matter. She is able to do this through her podcast called “Finding the Fantastic” where she sheds light on everyday stereotypes, and the troubles that those bring, to help galvanize and motivate people’s individuality. Colleen, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Colleen Shumaker 1:15

I'm so ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:17
Let's do it. So the first question I had was the hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

Colleen Shumaker 1:23

Oh my goodness, I think it's funny because my CEO story is one that I don't even know yet. It wasn't even written out. It's one of those things where all of a sudden, I just started a business that I had no idea was going to start, I had this idea where I really needed to, like find a way to see what I was supposed to do with my life. Because I know what I'm supposed to do with my life. I'm like, alright, well, you're supposed to get a job and do the career thing. And I'm like, I don't know what I supposed to do. So I started making videos and like, trying to find something fantastic.

And like, I didn't want to be like this motivational speaker, okay. If I heard a motivational speaker, tell me to wake up and meditate one more time, I was gonna lose it. I mean, there's a time and place for meditation, but not for me. So I start Finding the Fantastic, thinking, it's just gonna be this fun social media thing. And all of a sudden, I'm taking out an LLC, and I get myself a federal tax ID. And I'm like, I can't believe I'm doing this. And I turned into this entrepreneur who is running a business and like, to this day, people are like, oh, man, what's your business? And I'm like, it's a great question. Well, it's funny, fantastic. But yeah, that's my story. It's the story of this. It just happened. And I never thought it would happen. But I'm super stoked because I know I have the spirit to be an entrepreneur.

Gresham Harkless 2:35

Yeah, absolutely. And you definitely have energy as well, which you definitely made. But it's funny. It's funny that you say that. Because a lot of times, when you hear people's stories, you think kind of like a beautiful mind where they have all these things written out exactly, this is gonna go there, this is going to happen here. But a lot of times it just kind of manifests itself into that.

Colleen Shumaker 2:53

Oh, totally. And that's the crazy part about it. Is it just like all of a sudden just became a business? I was like, Nah, I'm not smart enough to run a business. I mean, have learning disabilities, and I don't know enough about finances and math and all that. And the next thing I've got this thing. That's business.

Gresham Harkless 3:11

Exactly. You have an LLC

Colleen Shumaker 3:15

I know it's real. I paid for that LLC.

Gresham Harkless 3:17

Exactly, exactly. All right. So I wanted to drill down a little bit to hear a little bit more about your business, your LLC, and then your podcasts, and tell us a little bit more about what you do to help support clients.

Colleen Shumaker 3:26

Yeah, absolutely. So really, I mean, I'm just gonna be 100% transparent, I started for myself, going back to what I said was my biggest fear is being pointless, and I'm very honest about it. And my biggest fear is being pointless because I can't quite figure out what it is I'm supposed to do with my life. Every day people are like, alright, well, once you graduate high school or college, it's that your career out and what your industry and career are that what you're identified as that is you as a person. And I didn't like that at all. Because of one, I couldn't figure out what that career was. And it made me feel hollow. So I started Finding a fantastic because I believe I know that there is more to this thing called life than the stereotypical getting a job in the industry.

And that's how you identify yourself. I think, in this world of beautiful people who are full of different creatives, different diversities, and different expressions, I really think we can change our lifestyle based on just believing that and finding a way to express ourselves. And so that was for all for me trying to figure out it turns out, there's a lot of people who were like, Yeah, I can get on with this. And from the social media and the website, videos, and shows, it turned into a podcast that I was like, Really, I actually quit the podcast, I started it and I quit for a month because I'm like, this is a joke. This ridiculous. Nobody wants to listen to me and the things I'm saying, but then a good friend of mine was like, No, you need to get back on that.

So I did and every time I get a message from somebody who says, I really appreciate what I heard you saying because it made me feel validated. Sometimes I bring up things that I've never been through personally just because your listener will message me and say, Hey, can you talk about this, and it's not so much I'm trying to solve any problems. I don't, I'm not a therapist, and I'm not an expert. But for the people who are with me on this thing of trying to find some fantastic, I think it's the fact that somebody is saying out loud, something they are feeling, and it validates them. So that's really the goal of finding the fantastic now, along with that, we've got merchandise and things like that, typical business-type stuff. But at the heart of it, it's really proving to people that their self-expression and diversity, and creativity are what matters in this world, not their specific industry.

Gresham Harkless 5:35

Yeah, I absolutely love that. And it's funny that you mentioned that because a lot of it's like, when you start scratching your own itch, so to speak, you start creating something for yourself, and then you start telling your story, say, Oh, nobody wants to hear this. But this is what I'm interested in. And then all of a sudden, this person is interested in that person's interest and they try to scale it back. They say, No, you need to keep doing it. Because you're helping me tell my story as well to give other people power and motivation to live their lives and find their best selves.

Colleen Shumaker 6:00

It's so true. It's crazy.

Gresham Harkless 6:02

Yeah, absolutely. So I know you might have touched on it a little bit. But what would you consider your secret sauce for yourself or your organization? What do you feel is kind of sets you apart?

Colleen Shumaker 6:10

Secret sauce. I love that phrase, by the way, because it's so true. The secret sauce, you know, it's funny, somebody actually asked me this question three weeks ago, and honestly, I think the secret sauce is my understanding that point one people matter. In my short, 31 years of life, I never met somebody who did not matter. That's the bottom line of it.

And I believe that and then the thing that goes on top of the sauce, the extra ingredient in there is that I continually push the limit on the stereotype. If somebody approaches me with an idea, I look at the idea and I say, Okay, sounds great. Sounds a little too cliche sounds a little too buttered up, let's strip it all of what it is, and figure out the authentic, transparent thing that it is, let's break the stereotype because like, I don't know, one of the things I tried to do so many times is like, I'll have people talk about things and very cliche, it's like, they can't get past what society has taught them to think and feel which I get. It's hard, but the second I'm like, No, dude, why don't you just be real about it? Why don't you just tell me the emotion you're feeling right now? They're like, really? Like, for real? Do it? That's my secret sauce. That right there?

Gresham Harkless 7:18

Yeah, well, I absolutely love that. because there are so many people that aren't doing that, that a lot of times you have that button up? Or I don't want to say like maybe the robotic answer to a lot of the questions that you have, where you don't really drill down and fill out an answer that authentic question, because a lot of people don't really want to hear that. But the fact that you actually give the time and energy to actually hearing people's really authentic answers and understanding what they're not telling that definitely is a huge thing because everybody needs it.

Colleen Shumaker 7:43

Everybody. And I think authentic is really overused these days, or it's not overused, but it's not used to its true potential. And I mean, and I think in regards to like running a business type thing and a company. Yeah, I'm small. And I've just started out. The beautiful thing about me is, there have been a couple of times where I've been caught up in the stereotype of I've had people be like, You should look for investors, you should do this to make money, you should do that to make money that I thought about it. They baited the hook, and I'm like, ooh, shiny, shiny. And then I stopped and I'm like, No, Coleen, that's not why you started this. That's not why you're doing this. That's not how your company Finding the Fantastic is gonna make the biggest impact. I'm out there to make a lifestyle cultural change. I don't want to do it to make a buck. You know what I mean.

Gresham Harkless 8:25

Yeah, yeah. When you're that mission-driven, everything else falls in line

Colleen Shumaker 8:28

Sure. I mean, money is nice. They help pay the bills to pay for Netflix.

Gresham Harkless 8:33

Exactly. Keep the lights on, which is very important as well. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that you feel makes you more effective and efficient.

Colleen Shumaker 8:47

Effective and efficient. Okay. So for me, one of the things I'm always doing is collecting content, and I hate the word content because it's really I just collect moments in my life, or I collect moments in other people's lives. I am not ashamed to get video footage of anything I'm doing at all. And when I do that, it helps me be really efficient. I'm not sitting down going, oh, what kind of content should I collect? Or what should the topic be for the next month? It's just there. People ask me all the time, like how do you come up with all this content? I'm like, Dude, it's my life. And I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed to collect it. And I'm not ashamed to say that is quality and that's so that right there super efficient way. And FYI, for everybody listening, you don't need fancy equipment to do it. I get most of my content for my Instagram story. And I save it and I go back and I reuse it. Okay, you don't need all this fancy stuff.

Gresham Harkless 9:36

I love that too. Because I think Gary Vee says a lot about documenting. A lot of people don't realize like going through your life, especially if you're running a business or starting a podcast, whatever it is. A lot of people aspire to do that. So sometimes when you're telling your story, you're going through life and you're documenting it and video through Instagram Stories, whatever that in and of itself is content that people crave and want.

Colleen Shumaker 9:56

Absolutely, absolutely and it's efficient. Like I said I can so many people sit down, and they're like, Oh, I'm gonna sit down and write out all my content for the next six months. And I'm like, How in the world do you do that?

Gresham Harkless 10:07

Right. Exactly, exactly. 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 can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your business?

Colleen Shumaker 10:18

Oh my goodness, my younger self, for sure. I would tell myself Colleen de Tiberius Shumaker, you are not as stupid as you think. So it took me like it took me 25 years to admit out loud that I had learning disabilities. And then it took me 28 years to say that my learning disabilities were not a disability. In fact, they were a superpower. And when I was younger, it stopped me from doing tons. It stopped me from doing so much. And I wish I could just go back and grab myself and say, Dude, you're smart. You're so smart. And you have this ability to do stuff. Do not think you're that dumb. And like so many kids and adults, FYI, learning disabilities don't go away when you graduate from school. They're still there. A lot of people just think they're so stupid because of them. And the fact of the matter is that you're not it's a superpower.

Gresham Harkless 11:03

Yeah, absolutely. Was it something that the switch just flipped? And you saw that that was a superpower? Or was it something that someone said or what went into that?

Colleen Shumaker 11:11

I think it was probably more of a switch that got flipped. Because it didn't matter. My parents were awesome. Growing up, they were like, oh, no, you're unique. You're smart. You're a genius. And I'm sitting there going, thanks, mom. Thanks, pop, but you're never gonna believe that we have learning disabilities. You're anybody who has a disability, it's hard to believe it, because society and stereotypes just like, keep you down. And I tell kids that I'm like, Look, it's not going to get easier, but you'll accept it better. And you're gonna love yourself more. And I think it was like a flip of a switch. I think it was just all of a sudden, one day, maybe it was fine. The fantastic. That helps. Because I think I was so involved in helping people realize how amazing they weren't valuable. They were that one day, I was like, Wait a second, like Colleen stop and look at these disabilities and realize this is a reason why you can come up with some of this stuff, like own it and love it, Colleen

Gresham Harkless 11:58

And it kind of sounds like correct me if I'm wrong sometimes whether they're learning disabilities or things that we think that aren't talents or gifts, or that we have, sometimes that's our greatest advantage because a lot of times we look at him in one way because maybe we're so close to him. But other people can see them as a really strong ability for us to kind of tell our stories or to connect with other people or be all quote unquote, authentic, whatever that is. We can split that. And so being a superpower, just like you did.

Colleen Shumaker 12:23

Absolutely, it gives the ability for so let's say you're out there. Have you ever read the book, Blue Ocean Strategies?

Gresham Harkless 12:28

I've heard about it but I have not read it.

Colleen Shumaker 12:30

Oh, it's so good. So I do audiobooks just because again, my learning disability, so I listened to it. It was phenomenal. And it's all about creating this blue ocean when your area is saturated with so much competition, you need to create your own blue ocean. Well, I read it. And I think that was another key factor in helping and I realized that with my learning disabilities because I do think so differently. I can very easily create a blue ocean strategy because my entire life has been figuring out adapting to situations and coming up with creative ways to do it. So as a business, instead of trying to follow the stereotype of all the other saturated competition, why don't you stop pulling yourself back a little bit and realize you don't have to do it the same way as everybody else? In fact, if you do it differently, maybe five people out of a million will judge you. But you're going to create a blue ocean and like chill the competition.

Gresham Harkless 13:20

Yeah, let's see. And that's right. And right in line with what I was thinking, a lot of times because somebody who has been doing it the right way to their entire life, they don't know how to deviate from anything, but that way, but young have been able to change and to shift and do whatever in whatever situation. So now when you have to do that, from a business standpoint, and starting your business, it's second nature doesn't even take much.

Colleen Shumaker 13:41

Yep. Because I will tell you what I have. If there's one word I don't know how to spell growing up, I found like 20 other words that I could just insert that I knew how to spell.

Gresham Harkless 13:50

Exactly. That's genius. I have a horrible memory. So I do the same thing.

Colleen Shumaker 13:54

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 13:55

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show to look at entrepreneurship business and what exactly that means. So Colleen, what does being a CEO mean to you,

Colleen Shumaker 14:08

It means being able to create a company that breaks boundaries and stereotypes to lead a company to break boundaries or stereotypes of whether it be an industry or a new industry. It's not just making sure everything runs smoothly and correctly. To me being a CEO and running the company is you're the person who sees outside the box and finds ways to set your company apart and take him to the next level. That would be awesome.

Gresham Harkless 14:36

I love that definition is right in line with what you said about the blue ocean strategy. So I love that definition. And Colleen, I truly appreciate your time. What I wanted 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 of course, how can they subscribe to your podcast and get a hold of you?

Colleen Shumaker 14:52

Absolutely. I always tell everybody this if you can do one thing starting today, I want you to find a way to express what you feel and who you are in small ways or large ways, because you need to start with yourself and find a way to express yourself and then start expressing yourself to other people because you matter, and you'll break the stereotype. And if you start doing that your life is going to be so much more fulfilled, you're not going to be so busy trying to be the expert in trying to be the best. You are going to be busy trying to be the best person that you are and expressing yourself to go out and do that. That's how you find the fantastic it's not that life's fantastic at all. You got to find it. So that would be my words of wisdom. And you can subscribe to the podcast. It's called Finding the Fantastic on any podcast app, iTunes, Stitcher, you name it, and then I'm heavy on Facebook and heavy on Gram, the Instagram. I'm all over that at Finding the Fantastic handle.

Gresham Harkless 15:45

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes. And I definitely love the name of everything that it stands for. And I appreciate you glad we found each other and were able to have you on the podcast and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Colleen Shumaker 15:56

Thanks so much. Thank you. I appreciate being on.

Outro 15:58

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