Authentic Gazzy

I launched CEO Sales Sessions on May 27

And I just flew home from Orlando after filming with two guests who were on my wish list 🥹 Suneera Madhani Nekeya Parks

Btw I truly had no idea what I was jumping into and how much effort and time podcasting takes. I said yes wayyyy before I had all the details 😅

But I knew deep down that podcasting was for me

For years I’ve been creating short form content and tbh im over it 😅

What I love about being a beginner is how much I am learning about this new world of podcasting

I am 19 episodes live and 26 episodes recorded.

Every episode my team and I level up 1%

From the decor, the production, the guests , the questions, the intros, the content, everytime we are 1% more elevated

I know podcasting is a long game and I’m still a bebe podcast but I’ve always been committed to building in public with my community

this week we hit 1000 downloads while I was on my way to film with Suneera for CEO SCHOOL

It makes me so happy to know you’re listening and getting value

THE BEST THING is your messages to let me know what your takeaways are 📝

Because some days it’s just me in the stu filming and wondering if anyone will even listen?

So when you do, and you text me to tell me, it reminds me why I am doing what I am doing and for who 🫶

If there’s specific topics of guests you want to see on the pod, let me know!! 👇👇

I went to Create & Cultivate for one reason➡️ To get in a room with women who are thinking bigger than my current reality.

because when I see what’s possible for other women, it expands, what is possible for me too.

I learned something from every single person who took that stage 💯Even when it wasn’t from the material…

I studied how they held the room, how they told their story, how they commanded attention. There is always something to take!

I also studied the activations and how brands are building community using event experiences.

Here’s what I brought back:

Emma Grede:
Know your numbers. Are you growing? Do you have the cash runway to meet your goals? Never outsource analysing your data. And never neglect being close to the person who does. Emma also emphasized “ furnishing your team with the best leadership you can afford”

Natalie Elizabeth Ellis :
Your “f**k you number” doesn’t need to make sense to anyone but you. Figure out the quality of life you want and what number makes that possible. For her it was 2 million. For someone else it’s 20 million. Neither is wrong. Know your number.

Tiffany Aliche:
Nothing kills creativity like being broke. TRUE.

On AI:
Context. Role. Interview. Task. If you’re not prompting with intention, the results= AI slop. Take the time to build skills and context files.

On pitching with Kate McAndrew
The deck doesn’t close the deal. The deck gets you the meeting. Your hooks are the only thing that matters when they glance the pitch decks.

As much as I got from the speakers, I got from the 1:1 time with my Canadian girlies. The deep conversations that never happen on a Zoom call. The spontaneous ones at midnight. Our Airbnb sleepover was the highlight ngl.

In person experiences are always my highest ROI.

Every single time!! that’s why I never shut up about getting in the damn room!!!

Were there some gaps? Obvi!!! But I’ve learned that you create your reality regardless of the circumstances and my girls and I had the BEST time.

Thank you to Marina Middleton & Jaclyn Johnson for creating spaces for women to expand.

4000 ambitious women at the world’s biggest conference for women. You know I wouldn’t miss this!!!

Create & Cultivate I’ll be there soaking up the sun, the wisdom from the speakers and meeting women I’ve been following for years!

This is what investing in your network actually looks like.

Putting the time and money into getting in the rooms.

I hold the belief that every room has something to teach me.

The ROI has always been greater than my investment.

If you’ll be there, let me know 🫶

I met Business Operations for Women-Owned & Non-Binary Business Owners in 2020. Six years later, she and the team at WESK invited me to be their keynote speaker 🎤

So I flew to Saskatchewan to meet the women of WESK and deliver my keynote: A Better Way to Find Clients.

It shows you these opportunities don’t happen overnight. Relationships are your most valuable currency, and it takes effort, care, and time to build them.

I dropped a bold claim within the first two minutes of my keynote: you are not bad at sales‼️You are just done with the pushy bro marketing tactics 🙄

➡️We uncovered that 53% of the women in the room thought “they didn’t have enough people finding them.”

Most people will tell you that’s a marketing problem…

To go create more content, post more and show up more.

But it was really a leaky sales system.

Most entrepreneurs don’t have the sales systems to guide a prospect from discovery to decision.

So it was never about needing more clients… It was about helping them building an ethical and authentic process that felt good for them.

I loved and appreciated how energetic and interactive the ladies in this room were🫶👑⚡️

Thank you so much for playing full out with me. I’d love to connect further over voicenote in the DMs 💌

The instinct when you’re the only one in the room who looks like you is to shrink. Raia Carey | Coach & Speaker did the opposite.

She learned to walk into every new space and introduce herself to everyone, before anyone else got to decide who she was.

Now people meet her and assume she’s a natural extrovert. She built that on purpose.

That’s the thread running through this episode of CEO Sales Sessions.

Raia Carey | Coach & Speaker is a motivational speaker, corporate wellness facilitator, and former EDI lead at Canada’s largest children’s hospital. But the credentials aren’t the interesting part. How she built the confidence to earn them is.

The line I keep coming back to: turn what hinders you into what empowers you. 99% percent of the time, it’s sitting in the same realm.

We also get into why she refuses to call it imposter syndrome, what’s actually underneath it for high achieving women, and the one question she asks clients that most adults can’t answer.

If you’ve ever built confidence you didn’t start with, this one’s for you.

Comment LISTEN and I’ll send you the episode 🎙️