It's Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV.

The place to be to create a business and life you love.

This is the MarieTV Call-In Show where we take live calls and try and help some people

out.

This is Gregory Patterson.

Well, howdy doody?

Always the one who's making me look fabulous with the hair and I just love him.

We just have a good time together.

So, let's do this.

Hello?

Roxanne?

Yes?

It's Marie Forleo and you are on the MarieTV Call-In Show.

Oh my gosh.

Really?

Yes.

You're on.

There's Team Forleo here.

Gregory is here.

Hello.

We are so excited to connect with you.

Tell us your question and we will do our very best to help you out.

Oh my goodness.

My goodness gracious.

Thank you so much for calling me and I just love you.

Absolutely love you.

I discovered you not too long ago.

I am wanting to understand how to present myself.

I want to understand how to present myself with vulnerability.

Show my vulnerability and still show that I'm capable of helping people guiding and

coaching.

Great.

Tell me more.

I'm coming from a past with trauma.

I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I use art forms as my primary form of recovery practice.

I would love to share with other people how to recover their creative self whether they

think of themselves as artists or not because I think that creativity is very healing.

So I've always been a very private person and I was never sure how much to divulge and

how to present myself.

I'm kind of on the line of I feel like if I don't share, then I just really won't connect

with people.

I agree.

First of all, I'm so happy that you're sharing this question.

I know that we have tens of thousands and in the world there are millions of people

who also have PTSD or battle against anxiety or depression or any range and number of issues

that in the past has had some stigma with it.

As you said, those days are over.

So many of us need to share honestly and bravely about the things that we struggle with and

personally, Roxanne, I think that people who share about what they've been through, and

frankly what they're still going through and what they're battling against, those are the

people that we trust the most.

In this world of coaching and personally development and experts, I think the old model was all

about some sage on the stage that's always how I like to characterize it where someone

was standing up there and pretending like they have all the answers and they never make

any mistakes.

They're gonna bestow upon you this wisdom and guide you to the promised land.

First of all, I think all of that is bullshit.

I think it's so in authentic.

It is not true.

Every single one of us is a work in progress.

We are all learning.

We're all trying our best.

We will all face challenges.

Not only the ones that we had in our past, but there's ones coming up in the future.

I always like to describe myself never as a sage on the stage and always as a guide

on the side.

What does that mean?

That means I'm someone who is really enthusiastic first of all about learning, second of all

about using ideas for myself to see what works and what doesn't.

Then third, with sharing those ideas, the things I think are valuable with folks who

might also be interested and might also want to try these things.

I think for you, making that internal shift like, you know what?

Roxanne, you're a guide on the side and you have every right to share things.

Not like you're better than or less.

I know that's not the total crux of your question.

We'll get to the sharing and the vulnerability in minute.

But I like that framework because it allows me to then pour myself into a positioning

where I'm not better, I'm not less, and I can look at what to share that is relevant

for my audience.

I think this word relevance will be really important for you as you move ahead.

Know that sharing about your PTSD and the details that surround it, how much you share

is completely up to you.

You can start off dipping your toe in the water telling one or two stories.

Have your comfort level expand.

Then as you continue to engage with your audience, you'll know and you'll feel where you may

want to keep some details private just because that feels authentic to you and other places

where you're like, you know what?

I really do need to share this because all of these other folks in my audience have battled

something similar and it'll help them know they're not alone.

Yes.

And I really love the fact that you talk about sharing stories as opposed to sharing diagnoses

for example.

Saying, oh PTSD.

I think it's more authentic to talk about what it is and what the experience of it is

as opposed to just the name of it.

That's right.

One way that you can frame it is you can say, hey all of us have had challenging things

that we've battled in our past.

All of us have had things that we've experienced before that may be holding us back now and

we're not quite sure how to move through them.

For me, I can tell you a story about this or I can tell you a story about this time

when I was 15 or when I was 11.

How that manifests for me now is x, y, and z.

I want to take you on this journey moving forward so we can both learn, so we can all

support each other.

So I can share with you some of the tools and the understandings and the strategies

that not only have helped me, but that have continued and do continue to help me.

We can learn as we move forward together.

Can you see how with that type of framing, you're allowing yourself to be vulnerable

but you're also still communicating that you're capable?

Yes.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

This helpful?

Tremendously helpful.

It's very affirming.

I think I was there in my mind and I think there was a fear of just dipping that toe

in the water and moving forward.

Once I make the decision, I'm ready to go.

Yes, Roxanne.

That's what we like to hear.

Just know this is a process for all of us.

I think we're living in such a new time that can be filled with some conflicts about how

much do we share about ourselves.

This online space and the span of human history.

Having these tools available to us where we can share everything and people can comment

and people can get upset.

A lot of people are very brave with their anonymity behind a keyboard.

They say things they would never say to you in person.

I think it's natural to feel some of that trepidation.

It's natural to have some of those inner conflicts with how much do I share.

But when you're committed to not only a message but to transforming other people's lives and

having them feel safe around you and letting them know that they're not alone, it becomes

a lot easier.

We take that light and rather than shining it on ourselves and our fear, we turn it outward

to being of service.

For me, that has made all the difference.

Oh my goodness.

Awesome.

Yes.

Me too.

For me too.

Awesome.

Roxanne, you keep us posted.

We're gonna be cheering you on and I can't wait to hear your updates as they come along.

Thank you so much.

I'm so excited to start this challenge for women.

I really adore you Marie.

Thank you so much for your help.

Have a great rest of the day.

You too.

We adore you too darling.

Good luck with your challenge.

Bye.

Thank you.

Hello?

Hi.

Is this Esther?

Yes, this is Esther.

Hey, it's Marie Forleo and you are on the MarieTV Call-In Show.

How's it going?

Oh my god.

This is awesome.

Yes, it is awesome.

You're here with Team Forleo and Gregory and we are so excited.

Tell us your question and we will do our very best to help you out.

Sure.

My husband and I, we recently started a blog-based business called Wayfinders Now.

We are in the process of trying to figure out exactly what our niche should be.

Some examples of ones that we have are we live on a 35-foot sailboat.

I'm learning about sailing.

We're both artists.

We've cultivated more flexible work lives.

We're caregivers for a loved one with dementia.

We're also wanting to incorporate zero waste sustainability practices.

I'm also a woman of color.

We've got a lot of areas of interest.

I guess my main question is, should we narrow down or not necessarily?

How can I be more intentional about how we can serve our audience.

Absolutely.

First of all, Esther I just think it's so incredible.

Clearly you are a multi-passionate entrepreneur.

Clearly you and your husband, you guys are very creative beings and there are so many

of us in the world.

I think there's a lot of folks listening right now like, oh my gosh, how did they figure

that out?

I would like to be on a sailboat.

That's amazing.

I'm gonna ask you a few questions and we'll see if we can help you find some clarity.

First, are you guys making money with this business right now?

No.

We are not.

Then it sounds like you have created your life...

And we don't need to get into this.

I don't want you divulging anything that you don't feel comfortable with.

You've created your life in such a way where you don't necessarily need an income from

this new business at this point.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

We're able to be flexible where one of us can hold down the fort, so to speak.

About a month and a half ago I've had the liberty to focus solely on this now.

Beautiful.

For the first time.

That's great.

That is awesome.

Congratulations.

We love that.

We are cheering that on.

What I would encourage you to do is really get clear on what your goals are for this

business.

Some people start a business and they're like, you know what?

It would be amazing if in the next one year or two years, three years, I could reach this

hundred thousand dollar in revenue mark.

That is a number I'm pulling out of my butt.

Some people are higher, some people are lower.

When we're talking about a for profit business, putting some type of financial goal in place

is really helpful, especially at the stage you're at right now.

I'll tell you why.

When it is a for profit business, it has to make profit.

For you to know how much you would like to make starts to give you something to measure

all of your ideas against.

You can look at all of these ideas and go, hmmm.

Being a caregiver for a loved one with dementia, what are the possibilities to earn revenue

in that space?

What are the services?

What are the products I could offer?

What are the price points?

How much would I have to work?

How much would I have to make all of this work together in order to possibly reach the