EPISODE 221 WITH ANNA NELSON: HARNESSING YOUR UNIQUE STRENGTHS FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS

Ready Yet?! Podcast Episode 221 with Anna Nelson: Harnessing Your Unique Strengths for Business Success

Transcribed with Descript

Erin Marcus: All right, hello, hello, and welcome to this episode of the Ready Yet podcast. My guest today, Anna Nelson, is going to, I don’t know, deep dive into my brain and tell me everything that I’m terrible at right now, everything that I’m great at. We’ve been having a fun conversation, so I can’t wait to share this with people around StrengthFinders.

Erin Marcus: And how to really recognize what you’re good at and use it, right? And use that information. I’ll let you give yourself a little introduction here and then I forgot to tell you my, how I got introduced into the world of personality profiles and things, you’re going to laugh. So tell everyone a little bit about who you are and what you do first.

Anna Nelson: Sure. Well, thank you for having me, Erin. This is super fun. I am a coach. I work with high achieving individuals. I’ve worked with entrepreneurs. I’ve worked with mid level executives at like fortune 10, fortune 50 companies. I Have worked with housewives and my neighbor’s children all in the effort to help each of those individuals gain more clarity on what it is.

Anna Nelson: What direction they should go in based on what it is they are naturally good at. And so I’ve done that for four years now, but before that I worked in the corporate world. I have worked in financial services. I’ve worked retail. I have, in order to pursue a dream working in the, in Patagonia’s corporate headquarters, so I left a good paying job to go fold t shirts and network my way up to the top, which I was offered a job there.

Anna Nelson: And I have worked in marketing. I’ve also been unemployed. I lost my job during the recession, so I was unemployed for 14 months. I’m a certified professional bra maker. I have had different business ideas along the way. And, but I have always wanted to work for myself doing my own thing, and it took me an extremely long time before I figured out that my superpower is helping other people discover their superpowers, and so that is what I do currently.

Anna Nelson: So, I live in

Erin Marcus: And it will, listening to you, it’s so similar to me where I’ve done all these crazy different things and I left great jobs to do something on my own, I’ve had things work out, things not work out, this crazy wide variety of experiences, and yet when you get to where you’re supposed to be, you’re like, okay, that wide range of experiences is what allows me to really relate to such a wide variety of people and do what it is that I am able

Anna Nelson: to do now.

Anna Nelson: Yes. And do I wish I had figured out and recognized the red thread throughout my life sooner, you know, like, absolutely, yes, but then at the same time, the amount of people I have worked with, where I’ve been able to, I worked with someone not too long ago where his job was just eliminated, and I had to, you know, I got to sit with him in that kind of shock of his new reality, and so, you By saying, yeah, this really stinks.

Anna Nelson: I have been there and I, it is awful. And, and so pulling from that for sure. And obviously there are good situations too, where I’ve been like, yes, it’s really scary, but you can totally do it. Like, which as a coach, you don’t, you can’t take someone further than you have or have been willing to go yourself.

Anna Nelson: So all of that experience definitely lends to my credibility, I guess, in, in a one on one conversation with someone.

Erin Marcus: Well, so getting back to this personality profile concept, I was introduced in college to personality profiles. I have a degree in journalism and I have a minor in criminal justice because I used to be a reporter.

Erin Marcus: And with criminal justice, there were, there were non government types of classes that we also took. And one of them was criminal psychology. Okay. And my criminal psychology professor had at one point in his career been the psychiatrist at Sing Sing, who did the intake testing of all the inmates so that they could divide up the pods by personality to prevent violence as much as they could.

Erin Marcus: Wow. That was his job. And so he gave us all of these prisoner intake personality profiles, and then we would look at our results, and then we would compare them to the sociopaths that end up in solitary confinement. And what I learned is we are all really just one or two Scantron answers away. It’s that narrow a margin in these profiles between normal functioning human and massive challenges.

Erin Marcus: And so you get a lot less judgmental very quickly. Very, very nonjudgmental very quickly. But that was my intro. And I was just intrigued because I’ve always been intrigued by why do people do what they do not from a again, not from a judgmental way, but from a curiosity way standpoint. And I think as an entrepreneur.

Erin Marcus: Understanding myself and being able to pick up on cues that help me understand others has been, from an educational standpoint, like one of the most beneficial pieces of knowledge than more than anything that I would have ever expected.

Anna Nelson: Yeah, and I don’t think that we are really taught how valuable self awareness actually is.

Anna Nelson: Until, you know, you get out from the educational system, whether you went to college or not, whether you got a PhD or not, anything, you get into whatever workforce where you’re trying to pay your bills. So then you’re like, is this all that life has for me? And you start thinking, well, do I like flipping burgers?

Anna Nelson: Do I like filing? Do I like driving an Uber? Do I like any of this? So then you start seeking out, well, what would I like? And that’s when you start thinking like. Who am I? Who am I,

Erin Marcus: right? The more esoteric, you know, the big picture version, but yeah, I think, but it’s so true. Like, we don’t give any thought as to why we like what we like.

Erin Marcus: Why do we like doing what it is that we like doing? Whatever it is. Like. But. There’s neuroscience behind it.

Anna Nelson: Hmm, yeah. I mean, when I was a kid, so, I was specifically built my coaching practice around one on one conversations. And I have been told by numerous smart people, or asked like, well, what if you did group coaching?

Anna Nelson: You could easily get hired by these corporations, blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, Because my wheelhouse is one on one. I don’t mind coaching a group or a team, but only after I have worked individually with each person. And so, but I know why I’m, that’s my wheelhouse. And when I was a kid in elementary school, I had a friend, her name was Danielle.

Anna Nelson: And every Saturday morning at 9 a. m. on the dot, I would call her to see if she could play. And every Saturday, and normally the answer was no, she has to do homework. I did not get very good grades in school. I did not like doing homework. I liked to hang out with friends, but one on one. And so even from a young age, it was one on one hanging out with a friend that I just loved.

Anna Nelson: But I didn’t appreciate that that was actually how I was intrinsically wired and automatically showing up in the world. And so then when it was finally like, what do I really like doing? And I love having meeting someone for coffee. Someone one person for coffee, an intimate conversation. So that’s what I do now.

Anna Nelson: How and how you do it. Yeah, exactly. But my business is set up to have these one on one conversations. Well, and what’s so

Erin Marcus: important and this is a big cornerstone of my. Content pillars. And my value system is create one of the beauties of being an entrepreneur is you can create your business, however it is you want, and what works best for you.

Erin Marcus: Now, does it come with potential limits? Sure. But that might, but who cares? My caveat, my caveat to the entire thing, and you’ve done it is creating the business you want intentionally, as opposed to the business you settle for. Because you can’t figure out how to do it. There’s a very big difference between I’m only doing one on one in this case because I can’t figure out how to leverage my client and I’m doing one on one because that is the best use of my ability and service to my clients.

Erin Marcus: Yeah. Right? And you have to have that self awareness to know which it, which is. And then the other important piece about being so aware of what you’re good at, what you’re not good at, what you like, what you don’t like, is really, I think for business owners in marketing, because what makes me crazy is when people try to sell one size fits all in, I call them Insta tactics here.

Erin Marcus: Just do this one. Yep. Yep. Yeah. And it’s not that the tactic is necessarily a bad tactic, but if it doesn’t fit your business model and your strengths and your weaknesses and what you’re able to do and what you’re willing to do, it isn’t gonna work. Right. It isn’t going to work if there’s not alignment in so many different places, especially with your natural

Anna Nelson: strengths.

Anna Nelson: Yeah. Well, even think about this podcast, if it’s just me as the example, Oh, okay, well, this could be a marketing opportunity for me. And guess what? It’s a one on one conversation, one on one

Erin Marcus: conversation. And for me, you know, an open, but I’m a big fan of being transparent about the business, my business, so that it helps.

Erin Marcus: my clients and my audience. Social media is huge, right? Social media is absolutely huge. And I have a presence on social media, but it’s because I don’t have to sit there and do all of it. I, it’s my content and then a writer turns it into, it’s all comes out of my original content. But one of the challenges that I have had this past year is I was Trying to use certain strategies that were going to be very, very, and I didn’t completely know this going in, but they were more heavily.

Erin Marcus: Dependent on massive social media involvement. Hmm, interesting. And I haven’t, I have not done a good job at it. I, I haven’t done a good job at it. And I always thought, how weird is that? Because I love being on stage in front of people. I love having these conversations. I love having my podcast. I am certainly not scared to go shout whatever it is I’m shouting, right?

Erin Marcus: And yet, I always attributed my lack of liking social media to the fact that I was such a juvenile delinquent in my childhood. I spent the first 20 years of my life making sure nobody knew what we

Anna Nelson: were doing. That’s funny. That’s really. That I’m like,

Erin Marcus: it’s so antithesis to everything I grew up knowing was important.

Erin Marcus: Meaning anonymity. Nobody should know the details of this, right? But, from what you’re talking about and from the conversation we had a little bit before we hit record when I shared my stream finders with you, It’s, it was so obvious to you, we were like, yeah, well no wonder you hate that, you don’t have any of the boxes in that, right?

Erin Marcus: Right. That’s not you.

Anna Nelson: I, I think it’s also interesting, there’s like, so there’s your background, so your life experience contributing to, in this case, your social media, like

Erin Marcus: It’s not an aversion, it’s very, I’m very ambivalent about it.

Anna Nelson: Yeah, I can’t, I mean, it’s not, yeah, exactly. But then it, since you showed me what your strengths are, you have five of your top ten strengths in the influencing domain.

Anna Nelson: So people high in the influencing, influencing domain, I can see why a coaching conversation or being on a stage in person maybe is more life giving. Because you can see someone else’s reaction, even in this conversation, you can be like, Oh, she responded well to what I just said, I’ll continue on, and you need that

Erin Marcus: response.

Erin Marcus: Yes, and I do need the response. It’s the first thing I say to people when I’m doing webinars, when I’m doing free events, when I’m, I do talks for SCORE. But through the Small Business Association, I do that as a give back. And I’m forever saying, come on camera, I’m a human. I talk to humans. I don’t talk to little black boxes with your name on it.

Erin Marcus: And if I don’t have feedback, I don’t know if anybody cares about what I’m talking about. Exactly.

Anna Nelson: Exactly.

Erin Marcus: I need that interpersonal for me to stay engaged.

Anna Nelson: Yes. And then, so on the flip side, because we have determined that we are opposite of each other. Just hysterical. I have, I had a podcast it like you could still go on to Spotify or whatever and look it up.

Anna Nelson: I had, I made it up to 59 episodes and I, and I did like combinations of some interviews because I’m like, well, I like talking to people. So I’ll talk to a person and then mostly just myself. And I’m like, why am I just talking into the void? Like, who cares what I’m saying? This doesn’t matter. But the second someone is in front of me and they’re like, I don’t know what I should do.

Anna Nelson: I’m like, okay, let’s talk about it. What are you? Right. And so I’m like, maybe podcasting isn’t necessarily the greatest thing for me. Maybe writing where someone can think about something for themselves if I ask a question at the end of what I said or in an email newsletter now, because I know writing.

Anna Nelson: So this year I’m going to start, I want to focus more on writing and see how that is, but it feels different and it feels a little bit more like me versus doing a podcast by myself. But I do like talking on stage. But it’s more from an encouraging standpoint versus I’m gonna get you all to rally around this one thing, you know It’s it’s different, but it’s still life giving and I think

Erin Marcus: understanding that in your business is so Important because one of the things I said, I don’t think it was this year I think was a year before I refused to do the bang my head against the wall version of doing business right and I don’t expect it to be easy in that everything works and everything’s good, that’s not what I expect, but If my, if I have a physical, negative, visceral reaction to the idea of having to do something, I probably shouldn’t be doing it.

Erin Marcus: Yeah.

Anna Nelson: Okay. So I, exactly. And I think sometimes in the online coaching business, helping other people create their own businesses world. I think a lot of times people take that as like, well, Erin, that’s a mindset thing.

Erin Marcus: And you have to learn, you have to, it’s 100 percent like, the way that I describe this, you’ll appreciate this, the way that I describe these situations, throwing good money after bad, did I quit too soon, or did I try, right, is this something I just need to get over, or is this not my, not my shtick, and I talk about needing to put bumpers in your gutters so that you don’t fall off either edge.

Erin Marcus: Right? So creating a litmus test for yourself on either side. So that I know, okay, this feeling is fear, but this feeling is, I don’t want to do that because it sucks and I hate it. Like, how do you, right, and learning, and the only way to figure these out for yourself is by doing

Anna Nelson: things. Absolutely, for sure.

Anna Nelson: And there’s definitely that, and then paying attention really closely and being honest with yourself of like, Is this fear right now? Like, am I terrified or am I just not wired to do this? And I think one, where if you’re a coach and I know someone’s strengths and I am able to talk through that with someone, but for myself even, like, it’s extremely difficult for me to start something from scratch.

Anna Nelson: It’s extremely difficult to try something new. My number one strength on the CliftonStrengths Assessment Profile is that I’m Maximizer. A Maximizer is someone who likes to help others take action, and they like to take something that’s good and take it to the next level. Good to great. That’s what I like to do.

Anna Nelson: And now I love doing that with people. I never see people as a problem. I’m like, Oh my gosh, you have so many things going for you. Now let’s get you to the next level. But internally on the back end of my business, if I’m like, maybe I’ll start a blog this year, or maybe I’ll do this. I will perseverate and overthink about things.

Anna Nelson: And it’s horrible. And I just. And it took me the longest time to realize it’s not my mindset, it’s just my strengths don’t work well. And so then I give myself permission to maybe take a little bit longer than I probably should be taking if I was like an activator type person. Or I’ll reward myself so I know you can call your friend Sarah after you do this thing that you do not want to do.

Anna Nelson: Because I’ll talk to anyone for eight hours a day and think I’m productive. Right. I don’t like doing tasks. So, okay, how do I trick myself into doing what I need to do and reward myself for something I love? It’s

Erin Marcus: so important to understand these things about yourself. Be, you know, and to give And to surround yourself with complimentary team members.

Erin Marcus: Oh yeah. Right? And to surround, like, I have somebody on my team and what she’ll say to me is, can I reflect, because she’s dissimilar from me, and she’ll say, can I reflect back to you what I’m hearing you say? And I’m like, yeah, of course. And she’s done this several times and she’s been like, You don’t like this, you don’t like this, you don’t like this, you don’t like this, you don’t like this.

Erin Marcus: Why are you doing this? And I said, well, we’re not anymore. Thank you for explaining that. After you said that, we’re just not. And I will let go of something instantly. Instantly. But, to your point, in the moment, when I’m trying to accomplish something, when I’m trying to follow people and people’s advice, who have walked a path I, you know, have achieved something I want to achieve.

Erin Marcus: And they’ve done it X, Y, Z way. And they’re trying to share with me what X, Y, Z way is. You have to reach a place in your confidence where you can take what you’re, take what works for you out of that. Right? Take the pieces that work for you and let go of the rocks. And just let go of the rest. And it was funny, like, one of my aha moments with this was when I received feedback from a coach.

Erin Marcus: And it’s a coach that I still work with. I’ve got a ton of value from her. But she was looking at this one thing I was doing and told me, Well, you need to be more aggressive. And I’m looking at this, I’m like, do you, have we met? Like, no, there’s nothing in my behavior that anyone has ever said here and you need to be more aggressive.

Erin Marcus: But it was a really great moment for me to go, why would she think that when it’s so,

Erin Marcus: right? And because the path worked for her in this way. Yeah. Yeah. And it wasn’t going. So now again, getting to the point where you can take All this great information that she’s helped me with and like these things over here, you know what, that’s stuff that isn’t going to work for me, so I’ll just do the stuff that does.

Anna Nelson: Yeah, it’s exactly it’s kind of like if we’re all at the salad bar of creating our own businesses, not everyone is going to have croutons in it and not everyone is going to have cheese or lettuce and that is okay and I think I think the biggest thing, because we talked so much about how can you be your most authentic self?

Anna Nelson: Blah, blah, blah, be authentic, blah, be you. And, and we say it, but we do not know how to own that. And we do not know who our authentic selves are. We do not, we do not know who we are. And it takes a lot. of determination, and perseverance, and persistence, and work, and effort, and self reflection in order to truly own, this is who I am, this is what I love doing, this is what I’m good at doing, this is what I want to do, and these are the types of people I need to surround myself in order for me to keep pursuing what I want to accomplish, and and I’m gonna own it.

Anna Nelson: And it takes a huge, like, that takes a strong person. Well, it

Erin Marcus: also, what I’ve learned, is it takes an immense amount of vigilance. Yes. You, it, you can’t stop doing it.

Anna Nelson: Yeah. It’s just so disappointing.

Erin Marcus: Right? Oh my God. Like one of the words I’ve had to completely let go of is the, this idea of fixing. I can’t fix my mindset.

Erin Marcus: I can’t fix my calendar. I certainly can’t fix my email inbox. And the reason I can’t fix it or solve it is because two things. Number one, it kind of implies it’s broken, which is not a great. Yep. But two, it also implies that there’s going to be this magical date after which I’ll never have this problem again.

Erin Marcus: Yes. Yes. And that’s not how that works because I promise you if I’m not on top of my inbox, my calendar or my mindset, they fall apart

Anna Nelson: real fast. Yes. Yep. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I think also realizing, especially in the earlier stages of building a business, How much you learn because you’re putting things out there.

Anna Nelson: You see how people respond or don’t respond and then you’ll make, like, maybe I should tweak it or you learn something else about yourself. Then you’re like, maybe I should do that. Like I told you the other day, I’m kind of slightly rebranding myself. My process and framework all the same. But I’m like, actually, I think I need to be saying this about myself.

Anna Nelson: And giving myself permission to change while also I gave myself permission to talk about myself in a certain way. Then I went to this one event and I was like, you know what? This doesn’t feel like who I am. Like this isn’t, no, I need to change this. And that’s what I’m doing. And guess what? I’m still alive.

Anna Nelson: I’m not suffering. Is it work? Yes. Did it cost me money to work with someone to help me? Yes, it did. But guess what? I’m really excited for this new direction on how I’m. And that

Erin Marcus: I think is what we’re looking for in your business. And that is what my COO reflects back to me is if I’m not excited about something and I start looking it at it with dread and responsibility instead of excitement and creation.

Erin Marcus: Yeah. You’re not gonna, it’s not just, you might do the work, but you’ll often do it in a, you know, check the box, scratch it off your list approach as opposed to the energy. Where you’re so lit up about it, people can’t help but be excited

Anna Nelson: about it with you. Yeah. And well, and, and that speaks to one people.

Anna Nelson: Like if I was like, Hey, Erin, I love working with entrepreneurs. Yeah. And I’m not that confident in, I, I mean, early, early on when I Oh yeah, it’s brutal. Right. Diversified. And I’m like, well, it’ll be 20 to work with me. Is that okay? Oh, only 15. Okay. Like. When you understand yourself and you know, I will change your life, what do you want?

Anna Nelson: I will help get you there. Now all of a sudden you’re like, oh, maybe she will help me. Like, okay, I want to work with that person. And, and, oh, you just said something else

Erin Marcus: that I really wanted to respond to. Well, and I, I tell people it’s, you know, a lot of people are scared of public speaking. They’re scared of being too self promotional.

Erin Marcus: But the truth is if you can’t talk about what you do with confidence, You could be the best photographer. It has nothing to do with coaching, maybe. You could be the best photographer in the world. But if you can’t get up and talk about how good your photography is confidently, people will assume you’re a bad photographer.

Erin Marcus: And it’s not fair, but it is true, right? It’s like, it’s not your fault, but that is your problem. Yeah,

Anna Nelson: exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So it, but it takes a while to get there because there is the whole Okay, this is what I was going to say. There’s the one owning and being confident. And knowing why you can be confident in telling someone I am going to be the best wedding photographer for you and here’s why right like that.

Anna Nelson: When you understand why you are different than someone else, the positives of that, you can sell yourself totally different. But then also if you’re an entrepreneur. I created a business because my first husband, he traveled for a living and my job at the time was horrible. And I thought, well, why can’t I just create an online business to travel with him?

Anna Nelson: So, and then I learned about coaching and all of that. And so my whole business. It’s so that I don’t have to get a quote nine to five job so I can travel whenever I want. Our first conversation, I wasn’t even in my own home. I was somewhere else. And that’s how I set up my business. And so owning this is what I want.

Anna Nelson: And how do my strengths lend to that? And how do I need to massage and create my business so that it fits that and be okay with it.

Erin Marcus: And then we, and it’s so, it’s one of those things where it’s so simple, it’s just not easy. It’s really so simple. It’s so simple. And so straightforward. It’s this mixture of, where is the intersection between the thing that you are absolutely great at, the thing you absolutely love doing, and the thing that helps people?

Erin Marcus: Where is that intersection? And the more you can just play at that intersection, The easier everything is, the problem is, what are we up against? Neuroscience, subconscious programming, limiting beliefs, being susceptible to everybody else’s highlight reel on Instagram. Like, you are literally up against your brain thinking, that’s not how this works, if we try that, we’re all gonna die.

Erin Marcus: And that’s so, it’s one of those things that’s so simple and straightforward. But the journey to actually get there, not as easy as it sounds.

Anna Nelson: No, and I think sometimes other entrepreneurs and business owners like in the space, you know, they’re so far ahead that it’s like, just figure out this, just figure out that, just figure that out.

Anna Nelson: And it’s like, you do have to figure some of those things out, but it isn’t a matter of just figuring it out. Because. It took me a long time to really figure out my stuff now, and I still have a long ways to go. So

Erin Marcus: let’s, let’s, you know, so I love that because it’s very, it’s very true. So how can we shorten somebody’s learning curve?

Erin Marcus: Like, if you were to tell them, if you were to give people, One of my mentors once said to me, The best thing about you is you’ll get on stage in front of a thousand people and say, Look, this is where I screwed everything up, just don’t do it that way. And you’ll be fine. Right? I’m a big fan of, like, So, how do you shorten someone’s learning curve?

Erin Marcus: What would you recommend that they do and or not do in order to move through this? Well, you know, come out the other side with a few less scars and maybe a year

Anna Nelson: sooner, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s literally what I do, right? Like my superpower is helping people figure out theirs. And for me, I use the CliftonStrengths assessment, but I think you shorten it by Really being honest with yourself about what you want, what you don’t want.

Anna Nelson: I, the first two questions I ask in every single, the first coaching session with every single client is, What do you love? Absolutely love, love, love, love, love doing. On the flip side, what do you hate doing? Things that you cannot handle doing. And we take the information from those two questions, and I, of course, because I’m the one who’s like, I, I’m seeing, I’m connecting the dots while they’re talking, I start to point out, but can you see why you love talking on stage?

Anna Nelson: Can you see how this strength shows up really, really well? And then also, on the flip side, can you see how it’s not showing up well? So there’s that aspect, again, of going back to what we talked about a few seconds ago. Who are you? What level of self awareness do you have? So I think you shorten that everything by understanding who you are.

Anna Nelson: What’s your, what level of self awareness do you have? How do you operate? How are you going to be as a boss? Who’s your first hire? Who should be your first hire? But do you know why you help clients? Because what you do on the front end is going to be the very thing that holds you up on the back end of your business.

Anna Nelson: So let’s talk about that. There and so like figuring out first who you are via knowing what it is you’re good at what it is you are not how what it is that you’re good at helps you on the front end and how it holds you back on the back end that will save you tons of time. I worked with someone last week.

Anna Nelson: It was our last coaching session. She’s this amazing designer, all of these things, and she’s been in business for years. And at the end of our session, she goes, I’m so glad I worked with you because I’ve been able to make decisions that I would have thought about for another year before making the final decision.

Anna Nelson: All because she learned something about herself and she was like, Oh my gosh, okay, this totally makes sense for me.

Erin Marcus: Well, and so there’s another piece to this. I absolutely agree with you, first of all. And then there’s a second piece to this. And I will screw up the quote, and the gentleman’s name is, like, 17 syllables long, so I’m not even going to try it.

Erin Marcus: You can look it up. But, success is tied to the amount of truth you can accept about yourself without running away. Ooh, I love that. And it’s, it’s not a new quote, and it’s, it’s very true because there’s an amount of courage it takes. Like, and not a small amount. Oh, no. There is an amount of courage it takes to be willing.

Erin Marcus: And I think this is something that corporate has a hard time with because corporate is inherently competitive, right? There’s a hundred people on the team, five of them get promoted, one of them gets promoted. It’s just inherently competitive. And the entrepreneurial world is It’s so much more collaborative because we don’t have those limitations or anyone else in charge of anything, but that inherent competitive situation.

Erin Marcus: And so if you come from a place of scarcity in any way, shape, or form, you’re not going to be able to tap into the courage of looking at what do I suck at, right? What am I not good at?

Anna Nelson: I have I speak, I did this really expensive, extensive, amazing coaching program in 2022 and my speaking coach, Michael Port, he said that entrepreneurship is.

Anna Nelson: Personal development on steroids. Absolutely. Your business cannot

Erin Marcus: outgrow you. I mean, it’s that

Anna Nelson: simple. And I’m like, if I had known that at the very beginning, I would have given myself so much more grace and love. Or just not

Erin Marcus: even tried.

Anna Nelson: Or that, exactly. But if you start to realize, Oh, I’m not growing a business.

Anna Nelson: I’m growing myself. You learn that you’re showing up in a different way than you have never had to show up before in corporate.

Erin Marcus: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, I love this. I’m a big fan. I absolutely agree. I like the Strength Finders test. I used, I was a big fan of DISC. The, some of the tests get so confusing and so many things to remember.

Erin Marcus: that they become almost difficult to actually use in the moment. I’ve been lucky enough to have enough experience where I just, I find it all very comical to look at like, oh that’s why I do that craziest thing over and over and over again, right? I know there’s many versions of this but I absolutely, I don’t think you can On your own, really connect the dots, like the way that someone else can see things.

Erin Marcus: Oh yeah, absolutely. So plain plainly. So if people wanna continue this conversation with you, and I highly, highly recommend they do. How do they find you? How do they get

Anna Nelson: ahold of you? So you can go to my website, anna y nelson.com, A-N-N-A-Y-N-E-L-S-O n.com. And I have a little contact form. Feel free to send me a note.

Anna Nelson: If you wanna email me directly, just go to hello@annaynelson.com. It’s me behind the hello. So Anna, you can be like, hello, Anna, it’s me. That’s I think the simplest to get in touch. Of course, I’m on LinkedIn and Instagram, but I’m figuring out my own social media thing. So you can come find me there and friend me there.

Anna Nelson: My handles are at Anna Y. Nelson. But do not be disappointed if I don’t release both. I’m just warning you now. Yeah, exactly. I’m working on that.

Erin Marcus: Totally understand. Totally understand. Well, seriously, thank you for spending time with me and sharing your insights and your approach to all this. I absolutely love it.

Erin Marcus: You’re awesome. You’re amazing. Thank you so,

Anna Nelson: so much. Oh my gosh, Erin. Thank you so much for having me. This was very life giving and a great way to spend part of my day. So this is awesome.

Erin Marcus: Thank you. Thank you.