#awinewith Tanessa Shears
MEET Tanessa, Founder of Tanessa Shears
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Tanessa, welcome to Spark tv. I'm so excited to have you.
Tanessa Shears (00:09):
Hey, thank you for having me on. It's going to be a good conversation.
Danielle Lewis (00:12):
I know I can always tell in the lead up before we hit record whether it's we're going to be chatty or not chatty, so amazing. Let's start out by just telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Tanessa Shears (00:24):
Yeah. My name is Tanessa Shears. I'm an entrepreneur and a mama two. I've got a 2-year-old and a four-year-old right now. And I run an online health consulting practice and my work is with high performing successful entrepreneurs. And what I do is with a combination of wearable technology. So I've got an aura ring on, if you've ever heard of an aura ring, it's my favorite. So I use wearable technology and coaching to help create systems for our health the same way we'd create systems in our business. So things that are based on data and not emotions, things that fit in with the system and it doesn't feel like it's another thing you're piling on your plate. So that's what I do. Outside of that, our families we're obsessed with freedom and so we spend anywhere from four to six months per year traveling to somewhere warmer. As we were talking about earlier. I'm not a winter person, I've discovered, and so we pack up the family and we go somewhere warmer every winter for a couple of months, and that's kind of just what life looks like lately.
Danielle Lewis (01:18):
Oh my gosh, I love it so much. And I love the idea that you base the health data or the systems on data. So a lot of times when we are feeling a little bit run down or not our best selves, we just turn to, oh, well, I've just got to eat more vegetables and exercise more, and then hopefully things will be okay. So I'm super intrigued. What do you see in business owners when business owners come to you? Where are they usually at and what are some of the steps that you help coach them through them through?
Tanessa Shears (01:53):
So stressed out and not sleeping well. Okay, so you're talking to me, right?
(01:59):
So good. So I mean, here's the thing. Most entrepreneurs will come in and say, my sleep is fine, and I want to work on the sexy stuff, which is give me a diet plan, tell me the exercise. That's what we think fitness is. But I think those things are important. But what I think is lacking in just the self-care space in general is focus on resilience and our ability to build our capacity to the ebbs and flows of stress that come with business. Because I mean, we all know the story of the entrepreneur that ends up in burnout. And when I really start to use the data, what I'm able to show my clients is like, Hey, if you do these couple small things, notice how that affects the data and in turn how that affects your business. And the data that I like to focus on is a lot different than the data we're used to getting from wearable trackers. We're used to closing the rings, getting the steps, all the things on the watches where I like to focus on data that supports recovery and resilience because I think as entrepreneurs, I think for the most part we're driven, focused, we move forward, but where we lack is that ability to be able to give ourselves permission to rest or know that not all time has to be productive. And so teaching us how to slow down so that we can get more out of the hours we do spend in our business.
Danielle Lewis (03:17):
Oh my God, I love this so much. So I was just telling you that I'm off on a holiday to Canada in a week and I literally have my seven days left before I leave list. And I currently have this crazy neck pain, and I think the two are related. I think I'm like, I'm trying to force myself to be as productive as I can in the next seven days. And I'm like, I literally sat down last night and I'm like, I think you were just piling so much on your plate for no reason, and all of the things on this list will be there when I get back. It's not like it's all self-imposed urgency. And having that physical reaction, I was like, wow, I think we can't separate ourselves from our business. We really do have to give ourselves that time to rest and recuperate so that we can, I love how you just said that so that we can actually be more productive in the time that we're working.
Tanessa Shears (04:09):
And I always think, let's say you spend six hours at your desk. Wouldn't it be nice if you could get that six hours of stuff done in five? Because we've all done that thing where you're like, yes, emails. At the end of the day, all I have brain power for, we just plan for the energy crash instead of questioning, why am I accepting this as normal? This isn't normal. And so it's so fascinating. And here's the thing, if we start with things like exercise and food, that's all great, but what is coming off your schedule to make time for that? And most entrepreneurs are like, no, I'll jam it in. It'll work. And my, oh yeah,
Danielle Lewis (04:45):
I now work on the treadmill.
Tanessa Shears (04:48):
I'm like, IISE it too. You're like, I can do it all. But what I like to do instead is really think like, okay, well what if we just got your brain working better? Because I'm a believer that your brain is the best asset you have in your business. It is way more important than your products, your services, whatever it is. Without your brain, you probably can't perform those services. You can't be a visionary, you can't execute on anything. You can't be creative. So I protect my brain because if I can be clear and focused instead of foggy and lethargic and I can get through my days of stuff in five hours instead of the six hours, usually now you have this hour at the end of your day and you could continue working or you could put your exercise there. And this is how I like to start creating space for health. It's about creating systems. If you can get your brain working better, it frees up time to do the other stuff instead of cramming it all in this perfect plan, we get two weeks, everything blows up, we quit again, and we're like, why can't I do it? I've never been able to do it before. What's going to make a different this time?
Danielle Lewis (05:48):
Oh my god. And I love that you just said that as well because I feel like we've all tried. I feel like we've all really tried to rest and do good things for ourselves and look after ourselves and tick the self-care boxes. But I think it's all been based on is self-care running a bath because I'm so burnt out and sitting in a bath for an hour and reading a book isn't going to fix the however many years I've been thrashing myself at work.
Tanessa Shears (06:16):
And on top of that, I think what's missing? You go on Instagram and you feed self-care and you see the bubble bath running and you're like, I've got toddlers. There's never a bath in peace anymore. There's nothing relaxing about that. So I think the conversation really needs to be like, okay, when I'm in the moment and someone decided to leave a nasty comment on my YouTube channel or whatever it is like that, and I'm spinning or a client sends me a message and I'm spinning, and those days when you lose half the day just to spinning out, you just can't ever get back into it. I think what we really need is to build our resilience in those moments and understand, okay, I'm spinning. What can I do to bring my brain back online because I'm not hopping in a bubble bath at 2:00 PM on a Wednesday,
Danielle Lewis (07:01):
Right? Yeah. Well I have, I've done that. Lemme tell you something.
Tanessa Shears (07:05):
Yes, some of us can for sure, but I don't think that's the default. You're like, I should probably eat my way out of this, or I should probably overwork my, that's not our default response is like maybe I should care for myself. It's usually how do I get rid of this terrible, terrible
Danielle Lewis (07:20):
Feeling? Yeah, absolutely. Or I can work through tears. That's fine.
Tanessa Shears (07:26):
And you're just like, this email sucks. You're trying to perform. I don't like those days. So I've really leaned into building up our resilience so that we don't fall apart. And it's not just those type of things. I mean, maybe you had a kid that was up all night sick or your dog threw up all night or X, Y, z, you had an unexpected consult that popped on your schedule or something like that Through your day off, do you have the mental resilience and the energy to be able to redirect back to the plan?
Danielle Lewis (07:59):
Do you have any tips for somebody that is kind of drowning right now and needs a few things to get them somewhere where they can start making actual progress or contacting someone like you or starting to develop a plan? Are there any little tips someone can use to just get themselves out of drowning mode?
Tanessa Shears (08:20):
Yeah. Okay. So let's talk about a real time stress management strategy.
(08:24):
So I use this honestly, I've had doctor's appointments, I've used this at, I've been waiting in line, stressed out using things like this with my kids. It's been brilliant. So it's called the cyclical side. So picture this, have you ever seen a kid cry really hard and then they wind down and at the end they go, yes, that's a built-in reflux to calm, sell, soothe. So you can actually use this to help slow your heart rate and it looks like this. So if I was in a, I actually do this. If I wake up at night and the to-do list starts rolling at 3:00 AM in the morning and you're like, now really this works? It works all the time. So I would take a really deep inhale as deep as I can through my nose and I'll demo this after. When I'm at peak inhale, I sneak in more air even though I feel like I'm expanding my lungs and then I'm going to breathe out as slow as I can through my mouth. So it kind of sounds like this really long exhale, and here's why it works. When you breathe out longer than you breathe in, your heart rate slows down. So this is why I love box breathing. That's four seconds in four seconds old, but it keeps your heart rate the same. I want to slow the nervous system down in a moment of fight or flight.
Danielle Lewis (09:46):
Yes.
Tanessa Shears (09:46):
So if you're ever in a situation where you're just like, I can't right now, three to five of those, and you will notice, all of a sudden your brain comes back online and you can actually start problem solving properly because problem solving from a place of fight or flight never goes well, writing emails from fight or flight never goes well. So get your body calmed, calm your nervous system. So that's one of the first things I like to do in the moment. For sure.
Danielle Lewis (10:12):
I love that. That is amazing and it's so accessible for everybody, which I love as well. So how did you even get into all of this? I know, it's fun.
Tanessa Shears (10:23):
It's so good. I love it. I opened my business, it's been just over 10 years, 10 years February we hit, and it started out as a personal trainer and I was like, yeah, fitness, that's where it's at. I had a six figure personal training business within the first year. It was amazing. I loved it. I was also doing 33 client hours per week, not including the Wow. Yeah, that's what happens when you're 24. You can do that.
Danielle Lewis (10:46):
Yeah. You're like, I can do this. I can take over
Tanessa Shears (10:48):
The world. But then I was like, oh, if I want to have kids one day, maybe I should. This isn't going to work. I'm going to be drained all the time, or this isn't the kind of the life I see. And so I started playing around about in 2015 with the idea of what would online look like, and naturally I poked my toes around in there for a little bit, but it wasn't until about 2017 when I started getting a bit of traction, and that's because I started adding in food as a component. So I was like, you're right. It's not just exercise, it's food. And I was like, cool, cool. I got this. And it was about 2019 when I was like, okay, wait a second. All my clients are entrepreneurs. What is going on? And they're like, we came to you to fit in our jeans, but I'm sleeping better, my mood is better, all of that.
(11:31):
I'm more productive at work. And I was like, great. So in 2019, then when I got pregnant, I was like, okay, cool. I'm going to be that lady that takes all the steps with my pregnant belly. Nobody told me that the pelvic pain was going to completely side blind me. So I was playing around with my Fitbit that I bought myself to track my steps, and I was like, oh, this thing tracks sleep. Interesting, but it's a liar. It says, I get six and a half hours sleep and my sleep is fine. I get eight hours. But little did I know that the time you spend in bed is not the same as time of sleep. And through this evolution, I began biohacking my sleep on Instagram live, like I'm going to do this, what happens to my sleep data this week? And it just became such a thing that I became known for that. Now, that's one of the biggest pillars of my business. So it's not just exercise and food, it's really looking at sleep and that resilience recovery metric and how that plays into our ability to function in our business.
Danielle Lewis (12:26):
That is incredible. And I love the journey as well. Actually, your business has been based on a curiosity to solve something for yourself.
Tanessa Shears (12:35):
Yep. Yeah, definitely. And I mean, nothing will show you how important sleep is than getting a puppy or having kids. Well, that's never had a puppy, but a lot of my clients have, and they say it's very similar, but it's just that, oh my gosh, my brain doesn't work. And there's this crazy thing that happens called baseline resetting with your sleep when you haven't been getting adequate sleep for long enough, your brain just goes, let's call this normal. Let's call this normal. And you don't realize that your brain wasn't functioning. It was with better sleep. And so we say we're fine, but it's not really until you get a good week or so of getting consistent sleep, then you're like, oh, wait a second. This is how my brain's supposed to work. And so I love, yeah, it's like, oh, I can think again. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I like to build on because can't always, especially if you're used to six hours of sleep jumping into eight hours, you're like, no, that causes more time. So I'm always a big fan of sleep is free. You're doing it anyways, let's make it better. Let's start there. Let's just make it better. I mean, if I can have good sleep, great sleep when I was being woken up four times a night by a baby, we can do it as entrepreneurs, we can do it.
Danielle Lewis (13:46):
I love it. It is so good. And I just love the idea. You've said it a couple of times, we don't need to accept where we're at as normal. You are so spot on. You're like, yeah, I always feel tired at two o'clock in the afternoon. Oh, I always need a cup of coffee to wake up in the morning or I always need this. That's just how I am. It's like, okay, why don't we try and make that better?
Tanessa Shears (14:09):
Well, I think it's because we look around at our friends and everyone is exhausted and tired and it's kind of like, oh, well, that's normal. Everyone's tired. It must be because of X, or it must be because of Y. It's a circumstance in my life, and there are definitely some circumstances that do create that a hundred percent, but I like to look at what are the ones that I can have some cause and effect over? And that's thing's just like what my brain's doing while I'm sleeping, what I'm putting in my mouth, how I'm moving my body and not all at the same time. That's a layering process. What can I do this week that is sustainable and learn to build on that, right?
Danielle Lewis (14:47):
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, why don't, it's interesting that as entrepreneurs, we attack our business with that mentality and have all of the plans and the project management tools and the this and the to-do list and sprints and all of this stuff. I'm like, what if we carved out a little bit of that attitude and energy for ourselves and our bodies and our energies and our brain?
Tanessa Shears (15:10):
When I work with clients, that answer usually comes up in that our productivity and our self-worth are so intricately linked
(15:17):
That for a lot of us, the idea of rest is not productive, therefore, we are not adding value, therefore it is not worthy. We are not worthy of that. And so this conversation, especially with clients that really identify with perfectionism, we're having to unwind productivity and self-worth, right? Because even many of the clients I've spoken to, the clients that have trouble sleeping, it's like, I didn't get enough done. I didn't do a good job today. What might happen to my business? All the things I got to do tomorrow, I'm behind. I'm not doing enough. This isn't enough. It's this conversation that keeps our brains awake and I really start to look at our schedule and the fascinating thing is I'm always like, well, what would've been enough today? And they're like, well, you should see my to-do list. I was like, if you show up to your day with 30 things on a to-do list and you start working off the top, of course it never feels like you're doing enough.
Danielle Lewis (16:17):
So
Tanessa Shears (16:18):
Then our brain goes, oh, but I've learned this strategy called pick your top three things you want to move the needle on for that day. I had a client do that and never got through them, and I was like, okay, cool. How long does thing number one take? Hour and a half? How long does thing number two take an hour? How long does thing number three take an hour? Okay, so we're at three and a half hours. How long did you have to do that? An hour and a half. So no wonder, again, this is why we don't feel like we have enough done. I think it comes down to one of the pillars that I love to teach on is this idea of time freedom. And if we don't have a solid grip on how we use our time, there is going to be no safeguard for our health. Our health is always the thing that we're like, it's a launch. The workouts can come back next week. It's a launch, it's takeout this week, it's whatever. Our busy season, new product onboarding team, whatever it is, there's always
Danielle Lewis (17:16):
Something.
Tanessa Shears (17:17):
There's always something. And then we get into this whole when then this happens, then I'll get around to it, then I'll get around to it. We end up just overwhelming ourselves. I'm not enough, it's never behind, but I'll finally feel better when I get to this goal. But that didn't feel as good as I wanted. It's okay. I'm just going to push the milestone just a little bit, just a little bit. I think we really just have to ask ourselves, when is enough, enough? What are we doing this for? What is that point at which we go, okay, this is what I was aiming for. If anything more than this is a bonus, but now it's time for my bandwidth for my life to come back.
Danielle Lewis (17:55):
Yeah. This is such an incredible conversation because it extends, I feel like the enough conversation extends to happiness as well, and people often delay happiness until they've reached a specific goal. To your point, that goal comes and we're still not happy and we push the goalposts. I think it's really interesting to reframe our perception over life in that we can be enough and happy whilst we're here, whilst we're on the journey, whilst we're completing the tasks.
Tanessa Shears (18:31):
I a hundred percent agree, and I always say, okay, how do you think you're going to feel when you accomplish this milestone? Whether it's revenue, number of people on your team, whatever. How do you think you're going to feel? Oh, I'll finally feel freedom, or I'll finally feel successful or I'll finally feel accomplished. And I'm like, okay, cool. Your goal is to create freedom, successful and accomplished now with your thinking. Because if you show up and you reach your goal and you have the same brain you have right now, your goal is going to feel the same because your same brain is going to say the same things there, and it's still not going to feel like enough and you're going to feel disappointed, and so you'll go goal chasing again. So if you can create that now and you can feel freedom now, then hitting the goal is going to feel just as good as you imagined.
Danielle Lewis (19:20):
Oh, I love that. It's so interesting. I often in my self pep talking, when I think about, okay, if I'd achieved all of my goals, what would my dream day look like? And I'm like, oh, I do yoga, and I would read and I would do this. And I'm like, okay, all of that is accessible to you right now. None of that actually hinges on hitting any of these goals that we have, so why not live your dream life right now? Why are you holding that back from yourself? It's almost like we punish ourselves until I hit this, this and this. I will not do the things that give me joy or look after myself or the happiness or the enough or the whatever it is, but I think we've got it so backwards, and I just love circling all the way back to the conversation at the start of the recording when we were talking about training our brains. Exactly. That if we're in this fight or flight, if we're stressed, if we're overwhelmed, if we're thinking all of these thoughts, we're not going to be productive enough to hit those goals. So we've got to start where we think we want to end up.
Tanessa Shears (20:29):
Yes, I completely agree. It's like how do you want to go through at what point what was going to happen that was suddenly going to change everything? And I think it's because we think, well, if I'm going to take care of my health, where am I going to buy all this time that I need to do? It's a lot, and I think is where I love this idea, and this isn't my concept, but it's called a minimum baseline, and it's like, okay, what can you achieve no matter what, even on your craziest week? And so often I'll start clients, they're like, I want to do five one hour workouts a week. I was like, how about three 15 minute walks? And they're like, what? I was like, can you do that? They're like, well, that's silly. That just feels like a waste of time. I was like, yeah, but if you're in a year from now and you've gone on three 15 minute walks per week versus two weeks of doing an hour workout every day and then falling off for another six months, will you like who you are better then? Will you know that you have your back better? Then? Will you have better integrity with yourself? Then? Will you be the type of person who's like, yeah, I do what I say I'm going to do, and you could do more. You could do the workouts, but start by setting those baselines as things that are actually achievable during all seasons of life, and then look at that as your baseline instead of perfection.
Danielle Lewis (21:41):
Yes. I love that so much. We have this vision in our mind that we'll run a marathon every day with zero training. Oh, yeah. That's where I need to start because I'm an overachiever. I love that idea of starting with, okay, what is realistic? What is achievable? And that is okay. It doesn't have to be I've been an athlete for my whole life, kind of end of the spectrum. Yeah.
Tanessa Shears (22:06):
Another really good riff on that same concept is I think intuitively, we all know that phones and screens before bed disrupt our sleep. I think we know that, but then the alternative of an hour with no screens, that sounds terrible. That's when I do my doom scrolling. That's when I get my dopamine. And so I was like, I have this thing that I like to share. It's called the experimenters mindset, and think about this. Let's go back to grade eight. And it was all like, okay, the hypothesis, if I don't have as much screen time before bed, I will sleep and feel better. So let's test the hypothesis, but let's commit to 15 minutes and only a week. My brain can get behind a week. It's hard to get behind forever, especially when I don't know what it's going to feel like or be like.
(22:54):
So I'm like, okay, brain, we're going to do 15 minutes and we're going to get a week. And if at the end of the week I hate it, I go back and I've lost nothing and I'm already currently living what is technically the worst case scenario, I go back to what I was doing, but what if I like it? What if it opens space for me and to wind down and I sleep better and I feel better now I've had both experiences and now I can actually make a decision. And from there you decide, do I want to keep it? Do I want to toss it or do I want to layer on? If you do a tiny experiment like that every week, this is where your life looks different in a year. This is where your life looks different in six months.
Danielle Lewis (23:36):
I love it. And again, it's the business owner's mindset. We do this in our business. We test a new marketing channel. Let's like a Facebook ad. Yeah, yeah, totally.
Tanessa Shears (23:46):
I always say, you wouldn't run a Facebook ad and it flopped and you scratched the whole thing and put a whole new ad up. No, you just changed the headline or just changed the copy or the creative, or maybe the data says ads. Good click through is good. Landing page isn't converting. You look at the data and you change one thing, one small thing, get data, then change. It's not like this free for all of Chuck it all out and start again in two weeks. Right?
Danielle Lewis (24:13):
Or completely give up and go, oh, well, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm not looking after myself anymore. I'm not running that ad anymore. It's
Tanessa Shears (24:19):
It's a heck with business.
Danielle Lewis (24:20):
Yeah, totally. We don't quit when one thing doesn't work. We just try a new thing. I love that. It's such a good frame on looking after ourselves. Oh my God, incredible. Okay, so let's switch gears for a second because you have been in business now, you said for over 10 years. That's full on. That is a lot. And it almost sounds like you've been in business. Have you ever had a career before that or did you go straight into running businesses?
Tanessa Shears (24:49):
Does McDonald's count? Absolutely. Actually, no. I was a swimming instructor. I taught Aquafit classes and I was a swimming teacher for seven years before that.
Danielle Lewis (24:58):
Oh my God, amazing. So then how did you go from, okay, this is what having a job looks like, but I can start my own thing. Was there a learning curve from the business side for you? So how's actually been running a business, learning the business side? I mean, you've obviously so passionate about your industry and niche and experimenting and layering on the product offerings, but what about that underlying business layer? Was that a learning curve? Did you take the same experimenting approach? I'm interested in how that journey's been.
Tanessa Shears (25:34):
Honestly, it was just really fun. I worked for a big box gym for a while, and they sat us all I remember very clearly actually, they sat us all down at a meeting and they said, you guys, if you want to be, this is a sales organization. If you want to be trainers, go somewhere else. And so six of us quit that week, and at the time, I mean I was 24, thank goodness I was living at home, but I remember I went to some educational seminar on mutual funds or something like that at the time, and the woman says to me, she goes, well, why don't you open your own business? And this was terribly naive of me, but I said, but that's for older people. I thought business was for people in their forties and fifties. I didn't see anybody in their early twenties starting businesses. And she goes, but you live at home, you don't have any bills. You're risk free. What do you have to lose? You go back to a box gym. And so at that point, I was just like, okay. And it's cool. It's really cool when you document your process, you can start seeing the calendar, had two clients in a week, and then three, the big thing I leaned into was what I think of as referral trees
(26:45):
Huge. I can point down to two clients who single-handedly at the top of the referral tree created six figures for me in a year.
(26:54):
So I really leaned in for personal training to that. But it was really interesting. That came easy. Online was a whole different beast that was none of my skills apply. I'm an in people person. I connect really well. I can do in-person events, but online I'm like, hello, where are people? Yeah, we're all feeling like that. And so what's funny, that was a lot of trial and error, a lot of $0 launches, what do people want my messaging? And it wasn't until I really got into, I feel like the niche I am in now with entrepreneurs and connecting that with podcast interviews, that was gold because I feel like I love podcasts. It's such a great way to get a feel for someone from a, I'm watching, but we don't have to interact kind of thing. And I think 98% of my business since 2020 has come from podcast interviews and just meeting great people along the way.
Danielle Lewis (27:45):
Oh my God, that's incredible. I love that. It's like, okay, business owners, entrepreneurs, how many podcasts do we listen to every day? It's finding the channel that is where your customers are at. That's so smart. I love that.
Tanessa Shears (28:00):
And it was fun to do. I think that was important because I very much, I am one of those people that's been with a business coach for forever up until this year when I've decided to start hearing my own voice. And it was always get in the dms, get in the dms, get in the dms, and that works for some people. I just got achy feeling. I'm just like, that didn't work for me. But this conversations like this fun all the time, fun. And I was just like, I'm just going to lean into what's fun. And it's worked, thank goodness, because I was not a fan of cold dms. I, like I said, works for some people, but for me, I was just like, I don't know, maybe my rejection tolerance is a little low, but I felt defeated at the end of every day. It's like, it's just
Danielle Lewis (28:46):
Fun. I absolutely love it because I feel like there's so many different sales and marketing channels on the planet, so you can find success in a lot of them. But yeah, if you pick the ones that actually feel good, you'll actually show up and do more of them as well. I mean, I feel the same way. If anyone called dms me on Instagram, I know my feeling as the customer. I look at it and I'm like, you're about to sell to me. You can just tell. And half of them I delete and block and I'm like, well, I don't want people to feel that way about me, so I'm not going to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I felt believing what feels good is a great idea.
Tanessa Shears (29:28):
Yeah, I agree. And I've been experimenting even now with writing long form content because it was interesting. I battle a lot of what we should do versus what I feel is authentic to, and that clash, I was in a lot of very male dominant business programs where that was very much commonplace and it's like, get the flashiest, craziest seven second hook that will stop people in their tracks. And I had a moment where I was like, but I don't know if I want to attract people that need a flashy crazy hook to actually step into my world and be like, this is valuable. So I've returned. I have 45 minute podcast episodes. I have long written content because that's what attracts me when I'm looking for something. I want to connect, I want to actually get value. I want to feel that slow down, which is what I talk about in my business. It's the ability to slow down. So I feel like inviting people into a world where they're like, it's a flash, bang, look over here. It feels like it contrasts my message. And so I feel like having to come to peace with that this can work too,
(30:38):
Has been a challenge and it's been something I've been embracing and it's a slow process, but it feels good. It feels good.
Danielle Lewis (30:46):
I love this so much because I have this problem with social media, so I am very active on social media. I have clients that I manage their social media, but I am so anti the, it's got to look this way. Yeah, you've got to have the hook, you've got to have the this, you've got to have the that. And I'm like, that just feels crap. And I just went on,
Tanessa Shears (31:07):
Especially when it's not authentic. Exactly. And sensationalized beyond what you're actually going to get from the click or the investment of time in reading the thing. It's like four ways. You're magically never going to feel tired again. I can't do it. I
Danielle Lewis (31:22):
Can't do it. Totally. Exactly. And I often think to myself, well, maybe you're not going to go viral. And I'm like, maybe that's okay. Because I feel like so many people go viral and it makes zero impact in their business.
Tanessa Shears (31:39):
I had a real go viral and I think I gained 4,000 followers over a span of a week,
(31:44):
But none of them were followers. I would've chosen. And now my Instagram algorithm is a mess. Most of these people are like, I mean, there's a bunch of wonderful people, but there's a bunch that don't run businesses that don't really aren't into personal growth. It was just something that kind of poked a nerve in them and they're like an angry comment or something like that. But I've just been like, I'd rather talk to a hundred people that are genuinely like, this is my person. I love how this is communicated. Then trying to go viral. I saw that and it just didn't attract the right crowd. But there are podcast interviews I've been on that I can credit at least 40,000 in business to,
Danielle Lewis (32:24):
Wow,
Tanessa Shears (32:26):
That's
Danielle Lewis (32:26):
So good. It's such a good lesson. Lean into the things that feel good. Don't follow the tactics of the day.
Tanessa Shears (32:35):
Yeah. Because I think your audience can suss out. That's what I felt like started happening. I just was like, I feel it and I feel weird. So they probably feel weird. And we're just sitting there weird together, and now I'm going to try to DM you. I can't do it anymore. I'm here for friends. I'm here for friends. I'm here for sharing and value. And if something becomes that, I feel like it's such a better relationship to start with a client or a customer in that place of you don't read weird energy. I don't want to be weirdo. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (33:06):
I mean, it's so funny. It just reminds me, and I have recently talked about this on the podcast, but because I do some one-on-one sales coaching, and this guy reached out, he just booked a time in my diary and I was like, so most of my stuff's with women, but I was like, oh, whatever. It's all good. But he was like, I need you to teach me how to be a closer. I need you to teach me. And I'm like, well, that's not how I sell. I'm like, I'm the softest seller. I'm like, I will just talk to whatever amount of people I need to talk to so that I get the sales in the bottom of the funnel. And if I need to talk to more people, I will. And I'll just have amazing conversations and build great relationships. And if it's right for the person, it's right. And if it's not, no worries. They can just be in our world getting value. I'm like, there's no way on this earth that I'm going to be that person that's like, test close this technique, this technique, close, close, close. I'm like, that just feels horrible. I don't want to spend my days doing that.
Tanessa Shears (34:02):
And I think what's funny, I think especially if you're marketing to other entrepreneurs, we all know about the fake scarcity. We know about the fake deadlines. We know about the, oh, well, if you don't sign up in the next 24 hours, the price goes up 4,000. Does it really? Does it have to? And also you have to take your credit card on the phone. I've been on the receiving end of all of those. And it's interesting. I've been through a lot of good sales process and good coaches, and I use all processes to be like, I don't like how that felt. I do like how that felt. And I think that's what creates such unique businesses is where it's a reflection of how you like to be sold to and how you like to be coached and how you like to be talked to. Right.
Danielle Lewis (34:43):
Oh my God, I love it. That is the best lesson. Okay. We could talk all day. Yeah, we good. But I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be one last piece of advice that you would give to another woman to help her on her journey?
Tanessa Shears (35:05):
Your productivity is directly correlated to your energy, and I want you to think of your energy as the currency of your productivity. And so by cultivating your energy, whether that be through your sleep or giving yourself some time to do some cyclical size, it is a much more effective way to show up in your business and be productive than grinding and feeling exhausted and negating your health. And so I always just ask this question, if you could get your brain working 10% better, 10% faster, what would that manifest in your business? And start there.
Danielle Lewis (35:47):
Oh my God, you are absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your tips and your journey on Spark tv. I know the whole Spark community would've gotten a lot of value out of that. So thank you so much. I appreciate you.
Tanessa Shears (36:04):
Oh, thank you for having me.
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