Just because Cheldin Barlatt Rumer carries it well, doesn't mean it's not heavy | Episode 98

I think that a lot of what people are doing right now is posting and praying, is what I call it. Like they just throw things out into the world and they're like, please, somebody love the place.

Yeah. Right. It's like, please, please. Give me an extra heart on my Instagram, please.

Right, right. And they're living and breathing on the next comment or the next like. And I think that ultimately there's a lot of people doing the right things, but in the wrong rooms. If you are talking to the wrong people, it doesn't matter what you're saying. It's not going to land.

What are you talking about?

It doesn't matter how pretty it is or how great the graphics are or how well edited the video is, if you're not in the right rooms. And I think a lot of people, when they first start with personal branding or social media, is that they just love to spray the world with what it is that they have going on, thinking that that's the best approach. But finding the right room is the majority of the battle. Like once you've determined who you are, what you want, why you deserve it, which is the essence of your personal brand, you need to figure out where you're going to put it. And not everybody has earned your ambition. Not everybody will understand you. And so a lot of people are wasting their ambition in rooms that don't hear them. And I think that finding that right room changes everything.

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Right here, guys. Reach out to John Sachs and his team at Property Management Redefine. We'll take good care of you. I'm Tim Garrety. And I'm Sean Mooney. Today, Sean, we have a local media superstar. We have Sheldon Barlett Rumor, the CEO, executive producer, and host of This Is It Network. How are you doing today, Sheldon?

I'm so good. Thanks for having me. Welcome in. Welcome in.

Excited to have you. So a little background on Sheldon. She's an immigrant from Sierra Leone, a proud mother, former Division I athlete, and adjunct professor at both Temple and Drexel Universities. She specializes in personal branding and interactive media. In 2009, she founded IG Creative to support women entrepreneurs through digital marketing and branding. A pivotal moment in 2013 led to the creation of Scream Your Dream Mission, empowering individuals to share their stories confidently. That mission has since evolved into This Is It Network, which we're going to get into, a self-funded global digital platform amplifying the voices of women in business and media. Sheldon has interviewed over 1,000 professionals and continues to help them create content, build brands, and grow their presence with purpose. She went to LaSalle University. CoExplorers. And she is the mother of two, and we were just talking all about water bottles and DIY poster boards when you asked someone to homecoming.

Two things I look very much forward to. Yes. Awesome.

So much. All right. So let's get started with personal brand. Yeah. So where does your passion come from to help your community develop their personal brands? Where does that come from?

I love this. I love this. I am an extrovert shocker. Um, and so I am not shocking.

Wait a minute. I think there's introverts, there's extroverts, and then there's Sheldon like over here on top of truth, truth.

That's that is so fair. That is so fair. I am overly enthusiastic about just about everything. Things that are my business, things aren't that aren't my business. And I ultimately, you know, find it tragic, especially when there's entrepreneurs of any kind or individuals who are skilled in any way that have a hard time finding the words, right? They dedicated their life to it, they've remortgaged their house for it. And then somebody asks them, you know, what why should I buy your chocolate chip cookies? And then they break out into hives and they can't find the words and they're sweating in places they shouldn't. And I just find it tragic, especially when you are driven by this thing. Like you stay up at night about this thing. Like you would rather, you know, quit your 40-hour work week job to work 80 hours to do this thing, but you can't part your lips to talk about it. And I just thought that that was just so tragic, especially when I can talk about just about anything, right? And so it was really about not that they didn't want to talk about it, but they didn't have the tools to do it, right? They didn't know how to start, right? They knew that they were good at it, they knew that they loved it, they knew that they were the best baker in town, but they didn't know how to convey it in a way that felt natural, that didn't feel like being conceited or bragging. And so I just felt that it was a great opportunity for me to help people in finding their voice. And so the whole scream your dream philosophy and personal branding education really came from that.

How much of it is just voicing what they do as opposed to like connecting to a group of clients in terms of you know, you it's one thing to get your message out about your business.

Yeah, like social media or something like that. You're just amplifying what you got going on, and what you do.

But then there's also this other side of how do you take it one degree further and try to connect with clients and prospects so that they really understand maybe who you are.

Oh, a hundred percent. I think that a lot of what people are doing right now is posting and praying, is what I call it. Like they just throw things out into the world and they're like, please, somebody like it's like please pay attention.

Give me an extra heart on my Instagram, please.

Right, right. And they're living and breathing on the next comment or the next like. And I think that ultimately there's a lot of people doing the right things but in the wrong rooms, right? Like if you are talking to the wrong people, it doesn't matter what you're saying, it's not gonna land. It doesn't matter how pretty it is, or how great the graphics are or how well edited the video is, if you're not in the right rooms. And I think a lot of people, when they first start with personal branding or social media, is that they just love to spray the world with what it is that they have going on, thinking that that's the best approach. But finding the right room is the majority of the battle. Like once you've determined who you are, what you want, why you deserve it, which is the essence of your personal brand, you need to figure out where you're gonna put it. And not everybody has earned your ambition, not everybody will understand you. And so a lot of people are wasting their ambition in rooms that don't hear them. And I think that finding that right room changes everything, changes everything. And so I teach people how to do that. Not only what is your message, but where does your message live? Like where are your people, you know? Um, and sometimes people waste a lot of time um talking to the wrong people. And it's not even just about marketing dollars or resources or sweat equity, it's about emotion, right? You start to question yourself.

Yep.

Um, when you're proficient in one room, but you're begging for attention in another, you start to question whether or not you're even doing what you're supposed to be doing. But if you were in a different room, the reaction to your action would be so much different. So I think that that's an important thing to address.

Yeah, let's let's talk about that a little bit. So um, you know, you advise people, you help people, you're you're a leader in this space. And someone comes to you and says, you know, my my personal brand, my storytelling, my marketing is falling flat. How do you help someone identify or find the right room for them to be in to talk about what they're doing?

Sure, sure. I it's really about getting to know yourself. Like when we forgive me if I'm getting stuck and I hopefully you guys can still hear me. Can you still hear me?

Yeah, we're good. We're good.

Okay, good. Um, so when we started our job, like let's just say you were a waitress or you were in retail, we all waited tables or we were in retail, they put us through orientation, right? They put us, we needed to know the difference between flare cut jeans and classic cut jeans, or we needed to know what items were on the menu. We needed to go to orientation because we had to learn the job before we did it. The interesting thing about your personal brand or entrepreneurism is that you don't put yourself through an orientation about yourself, but you're asked to sell and promote it, right? You don't even know who you are. You didn't sit down with yourself, you didn't go over what your goals were, you didn't go over the that wonderful bio that you shared with me, right? I know where I came from in order to get here, right? And so when somebody asks me why I'm qualified to do what I do, I remember clearly why I'm qualified to do what I do. The majority of people don't even have a past resume that justifies why they should be in a room. So it's really hard to do the job if you haven't learned about who you are. And so one of the things that I stress is doing an orientation about yourself. It's about sitting with yourself about yourself. It's very hard to market what you don't know, even if it's a widget or a project product or a service. But we are all asked to market ourselves, but we have not become acquainted with ourselves. So, first thing I would have you do is identify who you are, like who you are in this moment. I'm very anti fake it till you make it. Um, I find it exhausting.

I find as am I.

Right? Like there's nothing wrong with it.

I don't like that. Yeah.

Right? Like, we all know when people are lying.

Yeah.

When they're pretending. And so we might as well cut to the chase and really get to a point be like, I don't know that. I think there's really a lot of power in being like, I have no idea how to do that. I want to learn how to do that. Can you teach me how to do that? But pretending that you know how to do it wastes so much time and credibility of your brand when there are rooms that don't even require you to do that thing that you just lied about. Um, and so just getting to know yourself is really important. Getting to understand what you want in this moment is equally important. And then just like the bio that you read, why do you deserve what you want? That will begin to tell you the rooms you should be in. And oftentimes we try to be in rooms that don't equate to all of those things. Um, and that really requires us to beg for people to pay attention to us. Like again, I'm what crazy West African, and my mom, as a crazy West African 80-year-old is saying to me, she always says, and still to this day, stop going to the same well looking for different water. Right. So she's very wise. And so what she means by that is like, stop begging people who will never pay you to pay attention to you. Right? Stop, stop begging people, like, oh my gosh, look at me, look at me. When you, if you just went to the room next door, they would be like, Oh my gosh, can you be a keynote speaker? Oh my goodness, I'll give you all of my money to help me. It's really about that room. So the first thing to do is to identify who you are, what you want, and why you deserve it.

That's phenomenal. All right. So aside from schooling, all of your all of your experience, you know, in the working world, where where did you personally learn the value of of a personal brand? Like, where does that come from?

Is it a personal experience or yeah, like unexpectedly, I uh going back to like weight staff, like I used to open Irish pubs. Obviously, I went to LaSalle, obviously. So let's go. So I used to open Irish pubs. Like McMaddden's? Exactly, McFaddens.

I used to work for East Coast Saloons. Get out of here. I swear, I swear.

Exactly. Like the one the one right on the border to like Northern Liberties. Third Street, McFadden's Third Street, otherwise known as the McMaddins Ballpark. And then yeah, McFadden's. I opened McFadden's ballpark, and then I went out and helped open Columbus. Um, I worked with the folks in Glendale for sure. Um I traveled around the region with open.

What's what's yeah, it's open.

So so let me explain. Like, so let me explain. So for all those folks that are listening, I'm telling some I've never been to an Irish bar.

Yeah, never like walking. Never been to one Irish. Sure, sure, sure. Absolutely.

The best business to be in. People go when they're sad, then people when they're happy. So it's an amazing, yeah it's amazing state of affairs. Um, and so for and the interesting thing about this, we were NSOs, which are new store openers. It was like an unofficial kind of thing. Maybe we made it up ourselves, I'm not sure. But we would go to these markets and we would help open it what are considered stores. And you would take what was an empty Applebee's and then you would turn it into a McFadden's. And it was, it wasn't really about the food or the beer, because to be quite honest, every bar sells Coors Light, right? It wasn't about that. It was about the energy that you brought to the space that you were in. It wasn't about the chicken fingers or the french fries because everybody sells chicken fingers and french fries. It was about the like what kind of environment or experience did you create? And we would go early into these towns in order to create that buzz, to be the people that were at the other bars throwing a good time and laughing and people saying, Oh my gosh, where'd you guys come from? What are you guys doing? You're opening a bar. Oh my goodness, come see us. And it was about creating experience and profit based on personalities. People didn't come for the beer, they came for the experience. And whether the beer was $3 or sold by the bucket or the food wasn't good at all, people came to have a good time and maybe make some bad decisions. And so we would just travel around selling experience. Before I started opening McFadden's, before I came back to Philadelphia, um, I had moved home. I grew up in Atlanta County. Um, my father taught at Stockton University and I lived down there. And then um I had opened, I was part of the opening team for Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa. It was amazing. Wow. Um, and that was, I mean, there were 5,000 employees when they opened. I was employee number 269. So I was like there before there was walls. And the difference between McFadden's and Borgata is that McFad Borgotta was multi-million dollar budgets, and McFadden's was beer and chicken wing flyer money. And and but the fundamentals were the same, right? So Borgotta as a casino doesn't sell anything either. 99% of you are gonna lose when you go into a casino, but it sells an experience, it looks pretty and it's gorgeous and it smells great, and there's a nightclub and there's all these things. So I learned very early that personality and experience leads, regardless of the product. So whether it's two dollar drafts or two thousand dollar rooms, um, personality always leads. So if I can help people build their personalities and brands, then they'll always win.

So Sheldon, I sell insurance for a living. Sexy, sexiest product on earth. What's so sexy? Here's what I'll say because I think what you're saying about the experience of because it it kind of doesn't matter. Like the beer doesn't matter, the chicken fingers don't matter. It's what is the experience? What what is the thought when that person leaves that evening from the time that they spent in your bar or at your casino? Or what or or the next day? Oh my God, we had an amazing time last night. That was so awesome. We need to go back. Like that's what you're trying to do. And if you're selling a product or a service, it's really the same kind of thing with insurance. Like, insurance is insurance for most people, right? It really doesn't. To me, I know the difference and the nuance, but from a from a consumer, they don't. Insurance is insurance. So what we try to do is try to what I call the frictionless insurance. I try to make it as easy as possible, right? Because I want that person to come to me and be like, wow, like that was so easy. That was that was like it wasn't painful dealing with you and trying to buy insurance. So I think when you speak of that, it's it's really to like it it covers a lot of ground with different business owners, and and and the takeaway is you know, try to have that person subconsciously think of what when they're transacting with you and what that takeaway is. And if you can amplify that and make that like such a positive interaction, you win.

You win. You win every time. Like my definition, yeah. My definition of personal branding, personal branding is what people say and think about you in your absence. Yeah, personal branding. Yeah, have you given people enough information to share you in your absence? That is the definition. It's not about going viral, it's not about having a million followers because you don't need a million followers to make a million dollars. It's about whether or not if people given the opportunity, hey, I need insurance, are they gonna pop part their lips and say your name? That's the strength of your personal brand. And then when they say your name, when they meet you, you are in fact that person.

That is the that is the and you deliver.

And you deliver, right? Like your experience in selling insurance is that you always pick up the phone.

Yep.

Is that you, they always get an answer from you. Is that you always you're literally walking the paperwork over. You're on the phone with them, you're providing that experience as opposed to blindly sending it in the middle of the night and telling them that they have to talk to your assistant 17 times and really not providing that experience because experiences aren't just events, they're how you make people feel. And I think that that's what differentiates you from you know, one cupcake place to another or one insurance agent from another.

For sure. I love it. Awesome. So super impressive that you're an adjunct professor, not at just one great university, but two, Temple and Drexel, both in Philly. What made you want to teach college courses? Like, how do you pivot from everything you're doing, McFadden's Borgata, you know, having people develop their personal brands? Then you're like, I I want to teach this on an upper level. Like, what made you want to do that?

Yeah, I think that the interesting thing is that one, I think we all learn better when we laugh. Number one, yeah. I I knew that I was a non-traditional professor. And uh what you hear now is pretty much here in class. And I think that I also brought a realistic perspective to what they are really walking into on the other side. I think that there is something really important about the fundamentals of institutions and education. I think that people should be teaching you the fundamentals of every industry, but I think that there is some nuance, especially now with technology that needs to come into play thanks to adjuncts, right? Thanks to people who are currently in the space. And my ability to be, you know, unconventional in my delivery, plus my experience really provided a proper foundation to bring educational entertainment to undergraduates. And I think that that just gives them, oh, I'm not crazy. You know, there's stuff out there that I can do that is fun. Or if I want to be in a traditional industry, medicine, finance, pharmaceuticals, I can do it in my own way and bring my own personality into what it is that I'm doing. I think that there's just a lot of room for, especially young people now, since things are so different. Um, I think it's important that they have people on the other side of the cap and gown that, you know, give them a proper perspective and what it really kind of looks like in reality, which is, you know, you don't walk around with your resume constantly. You don't have a PowerPoint presentation about who you are, what you want, and why you deserve it. You have to articulate it. The majority of great networking happens at a little league game of your nephew who's never gonna go pro. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, you're gonna have to share like, so what are you studying? Oh, you know, as opposed to like, I don't know, I'm not sure. Like, like the majority of, especially in college, the majority of your family members don't even know what you're studying.

Right.

They're just really

You go to temple or you go to La Salle, right? But meanwhile, you know, your uncle's second wife has the job that you want. You know what I mean? So if you just set it over Thanksgiving, maybe you'd have more connections, but it's just giving them the tools to do that. So I th I just think and I also think it's fun. It's also preventative medicine, like when you teach people better ways to behave, then people behave better, and then selfishly our lives are better.

So was your dad at all inspirational on that? You said your dad taught at Stockton?

He did, but he taught chemistry. And so just so everybody's clear, so I'm one of four. Okay. And when you know, stereotypically in West African households, you could either be an attorney, a doctor, or an engineer.

Wow.

My baby brother graduated from Cornell Law. My baby sister has a doctorate in engineering. My older sister has her doctorate in operational management.

I talked to myself on Facebook through parties, just so everybody is clear on the order of things, right? So I needed to be able to. So when I came home and I was like, I'm teaching, like it is if as if the world was silent. They're like, who is paying you to teach anything? And I was like, you don't understand. It's a different class. Right, right, right. But they're very, very proud.

But yeah, so he was he was like, okay, so explain to me to this dad. I'm 48 years old, proudly, and my father's 80. And he's like, so how do you get paid?

Like, who pays you?

You're like, you're like, dad, it's called Irish Pub 101.

100%. Because that was like that time period.

It was like, I was like, I have to work music.

Yeah, it was crazy.

Anyway, but they're very proud. And I and I think that I did get my mother, it is a retired principal of an elementary school. You know what I mean? So I come from education. So I think that the marriage between entertainment and education was always in me.

Hey everyone, this is Tim, your favorite bricks and risk co-host. But don't tell Sean. I hope you're enjoying this episode, and I'll get right back to it in a moment. Our audience grows through word of mouth. So if you would please take a moment of your time and give us a review on the platform you're on, that would be fantastic. Please also help spread the BR word by sharing your favorite episode with a friend. We greatly appreciate your time and trust. Now, back to the show.

Right? And for all the people that are not watching and can't like see your exuding passion come through. Can you talk to us about how being passionate or finding your passion has really catapulted your career or or is taken you to the to the place you're now at in your career?

Sure, sure. I think a lot of people fight themselves for themselves, if that makes any sense. Totally makes sense. Yeah, like people are always kind of looking. What am I what am I gonna do? Like, what do you like? What do you organically like? And if you compare that with a product or service, then you're already moving in the right direction. If I like people, then you can sell whatever. You can be in whatever industry driven by your connection to people. For me, I've been a storyteller ever since I was gossiping in fourth grade, right? Like that's just been the way that I am. I've never been shy, I've never been quiet, I've been the kid that talks too much in class. I knew that I there at a very young age that I could command an audience, that I could, you know, deliver a speech. And so instead of fighting that, right, instead of being like, oh, but everybody's making money in accounting, so I'm gonna be an accountant or everybody's making money doing this. I embraced it and figured out figured out where it needed to live. Now it didn't always organically come to me, right? I wanted to be on television at a very young age upon graduation. Um, you know, there wasn't so many TV jobs. So I and I had taken some minor courses in marketing. I was like, oh, this is how people make money. Okay, fair. And so I got into sales right away, cold calling, smiling and dialing. That wasn't necessarily where I wanted to be, but I now know that my personality lent to it. And then I was able to find other opportunities. I kept looking for opportunities that served me that that I could excel at. I think a lot of people try to fight against themselves. Meaning, like New Year's resolutions, for instance, I'm against those two. I think that they're kind of these mind games that you kind of play on yourself. You are not really, and this isn't to discourage people, but I think that a lot of people are really poor at something, and then they spend so much energy trying to be mediocre at that thing.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, like well, rather so instead of doing this, you find something that you really love, and then it's just boom.

Yes, it's the same energy, right?

The same energy you use to be mediocre, to spend all this time spinning your wheels. How about you just find something that suits you? You double down, and it's gonna take you so much further.

Take you so much further, and it's so niche down. It's not, you know what I mean? You could like, for instance, I tell my students, like Comic-Con, right? You know, the big conference of comics. I don't know the majority of the people that are on the lineup, right? At Comic Con. I because I'm not necessarily I have a dear friend that works for Marvel, she's amazing. I'm like, okay, great.

You're not a comic book fan.

I'm not. I don't cosplay, I don't understand any of it. But there's a line wrapped around the building for these seminars, for these workshops, for these keynote speeches. There is a place for all of us. Why aren't you doubling down in the space that belongs to you? Right? Like find what you enjoy, find what you love, and then double down in that space, knowing that you're not going to be for everyone and that you don't live in every single room, finding the right room. So my passion for communication and then the the love of like lifestyle, which is obviously restaurants, food and beverage, fashion, all of those spaces. All right, how can I be exactly who I am, which is loud, slightly obnoxious, but talented at storytelling. And then how do I pair that with all the other things that I like? Okay, that's a job, that's a career, as opposed to going searching online for social media coordinator. Yeah. Try to find the industry and the personality that goes together.

But there's also a need for that, right? So you're not you're not trying to create something.

It's like well, here's here's what here's what I love about this conversation. You said something there that really resonated with me was stop trying to fight yourself. So Sean is in insurance, it's a commoditized industry. I'm in residential real estate. How many friggin' realtors are running around the city of Philadelphia? You know, tens of thousands. So, okay, so if everyone's doing what Sean's doing, everyone's doing what I'm doing, how do you differentiate yourself? And I ran a brokerage for like 10 years. And what I used to uh tell agents, especially if they were new, because I could kind of mold them from the start, I said, here's my best advice to you. Go with what you know. And they're like, Well, well, what does that mean? I'm like, what do you like to do? What are your hobbies? Like, do you like sports? Do you like comics? Do you like movies? Do you like uh going to the Eagles games? Do you like, are you a foodie? Do you travel? Like, I started asking all this stuff, and they're like, Well, I'm like this. I'm like, then go with that. Like, if you like to run, go join a running club, get your exercise in, and at the end, when they say you guys want to go out for beers, go out, get a beer, and get to know everyone. And they're eventually gonna ask you, oh, hey, Tim, what do you do? You're like, I'm a real estate, and they're like, oh my gosh, like I need to rent something. I want to buy something, I want to sell something, I want to rent a property. And I would say this all the time, and it's like my industry as well, Sean's, are so guilty of doing this. They just say, Here's the playbook, follow the playbook, and you're gonna make money. And then these people start doing it and they're like, This sucks. I hate doing, I don't like cold calls, I don't like door knocking, I don't like going to networking events, or I don't like being on video, whatever it is. But I think you saying, like, stop fighting yourself. Don't let someone else tell you how to do what you're gonna do. Find your own way and then just relate it in a way that you can make money from that. And sometimes it's it's gonna take five years to do that. But if you start now, you will incrementally see wins along the way, and it's gonna be done on your terms, the way you want it done, and you're gonna be like, This is I don't even feel like I'm working.

I don't even feel like I'm working. You're applying who you are to what it is that you're doing, and so now you are the realtor for sports because you love sports, right? You are the agent for you know, it puts you in that space. You are the chef for athletes because you love sports and you love to cook, right? That's a real job, and as opposed to like fighting against yourself constantly, like you played division one sports all the time, but now you're not no longer playing. And so, where do but you are an accountant, so you want to be an accountant for the sports industry. That's real, that's real. That and and those are real jobs, and that's better than doom scrolling accounting jobs at Jiffy Lube when you god bless them, but you don't want to work there, right? Because you're not passionate, or the flip side, you love cars, but you're an accountant, so working at Jiffy Lube makes sense, working at the auto mall makes sense because you're surrounded by things that bring you joy, and when you are happy, you do better at your job.

100%.

Well, you can be an accountant that specializes in automotive shops because you know the language, you know what their needs are.

You're you want to go to garages. If you're sure if you're knocking on doors looking for business, you want to go talk to the person working on cars.

Yes, yes, and you can find the issues within the accounting, within the Excel sheet, because your your the care that you have for that industry isn't based on your paycheck, it's based on what you naturally already enjoy. And I think we don't teach enough of that within institutions, we don't talk about enough of that within job searches and and you know, really being the reason why you get promoted is because again, that passion that you really started the question out with is what really is going to be the driver. I can teach people the majority of what it is that I do. But if you're not passionate about it, forget it.

Yeah. Let's talk, well, let's talk a little bit about community. So in some of the things that you have done, even in building McFadden's, let's say, you were building, you were building these rooms, as you call it, community. How how did you build your entrepreneurial? It's it's primarily women focused, right? Women, women business owners. How did you build that community? Like where did you start?

Yeah, I think that the majority of it is just showing up, right? I think the future of content is community, right? The future of content is gathering. The future of content isn't about trying to get a million views, but the right views. I think that that's really where the future is. I think we tried, right? We tried to get a million views, we tried to do all the things, and we just realized that the ROI isn't there just because you have a million followers, right? Doesn't mean it equates to sales or goals or what have you. It really the the the magic really comes from people who truly care. And some people who have a community of a hundred can get 90% of those people to show up. And so that's really powerful. And so I was victim to wanting more for more. And I'm talking even in the pandemic, so the past six years. Yeah, it was like, I need to build more people, I need to get more people to watch, I need to get more people to watch. And then I was like, Am I taking care of the people that are already watching? Am I even saying thank you to any of the people that are commenting on my stuff? Am I saying happy birthday to the woman who's followed This Is It Network since we started? Wow. Like, am I doing that? Because once I turned inward, they'll do the work for me. Once I turned inward, people speak my name in my absence all of the time, right? Like because I take care of the people who have taken care of me. And so many times we spend so much resource and energy trying to get more people into like the quintessential funnel, right? Of things that we don't even let people in our community know what it is that we need or what it is that we're doing, right? Like there's so many people that especially in what I do and the as far as branding and and probably what the both of you do too. Like, you make you it look like you don't need anything, right? Like your brands look great, the podcast is awesome, your social is awesome. People are like, they don't need any clients, right? They're all good, right? Like that's because people look at the photo shoots I do and all the things. They're like, oh, I thought you were good. I was like, could somebody buy an ad, please?

Buy an ad, right?

Um, because some of us, our personal brands are so strong that we're not creating what we need, right? And so but turning into your community in a comfortable way, being like, hey, do you know anybody that needs to promote their business? This is it. Network is here for you. Do you know anybody? Uh we'd really love to get three or four more people involved in our membership. If you know anybody, let them know. They're like, oh yeah, sure. I have four people. But because I didn't even ask, they were like, she's good, she doesn't need anything. And so me really turning into the community and empowering them to help me has changed, has changed everything. So the majority of us have what we need in our phones. We just haven't called them back.

Well, that's like Sky Michaels, uh, who's a real estate consultant, uh, and he works with different yeah, he's a coach and you know, but but he's like, you don't need that next prospect. You don't he's like, if you just took the time five minutes a day to reach out to one person and you did that on a daily basis, continue that over the course of a year, the business will come and you you don't need you're not gonna need to worry about marketing to this you know group to try to get this client. Like it's it's going to happen because the people who support you are going are always gonna want to see you succeed. Yeah, you're your biggest cheerleaders. And and if you just do that, everything else will take care of itself.

Everything else will take care of it. I call it tell not sell. So it's just if I just tell people what I'm doing, yeah, I don't need the PowerPoint, I don't need the whole season sales presentation. It's just like, hey, let me know if anybody needs any advertising. Hey, I'm throwing a conference next week. Anybody want to come? Oh my gosh, I totally come. Send me the link. Like that, right? Yeah. Well, meanwhile, I get in the car and I was like, why didn't I just say that two weeks ago? Right. But it's everybody, even myself who is proficient in this space, needs that reminder, right? Yeah, who did you tell today? Who did you tell today? So the sales become less. Not the amount of sales, but the the need to sell becomes less.

Turn inward. So you so you know my older brother Pat from LaSalle from LaSalle University.

G-Dog.

Shout out to G Dog. Um and my younger brother, Ryan, who you don't know, is actually my business partner in real estate, and he came up with this one for the podcast, which is one of our best questions. And it leads us to, you know, it's as positive and as optimistic as we're all being right now, there are struggles. So for your biggest struggle, you put the constant climb of entrepreneurship and balancing the vision with resources. So why has that specifically been a struggle for you?

Because my eyes are bigger than my stomach. So I am kind, I mean, I don't lack ambition. I don't lack want, right? I don't lack that. But you have to be able to line up passion to your point, can take you so far. You need to make sure that the processes are in place, right? Like I can smile and dial and I can come and command a room. But if we're in essence not telling enough people or bringing enough resources, there's only so much you can do without resource, right? There's only so much you can do without financial backing, as much as you know, people might like your personality or your product, right? You need to make sure that your processes are in place and you need to make sure that your procedures exist. And one of the hardest parts is, especially for entrepreneurs, is managing both sides of the brain, right? Is making sure that you have the front facing, right? Which a lot of people have, no problem, or the flip side, the back of the house, which a lot of people have that don't have the front facing. Entrepreneurs, especially solopreneurs like myself, you know, you have to be able to balance both and you have to be able to do so and then equally be able to ask for help, right? There's a competent competitive nature of what entrepreneurs kind of get themselves involved in, which is like, I got it, I got it, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. But that can only last for so long. And so really making sure that you have resources, and that's not always dollars or monetary, it's also the people in place, having a good accountant, having good legal, having good insurance, making sure that all of the things are taken up. And I think that I thought for a very long time that passion would just get me there. But the minute I realized that I needed to make sure that my passion was met with the same energy as my process, um, is when things started to turn around for me. So yeah, so that's always was hard because I'm more passionate than I am process for sure. Um, but now that I have a lot of the processes, and again, I'm a work in progress always, but a lot now that I have such a good support system, uh, things are much, much different.

It's fantastic. If you were consulting a business, Sheldon, and they came to you, because this this is kind of a question that comes up uh from time to time. What's the best response? Because I think you touched on this earlier, but what's the best response that someone can give when someone says, How's business? Right. Like and you want to Yeah, go ahead. How would like how would you recommend? Because it comes up a lot. Oh, yeah, like you kind of intimated.

If Bull Smoothie's gonna be like terrible. It's absolutely awesome.

It might be in the moment, right? It might be in the moment.

You ask me, I'm like, it's awesome. That's that's what differentiates the two of us.

But right, right. I mean, I think that there's a sense of there's a sense of reality to put to it. I mean, there's you know, we I I don't want to necessarily put my woes on the person who asked me the question. Well, you know, my assistant's pain and I can do it, right? So I think that there is, you know, life's good, which is always great to be able to say life is good, but it could always be better. Um, is one of the things I tend to say. Yeah. Um life's good, but it could always be better. Always looking for I literally, I if you were to ask me that question right now, I would say, you know, life is good, but it could always be better. We're always looking for new content creators for this is it network and new brands to get involved in our content. Let me know if you know of anybody. That's it.

And stop talking. The one thing for somebody who talks so much, um, I've had to learn how to stop talking.

Because there's been some times I've talked myself out of clients and and opportunities, right? By just giving away the house or, you know, not necessarily listening. Um, yeah. So yeah, that's how I would just, you know, life is good, but it could always get better. Would love to work with you.

I love that. Great advice. Great advice.

All right. And your quote that you gave us, which I thought was really good. Just because I carry it well doesn't mean it isn't heavy from Anonymous. Why that quote?

Yeah, that is my favorite quote of all time. I still don't know where it came from. Um, I live by it. The world is insane. Um, we're living now. Um, it's hard. And then on top of it, I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm an entrepreneur, all these things. And, you know, it goes back to sometimes your brand looks so good that people don't think you need help. Um, I think that, you know, an over underlying space has always been like check on your strong friends, right? Check on the people that are always like, I got you, I got you. Sometimes they need to be gotten.

Yeah.

Sometimes they need a little bit of help. Um, and that's okay, you know, and that's okay. And I think that also for people that I rely on really well is to check in with them, right? Because as a strong person, I have strong people too. And and giving them a break, um, like taking off the load from them and saying, Do you need anything? Can I help you in any kind of way? So it's not even just for me, it's for the people that are in my life that are carrying a heavy load. Um, because, you know, to be able to balance, you know, your families, to be able to balance your businesses and to balance your relationships, it is difficult. And it is, there's no such thing as like a perfect balance, but it is kind of this, you know, shell game that you play and it's hard. And I think a lot of times because we're ambitious, we're not really um encouraged to talk about how difficult it is, right? It's you're I got it, I got it. No problem. I can handle it, I can handle it. I tell my friends if I say I'm fine three times in a row, call for help. I'm like, I'm fine, I'm fine.

That's your SOS signal.

It's absolutely Sheldon is not fine, fine. We need to go out for drinks. She said she's three times in a row. Um, but yeah, so it's it, you know, just because somebody is, you know, coming into the room smiling, you don't know what they're going through, and and just really being patient with people as they navigate their journey. And then if you have the resource or time, ask to help, you know. Sometimes, you know, and ask twice, which I think is a really interesting thing. So you can ask somebody one time, they'll be like, Yeah, yeah, dude, I'm good, I'm good. And then you'll be like, yo, are you okay? And then it's and it all kind of comes out. But you know, always asking twice is a good piece of advice. Ask twice.

Absolutely amazing conversation today. We appreciate you. We know you're super busy. Um, so before we shut it down, why don't you tell our listeners and watchers where they can learn more about you and everything you got going on?

Yes, yes, yes. Well, first of all, this has been so much fun. Such a blessing. Thank you. A lot of fun for having me. Love it. Um, again, I'm Sheldon Barlet Rumor. For more information on This Is It Network, you can log on to thisisitv.com, or you can follow fan and like us, as I like to say, everywhere you find at this is it TV.

And who's a good candidate? Who are you looking for next? Yeah, Sheldon. Like who's like entrepreneurs? How can we help? Entrepreneurs?

So we are in this Philadelphia tri-state area, and as you know, or you may know, the uh United States turns 250 in 2026.

Yeah, doing a big party in Philly next year.

A huge party in Stark.

All-star game. All-star game, right? A lot of things are happening.

But there's so many things happening, and in celebration of that, and this is it network, I have grossly decided that I am going to interview 250 remarkable women. Um, if you are or know of any remarkable women leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, um, I would love to hear from you. It is going to be a fun series, of course, with an event at the end for us to celebrate these remarkable women. So please, please, please let me know. Awesome.

We'll have to get a chop it up, we'll get a link, and then we'll get that out.

Yes. Awesome. Thank you. We will do that. So that's all we have for this one, folks. Thank you for tuning in again to another episode of Bricks and Risk. See you next week. Thank you for joining us on another episode of Bricks and Risk. Our goal is that you walk away with one or two valuable nuggets, and we greatly appreciate you sharing your time with us today. You can find all BR episodes on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and anywhere else you get your podcast content. Until next time, keep learning and keep growing.