Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey Gorgeous. This is episode number 295. And we have the amazing Samantha Riley back on the show.

Samantha Riley [0:08]
Hi, this is Samantha Riley and you’re listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:15]
I’m so looking forward to another episode with Samantha Riley. I just love how she puts the focus on more income, more freedom, and more impact. As a speaker, International Business Growth Strategist, as a number one Best Selling Author, the host of The Thought Leader Business Lab Podcast. She has over 25 years of personal experience in building and growing businesses. And she helps leaders and experts to scale their business by leveraging their knowledge. And today we will be talking about “How To Value Your Genius”. So let’s dive right into the second episode with the wonderful Samantha Riley. Well, I am so super pumped to have you back today. Sam, welcome.

Samantha Riley [1:01]
Thank you so much. I’m really looking forward to diving even deeper with you.

Christine Schlonski [1:05]
Yeah, I just love we talked, you know, we talked about The Thought Leaders Positioning Checklist. And you shared that there are five amazing steps people can take to really have that clarity and a really great foundation. So their soulmate client or ideal client comes to them and works with them instead of someone else who obviously can be you. Can we talk about the piece of you know, authenticity, because sometimes we do feel like maybe we are not good enough or we are far along to teach something? Or you might be afraid that we can’t really deliver the way we are thinking we can or that the client might not be happy? Like how, how does this piece of authenticity, come into sales, and make sales actually better?

Samantha Riley [2:01]
I think if we take a step back and look at what it is that we actually deliver. So many of us don’t value our own genius. We don’t value what it is that we bring that is so unique, that no one else delivers exactly as we do. And we get into this mindset of thinking, wow, if we’re going to, to sell someone at this high ticket level, you know, we start to think that, they’re going to want this and they’re going to want this. I know that when I first started business coaching because I transitioned from wellness coaching. So at the time, I was running retreats, on creating your ideal life, and a lot of people were very unhappy in their career. And people were coming to me and saying, Sam, you’ve been in business for so many years. How can we do that? And that’s how I transitioned into business coaching. But when it, because it wasn’t something that I went out to create, it was something that organically happened. I was thinking, Okay, what do these people need from me?

Samantha Riley [3:06]
Well, they need to make sure that their finances are in order, or they’ve got a business plan or all of these logical things which do not come naturally to me. Like I said, figures like sales goals, but that’s about it. I make sure my accounts are reconciled. Other than that, I’ve got bookkeepers, I’ve got accountants, they do all that. But there was this logic that kicked in that said, Sam, you need to be able to help them with their, their numbers and their pnls. And then all of the other things that happen in the accounting packages that I have no idea about. And that’s when imposter syndrome kicked in. And I think that when we move away from our authentic, the way that we authentically deliver and really tapping into what it is that makes us unique, and our genius, that piece of us that creates the magic. That’s when this imposter syndrome kicks in. So it’s really important to know where you are nine out of 10 or a 10 out of 10. And don’t stray from that. Don’t get caught up thinking that your clients want something else because we need to understand that our clients have come to us have been attracted to us because of who we are and the message that we share.

Christine Schlonski [4:26]
Yeah, this is so impactful and so true. And they come to you because what you’ve shared before, they didn’t come to you to create all the stuff like for them, obviously, it’s good to have a conversation about what else would they need and then you can see if you can create it or if you can have like a joint venture with someone else or less of a partnership, but it’s really staying with your genius. So what would you say to people because I see that a lot of my clients and I think we all have this challenge, that one will really brilliant with something, it’s difficult for us to see, it’s difficult for us to put a price tag on it, we will do it all day long, we will do it for free, it excites us, t brings joy. How can people start to value their own brilliance more?

Samantha Riley [5:23]
I love that you say this because I think that the piece that comes to us so easily, and we think that it because it does come to us so easily. We think that it’s easy for everyone else, we don’t even realize that there’s a value to it. And I think that this is where it’s really powerful to reach out to people that are close to you, in all different capacities. Reach out to people that you have worked with, reach out to people that you are friends with, reach out to, you know, maybe some past clients, and actually ask them what they think is your genius zone, or what they think is, you know that thing that is your brilliance, as you mentioned before, other people can give you a deep insight, then you can yourself because like you said, it just comes so easily, you don’t realize that. So reaching out to people and asking them these questions is really, really powerful, and will help you to really see what it is that you bring. It’s just have you ever done that before? Christine?

Christine Schlonski [6:29]
Yeah, yeah, I have because I had a challenge. Like when I, when I started, I had so many ideas of how I could serve and what I could do. And what I’ve been through was my experience where I could add value. And I just couldn’t see it. I still couldn’t see it. And today I say, well, you know, remember, you look out of your rice. If you are not in front of a mirror, you’re not gonna see your whole body. And it’s the same as your brilliance. You might have an idea, but if nobody kind of shows you the mirror, you can’t see it. You need other people. And it feels a bit weird right to ask others I found when I did that exercise, but then it’s so valuable. The feedback.

Samantha Riley [7:15]
Yeah. So when I did it, I’d like to say, I reached out to friends, I reached out to people that had spoken at my conferences, I reached out to current and past clients. And what was so absolutely amazing to me, was that everyone’s answers were almost identical. And I was like, really, this is how other people see me. And it was just that, that moment, it’s like, I get it now I get it. Yeah, it’s what other people see that that’s the brilliance.

Christine Schlonski [7:44]
Awesome. So what exactly did you ask, so that people, you know, felt comfortable and sharing feedback as well? Like, someone might be listening thinking, Okay, well, I can ask these friends. I can ask this past client I, you know, but how do you ask in a way that gives you the results for better understanding?

Samantha Riley [8:06]
This is so cool. And I’m glad you asked it. Because I think that the first thing to remember is that humans love to help. We love to help other people. So whilst we might be thinking, oh, I don’t want to reach out and bother that person, the other person’s probably going to be thinking, well, how lovely that that person reached out and asked me, of course, I would love to help them out. So the first thing is that people love to help. And I just said, Look, I’m wanting to get some clarity on a few things. I was wondering if you can answer these questions. And I, and I mean, this was a while ago, but it was things like, what are three words that you would use to describe me? What do you think my greatest gift is in helping people in business? Asking things like that? What do you feel? What are the values that I exude the most? And getting the answers to these? Or what do you think is, you know, one of my zones of genius. And seriously, everyone really answered almost identical. So from there, it was actually really easy to pull it all together.

Christine Schlonski [9:20]
Yeah, Yeah. I just love that. Thank you so much for sharing the insight. And another thing I just realized when I heard you talking, what happened when I really understood more of the value I bring to the table. I remember when I was still in corporate. And when I started out in corporate, I did not have an idea about sales whatsoever, right. So I went through the training that I was on the phone and I remember my hand was shaking. I was so nervous about making my first call. And I had been listening in the office while I did my research in a big office space how other people conducted their calls. And so I was so amazed at how eloquently you could say things on the telephone. And you know, I was really thinking like, wow, we’ll ever get there.

Christine Schlonski [10:11]
And then some years later, I made a call for someone in my team. And they looked at me with that look? Like? Wow, will I ever get there? Right? You know, this love admiration. And I observed it, and I had the capacity to observe it because I was, you know, in the conversation with a client. But you know, I was by that time, I was so good at what I did, that I did not need 100% focus. So I was also observing what my team members were learning at the same time to make sure they understood what was going on in the call. And that was a moment when I realized when you look at other people, and you see the reaction, you also get a pretty good idea of how they perceive you. Mm hmm. And so from that experience, I took that forward, and with my clients now, I always make sure that when we coach that I also observe, like all the tiny reactions, or the aha, or the eyes are going bigger, or maybe the jaw-dropping, like the other extreme moment, but where you get that feedback without someone saying it to you?

Samantha Riley [11:27]
Uh-huh. Well, when you’re coaching it very often isn’t someone saying it to you exactly. Like you say, you know, all of a sudden, someone goes from a furrowed brow to a huge smile, or you just see, it’s almost like they’ve just breathe a huge sigh of relief and their shoulders have just dropped like, they’re the cues that we get when we’re coaching.

Christine Schlonski [11:46]
Yeah, exactly. And then what I added at the end of the coaching, I started to ask, like, what have you gotten out of the session? Because then it gives you again, it gives you constant feedback, and they kind of, you know, mirror, what was really, really good for them, what helped them to move forward. And from these answers, you can also get constant feedback around your brilliance that you might not be seeing, because maybe you thought you helped them with a, but really, they got a and b and you were not even aware of B because it was just a thing you did with the other thing.

Samantha Riley [12:28]
Yeah, exactly. We don’t even realize, when we’re in our true genius, sometimes it completely goes under the radar, because we do it. So intuitively, it happens without even thinking. Yeah, other people were like, how did she do that?

Christine Schlonski [12:43]
Exactly. So let me ask you, was it always easy for you to sell?

Samantha Riley [12:50]
So I think that you know, like you, we’re talking just earlier, and you had your corporate job and you weren’t selling and it was something that you had to learn to do and get better at. For me, I had a bit of a different experience myself, because I started my first business when I was 20. And I feel that I was so young, that I had no clue about anything. So I was, it was almost like, I had no idea that things that could go wrong. So I wasn’t afraid of them. I just went out and I knew you just sold some stuff. And that’s what you did in business. And then, you know, you exchange some goods or services, and someone gives you some money. And I just did that all day every day. And it didn’t bother me. And then from the time I was 22, the time I was 40, I had a few different businesses. But when I was 40, I separated from my husband and we’ve been married 20 years. And all of a sudden my world imploded, I started to really question my self-confidence, my self-worth, I went through this really awful phase where I didn’t know who I was. And that’s when I found it really hard to sell.

Samantha Riley [14:00]
All of a sudden, I knew that things that could go wrong, all of a sudden, I started to think I’m not good enough. I can’t do this. People don’t like me, I had all of the negative things going through my head. And that’s when I struggled to sell. So for me, selling was quite easy until I was older, and I realized all the things that could go wrong. So in actual fact, this learning experience that you had, I had to do that again at the sort of around the 40 years of age, start to really work on my personal growth, work on my self-confidence so that I could begin to sell again, because, you know, I think that the hardest thing in coaching is that we’re actually selling ourselves. It’s not like we’re selling a product that’s very easy to you know, you paid for this box. I’m going to hand that box over the counter to you and someone can pick it up and walk away. walk away with it. That’s quite easy compared to selling yourself where you’ve got all the self-doubt or the what if I’m not good enough? For what if? What if they’re upset with me? Or if they don’t get what they want, I found that a lot more difficult to overcome.

Christine Schlonski [15:12]
Yeah, well, thank you so much for sharing that. And that just brings me back to the first episode, where we actually talked about the self-worth piece, and how that’s gonna make you or help you and selling like when you can see your brilliance, what we discovered this episode, and you really understand your value, then it is aligned to the self-worth. And in life, it happens that there are things like, you know, splitting up after 20 years. I mean, that’s, that’s a huge change. And a lot of people have gone through experiences, where you know, life change from one day to the other, right could be an accident could be whatever, and then self-doubt creeps in. And you kind of wonder how you can solve all of this.

Samantha Riley [16:06]
And that’s where you have to go back to what we spoke about in the first episode of being very clear, what it is that you do, very clear on who it is that you serve. And the third piece that we didn’t talk about in the last episode is very clear on what it is that you’re selling. So what is the package? Or what is the program? What does it include? Exactly? What is the outcome that your ideal client will get? And how much is it? You need to know all of that with absolute clarity? So when someone says, How do I work with you? It’s just this is the answer. I think that a lot of people don’t get clarity on this and that’s when they get caught in the mouth. And someone says, well, how do I work with you? And they’re like, Oh, well, you know, you could do this or you know, and it’s in it’s kind of it’s this much, and people can intuitively feel that you’ve got no idea so that the trust is eroded at that moment. So all the trust that you’ve built up with that prospect is straightaway, it’s just gone. So you need to know very clearly what it is that you’re selling, and what the price point is.

Christine Schlonski [17:12]
How can people get clarity, because I know, especially as coaches or consultants, like selling yourself, selling the services you are making up so to speak, like, how can they get that clarity and confidence? So they can say, Well, this is what I do. This is what people get when they do the work, right? Because we cannot guarantee somebody doesn’t do the work. And this is how long it usually takes and this is what it costs, like, do you have an approach for that?

Samantha Riley [17:42]
Absolutely. When most people start to do this, they start to think what are the deliverables? So they start to think, well, I could give them a one on one session once a month in a Facebook Group and a, you know, a group coaching Q&A hot seat, you know, two times a month. But that’s irrespective, it doesn’t matter what you’re delivering, what matters is the transformation. So the question you have to ask yourself is, what is the transformation that I’m delivering? What is this ideal client? What is the outcome most likely to be? And that’s how we price our product on the outcome. If we know that we can get someone to, you know, make six figures in their business in six months, then it’s very clear to understand well, what is the ROI of that? So then we can say, okay, so the price point, even if we sell that at $5,000, that’s a bargain. Where I think a lot of people are totally not what I would charge PS. But it is someone who was trying to think a whole lot.

Samantha Riley [18:53]
We’ve got these ones on one and this Facebook group, and then thinking of, well, what would I charge for that? And then that’s why it doesn’t work. That’s why they can’t come up with an amount. So what is that transformation? If there’s someone that’s overweight, and feeling really uncomfortable in the bedroom with their partner? How much is it worth to them to have, to feel amazing, and to rekindle their romance with their partner? Like that is it? That’s it? That’s exactly right. And all of a sudden, then it doesn’t matter what the deliverables are, the person doesn’t care, we just want to know what the transformation is. So start with the transformation and work backward. And then you ask yourself to deliver that transformation. And for our client to get that outcome. What would we need to deliver to ensure they got there? So it’s a completely different way around putting their programs together?

Christine Schlonski [19:44]
Well, that’s such an amazing advice. And I think it’s so important for people to get clear on what the value is that their clients are perceiving. right because as we said, like your brilliance that comes so easy, it’s hard to put a price tag on it, but if you understand that transformation. And what it’s worth to your client, it’s so much easier to figure out what price to charge.

Samantha Riley [20:06]
Absolutely. Because all of a sudden, then you’re charging for an outcome, not for a deliverable. And that’s not what we’re delivering, you know, people don’t pay for us so that they can be in a Facebook group and do a session with us. That’s just what they get. But that’s not why they’re working with us. Hmm.

Christine Schlonski [20:26]
Brilliant. Yes. Love it. So what was the very, very first thing you have ever sold in your life?

Samantha Riley [20:36]
So when I was, I think I was probably about eight years old. I remember. I actually like to cook. And I remember my mom teaching me how to make these, these sweets, they were like hard toffees, and you stand on them all day. And you know, and they were, I love them because they just kept giving and giving and giving all this sugary sweetness. And I made a batch and I took them to school, and everyone’s like, oh, my goodness, we want one, we want one, we want one. And they’ll say, oh, so if I made some more tonight, do you want to pay for, you know, 50 cents for this tomorrow. And I got a list out and everyone was putting their name down. And every night, I would go home and I would make these toffees and I would sell out every single day. And the cool part of this is that I realized very quickly that I didn’t really like trading my time for money, and I didn’t want to go home and make these toffees every night. So what I would do was pay my sister and my brother to make them and I would charge them less. And I didn’t even make them. So that was my first business.

Christine Schlonski [21:42]
I love it, so brilliant. I mean, obviously, you are born a business person.

Samantha Riley [21:48]
Either that or lazy one or the other.

Christine Schlonski [21:50]
Or I would say very smart. It does reflect that you started your first business when you were 20. Like going full in I just love this idea that you were already having, like, you know, a team, or like people working for you, and making a profit. So awesome. Thank you so much for sharing what a fun, what a fun story. And you know, you do sell more when you are positioned in the right way. Right. Your first business was toffees.

Samantha Riley [22:22]
Which I never talked about before either.

Christine Schlonski [22:24]
Cool. And obviously, the benefits are clear to you, where you had sweet, sweet all day long, I probably would have been one of your clients. But if you can really come with the right positioning in case you do have a service that people you know, cannot have a taste of right then and there. But they need to understand the transformation or the path they can walk down on with you, it’s really important to position yourself in the correct way. And you brought us “The Thought Leader Positioning Checklist”. And I really encourage you and you’re listening to hop on over and get your copy, I will put all the links in the show notes as well as the links that connect to Sam. So you can check out her beautiful work. Tell us a little bit more about the checklist and why it is so important that I do get my copy.

Samantha Riley [23:18]
You need to be positioned in the way that your ideal clients are attracted to you. So when you’re positioned as the trusted authority, and you’ve seen as the go-to expert, people will come to you because they have faith. They trust that you can solve their problem. So you need to have a profile that’s built so that people trust you, they need to know that you’re the person that can help them. This checklist helps you to build an audience or your tribe of people the right kind of people because that’s the other thing you shouldn’t have. You shouldn’t be trying to attract everyone because then you attract no one. So through this checklist, you can uncover the steps to stop being the world’s best-kept secret and have people thinking that you’re everywhere, which obviously we can’t because we’re very busy, but we want people to think that you’re everywhere. So yeah, that’s the checklist that goes through the main principles that you need to or the things that you need to check off to position yourself as the authority or the go-to expert in your niche.

Christine Schlonski [24:23]
Awesome. So so viable, thank you so much for this wonderful gift. And yeah, what would you like to leave us with after the second amazing episode? I could talk for hours with you. But what’s like the final advice you would give to our listeners?

Samantha Riley [24:37]
I think the final piece that I want to leave people with is to not be afraid to charge too much. I think too many people are not charged enough because they don’t really understand. I call it the genius you call it the brilliance. It’s the same thing. What is that thing that no one else on the planet does exactly as we do and because it is so unique, no one else can compare with you in that exact same way? So get clear on that. And then you’ll start to realize how much you really are worth.

Christine Schlonski [25:14]
I love it. Well, thank you so, so much, Sam, I really appreciate your time, all the golden nuggets you dropped, I hope people took a ton of notes. And please gorgeous, make sure you get your copy of “The Thought Leader Positioning Checklist” because that’s what you are, you are the leader in your field after you figured out how to communicate it in a way that only you can do this. So thank you so so much, and everyone else had a wonderful day.

Christine Schlonski [25:46]
I hope Gorgeous, you have gotten so much out of this episode. And I see that over and over and over again that we have challenges to see our own genius. We have challenges to see why we are better or why we are worthy. And we have self-doubt creeping up every time you go to a new level, you will have these challenges. So please make sure that you see your genius. If you don’t see genius, find someone who sees it, and borrow their belief. Hop on over to christineschlonski.com to find the show notes, the transcript of Samantha’s episode as well as the resources she is sharing, her podcast, and all the links that are leading to her and her work. So you can go deeper if you wish. And you can be really inspired. Once you’re over there, sign up for “The Empowerment Notes”. That’s empowerment right into your inbox, where I share tools, strategies, some motivation, inspiration, and things I usually do not share on social media. So if you want to be up to date with Heart Sells! Podcast as well, make sure you are a subscriber of “The Empowerment Notes”. Thank you so much for having been here. Have a wonderful day, wherever you are in this beautiful world and I’m saying bye for now.