Speaker 1: Hi, Carol. She's a queen of talking a song. She's
Speaker 1: getting not afraid, so just let it flow. No one
Speaker 1: can do with quiet Carol. Learn this time for Caro
Speaker 1: learn WHOA Just so many things I love about Heather Adams.
Speaker 1: Just from the start. We share the love of Stanley. Yes,
Speaker 1: we both have our Stanley. Let's go and Stanley if
Speaker 1: you're listening, we ran through all the reasons why we
Speaker 1: love Stanley. Cups Heather, what are they well handle? Yep?
Speaker 1: Fit's in your cup holder? Yep? Huge? You know, holds
Speaker 1: a lot at one time, keeps everything cold. And what
Speaker 1: was it you said about the top grew top lit
Speaker 1: didn't fall a screw top lit? Yes, it's so good.
Speaker 1: And we both live in Nashville. I didn't know you
Speaker 1: lived in Nashville. Yes, I'm here. I'm just outside in Nashville.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so you're a baller. This is great, honestly, Like,
Speaker 1: I really love talking to people like you because you
Speaker 1: are the kind of woman behind the scenes, but you
Speaker 1: make the shit happen like you are that one that's
Speaker 1: like you have over You've launched over one hundred bestseller books.
Speaker 1: I mean that's a really big deal. Like I really
Speaker 1: want to know what it takes to launch a best
Speaker 1: seller because I'm not in a place to write a
Speaker 1: book right now, but I feel in the next ten years.
Speaker 1: It's not there yet, you know. Like I'm pretty good
Speaker 1: at like feeling my career. Yeah, I'm not ready, not
Speaker 1: ready yet. It's all around me. I'm like interviewing authors
Speaker 1: all the time. Tons of my friends have become best
Speaker 1: selling authors. I am like running into geniuses like you,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm just gathering information, you know, I
Speaker 1: just want to gather information. I just want to know,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure a lot of people are really curious
Speaker 1: about what. Okay, So I'm to run through what you do,
Speaker 1: and then I really want to start off with, like,
Speaker 1: tell me about what it takes out a bestseller, because
Speaker 1: I am curious about that. I mean, it had a
Speaker 1: launch one just like quickly, just like I want to
Speaker 1: kind of stay sure, okay, But Heather, you are the
Speaker 1: CEO of Choice Media Communications, So that is like a
Speaker 1: branding You're like a branding expert launching. What is that exactly?
Speaker 1: What do you do over there? So? Choice is a
Speaker 1: boutique communications agency. We serve people in the entertainment and
Speaker 1: lifestyle business, you know, industries. So it might be somebody
Speaker 1: in food, it might be somebody in finance, it might
Speaker 1: be somebody in health and wellness. But they have something
Speaker 1: distinctive about them that we think we can get above
Speaker 1: the noise. We dors book them on the Today Show,
Speaker 1: get them in the New York Times. We do social
Speaker 1: media and digital media management, and then we do a
Speaker 1: ton of branding and strategy. So people come to us,
Speaker 1: you know, Caroline, for one of three reasons. They've got
Speaker 1: ten oars in the water. They don't know which or
Speaker 1: to paddle first. They have a podcast, they write books,
Speaker 1: they speak, they run a business, you know, they are
Speaker 1: running a family like they have all these things going on,
Speaker 1: and they don't know how to tell their story in
Speaker 1: a clear, concise and compelling way, and they need the
Speaker 1: roadmap and the plan for doing that. So that's one
Speaker 1: that's me, Yeah, that's right. Pick me, pick me, help me,
Speaker 1: help me. The second reason they come to us is
Speaker 1: they're looking for exposure. They want to be on Good
Speaker 1: Morning America, they want to be in Time magazine, they
Speaker 1: want to be on Lewis House or your podcast. Right,
Speaker 1: And they don't have the relationships in order to leverage
Speaker 1: and make that happen, they don't know the gatekeepers. And
Speaker 1: then the third reason they come as they're looking for
Speaker 1: an audience, they're known over here to these people, but gosh,
Speaker 1: if these people over here and who knew who they were,
Speaker 1: it would be a game changer for their business. And
Speaker 1: so those are the three reasons that people come to Choice.
Speaker 1: And I have an all female team. I'm really proud.
Speaker 1: That's good. Yeah, I like that about that at some point,
Speaker 1: but I um, but yeah, they you know, we're looking
Speaker 1: for people that we know we can do good work
Speaker 1: for because they have something distinctive about them that the
Speaker 1: target audience is gonna latch onto. Okay, do you think
Speaker 1: you could work with me? Maybe? Can we talk about
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Yeah, I feel like you're speaking to
Speaker 1: me because I feel like I have really found my groove.
Speaker 1: Like I think I still could be like narrowed and
Speaker 1: chipped away at, but like I've really found like my groove,
Speaker 1: and I this podcast has become great. But I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what do we do. I've just like kind of walked
Speaker 1: blindly into this whole thing. Like Mike, I've had a
Speaker 1: million careers and anyone listening to my podcast for all
Speaker 1: these years knows that. But like, start off in music,
Speaker 1: then kind of moved over into like posting and TV
Speaker 1: and songwriting, and then I worked with record worked at
Speaker 1: a record label actually like in the industry, part in
Speaker 1: publishing company, and then started my podcast because I just
Speaker 1: know so many amazing people and have access access to
Speaker 1: all these brilliant minds, and it's taken off and is incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's such a privilege to be with your
Speaker 1: listeners because your podcast is incredible, and so thank you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: women like you, Caroline are our ideal client because when
Speaker 1: we are the target consumer, when we're the person that
Speaker 1: you're trying to reach, we know what to do for you.
Speaker 1: And that's where we have the strongest partnerships are with
Speaker 1: those kinds of clients that we serve. But you know,
Speaker 1: so many people fall accidentally into like this career and
Speaker 1: there's all this success and it's like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: wait if we put some intention and some strategy around that, yes,
Speaker 1: and what can happen? Because you've done this because of
Speaker 1: the magic that you possess and the gifting that you
Speaker 1: possessed already, and so what if we put, you know,
Speaker 1: some actual like strategy around it. How could we like
Speaker 1: blow that up? You know? Okay, so can we just
Speaker 1: kind of like keep role playing just a little bit
Speaker 1: just to like let people know what actually happens with this,
Speaker 1: because I feel like I love to use myself as
Speaker 1: an example because I just love learning. But okay, so
Speaker 1: say we were going to like take my brand apart
Speaker 1: and we're like, Okay, you have this podcast you host,
Speaker 1: like it's it's really become a wonderful, beautiful, amazing outlet.
Speaker 1: Like I am so blessed that I get to have
Speaker 1: this beautiful community that you've built too, And I like,
Speaker 1: I love that I get to talk to people like you,
Speaker 1: Like that is so heart fueling to me. And I
Speaker 1: feel like anyone who finds this podcast and like enjoys
Speaker 1: these kind of conversations is going to be so stoked too,
Speaker 1: because I just like getting to talk to brilliant minds
Speaker 1: like yourself and then like chip it all away and
Speaker 1: understand it and figure out how you can apply that
Speaker 1: to your own life. It's just like it's just pearls
Speaker 1: of wisdom. So say, like people out there have a brand,
Speaker 1: like I have a brand, You've build something, but you
Speaker 1: really don't know what to do with it, Like where
Speaker 1: do you even start? What are the outlets to even
Speaker 1: think'st That's a great question. So the first thing we
Speaker 1: do is we start with a deep dive. We call
Speaker 1: it the Choice Collaborative, and it's like a strategic workshop
Speaker 1: that we do with you over the course of two days,
Speaker 1: and we hear your founder story. We hear how did
Speaker 1: you go from growing up in Texas to where you
Speaker 1: are now in Nashville with this podcast and this family,
Speaker 1: and you know, all the things that you have going
Speaker 1: on in your life right and we hear all of
Speaker 1: that right out of your mouth. We have dove deep
Speaker 1: into your brand long before you've stepped into that you know,
Speaker 1: collaborative with us, but hearing it out of your mouth
Speaker 1: and the language that you use and what you choose
Speaker 1: to tell us about and the touch points along that journey,
Speaker 1: we hear that from you first. Then what we do
Speaker 1: is we walk through how people are finding you now,
Speaker 1: who are those people that are consuming your content right
Speaker 1: now and who are the people that you're missing out
Speaker 1: on that Oh my gosh, if they knew that get
Speaker 1: Real existed, or if they knew about Carolina hobby and
Speaker 1: her community, like how would it be a game changer
Speaker 1: for your business? And then we create what we call
Speaker 1: a content wheel, and so this is three to five
Speaker 1: content pillars like imagine yourself at the center. Think of
Speaker 1: like an old school brainstorm like bubble that you would
Speaker 1: have done on the white boarding class, right, and you're
Speaker 1: doing all these thought bubbles off of you, but we're
Speaker 1: starting with you at this center, and we create three
Speaker 1: to five big content pillars that you were going to
Speaker 1: talk about all the time because it's what's true to Caroline. Right.
Speaker 1: So if I use me in Choice as an example,
Speaker 1: communications is one of our content pillars, right, we're communications experts.
Speaker 1: I've been a publicist and a PR professional for almost
Speaker 1: thirty years twenty eight years, So that's a huge bucket
Speaker 1: and a reason that people come to Choice. Entrepreneurship is another.
Speaker 1: A lot of our clients, probably ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: them are entrepreneurs, and so they that the content around
Speaker 1: that pillar is really important to them. Another category for
Speaker 1: us is empowering women and leadership of our clients or female.
Speaker 1: I lead an all female team. I am very very
Speaker 1: passionate about equipping and empowering women specifically, and the vast
Speaker 1: majority of the people that are in our community are
Speaker 1: women who are trying to lead in some way. And
Speaker 1: then our last category is relationships. So this might be
Speaker 1: marriage or friendship or self care things like, but those
Speaker 1: are things that our women care about. So those are
Speaker 1: four of our content pillars at Choice. Well, what we
Speaker 1: do with you is we create that content wheel and
Speaker 1: so there's the big content pillars and then there's those
Speaker 1: subcategories that come off of it. So off of communications,
Speaker 1: we might have book publishing, we might have podcasting, we
Speaker 1: might have social media. You know, just examples crisis communications,
Speaker 1: like things that come off of communications, and we build
Speaker 1: that for the clients specifically. And everything that you create
Speaker 1: content wise, if it's for your social media, if it's
Speaker 1: a media interview you're doing, if you're writing a book,
Speaker 1: if you're doing a podcast, if you're speaking somewhere, if
Speaker 1: you're writing a blog post, if you're putting out a newsletter. Like,
Speaker 1: anywhere that you create content, it should go through this filter.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a compass or your north star
Speaker 1: in your business. Because what happens to people is they
Speaker 1: start going squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, and they start talking about
Speaker 1: things that are not true to their brand because they
Speaker 1: think they need to talk about them because other people
Speaker 1: are talking about them, or they think it's popular, it's trendy,
Speaker 1: or you know whatever. And then what happens is people
Speaker 1: don't know what to come to you for. They don't know,
Speaker 1: like what is true to your brand because you're talking
Speaker 1: about eighty five different things and I can fall in
Speaker 1: that category sometimes just where you're like squirreling, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I'm so done. I'm so trying not to squirrel anymore,
Speaker 1: like I want. This is why this is totally like
Speaker 1: resonating with me what you're talking about, just like clearing
Speaker 1: it up, coming up with a strategy and a formula
Speaker 1: and a plan exactly. And then we take that content
Speaker 1: wheel and we create for you a mission, core values,
Speaker 1: and a tagline for your business. Now, some people come
Speaker 1: to us and they're ten years into their business and
Speaker 1: they've got something established, and we evaluate it and finesse
Speaker 1: it and clean it up or updated or elevated in
Speaker 1: some way. Sometimes they come to us and it's right
Speaker 1: on the money. But the vast majority of people that
Speaker 1: come to us have never thought about that, have never
Speaker 1: thought like, what is the reason I'm here, What is
Speaker 1: the what do I value? What do I believe? What
Speaker 1: am I delivering to my audience through my foundational elements?
Speaker 1: So I'll use you know Choice again as an example.
Speaker 1: So our mission is we see you, we understand you,
Speaker 1: we guide you, we make you known. So it's like
Speaker 1: four simple statements, but if you were to boil it down,
Speaker 1: it would be see, understand, guide, make known. That's why
Speaker 1: we're here. See you really take the time to hear
Speaker 1: the story, know the story, like see the full story anitionally,
Speaker 1: partnering with those people we think we can get above
Speaker 1: the noise, not just anybody that comes to Choice right,
Speaker 1: then understand you. We know it's one thing to be
Speaker 1: excited about you. It's another thing to know what to
Speaker 1: do for you that is going to move the needle
Speaker 1: in your business. Okay, so you have the steps like
Speaker 1: you guys have this vast rolodex in bandwidth of like
Speaker 1: you have a playbook. So like someone like me who
Speaker 1: doesn't know all the outlets or people to talk to,
Speaker 1: or where you should be spending your time or whatever,
Speaker 1: it's like you can immediately go like, like, what are
Speaker 1: the different exactly rightlets out there that you would plug
Speaker 1: people into and our you know, lane of expertises communications.
Speaker 1: We're not doing your taxes, you know, Um, we're not
Speaker 1: changing the oil in your car. Like, this is what
Speaker 1: we're specifically gifted at and competent in and have you know,
Speaker 1: a track record of success with and so that's where
Speaker 1: we're guiding you. So the understanding part is like, there
Speaker 1: are so many people that come to us, Caroline that
Speaker 1: needs something and we're like, we can tell you this
Speaker 1: is what you need, but we're not good at that
Speaker 1: or we don't offer that service. But here are three
Speaker 1: people that you should go talk to, you know, right.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that the people that come
Speaker 1: to us that we say yes to are people that
Speaker 1: we know we can do really good work for. And
Speaker 1: so that's where the understand comes in. Then guide to
Speaker 1: use our friends here in Nashville story Brand Don Miller
Speaker 1: and his awesome team at story Brand. The customer or
Speaker 1: the client is the hero and we are the guide.
Speaker 1: So many people get that flipped in reverse and they
Speaker 1: make their self or their business the hero, and that's
Speaker 1: not the case. We're the guide. We're the ones taking
Speaker 1: you by the hand down this specific lane of expertise.
Speaker 1: That we have and then that's where that roadmap and
Speaker 1: game plan comes in. And then ultimately, Caroline, if we're
Speaker 1: doing our job, we're making you known. And for some
Speaker 1: people that's their name in lights and the Hollywood sign
Speaker 1: and national attention, and for others it's like, Hey, I
Speaker 1: just want these people over here to know that I
Speaker 1: even exist. And so that's an example of a mission
Speaker 1: that we walk through with you. These are these are
Speaker 1: I exist statements like you exist to do what? And
Speaker 1: then the core values are believe statements I believe and
Speaker 1: so these are foundational elements of the way that you
Speaker 1: are serving the people that you um, that you have,
Speaker 1: you know that come to your audience. So ours are five.
Speaker 1: We believe relationships matter. These are not just business transactions
Speaker 1: for us. We know we do our best work with people.
Speaker 1: We are in deep relationship with Jen Hatmaker has been
Speaker 1: our client for eight years. Eight years. We are in
Speaker 1: deep relationship. She's coming on the best, the best she is,
Speaker 1: so she knows who she is. Did y'all help her
Speaker 1: get her all narrative? We've been working with her for
Speaker 1: eight years. When when we met Jen and started working
Speaker 1: with her, she was very firmly planted in the Christian world, Right,
Speaker 1: she spoke to women in churches, and that's where she
Speaker 1: was known and um, and I was obsessed with her
Speaker 1: and her content because I was her target demo, right,
Speaker 1: I was the woman she was writing those books and
Speaker 1: Instagram posts and all those things for it. And I
Speaker 1: was like, listen, there are women over here that have
Speaker 1: no idea, they've never heard of Jen Hatmaker, and they
Speaker 1: would love you, they would be obsessed with you if
Speaker 1: we can get you in front of them. And so
Speaker 1: it was really baby stepping her over to a new
Speaker 1: consumer that had no idea who she was. So like,
Speaker 1: when we started working with her, nobody at the Today
Speaker 1: Show knew who she was. Nobody at the New York
Speaker 1: Times or you know some of these magazines like Southern
Speaker 1: Living or Real Simple or Red Book or you know
Speaker 1: whatever time and now you know, she's a regular contributor
Speaker 1: to a lot of those places because she has really amazing,
Speaker 1: compelling content and an awesome story. And we just needed
Speaker 1: to introduce her to a new audience and to those
Speaker 1: gatekeepers who didn't know her. You know, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: And now she's like doing her own cruise, Like we
Speaker 1: have to think, oh, my gosh in November. Yes, you
Speaker 1: have to be a big deal to like pack of cruise.
Speaker 1: I mean that's her own cruise right feet. Yes, And
Speaker 1: like her whole life ended up blowing up with her
Speaker 1: husband and her whole world, and then she's writing about
Speaker 1: it and it's like new book, feed these people, and
Speaker 1: she's being honest about it on podcasts, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: she's completely pivoted from like the Christian churchgoing wife too.
Speaker 1: Now I am in the world. It's a mess, and
Speaker 1: let me be beautiful with you, Like maybe a beautiful
Speaker 1: mess with you. That's exactly right. And she says, now
Speaker 1: her insides and outside's match right, like she I love
Speaker 1: that Gin all the way through. Fee. No, she's not
Speaker 1: putting on a show for anybody anymore. She is just
Speaker 1: being truly, wholly, authentically Gin and standing at her own integrity.
Speaker 1: And she has been through a lot. You know, her
Speaker 1: career was devastated when she came out affirming gay marriage,
Speaker 1: and she was devastated in her marriage, you know a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago when it imploded like overnight. And
Speaker 1: we've walked through all of that with her. But what
Speaker 1: is standing now is this incredibly powerful, strong, equipped woman
Speaker 1: who is passing the baton backward and saying, learn from
Speaker 1: all that I have gone through. You know, Um, I
Speaker 1: want to cry, but you know, don't let a crisis
Speaker 1: happen before you've got your shit together, essentially, And she's amazing.
Speaker 1: And that that cookbook that you have Feed these People,
Speaker 1: which came out, you know, the end of last year,
Speaker 1: was really therapeutic for her and healing for her when
Speaker 1: she was, you know, at the bottom of the ocean,
Speaker 1: you know, in major trauma and suffering a lot of
Speaker 1: loss in her personal life. And so it's a beautiful,
Speaker 1: you know, example of hope on the other side. And
Speaker 1: I just love her so much because she's so real
Speaker 1: about it and now she's so happy. She's in a
Speaker 1: now great relationship she actually found like true love and girl.
Speaker 1: I introduced her to him. I did Tyler. Tyler was
Speaker 1: my client and Jen is my friend and client, and
Speaker 1: I was we were Jen and I were in New
Speaker 1: York for media meetings and interviews and whatnot, and she
Speaker 1: was staying an extra night. I was getting ready to
Speaker 1: fly back home to Nashville, and she was staying an
Speaker 1: extra night to go to a Broadway show and I
Speaker 1: was like, well, what are you going to see? And
Speaker 1: she's like, I don't know. I haven't decided yet. And
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, listen, I have kind of
Speaker 1: a wacky, crazy idea. But one of my new clients
Speaker 1: is in town and he's going to a show tonight.
Speaker 1: Why don't y'all go together? Like you need to know
Speaker 1: each other. He's amazing, y'all will love each other. And
Speaker 1: so they went and saw a waitress and with Jennifer
Speaker 1: was the was the lead, and they went and met
Speaker 1: and they're together now. And I'm like, Okay, my work
Speaker 1: here's done for Rather, you're more than just like helping
Speaker 1: with the career. You're like the whole more about your life.
Speaker 1: I don't just care about whatever you're launching. And also
Speaker 1: you do Noel jet right with jets at Homes. I
Speaker 1: just interviewed Amazing. You loved your episode with her. It
Speaker 1: was so good. Oh, I gotta listened to the two
Speaker 1: of y'all forever because it was just like, first of all,
Speaker 1: y'all cried like forty five times, which I had, like
Speaker 1: all these tender moments listening to the two of you.
Speaker 1: It was so precious. But she's amazing too, amazing, Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: So here's what I'm getting a theme with you, is
Speaker 1: you really lock in with like really amazing powerhouse women
Speaker 1: who have like gone through some shit and figured out
Speaker 1: how to get on the other side of it and
Speaker 1: then tell the story and help people women rising like
Speaker 1: women who are rising like You's like the feis right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is such a privilege to be a megaphone for
Speaker 1: women like that, because don't women like me and you
Speaker 1: need those messages? Yes? Yes, And so to play even
Speaker 1: the smallest role, this teeny tiny role to help like
Speaker 1: catapult them so that you know, more women are hearing
Speaker 1: these messages. Is It's not lost on me that that
Speaker 1: is you know what I get to do every day. Man.
Speaker 1: And just speaking of these two women in particular, gen
Speaker 1: hat Maker and Noel Jet, like, if anyone doesn't know them,
Speaker 1: it y'all should follow them. Noel's already been on the podcast,
Speaker 1: Jin's coming on the podcast. But what I love about
Speaker 1: them and just makes me love you so much that
Speaker 1: this is how you operate in the women that you're
Speaker 1: drawn to, is I love that these women have not
Speaker 1: had an easy road. They're honest about it, and they
Speaker 1: have done the hard work. They are smart, they have
Speaker 1: kept going, They've persevered, They felt all the feelings, and
Speaker 1: yet they have continued to march forward and listen to
Speaker 1: their heart and find what is guiding them. And now
Speaker 1: they have literally risen from so many moments as it
Speaker 1: really hard, painful moments, but they have gotten so real
Speaker 1: and honest and truthful with themselves. And now they are
Speaker 1: at this next level where both of them are content
Speaker 1: and happy and like thriving. But it was not like, oh,
Speaker 1: they just have an easy life. It's like, no, they
Speaker 1: fought for this, and now they're sharing how they got
Speaker 1: there and they're sharing their tips and they're actually are
Speaker 1: truly happy, not just like faking it and sagement, you know.
Speaker 1: And Jen and I talked about that when she was
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the ocean and in major trauma
Speaker 1: and grief. I said, I know you can't see it now,
Speaker 1: but women are going to be like you are going
Speaker 1: to help so many women on the other side of
Speaker 1: this because they're either have gone through or are going
Speaker 1: through what you're going going through right now, and they
Speaker 1: need that encouragement that there is hope on the other side,
Speaker 1: you know, and living truth of that. But we need
Speaker 1: someone to show us and we need to actually see
Speaker 1: it play out. You know. I feel like that's how
Speaker 1: human beings are. Not everyone knows is has the courage
Speaker 1: or even the idea or the has the understanding of
Speaker 1: what to do, but we need someone to guide us,
Speaker 1: like you're guiding with the behind the scenes getting these voices, Hurd.
Speaker 1: It's like, we need someone's story that we can latch
Speaker 1: onto so we can have hope because we're also true Caroline,
Speaker 1: It's so true. And you know, I'm sure General talked
Speaker 1: to you about this when you have her on the show,
Speaker 1: but you know, she created these me courses out of
Speaker 1: that very thing so that women can learn from the
Speaker 1: exact people that she's learning from and who have helped her.
Speaker 1: And she's like, I'm not an expert in finances, but
Speaker 1: here's who I, you know, linked arms with and who
Speaker 1: helped me when I didn't know how much money I
Speaker 1: made in a year and I didn't know how many
Speaker 1: you know, checking accounts we had, and you know, like
Speaker 1: things like that. She I don't want to steal her thunder.
Speaker 1: I want her to be able to share all that.
Speaker 1: But she just helped to understand that we play in
Speaker 1: all of that is getting those people really clear on
Speaker 1: their messaging, so what we were talking about before and
Speaker 1: why they're here and who they're serving, and then who
Speaker 1: they're not serving but need to be in front of,
Speaker 1: and then how to get them in front of those people.
Speaker 1: So we know that if Jen is on your podcast,
Speaker 1: the women listening to your podcasts are women who either
Speaker 1: know her and love her and want to hear more
Speaker 1: from her or don't and should right it will be
Speaker 1: so excited to find out about her exactly. And so
Speaker 1: it's really customizing that messaging to the right audience and
Speaker 1: getting them the access that they need to get in
Speaker 1: front of those people. So yeah, that's a very long
Speaker 1: way of telling you more about what choice. Do I
Speaker 1: love it though? And do y'all do like brand deals
Speaker 1: y'all partner people with particular brands or is it more
Speaker 1: just like big things like book deals and like show
Speaker 1: engagements and things, so we don't like, we don't represent
Speaker 1: them like a literary agent would and go to a
Speaker 1: publishing house and shop the book around. It's our job
Speaker 1: to birth the baby, right, it's our job to promote it.
Speaker 1: So once the book has been written, and we don't
Speaker 1: just work on books. We work on a lot of brands,
Speaker 1: but for an author, as an example, when that book
Speaker 1: is getting ready to release six months before it comes
Speaker 1: out is when we get involved and we start really determining, Okay,
Speaker 1: what is the story that needs to be told? Who
Speaker 1: are the people to go to. So we're booking media
Speaker 1: so that when that book is out, you're hearing them
Speaker 1: on podcast, you're seeing them on TV, you're reading reading
Speaker 1: about them in magazines or online. We're coordinating partnerships with
Speaker 1: influencers like you, so they might have Instagram lives with
Speaker 1: people or you know whatnot and so, but it's it
Speaker 1: starts with that collaborative branding exercise to get really clear.
Speaker 1: There's so much clarity that comes out of that. And
Speaker 1: then when we know what the end goal is, you know,
Speaker 1: we want to be a New York Times bestseller, we
Speaker 1: want to sell thousands of books. I want to be
Speaker 1: on the Today Show, you know, whatever that end goal is.
Speaker 1: We work backwards from that in developing the strategy, you know,
Speaker 1: to go after it. I just I can't believe I
Speaker 1: just like met you, like you just felt like No,
Speaker 1: I can't believe we live in the same town and
Speaker 1: haven't and have all these mutual friends and haven't been
Speaker 1: together yet. But you're like the fairy godmother of all
Speaker 1: these like vagabond entrepreneurs who like have all this stuff
Speaker 1: but don't know what they're doing but need help and guidance.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what vagabond actually means. That might
Speaker 1: not be the right word, but like, you know, like
Speaker 1: all these people out there who just like there's such
Speaker 1: a world to create now, but it's like you start
Speaker 1: creating and just not knowing what to do with it,
Speaker 1: you know, And like the wizard behind the curtain, right,
Speaker 1: that's where roll is is. We are behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: pulling all the levers and making things happen. And really
Speaker 1: it's such a privilege to be able to help these
Speaker 1: women have their dreams realized, you know, because of the
Speaker 1: work that we do. And like I said, we are
Speaker 1: one small cog in the wheel, but even in the
Speaker 1: role that we play, we feel like, gosh, it's so
Speaker 1: fun to be able to help people live out the
Speaker 1: dreams that they have for themselves. How did you get
Speaker 1: into this, How did you get passionate about this? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I studied journalism in college. I went to
Speaker 1: the university of Georgia and study journalism in college. But
Speaker 1: I'll tell you where it all started for me was
Speaker 1: when I was a junior in college, I did a
Speaker 1: summer internship at the Secretary of States Press office in
Speaker 1: the State of Georgia. So I was going to the
Speaker 1: Capitol building every single day and I was going to
Speaker 1: the press office. I had no idea what a press
Speaker 1: secretary did, but I knew. I was fascinated. And what
Speaker 1: I've realized, and this was long before Olivia Pope and
Speaker 1: scandal was exactly Oh I love that. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: But red wine and the popcorn every night so good. Yes,
Speaker 1: the tall cratern barrel wineglasses. Please. So I was in
Speaker 1: college in the nineties, so this is long before Olivia Pope,
Speaker 1: but I was obsessed with becoming her. That's what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do with my career. And what I learned
Speaker 1: from that press secretary is she was the buffer between
Speaker 1: the client. Her client was the Secretary of State and
Speaker 1: the media, and it was all about relationships and about
Speaker 1: the semantics of what you said and how you said
Speaker 1: it and all of that. And so serving is that buffer,
Speaker 1: which is what a publicist does. You know, I serve
Speaker 1: as the buffer between Jen Hatmaker and the Today's Show.
Speaker 1: I serve as a buffer between you know, Noel Jet
Speaker 1: and your podcast, right and so's it's that is what
Speaker 1: I was obsessed with. I loved being that person in
Speaker 1: between connecting the two and again goes all the way
Speaker 1: back to relationship. I mean, that's the reason I have
Speaker 1: a career is because of relationships. Okay, so this is
Speaker 1: like what you're made to do because you have the
Speaker 1: personality for it. Because this is where it's like a
Speaker 1: fine art. This is like, this is like and I've
Speaker 1: been around long enough to know, this is like this
Speaker 1: is where your secret sauce of who you actually are
Speaker 1: comes into play. Because not everyone can finesse a relationship.
Speaker 1: Not everybody can. Like a million people can say they
Speaker 1: have your job, But can everyone actually have a good
Speaker 1: relationship with all these outlets? Can everyone actually get these relationships?
Speaker 1: Can everyone actually like maintain them and keep them fun
Speaker 1: and keep them alive and keep them, you know, thriving.
Speaker 1: It's a personality thing. If you don't have the right personality,
Speaker 1: sometimes it might be a total not it could be
Speaker 1: a clash. And I feel like you just from this
Speaker 1: one interaction, we're having. I'm like, you are made to
Speaker 1: dance with people, like communicate with them, like you're just
Speaker 1: like you love it. I can tell you love it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do. I really feel like this is God's gifting form,
Speaker 1: you know, and call for my life is that, you know,
Speaker 1: I am meant to serve people in this way. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's not lost on me that all those
Speaker 1: years ago when elementary school, when my report card came
Speaker 1: back and said, you know how, there's a great student
Speaker 1: and she's really smart and gifted, but she sure does
Speaker 1: talk a lot in class. You know, like all of
Speaker 1: those things are pointing to the career and the life
Speaker 1: that I have now, right, and the leadership that I
Speaker 1: had when I was you know, labeled bossy as a
Speaker 1: young girl. You know, all those things were eating me
Speaker 1: to this place that I am now. And and my
Speaker 1: goal is to change that narrative for the women who
Speaker 1: are coming behind me so that their path and their
Speaker 1: course is easier and wider than mine was. You know. So,
Speaker 1: what do you like about connecting with people? Like what
Speaker 1: do you like because to me, it kind of feels
Speaker 1: like I love connecting with people too, But like when
Speaker 1: I'm connecting for work with people, I get a little
Speaker 1: more stressed out. Like I like connecting, like just like
Speaker 1: getting to have this conversation and like diving into your
Speaker 1: story and like you know, sinking my teeth into your soul.
Speaker 1: But like when it comes to like having to like
Speaker 1: go gather all these different outlets and like I mean
Speaker 1: chan these relationships and find these people and like get
Speaker 1: this rolodex of just like connections that can feel a
Speaker 1: little daunting. Like that makes me feel a little bit
Speaker 1: stressed out, Like how do you navigate that? Why do
Speaker 1: you like that? Like what do you like about all
Speaker 1: of that interaction? Like what is what is it that
Speaker 1: like lights you up? Well, here's here's how I like
Speaker 1: to think about it. It's like you know that saying
Speaker 1: about how the closest five people that you're friends with
Speaker 1: or shape who you are. It's the same in this
Speaker 1: In business, I don't have thousands and thousands of superficial relationships.
Speaker 1: I have handfuls of really deep and meaningful ones. So
Speaker 1: for example, when I first got into a book publishing
Speaker 1: and I was the head of publicity at a book
Speaker 1: publishing house, one of the big publishing houses in the country,
Speaker 1: There's this woman who was the head of all book
Speaker 1: production at NBC. Her name's Jackie Levine. She was in
Speaker 1: that position for almost thirty years. I knew that my
Speaker 1: authors needed to be on NBC, whether it was for
Speaker 1: the Today's Show or Dateline, or the NBC Nightly News
Speaker 1: or Hoda's podcast or whatever it was, right it was
Speaker 1: on NBC. Jackie was responsible if it was connected to
Speaker 1: books in any way, shape or form. So I knew
Speaker 1: Jackie was a gatekeeper that I needed to have a
Speaker 1: good relationship with. So I first reached out to her,
Speaker 1: made a case for having a meeting. I went to
Speaker 1: New York and sat down in her office, and I
Speaker 1: started getting to know her personally. She had pictures on
Speaker 1: her wall that her children had drawn, and one said
Speaker 1: Greta and one said THEO. And so I asked her
Speaker 1: about Greta and THEO. And I every single time after
Speaker 1: that when I would talk to her, I would ask
Speaker 1: her about Greta and THEO. Right, and I reached out
Speaker 1: to her to compliment her on a segment when I
Speaker 1: didn't need anything from her. Right, I was forming and
Speaker 1: relating to Jackie on a personal human level, and not
Speaker 1: just when I had an agenda and needed my author
Speaker 1: on her show. It was important to you to develop
Speaker 1: a real relationship with her, a real relationship that was authentic.
Speaker 1: And so fast forward years later, you know, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people that Jackie has booked for me. This
Speaker 1: is why she, you know, opens my emails or returns
Speaker 1: my calls. But THEO is coming to Nashville to go
Speaker 1: to Vanderbilt for college, and Jackie calls me up and
Speaker 1: she's like, I need to know all the things. Where
Speaker 1: do we stay, where does he live, where do we eat,
Speaker 1: what do we do? Because we had a relationship well
Speaker 1: beyond just me booking authors on NBC programming. Right, that's
Speaker 1: what you're saying, like, if you're going you value your
Speaker 1: job so much, you love this connection, but you're going
Speaker 1: to connect, and you're going to connect hard, and it's
Speaker 1: going to be real and it's not going to be
Speaker 1: totally spread out. You're not gonna, like, you know, just
Speaker 1: dump yourself all over everybody. You're very pick not I
Speaker 1: don't know if you're picky, but you're picking these people
Speaker 1: that really matter to you and you're going to pour
Speaker 1: into That's right. And I say that with our clients
Speaker 1: that we serve, you know, when they come and they
Speaker 1: want um, you know, media campaigns, and they want us
Speaker 1: to deliver media. I'm like, let's find the right twenty
Speaker 1: places that will be a game changer for you if
Speaker 1: they happen, and let's go intentionally and strategically after those,
Speaker 1: rather than throwing everything up against the wall and seeing
Speaker 1: what sticks to two hundred and fifty places and sending
Speaker 1: them all the same pitch. Right. So it's that same
Speaker 1: way in my personal life, Like I have a handful
Speaker 1: of really close, intimate, deep and meaningful friendships as opposed
Speaker 1: to you know, hundreds of really superficial ones. And so
Speaker 1: that's just my approach, and that to me, works really
Speaker 1: well from a relational standpoint, and it's you know, gone
Speaker 1: over into my work life and it's it's what really
Speaker 1: helps us be successful for our clients. I like you.
Speaker 1: I like your personality. I can already tell like you
Speaker 1: are someone who just like you are just quick and
Speaker 1: you're on it and you have a big bandwidth, and
Speaker 1: like you are engaged and you're alert, and I just
Speaker 1: like you're awesome, Heather, like you, I'm really really so kind, Carolyte.
Speaker 1: Well I'm addressed. Thank you so much. And you know
Speaker 1: one thing that I've been told my entire life is
Speaker 1: that I'm super direct and assertive, and you know a
Speaker 1: lot of times that's gotten me labeled as not very
Speaker 1: kind things. Right, But I also feel like, to use
Speaker 1: Brene Brown's term, clear is kind and unclear is unkind.
Speaker 1: And so you can be direct and you can be scrappy,
Speaker 1: and you can be driven and ambitious and still be
Speaker 1: a kind human being, you know. And that's where I
Speaker 1: try to live in that is in that place. Oh
Speaker 1: I love that so much. Okay, So how do you
Speaker 1: launch a best selling book? You've launched all these books,
Speaker 1: like I said, I want, Yeah, what's the secret? Because
Speaker 1: it's like to have a hundred best selling book launches.
Speaker 1: That's a big deal. Like what is this? Like the
Speaker 1: strategy a little bit that you use? Well, it all
Speaker 1: goes back to what we've just been talking about, which
Speaker 1: our relationships. You know. I teach We have a course
Speaker 1: called Booked by Choice, which is really the only thing
Speaker 1: of its kind. It's essentially book publicity one oh one,
Speaker 1: and it's eighteen videos and all kinds of assets where
Speaker 1: I teach you, step by step by step exactly what
Speaker 1: to do. And that course the foundation of all of
Speaker 1: that is what we call the relational roadmap, and there
Speaker 1: are three specific stops that you take on that map,
Speaker 1: and we teach you, like the exact process that we use.
Speaker 1: It choice to have launched more than you know, one
Speaker 1: hundred New York Times bestsellers, and I know that everybody
Speaker 1: feels like that's the end goal is to have this
Speaker 1: New York Times bestselling status. It's really really hard to make.
Speaker 1: And there's this you know, magic formula that very very
Speaker 1: few people, only employees of the New York Time Times
Speaker 1: that work on that list. No you know what the
Speaker 1: algorithm is to make the list, but but there there
Speaker 1: is a formula that we use that takes you step
Speaker 1: by step down that process and you know, it all
Speaker 1: goes back to the relationships and how to leverage them,
Speaker 1: who to access, what to say to them, when to
Speaker 1: say it's all of that and so that teaches you
Speaker 1: kind of the timeline. That's not even anything you and
Speaker 1: I were planning to talk about, but it's just something
Speaker 1: that we have as a resource for people and there's
Speaker 1: really nothing out there like it. We're really proud of that.
Speaker 1: Um So, anyone interested in writing a book one day
Speaker 1: or launching a book, Like, that's a good thing to
Speaker 1: try when you're on a book tour because I have
Speaker 1: become a stop on a lot of people's books tour.
Speaker 1: So I love like, I feel like I'm a venue now,
Speaker 1: Like I've been in music for so long and my
Speaker 1: husband's and you go to like venues and you play
Speaker 1: them and I that speaks volumes about your podcast too,
Speaker 1: thank you? Well, I feel so I feel so excited
Speaker 1: about it, and like I finally I started realizing, I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm actually like a stop on people's book tours now,
Speaker 1: and this is like so cool. So what goes on
Speaker 1: on a book tour or what goes on I say,
Speaker 1: someone like a gin hat maker or a Noel Jet.
Speaker 1: There's so much more than a book. But like books
Speaker 1: are the common thread that keeps running through their career,
Speaker 1: they also do a lot of like social media and
Speaker 1: youtubing and I mean, you know online things. So what
Speaker 1: what is the what do you do with someone like that?
Speaker 1: Like do you focus on a book or you just
Speaker 1: constantly like coming up with the next thing? What if
Speaker 1: they don't have something on the horizon or is it
Speaker 1: just always moving? Yeah, well there are plenty of our
Speaker 1: clients who have never written a book, don't have any
Speaker 1: intention of writing a book, and they have a really
Speaker 1: compelling message or they have a service that they offer.
Speaker 1: So it's not just people who do books that we
Speaker 1: work with. But but going back to your original question
Speaker 1: of a tour, you know, post pandemic tours look a
Speaker 1: lot different. During the pandemic, everything went virtual, even media interviews.
Speaker 1: You know, we weren't flying to LA in New York
Speaker 1: to do media. We were doing it all like we
Speaker 1: are right now on Zoom and Skype, you know, and
Speaker 1: they were being interviewed by the host, you know, virtually.
Speaker 1: But post pandemic, you know, events are returning, and so
Speaker 1: tours and the magic of them are coming back because
Speaker 1: there's nothing like in person, you know, connection with people,
Speaker 1: as you well know. And so what traditionally happens at
Speaker 1: a book launch, it's much like when an album releases, right,
Speaker 1: It's like you want as much concentrated as close to
Speaker 1: that launch date as possible. Books always release on a Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and so on that Tuesday, you want the biggest things
Speaker 1: to happen, and for those first two to four weeks,
Speaker 1: you want as much happening as possible. So whether that
Speaker 1: traveling to different markets across the country. You're going to
Speaker 1: Atlanta and Nashville and Dallas and Minneapolis and Philadelphia. You know,
Speaker 1: you're going to different markets and you're engaging with um,
Speaker 1: you know, consumers in that market specifically maybe you're having
Speaker 1: a live event or maybe you're having a book signing
Speaker 1: in that market, but you're also doing media in that market,
Speaker 1: and you're meeting with people like when people come to Nashville,
Speaker 1: you know, they're going to Parnassis and doing a signing
Speaker 1: and they're meeting with you and Caitlin and Mallory and
Speaker 1: Landon and like all the girls in town who have
Speaker 1: great podcasts, and they're doing you know, local or regional
Speaker 1: media that are based here. So in Nashville, for example,
Speaker 1: we have great you know, local affiliates, but we also
Speaker 1: have Parade magazine is based in Nashville, you know, and
Speaker 1: so there are opportunities like that, And so you're just
Speaker 1: trying to put the trifecta together, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: some kind of in person engagement with your FAI and base,
Speaker 1: some kind of media component, and some kind of influencer
Speaker 1: interactions so that the people that you want to know
Speaker 1: that your book is out in the world and available
Speaker 1: to them and is something that they're going to want
Speaker 1: to purchase that you're getting in front of them through
Speaker 1: those means, right. Love that. Yeah, do you have to
Speaker 1: have a lot of energy? I do, and I get
Speaker 1: a lot of rest because of it, you know, like
Speaker 1: I drink a ton of water and go to sleep
Speaker 1: really early because I also am raising two teenage boys
Speaker 1: with my husband, and so there's a lot happening at
Speaker 1: the Adam's households. You've been doing all this while having kids,
Speaker 1: raising kids at home? I mean, what is going on
Speaker 1: in your brain? Do you just wake up ready to go?
Speaker 1: Are you one of those people that you're bannedwidth is huge? Well,
Speaker 1: I definitely operate at a high capacity and pace, but I,
Speaker 1: like anybody else, you know, there's a breaking point, right
Speaker 1: and self care is so important and critical to me.
Speaker 1: I have what I call my five non negotiables, which
Speaker 1: are five things that you're so good at structuring. You've
Speaker 1: probably structured your own life too, having Okay, my calendar
Speaker 1: is blocked out, the way that my home is organized
Speaker 1: the way but it's not going to talk about all
Speaker 1: that because that's huge, Like having your life in order,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the things you talked about, how
Speaker 1: to build an authentic life. But like having your home
Speaker 1: life in order, having your schedule in order, having your
Speaker 1: like like your closets and your stuff organized, it's huge. Okay,
Speaker 1: So yeah, what are your five non negotiables? Well, so
Speaker 1: I would encourage you to consider them based on this
Speaker 1: season of life that you're in. So I am a
Speaker 1: CEO of a company, I'm raising two teenage boys, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to stay married to an incredible husband. I also
Speaker 1: want to care for myself well. And so that's the
Speaker 1: season I'm in. Somebody who is single is going to
Speaker 1: be in a difference season of life. For somebody who's
Speaker 1: got little bitty babies and they're in the weeds, you know,
Speaker 1: with their children, are a different season. But my five are.
Speaker 1: Number One, I get at least eight hours of rest
Speaker 1: every single night, Like rest is like critical for me.
Speaker 1: Number Two is I drink a ton of water. I
Speaker 1: try to drink half of my body weight in ounces
Speaker 1: of water. So like if you weigh a hundred pounds,
Speaker 1: which I do not, I weigh a lot more than that.
Speaker 1: But if you weigh one hundred pounds, you would want
Speaker 1: to drink at least fifty ounces of water every day,
Speaker 1: so I try to drink half of my body weight
Speaker 1: and ounces every single day of water. The third one
Speaker 1: is I have a weekly date night with my husband.
Speaker 1: That is like non negotiable. We put this on our calendar.
Speaker 1: This is our fifth year of doing it, so we
Speaker 1: have not always done it. We've been married for twenty
Speaker 1: years this year, so for the first fifteen it was
Speaker 1: just fly by the seat of your pants. But five
Speaker 1: years ago we were like, something is off. We're not like,
Speaker 1: you know, on the same page, like what's going on?
Speaker 1: Like this feels weird, this feels icky like, and so
Speaker 1: we committed to a weekly date night. We do it
Speaker 1: on Thursday night. It's on our calendar. It's like fiercely protected.
Speaker 1: Every now and then we will have something come up
Speaker 1: and we may have to alter the night of the week.
Speaker 1: So for example, if our boys have, you know, a
Speaker 1: baseball game, and it's a dead smack in the middle
Speaker 1: of our date night, we might have it on Wednesday
Speaker 1: night instead of Thursday night. But we still get it
Speaker 1: in there. Is we still get it in there every
Speaker 1: single week. So that's what has that done? What has
Speaker 1: that done? For your marriage, because but I'm sure he's busy.
Speaker 1: You're busy, and like, if you don't have order and
Speaker 1: a scheduled thing, it's going to get overlooked in the
Speaker 1: marriage can easily you know, fall fall just to the
Speaker 1: back of the list. So what has it done? What
Speaker 1: did it change? We moved from being like roommates who
Speaker 1: talked about logistics all the time, like who's picking up
Speaker 1: who from school, who's dropping off, who's handling practice, who's
Speaker 1: ordering the groceries. You know, it was always logistic conversations,
Speaker 1: and we happen to live in the same house. It
Speaker 1: moved from that back to intimacy, and you know, we
Speaker 1: try really hard, though it's very difficult to not talk
Speaker 1: about the boys on our date nights and to not
Speaker 1: talk about logistics. Like we try to talk about more
Speaker 1: bigger picture, meaningful things, you know, as opposed to well,
Speaker 1: how was your day? Oh? Mine was good? It's busy
Speaker 1: at work, you know, like, well what are we doing
Speaker 1: this weekend? You know, like we try to move away
Speaker 1: from those things. That's not to say that those things
Speaker 1: don't come up, of course they do. But I will
Speaker 1: say this my marriage now, and we'll celebrate twenty years married.
Speaker 1: This year is so much ripper, richer, deeper, more meaningful
Speaker 1: than it was years ago. And it's I attribute so
Speaker 1: much of that to, you know, it being intentional with
Speaker 1: my husband about my marriage and like protecting it. Awesome
Speaker 1: intimacy too, you know, like physically touching each other on
Speaker 1: a date night and being near each other and it
Speaker 1: just being the two of you. And it's also modeling
Speaker 1: for these boys that we're raising, like what it's like
Speaker 1: to prioritize your spouse over your children, and what it's
Speaker 1: like to make sure that they you know, they are
Speaker 1: seeing how Matt treats me as his wife and how
Speaker 1: I treat him as my husband, and they're learning that
Speaker 1: that's you know, what it should look like when they're
Speaker 1: in a marriage at some point with a partner. So
Speaker 1: I just interviewed this amazing woman named Molly Fletcher. She
Speaker 1: was like the Jerry Maguire of sports agents. She like
Speaker 1: she's done tons of them, but she is, like you,
Speaker 1: she's a whole person managing this whole person, like evaluating,
Speaker 1: and she was talking about her schedule and like the
Speaker 1: first thing she does with clients is she gets the
Speaker 1: non negotiables for the family and for the personal love
Speaker 1: on there first, Like you got to start with you first,
Speaker 1: and I love that. That's what you're saying. It's like,
Speaker 1: you really can't have a thriving, successful, incredible career if
Speaker 1: your home life is in the garbage shambles. That's right,
Speaker 1: you're gonna wreck you and you're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to enjoy it, and you're gonna have so many pools
Speaker 1: and tugs and guilt and it's just highs and lows
Speaker 1: that aren't matching. It's not in synbiosis. So true. And
Speaker 1: you know, for me, I don't want to be militant
Speaker 1: about it, right. I'm not being inflexible like you know
Speaker 1: about things, but I just know what works for our
Speaker 1: family and what works for me personally. If it's on
Speaker 1: my calendar, it's happening. And so putting things on the
Speaker 1: calendar that are not just meetings that I have or
Speaker 1: you know, work related items, but putting a date night
Speaker 1: on my calendar, putting exercise on my calendar. That's one
Speaker 1: of my five non negotiables is to move my body
Speaker 1: two to three times a week. And years ago, Caroline,
Speaker 1: when I started this, I was that person that was
Speaker 1: like where in the heck am I going to put
Speaker 1: this on my calendar. I don't have any bandwidth to
Speaker 1: go and exercise. When do I have time to do this?
Speaker 1: And so I started with one hour once a week good,
Speaker 1: and I would job, if that's all I can do,
Speaker 1: at least i'm doing that, that's better than not doing
Speaker 1: anything at all. And I started with one hour once
Speaker 1: a week at a place here called Garage, Bar and Bike.
Speaker 1: It's a bar bike studio. And I went one time
Speaker 1: a week and then I was like, Oh, I really
Speaker 1: like how I feel. I really like these women. Oh
Speaker 1: I like this community. Oh I'll find another hour. And
Speaker 1: I worked my way up to where I was going
Speaker 1: more consistently and regularly. It's all about what you prioritize
Speaker 1: and protect on your calendar. You know, prioritize and protect.
Speaker 1: I think the protection is the problem, I think for
Speaker 1: so many of us, because what happens is we put
Speaker 1: it on our calendar. Like let's say spending time with
Speaker 1: your girlfriends. It's really important to you, and so you
Speaker 1: want to prioritize it in your life, and so you
Speaker 1: put a girl's night on there. Well, let's say your
Speaker 1: child gets sick or let's say something comes up at
Speaker 1: work and you've got to travel out of town. We're
Speaker 1: not protecting the girl's night, right, We're sacrificing everything else.
Speaker 1: And so what's happening is we're putting it on there
Speaker 1: because it's important to us, and we think, Okay, i'll
Speaker 1: prioritize it, I'll place it on my calendar. But we're
Speaker 1: not protecting it. And that's where we lose out is
Speaker 1: because if we're not protected to protecting it, we're sacrificing it,
Speaker 1: and therefore it's really not going to be prioritized. Oh
Speaker 1: I love that. Man. I used to be a yes person,
Speaker 1: like everything was a yes. Like I was always a yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I want to do everything. I didn't have kids. Michael
Speaker 1: and I are both in the music industry, entertainment industry,
Speaker 1: available to go out all the time, wanting to meet people,
Speaker 1: wanting to be in the scene, wanting to just know
Speaker 1: and feel be an in it. And it was fun, fun, fun.
Speaker 1: Michael's touring with like huge people like Kid Rock, Darius
Speaker 1: ruckerd Jason Aldeen, just gone all the time doing and
Speaker 1: being in it and it was great and just taking
Speaker 1: an in, you know, just honestly, it was just like
Speaker 1: for me, I'm looking back on the first part of
Speaker 1: my life, just like gathering inventory, just like kind of
Speaker 1: understand getting data, like understanding like what is all this?
Speaker 1: Like I've been drawn through this big life, but what
Speaker 1: is it? What actually is the keys to happiness? Like
Speaker 1: who you know, here are these people who have these
Speaker 1: big careers and some of them are really happy, some
Speaker 1: of them aren't. Like what actually like you're talking about
Speaker 1: person whole and happy, because having a great, big, successful
Speaker 1: career can be wonderful if your insides are good. But
Speaker 1: like if you know, if you're worked out on the inside,
Speaker 1: but if you're not in balance on the inside, you're
Speaker 1: even if you're career is huge, you're gonna be totally
Speaker 1: out of balance with it. And so it's like there's
Speaker 1: so much into what makes someone happy. And my husband
Speaker 1: Michael was actually telling me today who was listening to
Speaker 1: Tony Robin Robbins, and it's the same thing. It's like,
Speaker 1: the real key you want to do is get your
Speaker 1: inner workings great. That's the winning when you are and
Speaker 1: you're talking about this and I feel like now like
Speaker 1: I know this so true to be true, But like
Speaker 1: when I was younger, and I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of people who don't know the inner workings of this
Speaker 1: entertainment industry can think still owe success money same fortune
Speaker 1: can make you happy, and it really won't, but it
Speaker 1: can be wonderful and used wonderfully if you are in
Speaker 1: line internally, And yeah, if you're caring for yourself, well, first, yes,
Speaker 1: you're going to be good in those other areas of life.
Speaker 1: But if you are at the bottom of your own
Speaker 1: to do this over and over and over again, you're
Speaker 1: not going to be any good to anybody else. And
Speaker 1: that's like what you're saying and what Molly just said,
Speaker 1: But y'all are saying it in a way of actually
Speaker 1: like structuring it on your calendar, blocking it out, And
Speaker 1: it's like non negotiables, husband, non negotiable. Need to keep
Speaker 1: that marriage tight and right, you know, And I want
Speaker 1: to keep that good. I don't want to get not
Speaker 1: that divorce is not the option for some people, but
Speaker 1: I don't want to divorce my husband. So what do
Speaker 1: I need to do to maintain that? Okay, prioritize it,
Speaker 1: protect it? Okay, Fitness, I feel the same way I
Speaker 1: used to just like abuse my body and do all
Speaker 1: sorts of like diet pills and eating disorders and whatever
Speaker 1: to try to get to look away. No, not anymore. Now.
Speaker 1: It is like working out is for my mental health.
Speaker 1: It is for ye strong. I don't care if I
Speaker 1: have a little extra love in the middle me sure,
Speaker 1: it'd be great to lose it or have. I don't
Speaker 1: care about a perfect body. I don't want the reason,
Speaker 1: you know either. I was telling somebody last week, like
Speaker 1: there's something about sweating when I'm in a class, and
Speaker 1: like all the toxins just coming out every single time
Speaker 1: on the candle ride when they turn out all the
Speaker 1: lights as I'm like getting releasing, it's just so releasing.
Speaker 1: You're right, and mental health component cannot be. I cry
Speaker 1: in hot yoga all the time getting that out. And
Speaker 1: it's not like I'm sad and depressed, but like you
Speaker 1: got to be least this stored energy. Oh good for you.
Speaker 1: You got to move your body. Sweat coming out is
Speaker 1: just so good. Oh I love that. Okay, So we
Speaker 1: have husband, we have fitness, we have sleep, we have
Speaker 1: water rest, water rest, and then the last one is
Speaker 1: paying attention to what goes in my mouth. So I
Speaker 1: am a better Heather when I am caring for my
Speaker 1: body well, and that is not about deprivation. That is
Speaker 1: just like you know, for example, my birthday was last
Speaker 1: weekend and I had um some friends over for dinner.
Speaker 1: We had a small, like intimate dinner party and i'
Speaker 1: old Matt. I am making Julia Child's beef burgan yawn
Speaker 1: like I want it. It sounds so good. And my
Speaker 1: mom made her homemade poundcake cake for dessert, and that's
Speaker 1: what we had. I do not eat like that all
Speaker 1: the time, but I wanted that for my birthday and
Speaker 1: that's what I had, and it brought me so much joy.
Speaker 1: But it's like paying attention and like noticing how my
Speaker 1: body feels based on what I'm putting in my mouth,
Speaker 1: and that's you know, going back to whole healthy, you know, eating.
Speaker 1: But it's also not about depriving myself in any way.
Speaker 1: It's just about being intentional. Yeah, I love what you said.
Speaker 1: Intentional and then prioritizing and protecting and then following your
Speaker 1: schedule that you make and not to be said not
Speaker 1: to be militant or whatever, but you don't be so
Speaker 1: militant that you can't be spontaneous ever, you know. But
Speaker 1: you're doing the work in your home life, in your
Speaker 1: personal life, and your work life, in your environment. You're
Speaker 1: doing the work to assess and even when you take
Speaker 1: on clients like you're deep diving. What matters to you?
Speaker 1: What are your priorities? What do you need to do
Speaker 1: to be your best? What do you need to do
Speaker 1: to fuel like you have so many big plates in
Speaker 1: the air. If you don't prioritize yourself and your home
Speaker 1: life and your family, like, you're not going to be
Speaker 1: the best CEO that you can be. So you have
Speaker 1: to prioritize, right. And you know, a win for you
Speaker 1: looks different than a win for me, looks different than
Speaker 1: a win for gin Hatmaker, right, And so you have
Speaker 1: to think about what a win for you personally looks
Speaker 1: like and then you back into it, just like with work.
Speaker 1: You know, if I know what you're a win looks
Speaker 1: like for Caroline Hobby at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: then I know how to build a strategy to help
Speaker 1: you get there. Well, if you think about that and
Speaker 1: apply that to your life, Like, what does a win
Speaker 1: in life look like? Well, a win in life for
Speaker 1: me does not look like me only working and having
Speaker 1: this great career it also looks like a really rich
Speaker 1: and beautiful family life and you know, great relationships with
Speaker 1: my children and my husband and you know things like that,
Speaker 1: And so you have to think about what a win
Speaker 1: for you personally looks like and build it in that way. Uh.
Speaker 1: I'm so in love with you, Heather. This is I
Speaker 1: don't care a lot. We have to get together. I
Speaker 1: need to get I mean, like I'm already in my
Speaker 1: mind like talking to you after this and like setting
Speaker 1: us up a meeting, like I have to talk to like,
Speaker 1: this is amazing. You are so awesome, Okay, I just like,
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to know you. You're doing something that soulful,
Speaker 1: great work, and you're really helping women get their stories
Speaker 1: out there in such a powerful way. And these women
Speaker 1: that like you are working with are so awesome. Like
Speaker 1: it's just so cool. I love that you our girl power.
Speaker 1: But it's not like we hey boys, it's like no
Speaker 1: women right, they got it all we are. It's time
Speaker 1: for the women to band together. And that's another thing
Speaker 1: that you talk about too, is being allies. Like women,
Speaker 1: we've been pitted against each other for so long, and
Speaker 1: I feel like that is just shattering left and right.
Speaker 1: Like we are realizing, like that is not the way
Speaker 1: to do it. We don't need to do that. There's
Speaker 1: enough room for all of us when we actually come
Speaker 1: together and use all of our skills and talents, Like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, the impact we can make. And when
Speaker 1: women are using their voices and reaching people, it's love
Speaker 1: and nurturing and healing and help that is getting put
Speaker 1: out there like that is exactly right. Are helping not
Speaker 1: only women heal and rise and realize that they have
Speaker 1: a purpose to but it's men are realizing that that's
Speaker 1: the better way to do it too, exactly well. And
Speaker 1: you know, I was conditioned to believe as a young girl,
Speaker 1: going back to what we were talking about at the
Speaker 1: very beginning of the conversation about you know, oh I
Speaker 1: was too bossy, or oh I talk too much, or
Speaker 1: you know, as opposed to somebody celebrating my leadership potential
Speaker 1: or giftings that I had. Right, And you know, as
Speaker 1: I went into my professional career early as a young professional,
Speaker 1: it was there was one seat for a female at
Speaker 1: the table, and I was vying for that seat, right,
Speaker 1: And so you were taking everybody down on your way
Speaker 1: to that one seat for a woman, and I made
Speaker 1: a lot of mistakes. I was taking women out right
Speaker 1: and left to advance my own career. And I look
Speaker 1: back now and I'm like, oh, girl, if you only knew,
Speaker 1: if you'd a linked arms with those other girls and
Speaker 1: other women, y'all could have all had the seats at
Speaker 1: the table rather than culture for the one spot. Right.
Speaker 1: But at the time, the culture, it's hard to break
Speaker 1: the culture. It's right. That's how I was taught, and
Speaker 1: that's you know, what I was conditioned to believe was right.
Speaker 1: And so when when I launched Choice, you know, and
Speaker 1: was creating a work environment for women by women, it
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, what do I want to be different?
Speaker 1: What's the work culture, what's the environment, what's the narrative
Speaker 1: I want these women to have that is a different
Speaker 1: experience than what you know, I grew up doing. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, the women in the community that we have now,
Speaker 1: it's we are very much allies, not competitors, even women
Speaker 1: in the same industry as me. I have so many
Speaker 1: girlfriends that are also publicists and own pr agencies just
Speaker 1: like I do. Their success does not diminish my opportunity, right,
Speaker 1: and we can celebrate and champion each other, and we
Speaker 1: get a lot further when we do that together to
Speaker 1: your point, you know, and it feels so much better
Speaker 1: and it's all exciting because now you're not alone. You're
Speaker 1: not alone. You have all these amazing women friends who
Speaker 1: are impacting the world. You can come up with create
Speaker 1: an ideas to do together, and create an amazing events
Speaker 1: and opportunities and maybe even businesses together. It's just like
Speaker 1: it's so much more fun. But you have to be
Speaker 1: honest and transparent, and that is something that I am
Speaker 1: really learning. I've been kind of like floaty for a
Speaker 1: long time because I didn't know what I want. But
Speaker 1: now that I'm really like zeroing in on myself as
Speaker 1: like you have, and like you said, you're direct. You
Speaker 1: have to be direct. You can't say yes to everything.
Speaker 1: You've got to think it out. You've got to have
Speaker 1: a strategy. You have to be intentional, and you have
Speaker 1: to really like organize what matters and then be clear
Speaker 1: with what you don't have room for on your plate
Speaker 1: and not maybe a big personal, dramatic thing. You don't
Speaker 1: want to get to the end of life and be
Speaker 1: like life just happened to me, right, You want to
Speaker 1: take your own life by the reins and and you know,
Speaker 1: not just oh well, this happened, and this happened, and
Speaker 1: this happened. You want to create this life for yourself.
Speaker 1: And I think there's a lot of people that look
Speaker 1: back and regret that they just let life happen to
Speaker 1: them as opposed to them taking hold and charge and
Speaker 1: agency over their own life. Hey, Heather, you're awesome. Okay.
Speaker 1: I always wrap up with one question, which is leave
Speaker 1: your light, and it's just open ended. What do you
Speaker 1: want people to know? Oh God, that's such a great question, Caroline.
Speaker 1: I would say that you have it in you right now,
Speaker 1: Like you don't have to go and take a class
Speaker 1: or change yourself in any way. Like you have everything
Speaker 1: capability wise within you already to go and live this
Speaker 1: life that you've dreamed for yourself. You just need to
Speaker 1: have the agency to advocate for yourself, you know. And
Speaker 1: so I would say, there are so many times when
Speaker 1: I have second guests my own capabilities and not listened
Speaker 1: to my own gut or downplayed my own talents or giftings,
Speaker 1: you know, and to be smaller in the room because
Speaker 1: I was such a big personality or whatever. And you
Speaker 1: don't have to do that. You can be authentically you
Speaker 1: and offer the giftings and the talents that you have,
Speaker 1: and the world will be so much richer because of it,
Speaker 1: you know, Yes, surrounding yourself with people who know their
Speaker 1: own giftings and their own talents, so it's not threatening
Speaker 1: that you have your own giftings and your own talents.
Speaker 1: And instead, when everyone is embracing the gifts and the
Speaker 1: talents that is God given, that is our superpower. And
Speaker 1: it's not to be using or to be better than anyone.
Speaker 1: But if we all tap in to what we divinely
Speaker 1: were given and what we are divinely called to, then
Speaker 1: we're all going to advance this world forward in such
Speaker 1: a better way instead of like hiding and feeling like
Speaker 1: you're robbing the world of that. Yes, you're holding it
Speaker 1: in and not sharing it. You are robbing the world
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, And that's why we love people who
Speaker 1: go all in with their gifts. We put them on
Speaker 1: a pedestal and they get to a spotlight. Because we're
Speaker 1: also drawn to people who actually go for their gift
Speaker 1: and like use it correctly and like give it back
Speaker 1: out there, you know, because it's what we were made
Speaker 1: to do We all were made to do it well.
Speaker 1: And I know your theme kind of this year for
Speaker 1: the podcast is around the cards that people are dealt. Yes,
Speaker 1: your stack and dack is full right, and you have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to really be a gift to others if
Speaker 1: you won't if you will share that and not Yes,
Speaker 1: put it all in right. Yes, have that capability within you.
Speaker 1: Don't think you have to change yourself in order to
Speaker 1: be able to live out the dream that you have
Speaker 1: for your life. Heather, you are amazing. Okay, where could
Speaker 1: everyone find you if they just need more view in
Speaker 1: their life, or if they think actually they want to
Speaker 1: try to work with you, or you know whatever, how
Speaker 1: do the people get in touch with you? Well? So,
Speaker 1: our website is Choice Media Communications dot com. We are
Speaker 1: that on all the handles and my personal Instagram TikTok
Speaker 1: all the things is Heather Dixon d XO n Adams
Speaker 1: Heather Dixon Adams And can I mention one thing that
Speaker 1: we have coming up that I would love your people
Speaker 1: to know about. So on April the thirteenth, here in Nashville,
Speaker 1: just outside in Franklin, Tennessee, we are hosting our fourth
Speaker 1: annual Choice Summit, which is a women's leadership conference, and
Speaker 1: our girl, Jen hat Maker is one of our speakers.
Speaker 1: Jen hat Maker, Paula Feris, JJ Peterson from Story Brand,
Speaker 1: to Ery Butler, who was Congressman John Lewis's longest serving
Speaker 1: staff member. And each session we have incredible sessions for
Speaker 1: the day, but it's they're dedicated to women just like us,
Speaker 1: who are, you know, at that place in their career
Speaker 1: where they want to move to the next level and
Speaker 1: they need the roadmap to do that. And it's not
Speaker 1: just enough to go to a conference and be motivated.
Speaker 1: We are equipped you to go and take the next
Speaker 1: steps when you get home. And so if you're interested
Speaker 1: in that, I'd love for you to go to Choice
Speaker 1: Summit dot com because it's this beautiful community of busy
Speaker 1: working women just like all of us, who just want
Speaker 1: to you know, advance in their life in some capacity. Amazing, Heather,
Speaker 1: you are amazing. I have loved this conversation, and yes
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit after before you go, because
Speaker 1: I did think you're the virse. Oh my gosh. Of course,
Speaker 1: it's such a privilege to be with you two. Caroline,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Back at you Okay, Heather Adams,
Speaker 1: you're the best Fife