You're listening to Women Infused Radio, where women in the marketplace connect with purpose and spirit, where the conversation covers all things women, business and fascinating faith. And now your host, Christy Lynn Olson. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Women and Views Radio Podcast Show. Today on episode 28, my guest is Pam Russell, owner of Performa Specialty Marketing.
This interview wraps up our interview series with co-authors of the Women and Views book project entitled We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight Women of Faith in the Marketplace. This two-volume book series is now available on Amazon.com. I've interviewed women from all types of professions and no two stories are the same. What has impressed me the most about these women is their tenacity to press forward in whatever career issues they have faced, their resilience no matter what life has thrown their way, and their resolve to love Jesus above all else.
Their stories have inspired me and my prayer is that they have inspired and encouraged you as well. The reality of life is that none of us ever has it all figured out from the start. And I truly believe that if we all just start sharing our stories and encouraging and supporting each other, our homes, our families, our churches and our workplaces will be a much better place as we refocus our lands to kingdom business instead of thinking that we are all just randomly existing and competing with each other in business. At the end of the day, God knew exactly how he wanted to design you.
Did you know that? He knew the exact gift mix you needed to do, the work he was going to require of you, and above all else, he loves you with the most abundant, uncompromising and unparalleled love. His love compares to no other love, and I hope you know that. If you don't, I want to take a moment to tell you that God loves you.
Yes, you. He loves you so much that the Bible tells us he has a tattoo of you on the palm of his hand. Isaiah 49 16 says, Behold, I have indelibly imprinted or tattooed a picture of you on the palm of each of my hands. That's crazy.
It's a crazy kind of love that I don't even think we can understand this side of eternity. If you're still not sure of his love for you, there are some great resources for you on the faith channel of the Women and Views Broadcast Network. The Women and Views Network is a free app with content you can stream on demand to fit your schedule and your life. Just download the app on the Apple or Google Play stores today and check it out.
We also have a free online Bible with tools and references built in right for you to search God's Word for yourself. There are a lot of great Bible teachers out there, but the best place for you to discover just how much God truly loves you is for you to get into the Word of God for yourself. If you're not sure where to start, start by reading the book of John in the New Testament. I think it's like a personal love letter just to you from God.
Now let's get back to today's interview with Pam Russell. Pam is a crazy girl from Texas who is a business owner and loves to make people laugh and inspire them to succeed through her witty, straightforward insight. She has been in promotional marketing for almost 20 years with the addition of digital marketing in 2016. You won't see her wearing a business suit or carrying a briefcase.
She will likely be wearing jeans, blinged out cowboy boots, and carrying a dune bag. As a native Texan, she says y'all and fixing to on a regular basis. She's a single mom of a fighting Texas Aggie, a dog lover, and a fan of a good sense of humor. She's also the author of a newly released book called the comparison prison, unlocked the shackles of comparison that keep you imprisoned in your life and business.
Bottom line, Pam helps people build businesses and she truly has walked the talk. I've watched her build and then rebuild her own businesses to be highly successful. And that takes work and talent. Something Pam is not afraid to do herself.
She knows what it takes and her business and marketing wisdom is priceless. Here's my interview with Pam. Let's take a listen. Well today my guest is Pam Russell and Pam, I just want to welcome you to the Women of Used radio program.
Thank you for having me quickly. I'm glad to be here. I am so excited to interview you for two reasons, but one, because you are a born and raised Texan and a self-described crazy girl from Texas. And to me, I thought that means you must have a cute pair of cowboy bling boots and you either know how or you're going to learn how to shoot a gun.
Is that right? Isn't that what most Texas women do? I do have an awesome pair of black cowboy bays that have seats on them. They are the best conversation starter in networking, networking events that I could ever have.
And I did recently shoot go to a shooting range and start to learn to shoot a gun. I think that's a story. We cannot write horses to work. I was worried about that.
I know it's interesting. I have some European friends who have never been to the States and they always comment and ask, you know, do people in Texas really ride horses all the time? I think that is a misconception. But I'm super excited about the bling cowboy boots.
So I'm glad that they work for you as a network marketing, not a network marketing, as a networking tool. So you can open the conversation. Well, Pam, you're an entrepreneur and you've also been in the sales industry for over 20 years. And what I liked about how you started your chapter is you said, I am a straight shooter that isn't great about wrapping things up in a pretty red bow when I deliver my opinion.
That to me was so refreshing. And I also think it plays to your strengths. So I've been asking everyone if they've taken the strength binder 2.0 assessment and your top five strengths that you sent me were strategic, woo, communication, achiever and learner. And so I think the quality is a being a straight shooter, as you say, and not having to wrap everything up perfectly lends itself to say that's strategic, that's woo, that's communication, and it really does play to your strengths that I gave you.
How has that been received by others? So if you're a straight shooter in the business world and just tell people like it is, how is that received and how have you learned to use that to your advantage? Well, it's funny because when I was going out reminding myself about my top five strengths and I looked over the strategic description at the left side, it says the strategic strategic theme at work. What if select strike and it may be loud because that is how I roll.
And what I found and how I use that to my best and my work, I found is that the right people will be attracted to that approach and the right people will be repelled from that approach because not everybody is a bit for everybody and not everybody likes to be talked to you in a direct manner. Like I deliver things and so some people have told me that I need to change the way I deliver things and say things because I'm pretty blunt. And I have realized that I am who I've made me and I've learned to just embrace that and I think others have to learn to just embrace that and know that it will attract the right people, both in a business sense and a friendship sense and general life sense. It will attract the right people and repel the right people.
And repel is a positive thing, especially in business because you, in my opinion, you don't want to work with people that don't like your approach. If that makes sense. It does. I love that you've kind of changed the definition of repel for us and you put it in a positive way because you're right.
We can't be all things to all people. And even if we wanted to, we're never going to get everyone in the world to be our client and that's okay. Right. Yeah.
It is okay. But you also go ahead. Well, I was going to say because if everyone in the world would be appropriate to be our client and if that's how it was with everybody, then that would be a really strange world to live in my opinion. Well, and when you said it impacts the people around you and just personal relationships too, it kind of can make your circle varied and give you different people that speak different things into your life.
So that just translates from the work boys, both to personal and professional. And I love that you said you're unapologetic about it and that you've learned to embrace how God wired you. Have you seen people who have struggled with not really embracing who they are and how that has maybe affected their business? If you can give an example of that.
Yes. When I was doing sales coaching a couple of years ago at a client who, you know, when you we were talking about who she serves, she was just like, Oh, well, I have to do this and I have to do this and I have to do this and I have to do this and I have to do this and I know you don't. She was trying to serve everybody and so she ended up serving nobody and you have to really define who that, you know, let's just talk about avatars, I'm like, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about who you work best with and who benefits most from your approach.
And that is not everybody. You can't, you can't and she really struggled with that. And I feel like that that is part of the reason why her business ended up not succeeding is because she could not grasp that. She was, you know, throwing all kinds of darts at a ginormous dartboard and nothing was hitting a bullseye.
And so it can definitely affect your business if you're trying to serve everybody and not owning in on what your gifts are, how you deliver those gifts and help others through those gifts. Well, and I think you hit the nail on the head if you're in sales and so those listeners that are listening to the show today and they're maybe struggling with sales or they're thinking of going into sales. I've keyed into two words you kept saying it's about serving and the benefits. How, you know, tell us more about if someone is thinking of going into sales and they're approaching it from maybe a place that's not serving or not beneficial.
Now, we know you said that you're not going to get as many clients, but how, what has been your greatest, greatest advice for being in sales that you would maybe give someone else who was trying to revitalize a sales career when it as it relates to serving and benefiting others? Well, you know, for years, I would go into a sales meeting with a prospect and I would just start for lack of a better term and to honor my directness. I would start vomiting out in patient about the company I worked for. Only the three hundred percent dollar company we've been in business for 50 years.
We have seven hundred fifty offices. No one cares about that. No one cares about that. What they care about is how, what you are selling to benefit them.
And I changed my approach and now I meet with the prospect. I ask the right question. I do some pre-call research to find out really some personal things about them, to work those into the conversation and also have a set of questions that, you know, what have you tried that, the very side industry of course that sort of thing I ask are what have you tried in the marketing to add work and how to work and I close my mouth and I listen. It's more about them than you, more than less you.
And just let them talk. You'll find out everything you need to know if you ask a simple direct question, close your mouth and listen. The prospect should be doing most of the talking in your first meeting for sure. So that is kind of, that is the advice I would give somebody to switch that around to more than less you and let your prospect talk and fill you with information.
I guarantee you that that way. And you respond by using their own language back at them. So some of it as well, you take your phone and windows and you try to sell wood frame to it if you're selling all kinds of different kinds of windows and your client, you ask a client, what have you tried to look at that has worked and haven't worked? What we take wood frame windows and don't offer them the option to buy wood frame windows.
That's a very simple example, but that's what I mean by that. No, I love that. And it goes to your point, I think that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. We need to listen.
But when we do speak to be very strategic, very intentional about how do you, and those are your strengths, it goes back to how do you play your strengths, your strategic, you know what they need to hear. But the only way you can get to that point is if you're really listening and asking the right question. So I think that's definitely a great way to approach the sales conversation. You know, I want to segue a little bit into while you're serving and working with clients and coming from a place of service as a woman of faith, we're called to be salt in light in the world.
And I love the fact that because you are a straight shooter and the transparent person that you are, I think you opened up a great conversation for a lot of women. As Christian women, I think we sometimes think we know the lingo, we know we should all know what everything means and if we don't, we don't want to say anything. And you were very transparent in answering the question that we asked in this chapter about being completely honest that you had to Google, what does it really mean to be salt in light? And I'm so thankful that you brought that because we need to maybe dig into that a little deeper.
Tell us, you know, how, what did you find from doing your research and just from your opinion, how did it translate to you and how are you kind of looking at that now about showing up in the workplace? Well, I was very honest with Dr. Bicad, I've heard this also might reference for and I'm not someone that knows every verse in the Bible or every story in the Bible. But I did have to have to Google that.
And the message translation was so clear to me and it talks about being salt seasoning that brings God's flavors of this earth. And so if you lose your saltiness, your land and you know you kind of taste, people can't really taste your godliness as much. And you know, being salt seasoning to me is an easy way to kind of salt your interactions with godly things, whether it be messages or just your attitude, your ethical approach, your honest answers, honoring other people's feelings. You know, you can salt those things, sprinkle that salt amongst all your daily interactions and be a good representative of what God wants you to be out there in the workplace and in your personal life.
And so it was great to Google that and read the message translation of it because it really spoke to me and made it very clear about, you know, it's not like, yes, there's supposed to be a light, you know, a light for God out in the world, but salt and light in my opinion is not necessarily being, you know, a beacon of spotlight, but it's more about sprinkling it out there in each moment that you have with each person and each interaction to make it as impactful as possible. You also said, you know, part of working with your clients is keeping their best interest at heart building relationships with honesty, integrity, and to being ethical and honest. And at first I thought, well, I can't believe she even has to say that doesn't everybody approach business that way. But I don't think that's true.
Tell us more about that. Like, what would be an example of that? And why is ethics and honesty so important in a client relationship? Well, it builds trust, first of all.
And you know, everybody's probably heard of saying people like to work with people that they know like and trust and you know, my main business is printing and promotional products. So I am often, well, my daily work is for that business is providing promotional product ideas to my corporate clients for ventricular way events or get to employees or use a trade or whatever that might be. And sometimes they have a preconceived idea of what they want and a budget that they think is not going to cost them. But if I can probably find that item of the budget that they have in mind, but I can probably also find it for as good a quality and maybe less than they plan to spend.
And it does not, you know, it serves my client best if I provide them the two options. The budget that they requested, the products to come in at. And maybe like I said, a product that is just a sort of quality that is a little less expensive because that saves them money and helps the budget. I'm not all about the most expensive products, putting that in front of them.
It's about what is best for them. And they work with me because they trust that I'm going to research that and provide them legitimate, creative and budget-friendly options. So ultimately, it makes me more money because they do trust me for doing that. You know, when I start working with a company, a lot of times I'm surprised when I do that.
I get build a relationship of trust and loyalty and that's my ultimate goal. Well, and how important is communication in the trust process? In the trust, oh, it is very important. You know, a lot of times, you know, many times, you know, I've been in the same industry for 20 years, a lot of times there's been issues with an order or a shipment or whatever.
Sometimes it's my fault. Sometimes it's not my fault. But I have always been very honest with clients about that. And so that's just one example of the communication that I have.
It doesn't happen very often in my business because I have so many years of experience. That's just one example of building trust to be completely transparent and honest with them about what's going on through the process and keeping them informed and because they really start to value you at an extension of their team when you take that approach. And that is very important. Yeah.
And I like what you said about, you know, all through the process. And I think that would include even if we make mistakes or if something gets delayed on our end instead of not wanting to tell the customer and then they think of 20 reasons why you're trying to cheat them out of deal, you know, to put it bluntly. And so I think what I hear you're saying is you'd rather communicate that and be transparent as opposed to just think they won't notice. Yeah.
Yeah. So as we're called, you wrote that we're called to be more in our business. And I love that phrase in our life too. But I've always thought, well, what does it mean to be more?
And how do we do that? What's one way that you kind of got daily wisdom or good advice on how to be more? I know you read Proverbs. And has that tell us what you do with that book of the Bible and how has that helped you in your business life?
I try to read a book chapter in the book of Proverbs every day. And I'm not perfect at that. And I journal about it. And I write the verses that stand out to me in my journal and kind of gives these thoughts about that.
Because honestly, that is the best business book you will ever read is the book Proverbs in my opinion. And it'll slap you in the face too. I mean, there's been lots of others left a lot while reading it. I'm on chapter, I read chapter 26 today.
So it's just a great reminder to me of Godly principles, and Godly approaches and Godly wisdom and how God would like for us to interact and live our lives. And again, I'm not perfect, none of us are. But I always get something out of reading Proverbs every day that I can try to implement into my Bible business today, for example, with about today. What did I write down today?
It was about, hold on, I'm just going to grab my journal. It was really good. Okay. So it was about, Proverbs 26, 21 is what I wrote down.
And it was a paraphrase. It was about how fame, not criticism, can reveal a person's character. True character is how to react to fame, not necessarily criticism that revealed our character. And I thought that was amazing because I believe so many people think that how to react to criticism is what revealed our character.
And really, when you make it big and you have notoriety and fame in your own way, that can really reveal what you look like. But that was very powerful. But it was another opportunity that I get from reading Proverbs every day. I love that you said that.
And I think that is very true. As we succeed in our businesses, it can go to our head. And so Proverbs is just a grounding book of verses. So I do want to challenge all of our listeners to do what Pan does and just commit to even reading just a verse a day, even if you can't do it after a day.
Or you can get little scripture cards that have them just pull random Proverbs verse out and read that. So thank you for sharing that with us. You know, so it sounds like you kind of, you walk the walk, you talk the talk and you've always integrated from your perspective, biblical and spiritual principles into the work environment, into what you do and keeping track. What's something else that you have done to kind of maintain that integrity and how has that made a difference in your life?
Well, I still can't believe partners in my life that keep me on track. And I think it's OK if I say that you're one of those people. Sure. You're brave.
So we've been talking every Monday, up in Maine for, I'm guessing, like almost, is it three, maybe three years? Two years? I think it's been three years. And yeah, and I bring that up not to say, you know, yes, you and I are doing it, but there's a bigger purpose there that we've been consistent.
And doing that, and I know it's meant a lot to me, but even from your perspective, you know, it hasn't been worth making that investment of time and what difference has it really made between your two accountability partners, just even in general. Because a lot of women are going to say, I don't have time to do that, or they think they can run the shell themselves, you know? So how is it paid off for you and what kind of a time investment is it really? Well, like I said, you and I speak every Monday afternoon and we usually talk for an hour and a half and we pray at the end for the things that we've each asked for prayer to us.
And then we continue to include that in our prayers throughout that next week. And for the time that you and I spend together with I love is that I journal, I think we both do. We keep track of what we've talked about on those calls and we keep a record of our prayer requests. And it's amazing, especially over the last year, as you and I are both kind of evolving and experiencing a magic prayer.
It's amazing to be able to reflect back on that together and see God's hands and everything, and the delays in the struggles, in the frustration, in the blessings. It's amazing to be able to look back together and talk about that and realize that because when it's happening in your life, it's encouraging me. When it's happening in my life, I think it's probably encouraging you. And so it's amazing to do that.
And so that's about an hour and a half that we spend together every week. And then plus there's texts and phone calls in between when needed. And then my other accountability partner is someone in this book, actually. And Debbie and we need once a month and we need a two-day factory.
And we need to start eating in our calls. And so we're usually there about three hours and we talk about everything, faith and family and food and work and just basic everything that has to do with going on in our lives. And that has been also going on for, I guess, I'm getting that probably going on four years that we've been doing that and we need every month. What a very powerful question.
Well, and what I like about what you said and the reason I bring in a lot of this up is just to share with women what does it look like to be in partnership with other covenant women. And that's exactly the relationship that you've been describing here. Covenant women, we take the time seriously, we guard it on our calendar, we don't just say, oh, something better came along, I'm not going to be able to talk to you today. And unfortunately that happens more often than I care to admit.
But when we can really partner with Covenant women, not only does God honor that obedience, but that's where the favor of God starts to step in. And you even alluded to it. I have seen that because we have been faithful, God has stepped in and shown his favor even in the last couple of months in ways you and I would never have realized. And it didn't happen overnight.
You've been meeting with people three, four years. But because we've been faithful, because we've been covenant partners, because we have been there for each other, that is where the favor of God shows up. And I'm just so impressed with the fact that God loves us so much that he wants to show up. And so we journal about it, we talk about it, but I really want to engage other women in this conversation and say, have you found your covenant women?
And honestly, there are days where the conversation goes, or the prayer might even go, oh, sweet Jesus, I don't know how I'm going to make it through this other day or whatever. But we're honest and we have that conversation with the three of us, you, me and God. And that has been really powerful. So I think that to answer the original question, I was just asking, how do we integrate biblical principles and spiritual principles in our environment?
It starts by having this solid foundation that we can build on. And I think that's what you were referring to the chapter. You may not see the payoff right away. But because you've structured this as a part of your business plan for lack of a better word.
Do you agree with that? Yes, absolutely. So let's go on to something else. You know, we work really hard.
We work hard. We play hard as women. And we also know we're supposed to understand this concept of Sabbath rest. Now, I like interviewing you about this question because you are an entrepreneur that for many, many years has had an office from your home and it can be hard to disconnect from work and take that rest and kind of refuel and recharge.
How does that work for you? And what things either can get in the way of that recharging and how have you kind of walked yourself through that? Well, I think it is working on home is not suited for everybody. I do well at it, but it's not without it.
When you work from home, your office is always open. And so it's a challenge and for a long time and I'm still guilty of it sometimes. I can work that a day's a week, eight to ten hours a day, sitting at my desk because I'm home. If I don't have appointments a lot of times I'm in yoga pants and a sweatshirt and foot loss and I'm sitting at my desk working and that can get very comfortable.
So, you know, I really try to, I really try to shut off or I did it this weekend. I worked a little bit this weekend, but not a whole lot. I took a nap. I slept in late.
I took the dog out in the morning and went back to bed and those things I don't do very often. But when I do do them, it sure feels good and it's so needed. So I had a little answering with a very direct answer. So why do you need rest?
I mean, what can happen if you don't take the time? Well, I can take a picture of the bag of them in my eye. If you want that. Because I know I can look in the mirror and know when I'm working too much because I do like a bag of them in my eye and it's just a feeling of I begin to just feel depleted.
And that is not God's intention for us to feel depleted because of our work life. We could be fulfilled. And so in order to be fulfilled, you have to have rest. And I think that as especially as an entrepreneur, we can think that we have to work all the time in order to be successful and feel successful.
And that's not the case. Taking an app on the couch on a Saturday afternoon, because you're probably watching a live family, it's totally successful too. You're being successful at self-care. And so, you know, I don't know if I really answered it, but you just have to learn to shut off and not make work your aisle.
No, you did answer. You did answer. I work with an idol for a long time and I work all the time in my desk and I don't want that to happen again. I'm so glad you listened into my interview with Pam Russell.
We just scratched the surface of here of our conversation. In the full interview, available on the Women and Views Broadcast Network, we dig deep and continue our conversation by talking about comparison and as Pam puts it, shackling ourselves into comparison prison. Pam shares her own deeply personal story about being married to a man who was addicted to her addiction to candy, her experience with grief and loss, and how we as women can overcome feelings of shame, hurt and confusion. She has a wisdom to share about how not to let any experience of addictions or affairs define us.
She shares a biblical formula for freedom that I know will set someone free who may be struggling right now. We also talk about single working moms and the risk of leaving corporate to start your own business as an entrepreneur. To listen into the full interview of episode 28, I invite you to download the Free App for the Women and Views Broadcast Network. The app is available on the Apple Store and Google Play Store.
On the Women and Views App, you will find all of our podcasts and bonus interviews available exclusively on the Women and Views Broadcast Network, which is a free app that streams our podcast radio show on demand, so you can listen in wherever and whenever you enjoy listening to your favorite podcasts. We also have a variety of broadcasters who are all amazing women of faith teaching you biblical principles on how to succeed in business and grow in your faith. And we are adding more broadcasters as we officially begin to launch the Women and Views Global Broadcast Network. When you download the app, register to log on for the first time.
It's going to ask you to create a quick profile for yourself and yes, you have to put a picture on, put a picture of your dog, your cat, I don't care. And then go to the channel icon on the bottom of your mobile device screen. Click on the Women and Views Podcast channel to find episode 28, my interview with Pam Russell. We also want to give you a free downloadable e-book devotional entitled, Love, Notes of Encouragement for Women of Faith in the Marketplace.
It's our gift to you for downloading the app and becoming part of our community of Spirit Field Women, making an impact for the kingdom. So go to womeninfuseapp.com for links on where to download the app. Also, visit us at womeninfuse.com to find out more about how you can partner with me and have me walk alongside you as you uncover your gifts and step into your highest calling. It's what I call your kingdom calling, that place where your gifts and your purpose and your passions intersect, where you step out into something much greater than yourself, all for God's glory as you shine His light and impact your world.
Join our community of Spirit Field Women and remember this, alone you are significant, but together we are amazing. This has been Women Infuse Radio, connecting women around the globe with purpose and spirit, and we want to connect with you. Get your free gift, Unveiled Voices, six things you need to do to define your value, voice and vision. For more information on the free gift and links to join the conversation on social media, visit us at christylinnalson.com