Unleashing Your Professional Growth with Dr. Barnsley Brown

Take the Leap and Grow Your Business with 95-98% Satisfaction: One Woman's Story of Taking Control and Not Looking Back. When Dr. Barnsley Brown, an outspoken female professor, discovers the abuse of power of a potential tenure track professorship and a cheating partner on the same day, she courageously turns them both down and starts her own business with only $1,000 and 'a lot of boobs, not a lot of balls' to face the big moments of failure and discouragement that come with it. "It was just really a moment where the thing that I had prepared for with 25 years of education... I found that it wasn't going to be the fit I wanted, and I wanted to be 95% to 98% happy in what I did, and I wanted to use all my skills. I didn't want to have to pigeonhole myself into one little scholarly rabbit hole. I was never good at that." - Dr. Barnsley Brown Dr. Barnsley Brown is a self-proclaimed steel magnolia who taught at Wake Forest University, Duke and UNC Chapel Hill before launching her coaching business, Spirited Solutions. She now helps big hearted business owners double, triple, quadruple, or more their income and impact. On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast: Dr. Barnsley Brown's experience of leaving a tenure-track professorship offer to start her own business. Reiki as a tool for physical healing and business growth. The power of setting a timeline and clearly defining goals to achieve success. The tragic lesson Barnsley learned that changed how she handles enrollment conversations. What questions to ask a coach to see if they're a good fit for you and your business Connect with Dr. Brown Website: Spirited-Solutions.com Quick Links: Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community Intuitive Business Coaching The Live. Love. Engage. Book Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube. TRANSCRIPT Gloria Grace Rand 00:00:00 You're listening to the Live Love Engage podcast on today's show, why it pays to invest in your professional growth. Stay tuned. I am Gloria Grace Rand, founder of The Love Method and author of the number one Amazon bestseller, Live Love Engage - How to Stop Doubting Yourself and Start Being Your Yourself. In this podcast, we share practical advice from a spiritual perspective on how to live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically so you can create a life and business with more impact, influence, and income. Welcome to Live. Love. Engage. 00:00:47 Namaste. I am Gloria Grace Rand, and so happy to be with you again for another edition of Live Love Engage, and especially when I get to talk with interesting and amazing people on the show, and today is no exception. I am delighted to welcome Dr. Barnsley Brown to Live. Love. Engage. Dr. Barnsley Brown 00:01:13 Thank you, Gloria. It's so wonderful to be here with your folks and just to share a powerful message with some strategies that people can implement. So exciting. Gloria Grace Rand 00:01:24 Absolutely. Well, let me let folks know the few out there who may not have heard of you before, so we'll enlighten them today. So Dr. Brown is a self proclaimed steel magnolia in a long line of strong Southern women who taught at Wake Forest University, Duke and UNC Chapel Hill before launching Spirited Solutions Professional Speaking and Coaching over 22 years ago. And she now helps big-hearted business owners double, triple, quadruple or more, their income and impact in her Make It Happen Mastermind group coaching program. Get Results Now laser coaching and transformational Reiki trainings. I almost got to say treatments, but kind of be that way a little bit. And for those of you who are listening to the podcast and you don't see, she also calls herself a kickass coach. So maybe I'll ask you about that in a little bit. But I always do like to start off talking about our guest's background a little bit, and I thought we'd start with especially what led you to make the transition from speaking at or well, teaching, teaching at universities to launching your own coaching company? Dr. Barnsley Brown 00:02:42 I love the question, Gloria, and it's, it's a powerful question because actually, you know, I would say that at the university, I was about 75% satisfied. I mean, I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the young people. It was mostly young people at the schools where I taught, and I enjoyed the scholarship, the reading, the publishing, the presenting. But the thing I didn't enjoy so much were well, the things I didn't enjoy were the ways that women faculty were treated, for example, especially outspoken women faculty, of which I was one. I also didn't appreciate the way that the canons were formed to, and I taught literature and women's studies, so I did not appreciate the fact that the writers I considered central were considered marginal. And I just got to a point, really, I reached a point, Gloria, where I had been made what would have been the tenure track professorship offer of my dreams. And on the very day I found out that the job and the guy were cheating on me - just say. An abuse of power with the potential job and the guy as well. And I turned both down on the same day and started my own business. And that was August of the year 2000. I went and got my business registration, and I registered it because it's important what the birthday of your business is, and this is interesting. It was September 11 of the year 2000, one year before the Twin Towers came down. So that's how I started. And really at that moment in my life, I'll be candid, I didn't really feel like I had anything else to lose unless I had lost my mother and my brother and all my family members. It was just really a moment where the thing that I had prepared for with 25 years of education, I i just would, I found that it wasn't going to be the fit I wanted, and I wanted to be 95% to 98% happy in what I did, and I wanted to use all my skills. I didn't want to have to pigeonhole myself into one little scholarly rabbit hole. I was never good at that. Never good at that. That might surprise you, right? Never good at that. I always was interested in so many things. I still continue to be interested in so many things, and it just was not something that, that was going to work for me long term. So I made that decision, and I like to say, Gloria, I mean, I started out with $1,000, and here's what I say. I say I started out with $1,000 and a lot of boobs, not a lot of balls, because the balls didn't apply to me, and I had to make it happen. I had four mouths to feed. Granted, they were rescue animals, but I had four mouths to feed, and I was not married. I did not have a partner. I did not have a second income to fall back on. What I want to share with your listeners is really tried and true. It's proven. It's not airy fairy. It's not theoretical. These are things that I did that I had to be and do to have the success that I've had and to bring my business into over six figure range. And you can do it too. Your listeners can do it, too. But I wish I had known at that time, in the early 2000s what I know now. Gloria Grace Rand 00:06:36 Can you share what what specifically give an example of, like, what you would have done? Dr. Barnsley Brown 00:06:43 Oh, my goodness. I wish one of the biggest things I wish I had done relentlessly, even though it would have been a stretch, would be to get an amazing high powered coach early on in my business and to invest in that. Now I did a lot of seminars. I went to a lot of seminars that were offered through the Small Business Center. They were free. They were paid with tax money. I participated in a launching program called Good Work that was local. It was good, too, but nothing could replace a fantastic coach who made it to where I am now. Right. I needed me then, the me I am now. Gloria Grace Rand 00:07:24 Yeah, exactly. Dr. Barnsley Brown 00:07:26 And so I got there, but it took a lot longer. And there were some big moments of failure and discouragement, too, as part of business. Right? There's no buffer zone. We're not working for someone else, so we can't say, oh, well, that Gloria, she's so horrible. You can't really say that about yourself. Gloria Grace Rand 00:07:49 I know. Yeah. Although sometimes we do, though, unfortunately. Dr. Barnsley Brown 00:07:54 I saw a funny Facebook post, Gloria, that cracked me up. It said, My boss is a real asshole, only I'm self employed. That kind of hits home sometimes. Gloria Grace Rand 00:08:09 Yeah, exactly. Well, what was one of the biggest challenges that you faced in making that transition? Dr. Barnsley Brown 00:08:17 Boy, I'll tell you, one of the biggest was the idea of a paycheck, right? So if you've been working for someone else and you have that paycheck that arrives every other week or once a month, just the psychology of a paycheck that's coming in, that's consistent, it was hard to release that, and yet I did. And I will tell you that one of the things I did, Gloria, to soften the blow, kind of, of moving from being full time teaching to doing my business is I taught part time. I taught English as a second language with adult learners, and I really enjoyed that. They were from all over the world. Japan. Korea. Mexico. Guatemala. Peru. They were from all over. Europe. Different countries in Europe, some countries in Africa. They were from all over. And so it was very interesting. But it also didn't take me away from my work that much because I just taught a couple of evenings and a couple of mornings a week, and yet I had a paycheck that would come in. Now, granted, it wasn't that much, but it was enough to cover my mortgage at the time. So what that did because, remember,...