A (7:44)

don't wanna wallow in it, right?

B (7:45)

And if you're gonna allow yourself to do that, you'll stay there. So that's when I jumped up and I posted, I've just been fired. If I've ever helped you in any way, I need to hear from you now, right? You gotta jump up and take action and, like, put yourself out there. And. And that's what I was trying to convince my nephew to do today. I said, first things first. Sit down and write down three things you're grateful for. Start focusing on the good things in your life. Not this one. What you feel is a negative thing. But the next thing I said was, was the relationship that great? And he said, no, okay, Then you just freed yourself from something so that you're never gonna grab great if you're hanging onto mediocre. So you have to go through that uncomfortable, unknown period of letting go of. Of mediocre to give yourself that chance to grab great. And when you do, you might find out great's waiting for you at the grocery store this afternoon. You don't know. But until you take that leap, you never will know. So if you are going through a tough time, start with gratitude. Start with being grateful for your health, for our freedom, for the ability to listen to this podcast, shout out, you know, whatever it is that you're grateful for today, right? Like, write those things down. Focus on the good in your life so you bring more good into it instead of getting so caught up in focusing on the negative. And believe me, I've had many a days in my life where I focused on the negative. It doesn't pay dividends. It never does. At some point you have to pump the brakes and say, okay, enough is enough. I'm going to shift this narrative. And for me, one of the things that I've been doing a lot lately encourage you to do it is instead of when I drive, I drive a ton in Miami. As you know. That's why I'm moving. One of the reasons why I'm moving. But, you know, being in the car, I had a friend say to me, stop listening to music and start listening to audiobooks. Start listening to something that's gonna help elevate you. And I need to read a lot of books to prep for the show when I interview people. So I started using that time to grow, right, to start accessing new information. And anytime we do that, we're going to be better for it, right? So check into some books that people recommend. Overcome youe Villains and Confidence Creator clearly are two hits, which I'd love for you to check out if you haven't yet. And yes, I narrate them both. But there are so many great books out there in the world. And I just listened to John Gordon's book the Garden recently on Audible. It was amazing and it was a super quick listen and really powerful and got me thinking about just. It's a way to get. To start opening your mind to different ideas, to expanding your thought, to growth. So I challenge you to do that, even try it just for a month when you're driving in the car, just, you know, choose a couple of different audiobooks and give them a listen and see how much better you feel and what you start learning and how it helps you get in a positive mindset. Because we know this challenges will come every day, right? They're going to be out there, but it's about how we approach them and how quickly we can bounce back from them. And. And don't forget, you never know how the dots are going to connect until you look back on this moment in time. So when you're in the thick of it, it's hard because you don't know what's to come next. Give yourself that grace and have that faith that the dots will connect. You just don't know how yet. And they're probably gonna be so much better than you ever could imagine. Okay, now we're gonna go to the Mental Toughness forum again. The website is mentaltuffnessforum.com Check it out. You can check out all the speakers there, not just your girl. There's videos and audios on both. But I think you're really going to like it. Let me know what you think and if you like the episode, tag me share it. I will always repost reshare and so appreciate you. All right, here we go. Onto the mental toughness form. Meet a different guest each week.

A (11:38)

Scaling a business takes the right expertise at the right time. Upwork helps growing teams quickly bring in specialized freelancers, you can move faster and take the business to the next level. Hiring help shouldn't be a headache or a drain on your budget. Upwork makes it easy to hire specialized freelancers quickly so you can get the expertise you need now without weeks of recruiting or a full time hire. Upwork is a one stop platform to find, hire and pay expert freelancers across web and software development, data and analytics, marketing, business operations and more. Upwork helps grow your business by giving you fast access to sponsors, specialized talent across 125 plus categories so you can fill skill gaps, launch projects faster and scale support up or down without committing to full time headcount. With Business plus, you can access the top 1% of talent on Upwork and with AI powered shortlisting, you'll get matched to the right freelancer in under six hours. No endless searching required. Upwork also cuts down operational hassle by handling things like contracts and payments in one place so you can spend more time running running the business. Thousands of growing businesses already trust upwork to hire flexible, high quality freelance talent for everything from one off projects to ongoing support. It's free to sign up and posting a job is easy. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's upwork. Com upwork Running a small business is tough and when it's time to get a loan, it can feel impossible to find a lender you actually trust.

B (13:21)

Big bank?

A (13:22)

Say no. The Internet full of sketchy offers with sky high rates and fine print you can barely read. Whether you need help covering payroll, managing cash flow or investing in growth, you deserve better. That's why I recommend the Small Business Marketplace Fundera. Powered by NerdWallet, it's free, easy to use platform that lets you compare real financing offers from trusted lenders all in one place. What I like is that you don't need perfect credit to get started. No spam, no bait and switch, just personalized options that fit your business needs. If I had needed this product, it's what I'd use. And here's the best part. For a limited time, when you visit nerdwallet.com confidence and fill out the no obligation form, you'll get VIP treatment and talk with a real person who knows all the ins and outs of small business lending. Don't risk your business on unreliable lenders. Go to nerdwallet.com confidence to find the funding you deserve. Fundera Inc. NMLS ID number 1240038

C (14:25)

I

B (14:25)

asked you to try to find your passion.

C (14:28)

Hi. Thank you, Ben Newman, so much for having me here today. Thank you for including me. And hi to you. Welcome to the Mental Toughness Forum. I hope you are enjoying it so far. Okay. I am Heather Monahan. Yeah, that's me right there. We'll get to that in a minute and I'll give you a little bit of background on me. I'm a former C Suite executive who made it to the top, smashed the glass ceiling and was fired literally overnight after being named one of the most influential woman in radio. Complete gut punch. That opportunity allowed me to reinvent myself as a best selling author times two, top 50 keynote speaker in 2022 and a lot of other things. So I'm here today to share three strategies that you can implement in your life that I hope will add some major value to you in your mental toughness challenge. Ok, so Ben asked us what role has mental toughness played in your life and your career? And it has been huge. But I definitely didn't think about it as mental toughness. I don't know if you're with me, you know, you look back at those hard times, you don't necessarily remember thinking you're tough, especially in the moment. Right. So my first one that I want to share with you, I'm going to take it back old school to my first love, my first boyfriend in my 20s that I lived with, that I thought I was going to marry because I learned this incredible lesson from that time that sticks with me to this day. And it's been really helpful in my perspective, which is really helpful when you need to be mentally tough. So I was living with my boyfriend, living my best life, or so I thought. Who feels me on this one. And if you know a girl in her early 20s in love, you understand how big this is. I thought we were getting married until one day I came home and found out he had just cheated on me. Mic drop moment. Well, I was an ad executive in radio sales and I went to work the next day looking horrible, no makeup on, flip flops, falling apart at the edges. Yes, I wear my heart on my sleeve. My boss says to me, what happened to you? I said, well, the love of my life cheated on me. I had to move out. I can't live like this. I don't ever want to see him again. It's devastating. I was living in Worcester, Massachusetts, at this point in time, truly not living my best life, but thinking I was. So he says to me, okay, Heather, you've been doing an amazing job here for the last year. I can tell you are ready for a move. Would you be willing to board a plane with me and move somewhere for the biggest financial opportunity and business opportunity of your life? I looked him straight in the eyes and I said yes. The only reason I said yes was because that man had cheated on me. And I wanted to do whatever it takes to escape that painful feeling. And not wanting to run into him again, I boarded that plane. He dropped me off in Saginaw, Michigan. That was a tough one. Definitely not a destination location. But for me, it was. We bought a $25 million company, and in under three years, I escalated revenues, I upgraded my team, and we sold that company for $55 million in under three years, netting us a 30 million gain. That put my name on the map in business and in the media business, where I was working at the time. And that opened doors I would have never had open for me before and led me to a publicly traded company, to a much bigger job, much bigger platform. Cut to a couple of years ago. I was at a wedding with a bunch of people I grew up with, and the guy that cheated on me was there. And I'm here to tell you today, it was an incredible moment to see that person was never meant for me. It was so different. Years later, with all his perspective, and I finally understood. You might not be able to connect the dots looking forward, but when you look back, those hardest moments, the moments that you think are the hardest, are actually the biggest gifts. And that rejection is only redirection to something so much bigger if you allow it. And that set me on a completely different trajectory and course in my life. And I'm so grateful for that moment. It's a come full circle. I'll never forget when my son was in elementary school and had a little girl that was his girlfriend. They would chat on social media together and on text. And one day he came home crying and said, mom, she's dating my friend now. Will I ever find another girl? And I shared that story with him. And I explained to him, you can't understand what's happening in this moment because you can't see those dots connecting. But years later, you will. And cut to today. He sees this girl all the time. They become great friends. And I am just asking you this to remind yourself the next time you are going through it and we all do. Remember, you can't see where those dots will connect, but you will in the future. Have faith. That is a fact. Ok, the next one I want to share with you is a three step process. I'm giving you a little bit more, but this is a three step process that I wrote about and overcome your villains. It's my back process. It works every time, anytime and all the time. You have a challenge in front of you. I'm going to use the example of getting fired, right? I explained that I had made it to the top. I was named one of the most influential women in radio in 2017 and unexpectedly three weeks later, I was fired. The CEO I had worked for for 14 years, who had elevated me three different times and supported me so much in that journey, he became ill and he decided to elevate his daughter to replace him. She was my arch nemesis and she fired me immediately with a big smile on her face. Now I'm going to break that process down for you using this low moment. Low moment ended up being a big redirection, not a rejection. But at the time when you take that gut punch, it sucks, right? Let's say what it really is, it feels like a rejection and you can't see the dots connecting yet. So you don't know where to go. Well, for me, I got fired. I was a single mother at the time, providing for my son, living a lifestyle that I had created off of making a lot of money and suddenly I didn't know where my next paycheck was going to come from. I had an 18 month non compete and I couldn't work in the industry that I had expertise in. I was going to have to start over somewhere as a beginner. And starting over as a beginner, as you know, can be really humbling and really scary. And I was full of fear. So here is where my back process comes from. The day that I got fired, I walked out of that woman's office and I started saying, I have lost everything, I have nothing, I've lost everything. Okay? This is the moment that we need to pump the brakes and we need to take a look at and dismantle whatever belief you're holding, right? So write this down. Belief is number one when you're in it. When you're in that moment where you need your mental toughness, take a look at that belief and distill it down to whatever most simplistic shred of fact you can find. And I'll tell you, oftentimes there is none. So for me, I sat down and said, okay, what fact is here? Did I lose everything? Well, no, I didn't lose my network. I didn't lose my expertise.

B (22:27)

I didn't lose my business acumen.

C (22:29)

I didn't lose my personality, my character. I didn't lose my values. I didn't lose my friends and family. I didn't lose anything. I lost a paycheck. And once I broke that belief that I had lost everything down to the most simplistic fact I could find, which was I did lose a paycheck, it reminded me. Years before, I had worked for other companies. I had had other paychecks. I had worked in high school, I'd worked in college. I had worked in my 20s. I had worked for so many other companies and had found ways to drive revenue. I just didn't know where it would come from. This time, I could choose to see that as an opportunity and to be so real with you, I still wasn't seen as an opportunity, but I was reminding myself, this is a choice. I can choose how I'm going to look at this.

B (23:16)

All right, so number one, beliefs distill

C (23:18)

it down to the most simplistic shred of fact possible.

B (23:21)

Big one.

C (23:21)

Number two, immediately take action. And a lot of people get hung up on this one. It's so important to know messy action is fantastic, right? There is no such thing as perfect. It doesn't need to be perfectly planned out. It needs to be done. Done will always be better than perfect, and that is a truth you can own. So my action step was I'm going to post on social media, and I posted. Heather Monahan was just fired. That's me. I've just been fired. And if I've ever done anything for you, I need to hear from you now. That post went viral, and it landed me on the Elvis Duran show. Okay? So here's the thing. I didn't know what was going to happen. I knew people were going to think I was crazy for putting this post up. Right? How many of you have haters out there? I got a lot of them. So the haters are going to come for you. You're going to take action and put yourself out there however you see fit. Whatever your intuition speaks into you is what you need to do. Take that action. People called me and they said, heather, you look crazy. You look pathetic. You got fired. No, no, no. Take that down. Delete that. And I checked in with the one voice and opinion that matters, and that's your own. And something inside of Me said, leave that post up. It's my truth. I didn't do anything wrong. I don't feel full of shame that I got fired. In fact, I'm going to flip the script on the shame. And when you start doing that, you start extinguishing the shame in your life and showing up as a more powerful and real version of you. Flip it now. So I put it to work for me. I left that post up. That post went viral, right? That was number two. Take action. Take messy action. Done will be better than perfect. It landed me on the Elvis Duran show in front of someone who's light years ahead of me, right? This man has millions of listeners tuning into him every single day and is incredibly successful. And he's found his way. He knows what he's doing. Unlike me at the time, I had no idea what to do next. I sat in front of him. Halfway through that interview, he says to me, well, Heather, obviously you're writing a book, but I wasn't writing a book. How many of you grew up with a sibling that was a smart one. Anyone out there? Oh, yeah, you're my people, right? My sister was the smart one. Perfect score in her SATs. I was a social one. Well, in these moments, another lesson I learned is you've got to drop the labels and drop the stories you've been hanging onto since you were a kid. And thankfully, this man spoke a conviction and a truth and a confidence into me that I decided to grab hold of and run with it. I jumped on a plane leaving New York, heading back to Miami, and I googled, how do you write a book? This is where knowledge comes into play. And this is number three in my back process. Remember, beliefs was number one, distilling down to the most simplistic shred of fact you can find. Number two, take messy action. Done will always be better than perfect. And number three, knowledge. Be really intentional and thoughtful about who you are surrounding yourself with for knowledge in these moments during the tough times, more than ever, I couldn't turn to my family and ask them if I should write a book. They'd never written a book. Don't take direction from people who haven't been where you are going. I chose not to take knowledge from people who hadn't been there yet. I took it from Elvis Duran, someone who was light years ahead of me in a business I thought was so exciting and so interested in. And I decided to say, this is the knowledge I want to surround myself with. I curated the knowledge. I chose who I would listen to. And I ask you to do the same. When you hit those low moments, those tough times that you need, your mental toughness, one of the most critical things is who and what you're listening to. Always listen to the one voice that counts your own and then start tuning into people who have been where you are going. When you surround yourself with those people, even if it's just social media or watching their TED talks or reading their books, reading their books or just accessing their content or being here today, this is the knowledge that you want to surround yourself with. These are the people you want to surround yourself with. These are the people that are going to help you up, level and leapfrog ahead all of the challenges in front of you. So be really intentional about it. Turn down the noise on the haters, turn down the noise on those that are giving you bad advice even when they love you, and start amplifying the voices of the people who have been where you want to go and you will get there so much faster. That's my three step process Back Belief, Action, Knowledge.

B (28:04)

Meet a different guest each week.

C (28:09)

Confidence creators.

A (28:11)

You've seen the buzz, but let me give you the inside scoop. Live shopping on Whatnot is exploding right now. I've watched the shows firsthand. I've seen Whatnot climb to the top of the App Store and I've looked at the seller earning small, medium and multi million dollar businesses are seeing real growth. If you're selling online or out of a storefront full time or as a side hustle, you already know the challenge. You're hoping for people to find your listing or waiting for them to walk in. Whatnot flips that on Whatnot, you go live and sell directly to people in real time. They see what you've got, ask questions, and they keep coming back. Whatnot is the largest dedicated live shopping platform. Whether it's beauty, collectibles, electronics, luxury, fashion, or even cookies, sellers are building real thriving businesses. Whatnot buyers spend more than an hour a day in the app. They're not just browsing, they're bidding, buying and coming back. You go live, show off products in real time and turn what you love into real income. People selling on whatnot sell 10 times more than on other major marketplaces. That's because you're not just listing products, you're building real connections with buyers. And for a limited time, Whatnot will match your first $150 sold in the first month. Visit whatnot.com sell to start selling. That's W-H-A-T N o-t.com/sell whatnot.com sell I've been doing a little spring reset with my closet lately, focusing more on quality over quantity, just building a wardrobe of pieces that are well made, versatile and easy to reach for every day. That's why I keep coming back to Quint. The fabrics feel elevated, the fits are thoughtful and the pricing actually makes sense. Quince makes beautiful everyday pieces using premium materials like 100% European linen, organic cotton and super soft denim with styles starting around $50. Their spring pieces are lightweight, breathable and effortless, the kind of things you can throw on and instantly look put together. Quince works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen. So you're paying for quality, not brand markup. The fabric and quality has been blowing me away. Quince linen tops have become my go to. The fabric feels substantial but easy to wear and it doesn't cost what I thought quality linen would. I've gotten so many compliments you can't believe it. Refresh your spring wardrobe with quint. Go to quinte.com confidence for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Go to q-u I n c e.com confidence for free shipping and 360 five day returns. Quints.com confidence

C (30:59)

I asked you to try

B (31:00)

to find your passion.

C (31:03)

Final thing I want to leave you with today. I want to leave you with this short story about what you focus on is what you will create and this is a truth that I want you to remember. My son, like I'm sure many of you, after a year and a half of Zoom school was not doing well and had to go for the first time ever to an academic camp. He was not excited about it at that time. He was 13 years old. I think he was 13 or maybe no, 13. He was 13 years old and so he had to pack for this month long camp in New Hampshire. We live in Miami. Not his best life, right? These were not the best moments. He was really upset and he walked out with his suitcase, came out to the living room and he was frustrated and looked at me and said it's not going to work. I can only bring one bag and I can't fit everything in on the list of things I need. I can't go, this isn't going to work. And he was so fixated that the bag couldn't fit. One more thing, he had a pair of shoes he had to get in there and I came at it from a really different perspective and I looked and thought there's Gotta be a way. And I kept saying, there's gotta be a way. It's just a pair of shoes. There's gotta be a way. And I'm walking around the bag, and I flipped the bag over, and all of a sudden I saw there was one of those zippers that when you unzip it, the bag pops up, elevates, and creates all this space, additional space that you didn't previously see. I popped that zipper up. I looked at him and I said, I knew there was a solution, and I knew we'd find it together. He put those shoes in, board that plane, and he went to camp. And halfway through that camp, I got a call that no parent ever wants to get. Your son's in the emergency room. He's broken his arm. And I thought, okay, that's it. I mean, obviously, I need to go get him out of this camp. He can't stay in an academic camp if he can't write. This is crazy. Crazy. And so I jumped on a plane and went to New Hampshire, rented a car and drove however far. It was crazy. It took a while to get there, let's put it that way, right? So by the time I got there, it's a couple days later, I walk into the camp to pick up my son, and he walks out of camp without a bag. Without the bag we packed. And I said, what's going on? And he said, I'm staying. Let's go to dinner. I'll explain. And we went to dinner. And he said to me, mom, I taught myself how to write with my other hand. I taught myself how to shower with on one arm. I taught myself how to eat with the other hand. I figured out how to do it. I focused on the solutions instead of focusing on a challenge. I didn't come this far to only come this far. I am finishing this course, getting these credits, and going back. So I'm all set for school next year. I want to leave you with this. I was in awe of that. But it also reminded me how we show up for our kids and the people we care about in our life is how they will, in turn show up in theirs. So think to yourself when you need the motivation. How am I leading my family? How am I leading the people who are closest to me? And if I can show up on those tough days when we're arguing and they really just need a hug, or maybe they need me to be the one to say, what we focus on is what we will create. Let's find a solution. We know it's here and then you'll find your zipper. I hope those three different ideas help you. You can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking back. My three step back process from Overcome your villains. Yes, it's my newest book. You can get it anywhere. And then finally, what you focus on is what you will create. Ben Newman, you're the best. Thanks so much for having me. Hope that I added some value to you. Catch up with me anywhere. Heather Monahan would love to hear from you. And I hope you enjoy the rest of I decided to change that dynamic.

B (34:49)

I couldn't be more excited for what you're gonna hear. Start learning and growing.

C (34:54)

Inevitably something will happen. No one succeeds alone. You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.

B (35:03)

Come on this journey with me.