Branding and Teaching Workshops: Interview with Mariely
I had Mariely on the show all the way from Puerto Rico. We met in She Podcasts on Facebook. She is an introvert who is a Branding Strategist and podcaster. We talked about how she got into both things, as well as teaching workshops. I have thought about doing workshops too, but didn’t know how to get started. I love hearing how other people, especially introverts, do things. I don’t know anything about coaching or branding, and I’m just getting into the world of seminars and that kind of thing. It was great to hear from someone who is further along in that process.
Mariely shared about how she went through transformation workshops for six months in 2008. It was very painful, but helped her realize how much she missed in life due to the stories she had been telling herself. In 2010, she finally decided to quit her job as a manager at a hotel and started looking for a way to earn a living. She started by selling promotional goods, but ended up going back to school to finish her Master’s in communications, specifically in public relations. She soon went to work for a woman she had met during the transformational workshops who ran a public relations firm. Eventually though, she had to let her go.
While working for her, Mariely had learned how to work LinkedIn. She started offering seminars on how to work your profile. She had a background in marketing, in addition to her schooling in public relations, and also got certified as a coach. She discovered that working with people one on one was the thing that was missing for her all along. She enjoyed helping them with their LinkedIn profiles and how they word things on there to make a better impression on potential employers.
Mariely later met someone on Facebook from Uruguay who wanted her to produce a radio show for the internet and that’s how they started their first podcast. They would talk about different topics about entrepreneurship in a wholesome and spiritual way. At that point, she was afraid to talk in front of a camera, so the podcast was a perfect choice. They did that until people got to know about them and what they did, and then their careers took off. She started getting on camera more late last year. People also started coming to her to learn how to start a podcast and started doing workshops on that topic.
I think that’s how it works most of the time. One thing flows into the next, or we naturally get pushed into something. Baby steps is how Mariely did it, and that’s the best way to get into something new. We tend to get forced into normal jobs really quickly, and the learning curve is so harsh to us as introverts. Yet, when we choose something ourselves, we have the space and room to play around with things and make it work. When you do things yourself, you can prepare better than being put on the spot or pulling information out of thin air. For example, when I did the conference, I realized it was easier to get started because I already had a starting point and had been practicing.
Finally, Mariely shares some tips that us, as introverts, can do to become better communicators as a coach or just in groups. She suggests you get a coach to help you work through the stories you tell yourself that keep you stuck, to embrace who you are, and to practice.
