Permission to Kick Ass

Own your awesome with Miranda VonFricken

• Angie Colee • Episode 199

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I had an absolute blast chatting with Miranda VonFricken, the founder of Own Your Awesome – a book series, podcast, and global movement helping women entrepreneurs shine a light on their awesomeness. What would you do if you got laid off from four different jobs in a row? If you're like Miranda, you might just decide you're done with corporate nonsense and it's time to forge your own path. Join us for a candid convo about the power of celebration, the importance of owning your identity, and why hustle culture is overblown BS. 

Can't-Miss Moments:

  • I've never wanted a confetti cannon more: we brought out the bigguns from the get-go! Miranda shares why she has confetti cannons in her video background (and why my unplanned nap was something to celebrate)... 

  • Quintuple whammy: not only did Miranda get laid off from four consecutive jobs, she also lost her younger brother just before losing her last gig. Her story is a powerful lesson on letting go of what you "should" be doing...

  • Out of context quote: "I don't care if I have to be poor for 3 years..."

  • Evidence of awesomeness: turns out Miranda and I have a similar life philosophy, and we've both chosen THIS instead of letting our lives be dictated by head trash... 

  • One simple question Miranda recommends to quickly get yourself out of "stuck in the mud" and back into action...

Miranda's bio:

Miranda VonFricken; Founder of Own Your Awesome!™ A podcast, book series, and global movement attracting and expanding women at work, at home, and online!

With over 15 years of leading teams to success in higher education, sales, and human resources, she stopped ignoring the call from her highest self and went “all in” on entrepreneurship. Since then, she has traveled the world connecting, coaching, and consulting students, executives, and organizations who are ready to “Own Their Awesome!” in life and on LinkedIn!

Miranda is a certified life & business coach, earned a Master’s in Motivation from Empire State College, and has studied the Science of Happiness at Yale University. She’s an International Women’s Day Featured Speaker and was named 2021 Woman of Empowerment by the YWCA of Northeastern NY.

Miranda is called to elevate every woman who has a story, a brand, or a dream and help them shine SO bright it'll be IMPOSSIBLE to ignore and achieve!

She’s a wife, a (sports) mom of two, and a positive force in her business community.

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Angie Colee:

Welcome to Permission to Kick Ass, the show that gives you a virtual seat at the bar for the real conversations that happen between entrepreneurs. I'm interviewing all kinds of business owners, from those just a few years into freelancing to CEOs helming nine-figure companies. If you've ever worried that everyone else just seems to get it and you're missing something or messing things up, this show is for you. I'm your host, angie Coley, and let's get to it. And welcome back to Permission to Kick Ass. With me today is my new friend, miranda Von Fricken. Say hi, hello. It was so tempting for me to immediately launch into a rant about confetti cannons given talking about right before we started recording.

Angie Colee:

They can't see it, but I'm going to make sure that that video goes somewhere. So tell us about your business and why you've got confetti cannons.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Oh, my gosh. I love all things celebration. That's not my business, but it is a big part of it. So I'm the founder of Own your Awesome. It is a book series, a podcast and a global movement helping women entrepreneurs and executives to expand and elevate their voice, ultimately to shine a light on their awesomeness, their calling, their gifts that they brought to this earth with them and just get it out into the world and help change some lives and make this place like the coolest place to live Now. The confetti is just a bonus. That's because I love to celebrate women every single part of their journey, whether it's I got out of bed today to I just changed something in the world or got a patent or wrote a book, whatever it is. I love to celebrate women because I don't think we do it enough for ourselves. So that's a huge part of what I do as a LinkedIn strategist and a personal brand evangelist is just shining a light on everyone's awesome and celebrating it along the way.

Angie Colee:

I love that you made that distinction, too, between the celebrating the big and the small, because especially I mean it could be. But I have a feeling that this is universal among entrepreneurs. Most of the entrepreneurs that I know are very focused on the big goal, the big milestones, and we're so focused on that future thing that we're going to do someday that it's easy on a day-to-day basis to be like I have so far to go, I am so far behind. Blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Right, we beat ourselves up, yeah, and especially today we're recording on a day where getting out of bed was a challenge. Actually, I got up really early, went to the gym, came back, took a shower, went back to bed it was a low energy day and, hey, I got up to record a podcast. We're celebrating.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Like I wouldn't even celebrate the fact that you said yes to going back to bed, when most of us would think like all right, knock it off, like get some shit done. This is ridiculous. I've got a whole list of things to do, but you know what? Like I'm going to honor what my body needs, and maybe my mind and spirit too, and she just needs to take a nap. So I would celebrate the fact that you said yes to honoring yourself and giving you what you needed.

Angie Colee:

Oh, absolutely Well, and I think it's taken a while for me to get to this point. But I can acknowledge that it doesn't do me a damn bit of good to sit at the computer and try to force things to come to my brain. Given that I operate in between my ears for most of what I do with my consulting, it doesn't make any sense to sit here and try and force it when I'm literally so exhausted that it would take me less time to go take a quick 30-minute nap and then come back and try and bang out those thoughts than it would to sit here for an hour Just saying I literally gave myself permission to watch.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I'm watching grim. I don't know if you ever watched it, but it's new for me. So I love these kinds of shows. So I'm watching grim. And I gave myself permission to watch the whole season one last night, not do any work. My husband was like hey, did you end up doing that project? You said that was due tonight and I'm like it's really due tomorrow Cause I lied to myself about the deadlines Like it's really due tomorrow. Um, so I am going to honor my, um, my entertainment brain, and she needs to be entertained right now with some supernatural stuff. And he was like, okay, okay, do you?

Angie Colee:

is that okay? I think I've done that to myself before too. Do you lie to yourself about the deadline so that, like you're getting the incremental bits done and it's not always the last minute.

Miranda Von Fricken:

And I've trained the people in my world to lie to me too. What do they say when they're lying to you? I'm late for everything, and we got to be there at like five 30. My husband will be like, oh, we got to be there at like 515, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, all right, cool, we'll get there at 525. And she's five minutes early, yeah.

Angie Colee:

I love that. See, this is just knowing how you operate and honoring that and not beating yourself up for not being like I'm a piece of crap because I can't just get there on time. Blah, blah, blah. No setup systems to help yourself. Okay, Anybody watching the video will see this, but I'm describing it for people. I have this beautiful little tool, a little hexagon shaped timer, and on each side is a like increment of time. I had to get this for myself because every time I was trying to set a timer on a phone to do work, I would just lose three hours on my phone Just going around. So, like this is one of the boundaries I had to set for myself. If I need to set a timer, I need something that I could just I flip it over to one side and the timer starts and then we're all good. Know yourself, there's nothing wrong with that.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I've done that. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to Instagram. I've been like, wait, what did I come here for? Like, oh shit, I was just going to set an alarm to do like time blocking, and I'm like I can't even touch my phone without being distracted and it takes me someplace I'm not supposed to be in that moment. So that's a great idea.

Angie Colee:

And that's even with like. I actively disable every single notification I can in during the workday. I'm usually in do not disturb mode and people can't get through. So I'm like I'm going to respond to you when I have time to respond to you. Otherwise I'd be responding to everybody every second of the day. I would never get anything done. That's just a rule I had to put in place for myself. Okay, this is awesome. We're already getting off to a very awesome ADHD start. How did you wind up with this? Like, what got you to own your awesome?

Miranda Von Fricken:

So I had been laid off in the corporate space four times in a row, I know Because I was feeling very awesome. I felt very rejected and I also felt the corporate space really wasn't where I was meant to be. I was in human resources for 15 years and I love resourcing the humans Don't get me wrong. A lot of my clients are in HR now and I really loved the cultural piece. I loved recruiting, I loved promoting the organization, but I didn't love all like the data and you know, make 15 phone calls to get three interviews. And I was like no, like that's not how I roll, like I'm going to put out a cute post on LinkedIn and they're going to come crawling to me because I'm going to, I'm going to look cute in the lunchroom and I'm going to show like how we have such a good time and like the higher the heads, the higher ups in the in their suits. They just didn't get me and I get it. Some people thought I was just a cute and whatever. But I was like no, this is a real way of being. Like people come to me because of what I'm putting out there, my personal brand. And so I got laid off four different times, all business decisions, different companies in a matter of five years. I was actually at one company for like three and a half years. One company was like four months and it was all like they got bought out or they went public and they had to go lean and I was like the fluff of HR drove me crazy that they didn't really take culture or recruiting seriously and so I got laid off.

Miranda Von Fricken:

This one experience and two weeks later my little brother passed away. Actually, my little brother passed away, and then two weeks later I got laid off. I reversed those backs of it and it was such a hard hitting experience, personally and professionally. Both of my identities were kind of like punched in the face and it was like what? Like you know, being a big sister is a huge part of my identity. I have three little brothers and it is just amazing to be a part of that in my world and then losing one of my little brothers it was just. It was such a shock, of course, to my whole system, to all the systems. It was such a shock and I thought at some point after bereavement I would go back to work where I was thriving, I had a huge support system and just kind of slowly get back to life and heal. Well, it wasn't until a week later, after getting back from bereavement, that I was had my position eliminated and it was just like a double whammy. It was like a kick me when you're down kind of situation. And I love me some Jesus.

Miranda Von Fricken:

But I lost a lot of my faith during that time only because it man was it being tested and I was feeling like I was failing miserably. So it was like losing my identity as a professional, as a sister, or in my personal life and then in my spiritual life. And I had just had like a really rough time during that year and I realized little by little, coming out of that I had to. I kind of said to myself I couldn't change my brother passing, but what could I have changed at work to make it more like more where I want it to be, where they would accept me? And I thought like I need to start being myself. I need to stop holding back my awesome, if you will. And I I felt very like I would fake it every day.

Miranda Von Fricken:

So I got another job and I took a first day picture, almost like you know you the kids take their first day of school picture. I took my first day at the next job picture and I put it on LinkedIn and one of my biz besties was like that is the fakest smile I've ever seen. She's like what the hell? Yeah, she was like what are you doing? And I knew it was.

Miranda Von Fricken:

And I remember walking into that next job on day one and I looked up and I prayed and I said, god, if this is not for me, cause I had already been a side hustler for years, a speaker and a coach, but nothing really full-time. Like it paid my car payment, right, like it wasn't much, I said, if this is not meant for me, like just make it quick. Yeah, make it quick. And four months later I was walking out laughing because they had got bought out and I was the last hire and I was like wow, that was quick. And I remember my boss kind of like chasing me out Cause I forgot to give him my badge and he was like what are you laughing at? And I was like, oh, I'm just talking to God, cause I told him to make this quick if it wasn't meant to be, and clearly it's not. So bye, here's my badge, see you later. And I, just, from that point forward, I was like full-time entrepreneurship.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I don't care if I have to be poor for the first, like three years, but, like I really just said, it's time for me to own not only my awesome, of course and that's a fun way of saying it but owning the calling on my life, owning what I'm meant to do in this world, owning my gifts, owning my personality and just giving myself permission to be me and call in those who are meant to be around me and just literally like retract, repel whoever is not meant to be around me.

Miranda Von Fricken:

So I started doing that. Little by little, I started doing LinkedIn live shows and like talking about like shift happens instead of shit happens about being laid off I just still can't really swear on LinkedIn too much. So I was doing lots of LinkedIn videos and just talking on everybody's podcast who would have me about being laid off, and I put out this post about I can get bitter or I can get better, and I just leaned into that kind of energy and that's what I did. I started just owning exactly who I was, owning my awesome, started the podcast and wrote a book that's now a bestseller called own your awesome on LinkedIn, so I think I really just started to embrace me.

Angie Colee:

And that's what this is all about. Oh man, and that's so interesting. I think that a lot of the message that people get, especially from super corporate big companies, is that conform, blend in, become one of us. That's what we hired you for. I used to get called out all the time, as longtime listeners might be able to tell I'm a little bit feisty, a little bit opinionated, and I would get called into my boss's office all the time in corporate office Like Angie, could you come with me please? Could you close the door? Could you sit down? Like, oh fuck, what did I do now?

Miranda Von Fricken:

Every time? Yeah, did you smile too much?

Angie Colee:

No, for me. Like I'm the queen of resting bitch face, Everybody would always ask me if I was mad at something and I'm like, why do you think I'm mad? I'm just not smiling that it doesn't. If I'm mad, you will be able to tell, because usually I'm like that pisses me off. Let me tell you why. Like there's, you don't have to guess how I'm feeling, I will tell you.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Crazy. I would get called into the office for what I did get written up for swearing once. But it was like hello, I'm Italian, I'm very passionate, these are sentences, what the heck. And so I was really pissed too, because, as my boss was writing me up for swearing, because somebody apparently walked by our group of offices and heard that it was me or whatever bitch. She walked by, she heard me, she ratted me out, my ceo walked into the office of me getting written up and started like swearing up a store. I'm like this effing blah, blah, blah, blah. And I just look at my boss. I was like you're kidding, right. And so we ended up ripping that right up. That's good. You've gotta be kidding me that you're writing me up.

Angie Colee:

You've got to be kidding me that you're writing me up. You've got to be kidding me. You're fucking kidding right Like listen. You're writing me up for swearing and I actually high-fived the CEO.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I was like I love that you use such awesome sentence enhancers, you show your personality. And he was like obviously took it aback. But he was just like what he didn't even know. He was swearing. He just like it just comes out. I'm so angry. I'm like I know, right, it's just, it's just for walking into the C suites and giving them like my report on something that the CEO had asked for. But I didn't go through the chain of command. He asked me for something. I walked into the suites and like the executive assistant was like what is she doing in here? She's HR, she should be in the other wing. It was like I can't walk in the fucking hallway. Like suck it.

Angie Colee:

Freaking power trips. It's bizarre, that's what I say.

Angie Colee:

I say that as the person who, like in my corporate office when I was a full-time copywriter, I asked for meetings with the president because I have a few ideas and it's probably been a while since you've been down here with the hoi polloi, so, like, let me share what's going on down here. Very precocious, I had no sense of chain of command. I mean, I loved my immediate supervisor and the creative director of my team and they knew exactly what I was doing, so, like they thought it was hilarious that I would just like go ask for a meeting with the president. I love that you also said like this is it? This is the sign.

Angie Colee:

I don't care if I have to be poor, and I feel like that's one of the things that holds people back from doing this. What if I can't pay my bills? What if I can't figure this out? Like, with a long enough runway and some support, anybody can figure this out, I'm convinced. It's just that you have to figure out your way of doing it, and that can be really uncomfortable in a culture that tells you tell me what to do, tell me what to do and I will do it, and I will get that A and I will get the things that were promised to me, and that's just not how my journey has been. I don't know if it's been that way for you.

Miranda Von Fricken:

No, I'm figuring it out as every step of the way, like I literally just put a reel on Instagram or a story that said I just wrote a book. It became bestseller. Now what? I don't even know what to do next. Like I know what I want to do, what the results are to be, but I'm figuring out, like what that means in between and my, you know it's funny.

Miranda Von Fricken:

So I grew up. My mother was very like go with the flow. I'm very when the spirit moves me. Um, and it was me and my mom against the world. She had me at 16.

Miranda Von Fricken:

So we lived a very like gypsy life, right, peanut butter and jellies on the beach in a car that should have been repossessed months ago, but we used to hide it Like we. We definitely grew up super poor, so I wasn't afraid of just eating cheese until I could get a real meal, like. But I have a husband and I have two kids and he grew up with his grandparents raising him and they were very like GE family, like he had a pension, like the grandfather that raised them and the grandmother did the cooking, and it was very like what I used to watch on TV. It wasn't what my life was by any means. And so when I said to my husband, like hey, I got laid off again, he's like again, are you serious? And he's like, all right, so putting out your resume? He's like I know all the people. So he's like who are you connecting with? What's your next job? And I'm like I just don't want another job, mm-hmm, but like, because you know you're in that, they're in that middle of like I don't want to like lose my house. I've got kids right. Like it's a little different Now I have to be a little more responsible.

Miranda Von Fricken:

So I applied to places. I got interviews and one I thought for sure I was going to get. I got my start in higher education and so I interviewed at a college and I thought, for sure they were going to hire me. And I begged and begged and pleaded for God not to like don't let them hire me, let them think I'm crazy. Like, and I'm like you could tell I was half-assing the interview because I just my heart's not in it and they couldn't afford me. Is what they ended up saying Like listen, you're out of our budget, blah, blah, blah. I was like yeah, I am suckers. Like I want all the money, if. So I love higher education and I love human resources and those are my clients. I'm just not meant to walk into the office every day and do the function that they do. I'm meant to elevate their voices and help them to do their job a little differently. So I still get to work in higher education and in the corporate space. I just don't have a sad gray cubicle that I live in anymore.

Miranda Von Fricken:

But I remember making six figures to replace my corporate salary within the first year and I literally had no idea what I was doing. All I knew, well, because, technically, my first full-time year was over the pandemic and I do LinkedIn, right. So I started doing resumes and LinkedIn and it just was, unfortunately, perfectly aligned where people were getting laid off left and right, and I happen to be the queen of getting laid off. I was an unemployed career coach, right. So it was kind of perfect that I knew how to help people with their mindset as well as their strategy. So I I am like half mindset, half strategy. I mean technically I'm a hundred percent all of it, but I do a really great job of like bringing their heart and soul into what they need to do and then create a strategy that aligns with it to get them to where they're going, not to just put money in their bank, you know.

Miranda Von Fricken:

So I started doing that.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I started saying like, hey, like you know me, I live on LinkedIn. I'm the host of LinkedIn local here in my Albany area. So I already had like a following here about LinkedIn which had nothing to do with my nine to five. So I just went hard at what people knew me for and I just started taking clients, if you will, and it worked out and I was very grateful for it, of course. But I remember also we talked about celebration the day I made it was like $101 or $101,000. It put me over the edge. I just signed a new client and I still had to pick my kid up at summer camp. So I was like, all right, I guess I'm just going to go pick up my kid now. Like nothing happened. It was like, oh, I guess it's just, it's easier than we think.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I think my main point here is like yes, like I said, I'll be poor, I don't even care, I just want to be happy. But I think when you're meant to do, it comes easier than you think, even if you're Googling how to start a business or what do I do? Like there are coaches out there that have sessions that are affordable. Like I have a strategy session that's 500 bucks and people I've never raised the price but I can get you started, get you a strategy and support you along the way. Like, just like, as your bud. You know one question here and there and like people just think it's just so, so overpriced. You don't have to go to the $10 million mastermind. You can find somebody whose passion is to help you strategize a business, you know. So they're out there. You just got to find them. And networking is how I did it and you know, I'm still. I'm still loving it to this day.

Angie Colee:

So much of this is fantastic. We just all right. How do I start unpacking this? Like one, you could have easily gone the other way, especially with this idea of I'm a career coach, I'm helping people on their awesome. I'm not feeling particularly awesome, having just gotten laid off four times in a row and now I've got this in the death in the family and all of this stuff is happening. What kept you focused on like, no, I can help these people. I'm the perfect person to help these people, given my experience with being laid off.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Yeah, because I knew it, because I was a little further ahead. I had already done it multiple times and I've done multiple options. So I took more classes, so I did the education route. After a layoff I went back to work and interviewed and networked. And the fact that I was a career director at the college, so I was a career, I knew how to help people get jobs. So I knew how to get jobs. I just knew I didn't want a job anymore. So I was like I may not want the job anymore, but I can help you get the job Like that'll be super easy, and more, but I can help you get the job Like that'll be super easy. And so I spent a lot like the first year just doing the career coaching. In the life coaching I have a master's in motivation and life fulfillment. So my, my heart is, my calling is really to to help women figure out who they are in this world and why they're they're here in this time. Now you know. So I just I've been doing that forever. And then I'm a speaker too.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Even when I was a nine to fiver, I would teach other colleges how to help their career centers help their students, and so I was still kind of like honing my skills as an entrepreneur in my nine to five life, which so to me it seemed like it was very streamlined to just transition into entrepreneurship, and I think that's one thing. Clients that come to me who want to leave their nine to five and become an entrepreneur they just want to quit and figure it out. And I'm like, no, don't quit and figure it out, let your nine to five pay you while you figure it out A and B, like what do you love within your nine to five and how can we do that outside of your nine to five and make money doing it now? And so I think it's just a reframe, a little perspective shift, because I've done that multiple times. So when the time presented itself that I was not going back to my nine to five obviously it was the pandemic had hit. I had my last layoff, it was January of 2020 and the pandemic hit in March, and so while I was like side hustling, taking B school, you know, whatever all that stuff I remember my daughter was in third grade at the time.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I all of a sudden had to become a third grade teacher and I was like no, thank you, cause all the kids had to be homeschooled. So I was like what the Sam hell? Like, how am I going to homeschool, build a business, do the things? And I just I feel very strongly about when you tell the universe your plans, it will conspire to help you, right? So I said I'm not going back to work. I told my husband to figure his shit out mentally, because it wasn't. I wasn't going back to work. And and granted, we couldn't at that moment we couldn't live off of his salary. So I was like I will make it work, I will replace my corporate salary you keep yours, it'll be great While homeschooling my third grader, which is not my calling, by no means is it my calling. And so the coolest part that happened, and that really just solidified my belief in saying what you want out loud and telling people, was that my husband was recruited out of his current job to a different company that doubled his salary.

Angie Colee:

Oh, I love that I was like, oh snap.

Miranda Von Fricken:

So as much as I'd love to tell people like I hustled my face off, I didn't sleep. I got up at 4 am. Blah, blah, blah. I didn't do any of that shit. I trusted myself and I trusted the universe to provide. And I say universe but I, to me it's God. I a hundred percent knew it was God providing. I don't care what what anybody calls it. There's something higher than us that's out there, that's conspiring to make us awesome.

Angie Colee:

Yeah, and I believe in it. I've said something similar, Like I have. You know, a lot of folks have some religious trauma. I don't know what I believe. I just tell people I believe that humans can't possibly be the smartest things in the universe because otherwise we're fucked Like we are doomed if we're the smartest things out there.

Angie Colee:

So and I've felt it too often in my life, just this impossible coincidence A screenwriter couldn't have written my life that perfectly for it to line up the way it did. You know, like the time that I lost my apartment and I was going through the inspection and was giving the key to the lady when I got the call with the job offer and was like what, yeah, what, how does this work? And I'm glad that you mentioned like the hustle my face off and I was getting up at four o'clock in the morning. I hate that shit. I hate it so so much. One because I bought into it and I'm super resentful, right. But two because it just perpetuates this myth of if you're not working hard, you haven't earned this. And I agree with your sentiment of like. If you can find that intersection of what you enjoy and what you're really good at, this can be full of ease. And I don't mean easy, that's something different. But like we can do work that lights us up, that does some good in the world, some of the easiest sales I've made after years of like studying sales scripts and structuring offers and like doing all of this work, to be quote unquote good at it was.

Angie Colee:

Somebody reached out to me and asked me a question via email and I was like, oh, actually, yeah, I just started doing a new offer that offers something similar. Can I tell you a little bit about it? And they were like, sure, told them a little bit about it. They were like, yeah, that's exactly what I need. Sign me up. Yeah, hilarious, wait, what. That goes against everything I was taught about having a sales presentation and only walking somebody through the offer. And those people still work, the people that I did that easy offer with. I'm still working with private clients over a year later. So, like, allow it to be easy. It's okay to be easy. It's okay to not buy into the bullshit notion that you have to work hard, otherwise you haven't earned your success. Bs.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Right. My easiest sale was and this is how like my business and offers elevate. It's never something I create, it's something my clients ask if I could just do for them or something.

Angie Colee:

So with the.

Miranda Von Fricken:

LinkedIn. So for the longest time I was, I was doing one-on-one LinkedIn coaching. And then it was. There were so many one-on-ones which sounds so braggadocious, but whatever, I'll toot my own horn, toot, toot. I said I'm going to have to create like a school, like we're going to have to get together once a quarter. We all you know four day half day thing, whatever. Four day half a day, four hour thing, and we day four hour thing, and we'll just bang it out. It'll be cheaper too. And they were like we love it, this is awesome. And then after a while I had a hospital reach out to me to do I do a lot of self-leadership. So with my master's program and self and my life coaching stuff, I do a lot of self-leadership training in organizations. So I did a self-leadership training we start.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Somebody asked me about LinkedIn because they know I do LinkedIn in the audience and I said yeah, let's talk about LinkedIn, blah, blah, blah. Well, it was the marketing director in the audience and said can you just do it for us? And I'm like what do you mean? And they're like like the content, like the management, like pretend you work for us in marketing, but you don't. You have your own business and I'm like, yeah, yeah, let me noodle on that and send you a price.

Miranda Von Fricken:

And I was like, how's $10,000? It was like the biggest, craziest sale. I ever did so for a year for $10,000, which now it's like 20,000 or way more, because I was like shit, I was totally underpricing myself for what I had to do. But they wrote me a check for $10,000. I created content for them on LinkedIn and it was amazing and I was like, oh my God, so that started my done for you LinkedIn services, which I've since kind of retired because losing my voice, writing other people's content, became a thing, and you know as we learn as we go, and that's what I think I gave myself permission to do right from the start was not lock myself into like a niche or what I do, who I do it for.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I love working with women. I love I'll work with anybody. When it comes to LinkedIn, I think that's a little different, but when it comes to like our heart and life coaching and our spiritual wellbeing, I prefer to work with women because I think I feel a connection to women more than I do a man a man when it comes in that in that respect. But on LinkedIn, I'll work with anybody, cause it's really just about you. It's like your resume. Essentially it's your. You know, it's a little bit bigger than that. It's like your resume and your website together in one as LinkedIn. And so I just remember like how awesome that was and I gave myself permission to just go with the flow.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Like when the spirit moves me, that's when I will move, is kind of how I call it. When the spirit moves me, that's when I will move. It's kind of how I call it. Same with posting on LinkedIn Like if you haven't seen me on LinkedIn for a week, it's because the spirit's not moving me, and if you see me posting every day.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I'm obviously being moved and I think that has been like not my claim to fame, if you will, but that's been like how I decided to run my business. I mean, I'm not making millions but I'm making enough to I've more than replaced my corporate salary. I'd love to retire my husband someday because he could just manage my daughter's sports schedule, cause that's a whole job in itself. But like I'm where I'm happy, I'm happy where I am. I love that I can spend a whole day Tuesday watching grim and nobody's going to give me shit for it. Like it just is what it is and and I just feel very blessed, and I think that's one thing. Either newbies getting into it or people looking to elevate to the next level, they do get so hung up on. You know, hustle on their face off where they hear the, the bros out there like with all their frigging steps or they, they, they take on somebody else's goals.

Angie Colee:

I got to make this much per month. I got to make this much per year, otherwise I'm not being successful. And I also I wanted to circle back and point out that piece that you mentioned about learning as you go and trusting yourself. You just did things that felt right and you saw the results and you listened to the people that you were talking to. These are so many things that I hear in the people that I work with when I'm coaching folks. It's like so what do people say? What are they asking you for? When you have people approach you with questions, what are they saying most often, can you create something around that? Oh, well, I don't know. Okay, well, it's time to start paying attention. And are you going out there and making offers? Well, no, I haven't created that content because I need to get the vision and then I need to reverse engineer all of the steps so that I can figure out what I need to be doing today. Or you could just do shit today and see what happens.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Yeah, yep, I'm literally working with a woman now. She's a special needs empowerment coach for special needs support, like the parents or the family members, and she's like I got to get my website out, I got to get my newsletter, I got to get the things. And I'm like, girl, just put a post on Facebook Like cause. That's where she is right now. And I'm like we'll talk about LinkedIn, we'll talk about your Insta, we'll talk about all your marketing. I'm obsessed with visibility, so like we'll. I'm obsessed with visibility, so like we'll get you on a stage. It'll be a thing. We create a keynote. It's like we'll write you a book, it's a whole thing and all. But she was just like so bogged down on what she thought she needed to do in order to run or create a business, right To let, she said, legitimize herself.

Angie Colee:

And I'm like you know what's legit, putting that post out, saying you're you know what's the first time somebody pays you money to do something absolutely or not even the.

Miranda Von Fricken:

You know what's funny, I've taken a step before that. Like if they agree to work with you and even if it's just to trade for a testimonial, like because it's your first three or something, or, and the first person and I say, who did you like support or help and do this stuff with minus money now? Or or like a year ago, and she's like, oh my god, like so many people, and eventually everybody's like you should just start charging for this. And I'm like those women, yeah, you're gonna get an email from them, you're gonna ask them for a testimonial and you can put that on your website because she's already like working on it. I said, or you use that as content and say, listen, now I'm just gonna start people for it, cause now it's my business and she's already got her first client, she's getting offers to speak on stages and it's just her niche is very obviously, it's very niche. So like it's really cool to see when you just like do the simplest thing right, like you don't have to. What's the massive solution? No, what's the easiest solution. Like my husband always yells at me for like oversimplifying things, like the roof will collapse and I'm like just get some duct tape for now, what the fuck? And he's like girl, we can't duct tape the roof. And I'm like, no, but you could probably do X, y and Z. Go to Home Depot, get this, get that whatever, and get this, get that whatever. And then we'll call a roofer. And he's like they get so mad at me because I oversimplify things. But you just need the solution for now, while you're figuring out the longer term solution. So for now, put a post out on LinkedIn or Instagram or wherever you are Facebook that says I'm taking on three clients. And this is the thing. Boo, I'm now a coach.

Miranda Von Fricken:

One woman said to me how do I, how do I start speaking? I said you just call yourself a speaker. And she's like what I was? Like you speak every day. Are you speaking to me right now? She's like stop it. Just say you're a speaker. Then you know, obviously that's out to the universe. I'm a speaker, right, like you can't just say I'm an author. If you don't have a book, I get that. Or she's like I didn't speak on a stage. Yet I don't speak on stages all the time. I speak live on LinkedIn. I speak on zoom calls like the stage. You now create your own stages. These days, you don't have to have somebody hire you and book you to walk up three steps to be a little bit taller than the audience and call that now a speaker. No, you can just hit, go live and you're a frigging speaker. If you have an expertise in something or passion, you're now a speaker. And she was like mind blown. And now?

Angie Colee:

it's on Like, at the risk of being a little bit in your face, but like permission to kick ass, Obviously you don't, you can build your own platform, your own stage. The gates have come down. The gate have come down. The gatekeepers are scrambling going. Well, shit, they're all coming in now. Yeah, they are.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I mean I don't need a conference manager to find me or I don't have to apply for something and give them my budget. I can just go live on YouTube my podcast I told you earlier my podcast is on my cell phone. I upload it to rsscom. It's the jankiest MacGyver podcast for people love it, like, and it's just because I wanted one and I was scared of tech. I'm not gonna lie, like me and tech I'm friends, and so somebody told me the easiest way to do it is this, and I was like that's how I'm going to do it until I get the hang of it and I'll start elevating it now, of course, but like it's been a year, I already been doing it for a year and all I do is walk around my living room and vent into my cell phone voice notes and I have a podcast.

Angie Colee:

If there's one takeaway from this show, it's like what's the easiest way I could do this, mind blown on that. And I love the fact that you were also pointing out like look for evidence. And then there's this concept of like identity and embracing the identity. You know, I've been a writer for over 14 years. I do have a book and all of these things. But I remember at the beginning how hard it was to call myself a writer, because I didn't know if it was any good and I didn't know if anybody liked it or anything like that liked it or anything like that. And now that I have people that are breaking into the industry that come up to me, like, what do I do to be a writer? And I say, are you writing? And they're like well, no, well, like.

Angie Colee:

The first step is writers right, speaker, speak, writers right. Like you got to do the thing that you're claiming to do, even if it's just for yourself. If you're not going to pick up a pen until somebody pays you, then you're not a writer. And the same thing with the speaker you can speak. I speak on a podcast. So hey, if I haven't been up on a stage recently, does that change the fact that I'm a speaker? I don't think so. I could get up there and speak and riff. That's what I do every week on this freaking show.

Miranda Von Fricken:

My first podcast. My girlfriend and I used to joke about we just talked about talking. We did talk about talking because we love to talk. We love to talk to each other, but we are both growing two separate businesses together as biz besties and so we just like let's just put a microphone in front of us and see what comes out.

Angie Colee:

See what comes out, yeah, and that ties in perfectly. I see what comes out yeah, and that ties in perfectly. I couldn't have written this myself too. You help people own their awesome. You help people with the career and the LinkedIn and stuff like that. You do something that I call looking for evidence.

Angie Colee:

When I got my first copywriting job at that point I was a jack of all trades we're talking firefighting, lifeguarding, picking up trash, math tutoring, writing kids' college papers. I should not have gotten that job based on my resume because I had zero relevant experience, except I decided I did and I went and looked for evidence and then just stacked all that evidence up and I had to apply to like four or 500 different gigs before I got. And I got several interviews but I got this one that gave me a chance. That started me down this path and I was doing things like I wrote the menu and the sandwich board advertisements at the restaurant where I'm a waitress. I wrote the plan for this manual over here.

Angie Colee:

I did this internship over here where I wrote this thing, and I would just cherry pick the things that I wanted to highlight. That proved not just to me but to other people that I had the experience. There is a connection between where I've been and where I'm going. I just need you to see the potential in me, Like I see the potential here. Let's make some shit happen. You can look just as much as you can look for evidence that you don't have a right to be here. You could be looking for evidence that you have every right to be here.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Who is the person that says whatever you're looking for, you'll find right.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Like if you're looking to not like I don't have the evidence, I don't have this. If you're looking to prove that you're not that person, then you're gonna prove you're not that person. But you're looking to prove you are Iess or evidence of your awesomeness, like go find those key pieces and just take notes. Back when I was a nine to fiver, I worked from a notebook because, again, tech, but I love, I love working from a notebook. That's something about needing to write things down. Anytime I did something out of the box or out of my scope or something awesome, I'd put it in the back of my notebook and I collected a list of my awesomeness, right. So when I'd go to my review once a year because who the hell can remember how well you do in a frigging year? Nobody can. But I did, because I would type up my section of the review and it'd be like I need a second page, please, and my boss would be like, oh my God, I forgot about this. So that was in February. Of course you forgot about it. Like it was a year ago, like, and so it would. I'd always get the highest percentage of the reason, like you know, like we'd have to split it between the department, but I would get the highest chunk of it because I collected the evidence. It's not because I did more than my teammates, I just happened to document the shit more and bring it to you know, present when the time came, and, and always before job interviews, I'd tell people do the same thing, like they. I just I'm doing a resume now for a woman and I don't even do resumes anymore, but it was just like a favor. So I'm pulling out the things that she's done and she's like oh yeah, I did that. Oh yeah, and then I did that and just it just kind of like started to like unravel all the things she did. And she was like, damn, I am good and I'm like, but your resume looks like shit. It looks like you don't what the fuck? It looks like you don't trust her. Believe it, I wouldn't hire you with this resume. But now, talking to you and an interviewer is not going to pull all that out of you, it's just going to ask you the question, give you the answer, and that's that you know.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Same with when I'm on discovery calls with either a client or somebody I want to work with I ask the question, I believe their answer and that's that, had they been prepared with all their collection of evidence, they may have like a link to send me. Oh, here's my testimonials, here's all the reports, people I've worked with. Here's like the LinkedIn profiles I've designed, you know, and so they're always like wow, thank you for sending me all of that. Like, even in the back of my book I have a section of testimonials, people who it's called social proof, evidence of client awesomeness, right, and so this is all of my clients that are like working with Miranda, this happened and I've gotten client.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Actually, one of my clients got a client because they read this book and said Miranda said you were awesome and so I'm gonna work with you now. And so my client reached out to me and was like I can't believe that, but this is shining a light on it, not only myself, but I shine a light on other women and their awesomeness, and so that's for me like owning your awesome ultimately just means embracing 100% who you truly are, shining a light on it and just letting the universe kind of expand that and call in the right people you're meant to work with and surround yourself with and do life with.

Angie Colee:

Oh, absolutely. And you said something that was so great there that you love shining a light on other people, and the thought that popped up for me here was how often so many of us, especially women, have trouble asking for things like testimonials, feedback, things like that, because we're afraid of being a burden, right? So I'm going to circle it back to what Miranda just said. I love, I love shining a spotlight on these people. I love helping them shine. I actually did an exercise and this took me out of my comfort zone too. Right, I was raised in the deep South. Don't rock the boat, don't be a bother, all of that stuff. I challenged myself and put together a list of the hundreds of people that I have coached in various programs as somebody's hired coach since 2018, right, and I had all kinds of excuses in my head about I can't reach out to this person because I don't know that that person would remember me. I don't know that we worked that clip. Here's an excuse for all of these different people as to why I can't reach out, and I went bullshit, nope, every single person gets an email. Hey, I'm actively growing my coaching practice. I would love it if something stood out from your time working with me. If you would be willing to provide me with a testimony, I'll be super grateful.

Angie Colee:

Here's some questions that I like to ask people in case that sparks any ideas. And then I just let it be. I didn't expect anything in return. I just made the ask. I got such wonderful, glowing feedback from people going okay, how can I help? Here's my testimonial. Do you need any edits? So like all of that to say there are people out there that are rooting for you. Yeah, there's shitty trolls, but like, just ignore them. They're off being miserable together in a big collective cesspool. It's fine. Find your people like me, like Miranda, who are out here cheering for you, who love to see you shine, who are confetti cannons when you're freaking winning. Yep, she's throwing it. She's throwing it right here on camera. We've got the proof. Like we're out here rooting for you. We all win together. There's so much joy and opportunity and expansiveness out here If you look for it, if you'll find that evidence.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Yeah.

Angie Colee:

Feeling ranty today.

Miranda Von Fricken:

We go further together. I mean, that's just kind of like how this is Like. Once I started to own my awesomeness, I knew I was on a mission to help others do the same. And it's not just about us, it's not just owning my awesomeness, it's the people around us, right? And the more we shine our light, though, our light shines on others, right. Like, think about it. You walk into a room and I bring a flashlight. I'm going to illuminate the others in the room with me. It's not just me, I'm going to shine this flashlight on. So I think it's um, there's something powerful to to be said about the ripple effect of owning our own awesome, Like my confidence. People often would say in my testimonials you'll see the word contagious or infectious a lot, and I always hated that, especially around the pandemic. I'm like Ooh, that's a creepy word. Miranda's infectious, infectious. You know, I was like oh, that's a creepy word.

Angie Colee:

Miranda's infectious.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Infectious. You know, I was like, ew, weird, but like I get it, like the fact that I am so just myself, right, and myself happens to be like pink and bubbly. I wear tutus on stages Like my being myself, kind of I don't need to give someone else permission to be themselves, because I think they already need to give it to themselves First of all.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Right, I think that's a huge piece, but like the permission, essentially it was like I don't know, jesus came to get you to follow him and to be an example and I'm the same way, Right, like so that's kind of like how I look at it, right To get all you know Christian on you, but like I feel wholeheartedly that to to shine a light on someone, you have to be the light Right, and so that's kind of how I roll and and anytime I'm not feeling like the light, I just kind of make sure. I just kind of like got in the house for like a couple of days take that nap we talked about earlier and then when.

Miranda Von Fricken:

I'm ready, then I get back out and I do me and it always works out.

Angie Colee:

What's that saying? It's like uh, if you, if you feel like, uh, you hate everybody, take or eat something. If you feel like everybody hates you, take a nap. Is that like starver?

Miranda Von Fricken:

cold pita flu kind of thing, but like personality personality, change it up.

Angie Colee:

Uh, like all those ad ADHD videos out there that I say like I'm feeling crap, I'm feeling depressed, I'm feeling low energy. Have you been outside in the sunshine? Have you eaten? Have you drank water?

Miranda Von Fricken:

Like okay do these things.

Angie Colee:

Move your body, but we're up against time, so this has been so fantastic. I think this is such a great episode. I can't wait for it to come out. In the meantime, please tell us more about Own, your Awesome, how we can work with you. Lay it on me.

Miranda Von Fricken:

Oh, first find me on LinkedIn. That's where I live, and if you're not on LinkedIn, I'm also on Instagram. You can find me there. My website's MirandaVonFrickincom. That can kind of lay out all the things I do obviously, LinkedIn, personal branding, and then self leadership coaching, and I'm a speaker, I'm a coach and I'm a trainer. So if you have any of those needs or you just want to have an awesome conversation, I'm here for it. Find me, and we'll connect Fantastic.

Angie Colee:

I'm going to make sure that there are clickable links in the show notes. Thank you again. I think I needed this conversation today. Oh, thank you, universe. That's all for now. If you want to keep that kick-ass energy high, please take a minute to share this episode with someone that might need a high-octane dose of you can do it. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the Permission to Kick-Ass podcast on Apple Podcasts, spotify and wherever you stream your podcasts. I'm your host, angie Coley, and I'm here rooting for you. Thanks for listening and let's go kick some ass.