Natalie: Hello, Everyone! It’s Natalie Ledwell here and this is the Inspiration Show. I have a
very special guest with me today, and today we’re going to be talking about starting over. You
know, having a fresh start and having one way of life, having one way of doing things and
stepping to something new – how to face the fear of doing that and move through it in a very
successful and empowering way. So please welcome my guest, the amazing, Ms. Marni Batista. How
are you, Marni?
Marni: Hello. I just love it the way you say my name. (laughs)
N: (laughs) with my Texas accent, right?
M: Yeah, with your Texas accent. I love it.
N: I know that we’ve got some exciting stuff to cover today. Why don’t we start a little bit
with your background and story, what you were doing and then you know, then we can go to the
rest of the story, changing course right now.
M: Well in the last, I would say, 10 years of my life, I have changed courses dramatically a
couple of times. The first time was about 10 years ago when I had a picket-fence family and
three kids and a husband, and chose to get a divorce. And I had not worked at that time before
email was invented, so getting back into a career when I decided to be a teacher, then suddenly
that childhood dream I realized as an adult wasn’t quite what I had imagined it to be. So, I
have this vision of impacting women who were going through divorce and to learn to date with
dignity intact and create a love affair of their life and I started doing that and I created
this very successful business of being a love and relationship coach and before I knew it,
people were coming to me, new coaches, new experts, they were saying, wow, how did you do this
so quickly and so powerfully in a short period of time and before I knew it I was at that
crossroads of do I just keep doing this on the side or do I actually launch to creating another
brand in my business. It was very scary to divide myself have the confidence that my message in
this area was as powerful as my dating message. And I just took a deep breath and launch
forward.
N: Yeah, excellent. So, tell me some of the things, some of the fears you’ve faced stepping out
of one arena and getting out into another one.
M: Well, the number one, I think is coming from this divorce (2:35) who didn’t even know how to
pay like a credit card bill, my constant gremlin is around resources and money. So I have
created this really lovely business and when it became clear that I couldn’t do it half-way, it
was really scary committing resources, not just money but time, because my family is really
important to me and basically I was inviting into my world a commitment, a new commitment, and
that’s really serious to me. So I had to decide, am I willing to make those adjustments. So
resources was a really big fear, then trust and delegating, right? I can’t do it all. I realize
that I actually am a human (laughs), even though I act sometimes that I’m not. Up-leveling my
CEO skills, becoming a better leader and manager and then trusting people and leading them to
really perform, that was terrifying for me.
N: Yeah. I can imagine so, even for myself, stepping into this new part of my life. First of
all, I was scared of failing. Thinking I was already a failure because I was supposed to be
this transformational leader that has all the answers and I can’t even keep my marriage
together. So, I was like, why would anyone listen to me, I’m some hoax, but then the more that
you’re leaning to and stepping to it the more you’re kind of figure it out but support, I
think, is a really important component to this. So, where were the places you found really
great support for you?
M: I’m so glad you asked that question because I decided to do this full force at the beginning
of 2014. I’m a believer that when you start something new, you have to empty something out. So
I went through and decided to organize my physical space and my office and I was cleaning out
all these files when I started my first business and I saw all of the mind-set work that I did
at the beginning to face my fears. And it just became clear to me then to go back to basics.
So, I started doing a daily ritual in which I read some sort of affirmation mind-set piece from
some resources that I really rely on, some of the great leaders in transformational thinking
like you, and set my goals every day and create a list of what I’m grateful for. So, right, I
have that gratitude list and then I spend like 5 to 10 minutes every day tuning into my vision
whether it’s through my mind movie or through my vision board but I actually spend 10 quiet
minutes doing that, and I’ve been doing that every day and I think if I wouldn’t have that
routine and discipline in my life that the fear could sort of grab me in the ankle and pull me
down.
N: Yeah, I know. Isn’t it amazing how you really set up yourself for success, you’re looking at
a daily success habits, they’re not that hard. (laughs) you know, being grateful for what you
already got, focusing on the direction you’re taking, the taking time to either do your
meditation or you’re doing your visualization. These are really basic things but when you do
them on a regular basis, it’s amazing how they can release it up that strong foundation for
success and for whatever comes along for you. So, tell me, I know that dating with dignity is
really a successful business for you, so how did you go from you know, having something that
you know is a great foundation, it’s a great success here then get stepping into something
else, what was it that you’ve stepped into?
M: Well, we created a brand called My first 100k coach academy, because it became really clear
that the people were wanting help to create their coaching businesses. That was the first big
goal. I want to have this 6-figure business. And that was really that first goal that I
achieved frankly, and I did it through what I call perfecting the sales story and the art of
tumenic conversation. What I realize is in those private clients that I first had before I
started teaching groups, I would really help them hone in, in what it is that they do and
articulate it in a way where anybody would be like, oh my god, I know someone who worked with
you, I want to work with you and that two minutes into our conversation is really the
foundation of your bigger mission and impact and getting visible and then getting dollars in
your pocket. So what we’ve done now is we’ve come up with a system called the rev-up system and
it’s the same blueprint I create the 6 and the 7-figure business dating with dignity and now
our coaches are doing the same by following the blueprint.
N: Yeah, and again, the reason that we’re such good friends and the reason I love the message
that you have is you’re not talking about theory, you’re talking about things you’ve actually
done and proven techniques and stuff you are applying now, right?
M: Absolutely. When I go to coaching events and I’m sure you go to a lot too, it breaks my
heart, someone will come up to me and I would say, what do you do? And they’ll go on and on and
at the end of the conversation I have no idea what they do, they’re talking about fulfilling
dreams and overcoming blocks and having joy, and I’m like, what’s the different about you and
it’s really important, the way to create success, 6-figure, 7-figure success is to nail it. It
is a crowded market place, every single person watching this is different because of who you
are, you have to figure out what it is that makes you so special so the right ones can find you.
N: Yeah, absolutely. So, who are the type of people you are working with?
M: I’m working mostly with coaches who are brand new, I have a dream, I want to change lives
and they don’t know how to get started and I love working with coaches who have been trying to
wing it, you know sort of like reading a lot of free downloads and listening to a lot of
tele-classes and running out of money. So we help them do a big start over, refocus, rebrand,
get visible, work on the mindset piece and learn how to sell. Once they do that, they’re having
5-figure months.
N: Right. So, let’s just say someone is watching the show right now, they want to become a
coach because they really know they’re meant for bigger purpose, they have you know they really
want to help people, what are the basic things they should do to get started?
M: I love this. The first thing is, we call it, reveal your distinction. I tell people that
what it is you’re meant to do, your niche even though people are afraid of that word, is like
right at your nose. It’s right there but you cannot see it. And the first thing to do is look
at your story, because most coaches, the people they want to work with are former versions of
themselves. So look at what we call your victims victory story and look at what was the moment
that you transformed, what is it that you were laying, in bed saying, if only I had this then
my life would be perfect. And that’s really a great window to figure out what it is that makes
you distinct and who you’re going to work with.
N: Yeah, absolutely. Because that’s the thing, there’s so many people out there that need help
but if you actually walk in their shoes, if you actually experience it yourself then you are
probably more equipped than most others to be able to help those people moving forward, don’t
you think?
M: Absolutely. Some people avoid it on purpose like I don’t want to work with those people, I’m
sick of those people, I used to be one of them, but if you just sort of embrace it and look at
why it’s going to help you to be more powerful and sort of come to piece with your own story,
people always end up going back and be like I think I need to work with former versions of me.
N: Yeah, absolutely. Now I know that you’ve worked with quite a few coaches and people who have
this mission to get out there, so tell us what are your greatest success stories of people
you’ve worked with.
M: Oh, I love this conversation. One of my clients, actually, she came to me, I call this the
free download syndrome, the intellectual pursuit of coaching – it’s getting ready to get ready,
let me just get my website up, let me just pick my logo, and you can get trapped in that for
years. One of my clients came up to me and said, I’ve been in an intellectual pursuit of
coaching for 3 years, help me stop. Her company name was achieve it, which is lovely but
completely generic. So we took her through the rev up system and before you know it she’s
having 5-figure monthly. Her business is called small business, big breakthrough, right? So
it’s how to run your small business like a fortune 500 company and turn yourself into a CEO. So
once we’ve narrowed that and all of a sudden JV opportunities were coming to her, corporate
clients, small business and she was really able to see that she had a gift and it’s almost like
fake it until you make it confidence that comes from actually getting clients and selling
bigger and bigger packages and speaking and all sort of came together because she was working
in a system.
N: Yeah, perfect. That’s the thing when you have the structure and you know what step one is
and step two is then what you have to move from there that really helps you to clearly see the
direction that you want your business and your message to evolve into, which is again, what I
love about the work that you do is you just make it like, it’s like paper numbers, it’s like
super, super simple.
M: It is because, especially with technology, if you want to have a global brand it’s like what
do I have to do first and actually if you build first a website and it’s beautiful and this is
a big mistake, I want a beautiful website and there is no we call it a lead-gen magnet, no free
gift, no auction but it looks awesome, sort of so what your cousin is going to say beautiful
website but you’re not going to have the visitors and the traffic needs to create a product, so
it literally is first you do this and then you do this and you unfold it in that way with the
right mindset, it just happens. It really does.
N: Absolutely. Marni, thanks for joining us today, we’re completely running out of time as
always do, you know this 15-minutes shows are like craziness, but if people want to find out
more about you and I know you have like a special package that you put together for the people
watching the show.
M: Yes, we are giving you our free training on actually how to have sales conversations that
put dollars in your pocket. I’m going to teach you our two-minutes to yes formula. So that you
can figure out what is it that makes you unique and really craft that conversation. The
60-
second elevator speech is out. So, I understanding what it is that you can do to create
opportunity and get revenue. Watch this video and you’ll be on your way.
N: Cool. So where do we send people to get access to that?
M: There is a link that you are going to be sending people to, apparently that’s going to be
right there.
N: Right. So guys, there’s a banner just right to the side of this video. If you click on that
banner, you’ll have Marni’s lovely face on there. (14:09) will take you to that website, so
that would be perfect. So thank you again Marni for joining me (overlapping with Marni), it’s
been an absolute pleasure having you, as usual.
M: My pleasure to be here and I just think it’s so important to really pool all of the pieces
together and so, inspiration, action, it’s a winning combination.
N: Absolutely, absolutely. Now guys I encourage you to share this video, you can do that by
clicking the Facebook and the Twitter share buttons on this page. Make sure that you download
the app, if you haven’t done so already. So you can watch the shows on the go, you don’t
necessarily have to be in front of your computer. And make sure you put on your email on the
box on this page, because I would love to send you the manifesting with the masters video
e-course. It’s actually valued at $87 and I would love to send it to you for free. So until
next time, remember to live large, choose courageously and love without limits. We’ll see you soon.