These relationships that felt so natural and genuine started to feel strained
Back when I was writing my Xanga blog, we were blissfully ignorant of the possibility that the companies that we use to facilitate this kind of online social interaction could conspire to use our data and online activity to manipulate us. All most of us saw was the possibility of a connected online community. I’m Tara McMullin, and this is What Works. The show that takes you behind the scenes of how small business owners are building stronger businesses through uncompromising commitment and decisive action.
My little Xanga blog didn’t last more than a year hothookup.org/couples-seeking-men/. I happily admit that I spent loads of time on social media connecting with people, and in the process connected my way to a large audience and plenty of authority. But then, things started to get a little rocky.
I started playing to the audience, instead of connecting with people. The updates and emails I shared were less about connecting and more about broadcasting. I stopped writing for one person at a time and started writing for thousands. My interaction started to be less about connection, and more about transaction. Now over the last few years, I’ve been working on things. I’ve been focused on prioritizing connection again, and sharing more naturally instead of trying to work the system and grow my audience. And I like it.
I’m back to meeting new people, having loads of side conversations and sharing without some grand plan. That leads me to today’s guest. Suzanne Chadwick is so good at showing up and connecting with people. In fact, she does it every weekday morning, a habit that we do talk about during this conversation. Suz is a bold branding business and speaker coach who helps women create businesses that fit their lifestyle. Her coaching helps female entrepreneurs show up in bold ways and share their messages online and on stages.
I invited Suz onto the show to talk about how she cultivates the confidence and go-getterness that exudes from the way she speaks up. And I expected to have a conversation about going big, and we did, but my big takeaway from this conversation is in how much she prioritizes the small ways she can connect with people, the little things she does to make people feel seen and included. So I hope you listen for that and consider how that can apply to the way you speak up and show up too. Now let’s find out what works for Suz Chadwick. Suz Chadwick, welcome to What Works. Thank you so much for joining me today.
But when I did find my way back to what was now being called social media, it was like rekindling lost love
Tara McMullin: I am really excited to have this conversation. As I mentioned to you before we started recording, I needed to get the extrovert voice in here. I needed to talk to somebody who not only speaks up but really shows up in a bold, incredibly confident way. So let’s start there. You have a big bold brand. And clearly you have no qualms about showing up for your audience in a big way. But I’m really curious if this is something that has developed over time or if this is something that has always been with you? Can you kind of shed some light on that?
Suz Chadwick: Yeah. I think that this is something that’s definitely always been with me, and I am an extrovert, you did come to the right place. Even when I think back now to one of my earliest memories, there’s a photo of me with headphones on singing into the jack when I was about five in my grandpa’s living room, and they always said I was very opinionated with that stuff when I was little. So I’ve always been quite confident in just speaking about things. And when I was at school, I was a debater, so that was when I was about 16.
