Show notes
Welcome back to another empowering episode of Life Coach BFF Show! Today, we're diving into the world of video branding with none other than the remarkable Michelle Cunningham. Michelle, a former top network marketing leader, has evolved into an influential figure in the realm of online branding, earning her the title of "The Queen of Video Branding." Takeaways from today's show: From Network Marketing to Video Branding Royalty: Michelle's journey from a top network marketer to a renowned expert in video branding is nothing short of inspiring. The Power of "Own Your Awesome": Michelle's mantra of "Own Your Awesome" is at the core of her teachings. Impact Through Playful Videos: Michelle's approachable and playful videos on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook resonate with tens of thousands of network marketers worldwide. Her ability to simplify complex concepts and make them engaging has garnered her a loyal following. Do It Anyway, Girl: As an international best-selling author of "Do It Anyway, Girl," Michelle shares her wisdom and insights on overcoming obstacles and pursuing one's dreams fearlessly. Building a Seven-Figure Online Brand: Michelle's success isn't just limited to her teachings; she also runs a multiple seven-figure online brand. Her business acumen and dedication to her craft serve as an inspiration for those striving to achieve similar levels of success. Conclusion: Michelle Cunningham's journey from network marketing to video branding royalty exemplifies the transformative power of embracing change and owning one's uniqueness. Resources: *Video Superstar Bootcamp Yes, I want Video Superstar Bootcamp- Buy HERE! Find Michelle: Https://www.youtube.com/directsalesmichelle?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram Facebook Host, Heather Pettey *Apply for private coaching here *Purchase book Keep It Simple, Sarah Link Here to Get Your 5 Day Challenge here“Igniting Your Best Year Yet” Stay connected with Heather: Email: Heather@HeatherPettey.com Website: WWW.HEATHERPETTEY.COM Speaker Request: Click here Instagram @HeatherPettey_ Facebook: @HeatherPettey1 *Quick Disclaimer- Heather Pettey is a certified coach and not a therapist. Always seek the support of a therapist for clinical mental health issues. TRANSCRIPT Auto Generated And, and I don't have your bio yet and so, but I'll, um, if you don't mind getting that to me and then I'll do the intro before I did the intro with you, we're just going to jump into it. How about that? Okay. That's good. Okay. Welcome to the show. Michelle. I'm so happy to have you here. Finally. I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me, Heather. I feel like I've been working on this a while trying to get you here and it's really a unique situation because I haven't heard from your marketing team. I haven't heard from your PR team about coming on the show and you have a book. And so a lot of times I do hear from marketing and PR when someone launches a book, but not you. I just happened upon you on Instagram and Michelle, you are everywhere. That is the power of, well, there's a lot of things at working to make that happen, but it's good to hear it's working. Yes. It's working. You are everywhere. And you know, they say that everyone knows [00:01:00] something that you don't know, but you're one of those people, Michelle, I feel like, you know, a lot of things that I don't know a lot of things. So I want to dive into that today, but before we get started, let's talk a little bit about your background because you have been very public. About financial struggles growing up and how that affected you. And can you talk a little bit about that place? Yeah. So growing up, my mom, you know, my parents divorced when I was six. And so I lived in Connecticut and we lived in a small town called East Grammy, but that little small town, uh, it was a middle class town, right. But we were the kind of the poor kids. My mom was our sole caretaker. So my parents divorced when I was. And so she was a single parent. Um, my older brother was eight at the time. My younger brother was three and we just got by like every single month, just got by and sometimes didn't get by right where it was like, Oh man, we like ran out of money to get food this month. So let's go to the church and like go down to the basement and get food, which was just like how I grew up. But I, I remember, [00:02:00] you know, realizing around six or seven that. I was different than those around me, you know, especially around Christmas time to go to friends houses down the road and like they got gifts and we got like a gift or like hand me down gifts or just like I, I started to realize that we were different and that really motivated me like as, as a six year old, I just remember being like, how come they have more money? Like, how could I make more money? Like, I want to, I want to have money because when you have money, you have choices and you can like buy stuff. And. Yeah. Just like you can have a new outfit and you can look pretty like just there's so much that I just wanted as a kid. Like I just remember, um, panty and shampoo, my, my best friend could afford panty and shampoo. And it was like my dream, right? It was just so simple, but like, that's where I started and I, I was very much motivated to make money. And so when I turned 12, I was like, okay, I have a lawn mowing business. And you know, then I started babysitting and then I started doing anything to make money just so I could fit in. And so I've always been very money motivated for that reason. Um, because it, it gave me security that I didn't necessarily have because when we didn't have money, we had to go to the church to get food. [00:03:00] So, um, so that's where I started. That's how it all began. Yeah, I can appreciate that because my parents divorced when I was eight and I really watched my mother being a single parent and it's not easy. You notice when you're that age, the struggles that your, your parents are having. You really do. And people think that you don't, but what I love about your story is you mentioned in your book about, and your book is do it anyway, girl, we're going to talk about this more. I love this book, but you mentioned about people in the community who would help, who would pitch in and. and give to your family, which I think a lot of times we don't realize the impact that we can have as individuals on others and what that can mean. Can you think of any time in particular where somebody, you know, reached back and pulled you forward that made an impact on your life? Yeah, I think just growing up, I just remember, like, around the Christmas tree, like, if it was a year where all the wrapping paper was the same under the Christmas [00:04:00] tree, then I knew that it was a good year, because my mom could afford it, and she wrapped all the gifts, right? But if it was a bad year, all the wrapped gifts were different colors under the tree, and that meant that our community had to come together, and I just remember, like, Opening those and being, like, really thankful for all these people that bought us those gifts, but also feeling, like, a little bit embarrassed, and also feeling like, man, I would love to be the person that gave these gifts. You know, like, how do I become that person? Right? That was, that's, opening each and every one of those gifts motivated me to want to be that person. So, um, so yeah, but we had an amazing community that just came together and, like, really helped our family, which was really sweet. That's great. So you took those lessons. Now we're going to really get into it, Michelle, because I've always been intrigued by network marketing. So we're going to fast forward. You got out of college, you had these different jobs, these sales rep jobs. And then at one point you were introduced. I don't know. Can we say the makeup [00:05:00] line? Is that okay? Yeah, you could say it. Yeah. Mary Kay. So you were introduced to Mary Kay. And you became a rep for Mary Kay. I love your story, how you didn't act on it immediately and you bought all these products and they're all sitting in your house. And I mean, it's the greatest story. It really is. And I always wondered, you know, does anyone ever really make money? In these network marketing ventures, but I mean, you hit the lottery, Michelle. You really did. Yeah. It's, uh, you know, it's there for anybody who's willing to like figure it out and do the work. Right. And so when I first signed up at 23, I just graduated college or 22 years old, I was too nervous and too shy. And they're like, you're going to meet people by walking up to them in like parking lots. I'm like, that's like horrifying. I'm like, I'm not doing this. Right. Right. And so. Uh, and I was living in Massachusetts at the time. I was a pharmaceutical sales rep, but you know, and so for the next six years, I just stayed stuck. I stayed in safe corporate jobs. And I was like, I know I want [00:06:00] to make this work. Like, how do I do it? And so I, at 29 years old is when I drew a line in the sand and I said, you know what? Enough's enough. I am fed up enough with my job. I don't want to do this anymore. I know one day I want to have kids and I want to be the stay at home mom. And so I've got to figure out a way. Like, you know, the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. And I'm like, if I continue to stay here, I'll continue to have a corporate job. I'll continue to have a boss. I'll continue to make the same money. So I'm like, let's just pivot. Like, let's just quit this job. It's pretty radical move. And I'm going to go all in and I'm going to try to figure out how to make this work. And so I remember drawing a line in the sand. And I listened to Tony Robbins Burn the Boat. It's a, it's a YouTube, but he swears in it, so you can't listen to it with kids around. But like, but it was just like, if you are not achieving your dreams, you have not drawn the line in the sand. You have not put yourself on an island and said, you know what? I need to make this happen. And I was like, he's so right. Like, actually, yeah, I haven't done that. You know what? Okay, 29. I'm going to go for it. I'm going to, I'm going to draw a line in the sand. I'm going to give myself six months. I'm going to figure this out. [00:07:00] So I did things that were very scary for me, which was like reaching out to a lady that worked for the same company and saying, Hey, any chance you could like show me the ropes? Like, I don't really know what I'm doing. And my leader lives in Florida and I'm here in Ohio. And she took me under her wing. Her name was Maggie. She's one of my dear friends today, but she's like, I'll show you how to do it. And so she showed me what to do as, and what was great about Maggie is, is like myself, she's, she's introvert. Um, she actually suffers from social anxiety and she hates talking in front of people. And so she showed me how to build this business without walking up to strangers. And I learned her system and I'm like, I can do this. And six months after meeting her, I had finally earned a free car. Uh, I was at 500, they'd recruited, uh, 50 people at that point. I had over 300 new customers. Customers, um, and was making about $5,000 a month at that point. But I was like, you know what, I can live on 5,000 a month. Like let's do this. Like this is what I'm gonna do. And so that was the decision I made. Um, and, and then just grew it from there. Showed my team how to do what I was doing and they did it. And I grew it to over a thousand people on my team. And we did over 10, eight feet.[00:08:00] Figures in sales, uh, just like 13 million in sales as a team. And I got paid on that. Right. So I made a pretty consistent six figure income for many, many years, drove a pink Cadillac. Right. And just like changed my life and my confidence and my belief in myself. And so I love the industry. It's, I am so thankful for my time being in the industry. I was there for 17 years, but only 10 actually working. And it, it changed the way that I think about business. I met so many positive people, learned so many lessons. And so, uh, I highly recommend. That industry for anybody. I mean, it's just a great way to learn how to be an entrepreneur. Yes. And I bet you got a lot of attention in this pink Cadillac, Michelle, because you could not help but notice the pink Cadillac. Yeah, it was a lot, but you had to always look good. You know, you couldn't, couldn't just look like a mess in the pink Cadillac because you were representing. So you had to really get done up to go in your car, but I, I loved it. And my license plate said makeup. Uh, it really was kind of awesome. It was like my dream. And I got to drive my daughter home from the hospital in a pink Cadillac, which was, that was my dream. [00:09:00] So did you take a lot of orders in the Walmart parking lot? No, I never approached flagging you down. Nothing. No. It's funny. I never once sold anything because of that pink Cadillac. The only thing that that pink Cadillac attracted was teenage boys who thought it was really cool and old men like, like 70 or older, they would come up and be like, tell me about how you earned this. But any woman who saw it, they would walk the other way. At least this was my experience. They were like, leave me alone. You're going to try to tell me something. I'm like, I'm not going to sell anyone anything. Right. So I never sold just from my pink Cadillac. I sold in other ways. Yeah, that's so fun. Okay. So let's talk about this book. What inspired you to write this book? Like what did you think? I want to help other women because I really love when women learn and then they are successful and then they share. And I feel like that's what you do in this book. Yeah. I think that, you know, I felt broken for so long that I was like, if I ever figured this industry out, I'm not going to keep it a secret.[00:10:00] I'm going to tell absolutely everybody. And so that's what I did is I decided to write that book to just give the journey of like, you know, it wasn't all just a walk in the park. And I also had terrible parties and I also had funny incidents and bad unicorns. I tell funny stories about like, you know, the bad smelling elevator I was on and this like crazy party I went to. But like I share those stories because, you know, being an entrepreneur is not always a walk in the park. But I think that all of those experiences make us stronger. Like I, I think everyone needs to go through challenging times because he just puts a shield around you where you're like, you know what, I'm kind of feeling like invincible now. Like I've been through that incident, if it happens again, I know how to handle it. And so, um, so I decided to write the book just to share the journey of like, I'm just a shy introvert from humble beginnings who grew up with nothing. I figured it out. Here's how I did it. So if you need a game plan, here it is. And so that book is, is perfect for the introverted it and it's introverted network marketer or direct seller, but there's also entrepreneurs who buy it. You know, yoga instructors are like, I use a lot of your strategies from your book. And I'm like, that's so funny, but it [00:11:00] does. It…
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