Losing a Job and Starting 3 Businesses in 3 years with Gail Tolstoi-Miller

CEO Consultnetworx, Speednetworx & Speedhire, Chief Staffing Strategist, Xtreme Recruiter & Networker, Coach, Blogger, Radio, TV – Gail Tolstoi-Miller

Gail’s industry was downsizing and she was the last one standing at her job. So why did she start a business in the same industry that made over a million in their first year?? Plus she started two more businesses and had a fight with breast cancer. Tune in to see the strategies and tactics she used to get it all done with a positive attitude!

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast:

• NetworkingKarmaBook.com
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Check out ConsultNetworx.com for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript: Download

Jaime:  Welcome to Eventual Millionaire.  I?m Jaime Tardy and I?m really excited to have Gail Tolstoi-Miller on the show. She runs a company called Consultnetworx and also Speednetworx. We?re going to talk about networking. She?s had a crazy amount of obstacles in her life and I?m so excited to have her on the show so she can share them with you. 

Thanks so much for coming on today.

Gail: Oh thank you, Jaime, for having me. I?m excited.

Jaime: So why don?t you go through - you have two companies - tell us what each of them do so we have a good foundation of what you do, and then I have a ton more questions for you. 

Gail: Ok, great. Alright, so the core of my business is Consultnetworx, which is a consulting and staffing firm. I do staffing nationwide typically for Fortune 500 and emerging growth organizations. A lot of my clients are pharmaceutical companies, financial, retail, medical device, so that?s one part of my business.   

The other business is Speednetworx. You?ve heard of speed dating, so it?s speed networking for businesses. They?re intertwined and I can tell you the story of how that was created after Consultnetworx. 

Jaime: Yeah, ok. So give me the timeline. Consultnetworx was your first and we'll get into this but they have the ?x? at the end, so they?re very well branded. So tell me the timeline of how you created both of them. 

Gail: Ok, so I started Consultnetworx in 2010 in the height of the recession. In 2009 I was working for another staffing firm - I was there for six years - and I basically was the last person standing. No one was hiring, it was a terrible time and I basically lost my job. So I was trying to figure out my next move and I decided to open up my own organization and do it myself because I was very successful before 2008/2009 when everything crumbled. 

I figured I had nothing to lose, I can only go up. And everyone said, ?Are you crazy?  No one is hiring. What are you doing??  But something in my gut knew. Everything is cyclical, everything is going to come back. So it was a good time for me to start building, leverage my contacts, I didn?t really do any sales or much cold calling at all. I had very strong relationships and that?s how I started consult networks. Quite frankly in the first year, miraculously, I did over a million dollars in revenue. Crazy.

Jaime: Yeah. So how does that work? When you have the company that you were working at before crumbling because there wasn?t enough business, and then you start your own using the same contacts that you had from before, and you were able to make a million in the first year without really selling. How does that work?

Gail: Ok, so the other company that I worked for was very specialized, they only placed HR professionals. So in a downturn, they?re not hiring contract recruiters, they?re not hiring generalists, they?re letting go of those people. So my previous experience was pharma industry and IT, so I went back to that and started becoming more broad based rather than niche based. 

It?s kind of the opposite of what everyone tells you to do. But my gut was telling me to put my feelers out to my contacts in the pharmaceutical industry and  finance and just start leveraging those contacts and start getting back to what I used to do. That?s what I did and it was very successful.

Jaime: See, that makes perfect sense. Because you're right, you have no job, what else are you going to do. Either look for a job in the same industry - which is probably not really hiring - or try and go out on your own. It?s just ridiculously impressive that you could bump up that quickly.  Have you ever owned a business before or was this your first business?

Gail: This is my first business, however, my husband had a restaurant and he closed in 2009 because of the economic downturn, but I helped him alot. He?s very creative - he?s a chef - so I would do the business side and help him, but that was his baby and I still helped him so I learned a lot from that. 

So 2009 was a pivotal year but look for every obstacle. I always think that you have to have a silver lining and always look at the good. When I was going through all that in 2009 I never felt sorry for myself or why me, I just dealt with it and said, ?How am I going to move forward.?  And that?s what I do. 

Jaime: I love that you said you went with your gut, too. And it sounds like in general you attitude is really great. Did you cultivate that or was it innate? 

Gail: Yes, and it goes back to my childhood. I?ll go way back. I am an introvert. When I was 4 or 5 they told my mother that they did not want me to move on to the next grade because I was so socially inept. So innately I?ve always been very introverted, and as time went on I?d break out of my shell. I took a Berke Assessment Test, it?s a personality test, and my introversion is all the way below. But, my work ethic, my sense of urgency, my idea creation is at 99%. So you take that and my introversion compensates and then that?s how I overcome my introversion. 

But it?s been a long road because it sometimes gets in the way and I work on it and that?s how I got to Speednetworx, so I?ll go into that. But the biggest obstacle I think for me was when I was 14 years old and came home from school and found out that my father passed away of a heart attack. So that changed my mindset for the rest of my life completely. At that moment I knew that things can happen to you out of your control, but it?s how you move forward and overcome it and learn. 

It reminds me of a Steve Jobs quote that he says regarding connecting the dots. At that period of my life there was no way that I would figure out that that would help me in my future. But going through it at that time, my life was crumbling. But you can only look backwards to know that this is what was meant to be and this happened and it?s helped me deal with things in my life. While kids in high school are worrying about what boys they were dating and what car they were driving, I had much bigger issues. But that?s helped me deal with business issues, personal issues, just everything in my life and it?s also helped me with my work ethic. I have an insane, almost to a fault - I was up until 5am this morning thinking about things. - I think so much which is good and bad. Yeah, so that?s kind of where it started and the rest is history. 

Jaime: See, that?s insane. I have so many questions that I have involving that piece right there. Because one of the things that I?m wondering is do you think people that don?t go through hard things like that can get that - not that everyone doesn?t go through hard things - but you know what I mean. As a teenager you went through that. You have so many obstacles that you had to overcome, do you have any advice for people to really try and make that internal? Because you seem like you?ve got it down pat, but is there anything else that people can do if they don?t have this ?things happen for a reason? type thing? 

Gail: I deal with job seekers that lose their jobs everyday, and I deal with obstacles every, single day with people both on the corporate side - because they have an obstacle they need to find great talent - and then I deal with the candidates who are so depressed. A lot of times I deal with people that have lost their jobs and they can?t see beyond, so I coach them and tell them, ?You?re not able to see this now but I want you to come back to me in 6 months and thank me because it?s forcing you to get out of your comfort zone and go in a different path. 

So you just have to trust what?s happening is happening for a reason and just accept it and move forward. Because there's no point in acting like a victim, it?s not going to get you anywhere. I?m a true believer that your thoughts do create the outcome of how you?re going to live your life. So you can either choose to have glass half empty or glass half full - and it?s your choice - so why not go the positive route and try to learn from the lessons. Some of the best things that ever happened in my life were from obstacles that I?ve gone through, I think if you can just take a positive outlook on that.

And people have to know that when things are really bad, they?re bad, but they don?t last forever. And the same thing when you?re totally high. When you?re up there that?s why no matter how well you do, I don?t even think about it. I don?t ask about success and failure.  What does that mean, success? Everyone judges it by your revenue, but there?s other ways to be successful. But that?s my mindset.  

Jaime: I love that. I think everyone needs to hear that over and over again and I agree with you 1000%. And I know I sort of took you off track on Speednetworx, so I want to get back to that. And I know you?ve just got so many other things with obstacles that you hit that I want to talk about, but how did you go from a million dollars the first year to creating Speednetworx to being the most introverted person there is? 

Gail: I?m going to be honest, I always hid in networking, because I?m an introvert. If you?re not good at something you're not going to like it, it feels very uncomfortable, you always gravitate towards one or two people and I was never really good at working a room. But it was always a necessary evil - I hate to say that - but that?s how I felt, I?m going to be straight up. I always felt it was a necessary evil in business to do, you have to network. 

So in the beginning of Consultnetworx I went to a speed networking event and I had my ?a ha!? moment, it totally resonated with me, because it forced me to meet a lot of people in a very short period of time. It was very direct, there was no breaking the ice, you?re there, you have 3 minutes and then you meet the next person and then the next person and the next person and the more you do it the more comfortable you feel because you?re honing on your pitch and it just felt invigorating for me. I was really optimizing this, it sounds very transactional, but if you do it the right way it?s amazing.    

So at that moment I said, ?Wow, I can do this. But I?m going to do it way better than this event.? So I did it, and what I learned was being the host you get more exposure. So what I?ve learned in my networking - even with more than just Speednetworx - so in Speednetworx I would do B2B, I would do different niches, I would do pharmaceutical industry, and tested different things out. The one thing I learned about networking is that if you are the leader in the networking that you do, it?s amazing.  

So for instance LinkedIn is huge for recruiters, so I created my own LinkedIn group for New Jersey - because that?s where I?m based - for HR professionals. I have over 1,700 members, but what I knew was that I was going to have live events. And that?s what I did. So then you become the persona that they know and then it just expands your network, and that?s what you need to do. You need to get out of your comfort zone and start creating the events yourself. 

Jaime: How hard was that the very first time because that is a big deal, and you being the host - especially as an introvert - sounds like a big deal. So walk me through what that was like. 

Gail: It was not that difficult because I would help my husband sometimes in catering at his restaurant so I learned a lot from that. And who knew that that would ever help me in my business. I had really no interest in doing that full time. So it was just laying everything out in a little bit of a plan, it really wasn?t that difficult. But there were certain guidelines and rules that I learned along the way.

I am a firm believer in not judging people by their title. A lot of people that network do it very transactionally. What?s in it for them? They want to go to a networking event and if they don?t come out with a signed deal, it?s not successful. That?s the wrong way to approach a networking event. You need to go in there and try to meet as many people as you can and try to make the relationship work and make it synergistic. Because you don?t know who they know. 

So on the nametags, I do not have the person?s company name or title. The janitor?s wife may be the CEO of a company and you just don?t know. I think it?s very judgemental to just approach people that are CEO?s and the people that you think you want to do business with. But there are so many other people that can help you and you can help them. 

Jaime: I love that, that?s awesome. So what year was that that you actually started that? 

Gail: That was probably the end of 2010. 

Jaime: Ok, so you moved quick. 

Gail: Exactly. I move quick. I drive my staff crazy. When I get an idea it?s like, ?Oh no, not again. What are you thinking now?? I?m constantly trying to improve and do things that are different because my industry is very conservative and I?m not a conservative person. I knew when I opened up my own company I was going to do it my way. If you looked at my branding it?s very different from all the other consulting firms. So yeah, that?s really important to me to be authentic, to be true to myself  and do business the way I want to do business and represent myself the way I want to be represented and also run my company authentically as well. 

Jaime: How do you know that?s going to work? If you did something completely different, how did you know that was going to work? 

Gail: You know what, it?s a chance you take. I have to be true to myself. I?m not the type of person that is going to just play it safe. I don?t do something just to be different, but if it feels right to me - as you mentioned before, gut - it?s got to feel right in my gut. I?ve learned about gut so much just from interviewing people, it doesn?t take me long to figure people out. 

You can?t please everyone, so if someone doesn?t get it and they don?t want to do business with me - look, of course you want to do business with everyone - it?s not realistic. If we don?t resonate together, that?s ok, then you?re going to do business with someone that fits your needs. I want to do business with people that respect what I do and what I stand for and I respect them I think that?s really important. 

Jaime: I agree with you 1000%. Some people that are in that position are like, ?Well, shoot, I need money.? Especially if they?re in the first couple of years of business and maybe not making a million their first year. They feel like they just need to get clients and it's not about necessarily about how you feel. Do you have any advice for them? 

Gail: Once you start building up, it?s ok to fire some clients that are not resonating well with you. I?ve fired clients before because they were discriminating. So why do I want to associate myself with companies that are discriminating. So you have to pick and choose. I?m not saying you should fire clients, but it?s ok if you have to.  

Jaime: So it?s about going and then you?ll figure out what feels good and what doesn?t feel good as you go on down the path.

Gail: Right, exactly. You?re going to give it a chance, you?re going to figure things out, but if the client doesn?t give you a reason to fire them then there?s no reason to fire them, obviously. You want to build up your business and build referrals. Networking is huge and that?s what my business is based on, referrals and networking. 

Jaime: See, I love how confident and you just have this sense of self where you?re like, ?I?m going to do it this way and it?s going to work.? Is there any failures that you?ve come across where you tried something and it didn't work? Or can you tell us how you do that? 

Gail: Everybody?s definition of failure is different. My definition of failure for me is very personal. And I believe this for everyone, but I?m going to give you my two cents. Failure for me is not doing. So if I have a feeling and I want to do something and it doesn?t work, it?s ok, I would rather have tried than not tried. Because for me, having regrets is the worse feeling ever. I can?t have regrets. 

So again, what does failure mean, really? And what does success mean? You have to define it for yourself. But no matter what, you can?t get caught up in it, you just have to forge ahead and reinvent yourself and deal with change and obstacles and learning from your mistakes and just embracing it. Just knowing you made a mistake and what am I going to do the next time and not to make that mistake gets you closer and closer to where you want to be. If you learn from it. 

Jaime: Sometimes it doesn?t feel that way, but yes, I agree. So how does somebody get their success and failure definition. If somebody were to give action items on how to do that, how would somebody go about doing that? 

Gail: That?s a good question. I think when you go for something and you?re going to take a risk, I think you have to say to yourself it?s ok if the outcome doesn?t come out the way I want it to. There is a great book by Carol Dweck called Mindset.

Jaime: I just got that book 2 days ago.

Gail: It?s awesome. I love that book. It talks about ?fixed mindset? and ?growth mindset?. When you tell a straight A student that they are smart, that?s a fixed mindset. What?s going to happen is they?re going to stick with things that are safe because they always want that A, rather than the growth mindset where you reward someone by the work they?re doing and the steps you take to get there. So those students - maybe they get B?s or C?s - but they?re going to take more risks because they?re not defining themselves by the end outcome.  

Jaime: I love that, and so many people need to hear that. I was pretty much a straight A student and it took me a long time to learn that I should try something even if I?m not good at it at the very beginning. It?s amazing how our brains mess with us on stuff. 

Gail: It?s so true. At the end of the day you really have to say to yourself, what is the worse thing that can happen, really. That?s what you have to say to yourself, if I fail is it the end of the world if it doesn?t work out. No, it?s really not, so it?s just another bump in the road of life and you move on. So you kind of have to just remove the emotional piece of it a little bit and not let it bother you. And you can train yourself to do that. 

Jaime: So tell me this, what you were saying before is you started two companies pretty much in a year, and because entrepreneurs - especially most of the ones I work with - are so ADD and all over the place, how do we mitigate all these ideas and creativity that we want to do, and focus on one thing so we actually see results? How did you deal with that? 

Gail: Yeah, that?s pretty much me. And I have a very good staff and I say that?s the way I am and I even ask them to help me, because they?re not as much ?big picture?, they?re more implementers. So we work together to do that. But for me I write everything down, I make a list and brainstorm. I think that?s really important to put everything on paper. I?m not a big, 20 page business plan person, I?ve been doing what I?ve been doing for so long that I make it short, simple and then I go and make a plan, an outline and then fill in the details and then move forward.  

But of course along the way our ADD and idea creation, sometimes we don?t stick with it and we change it. But it?s important to have your staff help you with that and if you don?t have a staff then  just be more regimented in creating that plan. But I don?t think it has to be cumbersome, because then you?re bogged down by it and you stress yourself out. The big thing is action, just do it and then it?s ok to figure certain things out as you go along.   

Jaime: Sometimes my team thinks I?m crazy when I say, ?Let?s do this. We can do this along with all the other stuff we have, right?? And they?re all looking at me.

Gail: Ok, come down, this is the job of like, twenty people. Oh, another idea, come on. I can?t help it, I can?t turn it off.

Jaime: I?m so glad to hear that. And it?s so funny, even people that I work with that are solopreneurs at this point that do that, too. To me it?s way easier when you have a team that?s telling you, ?No, no, no, we have plans, Jaime. Let?s just work on this for now, and then we?ll add it in.? So I agree to slow down and just go 110% on the current project. 

I even remember when I was a solopreneur - or when I work with people that are solopreneurs - and they?re like that but they don?t have a team so they jump from thing to thing to thing. Give us advice on that.

Gail: I would say at first to stick with one thing. Hone in on that for a while, and then once you start getting that settled, then start adding things. That?s what I did, the Speednetworx came after. But I started small. You don?t have to go like wildfire, just start planning. Now Consultnetworx was doing well, but start getting it slowly, don?t go in like gangbusters because if you don?t have that much focus, you will be everywhere and then you?ll be a master of nothing. So that is important. 

Jaime: That?s the funny thing. Speednetworx - when you created that - was sort of really in alignment with what you were doing with staffing anyway, so it kind of was just a marketing tactic that you just sort of turned into your own other business. 

Gail:  Yeah, exactly. And then I created something else called Speedhire, which is a combination of the Speednetworx and the recruiting. So basically what I do is I go out to companies and I prescreen - they give me all the jobs in advance - and we prescreen the candidates and then they have 1 day of speed interviewing. So it?s a very no nonsense way of interviewing candidates that are prescreened. So it?s almost like a job fair plus speed networking plus head hunting. 

Jaime: Oh my goodness. So when did you start implementing that? 

Gail: So I implemented that in 2013, maybe the end of 2012.

Jaime: Oh wow, ok. So man, you were really busy at that time. How did you handle all of that and run 3 ?companies? with everything else? 

Gail: I?m a workaholic. I?m up till 4:00 in the morning doing things. I?m not saying it?s the right thing to do, I know it?s wrong, because you need a balance in life. But that?s just how I?m wired. I?ve always had to work. When I was in college I had to work 3 jobs and go to school full time, because my mother was a single parent and I went to a very expensive school, NYU. So I?ve always had a very strong work ethic. 

After college I worked in the music industry in a recording studio that was open 24/7, so talk about working your butt off. So I?ve always gravitated towards companies that work really hard. I?ve worked for entrepreneurials, high tech companies, so that?s my personality and that?s always fit. So it?s something that I?m working in now. I have a business coach, even though I coach other people. And this is another important thing, it?s very important for a leader to have a business coach. I don?t care how great you are, you always should be trying to improve yourself. 

I?m a very competitive person, but I compete more with myself than my competitors. I don?t look at my competitors that much, I look outside the industry. But if you?re always competing with yourself, you?ll never be good enough. You?ll always be trying to do better and better and I think that?s important as a leader. If you don?t do that you?re going to become very complacent, and this world is changing very quickly between technology and the way things are done, so you have to be a step ahead of the game. If you don?t improve who you are as a leader, the management style and really be honest with yourself and know your weaknesses, then you?re one step ahead of everyone else.

Jaime: That?s a trait that comes up over and over and over when doing these Millionaire interviews, which is huge to know. The learning and the growing is amazing. Are you never satisfied, because there can always be more? 

Gail: Yes, yes. People tell me I?m successful and I should own it, but I just move forward. Because once you start getting comfortable I feel like that is when things can go awry. So you have to be on top of your game all the time, that?s what I think.  Another entrepreneur might say something else, and that?s ok, but that?s what works for me.   

Jaime: Yeah, and that?s actually something that comes up over and over again. It?s a commonality which is an amazing thing. I was talking with a friend about this the other day, it?s a wonderful thing and an annoying thing that I?m never satisfied. It?s like this hunger where there?s always more. 

Gail: And sometimes you have to step back because if you do that you?ll never feel fulfilled, which is not good either. So you have to be mindful of that where you don?t want to get too comfortable but you also have to enjoy your success and embrace it, but don?t go crazy with it either.

Jaime: And you were telling me before, you got hit with a crazy illness, I want you to talk about breast cancer. And especially for somebody who is a workaholic, how do you manage with both your mind and your business?

Gail: So in the middle of 2013 when all these awesome things are happening, all this energy and then you find out that you?ve got breast cancer, that was mind blowing for me. They don?t give you a handbook on that. There?s a lot of things that go into play. Do I tell my clients, how do I tell my employees, there?s so many different things.  I?m very hands on in my business and very, very involved, so I just went into survival mode and made a conscious decision to work through it. 

I only told 2 of my very close clients because I wasn?t sure how my clients were going to handle that diagnosis. I like to have rose colored glasses on but I know the reality and I always like to see the good in people. But dealing with people all day, I know sometimes people don?t react the way you want them to react. So I made a conscious decision not to tell my clients and I hid it very well, I was very strategic about everything that I did. I first had surgery and healed from that. Then I had chemotherapy, so right before that I met all my clients beforehand and made appointments so I was in their face. After that I had radiation for 2 months everyday, scheduled it for 6:30am before I went to work, and then went to work.  

Some kind of adrenaline came over me and there were times when I should not have been at work and I think I put myself in jeopardy. If I were to do it over again - and I were to tell your audience if they?re going through this or they know someone going through this - listen to your body and don?t force yourself. At the end of the day, your health is your most important thing. If you don?t have your health you?re not going to be there for your family or friends. 

In my business, I?m not doing open heart surgery. My clients are very important to me and it?s very important for me to help others. But if I?m not able to do it fully because I?m not feeling well and I?m feeling horrible and like I want to die - that?s a terrible thing to say - but there were times being on the chemo that I felt that way. What I learned from that - and why was I doing that - it?s because what got me to this place of opening up my business, I was always the go to person that was going to get it done. But when you?re a business owner you have to be able to delegate, you?re not that go to person anymore, you can?t do everything. You have to be more strategic, you?ve got to let go and trust your employees more. 

So I was still in the employee mindset. And this taught me that this business needs to be able to run as much without me as possible. So that?s one thing I learned. Another thing is to have an emergency action plan and a backup. You never know what the next day brings, so if you?re not there what?s going to happen. Is your business going to crumble? What?s the communication? Is your payroll going to be done? Do things need to be signed off? Whatever it may be, you need to have a plan in place, and I did not have that in place because we think we?re invincible and nothing is going to happen. 

So that was very eye opening and it also made me step back in my business and reevaluate certain things and how things were done and process and procedures. It allowed me to let go to a lot of things that I should have done before. So again, obstacle, learn from it, what can I gain from it, there?s always a silver lining and that?s what it was from a business and a personal perspective.

Jaime: I agree with you 1000%. I got in a car accident a month ago and totalled my car and you don?t see yourself going to the doctor. You don?t see that stuff coming and thankfully I wasn?t that badly hurt but it can all be done in an instant.

So how do we create that plan, especially for our business, to be able to go, ?Ok, what?s going to happen if I?m incapacitated even for a short period of time?? What do you have for a plan now and what does that look like?

Gail: It?s basically a lot of process and procedures. Every part of my business I have a backup. I?m a very visual person and I don?t like long documents so it?s a flowchart. If I?m not here then it goes to here and this is what we need to do. Make it very simple, share it with your staff so they know,  and it?s really important to do that. And also, work with your vendors also if you?re in a situation, and I learned a lot about my vendors when I told them. I fired some of my vendors that weren?t so understanding, so I don?t want to do business with people that can?t understand what I?m going through and be patient with me.   

At that time, the Speedhire was different, initially. We were holding big events so we had a whole nationwide event. We were going to different cities and doing the Speedhire. I had to put the whole thing on hold at that point because I was an integral part. But it was the best thing because then I realized I?m better off going to the companies and doing it onsite at their location. So it ended up being a good thing that that happened and helping me evaluate the best way to do it and be more efficient. That?s key, too, it helped me be more efficient and that?s very important in your business.

Jaime: Yeah, and then you?re connecting the dots seeing what worked out well and sometimes you can?t see that when you?re stuck in the trees.  I know we have to start wrapping up but i ask the same last question and it is, what's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of a million? 

Gail: I would say two things. Network, network, network. Get out of your comfort zone. I am the biggest introvert, if I can do it, anyone can do it. My new book is coming out in August and it?s called, Networking Karma, and the whole premise is it?s not all about you in networking, it?s about helping others. People need to do that more often and not wait. Networking is a lifelong thing. Constantly, no matter where you are, I could spend hours and hours on stories of people I?ve met in the craziest places. 

So you have to be open to networking not just when you something or you want to close a deal, it?s all the time. If you do it when you need something it?s not genuine, it?s selfish. So if you network all the time you?ll be in a much better place in your entire life. For everything, not just your job or your personal, it could be for your children or anything.

The next thing would be to take action. If you don?t take action, you?re not getting anywhere. If you make a mistake along the way it?s ok, just move forward and do what you have to do to get the job done. It?s really getting the job done.

Jaime: Everybody needs to hear that over and over and over again. 

Gail: I wish you could see my office because I have quotes all over and above my door it says, ?just do it?, and I see that everyday. And that?s another thing, visualization is huge, it?s very important to me. When you visualize something it will happen. I have a visual chart and I keep changing it because everything?s coming true.

Jaime: Me too. I had a whole thing when I moved here to Austin and I checked off a bunch of things and realized I needed to create a new one. 

Gail: Exactly. And one more thing as far as visualization, when I work with candidates on deciding what they want to do, I?m a firm believer in going for your passion. Life?s too short not to do what you love. We spend most of our days working, so why not love it? You can make a choice, hate it or love it, so the choice is up to you. 

What I do with them is I do a visualization technique with them to figure it out. They actually close their eyes and I walk them through it and they actually feel, taste, smell exactly what they want to do. A lot of companies will tell them to write down everything, but what happens there is outside forces come in and you don?t realize it?s not what your true heart is saying. So when you let go and you visualize you kind of go into a different place you don?t normally go. That?s when you?re true passion comes out because there?s no filter.  

Jaime: Exactly.

Gail: Because everyone filters what they think their passion is because they play it safe, but you can make money doing anything. My son is an athlete and wants to go into sports management. I told him to go for it and there will be plenty of jobs and he?ll figure it out because he loves what he does. More people need to do that. I was not brought up that way but I?m definitely passing it on to my children. 

Jaime: Where can we find out more about you and when your book comes out? Give us all the url?s, how do we connect to you, especially for that book?

Gail: So the book - the website is being created now - and the book should be coming out the end of August. It?s NetworkingKarmaBook.com. My company is Consultnetworx and Speednetworx, it?s all intertwined there. 

Jaime: Definitely everybody get that book as soon as it comes out because I know you?re using the excuse that you?re not networking because you?re an introvert, and she did it so you can do it, too.  Thanks so much for coming on the show today. 

Gail: Thank you so much, it was a pleasure, thank you.

Tags: Decision Making, fixed mindset, Focus, Gail Tolstoi-Miller, Goal Planning, Goal Setting, growth mindset, LinkedIn, millionaire interview, Mindset, networking, productivity, Strategic Decision, Visioning

Categories: All, Business, Business Model, Entrepreneurship, Hiring/HR, Marketing, Millionaire Interviews

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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