In this fiery episode, Bernadette Boas, Executive Coach of Ball of Fire Inc, shares how she partners with HR leaders, team managers and corporate professionals to transform themselves, their teams, and the business, so everyone takes part in achieving massive success.

You will discover:

– How to beat big corporate by changing the rules of the game
– The unfair advantage every entrepreneur has but very few use
– Why customers are really saying no (it’s not because you charge too much) and what you can do about it

Episode Transcript

Scott Ritzheimer

Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast and I’m here with yet another high demand coach. And that is the one and only Bernadette Boas, she’s a renowned ball of fire. And she brings her 25 year of corporate savviness, executive seven year sorry, with her entrepreneurial spirit together, I love that combination to transform the lives of executives, teams and businesses around the globe, from so so managers to powerhouse leaders that they are meant to be in their work and in their life. Well, Bernadette, I’m so excited to have another Atlantan on the show. Well, welcome. Welcome, welcome. Glad you’re here. Now, before we get in, there’s so much to unpack here. But before we get into that, I’d love to just hear your story. What were you doing before coaching? And how did that ultimately lead you to make the leap?

Bernadette Boas

Wow. So I was a 25 year corporate executive at all levels of a both retail and technology organizations, throughout my career, and in every position from a buyer to a Chief Knowledge Officer of a fortune 500 company. I made the leap into entrepreneurship because I was fired by my mentor of 12 years. Wow. And so that was back in two, late 2007. And so that took me on various journeys, one of which was alright, I’m not going back to corporate what I’m, what am I going to do next? As well as it set me on a personal journey that we could talk about as well. But that’s all led me to where I am today.

Scott Ritzheimer

Amazing, amazing. How would you say I’m gonna ask this question both ways. But how would you say the corporate world was the same as the entrepreneurial world? And how was it different?

Bernadette Boas

Oh, wow. How is it the same? The I would say the framework of building a business is the same. And all the functions, the hierarchy, the structure, that is all the same, I would say. Entrepreneurship is vastly different in that entrepreneurs like myself, like yourself, we want to bring our true, authentic, full self, to our to our business, because most likely, it’s a true real deep passion and purpose that we had that we found, and yet Corp, a lot of corporate leaders, and again, I’ve worked with them for the last 14 years all over the world. And they tend to not necessarily be in you know, I’ll be doing what it is that they feel that their true purpose and legacy is.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah, I love that difference. Because what I think so many folks in the entrepreneurial world do is they think like the grown up thing, if I want to be perceived as being competent, I have to be grown up like these big other, you know, whatever, monoliths, and you can see it like you look at their website, and it looks like it’s like, okay, you’re a financial planner, your website looks like every other financial planners website I’ve ever seen, right? It’s a happy family in front of a mountain like, and they lose that authentic connection. And they wonder why their website doesn’t work. But then you take them offline, and they act like a human right. And it’s this rich experience. So and if I remember correctly from your website is part of what you do. But how how do we leverage that authenticity? How do we leverage that passion? Because I feel like so many times it’s under leveraged by entrepreneurs?

Bernadette Boas

Well, I think because I went through that same exact scenario you just painted, I left corporate, and like I said, in late 2007, and I immediately knew I was going to be going off and setting up a coaching consulting practice. And because I was so engrained in corporate I was this very polished, very formal and rigid, corporate executive type. You know, I spent 30,000 Plus on just like materials and glossy business cards and folders. And yes, my website, which probably cost me a lot more than that, and I thought that that was and I named it the Bose group because I envisioned this, you know, conglomerate that I was going to be building. And yet, day after day after day for about a year and a half, two years. I just never felt like it was congruent with who I truly was, especially because of who I was becoming actually. And, and it wasn’t until I was being introduced at a speaking engagement by someone who was very familiar with me, and I handed her my beautiful, polished, bio introduction. And she looked at it and she ripped it up right in front of the roomful of people, she kind of crumpled it up, throws it aside and says, All you need to know about this woman is She’s a ball of fire. Well, every hair on my, my body stood up. And the minute I got down on my seat, I was on godaddy with like, Okay, I need qualifier coaching and consulting. So my so my response to your question would be, I think you really need to tap in and do a lot of what I call excavation of your soul. To truly understand who you are and what you bring to the world, not what you bring to your work. That’s awesome. But really, what do you stand for? And and who are you? And who do you want to be and what your essence and I can’t believe I’m actually using that word. It’s very woowoo. For me, but at the same time, just like that experience in that ballroom, you know, she spoke to who I truly was, yeah, and it you know, it just stuck. And people kind of always comment to me, yes, you are a ball of fire, and it’s so perfect for you. So just tap in and ask yourself some really deep and hard questions about who you are and who you want to be who you don’t want to be what you want, what you don’t want. There’s a whole series of questions that I work with my clients on, to really kind of dig in and really understand that.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah, yeah. I think what what a lot of folks don’t recognize, either before they start the entrepreneurial journey, or if they’ve never done it, right, there’s an employee somewhere, as is how personal the journey is, you know, we want to separate work and life and that’s physically impossible, right? Even if it was possible, it’s not advantageous, right, you’re going to pay so much from your personal side of things that you might as well get a return out of it by staying a person on the work side of things. And I love that. And as I was looking through your site, and some of the stories and everything, it just came out and everything. So I love your approach on that. What do you say to the person who feels like ball of fire? Okay, that’s great for you. But I could never say that about myself, right? They still have that voice of reason, we’ll call it that in the back or front of their mind, what would you say to them.

Bernadette Boas

And if the voice of reason is the the guards that you know, the protective shields that you’re putting up, because you don’t want people to see your true self, then I would say do whatever you need to do engage whoever it is that you need to engage to really break down those walls and those barriers, because like I said, I was like very much this very formal, polished, you know, almost like a robot, you know, because that’s a lot of, you know, in in a lot of corporations, especially back in 2008. That’s what they wanted, leave your emotions at the door, leave yourself at the door, you know, you’re here to do a job. And yet that never allows you to be just like, let your hair down and just be you. And take that breath and let it out and keep it out. You know, and I think it just requires a lot of deep digging into understanding what it is you really want in life. I know entrepreneurs, always talk about the why. And it’s absolutely critical to understand that. But it’s not just the the surface responses to the questions that maybe branding people and marketing people and, and even coaches and consultants have you do is drilling into those deeper levels of those same questions to get down to that essence. Because once you find it, it is it is just in so liberating, and so freeing, and you never end you know, how they say, once you find your purpose and your passion, you never work a day in your life. It’s true. You never work a day in your life, when you really know what your purpose is.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah. Because I can hear the the kind of pushback on that is, like, I’ve got to sell something I don’t have time to like, you know, go and stare at my belly button. And, you know, go through the soul is seven levels of you know, self whatever. But, but, you know, what you’re talking about here is the return is almost I mean, it’s immediate, right? Like when you’re showing up as a robot on a sales call and you sound like every other financial planner, you board your audience to tears, right and so, yeah, and you wonder and you know, you think it’s because your price was too high or you know, they just weren’t a good fit or we can blame it on all these other things. But again, I love that you captured this right out of the gate is that the competitive advantage for the entrepreneur for the founder is that passion. And if you don’t leverage that across the board, so So let’s walk that out. What does that actually look like when it shows up? So someone has found their purpose and passion? How do they then harness that for their business?

Bernadette Boas

Well, one, if you were, if you ever watched Shark Tank, and as an entrepreneur, you should be watching Shark Tank on a regular basis. But if you ever watched Shark Tank, they’ll tell you that they’re not buying the product, they’re not buying the service, they’re buying the person. And why is that? Well, because, you know, those that they do buy from, and this, this goes to your clients, those that, you know, are they they sense, they, they just feel that you know, every cell of your being is fully committed devoted, knows that this is your purpose and passion, and this is what you’re bringing into the world and going to leave once you’re no longer in the world as your legacy. And you know, your clients and prospects smell, your desperation, smell your fear, smell your incongruent, you know, balance between what you’re selling, and what you really believe. So I’ll give you an example of a horrible break. incongruency is, within the first year of my business, I invested in a franchise that would give me a lot of IP for my business. And people were telling me no, no, no, go in the room for a year you have the money to do it, and just go in and get all your expertise and experience and 25 years out on paper. And I’m like, no, no, no, I understand the value of intellectual property. If someone’s done it already, I just want to take, you know what they’ve done. And I don’t need to spend the time because I was desperate. Like you said, I wanted to get out there and start selling. Yeah, well, it was. So I drop about 150,000. Well, and I would say nine months later, I was out. I was like, none and no, this is not anywhere close to what I want to be delivering, and what I can be delivering to my clients. And I walked away. And so I think the way it shows up is that you don’t question you mentioned, you know, they’ll lower their price. I was the highest priced coach even day one of my business. And that was merely because I had a benchmark of where I was I was in corporate I was an executive, I know what I would build out when I was a consultant. So why am I going to diminish that being on my own now, right now, that didn’t mean that I didn’t get insecure and desperate. And you know, after I got some nose, I was like, Ooh, maybe I need to drop my price. However, I just kept going back to knowing my value, knowing my worth knowing what I’m capable of knowing what I’m delivering, I was completely. I never question the value I bring my clients. So I went back to my regular prices. And actually, I’ve probably like tripled them since and never have had an issue. Yeah, I think you just you’ll know when you are in that space, because you’ll have a degree of confidence that even when you have crappy days, and you will even when you have clients not returning your call, you know or not accepting your proposal or your contract, you still will be like, Okay, that’s good. They said, No, I’m on to the next. Yeah. And you know, that’s the you have to experience it, to really understand it.

Scott Ritzheimer

And I think that’s one of the walls that we put up, right. I think one of the reasons why we try and make it something other than us is we don’t want to get the no to us. Right? Well, one of the things is hard, especially when you’re starting out is if you do this, they’re not saying no to your product, they are saying no to you, right, like we can sugarcoat it, you know, they’re saying no to you now, it’s one in the same thing, but that’s just it’s not a fit, and that’s okay. Right. But they’re not saying you’re a bad person. They’re not saying that you’re not worth anything. It’s just not the right fit. And and we because we can we can benefit by bringing those together. You get me right? It we also have to be recognized that that rejection, they’re not saying you’re a bad person, right? They’re saying they’re saying that it not it may not even be No never. It may just mean not now,

Bernadette Boas

Right? Well, that’s the key. It’s, you know, because I’ve had multiple clients over the years, who had me come in I you know, did a presentation. I thought it went great. I didn’t hear from them. You know, they somewhat ghosted me, and a year and a half later, two years later, all of a sudden I get a phone call. Hey, Bernadette, we’re ready. You know, are you still available? Yeah. So yes, yeah, you have to get over you have to get over the personal rejection and just accept it as It’s like you said, it’s not a fair. It’s not the right time. And and move on.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yes. Yeah. And I think, you know, some of the counselors given early as like, well, you know, it’s not personal. It’s not you it’s not. And there’s a certain element of like, Yeah, that’s true, right. But I think it’s also okay to recognize, hey, oh, that sucks. You know, like, that kind of hurt, but it’s okay. Because there’s somebody else or something like that. And, and what we don’t want to do is overreact to that and try and separate ourselves from it. Right?

Bernadette Boas

And we don’t want to desperately react to it to where you start dropping your prices, you stop compromising your values, you start accepting money from people who are never going to like, deliver. Yes, yeah.

Scott Ritzheimer

And I would say the other thing in this, and this is a little and this is true for a lot of professions, very true for coaching is dropping your price is one of the worst things you can do for your client. Absolutely. Not even they don’t even get me started what it does for you, right, so many coaches are struggling so much, but you folks will if if the only reason they sign up is because you’ve you’ve lowered the investment, right? Like you’ve lowered the commitment, that’s going to translate in everything that they do from that point on. And so I love it’s not the price right there. So there’s something else there.

Bernadette Boas

Yes, there’s something else because at the same time, you probably have seen it yourself, Scott over the last, you know, three or four years, the whole free, everything has gone away, because it’s just like, they’re they’re, they’re, they’re smart. They’re equating that to no value. And if it is value, it’s um, getting set on getting sold at the end of it. Yeah. So it’s, you know, it’s really just understanding and believing in your worth, and put the price to it and then can keep raising it.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yes, that’s, that is such that, like, you can just take away everything out. And if you just listen to that one sentence, it’s going to do wonders, wonders, wonders for you as an entrepreneur. So I want to piggyback on that. And I want to ask this question, I asked it of all my guests, but what is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What is that one thing that you wish every entrepreneur listening or watching today knew?

Bernadette Boas

I wish they knew that I have a whole mantra around the fact that life is and work is at 80% mindset 20% skill set. So and yet, you know, so many people don’t focus on their skills, they focus on getting smarter, getting better getting a better product, whatever the case might be. And yet, when they have the perfect education or the or the perfect, you know, product or service, they don’t have the confidence, and they don’t have the self belief to go out and actually sell it. And it’s everything that we just touched on. So I just wished because I didn’t know it for a long time. I probably didn’t hit on it until about eight or nine years ago. And I thought shoot, it has nothing to do with the fact that I was lacking business had nothing to do with that I wasn’t skilled, because I was and I’m talented. And you know, all these things. It was because I didn’t believe in myself. And I was really doubting myself at the time. And so work on that. And, you know, dibble dabble in, in getting better skill sets or better products or services, but focus on yourself, because that’s going to be what like we said, that’s going to be what people invest in.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah, I love that. And I think one of the challenges that we have early on is that you can get too much coaching too soon. Right? They can get an A you mean even your IP example was a version of this we can go and what the problem is that it’s not too much coaching. It’s the wrong coaching. Like we’re asking people to deal with the 20% for us, and we’re not getting any help on the 80%. And so there’s Yes, having someone who can help with your marketing and some of the tactics that yes, that’s all fun and helpful. But it’s not going to work if you haven’t done the real work, right? If you haven’t found that purpose, that passion connected those dots, if you’re not aware of the own your own head trash, right, that’s getting in the way, then that 20% is not going to solve it. Right. So it’s brilliant, brilliant advice. I love it. One more question here. And then I want to make sure folks know how they can get in touch with you because I know there’s folks listening that that could use more. The first question though, is take off your coach hat for a moment. And we put on your CEO hat with us for a moment. Do you kind of jump in the ring, if you will, and tell us what’s the next stage of growth look like for you?

Bernadette Boas

Wow, great question as I’m sitting here with my plan behind me, my my next growth I have two businesses, I have qualifier coaching and qualifier media. They do overlap in in the way that they both touch on personal leadership type of growth and development. On the media side though, my book that I had written shedding the corporate bitch, if I’m okay saying that was I turned it into a film script and TV script, and it’s a whole media play. And I am getting ready to finalize that for the 20,000 time and put it out there. So and then at the same time I’m writing the follow up the sequel to the first book as a kind of a tactical guide to people always ask me, So how did you change so dramatically, because I have testimony on that, you know, just to that fact. And so I’m actually documenting that so my growth going forward would not will not be only in continuing to grow my coaching and training side of the business, but also the media and entertainment side.

Scott Ritzheimer

Mm hmm. That’s awesome. What a story and I love the way that you’re able to bring it out in so many different formats. I’m really excited to see where that goes. Bernadette, thank you so much for being on how can folks find more out about the work that you do and get in touch with you.

Bernadette Boas

They can go right to balloffirecoaching.com. They can also check out my podcast as well Shedding the Corporate Bitch and just let me know if there’s any questions that you might have.

Scott Ritzheimer

Fantastic, balloffirecoaching.com. That’s Bernadette Boas
. Bernadette, thank you so much for being here. Such an honor having you on the shows just tremendous, tremendous advice and wisdom and for those of you who are listening you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this episode as I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.

Contact Bernadette Boas

Bernadette Boas is a renowned ball of fire in everything she does, from her transformative leadership coaching, training, and speaking, to playing pickleball, and loving on tons of dogs she cares for in her free time. Within Ball of Fire Coaching, Bernadette brings her twenty-five-year corporate executive savviness with her entrepreneurial spirit to transforming the lives of executives, teams, and businesses around the globe from so-so contributors to the powerhouse leaders they’re meant to be, in their work and life. Bernadette resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her four-legged best friend, Coco.

Want to learn more about Bernadette Boas’ work at Ball of Fire Coaching? Check out her website at https://balloffirecoaching.com

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