Deborah, with her thirty years of being an ltrepreneur and creating over seven companies,
knows exactly what it means to accept the mission. When you make that
decision, when you accept the mission to become a solopreneur, to take yourself
and your talents to market, then you embrace a life of not only unlimited
possibilities, but also the unknown. It's an elixir of fear and bravery that
only someone who's taken the leap really understands. On our show, deb digs
deep with her guests to highlight what you the listener wants to know the stories,
the whys, and the hows to navigate the journey to success. Get
ready to hear from some of the most incredible mission takers from Generation Z to
boomers. So sit up, perk up, and get ready to be blown
away. Now here is your host, Deborah Drummond. Welcome back to the
Mission Accepted Podcast. You guys are amazing in your bold You know what I
mean, You know that you're thank so bold. I mean some of the
things that you send in, some of the things that you tell me you're
doing, It's like wow, It's like diving off the high board. It's
amazing and good for you that you are bold, because we have a very
bold guest with us today and I know if you can't see me, then
you won't see me in this beautiful purple shirt that I'm wearing, which is
one of my favorite colors, and this happens to be one of my favorite
shirts because Ocean, as you know, the gen z that joins us on
the show, sometimes he has this incredible designer, fashion designer that he's been
hanging with and she made this shirt and I'm like, I'm taking it,
you know what I mean. So, and it's perfect today because we have
one of the boldest women that I know that has built her brand around authenticity,
creativity, being courageous, who set her goals on being a librarian so
no one would talk to her. Now she speaks and mentors and picks up
awards all over the world and she just happens to be purple. So yes,
I will admit I put my purple shirt on for a reason because this
is my new gal Paltrish from down Under and Trish, welcome to mission accepted.
Hi. I am delighted to be here. And you're so perceptive in
knowing that I love purple. Yeah, just a wild guess, just a
little I'm subtle about it, all right. If you are listening and not
watching, Trisha is here in her gorgeous purple glasses, purple shirt, and
yes, purple hair. All right, So Trish, let's talk a little
bit about branding because a lot of people like to hear come into the show
they or other're looking to be entrepreneurs. They've heard people take the mission.
If you've been following Trisha's journey within mission accepted. She's been doing a trilogy
with us, and she's talked about how she breaked up and decided to take
on the mission of being an entrepreneur, being an author of Speaking Up.
And so I know that we've talked about, you know, free show Vote
your purple being actually part of your brand. And so because so many people
listen to our show that actually are branding themselves, how branded themselves, want
to know what to do and what it means. Can you just kind of
share with us how that all came about. Like no one sits down,
probably in their first day of business and goes, hmmm, I'm going to
rand myself as purple. Maybe you did do share? No I didn't.
Actually, no, I did not, because when I first started my business,
I had a business partner who didn't like purple, and she used to
put purple into what as much purple as I wanted. So were boys and
gold and a little bit of purple. So my purpleness, if you would
like, has been there from the time I was young. If there was
something, if I had a favorite color, it was purple. I wore
other colors because hey, have you been watching any ofthing or listening to any
the other You'll know that I was an introvert and very much a shy person,
so I was not going to be making myself bold. I well other
colors. I conformed, so to speak. I do know that one of
the first jobs, one of the first jobs I went to, and it
was very funny, and I was real quick share because it's part of how
AMRVI. I had no polish and it was actually bright green nail polish.
I was exploring being me and I got the job. But after I got
the job, they actually said to me, we nearly didn't give it to
you because you had purple nell polish and you were just a bit too out
there. So I thought, oh, that started the process. In the
back of my mind is how far do you go to be who you are
and how far do you conform to what society thinks you should be. Now
this is back a bit. I'm going back in a little bit, you
know, just after the Jurassic period, so not quite so far back to
that, and we've evolved. So what happened my business was as I grew
into what I was doing, I wear more and more purple. I was
still working in a lot of male dominated industries, so I was being a
little bit more conformist into what I wore corporate world conformist. Fast forward,
my business and my business partner and I parted amicably. In that business,
I started to be a little bit more who I was, and around about
it was my son. Actually, my son introduced me to my hairdresser.
I don't know about you, but I need a hairdresser who knows what he's
doing, because if anybody asked me how do I want my hair, I
have no freaking idea. You're the hairdresser, you're the expert. You tell
me how I want my hair. So I've got to trust my hairdresser.
Right around about that time, I'm in my business. I'm starting to become
very much more confident in what I'm doing. And I said to him one
day, I said, okay, I've had it. I've always had this
inkling in the back of my head. I wanted to have my hair purple.
I love purple. I wanted to be brave enough to put purple in
my hair and just own who I was. And they started to coincide with
believing in my message, you need to go and listen to all the previous
things I've been on where I talk about that. So he did it purple.
Well, my family were not already impressed. My husband just said,
oh, okay, that's lovely darling. Okay. I thought that was a
pretty positive step. My then business partner looked at me and said, oh,
no to issue anyway. I just started to grow into that and I
accepted it now as evolved because I wore purple. The byproduct of that was
people remembered who I was and may not I may not remember my name,
but they remember there's that purple lady. Oh I met you at a network
meeting. They remember you were purple. And so slowly what involved was it
became my brand because I took what I was, and that I grew into
being authentic. As I grew into being owning who I am, I grew
into having the confidence to say, well, this is who I am.
I am unique, I am a bit quirky. I love purple and I'm
not going to hide it. So it became my brand. It's what I
work on. Now I'm going to let you into a little secret for all
of those introverts out there, there is a very good byproduct of having purple
hair and wearing purple. I was traveling with my mum overseas and she said
to me one day, she said, how come every time we get into
a lift or we walk down the street, people smile at you and they
say hello, and you start a conversation. That's not like you. I
said, Mum, When I walk around of purple hair, people stop in
the street they say love your hair, Oh I love Wow. You're all
put together. By walking to a network meeting, I meet someone, do
you know what? They've started the conversation, not me, And so for
an introvert that is an absolute goal mine because once they start the conversation,
I've got something to talk about and I make a joke about it, and
it also helps me when I start speaking. When i'm quite often, I
will say, let's get the elephant out of the room. For all those
who know I like purple, I absolutely congratulate you on your perception because I'm
extremely subtle about it, and it breaks the ice. So there is a
little secret to why I put myself out. But you've got to have the
courage to do that. I've been told by it's by speakers for yours.
We can't get you speaking gigs. And I said, why, Oh,
because you're too colorful, and corporations won't want to have someone so colorful in
and we want you to change the color of your hair. Who want you
to start wearing dresses and grow a few inches taller. But you can't do
that. And I said to them, excuse me, but I talk about
authenticity. I talk about being genuine, and you want me to change who
I am so I can get more jobs. I said no, and I
walked away because I said, those companies are the ones that need me to
speak with them, because they're not looking at who I am. They're not
looking at what I have to say. They're just looking at the first image
and I refuse to do so because I am who I am, and if
I try and change who I am, that is not being genuine, it's
not being authentic. And people, you need to own your uniqueness, you
really do. You need to have the courage. It's a lot easier a
little bit today than it was when I first did it, but we still
shy away from it. And as I said, the byproduct to my being
purple is you start the conversation, not me. Let's talk about that a
little bit, because whether we're starting a business, whether we're just learning how
to ask, whether we're starting to love ourselves and like ourselves, whether we're
starting to deal with you know, what does bravery look like for us?
What does courage just look like for us? You know, we also very
you know, we're also very cultural beings. We're also very genetic beings.
You know, I can hear the voice of my mom and my grandmother,
and she can hear the voice of her mom and her grandmother, which is
why we all, you know, make turkey the same way, because that's
how we were taught. And you know that whole story, right, and
it's very very true. And I remember thinking about how I wanted to get
a tattoo with my kids, and I wanted to have a bracelet right of
script of just my kids named. And one of the things that stopped me
was, at that time, I was teaching a lot of brain health and
I thought, I'm not sure how well it's going to be received me standing
on stage age talking about you know, the mitochondria or live fact whatever,
I'm talking about brain health and I'm tattooed. It's interesting, right, It's
very interesting because we do have perceptions, and it's about being able to rise
about the perceptions or creating the situations that can support you being able to be
authentic as well, you know, you being able to have other speaking options
or whatever. It is creating the pathways for you to be able to stand
in your authenticity. And you're absolutely right. It has gotten better and gotten
better and gotten better. And there's you know, all sorts of things that
people can do that are not going to affect their income or how people think
about them. But I absolutely love how it's turned around to be your asset,
how you've turned it around to be your asset because everyone, you know,
here's the thing. Not everyone's going to like us or hire us anyways.
And as many people that didn't want to hire you because you don't fit
that structure, that corporate structure, there will be companies that you do fit
that corporate structure, right. And I know, I used to be called
a professional hippie and I used to go teach in banks and I'm talking over
twenty years ago about holistic health and I wore suit and it just made me
more compatible to their And then I would go teach infant massage and I'd be,
you know, dressed very holistically and it just made people comfortable. But
it was about being authentic and no matter what you did. But now you
get to be so much more expressive. So I think it's great that you
also just talked about how it is an absolute icebreaker. It is an absolute
ice breaker. And interestingly, even people that you know, people wouldn't call
you shy, and they wouldn't call me shy. But people don't know what
it takes to not be shy, do you know what I mean? People
don't know like I want to throw up before I go on stage, or
you know, I have to hold a pencil when I'm talking to a certain
amount of people, or do you know what I mean, like all the
things that we do to make ourselves comfortable, but yet even people that seem
brave can be afraid to be able to speak the words we want to speak.
Where the kind of jewelry we want to wear, wear the kind of
clothes, dyere hair. I'm not going through. I was like, I'm
going to catch out to you when I'm a little older. I'm not going
to I've said it. I'm not going to change the color of my nails
when I'm doing a certain event. I'm not going to go black on my
nails, even though I wanted to go block because I'm going to be at
an event. I mean, I think we do so. I you know,
I commend you. I think that's fantastic. Look. It's not easy
sometimes, although it is because I love purple, and I can guarantee you.
I can walk into a shop and I can put my hand out and
the first thing I touch will be purple. It just comes to me,
and it makes a hell of a lot easier when I'm trying to side what
to wear, because a side bonus the look. There are a lot of
bonuses. I mean, I do wear I wear black, and I will
wear turquoise because I love turquoise, and they all go with purple. And
occasionally I've been seen and red because there's a special day for red, and
there's an occasionally I've been seen in white because there's a special white. But
I can tell oh, and Christmas. I can tell you right now the
beginning of December. I wear Christmas T shirt every day. And I had
a challenge once and people couldn't believe I had that many Christmas T shirts.
And you know what, I do have purple Christmas T shirts. Good to
know I'm doing fun, But it's it makes it easy to be able to
stand. One of the things that happens people is that we get lost in
the herd. We have this thing that we don't want to stand out.
It's a cultural thing, it's it's a genetic thing. It goes back to
groupthink, goes right back to hunters and gathers days. You become part of
the herd. Do not stand out because the people who stand out usually got
locked off and eaten by the macedonal or cold out of the thing. So
we had this thing don't stand out problem is people. And I found this
when I started my business, when I started wanting to be There are so
many other people doing exactly what you do. There are so many speaker coaches
out there, there's so many authors out there, there's so many life coaches,
there's so many artists. There's so many accountants, scientists, inventors.
But we are all unique. We all are unique. I'm not the same
as that speaker. I'm not the same as that author, and they're not
the same as me. So how do I say to people, come and
work with me, come and talk to me, come and build a relationship
with me. I have to stand out, and that takes courage to own
your uniqueness, to be able to say I am unique, I am quirky
unicorns. I think unicorns are the best freaking thing on the earth, and
you know why because they're unique, really hard to find, but when you
see them, you know exactly what they are. I am a purple unicorn
person and that's what I just evolved in the last year to my academy,
which is called Purple Unicorn Marketing Academy. I am unique. I stand up
and speak about it. And that's why I want everybody else to have that
courage to own how unique they are. In any way, our DNA says
it. And if you want to stand out, and if you want to
reach people for any particular reason, whatever you're doing, whether it's just in
life partnerships or just in Korea, or even if you want to be an
entrepreneur, you've got to be able to tell people I am different to that
person because of my experiences and my life experiences, my expertise, I'm different
to that person. Means I have to say, hey, here, I
am so people, you don't have to dye your hair purple and you don't
have to wear purple because you know, I do know there are other colors
in the spectrum. And you know, I respect people who like other colors.
Do not understand them, but I respect it. That's awesome, and
I think that's really the point, right. The point is wherever you're authenticity,
authenticity sits. And I remember when I first started, I mean,
I built my business. I've had it for a time as well, and
I built my business a lot in belly to belly, I hit the ranks
of you know, I hit a lot of accolades and a lot of awards
doing my business through trade shows, meeting people in person instead of doing social
media. And I remember when I went to a woman who was really rocking
it on social media and we're having those conversations. She's like, you should
do social you'd hit, you know, you hit. I'm like, I
hit number one in my company. I'm not sure what else you want me
to do. I'm pretty groovy with how I do my business. And for
her, she was all about social media, and I'm like, that's cool.
We're having this conversation and she said, let me take a look at
your social media and I'm like okay. And she's like, you post too
much about music. And I'm like, okay, why would you say that?
And she's like, your business has nothing to do with music. Now
we're talking maybe six years ago, seven years ago something like that. She
was your music, your business has nothing to do with music. And I'm
like, you're right, and she's like, so who cares. She goes,
look at on the likes, look at on your likes, Like when
you post music, you get three likes, four likes. When you post
about your business, when you post about other things like pictures of kitty cats
or whatever, you get forty likes. And I remember saying to her,
I don't care, and I'm like, so if people don't like that I
like music, but I like music and you know it's interesting, right,
I mean, now I'm planning one of the largest you know, probably fundraisers
you know, in terms of you know, in Ireland for music and what
have you. And so here we are seven years and you know, things
are different. But I think even if something's not your business, like I'm
not in the music business. I coach and help people in the music business
do the infrastructure of their business. But I'm not a singing coach. I
don't, you know. I mean, I don't have a recording studio,
I don't I love music and people know me to love music. But it's
a differentiator. And I think that my point is, no matter what it
is that makes you different, it may not have to benefit anybody or anything.
Like if you like cream, or you like to knit and you are
you know, on your social or you're a business person and you have pictures
of you knitting, I think it's as branding as if you are doing something
that's really directly for your business, because it lets people know that there's other
aspects of you as well, right, Like they might come to me by
my book, but they're like, oh, yeah, that's the check that
kind of likes music a bit too much, absolutely, because you know you
hear it all the time. Whatever you do, you've got to get to
like know and trust people and the like knowing and trusting, it's about finding
out who the person is behind the branding, who the person is behind the
business, who the person is behind the person that gets up every morning from
nine to five and goes into a corporation. It's like, if you're building
a relationship with someone that you want to spend the love with, who is
that person? Yeah, And that means finding out what they are now For
me, as I say to people, if you meet me on a podcast,
if you see me on a video, if you read my books,
if you go and see me speaking, if I'm on online summit, if
I walk in the door on a network meeting, you get me. Yeah,
I'm quirky, I'm purple, I love you in the corns. I
have no problems about talking about any of that because I am now very solidly
on a foundation that I believe in who I am, and that's that's Yeah.
I think that's also important to making sure you feel comfortable, making sure
you feel confident, making sure they maybe before you go, and that you've
had that conversation with yourself, like I'm prepared for, you know, someone
in my life to go what are you doing? Or that you just have
your own self independent competence around that, right, I'd say it's competence even
may be more than confidence, but just that you are prepared when you put
yourself out there or say which you say, that you own it. And
when you said that you loved unicorns, now I know, I mean we
met. I mean sure, and I started collecting unicorns way before anyone thought
it was cool. I got a tattoo of a unicorn with a pegasus on
my back and I lied my girlfriend and I honestly you had to be nineteen
and we weren't anywhere close. And so she's like, come to this tattoo
shop because she was one of those kids that your parents like, I don't
want you to hang out with her because she's a bad influence. And they
were exactly right, and she's like, let's go get a tattoo. And
I'm like, well, what are we doing? And they're like, what
do you want? I'm like, oh, on you know, I had
seventy two unicorns in my collection before I let my niece take over my cornhouse.
You have a book house ide a, you know forinhouse. You are
such a brilliant how can I say it? Expands a woman And I love
how you own many aspects of yourself and you're brave and you've really clearly done
a lot of personal development. You've clearly done a lot of personal development and
a lot of personal growth. And so look for people if you want to
come and meet Trish even more. She's going to be on stage with us
May eleventh, No March March eighth, you're on the March eighth and May
eleven, she's hanging with me because she's coming to Vancouver. So she doubled
it smart woman, and so March eighth, International Women's Day, twenty twenty
four, you are going to come see this woman. She's going to speak.
She's going to talk. She's part of the book. Tell people where
they can reach you, because not everybody can visually see us, and we
know in the show notes it's all going to be there. But tell me,
my my corn friend, where can people reach you? And if you
have a final message, please share it now. Okay, Look, you
can reach me at Trishspringsteen dot com. Just think about Bruce Springsteen, the
singer, and it's Trish Springsteen spelt the same. And yes, before you
ask me, he's a distant relation of my husband's. He's the black sheep
of the family. That's all I can say. Look, all I can
say to you is it's so freaking empowering when you own who you are and
you believe in who you are, and that allows you to stand up and
be unique and let people see you are the person they want to be with.
And you can't do it unless you say, here I am, I'm
unique, and I absolutely enjoy every single moment of my life. All Right,
those are incredible powerful words. Thank you so much. You are the
best audience. We love you, we appreciate you. We hope to see
you on the stand up, speak up, and show up. And now
you know why Trish jump on board at that party, and if you'd like
to be sitting where she is, honestly, we'd love for you to reach
out and come on to the show. And until we see you again,
you stay well and be groovy. Bye for now, Kay,