Welcome to savvy business life unscripted with your host, Cristina Rivera, where our guests share their wisdom and valuable business tips, empowering our audience to expand their personal potential. Hi Dr Sharon Hartman Little welcome the savvy broadcasting, live on script. I'm so grateful to have you here this wonderful saturday afternoon. Thank you for hanging in there with me. My brain's almost today. Uh but I'm so grateful to have you share your latest book, the authenticity code, which we spoke just briefly before the interview that it's thrown about the authenticity authenticity. What does that mean? How do people really implement that into their lives, into their business to really live that out and implement it in their lives and you're gonna help them do that. You're the founder and ceo of Inside Out Learning inc and welcome thank you. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me on Christina. You bet. So tell me what prompted you to write your book? The authenticity cook. Well, I've been doing, we've been doing so I'm the Ceo and founder of Inside Out Learning Incorporated for the past 20 years and we've been doing leadership and professional development programs for Fortune 500 mid and small sized businesses and I kept hearing, wow, this helps me go to the next level.

You've helped me to scale my business. You've helped the program has helped to have increased revenue, promotions and really people said and it's all because I become more authentic and who I truly am. So that's what prompted me to write the book. I want to take this to as many people as possible so that they can have the desired success that they have in their hearts, you know, it's interesting just this morning I have a mentor coach I hired and he was just mentioning this morning that if you want to reach your genius and really exploded into the world regarding using it in your business, you really have to be authentic. It is the key to explode in your business and it's amazing because people, yo yeah be authentic. So explain to me, what is your take on being authentic? What does it mean? Exactly, yeah. So I define authenticity as your most powerful way of adding value by expressing your greatest gifts for your chosen audience.

So it's really your calling your purpose, what you came here to do and if you're doing that for your chosen audience, that is how I define being authentic. So it's your most powerful way of adding value. I think authenticity has been confused in the past as hey, just let me be me regardless of you. But what we don't understand is we choose our customers, right? We choose the audiences that we want to be in front of, that's an authentic choice to so therefore it's not only about me, it's also about those I serve. So I really have taken authenticity into servant leadership as well so that you can tailor your message be authentic, really do what you came here to do, but consider that person that you're speaking with as well. Yeah, I love that because I've heard it said, well I'm just gonna be truthful and until, well truthful doesn't mean you have to be mean about it either. Yeah. Right. Exactly.

Yeah. It's really interesting when I started to explore this word, authenticity. There's so many perceptions out there. Oh, if you drop, you know, swear words or f bombs or whatever, then you're authentic or when you yell or you get to uh you know, you just say it like it is well maybe for some people that might be authentic, but it might not be for everyone. And again, you have to know who your audiences and and if you're especially as an entrepreneur, which I've been for 20 years, you need to service your customers. Yeah. And let's start with that because when I got, sorry, one thing I start to do is look at some of the people I admired and I started to copy them as a business owner. I'm going to do what they're doing in their manner. Even kind of run the presentation the way they do and it didn't work for me the way I did for them because that's just not my zone a genius. It's not me. Um So it's not only getting in touch with what is your greatest gifts and how are you going to present them but also narrowing down who are the people who are your tribe that you are here to serve.

Exactly. Exactly. And what's your greatest gift as you present as well. Because some people are wonderful at storytelling and others are really clear presenters and some are humorous. So you have to know like what's your greatest gift when you communicate as well and because it is you fall into that trap of, I want to be like that person, but what if that's not your authentic gift? That's a good point. I mean I love comedy and and and and then seeing the stand up comedy, but I know that's just really not my gift, but what's interesting, I'll tell you dr Sharon, I started uh savvy 10 years ago, but about four years ago we took it um live, we start to bring into Manhattan do live networking slash interviews in front of an audience. And it was the first time I went on video and I had no idea that my facial expressions were so emotion emoting until I started looking at the video and I'm like I started like editing a, you know, all these faces came out.

I was like, wow, do I know how to emote? But I realized it can be something I can use the gift to really bring my message to them in a more deeper way. But I never realized I had it until I turned on that video camera and started to notice, oh well look, I kind of remote a lot. Exactly. You know, in our programs that we do for the public and also inside of companies? That is something that's really important. We always help people to look at themselves on video because until we do, we can't see what we're doing and then we can, we can use those gifts as we bring our message to the world, as we bring our products to the world and our services to the world. And I've seen the authenticity code really help entrepreneurs. You know, we've worked with a number of entrepreneurs, a woman dana who uh she was kind of stuck and she was doing presentations at the local library trying to get the word out on her business and she said, you know, I need to polish my presentation, we helped her to do that to put a great sales pitch together and now it's got uh you know, quite a few a million views on, on Youtube and it's really scaled her business by 33% amazing.

That's interesting because I think the old version of presenting was put up the nice power point stand there, pointed it, you know, and it's like, you know, it's right, you know, you got to find that way to really connect your way that whatever it is for you, maybe for you. One guy said I cannot sit down or I have to be moving constantly and look around where some people will stand still whatever it is for you that helps you to connect with other people is your thing now share with it. Why did you create the book and what exactly are going through in the authenticity code? What are you trying, what's your message in the greatest message you're trying to put out there? Absolutely. It's really to uh to know what your success is and what you really want to achieve in life and the code is your presence plus your presentation, plus your audience is your success. So that's what we do, is we help people to really tap into their core presence in the book, what's their brand, what's your authentic brand, what's your authentic presence and then to know their audience and that they have authentically chosen to be in front of and to tailor that message to that audience and then how do you put together a wow presentation, wow, communication so that you can get to yes in any kind of communication that you may give or a presentation that you may give and so many entrepreneurs, I hear, you know, elevator pitches, but do they have sales pitches and do they have a way of really talking about their, their product or their service in a very authentic way that sells, I love that.

Now let's go back because me, I started pen 11 years ago in a business, um but when I remember the day one, I hired a mentor, I had no idea what I want to do as a business. I just knew that I wanted to move into starting a business, but I have no idea what was that, what that could be and that with a lot of people, I'm just listening in as well, I kind of lost touch. What are my, guess, what are my talent? You kind of get onto a roller coaster, maybe you have a job and you just keep doing it over and over again. You don't even remember what you're good at, what you love, what would be your invite to someone who maybe was me back then and they have no idea where to even begin to find their authenticity. Yeah. You know, there's a question that I ask in the authentic brand statement when we help people put it together and by the way this is in the book, the whole way that you put together an authentic brand statement, there's a question I ask which helps to get at your greatest wound, your greatest wound is actually your greatest gift to give. And it's a paradigm shift. But when you think about maybe growing up, what didn't you receive that you really wanted to receive?

So for me, I really wanted my parents to celebrate my unique gifts and talents helped me see those. Well now that's what I'm doing for a living. So when we go from being wounded about it to actually giving it then our life really transformed. So I would start there. I would start by saying where, what what was my, what was my greatest wound growing up and then how can I turn that into a greatest gift to give in my leadership in my professionalism, how can I do that? And it's amazing that the shift that can take place, wow, that is so tremendous to me because one of the things I heard most growing up and I wrote that recently in my own book I put out last year was my parents always said you're gonna be seen and not heard kids are to be seen but not heard. And so I was constantly, I mean I was super quiet kid, you would never know that today, but I was never spoke out, never expressed myself and and now my greatest joy is to be able to help people express and get their message out to the world.

Um but it's interesting because I think that was the core wound and there it is exactly exactly, you know, and there's people who I was having dinner with a friend and her daughter the other day and her daughter said, I think I want to go into child trauma and I go, well that's interesting, she goes, I have enough of it growing up and I said, well there you go, that's why, because that's your greatest wound, you know how to get people through child trauma, You survived it. So it was an awesome conversation and and just like your insight right here today was yeah, that's look what you're doing to help so many by having this podcast. Yeah, it's amazing that you get pulled in that direction without realizing. I remember early on when I got started with my mentor, I said, so what should I do? And she's like just our podcast to help build your consulting brand. Um, but who would have thought and the number one thing folks around me said is, well you love connecting with people. So you know, it's like, what would you say like when, when someone's going out there and they don't know where to begin to find or rediscover what they love besides the courtroom.

Where do they begin to look for their core? One of the thing that made the most painful as a child or where would you begin to tell them to start looking? Yeah, it would be, it would be what you most wanted to receive from an authority figure but you didn't, so maybe it was appreciation or nurturing or being challenged, whatever it might be, but that's actually your greatest gift to give. And yeah, in addition it's also we all have a natural strength as well and I kind of combine those to the greatest wound and your natural strength. Your natural strength is things that people say you're just great at and you just get told this over and over and over again. Yeah. So that's and for me that's creating a safe environment for people to speak their truth. That's something that people have said to me over and over and over again Now for you mentioned something early on, when we got started in this conversation and that was speaking before the audience, you choose, but I'm guessing there could be an audience that you can best serve.

That's your tribe, that you know, because some people, I find we'll talk to, oh, I want to reach the biggest audience as possible is why does Net as possible? But maybe those people are just not the best people for you to serve. Where do you begin to find your tribe? The people that can you can best serve? Well, I think it's knowing who you, who you truly are. You know, I have, I have a phrase in the book saying, um if you love pink hair, but you know that your audience isn't going to love pink hair, like maybe maybe then you wouldn't choose to be in front of the military, right? It's like you've got to find the audience that is going to allow you to be yourself, allow you to be you and you'll see this in the book because the book is a parable and it's about to professionals that are competing for the same job and what happens in the end as they learn about their presence and their presentation and their audience. What happens in the end, they both they both uh end up getting some really great lessons and authenticity and in choosing their audience.

Well, you know, you just mentioned something very important many, many years ago I was out with a friend and I worked at this company and I worked as their accountant and it was interesting because I like blond, spiky hair, it was a little bit shorter than it is now, but it was very spiky and I was wearing a kind of furry looking sweater and so someone said to me in that job, they said you know, you don't look like an accountant, you look like you should be billy Idol sister or something. Uh it's funny because just what you're mentioning there, if that is your personal bread, that's how you just express yourself naturally. Would you go before maybe becoming a counter? Would you go to a super, I'm going to train the FBI and you walk in like that are like, I don't know, a little funky. Yeah, yeah, I get you there. That is totally on point where people get a copy of your book and find out more about you. Absolutely. So you can go right to amazon, it's already available on pre order the authenticity code by dr Sharon Lam Hartman and then my website is Inside Out Learning dot com Inside out?

Learning dot com, you can see there we have an authenticity code app, we've got the book and we've got virtual programs that you can take to really develop your own messaging for your audience and learn more about your authentic brand. I love that. Now. I'm just curious how did you come about naming your company? The Inside Out Learning, where did that come from? You know, that is really uh an interesting story. I actually came up with that name on 9 11 and I was, I was, you know that that day shook us all and it came to me that day, so that was a synchronised IQ uh name that came, but when I really looked at what we were doing in the world were about transformation and we really want people to transform into who they came here to be and what they came here to do and I believe if we change on the inside then are outside will change and we'll be able to create the success we really desire. That makes so much sense. You start with the inside, what is my mentor saying one time, it's like, it's first getting really clear about, as you said earlier in the interview who you are, so then you can serve on the outside, This has been awesome.

Dr Sharon, everyone go out there and get the authenticity code today and go to Inside Out Learning dot com and dr Sharon I just have to thank you again for coming to Savvy broadcasting. Oh thank you so much, Christine, It was great to be on your show. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Like subscribe and share this episode to listen to more savvy episodes and savvy biz tips. Go to www. Dot life unscripted radio dot com to find out about our paid sponsorship opportunities or how to become a guest, email, Christina at Life Unscripted Radio dot com.