The Power of Social Media, Greenroom with Guest Trifecta Giselle Ugarte

Episode 31- The Power of Social Media, Greenroom with Guest Trifecta Giselle Ugarte- Podcast Transcript

SPEAKERS

Giselle Ugarte, Lexie Smith, Emily Merrell

Lexie Smith 

Hey guys, I’m Lexie Smith, travel enthusiast, lover of puns, pizza and wine, PR coach and founder of the THEPRBAR inc., and you’re tuning in to the Pitchin’ and Sippin’ Podcast. Today’s guest, Giselle Ugarte is the definition of a guest trifecta. Although her resume and skill set goes far beyond the power of three. A former radio personality, television host, and, at one point, a full-time blogger, today Giselle is a motivational speaker, online performance coach, marketing consultant, and a social media early adopter, influencer, and master of TikTok with more than 60M views, and counting. In 2021. She officially launched Action-Forward, which exists to educate forward facing influencers, entrepreneurs and thought-leaders to use the power of social media to build new revenue streams and attract meaningful online communities. Today’s episode is full of mic drop moments, there are powerful lessons on personal and professional growth, she discusses how to identify what social media platform is going to be the next big thing, all while introducing us to an all new community centric social app called GreenRoom, literally fresh off the press, how to grow organically and so much more. She opens up about her sipping journey, and I make her vocalize a promise to me while on air. So without further ado, let’s get started. Today’s guest takes me personally back to my days as an LA publicist. I can’t actually remember the exact moment when I met Giselle, Giselle you’re gonna have to tell me if you do, but do know that both her and I’s careers have taken twists and turns in so many new and exciting different ways over than, and I actually counted, more than seven years now. Just know you’re a powerhouse. I’m freaking pumped that my listeners are now getting the opportunity to get to know you and learn from you a bit more. And we’re going to talk all things business. But first, where in the world are you these days?

 

Giselle Ugarte 

I am currently based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I don’t know for how much longer and also, if 2020 taught us anything, it’s that we can do a lot of what we do from pretty much anywhere. So I’m actually in the process of kind of tearing down my condo potentially putting it up for rent or maybe even sale. So who knows but hopefully coming to a city near you. And by you I mean you actually Lexie, but also anybody who else is listening. Because I’ve been kind of living out of a suitcase for the last couple of weeks just hopping around, and visiting clients, and conferences are becoming a thing again. So I’m really looking forward to that.

 

Lexie Smith 

Where do you think are you thinking back to California for home base or still up near?

 

Giselle Ugarte 

Minneapolis, we’ll definitely be home base. But I am planning on potentially doing some remote working stints so maybe Southern California, maybe New York, possibly Texas or Chicago. And then I even have some clients who are in Canada and I have some that are in the UK. So we shall see. But I’m simply excited that I get to be on airplanes again. Because for me, it’s a nice place where even though you can hook up to Wi-Fi, I feel like I’m a little bit more disconnected from the world than usual. And so it gives me the time to like catch up on some of those things that I’ve been putting off for a while sit in my thoughts for a moment and dream a little bigger in the skies

 

Lexie Smith 

what a positive spin on airplane travel. I love that. That’s amazing. I’m like, I need a drink before this flight takes off. No, I love I love that and kind of tease me into you know, when you’re not traveling the world speaking doing all the amazing things we’re gonna get into, what do you do outside of work? So what would be like your quote fun hobbies?

 

Giselle Ugarte 

Oh, my goodness. Well, I mean, I almost want to dive into that a little bit because I feel like one of the regrets that I have, although I think I learned a lot sooner than than most is I got so caught up in the do that I didn’t learn how to be. And so even having hobbies now, which I do, like I love going for walks I just picked up my bike from the bike shop to get tuned up for the summer. I am obsessed with my family. You know I love going to farmers markets and exploring and then clearly I love to travel as well. But just always remembering I had someone who in a therapy type situation, she was having to go through meditation where my eyes were closed and she told me to tell her what I saw when I looked in the mirror It was in that moment that I realized that when I looked in the mirror, I looked at everything about me, but I wasn’t looking at who I actually was like, I wasn’t even making eye contact with myself, I was looking at my tummy because I was so self conscious about my weight, I was looking at my skin because I was so self conscious about my acne, my hyperpigmentation, and I have all of skin, I was looking at my hair because at the time, I didn’t allow for it to be super wild, Latina and free, I would always like straighten it and didn’t want like a single little ounce of frizz to get out of place, I would look at my makeup and the list goes on and on and on. And that was definitely a pivotal moment that forced me to start having to recognize that I’m more than what I do that I’m more than what I look like. And and that was a really scary freakin journey to to start. And I’m very glad that I did it when I did. So that might be a wake up call for someone listening right now.

 

Lexie Smith 

Can we just go Mic drop? I mean, let’s end the podcast right there. There’s the only lesson you need in life is right is right there. So tap back the little 30 second mark a few times, re listen to what dizzle just said, that was dang girl, you’re waking me up on a Friday. I love it.

 

Giselle Ugarte 

You’re welcome. I got you, I got you. That’s what you know. That’s why I love doing what I do.

 

Lexie Smith 

Amazing. And so prepping for today’s interview was very hard for me, because there are so many different things you’re good at, and so many different topics we could dive into. But since we only have 30 minutes, alas, I had to choose. So here’s what I here’s where I want to start, I want to start with how we started. I want to rewind back in time, at this point in your career, you were a media personality and to host so take us back there. How did Giselle get on air?

 

Giselle Ugarte 

Well, and I even want to touch on that as well. Because how wonderful it is that even though you and I have had all of those twists and turns that you mentioned earlier, it was still this valuable relationship where we think that the person who is going to be our partner or the person who we can lean on or who’s going to grow or help us grow is like the person at the top right, like we think it’s supposed to be like the CEO or the CMO or the owner, or the founder, or the millionaire, or the investor. But in actuality, some of the most valuable relationships that you can have. And some of the ones that you’ll have for a very long time are actually the ones who are exactly where you are, if not maybe even potentially lower than you are. Because if you grow and you stick with it, then they’re going to turn into the decision makers or they’re going to turn into the founders and the CEOs. And so, you know, never think that you are above somebody else. And I think it’s also even a token of gratitude, where you and I were also in that place where you’re in your early 20s. And you’re like, I have no idea what I’m doing. And, and like also in that place of insecurity of like, I don’t know where I’m going, and I don’t know who in LA, I don’t know who I can trust, you know, like, I’m trying to get my next thing I don’t maybe you know where my next paper paychecks gonna come from? Maybe I don’t. And so just giving the grace of like, allowing for those twists and turns where a lot of people really want to confine you into a box and like see, you go down one path. And the moment you take a pivot or the moment you take another job. It’s like, Oh, she’s confused. Oh, she’s lost, like, oh, what, you know, what is she doing? When really it’s like, if you’re actually growing, you don’t have time to scrutinize people on that bs stuff. But to your question, it was you asked me how did I get on air? A couple of things. So it first started out when I took a super random, I’ll put air quotes around this word internship. When I was about 18 or 19 years old, it was for the Tony Fly Morning Show. He’s now on Sirius XM. And, and I really didn’t have any interest in going on radio. But I felt like I needed to be busy and I felt like internship was the thing that you were supposed to do. And I put air quotes around it because it wasn’t even a formal internship it was that I got the invitation to come and listen in to this morning show. And then I just kept on showing up, and showing up, day after day, after day, because I said that I could and I just kept on coming back. And I kept on making myself useful. And like making training guides and processes, and learning about microphones, and just how shows are run, and how jokes and stories are told on the air, and I didn’t know it at the time, but it would totally end up being something that molded the trajectory of my career in a lot of ways. And then when I got into college, I worked at like the college news station and there was an opportunity where ESPNU was doing a partnership with you know different college students and because I was a football cheerleader I was able to get in that way. But the most valuable way that I got on air is what we’re doing now in the year that is 2021, which is I was trying to get on the air, I wanted to be a TV personality. No one would hire me because I didn’t have any connections, or any experience, or family in the business. And so someone gave me the advice that I should learn how to do everything. So I saved up for a camera, and I, you know, download it, I think at the time was iMovie. And I started putting videos on this tiny little platform called YouTube, thinking that no one would see them. And I say tiny because Google didn’t own at the time everyone on their mom did not have a blog influencer, sure as hell was not a job title. And, lo and behold, by no means that I become like this overnight sensation of a YouTuber, but it exposed me to these extraordinarily average teenagers who had hundreds of 1000s if not millions of subscribers, and no one was talking about it. And so while I had my eyes set on being on bigger screens, I use this as an opportunity to set myself apart in every single meeting and casting room and, and any anyone who would really listen. And it became my differentiator. I didn’t know that at the time. But that was also something that that helped me so. So from there it, you know, I had opportunities, where I worked with some major beauty brands as one of the first real life faces for their campaigns, that was a brand new thing that they were doing. From there, I had a television career, I had my first big break when I was 24. And worked in international television, entertainment news, worked in radio from there. And now it’s, it’s kind of crazy, because I at one point I left the world of broadcast media, and if anything, I’m full circling the moment and coming right back where now I offer marketing and business advice using platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and even LinkedIn and Zoom, and real life conferences to get to show people how to do it. So it’s, everything makes sense, in hindsight, but it’s it’s bananas, how I’m now at a position where actually every single experience is like, this is what we were preparing for you, Giselle, like 2020 is exactly what we were preparing for you, Giselle. Here it is. Now go share your gifts with the world.

 

Lexie Smith 

I call that the butterfly effect. It’s something I’ve seen more and more and more and more, the more I’ve gone to, really since becoming an entrepreneur and learning people’s stories, how every single step has led to the next. And actually you said something that was gonna be my next question. So I want to pull it out of all the amazing nuggets and bring it to the surface. on your website, you said the best career advice you ever have received is learn how to do everything. And you just mentioned it again. So how first, is this literal? Let’s start there, is that literal?

 

Giselle Ugarte 

You know, it’s more so at the very least learn a little bit about everything, like learn just enough. And I want to be so very careful with that. Because if you take it too, literally, there is this idea, especially if you are an ADHD visionary unicorn like I am where you actually want to do everything, or seemingly everything, or live on every platform, or go to every different place. And the worst thing that you can do is to allow for your dreams to become your distractions. And then you know, six months go by and you haven’t even done any of the things on your list that you want to do. It’s more so just if you have chosen a craft, if you’ve chosen an industry, if you’ve chosen a career, and especially if you’re young, but definitely if you’re older, and especially if you’re seasoned too, learn how to do at least a little bit of everything around what it is that you do. Why?A few different things here, one, because there is always the chance that potentially somebody leaves. But more important than that, being able to hire correctly and being able to give credit where credit is due. So knowing what it is that you’re hiring, there’s so many people who for example, come to me forward facing entrepreneurs and they say, I need a videographer. Well, you might think that’s very straightforward, right? No, it’s not what one person thinks is a quote unquote, videographer could be completely different from what somebody else thinks. One person might think, Okay a person with a camera who’s going to shoot my footage, and that’s all I need. Somebody else might think, Okay, I need a producer. I need someone to source ideas, look guest, scout locations, shoot the video, edit the video, write the captions, upload the content, you know, record the analytics, respond to comments, all the different things where it’s like, okay, that’s a lot of tasks, potentially even for different people, not just one. So that allows for you to hire effectively. It also allows for you to give credit where credit is due. So for example, if you know that something is really freaking hard, it’s giving you the ability to say, Hey, I know you make that look really easy, but I know that it’s not and thank you so much for doing that because I know that either took you a really long time of training and experience to make it look easy, or you have a lot that we don’t see that you’re working really hard on. And I want to thank you for that. And on the flip side, it also allows for you to call out where work isn’t being done, where someone might try to claim that they know so much more or that they speak a different language in their particular field that you would never understand, like, you just don’t get it. And that’s when you can be like, no, I get it, and you’re not doing it right. And you’re being lazy. And this is not acceptable. So it’s all those different things combined, really to be able to do your job to the best of your abilities. And I think one thing that we learned in 2020 is especially how to be nimble what happens, for example, if your business gets pulled out from under you what happens if all of a sudden you have to work remotely? What happens if all of a sudden it’s only you? Can you find ways to be nimble, or to work on a budget or to be more concise with what you’re doing? And all of that combined? Definitely, definitely helps.

 

Lexie Smith 

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take that snippet, and every single time I’m on a sales call or an email and someone’s like, why would I want to learn how to do PR? I’m gonna play them what you just said, because all the snaps I could not agree more. And I won’t stay long here. But literally in line and alignment with why I do what I do, because the most successful entrepreneurs I’ve ever met, have done what you just said. So just want to say yes.

 

Emily Merrell 

Hey, Lex.

Lexie Smith 

what’s up, Em?

Emily Merrell 

Should we tell them what we’ve been up to?

Lexie Smith 

Yes, let’s do it.

Emily Merrell 

Okay, calling in all coaching curious, coaching side hustlers and new coaches. My name is Emily Merrell, and I am a business coach, podcast host, founder of the Six Degrees Society and your hosts lovely co founder of Ready Set Coach.

Lexie Smith 

Yes, that’s right, everyone. You all know me for PR. Well, I hope so at this point. But what you might not know is that I’ve teamed up with the one and the only Emily Merrell this summer to teach a select number of highly motivated entrepreneurs, how to turn their passion into a profitable coaching business.

 

Emily Merrell 

Yep. Lexie and I are both high-earning coaches. We built an all inclusive three months program specifically for those looking to build a profitable coaching business that supports their dream lifestyle

 

Lexie Smith 

Emphasis on dream lifestyle.

 

Emily Merrell 

And we’re kicking off this summer’s cohort, the week of July 12,

 

Lexie Smith 

We have about three spots left, and I had a thought why not open up the opportunity to my fellow pitchers and sippers. So here’s what to do if you want to learn more, go to readysetcoachprogram.com, don’t worry, I will put that in the show notes, and click around. You can even schedule a complimentary clarity call with Em and I.

 

Emily Merrell 

That’s readysetcoachprogram.com. Okay, Lex, get back to your show.

 

Lexie Smith 

You’re doing all these amazing things. Simultaneously, you were also growing your personal brand and audience and my perception of you is that you’ve always been what you would call an early adopter. So in my eyes, you knew TikTok, for example, was gonna blow up before it actually did. So my question is, how have you consistently been able to determine if a given platform, because there are a lot out there, is worth your time?

Giselle Ugarte 

Couple of different things. But ultimately, it’s all centered around community. And that is really at the core of everything successful in life. It’s not just platform, it’s also relationships. It’s where you enjoy spending your time. And so if I recognize that there is some level of community, and where the community is authentic, and I’ll be honest, I really don’t love the word authentic right now, probably because we’ve been burned with manufactured versions of that in everything that is our social media world. But in the best words of Lizzo, where she says, ooh, child, we’re tired of the let you fill in the blank there. I don’t know if I can say that word BS. You know, I feel like we’ve especially gotten really good at sniffing that out. And if you haven’t yet, then chances are you have to reflect inward first with the ways that perhaps you have been filtering yourself or putting out the highlight reel or faking the background or, you know, really, really running that in your life. But, but ultimately, one of the things that I’ve learned and it took me actually a very long time to learn this. You know, I mentioned that my career accidentally started on YouTube. At this point now, 10 plus years ago, I never had sights set out to be a YouTuber by any means. And if anything, I’m kind Like, why didn’t you Giselle, that would have been really great? But I also know that I would have been completely burnt out probably lost a sense of self, and who knows, who knows where I would be. So I’m grateful for the way that it went. But when I first got on YouTube, and I was looking at these extraordinarily average teenagers, who their camera quality was horrible, they were rambling, and, you know, just had no direction at all in their vlogs. And, you know, would come on there without makeup or would talk about their problems, and basically doing everything that I was trained not to do as somebody in broadcast. My thought immediately was like, Okay, I need to figure out how in the world, they then have all of these subscribers, like, they have to be doing something method…like, from like, a method standpoint, like, what day of the week, are they uploading? How long are their videos? What does the algorithm work? What is their thumbnail look like? How often are they posting, and it took me a little too long to realize it actually, you know, it did have something to do with that, sure. But ultimately, it’s more so about consistency, the fact that they kept coming back, and on a regular basis, it had to do with collaborations, the way that they would star in each other’s vlogs, or videos or challenges or tags, as they used to be called on YouTube. And ultimately, the community. Everything they did was further audience and their audience ultimately saw themselves in those people, where it was actually the extraordinarily average. And it was because of the low quality. And it was because of the conversational style. And because they would like let all the bloopers in there and keep them and just, you know, be silly and funny, like they would an actual best friend, that was actually the gold. And so when I see a platform, start to adopt levels of genuine community, just like you would a friend, like you know, your friend groups, you have those friends who are your fake friends, right? Like, you really don’t even know why you’re friends with them. Hopefully, hopefully this number is becoming less and less as you age, by the way, just gonna stick that in there. And then you have like your work friends. And then you have like the friends who they don’t even, they don’t even need an invitation to come over, they can just come over, they can come over when you’re not wearing makeup, they can come over when your house is a mess. They know where the cheese is, they know where the snacks are. And you can just spend hours and hours talking about nothing doing nothing entertaining, but you just know that they are like your real people and they know you to your core. All that to say is the way that I identify platform and the way I identify, you know what’s gonna be the next best thing is who is creating a sense of belonging, who is creating some sort of belonging somewhere. And in some cases, the belonging is a little more aspirational and superficial. But as I mentioned, to make a long story even longer, we’re starting it to get really tired of that. And the reality is, and I say this often write this one down, people have been craving human connection long before social distancing was the way of our world. And we can pretend that social media and our devices are the things that are getting in the way of us having real true interaction and conversation and intimacy, when in actuality, these devices are allowing us to be more connected than any other generation before us. And either we can use this as a way to trick ourselves into what is real, or we can use it to establish meaningful connections with people who we otherwise never would have met. And I’m at a place where I feel like for example, I haven’t seen you or squeezed you in years, but I still feel like I have some idea of what’s going on in your life. I have made best friends from TikTok, from Clubhouse, probably soon here, GreenRoom, that’s going to be the next best thing if that was on your list of questions to ask. Spotify GreenRoom is going to be the next best thing, you know, market here first. You know, where I in some cases feel even more connected to them than some of the people who I do know in real life and who I do interact with in real life. And it’s so much more than than physical touch that creates that intimacy. And so that’s, that’s ultimately where it is if you can find a place that has community and belonging, if you can create a space that creates community and belonging, if you can create a brand, where it’s not about me, me, me, me, me, but it’s about the person on the other side feeling seen and heard because of the stories in you and the people around you. That is what’s going to create that longevity beyond say virality and even beyond platform, which is why I’ve been able to go from platform to platform to platform and create something meaningful and each of those places.

Lexie Smith 

Okay, so I was going to go into more TikTok then Clubhouse, but I’ve literally never in my life heard of GreenRoom. So obviously now we need to go there. What the heck is GreenRoom, Spotify GreenRoom?

Giselle Ugarte 

Yeah, we are about 48 hours. into GreenRoom. GreenRoom is Spotify purchased locker room, which was an app very similar to Clubhouse primarily focused in the sports industry. And now everybody who was on Clubhouse, and influential on Clubhouse, a lot of them are really getting into Spotify, especially because of the fact that you know, first of all, a lot of people love Spotify. It’s a reputable company on its own. But already, what we’re seeing is within this 48 hour space of this, what’s it called? joint thing that’s happening is people are putting in requests, people are asking for changes and updates. And like already, we’re seeing a lot of the major updates happening and in real time, because they had the leadership in the engineers that Clubhouse did not. And that’s not to say that Clubhouse is dying. But unfortunately, you know, they had a lot of different offers to sell, and they didn’t. And they were working off of leadership that maybe didn’t have a ton of experience. And it’s not the best culture at that point in time, could they still potentially have some sort of redemption story? Sure. But what we were seeing as the app was growing, growing, growing for a moment, and then all of a sudden, the users who were there weren’t spending as much time and they weren’t getting new users. And so now a lot of the Clubhouse influencers are jumping ship. And so Spotify GreenRoom, and for those of you who are like, Giselle, I don’t even know what the heck Clubhouse is. Alright, let me back it up even further. If you were to hop into a social media platform, whichever one you want, Instagram, LinkedIn, what have you, you get a feed, and the feed comprises of posts or pictures or videos. So on Clubhouse, and on GreenRoom, instead of getting posts of captions and videos, you are getting rooms of live conversation. And so you tap into whatever the topic of conversation is, maybe it’s PR, maybe it is the Superbowl, maybe it is, you know, shoot your shot and find your perfect match, maybe it’s psychedelics, but automatically you sign in and you are exposed to these different conversations that are ongoing and happening. You can listen or you can raise your hand and speak. And so in that sense, because these applications are so small, what it’s allowed for is the opportunity for people who are seemingly no one to raise their hand speak up and potentially stand out in front of 10s, hundreds of 1000s of people, in some cases really influential people that are targeted within that conversational space. And so this is a super valuable PR tool. Because of of your ability to then be able to grow the room as big as you want, even if you have zero followers, because all these conversations are being suggested to new users. So audio only, it’s great. No makeup needed. No pants needed. You can just listen if you want to, or you can start a conversation with a friend or open it to the public and allow for a lot of people to come in. It’s still glitchy for now. But the Clubhouse model definitely set the stage. And it’s important to you ask me about how do you know if a platform is going to take off, you can also tell if the platform is going to take off with the way in which other platforms follow suit. So for example, another reason why we knew the TikTok was going to take off is in the way that all of a sudden now we’re seeing more short form vertical video, on every other platform. You have Instagram reels, you have YouTube shorts, even now LinkedIn has stories. And they’re developing creator programs. And granted stories, you know, really started from Snapchat and then went to Instagram. But ultimately, what we’re seeing in terms of the trends is more content that is meant to be created and or consumed from your phone. And so if you can connect with little to no preparation, and if you can be comfortable using your phone without a production team without a filter, without a bajillion edits, then you’re going to be able to create that connection and faster and be significantly ahead of your competition just by having that skill.

Lexie Smith 

Oh my god, you’re such a wealth of knowledge. I’m like, I’m going to probe her brain on Clubhouse, and TikTok and other things. And I mean, okay, I need to like refocus here because I can’t keep you all day. And when I would do want to make sure we talk about is, you know, while we met in 2014. We’re in 2021. And I know what you’re up to today looks differently than how, you know all our twists and turns along the way. And I want to have an opportunity to talk about that. So what is Giselle doing today? Besides being smart

Giselle Ugarte 

I appreciate you know, it’s it’s it’s constantly learning really it’s never stopping the learning process and always being a student of every single person who I meet. And what I’m doing now is I had 2020 happen. I went from radio to then I was leading as a director at an advertising agency, and was working with a lot of corporations and businesses and brands. And all of a sudden 2020 happened. And there were a lot of places whose marketing budgets were cut, or non existent, or maybe they never were. And one place where there was a lot of feeling of failure was, oh, we should have been putting more time and attention into our organic social media. And if you’re not familiar with the term organic, it means the things that you don’t have to pay for so that you know what you’re naturally posting on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, what have you, rather than just putting all the money into ad spend, or Oh, you know, if only we were more forward facing, because we’re also seeing in research time and time again, that people want that human connection they want to feel tied to, and they have more trust for businesses where the leadership is forward facing. And so where previously, I was helping to create strategy for these brands, and humanizing and providing voices for these brands, I began to start providing strategy courses and coaching for people. And as it turns out, humans are the hardest brands to humanize, like, people are the hardest brands to humanize. And I love that challenge. So much. It absolutely also allowed for me to incorporate even my executive coaching chops, which I also have. And that’s actually where for me the the name of my business now is called Action-Forward. And what it was was this aha moment when I was even getting certified. And it was a question of, you know, we trick ourselves into thinking that by taking action or being productive, when in actuality A lot of us, especially high performers disguise productivity and business. But we’re not actually getting anywhere, you look down and you realize you’ve been on a hamster wheel the entire time. And so even though you’ve been busy all day, and just exhausting yourself in, maybe it’s listening to the podcast, or getting into the cold plunges or going to the spin class, or reading the book, or doing the quote unquote research or scrolling through the feeds, you look down and you’re like, why am I in the same place that I was six months ago? And so the question became, you know, what’s the what’s the next best action forward thing that you could do, and I really tied into to that word specifically. So long story longer, we began doing more and more for our people, for our executive clients. And that’s when I simply saw that need of I feel like, people, my people need me, and especially when 2020 happened, you know, my God, it was horrible. And, and I don’t take for granted at all the fact that when everything started happening, I actually felt like this calm and this calling, that was like, this is your time to share your gifts. And how wonderful that we have social media where it wasn’t about me just being like, Oh, this is where I could take advantage of people and get money. It was not not that at all. It was how how awesome that I can show people using free resources, how they too, can use free things right at their fingertips. And even though I had access to say, a production team and the fancy equipment, I challenged myself to say, I’m not going to do it, I’m going to prove that I can do it. And I can grow different accounts from zero. And I even offered some of my services completely complimentary. And and ended up being that by the end of the year, I just felt a calling that was greater than what I was doing. And I just felt like there was a stronger demand that I wasn’t able to fully step into, because I was dividing myself in so many different directions between working with these businesses and wanting to work with more people who maybe couldn’t fully afford the agency tier of services. And that’s when action forward was born at the beginning of this year, doing really what I have been doing for again, in some capacity the last 10 years. But now I get to focus entirely upon that. And it feels really freaking good.

Lexie Smith 

And my microphone is hiding so I’ll shift my sweatshirt. But my my sweatshirt says put me in coach, and it’s it’s a little tap to the coaching industry because it’s an industry and you know, here’s a whole other podcast topic, but I’ll just say it’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in my entire life. So welcome, friend. Amazing. It’s amazing. It really is and we’re gonna cliffhanger. We’re gonna make people in a second here, learn where they can go learn how they can work with you because I know you guys are like wait, Lexie wait. But first, you all know, I have one more question I need to ask gizelle This is the Pitchin’ and Sippin’ podcast, what can we find you sipping so favorite beverage it can be alcoholic or non alcoholic. Of course,

Giselle Ugarte 

right now in this very moment I’m drinking an iced Americano, I’m attempting to give up coffee but I give myself permission to have a little treat on the weekends and Friday counts is that and as of right now, raspberry lime spindrift is my jam. I’m actually and you know what, here’s the here’s, I’m going to go a little deep here. And this isn’t against anybody who drinks alcohol because girl loves tequila on the rocks like very, very rarely. But it was about maybe two years ago where I was listening to  Melissa Urban founder of Whole30 podcast, do the thing with want to say her name is Holly Whitaker, and she’s the author of Quit Like a Woman. And she asked a question that forever changed me which was, is alcohol keeping you from achieving your dreams, wait for it, as quickly as you would like? Is alcohol keeping you from achieving your dreams as quickly as you would like? And for me, it wasn’t like, Oh my god, I’m an alcoholic. But it definitely forced me to look at some of the ways that I was misusing it and mistreating myself to slow a lot of things down, get in the way of a lot of my relationships. And for me, like I totally was misusing it. Ultimately, for me right now and what I kind of had in 2021 was, you know, what, I had this feeling this this message on my heart that was just I don’t want to drink alcohol anymore. And I felt like it was my my heart like kind of saying like, Giselle, I feel like you’re sometimes drinking alcohol to keep yourself from, from growth, or to keep yourself even from like listening to your uncomfortable emotions. And so, you know, I haven’t given it up entirely. And maybe that’s purely a mindset thing. Because I think if I give it up entirely that I have that like, well, now I want it even more kind of a thing. But I could probably count on one hand how many drinks I’d had this year, and have actually been so well received. Were in my early 20s, I would have been like I’m not drinking and people would have been like, oh, like, why, you know, why aren’t you like, just have one or like, You’re no fun. And now I have more people leaning in going tell me more about that. Tell me what made you think that. And I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with drinking alcohol. Unless you know that it’s not right for you. So I felt a little pull on my heart to share that.

Lexie Smith 

Yeah, I know, thank you for sharing that you’ve had so many beautiful moments of clarity and growth that you’ve shared with us in this podcast. And I know it’s just barely the tip of the iceberg. So I just I want to say thank you for, A. being you, I know that you’re always this amazing. And you’ve never needed alcohol to be this amazing in this fun. So I think everyone can, can feel that. So I just I just want to say thank you and kind of wrap things up with sharing with everyone where they can go to learn more about Giselle and Action-Forward.

Giselle Ugarte 

Absolutely. My DMs are always open, especially on Instagram, you can find me @giselleugarte, and if you want to work with me, then you can reach out there, you can go to giselleugarte.com, coaching@giselleugarte.com. And always love connecting on LinkedIn as well. But whenever… I had a messenger bot for a while and there was just something about it that just didn’t feel me. So know that if I do respond to you, it is me and and I have, you know, so many different complimentary resources as well. And so please never hesitate to reach out even if it’s a quick question or a shout out. And my favorite thing to say is, you know, there will be people who listen to this podcast who will want to reach out to you Lexie or to me and say, you know, thank you so much. You helped me to listen to something in a different way, say the Thank you. But the most valuable thank you after that is the receipt of implementation. So being able to say not only did it did I listen to that, and did it rock my world, but I actually took that and now I’m doing this. And now it allowed for me to do this and it gave me the permission to do this. And I’m finally getting to do this. And that is that’s how you can think coach Lexie for that.

Lexie Smith 

Oh my god so good. I’m gonna make you promise one more thing and yes, you have to promise that next time you’re in a city near me, you let me know so i can squeeze and hug you in person because it has been

Giselle Ugarte 

Oh my god, I can’t wait

Lexie Smith 

way too long. I think probably Beverly Hills

Giselle Ugarte 

I think so

Lexie Smith 

many years. So anyways, that’s it again I digress. But that’s the promise. So you’re gonna put out into the universe right now.

Giselle Ugarte 

We’re putting it out into the universe. I will come and see you and the same thing with you. Same thing with you, always happy to come back so grateful for you and like almost mad that we didn’t do this sooner, you know, and now we have to set up a time to properly catch up you and me. So

Lexie Smith 

I know, I know. Amazing. Well, thank you so much everyone go learn more about Giselle and practice what she just preached. Hey guys, if you are enjoying the Pitchin’ and Sippin’ podcast, please do me a huge favor and leave a review wherever you are listening. If you want to connect with me to learn more about THEPRBAR inc., You can do so on Instagram @theprbar_inc or you can check out my website at theprbarinc.com. Cheers