Rising Star: Claire Takacs’ The Ironing Board Webinar Method.

Wonderful Web Rising Stars Radio

We are very proud to feature our Wonderful Web Radio Rising Star interview. In this segment, we speak with Claire Takacs. Claire spent 18 years working with clients from many backgrounds and with a variety of issues in both the government and non-government sectors. The majority of them had illegal substance use and mental health problems. She is a qualified Life Coach who quit her job in August 2014 to enjoy a temporary retirement and is now focusing on establishing a business to support micro business women to increase their confidence and to stop putting limits on their success. She does this by using one of her other passions, research, or to put it bluntly, looking up lots of stuff, finding out about neuroscience and then telling people about it. Claire is a single mother of two and a grandmother of six.

Transcript of the Interview

Announcement: Welcome to rising stars radio. Where we share the stories of ordinary people taking action to create extraordinary changes in their businesses. They are the true rising stars to watch. So get ready to take notes for our no-fluff, cutting to the chase, 20 minute interview.

Janet: Hello and welcome everybody, it’s Janet Beckers here, and this is Rising Stars Radio, and I have a lovely guest with us today, the gorgeous Claire Takacs. How are you going, Claire?

Claire: Very well, thank you Janet.

Janet: It’s wonderful to welcome you here. Rising Stars Radio is all about shining the light on the people who are in our community, the wonderful web community, who are taking action and really implementing things that they’ve learned into their businesses, and getting results, and very generously sharing tips with you about things that they’ve learned that’s going to make it so much easier for you when you’re there. So people who are actually at the coal face, sharing really practical things that are going to help you to get results. Claire has been a member of our community for ages now, Claire, it’s been a few years, I think.

Claire: It has.

Janet: Yeah, you’re definitely a part of the family.

Claire: Thank you.

Janet: Which is really lovely. So Claire, let’s start off … and also for everybody to know, my intention is to try and be able to get as much information from Claire and as much help from you as I can, in about 20 minutes. So we’re going to be zapping straight into the action. Claire, would you mind sharing with people, who it is that you help, and how is it that you help them?

Claire: Okay, I’m focusing on women who have micro businesses, very small businesses who work either online or who also have businesses that are offline. I’m targeting women who are basically single or divorced and don’t have that financial stability or structure that would come if you’re in a relationship.

Janet: Right.

Claire: Women who have children who are now financially out or about to be, and they’re really in the process of looking at their finances and creating a business that can carry them through to their later years, because the government keeps changing rules about retirement. A lot of the women that I’m supporting need to obtain skills and develop a mindset to be able to create the lifestyle that they really want, and also to start putting a greater value on their work, and really getting paid what they’re actually worth.

Janet: So women who … I guess it’s sort of like their ship’s burnt, in a way, they have to really create something that’s going to be sustainable for them, because they don’t have that kind of safety net.

Claire: That’s true, they don’t, and also I want them to stop putting limits on themselves, because quite often, they’ve got such a wealth of experience, and they don’t realize exactly how much they do know, and the knowledge that they can use in their businesses to help other people.

Janet: Right, yeah. You’ve got a bit of experience working with people, with life coaching and that sort of experience, haven’t you?

Claire: I’ve got my life coaching qualification. I also spent 18 years until last year, working in government departments and a couple of non-government organizations, with people who have lots and lots of … I suppose you could call it ‘head space problems’, and just really seeing the mindset that people have had, working with people with mental health issues, drug abuse issues, all sorts of different problems. Part of my role was to help support people with their recovery and also give them information about strategies and techniques to help them get through what they were going through.

Janet: Yeah, that’s just fantastic, to be able to being 18 years of experience working with people in really challenging situations … to be able to bring those skills and being able to help people in those situations, to now be able to bring that over, with the people who you’re working now, with these businesswomen, helping them create that success. You certainly have the experience and the expertise. You’re backing it with a lot of credibility that you’re bringing into this business.

Claire: Yeah, and it’s all about mindset. It doesn’t matter which group of people you work with, it’s all about the mindset and the attitude.

Janet: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, really, that’s the thing that really determines people’s success or not, isn’t it? It’s not so much if you’ve got the great business idea, it’s whether you’ve got your head straight to be able to get you there.

Claire: Yeah, it’s about the beliefs you have about yourself, and the faith you have in yourself, that you can actually do it. Also asking for help from people, and looking out for people who can help you and support you along the way. It makes a huge difference to have that help and support.

Janet: Yeah, absolutely, and that’s a lot where you fall in this, to helping people to do that. How do you actually work with people at the moment? I know that this business is in the start-up phase. So if there’s somebody who’s listening to this interview and thinks, “You know what, Claire is describing me,” and wants to know a little bit more about how you can help them, what sort of things … how do you help people now, and how are you planning to be able to help people more as the business grows?

Claire: What I’m doing now is setting up a series of webinars for people, to help with their mindset and look at different strategies that we can use. As part of that, I’m offering one-on-one sessions as well, mostly by Skype, because most people don’t live near me anyway, so we do a lot of Skype work. In the past, I did a lot of one-on-one coaching … I did most of it over the phone anyway. So that’s what I’m doing at the moment. Also giving them the resources, and finding out information for them that will help them along the way. So they don’t have to worry about going out looking for it. I can say, “These are some of the strategies I’ve found, these are some of the other resources I’ve found for you.” Then they can use those as well.

Janet: Yeah, absolutely. Because that’s the thing that people need the expert for, is you want … there’s so much information out there, how to know what is the right thing to do, to have somebody with your experience that can say, “Forget all of that white noise, this is the tool, the resource, that’s going to work for you.”

Claire: Exactly. Also one of the things I found … it doesn’t matter where people come from and what they’re doing … is that a lot of people have a fear of success, and that’s something that’s not recognized, so it’s about recognizing that as well. That quite often, people are more scared of success than anything else, but they disguise it as a fear of failure or something else.

Janet: Yeah, isn’t that crazy? It’s very very true, really true. Where can people find you, what’s your business name?

Claire: My business name is Business Mindset Mastery, and I have a Facebook page with that, Business Mindset Mastery, and also businessmindsetmastery.tv, which is going to be the podcast channel. I also will have a personal website, which is my name, C-L-A-I-R-E-T-A-K-A-C-S dot com.

Janet: Excellent, and we’ll put links to that on the wonderful Rising Stars Radio website, just below this interview. So if you’re listening to this on iTunes, you can just go over to Rising Stars Radio, and you’ll be able to find the links there to Claire. Otherwise just, yeah, write those down. That’s interesting, talking about businessmindsetmastery.tv, that brings us over to the next part of our interview where we talk about what programs that you have been enrolled in through Wonderful Web Women, through our company, what were the programs and what did you do? Like what were the things that you were able to learn and to start to implement? Probably talking about having a URL, having a website, that’s businessmindsetmastery.tv, kind of gives a bit of an indication.

Claire: Initially I went to The Shine Online, and then I did Me TV Mastery. You said I’ve been with you for a while.

Janet: Yeah.

Claire: The thing with your programs is that initially I didn’t even have the Facebook page and didn’t know how Facebook worked. I didn’t know what technology I had on my PC at that time, and I found out through your program that I actually had something on there to help me record … I mean edit what I’d recorded. How to use my camera on my mobile phone, I had no idea about that at all. So with your program, I was able to experiment with it and play around with it, and realize that the way you think you present is different to the way you turn out.

So things like, when I thought I was having gap in speaking, it actually looked like just a natural pause. The more I practiced, the more comfortable I became. Some afternoons, I would just sit here and just keep recording and playing it back, and recording and playing it back, to get really really comfortable with it. Now I can record myself when I’m walking down the beach, and bring it back and pop it in.

Janet: That’s really good, because I can remember when you did your first lot of recordings. Because the nice part about our programs is you have that private Facebook group, so that you’ve got a kind of a safe place, where you can put your recordings and say, “Can everybody have a look and say what do you think is good?” I can remember you actually leaving comments going, “I’m a bit worried that I’ve come across too this way,” or, “Am I coming across too strong?” That’s probably not the right word, but you’re very much a no-bullshit type person, which is a lovely part of your style. I can remember you thinking, “Oh, is that come over too much, or not enough?” Yeah, so …

Claire: Yeah, it’s been a really interesting experience, and now I’m just so comfortable with it, I’ll just record and I’ll just put it up. I thought, “People, that’s me, and accept that.” I think people like it when you are the real you, when you’re not trying to be something different. It’s been a huge learning for me, and it was just amazing. Like I said, I didn’t even know I had technology already on my laptop.

Janet: Yeah, that’s fantastic.

Yeah, and that’s the nice part isn’t it? A lot of times, it seems as if it’s going to cost you a fortune to be able to do something like set up a professional-looking regular video podcasting, a TV station. It can seem like it’s going to be expensive and highly skilled, but from what you’re saying, is you were able to realize that you actually didn’t have to spend extra money, you had all the resources anyway. It was knowing how to use them, and the confidence to be able to do that.

Claire: Also in your Facebook group, as you mentioned, Janet, the private Facebook group, people would take photos of how they were using their technology and the camera, putting it up on a clothes horse, on a tissue box, and things like that, which made us all realize that it doesn’t matter how you set it up, you will have this great recording anyway. It was just a really … I can’t think of the word … it’s an experience where you made us realize you didn’t have to, like you said, have a heap of money, you don’t have to spend a heap of money. Everyone’s got what they want, just use what you’ve already got.

Janet: Yeah, that’s really good advice actually. When you’re listening to this, that’s probably a fantastic takeaway from you today. If there’s only one thing that you can remember from our interview, and of course you’ll remember lots more, is you’ve actually probably got everything that you need now. You just need to know how to use it, and the support to be able to implement it, so you’ve got confidence.

Claire: Yeah, and just keep practicing and trying it out, and watching yourself. If there’s something that you don’t like, go back and do it again. I think that came out in your groups as well, where people would put up a video of themselves and make comments criticizing themselves, that the rest of us didn’t notice what the other person was criticizing themselves for.

Janet: It’s funny, isn’t it,. I think that’s where video … it can be incredibly confronting for you as a person who’s doing it, especially for the first time. But for those very same reasons, that it allows you to be yourself, it’s capturing who you are, it is incredibly … a very very powerful way to connect with your ideal customer, because they will be able to get from your body language … and be able to see from talking to you or listening to you, that, “You know, she’s my kind of chick.”

Claire: Mm-hm.

Janet: “I can feel the right energy there.”

Claire: I think too, then you become comfortable, your passion comes out, and people really connect with that.

Janet: Absolutely. The thing that I’ve quite liked that you’ve talked about there is not having that confidence, or even realizing, actually, that you had everything you needed. Then getting that confidence of the techy stuff wasn’t a barrier anymore. Now, you’re actually … going from the stage of not having a Facebook page, not even knowing how to create videos, now … you said at the very beginning, you’re actually going to be running a series of webinars, which is wonderful.

Claire: Yes.

Janet: That’s such a great step.

Claire: I actually have taken … I’ve got the content there and took a little bit out, and recorded it separately and put it up on my Facebook page as well, because I found through you that you can take out content and re-purpose it. So I’ve been learning that it’s not just one thing that you do, that you can actually use it in many different ways.

Janet: Absolutely, and that’s very much that loaves and the fishes model that I talk about in the Shine program, isn’t it? You can start off with just one thing and you can milk it, baby, for all it’s worth.

Claire: Like I said, I haven’t even run the webinar for the public yet, but I’ve taken that little
piece out and put it … we’ve got the slides recorded just for that and put it up there. Yeah, I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve just got my bits of paper out to mind-map the seven modules that I’ll be doing, plus the first one, which is the content’s already done for the first one. I’ve got two versions, I’ve got one for Australia and one for some people in the UK. I’ll be running at 5.30 on Good Friday morning.

Janet: Excellent, that’s fantastic. I’m just so impressed. So you’ll be doing those live?

Claire: I’ll be doing those webinars live, yes.

Janet: Good on you, that is fantastic. That takes confidence, to do that live. It’s that classic thing of, if you do one thing that scares you, and then you master it, it just gives you so much more confidence to do the next thing, doesn’t it?

Claire: It does, and I found that when you talk about equipment, I found that I need to actually stand when I’m running it, to have the energy, and pretend that there’s an audience there. So I actually put everything up on the ironing board. I don’t have a bench top or anything else, that’s the highest thing I’ve got in my place. So I thought, “I’ll just stick it up on the ironing board.”

Janet: I love it.

Claire: I had my notes on my old PC. I had my other computer there, and off I go. Yeah, I’ve recorded it myself just to hear what it’s like. The best way for me to run it is that way.

Janet: That is fantastic, and you know what? I’ve just decided what the name of this podcast series is, this particular one is going to be … is the Ironing Board Webinar Method.

Claire: That’ll be another webinar hack.

Janet: Yes, absolutely. I love it, that’s great. It let’s you keep your energy really really high.

Claire: I tend to move my hands around a lot when I talk, and that’s where my energy comes from. So I stand up there and wave my hands around, and that’s how I’ll be running it, at 5.30 on Friday morning.

Janet: That’s brilliant. I do exactly the same, I don’t use the ironing board, mind you. I pace around my office, and I gesticulate.

Claire: Yeah.

Janet: Really really important to do, yeah.

Claire: With the webinar, I don’t think powerpoints … I need to actually be there to move the slides along.

Janet: Yeah.

Claire: So I can’t pace around, unfortunately.

Janet: Yeah, you’ve got to multitask. That’s a … brilliant tips, Claire. Is there anything else that you want to say before we wrap up?

Claire: I can’t think of anything at the moment. As you know, I’ve been with you for a long time, and I hadn’t done anything, I was just playing around with it. It was only when I decided to actually leave my job last year that I’ve actually had the time, and to now decide how I want to run it, and how I actually want to do things. So, yeah.

Janet: That’s great.

Claire: It’s been a brilliant experience, like I said. I knew nothing, not even a Facebook page. Now I’ve got my private Facebook page, plus two other Facebook pages. I was doing social media for a friend of mine for a while, to help her out on her business. It’s just the support and the knowledge that you don’t have to spend a huge amount of money to be able to do this.

Janet: Yeah, that’s brilliant. Good on you, that’s the nice thing, a lot of times people … like you might say, invest in a program as you’ve done with Shine and Me TV. That’s why I make all of those modules lifetime access, because I know that sometimes you can start off, but you’ve got to get your ducks in a row in terms of what else is happening in your life-

Claire: Yeah.

Janet: -with work and business and things like that. A lot of times people will go, “It’s never going to work, I’ve lost it, I’ve missed the boat now.” Whereas you’ve been able to go, “Okay, I can do this much now, and now I’m going to come back, now that I’ve got the head space and the time, and I’m going to really get stuck into it.” So good on you.

Claire: It’s great, because I do go back. I’m re-visiting the modules now, because I’ve got a different computer. I’m on a Mac now, and I thought I need to go back and have a look at a few more things, to see how I’m going.

Janet: That’s great. Very excited for you, Claire. We’ll have you back on Rising Stars Radio within the year, and we’ll be able to hear how your webcast went.

Claire: I’ll be looking forward to that.

Janet: Yeah, that’ll be really good. Thank you so much for your time, and everybody who’s listening, my challenge to you is to take one thing that you have learned today, whether it was an actual strategy that you learned, like the ironing board webinar method, or whether it was a mindset tip on just doing it, just taking those few steps and actually just doing it. Whatever it is, take one thing at least from today that you’ve learned from Claire, and implement it this week into your business. I really encourage you to do that. You do that every single week, and you are going to see huge changes in the success that you have in your business. So just those one things, and what would be wonderful for both Claire and I is if you can let us know, so drop over to Claire’s website. Would you mind just sharing the URL again for us, Claire?

Claire: There’s businessmindsetmastery.tv, and there’s also my Facebook page, which is Business Mindset Mastery, and C-L-A-I-R-E-T-A-K-A-C-S dot com.

Janet: Excellent, so yes, if you go over and just talk to Claire, say, “Hey, I listened to you on Rising Stars Radio, and this is what I loved about what you shared,” it’s always wonderful to get some feedback. I’d also love to hear from you, so you can drop us an email at [e-mail], or if you’re listening to this and you’re actually on the blog page, leave a comment down below or a question as well. That would be wonderful, and we’ll both be able to come back and have the conversation with you. Again, thank you for your time, everybody, today. Thank you so much, Claire, for being such an inspiration.

Claire: Thank you for the opportunity, Janet.

Janet: Okay, bye.

Claire: Bye.

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