Learning And Dealing With Your Crises With Dolores Hirschmann
You all heard the phrase, "learn from your mistakes". Most people would try to avoid making mistakes. Though there are some who look for crisis because they want to grow. To quote the guest today, "Your pain becomes your purpose." Join your host, Chad Burmeister and his guest, Dolores Hirschmann. Dolores is the founder of Masters in Clarity, which is a coaching service that helps people clarify their ideas for impact. From the communication aspect to the plan of action, Dolores is in charge of clarifying that. Listen in today to learn the story of Dolores. Learn her times of crisis, her achievements, and finding her role in her company.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Learning And Dealing With Your Crises With Dolores Hirschmann
I've got a special friend with me I met in Florida in 2020. Dolores Hirschmann is the Founder-CEO of Masters in Clarity. She helps companies become clear on their message. I'd love for you to share, Dolores, how you would describe what Masters in Clarity does and then we'll dig into the show.
My ideal client is an idea that can change their world. What we do is we help people clarify the idea for impact, communications aspect of that idea and plan of action because we need to communicate to get the momentum for people to listen, hear and follow. We need to have a clear plan of action to hold the hand of your audience and take them on a journey for impact.
Take note. That's important. Be clear in your messaging. I like to dig in on this show for our audience to get to know you as an individual. The first question I ask goes back. If you think about when you're 5, 6, 7 or 8 years old, your first memories, what was your passion back then?
It was a hard childhood. In part of that story, there was a consistent shutting down of my voice from a young age. I was a reader. I lived in books and through people's stories. For many years, I wasn't quiet by any means. I was always singing and dancing but it was always like, "You're too loud and intense.” There was an internal journey of finding my freedom in reading. I was literally an avid reader from a young age. Imagination, writing and storytelling were at the core of my childhood. I remember I was in third grade, I wrote some short stories. The teacher loved them so much. She had the whole class illustrate my stories. They were featured in an event at the school. I always said after 60, I'm going to be 100% of a writer. I'm a writer at heart. My early childhood was a lot of that reading, writing and imagining what's possible.
I love that story because, in a lot of cases, our biggest pain in life becomes the thing that once we face it, we learn from that. That becomes your biggest strength. There's a free throw shooter who is terrible at free throws and then he's like, "I'm going to go learn how to do free throws." It's important for people who read this blog that whatever struggle you face, that probably is going to be the best thing that could ever happen to you, no matter what it is. That's hard to say when you're in it.
Your pain becomes your purpose.
The next question ties the thread. I call it the thin thread between then and now. It's obvious for our readers based on what you shared. What can you say about that? It's almost like a suppressed voice that you had as a kid. What do you think there is about that in what you're doing now with helping unmuting people?
I have a long journey of exploration, testing and doing things. I've been an entrepreneur for many years. My accent is from Argentina. I've been in the US for several years. Several years ago, I went back to school. I studied coaching. I launched my coaching business. It was great but I was bored. I asked myself, I'm like, "Am I bored again? Why is it that I can't ever find that thing? What would I do all day long?" The answer to that question was I would hang out with people with big ideas. That's when I became a TEDx organizer. The path took me there. I realized, one, how much I love empowering people to speak up on behalf of their ideas, messages and movements and two, how good I was in helping those people clarify their message to engage their audience. Through my journey of personal exploration, I realized that I stand for people and in many cases, give people words to move mountains in order to accomplish their impact goals.
I decided that we're going to be working together because on June 23, 2021, I'm going to Atlanta and we're recording a show that's going to be broadcast to 90 million people in 200 countries. It's called God Made Millionaire. A lot of people think they're self-made millionaires. It's controversial in the title but it's on Sundays right after the TD Jakes show on The Word Network. I've been connected now on Facebook to this guy, TC, who runs the show. We're going to be talking about the app that we're building called 77 PRAY that connects people up. I've already written about five pages of notes, which I never do. Usually, I wing these things but this one matters. This is a TED Talk level conversation so this will be fun. You've already shared that you were "shhh" in those conversations as a kid. Everybody faces at the time what feels like mountains. Can you share something with our audience a painful memory that you're comfortable sharing that happened to you in life?
Do I share the story about my pancreatic tumor when I was twenty? That was physically painful but it was an awakening and an amazing personal journey because I was told I was going to die and I didn't. Here I am. I'm a mom of four kids. I'm going to share the gift of crisis. In some ways, it propelled me forward. Sometimes, you need something to happen to you so that it happens for you so that it propels you forward. I always had the luxury of being able to work and be a mom full-time. I always say I worked and I was a mom 100% of my time. My husband is like, "That math doesn't compute," but that computes to me because as many hours of a mom I want it to be and I worked and had my own businesses.
Several years ago, my husband lost his job. Within 30 days, my little tiny boutique coaching business had to double in revenue month-to-month in order to keep the mortgage payment, four kids, two cars, the whole thing. I remember telling my husband, "I don't sell shoes. I can't sell more shoes.” I work with people and their emotions because I was mostly coaching at that time. I spent the month of December of that year saying, "I can't. I’m a mom." I’m literally going to bed crying and waking up crying. The identity wasn't mine. Women have a lot that this concept that the whole family can rely on you financially was the scariest feeling ever. I've been scared for my life before. That isn't scary enough. When you're scared for the life of your children and your family, that's scary.
I spent the whole month of December feeling like a victim and that there was no way I could do it. As it came to January 1st, I had two clear thoughts. One, I knew I couldn't do it and I was clear of what life would look like if I failed. If I couldn't pick up the financial tab of my family because I knew my husband couldn't for months or years. The other thought in my head was like, "I know I can't but what if I could? What would life look like if I can pull this off?" You know how they say, "Think positive. Think I can." The concept of thinking I can was preposterous. I could entertain my imagination of, "If I were to be able to pull this off, what is possible? What would life look like?" That was like the tiny seed of possibility that I could muster. Maybe I'm naïve or I wasn't positive thinking, that was all the tiniest door I could open. I held on to that.
I woke up that January 1st and said, "If I were to be able to do this, what would I be doing?" That literally was the question I asked myself every morning. "If I were able to do this, what would I’ve been doing?” Would I be calling our client and say, "Do you have any friend who needs my services? Would you refer me to two people?" Long story short, I was making about $10,000 a month the year before, which is not small but not enough for my family as an only income earner. By January 30, 2017, I made $20,000 that month. I continued to do that for the whole rest of the year. I've doubled every year.
I tell that story because now I can share without crying. It was heartbreaking because of the situation that we were in. It wasn't just my husband losing a job. It was breaking off of our family. I tell it with the pain that it was but also how proud I am of my family, myself and the team that became Masters in Clarity. At that time, I was a solopreneur. Now at Masters in Clarity, we have two purposes. We have the purpose of serving our clients so that they can have an impact with their ideas. We have an internal purpose that all my team members are moms. They are financially responsible for the future of their families. In Masters in Clarity, we are a family of women helping each other. What we've built, I'm proud of.
I wrote down the gift of crisis because I only know one other person who would truly call it that and look for it. This other person, Mike.
I'm not looking for them yet. I'm not that involved. If you tell someone the gift of crisis when you're in the middle of the dark tunnel, they're going to slap you.
Antarctic Mike ran an ultramarathon in Antarctica. He trained inside of an icebox like what Rocky does when he’s punching the mitts. He’s like, “I go looking for those because I know that there's something on the other side.” When you go into life knowing you've lived through that and you get a gut punch, it's like, "I got another one."
Crisis Learning: Sometimes you need something to happen to you so that it propels you forward.
You could say that I did too when I graduated from university. I had pancreatic surgery when I was twenty. That was hard but I took it with a lot of humor. Here's the thing. The world around me was saying goodbye to me because I was dying. Inside of me, there was such a dissonance because I am very intuitive. There were no signs inside of me that I was dying. Nothing made sense to me. It did make sense the morning I woke up with a tube down my throat attached to morphine because they had taken a part of my pancreas. That was real.
Short of that, I never had this feeling that I was going to die. When I graduated from university about four years later because I got behind because of my surgery, I told my dad I signed up for a program. I'm heading to Malaysia to do community work. I lived in the jungle in a hammock between two trees for three months literally building bridges and wells in the middle of the jungle in North Borneo. It was by choice but it was brutal. I had this knowing that I needed to see it through. If I could survive the jungle, I could survive anything. My drive will put me in situations where it's incredibly uncomfortable and out of my comfort zone. I do thrive in that environment.
You've heard from different talks and things in life that if you can believe it then you can do it. The thing that's flipped for me personally is that if I believe that my Creator believes in me to be in the situation, it changes it by one degree. That one degree is so crazy and powerful. I'm doing this retreat in Arizona and I’m thinking, “There are people that are going to be there. I got to put out the agenda and all this stuff." It's going to happen. You let the pen go and let it flow. The right people who are going to be in the room are going to be in the room.
That's the beauty. That is what I tapped into in that moment of shift when I needed to grow my business to where it is. Funny enough, when I married my husband, there was a knowing that one day, our roles will flip. I didn't want it but it was a knowing. There was a knowing that would happen. I didn't know when, why and how but it was going to happen. When my mind was in the now, there was a freakout level but when my mind, heart and head was in my internal knowing, I knew it was all how it was supposed to be. This is a silly example, I will wake up one day and I might have a conflict in my calendar, something overlapping. I will look at my calendar and I will say, "I'm waiting for the miracle because it's going to sort itself out. There's nothing I need to do. Nobody I need to call." It's my internal joke like, "How is this going to shift?" It shifts. I've never had a scheduling conflict. I'm using that as an example because it's so little. In the big scheme of things, it's non-important but if I can see the hand of the Creator in my daily calendar then I know my back is coming.
It's funny, the call that came in while we're doing the show, they teach you to turn your phone off. That's okay. When I said, "I don't know who's going to show up in the room and everything," it's Darryll Stinson, who's my religious counselor when it comes to this. He's got some scheduling conflicts. I was like, "Are you going to be able to make a few days?" There he is. I have one of the casitas.
The moment you understand that you have to show up, the universe, the Creator, God, we all have different words for this, the world around you is aligning with your yeses. Every time you say yes and you move forward, everything falls into place. When we recoil is when things shrink too.
There was a guy. I went on his ski trip. He has 48 CEOs every year come to Canada called Maple Summit. His name is Dan Martell. He's a Board of Advisor for dozens of companies. He did a Facebook Live and he said, "You either have dollar problems, $10 problems, $100 problems, $1,000 problems, $100,000 problems, you get to decide what level of things are defined as problems." I felt like at the beginning of 2021, I moved from $100 problems up to $100,000 problems. You're like, "Am I ready to play in this game?" If you go to a casino in Las Vegas and you're used to bringing in $1,000 and being comfortable losing that but when you're playing in a bigger game, you have to be more comfortable that $100,000 chip is on the table but it's just a chip.
I remember the first time I invested $500 in my own personal development. I was so scared. You and I belong to a mastermind that costs a little bit more than that. It's what it is.
It's what game you are willing to play in. Some people look at significant other sometimes like, "How big of a check is it? I'm not working right now. You know what that means?" It's like, "The million dollars in the business that we run wouldn't be a million-dollar business if we don't make some of these kinds of choices." It's wild. If you could wave the proverbial magic wand that would change everything for you, you've had some successes since 2017. There's always something that if we tweaked it by half a degree, have you defined what that is? Where are you on that journey? What changes?
I've tweaked something to make things easier. It's something that I'm rattling because when you have an external challenge, it is an opportunity to ask yourself, "What is my internal blockage?" In my case, I want to increase my traffic and scale. I am reflecting with you, Chad. This is not pre-rehearsed. I've been struggling with an idea of a big investment in raising my visibility on social media platforms. It's a big investment but what’s holding me back is this sense, "Am I ready for that visibility?" There's a little bit of fear. As you were saying, growth is growth. There are great parts of growth and some intimidating parts of growth. It says, "Am I ready to run that multimillion-dollar company that I know I will?” There's a knowing that I'm getting there. There's no doubt of that. It says, “How much more am I going to delay it by playing small inside of me? What is it that I'm scared of that might bring it forth if I played bigger?”
It's usually a self-limiting belief that’s in there. It got there somehow and clearing the mechanism. It can be a challenge. What's the worst that could happen? I remember Will Smith talked about this one time. He said he was planning to jump out of an airplane in a tandem jump. The scary part was the months leading up to it. It's like, "What if?” He jumped. He was like, “This is awesome." That's the hard part. It’s taking the first leap of faith then it's like, "That was easy." Like your pancreatic this and that and your business running the household for the last several years, you know the next plateau.
You already know. It's a foregone conclusion. We're all human. We have these things that happen. That's my purpose for this show. It’s to show everybody that we all face pain, health, physical and mental constraints in life. Getting people like you to share, "This is what happened. This is where you can be," let's get everybody past the next plateau. The last question that I have for you is the faith journey question. You've said before as some people look at God, the universe, all of that. What role does faith play in your life and however you define the term faith?
I was raised Catholic. In Argentina, we believe in a God of love. That's how I was raised. As I evolved, as I became a mom, I have an open view of faith. It can be called John or Mary. I don't believe in labels. I believe in understanding and knowing that there is something bigger than us, energy, God or spirit that unites us and that we are all part of a common journey. When I was young, I have always had this belief that I was never going to be put in a situation I couldn't handle because I don't handle things on my own. I never have and I never will because the moment that I'm challenged is a moment that I surrender. The moment that I know that "This is bigger than my physical being. Let all the players come into the field. Let's all played together." That translates to, "The moment I know something is too hard for me is the moment I'm not alone."
There's a guy who came by the firepit named Dr. Jim Wilder. He's a neurotheologist. He said there are 614 simultaneous laws in the Old Testament that you are supposed to follow. The Old Testament is more law regulated and the New is more love. He said it would be impossible for a human being to consider all 614 laws at the same time. It's 2 to the power of 614. He's like, "That's every neuron in the known universe times 2 x 3.14, which is infinity." Making a decision can be tough like the one you're in. That's where when you go, "Mr. Creator, Mrs. Creator, what is it that you want my next step to be?" It's like cutting butter with a warm knife and it goes.
Crisis Learning: Growth is growth. There are great parts of growth and there are intimidating parts of growth.
Thank you. If I'm supposed to do this decision that I'm debating, show me a sign that I should.
It's amazing what happens when the sign happens. You'll get a phone call. You go to sleep. You'll have a certain dream. You'll wake up. You'll be like, "Got it." Wait a month or start tomorrow. When you turn it over to the universe and to the Creator, that's when things get fun. Dolores, it’s always fabulous talking with you. If our readers want to do a TED Talk, they need help with clarity or they want to work with you, how would they reach out to you?
The best way is to come to MastersInClarity.com. You can find everything about us there. I want you to think about this. It’s where we turn you into a master of your clarity. If you come to MastersInClarity.com, you will master the clarity of your message and of your action plan.
We've got a little work to do so consider me your next client. We'll put you on that journey to the bigger company at some point.
Thank you for having me.
Dolores, thanks for joining the show. We will see you next time. Have an amazing day.
Important Links:
YouTube – Dolores Hirschmann
About Dolores Hirschmann
I work with Speakers, Entrepreneurs, Authors, and Executives to CLARIFY their message. My clients gain the CLARITY they need to communicate and engage their audience, teams and stakeholders. My clients shift from talking about what they do to talking about what they stand for. They lead the conversation. They become THOUGHT LEADERS. Thought Leadership allows my clients to realize the financial and impact goals they envision.
I believe in people and IDEAS and I know that lack of CLARITY in communication, planning, and execution is what comes between great IDEAS and the IMPACT these ideas can have in the world.
As a Coach, I believe in aligning my clients, with what makes them flow with the strategy that the project/company needs. I bring to the table my academic business background, entrepreneurship experience, my skills as a TEDx Organizer (one of the largest TEDx in the East Coast) & my training as an Executive Coach. I align the person, to their message and the action.
