Mimika Cooney Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
To subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below:
Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes
Click Here to Subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed)
If you like the show, we would be so grateful if would consider leaving the show a review in iTunes as well as Stitcher Radio. A couple minutes of your time can help the show immensely! Thank YOU!
Introducing Mimika Cooney
Mimika Cooney is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots free podcast.
She is a TV Host, published author, speaker, business branding, and video marketing expert.
Her passion is helping entrepreneurs attract their perfect clients and position their brand for higher sales by sharing her branding and marketing expertise.
She is the host of Mimika TV, a web show that inspires entrepreneurs to build a brilliant business brand, and quite simply seems to be having the time of her life.
And why shouldn’t she when she is 100% authentic and is quite obviously playing to her strengths everyday.
Strengths that she has built up by throwing herself into the kind of environments that would freak so many people out.
How The Dots Joined Up For Mimika
Standing and presenting live in front of the camera for UK TV, working in the modelling industry, being a public speaker.
All of them taking her further and further outside her comfort zone, helping to building a future that is all her and her alone.
So why has she had such an eclectic career and challenged herself in environments as we have already mentioned?
And where does she see it all leading? To a perfectly defined master plan, or a make it up as she goes along type of vibe?
Wel lets find out as we bring onto the show , to start joining up dots with the one and only Mimika Cooney
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Mimika Cooney such as:
How wanting someone else’s success is like wearing badly fitted shoes, you can wear them but they will just pinch and hurt you everyday.
Why for many years she ignored her inner compass and would travel a route that made her unhappy, until making the decision to find her own path.
How she sees herself as delusional and never grasps that things will take twice as along as it normally takes.
And lastly….
How she battled against the prejudice of others when first wanting to be a photographer but wouldn’t allow their bigoted views to stop her dreams of a bigger life.
Mimika Cooney Books
How To Connect With Mimika Cooney
Return To The Top Of Mimika Cooney
If you enjoyed this episode with Mimika Cooney, why not check out other inspirational chat with Paula Gosney, Hal Elrod, John Lee Dumas and the amazing One Year No Beer
You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy
Full Transcription Of Mimika Cooney Interview
David Ralph [0:00]
Do you have a business that can’t get going or would love to create your own one that works whilst you sleep and is built around the things you love? Well, podcasters mastery is the place to go. To learn the six simple steps to create a business that flourishes connecting with thousands of customers that tell you what products they want. podcast is mastery is the online route to business success. Check us out now.
Intro [0:22]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be but somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling and Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:48]
Yes, hello everybody and welcome to Join Up Dots. It’s another episode of your favourite inspiration or motivation, motivational show, and I’m a bit stressed out. My guest has already told me off I’m mispronouncing her name and so I’m playing it through in my head as I’m gonna go into the introduction. So if I do get it wrong at the end, I do apologise but I’m sure she’s gonna tell me but she is a guest today who is our she’s got so much on our place on true. She’s a TV host published author, speaker business branding and video marketing expert. Passion is helping entrepreneurs attract their perfect clients and position their brand for higher sales by sharing her branding and marketing expertise. She’s a host of a mimic TV, a web show that inspires entrepreneurs to build a brilliant business brand and quite simply seems to be having their time of her life. And why shouldn’t she when she’s 100% authentic, and he’s quite obviously playing to her strengths every day, strengths that she’s built up by throwing herself into the kind of environments that would freak so many people out, standing and presenting live in front of the cameras for uk tv, working in the modelling industry being a public speaker, all of them taking her further and further outside her comfort zone, helping to build a future by his or hers and hers alone. So Why has she had such an eclectic career and challenged herself in environments as we’ve already mentioned? And where does she see all leading to a perfectly defined master plan? Or am I making it up as she goes along type of vibe? Well, let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mika Cooney, how are you?
Mimika Cooney [2:22]
Hey, David, thanks for having me. I’m so excited to be here.
David Ralph [2:25]
I’m excited as well. I screwed up your name the first time but I got it right the second time, didn’t I?
Mimika Cooney [2:30]
Well, no worries. We got it. Right. Right. I get my name butchered a lot, but I’m sure you probably find as well the different accents. When are you sitting on sitting in gold or Blyton? I’m in Charlotte, North Carolina in the UK in the US. But I can just imagine you get a lot of guests with different pronunciations. Right.
David Ralph [2:47]
We certainly do. But But your name sounds sort of exotically sort of Indian kind of,
Mimika Cooney [2:51]
well, actually, people think Japan is darling. But no, it’s my dad is Greek. My mom is South African with the British background. So Perfect. I lived in England for six years. And my mom and my sisters live in Colangelo, good old York, North Yorkshire, and we’ve transplanted ourselves here in the US from nine years ago. So yeah, it’s a bit of a fruit salad mix, I’d say.
David Ralph [3:14]
And so where do you feel most grounded? Obviously, having a background like you’ve had where you have travelled the world and you’ve tried different things, and you’ve operated you haven’t just travelled you? You’ve kind of gone into it for Oh, really, um, you know, being a TV host is quite a big deal. So where do you feel most grounded?
Mimika Cooney [3:32]
Well, I’ll tell you, I feel more comfortable with change. For me. if things aren’t moving, I get really uncomfortable. I don’t do the day to day job nine to five. I don’t make a very good employee. Unfortunately, I always want to take the reins. And I’m very much I think people have described me as a catalyst. I really like to start fires. I like to be able to find ways of learning I love constantly doing I’m addicted to podcasts and audio books and I’m always, you know, trying to learn the new best and greatest stories. funniest thing, and for me, I’ve actually feel more comfortable with the uncomfortable, which I know feels weird. But it took me a couple of years to really realise that being comfortable with being able to be adaptable is actually where you’ll, you’ll find like the middle of a storm, right? That’s when you kind of start to feel okay, what isn’t working? And you know, going from there. So yeah, I definitely got used to just adapting having lived in three countries, knowing that, you know, things don’t stay the same things change all the time. And as long as you’re comfortable with change, then things work out.
David Ralph [4:31]
Well. That’s a rare point of view, isn’t it? Most people like to be in the centre of the storm where it’s all calm, and they don’t have to do anything and not constantly dealing with change. But change is good. Change is vibrant. That’s what happens. Nature changes. We all change and we go into bigger things, but most people don’t do
Mimika Cooney [4:50]
know. And I think it’s because of fear. And I think a lot of the time it’s a fear and I hate we always thinking, Oh, I could never do that and oh, you know why would never be able to do that and how dare you I even think I could try that. And I just realised very early on. And I think that’s got this got to do with the way that I grew up as well. I grew up in South Africa under the apartheid system. Now, back in the day, for those of you who don’t know how South Africa was in, we were ostracised from the rest of the world, you know, the rest of the world had forgotten as we weren’t allowed to do any Import Export. So we have a saying in South Africa, which is a bookmark upon which basically means a farmer makes a plan, because if there’s something isn’t working, you need to find a way to fix it. And you need to use the resources you already have around you and make something work. Second example. I grew up with my great grandparents living right next door to us and my grandfather often remember, we we lived on a 12 acre plot of land when my dad was building houses, and he would be calling them agava because if everything was something broken, whether it’s the plumbing or the tractor, he knew how to MacGyver things he would find pieces of metal and scrap metal and, you know, he made me a wheelbarrow out of scraps, you know, and things like that having that sort of mindset of, Okay, well, this isn’t this is broken. You know, we can’t just go and buy a new one on it. Amazon, we have to figure out a way to actually make it work with the resources we have. I really think that stayed with me throughout my childhood and as I grew up and having that kind of can do, you know, attitude, as well as the fact is a South Africans are a little strange in terms of, you know, we all kind of made a tough step like we were told in those days, you know, don’t complain, if you’re gonna, if you’re gonna complain, you’re either going to step up or shut up, either you do something about it, or you get out of the way to let somebody else take the reins, which makes me really understand Ilan musk a lot better because a lot of people think that they give him a bad rap, but I think it’s really got to do with the fact is the way that our culture was, and we were just really very entrepreneurial and you know, how can we figure out a better way so I think that’s kind of stayed with me, that sort of fall off the horse. Well get back on the horse and teach that was the lesson. And that’s kind of just follow me as I’ve grown and develops throughout my personal and business life.
David Ralph [6:55]
But But what you do very well and I have sort of dabbled around on your content. You, you, you, you’re so authentically you the words you use, I can just imagine coming out of your mouth even before I’ve met you. And it just seems to be like, this is me, if you don’t like it, go off to another website go off to a different company, because this is what I do. And I do it very well. And if you like it, you like it. And if you don’t just, you know, fare well. Was that part of the master plan? Or is that been your character all the way through?
Mimika Cooney [7:27]
Well, pretty much I have to say. And I know this is something we will mention at the end of the show, when I get to talk to my younger self, you know, I realised now I’m almost 40 years old that I’m comfortable with who I met who I am, and after too many years, I was so worried about what other people thought so that now I’m like, you know what sought it if you don’t like me, forget it, sign our baby. I want to rather speak to you and spend time and invest in people who gave me and who are not going to try and mould me to be somebody I’m not because I cannot. It’s the same that I’ve coined as wanting somebody else’s success. It’s like wearing the shoes, Ill fitting uncomfortable and just not my style. I guess you can quote me on that one. And I realised that it took me quite a few years to figure that out that, you know, you can’t walk in someone else’s path. You can’t wear somebody else’s shoes, you can’t want the success of the business model they have thinking you can just clone it because it’s not you. Unless you are authentic. It creates this deep seated emotional, and, you know, mental turmoil. I’m sure a lot of the audience who are listening are either either driving home from work or going to work or sitting at work, thinking, I hate my job, I don’t enjoy what I’m doing. It’s soul destroying, unless you’re true to yourself and you listen to that inner voice, you’re going to just get frustrated and then what happens is a sauce to show you externally, your your outside, relationships get affected and then you just playing it small. So I realised you know, and I think it’s got to do with it, you know, going through the school of hard knocks that, you know, either you’re going to stay authentic to yourself when you’re in the middle of the storm. You know, no matter what gets thrown away, if you don’t have a firm foundation and stick to what it is that who you are and what you believe, then you can’t keep people happy. So I think that’s probably where it comes from.
David Ralph [9:11]
I think you’re right and i think the hard knock life I was watching and the I seem to have to watch Annie my house a lot. My daughter’s kind of really into it. And there’s, there’s the two classic song, it’s a hard knock life. And when you sort of watch these things, obviously, they’re made for entertainment value when you are on the journey yourself. It’s like the little messages that get played to you and you sort of like resonate with him on a sort of deeper wave and you will if you if you’re just going to work every day, because I actually think the hard knock lives are good. I think we get stronger, we get more focus, we get more passionate about what we want to do in our life by the Hard Knocks. Do you look back on your life and go Yeah, those hard knocks were actually what battered me into You’ve made me fighting fit for what I’m doing now.
Mimika Cooney [10:03]
Oh, for sure. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. And and it’s, that’s what’s hard. And I think that’s why it’s good that we don’t really know when you’re, you’re younger what’s in store for you for the rest of your life because you’re probably freaked ourselves out. But you know, knowing how much we had to go through, but I really think that having that attitude with me, yeah, I’m really stubborn. I don’t give up easily. And if someone says to me, no, you can’t do it. I’m going to say, watch me, because, you know, I don’t like to take things lying down. And I’m not that even up you said, you know, with the different songs, I see life as a journey along the beach, you know, you’re gonna have sunrises and you’re gonna have sunsets, you’re going to have storms, you’re going to have calm weather sometimes. And sometimes you’re just not even going to know what to expect. And as we’re walking along this beach, we get to, you know, find these pebbles. Now these pebbles are the life lessons. Sometimes people see the pebbles that are stones being thrown at them from other people and you can either take a victim’s mentality and allow those stones to be thrown at you in a you can’t keep them and put them in your backpack, as baggage, and eventually it’s going to slow you down, it’s going to slow down your walk, it’s going to slow down your progress. Or you could look at the pebbles and say, Okay, well, that was a lesson learned, maybe throw it behind me, and leave it as a as a stepping stone for people who will come behind me so they can learn from what I’ve learned, and then help them along the way. So eventually, when you look back at your life, and you look at all the stepping stones, that you’ve used to step over, instead of to, you know, carry with you, you’ll end up feeling a lot more free a lot more. A lot more yourself, where you can eventually when we get to the end of our lives and say, You know what, I used everything that I could and I’ve learned as much as I can, and not even just that, actually, leaving something for somebody else. I’m very legacy minded. And that’s what I feel like everything I do has to have a passion, it has to have a reason, not just for self gain, because I’m not going to last forever. But I want to feel like whatever I can do, can create something that makes somebody else’s life better.
David Ralph [11:53]
And that’s key entrepreneurial spirit, isn’t it? Before you start becoming an entrepreneur You literally look at these millionaires and think they’re all in it for themselves. But once you actually get into it, you realise that at the early stages, I think, right, the very beginning you are in it for yourself just so that you can get the ball rolling, but you get to a certain point, and it is about the legacy, isn’t it? It’s about writing the book that helps someone, it’s about making that coaching programme, it’s about it’s about, it’s about, it’s all about other people and leaving your mark on the planet.
Mimika Cooney [12:27]
For sure, and that’s the thing is we can’t be consumers of life, you know, we have to feel like, because life is temporary, if you look at the history and look at my family history, and I think, you know, things that they did have paved the way like even my mom’s side off, you know, from England, and they moved during the Anglo Boer War to South Africa. And in those days, they were like, are you crazy, this is like a six week journey on a ship, that you have to go to a foreign country that nobody knows but they were they were, you know, forward thinking enough to think that you know, we are going to pioneer the way to create a new opportunities for the rest of the family. And of course, now you know, our family. You know, settled in South Africa. Now a lot of us are back over in Europe. But if you think about it, if someone before us wasn’t willing to take those steps, we wouldn’t be where we are now. I mean, even most Americans who listen, you know, our family legacies all come back, Americans are an eclectic mix, like South Africans from all over the world. So you have to appreciate the journey. And I think if once we realise that the journey is part of, it’s actually the fun part, then I think we can start to really enjoy it instead of thinking, you know, looking at someone and saying, oh, they’ve arrived and well Wish I could be like that, unless you’re willing to walk in their shoes, you know, you just got to be happy with where you’re at. So that’s my my take on things.
David Ralph [13:36]
So how do you know when you are where you’re at? How do you know when you’ve actually found your thing? Because I think that’s the stumbling block that so many people have right at the very beginning, knowing what that first step is, and you’ve had so many different steps in so many different directions. So what what was your first kind of big.in your Join Up Dots timeline that really started moving you in the direction that you are now
Mimika Cooney [14:01]
Well, I’ll tell you secret, there is no arrived, there isn’t, I still don’t feel like I know enough or have done enough or have gotten to where I, you know, we have these grandiose ideas in our mind. But one thing I’ve realised is for too many years, I ignored my internal compass, that would you know that those times where you’re not, you’re not happy to wake up in the morning, you have that internal sense, like you’re sitting and you’ve got that this pit in your stomach. And, you know, I’m a woman of faith. And I believe, you know, God has always spoken me through me through things like that. And if I ignore that voice, I’m just going to get more and more uncomfortable, more and more unhappy. It’s only when you moving forward because last lap bumper cars, right, unless we actually put our foot on the pedal and start moving forward. Yes, we’re going to hit the wall. Yes, we might bump into other people and kind of move along. But unless we actually put, you know, pedal to the metal, you can’t learn and grow. So you have to continue to be moving forward. And that sometimes means taking scary steps, trying something new. And believe me, darling, I have tried and failed so many times, that it’s almost like you Keep you, you know, you just you’re chopping away at this oak tree and you just got to keep chopping and chopping, it’s not going to happen instantaneously. But as you keep sharpening your axe and keep, you know, keep at it, try this and try that. You know, and a lot of it’s the whole thing, right takes, you know, 10 years to become an overnight success. And a lot of people don’t want to talk about, you know, the hard stuff of how long it actually took them there. And as I said, you know, it’s a journey. It’s not like a straight line, you know, the road to success is squiggly goes up and down, and you fall back, and then you try this, and then you try that. And, you know, it’s, um, yeah, it’s definitely a work in progress.
David Ralph [15:35]
Because I don’t think when I used to go on shows, I don’t do a lot of guest appearance on other people’s shows, because I think I’ve got enough on my plate to be a host of my own show. But when I did, people used to say to me, what’s your big failures? And I used to say to them, Well, actually, I don’t think I’ve had any failures. I think I did what I could do at the best of my ability at that time with my knowledge. It’s only when you look back you think, Oh, I could have done it better. Now do you actually look back at yours and go, yeah, that was a failure. That was a big punch in the face that I had there that literally knocked me on my feet.
Mimika Cooney [16:11]
Well, I don’t see it as fail. It’s just like you. For me. It’s like lessons learned unless I’ve actually tried them. But for goodness sake, I have done so many things and done them wrong and learned the hard way. I mean, who doesn’t? Right? Nobody’s perfect. But you know, for me, it’s every time I call it that the pivot. Every time I’m in this situation, I’m on an honour road, and I realise I can get comfortable with this. And like an example is, you know, when we moved to England, my husband has an internet business that we started together in South Africa. And well, first of all, I should back up a bit. In South Africa, we felt that in order for us to compete on a world scale, we needed to be in the US or the UK. And having, you know, European passports, it made more sense for us to go to the UK. So when we took our business over there, you know, we had to learn everything from the ground up, even though we had experienced what we were doing. We had to continue to it and it felt like business was a failure, and we didn’t make any money for six months living on high Interest credit cards because, you know, we were nobody in the country. You know, a lot of people could think, oh, there was a failure and just give up and go your day job, but my husband and I were really adamant that we were going to make this business work. And then, you know, again, after working with my husband, I had this, you know, the sort of desire to do something more creative, because I’ve always been involved in the arts, being a ballet dancer, and you know, kind of that kind of thing. And I fell in love with photography. And I realised, you know, I love taking photos, but I wanted to make a career I had to pivot and change again, what I was doing in my learning, so I went to night school did a years course in, you know, photography does this just on the cusp of when digital is coming out. So I’m actually an old school photographer learning the darkroom. And then so you know, entering in a new market. I mean, I could have very easily thrown in the towel. This work stinks. This is awful. I can’t believe it looks awful. But I wouldn’t take no for an answer. And it reminds me of you know, when I really wanted to take this seriously, I remember going one evening in the fourth. Okay, well, what’s the best way to learn so I looked at my local camera group Well, let me go ahead the British Institute of professional photographers had a monthly meetup. So I thought I’d go and check it out. So arrivee one evening was at a local pub, and there was a, you know, a bunch of guys and a few of them wearing their badges and they did all the ribbons around the neck to indicate that obviously, you know, their stuff. And there’s me walking in with a box under my arm with slides now, you know, developing slide forms, like was like a pound of exposure. So I had to really learn to hone my craft, but of course, I still had a long way to go. And I remember thinking, I’ll go there, you know, speak to people, I’m sure they’d love to, you know, have a chat with me and help me learn. I was unpleasantly surprised how very sort of cagey they were. So when I got there. And I remember feeling really sheepish and as I walked in there, I tripped and dropped the box of all the slide feminism leaning on the floor, picking up the guise of the balloon, turn over and look at me go watch it, go make us a cup of tea, and then start laughing. And I was like, blood red in the face thinking what on earth am I doing here? I just want to cry. I want to crawl in a hole. I just want to go home, that’s like, sure, whatever, pick up my box sit at the back of the room and realised very quickly that I was the only female there that night. It was very much an old boys club. Now, if I’d taken at face value, I would have never gone back again. But for me, I was determined to learn. And if this was the best way to do it, I would just have to suck it up and put my big girl panties on and deal with it. So of course, I kept going in and no, no people know me for being really persistent that just kept showing up and listening. And they have guest speakers and every time I’ve learned in a guest speaker would arrive an hour, you know, introduce myself and try to get to know them. And eventually, you know, along the way, like a year down the line, you know what to do, actually, because in England, you have to be an accredited professional photographer for you to use that title that was, you know, 2003 ish. Nowadays, everybody can claim to be a photographer, but that’s another story. But anyway, so I decided, you know, for me to actually learn and grow I needed to get trained by somebody who knew this stuff. So when I went for my exam, and it was Donna, we lived New York’s I took the train down to London the one day and went to go do my hand in my portfolio and you know, to get judged by these guys who are at the top of them, Institute to either give you a pass or fail. And for me, you know, I was really nervous about this whole situation. So I walk in the room and they said, I love you pass by the skin of your teeth, but stay at the studio, because I don’t train images that are natural light.
David Ralph [20:23]
I’m not. I really do.
Mimika Cooney [20:26]
narrating the story, darling. You know, 10 were natural light and 10 was studio and of course, my studio lighting was awful. And the one judge said, you know, you’ve got a good eye, but you know, you really need to work on your studio lighting. So I said, Will you teach me? And he’s like, yeah, yeah, just, you know, look me up on it. Yeah, Here’s my card. And I was like, Okay, I’m gonna email you. And I wouldn’t give up. I handed this guy and I tell you, his name’s David too. And he was one of the guys who’d won all the awards. And he had a really great studio. He had all the professional lighting and he had the system done. He was making money. So I said, Tim, will you mentor me? And eventually he gave me so just to shut you up. I’ll let you come to the studio for a day and I’ll teach you everything you know. But it’s $1,000 I mean, 1000 pounds. And at that stage, when you are starting out in business, you have no money to scrape together, I had to bet my eyelids very nicely for my husband to to say, Okay, let’s invest some savings into this, this is really going to help you take your business to the next level. So we hold the kids, which were like age four and two at the time. And the husband the devil drove me down and we went there for the day. And although the day turned into four hours, because we got lost along the way, but those four hours were the best four hours I had spent, they totally project and catapulted my business development. I saved for years within four hours because he showed me everything from his system, how he sells how he how he likes, and so I walked away with a complete business model. And since then, I’m a great great believer in looking for a mentor looking for a coach or looking to to work with Someone who can help you up level to the next level, you know, help you, you know, grow to and can really get you to where you want to be without you having to spend the time of learning. So for me, I’ve always had that vision of Okay, how can I do what I’m doing and help others? leapfrog my mistakes. And yeah, and it’s just really been a growth process from there and then developed as we go along and then did the same thing. And now fast forward. So 12 years now, I’m the one doing the mainstream and helping other entrepreneurs. You know, whether it’s photographers or writers or bloggers or woman entrepreneurs, help us start their businesses based on all those lessons that I learned.
David Ralph [22:36]
I think that’s a brilliant story. And I do think that for the listeners out there, yes, at the very beginning, when you’re doing stuff and you’re bootstrapping it, and you haven’t got the money to spend, it is difficult in your mind to justify paying somebody. But as Mika said, it’s, it’s a fast track. It really will speed you on and one of the big things that I learned my life has got so much easier now. Because I actually barter my experience, I can go to somebody who wants to know a certain thing, but I do. And I go, yeah, I show you how to do that if you show me how to do this, and it works well. So you don’t actually have to spend money As long as you’re providing value that the other person wants. And it’s, it’s just Rocket Power, isn’t it? Man maker?
Mimika Cooney [23:22]
Oh, for sure. I mean, if you can, you know, you can learn from somebody else’s years of mistakes. You know, why not? Because at the end of the day, we don’t have to do this alone. And I think that’s what a lot of us entrepreneurs will want to be entrepreneurs. Gendry realises we think we have to take it on ourselves. And that’s what becomes a lot of very daunting. And that’s why a really high percentage of people give up is because it becomes really lonely. And it’s hard. I mean, it’s like a song. I listen to my iPod cooperative, and it says, Yeah, you know, says, No one told me would be easy, but no one told me it would be this hard. That’s why I have to be brave. And the end of the day, you don’t know what life is gonna throw at you. But as long as you have that attitude, you know, okay. I might not be aware I want to be but as sure as and not where I was before, and just enjoy to look at, you know, celebrating the small wins, that you know the growth that you have gone and that we have to remember that we can’t compete and compare. That is the thief of joy if we keep comparing ourselves to someone else’s journey, and I know I’m terrible, I have to remind myself Listen, don’t worry about what they’re doing. They are like eight years ahead of you like Hello, no wonder they have they think so slicked. And, you know, they launchers are so fancy and they have all this bells and whistles and shiny things. And I have to remember, you know, it just takes time. It takes time to work through the process and don’t fight the process. It’s part of the learning process is learning these things. So you’ve been it’s your muscle, you are exercising your muscle, entrepreneurial muscles, eventually you become fit, you do things faster, you do them smarter and you become far more effective.
David Ralph [24:54]
Let’s bring a lady onto the show now who’s waiting in the wings. He’s got some worthwhile words about me. He is this is Oprah.
Oprah Winfrey [25:01]
The way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself, what is the next right move? not think about, Oh, I got all of this too. But what is the next right move? And then from that space, make the next right move, and the next right move, and not to be overwhelmed by it. Because you know, your life is bigger than that one moment, you know, you’re not defined by what somebody says, is a failure for you. Because failure is just there to point you in a different direction.
David Ralph [25:33]
But how do you know what your next right movies? GC says it quite firmly sit down and go, this is the right thing. But more often than not, you try loads of things and some things work some things don’t. How do you operate in that sort of environment of doing the next thing?
Mimika Cooney [25:49]
Well, if you notice, she did mention something right in the beginning, which totally resonates with me is you need to be still, a lot of us are rushing around and I tell you this is something another lesson I’ve learned to relearn again this year is worrying. throwing myself at the next thing thinking because everybody else is doing it is what I should be doing. instead of stopping listening to my inner voice and thinking okay what is it that makes me happy? What is it makes me feel comfortable with it because it’s a sure sign. If something doesn’t make you happy and you have that sort of inner feeling of artists feels gross or they have to deal with this client again or Oh, I can’t stand my boss or you know, this doesn’t feel comfortable for me. I really need to listen to those things. So I know that it’s really is you know, you just have enough light for the step you’re on if you like to see steps ahead of you, you would give up easily so just do the one thing you know get that right then bill the other because I see life and and building a business as a building house. You start with the foundations. And you know, you got to do a lot of digging and hard work and you know, manual labour and you sweating and you don’t see the results. This looks darn ugly. Then you start getting the walls up, and you start to see the structure and eventually it’s slowly putting away it’s owning right at the end that you put the roof on. Then right at the end, the easy part is adding the finishing touches like you know, hanging walls, pictures on the walls. That’s when it’s easy. But you have to start with the foundation, you can’t jump ahead and stick the roof above, with no with no walls, right? It just doesn’t make sense. And I think if we look at building our businesses like that, that you just have to go through the process of building one step at a time, and knowing that it’s harder in the beginning, but as you get it, you get more used to and you get your entrepreneurial muscle and your ear and your your intuition working, you’ll start to hear it more often. And I made this mistake myself, I dumbed down that voice and ignored that what I really felt that our traumas of dreaming of things Oh, as if I would really love to do that. But I can’t really do that because I’m doing this. Then eventually I had a talk with myself one day and I said, You know what? Why are you doing this? If it’s not making you happy? Because you’re doing it to please other people? Are you doing it to please the family or are you trying to impress somebody like what’s the point right unless it makes you happy? You can’t stay the course. So, yeah, that’s that’s I have to agree with Oprah hundred percent.
David Ralph [28:04]
I agree with her totally. But I’ve been having a discussion on Facebook with an ex guest actually, where I posted something the other day, and it was pretty much I said, it’s my business plan. If it makes me happy in the long run, I will do it. And if he doesn’t, I will either not do it, or get somebody else to do it for me. And I thought why that’s that’s how I’m going to operate because at the beginning of the show, he did you know, I’ve talked about this on other shows, it literally killed me, I was trying to do every single thing. And when I got to a point and I realised A lot of it I was doing because other people were telling me I should be doing it. So I stopped to see if anything was gonna make a difference. One of the things like the promotion, are you going to tweet, you’re going to Facebook, you’re going to do this, you’re going to do that I stopped made not a bit of difference. And it made me wonder why I was spending all my time doing that. And actually it starts to find its own fee and then the promotion becomes word of mouth, and we’ve got a bonus show actually coming out. I don’t know if it’s already come out or not. Afterwards, where I’m looking at doing the compound effect. I’ll be interested with you, Mika, because I’ve only just recorded this. But I was looking at a guy who basically was talking about the compound effect, how we do these very small things that build up. And he was saying, but quite simply, if you do one thing, and then you double it, and then double it again, you will end up a millionaire. So you find one penny, and then you double it to two pennies, and then you double it to four pennies and eight pennies and 1632. And at the beginning, that steps are quite difficult because you haven’t got that much value to provide to the world because you’ve only got a small amount of money. But actually, once it gets going, we’ve suddenly got a lot more options because you’ve got bigger things to sort of play with. So I’ve set this challenge out to my listeners, but instead of Facebooking and all that, just tell two people about my show, just tell two people to come over it. And if they like it, I’m not gonna ask them to tell two people and when you suddenly do that, It’s unbelievable. But it’s just the simplest thing of word of mouth instead of all this other stuff that we think that we should be doing all the time. Can you see how something like that can operate? Or am I operating in? Oh,
Mimika Cooney [30:13]
yeah, I’m nodding my head here. And I have to agree with my own show. Like, I’m the host of my own video podcast show. And I had been following the format of black recording on Skype. And then I would go ahead and pay a high premium to have a video editor who’s sitting in Spain do the edits for me, and he did a great job. But I was, I was, you know, pedantic about the details and I looked at it nothing. Is this a good investment of my time, and since then, I’ve switched to recording my own show on Blair because, like you I got tired of the Skype of the Facebook and the Twitter and pushing, pushing, pushing the promotion, and I realised that I’m better off making my life a lot easier. I would rather spend more time speaking to more people than spending time on the behind the scenes production. And and even then, at what I’ve realised that my show got to a stage where I wasn’t happy anymore. wasn’t enjoying the guest. So speaking to agree wasn’t in the market in an industry that was was bringing me joy anymore. And it was like, you know, what am I doing this to make everybody else happy? I’ve got to make myself healthy happy. So in actual fact, after 80 episodes in this year, may I actually stopped the show, I stopped it for five months, took a summer hiatus and decided, you know what, I’m going to just go back to the drawing board and just and really decided, do I want to continue with doing the show? Is it going to get me where I want to be in and I had to relook at things. And since then I have relaunched it with a new brand, a new new look and feel in a completely new audience. And I’m happier forward and even now that I’ve streamlined the system, you know, yes, people got used to the bells and the whistles. But really, at the end of the day, people rarely are interested in the content that the fancy finds and the lower thirds are really not necessary. It was causing me way too much stress, and explains that just because I had been doing it before and worked doesn’t mean I’d have to pivot so you know, another pivot moment. Now I’m using something new. I have to learn how to do it, but I’m excited to take on the next chapter.
David Ralph [32:00]
You seem to have a character trait that I have you seem to be quite bloody minded?
Mimika Cooney [32:05]
And oh, yes,
David Ralph [32:07]
yes. And it seems to me like me that if there’s a path to be trolled you quite happy to start chopping down your own wall and seeing what’s around the bushes that nobody else has moved on before.
Mimika Cooney [32:19]
Oh, yeah, I actually find this hilarious because my 14 year old son gave me the biggest compliment the other day. He said, Mom, he says, Yeah, because we dropped off his friends after going to the shopping centre. And he said, Mom, you know, you’re a hipster mom. I’m like, oh, what does that mean? You know, this is you know, teenage talking. You guys say what is the hipster mommy says, you’re the kind of mom where we say, let’s do this. You go, No, let’s do that. You’re always going the opposite direction. But I like that about you. I think it’s cool. That was like the best compliment my son has ever given me in the last sort of five years that I thought, Well, you know what, that’s great. I’m glad he’s learning and he’s realising you don’t have to pick the path that everybody else has. Because the common path is well trodden and it’s, you know, it’s not really pretty. We need to go On the side and you go, you get to see so many beautiful things that other people don’t see, you get to see, yeah, it’s a little more narrow, and there might be a few more thorns and you might get scratched up a bit, but what you see in the foilage and just the whole journey is totally different than if you just are willing to open your eyes and see it and not just follow the same path. You know, I always like to think I’m a seven I swim upstream Darling, I don’t like to do what everybody else is doing. And as soon as the general masses start to follow a trend, I think, Okay, let me find my own train. So I just got used to that. And that’s why I say I’m more comfortable with the change. And I’m in I’m happiest being doing something that’s new and learning and trying so and I suppose it’s just come and come with the years of just sharpening that blade and being stolen
David Ralph [33:45]
completely makes perfect sense. So doesn’t it and it makes no sense at all why everyone goes for the same path. If there’s more competition for a star, you know, if you imagined a word or a forest, and you and me we I mean helicopter. And we throw a load of coins, gold coins all into this forest. And they all drop down all over the place. And we set people off. Now, if you had a path that was already cut through there, you’d probably take that one first because it’s the easy route and you’d go through, but the second person would be a lunatic to go down there because all the gold coins have gone, you’d have to go off into your own direction and find your own ones. And the more paths that get car, there’s more opportunity that has never been touched before. There’s gold coins waiting to be picked up. But people don’t do it. They will just see that path and go, that’s the route other people have done that. I’m gonna go down there but of course other people have gone down there and picked up your coins first.
Mimika Cooney [34:42]
Well, exactly it’s reminds me of the Gold Rush right back in the day, the first people who discovered the way well, you know, we’re just panning for gold in the river and it was right there picking up nuggets and everyone was, you know, is like anything else. Oh, let me do what they do. And it must be easy. And so many people stopped and went bankrupt. Doing The same thing that the people in the beginning sort of doing. It’s only when the people who started thinking, Okay, what if we dig, start digging down in the ground and start digging a little deeper and using more, you know, equity sweat and start to actually put in effort that other people aren’t prepared to do. They’re the ones who get the rewards. So that’s why I say I’m always I like to think of myself as a very early adopter. I like to look at things like with lab with recording my show, in actual fact, after we record this interview, I’m going to be doing three. So there you go. So instead of just trying one, I’m doing three back to back hoping that this, this whole platform will work. But it’s only in the trying and even if I mess up so what there’s always a do over right, there’s a reset button. But if I’m constantly continue doing what everybody else is doing, number one, you can’t stand out. Number two, it’s very hard to get traction, where you know, everything is smooth and easy. If you just slide along and you can’t really get in, get a grip. So for me, it’s like okay, I would rather look at ways that and especially like if we’re talking about social media with all the new platforms that are coming out. It’s the early adopters out there. ones that make the success like even I’m sure you’d agree being a podcaster yourself, the ones who started early and who stuck with it and who already the ones that are getting traction. Yeah, because they started early, they laid the ground, they put their flag in the sand and claimed they gold a pot of gold and said, This is what I’m going to be known for. They stuck with that one thing. And again, this is the lesson I’ve had to learn not to try be too many things. But by sticking with that one thing, you can sharpen your axe. And it’s not like we’re talking about digging in the trees, right? I always joke with my husband, I say, I’ve gone from, you know, using the panga chopping away at a whole bunch of little trees. And I’ve left with a whole bunch of carnage of hot cat trees, as opposed to picking up my ex, my sharp axe and just trying to cut down this one oak tree if I had just stuck with that one tree. I look back now to the last few years I could be so much further along my journey. So that is also a big thing I’ve learned myself even as early as recent as three months I’ve had to remind myself to stick with that thing. Go with that. And, you know, make your own path.
David Ralph [37:03]
How long did you think it was going to take you when you started work?
Mimika Cooney [37:07]
started? Which Which part?
David Ralph [37:09]
Well, that the last, the last bit that you’re on now the bit about is so authentically you your your branding company, when you started it, did you think it was gonna take three or six months? And you’re a year and a half into it and it still isn’t where you want to be? How long in your mind? Did you think it was gonna take?
Mimika Cooney [37:25]
You know, I’m always you know, a bit delusional about these things. And you think I would know, I always remind myself things take double the amount of time that you expect them to, because the natural fact I started realigning and moving away because I’d been in the photography industry for about 10 years, or what, nine years at that stage. I’ve written two books. I’ve done a lot of speaking and teaching. And I really wanted to move into the online marketing course creation space. But for me, it’s really hard to walk away because I felt you know, I was very loyal to the industry and already had a name and so people know me I shouldn’t be giving up something that’s good. And I just felt something wasn’t right. There was something bigger I was thinking too small. And that said, what that was like 2012. And to me, it took me a good, first of all good nine months just to let it go, you know, I have to remind myself, let it go. The whole frozen song after sing to myself really, is to just let go of what’s old and start to be willing to take up the new. So that was in 2012. And I thought, oh, I’ll have this done in like, maybe a year, three years later, is only when I really started to feel you know what this is who I’m at who I am, and uncomfortable, but I had to go through those three years of learning, tweaking, chipping away, getting rid of the noise, and really shopping and shopping and narrowing our focus into finding what it is that I love to do. And it’s only by doing that have I realised where I’m at now is where I was meant to be. But I had to go through the process. So yeah, it’s taken me at least double the time that I expected it to.
David Ralph [38:49]
And do you look back on it and go, actually, I know I know. It took twice as long but God there was learning in there that you know, it’s it’s the foundations it’s the foundation so he was talking About
Mimika Cooney [39:01]
Oh, yes, sure. And in actual fact, you know, I’m funny this way I have these visions sometimes what I’ll be like thinking about something like if I watch a movie, or especially when I listen to music, and I have this picture, I’m a very visual. And I remember seeing this picture in my mind of a tapestry. And you know, I really think you know, the whole story behind that is that it’s not like a puzzle that sticks out for you the pieces already pre cut, you just need to figure out the pieces and then it’s sick. A tapestry is one of those things that you will not see the finished product until right at the end, but you got to painstakingly lay down line by line. And if you drop a stitch, it’s okay, you can undo it and go back and redo it. And you can actually change the way that it looks based on where you’re at, you can change the colour of the world, you know, depending on you can change the style and the design, you know that your world is your oyster and I realise that’s what my journey has been, but I can’t jump ahead to you know, 20 moves ahead until I’ve laid the foundation of going line by line and to me that’s what it’s been I realised that I’ve had to learn to go through that and to lay that down and Put down each thread so that you could have the picture of where we are now. And it’s only now that I look back and think, oh, okay, that’s why we thread even though I went through like, three months of depression, feeling very sorry for myself having a little pity party thinking, Oh, god, this is so hard. And eventually, you know, have to set yourself across the face and go, okay, not working can change it, what are we going to do about it? But it’s in the learning and and laying down each line that now I can look back and say, Okay, that was there was a reason. So yeah, go to just keep the faith.
David Ralph [40:31]
I might have those Oprah moments a lot when I’m doing stuff and I just don’t know what I’m doing. And I don’t know who to ask. And there’s a certain ease to creating most things you can create, like I’ve done here, your own show, get it out, get an audience that’s looking back, it’s reasonably easy, but to actually then go to the top 1% and then higher. And what I’m trying to do on Join Up Dots is actually take it away from podcasts and into sort of media trying to take it out. And I’ve never said that on any of the show. So I’m sort of confessing here, but I don’t see it as a place that I want to be within 100,000. Other shows, I want to be in my own environment as opposed. It’s what we were talking about earlier being salmon and trying to swim up tide and go into areas that are slightly difficult. And I look at it now. And I think why am I trying to make it harder than it should be? Why don’t I just have it as it is? Have it as a cheat? Show? Get it on iTunes be quite comfortable. But that bores me somehow. And that talks to spirit, doesn’t it when you actually want to make things harder than they should be? Because ultimately, you know that you’re going to get the rewards that other people won’t because you’ve gone that different route.
Mimika Cooney [41:48]
Oh, yeah. And it’s like, you know, I know we’re using a lot of analogies that today, but it’s like climbing the mountain mountains, right. You know, everybody is comfortable with being at the lower levels because that’s fine, but it’s only when you climb the mountains and you get a higher elevation, which takes more effort and more work with the views up there are totally spectacular once you’ve are able to go a step further than everybody else is prepared to go. There is so much more that you can learn and see and enjoy when you’re willing to take the risks, but you know, no risks no rewards, right? And, and I saw somebody walk around with the teacher the other day, I think I totally have to do as an Instagram post. No, no risk, no story. If you don’t take the risk, you don’t have a very interesting story. And if you feel Yeah, no teacher to you know, if you don’t feel like you what you’re doing right now, it doesn’t matter to you when you feel like it’s not mattering to the world, then take some risks. I’m not saying throw in the towel and you know, put in your resignation. But if that’s what you feel mean to do, then do it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
David Ralph [42:47]
But I wasn’t gonna play these words, but I normally play them at the beginning of the show. I’m gonna throw him in now, even though we might squeeze a couple of speeches in before the end. But this is Jim Carrey and he talks just about that. taking a risk.
Jim Carrey [42:58]
My father could have been a great comedian. But he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you
David Ralph [43:23]
love. That’s about it, isn’t it?
Mimika Cooney [43:26]
Oh, for sure, rather fail and try something that you really want to learn, as opposed to doing something that’s heartless and doesn’t have soul because at the end of the day, the end of your your life, do you want to look back and say, Oh, I should have worked harder. Oh, I should have you know, done more that for that person. Or you’re going to say, you know, didn’t my life matter? Did what I do, did it matter to other people? And, you know, did I leave something for other people to follow? So yeah, that’s why I said for me, I’m very much this whole self self actualization model. I’m very much motivated by you know, leaving something especially for my kids. I have three of them, and I I want to make sure that even through this journey, and I know my teenagers are very aware of how hard I’ve had to work to get to where I’m at, and they’ve seen the struggles, I don’t sugarcoat nothing, I they get to see that, you know, without the risk and without putting in the hard work, you only get the good stuff when you willing to dig a little deeper.
David Ralph [44:15]
And so your company, I suppose we’ve gone off on many different tangents on this conversation, but how do you find your clients that come to you? How do they connect with you and then develop those relationships that take their own businesses forward?
Mimika Cooney [44:31]
Sure, well, as I said earlier, I have my own interview show and the reason I love doing that why I just felt I couldn’t give it up as I love connecting with people. I loved hearing these stories. I’m very nosy I love to know their journeys, you know, and it’s all about relationships. That’s what I realised is you know, you can have like the my husband’s in, in the internet marketing business and he’s developing assess product and I’ve had the opportunities to go spend some time with a lot of these San Francisco tech guys. And you know, even though they have like millions of dollars of financial backing, if they don’t have the heart to continue with what they’re doing, it’s just a numbers game. So you know, you really need to be motivated to stick to where you are and where you’re going and just to try it.
David Ralph [45:13]
And do you find that the people that come to you have got a idea of what they’re gonna get back? isn’t what you present to them because of the interview show and because of the TV hosting, and just the way that you are generally in the media.
Mimika Cooney [45:28]
Well, I mean, and that’s the thing is I want it to be very strategic about how I reposition my own brand, which is why I’m passionate about branding having learned the hard way is you know, I don’t like to like you, I don’t like to push things I don’t like to be in people’s faces. I don’t like to say okay, I’ve got all this money, I’m going to throw it in advertising and I’m just going to provide a big shot shiny ad and hope people come You know, running knocking on my door down. To me, I like to like it to be more relationship based. So for me, you know, kind of winded rant about the question about answering the question, but people find me they either resonate with me or they don’t and usually when they resonate with me, I find I like to have deeper relationships with my clients, I rather work with fewer people, but on a deeper level, and be able to provide that trust factor where we walk them through the process as opposed to here’s a product and you know, slap a price on and good luck, you know, see you later. Just by having those relationships and you know, connecting other people and also just connecting, helping people with what they need. Like if I feel like somebody says, Oh, I’m struggling with web design, or then I’ll put them in touch with this person, or I really need, you know, a health coach, then I’ll put them in the right direction. So for me, it’s about not feeling like you have to hold on to something so tightly, but are you willing to share your resources and connecting people with people you feel would be a bit of fit, then it all goes round and round about like, you know, word of mouth, people coming back and saying, This is what you do. So now, you know, having learned the lessons that I’ve learned that now with my business model is I do my interview show and a lot of the time I get a chance to speak to people who eventually end up hiring me, but I do a branding and marketing, consulting and helping people automate the marketing like setting up email funnels. So let’s say I’ll speak to a speaker and they have a launch coming up, or they’re launching a book, and they really don’t know what to do with it online marketing, then by having that relationship with them, I’m then able to, you know, customise a package for them and work with them that way. But then another hand if you know, knowing that the expertise I have somebody can’t afford to maybe work with me one on one, I do offer and teach courses. And that’s also something I love to do is I love teaching learning, then putting the information in a very easy to understand model. And I teach online video based courses. And that’s kind of hard all works together now, but it only was in the doing and the trying and the failing several times that I’d realised You know, this actually feels good for me, this is a good fit. This is how I want my business model to be run based on my lifestyle and my time commitments, because, um, you know, I have a five year old who just started kindergarten so I want to make sure that I can spend time with her in the afternoons and not feel like I have to work and run myself ragged. So every time I’ve pivoted and changed My business model, number one has been focused has been my family, and is how do I want my business to fit around my lifestyle and my needs. And as soon as something doesn’t work, I change it. So that’s why I say I call it my Madonna moments. So many times I’ve had to change them and reinvent and rebrand and it’s not not a problem. And I realise it’s in that moment that that’s where the greatest joy is, is learning and adapting and trying something new. So,
David Ralph [48:26]
yeah, yeah, I think that connection piece that you’re talking about is so vitally important being in that environment that you are where you speak to so many people and you have got access to web developers and social media experts and promoters and all those kinds of skills, which when you’re starting out, you just haven’t got a clue about and more often than not, when you do get to a certain point that you have got a clue about and you don’t want to do anyway. It is so vitally important to be able to connect those people with those people to sort of speed up isn’t it?
Mimika Cooney [48:55]
Oh, yeah, it’s like you don’t know what you don’t know. Right? You don’t know you need something until you like Why isn’t this working and you start to ask around and figure things out and set me up. So you know, I never went to college at school in South Africa. My house last year in high school was the year that Mandela came into power. So we had a big shift in the in the economy and in the whole country. And I didn’t really have any confidence that anything that I did at a college would be worth anything by the time I’d finished. So for me, I’d always throw myself interested in learning and growing. But you know, knowing that now, I’m learning from somebody else. And, you know, asking for help. I wish I had, you know, he was willing to actually ask for help and not being so stubborn trying to do everything myself. So yeah, just being able to be winning and reaching out to people because it doesn’t have to be that whole lot of people who can help you if you just ask.
David Ralph [49:43]
Yeah, no, I agree with that totally. And that’s the biggest wake up call that I’ve had, trying to do everything at the beginning. I’m actually reading a very good book by Chris Ducker about virtual star finding and how you get people across the globe to work for you on tasks. You either don’t want to do or they’re more skilled on and it literally is an eye opener. Even though at your core, you know, you can’t do everything once you actually embrace the fact that Yes, okay, I could do about website, but that’s going to take me three days. I just give it to somebody is going to take them for hours and it’s job done. That is once again, it’s rocky power, isn’t it?
Mimika Cooney [50:22]
Oh, for sure. And that’s thing as you realise, you know, you do need something and that’s thing I was just because I can doesn’t mean I should, you know, because I have the skills to do it. And you know, I’ve worked as a web designer and an executive, this example I end up spending three days messing around with things we could just ask for someone else to help me and get it done cheaper, quicker, faster. And that is what the keys to working smart is finding people and this is what these multimillionaires do why they get rich is because they focus on the one thing that they’re good at that they cannot ask thoughts or no one else can do. And everything else, somebody else picks up up the slack because they cannot be sprayed through and then doing 101 things You know, they have to be laser focused on doing the one thing and doing it very well.
David Ralph [51:04]
But what’s your super talent? Ben mamiko? What was your thing that you can do better than anybody else and provides the most value to your business?
Mimika Cooney [51:13]
Well, well, that’s a good question, I would have to say, really, I have a good vision and a good eye for the way things are going. Like if I look at someone’s, say, their whole branding and the way that they website as an app and immediately see the holes, I can say, Okay, this is what you need here. I’m very good systemising and structure. It’s almost like I have, even though I’m very creative, I’m also business minded in terms of I see things in in pieces like a puzzle. So for me, I like to be able to put the pieces together and come up with creative ideas of how things can work better. And oftentimes, I’ll propose working or trying something from a client that they’ve never thought of. So I think you know, in another life, I should have worked in an ad agency coming up with ad copy and ideas for ads. You know, seeing a product Okay, this is a box How could we sell this box? You know, how can we repackage it, how could we shape it up? How can we position it? And through the whole process, I realised, you know, that is what my strengths are and what my superpowers are helping to see the vision, pulling it together the pieces and being a catalyst to start things and learning to let them go so someone else can fill in the pieces. So, you know, start I’m a very, I would say, a Firestarter. And I think that’s what helps me hone in figuring things during the unwell is knowing what I can do and then learning to let go the stuff that I don’t do well,
David Ralph [52:30]
absolutely spot on. Well, this is the end of the show. And this is the bit that we called a sermon on the mic when we send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go back in time and speak to the young lawmaker, what age would you choose and what advice would you give? Well, we’re gonna find out because I’m going to play the theme tune and when it fades you up. This is the Sermon on the mic.
Unknown Speaker [53:00]
With the best bit of the show,
Unknown Speaker [53:05]
my man
Mimika Cooney [53:15]
Well, let me say you’re 18 years old, just graduated school and you’re not sure what to do with your life? Well, I have to tell you having this conversation. I wish we could make this in real time. But to give you some little feedback, I’d love you to learn from the lessons that we’ve learned along the way. Remember that you don’t have to sweat the small stuff. Stop worrying so much about what people think. Stop worrying so much about keeping everybody else happy and listen to your inner voice. You know, that little one that keeps giving you these ideas in your mind and you think, Oh, I’d love to do that or but I could never do that. Don’t pay it down. Don’t play small. You can dream big. You can achieve what it is that you want to do, but you have to start with one step at a time. I know you like to jump ahead and you like to see See the future and be so future orientated and get frustrated with where you’re at. But believe me, that’s part of the fence. Just learn to put your head down, you know, throw caution to the wind and just go with the flow. Remember that you know you there’s always a do over. You don’t have to be so perfection minded. That doesn’t matter if you mess up. You don’t not going to disappoint people, you just disappointing yourself. So learn to let it go. Learn to smile more and enjoy life and enjoy the journey. Absolutely. So
David Ralph [54:29]
what’s the number one best way that our audience can connect with you?
Mimika Cooney [54:34]
For sure, you can find me on my website and every social media platform is Monday which is mikuni calm as an MIM ik a CEO in ebay.com. And if you go to my Mika Cooney calm I actually have a three part video series called How to brand how to design your business brand and that is me offering you great training that you can really start to implement straightaway. And I also have a Facebook group you Welcome to join. It’s a free group but it’s closed. I like to make sure that you’re legit before we have you join us and that is brand story marketing. So if you search for Facebook groups and we have close to 1400 members now of really supportive and engaging group that really would are great for you if you have started a business and you need some help and points and direction in finding out your voice, your branding, strategy and offering you support that way. So yeah, find me on social media. I’m on Blab Periscope, Twitter, Instagram at my YouTube channel and my website is my name and mikuni
David Ralph [55:33]
where I have all the links on the show notes. Mika, thank you so much for spending time with us today. joining up those dots. Please come back again when you have more dots to join up because I do believe that by joining up the dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Monica Cooney Thank you so much.
Mimika Cooney [55:50]
Well, thanks for having me on the show. David. I’m so excited to be here.
David Ralph [55:56]
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of Join Up Dots CBD Joey, go out there and just tell two people to come across and listen as well join in the experiment that we’ve got running at the moment to see if we can get the show to the top of the charts. Thank you very much. And we’re speaking again.
Outro [56:15]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant sell, fewer wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
