Victoria Lioznyansky: Public Speaking Tips For All

Victoria Lioznyansky Public Speaking Expert Joins Us On The Join Up Dots Podcast


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Introducing Victoria Lioznyansky

How The Dots Joined Up For Victoria

Show Highlights

During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Victoria Lioznyansky such as:

Victoria shared a terrible story of her first public speaking appearance and how it almost stopped her every speaking again.

Victoria talks through the process of how she started her business by looking at the market and learning what the world needed.

and lastly……..

We discuss how you can create a course and a business without even completing the course before selling it

How To Connect With Victoria Lioznyansky

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Interview Transcription For Victoria Lioznyansky Interview

David Ralph [0:01]
Once upon a time, there was a guy with a dream, a dream to quit his job, support himself online and have a kickoff live. Little did he know that dream would lead him into a world of struggle, burnout and debt, until he found the magic ingredient and no struggles became a thing of the past. I of course I was that person. And now My dream is to make things happen for you. Welcome to Join Up Dots.

Intro [0:27]
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 [0:52]
Yes, hello, Matt. Hello, there. Well, thank you as always for being here with us at Join Up Dots. I’m feeling good. At the moment, I’m feeling good. I’m still in self isolation. I don’t know how long we’re gonna be in self isolation. But it’s it’s not too bad. It’s all right. You had those moments when you want to run around the garden in your underpants just because no one will allow you to do it. But other than that, you’re all right. Well, today’s guest joining us on the Join Up Dots podcast, she’s actually locked away in a car at the moment because of self isolation and kids doing homework and stuff. But she separated herself she’s driven to somewhere or she might just be on a driveway. I didn’t ask her and she certainly a lady with a fascinating story, or pushing herself out of her comfort zone and creating success because of it. Now her expertise is training introverted, sometimes terrified, entrepreneurs and business professionals to be confident and dynamic public speakers. As she says, As someone who is shy, introverted and a non native English speaker, I know firsthand how it feels to be terrified of public speaking now over the years I’ve transformed myself. I’m a nervous wreck to a competent, engaging speaker and your audience will find my story inspiring. Well, I hope we will. We will now she’s telling us that now I’ve built several successful businesses spoken in front of large audiences appeared on television, and founded the brilliant speakers Academy. The innovative programme that I’ve developed makes it possible for anyone she says to easily overcome their public speaking anxiety and learn to love the spotlight. Now your audience might also find it interesting, but my other business and we will do we’re going to find this interesting is a brick and mortar franchise Natty scientists of Houston, where we inspire kids to fall in love with science. I opened it five years ago, and I’m so proud that it’s become the number one Natty scientists franchise in the US. So how does somebody go from being terrified and introverted to really making a difference to other people’s lives? And what are the first steps that we can all take to really shake our moods and start marching to success? Well, let’s find out. As we bring them to the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Victoria Lioznyansky. Good morning Victoria, how are you?

Victoria Lioznyansky [3:13]
I’m doing good. How are you?

David Ralph [3:15]
I’m impressed. That was bloody brilliant, wasnt it your name, that that was that was I don’t even care if you wasn’t you tell me that wasn’t spot on. That was spot on.

Victoria Lioznyansky [3:25]
It was spot on.

David Ralph [3:27]
It was closer than spot on, wasn’t it? And I’m now actually the way you said that I’m very good at reading women because I live in a house full of women. I feel like you’re saying to me that wasn’t spot on. It was close enough. And now you’re being kind to me.

Victoria Lioznyansky [3:41]
I think it was absolutely perfect.

David Ralph [3:45]
Absolutely perfect. Absolutely perfect. Lioznyansky you have to pause in the middle bit. You see I’m fluent. Now is that Polish?

Victoria Lioznyansky [3:54]
It is a Russian,

David Ralph [3:56]
Russian I insulted you I did so well with a name and then I insulted you

Victoria Lioznyansky [4:00]
Absolutely not. All, you know that neck of the woods, you know, Eastern Europe. Yeah, we

David Ralph [4:06]
don’t go around holidays very often, but we should do so. So whereabouts in Russia are you originally from?

Victoria Lioznyansky [4:13]
I am from Moscow, Moscow, Russia. So from a big city that everybody knows.

David Ralph [4:18]
And so how did you end up marrying an American man and having American children?

Victoria Lioznyansky [4:25]
Well, actually, my whole family immigrated to the US about 25 years ago. So I was in my early 20s. And I came to us full of hope and all excited, and it’s been fantastic. I love leaving here. You know, it’s funny because I still have an accent. But I came as a grown up as an adult and then you come as an adult to different country, no matter how long you live there. You still keep your accent and so people sometimes who don’t know me say like, Hey, where are you from? Oh, Wow, welcome to the United States and it’s like thank you it’s been 25 years.

David Ralph [5:04]
And do people ever say to you say, Mr. Bond I’ve been expecting you. Did anybody say that?

Unknown Speaker [5:12]
Never.

Unknown Speaker [5:13]
Because you sound

David Ralph [5:14]
you sound like a James Bond girl You sound like a James Bond girl by exotic accident. A deep rooted spawn. I planted in Houston from Moscow. Anyway, anyway, I’m rambling now, I’ve been in self isolation for too long. The ability to talk to somebody, it’s blowing my mind. So introverted, sometimes terrified entrepreneurs now, I used to do public speaking all the time, and I never had a problem. I used to just get up and so I don’t understand this. But I also understand it totally because you see enough at weddings and stuff where people literally, you know, passing out before they do the best man speech. why somebody like yourself, then who is shy and an introvert And a non native English speaker, why did you start going in to this side of the business and tackling this head on?

Victoria Lioznyansky [6:08]
You know, it was not my childhood dream, to public speak. And it was definitely not my childhood dream to teach public speaking. It kind of happened. I in fact, you know, when I was little when I was still back in the Soviet Union, I had an episode where I realised that public speaking is a scary, scary thing that I never, ever want to do. And what happened is, I had to recite a poem in front of about thousand people. I was given this poem. In the morning of the day, I had to go on stage, I was told to learn it by heart. It was very long. I had to learn that I had to recite it. And I was all by myself on that stage. I’m on that stage. I you know, I did my best to learn the points. I feel I don’t feel confident, but at least I know I learned it. But as soon as I stepped on that stage, in front of a microphone in front of all of those people staring at me from the darkness, My mind went completely blank. My knees, my knees and my knees are shaking, my heart is racing, I’m sweaty, I’m nauseous. I’m 10 years old, you know. And I’m just standing there, I cannot even say anything. And then I finally said the first few lines, only to realise they were the wrong lines. So then I stopped again, people are giggling, literally laughing in the audience at me. And I just cried and I ran offstage in tears and you know, you have something like this. You do not want to go back on stage. You do not want to see a microphone ever again. But what happened is when I moved to the US, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I had this urge I had this drive. I wanted to start my own business, which I did. In my first business. Was web and software development company, you know, very, very small. But back then, and again, I’m totally dating myself, right? But it was 23 years, 22 years ago, you did not have a luxury of being behind your computer and doing a live stream where nobody can see you and you just talk, you know, you couldn’t just go on the podcast, back then. It was all live. So if you wanted to go and find clients and you know, get yourself known and go and share your expertise, it had to be from stage or in some sort of a live environment. And so I was forced to go back into that. And, you know, I was I was terrified. I didn’t want to do it. And you know, how everybody tells you I don’t know if they say it in, in UK, but in us they always say well do it scared, you know, fake it till you make it. Do it scared? And I thought, Well, okay, I’ll do it scared, I’ll do it. I’ll fake it. I’ll pretend you know, to be this confident speaker and I’ll just go and try to do it. But I’ve been, I’ve been failing miserably at it. No matter how long I’ve been practising and doing it, I wasn’t getting any better. And I think a lot of your listeners, the ones who are uncomfortable with public speaking, they can relate to that, you know, people say if you practice you’ll get better. That’s not true. When you truly are afraid of public speaking. You may get marginally better, but, you know, at the core, you’re still scared, you’re terrified. You still think your audience is judging you, you know, you still feel that your audience is about to find out that you don’t know anything that you complete fraud, right. That’s what everybody feels. That’s what I felt. And it took me a long time to figure out what I was doing. And why I was stealing, I love that, and how to change all of that. And then, over the years I, I did become really, really good at it. And then, you know, many, many years later, several businesses later, as I continued, being in front of an audience, as I continued to speak, and you know, just for my business, it’s not teaching anybody about public speaking, people started coming up to me and asking me, you know, how, how are you so good, you know, your natural at this, and then I realised, you know, there is a real demand for learning how to overcome your fear. A lot of people teach, you know, how to craft your talk or how to engage with your audience, you know, what to say what not to say how to walk on stage, but not a lot of people actually have gone through what I have done and can teach anybody to go from that scared person who’s terrified of their audience and of them, you know, judging to actually be incomplete. At ease, loving the spotlight and being able to just step in front of any audience on a moment’s notice and speak. And so that’s when the billion speakers Academy was born. When I put everything that I’ve learned everything that I’ve personally gone through, I’ve put it into a solid framework that I can teach. Wow, that’s where I am right now,

David Ralph [11:22]
GG. No, I’ve hardly said a word in 11 minutes. But that doesn’t often happen on my podcast. I’ll be honest, by the time I was hanging on every word, Bear, and two of the things that sort of like, reflected in my mind, I remember talking to a guy called Tom Ziegler, whose dad was Zig Ziglar, the motivational speaker. And he was on the show, and he was saying, but when he dad died, he was sort of back office and he was working in the company, but he was this back office. And because he had the name Ziegler, they said, Well, you’ve got to get up front and centre. You’ve got to do two speeches. And he said, Now I don’t really want to do that, you know? And I said, No, we need somebody with you. Nice to be able to step up into it. And so he did. And the very first public speaking he did was 15,000 people. And he went from nothing to 15,000. And he said, I literally passed out. And he said, from the moment I walked on the stage, and I can reflect on this as well, he’s walking went funny, because you are aware of how you’re walking and every step is strange. And you know, it’s a real school to sort of move there. And the other thing that I was thinking about as he was talking, you say, it’s my time now I’m gonna be talking on this podcast is the fact I used to work in corporate and a lot of managers used to get people to stand up and do presentations because it was part of their development. And I used to think if you are a computer coder, why do you have to have that side of your, your personality developed Why? It seems to be the public speaking is almost forced on people. More than them wanting to embrace it. Have you found that in your professional life, people come to you going, like I really want to do this Victoria. But Jim from account says that I’ve got to do it. So can you teach me?

Victoria Lioznyansky [13:16]
Yes, absolutely. A lot of people are sort of forced to speak. And especially during the time we find ourselves now, right, when right now you’re not forced to speak live in front of a live audience. But everyone right now, pretty much everyone is forced to speak on zoom through livestream. There is a lot more interaction going on. But yes, people, even people, like you mentioned because my background is in it. And I spent some years in corporate as well, at the higher management positions, and a lot of my developers who really did not want to speak, they had to go and present and train is just one of those things that you You don’t sign up for it, but all of a sudden you are forced to do it. And a lot of people do become software developers because their personality is such that they prefer they’re introverted. They prefer to be, you know, in front of a computer and just in their own little world. I know that was one of my reasons. And and then all of a sudden, you have to step in front of that audience, and you’re scared, and you’re absolutely terrified, and you don’t want to do it. And that does not translate well into becoming, you know, a great public speaker. It’s really, it really is not something that happens automatically. This I don’t think it happens automatically for a lot of people.

David Ralph [14:39]
Let’s hear from Jim Carrey, and then we’ll be back with Victoria.

Jim Carrey [14:42]
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 For 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 love.

David Ralph [15:09]
Now, in the public speaking environment, it’s very rare that somebody actually takes it to a thing that they love and even the sort of world famous comedians, I remember reading about Jerry Seinfeld and referencing it on your website about Jerry Seinfeld, but he never felt comfortable at the beginning standing up, he had the material, but he couldn’t actually present it. When do you think the love comes to people? When do people suddenly go? Oh, I understand. It’s actually not fighting the system. It’s kind of just going with it.

Victoria Lioznyansky [15:45]
I, I felt it I definitely felt it. And there was a moment when I realised Oh my goodness. Not only I’m not afraid of this anymore, I love it. I absolutely love it. And I think that love comes is when you’re completely at ease when you realise you’re no longer scared. And to get to that point, you know, just for anybody who’s listening who is afraid of public speaking, I think the biggest, the biggest mistake that we make is when we are scared. We go out there, we stand in front of an audience, it could be a virtual audience on, you know, on a live stream on a podcast, or it could be a live audience when people actually staring at you. But the biggest mistake we make is we stand there. And we’re so wrapped up in our fear, we’re so focused on what the audience is thinking of us that we can’t focus on anything else. And we keep on you know, we automatically saying something, we try to go through the presentation, but the whole time in the back of our mind, is that fear and that and we don’t let go of that fear because we’re holding on to it because we keep on going back in our mind into the You know, into that mindset of, I’m not enough. They know I’m not enough, I’m going to be found out. You know, most people feel like, Well, my audience is going to know I’m stupid, I don’t know anything. And that’s the biggest mistake we make, because we’re holding on to that feeling. And so the biggest advice I can give the listeners right now, and that’s advice, that’s gonna work for you. And that’s what’s going to help you get to the point where you’re actually enjoying it is change that mindset consciously change that question. What is my audience thinking of me? To? How am I going to make them feel? How am I going to make them feel? How am I going to help them so when you switched when you shift that focus from you and your fears and your you know, self esteem issues and your confidence and all of that when you switch from thinking about that to your audience, and actually only thinking about your audience and what they need and what you can give them. And when every sentence out of your mouth is literally focused on benefits in your audience in in some way or form, then your brain, stop thinking about, oh, I’m not enough or I’m scared, and then your fear symptoms begin to go away. It’s like magic. You know, when you are so passionate about something you keep on talking about that you forget about everything else. It’s exactly the same thing.

David Ralph [18:40]
Now, I used to teach public speaking many, many years ago, and one of the things that I used to tell people and it was a bit of advice that was given to me, right in the early days by a guy and he said, it doesn’t matter what’s in your head, baby. Don’t know what you’re going to say. So if you forget something, don’t worry. They don’t know you’re gonna say it anyway. Just just carry on. It doesn’t have to be Word Perfect. People don’t remember Word Perfect. They just remember how you made them feel. And I used to think about that all the time thinking, yeah, great joke. I’ve got a brilliant joke. And then afterwards, I’d missed the joke. But it didn’t matter, because I didn’t know it was there anyway, I could just breeze through.

Victoria Lioznyansky [19:18]
Absolutely, absolutely. And that’s what I tell my students as well, you know, they do not have a transcript of your talk. So if you were talking, and you forgot the point, like in your case, you forgot the joke. And you forgot the point, and you just kept on going. And then all of a sudden, boom, you’re like, wait, I forgot to say something. What I always remind my students is, look, your audience doesn’t know. So if you can go and weave bags at point, if it’s not too late, you just we went back, you know, you just say it now, and you continue going, or if you cannot, if it’s delayed, and you cannot see you continue going anyway. But you know, the biggest thing about people being afraid of public speaking is of course, you know, there are two things that you Afraid of the audience and say afraid of making the mistake that’s really big. everybody’s afraid of making the mistake. Remember? Totally. But you have to remember that if you’re pulled pork if your whole presentation is really, really good, and then you make a mistake somewhere and your audience notice this mistake, they probably gonna like you more. Because of that mistake, as long as you didn’t fall apart as long as you didn’t go like oh my goodness, I made a mistake and you completely you’re completely out of it. You make a mistake. You realise that the audience noticed a mistake, right? It wasn’t something that you can just keep on going. They don’t notice. Let’s say they noticed your mistake. What do you do? You laugh it off. You know, you make a joke about it. You love it off. And you can see when you go in like nothing happened. Your audience is probably going to feel like oh my gosh, you know, David just, you know, made a mistake or whatever. But he is human. He’s just like me, I can totally, I can totally see now that he’s not like this, this person that just oh my gosh, you know, he’s on stage in front of me because he’s human. And when they realise we’re human, we are relatable. They actually like us more.

David Ralph [21:23]
I don’t like mistakes Victoria Can I just say I don’t I don’t make mistakes. I Oh,

Victoria Lioznyansky [21:27]
we never do. We never do. You know, it’s, it’s so funny I was talking to I was it was actually a podcast interview and the host. He’s been doing public speaking for many years, and he actually told me about something that happened when he was on stage. He, he kind of went on a tangent somewhere, and he forgot where he was completely forgot, couldn’t remember a thing where he left off. And so he’s standing there looking at his audience. And he said, Guys, you won’t believe it, but I just completely nearly forgot where we work. And please, somebody remind me and of course audience loves and somebody screams, you know where he was, and he keeps on going. They love you more for this. This is not embarrassing. This is not stupid. This is not, it doesn’t make you less of. You just have to realise that if you were able to build a connection with your audience if what you’re giving them is truly valuable, and you make some mistake that you laugh off and keep on going, that is not a big deal. It’s not going to ruin your presentation, and your audience may even like you more because of that mistake.

David Ralph [22:40]
We’ll be back with Victoria after these words.

Unknown Speaker [22:45]
Are you ready to make a full time living online? Check out the amazing Join Up Dots business coaching. Hello,

Unknown Speaker [22:51]
my name is Alan. And I’ve just completed the excellent eight week course with David

Unknown Speaker [22:55]
before I started working with David Actually, I had no idea at all. To start,

Unknown Speaker [23:01]
I had a lot of ideas about while I probably thought was going to be good business, David was able to help me through that though, to find that passion. Within literally minutes. We had, we had a business idea. And for the last seven weeks, we’ve been building on it and building on it and the position I’m in now, but I think I’ve ever got here

Unknown Speaker [23:21]
on my own because of the amount of information that David gives the structure. He’s got the full package here, and he explains it in a way that I can understand. His support is phenomenal. I feel like this is the way business is supposed to work. They’ve

Unknown Speaker [23:36]
helped me understand Okay, what were the next logical steps that I should do? How can I get this up and running? So I would really recommend this as an excellent course helping you if you have an idea if you have no idea, really teasing that out and some of the practicalities and steps to take to really launch your business whether as a full time job or as a side hustle. So it was really excellent.

Unknown Speaker [23:58]
I recommend it for anybody. Thinking about setting up their own business.

Unknown Speaker [24:01]
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say David will totally save you years.

Unknown Speaker [24:05]
Thank you, David for all your amazing help and support which keeps on going. And we certainly couldn’t be where we are today without you so

David Ralph [24:15]
you’re awesome. So if you would love to become my next success story and have your own life changing online business following my step by step system, fine tuned over many years to take away the effort and expense that others struggle with and come across to Join Up dots.com and book a free call with myself. Let’s get you living the easy life as it’s there waiting for you to get it that is Join Up. dots.com business coaching. Right okay, we’re talking to Victoria Leo’s in the ants Gala. I haven’t forgotten I haven’t forgotten I can still do it. It’s been 30 minutes and I’ve still nailed it. Now it’s all right. You talking about your coach your business speaker and stuff, but I know a lot Have my listeners out there are fascinated about how people start their business and certainly in regards to getting the first customer. So when did the idea of starting teaching public speaking actually became a proper business and not just you hustling around trying to connect with people and trying to prove your worth.

Victoria Lioznyansky [25:22]
It became a real thing about two years ago. Again, I didn’t really think that I would ever be teaching public speaking, it just was something that I became good at. But because people were asking, I realised oh my gosh, there is a demand for this. Right? So you know, I did market research I’ve looked, I and you have to remember this wasn’t my first business. So I already had a lot of a lot of experience under my belt. I had several businesses under my belt. In fact, I was still running my, one of my businesses at the same time simultaneously, but I really felt There was a need for this. And so a couple of years ago, I really started looking at the market. And I really started deconstructing everything that was in my hand in relation to public speaking, and particularly overcoming the fear, you know, crafting a powerful talk, preparing, engaging with your audience, I started putting it, you know, into a system because I’m very much left brained. I really love having systems in place. I really love having something that people can go back to over and over. And so my goal was to create this programme, this course, that’s going to be very much helpful to people who were like myself, who were introverted, who needed to do public speaking, but were afraid. And so I started doing that. And then the very first thing I did before I got my first job. Pain students, my first pain client, I actually ran a beta test for my course. I invited several students. It was about 12 students who were in my first programme. And they, I offered it to them for free in exchange for them actually going through it. And giving me feedback on the experience feedback on every module of my course, feedback on the implementation piece that they had for every module. And so that’s what we did. That was the first while it wasn’t a pain, experience, right? I wasn’t making money from it. But this was a really great run through of my course, to make sure that it was actually working.

David Ralph [27:53]
I think that’s a brilliant idea. And for everybody out there. The very first time I ran my course. I didn’t think And I do an eight week business course I didn’t charge it at all. But I basically just made it up. It was just off the top of my head. I didn’t spend any time doing videos or PowerPoints or PDFs, or whatever I just said to the guys, look, I’m just gonna vomit the information out. We’re going to do it. And we’re going to see what comes out of the upper end. And there was a lot of it, but I thought now that’s not really required at this point. And it gave me a structure. And then about three in, that’s when I started charging. And I probably now I would say I’m about my sixth version. Because every time I do it, I think, Oh, yeah, I could bring that in back stronger. But it’s it’s a brilliant idea, isn’t it just to run through like you say, give it away for free but get that feedback?

Victoria Lioznyansky [28:50]
Absolutely. And you know, it’s I’m so happy that you mentioned how you did compared to how I did it because guys, I want you to see that there is not Just one way to do it. So if you wanted to create your own programme your own course, there are actually two ways to do it. And they’ll both ways are really valid. And I think you choose a way that fits your personality better. And so one way is David’s ways where you and this is really recommended, in fact, where you don’t create your programme in a vacuum you, you go through your students through the programme, and you make it up. I mean, you already know everything, you don’t make it up, but you sort of make it up as you go to fit the needs of your students as you go through it. And that works great. And then in the end of that first run, you need to really have a programme finished. And so that’s one school of thought and then the second school of thought or you know if that works for your personality where I am Moreover, not to say that I’m a perfectionist, I’m kind of recovering perfectionist, but for me this was like oh no, oh no. I have to have have it figured out I still did not do it in a vacuum. I’ve done a lot of, you know, interviews with people who had fear of public speaking so I knew pretty well who my students will be. Once I have them to I, I was creating the programme for them, even though I didn’t have them in front of me. But I was also creating the programme for myself, who I was back years ago. And so I I wanted to create everything so that by the time the first student enrolled or its first student went through the beta, my programme was finished, but it doesn’t mean that it’s set in stone. So then I go and I update. I can update pretty much anything I want in that programme, but I wanted to have to have it finished and to have to know that I have something that absolutely works. That is brilliant and I wanted to have it in place before giving it to the first students. You know, I think it’s just different, different personalities, right? How we, how we approach this, I couldn’t

David Ralph [31:07]
be bothered anymore, I really couldn’t be bothered to do to do that. I remember my first course I did, I created like 120 videos, you know, I threw everything at it. And then after I’d run it a few times, I thought I only need 15 videos, all the extra stuff wasn’t required. And that’s one of the key things that people need to know is you’re not teaching somebody to drive a Formula One racecar. You’re teaching somebody how to drive a car, just a basic car. And then the more advanced becomes your next package, and then you move up, you create your value ladder by taking somebody from a novice to where they need to be, and then you can develop it. I didn’t realise that at the beginning and I kind of went straight for the 50 grand package and gave it away for $500 Because I thought, Oh, I need to know this, I need to notice. But of course I don’t.

Victoria Lioznyansky [32:04]
That’s very true. And everybody needs to know different things. And they’re, you know, the noise level, when you’re brand new. That level is kind of basic and a little bit the same for everybody. But as you keep on growing your business, that’s, as you said, Everybody needs a slightly different fancy car. And you can’t create that car that has absolutely everything. And that’s why, you know, we as programme creators, we either niche in something, or we create, just like you said, we create additional programmes that a more advanced version, and then another advanced version that’s actually built in those, that ladder of success for somebody where they go from one point to the next point to the next point.

David Ralph [32:52]
Now with your business fame, getting back into it, how did you get your first client? Okay, so you had a platform, but how Did you You said it was two years before it became a proper business? What was the from the moment you said why I’m gonna buy the domain name or or whatever, to actually making it into a proper business? What was those that that period?

Victoria Lioznyansky [33:14]
It was probably a year. It took me a year between the time I had the very, you know, very detailed idea of what I wanted to do to when I actually had my first pain student, and within that year, I’ve did the research. I’ve created the programme. And I ran the three months or two months, I’m sorry, two months beta. And the way that I started finding students was actually through Facebook ads. So in my case, it wasn’t you know, word of mouth. It wasn’t because I was brand new, right? Nobody still knew me. And so I the path That I took because the course was online. I kind of thought, Okay, what if I kept this in mind? What would be that I would do without spending way too much time? How can I find clients without spending too much time Now, let me just give you the point of reference. Remember, remember, at that time, I’m still running two businesses simultaneously, which means I do not have a lot of time to go and look for that first person or second person or third person. So so

David Ralph [34:34]
let me jump in there. So why why do it man? Why do it if you’re running two businesses, why don’t you go, okay, Netflix, Netflix is where I’m gonna spend my time. I don’t need something else on my plate.

Victoria Lioznyansky [34:46]
I was never, ever that kind of a person. You know, it’s funny. I think those of us who truly are entrepreneurs, like real entrepreneurs, not somebody who was just thrown into this because they lost The job, not somebody who decided that we’re just gonna make money. And that’s why I’m going to start my own business or I just want to be my own boss. I don’t want anybody to tell me what to do. I want to watch, you know, movies half the day, but half the day I’ll be doing whatever, you know, I need to do for my business. I think those of us who are true entrepreneurs, we have that drive, that drive that if you have any extra time on your hands, you want to do something with it something useful, something remarkable. You know, it’s funny, I remember myself in mid 20s, you know, early 20s, mid 20s. Everybody just, you know, hangs out and parties, and I was working full time job as a software developer. I was finishing my Master’s in computer science. And I was teaching classes as a side gig. I was teaching software development classes to adults in the computer school, just because I had a few hours left you know during the during the week. And it wasn’t driven by money or I need to make more money. It was Moreover, I want to stretch myself as much as possible. I want to stretch my mind. I want to stretch what I can do. And that’s when I started my first business. It was like, Okay, great. What’s next? What else can I do? It’s always it’s always been trying to trying to challenge myself, you know, I just I feel like I have so much. So much look at them potential, but just so much experience and knowledge and expertise. And if I don’t happen to it, I’ll burst. Don’t want to feel this way.

David Ralph [36:36]
Well, I do now I do now, but when I was in my 20s, it was just ladies and beer. Really, it was. I look back on it. And I think if I had the ambition in my 20s I’ve got now where would I be, you know, and hey, I’m doing it, you know. So I suppose it as in all things with Join Up Dots. It has to start at the right time for you. You can’t really force things up. Got to believe the experience you’ve got to gain the experience or whatever. But I do look back on it and I, I speak to people now Victoria that are like 15 and they’re absolutely focused on something and I think to myself, I never had that. I just literally fell into the job. Got another job, I had some nice holidays, had some nice girlfriends had some mental girlfriends drank a lot of beer, and you know, and ended up somewhere.

Victoria Lioznyansky [37:27]
Yeah, and, and, and I and I think a lot of people a lot of people fall into this trap when you know you particularly when you have a good job, you know, a job that pays you money and doesn’t require you know, too much of your energy and you feel comfortable. You might not necessarily believe in your dream life, but you kind of feel like well, you know, I’m making money I’m comfortable. I can do other things. I can you know, I can watch TV in the evening and then I’m, you know, I’m all set. I can party and hang out. But I think there are And even with those people, sometimes they do get to the point and particularly when they start getting into their mid 30s or 40s when you all of a sudden realise I’m not living the life that I was truly meant to live, I’m not using my brain, even 10% of its capacity, because I know when I was in the corporate, I, you know, I had high positions, I was making good money. But that was bored. I was bored out of my mind, you know, I’m sitting in a corporate job and I feel like, Oh my gosh, I’m itching, itching to go out and have something of my own. I want to build my own business. You know, it was my blessing and my misery that I had my first business so early in my life and I got a feel for it, and I got a taste of it. And I wanted to create businesses ever since. And so when I was running my my business my which is 90 scientists of Houston Which is the business that I still have today. I was maybe three years into it, when brilliant speakers Academy started forming. And three years into it, I was no longer, you know, working 80 hours a week on it, I because I was already, I already created all the systems that I needed. I already had it running and sort of by itself, with me just overseeing it versus me being in it every single second of the day. And I, as soon as I had a little bit of extra time, you know, instead of being normal and just saying, Hey, I have extra time, let me just hang out. me being me and my personality and everything that I have going on for myself. I immediately said, Oh my gosh, there is a thing now that I want to do next. I really want to do it. I cannot even think of anything else. Let me start working on it. That’s really how it happened. I just realised that I had something that I could share, I could teach that people really wanted and what was more important is that I realised I can truly make a difference. This I think a lot of us when we become really bored with our job is when we realise what we do doesn’t make a difference. Somebody else could be doing the same thing.

David Ralph [40:23]
Let’s hear from Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs [40:24]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.

David Ralph [40:59]
So Words that really speak to you or a words that you think yeah, that there’s truth in those

Victoria Lioznyansky [41:05]
that those words actually really, truly speak to me because this is something that I deeply believe in. I deeply believe in this. We have so many experiences that we go through, and none of them are wasted. Because somehow, they all begin to make sense. They all begin to make sense in the future. Right now I’m looking back at my life. And I can see why I had to do that boring job, or I had to do this or to have that business so that I can be where I am today. And I bet what I’m doing today leads to something else in the future. So I am a big believer in everything happens for a reason.

David Ralph [41:56]
I agree. I agree totally. And not only does everything happened for a reason, as I said earlier, and I referenced it time and time again, because sometimes you get a bit depressed and it should be happening for me, oh, I’m working so hard. I now look at it. And I think to myself, number one, you shouldn’t be working that hard. If you’re working that hard, you’re doing things wrong. And secondly, sometimes it just needs to take time, and you can’t force it. You know, I remember starting Join Up Dots, I’m thinking but I could make it into a global entity within six months. And I did, I achieved that but it almost killed me. So I had to sort of look at a different way because I just couldn’t keep up with the amount of work that I was doing, because it was pushing that boulder uphill and keeping it there on my own. And you just can’t do that. Sometimes you’ve got to look around and think, ah, there’s an excavator that wasn’t there three weeks ago. I use that for the boulder instead, and the boulder will just go to the top of the hill. So I do think that a lot of it is time based. And it’s about experience and it’s about living. And it’s about keeping your eyes open and making those opportunities work for you when they come your way because they’re, they’re passing you all the time on me.

Victoria Lioznyansky [43:18]
Absolutely, absolutely. You have to you cannot become complacent. You, you have to look around, you have to kind of train yourself, to listen to yourself to listen to your inner voice and to really, really hear it. And when something inside of you is telling you something really, really loudly, you have to pay attention because otherwise you’re gonna end up like a lot of people end up very dissatisfied with their life and and wishing that they did some things that they haven’t done. And I I never wanted to have that regret.

David Ralph [43:53]
Even appearing on Join Up Dots, you won’t look back on it and think to yourself, man, why did I do that?

Victoria Lioznyansky [44:00]
Oh Dad, I’m going to be looking back on like, Yay, I got to hang out with David. He his audience was awesome. I’m gonna totally look back at this as one of my favourite podcasts.

David Ralph [44:13]
You say I’m gonna have that as my wake up call now I’m gonna edit that. And every morning I will have you shouting, hey, my wife, a cow hills fan. I got that. Why don’t we just listen to those words and embrace? Well, this is part of the show that we’ve been building up to. And this is the part we called a sermon on the mic when we’re going to send you back to speak to the young Victoria. And if you could go into a room and find her sitting there waiting for you. What advice would you give her and what age Victoria Would you like to speak to? Well, we’re gonna find out because I’m gonna play the music. And when it fades, it’s your time to me. This is the Sermon on the mic

Unknown Speaker [44:59]
with the pen Beat of the show.

Victoria Lioznyansky [45:17]
All right, well, if I had to speak to my younger self, that would probably be a teenager. When I was in my teenage years 1617 I remember being very, very insecure. Not knowing what to expect, not knowing what was going to happen. Not really believing in myself all that much. So here’s what I would say. Toria Listen, you have so much inside of you. You may not even know it, but it’s there. Some of it is already developed and You can use it right now, some of it is just a seed, a seed for something that’s gonna grow into a completely different things that you don’t even know about yet. But you have to believe in yourself, you have to take risks. You have to go and take every opportunity that you get, and see how that opportunity develops. Even if it doesn’t make sense, even if it feels that that’s way, way too advanced for you. Go after it. And if you fail, it’s fine. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to fail. Because if you fail, you’re gonna learn and it’s gonna hurt, you’re not gonna feel like you’re learning. You’re just gonna feel like it’s a miserable experience, but you’re gonna learn and then five years later, that hurt is going to grow into something really great. And then another five years later, something else is going to happen. Where that hurt us back will make a lot of sense. Just keep on going after your dreams. Keep on. Don’t get complacent, don’t get lazy. Keep on doing things. Keep on having your eyes open. And everything that you do will eventually fall into place and create that tapestry of really, really, really beautiful life for yourself. Go after your dreams, go after your dreams. Do not be scared.

David Ralph [47:35]
Yeah, lovely advice. Lovely advice, not just for you, but for everyone. So Victoria, what’s the number one best way that our audience can connect with you?

Victoria Lioznyansky [47:45]
You can reach me on my website, which is www dot brilliant speakers academy.com and I have a lot of free resources on it that you can grab and I We’d love to chat with you. If you have any questions, you can reach me also by my email Victoria at by Victoria elle.com. Or you can contact me from the website directly.

David Ralph [48:14]
We’ll have all the links in the show notes on Join Up Dots to make it as easy as possible. Victoria, thank you so much for spending time with us today and joining up those dots of your life. And please come back again when you’ve got more dots to join up because I do believe that by joining up the dots and connecting our past is always always always the best way to build our futures. Victoria, thank you so much.

Victoria Lioznyansky [48:37]
Thank you very much, David. It’s been a pleasure. Good luck, everybody.

David Ralph [48:42]
Victoria Lioznyansky. I’m good in Russian. So you want to start a business. Now there’s two ways of doing it. As I say you, you find somebody who needs your knowledge and you just do it and you just throw it out and see how it lands or you might want to Create something but you don’t have to try to find paying clients is more about getting the experience at the beginning. And then pivoting and finding your niche or your niche within what you’re doing. And it will always be there. If there’s a market out there already that’s operating. You’ve just got to find a way of just turning it slightly to become your own market. And it’s not hard to do. It’s not hard to do if anyone’s got any questions or whatever. You can drop over to Join Up Dots and just book a time to talk to me and I talk to people all through the week. And I’ve got some several spaces lined up. Just drop me a line. We’re having a little chat, and we will help you get going. Okay, look after yourself. And see again, Bob. All right.

Outro [49:45]
Thats the end of Join Up Dots. You’ve heard the conversation. Now it’s time for you to start taking massive action create your life We’ll be back again real soon. Join Up Dots Join Up Dots Join Up Dots Joe Joe