Welcome to shift sales radio. So I’m so excited to share today’s interview with you because when I look back on my own journey of growing my business and my revenue and my income, and really even beyond that, just having deeper levels of peace and contentment and confidence than I experienced most of my life. You know, one of the things that really contributed to it was being authentic, radically authentic. And I know that word gets thrown around so much and you may be listening to this and saying, okay, Lisa, I’m over the authenticity conversation. But I will say if you are saying that there’s a high likelihood that there’s part of you, that’s afraid to be vulnerable. There’s part of you. That’s afraid to be real and authentic. And my guest today on the podcast is going to share with you, how can you leverage authenticity as your super power?

How can you use it to be the one thing that elevates your career, whether it’s in corporate, whether you’re running your own business. And so I’m so excited for this conversation. My guest today is Erin Hatzikostas. And I feel like I always watch her her name. So Erin, if you’re listening, which I’m sure you are at some point fingers crossed, but I didn’t punch her at that time. But she’s, you know, she’s such a badass. This woman is incredible. I’m just going to share with you part of her bio. Um, just so you can get a sense of who she is and who you’re learning from. So Erin is a CEO, she’s a best-selling author, she’s a TEDx speaker, a career coach, a podcast cohost. And when she was 42, listen to this, this is wild. I can’t even imagine this. So when she’s 42, she becomes the CEO of a nine figure company.

Yeah. Like no pressure, right? She goes on to triple earnings in three years and send employee engagement, skyrocketing. She actually talks about in the podcast today, how being authentic was what she attributed most to her success. There, it wasn’t some corporate strategy. It wasn’t some coach she hired, but it was her being her, which is so powerful to me. And so she actually got to a point where she realized how powerful that authenticity was and decided to leave that, you know, dream career that most people would pray for and dream for and go and create her own company, be authentic, Inc. And she’s written an amazing book. She’s coaching people across the world on how to use authenticity as their super power to get the results they’re looking for in their career. And I wanted to have her on today to talk about how we can leverage authenticity, whether you’re in sales, whether you’re an independent contractor, whether you’re running your own show, maybe you’re the CEO of an eight or nine figure business yourself.

Right? So Erin shares so much value today. I’m going to go ahead and turn it over to her, but definitely just listen to this one with the question in mind of, in what ways can I deepen and strengthen the ways in which I’m showing up either authentically or inauthentically, right? How can I deepen my authenticity, my vulnerability in how I show up and listen for that one thing that’s going to help you do it and it’s going to be game-changing for you. So with that, let’s welcome, Erin, does she sells radio Erin? I’m so excited to have you on, she sells radio and in the spirit of kind of how we were talking in the pre-chat about just letting things flow and not being too committed to the outcome, which seems to be a message for, um, for both of us today, as well as just from the universe in general, I’m excited to just see where this conversation goes about your new book and about authenticity. So welcome. And just beyond thrilled to have you here on the podcast.

No, thank you, Elise. I am. I’m super excited to see you. It’s been a while since we got to be together. So it’s great to at least be here and sort of 3d ish landed,

Which is appropriate for you. Do you wish so I’m, I’m really excited to, um, just to dive into more of what you talk about in your book, but I love this topic because I think, um, I struggled for so many years with being authentic and I would blow it off too. I was like, that’s like, who needs that? Who needs vulnerability? Who needs authenticity? Like I just need a better sales closing script and I’m going to hit my numbers and be fine. And I had such a wall up because I was really insecure. And so I’m excited about this because my guess is if someone’s listening, they’re either kind of on that journey or they’re like a little more involved than I was, and they’re excited to find out how to be more authentic. So how did this become a topic that you’re passionate about? How did this even become like your, your, your life’s work or at least your life’s work right now?

Yeah, so interesting. So I spent my first 22 years in the corporate world. Um, my last three, I was running, um, a corporate subsidiary of a larger fortune 50 company, um, and had tremendous success sort of stepped into the, the big girl role, uh, with a mass company was really struggling financially, culturally. And after three years, uh, we tripled earnings and our engagement scores went up 12 percentage points, I think in, in just two years. And, and, um, just kind of when I was at my best, I had this itch to go do something new. And you know, the story about authenticity though came when I went to leave. So authenticity is a word, of course I had heard, but when I announced my technically it was a re retirement, the single most common thread through the emails, the calls was will miss your authentic leadership.

And I remember having this moment where I literally was like, was it really, that was it that easy? Because I had moments in my career. Um, I worked hard. I mean, I don’t want to be annoying and be like, it was so easy, but I had many moments as I was rising up each ladder, you know, you tend to be conditioned like, Oh, I’m going to go to the next level, which also I have to compromise more. I have to sacrifice more, right? Like, um, whether it was seeing colleagues move their families for jobs or people being on a plane, you know, three or four weeks out of the year, or, you know, colleagues that like had a canceled vacation because something blew up and they were, you know, they were the big Poff Boston. They had to be there. And I didn’t feel like I had to do that as much.

And so when people said, I’m going to miss your authentic leadership, it was like this light bulb moment, as cliche as that sounds where I was like, Oh, and then, and then I started to think about, okay, was I just being myself? And I thought, well, no, not necessarily. I wasn’t acting like I would, if you invited me to a pool party, right. Like I wasn’t just walking in and with this uninhibited free willing attitude, I knew that I knew that not just for me, but also for when you see somebody that’s authentic, like, you know it right. And you’re just like, if there’s like this, ah, this, this exhale, and you’re like, they’re so authentic, but I knew that it was more than just being yourself. And, and so, you know, I started to get excited about authenticity, like, Oh, okay. That fuel, like, let’s, let’s get more of that.

And, and a lot of that was fueled by like, the workplace has so much BS and like so much rigor. And I proved as an executive, like I wasn’t just some worker bee that was like screaming and crying about the BS at work. I proved that you could have success and get rid of maybe not all, but a lot of that. And so I just became on this, this voyage to say, okay, a I wanna, I want to solve what me off. It breaks my heart, which is this lack of authenticity in the workplace. And B by doing that, I want to help people do what I did, which is not just be like myself. But I realized that, like I had used authenticity as my secret weapon. I had actually, without really knowing it used authenticity as the way to connect better with people to stand out in meetings. Right. Like I would go into certain meetings with executives. I would tell a story at the beginning and be able to be like, who’s this check, right? Like, who is this person? Or I would expose a flaw of mine that people wouldn’t expect. And when I realized that I was actually not just giving myself a permission, but using it as my success, I, you know, I, I realized that I was like, literally put on this earth to go out and preach about authenticity and its power in the workplace.

Hmm. Well, it’s so true. And I even think about, you know, one of the women in, um, my group program was talking about how she’s learned to be so vulnerable in front of her team members and her employees and how they actually appreciate it when she shares like, Hey, this is something I’m going through right now. Or actually, I don’t know the answer is there, is there a balance, especially when, so I think about like most of the people listening probably care somewhat about their social media presence, possibly not, but a lot of them are either in sales or, you know, and they’re like, they’re putting themselves out there on social media. Is there a balance where it’s too much and where you’re like overexposing or is there not like, what’s your, what’s your perspective on that?

Yeah. So the first thing I’ll say is authenticity is not equal transparency. And I think when I get that question, which I often get, you know, authenticity doesn’t mean that I would go into a, uh, an all-employee town hall and be like, well, just, you know, last night, you know, after I got done, like snuggling up with my husband, I laid awake, you know, worried about our systems might collapse because we haven’t invested enough in, you know, in a scale of like, yeah, authenticity is not a synonym for transparency. So that that’s that’s number one. So, so I think the first, the most important part is when people ask that, I say, let’s really define what authenticity is. And that’s the first thing I do on my book when, when I had had that epiphany that, okay, there’s something more nuanced and more complex about me.

That is, that is, goes beyond being yourself. I, I started to look into, okay, well, first of all, what’s the, what’s the root of the word? So the root, um, the Greek root word is authentic hosts and authentic hosts means to be genuine, but also means to be original and authoritative. And so the first, I always say, authenticity is like this, this combo of you being yourself, but also being bad-ass. Um, and, and so when I saw that, I thought, ha Hey, thesis, number one, authenticity, and what makes it so powerful, isn’t simply being yourself. And so once I had that permission that, okay, it’s more nuanced. I thought, well, how do I let me dissect myself when I dissect others? And what is it then that really makes us go so authentic. And so I actually ended up coming up with a framework called the six principles of strategic authenticity.

And it’s grounded by an acronym humans. And the words that I really get people to gravitate around and understand what authenticity really is, uh, are grounded by humility being unexpected modeling. So sort of like, you know, shut up and show up, you know, stop talking and share what you want adapting. And there’s actually two components to adapting, um, narrating. So storytelling and sparking. And so once you start to buy into, and of course with the book, I like, I’m pretty sure I convince people or I, I, you know, I hammer home this business case that it isn’t, it isn’t transparency. It isn’t simply being yourself that it is more nuanced, which means it’s also more powerful. Then the answer to your question, is there ever too much? I say now. Interesting.

So yeah, it’s that confusion of what it actually is. So that makes, that makes a ton of sense. What, what holds us back from being authentic? Is it insecurity? Like, I felt like it was for me, is it something else? Like what do you see holding, holding people back from really stepping into that?

Yeah. I think for most people we model the behavior we’ve seen before us. Yeah. So let me start in the, in the com kind of the corporate world, which to me is the most troubled from an authenticity perspective, corporate, you know, government, you can sort of, you know, the, the non, um, non-entrepreneurial world. And we emulate just like our kids, right? Like, how do they learn to walk? They don’t, we don’t sit down and tell them drop, you know, the steps they want, they watch us. Right. And the same thing happens as we become adults. And, and so, for example, in the corporate world, we see those people before us that have the bigger jobs, and this is how they do it. Right. When they come to a meeting, they, you know, they’re a little more stuffy or they, you know, they always have their headshot in the top of their communications.

Are they, you know, they don’t necessarily, aren’t vulnerable, authentic, et cetera. And, and why are they like that one? Cause there’s all the people before us. Right? Like, we’re, I sort of say we’re caught in like this vortex of like, just kind of falling the path of others because it feels safe. Um, or what we think is safe. And so, you know, that’s what holds us back. The question is how do you get over that if you don’t have? So for example, when I was the CEO of the subsidiary company, my, I had a boss, she was an SVP, it was a woman, actually, Alicia, not authentic. So I can’t say, Oh, like, I, I mean, like when I did some of the things that were more authentically Aaron, like it was, let me tell you, it was very, very different than my boss. It was very against the grain.

But what I teach is it’s really about experiments and, and here’s the most, one of the most important things. Well, there’s two, one, it’s actually not about you. Authenticity is about how can you better connect with other people. Hm. And so the principles of authenticity really get people to go, Oh, they’re like me. Oh, they’re imperfect. Or, Oh, I see what they’re doing. I’m going to follow her. Oh, they’ve inspired me. So, so that’s the first thing, like the, the it’s, it’s less about you. It eventually becomes about you because you, you get to have the, and you get to connect with people and have success. And then also not be, you know, this rigid stuffy person. Um, but it’s also incredibly contagious. So authenticity. So because it’s essentially doing the things that most, most of us have, like hidden inside of us unlocked inside of us.

I’ll give you the simplest of examples. Like this is like basic, basic you’re out of office message. So especially in corporate world, I had for 20 years, I’ve been saying the same freaking, like, I ain’t going to be on the offense. I will be slow to respond. Right. Like all that crap, like you have any issues like contact, you know, my, my assistant and blah, blah, blah, blah. And if it’s an emergency put in one day, I was like, why am I doing a that’s boring? Yeah. I also was like, okay, this goes out to hundreds of people a day. Like I’m missing an opportunity to connect, like Brazilian people are getting these emails. Cause I, you know, get so many emails a day and I remember changing it. It was, you know, just a simple experiment. We’re going to Vermont, nothing risky. I was like, Hey, we’re heading up to Vermont for a long weekend.

You know, I’ll get back to you when I’m, you know, well rested and less cranky. And he just, like, I would say like, I’d always say authenticity. Like you have like a half a glass of wine talking to your like best colleague friend. And nobody said something specifically, but I started to notice it, you know? Cause I, at that time I was like, I started to notice the out of offices of everybody just starting to like be a little less rigid and, and edgy. And, and so the thing about authenticity is it’s, it’s it, when you start to do it, you like unlock this power that’s inside of you, but also inside of others, because it’s not a, it’s not a technique. It’s not a discipline. It’s it’s for most people. It’s a, it’s like, Oh my gosh, I’ve been wanting to do that. I’ve been, that’s so refreshing.

I’ve been wanting, you know, my LinkedIn has been so stuffy or I’m so sick of coming to meetings with like the same opening, like here’s the agenda and who’s on the thing and vividly like, Oh my gosh, they started with a story that was so refreshing on the try it. And so I think the way we fight this vortex that we’re in which to your question is why we’re so afraid of it is really about little experiments and they don’t have to start the grand Poopa. Like they don’t have to be the CEO. Like I was, you know, those experiments can start at any level and start to just ignite these fires throughout. And, and what happens is when you do those experiments and you start to see, like, for example, let’s say you tell a story at the beginning of a meeting and you see people who are normally like on their phones and like not listening start to lean in because you will, you’re going to get addicted to it and you’re going to get addicted. And I always say, I don’t change people. I just changed their addictions. And so it’s really about just little experiments to start to, to set the stage and get us out of that vortex. And the more we can start to do it from all directions, you know, eventually that’s what they call a movement.

Are there any nuances that you see for women specifically when it comes to authenticity? Like anything that’s either more challenging or easier or anything too, just that you’ve seen an experience since you’ve been a woman in such high leadership positions? Yeah. That’s a great

Question. So first of all, I always say, because people are like, Oh, are you a, women’s only, I’m like, no, I say authenticity is gender neutral advantage women. Um, you know, meaning I have a, my theory, my theory about the reason why we have the biggest, uh, we have this big gender inequality issue, and this is what I talk about on the Ted. And when I did my TEDx this fall, I say, you know, it’s a little controversial, but it isn’t necessarily because women are being held down. It’s actually that we’re opting down. Why are we opting down? And that doesn’t, that’s different than opting out. We mean some are, but you know, I almost opted down. I, I was offered the COO position before the CEO position. I said, no, thank you at first. And when I, and again, I talk about this in my, in my TEDx, when I thought about it over the weekend, I finally thought, okay, what am I afraid of?

And I, I, wasn’t what people think is confidence. And for some it is, but I was not actually afraid of not being able to do the job. I was afraid of having to, to kind of enter this club, this mold that I didn’t want to be. And like I say, in my Ted talk, you know, in this club, I worried that things like my ego would grow and my calendar would overflow and my home life would become a show and my personality might even start to blow. And, and, and so I think for us women, this fear of compromise, whether it’s our soul kind of like I’m talking about there, or time with our family or a time away from, like, if I take that bigger job, am I not going to be able to train for the half marathon that I’ve been on track so that my health is going to go to.

And, and when you start to empower authenticity as a way of being to me that’s so that cuts through so much of that fear of compromise. Um, it allows you to say, Hey, like I am not, you know, I can’t go on this business trip because, you know, I promised my son that I’d be at his, you know, recorder concert. Uh, it allows us to, in that plane trip that you were going to take as a woman, um, that maybe you didn’t get that deal as easily, but now you’re also going to have 10 times more employees that want to come work for you because they’re like, I want to work for that check that sometimes says no to the business trip because their kids don’t record our class. So, you know, for me, um, the practice and the living in a world that really embraces not just allows authenticity, but, but recognize it as a S as a super wet, a super power and an, a secret weapon, um, I think is the single biggest thing that’s going to help us with our gender equality issue.

Yeah. I think that’s so powerful. I think that’s so powerful. And I would definitely encourage everyone to go check out your TEDx talk. You know, I’m curious just as we, um, as we start to wrap up here, cause this is, I love this topic and I think there’s so many applications, but a lot of my listeners are in sales too. And so for someone who I love the story about the auto responder and how people just started to like lighten up a little bit when you did that. And I know when I was in corporate, I felt like I had to fit into such a mold and I had to be a certain way and show up a certain way to be liked and be successful. Do you see, are there any other tips or things that you would give to women, specifically women in sales for how to bring in more authenticity to help them with their sales process? Because they may be feeling like I’ve followed this exact script. I have to say this, I have to do this exactly this way, because this is what I’m being taught by leadership. And they feel boxed in and like, they’re not really themselves, but they may feel afraid to be themselves. So obviously you shared great advice earlier they can implement, but is there anything else specific to sales that you think would be important to know?

Yeah, so interesting. I just gave a virtual keynote a couple of weeks ago to a, a group of about 300 salespeople for a large healthcare company. And they just ate it all up. And, you know, I would say of the six principles that I preach, the biggest one is the narration or the storytelling. Um, I actually tell a funny story in the book. It’s, it’s funny or in my keynotes, because I showed the video. So you remember the movie telling me boy Chris Brown. Oh yeah, yeah. And most people, right. You remember the last more than the lesson, as I say, right. Like, it’s hilarious. But I always talk about my father actually was a huge storyteller, but, but the man that really taught me the power of storytelling and sales was Tommy boy. And there’s a great scene. Um, it’s, it’s one of the Epic scenes.

There’s so many of them, but where, you know, they had, he had gotten hit in the face and they’re at the diner and he’s like, you know, do I have something on my face? It hurts. And, um, but, but, but then that’s the funny part of the story at first. But then he goes on to say like, look, Richard, here’s why I suck as a sales person goes on this rant about how he gets all uptight. And he’s got, he’s like, and I get my little, uh, my little, my little customer and he’s got this role and I pet it and I love it. And then he lifts it up. It’s a hilarious, and he’s telling this whole story to a waitress and this waitress was the same waitress that he had asked, um, a minute earlier, like, could you, can I get some wings?

And she was like, the kitchen’s closed. Like we’re in between shifts, kitchen’s closed. And so he tells this whole story about sale and he gets done telling it, and how long the waitress goes, you know what, first she says, you’re pretty disturbed. And then she said, I’m going to go throw those wings in for you. And that was, that was Tommy’s light bulb moment. If you remember, when he was going on his tour to sell the Callahan brake pads at first, he was trying to sell through the traditional, right? Like, you know, we have guarantees and dah, dah, dah. And when he finally realized the power of storytelling of understanding what their customers want, I remember, and then he starts to turn it around me. Right. He starts to go to all these meetings and telling stories about his family and, and the tradition of the Callahan auto parts.

And, you know, I think the storytelling is so powerful actually. It’s, I think it’s the largest chapter. When I talk about the humans framework, I walk through not just the power of storytelling, but the myths around it. And then the types of stories that you can tell and how to start crafting just this constant library of stories, whether they’re short, like little verbal tweets or metaphors, um, all the way to like telling more powerful stories that help the customers understand the experience they’ll have with your company, um, to, you know, the more metaphorical, like what’s your purpose, your passion, and a story that really highlights, you know, why you care so much about the product you’re trying to sell. So, yeah, to me, authenticity is a thousand percent fits into the strategy for a sales person. Um, and then, you know, the storytelling component to me, like I always say I was never in sales, but I was sold to a million times as a, as a CEO.

And I, so I know what works for me. And, you know, if I were in sales, I would spend not just times telling stories, but I also talk about the most powerful story is just mining for your customer success stories, not testimonials, those are powerful, but, but the actual, like, you know, if you have a customer service team, I would cozy up with those people and be like, tell me some stories. There is gold sitting in the ears of your customer service team and your people on the front lines, or even yourself, if you’re a smaller entrepreneur, tell those stories. So good.

Yeah. That’s so good. Oh my gosh. So if a woman is listening, so I want to ask your one final piece of advice, and then I want you to tell everyone where they can get your book and where they can connect more with you Erin. So a lot of the women who listen to this show, they’re like working to break through their first six figures, and they’re really excited about it. And that’s like, they, they want to do more, but that’s the first target. So if you were going to give one piece of advice to a woman who was wanting to break through six figures this year, what would that be?

Oh, it would be my 50% role. I would be my 50% rule, which I touched on just a tiny bit in the book. Um, it may be the book book number two, but here’s what it is, what I mean by that, you know, I experienced it too. So I was this trailblazer, right. I had this corporate career and I was doing everything my own way. And then I became an entrepreneur two years ago and I joined great masterminds, like brand builders, group and others. Right. Which taught me such amazing things. I had coaches, all those things. And then, you know, I looked up after like a year of just like exhaustion and not feeling I could do it. And I really want like, why, why is this so hard for me? Like, there was definitely a huge friction point for me and executing. I knew it wasn’t, I, I have a lot of, um, like I work hard.

It wasn’t about me being lazy. And I realized that the moments when hit the biggest walls, and I talk about this right in the beginning of the book, I hit it with my book is when I realized I’m working hard to take on the things I should do. And it’s not all sheds. It’s the shows where I’m like, that doesn’t quite feel right to me. Or if I were on the other side of this, I wouldn’t like that. Right. And so the 50% rule is essentially something that guides me all the time, which means take fit, like learn, learn from Elise, learn from others, take 50%. And in don’t be stupid. Like they have great advice. They’ve seen things ahead of you. They’ve good techniques. Take half of it, give yourself permission to fill in the other half of your own way to sometimes just something that doesn’t feel right.

Are you thinking of what resonate or you have a better idea? That’s how we, that’s how we innovate. That’s how we evolve. That’s how we’re authentic. I mean, authenticity, isn’t all about just being your own self, but if you can, if you can sort of have a mix of roughly 50% sort of what you’ve learned, but then 50% doing it, your own fricking way. It’s, it’s probably one of the most freeing things. And thank you because you’re going to be innovating and showing a new path for all of us, instead of just following the lead. That’s

So good. Erin that’s and I wish like my younger self, I wish I knew that it was okay to trust myself. And that just because my idea was different from someone who was more experienced than me or making more money than me, or they were on the New York times list. And I wasn’t like that still doesn’t make me wrong if I have a different idea. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. So please tell everyone where they can get the book, where they can find out more where they can connect with you, all the things I know they’re gonna want to know.

Yeah, well, so in the book, I call myself an instant gratification, horror, which I know is probably really dirty, but that’s like an IDW. If you’re an IDW, uh, you can go straight to Amazon and get my book. It’s called you. Do you ish, um, unleash your authentic, super powers to get the career you deserve. Um, but also the best hub is my website. You can go to be authentic, Inc com it’s just the letter B authentic, Inc com seems a great hub for my podcast, book blog, you know, all the things. And I have a great fun little quiz on there where you can find your superpower. You can find out if you’re like a bashful bad-ass or if you’re a, uh, practical powerhouse, you can take that there. And then on the socials, if you want to hang out in 3d ish, as I call it, um, I’m most active on LinkedIn and Instagram, both under my name. I’m the only Aaron has to cost us in the world. So if you can spell it

Well, that’s very appropriate for, uh, for having a brand about authenticity. So that’s awesome. And Aaron, I think, you know, if, if we can all take away just the freedom and permission to be ourselves and to show up at our most, the most powerful version of ourselves too, then it’s what else is there? Right? So this was really, really powerful. Thank you so much for your time to writing this incredible book. We’re so grateful for you and I love you, sister. Thank you. Again. Love you too.