Ep. 15: Empowering leaders (with Charreah Jackson of P.S. Powerhouse)

Charreah Jackson is an international speaker, certified coach and founder of P. S. Powerhouse, serving leaders to star in their story with corporate clients including Chase and Uber. She is the author of Boss Bride: The Powerful Woman’s Playbook for Love and Success and a contributor for the New York Times and Money magazine. She previously served as Senior Editor for ESSENCE.

Where to find Charreah

• bossbride.com
• Happily Ever Now: Discover the confidence and satisfaction you crave in 6 weeks

Read the full transcript below.

Melissa Guller: Before we share today’s interview, I want to take a moment to give a special shout out to podcast listener, Megan. Here’s what she said in her review on Apple podcasts. “I look forward to this podcast each week. As a novice course creator, the information is helpful and inspiring. The stories are down to earth and the advice is actionable. The variety of topics gives a new twist each week. Highly recommend!” So a huge thank you to you Megan for the kind words. It means so much to all of us here at Teachable. And if you’d like to receive a shout out on a future episode and make me extra happy, please leave us a review in Apple Podcasts. Now on to the show.

Charreah Jackson: So if you are a content creator and people are asking you the same question, you have an opportunity to answer that question through your content, through courses. And so I was so fulfilled to be able to give something deeper than just articles in a magazine or things in a certain place.

Melissa Guller: We all have a story, and we aren’t so different from each other. We all want to be loved, and seen, and celebrated. That’s just one of many powerful messages we’re about to learn from Charreah Jackson. Because before turning 2,5 Charreah had battled cancer, been laid off, and found out she was the other woman in a new relationship. Yet Charreah says that those setbacks taught her early on to write her own story. And today, as an international speaker, author and certified coach, she’s now honored to help others do the same. So in this episode, Charreah is here to help you realize that most of us might not see the value in our own skills, but you never know who else is inspired by you. And each one of us is more capable than we probably realize. Stay tuned.

Announcer: Welcome to Everything is Teachable, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes to learn how everyday creators have transformed their skills and passions into online courses and businesses. To introduce this week’s episode, here’s your host, Melissa Guller.

Melissa Guller: Hey everyone. I’m Melissa from Team Teachable. And today I’m here with Charreah Jackson. Charreah is an international speaker, certified coach and founder of P.S. Powerhouse, o star in their story with corporate clients, including Chase and Uber. She’s the author of Boss Bride, the powerful woman’s playbook for love and success, and a contributor for the New York Times and Money magazine. She previously served as senior editor for ESSENCE.

Melissa Guller: All right, well Charreah, welcome to the podcast! I’m thrilled to have you.

Charreah Jackson: So excited to be here. I love Teachable, shameless plug.

Melissa Guller: [Laughs] We’ll take a shameless plug, and we’ll share one for you a little later on. Well, to kick things off, I can’t wait for listeners who haven’t heard your story to really get to learn more about you. So can you just tell us a little bit more about your career path and it’s so closely tied to your life, so a little about your career and your life to date.

Charreah Jackson: Absolutely. So my name is Charreah Katie Jackson, born and raised in Atlanta. Spent the last 12 years living in New York to pursue my dreams in media at my heart. I call myself a communications mastermind and a master manifester. I formerly was a senior editor at ESSENCE where I was able to tell a lot of stories I loved. I’m currently a contributor for the New York times and money magazine. My passion all, if I had to sum it up, it all would definitely go back to the power of relationships because every great story has a great cast and I’m just fascinated by how we all intersect and honestly, professionally speaking, relationships has been my superpower. I’ve been able to really have a career that curls my toes based on my relationships based on being intentional around cultivating my squad and so that has led me to be a speaker who has spoken around the world.

Charreah Jackson: I’ve spoken in Amsterdam and London and South Africa. So many doors have opened just around being intentional around my relationships. And it’s the area of expertise as an editor, it’s where I was a relationships editor, then a senior editor. And then my first book was published last year, Boss Bride, the power of a woman’s playbook for 11 success on st Martin’s press get a free chapter@bossbride.com. But my book really just looks at that intersection of how our personal and professional lives intersect. And what I found is definitely again, back to relationships, um, how we can be strategic and plan to be fulfilled both at home and at work in a new world for so many people and especially for women. And also I’m a Teachable course creator. My first online course ever I did on Teachable Cod happily ever now, six weeks to increase your lemon success.

Charreah Jackson: And that just really came out of seeing people sort of wonder if they could have the life they desired. And I have a resounding yes, yes, yes. And I’m not all sprinkles and vanilla, like life throws hard punches at all of us. I talk about it in my book, it’s in my bio. Before I had turned 25 I had battled cancer. I got laid off. I started my career right in the recession, graduated college 2007 moved to New York, right as the recession was kicking up. And then, you know, found out I was the other woman. And all of those things happened to me before my 25th birthday. And I always say, yay, that was great news for me. I don’t wish hardship on anybody. I definitely don’t wish illness on anybody. But for me, going through adversity early in life really woke me up to how precious our time was, but also the fact that we all get to write our own life story. And so that’s really what empowered me to say, you know what? I can have my happily ever right now and which inspired my new company that I’m just organizing that I’m still excited to house all these passions and interests and service under P S powerhouse where we serve leaders to star in their own life story. So super excited to be here.

Melissa Guller: I can’t believe you’re able to even wrap up that full story in just a couple of minutes. The amount of work that you’ve done, both professionally, but also it seems like work to get to know yourself and having self-awareness. It seems like you’ve really jam packed so much in and I would love to go back to those moments. You said so much happened before you were even 25 how did you like find it within yourself to say, I’m going to do something about this. I want to do something that’s better with my life?

Charreah Jackson: Well, I think so. I was diagnosed with cancer when I was 19 at the time. I mean, I talked to other people who’ve been through hardships early in life and I think sometimes you don’t have the doom and gloom of wisdom. Probably the realize, Oh, this is very serious. Oh my life is at stake. You’re just like, okay, let me get through something. But I will say facing hardship early, it woke me up. I didn’t have the luxury to pretend that I had forever to live out my dreams. I didn’t have this, this Oh later I’ll go enjoy my life later. It be a good time. It was like, no, like tomorrow is not promised so you know what I’m going to make today. Pretty amazing. And so I think I already was ambitious, but having that early sort of reality check really woke me up and so I think I spent my twenties really just going for what I was going for, my dreams, going for what I desired, tasting and enjoying life. So now the other side of that, by the time I got to 30 I was exhausted. Oh, you don’t have to cramp everything. You don’t have to cram your whole life into these few years. But it taught me so much about myself and it just pushed me to to really take advantage of the present moment.

Melissa Guller: That is I think a really unique perspective because most people at age 19 and 20 the world is just full of possibility that you could do anything. I think a lot of us probably default to options that are known options that our parents maybe took before us or the things that we’re supposed to do. But maybe to your point, the flip side of adversity or hardship is like the feeling that I’m going to do it now.

Charreah Jackson: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Melissa Guller: So you started off was ESSENCE first or talk us through, like what were you doing professionally?

Charreah Jackson: Yeah, so definitely my goal was to be a magazine editor, so did a lot of internships in college, including the summer between my junior and senior year. I interned at ESSENCE and so after that I went back to school and my senior year I had horrible because after you live in New York and work in New York, you think you’ve kind of grown. But yeah, just we’ll stay in touch. I had a list of about five magazines. I wanted to intern for it now and prefaces. This was 2007 right. So I entered, my dream was to go into industry that was rapidly changing. And so the good part about it was when I graduated, the website team at ESSENCE was hiring. So I was able to get a job on the digital team and always just paying attention to opportunity because even in those few years that I was there, it went from like digital being sort of the underdog, right?

Charreah Jackson: Where print was premium back then. I mean magazine editors were mini goddesses and digital was kind of like the little sister, right? But I knew, I saw the opportunity there and I even saw within the editors, you know, we might ask, Hey, can you give, you have some story left over that doesn’t even make it into magazine. We were trying to kind of get scraps where the website, but within a year it went from that to editors coming who were prints. I come into our team like, so can I write for the site? Can I the who understood that this part of the business was growing. This is where companies were investing. And so it definitely gave me a opportunity to, at an early stage in my career, pay attention to the resources, pay attention to where money was moving. And so I did that for about two and a half years.

Charreah Jackson: Now, the other side of that was obviously digital is not a nine to five type of environment. And so it was a high pace environment. I knew that like the work pace was fast within what I wanted to continue to do. I didn’t want to work that way long term. And so I started looking for other opportunities. And also this was the recession. So every year ESSENCE at the time was owned by timing and which was the largest magazine publisher in the world. And every year timing was having layoffs. Just like many of the big magazine companies were having layoffs every year, just cutting staff as resources and moved and as the recession set in. And so in 2009 the New York times actually did an article around timing, had layoffs coming. And I knew I was doing a solid job. I knew I had to respect of my managers, but I also knew, you know, budget cuts or budget cuts.

Charreah Jackson: So no, nothing is guaranteed. And so, um, I walked in that November, 2009 and the whole web, most of the web time, we’re 80% of the web team I work with was laid off that day. And so I always tell that story because it wasn’t a reflection on me and people sometimes gas like why would you tell people? I’m like, it’s not a secret. But I also I think is important, especially for in these times that you always be thinking about your own future because a company isn’t thinking about, you know, making sure your kids go to college. So if you’re not thinking about it and no one’s thinking about it. And so it was such a gift for me. I that I went to PR, I worked in PR for two years as a social media strategist. And you know, this was a time where a lot of big brands were figuring out how do they better engage online that they knew that audience.

Charreah Jackson: We’re on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, how do we leverage? And so I spent two years at a fashion and beauty firmware. I was social media managers. My my clients I worked on were trust Mae and motions and Nicole Richie’s fashion lines where some of our clients, and so it was great for me to be in these strategy sessions as a young person sorta talking through social strategy, how can we engage with these audiences online? And then I did that for two years and then there was a relationship to editor role at ESSENCE and I went back, it was a different pace. It was sort of my dream job to be a magazine editor at editing for the magazine, but also thinking throughout. Right? Yeah, that’s a part of it. But you know, we’re hosting Twitter chats, we’re doing live events where talking through YouTube series. So it was really an opportunity to really get clear around from a content standpoint, how can you serve an audience across platforms?

Melissa Guller: Yeah. Such a huge challenge and it’s continuously changing. And what’s interesting in hearing your story is like you’re in a communications position professionally, but then reporting on relationships. That’s the whole world of really communicating personally. Absolutely.

Charreah Jackson: Yeah. I didn’t think about it from that standpoint. But yes, definitely for me it was the sweet spot of exploring and understanding and just realizing so much until your earlier point. I think I spent a lot of time obviously in that in those years looking at in a personal relationships and as I went through that I realized how much the personal development, right? Cause every relationship really is only a reflection of the people in that relationship. And so I had to take time for myself to do my own personal development work, but also to realize how critical it was for each of us within our careers, within our relationships, within everything. How much that relationship with self is a priority

Melissa Guller: [inaudible] I think that’s a tough thing to learn in a professional setting. I think you mentioned that kind of sweet spot that you were at, but a lot of times the work world and the personal world are kept so separate. But relationships are such a core part of both.

Charreah Jackson: Yeah. And that what I’ve discovered is that people who really win find a way to merge all their sales. Like, even when I was writing my book and I, you know, in my bonus chapter is called you are here. And one of the things I realized is that people who really are living this high level of peace and high level of productivity, they found a way to be one person all the time. So yes, there are parts of your personality that might show up stronger at work or at home, but there’s really this sense of strong sense of self and a strong clarity of mission that I’ll be one person. And so because even for me, I think I look back at some of the mistakes I may or things I would do different in my career. And it was, we are fed this lie that, Oh, who you are at work and who you are at home are so different.

Charreah Jackson: I remember one time I think my mom and my aunt had visited New York and you know, they were going to stop by the office and I remember feeling like, Oh my gosh, my mom, like I want to look like a professional. So I don’t want to be the girl whose mom is coming by the, you know, it’s not picking you up. Cool. But I just remember, you know the missed opportunity and then a few years later they were back and I said, I’m going to introduce, everybody was so happy to meet my mom, but I think that younger thinking was like, this is work. This family, keep them separate. And not to say that your kids should be at work every day or anything like that, but your family should know a little bit around what your passions are, what you’re doing, how they can support and the people at work should know a little bit of your personality. Because even when you look at the data around client booking, clients are getting promotions when there’s a personal connection, when you let people see more of your authentic self, it’s not just more piece for you, but it’s also more profit because people spend time and money with people they feel comfortable with.

Melissa Guller: That’s an interesting point that it leads to more peace and more profit. Like it won’t just feel better for you personally if you’re bringing all your lives together into one. But to your point, you’re probably gonna be more successful. And maybe there’s a sense of wholeness or why do you think that this is so important for people?

Charreah Jackson: Well, I think definitely today there’s so much noise. There’s so much content, there’s so much in your feet that whenever you feel so a level of authenticity, a personal connection, it resonates. People are looking to connect. People are hungry for connection because even in this time of so much access and you can tweet, FaceTime, DM, so many ways to be in contact. Our society has increasing rates of loneliness where people feel isolated, people feel like disconnected. So when you come through and where everyone else is saying, Oh my gosh, everything’s amazing. You say, you know what guys? I had a crappy day. It gives space for people. It’s like, Oh my gosh, I had a crappy day too when I don’t want to put a filter on it. And so when you show up and create that space of often Tenicity and often it’s what people are hungry for. And then that results to connection, which at when people feel connected, they open them, they’re there, their calendar, and they open their wallets like, Hm, I trust you. And so every brand is looking for that, that, that trust and that connection and community. And so when we do that for personally in our, in our careers, but broader in our businesses, it creates a stronger relationship, which automatically re equals more sales.

Melissa Guller: [inaudible] I would love to talk about this more, this concept of like how to be authentic because I think the internet has really complicated things where there are a lot of great ways that you can create real meaningful relationships with, whether it’s people following you or customers, just people in your internet orbit. But I think it’s a real challenge. So, you know, you’ve transitioned in and you have your own business, you’ve written a book, you’ve amassed quite a following around this relationship building. How do you think you can build authentic relationships online? Can you

Charreah Jackson: yes. And I still love you for staying on this topic a little and absolutely. And every authentic relationship starts with our own decision to be our authentic selves. But that before I can allow myself to truly be seen for who I am, I have to have that level of self acceptance that I’m not so different, right? Because from a professional standpoint, my career and my ability to connect change when my bio just wasn’t, Oh, these things she accomplished, but also some of my hardships, some of the things that made me human. Because sometimes we think success is just those things, but sometimes it is those personal things that make you look human, that make you real. Oh my gosh, I’m not so different. So it’s that piece first and realizing we all have a story. And second, none of us are so different. We all desire some of the same things.

Charreah Jackson: We all want to be loved. We all want to be seen, we all want to be celebrated. And so you talk about authentically connected it is that letting yourself be seen. Will I let myself be seen? When will I let a bad day be seeing? Well, I still go lie. If my hair doesn’t look amazing, will I share some of the front, the stuff around my family or some of the things that are stressing me out right now. And so I think to your point, this social media and this digital age has created the option for us to curate a lie, but real connection requires less curation where it’s just, this is me. I’m that. I’ll show up. Yes, I’ll have the pretty pictures sometimes. But even when you talk to, and I’m sure you talked to a lot of marketers, you talked to a lot of um, people with online brands.

Charreah Jackson: They’ll tell you, Oh my gosh, the highest open rates was when I told them the truth, the highest response I ever got when I just talked about how I wasn’t feeling great these last few weeks. And those are the things that make us all more, a little more relatable. So if you are looking to authentically connect it, first will ask us to not judge ourselves for those feelings. To know that, Oh my gosh, everybody has a moment where they don’t feel amazing or it didn’t turn out the way they want. Right? When the launch, Oh my gosh, guys, you really didn’t like the launch. Why didn’t you like my new product? Or having that human to human conversation versus thinking you’re talking to this, this group of fatal Solice people, but realizing every email, every download, every listen to this podcast is not just a monolift, but a real person out in the world who is a lot more like us and they are different.

Melissa Guller: I think that’s a really great piece of advice. Remember that they’re all humans, that we’re all more alike than we think. It is tough. I think when you’re writing a blog post or you’re sending an email, it’s hard to remember that you’re sending it to a real human and somebody’s real on the other end is going to read it and they probably don’t want you to be like everyone else or just say the things that you’re supposed to say. They appreciate when you’re real with them, but I don’t know if a lot of people are ready to feel vulnerable for that.

Charreah Jackson: Well, that’s the piece too, right? Because before we can be, we have to give ourselves that permission and so that’s the hardest piece of it. Even from me. I mean, I taught casually, Oh my God. I mean, I was diagnosed with cancer at 19 it wasn’t until my thirties that I really started talking about it publicly and it wasn’t that it was hiding, it wasn’t anything a high, but I just felt like, well, that’s separate. I want it to be seen as a professional and we want to be seen as we have it all together. And also I didn’t want to be seen as weak. Right. I didn’t want people to look at me in my head at that time. It was like, well, I don’t want people thinking, Oh my gosh, is she going to get sick? I didn’t want it to be that, but what I was robbing myself of of the strength of it, of the warrior that I was to have overcome it.

Charreah Jackson: And so instead of it seeing it as a weakness, it was just a battle scar that I wasn’t celebrating. And it might not be that for you, it might be, you know, whatever thing you think people will look at you different for. In so many ways it was a, it’s been such a source of power for me instead of this thing that I thought people might judge me for it and look at me differently about it. And so I understand that you’re not belted too. So it was over a decade before I started even talking about it publicly and letting me be in my, like I w it would not have been a part of my bio, but it’s so much power that it gave me on the other side. But also just connection of we all are going through something. And so I would say for people who feel like, Oh my gosh, this is so separate.

Charreah Jackson: I mean I have a financial business, why would I talk about whatever? But anything you came through, it just allows you to connect deeper with people, for them to see you as a human as well. So that’s the other thing too. It’s not just that you’re talking to humans, but they see the humanity in you that they see. I mean, you look at power brands, you look at somebody like my mentor did me a one way mentorship, I don’t know, but like look at someone like Oprah Winfrey when you study her brand or even listening to the podcast and making Oprah, one of my favorite podcasts, it’s really just talking about how from the beginning she was just so authentic. Her first show, she’s talking about breaking out in hives, right? Where you’re not going to see that on most daytime shows. But that became sort of her signature way to connect with that. People felt relatable. I mean, I might not have $1 billion, but I feel like, Oh, this person is some ways similar to me.

Melissa Guller: Mm. That’s a great story and a great, I didn’t know that about Oprah actually, but you’re right. Even just saying like, Oh I’m so nervous. Little things can make you feel really relatable to other people. Absolutely. I’m curious to hear more about your book. So tell us where did that idea come from?

Charreah Jackson: So yes, I was, as I mentioned, I was relationships editor at ESSENCE. So I was doing all these stories around relationships and really, I mean my interest in relationships goes back much longer. Like before I got hired, I got that job was literally my college thesis at Howard university was called state of our union. Today’s college woman working on a bachelor’s or looking for a bachelor. I had had writer’s block for my nieces and my advisors said, well write about something you’re interested in. And I went to this alumni dinner and this fancy alumni with like a first all comes in the bathroom with a, you know, beautiful up dudes. Like, Oh, and we’re 1920 year olds, college students. And she’s like, Oh, have you found your husbands yet? As we’re all watching his wife, what they use in college, she’s like, well, you don’t have to marry him yet.

Charreah Jackson: I, she’s like, I met my neurosurgeon when I was here and married him a few layers and she sachets out of the restroom. But she changed my life because I’d had this writer blog for my thesis and not that I walked out of the bathroom thinking, Oh, this lady is crazy. And then I thought, well gosh, is everyone in college looking for a husband? And I’m sitting here actually trying to get education. Am I doing or is this the best time to find a husband? Like, is this the best pool of eligible bachelors? Like all these thoughts started to come into my head and it just became a, an interest that I just stayed with. And so here we are over a decade later and I have a book out around professional women and dating. So I always had an interest in relationships. I’m, uh, my parents had divorced so I knew that relationships really could impact your life for better or worse.

Charreah Jackson: Literally inside. I wanted to know what works. So that’s how I ended up the relationships editor at ESSENCE. And then while there I was in a serious relationship, my boyfriend at the time, it as for my dad’s blessing and us getting married and we’ve been talking about, and I want to know as an ambitious woman, as a woman who had goals and drive how to professional women navigate in this new era of being empowered women. How did that impact your relationships and how those two areas of your life that was so critical intersect because Friday night and Monday morning directly impact one another. How you spend both. And so that became the, the thesis of the book. It was, I had a lot of research I had done but also had a lot of questions. I interviewed over a hundred women, I’ll call my working wives.

Charreah Jackson: I talked to hiring managers because hiring managers can judge you based on your relationship status. Like I just really want to look, explore the, the tension. And the connection between our personal and professional lives and how your romantic life decisions impacted you professionally. And so that became the book, you know, also from a creative as a creator. It really wasn’t a memoir, but it was so interesting and I pitched it to my agent and we pitch it to publishers as sort of unbiased get married, you know, I want to have this book to help myself and other women plot twists. The same day I got the contract for my book publishers, st Martin’s press. I broke up with my man of many years. We were at the time we were having trouble and it was just like, you know what? I don’t want to do this anymore.

Charreah Jackson: And it just, in a moment of clarity, this one day became a definitive day in my life, but it made the book better because Boss Bride and being a Boss Bride was never about a relationship status or a job title. It was about a mentality. What if you were like a boss, a strategic delegate or of your resources, really mindful as a manager and then being like a bride. A woman on her wedding day, which is living in the moment and connected to the people around you. Because as we talked about earlier, I don’t believe you have one big day in your life that you got to wait until your wedding day for it to be about you. And then after that is downhill from there. No, what if every day is you treat it like your big day, which led to my happily ever now, which is a title of my first course on Teachable and the last chapter of the book. And so that really just became the message that I wanted to share.

Melissa Guller: Hmm. It’s so powerful to hear you talk about, and I think as a woman living in New York myself, it’s something that’s very modern, this topic of how do you be an ambitious woman and then how do you also navigate relationships. That’s not something I think enough people are talking about. So I appreciate hearing this like connection about the relationships here in relationships there. It’s a new perspective for me. So I’m looking forward to checking out your book personally and I hope some listeners do too. Thank you. So actually made a perfect transition. You mentioned the last chapter of your book and then you mentioned your online course. So talk to me about how the book turned into an online course or what, what was your life like? What was happening?

Charreah Jackson: So it’s funny actually the course came before this, the book chapter. Oh interesting. So it was very symbiotic, but I’m so happily ever now the chorus and I guess I get very excited cause I’m like, this is so fun. I’ve never talked about the, the, the Teachable part of my journey. So it was just very fun for me and just how exciting it was for me to be able to distill information to be able to offer that into the world. And it was my first product even before the book, my first real product was my Teachable course. And for me it was opportunity. I knew it was a question I was being asked around sort of, you seem so happy about life and how did, how did you figure out a rhythm to be happy and successful? And so that became sort of the premise in that became something that I wanted to sort of share my process around how could we all feel a little bit more fulfilled.

Charreah Jackson: And then to your other point that my sweet spot around relationships, because it really for me is those relationships with self and how did you cultivate relationships both with your squad but also inanimate object, your relationship with your finances, your relationships with money. And so that really became sort of the, the goal for me, and it was an opera, I mean an ad launched, right? Going December, going into Christmas or excuse me, going into the new year and I had about 40 people sign up the first day I opened my course. And it was also the range of people because I felt like it was kind of an opportunity for me to give a gift to people who had supported me or seen me who wanted more. And so if you are a content creator and people are asking you the same question, you have an opportunity to answer that questions through your content, through courses. And so I was so fulfilled to be able to give something deeper than just articles in a magazine or things in a certain place, and so it was definitely an exciting time for me and one of my, actually one of my clients who’s I know for the course was one of my first bosses and so it was also like you never know who’s inspired by you or who’s watching you, and so it was really an opportunity to put more into the world and to better package the lessons I had learned so far.

Melissa Guller: That’s a great point. That two things that you never know who’s inspired by you. I think a lot of us assume like, Oh, who would want to buy from me and Oh, nobody in my network, none of my friends or family, they would never purchase this, but that’s just not true. I think people are often surprised by many people who are already in your network who would love to work with you or learn from you. Absolutely. The other thing you said that I think is so true is that if people are asking you the same question a lot, that’s a really good sign that you’re on to something. And for anybody just getting started. Imagine what a friends and family come to you for. What’s the thing that you keep helping other people out with? That’s a little hint that maybe you’ve got knowledge that people wouldn’t just ask you about but would pay you for [inaudible]

Charreah Jackson: ding, ding, ding. That’s the bit, that’s the sweet spot. Cause you should be getting compensated for, for your insight in your, and I think as a journalist I saw that so often where people, because it was something they do so naturally and effortlessly, they didn’t always see the value in it. Right? Oh it comes out easy. I’m like, this is amazing. So they didn’t know that that was like this is a story you need to tell the world or this is something you need to teach. So absolutely that thing you do with ease and that thing that people are like, Ooh, tell us more. And what you know, that infamous quote unquote pick your brain. Don’t pick people’s brains. If people want to pick your brain, you say, well, why don’t I pick your pocket and you pay me? And that’s an opportunity for content.

Melissa Guller: Oh, let’s do funny. But totally true. I think a lot of us, you mentioned that phrase, the things you do with ease and because we know how to do certain skills, we may not even notice that not everyone can do them or not everyone knows what we know. So it’s easy I think to downplay the value of our existing knowledge and to not realize that people would really put a premium to pay you to know what you know.

Charreah Jackson: Absolutely. Into your other point of those of us living in New York, I mean working in media, it included a lot of events and you go to so many events and there’s professional, everything is professional hand models. Professional people get paid within random gifts, right? And so it’s always exciting for me to see people who realize that, wow, this thing that you’re applying for like a one off art and this isn’t special. It is special and there’s an opportunity for you to be the best in it and get paid for it at different levels.

Melissa Guller: Well said. So you have your online course. Talk to me about how do you find students? I think marketing is something that a lot of people are often curious about. So where do you find people and bring them into your world?

Charreah Jackson: Yeah, so I do, for me it’s been so exciting to have other things to offer and for me, I find clients every organically, right? But I also speak a lot, so it’s been great for me to be able to have other products because specifically for coaches or people who might already be doing us sort of a one-to-one or you work directly with clients, at a certain point you won’t be able to ha you have, you have capacity limits of how many one-on-one you can do. So for me it’s been great. As I speak, I’m able to bundle the course with other coachings. I might say, you can get a course and a call with me and bundled that in versus just having a call. And then it’s a way to engage at a level. So of course, social media has been great. I’ve done Facebook and Instagram ads towards my chorus.

Charreah Jackson: I’ve done, um, email campaigns, also partnerships. We talk about the power of community and I’m actually working on a new course now. And one of the ways I’m planning to launch that is people who are already have relationships or admire to ask them, can I partner with them and offer my course, offer my content to their audience? Because sometimes people, there are complimentary communities who the business community. So my next course, and with PS powerhouse, I’m really helping other people. I’m better distilling my knowledge around media and speaking to help other people get their message to millions. And so what I’m doing now is I’m going out to business masterminds. They’re teaching their entrepreneurs around business strategy. I want to help those business entrepreneurs get in front of more media. And so it’s a complimentary service and a compliment. And we add on to their audience where they already have people who are interested in business. And so my service layers and perfectly so for anyone starting out, I definitely encourage partnerships, um, which can be affiliates and then you offering your service to other people who have, might have databases of thousands of your target market and you’re offering something that they don’t already offer that community

Melissa Guller: [inaudible] love that you brought up partnerships. I think that’s such a powerful part of the online business community is that a lot of people have overlapping audiences or complimentary skillsets and the two of you can really help each other because it takes a lot of work to grow an audience and it takes a lot of work to build great content. So if you have one or the other or maybe you have both and somebody else has both and you can work together, whether it’s to pitch your course to their audience, their course to your audience, or even both, that’s going to be a win win for everybody. But I don’t know of a lot of people are really taking advantage of that idea that there’s a more, is more approach to partnering with other online business owners.

Charreah Jackson: Absolutely. I love that. More is more, it’s new for me. I mean I’m years in and I’m just really understanding, wait, I don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. And you know, it definitely it to your point is so much more efficient. But also for most of us who are in this because we want to help and serve, it’s just being responsible to go ahead. If there’s, and I, you know, my book tour taught me that because I always give the analogy, people ask around and you have to know to your point, your strengths. There’s some people who like to host and organize a party. They like to pick out all the, what the, what the food will be and the theme. And then there’s some people who just like to go to parties and, and work the room. And I’m the type of girl, I like to go to the party and work the room. So with my book tour, what I found is the book event that I hosted where I organized were more stressful for me than the ones where someone else organized or they had an event or a conference and I just showed up. And so as an expert, you get to decide. And sometimes there’s pros and cons to both, right? So there’s times where when you host something yourself that you have more ownership, you get to create more, but it’s more responsibility on your side. So absolutely partnering has been invaluable and getting into more people.

Melissa Guller: I love that. Know who you are at the party because I’m the person who would want to organize the party and then step back and say, [inaudible] work your magic.

Charreah Jackson: Yeah. See we worked together this word.

Melissa Guller: Exactly. And I think what’s great about that too, in terms of being a creator is that there are so many ways you can be a creator and none of them are right. But if you know, Oh, I really like connecting with an audience, maybe it is an interesting path for you to take to find the best online courses that you love and see if you can reach out to that creator and say, Hey, I’ve got an audience. I’d love to sell your course. And I’m sure they would be thrilled in most cases. And then on the other end, if you’re the type of person who really loves to create content, find people who already have an audience and say, I think I have something that they’ll love. Because if you’re that person who has a following, you want to offer them great value. And so there’s just so much opportunity there. I totally agree. I’m curious, before we start to wrap up in a minute, if you were just getting started today as a new creator, what are some of the very first things that you would do?

Charreah Jackson: Definitely. So I’m actually, um, Cornell University has this partnership with bank of America where you, this woman’s entrepreneurship online course, and I’m in it right now and it’s something, I mean it’s in lean startup, but it’s for creator. I think you can’t over do the listening piece because I think, you know, as creative sometimes we want to give just what’s on our heart and I think that’s beautiful. You want to listen to yourself and trust yourself. And then from a business standpoint, you want to think about who wants what I’m serving, right? And so you want to offer samples of what it is you’re doing. You just want to listen. What are their pains that you’re looking to solve for in your company and get that feedback. So, so yes, if I were just getting started, I definitely would listen more to the audience I’m looking to serve.

Charreah Jackson: When you think about that target audience, the person you see buying your products, Brian, your services, I would have listened more. So now I have a new free master class@starpowertwentytwenty.com which really helps thought leaders and entrepreneurs get their message to millions and the great part about that that I hadn’t done with previously magazines. I listened to my target audience, I asked entrepreneurs and thought leaders, what do you want to know around booking more speaking, booking more media and I was able to integrate all of that information and some of the things I hadn’t thought about into that free master class.

Melissa Guller: That’s really exciting and we’ll put a link in our show notes as well so that people can check it out later and learn more about not only your newest projects but also Boss Bride and everything that you’ve done to date. Perfect. Before we go, I want to know are there any final words of wisdom or inspiration you have for our listeners?

Charreah Jackson: This has been such a fun conversation. First thing, I loved the crew at Teachable and shout out to at Teachable. This feels full circle to me because my, my, my media breakfast that I hosted before my book boss where I came out, I did it at the Teachable office in New York. They let me as Teachable a course creator. I was able to come and have breakfast with a few media folks there and my last word would be have fun. I think sometimes we let the pressure of filling, filling depression or be profitable suck the fun of creating out. And I would say even for me, sometimes we overthink it just to trust yourself and to stay in community. So don’t do it by yourself. Don’t go into your creative writers hole or your little creative, whatever that little area we go into it and just work by ourselves. Do it with community, do it with support and know that whatever that’s on your heart to create has been requested in the world. So trust yourself, trust the assignment and keep reaching out for support.

Melissa Guller: Well, I am definitely feeling that advice and I’m sure so many of our listeners are too. So Charreah, thank you so much again for joining. It’s been such a pleasure to have you and to learn more about your story and to really feel like, Hey, I can go out and do this too.

Charreah Jackson: Thank you so much. It’s been a treat for me.

Melissa Guller: Thanks so much for joining us this week. You can learn more about Charreah, P.S. Powerhouse, Boss Bride, and Teachable in the show notes at teachabele.com/eit15. Now before you go, we hope you’ll subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes right when they’re released. And if you are enjoying the show, we hope you’ll leave us a five star review! We can’t tell you how much we appreciate your feedback and your support. We hope you enjoyed this episode about knowing who you are at the party with Charreah Jackson. We’ll see you in the next episode of Everything is Teachable.