Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Ever wonder why success doesn't always equal fulfillment?
Join Tim Salmans on "Powerful and Unpolished" as he challenges the status quo with this question: what if the key to fulfillment lies in recognizing and breaking free from energy-draining patterns? This podcast isn't just about success stories; it's about the unspoken challenges that high-achieving individuals face. Tim Salmans will unpack the complexities that cause frustration, offering tangible strategies to navigate personal challenges within professional landscapes while maintaining your authentic self. Subscribe now for a transformative journey - where authenticity meets success on your own terms.
Good day, everyone. Welcome back to Powerful and
Unpolished. I’m Tim Salmans. I’m your host. you’re probably tired of
hearing that, but it’s who I am, it’s what I do. So, I have a great… I
just love this work, this opportunity to be able to interview people, to
meet people of all different, specialties, skills, and today, will not
disappoint. I am excited to have Carrie Rene Thomas- Woop-woop … on the
show. Hello. Welcome, Carrie. Thank you for joining us today. Of course.
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here. This is
awesome. So, a little bit of background about Carrie to give you a
heads-up, and just so you know, I mean, Powerful and Unpolished is
really about being real, playing with authenticity, exploring the
questions, encouraging people to go deeper for themselves. it is
supported by my business, Insights for Choice, and Insights are about
developing for ourselves. So it’s really about, how do we actually step
further into our powerful and still do it when we’re unpolished
sometimes? So the background today that I’m going to give you, I’m gonna
give you Carrie’s bio real quick. So Carrie is a co-CEO of Becoming
Irresistible. It’s a visibility marketing company helping women
entrepreneurs get seen, heard, and paid, and a few good men, we’ll say
that. Few good men. Yeah. She’s a speaker, a strategist, an AI
implementation expert. Carrie blends marketing strategy and cutting-edge
AI tools to help value-led women and some men build businesses that
create ripple effects, and I love that. I love, I love the ripple effect
aspect of it because, well, I’m a Christmas person, right? I’m, I’m huge
into Christmas, and there’s a movie came out a couple years ago, and I
can’t even think of what it’s called. Un- Un-something. But, - It, it
has a song in there called Ripple Effect Oh And it’s really, it’s that
aspect of, you know, what you do actually has a ripple effect going out
into the world. Yeah, my dad used to always say, like, when one, when a
good person helps another good person, you help, you create a good
world. And he was like, “That’s the ripple.” So, like, that always has
been, like, at a core of everything I do, is always, like, how can I,
one, me be a good person, and then how can I make sure I attract and
help good people so then we can create a good world, create the ripples.
That’s awesome, and that’s, that’s why I’m excited to have you on the
show. I mean, I’m g- I actually wanna hear a little bit more about your
dad. Set us up, though. Set us up and let us know, what is Becoming
Irresistible outside of what- Yeah. I would say at a core, Becoming
Irresistible is a human first business growth company that is powered by
AI. so we use a lot of AI, but we always first start with the human, and
we ask ourself, “How can we increase the human’s capacity, the human’s
human experiences by leveraging AI so they can spend more time with the
people and do what they love and what only they’re supposed to do?” To
get, to get the, the noise out of the way to be more effective i- is a
powerful skill. Yeah. Our, our wor- our word, and it’s funny, our team,
like, you know how, like, you have, like… is we’re in this adoption
phase right now in a, inside of Becoming, and I use the word efficiency
a lot, and it’s been really interesting to see our team starting to use
the word efficiency in their conversation. They’re like, “Yeah, we need
to be more efficient.” I’m like, “It’s working. The adoption is
happening.” Oh, I love that. Well, and that’s, that’s that ripple
effect. Yeah. Right? And it’s not only just the ripple effect. th- this
is a key element I really wanna highlight here is what you just shared
is you’re talking about part of your culture, part of the culture that
you have in your office. And there’s a lot of information out there
around culture, but it’s not as often as I see people who capitalize on
it. When you actually go into a culture-based business, environment,
team, whatever, endeavor, and you see that the culture is embraced by
those who are participating in it- It changes the value of what you’re
doing And a lot of times what I found, and it’s funny ’cause I have
this… It’s a line that I say, in all of our meetings is that I know I’m
beating a dead horse, but I’m gonna keep beating it. But because, like,
one of the things that I’ve learned is people have to keep hearing it
over and over and over again so it can become, like, it becomes their
story as well. So I’m always saying, I was like, “Hey, you know, one of
the key things we have to work on is, like, how can we do stuff faster?
How can we condense time?” Like, I’m always saying that, and then, like,
I’ll say, I was like, “I know y- y’all are probably saying Carrie is
beating a dead horse, but I’m gonna keep beating it.” And they’re like,
“We know. We know you’re gonna…” But that’s what I’m noticing, yeah. I
think it’s a great pattern to have when you’re working… Having worked
with people on intimate levels, people think that because they know it,
that it’s the same thing as doing it, and it’s like going, no, you have
to keep reinforcing beating that dead horse, right? Because it’s like we
still don’t actually have it into practice. We don’t have it in the
experience. Wow, that’s cool. one of the areas, just to bring everyone
up to speed why I was really looking forward to having Carrie on the
show is Carrie and I are kinda like soul friends. Soul, you know, I
mean, it’s, it’s this aspect of where w- we both have dealt with
dyslexia, learning disability, and all that kind of stuff growing up.
And let me ask you this, Carrie: how has your experience of having to
overcome and push through and work through your own personal issues, how
has that affected what you do today? It’s, it’s funny because, like, I
feel like it’s, it’s everything. It’s everything. So, like, I always
tell people the reason why I’m so passionate about what I do is because
of what I went through and how I never want anybody else to have to go
through it. Like, I know I don’t want anybody else to have to, to go up
the mountain crawling and trying to figure out all these things. Like, I
wanna be like, “Hey, here’s the fast track. Here’s the steps, and I’ll
tell you all the stories. I’ll tell you all the situation and all the
examples so you can learn from it, so you don’t have to do it, like, you
don’t have to do it that way.” That’s, that’s huge. There’s, th-
there’s, as with everything in life, right, there’s, there’s multiple
sides of everything. Yeah, and it’s funny because, like, I’m, like, so
in human design, I’m a projector 1/3. And they always say that the 3 in
the projector is, like, trial and error. And it’s funny because, like,
one, a couple of my friends they’ll always say, they’re like, “Carrie, I
can literally tell you there is a fire down the road and it’s blazing.”
And you’ll be like, “Well, it was down there when you went down there,
but it might not be there.” And then you’ll go down there and then
you’ll come back, and you’ll be like, “Oh, it’s still fire.” I’m like,
“Yes.” But now I can go talk to my clients and tell them about what it’s
like in a fire because I experienced it. So I can hear it secondhand,
but the fact that I know it to my core, I can then now share it and
explain to you how to get through it. This is fun ’cause this brings in
some dynamics where I wanna go a different direction. Because what I
love about that is you’re, you’re about engaging and being in the
experience, learning from the experience. Love that. I also, you know,
when I’m working with clients that I’m working with, a lot of times I’m
really kind of working with them in a faith kind of self-trust. And when
I say faith, I’m not talking religion, I’m talking self-faith for
self-belief, right? And a lot of times human beings have a tendency to
get in their own way because they want proof. Prove it to me. Prove it
to me. And it’s like going, why don’t you have some trust inside of you
to figure it out yourself? And, and that’s what it is a lot of times
people, they say that they have trust, they have… Th- that they’re on
top of it, and then the first thing that comes out of their head is,
“Oh, I know that. I know that. I know that.” And it’s like going, but
nobody’s experiencing that. What would be different in your results if
people actually had an experience of what you’re talking about? And it’s
funny, like, my dad, my dad used to always… My dad used to say he was
Mississippi. No, he was Missouri. He’s a show me state. So whenever I
used to, like, ask him something, I’d be like, “Hey, Dad, like I wanna…
Like, what’s this?” He would be like, “Well, you gotta go find it and
show me.” ’Cause he never… Like, he always was like, “You have to
experience it. You have to know it. Like, you have to know it. Like, you
can’t just get it, regurgit- regurgitate it from me.” And I think for
me, even in, like, personal development and stuff like that, I use every
experience as, like, a understanding because, like, I was having a, I
was having a conversation with somebody recently, and I was talking
about how a good portion of my life is, like… I grew up, my parents were
upper middle class and maybe even up- upper class ’cause my dad, like,
he was in the stock market and all this and, the real estate, but, like,
we never really struggled. Like, I never really had, like, struggles.
Like, I never had, like, the rag to riches experience But I remember
when I went to college, I like tried to do my own stuff and I couldn’t
ask my dad for money ’cause I spent it all like going shopping at Route
21. And and I remember like, and like I like spent it for like the sem-
like for the s- quarter. Like I had spent it for the quarter. Like I
went like- … balls to the wall. so I couldn’t ask him like, “Hey, Dad,
like, can I get…” S- but I remember myself like looking around, like
stressing out and I was like … And I didn’t have any basis or any
foundation of what that felt like because it was my first time ever
experiencing struggle. And it really wasn’t struggle, but it was
struggle to me, and that’s when I reali- But then w- it was like funny
’cause it was like the moment that I kinda got out of that, and then
during that time I got a job, I valued that ex- that job so much more
because I went through a valley. And I feel like a lotta times, for me
especially, like I was always kinda on this even keel experience growing
up, so I never really had hills and valleys really. Like, I think like
the worst thing that ha- Like one of the biggest things that happened
was like I lost my dog, and of course my adoption and stuff like that.
But it was like, it wasn’t like really a traumatic … I didn’t have a lot
of traumatic things happen in my childhood. Right. So it was like I was
l- I didn’t have valleys, so I was like, so when I had my first valley,
I was out. Like you, I was in the corner. Like, it took me out Right.
Well- Because I’ve never experienced it. I was like, “Wait, what is
this?” Right. Like, what do I do? I was like, dude, like I was so
stressed out. I was like… Then I’m like trying to figure out how can I
sell my Route 21 T-shirts that I just bought because I had clothes for
days, clothes and boots for days, no food. And of course I could have
ate at the, at the, at the mess hall, but I didn’t wanna do that. That
was too easy. Your, your clothes are gonna look good in the mess hall,
right? Exact- exactly. It’s like I gotta go and, you know, display-
Exactly … what I’m doing here. Wow. well, hey, you know, I re- I
remember I had a number of friends that had, I call them college
priorities. Yeah. It was, it was, it was that first time that, you get,
you get into university and, you know, you’re out on your own and it’s
like you got freedom and all of a sudden it’s like, wow. Yeah, because
my dad had paid for my school… Like, my dad paid for my school, but I
also had, like, grants. So he was like, “Well, when you get your refund
check, just use that for the quarter.” But when I was like… I had never
got like $1,200 at one time. Right. So I was like, “What? We’re going to
Route 21.” Oh, yeah. “It’s Charlotte Russe-” Oh, that’s funny … “and
we’re gonna have a time.” Yeah. Well, you know. And, but like you said,
I mean, for you it was like the first time you’d actually ever
experienced this l- this lull. H- how did, how did that affect you? Now,
I know it’s an experience that, like, for some people it might have been
a little speed bump, but for other people it’s like it’s, it’s the Grand
Canyon. Oh, it took me out. Like, I was so stressed out because I n-
like, ’cause I didn’t… And this is one of the things that I was talking
to one of my friends about is that I didn’t have the tools. ’Cause I
never, like… ’Cause I think every, like, every valley you go through,
you pick up tools. Like, every time you get help, you pick up tools to
be able to deal with stuff, but I didn’t have any tools. Like it was my
first time, so I’m like sitting here like stressed out. I’m looking at
my friends and they’re going out to eat and doing all their stuff, and
I’m like, “Oh my gosh, like, I’m, I’m poor. Like is this what, is this,
is this what it means to be poor?” It’s like I’m like, “What do I do?” I
was like, I was like, “I don’t wanna eat… I don’t wanna be a ramen
noodle girl. I wanna I don’t wanna be that girl.” I get it. And, and
it’s, a- a- and it’s, it’s not uncommon. I mean, I had something very
similar. I actually went two weeks on a couple loaves of bread and
peanut butter, and it was just like, it, you know. You also have that
pride too, is that young pride where it’s- And I couldn’t call my dad …
I can’t call, you know. It, it’s like you’re not asking for help because
it’s like I don’t want people to really know how badly, you know, I
screwed up or did I screw up or, you know- Yeah … kind of figuring out.
Yeah, ’cause I could, I could, I could definitely hear my dad be like,
“You did what?” “You, you bought how many T-shirts?” ’Cause I think I
bought like maybe 25 T-shirts from Route 21. That’s crazy. Like I was
reckless. That’s awesome. Like It’s crazy. It’s awesome. It’s reckless.
You know, it’s all of the above, right? Wow. so how does that, how does
that, when you’re, when you’re thinking about today, right? And I get
the aspect of you wanna help people not struggle, but just from what you
just shared, that’s sort of how you built up your own strength. So you
wanna, you wanna help people. What, what I’m hearing is you wanna help
people be efficient, be effective, you know, connect. But I also hear
that you don’t wanna steal their lessons. Yeah. So one of the things
that I always say to our clients is that I’m never gonna throw you into
the sun, but I am gonna put you into the shade, and you’re gonna walk
your own self into the sun. Like, because a lot of our clients, when
they come to us, like they’re under the rock. Like they’re like, “I am
hiding. I am the best-kept secret. I have my badge that I feel really
proud of, that every- that I am amazing and only a few people know my
genius.” But then they’re like, “But I really wish I could make more
money. I really wish that I could make a bigger impact, but all of it
feels unattainable. It feels overwhelming. It feels like I have to be
someone that I’m not to make it happen.” So what we show people is like,
“Hey, I’m gonna show you the process of how to do it- And then now you
have the tools. Like, I like to say, like, anytime… Like, a lot of this,
I always say that I’ve been blessed to be able to have tools that stop
people from being stuck and being able to put their self out there. So I
can help you be visually appealing on- online. I can help you be able to
create amazing content and be able to build infrastructures in your
business so then you can be able to put your own genius out there. I
just wanna jump in. so to bring the listeners up to speed, so, I’m
working with Kari Rene, building out an app specific that goes with not
only my messaging for Insights for Choice, but the book that I wrote,
Inner Wisdom, Outer Impact: Leading Your Life from the Inside Out. It’s
really about how do we actually… How, how does this app support
individuals from getting out of the daily muck that they have a tendency
to step into, the patterns that get in their way to help liberate them
into their power, into their ability? And so working with Kari Rene on
this, the reason why I wanted to share this with the listener is, you
know, for years I was, like, going,”I don’t know how to build an app. I
don’t… I wish I knew how to build an app.” And then when you do build an
app, how do I… How, how is it mine? How do I, you know, how do I use it?
And to find someone who actually fills that void is exceptional, for me
at least. So, thank you for putting yourself out there a- and seeing a
need that needed to be filled. Now, you build apps. What else do you do
in business when you help your clients? What else- Yeah, so we build
apps. We do websites. We help people with their visibility strategies.
We help them build out their full growth system, so it’s like they have
intellectual property, they have a offer that sells, but it’s, it’s hard
to get people into the offer. So we help them build out that engine and
make that more a consistent process. Wow. Yeah, and that’s, that’s huge,
especially for a lot of entrepreneurs, out there like me. I’m, I’m
throwing punches. I’m throwing punches in the dark, you know what I
mean? And, and everyone, you know, let, let’s, let’s get into the
reality of life, though. Everyone has an expert. Every, every expert
wants to tell you how to do it their way. And I don’t know about you,
but I think in some of the stories that we’ve shared over the last few
weeks, I get kinda tired of people telling me how I should do things
when I don’t really think that they’ve listened to what I’ve created so
far. Yeah, and I, like, I would say one of the things for me, and I hear
this a lot from our clients, is, like, I really care, and it means a lot
to me that- The core of who you are and why you do what you do is in
everything that I create for you. Because, like, I never want it to be
like, “Okay, this is Carrie’s theme that she made for Tim.” Like, no,
this is, this is Tim’s. This is Timothy’s. Like, this is his word. This
is his art. Carrie just helped bring it to life. Like, his essence is
all in it. And having that partnership, it’s, it’s been quite a gift,
especially recently, ’cause, you know, I mean, I’ve been approached by a
publishing company out of England and, you know, have a, an agent now
and a limit- He has a, he has a agent, guys. He’s, he’s, he’s official.
Can I talk to your agent? Two weeks ago, I was like- … “I don’t have an
agent.” Now I do. But, but the cool thing about it is though is it’s the
partnering. Like, I feel like, you know, when you and I sit down and we
work on what’s the information, what’s the voice, what, how do we wanna
get people into their strength? Because the work that I’m now doing, you
know, the way you are there for me, that’s really how this work needs to
be for any of my clients out there in the world. Because it’s about
them. It’s about their insights. It’s about bringing their power to
themselves and allowing them to wake up from where they’re getting in
their own way because we’re human beings, we all do it Yeah, and I think
at the end of the day, like, I’m obsessed with people. I’m obsessed with
humans. I’m obsessed with being able to understand why people do what
they do and how, and all of it. Like, I was having, like, I had this,
like, theory last night, and I was like, man, like, I wanted… Like, a
lot of our clients, like, they struggle with storytelling, and I was
like, I feel like there’s a way for me to break this down that feels
easy for them to understand, and I was like, “Oh, man,” like, let’s
think about Sundance, and let’s think about the Hallmark movies and how
all of those… Like, if you think about, like, I’ll, I watch, like, the
Oscars, and they talk about, like, the movies that you never heard of,
like, it was never in the blockbusters, but they win all these awards
because they have this deep-rooted story to it that really builds a
connection. And I was like, if we can pull those pieces and help
somebody be able to be better storytellers, that means that they can,
especially right now in the world of AI, that’s the one thing that AI
can’t do, which is literally why, like, Anthropic, Open, OpenAI and j–
and Google literally hired almost $400,000 storytellers to help them and
help them be able to have AI be better storytellers because they just
can’t. Yeah, I mean, AI can clean up your literary kind of writing, if
you will, ’cause I know a lot of people who actually go that route. I
don’t use it much, but I love the tool that it is because you know what?
If you’re, if you’re working on grammar, if you’re working on
streamlining some sentences, that’s fine, but the actual creation of the
storytelling. Like, as you were just sharing, I was sitting there, the
one thing that came to mind was this, and it’s sort of part of our
culture, too. You know, we have these, I’ve said this, might have said
it in the book, but I’ve said this for years. You know how, The Oscars
and, all these award shows for the film industry, you know, they put on
the, the SAG Awards, the Oscar Awards, the People’s Choice Awards, all
these kind of awards, right? And e- everybody’s competing and they’re
competing. And then I’m like going, “There’s no competition here.” This
isn’t a– how can you compete when you’re on one movie set in a different
time, in a different era, and someone else is in another movie set in a
different time, in a different space? And it’s like, and then they’re
pitted against each other, and it’s like what most the population
doesn’t take into consideration is it’s a marketing tool. It’s marketing
movies. It’s marketing stories Well, the thing is, like, the one– the
Oscars that w- I think, what’s the name of it? I think it was like,
start with a C. but the movie that, like, overtook, like, the Oscars
last year wasn’t even a blockbuster. Oh, yeah. Like, I f-or I forgot
what it… I think it started with a C, but it wasn’t even a blockbuster.
It was literally, like, one of those, like, a really strong story, like,
really hit home with people. Like, it was, it was interesting because,
like, it brought back, it was very much, like, the fundamentals of what
filmmaking is. And I think a lot of times we also forget the
fundamentals of st- of filmmaking is storytelling. Like, how can you
convey a story that brings, that has somebody pause for 90 minutes to
two hours and get engulfed in what’s happening on the screen? Yeah. I,
I’m gonna, agree with you, and I’m gonna take it even further.
Everything we do is storytelling. What you’re doing for me with my app
is storytelling so that the person who’s engaged in the story actually
can participate in either their liberation, their empowerment, their
opportunity to recognize maybe where they’re selling out on themselves
or possibly realizing that they’re giving away power that they didn’t
know they were giving away or that they were letting things affect them
that really wasn’t theirs to b- l- you know. There, like, there’s so
much that can happen there, and everything through storytelling. And
it’s interesting ’cause if you remember, like, we were, we had a
conversation this week, and we were talking about the onboarding process
of people when they get into it, and we were like, “Hey, we wanna make
sure we add pauses, in between some of the questions so it doesn’t feel
like a hurried experience.” All of that is storytelling because we wanna
cre- ’cause what, at the core of what we’re looking at is how can we
create the most immersive experience where the person who’s using it
feels seen, heard, and understood. Absolutely. Absolutely. That is key
element and Whoever’s listening to this, what she just said is fricking
gold. Like 90… What is, what is the most purest gold? 99.8%. I mean,
that was golden. Yeah. And, and that’s really what it is. And, but that,
I mean, that’s, that’s what occupies our life nowadays. I mean,
everything is who holds your attention. If, if you hold somebody’s
attention, then somehow that’s, that’s value, so we’re gonna monetize
that, you know? And it’s, it’s kind of where the culture has led itself.
It’s interesting because there’s a, there’s an Instagram woman, that
did, like, $1.2 million selling a $297 product, and everybody’s like,
“What did she do? How did she do it?” But the part that I thought was
interesting, and it’s funny because we teach this, is she started
building her audience with these episodic videos. And the reason why
these episodic videos work so well, ’cause it brings us back to
nostalgia. Like, people miss being able… Like, it’s funny because, like,
we, back then we were like, “Man, I wish there wasn’t, like, I wish I
didn’t have to wait till next week,” but we miss that. We miss getting
everything fast and in a hurry. Like, everything is like you get it now,
you get it now, you get it now, and people are like, “Man, I wanna, I
wanna wait to see what it is next week or in a couple days.” Like, they,
they, that waiting time has become what people look forward to now
because it’s so opposite of what you get in the real world. And yet some
people are still addicted to binge-watching things, right? But I don’t…
Like, it’s f- it’s inter- it’s… The, here’s the part that’s interesting.
I think there is a place for binge-watching, but if you notice, a lot of
the newer shows that are coming out, even on Netflix, on Amazon, they’re
dropping it a couple episodes this week, a couple episodes next week.
Here’s the finale. Like, they’re not, they’re dropping a few. They’re
not dropping one at a time, but they’re dropping enough to where you
still feel like, okay, like, they’re giving us what we, they promised
us, but they’re also giving us like a, a cliffhanger. ’Cause there’s no
more cliffhangers in, like, on videos anymore, in shows. Like, there’s
no reason to have a cliffhanger ’cause you can watch the next episode.
Like, you, you’re not stuck like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t wait till next
week.” Like, you’re like, “Oh, let me… Next.” And, and that’s, and that,
maybe that’s where the gold is too, is in that aspect of it’s the
anticipation that you’re talking about. Like, I think about when people…
I mean, you look at a wedding, all the craziness that happens before the
wedding, but it’s like, you know, you get up to that moment, it’s all
this anticipation, and then you have this big party, and then it’s over.
I mean, you did months and months of work for some people. some people
it’s a couple years. My, my wife, bless her soul, we did it in a couple
months, and thank God, ’cause I didn’t want it to go any longer. You’re
like, “Well, just tell me what you need from me.” Yeah. I don’t, I
already ha- I’m already committed. I don’t, I don’t need the
anticipation. I… Let’s just get the, let’s get to the honeymoon. Let’s
go. Let’s go have fun. Let’s go travel. Yeah. Let’s explore, right?
that’s what made it fun. But it was one of those things where for us
it’s, it’s the anticipation. Like, I remember myself as a little kid,
you know, what I loved about Christmas was everything that happened up
until- Yeah Christmas morning. And Christmas Day was cool, but after
that there was always this like, “what?” Yeah, it was like- Yeah … “Oh,
that’s, that’s, that’s blows,” you know? And you- Yeah, ’cause it’s the
gingerbread house making, it’s the going to see the Christmas carols,
it’s the seeing Santa. It’s like- The craziness it’s all the things,
finding the… Like, I think for literally, like, especially back then,
like, Black Friday, like, getting up at, like, getting up at 2:00 in the
morning to get the, get the gifts. Like, all of that stuff, and then
it’s like Christmas, you’re like, “Oh, womp.” So- Whoa. So when… So let,
let’s explore for you. when you were growing up, did you, did you move
around much as a kid growing up, or were you- Not really. No? We moved
around when I was younger, but then pretty much- Stayed in … stayed
pretty solid. And so did you have like, anything that you anticipated?
’Cause you said that you really didn’t have many bumps along the way
until you went to college. Yes. Like, I would say, like, we had, like,
my d- like, my parents, like, my dad, like, he got… Like, my dad and my
mom were kind of sick a l- a little bit, but that was, like, pretty
much, like, our only thing. But, like, I would say, like, the biggest
anticipation for me was, like, was, like, I was, like, very much, like,
the overachiever. So, like, everything was, like, my grades and my s-
and my peace and graduation and, like, looking at, like, my number,
like, my graduation number. And it was funny because, like, I left, I
went to college, and I was like, “Yeah, I was 100 and something,” and
they’re like, “Okay.” It me- it meant something to you. It just didn’t
mean- Yeah you know- I was like, I was like, “I was in the top 10,” and
they’re like, “Okay.” Okay. . When- So you- so your dyslexia took you a
different direction than it took me, ’cause my dyslexia took me to the
other way of, like, this isn’t making sense to me, so I’m not gonna hang
around and, you know. And it was like sports got me through school, but,
I hung on by the skin of my teeth. Although, I did have some successes
as particular moments because of either a certain teacher or something
that spoke to me. It was kind of interesting. Yeah, it w- it’s funny
because, like, I was actually in AP, and I d- I was in AP and gifts, and
I think that’s really the only thing that saved me, realis- my dad for
sure. But, like, when you’re in AP classes, a lot of the con- like, it’s
more conversations and, like, and writing, but they don’t care about
what your grammar or, like, your spelling, they just want your thoughts.
They wanna know your thoughts and your beliefs on it and your ideas on
it and can you, like, conceptualize the idea So that was really helpful
for me because I wasn’t… Now, when I had to do like my language arts
one, that one was a little tough because they cared about that in that
one. They were like, “Come on now, Carrie.” Yeah, that’s where I had an
issue. Yeah. English was my worst subject. But like, but here’s the part
that was o- I thought was interesting. But in AP, like our language was
more book stuff, so like she cared, but she was like, she kinda let me
slide because she was like, “You get it.” She was like, “You get the
concept.” Because like I was like in college and in high school, like I
tutored people in like, in like ninth grade English, and like, and
people that were remedial English and language arts classes. I tutored
them because I understood the concepts. Like amazingly, I could tell
you, I could do all the things. It was just like me actually like doing
it in action sometimes got a little hairy. That’s, that’s where I think
we’re similar, ’cause for me it was like I could create more, think my
way around, get creative and think my own way around some things. But,
when it came down to certain application, which was interesting because
I had, in high school I had to take a, English class. It was a higher
level English class, and I had to take it. It was with this teacher that
was notorious for being a hard ass, and I w- I kinda was like going,
“Oh, God. It’s my worst subject and here’s this teacher, a total hard
ass.” And I have to say, she was stern, but she was actually really
good. I ran into her years later and I saw her, … She actually left
school because th- they had adopted a young child, and she got the
adoption notice halfway through our semester, and so she was gone after
a few weeks. Oh. And, - I ran into her when I was in college. I was li-
doing, lighting for a dance rehurtle- rehearsal for a couple different,
companies, and there she was with this little girl who had grown up who
was now dancing on stage and stuff like this, and I went up to her and
I, just said, “You know, I don’t know if you remember me or not. You
probably don’t. and English was my worst subject, but I have to say you
actually had such a positive influence on me.” And it just, she floo- it
floored her. She’s like, “Oh my God, thank you.” Mm-hmm. And I was like,
“No, thank you.” I, ’cause I was, I was dreading that class big time. I
was like- Yeah. Like we ha- I was in my seventh grade Like I would say
there was, there was two people, so my dad for sure, and then I had a
seventh grade, English teacher. Her name was Ms. McClendon. I’ve tried
to find her everywhere. I could not find her anywhere. She’s probably
married, which is why I can’t find her now. but she really like … She
saw something in me. I don’t know what she saw because I was in my bad
girl phase. but she would, like she just wouldn’t let me quit Like, she
just wouldn’t let me. Like, she was like, she literally like, to the
point that like she put my desk next to her desk. You couldn’t get away.
And I just was like, I was like, “Come on.” Like And you’re in seventh
grade. I was in seventh grade, and like she just re- like she was like,
“You’re gonna sit right here. This is where, this is where you’re gonna
be.” That’s funny. And I had to like… And she like, she just would not
let me quit. And that next year, like I became student of the year. Not
student of the month, like student of the year, like of the whole
school. I… And then like in high… In, like she was the one that was like
told them like when I went to high school, “You need to test her for
gifted.” So then I got tested for gifted in high school, and they were
like, “Oh, she’s gifted. This is why.” She, she’s this way. That’s
funny. That’s funny you’d say that. Like, yeah. So then I got tested for
gifted. I started doing AP classes. So I did AP, I started AP in ninth
grade, and then I didn’t look back. Like, I had like, math was my only
class that I had, we used to call gen pop, was my only gen pop class.
Like with was with ev- all the other people. All the, all the other
kids. That’s funny. So all of us in AP were like, “You have gen pop?”
We’d be like, “Do you… How many gen pop classes do you have?” Gen pop.
That’s what we used to say. Gen pop. The general population. You, you
know, yeah- Yeah … y- and when you’re in middle school, it does feel
like a prison sometimes. Yeah. And so, you know, like Yeah. So I did AP
and then like I f- I found, it’s like I found my rhythm and then like I
like be- like I enjoyed being smart. Like I enjoyed being like the smart
one. I loved AP because like it p- it wasn’t read this textbook and tell
me what you think. It’s like, “Hey, we’re gonna talk about these
concepts. We’re gonna do, projects and things like that.” So it allowed
me to be more creative. So it was a, like it pushed me. So yeah, so you
actually had that, you had, you had the struggle, you had the success,
you had the teacher that helped along the way. I mean, there’s a,
there’s a couple teachers that helped along the way. I don’t know about
you, but I had, I probably had more teachers who got in the way along
the way than help. But I mean, the one, the good teachers I am
absolutely grateful for. Yeah, like I had, … I was in ROTC, so, my dad
was in the military for 26 years, so, like, ROTC was, like, a must in
our family. My brother had did it. I did it. Like, my only goal was to
have a higher rank than he had when he was… And I did, so I checked that
off my list. I was like- … check. like, and then I, like the principal,
me and the principal had got like really close. so my senior year I had
asked her if I could, if I could like host a Relay For Life for our
school, and she was like, “Yeah.” So like she let me like leave school
like in the middle of the day to go to Relay For Life ’cause everybody
else was like adults and stuff. So I- Wow … so I would get to leave
school in the middle of the day to go to Relay For Life meetings- Wow,
that’s very cool … and all that stuff. And it’s interesting. I mean, th-
that’s why I enjoy talking to you and, you know, learning about who you
are and who I am and, you know, how there is that crossover In the human
experience ’cause, you know, for me, I… You, you said something about,
gen pop, and I was, like, going, “Yeah, when I was in eighth grade,
seventh and eighth grade, I was crushing it in math.” Like, to me, math,
it was… It made sense. It, it was easy. The problem is they took me,
they took me out of gen pop, general population, right? They took me out
of it, and they put me into a math lab, and it basically was like, “All
right. You’re, you’re, you’re assimilating this information better than
the gen- general population, so we’re gonna put you in this.” And I
start doing this, and I’m, like, going… I felt like I had to teach
myself all over again. Yeah, I reverted back to when I… You know, like,
first grade when I was first diagnosed with dyslexia and learning
disability and stuff like this, and all of a sudden, I went from being
really good at math to not being very good at math. It was interesting,
so. But that’s… You know, it… We all have different aspects or, or
lessons that are on each of our paths. Let me ask you this. For what you
do today, what is the one thing that makes you most, your heart sing the
most? Oh my gosh, it’s so hard ’cause I feel like there’s so many parts.
I think the pa- I think what makes my heart sing the most is when
someone says, like, “Carrie, I… It’s like you get me.” Like, ’cause I
feel like, I don’t think people realize how difficult it is to get
someone, like, really get someone. So when my cl- So when our clients
say, like, “Hey, Carrie,” like, “you get me,” like, that means so much
to me ’cause I’m like… I was like, “I know I see them,” but the fact
that they know that I see them and I, and I get them, like, that just,
like, that means the world to me. How long, how long have you been… How
long has, Becoming Irresistible, how long have you been doing that
business? Yeah, so, I started my bus- I started business in 2019, but
last year, 20- 2025, me and Heather Rawson, which is my business
partner, we combined our businesses, so now we have Becoming
Irresistible. Okay. So you brought the successful resources together to
make- Becoming Irresistible … an amazing opportunity. you said your dad
was in the military 26 years. What branch of the military? So he was in
the Army. He was actually a command, he was a command sergeant major,
but he was a career recruiter. So literally, like, it’s funny because,
like, most times, like, when people are on recruiting duty, they do it
for, like, three years and then they’re out, ’cause they hate it, ’cause
it’s hard. Like, to be able to say like, “Hey, civilian, let me figure
out how to make su- let me get you into the military,” is ha- is hard.
Like, that’s a hard thing. ’cause you gotta make sure they pass all the
stuff. But my dad loved it, and he was so amazing at it. so he did it
for, like, 20 years. So he transformed lives. Yeah. Wow. He did it for
20 years? Yep, he did it. he was in the military. He was in the ar- he
was, … went to Vietnam. He did supply in Vietnam. He got, … So maybe
actually 20, maybe 23 years he did it, ’cause he did– Only time he was,
did, like, was not, in recruiting was, like, when he was in Vietnam. And
then right when he got out, they put him in the recruiting duty. Wow.
Very cool. Thank you. thank him, you know? ’Cause it makes a difference,
especially when there’s so much different stuff that’s going on in this
world at different times, you know, different- Yeah, it was funny
because, like, my, because my dad did recruiting when my brother went
into the military. Like, it was so much more funnier because my dad knew
all the things, so, like, his, my brother’s recruiter was like… It was
hard. Like, that guy ha- really had to work ’cause my dad was, like, on
him. Like, it was… My dad had, my dad had all the questions. And because
my dad was, is the, was, the rank of the highest ranking, enlisted,
rank, whenever he went anywhere, like, people respected him. So, like,
he would always pull his rank any time we went on, did any ty- type of
military thing, because he’d… It was always hilarious. He, he earned it.
Yeah. Right? Exactly. That’s exactly what he said, “I earned this.” “It
wasn’t given to me, I earned it.” Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s awesome. What
is, … Let me ask you this real quick, and I know we’re, we’re gonna be
wrapping up here soon, but, share with me a success story, if you will,
about one of your cl- recent clients. Mm. So we have a client. he
actually is a personal trainer. He’s a personal trainer here in Denver.
and before we started working with him… He’s actually my personal
trainer, but before we started working with him, he was mainly getting
all of his clients on Instagram. That’s how I found him. I messaged him
on Instagram. He was like, he’s super responsive. Like, he keeps his
phone, like, right on his hip. he answered. We jumped on a call. He
asked me to come to work out. Then he gave me, had to give me his whole
spiel, and then he pretty much asked me if I wanted to keep training
with him. I was like, “Of course. I really like your vibe. Let’s do it.”
But that was always his process, so like, he always has to be, had to be
on. Like, he always had to have his phone on his hip. He always had to
make sure he found time for people. He tried to always make sure he can
get somebody in within 24 hours of them, like, having a call with him to
book, and he was like, “Carrie, it’s, like, exhausting.” Like, he was
like, “I can’t…” He was like, “I can’t take off. Like, I can’t…” Like,
he was like, “If I take off, I’ll lose clients,” and stuff like that. So
we created for him, 75 Mid, which is… I li- we like to say the nice
version of 75 Hard, because 75 Hard is way too hard, so we created 75
Mid. so 75 Mid The whole, the whole premise of it is that it’s all about
creating habits, for 75 days. So moving your body, drinking your lemon
water, working, dr- having, like eight hours of sleep, things like that,
things that you should be doing, and then also weekly activities. But
what he realized is the person who’s perfect for him is gonna be the
person that actually is gonna spend 14 days doing the habits. So now
what he does, whenever somebody’s interested or wants to, like, see
about working out or stuff like that, he says, “Hey, I want you to check
out my app that I have. It’s called 75Min. It will get you… It will
start getting you habits and things like that, and it’ll give you a
taste of how I work.” So he sends that to them, and then what he does is
he watches and he sees who’s actually hitting the 14 days. So instead of
him working out with people for one day and some of them booking and
some of them not booking, now he has actually qualified people that he’s
reaching out to after they’ve, like, work- to have them come and do a
workout with him, and he’s closing them on the spot, and he’s has more
f- time freedom, ’cause he doesn’t have to stand by his phone and answer
every message. That’s excellent. Yeah, I mean, because we, you know,
that, that is the one thing that, always sticks out for me is it’s like,
you know, we hear about, work-life balance, and it’s like there isn’t a
lot of people who have real work-life balance, right? For sure. But you
should still be able to have a life. You should be able to still travel,
to go experience life, because if everything’s always about work, which
I’ve been guilty of getting caught up in that as well, it actually
starts to become a, a, what do they call it? a net gain loss. Well, you
know, because you’re working all the time, you’re just not getting as
much stuff done, and it’s like when you get focused, you can be more
productive. Yeah, and the thing is, like, I always like to say that a
lot of people right now, like what he was doing, he was on a ladder,
like, meaning, like, every step he took up was a step that he had to
take. Like, he had to be the one that kept going up the railing. But now
he has an engine that runs even when he’s not there. Like, he has people
going through 75Min. They’re getting, they’re getting messages. They’re
getting DMs. Like, they’re, they’re building a community where he can
still be a part of it, but he doesn’t have to be the only person that
makes those touchpoints. Right. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well,
thank you for sharing that success story because I knew you had a number
of them, and I look forward to being one as well. But, - You know, what
you do is very valuable, and that’s actually why I was excited to have
you on the show. And for those of you that are listening, please, check
out, you know, Becoming Irresistible. give us your contact information,
best way to get ahold of you, your website, all that kind of stuff so
that people can reach out to you. Yeah, best way to get ahold of me, of
course, is going to Instagram. you can go to @s- shinewithcarrie_. you
can go to our website, becomingirresistible.com. And if you’re
interested in learning about these apps that we’re building, we call
them lead conversion accelerators, you can go to whatsmyapp.com. So,
yeah, so… And when you… Carrie is spelled with a C. Yes, C-A-R-R-I-E.
Sorry, what’s your app? What’s your app? So whatsyourapp.com. Yes. So
whatsyourapp.com. Yeah. So- You can meet Stacy, and Stacy will give you
ideas on what type of app that you can be able to build for your
business. Excellent. Yeah, and I love the fact that you have these
little touchpoints to give people the opportunity just to explore. Yeah.
You know, it’s, it’s, it never felt high pressure at all. It was like,
“Here, come check this out. See what it is. Try it out. See if it works
for you.” And that’s what… You know, for me, it was like going, “Wow,
all right, this is interesting. I never thought we could go down this
path in this way.” So it’s y- give yourself, give yourself a gift,
listener or listeners. Give yourself a gift and go check it out and see,
you know, maybe there’s an app in you that can actually change your
world. Change everything. Yeah, change everything. so… And I may have
you on again too, Carrie. I always love having people I connect with who
just have so much, positive vibe and experience to put out into the
world. You know, life is… The, the saying life is short, life is, it’s
very short. And so make it, make what you can of it. to the listeners
out there, thank you very much again for joining us today. Powerful and
Unpolished is created by me, Timothy Salmans, and my business, Insights
for Choice. Insights for Choice sponsors Powerful and Unpolished to
honor the individual, for each and every one of you that’s listening to
this, for who you are, for what you do. There is a difference. You are a
difference. You make a difference. And what you put out into the world
does have the ripple effect that I love, that Carrie has in her bio. And
so give yourself the grace to find your strength, to find your purpose,
and to make it shine. So until next time, we wish you all the best.
Cheers. Thank you, guys.