Empowering Women Entrepreneurship: Embracing a CEO Mindset and Mastering Technical Hiring with Toccara Karizma

Ready to unlock the secrets of e-commerce success and empowering female entrepreneurs? Renowned digital marketing expert, Toccara Karizma, joins us to share her incredible journey from launching a wholesale baby clothing business in 2007 to building a thriving digital marketing agency, Karisma Marketing. Toccara offers a heartfelt look at her life as a single mom and business leader, while also shining a light on the challenges female founders face in securing venture capital funding. Her story is one of resilience, inspiration, and a passionate commitment to uplifting women in business.

Ever wondered how to find the best technical talent for your team? This episode is packed with actionable strategies to master the hiring process for technical roles like SEO specialists. From creating crystal-clear job postings to implementing competency quizzes and structured interviews, we break down each step to ensure you attract and retain top-tier candidates. By focusing on detailed skill assessments and scrutinizing resumes for real-world experience, you’ll gain the insights needed to streamline your hiring process and build an elite team.

Shifting from solopreneur to CEO mindset is no easy feat, but it’s essential for business growth. Toccara and I discuss the transformative power of hiring and delegating tasks, sharing personal anecdotes that highlight the emotional and strategic challenges of expanding your team. We also delve into the importance of continuous learning and adaptability, with recommendations for impactful books and the value of mentorship. This episode is your guide to embracing change, fostering a growth mindset, and achieving lasting success in the dynamic world of business.

To connect with Toccara Karizma, visit karizmamarketing.com or connect with her on social media.

Transcript

Dr. William Attaway: 0:00

I'm so excited today to have Toccara Karizma on the podcast. Toccara is a digital marketing consultant and online business growth specialist. Karizma Marketing is her full-service digital marketing agency. They are dedicated to growing elite e-commerce brands online through an omni-channel approach, including social media marketing, email marketing, seo, sem, website conversion rate optimization and more. After building her own successful e-commerce business back in 2007, she is now considered a top e-commerce marketing expert, generating over eight figures in annual revenue for her clients and overseeing over 1 million unique email subscribers. She's been featured by Shopify, keep, godaddy, klaviyo, privy and more. Taccara, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being on the show today.

Toccara Karizma : 0:54

Thank you so much for having me. I'm actually really excited about our topic today and we had a lot of fun talking about it ahead of time, so we're going to dive into some really great strategies here.

Intro / Outro: 1:09

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:31

, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did all this get started?

Toccara Karizma : 1:38

Yeah, this all started, like so many others, through a passion and pain point, and I think a lot of us develop our businesses where we're really coming up with a solution to a problem or following our passion. And at the time this is 17 years ago I couldn't find clothing that I liked for my new baby. I had just, you know, I was just pregnant and having a baby and so that evolved into, eventually, a wholesale baby clothing business. And at the time this was 2007,. E-commerce was just on the horizon. Mobile phone usage for e-commerce was at like half a percent. Amazon was still selling books. Facebook had just 20 million users, not 3 billion, so this was a whole different world. Shopify didn't exist. Even the term dropshipping didn't really start coming around until about 2010, when I was pregnant with my daughter. So it, yeah.

Toccara Karizma : 2:34

So it all started from that, and I have a background in business economics and I just had a passion for growing a business, but I didn't quite have a passion for packaging orders, doing inventory, that whole side of the business. So I fully transitioned into the service side of e-commerce, which was marketing, because I had learned the power of making money while I slept. I learned that I could face the entire world with my product or service and show them what I had versus pounding the pavement door to door at local boutiques, and so I wanted to share that with so many other entrepreneurs. And I had that skill set, so it transitioned into marketing other e-commerce businesses. So now I have a full service digital marketing agency where we're very omni-channel and we put together a lot of different digital marketing strategies to really scale elite e-commerce brands very quickly, and that is how it all started.

Dr. William Attaway: 3:37

Wow, and now you speak. You teach what you have learned from your journey so far to other entrepreneurs.

Toccara Karizma : 3:45

Yes, I do. It's just such a passion of mine to empower other entrepreneurs, and especially mompreneurs and fempreneurs like myself, who I've seen over the years through a nonprofit that I established many years ago, over a decade ago how many women get stuck financially in abusive relationships and they don't have an education to go back on and they don't have a career. And so for me, it's just so important to get these tools into others' hands, because I truly believe you can grassroots a business these days, and it has never been easier to be successful online than it is right now. There are so many free tools at your fingertips. So if I can get that information out there, if I can help people create an income and a freedom lifestyle for themselves, then at least I've done something really good with my time and that feels like I'm being of service to others. And that is where coming up comes full circle for me as a mom and showing my children what it means to be a leader.

Dr. William Attaway: 4:51

Well, you know, and I got to tell you, I have two daughters myself and I love when they have the opportunity to see somebody who can be a role model for them, somebody who can show them hey, this is possible, this is possible for you, and in so many parts of our world that's just not the case. But we know that it is where we are and I, just when talking with a recent guest, she shared that 4% of venture capital dollars go to female founders 4% and I was so blown away by that. I haven't forgotten it and I'm like we got to move the needle. We got to move the needle and it sounds like that's what you're doing.

Toccara Karizma : 5:33

I 100% agree. One day it all came full circle with my son many years ago, who's now 17. He was probably only 10 at the time or so, and he was in the backseat of my car. I've been a single mom for 14 years almost 14 years now, and with a great co-parent, by the way, great co-parent dad. But he said to me you know, mom, I know I can do anything that I want because you've shown me it's possible. My job is done and I think I've done a good job. But luckily I have a daughter too and she's such a mini me and she's so feisty and she's such a future CEO, boss, lady. And so, yeah, we need to change the script. And also, studies show that money in women's hands tends to go back to the community at a lot higher percentage than anyone else. So women like to take that money and donate and give back and be of service. So it's really important to empower females everyone but really females to show them that this is possible and to kind of flip the script 100%.

Dr. William Attaway: 6:41

I want to talk about your agency experience and your business experience. You know you started what you started because you're good at it and then, over time, you had to hire other people to help you with fulfillment. And this is the journey that most entrepreneurs, if they find success, they go on this journey and hiring is a patch of ground that feels like it's got landmines everywhere. You know you, just you step and you're just so tentative. You think you know what you're looking for, you've got this job description, you do these interviews and it's a swing and a miss. I'm curious in your journey, are there things you've learned about finding the right people and how to get them into the right seats on the bus of your business?

Toccara Karizma : 7:30

Yeah, and I think so many business owners can relate to that metaphor you used about tiptoeing around landmines, because we've all been there and I can tell you there are so many conversations among my entrepreneur friends and my business owner friends. Almost every single one of them is struggling right now with hiring and finding highly skilled employees. It's just the reality. We're in a different world and so I always wonder did our parents say this about us? Is it every generation says that about the next generation? I don't know, but we found ways because we've interviewed hundreds, hundreds of potential employees over the years. We found ways to kind of navigate through that landmine situation, to set ourselves up for success, that landmine situation, to set ourselves up for success. And I would be happy to share some of those strategies that we've used, because they've served us so well in the past to make sure that whoever we're bringing onto our team is not only qualified but also set up for success moving forward.

Dr. William Attaway: 8:42

Please, that would be great.

Toccara Karizma : 8:44

Yeah, okay, so you know, one of the things that we learned over time even though we were very detailed in our job postings on different websites and even with recruiters was the job role was somewhat open to interpretation, and so, for you know, it was kind of like I do SEO and we, you know, are very specific about a technical SEO specialist and there's a lot of technical jargon in this job description.

Toccara Karizma : 9:12

But we found that a lot of people would represent that they knew something that they actually truly didn't know, and so, in order to save us a lot of time because it's so valuable, because I understand so many business owners are wearing so many hats we put them through a quiz first, before they could even get to the interview. We would do things like ask them certain questions and even create Google forms where we would put all the skill sets required of the position and we would put a scale for each question, from one no knowledge at all to five expert level. And we even found that we would have to get granular on what expert level meant, because expert to one person is completely different to expert to another person. So we had to actually define what beginner level, intermediate level and expert level meant, and we took them through define what beginner level?

Toccara Karizma : 10:04

intermediate level and expert level meant and we took them through all of the responsibilities of the position. That was one way for us to easily rule out who we want to interview and who we didn't. So that was very, very helpful. And then, once they passed that and they got on the interview, this is what you can do nowadays. We did this before chat GPT existed, but now even chat, gpt and other AI tools can really help you with this we created a quiz around that position.

Toccara Karizma : 10:32

So what we did is we asked I'm just going to use this technical SEO specialist position as an example, but for anyone listening, think about whatever position you need filled and the real skill sets that someone needs to have we created a quiz of anywhere from 10 to 20 questions with very technical questions that if they didn't know technical SEO, they would have no idea what schema markup is right and canonical tags and just really weird things right.

Toccara Karizma : 11:04

So we would go through that, we would have the quiz and we actually printed the answers so that even our HR could ask the questions and know what the right answer would be. Should I not be available to interview because I actually am not on most interviews until it gets to the very end, and so that has really helped us find people who are actually authentic in what they are saying. And we also record those interviews so that if I have someone else interviewing for me, I can go back and watch the questions. If that person interviewing doesn't understand the technical answers, they're just there to kind of ask questions. So these are two things. I have many more things that I can suggest, but I want to pause here to answer any questions you had about that.

Dr. William Attaway: 11:51

You know, I think that's fantastic because this really zeros in on making sure that the competency of the candidate is where it needs to be, because, like you say, people, you know, words mean things, but words can mean different things to different people. And that that fuzziness around what? What does expert mean? What does intermediate mean? You know, well, I think I'm intermediate, I mean that's, that's that can be very subjective, and so I think what you're describing is a way to really dial this in, to determine do they have the competencies that we need, at a minimum, for this position? I think that's fantastic.

Toccara Karizma : 12:30

Yes, and even you can dive deeper into that by going through. I definitely recommend looking over the resume before the interview. Sometimes we're stretched for time and I get it, but really isolate questions out of that resume that hone in on those technical skillsets. So let's say I'm again interviewing for a technical SEO specialist and they said they grew traffic for organic traffic from you know, 10,000 visitors a month over to a hundred thousand visitors a month on a website for their client in 12 months. So I'm going to get very specific. I'm going to say I noticed this on your resume Tell me the exact implementation and strategies that you used to get there. And you can find out a lot about someone, the way that they describe the process that they used. And I suggest listening very closely to the language they are using in both their resume and their applications, as well as in their interview. And I'll give you an example we have we have learned to rule out people who have said I oversaw, I managed, I coordinated. The reason why is because they actually didn't do the hands-on implementation. Now, this is for a specific job that might require hands-on implementation. So I'll give you another example.

Toccara Karizma : 13:53

We do Facebook ads. We had a recruiter who actually was never able to find us a candidate. We paid a lot of money, never able to find us a candidate because she herself didn't understand the position. I would say we could have even done better to help her and we tried in so many different ways but so many people misrepresented themselves. So she had found a Facebook ad rep and there are thousands of them, we know them. We never use them because they don't know what they're talking about Right? But she thought he was great because he oversaw 300 accounts worth you know hundreds of millions of dollars in Facebook ads. But she didn't realize and we told her in his resume it says he oversaw, it says he coordinated, it says he consulted. So she reassured us. Soon enough we get on the interview with him. He has never actually been hands-on in a Facebook ad account and our recruiter sent us this candidate to run Facebook ads.

Toccara Karizma : 14:49

So, like you have to be so specific and granular and detailed in the way that you read people's resumes and you interpret their questions and you actually have to ask people's resumes and you interpret their questions and you actually have to ask did you do the hands-on implementation? So it's actually a big deal because people will kind of work around those questions. So that can save you a lot of time before you even get on an interview with someone. Just to get that out of the way.

Toccara Karizma : 15:19

And some other things that get you out of the way of an interview are just making sure they can work the hours you need them to, or that the compensation is somewhat in the ballpark. If you're going to see a great candidate and then again your time is money, hop on an interview with them and then you realize that there is no meeting of the minds of compensation. It was just a waste of everyone's time. So it's really important to establish, you know, a ballpark figure and even if they don't want to say, asking them what their previous, you know in salaries were and where they worked ahead of time is a great indicator on whether or not you're going to be able to meet somewhere in the middle and find something that works for everyone involved. So another really great tip to saving you money before or time before you even get on that interview with them and I'll pause more.

Dr. William Attaway: 16:14

That's really. That's really helpful. I'm curious, as specific as you are around around the competencies, how do you measure for some of the more intangible things that are part of somebody joining a team, Like the chemistry with other team members or the culture? That your company has. How do you measure for those to know if somebody's going to be a good fit or not?

Toccara Karizma : 16:36

Yes, that is such a great question. I love that you asked that. As we've refined our interviewing process, we have learned that giving them tests such as personality tests and there are a bunch of websites that you can even do this for free. We can pay for a month and take them through a bunch of different high level human resources style personality tests to see how they work and what their personality is like and if they're going to fit in with your company culture or the team members that they're going to be directly working with. That is hugely helpful. So we have absolutely invested in that in the past and as well as I know that people put down their references, call the references, I know that we just kind of trust who they are, but this is the thing like we can't teach certain things, like some people are just born in a way and others just aren't. So calling their references and just asking you know how, you know what it was like to work with them and whatever's within the confines of legally you can ask when you're calling their previous employers is really important and, of course, you can get a feel for them right away and tune into the way that they show up to the interview, the way that they respond before the interview, after the interview, and we even go one step further.

Toccara Karizma : 18:04

When we are at stage two of the interview process with someone who's very technical or it's a technical position, we actually give them a quiz, another quiz, another round of quizzes, and this is really high level stuff. But what we do is it's almost like a pop quiz. They're not allowed to look at it ahead of time and they have to record themselves taking it. We're not there, so we don't want to cause stress, but what we want them to do, and we tell them very clearly, is talk out loud through the way you're solving this problem or issue or what you're doing, because it gives us a really good indicator of their thought process and how they work through problems and also their competency.

Toccara Karizma : 18:49

How quickly are they able to set up a Facebook ad, for example? If they say they've done it, let's put them through it. Let's give them an ad account, let's tell them they need to set up a specific campaign, all these different things to see if they know their way around the tools. And if they run into a hiccup, how do they handle that? You know on camera. And so we give them some guidelines and guardrails in. You know how they have to finish it, how much time they have to take for each questions. So we're even looking at little things like that, like you said, the intangible things of are they able to follow directions, did they? When we said it was 15 minutes for this question, did they take 30? And just that is such a profound indicator of what it's going to be like to work with this person. So it kind of knocks a lot of things off of that list of what you're looking for that you might not be able to do through just an interview. So that's another really great tool you can use.

Dr. William Attaway: 19:44

That's so helpful and incredibly practical. Yes, growing your business from where you started to where it is today required at some point for you to make a shift in how you thought about leading it. You had to shift from the entrepreneur who touches everything, because you started everything. It was just you right. You had to move from that to a CEO mindset where now you're not directly touching everything and you're delegating a great deal. Was that hard for you?

Toccara Karizma : 20:17

It was, I think, for every entrepreneur, or I should say, let's call it solopreneur. I love how we have different terms of youngpreneurs and mompreneurs and funpreneurs and solopreneurs, right. So for every solopreneur, that's usually how we all start, the majority of us it's the hardest thing to do is to invest in someone else, mostly because and let me know if you agree with this you're already so far in the weeds you don't even know how to explain to someone what you need help with. Yeah, and I got so lucky with my first hire and I want to share the story because it might help someone who's thinking about their first hire and they're not sure how to go about it.

Toccara Karizma : 21:00

I had been a freelancer for several years doing digital marketing before I officially opened the agency and I had a chance to work with a previous client's operations director and she was brilliant. She and I had such a good work relationship and I hadn't seen her in a couple of years and she just kept coming to me. She just literally kept coming to me almost like in my dreams when I started getting overwhelmed in my business and so, through talking to mentors and like business coaches, I said I'm like like her name keeps coming up for me. I and my business coach said call it like you need to call her and ask her, and that's sure enough. I did. Like you need to call her and ask her, and that's sure enough. I did. I just so there may be someone in your Rolodex of people who you know that you know you have had a really good previous working relationship with because you've seen their work ethic and how they do things, so don't rule them out. So I called her and was like hey, random, hi. I haven't talked to you in over a year or more, but you know what is your work schedule. Look like I am in the weeds. I don't even know what this position looks like, but I do know that I really love working with you and it worked out really well.

Toccara Karizma : 22:12

She's my unicorn. She's been with me for years, all of our clients love her, our entire team loves her, and so it was just somewhere where I found the right person and said I need to build this role with you. I don't even know what this looks like. Are you willing to help me do this? And quickly. We got into it. But I think the thing that's scary for people is investing in someone else and not quite knowing if you can afford that. But I can tell you and you've probably seen this time and time again as well that it really takes a team to grow a business. You can't do it on your own.

Toccara Karizma : 22:54

And the day I started hiring more and more team members we have 15 to 18 team members, so boutique agency still but the day I started hiring a team was the day my business really started to just skyrocket. I was able to stop doing everything, stop putting my hands into things that I wasn't the expert in so it could get done better and more efficiently. I was able to actually remove myself from billing, which for me I had a money mindset kind of blockage, which I think a lot of entrepreneurs do. And so the first job I gave the hire was will you do the invoicing? I don't want to touch the invoicing because I have a really hard time billing people, and it was, yeah, so little things like that. It really helps you get jobs accomplished where you might be emotionally attached to them, where someone else is probably much more efficient at it, and it just gets done. And so it just started getting better and better. So if you have that unicorn in the back of your mind. Reach out to them, see if they'll develop the role with you.

Dr. William Attaway: 23:53

That's so good and that's exactly my experience as well in my own business. I mean, you know you can't scale yourself. We talk about scaling your business. You can't scale yourself. You only have scaling your business. You can't scale yourself. You only have 168 hours a week and you have to sleep. It's, it's really something that I highly recommend. If you're not sleeping enough, it's going to affect every other part of your life, and the way you can scale your business is through a team. That's how you build a healthy and sustainable pace. But it requires it's not just recommended. It requires a shift in mindset, and I so appreciate your transparency there about describing your journey through that.

Toccara Karizma : 24:32

Yeah, thank you, and I'm sure you're really great. Also, walking through Mindset was such a big part of my growth. When I started diving into mindset and I was freelancing and then went into the agency model, it was right around that time where I was reading tons of mindset books. I was just diving so deeply into it and, mind you, I was a single mom with a pretty comfortable job. It was a really nice paying job, it was reliable and I made a goal as I was reading these mindset books that were basically talking about how your mental reality, what's going on in your mind, and the physical reality, what you're showing up to every day. If there's an incongruency there, that's so big one, or the, if you develop that mind muscle, it's going to overtake the physical reality because you're going to show up to your job and you're like why am I here? Like, in my mind, I'm a seven, eight figure entrepreneur, do you know? Following my passion. But this isn't in alignment.

Toccara Karizma : 25:27

So I made a six month goal to hit revenue every month for six months. I promised myself, if I did that I would quit that job. And sure enough, almost six months to the day, I handed in my two weeks notice. I was scared. I was a single mom but I did it and it was the best decision I ever made. And I make probably in one year what I would make in five years doing my old job. So it doesn't always like pay off, but I did it in a way that strategically set myself up for success and it was about mindset. I really had to dive deep into that and it's probably been a reason why the business has been as successful as it has.

Dr. William Attaway: 26:10

A hundred percent because that's where it begins. It begins with your mindset. Mindset is the number one predictor of people's success or the reason for their failure Number one. There's nothing else, even close. You know your habits, your rhythms, your systems, all those things matter, but everything is rooted in your mindset and by beginning there, I love again your transparency in your story that you're sharing, that, hey, this made the difference and I really hope our listeners are keying into this, because if you want to change your life and you want to change the trajectory of your life, you have to start there.

Toccara Karizma : 26:50

Absolutely. There's so many great authors and books on this to dive into, and, of course, your podcast and mentors around you and business coaches just leaders that can kind of help guide you through this. If we want to change our life, something has to change. We can't keep doing what we've been doing right. Comfort and growth cannot coexist. They're like oil and water. I say it's just if you want to stay comfortable, then forget growth. If you want to grow, get ready to get uncomfortable. Like that's how these things work.

Dr. William Attaway: 27:25

Growth only happens on the other side of change. Yeah, everybody wants to grow, but most people don't want to change.

Toccara Karizma : 27:33

Exactly, and it only happens.

Toccara Karizma : 27:36

Yeah, exactly, it's the same reason why if, if owning your own business and having a successful business long term was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Toccara Karizma : 27:46

It is a challenge, right, and so having a team and knowing how to hire them and knowing how to set them up for success, and also being a really strong leader for your team and understanding that you're there to serve them it's not all about them serving you. It's like ask what you can do for your team, not what your team can do for you. Because if they're in their passion every day, if they're happy, if they're in alignment with your value system and they know that you honor them and respect them and value them, their productivity is just going to go through the roof. They're spending more time with you than they're spending with their own family members. Their sacrifice for you is huge. So I'm a huge fan of leaders like Simon Sinek and others who really talk about how important it is to hire within your company culture and also really cultivate and nurture your team so that they can be at their best and show up happy every day and doing what they love to do.

Dr. William Attaway: 28:48

That's so good. I'm curious when it comes to you. You are going to need to lead at a different level five years from now to go than you do today. Your team is going to need you to lead at a different level. Your business is going to need you to lead. What are you doing now? You stay on top of your game and level up with those new leadership skills that you're going to need, that your team is going to need you to have a year, three years, five years from now.

Toccara Karizma : 29:20

I agree. I very much recognize that what got me to, let's say, seven figures is not going to be the same thing that gets me to eight figures, and it takes a lot of mentoring, coaching, diving into continual education and for me, honestly, more than anything, it's mindset, because there are so many setbacks in business and it can knock your self-confidence very quickly. It really can and once that is knocked down, it's really hard to brush yourself off and keep going and believe in yourself. So you need to surround yourself with people who can continue to work that muscle. For you and for me, it comes down to also surrounding myself with people who I aspire to be like, so people who are more successful than me, who are more confident than me, who have done what I want to do and soaking in all the knowledge.

Toccara Karizma : 30:23

I know I don't know it all, I am far from knowing it all, and so it's going to be a constant journey of growth, and I think that's what every entrepreneur that keeps evolving and growing is doing. They're constantly curious and learning and surrounding themselves with the right people so that they can get to that next level, and having humility and being humble and asking what they're doing wrong, where can they improve and able to take feedback and hire the right experts in the right places to get them to that next level. So really investing in themselves to get there. So I think that's where I am headed and what I recognize is the next step for me. But it the first thing is mindset. It has to be mindset shift, and so it's a muscle I work every day. First thing is mindset. It has to be mindset shift, and so it's a muscle.

Dr. William Attaway: 31:16

I work every day so good, and that is why you are where you are and that is why your trajectory has gone from where you were to where you are and that is why you're not done yet, because you're being intentional about that and that teachable spirit that you just displayed in what you shared. This is something I stress all the time with my clients, with people that I speak with. If you do not have a teachable spirit that is constantly seeking to learn and grow, realizing and acknowledging that you don't know everything and I'm not going to live long enough to make all the mistakes myself, I'd like to learn from other people so I can avoid some of those. When we approach conversations with that kind of a teachable spirit, like there is going to be a positive trajectory, there is. This is the reality that I have seen again and again in so many entrepreneurs and what they do, and I think that's what you are displaying in what you're sharing today.

Toccara Karizma : 32:10

Thank you. I appreciate that. I think because we can, if you think about it from the perspective of the services that we both offer. We want clients who are coachable. When they're coachable, they are so much more successful every single time the door and and take, you know, be open and curious to an expert's advice and try new things Um, that's where you start to grow.

Toccara Karizma : 32:46

I think there's a famous quote, and I forget who said it, but it's it's like the seven most expensive words in business is that's the way we've always done it. So it's, it's so true. It's like you know, and the world is moving so fast. In my industry, digital marketing it's constantly evolving and changing, and so what may have worked to get you like to six figures or seven figures, or worked a year or two ago in your business, may not work today, and so that's where we need to really be coachable and open to inviting experts and mentors and leaders in, and knowledge and education in from those who are getting the results that we want, so that we can continue to evolve to get to that next step.

Dr. William Attaway: 33:34

Spot on. You're a continual learner. That's come up a number of times as we've talked. Is there a book that has made a huge difference in your journey, something that you would recommend to everybody listening? If you haven't read this, you need to put this on your to-read list.

Toccara Karizma : 33:49

Yeah, there's so many of them I mean some of them I'm I can geek out on marketing and business development all day. So a lot of the books I love are around that. I love Chris Voss. Never Split the Difference. I love Robert Cialdini's or Cialdini's, I always forget how to pronounce his last name the Psychology of Sales, which is incredibly a great book. I love pretty much any and every mindset. I love all Michael Singer.

Intro / Outro: 34:16

The.

Toccara Karizma : 34:17

Untethered Soul, and I talk about just being calm, cool and collected while the hurricane is around you.

Dr. William Attaway: 34:24

Yes, yes.

Toccara Karizma : 34:34

Dyer's books and I and I feel horrible that I'm forgetting the book, but it's something like follow your passion, find your purpose, and it was one of the authors that was in the secrets, um, and that book was the first book that really changed my life and that was the one that I was reading while I was going through that transition from working nine to five to making that six month goal and finally stepping out on my own, and I feel so bad that I'm forgetting the name of it right now, but it's one I recommend to everyone. So a lot of those types of books have helped me, but I've read pretty much all of the top, you know, entrepreneur and marketing and business books, because there's so much you can learn from all of them.

Dr. William Attaway: 35:14

So true, if you're teachable.

Toccara Karizma : 35:17

If you're teachable exactly If you're teachable and if you're not a reader audiobooks, podcasts, while you're at the gym, while you're driving there's just so many great ones out there. And if you just do a simple Google search on those top books, in whatever genre you're looking for, you can usually find the top ones that probably most seven, eight, nine figure business owners have read.

Dr. William Attaway: 35:41

You know, I'm glad you said that, because sometimes people are like well, I'm not a reader, well, I'm not a reader, and they focus on what they can't do or don't prefer to do. And I think there's such value instead in saying what can I do? I'm not going to let what I can't do or don't like to do stop me from doing what I can. So let's turn that mindset and say what can I do? And maybe it's a podcast, maybe it's audio books, maybe there's there's there's 10 ways to skin the cat. The goal is to learn.

Toccara Karizma : 36:13

Yes, exactly, and everyone has a different learning style. You absolutely, if your mind. I know people who trail off. They cannot listen to podcasts. Their mind trails off. It doesn't work for them.

Toccara Karizma : 36:23

Don't force yourself to do something that you don't love. I find personally, for me, I learn only about things I'm passionate about. If I'm not passionate about it, my brain will just go and then it depends. If I'm very visual, I need to watch a YouTube. If I'm, you know. So it depends on how you learn. But whatever your passion is or what is required to get you to that next step, however, you can soak up the information best. Just do that. Maybe it's a business coach, maybe it's coaching sessions, maybe it's reading, maybe it's podcasts. Maybe it's a business coach, Maybe it's coaching sessions, Maybe it's reading, Maybe it's podcasts, Maybe it's YouTubes, Maybe it's just talking with friends or having a mentorship or being in a mastermind or doing courses, whatever that is. Dive into it and get super excited about it. Make it just really yummy and delicious for yourself and get excited about learning this new thing that's going to take you to this next level.

Dr. William Attaway: 37:16

So good. You know, often people are going to walk away from an episode like this with one big idea. We've talked about a lot of different things, but if you could leave people with one big idea, one thing that you want to make sure everybody walks away with, what would that one big idea be?

Toccara Karizma : 37:43

That's a great question. I would say, no matter what the setback, because there will be so many of them, I promise. I've hit seven figures and I still doubt myself every single day. Whatever the setback, keep going. If you're in your passion, just keep going and start reaching out for support and help where you can find it best, because the people who are doing what you want to do it might not be that they're better at it, to be honest, or smarter. It's just the fact they had grit and they were able to get up, brush themselves off and keep going. And so if you have the grit, if you have the discipline, if you surround yourself with the right people and the right tools, you too can get to where you want to go. So my advice would be keep going and start diving into the tools and the people and education you need to get to where you want to go. Next, don't be scared of those things, just dive into them.

Dr. William Attaway: 38:43

. This has been so helpful and so practical. Today, I know people are going to want to stay connected to you and continue to learn from you. What is the best way for them to do that?

Toccara Karizma : 38:53

Thank you so much. I am. Luckily, my mom was a hippie and she gave me the weirdest name on the planet, so there is no Karizma in this world, lucky me.

Dr. William Attaway: 39:11

That's awesome.

Toccara Karizma : 39:12

Yeah, it's spelled really funny too and I'm sure that everyone can look at the podcast or the notes and see how it's spelled. But I'm Karizma everywhere on every social platform because it was never taken by anyone. Please don't take it on any new social platforms. My website and Karizma Marketing, of course, is the agency, but you can always connect with me and I have tons of free resources. Getting back to the very beginning of the conversation of, I really believe in supporting especially startups and people who need to grassroots their business in the beginning. There are so many free resources on any of those platforms that you can find and dive into.

Dr. William Attaway: 39:48

So helpful. Thank you for your generosity today and sharing not just the resources but so much of the wisdom and the insights that you've gained in your journey so far.

Toccara Karizma : 39:58

Thank you for the conversation. It was a beautiful one. I love talking about this stuff and I hope it was of value to everyone listening.

Dr. William Attaway: 40:06

Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Dr. William Attaway: 40:42

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.

Intro / Outro: 41:26

Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. Want more? Go to catalyticleadershipnet.