Todd Bertsch Full Interview Transcript
Introduction and Path to Consulting
AJ: Welcome to today's episode of the Thriving Through Podcast. Today, I am delighted to have Todd Bertsch as my guest. Welcome, Todd.
Todd: Hi! Welcome! I'm happy to be here.
AJ: Well, I'm delighted we have a lot in common, and we will talk about some of the things we have in common a little bit later, but I want to start out with the question that I ask everybody. It's the first question I ask on the podcast. What was your path to becoming a self-employed consultant?
Todd: What was my path? Boy, the path is always interesting, right? Well, so my path came through probably COVID, I think was the beginning of the path. You know, for a lot of us, most of us, COVID was a time of reflection. All we had was time, right? A lot of reflection time, and thinking about next steps, you know, I'm 54, so getting to that point where thinking not retirement, I'm a worker, so I don't see retirement in my future. But what do I want to do, you know, with the rest of my life?
And as I came back from COVID, I own a digital marketing company as well, 16 years in that business, and as we came back from COVID, I had put a lot of time and energy into this beautiful space that we have. It's an old, historic mansion, over 100 years old, great space, lots of windows and natural light, and nobody really decided to come back.
And that was like a bubble that had burst for me, because I'm a people person. I love brainstorming and collaborating and meeting with people in person. So that was a bit tough for me to swallow to accept. I didn't want to lose my team, so, you know, we created a policy called Work Your Way, which essentially means you can work however you want. You could come into the office if you like, we have space, you could work from home, full-time, or you could do a combination of the both, and be a hybrid. So most people chose to just stay at home. And most of my employees have young kids, so it made sense, and I totally get it, but doesn't mean that I need to love it, which I don't, but...
AJ: We're probably looking for things to get back to the way they were.
Todd: I was, yeah, and I was pre-COVID. And honestly, I was excited. I mean, it was... I had put all this time and money and energy into the space to make it really great, new carpet, new furniture, new laptop, you know, new paints, you know, I was really excited to see everyone and to have this kind of big celebration, and it didn't happen like that. But sometimes that's how business goes, how life goes, but, you know, I had to pivot, and I didn't want to lose my employees, so I said, okay, well let's work how you want to work. We already were set up virtually to be able to... we were already doing it before COVID, so and we're, you know, marketing consultants, essentially, so we can do this really wherever. So that's what we did. But, you know, AJ, that was the beginning of the reflection, and it got deeper, and it's like, okay, well, this really isn't filling my tank as much as it has. I've been in the marketing, consulting industry for almost 30 years. And in the agency life, if anyone's been in that life, it can be quite grueling. Very satisfying at times, but it can be... it can be a lot.
Discovering Public Speaking and Positive Intelligence
So I started to think about, you know, I love public speaking, I've done a lot of public speaking over the years, but not as a profession. Always wanted to have a podcast. And then I went through, during COVID, I went through a program, which we'll talk more about, positive intelligence. And, you know, how that transformed my life, and so I just kind of said, you know, it's time for me to maybe do something else. What would fill my tank? So I said, it's time for me to create another business, which is my keynote speaking, mental fitness coaching, and corporate training through Birch Consulting Group, which essentially is my own brand. And what was really interesting about that, AJ, was realizing what I had really missed the most, which was the people and the collaboration, but I'm a traditional graphic designer, so that's what my background, my schooling is, is BFA and graphic design. And when you start a business, and probably like, you know, many of the people that listen to your show, you start a business because there's a problem, right? And you're the expert, and you're gonna solve that problem, and go out and start this thing, and then as you start to grow and scale, as you add employees and clients, you end up doing things that you didn't really intend on doing, right? That weren't really what you were trained for. So I'm wearing many hats as HR, as CFO, as operations, and it was cool to learn about all these very important business pillars, but it took me away from my core, which was website design development and graphic design, which is essentially what I built my whole career on, and what I had a true passion for.
So, by me making this second pivot into my own brand, so to speak, I was able to really leverage all of my skills, design, marketing, sales, and everything that I learned 16 years as a CEO, to help companies embrace change through a growth mindset, which I had done, you know, through the COVID time, so that was a long-winded answer, but it was a, you know, a journey is a long-winded journey, right, for most of us. It wasn't just this snap the fingers, hey, I'm gonna do this. I mean, that was a huge pivot for me, but I'm very fortunate that I have an amazing team that I can empower to essentially, you know, run my business for me, and I'm at, you know, about 10-15% now, a little bit of sales. A little bit of ops and, you know, some high-level decision-making, but yeah. So that's really it.
Breaking Into Professional Speaking
AJ: So, when I... I always... I really admire people who make a decision to become professional speakers. And I have no clue how you would even do that. So, take us through a little bit. So, during COVID, you decided that that public speaking platform would fill your cup. How did you get started? What did you do?
Todd: Yeah, you know, it's interesting, after running a business for so long and then starting a new business, I guess I went into this a little naive on what was involved. Becoming a professional speaker, like, literally, like, this is what's gonna put food on your table. Get paid to speak, is quite an endeavor. And I don't want to seem like Debbie Downer, but, I mean, it's... it's a hustle. And even for the guys, unless you're Tony or Mel Robbins, who's getting paid, you know, $50,000, $75,000 a gig, and these people are just coming to them in droves. It's a constant hustle. So, I'm used to the hustle from a marketing agency standpoint, the service industry, but this is a little bit different. There's seemingly no retainer, no residual, no passive income. You just have to constantly go after these things year after year, and you build these relationships and once you, you know, speak at a conference once or twice, then you're probably done. They don't want the same person time and time again, so you're chasing, you're always chasing. Even the guys, gals that have been out there for years, they say it's still a hustle. So it's, you know, I would say if somebody's interested in it, it can be quite lucrative, and quite fun, but there is a lot of work involved in the business piece of it. But I'll tell you, for me, AJ, like I go back to... someone had asked me, like, when did you know that, you know, you really loved that? And it goes back to when I was a teenager. I was an avid breakdancer back in the 80s.
And I absolutely loved it. I loved being on stage. I loved performing. I loved seeing the excitement on someone's face, you know, as they're watching. And I knew right then the stage is where I wanted to be. Like, I feel most comfortable on that stage. And yeah, I get nervous like everybody else, hell, even Tony Robbins and them still get nervous. That's the excitement, you know, the passion before you go out, but once you get on that stage. You know, it's just sharing your words and your stories to inspire, to motivate people to embrace change, so...
So yeah, there's a lot. So how do you, I guess, to answer your question, which I didn't, I'm sorry, get out there and start speaking. I just, you know, a lot of people start, and this is what I did, chambers. Chambers are, you know, always looking for free speakers, right? They have a luncheon every month, so it's every area in the country has several of these chambers, right? So you can go do that, and that's a great way to cut your teeth. There's also Toastmasters, which I didn't... I didn't do that program, I didn't learn about it until later, but it's a great way to, again, get some reps in, get some practice, meet some people.
Certainly, you know, I watch a lot of other speakers, I watch a lot of TED talk videos, there's a number, a handful of really great books that are resources, and a couple of master classes. You know, to learn. But it's a... it's a craft, so I would say don't be naive. Even if you feel comfortable, that's just one piece. It is a craft. Your voice, your tone, your pausing, the way that you move in and out of the stage and interact with the audience. Every audience is different. Every venue is different, there's always something, which is why I'm so glad positive intelligence came into my life, because there's always a tech issue. There's, you know, something wrong with the mic, the... I've had to set up the projector so many times, so I'm like the IT guy when I come into these events. You know, the smaller events, obviously the bigger ones, you know, they have their setup, but it's all about getting the reps, AJ, and just getting comfortable being on stage, talking in front of a group, you know, start with a smaller 20, 30 people, and then, you know, build up. But plenty... there are plenty of ways to get that practice in.
Discussion on Toastmasters
AJ: That's great, and I'll put a plug in for Toastmasters as a way to develop, to hone your craft. Certainly not as a way to learn how to be a public speaker from the business standpoint, but I've been a Toastmaster for over 10... over 12 years now.
Todd: Okay.
AJ: And I highly, highly recommend it. It's a kind of a slow drip way of getting better at public speaking, but it's sort of week-by-week practice.
Todd: Right, slow drip, yeah, I like how you said it. And it's a low cost. I mean, it is but it's practically... it's nominal compared to, I think, what you probably get out of it.
AJ: Yeah, and compared to what you'd pay for a public speaking course, for sure.
Todd: Yes.
Deep Dive into Positive Intelligence
AJ: I want to switch gears. Yeah. This topic is near and dear to both of our hearts. When we talked initially, my eyes lit up when you talked about it, and you've got the books right there. It is... you've referenced it a couple times, positive intelligence. Tell us what that is.
Todd: Yes, positive intelligence. Well, it started off with a book that you see up here, by Shirzad Chamine, New York Times bestseller about 10, 12 years ago. It was so successful that he created a mobile app for it, which is part of the program now, and then a coaching program. So, as I mentioned, during COVID, I had somebody reach out to me on LinkedIn, a coach, an executive coach, I didn't know her, and so we just had a Zoom call, and man, I was sold. She hit me at the right time, the right message, and I was sold. And essentially what Positive Intelligence is, it's a mental fitness program. And mental fitness is all about dealing with life's challenges, whether that's at home or at work, and being able to shift those challenges from a really negative standpoint into a positive. It says, when you get into a negative, negative emotions or interactions, then you start to spiral. Right? And you get stressed, you have self-doubt, and then you might be thrown off for the whole day.
But when you go through this program of mental fitness, and essentially what we're doing is we're building our mental muscle. So, just as if you would go to the gym and lift weights to build, right, to build your muscle, it's all that repetition and doing the reps, mental fitness is just the same. So, through the program, we do... they're really light meditation exercises. But using different sensory interactions, so we might... it might be all about looking at something and focusing, or listening, or rubbing your fingers through a tactile, or breathing, so it's depending on what, you know, you like and what works for you, but the whole thing is about doing the repetition, doing the work, and eventually you start to lay down new tracks and new neural pathways. And that's what I did. I did this, I've been doing it for 5 years, and AJ, I mean, I'm dead honest, this program changed my life. It changed my life, my leadership, my business, every relationship, and what this program does is it rewires your brain. So I have new gray matter here, and I used to be a very unpatient person my whole life. That's just how I grew up. I was slightly negative, that's the environment I grew up in, and I call myself, or I was a knee-jerker. I would go from 1 to 10, like that. So I had... I had no space to choose my response. It was all very reactionary.
And what this program essentially did for me was build an internal pause button. And that was the life changer for me. So now I come into every situation, regardless of how challenging it is, and I just stop. I pause. Nothing really affects me. I take in the information. I don't react. I might respond, I might not. But essentially, I'm just calm, peace, and I can lead with empathy, and then my lens... my lens changes, my mindset changes, my perspective changes, and I'm gonna be more creative, I'm gonna be a better problem solver, I'm gonna have more clarity, and essentially, I'm gonna have better outcomes and stronger relationships. And that's... that's what this program is all about. So it's a 7-week program. And literally in 7 weeks, if you do the work, about 3 hours a week, you can... you can change your mindset. You can live a very positive life, and when... when you live a positive life, it changes how you move throughout your day. It's a beautiful place. I wish I would have found this program 15 years... hell, even 20 years ago.
But nonetheless, found it, and I went through the program, I paid to have one of my employees go through the program, and we went through it together, and I saw how it changed me, both personally, professionally, and her. And I said, I... I'll go to the mountaintop and scream how wonderful this program is. So, I wanted to be a coach, and I went through, and I, you know, I'm now a coach, too, so now I'm helping others change their lives. So, yeah, it's a beautiful program. Obviously, I'm a big fan, but it's all about mental fitness, and once you understand how your mind works, and how you're being sabotaged all day long by these lies, these inner voices in your head, and you can identify them, catch them, and then shift over to what we call the sage brain, which is the creative brain, where you're going to experience emotions of curiosity, joy, empathy, gratitude, peace, calm. That's where I want to be. Imagine being a leader, or being a business owner, or a parent, or husband, or spouse, living those emotions. You're just gonna be happy, and everybody's gonna love you. It's a great place to be.
Real-World Examples of Mental Fitness in Action
AJ: Give me an example, or tell me a story or two about, sort of, compare and contrast. You... before mental fitness, and like, what, you know, if something happened during the day that sidetracked you, or that derailed you, how you reacted then, and now, if you were in the same situation, how you would react because you're mentally fit.
Todd: Yeah, no, that's a great question. I got tons of examples. I'll give a couple, personal, professional. Professionally, let's say, you know, being in the service industry and being kind of the head of sales, you know, putting all this time and effort into planting the seed, nurturing, cultivating a prospect, and then you get that email. We're pursuing other opportunities. Essentially, it's a no, and we're going with somebody else. If you get it at all, sometimes you just get ghosted, right? But you get that email, and, you know, before positive intelligence, that was really difficult. I took it very personally. I would get upset, I would spiral the whole day, always me. What is it about me? Why didn't they choose... what did we do wrong? Why didn't they choose us? You know, maybe I'd, you know, slam my fist on the desk, or you know, kick the door, whatever, you know, just a temper, little baby temper tantrum. But then I would be spiraled all day, and heck, it might even go into a couple of days where I just can't get this out of my head.
And then fast forward and go through the program, now it doesn't bother me. You know, it's... I look at it and I say, okay, and this is what the kind of the core concept of positive intelligence is all about, finding the gift and opportunity in every situation. And we call that the SAGE perspective. So now I say, okay, what's the gift? And you really have to dig into it, and it might not be today or tomorrow, it might be a month from now when you find that gift, but at least if you're open to it, and you're curious enough, and can ask that question, right, what if, or what is the gift? Well, and certain situations with sales, it's more about, okay, well, what could I have done differently? What can I learn from this? Maybe I didn't follow up as quickly as I should, or maybe our proposal was too detailed, or maybe it was just cost, and it wasn't a good fit. So, accept, and move on, right? Don't let it fester and sabotage you. Or maybe there's a great, you know, piece of learning in there. Maybe we could have provided more case studies, or maybe it just wasn't the right fit for us. Maybe we really need to think about our target audience a little bit better, or the way that we're curating and pulling in leads. So it's just, again, asking the questions and being open to feedback, so it's really getting into a growth mindset, honestly, and just being open to learning, and taking it as a learning opportunity, and a lesson. So that's kind of a... from a professional, a great personal one is one that I just had recently.
And so my son was up visiting from Tampa over the summer, and I have a 13-year-old daughter as well, and we're very competitive. When we play, when he comes, it's all about the activities. It could be cornhole, it could be foosball, it could be ping pong, it could be badminton, pickleball, tennis, like, you name it. It's like the Olympics when he comes. Yes, and so the first... the first couple days when he was here, we were playing pickleball, which we love to do, and we're both fairly good and competitive, and I went for a ball, and I've had a really bad elbow, tennis elbow, for years, but whatever. I did this motion, and it just, like, snapped. Like, it was it. It was most pain I'd felt in a long time, and I'm still trying to figure it out, but the Cliff Notes is, so I could have, right, so we were gonna have... had plans to have all these kind of games and activities, the three of us. And now I'm... Dad's done.
So I'm really upset, right? And the old me would have been, really, always me, this whole trip is ruined, what am I... what are we gonna do now? And just sobbing, right? Pouting the whole time. So I said, alright, let me practice what I preach here. I have, you know, all these tools and resources that I can, you know, tap into, and I said, okay, where's the gift? Well, the gift is, we could do something different. So I said to my kids, hey, I can't do these things anymore, but I want to spend time. What if we went to the park?
And we took a hike together. So we did. So come to find out, we took a 2-hour hike in a beautiful national park. And we had more quality time, we had more conversations during that time than we would have had in any of the games that we were playing.
AJ: Hmm?
Todd: So, again, it was... it's all in your mindset, and being able to shift and find that gift and opportunity. And yes, it might sound a little silly or a simple example, but the honest truth is, we have all these opportunities throughout the day. And we can get derailed anytime during the day, right? As we're driving, and you get some silly drivers who cut you off, or beep at you, or you know, they're stopped at a stop sign forever because they're on their phone. You know, there's all these opportunities to just get annoyed and upset, and for what? You know, I just laugh at it now. But it took me time to go through that exercise to realize that these things are out of my control. I can accept it and move on, or I can convert it into a gift. So... I hope that helps.
AJ: Love it. Yes, love it, love it, absolutely.
Tactical Mental Fitness Techniques
AJ: I want to get tactical a little bit. When a consultant is in a revenue dip, or just lost a major client, or a proposal like you talked about. What are 2 or 3 specific mental fitness techniques that they can use without having gone through the 7-week program? What can they use in that moment to shift from panic mode or reactive mode to productive action?
Todd: Yeah, that's a great question. A lot of it is really in the pause and reflect. Hard to do in the moment, it takes practice, so it's really getting into a habit, which is what I love about positive intelligence, because it's laying down the new tracks, right? So we gotta get out of default mode, which is a fixed mindset,
