Turning Setbacks Into Opportunity with Heather Dolland Tamam

In this inspiring episode of Shine On Success, Dionne Malush sits down with Heather Dolland-Tamam, founder of Doltam Creative Solutions, author, speaker, transition coach, and personal branding strategist. Heather shares her powerful journey from Grenada to New York, from architecture to environmental consulting, entrepreneurship, content creation, and ultimately helping others turn their lived experience into opportunity. Her story is a reminder that setbacks are not always failures. Sometimes, they are redirections toward the work you were truly meant to do.

Through honest stories of career pivots, identity shifts, personal branding, and reinvention, Heather and Dionne explore how your experience can become your greatest strategy. This conversation is for professionals, entrepreneurs, and anyone navigating transition who needs the courage to stop waiting for permission, trust their voice, and create their own table.

Connect with Heather here:

Website: https://www.doltam.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heather.dolland/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherdollandtamam/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherdollandtamam/

Transcript

Welcome And The Redirection Question

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Shine on Success, where real stories turn into wisdom, authority, and impact. Today I'm sitting down with Heather Dolan Temam, founder of Dol TAM Creative Solutions, author, speaker, transition coach, and personal branding strategist. Heather helps professionals turn their experience into opportunity, reposition their story, and create the next chapter with more clarity and purpose. She came to New York from Granada to study architecture, spent years in environmental consulting, then built a career around branding, reinvention, and helping others create their own table. Heather, I love this because your story provides something that life plans. It's that the beginning of life you're actually meant to build. And no, I people don't always look at it that way. So I'm excited to hear more from you. And my opening question is always something like this. And I want to share this with you. Was there a moment when you realized you weren't starting over, you were being redirected? Oh my gosh, how many moments?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

That's really the question. I think it was first of all, thank you so very much, Dionne, for having me on. It's an absolute pleasure. I feel very fortunate that I am able to share my stories and I get the opportunity to be on platforms like this because truly to answer your question, I feel like so much of my life feels like constant redirection. And in the earlier years, those things that felt like failures, like these setbacks, oh my goodness, it's going to be such a crisis. I realized later on the value of the experience that every single one of those seemingly negative experiences had. And that not just that, but they gave me a perspective that I would never have had without that bruise or just hard knock. It's just the kind of stuff that, you know, when it's smooth sailing, you could never get that kind of perspective. But when that road starts to get really bumpy, yeah, and then all of a sudden I realize, wait a minute, I'm not the only one that has had these miseries and I could actually help you and you're interested, then everything kind of just like, you know, fell into place and took off.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

I mean, it's a it I feel the same as you do because it's about those stories we have to tell, right? If we had a smooth selling life, we wouldn't be here today telling all these stories of adversity and how we pushed through and got to the other side, you know? And I think that's really important. So, what is one thing you want people to know about you that's not in your bio?

SPEAKER_01 2:30

That your story is your strategy at the end of the day, regardless of what has happened. And I think for many people, especially if you're navigating a challenge and that challenge may be something like a job loss for existence, a lot of people think that their expertise disappears with the title. And nothing could be further from the truth. You know, you are the one that has brought you into every single thing that you have experienced and you've gone through. And so, yes, it's really just genuinely understanding that your story is your strategy. I feel like that should be my tagline because I've used my story to be able to shift me, you know, across three different careers in three very different industries. It was all about just storytelling and understanding how to do that in a way that captivated.

From Grenada To New York Dreams

SPEAKER_00 3:17

I love storytelling, and I think that that makes people so much more authentic when they share their true self. And that's how when your customers they grow like and trust you because they get to know you, not all the fake stuff that's out there. I mean, there's plenty of fake. I love AI, I love creating, right? But the realness to who I am, that's when my posts go viral. That's when things happen because I am a a good person and people can feel that and they can go through the the adversity with me. So I that makes sense. And I think that your story of coming from Granada to New York, take us back to that moment. And what did you think your life was going to become when that happened?

The Thesis Failure That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Sure. So I was 18 years old, which which feels like almost shocking because I'm like, really? My parents let me go at that age. Like, well, what do you guys think, Kick? Right. But when you're 18, you think you know everything that you need to know about life. There is absolutely there's nothing that could, you know, that I might need to know that's of value. Like, please, like you, you got it all. But I remembered very much thinking back then that I landed here and I think I got here. It was like the end of August, just before, just before Labor Day. And I remembered feeling this is about to be the first day of the rest of my life because I had the opportunity to just forge this path forward. I had always been one that really loved buildings. I love creating, I love designing. Actually, I ended up so I'd always been into cooking, I designed, but I chose buildings because of everything they were the most lasting. And making a long story really short, I ended up doing the five-year program. So there were different programs that you could do, and in your fifth and final year, you get to choose what you wanted to design, and you had complete concreative control. So I have a thesis professor and she's directing me through everything. I decide that. So I don't know for any of your viewers like how old they are in general, but for a lot of people, when I say I'm from Grenada, they think about the US intervention in 1983. That was during the Reagan administration, so a very long time ago. And that was a location where a lot happened that place. It was essentially the location where our history changed. But aside from that, it was on a fort. There was a whole coup, a military coup, overthrowing of the government. And it was also one of the oldest structures in the hemisphere. Wow. And I realized, you know what, this is a significant site, but it fell into huge disrepair. And I thought, I want to be the person to just renovate it and just let our history shine there at a museum, at a restaurant, do all these different things. That's going to be my thesis. And I'm thinking I'm going to get back to Grenada and be this amazing architect and put forth this as my plan. Except during my thesis jury, I failed. And I failed because the thesis jury did not believe that I should have, I had any right to touch such a historic structure. They're like, you're being environmentally insensitive and you're going to make an unconscientious architect and this whole thing. And so that is five years in. Understand that I now have maybe four or five months left on my visa. It's about to expire in exactly. I'm like, how am I telling my parents I feel? How do you even feel when you've done everything you were told to do? And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna just start over. So I had to do the winter semester now in the spring, and I ended up needing to stay in the summer to do the spring in the summer. I get through the whole thing and I pass, and now I want nothing to do with architecture. Because, yeah, after five years, because if anybody here is listening who's a designer creative, you know that when you are creating just the pass, there's no passion, there's no desire, there's nothing. And so I created the ugliest, safest thing. And so I go through, I get that. I, and that's how I actually ended up becoming an environmental consultant because I was accused of being environmentally insensitive. I'm like, okay, fine, I'll do my master's in environmental technology. And I ended up being that career for almost 15 years. But I knew from day one, as the first day I walked into that firm, even though these people were some of the most amazing people, and you could just tell by a person's energy and their movement when they are walking in their purpose. I knew I was not walking in mine. I knew I was where I was because I didn't have a choice, I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't go back to Grenada because I there's nothing for me there. I don't want to be an architect anymore.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

And so, yeah, 15 years. That's a long time. It is a long time, but I figured it out.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

So, in that 15 years, what did that chapter teach you that still serves you today?

SPEAKER_01 8:27

So I did a lot of driving during that time, and I knew I would say maybe two years in environmental consulting is not it for me, but I didn't know what the it was. I have just spent five years in undergrad, two years in in grad. I'm like seven years with this title that is so super impressive, but I'm like, I am not really feeling this, but I don't know what to do. So I go to the library if they still exist, and I get my first set of CDs, and it was Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret. Wow, you can't I am listening to this and I am like, you are what you think about. Okay, well, what am I thinking about? I want to have this amazing life. I don't know what that might look like. This doesn't feel like it, but I don't know what it is. And I remember in that season, Jim Roan, Napoleon Hill, Wayne Dyer, all of these CDs were just on rotation. I mean, I was like a war, a road warrior, like nobody else, right? I'm I do easy like 35,000 miles a year, no problem, like in my sleep. So I had a lot of time to consume and learn, and I'm thinking and I'm learning, and I'm like, okay, but I don't know what to do with any of this. And it was not until my girlfriend, so I had bought a house in Long Island back then, single woman with my cat, no idea how expensive our house really is. I'm like, everybody seems to have a house. How hard could it possibly be? So my girlfriend, who's also from Grenada, she's in the alcohol business, and she's like, Heather, could you do me a favor? Please just like what favor? She's like, Well, I have these alcohol tastings, I have these brands, I need people to do tastings for me. Could you just go do a couple tastings? I'm like, sure. P is amazing. I'm like, no problem. And I remembered feeling like it was like the longest favor to a friend because I ended up doing that for nine years.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Nine more years. Nine, not more. I mean, we had 15. Oh, that wouldn't run into that. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

It became this running joke when people would meet me and they're like, Oh, what do you do? And I was like, Well, it depends. There's Heather by Day and there's nights and weekends. Heather by Jay is an environmental consultant with a hard hat and a steel toe boost and the whole thing. And then in the back of my truck, yeah, are the stilettos and the cocktail dress. It was like one woman except or or Superman. I didn't come out of a booth, I came out of an FJ cruiser. And I was just like, okay, like this, I've showed up hilarity. But I remembered, like, and it didn't matter. Like a lot of times when I had to get go to feel like I would be there on a site. I would do like a lot of construction oversight in those days. So, like seven o'clock in the morning. So that meant I was up at like five, and I would need to do a TC at six. And I will tell you, I would have energy like if I just woke up. And I always paid attention to that feeling. It's like, wow, like, why do I feel this way? And I knew I was touching something, but again, I didn't know what I was touching. Like, what is that thing? And I was like, maybe this is what I want to do. And so I I reach out to the distributors and see maybe I could, this is my next career. Except, guess what? I have degrees in architecture. My resume reads like a scientist, you're overqualified. What could you possibly know about selling? Except what they didn't know is that I sold through. So in the alcohol world, just to create context for your listeners, in the alcohol world, if you sell, if you buy a certain amount of product, you would get a tasting in order to get the product to roll through. So I would say, so let's say it's like whiskey or gin or whatever, wines, whatever, I would do a tasting so that the pro, you know, the the new patrons would know typically it's a new brand. I would tell them all about it, and they would go through and I would always sell through, which was good for the distributor, my girlfriend, at the time, and good for the store owner. Because now he's he didn't just invest in all this product that's sitting there. Everybody's having this amazing experience, and they would always the venues would always request me by name. Because even though I might have been Heather at night, I was still Heather. And Heather always had a work ethic that I am here to do a job and I do it one way because how you do one thing is how you do everything, you do it with excellence. And so I showed up and I did what I had to do. I'm not on the phone, I'm not chat, you know, I'm not just like I am engaging with a customer. And it was only years later that I realized I had the word for it, and that was that I was I like to teach people. Yes, it was tasting, yes, it was alcohol, it sounded really fun and everything, but it was about having them try how to learn something, introduce them to something new, and just getting them through that. And so again, those were words that I had later on, but I was like, oh, that's what this is about. I like to teach people, I like to engage with them, and so how to make this into a thing. And um, yeah, a number of years later, I ended up leaving that company and I started my first business, which was actually food crawls. So the whole concept was instead of having the entire meal at one restaurant, you'd have appetizer, entree, dessert. And that same girlfriend, I was like, Well, if we're doing food, we need they need to drink, we could do food and wild pairing, food and cocktails. And so we did all of that together, and I ended up being hired to do Astoria's restaurant week because people I got like I had a like I got a lot of press, and I ended up on the news and all this stuff. So those guys saw me, they're like, Could you do Astoria's restaurant week? And at that point, I'm like, absolutely. And I decided to invite all of these local distillers and breweries, and I'm like, hold on a second, New York State produces this much, and so figure at this point, I only did all the mega brands, right? Like, so like Racardi, Gray, Goose, Bomby, like all those big brands. I had no idea. And then I was I had this aha moment when I was at the festival, and I'm like, wait a minute, if I didn't know and I have my air to the street in this business, it is likely other people don't know. And that is when I had the idea to write my very first book. And that book, which I have right here, was called Discovering the New York Cross Spirits Boom, where I interviewed 30 distillers. Most of them were at that event. They were okay. At the event, and I'm like, oh my goodness, like they these are interesting people, they're telling all these stories, they're farm distillers. I mean, it was extra, it was fascinating. Again, back to the stories. It was super fascinating. And I'm like, well, maybe this is how I would get promotions and marketing for my brand, my company, because I left that job with no marketing budget. I like, I didn't know that, oh yeah, I guess I needed that. So that was my natural marketing. Um, but then very quickly, I left that business and all the so that company was called All the Taste of New York. It turned into all the Taste of New York supported craft distillers in New York. And so it turned into me just working because when I was at a book signing, one of the distillers shared the struggles that he was having selling his products in New York City. And I'm like, well, I'm in New York City, and he's upset. I'm like, well, I'm here. And so part of the environmental journey is that I also had become a business development manager because I knew the business and I like to talk and I like to connect with people. So I'm like, wait a minute, these are transferable skills. I could totally do this. Why not? And that's how that started. And I ended up in the alcohol business, yes, and that was that part of the story. But it was, I mean, talk about random evolutions, but you know, I feel like everything is a stepping stone, nothing is wasted ever, no matter how quote unquote bad it seems, like it isn't waste.

Why Most People Undervalue Their Story

SPEAKER_00 16:15

It's just part of that experience. So now you have people turn their experience into opportunity. So, what do most people underestimate about their own story?

SPEAKER_01 16:24

That is it's valuable, and that there is actually even something there, you know, using these distillers. So, again, I I shed 30 stories in this book, right? Or when I would go into the stores, that's what I wasn't selling the product. Tell them the stories I am I am talking about this person's daughter or their father or this other thing, this person that is making vodka from sugar beets. Whoever heard of that? Have you ever tasted vodka that's still from apples, you know? So I am sharing the story of each, and I think a lot of us don't value that. They just think like who cares and who is interested. And I think that the biggest thing is understanding then, like, what is the trajectory that you'd like to take. And again, it's getting that clarity, right? Which at this point I feel like that is very much where I am versed. I would listen to somebody tell their story and I could see the value in it because that's the other thing. We devalue our knowledge considerably, also. We think that because we know, everybody else must know. How special can this possibly be? And it's often like that other set of eyes with the other ear that's listening. I'm like, no, you're missing this a little bit. And so it could be the same thing, but just like learning how to reframe it.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

So just an hour and a half ago, I said this to someone. People don't really care what I have to say. Like, are you? And I was talking to someone that's doing some work with me. And I said, I just I don't feel confident that I have enough, enough to share that makes a difference, that someone's gonna be willing to pay me for my knowledge. You just said that, I just said that today. So if I'm saying that, there's many, many people saying that.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Yeah, and I I feel like nothing could be further from the truth, genuinely. And, you know, without going into the deep end, I also feel as though the more miserable that story is, the more valuable that story is. Because the more miserable it is, the more room there is for transformation because there are fewer people wanting to speak about it. That is a painful truth. You know, on my own podcast, I'm actually interviewing someone with a ridiculously heavy story. And if I am saying, and I have good nose, I have been, I have told many stories and I've heard many, and even when I heard her story, it made me brace myself. But she does really well because again, it's almost there are things that are almost taboo, and like people just don't want to speak about because they're uncomfortable. But unfortunately, that's also where the opportunity and the transformation is.

Mindset Practice And Words That Work

SPEAKER_00 18:50

I think you're what you just said is exactly right. It's uncomfortable. And sometimes like you think, I don't want my family to know this, I don't want my friends. I don't care about the rest of the world, but it's those people that are in your inner circle that if they hear that, what will they think? And then, you know, as you get in your 50s there, you start to not care as much about what people think, but it's still there. And so, you know, I I can understand where you're coming from with this, and I'm living it currently. So I I know that I've you know, I have a lot of stories. I do. And it's a lot of people we all have stories. That's the coolest thing about all of us is that we all have stories. Some of them are a little a little more flat and some are up and down, up and down. One time I did this, I I went to this seminar, and this guy had this really cool thing. He was a timeline. He said, I want you to write down like what age you were and when the things were happening in your life. So it would be like a positive thing up in each year, right? So I came out of it, it looked like it was like this the whole my whole life. And I was and I from when I was little. And I thought, wow, it's really amazing when you actually look at it like that and you see that graph of it that you've been through so much. Then you've pulled back out of it, and then you went back down, and then you pulled back up. And that's the thing that I think that the reason I did this show in the first place was to find out about people that have been through a lot of things and pulled out of it and got to the other side and are now successful. And look at you, you've been through a lot, you've had a lot, but we haven't got yet to the real adversities by behind you. Is there something that happened in your life where you had to use your mindset to get out of it? That you the power of you know, the Napoleon Hill of the Nightingale that really helped you pull out of something that was really hard. Now, being here at 18 from another whole country, that's huge. Like it's it's it's so much because you're 18 years old, and I know you were feared of nothing at that age. Sure, right? But it's a big deal. You didn't have your family, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:48

That that is true. I um wow, that is an interesting question because I feel like I tapped into these people a lot like right through it. It was that situation where oh my goodness, there's so many. So I actually I actually have a book here. It's called The Game of Life by Florence Schaubleston. You see how beat up this book is?

SPEAKER_00 21:09

I have I have that book right here somewhere. Do you? Okay, it's been a minute.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

This book, and again, not being 100% certain who your audience is, but I very much believe in the power of our words. I received this book in 2002. I believe I had just gotten my job, 2003, February 2003. It's still dated with the big watermark. Oh my gosh. And I remembered I had decided to buy my house. I knew that this was something that I really wanted to do. And I was going through a very, very, very hard time. And I felt I remembered saying that I felt like I had to reach up to touch bottom. I just felt so low, like my family isn't around. I'm struggling. I I don't know what it means for me remaining in this country, this whole thing. And it was actually from this book if I'm gonna give Florence Shovelshin credit. And I remembered I was I was working like a million jobs and I needed to transition over to be able to start this other one. But if I had that break in between, I was not going to be able to pay my rent. And my rent at the time was like$800. I had a very short week, and I think maybe I was going to be making close to like four or five, something like that. Something, it was not going to be enough. Not enough. Bottom line. And I was just like focused because again, she spoke, she kept speaking about focusing mind, focusing the whole thing. And I'm like, all right, Heather, you know what? You can't be, I I need to, I need to genuinely just walk and talk and do the whole thing. If you're gonna believe in like you're in or you're out, there's no half stepping. And I remember just focusing, and this is going to sound so hokey and ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

But the two weeks came. I'm like, okay, I know I'm gonna have a gap at about three or four hundred dollars. I'm gonna see how I could pick up this money some other way because I'm starting this thing, maybe they'll give me an advance. Wouldn't you know still the full$800 that I would have got had I really worked the full week landed in my account and not the three or four that was supposed to actually arrive? And I remember that was the first time I could I'm like, how does this even make sense? Yeah, this is bizarre, and everyone around me thought I was completely crazy and out of my mind. But I think and I learned that lesson very young. I would have been in my early, well, not really late 20s. That is very young as I'm entering 50, right? And it's I was just like, so I would have been maybe around like 25, 26, something like that when I learned this. But it was the first thing, it was the first example of understanding the way that the words out of your mouth manifest themselves on the earth, the things that you are thinking about materialize. And it's like just focus on what it is and don't plan for what we don't want. That was genuinely the first time that I understood that. And it is it is something that I have that I was able to apply throughout my life. But it this was such a bizarre, like I I didn't put the extra money in the bank, like what I was, I mean, I was and I remember checking that bank account. Like, if every time I checked it, like it would add a penny, it's like why it's like so that all will materialize, and somehow it did. And I'm like, okay, I don't know what is happening, but I respect also that there's something else here that I don't know, and so I'm just going to again plan for what it is that I want and be focused and mindful and and let the rest let the other pieces fall in at me.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Makes sense. Did you ever hear of Steve Harvey? Of course. Yeah, so Steve has, you know, he lived, David was homeless for three years. Sure. He has this video, it's called Up Your Ask, A S K. And it's really interesting. It's like an eight-minute video, but he talks about how he used to write down 300 things that he wanted in his life. Everything you think of, like not just material things, like being happy, you know, things you want to do in your life, where you want to go, what you want to be, everything. And his story was so great. And the fact was that you could, it's hard to get past like 125 things. Like even today, it's hard to do that. But one thing he said in that video was that everybody that wrote that down that he knew that was successful had that 300. So now you're making me think back again because now I know this in my head, and I know that mine's at 125, I believe, and it's really hard. But one cool thing, well, many cool things have happened. If I open that book today, I can think see things I could check off. Because he said what his thoughts were 10% per year would come off if you wrote them down and you started reading them and just believing in that whole idea because what you think about, you become, right? Yeah. So I've actually created I created an e-book about it. I'll send it to you. It's really cool. It's so I have I have been studying Napoleon Hill for a while. And I was on a call, and what the heck is his name? The insurance guy. Oh, I can't think of his name off the top of my head. But he was he said something in a video that I caught at the tell end of the video because Napoleon Hill always said, read it in the morning and read it at night. Whenever uh what's his name? I can't think. I'm so sorry, everyone, but if I'll think of it, I'll write it in the post. He said that's 12 times is the number, not one in the morning and one at night. It's six in the morning, six at night. The impact of twelve times a day times three hundred and sif days. There's no way you can't if you think about something that much. Yeah, come handle. Yeah, so so, anyways, I put a I created this really cool ebook about that whole idea of 12x. It's my 12x formula, is what it's called. I'll I'll share it with you.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

It's I love that. I I absolutely yes, I I think for so many, you know, it's funny you mentioned that because I remembered, oh my goodness, which book I read. And it was about making 10 times the effort, right? Okay, and I remembered thinking when so I I understood that when I was the consultant, I mean, I'm not controlling what these guys want, so it is what it is. But when I had my own business and we were our goal was to get the products into new accounts, the alcohol this is. So if it's a liquor store, the bought a restaurant on the cocktail menu, whatever it was, I remember would say to my team, guys, I know this is painful because trust me, it sounds really sexy that you're in the alcohol business. It is so not. You're lugging these heavy bags up and down the subway. I mean, it is, there's nothing cute about it. And trust me, I have the chiropractor bills and all the other surgical bills. Like my back was just a mess, different conversation. But I remembered saying to them, just think about it like for every 10, you will get one. Yeah, and so think about you, it's 20 people minimum today. If you know that you want to get two, just touch them, just touch them, even if you don't, and it's it's just and I think once you are used to that lift, it becomes like muscle memory, and it's like, okay, it's this is what it is, and we're just doing it. And I think for a lot of people, they fail not because they don't know, it's just because you just really didn't do enough, but you didn't know what that marker is, and what is that benchmark and what is that thing? And it's it's so much more than I think we often realize. And so it's like, yeah, just putting in the reps. I mean, heck, that's how I feel about my failures right now, to be completely honest. Like, there that's content right now. Every single mess, I'm like, okay, I want to be sharing this in a podcast. This is about to be in the newsletter. Everything at this point.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

It's so much content for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

100%.

Create Your Own Table Mindset

SPEAKER_00 28:37

His name is W Clement Stone. I just removed the name. Yes, yeah, he and that short family took it and made millions and millions of dollars. But him and Napoleon Hill were very close. I was watching some video old videos of him talking, and that's where he said that. So I'm gonna talk to you about your book, your book title, Create Your Own Table. That title is powerful. What does that phrase mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 28:56

So I think for a lot of us in the corporate world in particular, that's what that's what you taught, right? It's like you're gonna cry, you're gonna climb the corporate ladder. And how terrifying is it to get to the top of that ladder and then realize that it's leaning against the wrong wall, right? Like nobody wants that nightmare. But unfortunately, that is a nightmare of many people. But more than that, they have spent all of this time desirous of if only I did this, if only I was here, if only, and much of that time is being invited to sit at the table. And that table could be the corner office, it could be this group of whatever it is. It I feel like the table is just it's the representation of this elusive goal that it just keeps escaping, like no matter what happens, it just keeps escaping. And it's not the office, it's not the this, it's not the that, and you're just like, oh my goodness, can and and you're just dejected. And so the entire premise is instead of being upset that you're not being invited to somebody else's table, why don't you just create your own period? And so that that is a goal because you know, we can't control everything, but there are things that we can, and if we just take the time to value the knowledge that you have, you could create your own table with that.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

It's funny because there's a saying that someone said to me a couple of years ago about someone had left my company, and like you know, I'm like, I want them to be successful, I want them to eat, just not at my table, right? And so that made me think of that while you were saying that. But that's kind of the opposite of it, but it's kind of part of it, right? Create your own. Exactly. And 100% it's there's so much opportunity. And sitting with you today has reminded me of that, which I needed today because I was feeling this earlier, and I think there's so many lessons in talking to you. It's it's beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

But I want to can I just say one thing that is really important? Yes, the reason that, and then I feel like I don't want that to be lost on anybody. I have shifted careers multiple times because I didn't like all of these tables. Let's just be clear, right? Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. A lot of people feel as though, well, I have to show you it's like it's the narrative you're successful if you've been doing this thing for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. Like, and if you are that individual that is like, I am doing this thing and it sucks, I would be the last person to tell you, oh, just stick it out because that's what you're supposed to do. Why? But there's so that is a that is a mindset, and it's so it is challenging to me. I and I don't understand why that there is that pride and suffering. And so I would be the first person, be like, look, if you have done this thing and this thing is not working out the way that you want to, or you're struggling through it, there's nothing wrong with shifting. There is an education, and there is something that you have learned in this place, in this stage, in this step, in this sector, in this whatever you want to call it. Because I remember having this conversation with a close friend of mine just a couple of days ago. And I remember saying to you, you know, I when I left the job, I was a little bit panicked, but not really, because I didn't burn the bridges that were behind me. And just to be clear, also, that company I left 14 years ago, about a month ago, I had a meeting with the founder, with the original founder. Wow and his son I had lunch with about four months ago.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

That's super cool.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

I don't so I knew if if this really just all blows up, I still have that knowledge in me. If I had to go back, I could go back. There's nothing, but I feel like when people step out into that new place that they want to go, they feel like they have to just burn down the whole citadel. It's like it's not necessary. You don't have to like blaze out.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

No, and leave it and this and like this is not necessary. It's so dramatic in my business, too. It's so dramatic. And this this what the one I was telling you about was someone I was very close to, and they made this big dramatic exit to the point where we never spoke again. And it was just so silly. It did not have to be that way. And I think there's something magical in the shift, right? You make this massive shift. You can you love what you do, and and I'm feeling that right now, today. I own a real estate program. We have 200 people. It's hard. Yes, it's hard, but there's a lot of good in it. And what's good is that I can help other people get to their next level. Real estate becomes the vehicle for it, and I can do things to help them with their mindset, their marketing, their AI, which I love so much, creativity. But at the end of the day, when they go, there was like it's so awful. And I'm like, yeah, you do all these things. It it doesn't have to be this way, you know?

SPEAKER_01 33:51

It doesn't have to be hard, it doesn't have to be miserable, but you all I just want to be clear, like you can still ship when it's sucking, you can still you can be like, look, I'm tired, and I will tell you also if I'm being completely on, which is important. I've shared it in all my books. I suffered from such an identity crisis. Try saying I'm an environmental consultant, so Franchy Schmercy for like 15 years, and then I'm in the alcohol business, and it's like seriously, chick, like you're selling booths like literally seven years of education, 15 years, and that's what it felt like such a fall from grace, right? Because I didn't need seven years of college for that. No, but it was okay to others that I felt like my soul was dying if I could tell you that I had this fancy title, but it wasn't okay with me. Yeah, it was not okay, and it took me a long time to be to stand in this is what I'm doing because this is what I love. I genuinely loved it. And then what I realized I really loved later on was that I love teaching people. I went out and I got my certification as a uh spirit specialist. So just like you have like the the psalm, the the psalm title in wine, I have the same designation in spirits. It's like, all right, okay, go hard or go home or doing the thing. But I realized also I like to learn and I'm an educator, and I wanted to know more because the other thing that I realized about craft distillers, like these guys do their stuff. They would they, I mean, they would ask me about the distillation process and the this and the you needed to understand like what is the mash build and the makeup. And I was like, seriously? Okay, I need to step up to this, and so we can step up to whichever plate we are, whatever plate you choose, and you could serve it on whatever table you desire. But yeah, you you know, it just becomes, I feel like when you're doing that thing that you feel called to do, you're able to stand in it. But it did take me a minute, it absolutely did, and then even when that ended and I became a content creator, I felt a little bit embarrassed. It's like, here we go again. This chick with severe ADD, but I was like, here we go. All the ass is she gonna wear. But that ship sailed during COVID. I had to do something else.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Right, yeah, you have to figure it out, and so there's that, and then you shift again.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

But everything was teaching me something that today has brought me so much value because I've done all this stuff. So, I mean, I can't speak to everything, but my goodness, I am no just one show, just one day, like not at all.

COVID Pivot Soul Goals And Vindication

SPEAKER_00 36:21

No, so on that note, tell us what you're doing, what you're doing today and what's next for you.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

Sure. So, with Dalton Creative Solutions, I actually created that when I became a content creator. So the COVID came along, killed my alcohol business. But being completely transparent, I had gotten to that place where I was exhausted. I was exhausted, I was tired of it, I was kind of just over it because I also felt like I had a lot of knowledge that I wasn't leveraging. It was very stressful and very everything. And I was like, no, I I want to do something else. And so be do creating content during COVID became a thing. I created Dalton Creative Solutions, and it was initially meant to just do the content. But what happened? You could probably guess. I got bored. I am like okay, enough already, running around my apartment all day chasing light. And not that that is not amazing, and I got great brand deals and tons of all different products, brand lifestyle, pet stuff, everything, cooking, you name it, I did it. But I'm like, Heather, you have a lot of knowledge. And so when I wrote Pivot, because life doesn't always go as planned, and everybody like all the reviews, I can't believe you did all these things. How did you it? And I'm thinking, why didn't you? Like you're stuck? What do you mean you're stuck? It never occurred to me that my ability to shift could help other people. And that is why I do what I do right now, and that is what I do. I help people understand and see the value in the knowledge that they have and how they could just get out that calling that is on our soul because we each have a calling in our soul. I believe it. The trouble is that we have stomped it down for so long because somebody told you it doesn't make sense. And this doesn't make sense. Why would you do that? This doesn't make sense, and so you're so focused on doing the thing that makes sense, and you're focused on the financial goal and you forget the soul goal.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

And hopefully, I will find you before you feel so crushed and that it is too late because that is often the my demographic often does feel that way. It's like I'm almost retired, like I'm past all these different things. I said, but look at the value of the knowledge that you have. And let me also share this in the same thread of somebody telling you that this thing they want to doesn't make sense. When I wrote Pivot, my parents, so my parents listened to the book. So all of my books, because I am a dog mom, I spend a lot of time walking, I listen a lot. So I'm like, if I have books, I gotta make sure they're on audible as well. And they, you know, you could hear them. So they're listening to the book, and they are reminded of the story of my feeling my architecture thesis that is back in like 1990. She's right here. She, my little right hand lady is right here. I will reach her in a half a second. So, so they they completely forget that this happened. And meanwhile, that's 23-year-old me, right? And this is now 2023. That is so devastated, thinking that the entire world is going to end. They completely forgot this thing ever happened. This is in July in September. My dad sends me an email clipping from Grenada, and the message was, you are simply ahead of your time. So I open it up to see that the World Bank had fully funded the renovation of that same fort that they failed me for, for touching, adding the same restaurant, adding the museum, all of the things that you wanted. And I was like, it wasn't us. There was nothing wrong with my vision.

unknown 39:57

Nothing.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

The way that they and and think of how the trajectory of my entire life changed because of that failure. The only thing I wanted to do was call my thesis professor, Michelle, and be like, Michelle, it wasn't us. Except Michelle passed away in 2017. And I never got to tell her. And when that happened, the clarity of why this book needed to be written became crystal clear. Because how many of us die with that thing in us? Because we didn't do it, because we didn't want to offend somebody, we didn't want to make them feel bad. We're playing small so that they feel big. You're the authority, therefore, if you're saying that this is the case, you must be right. Because you're the one with the credentials, you're the one with the everything. And we discount what it is that we have and what it is that we know. And Dion, I could tell you, I, up until that point, I never realized that I was carrying a shame and a weight in me. And I literally felt that veil lift because I felt like, why am I just like this rudderless ship? Just moving constantly, like all over. I can't do this thing. I'm like, oh like, why am I like that? And I was like, because I never did that thing that I genuinely wanted to do. Because I felt that I was making these poor this this poor decision that I made has resulted in, and then I was like, no, chick, it wasn't you. All right, we're okay. I could move forward. Believing all of those things that she taught me, Earl Night, you know, Jim Road, all of those things, it's not me, right? And I was like, okay, I had a lot more confidence after that happened to step forward and trust in my intuition. There you have it.

Where To Find Heather And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_00 41:48

I've been saying that a lot lately. If I die with all of this stuff in my computer, the tragedy would all be. What a damn shame. So, what I'm asking from you is your story shows us that experience can become opportunity. Transition can create clarity, right? And purpose often shows up when we're brave enough to take the next step. So thank you so much for being with me today. Where can our audience find you?

SPEAKER_01 42:10

So I my website is Dalton.com. That's D-O-L-T-A-M.com. My book, I would love you could get it. It is available on Amazon but other major retailers, Barnes Noble, Walmart, Target, you name it. I am also self-published, to be clear. So that is a huge thing for me. So this is actually one of four. And I, yes, this is one of four. This isn't my my my uh my sole selection. But it's you, it's just how that is truly when I see like your stories, your strategy, and that you can use your stories to be able to just create that place for you. But yes, I am happy to help you to create yours. And thank you so very much for this opportunity. I greatly appreciate being here and sharing this.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

It's absolutely been my pleasure. Thank you so much.