#529: Do I need more "Main Character Energy"? - Tash Corbin, Heart-Centred Business Podcast

Full article and links available at: tashcorbin.com/529

Today's episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast started as a reply to a question I received after episode 507—the one where I talked about niching and said, "Stop making it about yourself, you're not the main character." After that, someone messaged me asking, "But Tash, don’t I actually need a bit of main character energy in my business? Shouldn’t I be stepping more into the spotlight?"

I loved that question so much, I knew we had to dig into it. So let’s talk about what main character energy really is in business, and where you absolutely should—and shouldn't—lean into it.

When Should You Embrace Main Character Energy?

You might be surprised to hear me say this, but: absolutely yes, I want you to embrace main character energy. I want you to step into the spotlight, as often and as proudly as possible… when it comes to your story.

Let me explain. In episode 507, I talked about niching and why it's not about you. When you’re making decisions about your niche, your messaging, and your sales pages, it needs to focus on your ideal client. You are the guide, not the main character of that story. Your audience—the people you serve—are the heroes.

But that doesn’t mean everything in your business is about them and you somehow disappear. Quite the opposite.

...read the full article at: tashcorbin.com/529

Join us in Noosa at the Heart-Centred Business Conference on 2-3rd September!

Find out more and secure your ticket at: tashcorbin.com/conference

Transcript

0:30

Spectacular Entrepreneur. This episode of the Heart Center Business Podcast is a reply episode to a previous one. So you may recall if you listen to these episodes chronologically. Back in episode number 507 and I'll link to that in the show notes I talked about the awkward conversation about nishing and that was stop making about yourself. You're not the main character. And I had the best, best reply to that episode, which was someone saying, but Tash, don't I need to have a bit of main character energy in my business? Like I feel like I'm not stepping into the spotlight enough, I'm not making my business enough about me and therefore don't I need a bit of main character energy. And I thought this was the perfect conversation for us to bring to the podcast. So that is exactly what we are going to do. This is episode, episode number 529, which means you can find the relevant links and the show notes for today's episode over@tashcorbyn.com 529 so do you need a bit more main character energy? Let's find out. Hello, I'm Tash Corbin, a business strategist and mentor based on the Sunshine coast in Australia. The mission of this podcast is to help heart centered entrepreneurs to make more money and in doing so change the world for the better. This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Gubbi, Gubbi and Djinnaburra people. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. You might be a little bit surprised to hear me say. Absolutely yes. I want you to embrace main character energy. I absolutely want you to step into the spotlight as often and as loudly and proudly as possible. When it's about you, when it's about your story. So the podcast episode that I was referring to, episode 507, was specifically about making decisions about your niche, who you market to, when you are marketing, who you focus on. When you're writing copy, content assets, webinars and lead magnets, sales pages. Right? When you're writing content, when you're writing copy as a business owner, when you're writing your message, it should be focused on your niche. And the niche that you choose is, is not about you, it is your focus. So if in that episode, and please do go back and listen to that one again, if you don't recall it, one of the big things I talked about was that you are the guide. You are not the main character of the story. Your ideal client, your audience member, your niche is the main character in that decision making process. That doesn't mean that in your business everything that you do is just about them and you're not part of the conversation. It's one of my biggest frustrations when I discover a new business or I visit someone's website or social platform and I cannot see them. I don't know what their name is, I don't know who is making this. And especially in this day and age of AI and bot driven content, more and more or it is required that you tell us who you are, you show your face, you tell us your name, you give us the signs of life that there's a human involved in this social platform or in this business. Because the risk of us getting bamboozled and taken advantage of by a non existent business or a fake business is so much higher when there is no human component to it. And so more than ever you need to be embracing main character energy in your business for sure. But it's when it's in your story that's the different piece. It's not when you are writing content for your audience. It's not when you're crafting messaging towards your niche, which should be built on a foundation of a very specific tangible niche. It is when you are talking about you. So there are spaces in your business where you do need to step into main character energy and I wanted to give you a few examples. So number one is presence. Your presence in your business must be visible. It must be heard, it must be seen, it must be shared. Be you, be your whole self and be wholehearted in your presence in your business. So whether that is physically being present online and responding to comments, responding to emails, responding to people, engaging with you in some ways, whether that be having lots and lots of you in your content. So when you share examples that might be helpful, you share examples of your own experience or examples of people you have had conversations with. When you are creating your content online, finding ways to bring yourself into that conversation in a way that is helpful to your ideal client. And even to the extent where I've said in a previous episode, I don't care if what you share about yourself is what you ate for lunch today. I would rather know what you had for lunch today than hear some 26 year old young dude tell me all the reasons why I don't deserve to be happy and loved. So simply because I don't subscribe to his understanding of what makes a girl hot. Right? I would rather see more you and hear more from you as a business owner, as someone that I follow, than hear the ramblings and the brain farts of some of these AI driven accounts that are just sharing slope. So your presence is important and imperative. So that is where you do need to embrace that main character energy. Because if you see yourself as the main character in your business, right, not in the service that you provide, but in the story of your business, then your presence is a requirement. So yes, we want to step into that main character energy when it comes to being, being present in your business. The second one is choosing yourself, right? You've got real pick me energy. If you're sitting around waiting for someone to tell you that you should write a book, that you should blah, blah, blah, whatever it is, you should make a course, you should sell this, you should do something about this. Don't wait for someone else to tell you what you need to be doing in your business. Don't wait for someone else to tell you that your desire to do X, Y and Z is valid. You are in the driver's seat. This is your business. You get to be the main character. You need to be in that main character energy. So choose yourself. If you want to get more speaking gigs, make a speaking gig for yourself, host a webinar, create a podcast, do some face to camera videos, record audio training, audio meditations, whatever it is that you want to talk about. You got to choose yourself before someone else will choose you. And the more that you create your own opportunities, the more likely it is that someone will see that and say, hey, I really loved your presentation in your webinar. I'd love for you to come and do that on my podcast or in my membership or in another space. But if that doesn't exist, if you haven't chosen yourself, if you haven't shown up, you haven't spoken, you haven't done the thing that you want to do, then how on earth are you expecting to be chosen in the first place? The same goes for writing. If you want to be chosen to publish a book, you need an audience of at least 100,000 people. You need to have written something. You need to be a prolific writer. Are you waiting for a book deal before you start writing your book? Are you waiting to be chosen before you take action? Main characters don't wait to be chosen. They don't wait to be picked. They choose themselves. They create opportunities. They create their own platform, they create their own audience. They create their own opportunities to do the thing that they desperately want to do. If what you want to do is sing, sing, if what you want to do is write, write. If what you want to do is be seen and heard. You got to put something out where people can see it and hear it. That is up to you. So that is absolutely a time to embrace and expand your main character energy. The third one is in mindset and belief. You really need to love yourself hard to be in this business. If you think that you can be a successful business owner and still be wishy washy on whether you think you're a decent enough human being or not, it's just not viable. If you think you can be a successful business owner but you still don't know if anyone actually is interested in having you help them, that's going to be really challenging. You need to dig yourself. And if you don't dig yourself truly, madly and deeply, thank you, Savage Garden. You need to work on that. That is where main character energy needs to come in. Main characters, even if it's that like klutzy hot mess of a girl, right, she still thinks she's got something of value. She still has that seed of self belief and self worth, even if she's dithering about and all of those sorts of things. And I think often this is where movies can set us up for failure. We have been shown over and over again that the only lovable woman is a self effacing, low self esteem woman. There's something wrong with women who dig themselves. Women who dig themselves aren't liked. They are cruel. They are, you know, there's something very vapid about them or something very self involved and self indulgent about them. But in reality, if you want to be a business owner, if you want to make a success, make a go of this business, you need to dig yourself. You need to believe in yourself. And I think we're seeing a big shift in this, especially with younger generations. I think younger generations have really wised up to the fact that, you know, being your own worst critic is actually not helpful. Being your own detractor is actually just toxic. It's not a lovable trait anymore. And I absolutely love that we are seeing this shift. But I think particularly for those of us who are perhaps mid-30s and older, that's something we have to learn retrospectively. So if you don't dig yourself, if you don't fancy yourself as someone who deserves the spotlight, someone who deserves a chance, someone who deserves to be adored as a provider, someone who has something really deeply valuable to share with the world and is willing to be their own greatest advocate, that is certainly something to work on. And I would absolutely encourage you to Dial up your main character energy there. And then the fourth one is when you are in learner or participant mode. So if you're in a course, if you're in a community, if you're at events, beloved main character is a generous and kind leader of that space. So I'm not talking about when you're hosting a program, hosting a course. I'm talking about when you go as a participant, when you go as a learner. So let's say you join an online program. It has a community. There's a 15 people in that community. Are you showing up with main character energy or are you shying away and hiding? You're not doing yourself any favors by not showing up fully and not being a leader in the space. People more than ever are looking for leadership and a different model of leadership to what we might have seen in the past. Not an authoritarian, um, me above all else, like everything, at all costs kind of leader, but the kind of leader who is that personality hire at your workplace. Have you seen all of the content about being a personality hire? So if you think about it in, say, a corporate environment, the personality hire is the person who, like, they're the person who knows everyone's name. They are the one who's like, come on, guys, we can do it. Let's order pizza and stay late. They're the person who is making sure that people's emotional needs are taken care of, that maybe the shy and quiet people are getting a chance to speak up and be heard. They have this real nurturing quality about them. And I would absolutely recommend engaging in that kind of leadership in the spaces where you've paid to be a participant in particular. But even if it is a free space, think about for a moment the people whose names you know from the Heart Centered Soul Driven Entrepreneurs group, or if you're in the takeoff program, who do you know in the takeoff program who's a student? If you're part of my planning posse, whose names come to mind when you think of people in those spaces, the people you'll think of are actually embracing main character energy inside those programs by being generous, present and confident leaders in the space. They're not jockeying for position with me as the facilitator of the space. They're being that nurturing colleague to others in the space. If you think about, if you've been to the Heart Centered Business Conference and you think about the people you remember from that conference, it's often the people who are making sure that everyone's had their fair share of the guacamole before it runs out on taco night. If you know, you know. They're the people who are making sure that when we sit at a new table, they're making sure everyone has a chance to introduce themselves and talk about their business. They're actively asking questions. They're asking questions of the speakers on stage that are helpful to every other person in the room. They're not asking questions that only apply to themselves. You'll notice that when you go to events now, there are people who get the microphone and tell their life story and make it all about themselves. And then there are people who get the microphone and they ask a question that every other person in the room was glad they asked it. Now, which of those two do you think is main character energy and is actually being a leader? Because I can tell the difference straight away based on the question someone asks. Yeah. And so I really want you to think about the spaces that you're in. Are you showing up with main character energy not because you want to compete with the person who's facilitating the space, but because you want to show up and shine in that space. You want to look after your fellow participants in that space. You want people to see you as a leader, because guess what happens when people see you as a leader? They remember you. They refer people through to you. They ask you questions, they engage with you, and they know you far more than they know the people who are hiding in the corner. And to be known in this online business world is to have a sustainable opportunity for growth. It's to give you an opportunity to build your own audience. And so I really encourage you. Thank you so much. To the person I had this conversation with following the previous podcast episode. I really encourage you to look at the spaces where it is time for you to step into main character energy. And sometimes the realization that you've been getting all your main character energy from your niching and from your content and actually redirecting it into these other spaces allows you to still feel like you're getting the best of both worlds. So you're not making your niching about yourself anymore. You're not making your core message about yourself anymore. It's about the main character of that journey, which is the client. And instead you get to step into main character energy in the spaces where it's going to move you forward in your presence, in choosing yourself and creating opportunities for yourself in your mindset and belief and your love of yourself, your self esteem, your self confidence, digging yourself. And when you are in spaces in communities. When you're a learner, you're a participant and you have an opportunity to be a leader. And I really encourage you to look for spaces where you might play with this and practise this. Now if you're feeling like, oh, that's so much like, that would be huge for me to do that in this particular space, find a space that feels safer. So I belong to some group programs where it feels a little too big and exposing to try and step into main character energy, maybe in the big group, but I will form small group masterminds to go through a live round together and I'll step into a leadership space there. Or I show up and I get into that main character energy in the live calls, in the chat, making sure it's a model of leadership that is nourishing the other people there, not stealing the spotlight. Right? But I do that there because that feels more sustainable for me. But I bet even in just listening to this, there's probably some spaces where you could serve to have a little more of that main character energy. And I want you to give yourself the gift of playing with that and experimenting. So thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Heart Centered Business Podcast. This has been episode number 529, which means you can find all the relevant links and the show notes for today's episode over at tashcorbin.com forward/529 and I I will specifically link to that previous podcast episode about where you're not the main character. So if you need to recap that one or you have missed that one and want to go and listen along, you can do so. Thank you so much and I'll see you next time on the Heart Center Business Podcast. Bye for now.