111. How to Pitch Me to Your Boss (Without It Being Awkward)

Ever thought…
“My team needs this.”
“My boss would benefit from this.”
“We 100% need a shake up…”

…and then said nothing?

This episode was sparked by a listener who replied to my email asking:
“How do I pitch you to my boss?”

And I thought - I know she’s not the only one.

This episode is here to make it ridiculously easy for you.

Because this isn’t about selling me (ick).
It’s not even about pitching me.

It’s about introducing me.

In this episode, I share 5 simple ways to do exactly that:

•  How to casually forward a podcast episode (no pitch required) 
•  How to use my emails to do the talking for you
•  How to share a LinkedIn post without making it weird 
•  Exactly what to say in your next 1:1 with your boss
•  The “no-risk” ask that makes it easy for them to say yes 

No awkwardness.
No overthinking.
No sales pitch required.

Worst case? They say no.

Best case? You change how your team communicates, works, and shows up… every single day.

All from one conversation.

Enjoy - and make sure you share it with your friends if you found the episode useful. 

I can't wait to shake up YOUR team!

Tag me: @candiceharvey__

🎧 If this episode made you think, laugh, or question something - send it to someone who needs a little permission to do life differently. 

📲 Screenshot, tag me @candiceharvey__, and let me know what hit home.

Oh and check out my FUN website for all my services: www.candiceharvey.com 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome to the Shake Up Podcast. My name is Candace Harvey. I am your host and performance coach. I am a former corporate HR professional, turned people shaker, and since 2018, I've been running my own performance coaching business, helping humans actually thrive at work. Because I know and you know that working nine to five life isn't always easy peasy. No, it's not. It is quite often back-to-back meetings that should have been emails, managing personalities that test your cute little patience, and trying to stay productive after 3 p.m. All that being said, I do not believe that quitting your job is the only answer, but I do believe that showing up differently is, and especially in 2026. So if you are ready for a nudge, a reset, or a loving kick up the bum, the weekly Shake Up podcast is especially for you. I'm so excited you're here. I'm excited you're excited. We're all excited. What a great day it is. And this is a bit of a different type of episode today. Um, but and it wasn't actually the plan, which happens a lot with me. I always have a schedule, I always know what I'm gonna talk about, and then by the time I get behind the mic, I'm like, just joking, I'm gonna do something different. Because I recently received an email in my inbox, and it was from someone who is on my mailing list who hit reply to the weekly email, and they just said, actually, let me just bring it up. I am just going to find it, hold, please. It said, I feel this hit the inbox just at the right time. I want to pitch you to the boss to spark some life into the team. Is there an angle you would suggest I pitch? AKA best 30-second elevator pitch, is what she said. I loved this. I absolutely love this email. And I replied to it because it kind of challenged me. I was like, oh, 30 seconds. Here we go. What would I say? And I looked into the business, so I knew exactly how I would actually help them. They're a property manager business, so I was like, oh, this will be so much fun. Like, are you kidding? Like Candace Harvey to shake up that. Can you imagine how, like the challenges that people in property, whether it's, you know, selling houses or it's like rentals, all that sort of stuff. Can you imagine the challenges that they face? Like the type of people that they would typically work with. Like, I just don't feel that it would be cruzy, you know, like simples. I don't think it would be at all. So it was really quite exciting putting something together, especially for her to speak to her boss about getting me in to help them to think differently, but to focus on what actually matters, to focus on look, shaking up their mindset was a big, big part of it. Um, because also looking at what has gone on so far this year, are they getting the results that they want, or do we need to shake things up, peeps? So that was quite exciting. Um, but I loved that she hit reply and asked me that question because I have over the years received that, especially um on social media where people like, oh, I'd love to have you in the team. This would be so great. You're so awesome, you know, we need you, all those sort of really great things. But the fact that she actually hit reply and she was like, I just I need help. Like, I don't, I don't know how to do this, getting really, really stumped. And so I thought, you know what? I did reply to her, obviously, but I think that a lot of listeners may feel the same, right? Like if you are listening, you potentially work in a team yourself. Um, and you might like me and my Candace Harviness. Thank you so much. Um, but you also might be thinking quite often, like, my team needs this, or my boss would benefit from this, or we need a shake up. And then you do nothing, right? Like you do nothing about it. You just maybe hope that one day I'll just miraculously turn up in your workplace. That's a it's a fun thing to hope for. And it's not, you're not doing anything about it because you don't care, but it's actually because of the stories that you are telling yourself. You know, you are telling yourself that my boss will say no, you know, there's no budget, uh, it's not my place to bring this up. Like that's not my area, and it's stick to my lane. And what if it's awkward or what if they think that I'm overstepping? But what you're actually doing with these cute little stories that you're telling yourself is that you're making a decision for your boss without ever giving them the option. Like, think about how often we actually do this in all areas of our life. Like, we don't reach out to someone, like even a friend, because we think that they're busy. When really hearing from you would actually make their day. Like a friend of mine just did this recently, and she said that she knew that I had a really full-on week, that I had quite a number of workshops that were booked in. So she said, I didn't reach out, I didn't text you. And I I like telling, like, I'm stumped. Like, you can hear this. I was like, what do you mean? Like I remember the week that she was talking about, and I would have loved to have heard from her. Like it would have been brilliant to hear from her before I was walking into a team or to hear from her as I was walking out of a team. Like, she's one of my favorite people. I would have loved that. But what she was doing is she was making a decision for me without actually giving me the option. Like, I don't, I don't have to read her text message. I could ignore it if I wanted to, but she wasn't giving me the option. She was just leaving me alone. And it's the same thing that we actually do sometimes with with our boss or with other people in our life. We decide that they don't need to hear something, they don't want to hear something, it's not the right time for them, but we're not actually giving them the option. And so even with your boss, like what if your boss is actually wanting to do something for the team, but just doesn't know what? You know, what if your boss is like feeling that there is this friction in the group, but they just can't quite name it? Like if you're feeling it, and if you listen to everything that I talk about in the work that I do with teams and you're like, damn, we need that. Holy crap, we need that. Like, I doubt you're the only one thinking that in the team. So your boss could be, they could be recognizing there's something going on, but they just don't know what it is. Or your boss has been every now and again looking for a solution, but hasn't actually found the right one. And you, you, you know the right one, right? It's me. It's me. Hi, how are you going? Uh, but this isn't also about selling me to your boss. That is gross. Like, that is not what this episode is about at all. This isn't actually even about pitching me to your boss, but it is about introducing me. There are so many people out there who do company workshops, who do company leadership days, who do professional development in some like there's there's loads. It's not just me, right? But everyone out there is different. Everyone has their own spin on it, whether they've just got a different background, they've got different experience, they've got different qualifications, their personality is different, their style, the way that they articulate and deliver information. We are all different. And maybe your boss has never heard of Candace Harvey. What can you imagine? There is a world where people don't know who Candace Harvey is. I know, I'm gonna get over myself. It's really it's difficult when I've got the mic, you know, and I get to talk about myself. It's it's really hard. But it could be a really great time and an opportunity for you to introduce me to them and without you feeling like you have to sell me. And I want to make it really easy for you as well because I I get it, you know, in the beginning of my business when I first started and I predominantly was doing one-on-one coaching, and I used to do a lot of networking, and I used to go to events and I'd introduce myself and tell people what I was doing and how I'd help people, and and it was awesome. And they would literally look at me and go, I know a lot of people who would benefit from working with you, but I don't know how to bring that up. And especially with one-on-one coaching, it's awkward, right? Like you think about it, you're like, oh God, my friend, my friend needs you in their life so bad. But it's like, how do you, how do you bring that up with your friend? I met this coach, uh, she's great, and I think you need to work with this coach because you you need to sort your life out, right? Like it gets a little bit awkward. And I think sometimes as well, when we are talking about a team, it's like, how do we, how do we bring this up? How do I all of a sudden say that I think our team needs help? And I I know this person who I I love listening to or I love following her on socials or whatever it is. Um, and I think she could be the person. It just becomes awkward, right? So I want to help you out. I want to make it a little bit easier for you. And I was thinking today on my walk this morning that there are actually five ways that you could introduce me very easily to your boss. I mean, there's a lot more, right? Especially if you're really cute and reading the shakeup book at the moment. Like you could just really sneakily just leave the book or get them another copy. That'd be even better. Get them another copy and uh just chuck it on their desk. Oops, there it is. Candace Harvey's face sitting on the desk. That was weird. Uh, but no, that's not one of them. The five ways, though, to introduce me to your boss without it being awkward, and that is the biggest, biggest piece. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable about it. I want it to be something where you feel like this is a good thing. Remembering that your boss could be looking for someone to do something with the team and they haven't had capacity. You know, they haven't had a chance to think about it. It's been on their to-do list, their cute little to-do list, be like, I need to shake up the team or I need to do something with the team and just hasn't got around to it. We've all been there. So these are my five non-awk ways for you to maybe introduce me to your boss. Number one, forward a podcast episode. This is literally the easiest, lowest pressure entry point that I could actually think of. You know, there are so many episodes and different topics, right? On the Shake Up podcast that you'd listen to. And some of them you might actually feel like, oh my gosh, this is this would be so helpful. But you could literally forward it to your boss, and all you need to say is, like, hey, I listened to this on the way to work and I thought of our team, especially around the topic of whatever. Um, and it might be worth a listen. Like, I was actually just looking at some of my podcast episodes that it might be really relevant to your team at the moment. Like last week was all about rejection. I had so many messages about that episode, which was so brilliant because we all fear it every now and again, you know, like that that fear of being told no or that fear of being pushed back. And it could be to do with the particular work that you do with your team where rejection pops up a lot. So that could be an episode that you actually forward and go, I feel like this is something that would resonate for the team. It's worth a listen, right? The one before that being uh becoming unoffendable, you know. So there could be people in the team where you're like, we tiptoe around them all the time because they just get offended and they just feel like, you know, everything's personal and it's an attack on them when it's not at all. And so even that one could actually open up your boss's eyes to be like, oh, maybe we need to do something within the team to help and support them. Uh, what else have I got? When work is crap but not super crap, the gray zone so many people stay in. This was another one of those episodes where people were like, What is this episode about? And then they started listening, they're like, oh my gosh, I needed to hear that today. So even that, but the really cool thing about the podcast episode as well is that your boss will start to get a bit of a taster of who I am, the way that I speak, the way that I articulate things, the sort of topics that I actually address. So it's not about pitching, there's no pressure. It's actually just about planting a seed, just by forwarding a podcast episode. And also, it's a really cool thing. Like, this is not to be a bit of a brown noser, but to even show your boss that you are the type of person that listens to podcasts. You are the type of person on the way to work or when you're at the gym or when you're on a, I don't know, a walk that you actually pop something in your ears because you want to be able to better yourself. So that's a really cool thing as well. And to be able to share that, like I love it when people share podcast episodes, book recommendations, all that sort of stuff, it's the best. So to be able to do that for your boss, I think that's a pretty cool one. So the first really easy way to introduce me to your boss without it being awkward is number one, forward a podcast episode. Super easy. Number two, super easy as well, is forward one of my emails. They are already written for you. You're welcome. So if you're on my uh email list, amazing. Make sure you stay on it. If you're not, send me an email at info at candasharvey.com and I'll get you cute bum on it. Or you just go onto my website www.candasharvey.com and there is a link right down the bottom, I think. Uh joining my newsletter. I don't just send billions and gabillions of emails all the time. They are literally where it's once a week. Like I think that's all I've been doing all year, which is just once a week, because you know your girls got other stuff to do. Uh, but a lot of the time it is to do with my podcast episode, and I'm just framing it very differently. I'm talking about, you know, something that you need to be thinking of, especially if you work in a nine to five, because that's what all my business is. Um, but you could just look at one of those emails that every week kind of land in your inbox, something that screams your workplace, and just forward it on to your boss and say something like this landed in my inbox this morning and it felt very relevant to us. I just thought I'd pass it on. Super easy. Again, it's not selling, it's just sharing. And it might be a topic that after that, all you've done is that forward one email and they contact me or whatever it is, they do all the work, you don't have to do anything, and then you just get to experience the Candace Harvey shakeup afterwards. How good? Just from forwarding an email. My goodness, that's an easy peasy one. Uh, number three is share a LinkedIn post. So LinkedIn is something in 2026, it is on my goals to get a lot better with LinkedIn because it's a very different sharing platform, right? It's very different to Instagram, it's very different to Facebook. It is really about what is going on for businesses. So whenever something is going on in my business that I sort of think that needs to be shared, or I remember to share it on LinkedIn, uh, it would be a really great platform. Hopefully, this even encourages you to go, oh, you know what? I'm not on LinkedIn myself. If you work in a team, if you work with a business, LinkedIn is the place to be. Um, but especially if your boss is actually active on LinkedIn, how perfect. You can literally just send them the link. You can tag them in as well, which would be super easy if that actually feels appropriate. But it is, again, just one of those things that it might be thought this was interesting, especially the part about team dynamics, communication, performance, you know, goal setting, resetting standards, boundaries, uh, happiness, mindset, all those delicious things that I actually talk about could be a really great way to introduce it just through a LinkedIn post. And people do that with mine all the time. Like I see people sharing, commenting, people in them, which is really cool, right? Like it's just no biggie, everyone's doing it. So it's um, yeah, that's number three. LinkedIn, LinkedIn. And also just by saying this out loud, I'm like, get your cute bum on LinkedIn more, Candace Harvey. Get it on. I see some of my clients, even or some friends as well, or colleagues that I've worked with, God, they're good at LinkedIn. So good. And some of the stuff, even when I'm there, like there's a lot of rubbish on LinkedIn, but there's a lot of great stuff on there as well, where I'm like, oh, go you, go you with all your cute engagement and sharing your great stuff that you're doing in the workplace. Love it. So we'll be doing a lot more of it. Uh, number four is bring it into your next one-on-one with your boss. So this is obviously a little bit of a braver move, but you've got it. I know you've got it. Um, and this is also a time where you've got their attention, you know, like you're really going through everything that's probably on your plate at the moment, asking for help, hopefully, on things that you need more clarity on. Love one-on-ones, love them. But this also could be an opportunity where you say something like, you know, I've been thinking about the ways that we could improve how the team's actually working together, whether it's communication, handovers, all that sort of stuff. And I came across Candace Harvey. She runs really practical workshops. She doesn't do fluffy stuff at all. And I think it could be worth exploring. And if you want, I can connect the two of you. You can just have a chat and see if it's the right fit. So doing something like that, it's super clean, it's super professional. It's not about rambling. It is, again, just bringing up that this is something that you have been thinking about, which I think back to my corporate days as well, and when I was a managing, when I was managing a national team, I feel like my words just went all funny when I was a managing, or when I was a manager and a managing. Um, and you know, it my staff would actually come up to me and they would bring up different ideas that I haven't hadn't thought about. And it was always brilliant because as a manager, as someone who is looking after people all the time, as well as doing your own job too, right? There's always two parts to it. Your brain is full a lot of the time. And you know that there is a bucket load of things that you should and could and could be doing a lot better. Like we all know those sort of things, and you just don't have the brain power for it. And so when team used to come up to me and go, hey, I've thought of this or I've come across this person, it used to feel so great. Where I was like, my God, I don't have to think about all of these things on my own, you know? So um, that could be a really great way to do it as well. They might be interested, they it might start a conversation for you, whatever it is. But it's a really great time to do it, is just when you're in your one-on-one. And then the fifth way to do it is just, I don't know, this is literally just using the no-risk ask, but this is just a real game changer. But it is just at any opportunity that you have with your boss because they're human and you're human, it's literally just asking. You know, like would you be open to just having a conversation with Candace Harvey? I think she's great. I think she'd be awesome in the team. I could set up just a half an hour quick chat with you and her online, or if, you know, in the area and I'm in the area, we can chat behind the scenes as well. I would love to come and just meet them really quickly. No commitment, just to see if it will work for us. A lot of these, this is how I actually start speaking with businesses a lot of the time. It comes from someone in the team going, Hey, do you should have a chat with Candace, whether they've heard me, seen me on socials, whatever it is. Um, and then a manager will end up setting some time up in my calendar. And when I say, How did you hear about me, they'll be like, Kate told me about you, or Andrew saw you, or uh, you know, Sally's friend, or whatever, right? It's they're always really, really random. Um, but it is a complete no-pressure chat. Like there have been so many times where I've had conversations with teams, with well, teams, but also leaders, managers, um, and they've got all the information they needed, different ways of working with me, because like some of you may know, I do like an hour session sometimes. I do half day, I do full day. It really does vary because it is me, myself, and I at Candace Harvey Coaching, I get to make up my own rules. I love that. So depending on what would work best for your team, I can bend and flex around that, which is really, really cool. And so just having that conversation of the different areas that I work with, um, also me being able to have an opportunity to hear it about what's going on with the team because teams are always going through different phases in in the year, and I want to make sure that whatever I am giving them in terms of a shakeup is gonna add the most amount of value. So a lot of time people can look at my website under workshops and they get excited about a particular one, and they're like, that's the one that we're gonna do. We're gonna do reset, reboot, and refocus. And then after chatting, I'm like, I actually think you should do not done yet. Not done yet sounds like it would fit really well. Or they come in and they're like, we really want to do happiness first. That sounds exactly like where we need. We need to shake up our mindset and we've got a bit of negativity going on. So if we could do that one, that would be great. And then I'll go, I actually think you need to do discomfort is key. I think that is what is gonna be the best one for you. So we have a bit of a conversation, they get excited about it, I get excited about it. We look at when a time in the year would be best for them, we look at the length of time, chat, chat, chat. If it works, great, if it doesn't, no biggie either. But especially just bringing it up, not necessarily in a one-on-one, but just in passing, saying that you want to have a quick conversation, it really does remove pressure as well, because it's you just bringing it up, they get to say yes or no. You know, it doesn't matter about the whole budget fear, you're pushing it back to them, they get to deal with it. And even with in terms of decision fatigue, right? It's not like, oh God, what do I need to do? I'll think about it later. It's just like, I'll set it up, even if you want to. Like that's totally easy. Worst case scenario, though, they say no. Best case scenario, you change how your team communicates, works, and shows up every single day. And that's that's a pretty big difference for one conversation. And I also think that, you know, with the work that I do too, it's not actually about the leader helping you to have the best year at work that you can absolutely have. It's not up to your manager, it's not up to the business, it's not about your work colleague being less annoying. It really is about you being the one that takes control of your career, of your life, of your, you know, your situation that you're currently in and being the type of person where if you aren't happy and there are ways that you feel like you could be happier and you could even help the happiness of people around you, why would you not bring that up, right? And see how it would go. You know, the beautiful feedback that I get so often from people in workshops, like it was even last month, actually, and I think I did share this on socials, but someone said, and I'm gonna butcher this a little bit. Actually, don't butcher it, Candace. Just bring up your phone and actually read it. Hold please, elevator music. Here it is. Um it was Candace's energy throughout the entire day, is what I enjoyed most. I was mentally prepared for a long, boring workshop, but she made it engaging, fun, and interactive in the best way, not a cringe way. I loved that feedback because I very often think that people can, you know, think about people coming into the business or running team workshops or, you know, seminars that they often call it, and just think, oh, snooze, what are we, when do we get to eat? What are the snacks gonna be? I really hope she brings mentos. I don't bring mentos. I know. I just feel like I should say that and be really honest. I've talked about it before. Mentos is lame, mentos is distracting, it's not good for you. I don't think you just need to excessively eat those colourful little sugar things in a workshop. I'll give you all the energy you need, babe. Okay? I will. We don't need to be eating mentos. But I think that there is a real negative connotation, a negative spin, a negative bias that is. To do with people coming into the business and running and running workshops. And it it's a shame because I know there are some snooze people out there, but it's also about realizing that people are very different and that when you do give them a chance, you get that awesome feedback where people go in thinking it's going to be boring and they are very quickly surprised. And that is what I focus on. I am so passionate about making people think about their life differently, but the way that they're working differently and realizing that the smallest changes sometimes will have the biggest difference, not only in their work life, but it ripples out into all different areas of their life. So if you have been thinking about having me into your workplace, same. I think about it often too. I think about coming into your workplace. Absolutely, I do. And also thinking that, you know, your team might not be big enough or it's too big, no such thing. I have worked with really tall, small, really tall, really small teams before and also really big teams. It doesn't matter. Like I said, we can do quick, sharp sessions, we can do half day. I can be there all day. I can be there all week if you like. We can talk about that as well. But I want you to take this as your sign to stop overthinking it and actually just start the conversation. And if you're listening and thinking, oh God, I am that person. I have been thinking about wanting Candace Harvey to come in and I just don't bring it up because I feel like it's not my place. I don't want them to say, no, I don't want to, whatever it is. Like, let's just stop doing that. Even send me a message like that beautiful lady did with her email. Like, just say, I really want you in. I don't know how to do this. I can even help you in terms of the industry as well, so that we can sh craft it so that it is gonna prick up the ears of your boss as well. Prick up the ears of your boss. Prick up the ears. Not sure that was the right, right way to say that, but you're picking up what I'm putting down. Um, but I will help you with exactly what to say because I think that it is brave. I think that it's really um, it says a lot about you if you are someone who would love to be able to shake up the team. So I can help you. I can give you all the information. I've put together like packages before for people. Whatever you need, I am here. Because as you know, I love shaking things up. And if we could do that together, I would absolutely love it. So I hope that you enjoyed this short, sharp episode today. It is especially for you if you have been wanting to get me into your business. Like I said, same. I want to as well. So let's make that happen. Until next time, please do keep having fun and shake things up. That's the most important thing. Go shake things up.