Transcript: Welcome to your 20 minute podcast where it’s nice to have you back. And our special guest today is Tasha M Scott and, uh, Tasha is a success connector. She helps women to connect with their true path to success through her speaking, coaching, and writing. She empowers women in business to unleash and connect with their God-given purpose and identity. She’s a wife, mom, the founder of the Don’t Limit Me and Women Connect movements. And, she owns two thriving businesses, plus she’s a published author, and she never sleeps.
Tasha Scott: (laugh)
David Brower: Is that a fair assessment?
Tasha Scott: Well, I have good help that just makes me look really good (laugh).
David Brower: I understand that. Delegate, delegate, delegate.
Tasha Scott: Yes.
David Brower: Well that’s good. It’s good. It’s very nice to talk to you. I been that very impressed and very interested in looking at your website and, and reading about you and uh, anything that–
Tasha Scott: Thank you.
David Brower: Has the words God-given purpose uh … I’m really curious about all that stuff so um–
Tasha Scott: Awesome.
David Brower: That’s kind of who I am uh, as well. So, so tell me about you. How did you get started in, in the Wife CC, the Mom CC, but about the easy, nice and easy for me to say, but how about all the other, all the other stuff? What was your epiphany to get all this great stuff moving?
Tasha Scott: Sure, sure. I always like to tell people I, I felt like I was born to be an entrepreneur. Um, had a paper route when I was in the 8th grade but fast forward, I got into court reporting when I really felt like I reached that … the ceiling for where I could go in my paralegal career. Um, and things were going really good. Started that first year, had a mission, but what happened during that time while my business was succeeding and growing, my personal life was falling apart. So when I reached out for help with a life coach, I really discovered a new purpose and that was helping women overcome in some of the same areas that I struggled in myself.
David Brower: Well … and isn’t that usually the key? I mean where we go through these struggles and these challenges and, and there’s life–
Tasha Scott: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
David Brower: Obstacles so that at one point we could go, “Oh. I could help this … these people do this because I’ve lived through it.”
Tasha Scott: Absolutely, and I think that was the full circle moment for me that I realized that my overcoming wasn’t just about me overcoming for … you know.
David Brower: Yeah.
Tasha Scott: It was … It was full circle that my fulfillment came when I knew I could turn around and help another woman overcome too.
David Brower: So, how do you … you public speak I assume–
Tasha Scott: Yeah.
David Brower: You, you have books, you have all these opportunities for women to uh, reach out to you. How do you reach out to them?
Tasha Scott: Um, I do it in my local community. I used to do, what I call, Connection Meetings, and I still do. We have one called Ladies Who Lunch where we meet the first Thursday of every month so I, I host specific events where I wanted to make it like a safe community for women to come and just celebrate each other, not compete, no compare. And then in the online space, I have a Facebook community called Connected Women When, and I just believe that women … we have … men too, I’m not … I’m not discriminating–
David Brower: Right.
Tasha Scott: But I believe that there is so much treasure on the inside of us that if we could stop comparing ourselves long enough, we really could understand that we’re like pieces of a puzzle, that when we connect we can be so much stronger.
David Brower: Well compare and compete. Those are two of the challenging words in most everybody’s life–
Tasha Scott: Yes.
David Brower: These days, huh.
Tasha Scott: It is, it is. And it, it holds us back, you know, from, from progressing. It holds us back from our true potential.
David Brower: So how do you, how do you get a woman’s attention? You know, I mean maybe you’re in a one on one, maybe you’re … you’re in your lunch group is … do they have the sense that when you get together it is a small, intimate group, that it’s confidentiality that they can really kind of share uh, openly and help with their growth that way?
Tasha Scott: Yes, and I lead by example. So when I started sharing my own personal story, the good, bad, and the ugly, (laugh) you know. When I start sharing and when I took off my mask, what happened, and I didn’t plan for this to happen, but women started saying, “I’m wearing a mask. Can you help me? You have a freedom that I crave and desire. Can you help me get free?” And that’s literally how the speaking and the coaching started. It literally started from me just having everyday conversations, even my friends started noticing there was something different about the way I talked and, and even my whole perspective on life.
Tasha Scott: So that’s how it was started.
David Brower: What a gift, huh?
Tasha Scott: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, and, and I would … I tell everybody now, I didn’t know that this was gonna be on the other side of the mask.
David Brower: There you go, there you go. Well, and who does? I mean, who knows —
Tasha Scott: No.
David Brower: First of all, I would assume that, that acknowledging that there is a mask and then–
Tasha Scott: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
David Brower: And then the surprises and epiphanies that come when you get to the other side of the mask has got to be just life changing for a lot of people you touch.
Tasha Scott: Absolutely, and so that’s how the women feel comfortable enough. Because they know I’m not gonna judge them, I’m not gonna criticize them, because I’m … I can’t (laugh)–
David Brower: Right, right.
Tasha Scott: You know. So, I empathize with them more than anything.
David Brower: So you’ve written a couple of books, “Don’t Limit Me” and “Maximize Your Existence”. Tell me a little bit about those and, and how those have touched people.
Tasha Scott: Sure. The first one, “Don’t Limit Me”, literally came from my j … my own journaling process. My life coach challenged me to get my thoughts out of me on paper so that I would stop stuffing my emotions and at some point in my six month coaching, I turned to her and I said, “I feel like I have a book here. I feel like I need to share this story.” The words don’t limit me. It literally came from me standing in a mirror one day pointing a finger at myself saying, “Tasha, don’t limit me”, because I realized, I was the only one who could hold me back because even God himself gives us promises and purpose, but we still have to say, “yes”.
David Brower: Absolutely.
Tasha Scott: So um … so that was all about giving yourself permission to live the life that god designed for us to have, and then, “Maximize Your Existence”, my most recent book came because you know, with freedom … there’s a cost to be free, you know. Um, and so what I realized was that I still have to maintain that freedom and at any point in time if I don’t put god first, if i don’t keep giving myself permission, that I could always have the potential to go backwards and so, one day I just had this aha moment and I said, you know what? And it was talking in a conversation with someone I said, “I need to maximize who I am. Instead of shrinking back, I need to go the whole opposite direction because that’s what brings glory to god, when we own who we are in him.
David Brower: Boy, isn’t that the truth. I remember … it wasn’t that long ago, um, I was … I had been doing voiceover work full-time since 2008 but I also did some marketing for an automotive group and so I was getting ready to retire from that group and just go full time in my voiceover and i, I hadn’t given that up. I hadn’t faced my fears yet and I didn’t know that. I didn’t know I had got to that place and all of a sudden, one day, you know, god just said,”Hey stupid, go”, you know. (laugh)
David Brower: And, and my wife says, “Wow. You finally face your fears. That’s awesome.”
Tasha Scott: Yes, yes.
David Brower: You know, and then it was like this earth changing moment, life changing moment in uh … and I just gave myself goosebumps on that one because that stuff’s really powerful when you can get past the mask.
Tasha Scott: Yes, yes. And I tell people all the time, do it afraid because when you do it afraid, your clarity is gonna come, everything’s gonna come by you going through it instead of sitting back waiting on the fear to go away.
David Brower: You gotta take a leap of faith at some point, don’t you?
Tasha Scott: You have to. You have to, and we have to … it’s not even in our own strength, you know. We have to rely on god. He gave us the vision but then we have to rely on him to, to do it. So when we face our fears and do it afraid, what we’re really saying is, “god, I surrender to you because I know if you called me to do this, you’ll give me the strength and the power to do it.”
David Brower: Absolutely right. Could not agree more. Um, you also have a popular video blog uh … contains useful instruction and guidance and … how does a video blog work? I, I keep up a blog from time to time but I haven’t, I haven’t even seen a video blog, I don’t think.
Tasha Scott: (laugh) I use two popular tools, parascope and Facebook live.
David Brower: Okay.
Tasha Scott: And, when I do my … I’m the type of person, I, I talk out my thoughts and everything so when I do it on video, it gives me the live interaction with the audience and then what I do is I take the video and actually post it on my blog. So my blog is a combination between videos and written words.
David Brower: Nice. Yeah, I’ve seen uh … some of my friends use parascope and uh, and really enjoy that. Is that … do you find one better than the other or are they just different tools?
Tasha Scott: Different tools. Um, some people are on both. I will say i started on parascope first and you asked the question earlier, how like … how am I getting um, people finding me.
David Brower: Right.
Tasha Scott: I found … me doing parascope, I had a lot of people come in out of the woodwork from all over the United States and other countries, um, just resonating with the story. You know, it was the fourth of July a couple of years ago that I just went on there and I said, I’m not trying to perform, I’m just gonna share my story.
David Brower: Yeah.
Tasha Scott: And from there, literally, I started getting coaching clients, started getting speaking engagements, started getting introduced to a whole new audience just from being honest on parascope.
David Brower: Wow. Authenticity is something that I hope we all strive for, but it’s sure tough to get to some days, isn’t it?
Tasha Scott: It is, it is. Because you still, in the back of your mind, you have that thing of, “will people accept me or will they reject me?” You know, all those thoughts.
David Brower: Yep.
David Brower: So you have a couple of thriving businesses as well, Scott Realtime reporting LLC, and tashamscott.com um–
Tasha Scott: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
David Brower: So tell me about those.
Tasha Scott: Sure. Scott Realtime Reporting is the court reporting business. My specialty in the industry is I provide captioning for death and hard of hearing students in the college or government agency settings and I have an awesome team of subcontractors and virtual assistant that help me. My clients are colleges and we pretty much provide that service remotely and on site, and this year I’m going on 13 years with that business.
David Brower: Wow.
Tasha Scott: Mm-hmm (affirmative), and then the other one, tashamscott, that one is 3 years old. That was literally when I launched Don’t Limit Me for the first time, and it was at an Alabama court reporter convention. That was my first kickoff of doing that amongst my peers.
David Brower: Wow.
Tasha Scott: And from there, word of mouth just started forming so I’ve been able to speak in conferences, churches, business settings, and the cool thing about that is me maximizing my existence. I haven’t had to compromise my faith or water down my message no matter whether it’s a business audience or a church audience.
David Brower: That’s terrific. I mean to be able to be authentic, true to yourself, honor god, and just step out … I mean people have to respond to that. There’s no … I mean it’s here I am. What, you’re transparent–
Tasha Scott: Yes.
David Brower: And they’re gonna respond to that.
Tasha Scott: Yes, and I’ve seen so many lives change and I don’t … I give all grit, all glory to god on that–
David Brower: Yeah.
Tasha Scott: Because I feel like I am a vessel that he’s using to help wake, especially women, but to help wake them up to who they are.
David Brower: Now, you do some stuff with us guys too, right?
Tasha Scott: I do. When I do speaking engagements, I do have mixed audiences and I don’t … when I go in, I make sure I talk to everybody (laugh) you know. I do. Um, because I think this is a universal message, you know. I don’t think it’s just a woman’s message um, but I will say that women are near and dear to my heart I guess because, me being a wife and a mom, there is a … I get it a little bit more. And my husband has … he’s, he’s mentored guys and talked to men too. He’s not doing it from the coaching standpoint but I feel like both of us are a dynamic duo together.
David Brower: What a gift. Wow.
Tasha Scott: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
David Brower: So on your website is says you show people how to cultivate connections, embrace identity, and take massive action.
Tasha Scott: Yes, yes.
David Brower: So, tell me about that. What is that … I mean, I understand the cultivate connections and embrace identity. I’m not sure about the, the massive action. How do those three tie together?
Tasha Scott: Well, cultivate connection is we are made for it and wired for connection. We are … no man or woman is an island. We need other people because like iron sharpens irons, our strength matched with somebody else’s strength means that we all win together. Embrace identity means that while you’re connecting with people, you still have to understand you are unique, you are an individual, and you have gifts and talents that maybe somebody else doesn’t have, but you have to embrace your own identity, going back to that comparison and competing thing we talked about.
Tasha Scott: And once we have the right connections and we know who we are, taking massive action is all about productivity. You know, like we can get a whole lot more done when we have those first two in place and I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with people that say, “I know I’m supposed to do something” or “I even know what I’m supposed to do but I don’t know what the next step is” or “I’m … I’m scared and what I’m” … Just like we talked about, what I tell them is, if you can just stop trying to you know, make it all perfect, and just start.
David Brower: Yeah. Fear is a, fear is an amazing inhibitor. I mean, it’s … it’s a real deal in all acts, in all faces of life, isn’t it?
Tasha Scott: Yes, it is. It is. But I call fear a bully (laugh).
David Brower: I like that. (laugh) I like that.
Tasha Scott: Yes. It’s a bully that’ll back you in a corner and tell you, now you stay here but I say we have to rebel against that.
David Brower: Yeah, I ain’t doing no time out with you fear. I’m, I’m good.
Tasha Scott: (laugh)
David Brower: So, let me ask you a question. Sometimes when … and this is my own experience and I’m sure others that I, that I … have shared this with me before. When you go to a kick convention, you go to hear a speaker … at the speaker and like yourself, and you get all amped up, and you get all this juice, and all this information, and then you walk away and two days later there’s only about 15% of it that’s kind of stuck in your head. So–
Tasha Scott: Right.
David Brower: So, how do people get back into that place with you once they’ve been amped up?
Tasha Scott: I always offer a way for them to stay connected if they … if they’re ready to take that, that leap of faith or that next step. I … that’s where my coaching comes in play, and that’s a lot of the life coaching with the spiritual foundation, and I also have a group, which I call … It’s called, “Women Connect Success Club”, but I have two different options for women. And a lot of the women I come in contact with have a desire for business and sometimes ministry, and what I do is provide an option for either one of them to take the journey with me so that they can rise up and be who they’re supposed to be. And I give them practical strategies and tools.
David Brower: Awesome. So, you minister. Really?
Tasha Scott: I do. I do. And you know, I ran from that for a long time. I did because I didn’t want to come across as being religious or anything like that. I grew up in the church. My dad was a pastor and I had to … that was a part of me embracing my identity, was to say I can’t separate my faith from, from who I am and what I do.
David Brower: Absolutely right. And at the same token, you got to figure out a way to become your own person and, and follow your own journey, huh?
Tasha Scott: That’s right, that’s right. And I realized that my business is my ministry and it doesn’t look like the traditional in the church, like I’m not called to the pool pit, but I do feel called to the marketplace.
David Brower: No question about it. No question about it. So, how can people uh, get in touch with you and find out more information and, and uh, and hopefully experience some life-changing moments with you?
Tasha Scott: Sure. They can definitely go to my website, which is tashamscott.com. On my site, you can follow my blog and also, if you scroll down, I do have a free ebook that anybody can have access to. It’s called, “From Chaos to Clarity” and it’s how to regain focus, even if you’ve lost hope and they, they can also reach out to me. I’m on social media. My handle is @coachtashascott, Facebook, Instagram, youtube.
David Brower: Very good, very good. And folks, be careful when you go to the website. Make sure you put the m in there, tashamscott.
Tasha Scott: Yes.
David Brower: Otherwise, you’ll get an attorney.
Tasha Scott: Yes (laugh). There’s a lot of Tasha Scott’s.
David Brower: There was. I had noticed that on, on Skype when I was looking for your name. I’m going, “what the heck?” You know (laugh), there was like six that were Tasha M. Scott’s and I’m going, “That’s just craziness right there.”
Tasha Scott: Yes.
David Brower: Well, god bless you. This has been a wonderful, wonderful conversation and uh, thank you for what you do.
Tasha Scott: Thank you so much David for having me.
David Brower: You bet.
David Brower: You’ve been listening to your 20 minute podcast with David Brower and our special guest Tasha M Scott, and uh, be sure to like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/your20minutepodcast.