TLC: Interview with Russ Hedge - Yvonne Reddin

Can you give the Talk Learn Connect (TLC) audience a summary of your professional path and what brought you from sales to coaching?

I have had quite a journey over the past year. This time a year ago I was Sales and Marketing Manager at Servpro of LInn and Benton Counties in Corvallis, Oregon. I had been there for approximately seven years. Previously, I had been in Sales and Marketing in a company in Salem Oregon for about seventeen years. All in all, I have thirty plus years of Sales and Marketing experience.

My favorite part of my job has always been Marketing and connecting with people. In my last job I was able to do a lot of speaking, coaching and training for my team and others that I connected with. So, about a year ago I began to look into starting my own business on the side - Russ Hedge Coaching and Consulting.

I had just begun to get all the foundation of my business together... and then Covid arrived. This became the perfect time to pivot and go full steam ahead with my business and break out on my own.

I have never looked back. I am coaching, speaking, podcasting, and I have a new book coming out in mid October- "Befuddled? Live the Life You Choose!" And I am definitely living the life I choose.

You say that successful networking “…is the life blood of your business and I can teach you how to Network and Connect driving great prospects to your business” - What kind of teaching methods do you implement in your business?

Successful networking comes from true connection. I have a fun and systematic approach to connection and by teaching you how to network and connect, I help you to build a community that is there to support your business. After all, connecting is really building true friendships... and friends want to help friends.

What I teach enables you to make true connections that are your Core Advocates! People who will advocate for you; core advocates want to truly help because they care about you and all you are doing.

"The best way to begin this process is to care about them and show interest in all they are doing. Be authentic and be an advocate for them, because, as John Maxwell says "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"

Many businesses here in Ireland have been innovative in the way they will now have to operate, post-pandemic. How has the pandemic affected your business, and have you had to pivot your business online?

Since my business began with a giant pivot, I have done nothing but benefit from the pandemic. The push online gave me a great platform to build my business quickly and connect with people all over the world.

Creativity and innovation have been the path to my early success. I have also taken action and moved forward, figuring out things as I go. I believe you find your purpose(or Why) and then move forward and make it happen. We all need to learn and grow with our business and realize change is inevitable.

As I slowly reintegrate with people in person, I have learned that online platforms have now become a necessary and permanent part of my business.

The word ‘Community’ throughout lockdown and the pandemic, has been applied so many times on social media, in articles and on news platforms. How essential is this word to you and what you practice?

Community is what true connection is all about. Through genuine networking, I have been able to build my community world wide. This community has already helped me in many areas of my business as I work to support others and help them in theirs!

Community is essential to any business's success. It always has been and it is even more important today in our current climate.

I love people and making new friends is my passion so it has been a true joy to take my local community and expand it all over the world.

Can you share any words of wisdom that helped you in your successful career?

I have several words of wisdom from mentors that have shaped me and how I do business, but here are two of them:

"Don't wait to start until you know everything... just get going, Learn, Adapt, and Grow"

It is important to get started and take action... a 'Do It Now Attitude' gets things done.

My journalism professor in college used to tell me, "Just do the next dumb thing!" This means to get unstuck whether it is in writing, or life, just move forward and do something.

Forward motion builds momentum. I talk about these words of wisdom further in my new book, "Befuddled? Live the Life You Choose!"