Change: Angela Proffitt- From Pain to Profit - An Entrepreneur's Journey, Walking Through Grief, and How Knowing People Leads to Happiness and Business Growth

Welcome to the Aworate of Difference podcast. I'm Lori Adams Brown, and this is a podcast for those who are different and want to make a difference. Happy Women's History Month to everyone today. Our guest is an incredible woman, Angela Proffitt, founder of GSD Creative. She's a productivity expert, a podcast host, a celebrity wedding and event planner, a speaker and author who travels the world helping CEO, executives, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs grow their company brand. She has been working for over two decades mastering business processes. She's been serving on a board for entrepreneurs. She has a psychology degree which helps communicate all her techniques and helps people get a lot of stuff done. She's been in People's Magazine, Success magazine, US Weekly, many organizations that she's helped. I met her at Pod Fest in Orlando and went to her session and was just so impressed with the work that she's doing. I'm really honored that she's coming on the show today. She's been through a lot lately, and she's going to probably talk about that in this episode. So welcome to the Angela Proffitt.

Hello, Angela. A very warm welcome to the World of Difference podcast today there in Nashville, Tennessee. How are you?

I'm great. How are you? I'm so excited to be here.

I'm so excited too.

So fun meeting you at Pod Fest in Orlando, and I'm so glad we made this happen. And for those in my audience who have not heard of you before, they are so infrared, but I'm sure there's some of them out there that already know who you are, and they're excited to hear a little bit about Angela Proffitt. So my first question for you is just tell us who you are, what your background is, and how you got started in the work that you're doing.

No, I didn't know so many of those parts of your story. And so I think sometimes first impressions with people, people might think that because you're bubbly and fun and pretty and extroverted and you dance on TikTok and you bring a lot of joy wherever you go, there's just happiness follows you. But there's so much depth, like working in a morgue and studying psychology and the grit and the grind of entrepreneurship and all of that. I love that you embody all of those things, and there's just so many layers to you. There's so much to get to know, which makes for a super fun interview today. So thanks for starting us off like that. But you have this company, you have a podcast, you've traveled the world. Your purpose has changed over time, but you've always been sort of a person that has tried to get things done right and your productivity, and you're doing a lot of things around that tell us about your concept of your company GSD and what inspired you to start.

That particular part of it?

Well, again, every company and every big thing that I end up being a part of. And when I say big, I don't mean like revenue, I mean like impact wise comes from a really deep pain point. And you see that right away. And I was talking for five minutes. But you're right, people don't take me seriously. And again, I'm so used to it that it's funny we make fun of it now because they're like, oh, you're this short little blonde and DA DA DA DA. I played the part and I love it. But when it comes to business and matter and purpose and all of that, I'm in my forty s. Oh my God, if I had someone telling me back when I felt like my mother and my grandmother when I was your age but shit, it's true. When I started, we didn't have consultants, we didn't have mentors, we didn't have podcasts, we didn't have books, we didn't have Audible, we didn't have YouTube. And it's really lonely. It's really lonely. So everything that I talk about, everything I teach, every company I'm part of comes from a pain. And so three days before college graduation and this is me graduating, like done with clinicals. So excited to get out of Pensacola, Florida. No offense, I was living in my uncle's condo on the beach. I thought it was going to be so cool and had stand in my bed every night. It was not cool at all. And they're just real behind the times for someone who's like 20 years old. It just wasn't the hip town at all. And they were like no good dance clubs and you know how good I love to dance. And I was a dancer, but people were like, oh my God, you didn't have anywhere to go. Anyway, if TikTok were around back then, you all I would just be dancing for a living, probably. Anyway, I went off on a massive tangent, sorry, I'm really good at that, really bad. But I did remember. So my pain point, I'm so close to graduation. At the time I went to Knoxville and it was still kind of foreign, but I wanted to get out because I was so bored and I wanted to live on the beach because I thought it would be so cool. And it was free because it was my uncle's condo who owned the wedding venue and it was like 3 hours. Anyway, my computer crashed and I lost everything. So here I go to sit down with two reams of paper. It would probably be like a thousand sheets. I had to mail this notebook to my professor back at UT to graduate and I go to do it. And I opened an email from a friend. Now this is like Towers back then and like the big ass monitors and then all these cuss words popped up all over my screen. It's like it was yesterday. I'm like, oh, my God. What's happening? I go to the Yellow Pages, an actual phone book, and I'm looking through, and I find it's, like the computer doctor. And so I call and I take it in the first thing. He's like, Honey, you didn't back up with a floppy drive or a floppy disk? Or I'm like, what's that? He's like, well, let me see what I can do. And I'm crying hysterically as if my mother just passed unexpectedly. Like, hysterical. Because I was never taught not how to react. That's what you don't learn in school. But because I worked in psychology, and I had been in the middle hospital working for only six months at the time. I tried to control myself, but I couldn't. It was terrible. And I never forget. I'm like, I need to know. I have to mail this. And I email my professor, and he's like, Angela, if I don't get the notebook, honey, you're not graduating. I'm like, oh, f this. I am graduating. So I stayed up for three nights straight and just redid everything and made up a notebook and got in, because I'm like, I'm moving home. I don't like it here. And so I did graduate. But let me tell you what I did. I went to Walmart, and I bought 50 floppy disks, and they were all color coded, and then they were all labeled, and I had everything backed up, and then jump drives came out, and then time capsules came out, and then hard drives came out, and then dropbox in the cloud and Google drops. So all these things in tech, I was the first on board, the first girl, and not only because of that. Things come in threes bad things in ways bad things, as I put in air quotes, my car got broken into, like, three weeks later at the place I was working in broad daylight. My planner was stolen. Now, that planner, not only am I at the time very type A, more OCD, I'm not really Type A, but I didn't know that until I was, like, 30, and that's what made me much more happy. Anyway, so my car is broken into. My planner was stolen. It was a planner my parents had gotten me with my little monogram I'm from the south. And I didn't know if I was coming or going, because my to do list was in this paper written planner that I got so much gratification from crossing up every day but not rewriting the things the next day. So, again, everything I do now and teach time blocking comes from these painful things. I learned what an online calendar was, so I was the first to do any of that stuff. But when I started my first business, a legit business, like, with taxes and employees, I'm like, we are going to be paperless. We're going to use this thing called Dropbox and Google Drive. And this is why we're going to use it in my accountant and business manager. When I finally hired someone, they're like, what is this? Like, you don't use paper at all? And I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like, with EMR electronic medical records. Because again, I was in healthcare for a little bit. I helped thousands of doctors get all their paper charts over to electronic charts. And this is when the government was like, we're not paying your healthcare bill. We're not going to pay you for your services if you don't get the things in this cloud thing. I saw the power of how a nurse can hit one button and it goes to the pharmacy. And then the people are like, where's my script? And they're like, I'm getting older. I'm just forgetting. And they're like, no, Mr. Jones, you just need to go. You don't need any paper. So I helped them through all that only because of one thing. I'm actually going to show you of this, this little psychology tool that I used in healthcare, which helped me really break through to some of our patients. I mean, come on, I was 20, but would you talk to a 20 year old? But again, I learned so much so all from that pain. People are like, oh my God. You're kind of like crazy about technology and all these new things, but all that comes from pain. And so, yes, I am the girl who would rather have apps and all the new things in tech than have clothes or shoes or a purse or anything. Give me that in my hip hop music and I'm good. I just need my Apple stuff and I'm good. And again, that's a whole other story why I moved to Apple products from PC products because I kept getting viruses. And so finally it was so hard. I mean, it was so hard. But my friends, some of my friends were like, you have to do this, angel. I promise it's going to change your life. It changed my life so much that fast forward a few years. We did a joint venture through the Entrepreneur Center with the local business, the local Apple stores. There's only two in Nashville, and we have a great relationship with them. And I go into their stores, and this is all proud of COVID I used to teach free classes for entrepreneurs. I mean, I had a beautiful relationship with them, but when they see me walk into the store, they know something's really wrong. I can figure it out. I'm the girl that goes and makes tick. I used to make a ton of tiktoks here in COVID on how to better use your iPhone. There is so much unlocked potential just from a productivity standpoint in the iPhone. If people will just take the time to do one thing, two things, watch the keynote every year. If you have an iPhone, if you have an Apple Watch, this last one, in the beginning, they open up with the new Watch, and they open up with all these real everyday people who the Apple Watch saved their life. And I'm like, I wonder how much their sales went up. I mean, my mom already has one, but I'm like, I think I need to get my mom the souped up one too. But it's like, those stories, it just matters. And so that's why, again, when I'm like, oh, you don't have an iPhone. I can't airdrop things. I'm not looking at people different at all. I'm just like, you can't get that kind of a connection if you're not part of that brand. You just can't. It is what it is. And I still have friends. I mean, my own sister has a Droid. But if you would ask me now, who am I today and what am I doing? All the things that I look back and like, the companies and the brands and the weddings and the events and the conferences and the people. It's about the people. That's the most important thing. It's not like, yes, I've been in great situations, been in not so great situations, but you learn how to better react when you realize, oh, this situation really isn't that bad. Because five years ago, when our whole town flooded and we had eight displaced weddings, COVID pandemic, yeah, we got this. But then my girls in their 20s are like, what are we going to do? What about revenue? And I'm like, do you even know what revenue means? Like, gross and net revenue? Because I didn't even know what that meant until I was in my thirty s and I was flying blind in a business for ten years. I really was. And that's when I got a mentor through EO. He was like, what are you doing? You have a pet product company, you've got a wedding business. We have to get our arms around our time. And so, again, all of the things that I teach now about my whole brand is like, be present is because I've lost people that I love. It sucks, and it takes a very painful thing. The reason I lost £100 recently, let me be clear, I was a gymnast, so my weight fluctuates, let me say that. But COVID was the worst. And so the people who came into our community online before, they're like, oh my God, did you have surgery? Like, no, there's no magic pill. There's no surgery, there's no nothing. You have to do what science says if you want your body to be healthy. And movement is the foundation of everything. I never planned on doing anything with TikTok. It was a joke to get my nieces to shut up so I could do Zoom meetings during COVID when I was helping home school them. I'm serious. And so I'm just like, you're going to dance with us? I'm like, of course. And now they'll say this to me, but they're like, how can you? I mean, you're really fat. Like, you can't dance. I grew up a cheerleader. I grew up dancing. That is what brings me joy. And you know why? Because it brings other people joy. But I stripped myself from all that joy, from working so much and then allowing everything to just take over. When you're your worst enemy, it's like, no one's putting all this pressure on yourself, but because when you're an overachiever and you want to do all these things, but when you take a step back and then people start dying around you, it's like, well, where do I really want to spend my time? Because now they're gone and we're not going to get that back. So that's why I'm all about time blocking and being more like work life balance. If you had said that even before, COVID I would just be like, oh, F, that, whatever. But I'm a completely different person. Like, my whole team, they've been there for a long time and I didn't really have any empathy before, like, just a hard ass. And I still kind of am, but I want to have fun with it because I want people to feel good when they're around us, when they're working with us. We all have stressful things, but you never know what's going on with somebody on the other side of the table.

So true. And you lost one of your clients recently, and I know that's still very fresh for you, so this definitely speaks into that. How are you doing? How are you feeling? And sucks. Yeah.

Tough.

Yeah. Actually, yesterday, my best friend, Marco Polo and me, and she's the one that taught me about Marco Polo. It's so funny. I'm really good friends with the right hand part, like, the owners, and Marco Polo, which is one of my very favorite apps. And we've been on them about getting, like, an affiliate link, and my team is great. They're like, we're not going to talk about this too much unless we have an affiliate link. I'm like, no, it changes lives. It's how I communicate with people all over the world. Actually, the only way I communicate is Marco Polo. But she marco pulled me last night. I've had all my notifications turned off since the night that happened because I'm so close to them and I'm shocked. I'm shocked because I'm like, how am I a psychologist? I worked in a mental hospital. We've worked with them for 13 years. And I've gone on the road with them, I've traveled with them. Their wedding was the very first wedding I did on a private island. And then we're, like, flying in on this little plane and they're like, oh, my God, let's get married in the middle of the ocean. And I'm like, you guys are crazy. But we did there was a big sandbar. And I mean, it was the most beautiful, spiritual thing I've ever been a part of. And so I have my theory of what I think happened because it's just so out of character. But nothing has been released. I don't normally if people go on my Instagram and TikTok like, yo, I'm not a crier. But especially, it's just so sad because my mother's like, why didn't he ask for help? Why didn't he wrote I'm like, mom, no, because my mother is the one who called and told me I don't watch the news. In fact, I was like, taking an hour break because I've been working so much that Friday night ago. And I come upstairs and I was like, I'm going to hang on my pictures up on my wall. They've been laying up here for, like, years. I'm not even kidding. I just wanted to get them up. And one of the pictures hanging on my wall now is them. And my mom called, and she's like, are you home? My mom always asked me that because I travel so much. And so when I'm at home, she's like, are you home? I'm like, yeah. And then she's like, what are you doing? Which is all normal. I'm like, well, I'm actually taking an hour break because I'm getting dinner and I'm going to hang some pictures. She's like, hang some pictures? I'm like, yeah, I need to do something where my brain doesn't need me to think. I just want to use a hammer. I mean, I was being funny. She's like, Honey, Kyle took his life. I'm like what? Like Kyle Jacobs? She's like, yeah. I'm like, no, mom, you have the wrong Kyle. And she's like, it just came across the news. And right when she said that, it's just like my phone went off. You know, people texting and Markle Pauline and, you know, I just sat down on my treadmill underneath my desk and my treadmill desk, and I'm like, how? I don't you know, and so that, you know, you just can't function for a little bit. And so I did no work, and my best friend, she's like, you have to get out of bed. And she's like, let's do a TikTok tequila. I'm really not in the mood. I have so much work to do. But that's what best friends are for, right? I'm so glad to move back to Nashville, even though I'm not even here a lot, actually. They she lived in La. For 20 years. And so anyway, it's just so I actually went over there and spent the night with her and, you know, slept in my clothes as if we were in college or something. But it's just things affect you differently. And so I wanted to make a video. I actually made a few videos about Kyle that I sent Kelly, and I posted one of them. And of course, the media picks things up, so last night, I turn my notifications back on because I just needed a week of just prayer and faith by myself without media, and then all the notifications start coming back in last night, and I think that he's such an amazing person. He is. And he is the rock for everybody. I am the rock for a lot of people, and I know how heavy that can feel if you let it get there. That's what family therapy is for. And I love family therapy, and I would recommend it to everybody. And I would probably be dead or in jail for strangling my nieces if I didn't know how to handle some of these things. That not only is just death hard, unexpected death is even harder. And then something that could have been prevented, perhaps, is the hardest. They say it's hard being overweight. Well, it's hard being fit. You have to take the time. It's hard having allergies well, it's hard eating the right food so you figure out what is causing all of these rashes and pain. There are so many layers to things. But what I don't want people to do is judge because you don't know. Again, online, it's like the people that don't know the people, they were as real as real kids, let me tell you. They had their show on CMT, which I've never watched, by the way. I don't even have TV, much less cable, but I've never seen it. I just know them just like we're talking right now. And so it's heartbreaking and heart wrenching. And the thing with me is when I don't understand something and if I think I could have helped prevent something, I'll take it personal, and I don't know. So I was going back through my last text with him the other day, and we were texting back in May. We usually text around, like, their birthday and their anniversary because it's on New Year's Eve, it's not hard to really forget. And he's like, We've got to get back together for dinner, and I want to meet the guy you're dating. It's like we were both traveling, we're all busy, and we never took the time to do it, and it just sucks. But thank you for asking. Again, the best thing, you never want a negative viral TikTok or reel, right? And not that I want a viral reel of me crying, but it's real life and it's a problem and people need to talk about it. And that's, again, why I'm such an open book when it comes to just like, life is hard, but it can be so much more happy if you learn what your priorities are and you learn how to time block and segment all of your activities. 80% of the time, it's an 80 20 thing, but that's how I do operate and keep happy and positive and doing the things I love and carving out the time. If you say yes to something. Make sure you're present. And again, I've been saying this ever since my dad died, and we kind of shifted my brand from being paperless in technology. Someone died, I get a little bit more empathetic. Right. So these things, alma's, out of COVID my primary care doctor is like, you're overweight. You know how to get back in shape. I don't know what the hell you're doing with yourself, but how can you be productive and motivate any of your team to be productive when you are a mess personally, with your health? I'm friends with these people. They genuinely care about me, which I appreciate. It's the mentors and the consultants and my EO forum family and my travel family. It's the people all along the way that make the difference and make it worth. Keep going.

Yeah. I feel that from you in person and even on this interview, you care for people. And I love that part of your story. I think it is making a difference. I think you are making a difference by working on yourself and also helping others have tools and productivity, helping weddings, all the things that you've done, using psychology and understanding that. So you showed a little book earlier, and I remember you talking about this on the bus at that event after podcast was The Two Colors. Yeah. You want to give us a little snippet of Two Colors and why that's so important to you?

Yeah. That's so helpful. Thank you for explaining all that and taking the time to do it. Obviously, it helps you understand people. You're bringing all of your knowledge throughout your life into your work, and so that's very helpful. I'm sure there's some entrepreneurs listening that we're going to want to reach out to you for or follow you or learn more about it. So thanks for your time today.

I really appreciate it.

And we will link all your stuff in the show notes. Where's the main place you want people to go to to find you?

Yeah, just Angelaprophet.com. And it's two FS as in fun and two TS as in time. And I just want to thank you for all that you're doing, too, because when I met you and I went and I was like, not that I go stalk everybody, but I'm like, okay, usually I'll walk away with, like, five people that I just really connect with. And you came up and talked to me after. I think I was talking about affiliate marketing there and then we were talking to the bar and then we were on the bus and here we are. So it's amazing. You've got to come and be on my podcast and share more about your story and what you're doing, because it's incredible with what you're doing, too.

Thank you. I really appreciate that, Angela. And we will send people your way in the show notes, everybody. Reach out to her and follow her and learn from her. She's got a wealth of knowledge and wisdom through many years of experience as an entrepreneur. So glad to have you on the show today, Angela. Take care.

Bye.

I just really appreciate how vulnerable Angela was about her recent loss. I feel like sometimes in some cultures we have a really hard time with grief and expressing that. And I read an article this week in The Atlantic where a man was talking about losing his teenagers and people just didn't know what to say. And they would say things like, there's just no words. And I feel like we may feel that we don't know what to say, but it's just so important to listen and sit with people in their grief. Shortly after I did this interview, I lost my dog, our precious family dog, Coco, that we brought from Singapore, a rescue dog to live with us here. And she's been with us for most of my younger twins lives. We have three teenagers now that are youngest two here in high school now. They don't really remember much of life before her. She's been a part of our family for a decade and we think was around 16 when she passed away. But we, shortly after the interview with Angela, had to say goodbye very suddenly and it was just extremely hard. And death is difficult. It's grief is hard of all kinds, whether it's a pet, a close friend, a family member, and there's levels of intensity and each of those that are more intense than the other is grief of losing a place that you love and having to move across the world and say hard goodbyes. There's just a lot of grief that we want to sit and hold space for here. And I'm so glad Angela just was vulnerable about that because I think that it's one of the ways that she can, as a business leader, show her human side. And clearly she loves people. Her understanding of psychology from her undergrad is very helpful as a business person, as an entrepreneur, as somebody who invests in other entrepreneurs, sits on boards and goes around the world consulting people, even in the hospitality industry and the wedding industry. And she's a beautiful soul and a lot of layers to her that are just very deep. And I really appreciate it, getting to know her. She's smart, she's business savvy and she's good relationally with people. And I am not a tik tok person, but between her and my teenage daughter, I felt like I should sort of give it a try, even though I still sometimes hate it. But going to her session at Podfest was very insightful and we kind of had some just super silly times on the bus waiting for people after an event to get on the bus. Anyway, Angela just brings a lot of happiness around her and just her big smile and all that is just really contagious. So glad that she could be on the show today. Glad that if you hadn't known about her, that you could be introduced to her. And if you're an entrepreneur just starting out or needing some help, definitely follow her stuff and check her out on her EGSD website. We'll link all that in the show notes. And if you're experiencing grief of any kind right now, please reach out to us in our patreon community. We're going to be going a little deeper with her on our exclusive episode there and we'll have some conversation around that a little bit. But I know this is a season of lunt for many of you that are experiencing just we had Ash Wednesday recently. I myself went to a local Anglican congregation on Ash Wednesday and got the ashes put on my head and I had no idea then a few days later, we would be experiencing a little bit of that in our own family. That from dust you came and dust you shall return. I'm very contemplative about all of it lately and I loved Angela's message that we don't know how much time we have with people. So hug people that are near you that you love. If you're not a hugger, if that's not your culture, shake a hand or do a salam, whatever, besito on the cheek, whatever your culture is, just show people in your life that you love, that you care about, that you love them. You just don't know how much time we have. I'd love to hear about any great things you're celebrating in terms of life and love and relationships, but also we're here to hold space for the hard stuff, too, and to sit with you in that pain. So reach out to us on our Facebook group or especially in our patreon community, which is where we go a little bit deeper. You are absolutely welcome there. We'd love to have you. It's only $5 a month and it's a special place, so please jump in and let us know how things are going regardless and all our socials, reach out to me on Twitter if that's a place that you brave to go these days. Anyway, have a wonderful week, everyone. Next week we have a special guest coming on, my friend Angela McKinney. Tim will be talking about her recent visit to the Supreme Court for the Era, where she presented a statement on behalf of Justice Revival, the board that I sit on with her that she leads as executive director and she'll be. Here to talk a little bit about that on International Women's Day. So that's going to be exciting. I myself will be out of the country starting this week and we'll be there all next week in Abu Dhabi with my friend Shana Mazur who got Forbes 30 under 30 this year and was invited to go to an International Women's Day conference, as I mentioned. And she invited me to go. So I'm very excited to get to be with these international women leaders from around the world. So if you follow me on socials, I'll definitely be posting pictures of deserts and camels and fun gala events, probably. And just it's going to be a great time with seminars of learning about different ways women are leading around the world and all the experiences of being a woman and celebrating that. So anyway, lots to talk about next week and tune in for Alison Mckenney Tim. You will not want to miss Fat. Take care, everyone. Bye.