Master Your Bliss Life

Narrator: 

You’re listening to Master Your Bliss Life. Join Kiera Masters and Lia Bliss as they dive into the magical, mysterious, and mundane elements of life, helping you to master your purpose and find your bliss.

Lia:

Story time. Excellent. Story time. Excellent. K, so Kiera was just, we were reminiscing about…

Kiera:

Reminiscing.

Lia:

Reminiscing. We were just, every once in a while we get on these little tracks where… cuz we met through your ex boyfriend.

Kiera:

Mm hmm.

Lia:

And then, through that you ended up getting me a job at this bar that we worked at.

Kiera:

Mm hmm.

Lia:

And I remember, cuz you were friends with the general manager at the time.

Kiera:

Yep.

Lia:

And I wa… so many things. Just start at the beginning. So I walk in…

Kiera:

You’re coming in for an interview.

Lia:

For an interview. I walk in, I sit down at the bar, I’m talking to one of the patrons. Basically, that was the interview. They just wanted to see if I could like, bartend.

Kiera:

Bar… yeah. Socialize, yeah.

Lia:

Bar talk? With these old men. And I just realized as I was filling out this application. Matt walks over, the GM, and he was like, I swear he was drunk. He probably wasn’t. He was just very happy.

Kiera:

It’s just Matt’s personality.

Lia:

He just has a drug personality.

Kiera:

Yeah.

Lia:

And I, he was like, Who are you? And I’m like, I’m Kiera’s friend, I’m here for this job. And he was like, What’s your name? And I said, Lia Bliss. And he was like, Yes it is. You got the job. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. And it was sensational.

Kiera:

Yes.

Lia:

This was a bar where all the old men would come in, and they were the flirtiest. It was like a shitty dive bar, there was like go-go dancers. It was just like, not… it was not a high-class establishment, right?

Kiera:

It was not… It tis not.

Lia:

It tis not. We were…

Kiera:

It was at it’s prime, though, when we were there.

Lia:

I – mmm – a – mmm… It wasn’t high class.

Kiera:

Not high class, but it was at it’s prime busy-ness wise.

Lia:

But it was at it’s best… yes. It was, peak popularity when we worked there.

Kiera:

Yes.

Lia:

It was the peak popularity, and now, they do not…

Kiera:

Now we go in there and we’re like…

Lia:

They do not move traffic into that bar like we used to. But that’s fine. That’s perfectly acceptable. I think the other bartenders like, when Nadia and Alex worked there, like they also, they were, they had a large social media presence. And it was a good time to be had by all.

Kiera:

Yeah.

Lia:

But, I remember, so, ok so then my first day. And the outfits… it was basically like fishnets, booty shorts, and a sports bra.

Kiera:

Yep.

Lia:

Thereabouts. Like, any combination of those things.

Kiera:

All black.

Lia:

All black. Like, you could be as sexy as you wanted. Obviously, you show a little titty and people gonna tip better.

Kiera:

Tip better.

Lia:

But, it was just kind of like, you kinda do what you want. So I walk in for my first shift. I’m in my little booty shorts, and they were like, Ok you need to go fill out all of your employee information with the manager on duty. I walk to the back room, I walk in, the GM’s brother is the day manager. He still is. Unbeknownst to me, it’s also Kiera’s boyfriend. At the time. Had set me up with this guy a year previous. So I had gone out with him, and then pretty much ghosted him.

Kiera:

I would have known, and could have given her a heads up.

Lia:

A heads up? No heads up.

Kiera:

But I had no idea.

Lia:

I walk in in my little tiny outfit, and I’m like, Oh hey Brian. And he’s like, Oh hey Lia. Like, and we both just, there wasn’t even the exchange of like, we’re not talking about this right? We’re not talking about this. No. It was as if…

Kiera:

It had never happened.

Lia:

It had never happened. I’m just like, Uhhhh.

Kiera:

And she comes walking out and she’s like, What the fuck?

Lia:

What? WHAT? It was… fun for me. That’s for sure. Fun. Fun is the word we are going to use. I was FINE: Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional.

Kiera:

Yes.

Lia:

So that was good. And then, I remember, cuz it was the first time that I had really ever done a job that was commission-based? Tips-based. Like I hadn’t really been a waitress anytime before that.

Kiera:

Yeah.

Lia:

And, honestly it was my first bartending job. Did I fudge that on the resume? Absolutely, I did. But, I remember my first, cuz they have you like basically cocktail waitress. So you’re like running from table to table taking orders and then delivering them. And, um, I remember I shadowed one girl for two days, and then I had my first day. Granted, I was working at a job that was literally killing me. My soul. My will to live.

Kiera:

That’s why I was like, Come work over here.

Lia:

And I was making pennies. They didn’t pay for shit. And so I remember it was like my third shift at the bar, and I, and something clicked inside me that it was like, Your effort equals your results. In a very, very literal sense. And I remember counting my $200 in tips, which today I’m like, I make $200 bucks an hour. That’s nothin’.

Kiera:

That’s nothin’.

Lia:

But then…

Kiera:

But then. Yeah.

Lia:

It’s like, I worked one shift and made $200? I cried. My life changed forever. And we all start somewhere. And I was in my twenties, I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything. And I was like, This is going to be the difference. And then Kiera and I just completely owned that space.

Kiera:

We ran it.

Lia:

We did a lunch special where it was like a deal for steak and beer or whatever. Beer and steak special for lunch on Fridays. And it was the most coveted of all shifts. At the time. Granted this is now since past. But at the time it was so coveted because I mean not only were you taking drink orders, but you’re taking food orders. And it was rapidfire, and these guys would come in groups of like six.

Kiera:

Ten.

Lia:

Yeah. And you’re hustling. Six, ten, whatever. You’re hustling, you’re running. And it’s like any combination of people. Like, construction workers walking over from the site next door, to business professionals that were doing like a team lunch, all sorts of things. And you had to be on it. And we would walk out of there five, six, eight hundred dollars in four hours.

Kiera:

Yep. It was a four hour shift.

Lia:

Four hour shift.

Kiera:

We killed it.

Lia:

It was so fun. It was so worth it. But we were talking, we were on a team call yesterday for the company we work for. And the boss, the president, my father, was telling us about how his administrative assistant, his executive liaison… he met her at a bar. And she was his bartender at his regular place for a long time. And he said, I think that you would do a really good job at this position. I want to hire you as my EA – executive assistant. She had no experience, she had no idea what that meant, she had no idea what to expect. She went in for the interview. He was the VP of Marketing. Another one of the VPs was in the room during the interview. She walked out and they said, Frankly I think she’s overqualified. I don’t know if we’re going to have enough things for her to do. Because having experience as a bartender, specifically bar service. Now restaurants, I’m going to argue that they’re a little different.

Kiera:

Yeah, I would think so. I’ve done both.

Lia:

And I think bar bartending, and not necessarily at like a club club, but at an establishment.

Kiera:

At a bar. Yeah.

Lia:

At a bar. The skills that you get… and I mean she turned her entire career into being an executive assistant. She makes a ton of money. She spends half the year in Cabo, half the year in Tampa. She’s living her best best life.

Kiera:

Best life.

Lia:

And she has been Richard’s executive assistant for twenty years. And it all comes down to that same moment when you realize your effort is directly related to your outcome.

Kiera:
Yep.

Lia:

Right? We don’t measure success in results. We measure success in effort.

Kiera:

Yep.

Lia:

And that was it. That was all the difference. And so when we were looking for someone to hire at this company now, Kiera was the obvious first choice because of those same base skill sets.

Kiera:

Skills. And kind of an example, we were on a call earlier today and it’s like, nobody really knows what I do throughout my day. Like, we work remotely. Like, I could just be sitting on my butt not doing anything. But we were on this call with this potential client, this prospect of mine, and one of the first things out of his mouth, he says, I wasn’t sure if I should get a restraining order against her or not.

Lia:

Yes.

Kiera:

And I laughed, but I was like, That shows my effort.

Lia:

Yes.

Kiera:
That right there is something that shows you and our boss, Richard, the effort that I do put into it because I was literally on this guy like…

Lia:

On his ass. And that’s the skill. It’s not about, because at the bar it was basically, we could understand it very simply. We were guaranteed to make at least one dollar tip per drink. And so all you have to do is serve more drinks.

Kiera:

Yep.

Lia:

You just have to do more. And a lot of the girls that, cuz we ended up doing a lot of the training for the new girls that would get hired on, and the thing I would tell them is, You can’t ask too much. And that’s where the famous Tim, Tim the Bar Man. He would come in all the time. He would bring buckets of money, literally.

Kiera:

Oh yeah.

Lia:
And I would come over and be like, Do you want another drink? Or I would phrase it as, Hey, are we almost done? Do you want me to bring another one? He’d be like, No. And I’d walk away and he yells, Hey, get back over here. Everyone called me Bliss at the bar. Hey Bliss, get over here. Like, What Tim? And he’s like, What does NO mean? I’m like, No means no. I’m a woman, duh. Don’t ask me that question.

Kiera:

Yeah. Yeah.

Lia:

And he said, Ok, but in business, what does no mean? I’m like, I don’t know. No means ask a different way. No means ask a different way. And the tenacity that Kiera shows when it comes to prospecting and chasing down potential customers to get meetings to book more trainings to get more money, it’s just a few steps greater. Do you want another drink yes or no? No? Ok, do you want me to wait and come back when you’re done? No. Ok, do you… you know, can I get you a water? No. You just ask a different way. You just keep asking. And the girls that were successful were the ones that weren’t afraid to ask.

Kiera:
Yep.

Lia:

And the girls that were afraid… I remember being like, I don’t want to approach a customer and bother them. Bitch, you are standing between them and their alcohol. You are not in their way. You are the delivery.

Kiera:

You are helping them.

Lia:

You are the delivery method for the thing that they want.

Kiera:

It’s what they’re here for.

Lia:

Just go ask. Just go ask. Hi, can I get you another? No. Ok. What, did that hurt you?

Kiera:

Nope.

Lia:

No. No. And so I remember there would be nights where I would walk out with three or four hundred dollars and kind of all the waitresses and all the bartenders would kind of gather around and kind of talk about, Oh how did you do? How was your night? How did it work out for you? And I would be four hundred deep, easy. And there were girls who were like, Oh my gosh I did so good I made $70. I’m like, You’ve been here for eight hours! That’s like $10 an hour.

Kiera:

I’ve been here for four.

Lia:

Yeah, or it’s like we’ve been here for a shift…

Kiera:

I’ve been here half the amount of time you’ve been here and I’ve like quadrupled, more than quadrupled what you just made.

Lia:

Yeah. Right. And it would just come down to, can you ask? Can you ask, can you be tenacious? Tenacity-ful? Tenacious, that’s the word.

Kiera:

Tenacity-ful.

Lia:

Full of tenacity. Tenacious. Tenacious. And I watched this TED Talk where she talks about…

Kiera:

And persistent.

Lia:

Yeah, the most successful skill, or the most successful trait that you can have is grit. Can you get knocked down, can you be rejected, and then come back and keep asking? No. No.

Kiera:
A lot of us can’t.

Lia:

No. No. No. No. All you have to do is run… run to the next. I just made a post on LinkedIn about chaneling your inner Ariana Grande. Thank you, next. Thank you, next. Just keep chasing down opportunities. We use this when it comes to dating. Oh man, do I ever use this when it comes to dating. The first date is just, I mean it’s not really so much that I’m like, Do they like me? Yes or no? It’s more like, Do I like them? And if it’s yes, then we move forward. But if it’s no, Thank you, next.

Kiera:

Yep.

Lia:

Twenty minute first date. You don’t need more time than that.

Kiera:

Nope.

Lia:

To tell if you want to keep hanging out.

Kiera:
Ask questions.

Lia:

You don’t even have to ask. You can just tell. You can just tell. It’s the vibe. It’s the vibe check.

Kiera:

Yep.

Lia:

But when it comes to the career that you want to go after, when it comes to the money that you want to go after, when it comes to anything you want to go after, tenacity and grit. And don’t be afraid of the NO. Just chase it down. No? Ok next. No? Thank you, next. No? Thank you, next. No? Thank you, next. Yes. Yeahhhh.

Kiera:

Because you’re going to get it.

Lia:

You’re going to get a yes.

Kiera:

Eventually you’ll get it.

Lia:

There was one guy, and love him to pieces a hundred thousand times. But he was like, five foot tall. He was like five feet tall. He and his buddy would come in and they would drink way too much. I mean, but I’m not their mom. I don’t care. And one day he brought in his cousin. And his cousin was very handsome. By contrast. But these guys had been coming in every single week. They like knew the shift I was working. They were there for me. They wanted to see me. And at one point I had to yell at Terry, the bar bouncer, I was like, Help! Because one of them had his arms… he was sitting and I was standing and he had his arm wrapped around my leg. And the other one had ahold of my arm. And it was joking but they were fighting over me. But then I was like, Please let go of me.

Kiera:

But they weren’t letting go. They were like, yeah.

Lia:

I’m like, Can I get a bouncer? Hello? Let go. And so, what do you do? What do you do? What do you do? I know there was one time this guy wasn’t tipping his waitresses. And so one of the waitresses was like, Watch this. She walked over and accidentally on purpose knocked over his beer. Right in front of him. He was like on his phone. Knocked over his beer. It didn’t fall on him, but almost. He stood up and was like, Oh my God I’m so sorry. And handed her a twenty. And I’m just like, God damn you’re a genius. And it was just, I mean, we have so many stories of the silly things that would happen. We would have these big parties. And there would be parties of like, um, I don’t want to say sex parties because they weren’t exactly sex parties.

Kiera:

No.

Lia:

But they were definitely groups of people that were all looking to meet some new people.

Kiera:

Yeah. Yes.

Lia:

And, and the outfits and the… there would be times that we’d have like a big photo booth and a camera crew set up. And it was a blast. Man. And everyone’s gorgeous, and everyone’s walking around in their cute little outfits and… it was a time. I remember one time, because you can’t help, like you meet people at work, right? You can’t help but date people that like…

Kiera:
Yes.

Lia:

I remember one time, because I, just like now, I was running my five boyfriend, right? My basketball team. I had my list.

Kiera:
Roster. Her roster.

Lia:

My roster. At one point the entire roster was in the bar at the same time. Two of them worked there.

Kiera:

How do you manage this?

Lia:
How do you manage this? Two of them were employees. That was a terrible decision. Do not date people you work with. Take it from me. Do not date someone that you work with. 

Kiera:

That’s a good one.

Lia:

And my other team guys, they just happened to come in. And luckily, the way you manage it, is like, Hey, I have to flirt with everybody so that no one thinks they’re getting special treatment. And then I would just say that to everybody.

Kiera:

Uh huh.

Lia:

So then I would go flirt over here, and then go flirt over here, and then, Ah let me get this for you ha ha ha ha. And they all thought that they were the secret special one. But the secret was that they were all the secret special ones. So that was a good time.

Kiera:

That was.

Lia:

It was a high and a low simultaneously for me. That was fun. Kiera, what, you didn’t work as much as I do by the end.

Kiera:

No. I kind of whittled down to just one day a week.

Lia:

Yeah. But what was your crowning moment?

Kiera:

My crowning moment?

Lia:

We just had, every day was so fun.

Kiera:

It was fun. Everything was fun. I mean, there was…

Lia:

You’re constantly being validated.

Kiera:

Yeah. There were a few times where, well quite a few times actually where someone would come in… I love when people became your regulars.

Lia:

Yeah.

Kiera:

You know, when they would come in they’d be like, I don’t want anybody else but Kiera to serve me.

Lia:

Yes.

Kiera:

It was incredible. There was a few times where, multiple times, countless times, where you know, it would be like a sixty, seventy dollar check and I got like a hundred or two hundred dollar tip on it.

Lia:

Yes.

Kiera:

Those were the days.

Lia:

Those were the days.

Kiera:

That’s why, honestly, I was able to just whittle it down to one day a week because I was making enough money … I was making as much as a lot of people made in a two week pay period, in a week.

Lia:

Yeah.

Kiera:

In a night. And like…

Lia:

In one day.

Kiera:

In one afternoon four hour shift. It was fantastic.

Lia:

Granted, I mean, I would get 10,000 steps in 30 minutes. Cuz we were…

Kiera:

Oh yeah, I was way more active.

Lia:

Yeah, I was in my 

Kiera:

Feet away, way more than I am now sitting here at my desk.

Lia:

Yes. And I was lifting, and people would always be like, Dat ass tho. And my go to would always be like, This is built on french fries and lonely nights. And it was so funny. But yeah.

Kiera:

I think I got a lot of good, strong friendships out of the people that became my regulars though, too. I mean, there was a couple that came in, um, loved them to death. I still talk to them all the time. They’re very successful business owners and they would come in and they became my regulars. They didn’t want to see anybody else. And they’ve been a pretty impactful part of my life. And so that was incredible meeting them and bonding with them. And I think I met some pretty incredible people there.

Lia:

And that’s the power of networking. You can’t do it alone. No one can do it alone. And there’s no limit to the places that you can find people. Little secret hidden gem of people.

Kiera:
Yes, but I think my favorite, I mean I loved Fridays, when I worked Fridays on the special day, right? But when the times that I was working on like the weekends, I just didn’t like being out that late. I did not like that.

Lia:

Yeah.

Kiera:

But when I was working a weekend night, like a Saturday night… cuz Friday days it was just me and you.

Lia:

Yeah. Just the two of us.

Kiera:

It was the two of us and sometimes my sister.

Lia:

But we ran it.

Kiera:

We ran it.

Lia:

Obviously we have a good, like trust, respect.

Kiera:

We work well together, you know? But like the weekend nights, you know sometimes you worked some weekend nights together. And it was awesome coming in because the weekend nights there are way more servers there than were needed, to be honest. But it was great to see, like you and I would just run circles around the other girls. I mean I loved that.

Lia:

We were also a little bit older.

Kiera:

Huh?

Lia:

We were also a little bit older.

Kiera:

We were older, yeah. But I loved that. I loved, that was the one thing I loved working about a weekend night is seeing how incredible we were.

Lia:

The impact.

Kiera:

The impact that we had. And just running circles around these people and you and I were sitting back like, Well, no wonder you only made $70.

Lia:

Yeah. And really, for our egos it was fantastic. But also it’s this idea that like, success…

Kiera:

It really taught me hard work.

Lia:

Yeah. And success begets success. It’s hard to start from a place of nothing and then be motivated. But once you get that first win, your ability to keep the momentum going. And those nights where we, I mean, we could literally see right before our eyes our momentum taking us further than other people. And while it’s not necessarily as cut throat as maybe all that, it was for the most part a pretty cooperative work environment. But I’m not, if you’re going to drop the ball, I will pick it up. And I will take that money. And so…

Kiera:

It tis mine.

Lia:

It tis mine. And so it goes back to that like, grit, tenacity, and a willingness to work hard. See your success, keep it rolling off of the success.

Kiera:

Yes.

Lia:

Because, every single time you win gives you another reason to keep winning.

Kiera:

Yep.

Lia:

And so, I mean, we relate a lot of our bar experience to our work experience. Where it’s like…

Kiera:

Well, yeah, to where we are now.

Lia:

Chase down your leads, but also, if you are feeling like you’re not getting anywhere in life, that things aren’t working out for you. If you’re having a $70 night, you can look around and find a reason to be successful. Because you have proof that you have already been successful in the past.

Kiera:

Yep.

Lia:

There is proof. You have been more successful than you maybe are right now. And maybe you aren’t as…

Kiera:
Just look back and see what you were doing differently. Pull out those pieces. And then implement them again and see how you’ve changed.

Lia:

Yeah. Absolutely. Well, those are our bar stories. Take them for what they’re worth. Ok, enjoy your hot girl walk. If it’s cold where you are, maybe walk inside.

Kiera:

Yes.

Lia:

Love you long time and we’ll see you real soon.

Kiera:

Goodbye.

Narrator: 

You have been listening to Master Your Bliss Life. Make sure to check out the show notes for any relevant links and follow Kiera and Lia on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Narrator: