May 26, 2025 • 29 mins
Helping Ordinary Women Build Extraordinary Businesses, Brands, and Lives They Love While Unpacking Their Inner SHEEO with Episodes Enriching Your Mindset, Wealth, and Faith Factor
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Rachel Medina is an Entrepreneur, TEDx Speaker, Christianpreneur, Mommypreneur and an ordinary woman who ditched the C-suite for the SHE-suite by tapping into the new and exciting laptop lifestyle in the SHEconemy, and who built multiple businesses from home, after divorce, as a single mother over 40!
The Rachel Unpacked Podcast is here to help you avoid common mistakes by learning the lessons she learned along the way! Whether you're a corporate baddie wanting to ditch the grind or a single momma ready to learn a new money making skillset from home, the Rachel Unpacked podcast is for you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to another episode of the Rachel Unpacked podcast.
I am your host Rachel Medina andin every episode we talk about
mindset, wealth building and faith for every girlie who is
looking to change and level up her.
Life if. You want to follow me on social
media, you can do so at Rachel Medina 101 or visit my website
rachelmedina.com. But if?
(00:20):
You are ready. To build a business in a life
that you love, head on over to our new She eox.com site again
she EO dot com where you are going to find a tribe of like
minded business building, dream aspiring girlies just like you.
Connecting, learning and growingtogether and a new CEO X
(00:41):
Partnership program means we attract the talented,
experienced and successful womenwho are ready to.
Teach you how they did it. So that you can succeed too.
Let's go. Are you letting negative people
ruin your life, and your business for that matter?
Buckle up, buttercup, because ifyou're the negative person,
you're about to hurt your own feelings by listening to this
(01:02):
episode. But if you tend to be a fairly
optimistic positive person, the negative characters in your
life, the bad actors, they are going to be revealed to you here
very, very quickly in this episode.
But it is an absolute game changer because of the power of
the negativity, like the influence it really has and
beyond the things you can't evensee or really measure until now
(01:25):
is going to blow your mind and really inspire you to recognize
that you need to leave environments where there's
negative people and also to remove the negative people from
your environment. And that includes your business
and that includes your home. That includes your circles,
social circles, friend groups, you name it.
This is the episode that's goingto be the eye opener.
(01:48):
OK, So listen, negative people, they can ruin your life.
They can ruin your business likeI just talked about.
They can ruin your financial potential.
And I am going to be quoting a bunch of studies because I'm so
fascinated. I'm telling you when I tell you,
when I tell you the number of studies done on this are just
absolutely insane. You could look it up yourself
and dive deep into this rabbit hole, but I'm just going to give
(02:10):
you the highlights and, and, andyou're going to have these
amazing takeaways. OK, so there was a study where
they took a group of five peopleand randomly added a negative
person to the sum of the groups.Let's see to see what effect it
would have on the groups. Meaning there's groups, right?
There's five people in each group, and then they would just
drop in one person who's negative.
(02:31):
OK, in these groups, nobody was really suspecting of the others,
but this was essentially a case study.
And with one negative person, OK, Just by adding one negative
person, the team that had that one negative person added to
them did 40% worse on all of their tasks, OK, 40% worse on
(03:01):
all of their tasks, on the quality, and their quality of
their work decreased by 25 percent.
Are you listening CE OS? Are you listening small business
owners? Or maybe you work in corporate
and maybe you're that negative person and you don't even
realize that you are. OK, let me get myself together.
(03:24):
They also found, OK, that the groups with a negative person
had 50% more conflict within them, right, which led to more
disagreements, less collaboration.
It really like created more laziness, right, on the part of
the other group members. I mean, here's the most shocking
(03:46):
part. Everything that you just heard,
it was measurable and visible and recognizable within 30 to 60
minutes of being in contact withthe negative person.
So 30 to 60 minutes of contact with a negative person in a
(04:06):
business setting, in a, in a team setting, in a collaborative
setting impacted them all day, impacted all the rest of them
for the rest of the time. OK, some of you, and this is
somebody on TikTok was saying this like somebody, you actually
have had negative people in yourlife your whole life.
Like, there's a negative person.There's been a person in your
(04:29):
life, your whole entire life that's negative, OK?
And you're not even fully aware of how much of them has rubbed
off on you. There's probably a bunch of
things that you do and say and feel and think that you just
think are justified and completely normal and don't even
realize that you've been completely programmed by this
(04:49):
negative person and that it's rubbed off on you.
Let me just get back into it, OK?
Let me take a deep breath. I'm telling you, I am just, Oh
my gosh. OK, By the way, before you get
into these things, because we like now people talk about
mental health and all these different things, I'm going to
tell you as an entrepreneur, as a person who also LED teams in
(05:10):
corporate environments and in myown businesses, there are a few.
There's like 3 main ones if you're not sure how to spot them
because it's really easy to hearwhat I'm saying and to think,
oh, like I speak positively, youknow, or I just say what it is
like, I just tell it how it is. Like I see something and I say
something like, you don't understand that is negativity.
(05:32):
You're spreading it. OK, so I'm going to give you
some instances of these key characters that I I've
encountered throughout my career.
And then you could decide if you're one of them or you know
who these people are. So there is one character I want
to give her a name. Here's the thing.
I say the name all the time because it's the actual name of
(05:53):
like one of the first people that did this.
And then like throughout my career, I just like use that
name and I'm not going to do it.So let's call the first one
Sarah. OK, so the first type is Sarah.
OK. And Sarah is she's 2 faced.
And what Sarah does is she's equally a brown nose, but at the
(06:15):
same time behind the scenes she wreaks havoc.
And So what does this look like?Sarah is very like, hey, you're
a wonderful leader. Like this company so great.
Like, I just know it's going to do fantastic.
You know what, Like if you ever wanted da da da, like, you can
(06:37):
count on me. And then that same.
That's because you're in leadership.
And let's just say she reports to you, OK?
And then that same person, Sarah, goes into the lounge, OK,
at lunchtime and sees John and is like, John, did you hear
what? So what Rachel's doing and it's
like, no, what? Well, she's thinking about
(06:58):
hiring this person. But like I told her, you should
totally be the person. And by the way, no, she didn't.
Sarah did not. OK.
But anyways, I digress. She goes back and is like, but
you should have totally been theperson.
And I just don't get like why she keeps hiring these people
when like we're already here. And here's the reality
(07:19):
situation. Sarah is the one that wants to
get promoted. Sarah is the one that comes into
my office and says, you know, ifyou ever want to promote
somebody, I'm your girl, like you should pick me, blah blah
blah blah blah. But Sarah is slightly sensing
that I am considering John instead.
And I haven't said that I'm considering John, but she's kind
of picking up on it. And she's seeing that, you know,
(07:39):
there's rapport with John and that John actually hits his
numbers and that there's, you know, something that the
customers really like about John.
And so she just sees that John is really going to be able he's
going to take the top spot that she wants.
So what does she do in my face? Every decision I make, I'm I am
just the greatest thing since light spread.
She's in total alignment. She's got I've got her vote.
(08:02):
And then she goes over behind the scenes to John and starts
planting these like corruptive, you know, seeds of like I said,
it should totally be you, but like, I don't know, it looks
like she's going to hire from the outside.
Looks like she's not really sure.
So what she's doing is she's basically, you know, chopping
John off at the over there and then making him lose some
(08:25):
confidence and making him lose some hope that maybe that the
what he's sensing in Hey, I might be getting promoted or
hey, I talked to Rachel and she seems very like, hey, guy, like
keep doing the good work becauseyou never know it's going to be
yours. And now he just thinks the whole
thing's BS. Now he's questioning himself.
(08:46):
He's questioning is he reading, perceiving things incorrectly?
And then it creates a lot of doubt and insecurity.
And then by the way, when he sees me and I'm giving him a
nudge on the shoulder, like, good job.
Like keep it up because you never know.
Now I look like I'm full of BS. OK, so he now is looking at me
like maybe I'm full of it and maybe it's not real and I'm just
(09:10):
sort of like dangling carrots orwhatever the case may be.
Either way, it creates an instability and it erodes the
trust and the confidence. And I have seen this hap.
I have had not too many, but I have had a few wonderful people
end up leaving. And when I do these exit
(09:31):
interviews or I have a real great conversation with them to
say, hey, I just like, it's OK, I'm not going to get my feelings
started. I just want to know like what
happened, you know, because I'llbe dumbfounded or whatever.
And then they'll find a way to lead me to the pot of crap
proof, evidence, whatever. And there's, it's only really
(09:53):
happened twice, but like the last one, this was years ago.
The last time it happened when Isaid to him, Oh my God, he's
such a great guy. And I thought, oh God, this
guy's going to be like our ad director, associate publisher
one day. Like one day he's going to be
running markets for us and or even running the company.
Like literally, that's how high I saw this.
I saw him and because I happenedto sort of show that expression
(10:17):
and, and enthusiasm and excitement that like we found a
good one, you know, in front of this individual who was a
female. Again, we're calling her Sarah.
She ran off and this is a real life thing that I'm describing
to you basically with what I'm saying.
And so anyways, this person ended up telling me, hey, I
don't want to get into the drama.
I'm not really about all that. But before you disable my
(10:41):
e-mail, check the chats, check my chats.
And he just said, I love you, Rach.
It's been such a great experience working with you.
And I know, you know, we'll meetagain somehow and do some great
things. And it was like, oh, and so
guess what I did, I went, I wentin to his e-mail and I checked
the chats and I saw what this person, Miss Sarah was sending
(11:04):
him. And it was in the exact nature
of what I've just described. So the and and you, by the way,
you would never know it based onhow she operated in the light.
Like you would never know know that in the dark she was
sabotaging the whole thing and the mindset and the energy and
and basically eroding the team morale.
(11:25):
She was single handedly did it. But yet on in the light, she was
very, like I said, positive and she was actually really talented
and and she brought made us a lot of money, but I let her go
almost immediately after that. So there's that type of person.
And if you're her absolutely freaking knock it off.
OK, number two person is this issomeone that was really brought
(11:49):
to my attention just recently. This person reached out to me,
slid into my DMS and basically first praised me and said you
probably don't Remember Me. You hired me 20 something years
ago when I was a struggling single mom.
I didn't have any experience. And so I thought, OK, that
tracks because I've done that here and there right throughout
(12:12):
my career. And she said you gave me, you
gave me an opportunity. It was so wonderful, wonderful,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Of course, I don't remember her.
Like she told me her name. She didn't have like, a photo on
her profile, which I don't know if it would have helped me or
not because I've hired a lot of people over my career.
But anyways, she went on to say that I really took the time to,
(12:32):
you know, give her like the extra training and the tools and
encouragement and everything. And then what happened was after
that, she took like a little pause, like maybe she didn't DM
me for like a few weeks. And then all of a sudden she
circled back into my DMS and then said, you know, you
probably don't remember this, but you also fired me and you
(12:56):
fired me as a single mother and you fired me knowing that I
needed that job. And and she said, and you
advocate for Latinas in your life now because we have CEO in
English and then we have like CEO Latina.
And she said, and you advocate for Latinas, but I'm Latina and
you fired me as a single mom. And that makes you disgusting
(13:20):
and, you know, hypocritical. And by the way, this is real
life. I'm giving you real life.
What happens? This is somebody I don't even
know or remember, but I can tellby what she's saying.
The company, the media company, I'm like, well, yeah, that
tracks. Like it's that's not necessarily
the most public information thatI have out there.
So anyways, she proceeds to tellme all of this stuff and that
(13:42):
she ended up losing her house and and really these like series
of unfortunate events. And I thought to myself, the
duality of it, I listen, I can'trecall anything specific because
it's been so many years, but I can tell you this, that energy
(14:03):
speaks to me as I must have seenthat after I hired her.
So energy is a thing. It's a very real thing.
It's a very powerful thing. And you can see that this
individual, for example, was came to me to like love bomb me.
Let's just say that, right? And then turns around and then
(14:24):
like villainizes me. It's like a bipolar reaction.
And so that's like a little bit of a common thread in these
character types that I'm going to describe to you.
It's almost like, you know, what's the truth?
It's, it's like I say, there's good people who sometimes do bad
things and, and then there's badpeople that really try hard to
(14:44):
be good. And it's like, well, which,
which is which? And so it's a little bit of this
energy that comes through, but this is these are true stories
that I'm giving you, OK. And so to me, it's like, well,
first and foremost, as a leader,I'm going to go run it by the
numbers. And I'm going to also compare it
to what's the culture? And also the third thing is
like, what is your impact on those around you and the team?
Because one bad apple will in fact will in fact ruin the
(15:08):
bunch. It doesn't matter what color you
are. I don't, I don't even care.
And if I and if you're a single mother and I gave you a chance
and essentially you blew it, right?
I am under no obligation to uphold that.
Sort of, you know, thing with you, opportunity with you, just
because we're both Latino like that.
(15:28):
That's just not even to me. In my mind, equality is not
that. Equality is to hold you to a
high standard to say, I believe you can do better, so do better
please. And then if you don't, then it
is what it is, right. So all that to say, those are
the the two types. 1 is like a, a victim, right?
So that second one that I'm describing has a lot of sort of
(15:50):
victimism around them, a lot of victimhood.
They're like a, they blame everybody else for like their
problems. They have the inability to look
at their own role in a situation.
And that's a really tough one because they are not self aware
And so the everything's working against them.
They don't realize that it's it's not it's coming from within
(16:12):
them, right? They're they're projecting
something and then it's like repelling everybody and and they
don't always realize that. OK, so that is a form of bad
apple energy. And I hope that that makes sense
to you. The next one is I'm going to I'm
going to call this one. What should I call this one?
Let's see. So the first one, we called her
(16:32):
Sarah. The second one, we'll call her
victim girl. OK, so this third one, we'll
call her the pessimist, OK? And so with the pessimist, the
thing with this is that they pessimists that I've come to
realize, they don't see themselves as pessimists, They
see themselves as realists. OK, did you hear me?
(16:56):
Pessimists don't see themselves as pessimists.
They see themselves as realists.They see themselves as I just
tell it how it is, like I see itand I say it like like girl, I
saw her do this assist. And so it is like they cannot
think beyond, like they cannot see the silver lining.
(17:16):
They can't flip things around because if you can just flip the
switch, it is a very powerful ability to do that.
I don't mean being did not like in denial that something, you
know, bad is happening or whatever.
But it's more like, OK, well, ifthere's something difficult
happening, then just what's the solution?
You know, I mean, there's no emotions around.
(17:37):
It's like, well, what's the solution?
But a pessimist, oh, man, they will see the problem in every
solution. You will say, oh, my God, I just
met this person and I bet you they're going to end up doing
business with us. It's going to be so fantastic.
And the pessimist will say, yeah, girl, but you already know
people like that. You know, they don't mess with
(17:57):
people like us. They stick to their group.
And then they do OK, that that is what the pessimist looks like
and that is negative. I don't care if you're listening
to this and you are that person and you're like, no, but no, no,
the end case, close period exclamation mark, as my cousin
(18:21):
used to say, that is what that is.
OK, It is not seeing it, saying it.
No, that is negative and it's pessimistic.
And so they are valuable to a degree.
It's important to have people around you that can spot
patterns. OK, so that's different.
(18:41):
So like if they are around you and this person that's a little
more pessimistic or whatever, I think it's like the people that
can spot the worst case scenarios, but they don't
necessarily communicate it everywhere.
They don't radiate with that, they don't leave with that.
That's not their default setting, but they can identify
patterns. So being able to, to, to look at
(19:02):
a scenario that is reality and they go, OK, yes, she did this,
but is she always do? Like is she consistently doing
it? Like is the the challenging
thing about this particular person sort of a pattern?
Like, are we seeing her do very similar things?
I have had, let me tell you, I have had a person on my team who
(19:26):
was an absolute sweetheart and love bomber and fan, like a fan
and like a love bomber and just so sweet.
And everybody says, oh, she's sosweet.
And then she's like, oh, you're so great and like she love bombs
and like, oh, and she and she's always very like, I can help you
with that. I can help you with that, right.
(19:46):
Here's the thing. That person that's number four,
the love bomber. OK, that person, as positive as
that seems, turns around and because they have such a high
need to be liked, they will turnaround and turn every little
(20:09):
itty bitty tiny. Being around and make it about
them, like they they feel attacked at every turn.
They can hear a scenario in a meeting and then walk away and
be like, I think she's probably talking about me.
And they can get insecure and then they can go tell 12 people.
(20:31):
I think she was talking about me.
I think she was totally talking about me.
Like it's only obvious she was talking about me.
OK, the love bombers, the sweet,sweet, sweet, sweet ones,
They're it's, they don't even realize why they're doing that,
but they're doing it because they have such a deep rooted
either ego or insecurity. There's something about them
(20:51):
that is so incredibly fragile. And that fragility, if that's a
word, is very dangerous in a team environment, in a business
setting, anything that you're doing that you need to build and
scale where there's high pressure, high demand, a
requirement for high talent, they don't do well at all, at
(21:12):
all. They will be a disgruntled, they
could very well turn into a disgruntled employee.
And in fact, when you when you do let them go and you give them
an opportunity essentially to, to step away, they tend to
harbor a lot of resentments. They can't get past the fact
that you didn't quote UN quote like them, like they just cannot
(21:34):
digest that like at all. Like you become enemy, Public
Enemy number one to them, like you.
They villainize you in such a way like they have to villainize
you because something must be wrong with you if you didn't
like them. Okay, so these are the types of
people that are not always aware, right, that they are in
(21:56):
fact the bad apple in the group.And there's also people that
they know damn well that they'rethe bad apple in the group and
they get a kick out of it. And, and I have had my mean girl
season and I have had friends that were, you know, default
setting mean girl. And it's funny.
The Mean Girls are funny. They're entertaining.
Like they cuss a lot. Like they say the quiet thing
(22:18):
out loud and, and they're very entertaining and they're very
colorful. And I like, listen, I like
colorful people, but in team environments, they can be very
sarcastic in a very condescending way.
There's a lot of gaslighting that's going on in in that type
of person personality and not everybody can deal with that,
(22:38):
right? I like environments where
everybody could just be honest and kind of like they say, shoot
the shit or whatever. I think it's really great and
healthy, but people have to match.
So you just have to decide what your team culture is, what makes
your teams thrive and choose to place people in those teams that
are a true and natural fit and are conducive to the success of
(23:02):
the team and making sure that everybody understands the value
to one another and that they're all equally valuable to the
team. And, and it's like there's no I
in team type scenario, but you have to understand that there
all these, there are these character types and it's not
always easy to spot them. Unfortunately, you don't always
know who they are until it's toolate and they've already left
(23:26):
their mark, so to speak. So you got to be willing to fire
those people from your organization.
You got to be willing to, when you identify the patterns and
you go, huh, and you can see theenergy shift by the way, in your
team members. Maybe people that were
enthusiastic are really willing to participate.
Suddenly they're just not. For example, you know, I've had
(23:47):
some really great people on my team over the years and who were
very willing to help out and learn and grow and sort of raise
their hand and say, hey, I'll dothat.
And then they'll be that person.The bad apple will find a way
behind the scenes or in front oftheir peers and be like, oh,
like you want to be Rachel's little pet?
(24:09):
Like, oh, go go with your bestie.
Like, oh, look at you like that's that mean girl energy.
And then what ends up happening is that person who was so
vibrant and eager to learn and really probably in line to get
promoted just like fades, just fades.
Just the light just dims in them, right?
(24:30):
And so again, you got to be willing to get rid of them.
And especially with these studies, Oh my gosh.
I mean, obviously, undoubtedly energy is a thing.
It's not only contagious, it's stains.
And it's a stain that grows and it spreads, you guys.
OK, so check this out. According to ChatGPT, one
negative team member can act like a financial black hole.
(24:52):
Studies like toxic workers from Harvard Business School in 2015
showed that one toxic employee can cost a company significantly
more than 7 high performing employees can add in profit and
can impact, right? And that impact, let's see what
(25:12):
that looks like and can impact activity in the entire team by
nearly 40%. OK, so those characters that I'm
sharing are based on what I've experienced over my 30
something. Yeah, well, almost 30 something
in your career. And I'm sure there's more
character types, but those are the main ones that I have seen
that have been the most destruction, destructive, but
(25:34):
40% impact on the entire team. In other words, it's like that
negative person is sneezing misery all over everyone elses
KPIs. This is fantastic by the way,
because I asked ChatGPT. Let's see now.
In turn, positive people create compounding interest,
(25:54):
compounding interest on success.Research from Gallup and
positive psychology studies shows that teams with high
positivity, measured by engagement and emotional
intelligence achieved 21% higherprofitability, 17% higher
productivity, and 41% lower absenteeism.
(26:17):
You guys see you listen, you canreally like certain team
members, but you got to be willing to cut the cord or call
them out and say, hey, we won't have that.
We won't have that talk. We won't have that thinking.
Hey, shift your thinking, hey, shift, shift your words about
that. Hey, shift the story in your
head about the brand or whateverthe case may be.
Why? Because positive people boost
(26:38):
trust, creativity and resilience.
The big three basically that will print you money over time.
I mean, this is the money makingthing that you need.
And here's another study. Look at, according to the
studies like the University of Michigan Center for Positive
Organizations, emotional states spread through teams like
(26:59):
wildfire, for better or worse. Negative mood equals more
errors, worse memory, poor decision making, etcetera.
I mean, it's just, it's just dark, OK.
While positive moods equal better problem solving, longer
persistence, and smarter risk taking, basically, money flows
towards the optimistic teams. Let's see, here's one last
(27:21):
study. According to Stanford and UC
Berkeley, research found that investors and clients are more
likely to back leaders within teams who demonstrate optimism
and emotional agility. Even over cold logic and
optimism, right, the teams attract more investments.
(27:43):
Pessimistic teams get stuck in analysis paralysis and slowly go
broke. Plus, positive teams recover
faster from failure, according to research on psychological
safety at Harvard. Google's project at Aristotle
and shows that positive trustingteams recover from set from
(28:05):
setbacks 5 times faster. The negative teams, well
negative teams spiral out of control in to blame gossip and
despair. You guys the big take away is
simple OK hire positive people and negative people are going to
take you down. Like stay away from their bad
luck. Like they are like a black cloud
(28:26):
looming around. And I have had this conversation
even with my sons because men can tend to be their default
setting can be negative. And they have to understand that
their words have power, their feelings have power, their
thoughts have power. And just because they think it's
reality or they've seen 100 people do it, it doesn't mean
that that's going to be the casein that scenario for your
(28:46):
company. If you do not have the ability
to focus on the positive outcomes, the best case
scenarios, the Silver Linings, then you need to get real honest
with yourself. OK, you got to get in the habit
of saying, yeah, but what's the best that can happen?
Too many people go around their lives going, what's the worst
(29:06):
can happen? Well, guess what?
God and the universe and every Angel and everything that you
believe in will show you what the worst is that can happen.
OK, so you got to get in the habit of saying, well, let's see
what the best case scenario is. OK, Well, it looks like, you
know, that's a challenging thing.
And I know that other company failed, but what if we actually
win? And that just goes also for your
(29:27):
dream building and and your vision for your life.
It's like, Oh my God, but what if I fail?
Yes, maybe, but what if you win?And that's what it sounds like
to have a positive person in your corner.
Let's go.
Welcome to another episode of the Rachel Unpacked podcast.
I am your host Rachel Medina andin every episode we talk about
mindset, wealth building and faith for every girlie who is
looking to change and level up her.
Life if. You want to follow me on social
media, you can do so at Rachel Medina 101 or visit my website
rachelmedina.com. But if?
(00:20):
You are ready. To build a business in a life
that you love, head on over to our new She eox.com site again
she EO dot com where you are going to find a tribe of like
minded business building, dream aspiring girlies just like you.
Connecting, learning and growingtogether and a new CEO X
(00:41):
Partnership program means we attract the talented,
experienced and successful womenwho are ready to.
Teach you how they did it. So that you can succeed too.
Let's go. Are you letting negative people
ruin your life, and your business for that matter?
Buckle up, buttercup, because ifyou're the negative person,
you're about to hurt your own feelings by listening to this
(01:02):
episode. But if you tend to be a fairly
optimistic positive person, the negative characters in your
life, the bad actors, they are going to be revealed to you here
very, very quickly in this episode.
But it is an absolute game changer because of the power of
the negativity, like the influence it really has and
beyond the things you can't evensee or really measure until now
(01:25):
is going to blow your mind and really inspire you to recognize
that you need to leave environments where there's
negative people and also to remove the negative people from
your environment. And that includes your business
and that includes your home. That includes your circles,
social circles, friend groups, you name it.
This is the episode that's goingto be the eye opener.
(01:48):
OK, So listen, negative people, they can ruin your life.
They can ruin your business likeI just talked about.
They can ruin your financial potential.
And I am going to be quoting a bunch of studies because I'm so
fascinated. I'm telling you when I tell you,
when I tell you the number of studies done on this are just
absolutely insane. You could look it up yourself
and dive deep into this rabbit hole, but I'm just going to give
(02:10):
you the highlights and, and, andyou're going to have these
amazing takeaways. OK, so there was a study where
they took a group of five peopleand randomly added a negative
person to the sum of the groups.Let's see to see what effect it
would have on the groups. Meaning there's groups, right?
There's five people in each group, and then they would just
drop in one person who's negative.
(02:31):
OK, in these groups, nobody was really suspecting of the others,
but this was essentially a case study.
And with one negative person, OK, Just by adding one negative
person, the team that had that one negative person added to
them did 40% worse on all of their tasks, OK, 40% worse on
(03:01):
all of their tasks, on the quality, and their quality of
their work decreased by 25 percent.
Are you listening CE OS? Are you listening small business
owners? Or maybe you work in corporate
and maybe you're that negative person and you don't even
realize that you are. OK, let me get myself together.
(03:24):
They also found, OK, that the groups with a negative person
had 50% more conflict within them, right, which led to more
disagreements, less collaboration.
It really like created more laziness, right, on the part of
the other group members. I mean, here's the most shocking
(03:46):
part. Everything that you just heard,
it was measurable and visible and recognizable within 30 to 60
minutes of being in contact withthe negative person.
So 30 to 60 minutes of contact with a negative person in a
(04:06):
business setting, in a, in a team setting, in a collaborative
setting impacted them all day, impacted all the rest of them
for the rest of the time. OK, some of you, and this is
somebody on TikTok was saying this like somebody, you actually
have had negative people in yourlife your whole life.
Like, there's a negative person.There's been a person in your
(04:29):
life, your whole entire life that's negative, OK?
And you're not even fully aware of how much of them has rubbed
off on you. There's probably a bunch of
things that you do and say and feel and think that you just
think are justified and completely normal and don't even
realize that you've been completely programmed by this
(04:49):
negative person and that it's rubbed off on you.
Let me just get back into it, OK?
Let me take a deep breath. I'm telling you, I am just, Oh
my gosh. OK, By the way, before you get
into these things, because we like now people talk about
mental health and all these different things, I'm going to
tell you as an entrepreneur, as a person who also LED teams in
(05:10):
corporate environments and in myown businesses, there are a few.
There's like 3 main ones if you're not sure how to spot them
because it's really easy to hearwhat I'm saying and to think,
oh, like I speak positively, youknow, or I just say what it is
like, I just tell it how it is. Like I see something and I say
something like, you don't understand that is negativity.
(05:32):
You're spreading it. OK, so I'm going to give you
some instances of these key characters that I I've
encountered throughout my career.
And then you could decide if you're one of them or you know
who these people are. So there is one character I want
to give her a name. Here's the thing.
I say the name all the time because it's the actual name of
(05:53):
like one of the first people that did this.
And then like throughout my career, I just like use that
name and I'm not going to do it.So let's call the first one
Sarah. OK, so the first type is Sarah.
OK. And Sarah is she's 2 faced.
And what Sarah does is she's equally a brown nose, but at the
(06:15):
same time behind the scenes she wreaks havoc.
And So what does this look like?Sarah is very like, hey, you're
a wonderful leader. Like this company so great.
Like, I just know it's going to do fantastic.
You know what, Like if you ever wanted da da da, like, you can
(06:37):
count on me. And then that same.
That's because you're in leadership.
And let's just say she reports to you, OK?
And then that same person, Sarah, goes into the lounge, OK,
at lunchtime and sees John and is like, John, did you hear
what? So what Rachel's doing and it's
like, no, what? Well, she's thinking about
(06:58):
hiring this person. But like I told her, you should
totally be the person. And by the way, no, she didn't.
Sarah did not. OK.
But anyways, I digress. She goes back and is like, but
you should have totally been theperson.
And I just don't get like why she keeps hiring these people
when like we're already here. And here's the reality
(07:19):
situation. Sarah is the one that wants to
get promoted. Sarah is the one that comes into
my office and says, you know, ifyou ever want to promote
somebody, I'm your girl, like you should pick me, blah blah
blah blah blah. But Sarah is slightly sensing
that I am considering John instead.
And I haven't said that I'm considering John, but she's kind
of picking up on it. And she's seeing that, you know,
(07:39):
there's rapport with John and that John actually hits his
numbers and that there's, you know, something that the
customers really like about John.
And so she just sees that John is really going to be able he's
going to take the top spot that she wants.
So what does she do in my face? Every decision I make, I'm I am
just the greatest thing since light spread.
She's in total alignment. She's got I've got her vote.
(08:02):
And then she goes over behind the scenes to John and starts
planting these like corruptive, you know, seeds of like I said,
it should totally be you, but like, I don't know, it looks
like she's going to hire from the outside.
Looks like she's not really sure.
So what she's doing is she's basically, you know, chopping
John off at the over there and then making him lose some
(08:25):
confidence and making him lose some hope that maybe that the
what he's sensing in Hey, I might be getting promoted or
hey, I talked to Rachel and she seems very like, hey, guy, like
keep doing the good work becauseyou never know it's going to be
yours. And now he just thinks the whole
thing's BS. Now he's questioning himself.
(08:46):
He's questioning is he reading, perceiving things incorrectly?
And then it creates a lot of doubt and insecurity.
And then by the way, when he sees me and I'm giving him a
nudge on the shoulder, like, good job.
Like keep it up because you never know.
Now I look like I'm full of BS. OK, so he now is looking at me
like maybe I'm full of it and maybe it's not real and I'm just
(09:10):
sort of like dangling carrots orwhatever the case may be.
Either way, it creates an instability and it erodes the
trust and the confidence. And I have seen this hap.
I have had not too many, but I have had a few wonderful people
end up leaving. And when I do these exit
(09:31):
interviews or I have a real great conversation with them to
say, hey, I just like, it's OK, I'm not going to get my feelings
started. I just want to know like what
happened, you know, because I'llbe dumbfounded or whatever.
And then they'll find a way to lead me to the pot of crap
proof, evidence, whatever. And there's, it's only really
(09:53):
happened twice, but like the last one, this was years ago.
The last time it happened when Isaid to him, Oh my God, he's
such a great guy. And I thought, oh God, this
guy's going to be like our ad director, associate publisher
one day. Like one day he's going to be
running markets for us and or even running the company.
Like literally, that's how high I saw this.
I saw him and because I happenedto sort of show that expression
(10:17):
and, and enthusiasm and excitement that like we found a
good one, you know, in front of this individual who was a
female. Again, we're calling her Sarah.
She ran off and this is a real life thing that I'm describing
to you basically with what I'm saying.
And so anyways, this person ended up telling me, hey, I
don't want to get into the drama.
I'm not really about all that. But before you disable my
(10:41):
e-mail, check the chats, check my chats.
And he just said, I love you, Rach.
It's been such a great experience working with you.
And I know, you know, we'll meetagain somehow and do some great
things. And it was like, oh, and so
guess what I did, I went, I wentin to his e-mail and I checked
the chats and I saw what this person, Miss Sarah was sending
(11:04):
him. And it was in the exact nature
of what I've just described. So the and and you, by the way,
you would never know it based onhow she operated in the light.
Like you would never know know that in the dark she was
sabotaging the whole thing and the mindset and the energy and
and basically eroding the team morale.
(11:25):
She was single handedly did it. But yet on in the light, she was
very, like I said, positive and she was actually really talented
and and she brought made us a lot of money, but I let her go
almost immediately after that. So there's that type of person.
And if you're her absolutely freaking knock it off.
OK, number two person is this issomeone that was really brought
(11:49):
to my attention just recently. This person reached out to me,
slid into my DMS and basically first praised me and said you
probably don't Remember Me. You hired me 20 something years
ago when I was a struggling single mom.
I didn't have any experience. And so I thought, OK, that
tracks because I've done that here and there right throughout
(12:12):
my career. And she said you gave me, you
gave me an opportunity. It was so wonderful, wonderful,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Of course, I don't remember her.
Like she told me her name. She didn't have like, a photo on
her profile, which I don't know if it would have helped me or
not because I've hired a lot of people over my career.
But anyways, she went on to say that I really took the time to,
(12:32):
you know, give her like the extra training and the tools and
encouragement and everything. And then what happened was after
that, she took like a little pause, like maybe she didn't DM
me for like a few weeks. And then all of a sudden she
circled back into my DMS and then said, you know, you
probably don't remember this, but you also fired me and you
(12:56):
fired me as a single mother and you fired me knowing that I
needed that job. And and she said, and you
advocate for Latinas in your life now because we have CEO in
English and then we have like CEO Latina.
And she said, and you advocate for Latinas, but I'm Latina and
you fired me as a single mom. And that makes you disgusting
(13:20):
and, you know, hypocritical. And by the way, this is real
life. I'm giving you real life.
What happens? This is somebody I don't even
know or remember, but I can tellby what she's saying.
The company, the media company, I'm like, well, yeah, that
tracks. Like it's that's not necessarily
the most public information thatI have out there.
So anyways, she proceeds to tellme all of this stuff and that
(13:42):
she ended up losing her house and and really these like series
of unfortunate events. And I thought to myself, the
duality of it, I listen, I can'trecall anything specific because
it's been so many years, but I can tell you this, that energy
(14:03):
speaks to me as I must have seenthat after I hired her.
So energy is a thing. It's a very real thing.
It's a very powerful thing. And you can see that this
individual, for example, was came to me to like love bomb me.
Let's just say that, right? And then turns around and then
(14:24):
like villainizes me. It's like a bipolar reaction.
And so that's like a little bit of a common thread in these
character types that I'm going to describe to you.
It's almost like, you know, what's the truth?
It's, it's like I say, there's good people who sometimes do bad
things and, and then there's badpeople that really try hard to
(14:44):
be good. And it's like, well, which,
which is which? And so it's a little bit of this
energy that comes through, but this is these are true stories
that I'm giving you, OK. And so to me, it's like, well,
first and foremost, as a leader,I'm going to go run it by the
numbers. And I'm going to also compare it
to what's the culture? And also the third thing is
like, what is your impact on those around you and the team?
Because one bad apple will in fact will in fact ruin the
(15:08):
bunch. It doesn't matter what color you
are. I don't, I don't even care.
And if I and if you're a single mother and I gave you a chance
and essentially you blew it, right?
I am under no obligation to uphold that.
Sort of, you know, thing with you, opportunity with you, just
because we're both Latino like that.
(15:28):
That's just not even to me. In my mind, equality is not
that. Equality is to hold you to a
high standard to say, I believe you can do better, so do better
please. And then if you don't, then it
is what it is, right. So all that to say, those are
the the two types. 1 is like a, a victim, right?
So that second one that I'm describing has a lot of sort of
(15:50):
victimism around them, a lot of victimhood.
They're like a, they blame everybody else for like their
problems. They have the inability to look
at their own role in a situation.
And that's a really tough one because they are not self aware
And so the everything's working against them.
They don't realize that it's it's not it's coming from within
(16:12):
them, right? They're they're projecting
something and then it's like repelling everybody and and they
don't always realize that. OK, so that is a form of bad
apple energy. And I hope that that makes sense
to you. The next one is I'm going to I'm
going to call this one. What should I call this one?
Let's see. So the first one, we called her
(16:32):
Sarah. The second one, we'll call her
victim girl. OK, so this third one, we'll
call her the pessimist, OK? And so with the pessimist, the
thing with this is that they pessimists that I've come to
realize, they don't see themselves as pessimists, They
see themselves as realists. OK, did you hear me?
(16:56):
Pessimists don't see themselves as pessimists.
They see themselves as realists.They see themselves as I just
tell it how it is, like I see itand I say it like like girl, I
saw her do this assist. And so it is like they cannot
think beyond, like they cannot see the silver lining.
(17:16):
They can't flip things around because if you can just flip the
switch, it is a very powerful ability to do that.
I don't mean being did not like in denial that something, you
know, bad is happening or whatever.
But it's more like, OK, well, ifthere's something difficult
happening, then just what's the solution?
You know, I mean, there's no emotions around.
(17:37):
It's like, well, what's the solution?
But a pessimist, oh, man, they will see the problem in every
solution. You will say, oh, my God, I just
met this person and I bet you they're going to end up doing
business with us. It's going to be so fantastic.
And the pessimist will say, yeah, girl, but you already know
people like that. You know, they don't mess with
(17:57):
people like us. They stick to their group.
And then they do OK, that that is what the pessimist looks like
and that is negative. I don't care if you're listening
to this and you are that person and you're like, no, but no, no,
the end case, close period exclamation mark, as my cousin
(18:21):
used to say, that is what that is.
OK, It is not seeing it, saying it.
No, that is negative and it's pessimistic.
And so they are valuable to a degree.
It's important to have people around you that can spot
patterns. OK, so that's different.
(18:41):
So like if they are around you and this person that's a little
more pessimistic or whatever, I think it's like the people that
can spot the worst case scenarios, but they don't
necessarily communicate it everywhere.
They don't radiate with that, they don't leave with that.
That's not their default setting, but they can identify
patterns. So being able to, to, to look at
(19:02):
a scenario that is reality and they go, OK, yes, she did this,
but is she always do? Like is she consistently doing
it? Like is the the challenging
thing about this particular person sort of a pattern?
Like, are we seeing her do very similar things?
I have had, let me tell you, I have had a person on my team who
(19:26):
was an absolute sweetheart and love bomber and fan, like a fan
and like a love bomber and just so sweet.
And everybody says, oh, she's sosweet.
And then she's like, oh, you're so great and like she love bombs
and like, oh, and she and she's always very like, I can help you
with that. I can help you with that, right.
(19:46):
Here's the thing. That person that's number four,
the love bomber. OK, that person, as positive as
that seems, turns around and because they have such a high
need to be liked, they will turnaround and turn every little
(20:09):
itty bitty tiny. Being around and make it about
them, like they they feel attacked at every turn.
They can hear a scenario in a meeting and then walk away and
be like, I think she's probably talking about me.
And they can get insecure and then they can go tell 12 people.
(20:31):
I think she was talking about me.
I think she was totally talking about me.
Like it's only obvious she was talking about me.
OK, the love bombers, the sweet,sweet, sweet, sweet ones,
They're it's, they don't even realize why they're doing that,
but they're doing it because they have such a deep rooted
either ego or insecurity. There's something about them
(20:51):
that is so incredibly fragile. And that fragility, if that's a
word, is very dangerous in a team environment, in a business
setting, anything that you're doing that you need to build and
scale where there's high pressure, high demand, a
requirement for high talent, they don't do well at all, at
(21:12):
all. They will be a disgruntled, they
could very well turn into a disgruntled employee.
And in fact, when you when you do let them go and you give them
an opportunity essentially to, to step away, they tend to
harbor a lot of resentments. They can't get past the fact
that you didn't quote UN quote like them, like they just cannot
(21:34):
digest that like at all. Like you become enemy, Public
Enemy number one to them, like you.
They villainize you in such a way like they have to villainize
you because something must be wrong with you if you didn't
like them. Okay, so these are the types of
people that are not always aware, right, that they are in
(21:56):
fact the bad apple in the group.And there's also people that
they know damn well that they'rethe bad apple in the group and
they get a kick out of it. And, and I have had my mean girl
season and I have had friends that were, you know, default
setting mean girl. And it's funny.
The Mean Girls are funny. They're entertaining.
Like they cuss a lot. Like they say the quiet thing
(22:18):
out loud and, and they're very entertaining and they're very
colorful. And I like, listen, I like
colorful people, but in team environments, they can be very
sarcastic in a very condescending way.
There's a lot of gaslighting that's going on in in that type
of person personality and not everybody can deal with that,
(22:38):
right? I like environments where
everybody could just be honest and kind of like they say, shoot
the shit or whatever. I think it's really great and
healthy, but people have to match.
So you just have to decide what your team culture is, what makes
your teams thrive and choose to place people in those teams that
are a true and natural fit and are conducive to the success of
(23:02):
the team and making sure that everybody understands the value
to one another and that they're all equally valuable to the
team. And, and it's like there's no I
in team type scenario, but you have to understand that there
all these, there are these character types and it's not
always easy to spot them. Unfortunately, you don't always
know who they are until it's toolate and they've already left
(23:26):
their mark, so to speak. So you got to be willing to fire
those people from your organization.
You got to be willing to, when you identify the patterns and
you go, huh, and you can see theenergy shift by the way, in your
team members. Maybe people that were
enthusiastic are really willing to participate.
Suddenly they're just not. For example, you know, I've had
(23:47):
some really great people on my team over the years and who were
very willing to help out and learn and grow and sort of raise
their hand and say, hey, I'll dothat.
And then they'll be that person.The bad apple will find a way
behind the scenes or in front oftheir peers and be like, oh,
like you want to be Rachel's little pet?
(24:09):
Like, oh, go go with your bestie.
Like, oh, look at you like that's that mean girl energy.
And then what ends up happening is that person who was so
vibrant and eager to learn and really probably in line to get
promoted just like fades, just fades.
Just the light just dims in them, right?
(24:30):
And so again, you got to be willing to get rid of them.
And especially with these studies, Oh my gosh.
I mean, obviously, undoubtedly energy is a thing.
It's not only contagious, it's stains.
And it's a stain that grows and it spreads, you guys.
OK, so check this out. According to ChatGPT, one
negative team member can act like a financial black hole.
(24:52):
Studies like toxic workers from Harvard Business School in 2015
showed that one toxic employee can cost a company significantly
more than 7 high performing employees can add in profit and
can impact, right? And that impact, let's see what
(25:12):
that looks like and can impact activity in the entire team by
nearly 40%. OK, so those characters that I'm
sharing are based on what I've experienced over my 30
something. Yeah, well, almost 30 something
in your career. And I'm sure there's more
character types, but those are the main ones that I have seen
that have been the most destruction, destructive, but
(25:34):
40% impact on the entire team. In other words, it's like that
negative person is sneezing misery all over everyone elses
KPIs. This is fantastic by the way,
because I asked ChatGPT. Let's see now.
In turn, positive people create compounding interest,
(25:54):
compounding interest on success.Research from Gallup and
positive psychology studies shows that teams with high
positivity, measured by engagement and emotional
intelligence achieved 21% higherprofitability, 17% higher
productivity, and 41% lower absenteeism.
(26:17):
You guys see you listen, you canreally like certain team
members, but you got to be willing to cut the cord or call
them out and say, hey, we won't have that.
We won't have that talk. We won't have that thinking.
Hey, shift your thinking, hey, shift, shift your words about
that. Hey, shift the story in your
head about the brand or whateverthe case may be.
Why? Because positive people boost
(26:38):
trust, creativity and resilience.
The big three basically that will print you money over time.
I mean, this is the money makingthing that you need.
And here's another study. Look at, according to the
studies like the University of Michigan Center for Positive
Organizations, emotional states spread through teams like
(26:59):
wildfire, for better or worse. Negative mood equals more
errors, worse memory, poor decision making, etcetera.
I mean, it's just, it's just dark, OK.
While positive moods equal better problem solving, longer
persistence, and smarter risk taking, basically, money flows
towards the optimistic teams. Let's see, here's one last
(27:21):
study. According to Stanford and UC
Berkeley, research found that investors and clients are more
likely to back leaders within teams who demonstrate optimism
and emotional agility. Even over cold logic and
optimism, right, the teams attract more investments.
(27:43):
Pessimistic teams get stuck in analysis paralysis and slowly go
broke. Plus, positive teams recover
faster from failure, according to research on psychological
safety at Harvard. Google's project at Aristotle
and shows that positive trustingteams recover from set from
(28:05):
setbacks 5 times faster. The negative teams, well
negative teams spiral out of control in to blame gossip and
despair. You guys the big take away is
simple OK hire positive people and negative people are going to
take you down. Like stay away from their bad
luck. Like they are like a black cloud
(28:26):
looming around. And I have had this conversation
even with my sons because men can tend to be their default
setting can be negative. And they have to understand that
their words have power, their feelings have power, their
thoughts have power. And just because they think it's
reality or they've seen 100 people do it, it doesn't mean
that that's going to be the casein that scenario for your
(28:46):
company. If you do not have the ability
to focus on the positive outcomes, the best case
scenarios, the Silver Linings, then you need to get real honest
with yourself. OK, you got to get in the habit
of saying, yeah, but what's the best that can happen?
Too many people go around their lives going, what's the worst
(29:06):
can happen? Well, guess what?
God and the universe and every Angel and everything that you
believe in will show you what the worst is that can happen.
OK, so you got to get in the habit of saying, well, let's see
what the best case scenario is. OK, Well, it looks like, you
know, that's a challenging thing.
And I know that other company failed, but what if we actually
win? And that just goes also for your
(29:27):
dream building and and your vision for your life.
It's like, Oh my God, but what if I fail?
Yes, maybe, but what if you win?And that's what it sounds like
to have a positive person in your corner.
Let's go.
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