Impact Through leadership Summit 2025

This is not your typical Wisdom on the Front Porch podcast. This is a summit by your Wisdom on the Front Porch host, LS Kirkpatrick, who produced the summit. LS thought you might like to hear from other entrepreneurs and how they lead.

Episode Transcript

(00:52):
Hey.
Hi, David.
How are you?
You well?
Good.
Let me see if I can get this a little biggerhere.
Yeah.
Just it's all gonna be good.
Okay.
Thank you so much for doing this.
I have no doubt that it's it's all gonna begood.

(01:20):
Always here to support you and supporteverybody.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We gotta support each other.
Okay.
I get my speaker on.
Should be better.
Actually, hold on.
Let me filter that through.
I bet you my voice will sound better.

(01:42):
Oh, my clock anymore.
So alright.

(02:08):
You
can hear me fine?
Yep.
I can hear you just fine.
Yeah.
No.
I just switched to my microphone instead of thecomputer.
That's why I just wanted to Okay.
No.
It's still coming in nice and clear.
K.
Excellent.

(02:52):
Mhmm.

(03:15):
And it is almost 03:00 where you are.
Right?
It is, 02:57.
That's why I, I'm always a couple minutesearly.
That's okay.
I just wanna make sure that I've got my timeright.
Yep.
The last time I did an event, I was an hourearlier Okay.

(03:37):
Than what it was planned because I didn't havemy time zone set up right.
Okay.
But, yeah, it is, 03:00, two fifty eightEastern Standard Time.
Okay.
I'm going to share my screen.

(04:10):
Can you hear that?
No.
I just hear you.
I don't hear if there's any other, background.
Hi, Ellis.
Hi.
Hi, David.
Hi.

(06:07):
Hi.
Hi.
Good afternoon, everyone.

(06:36):
Okay.
Have to figure out how to stop it now.
Alright.
Thank you all so much for being here, and Iknow we have a few more that are coming in.
And I hope the time zone hasn't deterredpeople.
So we're gonna start off just a little bitintroducing ourselves.
We have David Kametsky who's here, who's gonnaspeak.

(06:58):
Chris Ophie's here.
She's gonna speak.
Risa Diva is going to speak, and ChristinaRoman is amazing.
She's in our audience today, and I'm so gladyou're here.
Thank you so much.
We're both in late ladies of leadership withNikki Quest on Bomb Global.
And, I've gotten to know her, and she's justwonderful, wonderful.

(07:18):
Were you able to get the printouts, Christina?
I was not able to print them out, but I I didget the the I did receive them, but I didn't
print them out.
Okay.
Okay.
As long as you were able to get them, that'sgood.
So we'll go ahead and start.
I'll just do a little introduction, and thenwe'll go with our first speaker.

(07:44):
So impact through leadership, and I'll try andlet people in.
And I thank you all for your patience.
I'm nervous.
I wasn't before, and all of a sudden, I'mnervous.
So just shake that out.

(08:05):
Influence over authority.
Leadership isn't about a title.
It's about the ability to inspire andinfluence.
And I see how each one of you are able to dothat, and I thank you so much for coming today
and speaking today and being in the audience.
So I wanna tell you a little story about FredRogers and the US Senate.

(08:28):
Mister Rogers wasn't a politician, a CEO, or ageneral, yet his ability to influence changed
laws.
In 1969, the US Senate considered cuttingpublic television funding.
Rogers gave a heartfelt testimony not withpower, but with sincerity and conviction.

(08:51):
His words moved the chairman so deeply thatthey secured $20,000,000 in funding.
So we see that leadership isn't about titles.
It's about the ability to move hearts andminds.
Your impact is measured by how people growbecause of your presence.
And we're gonna learn that from Risa Diva, ourfirst speaker.

(09:14):
Now Risa is a self published author of TemperedThrough Trials.
She's the founder and managing owner of WinningTandem LLC.
She's also worked in various school settingsfor several years and has a good record of
inspiring her students to aspire and reachtheir academic goals.
Reese is reliable, flexible, a good teamplayer, and a natural motivator for others.

(09:40):
She's married and blessed with two beautifulchildren.
She loves the Lord and is a witness of God'sfaithfulness.
But that's not all that Risa does.
Risa is one of the contributing authors to thebest selling books such as the giving book
volume four, the abundant life with Nick andMegan Unsworth and James Malinchek, and the art

(10:04):
of connection of 365 daily devotional onabundance by Robert Jones.
She's the founder and CEO of Wind in Tandem, asI said, but she's a changemaker who's worked in
various school settings for several years.
So, Risa, we're gonna go ahead and takeyourself off mute.

(10:25):
I'll put you in the forefront here, and I'lllet you talk.
Oh, and we have Christina there.
Alright.
Thank you, miss Kirkpatrick.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Risa Diva.
Please bear with me.
I'm also nervous, miss Kirkpatrick, but you arean amazing leader, and I'd like to start by

(10:49):
saying thank you.
I have some hiccups this morning, and Ithought, wow.
Why is it that whenever there's somethingimportant, there's always something?
And I wonder, is it just me, or does any of youidentify with what I just experienced?

(11:10):
But thank god for amazing leaders who step upwhen there's a need and serve.
And I'm honored to be here with other amazingleaders.
I I have high respect for all of you.
I just see you on Facebook, but I'm justamazed.

(11:31):
I'm amazed.
You all are amazing, and it's an honor to behere with you.
And, miss Kirkpatrick, thank you so, so, somuch.
I wouldn't be able to turn on my camera if youdid not make that last minute call, though I
know you're so, busy as well.
Well, what I'm about to share are my thoughtson leadership and its impacts.

(11:53):
I'd like to put out a disclaimer.
Everything that I'm gonna share is based on mypersonal experiences and lessons learned along
the way, some of which might be a reminder tomost of you, and that's okay.
My hope is to inspire and cheer you in beingthe best authentic leader that you are or can

(12:18):
be.
I'll start with a story, then I'll move onsharing, just a warning again, my screen.
I'm gonna share my screen on my thoughts onwhat it is to lead, how to lead, and what is
leadership.
When I saw the invitation for speakers in thissummit, I happened to just finish reading miss

(12:42):
Kirkpatrick's message to her younger self.
And that made me to wonder.
Like, I identified with it.
I thought, oh, that was me.
I saw myself in it.
I always see myself as a good follower, but nota leader until and here's the story.

(13:04):
Just bear with me, but we'll get to the point.
So until when I was in high school and I was atransfer.
By the way, my background, I was born andraised in The Philippines.
I'm American citizen now and having lived inUnited States for two decades.
This is my first time to truly speak againafter a long time.

(13:25):
So yay.
So when I'm going back to my high schoolexperience, I was myself shy.
I like to be quiet in the corner.
I'm a very keen observer because I wasintroverted.
So it takes a lot of courage to step up thereand show my face and talk.

(13:48):
But that was okay, and I really had fun.
However, having moved to that school days,weeks, and months passed, and I was like,
There's something odd.
Something doesn't seem to sit well with me.
There's just something.
So I did my research, and I noticed thatamongst 39 I was sophomore when I transferred.

(14:14):
Amongst 39 classes, There's a special treatmentgiven to only four classes.
And I'm like, they get everything modern.
They got everything special.
All the best teachers are there.
They're the leaders in all the student body,clubs, events.
And I'm like, well, all the 35 where theyhappen to put me were just left, like, as if

(14:42):
you're just a number there.
You're no good.
You're just, you know, you're just adding tothe number here, and we don't care about you.
There's that silent treatment like that.
And I'm like, that doesn't sound right.
And so I researched deeper.
I investigated, and I was like, is it reallythe rule of the school that only four classes

(15:07):
can lead, can participate, and can be a part ofalmost everything majoring the school, I found
that there's no such rules.
So I'm like, this this is not good because thisis depressing, and it's sad.
So even if I was an introverted, I was taughtearly on about justice, mercy, and truth.

(15:32):
And those values supersedes my shyness whenthere's a need.
At that time, I didn't see myself as a leaderyet.
I really don't think I have an idea of what itis a leader, but what happens next laid a
foundation on my the lessons I learned onleadership.

(15:54):
Because what happens next after finding outthat there's no such rule against participating
and being an active part of a thriving school,I got an idea.
I started whenever there's a competition in theschool, I started talking to my fellow
students, my classmates, my peers, and I'mlike, hey.

(16:16):
There's gonna be an art competition.
I know you're so good at this.
Why don't you join?
And then I would move on to one class becauseI'm in section one on the not high school
science high school.
I would gone from my section up to the thirtyfifth section, and I would say, hey.
There's this.
Why don't you join?
Let's sign up.

(16:36):
Come on.
Join me.
And they're like at first, their reaction waslike, what are you talking about?
Because they never heard it.
They never felt, like, their value.
They never see themselves as worthy.
So I'm like, no.
No.
You matter.
You have something to offer.
Go step up.

(16:57):
They're like, really?
So I first, I have to master that courage tostep up because they're looking, and they're
like, nobody's participating amongst us.
Why should we?
I'm like, well, I am participating.
I sign up.
I participate.

(17:18):
Doesn't matter whether I'm good at it or not.
I just sign up.
I put myself over there and say, it's safe.
Let's go.
Come on.
Let's join.
Sometimes I even have to nominate myself forthe student body, you know, because they're not
used to it.
And there's a lot of them.
35 times 30, that's a number versus four times30.

(17:39):
I'm like, wow.
But the good thing was, as I do that, I don'tknow.
It just comes naturally to me.
I don't like seeing people who are looked down,who are, who are not included because I know
how that feels.
It's fine with me, but, you know, you can't youcan't just be like that for a long it just

(18:04):
doesn't feel good.
So, eventually, the administrators noticed thatslowly but surely, those they are just
considering as merely a number is starting toparticipate.
So they're like, there must be a leader in you.
Who could that be?

(18:24):
And, well, that's me.
So they approach me and say, hey.
Hey.
What class are you in?
Where do you belong?
I'm like, here.
The not favorite one.
The labeled no good one.
So, like, that must be a mistake.
Where were you when we screened?

(18:44):
I'm like, unfortunately, I was not able to makeit.
When they're testing, I was not yet there.
I transferred after the screening test, so Ididn't make it to the cut.
And because they don't know me, they thoughtthat's just a number again.
She's no good.
And when they found out, well, she's leadingthe 35 other classes, and those other 35

(19:11):
classes, there's muses, there's artists,there's athletes.
They're they're the best of the best.
And they're like, no.
No.
No.
You should actually be on the other side.
But I was like, they did not recognize my valueto begin with.
So no.
Because now I see myself as championing theother classes.

(19:33):
You know?
And I like that feeling to see them see theirvalue, see their work, and and see them step
up.
That's a reward in myself.
And it went that way.
The the atmosphere changed in the school.
The depressing, sad state is no longer thesame.

(19:54):
We're all happy.
We're all participating.
I see confidence oozing in all 39 classes, notjust the four.
So I'm like, yes.
Yes.
And then I'm back to my quiet, shy, just quiet,relaxed kid.
And I was like, good job.
Good job.
Keep on.
Keep on.

(20:14):
Twenty five years later, I found out that theschool had expanded.
There's separate science high school, andthere's different specialties.
Nowadays, students have options depending ontheir chosen paths and strength.
Everybody has equal rights and opportunities.
And when I heard about that, I was like, wow.

(20:34):
That is amazing.
To those who knew our humble beginnings, theylook up to me as their leader.
Every time I go home, they're like, hey.
Risa's here.
Let's join together.
And I'm like, what's special?
You're here.
I'm here.
You're here.
What's with that?
You are our leader.

(20:56):
You are our leader.
I'm like, our leader?
The funny part was they see me as their leader.
But as for me, I saw a leader in each and everyone of them.
I saw their potential.
I saw their value.
And until now, I always see a leader in everyperson I meet.

(21:21):
I'm sorry.
I'm feeling emotional.
She's brought me back to that.
And I want no potential to be wasted because Ifirmly believe that we're all built in or we're
all created with built in assignments, withbuilt in missions, with built in purposes, just

(21:44):
waiting to be fulfilled.
So I don't want that to be wasted, but Iunderstand that first, to be a leader, to be a
good leader, we lead ourselves.
It starts with us.
We lead the choices that we make.
Our mindsets has to be aligned to the rightspot, and we lead our actions.

(22:09):
There's always you know, you can choose to dothe other way.
You can choose to go the other way earlierbecause it's been working.
My Zoom is working.
Everything is working.
I've been working on being prepared.
And when I woke up, turn in my computer, whathappened?
And right there, I have a choice.
Do I back out and just leave you all hanging inthe air and turn down miss Kirkpatrick, or I

(22:36):
just show up and do what I gotta do.
It doesn't matter even if I will sound like aradio if my video did not come up.
But, anyway, here I am.
And moving on, most of my colleagues then, myfellow students then, are now CEOs,

(22:58):
entrepreneurs, leaders, and some of them areeven millionaires.
Most of them are confident, happy, establishedindividuals, and that really makes me glad and
grateful.
And I'm just happy that I stepped up eventhough I do not understand that that's a form
of leadership.

(23:19):
It may not be that much, but to me, it matters.
And I believe there's a crowd.
There's somebody out there who may be just likemyself then, who needs to be encouraged, who
needs to be called and invited.
Come here.
Step up to the plate.

(23:40):
There's a room for you because there'ssomething that only you can do.
One of my colleagues asked me recently, hey,Riza.
I know you're introverted.
You're so quiet.
But why all of a sudden you're willing you'rewilling to put yourself up there?

(24:00):
Why is that?
I told her, I thank you for your question.
I really like that.
Because after I almost didn't make it after acar accident just before last Christmas.
I'm like, time is fleeting.
I'm not guaranteed tomorrow or the future.

(24:22):
All I can all I have is now, and that's all Ihave.
So if I don't step up now, who else will?
Somebody else can step up, but what they offeris different than what what I can offer.
What you can offer is different from what I canoffer, and what each of us can offer is unique
to us.
So here we go.

(24:44):
Allow me to share.
Oh, no.
Mister Patrick, how do I share?
Let's see.
My green score in the bottom.
Allow me to share my thoughts on what it is tolead.
I'll try to be quick.
Hopefully, this is can you see that now?

(25:06):
Yep.
We can see it now.
Thank you, miss Christina.
So you can see that?
So my thoughts on what it is to lead is to leadis to let go.
Let go of everything that limits you from beingyour best self, and it's a constant letting go
of fears, doubts, inhibitions, negativity,anything that's in the way.

(25:29):
And I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
Next, for letter e, is to engage.
To lead is to engage with others in the worldaround you.
Eight, to lead is to authentically align.
There's that element of needing to beauthentic.

(25:51):
Authentic, be authentic, and align to yourpurpose, to your calling, to your mission, to
your vision, and to your values.
You don't have to be somebody else.
You just have to be authentically aligned.
D, to lead is to diligently do.
There's a doing, and there's a doing itdiligently, whatever you can as best you can.

(26:18):
And how?
How it is to be a leader?
It's simple.
A leader leads.
A leader encourages.
A leader accepts.
A leader is determined.
A leader empowers.
A leader is responsible.

(26:42):
Responsible for taking responsibility,responsible for affecting others, to be
responsible for what?
For leadership.
And I use another yet acronym for leadership,to be a good leader and to take on good

(27:05):
leadership, lead and live your best.
Embrace yourself, your experiences, your gifts,even your imperfections, your skills, and so on
and so forth.
Accept uniqueness and differences, both yoursand the others.

(27:30):
Then delegate, develop, and be determined.
You know?
It's it's not easy to lead alone.
We need each other.
We need each other.
Then encourage diversity in a very diverseworld.
We need this.

(27:51):
Respond well to whatever life throws at you,and be respectful irregardless.
Easily said than done.
I know.
But still, there's ways to work around this.
Step up to the plate.
Whenever you see a need where you can serve, goahead.

(28:13):
As a leader, it's a must for us to step up.
With humbleness of heart, intentionally inspireothers.
I chose the word intentional intentionallybecause that is needed.
Intentionality is really important as a leaderand to lead.

(28:36):
Lastly, for letter p, participate in spreadingpositivity, which I believe most of you are
doing already.
And thank you.
And another p is don't hesitate to pass on thebutton and the beautiful legacy to the next

(28:58):
generation of leaders.
When you're in a leadership, it's easy to keepit to yourself when you're at the heights, you
know, of whatever you have reached.
But passing the button to the next generationis also important so they can be good leaders.
Lastly, why?

(29:19):
To answer the why, when you lead, you conqueryourself.
You overcome.
You win.
And as you do, your leadership impacts thosearound you.
That is why you should lead.
Here are some impacts of leadership that Iknow.

(29:42):
When you lead, when you step up to that plateof leadership, it fills a need.
It answers a call.
It fulfills purpose.
It makes a difference.
It transforms lives.
It adds value to others.
It builds a legacy.

(30:07):
I like how our former the former president,John Quincy Adams, state that if your actions
inspire others to dream more, learn more, domore, and become more, you are a leader.
I think okay.

(30:29):
I said what I wanted to share.
And to my fellow leaders, I commend you.
I'm proud of all of you.
I respect you.
Lead well.
Keep on showing up.
Keep on adding value to others.
Keep on being authentically the best leaderthat you are.

(30:49):
Thank you.
Thank you, Risa, very much.
I really appreciate that.
That was wonderful.
A great insight.
So we have not quite everybody here, but almosteverybody here.

(31:12):
And I know there we had quite a few sign upwith Eventbrite, so it could be the timing is
off.
I don't know.
But I thank you all for being here.
That was really insightful.
If everybody wants to come off of their mute,unmute yourself.
Excuse me.

(31:32):
Still getting over that little bit of cough.
And maybe talk about one thing that Risa saidthat really impacted you.
David, do you wanna go first?
Sure.
You know, I thought it was really, insightfulhow she helped through the schooling and
learning, you know, seeing what what's thereand, you know, I'll talk to her in a few

(31:53):
minutes about it, but, you know, a leader issomebody who just steps up, not doesn't
necessarily need to be told, but, she did thatand looked for, to help other people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was really great.
I think I would have been too afraid when I wasyoung.
Christina, do you have a comment?

(32:15):
Yeah.
What I took away from that, I think theintentionally inspiring others was very
impactful.
There's other things that I wrote down herethat were pretty great, but I think the
intentionally part of inspiring others meansthat resonated with me because that's what I
tried to do too.

(32:35):
So I can totally see that as being a key aspectin being a leader.
Yeah.
That was really great.
So thank you, Risa, very much for being here,and and she was talking about about the
hiccups.
She was having so much problem with her herZoom and her computer and her phone, and she

(33:00):
called, and it's like, okay.
Let's just see what we can do.
And her IT person actually had to go to work,so she was like, oh, help.
But we got it covered, and it went great.
Theresa, thank you so much for for giving yourtalk today and being here.
So we've got a little bit of time.

(33:22):
Christina, I'm gonna ask you.
What was something you were looking forward totoday, coming here to this summit?
If you don't
mind me putting you on the spot.
That's okay.
I, to be honest, I didn't know what to expect,but what I was forward to was being around like
minded people and learning from you all.

(33:46):
So when I heard this morning about it and andsorry for not paying attention in the chats.
It probably has been advertised, you know,before.
But this morning, I had the opportunity to beable to make it to the time slot for this, this
time frame.
So I was like, you know what?
I'm gonna show up.
One, to show up for you, Ellis, and then two,is just to be able to be around others who are

(34:11):
like minded and who who have something toteach.
Yeah.
Thank you.
And I know there's a few people who are doingthings about leadership right now.
I really had no idea.
It's kinda like we all had the same idea.
And so I I'm really glad to hear that because,like Risa, I had no idea that I was a leader

(34:35):
until one day, my family said to me, well,you're the leader.
You need to tell us what to do.
And I was like, me?
When did that happen?
I didn't know that.
And and I have another story.
I did a podcast with Clifford Starks, and I'mnot sure if any of you know who that is.

(34:59):
But he was telling me that when he was fouryears old, he was a leader.
Only he didn't realize it.
It wasn't until thirty years later when his dadsaid to him, I want to have a serious
conversation with you.
I want you to know that you are a leader.

(35:20):
You have always been a leader, and I want youto take that and do something positive and good
with it.
And they got to talking.
That's how I found out.
He was four years old when he was first aleader.
But but it's amazing how many times that we dosomething, and sometimes we're just doing it.
We don't realize that we've actually putourselves in a leadership role.

(35:43):
It's just something that we wanted to do.
We wanted to inspire others.
We wanted to make a change.
I see each one of you here who has done that.
Krista, you go into such a dangerous world tomake a change for people who do not have a
voice for themselves.
It's it's just something I would be too angryand get into trouble too many times to do what

(36:10):
you do.
And and each one of you here have something.
This is is I can't imagine going to anothercountry without already knowing the language,
studying it.
I mean, one time I went to Taiwan with myhusband, but I could be a tourist.

(36:31):
I didn't have to be involved until I went totalk to the people.
And then it was like, how do I communicate withthem?
What do I say to them so they can understand?
And finally, I went on my laptop, and it wasbefore AI was there and a lot of advances was

(36:53):
in use as much as it is.
And I went on Google Doc or on GoogleTranslate, and I put in what I wanted to say,
had it translated to their language.
Then I took that down to the concierge of thehotel, and I said, is this correct?
And I explained to him, you know, grocerystores and supermarkets are not words that they

(37:15):
normally use.
So I had to explain what I was talking about.
And then I took that and went to they have adaily market where, you know, they buy their
food every day.
It's not like they store them in refrigeratorsand stuff like we have.
And then to go there and actually finally afterit was like eight days of not being able to

(37:36):
communicate that way with them.
I was able to show it to somebody.
They read it, and then they go, oh, that's whythis crazy white woman was here all the time.
And and it was just kind of funny to be able tosee the transition.
Now we were able to communicate a little bit.
They found somebody who spoke English so thatshe could translate for us.

(37:58):
And then they started taking me into theirstores, which the store is just the front of
their home.
And and we talked and we learned and theyshared stories, and it was just amazing to be
able to do something like that.
But to move my whole life like you have, Risa,and your whole family, I just I can't imagine

(38:20):
what that's like, but I'm so glad that you'rehere.
I see the difference you're making already.
Do you know the giving book volume for?
We had, 57 contributors for it.
Risa brought in over half of those herself.
She says this is a great project.
I know people who want to write who've neverwritten a book in their life, and she went to

(38:43):
work on it.
And she did this of her own.
I didn't ask her.
She came and asked me if it would be okay.
So if you need someone to really be a go getterfor you, here you go.
A reason's there.
So thank you for that.
You know, I looked up a few things aboutleadership.

(39:03):
Then I took it to chat GPT and said, organizethis for me.
So it comes in clearly.
One of the things that it came up with wasvision and purpose.
So it's like a GPS of leadership.
Because a leader without vision is like a shipwithout a compass.
On a dark night, no stars, no way to navigate.

(39:26):
You see, Walt Disney's dream of Disneyland backin the fifties was a vision of a place where
families could enjoy magic together.
Banks refused to fund it.
He risked everything, including mortgaging hisown home to bring Disneyland to life.
Today, that vision has shaped generations andredefined entertainment and spawned Disney

(39:50):
World.
So the takeaway from this is that leaders seebeyond the present and build a future worth
believing in.
An impactful leader sees beyond the present andinspires others to follow.
And Dave Kometsky is one of those leaders.
David is a deep massage expert, but he is aspeaker, an author, a podcast host, and a

(40:17):
producer.
He is a truth pathfinder, which, by the way, isthe name of his now is it a graphic novel or a
comic book?
What's the correct term, David?
It's a comic book.
Okay.
And I'm a deep message, though I do givemassages as well, but not licensed.
Sorry.
I think I'm okay.

(40:38):
It's time to get my glasses changed.
Alright.
He is a deep message expert.
Got a new hobby for you.
Oh, I don't wanna I don't want anybody hi.
He is a true pathfinder, which is the name ofhis comic book, with a mission to uplift lives

(41:01):
in every way by empowering individuals andgroups day by day, just whenever it hits his
fancy.
So through his content and teaching, he bringsinsights and a unique guiding principle so
others can grow and overcome obstacles.
Let's welcome David Kametsky, who does not givedeep massages.

(41:24):
Yep.
I I I I do.
I I just wanna set expectations like everythingelse, with all these amazing speakers.
So I just wanna make sure, I'll do my best onthe speaking.
And, when we see each other live, theexpectations is I'm a deep message expert, so
that way nobody has to be feel uncomfortablefor anything else.

(41:46):
Yeah.
Well, we're talking about leadership today.
You know, LS had just talked to us about WaltDisney.
How about Steve Jobs?
Anybody here know Kentucky Fried Chicken?
Right?
Colonel Sanders.
Would we all agree that those are leaders?

(42:08):
Would we agree that well, actually, everybodyhere, just raise your hand if you think you're
a leader.
Okay.
And you don't have to.
Come on, Crystal.
You don't no.
You don't have to.
I'm not I'm not gonna pick on anybody.
But if you once you raise your hand to say thatyou're a leader, you are a leader.
Now what are you leading?

(42:29):
That becomes a different set set ofcircumstances or how we're gonna lead.
And one of the other things that I'll talkabout, all of those people you know, those are
the big leaders.
Right?
You know, we can go to so many other stories.
I'd like to tell you a little story.
All of those people at one point were told no.

(42:49):
But not just no, know that it's not going tohappen.
Walt Disney, he didn't start his his journeytill midlife.
In his sixties, colonel Sanders had juststarted Kentucky Fried Chicken, which, you
know, depending on your eating capabilities,we'd say that they're at least successful.

(43:13):
Right?
Same thing with Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs was thrown out of Apple.
Right?
We all think about him as as the Apple CEO, butthe first few things didn't work.
He went to other companies, and some of themworked but less successfully.
But he knew to keep pushing.

(43:34):
And that's what I want you to start taking.
How many people know the story about thephoenix?
And I'm just gonna go really quickly.
Raise your hand.
Come on.
It is roughly.
So the phoenix most people say that the phoenixdies.
It does not.
I've done a lot of research on the phoenix.
It actually turns itself to ashes, and that'swhy people think that they're that it died.

(43:58):
Right?
If it turns to ashes.
But this is a really important question that asa leader or as a human as a human, I'd like you
to think about it a little bit deeper.
Do you believe you have a spark, that specialspark in life has nothing to do with
leadership?
Think about that for a second.

(44:18):
And if you feel that I'm sure that we've allexperienced those moments in the ashes and then
you had to get up, that's leadership.
No matter what, you chose to at least startleadership by ourselves.
And that's where leadership starts, by youraising your hand, saying that you're a leader.

(44:42):
That doesn't mean you're a leader yet, but youhave to start off that way, saying I'm gonna be
a leader.
I showed up, and now the magic happened.
Because one of the things that I'll I'll talkto you about, a quote from Mario Puzzo, the guy
who wrote the Godfather series, the trilogy.

(45:02):
What he wrote was men and I will just use thatterm loosely, so I know there's a lot of women
here.
But men are born great.
Men aren't born great.
They grow great.
So think about that for a second.
We are not born to be a leader.
In fact, we're born to actually not be aleader.

(45:25):
Right?
With our parents, we want for the protection,the safety.
What does a leader do stepping in front of thegroup or at least making their known their
opinions known?
Those are powerful things.
And especially when you most likely know howmany people are authors of a solo book that you

(45:48):
pushed out there for yourself?
K.
Congratulations to everybody who's raised theirhand.
And if you haven't, there's still theopportunity.
Because once you're in a book, you get to statetake that stand on a position much more than
just a chapter.

(46:10):
It's saying I am.
Right?
Going back to the bible, what was the mostimportant words with Moses going up to the
burning bush was I am.
And then it's one of the things that we take asourselves.
What are you as a person?
What type of leader?

(46:30):
You just said before, I saw everybody's handroses.
I am a leader.
That's powerful than just saying, hey.
I lead.
Think about that.
You define yourself.
As you've risen risen out of your ashes, muchlike Steve Jobs.
Again, got thrown out of Apple.
I think it was at least two times.

(46:52):
Walt Disney was told regularly that none ofthese ideas were gonna work.
How many authors have submitted works topublishing houses and didn't get it?
Right?
JK Rowling.
Have anybody heard the Harry Potter'strilogies?
Yeah.
I think that's a pretty successful example aswell.

(47:15):
How many times was she determined to get herstory out?
Getting our story out is one of the mostimportant things we need to do as a leader.
As a leader, getting our story out, gettingourselves out of that ashes, we could stay in
those ashes.
We're getting it up and creating a new story.

(47:36):
That's what it is.
That's what the rebirth of that phoenix birdis, is taking that story that we had and moving
it to that next level.
I've done it a few times, not only in my ownlife, my personal life, but in books.
Every time you write a new idea I don't knowabout anybody.

(47:57):
You can put it on quotes, you know, in in thechat.
What I'd love to to think, how many people arejust say I am if you are a creative person who
has more than one idea.
I'll give you a few seconds.
Yeah.
I'm sure a lot of you are.

(48:19):
And, really, having those ideas, you need toorganize it.
So another quote that I love about the role ofa leader is not to come up with all the ideas.
A great leader creates the environment wheregreat ideas can happen.
Think about that for a second.
So, again, the right environment, those ashes.

(48:42):
I asked you all, do have a spark?
Do you feel like you have a spark?
Because that's the magic of a phoenix, is thatit's a spark from god.
That's what reignites the phoenix.
It doesn't just sit there in the ashes.
And I, again, will challenge everybody on thiscall or who's gonna see this in the future.

(49:02):
You have that spark.
It might not feel like that while you're inthose ashes.
But when you do that, you start leading fromwithin, starting is a great thing.
It which is a Hawaiian prayer that says healthyself.
It heals ourself and changes the universe.

(49:24):
As a leader, we have to start that self lovewith us.
We can't be talking about love, preaching love,growing from love if we don't love ourselves.
Getting out of those ashes.
And that's what the phoenix does, gets out ofthose ashes and then find itself, starts to
create itself again.

(49:46):
I'd like you to think about yourself, your ownleadership journey since everybody did raise
their hands.
And how did you find yourself?
How did you put yourself together to even thinkthat you wanna be a leader?
Those are some things that you might have hadto go through.
I'm sure, and I'm not gonna ask anybody.

(50:08):
And, Krista, you know, I see you you have amillion ideas.
Three.
Three is the idea.
Anything more than three, we get distracted, weget lost.
So if at the end of the day, you start the daywith with three, you could always have three
for the next day.
And you could have your million ideas, but onlyreward yourself on having those three and even

(50:30):
maybe only accomplishing one.
And then there's days you can accomplish nonebecause as a leader, we also know that self
care is so important.
If we don't take care of ourselves, we're notgood.
We need to take care of ourselves and havethose ideas.
Keep running those lists.
Look.
I have a whole I'm gonna pull out my book.

(50:50):
Here's a book.
Well, I can't really see it because of that,but here's a book of all of my ideas just for
one set of books that I'm writing.
I have, like, three or four different booksdepending on my ideas.
That's why people go, Dave, you write, youknow, really prolific.
How come how is that possible?

(51:11):
Using AI?
No.
Not really.
I just sit, when I get stuck in one specificarea, I pivot it.
And I know the books are always there.
They're available, and that's how you lead isbecause you're not always as a leader, a leader
doesn't only react to everything that's infront of them.
They also need to plan.

(51:32):
As a phoenix, as we're rising out of the ashes,you have to plan in your next step.
What is your next steps?
It's a personal and professional.
Right?
We have to balance.
We have so many things.
I'm sure you all have families that don'tunderstand the entrepreneurial journey, that
don't just want your attention because of life.

(51:53):
Life will always get in the way.
And by embracing each part of our journey thenbrings us to another level.
Because I'm gonna tell you, no matter how highwe go, there's always gonna be another level.
I don't mean to say that as a bad thing.
I mean, it's an exciting thing.
By being that phoenix as we're rising, andwe'll get to that next level and get to that

(52:18):
next level, work at that next level.
Because it doesn't matter how far you'vefallen.
It's how many times you get up.
And, you know, when you're looking at a bird,the phoenix or anything, it's about the
confidence in in itself, within yourself.
And that's how leadership is.
When you raise your hand as a leader, it's allabout the confidence that you have.

(52:41):
You show confidence, man, people are gonnafollow you.
People will follow you because of thatconfidence, understanding where you're a
leader.
And, you know, there there are so many, youknow again, LS had mentioned so many people who
are leaders.
Now there's a lot of people who say that theyare a leader.
And I kinda push back a little bit and say,what are they leading, And how are they

(53:05):
leading?
There's two there's a whole bunch of tips andtypes of leaders.
And I'll even challenge people by saying,Hitler was a great leader.
Now let me tell you, I don't think anything hedid was was right, but he got a country to
follow him.
And if you think about that, that's a leader wedon't wanna be, not because of the morals, and
I'll have lots of conversations about that.

(53:28):
But we don't wanna have people follow us justbecause I say so.
And that's where and I know because I know mostof you on here pretty well that you are not
those type of leaders.
You're the type of leader who is a servantleader who's like, how can I lead with my
heart?
How can I lead in a way that's so much morehealthier for everybody?

(53:50):
It's not about me.
I might be the person who's in charge of theevent, but I'm not the leader.
I'm gonna make everybody better because they'regonna show up.
And that's what we do as a leader, is you showup by sharing the importance of your vision,
the alignment, alignment of who you are.

(54:12):
That's what would make us not a leader likethat gentleman I just mentioned.
So it's the alignment of knowing who you areand when you align with yourself, your most
authentic self.
There's some power there because we all knowsome great leaders.
You know, in our communities, there are somegreat leaders.

(54:32):
And I would challenge you to challenge thembecause if we're a leader, we wanna go further
than where we've ever been.
We don't wanna be just as far as the leaderthinks that they see.
That's why when we say you gotta be in the roomwhere it happens.
Yeah.
But make sure that that room has people who areabove you as well as below you.

(54:54):
You can see exactly where you're soaring, whereyou're taking that next lift.
You know, we share examples.
I mean, it's the idea of flying.
Think about how high you go.
I don't know.
I'm gonna assume that everybody here has beenon a plane at least once.
When we start on the runway, when we start onthe path, what happens?

(55:16):
You see it, and it's it looks different thanyou're standing on the ground.
Then when you start taking off, you get to seeso much more.
Same thing as leadership.
Leadership, the higher you go, the more you'llsee.
The more that you think about all those ideasas they start falling together, Krista.
Right?
They're all gonna come together in a way that'sgonna bring you to another level.

(55:41):
And because of your expertise, you get to thenbring other people to above them.
Rising tide lifts all boats, and that's thepower.
As you go higher, higher, higher, you'll seethings that you hadn't seen before, right,

(56:01):
until we we get to a a level.
And while it's not like a plane, leadership isthere's always gonna be something else.
So if you're working with a small company oryou're gonna scale up your business, those are
gonna give you new challenges.
And that's what leadership is, is being able tounderstand those challenges six months in

(56:22):
advance, not just reactionary.
Different types of leaders.
You have to know what to do right now ifsomething comes at you, but also a leader plan.
Doesn't just plan for now, plan for tomorrowfor two days.
One of the great leaders in the world wasAlexander the Great.

(56:43):
I saw in his name.
But what really makes him so powerful, whatmade him the military genius that he was, was
the opportunity that he knew he had to bringhis logistics.
He had to bring the food supplies if he wasgonna go take over another country.
And by doing that, that's what gave him thepower.

(57:06):
He didn't he could starve out some of the othercities.
He can work through the challenges he hadmilitarily before anybody else could do it.
And by our preparation, that's what leadershipgoes.
You know, another you know, great leaderthere's there's hundreds of examples of great
leaders.
And one of the great I don't know if anybodyplays tennis.

(57:29):
So a leader also identifies no matter wherethey are, they wanna go further.
Pete Sampras was the number one tennis playerin the world for a number of years.
And while he was number one, he walked over tohis coach and said, how do I get better?
And his coach said, hey.
You're number one.
You really can't get better than number one,buddy.

(57:50):
And he goes, I can.
He goes, everybody's coming after me.
Not I don't get to sit on number one.
We don't get to sit where we're at.
We get to sit as we keep pushing ourselves.
It's beyond one.
Because beyond one, knowing that and looking atthat, that's what a leader is.
And I know most of you, that's what it is.

(58:12):
It's our vision.
It's not only what we see, but what we see in afront.
It's not just what's in front of us.
It's what we see down the road when you'redriving, when you're moving.
And that's what the soaring is about.
It's knowing.
So when I wrote my book, you know, your heartsays it's your time to soar, you know well,

(58:33):
like, we we started off earlier.
You know, Lisa had had mentioned it and so didLS, but saying that they were concerned.
They were skit you know, they had a littleanxiety, a little angst, but they pushed
through.
Alita does that.
A leader pushes through because they know thatthat's what you have to do.
Right?
There's the courage of, oh my god.

(58:54):
This is not it's not gonna work, but I alsohave the confidence in ourselves.
And that's what the leadership is.
I know I'm, like, wrapping up close to my time,but I want us to think about that rising out of
the ashes, that spark that we all admitted thatwe have within ourselves, and be that leader.

(59:15):
There's so many ways to keep pushing ourselvesfor that alignment to who we are, the type of
leader we are, and that's what leadership is.
Again, like Simon Sinek said, the role of aleader is not to come up with all the great
ideas.
It's to create the environment so everybodyaround you can make the ideas happen.

(59:40):
And, you guys, that's something that we'redoing today, being put this together.
Thank Thank you, LS.
I think my time is up, and I wanna berespectful of that.
But let's create the environment, continue tobe in the environment, and thank you so much.
Well, thank you, David.
That was just amazing.
Thank you.
And, Krista, when it comes your turn, we'regonna tie what David said in with you.

(01:00:07):
And there's a reason that we're talking aboutthe you know, David, you brought up the point
about JK Rowling.
I had I don't know how I end up in some ofthese places, but I was on a webinar with a
gentleman who wrote a really famous children'sbook.
And he said he was actually in at his publisherwhen JK Rowling came in.

(01:00:33):
And he saw her, and he wondered, I wonder whatshe's writing about.
And he went in, he talked to his his, publisherand and had his agent there.
And he got his big fat check, and he came backout.
And he really wanted to talk to her.
Just something about her was very interesting.
So he waited and waited for her to come out,and they talked a little bit.

(01:00:56):
And she had her tiny little check she was sohappy to get, and he thought, okay.
That's alright.
Had he known that she was going to become asbig as she was, he would not have been so smug
about getting his big fat check.

(01:01:17):
He goes, I got a big fat check, but she got themovie deal.
She got all of the paraphernalia.
That's what I call it.
That goes with it and everything else.
And he goes, wow.
You just never know.
You never know who's going to be the one that'sgoing to really take off.
Now how I met David, I had gone to New York.

(01:01:38):
Didn't know him before that.
I was at a book launch, and he's he is sogracious to take us to places, show us things.
We got to go to the edge.
I think that was the name of it.
Yes, ma'am.
Big tall building.
You get to look over everything.
I actually saw saw the, Statue Of Liberty.
I was afraid I wasn't gonna get to see it atall.

(01:01:59):
And it looks like this little tiny thing out inthe middle of the water with all these huge
massive buildings and stuff around it, but itwas really cool.
But what intrigued me about David was somebodywas having a really emotional hard time because
of something that happened in their past, Andhe let that person have their feelings.

(01:02:23):
He let them talk about it, and he was therejust to calm down and talk this person through
it.
And I thought I didn't want to stare, but itwas just so beautiful watching this in action.
And I thought, wow.
Now that's someone that I would want to follow,and I would want to be an example after.

(01:02:44):
And I've gotten to know David since then, andand I'm really glad I did.
Wonderful, wonderful person to get to know.
If you haven't gotten to know David, you needneed to get to know David.
I'm really jealous he got his comic book outbefore I got mine done.
He helped me with my granddaughter's gettinghers out.
So does anybody have any questions for David?

(01:03:07):
Here's one thing.
So I wanna remind everybody that JK Rowling washomeless living in a in a car.
Yes.
That's right.
As a leader, it doesn't matter where you are,those ashes.
You know?
And and, you know, we use our our tools.
So the other story, we're talking about thatguy, David.
It can't be me.
But, you know, who you know, you step in.

(01:03:27):
Think about how many examples in your own liveswhere you might have stepped in and been a
leader, again, not by raising your hand.
A leader doesn't always raise their hand.
They do just by showing up and doing it.
By putting yourself to your light.
When you asked LS, how did I get to put in thisposition?
You did it by raising your hand and gathered,making that decision, and you should be

(01:03:51):
applauded for that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So, Kristophie, she'd like to get to know moreabout you and connect with you.
So that's really great.
Women women circles together.
I'd love to.
Yeah.
Okay.
I have to.
I just can't stand it.
This is why I can't keep secrets at Christmaseither.

(01:04:12):
I'm just so excited about it.
So, Krista, can you come off mute for a littlebit and just tell us, why would I think of you
when I think of a phoenix?
That's my brand.
Everything that I do is around the the Phoenixstory.
We say rise up out of the ashes of yourexperiences and live your life on fire.

(01:04:35):
Some of my work is around recovery from nineeleven.
Again, rise up out of the ashes.
So, yeah, it's it's connected and interwoveninto all seven of the divisions of my
organization.
I I also have a Phoenix background.
Was my TEDx talk that I I give.

(01:04:57):
There's a Phoenix within each one of us.
One of my high end products is the PhoenixInfluencer program.
So, yeah, it's great.
And that's why I I I learned, you know, Chris,that Phoenix doesn't die.
It's a it it stays in the the ashes.
It it does turn to ashes, that's where we makethe wrong assumptions.

(01:05:20):
And it's and it's the magic is that it's withinall cultures.
Most people think it's only an eastern culturebelief, but there's a phoenix or a bird like a
phoenix in everything, two places in the biblein in the in the Old Testament.
Now that I didn't know.

(01:05:42):
In the in the story of Adam and Eve, and thenalso in the story of, Noah.
Okay.
I'm gonna go back to those and look at themagain.
I'm doing something I've never done before.
I'm actually gonna read through the bible inone year.
I've never read through the whole thing at onetime ever.

(01:06:04):
And it's like, I need to do that at least once.
And a friend of mine said, would you read itwith me this year?
And I'm like, okay.
This will be the year we're doing it.
So just got up to Joseph.
That's a story.
Well, you talk about a leader.
Yeah.
I'm I'm gonna just use that as an example rightnow.

(01:06:25):
Joseph knew that he was a leader, but he didn'tpush his leadership on other people.
When he was in prison, he didn't say, hey.
You know, I'm this great person, and I can doall of this.
He just humbly accepted where he was at andcontinued on with it.
When, Pharaoh got him up in front of him andsays, hey.

(01:06:49):
Tell me my dreams.
And and Joseph said, I can't tell you yourdreams, but god will reveal it to me.
And then he didn't say, tell me your dream, andI'll go away and pray about it for a week and
come back and let you know.
It was as soon as pharaoh told him what thedream was, Joseph already had the answer.
And because of that, the pharaoh saw the wisdomin Joseph, and he says, I'm gonna need somebody

(01:07:14):
to lead this.
And it's like, I'm gonna pick you, Joseph,because you told me everything that was gonna
go on.
You told me what we should do to get it done.
You already seem to have a plan in mind.
You seem to know what you're doing.
You're gonna be the one to do it.
And so that's how, you know, the dream that hehad with his his family, where his brothers and
his dad bowed down before him came true.

(01:07:35):
Really quite quite amazing.
But now we're gonna come to the moon of our ourtalk, Crystal.
Chris part part of her, title is crystal moonhealing.
Is that correct?
Okay.
Good.

(01:07:55):
Good.
So when I thought of courageous leadershipgoing through tough times, I did think of
Crystal because leaders handle challenges andthat determines their true impact.
You think about Winston Church ill during WorldWar two, darkest days of World War two.

(01:08:20):
He stood before the British people anddeclared, we shall never surrender.
His leadership kept morale high and gave peoplehope when defeat seemed inevitable.
His courage inspired a nation to persevere,ultimately leading to victory.

(01:08:41):
So courageous leaders don't just react to fear.
They rise above it and inspire others to do thesame.
Courage is not the absence of fear.
It's leading despite it.
Now, Crystal Robinson is a devoted mother, aloving wife, and passionate advocate for health
and wellness.

(01:09:02):
And I blew up my screen bigger, so I hope Idon't mispronounce any words like I did for
David, who we know is not a deep tissue massagetherapist.
He has a deep message.
So as a national board certified health andwellness coach and a CHOPRA certified total

(01:09:25):
well-being coach.
I have no idea what CHOPRA is.
I'll have to have you explain that.
She integrates her expertise as a whole healthholistic nutrition practitioner, intuitive
energy healer, psychic, and spiritual medium.
With over thirty years in engineering,including seventeen as a vice president, she

(01:09:46):
blends analytical skills with compassionateservice.
Her personal experiences with grief, anxiety,and chronic health challenges have deepened her
understanding of the mind, body, spiritconnection, leading her to merge Eastern
healing practices with Western medicine.

(01:10:06):
Crystal's mission is to help others uncovertheir inner strength and take charge of their
health, specializing in reiki or reiki, howeveryou say it, quantum healing, meditation, and
holistic nutrition.
Her coaching is rooted in Vedic philosophy andevidence based psychology, empowering clients

(01:10:28):
as the experts of their own lives.
Through mindfulness I am trying so hard to saythis word right Ayurveda.
Ayurveda.
Okay.
Thank you.
Neuroscience and positive psychology.
She fosters awareness and personaltransformation, guiding individuals toward deep

(01:10:51):
healing, self discovery, and a more fulfilledlife.
So, Krista, what is Chopra?
Chopra.
Deepak Chopra.
Most people know of him as a writer and also anamazing doctor and scientist.
I am certified with his group as a totalwell-being coach, which really mixes the

(01:11:13):
science with the woo.
That's me.
I mix the science with the woo.
And that's what I'm gonna do today.
So when LS asked me, about this and put thisforth, this impact through leadership, I asked,
like, where do I see myself in this type of atheme?

(01:11:36):
Because I've I've talked to people and doneworkshops on wellness, and I've done, you know,
things around engineering.
But I've never really done a talk on leadershipother than just working with my team, my
previous team.
I have moved on from my engineering role fromthirty four years with, I would say, probably

(01:11:57):
70% of that in a leadership role That waspushed on me.
I was kind of just pushed into that role.
And I think that's what's happened with a lotof people in a corporate environment.
The leaders aren't necessarily trained inleadership.
They just kinda come in.
So when I asked myself, where do I see myselfin that theme of impact through leadership?

(01:12:22):
For me, toxic work environments was a big partof my awakening.
It was a big part of what conditioned me.
I was trained under a very toxic workenvironment, a very high stress job, pressured
into leading teams, and getting led by peoplewho didn't know how to lead, people who were

(01:12:50):
basically pushing forth dictatorship.
And all I can think of is David's talk earlierwhen he was talking a dictator.
Right?
And and how that person led.
And if you're basically brought up in thatenvironment, that's all you know.
And what does that do?
Right?
What does that do to you and how you react?

(01:13:14):
I specifically remember sitting in a meetingwith my team, my engineering team, and there
was blame being put all over my team.
And it was something completely out of theircontrol.
But leadership was just focusing on pointingfingers.
Right?
They weren't solving the problem.
They were just pointing fingers.

(01:13:34):
You did it.
This department did it.
That department did it.
Their their fault.
And at that point, I had a choice.
Right?
I could either keep shielding my team frombroken leadership or broken systems, or I could
change the way I led.
And that was my awakening.

(01:13:54):
And it really took my team to literally be goneand have to replace it almost completely
because of the hierarchy of leadership.
When they say the stuff comes downhill, itdoes.
If it starts at the top, everyone underneath itis gonna feel it.
So when I realized that, all I knew was Icouldn't learn from what I was being taught.

(01:14:17):
I couldn't learn from my current environment.
I couldn't learn from what was around me.
And even taking management courses and thingslike that, that doesn't teach you really how to
work with a team and how to lead in a specificenvironment where fear and authority is what's
controlling the people.
So if you thought about it, like, have you everbeen in a situation where leadership was based

(01:14:42):
on fear rather than trust?
And how did that affect how you worked?
How did that affect how you went forth in yourday?
How did that affect what you actually produced?
For most of us, it subdued everything.

(01:15:03):
We couldn't make good decisions.
We couldn't react on instinct because we werebeing held back by the fear.
So this is really important if you're leadingothers.
It doesn't matter if you're in a big corporateenvironment.
It doesn't matter if you're in a nonprofit, ifyou're an entrepreneur with a very small team,

(01:15:24):
even if you're just a shop owner and you have,you know, a few people that work for you.
You need to be able to empower your team.
And so that's one of the things I'm gonna talkabout because this was something that I learned
that I felt helped my team rise.
So the fear based leadership, of course,causes, like, burnout.
Right?
High turnover, very low morale.

(01:15:47):
People are calling in sick a lot.
They're they're not thriving.
Right?
The people around you aren't thriving.
They're just surviving.
They're just in there for the paycheck.
They don't really care anymore about what theydo.
They might have came into the job thinking, oh,this will be interesting.
I can't wait to do this.
And then when the fear is constantly on themand the blame, you know, it shrinks you, and

(01:16:10):
you can't really be who you're really supposedto be.
And when you guys were talking about thePhoenix earlier, that's all I could think of.
Like, it was it it was like you come into theashes.
Right?
You can't be bold, beautiful, and on fire.
So if you think about what happens when you'reempowered, when you're given the choice to make

(01:16:33):
a decision, how does that change what youproduce no matter what that is?
Whether that's when you coach somebody, whetherthat's when you make a decision about your
business, whether that's when you make adecision in your family.
If you're making that decision based on fear,it's always very hard to make, and it usually

(01:16:55):
isn't your gut response.
So what I would say is instead of focusing oncontrol, what I started to do was focus on the
people.
We're all human.
So when you focus on the people, you see whatare their strengths?
What are their resources?

(01:17:16):
What are they really good at?
Where does this person inspire me?
And you also look at, okay, what are theirweaknesses?
Where do they struggle?
Where do they need assistance?
And you look at that throughout your wholeteam.
And when you give people empowerment by givingthem responsibility over something they know

(01:17:39):
they're good at, you see the light go off.
Right?
You see their eyes just shine and they're like,oh, oh, really?
I can do that?
I love doing that.
It makes a huge change in the people that youwork with, in your team, in the people around
you, even if you think about a familyenvironment.

(01:17:59):
If you think about that colleague who has anincredible strength, right, and it might be
underutilized.
Like, they're they have it, but it's not intheir job description.
Right?
They're not using it.
What happens when you highlight it and youempower them to use it?
So the weaknesses, the other side.

(01:18:21):
Right?
Where you have undeveloped strengths.
Maybe it's the things you just don't like todo.
Most people don't like to do things they're notgood at.
Right?
Because they just can't they have to trudgethrough it.
And really looking at what those are.
Maybe instead of punishing them, what we startdoing is fostering those strengths and finding
the people that are good at the things they'reweak at and connecting them.

(01:18:45):
This is what makes a team.
You know, they always say there's no I in team.
So one person good at one thing, one person isgood at another.
It takes a village.
A village and a team are very similar.
You have strengths all across that team.
Foster all the strengths and connect thoseweaknesses with the strengths so that you

(01:19:06):
create a very solid team.
Really getting to know your people, getting toknow what they love outside of work, what they
love outside of what they're doing makes a hugedifference in how you can foster their
strengths and resources.
Because you might not know this person at homedoes this specific hobby, and it can be really

(01:19:28):
powerful and a whole another aspect of theirjob.
And if you don't know about the person, thenyou can't foster that empowerment.
You can't really give them that superpower andlet them go for it.
It really makes a difference.
One of the other things is we need to embracethe failures.
Right?
Like, we can focus on those strengths.

(01:19:50):
We can focus on the weaknesses.
We can connect the people, but we need toembrace the failures.
Right?
When we're giving people the empowerment tomake decisions, people are going to make
mistakes.
But that's how we learn.
Right?
We don't learn if we don't make a mistake.
Constantly doing things right all the time, wethink that we're, you know, above everyone.

(01:20:12):
And that doesn't happen.
It's not true.
You will make mistakes, and then you'll coverit up.
But if you embrace failure, if you really lookat failure and say, oh, okay.
I made this decision.
It was the wrong decision.
Or even somebody in your team, I see you madethat decision.
You tried
to go with your gut, and
it didn't work.
How can we embrace the failure?

(01:20:33):
What did we learn from this?
What didn't we look at before?
What resources maybe would have been helpfulthat we can use next time?
Like, really taking the failure as a learningplateau and using it for your whole team.
This is something I did with my engineers.
Somebody made a mistake.
It was like, okay.

(01:20:53):
We all make mistakes.
We're all making them, you know, with thingsthat we're designing, with things we're
creating.
But let's take a look.
Okay?
Let's look at as a team.
How could we have formed this differently?
Why did the mistake happen?
Can we see that we would have made the samemistake?
And it really helps, like, foster theenvironment of a team and people to really

(01:21:14):
share their ideas together.
It really fosters empowerment when you look atfailures as, alright.
How do we learn from this?
It really makes a difference.
I made lots of mistakes, lots of mistakes,especially in my leadership and and how I was
making that journey because I was literallymimicking what I was being shown, which was

(01:21:35):
fear, intimidation.
I know because I'm the boss.
And when you learn that way and you do that,especially in a male dominated field I was in a
male dominated field in engineering surroundedby men.
And when you're a woman in that type ofenvironment, you are not the bee and you are

(01:21:57):
not putting it forth with all your might.
You are weak.
You can't hang with the fellas.
So I had to be the bee.
That's what I thought, but that's not true.
I realized that what I was doing is I waspushing away the people in my team.
Right?

(01:22:17):
They didn't want to come to me and talk to meabout problems because I was just gonna come at
them.
I was going to treat them the same way theupper boss or the upper management was treating
me.
It was mirroring down until I learned that thatwasn't fostering my team.
It wasn't creating a good team.

(01:22:39):
So that's why I learned it the hard way.
Right?
I started losing people that were good, and thepeople that stayed really weren't that great.
I was just dealing with it.
So learning that your culture, that you'rearound, sometimes you can't change that
culture.
You can't change the higher ups.
You know?
They own the company or they've been therelonger than you.

(01:23:02):
You can't do anything about it, but you can dosomething about what you do.
You can change you.
You can change how you lead, and you can fosteryour team to actually be part of you.
You are not above your team.
You are a member of it.
It makes a huge difference in how they see youand how you see them.

(01:23:25):
Because if your team thrives, your departmentthrives, and you as a leader can thrive.
So when leaders create a great culture of,like, trust and support, the teams actually
will work together.
They actually will come to you when they don'tknow how to make a decision and say, alright.
I'm stuck here.

(01:23:46):
What do we do?
And then you can either give them advice or,okay.
Let's let's look at the team.
Let's all get together.
Let's make this decision as a group.
It makes a huge difference in how people feelabout the work they do and what they put forth.
It's not just the job anymore.
It's it's for each other, and that humanconnection makes a huge difference.

(01:24:11):
And one of that other shifts that I made movingfrom that, like, isolation of being the boss
was the connection.
Right?
Bridging those gaps.
So if you thought about it, what's one step youcould take this week to strengthen a

(01:24:31):
relationship with somebody that you lead?
Because leadership isn't about standing above.
Right?
It's about lifting others up.
It's about supporting others And brings us wayback to the beginning.

(01:24:54):
Biggest lesson.
Leadership is about impact.
It's the impact that you make.
So what impact are you making with the peopleyou lead?
So just to conclude it all, I know I've onlybeen another twenty minutes here, but my

(01:25:15):
leadership evolution is an example that you canchange.
You can really dig into yourself and say, well,I don't need to do things the same way others
do it.
I can do it the way my heart says I should ormy soul says I should.
Where fear based leadership always fails, trustand empowerment always succeed.

(01:25:39):
Great leaders focus on the strengths andsupport the weaknesses.
Failure is always a tool for growth.
Never demean empower.
And strong teams thrive on connection andtrust.

(01:26:01):
And that's how you lead.
Thanks.
That was really wonderful.
Thank you so much.
Wow.
I I enjoyed that.
I'm glad I get the time.
Very much.
When I'm when I'm podcasting, I don't have timeto take notes and write things down.

(01:26:23):
I'm enjoying this.
This is really good.
So does anybody have any comments, anyhighlights, anything that really, really stuck
with you?
Go ahead, Christina.
I thought, Crystal, that first of all, it wasexcellent talk.
If you guys only knew the position that I'm inright now at work, it's literally almost like,

(01:26:49):
you're speaking, Crystal, of leadership and andthe struggles of a corporate environment, and
those struggles apparently run through manydifferent companies because I see something
similar happening work.
And, you know, I just think that you gave me alot to think about in regards to trust and

(01:27:11):
empowerment always succeeding and being able tolead my teams in the sense of giving them
empowerment versus leading through fear.
Because you're right.
Everything that happens from the top tricklesdown.
It that's just the way that it is untilsomebody stops it.
And, usually, that squeaky wheel is one who isout the door sooner than later, you know,

(01:27:35):
because they just don't fit within the theculture of that type of arena.
But I I this was excellent.
It was very empowering just to hear andmotivating.
So knowing that, one, I'm not the only one, andtwo, that, you know, you can still lead through

(01:27:56):
struggle as long as you're setting the rightexample for your team and doing it the right
way.
So I I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank
you very much, Christina.
Definitely, feel free to reach out if you wantany tips or tricks.
I dealt with it.
I was at a specific company for over twentyeight years.
I stayed through all the toxicity.

(01:28:18):
And I thrived beside it.
That's that's powerful.
I like that.
Risa Diva, she says, wonderful insights,Crystal.
Good observations, Christina.
Yeah.
She she's off screen.
She's still recovering from her car accident.
So that's okay.

(01:28:38):
I told her that was fine.
I wonder if anybody here raise your hand ifyou've heard of Genghis Khan.
So he was a leader, but was he a great one?
You know?
Oh, and Adelaide says, thank you, Crystal, witha heart.

(01:29:03):
Genghis Khan, he ruled with brutality.
But did you know?
I've kinda felt like Paul Harvey with this isthe rest of the story.
His empire spanned nearly 12,000,000 squaremiles.
I mean, that's just massive.
And it lasted in parts for nearly sevencenturies.

(01:29:27):
Now according to Forbes, he Genghis Khanactually abolished torture, embraced religious
freedom, ran his kingdom meritocratically onmerits, advanced women's rights, and valued

(01:29:49):
education.
I had no idea.
I was talking about him in a talk I was givingone time.
And it's like, wow.
Because what do people concentrate on?
They concentrate on that his legacy is drenchedin blood.
But that really was only a part of it.
Do I wanna be a leader like Genghis Khan?

(01:30:12):
Not particularly.
It would be great to have those amazingachievements.
But, yeah, sometimes we have to look at thewhole picture, not just at at one part of it
through things.
So I think we've kind of all been sitting longenough, so we're going to rise up like a

(01:30:38):
phoenix.
Come on, everybody.
Stand up and wave those arms.
Get us moving.
We go to the right, and we go to the left, andwe go to the back, and we go to the front.
Shake it all out.
And and after Nick's talk, we'll actually takea little bit longer break so everybody can go

(01:31:01):
use the restroom or grab a sweater or getsomething to drink.
I always have something with me here.
I was just gonna say we need we need to get up.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Trying to take pointers from other places andevents that I've been in.
And Risa said she liked the Phoenix risinggesture.

(01:31:25):
I used to always start all my talks with musicand get everybody up and dance, but I couldn't
figure out how to get it to work through themicrophone.
Yeah.
I actually found, on Zoom now.
I finally upgraded it right, and there'sactually a little place on there that has I can

(01:31:45):
when I'm sharing my screen, I can make thesound from the screen come on, and it's like,
wow.
That worked out really well.
Yeah.
I wasn't sure if it was gonna work in thisenvironment or not, but I have used that
something like that before with the Zoom andput on the music.
Can do it on the next one.
Next time.
That's right.
That's right.
And I'm thinking all this Phoenix talk.

(01:32:07):
I should have named the summit BYOP, bring yourown Phoenix.
Oh, I guess I kinda did.
I brought Krista.
So, Nick, wow.
You talk about having a power of communication.
You know, words can build bridges or burn them.

(01:32:27):
Great leaders communicate with clarity andconviction.
A Martin Luther King Junior and his I have adream.
On 08/28/1963, Martin Luther King Juniordelivered one of the most powerful speeches in
history.
He painted a vivid picture of hope, unity, andjustice.

(01:32:49):
His words didn't just inform, they ignited amovement that changed the course of history.
Now the right words spoken with clarity andpassion have the power to transform lives.
Leaders must master the art of listening,speaking, and connecting.
And Nick, wow.

(01:33:11):
Is he ever someone who can communicate?
Now Nick is living proof that challenges don'tdefine us.
Our mindset and actions do.
Nick was born with cerebral palsy, but he'snever let it be an obstacle and instead uses it
as fuel to inspire others.

(01:33:34):
Certified 10 x business coach, he helpsentrepreneurs grow their businesses by
leveraging the power of podcasting, turningtheir voices into lead generation tools and
revenue driving assets.
He's developed powerful business growthtoolboxes designed to simplify brand building
and help business owners increase the revenueand most importantly, save time.

(01:33:59):
Passionate about collaboration, Nick worksalongside his best friend and business partner,
Kyle, to support entrepreneurs on theirjourney.
And together, they host weekly leadership checkins, helping business owners stay accountable
and achieve their goals.
Now beyond coaching, Nick is the host of theInfinite Abilities podcast where inspiring

(01:34:22):
stories take center stage.
He's focused on mindset, resilience, andentrepreneurial success.
The podcast features conversations with thoughtleaders, coaches, and experts who share
strategies for growth and overcoming obstacles.
From personal development to tactical businessadvice, every episode is designed to empower

(01:34:46):
listeners to push past their limits and realizethat their abilities are truly infinite.
And if you're ready to break through barriersand unlock your full potential, Nick Gearhart
is here to show you that with the right mindsetand strategy, anything is possible.
Now before I let Nick talk

(01:35:07):
Uh-oh.
Uh-oh.
Mhmm.
Now I have to find my mouse first.
I'm using two screens, so sometimes it getslost.
I'm not even sure, Nick, how we actually met.

(01:35:28):
I know we're both in Connected Leaders Academy,but I don't think that's how we met.
It's been so long.
I'm not sure.
But we have a great friendship now, and I loveevery time that we talk.
Me too.
I tell you, Nick is just amazing to work with.

(01:35:49):
He's positive.
He's upbeat, and he's been that way since hewas born.
Isn't that right, Nick?
For the most part, yes.
But, you know, there's definitely some timeswhere I wasn't.
But now I am again.
So yeah.
Yeah.
And and Nick as well as David.
And, David, I'm correct in saying that you wereon, a 10x or an sorry.

(01:36:17):
I I was
on a red dot?
My brain just stopped.
I was on a TEDx.
TEDx.
And, Nick, you were a TEDx speaker too.
Right?
Not yet.
But that is something that I will be doing.
Yep.
Not yet.
I was thinking both were yeah.
David is just just amazing.
He the first time I I talked with David whoops.

(01:36:40):
Sorry.
He had a baseball bat in the background.
Do you do you wanna kinda talk about that justa little bit, David?
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
Nicola, I'd love to talk to you a little bitmore offline.
I know we've
That'd be awesome.
Yeah.
So here, I'm gonna change my background.
So what with the baseball bat is my podcast,and it's called peace, love, and bring a bat.

(01:37:07):
And the bat is about bringing awesome thoughtsor being authentic today.
And I changed the background really, becausemost people go, hey.
You wanna bring a bat?
You could be a tough guy.
Anybody who knows me, I'm not a tough guy.
I talk tough, but, I'm not gonna bring a bat inthat way.
I think we need to bring out our awesome thingsand learning how to balance the the challenges

(01:37:31):
of life.
I would talk about the the baseball aspects ofit, but that's really where we all have to
figure out what balances, what challenges wehave, and how to sometimes hit to the others by
the field if you if you understand the baseballreference.
It's not all about hitting a home run, but it'sabout doing the best that you can do.
Yeah.
And, Adelaide, she put in, wow.

(01:37:52):
That is what's called leading narratives to getreactions and fans to that picture of the drive
of thoughts.
You are not strong to resist or yeah.
You are not strong to resist and stay willful.
Hope I said that right, Adelaide.
And you can come off off Mike if you want toand and talk too.

(01:38:13):
That'll be okay.
Nick's awesome.
I mean, I I I followed with him, and then we weI think I talked to Kyle at one point, and then
we just fell off each other's radars.
But, I'd I'd love to reconnect later.
K.
I apologize for that.
When we first started gig on, it was crazy.
Now we've got automations and follow-up, andwe're staring top of it now.

(01:38:34):
It's all good.
That that, right, that's the life of a of anentrepreneur.
You know?
You go
out of circles, come back.
But the right people that's what I believe inin the universe.
The right people always connect and, you know,at the right time.
Yep.
Good luck, man.
You got this.
Thank you.
And and I have to apologize to miss Vasquez.

(01:38:55):
I know I am not saying your name right, and I Iam really sorry.
I will work on it and get it get better at it.
I was hoping to see her when we were gonna goto, Puerto Rico, but there's been some power
issues there and and stuff with governmentsgoing back and forth, so we weren't able to go
yet.
So maybe she'll have to just just really helpme with that.

(01:39:18):
Can you come off off your mic for just aminute?
Hello, everyone.
Thank you, Alice.
Say your name for me, please.
It's Adelaida, Adelaida in Spanish.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm thank you for being here.
She's she's from Puerto Rico, and she has abusiness.

(01:39:39):
We'll have to have her talk maybe in a littlebit because
she's yeah.
So Boy, she has a story for sure.
But this is next time.
And I'm talking Absolutely.
I will love to, love to come on and talk aboutwhat we're doing here in Puerto Rico.
It's a big movement.
It's not just here.
It's not local.
It's global.

(01:40:01):
Yep.
It is.
Okay.
So, Nick, the power of communication.
You are so good at communicating with people.
You're gentle and positive.
I know that that from us talking, you maybeweren't always so positive that there was times

(01:40:21):
when you were were probably pretty upset.
Why don't you give us just a couple minutesabout that?
K.
I can do that.
So as you know, I do have cerebral palsy, so Iface challenges every single day.
And for instance, if you wanna see a challenge,check out any of my social medias.

(01:40:44):
I posted a video this morning of me makingFrench pressed coffee, and that was a struggle,
but I did it.
So I was born dead.
No heartbeat.
Wasn't breathing.
Nothing.
And because of the I I did get brain damage,which resulted in cerebral palsy, which I got

(01:41:08):
diagnosed at the age of one.
And the doctor said that I would never walk.
They said I probably never talk.
You know, I would be dependent on someone mywhole entire life.
Well, my parents didn't just take what thedoctors said and run run with it like a lot of

(01:41:29):
parents do, unfortunately, and they decided topush me me my whole life to figure out what I
could do for myself, and I'm truly grateful forthat.
Now when I was a kid, I didn't like it verymuch, but, you know, I'm really grateful for it
now.
I started walking at the age of five.

(01:41:52):
I got my driver's license at 16 even though Ikept getting told that I couldn't drive, even
though I got my first vehicle when I was 11because I lived on a farm.
So I've been driving since I was, you know, tenten years old.
But I never give up.
It's like, it doesn't matter how many no's youget.

(01:42:15):
Just keep going.
Just keep on going.
Now through my life, I've had more ups anddowns.
You know, I I've been down in deep depression,suicidal thoughts, the whole nine year old.
And it was about four years ago now, which wasa year after I lost my dad, I went into the

(01:42:41):
darkest department of my life.
And I'm I woke up one day, and I was like,something has to change.
Otherwise, there's only one thing that I'mgonna do, and it's not gonna be good.
So I started looking into self development,started reading books, started listening to

(01:43:03):
podcasts, and I just slowly started improvingmy mindset.
And that is everything, your mindset.
And I just kept working at that.
And, like, it's amazing because when you have apositive outlook on life, the whole world gets

(01:43:24):
better, and you start attracting the thingsthat you want into your life.
So just because I got started on that journey,I decided, hey.
I don't like working for somebody else becauseI worked for my dad for ten years until he
passed away, and then we sold our company.

(01:43:46):
And after that, I got a different job, and itjust wasn't the same.
You know?
Because when I worked for my dad, I was thelead supervisor of everyone.
So I was a leader, and that's what this is allabout.
I'll get back to that in a moment.

(01:44:06):
I just wanna touch on what LS was talkingabout.
I I just kept improving myself, and that's howI ended up where I am now.
I'm a certified 10 x business coach, and my mywhole life is 1,000 times better than it was

(01:44:30):
four years ago.
And let me tell you another thing.
I'm sitting here talking to all of you rightnow.
And four years ago, I wasn't able to order myown food at a restaurant because I was too
scared to talk to somebody that I didn't know.

(01:44:53):
So when you focus on yourself, focus on getting1% better every day and push yourself outside
your comfort zone every day as much as you can,you can accomplish so much more than you ever
thought.

(01:45:15):
So, Nick, tell people what kind of vehicle youdrive now, if you don't mind.
What day what day of the week are you talkingabout?
So I currently own four or five vehicles.
The fifth one doesn't run, so I'm not evengonna count that.

(01:45:37):
But my favorite car that I currently own is a1996 Eagle Talon, which is the same thing as
Mitsubishi Eclipse.
If you watch the Fast and the Furious, thefirst one, you know, the good the good one, It
is pretty much identical to the green car, butmine is orange.

(01:46:01):
So my dad gave me that when I graduated highschool, and I've owned it for almost fifteen
year years now.
And by the way, that car is a five speedmanual, and everybody that has brought with
with me will tell you that I'm one of the bestmanual drivers they've ever seen.

(01:46:24):
Awesome.
So I'm proud of that one.
Well, I see.
There's a truck above your head.
Do still have a job, and I do drive a garbagetruck at work.
Thankfully, I'm just down to part time now so Ican focus on my business.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(01:46:44):
I I know you're working to try to make yourbusiness your only job,
and I
I see you doing it.
I see you doing it a leader.
It won't be long now.
Nope.
Nope.
So, Nick, let's just go ahead and have youstart in on on your talk.
Is that okay?
Yep.
Was great.

(01:47:05):
So I I have a question, and raise your hand ifthis resonates with you.
Have you ever had a boss that just when theywalk in the room, your your blood pressure goes
up?
I was that boss many, many, many years ago.

(01:47:26):
When I first got started as the supervisor formy dad's company, I got a big head.
I was like, oh, I'm the boss.
I can boss a very own.
Let me tell you, that is not a leader at all.
My guys, they quickly started to not like me,and these are guys that I had a good

(01:47:51):
relationship with before because before Iwould, you know, an employ employee alongside
them.
I quickly learned that when you're a leader inan organization or anywhere, you should look at
it as everybody's you're a team member.

(01:48:12):
You're not above them.
Your job is to to lead them, not tell them whatto do.
Work together.
Make make stuff happen.
Once I learned that, things got a lot easier,and we we were like a big family.
And, you know, it was tough.

(01:48:35):
It was really tough when everybody started tonot like me.
I'm I'm somebody that a lot most people tend tolike, so that was kinda challenging for for me.
But I went on to you know, I realized I had aproblem, and the problem was myself.

(01:48:55):
So if you you are a leader and your teammembers are not working efficiently like you
need them to, I would recommend taking a lookat yourself.
And that's a tough pill to swallow, but it'llbe worth it in the end.

(01:49:16):
Now throughout my years, I I have been asupervisor at two different companies, and it
was actually pretty cool.
The last company I worked for, they theybrought me directly in as a supervisor, so I
didn't have to struggle and work my my way uplike I did for my dad, which if you worked for

(01:49:41):
family, that's harder than anything else to do.
So as a leader, it's important that your peopleknow your vision and your goal and know what
the company's mission statement is.

(01:50:03):
So every company should have a missionstatement.
It can be short and sweet and to the point.
And if everybody knows that and know whatthey're working towards, every everybody's
gonna love their job a whole lot better.
And this is extremely important.
Whether you're a solopreneur, you need to havethat for yourself.

(01:50:28):
You need to know where you're going, what youwant to do, and why you do it.
And if you don't have that, it gets very hardto get up in the morning and put in the work
that you you need to do.
Does anybody resonate with that one?

(01:50:49):
Do too because that's where I was with my ownbusiness not long ago.
I I wanna say I forgot why I started, but Iwasn't reminding myself daily.
I think this is important.
Every morning, remind yourself of your goals.

(01:51:09):
I I like to write my goals every morning, and Iwould like to say I do it every night also, but
I don't.
That's something that I'm working on, you know,constantly improving.
But write your goals, make sure they're alwaysat the top of of your mind so you know where
you're going and you know why you're doing whatwhat you do.

(01:51:34):
Can you raise a parent?
Who here owns their their own business?
Everyone.
Awesome.
Who here has employees?
Awesome.
Not yet, Crystal.

(01:51:58):
I have employees in a corporate
Okay.
Got you.
Got you.
Awesome.
So when you have employees, be the leader thatthey they need, and be the person that they can
count on when they get stuck.
Don't be the person that when they need you,they're too scared to come and ask you for

(01:52:23):
help.
Your employees need to be know that they cancount on you for everything.
And that is what I did at my dad's company.
I made sure that everybody knew who to go towhen they had a question.
Now it can get a little annoying becausesometimes you get the calls, and it's like, why

(01:52:50):
are you asking me about this?
But just answer their question.
Help them if they need it.
It's all good.
And when your employees know that they can goto you for anything, they're gonna help you
succeed faster than ever before because yougotta have the relationship with them.

(01:53:12):
They're not just employees.
They're your team.
They're the ones that are going to help youcreate the future that you want.
And along the way, you're gonna help themcreate the future that they want.
So whenever you can help them get closer totheir own goals, I would highly recommend doing

(01:53:34):
that.
And that's another thing.
A lot of employers don't care to ask theiremployees what they want in life, where they
wanna go.
And that was a real eye opener for for me at mylast job that I got after we sold my dad's
company is when I went in for the secondinterview, I had to don't ask why.

(01:54:01):
It was it was annoying.
But I had two.
And the second one, I actually got the owner ofthe company, and he asked me that question.
He asked me, what are your goals?
And at that time, I had no idea.
But he meant to go home that night, and he gaveme a list of a a few questions.

(01:54:27):
He wanted to know what my plan for life was,like, I wanted to go or what I wanted to do.
He wanted to know how much money I wanted tomake within five years, and he also wanted to
know what I wanted to do after I worked for himbecause he believed in everybody grow growing

(01:54:51):
to a point where they grow out of his company.
He wanted to build everybody up.
And that guy was an incredible boss.
Just incredible.
I still talk to him to this day.
I'm actually going to help him out with a fewthings tomorrow.
So it's good to keep those connections.

(01:55:15):
But if you do have employees, ask them thatbecause that's gonna show them that you you
care about them.
That's gonna show them that you're differentthan most employers who look at their employees
as well, I'm sorry, slaves, and they just wantthem there to work and and go home.

(01:55:40):
And that's it.
I think that all of our careers can be so muchmore than that.
Now me and my own business.
Like I last said, I have my own I have mybusiness partner, Kyle.
He's also my best my best friend, so thathelps.

(01:56:01):
And he'd been working since the beginning.
I started the company with him, and we've beenjust rocking and rolling together.
It gets very challenging when your best friendis your business partner.
You figure out really quickly how crappy youare at communicating with somebody that you

(01:56:26):
care about.
So that is something that we've had to work on,and I'm sure a lot a lot of you you can relate
to that.
Now for me, you know, this is my company, soI'm technically the leader even though I like
to look at both of us equal.
But I knew that I had to take charge infiguring out how we can communicate

(01:56:52):
effectively.
And one of the things that I actually did is Ireached out to a coach, and I asked the coach
for help because I think we all can agree herethat coaching works, and having a coach can
significantly improve your life and yourbusiness.
So I reached out to one of my coaches, and heagreed to help us get through the challenging

(01:57:19):
times when things have to get done and one ofyou isn't pulling your weight.
You know, it have it happened.
And what's important about that is I took theinitiative to find a solution to the problem.
Now sometimes as entrepreneurs, we don't lookfor the solution.

(01:57:44):
We just kinda let it go, brush it up, bury itdown deep, and guess what happens every time?
It reveals itself later on, and it's a wholedifferent monster than it was before.
So as entrepreneurs, as leaders, make sureyou're taking the initiative to solve the

(01:58:08):
problems that you have before they get biggerand worse.
Because especially with business partners, weall know how that can end, and it's never good.
So I always took the initiative.
Always be there for your people, for your team.

(01:58:29):
And for me, somebody told me this a while back,and they said, do everything in your company
once and then delegate it to somebody else.
Now when you're new, you gotta do it over andover and over until you can hire the right

(01:58:51):
employee to do to do that.
But once you start growing and scaling, that'swhat you can do.
And why it's good to learn everything?
It's because then when your team members have aquestion, you can answer that question.
And I'm a true believer, and I won't have myteam member do anything that I haven't done

(01:59:18):
before or am not still willing to do.
I'm willing to do anything as long as it helps.
So that's what I got.
It's a little shorter than what you want, butit was kinda last minute.
Does anybody have any questions?

(01:59:41):
This is all good, Dick.
Thanks so much for the reminders and andsharing the information that that you did,
sharing of your new journey and how you canlead, but also kinda be a partner with you with
the other people you work with, creating theright environment.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I also noticed as you were talking, all I couldthink of was the leading by example.

(02:00:05):
Mhmm.
Yep.
Right?
If you do it well, the others will do it well.
Exactly.
Yep.
I love that.
I thought you did a great job.
One thing that I'm taking back that I'llprobably apply to myself is that understand my
own mission statement when it comes to mybusiness because I have, you know, the

(02:00:27):
corporate life, and I know the mission of thecompany and, you know, and all that.
But when it comes to my business, I should havethat information downloaded and plugged in at
all times and focus on that.
So, yeah, I'll be doing that.
Awesome.
So My mission statement, by the way, is toempower 1,000,000,000 people to go out there

(02:00:49):
and inspire somebody else to improve theirlife.
So I probably should have brought that up whiletalking about that.
So he brought it up now.
It's all good.
It's all good.
I wanted to ask you.
Mhmm.
When did you find out that you were being acrappy leader in your dad's business, and what

(02:01:11):
did you do to correct that?
So, unfortunately, it took me a while a whileto figure it out.
It was about six months in, and it was because,you know, after a while, you keep a button head
with people, and, you know, people quit.

(02:01:31):
That was the work part of it is I had employeesleave.
And looking back, no.
So they were good employees.
I just wasn't a good leader.
And, you know, once that starts happening andthen, you know, I had my dad on my ass being
like, what's going on?

(02:01:53):
You know?
So that kinda pushed me too.
But I I just I I was like, okay.
What's not working here?
Like, it worked before when my dad was thesupervisor.
Why isn't it working with me?
And I started to look back at how my dad workedversus how I did.

(02:02:17):
I looked at how my dad communicated most of thetime with the employees versus how I did.
You know, my dad, he he would give the shirt upup his back to help anybody in the company.
So that's kind of what I began to do.

(02:02:37):
I'd I began to basically build a little fam.
So I started out by apologizing.
I got everybody together, and I told them thatI messed up.
I was the problem, and I'm sorry that I did thethings that I did.

(02:02:58):
So now that was extremely difficult, but thatright there, that touched every single point,
and everybody was willing to give me anothershot.
So we didn't.
And one of the things that I did is everyFriday after work, I would take that kinda

(02:03:22):
sounds bad because all of my employees weredrivers of big equipment, but we all go to the
the bar app afterwards.
Now I did always make sure they got home safe.
But every time we did that, it was just a nicelittle thing that we could do together and hang
out outside of work, and that really made ourrelationship a lot stronger.

(02:03:50):
And then when we were at work, it wasn't metelling everybody what to do anymore.
It was every morning.
We had a meeting every single morning.
And one one of my mentors, Grant Cardone, hedoes the same thing in in his organization.
They have a team meeting every morning.

(02:04:11):
This is huge.
This gets everybody on the same page.
You can share wins.
You can talk about, you know, how many saleswere made the day before, all of that good good
stuff.
So that's one of the things that I did.
Every morning, we had a a meeting, and we we goover what needed to be done.

(02:04:33):
And then we would all just agree on who's goingto do what.
If somebody got behind, who's going to pick upthe slack and all that sort of things.
And another thing that really helped that isI've started to let the little things slide

(02:04:53):
where before I would I would call you into myoffice for every stupid little thing that you
did wrong, and don't do don't do do that.
Don't micromanage.
People are people.
They're human.
You know what?
The the nobody's perfect.
So for instance, we had one employee that waslate almost every day every day.

(02:05:22):
He was late by a half hour to a hour to twohours.
Now when he showed up, he was great.
So it was rude, and we had a good friendship.
So it was really hard to yeah.
I didn't wanna let him go.
I didn't wanna fire him.
So what we did instead was I told him, alright.

(02:05:46):
You can be as late as you want, but you knowyour job.
Nobody's gonna help you if your truck breaks orif you fall behind.
If you come in late, you're working until it'sdone.
And he agreed to that, and it worked out forhim.
He he continued to to be late.

(02:06:06):
He actually became less late.
It was kinda weird.
After that, he was, like, slowly left later andlater.
It was kind of odd.
But I think it's because he didn't have thepressure to get to work on time.
He wasn't a morning person.
We started at 05:30 in the morning.
So, you know, it happens.

(02:06:28):
But he turned out to be one of the bestemployees that we ever had.
So it's just like all the little things, workwith people when you can.
I understand that some jobs, you have to bethere on time, things like that.
But a lot of times, you can be lenient withyour your team.

(02:06:52):
Wow.
Those are really great things that you broughtup.
I enjoyed that.
You also brought up in your conversationsomething that I just learned about this
morning, and that is the importance of writingyour goals daily.
I thought write your goals once, that's it.
You just try to hit them as it goes on.

(02:07:12):
But tell me why your thoughts behind why it'simportant to write your goals daily.
So when you wake up in the morning I mean, whohere likes to wake up in the morning?
Does anybody like going out of bed?
You like it?
You like it now?
Oh, that's good.
That means that you you have you know whyyou're here, and you have strong goals.

(02:07:39):
But that goes to show, like, when you havegoals and you write them first thing in the
morning, that gets you excited for the day.
It's like it reminds you, oh, hey.
My goal this year is to move to Miami, Florida,which that's actually my goal for this year.

(02:08:01):
I live I live in Minnesota right right now, andit's cold.
I don't like it.
So my goal is to move to Miami, Florida thisyear.
The my my number one top goal for this year.
Now I've got I've got goals that are a yeargoal.
Oh, you're you're in Tampa?
Awesome.

(02:08:22):
Well, next time I'm down there, I'll get a holdof you.
Have goals that are, you know, your monthlygoals, your yearly goals, five years, and ten
years.
Okay?
Now another goal that I have this year is to beon a physical stage one one once a month.

(02:08:46):
So I I did not do that this month, but nextmonth, I'm on two physical stages.
So I kinda made up for it.
And then in April, I have another one, and inMay, I have another one.
So now last year, I only had one physicalstage.

(02:09:07):
And guess what what?
Last year, it wasn't my goal to be on stages.
I wanted to, but I didn't write it down.
So it's the power of attracting the things thatyou want.
You I was that thing called the the law ofattraction.
Right.

(02:09:27):
It's real real real.
Like, guys, it's real.
A lot of people think it's woo wooey, but it'snot.
It's real.
So when you're constantly thinking about, okay.
I wanna be on stages every month of this year.
Let me tell you.
I did not call anyone to be on their stages.

(02:09:51):
I booked four stages this year, physical, andthey all reached out to me.
How does that work?
Yeah.
That's awesome.
I love that.
I I hate to cut you out, Nick.
I know we could talk a lot more, but, we havedoctor Clancy that's gonna be here at ten past

(02:10:11):
the hour.
So I am going to give everybody a chance to getup, stretch, go get some water, get coffee,
lunch, whatever you wanna get.
Take a bathroom break.
And let's try to be back here at ten after.
And I am going to share my screen and see if wecan play a little video.
I can remember where it's at.

(02:10:33):
I'm gonna put my booking link in the commentsif anybody wants to book a call and chat.
Sounds great.
Okay.
Let's let's be back on, in about ten minutes.
Okay?
I'll see if I can play this.

(02:16:43):
I had to find it and figure out how to shut itoff.
I thought it was gonna loop all the way, butthat's okay.
Hopefully, everybody would keep coming back.

(02:17:09):
Okay.
So I know that some of you are off camera, andthat's okay.
I know, Risa, you're still recovering from yourcar accident, so that's fine.
I just thank everybody for being here.
This has been a really great summit so far.
I know the rest of it's gonna be really great.

(02:17:30):
And I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
I was still looking for speakers yesterday, andthat is where I found doctor Shanea Clancy.
She answered my message.
We talked, and and she said yes.
And I was elated because I was scrambling.

(02:17:50):
I got another speaker the day before, and it'sbut it's it's the quality of the speakers that
I have that I love the most.
Everybody has something amazing and wonderfulthat's gonna help the next person get to where
they need to go.
And I think that's so much more important,helping each other.

(02:18:15):
And I think we've heard that a lot today isalways helping the next person get to where
they need to go.
So let me introduce doctor Clancy.
She is a number one best selling author and aglobal speaker whose messages have inspired
audiences at Fortune 500 companies like UPS,top universities such as the University of

(02:18:40):
Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, and 50 plushigh schools and colleges.
Doctor Clancy has coached, advised, and beenendorsed by and shared the stage with numerous
top achievers, including Demi Le Tebow.
I hope I said that incorrectly.
Anne Baylor, Jeff Hoffman, Jack Canfield, andJamie Kern Lima.

(02:19:04):
She has been featured on Fox, Times Radio, UK,PBS, CBS, NBC, and more inspiring live
audiences of over 65,000 plus.
She holds a RN diploma, BSN forensic, nursingand doctoral degrees from I'm sorry.

(02:19:27):
Do do how do you say the name of theuniversity?
You're good.
It's Duquesne University.
Duquesne.
Okay.
And an executive MBA in health care from theUniversity of Pittsburgh.
Give me just a minute.
We've got Latoya coming in here.

(02:19:49):
Okay.
Doctor Clancy is an advanced practice certifiedaddiction registered nurse and fellow in the
International Academy of Addictions Nursingwith a deep commitment to mental health,
restorative justice, and prison reform.
Wow.
As a highly sought after expert in leadership,mindset mastery, addiction, mental health, and

(02:20:12):
conflict resolution, She's dedicated toempowering others to shatter limiting beliefs,
ignite their purpose filled passion, andmaximize their full potential.
Through Clancy Consulting Services, her books,coaching, consultations, and live events, she
empowers individuals to create transformativefutures filled with love, light, and

(02:20:35):
leadership.
And, boy, I should get a big bonus at the endof this for going through all these tongue
twisters I've had today, but it's great.
It's wonderful.
It's at least I didn't say you were a deepmassage therapist.
Oh, well.
Get get my glasses raised up a little bit.

(02:20:56):
So I hope I got all of that right, and I'mreally glad you're here.
Now the one thing, I had come up with, and Ithought this fit, doctor Clancy, is what will
you leave behind?
So leadership is about the impact that lastsbeyond yourself.

(02:21:17):
Mother Teresa's life of service, she didn'texcuse me.
She didn't lead with wealth, power, orinfluence.
She led with love and service.
She dedicated her life to caring for the sick,poor, and dying.
Even after her death, her work continuesthrough the missionaries of charity touching
millions.

(02:21:39):
The greatest leaders are not remembered forwhat they achieved, but for how they changed
lives.
True leadership isn't about success.
It's about significance.
And on that point, I'd like to say one thing.
I love the way things kind of fall into placewhen you start to do something.

(02:22:00):
And I had just seen a documentary on motherTeresa.
And when she first went into the mission field,she said, I want to go to the most beautiful
place in the world.
No.
No.
No.
No.
She said, where is the place that is theawfulest, that is the roughest, that is the

(02:22:20):
poorest, that has the worst of everything init?
That's where I want to go.
I would not have asked for that.
I probably would have been terrified at thatage.
She was she was pretty young.
And but that's where she wanted to go becauseshe wanted to help the ones that could not help
themselves.
And I know we have a couple of people here whohelp those who cannot help themselves, and that

(02:22:46):
is so amazing.
So with all of that said, I would like tointroduce to you Doctor.
Shania Clancy.
Hello.
Hi, everybody.
It's so great to be here.
Thank you so much for inviting me.
I am just honored to be here and to share thisspace among so many other amazing folks doing

(02:23:08):
fantastic and phenomenal work.
I really just wanted to talk a little bit todayabout limiting beliefs and really how they
affect the resilient leader.
I really like how you started off, speakingabout mother Teresa and just how she wanted to
go to the places that nobody else wanted to gobecause that really is so significant, I think,

(02:23:35):
in leadership.
And, also, to me personally, I have had quitethe adventure to get to where I'm at, and I
really appreciate you taking the time to kindof read my bio.
But when we talk about leadership, I feel thatoftentimes, we see people's achievements, and

(02:23:57):
we see letters behind people's name and thingslike that.
And to be quite honest, I'm usually not I don'talways use doctor Shanna Clancy.
I'll just be Shanna Clancy.
And I've had people say, why don't you use thisor why do you do that?
Well, the the bottom line for me is that Ithink relatability is super important.

(02:24:20):
And even though, like, we see the success andthe accolades, we don't always see the grit
that it takes to get there behind each personthat they're bringing their full self to the
table, but we don't always get to see thoselayers that really got them there.
And that's where I wanna touch on limitingbeliefs and how they really can shape a

(02:24:45):
resilient leader or just leadership ortransformation in general.
What are limiting beliefs?
When we hear that term, almost there's likethat shift.
We're like, wait.
What does that really, really mean?
And sometimes they can just creep up out ofnowhere.
They're really just about those ingrainedconvictions that really are holding us back

(02:25:11):
from reaching our full potential.
And we may not realize at first that they aresubconsciously there or present, and it might
be when we, like, hit a bump in the road andwe're like, what is this feeling that's kind of
creeping up and how do I navigate this?
Yes.
I love in the chat.
I see stinking thinking.

(02:25:31):
Absolutely.
We wanna get rid of the stinking thinking.
So, really, you know, they're universal.
Everybody has limiting beliefs.
If somebody tells you they don't, I don't knowif I really would believe that.
Right?
Because we still have even if we say we don'thave reservation, there always is a little bit

(02:25:52):
of tugging internally.
Even, you know, for a lot of people that speak,some people get really nervous before they take
this stage, and that's kind of a limitingbelief.
But what we talk about is really, like, fear offailure.
I just wanna pause on that for a moment becausethe opposite of the fear of failure is really

(02:26:14):
the fear of success, and you can lead withboth.
Right?
So it has to do a lot with your mindset.
And if you're leading with failure or negativethoughts, negative self belief, that is what
you're going to produce.
And it took me a while to realize that I mightnot be able to control my environment around

(02:26:38):
me.
I may not be able to control how peopleperceive me.
I can always be open to feedback and hold thatkind of positive regard to reevaluate how I'm
viewed or perceived.
But when we really take that stance to leadwith, like, a bold, really convicted spirit and

(02:27:01):
shift inside that we are worthy and we areenough to lead, whatever that looks like.
Leaders don't have to be somebody that isextremely loud or outgoing.
There's a lot of leaders that will lead veryquietly and very directly.

(02:27:22):
You know, we all come in different packages,and we have this unique toll belt, if you will,
of skills and assets that we've been providedto really just share with the world.
That's our purpose.
Right?
Because if we keep it all, what's the point?
We can't take it with us anyhow.
So I really believe in, like, paying thatforward, giving that back, and really just

(02:27:45):
letting go of the amazing things that we havebeen blessed with to make us unique just like
our thumbprints.
We all have different thumbprints, and that isreally the destiny, the legacy that when you
talked about mother Teresa, it's really whatit's about.

(02:28:07):
It's you know, we can't take all this stuffwith us.
But what are we leaving?
What is our lasting impact?
What are we passing on?
Are we breaking generational barriers?
Are we carrying on those limiting beliefs?
Because we're always leading by example.
People are always watching.
And when
we think leaders, leadership, we think ofpeople in high positions, high power, different

(02:28:31):
titles.
The reality is that every single person is aleader.
Somebody is looking up to you.
Somebody admires you.
You are somebody, and you are a leader whetheryou really wanna take that title or not.
It's just part of life.
And so we talk a little bit about impostorsyndrome, being a perfectionist, that scarcity

(02:28:56):
mindset.
And I actually I grew up in a really brokenhome and, like, really poor middle class of the
road.
And so when you grow up with that kind ofmindset, it's really hard to shift that.
And that's really where the mindset masterywhen I come and, you know, coach folks and and

(02:29:21):
really help, you know, tutor them and guidethem to really just pull those things out and
change the wording.
That's really what it comes down to is just,like, gifting the lens and the mindset that
we're perceiving ourselves through and whatwe're capable of doing.

(02:29:43):
Oftentimes, that's when impostor syndrome kicksin.
We think we're not good enough.
We think we're not qualified enough.
Reality is that we are.
We are equipped.
We just really have to believe in that andbelieve in what we're doing and our mission.
Peep pick up on that.
When we talk about I just wanted to touch alittle bit on, like, how limiting beliefs can

(02:30:07):
really, like, erode effective leadership.
Because the people that we are impacting,whether we realize it or not, can pick up on
those subtleties of your posture, yourpositioning, how you feel that you take up this
space in the world around you, and it can leadto kind of stifled progress if you are in a

(02:30:36):
scarcity mindset.
You're not really reaching your full potential.
And we want you to unleash that because you arebeautiful, you're handsome, you're enough, and
you can.
And I just think that, you know, overcomingthose limited beliefs have a lot to do with
mindset, creating that support system, somebodyto hold you accountable, be agile, emotionally

(02:30:59):
intelligent.
Not everybody has you know, when we talk aboutintelligence, people might think you have to be
smart.
It's really just about mastering the ability tobe agile and how you interact with other
people.
I personally had to overcome perfectionism alot.
I'm the oldest of six kids.

(02:31:20):
If any of you are the oldest, you know thatusually you are the one that is paving the way
for the rest of the siblings.
Usually, you're told no to sleepovers for,like, you know, the first eighteen years of
your life.
And really just kind of by the time you get tothe last, the parents are like, yeah.
Do whatever you want.

(02:31:41):
And the oldest is like, wait a minute.
What happened here?
And so that perfectionism, I really had tostrip away.
And that really happened when I had a reallyaltering moment in my life that changed the
entire trajectory of the rest of my life atsuch an early age.

(02:32:03):
That is why I wrote this book, transformingtrauma into triumph.
This is my testimony, and it took me quite awhile to get to the point to be able to share
that.
It is raw.
It is authentic.
And the only reason I wrote this is to be ableto help the next person believe that they are

(02:32:24):
enough, that the past doesn't have to defineyou, that there is still a hope and a future,
and you don't have to be perfect.
Just have to take it, like, sometimes second bysecond or day by day.
When my feet hit the ground every morning, it'sa mindset mindset shift.
If I try to look at it like opportunity, whatcan I do today that I didn't get done

(02:32:50):
yesterday?
I am a list person, and I love to cross off alist.
Right?
But then we always add to it, and you're like,well, it's the same size anyhow.
But the beauty in that is knowing that you canstart fresh the next day and really just
empower yourself to do your best.

(02:33:10):
And whatever that looks like, as long as we putour best foot forward, we've done our best.
We've done our best.
And putting our best foot forward might lookreally different from one day to the next, and
that's okay.
Some days we are not in the mental space, themental, emotional, spiritual, physical capacity

(02:33:34):
to show up in that perfect state.
There is no such thing.
There's no such thing.
We can try, but to be perfect, I don't knowanybody that's perfect.
And when I realized and accepted that that'sthe case, I took a weight off my shoulder and

(02:33:54):
was able to lead with the ability to know thatI can lead in the trenches, lead from behind.
But what I really love is servant leadershipand just being there to help the next person
really learn that they have whatever they needinside of them to be the best person, live the

(02:34:16):
best life, and really live their dreams andlive their purpose authentically and with
purpose.
I am just so glad to be here, and I wanna becognizant of the time as well.
But I would love to connect with anybody that,you know, even just wants to say hi and talk

(02:34:44):
about how we can lead others, why we leadothers, what is the importance of it, because
we all have relevance and significant and bringsomething very unique to the table that
somebody else could never do.
Our perception, our perspective holds a lot ofweight and value, and we all deserve a seat at
the table.
Thank you.

(02:35:06):
Thank you so much for being here.
Wow.
That was really great.
Let's see if I can get you back here witheverybody else.
Yeah.
So does anybody have any comments or orstatements or any golden nuggets you got from
from doctor Clancy's talk?
Go ahead and come off of mute and and just goahead and speak.

(02:35:29):
Yes.
Hi.
Hi, Ellis.
This is Latoya.
I just wanna say thank you so so much.
I felt like she was talking about me eventhough she doesn't know me.
I am the oldest sibling, and so I 100% canrelate to, that pressure, you know, trying to

(02:35:49):
make sure everything was, you know, correct,kinda having that, even though people would
say, oh, you're pioneering, it did not feellike that.
It felt like it was a lot of obstacles.
It was a lot of challenges.
But in indeed, you know, I did pave the way inmany aspects for the rest of my siblings.
So, you know, I appreciate that.

(02:36:11):
And also just her sharing about, you know,trying to be perfect and just, you know, truly
thinking that I didn't qualify or I didn't,have the skills and abilities.
Even though I know I did, it was, like,subconsciously, it took, kinda like as she
mentioned, that wake up call or that pivotalmoment to just be honest and say, can't

(02:36:35):
continue in this this ridiculous cycle of justshrinking back and just, you know, thinking
less than who I know God has called me to be.
So I thank you so much for sharing, today.
This is really a a blessing, and I'm glad I goton at the right time.
So thank you, ladies.
Thank you.

(02:36:55):
Thank you.
Wonderful.
Yeah.
Christopher says thank you.
I love we all deserve a seat at the table.
That that's so good.
Because I act you know?
And I wouldn't have even thought about it ifshe hadn't said that.
But I actually met somebody one time who alwaysfelt like they needed to sit away from the

(02:37:17):
table because they never felt welcome.
So, yeah, I agree.
I appreciate that everyone has a seat at thetable.
Christina would comment, but she's definitelyhaving Internet issues.
And she says limiting beliefs is always anexcellent topic, and thank you, Shanay, for for
talking about that.

(02:37:39):
Does anybody else have anything to say beforewe go on?
Okay.
Thank you so much for being here.
I know it was such short notice.
It was very valuable what you had to say, and Ireally appreciate you you taking the time and
sharing with us.
Yes.

(02:37:59):
Thank you for having me.
I did put my website and email in the chat.
If you go to the website, there's some freebiesfor you too.
So thank you again.
It's been
a been a pleasure.
Freebies are always nice.
Thank you.
Yeah.
You brought up some good points and and severalpeople have here, of course.

(02:38:20):
But leadership does start with ownership,owning it.
True leaders don't wait for permission to lead.
They take responsibility.
I think we've seen that in every talk,actually.
So it reminds me of the story of captainChelsea Sully Sullenburg and the miracle on the
Hudson.
Now in 02/2009, captain Sully had only secondsto decide what to do after Bird struck both

(02:38:45):
engines of US Airways flight fifteen fortynine.
He didn't wait for instructions or blamecircumstances.
He took full ownership of the situation.
His decisive leadership led to all 155passengers surviving miraculous landing on the
Hudson River.

(02:39:05):
I remember watching that in the news, and Ithought that was just incredible.
It could have broken up on the river.
He could have come in at different angles.
A whole lot of things could have happened.
And my husband flies, and I've gone throughflight school.
So I understand a little bit better of what waswhat could have happened.
But true leaders don't wait for idealconditions.

(02:39:26):
They take responsibility and act decisively.
Impactful leaders own their actions, decisions,and results.
I thought that fit in really well with Adam,what his talk is gonna be about.
Now Adam Latton is the founder of The ClearestYou.
He has been a practitioner, mentor, and studentof holistic healing in many forms since 1999.

(02:39:54):
His current focus is as a communication andconnection coach, but still works with clients
and other modalities.
He believes that clarity and accuracy ofyourself and others is paramount to a
successful life.
So, Adam, go ahead and and come off of mute andand let's talk a little bit here.

(02:40:17):
Okay.
So I'm gonna need everyone that's gone beforeme to take a breath and release it.
And just try and remember that I want everyoneto succeed their way in whichever way they need
to succeed.
So I'm offering tools and ideas that actuallyrun contrary to what a lot of people are

(02:40:41):
focusing on.
So I I need people to understand if your systemand your style is working for you, I am not
saying change it up.
But especially if you're an entrepreneur or ortrying to lead or trying to engage and you find
you're getting self frustrated with people oryou're burnt out because of how much you're

(02:41:07):
doing and how much you're engaging, this thesetools might actually benefit you.
Okay?
I absolutely believe in everyone's ability todecide how they want to show up in the world.
I would never tell someone, don't show up thisway.

(02:41:29):
What I would tell them is stop listening toother people that tell you have to show up
every single different way.
I believe it's important to acknowledge thatthere are many things you can't do, and you're
not supposed to.
That it's essential that you accept can't as apart of your existence simply because of the

(02:41:55):
limitation of time.
Because while you are engaging with one thingfor five minutes, expecting yourself to engage
with five others does not make any logicalsense.
And so this is hard for a lot of people whowant to juggle everything in their business.
Instead of really leading, what they're justdoing is they're trying to be everything.

(02:42:18):
So I also believe wholeheartedly as a healerthat part of leadership is asking for consent,
Is someone who actually is clear on is doessomeone want to receive my leadership?

(02:42:38):
Because I know many leaders that actually donot request consent from other people, that do
not actually require to or consider, cansomeone be led in this direction?
Am I actually leading them accurately based onhow they function, based on how they engage?

(02:43:06):
So I talk a lot about saying, where is yourevidence of someone's skill and or evidence
that they want to develop that skill?
Okay?
I believe in the idea rather than dependingupon a small group of people that each person
has their own unique zone of genius and thatanything outside of that zone is not their

(02:43:32):
responsibility or something they shouldactually be doing.
I know this runs contrary to how everyone elsefunctions, but we're now dealing with a surge
of neurodiversity where we're realizingeveryone thinks differently.
We're really understanding individually howpeople learn and how they don't.

(02:43:53):
Saying to someone, I'm going to lead you to bean auditory learner, especially without their
permission because you're a visual learner orpresenting things in a visual way does not
work.
And so a lot of cases, we need to be able toassess, not from a place you're a bad human

(02:44:15):
because you don't function this way, but thatyour expectation so many people I coach, they
expect people in their family to be able tolearn and understand things when their brains
do not absorb information the same way thatthey do.
It's not gonna happen.
You can't choose how you absorb information.

(02:44:38):
And so it's really important to be able to saysomeone can't do this, especially now don't get
me wrong.
I am an empowerment person all the way.
Someone comes to me and says, I want to dothis.
I'm never going to tell them, don't do this.
But I'm also not gonna say to someone, I knowyou can do this simply automatically.

(02:45:02):
I know so many healers and helpers that they'llhear someone say, I can't do this, and they'll
immediately jump in without even saying, why doyou want to do this?
What's driving you in this direction?
They're immediately just gonna say, yes.
You can.
And that may continue to cause someone to bedistracted away from their authentic zone of
genius where they celebrate, where they engage,where they connect.

(02:45:26):
Okay?
So this is a very different point of viewbecause people always say limit is bad.
But, actually, we live in an era with so muchoverabundance of information.
I truly believe in the need to filter, that ourfilter has become so much more essential.

(02:45:48):
We don't have people coaching around filtering.
Is this truly for me?
Is that person truly in a position to engagewith this information, with this task, with
this identity.
And so I'm not saying that if they let go ofeverything else, they wouldn't potentially be

(02:46:11):
able to learn it.
But then again, you're placing your value andyour perception of what you want someone to
create over and above what someone else wantsto create.
And so this is a thing that people don'trealize.
There's I work with so many people that havedone law of attraction or different techniques

(02:46:36):
that are meant to empower, but they're they arethey feel ashamed because they can't create,
because they can't manifest, because they'renot able to have these specific things that
they're instructed.
If they just hope and focus long enough, nomatter what, they will be able to create it.
And then they turn inward, and they attackthemselves, and they're struggling with shame.

(02:47:01):
And they I don't want that for people.
I don't want that for individuals.
So there I'm the balance of, yes.
Absolutely.
You can create your way.
But my question is, is it your way, or is itpotentially how you were taught or something

(02:47:23):
someone else wanted for you or all of thesedifferent things?
Because I believe if you're in your zone ofgenius, you're in a level of inspiration.
And if you're not able to do a particular task,it may be because that's not your authentic
zone of genius, and you shouldn't be ashamedfor not having that skill, for not developing

(02:47:43):
that skill.
Instead, you should redirect where you'restrong and partner and build a community of
people.
Because there may be someone like, a lot of mywork is on mindset, but in a different way than
a lot of other people.
If someone needs a different, more, like,esoteric mindset or I work with clients and I

(02:48:07):
they need hypnotherapy because so much of theirtrauma is subconscious.
I'm gonna refer out to those people.
I'm gonna engage with those people.
I'm gonna connect with those people because Ican't do that work to heal them.
That is not my zone of genius, and I haveenough of a community that I don't need to be

(02:48:28):
the one to to do this.
I don't need to be the one I don't need to assomeone was saying earlier, I don't need to
know and be able to do each and every taskbecause that's not where and if you if that is
what you feel comforts and supports your team,I'm not saying don't do it.

(02:48:48):
I'm saying that if you're finding yourselfstruggling, if you're looking at everyone and
you're going, how come I'm doing so much morethan everyone else?
Are you looking at the fact that they could bedoing more because you do more, or are you
looking at
the
fact that, like, you just don't believe theycould be that limited?

(02:49:15):
Well, then what if they are?
What are you doing to someone when you'retrying to empower them if you're pushing them
based on your own value, based on your ownidentity, based on where you're coming from?
Again, I'm not saying if someone's actively intheir free will wanna create something, I would
never swatch that.

(02:49:36):
But I believe information is reallyinformational consent is just as relevant as
physical consent, that we should shareinformation only with the consent of the people
involved.

(02:49:56):
The like, one of those thing I'm fromConnecticut, and the majority of people here, I
say they shove their opinion more than theyshare their opinion.
And so are you unintentionally even thoughyou're coming from a good centered place, are
you telling someone they can do something eventhough they can't, and it's not something they

(02:50:18):
want to do?
That they they, quote, unquote, want to putenergy into having that skill, having that
ability, having that identity.
Okay?
It it's like someone else telling you it's theexact same thing as telling someone they can't
do something when they can.
It's the exact same message.

(02:50:39):
It is exactly the same.
It is equally disempowering unless you are suresomeone is seeking to create that for
themselves.
And so it's hard for people to hear that.
It's a very difficult thing to understand thatgood intentioned as you are, you may be

(02:51:01):
creating a sense of shame in someone else.
They may be experiencing a level of negativeresponse simply from being told, well, you
should be able to do this.
Why aren't you doing it?
And that's not a good message, and peoplerarely consider that.

(02:51:24):
And so as a leader, I think it's important toacknowledge, are you matching someone with
theirs are you matching the expectation withtheir individual skill and ability?
Or are you match putting someone in a positionand asking them to grow into it even though

(02:51:47):
they're not really a right fit for it.
They don't really have the capacity tonecessarily develop that.
Or equally, I know a lot of entrepreneurs thattry and find duplicates of themselves within
their business.
They try and hire someone for a large chunk oftheir tasks.

(02:52:09):
And instead, maybe there are people out therethat have a singular skill, and hiring three
people part time is better than attempting tohire someone full time, someone operating in
their zone of genius.
Again, I'm not saying that if someone wants tobe a leader, they shouldn't be a leader.

(02:52:30):
But I also believe on the opposite of whatsomeone else was saying, if someone is not
drawn into leadership, we should not be pushingsomeone into developing leadership skills
because there are plenty of people that trulyare satisfied being an employee.
They don't want to develop leadership.

(02:52:52):
They want to engage with the materials they'rethey have, be able to leave it, go home, and do
the same thing over again.
And that is authentically how they want to showup in life.
They don't want to show up differently.
And sometimes those of us that get overenthusiastic, and I did the same thing for

(02:53:15):
quite a bit of time until I realized thisawareness, until I developed this awareness of
most people that are not seeking to grow, wehave to be able to give them permission to be
stagnant.
We have to give them permission to be whereverit is they're being and not promote growth if

(02:53:43):
that's not their free will choice.
To acknowledge that there are some people thatare not supposed to grow.
They're not supposed to expand.
They're just supposed to show up and leave, andthat's okay if that's within their path, if
that's where in their direction.

(02:54:06):
I I also agree with what Cristophe just said.
If they're looking to stay stagnant, they'renot looking for a coach.
But what I'm what I do is I coach people thatwaste a lot of time not letting people that are
want to stay stagnant stay stagnant.
Like, they they're pushing so much to healpeople that are on the path of limitation, and

(02:54:34):
they're not they're not going to make changes.
There's evidence.
They're not exactly accepting people where theyare.
They're not accepting people where they are.
That I I'd never want to diminish anyone.
I never want to make someone feel small, but Idon't want to artificially try and pump up

(02:54:58):
someone that doesn't wanna be pumped up.
And that's the flip of what a lot of peopledon't talk about is how there's this underlying
level of there's somehow this messaging ofeveryone is capable, willing to choose, engage.

(02:55:19):
They have all the resources they need to bemore than what they are, all of these different
things.
If you want to do those things, I truly believethat.
But if you aren't actively seeking to be thatperson, accept that someone when someone tells
you, I can't do something, ask yourself, arethey interested in doing it first?

(02:55:46):
Are you then ask yourself, do I have theirconsent to actually offer them information that
will draw them in that direction?
And then third, are they willing to reallyreceive that information from me?
Because there will be people that will notreceive from me that will receive from someone
else and vice versa.

(02:56:08):
And so this is why accepting can't needs to beworked in when working and engaging externally.
And I talk a lot about physical location.
And if you really study mindset, every locationhas a different communal mindset.

(02:56:28):
So even if you are a positive manifester, youmay be in a location that the communal mindset
creates so much of a flow in the oppositedirection, you're not creating in the right
place.
So you may have to say, I can't create here.
I can't build this here.

(02:56:50):
And I really I knew that, but I got to trulyexperience it when I moved from Connecticut to
Peru.
When I was living in Connecticut, I could notcreate a romantic bond to save my life.
Couldn't do it.
Nobody I connected with had a mindset that wasa match or anything like that.

(02:57:15):
I moved to Peru.
Soon as I got there, went on a few dating apps,went on a few interactions.
And in seven weeks, I met my wife, who I'm nowmarried to, for almost three years.
And so location and communal mindset does haveimpact.

(02:57:39):
And there are external factors that make you atleast create tremendous resistance in creation
with a lot of people.
Not everyone.
Some people are really capable of creating.
But as I said, my focus is accepting can't.

(02:58:03):
And not thinking of as a negative because I'mnot saying can't with everything.
I'm saying maybe you're not in your zone.
Maybe you're not in your location.
Maybe it's a can't because of one portion ofhow you're going at something or how you're
engaging with it or what's motivating it orwhat's around you or what you're investing your

(02:58:27):
time in instead.
And so all of these things are are essentially,I can't do this here, and it's not negative.
Because if I can't do it here, it doesn't meanI can't do it at all.
And that's where people have such a hard timewith the use of this word.

(02:58:49):
There may be a different zone you need toconnect with, especially if you're trying to
create.
And so that's because everyone is immediatelyto don't ever say that.
Delete.
Delete.
Delete.
Don't ever say you can't.
And and it's like, no.

(02:59:14):
That's not negative.
I can't clean.
So guess what?
I hire someone to do it for me, and that'sgood.
It doesn't mean it doesn't get done.
It just means I don't have to feel responsiblefor doing it.
Especially as an entrepreneur, I believe Ishould functionally only be doing 25% of my

(02:59:41):
life.
The other 75% is delegated out to other people.
That is the goal.
And so because there's so much I wanna createwithin that 25%, there's so much I wanna do.
And so I apologize for going long, but that ismy that is my share.

(03:00:02):
That's what I have to offer.
It's a different mindset and a differentdirection a lot of people a lot of people have.
And, hopefully, for those that need it or theycan benefit from it are able to receive it.
And I apologize for those people that I'veoffended by completely not being in line with

(03:00:22):
how they operate in this world, but I believethat we all have different rules of reality.
I don't think it's a single reality that welive in.
So that is my, you know, 20¢.
Well, that sounds great.
That's a good 20¢.
So does anybody have any comments or questions?

(03:00:44):
I mean, people have been making comments whileyou were talking, and you addressed them, and
that's really great.
Christina, I'm glad to see that your yourInternet is doing okay.
I'm always afraid when I have something goingon that we're gonna lose ours because we're so
far out in the boonies.
But, yeah, that was really a different way ofthinking of things.

(03:01:06):
And and I I do like the idea that we can't pushpeople into how we think.
We need to look at where they're coming fromand what they're doing and guide them along
their path.
One of the things that happened to me when Iwas first starting out, twenty twenty two,
January twenty twenty two, first time I everknew about this world of entrepreneurship and

(03:01:30):
authorship and all of that.
And I was told if you're gonna be a success,you have to be a coach.
If you're gonna be a success, you're gonna haveto do this.
And as year went on, I would have five peopletelling me five different things that I had to
do if I was gonna be a success.
And it's like, which one do I fall?
How do I know which is right?
And trying to do all five of them, found outdid not work.

(03:01:52):
So at one point, I just took everything.
I tore everything off the walls.
I put everything in a bag.
I didn't throw it away.
I kept it, but I just took everything down.
And I thought, I'm gonna give myself a week andfigure this out.
Why did I get into this in the first place?

(03:02:12):
What did I really want?
What are things people have been telling me?
Now I didn't get rid of everything everybodytold me because I was able to use those.
But to go in five different directions at once,that just was not working for me.
And I did not quit.
What I did was take a pause.
And I stood back, and I reevaluated everything.

(03:02:35):
I even had somebody tell me, every time youtake a pause, it's actually a hard stop, and
you start all over again.
I'm here to say, I've taken several pauses, andI have not done a hard stop, and I have not had
to start over.
What I've done is reevaluate where everythingis and go from there.

(03:02:55):
And from someone who my very first live that Idid on the Internet, I was wrapped up in a
scarf I had.
I mean, you could only see this much of mebecause I was that terrified of doing a live.
In fact, that would have covered up my mouth,but I knew they couldn't hear me very well.

(03:03:17):
It would be so muffled.
And and here I am putting on a summit.
I've got two podcasts.
I do lives quite often.
And what a change.
Not because somebody told me I had to do this,but because I took those pauses to reevaluate
and see, is this the path for me?
Is this what I really want to do?

(03:03:39):
And some people can go a lot of years doingwhat everybody else says until they get to the
point that's like, I can't do it anymore.
I don't enjoy it.
I don't like it.
So thank you very much for bringing up thatdifferent perspective of how to look at things.
I enjoyed that.
I enjoyed that.

(03:04:00):
Thank you.
Oh, definitely.
Does anybody else have anything to say?
Christopher, me too had the bad news.
Say It wasn't for me.
Go ahead, Christina.
No.
Okay.
Like, super honest raw feedback.
It it was a little bit tough for me to acceptthe idea of allowing can't or don't or, you

(03:04:27):
know, something in a negative manner because wepreach so much with crushing limiting belief
and trying to reverse and and change thoughtprocesses and patterns.
Right?
So I I truly, understand exactly what you weresaying, Adam, and I get it because you don't

(03:04:48):
want to do push someone into a different zoneif they don't want to be pushed into that zone.
I completely understand that part.
So, it's just something that I have to pauseand really think about.
It's like, okay.
Is me coaching and encouraging someone to dosomething?

(03:05:08):
Is that going against what they
really want versus They're coming to you forthat coaching.
What I'm talking about is the unsolicitedcorrection.
Okay?
Someone's coming to you.
They wanna grow.
They wanna expand.
They want to be.
But it's like, let's say you have a parent thatis in their in their pattern.

(03:05:36):
Who are you to demand that their parent breaktheir pattern?
Regardless of how it impacts you, you can'tnecessarily you can say you'd like them to do
it, but trying to shove them into a awarenessor an identity or an intelligence or a

(03:05:58):
perceptiveness that's beyond their neuralcapacity is just not realistic.
And it becomes a battle that wounds both ofyou.
I can understand that thought process.
Okay.
I'm not sure that I agree a %, becauseencouragement and dropping gems into

(03:06:21):
suggestions, I'm not not forcing.
So never forcing someone to go into a differentrealm.
Right?
But suggesting may even open up a world of thatthey never even could conceive of themselves.
So it's just it's very rare.
More distance.
Or it will create more distance.

(03:06:42):
In most cases, repeating something more thanonce to someone that is not receiving you is
going to create more distance.
Yeah.
I can agree with that.
That's the truth.
Okay?
So maybe a onetime drop is fine, but notmultiple continued drops unless they're coming
to CQ.
And so what I'm trying to help people do iscreate connection and closeness rather than

(03:07:10):
continuing to create distance.
Okay.
Understood.
Cool.
Cool.
Well, thank you so much, Adam, and thank you,
Christine Absolutely.
For mentioning that.
It's it's great to get those questions answeredand find out what's really going on.
Nick had to leave.
He's got a coaching session right now.

(03:07:30):
And so let's let's rise up just a little bit.
Stretch and shake out.
We're gonna rise up like the phoenix because wehave our very own phoenix that's gonna level us
up.
What did, David said we need to to go to thenext level, the Phoenix level, I'm gonna call

(03:07:51):
it.
So leadership is a daily decision like mostthings.
It's not just one big moment.
It's the small choices we make every day.
Now John Wooden, the legendary basketballcoach, didn't just coach basketball.
He coached character.

(03:08:13):
His leadership philosophy was built on dailyhabits.
Like, Nick was talking about earlier, doing thedaily habits of writing your goals every day.
I've never heard about that before thismorning.
And so it was good to hear someone who actuallydoes that every day because I have seen Nick
really gross, especially this last year.

(03:08:33):
And that's one of the things he's done that'sdifferent.
But but John Wooden taught players how to tietheir shoes properly.
He emphasized discipline and focused onpersonal integrity.
His consistent approach led UCLA to 10 nationalchampionships.

(03:08:55):
So great leaders don't wait for big moments tolead.
They lead through daily discipline and example.
They show up.
They lead by example and stay committed togrowth.
And boy, do we have someone who leads byexample.
Sometimes this person has to be quiet, has tobe hidden in the shadows, can't just come out

(03:09:15):
and say anything she wants because of the typeof work she does.
This person works in dangerous situations.
Her team works in dangerous situations, but shedoesn't quit because her mission is to lead
others into who they can be, to lead others tohelp those who don't have a voice.

(03:09:39):
Now Krista Fee is a master transformationalcatalyst, and I love that word for her.
She's a trauma specialist and a crisis teamleader.
She's director of Rise Up Phoenix Trauma andCrisis Institute, an award winning keynote
speaker, published academic author, and podcasthost of Rise Up Voices on the Front Lines.

(03:10:05):
She's a corporate and organizational trainer,coach, and consultant with over 70
specialization certifications.
She holds an MA in military and traumapsychology and national security and a BS in
criminal justice forensic psychology, andnational security.
Someone else in the forensic psychology field,and that's like, kinda kinda like that.

(03:10:32):
Okay.
Enough about me.
Christie is the founder and executive directorof a five zero one c three battle number two,
the word be incorporated.
This five zero one c three nonprofittransforming, nonprofit is transforming the
mental health services world for military andfirst responders and their families responding

(03:10:55):
to critical incidents and crisis is her owncommunity.
And I think I didn't spell that right.
For her own community and yours and fightingthe battle against human trafficking on the
front lines.
She is unafraid to tear down structures andsystems that devalue the lives, mental
wellness, and freedom of the innocent, andthose who work tirelessly to protect them.

(03:11:21):
Christophie works tirelessly.
When we had the big fires up here in in CentralTexas, She was there making sure that the first
responders were taken care of, that they hadeverything they need.
I mean, people were coming from all over, andshe was right there with everybody, getting
everything to where it needed to be, raisingfunds, raising whatever you could, water,

(03:11:43):
blankets, anything that could get there.
But that's only a part of it.
I'm not gonna say anything more because I don'tknow how much I can say.
So I will just introduce Christa.
So go ahead and come off of mute, Christa.
So let me just preface this with a a slighttrigger warning.
As as Aless has kind of alluded to, I do workin very dark places, and I'm not always quite

(03:12:09):
as sensitive when I'm speaking just to generalaudiences, as I probably ought to be.
I don't do any explicit detail, but I am goingto mention some things that are very hard for
some listeners to hear.
I believe that it's very crucial even if it'suncomfortable that you do hear it.
So if you are uncomfortable and you needsupport after I speak, I'm more than happy to

(03:12:34):
support you.
And I also know that there is someone else herewho has that capacity.
So if if you are disturbed by anything that Isay, please let's just have a conversation, and
I'll I'll help you through that so that you'refeeling settled and comfortable.
But again, this is really importantconversations to have, so I'm not going to be

(03:12:57):
overly sensitive.
That's okay.
So, Krista, we've been talking about thephoenix from the beginning.
David brought it up, and I'm like, oh, thisthis perfect.
I love the way things flow together.
You know, the books are
The game of the day.
Yeah.
The giving book.
I have people from from one part of the worldand people from another part of the world

(03:13:19):
bringing their stories to me.
And it's like, did you two get together somehoweven though you don't know each other exist?
How did you do this?
It's just amazing.
So I love the way that great minds think alikeand and and look at the backgrounds.
Some are are kinda similar.
You're into some of the same things.
So this is really great.

(03:13:41):
I wish I could have come up with with a betterbetter talk, but John wouldn't seem to really
emphasize.
It's those daily habits, the things we do everysingle day that help make a leader a great
leader.
And you do things every day.
I I just commend you.
I don't know how you could do it, but I'm sothankful.

(03:14:03):
And I am going to be quiet now, and I'm goingto let you talk.
And here we go.
So you've been warned.
I'm a disruptor.
Social media is now calling me a thought leaderfor whatever that actually means in the scheme
of things.
I never liked the word leadership.

(03:14:24):
Something about that word has always rubbed methe wrong way.
I'm a very visual person, and somewhere alongthe line, the image of a ruffled cowboy tugging
at a horse's reins got stuck in my head.
So when I hear the word leadership, I think ofstuffy old corporate men in suits talking each

(03:14:44):
other up during self improvement seminars in analmost cultish way that reeks of manipulation,
lack of accountability, and avoidance toactually look at themselves at all because
their focus is increasing the productivity ofothers and ensuring that they don't have to do
any of the tasks they don't wanna do.

(03:15:05):
So now I know like everyone else in life, thisimpression comes from my own life experiences
and from my background and is likely farremoved from the way that word hits you.
So I'll bet the first image in your head whensomeone says leadership isn't Hitler with his

(03:15:26):
Nazi salute and hundreds of enthusiastic youngmen marching in what appears to be brainwashed
synchronicity.
I'm not really a part of traditional corporateworld.
My life doesn't revolve around productivity andsales.
What I know of that world is a caricature.

(03:15:47):
I work in a world of actual toxic leadership.
You know the stereotypes, cartel drug lords,human traffickers, and child abusers.
I work in a world of victims and perpetrators,and the term leadership brings to my mind the
challenges of power imbalance.

(03:16:07):
For one to lead, others must follow.
I've spent years telling people that I have nodesire to be a leader.
That's not my thing.
But I had no idea how wrong I was.
I had no idea that there are many differentkinds of leadership and that no matter how much

(03:16:29):
I didn't know about leadership, I was literallyliving it each and every day.
See, I was born the throwaway daughter of avictim of human trafficking.
I spent the first few months of my life beinghanded off to dealers and pimps for who knows
what dark purpose is because my mother was moreconcerned with where she would get her next fix

(03:16:53):
than with the health and well-being of thechild that she'd given birth to.
I was a super shy child filled with a need tobe seen, heard, and understood, while at the
same time trying to never be seen.
I never wanted to make waves, bring attentionto myself, or disappoint anyone.

(03:17:19):
I loved the imaginary world of books and poetryand dumped all of my ideas and energy into
relationships that didn't even exist in thereal world.
The real world was a scary place full of peoplewho wanted something from me.
I would fall victim to childhood sexual abusefrom a family member who spent years having

(03:17:43):
access to me in ways I'm not even gonnadescribe to you today.
But even then, in those early years, I had agift to see those in pain, and those were my
people.
Those were the ones I wanted to spend timewith.
And it wouldn't take long before I becameconsumed by the need to help those in need.

(03:18:05):
I became a problem solver, a protector, and afriend to the friendless.
Using leadership training terminology, I wouldeventually learn this is the core values of a
servant leader.
We're only as strong as our weakest link.
I was naturally and consistently focusing myattention towards the task of strengthening

(03:18:28):
those weakest links.
Why would I wanna lead?
Some of you, like me, may not see yourself asleaders, but for all of us, there are places in
our lives where we're given the opportunity toeither take the lead and have some power or
control of a desired outcome or sit back andwatch as others fill those roles and then have

(03:18:52):
to settle for the results they choose for you.
There are only two roles people play in thislife, and you can't avoid being on the game
board.
Will you lead or will you follow?
The best leaders know when it's time to take onboth of those roles.

(03:19:12):
You've probably heard the statement, not makinga choice is still making a choice.
Leadership is much like this.
Whether you know it or not, you are innatelypowerful and capable of starting a movement
that has the potential to transform lives,families, and even communities.

(03:19:35):
How passionate are you about wanting aparticular outcome or wanting to change the
outcome you're seeing occur over and over andover again?
For me, leadership is born of a need to seewhat at first glance seem to be insurmountable
social transformations.

(03:19:57):
I can't sit back and allow our military andfirst responders to take their lives at rates
triple those found in the civilian population.
I can't sit back and allow divorce rates inmilitary and responder families to continue to
surpass 85%.
I can't sit back and allow nearly 50,000,000people to remain trapped in the global

(03:20:19):
multibillion dollar human trafficking industry.
My version of leadership, what I'm gonna callmovement leadership, begins with you.
Movement leadership is ignition leadership.
Movement leadership begins with being anexample of the change you desire to see.

(03:20:42):
Leadership begins by being a beacon ofintegrity, authenticity, and consistency.
Leadership are what requires clarity.
What do you want?
What action are you putting your energy behindto achieve a result?
Get clear on your message, your desiredoutcome, and at least the first action step

(03:21:04):
it's gonna take to move the needle in thedirection you desire.
What is your guiding light or north star?
Leadership requires a framework.
Movement leadership depends on building aframework within which others can pick up the
torches you've set alight and keep moving inthe direction of the change you establish

(03:21:25):
through your clear messaging.
When you successfully create this framework,the mission or movement can survive and grow
with or without you.
Otherwise, you create a dependent system thatrelies on you.
I once thought leaders tell people what to do,but mission and movement leadership tells

(03:21:46):
people where are we going.
I once thought leaders draw a map for others tofollow so they don't go astray, But mission and
movement leaders offer a ride for those whowanna hop on and gives everyone else the
benefit of the doubt that they can find theirown route to the final destination.
A great leader gives support and ensuresavailability if anyone gets lost or runs out of

(03:22:11):
fuel, but has the faith to let them run ontheir own and at their own pace.
Movement leadership is based on core values,support, guidance, and destinations.
It's founded on the knowledge that I am but asingle drop in a notion, but when I inspire a
movement going in one singular direction, thatbecomes a tidal wave of change.

(03:22:37):
In this world, no one can stand alone againstthe darkness.
Even the lighthouse has limited impact, shininglight only for brief moments in a single
location.
What does this look like in the real world?
Leadership takes awareness.
The first component of building your movementin the real world is talking about a problem.

(03:23:03):
And if you're really good at this, you'll dothis using a problem, solutions, outcome
framework, and wrap that all up in a clearmessage of the core values that both drive your
mission forward and demonstrate demonstrateyour awareness of the high level of
responsibility you carry for what you inspireand motivate others to do.

(03:23:30):
Sometimes there is as much need for clearmessaging around what you do not stand for as
for what you do.
Your words as a leader are a very important andweighty responsibility.
Never forget this or take it for granted.
Leadership takes action.

(03:23:51):
Offer a set of suggestions for actions.
Those you inspire can take to get thedestination you desire.
Making it clear these are not the only possibleroutes.
Invite others to contribute ideas andsuggestions and be honest about whether those
suggestions and ideas fall within theparameters of the values you've established.

(03:24:16):
This is important because you're taking theresponsibility of lighting a fire that moves
others into action, and you want to be thoseactions are right actions.
Never underestimate the power of inspiredaction toward a cause.
Terrorists have been ignited into action by adesired outcome they are passionate about.

(03:24:38):
And for them, there is no set of core valueslimiting the kinds of actions one might choose
to take to get there.
Stay active in your mission and messaging andbe brave enough to stand up against those who
take your beacon of light and turn it into aweapon.
Consistency is key in building trust and asolid foundation upon which your mission can

(03:25:03):
grow.
In many ways, you become a caretaker of theliving organism that is your passion and
purpose.
The mission or movement is a child you nurture.
And eventually, when it's big enough and haslearned the lessons most valuable to you, you
release it out into the world where it willcontinue to impact and mature over time.

(03:25:25):
Your voice, your leadership, and your lifebecome a legacy of transformation.
Even when you never really wanted to be aleader at all, even when all you wanted was for
the world to be a better place, even when allyou wanted was to ease the pain.
And sometimes you weren't sure whether it wasyour own pain or the pain of others you were

(03:25:48):
working on transforming.
For me, the reality of it is somewhere alongthe journey, if I'm being honest, the ugly mess
that was my own healing journey happened rightout there in front of the whole world.
Every last vulnerable and violent detail fellout of my pen and out of my mouth and onto the

(03:26:09):
often completely speechless crowds looking atme for hope, guidance, and dare I even use the
word leadership.
For so many years, I continued to tell people Idon't care about being a leader.
I'm just here to do the work that needs to bedone.
I'd get behind someone and push and pushbecause they simply weren't moving fast enough

(03:26:31):
or they were going in the wrong direction.
And the movement was inside of me straining tobreak out.
Despite a long and winding road, thedestination was never out of focus.
Obstacles washed over me frequently,threatening to pull me under, but these are the
riptides of life, and no part of the journey isinsignificant.

(03:26:55):
I married an abuser, as many survivors ofchildhood sexual assault that struggle with
attachment disorder tend to do, and it drove meto find ways to stay away from home as much as
possible.
I continued to hide away in the safe shelter ofbooks and eventually found my way back to
school where I sought a medical degree.

(03:27:16):
I knew I wanted to help people, but I didn'treally know what that looked like because there
wasn't anyone there to help me.
This is part of the fire that burns inside meand fuels my movements.
I carry the deep wounds of working in anemergency room trauma bay of a busy hospital

(03:27:36):
and running an ambulance responding to autoaccidents caused by DUI drivers who walked away
without injury while leaving a family of fivestruggling for their lives.
Home births of preemies addicted to drugs whiletheir mothers overdosed on the floor, oblivious
to their dying child.
I even held the hand of a mother who ran overher own toddler and watched the light of love

(03:28:00):
fade out of her husband's eyes, knowing theywould never survive this together.
These are the visions I still see in my dreams.
This is part of the fire that burns inside methat fuels my movements.
I had my own children, two beautiful littlegirls, and I took a job working for a private
investigations team.

(03:28:22):
I thought I was gonna be working primarily as acrime scene reconstructionist and forensic
interview experts.
I ended up on a human trafficking task forcedoing forensic investigations.
I never wanted my children to fall victim towhat I'd experienced or to the horrors I now
knew existed out there in the world.

(03:28:43):
This is part of the fire that burns inside meand fuels my mission.
This fire became the fuel that ignited into aninferno and rise up phoenix was born.
I had to burn down myself, my fear, myexpectations, my self imposed limitations and
beliefs and allow the painful process ofhealing and growth so I could spread my wings

(03:29:06):
and take flight.
Even when I was just a single drop in an ocean,my voice became a tidal wave of change.
I led a revolution.
My movement is rise up, and it's tearing downold systems and structures that devalue the
lives of the innocent and those who dedicatetheir lives to their protection.

(03:29:30):
This drop in the ocean has intervened for over400 responders considering suicide, assisted
over a thousand couples avoid divorce,personally been boots on the ground for the
rescue of 17 human trafficking victims, andassisted in the investigations that rescued
hundreds more.
I have responded to more than 50 communitydisasters from child abductions and suicides to

(03:29:54):
wildfires, hurricanes, and landslides,supporting victims, families, communication and
communities with mental health and criticalneeds support.
This drop in the ocean has made a huge impact.
I now lead unapologetically from the front ofthe room and the back with traditional

(03:30:16):
leadership roles in search and rescue, a humantrafficking task force, Rise Up Phoenix Trauma
and Crisis Institute, and Battle to BeIncorporated.
I speak often on a wide variety of topics, leadtown halls, influence government policy, write
groundbreaking research, and publish textbooksthat become the new standards of resilience and

(03:30:39):
safety protocols for schools, organizations,and communities.
The shy little girl who never wanted to be seenhas fully embraced the power of her voice.
She started a fire that burns far and wide outof the simple childhood need to be a friend to
the friendless, a voice for those who cannotspeak, and a light that shines in the darkest

(03:31:01):
places.
She created from blood, sweat, and tears, themovement that drives her, fills her heart and
soul, and somewhere along the way,wholeheartedly and unexpectedly embrace the
traditional roles of leadership.
I now steadfastly embrace I had disavowed forso many years.

(03:31:24):
If those who lead with their core values at theforefront of their work do not take the lead
and step into their power, it is inevitablethat others who are not bound by any such moral
compass will.
And what kind of world will we live will welive in then?
Each of us may alone be a single drop in theocean, but together we are a tidal wave of

(03:31:48):
change.
If you would like to connect and have aconversation after this presentation, please
feel free to message me [e-mail].
It's battle,thenumbertwo,[e-mail] ordirectly from my website battletobe.org.
All the messages come directly to me.

(03:32:10):
And if you are compelled to donate, there is abutton right on the top of the the web page to
do so.
I always like to leave a couple minutes forquestions when I speak because I know this is a
lot of information, and I want to provide youan opportunity to speak what's on your heart.
So I'm an open book.

(03:32:30):
Feel free to ask me anything.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
I had goosebumps on top of goosebumps on top ofgoosebumps during this.
It's like, you know, Krista, as long as we'veknown each other, I've never really heard your
story before.
And and it's like, woah.

(03:32:52):
But I love the way you went from being thisshy, leave me alone.
Don't just wanna hide to this woman, powerfulleader who is out there in your face to people.
Just amazing.
So, Adam me, that still happens.

(03:33:12):
Yeah.
You can leave your mic on.
It's okay.
Adam, do you have something to say, or are wejust gonna need a little Christa?
Well, I I had the pleasure of knowing Kristasince April of twenty twenty one of April of
twenty twenty one.
Oh.
And even within that short period of time,because I kind of went into hibernation for a

(03:33:36):
little bit, just seeing the amazing growth andhow much she actively and personally embodies
transformation, not just teaches it, but eventhe transformation that I've seen over the
short three, four years, however long it'sbeen, is just really profound, and I'm really

(03:33:57):
excited for her.
So I just wanted to add that as someone whojust had the opportunity.
When you're engaging with her, you're engagingwith someone who is so walks or talk, it's
astounding.
Yes.
Absolutely.
I wish we could see your Jeep.
Oh, yes.

(03:34:18):
It's out front.
I was like, man, we we've gotta do somethinghere locally.
We gotta just bring a bunch of people together.
I I know so many people who who are in similarfields with you, and it's like, you know, we
gotta do something big here.
But, wow, this was just I love the impact thatyou're making just telling your story, telling

(03:34:45):
about being a leader and what it means.
And and, you know, it's right.
A lot of us think of a leader as like JohnMaxwell, Tony Robbins, something like that.
We forget there's a lot of leaders who leadother things and in other ways.
Just phenomenal.
Very phenomenal.

(03:35:06):
Dudes in suits.
Let's see.
Krista, you mentioned how leadership takesawareness.
Problem solution, and what were the others?
I will send some notes.

(03:35:27):
Okay.
Okay.
We'll get that to Teresa.
Doctor Clancy says I need to hop off, butphenomenal presentation.
And, Samit, thank you so much.
I am so glad that you were able to be here.
She said it's a real honor to share the spacewith all of you.
That was just great.
It's it's just been phenomenal.

(03:35:48):
We're going to, wait a little bit for James toget here.
He actually was leaving another event that hehad to be at.
So he goes, I might be a little bit late, butthat's okay.
Let's see.
Problem solution destination.
Awesome.
Thank you, Krista.
That was was wonderful.

(03:36:10):
And I think we met in New York, for the firsttime because we were in the book Warrior Women
together.
Yep.
Yes.
I there we go.
Here we go.
Yeah.
This one.
That was really good.
And I didn't get to spend as much time with youas I would have liked to.

(03:36:34):
And I got to know you a little bit, and andthen it's just, you know, I've seen you here
and there, whatnot, and I've gotten to know youmore.
It was so fun when we actually got together inperson.
And and even though it was a rainy day thenGirls' lunch.
And some time.
Yep.
Yeah.
Our lunch.
That was good.

(03:36:54):
But, in fact, one of our friends are gonna behere in a couple of weeks.
We should probably get together then.
I'll get together with you afterwards.
But this has been phenomenal.
I I someone had mentioned in the comments thatwhat a variety of speakers coming at leadership
from different places, different ways.
Everybody's bringing something.

(03:37:17):
You know, there's there's so much variety,almost as many people as there are, you know,
to look at leadership in different ways, and wedon't have to go at it all the same way.
We don't have to think of it in the samemindset, which is wonderful because because I
agree too.
We are both a leader and a follower.

(03:37:39):
And sometimes we're on the side, and we're notdoing anything for a while.
But at some point, that's not gonna last verylong.
We end up either leading or following, and thatwas a really good point to bring out.
Very much enjoyed it.
You know?
I've got the story of of the power ofcommunication, but this one comes from Martin

(03:38:04):
Luther King Junior and the letter fromBirmingham Jail.
And in 1963, Martin Luther King Junior wasarrested for leading nonviolent protests
against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.
And I never understand how people get arrestedfor being peaceful, for doing doing something.

(03:38:29):
But while he was in jail, he received criticismfrom a white clergy who called his action
unwise and untimely.
And instead of reacting with anger, he wrote aletter that we now know as a letter from
Birmingham Jail, where he passionately andeloquently defended the need for direct action

(03:38:50):
against injustice.
And I see you do that, Krista.
You know, you you do come at it in an eloquentway.
You're not just out screaming at everybody andyelling at everybody and maybe sometimes you
are, but that's, you know, special things thathave to be.
But yeah.

(03:39:12):
So great leaders do know how to communicate.
They communicate with wisdom, with convictionand purpose even in the most difficult
circumstances.
Words have the power to challenge injustice andmove people towards a better future.

(03:39:32):
Yeah.
It's just, just great.
Adam has to leave.
I know this is kind of a weird time.
I I just thought, you know, we'll just kindacarry it on, see what's on a Friday, but I
didn't so much going on now.
It's great.
James is gonna come and talk about a fewthings, but I am I am just so thankful, so

(03:39:58):
thankful for every speaker that was able to behere to to talk about what was important to
them, to talk about how they lead.
So many different ways to lead.
Risa, do you wanna go ahead and and come unmuteyourself?
And we'll just kind of all talk for a littlebit here and and see how it goes.

(03:40:21):
Tell me what you thought about Christa's talk.
I enjoyed.
I identify with her.
I feel like we have a lot in common.
I have very traumatic background.
I've come from from a place where I have novoice.
Growing up, I've been a victim of childhoodmolestation, but I don't understand everything

(03:40:46):
growing up.
And I also that's the content of my first selfpublished ebook.
It's my coming out book that really opened meup, and there's a fire within it.
I see that fire in you, and it's just amazingto have somebody, you know, ahead of me.
Like, oh, yeah.
That fire, there's a movement in her.
There's a fire in her.

(03:41:07):
You know?
I'm just I'm just starting.
I just got the courage.
You know?
I just mastered the courage to to, hey.
I wanna be the voice.
You know?
Like, no.
We need to break some some kind of stereotypebecause that's not that should not define you
because I believe there's still a lot peoplewho are who are bound by whatever their

(03:41:32):
surroundings dictates.
But, yeah, it's interesting.
I I like how you are reacting earlier to Adam.
You have a question mark there.
I understand where he's coming from, but I it'sjust beautiful how we all, you know, are unique
and different.
It's just, yeah, well, I'm I'm preparing this.

(03:41:55):
I'm like, I was just not I was so nervous I wasnot able to speak on something.
I'm like, I know when you hear the wordleadership, it's like the stereotype leader,
bossy one.
The one that we don't really like.
But then I'm like, no.
Even if I leave a quiet light, that's that'sleadership right there.
My self control, that's leadership right there.

(03:42:16):
I don't have to be a millionaire.
I don't have to be popular.
There's so many ways of leadership, butsometimes it's easy to just, you know, focus on
on one.
But I'm like, it's so freeing to to have awider understanding that it's not just one
thing.
There's no one box fits all.

(03:42:38):
And and it's beautiful, and I thank you forwhat you do.
I appreciate it, and it encourages me to tokeep on continue whatever God has placed in my
heart.
Go go for it.
I'm going for it, miss LS.
I'm going for it because I'm, like, I'm goingback to my country where there's four years old

(03:42:59):
who's being molested.
You know?
Like, hey.
The the society puts a dilemma.
Like, sometimes they make you even if you'rethe victim, now you're you're the one who
caused it upon yourself.
That is not true.
So I'm like, I want to be the voice that said,no.
No.
That's not the truth.
But at the same time, I still want to, maintainthat respect because I realized sometimes both,

(03:43:25):
you know, the the abusers deserves grace aswell.
Sometimes they may be actually imprisoned alsoin their mindset.
Maybe that's the only way they know how.
You know?
So if they could use some help too.
So well, that's just my 1¢.
And I'm sorry.
I'm limited in how I express my thoughts, and Ilike how eloquent you all are.

(03:43:51):
I think I grow and I learned a lot in thissummit.
I'm so blessed, and it's such a blessing.
Thank you for yeah.
It's amazing.
I enjoyed it so much.
Oh, good.
I'm so glad to hear that, and I'm so glad youjoined us.
You know, I know that that at times, it'stough.
Hi, James.
Hello.
Hello.

(03:44:12):
Now, Kristen, you did write a book about you?
Me?
What?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Tell me about the book you've written.
Which book
is I have a whole bunch of books.
I've done a lot of chapter contributions And ifyou actually read them all together, there's a

(03:44:35):
lot of there's a lot of growth because
It's a full book there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was thinking that about mine.
It's like, I better take all these chapters andput them together.
I bet I've got a book right there.
So this is where it started, and you don't knowabout this one.
This is a fiction Okay.
Book.
This was my first book.
I wrote it, like what year is this?

(03:44:58):
Like, way, way, way in the beginning of myhealing process.
So this book is fiction, and there's a littlebit of my journey in here.
There's a little bit of me, like, touching thewaters of the trauma that I experienced and
kind of letting letting the idea of a fantasyversion that's brave enough to speak out come
out and play.
Right.

(03:45:18):
And
then I started doing the chapter contributionsfor a lot of other people's books and I I
literally don't even really like, I don't tryto sell them.
I don't really consider them anything otherthan my process.
And they just kind of have faded into the intothe background now.
I am I have promised to write my biography.

(03:45:43):
So there is that.
It it should come out probably the end of nextyear.
Yeah.
Because I know people have come to me, youknow, because that's what I do.
I help them write their books.
I I help them get it published and whatnot.
And and the one thing they ask is, how do Itell my story without, one, giving power to the

(03:46:08):
negative that happened and, two, withoutcausing a big huge uproar with the people that
were causing the problems.
You know?
The legalities.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And and it can be really tough.
It can be really tough.
I I know that one person I talked to who didthat, she goes, they're just gonna have to face

(03:46:30):
up to what they did.
It's the way it was, and I'm not making thingssomething or
yeah.
Or, yeah, they did it and you know?
Excuse me.
Yeah.
I did wait until my abuser was dead.
Conveniently, he the worst of my abusers.
Two of them are still alive, but I've nevernamed them.

(03:46:52):
Though, they were my husband's, so it's notexactly that hard to figure out.
But my in my writings, I've never named them.
I don't use any identifying characteristicsbecause that can be used against me.
But but I put it out there and if anybody wantsto challenge it, there are there are court

(03:47:13):
records that document the truth of what I'msaying.
So it's not like it's
Right.
It's not like
it's hidden.
They just need to deal with it.
It's out there now.
And it needs to be out there, and I think weneed to just start being honest about our
experiences as ugly as it is.
People need to know they're not alone.

(03:47:34):
Yep.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
James, I'm so glad you're here.
I thank you for being here.
I know you have some other stuff that was goingon.
No worries.
No worries.
And we've had people come and go throughout theday.
James is not the least of the last.
You know what you say?

(03:47:54):
Not last, but not least.
Last but least.
There.
Judy, by the way, I know you needed a couplepeople.
Do you need someone else?
I I ping you.
Terry may be interested and would be interestedif you if you need anyone.
So we'll
be right.
Nope.
This is gonna be it.
You're you're the finest
Last but not least.
Today.
So I appreciate you being here.
Got it.
Lisa was actually the first speaker of the day.

(03:48:15):
So, when I came across James to talk, it'slike, how do I what can I introduce with him
and with his talk?
And so I thought about the power of puttingothers first because the strongest leaders
focus on lifting others up.
Good.

(03:48:35):
Thank
you.
Yeah.
So I thought of Truett Cathy with the founderof Chick fil A.
Truett Cathy built Chick fil A on the principleof servant leadership.
He insisted on treating employees with dignity,closing stores on Sunday so they could rest,
and creating a work culture that prioritizedpeople over profits.

(03:48:55):
His leadership made Chick fil A one of the mostsuccessful fast food chains in the world.
And one of the things I'd read in another bookthat had a bunch of different businessmen of
the same type of caliber talk a little bit as abusinesswoman too.
And at one point, know, they signed a contractwith their stores.

(03:49:17):
If you're gonna franchise, you sign thiscontract that says you will be closed on
Sundays.
And this one store started really making abigger profit.
And they thought, wow.
What are they doing that's so great?
So they went to the store.
They got there a day early because they weregonna talk with them on Monday.
So they're there on Sunday, and they're open onSunday doing business big business on there.

(03:49:42):
So when they talked on Monday, it's like kindof the ultimatum.
You either stop or you shut down.
And now I don't know if that's exactly whathappened, but I know that that store did shut
down.
And and it's it's hard to make decisionssometimes that affect a lot of people.

(03:50:03):
But at the same point, when you have somethingthat you are passionate about, something that
you have built, you cannot let somebody elsetear it down.
And and that's a tough decision.
But the best leaders put others first knowingthat when people thrive, success follows.
Now what he did is he put all those otherstores first because they were doing what they

(03:50:28):
agreed to do.
Great leaders don't climb ladders alone.
They build them for others to climb too.
And so that brings me to James.
James is a human behavior expert, plus haseducation in psychology and business from York
University.
He created a weekly mastermind group for yoursuccess, and it's an internationally board is

(03:50:54):
an internationally board certified trainer, amaster trainer apprentice for six years.
He's an international best selling author andan international professional speaker.
James has over twenty years experience in humanbehavior, leadership, NLP, training, speaking,
mentoring, and coaching.

(03:51:14):
He's backed by a wealth of experience from hisyears in the corporate environment.
But did you know that James once struggled withcommunication, authority, and self expression?
He felt invisible, unheard, and undervalued andavoided risk and shied away from speaking up,

(03:51:38):
fearing failure and judgment.
He was not living his passion or making theimpact he dreamed of.
Sounds like some of our speakers today.
So he's in good company.
They might think
like This isn't what he does.
Everything changed through a journey of intensepersonal growth and learning, discovering the

(03:51:59):
secrets to overcoming these challenge.
Like I said, this isn't what he does.
This is who he is now.
He is passionate about helping you turn yourdreams into reality to transform your life.
James, thank you so much for being here.
I really appreciate it.
Know that it was kind of later notice when I Igot ahold of you, but I really appreciate you

(03:52:24):
being here.
And I am going to give you the floor.
My pleasure, my and as the saying goes, betterlatte than never.
Right?
A little coffee joke.
Okay.
Anyway from a tea drinker, ironically.
Anyway, so we're we're we're talking aboutleadership, and and there there's been a lot of

(03:52:45):
amazing points of leadership in in my lifewhere I've I've I've had I've been very blessed
to have amazing mentors, amazing leaders.
I I literally would not be here, literally, butbe here without them.
That's for sure.
From a lot of stuff in life, trauma, bullying,anxiety, depression, trouble in school with
with ADHD and a bunch of other stuff, obesity.

(03:53:09):
What am I forgetting, Ellis?
Yeah.
Again, tense tense bullying.
A lot of stuff not working for me and gettingin my own way as as inevitably most of us do,
whether it's from the programming and and thecultural society, religion, parents,
grandparents.
What am I forgetting, news, media, government,all all this stuff.
Right?

(03:53:30):
Getting in our own way as well.
And, you know, here I am helping helpingbusiness leaders and business owners really
persevere through, you know, what what whatlimits them, what gets in their way, what
overwhelms them, what burns them out, what hasthem stuck in in self doubt or imposter
syndrome.
And I think it's my mission and purpose tohelp.

(03:53:53):
I I always known I wanted to be a teacher, endquotes, not a not a not a school teacher, not
to knock anyone, but just that was not mything.
I wanted to be a teacher and a helper and helppeople.
That was that's always been the theme.
It just my life has been, I guess, involving ina evolving, excuse me, in a journey and to now
helping, you know, business leaders andbusiness owners.

(03:54:13):
Yes.
You know, scale the business, grow thebusiness, lead their teams, and and, you know,
have service leadership.
I don't love the word servant leadership.
I think it's service leadership is is my my wayof framing it.
But but but here we are.
And and, yeah, anything specific you'd like toknow me?
Any any questions specific for me?

(03:54:34):
Because I got I got a whole bunch of stuff, andI could probably talk all night.
Yeah.
So so, Krista or Risa, do you have anything forJames?
I think they're really just waiting to hearfrom you.
I've wowed them that much.
No.
Good.
Yeah.
Well, we have had such a variety of talkingabout different types of leadership and, you

(03:54:57):
know, corporate leadership, letting people sayI can't and being okay with that.
Because, you know, the one one point of view Ihad on that and something that I actually heard
from somebody else is maybe they aren't in aplace right now where they can say, I can.

(03:55:17):
And you need to let them be where they areinstead of trying to push them into what you
think they should do.
And yeah.
So we are just ready to receive from you,James.
We want to hear what you have to say aboutleadership.
How do you lead your team?
What are what are the the what that you thinkmake a leader a great

(03:55:43):
Great question.
Great.
I think, you know, things that make a a greatleader a great leader are are being humble, you
know, are being a person that that not just asas a boss or a manager because anyone can tell
anyone what to do.
Anyone can micromanage, which is the oppositeof leadership in a fact because there's no
trust.
People don't feel trusted.

(03:56:03):
They don't feel respected.
They don't feel empowered.
That's for sure when someone is micromanagingthem as a leader.
You know?
And I think I think great leadership startswith with self first leading yes.
Putting others first, but also leading yourselffirst, walking the talk.
Are you being the man or woman you've alwayswanted to be or or whoever you've always wanted
to be, and and are you walking that talk?

(03:56:25):
If not, it's it's gonna be pretty hard to be aleader and say one thing and do another because
people will instantly respect.
And I I saw that in the corporate world umpteentimes.
People said one thing, they did another, andsaid that I'm not gonna do this, and then they
did it anyways.
Well, you just proved we cannot trust you andand the respect and the rapport just out the
window.
Now I've I've had leaders that go to bat for usin in in the corporate world, and we'll do

(03:56:49):
anything for you and fight for you and and andprevented a lot of the corporate stuff or that
upper level stuff from coming down upon us andand fought for us and just these amazing
managers that we would do anything for.
And then I'll get back.
I'll I'll actually will answer the question.
I promise.
Just amazing, amazing leaders have the abilityto have to rally the troops and have people,

(03:57:10):
you know, work harder, go away above andbeyond, stay engaged, avoid distractions, and
really give their best versus, well, a crappyleader or ineffective leader.
People are naturally they want to bedistracted.
They don't want to work.
They don't wanna give their best.
If you ask, they'll probably say, no.
I'm busy or gotta go home or I gotta I'm busythis weekend.
Right?
I can't do that extra thing.

(03:57:32):
Right?
So so it's it's it's in the leader's bestinterest, in fact, to be to be a great leader.
It's in their interest, I think it's it's agreat thing.
And and I'll go back to what I said before isis signs of great leaders is working on
yourself first, is I'll say leading yourselffirst because self leadership, it reflects

(03:57:54):
people.
People watch us.
People watch what we do.
There's a saying.
People will do 10% of what you tell them, andthey'll do 90% of what you do, what you show
them.
Now whether that's a kid and a parent, orwhether it's a leader and someone on a team.
Again, be who you wanna be and be who you wantyour team to be because they're gonna look at
you, and they're gonna be exactly what what youare exactly what you are.

(03:58:18):
So, I mean, choose choose wisely.
Again, I think a a great leader also reallygenuinely cares about not just cares about,
yes, cares about people, but also treats peoplelike people and realizes that professional
problems are whether it's an entrepreneur,whether it's a big business, whatever whether

(03:58:39):
it's a sports team, a gymnastics team,whatever, they realize that professional
problems are really just personal problems indisguise.
And people are people.
People need some of the best leaders I've I'veever met are coaches, You know, are are great
coaches to their team and and because and youoften play psychologists or psychotherapists as

(03:59:00):
well to your teams, any great leader.
So I think you need to have be open to togaining the skills, be open to doing the work
instead of, you know, sloughing off the toughstuff or ignoring it, having the tough talk
with people and and and talking with theirlives, what works, what doesn't work in your
life, because that's gonna directly affect themat work.
And you can do it the easy way and and get itout and get it open and help them solve

(03:59:24):
something now, or you can ignore it and thenhave things blow up or they they quit or they
get sick or have to take time off or or they'redisengaged or whatever.
It's like a great leader also realizes thatinvesting in their people, of course, and
investing in their selves, but investing intheir people will will pay dividends at the
end.
They'll look like an amazing leader, and,again, their team will be there, and the team

(03:59:45):
will will give their best essentially as well.
There's also a, stop me anytime.
There's also a definition I love.
I love I heard this first from Justin Sterling,and the definition is that true leadership true
leadership is actually taking responsibilityfor what you may not necessarily be seen to be

(04:00:07):
responsible for or may not may not beresponsible for at all.
There's there's been people there's been, youknow, people with with building development
companies.
And this one this one manager, he got down in ain a thousand dollar suit and in dress shoes,
got down in the dirt, in the mud, showing someof the workers how to dig properly so they're

(04:00:27):
faster, more efficient, they don't hurt theirback.
He just he was watching them work.
They were walking by.
He's looking at a new site one day, and they'relike, oh my god.
They're doing it wrong.
They're hurt their backs.
So he said, this is how to do it faster, andit's gonna hurt your back.
There's there's been several CEOs.
I believe one of them is was one of the CEOs ofGE of General Electric.
We've thinking, we have a world class businesshere.

(04:00:49):
We have a world class company, but our ouroffice doesn't reflect the world class.
Things are disorderly and all over the placeand and there's clutter around.
So he would go around every morning.
He started going around cleaning up clutter, goaround the wastebasket under his arm, cleaning
up clutter, cleaning up messes, tidying thingsup, you know, yanking things from people's
desks.
And people saw him do this, and they're like,why why is he doing this?

(04:01:12):
He's not the janitor.
But, again, this the CEO took responsibilityfor what he wanted to happen in in the world
and, of course, in their company.
And, of course, like I said earlier, monkeysee, monkey do.
Do what you want people to do.
While people started seeing him.
And I thought, well, well, maybe we should pickup.
Maybe we should have less clutter.
We should take more responsibility to maintainthe office and keep it world class.

(04:01:36):
So, again, he took responsibility for what hewanted even though it wasn't necessarily his
role, his responsibility, his job and I hate Iloathe the it's not my job thing.
I can't stand it's not my job because I wentabove and beyond in the corporate world.
Now, unfortunately, sometimes the corporateworld literally prevents you or blocks you from
from it being your job.

(04:01:56):
But, again, take responsibility even if youhave to engage other people to be a a a focal
point or center point in whatever, you know,whatever you're leading.
Be that focal point, center point, and even ifyou have to engage other people to to get the
work done.
And that's what a great leader does.
Great leader knows how to delegate and lead andmotivate with a team and follow them up and
hold them accountable as well.

(04:02:17):
But that that that's a sign of great leadershipis to to be the key person, be the point
person.
Even if it's not your responsibility.
Call the customer back or or or call the callthe call the person back.
Call the client back.
Work with a teammate.
Work with a team member.
Take that responsibility.
I think it's it's a beautiful, beautiful frameof of leadership as well.

(04:02:38):
So that's that's that's one of my biggestthoughts.
Some people ask me my why.
Why do you do this, James?
Why the heck do you do this?
Well, why I do this is is to make an impact,is, again, putting others first.
Service leadership is is making the world abetter place because it makes me feel great.

(04:02:58):
It makes me feel amazing.
I love I love seeing seeing this, and it it'sit's also about the adventure and the journey.
I love seeing what's gonna happen.
I'm so curious what's gonna happen.
And, sure, being a great leader inevitably isgonna come back to benefit you.
Right?
But it's also just seeing watching people growand and being curious.
I wonder what's gonna happen when I empowerthis person and support this person.

(04:03:21):
I wonder what's gonna happen.
I wonder how it's gonna how it's gonna go, howit's gonna transpire, and and what is possible.
So I think a great leader is also curious,excited, passionate, curious as me and my
again, like I said, my why is to make thebiggest difference on the world that I can.
And one of the great ways I can do that is byempowering leaders.

(04:03:44):
Instead of me trying to do everything myself,save the environment myself, save people
myself, you know, help things myself, help peepmyself, I can I can empower other leaders and
to make this this massive, massive, massivedifference in the world and and really create a
a viral a positively viral effect as well?
So I think that that would be my why and why Ilead.

(04:04:07):
I'm passionate about it.
I I it's in me to help people.
It's in me to make a difference no matterwhat's going on in my life, in my personal
world, which leads me to another frame as well.
I I think a great leader and no one's perfect.
Right?
No one's least of all, some of the best leadersin the world.
No one's perfect.
That being said, I think no matter what's goingon in your your world, your personal life,

(04:04:30):
being able to lead and, I mean, don't get mewrong.
Something big happens and you need time off,you need time off.
That's not what I'm saying.
But but life happens.
Crap happens in life.
Life happens to all of us.
And I really think that being a great leader isable to to compartmentalize that to some
degree.
We're all human, of course, butcompartmentalize that and at least at least

(04:04:50):
give their best while the crazy making is goingon in their world personally, professionally.
Just give their best and be able to to lead thebest they can, of course, no matter what is
happening in the world, no matter what's goingon in in their world, in their environment, and
still being able to support people.
And, again, I, you know, been there, done that,able to support people no matter what craziness

(04:05:11):
is going on in my world or where I am, youknow, physically, mentally, emotionally,
financially, spiritually, you know, anything.
I that's a sign, though, of of a great leader.
Look at look at some great military leaderstoo.
Now whether it's life or death or not or lifeor death of the corporation or the company, I
think just just you've seen lots of leaders beinjured on the battlefield, and they they still

(04:05:34):
help, or they still put the other troops first.
No.
I'm not getting off the field, going off thebattlefield, or whatever until till my my team
gets off as well and not not leaving anyone tohang out to drive versus there are leaders out
there that will throw people under the bus andand and and and not take the blame and not take
responsibility or take ownership.

(04:05:55):
Right?
And I I I really don't like the whole blamegame.
It was you, them, me, her, the environment, myparents, the world, it's the company, it's the
government, it's the whatever.
All blame and shame does is perpetuate theproblem and create zero solutions, and it it
creates a victim mentality too.
It's not me.
Nothing I can do about it.

(04:06:15):
It wasn't my fault.
Okay.
Let's take all the blame and fault out of it,whether it's you or them or otherwise.
And let's let's okay.
This happened.
This thing happened.
Let's take how do I take ownership?
How do I take responsibility of that thing, andhow do I give it my best like I own it versus
treating it whatever like I rent it.
We've all rented things.

(04:06:36):
We've all owned things, and you can take a heckof a lot more more more passion and drive and
and ownership into something that you own andpride, and and you give it your best.
You go all out.
Go above and beyond when it's something youown.
You know, you paint your walls in your house ifyou own them or you take care of your car.
You make sure you service it if you own it.
If you're renting a car or renting a house orrenting or whatever, you probably really don't

(04:06:59):
care what happens to it.
And, unfortunately, a lot of people's attitudesare those of of a rental attitude.
Right?
This is a metaphor, of course, I'm giving you.
There's different renters and different ownersand all kinds of stuff.
But, really, it's it's the having the pride andand really owning, giving something your your
your highest regard, giving something yourbest, and and and making sure that you see it

(04:07:21):
through the end and not just, okay.
Well, they're doing it.
It's on them, or it's not my job, not myresponsibility, or or blaming your people, or
it's my team is a bunch of idiots, or thiscustomer is a bunch of idiots or whatever.
Again, taking that responsibility.
No blame.
No shame.
Just, again, taking responsibility for it too.
I think that would be one of my one of myinsights as well, honestly.

(04:07:47):
Yeah.
I'll I'll pause there and see if there's anyany questions or anything else you'd like to
know or anything specific you'd like to know.
Yeah.
That's that's really great.
I do like that you say we take ownership.
Whether we did it or not, we take ownershipbefore because it's our team, because it's our
business, because it's it's our responsibilityto make sure that things do get done and get

(04:08:13):
taken care of well.
Yeah.
You're proud of I love so many gold nuggetstoday.
It's like I'm
I'm very old today.
Your rain's gonna be full.
That's good.
That's good.
So, Risa or Krista, do either of you havecomments on today?

(04:08:35):
Thank you for coming, James.
It was Pleasure.
I'm very, very nice to meet you and to hearfrom you and you speak very eloquently.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
This is great.
Cheese for team building.
I like that.
Yep.
There you go.
Here we go.
Did I jump the gun on that one?
No.
That's good.

(04:08:56):
That's good.
Yeah.
This has just been really incredible.
Oh, Risa, can you please share some keys forteam building?
I thought you said t was for team building.
Okay.
That too.
That too.
I start out with a massage this more earliertoday, and it was supposed to be message, not

(04:09:17):
massage.
Now it's t for team building.
Woo hoo.
Team.
I love it.
It's true, Ed.
There we go.
I'll use that.
I'm gonna use that.
Alright.
Let's have some keys for team building.
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
I think I think a couple things.
See, people love being comfortable, and peoplelove being in the comfort zone, which is a very
dangerous place to be.
It's it's in fact the death of growth.

(04:09:39):
You know?
Comfort and growth don't hang into the bartogether.
They don't go to the football game together orthey don't go to the movies together.
Comfort and growth are not not friends, and ityou know, it's like oil and water.
So if you wanna grow, you need to learn to bejust comfortable.
And and you wanna be comfortable, well, justknow you're not growing, and it's it's usually
the death of growth and death of any wildsuccesses that is possible for you.

(04:10:02):
I think but a lot of people, though, it'sironic.
A lot of people are are comfortablyuncomfortable.
They're they're not truly happy.
You know, they want something else, but they'rehey.
They're they're they're hiding, or they'rethey're they're they're sleeping too much, or
they're they're on the the couch watching toomuch TV, eating wine or beer or chips and
wings.
Don't get me wrong.
Have fun once in a while.
But it it's just that's all they're doing whenthey're wishing and wanting, and they could be

(04:10:26):
or deuce or have something else.
But it's it's it's it's they say, well, I don'twanna be uncomfortable, or that would make me
uncomfortable if I did that, James.
I'm like, good.
Good.
Good.
If I suggest something, oh, that would make meuncomfortable.
Great.
Awesome.
But, again, because because they're not they'renot comfortable anyways.
It's the illusion of peace.
It's just the illusion of comfort most peoplehave, and I promise I'm gonna answer this

(04:10:49):
question.
So so so making sure to to maybe be a littleuncomfortable and and speaking of team
building, hiring people that will challengeyou, even as a leader, challenge you and and
help you grow, push you to grow, hire amazingpeople that will force you to grow and keep you
on your toes versus okay.

(04:11:09):
These are kind of the what is the lowest what'sthe the rook?
What's the lowest thing in the chess game?
Is it a rook?
Or anyways, you get the metaphor.
Instead of hiring people that are are way downhere so you can feel, well, look how great I
am.
Look how much better than I am than he peoplejust to feed your ego.
Well, that's gonna be a crappy team.
That team's gonna suck, and it's not gonna getyou as a leader where you wanna go.

(04:11:30):
Right?
Because when our team looks great and team doeswell, we also look great.
We do well, and we get everything that we wanttoo.
And there's that saying, you know, you geteverything you want by helping other people get
everything they want.
So that that is well, there we go.
There's one one one key to building a greatteam and one key to to team leadership,
honestly.
That that that is what it is.

(04:11:50):
And team building.
The other one, again, is is choosing people whocomplement you, not that'll be a buddy or best
friend.
You're a high visual learner, maybe choosesomeone that's a a, you know, high auditory or
high high research based fact find learner.
I I like high I'm a high level kinda guy.
You know, be bright, be bold, be brief, and begone type thing, even though sometimes I'm the

(04:12:12):
opposite of brief.
But I do like high level stuff.
And what complements me well is, yes, someonethat that does love detail and tons of data,
tons of research.
Great.
You can
do all that stuff for me because
it lights you up lights you up versus I I Idon't have an interest, but I need people on my
team that are like that, that have moreattention to detail and systems and facts and

(04:12:35):
things like that and help help track things.
So I think that's another thing too.
Pick people, not to just, oh, great.
We'll all be buddies.
We all like the same thing.
They will compliment you, that will challengeyou, that will help you see things you don't
see, and and you will see things they don'tsee.
So you can help them grow as well.
So pick people with vibes and energies andinterests and talents and hobbies and

(04:12:57):
specialties that that will complement yours aswell, and that will create a kick ass kick ass
team as well.
You know, it's it's it's a great question.
Team building is is is a great question.
And just again That's really good.
You know?
Yeah.
And treat
treating treat you know, treating people likepeople.
Treating people like people because it can beso easy.

(04:13:18):
We're we're lost in our stuff.
And the minutiae, again, being in the corporateworld the minutiae being in the corporate world
of stuff to do or emails coming out at you oreven in in my own business, the minutiae of
stuff that there is to do.
Luckily, I just hire someone new every time Iget sick of doing something.
Entrepreneurs were were were blessed there.
But, again, a business leader should be able tohire people too to some degree or or offshore

(04:13:39):
something, outsource something, delegatesomething, give someone a special project as
well, like, for growth.
And make sure it's just not a make workproject.
Make sure it is a is a bit of a project to helpthem grow, and you can coach them too.
And that's also how to help people go above andbeyond and to get people to do extra things for
you is is genuinely not just, oh, this is aspecial project just to make them do work

(04:14:01):
harder and work unpaid.
But, genuinely, give them special projects too.
Otherwise, you you're robbing them the abilityto to grow and to get your mentorship and
feedback.
You're robbing them the ability to, believe itor not, to fail, to fail.
I think the villain is the the culture thesedays of how you know, it's bad to take risk or
it's bad.
Failure is bad or it's bad to lose money orit's bad to take risks.

(04:14:22):
Sometimes, you know, this this failure of oftime or money or energy can be the greatest
teacher for the person, for the team, theleader, the whole whole entire organization as
well.
So I think supporting people and encouragingtesting, tinkering, risk, failure, maybe having
training wheels on, of course, having some sortof, you know, gloves on, if you will, to make

(04:14:44):
sure that does or or keeping an eye on them aswell, make sure they don't fall too too far.
But, again, sometimes it's the best way to tolearn and make a lesson.
So encouraging people to to well, etiquettesfail because there is no failure anyways.
You either either win and you or you learn.
There there's no failure.
We win or we learn.
Unfortunately, most adults have forgotten thatsince we were baby and teens and fell fall and

(04:15:08):
fall and fall and fall when we when we learn towalk or or fall and fall and fall and fall when
we learn to ride a bike.
But adults, one thing doesn't work out and, oh,that's it.
I'm quitting.
I'm giving up.
I guess I can't blank.
Right?
You know?
And it it's it's so sad.
It's so sad.
Now what is it when we become adults all of asudden we quit quit going?
We keep you know, it's like, oh, okay.

(04:15:29):
I'm tired.
I'm not gonna do it anymore, but it's it'scrazy.
The other thing I'd like to mention too, if youdon't mind me inputting
Please.
Please.
Communication.
Well, you talk about key.
You have got to communicate.
Mhmm.
And
communicate in a way that your team membersunderstand.
Because maybe you're really great.
You've got this idea.
You're putting it out there, and it's like, whydon't they get it?
Yep.
Exactly.

(04:15:49):
Because you're not speaking their language.
You're not putting it in a way that they canunderstand.
And and with me, that's that's my big thing.
I have all these things going on all of time,and I only half give the information to, like,
my husband, for instance, or to the kids.
And it's like, well, why don't you understandwhat I'm saying?
It's all in my head here.
And it's like, well, slow down and let it comeout.

(04:16:12):
Yeah.
But, yeah, Risa, that was really great.
She likes the concept of giving people room togrow or offering growth growth opportunities,
and that is that's really brilliant.
Well, thank you, James I agree.
I agree.
So much for being here.
Thank you, Krista and Risa.
Thank you, all of our speakers.
Thank you, those that were able to attend andparticipate.

(04:16:34):
And thank you who are watching this, seeing thereplay, watching it on YouTube, or wherever it
happens to be.
And we just appreciate you so much, and we hopethat you have gained so many useful tools,
valuable information that you can take andbecome the amazing leader that we all know that
you are.

(04:16:54):
So thank you, and thank you for attendingImpact Through Leadership Summit twenty twenty
five.