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December 7, 2023 โ€ข 34 mins
๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ฒโ“

๐ŸŽ™ In this episode, Luis Bรกez takes us from the high-stakes advertising scene of New York to Silicon Valley's innovative hub, highlighting how authenticity can shape a successful corporate career. He offers insights into embracing one's identity and fostering inclusivity in the workplace.

๐—š๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ A sales strategist and tech influencer, Luis Baez, has left a mark on Silicon Valley by advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion. His work has inspired tech giants to integrate empathy into their operations, proving that business success and progressive values can coexist.

๐—ž๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ง๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜€ & ๐—–๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€:
โžก๏ธ [24:50] Diversity and Intersectionality: Unpacking the ongoing journey toward inclusive corporate practices.

โžก๏ธ [25:09] The Intersectional Burden: Balancing performance with the personal toll of microaggressions.

โžก๏ธ [26:07] Allyship and Advocacy: Utilising amplification as a strategy for creating supportive environments.

Join the movement towards genuine leadership with Luis Baez. Subscribe, participate in our discussions, and apply Luisโ€™s approach to authenticity in your professional setting. Let's build careers that honour our true selves. Tune in now to this enlightening conversation and become a part of the change towards a more inclusive corporate world.

๐ŸŽ™ ๐—ง๐—›๐—จ๐—ฅ๐—ฆ๐——๐—”๐—ฌ๐—ฆ - ๐—•๐—œ-๐—ช๐—˜๐—˜๐—ž๐—Ÿ๐—ฌ!


๐Ÿง- ๐—™๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€, ๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—น ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ปโ“


๐Ÿ‘‚๐Ÿพ๐—Ÿ๐—œ๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ก ๐—ง๐—ข ๐— ๐—ข๐—ฅ๐—˜ ๐—ฃ๐—ข๐——๐—–๐—”๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—ฆ:๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿพ
https://www.gracekewconsultancy.com/podcast/
https://www.podfollow.com/bouncebackandthrive/view

๐—ง๐—ผ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ป ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—Ÿ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜:
https://www.luisbaez.com/learn http://luisbaez.com/videoaskIG
https://www.facebook.com/itsluisbaezLI
https://www.linkedin.com/in/baezluis

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Music]

(00:08):
Bounce back and thrive, helping you build resilience with Grace Kew.
Hello my wonderful listeners and welcome back to another episode of Bounce Back and Thrive.
The show where we take time to slow down, reflect and listen to guests who openly share some real life inspirational stories about how they have managed to bounce back from a challenging situation or experience.

(00:41):
My guests also share some very practical advice and valuable insights that you can learn from and apply into your own situation.
And today sharing your story is a very special guest joining me all the way from Sacramento, California United States.

(01:02):
His name is Luis Bรกez. Lewis is a very warm welcome to the show and it's such a long time to have you.
Thank you so much for having me Grace. I love love love your show. Love your voice, love your energy. This is such an honor. I really appreciate this.
Thank you much, appreciate it as well. So, audience, my listeners, who is Lewis, you wondering?

(01:25):
Well, Luis is a revenue, a Revenue Enablement strategist and sales coach dedicated to serving executives and sales leaders in businesses.
In 2017, he worked in some of the biggest Silicon Valley startups such as Think, LinkedIn, Google, Uber, Tesla and more.

(01:52):
Luis began to teach impassioned business owners how to scale their revenues and impact by creating and selling high-end offers.
Luis has also been invited to speak about leadership and personal branding at business schools across the US, including Stanford, UC Berkeley and Bard.

(02:18):
He is also a published author through the internationally recognised Medcraft organisation which includes an incredibly popular LinkedIn learning course on personalized sales that has been taken by over 15,000 people to date.

(02:39):
To learn more about Luis, visit www.learnfromluis.com. Well, well, Lewis, you've been such a busy, busy person. Just wondering, if when you're not busy, what do you get up to? What do you do in your spare time?
Gosh, I am such a nerd, Grace. I love to lose myself in a great novel or just a good mystery thriller. Otherwise, I'm a foodie. I grew up in New York City and so, you know, big food scene. I love exploring new cuisines, new experiences, new chefs and outside of being a foodie.

(03:16):
I also love to travel, so count on me for a road trip or a weekend, getaway. I'm definitely your buddy for that.
Oh, fantastic. It all sounds lovely because I love food. I love cooking. So anything to be sort of exploring a new recipe and trying to think, "Oh, I wonder what it would taste like?"
And adding a bit of authenticity to it, which is just adding me to whatever recipe it is. I love it.

(03:42):
So, you know, travel is fantastic isn't it? Because when you travel, you meet people, you challenges your thinking. It just puts you in a different, I think the mindset change also comes in when you travel.
Absolutely. It's a shift in energy, a shift in space and perspective. And more than anything, I just love unplugging from the matrix.
I love putting them out of the way and just having human connection.

(04:06):
So, Lewis, as I was doing my research, I came across a podcast interview, which was on LinkedIn. And this is a podcast interview which you did with the KAH Masterclass in India, but really resonated with me.
And I've got no doubt that it will resonate with my listeners. And the title to this particular podcast is "How to automate sales without losing the human touch?"

(04:35):
And I thought, "Hmm, quite intriguing." And I thought, "Hang on a second. The majority of us, my listeners out there, have experienced buying items online."
So, what basically happens is once you've bought the item, customer care is almost nonexistent. And I'm using the word deliberately nonexistent because some businesses out there are outstanding at providing that customer after care.

(05:04):
So, then I started sort of pondering a bit more. And I thought, "Hmm, what does he mean?"
And one of the questions which I picked out as well from the last podcast was, "Well, how will you put authenticity when it's all about automation and getting sales done?"

(05:26):
Because AI also again triggered this sort of interest for me because listeners AI is here to stay. Whether we like it or not, I think it's a matter of just adapting to it and seeing how you can benefit from using it.
You know, I am someone that has had by the wildest stretch of my imagination a successful career in sales. It's not where I started or intended. I wanted to be a pilot as a kid.

(05:52):
I then wanted to be a teacher at one point. But the reality is, you know, I had to, as a first generation person, I had to do what I had to do and I ended up in corporate.
And I'm not someone that's particularly extroverted or sharky or pushy. I'm an introvert, I'm a lover. I'm not the typical, you know, sort of sales person that you might envision in your mind.

(06:16):
And that's exactly what helped me to stand out in my career and with my customers and to ultimately drive, you know, over 600 million in revenue impact throughout my career as an individual contributor.
And so, you know, what helped me so was being authentic. I stepped into Silicon Valley because there was this promise that I as an out-gay man from Puerto Rico grew up in New York City in the Bronx.

(06:44):
That entire experience, that intersectional experience and that conversation was welcome at the table.
In Silicon Valley, there's this understanding that when it comes to product design and designing customer service experiences or customer experiences, you need all perspectives at the table, especially when you're building a global brand.
And you have to have that sort of global perspective.

(07:07):
And so, that's what drew me to the industry. And I see the opportunity to shed my old corporate skin. I threw away all of my suits and I proceeded with selling my way and leveraging the tools and the data that were available to me working at these bigger companies.

(07:28):
I leaned into the opportunity to, you know, be a value add and a culture add at the same time. And this is not to say that it was easy breezy. You know, we could certainly spill the tea all day long there.
But what I will say is, as far as selling, it equipped me actually to step into this age of AI.
Because the way that I do things very centered on human connection and sort of emotional responses.

(07:52):
You know, there is this saying that sales is 80% emotional. You can stack two vendors next to each other who offer the exact same things for the exact same price, same result, same timeline, same efficiency, etc.
And ultimately, you're going to go with the person that you trust. The person who sat down and listened to you, empathized, was your champion and your advocate went out of their way to make you look good in front of your boss.

(08:18):
Right. There are so many layers that go into that influence and making that, you know, decision to buy.
And so that became my secret sauce authenticity and humanizing the experience and in the age of AI, there's certainly the temptation to automate all things.
But there's enough data around what the buyer expectation is. And while most of their buying experience is self-paced and self-serve, there are instances where they require human connection.

(08:51):
And you have to design a buying experience around that. And you have to equip sellers to then become consultants instead of salespeople.
Right. So, say let's do consultants. I'm just thinking sort of in a practical way. Imagine a customer who's bought from you.
And I sent via email or whichever mode you've got, a complaint about something I experienced, had a bad experience. And I just want to know how you can help me.

(09:22):
How would you respond to me in a way that was more authentic?
So typically a person will submit a query, a ticket or something through a chatbot. They'll get these automated responses.
I think it is. You'll hear from us.
Yeah. You'll hear from us in the next 24 hours. And here are links to other self-paced resources and resource centers.

(09:47):
You can try to find the answer yourself. Right. Like that's what people expect. And then you expect that possibly within 24 hours, likely within 48 to 72.
You'll actually hear back from someone. Right. And when you do hear back from someone, it's just, you know, this real short, concise answer.
It's a link to something you've already read that doesn't fully capture, you know, what you need. Right. They didn't really pay the attention that was owed or deserved in that.

(10:13):
Nope.
And so that's the experience that even as I'm saying this, you're laughing and you're empathizing because you felt it too. And you get it.
You get exactly where I'm coming from. And I'm sure that other people are listening and nodding in as well. Right. And so I think that what we want to think about is there's an opportunity to stand out and to, you know, break that expectation and to rub that expectation from the person.

(10:37):
Instead of simply doing the cookie cutter. Let me drop a link.
You could instead the same, you know, 10 seconds that it takes you to send that response. You could also just record a quick video.
And you can say, Hey, so and so I understand you have this problem. Let me share my screen. You're going to click on this link that I shared with you. It's going to pull up this page. It looks like this.

(10:59):
And when you scroll down to the middle of this page, you're going to find the answer that you're looking for. Let us know if you need anything else. Right.
It takes the same amount of time to talk it out as it does to type it out and copy and paste it out. Right. But what you've done is you've completely interrupted the customer's expectation of what a good customer experience is you've taken the moment to address their question specifically.

(11:24):
Right. And they walk away with this impression of being cared for and more likely than to reinvest and to refer other customers. Right. There's a ripple effect of taking that time to make that kind of gesture. And here's a hint.
You can do this because I know some people are listening and going, well, that's not going to work for my business. I don't have the time. We're scaling, etc.

(11:46):
Yeah. I was thinking that you can replace your copy and paste text templates with pre-made videos. Right. There are questions that you probably get often the same requests, the same, you know, how do I do this and how do I do that?
If you stack your 20 most requested features or questions and you create an archive of 20 videos and instead of addressing the customer's name, you can say, hey, my friend, I understand that you're having trouble with this. Thank you so much for submitting the ticket. Click here, do this, do that, do that. Right.

(12:20):
It changes the game and it interrupts people's expectations. And at the same time, it builds a lot of authenticity in the day of AI where so many people are dismissing everything to artificial intelligence. They're becoming less trusting of the way that businesses are engaging with them or the content that's being produced.

(12:42):
And so if you can, you know, humanize any aspect, even that small touch in their experience, pre-during or post sales, you've got customers for life.
Thank you for that. And as you gave the example of watching a video instead of somebody standing live there and addressing it in a friendly way, it really brought it closer to, yes, I'm now speaking to a human being rather than the automated AI.

(13:11):
I'm committed to AI responses that you get. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you so much for sharing that with us. So moving on to just intrigued with if you can tell me about the time Lewis where you were faced with the challenge and how you managed to overcome it.
I'm trying to stay in that sort of vein of selling and sales. One of my clients is an agency and they were intent on not only increasing the pricing of the services provided, but also increasing the level of customer experience.

(13:50):
And this is all, of course, in the backdrop of this macroeconomic climate where everyone's cutting budget, right, there needs to be stronger emphasis on return on investment before someone will yield any sort of investment.
It's a very different climate to sell in. It's going to be a lot more data driven. There are going to be more steps to building trust.

(14:11):
And then of course, there's going to be that presumption around the question around AI and whether things are being authentically managed and handled.
And so against those challenges and against the sort of headwinds, we were seeing dips and revenues, we were seeing a lot of objection.
But we also were crunching the numbers and saw the operational opportunity to drive more efficiencies and to drive more sort of lifetime value per customer by revisiting pricing and revisiting the way that the services were bundled.

(14:43):
And so we prepared to go to market strategy that included, yes, a series of automated email cadences and things like that. But we really harped on, how do we completely interrupt people's expectations?
How do we surprise and delight, you know, at every turn beyond someone raising their hands expressing interest and their services?

(15:05):
And so we looked at revisiting the intake process. We replaced the form with a video application and interactive video.
And then we clicked A, B or C if this applies to you, right, you're entering multiple choice questions, you're having an interactive experience. It breaks the expectation of what it, you know, an intake process is it's no longer a form that's going to go into the nether's and possibly never be responded to.

(15:36):
And there's a higher level of confidence and engagement because it's a human face behind this video asking questions and guiding the person through that intake process. It's still automated, but it's quite humanized.
And the engagement rates and the sort of completion rates skyrocketed thereafter.
The next step was looking at that sort of opportunity between, you know, that intake process and a discovery call. How do we, of course, send calendar reminders and things like that to ensure that there's a high show up rate for these calls.

(16:09):
But beyond that, how do we also personalize the process? And so through the creation of a few stock videos in hint, we created some videos that were tailored to industry specific statistics that were going to be relevant to the customer.
And they were a lawyer, if they were an author, if they were a health coach, then they were getting statistics and case studies and information sort of fed up to them to prime them for that discovery call that was specifically relevant to the work that they were doing.

(16:44):
Then during that discovery call, we shifted all the questions and we mapped out an experience that placed a spotlight on the customer. You know, there's this massive opportunity to win a lot of trust.
Here's an entirely human engagement, a one-to-one conversation.
And that person needs to feel seen, heard and understood before they're willing to make an investment. So we revisited that entire process. And then after that discovery call again, personalizing the follow-up emails and the reminders all the way through the completion of a contract.

(17:21):
And so we were able to, you know, in this macroeconomic climate, while everyone thought it was crazy to raise prices and to move in this direction, we were able to see success.
We were able to drive, you know, as far as year-over-year revenue growth, we're pacing at a little over 30% year-over-year growth in the backdrop of, you know, this macroeconomic climate.

(17:44):
And so I don't want anyone to underestimate how critical human touch and personalized touches will become with increased use of AI.
The more human centric, the more human connection that you can create in this sort of customer journey, the more success you'll see.

(18:05):
Thank you. And thank you for, you know, sharing that greater, you know, the example of how you still manage to keep that sort of human authenticity and be sort of human centred.
And I was just thinking, Lewis, and I'm taking you way back to the beginning of the conversation.
And it's when you kindly, to spoke about intersectionality. And when you mention intersectionality, I was thinking about intersectionality with diversity, equity and inclusion cuts in different aspects of how different somebody is.

(18:42):
And I thought, well, my listeners would be intrigued to probably hear about your experience, your journey at a time when you started your professional career, you know, as being, I think you named it as the only one in the room when we talked in the green room.

(19:04):
Would you be willing to share that story just to give somebody else who might be sitting in the same situation and thinking, how do I navigate this?
Yeah. So I got my career, my corporate career started in advertising sales in New York City. This was mid 2000s.
And this was a time where the industry was still very much relationship driven. This is when tech was coming up and the iPhone had just been introduced to the world and all these things were brewing.

(19:38):
But the advertising world had not yet been impacted by all the sort of ad tech or advertising technologies that would roll out in the years to come.
It was still a very relationship driven environment. It was still that sort of pressure cooker boiler room sales floor that you would see on a television, you know, high pressure high stakes, you're being grilled and drilled by your, you know, VP of sales.

(20:03):
And in the backdrop of that experience, I had several interactions where, you know, I was discriminated against for my sexual orientation by customers that insisted on speaking to my manager.
They wanted a different rep. You know, they used the regulatory and, and, you know, really salacious words against me and describing me.

(20:27):
You know, there was this element of psychological safety that was compromised. Then on the sales floor and bringing these concerns forward to my leadership, I was then told that I was the problem that, you know, I needed to do a better job of concealing things about myself and being a team player and, you know, that I needed to, you know, read the room.

(20:53):
And so that's how I got my career started building resilience to against all of that continue to show up at work, continue to drive those results and those sales and hit quota and be, you know, sort of culture add to the team.
But I reached a point where, you know, enough was enough and I mentioned to you that at that time, tech was really starting to boom. You know, and I gamble and move to the west coast, no job, no car, no, no, no network or anything.

(21:25):
I hit the ground running. I ended up being recruited at LinkedIn. That was my first in as far as, you know, the in and Silicon Valley. And ironically, I was recruited on LinkedIn by someone at LinkedIn because of my LinkedIn activity.
They said, you know, you're quite active and we'd love for you to come in and teach our customers how to use the platform.

(21:46):
Oh, my goodness. So that's that's that that was a turning point for me because it was the first time that I stepped into this progressive tech environment where you lose the suit and tie, you wear the jeans and t-shirt, you bring your dog to work.
And you're still productive and it's a whimsical environment, but it's still quite professional. Everything is quite data driven. Everything's intentional and yeah, yeah.

(22:17):
It's, you know, and at the same time, you know, there's this appetite for different perspectives when it comes to product design and customer experience.
So I see the opportunity to show up and, you know, be outspoken. Yeah, as you were talking and sharing with us your experience of not having that psychological, you know, psychological, psychological safety being compromised.

(22:42):
Somebody right now might be listening to this and thinking, well, I recognize that that resonates with me because you were put in a situation which are well defined as having to conceal who you really are versus being authentic about who you are.

(23:07):
How did you manage that? If I can be all the way real grace, you know, I did not manage that alone. Developing that resilience to continue to show up in that environment, first of all, required this awareness and self compassion to recognize that I was going through a traumatic experience.

(23:29):
And, you know, this is not healthy. It should not be normalized in any way. And I had to seek coaching and therapy to get through that.
I had to develop that awareness of the fact that I needed extra time to heal and recover and to bounce back from those instances where I was completely disrespected by the person.

(23:58):
I was disrespected by the people around me. And, you know, I had to find ways of rehealing and rehabilitating throughout my experience because that friction, those moments, they don't go away.
They have not gone away. We still live in the world of bigotry and biases. We live now at a time where there's more awareness and critical thinking than there was even half a century ago around these matters.

(24:27):
And I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for everyone that's doing the work being vocal, being visible. And I'm going to encourage and implore everyone not to stop that because, you know, there is still the need to make our work experiences safer.
We have to, especially as intersectional people, we have to do our jobs. We have to meet the job description.

(24:50):
But then we're also carrying the burden of our intersectionality, right, because we're constantly a target of microaggression. You know, people undermining us, undermining our intelligence, relegating us to getting the coffee instead of making strategic contributions, et cetera.
And so you have to develop resilience. So anyone who's listening to this and going, how do I get through this? You don't go through it alone. That's the first thing.

(25:17):
It's important to seek help and to seek support and to recognize that what's happening to you is traumatizing. And you have to deal with trauma.
And beyond that, developing support systems, right, beyond therapy, family, and things, think about allyships within the workspace.

(25:38):
The thing that's really helped me is leaning on the strategy of amplification. And so in spaces where I'm not always welcomed or appreciated or I'm overlooked,
I start to amplify other people's contributions and team meetings. I thank them. I share case studies. I quantify impact just to really shine light on other people.

(26:02):
That then encourages that goodwill for other people to start doing it for you and start being your ally and start amplifying your contributions.
And when you start to develop those allyships in the workplace, that visibility starts to become your shield. People stop disrespecting you and disregarding you at some point.
And then you start to shift the narrative and shift the way that you're seeing in the workplace.

(26:28):
Thank you. And I'm pleased you actually probably took words from my mouth so to speak when you added on to the support mechanisms.
Because I was thinking, well, if I'm one of, you know, listening and I'm thinking, there is, I can't afford a coach. I can't get any therapy.
Who else can I speak to, but having that family network could be a friend as well that you can actually talk to about what is going on.

(26:58):
But as you know, at work, it's the environment within the business. Isn't it? Are they aware of intersectionality?
And what strategies have the put in place to support, you know, people who who might be LGBTQIA or, you know, by a park or anybody, it's about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

(27:20):
And what is happening there? Because we know today, statistically, that those companies, companies where the value of diversity, equity, inclusion are actually performing incredibly well.
The return on investment in these companies is quite, you know, it's quite high.
Yeah, retention is higher. Everyone feels safer and invested in it. I've certainly been in environments that have employee resource groups that are executive sponsored and are properly funded and do a lot to bring visibility to people that otherwise would be overlooked as far as the leadership talent pipeline.

(28:03):
So I definitely as signals is when I get questions, like how do I know that a company would be a safer place to work? One of the signals is that investment in employee resource groups.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, so if you know, thinking about because you work with business leaders, you know, and if you were to impart a piece of advice to them about how they can improve the working environment, what would that be?

(28:31):
Gosh, I'm going to say what I really want to say instead of like the textbook response.
If I could say anything to the leaders and keep it real, you know, closed door or you know, whisper by the water cooler, however, I would just remind people that we live in a day and age where people don't have to show up for their jobs.

(28:53):
They could start a TikTok account. They can get a couple of brand sponsorships. They can leverage AI to produce content. They don't need to be where they are not appreciated.
And so you as a leader in this day and age have to adopt authentic and servant leadership styles.

(29:15):
In order to drive the kind of influence that you're looking for, the cat is out the bag. People know that they have options. The economy has changed.
You know, it's a workers economy right now, regardless of what the headlines might want to speak you into thinking.
So as a leader, you have to invest in developing your emotional intelligence and your cultural intelligence in order to retain thriving talent.

(29:45):
The game has changed. Being authoritarian, being dictator, trying to spook your people into doing their work is just not going to work anymore.
That's a very powerful and interesting perspective because yes, they don't have to be in your environment, your business environment, you start with, they can work elsewhere and start their own business.

(30:07):
It's you, the leader that really needs to take time to really reflect.
And you know, what type of a leader you are recognizes blind spots and think about how you cut what you need to do to address them.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(30:28):
And for the generous audience who might not be leaders, is there anything you want to impart to them to take away, you know, relating to your story, your experiences that they can use in their own lives?
Gosh, I'm going to share something that sounds quite harsh, but is intended to be. It's intended to snap you out of it and snap you back into the moment.

(30:57):
And there was someone that during my university years, I disliked very much, but he said something that that still stayed with me till this day.
And that is that excuses are the tools of idiots. Don't make excuses. You're too smart for that.

(31:18):
Don't use excuses as a way of not doing the things that need to be done, not asking for the help that you deserve to receive and not accomplishing those things that you desire.
And it's harsh, right?
Excuse us are the tools of idiots. I'm not an idiot. And that's right. That's intended to snap you out of that.

(31:39):
Thank you. Thank you very much for that.
So we're just going to wrap up the sort of tips you've given to both the leader and the audience who may not be leaders is quite invaluable.
I really appreciate you for having me today and for giving me the floor to just show up as my whole self. I thank you so much.
Well, there is just one to thank you as well for being my guest and sharing your story and the wisdom.

(32:06):
Thank you.
Well, listeners, there's always a takeaway for my guests and on this occasion, I would really like you to reflect and ponder on, you know, what Lewis has shared with us both at a professional and at a personal level.
And I've got two things I wish the audience to reflect on.

(32:29):
When you look at resilience, how are you showing up authentically?
Are you really showing up authentically in your workplace, in the business place where you are working at at the moment?
That is to those who are employing.
And if not, it's just do you feel that you're dead turning up as your authentic self?

(32:55):
And to those business leaders out there, I'd like to really encourage you to reflect on this.
How are you seeking to ensure that all employees are appreciated, regardless, and a re-emphasized regardless of who they are.

(33:16):
What the background may be, whether the LGBTQ, it doesn't matter.
How are you as a leader, ensuring to be able to appreciate that the value that the brain?
That's all for this episode and thanks for listening.
Remember, if you want to support what we do, then share, subscribe and leave a review via your favorite app.

(33:43):
And by going to gracekewconsultancy.com/podcast.
I'll be back in the next episode with another guest who will share their story and tips to help you bounce back and thrive.
Subscribe to get bounce back and thrive episodes automatically on your favorite podcast app.

(34:06):
And visit gracekewconsultancy.com.
[Music]
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