The Foureva Podcast
Welcome to The Foureva Podcast, where we break barriers and redefine success!
Join host Jamar Jones, a dynamic entrepreneur, national speaker, and author of "Change Your Circle, Change Your Life," as he takes you on an extraordinary journey of inspiration and motivation.
In each episode, we bring you an impressive lineup of star-studded guests, each with a unique voice and a wealth of insights to share. From industry leaders to renowned experts, we uncover their secrets to success in personal, business, and marketing domains. Prepare to be captivated by their stories, strategies, and experiences that will empower you to reach new heights.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a marketing professional, or simply seeking fresh perspectives on life and business, The Foureva Podcast is your ultimate destination. Discover the transformative power of changing your circle and unlocking your full potential. With each episode, we delve into the minds of the most influential voices in the industry, providing you with the tools and inspiration you need to overcome obstacles and achieve greatness.
Don't miss out on this dynamic podcast that will fuel your ambition, challenge your limits, and propel you toward success. Tune in to The Foureva Podcast and join a community of driven individuals who are ready to make an impact. Get ready to be inspired, motivated, and 'foureva' transformed!
The Foureva Podcast
What AI Can’t Replace: The One Human Skill That Wins Every Time
Want to build a thriving business, lead with purpose, and make a real human impact?
In this powerful round table episode, four dynamic leaders—Alisha Joseph, Kimberly Spencer, Uniqueka Walcott, and Nick Dillon—come together to discuss the intersection of leadership, mindset, storytelling, and transformational service.
🔥 Alisha Joseph shares how she’s changing the game in the contact center industry by leading with empathy, developing people-first leaders, and building teams that prioritize relationships over rigid metrics.
🎙 Kimberly Spencer, known as the “Queen of Connections,” reveals how sharing authentic stories on the right podcasts can drive brand visibility and impact lives—because stories don’t just build authority, they build belief.
💼 Uniqueka Walcott, the Billion-Dollar Bid Writer, brings a whole new perspective to government proposals—blending compliance with soul, showcasing how storytelling can win contracts and change lives through infrastructure, safety, and access.
🧠 Nick Dillon, “The Belief Coach,” dives deep into mindset transformation, the power of self-awareness, and why true leadership starts with personal development and alignment with your purpose.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ Why empathy and relationships are the most underrated leadership skills
✅ How podcasting and storytelling can expand belief and build community
✅ What makes a proposal really stand out—and it’s not just perfect formatting
✅ The internal mindset shifts leaders must make to scale sustainably
✅ How trauma, healing, and curiosity fuel transformation and connection
✅ Why personal growth is the secret edge for any entrepreneur or CEO
✨ Whether you're a coach, business owner, service provider, or team leader—this episode is packed with truth, vulnerability, and strategies that will elevate how you lead, serve, and grow.
🔔 Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and hit the bell for more interviews on purpose-driven leadership, business growth, storytelling, and mindset mastery.
I always tell leaders to you know, definitely take a break when needed, because sometimes that work, it takes a lot and sometimes you have to really just sit back, reflect, rewind, make sure your mindset is straight, because we do have a responsibility to people and we have to stop looking at people as just a number. I'm Alicia Joseph. I help contact center leaders lead with operational confidence to build business and professional growth, to bring a face to the voice professional growth to bring a face to the voice.
Speaker 1:Who do you serve? Oh yeah, who do I serve? I serve contact center leaders and professionals. Yes, and why? And why yes?
Speaker 2:my why is to pretty much bring?
Speaker 3:the face, to the voices of the people who may not have any your name?
Speaker 1:I am kimberly spencer. Yeah, go for it. What, what is that? Did anything resonate to you from what she said?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm curious because we have, like I and every other business owner has been on the receiving end of contact center leaders Like well, dealing with customer support, or you know somebody in a contact center, and they are getting the worst of humanity, of our own humanity. How do you share with contact center leaders to have empathy and to lead people who are probably, I would assume, very emotionally drained, very dehumanized? How do they lead? How do you lead somebody who's in that mindset.
Speaker 1:So I think, when it comes down to leading, after having like just pretty much that emotional break, it's really about getting into the inner root of what's going on and understanding the situation in itself. It's building that relationship. So the one thing about me when it came to leading teams is that you know. Typically, someone comes into a new organization and they're just like, oh okay, well, you know what are the metrics, you know who are the team members, you know what are the goals, what do we need to reach? But instead my strategy is let me sit down and do the relationship building with people and I want to know what's going on Like. I want to understand where you are emotionally, where you are mentally not only just external customer, but it's also about the internal customer.
Speaker 1:So it's about my team, it's about the people that I'm collaborating with, the other teams and departments that we're working with, and so when it comes down to really understanding how to lead, I need to understand the person first. I need to understand their temperature with the company. I need to understand their temperature with dealing with different customers. I need to understand them as an individual. Once we dive deep into that, that helps me to lead them into the next segment of being able to lead, being able to expand with the team, but also being able to push back when necessary.
Speaker 1:Because that's a really big one in contact centers is we're always building a business case with what's going on and what's needed, and so it's really important to really build that, have that relationship building with each individual, not just as a team, but also just getting to know them one-on-one, and a lot of things that a lot of leaders do that when they started because I did do that when they started, because I did they used one actual leadership style which does not work. It is bullshit. It is something that corporate has talked about. You have to be this person, you have to do this with every, each individual, and that's just not how it works. It's all about building those relationships, understanding the individual and then executing to see what's going to be the best personalized solution for them.
Speaker 2:So, as I'm listening and I hear your passion yes, through this discussion. And so when you hear and you mentioned this a little bit is traditional contact centers have a traditional model? Yes, and so when you consider the traditional model of really metrics-driven, really call-driven, really times and from the person on the outside looking in I'm thinking a little bit on the customer service side, but as I hear you describe it, certainly from a leadership standpoint and really understanding the person who you are leading in addition to yourself as a leader, why does that resonate so much for you? That's different from the traditional model.
Speaker 1:I think it's. I think honestly it's because I started off as an agent and I had no plans of staying in contact center work. I've had great leaders, I've had great leaders, I've had shitty leaders, I've had leaders screw me over, I've had leaders change quality scores, so that way I failed calls. So as an agent I was able to experience it at the beginning Like this is what it was. I've worked in call centers where you have leaders who want to invest in you, they want to encourage you, motivate you, and then in others you're just a number and when they're done with you it's like okay, goodbye, you know our conversation is over. And so for me it's important that I take what I've learned from different mentors and people that did believe in me, that saw that I could bring something different to the table, and especially with people leadership, and really imprint that in other individuals. Because at that point in my career I didn't have a voice. I literally did not. I literally was just coming to work, I was doing the job I wasn't really paid attention to. It's just like, oh, great performance, I'll use you as a subject matter expert for new hires, but that's it, like there was nothing else coming from it and then I had to actually make the push and that's what made me decide like, hey, I have to do this differently because if we don't start now, we're going to have shitty leaders continuing in this industry. We have to have leaders that are people first.
Speaker 1:None wrong with the metrics, nothing wrong with performance, because that's important as well. We got to drive revenue, we got to make sure costs are in line, but as a people first leader, that's going to always be something that comes first. The people matter. A lot of the times. You see people always be something that comes first. The people matter. A lot of the times. You see people you know talking about the numbers and CSAT and you know we have to hit these KPIs and that's extremely important and it's necessary. But you can't do that unless you have an alignment with people. And that's like my entire motto in my career, in my life my people come first. If I can't do that first, we're not aligned. I don't need to be working with you guys.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 4:To your point about people first and bringing faces to the voices. What are some of the most powerful transformations you've seen in leaders and call centers?
Speaker 1:So I know for some people this may not be transformational, but it is to me. I've seen people buy their first home. I've seen people who come from communities and neighborhoods who did not have an opportunity, who are left as a statistic, who are just left to pretty much die, give their children a new place to live, whether that's an apartment, whether that's a new home, whether that's moving to another state. I've seen people buy their first cars. I've seen people start families, things that traditionally, when you don't think about a call center, you're like, oh, this is just a job and I move on, like this is a starting point. But for some people this is their career and I've seen that and I've cried with these people.
Speaker 1:I've passionately like, I've argued with these people. We've gone back and forth. It's like you can do this. You don't have to sit here and just be the statistic of what a call center, traditional call center, is. You can do more, you can be more, you can lead more. There's been meetings that I've sat with where I'm literally the only black leader, I'm the face representing, and that's already challenging as it is by itself, but on top of it, now I'm speaking to an audience that I'm fully related to because I've come from those areas. I've come from that role, I've grown in this industry and it's just something that I can't. It's embedded in me when I see people do better. Hell do better than me. I've had people grow above me and it's just a really rewarding feeling to see.
Speaker 4:That is powerful. Yeah, to have people outgrow you, like as a result of your coaching, your teaching, your education, like that is powerful.
Speaker 1:It's very powerful.
Speaker 4:Don't ever knock your transformation capability. Oh you know, people might not think this is transformational. It absolutely is.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:Like do you understand? Like? Home ownership is a gateway to generational wealth.
Speaker 1:Like you are changing so many lives and people Like you were absolutely many lives and people are. They're changing every day. Their mindset is changing.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 1:Because once they get out of that situation and of course we have the belief coach who has?
Speaker 4:been talking about this. Belief coach, ring it all yes.
Speaker 1:And it's it's once they get out of that mindset. Now they're doing things that they never thought that they would do, because they've been surrounded in an environment that told them they couldn't.
Speaker 4:Yeah, your environment matters. I think we talked about that a little bit today from your belief coaching session. You talked about the environment how that impacts what we think we're capable of doing of you know. Okay, if this is our frame of reference, we are. We're only going to go so far outside of our comfort zone if we can get in rooms and change our circles. Then we can move into places where where what we thought't possible is now doable, because we're watching Alicia do it, we're watching Kim do it, we're seeing it's possible.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I love that, even in the spirit of just thinking about, in the work that I do, which is Nick Dillon, the belief coach, as you've all advocated, and I work with individuals to get that beliefs, values, mindset in alignment with the purpose. And so, as you just described that, leisha, I felt the mindset, I felt the focus, I felt the deep value that you have for this work in what you have put together for yourself. And so it is a process, it's a transformational process which, again, you all have mentioned, and this work is necessary, it's relevant, and there is no situation where, if someone has the objective to grow next level, best version of themselves, it's going to be shifting in that mindset. And so we have to have this internal compass that we use, as we talked about in our core values exercise on yesterday. That's those values, and you're always processing through the lens of how you see the world, and everything that we make a decision on is processed through that lens. So, even as I heard you, alicia, talk about when I was there, how I saw myself in that role, how I saw myself evolve in that role, well, part of that journey was a mindset shifting through that role. Yes, and so, as you think about your role and your business and your ability to lead others and show others how to lead in those centers. It's a great tool and tips, but the foundation of that is going to be really making sure that they understand that whole person.
Speaker 2:I love that. Any and everything that we do in this work tells us that, hey, people are the drivers of that, and while people are the drivers of that, they are a tremendous asset that allows us to get and be who we are, and we should never take that for granted. We should never. You know, it is disheartening to hear that someone sees themselves as a number. Yes, go ahead. It is disheartening to hear that someone sees themselves as a number yes.
Speaker 3:Go ahead, there's just so much power in relationship and that's something that you've touched on, but also that you've touched on as well is the relationship that we have to our beliefs, the relationship that we have to our environment, the relationship Everything in life is a relationship, whether it's personified through a person or it's this intangible belief system that we have created for ourselves. But when we can look at the relationship of how are we showing up as leaders so that we are stepping forward as our best selves to serve those who need guidance, support, empathy and care and compassion, that's shifting the mindset into that, being that of a role model.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's transformational, but it's also necessary for their purpose. And I always tell leaders to you know, definitely take a break when needed, because sometimes that work, it takes a lot and sometimes you have to really just sit back, reflect, rewind, make sure your mindset is straight, because we do have a responsibility to people and we have to stop looking at people as just a number we absolutely have to.
Speaker 4:I love that. You said that leaders have a responsibility to each other. I don't think we think about that enough. A lot of us want to get to the top and be at the pinnacle of our career as CEO and VP or whatever and we don't think about the fact that it's an act of service.
Speaker 1:Yes, I truly believe in servant leadership. If you are not a servant leader, if you want to work in contact centers, if you want to lead people, you have to be a servant leader. Like there's no way around that. If you're just, you know, for the political, for the gain, for the. I just want to be VP of customer support. This might not be the role for you and you might need to really rethink that. Like it's insane.
Speaker 4:Like I can tell stories today, like you know a person in your head right now, right like servant leadership, that you wish would just sit down somewhere and just sit down somewhere, have coffee tea, maybe a little shot and then we can go deeper into it.
Speaker 1:But servant leadership, like it's just embedded, has to be embedded. It's like that trigger, it's that light that's inside that other servant leaders and people first leaders can see and we can, you know, unite with that and we can make impact with that and we can bring people's faces to the voices that people are hearing just on calls or just in communication. They want that acknowledgement Agents, team leaders, even managers. They just want to be known like hey, we're here, we're here to serve the customer, we're here to help you. But we also need that investment too. We need people that's going to see our shine and our light.
Speaker 1:We're dealing with a hell of a lot regularly talking to customers, yelled at, being insulted. Some of the things that these agents have went through with customers and even internally is, like, absolutely heartbreaking, and so it's important for us as leaders if we're leading these people, we really have to dive deep into the individual so that way we can lead them correctly. It's a responsibility. This is someone's child, this is someone's someone, this is someone's mother, this is somebody to somebody. And so if we don't take that seriously as leaders and not just in contact center work, but in general we have to keep that in mind when we are talking to these people, when we are providing that guidance, because it's a determination between their success or us sending them down a path that they shouldn't have went.
Speaker 4:Right, yeah, bad leadership will break your soul. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:It will break your soul, it will deteriorate you if you allow it and if you let it, and so I feel like part of my responsibility is to help develop additional responsible leaders. That's my passion, especially here in this type of work, because, if not, we're going to keep going down a trajectory where turnover rates are going to continue to be high. People are just going to continue to have the same assessment of what context in a work is Well, this is a nothing and it's whatever, and it's not really a career, when in reality, yes, it's buying home in reality it's buying cars.
Speaker 4:It's hey, I've really come in promotion.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm like I went from being an agent to now I'm the manager of quality, like it's people transitioning into the thing. Transitioning into the thing, it's people transitioning into their better self and who they're destined to be. So that way, the people that they are supposed to lead because that's also another thing we can't save everybody. It's not our responsibility to save everybody. We need to teach others so they can participate and save the people they're supposed to be responsible for.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:Yeah, pardon me, let's get into Kim.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:Oh yes, kim, this is amazing Round of applause, amazing. Thank you, thank you, good job.
Speaker 3:The energy Fire.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:You got me fired up.
Speaker 2:I'm like damn can you leave me Now? You see how we tapped into you.
Speaker 1:Yes, good job, thank you. Thank you, this was good.
Speaker 2:We saw passion we hadn't seen yet. Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did it. Sober, there you go, there you go. Thank you, miss Kimberly.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, hello, yes, I am Kimberly Spencer. I am the queen of connections. I connect business owners with the podcasts that help build their brand awareness and their bottom line, and that is because I believe in the transformational power of hearing diverse stories in order to expand your capacity for what is possible for you.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 3:What? Who do you serve? I serve business owners and entrepreneurs.
Speaker 4:When you talk about expanding capacity for what's possible, is that like a series of questions, or how do you get people to move into that space?
Speaker 3:So I'll tell you in a story. Oh, I love so. My first business was in teaching Pilates, back when I was 19 years old and I was deeply struggling with bulimia at the time and and at that time, going through that struggle, I learned from my clients because I was hearing. As you work with any clients, you start to hear their stories, you start to hear what they think is possible, and so through hearing other people's ways of surviving because our minds are wired to survive, not necessarily to thrive I started to question my own belief systems. And that's the power that happens when you go on other people's podcasts is there's going to be some business owner or some kid or some person who's questioning and in a space of transition or divorce or coming out, or they are struggling and they are listening to your story and there's going to be something that it unlocks within you and that, through that simple connection, it Helps them see a that they're not alone in their own struggle, and be that, that it's possible for them, where before they had no recollection of what was possible like for me.
Speaker 3:I didn't think that loving my body like I no recollection of what was possible like for me. I didn't think that loving my body, like I didn't think that that was possible. I now have had like over 15 years of being completely transformed. I don't say I'm recovered, I say I'm completely transformed because a butterfly doesn't go back to being a caterpillar right and I absolutely love my body, three babies well, nearly three babies later. But that's the power of hearing other people's stories and it came from other people's stories allowed me to start questioning my own belief systems of what I adapted in my survival mechanisms to then allowing myself to see what could be possible for me, like could it be possible that I could love my body? That at 20 years ago was an impossibility now.
Speaker 2:Now it's like that's my norm right but that's the power of hearing other people's stories and hearing a diverse perspective of other people's stories of possibility so I hear you and this is really good, as you talked about that story and you shared your own experience, your own challenging of of beliefs and and just hearing the queen of podcast. And just hearing the queen of podcast, what's your strategy? Because, while I can connect on the power of story and the story can impact lives, based on what you just told me, how do you get clients to get the courage that their story in fact does matter and that it can change lives at a level that yours does by way of a podcast?
Speaker 3:I think the power is in the conversation, when you have a conversation with the right person, and the problem that most business owners face is that they're going on the wrong shows. They're going on shows that build their authority, which is great.
Speaker 3:So, for example, you're a divorce coach or someone who supports divorced people going through a divorce process and you go on a divorce podcast. Well, the people who most likely are listening to a divorce podcast are not your ideal client. Your ideal client was six months ago, when they were considering leaving their spouse and looking at what the process would be, and from that space, you need to meet them where they're at. So what we found with our strategy that we developed that's in my book Make Every Podcast Want you is we. Instead of allocating 100% of the time to just build your authority by going on the biggest and baddest podcasts, we look at what are the podcasts that your ideal customer avatar is listening to at the time that they're looking to solve the problem that you help them solve, and being clear on what is the problem that your ideal customer thinks that they have versus the problem that they really have, because there's a difference.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So as a high performance coach and I've had my high performance coaching company crown yourself for nearly a decade I have clients coming to me looking. Typically they're in between multiple businesses. I wonder why I attract that.
Speaker 3:And they are juggling multiple businesses and multiple roles of responsibility and leadership and because they are in this space, they think, oh, I just need to be more productive, maybe I just need to leverage my time better. But really, actually, they're struggling with control issues, they're struggling with delegation, they're struggling with trusting themselves, but they're not listening to podcasts on how to trust themselves. They're listening to podcasts because they're high achievers about increase your productivity. So when I started shifting from looking at the podcasts that were generating actual income and getting me clients back in 2020 and 2021, I realized it was never me going on a podcast. It was like here's your successful coaches podcast. Those podcasts.
Speaker 3:They were great at building authority and I could use those in my email pipeline funnel of like look, when you work with me, you're working with someone who's an established coach who's been doing this for a decade almost. But then I looked at well, what are my clients actually listening to? They're listening to productivity podcasts, and so I started to have to have the right conversations with the right people. And when you're having a conversation with a podcaster, you will have direct feedback as to who their audience is, because the podcaster like, attracts like.
Speaker 3:The podcaster is going to be your best form of feedback to seeing is your message really landing with the person and with who their audience is and with what their struggles are?
Speaker 2:I love it, love it, and so so is it plausible for an individual such as myself to speak to. So I'm a mindset coach, so. So part of my journey would be and even my audience is someone who also struggles with shifting, someone who also struggles with where their mindset is, where they might be stuck. I've lived that, I can speak to, that, I can share examples of that, and that brings a vulnerable part of me that most people don't know. I can speak to the authority of what mindset does from a psychology standpoint, but what really moves the needle, if I'm hearing you correctly, is the beliefs that got me there, the journey that I went on, and so that others who might be listening know that they're not alone to your point in your example, and then your audience further resonates with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you're building rapport by sharing your story, because when we hear somebody, it's very easy to think. I mean how often as a parent and as someone who, through my teenagers, I remember thinking no one understands me, but that's because I didn't have any other examples, that's because I was shame, loves, secrets, and so when we're stuck in a cycle of shame, and sometimes people, especially high achieving leaders, when they're not performing at the level that they think they should be like there's, there's some negative emotions that come with that experience, and so we have to acknowledge those emotions that come out. And so when your story can mirror the emotions that your ideal customer is currently facing, oh my god, that suddenly resonates on a whole different level, because you're positioning yourself as the yoda to the skywalker oh, yes, love it I love that.
Speaker 4:You said shame loves secrets.
Speaker 1:I don't think I ever like looked at it that way neither, if I hey, that was that was good, that was good yeah what are some of the other feelings that you find with your ideal clients, that they're experiencing?
Speaker 3:and as far as like them going on shows or I'm not sure I framed this question.
Speaker 4:Well, I'll pause. You said shame, love secrets. Could you explain a little bit more about what that means?
Speaker 3:yeah, so I'll give you an example. Um, we were ramping up our podcast guesting strategy back in like 2019. We really took it to another level in 2020, but in 2018 2019 I had a huge breakthrough. A repressed, negative experience that happened to me of sexual assault and rape came through at a big event where I suddenly remembered everything and from that experience, I got to do a lot of healing. I got to work on a lot of my beliefs that led me to that point, to put myself in that position, and I was on a podcast sharing of this experience. And this was a business podcast, but in the business podcast I was talking about radical ownership, and so I used a very personal and traumatic experience to demonstrate how I took ownership of my participation in that experience. That happened, not saying that I wasn't a victim, not saying that the other person was absolved of their part, but saying I had to look at my own beliefs as to why I put myself in such a dangerous situation. That resulted in that outcome, and I shared that.
Speaker 3:I questioned the fact that I was raped because it wasn't like the movies, it wasn't this big dramatic scene, it wasn't a whole violent cinematic moment. It was. I had said no, he didn't listen. I had said no again, he still didn't listen. I finally said no and elbowed him and he finally listened. But beyond that, there already was the actual definition of rape and I shared that on the show to say that I had to look up the actual definition. And when I shared that, the podcaster turns and looks at me. She goes oh my God, that happened to me and she had never acknowledged it because in her mind it wasn't bad enough. And so often we have these stories where someone in some other country or someone has had it worse than us or someone has has had.
Speaker 3:it has had a more traumatic experience and thus, for some reason, that invalidates our story because it's someone's had it worse. Yes, I've faced some traumas. There's certain traumas that I haven't faced.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm a white woman, so like there are certain things I haven't experienced and I can't speak to that. But I can speak to what I've experienced and from that, be able to Resonate with the people who my story will resonate with. I had a coaching client years ago. She was a very successful in the medical profession, 30 years in medicine. She was building her coaching business and so I was helping her grow her like, establish and build her business and she was like in a moment of just being disheartened, said you know, kim, you're so good at this coaching thing.
Speaker 3:And I was like, well, thank you, but why, like what? If I just referred people to you like, why do I, why does the world need me? And I said, well, I said listen, there will be some people that will resonate with you and there will be some people that will resonate with me. However, I don't have 30 years of experience in the medical background. I'm a college dropout, like I dropped out two weeks before I was supposed to start. So some people will resonate with that disruptor side, the revolutionary, the pave your own path, that sort of spirit. But others who paved a traditional path, who walked that traditional walk, will resonate with your story because it's different than mine and I said so, are you going to do them the disservice of not serving them because you're scared to show up?
Speaker 1:Well, that changed your story up. Well, that changed your story Well it's like I heard that and I was like what came to my mind was somebody, someone needs your authenticity. Yeah, it's, it's, it's needed. It's like, if I see it, if you're that example, I can do this. I'm glad you told her that I really do, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because we can't like like to your point. We cannot save everybody and ignore. Do I like that word save? Because it puts us in the position of the Savior rather than the empowerment of the coach. Exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but we are not meant to coach and guide every single human. That's, that's just hubris, yeah, getting in the way. But if we look at, okay, the people who are right for me to guide will come and find me and then, if they're not a right fit for me, I have an amazing referral network that I can pass them off to mm-hmm, to somebody who might deeper resonate with their work in and their story in the way they like to be worked with and when we're able to have that mindset of abundance, that changes the perception of how we even show up for our businesses Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I love that you, as you shared that story, which even amplifies the power of your story and your story impacting lives, amplifies the power of your story and your story impacting lives. It shows us that how our experiences, our life experiences even in our trauma and our experiences, might very well create what we call impaired thinking and unless we ever deal with it, the impaired thinking becomes the, the belief of which we see ourselves. And then, in the most unlikely moment, when we believe we're sharing or responding in a way that is is clear to our audience, that clarity comes from you, to you, from that experience that you had, and in that moment you disrupted your beliefs in real time, which, yes, we can do that in real time and decide to come forth with what was manifesting in the heart and mind at that time. That was extremely effective. I love that. That that makes you the queen.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, I received that Truly. The queen. Well, thank you, I received that. That makes you truly the queen.
Speaker 2:Yes Kim, can you tell us where we can find you at and where listeners and viewers can find your book as well?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you can grab my book at makeeverypodcastwantsyoucom and follow me on Instagram at Kimberly Spencer. Oh, I forgot to do that. I forgot to ask you.
Speaker 1:I'm the guy with the better moderator. You know what?
Speaker 2:I mean, but you can go ahead and plug your socials and where they can find you at right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, you can find me on LinkedIn at Alicia Joseph. You can also go to my website at SavvyServiceProcom. Thank you, so much.
Speaker 4:Thank you, oh Unika Unika.
Speaker 1:Nice to oh. Unica, unica, I hate you. Unica, are you ready?
Speaker 2:You've got two pretty good examples.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. Who are you? What do you do? Who do you serve? Why?
Speaker 4:That's such a loaded question, well, so let's do. Who are you and what do you do? Okay, my name's Unica Walcott. So let's do. Who are you and what do you do? Okay, my name is Unika Walcott.
Speaker 4:I'm a billion-dollar bid writer, and so what that means is I write proposals for government contracts for small, mid-sized and large businesses so they can tap into not trap into the more than trillion-dollar industry that is government contracts. So I kind of fell into it. About 10 years ago I took an eight-week contract position and it's turned into a 10-year career where I've had years of, you know, 50% win rates. I have been able to go into new companies where I've started and said we've been going after this client for five, six years. We couldn't win a contract to save our lives. I touch the bid and we get it, like that's just what I do.
Speaker 4:But I think a lot of that comes from my ability to write, and so for me, writing has always been personal. I talk about my feelings and things and so being able to relate to clients at an emotional level, I've got a panel coming up in November where we're talking about AI use in the development of proposals and one of my panelists from DHS we kind of had our side conversations in the background about preparing for this said look, I don't like reading proposals written by AI. They don't have any feeling, don't have any soul, and so that's really the thing that makes the difference in the bids and I feel like me being sort of connected to my feelings. Through my own writing, I'm able to empathize with the people we're trying to serve, and that is the difference in how I write.
Speaker 4:I feel like any time I write something and I can audibly respond and go mm. Like and it doesn't happen, often I don't lose. I don't because I feel it, but that takes time. That takes me spending time with my subject matter experts saying, okay, what is important to you, what is important to the client, and not just hearing the you know the scope, the laundry list, that we need this done by the 31st and in 10 days this needs to be invoiced, but like hearing the why behind it and so being able to touch those pieces and think about the human beings that are going to be served. My current career I'm really focused in disaster recovery and so disaster recovery is a really tough business.
Speaker 4:Like a lot of people give it, you know, bad rap.
Speaker 4:They think, oh, you know, it's all about chasing money and people who are being opportunistic. But then you've got people like some of the folks I work with, who were like you know, I wouldn't do anything else for, you know, in a career they're sleeping in their cars, you understand. They're sleeping in their cars to go serve other people. They haven't had showers in several days. They're driving an hour one way, two ways to be there for folks, and that's the stuff I love to showcase. So when I think about the billion-dollar bid writer sort of system and process, my mindset is always to like let's, you know, yes, tell powerful stories, but also let's like slide out, to like the human beings who are doing the work in the why behind it. That's where I feel like a lot of small and mid-sized businesses sort of missed the mark in terms of the ability to tell a story that's compelling about the people that are showing up, because, even though it's the government, they still hire people right like, a lot of times we think, oh well, it's got to be.
Speaker 4:You know, check all the boxes. Yes, you have to be compliant. If you're not compliant, your bid's going in the trash, like you just blew $10,000. I call it a bid DUI. Like, like, I love that, like. So, with that being said, like, yes, you want to teach people to be compliant. Check all the boxes If it has to be 12.5, times New Roman. You know, one inch margins, like, absolutely do those things.
Speaker 4:But the difference is often in the ability to connect humans to human, about why we're showing up. So, whether it's, you know, a contract for building a bridge, if we're going to submit it for award, you might not think it's a big deal. You might go, oh, this is small, this is not transformative, it's, you know, yeah, I don't know, still girder two miles, whatever, like, it's not a big deal, it's in the middle of nowhere. But when you take and connect the dots and really explore what's happening there, you go okay, this is a bridge in a small town. It's on an arterial roadway. That means school buses need to go over it Me as a writer. Then I go okay, how much does a school bus weigh? What is the load rating for this particular bridge. Let me paint the picture for the non-engineer around why this is deficient and unsafe, and that is how we write for people.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:You just changed the game on my whole perspective on bid writing.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I have seen bids out and I do a lot of work in DHHS for counseling and servicing and placement in the communities and advocacy work, all of that and I get the bid and, as you I mean you described it so sexy and it kind of just changed the game on, kind of how I look at it, because when I get it it looks like, oh my God, I don't get to the scope because of the compliance piece and so the compliance piece and the intricacies that go into the 12 font, five copies by this date and time, you know, by the time I've gotten there, even though this is an interest of mine that I could do and serve, I missed the scope. And how you just described it is. If an individual like myself would be working with you, you can get past the compliance piece.
Speaker 4:That's literally my job, yeah.
Speaker 2:The compliance piece is the day-to-day that just has to be done. But as I'm hearing you, it's the essence of the language in the scope. That's what people are looking for. But what you're also saying is yes, the compliance piece is necessary, because I won't get to your essence if you can't get to the compliance piece Say that again. So, but you just changed my whole view of looking at a bid going forward and I thank you for that.
Speaker 4:Wow, beautiful, I'm trying to learn something from the mindset coaches they are winning y'all.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are, yes, you are.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but I feel like it is very arduous and a lot of times they're poorly written. So I super empathize with you, like your frustration here, because you'll get a bit no contradicting contradict itself.
Speaker 3:Three times in four pages you're like.
Speaker 4:So did you want four pages? Did you want two pages for this section? Do I get to write resumes or no? You think maybe. Oh, the question period is 48 hours. It's a lot.
Speaker 4:So I empathize a lot with the. I don't want to do this because it's, you know, not sexy work. It's not. But when you think about the impact you get to make, so when I tell people, oh you know, I've got over a billion dollars in wins in my career, I go.
Speaker 4:That's not the real marker of impact. For me, the marker of impact is the roads the kids get to to have, you know, safely to pass in their school bus. But also, for me, is deeply personal. When I was 11, we lost my little brother. He got hit by a car, mmm, and in a private neighborhood apartment complex and and a part of me has wondered, you know, if they had something as simple as a sidewalk, would he still be here, like who could he have become? I won't know that. And so that was really the catalyst for me, taking that eight-week contract position and staying in 10 years. And so I've explored other areas, but now I feel like it is time to expand my expertise and to share it with more people so they have access to the opportunity to be able to have that shift of oh.
Speaker 2:This is not really sexy work, but the impact is so much more valuable than me slogging through the scope connect takes us to that story of why you can be so passionately intricate in the details, because it's those details that, if there would have been a sidewalk that you could have wrote so eloquently, we could have a different life today. Yeah, absolutely, oh, my god, and that's where the human element matters.
Speaker 1:when you talked about ai, so many many people and I mean this even goes back with like contact centers in general everyone wants AI, right, they want to and they don't realize it's just a tool. It's not to replace the human element that we have. Ai can't connect me about a sidewalk they can't. It can't connect me to telling the story of why these things are needed to get those contracts. Everyone's trying to use it as more than what it is. It's simply a tool, but it's not to replace it. Like humans are going to always be behind that tool, completing it, streamlining it and making sure that it works, and I think if more people hear this and understand the power of storytelling, it'll give them that different perspective on when AI is necessary and when you have to really use those stories to be able to get and connect with people and to get those contracts.
Speaker 4:That is also just tough, because sometimes you've got to tell a story in two sentences.
Speaker 4:Yes, You've got this much space 's it to nail it, and so that's not something you can get at it. Yeah, you could say, hey, shorten this down to 50 words instead of two pages, bingo. But what you're gonna get is gonna be so distilled, it lacks emotion, mm-hmm. And I won't even say the AI is not useful in helping build your stories. It's about how you prompt. So, for example, we were working on a particular bid and it was like OK, we need to make sure that we understand the local culture here, and I always cringe a little bit and go is this even an ethical move for me to make to teach people to? I say sometimes, put on proposal blackface. Forgive my choice of words, but when I say, ok, we're going to go to Louisiana for disaster recovery and we need to make sure that you know our housing inspectors, or whoever we're sending, understands how to interact with people, and so some of the things they might do in terms of recovery might include, okay, giving somebody information, but if you don't understand what they're communicating and in their needs, you can't give them the right information. So when people in Louisiana say, make groceries, most of us say grocery shopping. Right, you, you have to have that nuanced language. And so I might prompt and ask Chad, gpt, so what are some of the nuanced cultural languages in this space? And? And those are things you can gather. But if you don't even understand that there's a difference, how do you ask those questions exactly? So that's why you know people go, hey, I'm gonna take my job. No, a person using AI will take your job. I think that's a bit of an overreach. Even there, I feel like people have overestimated what it's capable of, and so you have to be mindful that, like there are so many risks involved with adoption. So this is one of the talks I like to do about AI and proposals. I tell people look, you've got to be curious. That's step one. Step two you're going to make sure that you are really evaluating the risks. So we're talking about okay, sustainability. We don't talk enough about how much water is used to make these centers that store and run all of the machines behind AI. So you know, 20 questions, gaming, chat, gpt and you're out of a 20-ounce bottle of water.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 4:And so would you rather plan your vacation with chat GPT or have a glass of water to drink Like? Those are real things to think about when we're deciding how to use this. And so I'm not anti-AI which is funny, because one of my colleagues a while back when she said you talking about AI, I thought you were anti-AI. Everything I see on LinkedIn is, like you know, chipping at the block of the credibility of this tool. I said I want people to make firm decisions with a bigger understanding than walking through Hartsfield and seeing five magazines and four books as the front sort of thing on the newsstand. Which was the thing was two years ago I couldn't walk through an airport anywhere in the country. And I see AI everybody's using it, everybody's adopting it. 30 days later, I opened up a Pew research report and less than a third of Americans have used it. And so that's not tracking with the news that they're giving you.
Speaker 4:And so that's what made me dive deeper and decide I needed to keep my voice in this space, because we need to educate people about how to think critically around the tools we're using. That's not happening enough, and so, as much as I was like I'm uncomfortable I'm not a tech girly I was like I don't have to be tech. I have made a career of deciphering technical information from subject matter experts and making it digestible to the public.
Speaker 4:That is why I went to Georgia State and got my journalism degree, so I could show up for people in this way, and so I I love what I do is really tough. It is a slog some days and there have been times I've worked 60 or 70 hour work weeks and the copier is broken and I've tried to print this five times and it stops on page eight mysteriously and I've had to go. Okay, I've tried everything I could think to do. I'm going to take copy paste the whole document out of Microsoft Word into another blank document. Hit print. It worked, but this is 9 pm.
Speaker 2:Speak to the passion of the work and all I could think of was begin again.
Speaker 4:If it don't work, how do you start over? And that was what prompted me to try that. But you'll have so many weird things happen.
Speaker 3:I think you said one of my favorite words ever, which was curiosity and leveraging curiosity.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I think that that is a lost skill, because a lot of times in traditional education we're taught what to think, not how to think. And with leveraging curiosity, like when NASA studied children, they registered as creative geniuses at the age of five that go through education and suddenly they've lost that creative thinking. That comes from getting curious. I mean, my son's asked me why about a billion times a day. But it's beautiful, because when you can get curious about a culture, a niche, an industry, a space, it allows you to connect through that story and build a story around it. And so, as you're writing these proposals, storytelling, it seems, is huge in what you do. How do you prompt your own curiosity about the stories to find the ones that really will pull at the billion dollar bid?
Speaker 4:I think this is spending time with my SMEs and sometimes asking them what. I usually ask one of the questions what are you most proud of and what was your worst day in your career? Those are the things that get me the good stories like, oh, I was at the world trade center, you know, I get those stories from my disaster folks. Or if it's, you know, this time a bridge collapsed or whatever it's like. But you have to kind of ask those questions, because engineers are very reserved and not braggadocious folks and so I have to come in and I nudge them and go look, I need you to brag a little bit today. Talk to me like and that's usually how we, how we get there is is encouraging the brags and what are you most proud of? Or like, who have you taught and educated and mentored and what did you teach them and why? Like what, if I'm, or say one of my, my peers says, talk to me like I'm three, explain this to me in like little kid language, and that invites the curiosity of okay, so why does a little rating matter? Uh, you know security bollards. There's different kinds and there's different ratings for that. Or you know there's an IT tool. What does this mean? What is this word I mean?
Speaker 4:Before ChatGPC, there were times I would spend a few hours like going okay, stormwater management, bioswales, what do all these words mean? And spending time Googling and kind of going down the rabbit hole to get a brief, a brief understanding. So when I go talk to my subject matter experts I can ask more educated questions. I'm not asking what is a bios well, I'm asking okay, so what's the impact of the surrounding environment here? You know, are we going to now reduce backyard flooding for these people? So these people who have their kids playing the art like that's where we get to get them, because I understand the basics. And so chat gpt. Of course tools like that will help speed that process up, but it's not a replacement for talking to an expert.
Speaker 1:I think people are using AI and other tools as a way to remove thought and thinking I agree, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And being able to critically think about things, and that's what we have to avoid. It's like we're losing original thought. Yeah, and original thought is a beautiful thing. That's where we've had the best composers, the best of teachers and artists is in that human element, in that thought process, and there's so many new things now where it's just like people don't even have to think, it's like, oh, I could just use this to think for me, but we're losing some of that humanity when we do that.
Speaker 4:I feel like you just lose, like connections and synapses in your brain.
Speaker 1:Yes, gone forever.
Speaker 4:Yes, when you don't take the time to think through things, which is something I appreciate about some of the people I've worked with recently who said look, I know you could chat GPT out a quick outline of how we can do this presentation. But it's never gonna come from here if I don't spend the time working through the thoughts and the information so that when I get up to speak and we've got the interview stage of this proposal process because it goes sometimes into interviews- and these can be in person.
Speaker 4:These can be video. You got to be able to speak from a spirited place Like you can't do that kind of cheating the system.
Speaker 2:When you consider because I'm used to seeing bids around commodities where they're building something, or just everyday commodities, certainly from a government standpoint Can you talk to the passion that goes around bids around service?
Speaker 4:That's my expertise. I'm a certified professional services marketer, so I think that with bids that are around service, this goes back to that relationship building, why I feel like it's important that we don't start with the RFP is out. We go back two years at least before this comes out. We're looking to see who are the decision makers in the organization. We are then going to attempt to schedule meetings and calls with these people. A lot of people go oh, they can't meet.
Speaker 4:There are certain circumstances in which this is not appropriate, such as if the RFP has come out or we're in that weird 30 or 60-day window. They will enforce a cone of silence so that you cannot be perceived as giving someone else an unfair advantage. But you should absolutely reach out and meet with these people, help and don't necessarily go to talk about yourself. Go to listen. I think that's where a lot of people get it wrong. They go and say, well, here are my capabilities and we're a small business and we're MBE and DBE and all these acronyms and service the same. You know, service better and disown it. That's wonderful. Those are absolute requirements. But when you are eating any client where this is the government or it's, you know the person at the front counter, at the target, like you need to make sure that you're communicating in a way that you are focused on them.
Speaker 4:Client first is the way you win, and so there we go yeah client first is the way you win, and so with service, service-based businesses, it is very relationship-oriented. I tell people show up in rooms where they are, so if you know they've got a conference that they have every year and most of the people in that industry are going to be there, you should be in the room. One of the hacks I have learned from recently was okay, if you can't afford to pay for the conference fees, can you volunteer?
Speaker 3:Be on the lookout for over a year or so out.
Speaker 4:When's the call for volunteers? A lot of times they'll have you volunteer for one day and then the other two or three days you're free to roam and do your thing, and so those are ways that you can get into rooms that you didn't have opportunity to. Or a perfect example for the small business conference that I'm speaking at for the Society of American Military Engineers this fall. I put that abstract in last year on like a whim ended and then we're back this year to do, one year later. Lessons learned, and this year I got the Department of Homeland Security on my panel, but that's because I said okay, they asked for speakers. I'm not an engineer. I would have counted myself out and said I got no business here. But proposals is an important part of the work they do. So find your angle and your end and your value add Like, don't discount yourself.
Speaker 2:Love it, love it. I think you're brilliant it.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you. Oh, okay, so you can find me on LinkedIn. It's LinkedIn slash Uniqua Walcott. I'm gonna spell it because it's a pretty cool name U-N-I-Q-U-E-K-A, w-a-l-c-o-t-t. You can find me on Instagram at BillionDollarBidWriter, because I'm that girl and UniquaWalcottcom. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 3:You better get BillionDollarBidWritercom. I love that you got it.
Speaker 2:Nick Nick.
Speaker 4:You out man. My God he's like let me ask him to stop.
Speaker 2:Hey, yes, hey.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Who are you and what do you do? So, nick Dillon, I am a coach, a counselor, a consultant, and I work with individuals, businesses, leaders to get their beliefs in alignment with their passion and purpose. And so I do that because of my own challenges with beliefs as a youngster, which led me to planning my own suicide all the way to the transformational 35 plus year process that has gotten me here to you today, and so I love the work. Love, love, love, love. The disruption of old beliefs and pushing forward to discovering. I think that's the biggest aha moment for me is working with clients and you kind of see the light bulb go on and their language shifts and their aha moment happens because they've been vulnerable enough to open their mindset and eyes, the eyes of their mind, to a new possibility. And so I love working with individuals who have and believe that every solution is external, when in fact all roads lead back to you. And so if we see ourselves more as resourceful than the fact that we got to go get the resources, then we can make a lot of things happen internally, internally, and so the best way to get there is to search inward and shift our mindset, challenge values that shouldn't be there, challenge beliefs that shouldn't be there and have a level of awareness that takes us to where we want to be.
Speaker 2:Wow, you mentioned awareness. What does awareness mean to you? Awareness is really starting with. Great question is, I look at, awareness starts with your personal self. So just being aware and I'm real big on us just understanding who we are, understanding who we are as individuals, understanding how we, what motivates us, what drives us, what are our values, what makes us happy, sad, glad and mad. But then also awareness standpoint of just being aware of how others see you, being aware of your social self amongst others, being aware of how you lead, being aware of how impactful your language, are your languages and how you show up in a room, aware of your own confidence and inner strength.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes it's a journey. Sometimes we know a little bit. Sometimes we may not know that much of ourselves, but I just believe that as individuals, we don't take time often to turn the spotlight inward enough in our journey called life. We are so taught externally advancement Go to school, oh, you need to increase in this. Okay, I'll take an online course, you need to increase in that. I'll go do this, I'll go do that, or I'll go even see a counselor, whatever that looks like. But we see that as I'm going to seek the help out, or whatever that looks like, but we see that, as I'm going to seek the help out and because the un I always call it the unspoken competitive edge is personal development.
Speaker 2:5% of the population does it in a great way. Most of us are okay being average, but the unspoken competitive edge is you working on you, constantly Shifting mindsets, changing beliefs, making sure that there is constant alignment throughout your day, week, month and years so that you can continuously get to where you need to be. Oftentimes we don't want to do that.
Speaker 1:It's hard work, working on itself, it is it's hard work, working on itself. It is it's, it's coming to the realization that it may just be me, I'm the blocker, I'm the problem, yes, and it's so hard to say I, oh it is because we think we we internalize it as the I means something's wrong with me and the I don't mean something's wrong with you.
Speaker 2:The I that means wow. I just had an awareness in myself of how I truly feel, of what I really experienced, of who I really am. What I really experienced, of who I really am and somebody, through their lens, showed that to me, or an experience that I had gave me that aha moment. And it's okay. We're imperfect individuals. We're never going to be perfect, regardless of what others may say, do or think. We just got to be okay with that. And that's the challenge. And, unfortunately, I will offer to you that, because of the advent of social media, which makes everything so instant and perfect and we see that in real time really, really, really quick. I'm old school. I remember when the news went off. The TV went off at midnight, okay, okay, right, and so now everything's going, going, going and I and I and I kind of blame us as social media folks, because guess what we do? We show the end product, we show what it is now, we don't show the transformation.
Speaker 4:That's not sexy I appreciate this so much because now you're like inviting me to like to share more of the unsexy parts of my life with folks to go look like. Today I got up and I was like, am I doing too much to also come here after I've, you know, left a hurricane? But you said look. You said, look, check out your mindset.
Speaker 3:I think one of the interesting things that I see a lot with leaders is the the balance of how do you maintain credibility and authority in a leadership position while also establishing and sharing the more raw and real and vulnerable parts of life.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Oh, this is good. And what a great thought process and question is because here again, the traditional view of leaders and certainly effective leaders, is very sterile. Not that it's not effective, but it's sterile, it's rigid, it is unemotion, absent of emotion.
Speaker 2:I was so happy that during the pandemic and I always say the pandemic was good and bad for us in that we were able to pause, we were able to slow down not only as individual and families, but as a country and a world, and we got to see some things really slow down up close in action. And I often say this is that okay, george Floyd happened and we saw it as a country, because the world was slowed down, we couldn't go out, we couldn't go out in the community, we couldn't do anything. So we got to see that 10, 15, 20 times on the news. But I will offer to you that George Floyd happening, what new that's done, happened several times over and over and over again. But in those moments we were in motion. We was in motion, it didn't make the news, it didn't matter. But when we pause and we slow down and we're finding it, it's almost there that we're getting more and more comfortable with talking about giving ourselves grace, giving ourselves empathy, showing up with compassion. That is kind of moving in. We probably aren't quite got with the language, but because more and more of us in this age are conscious and cognitive of our mental and emotional wellness, that language is now starting to be okay to talk about in the workplace, whereas historically, certainly as a leader, no emotions and when there was an emotional challenge with team members, eap not equipped. Eap not equipped, hr not equipped.
Speaker 2:But as leaders, we got to have really good EQ, emotional intelligence, because as an effective leader, you might be a counselor, you might be a teacher, you might be a counselor, you might be a teacher, you might be a spiritual advisor, you might be a coach, you might be a mentor, you might be a sponsor, you might show up and you don't know it, as somebody's mama, daddy, grandmama, because, think about it, we send little ones to school this day and age and we expect the teachers to be all of that Okay. The same thing is expected of us as adults, with managers and leaders, because we each come with a unique frame of reference and that frame reference is everything that you're looking through through that lens what happened at 19? What happened at 16? What happened on the drive to work that day? What happens at home in my household? What happened growing up? How I feel, all that stuff I show up with.
Speaker 2:I expect the leader to read my mind. No, I got to create the space so that I can connect with that leader in a way from a mindset standpoint that allows me to say hey, alicia, you're not your job yourself today, what's going on? And even if you don't want to talk about it, I just want you to know I'm here for you. Why? Because I'm paying attention here for you. Why Because I'm paying attention and I'm connecting in a way that lets her know I care, you know. So it's an interesting kind of dynamic and a mindset that you just really got to monitor, because the biggest choice that we each get to do each and every day is make a choice, is make a decision, and I got to do it each and every day because that's gonna drive me my goodness, there's some good soul stuff I was like, I'm just like right in all
Speaker 4:yeah, like you want a gift thank you for like just pouring out what you've poured out for us today and helping us understand the impact of our decisions, yes and how leaders can show up differently.
Speaker 3:What are?
Speaker 4:some other ways you encourage people to shift their mindset around leadership and just how they do life.
Speaker 2:Just thinking from a leadership standpoint, if we think in terms of always growth mindset, because always remember a leader can only take you as far as they've gone Okay. So a lot of times when we get in senior leadership roles, I find that managers and well, let me just be real clear Managers are different than leaders.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay. So managers great at systems, processes, programs, lead specifically by title, position roles OK, their best connection with you is I got to sign up on your time sheet. I got to say you can go take vacation. Whatever, I got to distribute work.
Speaker 2:Leaders go beyond that. I'm about building relationships, with which I have heard throughout this panel today that I'm about building relationships, with which I have heard throughout this panel today, relationships. I want to know who you are, I want to connect and I want to have influence, positive influence with you, because so much can happen from a capacity standpoint and performance standpoint based on connection, based on the space I create for you as my team members. If I can't create that space and be effective as a leader because I put a cap or a lid on connection based on the space I create for you as my team members, if I can't create that space and be effective as a leader because I put a cap or a lid on that, my effectiveness dwindles.
Speaker 2:So the reason you hear CEOs moving around leaving is because the second you lack vision, which is the growth mindset. You can no longer take your team, your organization, nowhere else. And so if I'm not effective, if I'm no longer effective. I got to say have I put a cap on it and said I've arrived unconsciously oftentimes, or have I elevated myself at a level by title that I don't think it matters? And so that's when organizations can see culturally we're stagnant, culturally we're not growing. I'm not getting creativity, innovation from my team, why? Because we've resolved to group think. It's what I say goes, and once your team gets that, they don't have any recommendations or suggestions.
Speaker 4:It's just you. You smile and nod Right, thank you. When do you need that back? Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Because we're not creating the space that allows the team to do that. All about mindset, all about the culture that we create, the values that I want to have for the team.
Speaker 3:When you create, when you look at leaders and their creation of a team and what they've created, and you're seeing that they've unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously have put themselves in the position where they are. The I mean most often the leader is the bottleneck, but where they are, they have created a culture where there's no collaboration and what the leader says goes and thus there's no innovation. What is the requirement of the leader? To then rework that system, both internally and externally, to recreate the corporate culture.
Speaker 2:Great question, I would say. The first thing is that you need the leader to acknowledge that so you can come to me and say, nick, I think the bottleneck is you. If I can't see that yet the structure still remains the way it is, I won't be open to the possibility that if I undo the bottleneck which means maybe growth in me to be able to create the capacity of what we need shifts. So if the awareness in me can't happen to where I see and acknowledge that, yes, that is why I'm not getting more productivity, getting more productivity, more innovation, more contribution from my team, is that I'm not realizing that the way to success is leading back to me. When I'm talking to leaders and I ask the question how comfortable is it for individuals in your team to challenge the status quo?
Speaker 3:Uh-oh, Ooh, come on, that's a great question.
Speaker 4:They never get challenged. They're like what you mean, Right?
Speaker 2:So do you create the space for that? Because I think I heard someone say earlier is and I think I heard you say it, alicia is that my goal is not for you to get where I am. My goal is for you to exceed me, yes. Goal is not for you to get where I am. My goal is for you to exceed me, yes. And so my goal is to develop you, to take over my role. Why? Because my vision takes me from this role.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And if I'm thinking that way, then I'm thinking legacy, I'm thinking transfer, knowledge, skills and abilities, but I'm also thinking how I can continue to grow as well. And so, with that mindset, lets, you think, hey, I should be thinking in the same manner. And then that way I'm thinking growth for myself. Why? Because you're telling me it. I tell individuals oftentimes that tell me.
Speaker 2:We have one-on-ones with our leaders and I often say, in that one-on-one, tell me what you talk about. Well, they usually tell me what we're going on and I say tell me, we're in that conversation. You talk about your own goals and aspirations. Because if you never have that conversation, the organization is going to take you where they want to go and it may be completely different than your own personal trajectory of where you think you should go, or your values. Or your values it may not even be in alignment with. So when we are hushed mouth and we believe in this day and age, we just should be plucked and recognized.
Speaker 2:That's not always the case. Leaders and managers are looking for you, your guidance in your own growth. And my number one question I tell team members, how are you going to support me getting there? Yeah, because you're my leader. That's the mindset the leader needs to have. If I'm going to be effective, I got to have the tools, and if I don't have the tools, I got to have some folks up here that tell me hey, how do I support my folks? Because I need to be thinking about who's going to replace me in the next three to five years, which means I got to create a whole bunch of nicks in their own right.
Speaker 2:Yep, and if I'm not thinking that way, then I'm going to lead in the capacity that protects me from a fixed mindset.
Speaker 3:My goodness, yep, this happened I think the hard part for entrepreneurs is when you start a business, you suddenly go from that one skill set that you were really good at that maybe you got paid a lot of money for to having that one skill set, and then you're in 14 to 25 other different roles and hats that you need to play, some of which are played at the level of conscious competence, not in that that aren't really in that zone of genius space.
Speaker 3:And so when you're looking at a team and the leader is wanting to elevate that role and grow, and the leader is wanting to elevate that role and grow, what typically do you see are the roles that they need to. What are the mindset shifts that you see that the leader needs to make to look at what roles actually need to be outsourced first so that they can get to that five-year goal of replacing themselves?
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome From an entrepreneur standpoint.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So thinking entrepreneur and I'm thinking entrepreneurial myself, so I'm always thinking and I had these layers down in my head and hopefully I can remember them now is as the owner and also leader inside your own organization. You're always looking to not lose sight of the vision of the organization but at the same time you may very well be a working, functioning leader inside the organization. So each person that I put or would put in a role for the business number one, I'm big on hiring my weaknesses. So your business needs all the components of a business. I do realize from an entrepreneur standpoint in the beginning of those businesses. We may be the accountant, we may be the person that answer the phones, we may be active, we may do all those support roles that ultimately serves our client or puts their sales to widget, okay. But at the same time, what I also realize is where my sweet spot is and where I thrive and where I feel good, because, again, you got to stay in growth mode. So that means content, that means creativity, that means innovation. When you start wearing all the other hats, it pulls you away from those things. So you got to find a happy balance that says how do I hire my weaknesses, which is, in essence, my team, but also have them see roles of their own growth and development.
Speaker 2:So, if I hire, for example, I have an executive assistant and who is my wife, by the way so she's my executive assistant, and so I've been slowly giving her additional responsibilities that are also leading. She doesn't want to let go of the executive assistant role and I said well, what I need you to do is to think about someone you're going to hire to do what you're doing now, because your skill set allows you to do more for me in a better capacity. But I have to work on the mindset of her to let go of that, just as I had to let go to hire folks and have them be on the team, and so the same way with I have another practitioner who does this work, just like I do, and right now I'm saying I need to see you over operations in that whole aspect of the business. Well, nick, that pulled me away. Well, because I'm seeing a skill set greater in you that allows you to be able to train someone that does exactly what you do.
Speaker 2:What does that do? And think, always in the back of your mind, you're thinking capacity, capacity building, capacity building, because I already know that you can be the all one and done, but you are 24 hours in a day. The second you add someone, you get another 24 hours in a day, and so on and so forth, and so it's a constant journey to be able to just make sure you're managing all of the moving parts while at the same time not losing sight of growth and development. Amazing.
Speaker 1:Nick, can you tell us where people can find you, connect with you, reach out to you for your services?
Speaker 2:tell us where people can find you, connect with you, reach out to you for your services. People, people can find me everywhere on social media online. If you look, either look up nick dylan or the belief coach nicholasdilloncom is the website the belief coach if you type that in, or nick dylan I'm everywhere, you can find me out there. Or Nick Dillon I'm everywhere, you can find me out there. Thank you, great job. I love this one. This one's so good, good. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe.
Speaker 4:And don't forget to hit that notification bell for more amazing content that we're going to be putting out. And don't forget you can change your circle to change your life.
