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Jimbo Edition #175- Andrea Johnson
9 Plays1 month ago
Andrea Johnson empowers executives and founders to lead with authenticity, conviction and confidence so they can make a positive impact on their lives, organizations and communities. As an adoptive parent, who grew up internationally, navigating mental and physical wellness, she learned that emotional resilience must be earned. The process of uncovering and understanding the significance of her Core Values became the key to the process that allows her clients to do the same. Andrea works with leaders who feel stifled, and have grown unsatisfied with their current level of influence. She facilitates improved communication and corporate culture by working within teams. Her passion is equipping female leaders to define a new culture by trusting their own ability to think critically, create imaginatively and lead effectively. Andrea was raised on the mission field of Seoul, South Korea, and as a Third Culture Kid, she’s familiar with navigating cultural diversity to find her own place of belonging. A family history of obesity showed up early, along with bulimia and depression. Her determination to become healthy , however, led to gastric bypass surgery, and is testament to her persevering spirit. She experienced early menopause (at 39), and became an adoptive mother through private adoption, at 42. Her personal journey of deconstructing her own assumptions, beliefs and conditioning produced her signature tool, Intentional Optimism. It provides the framework for how we do what we do. It’s the attitudes and mindsets we employ and embody to live out our own values, goals and dreams with excellence. Andrea a certified Maxwell Leadership Speaker, Trainer, Coach, and DISC Behavioral Analysis Consultant.
Watch more here : jamesgaparris.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Andrea Johnson
00:00:00
Speaker
All right. How's it going, everyone? Welcome back to the show. Forgive me on that. So today we have a special guest, Andrea Johnson. How are you today? Hi, I'm good. How are you today? Doing well. So I just want to, you know.
00:00:16
Speaker
sit here and just get to learn more about you and who you are as a person. So to begin this, can you begin by kind of describing to me who you are, what you're about, and what your message is overall? And by the message, I mean what you want to bring to the audience today and what you have to sort of offer to everyone else.
00:00:42
Speaker
Sure. Again, my name is Andrea Johnson. I am a transformational leadership coach. And by that, I mean I help people who feel disempowered and make them what I call magnetic. I work with them through three major frameworks of understanding who they are, how they communicate, and then how they live those things out through some life principles. And I got here because I was tired of managing people.
00:01:11
Speaker
and managing status quo, managing things that needed to remain someone else's at some to someone else's standard. And so basically what I tell people is if you're tired of imitating other people's principles and priorities and you're ready to define your own, this is the kind of work I do. I am certified as a disc consultant through the Maxwell Leadership Team as well as a speaker, trainer, trainer and coach.
00:01:38
Speaker
So I do professional coaching. I do executive coaching. And specifically, my passion is working with um women especially, but especially young leaders, helping them understand how to think critically, create imaginatively and lead effectively. My generation was not taught to think critically. We were taught to regurgitate the information that we had. And so it is very important to me to help people understand how to think critically in order to be, in order to show up as much themselves as possible and to offer everything that they have and that they've created to be to the table. um Because if if we don't bring what we're supposed to bring to the table, then it's just not going to be there. um Imagine like a ah really nice holiday meal.
00:02:25
Speaker
And somebody forgets the main course or somebody forgets that one special side that goes with everything so well. And so what I do is I help people figure those things out. um I come from an ah international background.
Andrea's Background and Career
00:02:37
Speaker
My parents were missionaries. I grew up in Seoul, Korea.
00:02:40
Speaker
and I think I've calculated that I've moved 17 times before I was 21. But I ended up spending time in where where I think you are is in Baltimore, Maryland for 12 years at Lons Hopkins. and and Then I moved here to Charlottesville, Virginia for nearly 12 years also at the University of Virginia. so I have a career that spans some really amazing universities. If you had asked me,
00:03:06
Speaker
When I started out after college, if that's what I was going to do, I'd have laughed at you because I'm like, I can't work at those places. um But I have a career based in um academics and administration new administration and sorry, and organizational and operational excellence. So that's what I do. I can't hear you very little.
00:03:31
Speaker
Um, and when I was speaking, I was getting a lot of feedback from your microphone. I think I can just barely hear you. It's as if it's not connected. Well, it's like not plugged in, right? I plugged it in. There you are. Maybe the wiring is starting to go bad. Okay. Well, that was strange. Okay. Well, sorry, I'll let that out, but okay. So back to you
Understanding Disempowerment
00:03:53
Speaker
though. So how do you sort of define disempowered and were you ever disempowered in your life?
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, and that's a great, great question because everybody will define it differently. And um for me, I grew up in a kind of Southern evangelical culture. And as a strong woman, it's very easy to get disempowered very quickly. And one of the things that the ways that I help people recognize what disempowered might mean, it's To be empowered, as the opposite, is to have the tools and the resources you need to do what you need to do. So to be disempowered is to not have the tools and the resources and maybe the even the information. So a lot of times I'll tell people, and these are the things that I struggled with, was, um or to look at whether you have a responsibility without authority. I had lots of responsibility and no authority. Whether or not you're consistently compromising your own non-negotiables,
00:04:44
Speaker
whether you feel stif stifled or unsupported. There were plenty of times I felt very undermined in my position. I could only go so high in the organization before I was starting to get undermined. um But I also felt very unbalanced. You know, we talk about work-life balance, and the reality is what we want is work-life fulfillment. But if you feel unbalanced, even if you're just spending 32 or 40 hours a week at work and you still feel unbalanced, there's a real problem there.
00:05:11
Speaker
Another really good indicator is if you're bored. I was bored as could be. i and That's why I ended up, because I had reached a level at Hopkins, and we were trying to leave anyway. We were trying to leave Baltimore. But I had reached a level um that I was kind of bored at. And then when I came to UVA, I started out with some new things. But by the time I left, I could do my job with like my hands tied behind my back in two days a week.
00:05:37
Speaker
And I was still not really, I just didn't really have any sense that there was a place for me to go. um So when you feel that way, many times it's a result of acting on the, or acting within the assumptions or beliefs that you've accepted because you haven't developed a clear understanding of who you are. You haven't done that piece like that i I described as critical thinking.
00:05:59
Speaker
And um so when we don't do that, then we end up disempowered. So a lot of people will come to me where um they've, they're an entrepreneur and they've used all of the tactics and the tools and everything that they've needed to get where they are, but they're just, they can't make their business grow any higher. They can't make their team any better, or they have a hard time hiring a team. Something's just not right. So it's like this stuckness and other people in the corporate world will come to me when they, like me,
00:06:28
Speaker
can't seem to get above this this level. It's almost a glass ceiling. The reality is, though, um many times it's not even a glass ceiling that someone else puts there. It's what John Maxwell would call our lid.
Transformational Leadership Coaching Explained
00:06:41
Speaker
It's this lid of we can only go as high as our skills, our knowledge base, our experience, our understanding, our awareness, and even our character will allow us to go. So when I work with people, I help them identify what it is that's disempowering for them.
00:06:57
Speaker
help them understand who they are, what their own principles and priorities can be, and then they move forward from there. How would you define a transformational leadership coach? Well, I played around with a lot of different names to call myself executive leadership coach. I'm not really a business coach. There's people out there that do systems and processes and business ah things better than me. I'm not really a life coach. That's a little, um,
00:07:23
Speaker
nebulous for me, and it handles a lot of other things that I think maybe a therapist should handle or is better equipped than I am to handle. But what I realized was I had been through a transformation, and I know how to guide other people across that bridge. So when I say I'm a transformational leadership coach,
00:07:41
Speaker
I actually help people get across whatever bridge it is they're trying to cross. We've got the Olympics coming up this summer, and most good coaches, so we're all paying attention to athletes, right? Most good coaches know an athlete can do whatever they've set out to do, but the coach is there to help them get there faster. The coach is there to help them get there more efficiently, and the coach is there to help them get there um with less injury and less hardship. So when I say I'm a transformational leadership coach, I take people and I start working with people or I even help people through my podcast or even just talking on interviews like this. I want to give people the information they need to start making the changes themselves because we can all transform ourselves. We don't have to have someone else. I just help you do it faster. So how did you transform yourself?
Andrea's Personal Journey of Transformation
00:08:30
Speaker
So when I talked about coaches doing things faster, it took me a long time. I started back um over 30 years ago, and I keep this because, I don't know if you have anything like this in your life that you keep a really long time because you know it really matters. But when I was, before I even went to Johns Hopkins, I had this, this piece of paper here. I used the Franklin Planner system. And if you're familiar with Franklin Planner, it was before Steve and Cubby brought, bought it out. So now it's the,
00:08:56
Speaker
um Franklin Covey, I think is what it's called. But I read his book, Seven Habits. And in the back, there was this exercise of figuring out what your governing values are. So I did this when I was 27. So it's 30 years ago. And you I came up with some really good governing values. My Franklin Planner is gone. It's big, fat binders. But this is a piece of paper that's laminated with packing tape. Because it was that important to me, that was the real beginning of my own transformation.
00:09:26
Speaker
It took me a really long time. I had to go through some hard things that brought to my attention areas in my life that I needed to examine and be willing to change. I call them my ABCs, my assumptions, beliefs, and conditioning. I had to go through things like um infertility and adoption to understand that I don't have control over things, and that but I do have control over future. I may not control outcomes, but I have control over where I go.
00:09:55
Speaker
And i my mother had breast cancer. We lost her in 2017. And that also started when I was little. Thank you. um But that was a real crucible moment for me. I was 50. I had an eight-year-old adopted son, and my husband was a small church pastor. And I said, I can't do this for another 50 years. I can't be this. And so I did the hard work of looking inside and saying,
00:10:19
Speaker
What do I want to stand for? Who do I want to present to people? How do I want to help others not take 50 years to get here? And so for me, i was I had to be willing to walk some of those roads that were very difficult. I indicated that I come from a Southern evangelical background, and I live in Charlottesville, Virginia.
00:10:40
Speaker
So if if you pay attention at all to um race relations, you will know that Charlottesville, Virginia was a hotbed, and it still is kind of, but especially in August of 2017, when the Unite the Right rallies. and I think it was very difficult to stay in this town and not be changed, but that opened my eyes in ways that I didn't even realize, you know, I'm a white suburban woman. You know, there are ways I didn't realize I i didn't understand the assumptions I was making. I didn't understand the beliefs I was holding that had never been examined. And so all of those things caused me to walk through and really do some, I think the popular word is deconstruction, but for me it was
00:11:20
Speaker
pruning away the things that I don't need. I'm a gardener, so I love that analogy. But literally saying, this doesn't serve me. It doesn't serve the people around me. It doesn't serve the way I um can help others in the world flourish. And so that's got to go. And it it left me with this idea that we have the power to make those changes in ourselves no matter how old we are.
00:11:44
Speaker
Because many people my age, I mean, I have family members who are just distinctly uncurious. And I love that you say about your audience that they're curious and smart, because when you're curious, you're willing to learn. And so I have friends and families family members who are what I would consider to be uncurious. And to me, that is sad, because I'm never too old to stop learning. I'm never too old to make changes. i can have an ah I think I heard yesterday, I think it was Simon Sinek who said, I have strong opinions held loosely because I have my opinions that got me to this place or that I've researched and I've landed in these areas.
00:12:25
Speaker
But I am always open to something else that will prove me wrong in this area. And um so I think that's really the main the main thing is that I was willing to do the really hard work for 30 years. And now I want to offer my expertise, not only in the way I did business, but the way I did my personal life. And then, of course, and in a spiritual aspect, I want to offer that to people as a way for them to be able to do it faster than I did.
00:12:54
Speaker
Now that she pulled out, what are governing values? Well, heavy calls them governing values and in my world, I would say these are more, a little bit more like life principles. They're not what I would consider core values. Core values are things that are inside ourselves. And governing values are the things that, I think the way he described them was, basically, they are the things that um guide our choices and are the way we show up. And so for me, they include things like, they include some of my core values, as I eventually described them or discovered them to be. Pardon me.
00:13:31
Speaker
But they also include some life principles that I eventually, um part of that crucible experience when I lost my mother was I decided how I wanted to live my life. And it took about six or seven months, but I came up with six tenets of what I call intentional optimism.
Core Values vs. Governing Values
00:13:46
Speaker
and So the things that I had on here, my, they included things like peace and tranquility. Sorry. When I did this, I didn't need glasses.
00:13:56
Speaker
Um, peace and tranquility, um, being stable and dependable, having self-control, being honest and transparent, promoting harmony, excuse me, and happiness in my family.
00:14:07
Speaker
having physical health. um And part of that was due to the fact that, you know, I knew that I wanted to live a long time. And turns out, I didn't actually adopt my son until I was 42. So I'd like to live to see grand babies. So I'd like to live a long time. um Friendship. I want to be a friend to all. I want to be welcoming. And um And I want to know that that I can depend on people and that they can depend on me. Nature, I love being outside. Beauty, that kind of thing. Creativity, promoting and participating in aspects of the arts. and But my very top one, there here I have it as number nine, which turned out to be my true top core value, I had as freedom. And it says, I'm not controlled by anyone else by money or time and I have no job, which sounds just like a 27-year-old.
00:14:54
Speaker
um But the 57-year-old in me would say that my top core value is freedom of thought and autonomy of thought and um wanting to make sure that I get to process everything myself. And I've learned the hard way that I don't just accept what people tell me. And that doesn't need to be a bad thing. It's okay. It's good. That's part of being curious. But I think governing values are a combination of principles and core values, but I've actually separated them out in the way I work.
00:15:25
Speaker
So on this series, when it comes to this core value of freedom of thought, do you think this applies to maybe your experiences in academia or business or any other area? How does that core value sort of relate to various areas of your life?
00:15:45
Speaker
Yeah, so core values actually show up for us all the way back to when we were children. I think we're born with them. I think there are non-negotiables that we just need to honor and be aware of. They're like the principles and priorities that guide our actions, and they're the foundational pieces upon which we build everything, every single thing else.
00:16:04
Speaker
um But for me, when I look back, and when I say freedom of thought, I look back, my mother always said, you are the definition of a strong-willed child. Like at two, you were telling me, don't tell me what to do. or And I'm like, I look back and I said, well, ah i don't tell me what to do. Don't tell me what to think. Don't tell me how to be. I wanted to be myself. When I look at how it showed up in business, there are, in my career, there are a couple times that I am, gosh James, I am shocked I didn't get fired.
00:16:32
Speaker
I had a boss when I first moved to the University of Virginia. um Granted, they hired me and I thought I was going to be working for one person. I ended up working for another. and This person was a little bit of a micromanager, which as you can imagine, that doesn't usually work for most people, but it really didn't work for me. and One day, he actually just put a meeting on my calendar. like I was just supposed to show up in his office. Now, having done management myself,
00:16:59
Speaker
I would never do that, but I understand how that works and that he does have the right to do that. But I was like, you have the right to tell me when to come meet with you. um you know Because it was this idea that someone else would presume that I didn't have the authority to make my own decisions. And I think a lot of people have this as a core value. and um But the thing about core values is that they are always reciprocal.
Influence of Core Values in Leadership
00:17:24
Speaker
It's not just me that I want that for. I also want it for you. I want, so when I have a conversation, even when I have a hard conversation with someone, I'm always offering them an invitation and an opportunity to think things through and to evaluate things before we actually make a decision. I want to make sure, and this is coming in really handy with my 15-year-old son,
00:17:45
Speaker
I wanna make sure that he knows that he has the agency and the authority to make his own decisions, whether or not that's his top core value, whether or not it's a core value for him at all. And so it has shown up in business, it has shown up in my family, it showed showed showed up when I was a child. and But most Clearly it has shown up in my faith walk where I like I said use the I would use the word deconstructed or pruned away a lot of the assumptions that I had been raised with and I think many in my Circle thought I was losing my religion But the reality is it's actually my faith is stronger now than it ever has been but I needed to say I don't need to take this person's opinion of something, even if it's interpretation of the Bible, which if you're if you're somebody who believes the Bible is God's Word, then it's a really big deal to you know to kind of know who to believe in what area. And so for me, I was just kind of taking certain people at their word. And then I realized, wait a minute,
00:18:49
Speaker
They're not fallible. I mean, they're fallible. Why do I need to not evaluate this myself? And what if they're wrong? And then it began this domino effect of, well, because I found out they were fallible and they were wrong in certain areas. And then it became this, well, if they're wrong about that, are they wrong about all these things? And that was a really So understanding my own core value in that area was very difficult because It meant that I challenged many of the things that I had believed for 55 54 years in my life for 50 years. It still is Creating many conversations in my circles, but being willing to say I have to honor this I have to honor this in me whether or not you honor it. That's up to you and um
00:19:37
Speaker
Therefore, I'm gonna think for myself, and that's how it's going to be. And I don't have to apologize for it. It means that I have authority to act from my own convictions with passion in ways that benefit me and other people. That makes sense. That doesn't make a lot of sense. And as we sort of move on to a leadership coach,
00:20:02
Speaker
respective um transformation leadership perspective How do you ingrain or teach people to discover or maybe find their own core values? You know, do you do that? I do.
00:20:18
Speaker
I do. And if you can see the look on my face, you can tell I love it. It is my favorite work. I literally work. So you can work with me in several areas. There's a a free resource. There's a core values course. And then there's coaching. And I also have a membership program where we walk through these things. But what I do is I walk people through the same process I went through. It's not difficult. It's not proprietary. It is a very simple, let's look inside.
00:20:47
Speaker
And I can't tell you how many people, I do workshops on this. And I always ask them, why do you think we don't know what our core values are? And most people will say, oh, well, we already know what they are. Like, are you sure? And when we start talking about them, they'll realize they don't. But if somebody's really honest in the audience or in the workshop, they'll say, because we're afraid to see what's inside. Because as a society, we've been taught, I think that all the good stuff is out here and we need to bring it in.
00:21:16
Speaker
And the reality is the really good stuff is in here and we need to bring it out. And so it's changing someone's perspective so that they learn how to do that. So for example, um the first thing that you do when when you kind of look at what your core values are is to understand that most people live in a way that honors at least one of their core values, at least one, because otherwise they'd be so miserable and they'd be fighting with everybody.
00:21:45
Speaker
very few people live in a way that honors more than two of their core values. And I say we have like primary, maybe the top three or four, and then some secondary core values. And these are the ones that are just a little less non-negotiable for us. But to find someone who automatically lives in a way that honors their primary core values all the time is like finding a unicorn. It's really fun. And then the, the process there is just to help them name them and figure out what they are. And then they realize, Oh, well, no wonder I, I'm not angry about any of this stuff. It's because I'm honoring my core values. So I sit down with them if, if we work together and I, or you can sit down with this, this free resource and kind of look at what you think other people say is important to you and kind of walk through like,
00:22:34
Speaker
5 or 10 people, what they say you stand for. And I give pages and pages of keyword ideas that will help you kind of spark some things. And the goal is to just get it all out there, um to just kind of brain dump it all, and then of narrow it down to about 10. A lot of times, we'll put things in buckets. And this is just a brainstorming kind of exercise that I'm sure if you're in grad school, you've heard, you've done this kind of thing.
00:22:58
Speaker
um But once you start looking at them, it's time to start defining them. When you have five or six of them, when you define them, a lot of times you're going to figure out the definition is not the Google or the Webster's definition. The definition of freedom for me is, I need to be free to think what I, to to make my own decisions and come to my own conclusions. And that's the freedom for me. I'm okay following rules.
00:23:23
Speaker
for mostly on the highway. um But I'm okay with following rules and regulations. I did that for years. um It's not my favorite thing. But i I don't want other types of freedom. I'm like, I'm cool. I don't need all of that. What I need is the autonomy of thought. And so when someone defines respect, or I had one client who had a top core value of ah reliability. And I thought that was so interesting. I said, So tell me about that. And when she finally got down to defining it, she realized that it was almost a character thing where it's like, if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. And so I expect for you to do things as well. So it's like,
00:24:04
Speaker
do what you say you're going to do. And she chose reliability as that word to to define or as a as a way to understand that definition. But a lot of times, um people have got clients now using AI, chat GPT, to help them figure out how to actually put together a ah definition of it that works well for them. And when you do that, automatically, you can start seeing where they're being dishonored.
00:24:32
Speaker
Once you kind of see, these are my top three to five core values, it's very easy to see where it's getting stepped on. and Most of the time, people will recognize that we're allowing other people to step on our core values. It's not that people are just doing it willy-nilly. It's that we're allowing them to, I have three quarters of an acre here in rural Virginia, and people walk on my property on the road because we have no sidewalk.
00:24:58
Speaker
but they don't walk up to my door and just walk in. right They come up to my door and they knock and it's my choice to let them in. When you understand your core values, it's a little bit like it's very clear where your front door is. It's very clear where your house is and people can come in on different areas, but they can't come into those core values unless you allow them to. and so It becomes an an exercise as well encouraged to stand up for who you are and what you what you stand for.
00:25:29
Speaker
And this is a key factor, I think, to the relationships as well, because that's about setting good boundaries. But here's the thing, you're gonna need to know what those boundaries are, whether that be between a boss, an employee, or something else. I think you get what I'm saying. And I feel like also this is when you begin to dive into leadership sector.
Cultivating Leadership Through Values
00:25:51
Speaker
So do you use these core values to cultivate leadership qualities as well?
00:25:56
Speaker
I do. And I love that you pointed out the relationship piece, because when you can set your boundaries internally and understand them well internally, you don't have to set them out here. You know, a lot of boundary work is, I'm going to set this boundary out here, y'all don't cross this line. And the problem is, we have no authority really to like defend that line. And it becomes something that we have to defend. Whereas with your core values, it's an internal boundary that you don't feel bad defending. And if you really do it well, and you live it out in a way that is honoring to you and other people, you don't have to defend them. People just know that's who you are.
00:26:33
Speaker
and they respect you for it. As far as using it in leadership, that's what this is the first piece of what I call my framework for magnetic leadership. I start with core values because I need leaders to understand that they are going to be more authentic and they're going to be more magnetic when they are truly themselves. People know when you're not yourself.
00:26:53
Speaker
People know when you're trying to be somebody else or when you're pretending or when you're following along somebody else's with somebody else's principles or rules. And so if you really, really, really want to be a good leader, you really need to know yourself because the first person you lead is yourself.
00:27:08
Speaker
And then we learn how to, and a lot of times I'll start in corporations and teams with this piece first, because it's very concrete, which is understanding how you communicate, which is your disk analysis. It's behavioral analysis. It's the four different types of how we, the patterns with which we communicate with each other.
00:27:26
Speaker
And when you understand that and how you communicate your core values with people, it's amazing. When I take leaders like middle management people and I say, all right, take this to your team. You've done your core values. You understand who you are disk-wise. Take these to your team. Tell them this is the best way to communicate with me and then take it to your boss and then see how it works. I had one lady um who was a ah bank manager.
00:27:50
Speaker
who took her disc and her core values into her big district meetings. And she said, it allowed me to actually participate in the meetings for the first time because I knew who I was and what I was bringing to the table. And I knew that I could actually do these things. So it's really fun to watch. I've got business owners that I've worked with. um One lady I'm working with now is like a restaurant. She's like owns like nine restaurants. She's a CEO for a restaurant at chain. And it's just really,
00:28:19
Speaker
fun to watch how people will take these um and not only use them for leadership, but then another woman I worked with is a solopreneur, but she hadn't done her business mission and vision, visions yet, or vision yet. So she took her core values and rewrote them into the mission and vision of her business so that whenever she hires team members, she's ready to go. She knows what she stands for. She puts that language on her website. So this is the ability to understand who you are and be an authentic transparent and honest leader. How do you define leadership? Well, John Maxwell defines leadership as influence, plain and simple. And I have a hard time finding something that is a little more concise than that. But you asked me how I would define it. And I would say it is um serving others in a way that helps the entire organization or group flourish. And when you're
00:29:14
Speaker
When you're about making the organization, the group or the community or just other humans flourish, people will follow you. And so leadership is not something that you ask for and that you demand. It is something that people give you. I think leadership is a gift. And you believe it's a gift that isn't natural or innate, but it's something that could be cultivated.
00:29:40
Speaker
I think more so everybody has a natural, a certain amount of it, right? I think we all have a certain amount of ability to lead. And when you're talking a business sense or something, if you want to talk about being in certain leadership levels, there are different aspects to that. When I say it's a gift, I'm not talking necessarily about someone leading Well, let me rephrase it. When I say it's a gift, it is not a gift that has to be given to me in order to that I received or like a gift of being able to sing. That's a different kind of gift, right? That's a vocal gift that I had that
00:30:17
Speaker
that my creator gave me, right? But for me to lead people, other people have to be willing to follow. So to me, it's a gift that they're giving me of being able to lead them. So do I think that's cultivatable? Absolutely. 100%. We can all learn how to be others focused. We can all learn how to be servants. We can all learn how to be authentic. We can all learn how to listen. It is surprising how many of us don't listen. All of those things will make us a better leader. So as you
00:30:49
Speaker
continue all to business and pre that sort of is going to be future and know d what are your as you can continue Well, I am in the entrepreneurship arena. I'm still fairly new. I'm 5 years into this. I find i that I've I believe that I've really found my passion and my voice. And I am excited to build up more leaders, especially female leaders. I do that both online and in person. And I am interested in helping people see that
00:31:24
Speaker
leadership doesn't have to be one size fits all. It doesn't have to look a certain way. It can be individualized and you can you can lead your family, you can leave your community, you can lead your PTA, you can lead your church, you can lead your business. And so for me,
00:31:42
Speaker
I see more of my like intentional optimism and core values work taking off in the digital and in-person spaces in a way that helps especially female leaders flourish. So when it comes to coaching, do you do individual coaching sessions, group coaching? How does the coaching system or even just the whole system of how you take in clients and customers work?
00:32:12
Speaker
um For me, um every single coach is a little bit different. And for me, I have both corporate clients and I have private clients. So I do executive coaching in the corporate side, where it's very focused on specific outcomes. They may be there for remedial work. They may be there for specific leadership skill development. So that's, executive coaching is very um specific, and many times it's very structured. So I do that in corporations, and I do that one-on-one.
00:32:41
Speaker
I can do, um I can do group coaching, what I call more like mastermind kind of groups. But in corporate structures, that's still very, um it's usually based on a book. It's usually based on, you know, curriculum that we put together. Personal side, I do both what I would call executive coaching on the personal side would include um one-on-one coaching packages for anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months. And I,
00:33:10
Speaker
Include in that core values work, like if you did a six-month package, I include in that core values work, disk work, all of it to figure out a personal growth plan for you to help you to help you determine where you want to go next and how to get you there better. I've had several clients who started off that way, did another six months and did another, and it was really exciting.
00:33:31
Speaker
On the the lower end of that, I have specific core values coaching. I mentioned I have a ah core values course. And so what I offer in the coaching side of that is, you know, James, everybody learns a little bit differently. Some people can take the the free download, a one-pager and walk through the instructions, and they're good to go. Other people need a little bit more. And so they,
00:33:54
Speaker
walk through a digital course, and they listen to the modules, and they do the exercises. And by the time they're done, they have what they need. But some people really need that back and forth. And so I provide that by providing ah sessions in and around those modules for the digital course. So um that's right now my fastest-growing coaching program. And This, you know, I hear this a lot. I've heard this a lot. Fast, faster, fastest. There's this, I noticed at least when I was listening to speakers, this emphasis on speed. What do you think is so important about things occurring quickly and fast? and And again, I'm just curious.
00:34:38
Speaker
I don't know that I would say that fast is always better. Like for me, when I say it took me this many years to get where I am and I'd like to help other people get there faster. I also recognize that there are people who are going to have to go through all the things I went through in order to get to where I am because that's who they are. But for some people, I don't know that they necessarily have to go through. I just, I would love to say I'm one of those people who learns from others and others mistakes, but I'm not. I'm really one of those people that learns from my mistakes and pardon me,
00:35:09
Speaker
So for those who are at a place where they're ready to make those changes, they just don't have the next steps, or they need a guide, this actually helps them do it. And I say faster, but it's not always a fast process. Like even that core values coaching is five to six coaching sessions, supposedly over one week at a time.
00:35:30
Speaker
But I have not yet had one coaching client go through that one week at a time. It's many times it's been spread out, Nope, I'm going to need 2 weeks on this particular module, or I'm going to need 3 weeks on this one. And so it ends up taking anywhere from 6 to 8, maybe even 10 weeks to get through something. But it means that they have a guide. So I don't even know that it's always the speed. um John Maxwell even says, you know, good leaders make quick decisions. And because that means that you're always moving,
00:36:00
Speaker
and you can always change the direction if you need to. So there may be an aspect of speed that means that you can always change your direction. Whereas if you're sitting still and you're not doing anything, it's harder to get moving. um But i don't I don't know that speed is always the best thing, but I think that going faster is usually better than going slower unless you really, really need to go slow for a specific reason. That's an interesting perspective.
00:36:27
Speaker
and you know And I can be wrong. No, no, no, I'm not. I don't, I don't think I think, I think, you know, it's important to, you know, adopt perspectives that are not always informing to society because usually you're slow in setting them to the race. But I just found it interesting what you said, because there was a certain entrepreneur I was talking to a few weeks back and he was talking about how, you know, you know, hire slow, fire fast. You basically do everything fast.
00:36:57
Speaker
because in his head, the sooner you get someone out of there, the sooner you you get someone who's good. And really, you only can know the person that's good for the business if they're actually in the business. Again, it's it's an interesting perspective, but it's really a ready, you know, fire aim approach. And again, it's an interesting way of doing things. And, you know, so just to kind of jump back to what you're doing now,
00:37:26
Speaker
So do you have any other products like books, any other types of content people can consume besides just the coaching, or you know, podcasts, something like
Insights from 'Stand Tall and Own It' Podcast
00:37:38
Speaker
that?
00:37:38
Speaker
I do have a podcast. I've been doing it for three years. It started off as the Intentional Optimists Unconventional Leaders podcast in which I interviewed over 75 women leaders who some of them did not think of themselves as leaders, but the goal there was to first help me discover what it was like to podcast and to kind of share some of my own innovations, but to interview these women and to help other women who were listening to hear themselves in these stories.
00:38:07
Speaker
to hear that leadership doesn't always look the same, right? it's It's not always leadership from, from where I came from in the university sector. Leadership usually looked like 6-foot-3 blonde hair blue-eyed male with an MBA. So, you know, I was looking for ways to discover, and I learned so much from these women. It was just fascinating. And so last September, I rebranded and changed the name of the podcast to Stand Tall and Own It. It is available. It's the same feed. So if you find Stand Tall and Own It, you can go all the way back and hear some of my earliest stuff. But um it the purpose for that was to say, there are things that I've been kind of pussyfooting around and not actually doing anything with. And I've learned so much from all these women that I've been talking to for two years. It's time for me to actually
00:38:54
Speaker
stand tall and own some of this stuff and and be willing to say what I think and how I feel. And so I've had some good interviews on there, but a lot of it is solo work. And if you're looking for explanations on core values or intentional optimism or why I do what I do,
00:39:11
Speaker
yeah why oh and But if you, if you're interested in finding out the details on many of that, that many of those things that I've talked about, you can find them there on the podcast. It is also available on YouTube. When I rebranded, I started putting all the podcasts on YouTube. I also did a bunch of live streams for years with these ladies. And so all of that is still in my YouTube channel.
00:39:34
Speaker
And that's the intentional optimist. My website, theintentionaloptimist.com, right above my head is a button that says free core values exercise. So if you're interested in kind of figuring out your own core values, that's a great place to start. And if you need more help, I'm always available. I, I do not have a book yet. I've had several people say, when are you writing? And so I don't, I don't know when we'll see, but, um, I do have a local conference if you are here in the central Virginia area coming up October 18, called Live to Lead. And it's going to be fantastic. It's a one-day leadership conference. And I do have online options for that, too. So there's plenty of ways to learn and to be in my circle. I accept DMs on Instagram and LinkedIn. And just tell me you heard me here on James' show. And I will know you're not spam. And I will be happy to respond. I can't hear you. I can't hear you.
00:40:30
Speaker
so Yeah, I can make you're a little bit louder. Yeah, whatever you touched it gave that really loud feedback again. Yeah, right there. Is it working now? It's working, but there's a lot of static. Oh, yeah, yeah don't worry about that. That's all going to be fixed. Okay, so just to end this off, if you could go back in time and speak to a younger self, what would you say?
Advice to Her Younger Self
00:40:54
Speaker
Oh, I've been asked this question so many times and the answer remains the same and it still gives me cold chills. I would go back and tell my younger self maybe at 15 or 20 or even 25, Andrea, you're good enough. Your opinions matter.
00:41:10
Speaker
you can think for yourself. You do not have to take on anybody else's rules and regulations to live your life. And you can still be a good daughter, a good wife, a good mother, a good Christian, a good worker as yourself. And it is most important that you do it that way. that's And are there any closing final words you'd like to say to the audience before I let you off here?
00:41:34
Speaker
Well, I'm going to say, you know, when when we talk about our core values, I said they were reciprocal. And I would say, please think for yourself. Please don't take my opinion as gospel for anything. Please look things up. Please examine what we say on the show. Examine the conversations that we have. Make them, you know, be curious and actually look for ways to figure out what you think. Because when you start processing and you start thinking, you might come up with a better solution than any of us have ever thought of.
00:42:03
Speaker
All right, so this was Andrea Johnson. Thank you again for watching this show. I will be seeing you all in the