Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Steve Seidel on Entrepreneurship, Connection as Currency & Leadership Lessons
0 Plays2 seconds ago
In this episode of The Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast, host Kofi Anyemedu sits down with Steve Seidel, CEO and Founder of The Seidel Agency, to explore his entrepreneurial journey, leadership lessons, and the power of human connection in business.
With over 25 years of experience in marketing, media, and PR, Steve shares the highs and lows of building a people-first agency, the setbacks that shaped his leadership, and the pivotal moments that confirmed he was on the right path. He unpacks his powerful philosophy of “Connection as Currency,” explaining why authentic relationships, storytelling, and emotional intelligence remain irreplaceable even in the age of AI. This conversation also dives into:
- Turning disadvantages into strengths
- Building resilient, purpose-driven leadership
- Creating strong organizational culture
- The role of grit, rejection, and reinvention in entrepreneurship
- The future of leadership in AI-driven workplaces
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, leader, creative, or founder navigating growth and change, this episode offers practical insights, inspiration, and real-world lessons you can apply immediately.
🎧 Listen, learn, and be inspired.
🔔 Subscribe to The Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast for regular conversations with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and change-makers from around the world.
Recommended
Transcript
Human Connection as Currency
00:00:08
Speaker
To the world, you might be one person, but to one person, you might be the world. And that goes back to connection as currency. It's a human advantage in the age of AI. Create successful, connected relationships with everyone.
00:00:22
Speaker
Say hello to the stranger across the street. Make eye contact. Look eye to eye, face to face, heart to heart, and just listen to their story.
Interview with Steve Seidel: Career Insights
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast.
00:00:34
Speaker
I'm your host Kofi Anumeji. Today, I'm joined by Steve Seidel, CEO and founder of the Seidel Agency. With over 25 years in marketing, in media and PR, Steve is a sought-after speaker, storyteller and strategist who helps leaders unpack the power of human connection.
00:00:54
Speaker
He is the creator of the Gen's Journey Men's Collective and host of a number one Apple podcast. In this conversation, we will explore Steve's entrepreneurial journey, the highs, the lows, the lessons, and dive into how he's helping leaders and entrepreneurs turn connection into their greatest currents.
00:01:13
Speaker
Welcome to my show, Steve.
The Power of Personal Connection and Gratitude
00:01:15
Speaker
Kofi, thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. I know the Gents Journey Men's Collective is a tongue twister, but you did a great job with that. And I'm happy to be here. It's all about connection. I'm happy to connect with you and grateful to talk to your listeners. All right. Good to have you on this show.
00:01:31
Speaker
All right. So Steve, for listeners meeting you for the first time, how do you describe who you are today and the mission behind the Seidel Agency?
Seidel Agency's Mission of Purpose and Potential
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah. So when I meet somebody, i basically tell them and who I am. I'm Steven Seidel, but we all are a lot of individual things. But at the end of the day, we are love. We are acceptance. But one of my roles in life is a father. I'm also a founder of the Seidel Agency. It's an award-winning PR and media firm. and Then in addition to that, I do some leadership and executive coaching so that people can connect deeper to their purpose and push play on purpose to realize their highest potential. All right.
00:02:06
Speaker
So run through your journey and draw some useful lessons for our audience. So you spent 25 years in marketing, media, and PR. What pivotal experiences shaped your transition from corporate agency life into launching your own
From Engineering to Marketing: Creativity and Social Consciousness
00:02:20
Speaker
ventures? Yeah, that's a great question. So initially at a college, I worked for Motorola. I was an engineer. And so I realized engineering was great, but I didn't have enough interaction with people and community. And I wasn't connecting with those around me. I was in a semiconductor manufacturing facility making cell phone chips. And so then I transitioned over towards working in an agency.
00:02:42
Speaker
And so while working at the agency, then that allowed me to connect with more people to work with brands and companies. But yet it was a YouTube agency where they were essentially selling pre-rolls and videos. And I was like, this is something that I feel i could bring my own sensibilities and my own lens to the table because I love creating cool and interesting engaging concepts. And I once had a show called Renegade Reporting where I was a man on the street. It was more of a renegade.
00:03:09
Speaker
I had to get outside the lines. And so I took that outside the line mentality in building this ideal agency. And then I also layered in a component of socially consciousness. And so our motto is to do good, give back and make an impact. And every campaign that we work on, our goal is to not only help the company, but we want to help the consumer. And then we also want to help the community so that we have a win, win,
Inspiration Behind Seidel Agency: Value of Relationships
00:03:34
Speaker
win.
00:03:34
Speaker
Let's go back to the start of the Cidel agency. What was that spark, that particular spark that pushed you to start your own agency? So it's interesting. Thank you for asking that. The start of the Cidel agency actually came from my best friend. And so when I talk about connection as currency, it's about connecting to yourself and your mission and your purpose, but also connecting to your relationships.
00:03:56
Speaker
Your relationships are key in the age of automation and AI because those relationships are what's going to carry you to new clients, to new opportunities. So I was at a position where I was seeking new opportunities and my best friend worked for a company.
00:04:10
Speaker
It was called MirrorDry, treatment where they destroy your sweat and odor glands so that you no longer sweat. And he said, look, We have a really strong sales team, but we don't have a marketing team. And so they brought me on board to essentially be their CMO.
00:04:24
Speaker
And I manage all of their marketing, their assets, their branding, and their collateral. And so that was where I said, look, if I'm going to come on board, I might as well turn this into an agency. And that was my first client.
00:04:35
Speaker
And within that process, Miradry actually got acquired by a company called Cientra. And so there was a, you know, eight figure acquisition. All the people that worked there ultimately went to different companies. And so, again, that connection that I had with the sales reps, with the team members, with the employees, because we all had the same cultural alignment, then they started referring me more business. And so we all know the most effective form of marketing is word of mouth. And that's where it
Connection as Currency in Marketing and Leadership
00:05:01
Speaker
starts. Okay, let's still look at the statement, the statement you just made, that profound statement, connection as currency.
00:05:08
Speaker
Can you unpack what that really means in both business and leadership? Yeah, so thank you for asking. Connection as currency, oftentimes we hear of individual terms and they're all interchangeable, I would say. So you hear about marketing, you hear about sales, you hear about influence,
00:05:24
Speaker
These are all byproducts, results. But I think the core of what really is essential in that process is connection. And so when you connect, what we typically do is we take our clients, our leaders, whoever we're working with through a four-step process, this framework. Essentially, we start with your mission. Like Simon Sinek says, start with why. What are your highest commitments? What are the reasons that you're doing what you're doing?
00:05:48
Speaker
And then we move into your message. What is the message that you're transferring? How are you communicating with your target audience? And then we're going to move more into relationships, your media and your marketing. Too often people do that early on in the process. But once you get those relationships in place, then you're looking to build a movement.
00:06:05
Speaker
So we start with your mission. Are you connected to your mission? Are you connected to yourself? Are you connected to helping people and impacting them through that connection, them through that process and ultimately want to build a movement?
00:06:16
Speaker
And sometimes sometimes whether it's personal or professional, you might get stuck. You may have a loss of a job, a parent, a child, or maybe you just feel unfulfilled at a job that you don't really enjoy. And that's where we want to step back to the process of connection. reconnect to what it is that really inspires you or why you're doing it or to a passion of yours and then rebuild those existing relationships to connect with the people that can allow you to elevate yourself to new opportunities and experiences and then lastly you're reclaiming
00:06:49
Speaker
that power or that purpose that maybe you abandoned so that you could rewrite that narrative and really deliver an empowering story. And as leaders, connection is currency. If you connect to your story, if you connect to your audience, then you're going to connect to the opportunities and the revenue that it brings.
00:07:05
Speaker
o Very profound. Let's still look at your entrepreneurial journey. As we all know it, in entrepreneurship is never linear. There are always ups, downs, highs and lows.
Early Business Challenges and Adaptation
00:07:18
Speaker
What were some of your toughest setbacks in the early stages of your business? Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you. So when I first started my agency, they say imitation is the highest form of flattery. And so when I started my agency, like I talked about with Muirdra, I took a look at the general landscape and I looked at a bunch of different companies. And there was one company that I noticed that was really doing a successful job. It was called Hawk Media. And they called themselves your outsourced CMO.
00:07:42
Speaker
And so when I took a look at that, I said, that's really amazing. I'm doing CMO work as well, but I'm not necessarily outsourced. I'm just doing the work virtually. So I started as your virtual CMO and that brought lot a lot of business. And this was before the pandemic and Zoom calls.
00:07:57
Speaker
And so that allowed me to work with clients all over the United States. And I started in aesthetic medicine and we were growing. But then there was a period of time where some of the efforts that we were doing, were doing a lot of organic storytelling and social media.
00:08:10
Speaker
It hit a plateau because Meta essentially changed their platform and wanted you to pay for placement. you know, the organic storytelling and the viral videos. And you see a lot of that happening now with Instagram wasn't reaching the level of people that we needed to.
00:08:24
Speaker
So that's where we needed to rework and really bring forth a 360 approach where there's paid, there's earned, there's owned media. So that was one problem in that I had that we were able to overcome. And then secondly to that, during the pandemic, I relocated my entire business from California to Kentucky. And at this point in time, I didn't know anybody. I was virtual. It was during the pandemic. Fortunately, I was already a virtual, you know, a virtual agency. But I had i had to run my business out of my home for the period of time where we relocated. And then my mom got sick. And so I became her caretaker.
00:08:57
Speaker
And the room where I normally was running the business out of became her room. So I had nowhere to run the business from. And I had to be creative And really withstand this, not only was I going through, you know, moving cross country, I had a newborn. I had my mom who was sick. And then on top of that, I started to lose clients and I had to figure it out. So for a time being, i actually ran my business out of the laundry room.
00:09:21
Speaker
And so during the pandemic, I was literally taking Zoom calls within the laundry room, positioning my computer. So there was a white room behind me. I created a little board with my logo, slapped it up over my shoulder, and I took Zoom calls from my laundry room. And then slowly, piece by piece, I was able to rebuild the agency.
Significant Achievements and Collaborations
00:09:39
Speaker
So just as you've walked us through some of the down moments, the setbacks, the challenges, I believe there's also been a lot of wins, high points, high moments. Can you share some of this with us? Yeah, thanks so much. I mean, we all have the high moments, the low moments and everything in between.
00:09:55
Speaker
a couple of really fun moments for us at the Side Daly Agency is we built a really amazing course. It was called More Paying Patients. I actually used to be a host previous to this. I was an actor and an entertainer. So I brought forth all my friends. We created a really amazing nine lesson course about how to leverage Instagram to be your virtual consultation.
00:10:15
Speaker
I turned that into a book. So not only did I become a you know published author on Amazon, you can check it out. It's called The Million Dollar Social Solution. And then in addition to that, going back to connection, I started to meet some really amazing individuals. I worked with people who have been on Netflix shows, botched. I've worked with the president of the American Society of Plastic Surgery. I even worked with some of my childhood heroes like Paul Rubens and Soleimann Frye.
00:10:38
Speaker
But one of the really cool things that happened to me one time is that is I made a friendship with somebody and her name was Joa. She's a friend of mine. And then she referred me ah two to a local organization that was seeking some public relations. And then that led to another couple of relationships. And then I got the opportunity to work with Coca-Cola.
00:10:57
Speaker
And so went from, you know, doing this business in my laundry room during the pandemic with one or two clients to being able to work with one of the pinnacle brands in the world, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Six Flags, Dave & Buster's, the list goes on and on, where we were able to work with them from a PR perspective and really help them grow with some of the partnerships that they were dealing with.
00:11:18
Speaker
And as part of that, we've won various awards, gotten, you know, I think a dozen awards for social media, for celebrity activations, for web presence. So we're award-winning agency. We've worked with everybody from Fortune 100 to the mom and pa shops that are right down the street. So I like to say that everybody has value in this world. Whether you're a big, huge corporation, we all have a responsibility to do good in this world.
00:11:42
Speaker
And that's what we that's what we focus on by working with these changemakers to bring their authentic self to the stage. The stage could be this podcast, it could be social media, it could be a convention, but when we bring our authentic self and we connect to who we are in our audience, then we can really truly connect with an amazing experience so everyone can vote with their dollar, vote with their clicks, or vote with, you know, working with your organization. All right. So my guest once again is Steven Seidel.
00:12:12
Speaker
Steven Seidel of the Seidel Agency. So Steve, let's talk about authentic human
Human Connection Complementing AI and Technology
00:12:18
Speaker
connection again. How do you see authentic human connection competing with or complementing technology and AI in today's world? Yeah, I think right now we are fortunate. We've seen the birth of the internet. We've seen the birth of Wi-Fi. We've seen the birth of tons of different technology. CRISPR does DNA, you know, repurposing of DNA.
00:12:38
Speaker
But where we're at right now with automation and AI is AI has been around for quite some time, large language models and finding ways that you can process data quickly and effectively. But AI is merely a tool.
00:12:49
Speaker
And so I talk a lot about this with some of my founders, some of the C-suites and the leaders is we all have tools at our disposal. And, you know, it may not be Predator or the movies in the world where the robots are literally taking over the world because there are tons of different opportunities where we will need humans and the jobs that are represented. But really, AI is a tool, much like a hammer. The hammer doesn't hammer itself. You need to understand how to hammer it, when you're going to hammer it,
00:13:14
Speaker
or for example, any mental health tools. So it's important for human intervention to fully understand, look, this is a tool. How can I leverage this as a tool? And if you're a business or an organization leader and you're not currently ideating or trying to understand ways that it can bring value to your organization, you're most likely going to be left behind.
00:13:34
Speaker
But good news for you, there are really cool things like superhuman AI. It's a newsletter. where you can sign up and learn about all the new AI technologies. Obviously, there's ChatGPT and Claude.
00:13:44
Speaker
There's tons of different ways where you can leverage this technology to your advantage, whether or not you're doing captions, whether or not you're taking pictures with ChatGPT and telling them, For example, if you're a realtor and you take a picture of a house and you say, turn this house into a white color, or you could take a picture of the shelving unit inside your home if you're a designer and say, tell me how to reorganize this design or give me new suggestions. And so it's leveraging it as a tool.
00:14:10
Speaker
But as we continue to progress, the jobs that we know now will be totally different in 2030. I was watching an interview with Gary Vee. He's a key opinion leader. and And he was talking a little bit about, you know, there might even be jobs going forward where busy people who are constantly using AI and automation will just want to spend time with someone.
00:14:28
Speaker
And this goes back again to connection as currency and making sure that you build up these relationships so that maybe if your job does shift or maybe is no longer there, these relationships that you build. And the network that you created will help you navigate, find new opportunities. But there may even be jobs in the future, such as a walker, where, you know, you come home from work, it's been a long, hard day, and you just want to talk to somebody.
00:14:52
Speaker
And, you know, you have your wife and kids, but you want to just air it out, or you want to have an entrepreneur by your side that can just bounce ideas off of. Well, that's where I foresee some of these new jobs could potentially come forth in the future.
00:15:04
Speaker
And that's where those soft skills where you have communication will be coupled with the skills where you're leveraging the tools like AI and automation.
Men's Personal Growth Initiative Through Community
00:15:13
Speaker
So you've created experiences like Jane's Jenny, your man's collector.
00:15:18
Speaker
And what really inspired this? So thanks for asking. So to go back to connection, I've always been a connector. I hate the word super connector, but at the end of the day, i was raised in a divorce relationship. I became a people pleaser and I noticed that my power, my superpower was connecting, was talking to individuals, sharing stories and being empathetic. And so one of the areas, one of the key members, my mom passed away. Like I mentioned earlier, she moved in with us. I was her caretaker. And it was a tough moment because I didn't have that connection that I speak so highly about. i was at a low moment in my life. Friends, I was in a new town.
00:15:52
Speaker
I didn't have coworkers because I'm a virtual agency. And then I also lost a really important family member. And it was really tough for me. And so within that, I knew that I needed to find a safe space. I needed a community to share more about what I was doing.
00:16:06
Speaker
So essentially what I did is I created my own men's collective. And so if you go to Barnes and Noble, you'll see tons of books for women's health, you know, women and and and baby books, but there's not very many books for the expected father or, you know, dads or men. And so what I did is I identified my growth friends.
00:16:26
Speaker
And these growth friends are individuals that can really help you reach your highest potential because we're a product of the five most closest people. So I found these individuals that were entrepreneurs like me. They would have similar problems. They were also fathers. I created this group.
00:16:40
Speaker
It was called Gent's Journey and it's been going for five years now. And so through that, just like I talked about earlier, i was able to reconnect to who I was, reconnect to my community, but then rebuild these relationships. I didn't know these guys very well, but we opened up our hearts.
00:16:56
Speaker
vulnerability is invincibility. And as a man and in a leader, it's important to be vulnerable so that you can connect to your team, you can connect to your culture and your company. And then lastly, what we did is we created card deck. It's called the Journey Deck. Right here is the card deck.
00:17:11
Speaker
And so what we found is if you could ask a simple question of someone, you can connect on a much deeper level especially moving forward in today's day and age with AI, to connect, to make a friend. If you ever follow any story in any movie, usually the protagonist is somebody that reaches a ah low moment and they find a friend, whether it's a loved one, it's a best friend, it's a dog, but that friendship is what allows them to be the hero in their journey and to rebuild themselves. So we created this card deck to help other guys find deeper friendships with their wives, their children, and their buddies. Very interesting. Storytelling, as i I was researching, remains a big part of your week.
00:17:53
Speaker
Why do you think stories remain such powerful tools?
Storytelling in Personal and Professional Development
00:17:56
Speaker
So stories are everything. Stories are what drive us every single day. When we wake up, there's a story going on in our head, whether or not we know it or not. The voice in our head is telling us, I have to go pick this person up, or I have this to work on. Or there's a lot of stories that have been built from our younger years. And maybe the limiting beliefs that we have. And so we have the movie of me inside of us and the stories that we're telling ourselves, but also the stories that we're sharing.
00:18:21
Speaker
And so stories allow us to separate ourselves 18 inches. It gets us out of our head thinking, am I doing this wrong? And into our heart and feeling. and loving. And when we connect through love and feelings, then that's how we genuinely can move forward in life because everybody needs to be seen, felt, and heard.
00:18:41
Speaker
And that's what we really genuinely work towards at the SideL agency. And when I coach with leaders is what is the story? What is the story you've been telling yourself? What is the story that no longer serves you? Well, now,
00:18:54
Speaker
It's time to reconnect, rebuild, and reclaim your narrative and reclaim your story and know that anything is possible. The mind is everything. And so there's this really cool thing. It's called a mind movie that some of our people that we're working with are doing.
00:19:07
Speaker
Would be happy to help anybody listening. You can use Canva. It's a platform where you create social media. Instead of creating a visualization visualization board, you create a mind movie that has the images.
00:19:18
Speaker
It showcases where you want to go the people you want to work with, the places you want to travel, the families, the home, and you turn it into a movie and you put the music underneath that you love or that inspires you and then you watch it every single day. And it's just like an affirmation because thoughts become words and then words become our actions and then our actions become our habits and then our habits become our character.
00:19:42
Speaker
So the more that we can instill ourselves with this positive support, the more that you can access you know your wildest dreams. So you've been on this journey for quite some time now.
00:19:53
Speaker
And like any journey, we all pick up lessons. Can you share some of the useful lessons you picked up on this
Life Lessons from Entrepreneurship: Presence and Mindset
00:19:59
Speaker
journey with us? Yeah, I thank you so much for asking. Some of the lessons ah that I share with my daughter, i have an 11 and a five-year-old, and so constantly trying to figure out how that I can inspire them and and teach them. The number one thing is to be present.
00:20:12
Speaker
Too often we're living in the past. We're thinking about that story that we used to tell ourselves, that maybe you're a victim or that you're not good enough. or we're in the future worrying about all these things that may unfold, which is where we see a huge mental health crisis. But one of the things, this is something that teach to my daughter, but it says live in the now. So take a breath, breathe. I've been talking a lot. I needed that breath. It brings me back to the reality of the now, the here, the now. And that's all there is. There's no such thing as time. We're just moving through the now. And so Breathe. Secondly, take a breath.
00:20:44
Speaker
And then in addition to that, one of the key things that I teach my daughter all the time is remember their name. Whether I'm talking to Kofi, whether there's somebody who's across the desk from me at the United States Postal Service, if they have a name tag, use their name.
00:20:58
Speaker
People love to hear their name. It creates that connection that I talk so intensely about. When you use their name, it opens up a plethora of opportunity. Even ask them, you know, what was the name that, you know, who named you?
00:21:10
Speaker
Another lesson that I talk a lot about is when you're connecting with individuals, if you're, you know, marketing or doing anything from the sales or business perspective is ensuring that you're delivering them value. Put yourself in their shoes. It's not about you. It's about how you can deliver them value. And then in addition to the journey, oftentimes we have these thoughts that come up that happen in our head. And like I talked about before, mindset, the 80-20, 20% of your action drives 80% of your results. Be mindful of the thoughts that are occurring in your head. Fill yourself with positivity. Look in the mirror. Tell yourself that you are loved.
00:21:45
Speaker
But just be aware of the thoughts that you are happening in your head and understand that they're not true. They're not you. Let them flow through. When you can control your thoughts, you can control the weather.
00:21:55
Speaker
So if you can control the weather, great. But it's really important to be aware of the thoughts and the things that you're putting into your mind and your body. And that's where you're seeing a big push with words of affirmation, limiting microplastics, exercising, and making sure that you're functioning at peak performance. So we're just a about wrapping up. pin But looking back now, what advice would you give to your younger self at the start of your entrepreneurial journey? That's a great question. So what advice would I give to my younger self?
00:22:25
Speaker
I would tell my younger self that it's going to be okay. I think too often when we are caught in situations, we either feel like we need to control them, we feel like we need to worry about them, or again, we create these stories inside of our head of the worst case scenario.
00:22:41
Speaker
And I want to just let him know that A, it's going to be okay. B, call your mom, call your dad, and tell your loved ones that you love them. Don't wait till it's too late to think about all these amazing relationships. Even now, I call my friends on a regular basis. I send them voice notes. I tell them I love them.
00:22:58
Speaker
I tell them, you know, that I appreciate them. If there's an amazing moment that I'm sharing with my wife or my family or my kids, I say, this is nice. This is really nice. I appreciate this. Because too often we're bouncing around and we're too busy, but it's all about staying present in the moment.
00:23:15
Speaker
And I think I would also told myself, journal more. If I could have journaled more, there were so many things that have happened that I'm currently in the process of trying to put these things back together. But by journaling, you're able to get these things out of your head and onto the paper. And if you write it down, you're 10 times more likely to do it.
00:23:31
Speaker
But also there's just so many things that are happening in your life that it's a great opportunity to go back and learn from the mistakes and fail forward. So we're just about wrapping up, but what do you believe the future of leadership looks like in this era we find ourselves, this era of rapid change and AI-driven
Future Leadership Trends: Soft Skills in an AI World
00:23:49
Speaker
workplaces? Yeah, that's a great question. i see I think you see it, you're seeing a lot of it now, the future of leadership, the future is female. I think, A, we're leveling the playing field between men and women, which I love. In addition to that, I think that's where it comes back to the soft skills and your communication and your ability
00:24:06
Speaker
to know that vulnerability is invincibility. Brene Brown talks a lot about vulnerability and being able to understand what is important to you and being able to connect and to communicate those concerns and to look someone in the eye.
00:24:19
Speaker
And so it's going to be a hybrid of the soft skills, but also like we talked about earlier, needing to know that you have the tool set from both a mental health perspective, from a technological perspective to help your company grow,
00:24:33
Speaker
but also being strategic about who you surround yourself with. So I think the future leaders are going to be a lot more focused on being culturally aligned so that you surround yourself with people that share the same belief system as you, that share a similar value system in addition to the organization that you share.
00:24:51
Speaker
So that that one plus one equals three. When you have the same synergy and you guys are on the same page and you have similar beliefs and you could be open and share and not be Like the baby boomers, where when things went negative or didn't happen, now we're as authentic and transparent as possible.
00:25:09
Speaker
So being able to say, I messed up, that's my bad, that'll actually bring you more credibility and more integrity as a leader. So what I like to say is the future of leadership is great. It's leaders who are grateful, they're reflective, they're empathetic, where they can connect to you from love heart to heart.
00:25:28
Speaker
They are accountable. They admit when they're wrong and they are transformational because they will be able to take their company or their organization or their team and transform them to function at their highest potential.
00:25:39
Speaker
So before I wrap up, on what message would you like to leave with my audience, entrepreneurs, leaders, and generally my audience before we sign off Yeah, before I do that, could I ask you a question from my gents journey card deck? Sure, sure.
00:25:53
Speaker
Please go ahead. It's like a magic trick, but the magic actually lives in you and within your story. So i I just want to hear a quick little snippet of you and your story. Tell me when to stop. This is a great one.
00:26:05
Speaker
I talk a lot about this. I was a TEDx speaker. I have a TEDx talk. It's called The Hidden Power of Grief. And I talked about losing my mom and how it brought me to a ah sense of higher purpose. where I thought that losing my mom was a bad thing. It actually allowed me to see all the wonderful things that we've experienced in our life. But the question that came up is, when was the time something bad turned out to be good?
00:26:28
Speaker
yeah o Something bad. turned out to be good. Too often we think of these problems as subjective, right? You ran into somebody on the way to work and you're upset. Your problem could be much worse. You could be totally ill. But maybe when you ran into that person in the car, you met the love of your life.
00:26:45
Speaker
yeah It's not something that happens to us. It happens for us. And so that's the little shift that I talk a lot about. What was a negative event that happened to you that turned into a positive outcome that happened for you? I think it has to do with a group of people who initially did not like me.
00:27:04
Speaker
But now they they seem to be one of my... They they are all cheerleaders. They always cheer me on. They want me to achieve a lot more. But earlier on, they were always on me, criticizing.
00:27:16
Speaker
And their criticisms at that time, I saw it as not being constructive. But over time, they got to understand me better. And now they are more of my cheerleaders. So initially I saw them as not being on my side, being bad in quotes, but now they are part of my family, the brother community I always hold on to.
00:27:39
Speaker
And now they are all part of what I hold dear. I love that. Yeah. So that's kind of why we created the journey deck. It's at Jen's journey.co where you can create meaningful conversations. You can break the ice. um and And I'm sorry. So the last question that you had for me was what again? So I was asking for your general message to my audience. Sure. The general message is, this is a quote ah that used to hang up on my wall at my
Impact of Authentic Connections in the Digital Age
00:28:06
Speaker
mom's house. And I'm just taking a moment that i I can actually bring myself into that kitchen and experience it and honor her and say thank you to her because she was an impact in my life, will always will be. It was up on the wall. It says, to the world, you might be one person, but to one person,
00:28:22
Speaker
you might be the world. And that goes back to connection as currency. It's a human advantage in the age of AI. Create successful, connected relationships with everyone.
00:28:33
Speaker
Say hello to the stranger across the street. Make eye contact. Look eye to eye, face to face, heart to heart. And just listen to their story because we are all one. I want you to repeat that before we go.
00:28:45
Speaker
So kindly repeat statement for Sure, that's great. I do do a group. we We often talk about haikus and haikus are traditionally delivered twice. So that's a great comment. To the world, you might be one person, but to one person, you might be the world. And so your unique sensibilities, there's no one else in this world that is like you. So don't try and be anybody else because your unique skillset, your unique take, your unique experiences is really what the secret sauce is. And there is somebody out there that needs you in their corner.
00:29:15
Speaker
And maybe you haven't found them yet, but I'm sure there's tons of people out there that value who you are. And so when we connect to ourselves and to our community and to our teammates and our colleagues, that's really a tremendous amount of value that you might not realize. All right. So thank you, Stephen Seidel, for sharing your rich experience with us today on the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast. We wish you the very best. Yes, thank you so much. And if you want to connect, I wanted to let your listeners know, if you go to my website, we talked about building your most authentic self. So my website is theseidelagency.com. So that's T-H-E-S-E-I-D-E-L agency.com slash media.
00:29:56
Speaker
There's a free download there, theseidelagency.com slash media. That's T-H-E-S-E-I-D-E-L agency.com slash media. There's a download there. There's four sites that we tell our clients, our coaches, our C-suites to leverage so that you can begin to share your story. At the end of the day, we need to share our stories. So there's four sites. that you can build your authority, you can share your story.
00:30:22
Speaker
And I would love for you to connect with me there as well or at Steven Seidel, that's S-T-E-S-E-I-D-E-L across social media. Thanks, Kofi. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Steve.
00:30:33
Speaker
So this has been another exciting episode of the Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast. I'll come your way next time with another inspiring episode. I remain your host, Kofi Animedu.
00:30:43
Speaker
As always, do take good care of yourself and let's continue to keep hope alive. Cheers. please be sure to subscribe to the entrepreneur speaks podcast on all your favorite podcast channels and if you have any questions or feedback feel free to reach out to us on social media or in the comments section below
00:31:11
Speaker
Builders of tomorrow shining bright. From every land they find their beat. Yeah, it's the entrepreneur speaks.