Transformative Partnerships: Keys To Thriving In Business With Kim Walsh Phillips And Justin Guarini
Business partnerships are like a chorus; harmonized voices create a powerful sound that resonates widely. Sean Olson welcomes Kim Walsh Phillips and Justin Guarini of the Elite Speakers Network as they discuss the power of business partnerships and overcoming challenges. Kim reflects on her career journey, overcoming her fear of disappointing her parents by switching majors. Justin also shares his career transition to performance coach, emphasizing the importance of leveraging Kim's strengths alongside his contributions. They stress the importance of clearly defining roles and enabling team members to showcase their strengths. Dive in to learn how to harmonize your partnerships for success!
Connect with Kim: https://www.instagram.com/thekimwalshphillips/ or kim@powerfulprofessionals.com
Connect with Justin: https://www.instagram.com/justinguarini/ or justin@profitunderpressure.com
Get your copy of Kim’s books:
The Shift: Scale Your Business and Multiply Your Wealth Without Sacrificing You
No B.S. Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing
Ultimate Guide to Instagram for Business (Entrepreneur Ultimate Guide)
Are you ready to elevate your leadership? Let’s talk here:http://www.renogize.com
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Transformative Partnerships: Keys To Thriving In Business With Kim Walsh Phillips And Justin Guarini
Introduction
I am very blessed to have two guests with us for the first time ever on the show. We have with us, Justin Guarini and Kim Walsh-Phillips. They are the Founders of the Elite Speakers Network, where they unlock the power of celebrity. Empower professionals to go to the best kept secret in demand and highly paid keynote speakers in their niche.
Justin Guarini is the entertainment veteran, a Season 1 American Idol alumni, a seven-time Broadway principal performer and Dr. Pepper’s Lil’ Sweet character. Kim Walsh-Phillips who was featured on Bravo is the Founder of Powerful Professionals, one of the fastest growing companies in America and a four-time bestselling Author with entrepreneur press and has worked with celebrity clients like Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O'Leary from Shark Tank, Captain Glenn Shephard from Below Deck and author, Mike McCloskey and Dan Kennedy. Kim and Justin, it is awesome to have you on the show. Welcome.
Thanks for having us.
It’s nice to be here.
I appreciate you guys doing this. I know that you do a lot of work together. You’ve done some various shows, but on the show, we usually take a deep dive into our guests' background professionally and the leadership lessons learned along the way. We’ll take a shallow dive since there’s two of you. We had a great conversation. Kim, talk to us a little bit about your journey, the leadership lessons learned that have prepared you for where you are.
Thank you for that opportunity. It started a very long time ago. I’m not going to start for the time that I wanted to earn the cookie in kindergarten but to think it might have started there. I’ll fast forward a little bit to college, where I knew what I had seen that I loved doing. My knowledge was that I love teaching and sharing valuable content. I love performing. I’d been to the theater before. I love the power of words and storytelling.
My college background was that I went to school to become a teacher because that’s what I thought. I thought I was going to be a teacher and going to run the drama department in schools. That was going to be my career. As I started going deeper into my classes, I started realizing I loved the marketing classes, the English classes, and the theater classes. I did not like sitting in a classroom with high school students. In fact, when I did my first practicum where you have to stay in the classroom for a week. I was miserable.
My first piece of leadership advice that was given to me was by my advisor of my senior year of college when I went to him and shared him my despair, how miserable I was. He said, “Stop thinking of it is too late to switch your major. Start thinking it as an opportunity to create the life that you want.” He gave me permission at that moment to give permission to myself to make that change.
It was my second semester of senior year that I decided I was going to prolong my college time. I wasn’t going to graduate “on time” so that I could achieve what I truly wanted to do. It was to leave the education space and instead go into the marketing and PR space. That was hugely impactful in my life and set me up to eventually start my first company and the work that I do.
When that professor came to you with that, how long was the deliberation like? Was it a eureka moment when he gave you permission? Did you just jump at it or was there a deliberation behind it? How did that come through?
I wasn’t quite the self-reliant, independent, and confident human that you see before yourself. I was still very reliant upon the approval of good old mom and dad. I wanted to but I was so scared because here are the people who had been paying for my college. I married my first husband shortly after college. I was going to get married and still be in school. There are a lot of social norms that I wasn’t going to be living up to at that moment.
I am someone who always likes to be the good girl that everyone sees as accomplishing those things. I had to build up the courage to have a conversation with them about this decision to prolong my college and not graduate “on time.” I am forever grateful. My parents sometimes live in the now and want to protect me. They sometimes give fear-based answers to be like, “Do with the status quo. Don’t go through the walked pathway.”
At that moment, they heard me and said, “This sounds like the best thing that you could do. Follow this path.” I went and got their confirmation and that’s what continued my journey. I’m grateful I changed my major in my second semester senior year. By taking two classes that summer and a couple classes in the fall, I was able to graduate and start my career just a few months later.
I love this story. Thanks for sharing that, though, because of the power of parents. Oftentimes, as kids, whether we realize it or not, we’re seeking their approval. Even more than that, I love that a little bit at the end where they’re like, “We’re behind you. We got you.” Powerful. Thanks for sharing that. Justin, give us a little walk through. A lot of readers know you. You originally from American Idol, but you are so much more than that. Tell us what we don’t know about Justin.
As Kim, I was born to some pretty outstanding parents. My mother was one of the first anchor women on CNN when it first started up. My father was in the Atlanta Police Force and then went on to become the first Black Chief of Police in Atlanta. I grew up around lights, cameras, politics, politicians, and police officers. It was a very interesting experience because all of that glitz and glamour and being forth and three years old and dressing up in little tucks and tails and going to Gala events and Balls was normal.
That was just normal for me. Being in the control booth while my mother was broadcasting live to the nation on CNN. This company that people said, “24-hour news.” Nobody will ever watch that. Watching my dad out in the field moving up in the ranks was a great experience in terms of leadership, one of the very first lessons that I learned. Any intentional leader will take this to heart. It is leading from where you live. When you lead from what you live, it is so easy. Especially nowadays, for people to lead from what they learned.
“It is so easy, especially nowadays, for people to lead from what they have learned but not necessarily lead from what they live.”
We can pick up a book. We can use ChatGPT. We can just Google something and we can learn something quick. We can coach on it. They’re far too many coaches and leaders out there who are leading from what they learn, but not necessarily leading from what they live. Being able to watch my mom lean into the challenging schedule and the ability to be very flexible and turn on a dime when she’s delivering a live broadcast. It helped me to understand how important it is to be authentic and put your best foot forward when it comes to being on camera and on radio. She was all over the radio as well.
With my dad, it’s like watching him be Chief of Police. He was a chief unlike any that had ever come before. Not just because of his ethnic background, but because he was a General who was always in the field. There’s a story about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, he pulls up to a donut shop. There are six police officers just sitting in there munching donuts and not doing their job. He goes in in full uniform, gets the keys from the owner of the donut shops, locks the donut shop, thereby locking the officers in. Calls the commanding officer have him come out of bed at 3:00 in the morning. He said, “If I ever see this happening again, I’m not going to fire them in there. I’m going to fire you.”
One of his things is I fire from the top down. When you lead from what you live, you also inspect what you expect which is he is also fond of saying. It’s still fond of saying to me to this day. Being a leader who was breaking the mold at that time, it was all the more important for him to lead from what he lived because he was their greatest example. I’ve taken that through with me through my entertainment career.
There was a time in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1984 when I saw the Jackson 5 performing on stage. I just pointed to the stage and I said, “I want to do that.” Throughout the years, whether it was choir or doing everything I could to get in front of an audience. It eventually led me to American Idol where 30 million people every single week got to see me doing what it is that I love to do, which is singing, acting, dancing, and performing on stage.
That led to Broadway, to commercials, and to working with Disney like I do now in the voiceover world. Which ultimately led me to Kim and us combining our superpowers of that right fit message, right fit market and that passion for helping others serve at the highest level with my ability to take that right fit message and fit market and story and deliver it in a way that is clear, compelling, and converts an audience and makes them feel like they know, like, and trust you.
I love that. Thanks for sharing that story and seeing some of your family background. I love that for both of you. I’m in the same boat, where my parents and my grandparents laid that foundation. As leaders, we focus so much on how we lead it work. We forget that our greatest leadership is at home. You don’t have to have a title. You don’t have to pay.
Forming An Incredible Partnership
It’s just the greatest tidal we have is being a spouse, being a parent, and knowing we can impact those people. I love hearing those stories, how it impacted you and set you guys up for success where you are. Justin, you started going there a little bit. Talk to us about how you two met and have now formed this incredible partnership for the Elite Speakers Network.
This is one of the best days of Justin’s life.
Thank you for that. If you can’t tell, we like to have a lot of fun together. We tease one another all the time. It was pretty much that way from the beginning. The pandemic came through and decimated my business, which is a body in the room business. If you think about it with theater or live performance. Those all went away practically overnight. The same thing for Kim. Kim was holding a lot of live events and yet, we both had to pivot to the virtual space.
We ended up meeting on this app called Clubhouse. During the pandemic, I saw an explosion of growth because all of these high-level individuals from every industry, from every walk of life could all be together. You could have access. Normal people that have access to like the top name people in any market you could imagine and even ask them questions. It became this amazing thing.
In one of these high-level rooms, Kim and I were both on the virtual stage together. We ended up connecting and doing some things inside Clubhouse, but then she invited me to host one of her live virtual events. I flew down to the studio and I was hosting this event. It was this great marketing event. Hundreds of people were there and lived with us. I normally would go when I’m not hosting in play on my phone or do something until it’s my time to come back on and be the host of the most.
What I was listening to and what I was hearing was this amazing marketing message. I realized all of the pieces that I was missing in my message, all the pieces I was missing and figuring out how to get to my right fit market, she had it. I was busy doing all the workbooks and everything in the time that I wasn’t hosting. As she came over to me and she said, “What are you doing?” I said, “I have a coaching business and this is brilliant.” She said, “Why don’t we work together like this?” I became a client. Kim, why don’t you take over from here? You got invited onto a big-time show, didn’t you?
I did. After you became a client, I started working with you to see what you were doing and then I realized that Justin is a performance coach. I said, “We could use that in our community.” What I had been teaching at the time was getting people to show up online, on the virtual stage and webinars. Performance is a big part. You get a great message. You could have a great strategy, but projecting in a way that people will listen to is so important.
We started doing coaching for our folks. I got invited to be on Bravo’s Below Deck Sailing. I brought Justin as one of my guests. While we’re on the show, we start coaching the people on the show on their message and on their story. The producer pulled me aside and said, “You have something here. Is this a business you guys have?” I said, “No.” She said, “I think it should be.” On our way back through customs, I said, “Do you want to try something like this?” “Could it work?” “Yes, it sure could.”
We ended up getting Glenn Shephard from Bravo’s Below Deck as a client. We started this business that kicks off with him. It’s not a bad first client to get. We then launched a show, built an event, started offering coaching and we built the Elite Speakers Network. Where now, we work with entrepreneurs to get them on the stage in order to grow their business. It’s been amazing.
I do the messaging and strategy. Justin brings the performance coaching. We get to work with incredible entrepreneurs and create these moments. That’s our favorite to have when we get to be in the audience seeing them on stage. While we spend a lot of the time looking at them, our favorite moments are to look at the audience to see the impact they’re making in real-time. We get to do that every single day.
Developing The Elite Speakers Network
I love the story. That was quick and I know readers are going, “Yes, but that’s because of who they are. I couldn’t do that.” Partnerships are like the essence of business. I’m always looking for those strategic partners in different ways they can happen. Kudos to you for seeing something together. Some synergy there. Even kudos to that producer from noticing what was happening. Take us behind the scenes for a little bit like in that first six months as you’re like, “What’s this going to be like?”
I love that you had two different pieces you’re bringing together for the puzzle but there still has to be this compromise and putting egos to the side for the greater good. Walk us through developing the relationship, how you navigate developing the Elite Speakers Network and then we’ll pick up from there.
I love to start with this. I had a business partner before. I’ve gone through a few different iterations of this years ago early in my first company. I had a client who saw the potential in what I was building and said he wanted to come in as a partner. He invested some money and then disappeared. It was terrible because I was still giving him a large percentage of profit. I was doing all the work and he was nowhere to be found. One year later, I bought him back out of the business with interest, which was not an easy thing to do.
Several years after that, I was growing another company. I brought two partners in and it dissolved because they didn’t see a vision of growing it big. I had already had the pain of having partners. I didn’t ever want to do this again, I had said out loud but many times before. Here’s the thing that’s interesting and I’ll say how I didn’t do it correctly when he and I first started working together, too. I’m going to be full transparency here.
I am what you call a workhorse. I work a lot. I do a lot of work. I am this person where when I’m at my daughter’s softball game, I am fully engaged every time she’s playing. If it’s between innings, I might get four emails out. I might spend seventeen different messages. That’s who I am as a human. I had this epiphany because as Justin and I started working together, it was first like on a trial basis. We didn’t call it trial basis. We just did an event together and it went great. We did another event together and it went great.
We just started building. How could this become something? After we had that great honeymoon moment of, “We should build a thing. This would be great.” That’s like the fun exciting visionary process. We start working together and I’m getting all these things done, which is what I do. He’s in the middle of a Broadway show. I am a little frustrated because I am not getting the same level of output as I am putting in. It was this one moment that, being a coach, I can self-coach and did a self-coaching moment.
This is a conversation you and I never read. It hit me all the sudden to say his value isn’t in the quantity of tasks getting done. You had a team for that. His value is in what only he uniquely can do. How could you leverage that in a way that works into his schedule to get the most out of this business relationship? It was while he was still in the Broadway show. We just started creating these blocks of time where we could create content or coach our members.
At that point I said, “That’s what we’re going to focus on.” If I had his time, he’s not going to do any tasks. He’s not going to do any of the admin things. He’s just going to offer feedback on strategies that come up with because he’s so smart when it comes to that. Coach our members or create content. When we started doing that, he coached me on doing the same thing for myself. I should only be spending my time working on my zones of genius and have other people do other things.
It forced me to make my work better in that way and focus more on that piece and for him to do that. Now that we’ve strengthened the business, it’s grown. He is focused primarily on this company. Both of our roles have expanded a bit. I believe that a foundational piece of focusing on who we are and what our greatest strengths are is why our partnership is so strong. You never knew any of that before, Justin, but I’m interested to hear your thoughts on it.
“The foundational piece of focusing on who we are and what our greatest strengths are makes a strong partnership.”
Share something she’s never heard, Justin. Bring it on.
My thoughts on that, I don’t think I could have said it any better myself. I do agree that understanding and recognizing your zone of genius is important. When you’re a solopreneur, especially in the beginning, you’re leading yourself. That’s it. When you bring whether it’s team on or a partnership or collaboration like we have. You end up having to compromise and it goes both ways.
I was in the middle of a show. I was busy. Kim and I both have our families and very little time to ourselves. Yet, I had to recognize that even though I was very successful doing what I do. I was an intrapreneur at the time working for someone else. Spending a lot of my time for a smaller percentage of the pie, shall we say, than the people at the top, the producers and the directors and all that.
If I truly wanted to be that leader, if I wanted to be someone who is a co-owner and CEO or whatever you want to call, of a company then I needed to step up my game. As Kim was saying, it’s not necessarily the quantity of what I was doing. It was the quality of everything that I was doing. It had to be the best that I could make it. Regardless if I was busy. I had to make those blocks of time. In that time, I had to be devoted.
Relatively recently, I made the choice to continue to be an entertainment. I work for Disney. As a matter of fact, I have a voiceover session with them for Super Kitties, the show that I am in on Disney Junior. Yet, there comes a point when a leader has to make a choice to go all in or to be half in and half out. I made the decision to go all in on the message, on the market that we wanted to go after, and what it is that we were doing.
Yes, I can have these other things that I’m doing but my main focus and my main thrust now along with Kim is to help business owners who want to expand their business via the power of stage. Develop that right fit message for that right fit market then be able to get up on the stage and get behind the microphone or get onto a virtual space in front of a camera and deliver that message to that resonates with their audience. It makes them know, like, and trust them and ultimately feel like saying yes. Not necessarily just to the product or service that the entrepreneur or the business owner is selling of the speaker.
Ultimately, make that perfect prospect say yes to themselves. Say, “Yes, this is something that I can work on. This product or service can work. This person who is telling me about this product or service is the person that will guide me through it and I am able to do it. I can do it.” That’s what we love to focus on. To get back around to the question, our collaboration has been in the spirit of going all in on what we do best and making the adjustments necessary along the way to maximize the return on the investment of time, energy, effort, and money that we put in.
For a leadership suggestion or strategy, from our stories, too, and something that I have found over time running a company for many years. It is key to give people the greatest chance they have to succeed by allowing them to serve in the way that they show up the best like my COO. She’s very analytical. If I want her to work on a problem with me, I cannot ask her to solve it in real-time on a phone call. I either need to prep her before the call and send her the information. She’ll show up to the call with detail or I need to have a call with her where I give her the problem and then schedule another time to get the solution. That’s how she shows up in her greatest zone of genius.
With Justin, I need to detail like an agenda or what we’re going to talk about but then have real-time discussions to get real-time feedback. He’s going to give me that. It allows me to get their greatest gifts and strength based on who they are in their zone of genius. I think as any leader, when you can unlock how your team members perform at their greatest strengths instead of trying to get them to conform like one set model that doesn’t work for everybody. I see my own kids struggle with that in the school system. We can create something different in our companies. Let’s give people an opportunity to show up where they do their best work by giving them the space to do it.
Business Partnerships: Let's give people an opportunity to show up where they do their best work by giving them the space to do it.
It’s interesting how leaders have caught on that aspect of self-leadership. If I can’t lead myself, I can’t lead others. A lot of leaders focus on trying to identify what is their secret sauce, what is their specialty, and where do they stand out but then they forget to translate that to their people. The people that they have the opportunity to leave and to impact. It’s like, “No, if you find it for you and you know the joy that comes from that. Pass that joy on by helping them find it and setting them up for success with that.”
How To Make Your Voice Heard
I love that that’s happening. I want to talk about the Elite Speakers Network for a minute because I’ve dabbled into this with you guys now since I met you. I know where you’re going with this, but I know a lot of our readers are sitting and saying, “There are so many voices out there. There’s so many voices. There’s only so many stages. I have a small business or a medium-sized business or even a large business. How do I make my voice heard?” I know you folks try to help them drill in on that a little bit. I don’t want to give up all your secrets, but for that reader that’s saying, “How can my voice be heard in an ocean of voices?”
If you are going out with a group of people and you headed to the restroom during that supper. You came back to the table and someone at the table said to you, “Where was the bathroom?” Sean, what would you do at that moment?
I would point them and/or take them there.
You would tell them how you had gotten there because you went there. What you wouldn’t do is ask every staff member in the restaurant who also knows where the bathroom is, who's probably told people before you how to get to the bathroom. You wouldn’t contact the architect of the building to find out where he had placed the bathroom and why. You have something of value that you can share with someone and they ask you because they trust you on where to get there. They were comfortable asking you. That is the exact same thing when it comes to telling our story.
There are people who will only ever be able to get the lesson to hear, the message, and to get the solution if you share it. If you don’t share it, then they won’t understand. Now, the reality is, I have this weird combination of living in Georgia and being from New York. I say, “Y’all and coffee.” It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s just not. My whole thing is like if I spent all my days pouring into people, I still wouldn’t ever fill all of their cups. By the way, I don’t want to be a cup of tea. I want to be a glass of blue champagne. That’s fine with me.
I am going to just attract certain people who’ve been waiting to hear this message from me and Justin. There’s going to be other people who don’t want to hear from us and are going to be a better match for somebody else. If he and I don’t show up, we might not have IO hands who’s now sharing with single moms how they can adopt kids over 40. We might not have Kimi Shelter who helps people find their partner in life. We might not have Howard Globus who keeps our financial institutions safe when he tells his story of a time he was on a medical table and had to answer his phone risking his life because he was afraid to get a client.
None of those stories would be told and impact the lives of Justin and I had stayed silent. I say to you dear reader, is your fear about sharing your message a concern that there are other people who might have shared it? Is it about a fear of what they might say about you? Is it a fear about the thought around rejection? Is there a chance that you’re not sharing your story because you don’t know if people will like it? I urge and I encourage you to think of this. Don’t think of a whole big audience. Think of the one person who you could help simply by showing up and focusing on serving that person. We stopped making it about ourselves and we started making it about the incredible audience that we are there to serve.
Beautifully stated. Anything else on that, Justin? Your perspective.
I’ll just add to that. Your story matters. There could be 100,000 people. As a matter of fact statistically, there probably are thousands of people who may have the same product or the same service or even the same message. Take this in, there’s no one in the history of time of human existence who has seen the world with your eyes, heard the world with your ears, spoken with your tongue, and thought with your thinker.
“No one in the history of human existence has seen the world with your eyes, heard the world with your ears, or spoken with your tongue.”
The right fit person, again to say what Kim was saying, they’re waiting for you. I can talk all I want about confidence and delivering a performance that is clear, concise, converts, and leverages my years of high level entertainment experience. There may be someone who lives in Indonesia who has very much a similar story, a similar message or similar product or service. There are only going to be people who resonate with that person in Indonesia. They’ll never ever listen to me or trust me.
However, am I going to not do what I do because I don’t reach people in a different part of the country? Is that person not going to do what they are called to do and share their message and potentially save lives and serve communities? No. That’s why when you think there’s so many voices, stages, and many people doing the thing. There is no competition other than the competition you have with yourself. That head trash that you either allow your ego to shine or you get your ego out of the way and you put your mission first. You're calling first. Your desire to serve first.
Business Partnerships: When you think there are so many voices, so many stages, and so many people doing the same thing, there is no competition other than the competition you have with yourself.
There’s this other side, too. I’m assuming, if someone is reading, you own a business already. You own a business. You own a company. You lead a company. You’re influencing a company. You have two options as a way to get more clients and to get more customers. You can communicate one-on-one knocking on doors reaching out individually. If you spend every minute of every day for the rest of your life doing that, you would reach a certain number of people.
You can in an hour reach the same number of people you could in a month. In a week, you can reach the same number of people you put in a year. Think about how many more people. Even if you’re like, “I don’t want to get on stage.” “I don’t love the idea of being a friend of a group of people.” Do you love the idea of making a lot more impact and a lot more money? I got to tell you, that’s the fastest path of doing that. When Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone, did he send an email? No, he got on a stage and took it out in a dramatic way saying, “50,000 songs in your pocket.”
When Martin Luther King Jr. got up and shared with us his vision for equality, he had given that speech 200 times before he shared the I Have a Dream speech that we all know. The impact we can have when we’re willing to stand in front of a group of people and share one message. This is how you grow your business and the fastest way.
The reason why we say you do it in other people's stages is because they already did the work for you. They generated the leads and created the audience. They’re in the room. They already did the branding for you. As soon as they put you on that stage, you’re the expert and authority. All you need to do is show up and give something of value so that people want to follow you. You get to skip most of every step of marketing simply by getting on stage and telling your story.
It’s about believing in yourself, isn’t it? Justin, what’s interesting here, you talked about their story and how unique it is. What you’re describing is leave from what you’ve lived as you started out with. It’s that whole thing, you’ve got a unique perspective and how that all plays out. I do think it’s interesting that we have that negative thinking of how many can I get. It’s almost like these businesses are like, “If I can’t get a thousand people. It’s not worth taking the step.” Yes, it is.
Go after the five people. Go after ten people and get the business coming through. I know for us, in our business, we always say that we’re going to work hard to get as much business as we can. God gives us the clients he wants us to impact. The one that we don’t get, he doesn’t want to stay impacted for some reason and that’s okay. That’s okay because we’re out there to impact people in the end.
You’re also being a shepherd of the tools he’s giving you and that’s the important piece of that. Some people think, “God’s only going to grow my business to the level he wants.” When you follow the things that he says and you use your hands and feet to be his hands and feet. Yes. That’s what I believe. Knowing of him guiding my path is amazing. I also know that I’m being a shepherd of the resources he’s giving me. We need to do both things in order to grow our business successfully in our faith.
Being An Intentional Leader
We’ll have all the links to what Kim and Justin are doing personally and collectively with the Elite Speakers Network. I do want to finish this episode the same way I finish every episode. We’ll just have two versions of it. I always finish with the question to our guests of, what is something our readers can do intentionally to be a more effective leader? Justin, lead off for us.
One of the greatest things you can do to be a more intentional leader is to have a vision. As the Bible will tell us, “Without a vision the people will perish.” It’s very interesting when Kim and I will talk to people about, “What do you want? What’s your vision for this thing?” They will often be able to tell us what they don’t want. We need to come up with things that we don’t want. However, what you do want, the more clear you can be on the vision for your, insert the blank. Whether that’s something in your body or in your spiritual connection or your confidence. Something in your relationships with your spouse, your children, your family or something in your business.
“One of the greatest things you can do to be a more intentional leader is to have a vision. ”
The more clarity that you have around your vision, the easier it will be to then do what any good leader is able to do which is declare that vision. Not just to themselves but to the people who follow them. Make it clear as we do on stage and in front of the camera, too, lay out that vision in a way that resonates with the people who are following and who want to be followed or who you want to follow you. That clarity of vision and the ability to communicate that vision allows you to do what I talked about at the very beginning, which is to lead from what you live, which is an integral part of being an intentional leader.
Great tip. Thank you for that, Justin. Kim, what do you think? What’s the tip?
Ask the question behind the question. Oftentimes, the question that they’re asking you, as being leaders of service, we want to answer it right away. The reason why they’re asking is not the reason that we think. When we can take some time to dive into what the question truly is, we can serve them in a much more meaningful way. When we talk to people about something you might have coming up like one of our upcoming events. They say, “How much time does this take?” That’s a question I could just answer in nuts and bolts or I could say, “That’s a great question. I want to answer for you but why do you ask?”
It might come up with a story of a time where they didn’t get to fulfill and they didn’t get to participate the way that they wanted to show up. The course was gone and they feel like they lost their money or they may have a family member going through a hard time and they feel guilty dedicating. It could be all sorts of things. I could talk to them about their true concerns and make sure that it happens in that way. Sometimes, when we pause to ask the question behind the question. We can serve in a much more meaningful way.
Business Partnerships: Sometimes, when we pause to ask the question behind the question, we can serve in a much more meaningful way.
I love that. It’s that patience and just pulling people along because it’s worth bringing them on that journey. Thank you both so much. I appreciate your hearts. Thank you for opening up your life a little bit. This isn’t just about business. It’s about life, people and your census, too, like might even in our faith and how God can work through us.
Readers, I hope you’ll take advantage of what you’ve read. If you want to hear more about the Elite Speakers Network, I know they have an incredible webinar you can tap into to hear more about it for free. I encourage you to do that. Kim and Justin, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for the gift that you give to so many people around the world.
Thanks so much for having us. It’s been an honor and I'm happy to be with you.
Thank you. Agreed.
