Einstein Disease (Aired 07-02-25)Trust Your Gut: Build a Bold Brand and Thrive in an AI-Driven World

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Einstein's Disease. Through real world insights and powerful conversations with industry leaders, we help you break past limitations and rethink success. Are you ready to push the boundaries of what's possible? [00:00:18] Speaker B: Hello, my name is Greg Ellers and my co host, Kenzie Terpstra. We are the host of Einstein's Disease, where we explore the challenges of overconfidence, static thinking in a professional and personal growth that we all face each and every day. Our mission is to help the individuals and businesses uncover their blind spots, embrace vulnerability, and unlock the true potential. Get ready to challenge the status quo today and discover new paths to success. Kenzie, welcome to the show. How are you doing this week? [00:00:50] Speaker C: I'm doing well, Greg, thanks for asking. How are you doing? Where are you at? [00:00:55] Speaker B: I am in Malibu, California, looking out at the ocean today. It's a. It's a nice place to host the show today, Kenzie. I know it's a little nicer than what it is up there in Michigan where you've got a little bit of heat. [00:01:06] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, it's real toasty up here. We're not very used to it, but we're working through it. [00:01:11] Speaker B: No, I hear you. Well, listen, today's challenge is helping our future real leaders realize where they are and why. And we've got the luxury of having Leslie Everett, the CEO of Walking Tall, to help us navigate this topic today. Leslie, welcome to the show. [00:01:29] Speaker D: Greg, glad to be here. [00:01:31] Speaker B: And I know you're up in Northern California, five or six hours from me. It's a little bit cooler up there than what it is over on the East Coast. But really looking forward to a great conversation today, Leslie. [00:01:45] Speaker D: Yeah, me too. Looking forward to it. [00:01:48] Speaker B: So as I mentioned on the outset, the challenging environment for employment, people are not feeling as satisfied, so some are getting displaced because of technology. A lot of the challenges that people are facing coming out of maybe a secondary school or out of college, looking to start their own business and a lot of daunting tasks there. Daunting tasks due to technology, maybe not giving them the opportunity in a larger corporation and. Or also as we talked about previously, Leslie, people reaching maybe a age in their life or a station in their life where they're looking to do something a bit differently. I'd really like you to kind of open this up, if you can, to share with the audience some of these specific problems, the blocks that people have and the preconditioned notions of the challenges and. Or how to get over them, Leslie. And it's great to have you on the show. [00:02:53] Speaker D: Thanks, Greg. Yeah, it's a real challenging situation for a lot of people, as you say, whether they're just entering the corporate world and the job world from college or whether they're older and facing what am I going to do with the next 10 years of my career? And you know, it's never, I'd be talking and coaching and consulting on this whole topic of executive branding and personal branding for 20 plus years now, in fact, probably 25 plus years now. And it's always been an important part of how we get on in our career or in our businesses, but it's never been more important than it is now. We have to find a way to differentiate ourselves whatever stage we're at with our career or our business, because everybody's, there's a lot of people competing for the same roles, a lot of people competing for the same career progression, businesses, you know, setting up something new, the product could be something different, but it's the people part that really is going to differentiate any business. And for us that means finding our own differentiation that can help us stand out from the, from the crowd or walk tall as, as obviously my company brand name is all about. So it's, it's never been more important to get back to that authentic core that represents who we are, our DNA, what makes us who we are, brilliant at what we do, and how do we then project that and be visible with it so that we're consistent that other people know who we are, what we do and what we're great at so that that can be spread. So fundamentally, it's never been more important to build your executive brand or your personal brand and differentiate yourself. [00:04:36] Speaker B: No, that makes perfect sense. The element of disruption, I know Kenzie and I have talked about that. We talked about it last week and spend a few minutes on the challenges because Einstein's disease, people think they know why they can't do something or think they understand why somebody is not providing them something new or novel. And due to the disruption that you talked about, you know, I think Kenzie can probably relate to this and opine on it, but the younger generation is finding themselves challenged, Leslie, because so many things that they might have been in college for the last two or three years or started their career that they thought was going to be a long career, is all of a sudden being cut short or being, or changing. You know, let's, when you think about those preconceived notions, what are those and, and a commonality amongst those that, that, that we can kind of delve into Here, because a lot of our audience, as you know, as we talked about before the show, it is this young entrepreneur mindset. You know, they're anywhere from 20 to 45 or 50. They're trying to do things individually or they're trying to make a new decision. And it'd be interesting to understand some of that because that's a big challenge. Now you just, you might think, I'm stuck, I can't do anything. [00:06:11] Speaker D: Yeah, it is a very big challenge. And, you know, then this concern that AI is going to be able to replace everything that I think I can do or I'm good at. I'm a great believer in AI. I love it, I think it's great. It's going to assist what we do. But if we can be really strategic and great at building what our own business, our own wisdom is, and our own take on stuff and build that into the any AI tools we've got, then we've got a powerful combination. AI is not a human being as close as it might be. So our own authenticity and the way that we critically think through problems, our own take our own view, our own perspective on stuff, and team that together to come up with that uniqueness from our own life experiences is what's going to carry us through. So we need to get rid of this blockage that everything I've learned at college or everything I've learned in my career so far, and I'm at 40, 45, is now going to be overtaken with AI. We need to get over that blockage and apply our own critical thought processes and our own perspectives to that and challenge and challenge and challenge and look at the unique take that we can have. And that's the exciting bit for me. As a consultant and coach for many years, I'm having to remodel what I do and think about how I can use AI with the wisdom that I've built up to help me to use critical thinking even more than I have done already. So it's a, it's an exciting time and I think if people can embrace that and say, this is giving me a new perspective on what I can do, as long as I have that mindset of using AI and technology to take us to the next level. And critical thinking is something that's been missing for a while. I feel, in the generations coming out through college and university, the ability to challenge things, to put a perspective on it, to have the confidence to say, I think this could be done differently and to really have that self belief to do that. So I think that's one of the things is to bring out that inner confidence of ourselves, to critically think and give that perspective and have that self belief that we bring something unique because we all bring something unique. It's discovering what that is. [00:08:27] Speaker B: No, for sure. Kenzie, if you want to kind of come in and share a little bit and get Leslie to open up on a lot of the younger generations, things seem a little bit different. And I know that in some of the work you've been doing, you've been reflecting on some of this. [00:08:49] Speaker C: Yeah. And with AI especially. So I entered college in 2018 and just graduated this past fall. Very long college career in there. But AI wasn't there when we started and it's everywhere now. And I think that for especially college students, a lot of it is just trying to get through college and they either use AI as a handicap or a shortcut or it's looked at as a bad thing, when in all reality it's just another form of technology that could be used as a tool that I think more people are using it to their advantage of cutting corners in schooling specifically, when in fact it can be used to build on what skills you've already developed. I mean, especially people closer to my age, we've grown up with technology and we've had to adapt and grow with it as long as we've been alive. So I don't think that AI is really all that different from that. And it's just another thing that you have to adapt and learn how to use it to your best advantage. [00:09:51] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. I think that, you know, the danger for me is, and you've touched on it there. Kenzie is relying on it too much. And I think your generation coming through, if you can find the way to use it as a tool to add to what you've already got, then it's very powerful. But I do worry about people relying on it, not just a younger generation, but everybody relying on it to give the answers that we think we need to progress. And if we don't nip that in the bud and adjust it and make it our own voice and use it to add to our own knowledge and experience, then there's a potential danger there of us losing. And I'll mention it again, this whole critical thinking piece. So, yeah, I agree with that. [00:10:33] Speaker B: So what, what I'm hearing out of both of you is that this technology is great, but it might atrophy as we talk about the actual skills that we have as humans. And that's where the differentiation would come from utilizing the tools that are there. But what we're seeing more of as people using those tools and the actual interpersonal skills they have for differentiation, as you mentioned, Leslie, or being able to deal with the disruption that's taking place. It would work a lot better, much better if people worked on those interpersonal skills that they're born with versus just relying on the technology. Is that, is that what, where this comes down? And that's really a risk moving forward then as this technology gets better, isn't it? [00:11:28] Speaker D: Yeah. I mean that it is more important than ever to develop those communication skills and interpersonal skills that you mentioned there, Greg. Again, that's something that's going to set us apart. Everybody has access to these tools now, but we are the, we're the unique person that we are. And it's always been about people making the difference in any business in your career, it's not just about the skills you have. It's about how you communicate, how you build rapport, how you build relationships. There's been stats on this and research on this for many, many decades that shows us that how people build, communicate and build relationships by far right ways, just the qualifications to skills to do a job. So we've got to hone in on that, getting feedback on how we communicate. Where do we come up short? What do we need to work on most? I've just been, just before this call, been getting some feedback from an executive that I'm coaching right now on how she comes across in different parts of her role and without this kind of feedback we can't really know where we're at on that interpersonal relationship scale and how we build and how we communicate effectively. [00:12:38] Speaker B: That's a great place to leave it because we're going to come back and talk about those in this next solutions block. Leslie, Kenzie and Leslie look forward to talking to you here shortly. But we're going to cut away for our sponsors. This is Greg Ellers, co host of Einstein's Disease and we'll be back shortly. [00:13:07] Speaker A: Welcome to Einstein's Disease. Through real world insights and powerful conversations with industry leaders, we help you break past limitations and rethink success. Are you ready to push the boundaries of what's possible? [00:13:21] Speaker B: Foreign hello, this is Greg Ellers, co host of Einstein's Disease. Today we are here with Leslie and my co host Kenzie and we are talking about challenges in the employment arena. Leslie is an expert and owner CEO of Walking Tall. Leslie, really appreciate your insight in the first block. I think the big thing here is to Open up to our audience. New entrants into the employment arena. Maybe through your first job or second job, 10 years into it, skills need to change. Lots going on. Leslie, we talked about some of those problems in the first block. Really like to dive into this and there's no better person to kind of run the questioning on this than you. Than you, Kenzie. So I'll leave it to two of you to, to work through this here for sure. [00:14:23] Speaker C: So Leslie, from an entrepreneurial standpoint, what is, what would you say are some of the biggest things to include in your personal branding? Whether that is yourself as a person with services or if you're taking your business off the ground, how, you know, what are the. You can't skip steps with that. [00:14:44] Speaker D: Yeah, great question, Kenzie. I think when we look at entrepreneurship and I've seen and worked with a lot of entrepreneurs as they start up, whether it's a small business or whether it's a fast growing medium sized business. And most of the time what I've seen is they get hung up on the marketing messages of the product, the logo, what the website looks like, all the writing and the content around that, how are we going to sell it and the piece that gets missed and missed often and obviously when I get involved, we focus on it, is what makes this business different because I'm the creator of it. And how am I going to create a culture with the people that I bring on board to live and breathe that uniqueness of this business. It's the people element of the company brand that is really going to set you aside from the crowd. Because at the end of the day, okay, there's. There may be a unique product or service out there, but maybe not. It's just the way that we do it and the way that we deliver it and the way we build relationships and clients is going to be through who we are as individuals. So the pizza is often missing. Is the personal element of the company brand. Corporate brand personality, as I call it. That's my last book was called. It's about how we build personality into that business. So we've got to start with that and look at what makes me well placed to build this business and run this business and develop it and build a culture. What's my background, my, my DNA? What is it? That is the golden thread that runs through me, my story, my backstory, that's going to really create something that's unique and interesting and compelling to whoever we're marketing to. [00:16:28] Speaker C: And so when it comes to, to, you know, somebody's been in one space for seven, eight, nine years and they're ready to either start a new one or just get into another one. How do you change, you know, that branding, that personality branding from one service or business to another one or even if you're just switching jobs? [00:16:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I think it's. There's always going to be a golden thread that runs through us and the danger is that we start to think about being somebody different. So who am I going to be this time that's not possible to sustain and be consistent with? We've got to absolutely understand and have that self belief in who we are as a person. So what's the golden thread? Is it the fact that you are persistent and resilient and you break conformity with what you do? If you think about someone like Richard Branson and I had the pleasure of interviewing him for my first book and I asked him a question about how he seems to break a lot of image, rules himself and what does he put his success down to and he said it was because he broke conformity. And when you break conformity to that degree, how can you fail to succeed? However, I believe it's the consistency with which he breaks conformity that his key to success. So we all have something, a unique thread that runs through us that we can take from one business to another or one career to, to another. And it's not always easy to find out what that is. There are some techniques we can talk about that you can do that, how you can do that, but it's not trying to be somebody you're not. That's the, that's the danger zone. Don't try and be somebody you're not. Don't try and emulate somebody else. Don't try and emulate Richard Branson if that's not you. So that's the key thing we have to find. [00:18:16] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Greg. [00:18:19] Speaker B: Leslie. I mean we talked about, you know, the challenges of the technology today is that where people are making a mistake because they think the technology can let them become something they're not and then they have those false hopes or false messaging and they fail. [00:18:41] Speaker D: Yeah, that could quite possibly be the case. Absolutely. I mean I, I train my AI tool to get to know me as much as I possibly can. And this is another thing an entrepreneur can do or anybody at any stage in their career is train their AI tool to know them. I put in so much stuff about my TV interviews, my book, my articles that I write, all the posts that I put out there, everything about Me, my background story. And I train my AI tool to know me as much as possible possible. So when I do ask it a question, it can actually emulate my. My voice. And therefore I've got something to use that I can then edit and work with that's more like me and I'm not in danger of it being somebody not like me. The biggest mistake I could make now with my brand is start talking in a style that's not me that people know and have worked with. So I think there is that. Greg. It's a very real danger. But that's something you could do is to educate the AI tool to speak in your voice, to know as much about you as possible. [00:19:48] Speaker B: Staying on this because Kenzie looked at it through a couple of different lenses there specifically brand. And when I think about brand, and as you mentioned, if you don't have the integrity to put in who you really are into one of these large language models, it's going to continue, continue to spit something back out that isn't authentic. And your brand and its authenticity that is in our world. I'm asking this question. Is it harder to get people to be authentic? Leslie. Authentic in the sense that it makes them vulnerable. I know Kenzie and I talk about this from time to time. We're just. We're who we are. Right. But there's a lot of people that may or may not have the personal strength to actually share their authentic self as they're trying to do these things. How do you help coach people over that? Because in the end, their expectations won't be met if they aren't authentic about what their risks, their strengths and weaknesses are. [00:21:04] Speaker D: Yeah. And that's one of the biggest hurdles to get across when I'm coaching, whether whatever level that person's at, even to senior executive level, often to get people to really let go of who they think they should be and be who they really are is a big challenge. I'm working with several executives right now. One comes to mind, very senior in a household name is not confident with just being who he is and believes that he needs to be somebody else in order to get to where he needs to be in that organization. And one of the ways that we can do that is my external lens can help that. I often say we can't see the label from inside the bottle. So when we're trying to do it ourselves, it's really not easy. We can't see that external perspective. And I think that's where I'm very high value to clients. I'VE got an external perspective and I have an ability to be able to see what the uniqueness is that they can't always see and pull that out and we can work with it. One of the things that is absolutely essential is getting feedback from people that you know and trust, maybe people that you don't always have a great relationship with as well to, to get that very specific feedback on. What is it that I'm really great at? How would you describe me in three words? What would you describe as the golden thread that I have? What am I always consistent with? What are the areas that really let my brand down? There's some very key questions. I often get this feedback for clients myself by talking on the phone to some contacts of theirs. And we can start to give them the feedback of stuff that helps build that confidence, you know. Oh gosh, I thought I needed to hide that. That wasn't necessarily something I thought was great, but it needs to come out because it's authentic and it actually gives a little bit of a vulnerable side to you as well, which is, is always useful in leadership for sure. [00:23:01] Speaker B: Kenzie's been trying to help me with that. She still hasn't come up with my three words yet. Have you, to just best describe me. Kenzie, that's tough. And I'm still kind of aspirational in my expectations. She keeps bringing me back down to the ground. Anything you want to add here, Ken's. [00:23:20] Speaker C: The one thing that really stuck out to me is I really liked how that use of non conformity, you know, And I think that's really important now. As you said, people aren't very comfortable being their authentic selves. And just getting out of the comfort zone. Would you agree is kind of that first step? [00:23:38] Speaker D: Yeah, getting out the comfort zone for sure. And having the confidence to do that. And that's where a coach can come in. Very helpful. Or mentors within the same organization. You know, if you're trying to be somebody you're not. And studies show us that people go to work every day in varying degrees to try and be somebody they're not. When we try and do that, it's very stressful and it's not, it's not conducive to taking people with us. So if we can, we can give people the confidence to say it's okay to be who you are. In fact, it's not just okay, it's. It's necessary to be who you are. And not one person at work and the other person at home. You know, what is it that you love to do at home, that actually could be part of your day to day work or your work life balance or whatever it might be. And it is, it's difficult to crack but, and often people need help to do that. Very few people can do it alone. There's some great books out there, but you know, you know, sometimes getting that feedback and support from somebody else is really, really critical. [00:24:39] Speaker B: No, that's fantastic with that. That's a very rich block. I really appreciate that insight. Kenzie, that was. You pulled out some good questions. I don't know if I like all the answers because that means I've just got more work to do. But we're going to cut away for our sponsors and be back shortly. Thank you very much. [00:25:05] Speaker A: Welcome to Einstein's Disease. Through real world insights and powerful conversations with industry leaders, we help you break past limitations and rethink success. Are you ready to push the boundaries of what's possible? [00:25:23] Speaker B: Hello, this is Greg Ellers. Welcome back to Einstein's Disease. I'm here with my co host Kenzie and our guest today, Leslie Everett of walkingtall.org Great organization. She's the CEO. Helps a lot of different people out from the C suite into the ranks of the aspiring C suite. Leslie, in this block, we really want to touch on what you and I spent some time talking about off camera. And that was the element of people that are reaching somewhere in the, in their midlife, somewhere between 40 and 60 years old, maybe their jobs have been eliminated, maybe they have feel like they become marginalized. But they've got a lot of wealth. They've got it from their experience, they've got it from just their knowledge of an industry. And they're trying to find a way to take what they have learned because it's a value and apply that into a new business, into a new opportunity. And that's a real challenge. But it's real life today because two reasons. One, it's happening. But most importantly, there's a lot of businesses out there that have Einstein's disease and don't think they need my experience or somebody like me. But yet at the same time they're making mistakes that by getting counsel from somebody that's had that experience, they might not make that mistake. It saves their, their company money, saves them time. And it might also do something with perspective, not diminishing a reputation by falling behind. What we're really interested here in, in learning about is how, how are you helping those people, number one and number two, if you haven't helped them yet, and there's people on that journey give us a little insight to what it is that they can be looking for, some of the tools to be able to see how prepared they are and if it falls into their risk factor. Because there are more of these situations arising not only because of technology, but it's just the way the industry, the business world works. [00:27:41] Speaker D: Yeah, very real, real problem. And everybody's different, of course, and it depends on what your career is and has been and where you wanted to go. But I'll come back to this wor wisdom when we get to a certain age. We've had a lot of experience in our careers and it's not just about the skills, it's the wisdom that we've built up over that period of time. And that's the piece that we need to extract, polish up, articulate, because that's our value at this stage in our career. I'm sure a lot of your viewers may have heard this and some may not have done, but the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is knowing, not to put it in a fruit salad. Now that's the piece that is of value to us, is when we get to a certain age in our career, we know what works and what doesn't. I've recently been coaching a guy who has a very long standing technology career, had a break for about 10 years doing something different. He is underconfident because he can't go back into that technology career because he's lost touch with what's going on. So he's feeling very lost and insecure. But I've helped him to understand that the wisdom he's built in that career, which is very much around engineering and project management and finding solutions in a particular field, there's a wealth of wisdom and experience he's got there to know that something's going to work or not going to work. Not just from a textbook book, not from just an AI tool that's going to say, do it this way. He knows whether something's going to work or not because of that knowledge he's built up. So it's extracting those pieces, that wisdom piece, that is critical. There's a great book by, I think it's Arthur C. Brooks called Strength to Strength, Great one to read. And he talks about how when we are in our boom of our career, he talks about fluid intelligence and how we can innovate and we can create and we can go about things in a million miles an hour and we're just on it, on, on it and on it. And we're at the peak of our career. As we slow down, we can't always keep going at that pace. And I think that's the mistake a lot of people make is that they keep trying to do what they've always done. But he talks about jumping from the fluid intelligent curve to the crystallized intelligence curve, and that's the wisdom piece. So extracting what we've done in those years where we were at the peak of our career and probably our 30s, and taking that to the next level to educate people behind us and in whatever profession you look at, that can be very relevant. And it's just the ability to extract what that piece is and polish it. [00:30:31] Speaker B: No, I hear you and I like that. I can use that with Kenzie. She has the knowledge, I've got the wisdom. She'll. That probably isn't going to last forever, is it, Kenzie? [00:30:43] Speaker D: We'll see. [00:30:45] Speaker B: But on that point, with respect to the wisdom, so let's, let's kind of jump. And I know that as you said, everybody's position and situation is different, but I've got that wisdom and I'm trying to find a way to make people aware of that wisdom and my skills to be able to go out there to generate revenue because businesses need it. What are some of the basic or the initial steps, Leslie, that people use to determine which of their skills, their. Their wisdom, their experience that are the most attributable to what's going on? And how do you. Because things change, you have to have a baseline. Once I decide I'm really good at making popsicles, I know that I'm probably not going to sell them in Alaska in February, so I've got to be somewhere warm. And then I have to determine, well, this is a bad area because people don't have carry change, whatever the case might be. How do you, how do you help people differentiate between what they believe to be their comfortable skills or wisdom versus what a business really needs? And how do you walk somebody through that? Is there a. Is there a specific process? What would you look at? So I'm not kind of out there trying to sell a lot of things. I'm just trying to sell where both. There's an opportunity and I've got the skill. Does that make sense? [00:32:27] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, there's various techniques I can use, again depending on the, on the person. But there's an exercise, there's a couple of exercises that I use to extract what it is that you're really good at. One, I think is first of all, using an analogy of what it is that you really do that's of huge value to your market. What is that problem that you solve for them? And often we don't come at it from that angle. We look at it from a. Come at it from an angle, oh, this is a great product or a service and I know that it's needed out there, but we forget to really think about what is the specific value of that to the client. Way to look at this good analogy is if you go into a hardware store and buy a drill, you're not actually buying the drill, you're buying what the drill gives you. The end result of what the drill gives you and that is, in effect, the hole in the wall or maybe the shelves to put the family photos on. That's the end result of what you want. You don't really care about the mechanism of the drill. You're just concerned about and interested in the end result. So the very first thing is thinking about what is the problem that the client has got? What's the challenge they have? What keeps them awake at night? What is it? That specific challenge and problem. Then looking at what is the cause of that problem? Why do they have that problem? What cost is there to having that problem? Cost of reputation or risk or financial risk? And then what is your solution to meet that problem? To give, to get them over that problem, to meet that challenge? That's a really powerful technique to make sure that what you're trying to offer and sell and build a business around is actually viable today. And then you can apply all those other aspects of how you actually do that personally and the people you need around you to help you do that. [00:34:24] Speaker B: The skill of listening is important. What you just said, everything you just shared right there really comes down to listening, doesn't it, Kenzie? If you can't hear what somebody, your coach is saying or what the industry is saying, you're going to build something or you're going to create something that just might not work. Well, we're going to cut away to a commercial. We're going to come back and we're going to listen to Leslie talk to us about not only her business, why she started it, where it's going, but most importantly, some great tools that we can all use as we move forward. This is Greg Ellers, the host of Einstein's Disease. We'll be back shortly. Thank you. [00:35:14] Speaker C: You. [00:35:20] Speaker A: Welcome to Einstein's Disease. Through real world insights and powerful conversations with industry leaders we help you break past limitations and rethink success. Are you ready to push the boundaries of what's possible? [00:35:40] Speaker C: Welcome back to Einstein's Disease. I'm Kenzie Terpstra, co host with my friend Greg Ellers. We are also joined today by Leslie Everett from Stand Tall. Essentially so far today we've really learned a whole lot about business and building your brand personality, your personal brand personality for entrepreneurship or just going forward in the whatever industry you're in as an executive. And so now we really just want to take a second to get to learn. Leslie. And so Leslie, what is your story? You know what, what really made you want to get into business? [00:36:16] Speaker D: Coaching? [00:36:17] Speaker C: Where did that come from? [00:36:19] Speaker D: Yeah, thank you Kenzie. I really, I started my career in law a long time ago and then got further down that route and realized that actually I didn't particularly enjoy it and so I didn't end up qualifying but I actually ended up then moving into technology which was a strange move but it was within the criminal justice system in the the UK at the time. And I realized so looking back right from the start of my career I was filtering what I knew I was good at and what I didn't like doing and what I wasn't good at. So there were things in the law profession that I thought I'm not good at that not enjoying it, filtered it down Technology, I can learn something new. I'm always wanting to learn something new. That's a key part of my brand. So I've been going through this and then I went to work for a big technology company in London that supported the criminal justice system. So I started then doing training, development, delivery and coding, COBOL coding can you believe? Which is not really a strength of mine but I did that. But I started to realize I was good at training and pre sales presenting while I was in that career. But I also did various studies outside of work and I studied psychology and image and style and anatomy and all sorts of things around non verbal communication and realized I had a deep interest there. So I had my, my son back in 93 and I didn't go back into the corporate world. I decided to take all of that knowledge, retrain intensively in intensively around a, a product that existed at the time but wasn't quite what I wanted to do. But it was about executive presence in the business world. I added the business side to that more and developed a whole technology and methodology rather called Walking Tall. And that's where it all started. And I wrote the book called Walking Tall. I'M only five foot one and a half. Which is why Walking Tall is, has got a story to it itself. So everything I've done has actually been built on. I didn't, you know, looking backwards, joining the dots backwards, as Steve Jobs used to say, is easy. At the time I didn't realize I was filtering and building on my strengths and that core thread of what I love to do. So I built the methodology, wrote the book, licensed it as well. And then back in, I had a lot of corporate clients for training and coaching. And then in 2014 my husband and I and my son moved out to the U.S. i loved working out here in California and I thought I can do whatever I do from, from wherever, as long as I'm close to an airport. Because by this time I was doing a lot of global and international speaking and still do. And we moved over to California based on that. It was a challenge, was a bigger challenge than I thought it was going to be. I learned a lot, and maybe this is the Einstein's disease piece as well, in thinking, oh, it'll be easy, I just transfer the business from the UK to the us, there'll be some learning curves. I didn't really anticipate that. It was a bit like starting again. So that was a big challenge for me and I had to really discover who I am, what it is I'm good at and how to approach that and adapt to a whole new culture, which we don't think is a different culture because we speak the same language. But it certainly was for sure. [00:39:43] Speaker C: I can't even imagine. I've never gone overseas. I mean, I've gone to Mexico, that's it. I don't really count that one as overseas. And I can only imagine, I mean, my friends and I, we talk about culture shock, that we'd go somewhere, we'd have culture shock. But I've never actually experienced that. So I can only imagine. But when you first went from, you know, working in corporate or not so corporate, just not working for yourself, what was the biggest hurdle for you personally to make that transition? [00:40:13] Speaker D: It was for sure leaving corporate life and a very nice salary and benefits to having that, to working for myself was really having the self belief to do it. And whilst I don't think it's unique to women, I think sometimes women do suffer a little bit more with that lack of self belief. So I was lucky. I had a great support mechanism around me. I got feedback, I talked to people. Another thing that I think women are particularly good at as entrepreneurs is asking for advice, listening to it, putting it all into a bucket and then making my own decision based on that. But it really was the biggest hurdle was the self belief and it still is to a degree. I mean my husband will laugh if he hears me say this because he says, God, you know, you got to this point in your career and you still lack the self belief and the ability to do things. And I coach at very, very senior level, at C suite level in some household name companies and I still sometimes think how, what value am I adding? Which is crazy because I know I do. So self belief has diminished over the years but you know, it's still there and I think actually it's probably quite healthy as well. [00:41:24] Speaker C: It's good for us. I completely agree with that and see where you're going with that. Yeah. And so do you love what you do now? [00:41:33] Speaker D: I absolutely love what I do. And again, it's been refined over the years. It, I look at what I, I do and I think it's, it's very much for me learning, continual learning is a, a key thing. And every time I coach a client or every time I deliver a presentation and the preparation for that, every time I do that consultancy, I'm learning something new. Incredibly powerful stuff a lot of the time. So learning and personal growth is, is really important to me. A walking tool is a methodology and it's the company. And I've had trainers that license to deliver that to training program that we're now looking at how selling into companies so they can take that methodology and use it themselves. I now am focused on at this point in my career on my, my name being the, the brand because I've built up that credibility and pedigree. I guess that people will hopefully start to say now and, and this appears to be happening is I need a consultant to do that. But rather than saying that, get me Leslie Everett because I know she can do that. So it's my, my name now that becomes the brand. Even though I'm well known for walking tall methodology, it's my name that I'm really building. So having a few big clients that I can work really deeply with, partnership with clients is really important to me. So I can really get in there in the business and make a difference. Still speaking at conferences, I love to do that. So yeah, I'm really loving what I do right now. It feels like the career through, maybe not planning it has happened a lot by default, but maybe you know, you make your own luck as well without realizing it. I don't know but, yeah, I do love what I do. [00:43:15] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. And then, like you said, you, you speak at, I assume, all sorts of different conferences and seminars and those kinds of things. Which one has been your favorite? Do you have one? [00:43:26] Speaker D: Oh, goodness, that's a great question. Let me think. I've presented in some unique places in Whitehall, in London, to a tent somewhere in Oregon where we had terrific problems with the wind and rain and goodness of what I'm just trying to think of the most. I love working in the hospitality industry and I've worked for and presented to hotel managers, you know, their major conferences, when they get together, from luxury resorts. Luxury hospitality is an area I do love to, to speak in and I think it's because I, I love luxury hospitality myself, but I do think there's a lot that I can offer into that, that industry. Some industries I don't fit in so well, but hospitality, you know, technology, obviously, I, I do as, as well. Pharmaceuticals. I'm just trying to think of the most exciting one I did, I spoke in Iran, which is quite, you know, hard to believe now in this day and age. It was in 2011 and that was a real experience. I did enjoy it. It was challenging. I had to dress differently and wear a hijab and clothes I wouldn't normally wear on stage. Only five foot one and a half tall. My husband came with me because I wasn't quite sure whether I wanted to go and they paid for him to go in his visa. So we had an amazing experience. So, yeah, probably that's got to go down as one of the most interesting. It was the 2000 strong audience and 5% women. It was, it was, it was very interesting experience. The whole conference there. [00:45:01] Speaker C: That is incredible. I can't even imagine that. That is just so cool to even think about. And so do you think this is your end game? Is this what you're going to do from here on out? Or are there maybe other avenues that you haven't yet gone down? [00:45:17] Speaker D: Yeah, I feel like it's all culminating in the stuff that I'm really loving. I can go deep, I can work, work as, as with as few clients as I want to, as many as I want to, whatever I did. And I don't know whether Greg ever knew this, but a couple of years ago, having moved to the US from the UK people, we missed the British food and we had this little sideline business and we started up a bakery called the Great British Bake Shop. And that was an interesting experience. It was successful. We ran it for two years and it was like, what do we do next? Do we expand it, take it somewhere else? And we decided not to do that. But that was a slight aside and it was interesting to apply my business knowledge or wisdom in the work that I do to a retail, small retail business and applying some of that and realizing that there's a lot more to learn in that type of business than I ever knew about. So I did do something a little different. But I think now this is, I love what I do and I'm feeling confident that I give real value at what I do here. [00:46:13] Speaker B: So that's fantastic. I really got, got a lot out of that. From the standpoint of your continuum from, from the United Kingdom over here and the growth of your business, when Kenzie asked a question about your favorite venue or your favorite event, that harkens back to everything we've really talked about today, from the problem to solutions. You mentioned the event in Oregon where you had wind and rain and all these things. That's really what life is about. That's what about a person's career and the coaching that you go through and helping people get to the other side. Leslie, it's overcoming, but yet some of those are some of the more memorable events because you work not only individually but as a team and you didn't expect when you showed up that you were going to be be met with some of these challenges that you probably aren't used to. It's been a while since you've probably been in the wind and the rain in London, showing up in Oregon going, I kind of thought Oregon was going to be sunny. So I totally get where you were on that. I think it's really interesting when we end these blocks. Kenzie and I have been doing this for a while, getting the guests to really share something that they would provide as a piece of advice to our listening and viewing audience. If there's one thing that we can have you leave this show and you've been a wonderful guest to, to give to our audiences as a piece of advice, what would that be? [00:48:00] Speaker D: Yeah, it's pretty, pretty easy I think is trust your gut, trust your instinct, don't procrastinate, just get on with it. I've made some pretty big decisions in my life, in career and in life generally. And I can say every time I've looked back and not regretted it, the worry and the lead up and making the decision is by far the toughest bit. Once you've made the decision, then everything starts to, to flow and you make it happen. So I'd say just trust your gut. Believe in yourself. Don't procrastinate. Just get on with it. [00:48:35] Speaker B: I hope Kelsey's trusting her gut and still likes being on the show with me. Leslie, I have. She hasn't said anything lately, but we'll see. [00:48:42] Speaker D: I'm sure she does. [00:48:43] Speaker B: Listen, it's been wonderful to have you as a guest today. Hopefully one day we will be able to have you back, catch up and learn some more exciting things that you're doing to help people in this changing employment world and the changing behavior that people are having with respect to how they're going about working, being a contributing member and meeting the goals that they have. I can't thank you enough for being here today, Leslie, and we look forward to catching up with you another time. Kenzie, good time today as usual. I have to laugh because usually I know somebody's going to be a hard time. We all wore blue. So that is. That. That was. That was pretty special. With that, I'm going to sign off and look forward to next week's episode. Leslie, thank you very much. Seeing you next week sounds.