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BRX Pro Tip: Great Ideas are Not Enough

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Great Ideas are Not Enough
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BRX Pro Tip: Great Ideas are Not Enough

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Lee, the hard reality is, great ideas simply are not enough.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. A lot of people are very proud of their ideas. And having ideas are important. I’m not saying it’s not important. But what I’m saying is, great ideas are just not enough. To me, it’s way better to be executing pretty good ideas than having great ideas that are sitting in a drawer somewhere, or a folder, or on your phone. You got to put these ideas into action. You got to learn and see if they really are great ideas.

Lee Kantor: Because every idea in your head is perfect. It’s not being tested. It’s not being stressed. It’s not letting the marketplace dictate what’s good or bad about it. So, you got to get ideas out of your head and into the real world. And then, you have a shot of really being able to do something and making an impact.

Lee Kantor: Your business will not grow if you are unable to execute ideas. It’s just not going to happen. You just can’t rest on your laurels. You can’t just think that one idea is going to be some silver bullet that’s going to change everything. You’ve got to take those ideas, put them into action, learn, and find out which ideas really are the good idea.

Lee Kantor: And one idea is kind of meaningless. You’ve got to be an idea machine. You’ve got to be coming up with ideas all the time, testing them, putting them into action, learning from them, and then you’re going to grow. Then, your business has a way to grow. Because things are changing all the time. One idea you had five years ago, look, if you don’t execute it, it’s pretty much worthless.

BRX Pro Tip: Body Language Cues to Help You in Sales

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BRXmic99
BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Body Language Cues to Help You in Sales
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BRX Pro Tip: Body Language Cues to Help You in Sales

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, I pay a great deal of attention to body language when I’m in the studio. How do you feel some of that might translate to a selling environment?

Lee Kantor: I think using body language cues is super important when it comes to selling and communicating in general, because you’re listening with your ears, you’re watching with your eyes, and if you’re selling, a lot of times you get bogged down with your own mouth and what you’re saying, and you’re not using your eyes or your ears to pay attention to kind of subtle cues that your prospect is telling you.

Lee Kantor: And if you pay attention to some of these subtle body language cues, you can really gauge their interest or their hesitation when it comes to selling. One of those cues are leaning forward. If your prospect is leaning forward towards you, this is indicating, obviously, some sort of engagement and some interest. If their arms are crossed, that is a signal of discomfort in some manner, maybe defensiveness. And it’s probably a good idea to address this in some manner, like by saying something like, did I say something that concerns you? Address it. Don’t ignore it.

Lee Kantor: Number three, fidgeting. If your prospect is looking at their watch or looking out the window or looking at their phone, this could be anxiety, but it could also be boredom. You might want to adjust your approach to reengage them. But these are just three examples. There’s a lot more obvious examples of body language cues, but these are three pretty common ones.

Lee Kantor: But by paying attention to these subtle signals, a sales pro or sales professional can elevate their interactions and achieve greater success in closing deals. Because, in essence, you’re becoming more empathetic and you’re becoming a better listener, and you’re listening with your eyes, not just your ears.

Is a Quiet Retreat from DEI Really Happening? How Women Entrepreneurs Are Navigating the New Era of DEI Uncertainty

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Women in Motion
Is a Quiet Retreat from DEI Really Happening? How Women Entrepreneurs Are Navigating the New Era of DEI Uncertainty
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In this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor and Renita Manley talk with Farzana Nayani, founder of Manazil Management LLC, to explore the evolving landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Farzana discusses the potential “quiet retreat” from DEI in the business world and emphasizes the importance of ownership, opportunity, and equity for women entrepreneurs. She shares insights on navigating current challenges, the significance of mentorship and community support, and the need for resilience and adaptability. The episode underscores the value of building strong relationships and taking actionable steps toward business growth and inclusivity.

Farzana-Nayani-HeadsotManazil Management, LLC was founded in by Farzana Nayani (she/hers), a long-time consultant and established leader in the community.

Her vision was to create a boutique consulting firm that could meet the needs of our ever-changing environment. Manazil Management, LLC is a women-owned and certified, and minority-owned and certified small business.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA (Gabrielino-Tongva lands), the company’s team members spans locations across North America and represent a wide array of identity backgrounds, skills, and expertise. Manazil-Management-logo

Connect with Farzana on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

  • The potential “quiet retreat” from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the business landscape.
  • The shift in focus from DEI to ownership, opportunity, and equity for women business owners.
  • Navigating the complex and contentious current environment surrounding DEI.
  • The significance of building strong, authentic relationships in business.
  • The need for adapting language and terminology in DEI discussions to resonate with a broader audience.
  • The emphasis on action over mere rhetoric in DEI commitments.
  • Identifying genuine commitment to DEI initiatives within organizations.
  • Leveraging opportunities for women entrepreneurs despite challenges in the DEI landscape.
  • The importance of resilience and adaptability in navigating business challenges.
  • The role of mentorship, community support, and networking in overcoming obstacles for women entrepreneurs.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women in Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Renita Manley, another episode of Women in Motion, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today’s topic is a very important one, is a quiet retreat from DEI really happening? Renita, this is going to be an awesome show.

Renita Manley: It is. Thanks, Lee. Okay, so let’s jump right into this. Now, there’s been a lot of quiet and not so quiet movement around DEI lately, and not all of it has been straightforward. But here’s the thing, for many women business owners and WBEs, DEI was never really the end goal. It was always about ownership, opportunity, and equity that actually shows up in government contracts and businesses.

Renita Manley: So today, on part one of this two part series, we are going to go right into this DEI noise, stay honest about what’s really going on, and how women entrepreneurs are navigating the changes and landscapes of DEI.

Lee Kantor: Cool. And who’s the guest?

Renita Manley: Well, today we have Farzana Nayani that’s going to be joining us. Take it away.

Lee Kantor: All right. Welcome to the show, Farzana.

Farzana Nayani: Thank you, Lee and Renita, it’s wonderful to be here.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you tell us a little bit about your organization? How are you serving folks?

Farzana Nayani: Yes, my company name is Manazil Management, LLC. I’ve been operating for over eight years and have been in the industry for over 20 years. My firm works with different corporations, nonprofit organizations, government, public agencies, and higher education institutions to help workplaces thrive and people to work better together. We do that through consulting, advising, and coaching, and my specialty is on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Although, as you know, those terms are under fire right now. So, I also do work in people and culture consulting.

Lee Kantor: So, what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Farzana Nayani: I have always been interested in cross-cultural communication. My degree is in that. I have a higher education degree in that. I’ve actually written a couple of books on the topic, one is on Employee Resource Groups and one is on Raising Multiracial Children. So, not only is it a passion of mine, but it’s something I embody as someone who’s a daughter of immigrants and someone who’s multiracial themselves. It’s something I believe in, and I really want to create inclusion for everyone around us.

Lee Kantor: So, let’s get into the topic a little bit, so do you believe that DEI was never the goal and that ownership and opportunity really were?

Farzana Nayani: Definitely. There are different paths to the outcome which we’re looking for, which is presence in the workplace and in business. And as a woman certified business owner, I know that one path to that is for me to own my own business. And why that’s so important is because systems take a long time to change, and the way that we can make a big impact is if we show up and be the leaders that sometimes aren’t around us ourselves.

Farzana Nayani: And unfortunately, in the workplace, there is a high rate of a lack of, for example, women in certain leadership positions, people of color in certain leadership positions. Of course, there’s a presence of women and people of color and LGBTQ folks, et cetera, everywhere. But what happens with minoritized communities is that there’s bias that kind of creates barriers to us succeeding. And so, as a result, we have to create our own opportunities, and the way I see that happening is for us to do business with big companies.

Farzana Nayani: And at the same time, the work that I do is I teach leaders how to be more inclusive. So, I’m kind of doing both sides of the work at the same time and modeling it to others.

Lee Kantor: Is there anything actionable you can share about, you know, in respect to the WBEs, how they can navigate this, something they can do as they’re kind of dealing with the new environment we’re in.

Farzana Nayani: Definitely. I think the key is relationships. As you can see, there’s a lot of noise and a lot of, quite frankly, chaos going on with a lot of turbulence in the environment, and sometimes decisions that are quick, or maybe they’re done behind closed doors. And the way that WBEs or any business owner can really leverage not only their skills, but offer their services, is through relationships.

Farzana Nayani: And what I found in the work that I do and the clients that I have, is that people have good relationships with, they are very transparent. I know exactly what’s going on. They’re very honest with me. I’m honest with them. And they’ll tell me, they’ll say, “Hey, Farzana, you know what? Our hands are tied right now. We can’t do certain work, but we can do this other type of work.” And with that, we pivot together.

Farzana Nayani: And I am in a pivot right now. Transparently, it’s been quite a ride to be in just watching what’s been happening. But I have a ton of perseverance and a lot of support. And with that, and the guidance that I have around me through mentorship, through organizations like WBENC and WBEC-West, the abilities to really look at the opportunities here are limitless.

Farzana Nayani: And the way I look at it, it’s kind of like COVID. You know, during COVOD, we all had to pivot hard. We had to figure it out quick. And for me, my in-person stuff went virtual. And I remember teaching my clients, I’m talking big banks, I’m talking large corporations, how to do stuff on a wide scale virtually. It was, you know, my small but agile company teaching these big corporations how to adapt to these environments that are changing.

Farzana Nayani: And I feel like as a women-owned business and certified businesses, we can actually bring that expertise and that spirit, that rigor and that ability to harness our own resilience and teach those around us, including our clients.

Lee Kantor: Now, in order to be able to really pull that off for clients, though, you had to have a lot of trust and the relationships had to be authentic and deep. And without that, it would be more difficult to achieve that type of trust in the boardroom.

Farzana Nayani: Yes, that is very true. And the relationship I’ve built with my clients is that they come to me with their biggest, darkest problems, and I have the most confidentiality and trust through that. Because when they have issues, who can they turn to when they’re getting battered on social media or there’s misrepresentation of their leadership or their initiatives? They need help too, and they can’t find all the answers within. So, what we can do as supporting businesses, as people who are consultants, as people who are on the outside of these organizations and institutions is offer a fresh perspective.

Farzana Nayani: So, I have always been that way. To be honest, I’ve never advertised. The work comes to me through word of mouth because people know the quality and the caliber of what I do and also the trust. So, I think with that, we deliver the results. And a key part of this is that we partner with people. It’s not just about us serving them or them serving us. It’s a true partnership. And we really work together to make the best solution for everyone. So, with that spirit, I think people really do deepen that relationship.

Renita Manley: Okay. Farzana, I do have one follow up question. Earlier you mentioned that after all of these DEI changes occurred, you had to curate a slight pivot. Can you, without giving away too much of your source, tell us about this pivot that you had to make with your business?

Farzana Nayani: Yes, definitely. I think it’s worth it to mention that there’s certain terminology that has been under fire, meaning it’s seen as controversial. And quite frankly, it’s been co-opted and used for different campaigns and different results and the meaning has been lost. And because of that, my choice is to actually use terminology that resonates with a wider audience and doesn’t create that volatility.

Farzana Nayani: So, for example, the word diversity, the word equity, the word inclusion can mean different things to people. And in some spaces, I continue to use that. In other places, I use workplace engagement, people and culture. And that seems to get the same message across, but it isn’t creating that triggering effect.

Farzana Nayani: And the reason why that’s important to me, and I don’t see that as a compromise, is because my thought around this and my belief is really to reach people where they’re at. And if I’m constantly working with people that only agree with me or only have my own views at hand, then I’m not doing my job. I need to be able to reach people that normally I’m not in contact with, and for them to see my perspective and for me to see their perspective.

Farzana Nayani: And if I need to do that by creating a new way to discuss this, then I’m open to it. Because the work doesn’t stop, and to be honest with you, the true work actually is integrated deep into the business, and it can’t be canceled anyways. The companies I’ve seen do this very well are continuing, and maybe they are navigating the current times and the way that they need to, but the work continues, and I see that through actions.

Farzana Nayani: So, I think as women business owners, as any business owner, what we need to look at is action, not the words. We are told a lot. There have been a lot of pledges in recent years towards certain initiatives, but what really has been done? And so, if we go by that, I think that’s a good marker of who’s committed and who’s really continuing the good work.

Lee Kantor: Now, Renita, do you have another question?

Renita Manley: Yeah, I was going to ask, it might be a little bit more an edgy question, but you did mention that companies come to you with their dark secrets, without giving away too much of that information, can you just give us possibly a fictional example of what type of company comes to you and what’s their problem, and then how do you solve their problem?

Farzana Nayani: Definitely. There are a lot of public facing companies that have brands that are household names, let’s say entertainment and finance and tech apps that we use, search engines, whatever it is. And the issue with thinking about DEI and, let’s say, the rollback of it is that, to be honest, the people they serve are diverse. So, our marketplace is diverse, so how do you continue the work and the services if there’s scrutiny over the words we’re using and the things we’re doing, but we need to because of the market.

Farzana Nayani: And so, the way I advise people is to think about the business as it’s a method to connect with people. And if truly that’s what we’re doing, whether it be by selling products or offering services, then we have to understand our market. And if we have to understand our market, we need people that connect with that market or are a part of that market. So, just by nature of understanding good business practices, we therefore need inclusive leadership, we need a diverse team, and we need to understand what the market is asking for.

Farzana Nayani: So, a good example I can give of that is when a company comes to me and they say, “Hey, you know what? Our leadership is a bit shy now about continuing our groups that are based on identity.” And so, those are called employee resource groups. I help set those up and run them at organizations. Maybe it’s your Black employee network or your Asian Pacific Islander group, or your LGBTQ plus pride network, et cetera. So, people say how do we continue that, because it’s seen as marginalizing the majority or it’s seen as segregating from the rest of the community.

Farzana Nayani: And so, that’s where when push comes to shove, we have to explain to leadership that this is strengthening your workforce. This is allowing people to let their hair down and feel comfortable at work, or this is allowing us to understand new emerging markets that we didn’t know. And so, the responsibility we have is to challenge our leaders, but to bring it in a way that reduces fear. And we can do that through metrics, we can do that through making sure we have the right data and the right mindset. But fear and scarcity, those are the things that are kind of penetrating the human psyche right now that are stopping us from being able to really maximize on what we’ve built already.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that some organizations are kind of leaning into this and some are giving lip service to it. Is there anything, any tip you can share with the WBEs listening on how to discern which are the organizations that are giving lip service and which are the ones that are really committed.

Farzana Nayani: Definitely. As we can see some programs are being canceled. And part of us understanding the environment right now is knowing what is canceled, what is being sunset, and what is actively being terminated. And so, I have studied this and have been speaking with legal counsel and understanding the environment, and there’s a bunch of different things going on and I just want to explain it to our listeners.

Farzana Nayani: One is that there is the directives that are coming from government or the administration on how businesses should run and how higher education institutions should lead. And so, that is one directive that’s coming out through executive orders and such. The other is pressure from stakeholders and how even boards are getting proposals to roll back DEI.

Farzana Nayani: So, those are two different things that are happening, but I want to explain a third thing, in no way is any of this illegal. Let me repeat that. In no way is having a DEI program illegal. DEI programs are not illegal unless they’re excluding people. But if they’re done properly, and I’m not saying all are done properly, but if they’re done properly, they will include everyone.

Farzana Nayani: And the confusion is right now is that people are gaining jobs or they’re gaining access to opportunities because they don’t deserve it, they’re underqualified and they need a leg up. That is absolutely not true.

Farzana Nayani: So, if you think about, let’s say someone’s applying for a job and let’s say they’re from a community that isn’t in that field, you don’t see a lot of that person from that community in that field, that’s not because those people aren’t good enough. Let me just say, that’s because there’s some bias or some barrier that hasn’t penetrated to be able to give that person or that community access.

Farzana Nayani: So, I’ll give a concrete example. Let’s say we look at the data and there are fewer Black engineers than other community groups in the environment, in the industry. Well, why is that? Are we saying that certain people are not as qualified? No. What we’re saying is that there’s bias that prevents people from getting through the different interviews, or getting chosen, or getting the opportunities to be a project manager, or what have you, to rise in the ranks in that field. And I could say that about women. I could say that about people who are veterans. I could say that about a lot of people, people who are neurodivergent. And so, my job and other people’s jobs in DEI is to reduce the barrier so you get the best talent.

Farzana Nayani: But there’s something out there being said around how people are DEI hires and they’re getting the leg up, they’re getting the handout so that they get the job. But that’s just not the case. I think every single company wants the best talent, and wouldn’t you want there to be barriers removed so you get the best talent and you get the best person no matter who they are. It just makes more business sense to have the best person in the role.

Farzana Nayani: And so, that was the whole point of DEI is to create equity. Equity in this case meaning equal playing field or the ability to have access. And another part of equity is the business equity where we gain ownership and we gain the financial presence and power. Both of those equities are important in our discussion here today.

Farzana Nayani: But what I’m trying to say is that people are misunderstanding what DEI is about. And it’s not illegal. And there are mandates from different states saying some things are illegal. That’s definitely the case. I would say that federally that’s still being worked out or that’s being defined, I would say. And so, it’s left up to interpretation by each state. And then, the trickle down is that companies have to take that interpretation and either continue their work or adapt it or cancel it, but that is up to the company. That’s up to the institution. That is up to the leadership.

Farzana Nayani: And so, I was on a great webinar talking about this, and they said that here’s what you need to do. You need to think about how much you want to do that doesn’t get anybody the scrutiny, or the trouble, or the backlash, but don’t just do nothing. We can’t do nothing. We can’t just sit on our hands and just watch everything go by and not try to continue what we built already in the past.

Farzana Nayani: And so, definitely, I was one of those people at the beginning of the year thinking, What am I going to do? What is happening? It’s all unraveling. It’s so sad. It’s a shame. But I’ve snapped out of it. And I think the LA fires and everything here that happened – I live in Southern California – gave me inspiration because I saw people rebuild. So, I needed to see that happen in front of me to understand that we are in a rebuilding phase and we need to build this differently because, quite frankly, it’s not resilient enough. It needs to be stronger for it to really be infused into our organizations better.

Renita Manley: A few moments ago, you mentioned the word legal, and it’s that word, legal, around all of this DEI conversation that has everyone walking on eggshells. So, what advice do you have for our WBEs and our supporters how to navigate these changes in DEI in a legal way? Are there resources that they can go to to make sure that they’re using legal words or legal terminologies or not so triggering terminologies? And is there maybe like resources where they can learn maybe which areas are operating where their stances are with DEI, and just pretty much how to stay legal with everything?

Farzana Nayani: Definitely. I would say the easiest, quickest thing is to mirror the language of the organization you want to do business with. And I can say that firsthand that in the last six months, I’ve actually seen massive bids from the State of California asking for training, asking for, in particular, implicit bias training, asking for racial equity advising. And I had to pinch myself, I said to myself, is this current? Am I looking at a 2025 bid? And the work is still out there.

Farzana Nayani: And so, what that tells me, and I’m heartened by that as a business owner, because I’m applying for these bids, I’m submitting, I’m putting teams together. You should see me out. I’m out here right now. I’m here for it because what it’s telling me is the work is not done. And I know, again, it does make a difference based on what state you’re in, and definitely nationally and federal government, that’s a different case, things are being canceled for sure.

Farzana Nayani: But what I’m saying is that opportunity has not dried up completely. There are still people that are rewording it. I just saw a bid from locally here, an agency here. They just reworded it a bit. They used the word leadership and they focused on coaching. They didn’t say DEI, but everything that they’re talking about was around inclusion and belonging and those concepts. So, what we need to do is play detective and mirror back the language that the clients are using and we can still continue our services.

Lee Kantor: And this example as you mentioned earlier, with COVID, you know, you have an issue that’s affecting people and you just have to adapt. I mean, you can’t just sit back and say, “Oh, well. We had a good run,” and call it a day. You have to adapt your language. You have to adapt the approach to relationships that maybe emphasize some other areas that you weren’t maybe putting enough time in order to build the relationships in order to have the opportunities.

Farzana Nayani: Definitely. And, Lee, I think you’re making a really good point. You know, what era are we in right now? Part of navigating this current time is observing. We need to actually observe. We need to not be doing so much and and try to learn and listen and see what’s happening.

Farzana Nayani: And so, part of my strategy for this year is to continue to do writing. I’m being asked to write another book, and so I’m working on putting ideas for that together. I’m learning myself. I’m in different programs. A few years ago, I finished the 10,000 Small Businesses Program. I just got into the multicultural entrepreneurship program. I’m bettering myself. I’m leveling up myself in the meantime.

Farzana Nayani: And we all need patches of time where we just pause for a moment, and COVID was that for us. COVID allowed us all to take a breath and reassess our lives and make them better. And so, I think now in this landscape, we, in our lives, need to assess and take a look at who we want to work with, how we want to do business, who we want to partner with, and that is actually a gift.

Farzana Nayani: I am so grateful for this time because it’s allowing me to pause. It was like a washing machine. It was a turnstile the last years. It’s just been nonstop. And I’m so grateful for the opportunities, and my business grew, and I feel like I’ve matured, I’ve deepened in my leadership. But now is the time for me to reassess everything all over again and figure out what’s next. So, I think we need to embrace this pause or this period to take a look at everything again.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. There’s a book I read called The Obstacle Is the Way. These obstacles aren’t there to stop us. They’re just part of the journey, and we have to be able to go over them, under them, through them. We have to find a way around. We can’t just sit in front of it and say I’m stopped. I’m going back. Like, that’s not the way forward. You have to figure out a way to get past the obstacle no matter what it is.

Lee Kantor: And you mentioned an important point earlier, and that’s why I think experts like you are so important navigating kind of these rough waters and organizations like WBEC-West. You have to have mentors. You have to have experts. You have to have community to help kind of weather the storm here. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of bringing in an expert to help your clients or partnering with an organization like WBEC-West to help a person get through kind of this tough time or just to help even from an education standpoint?

Farzana Nayani: Definitely. So, on a personal note, there is a group of us that meet every two weeks. We’re all women certified, WBEC certified business owners. And our secret sauce is that we support each other through very difficult moments, conversations. We advise each other and we even partner. So, we have our own mastermind that has come out of just networking and people we trust that we rely upon for each other, so we are each other’s experts. I think that’s the key, is we don’t realize we have in our immediate network people who can be that expert.

Farzana Nayani: And so, for one of these bids, I was just partnering on, I was looking for a resource in a particular subject matter expertise, and I was racking my brain. And you know what I did? I went on LinkedIn, and I was like, my goodness, this person is one degree away from me. I know them, I talk to them, but I forgot that they do this thing that I need. And so, we partnered up on the bid. And I wouldn’t have thought of that if I hadn’t looked at the certification. And people have gone through the programs because we think the same way, like, let’s go for it. You know, we don’t hold back. We push ourselves.

Farzana Nayani: And let me just say one more thing. In order to get certification, you have to be on top of your stuff. Like it takes people a long time to kind of get ready and then go through it. But once you’re on the other side, you can see the difference. You can see that you’re prepared to go for SBE certification, or for me, I did DBE certification. I was so ready because I had my numbers together. I felt confident.

Farzana Nayani: And then, I’m seeing all these other amazing programs that WBEC-West is doing, different pitch programs and stuff. I can’t wait to sign up. They have this event that happens every summer where we get on boats in Southern California and network. I’ve been hearing about this thing for years. I need to get myself on the boat and network with these amazing other people.

Renita Manley: That event is called the Unconventional Women’s Conference, and it is coming up this July in 2025. Check our website for more details.

Farzana Nayani: Yes, that’s the one. Thank you. Renita. So, I think it’s just keeping our spirits up. And, you know, not just the DEI conversation, but tariffs, the economy, everything we’re navigating. We’re getting kind of like hit in the chest, punched in the stomach, knocked upside the head, and we still get up and get back in the ring, because, guess what? We have that courage and resilience and we have each other.

Farzana Nayani: And so, you feel like you’re not alone. Like I feel like I have a whole team. In addition to my own team, I have like another team, and I have mentors I can call. But I personally am so inspired, even having this conversation, I feel very re-energized that people are listening and maybe they’ll go and do something, or push themselves, or challenge what’s around them to talk about what we’re talking about and to make a difference. So, I think everything plays its part.

Lee Kantor: So, what advice would you give a WBE out there that’s listening and maybe is energized by the conversation? What’s maybe an easy first step, a baby step they could take when it comes to adapting to these times? And maybe also throw in leveraging the WBEC-West certification and community.

Farzana Nayani: Definitely. One thing to do is I feel like we have to kind of like lift up the hood and look underneath there, and see what needs to tune up, how we can adjust, what has been that thing that’s been making noise, maybe it needs a little fix, and do that. Now’s the time to do that. I think we have to also listen and see what our clients need and match the needs. Find out. Do those calls.

Farzana Nayani: One of my business mentors said, hey, Farzana, you’ve got to call 100 people and ask them what’s going on, what’s on their minds, what do they need. I’m about 25 people in and I’ve already learned so much. So, I pass that advice on to you to go and call your top 50 and just see what’s happening, what’s on their minds and what you can offer.

Farzana Nayani: I also recommend using AI as a sounding board. Just throw some ideas in AI and ask it. What are your thoughts on this? What are your thoughts on that? How can I pivot this? How can I use different terminology? It’s definitely helpful. And I think, you know, why not embrace technology and do that. It’s built on the minds and brains and the training of so many bright and brilliant experiences. It has its drawbacks. Of course, fact check and double check everything. But just to kind of get you started, get some ideas going, I think that’s a great place.

Farzana Nayani: And also turn to each other and build an informal network and get together. The LAX Coastal Chamber I’m a part of, they have hikes, they have social mixers. They’re putting on a DEI program, it’s called Creative Inclusive Workplaces. We came up with that name to make it more accessible and relatable to a lot of people. So, just look around, there’s tons of opportunities to plug in and to continue the work that we’re doing and be inspired in different ways.

Lee Kantor: And, Farzana, if somebody wants to learn more and connect with you, is there a website or a best way to connect?

Farzana Nayani: Yes, my website if you want to connect with my company, it’s www.manazilmanagement.com. If you want to book me for speaking or consulting, then it’s my first and last name, so www.farzananayini.com. And I am all over LinkedIn. I love connecting with people on LinkedIn, so you can find me there as well.

Lee Kantor: Renita, any last words before we wrap?

Renita Manley: No, I think that was all great. Thanks for sharing all that, Farzana, this is really good. But we’re not here to point fingers. We’re just here to highlight the type of people that’s still showing up for our women-owned businesses, and to highlight Farzana and the great work that she is doing to advocate for businesses, period, all businesses, to help them be even more engaging.

Renita Manley: In our next episode, we’re actually going to be digging a little bit deeper, because this is a two part series, so we’re going to dig a little bit deeper into corporate procurement and what that looks like going forward. And, Farzana, you’ll be joining us for that episode.

Farzana Nayani: Yes, I’ll be back I can’t wait.

Renita Manley: Sweet. Lee, you can take us out.

Lee Kantor: All right. Farzana, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Farzana Nayani: Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor for Renita Manley, we will see you all next time on Women in Motion.

 

Unlocking Quality: How CelticQA’s Innovative Solutions Enhance Software Development Processes

by

GPBRX-CelticQA-Feature
Greater Perimeter Business Radio
Unlocking Quality: How CelticQA's Innovative Solutions Enhance Software Development Processes
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In this episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio, host Erik Boemanns discusses the crucial role of quality assurance (QA) in software development with Kelly Kierans, President of CelticQA Solutions, and Scott Williford, the company’s CMO. They explore the common challenges companies face when neglecting QA and introduce CelticQA’s innovative product, QA Connector. Kelly shares the company’s mission to prioritize quality from the outset, while Scott highlights the efficiency and benefits of their new QA management tool.

CelticQA-Solutions-logo

Kelly-KieransKelly Kierans is the President of CelticQA Solutions, a leading provider of Quality Assurance solutions that help companies accelerate digital transformation with confidence. With a deep passion for software quality, she believes that every IT project can go live with zero critical defects when the right QA strategy is in place. Kelly leads CelticQA’s business development, sales, and marketing efforts, driving the company’s growth while ensuring a strong culture of excellence and innovation.

As a co-founder of the Higher Gear CXO Forum, Kelly helps IT leaders by fostering conversations that navigate complex technology landscapes and shift their organizations into higher performance and strategic impact. She has served on the Executive Advisory Council for the KSU Entrepreneurship Center, leveraging her expertise to support business leaders and entrepreneurs.

Kelly is an alumna of LaunchPad2X, the nation’s premier women’s entrepreneurship program, and a two-time recipient of the TiE Top Entrepreneurs Award (2016 & 2018). She is actively involved in TechBridge’s Digital Ball Sponsorship Committee, helping to drive support for technology initiatives that create positive social impact. She has also been an active member of the Turknett Women in Leadership Group and TAG.

A graduate of Radford University’s College of Business and Economics, Kelly continues to drive innovation in QA and empower companies to build high-quality, scalable, and resilient technology solutions.

Connect with Kelly on LinkedIn.

Scott-WillifordScott Williford, CMO of CelticQA Solutions.

Scott is a serial entrepreneur, consultant, writer and speaker and is passionate about helping others succeed in whatever they are called to.

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

  • The importance of quality assurance (QA) in software development
  • Common pitfalls companies face when neglecting QA
  • Background and mission of Celtic QA
  • Client pain points related to QA and strategies to address them
  • Unique approach of Celtic QA compared to traditional staffing companies
  • Introduction and features of the QA Connector tool
  • Benefits of using QA Connector for test management
  • Proactive vs. reactive QA practices
  • Reporting and auditing capabilities of QA Connector
  • Best practices for integrating QA into the software development lifecycle

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Greater Perimeter. It’s time for Greater Perimeter Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: This episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio is brought to you by Mirability. With their new compliance exo service taking you from it risk to it reward. Now here’s your host, Eric Bomans.

Erik Boemanns: So quality assurance, or QA is a key part of making sure your company’s products will work as expected and not damage your customer or your own reputation. It’s one of those things that everyone knows they need, but frequently skips when building a new product, especially in the software business. There are plenty of big examples in the news of the importance of QA. The CrowdStrike accident last year, for example, when companies realized they needed to be better at doing better, they need help and to provide that help. My guest today, Kelly Kierans and Scott Williford are both with CelticQA, a leading provider of quality assurance solutions and strategy. Kelly is president of CeltiQA and also highly involved in the Atlanta technology community. So, Kelly, how about a quick introduction of yourself?

Kelly Kierans: Well, I appreciate you having us here, Eric. It’s great to have this conversation, and I appreciate you bringing QA to the forefront of it, because unfortunately, a lot of times it’s an afterthought. But, uh, yes, I am Kelly Cairns. I’m the president of Celtic QA solutions. I oversee daily operations, sales and marketing and just basically work with the executive team to grow and scale the business. And we’ve hired on Scott Williford to help us in an advisory role. So, Scott, I don’t know if you want to introduce yourself.

Scott Williford: Yeah. I’m Scott Williford, uh, acting as CMO for CeltiQA, as well as their QA connector 2.0, which we’re launching and hopefully going to get a chance to talk about, but got decades of experience in the high tech startup space and the technology community and very well connected. Glad to be here.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah, well, thanks for both. Thanks to both of you for joining me today. And, um. Probably should just dive right in. So no, CelticQA has been providing QA. Solutions for the last 20 years. But can you give a little bit more background on the company itself?

Kelly Kierans: Sure. I can give you the story that is is not on the website and most people don’t hear or see. So, um, my husband and I actually own the business and, uh, gosh, forever we had talked about, what do we want to do? We wanted to start our own business, but we weren’t really sure, you know, what it was going to be. And, um, my husband at the time was working for Crawford Insurance Company, but he was working, um, for Keane. And they’re a big consulting company. And I at the time, I’ve actually done a huge transformation and shift in, in my life. Um, I at the time was actually working with orthopedic surgeons. Okay. Um, going in and putting neuromuscular stimulators on patients after surgery. So, um, we talked about it. We just, you know, sit at the dining room table. What do we want to be when we grow up kind of thing. And we talked about owning an Irish pub at some point because his uncle owns several Irish pubs up in New York, and my husband was born and raised in Ireland. So that was something we considered, but decided we didn’t want that lifestyle.

Kelly Kierans: We both played soccer and we thought, well, maybe we’ll open an indoor soccer complex someday. And that’s still on the roadmap. We might do that when we retire, but, uh, we’re really, um, the opportunity or we saw a gap in the marketplace, um, because of my husband’s work with, um, QA being kind of an afterthought. And he kept, you know, he’d come home and we’d have conversations and he’d complain about it or, you know, talk about it. And me being that I was in sales at the time, I thought, well, why don’t we do that? Let’s see if that’s something we can build. And, uh, so he, you know, he’s talked to the CIO he was working with and said, if if I do this, you know. Would you work with me? And the CIA was like, absolutely. But you have to leave the company that you’re with because there’s, you know, non-competes and all that sort of stuff. So on a handshake and a prayer and lots of faith, we took that leap and started our company back in 2005.

Erik Boemanns: That’s pretty impressive. Yeah. And I think it’s great that you mentioned the idea of of the gap in the market. Right. Because there really is one when it comes to quality assurance. The challenge then is, of course convincing people that they need to add that quality assurance. So what are some stories that you tell your your potential clients or your clients to help them understand the importance of quality assurance?

Kelly Kierans: Well, I think it’s more if they have the the mindset, like a lot of times they’re experiencing the pain, but maybe not necessarily knowing how to fix that pain, and they’re just throwing people at it or tools at it or, you know, different things like that. So when we have the conversation with our clients, it’s more about what’s your QA strategy, you know, do you have an overall roadmap for QA? Are you putting a focus on that, or is that just something that you’re doing at the end and just trying to bring that conversation to the forefront and making them realize that that’s something that’s super important for their projects? Because honestly, if if they shift the focus from dev to QA and have a QA mindset first, if they begin with the end in mind, then their projects can and should go live with zero critical or major defects, right?

Erik Boemanns: I do like that you also mentioned the quality assurance strategy, because I think when I think about quality assurance companies, I do think about throwing people at right there. They have contractors, they have staff. They’re staffing companies basically.

Kelly Kierans: Right.

Erik Boemanns: And I know Celtic QA is not that. So maybe a little bit on that.

Kelly Kierans: Yeah we’re different from that. So and actually that’s one of the the big things that we, we, we’ve, we’re kind of disrupting the marketplace in a sense from that standpoint because the typical mindset is just hire someone, um, or an offshore company or something like that. So we come in and we’re very streamlined and efficient. We don’t bring in a whole huge team. We don’t bring a school bus of, you know, people in to work on the projects. Right. So we come in and we we work directly with the CIO or IT leader, you know, whomever is in that position and really help them figure out what their goals are, what they want to achieve, and then work with their teams in order to figure out, okay, what what are we missing? What’s the skills that are missing? What tools? Maybe they were sold that aren’t necessarily the right tools for their environment. So we’ll come in and assess that. But we do that as we’re working on a project. So we roll up our sleeves, lead, manage and execute entire projects. But then we’re able to see where the inefficiencies are so that the next project can go better, faster and more efficient.

Erik Boemanns: That completely makes sense. And so earlier you mentioned a little bit about what Paying the customers. Your customers are feeling. Your clients are feeling. And so obviously, if your product breaks the production system of major companies, that’s an obvious pain that you’re now feeling from a quality perspective. But what are other examples, maybe less noticeable examples of pain that companies may be feeling? That is a great reason they should be reaching out to you.

Kelly Kierans: Well, I think that’s a good segue and transition into QA connector, to be honest with you, because one of the other gaps that we saw, you know, in the 20 years of working on client projects were the tools were not designed for QA people. Yeah, they were designed for developers. So with seeing that gap and seeing the inefficiencies and seeing the issues that that caused, again, we were like, why don’t we solve that problem? So we started developing QA connector. And honestly, for years we’ve been using it internally ourselves on client projects. Um, but we didn’t have a commercial grade version. So we we’ve recently developed a commercial grade version of it to help from, from the full, um, lifecycle of QA. So it starts from the requirements all the way to execution. Um, and we’ve incorporated an AI piece which we can get into that a little bit more. But I think that was a big pain. Right. And and solving that with a test management tool that’s built by QA people for QA people we think is the solution.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah. And I know I actually have a software development background myself. And so yeah, exactly what you’re saying. The project management almost always is focused on developers. And then can can the QA team also use that, or can they use JIRA in the developer mindset to create issues? Can they use something like an Azure DevOps? Whatever they’re using for story tracking becomes the bug tracking as well, right? And and since its focus was on the development team, it’s an afterthought, a secondary capability that those products have. It’s not focused on QA. So I definitely think I see that right.

Kelly Kierans: And the nice thing about having a test management tool that’s focused on QA is it gives you a full audit trail. So, you know, when auditors do come in, especially if there’s, you know, compliance and, you know, all those Sox compliance, those types of things, you need to have that traceability and trackability. And a spreadsheet is really hard to do that with. Right. And those other tools, it’s just not designed to shut down those audits where our QA connector tool can shut them down quickly.

Scott Williford: I actually think, um, just going back to the question about other issues is like usually or often, and this has happened in my own career, where the developers had a small group of guys that did the QA, but it was still the developers doing QA, and that’s kind of indicative of the way the tools have been set up. Um, and really, you can’t test your own code because you’re only going to look for the thing you fixed, not the things that affected, that were affected that you fixed. So you know which by bringing that into an external resource or bringing that into a separate management tool. As as Kelly said, it gives you more coverage, it gives you traceability, and it really allows you to design and build test cases around every single, uh, requirement, not just those you’re touching. And so when you do your regression testing, you don’t forget to do the regression testing. It’s really a it certainly saves a lot of time and money and you know, oh, you fixed this. But now this isn’t working. It kind of gets gets fixed and found because you’re doing it properly and using best practices for QA.

Erik Boemanns: Right. And take a step back to just write for the moment. When we talk about quality assurance and software, it can be a little bit more abstract, right? Quality assurance, quality control and manufacturing. Right. There’s a part and it has to fit certain criteria. And if it doesn’t, you reject it. If it does, you accept it. Right. That’s pretty easy to understand. If we think about the software side We talked about, um, different coverages. We talked about the idea of the developer can’t test their own code. Great example of that. If you’re writing your own code, you probably only think about when it works. You don’t think about, well, how can I break it? How can I negative test. Exactly. And so when you’re in the software world, having a person who’s focused on quality assurance helps you think of all the other things, all the other things that people are going to be doing with the software that that developer never thought of. And so I think it’s important to when we say coverage, right? We’re talking about thinking about how is the software going to be used correctly. Does that work and how is it going to be used incorrectly. And does that also work the way it should work? And so I’m curious your thoughts on both the products QA that you’re building and also from your strategy, how do you think about coverage and quality assurance from the software perspective?

Scott Williford: Well, the the cool thing about QA connector in our I, we call it test gen. I built into it. We’ve used 20 years of experience to write the prompts. Okay. So, you know, you could go to ChatGPT and say, give me some test cases. Uh, but if you didn’t have that 20 years of experience, then you’re not necessarily going to get the best test cases. So what we’ve done is we’ve taken our 20 years of experience in testing software to make sure that when we’re talking to the AI, we’re giving IT requirements and saying, give us every negative test, test case, give us positive test cases, give us those abstract test cases. And, uh, we were we were running a test just yesterday where we literally took, um, some, some very simple basic requirements, you know, a couple of page word document uploaded it, and it came up with 85 test cases. But if we just sat there with a whiteboard, we may have come up with like 30. Yeah. And, and then we would have had to go to every semi to get figure out what test data do we need and all of that. And the AI did all of this in about six minutes, including what data you need. Um. It really, it really blows my mind is how much faster it is. And if since you’ve been in the software space, you know that when you’re really doing robust test cases, you got to go back to all the subject matter experts, all the SMEs, and it might take days, if not weeks, to get a final set of test cases to give QA with using test gen, I built into the QA connector. Literally. It took minutes. And then we’re saying SMEs approve these, right?

Kelly Kierans: So it solves that pain. It solves that problem.

Scott Williford: And it saves. It’s you know, it’s kind of one of those catch 22 because Celtic QA also provides services. And they would charge for all of that. And now they’re able to do it in six minutes where it might take, you know, a couple of days. Uh, but it’s it’s about bringing value to the client and it’s about bringing value. And we know that there are companies that are not going to use Celtic QA for testing, but they want to use QA connector 2.0. We had a really good meeting last week with somebody that that’s exactly it. I mean, they they have their own test team. They have all that. They just want the software.

Erik Boemanns: So let’s dive in. You brought up a great point about the the services would decrease. But when I hear we went from 30 test cases that we might have thought of organically to 85. Am I increasing the workload on my QA team or am I actually like I’m sure I’m improving the quality of the product, but now is the QA process slower because there’s all these additional test cases to go through?

Kelly Kierans: That’s where automation comes into play. So the test management tool that we have developed actually integrates in with automation tool. So that speeds up that process right.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah. So it’s really increasing the quality but not increasing. It’s not slowing down the QA process.

Scott Williford: No no. If anything it’s speeding it up right. Because now you’ve got you’ve got you you’ve got a higher higher quality and better coverage. So you’re not going to do as many cycles to find all the bugs. Does that make sense. Whereas before you might run into a bug like with a the 30 test case scenario, you might run into a bug, you know, two weeks after release or in the next version that you didn’t get coverage on the first time. So in theory, you’re testing fewer times, but you’re testing a deeper, a deeper or wider and a deeper set of test cases.

Kelly Kierans: Yep. The other thing is we have what we call a test bank. So what’s missing and what we’ve seen, you know, with others that have failed, other projects that are tools that have failed is you lose that historical information. Right? What you’ve what you’ve put together from past projects, that sort of thing. It’s either extremely hard to access, especially if you’re using Excel spreadsheets or you’re in JIRA or Ado. So we have a test bank that captures and holds all of that information. So if you want to go back from a sprint or another project and utilize that, it’s just as simple as clicking a box to pull that over.

Erik Boemanns: Gotcha. Um, so one of the things I’m thinking about as I, as as we talk is the CIO or the product leadership, whoever is in charge of software development at the organization? Uh, you mentioned earlier, you might find that issue two weeks later. So it becomes very reactive, right? And so I feel like this gives us an opportunity to become proactive maybe.

Scott Williford: Yeah, exactly. And one of the things that’s really, um, one of our first demos early when the product was demo able. Right. Uh, was with a well-known CIO here in Atlanta, and they said, I love the dashboard because now I can be the good guy in the QA meeting being part of the solution, rather than pointing out all the problems that is happening in QA. Because before, uh, using a tool like QA connector, you didn’t really the only insight you had was asking negative questions. And now there’s this unfiltered real time dashboard on every test and every tester, and it goes down to the requirement level. Project level. Overall level. And and you’re able to just see the trends see the tendencies. And so now management looking at it can be very proactive rather than reactive about hey it looks like we’re going to miss this deadline. What do we need to do to make it. Or it looks like there’s a set of common errors or common defects happening in this one section. We need to put more developers on that to to solve these problems so that those that set of defects is cleared up quicker.

Erik Boemanns: Got it.

Kelly Kierans: Yeah. And it’s unfiltered information. So you’re seeing it in real time so no one can hide anything and say, oh, the project’s doing great, when really it’s not. So this gives everyone the same visibility.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah. Well, and you just said a key word there that if we go back to your comments about auditing and reporting, you said unfiltered just now, but maybe what if I do want that filtered report? What if I am presenting to the auditors? I probably do want to have a bit more structured. How do you approach the reporting side of that? You touched on it earlier, but curious.

Scott Williford: So, uh, one of the things that the system does innately is that it manages the test plans. And then those tests as they’re being executed, it’s managing the execution. So, you know, who touched what, when, where, and it’s all stored in the data. So the dashboard that we’ve created gives you a certain level of insight for management. But when you’re looking at an audit trail there’s detailed data on this person. Tested it on this day. This was the result. This person tested the same test on this day. This was the result. All the date trails defect was created sent back over to Ada or to JIRA. Developer fixed it, came back to QA connector QA connectors. Now selling the tester to test it again. Better results. And you see all of that now, how you filter that is you could you could take it as it is. Or if you want to say, hey, we went through all these things and here, you know, so you do have some flexibility from exporting and then sorting the data if you will. But the nice thing is the auditors as deep as they want to look, we know when, where, what, how much time was spent. There’s no way to hide that because the tester is using our tool as he’s executing the tests.

Erik Boemanns: Gotcha. So we’re going all the way from executive dashboards all the way down to the exact granular detail.

Scott Williford: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, it literally, this is this is something we were we were showing it yesterday. Uh, he was like, so this theoretically could help me know how to staff my testing because I can see how long these tests are taking. And so I can adjust my staff accordingly or reassign test cases or test plans to different testers, because these take a little bit longer because it it not only date stamps, it it times how long it took you to do the test.

Erik Boemanns: And it also helps them make that decision between manual versus automated. I assume at that point.

Scott Williford: Yes, exactly, exactly. And it gives you the ability, even in the dashboard to know this. Many tests were covered by automation, by scripting versus human interaction. But a human.

Kelly Kierans: You know, still utilize those tools. But there’s that integration between the two. So QA can use a tool designed for them while the developers are still utilizing their tools. And, and they speak to each other and pull the information back and forth. So it’s it’s a perfect marriage.

Scott Williford: Yeah. And we map the fields appropriately. So requirements stories and epics are translated to requirements. Then requirements generate test cases. Right. And so you could let’s say you’re smees and your developers are building out all the requirements in JIRA or Ada. It doesn’t matter. You could then connect a QA connector project to the JIRA or Ada project. Object. Import all of that data, run test gen AI. It’ll generate all the test cases and QA connector. And then when a defect is identified, it goes back. When the defect is updated, it’s updated on, you know, it’s synced back. One of the questions that comes up often right now, the way we’ve done it, it’s not a scheduled update, a scheduled sync. And the reason we chose that it was an intentional decision is that we want to be able to have the ability, let’s say, for example, in Ada, tickets are created by developers, so they’re not always put in the right place. So we don’t want to sync those and then have to resync those, because then it’s just the data is going to get convoluted. And so this way it gives you some control over hey it’s time to sync up and the like, you know, the same thing happens with defects going the other way. You want to have somebody who’s responsible to review those defects, to say, oh, these are really the same defects. Let’s convert. Let’s combine those, um, even though you, you’re supposed to link them, but humans are involved, so it’s not always done the right way.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah, absolutely. So connector new service from Celtica. Right. And um, if anybody is interested in learning more, how do they find out about. Where do they reach out to.

Kelly Kierans: They can reach out to me at Kelly Kierans at Celtica. Com. Or they can find me on LinkedIn. Um, that they can just find me and reach out to me.

Erik Boemanns: Yep. And just in case somebody misunderstanding you mind spelling the the name of the company, too?

Kelly Kierans: Oh, absolutely. Yes. Some people say Celtic as well. We say Celtic, but it’s c e l t I c q a.

Erik Boemanns: Okay. And that will have information on Scx connector and the other services.

Kelly Kierans: It’ll have information on the services. We’re building a separate website for Scx connector, but they can still contact me through the website.

Erik Boemanns: Awesome. Awesome. Um, so I want to go back to your story. Kelly. As a founder, a lot of the guests that I have here are founders, and you’ve been doing this a lot longer than many of them. Um, so I would love to hear some guidance that you would give people, especially if they’re just starting out a startup. It’s probably a software company, either from your own perspective as a founder or even from a quality perspective, because that’s going to be something that’s competing with all the other, you know, small business issues as you start that company is quality, taking a seat on the back burner. So just curious your thoughts.

Kelly Kierans: Well, there are a lot of startups that are developing software, right?

Scott Williford: So I’ve been in several.

Kelly Kierans: Um, excuse me. They they should absolutely think of quality first. Right? So they’re so excited about getting it developed and out there and that sort of thing. But you have to think about your brand reputation as well. And you want to put something out there that is quality because the way people are nowadays, if it doesn’t work, they’re going to move on. Um, if they have an issue, they’re going to move on. So you really do want to put that the quality first. So of course we would love to be able to work with everybody. Um, but the smaller companies, if they’re looking for a tool, they can use the QA connector tool. If they’re looking for services to help them have the best practices, you know, put, you know, a company that will scale and grow as they scale and grow. Um, we’d certainly love to help them out with that.

Scott Williford: I think also, having had some experience doing technology startups, we were in Atdc, a atdc company, back in the 90s, and then I did another startup, uh, all software based, um, one went from two engineers and me to 4.5 million users in three years. So we blew up and one of our advisors said to us is that because the developers were like they were worried they’d finish and then what would they do next? And one of our advisors told them said, look, development is never done. There’ll always be new features and there will always be new bugs. The only way to really in development is just to kill all the developers, right?

Erik Boemanns: Cancel the project.

Scott Williford: Cancel the project? Exactly. And in having been through that, what we what we realize and again, both of those startups were were they were successful and I had successful exits with both of them. Um, the, the the thing that we tried to focus on is making sure you get to that minimum viable product with as few bugs as possible so that you could sell it. But then when you released it, you wanted to make sure there was even lesser, even less bugs, because a lot of times you don’t recognize a bug as a bug. It’s just a feature request, right? And so you’ve got to be able to gauge that. Um, but I think a lot of times you get analysis paralysis, uh, as a startup by you’re trying to make it perfect and, and you want to get that’s where that minimum viable product comes in. Uh, getting a product. We’re running into that with QA connector right now. We keep we’re like.

Kelly Kierans: Oh, that.

Scott Williford: Would be cool. We’re like.

Kelly Kierans: We’re.

Scott Williford: Like, we got to get this ready for release.

Kelly Kierans: We’re like, no, we need to sell it.

Scott Williford: Yeah, we got to get this ready for release. And we were testing our own software with our software, which is kind of funny, but but we’re, uh, you know, we’re trying to get ready for release. And then we have some really big fish that want us to integrate with another project management tool. And so we’re, we’re we’ve decided we’ve drawn a line in the sand and said, uh, we are production ready. Uh, we’re going into full beta right now. Uh, the product is ready to be released to the production environment. So we’re going to have customer beta, uh, and, and we integrated with Jira and we integrated with Ada because those are the two most popular. But we’re going to come back and open up that API so that we can integrate with other tools. Uh, on the scripting side, right now we’re going to integrate initially with Ranorex. Um, but then because that’s the tool that we use internally, uh, but we really want to become the hub of all QA A software, and that means we’re going to have to touch various levels of project management tools, as well as automation tools and AI tools. Um, but it’s it’s been a fun project. It’s been a lot of fun. We’re we’re right there. We’re we’re bringing customers on right now.

Erik Boemanns: That’s that’s great. And a quick clarification, you did say happy to work with those small midsize businesses. But this is also enterprise ready as well I assume.

Kelly Kierans: Oh 100%. Yeah yeah yeah for sure. That’s who we’re talking to right now are the large enterprise businesses.

Scott Williford: Yeah we have we have several uh, in our beta pool. I there are they’re they’re they’re recognizable name brand global brands. Um, and they’re going to use it on a project, but they’ll go for us and, and you didn’t ask but we’ve, we’ve kind of looked at the marketplace and we’ve priced this in a way that you could start with five users and you can go up to enterprise level. How many users do you need?

Erik Boemanns: Gotcha.

Scott Williford: And it’s affordable. It’ll it’ll pay for itself just in the time you save by generating test cases using our AI tool.

Erik Boemanns: Right. And then reduced problems as soon down the road, too.

Scott Williford: Exactly. Exactly.

Kelly Kierans: Absolutely. Yep. Yep.

Erik Boemanns: So I was going to ask if there was anything else that you did want to share. So I think that was one thing. Anything else from you, Kelly?

Kelly Kierans: Well, I think, um, really, the the goal is simple, right? So we want to deliver high quality applications with zero critical or major defects. Um, we want to incorporate best practices. Uh, we want to have a QA tool for QA people. Right. And, um, and, and just bring about a smarter way to manage quality.

Erik Boemanns: That makes sense. Well, thank you both. I’m sorry. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for being here today.

Kelly Kierans: We appreciate your time.

 

About Your Host

Erik-BoemannsErik Boemanns is a technology executive and lawyer. His background covers many aspects of technology, from infrastructure to software development.

He combines this with a “second career” as a lawyer into a world of cybersecurity, governance, risk, compliance, and privacy (GRC-P).

His time in a variety of companies, industries, and careers brings a unique perspective on leadership, helping, technology problem solving and implementing compliance.

Connect with Erik on LinkedIn, Substack and Medium.

BRX Pro Tip: Combat Negative Thinking with Gratitude

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BRX Pro Tip: Combat Negative Thinking with Gratitude

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, do you have some sort of operating discipline or some sort of strategy or tactic that you employ when you catch yourself kind of being down on yourself or negative about something?

Lee Kantor: I think that the first place to go whenever you’re in that kind of dark mental place and negative thinking starting to permeate into, you know, your day-to-day is to lean into gratitude. I think that negative thinking can cloud your judgment. It can drain your energy. And it can definitely affect your mental well-being.

Lee Kantor: So, gratitude, on the other hand, is almost kind of the miracle cure for all of that stuff. It’s a proven antidote that shifts your focus away from what’s wrong to all the things that are right. So, by leaning into gratitude, you can reframe your mindset, you can reduce your stress, you can combat that negativity.

Lee Kantor: And here’s some things you can do if you are in that kind of negative mindset and you want to try to become more grateful. Number one, you can just start a gratitude journal. Just start writing things that you’re grateful down. If you do this on a regular basis, a lot of people do it first thing in the morning or they do it last thing at night, just find that one good thing that happened and focus in on that.

Lee Kantor: Number two, focus in on all the positive that’s around you. I mean, we take for granted so many things. We take for granted we have a roof over our head, we have food to eat, we have clean air, clean water. All of these things, there’s plenty of people on this planet, that’s their goal for the day to get that, and we have it in abundance where we live.

Lee Kantor: So, it’s one of those things that we’re not focused in on all the gifts and all the miracles that are around us that are helping us live this really affluent life. We’re focused in on sometimes some of this negative stuff, or we become envious of what other people have, rather than focusing in on all we have.

Lee Kantor: And number three, and this is something that is a pro tip in terms of just relationship building in your business and in your family life, is, just tell more people why you appreciate them. Gratitude is not about ignoring challenges or pretending everything’s perfect. It’s just finding that balance by acknowledging what’s good amidst any type of difficulty.

Lee Kantor: Don’t sleep on telling more people you appreciate them because people don’t feel appreciated. And the more you can appreciate people and tell them you appreciate them, the deeper those relationships are going to be, and the more impact you’re going to be able to make in your family, and your community, and in your mental health.

BRX Pro Tip: How to Change a Habit

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BRX Pro Tip: How to Change a Habit

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, based largely on your input and counsel, I really think in more recent years, I’ve kind of changed my approach to achieving goals, to being not so focused on the the end goal as much as identifying habits that will lead me there. But I got to confess, I still don’t feel like I have a great handle on how to change a habit.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, changing a habit can be tough and it can be challenging. But there are some basics to any habit, and if you understand how habits work, it becomes a lot easier to change a habit.

Lee Kantor: So, typically habits are driven by a three part loop. The first part of the loop is some sort of a trigger or cue that initiates that habit. So, something happens and then you begin doing whatever that habit is. Number two is then the routine or the behavior or the action itself, whatever it is. And number three, there’s some sort of reward you get that’s a benefit or some sort of satisfaction you get from whatever that behavior is.

Lee Kantor: So, that’s the three part kind of loop that every habit has. So, in order to change a habit, you got to disrupt the loop somewhere by modifying one of those three components.

Lee Kantor: And it’s important when you’re modifying these things is to start small. Don’t try to do some dramatic habit change at go. But if you can break the habit change into smaller, manageable steps, you’re going to have a better chance of succeeding.

Lee Kantor: And number two, leverage some sort of accountability. Share whatever it is your goal is with somebody who can hold you accountable, or use some sort of an app or technology that holds you accountable that you’ll actually pay attention to and listen to. But accountability is an important component to having any type of change.

Lee Kantor: And whatever it is you’re trying to change, commit to that change for at least 30 days. You know, this isn’t something that happens overnight. Habits take time to form, so habits take time to change. So, commit to practicing whatever this new behavior is consistently for at least 30 days before you decide whether you’re going to ban it or not.

Lee Kantor: Changing a habit requires awareness and intention and consistency, so all three of those things have to be in place if you want that habit to change, so you can’t kind of shortcut any of those steps. And remember that progress is always more important than perfection. And don’t forget to celebrate those small wins along the way.

Julie Flowers with Elevate YOU Coaching

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Julie-FlowersJulie Flowers is the Founder and CEO of Elevate YOU Coaching, Inc., a transformational coaching company dedicated to empowering seasoned career women.

With nearly three decades of experience as an HR executive at Chevron—including global leadership roles in talent acquisition, development, and strategic HR—Julie now helps women confidently own their worth, define success on their own terms, and thrive in supportive, purpose-driven communities.

She is also a dynamic speaker, podcast co-host of Savvy Sisters & Cocktail Conversations, and a certified leadership and empowerment coach.

In her conversation with Trisha Stetzel, Julie shared her powerful career transition from corporate HR to coaching, driven by her passion for helping women step into their full potential. She discussed her approach to coaching, her growing social media presence, and her contribution to a collaborative book designed to uplift younger women.

Julie also reflected on her personal journey of earning advanced degrees while working full-time and encouraged others to embrace and share their stories with pride.

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. I’m really excited about the guests that I have on the show today. We share a few things in common. We might talk about those Julie Flowers, founder and CEO of Elevate You Coaching. This is where she dedicates herself to empowering seasoned career women. A certified leadership and transformational coach. Julie inspires women to elevate their personal worth, value and purpose. With nearly three decades as an HR executive at Chevron. She excelled in HR, making a global impact in talent development, talent, talent acquisition, and strategic air partnerships. But wait, I’m not done. She serves on the Greater Women’s Chamber of Commerce Board and Texas A&M HR Master’s Advisory Board. She is also the co-host of the dynamic and witty podcast Savvy Sisters and Cocktail Conversations. Julie is also a published author and collaborator of the book Six Figure Chicks. Houston. Julie, welcome to the show.

Julie Flowers: Woo! I love it. I love hearing all that stuff because then it feels like I’m. I’m doing some stuff. I’m making some stuff happen.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes, exactly. Sometimes it’s the only time we reflect on all of the things that we’ve done when somebody shows up and reads our bio.

Julie Flowers: Right, absolutely. And it always feels it used to feel awkward. And now I’m trying to celebrate the wins. Like, no, girl, you’ve you’ve worked hard for all that stuff. You’re stuff. You’re continuing to work hard. Let’s celebrate that. And I’m not doing it in a cocky way. I’m doing it to inspire others and live my joy.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So I know I told a lot of things about you, Julie, but I would love for you to tell us a little more about Julie and then let’s talk about elevate you coaching.

Julie Flowers: Okay. Great. So first and foremost, I say I am a woman that strives literally to bring the joy and energy out of others, especially women. I have an affinity to women. I think we all need to band together even more. I have a, uh, issue with Mean Girls, and so I just want to make sure we are all coming together. So first and foremost, I’m a connector relationship builder helping women see the how awesome they are just fills my cup completely. I love seeing that light bulb go on and a change in someone. But I’m also a mom of two boys. I’m not sure why God didn’t give me girls, but maybe because I think I’d be bankrupt or in jail for killing some boy. Anyways, so the the the boy mom is great because now I’m teaching them how beautiful and wonderful and intelligent women are and how much they bring to this world and how to treat a woman. So I think that really helps and I love them dearly. As one is 19, one is 17. So I just finished a college freshman and a junior, so I got a rising senior in high school and a rising sophomore in college, and they are my delight. Uh, been married over 20 years and like you said, been in corporate America for almost three decades.

Julie Flowers: So don’t do the math on my age. Okay. Now I’m old. What is it? But in my mind, I’m still some crazy 20 or 30 year old, so that’s all that matters. Um, but I loved my corporate job. I learned a lot. I traveled the world, uh, lived and worked in, born and raised in California. Lived and worked in California, Houston. This is our second time here. And Angola, Africa for three years, which was an amazing experience not only for my husband and I, but our two children, because they were small boys when we went there too, and we got to travel that part of the world, which is amazing because I believe it really opens up your mind to diversity of thought and ways of living and and patience. Right. And so that was really awesome. So all the things that you said podcaster, public speaker, about to be in a book with you, which is super exciting. This is how we met. I love that and all the things. But my coaching company came after I decided to leave corporate America. It was. It sounds cliché, but like after Covid, you know, you have these epiphanies. And it wasn’t that the company is a bad company.

Julie Flowers: It’s an amazing company. Chevron. Um, but the function I was in HR, it was HR. My entire career was changing, and not in a way that was aligned with my own purpose and passion. And it was becoming difficult to stay, uh, personally. And I’m all about listening to my mind, body and spirit. And so I made the decision to say when they were doing another downsizing, which seems to be the norm in every company these days. Right. I’m ready to go. I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to head out. And I’ve always had in my mind, I love coaching people and I love public speaking and giving back. So I decided to launch Elevate You coaching, which is just what it says. How do I elevate you? How do I help you? And it’s only for seasoned career women. Doesn’t mean I’m excluding the men. I do go to corporate events sometimes where men are in the audience and we look for that allyship. But I love the one on one coaching the group, coaching us, creating a program that goes with it. So all the things and I just love this part of my life’s journey because I feel like I’m just having fun. It’s not a job, which is awesome.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s the best thing ever. Being in a place where you can enjoy what you do and you enjoy the people, and you get to choose who you work with.

Julie Flowers: And when I work just.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes, absolutely.

Julie Flowers: And don’t.

Trisha Stetzel: Have to deal with.

Julie Flowers: Politics or shenanigans. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. So you have an affinity for working with women. You’re drawn to women. Was that always the case when you were in the corporate space? Julie.

Julie Flowers: So yes and no. So in my role in, at Chevron, probably the last 7 or 8, maybe ten years. We had what was called development committees. So I was on a development committee for my function, where we helped make development and career decisions for the HR individuals worldwide. So I’d loved helping any person, uh, coach them on their career, what skills they need to develop, how to navigate corporate America, all of that. And being an HR professional and a leader in HR, you know, a lot of times I’ve reported to the business, not to HR actually, which was great. So I got to lead and coach, uh, business leaders, male and female. And I loved it. So it’s not. But the affinity for women is because I’ve seen over my career how women downplay themselves so much and don’t feel good in their own skin, or don’t feel confident or downplay their worth and value, or not sure how to make meaningful connections or contribute back to other women. I’m like, gosh, if we all could just do this together, the ripple effect that it would that would occur would be amazing. And the and the ripple effect down to the next generations because it’s still happening. I’ve spoken to some college students, you know, with my, my, um, affiliation with Texas A&M. And I didn’t go there, by the way. But, um, I love the school, love the people. And we really need to change that mindset of women and men of how they perceive women. I don’t want to be known as the only female at the table, which has happened a lot in my career. I want to be known that Julie was at the table. Um, not the only female or the first female CEO. You don’t say it’s the male CEO.

Speaker4: Right? Yeah. So we need to stop that.

Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, I love that and I I’m I’m with you. I grew up in a space that’s part of my story in the book. And you probably, uh, conquer that space as well, which is you are the only female in the room. You are the only female at the table. And it is a little different. And you have to do things differently to fit in. So one, where do you where do you think that’s coming from with the younger generations? Because I see a lot more women like you and I who are out there trying to help change that mindset of even our generation. Right? The generation that we grew up in and starting to help and support and love women again. Um, but it still happens. Younger generations. Why do you think that is still happening?

Julie Flowers: A couple things pop in my mind, so I want to use a term that I stole from my friend Kat. She was on a docu series with me. She stole it from someone else I was not in and will never be in a male dominated industry. I was in a male populated industry. No man is dominating me. Okay.

Speaker4: Okay. Mindset that.

Julie Flowers: Shift there. Did you just feel the power of that? Right?

Speaker4: I did.

Julie Flowers: No, it.

Speaker4: Just made me feel.

Julie Flowers: Different because we’re using words that are pushing us down. Right. And I think the new the up and coming generation and even my child, my children’s generation, I truly believe they’re ahead of us in some of this. They know what they want. They’re all about impact and their life. They want to.

Speaker4: Work.

Julie Flowers: To live, not live to work. Right. So I think they’ve cracked the code on some of it. However, they’re being raised by women and men, and society is telling them they have to be this or you’re not good unless you have this or look this way. So we’re still influencing it. So I’m hoping these new generations are going to start to and I see it breaking the cycle. But then you’ve got this conflicting people telling them the opposite, or the internet telling them the opposite. So the more and more we see, um, thought leaders like Mel Robbins and Brene Brown and Sheryl Sandberg and all of them coming out and saying, no, you are worth. And Jamie Kern Lima coming out and saying, no, you are worthy just because you are born, you know that. And you, you belong and you’re important and you bring a lot, male or female, I don’t think it’s, you know, we need to make that change and thank goodness for them. And I see it happening more. But we need to amplify it like turn up the volume even more, post stuff about this stuff rather than posting that you need Botox or whatever. You know what I mean? No offense to.

Speaker4: Yeah, you.

Julie Flowers: Know, getting the stuff done, but it’s a lot of pressure physically, let alone intellectually.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. I, I love the way you rephrased dominated to populated that.

Speaker4: Yeah, I stole that. I love.

Julie Flowers: That. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: And then. Well, so now that you’ve used it at least three times, it’s yours. You know, that’s how that works, right? So you borrow.

Speaker4: It or steal taking.

Julie Flowers: It’s.

Speaker4: Mine.

Trisha Stetzel: Now that you’ve used it at least three times, it’s all yours.

Speaker4: I love it, I’m taking it, so I’m stealing it because it’s my.

Trisha Stetzel: First.

Speaker4: Time. I’m gonna keep.

Julie Flowers: Saying it so people steal.

Speaker4: It. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: And I, I love this idea of the language that we’re using in ING and verbal. Just shift it a little bit, then it affects those that are listening. Right. Which are our, our children and our children’s children and.

Speaker4: Some right.

Trisha Stetzel: At this point.

Speaker4: And it’s affecting. Thank you for that thinking.

Julie Flowers: It’s affecting your thinking as well. Right.

Speaker4: It is if.

Julie Flowers: I’m saying I’m less than or I’m being Dominated or I am the only female. It’s affecting you as well?

Speaker4: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So the whole idea of self-acceptance, um, or maybe women who are listening right now that are, um, they’re afraid to take the next step because they’re not sure that they’re going to be respected in that next position as a leader. Um, what what would you say to them based on your experience in corporate as well as your coaching experience, what would you say to those women who are afraid to take the next step because they they lack the self-acceptance that they are amazing.

Speaker4: Mhm mhm.

Julie Flowers: It’s hard and there’s no one right formula. Now I have a formula. I use air quotes that I use. But it has to be customized for the individual too. But I’ll talk about it um at a high level. First and foremost, take the advice of Jamie Kern Lima of you’re worthy because you’re born.

Speaker4: Full stop.

Julie Flowers: Now, how do you become confident and and be your and being your authentic self? Now, I’m not saying because we talk about this on my podcast. I’m telling you to be your authentic self. But if you’re a jerk, that’s not what I’m telling you to be. Okay, so don’t be a jerk about it. Okay. All right. So be your authentic self. But know that you need to take stock in what skills, gifts, attributes you have. What impact have you made? I guarantee you, if you stop and self-reflect, no matter what age you are on your life to date, you have had some wins personally and professionally and then you pick that win apart. On what did you contribute? How did you do it? And then most importantly, how did it impact whatever you were doing, the value that it brought? Okay. You start to bring those good things into your mind, heart and body. You’re going to now go, oh, I am the I’m the bomb. I’m doing some good stuff here. Right? It was exactly what I said earlier. You have to celebrate the wins. You have to own the wins. We often lean on the losses or the failures. We do a whole podcast on the word failure. Like it’s the F word I don’t like. Okay, you can pick up.

Julie Flowers: I like the other one, but not this one, because a failure is not a bad word. We’ve put a negative connotation around it, right? It’s a learning moment. So turn your brain to that. So I think when you’re going up for the next role or a job interview or a promotion Ocean or even to present a project and you feel that lack of confidence. Confidence comes by doing. It’s an action. It’s not a mindset. You have to keep doing stuff to get the confidence. So the more you do that hype in your head before you walk into the promotion, the more you do your homework of the wins you’ve had or what you’ve learned from your mishaps, and that you’re growing that way, that you speak, your narrative is going to come out more confidently and you have to practice it. It’s a muscle and it’s also a dialog you have to have with that inner survival character in your head. Mine is named Penny perfect. Damn woman always thinks she’s got to be perfect. And I know says, no you don’t, girl. It’s not going to happen today. Never going to happen. But that will give you the confidence to move forward. And then the last thing I would say in this spot space is surround yourself with the supporters.

Speaker4: Right.

Julie Flowers: The relationships and the connections that are going to lift you up. They’re going to put the mirror in front of you and tell you how good you are or where you misstep, but you can learn from it. The ones that are talking about you in the positive, when you’re not in the room or in the room. Those are the things that are going to bring you up and give you more confidence to go forward with whatever is in front of you. Those are just some things. And like I said earlier, I would I would coach that in a specific way if I was talking to you because you’re you’re in a character is saying something similar yet different. So it’s not a one size fits all. We might focus on one one thing more than the other, but those are some of the things I think really help women.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. And before I want to dig into this, collaborate with other women, because I think it plays right into, uh, the book that’s coming and having the right people in the right room at the right time, helping you with the right things. But before we go there, if we’ve got listeners who want to connect with you already, because I know they do, and they want.

Speaker4: To learn.

Trisha Stetzel: More, more about you or even your coaching, how can they find you, Julie?

Speaker4: Yeah.

Julie Flowers: So I have all the, you know, normal social media stuff. Um, my website is Elevate coaching.org. Um, LinkedIn, I have my personal profile and then my elevate coaching. Um Instagram. You know, dot dot flow is what I go by. Yeah. I gotta be sassy too, right? Um, and then it’s elevate you. But you could go to my website and get through to all that stuff, or I can give you my link tree, you know, click on the bio thing, kind of whatever that gives you all the different social media handles. But it’s a way that you can book time with me to just have a discovery. Talk about for free, you know, 30 minutes talk about what is it that you’re looking for, whether it’s coaching one on one group, coaching or me coming to do some kind of talk with the. The conference association or meeting or what? All the things. Yeah. Or listen to the podcast Savvy Sisters and Cocktail Conversations. We talk about all of this. And it’s my co-host is a colleague of mine that is at Chevron still, but she’s retiring this year. So I’m excited because I kept telling her her day job is getting in the way of us doing fun stuff. So you can listen to that and, you know, follow us and do all that, like share, post, blah, blah, blah, all that things.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. And I’ll put all of Julie’s contact information in the show notes. So any of you who are sitting at your computer, not in your car, can click and point and click to get where you want to go, um, to connect with Julie. Okay. So let’s circle back around to this contributing to help other women. Um, I’d like to talk a little bit about the book because.

Speaker4: It’s.

Trisha Stetzel: Very exciting and a way to collaborate with other women, and also a way to give back to younger women, because there’s a part of this where we’re going to go out and talk to younger women. So six figure chicks. Houston Julie is one of the contributing authors. We will I’m putting this out there into the world. We will be a best selling book.

Speaker4: Yes we will. It’s going to be on the best.

Trisha Stetzel: Selling.

Speaker4: List.

Julie Flowers: Absolutely.

Speaker4: So excited.

Trisha Stetzel: So, Julie, tell me why you wanted to be a part of this collaboration and what this means to you to get out and bring these stories to a younger generation?

Julie Flowers: So I’m going to tell you a story then about me first. So when I started so I didn’t go to college right out of high school, I was one of those that I liked high school for the fun of it. You know, I was cheerleader. All that fun stuff. Wasn’t sure I was going to graduate because I was having too much fun. And I’m like, I’m not going to college. And I wasn’t really motivated by my parents to do it either. They didn’t have they they weren’t going to help me financially and so forth. So I’m like, I’ll go make some money, right? So I immediately went into the workforce and realized a couple years in that all my college friends were making the money. And when they graduated and I wasn’t. And, um, so I went to college while working full time. So I got both my degrees while working full time. And in that midst started working at Chevron at the bottom, like Nonexempt assistant HR assistant type role. Right. And for the and so coming into a corporate fortune ten company with not done with your degrees and you’re at the bottom. I had some shame that went with that and comparing myself to others. So I downplayed my story, my entry into corporate America. I tried, I shied away from telling my true story. What I just said to you. And it was about literally ten years into my career before a leader, a very inspirational leader for me. Female leader said, what is your problem? Why do you not tell people your story? It can inspire others. You should be proud. You put yourself through college while working full time. Two degrees start at the bottom. Your trajectory is going up. You know, I left at an executive level, you know, so I did something right in that space.

Julie Flowers: And I’m like, dang, I think you’re right. So I shifted that narrative and started to tell the story and watched not only how it made me feel proud of what I’ve accomplished, but how other women said, wow, I was doing the same thing, either not sharing because of shame, or didn’t think they could do it or didn’t see the path. All of that. So this book for me is that how do you tell the story to help other women? I’m all about helping others. And if my story can help one person, you know, it’s cliche, but it’s true, then great. Hopefully it will help more than one really dig into whatever they’re going to do and feel pride in their journey. Because everybody’s journey is different. There’s not one right path, but that really made it spoke to me when I was approached by Mel for the book. I’m like, oh, a bunch of women like me telling stories to help other women and younger women too. I’m all in, and as you would get to know me, I’m never a loss of words and never a loss of stories. I got a lot of mishaps and I have a lot of successes. So the more you share, the better. And I think that contributes also back to how to contribute back to others and how to make connections. You and I would have never made this connection. And we live in the same state, right? Probably running the same circles. Maybe it would have happened, but the odds are probably slim. And so now I’m building my my community, my circle, my tribe, if you will, through this book as well. So that’s why I signed up for it.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. And I was an early adopter. I met Mel through another connection. And when she told me about this book collaboration, I, I knew this was something that I wanted to get involved in. And I think the draw for me was that we’re going to share it with a younger generation. We’re going to have Mentor Day, and I think that that’s just I’m thrilled that Mel made all of us be in the same room at the same time, like I’ve done a book collaboration before and it didn’t work like this. You wrote your chapter and you put it in the book and it was fine. Um, and I was talking to Mel. She’s written several book collaborations, and none of them were like this, which is created this space for all of us to meet each other. And by the way, Julie, you and I have way more in common than you know. But I got to hear your story. So we’re going to have to connect offline.

Speaker4: To talk, for sure. We’ll have to have you on our podcast then.

Julie Flowers: And so we can hear your story for sure.

Speaker4: Okay.

Trisha Stetzel: So much fun. So I’m celebrating six figure checks. Julie has the book right behind her six figure checks. Houston, you guys, the E launch is on June 4th, so we’re going to be reaching out to all of you to do a preorder on the book so we can get on the best seller list.

Speaker4: Yes. Help us out. Help a girl.

Julie Flowers: Out. Come on, let’s do this, people.

Speaker4: Exactly. So, Julie.

Trisha Stetzel: As we get to the back end of our time here, I know it went by so darn fast.

Speaker4: It does.

Trisha Stetzel: What’s what’s one big piece of advice to the beautiful woman that’s listening today that is afraid and doesn’t have that that high feeling of self worth to go and do the thing that she’s always dreamed of doing. What would you tell her?

Julie Flowers: I’d say, listen, Linda, sit down and reflect and be curious. So curiosity is key on yourself. Dig deep. Identify those golden nuggets that you that are you and celebrate them. You don’t have to do big bang stuff. You can celebrate within your own mind and your own family, whatever. But realize that you are here, you are worthy, and you have so much to give, and the impact that you’ve made are making now and will make this world needs. This world is going cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs right now, and we need some change. And it starts with you. So do something and know that you have it. You just need to tap into it. And if you need someone to help you tap into it, I’m happy to do it. Whether it’s me or someone else, it’s there. So be curious and do some self-reflection and celebrate your wins.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s beautiful. Julie, thank you so much for being on the show today. Folks, if you want to get in touch with Julie, you can find her on social media. She is not hard to find. I’m everywhere you can connect. Uh, or, uh, tell us your website one more time.

Julie Flowers: Elevate you org.

Trisha Stetzel: Elevate you coaching.com. You can go directly there and find everything else that you’re looking for.

Speaker4: Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Connect with Julie. Be on the lookout for that book launch. Uh, just before June 14th. We’ll be asking for your preorders. Thank you, Julie, for your kind, um, demeanor. I loved having you on the show. This has been wonderful and thank you for telling of your story.

Julie Flowers: Yes, and I really appreciate you. You have this glow in this energy about you that is authentic, and I know that you’re doing great things and will continue to do so. And I look forward to getting to know you better. And I can’t wait to hear your story.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you so much, Julie. All right, folks, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation, share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran or a Houston leader. Ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate, and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours. Your business, your leadership, and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

 

Judy Hoberman with Judy Hoberman and Associates

by

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Houston Business Radio
Judy Hoberman with Judy Hoberman and Associates
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judyinstudio-JudyHobermanJudy Hoberman is President of Judy Hoberman and Associates, a renowned executive coach, TEDx speaker, best-selling author, and leading authority on women in leadership and sales.

With over 30 years of experience in sales and business leadership, Judy empowers professional women through coaching, masterminds, and speaking engagements. She is the author of Selling in a Skirt and Walking on the Glass Floor, and host of The Trailblazer Chronicles podcast.

Judy’s mission is simple yet powerful: “To help one woman a day,” guided by her philosophy that Women want to be treated equally, not identically®.

In her conversation with Trisha Stetzel, Judy shared her passion for supporting women in business, emphasizing the vital role of mindset—especially the shift from negative self-talk to growth-oriented thinking.

They discussed strategies for overcoming self-doubt, creating work-life harmony, and the need for male champions in the workplace. Judy offered practical insights from her personal and professional journey and encouraged listeners to connect with her for coaching, support, and continued empowerment.

Connect with Judy on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to have this amazing guest on with me today. Judy Hoberman, executive leadership coach and mastermind facilitator, whose mission is really surrounding women, which is why I wanted to have her on the show, and we connected immediately before I asked her to come on and have this conversation with me. Judy, welcome to the show.

Judy Hoberman: Thank you so much. I’ve been waiting for this day to happen. Trisha.

Trisha Stetzel: I know it’s been a while, at least over a month, right? We’ve been trying to get on the calendar. I’ve had things Everything’s going on. But here we are. And I’m so excited about having this conversation with you today. So, Judy, uh, tell us a little bit more about you, and then let’s dive into the work that you’re doing with your clients.

Judy Hoberman: So, as you said, I am an executive coach. Coach, I am a facilitator for masterminds for women. Um, I do high performance work. And what that means is I bring out some of the things that you stop with your potential. You’re okay over here. And I want to make sure that we get the rest of it. And I’ll explain that as we go into some of our stories together. But the truth of the matter is, I’ve been working with women for a long time. When I started my company in 2009, um, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I knew it had to be about women because I was usually the only or one of the only women, and I had to create my own playbook. So I took what I needed, and I brought it out, and I became the woman that I wish I would have had, and that that’s truly what I do. I support women, I advocate for women. And I do want to say I don’t leave men out of the equation because we need to have men that that are champions and sponsors and advocates for us as well. Um, so the men that raise their hand and say, I’m a champion, I am all in there for you.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, that’s fantastic. And that is really where you and I connected, right, is in this support of women who are out there, but also of the men who are supporting the women who are out there. Uh, just just a funny little thing. My husband, he tells everyone, and he aspires to carry my bags. I’m just saying he’s he’s.

Judy Hoberman: I love that, I love that he’s a keeper. He’s a keeper.

Trisha Stetzel: He’s a keeper. Judy, um, I’d like to steer our conversation today around mindset. I know you’re a big proponent of growth mindset, and that’s a lot of what you do. And I also do that in my business with my clients right now. I’m having lots of conversations around this uncertainty, Certainty things that are going on in the world, in the business place, you name it. People are just uncertain of what’s around the corner. And I’m having conversations with people, particularly women who have gone below the line, meaning their attitude has shifted from positive growth mindset to something not so positive. What are your I know you do a lot of work in that. So number one, talk to me about growth mindset. What does it mean in case people don’t know what that means and kind of what what you’re finding right now with the people that you’re working with or interfacing with.

Judy Hoberman: Well, you know, it’s this is a big topic. Mindset is everything. It is mindset is everything. It shapes your possibility, your decisions, your confidence, your ability to bounce back. And with what’s going on in the world. You know, a lot of people have taken on the scarcity mindset because they’re afraid of what’s going to happen. If the truth of the matter is that there’s research done that says that we have at least 50,000 thoughts and decisions in our brain every single day, and 85% of them are negative and 90% of them are repetitive. So if you’re thinking bad things or negative things, you’re doing this every day. So the truth is for me is I learned how to reframe. I eliminate certain words like I never use the word try because to me try, just that little tiny word is a very detrimental word to your vocabulary. Because I think I’ll try that. No, no. How about if you say something that, you know I’m working towards, that I had to learn from an early age how to reframe my the words that are in my brain because I was fed lots of negative things. So it may not have been the environment of the world, but it was my world. And so I’m very careful about what I say. I it’s not like I have a script in front of me and saying, don’t say this, don’t say that. But I catch myself now, I don’t, I don’t use the words that would make me smaller instead of being who I truly am.

Judy Hoberman: Authentic. And one of the things that I know for a fact is that we compare ourselves to everybody else. Well, why? Why is she so lucky? Why is she making money? Why is this not affecting her? Here’s what I know. You have to stop comparing your chapter one to someone else’s. Chapter 20. You’re not behind. You’re building. And that’s a that is the growth mindset. You are building. And there are days where you think nothing is going right. Why am I doing this? So here’s my secret. I have a folder on my computer and you can call it love folder or Feel Good folder, whatever you want to call it. I just call it my folder. And in that folder I have videos, audios, emails, letters that people have written, you know, created for me in this little folder. And all I have to do when I’m feeling like this mindset is not working for me today, I open up the folder and I click on something. Either I watch, I listen, or I read, and all of a sudden my mindset is like where it’s supposed to be. This is where I should be, not where I’m, you know, a woe is me. If you go back to the pandemic, which we all know what that was like, the first thing that I did other than, you know, going to my blankets for 20 minutes because my whole entire business was crashed.

Judy Hoberman: Everything crashed other than coaching, which was always virtual, but everything else was gone off my calendar. So after I gave myself permission to go wallow in it, I did for 20 minutes and then I popped up and said, okay, what am I doing? I created a panel of exceptional women. I called on four women that I knew that I that I said were not woe is me ING here. We’re going to talk about change and and how valuable change can be and how positive. And all we did was throw it out on social media. And we had about 150 women that showed up, and all we did was talk about change. We didn’t talk about anything else. And then that was it. So I thought because right after it was over, I got emails and texts and everything else saying, okay, who’s on the panel next? And can I be on the panel? So 14 weeks later, we had four different women every single week from different industries talking about mindset, growth, mindset, not anything else. All these things that we were all experiencing. And guess what? We had thousands of women that showed up and we helped support what we were going through at that time. Now, today, it’s not the pandemic, it’s different, but it’s still something that’s affecting us. So, you know, you have to do something that gets you out of your own way.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that, Judy. So if I think there’s a difference. So the negative language, I love that we could spend our entire time talking about negative language and trying to cut it out. Right. Um, and how you do that and what those tools and tips and tricks are. And by the way, we’ll give your contact information so that people can talk to you about that specific thing, because I think it’s really important to remove those things from our head. And I also know that we can’t have a negative and a positive thought at the same time.

Judy Hoberman: Impossible.

Trisha Stetzel: Replace it. Right. So I, I love that and I’m curious then. So that’s about us being alone and the mindset and the ways that we can shift it. And then you talked about this amazing group of women that came together. So what’s your thought around the people that you surround yourself with when it comes to mindset?

Judy Hoberman: So I have three words that I always use. Know your people. I don’t care what position you’re in. I don’t care if you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re C-suite, if you work for. It doesn’t matter. Know your people. Know the people you surround yourself with, because those are the people that are going to lift you up as opposed to holding you down. And those people that are not your people can be your family as well. You know, when you decide to start your own business and they’re thinking, why are you crazy? Or that little person that is knocking in your head all the time? I have evicted my imposter syndrome so many times, and for some reason they have that loophole where they come back in. So I really do talk to myself. You know, honestly, if you ever watch my TEDx talk, you will know exactly why I say all these things. I don’t want to tell you everything, but I told the worst story that happened to me on a TEDx talk that I’ve never told before in my life. I told it on a TEDx talk. I mean, that’s craziness to begin with. But the truth was, I needed to say it out loud and to have people hear it so I could say, that’s not my story anymore.

Judy Hoberman: That was my story, but not my story. So, you know, when we did this, um, this these panels, it created community. Community is what women are looking for. They’re not looking for somebody to say, oh, you’re awesome, you’re amazing. You’ll get that in community, but you’re looking for people that are going to support you. And that’s the beauty of, you know, of of creating who’s surrounding you. I am very selective with the people that are the closest to me and my immediate family, my children, my grandchildren. Those are the people that I just feel so good around. But then I have my colleagues. I don’t invite everybody in because I’m not for everybody I know it. Even my LinkedIn profile will say to you that I’m not for everybody. In the first two minutes that you meet me, you will know whether I attract or repel you. And it’s good either way, because I know my people and that’s what it is. You need to know your people. That’s that’s a that’s the I mean, that’s one of the rules that I live by.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And you can’t let that negativity seep in right to where you are, especially if you’re already struggling. So don’t hang around with the people who are woe is me and continue to pull you down. Right?

Judy Hoberman: Because that’s their that’s their job. Their job is to pull you down. And do you know that your brain is creating a survival mode? So if it knows that you’re going to this place that you shouldn’t be, it’s going to remind you, don’t you know you don’t belong? This is where you belong right here. And if you continue to go over there, all of a sudden it’s going to say, okay, well, maybe that is your space. It isn’t. It isn’t. When you don’t feel comfortable, it’s time for you to find the people that make you comfortable. And that’s that’s what I do. And I’m a I’m a huge introvert, so I know how uncomfortable you can be.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Thank you for bringing that out, because I think so many people, um, have this mindset that introverted people can’t go out and do the things that you’re doing. Judy. Uh, so I’d like to roll back. You said something about imposter syndrome, which struck a chord with me because I hear it a lot, particularly from women. So not only do we have to shift our mindset to be positive, but we also have to believe that we’re capable. And I think that imposter syndrome really pulls us in the opposite direction. So what advice or even maybe just some tools do you use around this imposter syndrome when it starts to seep up? And I heard you say you evicted it.

Judy Hoberman: I have many times, and for some reason there’s that little creepy, you know, that hole and it keeps coming back in. I heard somebody said they gave it a name and they said, Hal, sit down, Hal, you know I’m not interested. And that’s funny, but I mean, you that’s mindset. What I do is different, though. I, I’m aware, I become aware and that’s the first step that you need to do. You have to be aware of when that happens. There’s something that that brings it in. Is it when you’re doing something stressful, is it when you’re looking for a new position? Is it when you know you put out a proposal and you’re waiting? Whatever it is, be aware of it, because once you’re aware of it, you can almost, you know, stop it. You can’t all the time, but you can almost stop it. But you become aware of it. Once you do that, then your next step is is this real or is it something that I’ve been so creative I’ve made up in my mind? You know, we make up those scenarios that are so real that you’re living this and it never happens. So is it real or is it made up? And that’s your second step. If it’s real third step is now you have to face that.

Judy Hoberman: Okay. So and I’ll give you an example in a second. But if it’s real you have to face it. If it isn’t real you have to decide like why? Why do I do this? What is what is causing that? Do I feel like I’m not qualified enough? Do I feel like I’m not enough? You know? Do am I not tall enough? Whatever it is, that’s. That’s the exercise. So you become aware. You decide if it’s real or not, and then you reframe it. So for me and this happened, I think about a year ago, just about a year ago, I was invited to somebody’s live stream. I immediately said yes because I think she’s amazing. So I said yes. And then I went home and I looked to see who was on the agenda. And right then and there, I knew I shouldn’t be there. I was way out of my league. Like, totally out of my league. So I call I always have two coaches. I have a female coach because I’m female and I have a male coach because I need a male perspective. So I call my female coach. I said, here’s what happened. And she said, oh, you know, you’re amazing. You know, that you’ve got a great message, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Judy Hoberman: It wasn’t what I needed, truly, not what I needed because I knew that I called him. This was his question. Did you ask her to be on the live stream or did she ask you? I said, she asked me. She said he said, so why are we having this conversation? Really? Why are we having it? She asked you, you, you know, you’ve got a message. You know, you’re amazing. So why are we why are we even discussing this? She asked you and I thought, oh, okay. Like he gave me that little kick that I needed. And so I did it and it was fantastic. And the person that I was most afraid of, I made laugh. And it was Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank. Okay, so and I have a picture of him laughing. But you know, the point is that I could have easily backed out. Yeah, I could have easily backed out, but I talked to myself out of that by having a conversation with one of my people, and he really gave me what I needed. I didn’t need that. Oh, you’re so wonderful and we love you. And you know that, wasn’t it? Totally not it. Right.

Trisha Stetzel: Just one question.

Judy Hoberman: Right? Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. That’s it I love that. Okay, so, Judy, if folks are already interested in connecting with you, want to learn more? Want to hear more about your tips that you’ve been giving here on the show? How can they find you?

Judy Hoberman: I would say my the best way to get me is on LinkedIn. It’s under Judy Hoberman. Um, because I’m on LinkedIn a lot. And you’ll also see lots of things that I do and I offer and I give away, you know, all these things. The other thing is you can email me at askart.com because I am the only one that touches my email. No one else touches it. So it’s always me that responds to you. And that’s the easiest way.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s amazing. So for those of you who are not watching this on video, maybe you’re just hearing the audio. Judy has this amazing quote just above her head on this beautiful banner. And I want to share it with the audience. Judy, if it’s okay if I say what.

Judy Hoberman: It.

Trisha Stetzel: Is. Yeah. Expand on it. So the quote is women want to be treated equally, not identically. So, Judy, tell me more about where this comes from.

Judy Hoberman: If you think about it, Trisha, that a lot of times through the decades, women have had the the opportunity, I’ll say, to become more successful in what they’re doing. With that came a challenge, because there weren’t many women that were doing this or this or this back, you know, a few decades ago. And so women became they dress like men. They acted like men. They they had their language like men. And that was very confusing to everybody, including the female. But but including the men. It was very confusing. My point is, we don’t have to be exactly like anybody else. We need to be ourselves. We just want the opportunity to have the same, uh, the same opportunities as men do. So if you say to me, okay, there’s a position that I that you would qualify for, and I think you should go after it. Well, now you’re giving me the opportunity to either have the, you know, have an interview with somebody or not my choice. But you’re treating me equally. You’re not treating me just like a man. You wouldn’t say, hey, bro, you should go do this. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about having somebody that might open doors for you. Somebody that might recommend you even when you’re not in the room. Somebody that talks well about you when you’re not in the room. And so treat us the same way as far as give us the same equal opportunity, but don’t make, you know, make sure that you, you say, well, you don’t have you I don’t care if you act like a man or dress like a man. That’s not that’s not what we’re talking about. You should have the same opportunity. And it really is a very tiny little sentence, but it’s very powerful if you think about it.

Trisha Stetzel: It is. Absolutely. And going back to choosing the people that you’re putting in your room, right. The people that you want to hang around with. And do they share the same values right as you, as wanting to be treated equally, but not identically? Right. I think that’s that’s it.

Judy Hoberman: Those are the people you want to hang around with because they know it. And, you know, if I said today, I don’t want to do this anymore, I’m tired. I’m cranky, whatever. My network is big enough, male and female, that I could call somebody and say, okay, you know, what do you got? Tell me. And then one by one, they’d be calling different people and saying, you should talk to her. You should talk to her. She’s amazing. You know, that’s what it is.

Trisha Stetzel: So. And you get to choose, right? That’s the bottom line. You get to choose. You get to choose your mindset. You get to choose whether you allow that imposter syndrome to seep in. You get to choose who you spend time with. Right? And I think all of that is so important. So we’ve talked a lot about business, Judy, but there’s this whole idea of and I’m going to use the phrase work life balance. And I know that you’ve got a different phrase for that. So I’d really like to dive into where, especially women who are successful, I think a lot of us get into this mindset where it’s got to be 125% business, and then I will squeeze everything else in the margins. Maybe. Yeah, maybe you think about it sometimes and it doesn’t happen always, right? So what’s your what’s your ideal on work life balance?

Judy Hoberman: So my entire business has been based on the belief that the myth is work life balance. There’s no such thing as work life balance. There isn’t. And if you keep on trying to find this balance, you’re going to be disappointed. Balance isn’t about doing it all. It’s about not losing yourself while doing what really matters to you. And that’s why I stopped chasing balance. And that’s why I started doing work life harmony. Because to me, if you think about it, balance is very rigid. It implies that everything gets equal weight. That’s not true. It’s not realistic. And if you try to achieve things, what’s going to happen is it’s going to lead to burnout. It’s going to lead to feeling guilty all the time, or resentment because that little piece of time that you have, you realize it’s probably not even worth it. It’s not even going to do that. When you think about harmony, I don’t know about you, but I think about like movement, like harmony is movement. It’s about being intentional. It’s the choices that you’re making and all your choices align with your values. It’s also realizing that sometimes it’s going to take more energy than you know.

Judy Hoberman: Today I’m looking for a new job, so my energy today might be more on that, but my energy here might be more on family, and it’s going to change. And that’s okay, because when you think about balance, it’s like they pit work and life against each other. So it’s like a, you know, a tug of war all the time, but harmony like invites everything together. Working together to support you. And harmony really means that wherever you are, you’re fully there. So when I say when you’re working, you’re you’re in harmony because you’re there. When you’re home with your family, be in harmony because you’re there. And I always say that presence is the new power move. Because if you think about it, everything is is making us move away from what we want the most and who we love the most. But women who lead with harmony and give themselves permission to be present where they are, instead of trying to be everything else to everyone else. That’s when they can actually take the breath and go, okay, I’m good. So that’s to me, that’s the most important thing, is being in harmony.

Trisha Stetzel: What what advice would you give to women out there who are still in this mindset of, I need to be everything to everyone, and my business is so important that I don’t have time to take care of myself.

Judy Hoberman: First and foremost, let go of the idea that doing more is the same as being better. Because that’s not true. That’s what. That’s where you’re going to have burnout. You have to find out. You have to ask yourself what really matters most to me right now. What am I doing out of guilt or obligation instead of doing out of choice and intention? And where can I delegate or simply say, no, thank you, I’m busy. I mean, how many times have you said, okay? Yeah, sure. I’d love to come to that. Whatever. And the day of you’re like, oh my God, I can’t even believe I’m going. But here’s what, here’s what you have to do. You have to put yourself on your own calendar. You wouldn’t cancel your meeting with a doctor or your CEO or whomever. Why do we cancel everything for ourselves? I used to think personally this is true. I used to think that the more my calendar was booked up, the more important I must be, and a full calendar meant that I was doing something right. But really, all it meant was I was scheduling everyone else’s priorities except my own. And when I ask women, well, tell me, like, what do you struggle with the most? They never say work. They say my calendar because I have no space to think or to renew or anything. And my question always is when your calendar fills up, who’s deciding on what goes on it? You? Or is it everything and everyone else? Because you don’t have to do it all to have it all.

Trisha Stetzel: Mm. I love that. So, Judy, I have this this renewed need to go and find some space on my calendar. It used to be really good at it and then it filled up. And I think you get into this mindset right where my calendar is full, it’s just always going to be full. But it doesn’t have to be. Right. And there are so many tools out there, and the use of AI and ways that we can throttle that back to find time for ourselves and put it on our calendar.

Judy Hoberman: Well, you know, it’s so funny because I have a good friend of mine was a huge top executive for, I don’t know, 14, 15 years. And I asked her this question because I always talk about the lonely leader, because the further you go up, the lonelier it is because just for so many reasons. But I asked her this question. I said, what do you do? How do you carve out time for yourselves? And this is exactly what she told me. She said, on Fridays I, I block out two hours of time every Friday for 14 years. I had these two hours blocked off every Friday. For 14 years. Everybody knew there were two hours. They didn’t know what she did with her two hours. So I said, well, what did you do? She said, well, sometimes it was just for me. Sometimes it was meeting a friend for lunch. Sometimes it was, you know, going to get my hair cut, whatever. But two hours every Friday for 14 years. That’s when you’re strict with your calendar and people will say, well, you know, I can’t do that. People overbook me. No, no, you lock it, lock it. If somebody has access to your calendar, if you have a, you know, an associate an a a an admin. Lock it. Nobody can touch those two hours. There’s nothing in those two hours that somebody has to get to you. And if it’s that important, they know how to call you. So two hours every Friday for 14 years. That’s what you did. I mean, I always say be strict with your calendar.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes. We have to be ferocious with our time, right? We just have to own it. Judy, I know it’s we’re at the back end of our conversation. It went by so fast, but I do. I would love for you to share one of your favorite stories. And oh, by the way, it doesn’t have to be your Ted talk. Everybody’s going to go watch your Ted talk after this because we’re all curious. Uh, but tell us one of your favorite stories, Judy.

Judy Hoberman: So when I first started in financial services, I was the only female. I checked a box when there there was no boxes to check. Okay. That’s. So this is in 1990. There were no boxes, but I checked the box because I was female. Nobody wanted me there. I was just divorced. I had two children. It was 100% commission, no guaranteed income, nothing. All I had was a little bit of moxie. Nobody wanted to train me. Nobody wanted to do anything. And I had to get licensed. And you can’t sell anything until you’re licensed. So I would beg. I would beg agents to take me out and let me see what they were doing so that I would know. Right. And so, um, the only way they would let me do that is if I booked an appointment for them. Not that it was their appointment. So anyway, long story short, that’s what happened when I was ready, when I was licensed and everything else, um, I had to go out, but I knew what I would do and I knew what I wouldn’t do. But here’s the kicker I hated what I was doing. The reason I hated it is because I didn’t know what I was walking into. I didn’t sell on the phone. The only thing I sold on the phone was an appointment so I could walk in and somebody wouldn’t qualify anyway. But every day I would say, I hate what I’m doing, I hate what I’m doing. I have to drive here. I have to go there. One morning I looked at my kids. I had two kids, and they were, you know, they were young. And I said to myself, these are the two most amazing humans in the entire world, and my only job is to protect them. And all of a sudden, it was like the cartoon with the light bulb above your head. It was like.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And I thought.

Judy Hoberman: If I could protect them, I could protect everybody. So from that moment on, my mindset changed from I have to to I have the privilege of. And I said to myself that morning, I have the privilege of protecting other families. From that moment on, Trisha, that exact moment my career took off, it took off. I went from, you know, trying to figure this out by myself to not caring if nobody was going to help me because I knew the right way to do things, building relationships and communication. And all of a sudden everybody wanted to work with me, and all these people that didn’t have time for me were like, well, how did you sell that? And why are they staying on the books? And so I became not only, you know, salesperson for me, but I became the field trainer. I became the coach. I became the mentor. All of that because I changed my mindset. And that was the exact moment when I knew if I could protect my kids, I can protect everybody else. And that was it.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. And now we see the rest of the story. Judy, it is so exciting. I’m so. I feel so blessed to have met you. I’m so excited that you came on to have this conversation with me. Me too. For everyone who’s listening or watching, please know we didn’t even talk about this. That Judy is a best selling author. You need to go check out her Ted talk. And Judy, if people want to connect with you directly, can you remind them how to do that.

Judy Hoberman: Either on LinkedIn and it’s Judy Huberman, and you’ll see me once you click it on, you’ll know it’s me, because there’s a whole bunch of stuff there. And if you want to talk directly to me and me only, email me Judy at askart.com. And again, no one touches my email but me. Seriously, nobody answers it. It’s only me. So if you want to tell me something that you don’t want anybody else to know, I’m a really good listener and my vault is locked.

Trisha Stetzel: And vault is locked. Judy, thank you so much for your time today. I look forward to the next time we get to have a conversation like this. It was absolutely beautiful. Thank you.

Judy Hoberman: Thank you so much for the opportunity I appreciate it.

Trisha Stetzel: Welcome. And that’s all the time we have for today’s show. Join us next time for another amazing episode of Houston Business Radio. Until then, stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep thriving in the Houston business community.

 

BRX Pro Tip: More Mental Models

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BRX Pro Tip: More Mental Models
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BRX Pro Tip: More Mental Models

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips, Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, from time to time in our conversations with Business RadioX Pro Tips, we have talked about mental models, say more about that.

Lee Kantor: Mental models are super important to learn about. There’s so many out there and there’s a variety of which that, obviously, you heard. We talked recently about Occam’s Razor, that’s a mental model. And there’s lots of them.

Lee Kantor: I thought today we can share a couple more that are razor oriented, Hanlon’s Razor and Arena Razor. Hanlon’s Razor says, basically, don’t attribute any malice that’s happening to you. Don’t take that personally. It’s probably more likely it can be explained by stupidity. That’s kind of in a nutshell what Hanlon’s Razor is.

Lee Kantor: And what this does is it’s a tool, kind of, that helps you just have more empathy and it can improve your decision-making. Because a lot of times your first move is okay, something bad happened. This person is doing that because they got something out to get me, and it’s something aggressive or something that is personal like that. When in reality, a lot of the times something that has happened could be better explained by just someone making a mistake or doing something idiotic.

Lee Kantor: And I think if you can move your thinking away from they’re doing something mean to me to they made a mistake or they didn’t understand everything, that’s more empathetic, and I think that you’re going to be better served making that your assumption rather than anything mean spirited. Because a lot of times, this kind of jumping to conclusions based on emotional reactions, a lot of times it can really be a confirmation bias where you’re just kind of assuming, based on your own biases, their intentions, when you really don’t know what their intentions are.

Lee Kantor: So, the Arena Razor mental model says that when you’re faced with two different paths, choose the path that puts you in the arena. And the arena in this case represents situations where you’re going to take a risk, you’re going to face a challenge, you’re going to actively engage in some growth exercise rather than staying on the sidelines.

Lee Kantor: And what this does is this encourages you to be more courageous and take more action. And most people in life, sadly, err on the side of not being courageous and not taking action. So, this is kind of a reminder that when you’re faced with two different paths, pick the one where you might get punched in the face. You know, this is the one, take a chance, take some action.

Lee Kantor: And when you’re doing this and you’re stepping into those kind of environments where you have skin in the game, even though it is uncomfortable, even though it is intimidating, that’s where growth happens. Growth happens in the arena. Growth doesn’t happen in the stands. It happens when you’re kind of taking a risk and doing something that might be great or it might not, and you’ll learn something.

Lee Kantor: So, mental models like Hanlon’s Razor and the Arena Razor are there for leaders to kind of lean on to help them navigate life and make better decisions.

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