Month: November 2018

I Learned a Lesson about Leadership Yesterday.

I learned a lesson about leadership yesterday.

We had three guys visit us from one of our main clients, Vivint. One was the regional manager and our primary contact, Phil, and the other two were introduced to us as a Sr. VP and a Senior Regional- so we knew they were a pretty big deal.

They had planned to come up for the day from Utah and check out our operations, so I asked if they could run a short meeting for the team. They showed up with donuts for everyone and I was surprised by how relatable the guys were. The meetings they ran for the team didn’t sound like it was coming from esteemed executives that are decades away from working account executive or sales positions. They sounded like advice and stories from leaders who are in-touch with every aspect of the business that they run- who genuinely value every individual who works with the Client they represent.

After meetings, we sat down with the Vivint team and talked shop for a good two hours. They emphasized over and over again that they were so impressed with what we were doing- that they want us to help them implement similar practices and they want to help us grow our own business in the process.

It didn’t feel like a business conversation. We talked and brainstormed and got excited and then talked and gameplanned some more. As the one introduced to me as the VP, Bowdy, got up to leave because his Uber has arrived, we all shook hands and hugged and agreed to meet again soon.

Once he was out of the room, someone (I don’t even remember who) asked me if I knew what Bowdy’s net worth is. I knew he was really successful and high up in Vivint, so I estimated (shooting high) 5 million. They laughed a lot and Phil responded cooly- “No- $50. And You would never guess it, huh?”

$50 MILLION? I am surrounded by successful people often and very rarely attribute their level of success directly to their net worth. But $50 million? That’s a different level. That’s double the network of Colin Caepernick and Emma Stone. It’s more that Joel Osteen and Judge Judy. It’s equal to Hugh Hefner’s net worth when he died.

$50 million and this person just took the day to fly and visit OUR office. This person just played a silly game called Pyramid game with out team. This person just sat and listened and asked questions and gave praise and made suggestions and got excited with us as if there is no difference in our levels success at all.

When I first started in this industry, I was always told that it should be my mission to “wow” the client. I never imagined that we’d end up working with a client that was equally impressed on “wowing” us.

Imagine if we all treated each other like that- like we were grateful for the value each person added and genuinely interested in helping them add more. I talk a lot about how my definition of success is “to become the very best version of myself and then to help as many other people as possible become the best versions of themselves”. Yesterday, I met a team that embodies that. THAT is leadership.

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Personal, Uncategorized

Failure. It’s hard to talk about.

Posted on by mckenzieleighc

Failure. It’s hard to talk about.  Especially when we’re in our twenties and most of us haven’t achieved much yet that we are “proud” of, our failures can hang over our heads or hide in the corners of our minds, convincing us that everyone else can see them too. In business, failure is part of the game. I have failed over and over again, in both my personal and professional life, and that’s exactly what gives me the confidence and grit that I have today.

Here are some of my biggest “failures” to date:

1. I gave up on my first business (Sorry I Party).

2. I never graduated college. I had one semester left. ONE. A 3.8 GPA. And my boyfriend at the time was diagnosed with cancer. So I dropped all my classes with the intention of resuming in the spring… except that didn’t happen. My career was already advancing at that point and I felt that refocusing on school would be a step back. So I didn’t do it, and I don’t regret it. But it’s definitely something I get self-conscious about. It’s definitely something I believe that I will be judged for. And I’m learning not the care- because, at the end of the day, I learned what I needed to and I didn’t let society pressure me into doing what’s expected.

3. I chose work over family for three years because I believed someone when they told me that I had to. Que confession #2. Once my career started developing, I was told constantly that the next years of my life were about “sacrifice”. Which meant birthdays. Christmas. Phone calls home. All of it. I haven’t spent Christmas- or any real holiday- with my family since I was 21- over THREE years ago- how insane is that? Going into 2018, I committed to changing that. To rebuild those relationships and make family a priority again. And I have- just as much as I have committed to NEVER putting that kind of pressure on anyone that I work with.

4. I spent four days in the psych ward of a hospital. It was the worst four days of my life at the time but four of the best days for me in the long run. It is still hard for me to talk about, but for anyone out there who struggles with depression or anxiety or overworking yourself, I’ve been there and I’m here if you need to talk.

So there you have it! Some of the things that I’m so tempted to be ashamed of, but am slowly starting to accept as part of my story. And anyways, at the end of the day, it isn’t our failures that define us, but what we do in spite of them, right?

In Metals They Call it “Tensile” and it Means That the Strongest Ones Can Give a Lot

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In metals they call it “tensile” and it means that​ the strongest ones can give a lot. 
They can bend and be flexible without breaking while other metals become frigid or brittle.
How powerful is that?  
To know that strength is not about how much you have, but about how much you can give?

Earn Your Seat and Earn Your Stay 

“California to require public companies to have at least one woman on their board of directors by 2019”

I think that this is good, but I want to be clear that I definitely don’t believe that this is good enough.
In my mind, this can go one of two ways:

1. The boards all add a woman (or two) because they are forced to, not because they saw the value, and little change actually occurs because the mindset is the same, which causes the women to feel resentful/defensive because no, the playing grounds aren’t fair.

2. The women who are added embrace that they are going in with the lower hand and aim to add value in as many ways as possible. They understand that the fight is not over because they got a seat, the fight has JUST started and it is one that we need to win.

My dream is this: eventually these traditional boards that are only making changes because they are being forced to will see what’s happening when their competitors have a culture and environment where women are encouraged to EARN their place. Where they can see the tremendous value that is added when that happens.

That being said, it’s not up to the men to give us power. It’s up to these strong, brilliant women to earn it, and take it, and then earn it and take it over and over again.