072 - Empowering Emerging Leaders: Unlocking Confidence, Communication & Culture with Julie Johnston

In this engaging conversation, Julie Johnston, a Humessence coach, shares her journey and insights on empowering emerging leaders. She emphasizes the importance of public speaking, the power of voice, and the role of improv in coaching. Julie discusses her passion for directing children's theater and the significance of authentic communication in leadership. The conversation also highlights the Game Changers program, which prepares future leaders, and the importance of investing in employee growth to create a positive company culture. Julie concludes with an end-of-year challenge to spread positivity and gratitude.

Takeaways

• Julie Johnston helps emerging leaders build confidence and find their voice.
• The power of making people feel good is central to effective coaching.
• Public speaking is about how you make people feel, not just the words you say.
• Improv skills can enhance coaching and communication effectiveness.
• Vulnerability in leadership fosters respect and connection.
• The Game Changers program prepares future leaders for success.
• Investing in employee growth creates a positive company culture.
• Authentic communication is key to effective leadership.
• Overcoming fear in public speaking is essential for personal growth.
• Spreading positivity can have a profound impact on others.

Visit The Present Professional webpage on humessence.com and learn more about how we support leadership development and culture enablement at growth-stage organizations.

Thank you for listening.

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Transcript

John Marshall (00:32)
Welcome to another episode of the present professional. Today we have Humessence coach, Julie Johnston with us. She is our coach. That's focusing on emerging leaders. So helping them build confidence and find their voice. And through that, she's the designer and facilitator of our game changers program. So I'll let her tell you a little bit more about that a little bit later.

But that's the program that focuses on your cohorts of emerging leaders within your organization. And again, she'll bring you into a little bit more detail on that, but I want you all, I'm so excited for you all to get to know a little bit more about Julie herself or background and just the, I'm excited for you all to experience the light that she brings.

Julie Johnston (01:08)
Yeah.

John Marshall (01:22)
to Humessence and you know what I'm so grateful for in every interaction and every team meeting. So with that, I'll hand it over to Julie for a little, ⁓ one minute autobiography here. Yeah. Tell me, I say, I say one minute to, keep it to, to keep it to five, you

Julie Johnston (01:32)
Storytime? ⁓ one minute. boy. Okay. Let's see then.

Okay, got it. No clip note

version here. Thank you, John. It is such an honor to be here on my, actually this is my second ever podcast, which is ironic because I spend a lot of time behind a microphone, mostly reading other people's words and really just saying mine. So thank you for this opportunity. So my journey to where I am today as a coach, mother, a director of children's theater, a voiceover actress, a voiceover coach,

gosh, a karaoke host. mean, the list goes on. I like to tell people I have 11 jobs and if you can count them not the ones that I'm not paid for, I really do. But it all started, you know, I grew up in California. I had a very loving, supportive family that just really always empowered me to be myself. And I was pretty shy, young, believe it or not. And I got into children's theater.

And that ironically is my heart and soul and passion today. I'll tell you more about that later, but getting into theater was life-changing. And this happened around the age of, I think I started when I was about eight or nine. I wasn't an athletic kid, so I didn't really have anything other than the theater, but it was an instant love for the camaraderie, the product that we would create after weeks and weeks of rehearsing. And it was just this sense of pride and community.

And I'd get out on that stage and I wasn't me. I was a character and I had people smiling and laughing. And I will attest that the feelings I would get when I'd make people smile, when I'd perform has carried forth into who I am to my core today. I believe in the power of making people feel good any way you possibly can. And that is one of my core teachings in my coaching is

it's not about you, it's about how you make people feel. And when people feel good, they wanna be around you. And you build your network and your team and you build your supporters by making others feel good. I think that all kinda clicked being on stage and having just people smile and clap and I went, I did that. So getting later into life, went to Pepperdine, had an incredible opportunity to live overseas. That kinda sparked my...

passion for travel and for culture and for just getting to know strangers. After Pepperdine, I started working in advertising and I was really fortunate to have internships during college, which got me a job right out of school, which really propelled me professionally quickly. Living in California, I born and raised, I always felt like I needed to get to New York. It was in my

blood that I knew I had to experience a city. And so I had a great opportunity two years into my professional career to move to New York City with the company I was with. I had to promise them I wouldn't leave them to go beyond Broadway. And I said, you don't have to worry about that. I'm not that good. But I had just a great opportunity to have a company move me out to New York City, which truly was the transformative time in my life where I met my husband. I got the greatest mentors.

John Marshall (04:25)
Hmm.

I had to separate.

Julie Johnston (04:52)
women who took me under their wing and taught me really a lot of what I teach now and got opportunities to go live again overseas for the company and just experienced life. It also introduced me to the world of voiceover and we're in my studio and I love how you said I help people find their voice because that is actually the tagline to my voiceover business is find your voice. I'm a professional voice actress.

I've been doing it for now 23 years professionally. I'm in the Screen Actors Guild. And I teach it, and I help people create their own career. I was really lucky through my job in advertising. I worked in post-production. So I worked with editors that edited TV commercials. And little Julie, right out of college, was the receptionist. And the editors, I remember one editor one day said, hey, can someone read this script? And I was like, ⁓ I'll do it.

And I went in there and I read it and I was like, what is this? I can read scripts all day. This is awesome. And ironically, the client liked my voice and said, let's just use her. And that was my entrance into the Screen Actors Guild. That was my entrance into residuals and the the ridiculousness of paid voiceover work, which is a beautiful thing, but trust me, it's hard to come by. But definitely I got in through the back door. And so,

at this point in my life, I'm still a voice actor. I still do a lot of work, but I pay forward by helping people learn the business and get into it in a similar way that I did, because I have relationship with an agent that I work with. But anyway, the power of voiceover has really helped me become a better public speaker. It's helped me coach people in their presentation skills and their public speaking skills. And I teach people truly this instrument.

can get you everything you want if you know how to use it right. And so there's a lot of the performing arts tied into my coaching. And I truly believe that little girl on stage that recognized the power she had through her energy and her voice can make people feel good and make people respond. So there's just a lot of that into my coaching world. So flash forward to today. I live in Fairfax, Virginia with my husband and my two

incredible teenage daughters. We're in the thick of it, but we're surviving. And we've moved a lot. I also attest that having lived in Los Angeles, in Las Vegas, in New York, and now Virginia, I've met a lot of people along the way. And I've worked with a lot of people. And I've observed a lot of people seeing what works and what doesn't when it comes to success. I think one of the strengths

John Marshall (07:11)
Ha

Julie Johnston (07:32)
in my coaching is my real life experience. And just having worked in so many different cities, states, environments, types of businesses, I have connected with people in so many ways and coached them just by proxy. I've also done a lot of recruiting. I have a really good, keen sense of who is a good fit and who isn't. And I usually end up coaching people in that interview, whether they're gonna get the job or not.

I'm sure you can tell just my whole life has been spent focusing on people and don't ask me to spell because I'm a terrible speller, but I can talk all day long and really engage and that's my passion and I'm grateful that like at this point in my life, I'm doing everything I feel like I was put on this earth to do. And we'll get into those nine jobs because they're all under that umbrella. Was that five minutes? Did I make it? Probably not.

John Marshall (08:20)
Hmm.

⁓

that was that was beautiful. I don't even care. I don't even care. It's it's one of those things. every time I'm on a call with you, my my fiance says like, is, is that is that Julie? Just just keep her on the phone for a little bit longer. So it's, it's something about something about the way you articulate things and, not just your voice, but the way that everything comes together. That just makes it so

Julie Johnston (08:29)
Aw, thanks John.

that's so funny. It's so funny.

Thanks.

John Marshall (08:53)
easy to listen to. yeah,

Julie Johnston (08:54)
thanks.

John Marshall (08:55)
you know, I apologize for even putting any kind of time constraint on that.

Julie Johnston (08:59)
No, no, it's okay. We need it. You

know, it's funny you say that because sometimes, like, I'll be honest, I get on, like, autopilot when I talk and something, like, overcomes me and I'm, I don't even know what I'm saying. And I'm like, ⁓ it's, it's coming out. And I say that that's the interesting thing about voiceover work is it's difficult because when you're, when you're a voice actor, the goal is to give lines with variety. So if I said, I can't wait to get home.

John Marshall (09:13)
You

Julie Johnston (09:26)
I'm gonna need to say that three different ways, So I could say, I can't wait to get home. I can't wait to get home. I can't wait to get home. Okay, I said it three different ways, but I didn't have a map to follow or musical notes. And I work with a lot of singers and I say, you've got it easy as a singer because the notes are laid out for you. You know exactly what to do. But with speaking, we sometimes don't know what's gonna come out. And I feel like,

That's the fear that keeps so many people from speaking up or sharing their thoughts or feelings, is they're afraid, I don't know what's gonna come out. And once you get over that, just let it out, just say it. mean, there's no, nothing should hold you back and there's no mistakes. And the biggest mistake in speaking is not speaking because then you're never gonna have that opportunity to share your thoughts. So roundabout way of just saying, public speaking is really important.

John Marshall (09:56)
Hmm.

Definitely this night.

You brought something up for me here that, how you teach and lead improv experiences as well. But, what you're just saying there is the right, art of improv, like allowing what's coming up, what's coming to you to come up in a way that you're not so attached to, just the way it comes out and.

Julie Johnston (10:21)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

John Marshall (10:42)
it's improv and coaching are very much aligned, right? Like we don't go into a coaching session knowing what's going to come up with a client. Knowing exactly what they're going to bring to us, knowing how we're going to respond to exactly what they're going to say. It's like every coaching session is a bit of improv. And now I'm kind of seeing how all of these things are coming together to make you a fantastic coach.

Julie Johnston (10:45)
Mm-hmm.

Totally.

It is.

John Marshall (11:09)
of like the improv piece, but then also like this art of helping people find their voice. You just said it in such a beautiful way, sure access through voice acting, but there was so much more behind what you just said right there because how much time do we spend overthinking what we're going to say, how it's going to land, how everyone's going to interpret it? Well,

Julie Johnston (11:20)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

100%. Yep. Yeah.

John Marshall (11:34)
then I might as well just not say anything.

Julie Johnston (11:36)
Yeah.

And you know what's interesting, John, is most people, the reality is they're not really listening to you. They're not. People, it's my Angelou's quote, they'll forget what you said, they forget what you did, but they don't forget how you make them feel. And so much of what I want people to recognize is say what you want to say because they're not going to remember the words, they're going to remember your energy and your spirit and your smile and how that resonated.

what people take away. They're not going to remember verbatim if you said too many times. Let that fear go. But stand up proud and confident and believing in who you are and what you've got to say and people are going to be listening. And once you can lock into just like, it's not what you say, it's how you say it that's going to resonate.

John Marshall (12:22)
Hmm.

I mean, executive presence, right? The way it's laid out in, what is, what is her name? But I can't remember the like kind of the lead or Sylvia Hewitt, think her name is like the dives into executive presence research. And it's something I'm going to butcher these percentages, but it's something like 60 to 70 % is presence, like gravitas or the way that you show up.

Julie Johnston (12:27)
Yes.

Okay.

John Marshall (12:52)
the energy with which you convey like your conviction, your intention. And then communication is like the actual choice of words is like 20 to 30%. And then your appearance is 10 % or something where it's like, you just don't want your parents to take away from your message. But I feel like what you were saying there, it was that kind of amplified by that.

Julie Johnston (13:00)
Right.

Right.

Yeah.

Yep.

John Marshall (13:16)
60 to 70 % of like your conviction, like you're showing up behind your idea and your presence in the room.

Julie Johnston (13:26)
Yep.

And more often than not, the people that are fearful of public speaking and think they're horrible, I mean, they are truly their worst enemies because the audience does not want you to fail. They really want you to do well. So you are being rooted on by whoever's listening to you. And you've just got to lock into nobody sitting there going, ⁓ I hope he messes up. Like, we don't like that.

That's a really uncomfortable feeling when the speaker is frozen or what. No, we want you to do well. So if you look at it that like we're on your team, we're cheering you on, you got this. And I think most of the time the people that think they're terrible are actually really not that bad. They're just really hard on themselves and overly critical. And if you can let that self judgment go and just the act of getting up there and speaking is admirable and people respect that.

John Marshall (13:55)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Julie Johnston (14:17)
then you can start to let the pressure off of being perfect. Yeah, there's a lot into it. I'm doing a workshop, by the way, on January 10th called, Presenting for Introverts. And I think when people recognize, a lot of smart people out there, but it's when you're smart and can communicate that you can get ahead. So you're in a room of engineers and you're all brilliant.

John Marshall (14:21)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Julie Johnston (14:41)
but it's that one that also can communicate how brilliant they are that will get the speaking engagements, the notoriety, and the leaders to recognize them. So I feel very passionate about helping everyone find their voice. And it doesn't mean you have to become this performative extrovert. There are really solemn, controlled people that just speak volumes with their

John Marshall (15:05)
Mm-hmm.

Julie Johnston (15:06)
their mannerisms and their presence, as you said. So it takes all types.

John Marshall (15:10)
Right. And it's like, even

if that takes more energy, you have what it takes still. And I just want to double down on that plug there. If any of you are interested in joining that workshop, you just go right to the Humessence website. There's a button right there at the top to see all the different workshops we have coming up. And you can go ahead and register right for that presenting for introverts workshop on January 10th.

Julie Johnston (15:14)
Yeah.

You do.

Yep.

It's great gift for holidays. Give that person

you love or yourself. I think right now there's a special. It's not even that much money. And you know me. Well, now you're getting to know me. It's going to be fun. It's going to be engaging. And I think you're going to take away something that will live in your pocket. And you will pull it out when you need it and be like, thank you, Julie. I needed to hear that. Because some of this stuff, and I work with kids, John. I kind of left that part out. So probably.

John Marshall (15:42)
Yep.

You

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Julie Johnston (16:00)
The biggest passion project that has come into my life over the last 10 years is getting into directing children's theater. And it happened by happenstance that we moved to Virginia. I had kids in elementary school. We were looking for an easy way to make friends. There was a community theater program at the school or PTA. And I volunteered. And the director was a young woman who ran the program. she's like, you really want to come help at every rehearsal? I'm like, yeah, I would love to.

And I did that for three years with her, helping her with all the musicals. And then she moved away during the pandemic. And the school was like, Julie, you want to take this over? And John, I had never directed a show all by myself. literally, now I never thought I would and never had. I mean, I was always helping her, but it was never my vision and my responsibility. But of course, in Julie fashion, I said yes, because I am a true believer in you got nothing to lose.

So I said yes, but I knew I needed help to pull this off. And we were just coming back from the pandemic and so things were just not in place in any school. And so I had an opportunity to kind of recreate. And I said, I'm going to go to the Performing Arts High School in our community and I'm going to go to the district, the school district and get certified, my company, iContact Coaching, to be a partner with the school district.

John Marshall (16:59)
Mm-hmm.

Julie Johnston (17:24)
And so I was able to get interns from the Performing Arts High School to come work with me as my junior directors. And so I've created this program. Now I've been doing this for four years. I do two shows a year. They are growing in size, growing in offerings. We're adding more programs. We're adding more kids. We're adding more interns. And it's really been taken notice of by the school district. We just got reached out to by the superintendent.

of Fairfax County that said, I've heard about this program, I want to learn more. And so I am just overjoyed because what I'm doing for these kids is what I'm doing for these adults. And that's teaching them young, the confidence, the teamwork and the power and just get out there and sing your little hearts out. And you're going to be so proud of yourself and you may never do it again, but you will remember this forever. And you'll use these skills in whatever avenue life takes you.

John Marshall (17:58)
Wow.

Hmm. Sing your little heart out. It's like that can apply, right? And so many, right? She will. She's already, yeah, she's, she's already like pretty, pretty loud. Like she has some, she has some vocal cords for sure. yeah, we'll see how that evolves, but it's, this like sing your little heart out can, you know, really apply.

Julie Johnston (18:24)
Your little girl's gonna do that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

John Marshall (18:43)
throughout our lives, right? It's like, how many times have we, I don't want to even speak from this universal we, but it's even thinking back on my life, how many times were there that, that I stayed silent, probably maybe a little less than some, but you know, that happens more than, especially with a lot of my clients and everything. It's, know, so many things that, you know, they could have said or they could have said differently.

Julie Johnston (18:55)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

John Marshall (19:09)
And, you know, that's okay to see that in hindsight, but then it's, you know, what are you going to do differently moving forward? Right. Where can you start creating evidence that, you know, I can speak up and there's not going to be all this bad, all these bad things that I think is going to happen. All right. Yeah.

Julie Johnston (19:16)
Yeah.

Yeah, I have a story. to that

point, so I take, I teach improv. Thank you for bringing that up. It is so fun. And I teach it to adults and children because as you mentioned, and it is so true, improv just replicates life. Like we don't know what's going to happen. And when you learn the art of rolling with it and being ready to pivot and also being inclusive, the whole yes and where you make people feel good.

and you agree, but you can also add your own ideas in and redirect. It's such a valuable tool. And when these kids learn it, it's fun. But when the adults learn it, it's like, ⁓ I see the connection to my real life. And I'm going to apply this to my job. I'm going apply this to my family. So I was taking an improv workshop recently, and we did a showcase. And it was like we'd been rehearsing, performing, and learning together for several weeks.

John Marshall (20:13)
Mm-hmm.

Julie Johnston (20:19)
and the final, it culminated in an improv show. And it was me and nine other of the actors that I'd been working with for the last seven weeks. And we were in front of like hundred people. And granted, this was my very first improv performance personally. I had been teaching it forever, but I've not been a student. And the final little like act that we were doing, obviously it's improv, so we didn't know where it was going. But I set up the scene to be about the show Wicked.

John Marshall (20:37)
Mmm.

Julie Johnston (20:46)
and people were interacting with that wicked theme. But here's where the story happens. So I moved to the back line, letting people interact, and in my head, I'm thinking, okay, what I really wanna do right now is the, ⁓ and I wanted to do it. I wanted to just belt my little heart out, and I thought it would be so funny, just out of nowhere, and I was too scared.

And I overthought it and I'm like, no, that's gonna be weird. And it's funny because my daughter was in the audience and she was watching me. And after the show, she goes, I knew exactly what you were thinking. You wanted to do that. And I'm like, yes. She goes, I saw the wheels spinning. She goes, why didn't you do it, mom? And I'm like, I was just too afraid that people would think it was weird or that it would just be too disruptive. And I'm like still mad at myself. I am still beating myself up for wasting that.

opportunity that now flash forward that that little is so famous. Like everyone would have understood at this point looking hindsight. Julie, because this was probably a week before the show came out, the movie came out. But John, like I'm the type of person that I hang on to things, my own things. I'm a great forgiver of other people, but I really am hard on myself. And, there's, there's good and bad in that, but

John Marshall (21:51)
yeah.

Hmm

Julie Johnston (22:04)
that lesson of regret. That's what I teach and that's what I got to keep teaching myself. I mean, we don't learn all this overnight and that's why coaching is important. It's not like I took a class, I got a certification and I'm qualified for life. It's like, no, this is lifelong learning. This is lifelong resetting, reflecting, but I will never miss an opportunity to be weird in an improv class ever again. And I'm going to do that little

Wicked thing anywhere I go now because I'm like no, I'm gonna make up for that missed opportunity Yeah

John Marshall (22:39)
such a good example.

Anyone that's listening right now has an example of some place in their life they can look back and think of a time that they stayed silent. But then when you move into your career, there's so much calculation going on about what's allowed, what's valued.

Julie Johnston (22:50)
Yes. Yes.

Mm-hmm.

John Marshall (23:07)
How do I need to show up to live by these core competencies? Do I need to behave like my manager? It's like all of this, it's kind of this barrier between social awareness and hypervigilance, where it's great to be socially aware and be able to read the room. But then at the same time,

Julie Johnston (23:12)
Yeah.

Yeah.

John Marshall (23:28)
It's, know, when you're letting that awareness control and affect how you're, feeling inside this hypervigilance, it's, know, then you can kind of stifle your authenticity. So it's, like, how do you help people find this balance of tact and their authentic voice when it comes to like their careers and professionally.

Julie Johnston (23:35)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So

I love that question because I'm actually talking to a client about this right now with it's about your delivery. And you can really get away with saying anything if it's coming from the right place and if it's keeping in mind how the other person is going to receive it. And so if you have a complaint or a concern or a disagreement with someone, but you deliver it in a way

that disarms them, that makes them see it's coming from a place of true concern, compassion, or just fear, then you give them the permission to hear you from your perspective. But so many of us don't know how to do that. And we just come at people. One thing I tell people is when you're going to send a text or an email, read it out loud in an angry voice.

If it sounds angry, then you've written it wrong. But if you find, and I mean, there's a difference between obviously writing and speaking, but I just think in all communication, you really have to dial into how is the person gonna receive this? And this goes back to, it's not about you, it's about them. And you've gotta think through, well, I wouldn't take it like that. It doesn't matter how you would take it. How do you think they would? And do you really know them to know?

John Marshall (24:47)
Hmm.

Julie Johnston (25:11)
could this go the wrong direction than you intended just because the words you've chosen are your energy or your tone.

John Marshall (25:18)
And you that you said something there like that you intended and I'm like, I feel like part of that is sometimes just communicating your intention. Right. Is, here's what I have to say. might not be perfect, but here's the reason why. Right.

Julie Johnston (25:28)
Yeah.

Yep.

John Marshall (25:35)
I'm coming like

Julie Johnston (25:36)
Yeah.

John Marshall (25:37)
I'm really here because, I want to foster your growth, even though it's uncomfortable. know that this conversation has to happen for you to hear, you know, what I feel that I would want to hear if I was in your situation. Right. It's like, and that could be just a feedback scenario like that, but I feel like there was something there about, what you intend.

Julie Johnston (25:43)
Yeah.

Yeah.

John Marshall (25:58)
And sometimes there are tactful and thoughtful ways to communicate that within the communication itself, but maybe sometimes it's just communicate your intention.

Julie Johnston (26:09)
And I love that. The idea of being vulnerable is very powerful. And with my game changers and my rising leaders who are always in a position of trying to prove themselves and come off more prepared or more elevated than maybe they really are, they put up these fronts and energies that they won't show vulnerability or weaknesses. There is so much power when somebody comes to you and is like, I think I messed up.

and I want to just talk through it, or I don't have the answer, I don't know how to do this. I I respond really well to people who are real versus trying to be something they're not. And when you learn that tactic at any level, because when a leader can come to you and be like, I messed up, I totally want to talk through this, I didn't make the right choice, that is so powerful. And they gain so much respect when you can do this.

John Marshall (26:49)
Mm-hmm.

Julie Johnston (27:03)
But as a young rising leader to learn that now and not the hard way, the game changers, if we could talk about that for a minute. Yeah. So throughout my career working in advertising live events, I was the director of creative and I moved into vice president of people for a live event company after my career in advertising. I've worked with a lot of very senior people.

John Marshall (27:13)
Yeah, I was gonna that was gonna be my next I was like, good thing you brought that up. Let's talk about game changers.

Julie Johnston (27:31)
You know, when you have personality, like the kind that people are attracted to, and I like to teach people that, because it's not something you necessarily have to be born with. You learn those tactics. I can teach you that. But people gravitate to you. And I've been fortunate to have leaders really trust and take my advice and take my feedback. You know, it's nice when someone will listen to you telling them, you are being a jerk. And they're like, tell me more, Julie. But anyhow, I found.

John Marshall (27:57)
you

Julie Johnston (27:58)
over the years and through working with people that some of the things I'd have to work on with these very, very senior executives and business owners, I would just shake my head and say, why didn't you learn this 10, 20 years ago? And they would look at me and say, why didn't someone teach me this 10 or 20 years ago? And that is where this whole notion of we've got to be preparing people for leadership before they're leaders.

It just makes sense. so Game Changers came out of a desire through a company I was coaching to get people prepared for leadership, to teach them good communications, good perspective. We like that word a lot in the program. Good ways to take a step back and look at things from different angles. Good ways to, as you were talking about, speak their truth.

with a diplomatic and respectful way because they always have to remember who they are and what position they're in. getting them ready for that next role of leadership so they don't have to learn it on the fly or learn it when they've already made a bunch of mistakes and they should have been doing this sooner. And another thing we teach in the Game Changers is you're not ready for your promotion.

John Marshall (29:12)
Mm-hmm.

Julie Johnston (29:16)
until you've essentially trained someone that can replace you. And it's the idea of you want to be irreplaceable, you will remain irreplaceable and you will not get promoted. And that power in giving your knowledge, giving training, pouring into the younger, newer people under you to prepare them to take on your role so that you have a role to move into. Cause yeah, if you don't have anyone ready to take your position, they're going to keep you there.

John Marshall (29:20)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Julie Johnston (29:44)
So I love the inner company mentoring programs. I love when people can just, pay it forward, from within, I really support that in companies and the Game Changers completely facilitates that concept.

John Marshall (29:59)
Hmm. Beautiful. Well, so like just well said, it's, you know, it's a component of every organization's, you know, well, I guess, let me say should be a component of every organization's development plan, right? When it comes to, you know, how you are planning out your organization and the succession of

Julie Johnston (30:01)
Thanks.

Yeah.

John Marshall (30:24)
the kind of culture that you want to create because creating culture at the highest levels is, know, there's a lot of ingrained beliefs and behaviors at that level, creating culture over the next 10, 15 years, that starts at game changers. That starts at your rising leaders.

Julie Johnston (30:27)
Yeah.

Definitely. Yeah.

Yeah.

John Marshall (30:47)
So, you know, I think this program is absolutely critical and there's really no better person to facilitate it. So let me just put this plug out here for anyone listening that if this is something that you think is interesting, you go right to Julie's profile and you schedule a chat with her. That's it.

Julie Johnston (31:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

John Marshall (31:07)
She'll get you up to speed. She'll talk to you about, the way that this may fit in some custom way within your organization. And just like you're listening in with our conversation right now, she's just as willing to have this conversation with you. So do not hesitate to reach out to either of us. That's right on the Humessence website.

Julie Johnston (31:22)
100%.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's such a great culture building, but also I like to say it's a gift to your staff. It's like, I think we're entering into, well, we're not even entering. We're in the thick of a work environment across the globe where employees want more out of their job than just the office happy hours and maybe a

John Marshall (31:57)
8.

Julie Johnston (31:58)
bonus. They want something to build their personal growth. And when you recognize and almost accept the fact that they're probably not going to work for you forever, but that's not going to stop you from investing in them and growing in them. And what I tell business owners is the best thing you can do is to create a culture and a culture of learning and development and training that

puts your company on the map that any other company knows if they get an employee that came from your company, they are A plus plus superstars because you do the best job at training and growing and nurturing your staff. And what a gift to give to your employee that you know they may outgrow you someday, but you're giving them those tools to go get another incredible job because of what you've poured into them. And I think

John Marshall (32:50)
Mm-hmm.

Julie Johnston (32:52)
You know, I remember working in Los Angeles. I come from, again, entertainment. there was a talent agency, William Morris was notorious for, people get paid like $5 an hour to work in the mail room. But that was the job everybody wanted. Because if you could get your foot in the door at William Morris in the mail room, making $5 a day, let's just say.

You were on a path because they invested in you, they grew you, and you knew you were going to make it into the agent world because that's the program they ran. And so, God, how cool would that be for companies to be so enticing to young, great talent that they'll do anything to get in the door because they trust that you're going to take their career and their personal and professional growth serious, and you're going to help them become the best they can be so they can be that for you.

John Marshall (33:28)
Mm-hmm.

Right. and now these skills are transferable, right? when it, when you're talking about the skills to become a better leader, it's a lot of those are about.

becoming a more well-rounded human overall. I these are things that translate both inside and outside of the office. And, your people can come to you and be grateful about how their lives have improved from training like this and investing in your people. Now, when you take someone's life and upgrade it like that, I mean, talk about something that really fosters loyalty.

And then there's always the folks that are like, well, what if we invest all this money and then they leave? And I love, I just love this quote. What if you don't invest it and they stay?

Julie Johnston (34:37)
Yeah.

So true.

John Marshall (34:41)
Right?

It's like, which one, you know, which one do you want to place your bet on? That's it. Well, there's just so much here. There's so much that you bring to this conversation and we would have to be on here for three to four hours to

Julie Johnston (34:45)
Yeah. Yeah.

John Marshall (34:57)
Like really unpack all of the things that you're doing and all of the, all of the different conversations that people could have with you. There are so many ways that, you know, that you can, that you support your clients and that you support, Humessence as well. me. So, you know, for that, I'm, you know, I'm very grateful to have you on the team and for you to be on this conversation so that everyone listening right now can just get a little bit of Julie in their day.

Julie Johnston (34:59)
I know.

Thanks.

Thanks, John.

John Marshall (35:26)
Of course.

And with that, what's your last words of wisdom that you want to leave with the audience in farewell?

Julie Johnston (35:35)
Hmm.

Well, since this is an end of the year podcast and I am a big one on New Year's resolutions and just going out positive, I got a three pronged challenge for the listeners. And this is obviously something you can do forever. So it doesn't have to be an end of the year challenge, but we'll look at it that way. So three things you can do to end the year positively. And this is all

under the umbrella of making people feel good. First thing, and this is all easy stuff, you can do it on your phone, so no excuse. I want you to text somebody that has had a positive impact helping you in your life this year. Somebody that poured into you in some way, shape, or form, you gotta send them a thank you. It's like, let their good deed not go unrecalled by the end of the year. So just send them another thank you and let them know what they did for you and how much it meant to you. Second,

I want you to text somebody that you helped this year that really had the courage to come to you for help. Maybe you advised them, maybe you worked with them, maybe you just, you were there for them and I want you to tell them you're proud of them. And I want you to tell them you're grateful that they asked you for help and you were able to be in their life and you're honored to be on their journey. But just pour into that filling them up so that they can be reminded. It maybe wasn't

easy for them to ask for help, but you were honored and you felt good that they did, so tell them that. The third thing I want you to do is I want you to go on your favorite social media platform and I want you to find a post by somebody maybe you know or don't know that you can tell a lot of people or that the person is poured into writing this content and maybe they've got like one like. I want you to like it and I want you to write them a positive encouraging comment. That's you touching a stranger and

Right now, social media has such a hold on people's self-esteem. It's terrible, but it's true. And working with teenagers, I see how much value they put into the responses they get from their pictures and their posts. I mean, it's bad, but it's the reality. And I think there's a lot of professionals out there that are feeling unseen, and it's really affecting potentially

John Marshall (37:29)
you

Julie Johnston (37:49)
their self-esteem and the way they view themselves. If you can just give them a moment of notice, you could potentially change their whole day, month, week, and how they see that they're not invisible. So focus on helping people not feel invisible. And all three of those things, as easy as they are, are going to make you feel so good. Because I guarantee somebody is going to write you back and thank you for that. And it's just this transfer of good energy that if you can just start incorporating that into your daily life.

John Marshall (38:01)
Hmm.

Julie Johnston (38:18)
You really are going to get fueled by making people feel good. That's my words of wisdom.

John Marshall (38:25)
that was beautiful. All right. I got nothing to add to that. got nothing to add to that. Yes. Yes, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it and we'll task all of you listeners to do that as well. Thank you all so much for tuning in again. And I'm so glad that you got to experience the wonderful Julie Johnston and I task you to set up a call with her to learn more.

Julie Johnston (38:27)
You gonna do it?

Okay, do it. Good.

John Marshall (38:48)
anything that piqued your interest out of this, she'll lean into helping you if you can't tell from that last statement.

Julie Johnston (38:52)
I'd love to. Thank you,

John. You're amazing. It's an honor to work for you. And with you.

John Marshall (38:59)
Thanks, Julie. Until

next time, everyone, much love.