Embracing Change with Kendra Sutton

When Kendra Sutton joined our conversation, we didn't just talk about change; we dissected the very fibers of our resistance towards it, both in the corridors of our homes and the hallways of our workplaces. Kendra, a maestro in marketing and branding, brought her own symphony of stories and strategies, demonstrating how letting go of the familiar can be the prelude to a masterpiece of personal and professional growth. We share tales of self-awareness and transformation, highlighting not just how we evolve, but also the nurturing role of compassionate organizational cultures that allow individuals to thrive. 

The episode journeyed further into the realms of mindfulness and self-actualization, where Kendra shares the epiphanies at 56 that lightened life's burdens and aligned her with her true purpose. By connecting with these narratives, listeners are invited to the crossroads of change and creativity, where they might just find the keys to unlocking their untapped potential.

Visit us at jenniferannjohnson.com and learn how Jennifer can help you build the life you dream of with her online academy, blog, one-on-one coaching, and a variety of other resources!

Transcript

Jennifer Johnson: 0:37

Today, we welcome into the studio Kendra Sutton. She is the owner of Katie Sutton Creative Solutions. She is an experienced marketing, branding and advertising strategist with a demonstrated history of helping clients navigate the complex and fascinating world of lead generation and brand awareness. Skilled in traditional mediums such as TV, radio and print, as well as Google, digital marketing, social media, brand storytelling and corporate social responsibility campaigns that help clients get noticed by their customers and create a lasting impact on their bottom line, she's passionate about creating great work through collaboration, and her moxie is coming up with brilliant ideas and producing creative solutions. Welcome into the studio, kendra. Good morning, how are you, jennifer? I am great. It is so good to finally have you in studio.

Jennifer Johnson: 1:26

We've talked about this for a long time. Yes, we have, and now I'm excited to delve into our topic today, which is navigating change. I have talked about this with several different guests on my podcast and everybody has a little bit different flair and we go from different angles, and really I want to talk about, first and foremost, why is it important, as a company or as individuals, that we learn how to navigate change effectively? I know you've gone through massive change and this is why we're talking about this. This is why I want to know from you, because you've lived it Other people are experts in different areas of telling us how to, but you've lived the story?

Kendra Sutton: 2:14

Yes, and I think many of us have lived this story in different ways and capacities. Why we need to learn to navigate change? Because it's inevitable, it's life.

Kendra Sutton: 2:28

And it's going to get thrown at us whether we like it or not. And when you talk about change, from my perspective of what I've gone through, All of us go through things in life and so my downfall was resisting. And when you learn not to resist, I think that's where the real game changer in life in business, professionally and personally all happens. Why do you think we resisted?

Jennifer Johnson: 2:58

so much.

Kendra Sutton: 2:58

Why do you think we resist it so much? Because we like to be comfortable, we like to be accepted, personally and professionally. I think there's a whole list of things of why we resist. You know, we want certainty and when there's not certainty we become uncomfortable, which then forces us out of the comfort zone. Like control, yeah, oh yeah. Control is a big one. And letting go surrendering, yes, huge, it is a huge one. Yeah, toughest lessons personally and professionally for me and I think, navigating this conversation over the last two years with several people, conversation over the last two years with several people, it's truly what has held several of us back as leaders relationships, friendships. It affects us in every gamut and we just don't realize it. That's very true, so we have to embrace it.

Jennifer Johnson: 3:55

Yeah, and you noticed, with the changes that you have had to go through and that you faced that, do you think your number one thing was what you said was resisting? Was it resisting because you wanted that control? Oh, yeah, okay, yeah.

Kendra Sutton: 4:11

You know, I and this is kind of when you talk about a different perspective on this topic we all have courses we go to and people we listen to and people that can tell you all the professional bullet points when we attend. I kind of come at a different angle because I went through a transformation of realizing and having to ask why do I not want to let go?

Kendra Sutton: 4:37

Why do I want to control? Why am I not propelling forward as much as I know I can? I'm not reaching my full potential and I think that becomes a whole different conversation. But yet it affects organizations internally and it affects us internally. And we have so many employees in our business and acquaintances and colleagues that were around and just that old cliche you don't know what anyone's walking through. You're right, and that happens in an organization also. You have multiple personalities. You don't know what trauma they've been through. You don't know what they left.

Kendra Sutton: 5:16

that morning when they closed the front door, and I'm glad we're starting to live in a society of awareness and mental and emotional well-being and that's all part of change. That's navigating that change, becoming a more compassionate society. I think also, and kind of feel, that as we embrace those things, even internally in organizations, it allows us to help other people become their best potential.

Jennifer Johnson: 5:53

Amen. And especially if you've walked it right. There's, you know the whole. Well, I've walked in your shoes, or? Don't judge someone until you've walked in their shoes. And when you've actually stepped in it and when you've lived in it, it's far easier for you to perhaps mentor somebody else who is faced with a big change. And your big change. I don't know if you want to talk about it, but basically you were in corporate Mm-hmm.

Kendra Sutton: 6:14

Yes, and I'm grateful for my journey, no matter what it's been, because that's one of the things of resistance too. I think a lot of times we resist because we compare, we wish I had this, or I wish I had their position, or why didn't I get that, et cetera. But I've learned and I've accepted that the journey brings us to where we are and I'm glad I had the corporate experiences I had. I'm glad that I worked in an industry that was extremely male dominated. That was not pretty. All of these things help us to get to where we're supposed to go, to help us understand where we're supposed to be, to help others and uplift others.

Jennifer Johnson: 7:08

And I completely agree with that, because you are the sum of all of your experiences. Yes, because we are put on this earth to do what it is we are to do. Yes, and it's a collection of experiences that we've taken things away. If we are lucky, we have taken things away. And I say that because there are a lot of people who live in the space of oh, that was the worst job ever, I didn't learn anything. Because they didn't allow themselves to learn anything from it. Correct, it was a job, I punched the clock, I just went to work. And they can say they didn't learn anything.

Kendra Sutton: 7:48

Right. I have to say every single day at the end of the day, I look back now on this day because that's all we're given and we don't even know if we're going to be given that full day. So if I make it through that full day, that's a blessing and a gift. In the evening, no matter how tired, how stressed, whatever comes at us, because it is life, I will sit and be still and reflect on that day and say, okay, what did I learn today? What can I take from today that I'm not happy with and improve on that tomorrow? Or what could I have done a little bit better? That would have changed the course of whatever took place today. And I think that's that thing of embracing that change.

Kendra Sutton: 8:44

Do you journal? Oh yeah, oh yeah. You know, and I encourage anyone, even the greatest of leaders journaling is so cathartic. I mean, you know we got the wonderful pleasure to collaborate on a book together. As much as I journal, and I can whip through 30 pages and pour out a day. You know, sometimes it's a page, whatever it is. That was the hardest 1,500 words I've ever written in my life. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, but you know that's, and I had to embrace some change in that. So it's learning those lessons, being grateful for that journey and being willing. I think that's the thing is we really have to step back and be willing to look in the mirror, face our truths. Sometimes they're not pretty Right.

Kendra Sutton: 9:44

A lot of times sometimes they're not pretty right. A lot of times, a lot of times they're not pretty, and that was the big shift in starting a company and leaving corporate I. I knew this was not true to me anymore in the corporate world. I knew I couldn't make the changes in the impact in my community, in the people around me and in myself that I needed to make.

Jennifer Johnson: 10:09

That's pretty powerful to come up with that right, To realize that.

Kendra Sutton: 10:16

Powerful and while you can validate yourself and several others yourself and several others Entrepreneurship is not for the weak. Being a solopreneur is lonely, many, many times so lonely and feeling like you have to try and figure everything out on your own, and it's really not, even if you are a single business. Bring a business out of your home.

Jennifer Johnson: 10:48

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Kendra Sutton: 11:56

I take a deep breath and pause on that, because that is one of the most powerful true statements that there ever was, and the more of us that realize that, the better your life will become. Being a victor versus a victim will change the trajectory of your life. And I say that coming from a person that up until probably three years ago and I'm going to be 56. Lived a life of always feeling like everything happened to me and nothing good happened for me, for me. And when you start that self-actualization and start really digging deep and realizing that's a lie, that can't be true. We weren't put on this earth for that. There's more out there. It does happen for us because it's here to teach us, it's here to grow us, we're here to evolve, we're here to help, we're here to bless others.

Kendra Sutton: 13:13

And when you do, it comes back. It's through the lens in which you look. If you're always looking through smudged up, cloudy sunglasses, there's going to be no sun Right. And while I, you know my personal journey, while I realized I had some such amazing things that did happen in my life, but I wasn't finding joy in them. And so when I look back at all these wonderful experiences I've had, and even in the corporate world, things I got to do and trailblaze, and I'm thinking look at the people you've met in your life, look at the experiences. Why are you unhappy and why is there no joy? And you have to start looking inward, not outward, and that's what it was.

Jennifer Johnson: 14:06

Do you think it was also because you weren't present? Oh yeah, you know I've been there. I mean, I can admit to it every single day Like I wish I would have been present in that moment, like you're always thinking of the next thing and you're never really right. I'm focusing on you. This is what we're doing right now Instead of going. I've got to get groceries, I've got to do this. We all do that. Oh yeah, but it's the part of you realizing that you're doing it right. Mindfulness, exactly. And I want to touch on something else. You said I'm 56, and it wasn't until three years ago that a lot of this started changing. I mean, you know, I feel like we should go through life with a spiritual mentor or something right that could kick our butt in our 20s or our teens, whatever it is, so that we don't have to go through our entire life Not that, you know, I mean in our 50s, and I can say that I'm almost in the 50 club with all of that. And you know, yeah, because it can be heavy.

Kendra Sutton: 15:16

It can be really heavy and it well, it is heavy, let's just say, depending on what you're carrying. And um, you know, then I had just being transparent here. Then, as I started making the transformation, then I was like, wait, a minute, half my life is gone. And um, how much do I have left to try and pack? How much I now all this wonderful joy and impact? I've always made an impact, I've always been a giver, I've always been charitable, but I mean, where you're really present and you truly make a difference. How much time have I got left to pack all this into? And then I thought, no, no, no, stop, there you are again.

Jennifer Johnson: 15:59

You're not in the present.

Kendra Sutton: 16:01

Exactly. You have to enjoy today, you have to do your best today and when you're, you know, as an entrepreneur and attempting to be a really good leader. Like you said, we have 60,000 thoughts that go through our mind in a day and so that mindfulness, that stopping and pausing and I find myself in it just like you do it's off and running again and I have to stop myself, probably more times than I wish to carry around a day.

Jennifer Johnson: 16:36

You know somebody I don't remember who this was, but somebody that I know had a rubber band always on their wrist and they would flick it every time. They were like there I go again. I'm thinking about what I'm going to do in two hours and I'm not here. I'm like that's a really good idea.

Kendra Sutton: 16:57

It's good. I've heard that before and it's a good idea, except I would stay bruised.

Jennifer Johnson: 17:03

I know I was thinking the same thing about myself.

Kendra Sutton: 17:06

Yeah so and I thought, well, either I'd stay bruised or either I'd get tired of the popping you know, so you know it could be, it could go either way.

Jennifer Johnson: 17:15

But navigating that massive change. If we're more in the present, we're more able to deal with it better. Yes, wouldn't you say?

Kendra Sutton: 17:24

Oh yeah, present, we're more able to deal with it better. Yes, Wouldn't you say. Oh, yeah, for sure, you know that's where the growth comes and that's where you know change can be painful, but that I always say there is so much purpose in the pain, so much purpose.

Jennifer Johnson: 17:41

And I love that you said that, because in the very beginning you had said that we were contributing authors to a book and it's called Slaying Southwest Florida and it was a recount from 20 Southwest Floridian women of things that challenges that we've gone through in our life and that was very like you said, it was very hard to write but we've all. You put people in a room and every single person in that room has gone through some kind of change that's really changed them, yes, for the good or the bad, yes, and those stories, many of them, are very traumatic.

Kendra Sutton: 18:23

And yet you look at these women now and that's what change does. It builds resilience, it builds growth, and it's painful, but if you embrace it, if you accept it, if you surrender. If I didn't have faith in praying and I'll tell you too, I did an immense amount of therapy of every modality humanly possible, but it was truly in faith and prayer is when the peace came, and that was for me, that is for me. But that is where the growth comes, that's where the evolving comes, that's where the change comes and that is where the growth comes, that's where the evolving comes, that's where the change comes and that's where your purpose comes. And that was the thing I was always on, this running sprint quest for what is my purpose? And I'll sit here and tell you I still don't know, but every day I'm figuring it out little by little, because when you go through change, you find what feels good and what fills?

Kendra Sutton: 19:25

you, yes, and I look back over all those wonderful experiences I had and I realized I was trying to please other people. Even when I was in managerial roles and executive roles, I was looking for validation and trying to please people, of course, and so it's like wearing an extremely uncomfortable pair of beautiful stilettos. And now and I don't want to get touchy-feely, but you know, when something feels good, when it feels right, if it makes you uncomfortable in a kind of way, it's like, hmm, it's not for you. Yeah, and your gut. That was the other thing. I always tell people really rely on your gut instinct.

Kendra Sutton: 20:17

Once you're into that mindfulness and you're tuned in, I had a very strong intuition from a very, very young age of three and a half or four oh, wow, and I expressed that through childhood and there would be people that would tell me that wasn't accurate. So you learn to shut that down. One of the things in my changing and evolving and navigating that change was I realized even in my change there were things in my gut that was telling me don't do that or this is going to work better. And I started listening to myself.

Jennifer Johnson: 20:51

It's a powerful voice. It's so powerful, you just have to stop and listen though.

Kendra Sutton: 20:55

We were given that gift for a reason I agree, yeah.

Jennifer Johnson: 20:58

We were born with it. Well, this has been an absolutely beautiful conversation. It has been, and I really think that our listeners are going to find this very, very useful. And if they want to get in touch with you, our listeners, how can they do so?

Kendra Sutton: 21:16

Well, like most branding and advertising companies, I'm in the middle of rebranding again.

Jennifer Johnson: 21:20

We love change.

Kendra Sutton: 21:21

We love change in that capacity, but I am on LinkedIn and my website is kdsuttoncreativesolutionscom and my phone number is 239-910-6414.

Jennifer Johnson: 21:35

Fabulous so much. Thank you so much for.

Kendra Sutton: 21:38

Kendra for having me. You're such a beautiful gift.

Jennifer Johnson: 21:40

Thank you.