Breaking the Conventional Rules of Success + Resiliency with Tammy Alvarez (part 1)

Tammy Alvarez's journey from homelessness at 15 to a thriving Wall Street executive and CEO of Career Winner's Circle shatters the conventional rules of success. With no college degree until 40, Tammy's story is a powerful testament to resilience, courage, and unconventional decision-making. Tune in to hear Tammy unravel how her challenging past fuelled her ambition, allowed her to confront imposter syndrome head-on, and led her to embrace a "break-all-the-rules" approach in both life and career decisions.

Discover the profound impact of fear, ambition, and mentorship in Tammy's life, propelling her to seize opportunities despite feeling unqualified. With a significant mentor guiding her path and a realization of the strength in her unique perspective, Tammy's transition into coaching underscores her passion for empowering others. Her story highlights the often-unrecognized influence we can have on others, and how those small moments can lead to significant life changes. Tammy's journey is inspiring, providing valuable insights for anyone seeking to overcome personal and professional obstacles.

As Tammy shares her experiences navigating corporate apathy and redefining success, listeners will find motivation to pursue personal fulfilment beyond the traditional corporate ladder. From a life-changing decision to leave Wall Street for a tropical island, to embracing storytelling and authorship in new environments, Tammy demonstrates the power of intentional change. She challenges us to redefine what success truly means, illustrating that real growth often requires stepping outside our comfort zones to focus on what genuinely enhances the quality of life.

About Tammy Alvarez
Tammy Alvarez is the CEO of the Career Winners Circle, author, professional keynote speaker, inspirational coach, and former corporate executive. 

Her spirited “Break All the Rules” approach blends C-Suite experience with a pragmatic, results-based coaching style that helps business professionals create a big impact and love every Monday again. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammyalvarez/

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience is now available for download as an audible.  Check it out!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:06

In the grand theater of life. We all seek a comeback, a resurgence, a rekindling of our inner fire. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience. This is not just another podcast. This is a journey, a venture into the heart of human spirit, the power of resilience and the art of reigniting our passions.

Speaker 2 0:30

Welcome back to another episode of Reignite Resilience. I am your co-host, Natalie Davis, and I am so excited to be back with you all. Pam, how's it going?

Speaker 1 0:41

Actually fabulous. Yeah, it's actually another great day day. I'm always excited when we get to end our day with an interview so yes, somebody new. And what I love about it is the research that happens before we jump on these calls to get to know the person that we're going to have this conversation with, and then it just feels like you got a new friend, that you're, yes, exactly I love it.

Speaker 2 1:03

I love that. I do love that. This is like the end of your day. I'm like looking at the laundry list of things that I still have left to do well, I'm done coaching for the day.

Speaker 1 1:11

Let's be clear one of my 15 jobs is done for the day is complete, exactly.

Speaker 2 1:19

Oh my goodness. Well, I love that. And for anyone that's listening and following along and you heard that I still have Gwen's gift for Walker. I still haven't delivered it to Pam. So a couple of days have passed and I'll get it there. I will get it there, I promise you, before his first birthday. Can I just do that? You can do that until February. You're fine, I do, I do.

Speaker 2 1:41

I am like the queen of delivery. I think I act in a lot of ways like millennials, but I'm not. I am not a millennial. Let me be very clear, but I depend on every delivery service that's available. Yes, enjoy it, and I am glad that we have had the advancement of technology to make my life easier. I should have just delivered it to your house. It's all right. It's all right. This will be all good. Exactly Well for our listeners.

Speaker 2 2:13

We have a special guest today, as Pam mentioned, and we are so excited because we have an opportunity. I am excited to learn new things, to expand, to grow and to hear some personal story from none other than Tammy Alvarez, who is the CEO of Career Winner's Circle and is also an author, a professional keynote speaker, an inspirational coach, a trainer and an epic storyteller. She's an award-winning entrepreneur and former corporate executive, and Tammy believes that leaders who inspire courage are at the heart of every successful business, and I have to say, in these times, that is huge and could not be more true of a statement. Tammy, welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 2:59

Thank you so much, Natalie and Pamela. I am so glad to be here. This has been on my calendar for a while.

Speaker 2 3:16

So I've been really looking forward to leaning in and having a fun conversation with you guys today. But before we dive into your break all the rules approach of making decisions in life, I'd love to just hear a little bit about your personal story that let's tell the listeners about Tammy.

Speaker 3 3:32

Sure, absolutely. So the from here backwards right, just to kind of give you a little bit of background, my corporate career I'm a. I currently run a circle as a coaching firm and you know we do business advisory work as well, and and a lot of the work that we do is informed by my 20 plus years as a C-suite executive on wall street. And as I was on wall street, obviously I was earlier in my career as one of the only females on the leadership table usually the youngest and I had a secret that I didn't want anyone to know and I didn't get my college degree until I was 40. I was managing director on Wall Street at 35.

Speaker 3 4:15

And the reason I did not get my college degree going back a step further is that when I was 15 years old, my parents we were in a small town in Northern New Jersey more cows than people, dairy farms and my parents got divorced.

Fueled by Fear

Speaker 3 4:27

It was no big deal, it was all the rage, right, so it was happening everywhere. But what we didn't expect is that a few months after my parents had split up, my mom, my sister and I were homeless and my mom got pregnant with me in high school, never finished, spent her the rest of her adult life taking care of me and my sister and helping my dad with his business, and so she was completely ill-equipped to deal with the sucker punch that she had gotten, and at 15 years old, that had such a profound impact on absolutely every decision I had made after that. You know it was, it was really impactful. And so when we talk about resilience and we talk about, you know, coming back and and having that fortitude, especially now with all the chaos and you know, the people are stepping on that gas pedal faster and faster.

Speaker 3 5:20

You know, when you look back and you find those opportunities in your life where you could have let it be you or used it to help fuel your next stage and your perspectives, I'd like to say I did this on purpose. I was an angry 15 year old girl. I did not somewhat of a luck over skill type of situation, but that's really where the heart of my corporate experience, my personal perspectives, that's where they all come from.

Speaker 1 5:50

Yeah, oh, my gosh Powerful story, yes, Wow, and I and I did read that about not having the college degree and then working on wall street and I was like holy cow, that is amazing. And so kind of tell us like how did? How did that happen? Like you just walk up to Wall Street and just I did.

Speaker 3 6:13

I said you need me, I know.

Speaker 2 6:15

Which which just blows my mind because you have, like, people that are qualified or have the degree, or have various degrees, and they have imposter syndrome and they pull the brake. And you said absolutely not.

Speaker 3 6:25

I have imposter syndrome. And they pull the brake. And you said absolutely not Imposter syndrome, do not kid yourself, my friend. It was a thing. But I also had something that they did, and it was called fear. And so my ambition was fueled by fear, because I did not want to let history repeat itself and there was zero reason why it shouldn't. Right, I mean, no college degree, no education, small town I had all the makings to be exactly like my mother, you know, and so so it was that fear that really fueled my ambition and saying I want better for me. You know, I saw how hard she struggled and all of the things she had to go through and I'm like I don't want that. That's actually hard. And so when I started my career, I didn't start right on Wall Street, I started actually with a temporary services company called Manpower and I was working their light industrial desk so we would place laborers and factory workers and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 7:20

So I show up my little business suit, my hard hat, and just walk around thinking I own the place, which I kind of felt like I did, and that's how I started. But I started in an area in South Jersey with a franchise owner that turned out to be the gift of my entire career. He saw Marty Klein. He saw more in me than I did and I had one thing going for me is that I didn't know any better. So I was fearless because I played like I had nothing to lose, because I didn't.

Speaker 3 7:49

And so he put me in these situations. I had no business being in that. I didn't know what I was doing and I would fumble my way through and get there, you know. And then so I ended up starting new divisions and, you know, opening new branches and making new business relationships and doing all these things, and that's really where I kind of honed my business capabilities. But it was absolutely under the tutelage of an amazing mentor, which you know just again, somewhat, you know, taking advantage of a good situation and luck of the draw. But that's when I started pivoting into working around and then ultimately in Wall Street, you know so, and it was interesting because it took me a really long time in my career to realize that my secret, the fact that I wasn't like everyone else and I hid that for as long as I could because I looked at that like that was my Achilles heel.

Speaker 3 8:40

And what I didn't realize is that ultimately, that was my superpower, and because I was different, because I came at things differently, I had a different point of view. That's why I was usually there, not because I looked, thought and acted like everyone else, and so had I learned that lesson a little bit earlier, it would have been a lot less painful. But yeah, so those were some of the big takeaways from early career days, for sure.

Speaker 1 9:02

Yeah, wow, we've had a lot of people on and it always seems like there's some person that has been placed in their world at a perfect time that helps them through a significant part of their life, and we can all probably name those people, whether it's a teacher, a coach, whoever that might be Whoever? Yeah, that's incredible, Wow Well and then it's fun trying to think of okay now who have I?

Speaker 3 9:24

yeah, that's incredible, wow, well, and then it's fun trying to think of okay now, who have I been that for? Yes, right, and when those stories come back it's like, oh, okay, this is worth it.

Speaker 2 9:33

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 3 9:36

That's what somebody you haven't heard from in like 10 years is like because of what we did. I showed up differently here. I'm like oh, this isn't getting better than that, right.

Speaker 2 9:43

Yeah, the one thing that you said, like the off comment or statement that you made or not off comment, but the statement that you make and and five years later they come forward and they say, oh, I only did this because you said whatever it is that you said during lunch or coffee, and it's like huh, I had no idea. I said that Exactly.

Speaker 1 10:02

Yeah, yeah, little seeds that you're planting throughout you through everything and every interaction that you're having with people. And so which is that kind of what led you to get into coaching and be a coach for um?

Speaker 3 10:15

you know, I always knew that I would be a coach in my soft retirement okay, in wall street, you age out, and if you don't think you're going to age out, you're fooling yourself.

Speaker 3 10:24

So you're either going to do it on your terms or theirs. But this wasn't supposed to happen for like another 10 years from now. That was my business plan. I'm going to coach. That was the extent of my business plan and and what I had always found, because I played big and taken big risks and, you know, failed plenty along the way. So we can certainly talk about resilience there.

Speaker 3 10:46

But I had always, I believe very strongly, if you don't like it, change it Like you are the boss of you and you get to make those decisions. And so I would make sure that there was at least one thing I was passionate about in everything that I did, and ideally it's passionate about the work, the impact that you're making, that kind of stuff. Yes, I have had jobs where the work is pretty damn boring, so I'm like, all right, we're not doing that. So then I would fall, you know, and I'd be passionate about my people and how can I help them grow, how can I help them do their thing? And then that didn't work, because I have not worked with the best people all the time. You know that I'm like am I passionate about my growth? Is there something in it for me where I'm building skills and and those types of things? And when those three things were no, then it was time to make a move.

Speaker 3 11:32

And I remember. I remember the moment my corporate career got its death sentence. It was, like you know, it was so clear to me. And so I was sitting in the boardroom and we had missed earnings again. And we did this every quarter. We always missed earnings.

Speaker 3 11:48

And so what the routine was? We'd sit through the call, wait five minutes, our boss would come in and then heads would start to roll and we would all blame each other. It was a game. It's like oh, sales suck, this quarter Operations was terrible, it's your fault. And it was just a game. We'd all go out for beers afterwards and that'd be the end of that and we go back to our normal day.

Speaker 3 12:06

Only this time I remember like I felt like I was having this out of body experience where I was floating over the boardroom table and I just was totally disassociated from what was happening, and I later diagnosed it. You know that I did get you know a massive case of I don't give a shit, itis, and I didn't know it was terminal. Six months later I had cashed out of Wall Street, moved to a tropical island off the coast of Belize and started this coaching company and then spent the first you know the next two years making every mistake you could possibly make, because when I left my corporate role like I was overseeing 2000 people in 35 countries, of course I know how to run a business Not really, as it turns out.

Speaker 3 12:54

And so, while I was suffering in a very nice environment in the tropics, you know, the next two years was definitely a hit or miss in terms of trying to figure out my path and and what we were doing and how we were going to be doing it.

Speaker 1 13:07

Oh my gosh, I love that, and I think that probably resonates with a lot of people that have suffered from the same ailment that you did.

Speaker 2 13:16

Don't give a shit.

Speaker 3 13:18

It's terminal right and you can hold on to it for a little while, but eventually and and you know, that's what we talk about now and that's a lot about what the book is about is just really this apathetic haze that has taken over corporations.

Speaker 3 13:33

It's like and it was interesting because not to geek out too much on work stuff, because I love the resilience conversation, they all kind of blend. But Gallup did two surveys that I found were really interesting in the same year. But Gallup did two surveys that I found were really interesting in the same year, so in one survey they did a global survey of knowledge workers and asked them how satisfied they were with their jobs and they got an 80% satisfaction rate. I thought that was pretty good Right.

Speaker 2 13:56

You hear?

Speaker 3 13:57

all the doom and gloom and everything. So 80% of workers were satisfied with their job. And they did a different survey and they basically asked how much do you care about what you're actually doing? And that went down to 20%. So, good enough that autopilot, that comfort zone, all of these things. So you've got 60% of the population that have I don't give a shit-itis. Yeah, exactly, you can see it in the employee dissatisfaction rates. You can see it in companies struggling to. You know, figure the secret sauce out, like all of these things. And so you know to everybody who's listening if you have it, you know it's not going to go away.

Speaker 2 14:38

Yes listening.

Speaker 1 14:42

If you have it, you know it's not going to go away. Yes, and I feel like there's so many people that just stay there because it's like, well, this is what. That would be hard and scary for me to pick up and move to a tropical island and start a business. Oh my gosh, why would I ever do that? So they lean into what's comfortable.

Speaker 3 14:58

Yeah, and you can make these moves without having to be that dramatic. You know, I tend to have a flair for the drama, right, and I like, and I knew that just a new corporate job would be a different shade of lipstick and it was not going to work. But I also knew I needed a massive reset. I was a workaholic, you know. That caused a divorce ultimately, you know, and there were things that I just didn't feel fulfilled in from a personal perspective and you know, when I got divorced, that was the big aha moment for me.

Speaker 3 15:28

I had a very full life. My husband was a stay at home dad and a fantastic daughter who just got here today. Actually, she's been so excited, you know, and there's all these things, that I was traveling the world and solving big problems and doing all this. And then, when she went to college and we split, I had nothing but work and my job sucked. At the time I was like this can't stay, like we have to do something very different here, and that was my aha moment that there's got to be something more out there. There's got to be something bigger for me.

Speaker 1 15:56

Absolutely.

Speaker 2 16:01

Well, and talk to us about that pivot, Tammy, because it's I'm sure it was not an overnight when you are operating as a C-suite exec and overseeing, I mean, and if you either cared about the company or the lives of the people that you are working with or your own personal and professional growth, there was some connection and tie to what you were doing. Always, yes, and somehow you were able to pivot and prioritizing yourself, knowing that something new needed to happen. What was that like for you?

Redefining Success and Finding Fulfillment

Speaker 3 16:26

It was interesting because, as I was starting to realize I was going to make an exit, and it took probably about six to nine months, you know, to do that and get you know it's a long exit for that level and you know that kind of stuff. I had the one thing I didn't do, which I normally did, so my boss had left and there was a new leader that. So normally, if my boss would leave, I take that spot. But I knew that that's not what I wanted because we were going to be moving to Belize. I'm like, all right, that's probably not a great idea, so I didn't. And then so a new person came in who was not the sharpest tool in the shed and so normally, you know, that's like blood in the water on Wall Street, so you just take them out.

Speaker 1 17:07

Yes, that's what you do.

Speaker 3 17:11

It's just so, you know, and I didn't do that either and I'm like all right. This felt really weird and my partner, steve, was kind of coaching me from the sidelines. I'm like I don't know how to not do this, and he's just like you have to be, I'm like all right, so I left it be. And then one of my directs kind of saw an opportunity. So he was starting to make a power play and again, normally, you know, you correct that behavior and use those powers for good and not evil. And and I did it, and so this was the first time that I just kind of sat back and said you know what, let's pretend I'm not here.

Speaker 3 17:43

I mean, I still, obviously, was making, doing high impact work, but I wasn't, you know, moving the chess pieces and just let things kind of see how they played. And just watching how that played was the thing I needed to know that there's nothing more I can do here, there's nothing more I want to do here, and that the people that were there that I did care very much about were in good hands. And if they weren't, then they were in the position to change that for themselves. And you know, and being able to do that and I had started to disassociate myself from being a workaholic. I started to not work 14 hour days and, you know, take the weekends off and actually disappear on vacations and do the things that I tell all my clients do. Now, you know, and by doing that I got a little taste of what that feels like. I'm like, well, this is kind of fun, and you know so.

Speaker 3 18:31

Then the biggest part was really just walking away from the giant paycheck and the comfort of knowing that you know I was on autopilot with this job comfort of knowing that you know, I was on autopilot with this job, like it was not hard and that, to me, got stale because I need to grow, I need to learn, I need to do things. That's just who I am and that's where I get my energy and my passion from is being over my skis. I love it, and so when I knew that there was no more opportunity anywhere in the organization for that that I would actually care about passionately enough to put in the sweat equity, um then I just knew it was time, yeah.

Speaker 3 19:05

That's so scary for most people. Oh, and a lot of my colleagues asked me like why are you giving up? And that was not the question I was expecting. I was like I am taking one of the biggest risks of my life and it was perceived as giving up because I had finally made it to, whatever that means, and to walk away from that willingly is you know which blew people's minds, that I wasn't staying in the game.

Speaker 1 19:32

Yeah. Do you think the catalyst was the divorce and your daughter heading off to school? Do you think that's what made that shift for you?

Speaker 3 19:41

I think it was actually meeting my partner, steve. You know he's owned his own business for 20 plus years and the thing that would piss me off all the time is that you know I had unlimited vacation. I can just go off from wherever I wanted to whenever I wanted to, so we would travel and do all kinds of stuff. It would never fail. He goes someplace super cool on the week of a board meeting.

Speaker 2 20:01

I was just waiting for it. I was like wait, but you unlimited vacation, but did you take it?

Speaker 3 20:08

I could. I could travel unlimitedly, but vacation was definitely sparse. But he had this ability to separate his successful business and who he is as a business person and his personal life. And he just had this. Like it was an excellent model for me to look at and say I think I'm missing the boat here, like I don't think I actually need another pair of Louboutins Probably good there, you know, and I just he just gave me this option to see things in a very different way that I had never considered before because of my upbringing and because of my fear-based ambition. That's like just there was no off button, right, it just kept going.

Speaker 3 20:49

And now, when I could finally take my foot off the gas, it's like, you know, my ex-husband was set up.

Speaker 3 20:54

He was, you know, good to go, cause he was a stay athome dad, you know, for most of it as a caregiver, and so you know he was off. You know he was a pilot for an airline now and doing all that kind of cool stuff, my daughter's, you know, off the payroll, and I'm like, okay, and I have an example now, like, and so I can, I can see what different looks like and I wanted a piece of that, and so I think it was that perspective and that example and the success that shows from that in terms of redefining what success looks like and what do you really need and what are those high value parts of your life that you want to add in, to increase the quality, and then how do you actually go back and go out and get that? And so I think that was you know, pam probably the biggest part for me was just seeing it in action and then having a really serious case of FOMO.

Speaker 1 21:45

Another person is dropped into your life. Yes, the right moment to inspiration to yet again do something extraordinary.

Speaker 3 21:55

Yeah, exactly, and I think you know, anytime you can see it in action, it makes it real and you know, and versus, versus. I mean you can read all the books and got all the things and watch all the stuff, but like, if you really see how it works, you're like, oh, hang on, this is not as hard or scary as it seemed it would be. Yeah, you know, I mean, if you've got to move your range over out of country, you know, and 17 cartons of stuff, then yeah, that's probably more complicated than it should be. But we went down with like, don't get me, I put my stuff in storage because I wasn't sure if this was going to work or not. I kept myself in storage for five years.

Speaker 1 22:33

In a box in the storage, exactly.

Speaker 3 22:36

Yeah, those are actually sold Right, so that all the designer stuff. I Exactly, yeah, those are actually sold Right, so that all the designer stuff. I didn't even go down with Gucci flip flops, like I totally went boho, but you know. So we went down with, you know, some dive gear, three suitcases each, and live for five years Right and and it was and just, and it was interesting, especially in the early days of starting a business, you know. You know it weren't, they weren't my biggest earning years by a long shot, and I'm like I have never made less money and lived so richly and that was a huge aha moment for me. And then I realized that people that were still left back home, you know, were like how'd you do that? I can't go to a tropical island, but I do want that sense of freedom and that sense of fulfillment and getting out of that soul crushing grind and finding a different way to do this thing we call adulting Right. So yeah.

Speaker 1 23:30

I love that in there you say that help people love Monday again. And so I remember when I was in, you know, as a VP of a company, and it was, sunday came around and I was like the worst right, yeah, and it was. And I didn't feel that way for so long. It was like I was excited to go to work, I loved what I did, but then I don't, something switched and I would get anxiety about heading to work again and it's the worst.

Speaker 3 23:59

It's absolutely the worst, and most people think it's normal, like it's supposed to be this way. This is why I call it work and not fun and all that other stuff that we try and tell ourselves. And all the research is pointing to the fact that, you know, from a career fulfillment perspective, because there's this thing called the spillover effect and you can't have something firing on all cylinders in one part of your life and not have it bleed over into the others. You can't have something that's a complete train wreck and not have that bleed over either. We just don't live in little compartments.

Speaker 3 24:32

And so when you look at the impact especially for Americans that careers have on our sense of self, our sense of identity, our sense of purpose, all of these things, and when that starts to go sideways, then everything else starts to get impacted as well.

Navigating Corporate Identity and Authorship

Speaker 3 24:50

And so, as much as we want to lean in and be present to our partners and our children and our family and our friends and our community, you know, if you're in that toxic environment we're on Sundays you're like I cannot suffer fools another minute, and that's going to impact everything. And so that's why you know we focus on you know, helping organizations and individuals get that part right, because then everything else gets better. I'm not your airy fairy girl, never have been. I believe mindset's important, but we are not going to manifest our way to success and so, with that in mind, my clients are like my marriage is better. My friends like me now because I'm not complaining about work and I'm like I'm not putting that on my website. I'm super complaining about work and I'm like I'm not putting that on my website, like I'm super happy about that, yay, but I'm not putting that on my website.

Speaker 1 25:38

I love you said the identity thing, and I think that was for me one of the hardest things, because my I felt like my entire identity was around being at this company of course yes if I leave that, no one's going to respect me, nobody's going to think I can be a coach, all of that. And then it was like, oh well, that was not the case yeah, and you know same thing right Wall Street.

Speaker 3 26:00

That's the very first thing you did. Is you know what's your title, what do you work for? Because you're sizing people up right and you're like and where'd you go to school?

Speaker 2 26:09

so I'm so surprised that you were able to circumvent that Like you just bypass that.

Speaker 3 26:13

Yeah, I needed that question and I would you know. Another cocktail, oh, I got a call yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 26:27

I hated that question because I would never answer it. You know I never lied on an application because HR and usually because I would get sponsored into a spot, you know then they'd realize HR would be like what are you doing? And you know my executive sponsor would have to make an exception because back then, you know, now it's a little bit different with kind of the college degree backlash, right In terms of where what we're seeing in, especially in the States, but that was just not heard of. Yeah Right, it's like you can't do this and not have a degree and I'm like I've been doing it for 20 years. What do you mean? I can't do it.

Speaker 1 26:56

Exactly.

Speaker 3 26:57

And so and the reason I ended up getting my degree is I was being vetted for a board of directors position for a technology startup and we mind melded and all my connections were going to help this company grow like crazy. It was a perfect fit and they DQ'd me because I didn't have a degree. I'm like, are you freaking, kidding me? Because I would have just not looked right on the bio and not looked right on the press release and I was like good luck to you. Now they're out of business. Not that I'm happy about that, but it was what you needed to get out. It was that right. It was what you needed to get out. It was exactly. It was that right. It was that you've got to cause I want to do board work and you know some academic stuff and I've done some work with Cornell, you know in terms of colloquium speaking and stuff like that, but you actually do need to have a degree for that or a few. So so yeah, later on I decided to pay attention to that.

Speaker 2 27:45

Gosh, congratulations. I love that. I love that. Well, I want to make sure that we have an opportunity to talk about the book as well, so put your author hat on. Okay, where did it bubble up inside of you? Did you have that outer body experience again when it came time to write the book? What was that moment?

Speaker 3 28:12

was that moment. I've wanted to write a book since I started the business and my initial idea was that I'll write a book. Right, Because every coach has a book, Of course. You can't be a coach without having a book.

Speaker 3 28:17

Yes, and thank goodness, I had a great mentor who was also in Belize and you know he had bought and sold many companies and he was very, very successful, and so I kind of took him on as my advisor just to kind of help me see the forest through the trees in this world that I just stepped into and he sat me down. He's like Tammy, you don't need to be writing a damn book right now. I'm like, but I want to. He's like you need revenue, because without money you don't have a company. Without a company, you don't have a book. I was like well, that's actually a good point.

Speaker 3 28:44

And so I spent the next five years actually making money and serving customers and all that kind of fun stuff, and so the book was actually written incredibly quickly. So I wrote the book in three months. It took us six months to edit it because I'm not a writer right, I'm a thought leader and I've got great ideas, but I am absolutely not a writer, and you know. But the reason the timing was right for me is because we had just moved to Mexico city and I didn't speak much Spanish and we had no friends. So this was a perfect time for me to write the book and, uh, you know cause I had no competing priorities. Nobody was banging down our door to go out for happy hour and all that kind of fun stuff and so um, so the book was really a culmination of my stories and my experiences.

Speaker 3 29:28

There's some really Epic stories in there our practice in terms of coaching and what we do to help mid to senior level leaders pivot out of the soul crushing grind. And also stories about 35 other people and their career journeys and the you know, the struggles that they had and the opportunities that they were able to take advantage of. And that was probably the most fun for me was, you know, interviewing people and hearing their stories and, you know, being able to do a good job in terms of, you know, summarizing that and picking out the great parts and the big points, and so it was absolutely one of the most fun projects I've ever done, you know, and I was like when's the next one? I'm like that's like asking a woman who just gave birth if you're having another baby.

Speaker 2 30:11

Yes, right.

Speaker 3 30:12

Like you are going to wait.

Speaker 1 30:15

Yes, too soon. I remember, I enjoy it.

Speaker 3 30:19

I am grateful too soon All the experience, and we just had our big launch party, because the book released in January and so we did a very fancy bougie launch party in New York City, um, in April, which was so much fun and um, and it was just.

Speaker 3 30:34

You know, the whole process has been great and the thing that um surprised me there's two things that surprised me is the random emails I get from people saying this changed my life.

Speaker 3 30:44

I was like, okay, that's super cool, um, and then the fact that, because the book is really written for the disenfranchised worker, right, like, if you hate Mondays, you have to buy the book, and it's just, it's really that simple. But yet what I was surprised to see is that companies are paying me to come do keynotes on this for their organization. That surprised me significantly and and it's because they want their people to take more accountability, they want their people to care again, they want all of these different things, and this is just like a hand, you know, a hand spun process on how to do that and how to become that ceo of you inc to where you treat your career like a business, because when you do that, then you thrive and oh, by the way, the business thrives too. And so that was those were two big surprises is those random emails I get about the impact, which I love, and companies that are saying we need the help Right and we want that perspective internally.

Speaker 1 31:45

Wow, I think that's that's huge and I think definitely something needed.

Speaker 3 31:50

Oh yeah, I think that's huge and I think definitely something needed. Oh yeah, I mean, the employer-employee divide has been massive and it's only getting worse, right? Yes, and when two people want the exact same thing? Right, I call it the zombie apocalypse Because I was in Chicago earlier this year kicking off a strategy session for this year, and I was there early and it was a big building in Chicago where tons of building, tons of offices, different companies, as I grabbed a cup of coffee and I sat in the lobby and I just watched and you know cause I'm hanging out in Mexico city living my best life, right?

Speaker 3 32:22

So I don't see the daily grind all the time anymore and I'm looking and like everyone is like their heads are down, they're slunged, you know, they're shuffling their feet, no one's making eye contact. I'm like it's like the zombie apocalypse in Vegas, chicago, and like people don't want to feel like zombies and employees certainly don't, employers don't want to hire zombies, and so we all want the same thing, but we keep getting further and further apart and I think that the core of the problem and the fix the quick fix, if you will, because we've got a solution called Amplify 360 that, as a human and you can use that drive, that ambition and the things that fuel them naturally to solve your company's biggest problems. Everybody wins. The fun part now and that's the part I was not expecting to happen from the book is this continuation of oh, hang on a second, there's a bigger solution that's needed here right Than just the individual person.

Speaker 2 33:38

We hope that you have enjoyed part one of our two-part interview. Please make sure that you come back and join us for part two, where we will continue to dive into the stories, the tools, the modalities and the techniques that you can use to continue to ignite the fire within. We'll see you all soon. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of Reignite Resilience. We hope that you had amazing ahas and takeaways. Remember to subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like it and download the upcoming episodes, and if you know anyone in your life that is looking to continue to ignite their resilience, share it with them. We look forward to seeing you on our future episodes and, until then, continue to reignite that fire within your hearts.