“It Took Cutting the 80% That Was Draining Me”—Masi Willis on Leadership, Transformation, and Thriving Cultures

Cut The Tie Podcast with Masi Willis
What happens when your career is non-linear, your calling won’t leave you alone, and the pandemic forces you to face the truth? In this episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich talks with leadership coach and consultant Masi Willis, who walked away from a draining career to build a practice focused on unlocking potential, unleashing performance, and transforming cultures from surviving to thriving. From live events to ministry to producing movies, Masi’s path was anything but traditional—but it all came together when he decided to finally cut the tie and fully commit to his true work.

About Masi Willis

Masi Willis is a leadership coach and consultant based in Alpharetta, Georgia, where she lives on a horse farm “in a barn.” With decades of experience across industries—from insurance to ministry to live events—Masi brings a unique, non-linear perspective to leadership. Her business is focused on lasting transformation: restoring culture, unlocking potential, and ensuring ROI through measurable team performance and growth. She is passionate about helping mid- to senior-level leaders redefine what leadership really means and build organizations where people are healthy, engaged, and thriving.

In this episode, Thomas and Masi discuss:

• Cutting ties with draining work
  Why Masi left behind an 80/20 life—where 80% of her work was draining—to fully commit to coaching and transformation.
• From non-linear career to clear calling
  How shifts across industries revealed her true gift: mentoring and developing people for over 20 years.
• Delivering transformation, not transactions
  Why Masi rejects “one and done” consulting in favor of staying embedded until real transformation takes root.
• Referrals and results
  How doubling sales and boosting team performance scores fueled growth through word-of-mouth.
• Overcoming the hardest tie—asking from your network
  Why asking directly still feel uncomfortable, even when the results speak for themselves.
• The craziest story ever
  How Masi once “killed an alibi” that put a neighbor in prison for life.

Key Takeaways:

• Leadership isn’t a title
  True leadership is influence, culture-shaping, and transformation—not a badge or job description.
• The 80/20 rule works both ways
  Living 80% drained and 20% energized is a recipe for burnout. Flip it by aligning work with your gifts.
• Referrals follow results
  When you deliver measurable ROI, your clients will open doors for you.

Connect with Masi Willis:

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masiwillis/
🌐 Website: http://www.masiwillis.com
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masiwillis

Connect with Thomas Helfrich:

📣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfrich/
🌐 Website: http://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 http://instantlyrelevant.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Cut the Tie Podcast. Hello, I'm your host, Thomas Helfrick, and I am on a mission. A mission to help you cut the tie to whatever's holding you back from your success. But you gotta define that success yourself, because if you don't, someone else is gonna find it for you. And when you get there, it's not gonna be very cool. Today I'm joined by Massey Willis Willis. I butchered it. It is a marketing technique to repeat rename times. Macy, Macy. M-A-S-R.

SPEAKER_01: 0:24

Yeah, like the department store, but sell wrong.

SPEAKER_00: 0:27

Yeah, right. That's confused. Let's go in the law. Sorry. Uh Macy, thank you for uh coming on today. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01: 0:34

My pleasure.

SPEAKER_00: 0:35

Why don't we do this? Why don't you start off with uh bragging about yourself? Introduce yourself, where you're from, and and what it is you do.

SPEAKER_01: 0:42

Yeah. Well, uh like Thomas said, Macy Willis, I am a leadership coach and have a consulting business where we really focus on unlocking individuals' potential, unleashing performance that really hasn't been tapped into, and restoring culture that is really just surviving instead of thriving. And I live in the Alfred area, North Atlanta, and on a horse farm in a barn. So that's my story.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13

I like that you're in a barn. I mean, literally, like in a barn. Do you occasionally go, oh, am I in a barn?

SPEAKER_01: 1:20

No, it's funny because someone came out, thought they were recording, they were going to video me in a barn. It's just the shape of a barn. But I've also lived in a cabin, a cottage, a loft. It's kind of like I have names to all the places I live.

SPEAKER_00: 1:33

Now, what's the one thing that makes your business unique?

SPEAKER_01: 1:36

I feel like leadership's become such a cliche. And so I think what sets me apart and the people I do work with is that, you know, books and hands and butts and seats are awesome. Um, but that's mostly education, motivation, or inspiration. And so I really stay focused on transformation in businesses. I get in there and I stay there until transformation and thriving cultures have been really created so that people and bottom line profit grows. One and done's don't help grow bottom line profit. And people are your biggest asset and your biggest expense. So I should focus there on.

SPEAKER_00: 2:18

Yeah. So what's the one what's the one thing you need from others today in your business?

SPEAKER_01: 2:23

I well, I really need them to believe that they have the hope that they can transform their organization and the vulnerability to turn the mirror on themselves and see if they are really a great leader. Like leadership isn't a title, it's not a badge. And we don't go to college for insurance and get taught leadership. We don't go to college for tire manufacturing and get caught taught leadership or even preaching and get taught leadership. We really suck at leadership development as humans at times. So I'm just dialed into making that a different story.

SPEAKER_00: 2:55

All right, so so people can stalk you a bit to start off. What's one link the audience to check out while they're listening to this podcast?

SPEAKER_01: 3:03

Um, I go to LinkedIn and it's the LinkedIn with you can type in Macy Willis, you're not gonna find another M-A-S-I. So you can do that, and that would be awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 3:13

Perfect. All right, for my ADHD years out there, go stalk. You can't just listen and sit there. You gotta be doing something on your phone. So there you go. How do you define success?

SPEAKER_01: 3:23

Well, I I really have my own personal and professional vision statement, like to change the world, one individual, one team, and one breakthrough at a time. So seeing people transform in front of my eyes and watching like their team performance scores, because I do have assessments throughout my work to make sure there's an ROI. When I see that increase and I watch them double sales over a couple of years or three years, and the profit grows and people are healthy. To me, that is success. And it means I've met the success to my own business statement and vision statement.

SPEAKER_00: 4:02

I like how that all aligns. Uh so let's dive into your journey a little bit. So, you know, tell me about how you came to be the tie, maybe the biggest metaphoric tie you've had to cut to achieve that success.

SPEAKER_01: 4:14

Yeah, I have a really nonlinear life, and that's a whole story for a different moment. Um, but I have changed a lot of career opportunities in different sectors from insurance to ministry to movie producing to, you know, all over the place. And I finally made this cut the tie moment when pandemic hit. I was in live events and kind of just evaluated my life and storylined it and was like, what is common? And nothing was common. Nothing was common until I got underneath the line and was like, what have I been doing in my personal life that's been consistent? And I'd been mentoring high school students and young adults for 20 plus years. And so during that pandemic moment, just flipped the script, started studying what it would look like to be a certified coach, got certified, and then after two or three years, I took the leap. And that was a hard leap, but it took me two or three years to actually do the transformation moment and get into this world.

SPEAKER_00: 5:21

Interesting. Uh dive into the dive into the tie a little bit, though. Like you said it's not layer. So look tell me what you mean by that because I think you have a we just talking to you before, but I think share that a little bit because I think it's it's very relevant to how you get to your. So, like, you know, and maybe just call the aha moment and you're like, this is what I'm gonna do. I just know it.

SPEAKER_01: 5:42

Yeah, I think what you're thinking about, because I can't remember uh particularly, maybe was that I was it me talking about just there was this calling I had to go for.

SPEAKER_00: 5:54

Yeah, well, I mean it happens to lots of people, right? And and and I know you had one that was kind of like, I'm doing this, you know, nothing's stopping me. Like it I love to hear about them that that yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 6:05

Yeah, I actually had a lot of people speaking into my life saying, you're gifted at this, you're great at this, and you need to stop doing business transformation for an accounting firm, and you really need to do people transformation to actually transform organizations. I just didn't necessarily believe fully in myself. And so in the fall of 2022, several leaders had spoken just truth and said, hey, you've got to jump. You have to do this. And I started kind of evaluating my own life in my business and how I was dying on the vine. And I was kind of living a 2080 life. Doing 20% of my work was energizing and 80% was like draining. And so in December 2022, I sat down with a partner and said, I'm going from this. I know I'm 53 years old, 54 years old. This doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'm cutting it off and I'm gonna go to owning my own business instead of working for others and actually focusing on what I know I've been fantastic at. I've just set it aside and done all these other things. So I I think that's what you're asking. That was the major moment.

SPEAKER_00: 7:18

And then you make the movement, right? Do you remember like the first day when you're unemployed, but you're a self-employed? Like, uh do you do you describe if you do, hopefully you remember it. Or describe the first day, you do remember. It's a better way to ask it.

SPEAKER_01: 7:31

Yeah. It's interesting. It was, I mean, January the 2nd of 2023. It was my first day for sitting now in my firm, and that was my last day at the farm firm, but they were going to extend me for six weeks and were very, very generous. And we're like, take your computer, dig in. You've got six weeks to make hay while the sun shines, so you better get on it, which was awesome because it forced me to focus in. But I was also in that moment of going, I don't even know if this is gonna work, but I had done a lot of work before I actually got to that place so that I knew my product, I knew how I was delivering. And so I went after this one particular client. And then at the six-week mark, when they had my farewell, goodbye, I was just blessed that two days later I got a contract for more than what my salary was where I was at. And it was off and running. And the luxury of that didn't make me sit on my laurels as much as it gave me the cushion to not worry about necessarily my finances for that year, but to really try to figure out how do I create a business funnel, how do I do the guardian work, which is probably a lot of what you do. And I loathe it. I cannot stand the development piece of it. I just love going in and transforming, but that gave me the luxury to do it. So it was scary, but I also, it was the most peace I'd ever been in in my life because I knew I was, it's like I had a brand new fitted suit on that was the best suit custom made for me. And I finally was showing up really in with power and and confidence.

SPEAKER_00: 9:11

Yeah. It's great to hit that first client so early. And that's that's the scary part. And then you get the second one, and and uh it be me actually something you dive into that a little bit is how did you get the second one?

SPEAKER_01: 9:24

Um actually the second one came from a referral of the first one. Um, and my major plan is a tire distributor across all over from the west, midwest to the east coast. And he was in a a group called YPO. And so he actually had me come speak to his forum. And another client there who runs an airport parking business was like, I want what he has. And I had enough ROI with him that he talked about their sales when I first got them. Their team performance assessment was 71%. Normally, uh teams function at 60% of their capacity, leaving 40 cents a dollar on the table. And they assessed at 71% and two week years later, they were at 93% and they gone from 45 million in sales to 82 million in sales in two years. Now, all that sales wasn't me, but even if it was 1% of it, it was 1% of it, it was nothing compared to what he was actually investing in need to be there. And so that multiplied to another person and kind of referrals gone from there.

unknown: 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 10:34

And I think important note there is you delivered. And when you deliver, it's really easy to get referrals. I know in my business that there's some customers we've killed it for, and the sums we've been like, yeah. And it's sometimes it's hard to determine why or what. And it and sometimes you don't know, hey, would they be like really better without me, or would they be really screwed without me when they're kind of like there? Sometimes you just don't know. But what you'll also discover in that moment is what your true value was, right? And so did you did you nail, did you like, oh, I didn't realize maybe that was the value, or were you spot like maybe are you spot on when you came in with the right premises? Did you have to adjust where the value proposition was?

SPEAKER_01: 11:12

It's funny because my second client looked me straight in the face and said, We hate consultants, and we think that uh coaching consultants are a whole thing. And I said, uh he said, You're gonna have to show up, and if you can't deliver, you'll be fired in six months. I said, I take the challenge and I don't think you'll want me to leave after six months, but I am very clear on the promise. He said, Don't come here and tell me what you need to do. Come here and tell me, tell me what we need to do and then deliver on what we need to be done. I said, I'm not leaving until your entire company has transformed. So yes.

SPEAKER_00: 11:52

That's funny because it's like show up and do all the work, but I don't want to do anything about it. Well, it doesn't quite work that way. But no, but if it's good, and actually, good for you, six months, like quite sweet. I I know I have a six-month runway.

SPEAKER_01: 12:05

I'm like, yeah. It was that, and it was that moment where I told him, I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna deliver. But every single person in your team has to show up too, including you. And as soon as she was the CEO step out, I'm out too, because leaders define culture, and I can't do it without you being in the front and foremost. And he's been there the whole time. We've even had moments where he did pull out of the process and he watched his team not be led by him. And I I paused and said, Hey, I'm pausing this contract until you get back in here so that they can watch the CEO lead the executive team who leads middle management.

SPEAKER_00: 12:45

Yeah, you have to because without the leader, why would he not do it? Uh what's today's tie that you that you're struggling to cut?

SPEAKER_01: 12:55

Oh gosh, today's tie. Um, probably a lot of what you're doing, I travel a ton for my business and I love it, but I have a desire to possibly do work kind of in the southeast more often. But when you know so many people and you you're so connected, and I've been in the south my whole life, you know, sometimes people just don't see you in a new role, especially someone who is nonlinear in their career. So you either saw me as an insurance person or you saw me as a movie producer or you saw me as an event producer. So the the tie is like, how do I help people see me in new light? Or do I just love my hometown and my southeast space as my community? And do I continue to look outside of that for the future of what my business is going to grow to?

SPEAKER_00: 13:49

Yeah. And it's it's knowing are you struggling with the idea you might lose business by only focusing local? Or is it the I do like the tra like what's this what's the struggle there though with it?

SPEAKER_01: 14:00

Well, it's it's the ask. It it really is. It's me. I because of my makeup, the the language I use, the connector creative, we love people and we have this crazy network of people, but drawing from that network on our behalf feels really sleazy to us. So peeling that back. And I know, I mean, everyone's like, you're not selling anything because everything, everybody needs what you need, you have. I I get all that, but it still is a very awkward feeling where pioneer or a guardian with logic just drives right in. It says, Why would I not ask them to do work with me? Because they know. So it's overcoming my own natural makeup and doing something that feels really uncomfortable. I'll take a referral all day long and then turn it to a sale. But it really is that picking up the phone and calling the people I know and saying, I know I can deliver this. Who are two more people that you know might would want or need this in their organization and want to see profit come from it?

SPEAKER_00: 15:02

That's I gotta tell you, I I struggle with the same thing, Blue or not. Uh, is I do a poor job of informing my first network what we do. I I I am out like you, I and uh you know me, like you know, the people come on for the what we call now the cut the tie experience, right? Where so you can have a more promotion and all the stuff that goes with it. But I feel so weird saying, hey, do this. We want you to do this. Because but it's super valuable for you. But like I feel like uh I'm not a I found I'm just not a good sales like push person. But if you cop in described and you need the services, I'll nail that all day long because you're ready to go. Let me explain what I can do. And yeah, uh there's I don't know, I I'm with you. I we probably both need the same coach to get past that one. I'm I'm with you. And I think a lot of them it's not so much embarrassment or anything else. It's just it's just I'm not wired that way to go ask from people in my network. Um, I think part of it, would you agree, is it's the perception you they may have of you that we're not really friends or just using me for business stuff. And I and I struggle with that, but I think that that line.

SPEAKER_01: 16:07

It's also probably because I beat around the bush. I give people too much space to make the right or the wrong decision where really I know the right decision is you need this product. So instead of saying, you know, I think you might or you should, I really should go straight in and say, I know that this will impact you. It'll give you hours back in your work and in your family life as a leader, and your team will be healthier. The gossip and the chaos will go away, turn away turnover will go away, and people will become your greatest advocate and your greatest billboard to work here instead of becoming your toxic backyard talk. And I should be able to go straight to it if I don't.

SPEAKER_00: 16:52

I will tell you when uh you see like some churn coming into your business or something like this. I will tell you my ability to ask certainly turns up in those moments, though. And it's kind of like you get complacent or you get busy and you're like, I just don't want to do that. You should be always lessing the listeners. I think we're both saying the same thing here is you should always be asking on, hey, how can I help? Who do you know? Uh the reason is because even if you're at capacity, you could say, Hey, I charge this. You could you could up your price next one and just see if they say yes, and you're like, okay, good. Exactly. Yeah, so yeah, I'm giving you the like key lessons for the listeners. I'm taking it and not even letting you answer it on this one. That's all that's all I can. Uh what's some of the best worst business advice you've ever received? You could pick all that you choose.

SPEAKER_01: 17:33

I choose your best worst business business advice from a develop developing my business or from a leader that I work for.

SPEAKER_00: 17:42

Anything. It could be like this this is something I would never do or something you should always do.

SPEAKER_01: 17:48

Oh gosh, you caught me off guard. I mean, I like I think the the worst is when people are like, just go in, get the opportunity, sell, and make it happen. Worst thing you could ever say. Because I believe trust is built on four C's and that just is a transaction. But when we actually have relationships with people, that fills us with the opportunity and creates significance. So the hustler or the person that's like, go in, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, it, it, it feels like an opportunity. So I don't think it's only often I've had leaders say it's confidence and credibility when actually character and chemistry matters too. And all four of those have to be unlocked to really build lasting trust and move towards a relationship of significance where that client's never gonna leave you. Not a lot of bosses and leaders that way. Terrible business.

SPEAKER_00: 18:46

You think it depends on what you sell to. So uh, I know for us, we're so kind of intimately involved between marketing sales and leadership. Uh it is 100% trust-based. And it it doesn't you can't just close and sell because it's they're like coming in, you're like, what is this foreign thing? You have to integrate. And so if you're a more integrated, intimate type of uh experience because you're dealing with a hard problem. Yours is a hard problem, it's it's an emotionally based one too. Uh that that is not that there's there are ways you like you're selling gym memberships, yeah, then just push go, right? Who cares? Because it's diamond does and you need to sell lots of them, and there's no you should you know anyway, it there's a different approach. I yeah, I can go I can go down to some of the uh influencers in our world of what their recommendations are, and I don't think I agree with all of them either. So if you can go back in time, any part in your timeline, anywhere, you can go back. When do you go back? What do you do differently?

SPEAKER_01: 19:39

Um so I this is probably gonna be contrary to what most people say, and I might make people mad here, but I don't really dwell on going back. It's a waste of energy to me. Um, I look at definition as the distinctness, not like the past defines me or shaped me. It's the distinctness of definition, like the sharpness of definition. So I'm I really look over my past and I just build on top of it because I am who I am today because of all the things I've done. Now, was my past perfect? No, I don't really regret things often because I do believe they shaped me into who I am today. So I know that I'm living towards choice years. I'm I'm never gonna retire. I listened to one of your one of your guests, and I call them choice years. I'm shooting for a number where everything I'm gonna do and work in will be my choice to get to. And I believe that started in my first career at Safe Farm Insurance. So that's how I kind of I don't go back on my timeline to to mark a point as much as I look at how it was the definition and the sharpness of what it created me to become today.

SPEAKER_00: 20:59

As everything in the show, it's a metaphor. It's like if you were going to do that, you would just do it now. So sounds like you're the idea that you're working optional. I'm one who doesn't really want to have the mindset of retire. I think there's a sabbatical, there's being active, but I feel like you'd be a all things considered, you know, it'd be a sin to have so much knowledge to help people and not not leverage it to do so if you're able. If you're not able to, it's a different thing, you know, health and things like that. But if you can, you should. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 21:26

Yeah, I just could.

SPEAKER_00: 21:29

Um if there was a question I should have asked you, Dan I didn't. What was that question?

SPEAKER_01: 21:35

I thought about this. Um listening to your other listeners, mine's gonna probably be off the beating hat path. It would have been what's the craziest thing that's ever happened to you in your life?

SPEAKER_00: 21:46

Oh, that's I'd I'd go for that one. I'd love to hear that.

SPEAKER_01: 21:49

Okay, this is gonna be a like a title, and we can unpack it or y'all can come read about it. Um, my name in in the nine mid-90s, my neighbor killed his wife, and I killed his alibi.

SPEAKER_00: 22:02

Oh, please. Do you gotta peel the onion on that one a little bit? A lot of it.

SPEAKER_01: 22:07

Yeah, so quickly, yeah. I was living in these townhomes in Rosville, Georgia, and my roommate and I had grilled out with our neighbors and on Saturday night and on Tuesday evening at about five o'clock, we came home to yellow tape everywhere. And earlier that morning, we were leaving go to work, and my roommate always caught a card caught a carpool and at 7:15. And I was in her bedroom while she was still getting ready. I was got to leave, and we heard noises. And I looked out the window, I was like, it's not carpal. It's, you know, it's very and it was like 7.17. She's like, what time is he? Is he late? I said it's 7.17, carpal's late. And then about four or five minutes later, we heard something else. She looked out the window. I was like, is that carpal? And she's like, no, and it's 7.23. Why is he so late? Um, and so we had timestamped the morning, and he had murdered his wife Tuesday morning, left, he had gone to his company, checked in, came back, killed her, went back to the to his office down in South Atlanta. And the timestamp that we had in our mind and what we said was during the the autopsy of her death time. So we killed his alibi and sent him to jail for life. And 25 years later, he came back and we sent him right back in. So it's called a weird story on our life.

SPEAKER_00: 23:33

It's like a murder she wrote.

SPEAKER_01: 23:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 23:36

It is. Like remember the damn lady's name. Anyway, once again, how should people get a hold of you and who should get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01: 23:43

Any senior to mid-level leader who wants to see their organization transform and really wants to see their people work more work harder and work smarter and be healthy and have a thriving culture. You can find me at MacyWillis.com, M-A-S-I, if you can remember that. My real name's Mason. So it's just a short nickname. You can find me pretty easy. I'm about the only one out there other than a winery in Italy. And then, of course, in LinkedIn and Instagram, my name as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:17

All right. For the purposes of social media clips, give me in one sentence the critical problem you solve for a company.

SPEAKER_01: 24:23

I unleash people, their potential. I unlock what they're doing, and I'm solving for turnover. I'm solving for your time, and I'm multiplying what you can do in a healthier way so that you can really thrive in your organization.

unknown: 24:42

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_00: 24:42

Thank you so much for coming on today.

SPEAKER_01: 24:44

Yeah, thank you, Thomas. I appreciate it. And sorry for the the uh background noise.

SPEAKER_00: 24:50

I didn't even hear it, and no one else did either. But anyway, listen, anyone still on the on the podcast here, thank you for listening and getting to this part in the show. If this was your first time here, I hope it's the first of many, and I hope you get uh out there and define your own success. I hope you define it. Then get out there and go chase it and let nothing stop you. So cut the ties with whatever's holding you back. Thanks for listening.