From Coaching to Growth: Business Philosophy with Leigh Ann O'Quinn

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, our guest is Leigh Ann O'Quinn, leadership coach, organizational development professional, consultant, and trusted advisor who helps leaders and organizations create meaningful growth through intentional leadership, strategic decision-making, and authentic relationships. Drawing from her experience supporting professionals, teams, and businesses through periods of transition and development, Leigh Ann shares valuable insights on identifying the right clients, setting healthy business boundaries, building trust-based relationships, and creating sustainable success without sacrificing quality or purpose. We explore why saying "no" can be one of the most important skills for entrepreneurs and coaches, how client alignment impacts long-term growth, and the leadership mindset required to build a thriving business in today's competitive environment. Whether you're an entrepreneur, consultant, coach, executive, or aspiring leader, this conversation offers practical lessons on making smarter decisions, protecting your energy, and focusing on opportunities that create the greatest impact.

You can find her on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ccldleighannoquinn/
https://www.connectedculture.net/
Phone#: 214-334-2060
Email: leighann@connectedculture.net

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I'll even tell a client, if you're not willing to implement the changes that we're talking about, and this just happened actually recently to me, I will say, don't hire me because it's not worth your money. It's not worth your time. And you've got to be willing, you've got to be all in. So I assess a lot of that before I actually sign them on as clients. And then once they say, Yeah, I'm in, I put together an entire proposal, I send it to them. If they need to get approval from anyone, which a lot of times they do, you know, they're they're not the CEO or whoever's actually going to be uh footing the bills, so they'll get approval and then they'll come back to me and they'll say, Yes, we welcome to Success Leaves Clues, the podcast where we interview business owners on how they built their businesses and the hard lessons they learned along the way.

Davis Nguyen 0:40

My name is David Swin, and I'm a business coach and a founder of Purple Circle, where we help business owners achieve their first six-figure, seven-figure, and eight-figure year, all without sacrificing their quality of life. Before becoming a business coach and before founding Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight-figure coaching businesses and have been a consultant at several businesses doing over $100 million each, including some that are publicly listed and doing over a billion dollars each. In every episode of the podcast, you're gonna learn lessons that took RS years to learn, and you'll be able to learn that in minutes. No matter if you're a new business owner or an established business owner, every episode is gonna give you the clues in order to elevate your business.

Pedro Stein 1:17

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Leanne Oakwin, who brings a combined 50 plus years of education experience to her work with connected cultures, new school culture, and student experience division built on the belief that the future workforce is being shaped long before students ever enter a career field. Leanne's mission centers on helping schools create environments that teach work ethic, responsibility, collaboration, and positive culture, recognizing that the students in classrooms today will become the leaders, employees, and business owners of tomorrow. Her approach focuses on building great student experiences through strong leadership, healthy culture, aligned systems, and adults who model accountability, communication, and professionalism every day. Leanne brings connected cultures proven leadership development and culture focused methodology into schools. Now, welcome to the show, Leanne. Thank you. You know, great to have you. Let's start from there. And I'm as audio and the audience already knows, I'm kind of a comic book nerd myself, right? So I love Yars and Story. So let's rewind a bit. Because you could be doing multiple things, but you're coaching, right? So can you walk me through that? Like why coaching?

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Why coaching? That's a great question because I could never coach athletic teams. That is definitely not my skill. Um, I've tried that with my poor daughter when she was in second grade, and that was a failure. Um, but what I did realize is because I had been a school teacher for 20 years, um, I have a natural ability just to work one-on-one with people, but also also work with groups, and that turned into a passion for just coaching in general. Um if you want the backstory, I can tell you that. Yes, that's kind of why I got into this. Um so yes, I taught middle school for just under 20 years. During that time of teaching middle school, I was very aware of walking into businesses and watching the interactions between management and employees or employee and employee, and sometimes got really uncomfortable with that because there just wasn't a healthy culture. Um and there still aren't a lot of healthy cultures out there, but uh business cultures. But what I noticed was there was a disconnect, there was a disengagement with employees. And the the the one that kind of put me over the top was when my father lived in an assisted living uh facility, you know, about 22 years ago, 25 years ago, I guess I would say. And I couldn't understand why the nurses and the technicians and the staff that were dealing with him directly had zero joy, had no um excitement at all in the way that they dealt with the patients. And it really was heartbreaking to see my dad, who was this energetic, life of the party kind of guy, uh, not have someone care for him in a way that was meaningful. And I realized it's not about the employees all the time. Now it can be, but I wanted to dig deeper. So I went and spoke with their management group and I said, hey, something's going on with your staff. They're not engaging with the patients here. And and truly, that's what these patients need. And the staff was just convinced that it was all about money and that these employees, that's all they wanted was more money. And I said, I just don't believe that. I I don't think you choose this field to work in for the money because we all know that's not what happens there. Um, and so they agreed to let me go speak to their 50 some plus employees in a little little meeting, uh, a little come to, you know, meeting of the minds. And so we got together and I said, Hey, I just want to talk to you guys. First of all, I want to tell you how much I appreciate what you do for my dad and all the other patients here. And we went through, you know, that whole thing. And then I said, But I truly want to know what you desire in your role as, and I kind of named some of the different roles that they had there. And there were, I I I think I remember the number 52, it was somewhere around there, but there were zero out of 50 plus people that said it was money that drove them. They said, We just want to feel appreciated, we want to feel like we come to a place that we like to be. Um, we want our management to believe in us and support us. And I was like, Yes, that's what I thought. So I went back to the management team and I said, Hey, guess what? It's not what you think. And that right there said, There's something out there to be done with these businesses that think it's all about, you know, money and and drive. And yes, that does matter, but there's more to it. And it's really about engagement and it's about the way that leaders connect with employees. So at that moment, my uncle, who was doing some HR work with a big company, um, said, Hey, would you want to do some work with me and just see what you think about it? And I went, worked with a client um in New Jersey actually, and realized that I love teaching adults and I love connecting to each one of these adults in a meaningful way that then brings us to that whole coaching, you know, piece. Uh, but working with them in a group at first, saying, What are you doing to lead your people? Let's talk about conflict management, let's talk about all those different things we'll probably talk about later in this podcast. But um, it was more of a we can make a change because it's not about the process typically, it's about the people in an organization. And I know how to deal with people because I'm a connector. So I I ran with it. And by the grace of God, I have been successful in that and have been able to then leave teaching, which of course I love, but I'm still teaching in a way. I'm just teaching grown-up middle school kids, you know, in grown-up bodies. Um, but I was able to leave teaching full-time about five and a half years ago, and now I have a thriving, awesome career in coaching and consulting and training.

unknown 7:10

Okay.

Pedro Stein 7:12

Right. So many gold nuggets, right? First of all, cool teacher, right? So I'm married to one. I get it.

unknown 7:18

Okay.

Pedro Stein 7:19

My dad was a dean at a university here in Brazil. My brother also. Oh my god. So I get all the talks, right? My mother-in-law, also retired teacher. Oh my god. So, okay, so there's that. You know, the second, yeah. The second thing is like I love the origin story, which brings me back to guess what when you said to them, you're the problem. It's not them, right? It's like we're gonna have to have this conversation now about leadership and all that, what that entails. Now, I want to understand one thing. You're almost what you told me four to f four to five years in the game and coaching specifically, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Yeah, I mean, I still do a lot tons of group sessions because that's where my coaching comes from. It always comes from post sessions with people who want to go farther with uh or further with their with their coaching. So uh I do a lot of one-on-ones from that. But yeah, so I've been doing, I did some coaching, you know, 20 years ago, a few one-offs, more like mediation type of things. And then recently, since I've left the field of teaching full-time and am able to commit all the time to this company, um, I have been doing more coaching, and those come from these sessions, these big group sessions with the companies, leadership group, executive team, whoever it may be, people reaching out to me saying, Hey, Leanne, um, I loved what I heard. I need some one-on-one help. And so that's where the coaching has been coming from.

Pedro Stein 8:40

Okay, that's exactly the transition I want to talk about because as you already know, uh, teachers, they have like their very passion-driven identity, you know, and all that. Very I they have this identity of a teacher as you you did, and then you made a leap of faith. You went through your own business and opened shop and all of that, and now that's what you're doing. But I want to understand that shift, you know, from I'm a teacher to I'm a business owner right now. Because it's like sometimes you're in a birthday party and you're talking to someone and you're in that middle of that transition, and back he asks, Hey, what do you do for a living? You're used to say, I'm a teacher, right? So can you walk me through when did you realize, okay, this is really a thing. I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna make the leap, the jump, right? And I'm gonna really build my business around coaching. Was it the first invoice? Was it the first paying client? Can you can you expand on that for us, please?

SPEAKER_02 9:39

I will be real honest about this. Um, I was at the end of, I didn't even realize I was at the end of my teaching career. I just felt a calling in my heart that it was time to move on from the place I had been. And it all lined up perfectly. Um, my mom and you know, stepdad had moved back to Dallas and they were gonna live on our street, and my stepdad was sick, and it was gonna give me a chance to kind of care for him some. Um, when I left teaching, I had a year where I actually substitute taught in a local high school while I was building my coaching business because obviously I needed to get some clients, but the real transition happened when I realized that I had more clients than I could actually serve with the time I was given while I was working full-time as a teacher. So when you have Christmas break, you know, Thanksgiving break, summer, spring break, and that's the only time you can really work with clients, or after school hours, I realized I needed more time. So all the things just lined up perfectly. God made it very clear that this was what I was supposed to do. And I was able to cut the ties with teaching and have a year of transition, which I think is really important. Um, it didn't just happen overnight. I didn't just like all of a sudden have a full client base. I had to use that year to build. And as I was building, I had to work another job. So working another job helped pay benefits, um, which matters. You know, that that's a cost that is very expensive these days. And spent that year just building a client base. And the beauty of it is the client base, um, you know, as I was subbing, I could I could kind of tailor it to my schedule. So I subbed on Mondays and Fridays, and I would work with clients Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday when when they you know came available. Zooming is so great. You know, that was something that it wasn't happening six years ago. So learning to do that uh has been a gift for sure. You know, we've used it to our benefit, but also when I could meet with clients in person, I I do that. I think that's really important. And what you'll learn about me, I probably from the name of my company, but I'm a connector and I don't want to do Zooms if I can be with them face to face. And sometimes that's not feasible because I have clients all over the country, but when it is, I make it happen. And most of the time the client wants that to happen too, so they'll pay for me to come to them, which is great. You know, they'll pay for the travel just to have that one-on-one. And you'll see, again, just getting to know me more. I am all about that personal experience. I am not a, you know, cookie cutter type of coach or a cookie cutter type of trainer. Everything I do is completely designed for that specific client, whether it's a person or a company. And I spend time ahead of it, getting to know them, getting to know what their desires, their goals are, and then I create a program for them. It can be anywhere from four sessions to 12 sessions to, you know, however many they want. But I base it on what that person needs. And I think that's really, really important and what sets me aside from a lot of other uh coaches and consultants.

Pedro Stein 12:36

Oh my god, the similarities, right? My wife is a, like I said, a teacher, and uh, she started her own practice for like two years ago. And I told her, you're eventually gonna hit a point that you you will want to leave school. That's exactly the transition she's making. She replaced the income three to four exit on her own private uh classes, like ADHD autism and all that. And uh, she's like, in that transition, like great health benefits, but at the same time, what's keeping her back is the fear of losing them and not necessarily the drive to you know uh move forward with uh with our own practice, which she she's doing right now. So I I see where you're coming from again, okay. Now, uh let me ask you this because in the early days of coaching, there's a lot of trial and error. We're trying to help everyone sometimes and try to embrace the entire world, right? But eventually we we sharpen the blade and find our own tribe, okay? So can you walk me through who do you serve right now? Who are the people that you're like, okay, this is my tribe?

SPEAKER_02 13:42

It's really interesting. I started out in the healthcare industry just because that was the first type of client I was introduced to. So a lot of just um hospitals, you know, medical sales types of companies. Um, I actually worked with a company that created vaccination temperature checkers. I mean, just all kinds of random healthcare things. And began there. And as I was able to grow, I noticed that having relationships with area colleges is really important. People don't think about that, but a lot of these community colleges and trade schools want to offer this type of coaching and training from their staff, but they don't have people who are equipped for that. So they have reached out to people like me. And it's been a beautiful thing because that's where I've gotten a lot of my business. But when I did that, it actually led me into the field of manufacturing. So I have, I would say 60, 70% of my clients are manufacturing clients, big manufacturing clients who have a whole different type of culture, you know, and and they uh it's it's a lot of we work with union workers, which is a whole different ballgame, uh, but also just overtime and 24-7 operating plants, which are very different than you know, eight to five companies, and it's it's a whole different challenging type of model. And I have fallen in love with it. Um, I I feel like they are my people. And I still work with banks and all other kinds of, you know, healthcare industry and uh health clubs and all that type of thing, but but the manufacturing group is a group that has been ignored for a long, long time. And it's really just been in the past five to six years, which lines perfectly up with when I got into this, that they have seen a need for leadership training because so often what companies do, and again, especially in the manufacturing industry, is they see someone who's great at welding or someone who's great at electricity, you know, and working with the electricians, and they go, hey, you need to be in management. And they don't think about it's not about just managing the actual process or the um the technical aspect of it. It's so much more than that. It's about leading people, and these people have never been given those skills or training. Some of those skills are hidden deep down inside and they just need those brought back up. But some of them just say, I don't even want this job. They just put me in this leadership position and I don't know how to do it. So that's typically where those coaching one-on-ones come are those people who have never been given the training and they want some one-on-one, help me with the transition into this role. And how can I best affect my team and help them with performance and be the type of leader that they want to follow?

Pedro Stein 16:23

Okay, interesting. So, manufacturing, that's your your heart, is that right now? 60 to 70 percent. Not you're not that you're saying no to others, but that's the main one. Now let's pretend I'm your ideal client profile, right? I am a I'm a leader in the manufacturing business. Um, so first of all, how would I be able to find you, Lee Anne, like marketing-wise?

SPEAKER_02 16:47

So that's an interesting question, Pedro, because I don't do a lot of marketing. Um, I don't spend a lot of time. I am on LinkedIn, I'm on social media, and I would probably like to get a little bit more into that, but it hasn't been needed so far. Again, I am a I'm a two-man company, I would say. Um, and I'll explain that in a second, but I have such a unique way that I bring about the training, and it's all from me. So I don't have someone else coming and do it for me, which I will tell you is is a little difficult. Um, I'm needing to probably hire some people, but I am very, very cautious about making sure that I do not compromise quality. And so I'm real picky about who I send. So when I get someone, uh they usually find me word of mouth. So it's from someone else in the community. Um, you know, you'll kind of see I'll go into a company in one community and it kind of spreads out like this. And I've got now lots of companies in that specific area. Um, a lot of them have been where I've worked with maybe one of their branches, you know, one of their plants or or like a bank, one of their branches, and then they've talked to their corporate office and they've said, hey, we've got someone who does training differently than any other training we've ever had. And then they introduced me to corporate and now I'm their corporate trainer, you know, or corporate coach. So it's all been word of mouth. Now I will say LinkedIn originally actually connected me with someone who helped me get some of these companies, but that was one time, and now it's all been just I go in and hopefully do a job that is, you know, excellent. And then they say, Hey, you gotta get this girl.

Pedro Stein 18:19

Okay. I'm still that guy, I'm still the leader of that manufacturing business. And let's say it was referred to you. I was like, hey, you gotta meet this girl, right? So I'm I met the girl, right? Let's speed up the sales process a bit. Okay, let's say there's alignment. You can help me. Okay. I can sense you can help me. I'm coachable, let's put like that. So, can you walk me through how does it look like to work with your company and what are the potential outcomes I can expect out of it?

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Okay, do you specifically want to know about the coaching aspect or also the getting in with everyone kind of aspect?

Pedro Stein 18:55

Uh specifically more towards coaching, but you can browse through the rest too, just so I can have a full picture.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Sure. So, I mean, I've got someone who just did this actually. They reached out to me and they said, Hey, I would like some one-on-one coaching. I'm dealing with burnout, and you know, I and it's me that's burning out, and I want to I want to be able to maintain my role in this company. And so I said, Well, let's talk about it. So the first time I meet with them, I do meet via Zoom or Teams, whichever one they prefer, and I get a feel for, and it's not a charged time, it's just a you know, uh a get-to-know kind of meet and greet. And I take notes and we talk, you know, we talk for an hour or two hours, however long they need to talk about things. And then I say, okay, so if these are your goals, here's what I'm gonna propose. I'm gonna put together what I think would be, you know, and I'll tell them at that point, I think you need four sessions, or I think you need 12 sessions, or I think you need one time just to get over this hump. I'm very honest about things. Um, I don't oversell anything. I don't think that's necessary because when they need it, they reach out to me. And I'll even tell a client, if you're not willing to implement the changes that we're talking about, and this just happened actually recently to me, I will say, don't hire me because it's not worth your money, it's not worth your time. And you've got to be willing, you've got to be all in. So I assess a lot of that before I actually sign them on as clients. And then once they say, Yeah, I'm in, I put together an entire proposal, I send it to them. If they need to get approval from anyone, which a lot of times they do, you know, they're they're not the CEO or whoever's actually going to be uh footing the bills, so they'll get approval and then they'll come back to me and they'll say, Yes, we have been approved for I can do this four times, or I can do this six times, or I they're letting me do this unlimited. And then we set it up. Um, it's again, it's very tailored. So I don't just go, oh, let me get in this bucket and go, this is this, this is your training bucket. I go, no, let me now write an entire program for you. So they love that. And it actually makes it so much more successful because they know it's about them and not about anything else. And it makes a difference for sure. So now I've got you as my client, and I'm not gonna just make up reasons to keep you. You know, I want the goal of a coach is to release you at some point. I mean, that's really the goal. And for them to come back in my company, I will say, and then for them to come back to me when they need me, to trust me enough. So I build trust with them. We build that relationship. I know about their families, I know about their vacations. I know, I mean, we truly, and not just because I'm making small talk, I truly care about those things. I actually like to get to know the people that I work with. And they become like a family to me. It's kind of crazy. Even when I go to their sites, I'll be with them for four or five days and I leave just feeling kind of like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm having to leave you guys. You know, you're you're we're together, we're a family. Um, so it's you know, I'm not gonna keep you longer than you need to be kept. And again, I'm always accessible. That's what I tell them. Um, and I always stay in contact with them.

Pedro Stein 21:51

Okay. But also, there is the B2B side, right? Which is like the you're helping teens or how to navigate or transition someone who just got into a new position, right? Can you walk me through that a little bit too?

SPEAKER_02 22:06

So I'm I didn't hear that first part. So you said the the working with the teams and not just the one-on-one thing?

Pedro Stein 22:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Yes. Okay. So a lot of times what I do is I will go to their site and I will have a group of anywhere from 10 to 25 people who are either in leadership roles. Um I do a class on up and coming leaders, you know, so it just kind of depends on the makeup of the group. We do our class I end that class with, hey, let's talk about who needs help, who wants to continue this relationship. Typically I continue the relationship with the entire group and we do three and four classes over the next year. But then from that, there's always one, two or three, sometimes three people that will say, hey, we want to do this one-on-one stuff. Can you can you coach with me between the two sessions? Another thing I do with them is I send the entire group follow-up. So if we do like session one and I know session two is going to be, you know, session one was all about just self-awareness, understanding how you come across to people, all the things that you bring to the table, your strengths, your weaknesses, you know, all those things that you need to understand about yourself. And then session two is how can I put those into practice? Between those, I'm going to send them some questions to be asking themselves each day, some activities they can be doing within their teams to just keep it up to implement those things. Because you know how it is when you go to camp, it's great. And then when camp's over you go back home and you kind of forget. You know, it's that mountain high and mountain low. So I make sure we stay on the mountain high. I involve their leaders as well. So anybody that they report to so for example if I'm coaching someone I make sure that their leader, their boss, knows that they're involved in this. And at some point, usually at session three or four, I loop them in to the action steps that that employee has been asked to take so that they can hold them accountable as well. Because I'm not there every day. You know, I'm not on site with these employees. They have people that they report to and someone's got to be saying hey yeah they actually are interacting better with the employees or they actually are modeling um accountability those types of things. So I make sure I loop those people in again with the permission of the employee.

Pedro Stein 24:20

Right. I'm curious about one thing. I'm not sure if that happened in your experience but let's pretend or it did happen you can give me like a real example. Let's say someone hired you right to deal with someone who was promoted. So that person didn't pick you right you're there to help them facilitate the transition on that I get it. But what happens if there's a little bit of friction right like let's say they don't want you there. They like oh I have to to deal with her I I I have to do a lot of stuff and I have to go to this coaching session because they're not the one paying for it right so how do you navigate that?

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Pedro this has definitely happened to me and I've had to have conversations with several people who have hired me to say please don't make me the punishment please don't say okay on your you know performance improvement plan you have to meet with Leanne three times and they've done that before. And I say if you make me the punishment then there's no drive or desire for that person to want to get better because they feel like it's like a a slap on the wrist. It's a it's a you know you're in trouble type of thing. I said make it a perk like hey guess what we've actually invested in you because it is a perk. I you don't have to pretend I mean when companies invest in coaches or they invest in trainers it's a pretty big expense to them. You know it's a piece of their budget. So let's treat it as such. Let's say we have invested in you we believe in you we want you to grow with our company we want you to stay with our company and in order to do that we have invested in a coach so that you can have one-on-one you know you can let her know everything that you desire when it comes to your role at this company I also tell people that I'm not going to share what they tell me if they don't want me to there are sometimes uh clients will say will you go to my boss and and talk about this and I'll say absolutely or they'll say please don't mention this I'm like unless you give me permission I'm not mentioning anything. I've had clients the people who have hired me for their specific employees to say I had one call me the other day and he said hey Leon what's going on with so and so and I was like have you talked to so and so because I'm not going to let you know what's going on with them. Why don't you and and he actually made me laugh because he goes I think I just answered my own question. He said I need to call him in and talk to him and I said yes you know I'm here to help facilitate conversations. I'm here to give them tools you're there to continue to manage and lead them. So you've got to be the one holding them accountable. You've got to be the one following up with them. If they want you to call me and get feedback, great. They'll let me know that. So that's how I handle those situations. But again when people treat coaching as a punishment or as a you must do this to move on it is not helpful. It's the same thing Pedro when people say you have a mandatory training that you must attend next Monday from nine to five and they don't give them any sort and this happens I would say 99% of the time I'll get those clients in there and I'll say hey everybody tell me how you found out about this session today. Well we had a mandatory train you know and there it's always the same story. We got an email we just got the email yesterday and we had to be here today and I said I am so sorry for that and I'm going to talk to the person who sent that out and I'm going to help them understand that this is not a punishment. This is something they are doing to help you and take this as a day away from your typical work you know schedule it's about you. That's what makes my classes unique is I say it's about you it's about conversations you want to have it is a rhetorical class it is Socratic seminar you know if you want to think about it it is dialogue. Let's talk I have an agenda and I tell them every time whether it's a coaching session or it is a full group session I say I've got an agenda on these slides. We have slides we can follow but we can get off this like unlike an actual meeting we can take the rabbit trails if we need to because what's going to happen in here is you're going to bring up the things that truly need to be talked about. And I would say Pedro people love that more than any part of my class is they love that they can be authentic. They can talk about things that they know are not going to go outside of that room and that I'm a person who's not technically an employee of the company. So I have a very unbiased approach to it. And that's the feedback I get from people is I've never been able to talk about stuff like this. I've never been able to solve problems without so and so over here you know hearing it. And I think that is probably one of my biggest selling points and that's what they tell people when they refer.

Pedro Stein 28:48

Okay now I have another I'm not going to call it curveball it's more like curiosity towards your day-to-day basis right let's say I hired you right and I'm like Leanne my team is not performing or blah blah blah you know you get into there and you're talking those 10 to 15 people and you realize Pedro is the main problem the leadership right like just like your origin story about that the the facility that your your dad went how do you navigate that conversation with me I'm the paying client I am like I am sure they are the problem and you realize it's not them.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Yes well this doesn't have to be a pretend issue because this happens all the time. So one of my philosophies is if a client hires me they must agree to have their entire executive team go through the same thing. So if I'm doing a group training on just leader so let's say I one of my things I do is I do three phases of leadership training. That's kind of a one of those package things I can say hey we can do three phases we'll tailor each one to fit your company but it's going to be three times over the next year. And they'll go that's great my my employees need this so badly and I'll say hold on let me just let me let me make sure I explain the whole story here because here's the deal I expect from the CEO down to go through it. They can choose the order I I would some companies understand the value and I've had companies who have sent their entire executive team CEO COO CFO all of them all the C-suites to the first training so that they can see what their employees are going to be learning. Because don't you want to know what your employees are being asked to do I mean why would we not hear it ourselves so I've had a few companies who have been willing to do that right off the bat others you know what do you think some of the excuses are that they don't want to do it there's no time right yeah we're so busy we can't do that we really need our employees too because they're the ones who are client facing yada yada all the things and I say here's the thing you actually do have time because this time invested it's one of those things where you have to think full circle you're going to put the time in in the beginning and it will pay off in dividends over time. It may feel like oh my gosh we're digging in for two days here we don't have two days but those two days will be so well invested that you will start to see the fruit of those days much faster than if you just pretend that you don't need it because let me tell you what your employees are going to tell me. I've done this for 20 years and the phrase they're going to say is when's my boss going through this training right when are they going to hear this because they certainly don't treat me with servant leadership. They certainly don't hold each other accountable you know that whole thing. So when that happens I'm not afraid to have that conversation and and most top executives get on Zooms with me and they'll get on the phone with me and they'll meet with me in person. They're, you know, I they're they know it's important and I would say I don't want to exaggerate this I would say six out of 10 clients have sent their executive team to this training. Some of them have started with the manufacturing floor people you know the supervisors and the management but the ones that are beginning to see the importance now we're getting to the top level. And it speaks volumes because employees want to know that my boss my leadership team buys into this they're just not sending me to something to say check we did it it is a process. It's not just a sit down go to class come back and let's move on and so when I get clients and I and again I said this happened recently I had a client who I did meet with the executive team and they said but we how do we get people to implement it and I said you have to hold them accountable. It it comes from you so if they're not implementing it I said that's on you. That's not on me. I give you the tools and I said and and so at this point if you don't feel like you're able to hold them accountable and maintain that relationship that trust with them then you don't need to have me back because you're wasting your time and money. And guess what? They didn't have me back and that's okay uh because that's what it's about you have to be willing to make the change. So it happens.

Pedro Stein 33:02

It happens yeah believe it or not yeah people get surprised they need to set up the example right um but yeah it's pretty basic. Now let's shift gears for a second I'm curious about what's next Lee and you know where are you taking all this? You mentioned hiring you know you mentioned some stuff. And so looking ahead where do you see the business going? What's exciting?

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Well I would say um when you introduced me uh school you talked about the school piece of it the education piece that's actually a new piece um I've been doing corporations for these past 20 years um over the past I would say year I started getting in with some of the colleges that I was working with doing some of their in services some of their professional developments um keynote speaking that's been something and as my husband who is also in education and has uh doctoral work in transformational leadership so he's he's been a wealth of knowledge for me we have decided to combine some of our resources when it comes to what we know um and how we can help people and as I work with these manufacturing companies as I'm coaching one-on-one with some of these younger uh you know Gen Z employees which are different and and bring so much value that people need to understand the value and how to best work with them we see that the workforce that is coming into play um with the clients I've been working with they just it's not that they don't have work ethic I would never say that it's that they don't understand and it's different because they're coming from a very different background than we did. And when I say we, I mean us Gen Xers and even some millennials is these are kids who went through the COVID school. You know, they were in their beds in their pajamas doing class and not having deterred in assignments and still passing and all the things that happened during those few years where just education was turned upside down. So now they're working they don't understand why it matters to be on time. They don't understand why you can't just work you know minimum and then be expected to get a raise. They don't understand some of the things and it's not because they're bad people it's because they just weren't raised in that environment. It doesn't matter what kind of home life they had I'm telling you as parents we raised our children to have work ethic but when your teachers are not building into you and teaching you those things and holding you accountable for assignments due on time and creating a joyful learning experience then those are the people that don't want to be great workers because they don't know how. So we decided we're gonna we're gonna hit them where it matters and that is in the schools. My husband's going to be leading the division on working with executive teams, boards, administration superintendents I will be helping with that as well but going in and helping them understand how important the student experience is so when those kids graduate they now are contributors to our community and our society in ways that take less training less time for these companies that are hiring them because they come in understanding what matters when it comes to work ethic and that's exciting. So that's what I'm thinking about in the future we want to grow that um it's gonna take some time just like my side took time the corporate side uh bringing this side in it's gonna take time and it's gonna take relationships and we have a lot of education as you can imagine relationships um educational relationships with schools and districts um it's gonna be one district at a time and we are going to continue to just speak about why it's so important to make learning fun again and make it joyful and help teachers support them and you know that comes from the top it really does. The people who have been the most disconnected in schools are the same as the ones who then have been most disconnected in companies they're the top leaders who have been out of the real work right for too long and so they don't know how to connect.

Pedro Stein 36:52

So we are going to connect all that together and Lord willing we will have this company that just helps communities it's exciting it's exciting back to exciting it is exciting. Yeah okay now Leanne if someone listening wants to connect with you or follow your work and we're gonna have all the links in the description okay but what's the best way to people to find you and connect with you um I would say you know go to LinkedIn obviously um with my name and I guess you'll have that up there my LinkedIn um contact information but also just call me email me text me I'm happy to like I said I'll I'll probably ask you to get on a Zoom with me because I like to see faces.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

I think that's a better connector but I'll also get on a call with you if that's what you want. Let's just answer some questions. You know tell me what you're looking for tell me what your desires are for your group or for yourself and let's see if if I'm a fit if if connected culture is a fit and if it's not it's not and that's okay but if it is you know let's do this. So I will say this Pedro um 10 out of 10 times that I've met with people on Zoom we've connected and they become clients. So that's exciting that that just proves that it matters about the personal relationship. It cannot just be a company and a company it's got to be a person and a person. And that's the way I view it.

Pedro Stein 38:11

Okay. You know there were uh some few moments in this chat today that really stood out to me. I'm gonna highlight them real quick. Okay. Um the first one is when your father lived in that assisted living facility you mentioned right that you realize the nurses and the staffing was like that had zero joy right and you realize also that it's not always about the employees it's not just about money it cannot be that and you dug deeper and here you are right now because of that right so the origin story real inspirational that's one the second thing when you mention I think that you're not they're not outsourcing leadership right you're you level the playing field they need to hold them accountable it's not just like hey Leanne deal with this problem it doesn't really work like that you connect them you help them navigate it but it's not just hey solve this and and Sayonara right so that's another thing. When you mention that they answer you that they don't have the time uh to do the training or whatever they're the coaching and all that that you implement right and they're like hey they tell me I don't have the time I'm a CEO and blah blah well in reality they're just not treating as a priority right because they have to find the time if the if this means something to them it's not just about pushing a process to employees this is like full circle entire company right so there's that and the last but not least point is like you mentioned God three times right Laura willingly there was one at the start so I can see your you treat the this as a calling in a way I really like the way you framed it right the way that you it makes it easier for you on a day-to-day basis it sounds like because it does to me because when you're we're getting those times of doubt and you're like second guessing is this the right path you're always bringing up that energy that the the reason why you're doing this you know so Leah this is just my long-winded way of saying that I appreciate what you do I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today okay it was great having you on thank you so much for having me and and I do want to just real fast say I think if you focus on results and not transactions that's really going to be important and realizing that people are are people and you got to treat them as such.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

And so when you do say the God thing, yes, I believe that he's got a plan and I trust that plan and I'm thankful that he has been guiding us to where we are today and I just um I I'm I believe in a servant leader approach. So that's the way I treat my clients.

Davis Nguyen 40:53

Appreciate the last thought that's it for this episode. This episode as well as this podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle where we help business owners elevate their business to six, seven and eight figure years all without burning out. If you're looking to grow your business as well as get the time freedom that you are looking for, visit us at join purplecircle dot com and see what we can do to help you end your business