0:01

Welcome to Unpacked Podcasts

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with your host leadership consultant

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, ron Harvey of Global Core Strategies

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and Consulting . Ron's delighted to

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have you join us as he unpacks and

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shares his leadership experience , designed

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to help you in your leadership

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journey . Ron believes that leadership

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is the fundamental driver towards making

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a difference . So now to find

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out more of what it means to unpack

0:25

leadership , here's your host , ron

0:27

Harvey .

0:28

Good afternoon . This is Ron Harvey , the Vice

0:30

President and Chief Operating Officer of Global

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Core Strategies and Consulting , and

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, of course , our company . My wife and I have a company called

0:36

Global Core and it's all about leadership development

0:39

and what we really focus on is creating a winning

0:41

culture in the organization through the lens of a leader . We

0:44

truly understand how important leadership is in

0:46

organizations , whether people are going to stay with

0:48

the organization or they're going to look for a way

0:50

to get out or move away from the organization . So

0:52

we want to slow down the departure of

0:54

people leaving great organizations because of poor

0:56

leadership . We spend a lot of our time in that

0:58

space , so we're happy to do that . But

1:01

today we pause on our company to do something

1:03

to ask value to our community , which is called Unpack

1:05

with Ron Harvey , and I always invite

1:07

guests on and bring you the most phenomenal

1:09

people to have a real conversation called Unpack

1:11

with Ron Harvey . Our guests don't know

1:13

the questions in advance , so they've taken the

1:15

risk with me . They're diving in and say , hey , what are

1:17

the questions ? And they laugh like Ron , what are you setting us up

1:20

for ? But they always say , yes , they're

1:22

good friends of mine , they're business owners , they're colleagues

1:24

, they're peers , they push me , I hold

1:26

them accountable , I hold them accountable , but

1:28

phenomenal relationships . And so today

1:30

I have a really good friend with me today

1:32

, karen Jenkins , krj Consulting , and

1:35

she's with us today . I'm going to let her tell you who she

1:37

is and then we're going to really get behind the curtain and

1:39

listen to some of the wonderful expertise that

1:41

Karen often shares throughout our community

1:44

. Karen , can you share with us who you are and welcome

1:46

to the show .

1:46

Thank you , ron . Thank you so much for having

1:49

me . I'm Karen Jenkins . I

1:51

am the founder , owner , president and

1:53

CEO of KRJ Consulting . We

1:55

are celebrating our 15-year anniversary

1:58

this year and it has been a ride

2:00

. We started out as a service

2:03

provider for a nonprofit fighting foreclosure

2:05

in our state in 2008 . We

2:07

transitioned from a housing

2:09

counseling agency providing those services

2:12

to a consulting , training and development

2:14

firm In 2013-14

2:17

, we got into the federal contracting space

2:20

and we have evolved

2:22

into a professional and management

2:24

consulting firm providing

2:27

a array of

2:29

services to include

2:31

what I call next level management for

2:33

leaders to prepare them for that

2:35

next level , as well as workforce

2:38

development , leadership development

2:40

and staff augmentation . So we

2:42

provide subject matter experts to our clients

2:45

in a wide variety of spaces . So

2:47

our mantra is helping people

2:50

, adding value and making a difference and

2:52

, based on what our specific clients' needs

2:54

are , we come in and try

2:56

to apply or prescribe

2:59

the best fit for their challenges

3:01

.

3:02

Yes , yes , thank you , Karen , and Karen has done

3:04

a phenomenal job in our city , so thank you for sharing for

3:06

those that are joining us on this podcast

3:08

. So , karen , on unpack , one

3:10

of the things that we do promise our guests is that we're going

3:12

to have a real conversation about things that

3:14

will add value , make a difference and make people

3:17

better at what they're trying to achieve , whatever that may

3:19

be , from all walks of life , which

3:21

is valuable to us and is valuable to your company

3:23

as well . But I want to start with the place

3:25

where , as we look at the way the world has changed

3:27

drastically , you've been a role

3:29

model in our city for a while . What are some

3:31

of the key things that you had to do as a female

3:34

African-American female business owner

3:36

to be successful ? What are some of the things

3:38

behind the curtain that you had to do to overcome some of the

3:40

challenges you've been faced ?

3:42

So , and Ron , you know , I face them right .

3:45

Yes , yes , let's start there .

3:47

Let's start with the fact that there's always going

3:49

to be a challenge . Where there are challenges

3:51

, there's fear , and for me , fear

3:54

is false evidence appearing real . And

3:57

when I'm faced with a challenge

3:59

, regardless of what that challenge is going to be

4:01

, I'm not going to focus on the challenge . I'm

4:04

a solution-driven person by

4:06

nature , so I tend to immediately

4:08

go into solution role . As a

4:10

parent , that didn't always come across

4:12

well to my children , especially my daughter

4:14

, who at times would come to me

4:16

and not necessarily want a solution . She

4:18

just wanted an ear . So we

4:20

made an agreement after several

4:22

years in her adulthood that she would

4:25

have to come in and tell me which hat she wanted

4:27

me to wear , and at that point I

4:29

could either be the sounding board , I could be

4:31

the person you give her some advice , I could just

4:33

listen , or I could help her with a solution

4:36

. So the thing for me

4:38

is as we think you shall be

4:40

, and when I'm faced

4:42

with a situation , I

4:44

always go in to imagine

4:47

the outcome that I desire and

4:50

then I work towards that desire , regardless

4:52

of what it is . So we've had , in my

4:54

personal life , challenges . In 2015

4:57

, my father got sick and I

4:59

kind of dropped everything for

5:01

him , and over close to four months

5:03

. He ended up passing me at the end of that

5:06

and we lost about 70% of our revenue , but

5:08

that was okay , because my priority was my family . We

5:11

came back and worked towards

5:13

rebuilding or I came back to start

5:15

rebuilding in 2016 , and

5:18

then , on June 1st , my son had a ruptured brain aneurysm

5:20

. He graduated on June 1st

5:22

and he had an aneurysm five days later

5:24

, on June 5th . All challenges

5:26

, all real challenges . He was given a 10

5:29

to 15% chance to survive

5:31

. And again back

5:33

to the here's the challenge . I

5:35

did not focus on the 10 to 15% chance

5:37

to survive . I shared with everybody that

5:39

was around me it was about 20 to 25 people deep

5:41

that was supporting me at that time at the hospital

5:43

, and I told them there's anybody in here that

5:45

doesn't know that my child will

5:47

get up and walk out of this hospital . I need to leave the hospital

5:50

because I don't need you black , and I bless them

5:52

. And we went to praying . A very faith-based

5:54

family . We are , and just

5:56

continued to believe that

5:58

the outcome of my son walking out would happen

6:01

and , by the grace of

6:03

God , 37 days later 21

6:05

, which was an ICU he did walk

6:08

out and we moved to Atlanta

6:10

for two months and

6:12

he did rehab at the Shepherd Center , which

6:14

is a phenomenal rehab center for people with brain

6:16

injuries , and we ended

6:18

up coming back home and just

6:22

so honored and blessed to say that

6:24

he started school a year later , a little

6:26

over a year later , in August

6:28

, and by the grace of God it took

6:30

him a little longer , but he

6:32

will be graduating this May . So

6:35

we are so thrilled that , even

6:37

though and despite the challenges

6:39

that we had , I was able to maintain

6:41

a business . Might not been the best maintenance

6:43

in the world , but I was able to maintain

6:45

a business and then keep my eye on the

6:47

ball and come out on the other side and cross the

6:49

best way .

6:50

Yeah . So , karen , oftentimes you

6:53

make it look easier than it is . You

6:55

smile your way through it and I want to make sure business

6:57

understand that it's not easy , because even though

6:59

you smile through it , even though you show up , even

7:01

though you're solution oriented , I don't want people

7:03

to walk away thinking it's just that simple .

7:06

Oh no , there's not this simple about . You have to

7:08

be grounded in something .

7:09

Yes .

7:10

I'm grounded in my faith and I know

7:12

that , regardless of what I'm doing and where

7:14

I'm going , I'm actually a lot of times being

7:16

led . I pray for guidance . It

7:19

is not easy , right , but you

7:21

know , I tell my children all the time it's

7:23

not easy . Because it's not easy . It's not easy because

7:25

that little voice in your head starts talking to you

7:27

and you get these things or whatever , and you worry

7:30

yourself to death . And I tell people

7:32

that you know there's no difference between the

7:34

successful person and the unsuccessful person

7:36

when it comes to fear . We all have

7:38

it . The difference is the successful

7:40

person took the step anyway . Yes , the

7:42

successful person took that step and then realized

7:44

, once they took that step in the second step , the second step , that all

7:47

of a sudden , oh , wait , a minute , what was ? I worried about it

7:49

wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be . Oh , why

7:51

didn't I move ? Take this move earlier . And

7:53

the other thing I'll tell you , ron , is you know it

7:55

takes a village . You

7:58

know , when you talk about stress and you talk about

8:00

challenges or just day to day life

8:02

, you have to surround yourself

8:04

with like minded people , which is why I'm in

8:06

your circle and you in mind , right , we're

8:08

there for each other . I might

8:10

have a challenge or something and need to think about

8:13

it a different way , and I can pick up the phone and call

8:15

you . I can pick up the phone and call the sentence and

8:17

say hey , look , did you think about this ? Help me

8:19

walk through this scenario . And when

8:21

I say like minded people , we

8:23

are of the cloth , that

8:26

we don't believe in a zero sum game . If

8:28

I help you , it's taken nothing out of my mouth . If

8:30

you help me . It's not taking anything out of your mouth

8:33

. So we believe that there's enough

8:35

out there right For us to work

8:37

together and work on each other's behalf

8:39

and still be successful . And don't think

8:41

that , oh my gosh , I can't help you because then

8:43

I'm losing that one .

8:45

Absolutely so . Let's unpack that for a second , because one

8:47

of the things that we know for sure the

8:50

power of cohesion with like minded

8:52

people . How did you get to the place

8:54

you know ? Or what can you attribute

8:56

to the fact that you do work with other people

8:59

consistently , and it's not just because

9:01

what you can get , and so when you're speaking to leaders , that

9:03

oftentimes because departments can make you silo

9:06

, you business can make you silo

9:08

, your gender can make you silo , and there

9:10

are so many things in society that can make people silo

9:12

. What was it that you attribute to

9:14

you being so cohesive and collaborating

9:16

? What do you share with leaders that need to figure out how to collaborate

9:19

better ?

9:19

So you know I believe

9:21

in synergy , right ? Ok , you know I'm an energy

9:23

person , so I believe one that we're

9:26

responsible for the energy that we bring into the room . So

9:28

when people deal with you , you've got to realize

9:31

that they're dealing with the energy that you're giving them . So

9:33

if you give them a negative energy , guess what you're going to

9:35

get back . If you give them a neutral injury

9:37

, guess what you're going to get back . But even on the blessing

9:39

side , when you give them that positive energy

9:41

, guess what you're going to get back . I also

9:43

believe that you're only as strong as

9:46

your weakest link . So

9:48

when you're the strongest person , then it should

9:50

be your job to help build up somebody else , because

9:52

, at the end of the day , we all prosper and

9:54

grow . I was just having lunch earlier

9:57

today and we were having this conversation about

9:59

how my

10:01

mantra is helping people , adding value and

10:03

making a difference . So that's , of course , the mantra of my organization

10:06

. But at the end of the day , I don't help

10:08

people with . That was a critical

10:11

, pro mentality . I help

10:13

you because I genuinely want to help you

10:15

, not because I'm expecting anything from you , and

10:17

my truth is that , as I

10:19

have gone out and helped people and I do

10:22

it . That's just who I am . My

10:24

blessing has never come from the people that

10:26

I help , so I don't

10:28

need to expect anything from them . God blesses

10:30

me tenfold over here with

10:32

somebody else . It is a situation where you

10:34

want to , the communication

10:36

piece of an organization is critical

10:39

and people have to understand that

10:41

. People can't read your mind right

10:43

and you might have your feelings hurt

10:46

because you interpreted something

10:48

that somebody said it was not intended

10:50

the way that you received it . So

10:53

I'll let you go and notify them . Hey

10:55

, you know pretty clarify . Let me

10:57

make sure that I heard what I think

10:59

I heard and give them the opportunity

11:01

to clarify so that you won't

11:03

walk around for six months or two feet with certain I

11:06

speak with somebody for no reason . Yes , yes

11:08

.

11:09

So when you think about running your organization

11:11

, it's continued to grow . How

11:13

important of a role has it been for you to delegate

11:15

, because I've watched you step back , not do

11:17

everything in your organization that you used to do . What

11:20

would you share with the up and coming leaders watching you and they're watching you how

11:23

do you help them understand that it's how important

11:25

delegation is , and how do they get there , because

11:27

it's not easy to let go of what you're

11:29

good at , and what is your baby ? How

11:31

did you get there ? Because you had to get there . So

11:33

you talk about delegating .

11:35

So delegation is probably one of

11:37

the most challenging things as an

11:39

entrepreneur , especially

11:41

when you were solo canoe and you did

11:43

everything , which meant that when you did

11:45

everything , you knew where everything was , you knew how

11:47

it was , you knew when it was . The

11:50

challenge with being that type of person

11:52

in the solo world is when you add

11:55

somebody in there , even

11:57

before you do , you cannot grow

11:59

any further than your cable tow right

12:02

. You can't grow beyond

12:04

your capacity . Yes , so if

12:06

you want to stay where you are , then stay where

12:08

you are . There's nothing wrong with you still

12:10

continuing to be that solo person all by yourself

12:13

. But just know there's blessings

12:15

in growth , there's blessings

12:17

in expansion , and if you want to do

12:19

that , then you have to delegate . Now

12:21

here's the challenge with delegation . One

12:24

of the easiest things to do in delegation is make

12:26

a list of all the things that you do and , as a

12:28

business owner , there are I'm going to call

12:30

them $50 ticket items and $10 ticket

12:32

items . The best thing to do is

12:34

for you to delegate to $10 ticket items

12:36

. Let somebody else handle that , because

12:38

there's certain things that , as an organizational leader

12:40

, there's only I can do . There's

12:43

a lot of people that can do those $10 ticket

12:45

items . The other thing is

12:47

you have to delegate but

12:49

also give the person the authority to do what they're doing

12:51

. You can't just delegate

12:54

and then take it back , you know , or

12:56

they can't make the call , and I'll give

12:58

you four quadrants of delegation . I

13:01

can delegate to Ron , the

13:03

new person here , and

13:05

he's never done this before . So

13:08

I have to delegate , coach and

13:10

train him all at the same time and kind

13:12

of be there for him , right . Then there's

13:15

the other person that's been doing it for a little bit

13:17

. They understand it , so I'm going to delegate them . I'm

13:19

not going to really have to train them a lot . I might

13:21

have to coach them to make sure they have my expectation

13:24

in place right . Then the third

13:26

quadrant is they've been there

13:28

and they know what they're doing , but

13:31

it's really important , so I might have to sign off on

13:33

what they do . And then the fourth quadrant

13:35

is just give it to them , let them run with it

13:37

and tell you when it's done . The

13:39

challenge with delegation is sometimes we

13:41

mix those quadrants and if you have

13:43

somebody that's a seasoned person that knows more than you

13:45

about the situation and you try to treat them like that

13:47

number one delegation where you're on them

13:49

and riding them and asking them all these questions

13:52

. It doesn't work well . The flip

13:54

side of that is , if you have somebody that hasn't

13:57

been where you are , they don't know

13:59

anything about , this is their first time you

14:01

can't just throw them out there and not give them in a

14:03

guidance and direction and drink . That's

14:05

also your opportunity for failure . But you

14:07

give the person that you're delegating

14:10

to the appropriate amount

14:12

of support so that they

14:14

can actually take that thing off of your foot .

14:16

Awesome . So you gave us a technique . I

14:19

want to talk to the leader that don't

14:21

trust people . That's a phenomenal

14:24

model Most leaders struggle at

14:26

. Trusting has nothing to do with talent , has

14:28

nothing to do with skills , has everything to

14:30

do with the leader . How ?

14:31

do you help ?

14:31

a leader that struggles at delegating because they don't

14:33

trust people enough . They're the best at

14:35

it and they don't want to recheck and they don't want to double

14:38

check and they don't want to redo . A lot of

14:40

leaders that I encounter throughout time . Their

14:42

real struggle in delegating is not the process

14:44

they're getting in their own way because they

14:46

don't trust people enough , or to get to

14:48

make mistakes on their watch that they may have

14:50

to pay for . Trust becomes an issue .

14:53

Trust is a huge issue and , unfortunately

14:55

, if you're going to be a leader and if you're going

14:57

to expand and grow , you don't have

14:59

to learn how to trust . But trust is

15:01

something that is earned . Just like

15:04

you earn respect

15:06

, somebody else is going to earn your trust . I

15:08

like to do something called trust , but verify , so

15:11

you can give somebody something but verify

15:13

that it's done . I have been burned a hundred

15:15

times . I've been burned numerous

15:17

times where I trusted . I gave somebody

15:19

something to do and then it was due

15:21

on Friday and then they called me on Friday morning

15:24

and said oh , by the way , I can't come in

15:26

and I didn't finish your work . Oh , that's

15:28

a huge concern and that makes

15:30

trust go out the window and it makes it

15:32

bad for the next person that comes around that

15:34

I'm supposed to be trusted because I'm like , oh , I'm remembering what

15:36

their last person did , so I don't really want to deal with

15:38

you . So you give

15:40

people room to

15:43

grow in that trust mechanism

15:45

. So I'm going to give you , I'm going to delegate

15:47

you , I'm going to train

15:49

you . First of all , I'm going to make sure your skill set

15:51

matches what I need you to

15:53

get done for me . Yes , a lot of people fail

15:55

because we delegate to the wrong people

15:57

. The other thing is , I'm going to delegate

16:00

to you and if the thing is due on Friday

16:02

, I'm going to ask you to give it to me on Tuesday .

16:04

Yes .

16:05

And what that does for me is , when you give it back

16:07

to me , if it's not what I need

16:09

it to be and listen carefully , it's

16:11

not what I need it to be I'm not going

16:13

to snatch it , fix it and run with it . I

16:16

need to train you , because I'm trained to

16:18

replace myself in that particular skill

16:20

and I have to slow down enough

16:22

to say , oh , you know , this is 80%

16:25

right and I need you to tweak this and this

16:27

. Now go back and fix it and

16:29

then bring it back to me on Wednesday and

16:31

then hopefully , we'll go over it again . And now you got

16:33

it . Now the delegate whatever you

16:35

call it their role is

16:37

to train and write down , take

16:40

notes , so that issue that they had on this

16:42

particular one is not what I see next month

16:44

, in the next month . So it's a coaching

16:47

process to teach

16:49

the person that you're delegating to

16:51

, but also exercising your

16:53

skills on how to trust . So you do it in

16:55

what I call incremental trusting .

16:57

Yes , One of the areas that show up , and so we talked

17:00

about delegation . When we think

17:02

about leaders in the space that we're operating

17:04

in , when you think about emotional intelligence

17:06

, the way that it's showing up in our organizations

17:08

now . So for you as a leader , you're

17:11

mindful of how you show up . How

17:13

was it important for you to make sure

17:15

that how you showed up will have everything

17:17

to do with your brand and how you receive emotion

17:20

intelligence ? Because you see a lot of

17:22

people that get frustrated , the temper

17:24

shows up , they get hot , they get irritated

17:26

, they walk away and you can do all of

17:28

that , but it costs you a lot to not control

17:30

that level of how you show up . What

17:33

would you say new leaders that are coming that get frustrated

17:35

or irritated and want to just throw the towel in the walkway

17:37

, say forget it ? How do you help leaders become more

17:40

? And not even the process of ? How relevant is it for

17:42

us to be more impulsive and intelligent

17:44

, to be effective as leaders ?

17:46

Very important

17:48

. Back in the day , leadership

17:51

management was built off

17:53

of the militaristic style Do

17:56

as I say and jump

17:58

. When I say jump and

18:00

I can talk to any kind of way

18:02

, I can yell at you , I can , real , sergeant , kind

18:04

of get off the new grill . We

18:06

are in a different world now . Our society

18:08

has changed as far as what's acceptable

18:11

and what's not . We are in a position where

18:13

we have five generations working

18:15

in the workforce at the same time for the first

18:17

time . So you have baby boomers and

18:19

millennials and whatever come after that , all at the

18:21

same time and they don't think alike . Baby boomers

18:23

are used to that , the millennials are not . Don't yell

18:25

at them , don't do those

18:27

things that you can do to the baby boomers . So

18:30

what I say is leadership

18:33

starts with self . And

18:36

if you can't lead yourself which means

18:38

emotionally , right , mentally If

18:41

you can't lead yourself and understand

18:43

that just because something happened to you

18:45

you got stuck at traffic

18:47

light , you kicked the toad , you did whatever

18:49

as a leader , just like

18:52

as a parent , your children watch you

18:54

and they watch how you respond to stuff . And

18:57

if you get out there and you're

18:59

spewing your energy , not nothing

19:01

to do with the employee or the staff . It's

19:03

solely to do with you and the fact that you stumped

19:05

your toad . They didn't do it . You have to

19:08

be present . You have to understand

19:10

that and that's the self leadership

19:12

part of this is the biggest piece

19:14

of emotional intelligence , because you have to understand

19:17

yourself , your energy and what you're bringing in and

19:20

what you're going to cause other people to have to be

19:22

in a position to respond to . So

19:25

that emotional intelligence part

19:27

is not only just watching yourself and how

19:29

you're interacting with people , but also monitoring

19:31

somebody else . You want to walk

19:33

in at that . Maybe that other person was the person that

19:35

had the bad day that you know , got

19:37

cussed out by a spouse before they came in and

19:39

whatever . And you have to be present

19:42

enough to know that certain

19:44

times and things that you're going to say to Bob

19:46

when he walks in , but you know you look at that face . Bob

19:48

got this . This might not be the day Right

19:50

, this might not be the day that I want to talk to him , so

19:53

it truly is a skill

19:55

that has to be exercised

19:57

and a lot of cases that has to be

19:59

taught . We teach self leadership . You

20:02

know we teach leadership , but we teach

20:04

self leadership first so that

20:06

people understand how they interact

20:09

with other people and what their emotions

20:11

bring to the table . And , as you said earlier

20:13

, your emotions can cost you a lot . Yes

20:16

you know , as a leader , if

20:18

you have displayed certain emotions

20:20

and a promotion comes up or an

20:22

opportunity comes up , you

20:24

will miss out on that opportunity and never

20:26

know that you even had a chance at it

20:28

, because whoever's making the decision

20:31

is going to scratch your name off the list before

20:33

it even starts , because you

20:35

can't stand the pressure or you

20:37

wouldn't perform well in that environment

20:40

and you don't want to cut your lessons off by

20:42

overreacting

20:44

.

20:45

Yeah , and thanks for that , Karen and

20:47

unpacking the fact that how you show

20:49

up will have impact on you and not just you

20:51

everything that you may be trying to accomplish your brain

20:53

, your position , your promotions , your family . So

20:56

it's important for , as we think , leadership

20:58

and we think about emotional intelligence , like

21:01

it's important for you to find someone that can

21:03

help you be able to pay attention to those

21:05

things that you're doing . That may cost you more than

21:07

you will in the pay Right . Another area

21:09

I love the question or to unpack with you is

21:11

you made it to where you are . You're doing

21:13

successful things , consistently

21:15

showing up . How important was

21:18

mentoring to you and who was a mentor that you

21:20

said step back and say actually

21:22

, as a female , you know and I'm and

21:24

I'll go professionally , but I want to go for women

21:26

that are listening and they don't have always

21:29

have to be a male mentor . How important was mentoring

21:31

to your level of success that you've achieved so far ?

21:33

Okay , so I love it when I get asked this

21:35

question . I have prayed

21:37

for a mentor for

21:40

years I'm when I was

21:42

in leadership and assistant

21:44

vice president at the bank and the mortgage

21:46

bank , when I became

21:48

an entrepreneur , I wanted a mentor

21:50

and I wanted that mentor that you know . Hey

21:52

, come and let's go to lunch and I'm going to meet with you and

21:55

I'm going to guide you and I'm going to be your GPS . And

21:57

I prayed and prayed and never got one . I

22:00

have a few now right , officially and

22:02

unofficially , but I didn't ever

22:04

have one . But I had a

22:06

group of people

22:09

, some of which that were

22:11

family members , some of which that were colleagues

22:13

, some of which were other business

22:15

people that I pulled together

22:17

. I've had three

22:20

different mastermind groups that

22:22

I've led and brought other people in

22:24

to say , hey , let's leverage our mind

22:26

and our thinking to support one

22:28

another and , you know , kind of kick things

22:31

off of each other . And then one

22:33

day , in one of my prayer meditations , it

22:35

hit me that I've always

22:37

had the ultimate mentor

22:39

and that was God

22:41

. And I can

22:43

say , from being I can go back

22:45

as far as middle school walk

22:48

in the middle . I grew up in Greenview , one

22:50

of the historical African

22:52

American neighborhoods in Columbia . And

22:55

I remember walking to school , having conversations

22:57

with God as a child , you

22:59

know , in the seventh grade and the eighth grade , and

23:02

I remember having conversations , asking him for

23:04

guidance , asking him to , you

23:06

know , point me in the right direction . I

23:09

remember getting in scenarios for example

23:11

, I got laid off and it was like , oh , my God

23:13

, you know what I'm going to do . I didn't panic , I was

23:15

like , okay , well , god , help me , you know , show me the way

23:17

. And every single time

23:19

I got into something or I had a challenge

23:22

or I had an issue , I've

23:24

always had things happen . Somebody

23:27

that I meet out the blue or something

23:29

that comes in the mail out the blue , or something

23:32

out the blue , and he says out the blue . But it's

23:34

not . It was God leading me

23:36

and being that mentor for me that

23:38

I've always wanted . The other thing I'll

23:40

say is I'm not a keen observer

23:42

like my daughter , but I'm an observer . So

23:44

I learned really well from other people's actions

23:47

, good and bad . So

23:50

I've had distance mentors that I've

23:52

watched from afar and said , okay

23:54

, well , let me see how they're doing that , let

23:56

me look at them and see what's happening . Okay , I can do that

23:58

. Or oh , no , I'm not going to do that . I

24:02

didn't work out well . So , from a distance

24:04

, I've had a group of mentors just

24:06

watching people . I have a few

24:09

. I know for a fact of the last

24:11

few years . I can call a couple of people

24:13

Dr Lewis Lannis one . I can

24:15

call him and say , hey , look , I need or

24:17

let me ask you some questions . So he's

24:19

now one of my mentors my

24:22

circle , although they're my

24:24

circle and my colleagues are my mentors

24:26

Ron Harvey , lucinda Lewis

24:28

, lynn Huttoe you know a few others

24:30

Henry Baskins these are people

24:32

that I know for a fact that if I

24:34

needed something or I need to ask myself

24:36

something , that they would be there for me . I'm a

24:38

part of Vistage , so I have an awesome

24:41

Vistage leader . Kevin Williams is awesome

24:43

. I throw stuff off to him . Brenda

24:45

Anderson is my coach , also my

24:47

business partner , so she's been awesome . The

24:50

Small Business Development Center okay

24:52

, I've been with them since 2012 . Scott

24:54

Bellows is on my speed dial and I

24:56

can call him business stuff and just say , hey , look

24:58

, tell me what's going on . So you leverage

25:01

your community strengths

25:03

. If you don't have a

25:05

one-on-one mentor , you leverage

25:07

your community strengths and

25:10

ask them for what you need when

25:12

you need it .

25:13

Thank you for sharing that . I mean so you were sharing

25:15

, for the people that are watching and listening the

25:18

value of having people in your circle

25:20

, almost like your board . Advisors are super important

25:22

so that way they can show you

25:24

and teach you and mentor and guide and help

25:27

and hold you accountable . So

25:29

, for those who are listening , find

25:31

someone that you can be yourself , you

25:33

can be vulnerable , that you trust . That's good

25:35

for the best interest of what you're trying to get done to

25:38

help you get better . So mentoring is gonna be

25:40

huge for you as you go forward as a leader

25:42

. If you look at

25:44

Karen and I no matter how great we get

25:46

, she said something that I wanna make sure we don't

25:48

pass by . Karen has a coach , and

25:51

even her level , and she continues to have that person

25:53

. So if you're listening and you're watching us , find

25:55

people that will pour into you , that

25:58

help you get better and find

26:00

a process of how you're gonna select them . And

26:03

it's good with informal mentors , but there's also

26:05

formal mentors , and so you wanna pull all that together

26:07

. I'll tell you , both of us are in this space where

26:09

we use a lot of the same things as far as how we

26:11

got to where we are Karen . So when you think

26:13

about leadership and you think

26:15

about no society is challenging

26:17

for leaders that are there , there are a lot of tough decisions

26:19

. Can you remember a time when you had

26:21

to make a tough decision and I know you dealt

26:24

with your son . That was a tough decision . I know you dealt with your dad

26:26

. That was a tough decision . How did you prioritize

26:28

when to invest time in

26:30

with your family and when to invest time with

26:32

your family ? How did you make those tough decisions ? Because

26:35

oftentimes leaders make tough decisions but there's

26:37

not a process sometimes of how to

26:39

prioritize which ones to make and which ones

26:41

not to make .

26:42

How did you get ?

26:42

good at making tough decisions .

26:44

So I'm just gonna put it out there . I have always prioritized

26:46

my family with my business theory . My

26:49

core value , one of my core values , is my

26:51

family . Now , that doesn't say

26:53

that I let my business go , it

26:56

just meant that I was gonna make . And

26:58

I was so blessed , ron , because when

27:01

my father got sick , when my son got

27:03

sick , I was an entrepreneur and I didn't have

27:05

to ask anybody could I take off . I

27:07

didn't ask anybody , I didn't have to ask someone

27:10

. Can I sit at my son's bedside while

27:12

he's in ICU with my laptop

27:14

and stepping out to take phone calls ? I

27:16

didn't have to ask permission , but

27:19

I was blessed that I

27:21

was able to take care of him . He

27:23

was in the bed , same thing with my father and

27:25

have my laptop with me and still

27:28

be able to function . Work

27:30

was kind of therapeutic

27:33

for me when I'm

27:35

in that scenario and

27:37

your father's in the bed here

27:40

and you're going through whatever , your son's in the bed

27:42

here and he's going through whatever . But to take

27:44

my mind off of those the

27:47

things that I could have done , because when

27:49

those negative thoughts came in I had to push him out

27:51

, but to focus on

27:53

. Let me answer these emails , let me

27:55

work on this RFP

27:57

, let me do these things and making

27:59

sure that I was able to do those things and

28:02

make sure that they didn't fall too . Because

28:05

the other thing is I believe , in fact , that

28:07

life is like this you got all these

28:09

aspects of your life . You got family

28:12

relationships , spiritual , mental health

28:14

, whatever . When one goes down right

28:16

, and nobody ever is like this with everything

28:18

up . When one goes down , it's

28:20

very easy to focus on that one

28:22

and then , ultimately , everything else goes down , and

28:24

most people crack

28:27

or go into loom bend when this happens

28:29

. But what you wanna do is this is

28:31

hey , this is a challenge , right

28:33

, but I'm still grateful for these . I'm

28:35

still thanking God . I'm mad . Thank you for

28:37

this challenge too , because in all the

28:39

situations that I had , they could have been worse . My

28:42

father went through six surgeries in seven days . He could

28:44

have died on the table , but the Lord

28:46

blessed us with formal months . Right , my

28:48

son right , andeurism

28:50

, 10 to 15% . He could have been gone

28:52

. So you focus on the positive

28:55

things of oh , it's stressful

28:57

, don't get me wrong , but , lord , thank you

28:59

that it's this and not that , right . And

29:01

then you kind of pour yourself into the other

29:04

three . You know the mental

29:06

part of it , the praying part of it , the

29:08

work part of it . And for

29:10

me , I had a community oh

29:12

my gosh like the whole school district

29:15

almost shut down . I don't say shut down , but they

29:17

swarmed the hospital , but from the superintendent

29:20

to the principal , to the teachers , to the students

29:22

, that was so supportive . You know my work , people

29:24

, my church , everybody poured into

29:26

us . So when you know that you are

29:28

there to you , have people surrounding

29:30

you to uplift you , it gives you

29:33

some additional energy , it gives you some additional

29:35

support . So you have to stay

29:37

focused and make sure . So here's the thing

29:40

and I'll go back to find out what your

29:42

core values are and if you live by your core values

29:44

which you really are . You probably don't know , but

29:46

you make decisions based on your core values

29:48

. When you do that , things tend to

29:50

flow . Even in the bad times , you

29:53

make decisions . You can say , okay , am

29:55

I making this decision ? Is this for or against

29:57

my core values ? Is this gonna put me closer

30:00

to a further way ? And then , when you make

30:02

those decisions , things tend to align

30:04

. You'll be all in this chaos for a little while

30:06

, but then , when the smoke clears at

30:08

least for me you tend to realign

30:10

back to what I call your homestasis

30:13

or your equilibrium .

30:14

Yeah . So , karen , a couple things I'll unpack

30:16

as we are concerned in the next couple of minutes and

30:18

I'm gonna give you a rapid fire question . Let me see how

30:21

quick you respond to it .

30:22

Okay , let's see what I got .

30:23

How has your struggles made you better ?

30:26

Just like when you lift weights it makes you stronger

30:28

.

30:28

Awesome . What is the

30:30

best thing you've ever done for yourself ? I ?

30:33

don't know , I don't know , I don't know . I

30:37

have my kids .

30:39

That's for the kids . Yeah , that's for the kids . I

30:41

want you to talk about , karen . What's the thing you've done for yourself

30:43

, for you personally , that you benefited

30:45

from ?

30:46

My massages yes .

30:48

What's the fun fact you'd like for us to know about you ?

30:51

A fun fact , am I fun ?

30:53

I've been around you . So yes , I know yes .

30:55

I love being funny , I love positive energy

30:57

, I love being around positive

30:59

energy and having fun , Awesome .

31:02

If money was never issued and you had all the money in

31:04

the world , you can do anything . What would you

31:06

donate to ? What charity ? What would you give your

31:08

money away to ?

31:10

Oh , good question Some form of self-empowerment

31:12

. I don't have a specific thing

31:15

, but some form of self-empowerment to help

31:17

people understand

31:19

and know how they can empower themselves

31:22

. Not sure what that would be . I

31:24

would give some money to the

31:27

aneurysm groups to support families

31:29

that are going through . What should I take after that

31:31

? I'm going to take that back . You said

31:33

money wasn't an issue . I would

31:35

want to create some form of

31:37

self-empowerment program

31:41

to teach people to fish .

31:44

As I'm thinking about the question and these are rapid fire questions

31:46

, so I don't know what the next question would be . I'm just listening to Karen

31:48

and Norna . Well enough , I would want to

31:50

find something to somehow

31:52

eradicate racism .

31:55

So I'm going to say this one , because I said this

31:57

at lunch today All

32:00

things are tagged as racism , isn't

32:02

racism ?

32:02

Absolutely .

32:03

A lot of what is tagged as racism is ignorance

32:05

, and here's what I'll say . I

32:08

have met my previous boss at the bank

32:10

. She was from Greenville . She

32:12

had never had a one-on-one relationship with an African-American

32:14

person until she met me in another

32:17

African-American . She had four supervisors two

32:19

were Caucasian and two were Black

32:21

. She did not know that

32:23

we had socioeconomic classes

32:25

like everybody else did , because

32:28

the only thing she knew of African-Americans is

32:30

what she saw on television . And what did she see ? She

32:33

saw good times and she saw Samson and

32:35

she saw the news that said every other day somebody

32:38

was killing a mug and somebody else blackmailed . But

32:40

when she met me and she met my

32:42

friend , she got acclimated

32:45

to what our true nature is

32:47

and who we really are . I heard

32:49

somebody else say to somebody

32:51

else that you know you got businesses , organizations

32:53

and leaders that say I believe in diversity , equity

32:55

and inclusion . And they said to that person

32:58

if you don't have a minority friend or

33:00

somebody that you're talking to outside of

33:02

work , then you're not serious about diversity

33:04

, equity and inclusion . And I was like , wow , that

33:06

was a good point . So what

33:08

I would say is that

33:11

we would educate

33:13

people and help them

33:15

understand . Let's say it this

33:17

way when I walk into a

33:19

room , run , I don't want somebody . You can

33:21

judge me all you want to , all right , but

33:24

like me or dislike me , or care

33:27

not for the woman , not

33:29

for the African-American , well

33:31

, not care . I'm going to change my name because you know what I mean .

33:33

I'm going to say yeah , just caring .

33:35

But yeah , the real caring . But

33:37

just like or dislike me because of that

33:39

, yes , and if we can get people to

33:41

get to that level of energy

33:43

, to that level of , I'm not

33:45

even going to let somebody tell me who to like . You

33:48

can't tell me who to like and who to dislike . I'm

33:51

going to like or dislike somebody . I don't care what your political

33:53

views are , your religious views are , whatever

33:56

. I'm going to like or dislike you because

33:58

of who you are . And we can figure out

34:00

a way to get people to do that , all

34:03

of the issues we got that we're talking about now will

34:05

go away .

34:06

Yes , yes . So two questions . I

34:08

want to be forced to for you to highlight who you , your company

34:10

, who you are . But the question I have for you you

34:12

get ready to take on a big role here in Columbia and

34:15

I'm super excited to watch you do it , filling

34:17

big shoes . A lot of great people came before you and there's

34:19

a high expectation . You can already be the board

34:21

chair for the Columbia Chamber . What

34:23

do you want to get accomplished in the year that you're going to be the

34:25

chair ?

34:26

My goals , Of course , I think the

34:28

organization as an organization is probably

34:30

the best situation has been in years because

34:32

of challenges in the past . But

34:35

my goal is to look

34:37

at our organizational and

34:39

community stakeholders

34:41

and bring us all together

34:43

to make sure that we're working in cohesion

34:46

and immunity to make this the best

34:48

place to work with . I think we

34:50

have the right leadership right now at

34:52

the helm for all of the

34:55

organizations to have this dialogue , to

34:57

have this discussion and make sure we're

34:59

all going in the same direction , from

35:01

education to city

35:04

and county and local and you

35:06

know just businesses in general

35:08

, community people in general

35:11

. I think we have that ability to come

35:13

in and make this the best place to work

35:15

with .

35:15

Yes , yes , I agree , I'm

35:17

at the chamber as well . So we're looking forward to having

35:20

you supporting you in that role and

35:22

you know we'll meet again in six months and we'll

35:24

check in and say you know you are in that role . So

35:26

it's almost like this political type , the act of spirit that

35:28

you're going to be sitting in now and so we'll check in in six

35:30

months . So I would love to invite you back in six months and say

35:32

, hey , what's going well ? What else do

35:34

you still have left to do ? You know , what have you enjoyed

35:37

the most , who's been your biggest supporters and who

35:39

do you wish you could reach out to ? That you haven't reached out to . So

35:41

I would love to bring you back on midterm of your term

35:43

and see how people are going for you . So

35:46

, karen , as we close out for you , for our podcast

35:48

today and for all our listeners people have listened

35:50

to this and they will . How do people reach

35:53

you or your organization ? So you may

35:55

not be the direct contact , but how do people get in touch with KRJ

35:57

Consulting ?

35:58

So they can reach us at our website at

36:00

krjconsultingcom , and

36:03

there's a contact page that you can give us an

36:05

idea of specifically what you're , what kind of support

36:08

you're looking for , whether it's strategic

36:10

planning , workforce development , working

36:12

with your staff , working with your next level leaders

36:14

, whatever it is that you might need Staff

36:17

augmentation . We provide subject matter experts

36:19

to organizations that might

36:21

need some IT folks or might need some

36:23

other type of services , but they don't want to put them on their

36:25

payroll . So , just depending on what they're looking

36:27

for , just give us a call , we'll be happy to reach

36:30

out .

36:31

Yes , yes , karen , thank you so much for saying yes

36:33

to coming onto the podcast and the relationship

36:35

and the partnership that we have and so excited

36:37

to see what we both will do in the coming year

36:39

as we close out this quarter of 2023

36:42

. And again , this is Ron Harvey

36:44

. Global Core Strategies and Consulting in

36:46

Columbia , south Carolina , podcast

36:49

unpacked with Ron Harvey . So we release a new

36:51

podcast every Monday with someone

36:53

phenomenal that's going to let you behind the curtain , give

36:55

you real answers for things that you sometimes don't understand

36:57

or think is really easy . So we try to uncover

37:00

the truth behind how we do what we do every day

37:02

. So , for those of you that are listening , thank you for joining

37:04

us . Tune in to us every single Monday

37:06

with a podcast release with a different

37:08

leader from across our global world , sharing

37:11

good ideas and good concepts that can help you

37:13

as a leader . Our goal is to really make

37:15

leaders the best they can be to face

37:17

the future endeavors that we all will face in the coming

37:19

years . So thank you for joining us and we look forward

37:21

to another episode of Unpacked with Ron

37:23

Harvey in the coming weeks .

37:26

Well , we hope you enjoy this edition

37:28

of Unpacked podcast with

37:30

leadership consultant Ron Harvey

37:32

. Remember to join us every Monday

37:34

as Ron Unpacked sound advice , providing

37:37

real answers for real leadership

37:40

challenges . Until next time , remember

37:42

to add value and make a difference

37:45

where you are , for the people you

37:47

serve , because people always

37:49

matter .