Episode 17: Live with Candace Mae Gruber

Welcome to the Leadership and Success Podcast. With your host, Coach Beezy. If you need to develop into a better leader, this podcast is for you. If you want to achieve a greater level of success, this podcast is for you. His mentor, Dr. John C. Maxwell, said it best: everything rises and falls on leadership. We hope to inspire you today and provide you with an insight that has the potential to positively impact the trajectory of your life. Welcome to the Leadership and Success Podcast. —that idea.

So are you ready to go? Yeah! All right. Look at your neighbor and say to them you're going to learn something. Go ahead and tell them that.

John is helping the world understand what leadership truly is. He epitomizes what he writes.

But if it gets to the heart, it's something that you become. And I want you to become that leader. He's beyond a leadership guru.

Leadership gurus are people that others look to for inspiration and guidance, but he's— frankly, he's beyond that because he lives it.

For over 40 years, Dr. John Maxwell has been teaching people to answer their call to lead. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestselling author, millions have read his books. He has spoken to Fortune 500 companies and to such diverse organizations as the United Nations, the NFL, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He's equipped more than 5 million people in over 153 countries with leadership training. And his philosophy is simple: everything rises and falls on leadership. People often come to me and say, "John, what is the number one reason why people would join a certification program?" want to have the brand of a John Maxwell name. Hands down, they're getting doors open for them. They're finding their mission. They've already loved the material, but they've never kind of had marching orders. And so they come together, we train them and we equip them, and all of a sudden now they have the cause and they have kind of the process of which to do it.

That was so inspiring to me.

Another huge one is just the networking. I like people coming together with the same passion. All of a sudden it begins to ignite.

It's impossible to describe until you've been to it, but this unbelievable training event, a 3-day sort of transformation event, the energy in the room is unbelievable. Everybody feels it and, you know, it's just an amazing thing to be part of. I talked to my wife last night and I said, "Baby, you just need to be here." I cannot tell you what you're going to experience. It's something that you have to experience.

There are some really, really talented, super sharp people out there, but with no access or no influence, they will probably never get that chance. And I'm going to make it easy by taking the guesswork out of being a top coach, speaker, or professional.

John said, look, I want, I want the people who are in this program to be the very best equipped I want you to get the best trainers.

This is a partnership of an elite group of coaches, teachers, speakers, professionals. In fact, the very best in the whole world. And I'm equipping my team with all of my tools and resources that I have developed over the past 40 years.

Joe Maxwell gave me a roadmap. He really showed me the way. All of the things that have left me playing small in my life, are stripping away.

I have seen my coaching and my speaking income double, and this was by far and away the best investment with the highest return that I have ever made.

I'm just driving you through a lot of material, but we're going to learn together, we're going to laugh together, we're going to grow together. You deepen the influence with one and you broaden the influence with many. This is really powerful.

I'm just excited to be part of this. Esto está sensacional. I want to inspire people like John inspires me.

Are you, are you ready to go?

Thank you.

Hi, I'm John Maxwell. When the top companies in the world are looking for trainers, speakers, and coaches, there's one name that stands above the rest, and that's the John Maxwell Team. Our certified members have gotten proven results for companies all over the globe, and our reputation is second to none. Some of our members have risen to the very top of their profession, including the one you're going to meet today. I proudly introduce you to my friend, Candice May. There's no quick fix for business growth.

There's no magic formula for better results. And they don't just happen by accident. There's a specific curriculum for your business to thrive, and I'm here to help you put it into action. Hi, I'm Candice May, a John Maxwell Team Certified Speaker, Teacher, Trainer, and Coach. I'm also the founder of Candice May Training and Services. As a leadership and strategic business consultant and executive coach, I help leaders create sustainable, positive organizational change. My John Maxwell Team certification has afforded me a unique opportunity to be taught taught and trained by one of the world's foremost leadership experts, Dr. John C. Maxwell. John Maxwell has been an authority on leadership for more than 40 years, and if he's taught me anything in the over 20 years of mentoring me, it's that teaching is ultimately serving. I'm here to help you build trust and effective communication. I'm here to equip you with the tools you'll use to start a movement of leading with love in your business. I love what I do—transforming people and organizations that ripple into families, communities, and the world. And if you want to build your people and build your business, I'm the guide for you. I can serve you in coaching and mentoring leaders for sustained growth. Together, we'll walk through a comprehensive company leadership development plan that helps you build up your people, processes, and ultimately profits. I offer individual and group work, as well as online or in person. We can meet during your hours of operations or outside of work hours. Again, I'm here for you to help you grow at your pace, to enhance your business, and to expand your capacity. Contact me today to invest in your company's next level of performance.

Unleash your leadership.

Potential. All right everyone, today I am so excited to have Coach Candice May Glover with us. I am very, very excited because one and foremost we share the same mentor, Dr. John C. Maxwell, and she's going to be sharing a little bit about her journey, leadership journey, and we are coming to you, I am from Silicon Valley and some of you are watching live right now, and I am so excited to introduce certified coach, teacher, trainer, and speaker Candice May Gruber. How are you doing today, Candice? Good morning, Bizzy.

I'm excited to be here. I'm honored that you invited me here.

Thank you so much. No, you are definitely the first GMT person on this podcast. I just started last week. It's all about leadership and success, and I can't think of anybody in the world better than Dr. John Maxwell when it comes to leadership. He really, really personifies what leadership is. Like, I happen to be in the US Navy Reserve as well. Like, even in the reserve, we had to study some of his material. It's just amazing the global impact he has had on so many people, not just being a leader, but being able to develop other leaders. So how's everything going for you right now?

Things are going great. I'm thrilled to be here with you. I'm thrilled to be a John Maxwell team member. I am in the executive director level. And I am also a President's Advisory Council member for the John Maxwell Team. And I've gone to Costa Rica with John for transformation, teaching people internationally at government level and communities and businesses to expand into their companies, the government, and teaching values and how to apply those values into everyday life. This year they're going to— they actually have just returned from Dominican Republic. So bringing transformation around the world globally into countries, and it's an exciting process to be a part of the John Maxwell team.

It is so exciting. I was on the waiting list for the Dominican Republic, but too many people tried to sign up. So as soon as the opportunity comes, you really need to jump on it right away. But I think I'm going to be first in line for the next one. I think we're going to Papua New Guinea next year. Hopefully some of the people listening now are going to join the GMT team and maybe go with us. So tell us about your leadership journey. How did that happen for you?

Wow. Well, my leadership journey started with personal growth, emphasizing way back, probably around 13, age 13, where I started working into personal development, trying to become the best person I could. When I got introduced to John Maxwell, it was actually the late '90s through a pastor at a church I was belonging to. John had just come out with a book, 21 Laws of Leadership, and so the pastor, Pastor Monty, was doing a course, a mastermind on this book, and I got a certification when you finished it. It's 21 laws of leadership and how to apply them into your life and your business or place of work. Fabulous process, absolutely loved it. And then I did the 17 Laws of Teamwork through the same pastor and a long mastermind program and certification, and then I took this material into my corporate job at Harrington Plastics in Chino, California, and used it with my team, and I was in IT, I was a project manager, applications manager of enterprise systems, and the company ran on and did implementations and so forth, and then I brought I brought in the operational team under me so we could revamp and do some process re-engineering and automate 5 pricing systems with an audit and have it turn around in 24 hours, which I'm telling you, before would take weeks to get those pricings done. And we use this material, The 17 Laws of Leadership, to really bring in who they were as a team, why they were important. There was a lot of disorganization, infighting, unproductive time with the team. We were putting out fires constantly, but we pulled them together, we used this material and made a huge difference in the processing, in the time, in the vendor relationship within the company, the team, people began to get along and work together, some became lifetime friends. So I offer this to companies, this training to walk them through with their business. So John's made a big impact in my life. As you heard on the recording, he's been mentoring me for over 20 years, right? First through the Maxwell Impact System, I used to get CDs and then with notes and would work with him that way and then meeting him in person and now part of the John Maxwell team. Going to Costa Rica was awesome. So if you get a chance to go to New Guinea next year, you certainly want to do that. Because not only will you be helping that company transform and the people you train, you'll be transforming yourself as well.

Well, that is quite fascinating. Actually, in addition to GMT, I'm also in the Maximum Impact program. It's now online, it's all digital, and I'm going to add the link to that too, which is quite fascinating. It's been around for a long time. It's really amazing, the longevity and just the impact it's had, not just in America, but really around the world. I'm praying God that he gives us at least, at least 15 more years of John Maxwell because it's just incredible how much knowledge. And, uh, it's like he's written more than what, 80, 85 books, uh, uh, sold more than 30 million.

But yeah, it's like crazy.

And there is even more, more book, uh, inside of him. Can you tell us about your, uh, G.A.M.T. journey, how you, you become to join the program and get certification under him?

Well, I, as I said, I started mentoring with John in the '90s, and I was part of the Maximum Impact program. And I remember John mentioning back around 2007 that he met a guy, Paul Martinelli, who approached him about creating the John Maxwell Team. And John had been approached multiple times by someone to do this, and he said no. But something about Paul was different and Paul's vision was huge and so John said yes and they together began the John Maxwell Team. And so through the Maximum Impact we heard, if you like this material you're learning, if you like the laws of leadership, if you like the transformation you're seeing in your life and you would like to be a trainer or a worldwide you want to be a speaker and go out and make an impact in the lives of others and you don't know where to begin, joining the John Maxwell team is one way to do that. We will, you know, have access to the material that John has written, but it goes deeper than that. You get facilitation guides, you get participant guides, and then at the club level, it's a whole different ballpark where you get corporate material. And so I have corporate material with PowerPoints and books and workbooks and hands-on interactive exercises. So if you've been in a company and you've been to some kind of corporate training, that's what I do as a John Maxwell team member, but with my own company, Candace May Training and Services. And I, I not only use John's material, I do use resources outside of John's and some that I've developed on my own. Because I've been working on personal growth for over 40 years. Wow. Yeah, myself as well, right? That is quite fascinating.

Yeah. And you are an author, already offered one book, and there is a book on the way. Can you tell us about the book you are displaying there about women? Oh yeah, this is Powerhouse Women: Survivor to Thriver.

This is a transparent story that I pulled out of my life. It's one— there's 10 authors, 10 women authors. They're international, the UK, Canada, and United States, and each one of us has a chapter and we talk about some kind of trauma that has occurred in our life. Others may call it failure, but it's not necessarily failure if you're working through it, you're leaning in, you're learning from those experiences. Experiences and you come out stronger on the other side. Trauma can just take people down completely, immobilize them, but when we lean in and we— for me, faith, my faith in God was a very big part of my growth process and journey. So this book, Powerhouse Women: Survivor to Thriver, is an awesome tool. It's to inspire women beyond hope, especially those from abuse, domestic violence or any kind of trauma. It's available free this week only and on Kindle. The Kindle version you can download free. So take advantage of that. There's 3 proceeds. All proceeds go to charity from one of each country. In the United States, it's going to National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In the UK, it's going to Women's Aid. And in Canada, it's going to BC Society of Transition Houses. So you'll be doing a good work to support women by getting this book and you'll be inspired by the stories of 10 women, how they've overcome trauma. Now this is important to me because even in business, we have struggles. We all have personal struggles in our life and when we go to work, we don't compartmentalize our life. We'd like to think we do. Come to work, drop everything at home and focus on your job only. But we know as human beings, we're— we integrate, you know, we can't not bring our worries and concerns to work. So when you have an opportunity to support your staff and support your leadership, because people in leadership still have personal challenges themselves and their family. I think oftentimes we think leaders don't have any problems, they got it all smooth and worked out, but that's simply not true. So even the leaders can have challenges and can be Inspired for their own personal growth and supporting others. You know, one thing I do part-time is I work as a Marketplace Care Partner, and I go into companies and support their employees and their leadership. I just walk around and check in on them, see how they're doing, and spread the love of God, right? That they're not alone in the world, if they need resources, if they need connection, if they just need a sounding board. It can be a challenge that they're having with an employer, with a supervisor, with a colleague. It can be a family member who's ill, maybe they lost a child, an unexpected pregnancy, who knows what's going on. Something's always happening. People are either getting up or just getting up from a tragedy or they're getting ready to go into a tragedy because one thing we can guarantee, life is full of change, right?

True. And, uh, can you share just a little bit— don't give out the entire plot, I want people to go to Amazon, actually get it for free today— but some of the trauma and adversity you really had to overcome? You had like an entire chapter in that book.

This book is actually telling a story of my oldest daughter was molested by her biological father. And what that impact had on her, on me, mostly it's my story and how that impacted me and brought out other things that may have happened in my childhood in the wake of that reality. So it's powerful and the growth that I embraced through it and where I am today and how the goal is that people who are experiencing trauma and they feel destitute and depressed and hopeless, that they can see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. People have made it through, and here's some live stories of people who've gone on. Now realize, in the business place, you have people who are working for you, whether they're leaders or whether they're employees at rank-and-file level. They have challenges like these going on in their lives. How do you support them? How do you give them hope? That's, that's important, because when people come to work they can give you their best when they know that you care, right? So developing leadership that cares is important to me. That's one of the things I like to do in my business. And when I say leadership that cares, that's through communication, that's through attitude, that's through relationships with your employees, vendors, customers, the leadership team, equipping your team and leaders. And sales. So all of those 5 areas I actually bring into companies and teach on: communication, attitude, relationships, equipping their team, and sales. So what do I mean by equipping your team? One example is, what about your leaders when you have to coach an employee for growth? How do you do that? How do you— you give— oftentimes an employee may get a performance review and they're marked down on a certain growth area in their job. What do they do with it? Go fix it. That's what they're told. Here's a problem, you're not doing very well, go fix it. And the employee is left on their own. How do I fix it? I don't even know how to fix it. Maybe it's a blind spot. So teaching leadership and supervisors how to coach their employees is another service that I offer with them.

Wow, that is, uh, wonderful. I think it's needed now more than ever before. I really believe leadership is the most critical skill of the 21st century. People need to develop into becoming leaders, right? Especially now when you think about automation technology taking away a lot of the entry-level jobs, people just need to be able to also, I think, grow personally, kind of get a great better level and awareness, right? I know there is a book you're going to be talking about later about emotional intelligence, but I feel like it's even more important today than it's ever been in our history. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 is one of my favorite books. It's by Terry Bradbury and Jean Greaves. It, it does talk about, well, what is emotional intelligence? Not everybody knows, right? Emotional intelligence is self-management and relationship management in a nutshell. It's about your self-control, your personal growth, knowing yourself really well and being able to understand that your body tracks emotion. Emotion, we think, oh, emotion, nobody wants to deal with emotion, right? We just want to go by logic, but we're emotional beings, we're spiritual beings, and that impacts us constantly. And this is something totally amazing to me. Do you ever consider the body sensations that you have? Those are emotions. Those are emotions. And when you have negative energy and negative emotions, oftentimes they get stuck in our body. And that's, you know, the pains that we're feeling, different things, it becomes discomfortable, dis-ease, right? And turns into illness, which is disease. It's really quite interesting. So when I do my coaching, executive coaching with leaders, I take a holistic approach with physical, emotional, intellectual, relationship, financial, energetic approach to their life because even though we're working with businesses, we are— multifaceted and those, we have to integrate all of us, we need to integrate our faith and our business, we need to bring it all together and realize that I can't compartmentalize who I am on Sundays at church and who I am in the business on Monday and who I am when I go home at night. I need to, to be healthy I need to integrate it all, I need to be able to use the emotions that I feel and be tapped into my body and the sensations I'm having in my body because my body is speaking to me and telling me something, so when I listen listen to my body, I can get a clue that there's something that's irritating me. There's something that's going on that I need to address that I have been avoiding. It could be anger. It could be something we repress it down in our, in our bodies, but all of that starts to act out. And even in the workplace, I mean, how many times do you see hatred in the workplace, impatience, harshness, double-minded mistrust? Angry outbursts, unrestrained immorality, you see these things, right, typically in the workplace, but that's, that's our human nature side, but we can develop skills and empowerment to live on a different level, to pull all of us together, all of our being and our spirit and intellect and live in a sense of love. And I don't mean love like the world says, of just lust and all the things that bring me pleasure. I'm talking about a deeper sense of being. Have you heard of Dr. Joe Dispenza? No. He's somebody you'll want to know, Dr. Joe Dispenza. He's quite interesting. You can find him on YouTube. He talks a lot about the mind., the subconscious mind and the conscious mind and how we can reprogram our unconscious mind to get out of these negative behaviors and into a more positive state of love, the essence of love being in us. And now I find it quite interesting because he actually used measurements, he uses technology to measure the physiological responses in our body. So you can see how your brain functions change, you can see your heartbeat and different things that happen, and we know scientific proof now that the principles that God tells us are true. We need to focus on things that are positive, be grateful, we need to live in that state of love, and when our heart is full with love, it changes the physiological piece of us. It changes how we see other people in the world. It changes how we respond to them and how we communicate with them. But here's a powerful point. As I was even listening to Joe's most recent interview, he was— the interviewer said, "Do you ever get angry? I mean, living in the state of love is awesome, but do you ever like just react differently and how does that work?" And he goes, "Oh yeah, I'm very emotional. I do respond and react every day, but the key is how long do you stay in that state of negativity and versus coming back around, right? The power of meditation, meditation being focusing on your, your, your, the love inside, right? But what I found interesting is that he said, sometimes it takes me a while, sometimes I have to retreat, ask my staff or my family, sometimes I have to retreat and I might be in there an hour or more trying to regroup. But when we have the power of Christ Christ living in us. The Holy Spirit activates us so that we don't live in that flesh default mode of the anger and the hate and the knee-jerk responses. We're actually activated to be able to respond initially in love. So we can stay in that state of love and respond that way, power of the Spirit, when normally I can teach you tools and you can learn how to use all of these communication skills and team things which will enhance your team and will enhance your life. But you'll constantly have to consciously apply them regularly versus going deeper in your faith and aligning it. You can remain in it all the time.

I really like what you are saying about integration. One thing I've struggled with pretty much my entire life was like kind of like work and life balance, right? Trying to bring balance to everything I was doing, whether it's working for the US Navy, my full-time job as a civilian. My family, going to school, and all of that. Until recently, where one of my mentors really taught me about not work and life balance, but work and life integration. And you are talking about integrating your life in a way that finances your spiritual life, your faith, your business, and relationships, and everything else. What do you think, why would anybody really need a coach, whether it's for personal or professional reason? Why is that so critical these days?

The power of having a coach gets you to your destination faster. We all have blind spots. There are things that we don't see, we don't understand about ourselves. Having a coach gives you a sounding board. It gives you insight. It gives you personal accountability. It gives you a safety zone of confidentiality where you may have a board of a director, you may have an inner circle of friends or colleagues, spiritual advisors that you talk to regularly, but sometimes we don't want to share everything with them because of whether it be shame or whether it be we don't want them to think badly of ourselves, we have self-doubt. By having a coach, someone who is honest and has integrity and will uphold the confidentiality, you, you have a place to explore in confidence that is, it's just you. The coaching isn't about the coach, the coaching is all about you. This gives you an opportunity to have one-on-one time that's dedicated, solely focused on you, exploring your deepest, darkest concerns or your wildest dreams, what you want to achieve. And then finding an action plan. What is the next best step to get you into that movement? Accountability. Did you make those milestones? Are you on track? What are you seeing? We have a 360-degree leadership assessment where you ask colleagues and supervisors and subordinates and all areas of your life to potentially give you feedback on your life is like a 134-point thing. And talk about feedback, how people see you don't see on your own.

Well, just one moment. It looks like our guest, uh, has gone offline. Let's see if we can get her back. Just a moment. This is one thing about doing a show live. Let's just give her a moment to dial back in. But what she was saying is so important. One of my mentors used to tell me that everybody needs a therapist, right? And I really truly believe everybody needs a coach. And I think one of the most powerful things that you get when you have a coach is when you set up your plan, your goals, he or she really holds you accountable, right? Because you're going to be meeting with them again maybe once a month, once every 2 weeks, whatever the frequency might be. And basically, you are going to make sure you do your work before you meet them again. Just for that, I think that is great. Like, even for some people who are trying to lose weight, there is an app, I think it's called Noom. That works very well, Noom. And part of the reason why that one works extremely well is because they actually have coaches that are going to hold you accountable. They're gonna call you and find out how many calories you are eating, how many times did you exercise for the week, and so forth. And people tend to really do what they're supposed to do when they know that somebody's going to hold them accountable. Let's see if we can bring back Candice on the platform. Just a moment. Well, we have added So many insights. Let's give it just, just one moment, please. Okay, so we're on my phone. Sorry for that. Candice is back now. So that's one thing about doing a live show. Sometimes things happen. Now in the podcast, this is going to be edited out, but of course, LinkedIn Live, they're going to see all of it. Thank you so much for coming back. So when you got dropped, you were talking about how important it is to have a coach.. And I just told everybody how it's so critical today to have one. And what really works for most people is that accountability, right? When they have things to do and they're going to be meeting with their coach again and say, oh, I haven't done my, uh, my, uh, work, so let me do it now before I meet this person who's going to hold me, uh, accountable. But, uh, one thing, so we already talked about the book you, you've already written. There is a new book that you are writing coming out soon. Can you tell us about your new book, Heaven Within?

Heaven Within: Restoring Wholeness for Better Leadership. I'm so excited about this book. It is, it's a fabulous book. It was actually God speaking to me, and then in the process, it was said, share with the public. So I was actually in a master program, and we had a book retreat. And we had to write a book. And I didn't really know what I was going to write a book about, but I just channeled myself with God and started writing, and like, it all poured out. And the fascinating thing is it covers generational issues, systemic societal issues. It covers the mind, the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, and how we grow. It covers leadership principles and the application in your life. There's— it's such a wide variety of embracing abuse and how do you get through trauma. And then it's got sprinkled with the biblical scriptures that support the principles. It was just an amazing process. And it's filled with my stories of my life and the struggles that I faced and how God used my life circumstances to teach me and grow me. So it was a powerful process when the Lord was speaking to me through this book. And we've tried to hold— my publisher is in the UK, and they've tried— we've held the tone and communication of the book intact. So I created a companion workbook, a downloadable PDF that people can get so that they can work through their own life and various things and go deeper with the book. Than just reading a book. And God's going to use it in a powerful way. If you're— if you want to become a better leader, if you want to— you may be triggered by some of the stories and things that I'm sharing in my life, but they will bring out what's going on in your life, which is your— a wonderful thing. See, this is the wonderful thing about challenges in life. You can face challenges and be excited that they're there. Because that tells you there's something that you can heal. You can become better and more whole when you face the struggles and the challenges. And you don't have to do it alone. That's the power of a coach. The power of a coach can be there to walk life through with you, can bring you insights that you may not have on your own.

Thanks for asking. That is fantastic. And I've added the link to the free, uh, I guess this is just to get the notification, right? To sign up to receive a notification when the book comes out. And when is the book going to be published, Dennis? The book is published in early 2022.

I was speaking with my editor just this morning and she's doing the final edits, and so then it'll go off to typesetting and so forth. So I don't have a launch date just yet, but we're very close. We do know it'll be the very beginning of 2022. So we've set up an opportunity for you to, to click and join your email so that I can provide you with a date when it goes live and give you the opportunity to download that free workbook.

Yes, and the link is in the comment section and you can see it on the screen. Thank you so much, Candice. I think this is going to be terrific. I think it's going to help a lot of people and starting out in the new year too. I think it's going to allow people to kind of reset, kind of set their goals and kind of have a clean slate and a new beginning. So it's the time for the show where I ask you my 7 favorite questions, and you know them very well because they're actually 7 questions that Papa John, we call him Dr. John Maxwell, uses all the time. Very, very insightful to kind of get to the bottom line and kind of like the insight, kind of what is driving you and what can we learn from you. So number 1, what is the greatest lesson you have learned?

The greatest lesson I've learned, I think— I'm gonna be honest with you— I think it's the integration of my faith throughout my entire life. I think it's about the power of love. God gives us an opportunity to— he gave us a new commandment, right? We had the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. That was, that was what drove us. And that's why people say, oh, Christianity is a bunch of dos and don'ts, right? You can't do anything. But that's not true. Jesus Christ, when he walked the earth, he gave us a new covenant, and that is love. That all we have to do is focus on love, loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then loving others as we love ourselves. But here's the key: how well do you love yourself? Because we can only love other people as well as we love ourselves. So that's yet another reason why you might want a coach to help you work through the challenges, the forgiveness, the things that have happened to you. It's hard to work through forgiveness of people who've hurt you, but when you don't and you have that anger and resentment and bitterness at other people, you're the one who's hurting yourself. You're, you're, you're locking yourself out of so much joy and peace and you're causing disease within your body. So bringing all of this together and anchoring 1 Corinthians 13 and bringing those principles into the workplace. I don't have to go into a workplace and talk about the Bible, but I can teach you all the principles, all the communication skills, and leave all of, you know, scripture out of it. But the point is, truth is truth, and those principles sit on the Word. So if you are a person of faith, then that's an opportunity to integrate the power of your faith into those tools at a deeper level.

Well, this is so great. Actually, when it comes to Papa John, initially I knew him as a pastor, right? He was the pastor of a church, and then he became this business leadership guru. But what most people don't really realize is pretty much everything he teaches about leadership, he got it from the Bible. Pretty much all of it.

That's true. He even wrote a Bible, the John Maxwell Leadership Bible. It's the Bible. Oh, it just has inserts of leadership principles scattered throughout it.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That is, that is awesome. So what is the secret of your success, you think?

The secret of my success is the power of the Holy Spirit activated in my life. To be honest, I'm a woman of faith and I, and I'm proud of that. I'm not going to hide who I am. I don't judge people. I accept them as they are, where they are. But you're asking me a personal question, where's my strength and where is my faith? It's through the Lord. He activates me. He gives me the power to continue to move forward. I faced several traumas. When you get the book Heaven Within: Restoring Wholeness for Better Leadership, you're going to be amazed at the obstacles I've had to overcome in my life. And I have overcome them. Through, but it's not in my might. It was through the power of the Holy Spirit guiding me, supporting me.

Well, I really love how you integrate your faith with your life, with, with your work and everything you do. What, what do you think is the greatest leadership advice you have ever received?

The greatest leadership advice I've ever received. There's so much. John Maxwell has the 21 Laws of Leadership. It's one of his books, and this is it right here. I don't know if you can see it. I'm on my phone at this point because it wasn't connecting on the back to through the computer. So 21 Laws of Leadership, and in there, there's 21 principles that you can apply. One of them is the Law of Process, and I think that's powerful because a lot of people focus their success on the end. They want to be successful like it's a journey of destination, right? It's a destination. And once I get that job or once my business hits $30 million, I'm going to be, you know, success. It's not about the end product. It's about the process. It's about the journey. It's about the relationships you build on the way. It's about who you become. In the journey. The power is in the process. Power is in kindness. Power is in how you treat other people. The power is in the journey. So I, I think realizing that piece and accepting where you are, understanding where you are— sometimes we don't understand where we are in life. And we think about a road trip. If you were going to take a road trip from California to New York You can't just jump in the car and go because you don't know how to get there. And if you didn't know you were in California and we just said, let's go to New York, and you didn't know if you were in Oklahoma or if you were in New Mexico or California, how— where would you begin? So understanding where you are now is very critical for you to be able to get to the end point of where you want to be.

Well, this is really, really great. 21 Irrefutable Laws of leadership, right? So you talked about the Law of Process, which is Law Number 3: leadership develops daily, but not in a day. My favorite law is Law Number 17, the Law of Priorities: leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment. There is so much into it. Yeah, it's almost impossible to find one greatest leadership lesson. There are so many. So question number 2: what are you learning now?

What I'm learning now is how to strategize my faith with business and how to move into the world with love and to lead with love in all areas. How to, um, how to apply kindness in all situations. The power, the power of it all, right? How to bring the, how to bring the concept of love to the average person who doesn't really comprehend the depth that love is. They just think it's about feeling good, doing what makes me feel good, and there's so much more. Love is really joy, peace, and long-suffering, getting through that perseverance and endurance, being able to be good, to think positive things, finding gratitude even in the midst of trouble. These are elements of joy and love, and love is the highest frequency that we have. So self-control is part of love. And so many of us don't have self-control. So when we can bring these things together and apply them, that's my biggest, that's my biggest focus. I mean, how can that not integrate into every area of your life?

Yeah, that is, that is really, really deep and profound, right? Because for a lot of people, especially Usually people who are much younger, they just, you know, believe what, what they see. They kind of stop at their senses, but that doesn't really give much fulfillment, I do not think. And yeah, being able to integrate your faith, your spirituality to everything you do, I think that is, uh, that is pretty, pretty awesome. So what is the greatest investment you have made in yourself, you think?

The greatest investment I've made in myself? I invest in myself every day. Personal growth is the core of who I am. It's my passion. It's, is becoming my best self. Um, I think that is the key. When I wake up in the morning, if I wake up in the morning and I'm— I have anxiety or I'm concerned, it's taking the time to love myself enough to connect with God, to focus on his word, to restore hope and strength and peace and fortitude, uh, and, uh, trust and security, knowing that God provides a way when I don't know a way. And I can tell you through my own experiences, as you'll see in the, in the books and the stories in Heaven Within, God has always provided a way for me. He's always provided solutions, finances, everything falls into place as long as I'm walking with him and trusting in him. So I could spend my day worried and frantic and what am I going to do and getting angry and anxious, or I can pour into myself in my connection with God and find that, that peace, and then I can let the overflow go out to my clients and my family.

Wow, that is beautiful. And, uh, question number 3: How has failure shaped your life?

Oh my, I think God uses life circumstances to develop us. I think God uses life circumstances to bring to our awareness that there's a better way. We will find ourselves in a cycle of having the same core issues, maybe with a different flavor over and over throughout our life, and that can be seen as failure. But if we embrace that failure and we say, what is it that's going on? And we learn and grow from it, it's a great opportunity, right? So that's my answer. What did you ask me?

Yes, and thank you. Thank you so much, because one thing I've noticed is, especially when someone really gets extremely successful and influential, people believe that they walk on water and everything has always been great and wonderful in their life, and they don't see all of the failure and all of the hard work that had to be done on the back end when nobody knew them, everything they did day to day to kind of achieve the success they were able to achieve. I really believe failure and success are two sides of the same coin, right? For you to be more successful, you probably have to fail even more and faster and really learn from your failure in order to achieve the next level.

So, uh, John Maxwell says fail forward. He has a book, Fail Forward. So that's all about accepting failure, right? Knowing that failure is a part of the success process. Yes, like I used to work in IT and what happens in IT? We have to troubleshoot. When technology crashes or has a problem as we experienced earlier today, good old technology, you will— you have to troubleshoot what's going on and it's through the process of elimination that we get better, right? That's how we find, well, this isn't the problem, we tried it, well, that's not it, we throw that out, we go to the next one, is it this, is it this, until we get to the right core, the core issue. It always comes down to getting through the core issue, and the only way you're going to get to the core issue is embracing the failure, embracing the growth, and finding what's working, and celebrate the successes. You can even celebrate the failures because that brings you that much closer. When you know what you don't want, you know, closer to knowing what you do want.

Wow. That is wonderful to know. And Failing Forward, by the way, I'm going to add the link, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones. That's a book that John Maxwell wrote, and it is, it is quite informative. So who do you know that we should know? Who are some of your mentors and some thought leaders you are following? We know Dr. John Maxwell. Who else? Yeah.

Yeah, so the, the ones I've worked with for a long time, like I said, 20 years with John Maxwell, Stephen Covey, that was a huge one for me. Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, they're Christian psychologists, but they focus on leadership. Dr. Henry Cloud, some of his best books are Boundaries, Boundaries Face to Base, Boundaries in Marriage, Boundaries in Parenting. Boundaries in dating. It's— he's done a lot of work. Boundaries. And boundaries is essential, right? Knowing where we end and someone else begins, being able to stand firm in our convictions and— but yet do it with respect and with love. I'm going to always come back to that word love because, yes, when I was a kid, I didn't come from a family that was really loving in expression. And I— so I didn't have a strong understanding of respect. What does respect look like, right? What does love look like? You know, it wasn't that we walked— we never said I love you in my family. It was that we weren't a huggy-kissy kind of family. We weren't, you know. So I've done so much growth over those years, but I had to start at such a basic fundamental level and figure out what does that mean. Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. I struggle that. For years. I spent over 25 years studying the fruits of the Spirit. Wow. To understand what that means and what that looks like. And, and, and God's been working in my life in that process. So Dr. Henry Cloud and John Townsend were significant. They have an Ultimate Leadership Conference. It's like a week-long retreat, very powerful. I attended that in 2004, and it was life-changing. Wow. I already mentioned Dr. Joe Dispenza. Mm-hmm. Yeah, if you listen to him and you are a person of faith, just think of what he's saying and apply the biblical principles to it. He's, he's scientifically proving that the principles of God based on love are in fact true, and that he's showing you the physiological changes that your body goes through and how you can self-heal when you're practicing the state of love. So it's awesome. He doesn't talk about the Bible. He doesn't. He just talks about measuring the physical physiological evidence. He talks about meditation. And what is meditation? Just focusing in on something, right? So if you're focusing in on, on love and that positive state, it's amazing. I mean, I can go on and on. I've got like 15 people that I could list easily for you who are great mentors, you know.

That is wonderful. Now, just to be clear, I only asked you for 1 hour today. We are at the hour. Can we go a little bit longer? Do you need to go?

Yeah, I'm happy to stay with you if you feel we're adding value.

Thank you so much. I think this is so valuable for our listeners. So kind of related to that is if you could choose 3 people, right, to have dinner with, who would you choose and why? And they don't have to be alive, even people from history is fine too. 3 people to have dinner with.

Let's see. That's a hard one. I think I would like— who I want to— Jamie Lee Curma. She's the founder of IT Cosmetics. And she's the first executive, female executive hired by L'Oréal. I love her. She spoke live at the International Maxwell Conference. Very powerful woman in leadership. She has overcome a lot. Talk about failure. She was rejected constantly, but yet she stayed in the state of gratitude. Sure, she had meltdowns and so forth, you know, privately, but she just kept getting up, you know, with her faith in God to move forward. I love her. I would love to spend some time with her. Sarah Sumner is right on mission, and she's a doctor in theology and different things. I'm working with her for future strategy and aligning faith and business. So I would love to spend more time with her. And Brené Brown, I love Brené Brown. Brené Brown has great— she says she's a researcher, right? She's a scientist. But she's a storyteller and she does public speaking now. And she too has been transparent with her growth and how she's moved from struggle to— into now she's highly respected as a woman in leadership and teaching others to essentially be love, right? I mean, it always comes down to that compassion. Dare to Lead, she— all the principles she's teaching come down to love and the power of forgiveness.

Wow, that is so powerful. And I remember Ted Talks, right, which really had so many people viewing all around the world. It was very touching about being vulnerable. And you're right, that really comes back down to, to our love. So question number 5: what have you read that we should read? Some of the books you've read recently.

This is a really fun book. Now, I, I've said several books. I— we've already said the Emotional Intelligence. We've already said John's 21 Laws of Leadership and the 17 Laws of Teamwork. Uh, we've talked about the 5 Functions, Dysfunctions of a Team. We've talked about the Nonviolent Communication. But my favorite book right now is The Emotion Code. Can you see that?

Yes, by Bradley Nelson.

Yes. This is really good. This goes along the lines of what Joe Dispenza talks about. Again, using— being tapped into your body, understanding the sensations of your body, living at a higher frequency of love, releasing the negative emotions within your body, and it teaches you how to do that, which is really awesome. So, uh, I love it. I absolutely enjoy it.

Wow, that is, that is wonderful. Yeah, because I think leaders are readers, right? You can't be a leader and not read and be aware of what is out there. And now you might be able to apply it in your own life or your business. So for question number 6, what have you done that we should do? What is one action you have taken that has positively impacted your life?

So I love this. I went to— May of 2018, I went to Sojourn Adventures in Georgia with Paul Martinelli. He had a 3-day retreat called Turning Point, and we use the Sojourn Adventures— they have the 50 feet in the air trapeze and things you have to hurdles you have to overcome. They have a zipline, you climb a telephone pole and jump off to catch a wire and swing. Amazing. It was terrifying in some ways. Amazing and terrifying, yeah. But it taught me so much about myself. It was truly a breakthrough. I remember Paul teaches the process of The unconscious mind, and when we're learning something new and how our subconscious mind wants to keep us stuck where we are, will go through great extents to prove whatever those unconscious beliefs are, are accurate, even though we may not consciously be aware of them. So in this journey of going at 50 feet in the air, going through an obstacle course, and walking across a wire, one like a trapeze artist, 50 feet in the air. Yeah. My body started shaking, like literally shaking so badly that I could like— couldn't— how am I going to move? Like, I'm shaking so much. But the whole goal of this exercise was that you would learn to block out the distractions of the world and laser focus on your endgame goal. Wow, that's quite a lesson. It was so powerful. And I had, I had people from the retreat who were on the ground say to me afterwards, Candice, we were watching you up there on the, on the course, and we could see this happening, this process of your body rejecting, you know, fighting against you to keep you from reaching your goal. So much. It was so obvious in the physical state. And when this exercise was done, I went back to the hotel room. I had a beautiful roommate from Africa who was there with me, and my mind just— I just— I actually had an intensive impact where flashes of my life were coming before me. You know how they say when you die you see images of your life? While that was happening. I was getting images of my life and all the tragedies of various relationships that I had gone through, and God was speaking to me audibly. I could hear him telling me, there's more for you. This, this, these, those relationships were not true love. Those relationships, you know, are not the best path I have for you. So it was a strong experience. So I would encourage everyone, if you get an opportunity to do one, a ropes course, and you have the right guide, it would be powerful. So Sojourn Adventures is in Georgia, and I love them. It's great.

Well, talking about death, sometimes it kind of puts things in perspective, right? Especially with everything we've gone through with the pandemic last year, in many ways still going through today. If you had only one day, one day to live, what would be your final contribution?

Wow. I have to tell you a story. Last December, December 9th, 2020, I woke up at 3 in the morning. I was doing my own business and I worked from home and I, I had things on my mind and I jumped up and doing all the work. And we were in the pandemic, so I had a group I met with online at 5:45 and then we would go to about 6:30. But about 6:15 I told the group, guys, I'm exhausted. I like hit a wall. I have to go to bed. I have back-to-back meetings starting at 8. In the morning, but for now I have to go to bed. I just need some rest. So I set the alarm and went to bed, and it's 7 o'clock, I heard a very loud voice tell me to get up. And I was like, get up, but I couldn't get up, and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get up. I was laying in bed, my eyes were closed, I couldn't get up. And I— then I heard, my right side's not working. And I said, what? So I used my left side to pull the covers off and sat up, and my, my cell phone was next to my bed, thank goodness. I stumbled into the bathroom and onto the toilet and called my oldest daughter who's a nurse and I said, "Tab, something's wrong. I think I might be having a stroke. My right side isn't working." But as I said that, I got this very strong sensation through my body and I said, "Well, wait a minute. Maybe it's okay. Maybe I just slept on it wrong because I'm getting this funny feeling through my system. So just call on me in a couple of hours." and check on me because I had gotten her voicemail. She had been working that night. And so I'm just gonna go back to bed and just check on me. Well, when I got up to go to bed— I— when I got up to head back to the bed, I couldn't— I didn't get anywhere. It's like I got pushed over on the right side and fell flat up against the tub. I heard a pop. I broke 3 ribs. My lungs collapsed, and I sat there with my arm behind the bathtub stuck on the floor realizing I can't move. So I can't— yeah, but the, the interesting thing is I said an immediate prayer, and I'll make this short. God healed me completely. I asked him if I was on the right track of, of my business and what I wanted to do, I needed to speak and think and function completely at 100%. And God has totally healed me completely. The doctors were amazed. They kept saying, "This is amazing. Your healing is like— we can see it within the hours of you responding to total wholeness." And my testimony is on my website, by the way, of this story. And so what do I say when you ask me if I had one day left? That is touching my heart because I could have died. I should have died, or I should be an invalid, right? The doctors repeatedly, everyone said, well, you know, when I went back for pain management of the ribs and so forth, they said, when we read your file, we didn't know what was gonna happen, if you were coming in here in a wheelchair or what, but you're walking in here and you look absolutely normal. This is amazing. This is a miracle. So Every day is a precious thing for me. Every day I ask, Lord, what do you want me to do today? What is the priorities that you have for me to meet? What divine appointments can you bring me that I can share, be transparent with, and impact the lives?

Wow, that is very, very, very powerful. Thank you for sharing, really. I appreciate that. Wow, I'm gonna have to listen to this again. So again, we are about 11 minutes over the, the hour. The very last question we have for you is, how can we add value to you? What could we do to make a difference?

Well, you're making a difference today by inviting me here to share. You could download Powerhouse Women: Survivor to Thrivor. If you do it this week, You will be helping us become international bestsellers, but you'll be blessed with the stories of inspiration as well. And any contributions, if you end up buying it later, will be going to the charities.

Wow, thank you, thanks so much, Candice. You do so much, you've added so much value. I really, really do appreciate that. And I am not sure if all of the audience, all of the people listening in see themselves as spiritual or religious people, but if you do have faith, I really believe you can't have success outside of your faith. It has to be integrated with everything you do. But even for those who are listening who are not believers, who don't believe in God or whatever, that's fine. I think you can still have success in the world without it, but it's definitely something to think about. There's got to be intelligence that is much higher than any human intelligence. There's got to be something out there. But anyway, that is up to you to figure out. But thanks again, Candice, for being on the show today. We really appreciate that. Again, sorry for going over for almost 15 minutes, but I think this has been very, very insightful. Thank you for sharing about the John Maxwell team and all of the books you've written, especially the one that is coming up first of the year, right in January or February of next year. I want to make sure we all get it. Thanks. Thanks again for being here. Thanks, Bob.

BZ. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your host, Coach BZ. If you like what you heard, please subscribe to our channels and come back for more wisdom nuggets on how you may develop into a better leader and achieve greater levels of success. Leadership is the most critical skill. The world will always need leaders to lead others, deploy the next disruptive technology, or execute a business strategy. You may as well decide on counting yourself among the 21st century leaders. See you right here next time on the Leadership and Success Podcast with Coach BZ.