WHY Not Wednesday with Michelle McGlade - Unhide your Magic!

Hello and welcome to why Not Wednesday. What a great way to start our Christmas week interview than to have Michelle McGlade with us today. I'm so excited to have you here Michelle. Let me give you a proper introduction. Michelle is an award winning CEO, a best selling author, a speaker and a podcast host. She has leveraged 25 plus years experience to build three successful enterprises and has coached, has coached hundreds of leaders in building, scaling or exiting their businesses. As the modern leaders maven, Michelle believes that success is an inside out game and that leadership of self is the key to building teams and, and unlocking your next level growth in business and in life. Michelle's work has been featured by Microsoft, Thrive Global, Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine and beyond. And she has slayed the stage at organizations such as Autodesk, Gilead Sciences and Deluxe Financial Services. Welcome to the show Michelle. We're so glad to have you.

Thank you so much for having me.

This is so cool. You know I've been following you since you joined Y Institute and I gave you this compliment early. You put out such great content. If you're not following Michelle on LinkedIn, go to her LinkedIn profile Michelle McGlade and follow her. She puts outstanding content on. One of the things that caught my attention, Michelle, is, is your mission. You're on a mission to help you stop hiding your humanity and bring out your magic to the world. What does that mean?

Well, it means I've. I have a lot of experience hiding and holding myself back and realizing that over time creating Personas and almost becoming a chameleon in, in certain environments really isn't to the benefit of our, our greatest good and, and really our, our brightest light that the world is waiting for our why, if you will. It's a.

And over time in my work, what I started to see is that pattern and other leaders, you know, there's, there's things that make that success engine go but a lot of times it's not our big why, it's not the, the light that and the work that we're meant to do in the world. And so I, I started on a journey a couple years ago actually Dan, and did some research on this topic around the ways that we hide and hold ourselves back. And it just. When I started to realize so many other people were feeling the same way I had been feeling for years, it really just, I don't know, it just opened up my heart in a new way to be like that's, that's a shame. That's a shame because everybody deserves to Shine brightly, and the world needs us.

To do so, you know, and you talk about that uniqueness, right? So there's, there's, there's a couple of things. We'll get to it. Because you're, you're involved in lots of different. Oh, hold on one second. I think we got to go live on Facebook. Let's go do that. They said we, we lost that connection. So we're still on YouTube and we're still on LinkedIn. So we'll keep going here.

I know that you're involved in a few different ventures, and one of them is you're working. You're a mentor at unhide your magic. You've been there since August of 2020, and there you mentor and you guide high achievers to unlock next level growth. Tell me, is that kind of what you're talking about here? Unhide your magic?

Yeah.

I love the idea of magic a lot of other times, and the way it resonates for some people is to say, your lighthouse is dusty. We've got to clean it out. Because over time, what happens is.

We.

Kind of get on the engine. I think everybody can relate to this. We get on the engine, we make some decisions in one direction, and we start operating from the neck up and we lose connection with, with, you know, what's really aligned and true for who we are. And, you know, just as the years pile on and the responsibilities and the financial decisions, we keep tucking that in the closet. And I think it starts, you know, to agitate us. It starts to agitate us because what we truly want to do is just show up in the world, be ourselves, and be accepted for that. Shine brightly. Bring our magic. Unhide it.

Unhide your magic. You know, I noticed, too. So, Michelle, obviously, the way we got to know each other is you are a newly certified yos professional. You have a very, very interesting why, how and what. Your why is to make sense of the complex and challenging. Your how is to challenge the status quo. And your what is to build trust. And I know you and I laughed about it because as I was going through your results, when we first met and went through y operating system, one of the things I remembered, because people with the why of make sense love to solve problems. And in your profile, there's a sentence that says completes puzzles in record time.

Totally busted. Totally.

That is such a makes sense trait.

Yes. And I had that there before I knew what my why was. By the way, I wanted to give a shout out to Lynn who said, experience tighter as well. So I'm not alone.

Lynn is one of our. Our new coaches also. So than joining us, Lynn, and thank you for the comment. Yeah. But tell us more about where you. Have you always been the person that loves to solve puzzles and solve complex and challenging things?

Yeah. And so literally can do puzzles in record time. Like literally physical puzzles. It's annoying that I can sit down, I get all the pieces out on the table. Right. And I can just see visually how they connect together. And I do the exact same thing in my work where literally whether it's solving a business challenge, which I did for a long, long time, now I'm getting into the head, right. The head of the. Of the leader and making sense of all their mess so that they can get connected with their heart, you know, And. And the thing is, is that I can do it like that. Like, I can do it without trying. And it just. It just brings. People are like. They're just like, literally freeze. You know.

That'S another thing about your superpower. So make sense is such. You know, our CEO Maria is a makes sense person, and she can just take whatever mess Gary and I and the team make, and she can organize it and say, this is how it's got to be done and figure it out. So that is your superpower. Now, I know this too about make sense people. You often forget that not everybody gets it as quickly as you. So I'm sure that was a problem for you. Right. Because you understand and you're ready to go and everybody else is like, well, wait a minute, what are you doing? Have you ever experienced that?

I think I would call it, like, I get bored quickly in the conversation. Like, I'm always like, okay, let's hurry it along. I don't need any more of those details. Like, you know, like, chip, chop, let's go.

I got what I need.

You know, I've been out on my own, out of corporate now for. I think it's been. It's over 10 years, 10, 12 years. So I'm not in that, like, full team environment all the time, but I definitely see it. Even showing up at home with my husband when he's talking about his day. I'm like, okay, I've got all the details now. Let's. Let's make the. The connections happen here. I don't need more detail.

I've got enough. So one of the. One of the things we talk about with the why it makes sense. You get enough to make a decision, and now you're ready to move forward, ready to solve. You've solved the problem. So let's move forward. And then you challenge. Right. So you're how of challenging the status quo. How has that shown up in your career and in your life? Doing things differently, looking at things from a different perspective.

Yeah. I've always been a do it my own way. I'm a great solo performer that way. I resonated when I heard Gary talking about the fact that maybe I might not be the best CEO. I do think I'm a really strong leader, but again, I can get impatient with people.

Yeah.

So. But I think that I just. I would describe my how and getting outside the box more like I just like to do it my own way. And when I do it my own way, it works so much better for me than trying to. You know, in entrepreneurship, they'd say, don't recreate the wheel. Tried and true, but I still. It has to be aligned for me. Otherwise, I just feel like I'm pushing rocks up the hill.

Yeah. And that's not fun. Right. What are the other characteristics of challenge? It's got to be fun. You've got to enjoy what you're doing. If it's not fun, why are we doing it?

Yeah.

I share your how, Michelle. So I know exactly what you're talking about. And then you're what of trust. So for you, it's important to build trust. So you start with making sense of the problem. You challenge the way it's being done. You do it differently. How do you combine those two to build trust in the end so that you deliver that trusting relationship?

You know, I've. This is where it's really interesting for me, because this. This is one of the things I would have said is a superpower. It's a showing up differently. Right. Like, people will say, I disarm. I can disarm people so quickly. I. It's like I can just. You know, I always. I had a relationship or a relationship, a background in partnerships and alliance work, and I would just go into complex partnership situations and disarm people because it's just ultimately what I'm looking for. I like to go deep, not wide. I like to know and believe in the people that I'm working with. And so it's. It's showing up. It's showing up, and it's how you do anything is how you do everything. And so that's how I'm showing up. And that's ultimately what I want to deliver to other people is a safe space, you know, to really let themselves unfold.

Got it. So does it does it happen? Does when you mentioned you show up, you know, how you do one thing is there's, there's so many, so much. There's how you do one thing is how you do everything. And, but you show up and you build trust. You mentioned you disarm people. How is that, how do, how does that happen? What is it, Was it, what is it that you do differently? What if people told you that you do differently? That makes it so easy for people to just trust you?

That's a good question, Dan. I'm going to have to research this more fully, but what I've got for you today is I think one, a very first of all, I'm a very calm demeanor and I put the focus on you.

I don't ask surface questions. And when people ask me questions, I'm not going to say if they ask me how I am, I'm going to be authentic. I'm going to say, well, I just came from a, you know, the hospital with my cat who we're gonna have to put a tube in and she's dying. You know, like I'm going to say what is happening? And I think that that's. It's not a disarming technique in the sense, but it disarms people to just be human. It goes back to my, my mission is, is, you know, like we're all hiding the fact that we're humans from other humans. Like, why are we doing this?

Yeah. And you work with leaders, right? So you help leaders understand that success is an inside out game. You know, our. One of our we believe statements is we believe that the self awareness is the first, that knowing your why is the first step in self awareness. And self awareness is the first step to just about anything. Right. You can't do anything until you know yourself. So when you work with a new leader, what are some of the steps? I know now you have the yos, but how is it that you help leaders understand themselves better?

I get them out of their head and into their body. I create a hookup between the heart and mind. So most people, when they land.

In my space, they're like this, this resonates for them. They feel like they're contorting themselves every day. They don't even when they stop to ask who they are and how they feel, they don't even know what that is because there's so many layers of armor. So I teach them. I've got a wide toolkit of things, but mostly techniques that work. Our breathing, meditation techniques, time in nature helping Them figure out what gets them back into their body. Essentially, our bodies are communication tools.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I know this made sense to you. I know when we, when we talked and we talked about your why it makes sense, your how, challenge and your what of us. Have you had a chance to use this with a client? Had them see that aha moment where they say, yes, that's me. Or have you not had a chance to work with enough clients yet?

I haven't.

Here's what.

What has happened, though, how I've used it so far is I've. I've used it with individuals who may be potential clients and it's, it's a really powerful tool for me. I could see it right out of the gate. For me to understand who's going to be who's a fit and who's not or, you know, where there might be resistance, distance. I've got one client right now who's in the process of taking it, so I'm. I'm going to be really interested to see where she lands. It's like automatically you just start thinking now, which, which why they might be.

Right. Right. Well, you almost. You look at people and you listen to how they talk and you're looking for clues, right?

Yes.

Because you've gone through all the training now, so I, I'm not going to get. I'm not going to put you on the spot on that because I, I definitely want to have you back on in a few months after you've worked with a few clients and you've had a chance to put. But you list three different ventures in your profile that you're currently involved in. The first one is MM International. You've been that, you've been part of that since 2015. You're the CEO and founder and there you provide leadership, advisory and business consultancy for executives and business leaders. So tell me about MM International. What led to the creation of MM International and who's your ideal client for that?

For that venture, that business, that business entity is really the consulting foundation that I've been doing since I exited my first brick and mortar business. So I ran alternative medicine clinics and found that model really constrictive. So I moved into a consultancy for that and it's grown and changed over time. I've worked with everything from startup entrepreneurs all the way to businesses scaling past a million. And so the dynamics there really, I would say the best client at this stage for me was, would be a leader who, as their business grows, is struggling with team dynamics and team development. That's really my sweet spot, I would say, at this time.

Great. And I can't wait to hear how you use the why. I know, I know we talked about that. So I definitely want to follow up with you on that. Tell me about Evolutionized Media. You're a CEO and founder there, too. You help people launch their podcast. You, you talk about podcast content, strategy. I know Bella, who's our show producer, is definitely going to be listening for this and how to leverage your digital footprint. So that's something you've been doing since right before the pandemic. Tell me about that. Because there you're bringing light, bringing to life the voices of modern leaders. So tell me about that.

Well, you, you classic entrepreneur. Here is what you're going to see. I mean, this grew out of a need that in the marketplace with some of my existing clients wanting to get into the podcast space. Me, myself, already been in podcasting space since 2015 and really either developing their own, Developing something internally like for their company and, or like wanting to leverage it as a, as a opportunity to grow their personal brand. So I, I just decided to monetize that as a separate company and keep those two. Does that mean separate? I could have just lumped it all together, but creating a brand there that just focused in the podcasting space. So.

Great clients. Now, for me, in that space, I haven't been working that channel, but I've been taking on and doing, not launching shows per se, but being a consultant for new shows behind the scenes and helping people create a strategy behind how they're going to leverage the opportunity. Because so many individuals, when they're starting a podcast, are doing it for all the wrong reasons, in my opinion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's, it's, it's. I love that you, you brought up the reason. You saw a need and you just filled it. Right. And so now that's that. Now it's, it's a separate business. It could be all in one, but you're running that and you're helping people get their voice out.

Yeah, yeah, it's. And here's what happened. So I also, during that time was launching a new show and I'll speak to what I'm. You know what, the third thing that you're going to call out on me is I, during that time, I was launching a new show. I was working with a lot of leaders. So I was using my podcast as a strategy to meet amazing leaders, women in leadership, and wanted to really orchestrate these vulnerable types of conversations and deeper voice that they had. And what I learned in that process was that they were hiding and holding themselves back.

And that took me as 2020 was a very unique energy for a lot of businesses. It really pushed me into doing a deeper dive level of research. Like, I'm talking, like, deep research. I have all kinds of conversations with women behind the scenes around how they're hiding and holding themselves back. And that's really what I birthed into the world this last year with unhide your magic. I'm still. It's not locked and loaded if I'm gonna keep that name, but.

I'm spinning that into a new company, a new business initiative. It's all around personal development, and it's definitely for leaders. And in those leaders who are done with the information, they're done with it. They're ready to lean into the transformation. They understand that the answer they seek is not external to them and that they need to get internal.

You know, I like that you brought that up, because one of the things that we know from people with the why of makes sense is you help people get stuck. And that's exactly what you just described. They don't need. You're working with clients that don't need any more information. They've got all the information they need to make a decision and start moving forward. And one of the things that people with your why are really good at is, hey, here's what you need to do. Let me. Let me show you. Let me put all that information you've been gathering for years and putting off the decision. Here's how you can do it. And so that's unhide your magic, by the way. I would not recommend changing that. I like that a lot. I could see that being part of what we do, you know, discover your why operating system and unhide your magic. So I'm sure there'll be a combination of that as you use that in your practice. So looking forward to seeing more of that. And when I like what you said, you recognize they don't need any more information, and they're ready for that true transformation. And you help them in that journey.

Yes, I do. I help. I. You know, I'd like to say I'm less of a coach and more of a guide, because, again, I believe you have the power and self inside of you. The answers you seek are within. It's just that there's so many layers of ick and armor and busyness and external focus that you just cannot unwrap what is waiting for you inside. And, you know, one thing I wanted to mention, Dan, that about my. Why that I really.

Notice in my clients is the piece that you hadn't mentioned is that we have a really strong ability to come communicate concisely back this big, all these pieces. Right. We just have a way to just succinctly pull it together and then when we communicate it. And you know how I know that's true is because one, my clients are just, they'll be speechless and two, they'll be scrambling to write every single word I say.

I love that.

That is so many times that happens.

Yes. You know, that's one of the reasons I've started recording my calls, because what I do is I use a program called Notive that records the calls and gives us a transcript. Because when people are scrambling to write everything down, I just say, just click on the link and you'll get the transcript so you don't have to write everything down and you can be more present here. So, Michelle, for this next part, what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask you, you do a great job of posting really good content on LinkedIn. So I'm going to ask you some questions based on some of the posts that you've had recently. So let's talk about the quiet space in between is where leaders grow. What does that mean?

What it means to me. And by the way, I really feel honored that you think highly of my content. I write it all myself. I think that's important, that it's a full expression.

So I believe leadership starts on the inside and it's, it's something that we can all cultivate and it, it fuels how we show up in the world. And to really be able to.

Cultivate that culture, you have to create space within yourself.

You know, most people try to create space with time, Right. But that's really not what I'm talking about here. It might, it'll be a false sense. So creating space with time in your calendar is an external. I'm talking about creating space within yourself internally. And this is why I think you'll hear in so many really successful leaders talk about the power of meditation. They're creating space within themselves.

Yes. Well, that leads to my next question, because you talk about. Two days ago, you posted about high achievers struggling with gratitude. Because we high achievers, people who are innovators, better way people like our CEO Gary, they're often living in the future and looking to what's next? What are we going to do next? But your quote is, what if you choose to Be grateful about everything all the time because gratitude lives in the present moment. That is a really powerful statement and it's something, it's why we round each other out. Right? Gary and I talk about this all the time as a contributor. I live to, I love to celebrate wins and I will celebrate for a long time. Gary cannot because he is a better way guy. He, we've got the win. Let's put that under our belt. What is the next battle we're going to fight and that's just his nature. So we balance each other out by making sure that, hey, let's make sure we take time to celebrate those wins. And, and sometimes we just have to slow down and remind ourselves, hey, we just had a big win. Let's continue to talk about that. Now let's go on to the next battle. And Gary's great at not letting us live in the past because you can only celebrate a win for so long. You do have to move on to the next thing, but you have to recognize it. So tell me about gratitude. What did you mean by that?

You know, I think I'm a classic high achieving type of personality. Maybe a little bit different than what you're saying from a better way style, but the in the kind of way where I get a lot of external motivation and validation outside. Right. Not really fueling from your inner power. And so I find that the way to get yourself out of that is to have a gratitude, a practice of gratitude. We can, we.

You know, past and future are, are not like we can't control them. All we can control is being in the present moment. And the present moment is, is the space where you want to see what you have and to be grateful for that.

Love, love, love that. Thank you so much for sharing that, Michelle. I've got one more post, so I love this one. What if listening to your body will provide the signals you seek? And so you talked a little bit about that. We're living in our head and you get us to listen to your body a little bit more. Tell me what that means.

Yeah, and I just wanted to say I see you, Kimberly. Thank you for your nice comments. And I also saw Steph's earlier, so I just wanted to say that out loud.

But.

So most people treat the body like a vehicle of transportation and to get us from point A to point B. If you look at how we put fuel into our bodies, how we exercise our bodies and no one talks about it as a means of communication, you know, but yet every leader that I work with knows they get that intuitive hit, they get a feeling, they get a thought. It comes out of nowhere. Well, that's a communication. What if you could train yourself, go to the gym so that you can. You can get into your body and use it as a tool for communication to get more of those hits, more of that gut feel, feeling more of those ideas.

That is so cool. And that's what I love about our community. Our Y community is growing every single week. We used to do a monthly show where we did Y2Y once a month, and Bella and I were getting booked so many months out in advance because so many of you are so amazing and interesting and you're doing so many cool things that are different from each other. So I'm so glad we had a chance to share with you the name of the show, as you know, Michelle, is why Not Wednesday? So I'm going to have. I'm going to ask you, tell me about a time in your personal life that you did something where you had to say, why not? And you're so glad you did it, because if you hadn't done it, that wouldn't. Something wouldn't have happened. So tell me about your biggest personal why not moment.

Yeah. The first thing that comes to mind when you say that is when I was in high school, I. So I'm. You wouldn't believe it now, but like, super shy, so not confident, so not out being, you know, my true self on a daily basis and decided, though, I wanted to try out for a play, a high school play, and I got a part. And I. I remember my dad telling me years later, you came home and said, you got a part in this play. And your mom and I look at each other like.

You know, like, who is this? We're afraid of her. And then he said, and then we went to see the play and you were like a whole new person.

Yeah.

And I think, you know, I was in music before that, but had never put myself out there in a bigger way, but used the stage to do that. And it really helped me to find a way to start expressing a voice before I was really ready to do it in my own power, if that makes sense.

That makes absolute sense. Why not? What. What drove you to say, why not?

I don't know. I did. Something happened with me as I moved in. You know, my parents took us out of private school and moved us up to the suburbs. And so it was a bigger school, more like sports and arts to get involved with. And I just thought, you know, why not? Why not give this A try. And it changed the entire trajectory of my life because I ended up joining the speech team. I've spoken on stages. People don't think of me as shy at all. They don't think of me as introverted. They don't think of me as somebody who came from that space.

You know, I am so glad you said that because Steph McPhee is the Y coach down in Florida and she, she lives with why not? So I know she's, she's watching and, and she's gonna love that answer you just gave about when you said why not. What about professionally, Michelle? Name a time that you said why not professionally? And it led to some amazing and great outcomes.

Well, I. It was around 2008, when nobody else could get a job, and I had a really budding growing career and decided to say, why not start a business?

Why not? Why can't that be me? And I had just finished an MBA program. I was interviewing for new opportunities at my company, and instead of continuing that, I decided to take the leap. And here I am.

And it's worked out tremendously well.

Well, I would say I, I've taken the entrepreneur's journey like this.

Absolutely. But you had to say why not in order to get there, right?

I had to. I mean, you can imagine people thought I was crazy. My parents dream for me was to go to school and get a great job. I, I did that. I mean, I got a mass master's level education. I made six figures from the time I was in my mid-20s. And they thought I was absolutely crazy. But, you know, I thought, why not? Why, why can't I have something more? Why can't I have something different? Why can't I make an impact in another way? Why not?

Why not? So I see Steph McPhee in the comments. She says, yay, embrace the why not. Exactly. We are so glad you did. And we are so glad you are one of our YOS certified professionals. And we know this is going to bring a great deal of depth to the conversations you have with your clients. Not that you weren't already there, but this is going to bring a different perspective. So we're so glad you're one of our one of us. Michelle, you said something earlier, and I want to make sure I asked that question. What attracted you to why Institute?

You know, something stood out right away to me, and.

I don't know if I had the word for it, but I just knew that there was something really like a high level integrity. It had to be in your communications and just how your brand was showing up in the marketplace. And as soon as I started interacting with it, it was even more consistent. And now that I'm getting to know the team, the team behind the scenes, if you will.

It'S true, it's authentic and so clearly it was bubbling through at the surface of the layer of consistency in your values and then how that permeates through your company. So bravo for that because.

That doesn't catch my eye too often.

Well, that is a great way to end. Thank you so much, Michelle. I want to wish everybody who's listening, everybody who's commenting, thank you for listening in and have a merry Christmas, a happy new Year, Happy holidays to everyone and we will see you. We have one more show this, this, this month but this is the last one before the Christmas holiday. So looking forward to next week. Happy holidays, everyone. And we'll see you next week on why not Wednesday.