#85: Investing in Yourself & Others with Kerry Siggins

Come on this journey with me each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals, overcome adversity, and set you up for a better tomorrow. Fasten your seatbelts.

I'm ready for my close up.

Hi, and welcome back. I'm so appreciative that you are back here with me this week. I want you to know I was thinking about you and what a great person you are, how talented you are and how special you are. I know that the present circumstances challenge all of our best feelings about ourselves, and I don't want them to for you. I want you to be confident because you should be. I want you to be strong because you are. That's who you are. You have so much to offer this world. You are creative, talented and special. And I want you to know you will find your way. Just in case you haven't gotten that message yet today, I wanted you to hear that because everybody needs that message right now. We just have no idea what some people are going through. And it's so strange, depending on where you live right now, how entirely different your reality can be. I'm lucky enough to live in Florida and we are able to leave our homes and go to dinner and go to the grocery store and go to the park and, you know, there's so much available to us and I am incredibly grateful for that. And then I was talking to a good friend of mine today who lives in LA and they're on complete quarantine and shutdown again. And it's just. I just encourage you to take a moment to think. Whoever you see today, whoever you run into, you never know what their situation may be. Some people are struggling so much and we just might not be aware. And there's so many stories of crime and violence and fighting and so much negativity out there in the world. I'm just hoping that you and I can put our best foot forward and lead with empathy and kindness and support in every situation we encounter. Focusing on that as my initiative today, and hopefully every day for that matter. It was interesting. I received a note on LinkedIn this week that really stopped me in my tracks and I wanted to share it with you. A woman who was very experienced, seasoned executive. Apparently she had been fired from a job she had picked up just during COVID So basically, this woman was very successful in corporate America and had left her job. And then Covid hit and of course Covid sent everyone into a tailspin. And, you know, some companies have closed and, you know, industries have changed and many people are struggling for money, and she needed to go back to work, and she applied to every job she could find, and she couldn't land any of them. So she ultimately ends up taking a job at Target. And while she's writing to me, I can tell she's incredibly embarrassed about it. Here's what happens. She ends up getting fired from Target. And she was so upset, and she was basically saying to me, where do I go from here? How do I handle this? How did you post about when you got fired? And it's so embarrassing that I even worked there. Here's the thing that's all in her head, right? And I remember, and people probably say, oh, easy for you to say, Heather. But no, I've been there, right? So I remember the day I got fired and how traumatizing that was. And I am not minimizing that or any challenge for anyone, right? You feel what you feel and you do you. However, I will challenge people to try to see it another way. And maybe you can't see it another way. Whatever your challenge is, maybe, you know, you're knee deep in it and it's too hard to get out of the challenge to view it in a bigger way. But when you do get there, and I'm so glad I did this, I leveraged and put to work getting fired. I made getting fired go to work for me by posting about it on social media. And so many people are mystified by that because most people are ashamed or, you know, I felt all those things too. And I talk about this a lot. Shining a light on shame is what will make it disappear. So by owning, getting fired, by putting it to work for me, I made the shame disappear. When I first would say it, I would tear up, right? It was so emotional. But now I changed my story around it. That's really all I did. I made getting fired in good company. Oprah's been fired. Mark Cuban's been fired. J.K. rowling's been fired, Right? Most of the most unbelievably successful people in the world have been fired. Walt Disney was fired. There's so many of us that have been fired. Here's the thing about getting fired, in my opinion, in my humble opinion, since I. I have so much experience with it. You're fired from a job for whatever reason, right? It doesn't mean you are bad. It means you were not in the right place. Your skills and talents didn't align with the opportunity. Your personality didn't align with whatever it is, right? But take the idea that you're bad fired means you're never going to be hired again or you're not gonna have opportunity again. That's not real. And for me, it took a while to get to this kind of big picture thinking. I'm so glad I did. I'm super proud of myself, too, because it was so risky. When I put that post up, and so many people told me I was crazy. People that cared about me, you know, that were looking out for me, they said, you look desperate. Why would you post about getting fired? But I checked in with the one voice that really matters, and that's my own. And I said to myself, oh, my gosh, am I desperate for doing this? Is this crazy? And I thought, no. I want to reach a large audience with this message, because the more people I reach, the more opportunity I'm going to pull towards me. I saw it as a marketing strategy and tactic, and I changed the story around getting fired, at least for me. So with this woman, you know, with Target, my point I was trying to make to her was that, here's the thing. You got fired. You're not bad. That doesn't take away your amazing track record and history you had in your previous experience in other companies you've worked for. However, you are not the right fit for Target. It doesn't mean Target's bad, doesn't mean you're bad. It means you weren't in the right position, on the right team, leveraging your best skills. It wasn't the right fit. And so if you really didn't want to work at Target to begin with and you took it because you were desperate, here's the good news. You should get fired. You really didn't want to be there, right? That's not the right fit for you. So choose to change the story around it and celebrate getting fired from Target. You know, I'm glad I got fired from Target. That wasn't my dream job. Now I'm thrust into finding my dream job. And I get that it's scary. I get when you need money, that that pressure can be crippling. Please know this. I have been there. And let me tell you, when Covid came, I went right back there again. Right? I mean, it's. It's definitely changed everything. My speaking business was blowing up, and then Covid hit, and it just disappeared. And thankfully, now with virtual speaking, it's coming back. And I actually am doing a huge virtual conference tomorrow. If you're hearing this on Tuesday, it's happening on Wednesday. You gotta check out the Women Network conference. I'm really excited to be not only speaking but also be hosting. And I've had some unbelievable opportunities this year virtually that are so surreal and crazy. It still it cracks me up to see that we're really bringing thousands and thousands of people together all in front of a computer screen. It is wild. So choose to change the story that you're telling yourself. Choose to change the story around whatever challenge or situation that you're going through and leverage it to put it to work for you. Just because I others didn't do that doesn't mean you can't. And I go back to my story of getting fired and choosing to see it as in good company because you are. And if you got fired from Target, celebrate it because that wasn't your dream job to begin with and you didn't match up with the skill sets and talents they were looking for for the position they had open. It's just a redirection to something better for you. And I understand it feels scary in the moment, but step into that fear and put it to work for you. Don't shy away from it. Stepping into your fear is always going to be the answer. If you want more, you've got to go for it. And don't go for it with desperation. You know, sit down and write out all the success you've had in your life and read reviews of your work where you're being praised and re engage with your own worth. Because if you don't know your worth, no one else will either. That is my public service announcement for the day and that one message really got me this week as I thought so much about that woman and felt so much empathy for her and just wanted to encourage her that even though it feels scary, there is so much potential out there. So just keep going. Hold tight. We're gonna be right back. Meet a different guest each week. Hi and welcome back.

Today I'm so excited to be sitting here with Carrie Siggins. She's the CEO of StoneAge Inc. The global leader in the design and manufacturing of high pressure water blast cleaning tools and robotic equipment used in the industrial cleaning industry. Stoneage sells and supports its products throughout the world and is considered the best of class in its industry. Kerry joined stoneage in January of 07 as the director of operations and at the age of 29 she was named CEO by the company's board of directors. That is impressive. She since led the company in building a strong global presence resulting in double digit growth year over year. Unbelievable. Most recently she led the acquisition of Breadware, an Internet of Things product development firm based in Reno, Nevada. Kerry was named one of Colorado's top 25 most influential young Professionals and was a finalist for Colorado's CEO of the Year in 2017.

Stone Age is recognized as a top.

100 company to work for by Outside Magazine. Kerry sits on several other boards and is a member of ypo, where she's.

On the executive committee of the Doing Business Globally Network.

She's a dynamic sought after speaker who has presented at universities, seminars and conferences around the world. She hosts not one, but two podcasts, Industrial Theory and Reflect Forward, and she is an author and blogger. Her articles have been published in a variety of magazines and her blog is visited by tens of thousands of readers each month. Carrie, thank you so much for being here.

Thanks for having me, Heather. I'm so excited.

I'm so excited. So, as we know, and I want everybody to know, we met, I did your podcast a while back and we just hit it off. I'm just so taken aback by number one, how generous you are. Just of so spirit and giving and helpful people that you've introduced me to, opportunities you've given me. And I'm so excited today to sit down and talk about you because I feel like you're always giving to everybody else.

Well, we all need to help each other, especially in times like we are in now. Compassion, help, expressing gratitude, supporting each other in every possible way is so important. So anything that I can do to help amazing people in my life, I'm going to do so. So it's my pleasure.

Well, I definitely can vouch for that that you do that. So today's about you and I want to talk about. Yes, you've made it to this massive pinnacle of success and accomplished so much and people are always blown away by that. But what they don't know is that the come up was not seamless for you. And I'm hoping that you can share a little bit of what that crazy journey was like.

Oh gosh. I think it really started probably when I was in high school. I am a boundary pusher and wild and I had a big fallout with my mother and she basically said with a few explicit words, explicit words, you're not going to college. And if you don't, you're at this house at 18 and I was shocked, like, you don't think I'm going to college? And so I made the decision, I'm going to pick the hardest school in the state to go to. I was, she was a single mother, couldn't afford to put me through school. So I had to stay in state. So I'm going to Colorado School of Mines which is a. It's a world class engineering school, one of the best in the country. Little did I know that I had no desire to be an engineer, but I stuck it out. The issue that it caused me was as I was lost as I went through and just persevered and pushed and I was going to make it through engineering school with really good grades. I didn't know who I was and when I got out, I was very confused about who I was as a person. In my most vulnerable time. I met a drug dealer who was wildly popular in Denver, Colorado. And my life took a dramatic turn. And in six months I went from the top of my class at Colorado School of Mines to a pretty severe drug problem. And it took me five years to get out of that. And I hit rock bottom multiple times. And really the final straw for me was on labor day weekend of 2006, I almost overdosed. And I was by myself in my apartment and I did not have one of my thousands of friends in Austin call me. Everybody just, well, I don't know, she is probably at work. And I just realized like, this is not the life that I want to live. I either have to choose living or I have to choose dying. And So I was 27 years old, I pick up the ph, I called my mom and I told her everything that was going on and she said, come home. And she lived in Durango, Colorado. I grew up in Colorado. And I said, all right, I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm coming. So I packed up all my stuff in storage. I bought a Honda CRV because that was all I could afford, which is like sorry for anybody who loves their Honda CRVs, but it was not my favorite car. Packed everything I could fit into it and drove the exact thousand miles from Austin, Texas to Durango. And I had no idea what I was going to do. This is a very small town, it's a ski town. There's not a lot of good jobs here. I left a very high paying sales job in Austin and I started the process of cleaning myself up. And that's how I found Stoneage. And they did not have any idea what they were getting when I was interviewing, but they took a risk on hiring me when I was 27 years old to start to run the company. And I threw myself into figuring out how to be a leader as I was cleaning myself up.

That is such an unbelievable story. Why would the owners of Stone Age give you that shot? I mean, to me that just. Number one, you were so young. Number two, you were female, you were new to the area. I mean, there's so many reasons there that typically you wouldn't get that opportunity. And they didn't even know that you were having this whole other issue. Right. Why is it that they gave you a chance, do you think?

The two founders are the two most open minded and generous people I've ever met in my life. And this was their baby. They'd been running it for 25 years, but it was still very small. And they knew that they needed something different. There were 30 employees, about 8 million in revenue, and they were interviewing people like themselves. And so, yes, these other candidates had more experience, especially in manufacturing, but they wanted something different. And they met at Colorado School of Mine. So we did have a little bit of a connection there. And so I think that, that, that definitely helped. But they decided to take a risk. They said, we're giving her a 5050 shot. If it doesn't work out, that's fine, we'll move on, but we want to do something different with this company. And so they, they took the risk and they, they gave me a shot.

Wow.

In my experience in corporate America, it's typically the opposite, where you were explaining how they started out looking for someone like them. Typically people start out looking for someone like them and pull the trigger and stay committed to someone like them and don't really take that risk, which is necessary, of course, to innovate. In this instance, they were willing to say, okay, it's a 50 50. It's either going, which I think is what you need to do if you really want to go for something bold. What was that like being thrust into a leadership position without necessarily the skillset developed that you needed, instead being pushed into just trying to figure it out.

It was very interesting for me and the key was asking a lot of questions. So I'm surrounded by people who'd been with the company from the very beginning. I mean, stoneage has so many loyal employees. And so here I had this fantastic team around me and they knew exactly what needed to be done to get the company to the next level. All I needed to do was just ask and, and help them make it happen. So I went around and I talked to every single person in the company and I got to know them and their families and what they wanted and what they thought was great about the company and not great about the company. And then I just put together a plan of here's what we're going to tackle first. And as soon as I got a couple of wins with some of the like the really biggest pain points, I won the trust of my team. It would have been what they had been looking for and hadn't been able to get from from the two founders at that time. And so that's how I started. I just learned from all of them. They really are the ones who taught me how to be a leader and how to run a company, not necessarily the two founders. It was the team.

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That's so interesting and I liken what you did. Your approach to nearly every big opportunity that I've gone into in business that really trying to come from a place of curiosity to understand what it's like to be in everybody else's shoes. And then once you do that survey and start connecting those dots, you can finally see what's broken in the process with the talent, whatever it may, the training, whatever it may be. But when you can identify those things that somebody else wasn't connecting before, it's really powerful. And people appreciate so much that you make their life easier and you listen to them.

Yeah, you bring them along for the journey. And I think that's the power of asking good questions. People ask me what my superhuman strength is and I get people to tell me things, but it's only because I know how to ask good questions and then put it into action. And that was such a powerful experience for me to see. Wow. I don't have to have all the answers. I don't have the answers. In fact, I have no clue what I'm even doing. But if you surround yourself with really smart people who can help guide you and you take their ideas and put them into action, you create much, much greater success. I mean we grew and that first five years, I mean, you know, we almost tripled the company and it was a joint effort with the entire team as I was trying to figure out, you know, how do I. How do I go from being, you know, a sales account executive, account rep, basically with a drug problem to a CEO of a fast growing company?

That is mind blowing. So I'm sure this was not seamless because I was like you was a young leader in a high position very early on in my career. And I had people challenge me publicly. I had people do some really malicious things. Give me some of the stories early on where you had to face that challenge and how you handled it.

Yeah, I have some internal ones and some external ones. So I actually had one of our employees say, I don't work for you, I work for the founders. And I was really taken aback. So I stopped and I paused and I said, no, you work for me. And if you don't want to, if you don't want to go along with where we're going with this and fix some of these performance issues, then you don't have to be here. But you work for me now. And he quit the next day.

Listen, you have to, you have to let people know. You're not going to let them, you know, dictate to you or undermine you. And here's the good thing. I'm sure it ended up being a win for that person. They went, if they weren't happy in a situation, then go find a situation you are happy with.

A year after I started, I had to let go our top sales manager because of the same thing. He would come to my face and sit there and say, oh, I'm on board. I'm going to do these things. And he would leave and go do the exact opposite of what we agreed on. And I tried everything I could do to make it work. And I said, why am I bending over backwards to try to keep this person here who doesn't respect me as a leader, doesn't respect where we're going as a company? And the organization was really scared when I fired him. They thought, we're never going to get through this. Like, he is the face of the company. And I said, no, we're going to get through it just fine. And then what people saw is that the space he was taking up, that vacuum allowed them to be able to come up and grow. And the next thing I know, I have, instead of one high performer, I have a team of high performers. And he just didn't give them the space to be the very best that they could be. And that was a huge lesson for me. I was so scared. I was like almost having a panic attack to Fire him. You know, here's this person who's been with the company for 25 years. I am there for a year, I'm about to let him go. And it was one of the best decisions I could have made and I wished I would have done it sooner. It's like, why did I torture myself this long?

So you're not alone in that. So many people live in fear of their top performer, whether it be the top salesperson, the top producer, the top sales manager. They believe that that revenue is linked to them. And I agree with you. I've seen where that top person can treat others very poorly, that it starts changing culture and there's a trickle down effect. And years later you look back and say, why did I allow this to go on? If I could do it all over again, I would stop it in its tracks and let the person know, behavior changes or you're out.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I'm really glad I learned that lesson early on so that I didn't keep poor performers, or even worse, toxic high performers in the company longer than they should be.

What role do you think culture plays in your success?

Huge part of my success. Our culture is everything. So Stoneage is an employee owned company. I talked a little bit about the generosity of our two founders about 25 years ago. They started selling stock to the employees. Skin in the game, you can invest in this company and it was very lucrative for the employee base and it helped create a culture of ownership which I think led to a significant part of our growth. But when you have an employee owned culture, it changes things. And so we are very much about the customer experience and the employee experience being intertwined. And I don't believe that we could ever give our customers the very best service unless we have a great culture where employees feel like I have a purpose, I'm coming to work for something bigger than myself. It's about my team, it's about my company, it's about my community, it's about my customers. And that's what we try to create. And I'm glad I came in at such a young age and could understand the power of creating a really strong culture, a really tight, close knit culture, because we have been able to persevere through things that I don't think most organizations would be able to get through and not just surviving, but really thriving. And I think it's all due to our culture.

You know, that's such a smart move. And it happens so rarely that a CEO or co founders decide to allow employees to have a Piece of the company for me. I worked at one company that operated that way. And I never saw a team or an organization where every level people would run through freaking walls because they felt not only were they committed to it, they felt they were a true part of it. They felt like an owner themselves. And they knew the end result would end up in their bank account. I mean, to me, why wouldn't a company do this? However, it happens so rarely.

I know, I know. Employee owned companies are such a small percentage. I'll tell you a story about running through a wall to make things happen. So In February of 2020, right before the COVID shutdown, we got a ransomware attack. Like literally where you get a ransom note from the hackers that say, you owe us a half a million dollars or we are not going to be able to unlock your system. I lost my mind, right? Our whole system shut down. It happened on a Friday night. So Saturday morning, I'm in the office all day working with my IT team trying to figure out what happened. We find the ransom note in the back channel, way through our IT system onto one of our servers. I call my attorney who has a cybersecurity concierge service, which I laughed about because it's like you make me feel like I'm going on vacation. And there is nothing relaxing about this. And on Sunday morning, I called 26 of my employees on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning, everybody showed up. And I said, our customers cannot feel a thing. It's our busiest time of year. We have to figure out how to ship orders. And those 26 people on Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, Monday morning, figured out a system. And we shipped every single order that came in through our door. Our biggest shipping week of our entire history. We did it manually and our customers never felt a thing. And it took us three and a half weeks to get everything back up and running. We did not have to pay the ransom. And it was because of that ownership mindset. I mean, people were like, there is no way in hell that we are paying those terrorists, they call them, I think, right? These hacker terrorists. The ransom. We're going to figure this out. And I do not believe that we could have done what we did if it would not have been for the employee owner culture mindset that we have. And people want to give back because they know the company is giving to them. Interestingly, on the day we went back up to start running on March 16th was the day that I told my employees not to come to work because of COVID So we have Gone through a tremendous amount of turmoil in 2020, and our employees are really, actually thriving in it.

That is an unbelievable story. And thankfully, I've never had an experience like that. I didn't realize you literally get a ransom.

No, I know.

Yeah.

It's all goes through these several layers. You can't figure out who they are. I mean, our attorney, who heads up their cybersecurity department, works for the FBI and the nsa. And so, you know, he knows, he knows these guys. He's like, oh, yeah, this is this particular strain of ransomware hackers. But, you know, they all move so fast, and if you don't ever want to have this happen to you, it's a really, really, really big deal. And I never thought, why would anybody ever attack us? We're just a small little company in Durango, Colorado. Like, we're the exact size company. 75 to $100 million in revenue, you know, enough money to be able to pay a ransom, but small enough that, you know, you don't really necessarily have the strong IT systems in place.

That is unbelievable. And it just goes to show how little we actually know. Right? The fact that you hadn't, you didn't know that this was a viable threat. I didn't even know this happened to businesses. I'm constantly amazed at how little I actually know in business, even after being in business over two decades. How have you been able. In a company where culture is so important, teamwork is so important, and communication is so important, how have you been able to keep everyone engaged and connected during this challenging pandemic time?

It's really tough, especially with a culture like ours where we're so used to being together. When we eat together, together, we drink together, we do everything together. And going from the way that we pulled together with the hack to now, you know, everybody has to work from home except for the people who have to be on campus to be able to build and ship product. It was a dramatic pendulum swing for us. And, you know, we're doing what the rest of the world is doing and it's. Everything is on zoom. And we have coffee hours and we have happy hours. I do town hall halls with my employees. I, you know, reach out and try to call five or six people a week to stay connected to them. My senior management team is doing regular check ins and doing cross departmental work. So we're trying our very best. But it is very difficult like it is for most organizations to stay connected and have people feel like they're part of the team. So we work really hard to do it, but. And I think we're doing a good job at it. But to I want wouldn't say that we're excelling. It's just not the same as being able to see each other face to face.

I agree with you. It's the number one challenge I hear from business owners and C suite executives is morale's down, people are struggling Zoom school at home, and people are really fed up with it. When you're planning for 2021, how are you looking at your strategies differently or what are some of the things that you're working on, knowing that we have this unknown year ahead of us?

Well, a couple of things. First, I'm pivoting, doing. I hate the word digital transformation, but there's really no other way to put it. We were already in the process of this, but obviously Covid has sped that up. And so I'm doing a lot more investing in technology platforms to be able to deliver not only virtual selling, but virtual services. How can we commission product? How do we troubleshoot product via zoom, via FaceTime, things like that? I mean, our products are in the dirtiest of dirty situations. In a plant where you might not have WI fi, you can only do things over a cell phone. So we're really looking at how do we have a comprehensive platform where our customers can engage with us however they choose, whether that's in person, at one of our branch offices, on the phone, through a computer, through e commerce platform. So really pivoting for that. The other big thing that I'm looking at is where are my people going to be? And then of course, bringing people back to work whenever that happens. How do we do that safely?

That's a lot on your plate versus just a typical year which already had. How do we grow the business? You know, how are we innovating, how are we standing up versus our competition, looking at all the normal things and now layering all of these additional initiatives on top. How do you get all of this done plus all of these other things? You're doing YPO on the board here, Mother wife, how does that happen?

I am compelled to do. I don't sleep much and not on purpose. I just don't need a whole lot of sleep. And I want to make a big impact. And so when I think about how I tie all of these things together with what I want to do in the world, what I want to do in my industry and my company and my community, I just want to make such a big impact. And so there are trade offs That I certainly make. There are certain things that I don't do. I say no to a lot of things and I really focus on growing the business, growing my personal brand and being a great mother. If it doesn't fit into those kind of three categories, then I just say no. But it's a lot. And I definitely have to reboot every now and then and reassess, like, okay, am I doing too much here? No. Let's take this stuff off of your, off of your plate.

First of all, I can't agree with you more that saying no is so powerful. Gives you back time, you know, gives you freedom. However, it's super hard to do, especially when you're in a growth phase or you're coming up. You know, for me, when I started my own business three years ago, I said no to nothing. And I was just in this window of time finishing my second book and I was on deadline and I had to start saying no to things and it was hard to do. I felt afraid, what if I miss out because I didn't take this and put, what if I find out that was the one big opportunity? How did you get yourself to finally actually do it?

So resonates with me and the guilt, the guilt of saying no, Especially if it's somebody asking me for help. As you know, I like to help a lot. And that is where it was really the most painful. But how I always tied it back was, is this going to take away from my son? And in those early days of saying no, that was the grounding point for me, is because I am responsible for raising a fantastic human being who is going to change the world. And I am not going to be able to do that if my calendar is completely full. And so when I was thinking about the trade offs of saying no to these things that I might miss out or no to being a really great mom, it was easy at that point to say, I am saying yes to being a great mom. And that helped me a lot in those early days of being able to say no. But I always had that fear. Either it was fear of missing out or fear or feeling guilty for saying no to something that I should be saying yes to. You know, according to somebody, when you.

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Well, you bring something up that I think it's really important for people to hear. You invest in your people, you invest in yourself. You have a coach you truly believe and live. And I was not aware of this when I was in corporate America. I didn't know people that had coaches. No one talked about that openly. What I love now learning is that really successful people like yourself didn't get here by chance. You kept investing in yourself. Can you tell us a little bit about the importance of the coaching that you've had?

Absolutely. I was actually just talking to one of my board members about this. He said this coaching stuff, I wish I would have had a coach back in my day. I just had to figure it out on my own. So I started working with my first coach probably about 10 years ago and it was profound. She was a human mirror to me. And it was really important for me to start to learn how to rein in my desire for recognition and my ego because that was going to be what would get me in the way, in my way. And I learned so much from that experience that I said I am never going to go without a coach again. And because I figured out those triggers and those points that would trip me up and I want to be successful, I don't want to get in my own way. And so that was a really profound experience for me. And then I have just, you know, my coaches have evolved as I have evolved. And I think that you need different types of coaching for different points in your life. And that has really been incredibly helpful. When I started investing in my team with coaching, that is where I saw the real power come into fruition. Getting my key people or high performers who were struggling in some areas that they really couldn't work through on their own and giving them the tools that they needed to become really successful, I have created such a much stronger team. And it's been through the help of coaching. And so I think if you are not using coaching as an executive or having your key people work with coaches, you are missing out on significant growth, opportunity. The Cost is fractional compared to what you will get out of it if you invest in yourself.

What's so interesting to me is hearing that and knowing that you do invest in your people, how they must feel because it makes them feel so worthy, so worthwhile, so appreciative that you actually invest in them. And again, back to most companies that I'm familiar with. A lot of them don't do that, much less take the time to do it, to sit and understand what they might need. But to actually pull the trigger and make the investment, it's a huge deal.

Yeah, well, to me it's way easier than looking for new talent because old talent isn't working out. Or so I'd way rather give people a shot and investing in them to see can they work through these issues, especially if you see the potential in them. We all need help. None of us just know how to figure it out on our own and we can stumble our way through and do it or we can get a little bit of something support and get there so much faster. And I am a big believer in uncovering your blind spots. Like your blind spots are always what trip you up. And how do you know what your blind spots are if you don't have somebody help help reveal them to you. And so that's why I think coaching is so important. And the most amazing thing that I've ever had happen is I've had spouses of my employees say thank you so much, forgetting my husband or my wife, my girlfriend, my boyfriend, coaching. Our relationship is so much better because of what they've learned through coaching. And that to me is, you know, it's great that what you can add to the business, but now you're going home and that's affecting your family and improving your family life. That has a ripple effect to our communities. So to me it's so incredibly valuable to invest in your people and to help them get through hard spots and blind spots.

That is such an unbelievable side effect that I never even considered, but makes all the sense in the world if you're learning how to plan better, to communicate better, to listen better, whatever anyone's challenges are, of course you're going to take that everywhere you go, not just work. And you're right, that's life changing. So kudos to you for doing that and great point in regards to, to employee turnover. So often I've seen where employers feel like, oh, they should be grateful to be here, but you never know when that person is on the side having a conversation with someone else. Being recruited by somebody else, if they are an all star, people are hearing about it, people know about it. And that's a painful day when you lose someone that you really had no interest in losing.

Yep, absolutely. Employee turnover is such a huge cost and most, I don't think most see, really understand that. And I always look for ways to turn things around, sometimes to a fault. I've certainly been burned before, but almost always it's paid off. When I invest a little bit more in that person, even if he or she winds up leaving the company, if I can help them be able to be more successful in another role in another company, then, you know, I'm doing my part. I want people to leave Stone Age and say that was the best experience, experience I've ever had working. And they really helped set me up for the next stage of my career. So, you know, I think it's always worth, worth investing in people most of us are good at heart and deserve to be seen and recognized, even if it doesn't mean that you're the right fit for the organization.

So not only have you invested in your team, but you do invest in yourself and you evolve yourself. I've seen the work that you've done for your personal brand and podcasting and now showing up in media. Talk a little bit about the importance of personal brand and what that's been like for you.

Yeah. So I believe every CEO needs to drive personal brand. And I've been doing this throughout my entire career at Stone Age, putting more focus on it now because of the impact that I want to have from leadership development and helping other leaders succeed and be more impactful in the world. CEOs have such a in a profound platform if they choose to use it especially for good. And so building your brand is incredibly important. Even if you're, you know, me, I'm out there sales and marketing CEO. But even if you're not that kind and you're want to be more behind the scenes, you still need to be able to use your platform for the betterment of the world. And whether that's through, you know, your products and service that you sell, whether that's through the philanthropic organizations that you participate in, or whether it's just about creating good jobs that provide livable wages for your employees so that they can go and be the engine for our economy. I think all CEOs need to really think through that and care about their brand and build that platform for good.

And I couldn't agree more that the more you allow the world to get to know who you are. The more real you become, the more credible you become, and the more people feel comfortable to reach out, to start a conversation, whether it be a potential client, a potential employee or partner, it's a missed opportunity not to raise your hand and put yourself out there.

Yep, I agree, and I think you make a good point. Like, you know, the authenticity matters as you're putting yourself out there. You know, making people feel part of something, part of your brand, part of your organization, part of your mission. It can be really profound if you do it right. But you have to be authentic. You know, none of us know how to do this right. That I think that was. One of the things I've really appreciated about becoming friends with you is that you've. You've helped me. Like, I don't know how to do these things right. I don't know how to build a company, but I don't know how to build a personal brand. But I'm not scared to just say, I'm going to put myself out there and I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to make mistakes. And it might not look as professional, as polished as I want, but I'm going to figure it out. You just have to. It's like Seth Godin says, just ship it, ship it, get it out there, put it out there, and you'll figure it out. It doesn't have to be perfect. And so, you know, I would encourage everybody to just do that, just get started. Like, you have something valuable to say, you have something valuable to share. Every one of us does. Like, put yourself out there and see what happens.

That's the biggest epiphany I've had as an entrepreneur over the last three years. Successful people don't know the how, but they trust themselves to figure it out along the way. And it all begins with just starting, just putting it out there. And I didn't know that. That was a big mystery to me. You know, I thought, wow, I don't know what I'm doing. Is that okay? I have, you know, it was so different than in corporate America, where everyone knew you submit your resume and then you apply to this job and speak and get this reference and referral. And that seemed very clear to me. This water seems murky. But I just, like you have said, I don't know how to write a book. But you know what? I'm writing it and I'm putting it out there, and then we'll see how it evolves from there. But the good news is it does continually evolve and continue to get better and more clear. Thank goodness. Yeah.

Well, and I loved your interview with Seth on it. Right. It's like if you say I have to have the perfect book that lots of people are going to read, you're never going to write the book. Just write it. To write it and to see what happens, happens with it. And, you know, look at what it did for you. You know, it landed you a book deal, and I know you didn't. How do I write a book? Like you said, I have no idea.

How to write a book.

All right, well, I'm going to start writing a chapter, and the next thing you know, it's going to lead to so many more things. And that's. I think that's why you have to invest in yourself and just get over the fears and the lack of confidence that you might have about doing it right or doing it perfect or maybe even nobody's going to read it. That's okay. It's the first step.

Well, you didn't know how to launch a podcast at first, but now you've got a successful podcast. Tell us a little bit about your show.

Yeah, so I started podcasting about a year ago. Our industry is very niche, but very close, and I'm involved all over the world. And I realized we have all of these great people within our industry, but nobody. There's no way to share their. Their stories. And so I started Industrial Theory as a very specific podcast specifically for our industry. And it was interviewing all of the interesting people who are doing, you know, amazing things and give them a platform to share their story. And I also liked it because, you know, I can weave the conversation the way that I wanted it to go, too. So it was, you know, mutually beneficial. And it turns out that it's wildly popular. And I have people asking, asking, can I be on your show and I want to talk about this? And I learned so much. I'm a new person, and I was told, listen to your podcast. And as people started approaching me to be on it, some of it didn't make sense. Right. It wasn't specifically for industrial cleaning industry. And so a friend of mine said, hey, you need to start a leadership podcast. Let's, you know, what you're passionate about. So I said, that's a great idea. I'm going to do that. So I started my idea around reflecting forward, and it's a leadership podcast. It's hopefully being able to share my story and the stories of other leaders and professionals as they've gone through their journey to get to the pinnacle of their success or on their way to the pinnacle of their success. It's really to help give people who want to be the very best at what they do ideas and insight and inspiration on how to do just that. So it's a brand new podcast, but I'm having so much fun with it and I've gotten hugely profound feedback on it so far with the guests that I've had and you in particular. So thank you so much for coming on the show. So I'm really excited about the doors that it's going to open and the stories that are going to be shared on it.

Well, for those who are interested in learning about leadership and learning from someone as successful as you, where do they find the show?

So it's on all the major podcasts platforms. You can search for reflect forward. You can also go to my website and link up to it there. My website is www.kerrysiggins.com and that's k e r r y siggins.com and that's the best place to find me. You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm just starting my Instagram journey so you can find me there. And I'm practicing, practicing on Instagram, which is been a learning curve, no doubt.

But for you and everybody else, don't worry.

Yeah, so that's how you can find me.

Well, Kerry, thank you so much for being here. I'll include all of the links in the show notes and it means the world that you came on the show. I appreciate you having me on yours. So check it out guys. If you haven't checked her show out yet, definitely check it out and we will be right back.

I asked you to try to find your passion and we're back. Okay, couple of questions coming in hot on social media. Here we go.

Hey, Heather.

I'm struggling to find my passion. Things have changed for the last couple of years and I'm finding I need to do more. That's exciting. I'd love to hear suggestions on how to find my purpose or where to start. So here's the thing. Think about and everyone should do this. It's a great exercise. Think about who you were when you were a kid and what you love to do when you think about that. I remember for me, I loved to be on stage. Oh my gosh, I loved it. I went crazy for it. I was in acting programs and I, when I think about it, geez, my life could have gone so differently had I pursued that creativity and that excitement and I really wanted to act, but I didn't go that route because I was chasing a paycheck. I went the business route.

Route.

However, my experience in sales and sales leadership in corporate America now has given me the opportunity to take massive stages and speak.

Right?

So it's so funny that in this weird way, I'm re engaging with a passion that I had when I was a young kid. So think back for you. What were the things you loved to do? What were the things that brought you so much joy that you remember? You really remember? Really? Like before, people told you you couldn't do that for a living, right? Because I'm sure people told me I couldn't be an actress. I mean, come on, that's crazy. Somebody will be an actress. But apparently I couldn't be. So think to yourself, what were the things that you wanted to be when you were a kid? How did you like to spend your time? Another thing is, and for me, doing charity work taught me this. I thought, there's gotta be more for me out there in the world. I'm not feeling fulfilled. This was back when I was in corporate America. I started working very closely with City Year Miami. I ended up on the board for years with them. And getting into that new space that I wasn't familiar with started opening new doors for me, meeting new people. All of those type of situations where you go into a new arena, you try something different, you meet with new and different people. Those kind of situations start guiding you to where you're supposed to go, but they don't occur if you don't get out of that little bubble. And the bubble is, the bubble is big right now, as we're in the COVID bubble. But you can, through your computer, through zoom and through calls, you know, start connecting with people. You've got to get out of your routine. So pump the brakes on your routine and start drive a different way. And if you've been working out at one location, work out a new one. Find out a workout buddy. Socially distance, distanced, of course, you know, whatever it is, go to a different restaurant, try something new. The more you expose yourself to new and different, the more you're gonna see what you like and what you gravitate towards. And if you say, oh, gosh, no, I don't want to do that, that means you really need to do it. I'll never forget a friend of mine said to me, what do you really not want to do? And I said, I don't ever want to be a comic. And he said, go Take a stand up comedy class. And I did. I didn't want to do it, but I did it. And that taught me a lot about myself and exposed me to new and different people and new situations. Right. So put yourself out of that familiar zone and force yourself to do it. Hold yourself accountable. Tell people you're going to do it. Another way is journaling. If you journal, you'll start noticing, wow, I'm really happy when I'm painting on the weekends or when I'm outside or you know. And all of these little things are clues to you to figuring out what your purpose and your passion are. And start paying attention to how you feel when you find joy. And ask yourself, if fear wasn't an issue, if money wasn't an issue, what is it that I would do with my time? That's a good place to start. Okay. Hey Heather, hope all is well. Wondering if you could give me some tips on growing my my network on LinkedIn. Besides adding random people every day, how else can I go about this? Why do some people get 500 likes and comments but I only get 5? Any tips are appreciated. That's so funny. Okay, well, everyone starts out with a zero and then you go to five and then eventually you get to 500.

Right?

But you, it's all in the consistency. You have to show up consistently every day. Another key tip I would give you is use 3, 3 hashtags. Try different ones, but make it for me. I'm always using hashtag sales, hashtag podcast host, like things that are relevant to my world. So figure out what hashtags you should use and start rocking them. You need to test content and see what performs well. So I use analytics called Shield, which it basically data doesn't lie and it's going to give you all the data on your social media feed so you, you can see which post perform better and then find out. Oh, I was talking about my personal life in that one. Wow. I'll try that again to test if that works. Start seeing what resonates with your audience. Also identify some competitors or best of class in your industry. For me, Gary Vaynerchuk is like best of class competitor in my world. I know that Gary's audience will like my content, so I go to his content and I comment and like his posts. So his people are seeing my name, they're going to follow back to my feed. Not all the time, but sometimes. So go find those competitors, those best of class, and take a look at the content they're creating to stimulate ideas for you. You don't need to reinvent the wheel and show up and message and comment on their post because their audience will follow you back. Another way is visual is important.

Right?

So you want to have a headline that pulls people in.

So.

My top tips to overcoming a bad day. And then skip four lines and then give your advice or your direction. You want the post to look clean. You don't want to just have line after line after line of writing. And if you go to my feed, you'll see that I try to skip lines in between, make it very catching to the eye. And you want to pull people in with that headline. So my worst day remembered, skip five lines and then start telling a little bit about it. Right. So what are the things that will pull your audience in and get them to click on it? And then at the bottom of your post I would include hit the pound the like button and share or tag someone below that needs this message. Create more engagement or ask a question. I want to hear from you. What's your worst day look like? Right, so you want to engage with people. Those are some of my tips. And I'm always launching new programs and I've got a LinkedIn program coming up. So if you're looking to grow your social media, you're looking to engage, check out my website, heathermonahan.com and you can sign up for my programs there. Yeah.

All right.

Thanks so much for being here today. As always, it means the world to me. If you could please subscribe, rate and review. It is a game changer. Until next week, I'll be right here with you. Creating confidence. I decided to change that dynamic. I couldn't be more excited for what you're gonna hear.

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