Identify your Core Values and Change Your Life with Marybeth Hyland

It becomes this thing where we are somebody who is acting the way that we need to in order to receive love. Most people have never taken the time to go back to understand what is that programming, what are those beliefs and have an experience of understanding what is actually me and what was just programmed into me that I thought I had to be. That's where the shedding begins.

Welcome everybody. I am Jeff Duden and we are on the Homefront. As always, this podcast is brought to you by Homefront Brands. Homefront Brands is simply building the world's most responsible franchise platform, encouraging entrepreneurs to take action to transform their lives, impact communities and enhance the lives of those they care the most about. All the while delivering enterprise level solutions to local business owners out there on the home front where it counts. So if this sounds like you, check us out@homefront brands.com today and start your next chapter of greatness, building your dynasty on the home front. I will be looking for you right here and today I am so excited to have Mary Beth Hyland with us today who is an expert on values and valued forward organizations. A lot to unpack today with. Mary Beth, welcome.

Thank you so much for having me here with you and with your wonderful community. Jeff.

Well, thank, thank you so much. So Mary Beth is a leading consultant on how to create a thriving workplace culture. She successfully led culture change efforts across nearly every industry. She's a published thought leader in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and New York Times, just to name a few. You can catch her interviews on how to reduce stress at work on abc, CBS and NBC. When she's not a guest on podcast, she can be found on horseback in the mountains of Idaho wrangling cattle on her quest to become a cowgirl. So excited to have you on. Been going over your content and watching your other podcast. I felt like I was listening to myself. We share so many of the same thoughts about the importance of building values forward organizations, human centered company building and all of the things that really help people thrive and survive. Would you mind introducing yourself and sharing a little bit about your background, how you grew up, those types of things?

Yeah, I'm, I'm delighted too and I'm, I'm so looking forward this conversation too more and more by each minute that goes on going all the way back. I was born in Washington D.C. so I grew up in the city and I had a really unique experience where I got to go to international school for my first language being Spanish. And so I grew up in a community where most people didn't look like me. We were speaking Spanish regularly at home and at school. School. And then we moved to the suburbs, and it was like. Like, wait, what's going on here? A huge shift. And so primarily then, growing up in Baltimore county in Maryland, it really changed my lens. And I think that was really the beginning of understanding values, even though I obviously didn't have the language for it as a kid, but just noticing the extreme differences in value systems in different communities and different places where you are. And so fast forward a whole bunch of years. I got my degree in social work and my master's in nonprofit management. And I went out into the world thinking, like, I am going to change the world. I'm gonna save the world one person at a time. You know, I was very much driven by the human experience, very much driven by human connection. I can articulate that now. I couldn't articulate it then. Back then, it was just like, I like. People know I like doing good things. And so I didn't realize how much I was driven deeply by values like authenticity and connection and sense of belonging until the. In more recent years. And so my last role before I started my business, I was working for the largest nonprofit in the world, and here at the local chapter. Talk about franchises. So it was United Way, which is a global organization. It's essentially run like a franchise. It was an experience where my local chapter, I was running the young professionals program, and it became the global best practice model. So the people would call the headquarters of United Way and say, how do we get young people involved in our programming? And they would say, oh, you need to talk to Mary Beth. So I became a consultant, quote, unquote, for the system very quickly, when I was very young. But the program that I was running quadrupled in membership and had over 7,000 members when I left. And so it was this experience where everyone's like, what's the secret sauce? How do you do this? How do you get young people to care about philanthropy and volunteerism? And I just said, well, you just, like, talk to them and you listen for what they're interested in, and you make the connections and you empower them based on what motivates them, and you give them a meaningful role in the process of doing that. And I'm telling you, Jeff, people were talking to me and looking at me like, where'd you come up with this? This is such a. An amazing process. And for me, it was like my heart, you know, like, where did I come up with this? I just considered what would I want, like, what is the human experience? And how do we get people to be invested? And again, I didn't know this then, but I know now. It was through shared values, right? It was through understanding what are the shared values amongst us and how can we create a culture that honors and protects those values and empowers people into being their most authentic and powerful selves by giving them the opportunities to step into alignment with them. So when it came time for me to think about what was my next chapter, what am I going to do next? The Millennial Whisperer was my nickname. And I make. It was like, funny. But also it was like, eh, this is not really a millennial thing. It's a human thing. This is working because they're humans, not because we're the same age. When I started my business, it was this experience of, well, what do people know me for and what is something that people really want? And at the time, eight years ago, millennials were a hot topic, and people were like, I don't know what to do about these people. Like, I don't know how to manage these folks in the workplace. I don't know how to get them empowered. And so while it wasn't what I knew I was here to do, it was the thing that got me in the door to have the bigger conversation. I was very fortunate when I stepped out on my own that in my community I was had a really great reputation. And so I was able to pretty seamlessly move into the consulting and coaching space. And then it was just a matter of shedding, right? So it was like doing all the things that I did to make an impact, make a difference, use my gifts, and have an income. And so I would say in the last five years, it has been a process of just a micro pivot here, a shedding there, a stepping into a new opportunity here. And as of this past year, we've done a full shift in our business. So we have shifted out of doing corporate work in the way that you just were describing and, you know, going and doing these culture shifts. And now I'm working with coaches and consultants who are doing that work. So kind of more like train the trainer in how can I make more of an exponential impact with my time and energy? I can work with more people who are doing that work and so that they can offer that work into the world with their clients. So it's been a really powerful and exciting time. But as you know, you know, with having a business, every time you make a pivot, it's a very exciting and can be very daunting experience. And so we're in the beginning phases of that. And, and I'm very happy to say it's been extreme, Extremely rewarding.

Well, that is an incredible story. What I love the most about it is the simplicity and the fundamental common sense that just occurred to you because we can make things overly complicated. Right. What you discovered was as long as people know where they stand, they're usually okay. So let's find out. What do we have in common? What do we care about that's the same? Because we need diversity. Like we have to have diversity in all things in the workplace. Skill sets, age brackets, race, you know, talents. Because there's a variety of jobs. We can't just hire people that look just like us because we just, we would row the boat in a circle because we're all the same. So if that's true and we need all this diversity, how do we find the common threads that are going to allow the team to be high performing, high trust? And I'm such a believer that this is the hard stuff. This is the tangible stuff that creates really high performing organizations that people really enjoy being a part of.

Yeah. I love that you frame it that way. This is the hard stuff, this is the tangible stuff. Because most people think this is the soft stuff. This is the intangible stuff.

Exactly right.

Most people think when you're talking about values, it's some airy fairy nice idea. And I say most people, not all people, but the folks who get it, it's like, no, this is real, this is meaningful, this is tangible, this is operationalizable.

Yeah.

You know, there are so many ways that we can measure this and hold ourselves lovingly accountable in the process of doing that.

Many of our listeners are peers to me in the franchise industry. They're a little younger than me in their career and they have their first franchise business or they're franchisees that are going into their first entrepreneurial experience. You said something shed who you aren't. I found that to be so insightful. We care to explain what you mean by that?

Yeah, because it's, it's such a process. Right. It's easy to say, oh, just shed what you are. It's really hard to actually do that in real life, to give a little bit of a background of what does that even mean in the first place? By the time we turn 7, the majority of our programming is inside of us. It happens through how we were domesticated by the people who raised us. That's just how it works. In those seven years we start to create beliefs, values, programs, identities, attitudes of what is right and what is wrong. Attitudes, right? Yep, exactly. So many other things. It becomes this thing, thing where we are somebody who is acting the way that we need to in order to receive love. Right. We do things and we make choices to receive love. This is just how all humans work. Most people have never taken the time to go back to understand what is that programming, what are those beliefs and have an experience of understanding what is actually me and what was just programmed into me that I thought, thought I had to be. That's where the shedding begins. And so my, my personal journey in the shedding came from my last job before I started Sparkvision, my, my company now I was top of my game. I was, I was getting global accolades, I was best practice for, for the world that people I was consulting, record breaking amounts of money coming in, I was winning all the awards, you know, all the things that you could possibly put on a list of a successful person. But inside I was dying. I was miserable. I was to a place where I literally did not have an identity outside of my work. And it got to a point where one morning my, I rolled over in bed and my husband said it's so good to see you. And I was just like, what are you talking about? He's like, well every time that I get up for work, which at the time he was working in finance, so he was up four or five o' clock every day. He's like, by the time I get up, you're either already on your way to work or you're, you've passed out on the couch working. Because I literally didn't know how to operate if I wasn't working. That is what gave me all of my identity, that's what gave me purpose, that's what gave me meaning. And so that's when I realized I didn't even have any self awareness around the intensity of this. And so I started to, to go to therapy and my therapist within three sessions actually clinically diagnosed me with a work addiction. I didn't even know that was real. I didn't, I, I just thought I was, you know, successful, committed. And so that was the beginning of my shedding process was understanding this identity that I had created for myself was completely based off of the way I received love from my father.

So was it approval? Was it admiration? Was it respect? What, what specifically was it that you were seeking from your dad?

Approval? Respect? Belonging? Worthiness? Enoughness. Am I enough now? Will this make Me enough. Now, my dad was the kind of person who was very, very disappointed in me when I didn't continue my path as an orthodontist. I went on to social work. So, boy, could that be a bigger jump from orthodontistry. You know, I wasn't going to make the money that he wanted me to be making, and I wasn't going to be seen in the same way, you know, social status wise in that way. And. But I. I can't do that. Like, my brain doesn't work that way. That's not how I show up. So that was probably the beginning of the shedding process. But without having any true skills, any tools, I was really just operating from fear and unworthiness and hoping that somebody would validate me enough that those things would go away, not realizing that the only person who could do that was myself.

Yeah.

And so that is where the shedding happens.

It is. I. I can relate. Those times in your life when you begin to believe that somebody that is very close to you, their love is not unconditional.

Right. Conditional love.

Very difficult. Very difficult place. As it related to your transition from a very successful internal consultant to moving into more of an entrepreneurial role, what are the types of things that you decided you had to shed there?

Great question. The environment that I was coming from was just incredibly toxic. So when I say that, I mean things like gossip was the number one form of, you know, whether or not you were in the inner circle. There was just constant backstabbing. And it was ironic because people think, oh, when you work in the nonprofit sector, everybody's so nice and doing this great work in the world. And it was like, ooh, there was a lot of stuff going on there. This is actually one of the best exercises anyone can do when they're leaving someplace. Whether you're physically leaving a home, a building, a office, or a job, what are you going to leave there and what are you going to take with you? And so I really sat down and I said, what am I leaving at my old job and what am I going to take with me? Because there's tons of beautiful things I want to take with me. It's really a powerful thing to consider that you have a choice in the matter.

That's powerful. So let's talk about the workplace today, and I'm interested in your perspective as somebody that's been so dialed into workplace culture. How has the workplace changed today versus eight years ago when you first started your business? And what kind of challenges do we have inside of That, I mean, another.

One is like, well, hello pandemic, right? I mean it is not the same. It is such a different world. And you, you know that everyone listening knows that. It's, it's one of these experiences of when I first started, the big conversation that I was having, at least in my, in my work, was about how do we get people connected across the generations. But then when the pandemic hit, it really changed my work. So I was very much the kind of person where people would say things before like, you can do your work, but we don't need all the mindfulness stuff. Just get straight to the exercises we don't need like grounding practices and stress relief. It was very interesting because I learned to stop asking for permission to do the thing that I knew was necessary. But then when the pandemic hit, all those people said, hey, we need you to come do the stress relief. We need you to come do the well being. We need you to come do the values work in the way you want to do it. Because we realize we have no clue on how to take care of ourselves and how to take care of our people in an upside down world. And guess what? It also means they didn't know how to do it in a right side up world. Right. It just wasn't, it wasn't, didn't seem like it was necessary or a requirement. And so it was a really powerful shift in people moving from me sort of telling them and enrolling them and why this was a good investment into people saying, like, I know this is a good investment and I need you to be the one to deliver it. And so now I would say coming out of the pandemic, the conversation is still there around mental health and well being that is definitely continued on. Not as much of people putting money behind it. People were willing to put money behind it in the pandemic. Now there's a lot of people saying, oh well, it's a nice to have. So it's kind of gone back to a certain extent from my personal experience. Right. I think there's a lot more talk, I think there's a lot more awareness, I think there's a lot more programming for that kind of a thing. But there is less action being taken from a follow through and a embodiment of it being a part of the cultural norms versus a box checker.

So I'd like to make sure that we spend a good bit of time on values. And so much of your work is around values. We are in any organization that I get Involved with the first work we do is really around values. What are the values? How are they reflected in the customer promise that we make? How are they turned internally to govern the decisions and the relationships that are between within the four walls of the business? I just have found that the better we are at using and incorporating our values into our business, the more powerful a tool it becomes. You know, what I'm really surprised about is that potential employees don't ask more about culture and values during the Internet, during the interview process. I'm shocked by that because the first question we ask, which one of our values resonates the most with you and why? Because I want to get into that conversation. I want to give them an opportunity for them to show me who they are, what matters the most to them. And it always takes the conversation away from the mechanics of, you know, what the company is and what we do to who they are as a person, which is what we're really interested in. Are you going to value the experience that you have with this company? Are you going to. Are you going to lean into it? Are you going to leverage it? Are you going to make yourself and those around you better? And all of that stuff just comes pouring out when you ask that values question and they say, no, it's that one, and this is why. And then they tell you a story about where they came from or how they've used that in the past. And it just. To me, it's the most powerful tool to really get a connection quickly and early your work around. It talks a lot about alignment, knowing, owning and living the values. Can you share a little bit about how you go into an organization or how you coach, your coach, your coaches to go into an organization? Where do you start to determine if the values are right or if not, how do you determine what they might need to be?

Yeah, great question, and I totally agree with you on the hiring process. It's such a missed opportunity. I actually write about it in, in my book Permission to Be Human. I say, like, it's straight up unfair and unkind to not have a values conversation. It's not that we have to have the exact same definition of that value, but we have to care about it because values are intrinsic motivators, meaning they come from inside. It's not like a dangling a bonus on the outside. And then you care about innovation or authenticity or connection or whatever the value may be. It's like, no, the. The reward comes because it feels good. It motivates you when you experience it. That's what's so powerful about values is that they are intrinsically motivated. So when it comes to going into a company, companies are usually in one of a few places. Either they already have values, they don't have them at all, or they're in a process of like transitioning their values. Right. The process obviously depends on where they are in, in identifying or not having identified and whether or not they want them updated. But if they already have their values, whether they want them updated or not, the first thing I always do is start talking to their people about how are they live. So we do a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis. So it typically starts with a survey. And it's so simple. Anybody here who wants to do it, go for it. You take your value, so you say a value of, let's say collaboration and then you ask three questions around that value. How often does your organization live in alignment with this value? Then how often does your team or your department, right, depending on how big the organization is, live in alignment with this value? And then three, how often do you live in alignment with this value? I always use the same structure because it's very eye opening, particularly when 90% of the organization believes that they as individuals are living it, but they believe that only 10% of the company is living, of course. So then we get to have this big conversation of, well, who's working here? And so typically it starts with the, the survey and then going into conversations with people about, okay, so the value that was most out of alignment was this value. Let's talk about it. We don't have to reinvent the wheel here. That's one of the most powerful things about this values work is that there are people living the values. What I call them culture keepers. That's another question that I typically, as a bonus, who in this organization lives these values regularly? So then I start to get to see like, oh, Jeff is on every single one of these. I'm going to have some conversations with Jeff about what he's doing to create this experience that people are identifying him. And instead of me coming up with some new fancy thing that they're going to implement, we, we asked Jeff, how, how are you implementing it? And how can you train other people to do their version of that implementation if they don't have values? Then I typically go into a multi day retreat experience with them. And the first day is helping the individuals that work there uncover their own core values separate from the organization, just about them as human beings. Going back to that intrinsically motivated piece, right, we're not telling people what they should care about, they're telling us what they care about. And then we sort of do a Venn diagram of all right, this is what people care about. This is what we do with this organization. What is in the middle that are the shared values that are intrinsically motivating our people already, at least the majority of them. And then we go through the process from there of naming them, being able to clearly define them. It doesn't. If you just say our value is innovation, well, what does that mean? My definition of innovation could be very different than yours. Could be very different than your listeners. So get really clear on that. And then we go through a process that I call value promises, which is actually creating essentially a code of conduct based on the values that is then used as the tools for things like one on ones, annual reviews, things like onboarding. Because as you said, it's not a thing that just gets written down and goes and lives somewhere else. It is a hard, tangible thing that you can operationalize when you do more than just, oh, we did a retreat, now we have the words on a poster and now we're all set. It's like, no, there's another step here.

So how many times do you go through this and you complete the exercise and then management really doesn't get behind it. So it doesn't, it doesn't take. I would assume that if management's hired you to do it and they're investing in it, that they, they are invested in it. But sometimes, sometimes they might not be right because they're, they really have. You have to live your values and it has to be incorporated into your decision making process. So what kind of companies typically more adaptable to your work? But what I want to really get into first is this code of conduct. So one of our values is accountability. We do more than is expected by our own will and our own choice. What are the types of things that would be in that code of conduct related to a value like accountability?

So I frame them as promises. Not everybody needs to frame them that way. But I found that when you think of the idea of a promise, people know whether a promise is kept or whether it's broken.

Promises are sacred.

Yeah. So it creates different energy associated to it. It would be a series of specific behaviors that you want people to actually implement. And depending on how many values, how many values does your organization have?

Five.

Okay. So I would start one promise for each one. Build up from there after those have been mastered. Essentially like above and beyond. Right. Well, what does that mean, does that mean that I'm ahead of my deadlines, I'm communicating in a certain way, I'm showing up physically in a certain way. And so the way that I go about that process is we break people up into groups based on whether or not that value is one of their intrinsic motivators. What is one behavior that if we did this one behavior really well, we would be living this value. The idea there is what is a specific tangible. You either did it or you didn't do it. It's not a lofty idea for accountability.

I'm thinking we promise to show up on time, prepared and be present.

There you go. Something that simple. So that you could literally look around the room and say, are we on time? Are we prepared? Are we present? It would be the type of thing, Jeff, if you said that's what I want to do, I would encourage you at the top of the meeting and at the end of the meeting, you check in and say, how do we do with our accountability?

Today I have found that people, at least in our industry, we're in a high influence industry. I mean, you know, franchising is so interesting because you don't have a thousand employees, you've got 100 families with 10 employees. It's a huge exercise in relationship and influence. And I tell you what, and said to one is said to all. So if you are talking to one franchisee and you do something that is so counterculture, it's so counter promise. It's so counter values. Everybody will know by the time the sun comes up the next day. It's really incumbent upon us to make sure that we are very communicative about what expectations are, you know, whether it be time based things like we return all calls before sunset and even if you don't have an answer, don't snap off emails if you're not sure. Right. You got to.

That's a value promise. We return all phone calls before sunset.

Absolutely. And you know, I guess depending on what time zone you're in, that's reasonable or not. Yeah, that's, that's incredible stuff and I think very actionable for people that are out there building teams and building businesses. I want to ask you about a couple of things. I, I've got the outline of your book here and I just went through and some things really jumped out at me and I'd love for you to expand on. So in chapter four, knowing your personal values, you say, I honor my past, to align my future.

Well, we talked about it a little bit in the shedding conversation, right. Of like, you know, you need to honor the journey that you've been on in order to step forward with intention on where you're headed. Right. Because your values are shaped by your life experiences. And some values are going to stick with you from the time you knew they existed to the time you were ready to transition. You get to choose, Right? If you have this awareness, maybe you're listening to this podcast and you're like, oh, I've never considered my values. This is something I want to get curious about. Well, one of the things I would recommend is you go backwards first, because you may or may not choose to take from what was back with you moving forward. So one of the most powerful exercises that. That somebody can do is mapping out the highs and lows, the milestone moments of their journey, and starting to see, oh, my gosh, the highs were because my core value of fill in the blank was there, and the lows were because that value was being violated. I never even realized that. And I gotta tell you, Jeff, that is one of the most powerful illuminations that I do for people when we go through these kinds of exercises. They had no idea how present their values are all the time, everywhere, no matter what. Right. Like as humans, we are walking, talking, living, breathing sets of values, and so is your company, because humans make up the company. So when we go through this, I actually have. For anybody interested, I have a free core values quiz that gives you a profile. You can get your core values, your aspirational values, and learn more about yourself in the process. It's corevaluesquiz.com and so when you go through that and you start looking at those values, you could even say, I'm saying that my core values are these things. But people, when they see them often on the list, they'll go, but I don't want to be. I don't want to actually be driven by that.

Yeah.

And so you can then start to identify, oh, well, maybe it is a core value of mine right now, but it was a programmed core value versus an authentic core value. And how can I shed that or evolve so that it is my what is true for me versus what I thought I had to do?

Well, that's a segue to something that I really want to ask you. Many of our business owners are going to have between 5 and 25 employees. What I have found is that the authenticity for who I am as the owner or founder or whatever you call it really impacts and influences the way that the company operates.

Oh, yeah.

You know, I, I've had many experiences here lately where people have said, you know, I really like this here. It's very low politics. People just get work done. Everybody's helpful. You know, some things. And I said, well, because that's the only kind of company that, that I'm going to run. But at the end of the day, you can only be who you're not for so long. You could read a management book and you could say, well, I'm going to do this. But it's always going to have the leader or the founders fingerprints on it. When you deal with an organization for a year and then you finally meet the owner or the founder and you're like, oh, I get it now. This is exactly. This company has taken on the Persona of who's leading it. Truth be known, Chick Fil A, Southwest Airlines, these companies that have done exceptionally well still maintain the Persona of the people that founded them and what was important to them. I mean, at some point you would think on Southwest Airlines that they would take the mic from those people and tell them to stop telling jokes, but they don't. And it's great, you know, and I know, but they don't because. And, and, and you know, Herb Kelleher has been dead for a while. So what experience can you share to let people that are starting their businesses or in these small, fast growing businesses like we have here at Homefront Brands, to incorporate who they are into the culture that they're building?

The key words that you said is who they are, not who they think there should be or who they are supposed to be, Right? Who they actually are.

That's right.

Because as soon as you start building your leadership based on a Persona that it's not yours, like you said, it's unsustainable. You're literally going to have health issues. Like, it's going to get to a point where you are just so disconnected between your mind, body and spirit that your, your body is going to start to break down on you. And so it's an experience where the first step is who do you want to be? You know, how do you want to lead? Who. Who do you want to show up as? And what kind of energy do you want to bring with you in every space that you enter? And so I don't always recommend this because I think sometimes it's like a jumping over yourself, but it is a good starting place if you, if you want a little Kickstarter. So a lot of times people say, who do you look up to? Right? Like, who Are the people that you look up to that you want to embody those qualities not because they don't exist inside of you, but because they do exist inside of you only want them to be more visible. It's really getting clear on what is the most important quality of what I can bring that's authentically me. Because as you said, we know when it's not. We feel it. We. We just. It's just the kind of thing that we are all made of energy. And we are constantly reading other people's energy, whether we realize it or not. So get clear on, like, what would make me intrinsically motivated. I did a whole research study on values across the generations many, many moons ago. And it was an experience where the majority of people were like, it's not because somebody sat me down and told me how to do it. It's because I watched them. It's because I was just around them and I said, oh, I want to emulate that in my version of it. What's my version of that? So I would encourage whoever's listening and is thinking, how can I lead more authentically? Consider what is the core value inside of you that makes you feel the most alive? Because that is how values work. When you are in alignment with your values, you are receiving energy. Energy is coming to you. And when you're out of alignment or at worst violating your values, you are drained. You having the energy sucked out of you. So when you feel like you're coming alive, it's because your values are present, they are in action. And when you feel like you're being sucked dry, it's because they're not. So think about when is the last time you felt you were coming the most alive and what value was being activated in that process, and how can I now intentionally lead with that value?

That is such a great lesson that you just shared, and I think so impactful for people that are trying to shed things to become something else. You know, I've always said that you can live many lives within a single life and that you need to because that's how progress happens. You know, but we're constantly evolving. I mean, we live a long time now as people. We tend. We live a lot longer than we used to. There is so much opportunity to build on your experiences and your knowledge in your life, but there has to be intentionality around developing yourself. And I mean, Maxwell talks about the leadership lid. The more that creation that you want to do in this world and the more fulfillment that you're looking for out of that Creation, the higher up your lid needs to be to let people start their dreams inside of the dream that you've. You've started. I really appreciate what you said there. I don't want to get off this podcast, though, with asking you what. What horses have meant to you in your life, because we share a passion for horses, and I saw it, and I don't know, I don't see the cowgirl hat on, but. But I know. Tell me about it. What's going on with the horses?

Yeah. So when I was really, really little, I. I went out to my uncle's ranch in Idaho, where he was a cowboy by profession. I was living in Washington, D.C. as you heard me share. So it was like, why? Like, what is this, like, on this ranch, off the grid with these beautiful animals? And that was the beginning of just having a fascination with horses. As I got older, I started to ride them, but I broke my tailbone. And so I thought, I can't. I can't ride anymore. Like, that's not going to be a part of my life. It was just a story I told myself. I stopped riding 20 years ago. And so there was a experience where I was out on my uncle's ranch, which my mom inherited, and. And I will eventually be the next caregiver of the property. I was out by myself. And it's 100 acres, so if you're on a ranch alone and you hear voices, it is a scary thing. Most people out there then get their shotgun. I didn't do that. I got my binoculars instead, and I scanned the mountainside. And I saw this amazing cattle woman moving a herd of cows across our property and into the mountains. And something happened inside of me, my whole body. Talk about your values. Like, showing up. I had this zinging, buzzing happening where I was like, I need to know her. I have to do that with her. I don't know what this is, but I need this in my life. Hadn't even thought about it since I was a little kid. And then the next year, I had the chance to. To meet her, and I asked her her name. Cheyenne. I said, cheyenne, could I, like, be a pretend cowgirl and follow you around one day? And she looked at me square in the face and said, no, you cannot pretend. You can come and you can work and you can learn, and I will teach you the ways of how we take care of animals out here and how we use the land from a sacred space. And that was, I'd say, five years ago now. And I really got reconnected. I Now train horses and work with horses here in Baltimore. We just got a tiny home on our ranch in Idaho. So we live between literally a row house in Baltimore city where there's a bar on the other side of our wall and a tiny home, a 200 square foot tiny home on 100 acre ranch, totally off the grid, working with the land. My husband and I are on a quest to become homesteaders. Cheyenne and I are going to be building a retreat center where horses will be involved. And I just had my first equine therapy experience at Miraval Retreat center in Tucson, Arizona last September. And now this is like the most exciting thing for me. The woman in charge of the program, Lucind, she has designed a three day equine experience based on my book, Permission to Be Human. So I'm finally braiding in all of these random parts of me, right, all of these seemingly random things that make up my value system and offering them out to the folks who are interested in this work. Because not everybody wants to get on the back of a horse, but there's so much medicine that they hold inside of them. I know you know this, Jeff. Yes, Just their power and their presence and what they help us to see within ourselves, the way that they're a mirror into ourselves, is so incredibly powerful that I cannot wait to now have this as a part of my business and not just my passion project on the side.

What a beautiful alignment of all the things that matter most to you.

Thank you.

Let's head towards the barn. With this podcast, if you had one sentence to make an impact in someone's.

Life, you have permission to be human.

Awesome. How can people reach out to you? You've mentioned LinkedIn, you've got your book. How can you instruct people to get connected with you and your work?

Yeah, my book is Permission to Be Human, the Conscious Leader's Guide to Creating a Values Driven Culture. So you can learn a lot. And really my intention of the book is to give you a play by play on how to do this work in your own business. So if this turned you on today, there's a step by step guide for you right there. I am super active on LinkedIn. Mary Beth Hyland, please connect with me. I would love to continue the conversation and of course, our Core values quiz. If you want to go through a process to start to uncover your own core values, you can check that out at corevaluesquiz. Com.

Mary Beth Hyland, thank you for investing this time with us today. And again, this podcast is brought to you by Homefront Brands, simply building the world's most responsible franchise platform, all the while delivering enterprise level solutions to local business owners out there on the home front, where it counts, Idaho included. So if this sounds like you, check us out at homefrontbrands. Com today and start your next chapter of greatness, building your dynasty on the home front. I will be here looking for you.