Show Up: Leadership In Today’s World Featuring Brittany Anderson - Genius Network Episode #168

That's what makes this a $250,000 idea. Because when you choose to show up, you open doors that could have remained closed. My point in sharing this embarrassing and still all too raw story with you is that it doesn't matter how you feel. It doesn't matter what we perceive as happening to us. What matters is that you show up and you handle business. That you show up and you deliver immense value to to the people in your life.

If you'd like to join world renowned entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network event, or want to learn more about Genius network, go to geniusnetwork.com for the past 10 years, Brittany's worked with and coached over 60 teams from many varied businesses, from financial services and insurance to farming and trucking, helping them deal with difficult times so they can show up. Brittany's going to share a personal story that will hopefully frame for you what you can do when difficult times surround you. Brittany's title is Show Up.

By the end of my time here with you today, you're going to know how your attitude, energy and perspective can have a significant impact on your life. So I thought that by sharing my story with you here today, that I can help you decide how you choose to show up. And even on the worst of days. So imagine it's your birthday. You're 33 years old. Do you remember waking up on your 33rd birthday? If you're not quite there yet, it might go something like this. You might wake up, feel pretty good. If you've ever seen the movie 13 going on 30, you might be channeling the movie lines. 30, flirty and thriving. You feel fabulous. You got a significant other to flirt with on the daily and your business is thriving. It's pretty good, right? So that's how I woke up. I was getting ready for my day. My sweet five year old, she walks in and she hands me this envelope. It's got mom written in her precious, precious handwriting. So imagine that's your child. If you've ever been given an envelope from a little kid, you just never know what you're gonna get. So now imagine opening this envelope and inside of it are two dimes, a penny, and a broken mermaid keychain. And you quickly realize that for a five year old, these are her four most prized possessions and she chose to give it to me. Has anybody ever given you all of their worldly possessions? I would say prob. So imagine a morning like that. It's beautiful, it's touching. You get to the office and you walk into what can best be Described as Murphy's Law, Anything that could go wrong did. That's exactly what I walked into. It was like a whirlwind of just crabby and chaos. So think about some of the worst days that you've experienced in your career and how quickly that will trump any feeling of being 30, flirty and thriving. By the end of that day, I was literally hanging on by a thread, mentally and emotionally spent. Done. So the only reprieve on a day like this is when you know that you can get into your car, have a solo drive, insert desperate search for some sappy song on the radio so you can just cry it out, like, really, really hard, right? So, despite my desire for dramatics, I decided to buck up because I was going home to my kids, my husband was working late, and I decided that, you know what? Regardless of anything else, we're going to have fun on my birthday. Gosh darn it. So think about the pep talks that you've had to give yourself when you've got chaos in here, but on the outside, you want to look calm. So I walk in to my wonderful children, and my four and a half month old at the time decided that fabulous was nothing I was going to feel that day. He was so crabby. And my girls, they were starving and they needed spaghetti, like right now, yesterday. So imagine a tiny little wolf pack just nipping at your ankles. So I want you to imagine you're cooking dinner, you're holding a crying baby, trying to console him. You're trying to get plates on the table for these little ravages, right? To have your phone ring. That's what was going on with me. So I look down. It's my grandparents, bless their heart. They call me every year on my birthday to sing to me. So I'm trying to sit down, my son is bawling in my ear. I paint on this happy face because you got to answer the phone with a smile. Paint it on. They start on their chorus and I hear this sweet little baby burp in my ear. However, there was nothing innocent about that because I quickly realized there was vomit baby puke saturating my hair. Think about how you would feel in that instant. If you have children, you've probably been puked on. It's not fun. It stinks. Especially when it's in your hair. What would you do? Think about a time that you have been so exhausted that a simple task like washing your darn hair seems impossible. That's exactly where I was at. And ladies and gentlemen, let me preface this by Saying sometimes you just have to do things to save your sanity. So that's what I did. I went to bed, I shut the lights off with my puke in my hair. Morning came, every intention of washing that hair, said puke and all. And my sweet son, he had other plans for me. So think about a time where you have been watching the clock. It's hopelessly ticking by, you know that you have a day full of jam packed meetings, you've got a huge prospect call. At that point in time, I was thinking of just rescheduling everything. It was too much. You'd probably forgive that, right? So after a lot of overanalyzing, I decided to go by the mantra, hair in a bun, get shit done. So that's what I did. I put my hair in a bun, puking off, and I went to get shit done. And you know what happened on that day? I not only had productive meetings, but I closed my biggest prospect to date. That's what makes this a $250,000 idea. Because when you choose to show up, you opened doors that could have remained closed. My point in sharing this embarrassing and still all too raw story with you is that it doesn't matter how you feel. It doesn't matter what we perceive as happening to us. What matters is that you show up and you handle business. That you show up and you deliver immense value to the people in your life. The lesson, however, it doesn't stop there. So I make a living by uplifting others, right? By helping teams focus on the positive, even in the worst and most difficult of times. But even the teacher fails sometimes. A simple shift in my focus could have altered the course of my day. But instead I chose to focus on the negative versus the positive. So think about a time in your life where your focus has caused you to go off course in a really negative way. I could have held on to the fact that my daughter, who I've had, pardon, raising, to be so sweet and kind and giving, gave me everything she had to give in this broken mermaid keychain. But instead, I let the whirlwind of the business impact my day. Think about times in your life where you've allowed something bad to take over the good. Think about a time when you've been given a gift that touched your soul so much. Did you hold onto that feeling or was it like sweet? On to the next thing. I believe fully in being congruent to who you are, to standing true to your values. But on that day, on my birthday, I slipped. I slipped. So think about times in your life where you've slipped, where you have maybe snapped at a spouse, at your kids for something so trivial, so insignificant that it really doesn't matter when you've been short with your team because you're just so stinking busy. Or how about like me, when you've taken a positive, positive moment and let the negative overcome it to impact your day. So my challenge in this is to figure out how you can show up, preferably without puking your hair, because let's face it, it's gross. But show up so that you can be an even truer definition of what a leader is meant to be. You hold the title of entrepreneur, right? But you also hold some other pretty important titles. It could be mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, son, daughter, maybe spouse. For me, not only do I hold the title of entrepreneur, but I'm a wife and I'm a mama. And let me tell you, when you come across a woman who holds those three titles, you better watch out. Because we are committed on a whole other level. I mean that we don't have a choice but to show up in everything that we do. So show up so that your kids can see that their mom, their dad, doesn't quit. Show up so that your team can see and reflect your level of commitment. Show up and deliver the God given talent that you were blessed with. Because the bottom line is if you don't, you are doing this world a disservice. But most of all over anything else, show up. For you. You owe it to yourself to be the best version of yourself every single day.

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Sam.