In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews executive coach Jessica Moyer. Jessica shares the pivotal moment when she was fired on December 19, 2016, describing the emotional fallout and how it reshaped her identity, leading her to commit to creating healthier workplaces and embracing "fail fast" principles. She explains her coaching philosophy, emphasizing that people exist to help others and encouraging those feeling stuck to seek assistance. Jessica offers broad business advice to invest in oneself and develop mastery, advises her younger self that failure does not define you, and identifies learning—about oneself and relationships—as the key to happiness. She cites Carol Dweck's Mindset as the foundational book for her training, highlighting the power of a growth mindset. Her favorite quote, "Authority is the weakest form of leadership," reflects her belief in earned influence over coercion. The episode concludes with details on how to find Jessica online via LinkedIn and her "Diary of a People Manager" podcast and email.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Jessica Moyer with us. She's an executive coach, so welcome to the show, Jessica.
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Of course, thanks for joining us, and we'll dive right in. The first question that I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
This is such a great question. I would say the best one that has had the biggest impact on me so far in my career was in December, on December 19th, 2016, I was fired from my job. And when I asked the people who I was working for at the time why they were letting me go, they said, and I think I'm going to quote this as roughly as I can remember, but we're not going to tell you why. We know it's right before Christmas and we feel bad about the timing. And in my head, I was shocked as a high performer and someone who has always been a quote unquote workaholic. It was one of those moments that really rattled me because it was like, it was my identity. Like how good I was at work was something that was really important to me. And it was a few days before Christmas. I'm the primary breadwinner and all of a sudden I had no job. So I had all these feelings. I had a lot of fear and anxiety and anger and disappointment. And self-doubt for the first time ever. And realizing that I was defined so much by my work, I needed to figure out what I was gonna do. So I gave myself permission to be sad about it for like a week and mourn my broken ego, if you will. And then from there, I went and started looking for a job. I had noticed that I knew that things were going, that I should have read the writing on the wall I'm a big fan of the book The Alchemist, and it talks about omens. And I knew that there was moments where I should have just stopped and noticed that things were not going the way that I was expecting it to go. And my valuable lesson that I got from that is that there are so many— there are all these moments that if we read into them, the world, the universe is telling us that we should move on or that we should be doing something else, that we shouldn't be treated this certain way. And it was— and from this point forward, I've dedicated my entire career at this point to create better workplaces for people so that no one ever feels the way that I was made to feel when I was with that company. And also being able to fail fast so that I can continue to move forward. That was kind of one of those defining moments for me.
And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I would say in the coaching industry, People, something that I think is really important to understand is that there's people that exist who feel their whole value that they gather in their life is to help other people. And if you are feeling like you're up against a wall or you find yourself stuck, just having the courage to ask for help and realizing that there's people who, they dedicate their whole life to being there to help you. And I think that that's something that needs to be said in the coaching industry is that we, I have dedicated my life to doing it. And I would love the opportunity to be able to share the message with as many people and support as many people as humanly possible. And that's something that I feel like it just needs to be said. Maybe it's in the title, but just definitely needs to be said.
Yeah. And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Overall business advice, I would say invest in yourself and invest in your craft, whatever that may be. Read, listen, share what you've read and what you know with others. The most successful people and the people that I think make the biggest changes in the world decide that they're not going to be as good at something, they're going to be great at it. And I would say that that would be something I would recommend to anyone. Invest in yourself. You are— you only live once. I just heard a quote where you're dead a lot longer than you're alive. You might as well make sure that you're spending all that time being the best version of yourself.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
This is going to correlate, I think, with the theme so far, but it's just failure does not define you. It's important to take those moments where you have a setback and use them as learning opportunities instead of having it be the reason that you don't— that you don't— the story that you start telling yourself that maybe I'm not good enough for this. It's like, no, maybe you just— now you just know you have another point of reference that you can make decisions off of because you know what doesn't work.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Learning. I think in my opinion, the key to happiness is learning. Learning about yourself, learning about others, and figuring out what it takes, what it takes to be in successful relationships with other people. I think that's the key to happiness. When you're in great relationships with people, it just opens so many doors and it also is so fulfilling.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Uh, best book I've read, it would be Mindset by Carol Dweck. It's the foundation of all of the training content that I have current, that I have in the curriculum that we teach. But, uh, the main thing that I learned from it is that you can change the way you learn and you can change the way that you think. And I think that that is a really important message, that you don't have to live by the same set of rules your entire life. You can continue to develop.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is— I just actually recently heard it— is, "Authority is the weakest form of leadership." And I think it's all in the actual quote. Like, when you have to flex your muscle as a way to make it so people listen to the things that you have to say, it's not the right way to do it. And I think it's a very old-school way, and it speaks to everything that I'm dedicated to. So I feel like we're in a, leaders are in the role where they're supposed to be creating, earning the right for someone to listen to the things that they have to say. And authority is the weakest form of that version of leadership.
Yes, I love that answer. Thank you so much for coming on, Jessica. The last question I have before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Oh, thank you so much for having me. The best place to find me is on LinkedIn. Follow me and you can also listen to the podcast. Which is meant to change the workplace as we know it. So Diary of a People Manager. But yeah, you can send me a message directly or you can also go to DiaryofaPeopleManager@gmail.com if you'd like to send in a story that we could use as a point of reference so that we can all learn from the negative experiences we've had at work.
Perfect. Thanks again, Jessica. I really appreciate it.
No problem. Thank you.
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