I was like, not yet.
I don't know if I told you I'm closer now.
I'm over in New Braunfels now.
Oh yeah, that's great.
Yeah, we're almost one city.
What's that?
I said I found a new karaoke place that's further south
so we can maybe meet there.
We gotta make it happen.
I know, we talked about, we were so close last time
and life got so distracted,
but we gotta make that happen for sure.
We will.
So there's no reason not to.
Any chance you happen to be friends with Mark Stern
or Chandler Bolt?
Not Mark Stern.
Chandler sounds familiar, but no, I don't recognize him.
I'm gonna get, I'm gonna see if Mark Stern
can come up, come for that too.
I don't know Chandler personally.
He's a friend of a friend
and he's in the book publishing business.
He does selfpublishing.com
and very well known in that space.
But these are people who are like super fun entrepreneurs
and Carlos Armiento,
I can see if I get him there as well.
But we should make a thing happen.
Like, you know, I'm just trying to make it happen.
I get a small thing, of course,
but like we were gonna do last time and then it's just.
Yeah, I want entrepreneurship and business to be fun again,
especially around the posting of content.
So I've been doing a lot of collaborations
that are kind of unique.
So that's what I wanna keep doing
to have more fun with business
because it's been like the Debbie down there sometimes,
you know, so yeah.
Are you a musician by chance?
I'm becoming one.
Becoming one, good.
Well, I'm not, but like, okay, I'm not a rapper,
but like I'm going to go record two rap songs
and one of them is Messy Goddess.
But so I'm not a rapper, but I'll record some songs.
I like it.
No, I get that.
I'm a closet musician, right?
So like, I mean, I'm not that closet.
Not closet, you're the best.
But I wouldn't go on stage and perform for a bunch of people.
Like that terrifies me.
But recording something and really, yes.
I've been slowly kind of doing that.
So the reason why I mention it is Vic Wheeler of Flutarian.
He's got this new podcast.
And on the podcast, he brings musicians on.
He does like a partial show
and they play a song together.
And he improvises on the flute while they play.
And then he takes another segment, they talk again,
and they play another song together.
It's like this experiential thing.
I like your exhibition.
Yeah, it is.
They're fun to produce.
He produced a video of my daughter playing the piano
with him playing the flute and gave it to her on her birthday.
So, oh man, that makes a dad cry right there.
Yeah, sure.
Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
Wow.
That's really unique.
He's an Austinite.
So well, yeah, absolutely.
So we're gonna be talking about leadership
and the face of change.
Probably talking about embracing change
and how that's a healthy thing,
but also sometimes turning a blind eye to change.
Or saying, you know what, I need to stay focused.
It can matter too.
And for those of you who don't know,
Thea's been on our show now.
Have you been on here twice?
No, I was on your show and you came on.
This is the second time,
but our relationship and friendship just,
I don't know how to put it in.
I was like, oh my gosh, I wanna be your friend for life
right after we met the first time.
So I was like, and you got the podcast skills
and old Facebook experience and stuff.
There's just a lot to your path and what you've done
where I was like, man, I got so much I can learn from you.
So we're gonna do that today.
We're gonna dive into leadership.
We talked about three resources you recommend last time.
Let's start with what are three leadership tips
that are often overlooked specifically by visionaries
or by executive leaders?
Oh, that's a really good question.
That's juicy.
From my experience, I'll mind you,
my background is learning and development as well.
And so I was creating courses and trainings
for C-suite executives.
So I was like, this is a juicy question.
Yeah, you're the perfect person to ask this for.
Thank you for teaming that back up
so people know the context.
Yes, you are the one to answer this.
So one thing I will say is that
having a consistent feedback loop
and not tying feedback specifically always
to like a performance cycle.
So for instance, if you know you're gonna review your team,
they shouldn't be surprised by the time
you get to the performance cycle.
Like they should know what's coming.
So I would definitely say like feedback.
And I know that sounds more corporate
because I was talking more corporate.
But if you have people that you've hired into your business,
like I have a virtual assistant,
I'm often like recognizing her
and letting her know how she is doing.
Somebody commented on a post of mine today.
And they were like, I love the branding on this.
And I was like, yeah, Michelle is a rock star.
And I tagged her because she's the mastermind behind
the post, you know?
And so I definitely think like giving that constructive
feedback often and frequently.
Sometimes it goes over looked or people feel like
you should already know you're doing a good job.
You're not fired like so.
But people need that feedback often.
Even if they need to do something.
I literally had to have a hard conversation
with a client I work with today.
It's exact subject.
Where we felt like we've been crushing it.
And the sentiment expressed was more of a,
yes and, I want clarity on this, that and the other.
And talking about how that robs the team
of being able to celebrate their victories.
Going to the weekend knowing that they did well.
And so if we do that as leaders and we don't give people
the opportunity to understand what is good,
they will probably dive into fears and wonder
like if they're really appreciated or not.
And when they find somebody who comes along
that does take care of them, they're gone.
Right, they're gonna go where they're gonna be appreciated.
And so we have a huge opportunity.
As that was a big one, thank you.
I also need to be more careful to be,
John Gottman of the Gottman Institute
with marriages talked about how if we can flip the script
and start saying five positive things
for every one negative thing that we say.
Like that's the formula to making marriages last.
Well, the same thing for all relationships.
He aims for 20 to one with his wife.
That's what him and his wife dedicate themselves to do
is 20 great things, positive things
for every one critique.
You know, it's so interesting that you say that too
because I saw a video on Instagram the other day
and it's this guy on a podcast with these other guys
that are his friends.
And he's like, you know, my wife, I came into the kitchen,
I told her I was going to Costco and she said,
oh, kiwis are on sale.
And so then I said to her, what you mean to say is
kiwis are on sale, can you bring me some?
And the guys on the podcast were like,
he was so hell bent on making his wife like at fault, right?
Which again, sometimes we're all doing a million and one
things and yes, she could have communicated better,
but like that wasn't the intent of whole,
she wasn't trying to, you know, be a nuisance.
And so they corrected him and they were like,
well, you know, you both were wrong, you know,
but he's like, but she was wrong too.
Like, and he was so stuck in that.
It was interesting, but like finding ways to be positive.
And I was like, that's such a small thing
that could really blow up a relationship for no reason.
You know, so he's saying the good things, all of them,
even if they're small, you know.
Huge. I find myself, I rewrite things like every,
I write something and then I literally like move the words
every time I'm like, man, I sound like a jerk.
I meant, but this here, I mean, I'm like, okay.
Now, oh yeah, I forgot to say happy Monday, right?
I go back or, you know, hey, you know,
hope you having a great Friday, right?
Just the little, we can overlook those things
when we're trying to be productive,
but it can very much kill a relationship
if we're going that fast that we lose
part of the relationship, so I love that you were,
you're talking about that.
What's number two?
That was Yusi.
Overlooking the basics.
So I've hosted trainings sometimes before
on things like communications or storytelling.
And, you know, sometimes you have a lot of leaders come in
and they kind of roll their eyes and they're, you know,
they're just not, they're like, we've been through this.
And I think the mistake that-
When are we gonna get to the real stuff?
Well, okay, so-
No, I'm saying that's what they say, right?
Yeah, that's what they say, definitely.
I'm not saying that, I love this stuff.
The basics are where we live.
I'm a Tim Duncan fan.
Right, we go fundamentals.
Circle head.
That's exactly what it's about.
And I think this is probably two and three.
So they're overlooking the basics, right?
When you go into a training,
you should always have at least three to five outcomes
that you wanna get out of it.
And whenever I do that, I often walk away with something,
even from a course that I've already been in before
or a speaker I've already heard,
I've walked away with something new.
And to piggyback on that, the third thing would be,
when you go into trainings like that,
go into it for your team.
So like, where is your team at right now?
Think about what they could use from it, what they need.
And it's not just all about you.
It's like, yes, you have mastered a lot of the basics,
but sometimes we need a reminder, one.
But also sometimes our teams
are who we're going into this for
because we're in a different place than where,
we're in a different place than where they are right now.
And so it reminds us to go back and say,
hey, this is actually what they might need in the moment.
So I would say that that's two and three.
That is so huge.
I got four out of what you just said.
Okay, what are the four?
So the consistent feedback loop,
the overlooking the basics, right?
Trying to speed past them.
And the three to five outcomes, right?
Establishing that upfront, the three to five outcomes
that you wanna get out of the experience.
I'm sometimes overlooked that,
and just kind of go in, like, oh,
everybody's gonna be on the same page
about what we're doing.
And that's a very nice thought as a leader.
And so I'm very guilty of that one.
I wrote that down for me.
I'm like, okay, I'm taking that one.
And then the other one too,
going into it at your team, just kidding, for your team.
We as leaders think we show up for our team,
but in reality, our selfish agenda, right?
And the outcome is what matters.
We gotta get the outcome.
And if we don't take control and dive in fast
and resolve this, everything's gonna be catastrophic.
Yet when we do that, we end up creating a catastrophe
because we came at our team instead of to them, right?
And so I'm in the process too of learning, like, okay,
there's so much that I really want out of this meeting,
but is this person okay?
What's going on in their life?
Let me just put that aside, Jackson, right?
And say, I know what I want now.
Now I'm gonna have my three to five things I want.
So if they ask, I can be clear with them,
but I need to be able to show up and say,
hey, John, how are you today?
What is on your agenda?
What things do you need?
And I'd add in to executives and business owners
that one challenge that exists there
with new relationships is if you don't have
the same framework in mind for how things go
and you have different ways of approaching leadership,
some leaders can assume that you don't have an agenda
or assume that you don't know what you're doing
and you're looking for them to bridge those gaps.
And that's a different communication challenge
all of its own, but that's why we have leaders like Thea
to turn to and be like, hey, let me consult with,
how much can I hire you to consult with me
and help me fix these things and figure these things out?
So those are fantastic tips.
Those of you listening right now,
we're gonna take a short break.
We're gonna come back and we're gonna dive
into Thea's vision and again, even more about leadership
and the face of change and what that looks like
and what her brand has evolved to, brands have evolved to
and we'll be right back after this break.
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
With Jackson Callum, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
So, welcome to Vision Pros Live.
I'm your host, Jackson Callum, founder and CEO
of First Class Business and I'm super excited
to have Thea back on the show today.
She's got a couple of different brands
from the one that's coming out and it's coming soon,
in October, you'll see them, messygoddess.com, go live.
You've got her Patreon account, patreon.com slash goddesshood.
And you can find all the links to her on the show
and I'm gonna be doing interviews for her on the show.
She's got a podcast, she's got a couple podcasts
from the past two, one that I got to be on
and then goddesshood.co as well.
We're talking about a leader who's worked with
likes of Facebook, for instance,
who's also worked with C-level executives
who's really heard depth of understanding the values
and importance of the leadership principles
that the visionary leaders that gravitate towards me,
like I'm telling you right now, look at what Thea's doing
because she's the type of person who's gonna be
doing because she's the type of person that I turn to
and I'm like, hey, can I give you a scenario
and get your advice on this?
I'm always looking for more leaders to surround myself with
that can help me with the challenges that we face too
with scaling our brands.
So she is just that.
Before we bring Thea back on stage though,
a quick shout out to and reference to some of the other
programs that have really helped us that we've fallen
in love with and alignment with.
One is Brain Glue by none other than James Bond.
James I Bond wrote Brain Glue and Jack Canfield said,
as an entrepreneur, you would be an idiot
not to read this book.
And he said, this book should be in every marketing class
in America.
That's how great this book is.
So definitely go check out and see what Brain Glue does
and how it helps you emotionally connect with your audience.
Whereas a lot of people who meanwhile,
and wanna do good, get stuck in the cerebral stuff.
There's an opportunity to connect with your audience better
and James Bond has unlocked some secrets on how to do it.
And he's quite funny and witty.
So definitely check that out.
I laughed out loud, even just listening to the sample clip
and I received the hard copy of my book just last night.
So I'm excited to dive in.
Then there's Dave Morrow with the Hard to Kill podcast
and hardtokill.org.
He's helping 100,000 veterans lose 2 million pounds
collectively.
And if you know a veteran,
definitely invite them to come and join.
I'll say it, our community.
We joined forces with Dave on this.
He's opened the doors to civilians as well.
I'm civilian, I'm super grateful for the armed forces
and what they've done for me.
I'm also grateful for a fairly dark movie.
It was called, Thank You for Your Service.
And it showcases just how hard it is
for military veterans to get reintegrated back into life.
And once they lose their routines
and they don't have access to that same comrade
and community and the VA doesn't necessarily do all
that they can and should to help them
get back on their feet.
Well, we need to do something about that.
So Dave is, he's launched that community,
he's pulling veterans together.
He wants to help them look good, feel good and do good.
And I love the way that he serves and leads.
So definitely join us over there with that.
Then there's the water project.
The water project is not mine.
I'm guilty for never being thirsty in my life.
Granted, that's a huge blessing,
but when I found out there's people who don't have access
to clean drinking water,
I decided we gotta talk about this.
We gotta help people know that this is a reality
that exists out there.
Not so we can be overwhelmed by life's problems.
So we can jump in and help where we can.
What I love about their organization
is you get to pick the actual project
you're going to support
and you get to see what they're going to do
to bring it to fruition.
They even include the community
so they know how to sustain it long-term.
And once they finish the process of building
the borehole well or the sand dam, they send social proof.
They send the pictures to show you
what your money went towards.
And seeing these kids celebrate water
like my kids celebrate Christmas Day,
like that's something worth meditating on
and pondering and realizing
you could have a multi-generational impact
by giving back to something like this.
If you have another cause
that you'd also like to see us talk about and support,
by all means, drop the cause in the comments.
It's not a competition.
There's a lot of people to help.
We got a billion out there that we can help.
So my hope is that you'll allow those of us
to rock mics like this to jump in the game and help as well.
There's lots of ways that we will commit
to jump in the game.
So without further ado, Thea,
thank you so much for joining me on Vision Pros Live.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, absolutely.
I got to have you back and back and back and back and back.
We got all this leadership depth to dive into
and solve the problems of the world out there.
Really, we focus on that sometimes,
but make life better, right?
It's not just about solving problems.
It's about amplifying what we can have.
So in the face of change, what the heck does that mean?
Which way are we gonna go with this today, Thea?
I think I wanna go in the direction of
knowing when to pivot,
but also knowing how to pivot and how to deal with that,
especially around when people have inputs or ideas
about your pivots or comments or concerns about your pivots.
Yes.
I have gone through that a lot, so.
That's totally fair.
I've got to pull this up.
Big shout out, by the way,
to my old business partner, Cesar Torres,
where, and rest in peace,
our company named The Pivot Point.
We got sued and then on compete and lost.
We shut the company down.
We ended up reversing the lawsuit, winning,
and we had already moved on for our different ventures,
but pivot points happen all the time for entrepreneurs.
So great topic, pivot points and leadership.
Let's hear it.
Yeah, well, okay, we'll start with a personal reference,
and I think that'll kind of help paint the picture
of where we could go with this.
But I remember, so I'm a California native,
for those of you who don't know, born and raised,
and I decided one day that I wanted to move to Texas,
to Austin, Texas.
So. Yee-haw.
Yeah, yee-haw.
Mm-hmm.
I should have worn my hat.
I have one now.
But I remember so many people trying to deter me
from moving.
I had a friend say,
well, you were only there one time.
I came here for work for a couple of days,
and I was like, hmm, I'm moving here.
I don't know what, like,
I have no idea what that looks like, but I'm moving here.
And my friends just kept trying to deter me.
Like, you've only been there one time.
And I was like, well, I've never lived anywhere else,
so I probably should go try, and guess what?
I can move back.
And so the things that I had to think about
during that time were silencing the noise.
I think there's times where you do need people's feedback,
and it is valuable to marinate on,
however we all have our own mission,
we have our own vision,
and you have to really tap into your intuition
when making certain decisions.
Like, it's great to hear from other people.
However, goddess, my brand is about
unleashing your inner goddess, right?
And so you have to tap into your inner goddess,
your inner guidance, your inner voice.
And so I have had to manage and navigate that a lot
as I've pivoted.
And with that pivot, coming to Texas
has been the best decision I've ever made
as far as making a move.
And it was right before the pandemic.
So it was like the perfect timing,
like absolute perfect timing.
As a Texan, I am not due any honors in this,
but I feel so honored.
It makes me so happy that you've liked their state at least.
So, and this is now your state, by the way.
Once you've been here for a couple of years,
we're like, nah, just call it home.
Well, apparently they say that for Californians
it's 10 years.
I've been here five years.
I feel like that's-
We're probably trying to drive Californians
to slow down a little bit.
This is a lot of them coming.
So maybe that's it, but no, why do they,
who says that it's 10 years?
I heard that's the phrase around town.
That's what people say.
It's been five years.
I feel like I put in some good time here.
Yeah, no, you're welcome.
We love you.
So there's, so you mentioned two in there
or reminded me of marathons
because I was just talking again
to another client yesterday about it.
I said, I said, listen,
we were talking about training and practicing.
And this entrepreneur said they got one practice done
over the weekend.
And I was like, oh no.
I was like, look, have you ever trained for a sport?
And I said, no.
I'm like, okay.
I said, well, a 7K.
And they told me about their 7K
and how they just ran for five minutes more every day
until the 7K.
I was like, well, that's not how marathon training works.
You have to train.
Like you have to run the same type of miles
for a long time before you can build up to the next.
And entrepreneurship is 10,000 times harder than marathons.
And so if you're gonna train one hour per week,
you ain't gonna make it.
Like that's not gonna happen.
Now, where am I going with this on the marathon side?
If we have friends and family
that don't understand the marathons that we're on,
and they see us in our 23rd or 24th mile,
they're gonna feel empathy.
They're gonna want you to slow down and stop.
Hey, we don't want you to hurt yourself.
Why are you doing this?
What's going on?
And they can't see us in that marathon race
because we're not in a physical marathon
where everybody's clapping and cheering and trying to help.
So I agree with you 100%.
We have to be willing to tune out the noises
and the distractions,
whether it's somebody who's trying to cuddle us,
or it's somebody who's trying to trip us up
or distract us or hold us back.
And that is not easy to do as an entrepreneur.
And so there's a time where we're actually talking about
where you don't pivot, right?
Where you stay focused and keep going.
So how do you know when is when,
when friends or family or loved ones or team members
are telling you that you should pivot?
When do you know it's time to actually make the pivot?
Well, you know, I'm all about, because of my personality,
I'm all about weighing the decisions.
So for me, sometimes I have to see it visually, right?
So I don't always like,
I guess I think my friends, they'll tell me stuff,
but they don't know if I'm listening or not, you know?
So I'm always listening, just so everybody knows,
I'm always listening.
But sometimes I'll just write stuff down.
I'll put it in my notes on my phone,
put it on a piece of paper and I come back to it, you know?
And that's kind of how I kind of start.
That's like more of the mechanics behind it.
But I know people aren't gonna wanna hear this
because it's not an actual, it's a tip.
It's a real tip, but it's very esoteric.
And I think sometimes it's really hard for people
to like see how those things work.
But sometimes just being still and getting into a place
where you can hear your own voice
and you can meditate on things, you know?
Because if something feels, if it feels anxious,
if it feels like panic around it,
like you're not in a state to actually weigh in on something.
And so I've just learned not to make decisions
when I'm, you know, frantic or anxious or like,
I'm like, oh my God, I gotta figure this out.
And as soon as I start to feel like that,
that's like a good indication of,
okay, I need to take a step back.
Or this also may not be the right move for me, you know?
And trusting that.
And I know that's hard to do of just like trusting yourself
and trusting your voice.
But if you slow down a little bit sometimes,
it doesn't mean like come to a full stop all the time,
but just get into places where you can sit still.
Make sure what you're putting into your body food wise
also is like allowing you to hear.
Cause I've noticed like when I cleaned up my diet
and stuff around things, I can hear myself better.
I can hear myself think, you know?
And so all that stuff influences you.
It's huge.
Whether it's esoteric or some other fancy word or not,
I'm a big fan.
And you've inspired me.
I'm gonna do two things now.
I'm tempted to go grab my guitar right now
and play the song, Be Still My Soul.
It is one of my favorite songs.
But I'm not gonna do that to you guys.
What I will do is tonight,
I will record myself playing that song and I will post it.
And those of you who wanna suffer through it,
can suffer through it.
Those of you who wanna say,
Ajax, you're doing great, go ahead.
You can say that too.
But that song and that thought process,
we have the answers but not us most of the time.
And general counsel is not a bad thing,
but general counsel,
when it comes from somebody phenomenally
like aligned with what we're doing,
like I'm also good with that,
but their counsel to a general public
may be completely adverse to what they would tell you
in your situation.
And we have it, so I hate having general conversations
with people like I don't do well with small talk.
So pivoting, knowing where to pivot,
knowing when to escape it
and learning to be respectful in the process,
I would say as well can be helpful
with one's ability to stand their ground
when they're doing something that nobody else is like
around them is getting around to supporting.
So let's take a pretty big pivot.
I wanna talk to you about the dark side.
So you've had lots of leadership experiences in your life.
I'm sure you've had lots of leaders
that you've had to deal with versus wanted to work with
to what's the worst leadership experience
that you've ever had?
Actually, okay, I have a one that pops into my mind.
It's not the one I was going to share originally actually,
but I remember interviewing for this role, right?
And the person didn't understand
that I was asking a strategic question,
not a, I wasn't trying to be messy
when I asked the questions, put it like that.
So there was this role that they were opening up
at this company and I was wondering
why they, I didn't know if they were trying
to look for internal candidates too.
Like I was like, why aren't this,
why isn't that this an in-seat like promotion type of,
because I wanted to know if I'm coming into this role
as a manager, if I'm gonna have people
that are going to be kind of upset with me
about being in the role.
So it was a very strategic question.
I wanted to know the answer to, right?
And the interviewer kind of shades me.
It's like, well, we're just trying to expand
to everybody and give everyone a chance.
So you need to think about it differently.
And I was like, oh, that's,
so instead of asking a question to uncover more,
I was like, whoa, I was like,
I'm not trying to be messy with this,
but if you wanna be messy, we could be,
I'm just kidding, but.
Well, I was like, I wasn't trying to be messy with this.
I was actually trying to understand
what my challenges might be
if I was coming into this role.
Had you have asked me some questions around it,
you would have understood that.
But that's not the stance that they chose to take.
So I think when someone has assumed
they understand my intentions,
but not actually asked what my intentions
or asked more information
on why I was asking a particular question, you know?
100%, that's super common in today's world.
Oh, I'm gonna know it's very, very common.
So I'm curious, how did that play out?
Didn't get the job, thank goodness.
Yeah, thank you for saying that.
Thank goodness, right?
Other people could look at that and be like,
oh, well, she failed.
No, that's a healthy boundary, right?
What was their response to your helpful insight, right?
You tried to help them see
that that's not the angle you're coming from.
I'm curious, do you remember what they responded with?
Or was it like passive or?
It was passive.
It wasn't really like a, aha, like light bulb moment for them.
But I did end up getting to talk to the hiring manager
and give feedback about the overall process.
Because I had other pain points, which were great.
And the hiring manager was very receptive to my feedback.
And I was like, I'm not trying to throw anybody
under the bus, but this is the experience.
And asking more questions or giving more training
around how to deliver interviews,
but actually help people.
Because interviews should be standard.
They shouldn't change across the board
in order to provide a fair and inclusive experience, right?
So I was able to give that feedback
and she was very receptive.
But in the interview, the other person was like,
they were like, whatever.
I guess because they felt attacked,
they felt a little hurt.
And I was like, OK, that's fine.
But now you know.
So you'll ask questions next time.
Well, hopefully they will.
I mean, the challenge to that too
is it's not a mechanic reality.
It's a culture.
That's something very deeply rooted.
If somebody is centered in who they are
and they have the strength of character
to deal with a question that may seem offensive,
that's when you have that ability to say,
am I understanding this correctly?
You can ask that question, remove the assumption.
But unless the character trait or virtue is addressed,
then they're going to find a new way
to screw that up every single time that it happens.
And I know that from screwing it up myself many times
until I figured out, oh, man, I'm not coming from a position
of love on this.
That's our strongest foundational virtue
at first class businesses.
If I'm out of alignment with that,
I need to be able to recognize that core reality.
And then it makes it so much easier
to deal with the circumstances.
I know you say that because I'm going to post a reel later
on this week.
And because it's been on my mind, I've said it before,
but I felt like I needed to reiterate it,
that people are our biggest currency.
And I know we want to make all the money.
I know we want to do all the things.
But we can't do those things without people oftentimes.
And so people are our biggest currency.
And again, we're not doing it always for the things,
for those things.
However, that is how things get done.
It is.
I'm a second head.
Do you mind if I do?
Because I want the audience, too, to realize
when the host and the podcast guest, when
we do these interactions, I think sometimes people
can think, oh, it's just a one-up scenario.
But in reality, it's an honor of like, whoa,
she just says something huge.
And I've gotten to experience this recently.
And whether it's me admitting the pain of what I've screwed up
on in relation to it, or it's me saying, hey,
here's how this is being implemented,
what I've seen with it, we have a big one today.
So first off, huge shout out and birthday celebratory applause
for Cynthia, whose birthday is tomorrow.
Thank you, Cynthia, for helping us on this.
That's right.
So you know, she's in the back end helping us
in the show right now.
And I'll have fun celebrating with her
about this in Spanish, too.
In our celebration at noon, 12.45 Central, on Fridays,
we have a meeting with our team called Level Up Calm Down.
And in that meeting, it's break room time.
We're there until 2, leveling up, still talking about things
that might be important.
We might karaoke.
It does happen at times.
Yeah, oh, we have some fun.
And celebrating victories, singing happy birthday to people,
doing what we need to.
But to your point, people are our biggest currency.
Today was unique in that two weeks ago,
I asked Diana, who holds me accountable,
I asked her to remind me to say, hey, at our meeting,
make sure that you remind me to talk about equity.
And she's like, OK, so last week we didn't get to it.
So this week, today, Louisa, Maria Victoria, Andres,
and Cindy all learned that they're
on a track to earn equity in first class business.
They all got their preliminary contracts on that.
And then we got to upgrade and look at what does Cynthia own
now, what does Jaime own, what does Sebastian own,
and go through the ranks of Valentina and Diana as well,
and Zach, et cetera.
We are very, very big on investing in our people,
and our people show up.
But they love to be here.
They know that we care about their visions
and where they go.
And so when we do, when we're looking and saying,
you know what, it's not always the paycheck.
It's not always the bottom line.
It's about making sure that the people that we have around us
know how much they're appreciated,
know they have the ability to input,
and can start to really understand that this is not
just my vision.
It is our vision.
It's amazing what we can accomplish when we do that.
So I hope you do make that episode happen.
I don't see many people doing that
in the world of business.
Yeah.
That's always what happens.
I'm just taking it all in, all the confidence
that you put into your team.
Wow.
Yeah, again, we wouldn't be where we were.
We won't be where we're going without the people.
The people are what make it happen.
So let's go into the best leadership experience
you've ever had.
So again, you've had a lot of great leaders in your life
who've led you.
You've had great leadership opportunities as well.
What's the best one ever?
OK, this was my favorite role.
It was the second time I went to contract back at Facebook.
And I had this manager.
This is when I did.
I was a business processes project manager.
So I helped iterate the business processes
for the whole department.
And so I really liked working with this manager
because every time we came to meet,
he had this format of how we would run the meetings.
And he would ask if there was anything I needed from him.
And I was like, no.
And he's like, OK, you just let me
know if you need anything.
And he would just get out of the way and let me do the work
and let me make him look good, let me make the team look good,
myself look good.
But he would just get out of the way.
And I appreciated that so much because I remember,
I actually quit a job one time because I was brought in
to up level the processes.
And I go to pull out my computer to do
what I do with the processes to kind of give everybody
on the same page during the meeting.
And the manager looks at me.
He says, oh, so it's the Theodora show now.
I was like, oh, it's time to go.
I was like, it is so time to go.
Because this is not going to go well because you
don't want me to do what I came here to do,
what you hired me to do.
So I'm going to just exit stage left.
And unfortunately, two people left after me too.
So I didn't tell them to leave.
But they were like, you're leaving?
We're out.
I have been.
I have found that door 100, at least 100 times.
Maybe even hundreds by now.
My new line is, look, I get that you want a fractional C level.
But do you want somebody who actually knows
what the C stands for?
Or do you want somebody who's just going to listen
to everything you want them to do?
Exactly.
We don't do pretenders here.
We work with contenders.
We work with chiefs, chiefs who actually want to do the things
and want the space to be able to do it.
I love what that leader did.
Just get out of the way.
We have to get.
If we're going to put somebody in position who actually
knows what they're doing, you can't then come up to LeBron
James and say, just shut up and dribble.
If you're going to find somebody who will do that,
they have no capacity to lead.
No.
Well said.
So that is a great insight.
If this was the last chance that you
had to give a powerful lesson for other entrepreneurs
and visionaries out there, what would the lesson be?
Trust in your skills.
Trust in your skill set and trust in not just your skills
but who you are as a person.
I feel like sometimes so many of our experiences in the physical
don't really relate to who we are always in the spiritual.
So if something is happening that
is in the physical of you're being rejected from something
or you're being denied or stopped,
that doesn't mean that you're not still
on track in the spiritual.
And sometimes those things just haven't caught up yet
and we have to be patient and just let it play out.
Because there's so many times where I was like,
oh, this thing didn't work out.
I was actually in kind of a spell over the last two weeks
and I finally came out of it a couple of days ago
because of some really good healing work that happened.
And I was so bummed.
But then when I looked up and looked around
at what came out of that decline for something,
I was just like, OK, I hear you.
I'm going to be patient.
I'm going to let it all catch up.
So I was just ahead of where I was
supposed to be at that moment.
And then kind of everything came back into alignment.
So it doesn't mean I was off in my intuition.
It just means that was a little early.
That's all.
So sometimes that stuff happens.
I know all too well.
It was like a therapy session for me, Thea.
It's been like that this week.
I'm not going to lie.
It's been like that for all of us.
I'm getting the goods right now.
This is the trust in your skill set.
And I love that you were like, and who you are as a person,
because you're right.
There are phases.
There's stages that the stars kind of
have to align in some regards.
And so I grew up very, very, very talented in sports
and being really, really good at sports.
And I wanted to be LeBron James.
Man, that was supposed to be me breaking that scoring record.
And no, it wasn't.
It was not.
I don't have that level of skill set.
I'm finally admitting that to myself in the last year or two.
But how and why?
And no, yes, I'm finally starting
to come to terms with that.
Please laugh.
It's worth it.
I'm able to finally laugh at that.
But I'm serious.
I've been wondering about that and wondering
about the music thing, too.
It's like, all right, Ed Sheeran, man.
He took my career.
Josh Groban, they got it.
But as I've reflected back on life
and started to see the past and the things that I've
been able to do, the opportunities that I've had,
last year in a podcast, I admitted
the story about how my stepsister convinced me
to admit that I liked Barney at six years old.
And then when I finally admitted it, they turned around.
They made fun of me relentlessly.
And that was the story of my life with my cousins
and my step-siblings.
It was a brutal environment to grow up with somebody who.
So then Bananas in Pajamas comes out,
and Teletubbies comes out.
And I'm like, no, nothing to do with anything like that.
And Blue's Clues and all those things,
my best friend in high school, one of the coolest kids
in school, was watching Blue's Clues in high school,
like in between playing Call of Duty.
And I remember, no.
And he was like, what?
He's like, Blue's Clues is amazing.
And so I'd watch it with him.
But I had this massive resistance within me.
I was like, I ain't ever telling anybody I did this,
not even if it's with Mr. Cool.
I had this blog.
And JP Sears, JP Sears is a comedian on YouTube
that does all of the spoof type stuff.
And it was super theatrical with his comedy.
He has long red hair and his crazy bandana and stuff.
And it was, I don't know, something
about just life in general and seeing what he's done
and hearing his Ted talk about insecurities.
I was like, OK, I'm safe now.
I'm not five anymore.
I can be me and do the things I need to do.
And so I was terrified of my curly hair.
I've never grown my hair out in my life, ever.
I was always second guessing myself and insecure.
And so here I am, 36 years old, 35,
when I started to go through this, you know what?
Like you said, my skill sets, part of them
were meant for seasons and processes or things that
developed as a shield.
Part of them will help me on what I'm really meant to do.
But a lot of what I'm really meant to do
is behind the scenes of that crazy, that nurture,
that being willing to own the passions that I've
buried for so many years.
I don't think I'm the only one who did that.
Absolutely not.
We all have to hug our inner child.
I've hugged little Thea all the time.
I'm like, it's OK.
You can express that now.
You don't have to hide anymore.
You don't have to dim that light just because you grew up
with this experience.
We have to almost reparent ourselves in some ways.
Absolutely.
And that's that face of change.
There's positive change.
There's negative change that exists there.
And so how do you know the difference?
And how do you embrace positive changes
when it can feel scary to do it?
It's interesting.
I guess part of my own trauma is growing up.
So it's the trauma response, I guess, for me
to be able to pivot a little bit.
I can pivot in and out of things really fast.
I can shift my mindset real quick.
Because I guess I grew up where we didn't always
have the resources, or we didn't always have the food,
or have the things that we needed.
And so I don't know.
I just always feel like there's a way to figure something out,
or there's just a way.
So I always move towards change.
Yeah, I always move towards change really quickly.
I don't have a lot of good advice
on that because I don't really think about it too much.
If it's bigger life decisions, yeah.
But when something comes at me, this last two weeks,
I will say, I was kind of like, what the heck is this?
And I was like, I'm going to let myself be down in the dumps
today because I don't do that often.
But most times, it's a quick pivot.
So I think even when something just comes at me,
I just roll with it.
One of the best leadership coaches I've ever talked to
said the same thing you did about allowing yourself
to go through your rut.
And everybody has them.
And you can build up to have strengths
where your ruts are shorter.
But when you have a rut, don't get scared of it.
And own it.
Allow yourself to realize that that's where you're at.
And that's OK.
And then you'll find ways to recuperate.
So that was beautiful.
And then earlier, you said it too.
You did give me one of those clear answers earlier
that I think applies to this where you said, be still.
Be still and allow yourself to think through it.
So you've had opportunities to pivot.
Now you've got these websites.
You've got Goddesshood.
You've got messy goddess too.
Talk to me about whichever one you want to.
I'm curious about what messy means, how that relates.
Because I can see it.
I can feel it.
I already feel like I can already paint
with what you've given me.
But I still want to know from the source of truth,
what is that?
Well, I was struggling with letting someone
go from my life that just had been around for a while.
And we were really close.
But I was just struggling with letting it go and moving on.
Even though we weren't still in the physical,
we weren't still connected or spending time.
But you still think about people and you're
still holding onto things.
And so I was really struggling to let some stuff go.
And I thought I'd let it go.
But I guess I shoved it down deep
and I wasn't aware that it was still in there.
And so messy goddess came about because I was like, OK,
I've tried a lot of other things to move this through.
So I was like, let me make some music about this.
And it was really me embracing being OK, not being OK,
telling the truth, speaking up, not holding back, being free,
and just really letting go.
And so messy goddess came up through that.
And I was having a conversation with a friend.
And she's an entrepreneur too, creative.
And we were just discussing how hard it
can be sometimes to continue to post and share things
when you're not OK.
And so I've been called to not have as much of a facade up,
if that makes sense, and to share my stories.
And sometimes when you're sharing your story.
I just talked about liking Barney at 5 and feeling bad
about it to this day.
You're good.
We can talk about Barney.
We can talk about the mess.
Oh, but yeah, I decided to stop always pretending
like everything is OK.
And that's the mess in the masterpiece.
That's the beauty of the human experience.
And so that's where messy goddess has come from.
And I've felt called to do some more art and do some more music
and collaborate with people.
And one of the things I really love to do
is spotlighting people.
And so I kind of want to use messy goddess
to bring in other creatives and other collaborators
that I want to spotlight that are actually
living in their truth and living authentically.
Because that is what Goddess It is about too,
is about living authentically and helping
people use their authentic voice and find it in a safe space
so that their life doesn't get dimmed.
And I didn't realize that when I created Goddess It
that I was creating the place that I needed
when I was younger of being able to try my voice out
without fear of judgment or fear of rejection
and just trying it out.
So people can now come into our voice note community
on Goddess It through Patreon.
And they're able to actually get prompts
to speak back literally like voice notes with us.
And they can play around with their voice
without feeling like, oh my god, I'm on social media.
Oh my god, I'm starting a podcast already.
They have a place to fail.
And then they can go out there and be sharper for it.
So I'm just, yeah.
And so Patreon will see I'm sharing a lot of my own stories
to kind of encourage people to go there and get raw,
get deeper.
And so that's what messy goddess and Goddess It
are one in the same.
But it's just I want to spotlight people
who are living in the mess but making it a masterpiece.
And so yeah, I'm really pumped for that.
So yeah.
That's so awesome.
Living in the mess and yet making it a masterpiece
as is every great artist of all time.
They're the greats.
You can't, again, I was talking to the client
about that exact process because he loves to be messy
with what he's doing.
And in fact, I was talking to BrainGlue, to James Bond
about this because he loves to joke and he's hilarious
and he loves to incubate things.
And I was like, OK.
James, we need to get you into your artistic room
where you can just fling paint everywhere,
Jackson Pollock style.
Let's make sure that happens.
And in the art gallery, in the public art gallery,
you got to have a separation on this to some extent sometimes.
Now sometimes we can run an art gallery that's messy too.
But there's time and a place and there's
a balance in that process that we usually have to come into.
But I love that way that you frame that to be messy
in the midst of the masterpiece.
There's wisdom in that.
So you may not know.
I've never revealed this publicly.
I've told a very, I've told a handful of people,
I'm working on a music app.
Oh, really?
Oh my gosh.
That's juicy.
OK.
Or it gets juicier because it's right in line
with what you're talking about.
You struck a chord in the vein for me
where you said about these people who
aren't quite ready to get out there.
Well, the app is called Rape My Song.
And Rape My Song is about anonymously being
able to share your music so that people
can give positive feedback only based on what they vibe with.
And then if you decide that you then want to come out publicly
and say, I produce that, you can.
So yeah, yeah.
I still got to find some musicians and some tech people
who want to pull it off.
But a few years now, I've been kind of incubating
the back end of processes just like I do the most
entrepreneurial stuff.
And that is one of those that I'm really excited.
It's to honor exactly what you talked about.
I love that.
Because it's so count, OK, this is
why I like what we're doing because it's so counter-culture.
Like you have to understand this because people thrive right
now on social media from talking crap about other people
and being messy in the comments in a bad way.
And so I just love it.
It's so counter-culture.
It's so like going against the grain.
Like, oh, it's just so.
Mark Twain and everybody's going one way, go the other.
It's just kind of me.
That's how I've been.
And when you learn principles too, right,
if somebody were on the fence on that, like, man,
I don't know how to do that.
One, start small and be safe.
You might be in an environment where that's dangerous to do.
I don't take for granted that I didn't grow up in the projects.
I grew up with some mean cousins, but then they loved me.
I did have a gun barrel pointed at my face
at one point for what I did.
And there's lots of things that could have happened,
but it's very rare that I was in such an extreme situation
where it's not safe for me to be who I am, especially
these days.
So be careful with what we're saying generally.
But in general, one of the greatest signs of strength
and power is the ability to be authentic and the ability
to be vulnerable with what it is you're going through
and so if you're a strong person surrounded
by a ton of weak individuals who will hold you back,
be careful because that weak people can outnumber you.
But if you are a strong person and you surround yourself
with other strong people, then you
can be in a position to where you can embrace authenticity,
you can embrace vulnerability, and then you
can have superpowers to be able to do the things you've always
wanted to do.
And greater results typically come from those individuals,
plus you sleep well at night.
So join us on that.
If you hear that, come and join us.
Be our guest on Vision Pros.
Tap into what Thea is building at goddesshood.co
and at messygoddess.com.
That's going to be fun to see.
How do men fall into this equation, Thea?
I'm trying to like, oh.
Well, actually, this is what's going to happen.
Well, I'm projecting this.
I don't know if she's going to go for it yet,
but I think she will.
So I actually, I told you I'm trying
to do more fun and more collabs.
And there was a woman, I actually
had her read my birth chart.
And she was like, hey, do you want to hop on Instagram Live
and I can break down your birth chart for you?
And I was like, yes.
Absolutely, I'll open myself up for that.
And she said something towards the end of the live.
She was like, I hope that you and I can help many women
together and many other people of gender identities.
And I was like, oh, that is so divine.
Because I've struggled with, I had the Miseducation
of Masculinity podcast, but I've often
struggled with knowing what to do with men
or having a block around how to actually help men because
of just some personal things.
And so I was like, maybe I'll do that
when I have someone that I trust that can help me with it
so I don't have to do it all by myself.
And so when she said that, I was like, OK,
maybe she can help me with that.
So yeah, we'll get there.
I'm sure I'm not turning men away.
Of course not.
But we have to be respectful of the cultures that exist
and the vibes that exist.
And so the inclusivity and equity and diversity stuff,
that's a sacred subject.
It's a hard one to understand fully.
So what you're building, we'll honor that.
But if the clear door becomes open, like, hey, look,
here this is, or on involvement, then I'm
pretty sure there's a lot of men who probably heard this
who were like, man, this really resonates with what I'm doing
too.
I know they'll want to be just as respectful in terms of,
like, how do we support this in them?
Maybe the support that needs to exist there
is just the women that we know, who we want to see,
be able to step into this type of line.
I got five older sisters and my mom,
and I'm always looking for solutions for how do I improve
and help them with their lives because I care about them.
So thank you for being a leader who's
doing something amazing for so many people out there
and for blessing us with the wisdom of leadership today.
We'll have, once again, in the show notes,
we'll have the action steps so that you guys can
know how to connect and do things with Thea and goddesshood.
We'll also have the resources that we mentioned on today's
show.
There's a couple that came up on today's show
that I want to make sure to highlight.
And we will see everybody on the next episode of Vision Pros
Live.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision.