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Vanessa Yudelman, tell me about your vision.

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So my vision has always been to lead the leaders and to create leaders who are self-aware,

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confident and super strategic.

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Tell me more about that.

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Well, I've worked with leaders for over 20 years and I have had some great experiences as an

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employee with leaders and I've had also really challenging experience with leaders as an employee.

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And I have to say my most challenging experience was as an employee where I had a leader who was

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super challenging for me. I worked in this organization for five years. This new leader

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joined the organization, she was an external hire and was just, you know, Harry, she was someone who

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was really very controlling and demanding and rude. And I found it so challenging to work with her.

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And although up until that point, I'd been developing leaders for 10 plus years already

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in my career, working with a soul sucking leader really helped me solidify my purpose and my vision,

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which is to support other leaders. Because to be honest, it was such a challenging experience for

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me. And I know the research shows that people leave leaders, not organizations. And I'd never

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had that experience before. I always thought that was a statistic. I was like, ah, you know,

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I think those people who can't work well with leaders are really just not trying hard enough.

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Believe me, I tried everything. I tried to have crucial conversations with her and set goals

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together. And this person was my boss. Nothing worked. And so for the first time in my career,

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I realized, okay, sometimes it's literally not a good fit. And she was a bit of a bully,

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to be honest. And so when I had that soul sucking experience, which I know so many people can relate

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to, it really solidified my passion for developing leaders who are self aware and super conscious of

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how their behaviors are impacting the people around them. How did you get started into,

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like from that point where you decide, hey, this is really not working out, there has to be a better

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way until I came the way you are today. How did you get onto that path?

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I had worked, my background was in education. I worked with at risk youth. And after getting

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a few too many binders thrown at my head, I thought, you know, maybe there's a better way

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to teach. And I was able to solidify a job in adult education in a training and consulting firm.

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And I worked there for 10 years and I learned everything about consulting and, you know,

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different methods of assessing leaders and training and developing and how to make learning stick.

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So that was a great training ground for me. And then I moved in house and ran my own teams and

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built teams and struggled as a leader and had good experiences and challenging experiences as a leader.

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And from that point, I thought, you know, I feel like after working in corporate for 15 years,

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I'm really ready to start my own business. And so after having that horrendous leader, I thought,

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okay, I'm ready to be my own boss. And so that's when I started my own business.

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That's awesome. So that journey, I know like transitioning from an employee to a leader,

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employee to an entrepreneur, it's a very, very hard pill to swallow. And it's not as easy as

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people think it is. So how was that for you? And how did that turn out?

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That's a really good point. I get a lot of calls from people all the time. They say, oh,

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you've been running your business since 2011. I'm thinking of starting a business. How do you do it?

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And I really reiterate with those individuals that leaders have to, when you run your own business,

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entrepreneurs, just like leaders have to wear a lot of hats. And so the first couple of years

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of your business, it's figuring out which hats do I need to wear? Which hats do I want to wear?

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Which hats do I like to wear? And then which hats do I need to delegate? What am I really good at

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in the business? What do I enjoy doing in the business? What am I not good at? And for me,

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that was the first two years of the business is figuring that out. Once I figured out what I'm

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not good at and what I don't enjoy doing, that's when I started building my team to close some of

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those gaps. So for example, when you run your own business, you have to market yourself. You have to

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leverage social media. And I don't really want to learn about algorithms for Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Honestly, it's not my leverage strength or talent. And so I found an amazing marketing team that

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that is their strength. That is their leverage talent. And for example, on Instagram, when I

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started working with them, I think three years ago, I had maybe 800 followers, I have over 25,000 now.

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So that's really, I think one of the keys is to get super focused on what your role is in the

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business and what you are paid to do. And I always say that to my corporate clients too, as a leader,

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get really clear on what you're paid to do. Because whether you're an entrepreneur, whether

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you're a corporate leader, you will always have multiple priorities. But if you really understand

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what you're paid to do and what your strengths are, it allows you to get really clear and focused on

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your priorities. And it allows you then to delegate the rest. What you just mentioned there, Vanessa,

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a lot of people have not realized that in the entrepreneurial journey. I don't know if you read

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the book E-Myth or not. But the core behind that book, and there is a very staggering

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statistics in that. Michael Gerber, the author, states that 96% of businesses in the United States

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are failing within the first 10 years. Right? And then out of the ones that are failing, the 4%

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they're surviving, how many of them are actually thriving and how many that you're surviving. So

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that's a very sad number to see. And the faster an entrepreneur realizes that they're not meant to

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wear all hats. They're meant to delegate things. They're meant to give it to other people.

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I think that's the core behind building a team. I think you've figured out, at least I'm assuming

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part of it, where like, hey, I figured this out and I can delegate this to other people, hire the

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right people. I need to. Most people don't even know how to hire people. Most people don't have

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an idea what to look for when they're looking for people to work for them. They have no idea.

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And I'm glad someone has that I can have that conversation with. So thank you for sharing that.

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Yeah. And most people also don't know how to delegate. That's one of the things when I train,

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when I run training programs with leaders or do executive coaching, even executives,

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I often work with executives and I say, let's talk about what you need to delegate and teach them

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how to do a delegation strategy. When you do a delegation strategy, for example, you have to

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think about what do I need to delegate? Who do I need to delegate to? How do I need to delegate to

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them? Right. So that's the reason many leaders don't or executives or entrepreneurs don't delegate

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is they don't know how they just assume if I give something to somebody that's delegation.

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No. Have you clarified your expectations with them? Are they new to the task? If they're new

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to the task, like for example, a client of mine gave a presentation to somebody and said, I need

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you to complete this presentation for the client and then give it to me a week later. Well, this

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individual sent their leader the presentation. It was terrible. And I said, well, it's not their

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fault. You just gave it to them and said, do it. And they've never done it before. You didn't spend

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the time with them to sit down and say, here's how we do it and provide them with a sample that they

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could leverage. So leaders need to learn and executives and entrepreneurs need to learn how

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to delegate properly, too. Yeah, I think that's a very, very, very undervalued skill in the market.

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I struggle with that as well. Delegating things the right way. I bet there's a lot of strategies

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that you employ to help leaders get that right and then get those things done right. And I think

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most of it also comes with clarity, right? If a leader has clarity, like, hey, this is my path

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of delegating every time, but then they have their expectations and that path gives the employee

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clear path. Hey, I need to do this. So yeah, that's awesome. I'm so glad. Yeah. The other

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tip I can give you is also that I give leaders all the time is break down the task because

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sometimes they want to delegate all or nothing. And my feedback is always, it doesn't have to be

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an all or nothing mindset. Break down the task, right? And delegate the first part and then

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delegate the second part and then delegate the third part. As I always say to leaders,

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think about this. Think about that task that you need to get off your plate. Do you want to be

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doing it a year from now? Yes or no. And they always say, no, I need to get that off my plate.

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So I'll say, okay, well then have a 12 month strategy to get it off your plate, right? Month

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one, do this part of it. And once to do this part of it and month three. So, you know, you have to

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think about delegations strategically too. Wow. Thank you for sharing that with us, Vanessa.

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I think there's going to be more tips that I'll be talking to you about in a,

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under the segment, but for this segment, what defines a great leader to you?

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Vanessa. So I have a, after working with leaders for over 20 years, I have a

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model that I use, which I call the three pillars of leadership success. Leaders have to know

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themselves, manage their team and lead their business. So the first pillar of being a great

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leader is have self-awareness. Again, understand your strengths, understand your weaknesses,

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understand your gaps that need to be filled by your team. So that's the first pillar. The second

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pillar is manage your team. That's part of your job. You have to know how to coach people, give

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feedback. You have to know how to create a high performing team. And then lead your business is

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all about change management and executing strategically and, and that piece around

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prioritization and delegation. So leadership is really, really complex. And there's a lot of

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aspects to leadership. And that's why I break it down into those three pillars of leadership success.

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Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned into Vision Pros Live. I'm looking

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forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get

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more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to

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participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an

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excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.