954: Unlocking talent, building EMOTIONAL LITERACY, and self-aware transformative leadership w/ Danielle DeRuiter-Williams

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, brian LoFermento, and we are all in for a real treat in today's episode, because we've got an incredible entrepreneur who, I think, in so many ways, is the example of what it means to put you into everything you do and show up as a shining light with your brand, with the way that you help others, with the way that you help others, with the way that you serve others, to encourage them and inspire them to be better versions of themselves.

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It's something that all of us, as entrepreneurs, we're always looking to be, that beacon of light, and today's guest she so exemplifies that.

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Let me tell you all about her.

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Her name is Danielle DeRyder Williams.

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She is the founder and CEO of Just Good Advisors, which we're going to talk about her brand today.

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I think it encapsulates all the things that she stands for.

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She is a lifelong disruptor.

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Danielle is celebrated for her authenticity, her humor, her dynamism, which she leverages to engage and inspire others.

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Her approach to consulting combines strategic leadership, innovative business development and a profound commitment to creating equitable and inclusive work environments Everything from how to get people to perform in their best to how to keep them, to how to create an internal culture that really makes everybody proud of all the good work that they're doing.

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She combines her over 20 years as a scholar and practitioner grappling with nuances, challenges and opportunities of a multicultural society with her lived experience in exploring her own biracial identity in predominantly non-diverse spaces.

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This learned practice and lived experience makes her a sought-after and trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies and small organizations alike.

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And before we get into the meat and potatoes of this episode, I want to share with you that part of what I really love about what Danielle is doing is that she uses her voice for so much good.

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This fall, she is actually launching a series of interviews with leaders, considering how their childhood experiences, traumas and patterns have shaped their leadership style and growth edges.

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There's so much good stuff that she's putting into the world.

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We're so excited to have her on the show so I'm not going to say anything else.

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Let's dive straight into my interview with Danielle DeRyder Williams.

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All right, danielle, we're so excited to have you on the show today.

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First things first.

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Welcome to the show.

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Thank you, and can you just follow me and introduce me everywhere I go, like that was the best?

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That's the best I've ever heard, and I've been introduced many, many times, so thank you for that.

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My pleasure.

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It's easy because, honestly for me as someone the second I landed on your website, which we're going to talk about, your brand, for sure, here today.

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But before we start talking about all that stuff, it just really stood out to me that I felt like I knew you already, danielle.

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It's just you put so much of your energy and personality into things that you don't just talk about doing good in the world.

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You are an example of it, so you got to take us beyond the bio.

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I so respect all the things that you've done up to this point.

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Who is Danielle?

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How did you start doing all these cool things?

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Oh man, that's a great question.

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We don't have 70,000 minutes and so I won't paint my securitist route to get here, but I will highlight a few various aspects of my journey.

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I grew up in Western Michigan and had the opportunity to study abroad when I was in undergrad and I initially had been a psych major and I was really interested in like abnormal psychology.

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And I went to Nicaragua with this psychology of social inequality course and my whole paradigm shifted around where I wanted to focus my life's work.

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What became clear to me in being in that country and having that experience was that there are systems at play that are shaping the everyday lives of individuals, and so I wanted to work further upstream to really affect change.

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And through the years and being inside of organizations and working in nonprofits and being in higher education and working in city government, it became clear to me that an entry point for shaping our society is to really work at the organizational level to attract, retain, develop and really unlock the inherent talent and brilliance of individuals and collective teams inside of organizations.

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And so that's kind of where I wanted to focus my work and that's where I've been focusing my work for the last about 15 years now.

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Yeah, I love that overview, especially because it started with that own soul searching of saying, hey, what strikes me, what's so important to me, and it's something that you live it, you embody it.

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You are on a quest to get your own maximum performance and, as you said, being part of that change.

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It's funny there's a TikTok trend right now where millennials like myself.

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They make all these posts about the song lyrics that we all took for granted, and one of those, I think, is man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson.

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That entire song is about us being the change that we wish to see in the world and it's something that's so prevalent in the work that you do.

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Talk to us about that.

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Those are some powerful words.

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You said there of unlocking talent and being the best version of ourselves.

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What does that look like to you?

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Because I feel like you're uniquely equipped to talk about it on a personal level, but also on the level where you help others do the same, whether it's one-to-one or one-to-many, through the organizations and and basically, situations that you've been a part of Because I don't want to limit it to organizations You've obviously worked inside the city side of politics.

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Talk to about all these experiences.

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Yeah, one of the most powerful practices that we employ is looking up and looking around right and so really cultivating a practice of understanding the systems and structures and processes that are existing, how they are affecting people, individuals inside of organizations, and then how do we sort of ensure that both of those things are functioning appropriately?

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And so much of that is really driven by our own ability to like, see and understand ourselves in this ecosystem.

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There's that phrase like you can't meet anyone more deeply than they've met themselves, and I really truly believe that, especially when I'm coaching leaders or working with managers on sort of how they can best support and show up for members of their team, it's like where are you uniquely positioned or equipped to really drive change, what does change look like and what are the steps that we want to take to like make that change happen?

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And then how can we also give ourselves grace along the way, knowing that we're trying new things on new skills, new practices, new processes, and that we're actually not going to get it 100% right all of the time?

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And so one of the ways that I tend to do that in my partnerships is really weaving in my own vulnerabilities, my own stories of like man, I thought, I thought I had it all figured out and and here's where where I didn't, and here's what I did about it.

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Right, and so, by creating that sort of mutual vulnerability, creating space for folks to play, to innovate, to experiment, I think is a really core part of the way that I approach the work and it's something that I think can be pretty transformative for folks that I engage with.

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Yeah, that's powerful stuff that you're talking about here, danielle, because I feel like all too often in this world of we can talk about business but we can also extrapolate it into society is that we expect the leaders to have the answers and we, as entrepreneurs, when we're looking for marketing answers, when we're looking for sales answers, we take it upon ourselves to have those answers.

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And, as you said, show grace, it's something that ever since episode one here on this show is that listeners know there's no prescripted questions here.

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Both you and I are just trusting that we're not going to say all the right things, but we're going to navigate the waters together and we're going to get there together to bring the value out.

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And it's funny for me, I knew we'd talk about leadership here today, but you started this leadership conversation by talking about.

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I can only lead to the depth at which I've gone with myself.

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Let's start talking about that self-discovery.

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What are some of those types of questions?

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Because I feel like it's such a deep sea that a lot of times we don't know what we don't know.

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How do we start that journey of self-discovery?

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Yeah, one of the things that I train a lot on is emotional literacy, and there are four skills of emotional literacy.

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There's self-awareness, self-direction.

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I remember several years back, I took the emotional intelligence 2.0 assessment and I was like I'm going to get a.

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It's like a four scores, then like a composite, I'm like I'm going to get top scores on all of it.

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My mom's a psychologist.

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I have really high emotional intelligence.

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I'm going to like be so good at this and you know spoiler alert I did not get a perfect score on all of them and it offered an opportunity for me to think about why, and so the score that was lowest on my of those four was that self-awareness piece, and I really had to put that in the context of broader society and this is what I also invite leaders to do is like, okay, what is my identity and how has my identity and those experiences shaped my ability to expend emotional energy on my own self-awareness?

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If you are someone who's in a body like mine, as a Black woman, you actually spend a lot of time sort of directing your behavior or managing your behavior.

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You don't get to have a bad day right.

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You always have to be, you know, affable and on point right, or you really spend a lot of energy sort of understanding the environment that you're in and then navigating that environment right.

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It doesn't leave a whole lot of space for you to be aware of yourself, and so by cultivating and focusing on that self-awareness, it really unlocks opportunities for us to sort of know better and do better and see where those gaps are.

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And if you couple that awareness with the recognition that, like, our environment is shaping us every single day, you may make different decisions.

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And one of the biggest decisions that I made in the context of my own self-awareness and understanding what was happening sort of in my immediate vicinity was I realized I was super burned out and I realized that it was affecting my ability to lead right, and so threading the needle between those things is like oof, I am actually not demonstrating a level of just leadership that feels in integrity with who I want to be and who I am.

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I actually need to change the environment right, and so that's something that I sort of help folks uncover and unlock as well.

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What is your watershed moment?

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Yeah, gosh, danielle, I love that stuff, especially because I can relate to so many aspects of it, and I want to go deeper into this topic of identity.

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It's something that for me, obviously you and I we're both entrepreneurs that's a core part of our identity.

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You talk about your racial makeup, being biracial, and living in these experiences and navigating the world that way.

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For me, I'm the son of an immigrant mom and so so many of my settings whether it's in the classroom or on the soccer field, growing up, that was and is to this day a core part of my identity, which means that I face different things.

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I mean, as a kid, I was helping my mom to spell things when she was writing a card for someone.

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There's so many ways that it manifests into my personal experiences, and I know likewise for you, danielle.

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We don't talk about this stuff enough in the world of entrepreneurship, so I'd love for you to talk to us about navigating that identity.

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And actually I want to add one more caveat to this, because I love in your bio how it spells out Danielle is a lifelong disruptor.

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It's clearly something that you've lived with and something that shapes the way that you see the world, when others may see the way it's always been and, I would argue, all of us entrepreneurs, we see the world a little bit differently.

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So talk to us about, I guess, where that identity comes from, the different identities that you have in your life and those different hats that you wear, and then how those, in understanding those, has helped shape the way that you show up and serve others in the world.

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Sure, yeah, when you are novel in any environment, it actually kind of forces you to figure out the space that you want to carve out.

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And so while there were biracial folks in my community growing up, we were kind of the first wave of them.

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I grew up in Kalamazoo, michigan, so not super, super diverse, more diverse than some parts of the state, but not super diverse.

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And so early on I'm like, how do I fit in here, right, where do I situate myself?

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And also, my parents lived experiences were so disparate, right, my, my mom is white, she, she grew up working class, and my dad is black, he grew up in Detroit, and they had very, very different journeys, yet they sort of found each other and came together and they had me and they were both entrepreneurs themselves, right, both of them have sort of unique personalities that make them a little hard to manage.

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And so I did get to witness and see how do you create something for yourself and so space, like both, for that, witnessing those role models, but also just my own sort of how I saw a need there, I saw a gap there and I sought to really fill that gap and I had the opportunity to found a student organization which is still in existence, you know, to this day, and that sort of.

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There's a gap here.

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I have some answers or at least some experiments that we can try to solve, for that has continued sort of throughout every organization and institution that I've been a part of, and folks aren't always ready to look in the mirror, right, folks aren't always ready to really understand, like man, harm is happening right now or we need to get our stuff together and this is how we need to do it.

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And that has also been an experience of sort of navigating, like being brought in to fix things and then there being resistance to those solutions that I present and my identity as a black woman and how that shapes how folks receive my suggestions.

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It goes without, like it's in the room with us, right?

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It's kind of why I love consulting because, like you've hired me, you know I know my stuff right.

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It's a little bit different than being inside of an organization where folks you know don't necessarily see you as the subject matter expert.

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If you're hired as a consultant, like they believe you, they believe you enough to write you a check, and if they don't take on you know the suggestions, if they don't decide to adapt the strategies that I suggest.

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That's it's okay.

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I actually get to walk away and that's one of the most empowering things is I'm not actually sitting inside of an organization being harmed, actively harmed by systems, right, that folks refuse to change.

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I get to say, hey, I've given you my best thinking on this, I would love to support you in implementing and putting into place, but ultimately I get to like forego that responsibility and that helps me cultivate a lot of sort of work, life balance and integration, as I'm not like tied to the outcome as much as I used to be when I was inside of organizations.

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Yeah, which also means that you can just give it to them as real as you want to, because you don't have to worry about those repercussions, but it's often what they need.

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It's exactly what they need.

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And I do want to go deeper into those areas, because here you and I are talking about the challenges and the opportunities of us looking inward, but the reality is, when we're growing businesses, it's not just us.

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We are building teams, we are serving clients there's so many.

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For each and every one of us that looks inward, there's.

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Every other person has their own journey, their own labels, their own identities.

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So talk to us about that, because part of what you do with Just Good Advisors is you help teams flourish.

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You help teams be at their best.

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In a world with a million different well, I guess seven billion seven billion different experiences and labels and identities, how do we bring people together to work for a common interest with a common goal?

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The first step to that is really building trust right.

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At times many times actually, I'm brought into organizations where something has happened or a reckoning has occurred or a harm has happened, or folks just recognize it's time to level up and do better right.

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And a foundation to that to being able to sort of coalesce and move towards a shared goal requires a certain level of trust Trust in me right, trust in the process and trust in one another that we are acting in good faith Again, even if we don't get it right every single time.

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New skills, new strategies, experiments right, and so cultivating that trust is so core.

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It's one of the reasons why I really start with establishing a deep rapport with my clients to start, and that also gives me an opportunity to like understand the lay of the land, sort of as an organization.

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What are the mechanisms at play here?

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What are the dynamics that I should understand?

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I also try and seek out the perspectives of folks who are underrepresented.

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Right Back when I did a lot of organizational assessments, we would, you know, have sort of survey results and they would be disaggregated.

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And there we would, you know, have sort of survey results and they would be disaggregated and there would be number you know how, how many people said it or whatever?

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Right, and a lot of times, organizational leaders would be like, okay, well, was it like five people?

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Was like 5%, five people?

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Was it just a couple of people who had an issue?

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Right, and I'm like you're asking the wrong question, because if anyone in your organization is having a bad time, you actually need to think about opportunities to improve their experience.

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Right, there's this notion of we can put into place practices that help the most disadvantaged of us and I use that like very broadly, the most sort of folks experiencing the most barriers, and this could be in the context of policy, this could be like city policy or government, this could be in the context of organizations.

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Things that improve experiences for individuals who have the most barriers actually improve experiences of everyone oftentimes, and I'm happy to unpack that metaphor a bit more, but I'll pause there for now.

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Yeah, no, I'd love for you to go there because I always think such a big influence on my childhood was playing soccer.

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Team sports, I think, are so important in so many different ways, and it's something that I realized when I was on the field is, hey, if and even positionally in soccer we talk about, if your right back, your right defender defender, is struggling, he needs cover and that's for the greater good of the team is that there's that phrase of you're only as strong as your weakest link, and it's something that is one of our founding principles behind this podcast.

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A rising tide lifts all boats.

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Danielle, I know that you embody this in so many ways.

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So, yeah, unpack that for us, take us there.

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Yeah, I do a training on neurodiversity, and some of the examples that I use as it relates to neurodiversity is that different folks have different information processing types.

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Right, being neuroatypical simply means your brain just functions differently.

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Right, and that's okay.

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We have a wide variety of neurotypes in our society, and so if you think about, like, okay, what are some interventions?

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If we're rolling out some big company announcement, right, and our standard practice is to just say it on a staff call, and then that's the only time folks get the information right, which happens more often than it should, more often than you would think that it would right, or you can watch the recording afterwards if you're not there.

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Live, right, people have different ways of processing information, and so I will coach my clients to say, okay, now send out an email about it.

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Right, seems obvious.

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Not always, doesn't always happen, right, reach out to individual folks who are maybe most impacted by this and have one-on-one conversations with them.

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They may need more time to process, bring the conversation back at a subsequent meeting or create some sort of feedback loop to be able to understand how it landed.

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What lessons can you learn about that approach?

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Now, that doesn't just help folks who may have different information processing styles.

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That helps anyone Say, you were out for a week because it was vacation and you missed the call and you haven't got around and watching the video Well, at least you can read the email right.

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Or perhaps you're someone who, like I actually I am having a hard time and this seems like it's going to make it even worse.

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You don't have to be neurodivergent to like have that experience right, and so it gives you an opportunity to cultivate that trust and rapport when we are thinking about sort of the you know the broadest common denominator what is going to help?

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What is going to help folks and improve their experience overall.

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So that's an example of an intervention, multiple methods and modes of communication that you could say.

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I'm doing this to target folks who are neurodivergent, but it really ends up benefiting everyone else as well.

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Yeah for sure, which brings us right into.

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It's a natural segue, Danielle.

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Let's talk about your brand, Just Good Advisors, because all these practices you're talking about I love how actionable these strategies are for us.

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It's just good business.

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Literally, it makes it better for everybody.

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I'm a visual learner.

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For me, you and I could have an hour-long conversation about something, but I transcribe everything when I show it into the transcription and now, obviously, I can leverage AI to start pulling out some of the biggest takeaways.

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It sticks with me, I can picture the words later on and that's why quotes always stand out to me.

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I love reading because they stick with me.

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So, to your point, it's just better for everybody, not even talking just from a documentation perspective, it's important from a business standpoint.

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So lots of good insights there.

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But let's talk about just good advisors, because I think that so much of your business stands for these just good practices, these strategies that you're sharing with us on the air today.

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Where did this brand come from?

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I know it's not your first rodeo.

00:22:49.964 --> 00:22:54.513
You obviously have started so many awesome and impactful businesses in your past.

00:22:54.513 --> 00:23:03.269
But take us to the launching of Just Good Advisors and really your mission there, because there's so many aspects of what it stands for that I'm excited to go deeper into.

00:23:04.369 --> 00:23:06.532
Yeah, totally, it's kind of a double entendre.

00:23:06.532 --> 00:23:11.663
So core to my mission in the world is to advance.

00:23:11.663 --> 00:23:24.182
All that is just and good and like I just it's just good, right, like I want to have a conversation and the people folks leave from it being like man, that was good and so it's.

00:23:24.182 --> 00:23:29.933
It's simple in a sense, and it's also like mission driven at the same time.

00:23:29.933 --> 00:23:40.432
You know, the, the brand really grew out of me, sort of being inside of an organization and being like, okay, I think entrepreneurship is, is, is is calling my name.

00:23:40.432 --> 00:23:40.813
Again.

00:23:40.813 --> 00:23:46.069
I'm not necessarily getting what I need here to feel alive and to feel motivated.

00:23:46.069 --> 00:23:50.386
And so what do I want this next phase of my life to look like?

00:23:50.386 --> 00:24:02.279
And I was tapping into the things that I was enjoying about my jobby job at the time, my day job at the time, which was I loved coaching the folks I was managing right, that I was supervising.

00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:15.351
I so enjoyed being able to sit with them and listen to them and have them feel heard and then be able to guide them towards or make suggestions for how they might grapple with some of the challenges that they were experiencing.

00:24:15.351 --> 00:24:22.136
And so I knew that I wanted coaching to be a really core part of you know the work that I did at just that.

00:24:22.136 --> 00:24:23.397
I do at just good advisors.

00:24:23.397 --> 00:24:32.104
I also just continue to love and think that consulting is such a core again lever for broader change.

00:24:32.104 --> 00:24:40.092
Individuals are inside of these organizations and so I love when I get to couple actually coaching with organizational support and so being able to like offer that organizational support is really core and critical.

00:24:40.092 --> 00:24:50.728
And the point able to like offer that organizational support is really core and critical and the point you made earlier about like it's just good business, that's also something that's come into focus for me through the years.

00:24:50.728 --> 00:25:04.733
So you know early parts of my consulting career we really leaned heavily into, you know, diversity, inclusion, equity, which are still deeply embedded and foregrounded in my approach and to me.

00:25:04.733 --> 00:25:11.922
I just think approaching things from an equitable and inclusive way is just good, like that's just how we should do it.

00:25:11.922 --> 00:25:14.768
It doesn't need to be this separate thing.

00:25:14.768 --> 00:25:19.786
It really is If we're doing it well, if we have a healthy organization.

00:25:19.786 --> 00:25:22.230
It's diverse, equitable and inclusive.

00:25:22.230 --> 00:25:23.721
It's quite simple, right.

00:25:23.721 --> 00:25:28.089
And so that piece is also really deeply embedded in this.

00:25:28.089 --> 00:25:40.731
Consulting practice is like it's not parallel tracking, dei work, it's actually how can you do your day-to-day in the best way possible, and that means it incorporates these sort of pillars.

00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:50.714
And the last piece of Just Good Advisors which I've really enjoyed doing is offering courses offering courses to individuals, to organizations, virtually and in person.

00:25:50.714 --> 00:25:56.673
Creating and cultivating this culture of sort of continuous learning is so key.

00:25:56.673 --> 00:25:58.521
I started with those.

00:25:58.521 --> 00:26:01.788
You know emotional literacy courses started with.

00:26:02.711 --> 00:26:28.420
I really started with this series called Manage Like a Pro, which has this emotional literacy piece conflict, sorry, giving or receiving feedback is session two, and then managing and navigating through conflict, and the arc sort of builds on one another because the emotional literacy skills allow you to better provide that feedback and that feedback also allows you to sort of better navigate through conflict.

00:26:28.420 --> 00:26:36.164
And so you know, ideally I get to work with all of these things, work on all of these things with a singular organization.

00:26:36.164 --> 00:26:40.162
But I also wanted there to be an opportunity for folks to engage me as individuals.

00:26:40.162 --> 00:26:43.471
So individuals will take my courses right, they'll sign up for them.

00:26:43.471 --> 00:27:00.005
Individual folks will tap into my coaching and being able to integrate those into sort of a full suite of offerings has been one of the most exciting things to like wrap my head around and play around with and try different things on at Just Get Advisor since I launched.

00:27:00.766 --> 00:27:10.846
Yes, I love how you lay all of those pillars out of your business, but also how intentionally each of those pillars is present in the fact that you serve people through these different mechanisms.

00:27:10.846 --> 00:27:13.637
So I also will interject as a Libra.

00:27:13.637 --> 00:27:15.903
I really appreciate the importance of that word.

00:27:15.903 --> 00:27:16.747
Just in there.

00:27:16.747 --> 00:27:19.031
It is just, people will see just good.

00:27:19.031 --> 00:27:21.907
But just also is a freestanding word.

00:27:21.907 --> 00:27:23.050
That's very important.

00:27:23.090 --> 00:27:31.582
Clearly you put a lot of weight on that word and I personally know, having gone through all the great stuff that you've done, that it's played a big role in your entire professional career and experiences.

00:27:31.582 --> 00:27:32.644
So I really appreciate that.

00:27:32.644 --> 00:27:40.909
But as someone who loves words, I also noticed, danielle, that two words show up in so much of your work resilient and adaptable.

00:27:40.909 --> 00:27:42.291
It's everywhere I look.

00:27:42.291 --> 00:27:51.648
I feel like it's something that you hold near and dear to your heart, but it's also something that you bring to your clients and the organizations and actually use the word.

00:27:51.648 --> 00:27:54.545
I think it's so appropriate institutions that you get to work with.

00:27:54.545 --> 00:28:06.346
Talk to us about resilience and adaptability, why those two words rise to the top of so many things that you do yeah, I mean, they're really core to my own, my own lived experiences.

00:28:07.087 --> 00:28:17.919
Uh, I am someone who I've had two spine surgeries, one of which was emergency surgery, and I was literally in my like late 20s when this happened.

00:28:17.919 --> 00:28:22.355
It wasn't an accident, I just genetic whatever emergency spine surgery.

00:28:22.355 --> 00:28:26.867
I'm suddenly like incapable of doing all of the things.

00:28:26.867 --> 00:28:38.804
I had just quit my, my job that I had health insurance through and I had short term disability to support a social impact organization and get my MBA, and so I didn't have any money.

00:28:38.804 --> 00:29:03.721
I had very I had like okay, insurance and I had no short term disability, and so I quickly had to not only adapt to those circumstances and luckily was like deeply held and supported by the leaders at that organization that I was supporting, and that was like such a watershed, critical moment for me around, like how I want to show up as a leader, that role modeling of how they held me and supported me.

00:29:03.721 --> 00:29:12.175
But I also had to be really resilient, because if you know anything about injuries like that, you're not just fixed when the surgery happens.

00:29:12.175 --> 00:29:13.299
You have to be resilient.

00:29:13.621 --> 00:29:15.904
Over time I have chronic pain.

00:29:15.904 --> 00:29:18.509
I haven't not been in pain for 15 years.

00:29:18.509 --> 00:29:30.607
That can really erode you that can affect your mood, but you have to create adaptations that make sense for you, and so one of the ways that that looks like in my own sort of if I'm doing in person training, I will let folks know.

00:29:30.607 --> 00:29:39.804
Hey, if we're doing an all day training, hey, if in the afternoon I'm sort of perched on a stool, for facilitating this, this part of the conversation, I'm not being lazy.

00:29:39.804 --> 00:29:41.407
I've had two spine surgeries.

00:29:41.407 --> 00:29:44.203
My back is a little tired, that's why I'm leaning.

00:29:44.203 --> 00:29:56.848
And in normalizing that honesty and that vulnerability, I think is really key and it can also model for folks in the room, like if you need something along this journey that we're taking together, please articulate it.

00:29:56.848 --> 00:29:58.224
And then being resilient.

00:29:58.224 --> 00:30:05.542
So one of the things I've loved about going back into business for myself is I get to, like, take a nap if I need to.

00:30:05.542 --> 00:30:10.973
I get to decide you know how many meetings I want to have in a given week.

00:30:10.973 --> 00:30:20.487
I get to have bare minimum Mondays and, and really investing in rest and restoration is something that allows me to be resilient.

00:30:21.107 --> 00:30:25.606
Similarly, we can employ these things in organizations right, obviously, in coaching.

00:30:25.606 --> 00:30:31.351
But if we think about organizations, what are the practices that you can put into place to be adaptable.

00:30:31.351 --> 00:30:35.142
We all had to learn how to be a hundred percent online during COVID.

00:30:35.142 --> 00:30:36.223
We've done it before.

00:30:36.223 --> 00:30:38.189
What lessons did we learn from that?

00:30:38.189 --> 00:30:38.730
Right?

00:30:38.730 --> 00:30:45.261
How can we be resilient in this political future that we're headed into Hopefully a much better one than the one behind us, right?

00:30:45.261 --> 00:30:47.486
And so what does resilience look like?

00:30:47.486 --> 00:30:49.209
How are we defining success?

00:30:49.209 --> 00:31:01.986
How can we define success that doesn't also isn't to the detriment of the human people responsible for advancing the thing for the environment, for all the animals and bugs and everything that lives?

00:31:01.986 --> 00:31:11.210
And so really centering this notion of, like, individual resiliency, collective resiliency, societal resiliency is core.

00:31:12.259 --> 00:31:14.585
Gosh, Danielle, that answer right there.

00:31:14.585 --> 00:31:17.972
That was incredible in so many ways, Listeners.

00:31:17.972 --> 00:31:24.423
I teased it at the top of today's episode is that Danielle is an example of all of these things that we're talking about.

00:31:24.423 --> 00:31:28.362
It's just, it's so much goodness that you're displaying here because I want to call out.

00:31:28.362 --> 00:31:32.912
I love that example you gave of when you're working in person with a client.

00:31:32.912 --> 00:31:36.430
You say to the room hey, if I'm not feeling great, this is why you're seeing me perched over.

00:31:36.941 --> 00:31:40.030
I think that calling these things out is so important.

00:31:40.030 --> 00:31:49.571
I think perfection is obviously the enemy in so many aspects of our lives, but you're right, it cultivates that environment where others realize, wait, Danielle is calling that out.

00:31:49.571 --> 00:31:56.314
I can also be human and just share with people what I'm feeling and I can put myself in a position to succeed.

00:31:56.314 --> 00:31:57.859
I think that that's so valuable.

00:31:57.859 --> 00:32:05.569
I see it as a podcast host when guests come on and they just are so transparent with our audience and say I'm a bit nervous for today's episode.

00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:09.750
Our listeners love those guests because we all feel these ways.

00:32:09.750 --> 00:32:13.529
So, Danielle, calling out those shared experiences, I think it's so powerful.

00:32:13.529 --> 00:32:22.914
I'm going to use that as a natural segue because I think the work that you're doing with the interviews that you've got lined up with leaders with all different backgrounds and styles, is so powerful.

00:32:22.914 --> 00:32:37.565
Talk to us about that and also about your own experiences there, because I think that it's incredible that not only have you gone through these transformations and realizations, but you're creating a stage, a platform for others to do the same and share it with the world.

00:32:38.547 --> 00:32:52.994
Yeah, covid really sat us all down and it sat me down in a way where I was like, oh okay, weekly therapy would be a really great investment right now for myself.

00:32:52.994 --> 00:32:57.711
I had moved my mom into my house from Michigan I live in New Orleans.

00:32:57.711 --> 00:32:58.353
I moved her down.

00:32:58.353 --> 00:33:00.567
I'm like we don't know how long this thing is going to last.

00:33:00.567 --> 00:33:03.142
Let's at least hunker down together.

00:33:04.623 --> 00:33:15.693
And in the process of being in therapy I started to understand certain dynamics that were in my family of origin, that were in my childhood.

00:33:15.693 --> 00:33:21.761
Experiences were also showing up in my leadership right In some ways really great.

00:33:21.761 --> 00:33:28.074
So my parents have always been, and continue to be, very, very supportive, encouraging.

00:33:28.074 --> 00:33:37.923
Maybe I won't say too much, but I had a toy when I was a kid and if you got the answer right, it'd say you are a star, and that has been a running theme in my family.

00:33:37.923 --> 00:33:48.393
My mom always will like sign a card saying that or remind me of it when I do something big, and so being poured into in that way really has created a lot of confidence for me.

00:33:48.393 --> 00:33:51.644
Right, I wasn't nervous about today and that's good.

00:33:51.644 --> 00:33:59.280
Like I'm like let's talk about it, let's do it, and a lot of that comes from this solid foundation of like you got this, like this is, you're in your purpose right now.

00:33:59.280 --> 00:33:59.923
This is great.

00:34:00.685 --> 00:34:07.770
And there are other aspects of my experiences growing up which, again, we don't have a whole long time to go into my family of origin.

00:34:07.770 --> 00:34:23.387
But I sat back during COVID when I was running my first my company with my other business partners and I was like, oh man, I'm being really codependent right now and that codependency is something that's present in my family of origin.

00:34:23.387 --> 00:34:44.284
And so when I started to think about I really want to have some conversations, I really want to bring some stories to the forefront and I thought about the fact that we don't leave those dynamics, those dysfunctions, those strengths and challenges right growth edges, like at the door when we sit down to get on Zoom for our first call.

00:34:44.284 --> 00:34:48.132
It's always happening at the same time as everything else.

00:34:48.132 --> 00:35:00.286
You can't necessarily just get your MBA and suddenly your codependency goes away, right, and so we see it show up like people staying in organizations for too long, perfectionism because you had parents who were really hard on you.

00:35:01.170 --> 00:35:21.521
We have all kinds of other, like freezing when you're receiving feedback because you've only ever received really critical feedback before in your family, and I wanted to create a space where leaders could really sit back and think about, like, if I look at my life, which is long, and I think about these early parts of it, how are those showing up now?

00:35:21.521 --> 00:35:41.688
Or maybe how have they showed up in the past and what have I done to either lean into them Because, again, they're not always weaknesses, they can be strengths and what have I done to sort of mitigate or unlearn or deconstruct some of these dynamics that are showing up in my leadership style, my leadership journey, that aren't aligned with how I want to be showing up?

00:35:41.688 --> 00:35:48.827
And so I'm super excited to be having these conversations over the next several weeks and really sort of bringing this, this deeper connection, to like.

00:35:48.827 --> 00:35:51.393
We always say like, bring your whole self to work, but like?

00:35:51.414 --> 00:35:52.396
Do we really mean that?

00:35:52.396 --> 00:35:58.748
Like, do we really want little Danielle, who you know was navigating everyone else's emotions like in the boardroom?

00:35:58.748 --> 00:36:20.954
Maybe, maybe not Right, and so how can we start to think about like, how not right, and so how can we start to think about like, how little you, how is your inner child, showing up in your leadership journey and how can you actually use your journey in leadership right To like nurture that inner child and to rebuild maybe some of what was fractured in those early stages of your life.

00:36:20.954 --> 00:36:27.456
And so this these are going to be like incredible conversations and I'm so grateful to be able to like hold space for them, hold space for people.

00:36:28.244 --> 00:36:29.771
Yes, danielle, I'll tell you what.

00:36:29.771 --> 00:36:32.864
You are a star and I knew it before today's interview.

00:36:32.864 --> 00:36:38.947
And, honestly, you have shown it in so many different ways today and I'm personally also very excited for those conversations.

00:36:38.947 --> 00:36:49.547
I'm firmly of the belief and it is part of my upbringing as well that in my mom's culture coming to the United States there, ever since I was a little kid, it was always taught to me that conversation has meaning.

00:36:49.547 --> 00:36:51.034
Conversation can change the world.

00:36:51.034 --> 00:36:57.237
Conversation can impact people in so many awesome ways, and so we need more conversation in today's world.

00:36:57.358 --> 00:37:03.490
Obviously, I'm biased here, being a podcast host, but I'm so excited for you to have these conversations and to share them with the world.

00:37:03.490 --> 00:37:05.413
Super powerful work that you're doing.

00:37:05.413 --> 00:37:10.840
I also knew we'd be super short on time today, so I'm excited that listeners will get more of you in so many ways.

00:37:10.840 --> 00:37:15.851
We'll drop those links in just a minute, but before we let you go, I always love asking this at the end of episodes.

00:37:15.851 --> 00:37:28.985
It's super broad, so you can take it in any direction that you want, and that is what.

00:37:28.985 --> 00:37:30.992
What's your one takeaway, your one piece of advice for listeners, knowing that they're entrepreneurs.

00:37:30.992 --> 00:37:33.260
They're entrepreneurs at all different stages of growth in over 150 countries around the world.

00:37:33.260 --> 00:37:33.961
What's the one thing that you want?

00:37:33.981 --> 00:37:34.764
to leave them with from today's episode.

00:37:34.764 --> 00:37:51.434
If you can identify your own personal theory of change, like everything else can flow from that and and it also can happen in yourself, it can happen in your family, it can happen in the work that you're doing in the world.

00:37:51.434 --> 00:38:16.918
But really understanding, like, for me, being just and good and advancing all that is just and good, that's that's, that's like my theory of change and doing it in this way, and so if you can sit with and understand, like, what are my strengths, what am I passionate about, where is there a need and how do I want to serve that need, even answering those four questions, it will never point you in the wrong direction.

00:38:16.918 --> 00:38:35.195
Finding that alignment necessitates having a deep understanding of what your North Star is and what your theory of change is, and so really taking the time to interrogate that and reflect on that and then let everything sort of flow from you and flow through that theory of change.

00:38:36.018 --> 00:38:36.945
Boom, danielle.

00:38:36.945 --> 00:38:43.416
I've asked that question over 950 times here on this show and that is such an amazing way to articulate it.

00:38:43.416 --> 00:38:44.369
It's super actionable for listeners.

00:38:44.369 --> 00:38:44.992
Listeners is such an amazing way to articulate it.

00:38:44.992 --> 00:38:46.411
It's super actionable for listeners Listeners.

00:38:46.411 --> 00:38:47.596
Go back, re-listen.

00:38:47.596 --> 00:38:50.206
Use that rewind 30 seconds button on your podcast player.

00:38:50.206 --> 00:38:53.514
Ask yourself those questions that Danielle just highlighted for you.

00:38:53.514 --> 00:39:00.349
So, danielle, I know that listeners are going to be eager to see all the great work that Just Good Advisors is putting into the world, as well.

00:39:00.349 --> 00:39:03.420
As I always love saying that success leaves clues.

00:39:03.420 --> 00:39:14.148
So if listeners want to see the way that you show up in your brand and and the way that your brand shows all the great things that you're doing you walked us through those three pillars of how you serve people through consulting, coaching and courses.

00:39:14.148 --> 00:39:17.407
They want to check out all the great things that you're doing with your business.

00:39:17.407 --> 00:39:18.550
Drop those links on us.

00:39:18.550 --> 00:39:19.635
Where should they go from here?

00:39:24.565 --> 00:39:31.210
So you can go to wwwjustgoodadvisorscom, so you can find us there With a lot of information About how we do the work and what work that we do.

00:39:31.210 --> 00:39:43.728
You can also find me on LinkedIn Danielle DeRyder Williams, and so I'm there as well and then eventually likely on like TikTok, where I spend a lot of my time these days, so keep an eye out for that, especially as these interviews roll out.

00:39:43.728 --> 00:39:46.630
But for now, like TikTok, where I spend a lot of my time these days, so keep an eye out for that, especially as these interviews roll out.

00:39:46.630 --> 00:39:50.257
But for now, find us online and find us on LinkedIn.

00:39:51.306 --> 00:39:52.550
Yes, listeners, you know the drill.

00:39:52.550 --> 00:39:59.067
We are making it as easy as possible for you to find all of Danielle's links down below in the show notes, wherever it is that you're tuning into today's episode.

00:39:59.067 --> 00:40:06.550
Her business website super easy to remember, it's at justgoodadvisorscom, but you'll also find a link to her personal LinkedIn.

00:40:06.550 --> 00:40:12.152
We're going to be linking to her TikTok as well, for sure, so don't be shy, scroll down, check out those links in the show notes.

00:40:12.152 --> 00:40:17.735
Otherwise, danielle, on behalf of myself and all the listeners worldwide, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

00:40:18.416 --> 00:40:20.047
Thank you for having me, this was fun.

00:40:21.090 --> 00:40:26.465
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:40:26.465 --> 00:40:30.617
If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

00:40:30.617 --> 00:40:39.853
Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewantrepreneurshowcom, and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

00:40:39.853 --> 00:40:48.655
There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

00:40:48.695 --> 00:40:50.688
These are not sponsored episodes.

00:40:50.688 --> 00:40:52.291
These are not infomercials.

00:40:52.291 --> 00:40:55.786
Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions.

00:40:55.786 --> 00:41:06.728
They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.

00:41:06.728 --> 00:41:15.224
So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there.

00:41:15.224 --> 00:41:16.568
We also have live chat.

00:41:16.568 --> 00:41:20.396
If you want to interact directly with me, go to thewantrepreneurshowcom.

00:41:20.396 --> 00:41:22.608
Initiate a live chat.

00:41:22.608 --> 00:41:32.010
It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.