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- [00:03]
A
Welcome to It's a Good Life, the podcast for entrepreneurs where it's all about growing yourself and your business. Here's your host, founder of America's largest business coaching company, Brian Buffini. Well, the top of the morning to you, and welcome to It's a Good Life. I often say I have a special guest today, but I don't know how to describe this one. Maybe extra special. I don't know what to say. How about superstar special? How about my girl? She is awesome. Okay. Carla Harris has spoken at our peak experience and leadership this year. We've had 2,500 events in our career, and we've had presidents of companies, movie stars, all the major sports figures, the first man on the moon, the last man on the moon, and the guy who didn't get to the moon, and Jim Lovell. We have never had a response to a speaker like we've had to Carla Harris. And the reason is not only because she's this fabulous woman with this incredible resume as a market maker in New York, like an incredible performer and Carnegie hall, and has a big Carnegie hall presentation coming up here right the beginning of December. But she has so much applied wisdom and so much applied insight, and we've done great sessions with Carla, but then we've done Q and A sessions where she sat there in front of thousands of people and answered her questions. And it's the best Q and A sessions I've ever been a part of because she has so much experience and so much wisdom, and she has been there and done that. Carla, I know it's always hard to live up to a big old buildup like this, but I just want to say thank you. You've been a blessing to me and our clients this year, and I'm just so excited to bring you to our podcast audience and get you exposed to as many people as I can.
- [01:49]
B
Well, thank you so much, Brian. And thank you for having me at your amazing events as well as on this podcast. It is a privilege and an honor. As I have said before, you know.
- [01:59]
A
A lot of people write books. You know, it's interesting to me, a lot of people write books on leadership specifically. And then I find out that when I meet the person, talk to the person, the good insight, good, good information, but they don't really lead many people in. Lead to win. You have been a leader for decades, and you have great insight. It has helped me as a leader. It's helped me to step more into my role as a leader, but also in the dynamics of you make it Clear that everyone's in leadership. And, you know, we all know the commercials. Like, you have potential, and you have potential, and you have potential.
- [02:29]
B
Right.
- [02:29]
A
The Pinocchio knows. So people say that stuff. But I'd love you to kind of go back to your leadership journey, how you kind of ended up here, and then maybe how that could apply to the folks who are listening. So give them the Reader's Digest version of your history.
- [02:44]
B
Absolutely. Well, I started my career on Wall street in 1987, literally a couple months right before the crash happened. The big crash that people hadn't seen since 1929. And starting on Wall street back in the late 80s, everything that you read about in terms of those 100 hours per week were fact and not fiction. So it was a case where people really were not focused on leadership, if you will, in financial services. They were focused more on who had the biggest bravado, the biggest ego, who could make somebody melt down or cry on the trading floor or those kinds of things. So it wasn't like you saw real examples of great leadership. And it was known. It was frankly one of Wall Street's reputations, that it was a tough place. But yet everybody liked to say that our assets go up and down on the elevator every night. It's all about people. So it's interesting that in my early days, while I was grinding those hours out, I didn't see that many examples of people that I wanted to be like. Yes, I aspired to be successful. Yes, I aspired to get those titles, but I didn't necessarily want to behave like that, nor did I feel like that was the way to get people to really want to follow you and give you their very best. And along the way, I would say, my first 10 years of my career, I had two or three really good leaders in that that I actually learned from. I was like a spong. There was one guy who I mentioned in my book that I realized this important. This important pearl around collaboration and being inclusive. Now, remember, Brian, we weren't using the word inclusivity back then. This was the early 90s. And. But yet, one of the things I learned from him is that he already knew what he wanted to accomplish in a group meeting, for example, but he would engage everybody and have them put their fingerprints on the blueprint. So by the time the meeting was over, everybody thought it was their idea. Every person thought it was their idea. When I knew that that's what he wanted to have happen anyway, because I was his operations officer, he'd already told me what he was hoping would come out of this meeting. And voila, he made it happen. And everybody felt like they owned it and had something to, you know, they had something at stake if the thing didn't work, or it was part of their issue of fault if the thing didn't work. So I learned, watching more closely those people that I wanted to really be like or that they had something that I wanted to add into my tool chest. Another one. I happened to meet Dr. Jannetta Cole, who used to be the president of Spelman College, and former President Bill Clinton around the same time. And both of them, upon meeting, made me feel like I was the only person in the room. So no matter how you feel about these individuals, I am telling you that that moment was special to me. And I remember thinking, I want to do that. I want to be able to do that as a leader, make people feel seen, make them feel like they're so important that they're the only person in the room, in a room of 2,000 people, for example. And so really focusing on people who had skills like that, those are some of the things that really informed my own leadership journey and my style. Last one I'll give you is, and this was a big one. And I talk about this, and I talked about this at your conferences. My former chairman, my immediate past chairman and CEO, James Gorman at Morgan Stanley, I heard him say one day that he focuses on only those things that the CEO can do. If there's anything else on his list that anybody on the team could do, it shouldn't be on his list because he should be squarely focused on only those things that the CEO can do. Translation in my mind was, wow, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Each of us can do a lot of things, but what should you be doing? And that really helped me. That helped free me up of being that girl who would just take on everything because you do. You can't be that kind of leader that's required today.
- [06:47]
A
Well, you know, you talk about in the book how going from an individual contributor to a leader is probably one of the toughest transitions. And I had this in my first career as a real estate agent, where, you know, I had an assistant, and I was like. It was like Goose and Maverick. And I'm in there. I'm in the plane. I'm making the sales, I'm generating the leads, I'm getting all the referrals. I'm the guy. And now I start building out a team. And, of course, the frustration is nobody can do it like me, right? My mother's lament. Oh, God bless her. She'd say, you just once, just once, I'd love to have a meal handed to me. Let me tell you, no one ever did hand a meal to your mother because you couldn't.
- [07:25]
B
Right.
- [07:26]
A
And so the truth is, she never wanted a meal handed to her. She wanted to be that person providing it. How do you go from being the main person to being the main leader and ultimately having to trust and train people to do what you do and sometimes watch them make the mistakes or not do it as well, Those kinds of things. How do you. How do you make that transition?
- [07:48]
B
Yeah, it requires a huge mind shift, Brian. That's why I made it the first chapter in the book, because many people get that tap to become the leader when it's a crisis. And now all of a sudden, you've been jamming as that individual contributor, that best one, but now you're it. So I point out the fact that you have to consciously make a mind shift and say, I'm not the person that gets it done. I'm the person that enables everybody else to do it and to do it well. And that's the thing you have to tell yourself every day until you get it right. So, no, don't get down there and do it. Does that person have the resources? Do they have the training? Do they have what they need in order to be successful? You are the ultimate enabler at the end of the day. Oh, by the way. And the buck stops with you. And you need to understand that and you need to make sure your team knows that you own it and therefore you have no intentions of failing. So therefore they couldn't. They can't fail. But I think it's an active mind shift. It will not just happen if you don't actively practice at it. And every single day. The thing that I write about a little bit in chapter two is that I tell people, now, you got to figure out who your real stakeholders are. They aren't the same people. When you're an individual contributor, you have one boss. But now when you're it, if it's a public company, you got the shareholders, you have the board, you have the employees, you know, you have your executive leadership team, you have far more stakeholders now. So if you can shift yourself to the fact that you have a lot more stakeholders and, and start focusing on how you serve each of them, then that'll help you make that shift a little faster.
- [09:21]
A
If I was in and you, you had a ton of People working for you, Morgan Stanley, Giant company. If I was to interview your staff, what do you think they honestly just, you know, in the third party, what do you think how they would have described you and your leadership style?
- [09:35]
B
Yeah, I think they would say that I was inclusive, that I'm transparent, and that I'm a coach, I'm a big atta boy, atta girl, that I own it. If I make a mistake, I live. The buck stops with me. And I would say that to my team all the time. I own all of this, you know, and it's. We. It's not me. And I have no interest in failing. So we can't fail. Right. And I would say those kinds of things. I believe, Brian, in being transparent about who you are as a leader so that your people know what they can trust. If you say, this is how I like to communicate. I'm straight, no chaser, you're never going to have to. And this is part of my speech. I would say to somebody who's just coming to work for me, you're never going to have to wonder where you are with me. Because I'm going to tell you immediately if that was a great job, I'm going to say, wow, you killed it. Or if it wasn't, I'm going to say, that wasn't so good. Let me tell you why, and let's see what I can do to help you. And if your behavior is consistent with how you have defined who you are as a leader, then people will embrace it that much faster.
- [10:36]
A
Well, you and Beverly could be sisters, right? You guys think the same, act the same. My Olympic powered wife. And again for her, like she's overcome the obstacles, you know, and in our home and we, you know, this, we never really made a big deal of race and we just like, we took it on its life. It's people, it's love, you know, to make the Olympic team, there had only been ever one African American girl on the US Olympic volleyball team. And she was 6 foot 11, right? So it's kind of when you're 6 11, it's kind of hard not to pick that gal. And her name was Flo Heim and she was a, an amazing player. Well, Beverly was 5, 8 and undersized for an outside hitter. And she became this just amazing players, you know, not only all American, but all Pan Am Games and the coaches award, you know, multiple years in a row all the way to the Seoul Korea Olympics. At the time, it wasn't. And again, I'll say this, and again I'll probably take criticism for this. I don't believe it was a prejudice thing. It was just coaches were used to players. They're Hawaii, they're California, they're blonde, blue eyed. This is how they do it. So they didn't see. When a coach sees somebody, they go, oh, you remind me of, like as an owner of a business, I have hundreds of employees. And I'll. Someone will come along say, oh, they remind me of. So Beverly didn't remind anybody of anybody. And you in 1987 with, you know, Wall Street Gordon Gecko, Greed is good. Hair slick back, everybody's picture in front of the gold Rolls Royce. Greed is good. And here comes this turns out this gospel singing black gal shows up. How did you grow through that? Because you were alone, you were on your own in definitely a man's world where they weren't looking for anybody else to join who didn't look and sound like them. How did you steel yourself in that regard?
- [12:20]
B
I'll tell you, Brian, you know, that my faith is, you know, front and center for me. And I say, but for the grace of God, I would not be sitting where I'm sitting today. And part of that grace was also not letting me focus on what wasn't happening or what somebody else must be thinking. And I look back now because I have a pretty good memory. I look back now and I could hear certain things that people said. I could remember things now that's coming to me now, right? But that at the moment, it was going right over my head and I can remember. I'll give you one example. And to this day, I thank the good Lord that I didn't get it. There was this guy who was a very senior guy in hr, and I had been working with him. He had been seeing me, you know, do a great job at the thing that we were working on together. And I think he came to like me. And I really in my heart think that he thought he was doing me a favor. He pulled me in a conference room and he said, you know, I just want to tell you, you work so hard, you try so hard, they are never going to promote you to managing director. And I said, really? Really. No matter what I do, no matter what the clients say about me, no matter how good I do on the deal. And I think at that moment he realized, oh, shoot, I probably shouldn't have told her that. And he said, just forget it. Just forget. Just forget what I said. Just, you know, go back to your desk and do your work. Just, just, just go ahead. And I said, okay, and I walked out. Now, to this day I'm grateful that it didn't land right because he told me, oh, just forget it. You know, I don't know what I'm thinking. I don't know what I'm saying. Just going back, just keep doing the job. I let it go and I kept rolling. But. But if I had stopped to think, he's a senior guy in hr, he must know something that I don't know. He's trying to tell me something. Maybe I should. If I had processed that, what I'm telling you now, then I might have walked away. But he said, go back to your desk. And I did. And that was that.
- [14:25]
A
You know, the, you know, the other thing is, I think in this case we all have well meaning relatives and well meaning friends. He was well meaning. I believe he was well mean because he actually shared it with you. The guy that's the bigot is the guy that never tells you. Right, right. Or does tell you in no uncertain terms. The thing is, we're all surrounded by well meaning people. I'm going to say this. You know, our company's gone through a major remodel here the last six months and you know, the industry's gone a certain way. You know, we found ourselves kind of in a post Covid era where the market ran away and it almost re. Ran away with it, just trying to keep up with it, you know. So to get back to the fundamentals, I've done a complete remodel of the company. And I'm going to tell you that I've had consultants, board members, all kinds of people who've given me really well meaning advice. And I can honestly tell you, Carla, I have never gone against so much well meaning advice where I've done the exact opposite. And the reason being is that I'm an entrepreneur who knows how to build a company. And I know in my gut what I need to do. But I've been surrounded by so many well meaning people and we all face this and it's tough, right? It's just tough. Doesn't mean that that stuff doesn't land or you don't think about it. But I just think you gotta really be true to yourself, continue to take in the information and the, and the relationships and connect with the people who can pull you to the next level. Coaches and mentors and those kinds of things. But at the end of the day, I would rather fail pursuing what's in my own gut than conform to the mediocrity that's all around me on every hand's turn. And it just takes a lot. What were some of the things you used to do in order to keep your mind right? Were you just so focused on the goal and doing the job? Was it. Where did that drive come from?
- [16:18]
B
Well, I'll tell you, I was focused on my spirituality. By that point, that particular example, my faith had grown a lot and I was really clear on who I was and I had learned to really rely on that. So that was number one. Number two, I've always been goal driven, you know, ever since I was a little girl. And my, you know, my parents would tell me, you're supposed to make A's. There's nothing special about you making A's. That's what you're supposed to do. And I thought that that was I was supposed to do. My paternal grandmother, who was an entrepreneur, first female entrepreneur, one of the most successful to this day that I knew, she would always say, baby, whatever you be, be good at it. So for me, that if you were going to bother to do anything, deliver excellence. And like I say to young people today, sometimes your best isn't good enough, but you will always have the personal satisfaction of knowing you left it on the floor. So I tried to approach everything with I left it on the floor. Maybe they will say this, that and the other about it, but I know it was my very best. And that's all you can do is your best. So those are the kinds of things between the scripture, that belief, the support of my parents and my grandparents who were like, oh, yeah, girl, you could do this. Those things all kind of melded together and I just kept going. And I would say, I'm gonna keep rolling, giving my best until otherwise notified. And that also kept me, Brian, from being distracted. If there was a rumor about a layoff or this was happening. I didn't kind of stop. I didn't get paralyzed. I didn't try to think, oh, let me, you know, get myself under the desk so they won't see me. And, you know, I was like, no, keep your head up so you. At least you can see the bullet coming. But, you know, keep your head up and roll right? And that's the way I go.
- [17:57]
A
That's so good. That's so good. I'll tell you a neat story that just I heard today. So we, we had our all server leader meeting today with our staff and one of our coaches shared a story. So she had a client who set a goal to do X amount of production this Year. And however she entered her numbers into our system, we have a contact management system. She entered in the numbers wrong somehow. And so they just hit. They just did their third quarter analysis. And so based on somebody's goals in our system, if you say, okay, I want to make this kind of money, I want to do this many sales, it spits out basically the activities you need to do based on your average sales base, based on your database, here's what you need to do every day. So she accidentally entered in the number 25% higher than what she thought her goal was. And so now she's just heading rear down. She's doing the activities every day. The coach is checking in with her, how you doing? How you doing? How you doing? And they just did their third quarter analysis. She is going to finish the year 35% ahead of her goal and didn't know it. And she kept going, what's going on? What's going on? And it's like, no, you're doing the activities and you set the activities 30% higher than you thought you could. And it turns out you were well able for it because you're supposed to make A's, you're supposed to do this. You know, one thing I love a part of your story is, you know, so here you are, you're trying to make it your way. You're Morgan Stanley, you're on Wall street, you're a market maker. And you had this immense talent and gift that you didn't share with anybody. So here you have this amazing voice, gospel singer, but you kind of hid it from people. And so talk about that and what it meant when you finally leaned into kind of the, the whole version of who you are.
- [19:39]
B
Oh, yeah. So I'll tell you that when we first started on the street in 87 and I was in M and A, which was the, what was the reputed, toughest area to be in investment banking at the time. People would say, you can't do anything. You can't have any outside activities. You can't let them know that you do anything else because they'll think you're not taking this seriously. Don't forget, you have a beeper. You can't go here, you can't go there. But singing had always been a part of my life since I was 9 years old. So I just didn't make a big deal out of the fact that I could sing. And I literally would sneak out on Wednesday nights to go up to Harlem to see the, you know, Apollo Amateur Night. And I would come back And I'd be there, you know, if it took it all night long on a Wednesday at, at church, I would start singing, but I would never say anything. And little by little I started, you know, maybe singing a little bit here or a little bit there. And somebody would say, oh, you know, you, you can sing. Well, fast forward about four, four or five years into it. I'm on the trading floor and there was this guy who had a, one of those big gruffs, he never smiled on the floor kind of reputations. Everybody was afraid of him. And you know, like I said, I'm negative and motivated. You tell me I can't do something, I'm all over it. And I love birthdays, Brian. I love birthdays and I like to sing Happy Birthday to people. So I said I'm going to sing Happy Birthday to so and so. And they were like, oh girl, don't you do that. That is sudden death. Don't you do that. I said, what the heck is his birthday? And they're like, I wouldn't do that if I were you. So I walked over to his desk on the tail trading floor and this guy was always like, I mean, never smiled. And I said, I hear it's your birthday. And he looked up at me like, get the blank, blank out of my face. And I said, well, here we go. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. And I kept singing and he's looking at me like this. But when I got to the happy birthday dear Da da da da da da da da. He was big smile on his face and everybody was like. And from that day on, every time he saw me and I spoke to him, he would smile and he would speak back. But until then I'd been on training floor about a year and changed the guy never didn't even grunt my way so.
- [21:57]
A
And tell the folks a little bit about that singing career yours.
- [22:01]
B
Yeah, I started singing when I was nine and, and I've. I'm cradle Catholic for every since three months old. But I lived in a black community where everybody else was Baptist or Pentecostal or ama. And I had friends like me who liked to sing and we'd be on the sidewalk singing. And then I started, I went to their church a couple of times and they sang in the junior choir and they didn't start till 11 so I realized, wait, I could go to Mass from 9:30 to 10:30 and then head over there to the Baptist church. So literally, Brian, from 8th grade to 12th grade till I left Jacksonville, I sang with them. And that is how I fell in love with gospel music because, you know, the music in most Catholic churches are more, you know, more traditional. But that's where I learned to sing gospel. And that's when I learned really, the power of. Of that kind of music, how it could really move your soul. And I believe that I credit that with expanding my faith even more. It wasn't just the preaching in the gospel church, but it was the singing, the power of the singing, the emotion of the singing, how it would move people. And from that day to this one, I've been singing gospel. So, you know, when I cut my first album, I love Christmas music, which is why it was Christmas. But everything else from there has been, you know, gospel or contemporary gospel, traditional gospel, like A Precious Lord or, you know, you know, I'm trying to think of one of the other traditional songs because he lives those traditional, you know, gospel songs that I Did or I Must Jesus.
- [23:34]
A
And how many times have you done Carnegie Hall?
- [23:37]
B
I have done six times, sold out. And on December 1, we will be doing number seven. And it is also the 20th anniversary of the first time I stepped on that stage, because I stepped on that stage November 21, 2005.
- [23:50]
A
I just think it's such a great story on so many levels, but also the fact that many of us hide our talent in the ground to conform to what other people think is acceptable. I've coined a phrase. Years ago, just being myself was good enough to be great. And I share it with all of my clients. It's just being yourself is good enough to be great. And, you know, God made you a certain way. And again, you and I are both people of faith. You know, it's the source, it's the core. It steadies the ship. You know, like I say in times like this, when I'm in a world that the industry's rocked and, you know, all those kinds of things, I just have a great calmness and peace. And that's why, candidly, I mean, I want to give credit where credit's due. All the decisions I'm making, like our companies haven't. We've had the best August, September and October we've had since 2019. And I've done everything contrary to all the consultants and all the conventional wisdom, but it's a. What are the principles? What are your experience? What do you know? I have great people, fantastic customers, and that's the hill. I'm willing to fight on doing what I believe in, working by referral, building relationships, and connecting with people. That's the hill. I'm willing to die on. You know, thankfully, the Lord's not asked me to die on any of the hills, you know, But I think for a lot of folks, that's really the key. You know, one of the things you talk about is you can't do it alone. How have you utilized other people's wisdom, other people, insights, coaches, mentors, advisors, books? How have you utilized all that to become who you are today?
- [25:16]
B
Yeah, I will tell you that a lot of my speaking has come from listening to other speakers. I said to a young man recently that one of my big superpowers, I realize now is that I'm a great listener. And I also think that makes you a great salesperson. And this is somebody who has failed for the last seven or eight years in trying to be a salesperson, but he is so busy talking and he is so busy trying to present that he doesn't figure out what the client really needs. And I think that being a good listener helped to inform how I speak. And I ultimately, like you, came to the conclusion that, yeah, you can give me a few tips here and there, but at the end of the day, I'm going to speak the way I want to be spoken to, and I'm going to try to think about what the. The. What the audience really cares about. The most important thing that I do, as you know, I did with you all, is I said, tell me about the audience. Who are they? What are they struggling with? I often ask that question when I'm speaking in a corporate environment. What are they struggling with? What are you struggling with as the leadership trying to communicate to your people that you don't think is landing? Let me figure out how I either say it differently or amplify for you. Right? So. And I think all of that has come because I've never taken a public speaking class. All of that has come from listening and thinking about how to serve. And it was the same thing as a Wall street banker. You know, there's certain things they used to tell you you need to do. You know, we're famous for putting together the big, thick books, but the first time I had a chance to go into a client by myself, I had done the big, thick book. But I said, you know, I got the Morgan Stanley book because we got to show up and show you how smart we are. But if you're only giving me 45 minutes a day and it's just you and me, I really want to figure out what we can talk about where you feel like this was the best 45 minutes that you spent today. How can I take this huge, very valuable platform that I'm sitting on and serve you? And that ended up being such an impactful conversation because the client knew that I was listening. He told me a lot of things that I never heard him say when I was in a meeting with my colleagues that I was able to take back. And we were able to leverage, you.
- [27:26]
A
Know, the biggest transactions I ever did in my career. I had all the presentations or whatever else. I went in with a yellow pad and a pen and asked a lot of questions. As you know, one of the things we've done to, to actually turn our business around is we started leading with value and giving free. We have a little free training program we built. We have free events we do with our Buffini Coaching Live, which I'm going to be talking to you about, coming and joining us. And then also we do this free business consultation and we just basically sit down saying, hey, give us 30 minutes and we're going to make it the best 30 minutes in your business this year. What's your vision? What's holding you back? What are others doing in your area? And then what some next steps are. People have been taking these in droves. We've had an unbelievable response. And what's happened is people are applying what they've learned, they're moving forward on it. And sometimes six months, nine months, even a year later, they're calling up, going, hey man, that was fantastic. What else do you have? Or I'm ready for a coach now. So if you'd like to get one of these free 30 minute business consultations, go to It's a Good Life. All one word. It's a good life.com and slash BC. And the BC stands for business Consultation. We'll sit down with you, we'll work you through your business, ask you some great questions and maybe help you have a breakthrough or two. And we've given this value, we've given this value and then they're like, you're the source of this. It really helped me and now I want to do business with you. And so by serving and giving, our businesses exploded on all fronts, you know?
- [28:54]
B
Absolutely. And I'm thinking, Brian, that's the key. Serve, don't sell. Because you can serve well, you're going to sell all day long.
- [29:01]
A
Well, you can talk all day long. Cause you are the greatest. And we can talk all day long because we're pals. But there's a few questions I want to ask you and we've Asked everybody in this podcast whether it's the first man on the moon, to the, you know, Magic Johnson, whoever else we've had. And so I have five kind of rapid fire questions I ask everybody, and it just gives us a little different flavor. And because I will give a million dollars to the person who had. Never gonna stump Carla Harris with a question that will be the first time ever. So here's the first one. What's the single best piece of advice you've ever been given on Wall street.
- [29:34]
B
That has been frequently wrong, but never in doubt. And that was another senior woman said to me, you know, your problem is you're too quick to say if you don't know something. And you can't do that in this business. People pay us millions of dollars for our judgment. You can't look at a client and say, I don't know, just do it like the boys do. Frequently wrong, but never in doubt. And at first, I kid you not, that was the quote. That was the quote. And I was clutching my pearls. I'm like, what are you talking about? I can't give an answer when I don't know what I'm talking about. But I understood what she meant and I thought the underlying message was, if you're going to give forth an answer, give it with confidence, right? And so I couldn't say what I didn't know that wasn't authentic to Carla Harris. So the way I interpreted that is I started saying, if somebody asked me a question, I say, I believe the answer is X, but give me a few minutes, let me check it out, and I would go figure out what the right answer was. And even when I came back with a different answer, nobody cared as long.
- [30:34]
A
As I closed the loop and it was confidently done. I always, when I'm teaching the young folks and the new agents, I tell them, I may not have all the answers, but I'll get you all the answers and I'll get them quick and I'll get them right. What's the one talent or gift you wish you possess that you currently don't? I ask everybody that, and they all want to sing on stage. Everybody I talk to, I just, you know, every famous author you can imagine, they all say, I want to sing on stage. Well, that's no good for you because you already got that. So I'm curious what your answer is going to be.
- [31:02]
B
Yes.
- [31:02]
A
What's the one talent or gift you wish you had that you don't?
- [31:05]
B
I'd like to be such a great golfer that I had A single digit handicap.
- [31:09]
A
Let's go. I can help you with that, Carla. That's awesome. So you like to play?
- [31:15]
B
I like to play, but I play terribly.
- [31:17]
A
Hey, well, we can help you with that. We definitely can help you with that. And Beverly just got two new knees, so she's coming back. So in the new year, when you're freezing, you're took us off in New Jersey. We'll get you and the fam out to California here and play golf at La Costa. All right, all right. What's the book that's been most instrumental in your life?
- [31:35]
B
Oh, the Bible. That's easy.
- [31:37]
A
Okay, so I'm not going to let you off easy then. What's the character in the Bible that you most identify with?
- [31:42]
B
Oh, wow. I'm gonna say it's Peter.
- [31:46]
A
Okay.
- [31:47]
B
I must say it's Peter. Or Rachel.
- [31:49]
A
Yeah, that's great. That kind of tells me everything right there. For those of you who don't study the Bible, check out Peter and check out Rachel. There's some great stuff in there. Okay, Carla, I know you don't have a ton of time for watching movies. You're busy woman, got a wonderful family. But if there's one movie you stop every time it's on, you stop to watch it. What? What would that one movie be?
- [32:09]
B
Sparkle.
- [32:10]
A
Really?
- [32:10]
B
And the Godfather. Yeah, Sparkle and the Godfather equally. I love the Godfather.
- [32:16]
A
I think I just profiled you here with Peter and Rachel and Sparkle and the Godfather. Nobody has ever put those two together, ever. In both those answers I have never heard. In all my years, I've never heard. There it is. See, she sparkles and she's sweet like Rachel, but she's the Godfather who will cut off your ear like Peter. She was made for Wall street, this girl. So good. Last but not least, Carla. Thanks for taking the time today. What does a good life mean to Carla Harris?
- [32:45]
B
A good life means being kind and thinking about others first and putting yourself and all your gifts in a place where they can be leveraged by other people, whether it's your family, people you will never see, or people that you're working with.
- [33:01]
A
Her name is Carla Harris. She is the real deal. She's a fabulous woman. The book is called Lead to Win, and it's a terrific, terrific book. It is written from a point of experience. She has lived this. She has done this. I am so proud of our association, putting you on stage and having countless questions answered. And people are just sitting there and they're mesmerized because everything rings true. Oh, she did this. She faced this. She had this difficult conversation. She had this challenge with an employee. She had this challenge with a customer. And it's written from experience, which is rarer every day that goes by. There's lots of books. There's lots of content out there. Now, everybody's an influencer, but you're a woman of substance who has influence. And we are just thrilled to have you on today. And you've been such a joy to have. And we got plans, Carla, because you are dynamite with so much great information. And we have a few more events we are going to come knocking on your door for if we can manage to fit into your schedule. Good luck at Carnegie Hall December 1st. That's going to be spectacular. Thank you for being here today. I told you about my mom when we met, and my mom passed away in March. And at the end of every podcast, we played her Irish Blessing. And so when she passed, I decided I didn't want to play her speaking from the grave. So I do a little honor in her name every day. I do the Irish blessing. In fact, we just opened up, we have a giant conference room called the Therese Buffini Executive Boardroom, and it's gorgeous and decorated and has her picture and all her quotes on the wall. And we just finished that here this week, so we honor her. So I'm going to leave us today with her little Irish blessing. It's a blessing over you and our whole audience. So may the roads rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the rain fall soft upon your fields and the sunshine warm upon your face. And until we meet again, may God hold us all in the hollow of his hand. We'll see you next time.