B (2:41)

I'm going to start with the first one because I believe it is the bedrock and it is uncover yourself. And by that I mean know who you are, get in touch with what your values are. I believe that the greatest leaders and the most effective leaders are very clear about who they are and what they believe, what values they will stand on. And they know themselves and they show themselves to others. But you have to know yourself first before you can show yourself to others authentically. So that is the first, that is the first tool. And you know, both men and women say they cover themselves in the workplace because they're trying to fit in women more than men and both men and women of color more than white women because the culture was built by white men for white men who had women and people of color at home at the time, 250 years ago doing the kind of taking care of their lives. And so the world has changed. The world has changed. Families are different. They're usually, if they're two partners, there are usually two breadwinners. And if there's one person, you know that that breadwinner has to cover everything. So it's very different. You know, it's very different and not functional anymore. And, and, and, and so there's, there is this need to uncover ourselves in a, and particularly in a society that is increasingly diverse. And we need to use that diversity as a strength, not as a divider, which is that we could do a whole program on. But I'll move on. I will move on. One, I'm going to take one more here and then you can ask me some other questions about them. But one that is counterintuitive. So I have three. Three of these tools are what I call your self definitional tools, in other words, how you are introspective. Three of them are counterintuitive. Very often they're things your mother told you not to do, but you should if you want to be a great leader. And the third, the third bucket of these tools is the change leadership tools. So big systems change how to make big systems change. So a counterintuitive tool that is, I think super important for women is modulate confidence. There is a whole industry out there making tons of money trying to show women how to become confident. Confidence, however, is not something you can just Learn. You get confident by doing things, by practicing, by actually rolling up your sleeves and doing the thing that scares you. And that's how you get confidence. You don't. You can't inject confidence into your veins. It really takes doing. And frankly, the reason I say modulate confidence is that if you're totally confident, why do you have any reason to learn something new? If you're totally confident, what's the burr under your saddle that helps you to want to learn new things, to try new things, to do better, to ascend to a higher level of a position? So we need to learn to do things long before we're confident. You need to learn to do things maybe, as John F. Kennedy said, we go to the moon not because it's easy, but because it's hard. We do those things because they're hard, because that's where the growth is. That's where the growth is. That's what really teaches us how to be bigger and smarter and greater and build bigger businesses or run for Congress or whatever it is that we might want to do. So those are. Those are a couple of them.

A (6:25)

Gusto is a success story partner. Now look, I talk to business owners every single day, and you know what I hear constantly, Scott? I love running my business, but I hate dealing with payroll. And I get it. Nobody starts a company because they're excited about calculating tax withholdings and benefits administration. That's exactly why I use Gusto myself. And the smartest business owners use it as well. Gusto is online payroll and benefit software built for small business. It's all in one remote, friendly, and incredibly easy to use. So you can pay, hire onboard and support your team from anywhere. Now, here's what sold me. Unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price. No surprises, no hidden fees. When you need to run that extra payroll. And when you hit a tough HR situation, and trust me, you will, you get direct access to actual certified HR experts, not a chatbot. Real people who know what they're talking about. Plus, they're the number one payroll software according to G2 for fall of 2025. And over 400,000 small businesses already trust them. Try Gusto today at gusto.com success story and and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months free payroll@gusto.com success story. The HubSpot Podcast Network is a success story partner. If you like Success story, you are going to love some other great shows in the HubSpot Podcast Network. It is the audio destination for business professionals. One of my favorite is Business Made Simple. It's hosted by Donald Miller, an incredible friend, a great entrepreneur. Business Made simple takes the mystery out of growing your business. So if you're trying to figure out how to get to the next level, what Donald does is he gives you tactical steps that actually move the needle in your business. You can go listen to Business Made simple anywhere you get your podcast Business Made simple, part of the HubSpot Podcast Network. Framer is a Success story Partner. Now you could be a solopreneur, you could be an entrepreneur. You could be somebody just sitting at home who's trying to start a business out of their house. But you know the drill. You need good design to create a website to get your business off the ground. But good design is expensive and you can't afford to hire a designer for every single landing page. Social posts but you also can't afford to look amateur. And I've been there. You need to move fast, you need to look professional. But you also need to not blow your budget on five different tools. Framer already built the fastest way to publish beautiful production ready websites. And it's now redefining how we design for the web with the recent launch of Design Pages, a free canvas based design tool. Framer is more than a site builder. It's a true all in one design platform. From social assets to campaign visuals to vectors and icons, all the way to a live site. Framer is where ideas go live, start to finish. And the best part is it's actually free, not a trial free. I'm talking unlimited projects, real vector tools, 3D transformations, everything you need without the nickel and diming. So if you're ready to design, iterate and publish all in one tool, start creating for free@framer.com design and make sure you use code Success Story for a free month of framer pro. That's framer.com design and use promo code success story framer.com design promo code success Story Rules and restrictions may apply and and when say you want say these are things that. Well yes, they're things that everybody should really try and internalize. But if you are, if you want to champion some of these things, do you think that you should try and champion them in the organization you're already in? Or is this something that maybe the organization values has to align with your own personal values to really get the best effect? Because you're going to come up against some people that are not with it, not in line, like super bigoted, like old school. And that's a Blocker too. It can't just be one sided because it's never going to happen if your immediate boss is just an absolute asshole. Right. It's not going to happen. So what do you suggest people look for? Very, another sort of like a practical thing. If somebody's trying to find an organization that will help enable these things, what do you look for? Is there a process for like interviewing the interviewer? Is it finding the organization that I don't know, has some sort of person or cultural or something in place that can you look to and like this is an organization that's going to help support my growth? Because I know there's a lot of organizations that may not or there's a lot of people within organizations that may not. And I want to keep people away from those and give them the best possible chance of succeeding in their careers. Right. So how do you find that?

B (10:51)

Right. Well, the first step again is to, is to know yourself and decide what is that important to you? Because you're probably not going to ever get everything you want. And yeah, yeah, if you're working in a, in an organization, you're, you'll, you'll make some compromises along the way. Most likely actually in any situation, if it's your own business, it doesn't matter what it is, you'll probably make some compromises along the way. But you need to know what is it you care so much about that you will walk away rather than violate that? I have one of the power tools in my previous book, no Excuses is called wear the shirt. And what that means is what do you believe so strongly you'd put it on your shirt and let other people see it, that, that, that you hold that belief? So, so, you know, so strongly. I, I had, I had. This is a shirt somebody gave me. Actually.

A (11:43)

I saw, I saw it.

B (11:44)

Yeah. No, it's, yeah, right, yeah. And, and I'm wearing that shirt today. That's my shirt for the day. But so, so you have to first of all figure that out. And I, your question is a good one for people to ask at different stages of their careers because when you're just starting out, you have more of the luxury to research organizations and zero in on. Okay, this is where I feel like it's a fit for me. I know there's a young woman who was in one of my courses a few years ago and I just noticed on LinkedIn that she had taken a new job. And when I read her logic for taking this new job, it was all about, you know, I've had some great jobs before and I've learned a lot, but I wanted to go with this particular company because they put together my core value of belief in the power of education with making it more democratized for, you know, available to people. So, you know, this is like consciously she was intentioning that she would be able to work in a culture, a set of values, a company that had the same value set that she had. That's. You can research that. I mean, things are much more transparent now. And I, I think they're probably.

A (13:06)

I.

B (13:07)

That's not true of every company. I mean, that's true, but increasingly companies are having to be more transparent about what their values are and what their mission is. I mean, their mission may be to make money, but how do they do it and how are they serving the world when they make money? They're telling you that on their websites. Those are questions you can ask in interviews. It's perfectly legitimate to ask those questions. And I'll tell you, as somebody who has hired a lot of people over the years, I appreciate it when people have done their research and they know what matters to them and they ask me those questions.

A (13:45)

No, but what I was going to say is I just want people to feel comfortable like asking these questions because that's how you really set yourself up for success. Right? You want to make sure you know what you're stepping into, right?

B (13:55)

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, as you grow in your career, you have more, even more opportunity to be very straightforward and discerning. It may take you longer to get a job, that's for sure, but it's worth taking that time and making sure that you feel it's a culture that you will thrive in and that you can contribute.

A (14:20)

Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive, dive deeper into this conversation. Check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.