Healthy N Wealthy N Wise

Tapping Into Your Strengths for Success with Wendy Neu

Are you living your best life as a salesperson or entrepreneur? Or do you find you’re working all the time on this hamster wheel of life while stressed out and not financially free.

Which is the exact opposite of what you had signed up for?

Especially now in this global pandemic?

If this is you, you are not alone.

I found myself there in 2008 when I lost everything, including my health and had to pivot working from home for the first time with no money, I rebuilt my life from scratch, juggling motherhood and marriage to get my life back and be recession and pandemic proof. Today now we live laptop lifestyles with our kids and our poised to travel the world together.

How did we do it?

Join me as I share my health and wealth and wisdom, secrets, tips, tools and expert interviews to equip you to be recession proof and live your best life. My name is Louis Kofi, and this is Healthy and Wealthy and wise.

Well, all right. And Happy Friday, everyone, this is Coach Lois, your host of the Healthy and Wealthy.

Podcast.

And for those of you who have been following on for a while, I’m also passionate about the healthy and wealthy and wise movement. We’re creating a movement heading into 2022, and I’m Super excited. A lot of my guests that are coming on here between now and the end of the year are here to support you to have your best health, your best wealth, and the wisdom to be able to balance all of those things that we’re balancing every day as business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, speakers, authors, parents, you name it.

We’re here for you. And so I’m Super excited to have our guest today, Wendy New from Minnesota. She’s from my past life. A lot of you guys here inside of this community actually knew me from Minneapolis when I lived there, and I’m here in Southern California, and we’re going to be talking about some really powerful stuff today. So I always like to remind you guys as guests, whether you’re tuning in live or you’re coming in here on the replay, please hit the share button. Share this with your community because you don’t know whose life you might impact.

Sharing is caring, and we always have amazing guests today. So I know today’s guests will not disappoint, so they may hear a nugget or a Pearl of wisdom and want to also be a part of this community towards the second half of the interview. If you’re catching us live or on the replay, if you want to ask questions of our guests or of me, comment below your voice matters and please make sure if you want to just shout out your name where you’re tuning in from in the world, country, city, state, and then also if you’re tuning in live hashtag live hashtag replay.

So I’m going to dive right in and introduce you. Wendy, and we met gosh three, maybe four or five years ago. Now we met through BNI. You’re a business coach who loves to learn about people and unlock what they have inside of themselves, which I think is so powerful, especially that script. I know you’ve talked about this, that script that is going on in their mind. You’re really an avid person about mindset and learning about people’s strengths. So I’d love to hear more about your story and how you became this chief Navigator.

Yeah. I’m super excited to be here. Thank you for having me. So life’s journey, right. We all have our story and we all have our way of getting to where we are in this moment. So for me, truly, it’s an opportunity to step back and look at where I started back in corporate America, spent years and years there really being able to dig into the details of business. And by that, I mean, back in the day, I was an event planner. I traveled all over the world bringing groups of people to destinations and detail was a thing.

In fact, I was just talking with someone who did the same type of work as I did back in that day. And it really came down to caring immensely about Mr. Smith and that he had a chocolate on his pillow. That’s just the level of detail that we had when you travel and you deal with groups. But that whole experience really propelled me into a place of how can we do things effectively, do things? Well, how can we do things better? So as I was in corporate America, I had the opportunity to learn all about process improvement, and the methodology involved was there.

And I operated as an internal consultant. And then from there, I went into this whole other world called organizational effectiveness. So why is that all important? Well, it informs everything that I’m doing in my business right now. I love how business works and operates. I love how processes are a wonderful visual way of seeing how work flows through a team or through organization. And I love how we can really learn and empower ourselves to be the best as we continue through our own journeys as leaders and business owners.

And those three components are elements that I bring into the daily coaching conversation.

That’s awesome. And don’t you work mostly with executives and tell us more about your niche and your specialty and who you work with?

Yeah. So I work a lot with the executives and their direct report. So might be CEOBusiness owner on down into that manager level. And it gets really interesting because I spend time primarily right now in the financial industry when people are working with people in the space of money, insurance, their homes, whatever the case may be right. There’s such a passion in the work that I just am addicted to it in its own way. And so the reason that I work with kind of the top level is because everything in an organization starts with the leader and the leader dictates and momentum and even those internal scripts that we all have about what we’re doing and producing every day.

Likewise.

The teams directors, the managers, they’re the ones that are kind of crunched right now, right? They’re the ones that are trying to fulfill on services and also lead teams and also meet and align with what the leaders are setting out in front of them. So it’s really being able to see what each other is seeing and understanding and aligning that together. Well.

And that’s a lot, because when you’re working with teams and you’re working with CEOs who have a lot going on up here, right. How do you it’s really cool. I was just interviewing someone yesterday about self discovery awareness. The NEM Gram tests was their thing. How do you help them unlock what they have inside of themselves and keep it all together?

Yeah. And there’s so many assessments and things out there, right. For me, where I spend my time as a Clifton strengths assessment. So back in the corporate world, that’s where I was certified. That’s what I’ve done. And the reason that I focus on strength is, well, there’s multiple reasons, but primarily because we are so ingrained often in thinking about what’s wrong with us versus what’s right with us. So in a leadership business setting, with teams, it’s really easy to slip up in that what’s wrong with that person.

What’s wrong with that Department? How come they’re not doing this? Why are they saying things this way? And what strengths does in that two in particular is it brings a common language to everyone, and people can begin to see that what they are, how they’re wired is a beautiful thing. And it brings diversity of thought, behavior and pattern to the workforce so that the company or the Department or the team can create something even better than we could individually. So the strengths in and of themselves provide really deep insights about who we are and how we show up.

So that language and being able to bring that to themes and showing them here’s what you got. This is what your team looks like from a strength perspective, gives a sense of empowerment to people, to be able to give them permission to be who they are and their strengths. So that’s the one I really love to use and leverage in working with leaders and teams.

I’d love to hear some examples. I love the StrengthsFinder test. I know my top five, and they really, oh, my gosh. So true. I’ll just leave it there. What examples can you give us? And I know not a lot of our listeners maybe have done this particular test, but they probably have an idea. Like when I saw my five, I was like, oh, yeah. Duh, that’s pretty obvious.

Right.

But what are some great examples or stories that you’ve experienced that have helped that teamwork and that unity within the group.

Yeah. There’s several different occasions where I’ve had people who are frustrated with each other, literally, for sometimes years. In fact, there’s one specific example. I’ll never forget this. I was working with the team, and I have presented the strengths to the team. And then we broke out into small groups. And so there was a couple of women that I was working with and the leader in the room, and these two women in particular were very how shall I say this? Not happy with each other? Often, they had a lot of conflict going on.

So when we looked at it from a strengths point of view, in fact, back up so much conflict, so much so that literally we’re sitting in a room and they were sitting next to each other but wouldn’t look at each other. I mean, really. So that’s a true statement during the course of the conversation. What we uncovered is that they in particular, both have a harmony strength, and the harmony strength comes out of this place of relationship building. And people who have harmony strength really react strongly to potential conflict or conflict that shows up.

And so while they were both someone who wanted in doubt harmony, they had it in their mind that there would always be disharmony with this person when we started to walk through that. And I showed them how they’re similar, how they have that strength. They both value that and that their intention wasn’t really to be in a place of conflict but truly be in a place of harmony. They literally, by the end of the conversation, were turned facing each other and talking again. So that’s really specific example.

But I think it shows us that if we’re willing to consider that that person who sits across the room from us or on the other side of the cue wall or across the screen from us is bringing something that is valuable and operating from a place of strength versus that person is trying to make me crazy to see things differently. Right. And that’s how teams, when I show them this and we talk through this, they begin to just relax. The tension comes down a little bit and go, oh.

So that’s why that’s where that is. You really miss? Yeah. Really. It’s super interesting. Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. I can see that happening in marriages. I can see that happening in small teams, big teams. Now, I do want to ask because I have a lot of people in my community who are solopreneurs sales, people, entrepreneurs, coachespeakers, podcasters. And they may not have done the strings Finder test. How does one go within and when you’re working like, I’ll use myself as an example. I’ve hired people, like a virtual assistant team. I’ve hired appointment setters, and I’m also going to be hiring it. But here I am, entrepreneur, creative all of these things.

And I’m just like I have competition and achiever in my top five way. So that probably tells you right there. I’m very rapid. I’m like most salespeople. You go and you get it done. But then when you hire a support team, they’re usually the opposite because they’re not necessarily the Go go salesperson. Do you have any advice for yours? Because I’ve heard conversations a lot of people going through the same stuff. How do you work with your team and maybe obviously talking to you or getting the strength Finder test.

But where could they start in situations like that?

Yeah, that’s a great question. And especially as entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, small business owners, people like you and I are doing out there doing what we’re doing. There’s a couple of different ways to think about how strengths can help. And the first is bringing internal awareness to who we are and how we are wired helps us to create message and story around our thing. Whatever our thing is right. Being able to connect from a place that shows here’s what I’m passionate about, and here’s why helps other people like our customers connect with us.

So it’s bringing a greater level of awareness. So that’s one way, when we’re building small teams or have contractors that we work with or whatever the case may be some employees, whatever. The thing to remember about StrengthFinder is that individually, what Clifton strengths really is meant to accomplish is individually. We are not intended to be well rounded, even though we are told from young on that we need to be well rounded. We have to be good at everything we have to achieve at everything. But our strengths show us that we are good in certain areas.

In fact, we are great in certain things. When we’re working with people, it’s an opportunity to maybe lean into those blind spots that we have and work with people who are good in those things. So, for example, I’ll take this into a more concrete example. The Clifton strengths assessment really talks about individual strengths, and it also talks about leadership domains. The 34 strengths divide up into four leadership domains, executing, influencing, relationship building and strategic thinking. Often when we think of our strengths, our strengths might fall a little bit more in one or two of those buckets.

So I’m very relation oriented. Surprise, surprise. I’m a coach, right. I’m also very much in the strategic thinking domain. When I’m working with other people who are not contractors. As an example, two of my contractors really strong executors. They get things done. And I love that because I can get things done. Obviously, I don’t sit on my bed every day staring off into space. I get things done. But when we surround ourselves with people who have strengths in areas that we do, not that’s when teams become well rounded and that’s what we want when we’re delivering product and services is that diversity of thought and different approaches to things awesome.

I love it because it’s not easy being an entrepreneurial partner, and obviously CEOs. They got there for their leadership, but no one succeeds alone.

Right?

Teamwork truly does make the dream work. Now, I know you talked about we mentioned this in your introduction when people have this dialogue or script going on in their head, and maybe it’s sending them down a rabbit hole of distraction or negativity. Do you have any tips or tricks or tools to help them remember their strengths and maybe come back to themselves or back to contributing to the team?

Yeah, I think absolutely. Because strengths will tell us how we do things right. They’re not meant to be labels. They’re not meant to be predictors of behavior. It’s not like it’s just because you have achiever in competition doesn’t mean that you should be doing XYZ. That’s not the intent at all. It’s really about the how more than the what the mindset when you bring that piece of it in is we have years and years of things that we’ve been telling ourselves and believing based on all those past experiences and often that gets in our way of truly being successful.

So what I mean by that is there’s an internal script, and it’s kind of based on the concept of behavioral psychology. And I think of it in terms of the cycle. And I just had an opportunity to go through a really intense certification program with David Baer Mindset certification. And so what he talks about there is that there’s five elements of the human operating system. Beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, and results. If you can imagine that in a circle. So the beliefs that we have to take thoughts that we’ve have the thoughts dictate the feelings, feelings dictate the actions or inaction, and the actions dictate results, which then reinforce the beliefs when we get tangled in a belief about something about our work, about our co workers, about our teammates, about our business, when we get entangled in a belief of I’m not good enough.

It’s too hard. So and so can do it better. Those beliefs, those really deep seated beliefs start to fuel thoughts that support that 100%. So that’s our brain at any given moment. We have this cool thing called reticular activating system. So we filter out only 10% of what’s happening around us, and that brings it into our brain. So everything that we’re seeing in any given moment is based on these beliefs. Anything that we tell ourselves internally that feels bad or feels constricting means that we’re only going to see these thoughts that are going to support that, and then we’re going to feel bad, and then we’re going to take actions that don’t really align with what we want, and then we get the results that we don’t want.

Right? So by talking about this a little bit in detail, the reason I’m bringing this up is that our strengths is that language and those concepts to really help to reinforce some different beliefs that we can have about ourselves. So by that, I mean, instead of believing I’m not good at getting things done, I don’t work as hard as low as does. I don’t work 20 hours a day because that’s what she does. I can tell myself because I know how my strengths are is I’m motivated by relationships.

I get things done through relationship, and that is absolutely beautiful in its own right. And I’m going to do it in a way that’s going to work for me. So I give myself permission to be who I am and create different beliefs in my brain based on how I’m wired, because now I have evidence. Strengthfinder is a great tool for evidence of how you are perfectly wired for who you are. Because statistically speaking, this Gallop is a worldwide organization, and the Clifton Strengthfinar Assessment has been around for a very long time.

The strength that we have in the order that they are in. We are one in 33 million. It’s probably 34 or 35 million by now. Nobody else has those strengths in that order. And if you do find that person, go play the lottery.

I have a fun fact for you. I married my husband. We found out we have the top of the top five. We have three of the same. So that was weird, but I don’t remember the order. So that’s amazing. I didn’t know that the one in 34 million thing.

Yeah. Statistically, it’s really interesting. Right. So we have strengths in common with people. You have three in common with your husband. They’re not in the same order. There’s other ones in the mix that create some unique differences. But we are so unique individually, and we have so much to contribute. The work that I do is really seeing what is it that we can contribute? And how can we get out of our own way? Right. Because we’re in our own way. So much of the time we spend hours being in our own way.

Yeah.

It’s really cool. I’ve been actually studying something smaller than what you said. The think feel that cycle. And I know you were joking, but I probably did used to work 20 hours days. Now I work four. Good for you because I came back to center, hence the name of my coaching program. And my movement is healthy, wealthy and wise. And there is no cookie cutter. One size fits all. Everyone’s got to find the right work schedule their right, whatever actions to get the result right that they want it’s so powerful.

So I like that because I know about the think, feel act cycle. So you added the beliefs first, because how many of us have these limiting beliefs from childhood and beyond in utero past lives, whatever that are causing us to be distracted by those shiny objects? I think that’s great at the end of that. And I know, this is a certification that you just completed. How do you I guess, put that into your coaching and help with that circle because you have the belief that creates a thought that creates a feeling that can create action or inaction.

Right.

And then measure that result. How do you measure those results, knowing that there’s all these layers leading to that and share that feedback with your clients?

Yeah. So what we do in the coaching conversation is really deeply explore. First of all, what are those limiting beliefs? And then with the power of the brain and brain technology is shifting those beliefs that are limiting us to empowering beliefs, because at any moment in time, we have a choice of what we tell ourselves. We can choose to change the script. And that’s what I help people do, because it’s like working out, right? Because when you’re building muscles and you’re doing something different, it takes some time and support.

I do the same thing with my coaching clients in a leadership business setting. What are some of those beliefs that we can change and become reach a place that is going to be much more in the language that use much more centered, much more empowering for not only the leader, but for those around them. Because at the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is tap into the creative, the creative potential, the creative possibilities that people can bring. Every one of us are powerful creators.

Every single time, we just have to unlock that and bring that forward through changing those scripts.

I love that for those people. I’m looking at the time here for those people that haven’t done the strings finders, and they want to figure out how to become more aware of their beliefs and flip that script. Any other tip or nugget that you maybe haven’t shared yet that they can go out and apply today.

Yeah. I think that the biggest thing is really if you take the strikes, Finder assessment, you go out and Google it, you’ll find it and purchase it online. It’s not mine. It’s obviously a Gallup tool, but be willing to consider what’s possible versus what’s not possible. And while that sounds maybe easy, it’s not because if you dig in a little bit and notice in any given moment what’s happening in your brain when you’re approaching a project, a team, a meeting, a sales call, whatever the case may be, whatever those thoughts are, take a minute, stop and write down.

I’m willing to consider that this is going to be blah, blah blah. And the blah blah blah means powerful, creative productive that I can do this, that this person is really a great connection, whatever shifting those beliefs. Absolutely. Write it down. It’s the absolute number one thing to do.

I love it. I love it being curious and thinking about the impossibilities, but how to flip that. Thank you so much.

That’s awesome. Thank you.

So much value, so much, they’re not enough time to even more. So I always like audience wanting more, right and wanting them to connect with you. So how can people connect with you? What kind of gift do you have for our audience today? Yeah.

So I would love for you to go to my website and it’s www. Dot craftroodscoachingconsulting. Com certainly reach out and connect with me. I’m happy to have a 15 to 20 minutes strategy session about what it is that you’re really thinking about struggling with and how you might use strength and maybe some mindset to consider how that could unlock some of your own possibilities and potential for you. So go out there and send me an email and let’s talk.

I’d love to hear more about you and hear more about your journey and make sure I spelled that right. Crossroadsconsultingandcoaching right?

Crossroadscoachingconsulting. Com.

I flipped the script, but crouchingendconsulting, I’m going to put that in the show notes. You guys, please, because sometimes we don’t realize how important managing our mind is to our bottom line, right and even relationships. I know I posted this on being transparent about my marriage and just the challenges that the pandemic. And since we do have some of the same strengths, even how that impacted our conversations. So it’s been powerful to really go within. And quite like you said, it’s not easy. It’s actually painful to flip that script, but it’s so worth it.

Right, Wendy?

It’s absolutely worth it, because what’s just on the other side is amazing. This awesome.

So I got that right this time. Crossroadscoachingconsulting.

Com you got it. Awesome.

So I got one more question for you, Andy, but before we get to that, I always like to share with you guys upcoming events and exciting changes and pivots. And like I shared at the beginning of this call, I’m starting a movement called Healthy and Wealthy and Wise movement. Most of you know my story, some of you don’t, but I was that workaholic. I was doing too much and chasing the deal and all that kind of stuff. Actually, when I knew you, Wendy and I came back to center thanks to the great pause of 2020.

And so I have a new coaching program that I’m launching on November 1, and it’s called Healthy and Wealthy and Wise Coaching, creating your best life and creating an extra $250,000 in new revenues in 2022. And so one way to check that out. My gift to you, my audience, my health and wealthy, wise community. I have a two half day program November 17 and 18th called Sore into 2022, and Sore is an acronym, and you got to tune in and check out what the heck does that mean?

We’re wanting to help you sell your offer with excellence and have awakening results in 2022 and have your best year ever. So it’s $197 value. I’ll put the link to it in the show notes. You guys can sign up as my guests for free. It’s first time ever last time ever that it will be a free event in the future. We will charge. So save the date November 17 18th, 09:00 a.m. To 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Both days reserve your spot because space will be limited.

So transitioning back to you. Wendy, I always love the close of this question because the name Healthy, Wealthy and Wise has a lot of meaning to me for my podcast and now my movement. When you hear the phrase healthy and wealthy and wise, what does that mean for you?

Well, it means the culmination of myself and what I want to bring out to the world. It’s the absolute I mean, the healthy part, the wealthy part, the wise part. It’s all just how do we unlock our mindset? How do we really show up in a way that’s going to bring value and contribution to the world and then wealthy? That follows. Everything follows when we put our heart out there first, when we put our intentions out there first. So for me, I think it’s just a beautiful statement of a very well rounded piece of our heart and how we do business.

Awesome.

Well, thank you for sharing your heart today and for being with us. And again, guys, I can’t recommend it enough. We haven’t had a strength Finder conversation or this type of conversation on the show in a really long time. Maybe not even this year. It might have been last year. So please hit the share button. Listen to this again. Comment below with questions. Even if you’re catching this on the replay. And again, if you’re hearing this in YouTube itunes, iHeartRadio wherever you’re tuning in later, please join the Healthy and Wealthy and Wise community, which you can find at Healthy and Wealthy and Wise dot.

Com.

Or you can meet Wendy, all of my guests and tune in next Friday. We have a repeat offender. I like to jokingly call them a repeat guest. Franco Romero. He’s my spiritual mentor. He wrote the book The Closet Spiritualist. We’re going to dig deep into all this awakening energy that’s happening behind the scenes in the world. And probably if you’re feeling kind of angsty and kind of this energy or the spark inside and you don’t know exactly what the heck is going on. We’re going to talk about that next week.

All right, guys. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks, Wendy. Until next time, here’s your best health, your best wealth, and your best wisdom. Bye bye for now.

Hi, guys.

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