086 - Elevating Your Leadership with Wisdom with Vanessa Judelman

[00:00:00] Writing a book can be the foundation for sharing your important message, but it won't

[00:00:07] work unless you are consistently marketing. This podcast is for those who have written

[00:00:12] a book to share their message with the world. I love talking all things authorpreneur

[00:00:18] and having guests join me to share their brilliance with you.

[00:00:26] Hello authorpreneurs, it's Suzanne Tregenza Moore and I am delighted to bring you another

[00:00:32] episode of All Things Authorpreneur. Today my guest is Vanessa Udlman. She is the president

[00:00:39] of Mosaic People Development. For over 20 years Vanessa has been helping clients to develop

[00:00:46] leaders who inspire great results. She is a speaker, facilitator, leadership consultant

[00:00:53] and certified executive coach. Having worked in the trenches herself as a leader, she teaches

[00:01:00] her clients a very practical approach to leadership that she has used to develop her own

[00:01:06] high performing teams. Over the years she has trained and coached thousands of people

[00:01:11] to transition from doers to leaders. She works with leaders to give them the tools and strategies

[00:01:18] they need to feel confident, be more self-aware, be team focused and be strategic. And Vanessa

[00:01:25] I'm so excited to have you here today with us. Fabulous great to be here with you Suzanne.

[00:01:31] So Vanessa has a book that she wrote and it is called Mastering Leadership, what it takes

[00:01:39] to lead in today's fast paced world. And I think there's so much to dig into there

[00:01:46] and so much to dig into from your bio. You know most of those people who listen to my podcast

[00:01:54] have written or are writing their nonfiction book, they're trying to build their business,

[00:01:59] they're hoping to use that book to help spread their message. And I think one of the big

[00:02:04] challenges they have that you might be able to help with is how do you stop doing everything

[00:02:10] yourself and start to trust that you are bringing people into your sphere who can really help

[00:02:19] you and get out of that mindset of it takes so long to explain it to someone else. You know

[00:02:26] it's not worth it, I might as well just do it myself. Oh my goodness that is a

[00:02:31] old question. So you know what I typically do when I coach leaders and I typically work with

[00:02:37] corporate leaders. But this is an effective approach for everybody is I get them to do a delegation

[00:02:42] strategy. The delegation strategy actually starts with a really important question, which is what

[00:02:48] do you paid to do? So that's what I would ask your listeners, I would ask everybody to think

[00:02:52] about this question. What do you pay to do and literally get out a piece of pen and paper

[00:02:57] and write down what you're paid to do then you go to your to-do list and you look at okay what am I

[00:03:03] doing right now that's not aligned with what I'm paid to do? Is it at MinTas is it social media?

[00:03:09] Is it you know there's a lot of things that we do every day that's not aligned with what our clients

[00:03:15] actually pay us to do and those are the things you need to get off your plate. I also looked at

[00:03:19] leveraging your strengths so I love working with my clients so my team that supports me does all

[00:03:26] the backend stuff because it doesn't leverage my strengths and so what I found in building a team

[00:03:32] is that the things that I hate doing there are other people who absolutely love doing and are way

[00:03:40] better than I am at leveraging at executing on those tasks. So that's the approach I take. What do you

[00:03:45] pay to do? Look at what's on your to-do list, what's aligned and what's not, look at what your strengths

[00:03:50] are and then you create your delegation strategy from there. Yeah I love that perspective on it

[00:03:55] because I think so often people say well what are your you know what is your superhero strength

[00:04:01] right or something along those lines but when you simplify it as well what are you getting paid for

[00:04:07] right. What are you getting paid for? Because that's what the person you're delivering to cares about

[00:04:12] and the rest is kind of a bunch of who we need to get done but really it's the supporting role.

[00:04:19] It's the supporting cast it's not the the featured you know singer whatever right. So how did

[00:04:26] you get into this work? How did you start and move into this and what was your sort of passion

[00:04:32] or what was the driving force behind you going in this direction. So I started my career,

[00:04:39] I was an English major in university and then my mother said to me what are you gonna do with

[00:04:43] the degree in English? So she was a teacher so she said you best go to teachers college so I went

[00:04:48] to teachers college for a year. I was at risk youth for a couple of years and after getting a few

[00:04:54] binders thrown in my head and chairs thrown in me I was like you know they're gonna look for a different

[00:04:59] path this really is not my jam so a friend of mine had gotten promoted she was working at a training

[00:05:05] and consulting firm she was recently promoted and she said they're hiring in my organization so

[00:05:10] said that's my ticket out. So right move into her old role in an admin role in a training and

[00:05:15] consulting firm and I was still in education because education is my passion but I moved from

[00:05:20] working with kids to working with adults and it was very civilized. Yes especially compared to

[00:05:26] those binders and chairs yeah yes I have yet to have a client to throw anything at my head so

[00:05:33] I worked I started supporting the vice president the consulting organization then she moved me into

[00:05:37] sales role and then I moved to junior consultant senior consultant role so I sort of worked I

[00:05:41] worked there for 10 years and it was a less trading ground ever. And that's great and I think so many

[00:05:47] of us like I love teaching but the idea of doing it to a bunch of teenagers even at the oldest level

[00:05:53] you know like no thank you no no no no do not put me in a room with those people or those creatures

[00:05:59] I won't you know but I love to teach people who really want to learn what I am teaching them right

[00:06:07] and usually that comes a little bit later in life for most of us. So when you left that job

[00:06:13] is that when you started your own business doing this work or how did you transition to

[00:06:21] doing this as an independent consultant? So I actually had a couple of other jobs after that because

[00:06:28] after working you know through my 20s into early 30s in consulting I thought you know if I want

[00:06:34] to be a leadership consultant coach which was my my eventual goal. I need to have experience in

[00:06:39] the trenches so I got a couple of jobs I worked in different organizations mainly in HR departments

[00:06:44] running organizational learning and development departments. The last job I was at actually

[00:06:50] I had a terrible experience where I was on my maternity leave and when I came back the organization

[00:06:57] had hired a new person to be my boss from outside the organization and she was a terrible fit

[00:07:03] and made my life absolutely miserable. It was really I know most people have had those bad bosses

[00:07:10] before. Oh yeah oh yeah and while it was a terrible experience at that time I'm so glad I had

[00:07:16] it because it really solidified my passion for working with leaders because as I say to all the

[00:07:23] leaders I work with right now you set the tone you make or break people's experience at work

[00:07:29] and had I not had that experience I really don't think I would have understood that. So it was

[00:07:34] that experience that where I finally said okay I'm done I need to be on my own now absolutely I can

[00:07:41] totally appreciate that and as someone who has had that moment of oh and here's your new boss uh

[00:07:48] okay it can go really really well and it can go really really poorly and man there's nothing worse than a

[00:07:55] fit with a boss that is horrible right. It really changes your whole experience at work and

[00:08:03] you know it's very interesting because I work with hundreds of leaders every year and most of them

[00:08:08] who are quote unquote bad bosses are what I call unconscious leaders they have no self-awareness

[00:08:13] so they don't know or think about the impact that their behavior has on their team

[00:08:19] right. So if you're listening to this run a team you really have to be a conscious leader you

[00:08:24] really have to think about how am I speaking to people how am I delegating to them how am I

[00:08:28] following up with them what's the tone that I'm setting in my business. Yeah so if you wanted to

[00:08:34] kind of elaborate on that a little bit what are three things that someone can do better to be a

[00:08:41] more conscious leader no matter where they're starting from. Well it all it's all about yourself

[00:08:46] awareness so you have to understand your strengths and weaknesses so I am someone who for example is

[00:08:52] very fast paced okay so all of our strengths when we overuse them actually become our weaknesses

[00:08:59] so what's good about me being fast paced I get things done I move things forward I like to take

[00:09:04] action I'm very accountable to myself how does that strengthen when I overuse it become a weakness

[00:09:10] is that sometimes I move too quickly for my team so I need something but I miss out on the details

[00:09:16] or sometimes my team will say okay that sounds really good strategically but your time ends are

[00:09:22] way too quick it's going to take way longer than you think to execute that so I have to slow down

[00:09:27] and I have to pause and I'm say okay let's do it well let's do a work back schedule let's look at

[00:09:33] when I'd like this ready or when we meet the client means this ready and let's do our schedule to make

[00:09:37] sure it happens or else speak to the client around extending the date so number one is you have to

[00:09:41] understand your strengths and weaknesses okay number two you have to know what your strengths are

[00:09:46] and when you overuse them so they become weaknesses and number three I'd say really understanding

[00:09:53] how to build trust with people so there's an excellent book called The Speed of Trust by Stephen

[00:09:59] M. R. Covey I don't know if you've heard of that Suzanne I have not heard of that and is it a different

[00:10:04] Stephen cout it's a different Stephen no yeah so this is Stephen Covey who wrote the book the seven

[00:10:09] habits of highly effective people this is his son who wrote the book oh I love it okay yeah fabulous

[00:10:16] you have to know as a leader how to build trust right and when he talks about in this book which I

[00:10:20] love so much is that to build trust it requires character and competence so you can't just be respectful

[00:10:29] or I mean you should be respectful and loyal and transparent and the competence side has to be

[00:10:35] there where you're getting stuff done and you're getting better and you're clarifying your

[00:10:39] expectations with your team and so if you think about leaders that you've had in the past some of

[00:10:44] them may have been high character but low competence that doesn't work right or maybe they were

[00:10:49] super high on the competence side and drove for results but we're low on the character side and

[00:10:54] didn't treat their people well so both have to be there to build a high performing team oh I love

[00:10:59] that that is such a great explanation and I think I don't think there's anyone out there that

[00:11:04] doesn't need to know that and can't take that information and move forward and be in a better place

[00:11:11] than they were before they listen to this podcast as a result so thank you for that one business

[00:11:17] book to people that's probably it the second business book I recommend is mindset the new psychology

[00:11:24] of success by Carol Dweck she's a professor from Stanford and she talks about fixed and growth

[00:11:29] mindset and it's all I love that yes fabulous fabulous so tell me when your book came to be and

[00:11:38] what your goal was when you wrote it because you already I believe had a pretty successful business

[00:11:45] right I did I had a successful business and I thought it was one of those things that I always

[00:11:50] wanted to accomplish and so what I did is because when I wrote the book my kids were a lot younger

[00:11:56] two teenagers now but they were you know probably six and eight at the time and I decided to I don't

[00:12:03] know how they know maybe they were anything I don't remember how they are but I had two kids working

[00:12:08] full-time and so what I did is I decided to take Fridays off so no client work on Fridays and

[00:12:13] I wrote my book every Friday for an entire year good for you in writing blogs I write a blog every

[00:12:21] Friday for five years and I realized I had so much content from my blog yes back to previous

[00:12:28] blog entries and I used that to write my book excellent and when did you complete your book

[00:12:33] 2019 good for you pre-pandemic book writer look at you

[00:12:42] yeah I've interviewed a lot of people who wrote their book during the pandemic now that we're in

[00:12:46] 2024 yeah oh yeah that would have been a good time to write a book yeah yeah how has your book

[00:12:53] because I love to talk about this because I think people you know may write the book and then they

[00:12:59] can't quite integrate it into their marketing message how do you use the book in marketing yourself

[00:13:07] and your business what has the effect of having it been well for me the effect is credibility so

[00:13:14] my goal was not to be on the best server list and I think when you write a book you have to really

[00:13:18] think clearly about what your goal is my goal was to up my game as a professional to enhance

[00:13:24] my credibility when I need a new client or have a potential to client I send them a copy of my book

[00:13:29] yeah when I'm doing keynotes I sell my book so yeah if I felt like in my line of work I do a lot

[00:13:37] of public speaking as well it's just a great marketing tool so I don't worry as much about sales

[00:13:43] but I have to tell you a funny story I was at a conference and I was speaking and I had a bunch

[00:13:49] of copies of my book there and I said you know what if anyone wants to copy my book come on up

[00:13:53] in 20 dollars you can you know buy a copy of the book so I had a bunch of people came up

[00:13:57] and there was this lovely young woman who was a volunteer at the conference and I gave her free

[00:14:02] copy of my book and I said you've been so helpful you've been so terrific I love your energy here's

[00:14:07] a free copy of my book well it turns out her sister was in human resources and ran a massive

[00:14:14] organization she was the head of HR she gave a copy of the free book to her sister her sister read

[00:14:20] the book gave me a call and it's been one of my best clients for the last five years that is

[00:14:26] awesome I absolutely love that you just never know right who you'll give your book to and whose

[00:14:32] hands it's gonna fall into next and how valuable giving it away for free can be that's my favorite part

[00:14:40] of that is that you did it expecting nothing and because it just happened to go in the right direction

[00:14:48] it's ended up in a wonderful client for five years I love that I love the energy of that right yeah

[00:14:56] yes people if you want to write a book think about what the goal is for you yes everyone should really

[00:15:03] think about that and I I think most people just have such they feel drawn to write it or they get

[00:15:09] told well you should write a book about what you do or you should write a business book or

[00:15:13] you really need to know how you're going to use it because it's an investment it's an investment

[00:15:18] of time and I think people discount how much it can cost to get it properly edited and to get it

[00:15:25] you know into book form and laid out and get the cover and all of that stuff and it is worthwhile

[00:15:32] it's worth it but not because you're gonna make the money back directly on the book 110 percent yeah

[00:15:40] I love to ask everyone who comes on if they plan to write another book or if they think they will

[00:15:46] oh I'll definitely write another book I don't know when but I have a little journal and I'm constantly

[00:15:52] writing book title names aha so it's on your heart to do it it's on my heart to do it yeah

[00:15:57] okay yeah in your future I can tell you that for sure right but I would say you know my older

[00:16:04] son is gonna be starting university next year and a couple years after that my youngest son will be

[00:16:09] on house so I imagine when the kids are you know when I'm an empty nest or in a few more years

[00:16:14] baby I'll have time right a little more time on your hands yeah of course you won't be able to get

[00:16:19] them to read it I just you know right the kids never read the books well funny because I was I

[00:16:26] recorded another podcast a few weeks ago and it came out and I was in the car with my son he said

[00:16:31] hey why don't you listen to mom on a podcast and I put it on he was so bored he was on TikTok

[00:16:35] within minutes oh yeah right forget it yeah I have teenage sons as well you don't have to tell me

[00:16:41] yeah so another question that I love to ask everyone who comes on is most of my listeners are

[00:16:48] authorpreneurs they're entrepreneurs what is one thing you think every entrepreneur needs to do or

[00:16:55] have in order to be successful in their business uh the first word that comes to mind is discipline

[00:17:06] now requires a lot of discipline and the second thing I would say is this is the word I made up

[00:17:15] to prosatize things like you have to be able to put processes in place

[00:17:23] find your business smoother so that's not none of those things are very sexy people like what

[00:17:29] that sounds super boring but to me I mean I've been running my business successfully for 12 years

[00:17:34] and I can tell you it does require a lot of discipline and the more processes I put in place the

[00:17:40] more frees me up to do the work that I love to do and just feel comfortable knowing that my

[00:17:47] business is running smoothly I love it I absolutely love it it's so true and I think it's so overlooked

[00:17:54] so thank you for that now I usually say what is your favorite book you've already given us two great

[00:18:01] book suggestions do you want to come up with one more I would say I love Simon Sinek

[00:18:09] yes the last is one of his books that is not as well known and I love it it's also one of my favorite

[00:18:17] leadership books he spent some time with the army and actually was in the trenches in really aligned

[00:18:24] his experience of leadership in the army with leadership in corporate America and in North America

[00:18:30] and I found it to be an excellent read one of the things the core concepts he talked about which

[00:18:34] I love is a circle of trust which people may have heard of that concept of circle of trust again back

[00:18:40] to trust yes really talks about how critical it is when you're really high stakes in the army to

[00:18:46] build that circle of trust on your team and how leaders in North America can really learn from that

[00:18:51] so that would be my third business book I recommend excellent all right well thank you so much

[00:18:57] and is there anything else you'd like to share with the audience before we wrap up today if anyone is

[00:19:03] interested in any more of my insights or blogs or free leadership tools you can go to your

[00:19:10] leadership resources dot com and feel free to grab anything there that is of interest for you to

[00:19:16] help you build your business to your team awesome well Vanessa thank you so much for your time

[00:19:24] today I think that anyone who listens into this podcast is going to get a lot of value from it and

[00:19:30] for everyone listening again Vanessa's book title is mastering leadership what it takes to lead

[00:19:38] in today's fast-paced world want to connect with other authorpreneurs I've started an online

[00:19:46] gathering place head to authorpreneurs hub dot com and join our network we'd love to have you be

[00:19:53] a part of this growing community