Lean In To Your Customers With Meridith Elliott Powell, CSP, CPAE

Now is the best time to add value to your customers by leaning in and becoming a resource during turbulent times. Today organizations need a guiding light, and in this interview Meridith Elliott Powell shares how when the market is challenging, it’s the time to support your customers and navigate through uncertainty. You have to believe in your bones that your customers need you show to them that how you are invested in solving their pain points. Join in as Meridith and host Natalie Benamou take a deep dive into uncertain times and how you can thrive in your organization and with your clients.

How Can We Lean In to Customers In Uncertain Times?

Fear is the biggest obstacle out there. If you don’t address uncertainty and create a culture that says, “It is okay that we don’t know what is coming at us in the marketplace.” If you don’t focus on mindset, uncertainty produces one emotion in yourself and the organization. That is fear. Research backs it up. Fear shuts down innovation and creativity. It is the skill you need to come up with new ideas to get around obstacles. It shuts down engagement. When people are fearful, they are trying not to be seen and heard. They don’t want to get fired. All of that shuts down bottom-line results.

The biggest obstacle is that leaders are not recognizing that people are coming to work fearful. When they come to work fearful and if you as a leader are fearful, you need to address that and find a way to get beyond your fear. When you do, it is going to put you in a position to be successful. There is so little we can control in this marketplace, more than any other time I have been in business. You can control the quality of the people around you and the level to which you are engaged. If you do that, you are going to be in the best position to handle any obstacle that comes your way.

Quotes from Meridith:

“Your customers need you now more than they did a couple of years ago. It’s not the time to pull back; it’s the time to lean in.”

“When the marketplace gets challenging, that is your greatest opportunity.” 

Resources:

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Show Transcript:

Meridith, I’m excited to welcome you to the show. Thanks for being on the show.

I’m excited to be here. We have something in common right off the bat.

Before we got on, I had been learning so much from you. You’ve got books, learning on LinkedIn, and all these things that you are giving to people to absorb. I would love for you to share the arc of your career and what brought us because all the things you are doing are impactful for so many.

Many people, when they are young, they know what they want to be when they grow up. That was not me. I started my career in travel and tourism. I moved into healthcare, and then from there, I went into financial services. It wasn’t until one day I was doing a podcast that I figured out where the thread was. I always thought I had this crazy career.

HCS 109 | Customers

I got into travel and tourism after a hurricane. I got into healthcare when managed care was completely transforming the industry. I got into financial services when regulations were getting tight. What I figured out was that I love disruption while most people hate that level of change when the odds look like they are stacked against you. I can’t wait to jump into the industry when most people want to jump out. At the age of 40, I went out on my own because I wanted to help companies and people learn to turn uncertainty into opportunity. When the marketplace gets challenging, that is your greatest opportunity

We have been living it. You have been thriving in the last few years because this has been an unprecedented time of change and volatility. Every day, leaders are facing that. I hear it all the time in our community of our women leaders. They were like, “I don’t even know how to anticipate anymore. If something comes up, you have to pivot.” They struggle with the internal and the external. As a company, you have to come out and have a position on some of these things happening. What do you tell, both the individual and organizations, during all these things that are happening?

The most important place that leaders need to focus on for themselves and their teams is the mindset. I was talking with a CEO. We were talking about the fact that we all thought COVID was a disruption. It seems minor compared to what we are looking at now. When you think about 2020, whoever thought you would be looking at bank failures, interest rates, inflation, and war in Europe? It keeps mounting. Instead of resisting the uncertainty and change, you have to start to embrace it. You have to believe and go, “I don’t know where we are headed, but I believe where we are headed is somewhere positive.” Most importantly, you have to believe in your bones that your customers need you now more than they did a couple of years ago. It is not the time to pull back. It is the time to lean in

HCS 109 | Customers

One of the things that people should think about in that growth mindset is being ready and empowering people around you. That is one of the things I took your course on LinkedIn. I was about teams, how you lead your team, and making sure they are buying in. You shared a story about being in the banking industry and having a weekly meeting. I love for you to walk us through that. Why is it important to stay connected when things are changing rapidly?

The biggest thing that people want in the face of uncertainty is control. We want certainty. We want the very thing we cannot have. As leaders, you can provide a level of control to your team by asking them for their ideas and opinions. Uncertainty is frustrating because we don’t feel heard. We don’t feel like we can get our ideas out. We are all sitting here waiting for the next thing to happen to us, both personally and professionally.

If you can create an environment as a leader where you gather your team together and rather than telling them what to do, ask them what to do. You are still controlling the goals you hit and the things you need to accomplish. When you ask people for their ideas and opinions, not only will they engage and be motivated at a level that you don’t have the ability to do without asking them, but they will give you good ideas, and they will commit.

The story that I shared in the course was my boss had gathered me up and said that we needed to hit a loan goal of $300,000 a month, which at that time, we had never made a loan in this particular industry ever. I thought he was crazy. We met every week and focused on it. In a few months, we were booking over $1 million a month. I couldn’t believe how important engaging people and focusing is on getting results.

When you think about results, there are both financial results. When you are in this volatility, and things are constantly happening, it is also staying focused on your mindset. How do you help someone remember that? You are coming up with ideas, but you still need to stay focused on some of these big pictures, and there is some short-term, especially in the volatility. Short-term like we got to do this now. Fire hosts and defenders like the long-term. We still have this long-term goal, but a forest fire is happening.

First of all, you need to be majorly focused on the long-term goal in the sense of what is the war you have to win and pick your battles because you can’t win everything. More than anything, uncertainty is difficult because we don’t know what to do. When you can give people actions, focus on behaviors. Behaviors are something I can control. I can’t control whether interest rates go up, inflation is going to negatively impact my customers, or the supply chain will be disrupted.

HCS 109 | Customers

I can’t control those things, but I can control the actions I take. That gives me some level of confidence, purpose, and ability to make progress. Progress is powerful. We undervalue progress. We don’t need perfection and absolute results. If you are further along than you were a week ago and focus on that progress, you build confidence. Confidence builds a domino effect. You will get stronger. The thing that is so powerful that we have been talking about is how important leadership is right now. Asking people what to do, focusing on their actions and behaviors, and giving people some level of control. That is the way you are going to get traction in this marketplace.

Empowerment is critical. If you are holding onto the decisions yourself, not empowering your team, and those that are coming up with these ideas, you are missing out both for the company. There is going to be turnover even if there is a company that is volatile with large layoffs in the tech sector and other things. We are in a different space even now. You were talking about 2020. There was a Great Resignation. Now it is a whole different ballgame with people losing their employment and trying to figure it out constantly. If people don’t feel empowered once they come to you with an idea to take a risk, as long as it is not a financially devastating risk but it is a progressive risk, they feel deflated.

HCS 109 | Customers

One of the biggest mistakes that leaders make is you get the role because you can do the job. You have already proved that. That is not your responsibility anymore to do the job. Your responsibility is can you create five people around you who can do the job better than you, and if you understand that that is your responsibility now. If I was a sales leader, there is no doubt I could go out and hit a sales goal. I wouldn’t have gotten the job if I couldn’t do that. Can I produce five people who could hit a goal higher than I could have hit? That is when I’m a good leader. To your point, that is when you empower people.

One of the most interesting things is that I believe that people want to work hard for us. Most people come to work wanting to work hard, contribute, and help the organization grow, but leadership is in the way. They are not giving them the paths they need to engage and be involved. When you empower, people work harder, you stress less, and the organization grows.

You have a succession planning book. What you are leading into is talking about that because if you, as a leader, are not planning to lift the five people up, you should want them to do better than you. You should expect that you are positioning them to go well beyond where you are because the best compliment they can pay back to you is you gave them free rein. I once had a boss who let me run my sales and what I was doing. I was at the top of the industry because of it. When I had leaders who were like, “You have to report on this. You have to do all this paperwork.” I felt constricted. I felt like I couldn’t let it out and do things.

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That is the difference between leaders empowering their people to live in their lane, to thrive in their lane, and go past you on the superhighway to success, which one of my friends likes to say. I was like, “I’m on the superhighway, but I want you going on the Audubon faster. Ask me up. Go for it.” What do you find as some of the obstacles that are getting in the way? Is it fear? What is happening in the mindset of it?

Fear is the biggest obstacle out there. If you don’t address uncertainty and create a culture that says, “It is okay that we don’t know what is coming at us in the marketplace.” If you don’t focus on mindset, uncertainty produces one emotion in yourself and the organization. That is fear. Research backs it up. Fear shuts down innovation and creativity. It is the skill you need to come up with new ideas to get around obstacles. It shuts down engagement. When people are fearful, they are trying not to be seen and heard. They don’t want to get fired. All of that shuts down bottom-line results.

The biggest obstacle is that leaders are not recognizing that people are coming to work fearful. When they come to work fearful and if you as a leader are fearful, you need to address that and find a way to get beyond your fear. When you do, it is going to put you in a position to be successful. There is so little we can control in this marketplace, more than any other time I have been in business. You can control the quality of the people around you and

the level to which you are engaged. Ironically, if you do that, you are going to be in the best position to handle any obstacle that comes your way.

The people that you surround yourself with are key in leveling up. I connected with someone and we hit it off. We are exploring awesome options together. I’m excited. I felt when I was talking to her, I was like, “I got to level up my game now.” I’m talking to someone that is making me step into my power to be my best self. That happens when you don’t have that fear of being authentic and excited about learning something new. How do you, as a leader, continue that learning to help people? Learning makes you feel a little more confident.

There are a couple of things whenever I’m feeling fearful that I do. Number one is I will make sales calls because nothing gets me past my own fear than focusing on the obstacles or challenges that my customers are facing. Helping somebody else releases endorphins in us. If I’m having a bad day or a day where I’m worried, and we all have them, you will have weeks where you don’t book any business, you lose deals, something isn’t going right, or you disappoint a customer, go out and make a sales call or commit to learning something.

I set aside an hour every morning. That is the time when I will listen to a podcast, read a part of a book, or do something because it is important to be stretched. Part of me loves to get to see another speaker friend of mine on stage, and part of me is fearful of it. Part of me goes, “They are amazing. I got to up my game.” Not too long ago, I shared the stage with somebody I had never shared the stage with before. They were in front of me. I was grateful they were in front of me because they were so good. When I hit that stage, I took my game to another level which I would never have taken if I had not seen him perform. I knew I couldn’t go out there with the normal shtick. That is good. It pushes me to go to another level.

I’m going to have the link for all the speakers because we have a collaboration with Innovation Women, which is our speaker bureau. I told the founder, “Bobby, you have to have everybody look at Meridith’s website.” She was like, “What?” I said, “I’m texting it to you right now.” She was like, “Oh.” I said, “Yes, do you see what I’m saying?” Your bar is high. I can’t even imagine. I would be nervous on a stage because I speak too. I would be terrified if you were speaking in front of me.

It is the sports analogy where if a kid is not at the level of the other players and you put them in with those other players, they level up. They work harder. They are ready to go. They come prepared. They will put those 10,000 hours in to make sure they are keeping up with the kid that

is two years ahead of them. That is inspirational that you do that, even though I can’t imagine not seeing you on your game because I have seen you virtually on your game.

You said something that I practice too, which is important. Whenever I have had a moment of serving first, there is an endorphin when you do something kind for someone else, make that introduction, or reach out to someone and say, “I have been thinking about you. How is your day going? Can I help you in any way?” There is this release. You are like, “Send a handwritten note. I feel good.”

It is even a little bit deeper than that. My mother used to tell me when I was a kid, and I figured out at this age that my mother is honestly the most brilliant human being I had the privilege to meet. I call on her saying so often. She used to tell me when I was a child. She said, “The fastest way to get past her own problems is to focus on somebody else’s.” From the time we were little, she made us do volunteer work, but she is right.

The other thing is that the gift in it is not only the endorphin release. Whenever I had been stuck in my career and going, “This isn’t working. I can’t put you on the next level. I don’t know what the problem is,” I go out and talk to customers. I find the path because when you talk to customers and prospects, they will tell you all about their life. They will tell you every problem and issue they got and every opportunity.

Your head starts to go, “I can help with that. There is something I could do.” When COVID hit or even looking at the marketplace now, I do fall into that camp, but 2023 is going to be incredibly challenging. Talking to customers tells me where the pain points are, and when I understand the pain points, I can solve those, and that will grow my business.

HCS 109 | Customers

I have this weird thing. It is because we share the sales background where you are listening. I am always present when I’m talking to a customer. I look for the opportunity. That is how I ended up coming back into doing events again. I was in the event industry for many years. I left because of COVID. I was like, “Goodbye, I’m not doing this anymore.”

We were talking about a completely different thing with a customer, and we were going to do a mentoring program. They said, “I don’t know how I’m going to get this thing done. I have to do this big week-long event.” I was like, “Tell me more about that.” I ended up spinning off this whole thing. We do turnkey speaker programs. Listening is key to understanding where the pain points are. As you look forward, and I know you got a program coming up in May 2023, tell me a little bit about what you are going to be doing and looking forward to for the rest of 2023. We have been talking about the volatility, but there are some sunny spots coming up.

There is a couple of areas that I am focused on. I think 2023 is going to be challenging. I’m looking at a lot of things in the marketplace that tells me that business is going to be challenged. However, I passionately believe that if you are in the service industry or whatever you do for a living, you need to realize that when the marketplace gets challenging, your customers need you more than ever. It is not a time to pull back. It is time to go in.

I got a couple of areas that I’m focused on. Number one is May 24th, 2023, in Dallas. Mark Hunter and I will do a podcast together called Sales Logic. We are going to do Sales Logic live. The reason we are going to do it live is because it is time for people to revamp their sales process. What you did in the first couple of quarters of the year is not going to be enough to carry your past goal for the last couple of quarters of the year. We are going to take a day. We are going to roll up our sleeves and get about 200 professionals in the room. You can also join us virtually. We are going to get to work redefining the sales process and laying out specifically what you need to be doing for the rest of 2023 in order to make it your best year on record.

The other area that I’m focused on I work with another partner of mine, a woman by the name of Mary Kelly. She and I wrote the succession planning book together, A Culture of Succession. We got another book coming out in the fall of 2023 called Me Next. It is how to put yourself in the driver’s seat and be 100% in charge of your own career. The idea behind that is that with the change in the job market coming, but also with promotions and things in general, far too often, professionals wait to be tapped on the shoulder. It is your life and career. Nobody cares about your success more than you do. It is time to put yourself in the driver’s seat. We wrote the book on how you navigate your career and your success to the level that you want it to be.

I cannot wait for that book. You will have to come back so we can talk deep dive on your launching the book. I’m excited about that. You have many books. This is awesome that you got this topic. As you look forward, how are you deciding on the topic? It is from having these conversations, I’m imagining.

You answered your own question. In the past year, I have had more friends come to me whose children are graduated from college who are saying, “Would you spend 30 minutes with my son or my daughter? Would you help them try to figure out what to do?” We seem to have lost the art of understanding. A lot of kids are getting out of college or they are in school and they are either so used to somebody else taking the ball and running with it for them like a parent making a phone call or a coach telling them what to do. They don’t understand how to take charge.

In this virtual world, they have lost visibility with leaders. How do you navigate not only to get the first job but to say, “I see myself in this position. How do I get there?” That’s why I called Marry and I said, “I have been asked this many times. We need to sit down and write it.” The reason I wrote Thrive: Strategies to Turn Uncertainty into Competitive Advantage was everybody seemed to be stumped by uncertainty and wanted it to be positive but didn’t know what to do. When we talk to clients, I say, “I can solve that problem.” That is how I do it.

I love your attitude towards, “I can solve that problem.” That is needed in the marketplace and for people. I have such a hard time ending conversations like this because I could talk to you all day. I told you, we are going to have to do a series because I can’t stop. I’m going to have the link for your website, but where is your favorite place to be that they can find you?

I am a big believer that if you build your network, it will change your life. If you connect with me, I will connect with you. I spend more time on LinkedIn than I do anywhere else. People can find me on LinkedIn, but they can also find me on my website, which is ValueSpeaker.com. Reach out and connect. I will connect with you.

I’m excited to share that information. Meridith, it is great to see you. Thank you for being on the show. I love this conversation.

Thank you so much. It has been such a great conversation, and I look forward to more.

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Natalie Benamou
Founder, CEO 
HerPower2, Inc, | CGO HerCsuite™ | Podcast Host HerCsuite™

Natalie founded Herpower2, inc. to create products under HerCsuite™ to empower women to make a lasting impact today and into the future. She takes a ‘serve first’ approach to life and has applied this principle throughout her career, serving in leadership positions in business as well as non-profit organizations.

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