Authenticity in Action: Elevating Leadership with Brandy Mills

Discover the transformative power of authenticity and leadership with our incredible guest, Brandy Mills. Through her inspiring journey from nursing professional to award-winning advocate and founder of Woman Strong, Brandy reveals profound lessons on self-reflection, faith-driven decisions, and serving others by addressing their deepest needs. This episode promises to add depth to your understanding of creating non-judgmental spaces, where people can truly be themselves, based on Brandy’s extensive leadership experience.

Embrace your true self and elevate your leadership game as we discuss the critical aspects of bringing your whole self to work. Learn about the profound impact of personal challenges on professional success and why authenticity is non-negotiable. We touch on the often-overlooked dangers of promoting unprepared individuals and the ego-driven reluctance to admit hiring missteps. Brandy's strategic insights into understanding motivations behind leadership aspirations and aligning personal growth with professional duties are not to be missed. Join us for a conversation that underscores the necessity of introspection and genuine representation in achieving effective leadership.

Website: https://www.brandymillsconsulting.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1982062341940242
Instagram Business: https://www.instagram.com/brandymillsconsulting/
Instagram Group: https://www.instagram.com/bm.womanstrong/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandy-robbs-mills-msn-rn-5235b43a/
Calendar: calendly.com/brandymillsconsulting/30min

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Transcript

Laura: 0:38

Good morning. I'm your host, laura Vodden-Knecht, ceo of Mosaic Business Consulting, and you are listening to the Mosaic Life with Laura W. A mosaic is a bunch of pieces that, when put together, make up the whole in a really beautiful way, and this show plans to discuss the various pieces of a business throughout different industries and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient and effective running of your business. To reach me, contact bizradious. Our special guest today is none other than brandy mills, and you're going to have a blast today, let me tell you.

Laura: 1:14

Brandy is an award-winning advocate of women, founder of Woman Strong, a women's empowerment movement, entrepreneur, nursing professional motivational speaker, author and executive coach of Brandy Mills Consulting. Brandy completed her undergraduate studies at Winston-Salem State University, one of the nation's historically black colleges and universities, where she graduated with honors in the field of nursing, she progressed in her academic preparation with a master's in nursing degree with a concentration in nurse education from Western Carolina University, also graduating with honors You're starting to see a theme here and additionally, she has a postgraduate certificate in healthcare innovations from Western Carolina University, with focus on entrepreneurial and business principles, and through her coaching and consulting, she's dedicated to helping people to get the business of leading themselves through their next level of growth. Her aim is to partner with them to reach their highest potential in business leadership and professional growth. With 15 years of leadership and organizational operations experience in health care, combined with nearly a decade of personal business leadership operational experience, she has a keen understanding of the highs and lows that come with all those levels of leadership. So welcome to the show, brandy.

Laura: 2:46

It is great to have you here. Thank you, laura. So nice to be here. Yeah, yeah, I'm looking forward to this, but I am kind of wondering, with all this nursing background, you'd think you'd just go into some kind of nursing thing, you know, and so I'm just wondering what made you decide to shift into coaching and consulting?

Brandy: 3:07

That's an interesting question and you know it's awesome. It would be awesome if we had a looking glass where we would land beyond where we start. And originally, you know, you couldn't have told me that I wasn't going to be a nurse and I would be a nurse forever. I'm on my 23rd year of nursing Wow.

Brandy: 3:30

But as you go deep into life and I'm a person that does a lot of self-reflection and lets my faith drive just about every decision that I make I find that who I am as a person is a person who likes to serve in whatever capacity that I feel called to.

Brandy: 3:50

So in the years that I cheered through college and high school I guess I should have said that opposite high school and college, and I was in leadership positions in those sports arenas, and also in high school and middle school and elementary school I did some student government work.

Brandy: 4:12

But truthfully, I found that I am drawn to situations and people where I feel like I can best serve, and oftentimes that lens is revealed by a need that I had myself and I was able to analyze what I wish I would have had in that moment or applaud the type of assistance and guidance that I received in those moments and from the collective approach of life lived experiences, I found that I love to be able to provide for others in spaces and fill gaps of the messy middle that we're not always consciously aware of and also don't really have the time to reflect enough to do that. So in health care leadership, I've been in manager positions, I've been in lead positions, I've been in director positions, and the one common theme that followed me from childhood to college life friendships and in those leadership positions is that I tend to be a person that people seek out and also I'm able to see what's not being said and partner with people to find their way forward.

Laura: 5:32

I love what you said there, when you say finding things that people don't say, what you said there, when you say finding things that people don't say because a true listener and is not not listening to say the next thing or listening sort of kind of, but is really recognizing, hmm, that's the third time they haven't mentioned dot dot dot right or topic right, so that's always a good opportunity to say I don't't know if you noticed this, but dot dot dot Right, Right.

Brandy: 6:03

A couple that I feel like I've been given the gift to read body language and faces and the courage to just say this is exactly. Your face is saying this, but your mouth is saying that face is saying this, but your mouth is saying that.

Brandy: 6:19

Let's find out, let's figure out what it is that we're trying to convey Because, laura, you know in your experience and really in the human experience of people, we want to show up as our best selves, even in our most vulnerable spaces and therefore, even when we think we're in a relaxed space and people aren't judging, we still try to put our best foot forward and I like to create an atmosphere. Create an atmosphere when I'm working with clients and friends in general. Just be yourself, like.

Brandy: 6:49

It is way too hard to keep up with who you're not yeah, and I really think that was what was the kicker for me to say I love doing this kind of work.

Laura: 7:00

Well, and you bring something up with two in that comment which I really appreciated was talking about, you know, without judgment, and it is so hard these days to go anywhere and talk to anyone without judgment of some sort, right, right, and so how, how do you find yourself, um, being able to convey that lack of judgment that you know, that provide that safe space so people feel free to, to share?

Brandy: 7:34

well, one thing I try to show up as my natural self and I'm so imperfect and I don't have a problem letting people know, like the reason why I can get it and relate so well is because I've been there or I fought not to fall into that same place, and I'm not quite sure who coined this phrase. But I truly believe what someone thinks of you is none of your business. So if you're concerned about what I think in your time and space with me, you're wasting time because what I really think is none of your business. I'm here for you. So I believe that I do my best part to help people feel safe and show up as themselves by showing up as myself.

Brandy: 8:19

I don't try to be extra academic, or so put together or saying that I dot every I and cross every T in the work that I do with my clients and coaching and consulting, or just in life. Honestly, I keep saying in life because I believe this is a part of me. I am not Brandy that's saying, oh, I want to try my hand at consulting or coaching and I believe I have all the answers. So people need to work with me. I am Brandy, the person that has lived life, and I feel like I've been called to be able to partner with others to reach their next level of potential or growth, in whatever arena, in an organic way, yeah, and even here.

Laura: 9:04

Even when you're talking about that you're saying you know you're talking about how we really need to open our, our space for people to share. But but throughout your, your consulting, what I keep hearing from you is that you work with both the personal and the professional. It's not just the professional right.

Brandy: 9:30

Right Because true.

Laura: 9:33

Oh, go ahead, finish no go ahead.

Brandy: 9:35

Well, the reality of it is, we tend to believe that we can compartmentalize who we are. We like to say when I'm a mom, I'm a mom over here. When I'm at work, I'm over here.

Brandy: 9:49

When I'm doing my business. I'm a business owner, but the common denominator in all of those spaces are you. So if you are not whole or in tune with what you're going through or what you're trying to achieve, it's really hard for you to say, hey, I would like to work with you for my next career transition or to become a better leader, but let's not focus on how I am currently so before you can really get to the business of doing any kind of business.

Brandy: 10:19

I hope to partner with you to get to the business of leading yourself. What are you standing for? What are you trying to go? Where are you trying to go with that? Because you can't leave the you in the background while you're trying to go forward, like you're moving with that and where you're trying to go.

Laura: 10:38

Exactly, and we do bring ourselves the whole self to work, this assumption that we leave personal life at home. If there's some something, some chaos that occurred at home, that chaos is going to join you Absolutely.

Brandy: 10:56

No matter how hard you work to think you've hidden it, it will tell on you, and it never fails that someone walks up like are you okay? I'm like what I thought I was hiding.

Laura: 11:09

I'm doing fine and dandy Tee, hee, tee, hee, tee, hee. And it is interesting. I like how you're talking about this, because I think so many leaders, even entrepreneurs, think, you know, entrepreneurs don't think of themselves as leaders, but also that even leaders don't recognize that their whole self is coming with them. Right, and I love how you're talking about how we need to stay as authentic and genuine as we are, because the more we're that way that you know throughout all parts, parts, the more it comes across in our branding too.

Brandy: 11:50

Right, right right and, as you know, um in in doing the coaching and development and things that you've done, people define you by your brand, like it's not.

Brandy: 12:04

Oh, this product I want. I want to go coach and I want to coach with brandy. I want to invite Brandy into my organization because I like her smile when I see her picture. It's about how you represent yourself in all things and how you show up, and it's really, really important to me. I kind of call myself the disruptor of traditional leadership because if we were to have a pandemic part due, I think we have a pandemic and poor leadership in a lot of organizations and I believe it's because we've either organizations have done a great job of allowing people to fail up meaning you are not really executing well on this level and our way to address it is to give you a higher level with more responsibility, or they're recognizing hey, this was a bad hire, but if I say that then it's a poor reflection on me.

Brandy: 13:00

In the meantime, there's disaster happening down below, and I think it's because people want to put on these airs and these fronts that we have it all together or that our first decision may not have been our best decision, and there's some type of apprehension or fear to circle back and say, oh, I screwed that up, so don't you think that's about ego, though, too, that I mean the poor hire right.

Laura: 13:26

Oh, bad reflection on me. Let me ask you this, though, because let's say, this person is going into that leadership position unprepared, and it seems like you tend to work with women the most. Am I incorrect in that?

Brandy: 13:43

That's the majority, but I have male clients as well.

Laura: 13:47

Yeah, we all do. It's kind of funny, our target is over here. But hey, you know, I am kind of wondering. You know, when a person is new to that leadership and you are working with both the personal and professional, what is? What are some of the things that you do with that client initially to you know, learn about where they're at and at and help with their growth?

Brandy: 14:13

That's a great question Because, as you know, each individual is unique. I mean, they're unique and you tailor things to what they're bringing to you and, as I I'm, I do a really good job of reading people, but the things that I like to do, um, is get them to explain to me who they would say that they are and.

Brandy: 14:37

I have a few assessments that I use to help identify, like their personalities and how they lead and things like that. You know, the traditional things that come with coaching, but I also asked them to share with me examples of great leaders that they would want to emulate and leaders that they would not want to replicate, and um determine where they feel that they are currently on that spectrum and then we go into what do you feel like you would need to not only arrive where entry level is, because you know the leader you are today, laura, is not the leader.

Brandy: 15:15

You were back when you first started.

Laura: 15:18

Thank God.

Brandy: 15:18

Right, right that evolution is necessary and powerful.

Brandy: 15:25

So I try to keep my clients in their current reality while trying to navigate through what their future ideal would be, because you can't bypass who you are now without focusing on some things where they are and I get to see where they believe they are and where they actually are. I go back to. Well, I actually start with the why and then circle with the why. I'm not sure of your experience, but typically leaders or people who are chasing leadership positions are not the best ones in those positions.

Brandy: 16:08

So when people say, oh, I want to be there because I want to be a VP, I want to be a CEO, I want to be a CNO, I want to be a manager and I'm like well, come back and tell me why. Is it about status? Is it about growth opportunity? Or do you really have a heart to serve, or a skill set that can impact on a different level, to go down to the worker bees or increase the productivity and quality and outcomes of the companies that you're working for?

Laura: 16:38

Well, you know even the current leadership might not have that in mind, right? So I think it really is one of those tough things, though, too. Imagine a person who's working in a position and wants the role or the title, but doesn't understand the functions required. Right, and so I think right. And so they go there thinking it's going to look like X and anything like that, and then they're. Then they're hit with what they really need to do, and I think that's when they come to the realization oh, I'm in over my head or I'm not doing a good job because of this, that and the other. And I know I found myself in that same scenario when I was the head of an organization.

Brandy: 17:27

It is very hard of the hiring agencies or that particular person's direct report, as well as the person who said yes to the position, because two things happen Oftentimes when you're hiring for a position it's because there is a need in the organization or a gap that's being filled, and, depending on how large of a gap there was or how long there's been a need, you hire someone in. Have them focus on the greatest pain point but forget the foundation of their onboarding and development for the role.

Brandy: 18:10

And then, when that lack starts exposing themselves, instead of giving them the opportunity to be developed further, now it becomes punitive or performance-based when really they came in at a disadvantage and so their leader.

Brandy: 18:27

That's where that level of leadership development is important, on how you look back at your team and get them caught up to where they need to be.

Brandy: 18:36

That is a big gap, but then the person who took the position has to have a clearer mind, and that's kind of where I partner with people in career transitions.

Brandy: 18:46

What are the questions you need to ask in the interviews? What? What is the job description actually saying, and how do you I actually have them do activities using their current skill set and resume to the role that they're trying to apply to and see how they feel like they fit and list examples of why they came to that conclusion, so that you're not just saying, oh, I like this title or this sounds good, but how does your skill set currently apply to that job, knowing that there's some growth opportunities, some development that's going to happen, but you're not going in there completely green, because training and development in the sea of shortage that we have in our economic fields right now is very very broad, yeah, and you're talking about, you know, just think about an owner, though, that doesn't have anybody ahead of them or in front of them, right, and the amount of learning they have to do just to get a recognition of the different functions that they have to have in their own company.

Laura: 19:55

And but with everything you're saying, I really love that you're talking about leaders, who are current leaders, hiring for the level down. Right, they're trying to hire for that person, for that position, and they don't have their own expectations prepared, right, and that's true, true, true. But more importantly, they also are not mentoring or, you know, preparing that person for development.

Brandy: 20:25

And I want to circle back to what you said about business owners and entrepreneurs without that lens, yeah.

Brandy: 20:32

And recognizing that was a big why for me doing the business development with my coaching business is we are really good at doing the job and running a business, but of what it takes like the skill set, the craft, but the behind the scenes operations of doing the business is actually running, the business isn't there. So my love and my passion is to help bridge that gap between yes, you know how to do the skill in your business, but how do you keep your business going and how do you have a conversation with people? How do you manage your email system? What do you do with your finances? What does making sound decisions in your business as a, as the only voice of decision, look like so that you can continue to grow and thrive in the element that you're in?

Laura: 21:26

Yeah, and, brandy, I really appreciate everything you're saying. Sadly, we're already out of time. I mean, I can just talk to you. This is wonderful, wonderful. I could just talk to you. This is wonderful, wonderful. But I did want to let people know if they want to reach you they can contact you through brandymillsconsultingcom and then in through that you have links of how to schedule an appointment etc. But thank you so much for your time and your expertise. Yeah, it is such a joy to have you here.

Brandy: 21:56

So thank you so much for your time and your expertise.

Laura: 21:58

Yeah, it is such a joy to have you here. So thank you so much and I want to thank you, the audience, for listening to the Mosaic Life with Laura W. You can listen to this episode again and get this great content, or listen to other great hosts and their shows by going to bizradious and click on shows. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great rest of your day.