- [INTRO] Welcome to SkyeTeam's People First with Morag Barrett.

- My friend and colleague is an inspiration. Michelle Myers is the founder of Summit Leadership Coaching a firm providing high impact coaching, leadership development and consulting services to organizations, leaders, teams and individuals. Her company's mission to grow more conscious, connected, and courageous leaders and organizations so that our world can thrive. Oh my goodness, Michelle don't we need you? She is a certified Dare to Lead facilitator and a certified leadership coach. And when she's not serving her clients, she's serving her community through Impact100 Metro Denver and enjoying a happy life with her husband, Craig and her new puppy. I have puppy envy through . So welcome Michelle, I'm so excited to have you here on People First.

- Me too, thanks for inviting me.

- Well, as you know People First is all about the leadership journeys that we are all on and their windy, winding parts. And I know yours has been all sorts of twists and turns along the way, but I want to start with your origin story. So when you were at elementary school and the teacher said, "Michelle what do you want to be when you grow up?"

- Oh yeah. Spring Lake Elementary in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Third grade is career day. So you actually had to think about it and you dressed up as the, like what you were going to be when you grew up. So mine was funny, I was confused as a child which makes sense for everything we'll talk about today. I wanted to be an actress and a lawyer. My inspiration for that career in confusion was I want to say what's called the Jagged Edge with Glenn Close and.

- Oh yes.

- From Pretty Woman, what's his name? Richard Gere! Remember where the end of the typewriter, I just ruined the story. I was like, oh my gosh! Like, and it was about lawyers, but they were acting. So it was kind of all of the same and I wore a suit, I had a briefcase.

- Wow.

- And I think I was acting like a lawyer, I don't know.

- But that's awesome. As a woman who has been known to be somewhat addicted to Law and Order, and therefore on-screen legal shenanigans, then I can get that. All right, so you're not a lawyer though, you're a coach, you're a leadership expert, you're a people expert. So what was the pivot point for you then that took you away from the Hollywood lights and law?

- Oh my gosh, I know I think life. What's been interesting about my journey is I don't even think I asked myself the big questions on what do I want to do? I think I graduated college and just got a job. I was on my own pretty much since I was 18, worked my way through college and so when you were near end of school I was just like, I got to get a job, and I need to stop my waitressing job at Chili's. In my degree, I did go through a legal studies program undergrad and did an internship in a law firm, and I realized, oh my god, this is business. You don't just get to show up and do legal things. And it was a lot of heady work, a lot of studying, a lot of things I didn't love to do quite honestly, and so I got a second degree in organizational communications which is basically business without the numbers I didn't have to take accounting, thank God. So when I graduated kind of halfway through college I realized I'm not going to be a lawyer, like this is so not who I am. I mean, I like to debate and argue, but you know maybe not for a living. Anyway, so I got out of college and I found myself in a consulting slash training, rolling out a small software program and what was so appealing about it is I traveled all over the US and the world but I found myself alone doing it. And it was a really small company, but in my travels and like my resourceful self, I found myself at a National Restaurant Association Conference in Chicago, and I went there knowing I was going to find my next job. And I fell into Arthur Andersen's business consulting practice. So they had a booth.

- Hang on a minute. How do you end up in Arthur Andersen's consulting practice at a conference that doesn't seem to mean anything? Like, what?

- I know, they had a division that was focused on retail.

- Okay.

- And so it just happened to be a small off shoot but I walked up to their booth and I had known about the big five consulting and that maybe that would be a great next career move for me. I was kind of already doing it but I needed a bigger company. I just went up and introduced myself and they loved my moxie and my, I don't know, I guess my courage at the time, I didn't have words for it. I was just like I got to make the next thing happen, this isn't. And so I just kind of found myself finding my way without maybe a whole lot of intention but almost collecting like this amazing life experience and work experience along the way.

- So you make it sound so easy and I have to say that's one of my first impressions when I met you way back when is an inner strength that just radiates from you which is both inspiring, but also reassuring. So tell me, as you look back then at those early formative years it couldn't have been that easy. What were some of the peaks, but also what are some of the valleys and what did you learn from those?

- I'd say some of the peaks for me and what maybe felt in flow was the adventure of it all. So I love the idea of travel. So I don't know that it was the work that drew me or the lifestyle that drew me. So like being on a plane every week, traveling to different places, the team environment, I loved working in teams. I loved the structure of like a beginning and an end and that you actually produce something and then you like walk away to go produce the next thing. So I'd say that environment and the like rapid learning and growth was really what gave me some of my peak successes cause I got to try a lot of different things, I got to learn so much about business, I almost feel like it was my MBA and I was learning about people, but not consciously which speaks to some of my valleys. I think what I know about myself today, so if I look back at some of the hard parts about my career is I don't think I was conscious always or maybe never in my twenties and early thirties of the dynamics or that I was a woman or that I was an independent thinker, I expressed my opinions, I had a lot of opinions and that wasn't always really welcomed. And I missed that mark on more than a few occasions.

- Yeah, I remember that again, that outside in perspective of being a woman and in my first career in banking where I knew I was different because I was one of the youngest and first to move forward through the leadership levels. And I knew that there were unwritten rules and expectations, and to your point sometimes missing the cues and thank goodness that we did cause it meant that we were pushing the envelope as we we try to help transform industries.

- Yeah, I didn't know there were unwritten, like I literally was oblivious. Which I think on one level is a gift but I hit a few big bumps. And I also think the bumps or the fall downs or the valley was all part of exactly what I was put on earth to learn and what my whole journey was about learning. And I, wasn't going to learn it by being told, I had to experience it.

- That's exciting, so you experienced it because you then move from consulting, which I realize is also a corporate role, but it's different into a corporate career and it fits more laterally into human resources and people 150% of the time because HR never stops. So tell me about that transition. What made you pick that or do that, again was it one of those opportunity doors that happened to open and you just walked on through?

- Yeah, I think absolutely. I think my life up until we'll get to the point if a door opened and it seemed like, again the first corporate gig for me, like leaving consulting was my last client. And my last client in consulting was the merger between Gart Sports and Sports Authority. For those east coasters or those that live in Denver, it then became sports authority, a national brand and is no longer in business. But they were my last client in the merger between the two companies so I was running the people integration process, and I was ready for change and to move to Denver, I was living in Chicago at the time, I was ready for change which is also core in my DNA. I'm not a static person, I'm always kind of in change, in motion, evolving. And so I thought, oh my gosh I'll move to Denver for two years, become a great skier. So there's always a seam of adventure tied to my work, and I was ready to just play an experience and take my eight years of consulting experience and see what I could do inside a company and actually carry an integration all the way through two years later to what it became. Like inside a company oftentimes in consulting, you never see the end. And so I loved what really appealed to me was being able to carry it all the way through and to really get my hands on what is it like to run and lead a function inside corporate. Yeah, so HRC natural based on the work I was doing but I will tell you when I moved to Denver, I heard, here are the two things I heard. You don't seem like an HR person and you seem like you belong in New York city. So like there were these themes and I didn't even know, I mean, I got the New York comments, I took it as a compliment, but I got like Denver in 2003 is not Denver of 2020. You know, like I think our business community has completely changed in great ways, but it was funny hearing you're not an HR person, I didn't quite know what they meant, honestly. I never understood that. I do now. I do now.

- And what did they mean by that with hindsight? I think what it means for me today, like my words, I think I'm a CEO. And I don't think ever knew that. Like I never knew I was actually supposed to be the one leading, like in a bigger way, that in HR and this isn't true because I know some amazing HR leaders and the HR role and function is so unique to the culture and environment in the executive team and really unique to the person in the role. And I'm a huge fan of HR, and I'm always pulling HR in cause I think it's a game changer in every culture and organization. But for me, I think being downstream, taking orders, so like in 2003, the perception of HR and depending on the culture, I'm not an order taker. I'm honestly a little resistant. I'm a resistor and sometimes a little oppositional. And I may, yeah, just a little bit and many other things too, but I think it just didn't fit the mold of where HR was at the time. I certainly didn't fit the mold. And more importantly, even if we look at today, I just don't think, I think I'm meant to be doing something differently. So that's how I see it.

- And I would agree. I mean, the successful HR leaders that I've seen that help influence the culture, the strategy of their organizations are the ones that aren't pure bred HR leaders, they are business leaders who understand the incredible asset that you have in the human side of the business and how to connect that to the numbers and the transactional side around widgets that you're making or services that you're providing. And so, yes, you were part then of a small cadre that I'm glad to say is increasing but also that reputation that HR has for personnel, for hugs and lollipops, unfortunately still sticks and holds many back. So finding your voice, having the courage that you talked about earlier set you up for success. And of course now you're on your next pivot, well, you decide to go all courageous and start your own consulting firm as the CEO and founder but bringing together all your talents and passions. So what has most surprised you about now transitioning into owning your own practice and coming to the table from a slightly different angle?

- Hmm. When it's def... I'm just, I'm at more choice. I feel like I get to... it's different because, well it's different because I'm different. So I don't, I sometimes sit with a question like, could I ever go inside again? Would I ever want to go inside again? And I answered that question in 2015, which was no. However, how it's different is I've created an environment for myself and my business world and my life, where I feel like I'm now one and the same. So when you mentioned hugs and lollipops, what's different now is I've cultivated that part of me. I think unlike or like many of us, in our twenties and early thirties, we're just hustling, we are just climbing, climbing, climbing. It's the next thing, the next thing, achievement, success it's this whole external. And by the way, it's not everyone, and I think we just have some really innate strengths and mine was all on delivery, execution, drive, like kind of these maybe more masculine qualities and the feminine qualities, and I don't even want to stereotype masculine or feminine energy, let's call it energy. The hugs are really important but I hadn't cultivated that part of myself, and I hadn't cultivated that part of my life. And so I didn't understand how important hugs and lollipops were. And I say hugs and lollipops as something really powerful, fun and adventurous and needed.

- Oh yeah, well we can bring the human back into the workplace and take the junior high out it's transformational. And it is, it's less of what I'm hearing in your story, it's less about what you Michelle are doing and it's how you, Michelle are being.

- Yeah, it's who I'm becoming. And what my being out for me is really aligned with, I'm a fiercely independent woman, I was born that way. If you talk to my parents and I've used COVID time, I've had four-hour conversations with my mom, who was I at five? What was I like, just describe me. I was fiercely independent, I was my own CEO, I was doing my own laundry cause I needed it done the way I liked it when I wanted it.

- At five?

- At five! I had this insatiable drive for learning and doing, and like all of our journeys, I think, I had to learn some really hard lessons and I had some big wins in my career, I had some heavy hits and some failures. And my last job is when it is who I'm becoming and it was my last job, I was head of HR for a healthcare technology company, and I was just so out of integrity with every part of my being, I didn't have words for it. And so when I went out on my own, I just knew I needed space. It's almost like getting out of a bad marriage. I just needed space, I just wanted to date, I didn't want to commit, and it was then that I got the job offer that my ego so craved, I got another on paper, the dream job. And it was head of HR, reporting to the CEO, it had the money, the title, and I literally almost had a panic attack. And I realized, oh my God, that's not me. But I never knew that those were the signs. Like anxiousness or I just ignored it and worked harder. And the harder I worked.

- And you're right, your loyalty, your determination, your courage was I can work through this and I can see the difference now. And of course, in setting up your practice you've had the opportunity to work with Dr. Brené Brown and her body of work. So tell me how that has influenced you but also the work that you do with your clients.

- So I picked up my first Brené Brown book at the very end of this big journey transition where I was leaving corporate and starting out on my own. And I picked up "The Gifts of Imperfection" and I literally read it, and you would have thought like mountains moved, volcanoes, erupted, sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. I think one of the things that is so powerful about her work is the way she names things, it's her storytelling, and it's she gives the things we can't always name or identify a name. And once we can name something it either one loses its power or we finally have the clarity that we can actually step up and do something, something different or take a different path or make a different choice. So her book, "The Gifts of Imperfection" really cracked me open. So when I started my journey of solopreneurship, entrepreneurship, I didn't know, I didn't have a vision, I didn't have a game plan, and any entrepreneur or solopreneur listening, you don't need one. You don't need one because it's really, and this is this is where it leads me down her path, it's starting to build the inner leader and the inner leadership parts of who we are, and starting to cultivate that and that trust with ourselves and trust that like, just by starting one step at a time we'll find our answer, but it's counter to how like you get out of college, you just get that first job, and then you just keep climbing and a door opens, you don't even think if it's what you want. You're like, can I do it? Is it more money? Is it an increased title? Great. Check.

- Hamster wheel.

- Hamster wheel. And like, none of it's conscious, for me it wasn't. And I find with a lot of my clients, my story is not unlike many of our stories. So her work was super powerful in helping me begin my journey of who I want to be, who I want to be as a leader and by leader, I don't even mean title, I mean my own leader, leader of my life, leader of my work. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for processes or people, a leader's anyone who is response able, we create our world. And so I luckily had a super supportive husband who believed more in me honestly, than I have ever believed in myself, and it was just what I needed to like give me the courage to just explore and play and he's 28-year entrepreneur himself. So her work really was inspirational in helping me learn about myself and my leadership and who I want to be. And I read, started with "Gifts of Imperfection" to "Daring Greatly", to "Rising Strong". I literally did research to figure out how to become a facilitator of her work when Daring Way was starting to become a program, and none of the credentials, I mean it was much more in the social work, licensed therapist lane, like for the credentials, but I knew "Dare to Lead" was coming out and it was a culmination of all of that work in bringing this language to corporate leadership and it just clicked with me, I was like it's absolutely work that is aligned with who I am and that I feel, really with my corporate background and experience in my own personal journey, I just knew it would feel really integrated for me to create daring leadership programs and bringing it to the world. So I applied and I got in.

- Yeah and the rest, as they say is history but also history in the making. And I just want to celebrate the way you show up, the partnership that you've provided to me and my team but the influence and the ripple effect that you're having for those leaders and individuals who look to you for guidance as they dare to lead in their own environment. It's amazing.

- Yeah, thank you. And likewise to you for those, I mean, everyone listening I'm assuming this, Morag and her team, Morag you do follow so many a Brené's guide post from the beginning of your entrepreneurship, like your, even these podcasts, right? You model not hustling for your worth, you don't operate from scarcity, you are one of the most generous, courageous entrepreneurs that lifts everyone up. So thank you for being you.

- Oh, thank you. Together we'll get through this. So as we come towards the end of our time together, Michelle, what final thoughts do have around leadership, around Brené Brown, just around the influence and impact that you're having in the world?

- Oh my God, final thoughts. I don't know, and it's like, this was fun. Maybe it's that's it. Have fun, if it's not fun.

- You're doing it wrong.

- There's something off and it's worth getting curious about. We weren't put on this earth to grind it. And I don't know that anyone at the end of our life just wants to know they grinded it and crushed it and I mean, yeah, that's all cool, but there's something missing. So like get curious, have fun and get curious.

- I love that. So Michelle, how can people find out more about you and your work?

- Reach out! My website's, summitleadershipcoaching.com. We're doing, I'm getting this year has been phenomenal for my business, I'm looking to grow my team, Dare to Lead is on the rise, I find more clients where courage is one of their core values and in Brené's work like they are operationalizing it. So I think now more than ever our world needs more conscious connected courageous leaders, and it's not a title. Anyone can lead from any seat. We all need to create the world we want and not be blind that we can't, like we can. So reach out to me, I do leadership coaching, I bring Dare to Lead to organizations and I do public sessions too. So I'll be posting my schedule for next year, and I really do bring learning and practice and integration into everything I do. I think it's one of my core values but I don't want to do training for the sake of training. Were about learning and growing as humans and making a difference in the world, and so I want to be a part of that. And I want to help others make their mark in it too.

- Well, I appreciate all of your insights, wish you ongoing success, thank you for your time today.

- Thank you.

- [Narrator] Thank you so much for joining Morag today. If you enjoyed the show, please like and subscribe so you don't miss a thing. If you learn something worth sharing, share it, cultivate your relationships today when you don't need anything before you need something. Be sure to follow SkyeTeam and Morag on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And if you have any ideas about topics we should tackle, interviews we should do, or if you yourself would like to be on the show, drop us a line at infoatskyteam.com, that's S K Y E team.com. Thanks again for joining us today and remember business is personal and relationships matter. We are your allies.