Episode 86: Transforming Personal Challenges into Victories: A Guide for Aspiring CEOs

Are you the CEO of your life? This episode is an unflinching look at the mirror moments that define leaders and the importance of self-awareness in the journey to success. I, Tiffany Largy, along with the Do the Damned Thing coaches, navigate the intricacies of transforming personal challenges into victories and crafting a unique story that could be the foundation of your six-figure success or even your million-dollar milestone. 

We delve into the nitty-gritty of dealing with setbacks, acknowledging the problem if there's no clear winner, and the undeniable significance of having a team that brings diverse perspectives to the table. I candidly share my experiences on the growth potential that unfolds when one is ready to listen to things no one else dares to say. We'll also be talking about the power of action and the magic inherent in a great story. Make sure to grab the exciting gift at wwwstractpustlecom, designed to help you tell your story with a punch. Remember – starting now is the pathway to the success you aspire to!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey, you welcome to Build the Damned Thing, a place where myself, tiffany Largy and our amazing Do the Damned Thing coaches show you how to use your story to build it all. Whether it's your first six figures, your next layer of multiple six figures, or maybe you're on your way to a minute, and if it's not, that it's the life of your dreams where you are free, you are strong and you are whole. First, we're going to show you how to use your story to build a strong foundation, and then, next, we're going to show you how to use your story in sales and marketing to clean up the cracks. And last but not least, we're going to show you how to use your story to gather people, because the truth of the matter is that there's nothing stronger than being connected to people who just understand you as you are where you are, so you can stop explaining yourself. I want to remind you that, now that you're here, you are home and I officially welcome you to our family. All right, let's get started.

Speaker 1: 1:04

Self-awareness as a CEO is probably one of the biggest things that you're missing right now. Like I thought I knew about myself until I had to look in a mirror for a long time and I couldn't get out of it. So here are the areas in which a CEO is forced to look in the mirror, either for the first time or the next time when they were supposed to get a big deposit in their company and the deposit did not come. And all of a sudden, payrolls do and they are S-O-L. That's one Second when they have a really high turnover and people are just leaving and you're like why the heck are people leaving me? And if you're thinking about your personal life, this is where you have people coming in and out of your life and you're like why the hell are people in and out of my life and they're not here? I don't get it. What the hell is going on? Number three Number three is going to be where you have something that keeps recurring, and it might be a situation like let's say it's like harassment is happening. Let's say it's people who are angry.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Maybe you have fights that break out all the time, like I don't know what's happening in your company, but I do know this, having been a CEO for 20 years and some plus or minus way. But here now, in the last 10 years, I've had to scale businesses based on my story based on my ideas, based on my philosophies, without a product to filter me in front of me. So if you're the CEO of a product, it's pretty easy, because you can push it all on the product and the product is not winning and the product didn't do the thing and the product is the problem and the people surrounding the product and the product development. But I really want to say this Every single company is either thriving or dying today based on the leader. Every home is either thriving or failing today because of the leader. And if you were in a home just like if you were in a business, and there's no clear winner, boom, there's your problem. Boom, there's your problem. There is no business. Like I want to make this clear there is no business, there is no home that is going to survive with two leaders at the top without one of them taking the edge on being the CEO.

Speaker 1: 3:04

I feel wholeheartedly that every single CEO is lacking self-awareness and their self-awareness is the thing that's holding the company back. I know that for me, my lack of self-awareness at times has been why a lot of things have been held back. Because think about it like this, like stay with me, ceo, stay with me. If you're at the top of the game, if you're at the top of the conversation, who's going to tell you about yourself? If you are signing your name on everybody's paycheck, who was going to tell you about yourself? Like there was really nobody to actually tell you about yourself. Now you might be like well, tiffany, you don't understand. We have a plumbing company and in this plumbing company I got Jessica Jessica's my operations manager and she always sets me right. She does not. She tells you half of the things, but she's not going to tell you that you're full of it. She is not going to walk up to your butt and be like you are full of it and walk out, which is probably what you're behind needs to hear.

Speaker 1: 3:54

I know it's what I've needed to hear, because sometimes not only do we make moves, but sometimes I, like me, I run my businesses all of them with here, with my heart, and this sounds really wild, but it has worked for me for 20 years. And then the brands that I'm building today and the kind of companies I'm responsible for. There is no other way, because I need people and there have been moments where I've lost. I've gotten not jaded, but I've had other people who have come in and tried to get me to see more of the bottom line. Tiffany, that is less profitable. We could do it this way. We don't have to care about people. In that way, we can cut off their contracts at 12 months. I'm like, yeah, yeah, we could do that. We could, but we'd be like that was companies and that's not why I got in business. I did not get in business to go mirror the foolishness that I see in the industries that I'm in. That's dumb. I'm not doing it. There's gotta be another way.

Speaker 1: 4:46

Staying true to your heart I'm starting to change through to my heart has been one of the most easiest ways for me to stay in the lane of self-awareness. But the truth is that I believe at some point, every single CEO needs a boss. I know this sounds stupid, but I'm being really honest. I feel like every CEO at some point needs a boss. Who's gonna tell them about themselves, whether you are paying them, actually forever, all of them, you should be paying them and they're gonna tell you about yourself. They're gonna tell you about the way your grandchild looked. They're gonna tell you about your outfit. They're gonna tell you the things and I'm talking. It sounds like a little hood, but I'm telling you that they're gonna tell you the things that everybody else is afraid to tell you, and that's the only way that you and everything you're touching is gonna grow.

Speaker 1: 5:30

Self-awareness is like the lack and it's not only the lack but it's the gap in so many companies, because the narrative that I'm always right and that I know best is one-sided, it is half-baked, it is unpractical and it is an inexperienced approach to winning. Everybody on this planet knows that the best things that are created eventually have some form of a team around it. You either need a team as a CEO right now, you either need a team at your house, or you need a team at your office, or you need a team in both. Now, a team is going to be a set of people who are not only growing with you, but they're growing right next to you and they're forcing another narrative to take place. But if you don't have a place where you get checked on a regular basis, one year turns into two year you are on the wrong path and then you wake up three years later. You don't waste half a million dollars on an idea don't work. You don't waste a two million dollars on employee turnover. You have wasted and lost years of your marriage or years of your kids being little or teenagers, where you're chasing things and ideas and you don't get to the result because no one's checked you.

Speaker 1: 6:43

It's like you know I don't know if you'll understand this because maybe I'm a little too Miami. I'm born and raised in Miami, for those of you who don't know, and I'm the CEO of a couple of brands and one of the ones that I'm most proud of is DTDT. Right, let's do the damn thing. And in this truth, it's like we have this conversation my friends and I but even my friends and I not old friends, but you know my team members, people on my team I won't say no names, but the truth is, like you know, I believe wholeheartedly that a lot of people will talk a lot of smack until they get their ass beat. You know, like there's always somebody in the street like where you're from, where I'm from, they'll run their mouth till forever talking about all this, that and the other big and bad, until they get their ass beat and then they shut up. Now that sounds kind of wild, like why would I bring that kind of an analogy? Because where I'm from. That makes complete sense to me.

Speaker 1: 7:37

So it's like as a CEO, until I get checked, I'm going to say all the things, but the truth is that I am not perfect and I am definitely not always right, and neither are you. The faster we come to that realization and the faster we get inside of getting people who we trust, who are brilliant in their craft, who are smart in what they do and who we're willing to let on the inside of whatever we're trying to accomplish, the faster we do that stuff. And people who don't look like you Let me say that part again people who don't look like you. If I had a bunch of black women telling me all the things that I needed to do I'm building a global brand right now what am I going to do with myself if I'm building a global brand and I got a whole sea of black women sitting around a circle telling me how we're going to conquer the world?

Speaker 1: 8:22

That don't make no damn sense. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I would be so ass backwards in that approach. I can't even. I can't even the amount of CEOs I see right now who are like let's figure out how to grow this global software, and then their entire executive team, semi executive team, board clients that they meet. They're like we have we have 10 white people and then one black token person, and it's like that doesn't make any sense either. The truth of the matter is that not only does that make me sick, but that lets me know that that company's biggest trip is that they're not understanding the world at large and they're not understanding everybody.

Speaker 1: 9:01

And you might say, well, tiffany, my product is not for everybody Today, in today's market. You're wrong, because now the lines have been so crossed with wealth, access, knowledge, with interest and more like really cool people can pick up trades in a month. Really cool people can learn new skills in a year. Really cool people can just do different things and become different things and become different people as the wind blows and decide that that's their level of expertise or mastery. And because of that, it's like I really don't believe that, even if you're selling to one person or one specific avatar, I really believe with every fiber of my body you should be building a global brand, because you can, and you should also be focused on answering the question how do I hear more voices other than my own, so that I don't leave everybody out. That's it. Like I can't emphasize that enough.

Speaker 1: 9:58

Who is checking you? And if it's your wife, let me tell you a couple of things that won't work. Okay, you can't only be checked by your spouse, unless your spouse is doing what you do as a profession or they are running a bigger game than you. I can't explain that Like and this is the hardest one because sometimes we're like oh well, my wife or my husband, they're the person, but if your wife or husband, they don't really understand what you're doing, it's going to be hard for them to check you because they're giving you opinions that are biased. They're also giving you opinions that are incomplete because they've never had to run a marathon.

Speaker 1: 10:32

Being a CEO is a flipping marathon. I'm on these streets running like a treadmill sometimes, like it's just exhausting, like there are days where I'm like you know, I cannot. There are, there are only so many bad words, you know, and some days all the things are hitting the fan and all of the things. I have to have all the answers, and I got to have answers from my house and I got to have answers for my kids. I got three kids, two of which are in college. Like I can't not have answers and I can't not be willing to step to the plate. So I don't know what that is for you, but I do really want to emphasize this statement to you that having people that check you is vital. Allowing the space in the room to be checked, starting today, is a must. Allowing the space in the room by who? Everybody, because the faster you get checked, the faster you get, you get to chisel yourself, the faster you evolve into the next level of a CEO. Either it's for next quarter or next year, and I promise you it's probably one of the missing things. And if you're like Tiffany, I don't even know what you're talking about. Tiffany, how the hell do I get there? I don't care how big of a company you're running. It's very possible that the shadow CEO is something that you need. I'll tell you this.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Ask yourself this question right now Like, when was the last time you allowed someone to tell you something and you weren't able to respond? You just listened and they weren't penalized for them. They weren't penalized for asking you a question. They weren't penalized for sharing their opinion. They weren't made little, there was no anger. You did not resent them, you did not talk back about them. When was the last time you just listened? When was the last time you just listened? When was the last time you just listened and you shut up?

Speaker 1: 12:26

My responsibility as a CEO is to listen and lead, listen and lead, listen and lead. Not talk all the time, not run my mouth 24 hours, not always be right, but to listen and lead. I cannot emphasize that enough. So I don't know where this lands. I don't really know where this lands for you, but I do know this the greatest gift that we could give to ourselves, the greatest gift you and I could give and that you could give to you, is by making a decision to get your self-awareness game together, but, more importantly, to check yourself as a CEO.

Speaker 1: 12:57

And when is the best time to start? Absolutely now, all right, now. I literally can't. I honestly cannot wait to see what you're going to do with this, like I can't wait to see if you're going to go. Maybe, oh, maybe, oh, maybe, maybe, oh, maybe, oh, maybe. All right, well, I got to go, I got to get out of here. I will absolutely see you next week. I adore you, I am super excited about what you're building out there and I can't wait to watch you win in these streets. Thank you, bye.

Speaker 1: 13:27

I hope that episode was amazing for you and you are closer to building the dancing.

Speaker 1: 13:34

I can't wait to hear what your thoughts were, what part you loved and the action that you're going to go take, because the truth of the matter is that the person who wins is not the person who gets there first, it's the person who takes action first.

Speaker 1: 13:46

Now I've got a gift for you, and it is at wwwstractpustlecom. It is imperative that you run there and you see all types of goodies, starting with the seven must-haves that you've got to put when telling your story. There is so much deliciousness awaiting for you. I would love nothing more than for you to go ahead and give us a thumbs up and a five-star review on not just this episode, but this entire series of how do you build the dancing, like always. If there's anything that we can do to make your weekday or month better, please let us know. And, more importantly, I can't wait to see you live, whether it's at Day the Damping Live or in one of our communities, or maybe you're just hanging out with us on social media. What I know to be true is that I am meant to connect with you somewhere, and I can't wait for that day to happen and, more importantly, I can't wait to see what you build.