Leadership is a privilege that comes with the toughest challenges. That’s why it is normal and okay to feel stuck sometimes. As it is part of the journey, you might as well enjoy it! Tune in as Jaime Taets of Keystone Group International joins us for part 2 of accelerating your business. In this conversation, Jaime focuses on how leaders can keep growing by owning their vulnerabilities. As promised in our previous episode, Jaime also gives us a sneak peek of her book, You Are Here: Kick-Ass Inspiration for Navigating Your Journey to Success. Tune in and be inspired as she shares her own “87 cents moment.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you because you have those moments. It’s what you do with them that matters.” -Jaime Taets  

Highlights: 

02:06 How to Grow as Leaders

05:45 Own Your Vulnerability 

07:06 87 Cents Moments

Resources:

Book

• Keystone Group International Culture Guide Book
• You Are Here: Kick-Ass Inspiration for Navigating Your Journey to Success by Jaime Taets

Quotes: 

04:14 “Many of us get stuck at certain points along the way. We think we’re broken, we think we’ve done something wrong when really… it’s not all pretty, but it’s all part of our journey.” -Jaime Taets

08:57 “There’s nothing wrong with you because you have those moments. It’s what you do with them that matters.” -Jaime Taets  

Meet Jaime: 

As the CEO of Keystone Group International, Jaime created the organization to focus on leadership development, organizational strategy, and growth.

Before starting Keystone Group International, she spent 13 years in a large corporate environment in a variety of leadership roles, living and traveling globally. Jaime believes that strong leadership is the foundation for healthy and sustainable growth for any business. She uses her leadership experience to drive “real” discussions about how to drive high performance and healthy cultures within client organizations. Leaders need to be focused on helping their organizations create a positive mindset change to manage the constant change as their business grows and evolves.

Jaime’s areas of expertise are helping organizations identify the issue that is getting in their way of growth and creating a plan for improvement – specifically in areas of strategy, culture, and people. Jaime uses her SuperPower of Empathy and high EQ to build strong relationships with clients and leaders within organizations she works with. This same SuperPower allows her to build trust quickly which makes it easier to get to the root of the issue. The purpose behind Jaime’s work is to create an impact on the people she works with. Jaime is driven by the positive changes that she creates for her clients-it’s an addiction.

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Transcriptions:

Robin Edgar Welcome to Real Talk with Robin. I’m Robin Edgar. I’m excited to have you join us today. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we had a great conversation with Jaime Taets, CEO of Keystone Group International. And we invited her to come back and talk about her new book called You Are Here, and her very successful Superpower Success Podcast. So Jaime, thank you so much for being here. And just give everyone a brief background on your business just in case they didn’t catch your previous podcast with me a couple of weeks ago.

Jaime Taets Thanks for having me back. I clearly professed to be here a second time. So yeah, just a little bit about me. I’m the CEO of Keystone Group international. I started Keystone eight years ago. We work at the intersection of your business strategy, your culture, and your leadership or your people. So background, a big business, we have really impactful business that helps businesses scale, and grow in a sustainable way, which is impactful to us and which what keeps us going.

Robin Edgar During this journey, you’ve had the opportunity to meet so many incredible people. I’m just amazed when I’m listening to your podcast, you have people from far and wide. And I know both of us are huge into connecting, we just are natural connectors. And so you have been connected to some pretty amazing people that you share about in your book and on your podcast, tell us about what you’re, kind of first off your purpose for the book. I think the podcast came way before the book, but what the purpose was, and then kind of maybe a few takeaways or lessons that you’ve learned along the way that really stick out to you as far as how we all have the ability to continue to grow and learn as leaders.

Jaime Taets Yeah. The inception of the podcast actually leads into the book. It’s really just on a spectrum and the journey that I’ve been on. And the podcast started over three, almost three and a half years ago from someone that I knew really well that I had been mentoring and having coffee with, she said, I just wish I had more of you. Like some of the things you’re sharing, like I need that dose of inspiration. She said you should start a podcast and I was like, not gonna do that. I was just afraid at that time to put myself out there because like, you know, anytime you put yourself out there, there’s room for people to criticize, right? Not believe what you believe. And I finally got over that. And the whole purpose of the podcast was based on executives and leaders that we were coaching to really try to minimize that comparison. Where someone sees the highlight reel of an award I want or some achievement that you’ve achieved. And they think that they’re not far enough or they’re not doing enough. And so the podcast, its purpose was to bring on leaders to share their real stories. Because as you and I both know, the story you see on social media is not the real story. The blood, sweat and tears, you know, the nights and weekends is not what we all see. And most people’s journeys are not a career ladder, they’re a jungle gym. They’ve tried different things and that’s why they’re successful. And so my goal was to tell their stories. And I just like listening and learning from them and the wisdom that they’ve learned along the way. So that was the impetus for the podcast is to share those stories. And then what happened is, I realized there was a greater impact that we could have. And so that’s where the book came from. And we started that 18 months ago and it’s called You Are Here; Kick Ass Inspiration for Navigating YOUR Journey to Success. And YOUR is in a different color on purpose because your journey and my journey and someone else’s journey is not the same and it’s not supposed to be the same. So the purpose of the book for me is to normalize all of the crap that happens on our way to success, because it’s never this smooth, paved road with no obstacles. And I think many of us get stuck at certain points along the way. We think we’re broken, we think we’ve done something wrong, we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, when really, that’s just part of the journey. As you think back over life, every obstacle, you’ve hit every obstacle I’ve hit, which I talked about in the book, I bear quite a bit in the book, because I want people to feel comfortable, and realizing it’s not all pretty when we get there, but it’s all part of our journey.

“Many of us get stuck at certain points along the way. We think we’re broken, we think we’ve done something wrong when really… it’s not all pretty, but it’s all part of our journey.” -Jaime Taets

Robin Edgar But in fact, I will challenge people to find somebody that is successful, that hasn’t had multiple failures, because I think the failures, the obstacles, the trips, the falls, whatever it is, we want to call it, that’s where the growth really occurs. And I think that even going back to last year in the pandemic, I think the word relevant, which you and I talk about a lot. It’s like where you relevant when people, you know, when I was on podcasts or on zooms last year and doing a lot of connecting, everybody kept saying, What’s your word, you know, grace and all of these things which are great. But I kept saying relevance because you quickly determined who was relevant to their clients and their business structure and who wasn’t, by all of us that kind of were relevant really dove in. And I think that that’s a lot of what you share on the podcast, too, is humanizing those people hearing their stories about how they’ve struggled or, you know, had a lot of bad things that have happened. But that gave them the power to get up realizing that would help them be more successful in the end.

Jaime Taets And we’ve even talked about it in our leadership training, that this idea of vulnerability and just owning what has happened, where you are, where you’re going, is freeing for yourself. But it also opens the door for other people to be vulnerable and to share where they’re at, which is where your effectiveness as a leader in an organization comes from. Your people have to trust you and want to share with you those types of things that they’re struggling with. And so that was my goal to be Uber vulnerable. There were multiple points in this book with my editor where I was like, maybe I should pull that story out. And she was like, No, if you’re willing to share it, people need to hear this because they need to see that someone can still be successful, right? And have gone through the things that I’ve gone through and have dealt with the things I’ve dealt with and hopefully, that gives them hope to just keep moving. I mean, that’s all we can do.

Robin Edgar Yeah. And I think, you know, my mantras earlier in life you have that stumble almost the stronger it makes you in the long run. At least that’s my story. And I’m sticking to it since I had that happen early. Tell us a little bit about– do you have a particular story or particular anecdote from the podcast, or the book that you might want to share with people to kind of just whet their appetite for what they might get by listening to the podcast or reading the book?

Jaime Taets Yeah. How about I share my most vulnerable one because you’re in the practice of that. So in the book, I call it my 87 cent moments. I had a client that told me an entrepreneur that told me a story about building his business. And it was early stage, three partners, and they weren’t making a lot of money, but a lot of money was going out, right? A lot of expense. He was the breadwinner, and his wife called him one day and said, there are 87 cents left in the checking account. And they hadn’t taken their distributions, and I have to go to the store, they have two kids. And so they figured out a plan and credit cards and like, here’s how we’re going to do it and he hung up the phone. And he promised himself that he would never feel that way again. And when he told me that story, I was like, I have an 87 cent moment. Right? It’s not the same. But it’s that moment where I started my business and six months later, I found myself in the middle of a divorce. So with no safety net, moving into a townhome, paying for by myself, like all of that expense. And the first night sitting in my townhome on the floor with little to no furniture, looking at my life saying, this can’t be my life. To everybody else, I was a successful entrepreneur that had left corporate America, and inside I was broken. I didn’t know how I was going to climb out of this hole I was in. I didn’t know what the future held. But in that moment, I had that same kind of snap where I was like, I’ll never feel this way again. I’m never going to be in this place again. And that was a choice I had to make. Nobody else could fix that for me. And so I call it my 87 cent moment and I own it. I’m like, I can picture the room. I could paint a picture and show you what it looks like to be in that moment, but it drives me every day to say I don’t want to be there. And I don’t want anyone else to stay in that place. And that’s the purpose of the book is to share that story and have someone go, yep, I have that moment. And I might have another moment like that. But there’s nothing wrong with you because you have those moments. It’s what you do with them that really matters.

“There’s nothing wrong with you because you have those moments. It’s what you do with them that matters.” -Jaime Taets  

Robin Edgar That’s really powerful, Jaime. I like the way you call it the 87 cent moment because everybody that’s listening can as you were saying that I was thinking about what my 87 cent moment was and I can picture what I was doing in exactly what that was. And I can almost guarantee that everybody listening to this right now can picture what that is. And we hope that you’ll look at using that as a strength. And I go get them and, you know, nothing can be this bad again, and look at how far I’ve come or all of those different things that people should really be thinking about when they experience that and are reminded of it. So how do I listen to your podcast? How do I get a copy of your book? How do I contact you if I’m interested in talking to you about helping me with my business?

Jaime Taets Yeah. So lots of ways LinkedIn is always a great place Jaime Adam Taets we put a lot of content out. For the podcast it’s on every place you listen to podcasts. So iTune, Spotify, off our website you can even listen. So it’s Super Power Success. So tune in there, you can listen to past episodes, we’ve got three years of episodes, the best place to get the book, you can get it on Amazon, so You Are Here. You can also go to our website, JaimeTaets.com, and that’s probably the best place to connect with me as well. So you’ve got my brand, but then you’ve also got Keystone, where I’m CEO and running that. But you can check out both places and depending on what you need, but I just hope no matter where leaders are in their journey that they get a copy of the book. And I actually hope they gift a copy of the book. That’s my goal is that they’re giving it to someone else to say, I want this to help you too. Because I think that’s what we all need to do for each other right now is we need to help each other, we need to be vulnerable and open for mental health reasons to be talking about some of these things that aren’t all highlight reels, and beautiful pictures on social media.

Robin Edgar As you and I talk about a lot of people and something that leaders understand as you can’t compare your beginning with my middle or my end and that type of we’ve all heard that. And I really think that that’s where this book can come alive. It can allow leaders to say I care enough about you. I know I’m advanced ahead of you in years probably an experience. But here’s a book that can help you not be depressed or, you know, just worry about how am I ever going to get to the level that the leaders in our company are at. This is one small step one foot in front of the other. And I’m just excited that you help business leaders and individuals whether it’s with the book or the podcast, or whether it’s coming in and sitting alongside them as an advisor on their team and strategist to work with them. So thank you for being here today. I’m really excited about the book launch and everything that you have going on and hopefully get down the road a little bit, you’ll be excited to come back and share with our listeners a little bit more about the journey. So I totally recommend connecting with Jaime and and finding out how she might be able to help you. So thank you Jaime for being here today.

Jaime Taets Thanks for having me.