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Live Lead Last is a weekly podcast hosted by leadership coach, nonprofit director, and entrepreneur James Duvall. Designed for growth-minded leaders, this show helps you live by design, lead with purpose, and leave a legacy that lasts.
Through honest conversations, practical tools, and real-life stories, James equips leaders to develop strong roots, sustainable influence, and lasting impact — both personally and professionally. Whether you're leading a team, a business, a ministry, or a family, this podcast will help you become the kind of leader others want to follow.
James: [00:00:00] Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Live Lead last podcast. I'm your host, James Duvall, and I'm so glad you're joining me today. Before we jump in, I wanna remind you about the five day Leadership Reset. If you're feeling stuck, worn out, or just need fresh vision for your leadership, this free resource is designed to help you realign your priorities, refresh your perspective, and renew your energy in just five days.
And you can start today by going to liveleadlast.com/reset. So in today's episode, we're diving into a topic that every leader needs to consider building a culture where people and purpose thrive. You know, according to Gallup, only 23% of employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization's values to their everyday work.
That means culture isn't just a nice to have, [00:01:00] it's actually mission critical for your leadership impact and for your team's long-term health. So to help us unpack this, I'm talking with Carolyn Mason. Willis, though if you know her, you'll call her Masi. And if you know Five Voices, she's a connector, creative pioneer who brings both heart and horsepower to leadership. Masi is the founder of the Mason Effect, where she works with high capacity leaders and teams to develop clarity, consistency in the courage it takes to lead well, especially when the pressure's on.
She's led in industries ranging from risk management to large scale event production, and has coached executives across sectors, helping them align their culture, transform their teams, and reclaim their time. Masi's, a certified giant coach and a masterclass facilitator and known for her warm, challenging, and deeply practical approach.
She's a native Georgia peach, all about sweet tea pork swings and SEC Saturdays, and as an Ohio State Buckeye fan, I won't hold it against her, that she's a diehard Georgia [00:02:00] Bulldog fan, at least not today. So you're about to hear from someone who lives and leads with intention, and I promise it's gonna stick with you.
So let's jump into this powerful conversation with Masi Willis.
Masi, it's so great to have you on the podcast. Thanks for spending some time with us today.
Masi: Yeah, it's great. I'm so excited. Thank you for having me. Wish I was in Florida with you, but I'm not.
James: Yeah. You know, it's such a blessing to live in South Florida. It's kind of a interesting pocket of the world. And we were talking earlier, it's hard to keep track of time because we actually only have.
Two seasons perpetual summer and hurricane season, and so we empathize and sympathize with the rest of the world. That's, you know, starting to come out of the cold now.
Masi: Yes. We are glad to be getting out of it.
James: Well, let's start a little bit background on you. Obviously you're accomplished coach and leader, and you have a, a history of investing in people.
I'd love for you just to take a little time and just share maybe kind of the Reader's Digest version of kinda your background and what's got you to where you are today.
Masi: Sure. I have lived a very non-linear life. I. When I [00:03:00] say that it's more my career has kind of gone all over the place. I am educated with a risk management insurance degree and then I left and went into some ministry and then I left that and just said, Lord, I need to really need you and let like lean into you.
And so I spent about five years doing 10 99 work that took me to producing movies and. Planting churches and creating events and came out of that and spent about 10 years combined doing large scale live experiences for big organizations. And that's where I really started leading teams ultimately left and went into consulting.
That pushed me eventually into the coaching side of the world. So it's very non-linear, kind of really crazy. But I always say my doctorate came because I spent so many different places being on teams, being led by different leaders in different environments, that when I did make this leap into owning my own [00:04:00] business and really pouring into people and guiding them to help, I had had.
All the experience leading into it.
James: That's quite a array of different things you've done. And I'm wondering, you know, both of us are connected with an organization called Giant. The primary, the actually primary tool of Giant is Five Voices. I know you're a connector created Pioneer, if I remember right.
Before we go farther, talk a little bit about how that voice order has played into your journey. Have you, have you seen like the breadcrumbs or the evidence of your personality and your wiring in that wide range of opportunities?
Masi: Yeah, it's great. I am so aligned to my voice order and any other assessment that anyone's given me.
I have pretty much always assessed out exactly how I was naturally created to be. Mm. People laugh at me. I do not go anywhere where I can't connect to someone somehow. And so that connector in me as well as just looking back over all those non-linear moments, I [00:05:00] have the uncanny ability to really, through the lens of my connector creatively problem solve.
I can see pictures and big. Spiderweb kind of maps and pull everything together and pioneer it to the end. Now I do think a lot in the future, so that nurturing, I've always struggled with that guardian side of myself, which is putting organization around me. Yeah. But yes, my life has played out the connector.
Creative pioneer. From all the way back to my high school years, I can see it.
James: You know, I've actually over the years, really struggled with really dialing in my foundational voice and order and, you know, you, you said that like, your nature is like, it's so clear. And I think for me, you know, when we talk about voices, we talk about tendencies, you know that it's nature and nurture and choice.
And what I found for myself, I'm a, I'm a creative pioneer and for many times I, I kind of leaned on what nature would say, you know, like. Myers-Briggs and so forth, and I realized that like, really, my [00:06:00] nurture has shaped a lot more my foundational voice of my nature. It's a combination, but it's interesting when you said that, I was like, oh, I, I get, I get that.
But I think really the, some of the, my upbringing and so forth, those things that have shaped me have been part of that too. But I love the Five Voices because it speaks so much, the fact that we just recently met, but. I feel like I know a lot about you because of your voice order. Right?
Masi: Yeah. It's interesting 'cause I, you know, we, we do think about those s and shoulds, what you, you should do or what you ought to do did start shaping me in my twenties.
Mm-hmm. And part of my even career changes is what I've realized in the knowledge of Five Voices, Myers Briggs and looking through that is that my fourth voice, which is nurture my blind spot, is actually what. I put forward, it's what people wanted to buy in me. And so they would buy my, my strategy. They loved my thought process of vision, but then they'd hone me into like, okay, think presently do things presently, [00:07:00] make sure the whole team's harmonized.
And so I would show up like the nurturer ghost and it only lasted so long until my true connector. I love people and I think about people through the lens of making decisions. Ultimately I realized it wasn't harmony that I could stick in there with. It was really me going, I want to see us relate to a network and development.
So that blind spot I have been able to hone in, in my knowledge and go, that's why you kept burning out because you would, you would allow yourself or your, or my leaders to push me back into that nurture guardian, and it only would last so long before. I miss that futuristic thought intuition and that creative innovation problem solving.
James: That's a great point. That's a great point because I think about my own journey. One of the things that was part of my transition out of a career, as in for 30 years, was really being stuck in a place that wasn't my natural. Tendency. [00:08:00] It was, it really probably was my blind spot having, having to galvanize in tenacity and bring things.
And as a creative pioneer, I, I want to innovate. I want to create new things. I want to build structure around it and so forth. But if I'm having to live in the day-to-day minutiae, and I. It really just sucks the life outta me. I think about my own journey in leadership and there was a a point in my life where personal leadership came to life for me in the organization I work with is, you know, we have John Maxwell who's part of our team and you know, so every time John Maxwell would write a book.
We would get it signed and it would just sit on my bookshelf. I, I had tons of books, you know, by John Maxwell that I never read, you know, so I, yeah. Which as a young leader, I always felt that like leadership was gonna happen by osmosis if I just kind of hung out with people. But there came a point that my leadership responsibility and authority increased, but my capacity didn't.
And it was, it was a dangerous season for me as a leader. And so. That's where leadership became real. Like, I'm personally [00:09:00] responsible for my leadership. I'm wondering if that's a trend or if, for you, if there's a, if you can think back, was there a place in your journey of leadership that you're like, I have to take personal responsibility for developing myself as a leader?
Masi: Wow. Woo. That's a loaded one. I, I, one particular moment, I had a boss that I used to work for, his name's Garrett and. He said to me, I was leading the live events team and a live experience team at, at this organization, and we were producing an annual, the annual event for Chick-fil-A and we were kind of mom and popping the, the organization that he, we had built, there was only, you know, a handful, two handfuls of us working it.
We didn't have titles. We didn't have a home. We weren't, we were just, we were remote before remote was a thing. And I kept asking Garrett like, I, you need to tell people I'm leading. He said, no, you don't have to be told that you're leading. You don't need a business card. You don't need a title. If you wanna lead your team, lead them.
You're [00:10:00] still in the work and you won't be able to if you don't get up over the work. And so he really challenged me, even from live experiences to go be the last in and the first out. Like you're always first in and last out, but as a leader, you should have empowered your team to still be able to exist with you.
So. I left that organization to go and own my own business and then COVID hit. And when COVID hit I, I really had to look at my linear life and go, what is going on right now? And so I had the time to draw out all this crazy non-linear life. And the only thing that I had done consistent in those 20 to 25 years was mentor and develop young girls in high school ministry.
And so I just flipped the script and said, you know what? If I really focused in on that, I had the luxury of unemployment being paid because live events went away. And so I really started looking around and my [00:11:00] goal during COVID was to unsubscribe to every email. That's what my purpose. I came across a giant email that made me just draw into some of the language they were using.
And so when I got into studying Giant, that's where I've probably transformed. And if you were to talk to some of my friends, they'd say, I've done the hardest work. I. Not on building a business, but probably transforming myself because it just, it permeated into my soul and I realized, gosh, you need to ask people what it's like to be on the other side of you.
And so that started changing me, and I asked this one guy I worked with, what's more, what more do you want from me? And what less do you want from me? And when I started asking people questions like that, it really made me realize where my triggers came in, where I thrived when I was dying on the vine.
And so it's been within the last five years that I would say my personal leadership style and owning my own self and turning the [00:12:00] mirror has really transformed me and my soul.
James: That's incredible. It is interesting that like when you begin to do the hard work. One of the things we, we say, John, is like, you can only give from what you possess.
Right? And so, and everything starts with self. Like if you can't lead yourself, it's gonna be hard to impact and influence others. And, and when you're saying that your friends around, you're like, they've seen the work. And I think sometimes when, and personal leadership, we have discoveries in ourself and we're like ahas.
You're not like going out and saying, Hey, I'm changed. You know? So you have to live it out and allow the reality, the perception that people see of you change. And I remember for myself too, like it was like a, a couple years into like really doing hard work on myself and radically, you know, intentionally eliminating the blind spots and raising some levels of emotional intelligence that people began to see like, oh, you're like a different leader than like you were.
Before, and I think that's the, not that we do that for, not that we work on ourselves for that. 'cause [00:13:00] we, we, we wanna be healthy, right? We wanna be a hundred percent healthy. But there is a, a, like a, a, a reward that comes when you realize that your influence and your impact and significance in what you're doing, given in the other people, whether it's your family or organizations.
So much dramatically different than what you know, it was beforehand. So, yeah, it's, it's always interesting when I talk to leaders and hear their journey of like, what was it that, that really was that catalyst or that sparked to kind of create that, that personal desire to develop. So.
Masi: Yeah, it's interesting to add onto that too is you know, as I started just learning and getting certified and trying to figure out what was it gonna look like and what was I gonna deliver and learning even my own, we speak about this in giant triggers, you know, and what were my tendencies and just little tendencies as a connector.
How, when people say, what are you transforming? Or How are you helping leaders transform? It's not knowing that I talk to everybody 'cause I'm a connector. [00:14:00] It's knowing when should I not talk to everybody and when should, how do I give myself a little cheat sheet so I fly all the time to, to different client spaces?
And so it, one of my little rules of a tendency is I step over the threshold of that airplane. And in my mind I say, do not speak until spoken to. The Lord open the mouths that need to be opened. And so if your neighbor wants to talk to you, they will. And it's just that, say self, that is where I think my leadership has changed.
It's not like I read all these books and like you said, James, check off the box. It is truly a, a mind shift. I still wanna talk to every single person I meet 'cause I love strangers. But I have to remember what it's like to be on the other side of that. And some people just don't want to necessarily be in that moment and talking.
So those are the ways that I have shifted and seen change. So it, it was when, uh, Jeremy, I think said to me, go be a connector, creative pioneer to [00:15:00] your pioneer, guardian, and pioneer connector leaders. And when you can go be that. It actually is going to come out of you. So naturally. So I was two years in, but that's when my I, that challenge from him really made me start rethinking.
I'm not trying to pour things into others. I've got to actually digest this myself. And now it's just really natural for me.
James: That's really great. Hey, let's talk about your journey to starting the Mason Effect. So like I can, we know a little of your background making movies, doing all this stuff. What was the catalyst that launched the Mason effect?
And talk to us a little bit about what you're doing there.
Masi: Yeah, COVID really Okay. Launched it. I, I spoke a little bit about it, just trying to figure out what is my next thing, and because it was so non-linear, I. I started thinking about do I want to continue to work for, or organizations I wanted to be?
I, I really thought I wanted to coach and wanted to help develop, take what I had been doing in [00:16:00] my volunteer time and make it my full-time thing and take what I had been doing full-time and go maybe volunteer at some of those STA and so. During COVID, I decided to do this. I launched the Mason effect. I then did not do this full-time.
At that point in time, I got hired by an accounting firm to live inside of their consulting arm. And so we would follow money, and then that meant we would probably find people and the people would break the organization and financially things might happen. And so our consulting arm would go in and really work towards customer experience, employee experience, and operational excellence.
I just always loved that employee experience and I loved really looking how do I help people be the most healthy they can be? And then in January of 2023, I did launch out fully on my own. Have been really blessed with great clients. I. And I have just recently started developing even my own framework of around what I do at the Mason Effect and [00:17:00] how I implement coaching in organizations and with individuals.
That's awesome.
James: You know, I know one of the things you're passionate about is creating culture in organizations. Culture is either defined or by default, right? So every organization has a culture and you say. If you haven't worked on it, it's gonna be the by by default. And usually if it's by default, it's not great.
Right. So what, what are some things that you've seen as you've worked with organizations that creates a healthy culture or that that can deteriorate healthy culture? And what are you doing with leaders to help bring in spec, specifically in the area of leadership? A culture that is helping individuals in that organization thrive and really build capacity.
Masi: Yeah, I'm using kind of a framework or an analogy, like a metaphor that's around a greenhouse. I'm not really a plant person, it seems like. I don't care what kind of plant I get, I can't get them to live. But yeah, when people, especially today, people in culture is such a buzz word and I, [00:18:00] there's large organizations that I think have divine culture as having ping pong tables and remote access and really cool furniture, and we have.
Fun Friday activities, right? Where I really like to look at culture as, let's take a look at a greenhouse and the actual structure of the greenhouse is your office, your building, and there's plants in that greenhouse. But what's the purpose of a greenhouse? It's to control the climate and to think about different things that each plant might need.
Ultimately, as the leader, you're the gardener, and so you cannot come into that greenhouse as a gardener and number one, have your own issues. You can't come in sick. You can't come in allergic to every plant in there. You've got to be able to be prepared to enter into that greenhouse, and then each of your team members is a plant.
And if, if we have a cactus who needs a whole lot of sunshine, but not a whole lot of water, you can't water [00:19:00] that cactus like you would a fern. Right? And so culture is more about how healthy is that environment? How, how often are we creating spaces to be pruned? You know? 'cause when we prune a plant, it might feel like this dominant leader, but really pruning gives us more fruit and helps us bear more fruit.
And so. I think when we realized the gardener's really fighting to have the best vegetation. When the leader is fighting to have the best value in each of their team members, you see it and know it as truth. It's not like you trust that, that they're not spraying water that has. Poison in it, you're, you're seeing that everything around you thrive.
And so being able to look around and see a culture where people are thriving, one person not thriving, you would see it. Yeah. And being able to have the gardener to go, wait, what do I need to adjust? And this person, because this plant is dying on the vine, so. I use that [00:20:00] analogy of how I think about culture.
James: That's really great. You know, uh, my wife Lisa and I, we, we, uh, do a lot of work with married couples and so forth, and one of the things we talk about is if you wanna create a healthy relationship, crazy, healthy marriage, we use the analogy of weed and feed. And, and I think in the organization it's the same thing.
There's things that you need to feed into that organization for the, the plants or the, the organization to be healthy. And there's things that you need to weed and my, you mentioned that you kill plants, you would resonate with my wife. She's hardcore, you know, black thumb kills every plant. Our oldest daughter is actually.
She's a, she's a plant girl. She's like in plant clubs and you know, they were, they were walking one day and looking at all these different plants and my wife was like, oh, look at that plant. It's like, had little curly cues and little flowers on it and so forth. And my daughter's like, mom, that's actually a weed.
And if you look at it, it's actually wrapping itself around. The other plants and it's choking [00:21:00] life out. And I think I'd love to get your thoughts on this in the organizational side because I think a lot of organizations try to do a lot of good things. Things that look good, that feel good, that really can become weeds, you know, that choke the life out of a really healthy culture.
Masi: To answer that and to kind of add on to what I was saying too, is that, you know, it's one thing for us to have the little card that you know is stuck down in the plant. And often I think that organizations think that leadership development and good culture is having the card, which I would say is an assessment.
And we've got thousands of assessments that people are using everywhere. But what a mistake is, is that having an assessment. Doesn't grow the plant. Having the card and having the knowledge on the card is not enough. That is that. I use an acronym called Mile. It's a framework I work out of and my first M that I work with people is Mirror.
They've gotta know themselves. I. And that culture of knowing [00:22:00] yourself is a great start. It's the blueprint, but the house won't get built with the blueprint. Then it's really, I look at the next step is going, okay, now we've gotta implement this and that's leading selves. So we gotta know ourselves first, which is the mirror I, we've gotta implement it.
And that's really laying the foundation, the structure and putting in everyday leadership habits that creates the culture inside your company. That's like. This is the structure we sit on. These are our values. This is what we stand for, and then we have to look at the L and mile as leverage. We've gotta multiply that.
So just because I have laid the foundation, I've got the structure. I probably need to plan that when my kids, or if we have three more children, or if my in-laws have to move in. You might wanna make sure you've thought about the unfinished basement or the. Structure above that you can add onto, so that we can multiply what works.
You can't just sit in that, let's have this great culture. It's like, then how do we thrive and how do we prepare? Because there will be growth. And then the E in mile [00:23:00] I uses evolve. Like how do we keep growing? What's the maintenance and the upgrades? We can have erosion behind the walls and if I slap paint on it, it's not going to fix it.
So constantly coming back to a culture that we're reevaluating. Where is everyone's help? Where is erosion eroding? Who people might be or might be feeling, but they're just putting pain on the wall and the leader's not really going, no, I want to peel back and make sure we structurally fix this so that we can evolve and keep growing.
Kind of that culture. I
James: love that as well as the framework I use. Yeah, I love that. As you think about that evolving, you know, there's life cycles in every organization and if you're not constantly evaluating where you are in the life cycle, you can become very comfortable and die on the vine. Right? And so like, you constantly have to think about that.
That's also, so think about this idea of culture that, you know, I work with a a lot of. Younger leaders in toxic culture, it's such a big thing for this next [00:24:00] generation of leaders. They're not gonna stay around if there's a toxic culture. And so really for an organization to really get this right, and it really starts with the leaders, right?
I mean, if the leader's not if. Healthy if they're not building that culture. You know, it reminds me one of the things we, we say a lot is that we don't build culture. We be the culture. And so the leader actually has to be the culture first. Right. To be able to, to give out of, of who they are. So I love that evolved piece, the whole mile piece.
That's that's golden. I love that.
Masi: Thanks. I'm glad it it, I'm glad it resonated. It helps me keep everyone realizing it's transformation, it's leadership business. I think Jeremy and Steve say this inspiration, motivation, education is what most live experiences give you. Mm-hmm. Or books give you, but rarely do you seek transformation come out of that.
Right. And so that's why I love thinking about that. Mirror, implement, leverage, and evolve. 'cause it, it is a constant, something's gonna come into your culture. Yeah. You're not gonna fix your culture. You're gonna create a culture. It's gonna be [00:25:00] healthy culture, but a storm's gonna come. Let's just go back, you know?
You know hurricanes are coming. Yeah,
James: exactly.
Masi: So are you prepared for the hurricane? Like there is going to be a moment that someone has a loss in their family. Someone does not see eye to eye. Someone didn't get the raise they wanted. Tension's gonna happen. It's not that your plants are gonna die, it's are, do you, are you in the moment that you understand how to make sure you can restructure and come back to the top when culture gets tapped into?
James: Yeah. And you know, when there is strong culture, when there's something that doesn't fit that culture, it's noticeable. I, I always. Laugh. You know, my youngest daughter worked for Chick-fil-A for a while and always go through the drive through and see her. And like when a employee doesn't say My pleasure, you know, it sticks out.
Like, because that's so ingrained into their ethos of who they are as an organization and what they say. And so you really, you know, you have to call out those things. An organization that don't align with the culture or they become subcultures, right? It becomes kind of this piece and that's where. [00:26:00] The toxic, pieces of culture can happen.
Do you have any stories of organizations you've worked with that you've seen this transformation of maybe what wasn't super healthy to a healthy culture?
Masi: Yeah, [00:27:00] I do. I have a, a client, some clients in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Just to what you were just saying, to speak, to noticing culture quicker, I started working with this particular client's executive team and within six, eight months.
Them understanding their voices and how they dynamically worked with one another. They quickly started seeing the unhealthy people on the team that they kept trying to cover up, and were like, no, no, it, that is where the toxicity's coming from. They also kind of got to the point where they would hire people and kind of start investing in them and realize pretty quickly through the hiring process, oh, this person's not gonna fit our culture.
So you're right. You can see that. One, I work with a tire distributor, which is awesome because I love that this leader was gm. CAO kind of figure was basically hired me because he said, I'm my team's getting poached. We're in this world where they're trying to pull our [00:28:00] drivers and our warehouse people and wages are changing.
And he's like, I really wanna pour into my team and give back, give them a reason to not want to leave. But I also wanna see. Their performance grow. So I started working with them in June of 2022. I utilized assessment called team performance assessment, and when I assessed them, they were like 77.5% at their, at their capa, you know, their performance rate.
Well that's pretty high 'cause most teams average somewhere a little less than 60%. And I thought, can we make a difference? And so we started having everyone understand their voices. I started equipping them with tools, and now in the end of the year, they have gone from 77.5% up to 93%. Wow. And their, their sale, their annual revenue has gone from 45 million to about 80 million.
Wow. And of course, that's not all coaching, right. That's tires in the industry and, and all sorts of things. Who knows with this tariff craziness, but right. [00:29:00] They really have seen themselves. Their leader actually has a leadership team that has every voice. It's his advisory team. Wow. He put every voice on that team and when there is an expansion discussion, when there is a problem inside of one of the departments, they come together as an advisory team, say, how, how do we need to be looking at this?
It's permeated down to their sales team. We actually have a champion inside that, that office that he purchases all the tires, but had this real heart for. For there to be a healthy culture. So he became a catalyst and he partners with me. And so, and I, I have also expanded to San Antonio and work with the same distributor or somewhere else.
So I've seen numbers as well as. Less conflict, but every single month now we are in this applied learning cycle where it's all around what is something that's a tendency that triggered someone, let's speak boldly into each other's lives, and that's what's [00:30:00] continuing to help them. Always align each month to make sure they're executing at the level they can.
And they're challenging each other not only from the results, right? Yeah. They're there to make money, but also from health. Yeah. That when they go home, they're in a really healthy place. And they've actually had me come work with a couple of couples. One night I did five voices with three couples. 'cause they really.
Their spouses were no noticing something different at home. They're like, what are you doing with my husband? Or what are you doing with my wife? So we all got together and kind of have implemented some work even with their spouses. That's awesome. So it really is exponential.
James: That's awesome. That's such a great story.
You know, as you were sharing that, I was thinking about a quote that I read one time from Richard Branson, and I think it was in his book, the Virgin Way, and he talked about creating the culture, creating an environment where. The people that work for you have the ability to go any place so they, you're trained and equipped that they can go any place else and work, but that your culture is so strong that they don't wanna go anyplace else and [00:31:00] work.
Right. And I think, you know, you're sharing with that individual from that company that that's what they're trying to create is like this environment, this greenhouse effect that the people inside the organization felt so nurtured and cared for and developed. And seeing the results too. Seeing the, the positive results of.
Team harmony, team performance, team capacity, growing the, it creates that place that people don't wanna leave. And I think that's incredible. Incredible. I love the thing you also talked about marriage. 'cause my wife and I love in implementing voices and these tools, the Know yourself, leave Yourself support, challenge Matrix, all these tools from giant.
Into the marriage space because it's not just a business tool. It it, it really is a life tool. It goes to every circle of influence that you can think of that these concepts in this culture that you can create. So I love that you guys are doing that with some couples too. That's really awesome. So you do organizational coaching, I think you do some individual coaching as well, obviously, but you also have some things, you do some [00:32:00] courses and some trainings you do.
You have one coming up this summer, correct?
Masi: Yes. I am hoping to launch June or July. I started something different on LinkedIn this year, looking to help the solopreneur or the entrepreneur or the, the team leader who wants to be engaged in leadership development, but maybe doesn't have the enterprise finances to do.
So I created a masterclass. I do six weeks, 60 minutes a week, and help equip you with a tool that you can instantly take into your workplace. Most people think I'm not a leader if I don't lead teams,
James: right?
Masi: But I often sit with so solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, a small business owners, that I have to say to them, you know, you're working with vendors, you're working with customers, like understanding yourself, understanding.
Personality intelligence, emotional intelligence and skills intelligence. It equips you for even working with your customers differently. So that six week course will come out. [00:33:00] You can find it on LinkedIn. I do limit it because I want you to feel like you're getting one-on-one coaching. So I normally keep it to 12 to 16 people.
We have breakout moments. So you collaborate together. Ask each of them to meet one another on, uh, the Telegram app so that they have their own channel where they're engaging throughout the week of how have you implemented this? So yeah, they can find it on LinkedIn and follow me there.
James: Awesome. I'll put a link in the show notes too if people wanna, I.
Check that out. So I have a few questions just off the cuff to ask you. You know, one of the things about the Lively Less podcast is we really believe that everything's rooted in our own personal development, our own personal care for ourselves. So I'm interested in the capacity that you're leading, that the people you're investing in, just the busyness of life and so forth.
What are some things that you personally do to stay rooted when you're constantly pouring into other people? I.
Masi: That's a great question and it's, it's crucial because I am an extrovert, but I do get completely drained at times. I chose to have a [00:34:00] morning ritual that I do not really look at my phone or read anything in the morning and, and I have a.
Um, a meditation, a devotion moment. I do a call up session when I am in my getting ready mode, and I'm constantly reminding myself, like calling myself up to what I know I was created and capable of doing. I think it's really crucial to have the right people as in your life outside of your spouse. For me, as a single person, I have really good girlfriends.
And several of them have similar values and they ask me the hard questions. So I make sure that they are in proximity to me or I can, I can have, I just need to vent. I need to get something out, make sure I stay rooted. I. Then a dear friend of mine up in Nashville, her name Shannon Scott, she and I kind of a couple of years ago, started this thing that we call SE law.
It's S-E-L-A-H. It means pause, and so we try to [00:35:00] consistently get away on a Thursday night. We reconnect as girlfriends hang out. I find out about her family and then we try to focus on a. A year five, a project that both of us need to do, but we've just been putting off and really just good questions, talk about our faith and what's going on.
That really brings me back to, I get poured into and I can refill and she's an introvert and it does the same thing for her, so I think it's just. The safety and making sure I take those pause moments to really be equipped to be the fullest that God needs me to be, to be able to do what I'm equipped to do.
James: That's incredible. I think sometimes go-getters, people who are driven entrepreneurs, business leaders can misalign or undervalued that importance of community, and I know for me that's been a real focus over these last couple years of really investing in. A group of guys that are close to me that, you know, more than [00:36:00] just, we do activities together, but being intentional, I love that sailor idea of just being intentional to stop and invest in yourself and invest in each other.
That's really great. I'm, I'm interested, are there things personally, right now in, in your work, in what you're doing that are bringing you joy? Like what's, what's bringing you joy right now?
Masi: Oh wow. I love doing live work, so I do, almost all of my clients are in person and the thing that brings me the most joy is when I can watch people transform right in front of my eyes and watching
my team of of people I work with actually start collaborating and communicating differently. When one of my clients, his wife said to him like, what is she doing? Can you please, this was a different group. Can you please tell me what's happening? It was as simple as he just didn't know what it, it was like his body language was like, he didn't realize that as a leader, he communicated, don't come in my office.
And watching him write emails that are like, good [00:37:00] morning. How's everybody doing? His whole sales team is thinking, what is going on in Chris's life right now? I think that's what really just drives me to a high point is when I have coached for a solid eight hours and get back on an airplane, but I'm completely full.
It, it brings me all the joy in the world to watch people actually transform in front of my
James: eyes. That moment of clarity, like when it clicks, it's just like, oh, that, that's awesome. Okay, one last question. I'm kind of a, a book nerd. I, I love to read and I'm always looking for new books, so, you know, if, if you have a book, I'd love to know what book recently has.
Impacted you, or I also have this file on my Evernote of great quotes. I, I love collecting quotes. So maybe, do you have a, a book that's impacted you lately that you wanna share with the audience, or a quote that is kind of natural to you, that has impacted you?
Masi: Yeah, I'm probably gonna blow people's minds right now, and maybe they'll think something about me, but I don't, [00:38:00] it, it doesn't matter.
I actually used, I never read, and I used to read in my twenties and got into this world of self-help books. Mm-hmm. And how to be a better dater. And I just, I couldn't stand it that I all, all of a sudden I went, I'm not reading anymore. And I just quit reading. Wow. And then I got challenged by a friend to, and said, Hey, there's this book.
Same kind of difference as me. Well, I really think if you read it, you'll love it. It's kind of your, you, you'll understand it. Well, it got me back into loving reading and so, but one of my rules is I kinda live in the world of just, you know, my book club. We don't choose self-help or educational books.
Okay. For a reason because I'm constantly studying my own craft. The last like book that I've read that is really still in my mind is, 10 x is easier than two x. Yeah. It really put me into a place I needed to rethink my business. Mm-hmm. Right now, even when it's thriving and growing, what will it look [00:39:00] like to 10 x it?
And that sent me down a road of evaluating my own self. Mm-hmm. I'm going to lose my business name and I'm going relaunch in my own name. I had to own that. I was scared to be Macy Willis. I wasn't sure if I was enough to be able to go. I have my own business. I kind of sheltered myself under the mason effect, and so that's been awakening for me and a reckoning, I guess you could say.
The, the awareness that that's what I've done and I've got to own that. So 10 x was, is easier than two x has helped, is helping me walk through that process. I have a huge quote that I always use and people think it's funny and it's really real. It's people are my cocaine and really are, it's the greatest high I have is a stranger and my own personal vision and statement from my work and personally is I wanna change the world one person at a time.
Having that lens and knowing that people are my cocaine, it allows me to walk [00:40:00] into the gas station and have the lens of, you are gonna really like this, this attendant who's checking you out and, and you're buying things from, but change their life. That's the lens. It helps me walk in differently when I'm sitting in front of my clients.
It's. I love these people. I have a high, but I need to make sure that I changed their life one time. One person changed the world, one person at a time. So people are my cocaine. I'm like, give me an elevator. 13 floors and one person. And I'm like, they're gonna be a different person by the time we hit the floor.
James: That's awesome. You know, my wife is a nurture connector and she always says People are my jam. So it's like very similar. So, you know, it's interesting when you're talking about reading one of my. Whether it's self-preservation or whatever. That was kind of a, a narrative that I shared with myself before I, it kind of went on my own discovery of self-leadership was, you know, I grew up, uh, I still have dyslexia, and that was always kind of a label I put on myself because it was kind of label on me when I was [00:41:00] younger, you know?
And so I always told myself. I can't really, really read that well. I'm a slow reader. I can't comprehend them. And so for years, I talked earlier about having all these John Maxwell books on my shelf and never read 'em was because I limited, I had this, this limiting belief that of what I could or couldn't do.
And so that's where I became an avid reader. And, but one of the things you were talking about, self-help books and so forth, is one of the things that was helpful for me. Was really dialing in the type of book that I read, you know, 'cause I was trying to find books and so now I'm in a very narrow lane of types of books I read.
I don't read fiction. The only time I read fiction is if I go on vacation. You know, I'm just trying to shut down and I don't really read a lot of self-help books either. I read a lot of business books, a lot of things that are gonna help my craft and help my, help me actually invest in other leaders. But I think that's really interesting, just that the idea of.
When, when you said that like you don't read self out books, you only kind of invest in your craft. I think that's an important thing for people who are wanting to develop the discipline [00:42:00] of reading because it is such a powerful self-development piece of hearing other people's philosophy, other people's thinking is find that lane of.
Books, if it's a niche, if it's a area of study that you can kinda lean into and it, it allows you to, to, to build that discipline of, of reading. Well, it's been so great having you on the podcast. I know that people wanna connect with you. Where's the best place that they can connect with you online?
Masi: My LinkedIn profile is where I am the most and my website but if you go to LinkedIn, I'm, I'm there as Macy Willis, and I think my link is the Mason Effect, but my name is Macy on there, so they can connect there. Okay. They can DM me and you can put my email out there so you can call, they can call me directly, so either way.
James: Awesome. I'll put all that in the show notes and I'll definitely put your. Masterclass in there so people can check that out. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. This has really been a great conversation with you.
Man, I'm so glad that Macy joined us on the podcast today. I loved her insights on how leaders can intentionally cultivate culture and [00:43:00] the idea of the leader as the gardener, creating a greenhouse where people don't just survive, but they truly thrive.
That will really stick with me. So if you wanna connect with Macy, check out her LinkedIn profile under Macy Willis, or learn more about her masterclass and work at the Mason Effect, which I'll include the links to those in the show notes.
Don't forget to invest in your own leadership, and you can do that today with a five day leadership reset@livelylast.com slash reset. You can also get my weekly rooted email for practical tools to grow deeper and lead stronger. Just text grow to 6, 6, 8, 6, 6 to sign up. And if we're not already connected, i'd love to connect with you on Instagram or LinkedIn. Just search for the James Deval. Finally, if you found this conversation helpful, please rate, review, and share this episode with another leader who needs it. Your shares help us reach more people and keep equipping leaders to live and lead with purpose and integrity.
So thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time on the Live Lead [00:44:00] last podcast.