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Future-proof your leadership with High Octane Leadership, a place where business leaders—whether by title or aspiration—share cheat codes for unlocking workplace excellence, lessons learned along the way, and insider tips for future generations of next-level professionals. With a career rooted in building people and businesses, Donald Thompson is an award-winning CEO, speaker, and author who empowers leaders to scale with purpose. Over the last 25 years, he has helped startups and enterprises alike drive cultural change, unlock performance, and deliver exceptional results through strategic leadership.
Find him on LinkedIn, and listen here to learn how you can become future-proof too.
Lacey Newman: [00:00:00] And a lot of us, especially entrepreneurs, we build our businesses from a place of service, and absolutely I can do that for you, and my- I'm, responsive, and I'm dependable, and you can count on me, and I'll be there for you when you need me to be. And that is a beautiful place to start a business, but it's an impossible place to scale one.
Donald Thompson: Hello, my name is Donald Thompson, and welcome to another episode of High Octane Leadership.
Burnout's not just a wellness problem, but it's a business risk, and what actually happens when you take a company to the next level on paper, but you lose some of what makes you special and unique in the process. And I am really encouraged to have our next guest here who's built a phenomenal business but experienced some of these things firsthand, and now is gonna help walk us through, how we can do better, be better, but also [00:01:00] keep our sanity and our wellness and our mental health all in check.
So welcome to the show, Lacey Newman.
Lacey Newman: Thank you so much for having me. I've been really looking forward to this conversation as well.
Donald Thompson: One of the things, Lacey, that, and I want to dive in 'cause this is a really important topic. When we think about every leader has two scoreboards, the one everyone sees, the numbers, the rankings, the P&L statement, all of those things, and we are financially driven in our market, in our country, our economy.
But also mental health and mental wellness is something that is more in the public domain as a discussion. And I want to give you space to tell us a little bit about your story and how you came to this moment where you're now counseling and coaching, leaders in how to really get the best of both worlds, right?
How to build a great business but not lose yourself in the process. So why don't you share a little bit about your journey and how we got to this moment?
Lacey Newman: Absolutely. so my story is that I, got [00:02:00] into my career back in 2005. I started selling real estate. I didn't have children at the time. I thought I don't know, I don't know if anybody remembers anything, I'm dating myself here, but I don't know if anybody remembers much about the 2005 housing market, but at least in Nashville and pretty much everywhere else in the country that I recall, it was hot.
It was hot. It was right before the recession. And so I got into real estate like so many other people do, where I'm like, "This looks fun and easy." And I quickly realized it was neither fun nor easy, especially when the recession hit, and then I had two small children. And so honestly,
(Clip - Not a burnout, a failure to launch)
Lacey Newman: the first time I stepped away from my business, I wouldn't even honestly consider it a burnout.
I would almost more consider it a failure to launch, because I was struggling with what so many other people in that age group struggle with, especially women, where we're like, "I don't know how to run a business and be a mom of [00:03:00] small kids." It was really hard, and I felt like a total failure. When I was with my children, I felt like I was neglecting my business.
When I was focusing on my business, I felt like I was neglecting my kids. It just was this internal turmoil that, of course, I completely embodied and owned and felt like was a me problem. And so I just assumed, "Hey, I'm not cut out for this."
(end clip)
Lacey Newman: fast-forward a few years later, I end up coming back into the real estate market.
My children are three and five. I had gotten divorced. I you know, for lack of a better term, had my back against the wall. I really didn't have a choice. And so when I came back into my business, I had a completely different energy. failure was not an option at this point. I had to make a substantial income, and I refused to allow the things that had made me feel so badly about [00:04:00] myself as a mom and business owner, I had to figure out a way through that.
And so when I came back into the business, this was about 2014 at the time, I knew that I had to do it a completely different way. So then over the next decade, I succeeded in building this big, beautiful business. We built a team that has crossed over a billion dollars in residential real estate sales, and it's a small team, by the way, which now runs completely without me.
I'm so proud of it, but I also got to the point in my life, I'm now in my mid-40s, where I said, "I'm ready to do something different. if I look at 20 more years of really great career growth in front of me, what do I really want to do now?" So my first pivot was kind of born out of, I would say it was born out of a struggle to figure out how.
My second pivot has been born out of, I did it, it worked, [00:05:00] and even though I built something big and beautiful and amazing, it's okay to want something different now
Donald Thompson: That is, really powerful. Let me, I'll, I'll make a statement and then I want to ask another question to, to lead us along here. You mentioned especially women, right? And I want to seize on that and not to push against it, but to explore it a little bit more, right? Because one of the things that as a male entrepreneur, I don't think about success and work and guilt in the same way, right?
It doesn't mean I don't have it at all, it just means it's not something that slows me down, right? My purpose, go out, hunt, keep, kill, bring, food home for family, right? and, and this is what I, do. How do you think women should start to think about and unpack that tension and conflict that you described?
Lacey Newman: and I don't want to put should on anybody, okay? So I'll only speak to, my own [00:06:00] experience about this. But what I've experienced and what I hear from so many women is that we carry the mental load. And I don't know if it's societal conditioning, I don't know if it's the way we're wired. I'm not a psychologist, but I know in real life, in my own lived experience and so many women that I know, we carry the mental load whether we want to or not.
These women are building big businesses. They work really hard. A lot of them are significant, if not the biggest breadwinners in their family, yet they're also the default parent.
And so what I see is a lot of women putting their businesses on hold in the summer months. They will literally only do the very bare minimum that they have to keep their business moving, because they also want to take their kids on vacation. They don't want to have them in daycare 24/7. They want to be a [00:07:00] present mom.
And so there's this conflict, there's this tension between I want to build a successful business and I want to be a present parent, and I think that, I'm not... I, can't speak from the man's position. I can only speak from the woman's position, but it's a very real internal struggle that we face.
Donald Thompson: I think it's something that I've certainly observed, and when I talk with my wife, who is an entrepreneur and a business executive in her own right, my sister, my mom, I hear a lot of the same elements. Let's go back to you specifically and that tough decision to now step away
Lacey Newman: Yes
Donald Thompson: and regroup. Unpack a little bit that thought process, the turning point, , and some of the things that you've learned and that you now teach.
Lacey Newman: Absolutely. So I after a very long time that being successful at something and being meant to do it are two very different things. And [00:08:00] I spent 20 years building a really successful real estate business. I made a lot of money. I was the go-to luxury agent in my market. I had a wonderful team. everything on paper was of my dreams.
really. But I still had this feeling inside myself of, "I don't think this is really it for me." And it came... it was something that I really had to listen to, because I realized that for myself, living in hypervigilance, which is what people in real estate and people, I'm not pigeonholing only real estate agents, but people that are, lots of solopreneurs, lots of entrepreneurs, we all wear every hat.
We are the operator of our business. We are on 24/7. We are the job. And living in that hypervigilance mode was honestly making me sick. It never allowed my nervous system to rest. [00:09:00] It, it kept me in reactive mode all the time. it became, busyness became something that I wore as a badge of honor.
I liked the fact that I was so capable and that everyone came to me for the answers. But you can only do that for so long before you start getting really exhausted by it
Donald Thompson: And, I want to add to that from my own experience, you're not as sharp as you think,
Lacey Newman: Completely.
Donald Thompson: and what the, the facade from kind of the hustle culture is we lose sight that we're really corporate athletes, and this is beyond gender. This is high performers. And so those of us that are high performers, we have to realize that rest, we have to realize that resetting is a part of performing at a high level for a longer period of time, right?
And it took me, over the last 10 years, I've really had to [00:10:00] think, what does that mean for me? And I was talking to a young entrepreneur this morning that I mentor, and he was talking about vacation and different things. I no longer work as hard as I used to on weekends. I still work a lot. I have several businesses, a full-time job, all the things, but I don't work the same way on weekends that I used to.
So now, given my past, every weekend's a mini vacation. So I'm like, "Man, this is..." I'm like, "This is awesome, man. this is great." They're like, "How did they do this weekend stuff? I never even knew this was a thing." But long-term health, long-term impact, I, remember burning myself out, and then when I was in those states, I wasn't as productive.
I was a little bit quick on the trigger, a little bit too harsh in meetings sometimes, and those were some outward things that allowed me to recognize I had to make some changes. What were some of the things when you talk to, not just self, but when you counsel and coach people, what are some of the common things you have to work on with folks to get them [00:11:00] to really turn the corner and change how they work, but not change the standards they're trying to achieve?
Lacey Newman: I'll give you an, a kind of off-the-wall example, but so my son is about to turn 15, and he is a really exceptional basketball player for his age and grade. He's playing on multiple AAU tournament or at multiple AAU teams and tournaments. He goes to a boarding school specifically for athletes. he is, doing everything.
And what he shared with me is that when he goes into the gym to train now, he's not even really having fun, and he... But yet he tells himself that he needs to rest. His trainers tell him that he needs to rest. But when he gives himself days off, he can't mentally relax because he still has a voice in his own head telling him that he needs to work harder and that other people are in the gym right now.
And so I'm really [00:12:00] working with him in our own house to help him understand. And it's so easy. When we're talking about a kid who's pursuing a sport, it is common sense. "Pierce, you've gotta rest. Do you think that your, your basketball idols, do you think rest is an important part of their job in the NBA?"
"Absolutely." "Okay. then, why do you not think that you get to have that rest too? Why is it not as important for you?" it's so easy to see in a child who's pursuing a sport. And when you, said in, in the intro scoreboard, I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is exactly what I've been talking about with him," and it's so easy to see, but it's the exact same thing for us as entrepreneurs.
We just don't see the parallel as obviously as it is. And so that's, what it really is, it is, this, it- maybe it's the, the man or woman who sits down on the couch at the end of the day and wants to have a conversation with their spouse or just watch [00:13:00] some TV, but they can't leave their phone on the table for more than 90 seconds without picking it up and checking it again.
it's this internal dialogue, these intrusive thoughts that we have that keep us on even when we're supposed to be off, and that's exactly what I'm seeing with my son. It's what I've experienced myself, and that's what I see with so many other high performers in the business world.
Donald Thompson: When someone approaches you and they need help, support, coaching, what does that relationship look like? Because there's a lot of different... There's life coaching, there's business coaching, there's business advisory, and we kinda throw terms out there, but they may mean different things to folks in the audience.
What does it mean to engage with you, and what are some of the things you share in terms of the process that you help people get to their next level?
Lacey Newman: So the number one thing that I hear from the people that I work with is,
(Clip - I dont have enough time)
Lacey Newman: " I don't have enough time." That's the thing I [00:14:00] hear the most. That's, that... I feel like that's where every conversation starts, which to me means I've got more on my to-do list than my capacity to handle it. But what I get to the root of really quickly with people, number one is no one ever finds time.
You have to make time. And so making any sort of choice, any sort of change in your business, it's an inside job first. And so really it's cutting out the excuse of, "I don't have enough time," and go, "Okay, where are you gonna make the time to do the things that you say are a priority for your business?"
(end clip)
Lacey Newman: And so that's really where the conversation starts off in..
And once they realize that they are living in a world and they're functioning every day where other people's priorities are intruding on them instead of them leading their time inten- and intentions and priorities, once they [00:15:00] make that mental shift and they start seeing it, you can't ever unsee it. it takes some time.
I was talking to one of my clients yesterday, and she was talking about how she... We used to... She used to very much work in her business all the time, and she had these moments. Every now and then, she would have these just moments of brilliance where she truly felt like the CEO who was in control of the time and was truly leading her business the way she wanted.
And over the course of the time that we've worked together, everything has shifted. Now she is so solid in her role as the CEO that she's now become allergic to when other people start pulling her priorities away. And so on our call yesterday, she came to me and she was like, "I am getting upset. It is bothering me.
When I have to get pulled back into these pieces of the business that I've put down, [00:16:00] that I've delegated, it's causing me all this stress and anxiety." And I said, "Yeah, that's because your identity has changed, and now when you get pulled back into the old way, your body rejects it. It makes you mad." But it's, it- that's the growth, Rather, rather, than living in that leadership as a momentary glimpse, it is where she really operates from. And so that's what it is, when you shift how you see yourself, how you operate, the boundaries that you've created in your business, which, by the way, shifts how other people perceive you as well, everything changes.
And then once you get to that point, it's all about, all right, how do we stay there? How do we keep continuing to protect our peace so that we can continue moving our business and our lives forward in the direction that we want it to go? Where it's in our control and we're not just being impacted every day by other people and other things and [00:17:00] outside forces
Donald Thompson: I, love how you described that and you mentioned priorities. And I think that I feel really strongly as you, you do, when people say, "I don't have enough time," the real thing they're saying is, "I don't have a clear prioritization process." Because, winning in business is about what you say no to also, right?
And most people think no is a negative thing. It's just a communication of your choices, right? And I was talking to a very successful business leader, and this was many years ago, but I remember writing notes on a napkin at a cocktail party, and he said, "The difference between winning and losing is somebody that can focus on their priorities long enough."
Lacey Newman: Yes
Donald Thompson: And what his teaching to me was in that moment is that it's not your capability, right? It's not even the environment. It's just that you're a little bit of all over the map of all the things you're trying to [00:18:00] do at once,
Lacey Newman: Exactly. That's exactly what it is
Donald Thompson: Question here. as you've been working with people and individuals in that coaching and advisory piece, what are some of the things that you wish people would be able to articulate to others around them that are pulling on their priorities?
How do you... There's one thing to coach somebody on self, but how do you coach people? Here's the question: How do you coach people on their interactions with the people on their team, clients, boards that are pulling, right? Because that's a missing element, too. If, you could really control self, that, it's not easy, but it's straightforward.
It's really all of the other inputs. So how do you talk and teach on all of these other inputs to your life and your priorities?
Lacey Newman: I'm laughing, okay, because the exact example is happening to me right now. So before we got on this podcast, I [00:19:00] put my phone and computer on do not disturb. But my children know that if they multiple call or text me, they can break through. So my daughter is literally in the backyard at the pool texting me, asking if I can bring out a speaker. So this is the perfect example, all right? But te- it's technol- technology is the culprit, by the way, obviously. And so these are the tools that I use. I use my do not disturb button all the time. I discipline myself to only check my email three times a day. I don't answer the phone during the normal course of my business day unless I schedule calls with people.
I don't just pick up the phone when it rings. Because every time I say yes to something else, I'm saying no to the priority that I already set for myself. And there are little ha- [00:20:00] technology, hacks that are necessary, like the do not disturb button. and I probably should have a specific one for podcasts that won't even let my kids come through.
But, normally that's, a g- the appropriate boundary as a parent of children. But it's, a
(clip - impossible place to scale a business)
Lacey Newman: it's disciplining yourself. that's where it has to start. But here's what makes it so hard, because everyone knows that you can do these things, but what keeps us from doing it more often than not is the fear of disappointing other people.
And a lot of us, especially entrepreneurs, we build our businesses from a place of service, and absolutely I can do that for you, and my- I'm, responsive, and I'm dependable, and you can count on me, and I'll be there for you when you need me to be. And that is a beautiful place to start a business, but it's an impossible place to scale one
(end clip)
Donald Thompson: stop there just for a second. Pause. [00:21:00] That's good stuff, right? Because you basically said that's, a great way to start a business, but you can't scale one, right? And most people, and, I want to seize on this comment, don't understand the time horizons of a business. So the way you act and, achieve when you get your first 10 clients is very different than the 20th, 30th, and 50th, right?
Where you need to have process and scale and different things. And so I think for entrepreneurs and business leaders that are listening, how you scale is what are the things that allow you to work on the most important things that only you can do? And then how do you bring on team members or partners, right?
You could be a solopreneur, but you'll have partners, people to help you with different aspects. But how do you create their understanding of your standard of excellence and onboarding so that they can do closer to their best work faster? And one of the things that I find [00:22:00] as I talk to entrepreneurs is They've not codified or documented the things they do and expect to their standard.
And what I've found, and this is something and, Jason, our producer, was in a meeting where I was not my lovely self this morning. and it was simply because we were giving team members and partners verbal feedback, verbal instructions versus documenting it.
And
(clip - no documentation = fantasy land)
Donald Thompson: everybody has a little bit of amnesia these days with all of the inputs that are coming in.
And so a conversation you had a week ago that you think is gonna be delivered based on that conversation two weeks hence with no documentation, it's kind of a fantasy land. Because from the time you had the discussion to the time that person's supposed to do the work, 100 things happened in that person's life.
(end clip)
Lacey Newman: Yes
Donald Thompson: so I'm a big believer in the communication verbally of intent, theme, discussion, but the documentation of what's expected so that we can [00:23:00] all have that source of truth, of what the agreement was, whether it's time, price, product, whatever the case may be, so that can be our, our, true north.
You mentioned some of the technology hacks. question that I would, that I would ask and, and, pose as we look at wellness and really creating that environment, and I'm gonna come back to gender in a minute. I'm gonna give an example that I use, and I want you to comment on it, okay? 'Cause I, work with a lot of women leaders, and really by default, I don't know how it happened, but I've...
A lot of my coaching clients are, women leaders as well. So
(clip - did you sign up for this?)
Donald Thompson: I had a coaching client that was talking about being overwhelmed, the anxiety, the stress, all the different things. I said, "Put 10 things that are on your list in any order. Just put 'em on your, just that, are on your plate." So she took about five minutes and walked through it, and we, were quiet.
And I said, "How many of these things did you sign up for?"
Lacey Newman: okay, there's my reaction, [00:24:00] laughter. Laughing out loud. Okay. Yes, no, probably not any of it. And that's the thing. and, I will say, I do think this is a woman thing.
Donald Thompson: And you can say that.
Lacey Newman: woman
Donald Thompson: I need you to say that. I can't
Lacey Newman: I c- yes, it's a woman thing. Like, why do we do that? I don't know. yes, we s- we say yes, and I'll tell you, my mother, my mom is 78 years old.
She lives half the year up in this tiny little place in North Carolina up on a ridge north of Asheville, and they have the most precious little community. It's called Little Switzerland. it's the cutest place you've ever seen in your life. And they have this great community. It's all mostly people who are about her age, and they've got the church, and they've got the little cafe, and the inn, and the golf course, and it's just absolutely precious.
And my... They keep trying to rope my mother into things, being [00:25:00] on the flower guild at the church, and being into this, and being into that. And my mom's like, "No." And they're like, "Why not?" And she's "It's just no. I would not prefer to do that."
(end clip)
Lacey Newman: And she is such a rarity because... And then she's got one of her best friends, who is one of her neighbors, and Annabelle gets pulled into everything.
She is on every board. She's in charge of everything. She's involved with ev- And mom said, "I will come help you when I feel like it, but I'm not signing up to go do it." and that's the difference, is can you say no, or can you not say no? And if you can't say no, you are gonna get signed up for so much stuff in your life that you didn't really choose.
and that's what it boils down to. And that, the, the ability to say no, it's hard. It's a h- it's a hard thing for us to do because we want to be caring, [00:26:00] we want to be servant leaders, we want to, we want to say yes to everything. I over... I s- I know all this, I coach people on this, and I still over commit myself, but it's because I want to do it all.
But I can't do it all. And so if I know what my priorities are, and you asked about priorities earlier, and
(clip - priorities in 3 categories)
Lacey Newman: I put priorities into three categories. So I put out, I think, your very most important are your purposeful priorities. Okay? Your purposeful priorities are, who do I want to be? Who do I want to be in life?
Whether it's I want to be a present parent, whether it's I want to feel like a successful entrepreneur, I want to... what are those, those things that are an identity driver that you say, "This is my purpose. I want to do this." for me, at this point in my life, I'm like, I... My purpose is no- was no longer selling homes.
My purpose was I want to teach women how to build a [00:27:00] life and a business that supports them as much as they support everyone else. That is my purpose. Okay? So you have your purposeful priorities. Then you have your personal priorities. That's the next level. That answers the question: who do I have to be in order to accomplish that purpose?
So for me, it means that if I want... if, one of my goals is to be a, a successful entrepreneur that helps other women build businesses that support them as much as they support everybody else, then some of my personal priorities have to be, I read a lot. I spend a lot of time on personal development, learning business development.
I take on the task of consuming information that I can then share with the people that are in my world that I know don't have the time to do that. It is... Right now, I've spent the last three weekends in a row, I'm not even kidding you about this, the last three weekends in a row, [00:28:00] the new term is Claude maxing, which is where me and my computer and Claude have spent hours upon hours, because I know that right now the highest and best use of my time is figuring out how AI can support me and my business to help us not only create more efficiencies, but create more peace and ease.
this is the answer to so many needs on so many levels. And so my best use of my time right now is learning it really so I can share it with the people who need it who don't have the time to go do what I'm doing. And then so third, and, on top of that, by the way, before I leave personal priorities, 'cause this one is so important, exercising every day is a personal priority.
If I want to show up and be the person I want to be, I need to be healthy. I need to have energy. I need to feel good. I need to get good sleep. So all of that goes into layer two. And then the [00:29:00] bottom layer are my professional priorities. So the email that needs to be responded to, the conversation that needs to happen, those actually are at the bottom of my list, and it doesn't mean that they're not getting done, and it doesn't mean that they're not important, but most people have the whole thing upside down They focus on what's in front of them, what's in their inbox, what happens when the phone rings, what other people's needs are for them.
So what ends up happening is they fill their entire plate with professional priorities. Their personal priorities, the 10,000 steps, the eating healthy, the spending quality time with your kid without distractions, all those things, they fit them in the margin when they're able to, and then they don't even get a chance to ask what their actual purposeful priorities are.
if I asked 10 people I know, "What are your purposeful priorities?" They would often look at me like I was crazy.
(end clip) [00:30:00]
Lacey Newman: it's not something most people have the luxury of even considering, but we all can. It's just a matter of which angle are you coming from? And so if you start with the personal, pr- or excuse me, if you start with the purposeful, then go to the personal, then all of the professional priorities serve those
Donald Thompson: I love that. So all of those things, just wonderfully stated. How do you hold the line with clients? Do you have any specific examples? We talked about boundaries, we talked about priorities, all of these great leadership things, but at the moment of communication, right? How do you manage and redirect that client that wants to jump over those boundaries, that wants to do it a different way?
Give us some examples or some wisdom on how do we put some of these elements into real practice.
Lacey Newman: This is a great question and, I will start out with a disclaimer of
(clip - boundaries - you teach people how to treat you)
Lacey Newman: there are always going to be those people that it doesn't matter [00:31:00] what you do, they're still gonna trample boundaries, okay? So those people exist. But what I've experienced is that it really begins with your leadership. You teach people how to treat you, okay?
So when I decided in my business that I was not going to be the person who picks up the phone every time it rings, I had to essentially train my clients to schedule a call with me instead, which is... was a huge shift from the way that... I wore I'm available like a 24-hour Waffle House sign, I was like that was what I thought my value was for the longest time, was my availability and my responsiveness. And when, as my business scaled, as I grew, I had to shift that. So what did I do? Did I send out an email and let everyone know from now on if you wanted to talk to me you needed to book a call?
Of course not. Everyone would've thought I was crazy. Instead, I led by example. So what I stopped doing is I stopped calling my clients. Instead, I would send them [00:32:00] a message and I'd say, "Hey, I'd really love to schedule a time to speak with you. When are you available?" And, they didn't even know I was doing it.
They didn't perceive the shift, but because I never randomly called them out of the blue, I always respected their time and calendar enough to say, "Hey, I'd like to schedule a call. When can we do that?" They began mirroring that back to me without even realizing it. And then the other one that I really love is instead of saying if we're gonna have a conversation, instead of saying, "Hey, when are you available?"
Because what they're gonna say is definitely gonna be in the middle of my son's basketball game. Just Murphy's Law. It's always gonna be at the... And then I'm gonna twist myself into a pretzel and I'm gonna negotiate with myself. should I take this call or should I tell him? And then it's, this whole awkward thing.
So instead, I started lead... Again, leadership, leading the conversation. "Donald, would 2:00 or 4:00 on Wednesday work better for you?" [00:33:00] You're not upset about that. You're like, "Let me see." And, people, the person who makes the offer first is setting the frame of the time, and the other person naturally, without any sort of resistance, tries to accommodate.
(end clip)
Lacey Newman: And so if I said, if you came to me and you said, "Hey, we need to have this important meeting, Lacey," and I said, "Great, does 2:00 or 4:00 on Wednesday work?" And you have a dentist appointment at 2:00, you might be like, "You know what? I haven't been to that dentist in six months anyway, and I didn't really want to go, so I'm just gonna cancel it," And but we negotiate with ourselves. When someone asks first, we negotiate with ourselves, so be the person who leads, not the person who's negotiating with yourself. And, no one's upset about this. when you set boundaries proactively, they are truly perceived more professionally. Your value [00:34:00] is perceived at a higher level.
And, that's the thing that is, when, again, when you're shifting, when you're going from a solopreneur into trying to scale a business, your value can no longer be your phys- your own personal physical capacity. It has to be more than that. And so this is a shift, and, people aren't upset about it if you do it on the front end.
Nobody likes it when, you go to try to change things after the fact. It puts people on the defensive. But if you do it upfront, it's not a big deal
Donald Thompson: I think you are describing things that people can do that people probably have not thought about, right? And a lot of our ability to change the way we work, the results that we achieve are in our control. But the one of the things that, I'm a big proponent of coaches, is because they give me the ability when I'm working with a coach, I am a coach and I work with a coach time to time, what am I missing, right?
And that's the question that, [00:35:00] people ask all the time, what keeps you up at night? And all of these base, these questions. And I was like, the thing that I'm concerned about in winning in the marketplace is something I could control or take advantage of that I missed that opportunity because I was unaware.
I was looking at the picture incorrectly. And so when I've worked with coaches, they always have given me insights of things that I can do, but I didn't see in the right way, and therefore I wasn't, right? And I think that's really important. So as we land the plane for our conversation, let me ask this: What would you like to share with our audience about you, your team, your coaching that I haven't given you space to, to ask?
What would you, what would you like to share as we land the plane on our conversation?
Lacey Newman: Absolutely. So as we were talking about a few minutes ago,
(clip - AI for Ambitious Women)
Lacey Newman: AI has been the answer to my prayers in a lot of ways, because as a woman whose capacity has been maxed out more times than I can count, I'm always asking, how can I [00:36:00] do things not only-- it's not just about being more productive, hustling harder.
It's about, where can I create more margin in my life? And let me go into this saying, I am not a tech whiz or an AI expert. I am a mom and a solo founder who has spent a heck of a lot of time right now learning this and implementing things into my business in real time that are creating more margin, more peace, my ability to focus more on the things that are important to me.
And so I'm gonna be sharing some of those things in this workshop that I'm doing here coming up soon. So if anybody's interested, it's called AI for Ambitious Women.
Donald Thompson: Awesome. Awesome
Lacey Newman: if anybody would love to get-- it's totally free. If anybody wants to come as my guest, I would love to have you. we can... I'll send you the links if you want to throw it in the show notes, or anybody can just DM me on Instagram @heylacynewman, and I would be happy to send you the link to come on that day.
It's gonna be on August 25th, and it's gonna be great.
(end clip)
Donald Thompson: Oh, fantastic. And I love that [00:37:00] AI for ambitious women. I love that very much, and thank you so much for sharing that with our team, and we'll make sure to get that in the show notes and then also help co-promote that. it sounds like a wonderful event
Lacey Newman: Thank you so much.
[00:38:00]