The One Problem Interview: Kelli Wingo, KMW Catalyst

Hi there, my name is Avil Beckford, and I started a new series called The One Problem. It's a way for us to learn from each other. I ask my guests to pose one problem, and they have five to 10 minutes to offer a solution. Now, today, my special guest is Kelli Wingo.

I met her about a year ago or so through Ellevate Network. And you've met a few of my Ellevate sisters. Kelly Wingo is the Founder, Chief Vision and Strategy Officer of KMW Catalyst. And it's a leadership development consultancy dedicated to transform the business experience into human experience. That's a mouthful. Turn it over to you.

Kelli Wingo

Thank you so much for the invitation. I am honored. It is my pleasure and privilege to join you today. And I love the theme of this in terms of the one problem. The One Problem that I see that I have dedicated my work space in my work life,  is helping people understand the power of their greatness. We have each of us as humans much more power and influence than we give ourselves credit for. Sometimes we feel like we go through life at the effect of something that we don't have a choice in, in the things that we do or what happens to us.

And while we may not have control over everything that happens to us personally, professionally, we still have so much more power and influence than we give ourselves credit for. We are all great in our own way, and greatness, and power is not about putting people in a headlock and making sure that they do what we want them to do. But the power of our greatness is completely tied to how we can uplift and empower others and make a positive impact on the lives of others.

Interview With Kelli Wingo Talking About How to Step

Into Your Greatness

And that is really where the seed in the blossom in the tree of our greatness comes from. Now, how does this manifest itself when we want to own the power of our greatness within our sphere of power and influence. And it really starts with our mindset. Developing and adopting an ownership mindset personally and professionally. So when we talk about specifically, let's say, our career trajectories, we need to learn to be the CEO and business owner of our career journeys.

And for me and my business, that means helping clients and other humans in this human race that we call it to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, or in the case of being an employee in an entrepreneurial mindset, which is simply an employee that operates with an intrapreneurial spirit. Nobody needs to give us permission to be highly motivated and to take ownership of the products and the processes that we involve ourselves in our day to day work lives.

Nobody needs to give us permission to be innovative, to think creatively, to think out of the box. If something is not working, your response should be not be, “This is how we've always done it.” There's an issue with saying this is how we've always done it, because how you were doing before may no longer work. And I think especially in this age that we're living in with all the things that have happened in the past year, we realized that how we've been working before doesn't necessarily apply right now.

Have you read or listened to?

1. The One Problem: Patricia Roberts,Chief Operating Officer of the Gift of College
2. The One Problem: The One Problem: Patti Pokorchak, Small Biz Sales Coach
3. The One Problem: Adrienne Harris, Managing Partner, Portage Sales
4. The One Problem: Kristy Wallace, CEO Ellevate Network
5. The One Problem: Margye Solomon Talks about Aging and Relevance
6. The One Problem: Deb Boulanger, Launch Lab for Women Entrepreneurs
7. The One Problem: Sharon Horne Ellstrom – Stop Being Like Others, Be YOU
8. The One Problem: Liz Kitchell from SheMoolah Talks Money Conversations
9. The One Problem: Avil Beckford, Author of Digest 30 Books in 30 Days
10. The One Problem: Interview With Kelly Daring, Author of Is Love Enough
    

    ---

Kelli Wingo

And even how we were working prior to the pandemic may still have been broken. But of course, we get used to working with a broken foot to the point where we don't even realize we're limping. We just get used to limping. So really taking that ownership mindset and saying, you know what, how can we tweak this? How can we make this different? And how can we make this better? How can I tap into my own personal talents and skills and gifts and make sure that I'm doing things that impact people personally in a positive way?

And when we do that, we also impact ourselves in a positive way. And the second thing is, after adopting an ownership mindset is really defining success for ourselves. We live in a social media world where it's always keeping up with the Joneses. We look on Instagram, everybody looks happy. Everybody's got the perfect job, perfect family, perfect life, perfect house. And we think if we don't have that, then what am I doing? What am I doing that's wrong.

That's actually not the right way to look at things. Since there are  7.5 billion people on this Earth, there are 7.5 unique humans on this Earth that are not replicated, that are not duplicated, that you can't replicate, that you can't duplicate leading into that the uniqueness of where we stand in the universe.

It's important for us to define success for ourselves. Success can mean I got through this day with a smile on my face. And I didn't break down, which is an accomplishment, you know, as we talk about all the things that are happening in this world, whether it be health pandemic, economic pandemic, racial justice pandemic. There's a lot going on this world.

Kelli Wingo

So success can look like I got through this day and I am still breathing. I am still living. I have kept my sanity for today. Or even if you did have a breakdown, I got through it and I'm getting through it. So understanding how you define success for ourselves. It's not always about being picture perfect. But what that means for us. Sometimes we may have had a certain picture of what success looks like from how we were raised or what the perception is.

But being happy and understanding that your life is a journey, your career trajectory is a journey, is an important part of defining your success for yourself. The third thing I would say is train your mind to see opportunity everywhere. Even if fear of failure, you have to make fear and failure your friend. Yes, you can absolutely be fearless. That is possible. But understand that you can't experience being fearless without first experiencing fear. You can't even write the word fearless without writing the word fear.

First, you don't get a cookie for doing something that's easy for you. That's not what it's about. It's those challenges we're all going through and we're all going to encounter challenges in our lives. We're all going to encounter things that are difficult for us. But it's really understanding the opportunity for growth in that struggle. If you always do things perfectly, which perfection is a complete illusion, then what are you really learning? Because you don't know what you're really doing, because it's just by happenstance.

Kelli Wingo

The things just happened to work out. Right. But it's in those times that we experience fear. We experience failure. We fall flat on our face. We know who we are. We knock our head on the concrete and it's how we get up with the next step. Is that really the most important thing? So train your mind to see opportunity everywhere, even in failure, even in fear, make fear and failure your friend.

And then the next thing I would say is that, none of us are in this life alone. It is important to develop a tribe of connectedness with your fellow human beings, your fellow citizens of the world. So this can take the form of a personal board of directors, for instance, and similar to a company that has a board of directors, a personal board of directors is designed to help the company grow or in this case, help you as an individual grow.

They are to highlight what might be a challenge for you there, to be your champion, your cheerleader, to give you advice, mentorship, allyship. And I also encourage those who may be listening to think about in a different way. You know what's so interesting? I was listening to Kristi Wallace's presentation on your one problem last week, I believe. And she said something that was so poignant about the diversity in your tribe, in the diversity of your connection.

Kelli Wingo

And I definitely espouse the same thing. Your personal board of directors should be diverse in many ways from different ages, different genders, different socioeconomic conditions, different races, ethnicities, people who are inside your industry, people who are outside your industry. So, for instance, if you are an accountant, maybe you want an artist in your personal board of directors because they see things differently.

They see things very creatively, even children in very age appropriate ways, of course, because kids can see things with such clarity and such simplicity that sometimes we in our adult minds, we get clouded with the minutia that we kind of forget that sometimes things are much more simple than we make them out to be. They don't always have to be complex. Look at people who just have different perspectives.

You  want people who are going to be like yes, to everything you do, and then you want people who are going to constructively tell you, maybe you need to think about it in a different way. So even thinking about the diversity and personalities and mindsets that are needed to make up your tribe because your vibe does attract your tribe, no matter who you are, thinking about that in a different way.

Kelli Wingo

And the last thing I would say is to be of service. We are all put on this earth to be of service to one another. We are all put on this earth to encourage one another, even if we think differently, because thinking differently is a blessing. Everybody is not the same. We already talked about the fact that there are 7.5  billion unique personalities and individuals. And it's not your job to replicate someone else because that is ultimate failure, because you're not being the star that you are supposed to be. But you use all of your gifts, your talents, your skills to be of service to others.

How can you help others? How can you uplift others? How can you offer everything that you have to others in a way that not only helps them, but preserves you and builds yourself up? So understanding our greatness and the power of our influence is the one great problem that I know that I'm using my voice to solve.

Avil Beckford

That sounds so good, and to me, it also means self leadership step into your greatness. So thank you so much, Kelli.

Kelli Wingo

Thank you.

The most accomplished people use books as problem solving tools. They carve out the time in their schedule to find solutions in the pages of a book. Let me help you to solve your own problems. Additionally, this program helps you to learn valuable career skills. Click the link MoreReads Individual Leadership Development Program to buy.

 Step Into Your Greatness Life Tuneups Step Into Leadership Greatness You Go Girl 25 Ways to Step Into Your Greatness

This post contains affiliate links and The Invisible Mentor® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!