Customers Choose Trust and Employees Own Their Engagement

WEBVTT

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortez. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five. It's working

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on Purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to

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the Working on Purpose Show. Thanks
for tuning in again this week. I'm

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your host, Elise Cortez, joining
you live from Dallas, Texas, which

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is home base for me. If
you've been tuning in for a while,

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you know this program is all about
helping people create more meaningful and purposeful lives

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and equipping leaders inside organizations to cultivate
meaning and purpose thanlicits passion inspired contribution,

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innovation, and persevering performance. I
talk with my guests to draw on their

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expertise and share my own experience consulting, speaking and developing workforces across the globe.

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Each week. In these conversations,
I hope you walk away with something

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you can immediately use in your life
or work. And if I can do

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anything to help you along your journey. Go to my website at at least

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Cortez dot com and use the contact
meat feature to message me. Let's open

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a conversation and explore what's going on
from you and how I might be able

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to help you. Whether you want
to learn more about how to develop purpose

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inspired leadership and meaning infuse culture in
your organization, you want to see about

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joining a catch fire online inspiration accountability
or master my community to nurture your own

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passion and purpose, or you'd like
me to speak for your company or conference

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at the rate. I'm glad we're
connected, and thanks for listening. Now

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onto this week's program with us today
is Meredith Elliott Powell, who has voted

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one of the top fifteen business growth
experts to Watch, top forty one motivational

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speakers, and top fifty sales speakers. She shares the business strategies you need

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to turn uncertainty to competitive advantage.
She is the author of six books,

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including her latest own it Redefine Responsibility, which uncovers what it takes to grow

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a business in a constantly shifting marketplace. Today, we'll be talking about the

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state of today's world and what it
takes to do business in it some old

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and new approaches to employee engagement and
the new frontier for individual employees to redefine

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personal responsibility to own their own path
to success. Meredith, being the dynamic

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woman that she is, is actually
on the road and joining us from deep

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Detroit Airport, so hanging with us
as you might hear some sounds coming from

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the air airport. But Meredith,
thank you so much for making this radio

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program happen, and welcome to working
on purpose. Well, thank you,

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and luckily for me, Detroit is
about my favorite airport, so Hendy had

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stuck somewhere, this was a good
one to be in. Absolutely, and

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you are such a dynamic professional individual
you can swing anything. So we're just

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glad to have you. So thanks. So I picked you up, or

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we picked each other up, shall
we say, at one of the converts

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that we were speaking at, and
when we first started talking about you coming

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on the radio, I remember this
stinkly in that opening conversation that we talked

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about how we both really wanted to
address that. August nineteen, twenty nineteen,

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knew imperative that the Business Roundtable set
up by redefining the purpose of a

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corporation which has become quite a bit
controversial, and it was in the statement

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called the Business Roundtable redefines the purpose
of a corporation to promote an economy that

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serves all Americans. What was important
about that, listeners, if you don't

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know about that, is that the
statement really took the focus away from shareholder

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primacy to include commitment to all stakeholders. And so it was signed by one

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hundred and eighty one CEOs who commit
to lead their companies for the benefit of

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all stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders.

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And so there is so much going
on in the world today in terms of

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business. So let's just kick off
Meredith with what is your perspective on that

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new statement. Well, you know, I think it's interesting that he said,

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you know, there was so much
controversy around it, because I remember

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listen into it and then reading about
it. I actually saw it on the

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news first and then went online to
read a little bit more about it,

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and as I went out and I
talked to people about it, there was

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this combination of Oh, it's great, it's about time, that's really what

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corporate should you know? CEO should
be about combined with wow, did they

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really do that as a business move? Or is that really you know,

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do they really mean what they say? Let's see how many live up to

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it. And I kind of wrap
all that together and ask does it really

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matter? I mean, it's it's
a great step and if it's altruistic,

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wonderful. If it isn't, well, it's still a move that says that

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corporations get that. If they don't
give back to their communities, if they

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don't give back to their people,
if they don't work on a bigger purpose,

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are they really going to be a
sustainable industry? I love that And

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from my vantage point Meredith, my
first thought was, you know, I

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look at capitalism being such a great
force in the world, and I really

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think we can do so much better
than just simply serving only the shareholders.

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So to me, I thought,
yes, we can do more. We

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can do much more than this,
And so I saw it as unleashing more

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of the potential of human beings as
well as businesses to serve a much greater

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need that is well beyond time.
And I think it's I think that it

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is smart business. I mean,
really, if I don't know about you.

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But as I work with, as
I as I experience or work with

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companies right now that are very very
shareholder focused. They're solely shareholder focus.

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They're dealing with some challenging times.
They are struggling to find talent, they're

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struggling to keep talent, They're struggling
to make customers happy. So smart business

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in this day and age is to
have a bigger picture. Lovely, I

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love that. In fact, of
course, for this first segment, I

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really wanted to presence for our listeners
what's just going on in today's business world.

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And I know that when you're out
speaking and consulting, you talk a

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lot about how we're living today in
a business climate that's just so ripe with

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unpredictability and constant flux. Say more
about that. Well, you know,

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I think that we are living in
a time when it's the first time ever

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since I have been alive and I
have been working, that more that can

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impact the success of your business is
outside of your business. I mean,

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think about this kind of when I
was growing up, I'm old enough,

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I'll kind of age myself here.
But competition meant the guy down the street.

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I mean, we had two banks, we had two department stores in

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our town, kind of one grocery
store, and ordering online meant the Sears

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catalog, and you waited three or
four months for it to happen, and

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nobody really ordered, you know,
nobody. It wasn't commonplace. And now

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we just live in a time where
if something, if something happens in China,

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it can impact your local business.
I was looking at, you know,

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all the things that are happening with
you know, with these with these

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tariffs and what they're talking about within
the GM strike, and they're talking about

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the fact that it's bigger than the
GM strike. It's all the businesses internationally

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that supply or are dependent upon GM
workers. We're just so connected in it

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now that if the economy changes,
is gas prices change, if a new

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administration comes in, if consumers decide
that plastic isn't isn't cool, then if

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you're in the plastic business, guess
what you're in trouble. There's so much

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that you don't have control over that. It is very we are living very

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much in an age of uncertainty,
far behind the far beyond the uncertainty of

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the economy. And I think what
you're getting to I really love this notion

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that you put in your book here, you talk about that we're in a

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poll economy, no longer a push
one where technology and international marketplace has made

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our products and services at commodity.
Is that really what you're getting to is

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this is this the area or a
topic that you're presencing just now? Yeah,

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it's the fact that you know,
bac I was speaking about this today,

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that that you know, we are
not living in a world where I

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mean, think about this, the
sale cycle starts long before we get into

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it. I mean the moment that
you know, somebody decides that they you

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know, they need insurance services.
The first thing they do is they go

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Google online. Then they go to
a party or they go to a meeting

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and they ask other people who they're
using. So in today's marketplace, you've

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definitely got to attract business for you
ask for business. You've got to get

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into that sale cycle by building your
reputation, increasing your visibility, and doing

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things that are buzzworthy, which is
very much what I think those CEOs were

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doing, you know, with their
decision to say it's bigger than just shareholders.

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Yes, and I think also what
you're presencing at least this is the

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lens that I'm hearing it through.
Is just the importance of a trustworthy relationship

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in any business that we do today. Yes, yes, absolutely, trust

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is every thing. I mean,
when you think about it, there's no

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product that you sell that your competitor
can't sell, won't sell, or could

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sell. So it is not the
product that is differentiating you. I mean,

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you can make yourself crazy trying to
sell customers on how you know,

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what an amazing speaker you are,
what unbelievable consolving services you do. But

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the end of the day, in
all this high tech work world, we

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are back to the old fashioned stuff
and it is how well do you connect

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with people? How well do you
listen to them, how well do they

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do you get them to believe in
you so that they build trust, and

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if they build trust or anything is
possible. And to that end, one

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of the other messages that you talk
about in your book, Meredith, that

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I think is just so powerful and
it ought to be very sobering for anybody

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who either owns a business, runs
a business, or leads is a key

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leader in a business, is that
you talk about how clients and employees are

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now more in the driver's seat than
ever before. Say more about that.

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Well, you know, think about
this. I mean, for a number

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of reasons, but you you are
hard pressed to talk to any leader CEO

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to day that doesn't tell you one
of their number one issues is talent finding,

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talent keeping, talent, engaging talent, and so in order for you

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know, back in the day again
when I was growing up, I mean,

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you didn't worry about holding on to
a customer long term, and you

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were competing on products. So you
know, even if I had bad service

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at a store, I still would
go back to that store because it was

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the only place I had an option
to buy something. Well, now,

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our success is one hundred percent dependent
upon how much our employees care. I

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mean, I may have an unbelievable
interaction with you, but then your assistant

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is just last to day, simple
to me, just not that intrantic.

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Well, in that moment, I
think there's sixteen hundred people other people I

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could buy the same products from.
I'm out the door. So our success

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is based on our reputation in the
customer experience, and that is completely tied

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to the employee. So good employees
are hard to come by, and they

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know they are in the driver's seat. And you know, Meredith, you

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and I chat out about this briefly
when we first met. So much of

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what I'm up to personally in the
world is I believe in the world of

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work. I think work is a
beautiful, noble, important part of our

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lives, and for many people,
about eighty five percent of them, according

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to Galib, it sucks. And
I'm really out to try to help organizations

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change that because it wanted helps him
stay in business, it helps him much

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more robustly compete, and two,
it greatly and vastly improves the quality of

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their employees lives, which cascades to
their communities, their families, everybody,

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and so so much of what I'm
up to and why I wanted to have

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you on the show is because I
stand to help making that the experience of

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what it is to be an employee
so much better. You know, I

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think that is I think that's such
important work. You know, I have

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a theory about why work shock and
it's not based in it's not based in

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any scientific research. But I know
that I'm right about it. And that

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is the fact that when two thousand
and eight happened, and you know,

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we should probably have a moment of
silence for two thousand and eight. But

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what two thousand and eight happened was, you know, we had a lot

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of people ready to retire and they
didn't retire because two thousand and eight happen,

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and then they came back into business, and anybody who owned a business

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at that point was just holding on
with everything they've got. AKA they become

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micro managers, drill sergeants, and
employees were just trying to keep their heads

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down, not trying, just trying
not to get fired, not to be

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the one that got laid off,
and work just went into this survival mode.

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And here we are ten eleven years
past it, and we can come

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out of it, but we're caught
in a grind. And the grind is

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that people are trying to control the
outcomes. Leaders are trying to control,

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and then employees that causes them just
not to give in and engage at the

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level that would make them happy,
that would make them feel purposeful, that

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would make them feel like work is
someplace where they are doing work that matters

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and they're making a difference. You
know, it's so great about Edith's presence

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there, Meredith, and it's just
so incredibly timely, as it turns out,

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because what you're speaking to from my
lens is something that Aaron Hurst speaks

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to in the book he wrote called
the Purpose Economy, and he talks about

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how the whole notion of purpose and
the hunger for purpose was in fact launched

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in that magical time that year two
thousand and eight when the rest of the

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world came crumbling down and you couldn't
count on what you had worked for and

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having a stable job, etc.
So we went then and we turned more

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toward things that were based in meaning
and purpose. And I say it's timely

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because today is October fifteenth. I
will be going to his second annual Purpose

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Conference in New York City on Thursday
the seventeenth and eighteenth and convening with people

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from all over the world who are
who care about helping organizations presence and create

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environments of purpose and meanings. So
talk about, you know, a Kismet

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conversation. You know, I think
that purpose is to me, Purpose is

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the found It's the foundation of engagement. You know, there's there's no incentive

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you can give, there's no bonus
you can give, there's no flex stays

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you can give. There's nothing.
All of that for employees is icing on

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the cake. You have to lay
a foundation of purpose. I mean people

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want to feel like they're making a
difference, like there are a part of

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something bigger than themselves. And you
have only to look at the employee engagement

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statistics to know that. I mean, you know, the highest rated engaged

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employees work for non profits. There's
some of the lowest stay with some of

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the worst benefits. And time after
time, when you read employee engagement surveys,

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government workers rank is the lowest,
and there's a guaranteed job with a

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great set of benefits. It lacks
a feeling like your part of a team.

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You're part of something bigger, no
question. And with that, because

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we're going to talk about about engagement
after the break, let's grab our first

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break. I'm your host, Elie
Cortes. We've been in the air with

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Meritith Elliott Powell, a business growth
expert and global keynote speaker. She joins

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us a day from Detroit Airport,
where she's en route to try to get

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back home. We've been talking about
the state of today's business world and what

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it takes to do business in it. After the break. We're going to

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talk about and contrast some old and
new ways and approaches to employee engagement.

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Stay with us, We'll be right
back. Alice Cortez is a speaker and

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engagement and development catalyst. She designs
and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement

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workshops and can bring her expertise to
your organization. She will help ignite meaningful

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development within your workforce that will increase
employee engagements and retention. To learn more

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or to invite a lease to speak
to your organization, please visit her at

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www dot Elise Cortez dot com.
She would welcome the opportunity to help get

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your employees working on purpose. This
is working on Purpose with Elise Cortez.

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To reach our program today, send
an email to Elise ali Se at Elise

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00:16:27.799 --> 00:16:33.799
Cortez dot com. Now back to
working on purpose. Thanks for staying with

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us, and welcome back to working
on purpose. If you're just joining this,

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My guest is Merit of Elliott Powell, who has voted one of the

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top fifteen business growth experts to Watch, top forty one motivational speakers, and

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top fifty sales speakers. She shares
the business growth strategies you need to turn

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uncertainty to competitive advantage, and is
the author of six books, including her

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latest own it, Redefining Responsibility,
which uncovers what it takes to grow a

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business in a constantly shifting marketplace.
I'm your host, Alice Cortez. So

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for this next segment, Meredith,
I really want to talk about and compare

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and contrast some old and new approaches
to employee engagement. And the first thing

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that I thought was pretty darn interesting
that you talk about in your book is

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that you advocate for each company to
create its own definition of employee engagement.

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So before we kind of talk about
that point in in itself, how do

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you generally define and describe employee engagement? Well, I usually describe it as

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an emotional connection to the company's success
and the company's goals. I mean,

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are you emotionally connected, are you
vested? Are you all in? And

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That's that's really how how I describe
it, especially when I speak about it

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from the stage. An emotional connection
means that I believe in you, I

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trust you, and I'm ready to
follow you. M Can I align with

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that as well? Now let's take
the point here. I think it's fascinating

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and I don't know that I've actually
heard someone advocate for this, but that

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you you encourage companies to create their
own definition of employe engagement. Why because

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you are? Because you know,
here's the problem. You have twelve Exact

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center room and they say we've got
to engage employees, and then the only

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employees who are going to promote are
going to be are going to be the

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ones who are engaged. Well,
your definition of what engagement looks like and

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my definition of what engagement looks like
may be totally different. I mean,

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one of my favorite exercises to do
with Exacts is to sit down and have

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them rank their ABC and D employees
and have them do it across the company.

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And somebody who is an a employee
in one person's department is not an

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a employee in another person's point of
view. So if you want to communicate

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to your team that they need to
become engaged, you need to define as

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a team what engagement looks like.
So it's taking that definition of emotional engagement

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a little bit further. I mean, does it mean that it's people that

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you know they come to work early
and they leave late, or is it

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people that you know are you looking
for people to show up at every employee

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party. You know, they're the
people that you know make sure that we

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have birthday mon I mean, I
don't know what you're definitionive, but you

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need to get clear and you make
need to make sure as an executive team,

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you agree on that. I think
that is a stellar point, Meredith.

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I love that, completely agree with
that. Okay, well, now

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I want to presence someone I would
consider to be dire numbers associated with employee

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engagement or better said, lack thereof. And these numbers came from your book,

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which which was of course published in
twenty and sixteen, so I got

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to believe they're even higher today.
But let's just get them out there for

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our listeners. Here's the first number, four hundred and fifty billion dollars.

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That's the number Gallup says is costing
US employers per year in disengagement. Wow.

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Second number seven hundred million dollars.
That's the US companies spend annually to

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face and solve the problem, which
is expected to go to one point five

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billion dollars in the next few years. And the last number I want to

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share for now is seventy percent,
which is the number of employees who report

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being checked out. Meredith, what
do you think where this is pretty a

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dire state of affairs here? You
know, it could be a dire state

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of affairs. Or the optimist in
me says, hey, is there opportunity

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here? If those are the numbers
that Gallup is estimating, you know that

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that, you know, are the
average companies, that's what we're suffering and

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losses, that's what it's costing us. That's you know, the level of

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disengagement. I think it is probably
very true. But at the same time,

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does that motivate you? Does that
inspire you to be the you know,

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to be the organization that engages people. But you know, I think

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that it's more important to understand why
those numbers are where they are. Well,

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I really appreciate that. I too
am an optimist and I look at

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this, this this well, I
wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now right

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if if I weren't an optimist.
I didn't think we could address this right.

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Otherwise I have to be insane,
right, There's no other, no

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other explanation for it. So I
too am an optimist about this, And

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of course I do believe in the
power of people to learn to grow,

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to transform, and for businesses to
change the way that they work with higher

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engage, motivate and develop people.
So I'm completely completely with you. Well,

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you know, here's the thing is, you know, when so many

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executives and leaders, when when we
all were growing up, the world we

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grew up in is that we graduated
from high school, graduated from college,

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got a job, and we believed
as long as we wanted to work there

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that that job would be there.
And then we believed if we worked hard,

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we might get promoted, and if
we just even cause too much trouble,

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we could probably retire there and probably
get a pension. No matter their

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age believe that anymore. And as
leaders, I think those numbers reflect the

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fact that we've taken guarantee off the
table, and with guarantee off the table,

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employees are thinking downside the outsourcing merger
acquisition, why should I give this

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company my all when they're just going
to cut their knees out from under me.

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And whether that's true or not,
as a leader, you've got to

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recognize that and say, Okay,
I've removed guarantee. I can't promise anybody

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that will retire my company. What
am I going to put back in its

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place, and then that begins with
purpose. Well, and to that end,

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one of the other things that I've
really really liked and certainly endorsed about

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what you say in your book,
Meritive, is that you say that when

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it comes to engagement efforts, that
we need to move away from an HR

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function handling the employe engagement and put
it in the CEOs imperative. And then

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you go on to compare and contrast
you know, some old approaches to employee

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engagement with you know that include the
generic automated surveys to some of the other

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other approaches that you recommend. So
let's get into that little bit here.

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First, talk a little bit about
this notion of taking employee engagement off the

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HR plate and putting it on the
CEO's desk. Well, you know,

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I so love that you asked me
that, because so I'm working on a

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new book now that's coming out in
January, and it's basically to book I

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wrote called Winning in the Trust and
Value Economy, and that book gives thrive

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what are And it's based on leaders
and organizations that have seen record consistent growth

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since two thousand and eight. They
have not had a blip, not had

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problems, seen twenty thirty and forty
percent growth and one of the most interesting

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things. While everybody has a different
strategy, everybody is a different approach.

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The one thing every CEO has in
comment that I have interviewed is one of

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their two or three jobs, and
all have no more than two or three

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jobs. When I ask them is
the engagement, happiness level and leadership development

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of their employees. They are not
out sourcing it to anybody else, and

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I think that's really important because Number
one is, you know, we used

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to think that a company was nowhere
without sales and customers. Still true,

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you've got to have sales and customers
to have a company, but in today's

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in today's economy, you have to
have great employees. They're your greatest competitive

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advantage. And really forward thinking,
innovative CEOs have said, if this is

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the most important asset in my company, I am not going to outsource that

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to another department. That needs to
be on my plate. It needs to

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be my responsibility, and it needs
to be something that I'm held accountable for.

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I think that's so fresh and I
completely again am aligned with this.

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And then to that end, you
talk in your book about a couple of

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just very simple newer approaches to assessing
and managing employee engagement that I thought were

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pretty fresh. Let me just start
with one and if you want to add

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whatever else. But I love the
notion of choosing five to ten percent of

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an employee base for focus groups,
really engaging them in conversation about what it's

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like to work there, what's good, what doesn't work, what do they

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think we should do about it.
I thought that was brilliant, so simple

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and brilliant. It's it's it's so
simple. I was doing a I was

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getting ready to do a strategic plan
for a company, maybe about a year

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ago, and I sat down with
the CEO and I said, I want

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to do a focus group with your
with you know, some of your team

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before we start. And he said, you don't need to do that,

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that's you know, it's fine.
I've got some surveys I can share with

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you. I said, well,
this is a deal breaker for me.

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If I can't do that piece,
I don't, I'm not interested. They

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thought about it a little bit and
he let me do it. And what

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you'll find out through conversation is so
much more powerful than what you find out

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from the survey for a number of
reasons. It is, it is body

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language, it is tone of voice, it is you can read something in

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somebody's eyes and have the ability to
go a little bit deeper. And you

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have the ability to establish for port
and trust so that people will open up

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with you and tell you more.
And I just did another one for a

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company that has unbelievable engagement scars.
But when we did the focus groups,

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I'm talking to a group of people
who love their company. They're excited,

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they're all into it, but they
had ideas on how to improve it,

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and I don't know that you really
capture that in surveys. Yeah, I

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completely agree with that. And then
the other piece that you mentioned that I

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thought was really pretty powerful and kind
of turns the old approach employe engagement on

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its head is then once you do
get the data back from what the employees

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tell you, that you get the
employees wigh in on the interpretation of those

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results. Wow. What a concept. Yeah, you know you've got to

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You know, I always tell people
when I do surveys and focus groups for

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that, I always say, part
of this is the information we're going to

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get and the part of it is
marketing communication and pr is because send me

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a variant wild message that says,
hey, I'm interested in your opinion,

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and then when I get that information, I'm going to go back to you

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and I'm going to say thank you
for your opinion, and I'm going to

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tell you what I learned, and
then I'm going to ask you they se

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what I learned? Is this the
right direction that to focus on? And

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the power of that is now all
of a sudden, people are like,

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Wow, they really care about my
voice. The other is they own those

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ideas. And if they own those
ideas, built implemented, I love that.

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I completely see that. And I've
done a lot of work around investigating

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meaning and motivation and identity, which
is not related to this, but I

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completely understand the importance of when somebody
owns an idea, how much more willing

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they are to champion it. Yeah, well, I mean absolutely well.

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And then speaking of that, another
thing that you talk about it in your

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book that I think is quite important
and we're going to talk more about it

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in the next segment, But you
also talk about that the current beliefs about

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personal responsibility and entitlement are at the
of what is wrong with employee engagement programs

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today and why they fail? Would
you say more about that? Yeah,

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So I wrote an article a while
ago that that got a lot of traction,

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and the article was about the fact
that when I started really looking at

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employee engagement programs, quite frankly,
they looked more like going to a spaw

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or a vacation, you know,
I mean what companies were rolling out to

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try to get employees to engage or
to recruit them and stuff. And it

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was just like it just was so
over the top, and it was it

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was missing the basic things at you
know, the basic things at the bottom.

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Those those purpose, that ownership,
that people feeling valued and important and

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feeling like they have a career.
But I think we went off the chart

402
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and we forgot the most important part
of employee engagement, and that is that

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we cannot engage employees. We can
create a culture and invite people to engage.

404
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But the back half of the book, what I wrote about was the

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fact that it's your life, it's
your career. What are you doing waiting

406
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for somebody else to engage? You
get to the plate and take ownership of

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it. So employees have a role
and a response in it. Yes,

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absolutely, And that's that's how we're
going to We're going to finish this conversation

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00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:18.759
today. But the last thing I
want to say about, or I want

410
00:29:18.759 --> 00:29:22.839
to get to I should say around
employee engagement that I think that is so

411
00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:26.519
important that you talk about is back
to this notion of forget all these great

412
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:32.079
SPA programs, what in the world
is the company in existence for? And

413
00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:34.720
so you talk about, you know
the importance of that's the purpose piece of

414
00:29:34.839 --> 00:29:40.119
leaders who make a point of clarifying
what it is that the organization actually does

415
00:29:40.200 --> 00:29:44.319
and why did they do that,
and then communicating that what they stand to

416
00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:48.039
and for to their employees and their
customers, and then iterate the importance of

417
00:29:48.079 --> 00:29:52.160
what the employees are doing that matter
to fulfill on that. That's much more

418
00:29:52.200 --> 00:29:59.440
engaging, much more I mean it
is, you know, we're not human

419
00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:03.359
beings are complicated, and I think
as leaders, one of the most important

420
00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:07.119
questions we can under it, we
can communicate, is why why are we

421
00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:11.559
doing this? People understand the why, they start to understand the purpose,

422
00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:14.519
and they start to you know,
they start to engage, and you can't

423
00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:18.880
communicate enough as a leader. I
mean, people want you to be transparent.

424
00:30:18.920 --> 00:30:21.440
They want you to be open.
They want to know what's going well

425
00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:23.200
with the company. They want to
know where the challenges are, and then

426
00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:26.640
they want to help you fix the
problem. You can give them a spats

427
00:30:26.680 --> 00:30:30.839
treatment, but if you don't have
those things underneath it, none of those

428
00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:34.599
spats, treatments and great vacations are
going to work. Completely agree and also

429
00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:40.039
to write the importance of ongoing communication, constantly presencing why do we do what

430
00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:41.160
we do? Why does it matter? Why do you matter? Right?

431
00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:45.599
This isn't a one time, once
a year session. We're bring everybody together

432
00:30:45.640 --> 00:30:48.279
and we just do a big,
you know, celebration. This is something

433
00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:52.720
we live every day absolutely, you
know. You know, if you're back

434
00:30:52.720 --> 00:30:56.119
to the interviews I'm doing from a
new book, and I've said that those

435
00:30:56.119 --> 00:31:00.440
CEOs have two three jobs next and
more than that. And the reason is

436
00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:07.000
because communicating, connecting and engaging employees
is really a full time job and you

437
00:31:07.079 --> 00:31:10.440
have to be out there talking to
people. You have to start meetings the

438
00:31:10.480 --> 00:31:12.319
same way and meetings the same way. I mean, you can't, you

439
00:31:12.359 --> 00:31:17.279
can't beat it enough. It needs
to get to a point where you walk

440
00:31:17.319 --> 00:31:22.920
back in a year later and everybody
can. Everybody can recite the things that

441
00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:26.640
the leader hasn't say. And who
doesn't want to live in a space of

442
00:31:26.759 --> 00:31:29.640
wow, you know we mad or
I'm at or who doesn't want to you

443
00:31:29.640 --> 00:31:33.839
know, hear that on a regular
basis, right, everybody, everybody does.

444
00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:36.319
And I think one of the biggest
things people make the mistake of is

445
00:31:36.400 --> 00:31:40.279
do not confuse the fact that employee
has been there thirty five years with the

446
00:31:40.279 --> 00:31:42.599
fact that that employee is engaged.
I don't care how old you are.

447
00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:45.559
You want to feel like you're like
you matter, and you want to feel

448
00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:49.200
like your voice is heard. And
that's the beautiful thing about being a human

449
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:53.759
being. We've got this beautifulful complement
of logic, rationale and beautiful emotions and

450
00:31:55.359 --> 00:32:00.759
work auto appeal to all of them. Yes, absolutely, and song and

451
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:02.599
you know, I know there's so
much work on the generation. But I

452
00:32:02.599 --> 00:32:06.799
think at the end of the day, people are people, and you know,

453
00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:10.920
the leaders to me that are successful
are understanding and appealing to those things,

454
00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:15.039
and they're asking they're setting a very
clear direction and saying I've got this,

455
00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:17.799
I know where we're headed, I
know where we're going. But they're

456
00:32:17.799 --> 00:32:21.559
balancing that by that was saying I
want to hear from you. I need

457
00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:25.759
your help picking there absolutely. Then
with that, let's grab our last break.

458
00:32:25.799 --> 00:32:28.799
I'm a Last Cortez, your host. We've been on the air with

459
00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:32.319
Meredith Elliott Powell, a business growth
expert and global keynote speaker. She joins

460
00:32:32.359 --> 00:32:36.160
us to day from the Detroit Airport
en route trying to get back home.

461
00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:40.200
We've been talking about the old and
new forms of employee engagement programs. After

462
00:32:40.240 --> 00:32:44.720
the break, we're going to talk
about the new frontier for individual employees and

463
00:32:44.759 --> 00:32:49.079
how they can redefine personal responsibility and
owning their own path towards success. Stay

464
00:32:49.079 --> 00:33:00.240
with us, We'll be right back. Elist Cortez is a speaker and engagement

465
00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:07.240
and development catalyst. She designs and
delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops

466
00:33:07.319 --> 00:33:12.039
and can bring her expertise to your
organization. She will help ignite meaningful development

467
00:33:12.119 --> 00:33:16.240
within your workforce that will increase employee
engagement, performance and retention. To learn

468
00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:21.240
more or to invite Elise to speak
to your organization, please visit her at

469
00:33:21.279 --> 00:33:25.640
www dot Elise Cortez dot com.
She would welcome the opportunity to help get

470
00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:37.279
your employees working on Purpose. This
is Working on Purpose with Elise Cortez.

471
00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:44.279
To reach our program today, send
an email to Elise ali se at Elise

472
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:51.400
Cortez dot com. Now back to
working on Purpose. Thanksteresting with this,

473
00:33:51.519 --> 00:33:53.440
and welcome back to working on Purpose. If you're just tuning in, I

474
00:33:53.480 --> 00:33:57.920
guess is Meritith Elliott Powell, who
has voted one of the top fifteen business

475
00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:02.039
growth experts to watch Top for when
Motivational speakers and top fifty sales speakers.

476
00:34:02.279 --> 00:34:07.759
She shares the business strategies you need
to turn uncertain into competitive advantage and is

477
00:34:07.799 --> 00:34:10.960
the author of six books, including
her latest own it, Redefining Responsibility,

478
00:34:12.199 --> 00:34:15.800
which uncovers what it takes to grow
a business in a constantly shifting marketplace.

479
00:34:15.159 --> 00:34:20.280
I'm your host, Alice Cortez.
So for this last segment here, Meredith,

480
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:22.840
I really want to talk about the
employee, the individual employee, and

481
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:30.239
really celebrate and position presence and empower
them essentially. And one of the things

482
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:34.000
that you say in your book that
I think is incredibly compelling is that you

483
00:34:34.039 --> 00:34:37.320
want to redefine responsibility and to bring
it back to the workplace, and you

484
00:34:37.400 --> 00:34:42.559
say you want to transform the concept
of personal transformation from an association with feeling

485
00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:46.400
burdened and overwhelmed to a concept that
implies taking control of her life and experiencing

486
00:34:46.440 --> 00:34:51.719
a greater overall level of freedom,
passion, and power. I love that,

487
00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:58.559
you know. When I first when
I first told my publisher I wanted

488
00:34:58.639 --> 00:35:05.119
to put responsibility and the title,
he said, you can't write a book

489
00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:08.400
on responsibility. Nobody will want to
buy it. Nobody wants to be responsible.

490
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:14.480
And I said, that's the point, is that we have made responsibility

491
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:21.519
an ugly word. And so the
kind of backstory on that was I am

492
00:35:21.559 --> 00:35:28.719
obsessed with self made people, people
who came from absolutely nothing and achieved whatever

493
00:35:28.880 --> 00:35:31.920
level of success they set out to
achieve, you know, people who had

494
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:37.320
all the odds act against them.
And as I interviewed and talked with people

495
00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:42.280
like that, again, while they
had different stories and stuff, the one

496
00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:46.440
thing that it came down to was
there was never anybody to bail them out.

497
00:35:46.920 --> 00:35:52.119
They always had to take responsibility for
every obstacle they had to get around.

498
00:35:52.840 --> 00:35:55.760
One of the one of the women
that I interviewed, said she said,

499
00:35:55.760 --> 00:35:59.840
I've flown my whole life without a
net, and I thought that was

500
00:36:00.039 --> 00:36:02.119
It's a beautiful visual and she said, if I fell, if I got

501
00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:05.760
hurt, I had to dust myself
off, and I had to get myself

502
00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:10.039
up. And I just thought,
responsibility, struggle. Those things are a

503
00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:15.400
necessary part of life and success,
and without bounds, we can't ever really

504
00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:20.719
achieve the levels that we want to
achieve. So responsibility is not a birth.

505
00:36:21.239 --> 00:36:25.639
The moment you take responsibility, it's
your ultimate path to freedom. And

506
00:36:25.760 --> 00:36:29.480
what I, of course love about
that, Meradith, is that it's so

507
00:36:29.639 --> 00:36:34.519
empowering, it's encouraging, it's inspiring, and it does it takes away this

508
00:36:34.559 --> 00:36:39.000
notion that corporate America has to give
employees an engaged experience and puts them back

509
00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:43.199
in the driver's seat. And I
think that is so compelling. I'm right

510
00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:46.039
there with your Meridith, but I
appreciate the way you presence and say that.

511
00:36:46.199 --> 00:36:51.599
I don't know that I've heard it
spoken so crisply before. Yeah,

512
00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:54.039
the thing is is that there's nothing
more fun than going to the water cooler

513
00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:58.719
and complaining about what a jerk your
boss is and how this company you can't

514
00:36:58.760 --> 00:37:01.679
believe they lowered your insure its benefits
and we only got a three percent raise

515
00:37:01.760 --> 00:37:06.079
this year. I mean, I'm
right there with you. I'll I'll grab

516
00:37:06.119 --> 00:37:07.440
the cup of the water pooler and
I'd love to sit around for an hour

517
00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:10.679
and wind. It's fun. The
problem is, at the end of that

518
00:37:10.719 --> 00:37:15.719
hour, you're still in the exact
same spot. The problem with being a

519
00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:17.840
victim is is the end of your
story. It's all you're ever going to

520
00:37:17.920 --> 00:37:22.960
be. And so when you take
responsibility for the fact that you know,

521
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:24.719
if you haven't gotten the rays you
want, if you don't have the insurance

522
00:37:24.760 --> 00:37:29.480
benefits, if you don't like your
boss, what are you going to do

523
00:37:29.559 --> 00:37:32.039
about it? What can you do
to either survive it and make the best

524
00:37:32.039 --> 00:37:36.199
of it, or what can you
do to change it? That's the path

525
00:37:36.280 --> 00:37:39.559
out, and that's why responsibility is
so important, and it's it's such a

526
00:37:39.639 --> 00:37:45.000
definer. So if you're in a
company and that engages employees, hear you.

527
00:37:45.480 --> 00:37:49.119
But if you're like most of the
most employees and you don't, if

528
00:37:49.159 --> 00:37:52.800
you decide to engage yourself, if
you decide to go all in, you're

529
00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:55.239
going to be the one who's going
to wind up in the next five ten

530
00:37:55.360 --> 00:38:01.000
years with unbelievable opportunity. Contrast that
in the book beautifully, when you talk

531
00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:06.039
about and you say you know,
people, employee individual employees operate so much

532
00:38:06.039 --> 00:38:08.599
to day from fear and they're afraid
of being able to find a job,

533
00:38:08.760 --> 00:38:13.840
keep a job, not being successful, getting laid off. And you say

534
00:38:13.880 --> 00:38:15.840
so beautifully in your book, Meredith, and you talk about, well,

535
00:38:15.840 --> 00:38:19.679
if you would just take all of
that energy that you that you put into

536
00:38:19.679 --> 00:38:23.199
being afraid and concerned and put it
into engaging yourself fully in your work and

537
00:38:23.239 --> 00:38:28.079
becoming the employee the company wants to
keep, strives to keep your back in

538
00:38:28.079 --> 00:38:30.920
the driver's seat. I think we
lost you there. So I was talking

539
00:38:30.920 --> 00:38:34.360
about how Oh I'm back. Yeah, Okay, I'm sorry about that.

540
00:38:34.400 --> 00:38:37.800
I don't know, I don't know
how Yeah, talking about becoming that employee

541
00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:42.960
that people strive to keep. Correct, Yes, and instead of instead of

542
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:45.639
falling, you know, back to
the word victim, falling victim to being

543
00:38:45.679 --> 00:38:47.599
owned and run by their fears about
losing their job, you know, being

544
00:38:47.679 --> 00:38:51.880
laid off, et cetera. If
we could just take all of that energy

545
00:38:51.920 --> 00:38:55.320
and effort and pour it into being
an engaged employee, bringing value and being

546
00:38:55.360 --> 00:39:00.880
the person that a company strives to
keep. Absolutely, because you know that

547
00:39:00.920 --> 00:39:04.719
you are talking about uncertainty. We
are living in a world where you have

548
00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:08.920
absolutely no control over whether your company
is going to be healthy long term,

549
00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:14.000
whether they're going to be bought,
whether you're going to be acquired. So

550
00:39:14.239 --> 00:39:17.239
if you follow the strategies to put
yourself in the driver's seat of your career,

551
00:39:17.360 --> 00:39:21.760
if your company goes a direction that
you want to go, great,

552
00:39:22.039 --> 00:39:23.599
then you'll be there. You'll be
the employee they want. But if they

553
00:39:23.599 --> 00:39:29.199
take a turn that you're not interested
in, you're so dynamic and so incredible,

554
00:39:29.519 --> 00:39:31.800
you're going to have another job in
half a second. You're going to

555
00:39:31.880 --> 00:39:36.119
be in control of your career.
One of the biggest points I've gotten that

556
00:39:36.679 --> 00:39:38.679
is that you know, build your
network, change your life. And one

557
00:39:38.679 --> 00:39:43.159
of the saddest things I see people
do is that they once they have a

558
00:39:43.239 --> 00:39:46.639
job and they walk into it,
they quit connecting and they quit networking and

559
00:39:47.000 --> 00:39:51.800
you know, and the problem with
that is is that then the world changes.

560
00:39:51.960 --> 00:39:54.880
And if you need somebody to help
you and you're already you haven't contacted

561
00:39:54.880 --> 00:40:00.960
them in three years, then you
know then and it's too late. So

562
00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:04.920
you've got to You've got to be
in charge and doing those steps that the

563
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:07.400
company owes you nothing. Just take
that, Just take that phrase. But

564
00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:12.559
you also you know you're not sold
to the company for the rest of your

565
00:40:12.599 --> 00:40:15.280
life either, and you're you're the
person who is as long as the company's

566
00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:19.039
giving you what you want, you're
all in. But if it isn't,

567
00:40:19.159 --> 00:40:22.320
you get to make another decision,
You get to go somewhere else. You're

568
00:40:22.360 --> 00:40:25.159
in charge of your career. Well, and just listen to you know,

569
00:40:25.199 --> 00:40:29.599
the way you're describing that. You
say in your book several different benefits that

570
00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:34.440
comes with engaging yourself at work,
and one of them automatically is you talked

571
00:40:34.480 --> 00:40:38.119
about building relationships and get developing the
peer support. What are some of the

572
00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:44.000
other benefits we get from really engaging
ourselves like this at work. Well,

573
00:40:44.119 --> 00:40:46.159
number one is you're going to be
in a constant learning, growth, and

574
00:40:46.960 --> 00:40:52.280
development mode. I remember, I
remember years ago when I waited tables and

575
00:40:53.320 --> 00:40:57.360
I was learning to run the cash
register, and I remember one of the

576
00:40:57.400 --> 00:41:00.079
other waitresses saying to me, don't
don't learn to run the cash register,

577
00:41:00.119 --> 00:41:05.280
then they'll ask you to do it. And I thought, what a sad

578
00:41:05.280 --> 00:41:07.119
what a sad answer that is.
So I learned to run the cash register,

579
00:41:07.199 --> 00:41:09.519
I learned to wash the dishes,
I learned to be the hostess.

580
00:41:09.559 --> 00:41:15.039
I learned how to do all that
stuff, and so later I went to

581
00:41:15.079 --> 00:41:19.039
interview at a really high end restaurant
where the tips were much better than where

582
00:41:19.079 --> 00:41:22.199
we were working. And when I
said down for the interview and they said,

583
00:41:22.239 --> 00:41:22.719
you know, tell us what you
can do, and I said,

584
00:41:22.719 --> 00:41:24.760
well, I'm a great waitress.
I can do this, but I've also

585
00:41:24.840 --> 00:41:29.880
learned to do all those other things. So you're you're in this learning and

586
00:41:29.880 --> 00:41:34.440
development which a makes it much more
interesting, but the makes you more valuable.

587
00:41:34.760 --> 00:41:37.440
The more skills you have, the
more initiative you show. The other

588
00:41:37.519 --> 00:41:42.760
is if it builds your confidence.
If I know I'm engaged and I'm giving

589
00:41:42.800 --> 00:41:45.960
you everything I've got, then when
they're talking about layoffs and stuff, I'm

590
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:51.000
not worried about it. I'm not
as worried about it for two reasons.

591
00:41:51.039 --> 00:41:52.760
Number one is I'm a great employee. They're probably not going to let me

592
00:41:52.760 --> 00:41:57.159
go. The other is if they
do, I've got options. So they're

593
00:41:57.320 --> 00:42:01.840
so much in it for you to
engage m when it goes back, I

594
00:42:01.920 --> 00:42:06.480
love, I really, really really
like the whole undergird of your of your

595
00:42:06.480 --> 00:42:12.280
book about bringing that personal responsibility back
to the individual employee element because it is

596
00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:16.559
it's empowering, always very empowering.
I mean, you know, especially in

597
00:42:16.599 --> 00:42:21.440
the age of uncertainty there there are
there's so much you can't control, but

598
00:42:21.559 --> 00:42:23.360
there's a lot that you can.
And that's what you want to do is

599
00:42:23.400 --> 00:42:28.000
put yourself in the driver's seat to
control the things that you can control.

600
00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:31.679
And one you can control is what
you do in your career and how far

601
00:42:31.840 --> 00:42:36.440
you gom. Yeah, one of
the many things that I wanted to be

602
00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:38.960
sure we talked about on this program
RAT because I'm very much align with that

603
00:42:39.039 --> 00:42:44.360
and because I stand to empower individuals, leaders and organizations across the globe.

604
00:42:44.519 --> 00:42:47.320
It starts on the individual level.
It has to, Yes, it does.

605
00:42:47.559 --> 00:42:51.360
And leaders are out there really kind
of banging their head against the wall

606
00:42:51.440 --> 00:42:53.800
trying to get you know, trying
to get employees to gauge. But it's

607
00:42:53.800 --> 00:42:58.719
just two way street. Employees have
to step to the plate, you know,

608
00:42:58.760 --> 00:43:00.880
I have to step to say play
two. If you're not getting what

609
00:43:00.920 --> 00:43:04.800
you need to be successful, then
raise your hand, ask for it.

610
00:43:04.840 --> 00:43:07.280
If there's things you want to learn, things you want to do, raise

611
00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:09.880
your hand, ask for it,
find your voice and it will change your

612
00:43:09.920 --> 00:43:15.480
life well and Speaking of that,
I'm coaching an executive woman right now and

613
00:43:15.559 --> 00:43:17.639
she was talking about how she gets
these stellar performance reviews, and I say,

614
00:43:17.679 --> 00:43:21.760
well, don't you get anything in
there that says what they would encourage

615
00:43:21.760 --> 00:43:23.119
you to work on or take on
next? She goes, no, they

616
00:43:23.119 --> 00:43:25.320
always just say keep doing what you're
doing. I said, that is a

617
00:43:25.320 --> 00:43:30.960
cop out. You need to ask
them for specific feedback that tells you what

618
00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:35.639
specifically am I doing well, and
ask for feedback and direction on how you're

619
00:43:35.679 --> 00:43:39.679
going to grow. Completely agree with
that statement. Yeah, it's funny,

620
00:43:39.719 --> 00:43:44.159
you know. I always when I'm
working with younger leaders, I always say,

621
00:43:44.360 --> 00:43:47.039
if you get one good boss in
your lifetime, your fortune, you're

622
00:43:47.119 --> 00:43:52.000
more fortunate than other people, and
it's going to be rare that you're not

623
00:43:52.039 --> 00:43:59.000
going to need to manage the person
that you're reporting too. And so the

624
00:43:59.119 --> 00:44:01.599
world, you know, bosses would
be concerned about our careers and our futures.

625
00:44:01.760 --> 00:44:05.760
But the world isn't perfect, So
accept it, step up and do

626
00:44:05.800 --> 00:44:08.559
what you need to do to get
where you need to get to. Now,

627
00:44:08.599 --> 00:44:12.159
speaking of leaders, one of the
things that you talk about is the

628
00:44:12.159 --> 00:44:15.880
importance of developing into a transformational leader
and involving and inviting employees in the engagement

629
00:44:15.880 --> 00:44:20.599
program itself. We're starting to run
out of time, so can you just

630
00:44:20.639 --> 00:44:25.239
speak briefly to that. Yeah,
it's going from it's in the essence what

631
00:44:25.320 --> 00:44:30.519
transformational leadership is leading through the power
of the question. As the leader,

632
00:44:30.599 --> 00:44:35.280
you get to decide what the company
goals are, where the company is headed.

633
00:44:35.599 --> 00:44:37.880
But the question of how belongs to
your team, because when you ask

634
00:44:37.920 --> 00:44:45.519
people how you transform them by giving
them fully ownership and responsibility, people support

635
00:44:45.599 --> 00:44:51.280
what they help create. As we
said before, yes, well this is

636
00:44:51.519 --> 00:44:52.960
you know, Meredith, what's so
great about talking with you one or you

637
00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:59.639
have just you just have a just
an earth load of information and experience to

638
00:44:59.719 --> 00:45:01.199
draw from. But too, you're
so crisp and it's easy to get a

639
00:45:01.199 --> 00:45:06.199
lot of information out of you quickly. So you know, this show is

640
00:45:06.320 --> 00:45:09.679
heard by listeners across the globe and
it really is designed to help individuals and

641
00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:15.440
leaders more meaningfully and purposely connect with
their work. Given that, what would

642
00:45:15.440 --> 00:45:19.400
you like to leave a listeners with
today? You know, the biggest thing

643
00:45:19.559 --> 00:45:22.239
that I would like to leave a
listeners with is that understand the greatest competitive

644
00:45:22.239 --> 00:45:28.159
advantage you have in today's marketplace is
the engagement level of your employees, and

645
00:45:28.199 --> 00:45:31.960
the CEOs and the leaders who understand
that, who prioritize that are going to

646
00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:36.719
be the ones who win. There's
so little you have control over in this

647
00:45:36.760 --> 00:45:39.480
world. But every problem you have, every issue, can be solved by

648
00:45:39.519 --> 00:45:46.559
just having the best employees. Yes, wonderful, wonderful way to finish.

649
00:45:46.599 --> 00:45:50.239
And again, Merits, I want
to thank you for one, you know,

650
00:45:50.280 --> 00:45:52.719
making this conversation happen, given your
extremely busy life. I know how

651
00:45:52.719 --> 00:45:57.360
many trains, plans, on automobiles
that you navigate in a year to get

652
00:45:57.360 --> 00:46:00.119
to where you need to go.
And you were expecting to do this conversation

653
00:46:00.199 --> 00:46:05.280
from the comfort of your home and
ended up on the road stock in Detroit,

654
00:46:05.320 --> 00:46:07.320
and we can hear some of the
noise that comes with that, and

655
00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:10.719
I just want to thank you for
making it happen. I appreciate it immensely.

656
00:46:10.719 --> 00:46:15.559
And so to our listeners, well, I loved I loved being on

657
00:46:15.599 --> 00:46:20.880
the show, loved the conversation,
and I really look forward to having more

658
00:46:20.920 --> 00:46:23.400
of them. Excellent. Yes you
can run from me, but you cannot

659
00:46:23.440 --> 00:46:29.360
hide from me. So listeners,
if you want to learn more about Meredith

660
00:46:29.440 --> 00:46:32.000
Elliot Powell, visit her website.
It is just her name, but it's

661
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:36.880
spelled a little bit differently, so
Meredith Elliott Powell dot com. So it's

662
00:46:37.079 --> 00:46:43.039
m E r I d I t
h e l l IoT t po w

663
00:46:43.280 --> 00:46:46.880
e lll Meredith Elliott Powell dot com. Last week, if you missed the

664
00:46:46.920 --> 00:46:50.719
live show, you can always catch
it be recorded podcast. We were on

665
00:46:50.719 --> 00:46:54.719
the Earth Jenna Cooper Heller of United
Against Human Trafficking. She helped us understand

666
00:46:54.719 --> 00:46:59.280
the sheer size of this global problem
and the hugely important work she and her

667
00:46:59.320 --> 00:47:01.719
colleagues are doing to realize their vision
that one day, in the not so

668
00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:07.880
distant future, no human being will
ever be for sale or purchased. Incredibly

669
00:47:07.880 --> 00:47:12.320
inspiring conversation. Next week, we'll
be on the air with author Rachel Stewart

670
00:47:12.360 --> 00:47:15.880
talking about her book Unqualified Success,
bridging the gap between where you are now

671
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:20.199
and where you want to be to
achieve massive success. See you there.

672
00:47:20.239 --> 00:47:22.159
Remember that work is one third of
my life. So let's work on Purpose.

673
00:47:28.320 --> 00:47:30.880
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune in to

674
00:47:31.039 --> 00:47:37.679
Working on Purpose featuring your host Alice
Cortez each week on the Voice America.

675
00:47:37.719 --> 00:47:42.400
Empowerment channel this week, find your
life's purpose at work.