IAM1016- Reinvention Expert Supports Clients in Making Bold Decisions

Randi Levin is a trusted nationally recognized transitional life strategist and reinvention expert, keynote, and thought leader. She supports founders, entrepreneurs, and those in life-cycle transitions in redefining and realigning success and legacy as power tools for choice, change, and self-leadership in real time. Randi spent the better part of two decades incorporating, a long gig as a SAHM and reinvented herself later in life as a successful entrepreneur and sought-after coach. In year 7 of her business, Randi supports her clients and audiences in making bold no-nonsense decisions that shift perspectives and lead them and their goals forward. She believes that you begin from wherever you are! Randi has been featured or quoted in CEO BlogNation, Forbes, Thrive Global, Fairygodboss, The Ladders, Yahoo Lifestyle, Best Life, Parenting, Women's World, Reader's Digest Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, MSN, and Amex OpenForum.

• CEO Hack: Leading the dreams not following them
• CEO Nugget: .. and what else?
• CEO Defined: Autonomy, to be an inspiration, one-of-a-kind and building a legacy

Website: https://randilevincoaching.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RandiLevinCoaching
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/randilevincoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randiclevin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/randilevincoach
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9GYtxz1RRqAl5g39kuXJ-Q
Clubhouse: @RandiLevinCoach on IOS
The Recalibration Network: https://www.facebook.com/groups/recalibration/
The Personal Success Accelerator System: https://randilevincoaching.com/psas/

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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00:22 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:49 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM  CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Randi Levin of Randi Levin coaching Randi. It's awesome to have you on the show.

00:58 – Randi Levin

Thank you so much. Love being here.

01:01 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely super excited to have you on. Before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Randy so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Randy is a trusted nationally recognized transitional life strategist and reinvention expert, keynote, and thought leader. She supports founders, entrepreneurs and those in life cycle transitions in redefining and realigning success and legacy as power tools for choice, change, and self-leadership in real time. Randi spent the better part of two decades in corporate, a long gig as a Sam or stay-at-home mom, and reinvented herself later on as a life as a successful entrepreneur and sought-after coach.

In year 7 of her business, Randy supports her clients and audience and makes bold, non-no-nonsense decisions that shift perspectives and lead them toward their goals forward. She believes that you begin from where you are. Randy has been featured in quoted in CO Blog Nation, Forbes Thrive, global, fairy God, boss, The Ladders, Yahoo Lifestyle, Best Life Parenting, woman's World, readers, digest Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, MSN, and MX Open Forum. Randy, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:10 – Randi Levin

I am ready.

02:11 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Well, the world is raving about all the awesome things that you're doing. So I wanted to kind of kick everything off here, how you guys started what I call your CEO story will let you get started with the business.

02:21 – Randi Levin

Absolutely. So I was transitioning, the third chapter of my own life, and becoming an entrepreneur and a founder. And that was before transition was even as trendy as it is right now. But one of the things that really got me started in my own space after spending time in corporate, spending time with my kids was really that idea of legacy. It was not the dictionary definition of what we leave behind, but really that idea of what can we curate. What can we drive? Or what can I curate? Or what can I drive right now that's going to make a difference? And it was that little seed that really got me going and becoming a coach. I thought I was going back to get my degree to be an MSW, but found all this coaching stuff, went back to school, got certified and kind of hit the ground running and love what I do.

03:15 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Well, I definitely appreciate that. And I appreciate you for reminding us of that legacy because I think so many times, and I don't know if you feel the exact same way when we think of legacy, sometimes we're fast forwarding years and years in the future and we're thinking, okay, this doesn't have any impact with what I'm doing presently. But I love that kind of different perspective that you provided of what I can do right here, right now, and how that can impact today, but also impact years and years down the line.

03:38 – Randi Levin

Absolutely, and we get to choose that. And we don't realize that. We give it up over and over again and say, I'll get to it tomorrow. Or when the time is right, when I have enough money, when my kids don't need me, all the excuses come in. And yet that legacy, it's right here, it's right now. What is that piece you can do? Where can you impact something and take something forward?

03:56 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I absolutely love that. And, you know, I know I touched a little bit upon, you know, how you work with your clients, but I can imagine that goes right in line with, as you said so well, it's definitely a trendy world and it's almost a necessary word to talk about the transition and disruption, some of those words that we've all experienced in some form, shape or fashion. But I imagine when people are going through that, that legacy piece probably comes up as well too as it came up for you. Can you talk a little bit more about that and how you work with clients to do that?

04:24 – Randi Levin

Well, absolutely, because we all hit a point in time where we need to make other decisions. We need to change, we are changing. What's happened in the past year with the pandemic has left all of us recalibrating, thinking about what's next. How do I want to show up? What do I want to edit for myself? So positioning yourself, and looking at what do I want your legacy to be tomorrow allows us to take today and make that happen. So I work with people to make really bold choices and powerful decisions to really be able to get past the noise, get past the excuses and the things they may be telling themselves, the fears perhaps, to really be able to stay in action on the goals that they set, to set goals that make sense for what they want and really empower them.

05:14 – Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, and that's so powerful. And I love that, you know, the word bold, obviously, because I almost feel like, as you said, cutting through the noise and being able to kind of maybe pivot and change in a different direction, I almost feel like you correct me if I'm wrong, that takes bold action. Because When you have habits, when you've been doing things on a regular basis, you almost have to like a jerk and reshift in order to kind of see that change and you know, and to manifest yourself in the life.

05:39 – Randi Levin

And I call it recalibrate. And that's something that it's not a one-and-done. It's not something, okay, I just shifted, I'm good. Every day is an opportunity to make those bold choices, to recalibrate just a little bit, to reset something, to align it with the world's alignment with who you are, the things you do align with who you are, and what really means something to you. And we don't always stop to assess that. And yet it's so critically important to one's happiness, to one's legacy, to one being the best person they can be. And we talk about goals, you know, we go out and we set all these goals, but in order to get those goals, there has to be that alignment there. So it's really important.

06:25 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love that alignment word as well too, because I think so many times when we take action, we sometimes feel like it's not the right action, but we can't sometimes put it into words. And I don't know if you find this with clients, but sometimes it's because you haven't done that quote-unquote inner work, it sounds like, that you do with your clients, where you figure out what is an alignment, like who am I, what are my passions, What are my visions, my morals, all of those things. And if you don't do that work, it's hard to figure out what the right step is, I guess you could say.

06:54 – Randi Levin

So, you know, your organization, is all about being a CEO, right? And we all know what that is in the world. But that starts with you. It is that inner work. You are the CEO of your life. It's a self-leadership thing. And so if you can lock in that self-leadership over and over again, the rest of it just naturally follows. The alignment is there almost organically. It's the inner work. It's self-leadership. It's the CEO of your own life.

07:24 – Gresham Harkless

That's extremely powerful. I absolutely love that. And so I wanted to, I know we touched on how you work with your clients. Was there anything additional you want to let us know about the process and how that manifests itself?

07:35 -Randi Levin

Sure, I'm virtual. Before again, before it was trendy, I was virtual with my clients and my clients were all over the place. Everything is done via Zoom Skype or phone. And my passion is one-on-one. I do do group coaching from time to time, but I love my one-on-one. I love to see people grow and really, you know, be able to turn and transition and step into their own brilliance. And that really kind of recharges me. So that's kind of really how we work. I also have a network that I formed when the pandemic first started called the Recalibration Network. That's a free network actually on Facebook and Zoom that has events and things that are part of it. So also a little passion project. Yeah. And do a podcasting and keynote and all of that as well.

08:27 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, absolutely. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for yourself individually or the business or a combination of both but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

08:37 – Randi Levin

I'm going to say decision-making because I've always personally been a good decision maker and sometimes we get to a point of doing something well because we were pushed into doing it. And that is the face. I am a teen of divorce. My parents divorced when I was in high school and was kind of forced into making a lot of adult decisions, if you would, early. And when the decision became another decision became another and it just became really good at it It was always a natural progression of decision-making whereas some people just freeze and get stuck in stuff And so it's something I'm I'm good at and good at citing and finding solutions for things And so that's something that really easy for me to put in perspective and help other people with. And it's almost always something that's part of coaching with somebody is in making those choices. We're the only one choice away from that next goal. We're one choice away from that thing we said we wanted, right? So, you know, where do you see it? How is it possible? And then what are the steps to get there?

09:41 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:54 – Randi Levin

Well, I think it's something that I wanna share a perspective, and this is gonna be a little shifter, if you would. We grow up being told, to follow our dreams. How many times have you said it to somebody or someone said it to you? Think about graduation, and follow your dreams, right? And there's nothing wrong with that statement except if we're busy following them, we're not leading them. And so that little nugget is leading them instead. Don't follow them.

Because when we we're in that leadership role again, going back to that self-leadership, and we have a year like we just had with a pandemic, everything changes. You grab back your control. You make the choices and decisions that you can make to pivot, to change, to stay in your lane, to get out of your lane a little bit. But if you're following something, you're stuck because you just, decided that that's the habit. That's the thing you're gonna follow. So lead your goals instead of following them.

10:49 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Well, I appreciate that, that hack. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be more of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

11:04 – Randi Levin

Yes. And what else? And what else? The word and is one of the most powerful words in the whole English language because we think of things in terms of this or that. We have to have to choose, we have to pick one or the other. What if we allow ourselves to do something and something else? And so it opens up that whole arena. So if you are at a crossroads you're stuck making a decision, or you're just kind of looking for some more action steps, ask yourself, and what else? Open up the sentence, say whatever the statement is, and then say, and what else? And then answer the question. And you're gonna automatically give yourself a little more bandwidth, more action steps, more power, more thought behind what you're saying. And it changes the conversation.

11:59 – Gresham Harkless

I absolutely love that, Randi. And I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Randy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:10 – Randi Levin'

There are a number of things. I think there's a certain autonomy that comes with it. That's what I love about it is that I get to choose. I get to make the rules. I get to drive what I want to drive. And if I don't want to drive something, I don't have to do that. I don't have to show up the way you show up or somebody else shows up, I can choose those that position in it. So definitely the autonomy, the ability to be inspirational, to be one of a kind, to self-lead, to have a legacy to build a legacy. So a lot of things we've been talking about are really definitely a part of that.

Part of what drew me into that founder CEO space and what I love to work on with other people too is, that when I coach, I coach in 360 degrees. So I'm not a business coach. I'm a transitional coach. So I'm looking at all aspects of somebody. And what I love in that CEO or founder space is that it's all of you. It's you intersecting with the moment. It's you taking everything that got you here and really empowering it, really doing something with it, something that's meaningful to you and hopefully to others as well.

13:32 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's so powerful. So many times I say, if you run your own race, you can never lose. And I think that as we talked about in the very beginning, just tapping into what success looks like for ourselves, tapping into that inner work, so to speak, really gives us that north star of what even success looks like. And we become that leader because we're really directing ourselves rather than being directed by whatever, you know, might be out there that we sometimes get caught in. So I think that's extremely powerful. And then to be able to, of course, take those actions, understand that it's not either or, it's a combination of both, but we get to be like an artist, so to speak, and get to paint that canvas to be what we want our life to be.

14:11 -Randi Levin

And guess what? Tomorrow you get to paint a new one. And maybe you're gonna use the same colors, maybe you aren't. Maybe the canvas is bigger, maybe it's smaller. Maybe you skip one day. Ah, the CEO space. Exactly.

14:28 – Gresham Harkless:

Exactly, but we all have the power within us to do that and to make that happen and see what kind of comes up from there. So I absolutely appreciate that definition and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

14:47 – Randi Levin

Absolutely. So the best way to get in touch with me is via my website at randylevincoaching.com. You can hit the let's Talk tab on the homepage. It opens my calendar. Welcome virtual coffees. So please, you know, feel free to do that. Also, the Recalibration Network on Facebook is a transformative networking transitional group, if you would, all about change renewal and collaboration. So just Google, go ahead and Google it. And if anybody's interested, I also have a free challenge at randylevingcoaching.com forward slash leadership. It's a leadership challenge. So go ahead and grab that.

15:30 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Randy, to make it even easier. We'll have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can click through. Take the challenge, join the Facebook group, and set up a time to chat with Coffee, and virtually, as you said so well. So I appreciate you for doing that and taking some time out and just all the things that you talked about about the possibility. Sometimes we don't realize that we think about things in silos. So I love the work that you do to kind of get us out of those silos and see what are the possibilities, blend those things, work with and instead of buts or not enough or whatever it is that sometimes we can tell ourselves. So I appreciate you for doing that so much. And I appreciate you, of course, your time and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

16:13 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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