IAM1035- Empowerment Coach Contributes to the Journey of Others

Michelle L. Perry established herself as a subject matter expert over the course of her career as a clinical social worker in the field of child welfare which spanned over 20 years. She then transitioned into the corporate world where her leadership and coaching skills were refined, producing results in all that she works with. As an Empowerment Coach, Podcast Host, Speaker, #1 international best-selling Author, and Online Course Creator, Michelle contributes to the journey of others by supporting them to see results and experience an increase in confidence and momentum in their lives.

• CEO Hack: (i) Paying attention effectively (ii) Implementing gratitude
• CEO Nugget: Utilise systems such as Calendly (ii) Self-care (iii) Live in the truth
• CEO Defined: Responsibility+discipline= Freedom

Website: https://www.successfuldiligence.com/

https://linktr.ee/shelmy_life

The Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LZZKZGZ
School: https://successful-diligence.teachable.com
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/successfuldiligence
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/successfuldiligence
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/successfuldiligence
If you would like to be a guest on the Successful Diligence™ Podcast, Work With Michelle, or Book her tos peak: https://calendly.com/successfuldiligence

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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00:19 – 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.

00:46 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on Michelle today. I have Michelle Carey of successfully successful diligence LLC. Michelle, it's great to have you on the show.

00:57 – Michelle L. Perry

I am so honored to be here and excited to chat.

01:01 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely. The honor is all ours. I've been blessed enough to be a guest on your show. So I am blessed to have you on the show and now hear about all the awesome things that you're doing. And before we do that, I wanted to read a little bit more about Michelle so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Michelle established herself as a subject matter expert over the course of her career as a clinical social worker in the field of child welfare which spanned over twenty years.

She then transitioned into the corporate world where her leadership and coaching skills were refined producing results in all that she works with. As an empowerment coach, podcast host, speaker, number one international best-selling author, and online course creator, Michelle contributes to the journey of others by supporting them to see results and experience an increase in confidence and momentum in their lives. Michelle, great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:48 – Michelle L. Perry

I sure am. I feel really special and fancy after you read my bio.

01:53 – Gresham Harkless

When you feel special because you're doing special things and you help so many other people feel that way. So I appreciate you for all the work you're doing and all the awesome time that you're taking today. And so just to kinda get everything started, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here a little bit more on what I call your CEO story. Will it get started with all the awesome work today?

02:10 – Michelle L. Perry

So my CEO story is so interesting because I haven't called myself a CEO until this year. But I, my business started actually back in two thousand five when I got the name and did absolutely nothing with it except forget a website. And then forgot about it, went to college, went to grad school, lived my life, became a clinical social worker, completely stopped paying attention to myself burned out, and became a person I didn't recognize. And so then I had to shift, went into corporate America where my coworkers were so supportive, but they also started to pay me unsolicited for coaching and consulting.

And me being business minded said, oh, I need to monetize this, and that's where my coaching business started. Two of my clients were podcasters and fell in love with podcasting. That's where the podcast came from. Episodes went viral. That's where the school came from. And then, of course, the book was published last year in twenty-twenty and went to number one in three countries, five categories on Amazon. And we're just moving and grooving this year and growing and, expanding. So that's where the CEO came in twenty-twenty-one.

03:14 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely appreciate kinda, like, the organic nature of everything. And sorry, of course, you had to experience that burnout, but I think so many times when we go through stuff in life, it seems to propel us to where we should be. And as you said, like, you were just kinda naturally doing something, and then all of a sudden, the the the people you were working with were beating down your door to actually work with you more and it sounds like a pain.

03:34 – Michelle L. Perry

Yeah. And what I had to do was pay attention to the season of life and what was happening. And paying attention is the core of my message. Right? You have to pay attention because it saves lives. It saves other people's lives, but it also saves your own. And when you pay attention to what's happening around you, who is coming to you, what is coming to you, you're able to monetize and utilize it for purpose. And the purpose for me is not why something happens to us. It is what you do with the experience of what has happened to you. That is what purpose is. And so paying attention to that, you you end up walking into your purpose.

04:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that's so huge. And I feel like it's and definitely correct me if I'm wrong. Sometimes it's easier said than done to be able to pay attention. That's why a lot of times people outside of ourselves are able to say, hey. You're really good at that. Hey. This seems to be something that you're naturally doing because I feel like sometimes we take our gifts, our talents, those things we do naturally for granted.

04:29 – Michelle L. Perry

eah. Most of the time. Most people are not aware until they pay attention to the feedback. Right? And let's just put it out there. Nothing in life is easy. If you are breathing on Earth as a human being, life is going to bring you challenges situations, and experiences. Nothing is easy. But the key, I think, is to continue to show up in your life in truth, which is as your true self, value-based living, and to keep walking. Never stop walking because that is how you achieve your purpose and get to your destiny and your destination in life.

05:08- Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I absolutely love that you said to keep walking because I  think so many times, I  think I read somewhere where it said, like, when we're trying things and sometimes going through life, we kinda have to think of ourselves as being, like, children because I think when there's a child that's learning how to walk and the child falls down, no one yells at the kid, like, walking is not for you, you're not cut out for this. Find something better to do. You know, you prop that the child up. You tell them to keep going. And so many times, we have to remind ourselves of that as well. Just keep walking, keep going. Make sure we focus on those things.

05:39 – Michelle L. Perry

Yeah. And when the child falls down, we actually clap and celebrate for them. So we celebrate their failure. We celebrate the progress, and we really need to do that for ourselves as well. It's really important to celebrate those little wins.

05:53 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And so I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I hear a little bit more about your business. I know you have your book and your podcast, you're a coach, and you're doing so many phenomenal things. Can you tell us a little bit more about your business and anything else you may not have touched on, now you work with the clients?

06:07 – Michelle L. Perry

Yeah. Absolutely. You know, it's interesting. As I up-leveled to CEO status, I got myself an, executive consultant. And I think it's so important as a leader, you have to also be a really good follower. And so what I learned is I don't do free. So I have a consultation. I have coaching, where I work with people to clarify. Where are you? Where do you want to go? And how do you get there? Right? So that's the coaching consultant piece. And what I help people I don't help. I'm taking the word help out of my vocabulary because I empower, encourage, and equip people to live a life that they really want to be living and wanna get up for on a Monday morning. And then the people who are not able to have that one-to-one contact with me.

I have my podcast, which is free on all listening platforms. And I've got a YouTube where there are selected episodes there as well. And so you can get the free content as well. It's not as deep-dive as the one-to-one, but you can still get quality content through the podcast. It's called the Successful Diligence podcast. I also have the Successful Diligence School where I do online courses on legacy building, gratitude, mindset, and complete life transformation. Again, to empower, equip, and encourage you, you mean whoever wants to live their life in truth and achieve their destiny. And then I also have my book, of course, on Amazon, the pebble in my shoe.

07:37 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. I love and appreciate that. And so would you consider that to be what I call your what I like to call your secret sauce, the thing you feel kinda sets you apart? Is it that ability what I hear is for you to be able to kinda, quote, unquote, see the forest for the trees? Like you said, it's not so much about, you know, rolling up sleeves doing the work for somebody, but it's understanding maybe even seeing something before they able see able to be able to see it. Do you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce?

08:02 – Michelle L. Perry

You know, it's interesting because the secret sauce is the ability to have insight into a person and a person's situation that they because they're in it and they're living it, they don't see. And, yes. And one thing that I do very well is because of my clinical background, I'm able to go to those deep places and help no. And empower people. I'm in the process here of empowering people and equipping them to move through whatever it is that is blocking them in that moment of their journey to get to the next step. And so there's a specific skill set that unless you're trained and unless you've lived to earn that experience and that insider knowledge, you won't have it. And so that is something that I do bring to the table that is unique. So yeah. Absolutely.

08:53 – Gresham Harkless

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

09:05 – Michelle L. Perry

There are two things. I'm gonna take liberty here. The first thing is the ability to pay attention effectively. And I talk about it in my book a lot because people don't understand what that is. It's not just noticing, and it's more than self-awareness. Paying attention is being mindful. And so that's the first hack because unless you are aware and telling the truth about what is really going on, you're not gonna make any progress. And then the second hack that I do, and it's not really a hack. It's not really a habit either. It's part of who I am now, is implementing gratitude. Gratitude changed my life, and it started with I'm grateful to be on this side of the dirt. That was all I had when I started, and it grew. And so gratitude can be small, can be large, but implementing it effectively every day is so important.

09:59 – Gresham Harkless

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

10:12 – Michelle L. Perry

Yes. I think in terms of business, specifically, one thing I've noticed that has been really, really life-changing is I  am not able to hire a virtual assistant yet. However, hiring Calendly as my scheduler and utilizing systems has been so life-changing. You cannot do everything by yourself.

10:40 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's so huge. And I think a lot of times we don't realize it. And there's, like, even studies that say, like, I guess teams and organizations are getting smaller and smaller largely because of technology. And I don't think and we talk about, you know, language and mindset and understand. I don't think we sometimes realize the technology we can lean into like Calendly allows us to hire be our first hire before we have a physical person because it allows you to save time and energy and spend more time in your zone of genius.

11:09 – Michelle L. Perry

As well as grow. I've in terms of my podcast and in terms of my consultation and my strategy calls, there's been x growth simply by implementing Calendly because I don't have to send you to know, it automates your emails, it puts it on your calendar, so I don't have to remember and think. And it's just it's a load, and I can sleep better because I don't have all these things running through my mind.

11:30 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. As if we don't already have enough things when we're running our business that we have to realize that, oh, we didn't send a reminder for the person to have their meeting the next day. This takes care of all of that and allows you again to be more present and more focused on the things that are actually moving the needle forward.

11:44 – Michelle L. Perry

Pay attention to those important things like self-care as well because that's the other tip I have. I'll say I took three. I took I took a lot of liberty here. Don't pour me in them all. Self-care is key. It is so key because if you burn out, you can't serve people. If your cup is empty, you have nothing to pour out. And so you cannot give what you don't have. You've got to have proper sleep, hydration, mental health, physical health, and self-care is it should be a non-negotiable for every CEO and business owner. It's not, but hopefully, we'll get there.

12:16- Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I hope that it's definitely progressing towards that. And I think, think, something you said is that you're a work in progress, and I think we're all work in progress. So it's so important that we get all these hacks and nuggets and all these things that we can do to understand ourselves. But we have to really understand that as we drive our businesses forward if we have an empty cup that you said so well, there's nothing to pour from. There's nothing to give from. There's nothing that we can provide to our clients and our customers. So it's so important to take care of yourself to set out time and energy towards that or we can't really be of service and we do hit that burnout wall and we can't really do much else.

12:52 – Michelle L. Perry

Exactly. And tell the truth about it. You're not alone. Everybody goes through it. Everybody is a work in progress. There is no perfection, in my opinion. It's an illusion. We strive for excellence, but it's okay not to be okay. But it's also okay to tell the truth because people value that. And your audience, your customer will be able to recognize when you are walking in truth, talking in truth, and serving in truth versus faking it till you make it.

13:20 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And I'm a big believer in connection. And I think a lot of times when you are able to say, hey. I don't have it all figured out. Hey. I'm not perfect. Hey. I made a mistake. Whatever it might be. That actually connects you sometimes a lot more than we realize because we all make mistakes. We all are imperfect. We all are kind of progressing towards where we hopefully, are gonna be.

13:38 – Michelle L. Perry

Exactly. At the same time, bring what you do have to the table, which is uniquely yours. So Yeah. It's a it's a balance.

13:45 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And so, I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question. I know you said you transitioned to this world word, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. So we're hoping to have different CEOs on the show. So Michelle, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:58 – Michelle L. Perry

You know, being a CEO to me, the first word that comes to mind is responsibility. Because as a CEO, you are the top leader that is responsible, period. The buck stops with you. Decisions, direction, vision, all of the things, which is hoosa. Can we take a breath? But it also means discipline, which equals freedom. And so for me, CEO is being that leader that is inside of you, implementing discipline, which equals the freedom to be able to live the life that you want to be living, and a CEO is a great way to get there.

14:42 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely.I love the word responsibility and discipline because I think so many times we don't realize that the responsibility we have is, you know, to ourselves, to our clients, our customers, to our team members. Whoever that might be, we have such a strong responsibility. But I think so many times we think that it just happens at the snap of a finger, but really it's that the diligence, the regularity of doing things on a regular basis that amounts and gets us to where we wanna be. So I love that definition because it reminds us of what we are called to do and a lot of times what the weight that we have, but at the same time, what it takes to really get to where we wanna be.

15:18- Michelle L. Perry

Exactly. It's through diligent efforts that you will achieve success, which is where the name of my company came from.

15:24 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Successfully diligent. Well, Michelle, truly appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanna do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you. Subscribe to the podcast, get a copy of the book, and hear about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:42 – Michelle L. Perry

Yeah. Thank you so much. All the things are at successful diligence dot com. And just like I end my podcast, I will offer this. Keep walking. Never ever stop walking because if you continue to walk, you will reach your destiny, your destination, and your purpose. And on the journey, I always encourage people to always, always choose gratitude.

16:05- Gresham Harkless

Absolutely love that. We will have the links and information in the show notes. Michelle said it perfectly, so I will not say anything more. Thank you so much, Michelle. I truly appreciate you for all the awesome work you're doing the time you took today and what you stand for on an even deeper level. So thank you so much again, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

16:21 – 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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