IAM1866 – Results-Driven Performance Coach and Consultant Helps People Achieve More Happiness, Fulfillment and Success

In this episode of the IAMCEO Podcast, Tracy Kennedy, a results-driven coach and consultant, is featured. Tracy has a rich professional background in leadership and team development, peak performance, personal and professional growth, and helping individuals discover their next steps. Tracy is dedicated to partnering with individuals to aid them in achieving greater happiness, fulfillment, and success, both in their personal and professional lives.

Transcription:

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Tracy Kennedy Teaser 00:00

It's interesting because the product and content I'm really excited about because coaching is not cheap to get a private, an executive coach or a life coach. And so I love this idea that those philosophies and processes and insights can be shared to everybody in a way that's very easily accessible.

Intro 00:19

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the IAMCEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:44

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the IAMCEO podcast, and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know that we hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year. We're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, topics, or as I like to call them business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners, or what I like to call the CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.

This month, we are focused on leadership, management and coaching. When we think of leadership, management and coaching, we often think of doing all of the other things, but often it's a person that's able to build up their team, that's able to cultivate a creative and innovative culture so that people can excel and actually be their own leaders. So that's why this month we're focusing on those three big topics because they make a huge impact on the organizations that we're a part of.

Now. You'll hear some of those topics this month, and of course, some really great perspectives on how people are even defining leadership, which I think is extremely exciting. So sit back and enjoy this special episode of the IAMCEO podcast.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the IAMCEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Tracy Kennedy of Kennedy Coaching and Consulting. Tracy, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Tracy Kennedy 02:03

Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 02:06

I'm excited to have you as well. What I want to do is just read a little bit more about Tracy so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

As a results-driven coaching consultant, Tracy partners with individuals to help them achieve greater levels of happiness, fulfillment, and success personally and professionally. More specifically, she's a performance coach with a background in leadership and team development, peak performance, personal and professional growth and helping others discover what's next for them.

Over the last 20 years, she's worked in many roles, executive coach, consultant, facilitator, trainer, product development and leader. She's had the opportunity to work with thousands of individuals, teams and organizations across a wide variety of roles and industries from running educational centers for kids to defining and executing business strategy and small businesses to building content products and technology, which has been implemented and used in Fortune 500 companies.

She's incorporated everything she's learned along the way into an approach that uses a range of technologies, methodologies and wellness practices designed to help people figure out their next steps and fast-track them to where they want to be. Along with her individual coaching practice, she can also be found advising businesses on their next steps, writing blogs and articles. She's life hacks personal development expert, building courses and curriculum. Her latest online course is Five Steps to Discover Your Next and running training events in the areas of personal and professional development.

Tracy, are you ready to speak to the IAMCEO community?

Tracy Kennedy 03:31

I'm ready. Thank you.

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Gresham Harkless 03:32

No problem. No problem. What I wanted to do was just hear, I guess a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Tracy Kennedy 03:37

Awesome. Thank you. So, as you can probably hear from my bio, I've spent the last 20 years working in a bunch of different industries for a bunch of different companies. And every role that I was in, I was really passionate about the mission of the company and the service we were providing. In most cases, I really enjoyed what I was doing, but I always felt like I was growing somebody else's business. In fact, I was growing up somebody else's business in most cases, but the type of person I am. I worked really long hours. I worked really hard and I lived with the stress as if it was my own business, but in most cases it wasn't.

I think that hit me really hard at one point in my career where I was the co-founder of a company. So the consulting company I was working for at the time we had spun off into build a technology business and I was the co-founder of that technology business. I remember sitting in a strategy meeting and there was a big discrepancy between how I thought we should move forward with the strategy of the business and the roles we would all play and how my partner thought we should move forward. At the time, he was the majority shareholder and the CEO. And of course, had more of a, say in how that things were going to move forward. I remember at the time thinking, okay, it's time for me to move on. It's time for me to move on and move on to build something of my own.

So I remember stepping back and I was standing at this crossroads going, what am I going to do next with my life? Am I going to work for another company? Am I going to a leadership position? Am I going to start my own thing? And I was sitting there trying to figure out what to do next. Now, in the same time, I'm also the full-time mom to three beautiful girls who are and will always be my number one priority. So in terms of my life, my family, and my kids come first. I realized at that point, okay, if that's the way I want to live my life, then I'm going to have to be building something for myself. So I still wanted to be part of a mission-driven company, but I wanted to be more in control of how I spent my time to take some of that pressure off.

When the pressure was on, I was reaping the benefits of that pressure. So about two years ago, I started my own coaching and consulting, as you mentioned. So that's what I'm doing right now.

Gresham Harkless 05:44

Awesome. Obviously, sorry to hear, you know how everything happened, but sometimes those things that happen redirect you towards the path maybe you wanted to go anyways and just accelerate that path towards that.

Tracy Kennedy 05:55

Absolutely, and we're still great friends. I'm still very close with the company. I'm still very close with the founder. So I'm very close with everyone. It was the right move for everyone at the time.

Gresham Harkless 06:04

Could you delve a little bit deeper on how you're supporting the clients you're working with?

Tracy Kennedy 06:06

Sure. So as you mentioned, I'm a coach and consultant and a trainer facilitator. My kind of mission is to help people be happier, more successful and more fulfilled personally and professionally. My mission is really about helping people live a life they love. So there's probably three ways I do that. So number one, I have my private coaching practice where I work one-to-one with clients on everything from leadership development, executive coaching, health and wellness, and probably most commonly helping people figure out what they're doing next with their lives. Just as I was at that crossroads, I've created the system to help others figure out what they want to do when they're at that crossroads, trying to figure out what do I do next.

The second way is product and content development. So I'm a writer. I like to share the lessons I've learned, words of wisdom, the positivity as best I can. So as you mentioned, I'm the personal development expert for Lifehack website. So I write a lot of articles for them. I also post a lot of content and thoughts. I like Instagram because it's short, snippy bites. So I have a lot of content on Instagram on a daily basis where I'm posting thoughts and what have you and I build courses. So I've spent a lot of my career building courses, training and development, and I translated that over into my business where I've supported other people to build their courses. But I've also just, as you mentioned, launched my own course, which is about five steps to discover your next. And so I support people online through products and content development. So that's the second way.

The third way is I do leadership and team development consulting work. So I go into organizations, help their leaders understand themselves better, help them understand the culture of the team, how to understand work, communicate, collaborate more effectively together. So that's the three areas, my private coaching practice, my product and content development, and the leadership and team development consulting work.

Gresham Harkless 07:47

I love that its because you have the opportunity to touch on and connect with people in a lot of different ways and resonate with them. So whether it be somebody who is thinking about what that next step should be, and it's going to be.

You have your courses, you have your content that you're creating, and then you also can go on-site and kind of help out these organizations that actually need professional and personal leadership development.

Tracy Kennedy 08:06

Yeah. Thank you. It's interesting because the product and content I'm really excited about because coaching is not cheap to get a private, an executive coach or a life coach. And so I love this idea that those philosophies and processes and insights can be shared to everybody in a way that's very easily accessible.

Gresham Harkless 08:24

Exactly. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be what you feel distinguishes you or sets you apart.

Tracy Kennedy 08:31

So it's interesting. I think my secret sauce is probably more about my motivation than it is what I do, but I can share both. So the drive behind why I don't know if you know it really saddens me. So the latest Gallup poll shows that 85% basically hate their jobs, 77% of people, Americans specially, experience regular physical and emotional symptoms of stress and 40% experience persistent stress or excessive anxiety. So I'm like, what the heck? So many of us are stressed out, overwhelmed, unhappy.

I think probably my USP is more about that drive and motivation to help people get out from under that state to find a better way to learn more about themselves so that they can understand what they need to thrive and be at their best regardless of what role or relationship they're in. So, it's probably more of my drive about why I do what I do and the fact that because of that, I always start with the individual person. I really believe that self-awareness and a little soul-searching are essential for our success and our happiness.

Gresham Harkless 09:34

Absolutely. Now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This might be an app or a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Tracy Kennedy 09:44

I'm going to give you two. So one I would say is my mastermind groups. So when I went off on my own a couple of years ago, I hooked up with three other women, varying stage of running their businesses and building their own businesses. And we meet weekly to discuss our challenges and coach each other and provide support and encouragement and I swear that has been such a huge blessing to me. I know my business wouldn't be where it is without the help of those women and without those times and those calls. I know they would say likewise.

So I just think this idea of having a support group around you, finding your group.It doesn't have to be YPO or some established organization. You can find three people who are at similar stages in their business, but have different skills and really leverage the strengths and learn and grow and support each other. So I would say that's been a huge kind of hack for me that has changed the way I run my business and has really allowed me to move forward, especially as a sole entrepreneur, or it can get lonely sometimes it's been really helpful.

The second one is actually my favorite resource of all time. It's called the Instinctive Drives. It's a profiling tool. So if you've ever taken any assessment tool with your organization, I don't know if you've taken, Meyers brings or disc or any of those ones at any point in your career.

Gresham Harkless 10:54

Yeah. I took some of those. I have not heard of this one though. So I'm excited.

Tracy Kennedy 10:58

Yeah. Whenever I'm in front of groups, I'm like, it's the best known secret and everybody needs to know about because basically the Instinctive Drives ,instead of talking about your personality or behavior or your actions, it helps people understand what they need to be at their best. So this idea that we all have a natural way of operating, that when we operate in line with that, we're more successful and happy and fulfilled. So, you hear athletes talk about being in the zone or you hear people talking about being in the flow. That really is what this tool identifies.

So it's essentially your personal success code, your blueprint for success. I use it for myself personally on a day-to-day basis when I'm feeling stressed out or overwhelmed or frustrated. It's okay, what do I need here? What's missing? I use it to leverage my talents and to mitigate my blind spots. Okay, who do I need to hire this out to because it's not my strength or it's really going to pull me off track or stress me out. I use it with all my clients because it accelerates our work together. The minute I know their instinctive drives, which is short for ID or ideas short or instinct drives for the minute I know that I know, okay, here's what they mean when they say that. Here's what's going to accelerate their development.

When there's somebody who really needs a plan here, or there's somebody who needs a crystal clear picture before they can move forward, or there's somebody who's going to be really hard on themselves, how do I help them manage that? Or there's somebody who is going to be averse to risk, how do we mitigate that? So I use it with all my clients and it's the basis of all the work I do in my leadership and team development. It's not as well known as it should be, but the insights and strategies it gives people are pretty incredible.

Gresham Harkless 12:31

Well, definitely we have one extra person that's going to check that out. So you understand like what person, like you said, the partner with or to bring onto your team, it puts all that in motion, but you have to understand thyself first.

Tracy Kennedy 12:40

Yes. And that's the thing, isn't it? That's like from ancient philosophers have all said, know thyself to thine own self, be true. You have Shakespeare, you have Lao Tzu from long ago about knowing yourself is true wisdom. So I do believe that's a huge piece of our success.

Gresham Harkless 12:56

Definitely. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, and this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Tracy Kennedy 13:05

That's a great one. It's probably exactly what we've been speaking to that ancient philosophers and have talked about throughout time, is to know thyself, and to be true to yourself, to follow your instinct, to trust your gut, to be authentic. So, I think as you throughout our careers, we go to training that says, Oh, if you're going to be the best leader, here's the way you should lead. Or if you're going to be better at time management, here's what you should do. Or if you're going to start your business, here's how you should do it. There's a lot of shoulds.

And while the processes and systems I think are really helpful, there's a piece about knowing yourself and being true to that self that I find when we go off track from that people aren't as successful. So I think for all entrepreneurs and business owners, it's really getting a clear sense of self. What are your strengths that you can leverage? What are your vulnerabilities and pitfalls where like you said, partner bring somebody else in and being true to yourself within that. Because what I've seen over working with so many clients in my career is that the more people get off track with who they are, the more stressed out they become and they're not more effective and the more they understand themselves and are in line with that, the more productive they are.

So I'd say be true to you, but also follow your instinct. Trust your gut. There's going to be times in your career where everyone's going to say, go left, and you are just like, Oh, I just know I should go right. I can't explain it but I think those are the times I can't tell you how many people I've spoken to, including myself that have said, I wish I had listened to my instincts on that. I wish I had listened to my gut.

Gresham Harkless 14:31

Exactly the whole entire time. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition for what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote and quote CEOs on this show. But I wanted to ask you Tracy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Tracy Kennedy 14:43

Wow. So to me, it's about service. So it's about service, leadership and people and making a difference in the world. I think as a CEO, it's the responsibility to know your goals and your mission and your underlying values and purpose and philosophies.

Staying true to those to achieve the goals of both the organization and helping as many people along the way as possible. So it's really to me about leadership, but not just within an organization, but how that impacts, further out the ripple effect.

Gresham Harkless 15:09

Absolutely. Tracy, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know, how they can find your latest course, and then also how best they can get ahold of you.

Tracy Kennedy 15:23

So in terms of finding out anything else that we've talked about, whether it be the instinctive drives or my five steps course, www.tracyKennedy.com. So pretty simple. Just go to my website, you'll be able to find all that information.

You can also go to discoveryournext.com and that has a free workbook that you can actually download with the five steps to discover your next. So if you're not sure you want to dive into a course, but you're at some crossroads in your life and you're trying to figure out what's the next step personally or professionally, this guide is awesome. It walks you through my five steps that I've learned. but yeah, TracyKennedy.com or discoveryournext.com. I would love for people to check out my course. It's pretty fantastic. I'm excited about it.

Gresham Harkless 16:01

Yeah, definitely we'll have those links in the show notes just so that anybody can follow up with you. But Tracy, thank you so much for all the awesome things that you're doing and staying true to yourself, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Tracy Kennedy 16:11

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Outro 16:13

Thank you for listening to the IAMCEO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. IAMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

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Grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the IAMCEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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