IAM1528 – COO and Author Helps Organizations Create and Maintain Thriving Organizational Culture

Kerry Wekelo is the Chief Operating Officer at Actualize Consulting, a financial services firm. Her book and program, Culture Infusion: 9 Principles for Creating and Maintaining a Thriving Organizational Culture, and latest book Gratitude Infusion, are the impetus behind Actualize Consulting being named Top Company Culture by Entrepreneur Magazine, a Top Workplace by The Washington Post, FORTUNE Best Small & Medium Workplaces TM, and Best and Brightest ELITE National Winner in Strategic Company Performance category. In her leadership, Kerry blends her experiences as a consultant, executive coach, award-winning author, mindfulness expert, and entrepreneur. Kerry received the 2021 Women with Vision Award and has been featured on ABC, NBC, NPR, The New York Times, Thrive Global, SHRM, Inc., and Forbes.

• CEO Story: Kerry started her career in Consulting. In terms of leadership, putting people first as your focus is the best way. Then they will take care of your clients well.
• Business Service: Creating and maintaining a thriving organizational culture. Life work balance.
• Secret Sauce: Looking at people from a holistic perspective. Being able to help people shine. Meeting people where they are.
• CEO Hack: Make sure to take time to do what you enjoy. Take care and nurture yourself.
• CEO Nugget: 3P’s method: Pause (Challenging situation, find what you can be grateful for), Pivot, Positive – resolution, lesson learned.
• CEO Defined: Providing an organization where people want to show up every day and feel supported, they can feel they can grow in and safe place, and feel good.

Website: www.actualizeconsulting.com

LinkedIn: kerryelam

Twitter: kerrywekelo

Instagram: kerrywekelo

YouTube: KWekeloYouTube

Gratitude Infusion: https://www.actualizeconsulting.com/gratitude-infusion.html

Culture Infusion:

https://www.actualizeconsulting.com/culture-infusion.html

Interactive Sessions: https://www.actualizeconsulting.com/interactive-sessions.html

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Transcription

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00:21 – Intro

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 I AM CEO Podcast.

00:48 – 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 Keri Weckalo of Actualize Consulting. Kerry, super excited to have you on the show.

00:58 – Kerry Wekelo

Thanks for having me.

00:59 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview I want to read a little bit more about Kerry so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's working on. Kerry is the Chief Operating Officer at Actualized Consulting, a financial services firm. Her book and program Culture Infusion, 9 Principles for Creating and Maintaining a Thriving Organizational Culture, and latest book, Gratitude, and Fusion, are the emphasis behind Actualized Consulting being named Top Company Culture by Entrepreneur Magazine, a top workplace by the Washington Post, Fortune best in small, medium workplaces, and best and brightest elite national winner and strategic company performance category. In her leadership, Kerry blends her experiences as a consultant, executive coach, award-winning author, mindfulness expert, and entrepreneur. Kerry received the 2021 Women with Vision Award and has been featured on ABC, NBC, NPR, the New York Times, Thrive Global, Forbes, and also Inc. Kerry, is excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:58 – Kerry Wekelo

I am.

01:59 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you got started.

02:06 – Kerry Wekelo

Oh, wow. How did I get started? Well, I started my career in consulting, and I'm still working for a consulting firm. And how did I get into more leadership and the people aspect of things? It was just a focus that I, as a consulting firm, putting your focus on your people first and foremost is really the best way because if people are happy, then they're going to be doing well for the clients and it's just going to be a win-win all over the place. So it was just, I had this like thought like we need to be very specialized in our people and everything will come from there. And it's worked out well, As you can tell from the bio, all the awards we've won, are all surveys that go out to our team.

02:54 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I absolutely love that and so often I say, as we forget about them, I say the human aspect of business, but I always say like the human aspect of life, frankly, and it sounds like you had that foresight, years and years when I think it's become a little bit more, I don't wanna say trendy, but I think people are starting to understand that a lot more. It sounds like you've been able to kind of understand that from the forefront.

03:15 – Kerry Wekelo

Right, yeah, I've been very laser-focused on it for the last 12 years. So, yeah, I like to say I was doing it before it was in vogue. So, I love it.

03:26 – Gresham Harkless

So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, a little bit more on the work that you're doing. I wanna also hear about your books. Could you take us through a little bit more on how you all work with your clients, how you serve them, and how you make that impact that you've been able to do?

03:40 – Kerry Wekelo

Sure, I mean, 1 of our biggest focuses is on our client satisfaction. And it's interesting because when we're in the recruiting process, people always say they get this feeling that we are so team-oriented and they just feel welcomed even from the beginning of that recruiting process. And then when people start with a company the way we set it up is there's 0 competition between groups of people it's in your best interest to help people out. And so when we have somebody new coming on board, they feel completely supported within our teams and we always are like you can ask anybody any question and I'm the COO and I mean people we tell them like listen I'm gonna be checking in with you for the first couple months and then I'll be checking in with you monthly.

People aren't used to that People aren't used to being able to message the COO of a company or like our founding partners. You can reach out to anybody within the organization. So that level of support really trickles down to our clients because our people feel supported, and then they're able to give our clients this high level of customer service and satisfaction. And it's just, it goes down because of it's, If you're happy at work, you're going to be proud of what you're doing. And I think people are proud of working for Actualize and working for this company that supports each other. And not only do we support each other, we support our clients and we really look out for each other.

05:15 – Gresham Harkless

You could definitely hear that when you use the phrase first and foremost, making people first and foremost. And I think the kind of quote that I remember so much is people don't care how much you know till they know how much you care. And it sounds like you've been able to kind of create that culture and that, you know, that starts to extend. And once people are cared for, they feel like they're in a really good culture, a really good organization, then it starts to really create that domino effect in their lives and even in their client's lives that you all have been able to do.

05:43 – Kerry Wekelo

Yeah, absolutely.

05:45 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And is that some of what you kind of covered in, you know, both of your books to kind of, you know, maybe distill down, you know, some of those behind-the-scenes things that we weren't sure on how people can, you know, create that culture and create that opportunity within organizations.

05:58 – Kerry Wekelo

Exactly. And both of the books are case studies of what I've done within our organization. The first 1, culture and fusion is the 9 principles to create and maintain a thriving organizational culture talks about how you communicate with, your people, and how you deal with challenges. I mean, that's the thing I know in life is you can be going along just perfectly smoothly and then you're going to hit challenges that are going to be robust and and and in your path and so how do you deal with those and I think that's a huge thing that you know If somebody knows that maybe they have a challenging client or something didn't go right if they know that they can come to you with that challenge and you're gonna help them work through it versus any slap on the hand type of thing.

I think it's, I mean, I do the same thing with my kids, right? It's like if you don't tell me, you're going to be in huge trouble. But if you tell me, I'll help you work through it. So I think that's very important. We also have this culture of really wellness. I used to call it work-life balance, but now I call it life-work balance and we understand that people are gonna deal with things. And the majority of the time when something's going wrong at work for somebody, it typically isn't work-related, it's something that's going on in their personal life. So being able to understand that I think is really important as well. We survey our people all the time, just little short micro surveys. If I don't know what I should do in a situation, I'll typically just survey the people, you know, our people to get the answer.

And then people feel like they're part of the resolution too, right? So there are just a few things. And then the other book is on gratitude. And I love my word infusion because it's really you have to do it constantly. And within that family of how we treat our people and our people treat each other, there's this constant feedback loop where you're encouraged if you get feedback from your clients or your peers, like send it to your supervisor and my team, we put it in the newsletter. We just have this celebratory type of environment that everybody's constantly being lifted up. And like our newsletter, half of it's kudos. It's crazy to me. It's great though. I love to see it and we use that feedback as part of people's performance bonuses as well.

08:23 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce? It could be for yourself personally, the organization, or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

08:34 – Kerry Wekelo

I think it's, I mean, personally, I think that it's because I do look at people from a holistic perspective. I'm not just looking at 1 aspect of how they're showing up or, you know, and I think 1 of my superpowers is being able to help people shine and help them. Many times people don't even know what their strengths are, right? So I think I'm able to identify that and really focus people and help coach them through, okay, this is what I'm like, what do you like? What do you enjoy? What inspires you? And let's focus that as what you're focused on in your career versus, oh, I'm going to try to have somebody do something that they aren't really good at. Like I have somebody on my team who, you know, give them a spreadsheet and they're going to like, you know, have heart palpitations, right? But other people give them a spreadsheet and they're going to be like dancing around like a little kid. So I mean, it's like you have to know what people are good at. People do things that do. I think and just person at an individual l a lot of time and energy. But for a really successful organization the time and energy.

09:55 – Gresham Harkless

Also feeling that you're meeting are. And I think so many kinds of, you know, kind o so much kind of, I'm gonna use the word conditioning, where so many times you feel as if, you can't have that opportunity to be met where you are. You have that feeling that who you are if you love spreadsheets, that you feel like that's not right. If you feel like you don't love special, you feel like that's not right. But I think once you have that opportunity to be celebrated for 1, but also have that understanding of who you are and then also where you can shine, I think it again helps you to feel valued so that you can excel at all the things that you're doing in your life.

10:31 – Kerry Wekelo

Yeah and I mean I had somebody last week you know she was like I don't want to do this particular role at a client and I said and you know we're like okay and then I told her I was proud of her and she was like really? I'm proud that you said you don't want to do it. It's not a good, it's not a good fit for you. And that's okay. You, you have that choice, right? So I think that's important. And then I had somebody last week, also it was like, you know, it's going through something personally and reached out and just said, Hey, if anybody says I'm not doing say a good job, this is why I've your back. But I love tha to, you know, reach out a things.

11:17 – Gresham Harkless

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

11:28 – Kerry Wekelo

Making sure that I take time for things that I enjoy each day is very important because you know what I do and even as a mom you know constantly giving so making sure that I give back to myself could be different each day. But what lights me up and what do I need today so I can take care of myself also? And I think that sometimes people forget to nurture themselves as well.

11:59 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, and especially as you said, we have our different titles, I guess you can say, like you mentioned, mom being a parent, whether it be in a CEO or CEO or manager, whatever title you might have, a lot of times if you're really doing well at the job or you're really executing at the job, whatever position that might be, you're giving so much of yourself that we often can put ourselves at the bottom of the totem pole. So I love you making sure that you do that and prioritizing that because that's what makes sure that you're able to give even more and more and make more of an impact by doing that.

12:32 – Kerry Wekelo

Yeah, no, that's exactly right.

12:34 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome. So what would you consider to be what I like to call a CEO nugget? So this is a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you cover a little bit in either 1 of your books, or it might be something you would say to your younger business self if you happened to be in a time machine or maybe your favorite client.

12:50 – Kerry Wekelo

I use one of the strategies that I use in every aspect of my life. And I call it the 3P Methodist, to pause, to pivot to a positive. And in that pause, you have a moment of gratitude for, you know, maybe you are going through this challenging situation, but you know, what can you find to be grateful for in that moment and then moving towards, okay, what's the positive, you know, what's the resolution of this or what's the lesson learned? But I think I save a ton of time and I can coach people through things as well. Just saying, okay, I hear what you're saying, I hear what the issue is, but not spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning and that negativity and trying to move forward into, like I said, that resolution or a lesson learned. And you know, sometimes you might have to pause a little bit and I call it an adult timeout. Sometimes you might have to stay there a little bit longer and that's okay. However, you're trying to get to, you know, a place where you've made some sort of progress with whatever challenge you're facing.

13:54 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, and it's the definition of what it means to be a quote-unquote CEO. And we're hoping to have their quote-unquote CEOs on the show. And as a COO, Kerry, I wanted to ask you what being a CEO means to you.

14:07 – Kerry Wekelo

It means providing an organization where people wanna show up every day feel supported and feel like they can grow in their careers. Or if they wanna stay where they're at, they can do that too, a safe place. I always go hierarchy of needs and you place that you spend a lot to feel good.

14:32 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. You know, safe space beca forget as we kind of even the 3 P's that you ha kind of create that space that we kind of talked ab of time. So it needs to f I love that phrase, you know I think we sometimes forget talked about with the th have the power to kind of it is something we know that you just check off the leader, you have that opp space and so many things of times the things that it's so important because can spend so much time and work.

14:56 – Kerry Wekelo

Yeah, and it's part of life, right? You gotta work. Yes. So you might as well have fun with it.

15:02 – Gresham Harkless

Exactly, exactly. I have the opportunity to choose why not choose that? Also, Kerry, truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if anything additional that you can let listeners know and of course can get a hold of you to get a copy of your books.

15:26 – Kerry Wekelo

The awesome things that you can find me on LinkedIn a our website are actualized both my books are on Amaz and Gratitude of Fusion. For having me on the show appreciate it.

15:40 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I absolutely appreciate you making it the links and information I love everything that you infusion that you give us of how the power that we have to be able to kind of transform and kind of reinvent the cultures and the lives that we have. So thank you so much for taking the lead and doing that as well. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:00 – 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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