Latest / Authentic Living / Authenticity and Resilience: Leadership Insights with Deri Latimer
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to Authentic Living with Roxanne, a place where we have conscious conversations
- 0:08about things that really matter in our lives.
- 0:12And now here's your host, Roxanne Terhaj.
- 0:38Hi everyone, it's Roxanne Dorhod, your authentic living with Roxanne.
- 0:41Thanks for tuning in again today.
- 0:43Today I have a colleague that I've known quite a couple years now.
- 0:46Her name is Derry Latimer.
- 0:47Derry is a part of the Canadian Association for Professional Speakers and she's been there for
- 0:53quite a while.
- 0:54Derry, approximately how many years have you been a member?
- 0:57In my nineteenth year as a member of CAPS.
- 1:01Wow.
- 1:01I've been speaking for close to thirty, but CAPS for nineteen.
- 1:05Awesome.
- 1:06So Derry is a resilience expert, and she's an international keynote speaker.
- 1:11And he's here today to talk to us about the world of resilience.
- 1:15And as we know at this time, we're going through a lot in the world.
- 1:18It's not just on our Canadian soil, but now we're into a lot of things happening
- 1:22internationally with our borders, those types of things.
- 1:25So, Jerry, just tell people what they need to know about you, and then we'll talk a little
- 1:28bit about how did you Thirty years ago, that's a long time ago to have started to speak start
- 1:33speaking out of resilience, or was it something that came with time?
- 1:37Yeah.
- 1:38It's interesting.
- 1:38So I was pretty young.
- 1:40I quit my last job when I was 29, and when I moved on to an opportunity, and that
- 1:46opportunity was to work with a couple of people who were consultants because I knew that I
- 1:51wanted to do that, that I wanted to be self employed, that I wanted to work for lots of
- 1:56companies and not just one company.
- 1:58We all have a story, and I've got a story.
- 2:01So we lost our dad just after I got out of high school, and that was really the first time I
- 2:07started to think about this thing called stress.
- 2:09We knew that our dad was under a lot of stress.
- 2:11He was an executive in the mining company in the town we lived in.
- 2:15And so I really wanted to use that experience, which was devastating for us, for something
- 2:21good.
- 2:21I wanted to learn about how do we make workplaces happy and healthy so that people
- 2:26aren't dying from work but are in fact making a living.
- 2:29And so I did that, went to university, studied business, and then I had another tragedy in my
- 2:35life just after I graduated from university, and it was a suicide of someone I was married
- 2:40to for a very short period of time.
- 2:43So again, I thought, I gotta do something with this.
- 2:47I wasn't sure what I was gonna do, but I knew I had to do something with it.
- 2:51So simultaneously, within a couple of years, I met these consultants.
- 2:57I knew I wanted to do something like what they were doing.
- 3:00So I started working with them and ended up working with them only for a couple of years
- 3:05and then have had my own business since then.
- 3:08The resilience piece grew over time.
- 3:10It was always there.
- 3:12It was always an interest for me.
- 3:13But if you think about, I started this again, this was, like, 1990.
- 3:18Right?
- 3:18So there wasn't a lot of research on nobody even used the terms mental health or
- 3:25resilience.
- 3:26That wasn't even around at that time.
- 3:28Certainly not suicide.
- 3:30And so I knew I that wasn't the space I wanted to speak on, but I wanted to be in front of
- 3:34people.
- 3:35And so the speaking I did initially was business focused, so it'd be leadership
- 3:39development and performance development and team creating high performance teams.
- 3:45And then I did a TED Talk in 2013 when I came out of the closet with my story, and that
- 3:51changed everything, absolutely everything.
- 3:53I knew I was gonna tell the story.
- 3:55I did it in a big way, but I knew I wanted to do it right, do it justice.
- 3:59Also for Kelly, my first husband who passed, I wanted to do justice to it all, and I wanted to
- 4:05respect that people are suffering.
- 4:08Since then, I've continued speaking, and my speaking has laser focused in the area of high
- 4:15performance culture.
- 4:16The lens is through resilience and mental well-being.
- 4:20So that's what I'm known for.
- 4:21Organizations, of course, are looking for people to be productive and happy at work.
- 4:26I think I bring all those topics to to the keynotes that I deliver, the kind of speaking
- 4:32that I do.
- 4:33What do you think has been the shift in kinda like you said, you went to workplace stress,
- 4:39And then now resilience, it's a word that we hear all the time.
- 4:42What do you think kind of made it companies start to really hone in on this need?
- 4:47Kinda before it was mental health.
- 4:49Like, mental health, we don't wanna talk about that, Roxanne.
- 4:51It's kinda but now it's like you talk about that, and we talk about things in reference to
- 4:55an incidental abscesses.
- 4:57We're looking short term disability, long term disability.
- 5:00Those are the things in occupational health and safety and HR.
- 5:03People are constantly drilling down on those numbers.
- 5:05What with your kind of tenure in the field, when did you start to see, wow.
- 5:10There's a real interest because there's a cost.
- 5:14When did you see that?
- 5:15Honestly,
- 5:17I felt like I saw it all along, but there were whispers of it, you know, that it wasn't
- 5:22something that was big in our face.
- 5:24And of course, believe it or not, Roxanne, I was speaking before there was an Internet.
- 5:29So it was it wasn't we didn't have as easy access to global information and global
- 5:36stories.
- 5:37Here's where I remember.
- 5:38Was a pivotal moment in my career.
- 5:40A client who happened to be based in Winnipeg asked me to design a program on reducing stress
- 5:48for their staff, and it was a program that was gonna we were gonna start with the executive
- 5:52team.
- 5:52We were gonna go all the way through, so it was a really big engagement for real me, a really
- 5:57big contract.
- 5:58And as I was creating it, I did like the language of reducing or managing stress because
- 6:07it was about getting rid of something, and I wanted to instead look at what can we build.
- 6:13And that's really the first time I used the word resilience in a program, and it was very
- 6:19sticky.
- 6:20So I found this is a large employer here in Winnipeg, Manitoba where I live.
- 6:24I found people just were so attracted to it because they didn't want to come to talk about
- 6:30managing stress.
- 6:32That was not fun for them to talk about.
- 6:34But building resilience?
- 6:36Okay.
- 6:37I'm interested in that.
- 6:38So this whole idea of when we reframed a positive, which we all know, I know I I know
- 6:44you this is certainly in your space.
- 6:46We know that our brains work better when we're reframing for positive.
- 6:50So I really transformed my business after that, that opportunity, and looked at it instead of
- 6:55what can I get rid of, it's what can I build, what are those resources?
- 6:58So for me, that was very close to my TED Talk.
- 7:02My TED Talk was in '13.
- 7:04I got this big contract probably in 2011.
- 7:08And, again, I could see lights on in the minds in the rooms that I which I was speaking.
- 7:13I could see that people were saying, oh, this is so good.
- 7:16Like, this I can do these things.
- 7:18This makes sense to me.
- 7:20And it was not about take a warm bath and go to bed early.
- 7:23It was beyond that.
- 7:25It was about actual concrete strategies that people could use.
- 7:28They could take away and use that night with their family if they wanted.
- 7:32So for me, it was around then.
- 7:35But, it was just on the edge a little bit.
- 7:40Certainly language around mental health was not welcomed in of the corporate market, which is
- 7:47largely the market in which I speak, but they loved resilience.
- 7:51And of course I'm talking about the same thing, right?
- 7:54It's the same.
- 7:54It is about your mental well-being.
- 7:57But we didn't have the taste for it initially.
- 8:02It was scary for corporations.
- 8:04They weren't trained in understanding what's happening with people who were not well at
- 8:09work.
- 8:09They were just looking for some possibilities to help their staff be well.
- 8:14I sort of slid in in that wellness space and then started using the language of that.
- 8:21Of course we have mental health, all of us do, just like we have physical health.
- 8:25Here's some tools in that realm of mental well-being.
- 8:28The languaging allowed the shift.
- 8:30And I often said, and with my background, I started frontline with the police, and I did
- 8:35corporate consulting and keeping unwell employees at work.
- 8:39So that was my role as an executive.
- 8:41So, really, what we were looking at is, look, all of us so when people hear mental health,
- 8:46they think sickness, and they don't recognize that it was a spectrum.
- 8:49Right?
- 8:49We can go from being mentally well to being mentally unwell to being mentally ill.
- 8:55So I think it was a stigma associated with mental illness and every Well, no.
- 8:59Not us.
- 8:59We're fine.
- 9:00And I think once like to your point, when the education started to happen, of course, me as a
- 9:04psychotherapist, I've dealt with every realm from frontline all the way up to corporate
- 9:09boardroom tables.
- 9:11But then the shift started to happen when people started to say, it could be somebody
- 9:16going through something as simple as a separation, or it could be that you're having
- 9:20problems with your teenager, or you're blending your families, and you still have to come to
- 9:24work.
- 9:25And then when I was in the, quote, quote, employee assistance world, that's when we
- 9:29started to realize, guess what the number one issue was, Derek, was relationships.
- 9:33We all are in relationship wherever we go, and then that languaging with corporate was like,
- 9:40oh, okay.
- 9:41We get this.
- 9:41We need to make people healthy and happy at work so that they can be productive.
- 9:47And how do we do that?
- 9:48So I can absolutely remember that time because at that time, I was also in corporate but in a
- 9:55different perspective compared to where you was we were out speaking and training at that time.
- 9:59Yeah.
- 10:01Yeah, it's fascinating.
- 10:02It's wonderful to see.
- 10:04And of course, we've come a long way in that area, I believe, and lots of work still to do.
- 10:09We've really come a long way in that de stigmat izing the language around mental health, that
- 10:16it's simply a set of resources.
- 10:17It's a way of well-being just like our physical health is.
- 10:21We can also have a physical illness.
- 10:23But of course, we we all had to admit, and I had to first of all really grasp that myself,
- 10:29that we all carried some of that stigma, right, from our as we do, from the world in which we
- 10:35lived, that it was still inside of us.
- 10:37So it was really hard for people to to speak up about their challenges.
- 10:41But it's so interesting that you talked about it's always about relationships.
- 10:45It would always I would always marvel at I don't do training, corporate training anymore.
- 10:50I'm, like, strictly a keynoter now.
- 10:52But back in the day, I certainly did a lot of training.
- 10:55I'd just be so my heart would just be singing because I would see people in the room when
- 11:00they when I would we'd share a I'd share a strategy, then they'd be working in small
- 11:04groups.
- 11:04And as I'm wandering around the room, people are talking about their child.
- 11:08They're talking about their spouse.
- 11:10They're talking about their parent.
- 11:12We're in a work setting.
- 11:13But yeah.
- 11:14And those the work relationships matter too, but they're really talking about those other
- 11:19relationships.
- 11:20You know?
- 11:20Of course.
- 11:20Because you come to work, you could put it together for, let's say, seven or eight hours,
- 11:24but the rest of that time, you're in relationship out there in the other parts of
- 11:28your world, and you got a relationship to yourself, how you self care, stress management.
- 11:32Then you have a spouse.
- 11:34Then you have a community.
- 11:35Maybe you're at the parent teacher, you're part of that council.
- 11:38You take all that stuff.
- 11:40So you're constantly but really if it goes back to that whole concept of resilience.
- 11:44And I wanna hear what your exam what your definition is and how you kind of promote when
- 11:49you speak.
- 11:49What what would be a good definition for our listeners to have of resilience and how you
- 11:54would define it?
- 11:56For for me, resilience is a set of tools to be able to live a good life.
- 12:01That's my simple, simple definition To the definitions I've seen through my career and by
- 12:06the way, if you looked at any of my materials or keynotes over the thirty and, let's say,
- 12:11even the last twenty years, I've had a variety of definitions.
- 12:16But that's the one I like because it's I think speaks directly to what it is.
- 12:20But often the definitions are about in the face of adversity.
- 12:23Right?
- 12:24So when there's some adversity that you're facing, resilience is the tools that can help
- 12:29you to some of the language was bounce back or bounce through.
- 12:33And I'm good with that definition as well.
- 12:35I believe, though, it's a set of tools that we can all learn to use just like we brush our
- 12:41teeth and go to the gym to keep ourselves mentally well.
- 12:44So, yes, in the times of adversity, absolutely, those tools will be there.
- 12:50And we wanna have them when there's no adversity there.
- 12:53Want to them.
- 12:54Adapt them too.
- 12:55Right?
- 12:55I often think as we go through every life stage as well, I mean, I'm now in my fifties and I
- 13:00think back to my forties and I'm like, oh my goodness, the things I was doing then or my
- 13:04thirties, completely yeah.
- 13:06They maybe have the same line of things that I do, Darian, but at the end of the day, I'm
- 13:10like, oh, I can't do that as much, but I can do more of this, whatever.
- 13:14So it's that internal space that you need to understand about yourself and then to know that
- 13:19you do shift.
- 13:20We're constantly shifting.
- 13:21Right?
- 13:21Like, within ourselves, within our relationships, within the systems that we're
- 13:25around in our life, it's constantly in flux.
- 13:28So you, in turn, see that you're the kind of the keeper of health within yourself.
- 13:32You really have to stay connected to yourself in whatever way that you need to.
- 13:36Yeah.
- 13:37Absolutely.
- 13:39Yeah.
- 13:39And a lot of people describe feeling really disconnected from themselves.
- 13:44Just overwhelmed by everything else except themselves.
- 13:48Know?
- 13:48And that's, I think, the opportunity we have when the kind of work that the space that you
- 13:53and I are in is to to provide those little opportunities for people to feel that
- 13:58connection again and know that they can build them.
- 14:01My brand is all about simple strategies.
- 14:03Like, they're I believe that it because none of us is gonna do it.
- 14:06Know.
- 14:07I'm standing up right now doing my podcast because I've got a couple in a row.
- 14:10So something as simp before, I wouldn't even think about that.
- 14:12Now I stand up.
- 14:13Right?
- 14:14Like, put a kettlebell next to the office, and I think, okay.
- 14:17Not if I move for five minutes because I know I'm the type when I get tired Yeah.
- 14:23I get more frozen.
- 14:24So if I move and I do a little bit of that through the day, this about a little
- 14:27microburst.
- 14:28At the end of the day, I'm not as tired as if I didn't move throughout the day.
- 14:32So you're you're so right.
- 14:33It's sometimes something's very, simple, and you can't think too much about it.
- 14:38But by the time you're thinking you're too much, you're already tired.
- 14:40And you're like, oh, jeez.
- 14:41I can't do that.
- 14:42Right?
- 14:42Just way past that point.
- 14:45Now, Dario, in this time that we're in, and we're at the point where we're filming this on
- 14:49a day that we're entering a lot more tension within our kind of geographics with North
- 14:55America, between Canada and The US.
- 14:57What are your companies out there that are reaching out reaching out for now?
- 15:02And what what is kind of the sense as I was on a call earlier today and we're talking a little
- 15:06bit about the impact of business?
- 15:07What's what are you starting to get requests for?
- 15:10What's the conversation like out there with companies?
- 15:13Yeah.
- 15:14There's no question.
- 15:15I certainly have clients for whom this is giant.
- 15:18I mean, it's giant for all of us.
- 15:20Significantly impacting the bottom line.
- 15:23Being able to keep jobs, this is a big deal.
- 15:26And again, it is for all of us.
- 15:27There's so much unknown right now, and so I know I just booked an event this morning that's
- 15:33gonna be coming up in May, and certainly my calls are relatively consistent when I go
- 15:39through my the questions I have for a client that want wants me to speak at their conference
- 15:43or their retreat.
- 15:45And certainly, they're saying, yeah.
- 15:46We want people to feel good, to feel energized, to be happy, to connect with each other and
- 15:51understand why that's important and and not be concerned about perhaps they've had a change in
- 15:57technology or we're gonna have a return to the office and we're slowly coming back to the
- 16:02office, those sorts of things.
- 16:04So the idea of touching on things that scare us is with is a part of what I I have heard all
- 16:13along and hearing a little bit more now because what this is something that's so big, kind of
- 16:19still unknown for most of us.
- 16:21Right.
- 16:21And I think everybody's in flux.
- 16:23Right?
- 16:23It's kinda we know, quote unquote, supposedly what's happening, but we don't know the facts
- 16:27and the realities of how that is going to ripple out in the next little while.
- 16:31So I I often say, it was kinda like when you know, you can prepare.
- 16:35But when you're in flux, that's when that brings on that much more massive anxiety.
- 16:39And then people are starting to worry about things that may never come true, or some of it
- 16:44may be worse, but we don't want to kind of go there as much.
- 16:46Right?
- 16:46So even people that I've been talking to today, they're talking a little bit more about that.
- 16:51How is it really going to impact us, our industry, our sector?
- 16:55How are we going to get ready to deal with that?
- 16:58Because at every level of the organization, to working with the frontline customer in whatever
- 17:03business you're in, the senior management isn't going to ripple all the way down straight to
- 17:08the frontline out to the customer.
- 17:10So we really have to kinda be prepped and ready, like you said, to have that bounce back,
- 17:15just to be able to con people to say, well, we have to work with what we have in our knowledge
- 17:21base right now and not work not think too too far and try not to get stuck with last time
- 17:27something like this felt familiar, this is what happened because we really don't know.
- 17:31It's all in the stuff, like you said, staying present and staying connected to yourself.
- 17:35Now, Daria, so when you work with organizations, so you said you mostly keynote,
- 17:40is there one particular like, you with Kelly, you said your ex's name was Kelly.
- 17:44When you Yes.
- 17:45That talk, and you were talking about something quite critical, right, obviously, what was it
- 17:53in the TED talk that you think really hit home?
- 17:57Because I often say I'll give you an example.
- 17:58I worked at corporate for sixteen years, and I had one of the most amazing mentors.
- 18:07And the unfortunate thing, Derry, was that he committed suicide.
- 18:11And he was the guy that was loved and just one of the nicest, nicest people that I I could
- 18:18still say that I would say one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life that has ever
- 18:22touched my life.
- 18:23So I'm curious how you told the story because I often think that we need to help people
- 18:27understand that these people are real Mhmm.
- 18:31And we need to be able to see them from a different lens.
- 18:35So I would love to hear how we kind of couch that to be able to tell that story to hit the
- 18:40point.
- 18:40Right?
- 18:40Because it sounds like you hit the point and the people listen.
- 18:43Yeah.
- 18:44But TED Talk is it has to be under fifteen minutes.
- 18:47I do.
- 18:48I've not done any of those there.
- 18:49So I but I know about
- 18:51I've never worked so hard on anything in my entire career because I knew I was gonna touch
- 18:58on it.
- 18:58I don't wanna hurt people when I'm speaking.
- 19:00I'm very aware that people there's human beings in the room that could be going through
- 19:05something right at that moment.
- 19:07So I knew that I wanted to be wanted to craft it perfectly.
- 19:12And I decided to tell the story through the experience and the eyes, if you like, of my
- 19:20children Because I had to tell them that I had been married before, that he died, that he died
- 19:27by suicide.
- 19:29Because the lessons that I pulled through because I also believe you don't talk about
- 19:33anything without having a lesson for people.
- 19:35It's not just about telling a story and then, alright, I'm leaving you now.
- 19:39You know?
- 19:40The lessons that I was pulling through is how my children responded to me when I told them
- 19:47that about that experience.
- 19:50I was going on the radio a radio show the next day, so I I knew I had to tell them.
- 19:54So I described for the audience, I took them on the journey of a mother, because I remarried
- 20:01and had Dujo, of a mother who had now an 11 and eight year old.
- 20:07She's this mother is going to be on the radio.
- 20:09This could come out given what the program was about.
- 20:15And to me, they were babies.
- 20:17So to even say the word suicide, I didn't know that I I could get that out of my mouth, and I
- 20:22didn't I just wanted their world to be all sunshine and flowers and roses.
- 20:27And Yeah.
- 20:28So I think it's always about the story, Roxanne.
- 20:32You know that.
- 20:33But I think the story allowed people to come with me, to be in my shoes as I described that
- 20:41experience.
- 20:42I added humor because there were opportunities for humor, and I added those moments so you
- 20:48give people a little space to have a giggle even though they the topic they didn't know
- 20:53before I started what the topic was going to be or what the story was going to be about.
- 20:58It's I dropped it a little bit early, but then, of course, there was the story.
- 21:02So I think it was and I I take my role as a speaker that way every before I speak anywhere,
- 21:10I think long and hard about what am I gonna share, what's the right thing for this audience
- 21:15Right.
- 21:16Because it's obviously, it's not about me.
- 21:18Right?
- 21:18It's about who's in the room.
- 21:19And that's why there are a lot of that scoping upfront, I think, is so important to understand
- 21:24who's in the room and what they're experiencing and then to craft that story.
- 21:28So I think that's what it was.
- 21:30And when I came out out, I say we were in a theatre, When I walked into the room, main room
- 21:35where everyone from the audience, three or 400 people were standing there, there were many
- 21:41people bawling and but it was but it was a joyful kind of experience.
- 21:45But people came up and said, oh my gosh.
- 21:48Now I have a story, and I've never I haven't said it.
- 21:51And so I think I think it's in being really respectful of what your point is in telling the
- 21:58story.
- 21:58Because if you don't know that you have a point, then don't tell it would be my advice to
- 22:03anyone.
- 22:04And to raise human eye human eye is something that everybody's petrified to talk about and to
- 22:11take it off the bull's eye really by looking at stage and agent development and how you would
- 22:16have approached it and those types of things and say and you like you said, at 13, we're
- 22:21we're talking twelve years ago, we weren't there yet.
- 22:24And now it's as speakers, we have to be in a good space ourselves.
- 22:28So you obviously have to be in a space because if not the audience that wants to bundle you up
- 22:33and take care of you.
- 22:34So you have to really be in a good space to be able to deliver a message because, ultimately,
- 22:38I would think, Dari, we want people to think to obviously be kind and respectful, but to
- 22:43recognize that you can do what you can do.
- 22:46But sometimes unfortunate things happen.
- 22:48This might be the role that you might have to play, right, which is hard to even ever think.
- 22:52I mean, myself as a psychotherapist, I've dealt with, unfortunately, situations like that.
- 22:59And like I said, in corporate, one of my biggest mentors that I till today, a lot of
- 23:04what I do is based on what I talk.
- 23:05She was the one that I I would've out of a million people, I would never have thought.
- 23:10And then you end up losing someone like that.
- 23:12So the humanizing of that topic as much as we don't wanna talk about it is a society we need
- 23:18to.
- 23:18So being able to integrate in a way that's palpable Yeah.
- 23:22I mean, now I'm gonna have to go watch the TED Talk, Derry.
- 23:24Oh, awesome.
- 23:26That would be lovely.
- 23:28Derry, how do you you're doing these talks.
- 23:31You're you've obviously, you've been through something.
- 23:34How do you what are some of the tips that you use for yourself to take care of yourself to
- 23:39stay more resilient in in your world?
- 23:43Yeah.
- 23:43Well, it's, of course, lots of what I preach, if you like, from the stage.
- 23:47You
- 23:47know, mindfulness, having moments, many moments of presence, purposeful presence.
- 23:54I I I heard the other day, it was Eckhart Tolle, I believe.
- 23:58I was watching something on YouTube, and he said, even one conscious breath is a
- 24:05meditation.
- 24:06Isn't that beautiful?
- 24:07Yes.
- 24:07That is.
- 24:08So all of my keynotes, all of them, I start with a one minute meditation and then talk
- 24:14about that and how that's a strategy.
- 24:16So that is that has been transformative to me.
- 24:20I I'm not a person, although some people are and do really long meditations, an hour or go
- 24:27on a long retreat.
- 24:28Have a friend who does ten day silent retreats.
- 24:31That's kind of the other end of the spectrum, but for me, the one minute is magical for me.
- 24:38And that that so that I start with simple strategies like that that are important for me.
- 24:44I know where my energy is, where it comes from, and how I use it.
- 24:49So I'm a morning person, so I go to the gym, I'm up at five in the morning, and I'm off to
- 24:54the gym.
- 24:55And I just know so it is literally a habit like brushing my teeth.
- 25:01It just is what I do, and it's another strategy that helps me to be able to to keep the energy
- 25:09I need to do the work I do.
- 25:11When I'm even when I'm booking work, I know I'm best earlier in the day, so I'm pretty well
- 25:16known as an opening conference keynoter.
- 25:19That's a good energy spot for me.
- 25:21Versus the close the closing.
- 25:23So, you know
- 25:24and, again, it's that knowing your energy bucket.
- 25:27Right?
- 25:27I think once you start, like you said, like you, after after the end of the day, I'm going
- 25:32to the gym.
- 25:32But, like, if I go first in the morning, I'm not at my optimal, and I just know that with my
- 25:38but I'll go for 04:30, and I'm I'm good.
- 25:41By the time I'm done, then I can kinda wind down.
- 25:43So I think that's really important is knowing where where where is my gift for my energy, and
- 25:47when is it that I'm not my best, and then you're not booking things at the optimal time.
- 25:53For companies that are struggling, right, they're thinking, like, how do have when you
- 25:59have these conversations, I know with the I know you did training before, but if there's
- 26:03leaders or senior people or positions where they can implement some of the things we're
- 26:07discussing, where what's some of the basic things they should start to reflect on about
- 26:12resilience that might make them think, I need to have a talk, a training, a coaching program?
- 26:17What are some of the basic things leaders should consider?
- 26:21Yeah.
- 26:22In addition to keynoting and certainly working with those organizations, I have a consulting
- 26:27arm in my practice.
- 26:28So I do some consulting as well with executive teams.
- 26:32So we are talking about those things.
- 26:34And but what's true, what I say to them is the same that I we talked about when all of a
- 26:39sudden we were all in that time that we all know happened in 2020.
- 26:42Right?
- 26:43Yep.
- 26:43Look at the resilience that we know we have, I reveal.
- 26:46So let's remember what we've already been through, and that's important for all of us,
- 26:50every human.
- 26:51Right?
- 26:51Because sometimes when we're in something, we forget that we have any resources whatsoever.
- 26:56Right?
- 26:57Because we're in the thing that's right in front of our face.
- 27:00So a strategy is to remember the resilience that we've developed already.
- 27:06Look what we've been through.
- 27:07Look at those resources.
- 27:09And so to do that, and then for sure, with a leadership team, let's get our let's understand
- 27:18where we are as a leadership team so that we can we are doing the right thing for those that
- 27:22are looking to us.
- 27:23When I look up, because that's often the case in organizations, right, they're looking to us
- 27:28to say, what how's it going?
- 27:30How are you doing?
- 27:31Leader.
- 27:32So I talk about things like being authentic.
- 27:35It is okay for the CEO to say, yeah.
- 27:38I'm with you.
- 27:38I hear y'all.
- 27:39This is a time of the unknown right now for us.
- 27:42Here's the stuff I do know.
- 27:45Then share that.
- 27:46Here's the stuff I know that we know about this company and all of us and what we've been
- 27:50through as an organization.
- 27:52Share all of that.
- 27:53So I think there's no question.
- 27:56People one of the first words they use to describe me is positive, so I definitely have
- 28:00that.
- 28:01I'm constantly looking at yeah.
- 28:03But You're shining a bright so people see it coming.
- 28:05Right?
- 28:06Well, the what's good about this Yeah.
- 28:09Yeah.
- 28:09Like that that not saying we're glad this thing happened.
- 28:13I'm not glad that happened to my husband when he was 27 years old.
- 28:18I'm not happy about that.
- 28:20And I use it for good.
- 28:22Right?
- 28:23It did happen.
- 28:24It was an experience, and I take from it what I can and what I can use and what I can share to
- 28:29help other people.
- 28:30Organizations can do that as well.
- 28:33I think that's the best thing for leaders, for executives to do, is to be authentic, to be
- 28:39vulnerable.
- 28:40It's okay.
- 28:41Your teams are gonna be okay if you say to them, yeah, you know what?
- 28:45Right now, I'm kinda scratching my head like all of you.
- 28:47I'm not really sure.
- 28:49But what I'm gonna tell you for sure is we're gonna keep you up to date, and we wanna hear
- 28:53from you.
- 28:54We want your ideas.
- 28:55We want your thoughts and strategies.
- 28:58Then remind them of their resources, just like whenever we're in a time of struggle, when
- 29:04something's getting in the way again, that barrier right in front.
- 29:07Let's remember the resources I have already that I've built through my whole life.
- 29:12And in organizations, we've been through stuff, no matter what the organization is.
- 29:19Remind people of that, because there's no question they're going to follow the leader.
- 29:23People always follow the leader.
- 29:25Right?
- 29:25If the leader's freaking out, the whole organization's gonna be freaking out.
- 29:30Absolutely.
- 29:31And with my book, that's what I talk about, which is ROR, which is return on relationship.
- 29:35Right?
- 29:36So just about how authentic leadership builds stronger cultures.
- 29:40So if you're leaders are people too.
- 29:43Right?
- 29:43So you might need to take your moment.
- 29:45Yeah.
- 29:46So, like And not look like you have it all together all the time and be a little bit more
- 29:50real, catch your breath, and figure out the appropriate ways to let people know that you're
- 29:55catching your breath Cause that vulnerability also allows people to see you as a human being
- 30:01that also has different perils that you work with to be able to say, yeah.
- 30:05I had to take a breath twice there because I was kinda it was coming at me kinda quick and
- 30:10fast, but this is what I this is what I did.
- 30:12So I think absolutely agree.
- 30:14I talk a lot about authentic heart leadership because the more connected we are to ourselves,
- 30:19then that radius around us impacts everybody, and then in turn it kind of trickles down, like
- 30:23you say, all the way down.
- 30:25Yeah.
- 30:26I just remember I was blessed with lots of wonderful people in my life, and I remember
- 30:30hearing and practicing and reminding myself to practice all the time that we're all doing the
- 30:35best we can, right, at every moment of every day.
- 30:37So even if the person in front of you doesn't seem to be doing the best, that is the best
- 30:41they can do right now for this moment.
- 30:44So we give ourselves a little bit of a break.
- 30:46And another thing is that, again, someone said to me years and years ago after a keynote I
- 30:51delivered when I first started in my self employment journey, and that is to presume
- 30:56innocence.
- 30:56That when when something's and that's not to deny that the thing might be might seem awful,
- 31:02but when especially in our relationships, somebody might say something that really seems
- 31:07to ouch.
- 31:08Really cause that, woah, create space between me and that person to first presume innocence.
- 31:15Again, that person's doing the best they can.
- 31:18That could have been coming from another place.
- 31:20I don't know what their intention was until I ask and engage in it.
- 31:24And I just think sometimes the little things like that I know aren't revolutionary, we've
- 31:30talked about them for years, can just really help people in the moment.
- 31:34Because sometimes the thing that's right here can stay there for a very long time.
- 31:39Our brains will focus on and are always looking for what's wrong, for what's a
- 31:44does its job, right?
- 31:45And it does its job to a detriment sometimes.
- 31:48And that's when you clarify, dare you said this, and this is how I took it.
- 31:52I felt slighted, and then you go, oh my goodness.
- 31:54Oh, I was, like, kinda in the middle of blah blah blah.
- 31:56And then so that opportunity, like you said, to kinda get it away from you is to to clarify
- 32:01with that other person that you're in relationship with.
- 32:04Yeah.
- 32:04Dari, this has been amazing.
- 32:06I'm so glad.
- 32:07Dari and I have been I've been I'm a member of CAPS as well.
- 32:11We see flashage of each other when we actually get together, but this is an opportunity
- 32:16learned a little bit more about you.
- 32:18So for everyone out there, either why don't you tell everybody where they can get ahold of you,
- 32:22Darri.
- 32:23Absolutely.
- 32:24So my website is dairylattimer.com, and they can easily contact me through their email,
- 32:30dairy@dairylattimer.com.
- 32:32And then I'm all over social media, and it's just my name, at dairy latimer.
- 32:36So you'll you can find me anywhere there, and I'm very accessible.
- 32:40I talk and meet with people all the time on a whole bunch of things.
- 32:44And I'm as my therapist described me, I'm an open book, So I have no problem talking about
- 32:50some stuff that I've experienced in my life and continue to experience.
- 32:53I believe that helps us all to to grow, to learn and grow.
- 32:57To to stay in touch.
- 32:59So everyone this has been amazing.
- 33:01So especially this time as we enter into things, know that just drop down into what you
- 33:07know about yourself and maybe what things have helped you in the past when you've been through
- 33:10tough times.
- 33:12Knowing that ambiguity sometimes increases the stress level or the that thermometer goes up
- 33:18And just try to center yourself and try to remember, like, what is it that I need for
- 33:22myself to be grounded?
- 33:24I'm the am I the hyper type that needs to come, or I'm the frozen type that needs to move?
- 33:28Just kinda play that through with yourself and try to do something small.
- 33:32Like I said to Daria, I have my my kettlebell and kinda lifted a little bit.
- 33:36Maybe yours might be to turn off your computer, shut off the light for a second, sit in in your
- 33:41computer room alone, and take some birds.
- 33:44So that knowledge will be very important.
- 33:46So with myself, if you're needing to learn a little bit more about how you're connected
- 33:50authentically to yourself, either at home or at work, just go to roxannedurhodge.com/quiz.
- 33:57Fill out a mini little quiz.
- 33:59We'll send you back some results with next steps if you wanted to connect with me.
- 34:03Again, Dari, thanks so much.
- 34:05And, everyone, thanks again for putting up with me.
- 34:07I will chat with you again next week.
- 34:09Take care.
- 34:11Thanks for tuning in to Authentic Living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive,
- 34:17healthy change.
- 34:18Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach.
- 34:22To work with Roxanne, visit roxannederhaj.com/blueprint.
- 34:28We'll see you next time on Authentic Living with Roxanne.