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Discover Your Strengths for Lasting Impact with Consuela Muñoz · The One Small Change Podcast

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Welcome to the One Small Change podcast. I am thrilled that you took
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time out of your schedule to embark on this journey of exploration
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and transformation with me. I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I
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bring almost thirty years of entrepreneurial experience. And I have a passion
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for discovering growth through the power of seemingly small
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change. So, again, thank you for joining me, and I hope
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that you will find something really exciting to help you in your
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business. And this week, we are talking to the amazing
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Consuela Munoz. I I still slurred it,
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didn't I? Oh, you got it just right. It was good.
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So, you and I have worked together
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before on a couple of different things. And and so I am
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really happy that you are here so you can bring some of your wisdom and
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some of your insights to people. So I'm not gonna try to, you
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know, do the biographical background thing. Tell people who you are
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and what you do, and what's a small change that you're gonna share with
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them. So, yeah, I am Consuela Munoz,
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and I am a speaker and a leadership
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slash employee engagement coach. And
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I love just spreading the news about strengths
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and how that can change people's lives.
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As far as the small change for me, that's where my
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small change lies. So I had went to
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a conference. Okay. They made me go. They're
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like, man, I got in trouble, and and you're kind of
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bad employee. You need to go to this conference. Right? So
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it wasn't my fault y'all. It was the other people on the team. Right? We
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had some team dynamic issues. So, anyway, so I'm I gotta go to this,
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and I go to this, you know, this conference. And so
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but I'm like, I'm gonna take advantage. I'm going to this conference, and you go
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to all, you know, the all the breakouts. And it's just, like, one after another,
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and you get all this stuff, and then you come home and you go back
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to work. Right? But while I was there, I had went
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to one of the breakout sessions, just a small breakout session. I went
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in, and the lady in there was talking about
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Gallup's strength finder. And I was like, what's a strength finder?
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What is this? And, you know, she had a great dynamic,
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breakout considering she wasn't on a main stage or anything. It was really
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awesome. I really liked it. And, so I'd
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like to tell you that I came back home and, like, immediately took the assessment
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and no. I didn't. I did like everybody does. I came assessment and
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no. I didn't. I did like everybody does. I came back and went straight back
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to work. Right? I eventually took the
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assessment, and what I did, like,
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just mind blowing for me. Here's this little assessment,
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and, you know, it's not like I've never taken any of other assessments
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before, but this really set me
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for my entire career and my life on a different path. So it
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was a small little summit, little breakout room
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that really changed, my future going forward.
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And so, you know, we're talking
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about kind of the recipe. What was the what was the benefit
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of taking the assessment that was so mind so mind changing for
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you? Yeah. So taking the assessment.
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So it's strength finder. So if you guys know, it's Gallup Clifton strength
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finder assessment, and, you know, some people will call
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it like a personality assessment, like it's like some of the others. I
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feel it's different. Obviously, I'm biased a little bit. But
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when you take this assessment, it's going to tell you your top five
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strengths. Depending which one you'll do, it'll tell you there are 34 strength
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themes. It'll tell you your top five. Right? So when I took this
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and I'm reading my results for the first time, you get, like, different kind of
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reports. And at that point, it was a little bit simpler than it is now.
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You get your report back. When I read it, Eva, when I
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read this report, I'm reading the first sentence on the first strength,
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and I'm like, oh my gosh. That's me. Like,
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I'm looking around, like, are they watching me? How do they from
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these questions, how do they know this specific thing about
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me? It was something like the first sentence is like, you have a
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story about everything and any subject possible. And I was
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like, why, yes, I do. And
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I I will talk your ear off about them if you'd like. Right?
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So it just it it's all the most amazing
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parts of you. All the best things that make
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you you, but now it's written
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on paper. It's black and white words, and they come from somebody else
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saying, you are amazing, and this is the way specifically
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you are amazing. And when I took that
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and read that, I'm like, everybody needs to know this. How do people not know
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this? Everybody needs to know this because it can change everybody's
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life. I just know that,
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years and years ago, when I went to to coach you, which was like coach
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Phil, you know, when coaching first started, I took, like, a
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personality assessment. And one of the things that it said about me
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was that I had a performance a
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performer's personality. And the description of that was,
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I can be an extrovert when I'm on stage, but my
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normal habitat is to be an introvert in my head.
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And so it takes a lot of energy for me to
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perform. And I was like, oh my god.
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That is so true, which is why it explained why I never
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schedule full day workshops. And if I have to participate in
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a full day workshop, I never have it so that I have to
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be have lunch with you. I have to get away from
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everybody so that I can recharge. And so
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I think that, you know, we we we think that we're
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unreadable. And, you know, tell me how
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you've used this and how other people you know, and
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how you've taken other, let's say, assessments and built on that.
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Well, I take assessments. So I've taken other assessments.
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Like I said, this one, my favorite. This is the one I think is
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is, above the others. Some of
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those like MBTI, you know, those kind of things can be kind of
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based on the work that you do. Where I feel that strengths
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is more who you are, like, the
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way you arrived here. You know? When
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my babe was one of my kids was four, it's kind
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of a funny story, but my we had moved into our house, like, literally
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just moved that day, like, all the boxes and all that stuff. And it
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was way past bed it was way past dinner time and past bedtime, and my
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husband's literally, like, blowing up an air mattress for these kids
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to sleep on. And I'm standing in the kitchen, and my four year
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old comes up and he goes, mom, do you have a cookie? And I was
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like, no. Like, it's past bedtime. You can't have a cookie. It's too
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late. All these things, why it's too late. And he's like, okay. And
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then he tugs on me again. He goes, mom, you are so
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beautiful. And I said, oh, thank you. And he goes,
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can I have a cookie now? And I said, yes. You can. That's how it
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works. Go get a cookie. You know? But I I instantly
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knew, like, oh my gosh. My kids got WOO. It's one of the strengths I
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have. Woo is an acronym for winning others over. I'm like, he has
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woo. So he instinctually, naturally
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tells you what you need, gives you what you need.
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What's in it for me? He's got it. And then whatever he's asked, you
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don't even care anymore because you got all that you needed and more. So, like,
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whatever you want, it's fine. It's all good. You know? So that's an instinctual thing
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that he's had always, and here's me recognizing it
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for. Right? So that's what I like. It doesn't matter what work you're doing
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or what projects you're on or any of those kind of things, whether it's
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personal or at home, it's who you are. And and understanding
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that now here's the thing. Understanding it is really
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the key. Mhmm. Because if you're not in charge of your
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strengths, your strengths are gonna be in charge of you.
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And so you want to use them purposefully where you need
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them so that, you know, because any strength taken
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too far becomes a weakness. Yes. So if you have if you
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have, like, you know, belief or learner,
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those are great. Like, learner can be really great, can help you take in a
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lot of information. But if you have learner and you let it
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run free, you could spend all your time learning and no time
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doing. Right? And so that can get you into trouble because you just
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but if you're just like, okay, I need to learn this new thing.
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Let me dive in. And now that learner strength is doing its thing, but you
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stop it at some point. You're in charge. You use it when you need it,
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and you use something else when you need something else. And
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so very it just it
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makes a difference than to me than some of the the other reason I like
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this one better, if I say MBTI and I say, oh, I'm
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an EFP. Now if you know MBTI, you're like, oh, you'll
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know things about me. But there are other assessments where they're like,
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you're a color. Oh, you're a blue. What
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does that mean? I'm a blue. And different assessments have different
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meanings for different color. Or I had one that we did that was like,
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you're a North or you're a Northwest. I'm like, what does that mean? Like, it
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doesn't tell you what it means where if you take the strength finder and I
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say, I've got communication. I've got activator. You're
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like, oh, she likes to communicate, AKA
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talk, and she likes to move fast. Got it. Like, you you have an
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idea. If I said I had discipline or learner or strategic,
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you know what the words mean, so you have an idea what that
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means about me just from knowing that strengths. Well, I think the other
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thing I just I wanna just go back a little bit. One of the things
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that I think is if you take the time to invest in yourself
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and do an assessment and I I'm just certified.
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But I have to tell you that I don't find it the most useful thing
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in the world. You know, I mean, there are other people that just think it's
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fabulous. I I love this for the team
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dynamics part of it, and not so much for the
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individual part of it. Because I find that if you
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can't remember it, you can't use it. And it just is too
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whatever. So I like the idea that you you know, it tells you
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your five strengths, your your top five strengths. But the thing that I
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found interesting that you alluded to is that we
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are born with a lot of this we are born with strengths.
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And when I talk about, you know, your unique power
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and how it's been educated out of us, that's one of the
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things that happens. And when you can appreciate the strengths in your kids,
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they develop so much better. I mean, one of the best pieces
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of advice I ever got because I have to tell you, I'm not a warm
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and fuzz I was not a warm and fuzzy mom. If I had not married
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my husband who has started out as a kindergarten teacher, I would
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have never had kids. I mean, that was not my childhood
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was not, you know, a happy childhood, and I was like, I am not repeating
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this for some other soul. Right? And so the
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piece of advice that I got was the characteristics
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that your children have when they're young that drive you crazy
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are the ones that will make them successful when they're adults.
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And my youngest is so persistent.
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I mean, she is just like, did you do it? Did you do it?
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Did you do it? Did you do it? I mean and as a kid, she
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was like, can I have it? Can I have it? Can I have it? Can
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I have it? You know? And I look at her now
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and the things that she's accomplished, you know, that she will
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dive into a subject and do something and just, you know, stick
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with it. And so if you can recognize
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those characteristics in yourself and recognize that your kids have
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those characteristics, that is a wonderful thing.
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So let's take this forward to entrepreneurs.
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So when you know what your strength is, this is the
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thing that your clients need and want,
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right, and are attracted to. So talk about that a little
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bit. Yeah. So, I mean, even to bridge from where you were, like, understanding
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your strengths and your children, in the same way you under
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understand from from your team. Right? Like, if you have a team
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so say you're in your startup or you're you're building your team
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or you're, you know, your team might be there, but
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you're having some struggling with retention or that kind of thing,
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understanding your strengths is the key to then understanding
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theirs. Right? So, obviously, you can all take the assessment. That's a big thing, but
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that's just the first thing. Let's just identify them. You
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can you can take an assessment and be like, that's nice
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and put it on the shelf. That that's not where the magic is.
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Right? Mhmm. Although there's a bit of magic. I will say
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a little bit before I go into entrepreneurs, a little bit of magic. Taking the
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assessment and identifying your strengths
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can increase your self confidence by 20%. Just
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taking the assessment. Just taking the assessment because, again,
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it's the most amazing parts of you all in one place for you
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to read, and it's very powerful. Now imagine
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if you're a leader and you've got this team, and you take
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this assessment and you start understanding yourself, and you're like, yeah.
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The thing about what I love about taking the strengths and then trying to
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apply them, you know, implementing your
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strengths and trying to grow your strengths,
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that changes people's engagement. When you as a
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leader become more and more engaged with the work you do, and then
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you start seeing all the strengths of your teammates,
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those that report to you, and you start helping
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them grow their strengths, now their engagement increases. And when
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you can get everyone on your team doing what they do
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best more often than not, that's
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when your team is unstoppable. That's when your team can achieve whatever it
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is that you want to achieve. So I I'll share a quick
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example of engagement. So I I had this we did,
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a twelve week program I was doing with this team. And they're not even a
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team. They're all individual ladies. Right? It was a women's group and all
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these ladies. And this lady showed up, and she was disengaged. Let me tell
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you all. She showed up in, like, shades of gray. She didn't
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wanna open her mouth. She didn't participate, but she was doing the homework.
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She started doing the thing. She started doing the thing. By the end of the
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twelve weeks, she shows up, and everybody's like, man, you look good. And everywhere
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she went at work, they're like, did you did you lose
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weight? Did you did you change your hair? Like, what's I don't
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know what's different about you. I don't know what's different about you, but something
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is. She went from being disengaged to engaged with
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her work. She was, like, on fire at work and,
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like, throwing out ideas and all these things simply
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because she increased her own engagement. And that helped everybody
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around her also want it because it's in it's
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contagious. Let's face it. Engagement is contagious. Mhmm. Mhmm.
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Somebody is really engaged with their work and really pumped up. That gets
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everybody excited. And I think one of the pieces sorry. One of the pieces
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we miss is that the leader needs to be the most pumped up. We we
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make an assumption the leader is engaged, but we wanna make sure that leader is
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really engaged. That'll get their team going. Well, you know, the
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thing one of the things about entrepreneurs, okay,
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is, first of all, we carry a lot of information in our hair
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hair hair our head. Right? And
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so when we try to get other people to do stuff, sometimes
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we're very incomplete in our communication.
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And so we don't get the results that we want, and so we assume
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that there's something wrong with with them. Right?
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And when you can look at yourself and say, I have certain weaknesses. I have
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certain strengths, then you can look at other people that way too,
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making sure that you are communicating in a way that is
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more complete. And, you know, one of the things that I say, one of the,
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you know, banes of an entrepreneur is,
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typically, they are really good at picking people that have,
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you know, good people, and then they micromanage them into
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mediocrity. Right? Because they want them you know, because
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their organization is personality driven. Right?
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And so when you realize that not everybody has the same strengths or
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personality that you have and they can get the job done
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and they make your team stronger. If you think of it as, you
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know, as strands in a rope, if all the
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strands are the same, they're all gonna break at the same point. Mhmm.
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If you have strands that are different, you know, sizes and stuff like
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that, it's gonna build much more certainty
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and longevity into what you're doing and and make your
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team so much stronger. So that's why I think, you know and and and the
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other part, I think, is if you look
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at how people develop,
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typically, the you know, a really simple way to look at it is, you
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know, it's kind of like self management and leadership,
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project management and leadership, managing other
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people, you know, in the leadership, and then leadership of, let's say,
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an organization. As entrepreneurs, we tend to jump
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over the first step and jump into the second step. We're
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we're doing the thing that we wanna do. And so it's like
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a knee jerk. It feels like, why do I have to find out about mindset?
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Why do I have to find out about other people's working styles? Why do I
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you know, because I just want them to do what I'm Do what I'm saying.
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Just do this. Just do the thing. Right? Yeah. And so
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this is, I think, a good way to do it without, people going, this
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is really woo woo and, you know, this is not a
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tangible thing because it is. And and it can
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make it can be you know how, like,
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sometimes if you just add a pinch of salt or just a pinch of something,
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everything just pops and gets so much better? That's what this is like.
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It really is an amplifier or a catalyst
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for the work that you're doing. I totally agree. I
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think, you know, entrepreneurs so, yes, they'll kinda skip over
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and and not worry about their own leadership a little bit. But now if the
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if they're going from being, like, a solopreneur or a couple
18:55
people to a bigger team, I feel like there's this
18:59
focus on, you know, as a sole you know, as
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entrepreneur branding. Right? Branding, we got our personal brand and all
19:06
that. And then there's a miss around culture.
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And so making that transition to having the
19:13
team and wanting to hire people that fit,
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that you're hiring people that think like you and act like you.
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And, you know, what we say in strengths, there are
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34 strength themes across four
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leadership domains, and you really want that that
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balance. So you can't do everything
19:37
great, but your team can. So that everyone is operating
19:40
from a different places and seeing that not as an issue, but more
19:44
as a boon. Right? Like, they're a balance. When
19:48
they say, you know, like, talk about your partner or whatever,
19:52
that opposites attract. Right? Everybody's heard opposites attract. Well, yes,
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they do. And and I you know, every once in a while, I'll do the
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strengths of both, a husband and wife or kinda thing.
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Right? Every time I've done that, beep, they're
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opposites. Whatever is in the top five for one is in the
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bottom five for the other and vice versa. It it works that way.
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Why is that good? Because there's balance then. Because they do
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think in a different way, so things get less missed. Right? If you
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all think in the same way, then nobody's dealing with these
20:25
other aspects. Right? These things and they and you get you miss things
20:29
and you're not as powerful when and and then it's how do you
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see that? You have to see that as a benefit.
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So you could choose this is a mindset thing. You could choose to see that
20:40
as an issue because they think about things in a different way, or you
20:43
could be like, oh my goodness. I do it this way. I need help balancing
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it. I'll do this. When I I worked for a
20:51
leader who was really amazing, really engaged, and we were
20:54
doing this, project. And she's like, I want you
20:58
in charge of this part. I'm like, awesome. So I come back with I had
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worked with the creative department. I came back with some design ideas. We had to
21:05
have, we were gonna have a mascot for our
21:09
university. Right? Our online university when I was in corporate. Right?
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And so I come back and she's like, oh, like, I came back with
21:16
these really pictures of this fierce owl. She's like, I thought
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it was gonna be an owl with, like, a cap and gown. I was like,
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because that's not what I did at all. I had this, like, talons
21:28
and, you know, fierce stuff. And and I was like, oh, because,
21:31
you know, I'm like three weeks into this job. Like, oh, man. I don't know
21:35
how this is gonna go. And you know what? She turned me three weeks into
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this job. She goes, you know what? You do this better than I do. I'm
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gonna trust your judgment. That's
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amazing. That's where you need to be as a leader. Like, I I'm not in
21:49
charge of this because I'm in charge of you, but I'm not in charge of
21:52
this. You be in charge of it because I trust you. I don't know what
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I'm doing there, so you do that. And when you can be
22:01
sure of yourself as a leader,
22:05
you're able to do that. And that raises the power of every person
22:08
on your team. As a leader, you want to be developing every person on
22:12
your team to be a leader of themselves so that they can then
22:16
lead other people. That cascading effect is when
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your team really starts to have the power to do whatever it is that you
22:24
wanna achieve. So so let's do this because this
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is a topic that's near and dear to my heart, and we could keep talking
22:31
about this forever. But you've got a freebie for us, so tell
22:34
us about that. Yeah. So freebies are fun.
22:38
Right? So this is really this is a quick guide to
22:42
help you retain and energize your
22:45
employees. So this is a guide that's gonna help you start
22:49
looking at, how
22:53
how you can develop and recognize your strengths in yourself
22:57
and those in your team, and then some quick things you can do to
23:00
help boost that engagement with everybody that is on your
23:04
team. Okay. Now you said you said employees. For a lot
23:08
of entrepreneurs, they don't have employees. They have subcontractors.
23:12
But you need those same skills with them. Oh, for sure. Do
23:16
you know? So so don't No. If you've ever run into the problem, you know,
23:20
I hear from many people, like, oh, I'm trying to
23:23
hire a VA or I'm trying to hire this person, and it didn't work out
23:27
the last one. And so they're real nervous about that. So understanding
23:31
your own strengths can help you hire someone with
23:35
the complementing that's gonna work for that. And and and start
23:38
looking at them as teammates even if they're contractors.
23:43
Start seeing them in a different way. Again, that mindset change.
23:46
Mhmm. Then you'll actually, you'll relate better and
23:50
you'll have better retention because of that. Well, I have to tell you that, you
23:53
know, part of my personality is I I don't know where this finds on the
23:57
strength finder is I have always been very type a and
24:00
fix it. You know? I've fixed the problem. And, you know, for
24:04
years, my oldest daughter has, you know, she'll call up and she's been
24:08
sick, and I and I automatically say, did you take something from that
24:12
for that? You know? And she'll say, mom, you're
24:16
you're supposed to say I'm sorry. You're supposed to say,
24:20
I'm sorry you don't feel good. You know? You know?
24:24
Yeah. You know? Give some empathy and stuff. So,
24:28
I have learned to say to stop myself
24:32
and say so that I'm not so judgmental and so
24:36
directed, to stop myself and say, tell me more about
24:39
that. Because you don't know how
24:43
they came to their conclusion or gotten to their situation. And so you're
24:47
offering a solution that may not be apropos at all.
24:51
Yeah. Because you haven't taken the time to get to know what
24:54
what's going on. So, anyway, so we're
24:58
gonna have a link in the notes for your wonderful gift that
25:02
everybody should get. And I wanna ask you
25:06
the the the question. When was the last time you
25:09
did something new for the first time? So
25:16
well, I can I can be glib and say, yesterday?
25:20
So I broke my toe in December,
25:24
and yeah. So that was exciting, y'all. I bent my big toe all the way
25:28
back to my foot, so busted it good. And so
25:32
I have now started toe
25:35
therapy, which I I know. So they
25:39
gave me these funky shoes. They're like a
25:43
rocking shoe. So walking in them first of all, I've
25:46
been walking in boots. So now I'm walking in these shoes, so it's a little
25:50
weird. And going down the stairs, I was like, woah. Like, I have to pay
25:53
attention. So it's like a thing. But I have to do,
25:57
jazz toes, and I have to do toe scrunchies.
26:01
So these are like new things that I haven't done before, but that
26:05
are vital to me so that my toe can recover faster. I
26:09
travel a lot, and so it's important for me to do therapy.
26:13
Discipline is low on my set of strengths. So
26:17
making myself do my exercises is,
26:22
a challenge, if you will. So that is, like, a new thing
26:26
that I'm having to figure out and just in the last day. So Well,
26:29
I am really sorry that that's your new thing. I would
26:33
I would have preferred you that you had something exciting and not
26:37
something that that that puts you in pain. So, anyway,
26:41
we've got we gotta do the commercial, and we gotta wrap this up. And
26:44
so for those that are listening, especially for the first time, make sure
26:48
that you subscribe and share this with other people, on
26:52
social media or however you you do that. And,
26:56
you know, one of the reasons that I do this is so that I can
26:59
help build a community that and supercharge it so that you
27:03
can grow and have impact. And so I hope that you'll continue to
27:07
join me on the one small change and that you'll see that
27:10
these tiny shifts can really yield monumental
27:14
transformation. So, Consuelo, what would be your last words that
27:18
you want people to take away? My
27:21
last words for you guys are that with a little bit
27:25
of effort each day, you can figure out how you can grow
27:29
your strengths and work with your weaknesses so that you
27:32
can have the impact that you were meant to have.
27:36
Oh, I love it. Well, as always, my last
27:40
way my last words are remember change is simple, but it's not
27:44
always easy. It requires courage, resilience, and a
27:47
willingness to step out of your comfort zone, and that
27:51
can be scary. So, again, join me for the one small change.
27:55
And if you haven't listened to the first episode or any of the other
27:58
episodes, be sure you do that. So until next time,
28:02
stay curious. Thank you, guys.