Latest / The Bold Lounge / Bolanle Williams-Olley: Building a Bold Legacy, Leading with Courage

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Bolanle Williams-Olley: Building a Bold Legacy, Leading with Courage · The Bold Lounge

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: My name is Leigh Burgess and I will be your host.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in the world.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: This podcast is all about those kinds of stories.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Every week, we'll hear from someone who has taken a leap or embarked on an extraordinary journey.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they use to make things happen.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Whether they face challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own bold journey.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be freed.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Tune in and get ready to be inspired.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Today I have Bolanli Williams-Ollie.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: She is the CFO and co-owner of Mancini Duffy, a national design firm with a 100-year-old history and tech-forward approach.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Based in New York City, she oversees the firm's financial and operational performance.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: She has 15 years of experience working in the AEC industry, with a strong background in financial analysis and strategic initiatives.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Her clients include American Airlines, soho House, brooklyn Nets, boca Ria, verizon, nbc Sports Group and more.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Before her current position at Mancini.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: She served five years as senior project accountant at Skidmore Owings in Merrill and five years at project accountant at HLW.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: She holds a master's in education and social policies for NYU, master's in applied mathematics and a bachelor's in mathematics from the City University of.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: New York.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: You like math?
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Yes, bolanli is a board member of the Beverly Willis Architectural Foundation.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: She's also the author of the bestselling book Build Boldly.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Charge your Unique Career Path and Lead with Courage.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: She's married with two kids and obsessed with throwing fun themed parties.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me Happy to be here.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: So excited to jump into our conversation about bold, especially your book, and so we'll start off with your definition.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: What is your definition of bold Bolaumie?
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Ah, bold, one of my favorite favorite words, and actually in my book Build Boldly, I also have the framework, which is my perfect definition of being bold, so I'll just go into it.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: So you can like jump right into it.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I love to hear other people's bold frameworks.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so be, for me, begins with being yourself, right?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: So when I think about my life, my career, moments of real growth, pushing the envelope and being uncomfortable, it was moments where I was truly being myself.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: And it always sounds so easy, but a lot of us are walking around in versions that are not true to us.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: And so, for me, being bold starts off with being yourself, being honest and true to who you are, being authentic, walking with integrity in how you approach life.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: So that's B O is open your mind to new definitions and opportunities.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I think I potentially would not have made it career-wise to where I am at the point when I got to where I got to if I wasn't open, right so open to new opportunities and roles that I might not have done in the past, open to learning from other people, open to speaking and sharing about.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: My story has afforded me lots of opportunities when it comes to growing my network, when it comes to impacting people's lives.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: L stands for lift others.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So as you're rising or as you're growing in life and in your career, you have to think about how you're lifting other people, too, right?
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: How are you pouring back and how are you living a life of service, whether it's for one person, whether it's to multiple people In some form or way.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: I think it's very important that, as you know, you pour out to other people.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: That's how your cup grows, right?
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: So that's L, and the last one is D.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Don't wait, do it now.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: So, and I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more about this later in the conversation, but there are lots of moments again in my life, in my career, where I just didn't wait Right?
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: So, as you were reading my bio, you hear I had my first two degrees in math and then, at some point in time, there's an education and social policy degree that comes in.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: I did that degree when I was six months pregnant with my second son.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I did not wait.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I would advise others to do the same thing if you're, you know, first time mom, but for me, you know, the opportunity, the capacity was there, and so I didn't wait, right?
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: So what are the dreams that you have for yourself?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: How do you really sit in the driver's seat when it comes to navigating your life?
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: It's by not waiting.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: A lot of us just have to get out of our way to see the change and the progress, removing ourselves from stagnancy, if we don't wait and do it now.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: So all of this is sort of like the framework that I had put together for my book when I was thinking about what boldness really meant to me and what its impact has had in my life, and I just saw those themes, the waves in their industries no matter the industries or anyone from a career perspective that has had exponential growth a lot of these same themes kind of showed up in their stories.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Boldness always starts with courage.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: You have to have the courage to do those four things that I've said.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: And so, at the root of it, are you courageous enough to truly be yourself?
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Are you courageous enough to open your mind?
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Are you courageous enough to open your mind?
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Are you courageous enough to lift other people?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: And are you courageous enough to not wait and do it now?
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: So that's my definition.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, excellent, I love it.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: As I'm writing it down, I'm like looking forward to jumping in and juxtaposing it against my build framework, which is believe, own, learn, design.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So you have being yourself and I have believe.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: You have opened your mind and I have own ownership.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: You have lifting others and I have learning.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I think these could be sisters.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: And then, don't wait, do it now, and then my D is design, so designing that life.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: So like they definitely have this lovely synergy, so excited to talk about that.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: So when do you remember being bold for the first time or a memorable bold moment for you?
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, Not a lot probably.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I mean there's all different flavors of it.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all different flavors, conscious, intentional or not.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: But let me go back to maybe one of the first ones in my career, right, and that particular moment happened when I was a few weeks to graduating college and I needed to find a job.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I had been interviewing so poorly.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I thought I had to be like this particular type of candidate when it came to like trying to secure a job.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: And I will set the stage right.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: I was an international student from Nigeria deciding to, at some point in time, switch my major to mathematics, which meant there was no clear cut, definition or path, right, it wasn't like I was going to be a lawyer, an engineer or you know.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: And so this idea of how do you, you know, communicate yourself and all these things that you've done, how do you truly represent yourself in front of an interviewer, somebody who's going to give you an opportunity?
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: And I was very timid, very shy.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: And then I remember getting you know this interview for my first job, and I made a decision, a conscious decision, then, and I was like, girl, you have got to own all this greatness that you have been sweating and working at in this math degree.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you've been hiding it, you're going to go in there.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: You're going to talk about this very difficult and challenging topic that you've decided to make your major.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: You're going to talk about your thesis.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: You're going to just be yourself.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: And I remember pep talk.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: It was a very critical moment because I felt like it was something that just changed the trajectory of how I showed up in life.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: I might not have used, I might not have had the right language, right, I don't think then I was saying this was boldness, but it was a really bold act, right.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: And when I went into that interview because I spoke about those you know things, when they asked me to tell me about yourself, and I spoke about the things I'd done, where I was from and what I was doing, it connected me to the interviewer, who also studied math in school.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: And so as we began our conversation and we began to talk, and I just felt comfortable and I was like this is it?
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Either you take who is in front of you, who's showing you character, and just speaking about myself, because at that point in time you don't know anything at an entry level position, literally, you're going to be trained, right.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: And so I feel like, because I showed up that way, you know I was hired for character and I always say this to people right Like, hire for character, especially if the person is an A plus player, the skills will come.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: They will either learn it you can teach them right, they can develop right.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: That's why we're always on some development journey.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: It means that there's something to learn right.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: They will be able to learn and pick up quickly.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: But what is that person's character?
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: How do their values and how they're speaking tied to the things that are important to you?
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: You know, as someone who's trying to hire someone on your team, and then, maybe before I got home or the next day, I got that job interview.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: My graduation literally was in like two weeks or something like that, and that for me, you know, was the beginning of this bold journey, was the beginning of connecting to people deeper.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: How do you show that you care?
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: How do you show interest?
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: All of that kind of like spilled into how I did my work right, like how am I interested in the projects that my project managers were doing?
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: How do I show that I'm not just in this accounting department just to issue invoices and keep it moving right?
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: It came from being bold, connecting to them a little bit, like I mentioned, deeper, like just getting to know them a bit better, and that allowed us to have great working relationships.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that's my first memory, I'm very sure this.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Earlier in high school I sold Valentine's cards.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: That was a bold move in an all girls school right, like who's selling Valentine's cards at age 12 or 13,.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Right If we were to go back a little bit earlier.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: But in terms of just like you know, owning who you are, I think professionally that was key.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: I couldn't go into a room and speak, right, I would be timid and shy.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Some of it is culturally, but then very quickly you learn that speaking up for yourself, getting comfortable even if we're not right all the time, yeah, is a radical act of boldness to be able to do that getting comfortable, being uncomfortable right at times when we're being authentic and being ourselves and we're vulnerable.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Like boldness is vulnerable, like I actually think you know very much that when you're bold you have moments of you know you're considering the risk, you're being very thoughtful, you're being pragmatic.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: There's that logical side, but there's the emotional and psychological side of like, wow, I'm really putting myself out there, I'm.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: You know someone may not like me, someone may not understand me, someone may not get me right, and I think it's really important.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I think it really hammers home your letter B being yourself.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: You were living that at that time.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: You know, right before you graduated, of like, wow, if I'm myself one, it's easier.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: You know easier to be yourself it should be the easiest thing you can be.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: But somehow along the way, you know, in our careers or when we go to school, or the conventions that we live by, in the world that we live in, we somehow start to mute ourselves in some form or fashion.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: And I think you learned early on lesson in your 20s.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: You know, being me actually is a very valuable thing to be, a very honest thing to be, a very forthright thing to be, and that's the easier thing to do as well.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: I completely agree.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I completely agree and I think one of the things to remember is that with every new season or every new elevation, there's that fight that you have to get to be yourself.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: So, even when I became a leader, what kind of leader was I going to be Right?
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Was I going to be a leader, that experience or an idea of a leader, or was I going to still take through that, you know, authenticness into how I led my people?
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Was I going to take this pairing nature that I had, or did I all of a sudden, you know, be myself worked up until a point and I'm like, oh, oops, now I need to change.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: So I'm just saying that it's continuous, right, it's.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of self-reflection, it's not a one and done.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: There's new.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: With every new level, yeah, right, with every new level that you experience, you have to kind of like recenter yourself and make sure that you're still true to the things, values, how you want to show up.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: You have to make sure you're still showing up as you are.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that realignment.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I love what you said, like it's a fight and I'm not like a bad fight, but it's like, wow, I don't want that anymore.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I am claiming this for myself, moving forward, it's really like and you use the word evolution or elevation and they both go hand in glove, most likely but there is that friction that occurs when you're elevating to the next level of you, which we hope is always in an elevation mode of like I'm learning, I'm growing, I'm understanding, I'm giving back.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I just love how you captured that, because there's that friction and you have to reevaluate, you know, with your framework or any framework, it should not be a one and done and going back and making sure you are being yourselves and do you have that open mind and are you lifting others and are you really going for it and not waiting?
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: You know, is there some type of you know mode?
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: You're in that you need to initiate action and so definitely being able to revisit that.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: You need to initiate action and so definitely being able to revisit that, what made you create the bold framework and write the book?
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: What was the reason?
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Where did that come from?
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Very good question.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Writing a book was never something I wanted to do.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I was, you know, I think my idea, especially from you know, sharing your story.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was very comfortable doing that was a goal of mine when I wrote the book in 2021, wow, time goes by fast.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: And a lot of the things I had done to get to the level I'm at I sort of brushed over.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: I said, oh, yes, a 22-year-old will go into a CFO's office during a financial crisis and ask for more work or ask to be trained and thought and developed.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: And I was having a conversation with someone at the start of 21.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: And a lot of the things that I sort of brushed and said oh, people know this.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: She said, no, your story and the way in which you've navigated your path, as well as how you and your partners and leaders and your firm are navigating leadership and navigating growing your company and your organization A lot of people do not do this.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: And so they said I don't mean to put you under any pressure, I know you haven't thought about writing a book, but I really think you should consider it.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: And in that moment, you know, after I hung up that call instantly, I was afraid.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: I started.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, but nobody wants to hear this.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: And you know all of the doubts and, like you know, things start, start popping in your head.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: But in that moment I knew I had to write this book because I said for me to be experiencing these feelings it means that there is growth that's waiting for me through the book writing process and beyond.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, it was that instant I was, was like I don't really care about your feelings, girl, you are going to, you know, really, sit down, take this woman and pause and I thought how powerful would it be that, while I'm still in the middle of my career, trying to figure it out, trying to set this path for myself, I thought it would be very powerful to pull back the curtains for other folks maybe, you know, in similar situations as myself, trying to navigate their path, as well as a challenge to other leaders, really thinking about how are you nurturing and developing people on your teams, people within your organizations?
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Because when you start thinking about, you know, this mindset shift the companies that succeed, the companies that do well, are really bold companies, you know.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: But then, when you take a look further, that has to do with the leaders.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Are you a bold leader and are you building bold teams?
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: And, essentially, are you being a bold you?
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: So that was sort of what kind of spearheaded this journey into writing this book, and I'm really, really appreciative of going through that journey because one it gave me personally a moment to actually pause, reflect, look back, look at the various themes, look at the various characteristics, which are sort of like the chapters, right?
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: So the way the book is structured, you could read any chapter and it's not chronological, right, like you could pick up any chapter and I wanted it to be sort of like this workbook or this book that people could always go back and reference.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Right, I need to think about how do I plug into a community?
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Okay, go to a chapter that focuses on community.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: How can I be generous with my time, with my resources?
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Okay, let me go to the chapter on generosity.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Right, all these various themes stood up, but at each point there was this tie back to the bold framework.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Right, you can't be generous if you're not being yourself.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: You can't be generous if you're not being yourself.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: You can't be generous if you're not open to opportunities to be generous to people.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Same thing with lifting others right.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Generosity is you lifting others in some way or fashion.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: So I went through the process and wrote the book, in fact, I think the name I was actually gonna name it just bold.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I woke up at 4 am and the word that came to me was bold, and I was like you know this, this idea, concept of boldness, and then, of course, I'm in the built industry.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: I have these various organizations around the word build, she builds.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: And so I was like, oh no, this book is going to be called build boldly, and each of us are charting our own unique career paths, but then also leading with courage.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah and so, yeah, that was how the book came about.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: So when you thought about you know all your experience in finance and as a CFO and your leadership roles and understanding diversity and getting to the sweet spot of being able to connect your experiences with the framework that you created, Is there anything new that you learned about either yourself or the concept?
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: So every you know, just even writing the book is a bold thing.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: And I'm glad you talked about fear at the beginning there, because some people think and they define boldness as fearlessness.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: I think it's full of fear, so you know, and if you think it's fearless, that's your, it's personal, so I think it's.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Everyone has a personal definition.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: My definition definitely has fear in it.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: But what did you learn about yourself, or even what you thought bold was by writing the book or by doing some of the research around the book?
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, again, up until that point, I don't think I'd ever used the word boldness.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: I didn't either.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Right, it wasn't in my language, it wasn't in how I would describe myself.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but that pause, that that's, you know, first few weeks of like just pouring everything out, right, like from going back to childhood and my mom and you know, then moving to the US, away from my family, then trying to navigate, finding a job, then getting married, having kids, you know, like all of that, just taking that pause and putting all of this down.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Do you think you got some of your boldness from your mom?
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, but from watching, right, so, like, in a very interesting way, because my mom is so friendly, she could talk to anybody.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Like it was like when I was a child.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my God, are you mean?
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: We're going to go to the store and I will have to spend additional time, or you get what I mean.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Or we're on the bus and the bus says don't talk to the bus driver.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: So I think some of that right trickled down.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: And then the other thing I'll say is that you know, she's a single parent, right, that in itself is boldness to say I'm going to want the best for this child.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: I'm going to send her to school abroad because I know, you know, lots of opportunities will open for her.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: That you know.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Again, I didn't know the word then, but I think like that is an act of boldness, right?
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Like to send your only child out of your.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: You know your sight at age 18, you know.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: So, yes, some of it definitely comes from her.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: A lot comes from being surrounded around very strong women like my aunts growing up.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: So in that span of writing it, what it taught me about myself was that I am a bold person.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I take great chances at life.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: I want all the gifts and all the talents, the skills that are within me.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: I want to be able to use them and use them well, right, do a great job at it.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: So all of this, it also taught me to pause a little longer than I would, celebrating the things that I had accomplished.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: It taught me not to brush things over, not to think they weren't a big deal, because, as we know and one of my favorite statements is that a lot of us have the best intentions, but until you actually take action around that intention, it doesn't mean S-H-I-T.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I could you understand what I mean.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Are you what you say?
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Are you actually taking a chance on the things you say, the promises that you're making to yourself it's not even about other people right?
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Are you actually being accountable to the dreams that you have and actually trying to execute and act on them?
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: So, like that's part of what the experience taught me.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: The experience also taught me that I was very comfortable with taking a step without knowing where that step would lead to.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: I had no clue what the book would do, and even with my nonprofits, I had no clue how my nonprofit will grow.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: But the one thing I was really really good at is seeing that step and taking a step, knowing that the next couple of steps will always work out for my good.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: It will teach me something about me.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Yep, I call it the right left, right left, right left.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Keep going, keep going forward.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: You just keep going, right, like so.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Even if I only sold one book, the fact that this seed was planted in me meant that there was something for me.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: I have a cousin who always says you first wrote your book for yourself before you wrote it for the world.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Right, like that experience of writing.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: It was meant to teach you something about yourself, was meant to prepare you for the next season.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: And you know, the last two to three years of my career.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: You know it's think about it, right.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: I became CFO in 2018.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: By 2020, I'm a first time CFO leading a company through a global pandemic Like it's.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: It's mind blowing to me, you know, and here we are.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: It's 2024.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: And we've made huge strides within our organization.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I think it's really helped me lean into that bold side of myself, personally and professionally.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: So that's what the process taught me about me.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: When I think about the people who reach out to me, who have read the book, or you know people like you that I connect with.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: I might not have never connected with you prior, so it kind of helps.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: You form a tribe.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good Right.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: You form a tribe.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: You form a community.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: You are seeing people who are inspired to do amazing, amazing things far beyond what I have even accomplished.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: All because I kind of showed up and made myself visible, I was open, I was vulnerable with my journey.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's been awesome.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: So let's play the bold framework side by side for a second.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: So, when we think about our beliefs or what we believe, how does that help you be your authentic self and be yourself, which is your B?
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: So how do your beliefs fuel that, in your opinion?
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's the foundation and the anchor of how you really show up and how you can fully be yourself, right?
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: So for me personally, my belief also stems from, you know, my spiritual life, right, and I'm a Christian and it's like what do I believe about myself, right?
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: So I talk about thrusting without knowing what's the next step.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Some of that all feels from what I believe about myself from a spiritual side, and that then helps me show up as I am, right, I know that God has the best for me.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: So for me, a lot of that, right, a lot of things I believe stem from what God says about me, right, and how do I show up, be it to the folks in my organization or in my team.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: A lot of that stems from that.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Then also just personal beliefs, right.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: So I think you have to spend time understanding what you believe, what you say, what you speak about yourself, and those then become the anchors.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: That helps you find your way, or find your path through the mountaintop Great Yay, everybody loves you.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Season and the valleys, right, like the real hard times when you're, you know, just just walking through life.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because if you don't have, a strong belief.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: You're just going to be, you know when you're, you know, just just walking through life.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because if you don't have a strong belief, you're just going to be.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: You know you're going to go with the wind and you're going to go left right.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: So that's why I use the word anchor.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: So your belief definitely helps you stay true to yourself when you're just walking day to day in life?
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so when you're in your O phase of opening your mind and like really looking at your mindset, what does ownership have to do with that?
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: So in my framework, ownership is really owning the successes, owning the things that didn't work or your failures, owning that you're in charge of the next step of your life, that no one's coming to save you, right?
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of just a foundational piece of ownership.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I love the open your mind and it's also opening your mind to possibilities and those types of things.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: So tell me how those two can support one another ownership and opening your mind.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: So I love the word ownership and I think you know, no matter where you're at, whether you're you're just starting work, whether you're mid-career, whether you're in a leadership role, at each stage there's ownership ownership of your tasks, ownership of how you relate with people, ownership of how you tackle challenges.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: You have to want to own it, but you cannot own it Like if you can't even think in your mindset or allow yourself you know, open your mind to say I'm actually and all of this is in my care.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: I own this, I own my journey, I own how I'm going to solve for things here.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: I'm going to own my success and speak to it.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: If your mindset or the way, if you don't approach it as an opportunity, it's not going to work out right.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: It's always going to be it's somebody else's problem or it's somebody else's responsibility.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: So I think both of them again very similar.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: They go hand in hand.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Or you cannot have an ownership mentality if you're not even opening your mind to thinking that you are an owner, no matter what stage you're in in your career.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: And I think like if I use myself again as an example that first year of work and then, when the financial crisis hit, you know, I always say like I could have made a choice to just bury my head and just did the task that was assigned to me.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: But I felt like there was an opportunity right.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: I felt like I opened my mind to see an opportunity then.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: And that's taking ownership, right, like taking ownership of my path, taking ownership of wanting to learn more about this industry that I had to put myself in or had for the opportunity to have a job, and, it's safe to say, it kind of worked out for me.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: So what have you learned from lifting others and kind of that quadrant of your framework?
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: When you lift others, what?
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: happens?
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: What happens?
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, when I lift others, there is an expansion, there is a light bulb that goes off in the individual's mind, and what I mean by that is they really see their potential and they see the possibilities of what could be there for them.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: And I tie this back one to my nonprofit work that I do through she Builds Lives.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: We focus a lot on improving the quality of education for children living in disadvantaged communities in Nigeria and these children, right, partly have people who really and truly believe in them, invest in them, put in time, put in resources at length, that are involved in wanting them to have better lives.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: And for me, you know doing that, doing the work that we do through there, we have a student who went to elementary school Nobody in his family has ever gone to school who went to elementary school Nobody in his family has ever gone to school, nobody has done anything remotely, like you know, in the education space, and this kid is now in university.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: We've tracked his progress to university.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: That is giving them a chance when all the odds are stacked against them, by just staying consistent and having supported this child from elementary school through high school, now in college.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: So for me, doing that has opened a world of possibilities for this child.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Now, if we bring it to like my friends right, like, let's now go to those of us here supporting each other as we're navigating our career path, I see people begin to lean into themselves, really begin to see again that light bulb that they are in control, you know, of their own path, despite what season, right, I know, sometimes, again, there's a privilege to be able to say that, but there's something, even if it's a little, that you can change, you can tweak, you can do for others.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: That light bulb goes off in their heads and all the things that they've made you know, really big or magnified in their heads, because they spent so much time thinking in their heads like I can't do this, how am I going to take this exam, whatever it is, by the time they start voicing it out and talking with me, they realize like wait, I can actually take that one step.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: I could actually, like I could, actually it can actually become reality.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: And so for me, like that's how I feel, like lifting others and learning has impacted you know, people, people, I interact with myself.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: That light bulb moment is so beautiful to see and it's been an, a rewarding journey.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they realize that they can take that first step right they?
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: realize that they can do it.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, and in some little way, be it sharing my story or connecting a little bit one-on-one, being giving them that push, or being the chief encouragement officer like I like to call it right being that encouragement that they need to really believe in themselves, has been amazing.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: I like to say that the book is an igniter.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: It's not just a seed planter, but it's meant to like ignite something within you to action.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that, and then let's finish out with someone that needs a little boost of don't wait and just do it you know if we could just bottle that, but only if we'd be billionaires.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: So what advice or guidance would you give someone who just needs to do it, just needs to step into it and not wait?
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: I know it's scary.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: You know that's the first thing.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: I mean I think we said it in the beginning you feel all the fear.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: It feels scary, it feels foreign, new.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: But I say to whoever is struggling with acting on something that they want to see done, there is a better version of you on the other side, on that next step, there is a better version of you that needs to come out, that you need to encounter, that you personally need to meet.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: It is not about anybody else, it's not even about the thing that you want to see done, but that journey that you have to take, trusting yourself, building that muscle, is very, very critical to your development.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: If not, you're just going to be stagnant, right?
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: So I say, take a chance on yourself, bet on yourself.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Very quickly.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Maybe you learn what you do not like to do and start doing less of it.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or you know, you realize that you really enjoy solving whatever it is you want to solve, or leaning into this dream, or dancing, or spending more time with your children, or being.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: You know it could be a gamut of things that you're trying to see happen.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Just get out of your own way and do it and you will meet a better version of yourself on the other side.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: I love that's how we're ending.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the Bold Lounge.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: All the information about Build Boldly the book is below in episode notes, as well as how to connect with Bolonley and her incredible world, her 501c3, the things that she's doing to have an impact.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the Bold Lounge.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Bold Lounge podcast.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Through the continuum of bold stories vulnerability to taking a leap you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important story.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with a bold mindset.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with you.