Latest / The Scene Projects / Empowering Leadership: Insights with Susan K. Younger on Growth, Confidence, and Influence

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Empowering Leadership: Insights with Susan K. Younger on Growth, Confidence, and Influence · The Scene Projects

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  Well, hello, and welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I am joined by Susan k Younger.
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  She is a relationship architect, but she is also the c suite network thought council
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  leader, and I'm so happy to have you on the show today, Susan.
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  Welcome.
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  Thank you.
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  And I'm not the leader.
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  I'm just one of the thought leaders.
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  I, in no way, want to profess to any seniority or brilliance over others.
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  It's just an incredible group of of really fun and yet thoughtful, provocative thinkers to be
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  associated with.
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  Yes.
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  Well, I'm glad I introduced you that way so that you could elaborate further on exactly
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  what the c suite network is really about.
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  Obviously, I I am a member as well.
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  A lot of our listeners have heard me speak about it on the podcast.
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  But since you are one of our, thought council leaders, as well as sharing about yourself and
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  your, you know, business.
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  I really wanna get into a little bit more of what the C Suite network is and a lot of these
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  things.
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  So let's start with, you can kinda just tell us a little bit of your backstory and your
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  company, and then we'll talk more about C Suite later.
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  So I am an independent consultant, and my background is architecture.
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  I grew up in Mason City, Iowa area.
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  And, those of you because I know you work with music, Meredith Wilson is that's the birthplace
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  where he's from.
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  So the city is very musically inclined.
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  My family is I was a bandleader, you know, the one who was the marching band, with the big
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  tall hat, knocking myself in the in the head with the baton because I'd forget after
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  practicing without a hat that you've got a two and a half foot hat on top of you.
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  And the reason I was doing that is my mom recognized early for me that I was shy, tall,
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  smart, and it would be mistaken to be arrogant, stuck up, and unfriendly.
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  And she says, honey, you're gonna have to learn to reach out to them.
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  And being shy, that was really hard.
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  So doing something like leading the band was a way to get involved in leadership without
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  having to say a lot, without having to do a lot, and to just be around a group of people
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  that were really accepting.
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  I also had the, audacity to say I wanted to be in architecture from the time I was a young
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  girl.
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  And when I was growing up, that wasn't very typical of women to want to do.
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  But Iowa State had a fabulous program in architecture, and I got to graduate from there
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  with a degree in architecture.
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  And I was actually said by one guy, are you here for an MRS degree?
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  And I, had to stop and think what does that spell.
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  In other words, he thought I was looking for a husband there, which was not the case.
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  So, anyway, from there, I worked for an architectural firm in Mason City, Iowa for a
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  number of years and eventually ended up in Dallas, Texas working for a firm building
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  department stores, moved on to be the director of a store planning division for a department
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  store through the whole retail crazies of the eighties, nineties.
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  And as things were going slightly, awry, the company I worked for went through bankruptcy,
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  and I was laid off.
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  I came back to Dallas to work for the same firm I had worked for before I got to Arizona doing
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  that.
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  So I've had this whole, experience of solopreneur, small business, larger business
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  serving corporations, inside corporations, outside corporations, consulting with them.
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  And ten years ago, I was introduced to Bankcode, which is a personality profile that
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  identifies a buy in.
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  It was said to be a sales tool, but immediately, I heard, no.
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  This is how you unlock seeing somebody for who they are.
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  And so as you know, at this point, I'm trying to launch a a new thought called
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  humanitarianism.
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  When we understand who we are and we embrace others and understand who they are, we can help
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  the world to, take care of issues as they are at the moment instead of waiting till we get to
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  con catastrophes that require a huge humanitarian effort.
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  So how's that for a lifetime wrapped up in a couple of minutes?
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  A wild woman here, honey.
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  I I love it, Susan.
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  And I have been introduced to you, like I mentioned, through the c suite network, and
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  I've seen you deliver the these presentations.
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  Right?
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  And I I've seen you as this leader, but most people aren't born leaders and neither were
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  you.
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  Right?
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  No.
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  And that's what I think is important for, especially our young, listeners to remember
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  that you have to go through some steps to feel confident inside of you to become a leader.
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  Susan, I'm on my own journey to becoming a a finally accepting my role as a thought leader,
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  especially in the music industry.
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  Not that I'm reaching out to, you know, the national level, but in our local community and
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  in some of the organizations that I'm a part of, I've realized that I have a lot more
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  experience in this industry than a lot of other people do.
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  I've been on stage since I was 13 years old.
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  That gives me a quarter century of experience.
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  That's quite a bit.
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  I think I qualify for a PhD in my field of study.
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  And and I think that's great to be able to go you went to the school of hard knocks and life,
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  and the school of life can teach you something that sometimes somebody with a a graduate
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  degree never got because it's all theoretical, and you've really experienced it.
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  Bravo for you.
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  Thank you.
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  Well and and something that it also gives you, it gives you the confidence.
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  I know who I am.
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  So when you talk about humanitarianism, that just resonates with me so much, and that's
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  really how the book that I'm writing inspired by our c suite founder, Jeffrey Hazlett, to
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  write a book called Building the Scene.
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  And what Building the Scene is more about is about building you first.
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  Before you can go out and deliver a message through a podcast or a song or any of these
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  things, you have to be very comfortable with who you are Yeah.
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  And what you want to deliver.
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  What is your message?
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  And I think that as so many are turning to podcasts now for whatever reason, whether it's
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  lead generation or to be an authority in your field, whatever the reason is, if you come at
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  it from the wrong angle, it's never going to land the way that you want it to.
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  And, that's kind of my mission now.
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  I didn't know this a year ago when I took up podcasting full time, but now seeing that
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  vision and having a a 10,000 foot view of things has kinda always been a superpower of
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  mine.
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  Maybe not while I was trapped in the throes of addiction and things like that, which I've gone
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  through in my life as well.
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  And maybe we can have you back on for another episode to get more into my life, but, my
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  listeners know my journey, and they know where I've come from.
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  And it's for me, it's been accepting this role, realizing that, as the kids say, I'm an OG now.
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  Right?
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  I I am one of these people that our younger people are going to look to.
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  I'll turn 39 this year.
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  That's not a young man anymore.
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  Although I feel
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  Trust me, honey.
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  It's a young man.
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  You can you can call it a young man.
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  I turned sir I the I'm 72 already.
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  You don't look a day over 50, Susan.
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  You look great.
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  Thank you, doll.
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  Thank you.
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  And I think part of it is keeping in mind that life can be what you make it to be.
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  And and you take those experience that didn't necessarily deliver the expectation you hoped
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  for, but you transition that into what can you build from there.
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  And when you look at it from what can you build from there, how can you take the skills and
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  gifts you have?
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  And as you're doing with music and with podcasting, build a life that is completely
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  unexpected, completely open to new experiences that take you places you would have never
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  dreamed of going.
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  And that's the big, big part of when you look at people who are frequently feeling that life
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  is passing them by, sometimes when you can help them to see things in themselves that they
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  cannot see, all of a sudden, can dream things they thought they never could.
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  I I was having a conversation last night with a friend of ours who's also in the Midwest in a
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  small town, and, she was telling me, oh oh, the stuff you taught me three years ago, I've been
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  implementing in my life, and I'm having success that I never expected.
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  I'm impacting people who others have passed by because they looked at him and saw what they
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  thought were either faults or limitations.
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  And I looked at him as, how do I take this aspect of them and let them shine with that
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  part of themselves so that they grow, and they're having success too.
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  Some of these are youth that people were dismissing, and now these people are going
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  they're turning into great leaders.
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  I have great hope that the things that you are doing, the things I want to do, we can share
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  the younger generations information that helps them to unlock their dreams instead of closing
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  themselves down.
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  And that is a lot of what my mission has become.
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  I like to set lofty goals, so I set out, in the last few months to say that we're gonna start a
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  million podcasters on their journey.
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  And if we only get halfway there, well, then I think we've done quite a bit of good in the
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  world.
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  I say this is how God is healing our world.
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  This is how God is healing me.
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  I'm sharing my story and giving my testimony every single day on these Zoom calls and in
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  person.
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  And seven years ago, I was delivering my testimony one to one with men in prisons
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  because I was also there.
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  I was in a prison cell.
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  I'm like, not that I was delivering these speeches to men that were there.
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  I was on their level.
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  Right?
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  I had been a drug dealer in a past life.
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  I spent a year in Mexico on the run, and I had to start making better choices because that
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  wasn't the life that I was meant to live.
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  And and I now know without a shadow of a doubt, Susan, that this life right now, this is the
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  life that I was meant to live.
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  I was meant to be a lighthouse for not necessarily my generation or the generation
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  before me, but for the seven generations after and the seven generations after that.
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  And that has become a a driving force behind every single decision that I make in my life
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  now.
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  And I want to, continue to do that, and we do that through things like the c suite network.
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  And being a thought council leader, I hope, is something that I see in my future as well.
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  I know that you just hosted an event this last weekend.
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  I sent my friend, Ali Porter, who is a brand new friend of mine.
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  She is in the AI field.
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  And, I said, hey, girl, you're in Dallas.
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  I know that you've never heard of this company before and you've never heard of us, but I
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  really want you to go and to go to this and to see what the lead her ship council is really
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  all about.
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  And I think she had the most beautiful day with you ladies.
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  It was a great day in Dallas, and I know that Allie was there and really presented herself
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  well, and and people are excited about what she's doing.
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  Yes.
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  And we're great grateful to have you introduce people.
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  And what's beautiful is we don't all have to be in the same physical neighborhood to create
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  community.
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  And I think that's the thing that, you know, we can look at a lot of people who go, I live
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  someplace where there's nobody next door that I can talk to.
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  But, boy, with the links we have on things like Zooms or telephones, you know, we can find
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  those communities that really support us.
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  That that that's my story.
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  Right?
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  Was very fortunate to see Jeffrey deliver a keynote at the Impact Business Summit in Sioux
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  Falls, South Dakota.
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  I wanna shout out that company because they actually the founders of that event, gave me
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  two free tickets to come and experience this.
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  Wow.
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  And it absolutely changed my life.
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  It absolutely changed my life.
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  I was never even considering writing a book or speaking on stage or any of these things.
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  I didn't know I was a leader.
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  I did not know that I was a leader and authority, we like to call it, in in the
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  business in my field, that I could be a thought leader and to start to guide other people along
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  this path and to bring them with me.
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  And, Susan, I've always been someone that when I see you walking behind me at the bank or the
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  grocery store, I don't care if you're a hundred yards away.
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  I'm gonna stand there and hold the door, and I'm gonna greet you as if I owned the building.
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  Yeah.
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  Welcoming welcoming them to your home or allowing them out the door of your home.
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  You know, it's the treating people in a respectful way, and sometimes it's not the way
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  we want to be treated, but the way we we see they are looking to be acknowledged and treated
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  in a in a in a in a manner that is a custom for them.
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  You know?
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  I I've had many experiences where just saying hi to someone, you can see it brighten their
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  face.
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  Or to ask somebody, are you doing it this way because you think you're expected to or because
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  you really want to?
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  And for them to recognize that we can see they are doing it out of respect for what they think
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  is being expected of them on a daily basis, and it may not be creating the the thriving idea
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  for them, but it's sustaining them.
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  And when we can help them to see that gap between sustaining and thriving and the way
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  that they can step into that uncomfortable zone to reach for that thriving.
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  You can see them lighten up and brighten up like, oh, I can have that dream.
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  I can have that next step.
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  It may be hard, but it's something I can do.
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  And and as they do that, it it it makes the world a better place.
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  Incredible.
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  Well, Susan, I gotta get you out of here because in my podcast world, I like to cram
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  them in and and get you out
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  I love that.
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  And not waste your time.
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  We are not Joe Rogan here at the Scene Projects, but I would love to have you, back
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  on.
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  We have some other programs.
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  I have one called the Get Better Together Project, and it's more long form conversations
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  and really digging into the weeds of our life story, and I would absolutely love to have you
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  back on that program.
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  I'd also like to
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  with you.
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  I I would also like to shout out, the Cyclones.
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  I have a lot of lot of hawks in my in my community, but not a lot of cyclones.
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  So Well, you got a cyclone right here, baby.
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  There you go.
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  I had one of the best nights of my life in Ames, Iowa hanging out with some friends of
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  mine watching a a Grateful Dead spin off.
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  It was named Further, but that was as close that I had gotten to some people that I had
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  spent my entire life, consuming their music and and the way that it changed my life.
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  So Ames, Iowa will always have a very special place in my heart even though I only spent
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  about twelve hours there.
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  No.
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  It's a great it's a great college university.
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  I had a wonderful time, and that's another whole story in itself.
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  And that's why we gotta have you back, Susan.
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  Thank you so much for being part of the scene.
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  Thank you.
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  Thank you.