For Jade Wolfe (pictured above), one important takeaway from the Global Leadership Summit was the importance of overcoming fears.
Wolfe – an agent with Keller Williams Realty Inc. in the Augusta area– attended the Summit for the first time at True North Church in North Augusta, which served as one of more than 500 host sites in the U.S. alone. She says she plans to return each year. “It’s not about not having fears, but facing our fears,” Wolfe states.
That message came from Michelle Poler – one of 16 speakers at the Global Leadership Summit on Aug. 5 and 6. Poler is an entrepreneur, speaker, and author who inadvertently created a social movement called Hello Fears, which was based on her project to do one thing that scared her every day for 100 days.
Those 100 things included holding a tarantula, riding a rollercoaster, quitting her job, and offering free hugs in New York City. “I wasn’t trying to inspire anyone,” she explains. “It was a personal project.” But once her story was posted on social media, she began to inspire people all over the world to face their own fears. While some talk about living fearlessly, Poler explains it’s impossible to eliminate fear completely. “Fear is our ally, but we must keep fear in its place,” says the Venezuelan native. She states it’s important to take risks and try new things despite our fears.
Jamie Kern Lima – co-founder and chief executive officer of IT Cosmetics – spoke about her experience of persevering in the face of constant rejection. Kern Lima was inspired to start her own cosmetics company when she was working as an anchorwoman at a news station in Portland. In the middle of a live broadcast, her producer told her she had something on her face. Kern Lima was living with rosacea – a skin condition that caused her to develop red patches all over her face, which she couldn’t hide with makeup. Kern Lima and her husband, Paulo, started their company in their living room with very little capital and began pitching their products to companies, including Sephora and QVC. The couple endured “three years of hundreds of no’s” and came close to bankruptcy, she explains.
Company executives often told her she wasn’t the right fit. After one particularly difficult rejection, Kern Lima made up her mind to persevere and continue pitching her products to companies. “I thought to myself, ‘He gave me a no, but He (God) gave me a knowing,” says the former Denny’s waitress. She finally landed the opportunity to film a 10-minute segment on QVC, but the deal was she had to sell 6,000 units of her concealer within those 10 minutes. Kern Lima was obviously very nervous, but she developed a strategy for success. Instead of using models with flawless skin, she used women of all ages with various skin types to demonstrate her product. Within just a few minutes on the air, Kern Lima was completely sold out. That was a turning point for the entrepreneur who suddenly began to succeed. “No one can tell you you’re not the right fit,” Kern Lima adds. In 2016, she and Paulo sold their company to L’Oreal for $1.2 billion.
Shola Richards – a Los Angeles-based author, speaker, and blogger – spoke about leading with civility. Richards told the story of working in a hostile company, where rudeness, hostility, and harassment were the norm. He eventually fell into a deep depression and attempted suicide on his way to work one morning by driving his car off an overpass. Luckily, the guardrail stopped him, but Richards continued to struggle. He says it’s important to lead others with civility. “You have to connect with your hire self,” not your higher self, Richards explains. In other words, treat your employees the way you treated those who interviewed you. He shared five key points for leading with civility: value their work; value their roles; value their time; value their skills; and value their humanity. Richards has witnessed countless examples of poor leadership throughout his career. “All bad behavior is an unskilled expression of an unmet need,” he explains.
