Talie Smith: 12:16
I mean, it always comes up. Yeah. And the difference is, that’s what I’m interested in right there. Actually, we have clients who come to us and they’re like, you don’t want to, I don’t know if you want to work with us because here’s what’s going on. I’m like, dude, that’s exactly what I want to work on. Yes. And they’re like, what? So, you know.
John Corcoran: 12:37
But how can a rebranding help them through it?
Talie Smith: 12:39
Because okay, so in a rebrand you’re actually going to revisit your values. You’re going to revisit your mission and vision statements. You’re going to think about your actual purpose for being. You’re going to have to do an audit of everything that’s being said or put out about the organization, and we’re going to analyze it, and we’re going to bring those truths. Now, when we bring all those truths and we see those rifts, what I find is, you know, most professional, you know, people in my position would just be like, yeah, you guys need to go deal with that.
They’ll just kind of push it back to the client, but they don’t deal with it. That’s the point. There’s no other opportunity for an organization unless they’re intentionally going in to do that. That’s going to force them into their hands. So to us, this is like the golden moment. And it’s therapy. And I’ve been in enough therapy. This is the thing to know how to go through the process of healing.
John Corcoran: 13:39
And so but are there times where you’ve unearthed something bigger than you can handle or that you’re, you’re able to handle and you’re like, like, sorry, like we’re trying to help you here, but you guys are gonna you are going to need to go out and, you know, get some therapists to help you through this.
Talie Smith: 14:00
The only time. No, I mean, look, think about it. Once you see the truth, you can’t unsee it. The unfolding happens no matter what. What we’re doing is we’re saying we’re going to. We’re going to leave space for everyone to sit around the table and look at this in a very empathetic, facilitated approach. What’s cool is that we don’t have to solve it, and actually they don’t need to solve it or fix it because it will. It naturally then has to be addressed. It will be addressed. What we do is we force.
We force a time bound time experience in order in which they have to address said. And I’ve just never I’ve never seen it not get resolved, to be very honest, because we are capable, people are more capable of coming to alignment than you, than anyone thinks. I think we’re just so afraid of conflict, and we’re so afraid of being seen that we’re. And then we’re also wanting so desperately to be seen. What we do is we help everyone be seen.
John Corcoran: 15:18
And I love the idea of it being time bound. Can you explore that a little bit more for me? Because I do believe that that sometimes is critical. You know, you hear about companies all the time. They’re like, we’re redesigning our website, but then they work with some company that just says, okay, well, come back to us when you have an idea what the vision is or something, or you’ve created the content for the about page or something, and it just stalls it for years and years to come.
So do you like do you do you structure your engagements with the clients where it’s like literally like, if we don’t resolve this within 90 days, 60 days, whatever it is. Then. Then we’re out. Or how do you handle that?
Talie Smith: 15:53
So we do extraordinarily meticulous planning and kind of what we call stakeholder mapping. Personality mapping. We plan and design our process of engagement with our clients in a super detailed way, in a much more empathetic and sort of people first way. So what we’re doing is we’re getting our kind of client partner at the beginning to say, tell us, tell us where those conflicts are going to come up. Like, I want to know personalities.
I want to know old tiffs. I want to know who’s going to be this, the person that’s going to upend this. And then what we do is we bring the process by which everybody’s involved. When we get to that point and there’s a deadline, that person or those people have already been in many different meetings with us or Workflows, where we’re able to then address it in the time bound. So, you know, think about it.
You have to have a time binding on. If we’re afraid with fear. Fear will get us every time. Fear will. Why do you think we’re all like that? Addicted to our phones, addicted to alcohol or whatever? It’s to avoid them. You know. Dealing with the reality of whatever it is. So we just create a container and process where that just happens pretty. Pretty naturally.
John Corcoran: 17:22
Yeah. Yeah. I’m curious, how do you know you like to work with, like, mission-driven organizations or nonprofits, stuff like that. How do you find some organizations where it’s maybe easy to make that determination, but is it hard sometimes for some companies to determine, is this the right company for us? Do they fit our values?
Talie Smith: 17:41
Like for you mean to work with us?
John Corcoran: 17:43
To work with them? Yeah. Work with. For you to work. Decide whether to work with a client. Right.
Talie Smith: 17:49
So, you know, we work with companies and lots of different types of organizations. I, honestly in the intake I, I test to see how open they are. Like I’m not really interested in working with a company that wants a vendor that’s just going to sort of.
John Corcoran: 18:08
I’m curious, what do you do? Like what do you do? I prod them, do you poke them? Do you ask a question that’s designed to try? How do you test them?
Talie Smith: 18:16
I ask, I basically look, if you don’t, you know, it’s funny, I feel it. You can feel energetically you can, we can feel. I’ve just gotten really good at reading people. I’ll ask enough questions about the culture, about why they’re doing this work. Do they have buy- in? I’ll talk about what the culture is like, how, and how do you like to work? What kind of a partnership do you look for? The answers to those questions and how they’re kind of. So if I’m with someone and they’re really closed and I can feel their energetic closing like there’s just a protective layer. I’ll, I’ll prod to see how much they’ll open. And if they don’t, I know that it’s probably not a fit for me.
John Corcoran: 19:04
Give me an example of the types of questions that you ask to figure out if you can open them up, so to speak.
Talie Smith: 19:12
I’ll ask what they’re afraid of. Or I’ll ask, what’s the worst thing that can happen in this project? What are your highest goals? What is the worst? And if they do.
John Corcoran: 19:31
Yeah, they’re honest. If they’re vulnerable I.
Talie Smith: 19:33
Like yeah.
John Corcoran: 19:34
That’s good. Yeah. If not, if they won’t won’t reveal it then you can kind of tell that they’re not comfortable.
Talie Smith: 19:38
Most of the time. Yeah. Most of the time people will take take that invitation and they’ll like start to feel relief that they get to talk about that, and I’ll start to feel them open and go, you know, I’m really I’m a little bit nervous about how how much how this organization is going to figure this out together. Yeah, yeah. And then I’ll be like, oh, let’s go there and then we’ll dig in. You know, I’m curious, like if it’s more like, oh, I want this done quick and cheap and right. It’s like.
John Corcoran: 20:11
Right, right. I’m curious how this ties into your own personal growth, your own leadership growth, as you’ve emerged as a leader in your company and beyond your company, because I’m, you know, I’ve, I’ve witnessed your leadership through entrepreneurs organization. Tell us a little bit about your journey in that area.
Talie Smith: 20:31
Well, funny you ask John. You know, my childhood. What I didn’t share was that. I had a tough time. I had a tough mother. Okay. And a lot of people have a tough parent. But she was mentally. Mentally ill. Undiagnosed, really. And she did. She did a number on me basically. And really what I mean by that is I really didn’t know who I was because she sort of usurped my identity and made, you know, made it seem as a kid that I had to kind of be available and answer and have the reactions and take care of her and set myself aside. So I really lost track of who I am throughout most of my life. And so my journey has been about learning to become myself and feel safe doing that, because it wasn’t safe for me to do that.
When I was a kid, it was really, really dangerous. She left me a lot. A lot of abandonment, meanness. And so the healing around that has coincided with me becoming a better leader as I’ve been able to learn who I really am, my identity. So you kind of see the parallel here. I own a branding firm. Right? I’m really good at helping others.
John Corcoran: 22:12
Others with their identity, who they are. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Talie Smith: 22:17
But the interesting thing in our journey at Smith & Connors was the early days. I hadn’t really healed. So I was not able to be of use and as good at my job as a leader, with my clients, with our teams, until I had really finally had the courage to face my self. And Covid really forced that hand. It kind of demolished our company and my own self-image.
And I thought we, you know, had failed. And it forced me to have to actually look and see what it is. And so I did a psychedelic journey in 2020 and really went in to look for who I am in there.
John Corcoran: 23:02
And how did that help?
Talie Smith: 23:04
Oh my God. Transformational. One session, one day.
John Corcoran: 23:09
It’s amazing.
Talie Smith: 23:11
Really really profound. How one, one journey like that could be as transformational as it was as it has been.
John Corcoran: 23:25
It just doesn’t surprise me. The part about you saying that, you know, I went into a profession where I helped others to define who they are because, you know, I see that so often that what people struggle with is what they end up working on or helping others with because they’re fascinated by it, right? It sounds like for you, your relationship with your mother explains a lot of that interest in helping others and unpacking the therapy, using therapy to help people unpack what’s beneath the surface.
Talie Smith: 24:04
Exactly. I think it’s more than a fascination. It’s like it becomes the thing we know best how to handle. Yeah, it becomes our vocation, right? Our core trauma, our core wounding becomes our vocation because it’s what we know, right? But it’s just interesting to see how that can be healing a lot of therapists, right? Yeah. Psychotherapists. Psychologists.
John Corcoran: 24:31
Yeah, yeah. And you have also talked a little bit about entrepreneurs organization because you’ve, you’ve used that also that has been helping you in your leadership journey.
Talie Smith: 24:43
Oh my gosh. I am such a fan of this organization. As you know, I, I can’t understate the role that EO has played in my healing journey as well as my leadership. Like I’ve catapulted. You know, I’ve been in the organization for five years.
The reason I love EO, one of the main reasons is we’re not we don’t show up to talk biz. You know, we show up and we meet at the heart level because that’s where the growth, that’s where the vulnerability and where we want to stay and live together, because that’s how we know we’re going to deal with those things under the surface. What do you think the forum is all about? You don’t go in there and talk about the top 95% of what’s happening in your life. We talk about the 5% or the 1%, meaning the most critical, the most difficult stuff is what we actually are bound in a constitution to talk about.
And so what you see is what I see is just I’m surrounded in a community of entrepreneurs who are literally every single day striving to get past their blocks and grow and help each other do that. It’s so incredible.
John Corcoran: 26:10
Yeah, I totally agree. This has been great. I really have enjoyed getting to know your backstory, your history, your career journey, all that kind of stuff. I’d love to wrap up with my gratitude question. So I’m a big fan of expressing gratitude, especially to those who helped you in your journey throughout your career, through your business, through your entrepreneurship, who would you want to acknowledge?
Talie Smith: 26:38
Well, I think it’s Darcy Cameron. There’s so many people to choose from, but Darcy Cameron is an EO at the time that I joined and she was in my forum, and she’s a dear friend. She’s probably 71 right now living alone in Dijon, France. In 2020, when I was falling apart and I had just joined EO. She was sort of this gentle but firm friend who kept holding the mirror up to me.
She would have me over at her apartment in Portland, make some beautiful tea, and sit me down. And. She would challenge my narratives and my belief systems, and she would hold a mirror up and say, is that really what you. What do you think? Is that really how you feel?
And it was a little bit of a new harness for me to, to kind of Have a almost like a mother figure, to be honest. Take me under her wing. But she really is a huge reason why I’m here today in this, in this much of my own power and compassion. So I just want to thank her for being my sister.
John Corcoran: 28:02
That’s great. I love that story. Thank you. Where can people go to learn more about you and follow up? Maybe connect with you if they have questions about branding?
Talie Smith: 28:12
Yeah. Well, check out our website. It’s smithandconnors.com and then I’m on LinkedIn is where you’ll find me. And Talie Smith is awesome.
John Corcoran: 28:24
Talie, thank you so much. Thank you.
Outro: 28:29
Thanks for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.