Business Innovators Radio - LaWanna Bradford, MPA – Mark Stephen Pooler – Dr. Rhonda M Wood

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Brilliance Business is thrilled to bring you an insightful conversation with award-winning strategist, acclaimed financial analyst, and best-selling author, LaWanna Bradford, MPA!Join us as LaWanna shares her expertise on embracing change, amplifying your impact, and creating a lasting legacy defined by purpose and excellence.🔗 Connect with LaWanna: https://linktr.ee/lawannabradfordSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/lawanna-bradford-mpa-mark-stephen-pooler-dr-rhonda-m-wood

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Welcome to Brilliant Business TV, conversations with leading experts in business. I am your host, Mark Stephen Pula. We have an incredible guest on the show today, Luana, Bradford, MPA, a really, really good friend of of mine, we've done lots of collaborations together. Like my co-hosts said, Dr. Rhonda M. Wood. She's a real powerhouse, so we're really looking forward to a conversation with Luana today. We are streaming live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube.

We're on the 360 TV network. We're on USA Global Radio and Television Network, Business Innovators Radio Network. network. We're also on MSPNewsglobal.com. We're also on Android, Fire, Roku, Apple, and many, many more platforms. That's such a meaningful. Dr. Rondo, welcome to our incredible show today. How is everything in your world? Everything is amazing. And let me tell you, Mark, I am so excited. We are definitely lucky and very honored to have our guest today. Like you said, she is. is a powerhouse. I mean, a true trailblazer, and I can't wait to jump in so that she can share all her wisdom.

Let's bring in our incredible guest, Luana Bradford. Luana, welcome to Brilliant Business TV. Thank you so much, Mark, Dr. Ronda, for having me. I'm excited to be here. Thanks again. Absolutely. The pleasure is all ours. Yeah.

So Luana, I know a little, I have a little bit of an advantage because I know a little bit of the greatness that you bring to the world already. I happen to know that you created this amazing R3 system. Refocus, reframe, reconnect. So can you share with our viewers and our listeners what exactly expired its creation and how it empowers on? entrepreneurs and leader to remain relevant during times of change. Thank you so much for asking that. So, yeah, you know, you and I go way back. So that is a passion of mine.

And it really helps you to not only sit in the times of change, but get grounded and focus. So when you think about strategic planning, for example, this is where I am, it's where I want to go. And then I come up with things to get there. Well, this takes it a little bit deeper. and it weaves in who you are holistically and how you sit within your environment. And how it came about was I realized that after challenge after challenge that I was facing, especially during the 2007-2008 mortgage crisis, that there was something going on that was allowing me to get a little more grounded and more focused.

In hindsight, coming out of that, I looked at it and realized that I was applying this R3 system, refocus, reframe, and reconnect. And from there, I just started to weave it into my strategic design, whether it was working with major corporations, government agencies, and now my passion is with small businesses. Because in an ever-changing world, the one thing that's constant is change, in order to survive, we have to know what's going on in our industry, how we fit in, how we show up, how we become the best viable option, and ultimately how to remain relevant. and these three components help you do just that.

Wow. Thank you so much for that amazing response. I know it was going to be juicy. Thank you. The Juana, share that once more, refocus, reframe and reconnect. And reconnect. I actually really like that, Luana.

I think you can use that in many ways. for mindset, refocus, refame, reconnect. I'm going to start using that one. I love that. Let's go on to your next question, Luana. In today's unpredictable economy, many business owners are afraid to take bold steps. Can you walk us through the three faces of fear you've identified and how the R3 system helps lead us to overcome them? Certainly. The one thing, and why I came up with the three faces of fears, I realized that when it's uncertain, there's an unknown, even though we may have confidence in who we are and how we show up, because we can't see beyond the veil, we can't see our next step. Sometimes we start to feel a little trepidation, and that may show up in different forms in our body, talk. And one of the things, as I call it, the first thing is denial. You're the ostrich. You're putting your head in the sand. I don't want to see it.

I don't want to hear it. I'm just hoping and believing that it'll go away. The other is petrification where you become literally frozen. You just can't move because you don't know what to do. And you think, well, if I don't move, maybe that's a good thing. But not, it's never a good thing to just stay permanently in place. And then the third thing is, I like to call it the CLS, the Chicken Little syndrome, where you are running frenetically around.

the sky is falling and it possibly is falling. But again, when you're in that crazed, manic, depressive, despondent state, you can never navigate the waves of change. And it's so important to realize that the waves are always going to be there, but you want to know how to identify the waves, ride the waves, or at least be in front of the wave. But the last thing you want to do is be overtaken by the wave. And the other part of the question you said was, well, how does the R3 fit in? Refocus, reframe, reconnect.

And the one thing is most people, in fact, I would say 99.9% of people, when I talk to them about the R3 system, believe that refocus is mindset. It's not. It has nothing to do with mindset. I kind of flipped it on its head because I believe that if we could get our mindset, in order, again, what's being taught, then people wouldn't be struggling as much. So I had to sit down and just really analyze what's really happening psychologically, you know, mentally, spiritually, physically, what's happening? Why are so many people still struggling, still on that hamster will and getting nowhere? And I realized that mindset is actually not the first thing. The first thing

is refocusing, which means being aware, having situational awareness of who you are, where you fit in the dynamics of change, how those changes impact you, what systems, processes, people are in place to help elevate you to where you want to go. Once you really are set on that, then the reframing comes in. And that's where Dr. Martin Luther King said, you are the architect and you need to design your own blueprint. So once you identify, okay, changes. happen, but this is what I have in my sphere of control. This is who I am. This is how I show up. Now I can redesign what my life blueprint, what my business blueprint is going to be like. And the brilliance in this is when you design it, you set the rules of the game. You decide which

players are going to be in the game. You realize that you don't compete with anyone but yourself. And if there's someone in there that doesn't line up with you, as Dr. George Frazier says, you bless and release them and you keep it moving. And then the third thing, is a refocus. That's the mindset piece. So once you have, again, identify the environment that you sit in and live in,

you've designed that framework that you are going to dominate and own, then comes a mindset piece of believing that now you can walk in excellence in the framework you design. So that's the art. So many words of wisdom there, I could talk about what you just said all day, but I think for me, awareness was really the thing that stood out.

Awareness is everything. I think you have to be aware before mindset comes into it because if you're aware, everything else follows that. So I think that was a great golden nugget. Over to you, Rhonda. Yeah, absolutely. I love how she talked about, well, I can design the blueprint. I can decide the players of the game. Like I think sometimes we can let a situation get, you know, take us away,

allow it, allow the situation to cause us to lose the focus or lose the control. And Luana system allows us to be able to take that power back. I love it. So Luana, I have another question for you. Yes. So you often say, feel the fear and do it anyway. I love that.

How does mindset fit into the R3 system? And what does it practically look like for someone who's navigating transition or uncertainty? Well, as I said, when you have change, which is constant, one of the things that follows behind change is always fear. If it's if it's a death, right? It's that unfamiliar door that you're about to walk through. If it's the loss of a spouse, the loss of a job, a loss of a partnership, a failing business, all of that causes uncertainty and you're wondering what's next. And it's okay to feel that. That means you're human. That means you've got a pulse. So you feel it. You lay into it and you're like, okay, now how do I rise and regain control of it so that it doesn't control me?

You should never be controlled by your feelings. Being led by your spirit, aligning with your mindset, dictates your actions. And so that's how the R3 will help you again. Understand, okay, this is very shaky and scary and I don't have a job or my husband just left me. That's reality. Okay. I'm feeling it. it doesn't feel comfortable.

Okay. What do I want my life to look like now that this change has happened? What do I want my business to look like? Start designing it. Start dreaming it. I like to call it strategic dreaming. And then you commit to saying, okay, I see it, but am I committed to win? Am I committed to step on this playing field?

And the hardest thing is to make that decision and do it because we, again, at self-talk or being or surrounded by negative thinking people can really trip us up in life. So again, when you have that awareness, pull back from those that don't compliment you, surround yourself with those who are elevating you. But first you've got to elevate and believe yourself because I believe that if you want the world to applaud you and you sideline yourself and you can't applaud yourself, why should anyone follow you or listen to you? So that's it in a nutshell. I can go on and on.

Luana, you shared some really big things here and I want to touch on that a little bit. So many times people are scared to feel their emotions or look at their fears and being fearful of their fears. And I don't like to call it fearing anymore because I think even the word fear, it's making it something. When you could just say it's a sensation, it's a sensation. but you are totally right. I think to overcome fears, you have to face them and allow them into the body and feel it into the body

and fear your emotions, knowing that they are just passing clouds because if you try to push them away and not face them and feel them, they grow stronger and it's really, really important. So I love that word, the way you explain. I think that's so, so important.

How have you seen the R3 system impact businesses or individuals going through a major pivot, whether that's due to economic shifts, loss of a job or changing market? Sure. I'll just speak to what we're facing right now here in the US. We have a new administration, and the goal is how do we make this nation a best? better nation. Well, because our nation is built on these amazing government entities that have been around for a long time, we all know that there are some inefficiencies that exist. We get that. But when you have rapid fire changes, it's very unsettling for everyone. Sometimes even the decision

makers. It can be unsettling. And so right now, and I'm going to focus just on the government entities right now. There is so much concern because we're looking at scaling down, whether it's the workforce, whether it's programs, and not knowing what the short and long-term ramifications of those changes, what they will be on the public that we serve. So when you're looking at the R3, it's saying, okay, the decision has been made. The executive orders have been written. It is what it is. you know, maybe we can appeal, maybe we can go through all the processes and get things overturned. But what can we do right now? Because sometimes that may take months or even years.

So right now it's saying, where are we? And if we have a reduced workforce, who are we still serving? Are our programs still viable? Because there's a dependency of the population we serve on what we offer, let's make sure we're strengthening that communication, allaying their fears and their concern, letting them know that they are still number one. And we're going to make sure that we provide the best possible service that we can in this environment. That's number one. But now we've got to reframe, right, because I've got maybe 20% less workforce. So how do I do that? How do I divide and have

an equitable workforce distribution so I don't create burnout frustration and a mass exodus is by remaining staff. How do I create a framework of how we do business when we're thinking about the future of work where it thinks about the person first holistically, where I understand that there is survivors guilt that's there for people who may still have their job if they feel guilty because their co-worker is no longer there. How do I deal with those mental concerns and just overall mental health issues with change? So again, make me sure I have systems. processes, experts, talents in place to help us in this new lane. And then the last thing is helping people to buy in.

So that's the reconnecting, buy into the new way of doing business, the new changes. And showing that they still matter. They're still relevant. And that we are still going to collectively be the United States of America. I got on a political soapbox for a second, but just had to see that. It's okay. Over to you, Rhonda. Yeah, absolutely.

So, Luana, I love how you don't encourage people to just kind of sit back and let's see what happens or stay in their mindset of the fear or the uncertainty. Oh, what's going to happen? Let's kind of let it play out. But you're like, no, again, you know, talking about you have power within you. What can we do right now? Right? What are some steps? So I can only imagine that our listeners and our viewers are like, man, I think she can totally help us. So for those individuals and organizations out there, for those listening today who are sort of, you know, hey, I'm ready. You know, I'm all in. I want to make that shift. How can they work with you, Luana, and take that first step toward transforming their business or, their personal brand? Well, the first thing is to make a decision that they do really want to see change

in effective change and reach out to us. We are consultants. We do have coaching integrated in what we do. But the reason why I stress consultants is I don't want you to depend on me. I want to teach you how to fish. I want you to put on your strategic lens, sharpen them, and understand how to read, have that situational awareness to read the trends that are happening, to maybe even be an innovator of trends within your industry, to understand the success leaves clues. So what giants are out there?

What are they doing? Giving the formulas for success. And what we first do, because I think it's important to understand, is we have a conversation. I don't pitch price. I don't pitch timeline because I first have to understand who you are and what are you struggling with and what you ultimately want to achieve. Then from there, as consultants, we customize, that's what I love about the R3. It is a customizable GPS system. So we help you customize your roadmap. We are part of your team, but you are leading the vision and the direction. We're just showing you how to have a stronger line of sight to do that.

And depending on how long or how complex it is, it is priced accordingly. we do have some individuals who prefer like a group scenario. And in that lane, that's where we have like more of a coaching where we go over principles and constructs. But then you go back, you do some of the work, we come back as a group and sort of unpackaged things. But the consulting pieces for those who want you move fast and build momentum fast. And it's for individuals, both of these are for individuals that have been in business at least three to five years. because they understand change. If you're a new business,

they're just a new business. We're all been there. You're just getting started. You know, you haven't felt a lot of bumps and bruises. But this is designed for people who are navigating change and needing to do so where they are able to remain relevant, solvent, and that they can see themselves in the future. So that's how they can connect with us either.

Wow. a group coaching component or I like the individual consulting with the organizations. I would encourage everyone to go to Luana Bradford.com. That's Luana Bradford.com. And she's also on all social media under the same name as well, Luana Bradford. So do go to Luana Bradford. dot com. You were so right, Dr. Rhonda. She is a perouse. 100%.

Thank you. Luana, thank you so much for being our guest today. I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you. Thank you. This has been great. It's been our pleasure. Thank you, everyone, for joining us for brilliance. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. Feathing leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at business innovators.com today.