High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 256: How to be a Quick-Change Artist with Hall of Fame Speaker, Kit Welchlin

Episode Date: June 8, 2019

A born public speaker and trainer, Kit Welchlin began public speaking at the age of 9 in 4-H. By 16, he was organizing and facilitating presentations on leadership, citizenship, community service and motivation for the 4-H and Future Farmers of America. Kit Welchlin purchased his first manufacturing company at age 21, and by 26 was CEO and Chairman of the Board of three manufacturing companies in three states. He’s been an instructor with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, where he has been repeatedly nominated Outstanding Faculty. He is a Professional Member of the National Speakers Association. Kit has a B.S. Degree in Speech Communication, Business Administration and Political Science. He earned an M.A. Degree in Speech Communication and Business Administration. In 2014, Kit was inducted into the Minnesota Speakers Association Hall of Fame. He has delivered more than 3,000 speeches and seminars to more than 500,000 people over the past 26 years. In this podcast, Kit and Cindra talk about: · How to be a quick-change artist · 3 key drivers of change · How emotional intelligence relates to change · 6 mistakes that impact your ability to change · The 5 components of emotional intelligence

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset. This is Dr. Sindra Kampoff, your host here, certified mental performance consultant, speaker, and author. And the goal of these interviews each week is to learn from the world's best. Leaders, athletes, coaches, speakers, consultants, all about the topic of mindset to help us reach our potential or be high performers in whatever we do. And in today's episode, we're going to hear

from Kit Welchlin. Now, Kit Welchlin is a Hall of Fame speaker. He is a born public speaker and trainer, and Kit began public speaking at the age of nine in 4-H. By 16, he was organizing and facilitating presentations on leadership, citizenship, community service, and motivation for the 4-H and future farmers of America. Kit purchased his first manufacturing company at the age of 21, and by 26, he was CEO and chairman of the board of three manufacturing companies in three states. He's been an instructor with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, where he's been repeatedly named Outstanding Faculty. He's also a professional member of the National Speakers Association. Kidd has a BS degree in Speech Communication, Business Administration, and

Political Science. He also has a master's degree in speech communication and business administration. So in 2014, Kit was inducted into the Minnesota Speakers Hall of Fame. And that's how I know Kit. He has delivered more than 3,000 speeches and seminars to more than a half a million people over 26 years of speaking. This is really an impressive career. And Kit and I talk about a lot of different things, including how he got involved in the speaking profession. We also talk about some of his content that he regularly delivers in his speeches. We talk about how to be a quick change artist, three key drivers of change, how our emotional intelligence relates to change, six mistakes that can impact

our ability to change, and the five components of emotional intelligence. Now, I know you're going to enjoy this interview. If you'd like to learn more about Kit and find the full show notes and description of the podcast today, you can head over to syndracampoff.com slash kit. And Kit and I also would love to hear from you. We're both on Twitter. Kit is at Kit Welchlin and I am at mentally underscore strong. All right, let's bring on the one and only Kit Welchlin.

Welcome to the podcast, Kit. I'm so pumped to have you here and to talk with you today. So how's your morning going? Oh, it's going great. It's nice to be invited and nice to see you and talk with you today. Yes, you've been on my list for a while to interview, so I'm really excited to talk with you. And I've heard you speak several times, so I'm just looking forward to talking to you more about your passion and sharing with the listeners a little bit more about what you do. And so why don't you start us off and tell us a little bit about your passion and what you're doing right

now? Well, when it comes to the speaking business, it was really not my passion originally. I'd always been a real estate investor, but I needed a real job to be able to buy real estate. And the public speaking business gave me the opportunity of having a real job with the flexibility of being able to still search for and acquire property. But over the last 20, this is my 28th year, making my living as a professional speaker, it seems like now it and the real estate market's kind of crazy right now. But the public speaking has become more of my passion, I guess, than it ever has and probably has eclipsed what I look forward to. Probably one of the things that changed that

dynamic was my, one of my real estate investment partners about four years ago had a brain hemorrhage and passed away. And then I, you know, needed to negotiate and buy out the interest he had in the properties that we owned together with his widow, which is always kind of tough. But we used to have so much fun doing it. And after he passed away, it just wasn't quite as much fun. And the speaking business has always been fun. You go to great places and stay in lovely hotels and people are happy to see you. And, you know, you're treated very well. And it's just a wonderful way to make a living.

28 years. That's phenomenal. So I know you're in the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame in Minnesota. So and you have some other awards there. So that's awesome. Tell us a little bit about how you got to where you are now. So 28 years of professional speaking. Tell us a little bit about your journey to get there. Yeah, it started long before that. I was the youngest of four sons, grew up on a hog and dairy farm in southern Minnesota and rarely got a chance to talk. But in 4-H, I could get up in front of a club once a month and give a demonstration speech. So at age nine, I actually began public speaking and really haven't stopped since. Then I was in

high school in the speech team and the drama club. And then when I went to Mankato State, I was on the forensics team, the speech team. And then my mentor, who was a professor at Mankato State, when he left teaching to speak full-time, I always had that in the back of my mind that that would be something that would be exciting and fun to do. But I left college early and went into manufacturing for seven years and bought a little manufacturing company that grew to three companies. But during those seven years, we used to take staff to Dale Carnegie, Skill Path and Career Track seminars and workshops. And we always found that we could go there for a few hours and learn information we could

apply for a few years. And when I decided to get out of manufacturing, I also considered how people from the outside that were sharing ideas very similar to the ideas I had in the inside of the organization sometimes seemed to have greater impact because people thought they were being completely objective and they didn't really have, you know, any interest other than providing information that would help that organization succeed. So it seemed like the speaking business kept me connected to industry and it gave me the flexibility to continue to purchase real estate. And so I went back to school, finished my undergraduate degree, then stayed one year, more year at Mankato State, picked up my master's degree and then started speaking for

a living back in 1991. So I've delivered probably somewhere in the neighborhood of, I don't know, 3,500, maybe 3,600 presentations over the last 28 years. Phenomenal. So how do you keep it exciting and interesting just doing it for that long? Well, originally, I thought I was only going to have about five topics, which were really the pillars of my master's thesis, which was on how family businesses could use negotiation skills to make professional decisions, but protect their personal relationships. So under that umbrella, there was some stress management, there was some negotiation skills, there was some conflict resolution, some interpersonal communication. And I had these five little seminars that I created out of those pillars that I offered

publicly through community colleges and technical colleges. So from 1991 to 1995, I did a lot of public seminars that I would split the fees with the community and technical colleges. But because they were public seminars, I had a wide variety of audience members. So sometimes you would have in a public seminar, someone that was maybe an administrator for a hospital, sitting next to a contractor, sitting next to someone that was an accountant. And by having a wide variety of audience members, it led to spinoff work or getting hired in a wide variety of industries. So when I did the paperwork a couple of years ago to complete my certification

for the CSP, the Certified Speaking Professional, for the National Speakers Association, I went back and took a look at all the different industries I had worked in in those five years that you keep track of for that designation. And there are 27 industries that I had worked in a significant number of times in those five years. So that keeps it fresh. Also, I've been kind of spoiled since 1995. More than 90% of my work has been referral and repeat business. So when you have clients that hire you over and over again, you can't always have the same old material.

So I always have to continue my research and always find new information that would help them get to the next step. And I guess it's really my clients kind of pulling me into those topics. But I have the luxury that i only speak on topics that i'm interested in so the research really isn't a drag it's something that i always i already have an interest in but i i think it's i think it's a little bit tough though when you're you continue to study information that you already know quite a bit about. So you spend much of your time when you're continuing the research, oh yeah, I read that, or I remember that, or yep, yep, yep, you know, and

then you're constantly looking for that next nugget that's kind of that last key to unlock what, you know, the potential could be. Yeah, that's awesome. So tell us a little bit about what you've been speaking on lately. Well, lately I've been giving a number of presentations on change, how to become a quick change artist, how to get yourself through change, how to get your organization through change, and how to get everybody else that you need with you through it in one piece. And then emotional intelligence, and I sometimes call that applying emotional intelligence. And I sometimes call that applying emotional intelligence for career success, which isn't really a topic I ever planned on speaking on, but I had a client that's kind of a technology company that I was giving presentations at their company on

persuading and influencing others. And my contact went to lunch with me and says, do you speak on emotional intelligence? And I said, no, I've read quite a bit about it, but I don't speak on that. And she said, well, we had someone here a couple of weeks ago that gave a presentation on that topic and it was interesting, but we really had no idea of how to apply it. So how long does it take you to put together a four-hour seminar on a topic? And I said, well, it usually takes about six months. And she said, well, this is April. What dates do you have available in October? So I put together that presentation on emotional intelligence. And I don't know if it's just because of the end of the year or what, but in December, it was six of the eight presentations I delivered in December was

that topic. Oh, wow. Yeah. And it seems to be the topic that I present, you know, that I have kind of a top four. Emotional intelligence has really become quite popular. The change has always been popular for about 20 years. I always have a great success with a little presentation called Stress, Time, and Procrastination Management, which kind of relates to those two topics too. And then the other topic that I deliver quite often is handling difficult people, dealing with people you can't stand. And that kind of flows with that too, because when people are going through change, they're struggling with the loss, they're, you know, they're doing a lot of self-awareness and

their emotions are kind of raw. And so the emotional intelligence comes into play and then the stress of it, of trying to figure out what's bugging me, and then the time management of focusing on the right activities. And so when people are under that much stress and pressure, they get a little touchy and become a little difficult. So those four topics kind of have a similar theme that runs through them that the key really is to be patient and respond rather than react. Not take it personally because it's probably not personal, even though it feels like it, but you probably haven't been singled out. You know, it's probably issues that are much larger than ourselves,

whether it's an industry is making the change or the technology is changing or just new information is causing people to have to modify their behavior. Excellent. I like that. Responding, not reacting. And don't take it personally because it's not personal. So let's jump into one of those, Kit, and let's talk a little bit about change. And why would you say, you know, why is that one of your most popular topics right now? Like, is there anything about, when I think about change, I think, oh, it's just rapidly changing with technology or other areas, but is there anything in your opinion, why change now? You know, there was a book I read a few years ago that said the accelerated pace of change in a person's lifetime is now 50 times faster than it was 75 or 80 years ago. And I think about my mom and dad. My dad's 93. My mom's 87. They're still out on the farm. They're

still farming. Just how much change has occurred in their lifetime. But there's usually three key drivers of change, technology, information, and people. and they claim more technology has been developed in the last 30 years, in the, you know, previous 5,000 years, you know, so there's an accelerated pace of change at that combination of technology, which then gives us more information, and people have more information, of course, it'll create more change, and so some of those forces are beyond our control. So I always talk about a difference between change and transition is physical changes. It can sometimes be quick overnight, you know, whether it's a competitor on the other side of the world that creates a product very similar to yours,

or it's a new technology that disrupts the current process that you follow. And the change is external, but the transition is internal. It's very personal. It's affecting my job. It's affecting my reputation. It's affecting my career. It's hard not to take it personally because it's kind of a criticism of the way I've been doing things, even though I was doing it the method that was working. So, you know, there's a lot that goes on in a, in a person's mind of hesitations and reservations and concerns and under the breath comments. And that self-talk is so powerful. You can either talk yourself into confidence that things are going to go well

and you'll be able to regain your competence or that little mind game where you start to second guess just how skilled am I? Just how capable am I? Am I going to be able to catch on quickly enough? And so that's why, you know, if a person can really recognize the emotion and the thought that's triggering it, they can probably get through the change and transition easier than other people. But sometimes people don't realize there's a two-step process. And the problem with change is it usually starts with an ending. Yesterday when I came to work, I was completely competent and completely confident. And now that's being called into question, whether it's because

of technology or a change in a process or a procedure and and so you kind of have to deal with the loss it's kind of a grief in a way that we feel and then at some you know we can't go back to the old way we used to do it we're struggling with learning the new way of doing it so it's it's kind of like wringing your hand it's kind of like nighttime between yesterday and tomorrow and people are really really under quite a bit of stress. But often with change, there's a certain date or certain time where we have to launch a new beginning and actually take action. That, you know, June 15th, we're going to be doing it the new way and no longer the old way and kind of all in, you know. And that's always kind of a gamble because there's kind of triggers, past failures. And so it causes people to feel that stress again that maybe this won't work. But there's always a gamble when we try something new.

But the key really in kind of the fourth module of it is throughout those first three steps, you got to take care of yourself. So I always recommend to people, you got to go back to what you used to do before you took this job. You know, what recreational activities, what relationships, what hobbies did you got to go back to what you used to do before you took this job. You know, what recreational activities, what relationships, what hobbies did you use to enjoy that kind of got put off to the side when you took this career move or when you joined that organization? So I mentioned to my audiences,

when I'm going through tremendous change or setbacks, I always go back and track down my old, old friends, the kids I met when I went from country school to town school in third grade, the, I guess, innate personality or those formative years and connect with those relationships, activities, and hobbies that kind of restore yourself to get back to a foundation that's solid because everything is in flux. People really struggle with that. So, Kit, I like what you said with all of that. I'm wondering if you could add a little bit more about like, okay, what you said about when you're going through change is that the first step is to recognize the emotion and then the triggers, you know, so to help you get through change. Tell us about that.

You know, what kind of insight would you give on like, how do we do that? And what do you see generally people's reaction to change and why, you know, recognizing your emotions is actually pretty difficult. Yeah. You know, in that presentation, I talk about understanding our emotions so we can respond appropriately. And so I always, I draw a picture of a funnel and all information simply comes through our senses. So as much information as we can get in the funnel, the better. So it's what people say, it's what people do. It's all that information. So all information comes through our senses. It's what we see, it's what we hear. The second step is the interpretation where we say, why would a person do this? Why would a person say this? What does

this information mean? Based upon that interpretation, which is intellectual, what immediately follows is a feeling. We have this emotional reaction to it. But if we can change the interpretation, it can change the feeling. So if we go back to the beginning, so all information comes through our senses. It's our interpretations that are intellectual that create our feelings, which are emotional. But then it kind of limits our options in what we would say, what we would do when we feel like that. But the last step is we have to express our best option with take action. So it's pretty critical to be able to do some perception checking with yourself. So when things happen, change your interpretation, whether it's my fault or if it's out of my control or, you know, that internal conversation about, you know, how much of a role did I play?

Or is this just something that is happening in every industry or to everybody in this particular field or whatever it might be. But if you change the interpretation that changes the feelings, which gives you a different menu of options for you to take action. So even in conversations, when we talk about emotional intelligence, once we are,-aware of our own thoughts and feelings and where they come from, past experiences and others' images of you or your own image of yourself, then self-regulation is you can understand your emotions and respond appropriately because you know that how you express your emotions has such an impact on other people, positively or negatively? And then to be able to empathize that you're not the only one going through the change. There's loss and change for everyone. So empathy is pretty important that we perception check.

And I call it, yeah, perception check. When people say things and we assume we understand, we should probably assume we don't understand because it's their loss. It's their concern. It's their career. It's their fear. So I always suggest to people that when you're having a conversation, when somebody says something, to always be self-aware that maybe I don't quite understand clearly or exactly what they're saying. So you say, no, when you said this, does that mean that you're uncomfortable with the change? Or does that mean that you're worried that this change might not work out or what's going on? So you open up the menu for them of possibilities of what options they may have available to them. So if people are so tunnel focused, taking it personally, that perception checking of being a good listener

and helping them to create a bigger menu of options is extremely valuable. It really starts to relieve the pressure and we change the thoughts, it changes the feelings and the actions people will take. And so, Kit, when you think about leading companies or, you know, organizations through change, what do you think is kind of the best practices on dealing with change? Sharing information as quickly as you can. Information is really kind of nourishment for the organization. Not sharing information creates suspicion and the rumors are always worse than the truth. But when you share information freely and seamlessly, it seems to provide comfort. It's kind of the organization's fuel for being able to take action instead of people

balking or digging in their heels because of concern. I think just sharing information freely as often as you can. And I think back and I share in my presentations when I own manufacturing companies that, yeah, there's a lot of things I would have done differently if I would have known, you know, if I could go back in time. So, you know, there's mistakes that you make because of ignorance. And, you know, most people aren't as confident with their ignorance as I am. So I freely share the mistakes I've made or if I could go back in time, what I would say or do differently. And for my audiences, it gives them comfort that, you know, not knowing, you know, may or may not have been your fault. You know, the information may not have been available at that time.

I think back to how much I've learned over the last 30 years. I'm kind of surprised that I had the kind of a goal to start speaking for a living when I look back and it seems like I knew so little. And so can you give us an example or two of a time where, you know, maybe it was difficult for you to lead somebody through change or give an example, give us an example, Kit, of a time that you, you know, failed and what you learned from it.

Yeah, it seems like almost every entrepreneurial initiative I've taken or, you know, I guess I have a, I have a high tolerance for risk. And so with, with risk, there's reward,

but with risk also, you know, the, you know, there's the opportunity for failure. So I got into manufacturing. I was highly leveraged. I was quite young. I was the youngest employee and $450,000 in debt. But I relied on my staff that were more skilled and had more experience and you know we grew I had a kind of an aggressive plan of five companies and in five states in 10 years and we had three companies and three states in six years right on

schedule but it was the wrong plan okay it wasn't well thought out there are a lot of environmental laws that changed in that industry that made the overhead extremely heavy. And when I look back at the couple of employees that were working real hard to be in the right position to open up the next two plants, because we were right on schedule and I could have handled how we made that transition differently, but I was in a hurry, always was when I was young. And so one company out of state, we sold to a good competitor, one company out of state, we sold to our biggest customer. And then the company I originally bought, I retired my shares and moved on. So having a plan without being willing to modify it was a big mistake.

You know, and those plants ran for a few years after I left. So it wasn't that the industry was, you know, changing to the point that it was obsolete. It was simply that I was so highly leveraged that it did not make it possible to cash flow the growth. And I'm so young. I was in my 20s. So then when I went back to get my master's degree, I was very clear on what I wanted to do. So that went pretty well. And then the real estate stuff has always gone pretty well. I buy what are called yuck properties. If you drive by it and you think to yourself, yuck, that's something that I would probably be interested in buying. I've done more than 40 of

those properties over the last 30 years. I'll buy those properties. I'll reposition them. And then years later, when somebody wants to buy it, it's a lot easier to sell it. So I hold them for an average of about seven years or so. So I've been very patient with that because I knew I was impatient with manufacturing companies. I wasn't going to make that mistake again. But I did make a mistake again. I had, in a way, all my financing, which is a rule I used to make sure I followed, to always bank with at least three different banks because then you always have two options when a banker says no. But I had a bank that I banked with that had the same philosophy. We believed

in the product. And then when the real estate market collapsed, they had too much real estate. I had all my real estate with them. The bank failed. I never had in my metrics or plan that a bank could or would fail. That had never happened to me in 25 years. So that caused me to liquidate a significant amount of my property earlier than I would have. And so the mistake I made was violating one of my own rules on making sure you have at least three bankers. So I guess it's important to have some guidance in your philosophy as a business, but also be willing to modify it to a point. But I had forgotten to reference out. And one of the nice things about the speaking business is I don't have all the answers. So I always have to reference out. I have a couple of thousand books in my personal library here that I keep current and continue to read. And so every once in a while, I'll get colleagues in the speaking business that will

say things to me like, well, people don't want a book report when you give a speech, but I want people to know that it's just not my idea that there's several other experts that think or feel the same way about it and that I've referenced out so they don't have to. This is, you know, well thought out. So I guess some of the failures of being somewhat narrow-minded and on, I don't know, thinking I had the right plan has caused me to be much more open-minded and provide much more depth and breadth of information in my presentations. So people don't make the same mistakes I made. Yeah. Well, I like those examples, Kit, because I'm thinking about our topic and we're talking about change. And, you know, even in manufacturing and real

estate, you've had to deal with a lot of change in your own life and in your own businesses. So I know one thing that you talk about is the mistakes people make during change. So what are those mistakes? Because, you know, I'm just thinking about how we can avoid them because we're all changing. Our society is always changing, right? So we're having to deal with change regardless if we want to or not. Yeah, I have a long list of mistakes that people make during change. One of those is failing to manage the stress because if you can't manage the stress, you're not going to make it through the change and transition. So you should have some physical remedies. You should have some psychological strategies, you know, physical remedies, be well fed, well rested, well exercised, you know,

also have a hobby. So you have a self-concept that you still enjoy yourself personally, even if things are a little bit bumpy professionally then psychological remedies give yourself a nickname that you like you know not the nickname other people have given you but give yourself a nickname that you like my nickname for me is welchie or i was thinking welch man because that's what you said earlier well do you like it my friends call me welch, but my nickname for me is Welchie. And those affirmations that you, you know, if no one else is paying you a compliment, you need to pay yourself compliments, you know. So affirmations, I still think those are

worthwhile. And, you know, having long-term goals. So if you get a little bit behind, you have time to catch up. They're not so short-term goals that you feel non-stop pressure, but have that kind of a life script, a longer plan. So just keeping, you know, a half a dozen physical remedies, half a dozen psychological strategies ready to put into place when you start to feel stress is critical. The other thing, sometimes people join the anti-change crowd, but I think you should really be a person that joins the positive change crowd, you know, to be on the committees, to get involved, to attend the meetings, to make sure that you're an active participant. And sometimes people act like a victim, you know, they'll party and invite other people to attend and talk about how helpless they

feel and how hopeless it is. but it doesn't make you very attractive as a co-worker or as a leader when we do that. Some people try to do the old and the new, you know, do it the old way and the new way just in case the new way doesn't work, and then they're doing double time, so then they can burn out from that. Sometimes, oh, people don't monitor their self-talking away away and they say, I have to, or I must, or I should do this and kind of guilt themselves into taking action. But if they would say to themselves, I get to, or I want to, or I look forward to, really changes their attitude and then changes the action they'll take. Sometimes people make a big deal out of the little things. I had a mentor when I was young that used to call that pole vaulting over mouse turds.

You better make sure it's a really important issue if you're going to stake your career on it. So some of the petty stuff gets carried away and people have to really take a look at what's important and what's petty and really be able to tell the difference. Sometimes I have people, you know, put together a list of everything that's bothering them or bugging them. And then to put a C in front of those things that are controllable, they can do something about it and make the phone call, schedule the meeting, send the email, get it done today. And those things that are still left on that list are uncontrollable.

That's, that's just the way it, that wayrollable. That's just the way it is. That's the cards you're dealt. That's how they play it out. Life's tough. Tough for everybody. I like that in terms of just awareness. If I write down a list of things that are bothering me, and there's many of those things that I can't control.

So, you know, to help me problem solve what I can control about those, very helpful. Yeah, then you just take a big old dose of acceptance. You know, that's just the way it is. Some people are afraid of the unknown. And I always tell them, you know, you're in the job. You have the position. You're creating the future.

How can you be afraid of the future? You know, you're there. The company believes in you. The organization is supporting you. They're providing you the educational properties to be successful. You're creating the future. You shouldn't be afraid of it. You're involved the future. You shouldn't be afraid of

it. You're involved in it. But sometimes people forget that. Sometimes they pace themselves. They kind of plot along when the industry is racing ahead. And then they even get farther behind and kind of mortgage the future makes it tougher to catch up. So how do you think, you know, when you think about culture and creating a culture that embraces change? I know one thing that you said was making sure there's open communication. What are the things can be developed or enhanced or, you know, created within a culture so that the culture is really open to change? And kind of thinking of the word resilient as I'm hearing you talk, you know, just being resilient, open to whatever comes. Yeah, there's a number of different levels within the organization that people need to

feel connection with. So connection with their co-workers, connection with their products and services, connection with the organization overall, and a connection with their leaders. And sometimes, you know, I've worked with organizations where people recognize the leader of the organization, but really haven't ever spent much time in a conversation with the leader, which I always find fascinating. So the key is I call open the valves of all the communication channels that there should be one-on-ones. There should be small meetings with small groups.

There should be large meetings with large groups. There's amazing how much change you can have if you have one campaign that's consistent and recognizing people in a positive way when they make the slightest or the smallest change in the right direction to make a big deal out of it because to them it's a big risk. And if we don't recognize those little changes we're not going to be able to enjoy the big changes so every level the organization with

you know i also think we should have more lunch and learns where people get a chance not like bringing a speaker from the outside to give a presentation over lunch but people get a chance to go to lunch with a variety of different people in a variety of different departments. So they see that they're part of a larger organism, not just organization, that they have impact in other departments and that person's struggling too. And so a lot of cross department communication individually and small groups in the organization and some consistency in the messages and access to the information, I think is pretty critical, pretty important. But I also think, you know, sometimes leaders just throw out the great big goal, but, you know, they don't have any of the details. Like, what's the purpose of this? Why are we doing this? What's wrong with the status quo?

Why does this change need to occur? somebody should have that conversation to kind of sell it in a way that it is critical and then the picture of what the future will look like what how will we know when we get there what can we go somewhere and see it going on right now is there some way we can kind of choreograph or role play so we can have an idea what this is supposed to look like when it's done. You know, I mean, because otherwise sometimes that vision is so vague. People have no idea really what the goal is, you know, and then the plan is a pretty well thought out. And what are the little bitty, you know, smart goal steps, specific, measurable, actionable, and realistic, timely steps that we're going to go through that I can feel some success. And then what's the part I play? How valuable, how important, how critical? Where do I fit?

You know, what am I, is there a committee I'm supposed to be on? Is there a task force I'm supposed to be on? Is there classes or courses or seminars or workshops? Or, I mean, sometimes it's so loosely described that people are just out there treading water, hoping someone will throw them some sort of a life preserver to get,

you know, to get them out of there. I just think it needs to be more carefully choreographed i i had an energy client that was going to shut down a great big old coal fire power plant and it was going to switch to a gas fire power plant so it's going to go from 186 employees to 37 so about 150 people are going to have to go into a different career or go to a different power plant or retire earlier. But your first family member lost their job at the plant, you know. And so they had not only professional but personal concerns about it. And the nice thing that they did is the safety committee hired me to come in quarterly for two years before that change was going to occur and walk people through stress management and the, you know, the loss and the new beginnings and the, you know, get your resume in place and start searching for classes. I mean,

it was really well done, but sometimes we don't have the luxury of knowing something's going to happen two years from now, but even if it's going to happen two weeks from now, you know, we shouldn't have people just one day show up and the doors lock. We should have been much more considerate as a leader and much more careful in how we orchestrated that, whether it's an office closing or some other sort of change. So, Kit, as I'm listening, I'm thinking about how does emotional intelligence fit with change? You know, you're two kind of big listening, I'm thinking about how does emotional intelligence fit with change? You know, you're two kind of big topics. I'm thinking quite a bit about, you know, just from my perspective, how it does. And you kind of said, you know, the first thing to do when you're

experiencing change is to better understand your own emotions. So tell us how you see those two topics fitting together and what does emotional intelligence mean to you? Yeah, you know, the emotional intelligence thing, I just focus on five components, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. And social skills is kind of the combination of all of it. I mean, work is a task event, but it's also a social event. So sometimes, you know, mechanically, something that we used to do well has changed and then we struggle with it. But sometimes we have different reporting relationships that happen because of that too. And to go through the awkwardness and kind of phoniness of establishing new relationships with people, sometimes that's not as well done as it could be either.

That somebody should have kind of introduced and complimented each other, the people that are going to be working together in a new relationship. I mean, that could have been, you know, could be handled so much better, too. So the emotional intelligence, I think it kind of opens our eyes that we're struggling, other people are struggling. And some of those struggles are from the past, past experience. It could be just, you know, whether or not we believe we have the skills or the talent or not. And, you know, so it's kind of a mind game. And then the self-regulation to, you know, I spent a lot of my time, I don't know if you do too, but I spent a lot of my time

biting my tongue. I mean, I have, you know, we think, you know, I've read one time at 800 to 1200 words per minute. You know, we have a lot of thoughts that sometimes we're not monitoring those very well. And we'll say something, you know, one time, you know, I, when I give presentations on leadership or effective business communications, I'll, I'll tell a little story that sometimes people come up to me and tell me something Pete said one time, you know, out of 10 years of working together, something Pete said one time, you know,

and they probably misunderstood Pete, you know know and they hold it against that person and you're like my goodness did you ask him what they meant by that you know why would I you know but anyway it's just fascinating how we even get along at all you know and then when you're going through change you know it's even worse and then I always find it interesting when we talk about motivation. I go back and I take a look at, you know, Herzberg and McClellan and Maslow. I don't know. I think, you know, when we talk about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I tell you what, you know, being self-employed my entire life, physical needs, that's the number one for me. The self-actualization, I maybe have experienced that a couple of times, but it didn't last for more than about 10 minutes.

Then something next phone call or next email, I got washed that away. I think, you know, there's a lot of people that the bottom line is I want to be warm and dry and well-fed, you know, and when they're going through a lot of change, it's a great concern. You know, I, I mentioned that, you know, this thing called the circle of concern, you know, and they're going through a lot of change it's a great concern you know i i mentioned that you know this thing called the circle of concern you know and i've come out i'll say to the audience let's say i ran this place and i came out of my office and said there's gonna be some changes around here people gasp oh oh you know somebody's gonna lose their job yeah but the

person that thinks oh my god if i lose my job i might lose my my house you know my right my home if i lose my job i lose my house what will people think you know your your reputation once you damage your reputation it'll never be the same right yeah worry about those three things that'll affect your health and you lose your health you lose everything so i always talk about this little circle of influence where you just keep showing up and you just be present, be engaged in your conversations with your co-workers and tell the truth, whatever you know for sure, bite your tongue on the stuff that's speculation and then let go and say, I'll see you tomorrow. Then you show up, be present, tell the truth and let go, see you tomorrow so i i think the motivation

thing of what i do is you know you have the long list you know you have the five of maslow's hierarchy of needs and i tell my audience circle the one that you know really drives you that really you know is the first thought that what motivates you and then you know the intrinsic rewards the extrinsic rewards by hersberg you, you got a list of seven or eight of those for each one of those. Circle two of each one of those lists that you think, yeah, you know, that's what drives me. And then the McClellan is, you know, out of those three, you know, affiliation, achievement, recognition, which one really is it? Because sometimes I think we talk about the concept so much, people never really think about the impact it has on our thoughts and actions. And I think it goes by so quickly, people never really stop to think about it.

So when you make them stop and think about it, they have to choose one out of here, two out of there, two out of there, one out of there. It kind of makes that concept come to life that it's actually useful, not just a concept, but it will have an impact on your thoughts and actions. Excellent. Love it. Love it, Kit. Well, I know our time is almost up here, and I want to first thank you so much for your time and your energy and the way that you were just so open with your knowledge. And there were several things I got from today,

so I just want to repeat them back to you. I like what you said about how, you know, when you're going through change, the key is to regulate your emotion and understand your triggers. So really being aware of what's happening and then that we really can respond, not react. So you talked about having a perception check, assuming that we don't understand. I thought that was really helpful. And taking a step back and maybe even asking a question like, you know, when you said this, did you mean that? And then I appreciated the mistakes that you talked about when people experience change, making a list of what's bothering them and what's controllable and uncontrollable. I thought that was helpful. And then our conversation at the end

about emotional intelligence. So thank you so much for joining us today. What are ways that people can get in touch with you, learn more about your speaking and follow you? I know you do these awesome videos that are really entertaining that you send out to your email list. So tell us a little bit about that

and then how we might learn more about what you do. Pretty easy to find me. I'm the only Kit Welchlin in the world. I did a search one time. I'm the only one. So if they spell my name somewhat correctly, they'll be able to contact me. My email is just splitting my name, kit at welchlin.com. My website's just my last name, welchlin.com. I have a YouTube channel. It's under Kit Welchlin. There's more than 250 videos on there. And you mentioned the video blog that I do once a week. I have a struggling image of me. And then I try to help him in a, it's a six camera shoot. And I try to help him in a couple of minutes. Sometimes he gets it, sometimes he doesn't, which is part of the fun. But every month we focus on one particular topic.

Team building has been the one this month. Next month we're going to employee engagement. The following month, employee empowerment. Many of the videos, though, are created for my clients. In the speaking business, you usually are booking out six to nine months in advance. So when I have an interview with my client, they'll say we're struggling with this, struggling with that.

So I put together the conversation that I have with myself with the, I call him goofy guy, like the image of me that's struggling. And then based upon the research or what I understand about those particular issues I respond to his concerns and questions and then so it's a lot of fun I enjoy creating them it spawned two books the communication kit volume one and the communication kit volume two and then that to sign up for that video blog you can do that through my website welchlin.com and it's free and you also get a newsletter that goes along with it that paraphrases the conversation of the two of us and when we do team building there's three of us. But when I created that,

I wanted it to be something I enjoyed creating that people would enjoy watching. And it seems like people do. Yeah, they're pretty awesome. Yeah. So you should check it out. So welltolin.com. So Kit, thank you so much for joining us today. What final advice would you have for those high performers who are listening, people who really want to reach their potential and be at their best more often? Well, I'd pick up any magazine or any book that talks about or has an article about emotional intelligence. I think that we haven't invested as much time as we could or should in honing those five components. And I taught part-time for 26 years for the Minnesota State

Colleges and Universities. And the last couple of years, I noticed students don't engage in conversation as freely as they used to. They seem to be more interested in their mobile devices, their smartphones in a way. I'm thinking that over the next couple of years, I'll probably create a presentation on how to start a conversation and keep it going. And I think that that social skill of emotional intelligence will be even more valuable. When I talk about a personal brand in one of my presentations on leadership, I say to enhance your personal brand. If you ever have someone come in and out of your organization, whether it's a salesperson, a vendor, an employee, or a temp worker, and you say to yourself or think to yourself, wow, I wish we had more people like that that worked here. I get very clear on

identifying what that was, and then I get to work at becoming that, because you instantly recognize that was a scarce and valuable resource resource and you will truly be indispensable. Awesome, Kit. Well, check out kit at welchland.com. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Cinder. It's great seeing you and talking with you. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you liked today's podcast, make a comment, share it with a friend, and join the conversation on Twitter at Mentally Underscore Strong. For more inspiration and to receive Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.