Unlonely with Dr. Jody Carrington - The Power of Yes: Trust, Connection & Saying What Matters - Leigh Brown

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

If you want to hear what happens when two powerhouse speakers sit down to talk about passion, purpose, and connection, this one's for you! I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Leigh Brown, a real estate mogul, best-selling author, and all-around badass. We dove deep into the power of saying YES, the loneliness of success, and how trust is the real currency in this disconnected world."People are hard to hate close up. Move in." – This gem from Brene Brown sparked a conversation about how we navigate relationships, leadership, and even sales. Because at the end of the day, it's ALL about connection.Tune in now—this episode is packed with wisdom, humor, and the kind of real talk we all need. Let us know in the comments:#Podcast #FeelingSeen #ConnectionMatters #RealTalk #PowerOfYes #TrustCurrency #SayYes #WomenSupportingWomenFollow Leigh:Facebook: leighbrownspeaker https://www.facebook.com/LeighBrownSpeaker/Youtube: leighbrownspeaker https://www.youtube.com/leighbrownspeaker?sub_confirmation=1Instagram: leighthomasbrown https://www.instagram.com/leighthomasbrown/LinkedIn: leighthomasbrown https://www.linkedin.com/in/leighthomasbrown/Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/leighthomasbrownTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@leighthomasbrownSubstack: https://housesandchickens.substack.com/Real Estate Training Courses: https://www.leighbrownuniversity.com | https://answers.realestatePodcast: Crazy Sh*t In Real Estate https://www.crazyshitinrealestate.compatriotrelieffund.comhttps://www.facebook.com/PatriotRelief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the beginning of every episode, there will always be time for an acknowledgement. You know, the more we do this, people ask, why do you have to do the acknowledgement in every episode? I got to tell you, I've never been more grateful for being able to raise my babies on the land where so much sacrifice was made. And I think what's really critical in this process is that the ask is just that we don't forget. So the importance of saying these words at the beginning of every episode will always be of utmost importance to me and this team. So

everything that we created here today for you happened on Treaty 7 land, which is now known as the center part of the province of Alberta. It is home of the Blackfoot Confederacy, which is made up of the Siksika, the Kainai, the Pikani, the Tatina First Nation, the Stony Nakoda First Nation, and the Métis Nation Region 3. Our job, our job as humans, is to simply acknowledge each other. That's how we do better, be better, and stay connected to the good. is to simply acknowledge each other. That's how we do better, be better and stay connected to the good. Well, hello, hello, hello.

Welcome back to the Unlonely podcast with Dr. Jodie Carrington. Today, we're gonna get all the way down to North Carolina with Lee Brown. Okay, I met this firecracker at a speaking conference called Impact 11. We sat at the same table. And I gotta tell you, she is so, we are,

so many things are different about the way that we operate in this world and so many things are the same. And I just, I was so honored to have a conversation with her about the way that she's approached her business, her life, her sort of the things that she so passionately believes in. So she's a, she's a speaker, as I said, um, a successful entrepreneur, um, and internationally recognized real estate authority. She's got over two decades of experience in the real estate industry.

She's known for her candid, energetic, and humorous approach to education and motivation. She is the CEO of One Community Real Estate and a bestselling author to multiple books. Her latest project is her non-profit, Patriot Relief, born out of the need in Western North Carolina for post-Hurricane Helen support. And I think, you know, we talk leadership, we talk about being lonely in this space as women about success, about, um, you know, just really what fundamentally people want to do in the way that they show up in the world, which is a shocker. It's a field scene. So dive in and I can't wait to hear what you think.

I am just so excited to introduce you today. I met Lee Brown at an event we both attended for speakers, Impact 11, trying to figure out how we disseminate our respective messages in a way that they're heard and they're seen. And I think Lee is a woman who believes as passionately as I do about things. And I was just taken with her energy in terms of what she's built in a company. And you know, your desire, I think, Lee, to sort of just bring your message to the world was so fascinating to me. So thank you for joining us from North Carolina today in your real estate office,

because one community real estate is your baby. You're the CEO. You've blown this thing up. You've written books. You're doing all the things. And I want to know, I mean, your humanitarian work is also so impressive. Uh, the post the hurricane Helen, uh, and, and here you are back in your office today telling us all the things about like, gosh, how do you do it? I want to start there. You know what they say. If you want something done, you ask a busy woman.

We've just learned how to put more irons in the fire and we just keep taking care of them. I don't know how I can get this much done in a day except that I am kind of ridiculously organized. I work off of a lot of checklists and I am a person who just says yes. I've said yes a lot and it's really paid off in life. Yeah. I don't believe in being too busy for things. Okay, I got it. I got it. So take it back from me. So where did you start? Did you

grew up in North Carolina? Grew up right here. So my family is actually so deep in this area. It's pre-revolutionary war. So colonial, and my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. I don't have anybody that fought in the French and Indian War, so I still love my Canucks. We don't have any issue there, so we're good. This is home to me so many generations, and my dad was in real estate, my grandparents were farmers.

This is our community. When I got out of college, of course like every other kid I don't want to do what my dad does I don't I'm gonna do something else and so I went off to New York City and I worked on Wall Street and did financial Work for a while that was dreadful and awful and I hated being in that city Then I went to sell chainsaws and I was the only woman on the sales force for Husqvarna, which is premium chainsaws. Now they're definitely not the cheap ones.

They sent me to Iowa and then to Texas and I didn't want to move all the time. So I was talking to my dad and I said, I don't know what I want to do. I hated New York. I don't want to move every year. He says, just come home and do real estate. I said, I guess I will. So I came back almost as a, what else am I gonna do with my life?

And this has been the most rewarding profession I could have imagined. And we've gone from working for my dad to he and I had a company together, he retired. I sold that company and started this boutique right before COVID started. And it's been just absolutely rewarding. And then along the way I've had the chance to become an educator in real estate and

help other agents achieve different things by hearing from a fellow practitioner. That's a big gap in the professional space is you often hear from trainers who haven't done what they tell you to do. Yes. Which causes a real erosion of trust and a real erosion of the practicality of the advice. And I said, I'm going to fill that gap. So I jumped into it and along the way I've written books so people have something to

go back to after they've been to a class. And oh my gosh, it just continues to grow. And then the nonprofit space happens completely by accident because I'm a do-gooder, my husband is married to a whirlwind as he tells people. And when the hurricane hit, I said, well, let's just take some water and some supplies. So we planned that. And then it went from one truck full to a semi truck, two teams of people going out around the area.

Now it's its own nonprofit where we've served thousands of people, provided shelter, and I'm really hopeful that I get a chance to talk to the incoming administration about what we can do to make this better. So it's just a chance to continue serving. And it's all about saying yes. Like I said, yes to a job I hated, said yes to another job I hated, but I had the skills from those jobs to say yes to a job I thought I said yes to another job I hated, but I had the skills from those jobs to say yes to a job I thought I would hate but wound up loving, and then watched that grow and expand. I don't know, I just, I don't sit still very well,

and I love finding new things to do, and I love delegating, I'm really good at delegating, so I have people all around me that get swept up in and say, well, I'll do it too. Yeah, I love that. It's like that contagion effect, right? Like when you love something as much or believe something as powerfully as you do, I think it's really hard not to sort of get taken into that.

And what are some of the things, I mean, I'm, I'm so interested in your background in sales and, you know, I think in this, in this we're so disconnected these days, it becomes really difficult to sort of, like, you know, we spend less time looking at each other, like we've never had before. And so what I mean, what is the fundamental understanding is relationships, right? How do you connect to people? You're very, very good at that. How do you break that down for, you know, the people that you train and you lead? What are some of those keys? Do you think?

One of the top things that I learned from my dad and of course it's classic sales training is learn somebody else's name. I often have people that say how do you remember names? Like well I focus on it. You're going to remember names if you make an effort and that's a huge thing. You have to train your brain, say somebody's name a couple times, three times. It's old zig-zag training. That stuff is from the 70s and it hasn't gone out of style because it's still the most musical word any of us hear. And to your point of this disconnection we feel, we often don't say names anymore. We type them. That's not the same thing as saying it. And then when you're with someone

in conversation, you toss their name in, they reengage. They're back with you again. And I don't really have a trick for that except that I decided to learn names. And when I can't remember one, it breaks my own heart. So I don't fake it. I've learned this big time. I say to somebody, I know I should remember your name. I apologize because I cannot get my Rolodex to work fast enough. And they laugh and then they tell me their name and then I've got it. Although I will say my joke about the Rolodex doesn't work with the young people.

I'm sure your young listeners right now are going to go to YouTube right now and see what a Rolodex is. Trust me friends, it was the best thing ever. So you get what you pour into and I think that's life. So the second tip that I give in building relationships is always eye contact. And I've been accused by some millennials and some Zoomers that it's creepy that I like

to hold eye contact. And I said, that's not creepy. That's called paying attention. But they're so accustomed to a life where they stare down and they talk above their screen, but their eyes aren't connected. And I know from a body language basic, they're focused on what their eyes are on and not what their ears are on because you can bleed out your understanding when you're diverting your senses.

In fact, one of my friends is a very renowned body language expert, Janine Driver. I don't know if you know who Janine is, but she's hilarious and amazing and one of my favorite humans. And Janine talks about this that you can't be all things to all people at the same time. And so I make a purposeful effort. I tell my students, turn your phone over. You're with someone in a meeting, turn it over. Don't let that screen light up. And for heaven's sakes, if you have that stupid text setting where your light is flashing when the text comes off, you're going to get a seizure to somebody.

That's the worst setting ever. So I have it upside down and I'm looking at them in the eye and I can watch their, they relax. They will relax into a conversation when you're making eye contact because they know you're paying attention to them. And don't we all crave that? We want to be noticed and we want to be seen and we want to feel that we're not the crazy one here. And even if our idea

is nuts, we're okay. I look at the mental health crisis that we're in right now, you see it, we see in the identity crisis that's going on and people feel like something's wrong with them. Well, maybe they just need to be hugged and looked at and had their hand held. I hug all manner of people. I never did stop during the COVID. I ask them, you know, can I pray with you? And people say yes, like 99.9% of the time they say yes, and then I hug. And you can tell when somebody's at that moment because when they hug you back, it's this life preserver hug. They're clinging. Yes, I love that.

Yeah, the life preserver hug. And I see this more and more and I lean into that. So I'd say that that's the key to real estate, frankly, because we're in a relationship business that has finances underneath. I see it in the nonprofit space where people have literally lost everything material around them and they don't know where their solid ground is and they can find it in another human if one side is willing to put themselves out.

That's the third piece of that is beyond the names and the eye contact, you got to be willing to put yourself out there. You got to be the one that's willing to ask the question and get rejected. Maybe I say, can I pray with you? And they say, no, all right, be okay with somebody telling you no, because it's not always no forever, it's no right now. But give them a minute to know that you're serious and you're real. Because that's the underlying problem, I think, too, with the loneliness epidemic is this lack of genuine belief that the other person is who they say they are, that they're not some version of themselves.

Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that the truth? And I think it's like the more, the less opportunity we have, people are, I say this all the time. I would love your thoughts on this. People are hard to hate close up. And like that, I mean, that's a Brene Brown from the Brene Brown Bible, but I think it's, this is so true right? Like, people are hard to hate close up move in, because we spend so much time making decisions and ideas about, you know, how we are, okay, you don't check this box, we're not on the same page, let's separate from those things. And I think

it's so interesting and further contributing to this idea. And you know, you, you're not going to love everybody you serve, you're not going to love everybody lead, you're not going to love everybody, you know, who you're selling a house to. Uh, but sometimes it's, it's important for us to understand that there's so many things alike, way more alike than we are different, Hey, well, and they're not bad because they're different. I think that's the other misnomer of the world today is if somebody's different

from us, they're automatically bad. It must be burned to the ground and destroyed. Actually, no. What if we both have us an adult beverage and we sit down and just talk a little bit and then you start finding out, well, we agree on how much we love the color blue. Oh, we love the snow and we hate the heat. And then you start to find out there were always connections underneath when you put aside the things you want to fight about. Yes. And I think this is how we wind up in, in fighting places.

We land in our echo chamber because we like being agreed with on the big items when it's really the small items that pull us together. I hear you. I hear you. And that speaks to, you know, your currency of trust. You, you've spoke a lot about, you know, building this concept of trust, particularly in a world of suspicion. Can you speak to me about how that is just such a superpower?

I can give you a perfectly timely answer to that. When I was watching the inauguration of Vice President Vance on Monday, January 20th, and it's one of these really iconic moments, but it's not the moment most people are looking for. You're looking at the man taking the oath. You see his wife next to him, but the iconic moment was his daughter and she's sucking her thumb and she had band-aids on her fingers. Did you see this moment?

No, I didn't. See, but your mom brain just woke up because every mother has had a child who didn't have a boo-boo, but found the box of band-aids and wants to put a band-aid on every single finger and so his daughter is sitting there sucking her thumb and she has these band-aids on and I'm not even listening to the oath. My mother takes over and like oh I remember when my babies were that small I miss those days and then my mom text thread blew up and the mom text thread was OMG this This is so cute. Oh my gosh I feel for her my kids did that too. We were all connected by a

Moment that we had in common and the moment that we had in common is something that it transcends Age-race state country politics. It's just a mom thing and in fact for some folks It's a dad thing, but we know usually it's the moms that carry the band-aids. Yeah. And we have a trust with each other when we can reach out on the text thread and say, did you see this? And it's not a big moment, right?

It's a connective moment. And when I look at where trust is built, trust is built in those connective moments. Trust is built in, I have a mom text thread and everybody I know has a mom text thread and we're not all on the same one. But we know that when you have littles, it's about, oh my gosh, I'm late. Can somebody grab my kid in the pickup line? Oh my gosh, we're late for baseball. Can you run my kid? Oh my gosh, I forgot the snacks. And so we lean on each other in big and small ways, and it expands to the high school age. And hey, my son has mentioned this little girl,

do y'all know anything about her? She a trolloper, she decent, you know, what do we know about this little girl? And so you lean on the parent text thread to tell us things that we'd like to know from a security and safety standpoint where we're helicoptering, but we don't want to admit that we're helicoptering. So we're really just nosy parents but the trust comes in because you want to trust your kid to go out into the world but knowing a little bit allows you to let them loose without suffocating them and that's all about when you build that trust and so then I look at the business world if somebody entrusts me with their home, for most people, the biggest money

they'll ever touch. They may have a retirement account, but the house is it. That's what they've saved up for. And when mom and dad are older and they have to go to a home and now I'm the kid and I've got to handle the house, it's a big pile of money. But the emotion is enormous because the owner looks at the house and sees, this is where grandma had her last Thanksgiving. Oh, my babies used to get on the school bus over here. Oh, that was my room. And so we tie all of our memories to the money.

Then they invite a realtor in the middle of it. And they want the realtor to be professional, but understanding of the emotion, but help them make decisions, but let me cry. And it's this back and forth piece, and you can only get into that space if you've earned the trust of it. And I think this is where a lot of salespeople fall apart. They either fall too far into the emotional side

and become buddies and lose the ability to give professional guidance, or they're too focused on the professional version of themselves and they don't honor the emotion and it's this delicate balance, which is the same delicate balance you walk in a marriage and it's the same balance you walk with your best friend because you can't cancel girls night out every time.

She'll cut you some slack one time, but if you leave her three times in a row, she's not inviting you again and what would you do without her? And so we wind up balancing so that we can retain the relationships that are built on this basis of trust. But like I said with the best friend, you break it too many times it's gone. And we see this with marriages. Marriages fall apart because we don't talk through the breakage so that we can put it back

together. And we watch our kids navigating a world, you and I are fortunate. I am so grateful, I don't know about you, but I'm so grateful not to be young in this world where everything's recorded. You and I could make mistakes that they can't make. And they now have to trust that everything that they say and do isn't being recorded and put out there

for the world to see. An evolving space. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The only way you can navigate is by having the core text thread that has something in common and it can be something as small as band-aids. Amen. And I think, I think this is the whole point that, you know, I was speaking to somebody else today, they were talking about like the sort of the oxygen for high

performances trust. And so when we're watching, you know, sort of the building of business or relationships or families, it's not complex. I mean, you and I are both speakers. And you know, we've talked a lot about this, I've talked a lot about this, I can be with real estate professionals or education or police officers or the military or farmers, and my slide deck doesn't change. Because what we're talking about, right, is how you build a relationship in a time where people just desperately want to feel seen. And it's such an art, right?

It's not complex, but holy moly, it's hard to do. How do you come back when that gets broken? What is your, you know, because we're going to mess it up gets broken? What is your you know, cuz we're gonna mess it up I'm sure as you know real estate agents and then I've never really thought about that actually How critically holy your work is because you're just really in the middle of the transferring of you know, your biggest Likely one of your biggest commodities that is tied to so much emotion. Hey So when you know when that does go awry, what, what are some of your conversations around repairing that trust? Is it possible sometimes? Is it impossible sometimes?

I would say it's the same thing as when I forget a name. It's the vulnerability to say, I screwed up. I should have done something differently. I should have done something better. I failed to make this phone call. I failed to get this done on time. I would like to make it right. If I look at any of the mistakes that I see from corporations, elected officials, friends, almost any situation, if somebody would just come clean

and take responsibility, I can move on because then I know that they are focused on making it better. If you never acknowledge your mistakes, how can I know that you're gonna make it better because you never told me in the first place that you screwed up and I know you screwed up. I know you lied to me and frankly,

that's one of the gifts of being a mother. I know when somebody's lying to me. I've got the sixth sense. I know when my daughter's lying to me and it drives me absolutely crazy because she thinks I'm a moron and I'm not and now I have to wait for her to come clean because it'll happen in 48 hours and then it comes with the the shower of tears and the bubbling up. I didn't mean to and I'm sorry and I get to say there all you had to do was come clean and then we can fix it because we can't fix it if we don't clean it up and I get to say there, all you had to do was come clean and then we can fix it

because we can't fix it if we don't clean it up. And I look at that with disaster relief. I can't help somebody get back in their house until we get the mud out. We have to pull out the flooded drywall. We have to pull out the ruined flooring so that we can fix it. You start with cleaning it out and then put it back.

And it might be better than it was in the first place. The best visual I've ever gotten on that is, I don't know if you've ever done any woodworking or if anybody in your family has, but both of my grandfathers were builders. One was a farmer and a builder on the side and the other one was a builder. And they loved planks of wood, especially if it had a knot in the middle. And my granddad would always say the knot is where the tree got hurt, but the wood grew back around it and it's now the strongest part of any piece of wood. And I love that visual because you can come back stronger from a mistake or from a failure or from somebody doing you wrong if you decide to.

If the tree had decided, I'm not going to fix that thing, well the tree just dies. But if the healing comes in around it, man, you've got this whole new future here. And then you've got something you can use. And so when I talk about the currency of trust, you build the trust, but now what do you get to do once you've built the trust? And I think of a mountain cabin, you might think of a house built in the 50s or 60s, that beautiful paneling, not the cheap 70s faux wood paneling, but the real deal. We all know where those knots are on the wall.

The rest of the wood is kind of plain, but you see the knots. And when you look at a room, they jump out at you. Well, when I look at that, it tells me that there's something special about where things get stronger. And I look at the disaster relief situation. I've got people who have supported this effort from all

over the US, from Canada, from Australia, from Great Britain, from overseas, who I've met at some point in the last 15 years of being a professional speaker and trainer. And because they've met at some point in the last 15 years of being a professional speaker and trainer. And because they've met me one time and I didn't fail them, or if I failed and I apologize, they're supporting this effort, which means I can support the people. And then I talked to strangers who have supported me and like, I don't even know you, you watched the video.

And they're like, yeah, we can tell that you can be trusted. And then they look at my social platforms, they look at years of videos and years of posts, and they say, this looks like somebody we can trust. And so it becomes not just a basis for the room that you're in, but it's something you can actually trade in. And I can take the trust that I've built and trade on that to benefit other people, holy smokes. That's what happens when you let your life start expanding

and you're willing to be really visible and really vulnerable. But isn't that worth it in the end? I mean, being fake only gets you so far and screwing people and doing them poorly, that doesn't last long. It doesn't last long. And you know what I love about your work is, you know, this outrageous authenticity.

Can you tell me a little bit about that? Because that's really what you're describing, isn't it? Is that it is sort of just being so true to your own self. That's where you gather the people, the next steps for you, if you will. Well, that book came out in 2016 and that was actually early in the authenticity movement. It was almost a decade ago and I was late getting that book out, but here's life. At the time I was already facing, because I'm very vocal about my faith, I'm very vocal about being a child

of Jesus and I love on people as much as I can. And at the time I was just dipping my toe into the water of talking about it out loud because, well especially in the southern United States we are told you don't talk about sex, money and religion which is hilarious because in real estate you talk about all of it, but here I am dipping my toe in the water and getting some pushback Well, then you just have to decide are you you're gonna take the push back for who you are? Are you gonna just shut up? Yeah, I'm not good at shutting up I'm very vocal and in fact the more you tell me to shut up the more I'm likely to say Even though I'm a temperate because I don't want to push people away

I I can have a very firm set of beliefs without pushing people who are different than me away. I think that's a balance we should all learn to strike because it does build trust when you're different, but allowing people to be themselves in your space. With that being said, that book came out around that time of starting to stretch, finding out that the truth is when you're very honest and very open, very transparent about who you are, you attract a lot more than you repel. And this is taking yourself into that space of attraction marketing,

which a lot of people have talked about for years in sales. How do you attract people to you? Well, the old style is by sending them calendars and maybe sending them a note and calling on the phone, and those are all great. But if you really wanna attract people, tell them who you are, what you believe, what do you stand for, what are your values,

what are your principles, give them something that they can relate to so that you can build a relationship. And all I can say is that since that book came out, a lot more things have happened in our society that have caused people to really vocally and visibly cancel each other. And I just find that I'm uncancellable if I'm honest about who I am and what I believe. Yeah. And, and then you attract the people that need to be around you

or that want to be around you or that make sense, you know, and seek to understand more about like the process of who you are. I think that's so truly. And I think that you do such a great job of that. I think, you know, how is that sort of, I don't know, where do you see that resonating the most with people on stages these days? Because, you know, part of our job is to read an audience.

You can see when it's landing and it's not landing. I mean, there's some scary moments up there, right? But I'm wondering, what are people needing to hear in this space the most? Is it still in that sort of being, I don't know if boldly authentic is the idea, but it's also like being able to read what people are ready for.

That's also a skill that we kind of develop a bit. Can we just acknowledge that's why we hated Zoom so much as professional speakers? Because my whole year I had, I don't know, 70 speaking events canceled in 2020 and they converted to Zoom. So I had to perform for the rectangle. And even if you had other rectangles on there,

they were sitting like this and they might be wildly engaged, but you'd never know because they're in their rocking chair or they're drinking a cup of coffee. And we didn't get that return of energy. And the return of energy does tell you where you're striking a chord with people. And what I see today is in the rooms

where I'm invited to speak, there's always somebody that needed to hear the message. And I never know who it's going to be. Dr. Jody, it's always one. And she comes up to me at the end, it's almost always a woman. And her eyes are full of tears. And she's about to collapse with because she's overwhelmed. And it could be by business, it could be by life, it's by something, but when she encounters somebody else who says, I've done a lot, I'm doing some other things and you get to pick your own goals and you can do this and you're not alone out there, for whatever reason that hits a chord with people, this idea of how we can become a more

connected world, it's not about social media, it's about one on one connection and she needed somebody. And I can tell you every time she comes up to me to tell me she felt alone until she heard me, somebody else always walks up. And that other person that walks up will hug this person. I can't tell you how many times I've watched this and then they become friends and it's not me. I was the lightning rod and then they were both in the room together and they're probably

in the same city. They probably live in the same market because I'm the one that traveled in from out of state and they get to build a connection because of the freedom to be emotional, I would say. I know that when I speak, I make people laugh. I'm very good with the humor, but I can also get them to dial deeper into what they're missing. And for a lot of us right now, what we're missing is that connectivity. I would say just the tribe, like Seth Godin has talked about for years and years in his permission-based marketing concepts, everybody wants to be seen. They don't necessarily want to be believed or liked or heard.

They just want to be, I saw you in the room. And in fact, I can tell you my devoted staff member, Pia, she's been with me for almost 10 years. She served the homeless this past week. I got to the office today, she could not wait to tell me. It was her first time ever serving the homeless. She said, I understand now why you're so addicted to doing the humanitarian work.

And I said, tell me about that. And she said that she went into it thinking, I don't really wanna hug these people. I don't know these people very standoffish. The first person she talks to and she's looking them in the eye and she finds herself hugging them. And she's like, suddenly I'm hugging everybody because I realized that most people never look at the homeless. They try not to look at them.

They put up a blind or they walk quickly. They look away. And even if you make a gift, you make a gift without looking. And this is a population that's got its own challenges, and not everybody's homeless for the same reasons, and some are there and trying to get out of it, and some are not. We don't know everybody's story. But what we know is that they do want to be treated as human beings. And that was her biggest takeaway from this experience and why she can't wait to go back again

is to help bring that feeling to people who need it. Amazing. What do you, I mean, to that point, I mean, what do you think about loneliness in this world of success? I love it when we get to this point where we sort of, it almost comes full circle. We realize we can sort of reengage

and give back in some way. Is it been lonely, this sort of, it almost comes full circle, we realized we can sort of reengage and give back in some way. What is it been lonely? This sort of rise to success for you in some ways. What do you, what do you say about that? The loneliest I've ever been in my life. I mean, really? Yes. And I know you understand it too.

At a certain point, people love to be around you, but the people who are your true peer group, who understand what it's like to stand in front of a thousand people and entertain and educate and be all things to all people at the same time, is this giant adrenaline rush that is exhausting because you pour so many hours in making sure that you're bringing the message to them. It's not about us, it's about the audience. How do we give them what they came here for? So we're amped up to do it and then we're immediately drained. But you have to suck it up because you have to take selfies and be there for people. And

then you want to talk to somebody about it and your spouse is like, I mean, whatever, it's another audience. My husband's kind of overhearing about any of these things. And then my best friends aren't in this space. This is not their conversation. We just can't talk about this particular space. And then we also got to address the more successful you get in anything. Other people want to be you and the spirit of jealousy exhibits itself in trying to tear people down. And I will say that I wish women weren't so bad about this.

I have seen it far more amongst women than men. They seem to have this mindset, there's only one space for a woman over here and then the rest of it has to be men. So let's all fight over the one spot. And I kind of operate out of the sense of abundance where if you got something to bring, well, let's just scooch over and make you a chair and pull you up to the table too, because we can make more room. There's more great ideas. There's more great people. and we have to build that up from the bottom to the top, because the grassroots tends to accept each other more than the top does. And I'd love to see that change.

And you're doing that right here. You are taking your platform and expanding it to somebody else that's doing something in the same vein of what you do, because you understand that we're in a very expansive world. And oh my gosh, it's so much nicer when somebody else understands the day to day challenges and excitement that we have. It's right. You know, and I, you know, I haven't talked much about Back to 11 here, but I think one of the, an isolating, you know, experience for many of us in many of our domains, but certainly speaking has been one of those for me, you for many of us in many of our domains, but certainly speaking

has been one of those for me. We all come to the stage with a message, a story, an experience that brought us there. And very few people I find wanna become a speaker because they wanna become a speaker. You typically have a story to tell and you get into this place because of it, right? It always concerns me when people are like,

I just wanna be a speaker, okay. But I loved, what I loved the most in, you know, I was so resistant to this Impact 11 space for a really long time, because I was like, gosh, I don't know. Like, I can, I know what I'm doing on stage, I think. What I felt so beautiful when we sort of came together, I mean, here's you and me talking about,

we sat at the same table, that's how we met, and entirely different spaces, entirely different parts of the world, many even different ways that we approach the world even. And it's the same experience that we want to bring our message to people in a way that we know we hope can not only change a life, it might save one. And it was like the, the travel, the isolation you go away and you're like, did I screw that up?

What did they say about that? Oh my God. And you're in a hotel room by yourself and you're not with your babies and you're like, did I screw that up? What did they say about that? Oh my God, and you're in a hotel room by yourself and you're not with your babies and you're doing really successful, but everybody else is doing those things. And you have a partner that is supporting you and like, who do you debrief with? Nobody fucking wants to hear it.

So then what do you do? Oh my God, you know? So I love that sense of connection and community, even though we are so disalike in so many ways, but it was that same sort of bandaid connection around, yeah, it's lonely. What if they lose your luggage? What happens when they don't book you? Do you need an agent? Why are they all like that? You know? And I found it so lovely. Hey, did you enjoy that experience too?

Well, it took me a minute because I'm an organic introvert who has to omnivore in a big room like that. So I do a lot of lurking and listening and then it becomes this very introspective thing of okay, which where do I fit in here because I always want to know my my surroundings and I don't know everybody and when you're at the top of your game and you're used to being in a room where everybody knows who you are when now nobody knows who I am so I have to flip that script on myself. But the top of your game and you're used to being in a room where everybody knows who you are. Well, now nobody knows who I am, so I have to flip that script on myself. But the beauty of that is it gives me a chance to sit and take notes and write and get the next idea to form itself and to be articulated so that I can do something to impact somebody else in a great way.

Because I will say that was the interesting thing about that room is everybody there wants to be positive for somebody else in some unique special way. And none of us know who that person is that we're trying to impact that's the treasure hunt of being a professional speaker is there is one person in every room we don don't know who it is. We don't know what they need. So we're trying to deliver to the space to find that one person. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And it's so true that you say that, you know, I think that was such my experience that day too. You know, I, I, I'm used to being in rooms where like, I know the answers or they're there to see me. And in that particular space, right, we were all, I think, you know, Oh, here's the three guys that have been here forever. Everybody knows them. And it was so lovely just to soak that in and be the like, you don't have to actually control the space. You don't even actually have to know

everything that's going on. And it was like the most humbling three days of my life. It's okay not to be in charge. This was amazing. I hated it. But it took a day to get there. I hate not to be in charge. This was amazing. I hated it. But it took a day to get there. I don't know that I got there. I don't know the other. But like I just felt in awe of watching other people do their work and be brave and you

know, do it in different ways than I would have ever considered. And I just thought like that the importance I think these days of like getting out of our own lane and getting out of our own space. And you know, because we've talked a lot about this too, social media is so curated. You know, you follow who you like, you follow who you believe, you don't, you can easily unfollow the people

that are not in your space. And I think that I really just enjoyed that opportunity to be in a place where, you know, the intention for everybody, regardless of their belief system, was to do something for somebody else. And coming upon that in so many different ways, which is such a beautiful experience. And so I, yeah, I loved that. I loved that. And I loved sort of learning, you know, all of the messages

really come back to the same thing. We don't say a lot of the different things, do we? We just say it in very different ways. Well, that's the perfect way to put it. And we all have different experiences that led us there too, which is why it's such an expansive world that we're in because every room full of people has a giant audience that came to those seats from a different pathway. When we look at how we come to the room, nobody knows how anybody else came to the room. That might be the great unifier as we all realize social media is never the panacea we thought it was going to be. It doesn't fix anything. But what if we use social media as a way to learn about somebody's background just this

much so that when we meet them in person, you've got a little bit. Oh, you're from Tallahassee, Florida. I went to Florida State. What dorm did you live in? I lived in Landis. We have, again, the baby connection. Oh, did you see the inauguration? They might be a complete other side of the political aisle.

I'm not talking about the politics. I'm talking about the little girl with the band-aids. Like, I saw that too. Yes. Finding the connections so that we can reach people. It's all about connections so that we can reach people. It's all about so that and it's the what they say in the IT world if this then that the IFTTT well we live that in speaker world so if I say this then it's gonna hit this

person if I go this direction it's gonna hit this one but at the core we're all looking for connection we're all looking looking for the ability to feel like we matter. And I think we're going to need that more and more as the world continues to go towards AI. Because I don't know about you, but I'm really glad that AI can't replace me. AI doesn't have my life experiences. AI doesn't have my emotions. AI doesn't cry with people. AI does not have the ability to be a complete package, which is something that

we as those who are on stages need to lean into is that if the audience would figure out that AI can't replace the complete package that they are either, then AI can be the lonely ones and we'll all be connected. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I've talked about this forever. The only AI that's really gonna matter is authentic interaction. And I think that we can do so many things.

Technological advances aren't the issue. It's how we use them that will be the problem. And as humans, the hardest thing we will ever do is look at each other, despite the fact that we're neurobiologically wired for connection. The hardest thing we will ever do is look at each other, despite the fact that we're neurobiologically wired for connection. The hardest thing we will ever do is look at each other. And so, you know, when you talk about your rules of, you know, learning somebody else's name, looking them in the eye, you know, in a respectful way, of course, there's cultural differences. There's all these things we need to be aware of. But I think at the heart of it, knowing that I want you to know me when it's safe enough to do that is the greatest superpower of all time.

And being able to read that, you know, especially when people are in vulnerable spaces. And I love in the real estate space, your sort of sense of like, okay, over the years, you've developed this deep understanding of when you are in somebody's home that they're selling, the sadness that comes with that sometimes. And then when you're buying it,

it's the hope and the promise and the happiness that comes with that sometimes. It's an emotional roller coaster. And if you just ride that wave, there's nothing you could do to fix it or take it away. But being present for it becomes so critically important in this world where there's so much noise, hey? Well, it's also when you lean into these things, and you mentioned the cultural differences, I immediately remember when I was in Dubai for the first time to speak at an event. And I was teaching a class and there were a couple of sheiks in there. Sheiks do not take classes taught by women. And these two sheiks were in there.

They did not want to follow the instructions. They did not want to take the exam. And then their handlers came in and told me I must issue a certificate. They would not take an exam from a woman. And my immediate reaction is to fire back of, wait a minute, I'm not less than, remember it's a cultural thing, you're not going to win that fight. So I issued the certificates and then I would go to that really fancy mall, the one that has the snowstorm inside. Nobody will make eye contact with you when you're a woman

and I'm doing this trying to get under people's eye line, trying to force them to have eye contact with me and I couldn't win but all it did was it I came back home to the US with a sense of appreciation for okay even though it might not be perfect here all the time, I have a level of opportunity here that I would not have in other places. And so the cultural differences can show you how good you have it somewhere.

And it doesn't make their culture less than, it's different than, and it's nowhere I wanna go back to visit because I don't like feeling less than, but I can acknowledge where it comes from. I can say I ain't gonna put up with that over here so I don't let people in my space feel less than because I've had a recent reminder of how that does feel so we can all remember these things too you you start feeling like you're you're too high on the hog you

get yourself back to that humble place we're speakers we go back to impact 11 to be humbled by the greatness of other people so that we can rise up. We travel to places that are different than us. We can come home and say, I'm gonna make sure this place gets better. Being in a lower place can sometimes help you lift others up, so we should always remember that too.

Oh, I love it, I love it, Lee Brown. Oh, you're a gem. Okay, what's up for you next? Let's see, well, I'm going. I love it. Lee Brown. Oh, you're a gem. Okay. What's up for you next? Let's see. Well, I'm going to get on the phone and call somebody that's next to us just today. I operate in the 24 hour cycle. Thank you. Other than that, we're going to have a new book coming out probably 26 by the time I finish all the edits in and I'm behind my, I was on a two year slide and then COVID hit. So that's going to be my excuse for a long time is blame the COVID, but I'm not the only

one making that excuse. Me too, me too. The rest of my life. So yeah, so we'll just keep doing good things and take care of some lives out in Western North Carolina, sell some property and try to bring a positive space to the online world too because I do love educating people using the internet. some property and try to bring a positive space to the online world too, because I do love educating people using the internet. So I'll keep using that space. I love that. I love what you're doing.

I love that our worlds crossed. I can't wait to hopefully be back again at an impact 11 event, but certainly where we can sit down and catch up again. So thank you. Thank you for what you're doing, what you do. Learning from you has been just such a gift and I can't wait for our next hug already. I know, well I'm so honored to be on your show and to be a part of the Unlonely Movement with Dr. Jody and I'm grateful for what you're doing

to help people realize that it doesn't have to be what they thought it did. Aw, I love it, I love it. Aw, on that note everybody, take care of yourself, take care of each other and I'm just so grateful for you. I can't wait to see you right here, right back here again in a couple of weeks. The Unlonely podcast is produced by three incredible humans, Brian Siever, Taylor McGilvray, and Jeremy Saunders, all of Snack Lab Productions.

Our executive producer, my favorite human on this planet, is Marty Piller. Soundtracks were created by Donovan Morgan, Unlonely Branded Art were created by Elliot Cuss, our big PR shooters are Des Venaux and Barry Cohen. Our digital marketing manager is the amazing Shana Haddon. Our 007 secret agent from the talent bureau is Jeff Lowness. And emotional support is provided by Asher Grant, Evan Grant, and Olivia Grant. Go Liv! I am a registered clinical psychologist in Alberta, Canada. The content created and produced in this show is not intended as specific therapeutic advice. The intention of this podcast is to provide information, resources, education, and the one thing I think we all

need the most, a safe place to land in this lonely world. We're all so glad you're here.