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The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
Finding Home and Authenticity: A Journey Through Arizona's Vistas and Personal Leadership
Embark with us on a heartfelt quest for home and harmony, as I narrate the emotional saga of my property search through the breathtaking vistas of Arizona. It's an odyssey of self-discovery, where I draw poetic comparisons between the landscapes explored and the nuanced journey of cultivating a vibrant atmosphere for your team. In this episode, we peel back the layers of what it means to truly connect with a place—paralleling the essence of creating a space where individuals feel valued and inspired. I recount the intimate moments of revelation, the transformative drives through untamed terrain, and the surge of belonging upon finding a property that echoed with my soul.
Carrying forward the theme of authenticity, we shift focus to the profound impact of genuine self-expression in leadership and interpersonal communication. Through personal anecdotes and reflections, I illuminate the transformative power of embracing our unique essence and allowing that sincerity to permeate every facet of communication. This episode isn't just about the bricks and mortar of a dwelling in Arizona; it's a testament to the courage required to lead with integrity, and the magnetic pull of spaces—physical and metaphorical—that resonate with our deepest truths. Join me, and let’s explore the resonance of authenticity in life's grand tapestry.
Well, hey there. Welcome to the People Gardener podcast. I'm Rhonda Delaney, your host, also known as the People Gardener, thrilled to put this podcast together to help small business owners, new business owners, frustrated business owners and aspiring leaders, whether they're inside business or outside. Each week, we bring you some actionable steps so that you can actually improve your skill as a leader. That's what we're about. We're here to help you become a better leader by giving you access to lots of different perspectives. The guests are varied. We're thrilled to have them. Get out your pen, get out your paper and be ready to learn Every single episode. You're going to be able to take something away that you can implement. Are you ready? Let's get to work. Well, hey there, ready, let's get to work. Well, hey there. Welcome back to the People Gardener podcast. Happy to have you here this week. Oh, wow, it has been a roller coaster this last week, so I'm going to share some excitement and some learning.
Speaker 1:I talked about our hunt, our search for property in Arizona hunt, our search for property in Arizona. Where we ended finding property was about two and a half hours south of Las Vegas. We were down for four days in September last year, down for four days, again in January, and each of those times we rented a car and we're driving and we are learning the lay of the land. This time I happened to have a business conference and so the conference was Thursday and Friday, and then we thought, okay, well, we'll go and we'll just hang out in the sun and we'll do another hunt, so on, let me see. Okay, so the conference was Thursday and Friday and I was totally mentally, emotionally, psychologically drained. So Saturday I went out to the pool for a couple of hours and then came in and basically napped throughout the day trying to recover from this event. Oh man, anyway, it was wonderful and we'll get into a little bit about what I learned and what really struck me.
Speaker 1:So let's see, sunday we spent 17 and a half hours. We left at six in the morning and we got back at 1130 at night. We had 16 properties, 15 or 16 properties on the list that we were going to hit. Now the area was three hours from Phoenix, so we had to spend three hours there and three hours back just to kind of get in the general vicinity. We had wanted to get something that was more in the mountains, cooler temps, you know, the 4,000, 5,000 thousand foot level. But there's always these trade-offs, right, a lot of the time you're driving on these goat trails. I mean seriously, they're just bumpy and horrible. And I was saying to Trev, I said you know what, I think we'd become hermits if we lived here, because it just it's just so horrible to get out on the road we wouldn't want to leave.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, we carried on and Trev had found a property in an area called Yucca, south of Kingman, arizona. So we decided, okay, we're going to hit there. And unfortunately, by the time we hit there, the sun had gone down. I mean, we were standing on the property and it was this gorgeous sunset. You could see the mountains, it was just beautiful. And we decided, okay, we've got to come back on Monday.
Speaker 1:So we got home 1130. We got up and no, we did not leave at 6am again, we gave ourselves a bit of time in the morning. It was about nine I guess, when we left, and so we went out to the property, got there and and it's like, okay, yeah, this is okay. And then we started wandering around the property and come to find out that there's a rancher that's basically squatting with a big, huge water container and his cows and there's a road, this kind of easement road, that goes through it and it's kind of go, yeah, no, no, that's not what we're looking for. I had found a bunch of properties in and around that same area.
Speaker 1:So we get to this one property, the one that we eventually bought and walking up the driveway and that's a loose term driveway, it was just kind of this sort of cleared path, but what struck me was the welcome Walking up it just, oh, it felt so good. For those of you that have come to know me, I'm all about feeling and same with your teams making them feel welcome, feel that they belong, and to invite them in. And that's what I felt on this property. And Trev, yeah, he was sort of, yeah, okay, the view was fabulous, you could see mountains 360 degrees.
Speaker 1:Trev says to me he says you know we need to go back up to this other property because one of the things that I absolutely love is these humongous boulders, a lot of the properties in this area of the country, lots of rocks, lots of boulders. He said you need to come and walk it Because I didn't walk it with him when he went to look at it. So we get up there and we're looking and it's nice, yeah, quite a bit steeper, steeper slope, and yes, you could see some of the mountains, but not all of them. And so we're doing our thing, chatting back and forth, and then I said you know what? We need to go back to that other property and just have another look at it too. And we get in there and I have that same feeling and we're going through it and Trev goes. Yeah, no, I said to him. I said Trev, you can't settle like you. You got to feel this the way I feel this. He said, no, it's so much more inviting. There's way more potential here for doing what we want to do. Yeah, we got home and we called the realtor and said, okay, we're putting an offer in. Wednesday we're at the airport. They came back with a counter. We accepted the counter and Thursday morning accepted the counter and Thursday morning signed all the paperwork. We're in escrow and we're to close May 15th. So, yay, we're excited for getting started on this journey, for moving to Arizona. That was a great excitement for the trip. So on to what are some things that I learned at this retreat?
Speaker 1:Gentleman by the name of Alex Paulus and you'll find his website at innershiftcom. He's how do I explain what he does? It is a personality type. It's not a quiz but it's a reading. I'm not exactly sure how to define it, but what he was explaining is I'm sure you've all done the personality quiz. I know I have. I've done them for years and the challenge with those is you are answering the questions with your own bias about you and about your experience and about your life, and we all know that we are biased. It's really really hard to be completely objective about something and when it comes to ourselves, a lot of us have no self-awareness and we don't really know how we behave and how we talk and how we interact. So for him, his personality assessment is based on your face, on the shape of your face. It's based on genetics. It's not based on subjective thought. Wow, it was really really interesting. Still trying to wrap my head around it. But one of the things that he mentioned is that we can obscure our personality because of experiences and things that are going on and we don't embrace our personality as it is our inborn who we are. He helps people to do it. He does have a book out. Let me see if I can find. I know I took notes but I can't remember if I took down the name of the book. But you could just go on to Amazon and type his name Alex Paulos. It's P-A-U-L-O-S. He basically gets you to really understand your inborn personality and then find ways to help you express that, because that's what people need. They need you. And then another gal that was there, her name was Tracy Goodwin and her website is captivate the room.
Speaker 1:Another fascinating speaker. Again, it's on the knowing yourself. Right, she talks about the seven layers of your voice and the things that your voice is saying without you actually saying those words. And and oh, when she was talking it was like oh, rhonda, that is you. I tend to come across as the professional that's one of the terms. I slow my speech. I've mentioned this before. I slow my speech and I'm trying to be very deliberate and very focused on being accurate, all the things.
Speaker 1:What she's saying often that these are masks. These are voice masks that you put on because you have a block about actually being yourself and showing your personality or expressing your voice. And something interesting that she said is that your voice is an orchestra. It has all of the different instruments in it and the conductor, which is you, decides which instruments are going to be heard and which notes are going to be heard. So if you have all of these masks on, the orchestra is not being heard in full and that really affects the song or the voice that's being heard. Absolutely fascinating. I would definitely go and check her website out too.
Speaker 1:One of the things that she said she was talking about clients, and I'm thinking about you, talking about talking with your team is that they are not interested in hearing you. They're interested in hearing themselves in you. They have to be able to connect with what you're saying. And she said our voice is our identity and it is the sound of our soul and it's like, wow, that really, really hit me. You want people to hear you, the essence of you, everything that you are, everything that you believe in, everything that's important to you. You can imagine why my brain was hurting. There were some really intense sessions and new concepts that you're trying to wrap your head around and trying to understand.
Speaker 1:And this Tracy. She did a live training with one of the gals. She had an ad, a reel, let's say, on Instagram, and she wasn't happy with it. So Tracy was helping her to become happier with it, and it was interesting to listen as she said things. And then Tracy would say okay, you need to say that, like you mean it, like you believe it. And so she would say the same thing again, and by the end of it, you couldn't even recognize that first reel that was done compared to the final one. Everything just came alive. It was so cool to actually see it in motion and to see it in real time.
Speaker 1:I really encourage you to go to her site. You can follow her on Instagram as well, but this is something that each one of us can do as we are speaking Be aware. Are you wearing any masks? Are you just being yourself? Are you worrying about what other people are going to think? Are you worrying about what other people are thinking about how you're presenting yourself? Not just your words, but yourself? Oh, so much work that we can do as people in order to communicate better.
Speaker 1:Like I said in the beginning, it was a wild week last week.
Speaker 1:Lots of things happening when you are communicating your personality and your voice. Let's all work at actually showing up as who we are. That's it for this week. We'll talk to you again next week. Well, thanks for joining me today. Just a quick reminder if you are not on my email list, go to my website, rondadelaneycom, and there's a place there that you can subscribe, keep you up to date on all things people gardening and leadership that the Raving Fans Society app is available on the Apple Store and the Google Store. I do have a free membership in there that you'll be able to access some of my material, and then there's also a paid membership, and right now it's $49 a month and you will receive access to all of my material, all of the teaching content, including a resource library that will really help you along, as well as group coaching every month and then quarterly bringing in guests that will talk on topics that pertain to small business owners and leadership. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you again next week.