Kenyatta Turner, BSPC

I believe that personal development, taking the time to learn about yourself and philosophies that could help me get out of my own way and accomplish the things that are important to me, has been key to my success. I want to live a fulfilled life. There's a concept called ikigai, which is a Japanese term that basically means the reason for being, your reason for life. If you think of a Venn diagram with four circles - what you love, what the world needs, what you can get paid for, and what you're good at - I believe my success, even before I knew this term, has been because I was always seeking something like that. I always wanted to be doing something I enjoyed, something I was naturally good at, because I probably would enjoy it. I feel that my contribution to humanity is my own understanding of my own self-worth and falling in love with self, which helps me be a better person, and ultimately, I think that's a ripple effect. I refuse to let anyone tell me I can't have or don't deserve to have these things that bring me joy in my life, especially if I'm doing things that bring other people joy. I will not be stopped, because people get to make their own choices, and my mother raised me to believe that. Watching her as an entrepreneur since she was young, I saw her living a life well-lived on her own terms. My father died when I was 12 at age 38, and when I turned 38, I had this revelation about what he would have done if he'd had more time. I made a statement to myself that I would not squander one hour, one year, one day, one moment beyond the age of 38 if I was granted what I call my extra innings. Within 6 weeks, I quit my job and started my business. My success comes from that kind of mentality.

The first thing that comes to mind is something that an old supervisor would always say to me. If I ever said, oh, I hope so-and-so would happen, he would always be like, well, hope is not a strategy. And I would be like, huh, you're right! Another boss would say to me, control the controllables. I kind of put those in the same bucket. It's about you need to focus on things that are actually in your control, and hoping for something to happen is not a strategy to attempt to ensure that it will happen or that it won't happen. As far as career advice, why it stuck with me is that it taught me to be intentional around understanding what I want and being intentional about taking the steps to get it. That's career advice right there. I absolutely parlay that into who I coach. I give them the data to help them decide what it is they want, and then we take those behavioral steps to go ahead and get it based on how they're wired. Another piece of advice was when someone says something to you that makes you think, that's stupid, or I can't believe you said that to me, a leader told me that how I think about what they said shows up all over my face. She advised me to say, hmm, that's interesting, tell me more about that. It gives me a moment to pause before I respond, asks them to elaborate on what they said, which may give me more clarification and may even change my mind about why I initially thought it was dumb. That was a huge piece of leadership advice because I carry that today.

I have a quote that I always say, which is, to know yourself and others, you must first sacrifice the illusion that you already do. To know yourself and others, you must first sacrifice the illusion that you already do. Why I would give that as a piece of advice is that whatever it is that they are going to do, if they do not take the time to slow down and really, truly understand their wiring, what they're already built to do, and then build their business or career around that, it's easier if you do that than just trying to shove a square peg into a round hole just for money, or prestige, or just because they offered it to you. It's about finding the thing, literally, that is your behavioral superpower. Working at colleges for 20-plus years, I have lots of data that shows how tragic it can be when people go into the wrong program or take the wrong job. I've seen it happen thousands of times. That first step of really knowing yourself means you're less likely to compare yourself to others because you're happier with yourself, and you give them grace for being different. In fact, you learn how to elevate and celebrate those differences. If you don't take the time to really do that work on yourself through personal development and a tool like what I have - I read books, I study Think and Grow Rich, I read that book every 12 weeks, and the work that book makes you do on yourself is not about rich as in money, it's about rich as in life - most people will not take those steps to do the inner work, so they just wind up floundering or grinding a square peg into a round hole.

Organizations that either have a budget but won't use their budget dollars to help understand their team and the infrastructure of that team - that's a challenge. It's the idea that you can be having these struggles and pains in your company or organization, but not willing to actually think outside of the conventional box to do something different. That can be a challenge for someone like myself, because I see the challenge, I see the problem, I have the answer, it's so very clear to me. The challenge is always finding those who are willing to try something different. Or, the challenge is the leader themselves are not prepared to look that closely at themselves. And so, therefore, the whole team struggles because they don't think there's anything wrong with how they're doing anything, and there may not be anything wrong. It just might be a lack of awareness. That can become a challenge in an industry like mine if the person who is holding the purse strings and is the decision maker won't even look at themselves deeply, but then they want to fix their team. That's a challenge. Outside of that, all the rest are just all the normal things - you gotta market and all that. But it's really about that leader that is refusing their own objective self-awareness. They are not only a challenge to themselves, they're a challenge and a threat to the entire organization.

Freedom, creativity, and spontaneity are the most important values to me. I'm not someone who's a fan of structure. I don't like doing things the same way twice. I always want to just flow with it and do it how I want, and my vibe changes, and that's my superpower, but that is absolutely my kryptonite. I value the freedom to do whatever I want, when I want, how long as I want, with whoever I want, come back when I'm ready. I just really love that. Freedom Empire is named my company, and that's not an accident. It's really a concept and a mindset. I don't want any shackles at all to be put on me for what I want to do with my life and for my life, and I believe that it's only up to me to make that happen, and I want the freedom to do it. That means I want to be able to flow with the flow if I want to and need to, but I also understand that in some aspects, that's not always an option, but I still want the freedom to have my own space within whatever confines I might need to work within.