Ria Story Podcast
Summary
The interviewee, Ria Story, is a sought-after leadership speaker, author, and trainer with top story leadership. She has over 13 years of experience and 21 books on leadership for various levels and demographics. She and her husband, Max Story, travel internationally to speak at different events and focus on the blue-collar workforce. Ria's background is in the administrative side of health care, where she had to develop her influence and leadership skills to enforce policies and regulations. She and her Josh Spodek discusses the importance of leadership, especially in the face of advancements in artificial intelligence. He explains that while AI may replace some jobs, it cannot replace the human element and intuition that make humans unique. Leadership involves developing oneself and becoming a better version of oneself, which in turn, can change how we interact with others. Spodek also draws parallels between running marathons and life, mentioning the need to focus on the process and be committed to it, while being detached from The key to success in life, leadership, and running is discipline and consistency. Motivation can only take you so far, but being disciplined leads to freedom and options. When speaking to people in events, it's important to share authentic stories and provide resources for continued growth. Leaders must also work on building genuine connections with their team, as this is key to influencing and leading others effectively, even if they are introverted.As a resilient courage warrior, Heather has overcome many personal adversities and has learned how to interact with others in an authentic way. She has realized that leadership is a journey and not a destination, and being true to yourself is key in building genuine connections with others. Heather's Journey to giving a TEDx talk was a powerful one, and she learned that when you own your own story, it no longer owns you. The experience of sharing her story and helping others has given her purpose and meaning,With special guest, Ria Story, we talk about leadership and personal growth, her backstory, and leadership development in the military. We cover Ria's book and course content for improvement on the job, as well as her and her husband Mack's stance on and journey with social media (including their rich strategy for user growth), with regard to the goals of helping the younger generation succeed. We also chat about influencer marketing and influencer outreach, and conclude with a quick talk about challenges in leadership
Transcription
Speaker 1
[00.00.00]
Hey, it's Ben from the Warehouse Underground podcast. Running out of space in your facility. It is one of the worst things that can happen. Completely slows down your OP, but the customer doesn't care. That's your problem, right? But it doesn't have to be. There is a solution out there that can be a shelter in the storm until it blows over, and that can come from warehouse on wheels. They deliver on demand storage trailers when you need them, that flex with your operation and with locations all across North America, there's a very good chance that they can help you to know long term leases for a new facility. No delays, no over Pam for space, you don't need no CapEx, just simple smart storage delivered right to your door. So don't let your dog and your aisles become jam packed with pallets wrecking your operation. No, let Wow be your side storage solution while you go back to focusing on main line operation. Hey, what's up everyone! Thank you for tuning in to episode number 32 at the Warehouse Underground podcast, Real Talk or Warehouse DC and FC professionals of all levels around the globe. I'm Ben, the host of the show, and joining me on the show today is Ria Story. Now Ria story is a sought after leadership speaker, author and trainer with top story leadership. Her creation become the leader you're destined to be. She herself is a published author. She has 21 books on leadership of all types of levels, of all types of people. Now her husband, Max story, who I had on the last podcast, is the creator along with her a blue collar leadership. And they travel all across the globe, speaking at all different sizes of events with all different types of companies or all different types of people. But their emphasis is on the blue collar workforce, which I appreciate because as you know, in the warehousing world, most of the people, the majority of the people that are working in that are blue collar frontline employees. And so I really appreciate and respect that. She's very, very inspiring person to listen to. She has incredible wisdom and insight. She's been doing this for over 13 years now, and I'm really excited and frankly honored to have her on the show to talk about some of her journey and some of her ideas and, and methods and recommendations for how to become the best leader that you can possibly be. And so with that, I will bring her on to the stage right now. Hi Rhea, thank you very much for coming on the podcast. How are you?
Speaker 2
[00.02.50]
I'm great. Ben. Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1
[00.02.53]
Yeah, you are very welcome. So I did I did the podcast episode 31 with Mac, and you were there, right? You were there. You helped produce that in the background. And I told Mac, I'm like, I must have Rhea on the podcast because she's very, very engaging. Right? And I know you two are a pair, right? Mac and Rhea is is is the thing wherever you guys go. And so I just felt like it would be a bad, bad karma to have one on the show and not and not the other. So, uh, but but thank but thank you again. So I really appreciate it. So I gave it a little bit about your background in, in the intro and kind of what you're, what you're doing now and the people that follow, you know, but for the people that don't know, just tell them a little bit about your background and kind of what led you to where you are today with top story leadership and blue collar leadership?
Speaker 2
[00.03.46]
Sure. Um, I'll try to keep it to the short story instead of the long story, if that's it. Um, my background really was an administrative side of health care. So compliance policies and procedures, um, organizational compliance with federal regulations, internal policies, auditing, that sort of thing. And, you know. At that time when I, when I left the, the the corporate side of my career about 13, 14 years ago up until that point, I mean, I had been fortunate to work for some good organizations and been given many great opportunities. Um, often, you know, I had the opportunity to to go to college and I have three, um, leadership management degrees, but not up to that point. Up until that point when I left that, um, last real job. Up until that point, all of the training that it had, all of the college degrees, I've had all of the workshops and seminars that I've been to in conferences, many of which were titled leadership. None of them really talked about leadership. They talked a lot about management. And at the time I didn't know the difference. And yeah, working in compliance was a trial by fire because I had all of the responsibility, none of the authority. And so I really had to develop my influence and working with people because I couldn't I couldn't make them follow the policies. right? I had to learn to work with people and develop influence with them. Uh, because I didn't have the authority, I couldn't say do it because I told you so. But I learned so much about leadership and leadership from a position of influence, not a title. And, you know, I look back and some of the biggest mistakes, but some of the best lessons from that point in my career and in 20 the end of 2013, 2014, I left that Mac and I were kind of on a similar path, and we both wanted to get into helping people apply the leadership principles that we had learned and been successful in our life, and helping other people apply them. So we kind of just in a in a space of about a year, both kind of similar paths. I always like to say that Mac and I have his mind and ours. Right. The principles that we teach are the same. Um, the, the demographic that we target are focus on is our niche is a little bit different. But that's okay. We love we got married because we like each other, so most of the time we speak together. The stories change, the principles don't.
Speaker 1
[00.06.16]
Yeah, I think that's such a powerful, powerful duo. Right. I think you can have different perspectives a little bit here and there, but the core of it. Both of you are absolutely on the same page. And I think you brought up a good point. And that is management and leadership get confused a lot. But they're but they're not the same thing. Right. They're not the same thing. And I'm glad that you bring that up. So now you so you you you are a part of top story leadership, which is your creation and blue collar leadership, which you do with Mac. But you know, what exactly are those things, right? Because you I mean, there is a website and you go and you and you give lessons and and you speak and you have a podcast and you have books. So they just kind of explain the audience kind of what these, uh, operations are all about. And, you know, who are the organizations that you serve and, and how do you serve them? Us.
Speaker 2
[00.07.12]
Hmm. That's a great question, Ben. Um, to put it very simply, I think blue collar leadership is the blue collar side of what we do. And top story leadership tends to be a little more of the white collar side of what we do. What's interesting is that the need for leadership is not industry specific. So I mean, we've had clients, banks and fast food chains and educational institutions and, you know, colleges and, um, and then and the blue on the blue collar side of things, you know, we've got construction industries and, you know, manufacturing. Right? So. The. We have both websites because we started with our our overall brand top story leadership. And then in 2016, Mac really found his voice and his passion for blue collar leadership and that niche and carved it out. And so we just had to figure out, you know, we have, again, his mind and ours. Right? So most of the time it's ours. Um, but we keep both websites and both brands because we do have some clients who are more white collar. And, you know, again, many of them are in those blue collar, um, hands on industries. And the best thing I think about that is that, you know, again, the principles might be the same, but what Mac and I try to, to make sure that we always bring is just be authentic. We don't try to be something we're not. Right. He's a he's the definitely, you know, more of the blue collar side of things. Um, and that's okay. When we're speaking, we kind of have a male female dynamic. We've got two different perspectives. Um, and while more of my experience was on the administrative office side of things, um, I started my career waiting tables and, you know, picking up half eaten pizza crust off the floor. So nothing wrong with that, right? We all start somewhere. Um, but I, you know, I like to kind of go back to that. That's that's definitely a hands on, get your hands kind of dirty job.
Speaker 1
[00.09.07]
Yeah. And I think the beautiful thing about leadership and why I love to talk about it and so many other people do is because it's it's universal. I mean, it applies to every industry, no matter where you at, where you're at in that industry. You can draw lessons from from everything. And I'm sure you agree with me on that. And so but let me ask you this question because I, I, um, I come from the warehousing world, warehousing and distribution centers and fulfillment centers and sometimes people will say. Well. As technology begins to rise, as robotics begin to rise. And as you know, just tech in general improves, increases that there's going to be less and less of a need and a premium put on leadership, because it's just going to have kind of all those tasks taken care of by by machines. But I don't really subscribe to that belief, you know, because I, because I think that, you know, there's a difference between transactional tasks and, and leadership. So how do you how do you see that? I mean, it's everywhere that we turn in society today. I mean, everyone wants to know about tech, but do you think that leadership is on the decline, or do you think it's even more important today than it ever has been before in terms of developing it for the individual person?
Speaker 2
[00.10.31]
I tend to agree with you, but I think it's going to be ever more increasingly important because as long as there are people, there's going to be a need for influencing people in a positive way. Right. Leadership and influence can be negative. And we've certainly seen some influential leaders across the world, across history, who were very powerfully able to influence people. but they used it in a negative way. Right. But when I talk about leadership and influence, we assume it's positive. Yeah. Um, the interesting thing is that, you know, absolutely, there's going to be a shift. We're already seeing that where some jobs, some task oriented jobs are going to be replaced. But there are always going to be people and the leadership principles that help us be effective at influencing people at work. Help us be effective at influencing our teenagers to make better choices in life. Help us with influencing our spouse, right? And so number one, that's not going away. We're always going to want more influence with those people close to our heart. But also there's the thing that what AI cannot replace is the human element. Right. What makes us different from the computer brain is, is that we are human. And leadership is so much about intuition and developing that that human side of us. Um, AI is going to replace things like running the formulas or running the codes or building the programs to run machines, but it's not going to be able to replace what makes humans different. I mean, why do we pick the restaurants that we go to? Um, the food might be great, but what we mostly go to a restaurant for is the experience. And that's going to come down to the human interaction. Right. Why do we choose a doctor or why do we why do we work with certain organizations? Why do we buy from certain? Um, you know, why do we buy from certain car companies? Most of the time, it's because we treasure the interaction and the experience that we're getting. And that's going to come down to human interaction, and that's just going to become more valuable, because if we're not careful, that skill is going to get lost in the next generation. As we as we are more increasing our demand and our interaction with AI. We need to be careful that we are intentionally letting that next generation develop those those human interaction skills, emotional intelligence.
Speaker 1
[00.12.51]
Yeah, I agree with you 100%. I think people that think that leadership is just transactional, accomplishing tasks or getting other people to to do that or are missing the whole picture. Leadership is leading yourself. You. You lead your family. You lead your what, whatever area of life that you're in. Like leadership and the and the the parts that make that up a play play a role. And you just as a human being, I think whether or not you even work for a company or not, like leadership is is everywhere. And it's it's funny that you mentioned the AI thing because I, I just was having a discussion of seventh grade son and a sixth grade daughter and they they love AI, right? They try to use it to do all their homework and it has all the answers there. And so it's a constant battle in 2025 with with youth of this is not just it's just a summary of everybody's in general knowledge. But this is not creativity. This is not, you know, authenticity. This is not oversight. This is not, you know, how you how you form an opinion. It's none of those things. And I think that as the the AI begins to rise, it used to be that knowledge is what everybody wanted to acquire, because you had to acquire knowledge because that that gave you a competitive advantage in the market that other people didn't have. But now knowledge is sort of everywhere. Everybody can get it. But what what differentiates people now, I think, is just that ability to be creative and have and have morals and, and be able to to think on your feet and be able to problem solve and all those things. And those don't come from AI, those come from developing yourself right and developing yourself as a leader. And so if you have that in the future, you're going to be even more valuable in a world where everybody is just relying on AI, taking a shortcut. Yeah, yeah, they're taking a shortcut. They're not they're not developing that skill. So, uh, definitely 100%. So I can't keep my kids off. AI just said,
Speaker 2
[00.14.48]
well, it's there's something about it, right? It's why we encourage kids to do sports. It's not the game itself. It's who they become in the process.
Speaker 1
[00.14.56]
Yeah. And I was like, there's like when I was a kid, there were cliff notes were a thing. Yeah. I don't know if that's that's what everybody cheated on was. It was just I just read Cliff notes of the book and now it's just now it's even easier than that. Now it's just AI right there. So cool. So let me let me ask this question. So I'll pop up on the screen so everybody can see if they're watching. I, I, I follow you on LinkedIn and I look at a lot of your stuff. It's incredible by the way. I mean, just the the insight and the knowledge and the wisdom that you're putting out there. I love and thank you. And and I hope everybody who's listening will do that too. But one of the favorite my favorite quotes that I've seen is from you is high impact leadership isn't about doing something different, it's about becoming something different. And I love that because it's real subtle. But in your mind, what do you see between what do you think is the difference between those two, and why do they sometimes get get confused? I think with people. Hmm.
Speaker 2
[00.15.55]
Well, but I, I believe, from, you know, just seeing it from my perspective, it kind of builds on what we were just talking about. Right? And developing our kids, it's we as humans, when we grow, we see things from a different level, right? Just like if you physically grow taller, you can see over the higher fence. When we grow in our level of self-awareness and our character, when we grow and develop who we are as a person, that's going to change how we interact with everybody else. Because what everybody experiences on the outside is who we are on the inside, right? You can't hide character. You might could fake it for a minute, but sooner or later it's it's going to come through. Because who you are as a person determines how you do what you do. And when I grow and develop who I am, that's going to change how I interact with people. For example, I am I. I'm a very social person, but I didn't realize it for a good 21st 20 years of my life. Right? And I realized early on that. Connecting with people socially just didn't come naturally due to my upbringing and circumstances. And, you know, I'm probably a little more introverted, but I realized that I could grow and develop that right. And when I started to grow me, that changed how I interacted and my ability to interact with people. Right now, I can now I talk to people for a living. So, uh, it's a good example of yes, when you when you realize when you change who you are, that's going to change how you do what you do, and that's going to, you know, a lot of times we think about leadership is is taking the boxes and, you know, giving everybody a turkey and recognizing them for hard work. That's that's good stuff. But it's the little interactions we have day to day as a leader or as a team member or coworker or as a spouse, a parent, right? With people, the little things are the big things, and we have to be intentional about growing and developing who we are so that in the especially in the moments of high stress, who you are naturally is just going to pop out. Right? And if we're not making sure that we're growing and becoming, you know, just the best version of ourselves, there's nothing wrong with us. Right? I love Michael Josephson. Quote. You don't have to be sick to get better. Yeah. Because we don't. There's nothing wrong with us. But we can grow and improve. And if we're intentional about that, that's going to change how we interact with people in the daily. Small things, little things, like remembering to say thank you when someone does something for us, right. That's going to happen. That's going to happen.
Speaker 1
[00.18.35]
I've always I've always had a quote that I like. And that is when you get squeezed, what comes out is what's on the inside. You know, I mean, and so I think and what I take that to be is when things get tough, right, when it gets tense and you get kind of squeezed, you pour out sort of how you are, who you are. And at that point you can't fake it anymore. You can't. The mask comes down, right. What comes out is who you are. So I think that's why it's so important for people to develop that. You're right. Because, you know, you don't always control consciously the energy or the vibe that you put on that's kind of controlled without you knowing how that's controlled. But other people are going to be able to perceive that whether or not you are or not. And I think that kind of speaks to what you're talking about. Just. Yeah, I'm doing all these nice things for everybody, but they're not feeling the they're not feeling the authenticity of the energy that I, that I'm putting off. So, uh, yeah, I love that. And I don't want to get too cosmic on it, but, you know, that's just how I feel. I think everybody has a wavelength and an energy and people pick up on positive and they react. They, they reject the the negative. So you know I thinks that so. All right. So okay I research every guest before they come on the show. So I don't want you to think that I'm like creeping around on you or anything like that. But you are a marathon runner. So I saw on your LinkedIn that you you've run a lot of marathons. You post about running marathons, which I love, and I immediately identify with it is my wife is is a Spartan runner. So she's trained and ran a lot of Spartan ultras and the whole thing. And we've talked before about all the sort of what we feel are parallels, um, and life lessons that come from running like the come running on races like that. So I know you're a runner and you pride yourself on that. So what do you think? I mean, you think there's life lessons to be learned and parallels and analogies from running that everybody can apply to their to their day to day life, even though it's, it's it's not a race or it's not running.
Speaker 2
[00.20.41]
I hope you do. Absolutely, absolutely. So many, so many parallels. Um, you know, some of my favorites tend to be that we have to focus on the process and be committed to the process and detached from the outcome. And what I mean by that is like, if you're training for a Spartan race and and kudos to your wife, because that's amazing. Or training for a marathon or a five K, right? It's b committed to showing up. B committed to the discipline to put the work in so that when race day comes, you are prepared. And the correlation there to leadership and life is have the discipline to develop yourself so that you have options and opportunities in your career. Have the discipline to get up on time so that you have options at your at your current job. Right? It's it's the discipline today leads to freedom and options tomorrow. And such a powerful reminder because you know you can kind of get through a five K. It's a 3.1 mile race. You can kind of just most most everybody in, you know, respectable health can just get up and go walk or run three miles. You can't you can't cheat it on a Spartan race or a 26 mile run, right? You have to put the work in. And if you don't, you you won't be successful. So much correlation there in life and leadership. We have to be committed to the system, to the process and then detached from the outcome. We can't control the outcome. What we can control is how we show up today. And you know, when I, when I when I think about that, most people are. More. Most people are more interested in intensity, but consistency beats intensity every time in life and leadership and running in training, it's being consistent day to day, and, you know, the intensity is only going to take you so far, but the consistency will take you as far as you want to go. But you have to be disciplined because you're not always going to feel like it. Tuesday morning it was, you know, pouring rain and like 42 degrees and you're like, I don't want to go running that right. And so you have to just be committed to that process.
Speaker 1
[00.22.55]
Yeah. When I was in the when I was in the Air Force, um, back in the day, I had to go through water survival school. And one of the things that was required was we had a swim a mile, which I had never swam that far in my life. So I trained for it, and I kind of did learn some different strokes, the side stroke and and the stamina and everything. Well, on the day that it comes where we do the swim, there was a surprise that was put on us. And that was all 20 guys and girls were in the same lane. Wow.
Speaker 2
[00.23.29]
Wow. So that.
Speaker 1
[00.23.31]
And so what happens is, is that when you swim with that much, you get kicked in the head. You get kicked in the stomach. But the lesson is you just you can't. You gotta just roll with it. That's life. Right. Like, that's the the mile swim. You're going to get kicked, you're going to feel good. You're going to feel bad. And I always took some life lessons from that. So anytime I meet with somebody who does like a long distance race, I'm like, hey, you know, is there times where you feel strong and then other times where you feel like, oh my God, why? Why am I even here? And then you push through that and then you and I feel like that's kind of one of the parallels with, with life and you just that way. I think when you have that mindset, you don't get overly, you know, emotional about one way or the other. You know, like, it just it happens. It's part of it. And then I'm not going to I'm not going to react and and waste my energy on a reaction. I'm just going to deal with it. Right? I'm just going to deal with it, you know? So I mean, if you get kicked in, if you get kicked too much, okay, I'm not going to get out with a, with a with a black guy. But, uh, yeah. So I love that. I love that you do that. And I hope you continue running. You know, uh, my wife finds a lot of good, uh, good release from it, and it's a really good thing. So, uh, happy when I. When I talk to people to do that. So. Cool. So let's talk a little bit about when you go and you speak at events. So you go speak in front of companies and and you've done that all over the globe. Um, like like Mac and I talk on the last show, but I'll just say one of the, one of the knocks. It's not it's not a knock. But one of the things that sometimes people say about that is it's great when they're, they're all the people that they're speaking to get pumped up and they get excited and they feel good. And and then for like 2 or 3 days after, it's great. But then everything just sort of starts to fade back into normal. And, and so, I mean, is that something that you guys see and what do you do to sort of ensure that the seed that you plant because that's what you're doing, you're planting a seed when you're there, what do you do to ensure that that has its best chance of, of of growing long after you leave?
Speaker 2
[00.25.41]
Mm. That's so true. Right. Because motivation doesn't last, I think in Zig Ziglar who said motivation doesn't last, but neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily, you know?
Speaker 1
[00.25.51]
Um, yeah. Motivation is external. And sure, we've all been to a conference or an event and you get fired up and you're motivated, but that's coming from the outside, right? Inspiration from within you is going to last. So the first thing, uh, first of two things that that we that Mac and I do, the first is that we share just share our stories, write the stories of where we got it wrong, stories of where we got it right. Be authentic with, hey, you know, life is tough, but these are some principles that will help you be successful if you apply them. Because if I can get somebody bought into this isn't just theoretical fluff you read in a book, right? This is absolutely real knowledge that helps you be successful in life. And I know because I'm living proof. So that's the first and foremost thing that we do when we're speaking in an event is is be real and authentic. But just, you know, share the hey, these are these are truths. These are principles like gravity. When you know what gravity is, it's much easier in life to work with gravity than against gravity. The second thing that we do is Mac and I pretty much always just, um, as a, as a package, we bundle, um, speaking or training session with either books or online video courses because transformation is not going to happen in an afternoon. Right? It doesn't matter what I say in a keynote. And, um, I love the analogy from Simon Sinek that says it's leadership development and growth is is sort of like going to the dentist if all you do is go to the dentist twice a year and you don't brush and floss your teeth, your teeth are gonna fall out of your head. That's a good one.
Speaker 2
[00.27.29]
It's it's the daily brushing, right, that keeps our teeth healthy, grows. And personal leadership development is the same way. It's it's not the once a year conference. It's reading 15 minutes a day or listening to a podcast or, you know, just the daily things that help us grow over time. And so that's why we bundle, you know, we almost always like we were glad to come in and do a keynote or a training session, but we want the audience to walk away with resources so that they have growth, you know, growth materials for the journey afterward.
Speaker 1
[00.28.01]
Yeah, and that's a definitely a differentiator, I think, but with U2. Is that exactly what you said? We're not here to just come in and pump you up and then and then go, like, we honestly and genuinely care about everybody's development. I know you do, and I know Mac does as well. And that's where all those other resources and everything come into play. Like if you don't have them, then you're, you end the moment that that your presentation ends and you leave. And I still sometimes like I've been to events like that and you really want more like you feel good, you want more, and you're like, where's the. Yeah. Like, where's the next? I'm ready. You know, like I'm ready to do the next thing and take the next step. But there's just nothing there. And then you just, you know, you just kind of fade away. So I love that that you guys, uh, offer that, and I, and I, you know, I know that you have, you know, mentored people personally. I know both of you have done that as well on the side. And so I find that really respectful and, uh, and definitely a differentiator out there in the, in the, in the speaking world, you know, you you guys are good speakers and everything, but but you're really there to really, honestly, genuinely develop people like, develop leaders. And uh, I love that so much. I think that's great. And that and that and many other people do too. Obviously, that's why you guys are so successful and sought after around the globe, because people know that they're getting the real thing. So, uh, I really appreciate that. Cool. Now let me ask this question. So and we sort of already talked about this a little bit. But some people and like I, I am a I'm a somewhat introverted person too, which sometimes shocked people because they're like, well, you do the podcast and all this stuff. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2
[00.29.40]
but you know, that's that's
Speaker 1
[00.29.42]
who I am, right? You have to be honest and authentic with with who you are. And um, so some people, if they maybe are a little bit more of an introverted personality, but they find themselves in the leadership role sometimes it's a challenge for them to make those genuine, authentic connections with the people that they lead because they're not naturally able to do that. And I wasn't naturally able to do that for a long time either. Like, that is a skill that that I had to develop. So, you know, I, I, I think that this is more common than people realize out there. It's just it doesn't get brought up. But how do you think about that? I mean, you you've talked with so many different people. Is this something that you hear that people want to kind of open up to you and develop, or do you find this out just kind of like the hard way over time and how to you know what? What tips do you have for people to to to kind of get over that, that barrier or get through that, that hill and, and to the point where they can make good connections.
Speaker 2
[00.30.46]
I love that because leadership is influence, influences based on relationships. And so until we're able to build a good relationship with someone, we're not able to influence them very well. So really insightful of you. Been to say, hey, we need to be making those connections and developing that skill. Um, so I, I interesting I would think you're probably right. It's probably more common than we talk about. Our society tends to be geared a little towards outgoing or extroverted. It just it naturally is. What I find though, is that number one, having the awareness to realize, hey, that's not me, that's powerful. And number two, that's okay. Right? There are some incredibly effective leaders who aren't extroverts or outgoing, naturally, but we a have to be aware of it and be recognize. Hey, I don't need to try to be somebody I'm not. I can learn to lead authentically. From who I am, and when we do that, it can be an incredible skill because someone who's maybe naturally a little more introverted is going to be a much better listener, and listening to someone asking questions and learning to listen to the answers is your number one tool for building relationships and connections. Hands down. And again, nothing wrong with being one way or the other. I'm a little more introverted. Mac is a little more extroverted. We're both effective and influenced, but in different ways. Mac influences people with words like he isn't. He's a, you know, just outgoing talker. I tend to be more of the listener, more of the asking questions and listening to the answer. So a couple of things on that. Um, learn to ask open ended questions. Uh, I talk about I talk about that in my book Straight Talk. An open question is something that the answer is not yes or no, right. So you can practice this at home with your kids instead of saying, hey, did you have a good day at school today? Yes or no? Shuts down dialogue, right? Yeah, but hey, what was the best part of your day? That's a different question, right? That's gonna. That's gonna get some dialogue going. And then listen to the answer. Right. If you ask the question and you're not listening, you're better off to not ask. But ask and really give your attention and listen. Listen to what's not being said. Listen to the emotion. Listen for the follow up question. And when you practice that skill and get a little better at that, you will. You will be shocked at the things people will share with you and how fast you're able to build that connection. Um, it's it's incredibly well, it's almost sad sometimes because when you start to get really good at just naturally building connections, you realize how many people don't ever feel like someone is listening. And so people will share all kinds of stuff with you, but you will get really good at building those authentic connections. And you know, that's a again, that can be an incredible strength. So I would just say practice, practice, practice those questions listening. And you know, that that form of connection, that authentic I truly care I really want to understand will take you far beyond, um, what most people think.
Speaker 1
[00.34.05]
Yeah. And I think there's a difference between theatre and genuine leadership. You know, and and theatre sometimes gets substituted in for leadership in people's minds. But that's not it. And I have mentored many introverted leaders over the years. And I like you don't have to do that. You're right. Like you don't have to perform in this theatre. But what you have to do is be very genuine and authentic to who you are as a person, and then that will resonate with the people that you're leading. You know, they're not going to feel that. They're not going to feel the energy if you're pretending to be something that you're not. That's going to be negative. If you open up and allow some of your insecurities, which people shouldn't feel insecure about being that way, but sometimes they do. In today's society, if you use that as a string, people will start to immediately glob onto you because they're like, that's my that's my person. He gets me, right. Like he gets he's on my wavelength. And like, here they here they come here. Here, here they come. And that that's leadership. Right. Even though you might be the quietest, you know, most unassuming person, that's leadership because you've connected with people and you're on their wavelength and you're leading them. And that's not theatre, you know. And I tell that to people all the time. There's a place. There's a place for theater. But but it's not required. And it's not a freeway. I don't for coming into the to the leadership realm there. So, uh, I love that. All right. So you so you have you have given a very incredible TEDx talk, right? It's online. Everyone can can go watch it. I hope that you go see that, uh, very, um, honest, heartfelt, inspiring, empowering TEDx talk. I hope people go go check that out. Now, what was the journey like for you to get to the point where you were able to do that? Because I know you, you heard a great quote, which is, hey, someone needs to hear your story, right? Tell someone your story. Someone out there is waiting to hear it, and it can make the difference for you. And that was the spark, right? So, you know, how did you what was that journey like for you? And you know, how did you turn into, as Mack says, a resilient courage warrior, which is just the best compliment I imagine anyone receiving from from their from their husband.
Speaker 2
[00.36.27]
Mhm. Um, it was a it was an incredible journey. Um, still is I think. When we go through adversity and adversity is part of being human, right? We all go through adversity. It's, you know, life can be challenging when we go through adversity or trials. We can grow from that experience, right? It doesn't happen necessarily automatically, but we can grow as a result of going through something difficult. Um, and I like to say that what happens to us in life influences us, but it doesn't determine us. So, uh, I love that. It doesn't affect us. Absolutely right. We all go through tough times in life, and we're different people because of what we go through. We don't always get to choose the cards that we're dealt in life, but we choose how to play them right. What happens to us is not as important as who we become because of it. Now, I couldn't have said all of that many years ago. Um, and leading up to the Ted, the Ted talk, uh, it was an incredible journey where I started sharing. To help other people and realize I got so much healing from that. Mhm. Um, because I like to say now that when I own my story, it doesn't own me, right? And I think a lot of times all of us have maybe chapters in our stories. We don't want people to know or reread or, or learn about. But if we don't own it, it's gonna own us at some level. Right. If I if I'm not healed to the point that I can talk about it, it has power over me. So you have to do the work. Um, and healing can be a messy journey. Um, it's kind of like leadership. Nobody really knows what it looks like. And until you go through it. But, um, you know, you take it one step at a time, right? And a lot. It's a journey of years, right? And maybe you never. Maybe it's always a journey and not a destination. Yeah. Um, but leading up to the Ted talk, uh, itself, you know, I'd been speaking for several, several years by that point. Um, and so, again, you know, writing and sharing started off to help others, but I, I got an incredible amount of growth and healing from that. And then the TEDx talk itself. Wow. You practice and you practice and you practice. I don't know, I might have thousands of hours into that, you know, seven minute talk. You write in your rewrite because they they gave me seven minutes. And you have to make every word count, right? It has to be intentional. Um, and that's not a format for speaking for everybody. Um, you know, that's you do have to just really think carefully. What do you want to share? And the concept behind what? Ted is an idea we're sharing, right? It's not to just share a story because we all are there. Again. We all have a story of overcoming. It's to share the concept, the how does somebody else apply this to their life or their circumstances? Um, so it was an incredible privilege. Uh, what? I do it again, probably not so much work, so worth it. But at the end of the day, it's kind of like, check that and and move on.
Speaker 1
[00.39.48]
Yeah, I think an and I know you've mentioned before that people will come up to you afterwards that you did not know, that told you how much it meant to them what you said. And I would imagine that when you give a speech like that, that's got to be the moment where it all comes full circle for you, where someone else just just connects with you and they pour their heart out and say this, this really, really meant something to me. And now you're kind of like releasing it, right? Uh, and and I've told this before, the people, it's a little bit like. Have you ever seen the movie The Martian with Matt Damon? You've never seen the
Speaker 2
[00.40.24]
war? I don't think so.
Speaker 1
[00.40.26]
Well, there's a scene in the movie where he's stuck on Mars and he has to launch himself off Mars and this makeshift little rocket, and he's scared, and he's not sure if he's going to live. But his his crew is up above in orbit and, uh, in their in their spaceship. So he barely, like, gets up there enough into orbit, like he barely gets off Mars. But it was enough. It was enough for them to come in and save him and bring him into the fold. But he had to. He had to take that step first. Right. Like he had to go through the fear and the and the anxiety and launch, like, put it. Put it out there, like release. And then once he did everything, everybody could come in and help and he got all the support. So I tried to tell that to people. I'm like, if you if you apprehensive about something like just, just just try to try to put it out there, it's very difficult. Much easier said than done. But if you do, that's when people can can begin to come in to, to help you and you feel like you're a different person to everything changes, right? And everything changes. So, um, and it gets. Yeah. Go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2
[00.41.36]
No, I was just going to say it gives you. It gives you purpose, right? It gives meaning and perspective to having gone through something to begin with. Right. And then it can turn a negative thing into something bad, I mean, to something bad into something good.
Speaker 1
[00.41.47]
Yep yep yep. But you never gonna know. Like you gotta you gotta send it, you know, and, uh,
Speaker 2
[00.41.53]
put it out there. That's.
Speaker 1
[00.41.55]
Yeah. And that's much easier said than done. I know that for people listening, but, uh, just just do it. Just try it. Just do it. Just push it. Just make yourself do it and then see what happens. Right. See what happens on the other side. All right. So let me ask this question. So you and Mack are you going into the TikTok world now. And I had Mack on the show and he rolled his eyes at me a little bit. I saw him do it. I saw him do it. It's on, it's on, it's on video. Uh, it was subtle, but it was there about getting a dipping his toe into Tik Tok. So how hard did you have to twist his arm to get him to begin to experiment with TikTok? And why are you guys trying to do that?
Speaker 2
[00.42.32]
Um, well, I'll just say leadership is influence. Um, I have learned a long time ago that the harder I tried to twist Mack's arm about anything, the more determined he is going to be not to do it. And so I didn't do any twisting. I mentioned it a few years back. I got on TikTok a few years back, and I was like, you might want to. And he was like, nope, not interested. I'm like, okay, moving on. And then, um, just, you know, and I didn't do a whole lot with it. We, I was really focusing on other social media platforms at the time. I put some videos out, got some, got some traction, but not doing a lot. And just recently, just a kind of a different shift for me has been focusing a little more on the personal leadership of side of things. Right. Um, specifically for women. And I think that that's a different audience on TikTok. And so it kind of just came to my brain and said, you know, I need to do more with that, with that target audience. I work with a lot of younger women, a lot of teens. You know, I just I think that that's a different platform than than LinkedIn for sure. Yeah. So and if you're honest about helping people and that's where they are, that's where you gotta go. Yeah. You know. Yeah. And you are. So I got, you know, I kind of just got back on, started doing a little bit. And I'm not on there consuming content like I, I it, it drives me nuts. It's just not a platform for me to read or like, I'm not I'm not a video person and, you know, watching videos. And so but I started making a couple more videos and I just sent one to Mac, and I thought he could see it without an account, but it turns out he couldn't. So then he he just went off and registered for an account just so he can see that little video I made. And I was like, I'm just sent it to you to share it with you. And he was like, I thought you were trying to get me to sign up. And I was like, nope. So I didn't really I didn't twist at all. I just, you know, leadership is influence.
Speaker 1
[00.44.33]
Uh, see, that's that's savvy, right? That, like, we should charge people. I should charge people money to listen to that. That that is sad. I'm just kidding. I'm I'm I'm happy. I think Mike's going to be great on TikTok now. I think, uh, it's a little bit different vibe on there. I'm not I'm not on TikTok at all. Some people said you should I should do it. So you guys are ahead of me on that. And, uh, but yeah, like I say, that's where people are and that's where you should go if you if you want to reach them, you want to develop them. So cool. All right. So where can people find out more about you, Maria. Now, you know I follow you on LinkedIn. Everybody should follow you on LinkedIn if if they're not. But you know what what what do you what do you have? Uh, what are you guys working on for 2026 and beyond? I know Puerto Rico. You're heading there next year, but what type of other things are coming down the pipe for you guys?
Speaker 2
[00.45.25]
Um, well, the best way to to get in touch with me is Ria at Ria or. Yeah, email Ria at or website com. Um, yeah, I'm on social LinkedIn, Facebook x TikTok. Just search for Ria story. I'll I'll pop up. Um, what's next for next year? Um, some cool stuff. We've really been rolling out some, um, just new, like, inspirational merchandise. Blue collar leadership merchandise. Very
Speaker 1
[00.45.53]
cool actually.
Speaker 2
[00.45.54]
Yeah. Thanks. So that's that's kind of, um, a work in progress. We're growing, you know, different, different designs and different graphics and putting that out there. So that's definitely coming more in 2026. Um, and again, I kind of touched on. For me, it's sort of using my voice really in that, that personal leadership space for women. Um, that's kind of just where my heart is. Um, back to his mind and ours. We we absolutely will continue to do the speaking and training, but I'm just passionate about that self leadership. Um, how do I lead me? Well so that I can influence other people? Um, so that's definitely in fact. And just today, I was like, sitting down. I was like, I need to, you know, plan out podcast topics and, you know, that kind of thing. Um, to be intentional because I know if I don't be intentional and plan it out, it will get busy and it won't happen. So I gotta get on the board with that. Yeah. Yeah. And especially this time and this time of year, too. It's tempting to just get. You know, you're not you know, every holiday is going on and year end and all that. So. Cool. Well, I really appreciate you coming on the podcast. I mean, it was just it's great talking with you. And I enjoy talking with Mac too. And I really respect what you guys do and create. And I think you're really making a difference out there for all different types of people, all shapes and sizes, all walks of life. And that that matters. I mean, that that that matters. And you may never know exactly what the impact is for someone, but you know that. You know that it's there. You know, you know that you guys are doing that and you're sending a message. And I hope people, I hope people follow you and come here. You guys talk and buy your books and go to your go to your seminars and everything because they're they're fantastic. So I appreciate you again coming on the show and I'm sure we'll see each other around, uh, on the, on the LinkedIn streets as, as they say, that's where I hang out
Speaker 1
[00.47.46]
and and maybe I'll see you guys at TikTok, too, I don't know.
Speaker 2
[00.47.51]
Well thank you, Ben. Absolutely. And privileged. Thank you.
Speaker 1
[00.47.54]
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And you're welcome back anytime. Thank you.
Speaker 2
[00.47.58]
Take care.
Speaker 1
[00.47.59]
All right, guys, that concludes today's show. Gosh. Thank you again for the story for for coming on the podcast to talk about some of her stuff. I mean, she's such such a great leader, such a great teacher of leadership to all different types of people. If you haven't checked her out, follow her on social media. Uh, you you won't regret it. You won't regret doing that. So as the warehouse underground goes, please sign up for the community. Almost 230 people have signed up for the community. And there we have networking and message boards and we've done some live events. So pretty cool thing to be a part of. And check out the Tiger Team show, which is another show I do with my co-host Jordan. It's about things that happen in the world of warehousing and distribution, but with the comedic, witty humor slant and a little bit of sarcasm mixed in there. So I think you guys will like that show if you if you're into that sort of thing. And we're trying to get episode seven out next week, so be on the lookout for that. So as this podcast goes, I will see you next week for episode number 33. Thank you. God bless.
