178 – You Have the Ability to be a Leader with Teresa Younkin

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast episode 178.

Intro 0:06
Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl. Stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:23
Hello there. I’m your host Karen Yankovich. And this is Episode 178 of the good girls get rich podcast and this podcast is brought to you by she’s linked up where we teach women simple relationship and heart based marketing, LinkedIn marketing a system that gets you on the phone consistently with perfect people, the kinds of people that change your business, your life and your bank account forever and ever. We create wealthy women of influence around here. So if you’ve listened before, or if you love what you hear today, you know, we love to hear from you. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss any episodes. leave us a review. If you feel called to do that. Share this episode on your social media take a quick screenshot, use the hashtag good girls get rich tag me I’m at Karen Yankovich tag Teresa, her links are in the show notes below. And we’ll be sure to share your post with our audiences and then we all get more visibility that way. Right? So just go to Karen Yankovich comm slash 178 to see the blog for this page, you’ll see all the links to Teresa’s social media, so that you can tag her as well as us and we’ll we’ll share this with our audiences. I am really excited for you to hear this interview today. Theresa younkin is a student in our she’s linked up family she has gone through a lot of the phases of our program. And I feel like we’ve gone through this together, right because she’s really come a long way in the few years that we’ve been working together. So I was really excited that she agreed to tell her story on the show today. So without further ado, here’s Teresa. I am here today with Teresa younkin. And Teresa is a leadership coach and consultant. She has been doing this in the healthcare industries for over 20 years. And her sweet spot is putting together high performance teams. And Theresa and I met a few years ago at a conference where she was like I need somebody to talk to about LinkedIn. I was like, Oh, that’s me. So we met that. And we’ve been working together ever since. So I’m so excited to have you here today, Teresa.

Teresa Younkin 2:14
Hi, thank you for having me, Karen, this is an amazing opportunity. I’m so glad to be here with you to talk about all things leadership.

Karen Yankovich 2:21
Yeah, yeah. And you know, Teresa is a student in our program. And you know, I’ve been wanting to introduce you to more of the brilliant women that are in our program, because they’re just so amazing. And you are definitely one of one of those women. And so I guess, you know, it’s so funny, I hear the word leadership. And I think Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, but also, it’s so important. But I think you, you really find a sweet spot in making leadership, something that’s not just corporate speak, and really look, you know, really making it a thing, right? So what how did that even happen? How did you get started talking about leadership? And why do we care about that?

Teresa Younkin 2:57
That’s funny, right? Like, we don’t all like, we don’t all just intend to become leaders, right? You’re not like a five year old, you’re like, I just want to be a leader. That’s not happens, we all kind of fall into this, whether we’re placed in that position at your job, what you’re doing every day, or you become a leader within your community and in your life, right, like people recognize something in you, and they kind of move you there. So I have this conversation from my couch. I do every Wednesday, on LinkedIn, and Facebook and Instagram. And that’s where like, we have kind of like real speak about leadership. And I tell stories, and we give hints and tips and tricks, but in all truthfulness, right? Like, are you born with leadership skills? Or do you build them? Right? Like, it’s an age old question. And most of us know that, you know, I think it’s a combination of both things, right? Some of us have it innately, but we can always build those skills. And for me, that’s where I learned, unfortunately, in a very strange way, how to build these leadership skills. So I mean, just a tiny bit of background, my late husband, and that gives you a clue as to what happened. He had gotten sick. And we had had this really thriving company, right? Like we’re always pushing people, we’re doing great things. And then he got sick, and then what? And after he passed away, like something was ignited in Maine, it was probably, you know, I think we all have, we’re passionate about the things we do because something has has turned a switch for us. So I got super passionate about health care. And I didn’t get into this being thinking like I’m going to lead a great healthcare charge. It wasn’t that at all. I just wanted other people to not experience some of the challenges that I experienced. I wanted other people to have the best journey possible. And for me, that was getting out and speaking and educating and teaching and teaching those in healthcare leadership, how to be the leaders of their own charges. And it has been such a ride and you know, we we speak a lot about leadership in this world, but I think that there is a lack of true understanding of how do you get people to follow up? How do you get people to do the things that we need to get them to the next level to get all of our initiatives to the next level? And that for me, is leadership coaching. And I think it’s one of those management tools we talked about. But we don’t really Now, a lot of people when they hear coaching, they think coaching is cheerleading, it’s not…

Karen Yankovich 5:24
Right, right. Yeah

Teresa Younkin 5:25
It’s learning how to ask good in depth questions, so that your team takes charge of what they need to do they take they engage, they take responsibility for the outcomes that you as a leader have put forth. So for me, that’s what it is.

Karen Yankovich 5:42
Yeah. So So here’s what I think, though, I think that when we well, from what I’ve seen, from people, I talked to a lot of people every week, and you know, they hear the word leader and they think political leaders or corporate leaders, but I think that we’re where you come in is that that Yeah, those people are leaders, whether they’re good or bad is not the conversation today. The the conversation is there’s so like, you are a leader, like most of the people, you know, if you are the mom of your family, you’re the leader of your family, and when your leadership skills get developed, and that’s taking it all the way down to the to the great to the nitty gritty, right, when your leadership skills are developed, your kids are, you know, remembering to zipper their coats when they go outside, right? Like, who knows, right? But, but he but all that in between? You know, I think in in 2020, we were really challenged with leadership because there was a lot of people that were leaders but they didn’t really see themselves as leaders, but all of a sudden now they were leading a virtual team, they used to be the manager of the department, right? And people were there and things were happening but and all of a sudden, the department wasn’t was gone. Everybody was at home. So yeah, they’re still the manager of the department. But really, they had to be the leader of this virtual initiative now versus the manager of the department. Right? So I think leadership has become I think we’ve seen a shift in how people view themselves because it’s I think it’s less about how we view leaders and more about how we view ourselves as a leader or not as a leader. Does that even make sense?

Teresa Younkin 7:05
That makes total sense because as leaders right this is all about relationships it was so easy when you were in an office I mean pre COVID right like I went into and everybody saw you everybody knew you could smell shake hands right like liken it to a politician you were there you were like rocking and rolling the whole time

Karen Yankovich 7:27
Tylenol in your draw and the candy in your desk right

Teresa Younkin 7:31
right like you were that person and then we had that taken away instruct from us and we had to really rethink

Karen Yankovich 7:38
with no warning with no warning no training no warning no right you know no plan Nope. rollout just like oh, and tomorrow This is happening

Teresa Younkin 7:50
so right we we were faced with all of these challenges and how we reacted to them as how our team perceived who we were right that was the time that we were building that know like and trust factor. We were like, Oh yeah, you don’t see me every day but just know I got your back. And that’s what a leader is right? A lot of people stepped up and said, Hey, you know what, we don’t know what we’re doing. But this is how we’re going to manage soil, we just need to get a B and C done. And I’m going to support you that’s what a leader is and we trusted

Karen Yankovich 8:21
that is so huge and and what I hear from that and i i love that you’re talking about this is what a leader does is not say I know everything. What a leader does is say I don’t know, but we’re gonna figure this out together. Right? A leader doesn’t you don’t want to be a leader, you don’t have to have all the answers. You have to know how to find them and know how to support the people and so many people feel like if you don’t you know I liken it sometimes to like a superintendent of schools right? Yeah, Superintendent of Schools does not know how does not know how to be need to know how to be an art teacher. Is that right? But you know, you don’t have to know all the roles of the people you’re leading. You just need to you just need to be able to get that art teacher to help the students right or, or in in these cases, help your your in person staff now figure out how to get on zoom? Or do they have enough Wi Fi in their house and exam all that crazy stuff?

Teresa Younkin 9:12
Exactly. I mean, it was simple things just like how do I navigate getting inside the firewall of my organization, you know, training people to get to that point until they could until they got sure footing. So it has

Karen Yankovich 9:27
It had to be crazy in healthcare, though, because they had both sides of it. Right? They had teams that had to go virtual. They also were slammed with supporting the pandemic, right, exactly. So So tell me what you saw through all of that. How did you how what was your role as as that was unfolding,

Teresa Younkin 9:45
as that was unfolding. We all of a sudden had to understand most people think that you know health insurance and in your in your doctor are two of the same things and they are not it’s two separate organizations doing two separate banks. So what One of the things that we had to do was start to break down information silos between the two, we started working together in a way that healthcare has never worked together before we started understanding that there were these great technologies out there that we could bring into our world and use them and push them for. And let me tell you healthcare exploded. The things that we never thought that we could do. We did. So you know, like, there was a point in time where people were like, Oh, no, we can never just do all this. It’s virtually, like telehealth, and oh, my God, I know what we did it, it worked as my fact it worked so good, that our that our customers, our patients are saying, I don’t want to go back. Right? Those are things that, you know, as a leader, you go, Okay, so we did this in the short term, but then how do we develop this into a long term program to really meet the needs of our customers, you know, grab on to that and move that forward. One of the ways that we did that was to have conversations across the table with people we never spoke to before, because we all understood that our workflows, even though they may have been different, we’re interdependent. So how do you guys hold hands, join together and walk for? You know, so like for healthcare? For me, it was an exciting, exciting time. And it still is, we have so many new regulations coming out people need to be involved in and it wasn’t just healthcare, that changed, right? It was it was every industry that you could think of who knew that picking up your groceries at the grocery store? Or ordering them online? would be something that you would say, Yeah, my phone away from my cold, dead hands before I have to go back in?

Karen Yankovich 11:45
My gosh, exactly. It’s exactly. And I mean, it’s like win win win, because how many people how many people that you know, are now employed by those services to right, like, students that are whining about not having a job? Well, okay, you know, go pick up some groceries, go do some Uber driving. Yeah, I love I love what you’re saying. So I want to circle away from that a little bit. But then absolutely. back to that. So. So our listeners of the show, typically, are entrepreneurs, smart, successful women. Yeah. Talk to me a little bit about your business journey. Right? Like, how did you go from a stay at home mom, you know, taking care of a sick husband, with this passion for for, you know, shifting the, the norm in the healthcare industry, to being a consultant and getting paid very, very well, to helping these hospitals do this work?

Teresa Younkin 12:36
Well, again, right, we don’t ever intend, it just seems that things happen. So for

Karen Yankovich 12:42
well, there’s a little bit of an intention there.

Teresa Younkin 12:48
For most of us that first step, get right, you know, like, like, we start working towards something, and then we’re given an opportunity. And I just chose to kind of seize every opportunity that came by. And even though I may not have known where I was going to like, where I was going to be next, or where I was going, I did know that if I took the time, and got to really engage with the people that I worked with, and my other partners in this field, that that would take me to where I needed to be. And so you know, whether, and I will say that before I got in health care, I was an entrepreneur as well. It’s all about building relationships, building trust, right? Because you know, what you are, your business will grow as fast as it will grow as fast as the speed of trust, right? You’ve got a rule,

Karen Yankovich 13:38
I love that your business will grow as fast as icea that is, in a tweet for this event. This is this podcast, your business will grow as fast as the Say that again. Just the speed of trust, okay.

Teresa Younkin 13:51
trust between you and the employees that you have. It’s between you and your customers. It’s between you and your suppliers. No matter what industry that you’re in, you will only move as fast as the speed of trust.

Karen Yankovich 14:04
So okay, so then so you’d now you’re a full on consultant, right? Yes, you so you So initially, though that wasn’t the case, you were working for other people?

Teresa Younkin 14:13
Yes. Yep. I was waiting for other people. And now I have transitioned into consultancies. So all the knowledge base and again, like I said, sometimes opportunities come up, and you take them and you learn from them, because every experience is an opportunity. Yeah, you know, in my strategy, all I wanted to do was better health care. So every time something came up, I would say, you know what, I will do this, but I have to tell you that it was again about relationship building, and about it wasn’t just about me coaching others. It was how did others coach me? Did I stand back and take a look to see how they were interacting? Did I take the good notes and the bad notes and understand the interdependence that I had with my industry. And with others in the industry, because it’s important to people trust what I said, even though like I said, If I had something do, did I do return on time? Yeah, that builds trust. You know, if I went to a client, I said, I don’t know, but I’ll get you the answer. I’ll provide it somehow I’ll make a connection with somebody else for you. And I did that it built trust. And then people begin to know, they begin to like, and then begin to trust me. And

Karen Yankovich 15:26
well, you also, and you, but you also leaned into confidence, which is not easy to do. Oh, it’s many people, many women have a lot of hard time with that. And I remember when we first started working together a few years ago, just you shifting the energy around your LinkedIn profile. And you actually I remember this conversation where you said to me, the mindset of me showing up differently on LinkedIn is bringing in job offers for like, $60,000 more than I ever made or whatever, like, so it was, but it was about how you thought about yourself and how you saw yourself instead of seeing yourself as a stay at home mom with no experience in healthcare but a passion for and and maybe you had experience? I’m you know, I don’t know. But no, you know, you you saw yourself as somebody that was past smart and passionate to learn this stuff, and can make an impact, right? And then you just went and did it. But then you showed up, you weren’t saying, Well, here are the that needs these 10 things. I only have six of these 10 things. So I gotta wait till I have the other four. You were like, Oh, no, I’m just moving forward. I’m just moving forward. And then you also have the courage to leave your job to do this full time. Right? Which takes courage also,

Teresa Younkin 16:29
yeah, you know what I always think of, there’s this there’s this movie old movie called June and the I think they just remade it on HBO max. So like, the dunes on a beach? Yeah, yeah, it’s a sci fi movie that, okay. It’s this book. And it’s been around for like, ever. But anyways, but the like, the main character in it says like, their their mantra is fear is the mind killer. And I think to myself, it is back from doing the things that you really want to do. And I have to tell you that a lot of times, when it comes to mindset, the monsters under the bed are bigger. And I’ll never forget how it felt the first time I asked somebody to endorse me, or to give me a recommendation, I was so scared to ask. And then when I did, I was so humbled by what people said, because you know, I made a bigger impact than I ever imagined. And I told myself at that point in time, I didn’t want to go back to being that scared, frightened woman, that I was going to embrace that. And that people saw me as valuable, that made me feel valuable. And then and now I see myself as valuable. And I go back

Karen Yankovich 17:44
and you just expect success. Like you just know, it’s coming. Like you remember, and this wasn’t even that long ago, when you were, we were talking one day, and you were like, you told me this, like you told me you went food shopping, okay. Like, you know, you were like, yeah, I quit my job, because I’m making twice as much in my consulting business as I was like, Wait, what? Like you told me like, you’re like, yeah, I changed my shoes yesterday. You know, like, I was like, Wait, hold on, but you just knew what happened. And you just did it. And it was and you were like, moving on. So but but it is there for you. And it’s there for for everyone else. So let’s give it a little bit back to that now you support other people to really dive into their leadership skills and to build their leadership skills, so that they can have the same kinds of successes, that that the kinds of successes that they’re dreaming of, right? It really does come down to how you see yourself and how, how you see yourself as it relates to how you relate to other people and building those relationships. Right? Which is why I love this conversation. So how do you so what is so tell us about a little bit about that? How did you What did you develop to help the rest of us that are not working in corporate America with our leadership skills?

Teresa Younkin 18:50
So I developed a program called the real smart method. And it’s something that I’ve used over and over and over again, I sat down, I thought about it. And I was like, you know, what are the things that I’m doing? Because as I started to consult people were like, Well, how do I get this team that’s been so dysfunctional, functional, and I was like, you know, what, we need something that we can do over and over and over again, right? Like, I want to give you a method or blueprint or framework, whatever the business speak, you want to call that, I want to give that to you so that when I leave, you can continue to do this. And part of that was understanding what kind of leader you are. And number two, like understanding the mindset behind being a leader, right, like recognizing when fear crops up, or when you don’t feel like you’re doing the right things. And then the third thing, and I will tell you this because I spent five years as a health care leadership professor, my students, like we get through the class and all the theory in the world is great, but if you don’t have somebody who’s next to you, holding your hand and guiding you through that hole through the process, and sometimes it’s just little tweaks that you need to do I learned that holding hands was like that way. And that’s why I developed a course around leadership specifically because my students were like, Hey, this is a great professor younkin. But, you know, like, when I’m out of this class, what am I supposed to do? So I developed a course that number one tells you what kind of leader you are you do an assessment for that. Number two, we learn all the mindset stuff. And then number three, there are two weeks of just coaching that goes along with it that goes, that you can come back and ask me a question. Like, if this is not working, I’m afraid to do this. My team reacted this way. Let’s sit down. Let’s talk about that. And let me help you find the power and ask the right questions. So there’s a coaching component where I coach you to coach your team.

Karen Yankovich 20:46
Beautiful. So how can people find out about that, and about all of the work that you’re doing around that?

Teresa Younkin 20:51
Yeah, you can go to my website,

Karen Yankovich 20:53
which we’ll have links to all this stuff. But yeah, yep.

Teresa Younkin 20:56
www.theresayounkin.com. That’s t e, r, e, sh, y, o, u n, k. i n. It’s a little bit of I talk fast. People go Tracy Duncan, no, Teresa Younkin.

Karen Yankovich 21:12
We’ll have link in the show notes.

Teresa Younkin 21:14
Yes, you will have the link in the show notes. If you want to just find out a little bit more about me, you can catch me every Wednesday on all social media. I have, you can find me Tracy onken, on LinkedIn, and I do a conversation from my couch, where every Wednesday we talk about all things leadership. If you go to my website, you can also take a quiz around your leadership skills and get a little something something for me that way.

Karen Yankovich 21:36
The quiz is is awesome. everyone listening to the show needs to go to Teresa’s website and take your leadership quiz, right? We take quizzes on things like what kind of potato chip Am I on Facebook, but this one is not harvesting your private information like Facebook knows. And it is just truly there to provide value to you so that you know you have some tools to take the next step.

Teresa Younkin 21:54
Exactly. And you can always go to my website, but 15 minutes with me, if you’re struggling with something leadership, like I said many times, it’s a little tweak. It’s a word. It’s something to help you move forward. And I am more than welcome to do that. So for Karen’s audience,

Karen Yankovich 22:11
I’m so excited that you should absolutely take advantage of that too. Because you just have this sense of I mean, I hope you realize the unusual how unusual your journey is, you know, I mean, many women aspire to do what you do. And it’s 10 years later, and we’re like I’m so I’m going to jump gonna get that done one day, you just did it. So good for you. Good for you. Yeah, start with Chris’s quiz and her 15 minute call. And, yeah, because it is, you know, it is, it’s doable. It’s doable for all of us. It’s doable.

Teresa Younkin 22:40
And you know what, and I will say this, I’ll circle back around to like, the first how we got started here and how I got started, you know, I had a husband who passed away at 36. And I have to tell you, the one thing that I was so excited about was that he did what he wanted to do. I mean, like he lived his dream. And then I want to just say to everybody out there, tomorrow’s not promised to anybody, and don’t live with regrets. Take the steps that you want to take and walk for. Because I will tell you, it’s the glorious, the most glorious feeling in the world to feel fulfilled about the things that you do. Not saying that it’s going to be easy, because sometimes it’s hard. But let me tell you, we all want to live out that thing inside of us that calls us and wakes us up every day. And I want to help you guys do that. Love.

Karen Yankovich 23:29
All right. We’re gonna wrap on that because I can’t say it any better than that. Tracy, thanks so much for being here today. And thanks for all your generosity to our audience.

Teresa Younkin 23:36
Oh my gosh, Karen, thank you for inviting me to come on. I’m so excited. And this has been probably one of the best friendships that I’ve developed.

Karen Yankovich 23:45
And I agree. We’re gonna Teresa and I, right after this comes out, we’re gonna actually get to meet We met at a conference but we didn’t actually really meet know it. We kind of like exchange knowledge or something and never really yeah, never really met. So I cannot wait to be in the same room with you for the second time, but the real real first time. So thanks, Teresa, so much for being here.

Teresa Younkin 24:05
All right, thank you, Karen. Take care.

Karen Yankovich 24:07
I hope you love Teresa. As much as I love Teresa. She’s amazing. She’s doing amazing things in the world. And I am so honored that she has chosen our program to help her on her journey. We’ve been through a journey together Teresa and I we’ve our program has grown as she has grown her life and her business. And Teresa’s journey to the successes she’s having now really all started with a conversation with me, right Teresa and I got on the phone. And we talked about the opportunity of LinkedIn. And it wasn’t the place where she can do this. And we’ve worked together and she’s built her business to amazing places. And it started with that phone call. So I would like to offer that to you as well. If you want to talk to me and see if our programs are a fit for you or really, it doesn’t really matter if they are on because if they’re not we’re just going to we’re going to talk for an hour and we’re going to really just talk about what you’re looking to do what’s working in your life and your business right Now what’s not working in your life in your business right now, but most importantly, where you want your life and your business to go in the next year. And if it’s something I think I can help you with, I’ll let you know what that looks like. But either way we’re gonna get to spend some time together and really get to know each other and bring some real value to the next steps of your business. All of that starts like it did with Teresa at Karen yankovich.com slash call that’s where our calendar is. And grab a spot and let’s chat and see if we can support you to the next level of your business. Help me Help you right share this podcast take a quick screenshot of this episode on your phone. share it on social media tag me tag Teresa use the hashtag good girls get rich and that helps us give you as much visibility as we can. That’s that rising tide that lifts all boats right I do this podcast to support you. And I would love for you to support me by sharing this podcast. I am here for you. I can’t wait to see you next week for another episode of the good girls get rich podcast.