Kerry Siggins Podcast

Have you ever wondered how some leaders breeze through tough situations, never appearing stressed? It all comes down to being emotionally strong.
All leaders must deal with stress, but the very best leaders handle the ups and downs with ease, letting things slide off their backs with resiliency, grace, and grit.
How do these leaders get to the place where stress doesn’t consume them day in and day out? That’s the topic of this week’s Advice from a CEO on Reflect Forward. Because if you want to be an executive leader, especially in the C-Suite, you’ve got to be able to manage stress well.
During the episode, I share my top tips, which include:
Prioritize Yourself
I know this is a foreign concept to so many people, and it may sound selfish, but it is not. If you are not taking care of yourself, you cannot care for other people. If you want to be an exceptional leader, you can’t just push and push yourself. Constant pushing leads to burnout and stress and increases the chance of reacting poorly to a stressful situation.
Be Clear About What You Want
So often, people can’t make changes in their lives because they don’t know what they want. If you don’t know what you want, it’s hard to say no to things. And when too much piles up on your plate, it’s hard to manage stress. Because I know what I want out of my life, I can prioritize the things that are important to me and say no to everything else, which builds up my emotional strength.
Focus, Focus, Focus
The only way to manage stress and increase your emotional strength is to focus, and I recommend using a tool that helps you remain focused on your most important tasks. To handle stress well, you need to ensure that the quality of your working hours is high. When you feel like you are working on the right things, you can better handle curveballs when they come your way because you can deal with them and then get back on track quickly.
Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself
This piece of advice may sound harsh, but it’s true. If you want to be a leader worth following, you can’t feel sorry for yourself. Your job is hard and thankless, and it comes with great responsibility. You have to let things slide off your back. Your job is to lead, so lead with confidence. Remain even-keeled. Use my mantra always to be cool, calm and collected.
Stop Ruminating
The number one cause of stress for leaders is rumination – where we just can’t stop thinking about a negative situation. We lose sleep replaying conversations or imagining all the terrible things that will happen tomorrow. To be an emotionally strong leader, you must break this habit. Go for a walk. Write down what you want to say or how you want to handle the situation to get it out of your head and on paper. Read a book to distract yourself. Mediate or do breathing exercises. Talk it through with your spouse or a trusted friend. But don’t let yourself spin – not if you want to manage your stress well and move through tough situations easier.
What Are Your Triggers
Finally, learn about what triggers you. I began working with a coach who helped me understand what triggered me and why it changed my life and leadership style. Why? Because I could stop myself from getting upset because I understood my emotional response. The best way to stop reacting and start responding appropriately – cool, calm and collected – is to know why you are getting aggravated and then have the tools to control yourself in the moment, breaking your patterns and increasing your emotional strength.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
Great leaders delegate and ask for help. But many think that doing these things is a sign of weakness, and the truth is, it’s just the opposite. Emotionally strong leaders are not afraid to ask for help or delegate tasks off their plates.
Question of the Week
This week's question comes from one of my employees who asks, “How do I get better at giving presentations?” I share my tips, so be sure to listen to the end!

Guest: Kara Goldin is the Founder of Hint, Inc., best known for its award-winning Hint water, the leading unsweetened flavored water.
She has received numerous accolades, including being named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 Northern California and one of InStyle’s 2019 Badass 50. Previously, Kara was VP of Shopping Partnerships at America Online. She hosts the podcast The Kara Goldin Show. Her first book, Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters, was released October 2020 and is now a WSJ and Amazon Best Seller. Kara lives in the Bay Area with her family.
Episode in a Tweet: Work for an idea that you believe in. Overcome your doubts and doubters. Build a company that changes lives.
Quick Background: In this week’s episode of Reflect Forward, Kara Goldin, Founder of Hint, talks about what it was like to build Hint, taking it from an idea in her kitchen to the superstar, mission driven brand that it is today. Kara shares how she overcame adversity and figured out how to compete in the gigantic beverage industry. We talk about the divisive marketing branding companies use to lure consumers into to drinking sugary beverages and how she built Hint about the motto “Drink Water, Not Sugar.”
Kara and I also talk about employee-ownership. All of Hint’s employees are owners – a near and dear topic to me as StoneAge is an employee-owned company, too. Kara discusses how powerful it is when people believe in the mission of the company and how it translates to success when they have equity in the company.
Finally, Kara shares what she has learned during her 16-year leadership journey at Hint: what it takes to bounce back from rejection and setbacks, the impact you can make on peoples’ lives, and how to grow a company from nothing to a 250-person mission-based brand that people love.
You can find Kara here:
https://karagoldin.com/
https://www.instagram.com/karagoldin/
https://www.facebook.com/KaraGoldin/
https://twitter.com/karagoldin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karagoldin/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karagoldin/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kara-goldin-show/id1327208777
https://www.drinkhint.com/

Write Up Form Staying Calm
In this week’s episode of Reflect Forward: Advice From a CEO, we’re talking about how to stay calm when you receive challenging information — perhaps something you didn’t want to hear or deal with — or feedback that is uncomfortable. It’s not easy to absorb hard to hear news at the moment. But how we handle ourselves in these situations will either make it safe for the person to speak up or shut down.
During a recent speaking event on having candid, courageous conversations, a woman brought up a situation where having conversations about compensation with your employees triggered her. She had always been on the side of self-advocation, but now that she’s in a leadership role, her team members are asking her for raises, and she’s not always comfortable with what to do or say in the moment.
I gave her this advice:
1. Say thank you. It’s hard for people to have candid conversations, and you should always commend bravery, even if it triggers you.
2. Don’t feel like you have to respond right at that moment. It’s okay to say, “I need some time to think about what you’ve said. I’ll follow up with you tomorrow.” Just make sure you follow up.
3. Remember that we are all humans first and foremost. It’s not your employee sitting in front of you delivering hard to hear information. A fellow human being is most likely feeling anxious and intimated, and how you react will make them feel seen and heard or dismissed and regretful.
The question of the week asks, “I gave a peer some tough feedback, and as I was delivering it, I could tell she was unhappy by the look on her face. What should I do?”
First, don’t assume that you know what she’s thinking. You are projecting your interpretation of a facial expression onto her, but you genuinely don’t know what’s she’s feeling. Rather than project, address it objectively and say, “I noticed a look cross your face, and I don’t want to misinterpret it. Did my feedback land wrong?
Second, don’t backpedal or soften the message if the message isn’t landing well. Often, people assume that it’s their content that needs to change. Instead, understand that receiving tough feedback always stings, no matter how tough the person may seem. They are allowed to let it sting – they are entitled to having feelings about what you are saying. But that doesn’t mean you should change your message. Speak your truth with kindness and compassion but be direct. Clarity is kindness. Give them space to process, but don’t backpedal.
Finally, follow up. If you are worried about how the person took your feedback, the only way to know for sure is to ask her. Following up shows you value the relationship, and it allows the two of you to talk about the situation once she’s had a chance to process it, and it allows for follow-up questions and closure.
To hear more of Kerry's Advice From a CEO, visit her website or YouTube channel.
https://kerrysiggins.com/podcast/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUkUm5NWErHdI2o-v9jqB0A/videos

Guest: Ari Galper is the World’s #1 Authority on Trust-Based Selling and the Creator of Unlock the Game®, a new sales mindset and approach that overturns the notion of selling as we know it today.
With a master’s degree in Instructional Design and over a decade of experience creating breakthrough sales strategies for global companies such as UPS and QUALCOMM, Ari discovered the missing link that people who sell have been seeking for years.
His profound discovery of shifting one’s mindset to a place of complete integrity, based on new words and phrases grounded in sincerity, has earned him distinction as the world’s leading authority on how to build trust in the world of selling.
Ari’s deep understanding of human communication and how it can be maximized in the sales process has led him to discover the solution to the most dreaded selling experience of all: personal rejection.
He has completely redefined how to connect with people over the phone. In his corporate training sessions, Ari demonstrates his mindset by calling new prospects in front of live audiences.
Episode in a Tweet: Trust is the most important currency in the new economy. Listen to learn how to reinvent and anchor your sales approach in the timeless values of integrity and trust through trust-based selling.
Quick Background: If you are tired of chasing the sale, playing the “numbers game” and stressing out about why sales aren’t flowing into your business, this episode is for you!
In this week’s episode of Reflect Forward, Ari Galper and I talk about how he developed his trust-based selling model (hint: it has to do with rejection and a customer ghosting him). Ari shares the three myths of selling: that sales is a numbers game, that the sale is lost at the end of the process, and that rejection is part of the sales process. I share a recent story of being pitched to and we break down why it failed.
Ari offers up his selling principles that turn these myths upside down which include using trust language such as asking for feedback, defusing pressure out of the conversation, and creating dialogue where a client feels safe enough to tell you the truth. Ari shares why you need to drop your elevator pitch and instead ask questions about your customers’ problems.
In his book Unlock the Sales Game, you’ll learn:
• No More Selling Scripts? Five Ways to Be Yourself Again
• How to Use E-Mail “Sales Calls” Without Falling into the SPAM Trap!
• Sales Therapy 101: Breaking Your Fear of Selling
• Seven Ways to Sell and Retain Your Integrity
• Seven Pitfalls of Using Email to Sell
• Seven Ways to Get to the Truth: When the Sale “Disappears”
• And more
How to find Ari:
https://unlockthegame.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arigalper/
https://twitter.com/arigalper
https://www.amazon.com/Ari-Galper/e/B00W4J1Z86
https://www.facebook.com/arigalperfans

Why do leaders fail? Leading is hard. In today's volatile world, the pressure to perform and execute has never been greater. Some days, things go right, and on other days, it feels like the organization is crumbling. Imposter syndrome sets in, causing leaders to question, "Do even I have what it takes to lead?"
For me, leadership is a little bit of science, but mostly art. The list of attributes leaders need to possess is long yet uniquely individual. Vision, communication style, empathy, self-awareness, and listening ability blend with experiences, personality style, and ego. These combinations make each leader's journey an individual one. And for every successful leader, dozens have failed.
Being in an executive position for fifteen years now, I have avoided catastrophic failure, but I have witnessed quite a bit of it. I hired executives I believed would succeed, helping me take the company to the next level, only to watch them struggle, deny, blame, and then flame out. Over the years, I have come to my own conclusions on why leaders fail and what we can do about it.
In this week’s episode, I share five reasons why I believe leaders fail.
They Lack Self-Leadership Qualities
A primary reason why leaders fail is that they are poor self-leaders. They lack the self-awareness, motivation, empathy, and accountability to succeed at the executive level. Or they overwork themselves, not taking time to care for themselves properly, so they show up grumpy, lackluster, and uninspired.
Confidence Turns to Arrogance
When leaders are promoted or hired, they often want to prove themselves. And the pressure is real; leaders must produce results. Unfortunately, many respond to this pressure by making unilateral decisions, failing to ask questions, and underestimating their impact on the organization. They forget that they are there to serve others. "I was hired for a reason, and I am going to show everyone they made the right decision," they think.
They Can't Build a Team
One of the essential tasks a leader must do is to build a strong team. Without a high-performing team, a leader will struggle, and the company will struggle. I often say that if you can't build a team, you can't be a successful leader. Many leaders say they don't have time for these activities, but in my opinion, these efforts are the most important part of their jobs.
They Disregard the Details
Leaders are supposed to work on the business, not in the business, right? While this is somewhat true, executing strategy is key to running a successful business, and if a leader stops caring about the details, things can fall apart.
They Fail to Communicate Well
Leaders cannot over-communicate. Why? People want to hear from their leaders, even if the truth is hard to hear. Leaders fail when they aren't transparent and when they don't share the why. Leaders who fail to articulate the vision, set direction, and repeatedly share the message will lose followership.
There is no doubt that leadership is a journey and a unique one at that. Leaders must develop their skills through experience, coaching, and mentoring. They get better by being self-aware, honing their communication styles, balancing working on the business, paying attention to details, and showing humility.
Question of the Week
This week’s question comes from an aspiring leader who asked me, “what can I do to become a better leader?” My answer: hire a coach! Listen to the full episode to hear more.
To read more on why leaders fail, check out my article on Entrepreneur.

Guest: Sean is a seasoned international business executive specializing in scaling professional services firms. He contributes 30 years of experience to CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders to create realizable enterprise value. He is widely known for leading YPO as Global President and COO for more than seven years. In his new role as President of CEO Coaching International, Sean will build the company’s global footprint, enhance the community platform among clients, coaches, and strategic partners, and help lead the firm’s growth.
Episode in a Tweet: Surround yourself with successful people to become more successful yourself. And one of those people should be a coach who is dedicated to helping you grow as a leader and person.
Quick Background: During our conversation, CEO Coaching International’s President Sean Magennis shares what it was like to be an insider at YPO, leading the world’s most prestigious peer-to-peer learning and networking space. While at YPO, Sean Magennis led a globally distributed, diverse team serving 30,000 CEOs in 138 countries with combined annual revenues of $9 trillion.
Sean also tells us about CEO Coaching International’s model, a world-class coaching firm focused on working with the world’s leading executives. They coach their clients in leadership, strategy, innovation, team building and cultural design to help them dramatically grow their business. The firm’s goal is to help its clients elevate their performance. Sean shares his experience receiving coaching and the value it brought to him as a leader.
Sean shares his belief that “creating great leaders and leadership teams is not a one-dimensional practice. Rather it requires skill sets, competencies and a knowledge base that extends across a variety of relationships, platforms, mediums, and other key strategic constituencies.” Sean shares his four leadership pillars: know yourself, pick and stay true to your values, be clear on who you lead, and get clear on your role as a leader.
Sean also talks about CEO Coaching International’s new book “Making Big Happen: Applying the Make Big Happen System to Grow Bigger. He shares how using the firm’s proven set of best practices can help leaders scale their businesses and reach new heights. This is an excellent episode to kick off the new year and is one you don’t want to miss.
You can find Sean here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmagennis/
https://ceocoachinginternational.com/

Happy New Year! I am thrilled to be entering year two of producing Reflect Forward. I am excited for what the new year will bring, even though I understand there are still many challenges ahead. I am confident that life will throw us some curveballs.
But we humans are afraid of curveballs, and we don’t like change or surprises. We fear the unknown, and that’s what this week’s episode of Reflect Forward: Advice Form a CEO is all about: fear. And I am encouraging you to make fear your friend in 2022.
Even though many great things will happen in 2022, there will be challenges that may cause fear. I would argue that fear isn’t a bad thing – we all have it. There’s no doubt that fear can be a pretty nasty companion, and it can make us feel anxious and self-doubt. What we do with that fear either propels us forward or holds us back.
This new year, I would like to encourage you to make fear your friend. Stop saying, “I’m trying to get rid of my fears or overcome my fears.” Instead, embrace your fears and make fear your friend. Why? Because there’s always something that will scare you. Always! Being scared means that you’re about to do something significant and meaningful in your life. Stepping into the discomfort and making fear your friend will help you act and move towards what you want in life. Making fear your friend is how you change your life forever.
I know because I’ve done it a million times. Most notably, I embraced my biggest fears when I left Austin. I was a complete mess, and I was scared. Would I find a job in Durango? How would I start my life over? How would I survive? But I knew that I needed to leave Austin, and that’s what I did. I followed my heart, and my life changed. I took that step into the unknown. I embraced my fear and created a whole new life for myself.
Today, I would like to share my tips for embracing fear and your insecurities in the hopes that it will inspire you to step into that discomfort and move towards what you’ve been wanting.
Ask yourself:
“Where are my fears coming from?”
“What’s the worse thing that could happen?
“What’s the best thing that could happen?
“What can I do to get more comfortable with my fear?”
“What’s one action I can take today to help me move forward?
The only way to get good at doing hard things is to do hard things. You can do hard things, too. As you push yourself, you’ll expand your competency zone, gain more confidence, lose that baggage and make fear your friend.
Question of the Episode
The question of the week comes from a LinkedIn follower who asked, “how do you define leadership??
To me, leadership means many things, but most importantly, it means investing in people. I believe deeply in helping people understand how their talents fit into the organization and giving them opportunities to try new things, develop new skills, and grow personally and professionally. Once you have the right people on your team, you must make sure they are in the right roles, aligning their talents with their job. There is nothing more important than building an exceptional team made up of extraordinary people. You won’t get far without great people and great teams. I spend a lot of my time developing and investing in my team. In fact, my team calls me the “Human Engineer” because of the emphasis we put on developing people and making sure they are in the right roles.

Guest: Mike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco is the Co-Founder of Blooprinted, best-selling Author of ROCKET FUEL Convert Setbacks. Become Unstoppable and the powerhouse behind the “What Are You Made Of?” podcast.
He is a performance coach, author, dynamic public speaker, visionary and thought leader. He has been featured by Yahoo! Finance as one of the Top Business Leaders to Follow in 2020 and is on a mission to build people. He is driven to inspire others, and he measures his success based on his ability to help others achieve greatness. C-Roc had a fire lit in him at an early age, and that fire has ignited him with a fierce desire to compel people to see the greatness inside themselves using past life events to fuel their fire.
Episode in a Tweet: We all face setbacks in life, and what separates those how bounce forward and those who may only bounce back is how they use adversity as rocket fuel to propel them forward into greatness.
Quick Background: Mike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco had a rough childhood. But he didn’t let it hold him back. After facing a myriad of challenges and setbacks, he learned the power of mindset and went on a mission to change his life and become a force of positivity and change.
In this week’s episode of Reflect Forward, Mike dives deep into his past and shares how he used “rocket fuel” to overcome a negative environment and propel himself to a better future. Mike discusses his three “Cs” for realizing that you aren’t actually stuck: Clairy, Commitment and Consistency and shares personal stories about how he uses the three Cs. We talk about the importance of being prepared and expressing gratitude – two critical attributes to overcoming adversity and taking your life to the next level.
Then we dive into his new company, blooprinted. According to Mike, “blooprinted is a platform that tailors templates for success in any market. Featuring step-by-step approaches that are custom-built for any vertical industry, blooprinters can utilize the platform to sell their formula for success. No matter the market, blooprinted allows users to create a template that others can purchase for their own goals—whether business or lifestyle, personal or professional.”
Mike’s passion and drive are contagious, and I know you’ll love this interview.
How to find Mike “C-roc”:
https://www.mikecroc.com/
https://www.blooprinted.com/vip
https://www.facebook.com/mikeciorrocco
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGWHuKojqZfcXmvGCAi_t1Q
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-ciorrocco/
https://www.instagram.com/mikeycroc/
https://twitter.com/mikeycroc
You can find his book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Fuel-Mike-C-Roc-Ciorrocco/dp/1087911699/ref=sr_1_4?gclid=Cj0KCQiAweaNBhDEARIsAJ5hwbcYk02dgLavsqs8SNmwYWCYTYi9Avd_WK65HTjtRAdpkHjRolbjNH4aAjiIEALw_wcB&hvadid=174235071497&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9029145&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=13391647313109063684&hvtargid=kwd-138223693707&hydadcr=22535_9636730&keywords=rocket+fuel+book&qid=1639605845&sr=8-4

What kind of leader will be the most successful in the years to come? The ambidextrous leader. But what does that mean?
According to Wiki, “Ambidextrous leadership is a recently introduced term by scholars to characterize a special approach to leadership that is mostly used in organizations. It refers to the simultaneous use of explorative and exploitative activities by leaders. Exploration refers to search, risk-taking, experimentation, and innovation in organizations, whereas exploitation has to do with refinement, efficiency, implementation, and execution. Successful ambidextrous leaders must be able to achieve the appropriate mix of explorative and exploitative activities, unique for each organization, that will lead them to high firm performance outcomes.”
I love this leadership framework because, let’s face it -- everything, everywhere, is constantly changing. But the statement, “you’ve got to embrace change,” is overused and challenging for many people to do.
Instead, what if we embraced the inherent tension between the way things are now and how things will change in the future? Embracing this tension is a recipe for success. You don’t have to throw out the old to pursue the new – at least not most of the time.
In this week’s episode of Reflect Forward: Advice From a CEO, I talk about the power of being ambidextrous.
I want to encourage you to think about being an ambidextrous leader. How will you handle all of the challenges that will come your way? How will you handle the diversity of the situations you will face? How do you exploit and explore simultaneously? How do you let go of what isn’t working to embrace new ways of thinking?
To grow your team and company, you might have to take different approaches to your growth strategy, team-building efforts, culture curation, etc. You might have to ask yourself, “Why have we always done it this way? How can I build upon what’s worked and let go of what hasn’t? How can I look at new ways of growing, even if those ways are at odds with what we do currently?”
If there are two things that humans do, they change and evolve. We can see our evolution throughout history. And unfortunately, many of us are averse to change because we’re afraid of the outcome. Some are afraid of failing or losing something, so they dig in and try to keep the status quo because that feels safe. But it isn’t safe.
The fact is that things will change, and you’re going to change, even if you’re unwilling because we all do; we all modify and adapt. You can go down kicking and screaming, or you can change with grace, flow, and ambidexterity, asking yourself, “What is my environment bringing to me? What situation am I in right now? And how can I flex to maximize my impact and maximize the outcome?”
If you want to be a creative, innovative and effective leader, you’ve got to develop your ambidexterity.

Guest: Sarah has worked for twenty years in the luxury sector with many of the top European luxury houses, including Lalique, Cartier, DeBeers, Valmont, McLaren Automotive, The Italian Government, Hotel Santa Caterina, Villa René Lalique, Chateau Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Nobu Hotels, Puiforcat, Jean-Louis Coquet, Philippe Deshoulières, Robert Haviland & C. Parlon, Rossano Ferretti, Nathalie Jean fine jewelry, John Hardy, Vertu, Armand de Brignac champagnes, Agent Provacateur, RISD Museum, One Drop Foundation and Luxury Education Foundation, among others.
Sarah has received first-hand experience in the factories and headquarters for each brand, observing the craftsmanship and know-how of the artisans and workers, passed on from generation to generation. She has developed a passion for handcrafted, service-oriented luxury brands through this invaluable training. This love and appreciation of the sector have driven Sarah to specialize and focus her efforts on promoting and educating luxury brands worldwide.
Episode in a Tweet: What makes luxury brands unique? They know who they are, and they don’t pretend. They are true to their own DNA. Listen for a behind-the-scenes look at how the luxury industry is becoming more diverse, inclusive and sustainability-focused.
Quick Background: Sarah Gargano believes excellent communication is a 360-degree approach, including editorial coverage, social media & digital strategy, influencer marketing, events, video, advertising, television and film. Her contacts in each medium are A-list. She has helped her clients achieve outstanding results, successfully delivering their message and furthering their presence and power as authoritative luxury brands.
In this week’s episode of Reflect Forward, Sarah shares her journey from leaving Wall Street to entering the mysterious world of luxury. She explains what all brands could learn about PR and branding from luxury: know who you are and stay true to who you are – great advice for anyone. She talks about helping her clients create highly personalized experiences so their customers can truly understand the brand.
Sarah and I talk about how the luxury industry is becoming more diverse, inclusive, and sustainability-focused. She shares her passion for educating future generations about the luxury industry through her involvement with the Luxury Education Foundation. The Luxury Education Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on nurturing future leaders in the luxury industry and fostering meaningful exchanges between like-minded CEOs, leading executives and high-potential, emerging talent. Established in 2004, LEF partners with Columbia Business School, Parsons School of Design, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to create global, qualitative interdisciplinary programs to ensure future success for members, students, and alumni.
This episode is fascinating, and I am sure you will enjoy learning from Sarah as she shares her passion for her clients and their brands and her journey to excellence.
To find out more about Sarah, check out her website here: https://www.sarahgargano.com/
To learn more about the Luxury Education Foundations, visit their website here: https://www.luxuryeducationfoundation.org/