Episode 55 - Interview with Darla Hall on Keeping a Positive Mindset
Speaker 1:
People of Earth. We have come to upgrade your cosmic consciousness. DNA activation ready in three, two, one.
Craig P. Anderson:
Hi. Welcome to Q&A on Breakthrough Leadership. I'm Craig Anderson.
Lou Quinto:
And I'm Lou Quinto.
Craig P. Anderson:
Today, we have an interview with Darla Hall. Darla Hall is the owner of Witty Publications and the author of Matters of a Positive Mindset. Mindset seems to be something, Lou, we come back to all the time on our [inaudible 00:00:38] show.
Lou Quinto:
Yeah. We do. We do. We talk about fixed mindset. We talk about positive mindset, growth mindset. Everything's a mindset these days.
Craig P. Anderson:
Yeah, so it's great that we have somebody on to help us work through it. I think we're just getting into a theme with these guests of let's see if we're right or not, just trying to validate our own thoughts. If they're wrong, maybe we just don't put the interview out there.
Lou Quinto:
Yeah. Well, so far, we've been a 100% right, so I'm not going to complain.
Craig P. Anderson:
It's a burden we have to bear, Lou.
Lou Quinto:
Right.
Craig P. Anderson:
All right. Well, with no further ado, let's go onto our interview with Darla Hall.
Craig P. Anderson:
All right. Here we are with Darla Hall, owner of Witty Publications and author of Matters of a Positive Mindset. Welcome to the Q&A on Breakthrough Leadership show. Darla, thanks for coming.
Darla Hall:
Hello, Craig. Hello, Lou. Nice to be here. Thank you for having me.
Craig P. Anderson:
Absolutely.
Lou Quinto:
[crosstalk 00:01:30] be with us.
Lou Quinto:
Darla, I want to ask some questions because, as we've we've told you and you know, our podcast is driven primarily to business leaders, and also to entrepreneurs. In your recent book, Matters of a Positive Mindset, Craig and I, and we've all experienced it over the last six, now going on seven, eight months, whatever it is, my calendar has, I just look, and it's a day. That's all there is to it.
Lou Quinto:
But waking up, since March 15th, it's very difficult, whether you're an entrepreneur or you're a remote worker, to maintain that positive mindset that you write about. So I'd like to unpack it with you a little bit. Let's start with that remote worker and unpacking that positive mindset. What are some of the recommendations that you give your clients on how do they maintain it during these times?
Darla Hall:
Well, it all starts with how you go to bed and how do you wake up in the morning. It all starts with your mindset of how you start your day and how you end your day, and how you are prepared in your day, and how you adapt to these tough times to make the most out of it and have the mindset of a winner. I try to tell people, I like to ...
Darla Hall:
I call myself QB Darla, because I love helping people throw their own touchdowns in life and in business. A lot of things that I repeat and tell people is that if you're going to be a leader of a business, nowadays, a leader is a lot of different things. It could be a leader of a 100+ person business. It could be a leader of being on social media and being an influencer. You can lead people. You can lead your families. You can lead people in a lot of different ways.
Darla Hall:
I tell people that being consistently happy is important. Everyone's going to have heartbreaks. Everyone's going to have challenges like COVID. Everyone's going to have turmoil. They're going to have problems with financials in their business. There's all kinds of problems circulating us every single day of our lives.
Darla Hall:
Consistently happy is what I tell people. If you can be happy 80% of the day, you're doing better than most. So how do people ... How can you become successfully and consistently happy?
Darla Hall:
I tell people I'm human. I make mistakes. I'm very imperfect. But in my businesses ... I own a company called Witty Publications, and I also do public speaking through QB Darla. I tell people I'm imperfect, and it's okay to be imperfect, but you just have to boost yourself up every day.
Darla Hall:
I get up and I listen to my favorite music, and I crank up the jams, and I start my day off like that. Happy, encouraging, inspiring. I go to bed trying to think about ways I can encourage people to live a better life, to use their unique fingerprint. One in 64 billion chance that you have the same fingerprint as someone else. That means that every single person is unique, special, gifted, and they can make an impact on the world in their own precious way.
Darla Hall:
I think, from a leadership standpoint, being consistently happy, consistency in your messaging, your brand, and really just being relentless every single day. I fight for my business daily, and it's hard. It's hard to be a business owner, but you have to be relentless and fight for your business.
Craig P. Anderson:
Excellent. You talked about, you've had your setbacks as an owner of a business. As much as we all try really hard to be successful, and then we get slammed, and it's so interesting that some businesses are doing great right now, but so many other businesses are just really struggling. As they're coming into the end of the year, they're thinking, "How am I going to make it through this year, much less into next year?" How can they take that mindset to get that into more of a positive framework, with so much uncertainty right now?
Darla Hall:
Yeah. I think adapting is really, really important right now. A lot of people are really, really good at that, and a lot of people struggle with that. They think they're failure. If you can't adapt and change and transition, if you're not making a profitable year this year, a lot of people are going to take that to heart. A lot of people are going to get down on themselves, and they're going to think that as a failure.
Darla Hall:
I think of it as, you know what, the times. We can't control COVID. You can control what you can control, and not sweating the small stuff. Well, financials at the end of the year, let's face it, it's big stuff. It's make or break. It's lay off employees or keep the doors open kind of stuff. It's big time stuff these days.
Darla Hall:
I think just adapting, figuring out ways, bring your management team into a room, and figure out how you can surround yourself with really, really smart people who can try to figure out a strategy going into 2021 that's going to double your sales for the following year.
Darla Hall:
We're almost finished with this year, so it's kind of recovery. It's kind of figuring out how to adapt and make the most for this year. Then it's really going into 2021 with a bang, and saying, "Okay, management team, what can we do? How can we pump our employees up?"
Darla Hall:
That's what I do. I go into companies, and I will jazz the employees up, and I will get them motivated to do their best, to be their best self, and then to believe in themselves, believe in the product, everything that they're selling, and then to go out there, and be productive, and make the most out of their time in a day. So I think planning for 2021 is going to be big for people right now, with COVID.
Lou Quinto:
I'm glad you've talked about planning for 2021 and maintaining that positive mindset, because right now, 2021, there are a lot of question marks. One, we don't know when people are going to be back in offices. We don't know restrictions, are they going to get ... Are we going to go through a second wave of COVID that's going to cost us to go into another lockdown? Are our kids going to come home and we're going to be homeschooling them again?
Lou Quinto:
I know that positive mindset, they say that that positive attitude is contagious, but when you look in the mirror in the morning, sometimes it's just difficult to see that positivity in your face, because your face is wrinkled. The eyes got bags underneath them. Now I've got to open up the door. Like you said, you can be a leader with the family, and I've got to come out of my bathroom after brushing my teeth and combing ... Well, I would say combing my hair, but I have none. But you're [inaudible 00:08:30] going, "Da da! Let's go, folks."
Lou Quinto:
Obviously, it's tough these days. What are people telling you, and what are you telling people when it comes to really ... How do I maintain that?
Darla Hall:
Tough times are temporary, but tough people, they will get it done no matter what happens. If you're a tough person, and you can buck it up, and you can just get through these tough times, and adapt, and really strategize ... It's all about strategy and coming up with solutions to the problems.
Darla Hall:
Instead of spending half of your day complaining about COVID, let's spend half of our day trying to figure out ... Get a pen and paper, and get around the work room, get around the table, and let's figure out, "Okay, here's our problem. We're down in revenues X percent. We're not selling as much of this product as this product. Well, now people are shopping online. We have a retail store. We have to adapt."
Darla Hall:
I think it's a matter of circling yourself with your team. Don't try to handle all of the problems by yourself, as a leader, because you'll get overwhelmed. Then people who are overwhelmed, don't get anything accomplished.
Lou Quinto:
Right.
Darla Hall:
We all know that. So surround yourself with your team. Bring in mentors, bring in positive mindset people, bring in coaches, bring in people who can help you with strategy. It's really important to think outside the box in these times.
Darla Hall:
I set up a brand new company. I pivoted. I had to pivot and adapt myself. I was doing sports license product. Well, there's not a whole lot of sports going on right now. So I pivoted and I adapted. I came up with this whole new brand of products for my own characters and brand called Witty and Friends. I created all these activity books for causes, deafness, blindness, childhood cancer, general education, shapes, numbers. You know what I'm doing? Selling them online, because people don't want to go to stores too much anymore. So I found a solution. I'm doing online sales only for my products. Then I've worked with corporations like ACE Hardware and Caterpillar, and doing some corporate stuff.
Darla Hall:
But everyone, everyone, no matter how positive they are on Facebook, social media, whatever, everyone's got these same challenges. We all need to help each other. I want to help other women. I want to help other men. I want to help people get past the COVID nightmare, get past the hard times, and really start planning and strategizing for the future. I think that's so important. Consistency, thinking outside the box, bringing your team in to really redo your strategy. Take your strategy, right now as it is, and go like this.
Speaker 5:
She's after your own heart, Lou.
Darla Hall:
Be like, "Okay, everybody. Here's a blank sheet of paper. We're starting from square one. COVID. Okay, we've got to adapt to X, Y, Z. How can we increase sales?" This, this, this. That's how you get stuff done. You just roll up your sleeves, bring your team in and get it done, instead of talking about it and complaining about it. I think we all need to try to surround ourself, and help each other, and build each other up, and just get it done.
Lou Quinto:
Well, and I'm glad you said that, because Craig and I ... I've told this before in a few different episodes, but I teach critical thinking skills primarily. One of the things, particularly when you're talking about creativity and innovation, is that when someone comes up with an idea, just don't automatically attack it, because our brain tries to protect us, and it immediately goes into, "Well, it won't work, because of this or this," or, "This'll happen, and then this will get destroyed."
Lou Quinto:
I always tell people that you really need to think positive before negative. Even though we're hardwired to think negative first, you can rewire your brain to think positive.
Lou Quinto:
I know just Craig and I have both experienced that in March. I'm a public speaker, just like you. When March 15th came, someone took my calendar, and like an Etch-a-Sketch, they just shook it and said, "Okay, here's your new schedule for the year." It was completely blank.
Lou Quinto:
I had to do exactly what you're talking about. It's like, "Okay, this is what ... These are my assets. This is what I'm good at. This is where things I feel comfortable with. How can I make it work based on what's going on today?" Craig, I know you've experienced very similar things.
Craig P. Anderson:
Oh yeah, no. It's absolutely just turning it around and figuring out how you make it work, like you did with your book. I actually wanted to touch on something you said though, Darla. One of the things that we've talked about a lot when we talk about leadership is being in charge is a pretty lonely place to be.
Craig P. Anderson:
You talk here about the importance of relationships and bringing your team in. What's your advice for leaders to break down that wall that they have to feel like, "It's me. I've got all the responsibility," and to build the relationships with their team. How do you help leaders think through that?
Darla Hall:
Have some fun. Do not be afraid to have a, "Hey, let's get back to work. We're going to have some fun." Bring fun into the boardroom. Throw some old school games out. Do some teamwork building. First of all, have some fun.
Darla Hall:
Then secondly, then roll your sleeves up, and engage them, and tell them. Be honest. I think authenticity from a leadership standpoint is really, really important. A lot of leaders are too bold. They're too strong. They're too prideful to allow their guard to come down.
Darla Hall:
But I say, in these times especially, go ahead and let your guard come down a little bit. Get in there, and invite your team to help solve the hard problems that you, as a leader, can't really solve right now. There's problems that are beyond a lot of the leadership capabilities. It just is. I think just letting your guard down, being authentic. I always say it's so important to build genuine relationships. Part of that is being authentic.
Darla Hall:
But I say there's three Cs that you have to do to build authentic relationships. One, you have to compliment people. You have to tell them they're doing a good job. "Hey, Johnny, I really, really liked that suggestion that you put in the suggestion box. I think that we're going to really try to adapt to that, since COVID and everything's going on. Why don't we, as a team, brainstorm that and see what we can do about it?" Compliment.
Darla Hall:
Care. If you genuinely care about your employees and your bottom line, you will open up to your employees. You will surround yourself with your team. You will put your pride aside and ask for some strategy help and things like that.
Darla Hall:
Then the third C is connect. Build a genuine friendship that will last a lifetime. So not only do you look at your employees as, "I'm a leader. I have to set a good example, and I have to walk the walk and talk the talk," but I also have to let them be successful.
Craig P. Anderson:
Great, cool.
Lou Quinto:
That definitely ties in with many of the other podcasts that we've done over the last couple months. I think all of those fall underneath that umbrella, when it comes to a leader and with the three CS, is being empathetic, and just considering other people's feelings, what they're going through, and taking that and pulling that into your situation. I was just glad that you didn't come up with the fourth C, and that was COVID and then go off [crosstalk 00:16:06]
Darla Hall:
Let's go. We all need to work. Let's go.
Lou Quinto:
All right, Darla. At this point in the podcast, Craig and I do key takeaways. Craig, why don't you give me your key takeaway from our conversation with Darla?
Craig P. Anderson:
I think my key takeaway, and I never actually did this, and I wish now I had when I was running my business of 70 or 80 people, was really just making it a lot more fun around bringing some games to the fore, and building a time for a more casual relationship with the team. We had some of that, but never down to that level. That's my key takeaway, so maybe next time to do more of that.
Lou Quinto:
You want it to be like the principal who, one day, because the school raises a whole bunch of money, they get to duct tape you to the wall, or throw pies in your face or something.
Craig P. Anderson:
No. I was thinking more like Clue, but sure we could do that too.
Darla Hall:
[crosstalk 00:17:02] mind games, or things that stretch the imagination a little bit, just before the big strategy meetings. Yeah.
Lou Quinto:
[crosstalk 00:17:10] No. I've always believed that if you don't have fun doing what you're doing, you got to ask yourself why you're doing it. I think Darla gets right back to what you were saying is that positive, that mindset has got ... We've got to have that positive mindset.
Lou Quinto:
So many of us, it's so easy to just drown ourselves in our own problems. They get compounded when we watch the news. We look at our Facebook feed. We look at our Twitter account. It just depresses us. You mentioned Facebook briefly there a little bit. I was going to get you to unpack that a little bit.
Lou Quinto:
But my key takeaway is stay away from anything that's negative during these times. Turn the TV off. Don't watch the news. Don't get on your social media, because it's just negative. If you just keep getting bombarded with negative, it's going to get you negative family-wise. It's going to get you negative in your business as well.
Darla Hall:
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:18:08] the importance of the uniqueness of people, and just making sure that we're appreciating every single person for who they were meant to be, and not overthinking that too much, but also using them for their God given talents is really important.
Darla Hall:
I think it's important in any business to allow your people to find their passion. The passion drives the purpose. The [inaudible 00:00:18:30]. It's just by helping people individually find that passion, whether it be for work or for charity, philanthropy, all of those kinds of things, it'll just help their productivity overall if they're a happier person.
Lou Quinto:
Sure. Yeah. So that's your key takeaway?
Darla Hall:
Sure. Throw your own touchdown. Let's go, everybody. Grab it. Throw it. Take it. Be bold about it. Just throw your own touchdown in life and business. Don't let anything keep you from doing it.
Craig P. Anderson:
Great. I love it.
Lou Quinto:
Darla, how can folks get in touch with you? How can they reach out to you?
Darla Hall:
Social media is my thing. With QB Darla, my public speaking, Witty Publications, I do a lot on LinkedIn. I have about 20,000 followers on LinkedIn so far, and they're unique. I've built that over eight years. It's not an easy task, but you can build your social media over time if you really put work and effort and time into it. Then just genuine connections is what I'm going for there. So LinkedIn would be the best way to find me from a business standpoint. I'm also on Facebook, Instagram, my websites, WoodyPubs.com or QBDarla.com.
Craig P. Anderson:
Beautiful. Excellent. Well, thanks so much for being here with us today, Darla. We got some great information. I think Lou and I can find a way to be a little more positive going forward. So thanks a lot.
Darla Hall:
Thank you, Craig and Lou. I appreciate you guys having me on today.
Lou Quinto:
Thank you.
Craig P. Anderson:
All right. Take care.
Lou Quinto:
Bye.
Darla Hall:
Go tackle your day.
Lou Quinto:
Well, Craig, that was a great interview with Darla. I'm glad that she came on to talk to us about her new book, Matters of a Positive Mindset. I think that everybody should go out and get it, because today, with everything happening around us, it's a lot of negativity. We all need a positive mindset.
Lou Quinto:
If you've enjoyed this episode of Q&A on Breakthrough Leadership, please like it, subscribe, share it with people who you think may need to have a little bit more of a positive mindset themselves.
Lou Quinto:
Don't forget. You can always pick up all of our past episodes by going out to our website, QALeadership.com. In addition to that, if you'd rather just listen to us while you're running or walking the dog, all of our podcasts are available on all of your favorite podcast networks.
Lou Quinto:
Until next time, keep your hands washed. Keep your distance. I'm Lou Quinto.
Craig P. Anderson:
And I'm Craig Anderson.