Episode 43: The Power of Belief

Leaders need to have many things…They need resilience. They need vision. They need strength. They need confidence and conviction. But above all else, one thing has hit home hard lately… and that’s the power of belief. On today’s episode of the Rebel leadership podcast, Allison Minutillo and Bryn Tindall get real and very personal about some recent moments of doubt that led them to fully appreciate the power of believe and the role it plays in being the leaders we strive to be.

Chapters

• 1:03 The Evolution of the Podcast & Studio
• 3:48 How Belief Inspires Personal & Professional Growth
• 8:46 Overcoming Hardships & Reinstilling Belief

Transcript

Allison Minutillo  0:00  
The Rebel Leadership Podcast, a refreshing take on Authentic Leadership told through real stories. Let's smash the status quo and change how leaders lead once and for all.

Leaders need to have many things. They need resilience. They need vision. They need strength. They need confidence and conviction. But above all else, one thing has hit home hard lately. And that's the power of belief. On today's episode of the rebel leadership podcast, I'm talking to my business partner Bryn Tindall, about some personal moments of doubt that led us to fully appreciate the power of belief and the role it plays in being the leaders we strive to be. Listen, reflect, and embrace your next aha moment

Bryn Tindall  0:57  
There's something about the the you know, I know there's no camera on me right here I don't think.

Allison Minutillo  1:01  
 No not yet. 

Bryn Tindall  1:02  
But the camera and the lights.

Allison Minutillo  1:05  
I mean, the pink light reverberating from the background. This is just what dreams are made of. We are recording from our brand new podcast studio in New Rebel HQ. Do you believe this moment right now? Can we get a clap? We did it. 

Bryn Tindall  1:24  
It's, you know when when we were describing what we were going to build with respect to this specific room and the pink colors and so far that is my mind flashed back to the Saturday like three weeks before opening when I opened up the box of these pink chairs. I texted you an image I was like, Is this what you ordered?

You were like woohoo!

Allison Minutillo  1:50  
Precisely what I ordered. So I mean, I think about the first day we brainstorm the podcast in general when the idea came to us. And then now fast forward two years later and we're sitting in a studio with a soundproof wall and a neon sign behind our heads and an On Air sign on. And it's just proof in the concept that we're going to talk about today that the power of belief is real. It's very palpable.

Bryn Tindall  2:22  
There was an interest you right? You do have to go back to that meeting, you know, it was you, me and Paul, and we were talking about the brand and evolution of the brand and how to get the story of what we're doing out. And we arrived at this idea and how we could take the concept of Rebel Leadership and play it out in the marketplace. And I don't think I knew at that time, how much that resonated with your background. 

Allison Minutillo  2:49  
Right. 

Bryn Tindall  2:50  
You know, I think it took the following Monday when you came back and had built out you know, six years worth of content that I feel just, you know that we had struck a nerve that aligned with something that was really important to you and how to how to align with the vision for what we had talked about.

Allison Minutillo  3:06  
Well, that point right there is important because belief is nothing unless you're connected. It's connected to a core value of yours or something that truly drives you that gets you up out of bed in the morning too. And two weeks ago we achieved something that quite honestly I never thought that I could do or that we could do. But you had a different take on it from the very beginning that you always believed that we could own our own building, renovate our own building and get our company into a space that we were made for. What was it like when we made that decision to buy this building and go tackle this project?

Bryn Tindall  3:56  
Well, on a backup to the first part of your statement, the belief that we could do this. I have come to realize that there isn't anything that can't be accomplished. You know if we choose to put the right amount of energy, conviction and in some cases dollars but it boils down to the time you willing to dedicate to it and the focus where we have chosen to focus our time and our energy you know any anything is become possible and there's a saying about success begets success, right? You begin to believe in anything that you put your hands to and your energy you can accomplish if you choose to put the right focus there there there is one other magic element to that which is obviously assembling the right team with the right skill sets. But then the what's become paramount as you get alignment with the individuals and the path you set forth, right, you have to get the alignment that they can play a role in accomplishing that feat. Right and so that everybody think of it as in lockstep, right?

Allison Minutillo  5:10  
It's just like sports like if the players don't think that the coach believes in them, they are not going to believe in themselves. And that I think I've realized in these past couple weeks since the grand opening of this building is so critical, but it's a two way street, the belief in your employees and then their belief in you. It can take you from an apex of a monumental life occasion where it's just a dream, you're on cloud nine. You can't believe what you've all just accomplished right down to the bottom of the barrel in terms of emotions and hard times. Let's break down the past couple of weeks describe what happened in your

Bryn Tindall  6:02  
Well, first let's talk I want to just talk about what you just said about the belief of individuals in you and the power of that right so one if you're a go getter and and a perfectionist, which you are, and you have people tell you you can't do something the first part of you says I'm going to prove them wrong. Right and that's also powerful. But what I have realized if you think back in your life and think about the people who chose a different path, and said I believe you're capable of doing this go do it and show me I'll stand behind you that that is a completely different geometric type of empowerment that makes most people rise. Oh, it's a force multiplier is absolute force multiplier, right? So one side of it is more like negative energy right says I'm gonna prove them wrong. Right but the other side is I'm going to prove them right. And that's the piece where I believe when we have aligned these beliefs, you know, that's when called the force multiplier. That's when this power starts to kick in.

Allison Minutillo  7:05  
And that is the role of Rebel Leadership. Yeah. When you think about this concept, it is your responsibility, our responsibility, anybody who's in a leadership or management role, when you embody what it means to be a rebel leader, it means that you are not only believing that but telling that person over and over and over that you do that you'll stand behind their decisions that you'll catch them when they fall that you will workshop things if they don't know how to do something, and convincing them of something that you know they're capable of until they believe it. And then they take it and run with it and it's this. It's this amazing ripple effect in that direction that can build things that we could never have imagined.

Bryn Tindall  7:49  
And each person's belief in their ceiling is different, right? It's also varies based on their stage in life and the success they've had that comes before it. Right. So we told the story yesterday in our town hall of one of the individuals who was tasked with preparing us to go live again, you know, versus virtual, and I told the story about looking into his eyes and he just looked at me like that was crazy. His eyes got as big as saucers like you. There's no way that's gonna happen. I said yes, there is. And here is how you're going to do it. And I broke it down into steps that he could see the path forward. And you know, to complete the story from yesterday, you know, watching him enable that the day before the reveal and just watching the I mean, he was sweating his butt off because it was hot out there but damned if he was not gonna get it there. 

Allison Minutillo  8:42  
He was so proud of himself. 

Bryn Tindall  8:44  
So so proud of himself. Let me circle back to the question you asked me a minute ago, so we had this amazing grand opening which took just a lot of energy but but we got there had a great night, you know, everybody was feeling great and so forth. And and, and the next couple of days, we're, you know, just a continuation of, you know, congratulate everybody on all that we have done, right, but there as as life knows, you know, there have been a series of a sequence of events that crept in over the last several weeks, you know, specifically you know, in some cases directed at you and some of the experiences you know, that you had and and I can see it, you know, beginning to weigh on you and and the and the energy that you put off, right, and, you know, we started talking about what was going on, right.

Allison Minutillo  9:31 
Meaning, like, let's just be honest, I would break down. I would be more negative. I would walk into the room and be a negative vibe, which is not at all who I am. There were tears. I'm not the one to cry at work. There's just this insane emotion that was coming out of me after this monumental positive event milestone.

Bryn Tindall  9:56  
And you know, what happened you know, if you really boil it down is you know, you were allowing negative voices to get inside your head and it was eroding your doubt in your ability to do what you do, right? And sometimes, I think people on the outside, it's one of the roles we try to play with each other, can help bring you back, right? We sort of talk it through and this is the belief side of what we're talking about, you know, but some there are some things like that, that you also have, I hate to say bottom out but figure out for yourself and come back out on the other side and you wish you had a little bit of both going on there. You know, where, you know, self doubt in a way that I haven't seen in a while, you know, probably ever since I've known you. And you know, I tried to play the role of just being there. For you, right, just trying to be the sounding board to help you get through it, talk through it, right.

Allison Minutillo  10:53  
But there was a moment when I was like at the pit. And you did say to me, You know what I think right now, the best thing for me to do is just leave you alone. And you were right. Because I had a lot to process and this is not a story about me, but about the complexity of leadership that you said this a little bit earlier in the episode. There are doubters in your life. And those doubters can make comments to you that fuel you in the right direction where you're like, I'm gonna prove that person wrong. And when those doubters are people that you don't trust and care about and respect the hell out of then that comment easily lights your fire in the right direction. But when the doubt is coming from people that you care about, and that you trust and you're investing time in the doubt hurts so much deeper to your core, and that's what I was processing. Right and I think that's the hardest part about leadership. is sorting that out in your mind and reaffirming to yourself in many cases like that. Look in the mirror. Do you believe in what you're doing? Do you believe in the people around you? Do you believe that you can accomplish something? Do you believe that you've done all the right things for all the right reasons? Do you have good intentions? Can you get there? Okay. It's this reinstalling of confidence, but you genuinely don't get there on your own. It takes those like self reflection moments, but it's because of people like you and the team we've assembled around us who are telling us that we can, that you do believe it, and then start to go in the opposite direction.

Bryn Tindall  12:44  
Talk to you a little bit about my thoughts on life and and what happens when you get here and what happens when you leave and so forth. You know, and I'm very much of this opinion that that you know, we come into this world alone and we actually exit alone and you know, the journey that we're on is you know, to collect people of like value. It's in those quiet moments, though, when you do believe that you bottomed out or had negative, you know, negative interactions and so forth where you do need to work through in your head. You know, did I leave it all out on the court? Did I act within what we believe is the core values of what we say you know, matters to us. And if I did you know what, what really else could I have done right? And at that point, you can begin to work your way through and that's why it hurts so much right? Especially when people come at it and attack that when you've done all that stuff. Right? And you know what I have learned to do but it's the lesson you have to teach yourself constantly is to you know, that's reason that Man in the Arena quote that hangs in my office is so important to me. I have learned to shut out the voices that I'm not allowed to get close to me and and stay focused on what what I believe is the objective of the mission. What we want to also talk about is the power of belief and the power of, of individually individuals have over each other people, people who spend your respect people who have the impact to change you know, whether you believe or not believe you can get things done. What we've come to realize that that people's voices have a have a compounding effect when when their voice matters. In terms of what we believe we can accomplish it it also has the inverse effect. You know, we joke a little bit about Krypton and Superman that kind of stuff but it can also take you down faster which is what you felt the other day. And and so it's it what we were we've really come to realize is the voices around us that are closest to us and our belief that they believe that what we said we're going to do, we're all in alignment around when that happens. That's where the magic kicks in.

Allison Minutillo  15:18  
You're 100% right? Because I never really it was a scary couple of weeks to be honest with you. Because I really started to tell myself that I was a fraud. Quite honestly, that was what was the narrative that I was telling myself as I would go home each day like why do you feel this way? People are telling you that the sky is falling and things are falling apart and people are unhappy. But what I realized was singular voices does not mean that's everybody. Right? And part of your role as a leader is to get clarity and ask good questions. And find the confidence in those rooms to stay poised and say Okay, give me a detail about that. Give me more specifics and and start bursting the bubble of the negative voice. Because the second you do there's not much substance there. Right. Sometimes there is absolutely we have to listen to that. And you have to take that and that's part of our leadership. But many times it's a generalization that you're letting become very big and broad in your head. And it's not true. And so this power of belief, belief in yourself believe in what you're doing everyday belief in the people around you. has helped me rebound even stronger and better than ever. I feel in my mind because I realized this is what building resilience means. This is what it takes to lead. It is not easy. It's a sacrifice. It's hard. It's confusing. It's lonely many times but it is also extremely rewarding and fulfilling. And there are days when I pinch myself - moments like this one - right here in this moment of recording in a studio that we built from an idea that we created that we turn into something and it's like not just this but the people that we will affect with the words that we are saying. That is how we will be remembered.

Bryn Tindall  17:25  
I'm thinking of two things as you're saying this. I was raised to believe that just about anything could be accomplished with discipline and hard work. Right. And I do believe you are extremely hard worker were extremely hard working people. It's like organization you can outwork, in most cases your way around most problems right and when when days are really bad, you know, I will just go back and do more of it over prepare, re prepare, you know, and it's like a form of work. The realization that we're talking about today is yes, it takes hard work and discipline. But it has to be paired with the belief that the individuals around you that you're not a fraud. You know that you're here for a reason. You know, that that this moment that you've earned is genuine and you manifested it by the sweat of your own brow, right and that's the piece that that we need to honestly keep reminding each other and those closest to us around us that we created this we manifested this by our effort, our energy, our intellect. In some cases dollars, but but but it took the belief in each other that we could get there. And that's that's the special piece of it, which is I think why we're sitting down and talking today. 

Allison Minutillo  18:42  
And I can imagine the rebels, the famous rebels that you think of in history, all have these moments of doubt. But they all had that power of belief that what they were doing going against the grain doing things others told them not to do that was crazy. That they believed that there was a reason why they were achieving that that goal.

Bryn Tindall  19:02  
Yeah, interesting study. You know, I'd be curious to see how many of those rebels that we hold near and dear had built a support system like we're talking about, you know, and how many of them actually tried to do it alone. I would imagine a good chunk of them did it alone and didn't get to relish and understand and the power of what we're talking about today. Right. And and I'm not saying all of them because it can be being a rebel being out on the on the frontiers of it can be a lonely, you know, a lonely type of lifestyle, right when you choose that path, but when you choose to share it in this manner, like we're talking about and live that way. I think I think that that changes sort of the paradigm in terms of what's important and what's not important.

Allison Minutillo  19:47  
Well, it's far more fulfilling to share these moments with the ones that we trust and respect the most. Thank you.

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