HR Blind Spots and Leadership Lessons, feat. Yara Banks, President & Founder of BNX Business Advisors

Confessions 1.22.25 Yara Banks
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Confessions of a Terrible Leader, where real leaders share the raw truth about the lessons they learned the hard way so you don't have to. Join our host, Layci Nelson, founder of Transcend Leadership Collective and former terrible leader. On this podcast, we invite you to step into the confessional and get real with the messy stories and behind the scenes reality of leadership.

Let's get to it.

Layci: Hello listeners, and welcome back to Confessions of a Terrible Leader. I'm your host, Layci And, let us not forget, former terrible leader herself, Layci Nelson. I am so happy to be kicking off this New Year with a conversation with Yara Banks. Yara, before we jump into the meat, I want to give you a proper introduction.

Layci: Yara has just written a book and she's a woman of many talents, a lot of experience, and her book [00:01:00] title immediately grabbed me, Executive Blind Spot. How misalignment with HR can impact your bottom line.

Yara: Yes. Woo! Yes.

Layci: That is something that we go in with organizations when we're working with them. We see this.

Layci: All the time. I'm so eager to dig in with you. You also own the NX business advisors, correct?

Yara: Yes.

Layci: I'm guessing a lot of your book, the stories, the experiences that you are pulling from, you've seen a lot. Yes. I'm saying with a lot of words, you've seen a lot. Yes. Yes. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm excited

Yara: to be here.

Yara: If I can add just a couple of things. So BNX business advisors is an integrated business consulting firm, integrated business and human resources. It's a close mix. They're not separate. They really are together. But then we also do separate just business or separate just HR. I also am the founder of Global Human [00:02:00] Resource Consulting Network, which we just rolled out in January.

Yara: And the purpose of that is to create a safe landing spot for people who want to journey into HR consultants. So we give them all the resources. I know later on, this is spoiler alert, but later on, we'll talk about some of the mistakes that have happened when I started my own business. Guess what? I have solved for every one of those with my network and provided those resources and information upfront for the people who want to be HR consultants.

Yara: So I have over, I always like to say over 20, but it's closer to 30, but over 20 years of combined HR and operations experience. So that goes beyond me owning my own companies. But it's just workplace corporate experience over the years.

Layci: Yes, that is such a wealth of knowledge to draw from. And I'm sure you have seen it all.

Layci: Yes. If you were to give us a mini version, when did you get into this field? Did you just straight out of school? What was baby Yara doing? Okay,

Yara: so [00:03:00] listen, I'm a law and order baby, right? I wanted to be a police officer or a lawyer. So in college, I studied undergrad. I studied criminal justice. But I lived in the Midwest and it was at a time when people who look like me and women weren't necessarily the first choice for the roster of local police departments.

Yara: So I was never able to fulfill that particular dream. However, I looked up on a job with the city government being what's called an equal opportunity specialist. And if I'm being 10, 000 percent honest, I had no clue what that really meant even after the interview, but the pay was good and it was government.

Yara: Everybody knows government or safe jobs, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I took the job and what I found out it was about was investigating, which ding, ding, ding, right? Yes. And this dating discrimination and housing employment and public accommodations. And so that was right up my alley. So I was able to do all three.

Yara: So that's kind of how I got started really in the employment realm. I started working there and then I [00:04:00] decided I liked employment better than the housing and the public accommodation. So I stayed in with investigating employment discrimination and then went over to full on HR.

Okay.

Yara: I do have a story that I always like to share.

Yara: It's near and dear to my heart. That wasn't my first job out of college. When I took my first corporate job out of college, I worked in a, you know, a place that had a bunch of cubicles, you know, the back end where you don't really get to see customers, but there's just people in cubicles loved it.

Yara: Absolutely love going to work. Let me tell you why this was the era of Ricky Lake and Oprah and bad girls club and all of those reality shows. Well, in this workplace that happened every day, somebody was getting fired, someone was getting cussed out, there was going to be a fight, somebody was sleeping with somebody else's something, and I love going to work, like what's happening next, right?

Yara: I just love it. I'm just being honest, right? And so what happened was this particular day I was hanging out cause I was at a call center. It was a call center hanging out in the bathroom at like four [00:05:00] 50 cause you know, if you work in a call center, you have to answer calls. So five o'clock if you're at your desk, but if I was in the restroom, someone called oops.

Yara: So that was the hangout place about four 50. So I was making my bathroom run and I was taking my time and a lady was in a stall and I could hear her mumbling. So I'm just being nosy because I'm like, Hmm, what is she talking about in there? Who's she talking to? Cause I'm just hanging out in the bathroom.

Yara: And then I realized it wasn't really mumbling. It was actually like crying. So now I'm really intrigued. So my hand washing gets a little slower, like what's going on, right? There's going to be some tea in this bathroom. And then it was like this uncontrollable, you know, that tears that you cry when the tears don't come out, but you can't hardly breathe.

Yara: And this is what I can hear now. Now I'm concerned. So I start knocking and I'm like, hello, are you in there? Are you okay? Come out. Do you need some help? And it just got louder and louder. Oh, I get goosebumps thinking about it. And so finally she was able to open the door when she opened the door, hon, it was [00:06:00] just a puddle of a person standing in front of me and in her hand, it was full of pills.

Yara: Oh, wow. And I was like, what's going on? What's happening? And then she's, through her cry, she's explaining that she can't work here anymore because it's too much, but she can't quit because she has kids to take care of, but she can't keep coming to work because it's too much, but she can't quit because she has kids to take over.

Yara: The best thing for her to do is go to sleep and not wake up. Right? I mean, I was only 19 years old at this time. And in that moment, this wave of guilt poured over me because although I had never teased anybody, I had never made fun of anybody. I'd never been part of the toxicity that was in this workplace.

Yara: I sat back as a silent observer and even reveled in it at someone else's expense. But I never saw it that way.

Layci: Yeah. Did that all hit you in that moment, or did it take reflection over time?

Yara: The guilt hit me right then. Yeah. And then probably that [00:07:00] same day it was like, Oh God, Yara. You know? Mmm. So, in that same day, it all hit me.

Yara: Wow. I quit. And I resolved that even though at 19, I couldn't do anything to help this lady other than get her immediate medical help.

Right.

Yara: I would never participate in a workplace like that. I would never be part of a workplace like that. If I found that I was, that I would make every step possible in order to correct the problem and not be a part of it.

Yara: And so that kind of really was why I leaned more towards the employment realm when I got that first particular job as an investigator. Because now I get to investigate people who are causing these types of toxicity.

Layci: So it was like, yes, empowerment. Ah, what a redemption arc. Right. Right. What a redemption arc.

Layci: Oh, that gave me goosebumps too. That is quite a situation to be in as a 19 year old and thankful that you were there. Yes. In that moment. Yes. For that woman. This is just a sheer curiosity question. A lot of us hear, Oh, HR's doing an investigation, HR's doing an investigation. We have [00:08:00] no idea what that means.

Layci: Okay, let's talk about it. Can you, yes, can you break down Break it down. What is a good investigation? What does a good investigation look like? HR investigation. And, conversely, I would guess, just like any other profession, there's some HR professionals that are really good at it, and others that are throwing up flags, but people don't know that they're flags.

Layci: Right. As just a outside perspective, when we're not in the throes of HR, what should we be looking for to know, like, if I own a business and I've asked someone to do an HR investigation, how do I know they're doing it well from my seat? You

Yara: won't. Ugh! Honest answer. Okay. Okay, that's fair. Here's some guidelines though, right?

Yara: Cause I'm very transparent, which is, he's what you get. I'm gonna shoot straight every time. Yes. I love it. All right. So here's some things to look for. If when you're talking to someone about a problem, let's say you call in me and you want to see if I want to be the investigator. Okay. Right. And immediately as you're telling me the story, I start siding with [00:09:00] your perspective.

Yara: That sounds like that's a horrible idea. Oh, I can't believe they said that. Oh, we have got to do something about that. That's a red flag because they're not neutral. And that's what the call is. The call is to be neutral, to not act out of emotion or opinion, but to act out of fact, that's the biggest red flag.

Yara: They're not neutral. The next thing is an HR investigator should always have a plan of investigation. They should write down, what are they trying to find out? Who are they going to talk to? What documents are they going to look at? They should have a plan. They shouldn't just go in and start randomly talking to people.

Layci: Now, is it okay to share the plan? If I had brought you in and I said, well, can you show me your plan? Or is that like, no, not until I'm done?

Yara: It depends. Are you calling them in to investigate an allegation against you?

Layci: That makes sense. If so, then no, you should show me anything, but

Yara: if it's against a department head and another area.

Yara: Sure. Okay. So they should have a plan and [00:10:00] then what they should do next is proceed with caution and Privacy. It should not be a big announcement. There's an investigation going on. This is Yara Banks. She's investigating some sexual harassment stuff that happened in the other building. That should not be it.

Yara: Only the people who are either a witness to or a party to should have interaction with the investigator.

Okay.

Yara: And then once the investigator has interviewed everyone, they should have detailed notes, objective notes, not subjective notes. I feel that she wasn't being honest, but according to witnesses, this happened and that is contrary to the statement that she provided facts.

Yara: No, I feel I believe I was like, she kind of, you know, none of that from the facts gathered, they should make a recommendation on to whether they feel like there's merits to believe that a violation occurred or not. And why? Succinctly bullet points kind of thing. [00:11:00] Again, not how you feel, what you thought.

Yara: None of that. That's pretty much what an investigation should look like. A workplace investigation can be about anything. Theft, misappropriation of workplace equipment, stealing time. Mm-hmm . Then of course there's the sexual harassment, discrimination realm, any of that.

Layci: Thank you for breaking that down. No problem.

Layci: So clearly I think when we hear investigation mm-hmm . I automatically think, oh. It's sexual harassment, but there's investigation for all kinds of things. I mean that you'd be investigating as you just stated in your experience. What are the most common areas where an investigation is going to take place?

Layci: Is it the big one that we always

Yara: think of? It's going to be discrimination, which includes sexual harassment. Hostile work environment. Those are the biggest ones. And you also do have, Johnny put 50 hours on his pay this week, but I know he only worked 30. Let's find out what's happening. Or bickering. Oh gosh, that's not really an investigation.

Yara: That's more of a [00:12:00] mediation. When co workers can't get along with each other. And oh, here's the other one. She has favorites. Who doesn't? Let's keep it real. Who doesn't have favorites? I mean, people shouldn't know you have favorites, but everybody has favorites.

Layci: Yes. I just yesterday was talking with someone in a leadership position about the perception of favoritism and talked about how, yes, you're going to have people that you click with that.

Layci: It's easier for you to just be with and you're going to banter and you're going to just have that smooth, easy relationship and everyone's watching. Right. You need to know that. Right, right, right.

Yara: So there's that. So anything where it could be a rule violation of your policies and procedures, the results, if proven true would lead to some kind of disciplinary action.

Yara: There should be an investigation.

Layci: This leads me to talking about your book. Yes! Because when you said hostile work environment, I mean, we go into those situations, and they're often saying we have a culture problem. And when we start digging and getting to the root of it, there's definitely some hostile [00:13:00] work stuff happening.

Layci: And nine times out of 10, the people at the very top don't really know what's happening and hence the title of your book, Blind Spots. Yes. Talk to me all about it. Okay.

Yara: So a blind spot, there's multiple blind spots, but the biggest one is around HR as a whole, and this is why I say what I say. There are, according to me, according to our organization, BNX Business Advisors, how we see it is there's three levels of HR engagement.

Yara: There's the. Strategic level at the top. You know, you're forecasting, you're doing visions and goals for what's gonna happen in the future. Then there's tactical, right? All hands on deck. There's immediate problems. There might be an investigation. We might be rolling out a new H. R. I. S. System, whatever the case is short term, all hands on deck.

Yara: And then there's administrative, you know, that box Hire, fire, onboarding, benefits, blah, blah, blah. What happens is HR often gets pinned in that administrative box and stuck there. Mmm. I [00:14:00] recently read a study that said 83 percent of CEOs polled do not understand what HR really does. 83%! Eighty three percent.

Yara: Ooh. So let's think about this. Let's take it out of HR for a second. So you run a hedge fund, right? You have all this money, run a hedge fund, and then you hire a hedge fund manager. And all you allow that hedge fund manager to do is read balance sheets.

Layci: Total underutilization.

Yara: Absolutely. You're not

Layci: getting your ROI.

Yara: That is the blind spot. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You're not understanding A, what they do and how much of a partner they can be to you. Here's the deal, though. CEOs, executive suite, business owners. We have a fiduciary responsibility to all stakeholders to make this organization as profitable as possible.

Yara: And we can only do that if we utilize all the resources that are available to us. And when you have resources and you don't understand what they do, that's a problem to me. You're not fulfilling your full [00:15:00] responsibilities.

Layci: So if I want to do this right, and I don't want to underutilize HR, I want to partner with HR, how do I do that?

Layci: Because I would bet 83 percent of our listeners are underutilizing and leaving opportunity for themselves, their company, and the poor HR person who's probably bored. Right. If they're not being actively tapped into for all they can offer, what am I missing? Where do I need to get better?

Yara: We have got to create a space at that executive table to make them partners with everybody else who's an executive.

Yara: So don't push them off into right. Some little corner to go do paperwork. People are the biggest asset of any organization. We have to nurture that. And who knows best. What's going on? Who has their ear to the ground? It should be HR. So, when you plan to open a new branch in Buffalo, you're gonna need to know how many bodies, what's the minimum wage there, what are benefits, what are the laws in that state.

Yara: Yep. You're gonna need to know, if I hire five people, what should the production [00:16:00] output be? Let's use our KPIs, key performance indicators, and metrics. Data doesn't lie. When it comes to engaging HR, you need to know everything they know. How will this impact the organization as a whole? How will it impact this particular department?

Yara: What other resources do we need to put in place to make this a success? It can't just be you make a plan and then tell HR execute, right? It cannot be that we get called in after that happens. That's what happens all the time. They have to be part of the plan. Not only that, but as you start to review the data that doesn't lie, you should see that HR people are not just a cost center, right?

Yara: They can really be a revenue generating machine, right? They should be. Yes. You should have return on investment for each butt and a seat at the end of the day. So you need HR to forecast that. Okay. So this is a department of five. We want one more full time employee. How should things change? How should productivity increase?

Yara: How should revenue increase? What's going to happen from this one button to C [00:17:00] you got to figure it out. It can't just be putting someone there. There has to be a plan behind it. HR can help you figure out that plan and then monitor the metrics. You shouldn't just be bleeding money for cost to hire, cost to train, cost to recruit.

Yara: You can't just keep doing it that way. You're not being responsible if that's the case. And chances are, you're probably not even looking at those buckets of the balance sheet as a C suite executive, but you should be. And if you're not, and your CFO is not, then that's why you need to have a CHRO, Chief Resource Executive, so they can keep an eye on those metrics.

Yara: And when they're going array, go find out what the heck is happening. Keeping them on as a trusted advisor. That's who HR should be in an organization, a trusted advisor, because any move you make is going to involve the people. So why would it not involve the people manager? So you start there, start with that trusted advisor.

Yara: But be aware that a lot of HR people, it's generational, a lot of HR people were always stuck in the administrative bucket. So you may say, Hey, [00:18:00] Yara, come to the big people's table, come over to the grownup table. And I've never been there because I've only ever been stuck in the administrative role. So now the onus is on two things.

Yara: One is to make sure whoever you pull up to that table is able to answer the call. But as HR professionals, we need to make sure that we're continuous improvement, continuous learning. And if we're an organization where we're stuck in the administrative role, raise your hand and go, Hey, Mr. CEO, did you know I can also do

Layci: XYZ.

Layci: Yes. Exactly.

Yara: That's where the onus is on both of them.

Layci: One of the things that we're always coaching on, especially if we're working with mid level or anything lower than C suite, is the skill of upward management. So understanding how to initiate those conversations and how to ask for time. And how to utilize it in a way where that supervisor is so glad that you made that appointment with them.

Layci: How do you position yourself to do that? So it sounds like this is one of those times where you can shine, but you're [00:19:00] gonna have to raise your hand. And know how to do that and request the time and go in with a plan. Absolutely.

Yara: So you touched on middle management. So that's another one of the blind spots after HR.

Yara: But it includes HR. Almost every organization I go into has a middle management gripe. Middle management is that step or the buffer between executives and the boots on the ground. And the front line. Yep. Right. And between going down and then middle management to the executives, right? Right. So from the executive standpoint, the gripe is Middle management doesn't take ownership.

Yara: Middle management doesn't handle issues very well. They're always trying to pivot or pitch it to me. Middle management is not controlling the people, all this. And then from the bottom, the boots on the ground, I don't mean bottom and like, cause I'm really funny about classes and I don't want saying there any less than I'm just saying the boots on the ground.

Layci: Right. If we're looking at the hierarchy chart, they're not less than they're making all the money, typically they're doing the work. Right. Yeah. So boots on the ground.

Yara: They complain about middle management because they don't know [00:20:00] anything. They don't coach us. They don't teach us. They don't interact. We don't have communication.

Yara: We don't know what's going on. All of those things. Poor middle management.

Layci: It is a rough spot. Here's

Yara: the thing. You're a middle manager because you've been here for a long time or you're really good at the job you do right now without any forethought as to what kind of leader you'll be. That's what middle management is.

Yara: And everyone expects you because you're going to take the job. You're going to say, yes, I want my promotion. Yes, I want the money. I want the pay bump. Yep. Now it's like I'm a middle manager. Now what? Right. Yes. And so, yes, everyone expects you day one to know everything you're supposed to know. You may get training on reports and how to prove people's time and some of that, but you don't get the skill set of leadership, emotional intelligence, change communication, navigating difficult conversations.

Yara: How to coach performance management. You don't get any of that, right? You get day one, hit the ground, run. And then you wonder why there's a problem, right?

Layci: Typically they're coming in, dealing [00:21:00] with all the heightened emotion around a leadership change, and they're not even expecting it. Because they just don't know.

Yara: Yes. That is a big problem. One of the things we did at BNX is we created a, either a 90 day or a six month leadership development workshop cohort. This cannot be a one time thing. You got the job. Go to two days of training. Congratulations. Here are the keys to the capsule. Right. It has to be continuous learning, it has to be ongoing, it has to be interactive, it has to be role playing and game studies and their ability to discuss how they feel and can talk and build a relationship, a rapport with others.

Yara: Yes. That's what's missing. Because when you do your annual employee satisfaction survey, studies show that 92 percent of the responses are aimed at the next level supervisor. If it's a good vibe with the company, the supervisor is going to get good marks. Yep. If it's a bad vibe with the company as a whole, but I still love my supervisor, the supervisor is going to get bad marks.

Yara: Because that's [00:22:00] all you have to relate to the organization as a whole.

Layci: That is your conduit. Yes. So much truth in that. I was just reading an article that was released by MIT Sloan about finally organizations are starting to wake up. to the cost of not having middle management effectively trained in leadership.

Layci: Because you do, you see leadership programs and who are they typically aimed at? C suite. That is typically who they're for and their impact is, yes, it's important they should be on board, they should know too, but it is a different level of impact when you're training your middle management.

Yara: Everything surrounding an employee experience comes from that middle management, whether it is.

Yara: The initial onboarding, the training, the engagement, performance reviews, reward recognition, team building, coaching, everything comes from there. So they got to be able to handle everything that comes along with that. In addition to that, if you start from the beginning, a department head says, Hey, here's a requisition request.

Yara: I would like to [00:23:00] hire two full time employees. My question is, what are they going to do and what do you expect out of them? They should know that before that job description or that job post ever hits Indeed or whatever. It should already be a plan. And then from there, you should have internal roadmaps to say, this is the job you're at.

Yara: Then you go to this job, then you go to this job. Now you have a fork in the road. You can go here or you can go there. They need to know that you value them as people and that you're willing to give them every resource necessary to be the best them they can be when they feel part of something bigger than themselves.

Yara: They are all in all of us want to do good. We want to do the right thing. Just give us the tools to do it.

Layci: No one wakes up and says, I want to be the manager that everyone hates. Right. Nobody, that's my goal.

Yara: You want to do the best thing. I wrote another book, blind spots. My third book, my very first book was written off of my experiences about what I told you when I first started out in the workforce, the toxicity, but it allowed me to express different areas [00:24:00] of concern or where I had pitfalls or where I had blocks.

Yara: In my career in corporate and talk through this is what happened. Here's how you deal with the professional. And one of those things is called the brown door secret. Everybody knows that the corporate boardrooms are brown door, and it says leadership tips. Your boss doesn't want you to know. Now, sometimes.

Yara: They do want you to know, but they tell you, don't worry about it because they don't know. And it's not because they have any kind of ill will. They just frankly don't know and they don't have time to find out because everything else is on their shoulders. We got to prepare them to be next and don't just leave them there because those middle managers should be next in line for those executive positions.

Yara: So now we talk about succession planning, walking the door, build that roadmap. You can go here, you can go here. Now you're here. More training, be prepared to take over when John Henry decides to retire. So you don't have that production gap, protect yourselves, have a backup to a backup, to a backup, like a feeder line.

Yara: You know, when we're in school, you go from this elementary school to [00:25:00] that middle school and from that middle school to this high school, have feeder groups ready to take on the next challenge. And in between that time, while you're waiting for something to come open. Employee resource groups are good.

Yara: Mentoring groups are good. I call it the employee exchange program where you go do a side by side with somebody, another department to see if that would be a good fit for you later down the road, and then understand what you need to do in order to get there. There's a lot of things we can be doing that are little to no costs that are interactive.

Yara: That keep people engaged, but you have to let them know what's the mission from the Midwest yellow brick road. We're all in yellow brick road. We're all going to Emory city. This is how we're going to get there. That's what they need to know. They need to know that you value their opinions, their experience, their expertise.

Yara: You hear their voice. And even if you don't agree with what they say, or they don't agree with what you say, they respect you. I always say this. Correction without relationship will never work. If you don't have a relationship with your people, and you come in, and it seems like every time you show up, you're saying, you [00:26:00] did this wrong, and you did that wrong, and you did this.

Yara: It's never going to work. It's going to be animosity. There's going to be resentment and you're going to get that quiet quitting. Not leaving the building, just showing up for my eight hours, not raising my hand, doing the bare minimum and getting my check and going home. But you want more from this asset.

Yara: You want all the asset can give, but you have to give all you can as well.

Layci: Absolutely. Absolutely. You have to provide the opportunity and if you're leading the company, that is your job. Absolutely. Providing that opportunity. Oh, such a good discussion. We have so much alignment. I love this. I'm going to switch gears a little bit here on us and invite you into the confessional.

Layci: You've got a wealth of experience, a lot of passion. I know it came from a lot of things that probably you look back on and go, I did not do that right. Like that 19 year old in the bathroom moment. Welcome to the confessional. What is your story around a leadership mistake that you made and you went, Oh, wow, [00:27:00] I'm not going to do it that way again.

Layci: How has it impacted you today?

Yara: So when I started my very first business, now I have had a nonprofit. I found it to nonprofits, but we're talking about a regular business. And I decided I would have this business BNX and I would have this other business and this other business would be a fun business.

Yara: This business would be something that stretched me. It was e commerce. greeting card business, had a whole Shopify store and everything. It was my fun business because it stretched me. I'm not, I don't feel like I'm very artistic and creative that way. So what happened was when I went and started this business, I went to the bank to open a business bank account and they say, well, Ms.

Yara: Banks, we have a 20, 000 credit card for you if you'd like it. Heck yeah! Let's do it, right? Yes! 20, 000? I don't have to do anything? Yes, let's do it! When I tell you that I spent every bit of that 20, 000 in probably four months, Marketing, having no clue of what marketing was. I thought I would just throw up a whole bunch of TikTok [00:28:00] ads and some Facebook ads, and I would have my business selling.

Yara: Now I made 43, 000 that year from that business, but I also spent 42, 000 on marketing. So I didn't have a plan. I didn't have a clue. I did not enlist help. Easy enough. I can do it. Meanwhile, and I am married. I have six children. So meanwhile, I am being sneaky, not letting my husband know how bad it's going over here.

Yara: You know, I'm keeping that down, which adds pressure on to you, right? Trying to figure out, Oh my God, how am I going to get out of this debt? What am I going to do? Why isn't this working? You're beating yourself up. Guys can tell I'm pretty independent. I'm pretty strong willed. I'm pretty passionate.

Yara: There's no way I'm going to let anybody know I'm failing. There's no way I'm not going to ask for help. I'm going to fix it. I'm going to send good money after bad. So before you knew it, I blew my 20 line of credit for business and another 20 on my personal credit card. Oh, ouch. Chasing after the loss instead of cutting the cord and letting it go.

Yara: Because we [00:29:00] don't want to be seen as failures because we don't want to be embarrassed. It's our pride, right?

But

Yara: at the end of the day, we have to have a plan. You can't start a business and go spending money. I kind of knew better because I've always said I wouldn't give a 20 year old a 10 million football contract and say have at it.

Yara: They're not prepared for it. But in my mind I was prepared for it because i'm a grown adult But it wasn't, I'm good at human resources, I'm good at business consulting, I wasn't good at that. Right. And it was because it was that type of business. It was an e commerce business. Totally different thing. It's not brick or mortar.

Yara: Right. You can't really put any thought leadership behind it. You don't go to podcasts talking about, look at my greeting card, right? The only way that in my little mind, I knew to put it out there. Was through social media, which later I find out is only 12 percent of conversion emails better because I did my work, right?

Yara: Finally, I cut the cord with that bad boy and I was like, okay, that's it. Yeah after Black Friday, of course. I said, that's it But it taught me so [00:30:00] much and stop being so hard headed if I'm a barber I'm good at cutting hair, but that's probably all

yeah

Yara: If I need a doctor if I'm sick, I go to a doctor for my tooth hurts.

Yara: I go to a dentist If I need help with managing my finances, go get a bookkeeper and accountant, go get a marketing person to help you stop being dumb. And that was it. I was being dumb for pride. I didn't have a plan thought I could do it myself. Like I do everything else myself. And I really pardon my friend, screwed the pooch on this one, you know, I really messed it up.

Yara: So all I'm saying to other people is if you're in the same boat, cut the cord, stop review, get help or get educated. And then press forward. There is no shame in saying this is not working, right? There's no shame in a detour or reversal. Of course I start over. There is no shame in it. And I didn't realize that at the time.

Yara: So it caused myself a lot of personal financial loss. Business, financial loss, time, stress. Oh yeah. Kids I was holding because I didn't [00:31:00] want anybody to know I was messing up. I didn't want my husband to know. Those kind of things. So we have to be authentically who we are and realize our limitations and then solve for them.

Layci: Yes. I

Yara: hope that helps.

Layci: That helps so much. That is such valuable advice. And I think all of us in business ownership have lit money on fire at some point because of A lot of things, but that is usually the ego is usually at the heart of it. And the sooner we can recognize it and cut on that and call the decision.

Layci: Yes, yes, yes. Such good insight. Thank you so much. Yara, this conversation has been amazing. I was literally taking notes just for myself as you were talking so valuable. Couple of things, where can we find you and where can we get your book? Okay,

Yara: so, you can find me on all social media outlets, I'm not on the X or Twitter, whatever the latest name is on that, but we do have LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, also YouTube.

Yara: My website's bnxba. com. [00:32:00] So bnxbusinessadvisors. com. You can also find the book there. I think we just got the link for, not an ebook, but you know, like a Kindle or, uh, whatever that's called these days. We also have it in that format. Excellent. So that's where you can find me. Fill out a form, contact form, if you'd like to talk with me and see how maybe I can come in and help with your organization, get you on track, reveal your blind spots.

Yara: Yes. Get you on track. The culture is important. All of what we're saying today is important. It's going to help your company grow. It's really going to help profitability and reputation. If you don't do it right, you're going to get reputational harm, but you do it right. You're going to have a good reputation.

Yara: Your employees will be your ambassadors. You won't be all over that website where people can go and talk about you in a bad way.

Layci: Yeah, yeah. Your employees are your ambassadors. Good or bad. It's happening. Good or bad. You don't know what the message is, right? If you don't know what the message is, you probably need to call Yara.

Layci: Yara, thank you so much. We're going to drop all of your links in the show notes so people can find you. Would love to have you on again. I think we could talk for five hours. We [00:33:00] could deep dive and go into some more specifics. Thank you so much for being here today. I appreciate your time and your expertise.

Yara: Thank you for having me. It's important. This is my mission. Help people learn, grow, and develop. That's my mission in life. And so whenever I can get and talk about it, you can see I'm passionate. Like I'm ready to go. Let's fix it.

Layci: Yep. We need more of that in our lives. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Yara. Thank you.

Layci: Have a great

Yara: day.

Layci: Until next time, listeners, go manage like a leader.

Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Terrible Leader. If you're feeling brave and have your own terrible leader story that you'd like to share, head over to TranscendLeadershipCollective. com slash podcast to fill out a guest application.

We'd love To hear from you. Confessions of a Terrible Leader is hosted by Lacey Nelson and produced and edited by Fixation Point Productions. Music is by Lee Olson and Mary Scott from the band. The number of Months Confessions of a Terrible Leader is a free leadership resource offered by Transcend Leadership Collective.

If you are ready to refuse the limits of average leadership and join the leadership [00:34:00] revolution, visit transcend leadership collective.com to check out our offerings for engaging workshops, strategic planning, and more. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave us a. you and until next time, go manage like a leader.