I think people get to hung up on the
tactics of this is my title, this is my
department, this is what they do and they really don't think about your actually a product. Your career is a product and how you package yourself, how you position yourself and how you market yourself can
exponentially define how much money you make. Amber Brown is a transformation executive growth strategist in the founder of Inside the Fix. Through her work, she helps organizations navigate change, accelerate growth and build
high performing cultures that thrive in a rapidly evolving marketplace. There's a lot of times when the business starts failing because the leader and their ability to transform and change as a person, as a leader, as a founder, is behind
the business. And organizations really don't start thinking about what they're doing, systemically and how they're adopting to an ever changing marketplace, they're going to go out of business or face really truly large failures in
how they operate in their business. And so that's
“what I'm really passionate about, that's what's in my”
episode. It spans the goal like a super high school internet helpers, and today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over, I'm telling how we're living your legacy podcast for those who
live to leave a legacy. Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast. I am your interim host today, Ray is outside of the studio. So I'm Jason and I am joined today with Amber Brown. So we're on
inside success TV, Amber, you are the founder of inside the fix. So let's get inside what is inside the fix? What's going on there? Yeah, so inside the fix is an operator led venture that really steps in at major inflection points for organizations,
specifically CEOs, executives, and boards, really their growth has stalled, it's been declining, or they just look at and I say, hey, my company is not operating in a way that's going to allow me to maximize the opportunity in the marketplace. How can you help?
So from what it sounds like, let's say for example, I'm a business owner, I've founded a couple of different startups. Let's say I'm not seeing the level of growth that I know I should be seeing in year two, year three, because your one is really just figuring out getting your feet underneath you, getting your foundations set,
years two, three, four, five, that's where you really start to look at growth opportunities. What is your first step when you come to a business owner to say, hey, this is how we're going to audit what you're currently doing and help you grow to the next level?
Yeah, so I think it always begins with people whether you're
startup or large organizations inside the fix does spend a lot of time and big org is usually a founder or a CEO and executive team or calling me and saying, we have problems, I think I know what the problems are. I have solutions that I want to implement, but nothing seems to be hunting, right? And nothing seems to be going quite the way I want it to be.
So we really walk in and diagnose what I find with a lot of organizations is what they think the problem is and the solutions they are obsessed with are really not things that are going to drive growth. It doesn't mean there
“may not be important problems you fix at some point, but I think people”
really struggle to identify what are the needle drivers as we like to call them in an organization. When you think about startup, you're two, you're three, what I find is a lot of startup founders say, hey,
have this amazing idea. I've done a great job marketing it delivering revenue,
but I can't keep my people or my operations don't really allow me to scale. There's not a lot of efficiency so that next phase of growth is really hard to achieve. And so people tend to come up with ways to address it, which is throw more employees at it, add more to the process, and sometimes they really don't take a step back to fundamentally look at their, whether it's a startup or large
organization, their systemic process. So it's almost like if you, if you were to personify an organization, you're like, where I would go if I want to take my organization to the doctor. We got to diagnose what's going on here. We got to figure out your breathing's a little funky. We're going to put the stethoscope on your back and figure out where the problems are. And once you figure out what those issues are,
“then the next step is to go on and to go and fix them in an inefficient way, right?”
Before we go deeper into inside the fix, I want to give the audience kind of an opportunity
Here to get to know Amber first.
this in the first place? Yeah, so it was sort of an exaggerated event. As a child, I grew up in traditional blue collar family, both parents were out of the home working. I had a younger sibling, and I had responsibilities, and it came to a point where I was taking care of the younger sibling and helping to run the household while my parents were outside of work. And what we were talking about earlier is there's no cell phones back in that day.
You know, in house videos, you know, my dad was working out on the ramps. The phone. Right? At Delta Airlines. It's the damn fun. It is. It was funny because you'd I'd be home alone. I had a sister that was five years younger than me. So I'm figuring out how to use the microwave and run a household, take care of a younger sibling. And it wasn't like I could call my dad and say, hey, I have this situation like what are your thoughts? I just
had to figure it out. And my parents had to trust me enough to say, okay, she's not going to
burn down the house. And she'll figure something out. So I always like to joke and tell my sister
“when she complains at me about things. I kept you a live man like what else do you want from me?”
What else do what else do I need to do? I always say this. I need to do to help you. You're alive. You're breathing at your functioning like props to me. You made it. You made your graduations. We're on the other side of it now. Yeah. I was lucky. I say this to my younger siblings all the time because I'm the oldest of three. Yeah. And I grew up in the 90s. So like I got that last little bit of learning how to problem solve on the fly, right? And I say this to people all the
time. And like that our generation, my generation was kind of the last group of people. You just kind of figure stuff out. I don't have the, I don't have the usage of Google for, you know, I can call on chat GPT to solve my problems for me. I had to figure it out on my own. And so I think that creates this sort of mentality of we have to be really quick problem solvers and we have to be good at diagnosing, which goes back to your point in your business. Diagnosing where the actual root
cause of the problem is like I feel like today we've got this weird parasocial relationship with
causing effect. Yes. Like we, we, we, everybody wants to complain about the effect. You know about easy to trace that down to a root cause. Yeah. And that's where we get mixed up because we, we want to throw stones at like, oh, this could be the cause. And that could be the cause. Well, it actually goes, but no, if you really take time and think about things, you can find, hey, this is actually the point of impetus. That's causing all of these other issues. And I also think the mindset about
it as well, right? So if you have a problem, it's easy to pick up your phone and ask chat. You don't really learn the fundamental process of problem solving and evaluating outcomes. But I think for me back then, it was invigorating. I was contributing to my household. I was taking care of my sister. I wanted to help my family. And so I approach problem solving as a positive thing and something I worked my way through and it really built a level of self confidence that I
think is harder to build today in the age of the internet and from. That's, that's a big, big thing too because it's not only just self confidence that builds up in you, but it's also learning to trust your own judgment, right? Having the ability to trust yourself as the person that
can come up with the answer as opposed to, oh, I'll never be able to figure this out. Let me just
go ask someone else. Yes. If you're able to do that, I think you're, you'll be fine. Like life
“is, life is hard, but it's, if you really sit down and think for a second, it's not that hard. We've”
created, we live in the most prosperous society in the history of the world. Like you can figure some stuff out if you really put your mind to it. Now you just finished filming your episode of Legacy Makers. Yeah. I want to talk a little bit about what can the audience expect to learn about you within that episode? You just finished filming with Lauren. How was that experience and what can we expect in your episode? Yeah. So filming with Lauren was great. I walked
into the process trying to not be too much in my head about everything. Do you have experience with TV before? No. Oh. This was my first time. And so though there's these list of 40 questions, you start writing answers. You're like, wait, I could do this approach or that approach. And I'm a markerter by trade. So I started my career as a markerter. So then the markerter means like, should I position it this way or position? And I would finally say, I just have to show up and trust
that I'm going to deliver what I need to for the business and of course for the audience. Exactly.
“It goes back to what we were just talking about trusting in yourself. Yeah. I think that's the most”
important lesson of all is if you can trust in your own judgment, you'll be right. Yeah. You'll be all right. Some people aren't the greatest judges, but you know, everybody can learn. That's the that's the opportunity we're all given here, right? When we when we sit down on this earth, you get the opportunity to be better. Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit about just some
Of the work that you're doing currently.
your, you know, you're helping all of these other businesses expand? How are your, what are your plans
“for expansion? Yeah. So I think I didn't actually even answer your last question. I would say,”
what you'd find in the episode is look, we're in the age of technology. And since the pandemic, you have AI technology disruption, marketplace in the world is going through all types of events. There's complexity to it that didn't really exist 10 years ago, even when I was growing up as a child. And so I think it really requires businesses to reevaluate how they shop in the marketplace. And the thing that's been so intriguing to me is you hear companies talk about change. And you hear
executives and people, oh, we've been talking about change. My company's been talking about
change for the last five, six, seven, eight years. The reality is is they haven't had to change.
The marketplace hasn't really forced it. And I think we live in a time in an era where it's going to be forced. And if organizations really don't start thinking about what they're doing, systemically and how they're adopting to an ever changing marketplace, they're going to go out of business or face really truly large failures in how they operate in their business. And so that's
“what I'm really passionate about. That's what's in my episode. But also leadership. So leadership”
today, I think requires a different skill set. LinkedIn put out a survey a while back saying obviously, AI is the number one skill set they look for, but change management, adaptability, flexibility problem solving, or some of the core skill sets. And it was really funny because in this webinar, someone raised their hand and said, well, duh, that's in every job description since the dawn of time. And what LinkedIn came back and said was, well, it's actually the hardest
skill set to find in practice. Anyone can say they're flexible and adaptable. But how does that really translate once you're hired and working for an organization? And so those skill sets were require us to lean into them and execute on them in a much more transparent and accelerated way than what we've done in the past. I think there's a, you know, I've been working in film for the last,
“well, film in production for the last decade now. And I think early on, I thought the skill sets”
that were the most valuable for me as a filmmaker were how my technical knowledge, right? How good I am with the camera? How good I am with lighting? How good I am with editing and color grading? How good I am with sound design? But over time, what I've realized and this goes back to your point, what I've realized is that the most valuable thing that I look for on film sets, because now working here with Insight Success TV, I'm building out crews. I'm going and shooting
in all of these different places. I just came back from LA. We're going to Dubai and March to go film another thing. When I'm building these crews for these bigger productions, the biggest skill set
that I always look for is how adaptable are you because the landscape of a film of a production set
is constantly changing. Oh, we wanted to film this during the day with these kind of lighting conditions. Guess what? The day of filming is here and now it's overcast and now we got to adapt. Yeah. The lights went out and something broke on one of the cameras. How are we going to adapt? Well, all right, I got a Jerry Rig something to this lighting stand and I got to figure things out. We're constantly adapting to our environment because you can plan as much as you want.
But when the day of filming actually comes, something is something's going to go wrong. And how adaptable you are is that's the biggest thing I look for in the guys that I keep bringing back over and over and over again is my guys that are the most adaptable. They're my most valuable teammates. Absolutely. And they're attitude about it. You can be adaptable and complain the whole time and be. And I bring down your energy. Hi, everyone. Absolutely. Yep. What would you say is the number
one lesson that you want the viewers to be able to take away from viewing your episode? So I really think collectively about my business and it's then this sort of long time love affair with my career. But specifically, I think on corporate America, a lot of big executives and even a lot of entrepreneurs going out get really obsessed with money, titles, all of the traditional elements of a career. However, you want to frame that. I think people
get to hung up on the tactics of this is my title. This is my department. This is what they do. And they really don't think about your actually or product. Your career is a product and how you package yourself, how you position yourself and how you market yourself can exponentially define
how much money you make. And so, you know, I started my career in corporate America and it was always
I have to collect the next big title, the next big budget, the next department.
lead me to this business was, I have this vast skill set. I probably only was using 50% of it in my corporate job, right? Because there's limitations in those structures, making a certain amount. And it was a lovely career and a lovely living. I said, I could forex that. But the same skill set, but packaging myself in a different way and talking about what I do in a different way
“to a broader audience. And so I think that's one big learning. And one of the big things my”
business helps with is reinvention. Everyone that's starting your career no matter if it's entrepreneurship or corporate America, you are going to have to reinvite yourself time and time again to stay competitive in the marketplace and be successful. And I don't think people put enough thought and intentionality to that when it comes to themselves. So even if you're an entrepreneur with a product, of course, your product is what you sell. You are also what you sell and really
thinking about yourself from that lens of how do I continue to transform and reinvent who I am
as a leader who I am as a founder and drive new avenues of growth as critical. And the best news
about it in this day and age with YouTube and everything that goes under so many ways to deliver your skill set, make meaningful impact and make a lot of money and that's incredibly important. Yep. Yep. I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine and I'd love to get your opinion on this too where he was talking about, you know, he was talking about his career and how he felt like, you know, early on, he was this caterpillar and then he went into this cocoon phase where
he was just learning, learning, learning, learning and now he has blossomed from that cocoon and now he's this butterfly in his business. And I was like, that's a great analogy for the journey
“that you've been on so far but you have to have an understanding that you're going to be a caterpillar”
again. Yes. You're not going to be this, like, once don't get stuck in, oh, on this big butterfly and I have this great big skill set and I'm, you know, doing so well in my business, don't get stuck in the butterfly phase because you're going to, in some other aspect of your life, you're going to be a caterpillar again. You're going to need to go into the cocoon again and life is this sort of cyclical thing where not only do you go through that metamorphosis but you go through multiple
multiple times over the course of life is long. It is long. Life's real long. And the world's
a changing and it's always a changing. I'm 33 years old. I feel like a baby. You know what I am?
Baby. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. But I'd love to get your opinion on that and then I'd love to also get your opinion on, you know, you talked about, you are your, you are a product, right? When I talked to business owners, I mean, these are two completely separate things, but we can kind of lend them. Let's do it. I talked to business owners about this a lot. When you think so much about the, the money and the status and the titles, you forget that
you are serving a community, you're serving people. How is, when you're not, when you're thinking
“about all those things, you tend to not think about, how can I make my product serve people better?”
Yep. How can I be of, how can I give people the most possible value for the dollars that they spend with me? How can I better society through my business? Yes. What do you think about business owners moving more in that direction as opposed to the driver as shareholder value? Yes. Well, I have a lot to say and shareholder value, but I will start with your kind of pillow, butterfly question. Yeah, so kind of pillow butterfly. I think regardless, again, whether you're a founder in corporate
America, there's always, you know, in corporate america, it's the C-suite, right? Oh, I've been a C-suite
executive for the last 15 years, where I'm a founder and I sold my business for this, that the other, when you get to that butterfly stage, it's really easy to get comfortable. You have a lot of what I call the people around you who you surround yourself with that are like, oh, you're amazing, you know, your craft don't stink. And you kind of start to become, and it may be too old for a lot of this audience, but the story about the emperor without clothes, you start to believe your own hype
in other words. If you don't know that, if you don't, I'm going to stick up in. If you don't know what she just referenced, please understand that you might be too young. You might just be, I can't imagine a person, when I, when I talk to kids nowadays and they're like, oh, I was born in 2007, I'm like, pardon, people were still having children in 2007. I'm serious, I was last. I'm like, but I literally 20 years old say emperor without clothes and I was like, is it really that old yet?
So I was like, I'm going to have to call my niece and find out if she always tells me how I'm cool I am, so I have to like, I'll call her and be like, do you know about those or is that reached its expiration date? But I think long story short, it gets really easy to get
Comfortable because you sort of round yourself and it's not intentional.
You build an audience, you become famous or you become well known. It's really easy to
“just around yourself with all the people that want a piece of that and and will kiss your shoes.”
Those are the people that tend to die going to an early retirement or start having turnaround problems in their business. Those are the people that generally call me the most often. And that is because they have forgot that change happens not only in your business, but in who you are. And there's a lot of times when the business starts failing because the leader and their ability to transform and change as a person, as a leader, as a founder, is behind the business. And so
I always look at it and say it's definitely cyclical. But if you're a founder on a business,
your personal growth and your leadership growth, business development, that has to keep up at the same pace you want to grow your business. If you don't, you will start being the thing that's holding your business back. And I've had conversations with founders where I say, you think your problems and marketing or sales or your product as I have the right color is and it's really you. So let's talk about what your development plan is to continue to offer that leadership or bring
in people that can drive that part of the business for you. Not only are you a growth consultant, but what it sounds like is you're also a psychologist. I'm a marketers. I'm a geek. I love marketing. I actually spent a portion of my undergrad doing consumer buying behavior. And what makes us buy and what we tell people makes us buy. And the things we say we buy things for or the reasons
why we pick certain things are never the reasons we actually do it. So it's very interesting to me.
But I would also say doing what I do business transformation and change management, usually when I tell people what I do, I have really good professional peers and every time they find out what I do for a living, I was going, that's gross. I hate change. Why do you do that? Like, oh my gosh, that sounds miserable. And it's not. But if you're looking at a business, whether you're a founder or corporate and it's running and every year you're just slightly retooling things because it's on a good
clip and there's always seasons and every business where that exists, that's a far easier job than when your business is on fire or you're getting called in and people are already at their wits and they're already frustrated. You're the last one in and lots of times they're not even sure if it can be fixed. So there's not a lot of, I would say faith in the process going in because they've been through it. That's a really hard situation to come into and you get faced with your own
personal development. People yelling at you, people telling you you can't do it. And so I've always
loved change because I feel like it's really forced me to stay in a transformative process with myself and it's really changed who I am as a leader as a business owner and even a professional peer and organizations that I serve. Now before we get out of here, I mentioned shareholder value. Do we want to go down that rabbit hole? Well, here's what I'll say about shareholder value.
“Corporate America's corporate America, they answer to who they answer to, but I think getting back”
to your question about value. So I'm a marketer at heart and I believe that even though everyone thinks marketing is easy, it's actually a very specific science behind it. Companies and leaders that think about their customers and how they serve their customers and the most meaningful and value added way are always the businesses that are most successful. That is one other element. I say when you start to see businesses decline, they are in business for themselves. They forget
about their customers and they spend more time on, how do I cut the bottom line to make more money? How do I do this to serve me? Those are the companies that go into a failure pattern. So getting back to it, I think the thing that's so great about this age in era is we have limitless capacity of ways to offer better service, a butter experience to our customers,
“but also to make the planet butter. And in closing, I think that's what makes me so excited about”
inside the fixes. I spent my career helping a business at a time. Operate a little better, helping leaders sleep a little better, feel more excited about their work. And I said, there's an opportunity to really impact businesses overall and really help people have better businesses deliver better outcomes to the societies and communities they serve and become better people in the process. And that's a really big thing for me is, how do you show up every day
and what sort of impact do you make in the marketplace and to yourself and your family? You're doing the work that is needed. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been an incredible talk
With Ms.
today, I am your host Jason Tyler. Remember, make sure you're going to go check out her episode, but this is the Living Your Legacy Podcast. We will catch you guys in the next one.
