How do you set up your business for success from the very beginning?
 
Focus on your people. When you empower and trust them, it impacts performance, and there is a chance of a better outcome.
 
Gina Gomez is a Business Strategist & Advisor working with some of the most well-known and well-respected professionals in the entertainment industry and public figures in the personal development industry.
 
Gina has a certificate in Diversity & Inclusion from Cornell University, has been published in Forbes, featured on Hay House Radio, KateNorthrup.com, DanielleLaPorte.com, Prevention, and is a mentor for Marie Forleo’s B-School. Due to the emerging needs arising in the marketplace, Gina has become a prominent voice in the field of Diversity & Inclusion, one that garners a great deal of respect and trust.
 
In this episode, Gina talks about how some companies mask themselves as operating under the essence of inclusivity and diversity when in reality they do not reflect it. They have a low tolerance for patience and human error. And she advises that this is not the way to do this, for people need guidance and direction; even the best performer also falls off track. It’s best to set up a culture geared for success at the very start.
 
 
What you will learn from this episode:
 
  • Learn how to implement practices and behaviors so people feel consistently seen, valued, and heard
  • Learn how to make your company truly embrace the essence of inclusivity and diversity
  • Find out what most leaders mistake that prevents them from truly developing talent and setting everything for success from the beginning
 
 
“What happens is when we hire people, in the beginning, we’re convinced that they are the best, most qualified person for the position. But when we see a lack of performance, we’re quick to terminate or wrap up a contract if we’re working with independent contractors. So what we forget is that people need direction. And sometimes even the best performers can fall off track.”
– Gina Gomez
 
 
Valuable Free Resource:
 
A valuable free resource to help you navigate change profitably: Visionary Leaders Roadmap https://ginagomez.com/guidebook/
 
 
Topics Covered:
 
01:36 – The challenge is in implementing business practices that create a diverse and inclusive business from the inside out. And of which comes out the next biggest challenge of developing talents.
 
02:56 – Trying to figure it out on their own by looking at what others are doing, instead of hiring an experienced consultant – common mistake clients do before consulting with Gina
 
04:59 – One free and actionable tip you can do that will impact your business: Treat people like they matter.
 
06:55 – A valuable free resource to help you navigate change profitably: Visionary Leaders Roadmap
 
08:08 – Q: why is it so important to focus on people when profit is what keeps a bit of business running? A: Without people, you limit your profit.
 
 
Key Takeaways:
 
“Everything is on-demand now that we’ve kind of lost our patience and our tolerance for things like people and human error. And that’s unfair. It’s also not how we want to treat people. So that doesn’t mean that you don’t hold people accountable, though. What it means is that you set them up for success from the beginning.” – Gina Gomez
 
“Most of the time when I see relationships fall apart, whether they’re business or otherwise, it’s typically because someone’s expectations weren’t met. And therefore, they become assumptions. And I don’t know any relationship that is super effective, that operates based on assumptions.” – Gina Gomez
 
“You need people to scale, maintain, innovate, and all the other things that free up leaders to do their own best work. So, set people up for success from the very beginning.” – Gina Gomez
 
“If you want them to be successful ongoing, then you’ve got to set those expectations and make agreements upfront.” – Gina Gomez
 
“The truth is, most leaders don’t set their team up for success, not because we don’t care, but because we bring somebody in and we’re like, ‘Great, now I can get back to what I need to do, because I hired the right person.’ But if we can invest the time upfront, then we can trust them to learn what we need them to do and get done by empowering them to succeed and supporting them through the process.” – Gina Gomez
 
 
 
Ways to Connect with Gina Gomez:
 
 
Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown
 
Full Transcript:
 
Sarah E. Brown 01:03
 
My guest today is Gina Gomez. She is a business strategist and advisor working with some of the most well-known and well-respected professionals in the entertainment industry and public figures in the personal development industry.
 
Gina has a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University, has been published in Forbes, featured on Red Table Talk, Hay House Radio, katenorthrup.com, DanielleLaporte.com, Prevention and is a mentor for Marie Forleo B-School. Due to the emerging needs arising in the marketplace, Gina has become a prominent voice in the field of diversity and inclusion, one that garners a great deal of respect and trust. Gina is also a sought-after speaker and facilitator, appearing recently at The Entrepreneur Experience by Amy Porterfield.
 
With a proven track record and experience, Gina works with clients to create a profitable and sustainable business where everyone feels welcome, respected, and included. Welcome, Gina.
 
Gina Gomez 02:21
 
Thank you, Sara. I’m so excited to be here with you.
 
Sarah E. Brown 02:24
 
Oh, well, it’s great to have you. So, to get us started, what is the biggest challenge you help female leaders face in business today? And what might be some symptoms of that problem?
 
Gina Gomez 02:34
 
Well, two things, really. The first thing is implementing business practices that create a diverse and inclusive business from the inside out. And what usually comes as part of that, as I’m doing that work, is the next biggest challenge is developing talent. And it’s not so much that it’s a challenge for leaders as much as it is carving out the time to do it while managing and developing an established and thriving business. That is the challenge. So the problem is that it can sometimes send or oftentimes send the wrong message. So, for example, if you can’t dedicate the time to developing talent, which happens to most everyone because there are so many pieces to manage at any given time. But what happens is it can send a negative message, things like, people aren’t important. The boss doesn’t care. Leadership doesn’t care. The environment or uncalled for business culture is unsupportive, even though those things may not be true. So when I come in, I can help shift the perception by implementing practices and behaviors, so people feel consistently seen, valued, and heard. When that happens, what we see is engagement goes up. And when engagement goes up, it impacts performance and produces much better outcomes.
 
Sarah E. Brown 03:48
I see. So, what is the biggest mistakes your clients make before working with you?
 
Gina Gomez 03:50
 
Oh, this is such a good question. Well, the first thing is probably trying to figure it out on their own by looking at what others are doing, instead of hiring an experienced consultant, which is completely understandable. But where you want to be careful, especially when it comes to diversity and inclusion is, sometimes what will happen is people will swap out images to make their business look more inclusive. Or they will hire a person of color to represent every demographic, which is really not diversity or inclusion. And then sometimes I’ll see people using buzzwords so that they sound more inclusive.
 
But you can also tell by listening that there’s a part of them that’s just kind of hoping that they’re, you know, like they’re just kind of like flying under the radar. But what happens is, it can only get you so far, and people can often see what’s going on. So the outcome can actually backfire.
 
And then that impacts outcomes, for example, if you appear to be inclusive, but somebody starts to find out that it’s really more of a mask, it can hurt you and prevent you from attracting and retaining diverse top talent. And then the other thing goes back to what I was saying earlier about not developing talent. So what happens is when we hire people in the beginning, we’re convinced that they are the best, most qualified person for the position.
 
But when we see a lack of performance, we’re quick to terminate or wrap up a contract if we’re working with independent contractors. So what we forget is that people need direction. And sometimes, even the best performers can fall off track. And I think part of this is because everything is on-demand now that we’ve kind of lost our patience and our tolerance for things like people and human error. And that’s unfair. It’s also not how we want to treat people. So that doesn’t mean that you don’t hold people accountable though, what it means is that you set them up for success from the beginning.
 
Sarah E. Brown 05:47
 
So, what’s the number one free and actionable tip you can give my audience to help address this challenge now?
 
Gina Gomez 05:54
 
I love this question so much because it’s the perfect setup for something that I say over and over and over again. And that is to treat people like they matter. So, for example, clients, saying things like, thank you for your business, thanks for the opportunity, reaching out with no agenda other than that, showing up and following through when you say you will.
 
And when it comes to your team when you’re giving constructive feedback, start with something positive, then move into something constructive, and then wrap it up with something else that’s positive, then you can affirm your commitment to the team member, as well as asking for theirs. You’ve got to make agreements, I can’t stress this enough, making agreements instead of assumptions. Most of the time when I see relationships fall apart, whether they’re business or otherwise, it’s typically because someone’s expectations weren’t met. And therefore, they become assumptions.
 
And I don’t know any relationships that are super effective, that operate based on assumptions. And then colleagues, you know, colleagues is just as important, when you say, you’re going to do something, do it. I get asked all the time by clients, who do you recommend for this? Who do you recommend for that, and if I think of someone who isn’t consistently reliable, no matter how much I may like them, personally, I won’t recommend them.
 
And here’s why. If that’s how they show up for me, and that’s my experience, my feeling is, there’s a good chance, they’re going to show up in the same way with my clients. And I don’t want to put them in that position. So, follow-through is really, really critical. And if you work with a community, like if you’re on social media, and you’ve got a following for your company, be generous on the information you share, show them why it’s great to work with you, and give them a glimpse of what they’ll experience. When they become a client or customer, it makes it much much easier for them to say yes, and for you to build trust.
 
Sarah E. Brown 07:39
 
And what would be a valuable free resource you can share with women who are listening today to help them understand this challenge better?
 
Gina Gomez 07:47
 
Well, on my website, I have what’s called the Visionary Leaders Roadmap. So you can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know where you’re going. Right? So, this is something that you can just put your… you can sign up, put your email address in, and then it’s going to show up right in your inbox shortly thereafter, and you can get to work. And one of the critical pieces that’s in there, and this is why I’m mentioning it is a SWOT analysis. So this is going to help you uncover the risks as well as the opportunities that you may not be capturing. And you can also apply this to a functional area, not just necessarily the big picture of the business. And you can even do it with individual contributors in their own roles, seeing where the strengths and weaknesses are. And you can even delegate it to people on your team to have them do it. And it helps see where you’re consistent, where you’re on track and where people are communicating and delivering the same message. And also where communication may be breaking down or things aren’t being captured.
 
Sarah E. Brown 08:41
 
So all of this is at GinaGomez.com, right?
 
Gina Gomez 08:45
 
Correct. Yes.
 
Sarah E. Brown 08:46
 
Great. Thank you. So, Gina, what’s one question that I should have asked you that will help our audience take action to address this challenge? And then would you please answer the question?
 
Gina Gomez 08:57
 
Yes, of course. I am going to say the question is, why is it so important to focus on people when profit is what keeps a bit of business running because that’s what we hear all the time. And actually, without people, you limit your profit. You need people to scale, maintain, innovate, and all the other things that free up leaders to do their own best work. So, set people up for success from the very beginning. And if you want them to be successful ongoing, then you’ve got to set those expectations and make agreements upfront. So that doesn’t mean that it’s a set it and forget it kind of approach where you have the initial meeting, and then you’re like, ‘Okay, let me know if you need anything, and then you wait till the annual review.’ The truth is, most leaders don’t set their team up for success, not because we don’t care, because we bring somebody in and we’re like, ‘Great, now I can get back to what I need to do, but because I hired the right person.’ But if we can invest the time upfront, then we can trust them to learn what we need them to do and get done by empowering them to succeed and supporting them through the process.
 
Sarah E. Brownn 10:01
 
Very cool. Gina, thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your wisdom with my audience.
 
Gina Gomez 10:07
 
You are very welcome. Thanks so much for having me.
Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown

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