The Power of WE: Building Trust from the Inside Out!

🔍In this heartfelt and deeply insightful episode, Elaine Williams welcomes Ron Reich back for part two of their conversation on leadership, mission statements, and the ripple effect of healthy (or toxic) workplace culture. Ron shares powerful real-world stories from his decades of leadership training—including one tearful turning point with a struggling plant manager—and how true leadership starts with empathy, self-awareness, and connection.

Elaine also shares a vulnerable moment of realization about how she sometimes becomes her own worst boss—and how entrepreneurs often recreate chaotic environments out of habit. Together, they dive into what it means to truly lead, whether you’re managing a team or managing yourself.

🎧 Don’t miss this conversation packed with honesty, warmth, and wisdom.

💡 Key Takeaways:

Why many leaders unintentionally isolate themselves—and how to shift to a collaborative mindset.

• The surprising leadership gap solopreneurs face with themselves.
• How emotional self-awareness is key to effective, empathetic leadership.
• The transformative power of vulnerability in teams and in personal growth.
• Why “preparation is a form of love”—and how it builds trust in speaking and training environments.

📌 Quotes for Social Media:

1. “Leadership is not ‘I’ll fix it myself.’ It’s: ‘Who else has ideas?’” – Ron Reich
2. “Solo entrepreneurs need mission statements too—because you’re leading yourself.” – Elaine Williams
3. “Culture is how it feels to work with you, whether you’re managing others or just managing yourself.”
4. “You don’t have to carry it all alone. That’s the lie that keeps leaders stuck.”
5. “A smile and a breath can shift the entire room—and your nervous system.”
6. “Healing happens when we stop recreating chaos and start choosing compassion.”
7. “Preparation is love in action—whether you’re leading a team or taking the mic.” – Ron Reich

Ron Reich – Leadership Expert | Executive Coach | Corporate Trainer

Ron Reich is a seasoned leadership consultant and executive coach with over 28 years of experience in training design, development, and facilitation. He specializes in cultivating high-performing leaders through impactful leadership and management development, executive coaching, supervision training, and dynamic team-building experiences.

With a deep understanding of organizational behavior and communication dynamics, Ron is known for creating safe, transformative learning environments where individuals and teams thrive. His engaging facilitation style and practical, real-world insights have made him a trusted partner for companies across a wide range of industries.

A lifelong learner and voracious reader, Ron stays at the forefront of leadership trends, research, and best practices through his daily habit of reading articles, newsletters, and books. He brings that curiosity and rigor to every training session and coaching conversation

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Transcript

0:05

Hi, Elaine Williams here with Captivate the Mic. This is part two of my interview with Ron Reich on leadership mission statements and workplace culture. It was so juicy we had to break it into two sections, so enjoy, and if you haven't heard the first part, make sure you go back and listen. Welcome everybody to Captivate the Mic with Elaine Williams and I have the biggest treat for everybody. This is the first male on the podcast because he is such an amazing spiritual earnest, good-hearted master trainer, communicator, friend. Ron Reik, I'm so happy that you're here. Let's let's. Let's talk about this for a second.'cause again you're reminding me of something that I haven't thought about. That's what I do in many years now. I did some work for a manufacturing facility out in Western New Jersey. Okay. I got to know the plant manager fairly well. Nice guy. And I did talk to a lot of the people on his own team and down on the manufacturing floor and so forth. And it was so sad'cause nobody liked him. Very few people liked him. They were just like, oh, him, the, the dictator, the ta, just all of these different things. Okay. I'm in his office and I, and again, building the relationship with him, we're talking and he said, so how did your conversations go with people? And I was like very few people like you here. Oh, he just put it out there. You just put it out there and Yeah we, again, I don't need to get into all the details here. The point he was, I was like, aunts, you need to get out there and spend time with them. You need to get to know them and talk to them. He was emotional, Elaine, and I still remember this. He was like crying. I want to, what's going on here? We've got the merger coming up in about five months. I've gotta reconfigure the manufacturing floor. I have electrical problems, all these things. I'm sitting there and I was like, aunt, you're talking first person singular. Instead of we, it's, I, right? It's, I. Who do you think might have some ideas about how you could reconfigure the floor? Who do you think might have some ideas about how you could solve the electrical problems? And you could see I was so happy you could see the light bulb coming on for him. He was just like. Yeah, I don't have to do it all myself. And that's the kind of culture you wanna build, where people will even come, Hey boss, you know what, I think we can change the floor around this machine Should be whatever it might be. Just whatever it might be. I love it, Ron. And that's, a lot of people who listen are speakers, coaches, solopreneurs, however. I'm always like, how's your workplace culture, Elaine? Oh, my boss can be a bitch. Who's your boss? Me. Am I being kind? Do I, am I being an empathetic listener to myself? No. But yeah, that's, that's one reason I'm so big into community. I'm, I'm part of this group called the Dames, and we have think tanks and women will come and bring, I'm really bumping up against this, and the other women will pour into her and. Even if I don't have as much experience as some of these ladies who are seven and eight figures, I learned so much from just witnessing the think tank. And I, yeah. I just love that. What a great story. And Elaine, I think about this not a whole lot enough though. I really do in that,'cause you just said you, the solo the solo solopreneurs, yeah. Entrepreneurs thing. I get the term mixed up. Thank you. They need a mission statement. Yeah. What's the truly, what's the culture you wanna have with yourself? What are your defined values? Are you living them and are you making your decisions based on the mission statement you have developed for yourself? Because if not, you're gonna, it's gonna, in all likelihood, I can't guarantee it. I won't still, the decisions are gonna be so scattered and so inconsistent where it's man, you need that. Yeah. In fact I'm gonna share this with you. I feel very vulnerable, but. My whole mission with the podcast is to entertain, inspire, educate, motivate and my whole philosophy is I'm a work in progress. I am a master with some of the things that I do, and I'm also always learning and evolving. So I'm taking this program with one of my clients. We ended up working together. I helped her with her keynote, and she knocked outta the park and got a$7,500 speaking gig. Because of the work we did on her talk for Berkeley. So I'm like, yes. Anyway, so now I'm in her program and I'm doing some deep emotional healing work on learning more things, peeling away more layers and I'm just laughing'cause I had the biggest aha today and I think you might appreciate this, Ron. I grew up. Crazy family, lots of alcohol and drugs and insanity. And I've spent a lifetime healing and I share my story when I feel like it's appropriate. And what I realized was I still have attendance. So I grew up in the chaos. The chaos of living with, oh. There's the crazy person here and she might be sweet, but the next night she's crazy and then she throws things and the other adults can't seem to confront. There was just a lot of crazy stuff that happens. And then, I was attracted more crazy in my twenties and then by the grace of God I had spiritual awakenings and was able to get into recovery. And it's been quite the journey. However, I am noticing a pattern that I'm like. Wow. Like the first step is awareness. I noticed that why am I still feeling so frenetic, right? Why do I still feel anxious? And and I was like, Elaine, if you are the entrepreneur, you are running your business. You are the one who's you are reporting to, right? Like the common denominator is you and I just noticed that oh, I have a tendency to take on too many things and try to do, too many different programs or certificate, whatever, on top of. Leadership things on top of caretaking for not one parent, but two on top of, and I just listed all the things that are on my plate as I'm writing this, and I was like, okay. Like I, and I'm sure I had little ahas into this previously, but for some reason it like really landed on me that I can't blame. My anxiety, my anxious state on a boss anymore, right? It's so much easier when you have agents or whatever. And so I really got present today, literally a few hours ago of wow, that it's an unconscious thing that I do, and I'm still getting stuff done, and I'm still, I love the work that I do, blah, blah, blah. But. When you're trying to do too many things at once, it can be a sea of mediocrity or you feel like, oh, I'm doing eight projects and two of them are moving forward and the rest are being dragged along or whatever. So anyway, just I wanted to show that'cause it was like a brand new Whoa. And my friends may be like, duh. But do you have anything to add to that? My. Amazing master trainer one, one of, one of the, one of the most important things anybody can do, anybody again, solopreneur, CEO I don't care. Whether you're an individual contributor, whatever you wanna be effective. Probably the most important thing you can do, get to know yourself extraordinarily well, and on an incredibly deep level. Because the better you know yourself and the more and more layers you peel off, the more you will realize, okay, this is who I am. This is what I am, this is how I have behaved in the past. It doesn't have to be this way. Just real quickly, Elaine, because growing up my dad and I were never really that close for a lot of different reasons and I don't need to get into all of it, right? There was no abuse or anything like that. That's not what I'm, where I'm going with this. My point though, is like I was always just kinda I felt less than and just God, I'm just this. That's around here, if you will. We're at a family event. Okay. I'll never ever forget my cousin Tom was talking to my dad and I could overhear them. I wasn't, listening like that. I could just overhear them. Tom asked my dad, my Freddy. My dad's name was Fred Freddy. Tell me about your dad. Tell me about him. My grandfather, obviously on my dad's side, who I never met, Elaine. My dad went ballistic. He went ballistic on Tom, you wanna know about my bleeping father And my dad was no choir, boy. He didn't curse like this though. You wanna know about him? He was a loser, Tommy. All we ever did was move. He could never hold a job. And he went on and I was sitting there and I'm thinking to myself and I'm in my thirties, okay? I'm thinking to myself. You know what, I have always suspected that my grand, that grandpa, who I never met was a raging alcoholic, and I think that's what was going on there. He they always moved. He couldn't hold a job, and I get you. That's how grandpa treated my dad, and it has come down to me. And where I went with it, I accepted my dad for who he was, what he was. He and I got very close for the last 20 years of his life. Nice. And it has allowed me though, equally as important with our topic though, Elaine, I was always quiet. Always because I was like, if I say something, I'm probably just gonna get yelled at. Or just, no, that's not right. You shouldn't think like that. What's, how dare you, you learn to like a different opinion. So I'm gonna navigate around this. Yeah. I've gotten so much better at it. I was on a client call yesterday. I have a class coming up next week. The client made a comment about, yeah, she said, I think what I'll probably do is I'll call a meeting maybe a month after the training and talk to everybody about, what they're using and so forth. And I was just like, Adrian, you know what? It's a good idea. The only thing though that I'm going to ask you to change or that I would highly recommend you change sooner than a month, two weeks. Yeah, I was Me too. I was like, no, don't wait in a month. And my point is, Elaine, the old Ron, oh, month is fine. Say nothing. Don't offer anything because they may all, they may not like you or what if you know what she said? Oh, okay. That makes sense Ron. Okay. Okay. Speak up. Speak up Ron. It's okay. You do have something to offer. Yeah, and I, I work with a lot of women and I think. Sometimes we think that men aren't struggling with that. So thank you for being so vulnerable. It's like it's not just with women it's human. It's team human. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yes. And so sometimes when I have my guests come on, I will give them a tweak or two about some of their stories and you're such a master communicative facilitator. Someday I would like to play with humor maybe a little bit'cause I know you crack some jokes and I think, I always think, maybe there's something else we could play with that. Okay. And, but I always wanted people to who are listening to come away with a couple of great speaking tips. And so I'm going to share a couple of Ron's things and then you can. Add on to what I talk about. So one of the things I love about Ron that has rubbed off on me was he is like super duper prepared. He writes his own cue card thingies, the flip charts. He goes over that when he's leading a new program or class or seminar, he is there an hour before it starts an hour. Before it starts. So there is no scrambling and then there's no oh, where are the lights? He is there an hour because I've been nervous and wanted to fix my hair one more time'cause I'm a woman or because I'm nervous. And then I'm rushing on to the college thing. And then college campuses can be so confusing. And there's nothing worse than being late when you have pressure already. And so I know that. Getting to a place early is can be so grounding. And I love that feeling of being so prepared. I'm like, let me add'em. I can't wait. Let's go. It's so much a better feeling than, oh God, why didn't I run this? So would you like to add onto that for our listeners? Elaine? I think for me that is such, such a key. Playing with humor. Can you hear Ja? Yes. She's the Cutes dog. She's love, I got the door shut and she's crying. I love their dog. I will come a New York. The preparation piece for me is absolutely critical and I think one of, one of the most important parts of that too, though, Elaine is. As I had said to you, what I love to do in that time beforehand is just talk to people and let them know this event, whether it's a training session, whether it's a meeting, or whatever it might be, it's gonna be fun. It's, I'm human, I'm a nice guy. I'm not here to, I am the, the expert. You shall listen and say, Hey. Looking forward to hearing your insights and just, please, whatever. Just all of those different things, I think one of, one of the big things too is for me at least, smiling. And now a quick message. If you are a speaker, coach, author, or someone who wants to climb the corporate ladder, and you know you need to work on your executive presence, your ability to speak powerfully and succinctly with vocal variety and vocal power and presence, I would love to have a chat with you and see if it's the right fit. Now we're back to the show. Just smiling, again, a story. This is on my mind, and I'll fill you in on the details later. When I got re-certified. Probably about six, seven years now, whatever, to, for the seven habits. Okay. The woman at Franklin Covey, who was gonna be doing the certification, she was emailing the, my colleague and I, there were gonna be two of us in this session, and it's I was a little nervous because she was like all over this, where it's we're starting at eight 30. Please make sure you're here on time. Our time is so precious together. Okay. I was like, holy man, I, I'm a little nervous. I know I'm in my fifties Elaine, and I've got a boatload of experience and I'm a little nervous. I walked into that training room on the day of a little bit early,'cause that's who I am. She had her back to me. She was sitting in her chair, writing something or just doing whatever. I don't remember her name. I'm gonna call her Grace. I'll never forget. She turns around. She did just what you were doing. She smiled. Good morning. Are you Ron, or are you Greg? And I was like, hi Greg. Hi, grace. Good morning. I'm Ron. Ron. It's a pleasure. Instantly I was like, nice. It's fine. It's fine. This is not a problem. She's not a jerk. She's just in. She's just intense. She wants the best for us. And that's exactly what it was. Yes. A smile will go such a long way. I and here's what's, the crazy thing is like when we are preoccupied, when we are distracted, when we are nervous or our attention is on ourselves, that's when we forget to smile and we forget to breathe. And sometimes just a smile and hello is whoa. It's, it can shift something so quickly. Exactly. I love it. Okay, Ron, I, we can talk forever, but I feel like this is a great place to wrap it up. If people wanna know more about you, where should we send them? Oh probably the best place. Elaine. LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Just go to LinkedIn. Ron Reich, R-E-I-C-H RLB Training and Development. You can learn more about me, message me. I'll be glad to talk to anybody. Yes, just anybody about anything he. He's just an open book and wants to give back and does you do amazing trainings. And he has a newsletter and an email list. So if you wanna come be more,'cause someday Ron and I are gonna do a, some kind of really fun workshop together and I can't wait. We're still percolating on all of that. Thank you so much everybody, for listening and watching, and I ask you, if you're getting good value out of this content, please share it with two friends. Please pass it on and please subscribe, rate, and review because that tells the algorithms to push the podcasts out more. And I know there are a lot of podcasts. And there are actually a lot of podcasts who only make it to five or 10 episodes, and then people realize, hey, this is a lot of work. But my mission is to help heal the world. One joke, one story, one video, one episode at a time. And so thank you for being a part of my mission, and thank you, Ron. It was a pleasure as always. Thank you, Elaine. It's always good to see you. Bye everybody.