Megan Billnoske  
When you're in your darkest moments, what helps. And when you're in your highest moments, where do you go to celebrate and pay attention to who it is.

Jeff Ma  
Hello, and welcome to as a business strategy, a podcast that brings humanity to the workplace. We're here to talk about business, but we want to tackle topics that most business leaders tend to shy away from. We believe that humanity and love should be at the center of every successful business. I'm your host, Jeff Ma. And as always, I'm here to have conversations with real people real life real businesses talk about the real world and my guest today is Megan Billnoske. As a certified training manager, director, and professional artists Megan has trained 14,000 leaders plus around the world had 27, bosses worked in over 12 industries and launched over 14 brand new corporate training programs. While living in Houston, she spent the last 13 years working with corporations to develop their leadership training programs both domestic and abroad, including work with Disney Institute, ready to cut the cord Megan launched her own company this year called Inspire. Modeled after the Latin meaning of Insparee, you gotta help me with Megan - Imspire in Italian and it's meant to breathe life into and this year alone she was she has worked for Fortune 500 clients been nominated for the Houston Business Journal's 40 under 40 award, spoken at for industry conferences and received the highly coded member of the Year Award for Houston's National Speakers Association, where she's also President Elect, Megan specializes in working with leaders who are ready to have fun strengthening their leadership skills, unleashing team performance and delivering legendary return on investment. So Megan, with that, I would like to welcome you to the show. How are you? Thank

Megan Billnoske  
you, thanks for having me. I'm doing really well. I can't believe the new year has already started and is in full swing. Yes,

Jeff Ma  
this is being recorded right at the turn of the new year. And not sure when people will be listening to it. But it is January. It's like mid January right now. Megan, you and I had like we crossed paths at an event last year. And since then we've been we've been chatting about life and business and change and all this stuff. And I've been super looking forward to all last year and now get to kick off this year to have this conversation with you. So I really appreciate you coming on sharing your story with us.

Megan Billnoske  
Yeah, of course, hey, I'm an open book and happy to share life lessons or, you know, just anything that would help someone else. But some things are some things come up and you've learned lessons as you go. So yeah, happy to share anything that I can do to help someone else.

Jeff Ma  
Well, let's start with you as personal as we can get here. But uh, talking about passion. I want to know, what is your passion, Megan? And where did it come from? Where does it what is the source of it?

Megan Billnoske  
That is the personal question. I'd say my passion is probably something that I continually get told I have a lot of, and it's very organic is very authentic. And I don't think it's very common. So people tell me all the time, but I have a lot of energy. And so I think my passion comes in putting energy, everything I can do at the best that I can do in every direction that I usually go. And so I think my passion, tying that into a career really is around helping people have the energy and the drive to make changes to bring in, you know, if it's a career change they're looking for, or I work with students. And so it's how do I change majors? And how do I have my first job? But in corporate, it's very different. How do I talk to my supervisor, or I'm a new manager? How do I lead people? And so I think it's the energy and the positivity that anybody can do anything. It's just a matter of what's your confidence level? What are the skills you need to get there? And so is this growth mechanism that I don't know, I'm always alive. I've always been a lifelong learner. And so I think it's only fitting that I'm in the learning field so that I can help other people do that. But I really think it came from I'm going to put it in Thailand to probably my 10th grade speech class. It's where I fell in love with public speaking right? It's usually tie somewhere in the your young childhood or early adult, I guess. And there was a speech class that that we all everybody had to take and the assignment was to that you had to create a mask and do a mask presentation. Question, since we all wear the masks, you know, throughout our life. And so instead of one mask, I thought, I just have one. So instead, I looked up on the internet, how to create a cube. And it was a one foot by one foot that I cut out of cardboard paper and made into actual cube, and three dimensional, and each side of the cube, or six sides had different masks on there. And so I did my talk in the class. And I kind of thought, oh, I don't know, if I'll, I don't know if this is gonna get a good grade or bad because it kind of didn't follow directions, but it kind of did. Anyway, they loved it. And my teacher gave me a very high score, the presentation went well. And that's where I fell in love with being myself with energy, creative ideas, and then helping people see a different path than you probably originally thought. And I think that's what you need to do. If you're going through and learning about something new. or figuring out your career. I think it all comes with sometimes you need a new perspective. And so I think it ties into 10th grade.

Jeff Ma  
I love that. And I'm really glad you said that. Because in my time of knowing you, every time I talk to you, you'll be mentioning all these, like, in my opinion, super stressful, like changes and like hurdles that you're facing. And you're telling me with like this big smile on your face. And you're like, you're like at the end of the talks, you're like, I'm off to go handle this. And I'm just like, I'm stressed. I'm like, I'm tired just thinking about the stuff that you have to do. And I'm glad you said that, because it fits you perfectly from what I know. But I also think I want to dive into a little bit because it feels like to me at least, we are currently living in a world where you know, energy and patience is that like an all time low for a lot of things. People are tired, sick and tired of so many things and finding like that motivation. And that. And that inspiration and that that why for so many people seems to be again, just from my perspective, harder and harder for people to find that positivity or that energy. Do you see it that way? Do you see the world facing that? Like I do or correct me please show me another mask? Here are another side of the cube to this equation. Do

Megan Billnoske  
you did with that look at you. Um, I think that the world is going through a lot of shifting since COVID. I think we've all seen that with virtual work with, you know, the great tsunami of turnover, I think the industries I think are changing working world is different. And so I think people are looking for their inspiration, I think there's been and still probably is a reevaluation of priorities in our life. Just yesterday, I was on LinkedIn. And I saw one of my connections talking about how she reevaluated her life needed a change and had to balance and what do I want this choice or that choice or personal life? And so I think the inspiration comes for different people in different ways. And I think that's a key piece to have. Well, figuring that out of what am I supposed to be doing? What is my direction? I think they tie closely together. So without the purpose and without? Or to tie it to your earlier question about passion. Without those two things, it could kind of feel like a compass that's just spinning, and you're not sure where to go. And I think that gets tiring, especially when what you're wanting and and desire isn't coming into fruition for you. And it's it's, it takes energy that you've got to sustain. And I know quite a few people looking for jobs now. And that takes some time it takes energy. It's not. It's not energizing when you're applying online over and over. And so I think I think it's case by case is when I would say for myself since you mentioned that's true to form since we've met several times and chatted since the conference we met at I think for me, I think it's an A long time ago, in one of my first professional jobs. I was reading a bunch of articles, trying to figure out the answer to the question. My boss was always asking me, Megan, at the top of your resume, what is your what is your professional summary? What are you here to do? And I was right at a school right out of college and I said, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm here to do this job. What do I need a professional summary for? And so in my reading and trying to get involved in my career with corporate training, I started reading training magazine training industry and I came across an article and it talked about how you are what you become you surround yourself with. And so for myself, I started thinking what would that be great. What what do I want long term not that I wanted to change anything. But I started collecting quotes and so in that office actually had a quote wall that started about the size of a bulletin board and And then people in the office, I encouraged them to come and add quotes to it. So became this working thing of good vibes and good energy. And then it became so big, I had expanded it to the entire wall, and people would just stick sticky notes all over the wall. And so, gosh, that was 12 years ago. And so it's this mindset, I always thought was just the place I wanted to be. And so I surrounded myself with people like that. I surrounded it with just collecting quotes. And because I liked the perspectives, so I think it's case by case to answer your question. And I also think it's sometimes a slow process. If it's, you know, being excited every day. It's not always, it's not as hard because Arizona was easy. life gets hard. So it's a, how do you bounce back from that? And what do you have surrounding you?

Jeff Ma  
Putting you on the spot? What's your favorite quote?

Megan Billnoske  
Oh, I'm gonna go through one right over there on my office shelf easy. Live the life of your dreams by Oprah, live the life of your dreams by Oprah. And to me, I think it's full of hope. And it's like mystical. And it's also a challenge. And I love that word, your dreams, because there's one thing I've learned as a business owner, most people are not going to understand your direction, why you're doing it. They don't it just, it's just not into there. They just don't get it. So if you're looking for validation, sometimes you'll find it sometimes you won't. But it's your dream for a reason. And that's a calling because you're supposed to pursue it.

Jeff Ma  
Love it. I knew I knew you have one handy. I just saw Oh, yeah, oh, here's

Megan Billnoske  
another one. I like this one too. You can't spread happiness without getting its happiness is like jam, you can't spread a little without getting someone yourself.

Jeff Ma  
Well, I beg to differ. I've I'm very cautious to my jam spread of

Megan Billnoske  
gloves on.

Jeff Ma  
So shifting into kind of like your your realm of kind of experience and expertise. I know you're in training, you're dealing with people all the time. And one of the topics I wanted to kind of broach with you is around, we already talked about this lack of energy or this kind of tiredness and people but I think it's paired in my mind with like a sense of, of discomfort or fear. And it exists in the corporate workspace kind of in from my again, my worldview kind of across, you know, many mindsets nowadays, where there's this battle, and I've always said love as a business strategy, you know, the antithesis of that would be like fear as a business strategy. Is that to me, like fear is the enemy, I guess, in terms of what I'm trying to put out into the world. And I wanted your take on kind of what you've seen experienced around, you know, I guess, specific in the workplace. But you know, how fear has driven people? How you help people work through that, or how you help people navigate that? Oh, yeah,

Megan Billnoske  
that's a great question. You know, being somebody that is a lifelong learner means I love change. And I love new things, because I'm learning. And so for me, it's a comfort zone, because that's the space I like to stay in, we're always doing something new. But for my experience in corporate, or I'll say even just in friends or family to a lot of times change is scary. And so change is a partner with training and development. And so from coming into an organization to help leaders grow, that's changed, or a new supervisor inherited a team and now they're trying to work together better, that's changed. And so I think fear is right in there. It's like the jelly on the sandwich is right in the middle of figuring out the slice of bread, that's change and then growth is on the other side. And then fear is in the middle. And I think it's a it's different for everybody. I think it sometimes is that you move through that change really quickly been the fears maybe not so big like trying something new at the grocery store. Ah, you know, if it's not that important, it's the same brand was a different color of box or something simple. But I've seen chant fear is very large when you start getting into reorg. And you see organizations shift and you have new supervisors, or really scarily, those reorg sometimes come with layoffs. And although maybe two people out of a team of 20 were laid off, you still have that fear ripple throughout the whole group. And it's the uncertainty that comes with that change of what's next. And so, to me, that's where I like to sit because with the natural energy that I like to have, and you'll see my office, I've colorful, it's something that I just like to It makes me happy. But for someone that doesn't enjoy change, I like to partner with them, to walk them through it. And sometimes it's a matter of just seeing the world differently through quotes, right, this perspective change, or like these Peacock Feathers I use in my training classes, let's not just decoration, I'll take all 90 of them to a class. But I'll teach something that helps you see it differently. Because when you can start doing that, that fear kind of goes away, which allows you to change and shift and do things differently. And so I think that's a big part of not just corporate, but, you know, right now, there's somebody in my family battling cancer, stage four, it's not good. And there's a lot of change going on. And so it's trying to process through as a family of how things are going to work. And you know, it's one step at a time sometimes. So it could be simple like buying new macaroni in the grocery store, or it could be like I just shared about cancer in the family and trying to figure that out. Or you have a new job, and you've changed and you're nervous about walking in there the first day. So that's where I like to sit. Because I believe that there's so many opportunities and a life of abundance, there's so much to pick from and thinks great things that can come your way that even though there's a seed of fear, the tree of creativity and solutions around it, I think far outweigh it. But sometimes you need to help her to find that. So that's where I like to sit. To answer your question. I feel like

Jeff Ma  
this is leading to more and more so yeah. So when you talk about this uncertainty of change, and this fear that comes along with it, this discomfort, really that we get into when we're facing that unknown? Can you talk a little bit more about is it? Is it to lean into that feeling? Is it to color it differently? Like, can you prescribe a little bit more of what it's like to like, step through that or to like, is it about embracing something like, um, look, I want to like pull nuggets out of this mindset you have.

Megan Billnoske  
I think it starts with just like with any leadership training, it starts with knowing and being self aware. So I can tell you that in my experience, when I am doing a keynote, or starting a big fortune 500 client job, or something that is naturally you're wanting to do well and you care, so it makes you nervous. Normally, it's starting off with what is your body telling you because sometimes, like when I was in a five car pileup on a major freeway in Houston, I was car number four. And I thought I had actually died. The airbag deployed I saw a white light is not a joke, it actually, it was very real. And it was the airbag deploying, but it was very much figuring out my body said I got out of the car, ambulances are coming in, I got out of the car and I thought I'm fine. I'm fine. Even the paramedics came and took my blood pressure. It was like 180 Huge number compared to normal. But my point is, I'm my brain was rationalizing, I'm fine. This is okay, I'm fine. But my body was saying no, I had the where the airbag had deployed, it had hit my arm, I still have a scar right here. It was a secondary burn from when it popped out so fast. But my body was telling me different things. It has elevated heart rate, my hands were sweaty, but my brain was separated from what was really going on. So to me, when you have a fear moment of how to step through it, I always recognize when I'm procrastinating, or like when something's really bright light, and you don't want to quite look at it. And you're just like, if I don't look, it'll go away. And it's fine. When I feel those, and then I also get start feeling the physical symptoms of a giant mouth or my hands may shake, it's paying attention to my body first, because although my mind may think things are fine, my body may be saying something different. And so I've got to align those before I can step through it. And so normally, it's a matter of just figuring out, I think I'm nervous about this. Okay, so what do I do, and then I shift into normally helpers. So if I'm talking to a good friend of mine, or I'm preparing and practicing, or I need to take a break, and take a minute and step away from it, but it's finding those self symptoms, so that I know, I'm a little afraid. And in actuality, when I notice, like they're not looking at something, it's just a visual for me, but that's exactly what sparks me to go directly at it. So it's this interesting thing that I've started doing, because that's the space I like to live in. If I'm afraid of it, then it's just if I recognize that I can step through it because I know it's not leaving. And once you're on the other side of it, you see all these amazing things happen. And you read a Some very kind words about my background on my bio, the awards that have been nominated for president elect position. I mean, when I started my business a year ago, yesterday was the birthday, by the way. Congratulations, thank you. Stepping through that fear to leave corporate where I had a very well paying job with consistent paychecks, with high ranking benefits on a regular schedule. In a world I had always known and my parents knew was very normal to me. I had some major fear moments. And I'll tell one, because just one story, I guess, now, to give you an example of stepping through it. So it was three days before I was going to resign from my corporate job. I had everything planned out, everything was fine. I had support from my husband, like we had a plan, we're good to go. But three days before I had a major panic attack, sitting in this very chair, and I thought, Oh, my God, what am I about to do? I don't know what I'm about to do. How am I going to figure this out a million questions. And as someone that's been independent, I've always known or in my own paycheck. So it's been it's important to know, be independent, it's just important to me. And so I was about to go on to my husband's insurance and just figure this out. And it was weird, because that morning was about 930. In the morning, it was a Tuesday. And I'm sitting here and I got a text message. And it was from a friend of mine, who's Jennifer. And we weren't close friends. It was this really the reason it was so odd was because we hadn't really ever talked, we met a couple of months prep previously, a conference works together a little bit. And so for a random text message this morning, I thought, what and she said, Hey, do you need to talk and I thought, I'm sorry, what? And I just thought this is a sign and I'm going to take it. So I said yes, I need to talk. And she called me about 10 minutes later, we have this great conversation about what it's like to become a consultant. And she shared some music, I like a specific song is called oceans where feet may fail. It's a Christian song. And she sent it to me. And after I listen to that song, it's all about fear, stepping out in the ocean where your feet may fail. And so after I listened that song, everything was cleared off of my shoulders. And I knew 100% what I was supposed to do, and I went right at it. I resigned the next three days. And here I am a year later celebrating a birthday. And I have a stack of clients. And I've learned so much. So it was recognizing I was afraid then asking all those questions and then thinking how can I like she just walked into this support role, and being able to accept help and figure out what I needed. And I needed somebody to talk to. So I did that I took that opportunity. And then I look straight at it. And I said, All right, let's do it. And it was one of the best things I've ever done. On the other side of it is this great journey that I can look back now all because I stepped through fear at that instance. And now the whole year, I've had those moments happen all the time. And I will tell you, Jennifer and I are very good friends now and we share stories and songs all the time. And so I think it's just, you know, that works for me, maybe different for each person. But it's pretty powerful when you continually repeat that process. And you're training your brain that it's okay to step through that. And that really cool things happen. And so that's just kind of what works for me.

Jeff Ma  
Wow. Do you ever find out what, like, specifically possessed her to just text you out of out of nowhere?

Megan Billnoske  
Yeah, actually, I I want to say to Esther, that that damn. I said, How did you know I needed to talk to you. She said I just had a feeling. And so we get feelings. I call them tugs. I don't know if it's energy, you want to be spiritual, whatever people like to believe in. But I get tugs. And that's what she talks about. Just needed to I just felt like I needed to talk to you. So she reached out. And so I think those two are when you watch for the signs, being scared. Sometimes we shut down when we go inside, right? It's typical. If you watch Simon Sinek start with why How Great Leaders Inspire Action. He talks about back in the cave survival days the tribe had to survive. And so you have to fend off, you know, Saber toothed tigers, you have to come in together as a tribe. And so feared even today, we have to figure out how to protect ourselves. We get defensive, we do things that are you know, we're shy away from family or people that you know, would help us but we just come inside. And I don't know. That's just it doesn't work for me. And when she and I chatted about it, it was very much like something that I reached out to her and we're good friends today. So that's very cool. Yeah.

Jeff Ma  
So, okay, let's say I'm facing you know, a change. I'm feeling the symptoms I'm recognizing The state I'm in. So the fear is here, and I'm and I'm staring it right down the barrel. You know, like, what? What can you do specifically by me maybe a friend can you know, reach out to a friend? You've talked about? talking it through and facing it in that way? Is there is there anything else that you can kind of guide people through? Like, I feel like many of us face many versions of this constantly in our, in our lives, personal professional, whatever. And so is there like a process through to, to practice, you know, other than, you know, calling my friend up every single time to, to like talk through all the things I'm going through. But you know, like, is there something that I can practice specifically as a regular thing to kind of reframe this this fear a little better? So I can, you know, I understand you're saying there's, there's greatness on the other side, is that enough to pull people through the hard parts?

Megan Billnoske  
I think it's a blend of having faith, that there's something out there that when you get through there, the faith that something great is there. But I also think you know, from from my story about my friend, that's a very big part of mine is knowing what helps you. And if you don't know what helps you, that's okay. That's the cool part of the journey, too. It's I would encourage people to look at, when you're in your darkest moments, what helps. And when you're in your highest moments, where do you go to celebrate and pay attention to who it is? What's the energy people are giving you on the phone? Do they celebrate with you? Or is it questioning and it's just an energy sucker, and you're like, Ah, this is worse than I came in with. So I think it's recognizing that energy of where does it help you. Some people like to journal, I've tried journaling, and I do it from time to time. Journaling is a great way, if you want to think about the end, at the end of the day, you sit in bed, and you're writing in your journal, or at the end of a workday, and you want to write about what happened or something that you know you're struggling with, it's a difficult employee or a difficult decision. So I think journaling is a good way to go about it, talking to a friend, but knowing the right friends, because not all of them are family, they're not all going to be the same for you as the support factor. I also think that it could be a blend of what brings you joy. So walking through fear, I love talking to people. So that's probably why the example I shared with you that lit me up about talking to people. But if you have a hobby with music, or if you love art, and you're an artist, or if you want to be outside and you want to go fishing like my husband, I think it's figuring out what really makes you happy to kind of give you an a space of how to step through that it takes the energy. And if you'll notice what I'm sharing with you are fine times of how you're getting high energy is that your hobbies? Is that the right people? Because I think once you come to a place where you make the decision, which is what you're getting to have, I choose to step through this, or I choose to take one step, maybe another one later, but choose to try it. I think people can break it down into what works for each what works for you. As a family, is it journaling? Is it taking a vacation? Depends on how big it is? Or sometimes is it a counselor? Is it a coach is a therapist, is it? So anyway, it could be a lot of different things, I think, a stepping through fear. Obviously, it's based on how big is the decision? Or how big is the the item that you're trying to walk through, for example, you know, work with coaches all the time about stepping through their leadership challenges? Well, sometimes you need to brainstorm with someone or an unbiased opinion to say, Okay, what else can we try? Or what is our goal here? So I think find the helpers is what I would say Phase One is the physical self awareness to understand where you're at phase two is where you're at, where are the helpers? And is that hobby, a person and experience. But I think that's a key piece too. And here's another one, training for leadership. So I've done Bernie Browns program dare to lead. So I've attended that training. And in there, it talks a lot about rumbling with vulnerability. And so you've got to look at it, you've got to rumble. You've got to know your values, know who you are, and then step into it. And so I think those values to help you have a compass of what do I do next? Like, what do I do? Where do I go? And the good part is, I don't think you always know what your values are. I think life helps you figure those out. And so if people are sitting there thinking, I don't know what my values are, that's silly. I don't need to figure that out. I know who I am. Well, stepping through fear sometimes is understanding and having the fortitude of, I know what I'm like values. Integrity is my number one. You So if I know integrity is very important, great story here. Are you ready, Jeff? Because this is one of my favorites. Like what up? Okay. So integrity is my number one. And so stepping through fear, there was in my 27, bosses of corporate world, you know, from the very first job I had as an HEB, cashier all the way to now 27 bosses, I was asked to steal intellectual property from one on behalf of one of them. And I don't know about you, but that it violates integrity. And I thought, Okay, well, this is a no brainer, my values, say this is a line in the sand, I'm not doing this. My fears coming in the same. If you say no to this, will you still have a job? And then if you still have a job, what's next? Because retaliation is in the dictionary for a reason. Even though a lot of HR professionals and corporate will tell you it doesn't. You're dealing with human emotions, you're dealing with people that will have biases and preferences and can have an influence on a direct report. And so I recognize the shocks of sitting in the meeting, I thought, are you asking me to steal? And I said, Yeah. So it confirmed it. Because I'm in shock. I'm in disbelief. And then I didn't want to assume anything. So I asked blatantly, is this what I'm supposed to be doing. And then when it crossed that integrity line, to me that it was very easy to know what I had to do or what was in line with me. But I was hard, because I knew different things would happen afterwards. And so when I said, I'm not on board with that, I don't steal, we're either going to make it internally, ourself or figure it or pay for it. We're not stealing it. And I'll tell you, that was a difficult conversation. But I've never looked back and ever regretted it. Because I knew who I was. And I rumbled with it. And I said, Okay. And actually, that is the moment that sent me on the rest different parts of my career, that put me exactly where I am today. So I love that that was a key moment. It was very difficult. It was uncomfortable. And it was not full of fear. Because I was much less experienced and to know what was in the world and how things would work. And then the great things on the other side was actually left that job and did another job and went a whole another direction and training and development. So I think that, yeah, it comes in different levels. But I think that values could be another one.

Jeff Ma  
I love it. Well, Megan, I have taken a lot from this conversation. I know I've many things that I want to go probably journal about to be honest. But I really appreciate the time you've taken today to share your story. Share your perspective, share your energy, for sure. Last fill in the blank question for you the most important, the most important thing for me to show up as my whole authentic self at work is blink.

Megan Billnoske  
Oh, lack of judgment. I think being judged is a direct Creativity killer. And so for someone that likes change and sees possibility and wants to bring energy and let me show you a peacock feather, but I want you to be open minded to try it because there's a real strategic lesson, but you're thinking differently. But to sit and be critically judged. Before any of that can happen, I think will be the exact opposite. You'll see me quiet not not contributing. You'll see me not not being myself. So the judgment part because that's the creativity antithesis, I think.

Jeff Ma  
Good answer. Thank you, Megan, for joining today. And thank you to our listeners. I hope you enjoyed this talk with Megan and we hope you continue enjoying the podcast. So if you do please subscribe rate, do all the things check out the book love as a business strategy if you haven't. And we really do appreciate every one of you. So with that, we hope you'll have a wonderful week and we'll see you in the next episode.

Megan Billnoske  
Bye, everybody. Thanks for having me. And thank you for listening