Rebuilding After A Career Storm: 7 Learned Behaviors with Dr. Williams Lewis Ep. 16

Dr. William T. Lewis shares his story of being fired from his “dream job” and how it became the turning point for his entrepreneurial success and his new book, Perched in the Storm. Discover how to navigate career storms and develop the Seven Behaviors of Resilient Leaders.

✅ Career storms are inevitable—you're in one, coming out of one, or heading toward one
✅ Losing a “dream job” can open doors to unexpected opportunities
✅ Mindset mastery, adaptability, and emotional intelligence are key to resilience
✅ Build your personal brand and integrate work and life for lasting success
✅ Career interruptions can lead to greater purpose and fulfillment

Connect with Dr. Lewis:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-t-lewis-msw-phd-b545a62b/
- Website: https://www.wtlewis.com/drlewis
- Pre-order his book: https://www.wtlewis.com/perch
- Email: william@wtlewis.com

0:00 Dream Job Termination
9:45 Dr. Lewis's Firing Story
17:57 The Reality of Dream Jobs
22:10 Perched in the Storm
31:38 Seven Behaviors of Resilient Leaders
40:32 Work-Life Integration
47:32 Finding Strength Through Storms

Chapters

• 0:00 Dream Job Termination
• 9:45 Dr. Lewis's Firing Story
• 17:57 The Reality of Dream Jobs
• 22:10 Perched in the Storm
• 31:38 Seven Behaviors of Resilient Leaders
• 40:32 Work-Life Integration
• 47:32 Finding Strength Through Storms

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

We all dream of that perfect role, our dream job. But what happens when the job you've worked your butt off for ends up with a termination? My guest today, dr William Lewis, knows that pain firsthand. In his new book, perched in the Storm, he shares how losing his dream job became the catalyst for becoming a successful entrepreneur and mentor to many leaders and people all across the world. In this episode, we'll unpack his story, challenge the idea of a dream job and give you seven behaviors you need to navigate your career through tough storms.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Now let's get into it, hey, and welcome back to the Transparent Nature podcast, where we bring real conversations to help you navigate your career and workplace challenges. It's your host, prince Tate, and I want to personally thank you for listening in and supporting this podcast. If you are a returning guest, or even if this is your first time tuning in, we'd love for you to hit that subscribe button, share this episode with a friend who can benefit from this topic today and leave us a review. Your support continues to help us to bring real, great insights to help you succeed in your career and within your workplace. Today we have Dr Lewis. Welcome to the podcast. How are you today? Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:42

How are you today, my goodness, you know what. Your energy is so magnanimous that I am good today. I'm trying to get off of your energy. I'm trying to feel that vibe that you brought in. I am feeling great today. Thank you for having me on the podcast today.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Man, I love that word you said magnanimous.

Speaker 2: 2:04

Yes, big and magnanim, it's just big.

Speaker 1: 2:11

I love that. I'm going to put that in my dictionary vocabulary. I'm just going to start using that this whole week.

Speaker 2: 2:17

That is how you own a word. My English teacher I'm back back and I think my 12th grade English English teacher told us whenever we read something and there's a word that we don't know for us to define it, then for us to use it on our friends and our families, on our families, and then we own that word. And so use it and own it.

Speaker 1: 2:39

Man, I love it, hey. So look, we're super excited to have you with us today, but before we dive into today's topic and getting into your book and talking about the seven behaviors of resilient leaders, tell us one of your top workplace pet peeves that always irks your nerves.

Speaker 2: 3:03

Oh my goodness, I don't necessarily like workplace gossip. I want to come to work, I want to get the work done. You know, I believe in sharing stories and engaging with each other, but I don't like to gossip about other folks, and so when my colleagues, or when colleagues began to do that, I kind of stepped away. That's something that I just don't want to get into.

Speaker 1: 3:24

You know I always tell people that end up in the HR office. Hey, workplace gossip, we know it happens all the time. But you have to be cognizant of what you talk about and what you share, because at the point of it escalating to HR, now everybody's in trouble. Now it's a problem.

Speaker 1: 3:46

Yes, it is a problem, right and so you have to be careful, and you know what? That's another episode for another day workplace gossip. So hey, let's get into your story, man, and even talk about this book that you've written, and really talk about the why. Dr Lewis, you've written Perched in the Storm out of some deep personal experiences. Can you take us back to that moment where it all began, where you got let go or what we call fired from what you thought was one of your dream jobs?

Speaker 2: 4:26

Yeah, absolutely. I'm just so excited to bring, Perched in the Storm, Brutal Lessons in Resiliency Every leader can learn from entrepreneurs to the market. It will be out later on in the wintertime. I'm excited about this project. You know, getting fired is not something that's unique. I believe that many of us have been fired before. As a matter of fact, I remember my first time that I got fired was when I was 14. I worked at Burger King.

Speaker 2: 5:00

I worked at Burger King and they found out that I was too young to be employed. I applied on my application and they found out about a week later and I was fired from my job. But the stakes weren't that high at 14 working at Burger King.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Man, I'm going to tell you this that was my first employer, is that right? I worked at Burger King in high school and no, I was not 14. I was actually legal age, I think it was 16, when I first got into there, into Burger King. But, man, I tell you what I've got some long history with Burger King, and what made it really interesting was that I didn't just work at Burger King. I had another brother that worked at the same location and another one, so it was three of us working at the same time, and so you know, it's a lot of great memories, a lot of great memories, but anyways, so yeah, so you worked there.

Speaker 2: 6:06

So I worked there, but that's not the moral of the story. The moral of the story is that I worked at my dream job, which, interesting enough, which I thought was my dream job I was the vice president for diversity and inclusion at Virginia Tech back in 2010 to 2014. And I was loving it. My entire career was in higher education. I loved Blacksburg, loved the college, loved the students, loved the work that I was doing. But we had a new president that came in and his direction for diversity, equity and inclusion was not my well, I was not part of his direction, if you will, and so I was fired from my job, and from a professional standpoint, from an adult standpoint, that was the first time ever I've ever been fired from my job. And from a professional standpoint, from an adult standpoint, that was the first time ever I've ever been fired from a job. I always say it to myself and this was somewhat, one may say, arrogant, but I always say it that whenever I get into a job, it's going to be gold, because I'm going to make it gold. And so that was the attitude I brought to that particular job, and I enjoyed it. I was in the high six figures loving life, living life, just doing it right In my early 40s, just about to set the world on fire, and I had this career interruption.

Speaker 2: 7:42

And you know, what the interesting thing is is that it wasn't the firing. I was going to be okay. I knew that I was going to be okay. I had the credentials, I had the PhD, I had the experience, I had the title. So I had all the things that would make someone OK after a firing. My challenge was getting hired after the firing because the firing there. I didn't get fired for embezzlement. I didn't get fired for sexual misconduct. I didn't get fired for incompetency sexual misconduct I didn't get fired for incompetency. I got fired for political reasons. And so it's always so whenever you get fired for political reasons, people always want to say what happened? You had to do something. I didn't do anything.

Speaker 2: 8:38

I did my job, but there were political reasons behind the firing, and so every other employer that I that I interviewed for, and, and Prince, let me tell you I went from all over the United States. I went as far as California to New York, to Florida, to Michigan and every place in between, looking for a job for nearly two years.

Speaker 2: 9:07

I was on the job market for two years looking for a job for that next level and couldn't get it. That's where I really had to step into resiliency. As a matter of fact, that's where depression really seeped in. That's where the lowest lowest, where I was at my lowest point in my life, was during those two years, searching for another job and couldn't get it. Now I began to to feel like an imposter. I asked myself well did, were you good enough to even get the first job? Were you good enough to even get the first job? And I had two higher level positions prior to this one, so it wasn't like this was the first job that I had in senior leadership. I worked in two other positions before getting that position. But not being able to get into another position as quickly as I thought I would did something to me. It really impacted me emotionally, it impacted me spiritually, it impacted me financially. So this book Perched in the Storm it reminded me as I was going through that and other circumstances. It reminded me of a bird that is on this limb in the middle of a storm, kind of a tsunami type of storm, if you will. And this bird is just perched there, steady, unmoved, not unbothered, when you look at the bird, you see the feathers kind of ruffled, if you will, but the bird is there. It's wet, the wind is trying to knock it off of the branch, but the bird is there perched.

Speaker 2: 11:02

This book speaks about being perched in the storm, and what I had to learn through that firing and through not getting hired for nearly two years is that I was going through a storm and I had to be perched. I had to be steady and it just didn't. I had to learn it over time because let me tell you something, as I was going through it, my goodness, that wind was knocking me down. I was being, I was going from place to place, I was being sprayed all over the place related to that wind and the trauma of the storm, but coming out of it, it made me stronger and I wanted to share that lesson with others, because this is what I realized no matter who you are, no matter your age, your race, your wealth, your position, your title, we all go through storms.

Speaker 2: 11:56

We're either in a storm. We're either coming out of a storm or we're going into a storm. A storm or we're going into a storm. So perched in a storm is for every leader. And a leader is not about a title. We're not talking about somebody that has the title of vice president or division leader or division manager. We're talking about leading yourself, leading your family, having influence over others Everybody who's listening to this podcast. They have influence over someone else and others, and so leader that definition of leader this book is for everyone because, in my mind, everyone's a leader.

Speaker 1: 12:37

Yeah, and you know, let's take it back a little bit. You know you talked about your dream job and what you thought was your dream job and I think for a lot of people, especially young professionals or individuals that segwaying into like an actual career. A lot of times they say, well, this is my dream job. I want to work, you know, at the White House, I want to work for this Fortune 500 company. You know, I want to be at the corporate office, I want to do this job, I want to do that. And then you get into the role and you quickly learn that you know what you thought was a dream like, now it becomes something of reality that's totally different than from what you dreamt about. Right, and so kind of talk a little bit about you know this misconception that there is this thing such thing as a dream job, because my notion is there's no such thing as a dream job. What's your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2: 13:43

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think that you know. I think that I don't disagree with you in terms of the challenges of getting the job and aligning that job with the realities. I think people can't have a sense of a dream job, but sometimes a dream can turn into a nightmare very quickly, and so what you have to do is you have to begin to just realize the realities of what you're in and that nothing's perfect. So to your point.

Speaker 2: 14:11

First of all, I would invite people to think about alignment. So there are three different entry points into the job the job description, the interview and the actual job. And so what you have to do is you have to align. Every time you go through that phase, each phase, you have to make an alignment, adjustment. So the job description is going to be totally different than the interview. So what you experience in job description and what you experience in the interview is different, and so you have to begin to make adjustments and align that description and the interview, because once people sit down with you in the interview, it's hardly ever as cut and dry in the interview as it says on a job description, right, and so that's the first thing we have to do Then, as we get into the interview and if we have a job offer and if we're on the ground, the realities on the ground are different than the realities in the interview. People are bringing their best selves into the interview. Once you get into that job, on the job, it's a whole nother experience and the expectations it shifts a little bit. And so I would say that as you go through what you believe is your dream job but this is for any job as you go through that job process, that job search process, always make those tweaks and those alignments and begin to make expectation adjustments.

Speaker 2: 15:34

Once you get the job, have an alignment, meeting with your supervisor. Ok, I got the job, I'm here. Now let's talk about what you want to accomplish in the first year. What is your vision in the first year? What is your vision for me in the first year? Therefore, you can you can not be misled by the interview and you can hear fully from the person that you'll be responsible to, to hear from them what their expectations are, and then that helps to create the expect that helps to create, to manage your expectations of this dream job, Because what usually happens is that you have to.

Speaker 2: 16:18

The dream unfolds while you're working it, you know really, what we're looking at is the dream title. And so we have this oh, I want to work for this place, I want this title. That's not necessarily the dream job, because you don't know the job until you work the job, and in working the job you begin to create for yourself what that dream is inside of the job. So that would be my, those are my thoughts as it relates to dream jobs.

Speaker 2: 16:48

For me, working at and my career has been in higher education and so working at Virginia Tech, it was really the title. I wanted to be a vice president for diversity. I wanted to hit the highest level of my career in my industry. I want to do it in a college environment, and and so, as I got the position, as I began to try to align with the president that hired me, then I began to engage with aspects of the culture, aspects of my colleagues, aspects of the college life, so that I can make it my dream, I can make it my reality. And then, when things went sour, that dream turned into a nightmare, and so so we have to look at it from that perspective. And nothing lasts Right, nothing lasts and nothing lasts right.

Speaker 1: 17:44

Nothing lasts. Yeah, yeah, I like what you said. You said as you get into the job, you make it your dream right. You make it your dream job and I like that because you go into the job knowing that you may have to make some sacrifices, it may not be all that you want, but you're going, level setting with yourself and then going into the role and meeting with your leaders, meeting with you, can make this job, that dream job, right. So I like how you put that right. You make it what it is. It could be a horror story or it can be a great story in the making. So Perch in the Storm and you know this is the book that's coming out and you know I'm super excited to read this book as it really talks about resiliency right and getting through the storm. You know, whenever you have life situations, there are some people who stay in the storm. But again to what you said, you have to make it what it is Right, and so that kind of leads me to think.

Speaker 1: 19:14

When I first started working at my first employer in HR, I was like man. You know, my dream was just to get in HR. No-transcript, they wanted me to do this role, but I'm like no, I don't want to do that role, I want to do this role, and I had to. I didn't get fired, though, but in my mind, in my heart, like I was committed to be there, but I knew where reality set in, and I said you know what? I got to find me another job, and it was a tough moment, because you don't really plan for these things, right, regardless if you quit or or whether, if you get fired, most of the times, people don't really plan OK, you know, I'm going to leave in a year and a half or a year or two, right.

Speaker 1: 20:39

For a lot of people, it's like hey, I'm going to work this job, and one of the things that the older generation had taught us is you get a job and you keep a job Right, and so it's a lot of emotions attached to losing a job or being basically being forced out of a position, right, that you're working in and you're being through the storm, and you've realized, you know what, this was for my good, right, this was for my good, and I would tell myself and I often tell myself, and I often go back to that story, right, and I tell myself you know what? I'm so glad that this person came into my life really to push me and to make me uncomfortable so that I can create something different, so I can explore something different. So let's get into the seven behaviors of resilient leaders. Man, you've got some really good points here, so let's dive into it. Hey, I'll let you take the lead on this.

Speaker 2: 22:04

Let's go through it and talk about the seven behaviors of resilient leaders? Absolutely, and I want to. Before we get into that, I want to go back to that. This is for my good, and let me tell you something that my being fired and my not getting a job for two years was for my good. I did not know it, I did not realize it. I would not be talking to you right now about this very subject if that didn't happen. I wouldn't have written my first book Sweet Potato, pumpkin Pie, conversations with my White Friends About Race had that not happened. And I wouldn't be on my second book, perched in the Storm, if that wouldn't happen. I wouldn't have been able to take my entire family on a European vacation once in a lifetime vacation, had that not happened. I wouldn't have met great people all over the country, great people like you at the Memphis SHRM conference, if that hadn't happened. And so sometimes we have to look at these storms, not sometimes all the time. We have to look at storms and look at the opportunity that they present for us.

Speaker 2: 23:10

Seven behaviors of a resilient leader. One of the seven behaviors is mindset mastery. And so when we think about if I would have stayed in a mindset of a pity oh my goodness, I got fired. Oh my goodness that happened to me. Oh, I can't get another job. Oh my goodness, I can't pay my bills. And let me tell you, I couldn't pay my bills, but if I would have just aid in that pity place, I wouldn't have been able to get to a higher platform. And so mindset mastery says how do I take and take the storm and turn it into opportunity? How do I grow through the challenge? How do I make, as they say, a lemonade out of lemons? Right? And so I believe, mindset mastery, if we're going to overcome any storm, any adversity in our lives, we have to have a positive mindset about it, right.

Speaker 2: 24:11

And so that's one of the behaviors, the seven behaviors of resilient leaders. This is not, these are not character traits, these are not leadership traits, these are behaviors that that that we develop through things, that things that you can control Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely so. So one thing I would like for the audience is to think about when we think about mindset mastery. Is this concept right here? It's not, I can't do it. It's how can I do it. When we think, when we begin to say how can I? That opens up our imagination. And so mindset mastery is very pivotal and important as it relates to being a resilient leader, because resiliency is about bouncing back and if I don't have a can do attitude, if I don't have an attitude that I am going to make it, I won't bounce back.

Speaker 1: 25:08

Man, I love that. I love that, you know. The first one, the first behavior is, is mindset mastery, because it's really all in your mind, right, how you view things and you know it's sometimes I'm not going to say it's not okay to to have a freak show or to to you know, kind of go crazy, because it's like, oh my god, this thing happened to me. I think you know we're, we're all human, go through the feel, the feels, go through the emotions, but eventually you have to sit down with yourself and say you know what, how can I, like you said, how can I take this storm and make it something that's going to help me to move on right, how can I learn from this so that I can grow and continue to pursue my dreams and aspiration?

Speaker 1: 26:04

Man, so I love it. Right, it starts with the mind, and you talked about imagination. Just imagine, right, you're sitting in a room by yourself or you're sitting in your car heading to work and you're imagining the opportunities that are out there. You know what, it's endless, because you're creating those through your imagination, you're creating it in your mind, and so what happens is, when you are actually physically looking for it, you will attract it. I'm just going to share that little piece.

Speaker 2: 26:41

I love it. You manifest it in our minds first. It is achieved and manifested in our minds and it manifests in reality, absolutely. You got to see it before you see it, man. You got to see it before you see it. I used to watch back in the 70 it before you see it. I used to watch back in the 70s and 80s. I used to watch all the Kung Fu shows, if you will, and I remember this one master Kung Fu master said you see it before you do it, then you do it and you see it in your mind before you do it. And so he went through the entire combat in his head. He saw it then before he did it, then he actually did it. And that's the whole thing about mindset mastery. Right, we got to see it before we do it and all of these kind of, all of the seven behaviors they build off of each other, because the next one, after mindset mastery, is adaptability. Right, we got to know how to pivot, we got to know how to adapt. I was in the Marines and, being in the Marines, one of the things that our motto is adapt, improvise and overcome. So what that means, whatever the circumstances are and they probably are not in your favor. You have to adapt, you have to improvise and you have to overcome. The mission critical is for you to overcome so you can achieve your mission right. And so, when we think about a behavior of a resilient leader, it is that, that notion of adaptability, being able to turn on a pivot, turn on a dime, being able to just to.

Speaker 2: 28:24

I had a twenty thousand dollar investment in developing for HR actually developing my own engagement employee engagement tool, my own engagement employee engagement tool. Yeah, I invested twenty thousand dollars in the tool, uh, launched it and there were all types of of uh issues and bugs inside of this tool. One of my clients called me. I'm at a conference, client calls me and it like Will, I'm disappointed in this, this is not working for us and this is a six figure client. I invested twenty thousand dollars in getting the tool made. I've got a six figure client that has engaged in the tool. The tool is not working. I had to pivot. I had to take that tool down and go to an external vendor and use their tool instead.

Speaker 2: 29:20

That's a twenty thousand dollar investment out of my heart on earned money Right, and so I mean I'm like and I'm not, I'm broke, I don't have, I don't have any money, I don't have them, I don't have any money, and so so. But I had to. I had to adapt, improvise and overcome because the tool that I fixed, that I was working on, wasn't working. So, instead of being bullheaded and staying with that tool and saying, well, I invested all this money in this tool, I'm going to make it work, no, I had to adapt. And guess what?

Speaker 2: 29:55

When we talk about adaptability, the next behavior of resilient leader is emotional intelligence. See, if I did not, if I was not aware, if I was not aware of my surroundings, if I didn't read the room, if I was not mature enough, if I didn't have the emotional intelligence, I would have stayed with that tool because I would have been like I invested so much money in this tool. Now I'm going to make it work. No, no. Emotional intelligence says I have to be able to understand what's going on around me and make the appropriate changes and make the appropriate adjustments as I engage within the environment.

Speaker 1: 30:39

Emotional intelligence says that that when I approach my colleagues and I approach team members, I'm aware of my own biases, my own barriers and I'm also, I have some cognition of who they are and therefore that allows me to engage with them in a very your customer, your client. That then leads to one of your other points that you have in here is service oriented, because you weren't selfish, right, it wasn't just about you and your product. You had to think about what can I do to serve this person, right? So let's talk about service oriented.

Speaker 2: 31:37

Absolutely. And and you hit it. You hit it right there. You know, my mother gave me when I was, when I was in my teens, she gave me this example, she said she said, son, take your fist and ball your fist up. And I said, okay, mom, I'll do this. And then she said now imagine, inside of your fist you have $1 wrapped in that fist. She said now, here's the reality, son. She said you can only get, you will not get any other money inside of your hand because it's wrenched around that dollar. Now she said, if you were to open your hand up like this, she said, what will happen is that you can give that dollar and then dollars can come to you.

Speaker 2: 32:25

And what she was saying was is that, being a service to other people, we will get stuff to us, right, and so we cannot be selfish and not be of service. And so service oriented is really about being how do I help somebody else, how do I keep other people in mind and in my heart? And so when I have a heart of service, that means that, yes, I'm not just thinking about myself, I'm thinking about the client too. And I'm not just thinking about myself, I'm thinking about the client too, and I'm and I'm not just thinking about trying to keep that client, but I want that client to be successful and my tool was set up to be successful, for her to be successful. It did not provide her the success that she was looking for. Therefore, I had to go and find another tool so that she could be successful.

Speaker 2: 33:15

Service oriented is really about is not about me, it's about the other. Wow, yeah, absolutely. And then once we once we look at that service oriented, we look at that emotional intelligence. Then another place where we have to begin to look at is how do we think about continuous learning and education? Right, all the storms that I've been through, I've learned from them, and we also learn from our storms, and so I think that and we hear a lot about people need to be, you know, we need to go to college and get this continuous learning and education and innovation. That is true, but we also have to do that within the context of the storms that we've been through as well, because here's the reality the life is our best teacher. Life is our classroom. The storm is our classroom. It's not that, it's not the classroom inside of college or technical school or inside of a building.

Speaker 2: 34:22

The classroom are the storms that we go through, and so we have to begin to think about how do we learn? What do we learn? What is what's the lesson? When I was going through all those job interviews, I had to stop and say God, what is the lesson? What are you trying to? What you trying to say here?

Speaker 2: 34:42

Yeah, what you trying to tell me, what you trying to show me, what you trying to tell me Absolutely, and so I think that we have to look at it from that vantage point. As we look at our own storms and our own lives, then it's interesting because when we think about what the lesson is, then that can move us into strategic career growth. Now I don't want to stay here just just for a moment. When we think about strategic, strategic career growth, because this is for anyone that is looking to advance their career and we hear a lot. We have mentors, we have people talking about oh, you need to grow your career Absolutely. But I really believe, when we think about strategic career growth, what that means to me is, for example, prince, this podcast is part of your strategic career growth, because what this does, this gives you a platform to stand out amongst your peers, to be a thought leader, to have other people to come on and to share thought leadership, and it gives you that platform. So, when people as a brand, as Prince Tate as the brand as a transparent, a brand as Prince Tate as the brand as a transparent HR podcast, you want that to be a brand that stands out. Strategic Career Growth says how do we create opportunities for ourselves, to where we build our brand separate from the company brand. We're going to have that brand with the company, but we also have to develop our own brand so that, as we go out, as we grow with inside the company or as we get growth opportunities outside the company, we have a strong brand that people want that value.

Speaker 2: 36:31

Here's the reality. When you bring value, you don't have to chase money. Money comes to you. When you bring value and that's something I had to learn I used to chase money. Oh, I want this job because it's going to pay this amount. No, I said you know what I have value. And the moment that I began to recognize my own value and begin to build up that value and let people know about that value, then things started coming my way. Now, am I wildly rich? No, I'm not. One day I will be, but not today. But I can't tell you this I have gotten a lot of contracts, a lot of engagements based on the value that I brought. Yeah, and so strategic career growth is something that we most certainly need to continue to look at. And then we need to look at work-life integration.

Speaker 1: 37:29

Yeah, let's talk about that right Work-life integration, and I kind of like how you put integration. A lot of times we see work-life balance and you know I actually have an episode on work-life balance but I love the integration piece because it talks more about really infusing all that you do and I'm going to be honest, sometimes I'm challenged with really integrating everything in my life because it's like I put everything into a box. Everything has its own time, right. So let's dive into this work-life integration piece.

Speaker 2: 38:15

Absolutely, and I had to come to learn work-life integration, and it actually came from my engaging in entrepreneurship Before being an entrepreneur. For me, I put everything compartmentalized, everything, like you. Okay, I'm going to go to work for these eight hours, I'm going to come home, I'm going to spend time with the family At the time, I'm going to work on my PhD, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. And everything had its own compartment. So I was trying to make balance. So I was trying to balance family time with work time, with school time, with going to the movies, with spiritual time. And for me, that balance became trying to make that balance became overwhelming. Yeah, and and, and. What was more manageable is when I realized that I cannot separate myself from work.

Speaker 2: 39:09

I cannot separate myself from life. I cannot separate myself from my religion. I can't. So. So what I have to do is I have to make sure that I'm just integrating them together and that, 24 hours in a day, whatever happens in that 24 hours in a day, that's just what's going to happen. That is the integration of work-life, and so it's not. Oh, I didn't get this done. Nope, if I didn't get it done, I didn't get it done. I'm going to work on it tomorrow because it's all integrated into my life.

Speaker 2: 39:39

So now my wife and I and we're both entrepreneurs, and this may just be a function of who we are as entrepreneurs but my wife and I, on Friday nights Interesting story, and I'm going to share a little bit about my age a little bit on friday nights we would, we would, um, I remember I love to go to jazz concerts or what have you. So we have paid some, some dollars to go to this jazz concert. I think it started at seven, and so we're getting ready to go out and I have this look on my face and she has this look on her face, and we both look at each other and be like I, I don't feel like going anywhere, and we're like, oh, we didn't spend this money on these tickets. We're like we are dressed up, ready to go and we change into our pajamas or what have you and we go get our laptop, fix a security board and put on Netflix and we begin to work for us.

Speaker 2: 40:39

That's work life integration. We're still spending time with each other, we're in the same room, but we're working entrepreneurs. She's working on her project, I'm working on my project and we got Netflix and so it puts the twist on the on the, on the Netflix and popcorn and on a date night. So we got the security board, a little wine, some wine and cheese, and we're laughing with each other watching old movies that can turn into white noise so we can kind of tune it out. And we're talking about business and we're working. That's work-life integration.

Speaker 1: 41:12

Yeah. So how does that work? Work-life integration? Right, you're going through a storm, or I like to say a career storm, and, just like you, right, you're trying to look for a job. You're unemployed for almost two years and you're trying to make this thing work, right? And, and it kind of leads me back, because a lot of people, uh, would you know? Would say, especially, you're a man, right, uh, and you know, if a man not having a job, it's like the most embarrassing thing you can ever experience as a man, right, cause it's like I'm supposed to be the provider, I'm supposed to be the one, right, if, if not anyone, if not anything else, that's my responsibility. So how do you really talk about work life integration, as you're going through a storm in your career?

Speaker 2: 42:10

Yeah, yeah, I mean, you hit on something right there that that's. One of the things that really tore me apart was not being able to provide for my family at the level, and the expectation that I had for myself to provide not somebody else, but my own high standards of providership took a hit. And it took a hit again to where I spiraled down into depression. I was depressed. I was in a fetal position. Oftentimes, often mornings, I wake up just crying because I couldn't get the job. I was just depressed. But you know what, even though I couldn't get the job, at the same time I was working on my own business. Own business. At the same time. I remember working with a colleague and this is during the time it was two years I was looking for a job, trying to do my own business. We hosted seminars for diversity officers across the country, and this was back in 2018, 2019. And I remember being at a seminar where we're that service oriented, we're giving service, we're feeding into other people, we're telling them they can do the job and we're trying to make sure that we're raw, raw. We're being the cheerleaders in their lives and in their professions.

Speaker 2: 43:32

At the same time, my car had gotten repo. My wife had called me and said your, my car had gotten repossessed. My wife had called me and said your car had just gotten repossessed. Wow, my heart was hurt, I was fractured, but I wasn't broken inside. I was hurt, but you know what? I kept going.

Speaker 2: 43:56

So how do you have that work-life integration when you're going through the storm? You got to move through the storm because on the other side of the storm is sunshine. The reality is that you cannot walk around it, you can't go over it, you have to go through it, and so what I had to do is I had to go through the storm. There were lessons in the storm that the storm made me stronger, and so, as I'm dealing with providership, as I don't have enough money to pay my bills, as I'm at this conference on something that I developed, me and this colleague developed together our imagination and my car gets repoed, I'm in the storm. I'm walking through the storm and guess what, prince, I'm here talking to you on the other side of the storm, and that was not the only storm that I had, but I'm stronger for it.

Speaker 1: 44:47

Yeah, and that's just one of those pivotal moments right In your career where it's led you to where you are today, right? So we talked about the seven behaviors of resilience leaders, number one being mindset mastery. You know, it's all about your mindset and how you view it in your mind, being adaptable. Number two and really how you pivot. Adaptable Number two really how you pivot, being service oriented and really having others in mind. And then we talk about emotional intelligence right, how do you control your emotions and really to be able to respond in a way where you're not overly emotional about the storm that you're going through, right? We talked about strategic career growth Right, really, how you, how you plan to grow in your career but outside of your organization, right, you know, and really it's all about continuous learning. That's one of the ones as well. Number six and the number seven work life integration. Man, out of all of these, if there's one behavioral mindset shift you want every listener to walk away with today, which one?

Speaker 2: 46:10

would it be? And why? Oh, oh, my goodness, I got to start with mindset. Mindset is that's. That's the key. If your mindset is not, if you don't have the right mindset, none of the others will work, because you won't, you won't, you won't be able to adapt, you won't get into the continuous learning, you won't be able to think about emotional intelligence, you can't do anything if you don't have the right mindset.

Speaker 1: 46:34

Wow, man, I love that and I agree Again. Earlier in the episode I said you know, man, that number one. That's it. It's the foundation of everything. Dr Lewis, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing such invaluable insights. Man, tell us how can people find you and learn more about?

Speaker 2: 46:56

your work. Oh, my goodness, if they go to Dr William T Lewiscom, they will be able to find me there. If they, if they send me an email, william at WT Lewiscom, send me an email and let's connect. I would love to talk to you about the book, talk to you about your own career growth, your own journey, share with you how I have engaged in my career journey. So just connect in with me. Connect in with me on LinkedIn and Facebook. Absolutely, dr William Lewis.

Speaker 1: 47:28

If you've enjoyed this episode today, be sure to subscribe to the Transparent Nature podcast and also follow my good friend, dr Lewis. Your career storms don't have to define you. They can refine you. Dr Lewis's story proves that losing a so-called dream job can actually open the door to something far greater. Grab his book Perched in the Storm when it comes out, for even more on the seven behaviors we talked about today. And remember you don't have to wait for a title to start leading. You can lead right where you are. Lead yourself right. It starts there. Share this episode with someone who's facing their own career storm and let's all keep growing through what we go through. Again, it's your host, prince Tate. Thank you so much for listening today and until next time, keep navigating your career with clarity and with confidence. You.