Meet Dr. Dwayne Whitehead

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dr. Dwayne Whitehead. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Dr. Dwayne , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I found my purpose first through my relationship with God. I believe God has a plan for all of us. Secondly, I found my purpose through failure. At 24 years old, I found myself divorced, homeless, without a job, and extremely depressed. Prior to this, I was a major player in the financial arena. I was also traveling around the country performing as a singer and actor as well. However, I didn’t have the internal character to support the doors I was privileged to walk in. As a result, I lost everything. One night, sitting in my car intoxicated with alcohol and pain, I realized I needed to do something different if I was going to grow my life. I started building a strategy to grow my life. I understood I needed to LEAD myself to better. I started cleaning up my life. I began apologizing to people. I started reading books about personal and professional growth. Today, things are very different. I have a beautiful family. I have climbed the corporate ladder. I am the president of an impactful company. It’s all because I learned how to lead and grow myself. This journey helped me to discover my purpose. I have a passion for helping leaders grow personally and professionally. I want to ensure they dont make the same mistakes I’ve made in my journey. I want to make sure they are able to lead with longevity while adding value to people and making significant change. My purpose is building the next generation of leaders.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am what you would call a multi-hyphenate. It pretty much means I do a lot of things haha. For over 20 years, I’ve traveled this nation and beyond performing on major stages as a singer and actor. I love making people smile, laugh, and feel good through the arts. Additionally, I am a 15 year finance professional. I have worked in all facets of the finance industry. I currently use that information to teach financial literacy particularly to communities without access to that type of education. All of this lead to the my current space which I am so proud of. My newest company, The Whitehead Group, is a leadership and professional development firm, powered by the John Maxwell Leadership Team. I am privileged to be mentored and trained by the number one leadership guru in the world, John Maxwell. My purpose with TWG is to “Transform Lives Through the Power of Leadership.” John Maxwell says, “Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership.” I wholeheartedly believe this. I believe we are seeing this play out around the world. Currently, we are in a political crisis, a moral crisis, food crisis, and so much more around the world. I believe every problem we see in society can be traced back to a leadership problem. This is why I’m so excited about The Whitehead Group. I get the privilege to speak, coach, and train leaders who will lead the world into the future. Next to faith, leadership is what will change the world. Call me crazy, but I really want to see the world become a better place. I believe coaching leaders is my part in making the world a better place. I’ve written a few books. However, I just released my first ebook on leadership and I’m extremely proud of this work. It’s called “Over the Edge- The Journey of Self-Leadership.” This book is a tell-all of my journey to become a stand-out, transformational leader. I share the four-part framework I used to build my life and grow as a leader personally and professionally. I think we spend so much time on the external pieces of leadership (building systems, training people) and not the internal work (build our character, honing our skills). If we dont focus on the internal work, the external work won’t have anything to stand on. The cool thing about this ebook is that it was taken from a live interview where I am sharing my story. So it’s written in a simple way for everyone to understand. Over the Edge can be found on Amazon or on my website www.dwaynewhitehead.com/overtheedge

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The first quality I would say was impactful on my journey is my unwillingness to allow my past to define my future. I meet so many people who are crippled because of the “undone” parts of their journey. For me, I took my failures and made them life lessons. Everyone has a past. Everyone has a journey. None of us are perfect. I coach leaders to be okay with what was, while embracing the better version of yourself and your life. Ask yourself, “what can I learn from those moments?” “How can those moments empower other people that I will meet on my journey?” This is called the Law of Reflection.

The second quality I think contributed to my journey is my growth mindset. In the Corporate World, we use this concept of “Growth vs. Fixed Mindset.” A fixed mindset believes that your abilities, talents, and traits cannot be developed. You are who you are-that’s final. A growth mindset believes that success is on the other side of your willingness to grow. It believes you can grow every facet of yourself through dedication, hard work, and learning. I call it remaining curious. I have embraced a growth mindset in life. I am a life-long learner. I am always giving attention to how I can be better in my personal and professional life. The growth mindset embraces challenges, sees effort as a path to mastery, learns from feedback, and are persistence in the face of feedback. The most successful leaders embrace a growth mindset. If you want to go “Over the Edge,” never stop learning, never stop growing your skill set. Expose yourself to new worldviews, cultures, people groups, and more. This is a major key to my success.

Lastly, I would say my heart for adding value to people has impacted my journey. Leadership is spelled P.E.O.P.L.E. I love people. I love ALL people. I live by the worldview of “Imago Dei. Imago Dei says “Everyone was born in the image of God.” This means, all people should be honored, valued, and respected. Everything I do in life, I do for the empowerment of people. One of the challenges concerning many leaders is that they dont value people. I’ve spent much time healing the wounds of people who have been damaged by others leaders. Leaders must learn to walk the thin line between “people and production.” Both are important. However, nothing can replace the empowerment and care for people. You will find your greatest return, not in what you build, where you travel, and how rich you are. Your greatest return will be in how you treat people. My heart for people has been the greatest seed of my success.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

Next to the Bible, the most impactful book to my journey is “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth” by my mentor John Maxwell. Like me, John has a heart for personal development. In this book, John talks about the 15 laws that contributed to his success. I’ve found that this book is a turnkey model for growth. In our Maxwell community we call this book “The Leadership Bible.”

A few of my favorite laws are:

The Law of Intentionality- Growth Doesn’t Just Happen. This law is the bedrock of growth. If you are going to grow, it will only happen intentionally. You must have a growth plan. When I coach leaders, one of the first questions I ask them is, “What is your growth plan?” Most people dont have a plan for growth. Without a plan, we have no focus and we aimlessly grab ahold to anything that presents itself. The Law of Intentionality brings clarity.

The Law of the Modeling- It’s Hard to Improve When You Have No One But Yourself to Follow. This was a law I apprehended early in life. I understood the power of mentorship. If I was going to grow, I needed to get around people who were bigger, brighter, faster, and better than me. You can tell the trajectory of a person by their circle. Everyone should have someone in their lives that they can see their future in. Mentorship is a life hack. When I found my mentor, I learned in 30 minutes what took him 10 years to learn. All successful people have someone who they can model to get where they intend to go.

The Law of Consistency- Motivation Gets You Going- Discipline Keeps You Growing. Let’s be honest, some days we ”
feel like it” Some days we dont. This law teaches us how to be successful even the times we aren’t inspired. In my journey, I’ve had some setbacks that have taken my inspiration. If not careful, I could be tempted to lean into the feeling of being uninspired and stay in bed all day (or all year). Have you ever been there? But if I lean into that feeling, I won’t close the necessary gaps in order to grow. Stay consistent. Rome wasn’t build in a day. Some days will be harder than others. However life has proven, consistency always produces results.

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