We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elle Monus. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elle below.
Elle, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
Let’s face it, optimism is super hard for a lot of us- especially when we are constantly met with a global information flow that can feel everything but optimistic. I was not pre-wired to be an optimist, in fact I pretty much planned for disaster for the first 10 years of my adult life. I eventually learned a tool that helped- asking “what if it goes well?”. I knew what would happen if it went badly. I’d already thought of every doomsday outcome and had an exit plan, but I never even considered what it looked like if I was successful at what I was trying to do.
Now, I make it a constant practice, especially when I’m starting down that “Oh no!” path. Once I recognize that I’m metaphorically building my underground bunker full of life saving supplies, I stop myself and redirect my thoughts to “ok, but what if it turns out really well?” But it’s not quite as simple as just that. Is it ever?
I also started working towards making my decisions align with my overall passions. I’ve spent my life working with people in their most difficult moments through work or volunteering- like, low income or bankruptcy, homelessness, abuse, mental health crisis, etc but I always felt like I was putting a bandaid on a wound that really needed surgery.
So I also took a step back and thought about how I could really make a change in this world since I clearly had a passion for it, and I went to the source. Now I’m changing how people feel about themselves through TRUE with Image Consulting so they can empower themselves and hopefully avoid making choices that might lead them down a less joyful path. I’m also working with the team over at The Complete Human Co., who is working to change the healthcare industry and increasing access to care for those that generally go without. Shameless plug: Seriously, if you need affordable access to amazing care, reach out to get on the waitlist for Texas.
Being a part of things that change the world for the better is my passion and finding the joy in the little things and asking “what does it look like when I’ve accomplished this super cool thing?” keeps me motivated to do so. When you find that meet in the middle sweet spot- life looks a whole lot better.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I briefly touched on this a bit ago, but since I have the opportunity I’m going to dive a little deeper. Right now, I’ve got a pretty full plate between Image Consulting with TRUE and helping build The Complete Human Co.’s team and presence.
TRUE, of course, is my own personal baby where I can make a smaller, one-on-one impact on people personally, but having the opportunity to also work in the tech industry has allowed me to align myself with CEOs and companies that have a far more wide-spread impact due to a national or global scale.
You’ll often see me talk about those companies in my personal media exposure. I do that because I align very personally with their mission and want to see their success just as much as I’d love to see my own. Hey, I’m not Mother Theresa, I’d be lying if I said I wanted to give up all of my worldly possessions to make a positive change in the world. I digress and am moving swiftly back to my point.
The reason I’m working with The Complete Human Co., and presenting them to you is because I very much believe in their future brand or image because it’s more than that. It is a team that truly cares about changing a broken system. It helps people navigate a very difficult and traditionally expensive healthcare industry and I know that the CEO, Riley Levy, has the capacity to make incredible changes in this world. After all, what’s more on brand to TRUE than living a life you can be proud of?
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?
Managing reactivity- You know that feeling when you get when someone hits one of your buttons? Maybe your face flushes or you get a wrench in your stomach. As a younger professional, I let it rule me. It was a signal that someone had done something to wrong me and I needed to jump in and defend my idea or myself. I felt all the weight of my world on my shoulders in those moments because every moment had the potential to be the cliff I was going to fall off. And when you’re trying to survive the fall, you don’t really care how you’re appearing to others.
I’m minimizing the amount of work it took to make the change due to respect for your time, because we’d be here all dang day- but now that physical signal is a stop sign for me. When I feel that heat rising up within me, I stop. I pause. Then I respond instead of reacting by using the tools in my next two points.
Listening (with empathy)- We all know the phrase “listening to speak vs listening to hear”. We want to be right. We want to know the answer. We want to make sure we have a better answer than the other person. But what if its completely fine to say- “I want to really understand your side of things so we can work together against the issue instead of working against each other using the issue as a weapon.” When you step out of the reactivity, you can truly listen to their perception of the issue and I have been pleasantly surprised with how often you’re much closer to being on the same team than you think.
Root Cause Analysis- I always had an inclination towards this one just based on how data driven and pattern seeking my brain is, but I didn’t have a name for it or know how to communicate what I knew to be true in a way that made sense to others. There can be a million symptoms causing you pain, but it’s very likely they stem from a much larger core issue. You heal the symptoms, you get more pop up. You heal the core issue and symptoms stop popping up.
Here’s how you do it. Look at a problem that keeps presenting itself. Then ask yourself “why” five times- or as many times as it takes to get to a place where you simply cant find another answer.
For example, Jimbo and Janebob are always late for work.
Why? They don’t wake up on time.
Why? They are up late working on tasks they didn’t get done during the day.
Why? They try to manage their time but they feel like things keep getting thrown at then and can’t get caught up.
Why? The team is short staffed.
Why? Management has an attitude problem so people quit.
(Go on forever if you’d like, but I’ll digress for now.)
Now I know that two things that are seemingly completely unrelated are actually a pretty big problem- but one I can absolutely fix. If I fix the management issue, Jimbo and Janebob will be able to rest and show up on time, but we will also likely see a morale increase, lower recruiting costs, etc.
They call these things “soft skills” but I found that I needed them in both my personal and professional life so I call them necessary skills. I won’t always get them right, but my life is far more pleasant when I do.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I’ve done a lot of research on this one. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and how their image is experienced in the workplace and there seems to be a trend of working only within your strengths that are usually dictated by a type of personality testing. There’s a whole business operating system built around it actually- where the Visionary and Integrator roles are treated as two distinct personality types that shouldn’t cross over.
I cannot express how deeply I disagree with this method. It is so, so easy to fall into a trap of “this is who I am and I need to learn nothing else.” It lays the responsibility at the feet of everyone else for things that lie outside of that purview. What happens when there aren’t enough people around with the right specialities? Who jumps in to solve for what is missing? If you’re the leader and you don’t jump in- who leads? If nobody leads, even imperfectly- what fails? If things start to fail, will the people around you trust you enough to get them to the finish line? See what I mean? Slippery slope.
In business and in life, I’ve found that it is almost always more impactful to be both a teacher and a student simultaneously. Absolutely work in your strengths, teach them to others, share your knowledge and make incredible progress! At the same time, find where you can be a student to to others to learn and build more knowledge that you can then also teach. You will make slower progress in these areas- and that’s okay. But the example you set for others around you will let them be free of feeling shame over not knowing something. In turn, everyone grows and greater progress is made.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.trueimagegroup.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/trueimagegroup
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle-monus/
- Other: To join the waitlist for The Complete Human Co, visit www.thecompletehuman.co and send a quick chat through the site.
Image Credits
Brandon Walker
