Meet Emily Frieze-Kemeny

We were lucky to catch up with Emily Frieze-Kemeny recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Emily, great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.

Trust me, I didn’t start out with a high-risk appetite. Quite the opposite. I intentionally chose to work in big publicly traded, industry leading companies for two decades before I became an entrepreneur. I wanted high stability and low risk. My parents were small business owners and high-risk takers and for me as a child it was terrifying. “We are doing great!” “We might go bankrupt.” So, I ran in the opposite direction. I got a job, worked my a#@ off, became an executive, and climbed the corporate ladder.

Until I stopped. When I left my corporate executive role, I literally had no idea what I was going to do next. I journaled to explore what I was really good at, what I was passionate about. I got support from a coach, I meditated, worked out, got myself grounded, and then a vision for building a company came pouring out of me. And with it came my comfort taking risk, an ability I realized I had been developing all along.

I think we underestimate ourselves. We are always taking some form of risk. Taking a job is a risk, and so is not taking it. When we speak our truth, create something new in the world, form close relationships, we are taking risks. We don’t get to control the outcome, and we know we can’t control other people. What we get to do is…

1. Make friends with uncertainty, with not knowing how things will exactly play out. We need to find the strategies and support to help us live with uncertainty, make friends with it, surrender to it… with support. Support can look like meditation, yoga, healthy lifestyle habits, friendships, a coach, the people and things that hold us up, bring us balance and joy. Because, let’s be honest – risk-taking is hard, and it’s life!

I also found that we need a reason to take the risk, we need to find our “why”. For me, it was envisioning all the people I wanted to serve. It was my desire to prove that we can lead with profitability and humanity. We can be kind, connected to one another at work, and achieve incredible results. It was this passion I felt inside me that allowed me to take the risk of building a business.

2. Find our “why”, the things we care so deeply about that we can no longer not do it. It is when we listen deeply to ourselves that we find the strength to act. Our why doesn’t make the uncertainty go away, but it gives us both an anchor and the compass so we can keep going.

The other important learning about risk-taking came from working alongside senior executives as an advisor and leadership coach. I guided and partnered with leaders through some of the most disruptive business dynamics and organizational changes they have ever faced, the types of situations that could have brought down their organization if they didn’t navigate it effectively.

3. Recognize the pivot moments. While having a vision, a purpose, and goals to guide near-term actions is essential, so is knowing when to pivot. The vision is the heart-centered reason we will keep going to build what we want to build, to serve the people, the clients, the communities we want to serve. It makes taking the risk feel worth it. But we, all of us, are not smart enough to know all of the “how” to bring that vision to life, especially because conditions will change as we go. So, we stay open and curious to learn from what comes up along the journey, both the wins and the challenges. They are all learning opportunities. Envision the future in all its glory, and then just take one step at a time, so we can observe, learn, and pivot as we go.

Last but not least, when it comes to taking risk, I learned to not go it alone. Getting a coach was one of the most important decisions I made from the start of my entrepreneurial, risk-taking journey. It reinforced to me the importance of coaching, a service we, AROSE Group, provide to our clients, and daily, I get to see the impact support is making.

4. Invest in support. Having a coach, someone by our side as we navigate risk taking, makes all the difference. It is often the difference between whether we can keep going through the uncertainty and through the pivot moments.

This thing we call life is a journey. And it is in the risks that we often find our greatest opportunities for growth.

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 spent two decades working with the most senior executives and those aspiring to lead as a leadership coach, facilitator, and overall culture and talent development executive. I’ve spent my career amplifying leaders from Wall Street to big tech to beauty, publishing, home services, nonprofits, and wellness, and it is my life’s work to uplift people and unlock results, what I call bridging humanity and profitability. This is the foundational philosophy upon which I built my company, AROSE Group, where we provide leaders with the coaching, management skills, and strategic advisory support to make their dreams a reality. We work with entrepreneurs, corporate executives and their teams, and incredible mission-driven organizations, including nonprofits. We coach leaders, help them build their teams, focus on wellbeing as a part of work, and help them achieve their vision through innovation, strategic planning, and implementing change that sustains. We love what we do, and we are having a blast doing it.

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?

1. Learn the business of people.
Even as a teenager, I had a keen interest in listening to the struggles and challenges of others. I wanted to understand people, their feelings, what makes them tick, and I loved helping them navigate their challenges. Looking back at my career to date, this has been the skill that I have leveraged the most as a leader and business builder.

Whether you share my passion for people or not, this skill is a non-negotiable because no matter what business you are in, you are in the business of people! Study people’s behavior. Notice what they respond to. Notice what moves them to action. Listen with interest to their words. Hold space for them to express themselves and be open to other perspectives. While we can have our vision and our points of view, it can at times inhibit our ability to see what is in front of us. When we take an interest in others, we learn so much, including learning about ourselves and our own feelings, and we build deeper connections that bring joy and pay dividends as you build your career or your business.

2. Make your passion your work. Or at least find your why for the work.
While there are stages in our careers and lives when we need to work to make a living, to have medical coverage, and to pay our rent, when we can line up our passion with our work, the real magic happens. It makes work not feel like work. We thrive. And we often do our best work. Even if your work is not currently aligned to your passion, I encourage you to find the “why”, the reason why you do what you do, so you can stay motivated and performing your job with excellence. Strong performance is essential to success and is fueled by purpose and passion. This is what differentiates the people who are successful from the people who underperform and from those who are just going through the motions. Whatever your situation, make your work work for you.

3. Amplify others.
While being successful feels like it is about us, I believe my career success has been my dedication and passion for helping others to be successful. Now, the one watch out that I had to learn the hard way is – you shouldn’t support others’ success at the expense of your wellbeing and joy. As a recovering people pleaser, this is a deeper wound to heal. The type of supporting others I am talking about is the kind that makes your boss even more successful because of the support you provide. When your boss feels supported and appreciates your thoughtful diligent support, a good boss will keep giving you opportunities to grow and learn.

When you help your colleagues or collaborators proactively, they will be much more likely to do the same when you need support. It is not that everyone will, but I believe that the more positivity and support we put out into the world, the more it will come back our way.

We create our reality, so why not create one that connects us, uplifts us, and has us winning together.

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?

This might initially feel frustrating, but let’s be honest, there is a bit of both here that leads to success. My greatest success has definitely been the result of my ability to support leaders to shine and find answers to the most perplexing business and cultural dynamics. It is these same strengths that have helped me build my business.

However, if I only did what I loved and ignored the areas where I lacked interest and capability, I wouldn’t have been able to build a business. If left to my own devices, we would be a mess. Bills and invoices would be overdue, passwords would be impossible to find, and we would be working in spreadsheets that could no longer hold the vast array of information we need. I needed to learn how to run the parts of the business I didn’t love. And I needed to do it with people who had more skill and interest in those areas than me.

The way I would unpack it is this: Spend the majority of your time doing work that leverages your strengths, or as Gay Hendricks in one of my favorite books, The Big Leap, calls it – be in your “genius mode”. And make sure you get done the things that are essential, regardless of whether they are your strengths. Just like we need to eat a balanced meal, we need to manage the different dimensions of our work. But we don’t need to do it or learn it alone. Support is the best, especially from people whose strengths complement ours!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.arosegroup.com/
• Instagram: @emily_arosegroup
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-frieze-kemeny/
• Other: Podcast Website page: https://www.arosegroup.com/podcast

  Apple Podcast feed: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-talk-people-with-emily-frieze-kemeny/id1713722861

  Spotify Podcast feed: https://open.spotify.com/show/3uxBZJBn8xZMHJrdrxEyOU