We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yolanda Wright a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Yolanda, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from three sources: God, Failure, and Exercise.
The primary source of my resilience is my faith in God. In all honesty, my faith in God is the very reason I am in business in the first place. This business is an expression of what He has done in my life and my passion for helping others experience the same thing. Before launching Stats Free Living (SFL), I never saw myself as an entrepreneur. But that changed when I embraced what happened in my life, the experiences and observations of others around me, and the opportunity to offer a solution that would similarly help others. Once I was persuaded that this was the right step, I had the assurance that no matter what happened, if I held onto His hand, He would bring me through whatever I faced. That confidence and assurance gives me the daily resilience I need to operate, develop, and grow this business in the face of continual challenges.
The second source is failure. Or, as John Maxwell coined it, “failing forward” and surviving. That’s when things don’t work out as planned or expected. It is also those times when you face your fears and seemingly come out with the short end of the stick and survive. When the worst-case scenario happens, and you get through it, you realize that although it was painful and perhaps humiliating, you survived. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as you imagined it would be. Regardless, you’ve learned things you didn’t know before and would not have known hadn’t you had that experience. And, if you process that experience the right way, those ‘seemingly failures’ propel you forward with more knowledge, wisdom, determination, and confidence than you had prior to that experience. Don’t get me wrong. You don’t want your business acumen to be built on a foundation of trial and error. There’s a huge price to that approach. However, there is value in trial and error; for me, that is one of the sources of my resilience.
Finally, that last source is a consistent physical exercise that challenges me. Having a habit of regular exercise that challenges me builds my determination. It pushes me to keep going even though it’s hard, I’m tired, or the elements are fighting against me. This practice builds determination in me, which undergirds my resilience. That determination that says, “No matter what happens, I will not quit,” is being built up every time I exercise.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Like many people, I grew up with an idea of who I was and what I would be, only to have that change as I learned more about myself and the world around me. As a parent, one of the joys of parenting is seeing your child blossom into the person they are meant to be. But there is also joy in seeing yourself grow up, blossom, and become who you were meant to be, regardless of age or when that process happens in your life.
My development, unfortunately, began externally and only became internal as I matured into adulthood. Specifically, I grew up in a period that promoted performance and external achievement over understanding and investing in my identity and pursuing external achievements based on that understanding. In other words, I was a human doing and not a human being. That approach is not wrong, but there are disadvantages. One of those disadvantages was that as long as I didn’t know myself, I couldn’t tap into myself to develop, refine, and bring out who I was. Consequently, I was not in a position to make the most meaningful contribution that only I could make in the world I was born into. Meeting myself through public speaking empowered me to embrace my uniqueness and develop the boldness to live it out. For me, it meant speaking, writing, working with youth, and boldly being and sharing this with others. It became the catalyst for Stats Free Living.
Stats Free Living is a nonprofit organization that teaches public speaking/communication skills to students. Communication is a skill that everyone needs, especially children, as they navigate through the various stages and experiences of their lives. They need to feel comfortable speaking up and advocating for themselves. More than being a tool to connect with others, we find it is a critical tool to communicate with and understand ourselves. Communication begins as an internal process and requires going inside first before saying or doing something. So, in addition to giving students tools to help them in external relationships, we also address the element of building self-confidence in students. That excites me because I see children like gift-wrapped packages with something special tucked inside. As they develop self-confidence, we see aspects of their unique personalities and gifts emerge. It’s always fun to see that.
Currently, we are offering homeschool classes at local community centers and in conjunction with homeschool coops. We are also conducting a job readiness program in partnership with Positive Transition Services (PTS). PTS provides integrated health and wellness services for adults, those in recovery, the disabled, veterans, seniors, and young adults. We are also preparing remote classes, which will launch soon. A lot is going on. Stay tuned to our website for updates.
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?
Because of the field in which I work, the most impactful qualities for me are communication skills, empathy, and humility. Communication skills enable me to understand my client’s needs or concerns and help them understand how my service addresses them. Empathy allows me to connect with them, walk in their shoes, and meet them at their point of need or concern. Humility places me in a ‘no judgment zone.’ It brings me out of my ideals and puts their needs or concerns before my personal opinion, preferences, or agenda. And if I know I have a good product, it becomes a win-win situation for both of us.
The important skills, qualities, or knowledge for any entrepreneur are relative to the field in which they operate. But I believe skills and abilities can be a dime a dozen. They will always be someone better, faster, or smarter than you. But a famous quote says, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Therefore, the underlying qualities of who you are will ultimately differentiate you from your competitors. So my advice is to develop those character traits that say, “Yes, I have a product or service I want to provide to you, Mr. Customer. But beyond all that, I care about you and your needs or interests.” The marketplace refers to that as emotional intelligence. Strong emotional intelligence can carry you further than skills or knowledge alone can.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
In many ways, improving your communication skills is like learning a new language, and it’s important to regularly practice to improve it. Therefore, we are always looking for opportunities for our students to practice these skills in real-world scenarios. We would love the opportunity to partner with any entity that offers opportunities in the communication field that would allow students to hone their newly learned skills. If you are either looking for or open to the possibility of partnering with us, please get in touch with me, Yolanda Wright, at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.StatsFreeLiving.org
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/StatsFreeLiving
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StatsFreeLiving
- Linkedin: https://LinkedIn.com/company/Stats-Free-Living-Inc
- Twitter: https://Twitter.com/StatsFreeLiving
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