Podcast Transcript:
This is how to know whether or not you’re in the right room. Hey there, I’m Jillian Kendrick and welcome to the Momentum Marketing Podcast. I’m a mama, a wife, an entrepreneur and a three time best selling co-author. In each episode, you’ll get real world, practical advice and strategies and maybe a parenting tip or two along the way. If you’re ready to create a business that supports your family and your lifestyle, then you’re in the right place.
Hey, there, I am so excited that you’re here with me today. If you haven’t noticed, my voice is a little bit scratchy today. I got COVID a couple of days ago and I’m actually recording this episode inside of my bedroom at home because I am quarantined for the next couple of days. It has been a really interesting experience being in this room all by myself with nothing but my phone, my laptop, and the television to keep me company.
But I’ve been watching a couple of things. Had some thoughts that I wanted to share with you. So don’t mind the scratchy voice. Let’s dive in. Before we get into everything. If you haven’t gone to check out my latest training, how I get over 600 leads every single month consistently, go to jilliankendrick.com/webinar and you can sign up for the master class right there. It is seriously some of the best work that I’ve done. You have to check it out if you’re interested in lead gen. Whether you are starting off brand new or if you’ve been doing lead gen and you have a list, but maybe your list has been drying up and you need some new blood in there. This training is truly going to show you everything that I do front to back and give you an opportunity to potentially work with me. Definitely check it out jilliankendrick.com/webinar.
So my son and I attended a birthday party of one of his little friends. And turns out somebody else who attended the party was sick and didn’t tell anybody. And now I have COVID and a friend of his, their parents who are friends of ours, they now have COVID as well and it’s just super frustrating. So thankfully, my husband and our son have been testing negative so far and our whole family got COVID back about a year or so ago, early summer of 2022. And this round of COVID that I have right now is significantly less than it was back last year. Last year was absolutely brutal and knocked us on our butts and was no fun for sure. This has been no fun. Well, but it’s been a lot more tolerable and I’ve been actually able to get a little bit of work done here and there, which has been nice and to keep me company. I’ve been watching a lot of television that I don’t normally get to watch because I either have a house to take care of, or a baby to take care of, or a business to run or 100 other things to do. And TV, unfortunately, just isn’t on the priority list anymore. It’s been interesting to sit and watch some good TV. If anybody hasn’t watched Ted Lasso, oh my God. It is so good. Literally stop listening to this and go watch Ted Lasso like it is that good.
But today’s topic, how to know you’re in the right room. And that’s either a terrible topic that makes no sense to anybody or is just my COVID delusions because I’ve been taking a lot of medication in the last few days. But either way, here are my thoughts.
I have been watching a lot of TV. And one of the things that I’ve been watching, I don’t know why, but I really, really love commencement speeches and award speeches. I find them either complete bombs or pretty terrible. Or some of them are actually really interesting and can impart some terrific wisdom. And I love listening to them and getting to know that person a little bit better and seeing if there’s some lesson or piece of wisdom that I can pull from that experience. I would say if you want to hear a really, really good commencement speech. One of my favorites is the 2014 graduation that Jim Carey did the speech of. Oh my gosh. It is so good. At least twice a year I go back and watch it because it is literally that good. It is so insightful. It is hilarious. It’s touching and it’s definitely one of my favorites. So go check it out.
But how to know you’re in the right room. I find it really interesting when I was watching the award ceremony for the Mark Twain Prize in comedy that in 2023, this current year, they celebrated Adam Sandler, which I am a big Adam Sandler fan. I feel like if you were a kid or a teenager in the late nineties, early two thousands, you’ve definitely seen an Adam Sandler movie and you probably like something that he’s done. I was watching his speech and I was watching some of the other presenters talk about Adam Sandler. And so it was really cool, but I realized very similar to other people. Adam Sandler was roommates with Judd Apatow and knew all of these people. And was in the comedy strip with Chris Rock and just knew a ton of other people that were kind of all coming up at the same time. Now anybody could look back at that situation and argue and be like, well, ok, I get it. But of course, Judd Apatow was brilliant and made all of these movies. Well, they were roommates before any of those movies were made. He knew all of these people while they were coming up before they got famous when they were all still hustling in the comedy clubs and trying to write their stuff or get bits on SNL or write anything that could get picked up. They were off hustling and trying to do it. And I just find it so fascinating to hear celebrities or successful people who knew each other prior to becoming famous.
So I’ll give you a couple of examples that I looked up because I found this really fascinating. Several people while they were talking about Adam Sandler were all talking about how they knew him way back when. But just to give you an example of other people, this has happened to John Krasinski and BJ Novak who are famously known for starring in the US version of the Office. They played Little League together. Gwyneth Paltrow and Maya Rudolph were friends in college. Angela Bassett and Courtney B Vance went to Yale School of Drama together. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler met at an improv comedy class in Chicago in 1993. Adam Levine and Jonah Hill, their dads were childhood friends of all things. I could go on and on, there’s so many lists I could go on and on and on about various people who famously dated other people or knew other people or went to school or were childhood friends with other people who were famous.
Now, of course, you could make the argument and say, yeah, that’s a coincidence. Or another good example of that is Mike Schur Greg Daniels who both worked on the US version of the office. But then went on to create Parks and Rec and Brooklyn 99 and other things, they went to college with Rashida Jones, they went to college with a bunch of other people who then became famous. Buddha Judge and Colin Jost who are famous in their own, right? But one’s a politician and the other is a writer and a comedian. They both went to college at the same time, not necessarily together. I don’t know that they really knew each other super well, but they were in college at the same time when you Google this sort of stuff.
There’s so many lists of famous people who knew each other, went to college together, or you can make the argument that some of that is coincidence. You could make the argument that some of it’s just happen stance. You could make the argument that yeah, when you are trying to be in a certain industry or do a certain thing or have a specific job, you happen to know and run into certain people that given the chance some of them are going to become successful, of course. And I don’t disagree with that argument at all.
But I think it’s interesting to consider that when you are in the same room or when you’re in the same school, so to speak, or you’re in kind of the same running group of people who are trying for the same stuff or trying to get the same job. It’s just very fascinating to me that the ones who are really successful and the ones who can look back and pinpoint certain people that affected their lives, at least from the outside looking in, all of those people seem to be holding one another up. And I think that speaks to knowing whether or not you’re in the right room. There’s a famous quote that says, if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. I agree with it in terms of if you’re looking to learn and to grow and you need leadership and you need people who are a few steps ahead of you and people who can guide you and bring you up with them, then yes, if you’re the smartest or most successful person in the room, you’re probably in the wrong room. You want to look for that group of people so that they can build you up so that they can impart their wisdom. Maybe you’re on a different rung of the ladder. But the rung of the ladder that they’re on and we’re each on our own rungs on our own sized ladders looking at different points of view of everything. This is not a competition sort of thing. And this is not to say that what one person does, somebody else has to follow in their exact footsteps. I’m just saying that if there is something that you want, if there is success that you want to achieve, if there’s something that you want to do in your life. One of the best gifts that you can give yourself is to find someone who is a few steps ahead of you and be in the room with them and be mentored by them.
Your ability to know whether or not you’re in the right room, your ability to know whether or not you’re surrounded by people who will lift you up and build you up, that radar will be one of your greatest assets. Because I think the other thing that’s so important to know and to consider when we look at famous people or successful people that all either know each other or have all kind of been vying for the same jobs and, and working together is the really, really good ones. And I’m not just saying good at their job, but I’m saying good human beings, good mentors. They are building other people up and they’re bringing other people up with them. I know it’s really funny to say that every single Adam Sandler movie has the exact same cast and it’s very true in a lot of ways. But I think it speaks to who he is as a person and as a leader that he’s willing to build up the other people around him and bring them up alongside him rather than trying to keep them down or trying to force them to find their own way because good leaders don’t push other people away. Good leaders don’t push other people down. Good leaders bring themselves up and bring other people up along with them.
And so I think when you consider being in the right room, if you’re surrounding yourself with people who are kind of in the same industry as you or they want the same job as you or they’re kind of doing the same thing as you. But you find that there’s any kind of jealousy or any kind of hurt feelings or manipulation or just icky stuff that has no reason to exist, then I would say you’re in the wrong room. If you find that you’re surrounding yourself with people who aren’t encouraging you and aren’t supportive of you and they don’t have to have the same goals as you. They don’t even have to be vying for the same job as you. They just have to be encouraging you, and loving you. Then you’re in the right room. If you find yourself seeking mentorship and seeking guidance, but you’re surrounded by people who are a couple steps behind you, then you’re not in the right room. But if you’re seeking guidance and mentorship and you find yourself surrounded by people that are at your same level or a few steps ahead of you, you’re in the right room.
I would even go as far as to say, if you find yourself wanting guidance and mentorship and you’re in the room of people who are way beyond where you’re at or they’re several steps ahead or have hit the pinnacle of where you want to be. I would still say that you’re in the wrong room. I have learned so much more from listening to and learning from people who are just a step or two ahead of me in life or in business. I learn more from the mamas whose kids are a year older than mine than I learn from the mamas whose kids are 18 because even though they’ve gone through it, even though they’re wonderful, wise, beautiful mamas. If their kids are 18 and mine is three, they went through so long ago that they don’t remember what it was like. And even though they might give good advice, they don’t have the same perspective with that advice that a mama who just went through it would have my sister right now is about to start potty training, my nephew and I have a lot of really good advice because I’m in the middle of potty training. My son for the most part, he’s potty trained. We’re just still working on some issues. But I have much better advice for her because I just went through it and I’m still kind of in the middle of it. Then if she were to ask our mom who God bless her is a wonderful, beautiful, brilliant woman and has potty trained four kids and two grandkids and all of that. But she went through it so long ago. She doesn’t have all the memories of what my sister and I are going through right now.
So I would say that even if you find yourself in the room of someone who you would think is at the pinnacle of the success that you’re looking for, the thing that you want to do. They still might not be the right person to lead you and to guide you and ultimately to know whether or not you’re in the right room, be surrounded by people who lift you up. They don’t have to understand what you do in order to love you and support you. I can name significantly more people in my life who have no idea what I do for a living than I could name people who actually do. In fact, I would say 10 to 100 times I could, people who have no idea what I do to the actual like three or four who really get what I do for a living. But those people don’t have to get it in order to love you and support you in order to encourage you and to be there for you, they just have to love you and care about you and build you up. So to know whether you’re not, you’re in the right room, I really believe is something that will be such a guiding principle for you and for your success and for the direction that you take in your career and in your life for forever. And as soon as you can tune in to exactly what that radar should be, as soon as you can tune into what room you need to be in. What is it that I need? Who am I looking for? Where are those people? Where am I now versus where I want to get to? And how many steps ahead should that person be so that I can learn from them? And they can impart wisdom that still gives me that shared experience that in my opinion is how to know whether or not you’re in the right room.
Thank you so much for listening to my COVID blabbering wisdom. I have a few more days of quarantine here in my bedroom, but I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Momentum Marketing podcast quarantine edition. If listening to this has brought you value, improved your life or given you any insight to help build your own momentum or find your own room then please share this with a friend and I’ll see you on the next episode.
The Momentum Marketing Podcast
By Jillian Kendrick
Episode: # 28
Topic: Are you in the right room?
Contact: hello@jilliankendrick.com
Follow IG: instagram.com/automatedmama
