Kimberly Hambrick: And the other Intersection with my story is that I had joined the John Maxwell team which you and I are both members of about three months prior to my exit from corporate and I was certified as a coach about four years prior through International Coach Federation I knew it was something that I was called to do to help others I knew John. I didn't know he had a team. And so I joined this team in October of 2017 and, blown away. Just first and foremost for my own leadership. And then fast forward to January, my five-year plan in October now becomes a one week plan, because happened In January. And the interesting thing is that I was going to my very first IMC International Maxwell certification to be certified two weeks later, in February.
So I show up at this event. And I know you've been at them, 3,500 people, the energy in the room, and I was a deer in the headlights. I didn't have a clue. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but what I did prior to going to the IMC was to join mentorship and connect with the mentors. And shortly after, started getting on those calls. And so we talked about the importance of coaching, so we're coaches, but we also have coaches. And two of those voices truly helped me through. This and I consider those, other transition points, if you will. The first one, was Paul Martinelli who went to John and, helped him create the John Maxwell Team. And then talking with Paul, cause I'm pretty transparent, and what Paul said to me was I had to own the truth that was mine to own in this situation. And that was powerful because I can own that it was my decision to leave. I can own, and reflecting back that maybe in the course of 10 years, I might've done some things that this person didn't agree with, but I can't own this person's actions of documenting everything and sort of lying and wait for that moment to spring of all on me.
I can't own that. I can't own that others didn't see anything wrong with that. What I could, own, was maybe they're not seeing anything wrong with it because they might think similar of me. I still couldn't change their views, but what I could do is change me and that's what I did. So I took ownership and I moved forward.
And the other mentor, is Mark Cole you know who is now the CEO and President of the John Maxwell Enterprise. The very first time I talked to Mark and, you know, this man leads an amazing company. He meets with world leaders and he's talking to little old me. And Joe that first call involved a word and a lot of crying and another word and a lot of crying.
And Mark was so patient in letting me just talk. And what he said to me was ," borrow the belief I have in you at this moment until yours matches". And, and that went straight to my heart and it's just, no one's ever, ever said something like that to me. And so I grabbed hold of it and I saw Mark in person probably three months after. And he came up to me and he gave me a hug and he said, I see it. I said you see what? He said, I see that your belief matches. And there was just something, just so powerful in that, because I had to do that work. And for me to do the work internally that for somebody to see it externally, You know, those are so, so, so those, yes, and those powerful moments only came because of that, at the point, devastating, devastating transition point that I could have curled up and accepted what had happened, or I could move forward like I did. And I have never been so proud of myself that I moved forward.
Joe Miller: That's awesome. And I think it's also very encouraging, you know, we talk about transitions and people tend to think of just about the one inflection going from one thing to the next, but really I see them as sort of seasons where, you know, you might sense, something's not quite right. I, you know, you mentioned that you felt.
Well, you didn't mention it actually. I just observed it. You went ahead and invested in yourself to join the John Maxwell Team. You went ahead, you know, years of how did that, and got your certification on coaching with another organization when the time came and you left that corporate job, you had already had these threads going on, right? You went through that, I'm going to call it a devastating
Kimberly Hambrick: was, I mean, when I referred to
Joe Miller: you stood strong and you made the decision you needed to make. And I think what's encouraging is that at that moment, the path forward was very, was uncertain. You had confidence in yourself was uncertain and it was a little wobbly.
And I think that when you're in the middle of a transition season where you're going through a tough change, it can feel wobbly. And I just think that that story about Paul's, uh, coaching and Mark's coaching in particular, those stories are very powerful because now if you look back to where you are now and think about how congruent what you're doing now is with your gifting and your heart, it's just kind of a beautiful thing. When you're in the middle of it, it can be, you can be very discouraged. Not knowing what the path forward
Kimberly Hambrick: Absolutely. I didn't have confidence in myself at that moment. I had belief in myself, which is something that I never truly had, um, because I, I was the queen of limiting self-belief. Even though I, though I was very successful, uh, there was always this internal dialogue and I call it the BS swirl.
We'll just say BS stands for belief system. Yeah, that's what it stands for, it could be something else, but it's belief system. And, you know, I would push myself to get ahead, but I never celebrated because there had to be something more. So you had mentioned earlier, we are not our positions. Well at that point in my career, I was my position and I was only as good as the next position I would get.
And so, for me, I had to believe in myself first. And then as I continued to do that work and surrounded myself with the right mentors, the confidence grew. And you're absolutely right. I mean, it took me a good year before I would even want to talk about this because, you know, I refer to the good, the bad, the ugly, and that was an ugly mirror moment for me.
It truly was. but. I don't have any shame in it because I'm not that person anymore, but, this is what I am, but I'm not, I know you understand this. I'm not that person, but I am, but I'm so much better. And that is truly the power of working with people and investing in yourself.