Leadership Development: How Sonja Price Builds High-Impact Teams | Ep. 171

Sonja Price: 00:00:00

If you want someone to change their behavior and adopt a new technology or do something new, it truly requires someone who can lead the charge and motivate them to take action or change their behavior in some sort of interesting way. I am the world's biggest super fan.

Intro/Outro: 00:00:18

You're like a super fan. Welcome to the Business Superfans Podcast.

We will discuss how establishing business superfans from customers, employees and business partners can elevate your success exponentially. Learn why these advocates are a key factor to achieving excellence in the world of commerce.

This is the Business Super Fans Podcast with your host, Freddy D. Freddy, Freddy.

Freddy D: 00:00:55

Hey Super Fans Superstar.

In this episode 171, we're joined by Sonja Price, founder of Infinite Leaders and nationally recognized career brand architect and leadership advancement catalyst. Sonya tackles a challenge so many business professionals face.

Advancing your career or leadership influence without getting stuck in office politics, unclear expectations, or a ceiling you can't seem to rake through.

Drawing on 15 years partnering with teams like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and T Mobile, Sonya helps leaders navigate change, communicate with confidence and position themselves as high impact contributors. From her early work in climate advocacy and personal development to authoring the Infinite Leader Playbook, her mission has always been clear.

Equip professionals to lead with clarity, influence and long term resilience.

If you ever felt overlooked under advancing or unsure how to elevate your leadership reputation, this conversation gives you the tools to change that trajectory.

Freddy D: 00:02:07

Welcome Sonia to the Business Superfans, the Service Providers Edge. Super excited to have you on the show. We had a great conversation before we started recording.

We know a couple of common people in between the two of us and welcome to the show.

Sonja Price: 00:02:23

Thank you so much for having me. It's really truly an honor to be here with you.

Freddy D: 00:02:27

Thank you. I'm flattered. Likewise, it's an honor to have you on the show. But let's go back a little bit. I mean you've got an interesting background.

So how did it all begin and how did you come up with the business that you're doing now, which you're working with some really high end level leaders and helping transform them and get themselves out of their own way so they can do the things that they need to do to elevate their teams to accomplish the goals that they're after?

Sonja Price: 00:02:51

Yeah, it actually started a very long time ago. When I first graduated college I had an amazing opportunity. I got hired at a tech startup here in Seattle, Washington where I live.

And this was in the early: 2000

One of our rounds of funding was contingent upon us hiring a new CEO.

So the founder had been kind of the de facto CEO up to that point in time, but he didn't really have the operational experience that the VCs were looking for. And so they said, well, we will fund your company, but you have to hire more leaders, more seasoned leaders. So we hired the CEO.

We thought he was great. He came in and within six months, completely tanked the company. And this organization was the predecessor of Zoom.

And I know that we would have made it had we not have had horrible leadership that just took everyone down. As a very young professional at that point in time, I was able to see the key differences between good leadership and bad leadership.

And the founder, he really did not have a lot of operational experience, but he was a great leader, and he was a mentor and a wonderful guide to the people who worked there up to that point in time. Like, he genuinely mentored every single one of us, and to this day, is still one of the best mentors I've ever had throughout my career.

But when this new CEO started, he hired all his old cronies from another huge tech company that he had come from and inserted a whole new layer of leadership. The culture changed overnight.

All of a sudden, we had all this structure and process and things that we eventually needed to have, but not quite in the way that it got rolled. And he ended up laying off several of the original people who had been there since the start, and he just changed everything.

And there was really no rhyme or reason as to why he was changing things.

And he wasn't doing a very good job communicating it, and basically ended up using that opportunity as a springboard for him to land an even better CEO role at a bigger company. And so he came in, wasted our money. He made us move from. We had perfectly fine office space. It wasn't great, but it was fine, right?

Our office space worked just fine. And he had us move right downtown, right in the heart of it all. And he said, oh, we need a space where we can entertain clients.

And at that point in time, we didn't even have that many clients that were coming to see us. I don't think that would have made or make or break our company if we had these, like, really fancy office space. He wasted our money and then left.

I just saw the key distinctions of good leadership versus bad leadership and also what are the key things that you need to do to build strong team dynamics so that the entire organization moves forward together. And it's not this like top down approach of having command and control and one person in charge who's telling everybody what to do.

But you actually want to have an organization of leaders that everybody is leading various different aspects of the organization and that everyone is clear on the mission and vision, their roles and responsibilities and that you have good communication and that you're able to overcome conflict so that everyone can move forward and actually cause the results that the entire business is there to do together.

Freddy D: 00:06:30

Well, we'll get into that in a bit. But you really hit a topic that is important because a lot of times you've got leaders that come in and they think that they're Mr. Wonderful or Mrs.

rted in the tech space in the: 1980

I used to be an engineer and then I got involved into the computer aided design world is where I got in first. I had this one manager that was really empowering us.

I've shared a story in the past, but it's inappropriate to reshare it again from what you just talked about because that person tanked. That whole group is we were preparing for a demo. So we were doing the typical all night, are getting ready to do the presentation, everything else.

I'm sure you've gone down that road.

He showed up at about: 11:30

But he knew we would because we all pulled all nighters and the presentation was on a Thursday. We got the presentation done in the morning and he basically said, all right guys, it went well. He says, right, I'll see you guys Monday.

Get the heck out of here. And that I still remember that today. And the other thing you talked about is the guy tanked the culture. This guy threw parties at his house.

And we also, we would go camping as a group. We were not just co workers. We became friends.

I'm still friends with some of those people 45 years later because of the way Tom, which was the manager, built that relationship with us. And every Friday, we would go across the street to a restaurant bar and spend happy hour together as a group.

And when they had happy hours, where you got great food on cheap drinks and all that stuff. So completely get what you're talking about. A leader can either make a company or break a company.

Sonja Price: 00:08:26

Absolutely. Leadership. To me, it's really about architecting a team and the impact that can last.

So there was a few key things inside of your story there that I just loved. Right. I mean, he motivated you guys to put in the effort when it really needed to be there.

But then he also acknowledged the hard work that you put in, gave you some time off, said, go take the day off, they'll see you on Monday. Right. And then building community among the team, like having happy hours.

I think that very few people understand the real value of getting to know your team members as real people.

I think there was a leadership study done a number of years ago by Gallup and the top two retention factors of what keeps employees working for an organization is one, does my manager care about me as a person? And two, do I have a best friend at work? That's what keeps people in. Right?

And even the amount of money that they make, of course, everyone needs to have a livable wage, but sometimes people will actually be willing to make less money working for an organization that matches their values and they work with people that they care about, where there's a harmonious workforce that they actually want to be a part of.

Sometimes people are willing to sacrifice the amount of money that they make in order to have something that they truly care about and that they want to come in and do good work on a day to day basis.

Freddy D: 00:09:49

Absolutely. You're spot on, Sonia, because one of my quotes on my book is people will crawl through broken glass for appreciation and recognition.

And that's just what you just described right there, is recognizing people, appreciating them as a team and their contributions. And you're absolutely correct because my wife, which is in the other room still working, she's been working for a company remotely.

She's going on almost eight years. And they've made some adjustments to pay and all that stuff, but she loves the company.

She's one of their top people in the company, but they treat her well. I mean, she's flying out next week to Florida for a company meeting.

They fly everybody in and they have meeting and business stuff, but at the same time they have camaraderie and fun things to do.

Last year she went, she won the prize to go deep sea fishing wasn't her favorite thing, but she got to hang out with the CEO for the afternoon on the ocean, out on a boat.

Sonja Price: 00:10:41

Super fun. Yeah, yeah.

Freddy D: 00:10:44

It goes back to the other thing I talk about is the little things are really the big things. And that's a little thing. But to her that was a big thing because she got undivided attention with the CEO for two, three hours on the ocean.

Sonja Price: 00:10:55

Absolutely. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:10:58

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Freddy D: 00:12:23

Let's get into how did you evolve into from that experience to doing what you are doing today?

Sonja Price: 00:12:30

Yeah, well after that experience I went back to school.

I got a master's in Leadership and Organization development and that was helpful for me because I got the theory behind leadership and team building and all the things that can make organizations be truly great. I think I could still do the work that I do today without that degree, but it was an experiential program and it really changed my life.

It was a wonderful program. I learned a ton about myself as a practitioner of change.

And then I went on to do a number of different but at that time I had been doing product development and then I transitioned into consulting and started doing change management consulting where I worked with very large organizations rolling out enterprise scale change things where an organization has a change that's going to impact every single employee in the business. Back end technology system, ERP system, something along those lines.

And so I ran a number of very large scale change initiatives and learned a lot about people, the resistance to change, the role of really strong leadership inside of that, and how people need to have leaders in place that they actually want to follow.

Because if you want someone to change their behavior and adopt a new technology or do something new, it truly requires someone who can lead the charge and motivate them to take action or change their behavior in some sort of interesting way.

I was also able to observe a number of different leaders in those types of situations and environments as well, and learn to coach leaders through those kinds of things and help them overcome the challenges that they might have in place. Because sometimes the leader doesn't even agree with the change that is happening.

And when I say that, I mean there's multiple leaders that are always helping orchestrate this and keep everything moving forward.

Even if you're not the decision maker, if you are in an official leadership role, you have to be the one to share the information with your entire team and the organization and keep things moving forward. And I see ways that sometimes leaders will get in their own way and they will stop the change from happening.

Sometimes they're completely unaware of it because they're not paying attention, they're not being conscious about who they are, how they're showing up, what's their executive presence, what do they say, who do you they say it to? And are they being consistent in their communication as well?

You can't just get up once and say this thing needs to happen and you have to do so because I say so. Nobody ever follows that. People follow consistency and people are loyal to leaders that they want to follow because they're enrolled.

So learning to be the kind of leader who can enroll people and keep people consistent, constantly involved and motivated and taking constant action until you achieve a result, and then rewarding people when that result comes and rewarding them for the actions that they take along the way too. Because sometimes getting results is really hard.

But actually acknowledging people for the effort that they're putting in is also a huge component of all of this. I've just been a part of a lot of different projects and have worked with a lot of leaders and felt very blessed to be able to observe that.

And then when I moved into a leadership role myself through getting promoted inside of organizations that I've worked with and then now running my own organization, I feel like it was so helpful to be able to see all of that and then incorporate it and integrate it into my own leadership style and how I work with the teams that I have Led as well.

Freddy D: 00:16:02

Yeah, you bring up some great points there that I want to kind of go revisit. And that's one is the way the leader shows up is how your team's going to show up.

That's one of the things that you really talked about is if they are not buying into the change, that their team's not going to buy into the change because that's how they're showing up.

The other thing too is important is as you said, they have to have the buy in to the leader if that leader doesn't become the backstop for them and somebody makes a mistake, for example, and things happen in life. Instead of being the leader and saying, hey, you know what, I'm responsible, I'm the team lead, I'll take the hit.

They throw their person underneath the bus. We've all seen it. And now everybody just goes, okay, can't trust that guy or that gal. And that changes the whole dynamics of that group.

And then that spreads because people talk positive, word goes around, negative, goes around like lightning.

Sonja Price: 00:16:56

That's right, yeah.

Freddy D: 00:16:57

What you're really sharing here is that it's really important how that leader shows up at the end of the day is how their team's going to show up.

Sonja Price: 00:17:06

Yeah, absolutely. That's so true. Freddie, I know you talk a lot about superfans and I'd be curious to hear your perspective on this.

But I think one way that you can really tap into the vibrancy of an organization is giving recognition and actually building that into the culture on a continuous basis. Because that creates the electricity that keeps the entire organization going. And if people feel recognized, they start to recognize each other.

That kind of breeds into the culture.

And when you have a culture of acknowledgement and recognition, it creates a harmonious and more harmonious workplace that people generally want to be a part of. Everybody just wants to hear thank you for the hard work that you're doing. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate what you're doing.

Keep up the great work. I'm glad you came in today. I had a boss who said that to me once when I was having a hard day and just stuff is happening inside the organization.

He'd be like, thank you for coming in today. And it would always make me laugh. I just really appreciated that. Like, yep.

Well, even if nothing is going right, we all showed up here together today and we're doing what we can to keep things moving forward.

Freddy D: 00:18:13

Well, you just emphasized my quote that I had said earlier, which is people will crawl through broken glass for appreciation Recognition. That's really what you're talking about. And I'm going to take that further. And that is that saying thank you is very important.

But saying thank you to you say, okay, Sonia, thank you so much for the extra project and time that you put in and for showing up and all that stuff. And it's another thing to say, hey, hang on a minute. I want to take a moment to recognize Sonia for the effort that she put in on this project.

She worked through the weekend and everything else in front of the whole team.

Now, that's transformative because you feel like a rock star, but the whole team feels that energy and all of a sudden they're going to go step up their game because they want to be the one in the spotlight. And so I'm just emphasizing what you just talked about. This. Now you get that whole team operating.

I like to use the example as like a racing rowing team. So you become the coxswain as the leader.

And now you've got eight different people that have a single oar and you're getting them in synchronization so that that boat flies through the water. And when you get a team in sync that's energized behind their leader, they're unstoppable.

Sonja Price: 00:19:21

Absolutely. And people want meaningful work. They don't really want to be managed. We're talking about recognition, but I think it goes beyond that.

It's like, it's the meaning that comes with that. And when I feel recognized, I feel important and I feel like my life has meaning. And then that gives me the motivation to keep charging ahead.

As you said, it motivates everyone else to be a part of it, too.

Freddy D: 00:19:45

Yeah, because everybody, that energy is contagious. Positive energy is contagious and negative energy is contagious.

Either one, they're both have the same result, except one will have a positive outcome. And the other one, like you said earlier, tanked the whole company because of the fact that it became a completely negative environment.

So let's talk a little bit about how do you work with leaders and some of the things that you do with your organization?

Sonja Price: 00:20:09

Yeah, I really focus on team and leadership development. They go hand in hand with each other, and you have to figure out where you're going to start.

Do you start with a senior leader and coaching them, getting them in alignment, or do you start with the team? And I've done both, but ultimately they go hand in hand together.

And it's understanding what makes the leader tick, what makes the team tick, and how do you get everybody marching in the same direction together. There's a number of different components to that, which is first and foremost getting very clear on the mission and vision.

And that can mean a number of different things. There's the organizational mission and vision and then there's a department or a team mission and vision.

And what are the key initiatives that that particular leader and team are responsible for, but making sure that everyone is actually enrolled in that in a way that they care enough to put in the dedicated time and effort to make it happen. Then we have to work on building trust amongst the team members.

Because I don't know about you, but what I often see happen in organizations is that we get this siloed effect, especially at the very top senior level leaders, because everybody wants to be recognized, everybody wants to be the one to have the biggest impact, to have their stamp on things. We have to build trust amongst the team members.

But if there's not clear roles and responsibilities, then sometimes that's very difficult because maybe I think that this is in my wheelhouse. You think that maybe that same thing is in your wheelhouse too.

And we've all heard examples of I did the work, but this person took the credit for it.

Well, maybe everybody's doing the work or we're both doing parts of the work, but we have to have trust that we're working together and that the results are shared results. It's not my results or your results. It's actually everybody's shared results.

And part of that comes in the overall incentives and performance reviews and how do things play out in the end of what keeps me safe and what keeps you safe inside of the organization. We have to have psychological safety. We have to have trust. We have to have clean, clear and effective communication.

And we need the ability to work through any challenges or conflict that can show up. And oftentimes what I see is that conflicts can take a team down.

You might not ever know it because maybe I don't feel safe confronting you for something that doesn't work for me because I'm afraid I'm going to look bad or it's not going to go so well. I don't want to get X from the team. So I'm just going to keep to myself.

I'm going to keep my head down, I'll keep doing my work, but I'm going to safeguard my results to myself too. So maybe I might start withholding information from you. So these are the common things that show up in a lot of leadership teams.

And what I do is come in and work with teams to help them break down those barriers so they can actually trust each other and move forward together in a cohesive and harmonious fashion. And so sometimes that means doing teamwork, like bringing the team together for leadership off site.

Sometimes that means working with one or multiple of those leaders to help them understand their own unique challenges and what they're bringing to the table. And then sometimes it means it's a cascading effect.

You can start all the way with the CEO or the C suite team and their directs and their directs and their directs.

And then there's also just basic leadership development, like executive presence and other things that come along with it of how do we decide what our hiring practices are? Because who we hire and who we bring into the organization can make or break an organization. If you make a bad hire, it can be cancer.

For a team and an entire organization, there's a number of different components that fit into all of this.

And what I do is look at strategy and operations and team growth and development, leadership growth and development, and how do all of these things work together so that you can have a well oiled, cohesive machine, the team machine, where everybody is really actively working together to cause the results that everybody genuinely wants to have.

Freddy D: 00:24:16

Sure.

Freddy D: 00:24:17

What you're doing, and I'll put it in my terms a little bit, is you're creating super fans out of the team of the leadership and the organization. And then that scales up to all the rest of the people. Because at the end of the day, I had a guest and he came up with a phenomenal name.

That is your front line need to be treated as director of first impressions. They're a director and you need to think of them frontline as director level people, not the receptionist.

Sonja Price: 00:24:42

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:24:43

Because that's the first impression that a prospective customer, a supplier, a business partner, whatever it is they're interacting with. So what you're doing is making sure that everybody is aligned and operating, as you said, as a smooth team machine.

Because if that's not happening and someone's, as you said earlier, has a conflict with a co worker and so they could be upset and now they're picking up the phone with an important customer and they're not having a great day because of the stuff that's going to come across, you can't hide it.

Sonja Price: 00:25:16

Absolutely. That's right.

Freddy D: 00:25:18

That might be a very important customer going to go, what's going on with these guys? That something's up with them and our brains don't go positive first. It usually goes negative first.

And then we have to talk ourselves out of the negative thinking thinking, AKA Zig Ziglar to go into positive thinking. What you're doing is you're really helping these organizations prevent that or minimizing that from happening.

Sonja Price: 00:25:42

Yes. All across the board. What that made me just think of is that yes, you can leave a bad impression with a customer.

That can turn into a really bad reputation for the entire organization in a way that employees don't want to work there.

And so when people have a horrible time at work, we have numerous online forums where people will go and share their unfiltered opinions about what it's like to work for that organization.

Freddy D: 00:26:10

And it's their perception which is their own reality, right or wrong. It's their perception.

Sonja Price: 00:26:16

Right, that's right. Nobody wants bad press. You want to create an organization that people want to work for.

And the other thing that you were just talking about that made me think is that organizations oftentimes will invest the most amount of money in developing their senior leaders and yet they leave their brand new managers completely out of any leadership training. And those are the ones who need it the most. Because those are the folks who are going to have impact for generations to come.

Like organizational generations to come.

When someone first initially steps into a management role, if they don't get those questions, core foundational skills of what it means to be a very powerful and passionate manager, people manager, what impact does that have? Because then your lowest ranks are having a horrible time at work.

And then if those folks continue to get promoted, you're just promoting bad behavior all the way through the ranks.

The most senior leaders who get the most like the biggest dollars for development that I actually think it should get flipped around because if you invest more in your lower leaders. Lower, so to say.

I don't mean to say lower, but first line managers, then they carry that with them throughout their career in that organization and in other organizations too. And the more conscious leaders that we have everywhere, the better the experience is for everyone.

Freddy D: 00:27:37

Sure. Share a story of a company or leadership team that you stepped in with and they were a little bit combobulated to. You use a good word.

And you kind of helped get them out of their funk and into a direction to where they were now becoming thriving from where they were.

Sonja Price: 00:27:56

The first story that comes to mind is when I was working with AT&T, they had made this decision to merge four legacy companies together. So if you know anything about the history of AT&T, there's just numerous legacy companies that are all operating on their own, and.

And they're constantly getting merged and acquired. And just the telecom space in general has been like that for a very long time. And there were four companies that were coming together.

I worked with a VP who got a promotion, and then they said, now these four teams are yours.

And so he had just gotten into that new role and then had these four different teams that he was now tasked with figuring out, how are these four different organizations now going to come together to operate cohesively as one team? And it was an incredibly complex project because every single one of those four teams, well, there were duplications of leadership roles.

Each team had their own technology, their own structure, their own process, geographically diverse organization. So people were in many, many, many different locations.

So it was very difficult to bring everyone together, to have centralized conversation in the same room together. So I worked with this VP to help him understand what the design of the new Org should look like.

How did he decide who should be in what role inside of his leadership and management team?

Unfortunately, there were some layoffs that happened as part of this process, and he had never had to go through something like that where he had to do mass layoffs all at time, the same, same time.

Part of it was working with him, just helping him understand how did he want to lead this team and how could he communicate these changes to his team in a conscious way? And then how did he facilitate the entire announcement of what the new organization would look like?

How do we decide what technology would be chosen as centralized technology?

And then how do we bring everybody on board to have a centralized technology experience in terms of how we get the work done together and who reports to who?

I think it took us about a year before we were completely done with the entire project, including making sure everyone was trained and brought up to speed on how are we going to operate in the new world together.

And I have to say that some of the most impactful moments of that was just bringing people together and allowing them the opportunity to be people with one another. And I remember we had a few leadership off sites, and in one of them, I facilitated a meditation exercise.

I was just doing it to help everyone be grounded and be able to find their breath and just come into their own bodies.

After this was all said and done, the whole entire project of massive change, numerous details of coordinating so many different things across different people and teams and all of that, I had people who came to me and they just said, I really appreciated that you gave us some quiet time to ourselves and allowed me to get grounded in my own body and also just having time and space to get to know my co workers as a person. And so sometimes it's the smallest things like that that can really make the biggest difference.

Even though you have all that other hardcore detailed work to do, we have to remember that it's always people coming together to do this work.

We have to remember to treat each other like human beings who are all here breathing the same breath, doing the same thing, showing up to work on a day to day basis. And we never know what's happening in someone's world outside of work.

Being kind and compassionate and giving opportunities for people to connect and create community is a really important component of all of this.

Freddy D: 00:31:42

Sure.

When that person came up to you and said thank you so much for allowing us to breathe and kind of regroup here a little bit, that's how you create super fans of those teams.

Because you stopped and recognized that, okay, we got all this big massive project going on, reorganization and people going out the door and new people coming in and new management and new technology. It's a lot for people to digest. You've got to give the people.

And so I really want to emphasize that point that I've gone through mergers and they're not fun and acquisitions and everybody's looking over their shoulder. Am I going to be here? Am I going to be gone? I mean, it's a really stressful environment. So you did something that would really.

I've not heard anybody talk about that, but I'm going to really emphasize that was a brilliant move to allow them to relax a little bit, breathe in and get a chance to absorb what's going on. Because that's how you create super fans of those people, of the work that you've done. And so they're super fans of you.

The leadership team is super fans of you because. And that leader is because of the fact that you helped them put this together. The results were okay.

Now it's a new machine and we're operating at full capacity because we've got everybody transformed and everybody's bought into this whole new division.

Sonja Price: 00:32:57

Yeah, sometimes it's really complex work, but it can also be pretty simple.

Freddy D: 00:33:02

Yeah, the fundamentals are the fundamentals. And you're absolutely right, people are people and we sometimes lose touch of that.

And you brought up another thing is you don't know what's going on someone else's life. And we become judgmental sometimes. And I go back to our mind typically goes negative first before it flips over to positive.

And you have to teach yourself to flip it to positive. But if you take time to recognize somebody, it's very transformative.

I worked with a company a few years ago and this person had depression and there's days she couldn't make it into the office just was the way it was. And when she was there, she did good work. So you can't get rid of her because now you got a different kind of a problem on your hands.

What I did is I was in a high level leadership position. I started giving her more responsibilities. I did the opposite. I started giving her more responsibilities, more empowering her and everything else.

What happened was she started to focus on what she needed to focus because she was more empowered. And so she didn't have time to think about all the other negative stuff because she was busy. Her brain was involved in what I had her doing.

And she helped grow a department that was doing under $100,000 in a year's time to $225,000 in revenue. And she was in charge of that department. More importantly, I also put her in charge of the department.

But it empowered her and all of a sudden she felt she had a better mindset of herself.

Sonja Price: 00:34:29

That's so beautiful because I think that one of the biggest challenges with depression is that, and I've been depressed before, right? First hand example is having value and having meaning and knowing that you are important and that you matter.

So what you effectively did is you said you matter. And not only do you matter, but I need you and I need you to step up and take on more. There's actually a lot of research around that.

It's actually helpful to have a healthy amount of stress. We never want to be overwhelmed or burnt out to the point of burnt out or exhaustion.

But having a healthy amount of stress is actually like our systems are designed for that.

And so when we give people a challenge that is big enough but not too big, it gives someone something to sink their teeth into and gives them meaning, gives them something to wake up and get out of bed for because I matter and someone's counting on me. And I think that's a big component of it too. I think depression. Sometimes people think, does it really matter if I'm here or not?

Doesn't matter if I go into work today. Does anybody care? Does anybody care about me?

Well, you showed that you did care and that she needed to have a challenge to help her get out of her own head. I need to get away from focusing on myself. I need to focus on something else that can Give me meaning and value and keep me interested and engaged.

Freddy D: 00:35:53

She's a super fan of me. We're still friends, but she started coming up with other ideas. She started coming up with marketing ideas even though that wasn't her lane.

She says, hey, I got this idea. And I was like, yeah, bring them on, bring up the ideas. More ideas for more people.

Freddy D: 00:36:07

Perfect.

Freddy D: 00:36:08

Because I can't think of everything. And more importantly, they're involved and I put their idea into play. They feel like, man, I contributed to that.

And look what happened to the business. I'm just re emphasizing what the work that you're doing. I'm just using my own example of how I transform somebody.

You talked about whole organization. I just did it one person. But that impacted the whole organization because that grew that company in one year's time by a million dollars.

And it's a small service based business, but that was a big chunk of the contribution of the growth.

Sonja Price: 00:36:37

Amazing. That's super incredible. It speaks a huge testament to you as a leader that you're still friends today.

And I see that happen a lot with really great leaders is that they tend to grow a following. No matter what organization that they go to, people will follow them either through their own accord.

Like they're just like, oh, so and so is at this organization now let me see what they have available and I will go and apply on my own. Or the leader is very smart and they say, you know what, I know exactly who to bring in to help with this project.

Sometimes that can be a little bit frowned upon because you don't want to be seen as poaching employees from another organization. But I tend to see teams will kind of move in packs together from organization to organization and then they pick up new people along the way.

And then you have this high performing, high performers that become a high performing team together. And they move and make major impacts across many different organizations.

Freddy D: 00:37:35

Absolutely. And sometimes it transcends into personal friendship that go on beyond the work environment.

Because I've got a friend that we've been friends for 45 years. We started on the same day. Two blokes coming into a company don't know anybody.

We just run into one another and says, hey, I'm this, my name's Frederick, his name is Duane. And said, who do you know? I don't know. Here's my first day. Well, good. Well, let's hang out, have a beer together. And we became friends.

He became a roommate of mine. I owned the townhouse. He moved in with me 45 years later. We're still friends and we still talk so often because it goes beyond work environment.

As we talked earlier, you build that culture and those relationships carry on. I'm still friends with some of the distributors that I set up in Europe and other parts of the world because we built something together.

Especially when you work with other cultures, that transcends a lot of different things.

Sonja Price: 00:38:29

Well, those are all of your superfans.

Freddy D: 00:38:31

They're friends. They're friends, yes. So Sonia, great conversation as we kind of come to the end here. How can people find you?

Sonja Price: 00:38:39

Oh, well, come to my website, InfiniteLeaders Co and if I may, I would love to offer the opportunity to receive free weekly leadership tips. So if you just go to my homepage, you'll see it in the upper right corner. You can opt in.

And as part of my brand new book, the Infinite Leaders Playbook.

Freddy D: 00:39:02

Let's talk about that real quick. Yeah, go ahead.

Sonja Price: 00:39:04

Yeah, well, this is my new book. It came out earlier this year.

It's the Infinite Leaders Playbook and it talks about how to navigate change, have limitless influence and achieve lasting results. It's practical strategies to manage stakeholders, navigate office politics and position yourself as a high impact leader. And it's really cool.

It's designed as a tip book. You do not have to read it cover to cover.

You just flip it open to any page and in two minutes or less you can read about how do you future proof your leadership or how do you manage stakeholders more effectively, how do you manage up, down, across? What are all the different dimensions of leadership? How do you have better executive brand? How do you master your own presence?

There's chock full of tips and you can literally read any page and in two minutes or less you have a new leadership skill. If you go to my website you can sign up for free and I will send you a free weekly leadership tip into your inbox every single week.

Just go to InfiniteLeaders Co, give me your email address and I would love to stay in contact with you.

Freddy D: 00:40:15

Well, we'll definitely make sure that that's in our show notes for our listeners. Great conversation, Sonia.

You and I could probably discuss this stuff for days and really appreciate your time today on the show and definitely would love to have you on the show down the road again.

Sonja Price: 00:40:30

Thank you so much. It was really, truly a pleasure being here and yes, would love to. Let's stay in touch for sure.

Freddy D: 00:40:37

In today's conversation with Sonja Price, we were reminded something every service based business owner eventually faces. Your growth will rise or fall to the level of your leadership.

Sonia showed us why influence, clarity and genuine human connection still outperform any process, title or technology.

And when you develop the kind of leadership that motivates people, not forces them, you unlock a team that moves in harmony, communicates with trust, and delivers results that actually last. That's the edge, and that's what turns everyday stakeholders into true business superfans.

If you enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. And if you're ready to stop listening and start activating, join the Entrepreneur Prosperity Hub on Skool completely free.

The moment you join, you'll be surrounded by other service based entrepreneurs who are leveling up their people, processes and profitability so they can finally step into true prosperity. Join us here.

School S K O O L.com eprosperity hub inside, you'll get access to conversations, tools and weekly growth plays to help you shift from doing everything yourself to leading a business that works smoothly, predictably and profitably.

Freddy D: 00:42:02

Thanks for tuning in today.

Freddy D: 00:42:04

I'm grateful you're here and and part of the Business Super Fans mission. Every listen, every action you take gets you one step closer to building your own super Fans.

Remember, one action, one stakeholder, one super Fan closer to Lasting Prosperity.

Intro/Outro: 00:42:22

We hope you took away some useful knowledge from today's episode of the Business Super Fans Podcast. Join us on the next episode as we can see continue guiding you on your journey to achieve flourishing success in business.