We had an interesting session with inspirational thought leader Tara Hall. The CEO of Inspired Solutions has been working with social services for over 25 years now. She’s also a well-known author and an inspirational leader.
Rashad Thirlkill
Listeners out there, thank you for tuning into today’s podcast. With us today, I have a Leader, someone that can tell us a little bit more about being a leader and roles in leadership.
It is four-time best-selling author and overall seven-time published author Tara Hall, owner of Tara Hall Inspire Solutions, a training and development company.
I would like to introduce you today and I would like for you to tell us a little bit more about leadership. This podcast is basically building people up to become leaders. So, you are a very important guest for us today. Go ahead and we can get right into it if you’d like to introduce yourself.
Tara Hall
Yeah, sure. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today. And I love all things leadership. I continue to learn daily about leadership. And not just learn about it, but really put it into action. So, as you mentioned, yes, I have a small business owner here on the East Coast in Connecticut and specializing in leadership development for those current leaders, but also aspiring leaders to help them leverage their knowledge beyond their 9 to 5 and to really get their voices out in the world, either through becoming a speaker and/or publishing their own stories to expand their reach and to make more of an impact with others.
Rashad Thirlkill
Okay, that’s awesome that you’re doing that. Is your small business solely based on that? Is that your coaching services or is it a product services type of business?
Tara Hall
It’s actually a combination. It is a training and development specifically. So, my first love is as a trainer and that is in leadership development. That’s also in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space as well as personal and professional development. So, I present at conferences and workshops and facilitate my own full and half-day workshops.
The product piece comes into play with books and selling books, but also assisting others with getting their stories out and supporting them in the writing process through coaching.
Rashad Thirlkill
Oh, wow. So, the writing process leads to speaking engagements and other coaching opportunities. Would that be correct?
Tara Hall
Yeah.
Rashad Thirlkill
What would that process look like?
Tara Hall
Yeah. Well, there are two parts to that process. In the books that I’ve published, I have seven overall, but my first writing experience actually started in a compilation book and that was me being able to at least just get my feet wet, if you will, in the writing space. And I didn’t know where it was going to go at all. And here we are several years later and I have seven publications.
But that came by just getting my feet wet in telling one story. So, in the books that I have published, the last two books have been compilation books. One is a women’s book emerging where they share their story; I had eleven coauthors.
That process was actually people who weren’t necessarily ready to share their journey in their own book. But they were willing to share a piece of their journey by telling it in a chapter.
So, after I published my own book, I then published a compilation book. That was the beginning of the process for people who wanted to experience writing, not necessarily write the entire book and have all the heavy lifting that comes after that around the editing and all that and the graphics and all that part.
From there, I actually then started working with individuals who wanted to write their own books. And with that process, I walk them from start to finish. I coach them through the whole journey. Some people had pieces of writing and journals or things they started and some were starting from the ground up. So, I coached them through that entire process.
I would say overall that they were short reads. Those books took probably anywhere between a 12-14-week journey for those that are looking for start-to-finish.
As for those that have written their own. It’s funny because I asked you where you’re from. You said from Texas. I’m actually working with a gentleman right now. He just moved to Texas and he had his manuscript written, but he didn’t know what to do with it after as far as the proofing, the editing, getting graphics, and we’re actually at that stage.
So, I do work with people who have completed their manuscripts. But they’re not sure what to do with it next and clean it up so it looks and sounds ready to read. It’s because most times it’s a rough manuscript that I get. I spend some time cleaning it up and making it sound more like the way they want it to come out.
Rashad Thirlkill
Okay, man, that’s awesome. It sounds like have you ever read Chicken Soup for the Soul?
Tara Hall
Yes, I’ve read different pieces of them. Yeah.
Rashad Thirlkill
Okay. So when you say collaboration, that’s kind of what I had in mind.
Tara Hall
Exactly.
Rashad Thirlkill
That’s an excellent idea. I plan to do that with all the podcasts that I do, kind of touch on something that everyone has to offer.
Tara Hall
That’s great.
Rashad Thirlkill
That’s really an awesome way to do things.
Can you tell us a little bit about the Emerging, some of the stories that’s in those compilations?
Tara Hall
Sure. The first version of Emerging came out in January 2021, and all my books are available on Amazon. The stories range anywhere from post-divorce to not giving up on yourself, to limiting beliefs, and how you have to retrain your brain – stories, including families.
One story is of an individual who hope we kind of go through life and we have this vision. And her vision was I have my husband, I have my two children, and this is kind of the way I planned it. These are the goals I have. And then Lo and behold, in the middle of all of that comes a surprise.
That surprise is an experience with Child Protective Services within her family. She’s now presented with the situation of needing to be asked rather to take on raising another child. It’s actually her husband’s. I believe it is his nephew, if I have it correct.
So, there goes the story of how we have our lives planned out and then God intervenes and says, but wait, there’s more. There’s something else here. So, she shares her journey of adoption and how that changed the course of not just her life, but her family’s life.
The stories range all over. Really the premise of the book, why it was called Emerging, is because we’re all coming out of something or we’re heading into something or we’re just experiencing something.
The thing is that the title came to me first. I didn’t even know I was going to write that book. It happened when we were all home, of course, during the pandemic. I recall saying to my sister, can you imagine the number of books that are being written right now? Because people have the time. Maybe it’s something they’ve always wanted to do, but they just didn’t make the time for it.
All I had was a title. I remember putting it in my notes on my phone and I said, this sounds like a title of a book or something. I don’t know, I just let it sit. And then sometime around the fall, early part of late spring, early summer rather. I said, you know, I think I’m going to use this title as a book. I think I’m going to do a compilation book. That’s where it started.
I started asking people if they were willing to share in the journey. They hopped on board and I had eleven women in that one. That led me then to the men’s book.
The women’s book is the stories of transformation. It’s a hope of women who have either battled something, overcame something, success stories, and journeys in their life. Then that same idea came back to me again and I said what I would really love to do is stretch myself a little further and see if I could get men to tell their story.
I said, oh boy, am I going to get men who are going to be willing to tell some of their innermost thoughts in the same way through their personal journey? My goal was seven. My goal for the women’s book was twelve. I made twelve because I shared a story in that. But my goal was seven men and I ended up getting six.
I didn’t make my goal, but I certainly made the bigger goal, which was to get it done. So yeah, that book came out this past January either 15th or 16th of this year.
Rashad Thirlkill
How do you market those books particularly?
Tara Hall
Really through the help of all of those that participate. Because I really believe that it’s my vision as the visionary, but it’s their journey. And I really believe in this kind of ties back into the leadership component as well. Right. Because leadership is about making an impact and influencing someone else.
With that, I really believe in them sharing and being part of the unfolding of the journey as we were writing, as they were writing, but also in the marketing. Because I was very clear I wanted them to share in marketing in their networks because their networks, they’re seen as a leader in other spaces, and they can kind of cause that ripple effect in those same other environments that I can’t reach as far as the men go. But they can and they can champion that message differently than I can.
Rashad Thirlkill
Okay. Were you looking for particular stories to produce? How did you find these people? Is it based on corporate people or just people that have really interesting stories throughout life that they went through?
Tara Hall
Well, you know, I’m into it. So for me, I didn’t go into it looking for any specific person or any specific story. What I was looking for, really, I kind of kept it a little open because I was looking for people who are willing to share either their story around fatherhood, maybe fatherlessness, or their own upbringings. Like what kind of messages as men were they getting either in their family of origin or just in society as they were kind of being raised. What was that experience like for them?
So, I kind of left it open and just put themes. I just put ideas such as fatherhood around divorce. I started thinking about what were some of the things that the women shared that the men could possibly share. Because what happens is a lot of times when people want to write, it feels so big and they don’t know what to write about that I just put these little bullet points of these are potential ideas or things that you can consider.
I really left it open. I mean, I had some parameters around the stories, but I really wanted people to have the freedom to tap into what they wanted to share because for them, actually, all of them minus one gentleman, the rest had never written or published in a book before. The rest, it was all a brand new experience for them.
I wanted to leave creative freedoms. I just wanted to guide them through being able to share the story and capture it in a way that really would pull the reader in.
Rashad Thirlkill
Okay. That’s awesome. With these stories, storytelling, the book writing, do you assist with public speaking engagements, setting up events or collaborations or anything like that?
Tara Hall
I have not yet. But my intention is to move in that space only because that requires a little bit of a bigger production. But I would say, though, that I do have intentions for that with the emerging books. It’s because I have been in a few spaces where you sort of have men share some things and women share some things. And I would love to figure out a way to bridge that messaging.
I believe with the women’s version and the men’s version of the books, it has allowed for what I believe will be a nice foundation to begin to move in that space. I had some intentions earlier on for that. But then with Covid, I had to kind of rethink and pivot and move a few ideas a little further out. But it’s certainly my intention to be able to do that.
Rashad Thirlkill
Right. I think that’s an excellent idea. It takes bigger production, but I think mostly what an event planner and that you already have it structured out. So, yeah, I could definitely see that happen. Are all of these people in your location?
Oh, you said one is from Texas, so they don’t necessarily have to be in your location or close in proximity?
Tara Hall
No. And just to go back, because I realized I didn’t answer the second part of your question, which was around how did I sort of find the gentleman to participate?
It also ties back into something you raised earlier about the Chicken Soup for the Soul books.
I’m actually a certified Jack Canfield’s Success Principles trainer. We have studied under him and train and teach a coach and the success principles. He, as you know, was part of cowriting for that series of books. One of the gentlemen who participated in the book is actually in that community.
He and I networked, and he’s from Mongolia. So, it’s actually an international book as well. Right. Because he and I are both trainers, we’re both in the same network. I reached out, I was on him because he always wanted to write his own book, and he hasn’t gotten there yet. But I thought about him and I’m like, hey, here’s an opportunity. Would you like to be on board with this? And he participated.
Some of the other people I met, I just knew through some other networks. And I just used one of the success principles, which was to ask. I just asked until I got the yes. I reached out. some people were on the fence, Some were like I don’t know if I can do that and I’m like, sure you can. Of course, you can do it. I’m going to guide you through the process. You’re going to do it. You can make it happen.
One of the gentlemen is like, yeah, all right, I’ll do it. I think you can help me do this. So, it really was asking the people that I knew or had some familiarity with and that’s how I got the gentleman on board.
Rashad Thirlkill
Just ask. It seems so simple, right?
Tara Hall
I tell you, I was not a person who was like this, but you become what you have to become when you’re in business. Because you may not want to do something but you must do some things to stretch your own muscles. So, yeah, I had to stretch my muscle.
Rashad Thirlkill
I so much believe in the power of the pen and it’s so powerful because you can start with a story, just writing a story. I heard Steve Harvey say that the jokes that he originally had written is the jokes he told are the same exact jokes that he told for five or six years. This got him to the point that he wanted to be at.
Tara Hall
Wow.
Rashad Thirlkill
I just truly believe that sharing your story is that it can catapult you into greatness. Then also that may be the end. I mean, beginning. If you look at it, it’s all about the pain when it’s ending, because that’s what’s going to write your biography or that’s what’s going to write your obituary.
So, it all comes down to the power of the pen. And my whole idea is you may as well write your obituary while you’re alive.
Tara Hall
That’s what’s saying. Yes, that’s right.
Rashad Thirlkill
You totally have the opportunity to do that.
Tara Hall
You brought this up because this is now the second time I heard that once was something I was listening to last week. And exactly it was said just like that. You could write it now. Basically, you are living the life that you want to live instead of leaving it to someone else to basically write your story.
You have to be able to think deeply to receive that, though, I think to get that, because sometimes we’re just going about life thinking, oh, you don’t have to worry about certain things. But really, you get the choice of how you want to leave.
Rashad Thirlkill
You do!
It seems so simple. However, I listen to a lot of leadership podcasts and people that teach about success. And one of the main things, the number one thing they teach is to write it down so you can visualize it.
So, in essence, what you’re doing is writing out your story. But you’re writing it from a place of faith. You’re writing it from a place of you haven’t seen it happen yet, but it’s kind of like drawing up a map to a city.
You have to start somewhere with your highways and byways and whatnot. I think it’s a wonderful thing that you’re doing. A lot of people, even R&B and rap, the stories that we listen to in music every day, those are people’s personal stories.
Tara Hall
It’s a very powerful way to connect. I never really thought about it until I actually got in the space of training and coaching in this particular way because I had been a trainer in another part of my career early on.
What I found just thinking back on that journey now after having worked in social services, I spent most of my life listening to people’s stories and some are positive, but a lot of them, unfortunately, are negative trauma-related stories.
I remember when I was in the training space, they would rotate the trainers out every couple of years because they wanted to make sure that one when I was newly going to the training Academy, they wanted your stories from the field basically, because when you were in the classroom training, you make the point by telling a story connected to it so that it cements the learning.
They would rotate the trainers out every couple of years because the further away you are from the direct service work. You know what I mean? The stories weren’t as fresh and policies and practices changed. So, they would rotate people out just to make sure that they kept the content fresh and they kept the stories fresh.
But stories are very powerful ways to connect with other human beings. I think the more we get into the space of doing that, the more you can make an impact. The more you can be influential because you’re sharing a very intimate part of yourself with complete strangers.
I’ll never know who will pick up this book. I’ll never know who bought it half the time unless they tell me so. But you really have such a great opportunity to really spread positivity and share other things that can just help people before. Maybe they’re going down a path, but they don’t need to because someone else has already done that and they can say, hey, consider trying this. It may work for you, it may not work for you, but consider trying this.
It’s just something else to think about, right?
Rashad Thirlkill
Definitely. I mean, no matter what you’re doing, I don’t care if you’re like a grasshopper catcher. There are people out there that do the same thing that you do. It just takes you to tell your story and then there will be people that relate to it.
Tara Hall
Yeah. And that’s the thing because you probably see it as a podcaster in different circles and networks that you’re in. There are tons of people who are trainers. There are tons of people who are coaches out there. But what is it about you that makes you unique? What is it about me that will make me unique based on my story and my experiences?
I’m going to attract the people that I most resonate with. So, I never feel intimidated by the fact that there are all these other people out here in the same space. That is true. It’s a crowded space, but I don’t devalue what I know and do just because there are other people out there that may be doing it as well. Their journey is different than my journey.
I just know I’ll connect with those that believe the sound of my voice connects with them.
Rashad Thirlkill
Yeah, exactly. That’s the beauty of this entire Internet thing. I look at it as a positive and a negative. With social media and the internet and things that we learn and things that we talk about, the other things that we see. It just all depends on what we tend to follow and be inspired by.
But you’re definitely correct that you being online is a lot more like you being out in public, passing out business cards. You can kind of get online and do exactly what it is that you do just by being you. And someone can connect with that.
I think that’s an awesome thing!
Post-Covid, I guess it has built us to really have to do that, to have to get out there and kind of show who we are, to inspire or motivate just so people can latch on to us in the business aspect.
Tara Hall
Yeah. I think back to 2018 or 2017, there was a marker or highlight point for me when I had gone to a conference up in New York. It wasn’t until I had an experience at that conference that I was like, wow, if you really want to do the things that you say you want to do, you’ll have to step out of who you are currently and move, as you were saying, visualize the space that you see yourself in. It’s going to cause you to do this with your mindset.
It’s going to cause you to need to go learn some other things that you don’t know yet and do some things you haven’t done before. I was not a social media person, and it wasn’t until after that conference. But then in 2018, when I went to another conference down in Florida, we were challenged to get on social media and to do some live videos.
I’m like, oh boy, okay, I don’t know about that, but because before I was doing videos, but I was recording and then maybe uploading them later and I was like, all right, I guess I’ll have to do this.
So, from 2018 to now, being online and doing live videos, it’s as if I had always been doing it. But of course, we know that came with several years of working the muscle.
We’re in such a society where we want the quick fix, the quick return, we forget there’s a journey and a process behind getting to where you are. I always know that there are people back of me that need my support. And I know there’s people ahead of me that I’m gleaning at and looking at saying, okay, there’s some other things that I need to continue to aspire towards.
That’s why, again, as you said, the social media aspect is for those that are using it authentically to make an impact and using it the right way to be of service to other people, then it can certainly be a good thing.
Rashad Thirlkill
I definitely think so. It’s game-changing.
Speaking of that, what would you say is the demographic that you work in, like age group. You have, I guess, the millennial crowd and the Generation Z, just 100% internet as opposed to the older crowd – Generation X and the baby boomers that kind of are used to the old way.
So, what is your preference and which demographic do you work with?
Tara Hall
My primary demographic, if I’m speaking of the space of being in the coaching and the sort of the mindset transformational work, I would put myself in the bracket of anywhere between, I would say 40 and up, primarily women.
But when I’m talking about my trainings and leadership development, that’s a different segment because I may be in a conference, I may be in a different environment. In that respect, I’m speaking to, it could be anywhere from mid-20s to 30s and up, because that space is very different.
When you’re talking about leadership, I think how you approach the younger generation, as you say, is very different. I wouldn’t say that I’m targeting them when I’m online. Like, that isn’t who I would say I’m resonating with most, but who I would work with and serve.
I looked at the demographics of the women in the book. That’s more in the 40s and up.
It’s because I think about where I’m at in my life and I can service those best that will resonate with the journey of where we’re at in our early 50s. And you have wisdom on both sides of that because you’ve got a few battles guards along the way that can resonate with some people, and that may be in the career space, too.
I made a career change last August. There’s a lot of women in leadership who are also at different points in their careers and are either looking to move up in their work environment or they are considering career changes. But then you have this other piece of ageism that comes into play. That’s another barrier for when they’re moving or making career changes as far as discrimination goes.
So, it’s been interesting to see, especially with Covid, a lot of people who have either moved out of the workspace and have just decided I’m going full round with my entrepreneurial space or those that are just saying I’m going to change where I’m working at and I’m just going to take the next step and jump and do something different.
Long gone are the days when people have stayed in one space for 25-30 years. That’s not this generation coming up. They’re moving jobs and switching jobs anywhere between one to three years. They’re not looking for the same things that I was necessarily looking for when I started my career in the workspace.
Rashad Thirlkill
I just heard a little tidbit that here’s a place where you may be able to help me right here, right now. You said that leadership kind of differs between the older generation and the younger generation. When you enter a room of 20 to 30-year-olds, they look at leadership in a different way.
Tara Hall
Yes.
Rashad Thirlkill
So I’m so far removed. I have kids that age. And you are correct, 100% correct, because I don’t feel like I can relate as far as leadership is concerned and there’s something different there as opposed to their generation.
Can you touch on that or what does leadership look like for that generation of 20-year-olds or early 30s?
Tara Hall
Yeah. I think again, these are from my observations and these are from my observations of the generation in my own family. I can look at how they’re looking at their careers and how they’re moving about. What I will say is I’ll just share this perspective because this is the freshest one.
When I went to an event a couple of weeks ago, it was a networking event, and the demographic was not necessarily my age range. There were a few, but not many. And what I noticed immediately about that space is that I believe their leadership is more of the entrepreneurial spirit right off the bat.
I believe that their desire is basically just to lead themselves. Okay. They’ll look at a space and say, especially if you’re looking at where the job market is and they’re moving every 1-3 years. They’re looking and they’re seeing, what is it that I can gain from this space, talent-wise, skill-wise, and where can I take it and move on to the next may be where the money is better or maybe they get to advance to the top more quickly.
What I would say I think is different is that it’s the mindset. I like and appreciate the mindset, but I do think because of the blended generations that are in the workforce right now, you have between about four to five generations in the workforce right now. There’s a lot of things that they can also learn. We can learn from each other.
I’d say it could be this cross-sharing, like you said, someone who didn’t grow up as a digital person. So, what can someone who grew up in a phone and clicking buttons is like nothing for them. What can they share and learn from each other versus making it this thing that divides them? What can you do to blend and bridge the gap?
I remember doing a workshop a couple of years ago. It was an intergenerational workshop and it was interesting because some of the younger people in the group were sharing that it was sometimes frustrating for them to just do things because that’s the way it had always been done. Right. They wanted to challenge the norm and say, well, how about if we do it this way, it’s quicker, it’s more efficient.
Those who have been there in that environment for some time were like, yeah, but this is how we’ve always done it. So, very wedded to the policies and the practices and the steps. And this is how it’s always been and sort of being challenged to say, okay, well, how can we do this differently? I never thought about it that way. Let’s see what we can work out together.
I think that sometimes we look at what’s different versus what we can share. I think there’s more to learn from each other. There’s more to appreciate about the differences, to find common ground than just to focus on just the differences.
Rashad Thirlkill
Okay. So, it’s not necessarily a management thing.
Tara Hall
I’d say it’s more of a mindset thing than a management thing.
Rashad Thirlkill
Okay. Wow. And yeah, they are definitely entrepreneurs. I love that about this younger generation. They are online having their own businesses, and they don’t like to be told a lot. They’d like to do what they like to do.
Tara Hall
I think there are ways to support that. That’s where I do think there is a benefit. We each carry something different. I’ve been in leadership over 20 something years. Right. And someone new coming in to, let’s say, just a hypothetical organization. They’re coming in and they’re trying to figure out how they can get my seat. Right. Because they want to move, they want to move up the ladder quickly.
Well, that’s all well and good, but there are still things to learn about the organization, the organizational culture. How to work with someone who is if you ever heard of the disk profile assessment and there are different styles that someone may have, you’re a dominant, you’re inspiring, supportive, and cautious.
So, how do you manage to work with someone who is very task-oriented, data driven? I want this, I want this, versus someone who’s about, hey, they just want to host luncheons every day and they want to get an enjoyable team environment and they’ll get the work done, but their focus is people.
So, it’s always being aware of the differences in personalities that you have on your teams, different personalities you have in your workspace, and you all have to work together. Sometimes, like you said, they move quickly. And that’s not a bad thing. But you still have to be acclimated to the environment too, right?
Rashad Thirlkill
So, you mentioned the 50 and up crowd, and you have four 9-5, and you also do the coaching and the teaching and the author. Where do you find the motivation to continue after your nine to five is over?
Tara Hall
Well, I’ll say the motivation comes from what you raised earlier, which is the vision. You know, what is it that I see that I aspire to do and what do I have to do each day to get there? So, even if I do one thing and I know I’ve got ten to really do, but if I can get one thing done, then that says, okay, you’re still on your hustle, you’re still in the game.
I don’t have to accomplish all ten things on that day, but I know what I need to do. I know I still need to do at least one thing, and if I’m saying one, but literally that ends up being like about four or five things that I’m really doing. But the motivation comes from my why.
Why am I doing this? What is my vision? Do I really want it to materialize for me, not by anyone else’s standards, but what goals did I set for myself. So, when I leave my investor in a few years, I have set myself up in a way that really is sustainable and it really is one that will continue to give me enjoyment out of what I’ve done.
I do know when to go sit down and take my rest and take my breaks.
Rashad Thirlkill
Okay. All right. That’s a good thing. After you retire, do you plan on cranking it up or just kind of, hey, man, I can see one, two people and coach, but other than that, I’m just going to enjoy my retirement.
Tara Hall
No, knowing me, I’ll probably crank it up a little bit. Because now, really, my thought is it was better to get started. It’s been about three years now for me, and again, that’s on a part time basis. So, I get to kind of create what I would want it to look like later when I do have more of a free schedule.
Then I can decide how many people I’d like to see, how many clients I’d like to have just to get their books done. I really have time to map out what that will look like for me. I’m sure when I first retired, maybe that first year, maybe I’ll just do the things I want to do first and then I’ll ramp it up.
Rashad Thirlkill
Got you. When you get bored?
Tara Hall
Yeah, when I get bored.