Social Justice Expert: How You Can Find Your Why & Succeed in Life and Business w/ Terri Williams

0:00I've been focused on something that I've called the great me set. Terry Broussard Williams. Terry filled a career on a solid reputation as an authentic, courageous, and impactful change agent. Am I going to have small impact today or great impact today? This woman has done some pretty amazing things. She's currently serving as the inaugural instructor for social justice graduate certification program at the Bush School for Center of Nonprofits at Texas A &M. I want to give people access to data and information so that they can take it and do better than well. Terry, everybody knows how amazing you are.

0:36I want to ask you a question though, to kick us off. What is success to you? Oh my gosh. Success to me is being in a space where one, and most importantly, you can be yourself. You can do something that you absolutely love and help others along the way. That's how I define success, Brad. You know, that's really interesting. Being yourself, obviously in the work you do, a lot of that is, I guess, disingenuous areas of the world type thing. How do you stay yourself in that environment? For me, it comes back to that mission I have in life. And it's, I want to give people access to data and information so that they can take it and do good in the world.

1:17And so fortunately, I've only been a lobbyist that has lobbied for things that makes the world a better place. So that's my hack to the lobbying world. When did you choose to be successful? So many of us are just a product of our environment. I have an incredible family. My parents always made sure that I had every tool in my toolbox to figure out a path in order to be set up for success. How does success happen? For the longest time, I was one of those people that truly wasn't aware of how they made things happen. You know, I was always in go mode. Just I knew what the goal was and I was going to get there.

1:59But now that I'm older and, you know, just a little bit wiser, you know, I truly break it down for myself so that, you know, there's not a lot of things coming at me and I truly can excel at one thing, you know, but today how I break that down is I think of that one goal that I have. Usually I give myself one big goal for the year. I've been focused on something that I've called the great me set. How do I, you know, focus with great intention every day and do the things that allow me to set up the life that I want to live? So just taking that big goal and breaking it down into three things usually sets you up for success.

2:40How do you learn from failure? How does failure teach success? How do mistakes teach us to be more successful? I have the fortitude to never give up. And I know there's a way I just have to find a way. And so I flipped that into asking myself the question of what might that way look like? How might I get there? And that was the fuel I needed to find my fire and actually pass the legislation as intended. Your book has changed a lot of people's lives dramatically. How do you succeed at finding your fire? For me, I returned to this place and just wanting to do good in the world and leaving it, you know, better than I found it.

3:20And so for me, when I find a cause that I care about, or I help someone identify their cause and begin to build a movement for social good, that's how I find my fire and fuel my soul because it gives me the energy I need to get going. So how do I find my fire then? When you're helping people find their fire, what's the process to do that? What do they got to go through? How do they get to that point? Yeah, I say it's easy peasy. I want people to think of four steps and they're all C's, Joey. But the first is you have to know your cause. And once you know that why, then you can begin to build a plan and take action.

4:02And then after you've determined that cause and you really identified what it is that you want to do, then you have to build a collective, finding the people who will be a part of your team to make it happen. You need a collective of people that will be honest with you and will help you think through this movement that you want to do. Either a movement in the world or a movement inside of yourself. Then next, you have to communicate it, you know? So call me if you want to have a walk around the lake, a little walk talk. Don't call me to party all night or go to happy hour, right? Or if you're creating a movement for social good, you have to let people know that too.

4:41So it's saying, you know, I'm beginning a canned drive at my local school to help families in need post-pandemic. You communicate it if people know it. And then last, you have to get your hands dirty and be the change that you want to see. So building no less than a three-step plan, things really take shape if we have three or more things that we can focus on. But having a plan that will allow you to take those first three steps for change surely will have you off and moving. I call that the fire starter formula. What is the success factor or how do you actually create success at influence? Sometimes we get so caught up in wanting to be a leader and being seen like in the spotlight.

5:26And if you don't understand the difference between leadership and ego, like you cannot begin to influence anything. Putting yourself around people that can help you transform and allow you to visualize success is how you can influence yourself and sometimes get out of your own way. Yeah. Lobbying government. How do you succeed at lobbying of such massive organizations? You know, a lot of times you're starting with the organization that you're representing. In my case, I've always worked at the organization that I was representing. So you have to influence internally, right? Because the organization's position on a policy issue might not be what's best for our community or what's best to actually pass the law or what's best to get your foot in the door if you're starting something new.

6:13So you'll have to help craft that and shape it within your own organization. But then you have to go out and talk about it to others. Some of the most toughest people in this country will become gentle giants that want to help. You don't seem to tackle the little problems. You level up. What's the difference between going for the good things and going for great? How do you find that you do that? You definitely have to tackle them one by one. It's like that saying, you eat an elephant one bite at a time, right? So when you're looking to create a movement for social good, and it can even be something closer to home, something within your life, you have to look at that big goal and then decide, am I going to have small impact today or great impact today?

7:02How can someone learn to dream big, I guess? But by taking away intimidation, by taking away fear, by not being hard on myself and having expectations, usually it allows me to be a big dreamer. And that's the Big Success Podcast for today. Hopefully you took a lot of notes, learned a whole bunch. And if you need to, go re-listen to it. We dropped a lot of information right there today. Big success is what it's all about. And by the way, if you haven't subscribed, hit that subscribe button so you're here with us every single week on the Big Success Podcast. I'm Brad Sugars. That's BS. Big success is what we're shooting for.

7:40Check the show notes for all the links. Make sure you follow through. Keep learning. Keep coming back. Oh, and by the way, share this with any of your friends who you know are up for success. I'll see you next week on the Big Success Podcast. You've been listening to the Big Success Podcast with the number one business coach in the world, Brad Sugars. To learn more about how to achieve business and personal success, as well as how to level up or listen to past episodes, visit www.bradsugars.com.