Leadership can be lonely because you hold a position no one else has in your organization. In this episode, Host Dr. Tracey Jones talks about leadership with Kim Marie Branch-Pettid, the CEO and owner of LeTip International. Kim shares how leaders can feel lonely at times, but you can turn it into something good because you need alone time to think things through. The key is to stay 100% focused and always plan ahead. If you want to learn more about how leaders need to deal with loneliness, pressure, and daily responsibilities, you wouldn’t want to miss this episode.
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Kim Marie Branch Pettid - Leaders On Leadership
I am so excited because my guest is Kim Marie Branch-Pettid. Kim Marie is the driving force behind the world's largest privately-owned business networking organization. Many of you have probably heard of it, LeTip International Incorporated. Watch her in action, meeting, greeting, making connections and you'll understand the true meaning of an indomitable spirit. Kim Marie is known for her commitment to building relationships and her inspiring collaborative style. Kim Marie spent 30 years in the banking industry and culminated her career in mergers and acquisitions, where she drove the M&A of over 30 banks.
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Kim Marie, I am honored to have you on the show.
Thank you so much, Tracey. I'm excited to be here as well.
We're starting a woman-owned bank. I could go on and on about mergers and acquisitions, but now we're going to talk about paying the price of leadership. My father came out with a speech many decades ago called the price of leadership in which he talked about, “If you're going to be in the seat and not just a leader in name only, there's a price to be paid.” One of the first topics that he talked about was loneliness. We all hear that it's lonely at the top, but could you unpack, for our readers, what the loneliness of leadership has meant to you and your career, and maybe share a time or some words in case any of our readers are in a season of loneliness.
I was very blessed in life and I didn't have to work. After being married for 30 years and always working, I always had a job in the bank, but I didn't have to be there. I found myself starting a new career in Arizona as an employee for LeTip International. I didn't want a divorce and I felt lonely beyond belief. In fact, I sat for six weeks every night in my closet with the door closed so my kids couldn't hear me cry. I then realized that loneliness was on me. It wasn't on anybody else.
I got up off the floor. I decided to reinvent myself and make this work because I believed in the concept of this organization. I went to work and the loneliness changed. It wasn't by myself, but with other people. It energized and invigorated me. I put in 50, 60 hours a week and not even realizing it. I was so excited.
The loneliness dissipated, but there's a kind of loneliness as you talked about working at the top, that sometimes you almost need, “I need to be alone to be able to think my thoughts through.” It isn't loneliness that's sad and by yourself. It's loneliness where you're contemplating, looking and listening to what could be better. This person said this. This person has told you to do that. What makes the most sense? That type of loneliness is so valuable when you can sit and listen to your own thoughts.
How did you get connected with LeTip? Have you been transitioning out of banking and looking for something new? How did you hear about it?
I was a banker and they wanted me not to be a Rotarian because we had several in our bank already, so a friend reached out to me who was an attorney and said, “You've got to come. You're going to love this. It's a free meal.” I went in and I fell in love with it. The first meeting enjoined took them six weeks to get me voted in, so I didn't think they wanted me, but I fell in love with the concept and realized that I was a natural networker, but now is learning from a structured methodology.
It wasn't like I woke up one morning and said, “I'm going to change banking careers.” I, unfortunately, went through a divorce and the company had been courting me for about six months to come to work for them in LeTip. I finally said, “This makes perfect sense for me. I'm helping people as I did in a bank, but it's my hours. It's how hard I can work or not work. It's going to be up to me if I can make this.” That's a loneliness decision as well because you're taking a leap of faith. Can I do this? I'm doing it alone after being married 30 years and suddenly by myself. That's a huge difference.
I appreciate your transparency with that for our readers out there. I also went through a divorce that was not wanted. The things that happen in your personal life all affects us as human beings and we think, “I always thought I could separate all that nonsense. It bleeds over everywhere.” I thank you for your transparency and sharing that you got to get to the point where it is. I was nowhere near 30 years, but I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. It's devastating.
For you to go ahead and look at that and say, “It's hurtful, but I have to go pick up the pieces and shake off that loneliness.” I adopted a dog and that brought me back to life. I made a real shift professional-wise too. I was like, “I have to get back amongst the living.” I'm so glad that you shared that with our leaders because for the readers out there, if you are in a time of loneliness, the loss of a lifetime partner, a lifetime job or whatever, take some time to realize it.
Don't beat yourself up. We all think, “It's all my fault.” It's a two-way street. I'm sure it was my fault 50/50, but it did happen no matter what. I don't hold any ill will. We're friends to this day and we have children together. You have to do what you have to do, but it was such an enlightening time for me. I realized what a strong person I was and what I could do. It was a blessing in itself.
For the readers, as she mentioned coming through the time of loneliness, whether you wanted it or inflicted by somebody else, the beauty is that you can still come out of that with more of a sense, listening to your own thoughts, realizing your own strength. It's a time and you're in the crisis crucible, and that's when loneliness, in the end, if done right, can turn you into a more pure and better version of yourself.
That's the loneliness. The other thing my dad talked about is, “If you're going to be doing leadership right, you're going to have to learn how to battle weariness.” We talked to a lot of people where they're burnout, but then there are other people that are like, “I can only sleep two hours because I got the fire in my belly.” We still are mere mortals and operating systems that need to rest. How do you stay at the top of your game? You're running a huge organization you have for many decades. How do you stay your best version of yourself and combat weariness?
I take care of me first. I truly try to look after my health. Everybody gets weary. It could've been a bad day with everyone coming into your office with every complaint under the sun. What do you do? You smile. You put a smile on your face, and then you say, “Timeout, I'm taking Friday off. I'm taking a short vacation. I'm going to spend the afternoon with no disturbance sign on my door.” There are times when you have to take care of yourself.
The weariness is a good thing. It means that you are not the fight or flight per se, but you're aware that there's more going on than what you realized and it gives you the opportunity to step back if you take care of yourself first, whether it's a good night's sleep, because I slept for more than six hours in a while. If it's a good meal, that's wholesome. You feel and look better. You look in the mirror and say, “I can do this another ten years.” That weariness is a warning signal in your own body that something is coming or changing. It could be good or bad. You don't know. Most of us have that fight or flight type of instinct. You're already prepared for it with weariness because you know how to take care of you first.
I'm always like fight or flight or no option. You have to adapt and that regeneration is tiring. As you point out, I love that you put the spin on it. If you are weary, rejoice because that means you're still in the game. You're still looking towards something that's going to make a difference. I love how you put the positive spin on that.
Weariness can put you immediately into depression. Who has time for that? If you feel depressed, you need to find a reason for how to get out of it and why you're there in the first place. The weariness part that I enjoy is knowing that, “Let's take a deep breath of fresh air. Let's relax for a moment.” It could only be ten minutes at my desk meditating, but when I come out of that because I've taken care of me and said, “You really need to look at what's causing this feeling.” It always turns into something much better.
For the readers, we grew up with that whole maximum Psycho-Cybernetics where your body can catch a disease of the mind. If you're tired, you can like, “I ran my adrenal glands to non-functioning status.” You got to take care of yourself and understand that everything originates with you. If you're at the top of your form, everybody else can, yet we all think, “I'm the only one that can do it.” We're never meant to be that.
Leaders On Leadership: Weariness is a warning signal in your own body that something is coming and changing.
We're supposed to be able to share, train, teach and delegate. That's what leaders do if they're good leaders, in my opinion.
One of my favorite quotes is by Lena Horne and she says, “It's not the load that wears you down. It's the way you carry it.” If you're tired as a leader, it might be time to go ahead and say, “I need to share the load,” because obviously, there are people around you in the organization ready to pick up and help you soldier on.
A lot of people will tell me that I have a bitchy resting face because I’m not on at the moment and thinking about who's across the desk. I'm in the moment of reading something or writing an article out. It's not intentional, but it's something we all have to be aware of because the minute someone comes to my door, I had a smile on my face and a twinkle in my eye. It totally changes my whole disposition.
It's not that I'm depressed or anything else. I'm really in the moment. When people say, “Why are you angry?” I'm just shocked. I had to consciously make that smile be there because I was involved and thinking of other things. I wasn't thinking about smiling, but the more we smile, it comes through your voice and your actions. It does help to pay attention to how you look, even when resting.
That reminds me of when I got my passport taken a few years ago. They're like, “You can't smile.” I don't know how I am supposed to do this because I grew up with my dad who was smiling, hugging and laughing. You were either crying tears of joy, in pain, or laughing. It's amazing when you do, “It all starts up here.” People are like, “I feel,” and I'm like, “It starts with your thoughts.” Thoughts drive feelings and drive behaviors. You realize that, and in your mind, you become intentional about smile and it will happen.
The next topic my father talked about is abandonment. Abandonment typically gets fear of abandonment. If you're an animal rescue like me, abandonment is a big no-no. His point was hyper-focus that we need to abandon what we like and want to think about, like bingeing on Netflix for twelve hours a day, versus what we ought and need to think about.
He would always tell me, “Tracey, at the end of the day, write down everything you've done, and I guarantee you I do more to contribute to my failure than my success.” He was very intentional about staying on point. What things can you share with our readers about how you stay hyper-focused on the mission?
I truly believe in what he said. You have to abandon the things that you would love to do all day long. There's time for that when you retire or you're on vacation. When you're at work every day, you have to pick up a book and read ten pages every day, learn something new, take away the things that you enjoy. We have a television on in our office all the time with world news. I love world news, but I don't have it on for me to listen to.
I have it on to keep energy in our office, so people will focus and concentrate on what they're doing at their desks. I believe wholeheartedly what your dad said. Here's my tennis shoe for the say. I will put them on even with my dress and I will go for a walk for 30 minutes to clear my mind and abandon all the things that I know I shouldn't be doing if I sit here, if I play a game on my phone or I'm distracted in any way. Walking will allow me to refocus on what needs to be done next on my plate.
He did that when we were growing up in high school. He took all the TVs out of the house and he's like, “Here's what you do with your time. We're going to abandon the boob tube. You can get a job, volunteer, do sports, or read books and write book reports. We're going to abandon the non-value-added things.”
Early on, of course, we were like, “You're the worst parents ever.” Now I'm like, “Thank God.” I love that you said you get up and walk because you lose track and you fiddle farting around and clicking on this and that, and realize 20 to 30 minutes later. Everything you're looking at starts seeding in here. Getting out there and walking, that's a brilliant idea.
It also helps with the health part. It's a dual purpose. When I can get away from the white noise, whether it's a phone, people, or the TV, I can focus on what needs to be done. It doesn't have to take 1 or 2 hours. A twenty-minute brisk walk is awesome. It keeps my blood pressure down and helps my weight control, everything. It is important to me, and I feel that the abandonment and your father’s sense are so important.
Get rid of the fluff and get right down to the nitty-gritty. If you're a bottom-line person like I am, it takes a lot of effort to be nice about it because I'm only interested in the bottom line. What you tried was great. I gave you permission, but did it work? I want those answers coming back in a way that are beneficial for both of us would talking across the desk.
We're going to talk about vision next, but I have a question for you. You picked up an existing business and you took the helm. How did you stay focused? I'm sure a lot of people are like, “Maybe LeTip can be like Vistage or all these other groups. We all got a million ideas a day or some days, two million ideas a day. How did you stay focused on and abandoned to the things that stay true to your DNA? I'm sure you got hit with a lot of different things.
That's also part of loneliness. When you come into a business that you know nothing about or you're working with the original founder, it was imperative to me. In fact, it's not even a joke. This is the truth. When he hired me, they'd been asking me for six months. I didn't take up the job. I wanted to know why, and they wouldn't allow me to come in on the weekend. I had a job. I wasn't going to tell my boss I was going to interview for another job and take off a day that I was supposed to be at work.
Ken Peterson died on the golf course at hole eighteen. They defibrillated him and brought him back. He called me and said, “I fired my office manager. I see we've been trying to get you in for an interview. Why won't you come?” I told him exactly why. He overnighted a ticket to me. I flew out to see him. I was very interested by this time and I told him, “If I'm going to work for you, you have to understand that 1) I'm going to be your company president in 4 or 5 years, and 2) I'm going to own your company,” and he laughs.
I asked him first off why he wasn't hiring me then to be as company president. He said that he'd hired someone from the East Coast. I said, “How long will they be here?” He said five years. Four and a half years later, I was the company president. In 2008, I bought the company from him. It’s very sad news that he passed away on the 20th of September 2021. That loneliness, weariness, and abandonment all comes together to play an important part. I had to learn as fast as I could, staying up nights, reading and doing everything the way he told me to do it, and it helped so much with my success.
I had a daughter in college and a son starting high school. It wasn't like there was a lot of free time, but my day starts at 5:30 AM and I'm usually still going at 11:30 PM. I compartmentalize things. My kids, I was there when they went to school because I went and had a meeting then came home before they went to school.
I was there when they left for school. I was there when they got home from school. We did the regimen of homework and doing things together. That time was set aside for them with no interruptions from the business. When I had time for the business, I was 100% focused but always planning ahead. What can I do next?
It's staying incredibly disciplined day-to-day whenever we're publishing new books coming out all the time. I think he interviewed 832 businesses. The CEO said their biggest reason for not being able to grow and scale was lack of time. That's a lack of prioritization. There is no such thing as a lack of time. That means you were very meticulous and your habits, “I do that Ivy Lee Method the night before the top rack and stack. The top six things I need to get done the next day so I stay on point because I will pull every way with the way that's supposed to be going.” Life is so wonderful all the time. I love that you were very intentional about it. That abandonment is your habits and self-discipline.
Leaders On Leadership: When you're at work daily, you have to pick up a book, read ten pages every day, learn something new, and take away the things that you enjoy.
I am very disciplined. I swam for 30 years. I want to tell you, Dr. Tracey, that I didn't lose my train of thought when we're talking about this. It's all part of putting this together. You can't forget how to do it. I would say I’m at the top now. I have employees to do things for me, but I still go out in the field and start new groups and meet people.
If I don't keep up with what is the trend and what's going on, and I forget how to greet and meet people and let them know what this could do for them, I’ll lose my edge with my employees, so I've never asked them to do anything more than I would do. I used to clean the toilets here before we could afford to have somebody come in and do it. It's important to me to know that because, for a while, I'd lost focus.
For a few months, I lost focus and I thought, “All these people can do their own work.” What happened is the numbers started to delve. I said, “I have to get back in the field and find out what the critical issues are that they're facing, so that I know how to support them and get them doing the amount of business that they need to do in the first place.”
I am so glad you brought that up because, for leaders out there, I find that the same thing even in my small little company. I'm not a micromanager. I'm all for empowering. You as a leader, and I think about Michael Gerber's E-Myth Revisited, you have your entrepreneur, the manager and the technician.
At any given time, we're flexing among the three and people are like, “I hired the right people and they're supposed to go ahead and do this.” I'm like, “In theory, that is correct, but you still need to go out, and I'm not saying do their job, but touch those points.” I'm glad that you brought that up because there's a lot of peoples that was, “As a leader, if you can't trust people,” and I'm like, “I did not say the trust word.”
You have to keep your finger on the pulse of everything because everything, the landscape is constantly changing. I'm so thankful that you brought that up because I sometimes think as leaders, we assume, “That phase is done. I'm at the top. I can kick back and drink my pies on the beach all day.”
Not if you want to continue to grow and be successful, you have to work it. That's muscle memory. You have to work your muscle memory. What is going on out there? What isn't you being told? What do you need to know? If you stay in the know, you're going to be on top of the game all the time. I'm happy and I don't think I know I have brought LeTip into a different era. We took all of what worked well and kept it, and then we've added and added.
For instance, when our members are there, they're connected to each other across the country. There's no other organization that has that kind of connectability that we have. It's called LeTip Wired, it's our own internal program that we've designed to keep everybody connected, and it's making a huge difference.
How great that you got to be with your founder for that length of time, walk alongside him and see the going? You must miss him terribly, but I'm thankful he recovered on that eighteenth hole.
He just passed away. I would call him once a month to check up on him. He was 95 years old and treated me like a daughter. I was very blessed. He had his own office, but he moved into my office. Our desk would touch. He heard every word that I spoke to everyone. I answered every question, and then he would coach me afterward, “This is what would have sounded better. This is what you need to think about.” I am very blessed. He had a wonderful vision and I'm so happy that I could get into his vision, take it over and even enhance and embellish it.
I'm telling, for our readers, you want to know how to connect with people, baby blue to baby blue, or brownies to brownies or whatever. You talk to some of the salesmen and women back in the day before we had all these other non-touch surfaces and things. You talk to them about how to connect people in their 70s, 80s and 90s.
You think you know it all because of your app or your click funnel. You talk to them about how to meet a customer and establish trust. It fascinates me because I'm constantly going back to the wall and going, “We're sitting here talking across the table, and there's still a lot of it that goes on. How do I deal with this?” They’ll be like, “This is what you need to do.” I'm like, “It’s such wisdom.”
Those are our clients. They're Millennials and are starving to be able to learn how to talk to somebody across the table. They're realizing that their phones and devices don't give them that emotional impact that meeting face-to-face has. We've had to pivot like everybody else. We meet online and hybrid things, but you have to find ways to bring them together even closer as a leader. I get up in a chapter meeting every week as the banker, and I give a commercial about banking and it went like this, “If you don't like your bank, then please see me. Why would anyone do business with me?”
I started to hone in and learn what that meant. Now, I brought BANK. It's owned by Codebreaker Technologies. I'm a Certified Trainer in BANK, and it stands for Blueprint, Action, Nurture, Knowledge. It is a 90-second assessment you can take on online using our code. It would be CrackMyCode.com/LeTip. By doing that, it'll give you four little cards with values on the back. You find the value that's the closest to you and go down the list to the least like you. You put those cards in that order. It then will tell you what your code is.
I'm an Action, Nurture, Blueprint, Knowledge. I run around with my hair on fire as an action person. Don't shake my hand. My Nurture is next because everything I do is my love of people. People can hug and high-five me and give me a handshake. I don't care. They'll feel an immediate response from me. When I'm stressed, my third color stands for the stress color is Blueprint. While I'm not naturally organized, when I'm stressed, which I force myself, that's that focus again.
I focus to make myself less stressed, so everything is organized. My dates are on time, my clothes are organized, and my shoes go under the clothes that match the color. It is amazing what can happen, and I find that I work better in a stress mentality and mode than if I were sailing along. My least liked me color is Knowledge and it has nothing to do with intelligence. I don't like the minutiae of having to read a 36-page contract.
It's plain and simple. If you come into my office to talk to me, give it to me in 3 to 5 minutes, give me a solution, and we'll get along great. If you come in to harass me for 30 minutes and you don't offer any solution, it's probably not going to go well. That's the beautiful part. We're teaching our members how to reach out to other people that way, whether it's spouses, family, or coworkers. It's a respectful way to do business and understand where they're coming from because we're all different.
It's almost like love languages for business. I’m like you. I'm task-oriented. I have my little relationship edge, too. That's interesting that that's not just in my business world. That's me. That's who I've coded to be and it's going to manifest itself in my finances, my spiritual life and everything. Did you come up with this, the four cards and coding?
It belongs to Codebreaker Technologies by the name of Cherie Tree. I met her several years ago. I hired her to come out and train all of my regional directors so that they would know who they were talking to across the table. That's by body language and everything else because it's something you can pick up quick. If they use that code, you will get a 24-page report that tells you who you are and how you like to buy. If you're talking in our world, I'd get up and talk like in action.
The only people in the chapter that were giving me business would be other action people because the Nurturers didn't understand me. The Blueprint didn't understand me and Knowledge didn't. I have learned how to speak to all of them in their language and come up with great ideas. Now I get business from everyone, so why waste your time networking or even trying to build a relationship if you're not talking in their language and you understand it?
My dad would say, “There can be no communication without identification.” Even if you have the greatest solution for them, if they're not feeling you and even for us that are coded, what is the dimming in in God we trust? Everyone else brings data. I'm data-driven, but still, I got to understand the context of where you're coming from. That means I have to identify with you. That is a huge resource for our readers.
Leaders On Leadership: Never ask your employees to do anything more than you would do.
They put LeTip behind it or they may be charged $99. There’s no charge in my URL.
Lastly, we did loneliness, weariness, abandonment, tremendous insights and sharing from your life experience. The last one was vision. My dad, if you knew him, was flunked out of school in the eighth grade. When I used to hear vision growing up, it'd be like Nostradamus, Moses or Mark Zuckerberg. He was like, “Vision is seeing what needs to be done and then doing it.” A lot of people will see it, but they're not integrators or executors. Can you share with us how do you keep honing your vision and vision casting?
I am very religious. I totally believe in the Lord. My day starts and ends with a prayer every single day to have him help me understand the vision that I've set for myself. By doing that, I've always been guided. He guides me everywhere I go. Your father is absolutely correct. You can't look at a vision on the same street level as everybody else would look at your vision. I've always looked from an 80,000 Heights View so I can see the big picture. The prayers are, which of these sections do I need to tackle next to make sure that it's all working together? He's answered me in prayer so often, open the door, or someone calls me on the phone, and the prayers are answered, but it's always been connected to my vision.
When you put words in your mind, even if you don't speak them, you put them into the universe, and what you think and believe is what happens. If you think you're a failure or this idea is not going to work, guaranteed you sabotaged it already. When you can pray over it and you believe it will happen, it may not happen as quickly as you want, but I guarantee you it's going to happen. It's all about having the vision to think out loud and make sure that you're following through with it.
I even go back to reading Psycho-Cybernetics, and his whole thing was self-images. Your mind can't differentiate between how you see yourself and how you are in reality. If you can see yourself as that success already, that's as good as being a success. I'm like you, the Imago Dei. I'm coded by the creator. I claim my inheritance. I need to start acting like it because my dad runs the universe. I think he's already got this figured out. Call in for the supernatural reinforcements and the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, administration, hospitality and all that stuff.
If you don't believe in God, you must believe there's something higher power than yourself or you wouldn't be here. You have to call on it and allow it to enter into your own being and be thankful. Most of us work so hard. We forget to thank ourselves as well as our creator, and the more we can thank for what we have, the more we can put that into play, the more your vision becomes a reality. I was told many years ago to think of success, think of myself dressed in the finest clothes.
I carry a Michael Kors handbag. I have lots of those. They don't mean anything to me, but the image is out there for other people to see, so when I walk into a room, I'm just amazed and excited to greet and meet people and think I'm nothing special. By the time I leave, I hear so often, “You're so powerful. You're such a force to deal with.”
That's God, that's not me, but it's having the vision that I can be at the top of my game anytime I need to be. I don't allow myself to think down about myself ever. I make mistakes, don't get me wrong. I apologize for my mouth because sometimes I put my foot in it, but it's truly insincerely an apology because I made a mistake. I'll accept my own mistakes and I'll make sure I don't make it again.
I love the point that you said even if you don't believe in God, you've got to believe in yourself because sometimes even people that do believe in God don't believe in themselves. Whatever else is out here, you got to know and own your self-image and self-worth first. I love that you brought that up because we do more damage.
It's like a lack of abandonment. You'll contribute to your failure. Will you own it or not? I don't know, but you need to be honest with yourself. The same thing with your vision, we're the worst and are the ones that stand in the way of our own vision with that negative self-talk. The old Napoleon hill, “Whatever your mind can believe and conceive, it's going to achieve.” That's a constant cosmic truth, no matter what you believe.
Reading those kinds of books only makes it better. I read Eversley. I love to read. I have five books laying around all the time. One is fictional because I need some downtime, just me time once in a while. I always read a business book, and then I read a self-help book. I had a friend who did a book signing, Dr. Sharon Lamm-Hartman. It's a self-help book on how to be a better presenter and communicator. It's number three now in the Barnes & Noble bestselling book. She's just amazing. Those kinds of books can help.
I was sitting and waiting for her to come to the book signing, a mom and her daughter came in and they thought I was the author. I said, “I'm sorry, I’m not.” We were sitting there talking. I was explaining what the book was. The daughter is in the fifth grade. I didn't want to exclude her in the conversation, so I asked her, “What kind of books do you like to read?” She says, “I like business books.” I said, “Honey, you need to get this book. Have your mom buy this book for you.” She can get it online, which she did.
She said, “I'm going home and getting this book for my daughter.” That's an entrepreneur. I said, “I like Goosebumps. Did you?” She says, “Yeah, they're good too, but I refer to self-help and business books.” Those are the entrepreneurs coming up nowadays. They're not being shaped necessarily by anybody, but they want more. I realized that the new generations coming up would work 2 or 3 jobs to have the money they want, and it's primarily predicated on the money. We need to teach them how to share that and give back to others.
That's a great way for people to get out of the doldrums of playing games on TV, watching Netflix, constantly your health and everything goes down. It's having the vision of a better country, a better world. It's helping each other and being active again. Someone said, “Wouldn't it be terrible if we lost all of our power?” I said, “Absolutely not.” A lot of us wouldn't know how to live in it, but I would love it. The Amish have something going on.
We had covered loneliness, weariness, abandonment, and vision. Anything else you want to share with us? Talk to our readers that are not familiar with LeTip International, a little bit about what that is and how they would get connected with a group in their area.
That vision that you talked about, I'd like to share that vision shouldn't always be about business. Take your vision and make it your entire life so that you live a healthy, happy, successful life well-rounded. That's the total vision. Don't narrow it down. As far as LeTip, we are North America's oldest professional networking organization. We put business owners and professionals together. One business category allowed per chapter, and teach you how to create a Salesforce by word of mouth. You go into a meeting once a week for an hour and a half. They get to know who you are. You're educating them about your business.
They are not going to become the mortgage lender, realtor or financial advisor, but you're going to teach us enough about that, so when we hear the information on the outside, we can send you outside the business. We do business inside. It should be 20% or less of what they exchange. Eighty percent should be coming from the outside where they'd never have the opportunity to meet someone. That is true networking because you're building a relationship with these people. You're bonding and it's ongoing. The bond and relationship are what make it so successful.
We've connected everybody now through LeTip, and you can find us at LeTip.com. You could call me personally, Kim Marie Branch-Pettid. My cell phone number is (602) 803-8080. My email address is simple. It's KBranch@LeTip.com. I love speaking to anyone. I go in and speak to organizations to help them understand each other better and how to get along. Sometimes I get new members from it. Sometimes I don't.
I love speaking to rotary groups because they are service-oriented and they want to be doing more business. I go in to tell them how they can do that. I love what I do, and I love people, and LeTip has been an avenue for me. That was a longtime dream. I wanted to be a doctor when I was a kid. I got myself out of a rotation of in-school of being that. I, unfortunately, put seventeen-year-olds in body bags in a 30-day period and realized emotionally I couldn't handle it. I was meant to be a connector. That's what I do and that's what our organization does.
We connect to business owners, sometimes large, but mostly small to medium, so they have a place to go. They have someone they can talk to. Instead of talking down in their company, they can talk up to us. They learn from each other. Small business now is so valuable and important if we don't keep them growing and continuing. America changes because we are the backbone of this country. We are the ones hiring. We are the ones that are changing what the canvas looks like. We have to keep them in business and bless COVID.
Leaders On Leadership: Accept your own mistakes and make sure you don't do them again.
We've lost so many kinds of businesses. People don't even want to work now. They can't find people to work for them, so their businesses are closing. We need to reach out and help as many small businesses as possible, stay in business and understand their resources that they never thought of, and LeTip certainly is a resource.
That's all about it. My dad would always say, “The people you meet and the books you read.” LeTip is about the people you meet. Being a resource, even if I can't get you the answers, one thing that gives me great job is, “Why know somebody who can?” I always say leaders don't have to know all the answers. They just have to know all the people who have the answers and formulate that. That's such a blessing to people. Whether you're getting the business or not, you're connecting them with others.
I can't emphasize enough. I cut my teeth in big bureaucracies, Fortune 100 organizations, the government, bureaucracy. I got to small business and I'm like, “Bigger is not better.” This is why America is the premier economy, because of the small businesses. That was unbeknownst to them like, “You mean the government doesn't have any money?” I'm like, “I'm figuring this out.”
Who has all the money? Small businesses. Quit trying to kill us with taxes and other things. Why not support us for a while?
We're driving everything. What did they say? Eighty-seven percent pre-COVID. It's a huge chunk. People that go, “It's the big businesses.” No, it's not. It's us.
The government thinks small businesses are $500,000 and down. To me, that is not a small business. It's not money either. I'm talking people. We're talking about members who are solopreneurs, maybe 3 or 4 employees. Sometimes they have 20 or 30, in our world is considered a big business. Those are the businesses that are keeping us afloat.
To our readers out there, if you don't believe us, look online and see what percentages, and realize there is strength in numbers. Sometimes you look at everybody else and you're like, “Everybody has 5,000 people or more.” That is not the majority of people out there. Stay strong and keep doing what you're doing, and hook up at LeTip Organization and learn how to network and be a wonderful resource. I love your 80/20 Rule too. It's so important that when we go to these things, we support one another. Otherwise, it's like, “What are we doing here?”
We have a saying, “You have to pass four tips a month.” That's one a week. That's not passing business. That's when you can't think of something, “The florist and the group is going to get a tip from me, so I'm going to take flowers home to my husband.” That's what I call a chicken tip. What they should want to know is if my next-door neighbor is getting married, could I please introduce them to the florist, so they get the flowers for the entire gig? That's where 80% starts growing your business. Twenty percent, we're swapping dollars and 80% you're getting people you would never meet.
I love it, swapping dollars versus growing the business. I remember when my dad started out his life insurance and grew, by age 35, $100 million. This is back in the 50s. People would ask him, “How did you grow?” He said, “I made up my mind. If I didn't sell a policy that week, I would buy one.” He goes about a couple of months of that. I wasn't buying any more policies for my kids. I know we had six kids, but you could only buy so many policies. That's when he realized, “I got to get out and I got to generate.” I love that. What did you call it? Chicken tips?
They’re chicken tips because you're too chicken to go out and work it. It's a network, not netplay. I teach them what a chicken tip is and what not to do.
Before we wrap this time of unbelievable learning and sharing from you, you gave me so much to think about.
Thank you so much. I want you to be kind. That's the one thing everybody in this world can be. If we're more kind to others, if we stop and let another car in when it's not convenient for us, if we open the door for someone who's struggling, simple things that cost you nothing. A smile to someone who's having a bad day, being kind will change the world. We are not kind enough including to ourselves. Be kind every single day. That's the best advice I can give anybody.
Regardless of what anybody else does to you. You do it for yourself because that keeps your inner peace.
Not only that. God watches for what we're not doing for other people. He wants to see what you do. Act like he's watching you every moment of every day. When traffic is really bad, my husband is tapping the horn and yelling, and I'm saying, “God's watching you.” Immediately he comes down, so we have to be kind to each other.
Great words of wisdom. Kim Marie, thank you again so much. To our tremendous readers out there, if you haven't hit the subscribe or the like button, please do. Do us the honor of a five-star review. Wherever you tune in, it's all over the place, wherever you're reading. Also, get over to TremendousLeadership.com.
Sign up for our email list, subscribe to our show, and you'll get two weeks of free eBooks. What could be more tremendous than that? Be sure you go over to Kim Marie's info and connect with her on all the platforms. She is somebody you are definitely want to add in not only as an advocate, but as a resource as well. Kim, Marie, thank you again.
I remembered the name of the book, Authenticity Code by Dr. Sharon Lamm-Hartman.
To our Tremendous tribe out there, you keep on paying the price of leadership. We're right there with you. God bless you. Have a tremendous rest of the day.
Thank you so much, Tracey. You're amazing.
Thank you, Kim Marie.
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About Kim Marie Branch-Pettid
Kim Marie Branch-Pettid is the driving force behind the world’s largest privately-owned business networking organization, LeTip International, Inc.. Just watch her in action; meeting, greeting, making connections (and sparks fly), and you'll understand the true meaning of an indomitable spirit. Kim Marie is known for her commitment to building relationships and her inspiring, collaborative style. Previously, Kim Marie spent 30 years in the banking industry and culminated her career in mergers and acquisitions where she drove the M&A of over 30 banks.