Though bound by a specific goal and vision, people within a team do not necessarily uphold the same ideals or attitudes. This makes leadership in diversity one of the most challenging aspects of directing a group towards a common goal. Despite this, the Founder of Women's Wisdom Network, Terri Murphy, believes that knowing every individual member of the team and understanding where they are coming from is key in unlocking the best leader in yourself. She shares with Dr. Tracey Jones why judging people is the last thing every leader should be doing, how to find your own co-leaders instead of followership, and why you must never push yourself past your limits just to be productive.

---

Listen to the podcast here :

Terri Murphy – Leaders On Leadership

Our guest is a dear friend and an incredible leader. Her name is Terri Murphy, and she understands the power of engagement. You're not going to want to miss this one.

---

I am super tremendously excited to have the tremendous Terri Murphy as my special guest. Her expertise is in helping people engage with impact. In today's world with a chronic overdose of people that are disengaged, we are excited. She is the Founder of the Women’s Wisdom Network and is the Senior Editor for RealtyTimes’ Women in Business. She is a published author on sales and leadership, a radio host, master coach, and TED Talk speaker. She is a dear long-time friend. If I can grow up to be half as tremendous as her, I know I have done something with my life. Terri, welcome.

Thank you for having me. I'm honored and I’m excited.

Terri, thank you. You knew my father for a long time and we're going to talk about his speech on The Price of Leadership.

I know that he may do but we should have been BFFs much longer. The first time I met him, Don Hutson told me I was going to meet him because we were both speaking at the same event. Charlie was there and he told me what to look for. This man held up his arms and he said, “I'm Charlie ‘Tremendous’ Jones. I can't hug you because of Gloria.” Of course, you know how much I loved Gloria. From that moment on, I was in love and he was going to be a BFF, whether you liked it or not.

I'll tell you, Terri, he thought the world of you and Don, but he absolutely adored you. Thank you for sharing that. I want to start out with The Price of Leadership. My dad outlines four prices of leadership, which are loneliness, weariness, abandonment, and vision. The first one he talks about, we've all heard this from leaders that it's lonely at the top. All of us experience loneliness whether we're in a leadership or not. He talks about how a leader sometimes has to set the pace and lead the way because that's what leaders do. Can you share with me, Terri in your career, which has spanned many different opportunities, challenges, and successes, about what you have experienced loneliness as a leader, how you push through that, and how you realized, “It's okay. This is all par for the course.”

It's important to know that I'm the firstborn of nine kids. Notice, I didn't say oldest. It's interesting because you have to be a leader when you're the firstborn and your mom has no support at all. We have no grandparents, aunts, babysitters, or anything, so you become a leader. You know that you're going to mess up because when you're not born a leader, you develop into leadership. When they say it's lonely at the top, it's because you're open to such criticism from the people that don't understand and see things differently.

It depends on your age. If you've only got a short runway of life, you haven't had the experience to understand that there are many ways to observe, and it comes from your value systems and your core values. If you are truly in a position of leadership, you know it may not be popular and you may have to be out there alone, but if you have the conviction because it's deep in your core values and your belief system, you're going to roll in spite of. The people who are on that frequency, the people who vibrate at the same level of value will be there. You just have to figure it out.

One of the most amazing quotes from the Bible is, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” You can't judge people from where they are. If that's where they are, there's a reason for that. It's based on their experiences and their pantry of what's in their head from experiences, beliefs, and values. Although it may not resonate with yours, it makes sense to invite them for authorship to understand where they're coming from because that's a perspective, Tracey, that you don’t have. You didn't grow up that way and you didn't have those influences. We have this magnificent vortex that we grow up in, which is amazing and unique. That's what the gift is. Everybody brings that gift. A good leader creates other leaders because they believe in collective intelligence. They understand the value of it.

You hit on it. I love how you said people that vibrate at the same frequency. In leadership literature, we call that value congruence. The leader has to step out. Somebody's got to lead the way. Dad always said, “I've never seen a monument in a park dedicated to a committee.” There's somebody that has to stand up there. Within a certain amount of time afterward, then you do get the people you resonate with that have their eyes. I love that you brought in that biblical translation that if somebody is not found in and on your shared value system, it's going to be interference or radio silence. How did you handle that as a leader? What do you do at that point? Is there a certain amount of time that a leader should wait before they finally go, “I need to get more shared frequency shares?” What do you think, Terri?

I read an interesting post about people on pedestals, and leadership isn't a pedestal. Leadership is the blueprint of where and how. When you think about the fact, in general, massive or grand success speaks loud, and people want to be around success. People like to feel like they're comfortable within that success. When you're a leader, if you're out there and nobody's following you yet, nobody's there to help you, eventually, you have to keep the faith that where you're going has some value other than itself.

Leadership In Diversity: It's lonely at the top because you're open to criticism from the people who don't understand and see things differently.

Other people want to support that, which finds other people that want to support that. It's a tough thing. We're social from the moment that we are born and rejection is the fear factor. As a child, if you're not liked or you're not accepted, you're going to die. That doesn't go away. We just manage it better. When you understand from a behavioral style that people can't work in certain ways, they have either high reactions or low reactions and are highly emotive, then you understand where they're coming from.

When you understand where they're coming from, then you get to the why. What's the why? It's always behind the why. The why is the speaker for the values and the commitment, whether or not they're going to hang in there or not because it has to have value to them. When you’re talking about, the hesitation there is that people need to feel included, heard, and appreciated, even if there is a discrepancy or disparity between the thoughts.

I love the runway of life. I remember as a young lieutenant, the first time I had to stand out there and tell the troops, “This,” and they were just looking at me. Until you get that, it's not going to be a personality. It's like Michael Scott on The Office. “Everybody, I have to be loved.” Yes, but that's not leadership. You want them to respect you, trust you, and share those values. There's a seasoning with it too, for leaders. I know for myself, the older I get, the more I realize, “It's going to be lonely. I recognize what that loneliness is. I recognize it's going to be for a time and I'm going to come out of it.” It sounds like you have experienced that, too.

It's not so much loneliness. It's just faith in your own character and where you're going. When you understand the why behind it and it's not egotistical but for a higher purpose, you understand the fastest part of the drill and you also understand that those people don't count. When I speak at Pepperdine for the US citizens organization every year, and I'm talking to seventeen-year-olds, which by the way, is fine. The one thing you want to tell them is to wait. You're concerned about what this person thinks and that person thinks because that's their little vortex.

You know that in 50 years if you ever see that person at a class reunion then it's going to be a whole new experience because they are who they are and they don't have the power that you gave away. You just have to be solid in your faith and your motivation for what you're trying to do or what you're aiming to do, and what are the consequences. That'll make your roll, whether you're popular or not. I can't imagine being a lieutenant saying that.

They're like, “Visitors do what?” I'm like, “The crew chiefs.” I was on the second shift, so they wanted to get out for the week and I'm like, “We need to clean the general’s jet because he's flying someplace.” They're like, “What?” I'm like, “This is what we're going to do.” I love that you talked about that. They're the people that count. That's also important for a leader to know, too. Your advocates are going to support you.

They may not be all in right away, but then there are other people if they go against you and try to tear you down, it's okay. Leadership helps you separate the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff. Like you were talking to those teenagers, there are people that I know if they abandoned me, that's okay because you were never a true advocate or friend anyway. As you climb up, you start developing these authentic people in your life that are co-leaders and have your back.

I don't want to blow over that word, co-leaders. A leader is a co-leader. A leader develops leaders. When people trust you, sometimes it takes a while. I completed a program where there was a fear factor. It's either fear or love. That's just it, and that's where the trust factor comes in. She was threatened by me. She had a position and title, so I could have taken offense to that. Knowing better, I engaged her, appreciated her, and would ask her opinion. When you do that, you give authorship to those people, and then you find out who's authentic and who's not. At the end of the day, you don't want to be surrounded by people who are going to jump ship. You want people that are willing to put it in for everyone. I always ask, “What's the higher purpose? Is it going to help? Is it going to hurt?” You roll and people want to work with you.

I want to bring up something that will be uniquely distinct for the women here. You brought up fear and love. Sometimes, too as an emerging woman leader and some of that's direct, that can be scary and intimidating to people. We have to sometimes go the extra mile to say, “I'm just like you. I've got your back.” Bring them alongside. Especially if you've been in careers like me and you where there are not as many women and the majority as men, right away, it's like, “This person is different.” Don't ever underestimate that fear may be an element of that them not knowing how to handle what you're saying as a woman.

The fear factor is, “I am less than,” especially with women. I managed to know what the Women’s Wisdom Network we're doing in a lot of interviews. What's amazing to me is that universally, I've coached two Miss Americas. As you know, the entire pageant, they never had an Italian Miss America. It's okay. We got this. When you have a woman in front of you who has validation from the USA and she still feels somewhat diminished in some capacity, a leader doesn't mind saying, “I don't have it here. That's why you're important to this element.” Especially if you're a dominant personality, then you need somebody to hold you back to say, “Wait. It's not ready to fire the aim.” It's about making them feel valuable to the equation of leadership that they feel needed, wanted, and respected. For me, that's the magic formula.

The next price that my father said that you're going to have to pay to be a leader is weariness. I remember him telling me, “Tracey, you can be miserable, miserable, or happy, miserable.” Life is tough for all of us. He says, “When you're a leader, you have to come to terms with the fact that if you're going to be doing anything worthwhile, you're always going to have some people that do weigh less than once expected and some that do weigh more.” How do you handle the pace and the attitude that some people don't need to work hard and it is tiring, but there is a good tired kind of thing, too? Tell me about how you shoulder on when it’s tiring.

Leadership In Diversity: Although other people may not resonate with your values, it makes sense to invite them for authorship to understand where they're coming from.

As a master coach, one of the things I've learned which is eternal vigilance is when you get to the why. What's the problem? There's a bifurcation in the value system. How I see things and how you see things, even if we think we see them the same, are not the same. They just because we're individuals, but when you offer systems, measuring and monitoring, then they have a structure. Sometimes, they don't know what to do, so they do what they think. It's always what they think. When you put leading with versus leading over because otherwise, you became dictatorial. “Why isn't this done? Why couldn't we get this done? What's the problem here?”

When you figure out the systems in the structure, and that's tied to their behavioral style so that you know how to ask and how to measure, you'll get by. If you don't, you have to release them to someone who would appreciate them better. Is it a fear of failure? Is it a fear that they can't measure up? What's the issue? It always seems to be a why issue. You have to get in their head and find out, is this a rabbit hole or a roadblock? The rabbit holes are perfectly okay when you're tired and you're cranky, and you need to go in and resuscitate, which not all of us do.

If it's a roadblock, yey. A roadblock makes us go a different direction. We get to see things differently and we get a perspective we would have missed. It's a good thing. Even though it's a pain or it's an inconvenience, that roadblock is a gift, so you have to find out. If they're a rabbit hole person, then you need to stay there, and then tell us what we can do to either help you with that or next. That's the one thing that's hard, especially for women because we're highly adaptable. We keep hoping that people will be inspired or suddenly they’ll catch on. They're just people. The value isn't there. End of story.

That doesn't mean you have to be mean. You just have to be observant. People do the best they can at the moment. Nobody says, “Let me live that moment over again so I can screw it up a little bit more.” They do the best they can at the moment. You don't know what's going on in their life. Tracey, you don't know if they’re not well. You don't know if they've got issues. There may be extenuating circumstances. If you as a leader can be empathetic, that's the number one leadership thing according to Forbes and Harvard Business Review, and not sympathy. You get it.

Did you ever, Terri, at a time in your life wonder if this is worth it? Did you ever get tired or burnout? Tell me about that.

No. As an erotic firstborn overachiever, are you kidding me? My one-speed is flat out. I'm not a yay woman thing, but it's just that when you observe, men have no problem standing up in a meeting and going, “We're going to lunch. I'm hungry.” A woman would starve to death before she might say that. We don't take care of ourselves well enough. We're girded up for the war. We have to understand that we have limited resources and we don't want to say no, so we say yes. Every time we say yes, we're saying no to self and you've only got a divine savings account of time.

You have to ask yourself, “Is this worth it for me?” If it's not, you need to switch gears. If you are that committed, look at your physicality. Are you physically depleted? Do you need a break? Women are hard-driving in many cases because they have multiple jobs. They have children, and you can't say to your three months old, “I'm sorry. I'm on break. No feeding.” You can't do that because that's part of our adaptability factor. When you understand that accommodation and adaptability are two different things, it helps you make better decisions. That's from The One Minute Negotiator with Don Hutson.

We got to stop saying, “No problem.” Start saying, “I can help you with that. It will be my pleasure.” Because when you say no problem, it sounds like it's no problem. It is a problem because you are spending time and energy. You want to give yourself value. What it comes down to is taking care of the leader so that the leader can take care of other things. Burnout, it’s your fault. You're not taking care of yourself. Women typically take care of everything else, but not themselves. It's an important factor that it's okay, not fluffy and not an eye roll that you need to take a break. Stop it. Be nice to yourself because nobody else will be if you're not.

The next one he talks about, and it dovetails nicely with what you were talking about, is abandonment. He says in The Price of Leadership, “We need to abandon what we'd like to think about and what we want to think about in favor of what we ought and need to think about.” How do you abandon the non-value-added things to stay focused on what you need to stay focused on? Because we're the consummate multitaskers. This is the area that I struggle hardest. I'm like you, I'll work until the cows come home, but not all work is good work. How do you stay abandoned to only focusing on what you need to focus on?

Here's the thing. As a master coach and look at us as leaders, we think being busy is productive. I hate to keep pulling out women here, but women are not good delegators because we know we have to dance backward in heels. We feel like we can do it. “Princess warrior. Let me on. I can do it. Buckle up. That's all you got.” The fact is it’s not true. Awareness of where you spend your time, and we do this with something called daily success habits. We give ourselves accountability for what we do and every 30-minute increments until you get into the habit of knowing that whatever goal it is that you're trying to achieve, whether it's writing a book or getting through some project that you close the door and the windows.

This is from Douglas Rushkoff's book, Present Shock because of the digiphrenia that you talked about. The technology of today's world and how we train the neurons in our brain is for that constant back and forth multitasking, which of course, makes it slower and dumber. It takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds for every single time the analog brain is interrupted to go back. I had this discussion with someone we both know and I said, “Digital is artificial. That ping-ponging of your brain for this note, that note, and this notification takes you out of where you were and that chemistry of your brain needs to go back to where it was.”

The One Minute Negotiator: Simple Steps to Reach Better Agreements

One of my favorite books is The Compound Effect, where Darren Hardy says, “Not only close your windows and your doors but time block.” I'm going to tell you if you're a high achiever and fifteen minutes ago seemed like fifteen years, do set that timer for fifteen minutes and you do that one thing. When you do that, you'll see progress and it'll start feeding what we need to keep going because it gives us the satisfaction we're getting somewhere. Overwhelmed is the biggest problem. When you're aware of what you're doing, what you don't need to do is doing that $15 an hour job when you could help and empower someone else to do it.

The other thing is you have to recognize and be honest with yourself, Tracey, when you're not going to do it. An Italian is not going to do that. You know I am never going to learn QuickBooks because I don't want to. I know I can delegate that out and hire it out. If there is a project that every time I start, I want to stop because it's painful and I know I'm wasting my time, it's not productive. You look at profit versus productivity. You block the time and understand that digiphrenia is something that can be corrected because you give yourself permission to only do one thing, and that is tough in our socio-economic world, but it is majorly productive.

I love the time blocking. You have to because otherwise, it gets away from it and there are all these time sucks that come into your life. With what's been going on, it's been a great time to move mountains of stuff that you've been waiting to do. Dad used to say, “Tracey, for all the things that I do during the day to help me be a success, if I still have one thing in my day that goes into the failure column, I need to purge. Every day, I need to die to self and push stuff off that doesn't need to be done right now.”

Some of you may be calling, “Let's do this.” Terri, everybody has these great ideas and they call you. The most important thing for me was to keep the main thing, and the leadership experts say that, too. I'm like, “I'm a woman. I can do 100 things at once.” Yes, but that's not good. You need to focus on the most important thing and just. Men are linear thinkers and they process like that, and it's why they get stuff done.

They don't have a problem delegating and they don't have a problem asking for help. Women will rethink that a couple of times because they think, “I may appear not resourceful, not creative, or that I'm slacking.” Nicely, you can say, “I'm confused. Maybe you can help me with this,” which is another negotiation tactic. The idea is to be aware of what you're doing, and then evaluate it and put yourself first. It's not going to be easy. People say, “I want to read more.” If you want to read more, you block even five minutes to read one page.

One page will get you through a book eventually. If you wanted to block that one hour for lunch with a friend to refresh yourself. We keep breathing our own ether, which doesn't make us great leaders because we don't get any contrast, refreshments, or new juice. We need to understand that time blocking is our friend. If you're a high I like I am, it's hard to block but just do it. “Succeed anyways,” Mike Rayburn would say.

Thank you for talking about abandonment. I love that you said, “If you keep starting something, and then it causes you to lose focus and go away, look at it.” The old StrengthsFinder, delegate it, outsource it, and let somebody else do it. I am finishing up my book, I get to the final part, and then I just go away. “My book that's coming out. This should be the number one thing.” I finally figured out in the back of my mind, I unpacked and there was an approval that I was thinking, “I probably should go in for that.” Once I did and got it back then boom. It's these unconscious blocks about why I don't want to do that. I love that point. Why is it that every time you know you have to get this done, you give it to somebody that can get it done or figure out what piece of it that you can fragment off to that so you can get back in the saddle? Thank you for that. That helped me.

In order to help a couple of my clients who absolutely will not lose control and they want control over everything. I understand that. No one's going to do exactly like you do. When you understand the outcome, and even if you talk about it with somebody, it's getting started. If you get started, then you know it's something you need to delegate out. Give yourself permission to be okay with that.

For the emerging leaders, that's how you continue to grow up. Co-leaders that are being brought into your life and attracted to you and your vision, give them something to do. Otherwise, they're going to go someplace else.

I love that, co-leader. I'm going to use that. Thank you.

I studied my dissertation followership and I don't think followership is a dirty word. Spiritually, it's a beautiful thing. It shows obedience and love, but for a lot of people, followership is a dirty word. I'm like, “What I mean is a co-leader.” Because a true follower will follow you in a battle to hell and back, stay with you, even when you get sick or cancer. That's more than a follower. That's a true advocate. That's your co-leader.

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now

That's a brilliant way to put it. There are people I'm going to follow. I'm going to follow people who've had experiences that I haven't because I get to live through that richness of their experience, and then interpret it for my own life. I’ll never be a lieutenant. They won't ever ask me. I wanted to be a Navy SEAL, but I don't do water boats. I love Jocko Willink. Allow yourself to be perfectly imperfect. If you want to follow somebody, it doesn't mean you're less than. It just means you’re co-leading.

The more empathetic, the more open you are and humble as a follower. That's the kind of leader you're going to be. I tell people, “If followership is beneath you, leadership is way above you, co-leader is still great.” You met Leah. She's my co-leader. She's right there with it.

Tell her to come to Memphis.

The last price of leadership my father talked about was vision. A lot of times, I can remember sitting under these great men, Norman Vincent Peale, Og Mandino, and Ken Blanchard thinking, “If only I was born that smart visionary, Steve Jobs-esque, I could be one of those people leading the way.” My dad said, “Vision is only simply seeing what needs to be done and doing it because everybody sees it but few people go out and do it.” That's who visionaries are. They see it and then there's the execution component on it. As you've been building your business, can you share with me an epiphany? Sometimes, we make vision harder than it needs to be. How do you recommend to people to see what their true vision is, which is the best version of themselves?

Vision becomes a habit. I don't care if you're walking through the grocery store and there's a box on the floor, pick it up. To me, that's a tiny inconsequential step, but it's leadership. It doesn't belong there. You see a problem and you come up with a solution. It may not be the most popular solution but it's a solution. If somebody criticizes, you say, “That's perfectly great. Tell me about your solution.” You invite people to help you with that. Vision is your constant scanning. As an engagement specialist, I constantly scan everyone I meet to find out what's the magic way to reach the real them. Not their consciousness, but the divine part of them.

In the early days, we had big events and there was somebody taking the ticket. I knew I could connect with that person in a millisecond because I would go to them. When you start practicing the art of vision and you start looking for the opportunity in that roadblock, you get better at it. You look at how other people look at things and you don't have to judge but you can observe. You can get fascinated, get inquisitive, and ask questions.

Vision is about being open to seeing the miracles which happen every day, even in the midst of tragedy and inconvenience. The fact that you have the ability to have a vision is a gift, to begin with. The fact that you are willing to give that awareness and attention away from the craziness and see it tells me that you're destined to make the next step, which is just doing it. That's probably the way I would best describe it. Make it a habit.

I love how you said it's scanning. That's an active verb. I could get a good night's sleep and see something slightly different the next day. I may have a physical or vitamin deficiency. I went through almost chronic fatigue a couple of years ago and found out what was off and fixed that. Every day, you get more information and you get more dialed in. We don't just transform. I'm it. Every day, we continue to morph and transform. I love that you talked about it. Some people are like, “I was supposed to be here. This is what I work for.” I know but now we're talking about moving on. It's this constant regenerative thing.

It's about discovery. You discover when you’re looking. That's why I use the roadblock analogy because our lives went upside down. It happens every day to people, but this happened on a more global level. It's not Pollyanna. Where's the silver lining? It's like, “How could I look at something differently?” Here's a case in point. I would never have had groceries delivered. I would have ordered from something I could pick up in the store if it was there like Amazon, but because of the contrast, I had to change how I view it.

Vision is a constant, eternally vigilant thing and it makes you fascinated with life because it puts up that diversity. If everything was the same, drove the same car, ate the same food, wore the same clothes, and looked the same, it would be boring. It's the gift of the colors, threads, experiences, and the vision of other people that makes the tapestry of your life vibrant. Look where you're going and look at what other people are doing.

Openness is the greatest key to vision because you have to see previously unrecognized assumptions and opportunities. There are leadership books on how to develop, but half the time, you're flying blind. You don't know what's coming around the corner. Look at what's going on.

Leadership In Diversity: Come up with solutions to a problem even if these are not the most popular solutions.

It's not a safe place. We like safe because it's predictable and we know, but safe is boring. I'm not saying you should be unsafe. When you're open, the gifts of the universe show up. You start noticing those red cards or those card notes, or whatever it is in your day. You've got to stop and acknowledge it so you get more, but you are what your focus is. Focus is the key. What's the solution? Be part of the solution. If somebody isn't part of the solution, find out why and see if you can help them. If not, move on because that frequency will attract more of what you are looking for. Whatever you focus on, you are, so let's rock it. It's one runway. It starts and it ends. Let’s make it fun.

Terri, thanks for sharing the price of leadership. It is a daunting price but it is the most rewarding thing in the world. I'm sure you will agree. Anything else you want to share with our readers about your journey and the price you pay for leadership?

There've been plenty of mistakes going back to kindergarten. We've made mistakes in our life and leadership, and they haunt you forever. I would wrap with this. Be kind to yourself. The worst thing we do is we beat ourselves senselessly because we aren't perfect, didn't do it right, or made a dopey decision. You can make a stupid decision when you can't see everything, when your health is off, you're exhausted or you can't see because you've been digiphrenic that you're not in the moment.

When you're kind to yourself, you give yourself some empathy first and you give yourself permission to clean it up and learn the next. Leadership is a process. You're a leader every single day. Even if you're reading this and you go, “I like being that follower,” you're going to be the leader where you follow. You can't abandon that. It's a choice, but the choice is brilliant because it gives extraordinary growth to yourself, and that's why we're here.

You learn through other people and you learn through mentors. Charlie's in every one of my programs. “At the end, you're the same person you are today. Except for the five people you meet and the five books you read.” That's what we get. We get the vortex of someone else's experience, their vision, and then we create our own which is uniquely you, so be nice to you. Give yourself a break. If you make a mistake even if it's horrific, there's something on the other side.

I love that because growing pains, you're going to have to give yourself grace, and grace is a beautiful thing. Even if nobody else gives it to you, give it to yourself because you deserve it. This is part of being in the fires. It's going to hurt and sting. Terri, where can people connect with you?

TerriMurphy.com. Terri@TerriMurphy.com for my email address. Go to LinkedIn. I'm everywhere. You just have to know it's the short Italian one because there's a bunch of us.

Where they can find your Women’s Wisdom Network?

Women’s Wisdom Network is a Facebook group. RealtyTimes has a whole segment for Women in Business, Women in Real Estate, and my favorite, In the Men’s Room with Murph, where I interview men because we're looking for people with perspective and it's irrelevant about gender. It's all about bringing their magic sauce to help us live and be our best us, so thank you for that.

Terri, thank you. It has been an absolute joy and I appreciate having you in my tremendous tribe. For our readers out there, thank you for reading. Be sure and connect with Terri, and thank you for being part of our tremendous community. Have a tremendous day.

Important Links:

About Terri Murphy

Terri Murphy understands the art of engagement through authentic communication. As a top producing sales entrepreneur in the Chicago area for over 28 years, Terri understands the unmatchable power of how to connect in a noisy and overcrowded marketplace to create powerful connections through powerful engagement in business today. Her expertise is consulting with companies, executives and associations on ways to create new relationships through cutting edge marketing and communication strategies. This includes developing innovative ways to add value and support systems that enhance networking opportunities between companies, their customers and ancillary services that build true clients for life.

As a professional presenter, Terri offers programs that include audience participation and interaction. Terri empowers her audience members and combines education with “edu-tainment” by providing practical sales and marketing strategies that build high level awareness and customer brand preference. She is a regular consultant to several major companies in the U.S and internationally and is a producer and host for television and radio programs. Terri has been featured on ABC, NBC and CNBC News as a sales expert. She is a regularly scheduled guest on WREGTV’s Live@9 for Women in Business and co-hosts Women’s Wisdom Wednesdays on KWAM990Talk Radio. and is the founder of www.SmartWomenSmarterChoices.com.

Terri is a pioneer in the development of online distance learning programs. She was the executive producer of the first online training networks, for IRTV/MUZAK and ISucceed/Entreport.com. Her expertise is in consulting and developing educational initiatives for companies, executives and associations on ways to advance skills sets and new relationships with high visibility engagement initiatives that combine both online and traditional communication and connection.

Terri is the president of Terri Murphy Communications, Inc. and CIO of U. S. Learning, a global interactive on-demand learning and training company based in Memphis TN.

Terri is the founder of SmartWomen/SmarterChoices, a coaching and consulting initiative for women in business. She is a nationally syndicated columnist, online media producer, radio and podcast personality, business coach & consultant and certified DISC and Motivators specialist. Terri is the author of 5 books on sales and leadership and is a certified DISC/Motivator specialist.