Day 96: Toni Reece … Creator of the Get Inspired! Project

January 4, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“… that’s what is so amazing about this. It’s not just my potential that is being propelled.  It’s the potential of making a difference in other people’s lives, using them as their own instrument … just exploring their own potential and having the belief that we can do anything that we put our minds to do.”

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Deb Britt: Good morning everybody.  Today is January 4, and we are going to take a little bit of a side journey.  I’m Deb Britt, one of the other team members here at the Get Inspired! Project, and I’m going to be interviewing the creator of that project, Toni Reece, who turns the big 5-0 today, January 4.  Happy birthday, Toni!

Toni Reece: Well, thank you very much, I think!

Deb: Absolutely!  I celebrated mine not too long ago as you’ll recall, so I know what’s going on there.  We thought today would be the perfect day to kind of turn the tables and get your thoughts on inspiration.

I think the best way to start off is to say, before we start, is just to get you to talk a little bit about yourself and how this Project came about.

Toni: Well, thanks Deb.  First of all, it’s really cool to have you interviewing me for this Project, so I thank you for that opportunity.

The Project just came about because there’s so many people — as we have been finding out every day with the people we’re talking to — there are many, many people out there that are doing some amazing things and that are inspiring people with the grandest of gestures to the smallest of gestures.

It doesn’t matter what they do for a living, and we all can learn from them as well as maybe help them with what they need to stay inspired.

So, it’s a way to showcase, from one person’s perspective, what they do to inspire others but also what they need; and it has just been amazing.

Deb: I would agree with you.  Being on the team as well and sharing in some of these interviews and getting them up there on the blog, I know that it’s just been amazing some of the things that come from people that you would never expect.

Do you want to talk a little bit about how  you came up with the idea of the Get Inspired! Project?  What inspired that idea?

Toni: What inspired the idea was really just … we always wanted to showcase and give people a voice to be able to say and share their ideas with others, but the idea, funny enough, came from sitting – as far as executing it – came from sitting in a movie, Julie and Julia. And when she put it up as a daily blog, that’s when it was like, if you remember that phone call Deb, it was like “Here’s what we’ll do ….”

Deb: I remember.

Toni: So we went with it.  That’s really how we always wanted to do it, showcase it, and that’s how we’re doing it.  So, that’s where the inspiration came from — a movie.

Deb: Okay, cool.  We should just get into the questions, I guess, at this point.  So Toni, when you think of the word inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you do that?

Toni: Well, I know how difficult it is for some people to answer that question, because I know that I struggle answering that question.  Because you have to take ego out of it, and you don’t want to come across as sounding egotistical.

When I think about the people that I hopefully have inspired along the way, it is the person who didn’t have their own voice, who was sitting either in a job on the floor — in the work that I’ve done in the workforce that worked in the manufacturing plant that didn’t have a voice — that no one cared enough to ask them how they knew how to do what they do –and then someone cared enough to ask them, not from a “here’s how you do it better” perspective, but “Wow, let’s talk about all the experience you have” perspective and celebrate that — to just people that personally that I deal with by being their champion.

I think that I might inspire others by my empathy and compassion, because those are two very, very strong feelings and motivators in me.  I don’t let go too easily when I’m trying to work with someone else.

I would say that those would be the people that I would inspire — those that work with me and those that I’m in a relationship with — and how I do that is by that compassion and empathy.

Deb: I can totally speak to that, Toni.  We’ve been friends for a while, but I have been on the receiving end of that compassion and empathy, both on a personal level and a business level, and I know how valuable that has been and how much it has meant to me as well.  So I can certainly understand what you’re saying, because I’ve experienced that.

Toni: Oh, thank you.

Deb: So how do you, or what do you do to help explore the potential in others?

Toni: I listen.  I listen, but I listen for the nuances.  I listen for the break, the point when someone is in front of me or on the phone or they’re going through a challenge, and it’s that point where there’s some self-doubt at play and a lack of self-belief at play, or just someone that needs a hand.  Reaching out to them and saying “Come on, you can do this.”

It’s trying really, really hard to understand where someone’s comfort level is so that you don’t push them so far out of their comfort zone that they get into a panic zone, but that you just kind of nudge them.  But some need more nudging than others and harder ways of nudging than others.

But it’s listening and being there and knowing that at that moment in time, that when they are in front of me, that they are the most important person and that they matter, and it’s not someone that’s just feeding them a line.  That it is so very, very important.

That is what is important to me.  And if I can do that for someone and transcend that to someone — whether it’s in a friendship or a professional relationship — that gives them the strength to say “You know what?  Someone does give a damn.  Someone does care.”  And they might take my hand and walk through the door.

Deb: Right.  So I was going to say, I know you do that in your business life, as a coach and as a mentor, but that does also apply then to friendships and family and people that you’re close to.

Toni: I think so, because people have said to me … you know, I get teased a lot.  In some of my professional relationships when I’ve worked inside of a business, and I’ll be in front of someone and I’ll be that cheerleader but, you know, with a professional edge to it because you also have to get them to the solution.  But it’s really their champion, and so it’s that enthusiasm and it’s that passion that they hear, and they can see that and it’s real.

So when I come back the next day they go “Oh my gosh, Toni, the holes in my hands just started to heal.”  So I have to go “Okay, okay, we’ll slow down now.”  But that’s … yeah, and I think I do that in my personal relationships as well.  It’s like “Come on, come on, let’s do this.  We can do this together.”  And it becomes just as important to me as it does for them, for them to succeed and find their own voice.

Deb: Right.  Do you feel that you’ve been this way forever, your entire life, or is it something that you’ve developed through your personal experiences?

Toni: I think those who know me and know my story know that I haven’t always been this way.  When I was a lot younger, I was very shy and very much an introvert.  I really didn’t exercise that self-belief until a little bit later, but I always found myself in situations that were unique and I would question … “I have no business being in this situation.  Why am I in this situation?”  And I had to take advantage of those, and I had to push past the fear and my own panic zone in order to keep moving forward.

And so, I think for me, I have built on my own personal experience which could create a lot of self-doubt and a lot of lack of self-belief and just keep moving forward.  That has been the hardest work that I have ever done.  And so I know what it’s like to be the underdog.  I know what it’s like to have just you as the wind behind you.  And so I get it, and so I want to give it.

Deb: That makes it so much more genuine when you’ve actually been through something and then you share with others and help them because you understand better.

Okay, so when you think about the word inspiration, Toni, what do you personally need to be inspired?

Toni: This Get Inspired! Project has inspired me.  And I have said this in conversation; it has changed my life.  I learn from others.

I am inspired by people who have been through enormous challenges and they just keep getting up.  They get up, and they survive, and they stay at the table, and they’re present.  I am drawn to that, and I am so inspired by that and the people that I have had the gift of interviewing on this Project.

To the people that have been through such adversity, but those who have started the nonprofits to those who are the musicians, the artists, the writers … oh my gosh, just the everyday people who are saying “You know what?  I know what my purpose is, and I’m living that every day.”  That has inspired me.  That has really, really changed me.  It’s been a wakeup call for me.  So that, I find inspiring.

I also am inspired greatly by the gentle things.  I am inspired by my home — whether it’s a Saturday night or a Tuesday night and it’s lit, and there’s candles and it’s soft and it’s gentle — and I know where my grown children are.  And what’s even better is when they’re here.  I’m inspired by my dining room table when I have my family around it, and I can sit back and be so filled with gratitude that everything is okay.

That’s where I find my inspiration.  From my friends and my colleagues and the belief in me is mind-blowing with inspiration, the people that have been behind me along the way.

That’s where I find my inspiration.

Deb: Okay.  I appreciate what you’re saying, because I’ve been in your home and to me it’s a very magical place.  I love coming to your house in the evenings when all the candles are lit.  It gives me goose bumps thinking about it, because it’s so magical, the feeling there.

Toni: Well, thank you!

Deb: It has a lot to do with you.

Toni: Thanks, Deb.

Deb: You’re welcome.  Okay, so when you are exploring your own potential, what do you go to or reach for?  What do you need to explore your potential?

Toni: I need to get out of my way.  I need to learn from others.  I need to read.  I need to be able to remove myself from the daily work environment and be out among other thinkers, other people with a sense of urgency about life and about their purpose so that I can learn from them and then explore my own potential.

That’s what this year has been about for me, and that’s why turning 50, starting this year, the Get Inspired! Project, The PEOPLE Academy, it’s all moving.  I feel as though it’s almost beyond me, what’s happening, and the potential – not just my potential.

See, that’s what is so amazing about this.  It’s not just my potential that is being propelled.  It’s the potential of making a difference in other people’s lives, using them as their own instrument, using … just exploring their own potential and having the belief that we can do anything that we put our minds to do.

I work very hard, but sometimes I haven’t worked hard on the right things, and my sense of purpose is stronger.  My resilience has just become almost iron-clad, and I need to move in my potential but also with others by my side so that we can make the difference that I know that we’re experiencing right now.

So that’s what I need.  I need to keep learning from all of these people that keep showing up; and then I need to dance with them so we can move forward.

Deb: That sounds very cool, actually.  I was thinking as you were speaking, it really has been eye-opening, the interviews that have been here on the Get Inspired! Project and how much commonality we all have no matter where we come from in this world.  It is very inspiring, and it’s made me think very much about how my life is and inspired me to make some changes, actually, and I think it’s a gift to the people that come to the site.  I know that everyone is very grateful to you for having that wonderful idea as well.

Toni: Thank you.  It’s really something.  So here’s to learning from others and the wonderful collaborations I have presently, that I will have in the future, the gifted people that I get to work with, and gosh, it’s just really something.

Deb: Well, this is a great way I think to celebrate your 50th birthday, and I’m so glad that you’re in my life.

Toni: Thanks, Deb, and thanks for interviewing me for the Get Inspired! Project.

Deb: You’re welcome. I was a little nervous but I think it’s gone pretty well.

Toni: Take care, thanks.___________________________________________________________

For more information about Toni Reece:  www.thepeopleacademyinc.com

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