How To Be Outrageously Successful in Business From a Master Vistage Chair

Intro  0:00

Welcome to the Growth + Exit podcast, where owners of privately held middle market companies talk about founding, scaling, and exiting their businesses successfully. Learn how to maximize and monetize your business on your own terms, let’s get started.

Heather Bennett  0:30

Hello, I’m Heather Bennett, a business advisor, marketing strategist, and board director, and your host for the Growth + Exit podcast, featuring middle market owners and experts talking about founding, growing, and exiting their businesses on their own terms. Past guests include Jody Jankovsky, founder of BlackLine, Arlin Sorensen, and Kelly Schrad, founder and chairman of DataVizion. This episode is brought to you by Newport LLC, a team of seasoned C-suite executives who help CEOs of privately held companies grow, de-risk, and exit their businesses successfully and on their own terms. Newport LLC is a winner of the prestigious Inc magazine 2025 Power Partner Award, a list of elite B2B companies from across the globe. To see the entire list, go to inc.com/power-partner-awards to learn more about Newport. Visit us at Newportllc.com or find us on LinkedIn. Before introducing today’s guests, I would like to thank my friends at the National Speakers Association, especially Marti Konstant and Mark J. Carter, for introducing me to my guest a few years ago. You can find Marti and Mark on LinkedIn. Today’s guest is Mikki Williams. Mikki Williams is a global celebrity speaker, a certified speaking professional, a member of the prestigious Speaker Hall of Fame, a TEDx speaker, a transformational storyteller, and listed in Forbes as one of the top executive speech coaches, she was chosen as one of the best speakers in the US by meetings and convention magazines, along with Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, and Jay Leno. Mikki is a former award-winning Vistage speaker, the world’s leading executive organization, and master chair of two of their peer advisory boards, and is now honored as chair emeritus. Just when she thought she was semi-retired, she went viral on social media with over 1 million views, and is now officially a digital content creator, aka an influencer at the young age of 82 based in Naples, Florida, this busy entrepreneur also runs speaker schools, the Mikki Mouth Club, Kino Camp, Outrageous Orators, and she has spoken in every US state, every Canadian province, and every continent except Antarctica, where she can’t wear her signature stilettos. Her business is anchored in her signature philosophy, which I know she embodies fully, having met her and heard her speak. Be outrageous, it’s the only place that isn’t crowded. Mikki, welcome to the show. It’s an honor to have you here.

Mikki Williams  3:15

Well, Heather, thank you so much. I’m excited about spending time with you today.

Heather Bennett  3:20

Awesome, so let’s get right into it. How did you get started in the business of speaking?

Mikki Williams  3:29

I think you know I have to gather my thoughts for a second. With 11 careers, all of a sudden they jumbled together when you asked me that question. I was, I had just sold my last business, which was a health club, and for the first time in my life I had no idea what I wanted to do. Every business I started, I had one leg in exit and one leg in the next field, and this time I had nothing. So I took a year off. I did well from my sale. I decided to just figure it out, and really I did it by such a scientific method, I took a piece of paper and I divided in half. On the left side of the paper, I wrote down the objectives for my next career. I figured if I didn’t know what it is, maybe I could back into it. And on the right side of the paper, I listed all my talents, hobbies, interests, and passions, and I looked at the two to get that proverbial aha, and nothing happened, and in the course of the year I picked up the paper and put it down, and then finally I did get the proverbial aha, but on the left side of the paper there were four objectives. Number one was travel, I had never really traveled, I’d always been tied to a facility or my family. Number two was glamor, I like glamor, I come out of a show business background, so I’m not going to be sitting in some accountant office or nothing against accountants, but I just like glamor. Number three was unlimited financial opportunity, no financial glass ceiling. It was going to have an upside where my skills, talent, and my tenacity would give me one. I wanted, and number four was people, because I love people. So, I had these kind of generic, kind of specific objectives, and on the right side I had eclecticism, I had cooking and dancing and fitness, and all kinds of different things. And then the aha was I thought I at that time they were opening spas in California, destination spas, and that was my first aha. I thought, well, I could do that. I was in fitness, I was in cooking, so I went back to college to get my master’s degree in hospitality management. They did, they gave me half my master’s for life experience, so I start doing that. Now I’m about midlife, I’m late 40s, and I’m thinking, well, I don’t want to climb the ladder and find out it’s against the wrong building, so I decided to go out and practice what I’m learning in hospitality management, and then I kind of pimp myself out to our local Hyatt to work in the hotel atmosphere, and I liked it, but it didn’t have all four objectives, and I was not going to settle, so I started networking in the hotel industry, and people would say, well, I said, what else do you do in the hotels, besides the obvious? And they said, well, we work with meeting planners. I said, well, what’s a meeting planner? I said, these are people that get hired to plan meetings, so they get wined and dined all over the.. Oh, that sounds very glamorous. Okay, so I fly to Washington, D.C. I get certified in convention and meeting management. Poof, I’m a meeting planner. And then I start planning meetings, and quickly I realize it’s a very behind the scenes logistical job, and that’s not me. Look at me, that’s not me. So I started asking meeting planners, what else do you do besides planning? We hire speakers. Well, what do you mean? What’s the speaker? You know, the people who address audiences. I said, well, I’ve done that in every career I’ve been in. When I was in fitness, well, you were an industry speaker. I said, well, what do you mean? He said, we hire professional speakers. I said, what’s the difference? Professional speakers get paid, really. And there you have my new career.

Heather Bennett  6:59

That’s amazing, and I love that it came at a point where you had already worked in other businesses and careers, and you had, like you said, that that life experience, which gave you half your masters, and I think that’s something that we need to pay attention to, especially now when things are changing so dramatically in post-secondary education, and how people are learning, and what the job market’s even going to look like in five years, who knows, and and so I think that idea of going out and just getting experience and applying that is so important. So all right, so you’ve started this out, so and I know speaking business is tough, like really tough to get into, so why do you, why do you think you were so successful? What did you do that that helped you get to that success?

Mikki Williams  7:49

Well, let’s go back to my mantra, Heather, about be outrageous, and back then I was beyond outrageous, I was flamboyant and outrageous, and when I went to my first NSA meeting, I was not well received at all. I thought they all thought I was a one night wonder. Look at the way she dresses, look at the size of her hair, look at her jewelry. And so it was not a very auspicious beginning. Other than one person, it was a very famous referee who passed away a year or two ago, Jim Tunney, who was a speaker, and his assistant, Nancy Hirsch, was the only person who befriended me at that first meeting and believed in me, and we kept in touch, and you know, I just said this, I told you I was just on a British wire, and she asked where my fashion sense came from. I had a mom who instilled a lot of confidence in me as a little girl, and I think that has always helped me being my own person growing up, not caring what other people think of how I dress or what it looked like or what I do, and so when I went to NSA, I was just being me, authentically me, and it didn’t fit the mold. So that was, you know, I’m sure a lot of your listeners can identify with that, that discrimination is not only by a gender or sex or color of your skin, it’s by the way you dress, the way you look, or anything. And fast forward, I love this part of the story that I don’t know what, 17 years later, maybe I was being inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame, and I hadn’t seen Nancy Hirsch since that first year, and she was the first person I thought of, because how full circle was that from my beginning to being in the Hall of Fame, and I found her in her 80s in California, and I flew her in for the ceremony, and it was very, very special. A lot of people still remember it, that I was able to honor her that night as being that one person who believed in me, and that’s all it takes, one person who believes in you, and I also got my sweet revenge and my acceptance speech in a very professional, classy way, but I got

Heather Bennett  9:47

1. Oh, and that’s so true. I think there is, there’s also a power in being underestimated, which I think may have played a role for when you started your speaking career. I’m sure. Couple of the times when the curtains opened, or you walked on stage, whatever audience or industry, whatever group you were speaking to, went, “Wait a minute, actually, it’s a

Mikki Williams  10:09

story of my life, it’s in every business I’ve owned, and more so in the speaking business, and I loved it, and I played off of it, because you know what, I knew that after 15 minutes of their judgment that I was going to have them in the power of my little hand, and that was always a fun thing for me, because I am authentically who I am, and authenticity plays well in every area of our life, if people can just be who they are, and I, I found that over and over and over again,

Heather Bennett  10:38

that is beautiful, so I know you talked about earlier how you’ve built and exited a number of businesses, and that’s always an interesting thing, being a serial entrepreneur. You said your mother gave you a lot of confidence to be authentic, but where do you think that desire and that drive to be an entrepreneur and to build, and not just build, but build and sell businesses, where did that come from?

Mikki Williams  11:02

I think I’d have to go back to the fact that I’m not risk averse, as most people are. I also embrace change, as most people don’t. That’s been my experience, and tragically, I think it comes from the early part of my life. My husband was sadly killed in a car accident when I was 29 and I was left with a two year old child, and no money, and no job, and the old cliche saying, well, what’s the worst thing that can happen? Well, for me it did, and so I’ve always approached everything else as, what’s the worst thing that can happen? So the fact that I am risk free and change embracing, I think it just takes away from the fact of why I start businesses and don’t worry about whether I sell them or I walk away or I close the door or how much money I make or any of those things that I know plague a lot of people who build businesses and sell them. I’ve been asked that question before, and that’s the only answer I could really come up with. I wasn’t born that way, I think circumstances in life has made me that way, willing to take chances.

Heather Bennett  12:06

I love that, that’s it’s such an important part of the entrepreneur’s journey, is is that balance of risk and decision making, and then having the guts to go through with it. Yeah, so which one of your businesses do you think you’ve learned the most about business from,

Mikki Williams  12:23

oh, that’s an easy question. Because simultaneously, while I was a professional speaker, I was also a Vistage speaker, Vistage being the world’s largest executive organization. And then one day they called me up and said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve been nominated to be a chair, and I said, ‘No, no, no, you’ve got me mixed up. I’m one of your speakers. I had no aspirations or visions of that, and I did wind up becoming a chair for 20 years, very successful master chair with lots of awards, and I loved every minute of it. And I think I grew so much as a person and as a business person by coaching all these CEOs and key employees, there’s no doubt my, my whole persona today, with my expertise and my growth, I attribute to those years of coaching the execs, running the businesses, and being involved in their personal and professional lives, and learning along with them.

Heather Bennett  13:21

That’s amazing, so and let’s talk about that. As a Vistage chair, from what I understand, what that is, is you are working with executives to help them grow their businesses, and a lot of times they are the CEO, they are the founder. What are some of the greatest lessons that you learned from those Vistage executives? about business.

Mikki Williams  13:45

No, I think I came to appreciate with again the cliche of work-life balance. There isn’t any, because I’d watch and learn and listen to what some of them were doing, and again, a lot of it had to do with the age of theirs themselves or the age and stage of their businesses, so a lot of my, you know, a lot of Vistage chairs. I classify them in three categories from my own experience of being with the organization for 20 years. You have those that are very data centric, they run their groups that way, it’s all about charts and graphs and percentages and numbers. You have those that are holding hands and singing Kumbaya at every meeting, and then you had me, which took a balance of both of those things and tried to create and work with the whole person, not just their business title. So, just because you were the CEO of Open Arms doesn’t mean that you’re not a dad or a son or a brother or something like that, and I think I learned a lot from myself personally by looking at them as a whole person, and then reflecting it back on my life in terms of what they’re doing right or what they can improve on, and I would apply that to myself.

Heather Bennett  14:55

That’s amazing. And did you see patterns in terms of. You know the leaders that you worked with, like, what, what leadership skills, what traits often indicated that they were going to be successful. I know you mentioned the ability to change,

Mikki Williams  15:11

yes,

Heather Bennett  15:12

and having that agility. I think that’s part of it, but, but what are some of the other ones? When you were, when you think about, I mean, that’s a long time to be a visitor’s chair, and you’ve worked with a number of executives. What skills, what traits? What did you see when you would meet those people that you’d be like, oh yeah, this one’s going to be successful.

Mikki Williams  15:31

Absolutely. Well, next to being as a, as you just mentioned, decision makers, you could tell in an interview whether someone, whether they say yes, I want to be part or no, as opposed to I’m not sure, I have to think about, I got to talk to my spouse, etc. So decision making to me is bottom line in terms of a characteristic. I also like and look for competitiveness, you know, as well as the camaraderie gene that they, I wanted them to have. It was very important to me that I was not looking just at business expertise but also at personality. Consequently, one of my greatest compliments, and I just had dinner last night with one of my former CEOs, is that I have a great ability to curate people, and I have found that I have accepted that confidence because I just came back from going to Canyon Ranch with 13 girlfriends who had never met, who also just fell in love with each other, and someone used the same expression. You have a unique ability to curate people, and I think it’s because I, again, I looked at that whole person, I wasn’t looking, I need an accountant, this person’s really good in math, I wanted to know that they were fully rounded, and consequently they made lifelong friendships. They weren’t just a vestige group, you know, leaving or explaining, and they never left. The retention was there when I retired. They’d been together for almost as long as I’d been a chair, and I think that shows something about

Heather Bennett  16:58

1. Okay,

Mikki Williams  16:58

very tough. I must tell you that, and they would tell you that too. Accountability was the big driver in my group, and I’m very good at holding them accountable. You know, that can be a very intimidating group, executives, and some have really strong personalities, but I think the other thing that I learned was the importance of it, and how it helped them in their lives and businesses. Again, kind of shining back on me.

Heather Bennett  17:24

Absolutely, there’s two words I think about when coaching executives, and it’s, it’s really accountability and coachability.

Mikki Williams  17:32

Yes,

Heather Bennett  17:33

can you get them where they’re going? And if you don’t have both of those,

Mikki Williams  17:38

well, that was easy for me, because I was very good at firing,

Heather Bennett  17:41

good.

Mikki Williams  17:42

Yeah, you know, I had a lot of rules around attendance, around participation, around, but I also did it in a very Mikki-ized way. It was fun, you know. If you were late to the meeting, you had to sing. They didn’t want to sing, so you know, if they were late in posting online their monthly summary, they had to send an apology to the group, you know, if we had a new member, they had to be a host and sit with them all day. So I took a lot of it from the way I was brought up and what I think is really proper behavior and put it inside the group as well. And again, I would watch people, I’d go as a speaker, you know, I had a real advantage, Heather, because I was a speaker and a chair, so I had a 360 view of what went well and what didn’t, or as I like to call it, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I’d go to a meeting and I see they have a new member or prospect who’d be just standing around and I thought that’s terrible, that would be like someone coming to a party at your house and no one walking up and introducing themselves or anything, so I took a lot of my, my values from my upbringing and my own life experience and applied it to the group dynamics, and I think that’s what helped them stay together. They stayed because they were so well bonded with each other, and we had a lot of rituals, and I believe rituals create bonding.

Heather Bennett  18:57

Oh, that’s so important. I do think every executive should learn how to throw a party, a dinner party. I think that would teach them a lot about people, especially when they think about building their executive committee or bringing on new C-suite members. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, it is a unique talent. So, it’s so good to hear you have that. I’m not surprised. So, tell me about some of your proudest moments in business or in life. Oh, we could do both. Let’s do

Mikki Williams  19:31

one of each. Oh, in business, you know, I would have to think, and I’m not sure I know the exact one, but I, well, let me back into it. I just came off, as I said to you, taking, you know, 12 girlfriends to Canyon Ranch. It’s my annual goddess birthday trip. We go somewhere different every year, and people asked, you know, how was that for you, for your birthday, and everything. I said the greatest part of it was I felt like a mother taken. 13 kids to Disneyland, watching them get so excited about their first experience, and that truly from my heart, and I told them that the last night we kind of sat around the fire, what was this week like? They had never been there, and the experience was mind-boggling for them, and I got so much joy out of that, and I think that I see that pattern in my life and my businesses that whatever I create, because I am a creative and I love organizing, the joy of it is getting that reward of other people’s experience of what I’ve created for them. I don’t know if that answers your question or makes sense, but that’s what really came to mind.

Heather Bennett  20:42

I just think that’s a wonderful way to celebrate your birthday. That’s great, and it’s such a gift. Okay, so business wise, proudest moment,

Mikki Williams  20:52

proudest moment, business wise. You know, I’ve received a lot of awards in business, and I have to say every one of them are very special to me because they honor some kind of achievement or anything like that, and you know the one that comes to mind of all the awards was one from the United Nations as the outstanding Connecticut Woman of the Decade, that was pretty high up there with awards, but no different than one of my executives selling their company for more than the value of it and giving me some credit for helping it grow to that level, so none of them, whether it’s a tangible award or an intangible, like a feeling, really stand out as the one I am so blessed by, so many of them and by so many experiences that I’ve had throughout my lifetime, you know, I remember in my professional speaking career, I was speaking in Israel, did a tour of Israel, and the last day they took us out in jeeps into the Negev Desert, and once we’re so far out in the desert you couldn’t even see horizons, like being on the on the ocean, they stopped, and we got out in front of this giant rock formation, and we walked around it, and they had set a formal table, tablecloth, crystal, and china in the middle of the desert as our last meal, and my going away gift was a picture of this formal table in the middle of the Negev Desert. I have experiences like that, that I just don’t take for granted, you know. I reflect back on at 82 I reflect back on a life really well lived. I’ve had some, you know, at this point with some time I’m going through photos and, and things, and I’m going, wow, I really did have a pretty cool life.

Heather Bennett  22:41

That’s amazing, and you talked about, so we’ll talk about what’s next, but before that, so, so transitions, you decide to, you know, you’ve had a great run with Vistage, and you’re ready for something different. How, how did that come about? What was the trigger, or, you know, what happened when you were like, okay, you know, I’ve really made a big impact. I’m ready to let that go right now.

Mikki Williams  23:06

The answer to that question, which is a really good one, lies in the fact that I’ve had 10 different companies. I’m very goal-oriented, and I set goals, and I, I hold myself accountable, and when I get to my goal, one or two things happen. I feel really accomplished and know it’s ready to move on, or I’m just bored, and I know it’s ready to move on. And I’m always good at letting go. I, again, that’s a hard thing for a lot of people, but that goes back to embracing change. I never look backward. I always look forward, and even this year I’ve been doing speaker schools for 30 years. I’ve trained most of all the top speakers in Vistage, and in October, that’s going to be my last school. And you know, people are already saying, How do you feel about that? Once I make my decision, I am, I’m good with it. And the same thing with Vistage, when I left Vistage, when I left speaking, I have maybe a one or two year rumination process, should I, shouldn’t I, what if, what I have already, and then I wake up one day and I know, I just know, and then when I say I know, I know I’m done, and there’s no regrets, and no, if I look back, I look back on what it was, not what I think it could be, or what I didn’t do, or anything like that, and I’ve always, you know, I’ve three people looking to buy my speaker school, I, I sold most of my businesses, few I closed the door, one was a real bomb, so I’ve had my share, I think I wrote to you, I’ve had a C corp, an S corp, a partnership. I’ve had everything, which was probably what qualified me to be vested to chair. I don’t know,

Heather Bennett  24:49

absolutely kind

Mikki Williams  24:50

of my answer to that.

Heather Bennett  24:52

That’s fantastic. So, what’s next?

Mikki Williams  24:56

You know, that is the best question of all. Uh, semi-retired. I hate that word, retired, but you know, once I gave up speaking in Vistage, I just kept coaching in speaker school, and I was fine with that. And then one day I was having coffee with a friend who said, ‘You should go on TikTok. I said, ‘Why would I do that? That’s for 20 year olds. She said, ‘Because you’re very inspiring, and these young people need inspiration, you know. Look at you, you’re 82 Look at your energy, you look at your fitness, look at the way you dress. And I thought, I’ve never even seen TikTok. So I go home that night, and I call a 17 year old neighbor, and I said, Okay, come over, we’ll make a video for TikTok. I still had not even looked at it, so I didn’t know what it was. She comes in. She said, “What do you want to make it on? I said, “I don’t know. What do people do on Tick Tock? Well, they just talk about life, anything. I said, “Well, I’m comfortable talking, that’s not a problem. Do you want to change clothes? No, I like what I’m wearing. I’m fine. Well, what’s interesting in your house? I said, my closet. I made a room, a bedroom into closet. She’s all right, let’s do that, and without even thinking, because you know, as a professional speaker, I don’t have to think, I so she turns the microphone on, which is simple for me, and kind of goes, okay, go, and the first things out of my mouth are, Hi, I’m Mikki, I’m new to TikTok, I’m a natural 82 year old, welcome to my closet, she calls me a couple hours later, and she says, ‘You’re trending. What does that mean? I don’t even know that word. She said, ‘That means you’re gaining people, they’re watching, and they’re sharing it. I said, ‘Oh, that’s that’s nice. The next morning, she calls me up. She said, ‘You’re over 1.2 million. And, without going any further, skip to now. I am a full-time digital content creator on all the social media platforms, TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and YouTube, and you name it. I got a manager in Boston, an agent in LA, a PR firm in Connecticut, and I got a new career that is outstanding.

Heather Bennett  27:00

Believe it or not, not surprising, given, and I love that you start in your closet, that’s such, like, a signature, like, start from that, like, place of authenticity,

Mikki Williams  27:10

I’m, I’m learning the lingo. What are your pillars? My pillars are beauty, fashion, fitness, and lifestyle, and those are things I’ve kind of been an expert at all my life, because it’s the way I live my life, so I’m having fun, and indeed it’s so much like professional speaking, Heather, because I, it’s the same thing, instead of getting an evaluation, oh, you did so great, I loved your speech, you inspired me to, I get it every day, you know, I get it, especially the, they’ll write things like I see my future and it is bright, or they’ll just write goals with an exclamation point, and it for me that’s what it’s always been about. It’s about inspiring people, it’s about legacy, it’s about the best thing that I could do to make my mark on this lovely planet, or this gift of life that I had is to inspire as others, and so I’m having a ball.

Heather Bennett  28:07

I love, I love that. Okay, so any, what should your followers be looking for you to bring to social media in the next, we’ll say, six months? What are you excited about sharing with them?

Mikki Williams  28:23

It’s a great question, because in some ways I’m still trying to figure this out. This is only five months in, and there’s so much to learn, and that’s the hard part for me. I don’t want you to think this is easy. The technology side of it that comes so natural to these younger folks does not come natural to me, and I don’t really enjoy that part, so I’m still trying to figure that out. I just joined Link Tree and Shop by, and all these things that I’m learning. It’s a, it’s, it’s a growth curve that I don’t think I’ve ever had this steep, and what I.. and I’m also finding my footing. Yeah, they love those four aspects of me, I want to put more of my speaking, my storytelling into some of my videos, you know, a lot of these videos are very short, my stories aren’t, and so I want to start bringing more of that in, and they also write what they’re looking for, you know, they want to see my skincare routine, they want to know my fitness routine, they want to know where I shop, how do I put my outfits together, and some about my life. So I’m trying to still trying to find my balance and my footing as to what they want, not necessarily. I used to say this, I still do, to all the speakers I coach, about don’t should on your audience, it’s not what you think they should know, it’s what do they want to know, right? And so and in some ways I’m trying to figure that out, and and stay growing as I do that, and as long as I see, you know, I think I have 52,000 followers right now, and over 400,000 likes, and stuff, and again, I’ll go to AI and go, is it good if you have a. Because I have no perspective on this industry, so in some ways I’m so naive, and I’m learning as I’m going and growing. That’s really what it’s all about.

Heather Bennett  30:09

That is outstanding. That is outstanding, and it sounds like this is what you’re passionate about and what you’re trying to do next, which is, which is great. I will be, I’ll be watching to see how this goes, because it’s, it’s a very exciting place to be, and the fact that you can influence so many more people than just a, you know, a group from Vistage, or just a, you know, a room full of people as a keynote speaker, this is so far beyond that, and that’s, I think that’s wonderful that you’re able

Mikki Williams  30:39

to, yes, someone said that to me the other day, it’s almost like you’ve come full circle. And excuse me, you’re not just speaking to 1000s, you’re speaking to millions and billions now, and it’s the same process in a sense. So that’s what I’m trying to embrace, and I’m also more inclined on the other side of it. I love the aspect I’m getting collaborations and partnerships and sponsorships with brands and gifts, and that’s the glamor part that I always like in my objectives that I’m starting to really enjoy and really excited about making some of these these ads for these big companies and getting into sponsorship, so I’m getting now it’s starting to swell, and I’m in, in the inundated every day by opportunities, which are really, really exciting to me. So I’m embracing it, and we’ll see where it goes.

Heather Bennett  31:34

That’s fantastic. Okay, so Who are your mentors? It sounds like, since you’re embarking on this new career, who are your mentors, or who have your mentors been in the past, and what was their best piece of advice to you?

Mikki Williams  31:50

It’s a question I often get asked, and there’s really only one person I know I’ve had many, but there’s one person that stands out more than any, and when my husband had passed away, I was doing choreography for community theater. I was a professional dancer, as I said, and so as a wife and mother, I still wanted to be involved, so I was be choreographing a community musical, and I was doing that for Fiddler on the Roof at the time, and the director was a woman named Brenda Lewis Cooper, who was a very famous opera star during that period, and I remember right after the accident she came over the house and she said something to me about how much time you’re going to take off and I said I remember it was a very grief-filled time for me, but she was a very strong woman, other than my mother, this is the biggest role model, role model, mentor that I can think of in my whole life. She was like, get up and get out, you got coming back to work, you’re young, you’re 29 you got a two year old kid, you got a whole life ahead of you, you don’t have time to sit here at what I mean. She just spoke me in a way that nobody else ever did, and she, I think, she changed my life in that period, just by who she was and what she said, and, and her confidence. She was a role model before women were really role models, or really strong personalities, and stuff. So, when people say, “Who are your mentors? She’s just the one person that I, I always focus on, because it made such an impact in my life

Heather Bennett  33:22

that’s wonderful. It’s wonderful that she was, she was able to be there for you when you needed just that advice.

Mikki Williams  33:28

Yeah, and you know, in Vistage, also, there’s a wonderful group of women chairs, you know, we’re a small minority in a sea of male chairs and a male organization that’s mostly male members and stuff, and they’re also supportive, and I think I could almost name all of them as mentors in some way. Of how do you navigate through this male-dominated field? How do you become the female to all the male executives? So, how, what do you do at your meeting? How do you run your one to ones? So, I think along the way, there’s no one, but so many of the women chairs were mentors to me in that process, and in the speaking industry, none, none were supportive to me, except Nancy Hirsch, though I built that business by the seat of my pants, my confidence, my wrist, my change, and stuff, so I’m not giving credit there, but after a while, after acceptance came in, when they saw I was a force to be reckoned with and not someone to be laughed at, then there were a lot of people who were very supportive and were very helpful. So it’s a, it’s an umbrella term for me, more than it’s naming the individual people,

Heather Bennett  34:37

that’s wonderful. So, what are a few of your like daily rituals? What do you do to, because you are so incredibly impactful and high energy, and you’ve built so much and helped so many people? What are some of the daily rituals? So maybe this is something you could do on one of your TikTok videos that you do every day to get yourself ready. Me to be that awesome business person,

Mikki Williams  35:02

and I love the question, because I mentioned even with my group rituals, I just believe in rituals, call them habits, you know, at Canyon Ranch this week, they went to a course called habit stacking, which is a little bit like rituals, and mine are some are simple, some are more complex, so I start the day I get up and I go to get the coffee that my husband has ready for me. I come back to bed, I put on a mask and I meditate for 10 minutes. After the meditation, I read the book that I’m reading of the week. After that, I get down on the floor and do my planks and some basic exercises before I go to the gym, but then I get back up in bed. Now the coffee is cooled off, and I’m drinking it while I’m checking all my social media accounts, and so that’s my morning ritual. Then I get dressed to go to the gym. I go to the gym every day till from eight in the morning till noon, and then I, my day is then in the office from noon to six, and then we live in a very active young community, so social events, and yeah, that’s kind of my daily ritual.

Heather Bennett  36:11

That’s amazing, and I’m hearing so many of the things that a lot of the entrepreneurs and founders I’ve talked to, you know, that dedication to fitness and health, you know, having those moments, whether it’s with a cup of coffee or something, where you can just meditate, think, so very consistent with what I’ve seen with the successful founders I’ve interviewed, so very

Mikki Williams  36:36

funny, because you know, I’ve written several books over the years, but I’ve never finished my memoir, which I’ve been asked about forever, and I’ve tried every method and every person who’s tried to help me in every way, and I finally I am in full swing. I read this in small habits, I think, or something, something that triggers you to do what you know you have to do or don’t want to do. So, number one, I am now dictating my memoir into AI, who’s called George. So, George greets me, “Hi, George, ready for next chapter? But the trigger is when I hear the door close when my husband has left, I stop whatever I’m doing, and that’s my habit trigger to get me to go to the computer to dictate the memoir, so that’s been very helpful for me, is both of those, the fact that I can dictate, because it’s easier for me to speak than write. I like writing, but it takes too much time. I’m much more efficient speaking. Yay, finally I’ve been writing this memoir for 30 years, and now it’s going to be like War and Peace, because I’ve waited for so long.

Heather Bennett  37:41

That’s phenomenal, and yes, you’ll have to let, please let me know when it does come out, so I can support you.

Mikki Williams  37:47

Everyone will know when it comes out, just

Heather Bennett  37:49

we’ll get you back on the podcast, so you can support your book launch. I would love that. So I have one final question, and Mikki, this has been so much fun, I could talk to you all day. So one last question before I ask it. I want to point people to your website at Mikki williams.com and of course, all the social platforms, which just such a great adventure. I’m so, I’m so happy for you. It’s so exciting. So, the last question, what

Mikki Williams  38:18

before you do, let me say this. My website is my speaker and Vistage website. It’s a placeholder. I have it, although you can still register for the October Speaker School on it, but other than that, it’s been a placeholder that I’m now working to redo. And in my industry, as I call it now, it becomes what’s called a portfolio, still a website, but a portfolio. So, more importantly, for people who’d be interested, would be some of my handles on some of my social media, but what’s interesting too is my TikTok with my main one, which is at Mikki Gogo, and my friends nicknamed me Go Go, because obvious, right? So, at Mikki Go Go, but most of my friends will go, “I’m not on TikTok, of course. You’re not, you’re too old. So, they’ll say, ‘Well, I’m on Instagram. Okay, that’s easy. Mikki Williams Unlimited, UNL-TD. Well, I’m not on that. Okay, you’re older than that. You’re on Facebook, or you’re just business. You’re on LinkedIn. You can find me by my name on all of those, but it’s been a funny sequence to try to.. well, I’m going to join TikTok because I want to watch those videos, that kind of thing. Anyway, sorry. Closing question. And thank you. Many great questions, it’s been a lot of fun. Heather,

Heather Bennett  39:29

oh, I’m so happy. This is, and yeah, so we’ll make sure that the production team gets all of those included in the show notes, so you’ll get lots of new followers.

Mikki Williams  39:38

Thank you.

Heather Bennett  39:39

The last question, what is a hard lesson you learned while starting and growing your many, many successful businesses that you’d like to help other CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders avoid?

Mikki Williams  39:52

It’s actually an easy question for me. I’ve been asked it a lot, and I don’t know if it’s the answer people would expect. It’s listen to everybody, especially mentors, people you respect, people who are more successful, and let that sit. And after it’s all done, listen to your own instinct. It’s played out for me over and over and over again, because I do what somebody else does, it just doesn’t fit. If I listen, just because they’ve made a lot of money, it doesn’t feel right. So I love having all those people who share their success, or their mentorship, or their advice, but now I’ve learned that when I take it and listen to my own instincts, I’m always right.

Heather Bennett  40:43

That’s great advice, really good advice, Mikki. Thank you so much for sharing your story, your insights, your experience, your energy. I’m so very grateful for you.

Mikki Williams  40:56

Thank you, Heather. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Great questions, great conversation. I’ve enjoyed myself, and I hope your listeners do as well.

Outro 41:10

Thank you for listening to the Growth + Exit Podcast, sponsored by Newport, a unique national business advisory firm. If you enjoy this show, be sure to share, like, and subscribe for future episodes.