[00:00:00] Podcast Intro: Are you ready to change your habits, sculpt your destiny, and light up your path to greatness? Welcome to the epicenter of transformation. This is Mic Unplugged. We’ll help you identify your because, so you can create a routine that’s not just productive, but powerful. You’ll embrace the art of evolution, adapt strategies to stay ahead of the game, and take a step toward the extraordinary.

[00:00:29] So let’s unleash your potential. Now here’s Nick. 

[00:00:34] Mick Hunt: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Mick unplugged. And today we’re diving into the world of conscience, leadership, personal transformation, and the power of embracing the perfectly imperfect. Our guest is a visionary who’s redefining success and empowerment, blending neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and spiritual wisdom.

[00:00:54] Elevate and expand the lives of leaders, visionaries, and entrepreneurs worldwide. We’re going to explore the journey of a remarkable figure in the realm of coaching, speaking, and transformative change. Please welcome the incomparable, the powerful. Kelly Lynn Adams, Kelly, welcome to the show, 

[00:01:13] Kelly Lynn Adams: Nick. It is an honor and a privilege to be here.

[00:01:16] Mick Hunt: I love it. And you know how we do, Kelly. We like to talk to our guests about the power of their, because the power of their journey. And, and one of the things that I love following you is no matter what you keep going, no matter what you have a message that’s clear. And that’s what I love, right? Like Kelly is, is dynamic.

[00:01:33] Kelly is powerful. So I’d love for you. Briefly to talk to people about your journey, like who you are, what you’re doing and why Kelly is Kelly. 

[00:01:42] Kelly Lynn Adams: Yes. I love that Mick. And you’re so absolutely right. I would say resilience is my superpower and just from all the struggles and I’m sure everyone listening will have a struggle or two, however, my journey started on wall street, climb the corporate ladder then for 20 plus years in the fashion industry and retail.

[00:02:00] And I was doing finance strategy and HR and I burnt out, landed in the hospital. Cause I was overworking. I had a work addiction and I always wanted to be like recognized, right? The harder I worked, the more recognized I was. So was out of work and out of commission really didn’t get out of bed for two months.

[00:02:18] And I was like, what am I doing? And at that point I was climbing the corporate ladder and I was building my coaching and speaking business. So I was working all the time, but I did, I did play hard as well. And I got to make a decision. I was like, what does Kelly want? What, what am I here for? And it was really to leave a legacy.

[00:02:36] I know that sounds very general, but leave the legacy for the next generations to come, but I wasn’t modeling that. And so I really got to do more of the healing work around a lot of my struggles and triumphs and overcame them. And then I went full time in my. Coaching is speaking business. And there’s a whole lot I could tell through that journey, but yeah, I’m just, I’m really here to, to make an impact, right?

[00:02:58] I think there’s so many people that are struggling or going through things or that really want to amplify their life. And you can, anything’s possible. 

[00:03:06] Mick Hunt: That’s right. I always say behind every influential leader, there’s a powerful, because there’s, there’s that moment. I know you were going there, right?

[00:03:14] Like there’s that moment, like there’s that why behind the why what’s Kelly’s because like what drives you every day to empower others on this journey with you? 

[00:03:23] Kelly Lynn Adams: My because is just to love people so deeply, even when I’m coaching and speaking, it’s like this yearning that I see in a lot of people is just, they want to be loved.

[00:03:32] We all just want to be loved. And a lot of us are going through certain things, right? Like I just went through a passing of my grandma, my last grandparent. And so we’ll have these things in life that come up. And sometimes we’re not seizing the moment or, you know, it’s, it’s just, I think, and in coaching, this is what I’ll step back and say, there’s three things that I always tell my clients that people want.

[00:03:57] They want to feel seen. They want to feel heard and they want to feel acknowledged. So what does that all boil down to? It’s love. So that is my mission is really to like lead with love and every situation that I enter and every room I enter and every conversation I enter, even if it’s a tough conversations.

[00:04:14] Cause when I coach, I am tough, but it’s in the service of transformation. 

[00:04:18] Mick Hunt: I love that. I’d love to go a little bit deeper on seeing, heard and acknowledged. And for everybody that is listening, I’m writing a bunch of notes and I hope you are too, because Kelly’s dropping a lot of good nuggets here for us.

[00:04:29] So break that down. They want to be seen. They want to be heard. They want to be acknowledged. Like, how do you go deeper into that? 

[00:04:35] Kelly Lynn Adams: Why do we do what we do? Why do you do what you do? People buy luxury items. Why? Right. I come from a luxury space. A lot of times it was like, Oh, to feel a certain way to impress someone else, to enjoy the luxury, right?

[00:04:50] They want to feel that, that scene or that acknowledgement, that importance. Being heard, sometimes, right, you and I both know that when we speak, sometimes we can speak and have all the greatest intentions, but it’s actually what the other person hears. So I might be talking on this podcast right now and people may be listening to their own consciousness or their own perspective.

[00:05:12] However, it’s really great to be like, okay, what did you hear? Cause I think a lot of people, I’m not going to speak for everybody, but sometimes they’re not heard or they’re not listened to, or they’re not shown appreciation and love. And it can be in the professional setting and the personal setting. And sometimes we just go through life, right?

[00:05:30] And there’s so much noise now, right? With social media, Amazon, Prime, Venmo, like it’s AI, all the fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. And so it causes right this, well, do you see me? Do you hear me? Do I even matter? And so that I think to the core is like the love, right? Like, I just want to be, I just want to be loved.

[00:05:51] And it’s also the conversation of, am I good enough? Am I worthy enough? And so whenever I dive deeper with clients in a coaching situation or even in conversation, it’s like, am I loved? Am I good enough? It’s like that always comes up to some level. If we really dive deeper down and the answer is always yes, because you see a baby when we see a two year old, right?

[00:06:14] We’re like, oh my gosh, it was just, it’s just pure love, pure love. And so we were all two years old at one point and then, you know, life, life, and we start to experience life and things, you know, happen for us because when we come and I like to talk about, and I’m sure the listeners know about like the dash, it’s that poem where you enter the world and then you leave this world and then everything in between you create your own dash.

[00:06:39] Life is the dash. So it’s like, how are you living your life? And if you’re not feeling love, how can you actually give it to yourself? So it’s also like a conversation of, can I reparent myself? Can I actually give myself what I need now? Once that is answered and we’re all going to have like those moments, there’s seasons where I’m like, Oh, I don’t feel loved.

[00:06:58] I don’t feel enough. I don’t feel confident. I don’t feel worthy. And it’s like, Oh, let me remind myself. I was a two year old, I was, you know, I am the baby, I am the child. So I know we’re getting down kind of a rabbit hole, but I think people really need to hear that because a lot of times either we’re getting beat down or life is lifing and we’re different seasons, like some people might be flying high right now.

[00:07:19] And it’s like, every day is the best day of my life. And then some people are like, you know, I’m, I’m just getting through it. And I always like to say, there’s not a bad day. There may be a bad hour. There may be a bad minute. But we can always change. We have the power and the choice and the decision to change in every moment.

[00:07:35] So that’s what I really, when I was going through, when my grandma was like dying, it was a really tough situation. And I was like, okay, like there, I was seasons every day. It was like a roller coaster. It’s like, I get to choose. I get to feel my feelings. I had to go through this experience and I get to also.

[00:07:53] The in celebration of life. So it’s a choice and, and, and the powers and the perspective always. 

[00:08:00] Mick Hunt: Yeah, yeah. That’s awesome. I love that. And, and following like, like I do and seeing all the things that you’ve either published that you’re doing on social. I know that love, trust, family, and connections are core to your values, right?

[00:08:16] Like they’re your core values are core to your heart. How do you use those values and how do they shape your approach to coaching and leadership? 

[00:08:23] Kelly Lynn Adams: Yeah, I always say. The person in front of me is the most important person, or I’m going to stage the people in the room are the most important person, right?

[00:08:33] So really leading with those values and making them non negotiable. So if something comes in and it’s like, nope, that it’s not aligned to my values, I can make decisions quicker. So it’s an intuitional thing at this point. I always tell people, listen to your intuition. Cause you can have a mentor, you can have a coach, you can have the person who is the master genius of X, Y, and Z, but if it doesn’t sit well with you, and that’s why it’s like always know what your values are.

[00:09:01] And if you don’t know what they are, you kind of know what your gut says, right? In each situation. So even if you don’t have these like five or three core values, It’s like, okay, what, what am I feeling in this moment? So that always leads me whenever I take opportunities, whenever I’m asked something, however I move in the world, it’s like, okay, what is true for me?

[00:09:20] And I take a step back and then I decide from there, but intuition has never steered me wrong. And I just always trust. And sometimes I have not trust myself. And it’s been a situation of rebuilding that trust with myself and not having, Oh, if I made a wrong decision, Not making me bad or wrong or anything like that.

[00:09:41] So that has also been a lesson for me. 

[00:09:42] Mick Hunt: I love it. So I know you talked about resiliency being one of your superpowers. I think one of your other superpowers is helping individuals break through glass ceilings, as you like to call it, right? Share a story of how you’ve helped someone conquer something that they didn’t believe that they had in them.

[00:10:00] Or, you know, you talk about having bad moments and days and how you can get someone out of that, right. And get them to where they need to go. 

[00:10:07] Kelly Lynn Adams: Yeah. So one of my clients, very successful, she was actually speaker and very, very successful. Like you would never, you know, she had it all together, right. Or the outside of when you look outside in.

[00:10:20] Yet she was very, very like traumatized actually to not traumatized, but she was every time she entered a virtual room or a stage, she would, she would actually be like, okay, who is judging me right now? Like it was this overwhelming sense of. Who’s judging me and, and it was like getting in the way of her talking and speaking and really showing up fully even to the point where she was looking also like at her, like just her image, how much she weighed, what she looked like, what her hair looked like, it was holding her back from a lot of things.

[00:10:54] And so again, diving deeper, it’s like, okay, well, what, what is occurring here? Right. And we found out it’s like, okay, some of the things happened in childhood. Right. And that like the bullying, there was bullying going on. There was all these things. And so that’s why, like the things that are happening for you is really to strengthen you, you know, for the resilience.

[00:11:15] So when we found out where it was stemming from, what I do in my coaching is I do a little bit of what we call like experiential coaching, where it’s like, okay, we’re going to actually face the issue with the issue, right? So it’s like building that muscle. So what we do is I had her speak even more, right?

[00:11:32] Go to more events, get on more stages till it was like, Oh, that, that muscle of confidence and because she did it over and over and over and over again and lowering the noise in her head. So it was more of like, uh, what’s in your head, but also practical being in the situation. My whole premise is it’s definitely mind, body, and soul.

[00:11:53] Like, I think the mind is powerful and the body, and the body is equally powerful and the soul. Right? So it’s putting all those three in alignment and then just doing the thing. So she overcame that. She, and that, that’s what I would consider a breaking the glass ceiling. Also, you know, I work with women in making more money and their glass ceiling of break.

[00:12:12] Okay. What, how much more do you want to make? But it’s really who you’re being people like, okay, well I want to get to the million dollar mark or the billion dollar mark. It’s like. Who are you being in order to get to what you want to get to? 

[00:12:24] Mick Hunt: I’m going to take that a step further because one of the things that I tell people is where I ask of them, is this something you want or something you must have?

[00:12:32] Because if it’s something you must have, there’s an inner grit that drives you to get there. If it’s something you want, you write it down, but you don’t work towards it. If it’s a must have. And that’s really going to drive you to where you need to go. So I parallel that with you completely. 

[00:12:46] Kelly Lynn Adams: That is definitely a drive.

[00:12:48] And it’s like, because at the end of the day, when we all die, no one’s going to remember us like two years after or 10 years after. So it’s like, what impact? And that’s what drives me. It’s like, what impact do I want to make when I leave this earth? Like what is the mark that I want to leave, but also in my life, like every day, like, how am I creating, how am I being a ripple effect in other people’s lives and in this world right now?

[00:13:11] And you find that everyone has that grit. Everyone can call upon a moment where they’re like, Oh no, I’ve gotten up to, I’ve gotten this far. I can do it. Right. And some people like in the brain and I’m sure you know this, right. The brain deletes and distorts and then is like, okay, I’m going to find everything that, why I can’t.

[00:13:30] It’s like, nope, finding evidence every day, becoming like an FBI agent of the evidence of what you have overcome to get up to the point because everyone, I don’t care if you’re in a state of huge depression right now, you have gotten up to this point. So you have gotten here. Yeah. And I love to tell people that, or really, you know, show people too.

[00:13:51] And myself, like I’ve gone through huge anxiety and depression, but it’s like, you know what, Kelly, I’m going to find evidence of how I’ve gotten up to this point and wins and accomplishes and really celebrating. And that’s another tool that I bring my clients through is like, can you celebrate and appreciate and gratitude and all of that, like every single day, even if it’s for like five minutes or a minute or 20 seconds.

[00:14:11] Mick Hunt: Yeah, you have to celebrate small wins. We’re all winners at heart. And if you don’t celebrate the small ones, you’re only looking for big ones, which don’t come as frequently as the small Wednesday. So I totally love that too. And for those that don’t follow Kelly, definitely make sure you’re following Kelly, because one of the things that I love and I want Kelly to unpack this, you talk about the role of inner freedom.

[00:14:34] Right. And personal freedom is something that is constantly woven into your work. So talk about that inner freedom or that personal freedom and how you’re guiding your clients into this 

[00:14:45] Kelly Lynn Adams: story of actually what an exercise, one of my coaches had me do, and, uh, you know, I’m, I’m here, I’m speaking, I’m coaching.

[00:14:52] I’m showing up. Everyone thinks, Oh, if you go to my social media, you’re so visible. You write for articles and all the things. And so my coach is like, he’s like, you’re not being visible enough. I’m like, what do you mean? Like there was something still like, like the judgment of people. And still there’s like that layer, right?

[00:15:06] We all like, Oh, like am I being judged? So what he had me do was he’s like, no, I want you to act like a fool. Like, like who cares what people think? So he had me go on this. Was it five? Yeah. Five day challenge where I had to act like a fool. I had to pick a playground where children were in the prime time.

[00:15:26] And literally scream and jump and dance and like that, like act like really wild. And so, and I had to videotape myself and so, and then like send it to him. And I was like, I’m not doing that. Like I’m a 40 year old. I am not doing that. I’m like, why? That’s so embarrassing. I’m like, what if they think I’m, you know, legit?

[00:15:46] Like what if the cops think I’m crazy? So the first day I drive to a park, You know, children’s park and there was a wedding going. There was a Sunday wedding going on all these people. And I’m like, I am not getting up. It took me an hour and a half to even get out of my car. And then, so this is when I was like, Oh my gosh, then it took me another, got out of the car, took me another 45 minutes to get into the park.

[00:16:07] And then, and then I was waiting for like the wedding party to leave. I was waiting for like all these people to like die down. No, just more people kept coming on a Sunday afternoon. And I was like, I am not. And then I saw a cop like walk, you know, the park ranger, whatever. I’m like, I am not doing this. So I was like, Kelly, just do it.

[00:16:21] Cause I, I owed this video. I screamed, I dance, I act like a fool for a minute. Cause I’m like, I, this is like ridiculous. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it was like a full, that’s why I said body and mind. Sometimes the mind is saying, no, I’m not doing that. Mind is like, that is not safe. That is not comfortable.

[00:16:39] But, and the body’s like holding me back. Day two, you know, day three, day four, it actually got easier. So I didn’t get out of my car. I waited 30 minutes to get out of my car day two. And I did the same. I didn’t go to the same park. So what that did was like, Oh, I don’t care. People were looking and people were like, what does she do?

[00:16:58] You know, I’m sure it was like, I don’t care. Day five came and I was like in the middle of the street. I didn’t care. Like I was just like, whatever. It’s day five. I’m going to do it. And I don’t like, and so it just opened up this internal freedom of being like, you know what, you’re always being judged.

[00:17:15] We’re being judged right now. The brain judges for safety and security. Like, is that a threat? Is that not a threat? So you will always be judged. So if we’re always being judged, how are you going to create a path that has you be as free as you can? And there’s different layers to it, right? Because right now, if someone was like, okay, go do this, you know, there’s different layers to the.

[00:17:38] It’s not like, oh, I’m, I’m all about inner freedom. It’s like, but I’m chipping away at it. And that’s what you get to do right in life. You just become more. And I don’t know, for me, I found the older that I’ve gotten, I’m like, you know what, the less cares I have. Right. 

[00:17:53] Mick Hunt: I love it. That’s, that’s awesome. So What song were you singing?

[00:17:57] Oh, no, I had a 

[00:18:00] Kelly Lynn Adams: scream. And there was no song. There was no like behind anything. There was just, I had to scream and jump and like celebrate. I was like, oh my gosh, this is, that’s what I’m like. They’re gonna all think I’m crazy. And I would challenge the listeners, you know, where can you really step into a little bit more freedom?

[00:18:18] Cause that is shattering your own glass ceilings too. It’s another layer. Like where do you care? Where do you feel like you’re being judged or where can you just do something so spontaneous? And we don’t want to, you know, don’t get fired or anything or don’t, you know, but we’re in that freedom, right?

[00:18:32] Exist and live within you because again, going back to the two year old, they don’t care, they play with sticks and dirt and they like, and they don’t, they just, they’re just, they’re just free. They’re just. A lie. Right. So we all, 

[00:18:45] Mick Hunt: and no one judges it to you, right? Yeah. So they’re not going to judge you.

[00:18:49] That’s, that’s Kelly’s message. No one’s going to judge you. One more thing, Kelly, you talk about conscience leadership. What does that mean to you and how is that evolving? How are you seeing conscience leadership evolve in society today? 

[00:19:01] Kelly Lynn Adams: What it means to me, conscious leadership is that everyone has coming in with their own perspective.

[00:19:08] So how can we listen more? How can we understand more? Even if we agree to disagree, how can we just be more loving and more empathetic in everything that we do? So it’s just being more open and listening, right? And just being curious. Like, Oh, I wonder why that person is acting the way that they are, or I wonder why that comment was made, or I wonder why that action was taken.

[00:19:32] So just with that level of consciousness of just being curious, like, can you be curious even if someone maybe triggers you or rubs you the wrong way or get curious about it? So to me, that’s what consciousness and conscious leadership is like, that’s one layer of it. And one level is, can we get curious?

[00:19:51] Cause you are going to have things that. You know, rub you the wrong way or trigger you. Cause we’re all, we’re all, we all have different perspectives. So if we can just be more curious and listen, emotions will come up, but just get curious even also when those emotions come up. So that’s what it means to mean.

[00:20:06] And I see that in the world. And some people are like, well, I don’t see that, right. But, and it’s also what you choose to focus on, right? So if you want to focus on, say you want to drive a white Mercedes Benz, And you put that in your consciousness, I bet you today, you’re going to see five white Mercedes Benz and wherever you go, if you go outside, right?

[00:20:24] So it’s, it’s okay. It’s training yourself to see the world, how you want to see it and then create that. And cause we’re, we are always creating, we are consciously creating every moment. So how can you consciously create? And then be that ripple effect in the world. 

[00:20:40] Mick Hunt: I love it because I tell salespeople almost that same thing every day, right?

[00:20:45] If you’re trying to elevate your sales career and you’re trying to grow, you’ve got to look in different places because if you only see thousand dollar deals, that’s all you’re going to see. That’s purposely all you’re going to see, but if you want to start doing 100, 000 dollar deals, half a million dollar deals, go start looking for them.

[00:21:01] And I promise you, that’s all you’re going to see, but you have to have the confidence and the courage to start looking bigger. So, for salespeople for leaders out there, start looking bigger. And the more you focus on it, the more that that’s all you’re going to see. So I love that. 

[00:21:15] Kelly Lynn Adams: Yeah. And that’s shattering your own glass ceiling.

[00:21:17] Right. It’s like how, what’s the, what’s the next ceiling that you can go to, to then like, okay, yeah, what’s possible. Anything. Cause it’s all out there. The million dollar deals, it’s all out there. 

[00:21:26] Mick Hunt: What are three tips? That you would give the listeners or the viewers right now. Like what are three things that people can do if you’re trying to break that glass ceiling and whether that glass ceiling is depression, a new career, finding your purpose, right?

[00:21:41] What are three tips that Kelly would give people today to break your glass? One 

[00:21:45] Kelly Lynn Adams: curious to do something different. That could just mean getting outside for five minutes, change, change something up, do something different. Number three, love yourself unconditionally. 

[00:21:57] Mick Hunt: That’s the big one that got me right there.

[00:21:59] Kelly, love yourself unconditionally. So for everyone listening, it starts with loving you. If you don’t love you, how can anything else? How can anyone else we can love that Kelly was awesome. So how can people find you? Where can they follow you? What’s the next thing you haven’t, what’s the next thing you have coming up?

[00:22:17] Kelly Lynn Adams: Yeah, I have a lot of things coming up, but everyone can just go to my website at Kelly Lynn Adams. com and then go from there. 

[00:22:24] Mick Hunt: And we’ll have the link in the description of the podcast drop too. So everyone Kelly Lynn Adams. com Kelly, thank you for being amazing. You’re awesome. You’re a rock star. I can’t wait to evolve our friendship.

[00:22:35] Like you’re one of the people that I follow the most on, on social and loving everything you did on, on LinkedIn and Instagram. So thank you for imparting wisdom in me, even though you may not know it, but I appreciate you. 

[00:22:47] Kelly Lynn Adams: Oh, thank you, Mick, for having me. This has been an honor, truly. And thank you so much for all you’re doing with this podcast.

[00:22:52] It’s absolutely incredible. 

[00:22:53] Mick Hunt: I appreciate you for everyone listening. Remember. Your because is your superpower. Thanks 

[00:22:59] Podcast Outro: for listening to Mick Unplugged. We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launches a revolution in your life. Don’t forget to rate and review the podcast and be sure to check us out on YouTube at Mick Unplugged.

[00:23:13] Remember, stay empowered, stay inspired and stay unplugged.