Episode 119: Rhonda Parker Taylor

Rhonda Parker Taylor

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the pretty powerful podcast. where powerful women are interviewed every week to share real inspiring stories and incredible insight to help women or anyone break the barriers, be a part of innovation, shatter the glass ceiling, and dominate to the top of their sport, industry, or life's mission.

Join us as we celebrate exceptional women and step into our power. And now here's your host, Angela Gennari. Hello,

Angela Gennari: welcome to another episode of the Pretty Powerful Podcast. My name is Angela Gennari and I'm here with Rhonda Parker Taylor. Hi, Rhonda.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Hi, thank you for having me. I'm so excited. I can't wait to talk to everybody about how we can really just break our own barriers and stop.

Holding ourselves back.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. Yes. Amen to that. So I want to introduce you to Rhonda. So Rhonda Parker Taylor is an American writer, entrepreneur, and academic [00:01:00] researcher known for her expertise in emotional intelligence and leadership. Author of this suspenseful bestseller Crossroads and George endorsed by JJ Hebert and Mariel Hemingway.

Rhonda combines her passion for storytelling with a strong academic foundation. She holds an MBA and a bachelor's degree in science management from Indiana Wesleyan University and is pursuing a doctoral degree in business. As the founder of Intelligent Solutions, Rhonda provides training, research, and business writing services, drawing on over a decade of experience in business and leadership education.

Very impressive.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Well, thank you. Thank you. And it's so wonderful to be here and I can't wait. I just really can't, you know, as we talk about all the things that we talked about in pre show, I know your audience is just going to love this.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So I want to start by diving into the book because But writing a book has been just one of my bucket list items in full transparency.

[00:02:00] Um, tell me all about it. How did you become inspired? What, what made you want to do it? And, I mean, how do you get these amazing endorsements? That's amazing.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Well, first It came from my own need to be the best version of myself. Oh, that's great. I had had problems with writing all my life, and it was all because of detail oriented issues of, I'll say self diagnosed ADHD.

Uh huh. And, um, I, I wrote a proposal in business. This is when I worked for someone else. I wasn't an entrepreneur then, and it was a multi million dollar project. Ended up implementing everything, went fine, but my boss called me in. And said, do you know you used the wrong insure on the memo?

Angela Gennari: Oh, interesting.

Okay. So insure versus ensure? Interesting.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: [00:03:00] And so, you know, I was mortified. I was absolutely mortified. And I, at that moment, I said, I am going to be the best version of myself from here on out. And I'm going to be a best selling author one day. Because it was like One of those things I loved to read, I loved fiction.

That was my passion in my off time. And it's like, you know, this is something that I need to do for me. Yeah. And so I sat down it and I, everybody out there that wants to write a novel, I have a a formula for you. One day you sit down one page a day and it's done in a year, 365 pages. There you go. You can cut brilliant.

You can cut some of those pages out when you do the editing process, but if you just did one double space, page 200 words. And so I sat down and I started [00:04:00] doing this and I originally I thought Crossroads was just gonna be a suspense novel But then I realized I was putting so much into practice of what I did every day I had made all I made all of the characters out of balance with their lives.

Workaholic. We have the, um, law and order guy. We got the one that's dedicated to friends. And, and so I had made them all out of order. And you know what they say when you're, when you, when you're not in life balance. Things happen to you and that's exactly what happens in Crossroads.

Angela Gennari: Interesting. Wow. I love that.

So, does that come from, you know, just maybe, was it inspired by anything that was happening in your life? Was it just something where you had this vision of like, I think this is what people need to hear in this moment? Because I think that there's a lot of value in fiction and that it teaches you about life even if you're reliving it through someone else.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: It was a [00:05:00] little bit of all of this. So I

Angela Gennari: thought

Rhonda Parker Taylor: it'd be all about the criminal justice system being unjust.

Both: And

Rhonda Parker Taylor: as I developed the characters, I used a model that we use a lot in medical, which is, um, a soap note. So they, where you do all of your, the history of yourself physically, you know, for each character, everything emotionally, and they go through all of the processes.

And then I did a DSM 5 analysis of each character. So when I did that, I thought, you know, I kind of pulled back and realized, wait a minute, I can really make an impact if people are reflecting on this backstory. And the backstory is nobody's in balance.

Both: And.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: So you get them in the room trying to do a jury trial and they have all these issues that they have to deal with.

One needs, wants to get back to work [00:06:00] as fast as she can. Wanting to, you know, get the verdict and so you've got all this and so I realized I had a model that I could duplicate in another novel. And that is if I have a self help issue that we always want to do, life balance, I could then turn around and share what I do with my clients in a workbook.

Interesting. So then you do the crossroads. And it's this fiction novel about, you know, um, that's like an Agatha Christie clue. And you're not really realizing so much that it's all about life balance. You just realizing you got these characters, but then you realize in the end that you are relating to them like, like your, your neighbor, your friend, the person, you know, next door, you know?

Right. So, yeah. It's fun. You kind of get drawn into it. And that's why Meryl was [00:07:00] so intrigued with, with it is because she's all about mental health and life now. So then you can go ahead and you can create a world of case studies. You've got your fiction people that you, that I've created and that I've become friends with too.

And then I, I can help solve other people's, um, issues with their life balance and help them create the world to make them more intentional.

Angela Gennari: Very cool. And I love the focus on intentionality and life balance and emotional intelligence. There's just, yeah, I just think it's not talked about enough. I think everybody thinks that they need to have their life a certain way.

And, you know, as Americans, we just get drawn into work, work, work, work, work. And then I talk to people from Europe and they're like, yeah, I take a monthly vacation. And when I'm off, I'm off. And like, it just seems so beautiful to me. And. But yeah, in, in America, we're very much into grind mentality. And so I [00:08:00] think, I think that's a really interesting way to bring to light life balance through fiction and through entertainment.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Yeah, and when you do that, think about how when you want to do that for yourself, you want to make sure that you're doing something that makes you have joy and happiness, until you do that reflection.

Both: Yeah.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: You're not going to get anywhere with your own life goals. So let's reflect about the characters and what their issues are.

It's so much easier than looking at our own issues, but I can say each one of the characters have a portion of me. There've been seasons in my life that I've been the workaholic. There's been see, especially as an entrepreneur, all of us out there, we're, we're trying to break the glass ceiling. Get out there.

We're trying to prove our worth. You know, I grew up in the 80s. So that was the first real generation that could go out there and, and try to make a name [00:09:00] for themselves when, as a woman. And, you know, now you've got this new format that you can do, but we have to also make sure that we have seasons for the other things too.

Your emotional health, your mental health, your physical health, your, you know, social connections. And if we don't have those, then we lose ourselves in the process. And we really become a clone of what the world has told us we're supposed to be.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. Absolutely. I see it all the time. And especially in my, you know, circles of entrepreneurs, we are, we are terrible at any kind of, you know, self care and, um, that's becoming a big problem, you know, for, for our mental health.

So, but yeah, so I think that that's brilliant. I think that, you know, giving somebody A lesson through fiction is a brilliant idea, uh, a way [00:10:00] to bring it to light without actually, you know, making it look like a self help book, even though it is. Yeah,

Rhonda Parker Taylor: because as you're going through it, so then the other backstory that I wanted to put is, I, we're, we just talked about emotional intelligence and how important it is, is I picked three, emotions that are betrayed in the, um, in the book.

One's anger. The other is fury and envy. All three cause a crime. And so in Proverbs, it says, Anger is cruel. Fury is overwhelming. But who can stand before jealousy? Envy. The bones rot, and so I was able to pull those three emotions where each the characters are showing them at different times and you realize, Hey, I'm not so pretty when I'm angry either.

I'm not so great when I'm furious. And when I'm watching social media and comparing my life. [00:11:00] I'm destroying my own life.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. And your own ego and your, yeah, you, you start to question, am I in the right place? Am I doing the right things? Am I keeping up? So very interesting. So, um, the other thing that I think is kind of fascinating about you is you have this dual brain thing going on.

Um, you have a. You're pursuing a postdoctoral or a doctoral degree in business, but also you study emotional intelligence. And, and I think that those things can be a little bit different because one is more of like the, um, I guess, creative when you're talking about emotional intelligence and you're an academic researcher and you're a fiction writer, and then you're also pursuing business.

And it's just such an interesting dichotomy. So what about business? What was drawing you in? Well, I was raised by entrepreneurs,

Rhonda Parker Taylor: but the storytelling and that grind comes naturally for me. [00:12:00] I never, I think I resisted it being about money, being about profits, being about processes to a certain extent and went into education first and um, became a campus director and um, you know, things, things are fine, but life sometimes has other.

important callings for you. And what I found is those soft skills. I really didn't like the numbers part of it, but I loved the soft skill part of it. So the training, the development, the mentoring, the HR, all those wonderful aspects, which also align with the emotional intelligence. Mm hmm. I really loved it.

So when I had a life hit moment, which we all have at some point, and it could be someone's, you know, relationships falling apart. They may have built [00:13:00] this in their family. In my case, it was a young man that I had adopted and he was at work and got shot and killed. And it was very difficult for me to go and be around that same age group every day, right in the twenties.

So I said, where is my value in this world? Mm-hmm . And that's where I found my peace. When I started that entrepreneurial journey in 2009 and took off, I realized that I was. given a gift and that was to train, develop, counsel, mentor people. And so I opened up my consulting company and started my own, my, my own, um, organization.

Angela Gennari: So when you start a consulting company, you're jumping right into entrepreneurship. And as you mentioned, you come from a family of entrepreneurs. So how did that help it or hinder, you know, cause [00:14:00] sometimes you come in with preconceived ideas of what business is going to be based on your, you know, experience, or did it help you in giving you that foundation?

Tell me what the process was like for you.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: I think it helped me.

Angela Gennari: Mm

Rhonda Parker Taylor: hmm. It helped me, is it made me realize that you don't get, my dad used to say, I had five miles to feed. I had, I had no, um, choice but to succeed.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: And so when you realize that you make it work, and you've, you know, if you fall down seven times, you get up eight.

You know, and if you have to get up early to meet a deadline, you get up early. There's just, we make it more difficult sometimes

Both: in

Rhonda Parker Taylor: fighting what really is natural to do, and that is be successful, be the most excellent person that we are, because we hold ourselves back with that self talk. And no, I didn't have a lot of financial [00:15:00] Backing to do it.

So I had to make it work in other ways social media wasn't big in 2009 Oh the Craigslist was and so I and I Realized very quickly that you could you could market and all 50 states With just a a phone call and a code.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely

Rhonda Parker Taylor: I was able to get to get the word out I started working with different people that that were students that had been students of mine and I've never had to look back, but it's that process of understanding that Entrepreneurship is about building value And whatever the product service that you have, if you have value to people, they will come.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. I am into that because I say that all the time. Like if people come into entrepreneurship with the idea that they just [00:16:00] want to make money or they just want to have a flexible schedule, it doesn't mean their business is going to be successful. You have to come in and. Think about what value are you adding and why would somebody buy from you?

It really has to be about the other person, not you. And so if you're trying to solve a problem, then, you know, and the problem is you just need money, then, you know, you're not really solving any problem for anyone else. And that's how businesses become successful.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Are you, you know, that's a big one. I hear

Angela Gennari: I just

Rhonda Parker Taylor: work from home.

Yeah. Does that mean you can actually work when you're. A lot of people can't, you know, and, and what does that look like if you have a client coming?

Both: You

Rhonda Parker Taylor: know, um, what are the things, and yes, there's, there's different ways to navigate that. There's, there's, there's meeting rooms all over the world that you could, you can do this from if you want to stay from home, but, but the value is what gets them.

That's where, where if you can't add [00:17:00] value to somebody. Individually, or an organization, it's not going to work. It's going to fail.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, absolutely. So kind of talking about adding value, uh, storytelling is one of the ways that you can really kind of sell that value, right? So if I am a great storyteller, you will, you will want to understand a little bit more about my business.

So how do you incorporate storytelling into what you do and how can entrepreneurs incorporate storytelling into that?

Rhonda Parker Taylor: I will, I will actually give you an example. Everybody listening, close your eyes. And if you woke up tomorrow and everything was exactly the way you wanted it, and it was perfect.

Now, get on Amazon, shop, not literally, pick it, that world out, go, put your processes in order, put that world, put [00:18:00] that world together as an entrepreneur. Once you get that, what are you doing today that actually matches that?

Both: And

Rhonda Parker Taylor: most of the time, none of it matches. You know, because the, the miracle question that's used in psychology is intended for us to make a blank slate.

And then you put the processes and you put the, you know, the world together like it should be.

Both: Mm hmm.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: And then, you look at what you're actually doing, and they typically don't match. And that would also be for your own joy.

Both: Right.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: You know, many a times we'll be sitting watching television, but we really enjoy music more, or we enjoy cooking more, or whatever it might be.

And so when you, when you create that blank slate, and if you have a team, you could do the same thing. Yep. You woke up tomorrow and everything here was perfect, [00:19:00] what would it look like? And then compare those processes, that idea. And you might find that there's some great things that are out there that you're missing and some things that people are like X ing out because they're not working and they're not verbalizing it.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, and that also leads into core values because, um, you know, when you're looking at envisioning your life, you know, generally that's going to align with your core values. And, you know, if you're doing something every day and either the core values are not in alignment or, um, you know, the vision that you have for your life is not in alignment, you need to reevaluate, you know, what it is that you do.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Exactly. Exactly. And. That if, if you have not done the self discovery for self, it's very difficult, difficult to even have your core values of work. I always in my self help, the journey [00:20:00] life balance book, one of the categories is your integrity. What if you have not created a plan for your integrity, you will one day be one of those employees.

Whether it's for yourself or someone else, that's faced with the decision like an Enron situation and you make the wrong decision because you've created a synergy that has no teeth to your integrity. To what you believe. You're going to fudge here. Or you're going to stretch a chart there. You're going to do something that doesn't meet the value that you, that you really say that you stand for.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. So kind of going into the core value, let's talk about leading with purpose and authenticity. Because I feel like this is where, you know, going, I'm [00:21:00] reading something actually I'm reading a book on emotional intelligence right now and it talks a lot about the authenticity, you know, leading with purpose, having your core values aligned and all of that is really relative to, you know, how do you spend your day?

How do you, you know, how do you interact with people on a day to day basis and is emotional intelligence, um, one of the tools that you are using to really develop. other people and to care for people and to, you know, exhibit your core values. So can you talk to me about leading with, with purpose and authenticity?

Rhonda Parker Taylor: I would love to, and bring the emotional intelligence piece in it. First thing about the emotional intelligence, I did a very large study for the UN Global Compact Committee of the United Nations. And it was comparing multinational leaders, leaders that are either CEOs. are vice presidents of work positions in more than three countries.

[00:22:00] And then the domestic leader, who is a, a CEO or a vice president in just one country. And what, what we found in that study is that not only were the four characteristics of emotional intelligence important, which is interpersonal, intrapersonal, um, stress management and general mood, which there's 21 characteristics that fit underneath it, were they important?

But those who Incorporated the emotional intelligence model was able to lead the organization with intention, which meant they would walk in the room and be able to control the emotions and the feelings in the room from the very get go. We have a typically we try to do a transactional exchanges leadership.

So we think of it almost like a parent role. We will do this and this is what [00:23:00] we're doing next and what do you think about that? Oh, is that what you think? Okay. Well, we're gonna do it this way and we never get that synergy quite in there Where we've got not only our own biases checked in our emotions where we can't we really want cookie cutters of each other When we do that, we eliminate the collaboration that the intrapersonal characteristics can have for us.

The intrapersonal is like the empathy, the putting each other in each other's shoes, the ability to have social responsibility as part of your model. And when you do that, when you actually can get to that Second step, not only are you walking with intention, you're embracing a model of collaboration that allows problem solving to occur.

Then you can need to go into the third model, which is stress management. [00:24:00] You can put all the decisions out there and people are still going to be stressed. And are they prepared and are you prepared to manage that stress or are you going to have impulse control problems and hide behind the desk as a leader and not want to answer any questions on how it's going to work or what, how we're going to solve the problems, or are you going to be able to manage that and have the answers and get and make people feel like the change is where we need to go.

If you can't fit it. fit those first three in, then you can get to the fourth one, which is the general mood turns to optimism. If you don't have optimism, then you have, you know, um, negative norm. And change doesn't occur or it's resistance to change throughout the whole process.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Yeah. I've seen that quite a bit.

I've seen that within organizations where, you know, everybody's on [00:25:00] board, but you have one or two who have decided they want to, you know, kind of detract from the progress and the goal and they will slow the entire team down. And so, you know, getting that mood shift right is important. Very, very important.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Exactly. Exactly.

Angela Gennari: So I, this emotional intelligence book that I'm reading suggests that EQ, emotional intelligence, is actually becoming more important than IQ in the workplace. I'm curious to know your thoughts on that.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: I 100%.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Interesting.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Um, and a good example would be the multinational leader generally had a higher score than the domestic leaders.

Interesting. Okay. Every one of the 21 characteristics except for one,

Both: which one

Rhonda Parker Taylor: self impression of self thought more of themselves. [00:26:00] Then the, then the multinational leader that was able to navigate, you know, different cultures, different performance issues, different, you know, um, staffs. Um, Um,

Angela Gennari: um, so they're uh, starting to do more emotional intelligence test and not just looking at IQ, because they find that people who have a high EQ actually have an easier time leading, because a high IQ sometimes equates to social awkwardness and an inability to be empathetic.

So there's just a lot of interesting, um, studies that have been done recently about EQ and it's interesting because I don't remember people talking about EQ that long ago.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Daniel Goleman is the very first person and I, I will slaughter the, met him before Dr. Boyer, Boyer, I think [00:27:00] how it was, but they did the very first in the eighties.

Um, first seminal study. Okay. And when they did that, they, they, they're the first ones to say EQ is more important than iq.

Both: Mm-hmm . Eq,

Rhonda Parker Taylor: not only it allows you to not only navigate the social aspects of it, but allows you to view things from other points of view. Mm-hmm . IQ is concrete of what you've learned.

Angela Gennari: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It

Rhonda Parker Taylor: never changes. You're born with the IQ you're gonna have. That's it. Eq, you can adapt your processing of of information and and and be able to improve the outcomes based on doing that. So if you can, if you can Control not only your own emotions and other people's emotions and to end the decision making process, you're going to be able to also [00:28:00] pull out more information that's needed in today's world to to be successful.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, when we're talking about EQ versus IQ, uh, you have people who are in very high level positions who everybody kind of assumes that there are some sort of, you know, just like you have the Steve Jobs and Elon Musk and these people who are brilliant IQ wise. But they rub people the wrong way.

And I think a lot of that is an EQ thing.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Yes, I definitely would. I would agree with that. Because if, in some cases, geniuses may not care. And maybe, you know, like in an Elon Musk situation, he has navigated his way through a very different model than the average person would have to.

Angela Gennari: Sure. Absolutely. Yeah.

So, um, but yeah, so I find people like that, you know, when people talk [00:29:00] about how, you know, they, they might be brilliant, but, you know, they, their leadership is questioned because they, they're very, very smart, but not the most empathetic, not the best at, you know, um, Leading through inspiration or leading through, you know, other means that we, we might find, um, especially in a, it's a gender thing too.

I think women just tend to have higher EQ, um, and have a, an easier time leading when it comes to providing empathy and providing inspired leading versus the, this is what we're going to do. And these are the five steps we're going to do it in. Exactly. Exactly. So just to kind of pivot back a little bit to your book.

Um, so did you self publish or did you traditionally publish the book?

Rhonda Parker Taylor: I had a traditional publisher that after two years of working with them, they killed the deal in the book. No, why? It did. And then, so it was just out of their own resources [00:30:00] and, you know, it was just, it just something that they do sometimes.

So I did that for a couple of years. And finally, this is where coaching and, and make not only being, having fear of vulnerability, but also having an accountability coach. Back out there, which happened to be my older sister. She's, as I'm talking about all the projects I'm working on, one day she just said, well, what about your book?

Both: Yeah.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Why haven't you done anything with that thing? And I was like, well, you know, I've got this project and that, and she said, no, if it was somebody else's project, it'd be out there. And I was like, you know, you're right. So I had to make a decision. Do I go back to querying? Cause that can take a while to find another, um, publisher.

Do I do self publishing? I'm like, do I see myself looking for barcodes that part out? And do I have the time? And at that point in time, I didn't have the time. My, my [00:31:00] business was blossoming. So I went and looked for a hybrid person that I felt like I could trust. Hybrid takes kind of the traditional publishing.

aspect, but they also teach you, mentor you, and take you through the process. So if you ever want to self publish again, you can. So I started looking around, started looking for people to talk to several different companies. And then I came up upon one called Mindster Media. When I did that, I started talking to him and they said, well, send us the book and let's talk and talk about, you know, what you need and what your brain, and this is the first time I'd had ever thought of the book as a brand.

Angela Gennari: Interesting. Okay.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: What, you know, what do you need? To be successful and I was like, oh, well, I talk like that all day, you know, and so it was like Kind of draw drew me in a little bit And so I had sent it to them and they said You know, this will be what we can do and this is what we think you need for it And you know, they [00:32:00] talked about the marketing aspect of it And do do your own marketing or you get you know Do you want us to help you with the marketing and we created something that I felt comfortable with?

Both: Okay.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: This is what you're going to be responsible for. This is what I'm going to be responsible for. And we created a brand around it then, but then before we got, you know, right as we started to do the, you know, here, it's been edited before, but I'd love like the editor to look at it again. You can never, you never have a perfect document.

And I found that out early in my career. And, um, The editor said, you know, I really think you would benefit from Meryl Hemingway or an endorser and being part of your, your, your book. And I was like, well, who would I pick? You know, they'd be like, can you think of somebody? And I was like, well, it's a suspense novel, so maybe Tori Spelling.

And they're like, no. So we got someone [00:33:00] better. And they said Meryl Hemingway. And I'm like, well, why would she care? You know, it's a suspense. And she's like, because she's all about life balance.

Both: Oh, yeah.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: And then I'm like, okay. And she's better than Tori Spelling, you know. And so, I thought about it and I said, well, how do we go about that?

You know, I don't have any contacts. And he said, we will deliver your query letter to her. You write the query letter and if she accepts it, she'll respond and say, yes, I'll either. She has several ways that, you know, that she does books. She has a book club. She has, you know, where she writes the forward, um, endorses it.

And she wrote back that she wouldn't, she wouldn't wanted to write the forward and endorse it and be an endorser for it. And that she accepted it in, into her book club. And I was surprised and shocked, you know, cause you would think, you know, you don't expect [00:34:00] that to happen. And, but what a blessing for the brand.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: And so I said, okay, let's do it. And she sent a YouTube video that's called Merrill Hemingway praises Rhonda Parker Taylor, where she describes her experience reading it. Wow. And how that she realized that she had hit frost roads in her life. And then she said, and we all come to them at some point in our life where we have to make a decision.

And in that decision, it could be, you know, success or failure.

Both: Uh,

Rhonda Parker Taylor: And then she said, and we have to realize sometimes even chocolate has an expiration date.

Both: Time

Rhonda Parker Taylor: says that as an entrepreneur or in life, have we put good money after bad money, the old saying from gambling or extra time into something and it wasn't going to work.

We didn't cut the cord. It could have been an employee. Oh yeah. [00:35:00] Oh yeah. Because we just didn't want to do that. We didn't want to make that change. And I realized that she, at that point, that she really had taken the time to understand the meaning behind Crossroads.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Wow. That's, that's impressive. I mean, so I just need to know when you get an endorsement like that, is that something that they, I'm sure they get inundated, right?

Like they get inundated with these things. Um, is that something that is a rare occurrence to get one? Like how many endorsements is she, is she doing?

Rhonda Parker Taylor: I have not seen one for a year. So, um, cause I, obviously you're part of her fan club, you're part of her, you know, you're part of a book club and you see what they post.

So that doesn't mean she hasn't done [00:36:00] something for another author, but she, they are selective, but it, but at the same time, you know, you have to realize that's their time, their effort, their brand, and you have to respect that at all times and make sure that you're bringing quality. Um, work, quality thought, make sure you're ready.

And I'm sure, I know I've seen other, um, authors that have done the same thing. You know, where they've been able to talk to someone, and be able to, you know, pull, you know, a deal together. So you, it's, here again, it's a, it's a brand. It's a, um, product. It's a Um, love and passion of words and, and, and storytelling.

So it's all the things that you think about as being an author, that many times people forget that it's a business.

Angela Gennari: [00:37:00] It is a business. Well, and then there's also the fact that her name is on it, right? So she has to believe in what she's putting her name on because that's the, that's the only, at the end of the day, that's all we have is our name.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Yeah. And if you can't trust your name, you're in trouble.

Angela Gennari: Exactly. Yeah. So you devalue it if you put your name on just any old thing and there's no vetting process and you haven't really done, you know, your due diligence. So I think that that's, that's impressive. Wow. So, so, um, just to kind of go into some questions that I have for you.

So, uh, who inspires you?

Rhonda Parker Taylor: You know, it can be, oh, so many do like Maya Angelou's writing. As an author. Oh my goodness. She has the most beautiful, not only timing in her rhythm because I write poetry too, but also she has The intentionality of what life really is. It's [00:38:00] a down to earth way of storytelling to other generations.

Hey, you know, this is where we've been. This is where we want to go as women. Um, so she inspires me from a writing perspective of her wonderful storytelling. Um, Daniel Goleman from a business aspect obviously has inspired me. Um, because it was the first time. I love the name of your podcast because people always thought I should always just stay in the physical.

Angela Gennari: Uh huh. Uh huh.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: You know, she's not going to be successful. She's different than everybody else. You know, she's this, she's that. And it was the first time, and I was, I can't say I'm the brightest bulb in the bunch, you know, because my IQ isn't genius. So it was the first time that something actually made sense.

I could still be successful.

Both: Yeah.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: It doesn't matter that I didn't get straight A's in high school. [00:39:00]

Angela Gennari: Not at all. Some of the most successful people in the world didn't get straight A's. They're C students who are out there leading the world right now because they, you know, they brought something else, something special to the table.

And it wasn't just being really good at math.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: And then you always have to go back to, in my case, I had great parents

Angela Gennari: and

Rhonda Parker Taylor: lessons and stuff, you know, they're no longer with me, but I would say my, my parents are a big inspiration in who I am.

Angela Gennari: That's amazing. So, um, sorry, I keep leaning away from this light that's peering into my window, and it's blinding me.

So, uh, so who is who, um, as women, we give our power away all the time. So, uh, can you tell me about a time that you gave your power away? And then maybe another time that you stepped into your power?

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Oh, that is a biggest one of the things that I'm always preaching. Don't let someone dim your light.

Angela Gennari: Yes.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: And it could be as small as someone saying you don't have to wear [00:40:00] makeup, you know, because maybe they're uncomfortable.

Maybe that's not what they like, but if you're wearing it for you, because it makes you feel beautiful.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Then, then that's, then you do that. Um, so I would say. Daily people try to try to dim our lights.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Not only just as women, but in business or anything. It's a, it's a power grab if they can dim your light.

They can get whatever they want out of you if you do, if they do. So you have to be conscious that, hey, You will not get it. You can try whatever manipulation you want to dim my light, but you can't dim my self talk.

Both: Mm hmm.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Self talk can either be positive or negative, and if you allow [00:41:00] a person the power of changing your self talk to negative, then they've won.

And the light will take a long time to reunite, ignite.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, and I feel like that's one thing, uh, we do is we just beat ourselves up, you know, and so that, that can definitely be a big factor. Our self talk changes, we start to talk. poorly about ourselves. And it just, it's a slippery slope. It just gets worse and worse.

And sometimes it takes somebody else giving you that little bit of a push up to say, Hey, you're doing great. You know, stop, stop beating yourself up.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: And, and you don't, that doesn't mean you need to have to have pats on the back, but you have to have affirmation for yourself.

Both: You

Rhonda Parker Taylor: know, for those that may not really get into the psychological part of, of the world and self.

Self talk is all the things you really, it's not necessarily [00:42:00] verbal, it's all the things you think, I can't do it. I won't, I need somebody else to go in the back door for me because they're not going to listen to me. I'm Fail if I try. Those are self taught, um, statements that aren't affirming that I am beautiful, I'm wonderful, I'm smart, I can, I can close the deal, I can, um, ask for the money.

A lot of, a lot of women have a hard time asking for the money.

Both: Yeah.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: You know, I can, I can be successful. Um, and a woman, you know, put that on top of it.

Angela Gennari: I agree. Sorry, a little coughing fit here. Um, so what advice would you give to your 18 year old self?

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Oh, wow. Don't let somebody dim, dim your light is probably be the first one.

Um, have confidence in self.

Both: [00:43:00] Mm hmm.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Go for it. Don't let people hold you back and don't hold yourself back because I would say that was the number one thing for me. I held myself back or waited for others to catch up.

Both: Yeah, yeah.

Rhonda Parker Taylor: Projects. Thinking that I would drag them along in my, in my world, you know, and that, you know.

We would be all successful together. Instead, it was holding me back rather than just taking the steps with intention.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, I can see that. I know I do the same thing. I will generally say, Uh, I'm not ready for that. I'm not good enough yet. I have to learn a little bit more. I have to make a little bit more money.

I have to, you know, and I'm constantly giving myself reasons to slow down. Right. Mm hmm. So I have really enjoyed this. Rhonda, this has been a really lovely conversation. Um, but I just have one more question for you. What do you wish more people knew?

Rhonda Parker Taylor: That [00:44:00] kindness is important in life and that kindness opens doors.

You don't have to be hard nosed and angry to get to get. Um, success, to be happy, to, um, be intentional. If you every day open with kindness and end with compassion, that life will just be more beautiful and peaceful for yourself.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. I love that so much and so different. Um, so thank you so much for your time today.

This has been a wonderful conversation. I've definitely learned a lot and I really enjoy talking about your book and publishing and, and emotional intelligence. And I think, you know, it's, there's just so much that we could talk about when it comes to emotional intelligence. I just feel like that's something that, um, That needs to be a daily conversation.

Am I bringing my best self? Like, like you were saying, am I showing up as my, [00:45:00] excuse me, best self having some cough issues? Sorry. But it's, uh, so how can people find you?

Rhonda Parker Taylor: They can go to my website. It's Rhonda Parker, taylor. com. All my social medias are, um, Rhonda Parker, Taylor, a version of Rhonda Parker, Taylor, depending on which one.

But if you go. website. All my social medias are there.

Angela Gennari: Okay. Perfect. And you can also find Rhonda Parker Taylor on pretty powerful podcast. com. So we look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you again, Rhonda. Thank you. And thank you for having me, everybody. We will see you next time. Have a great day.

Bye bye.

Intro: Thank you for joining our guests on the pretty powerful podcast. And we hope you've gained new insight and learned from exceptional women. Remember to subscribe or check out this and all episodes on prettypowerfulpodcast. com. Visit us next time, and until then, step into your own [00:46:00] power.