How to Master Servant Leadership in Business With Karen Hite

In this episode, I sit down with Karen Hite, a successful business leader who has mastered the art of balancing leadership, business growth, and personal life. Karen shares the challenges of running multiple businesses while maintaining a strong family foundation, emphasizing how servant leadership has been her guiding principle. We explore the importance of a clear vision, one that drives both personal and professional impact. Karen's mission to create 1,000 jobs reflects the power of having a purpose that transcends financial success.

She opens up about the mental struggles many leaders face, from imposter syndrome to anxiety, and how embracing failure has shaped her journey. We discuss how transparency and vulnerability can strengthen your leadership and help scale your business with stability. Whether you’re running a small business or leading a growing team, this episode is packed with actionable insights on how to lead with impact, balance your life, and grow through servant leadership.

 Connect with Karen Hite:
 

If you want to learn more about Karen’s journey or connect with her to explore how she can help your business grow, follow her on Facebook at The Karen Hite or visit her website at theheights.com 

Books Mentioned:

• The E-Myth by Michael Gerber

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Journey to Servant Leadership
• 9:30 Balancing Family and Business
• 17:29 Embracing Failure for Growth
• 23:59 Vision-Driven Business Strategy
• 29:29 Handling Mental Struggles as a Leader
• 34:29 Practical Tips for Business Success
• 39:29 The Role of Faith in Leadership

Transcript

Dr.William Attaway: 0:00

I'm thrilled today to have Karen Height on the podcast. Karen is the Director of Operations and co-founder of Digital Agency Hacker. She's the co-founder of Height Digital, an Inc 5000-ranked digital marketing agency, and she's the Chief Executive Officer of the Committed Mastermind. With her husband, jc, they are committed to helping small businesses scale with stability, not just in their business, but at home as well, while also creating amazing jobs in Latin America. Karen, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being on the show.

Karen Hite: 0:34

Thank you so much for having me. Every time that we connect and chat is always a great time, so I'm excited about like actually recording this for other people. Hopefully, they enjoy this in the same way that we enjoy connecting. So, yeah, I'm excited to be here. Thank you for the invite.

Dr.William Attaway: 0:47

Absolutely. I always look forward to these, so this is going to be a great conversation.

Intro/Outro: 0:53

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Dr.William Attaway: 1:08

I would love to start, Karen, with you sharing a little bit of your story with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did you get started?

Karen Hite: 1:19

Yeah, man, that's a loaded question, because I feel like I never thought I would be a leader the way that we are right now or what I'm doing today. I think from a young age, though, I knew that I wanted to do good things, I wanted to do things in the right way, and it's funny because my dad just wrote me a note, and he actually wrote this I always knew that you would be a leader, and I'm like how do you know that? I didn't remember us?

Karen Hite: 1:44

chatting about that you would be a leader and I'm like, how do you know that?

Karen Hite: 1:46

You know, like I didn't, I didn't remember you know us chatting about that, but apparently he did, and so I've, you know, I just I've always focused on serving.

Karen Hite: 1:53

I think serving has been like number one, so I never thought about leading, being a leader, but I always enjoy serving and through this journey I've learned that some of the best leaders that I, at least, connect with the most are those that are actually serving others. So I think, like that's kind of like my my relationship with leadership has always been and it's biblical too right, like just, I mean, you know, put others before you, um, wash other people's feet. You know, like in, like in the time of your death, like you're washing other people, you know the type of thing that that just speaks a lot to me and, and I think throughout, just because of my belief systems and just you know, try to like read the Bible, like what does leadership actually mean in the Bible? You know it really is that servant leader. So, like, my path has been always like serving others and through that I've just, I guess, naturally grown into leadership positions.

Dr.William Attaway: 2:44

You know, it's remarkable. I talked to so many leaders of different stripes and different industries and disciplines and so many of them describe a similar thing that they didn't really see themselves that way. But other people saw something in them and as they grew and as they developed. It's remarkable what God can do. It's remarkable how he never wastes an experience in our lives to make us into the person that he designed us to be.

Karen Hite: 3:13

It is crazy and I think you know, if we think about stories like you know, just like I don't know, like in the Bible, throughout the Bible, right, you have, like Moses, you have Joseph, like I mean so many people that like, wow, like their story has been amazing, you know and like and and like how God has worked through them, like some, some people that you didn't think that deserve to be a leader.

Karen Hite: 3:34

You know, like, ended up having those positions and I think you can be like any background, you can still be a leader. It doesn't matter the back. Sometimes, those experiences that you know, like I mean Paul, right, like just experiences that we have seen through, um like negative, positive, like they can still be, it adds a lot of value, um to who you can become and how you can serve others through that. So I, you know I'm never, I never think leadership is just like. This is the way that you do it, this is the road that you have to take to become a leader. I think it's a component of many experiences and if you know how to make lemonade out of a lemon you know like, then I think like that's, that's an opportunity to be a leader.

Dr.William Attaway: 4:13

That's fantastic. You know, you, you talk you've already mentioned in this conversation, but I've heard you talk so many times before about the power of serving others, and y'all really exhibit this as part of your culture. You know, I believe every team, every business, every organization has a culture. You either have one you designed on purpose or you have one you didn't mean to have, but you have one, right. This is such a part of the culture of hype, right? This idea of serving others, leading with generosity, has it always been that way? Has that always been a core value to what you do?

Karen Hite: 4:50

I have to say yes, just because I don't think that there has been a time where we have let like when we started Hype, for example, like we started it, the first goal that we had was just like, we need to deliver our baby, so we need to find a fund to be able to accomplish that. So it has never been like, oh, we want to make this much money. You know, and like this. You know like, our goals have always been more oriented to an impact, whether it was like a personal impact, you know like just starting that out. And then once we were, oh, you know like our best basic needs are met. Like, you know, like it was kind of funny, I had this conversation with JC after, you know, I think it was like after the first year at height, we finally realized that we were in this point where we didn't have to check our bank account that often, you know where you're not like kind of like, like scared to like give your credit card when you're about to pay because you don't know if it's going to go through, type of thing. And if you have experience, if you're listening to it and you've experienced that shift in like wow, I'm not living out of like scarcity in a way, you know, but I'm actually like, oh, you know, like I'm I'm good at a good point. I think that's there's a big shift that happens in leaders then, because then you're starting to ask your question like what's next? You know, like, then why am I doing what I'm doing? Because you can fall into contentment real quick if you don't have a vision.

Karen Hite: 6:11

And so for us, I remember asking JC what's next for us?

Karen Hite: 6:14

You know, just as husband and wife, we've always like been leading a business, we've always been through this conversations together, and that's where we decided, you know, like, okay, what's next for us?

Karen Hite: 6:25

Like, our family needs are met in in the most basic ways, you know, but if we wanted to go bigger than than where we were at at that point, we needed to find something that was related to something that actually matters. I was actually just speaking about that with Sean, but, um, for us it was creating a thousand jobs. We just decided to create that metric for us in the business so that we it was such a big goal and so audacious and the impact of that was, if we could create a thousand jobs in Nicaragua, where we run, started business, we could create that and started that. They're paying what we were paying at that point. That would make us like the most, like the biggest economic business in nicaragua, right like it was, just like the biggest um from the private sector. And so that was that, just like that motivated us, and I think vision has such a big thing when, when it comes to like being the leader that you want to be or you know, you need to know where you're going to.

Dr.William Attaway: 7:25

A hundred percent. When you, when you establish that vision together, when you say, hey, this is, this is what we want to do, how did you begin to communicate that, to inspire your team?

Karen Hite: 7:35

Because, you know, we've always wanted to make this culture of not only like towards others and our clients, of like the servant leaders that we want it to be, but also, you know, a place that we enjoyed it. Um, we were very upfront with that from day one. Um through our interview process, like anytime that we had him like, I mean he like just JC, has this hat where it says a thousand jobs, like you know, road to a thousand. So like it has been anything that we do really Like. When we talked, we started our agency as a white label agency and our agencies knew that that was the goal that we had. Um, so we've always communicated that um, not only to the people that were impacted by it, but even the people that had anything to do with it. Um, and even today, you know, just talking to Sean about high level and I'm like, I really think that you know, high level, through high level, we can actually accomplish that goal.

Karen Hite: 8:30

And it might not be necessarily that that mission has transformed quite a bit, and I think, as a leader, you will experience that the more years you're in business, the more years you're going to understand that it's good to like.

Karen Hite: 8:40

Question, you know that mission, like, am I still living for that mission or not? That has been our last year and, you know, for us, like we were just talking to Sean about it and I was just you know, I really think that there's opportunities to create that impact, that it's not necessarily tied to just one business, you know. It can be like, maybe, like the different sides, and so I, you know it transforms you once you have that mission very clear, transforms sides, and so I, you know it transforms you once you have that mission very clear, transforms, um, who, who you are, and the things that you desire and the things that you don't want in your life. And that, um, that is when I think leaders live, you know their leadership right, like, if you're, if you're a leader, like, like you have to show in the impact and the actions that you have and I think that that's the way that you communicate it to your team and the impact and the actions that you have, and I think that that's the way that you communicate it to your team.

Dr.William Attaway: 9:25

You wear a lot of hats. Yes, you can say that you were involved in a lot of things. I mean, you know digital agency hacker, right Director of ops and co-founder. You know high digital co-founder, right CEO of the committed mastermind. Yeah, I mean and this is not everything, this is just the big All of that and, from what I can see from the outside, maintain a fantastic family life with your husband, with your kids. How do you do that?

Karen Hite: 10:13

social media, you don't get to see all of it, right? And so, like, yeah, most people would had this message from somebody this week, because we we decided to. I'll give you this example of how we manage this. You know, this month is going to be crazy for us, and so, october, we have five events that we're either sponsoring, hosting or just attending because we're invited to it. That, you know, just makes sense to go, and we only have like four and a half weeks this month, you know. So that means that we're traveling pretty much like every week or, you know, like twice a week within a spam, and this was the month that we were going to start baseball for one of our kids um baseball practices, and they had three games every week. They sent us a calendar, and so jc and I, we just had a conversation and we just said we have to pull something out.

Karen Hite: 10:58

So I think it's very much about communication and also understanding where our priorities are and, I would say, being able to decide what things are going to fall through the cracks, ball through the cracks. One thing that you know a lot of people was like oh, we're juggling like this, like we're juggling right, like all the time, like as business owners. And for us I don't remember where we got this from, but this concept of like, well, all this things that you're juggling this, let's say that there are balls. These balls are made of different things. Some of them are, you know, crystal, some of them are plastic, some of them are rubber. So, even if they fall, you're okay because at some point you can probably catch them again. But if, like you know, there's some balls like the crystal one, if that drops, then it breaks and it's going to take a lot of effort to put it back together, right? So, understanding where your priorities are at, I think it's really important and I would say, not being too hard on yourself when, like, if one of the crystal balls you know does happen to like oh, it's slipping, you know, not to like, be so concerned, like not not concerned is the word but just like hard on yourself, cause I think like that's that's the point where if you're too hard on yourself with the priorities that you have, then you're making decisions out of like fear, and not out of like, oh, I want to be involved in this.

Karen Hite: 12:14

Or we need to understand, and also that there's seasons for everything. Right, as business owners. We have all gone through seasons where it's time to hustle. It's time to focus on the work and, yeah, our family life might be affected a little bit by it. But if we do have a, we need to have an end goal with that and also a due date with that. I'm going to hustle for this amount.

Karen Hite: 12:36

Now it doesn't mean that when we're saying like okay, like things can fall in terms of priorities, it doesn't mean that it's going to be for months, because that's the problem when you have like months and months and months of like, just this kind of like sense of like I'm depriving myself from, like the prior prayer, from having this top of my priorities. So our baseball thing we had, we had to take our kid out and we were like this month it would be insane, like we wouldn't be, like we would go to those games feeling frustrated, checking on our phones, like knowing that we have responsibilities at the end is for kids as well. Now, do I want to do that all the time? Like pull them out of like baseball practices and things like that? No, this is just for this month. And so, like having that grace, I think, with each other and we just chatted about it and he was like, yeah, like you're right, like this is going to be too much. But then another thing that we did is like, hey, there is one event that we don't need to go, the both of us, so like I'm actually staying at the event and he's coming back to be with the kids, so like we, and that's something that I really appreciate.

Karen Hite: 13:35

When you once you have a spouse where you're both on the same level, you know you're a team. It's not about like, because, easily, you know, in whatever culture you know, you can still feel that sense of like. Okay, the woman needs to go back and like, stay with, like the family, like it's very normal and I would love to do that Right, but this one specific event, we had the opportunity of not having to be both of us there and it was probably more important for me to be there than him and understanding that and be able to make those decisions. Then we're both calm because, okay, you're taking care of that side of you know our lives, which is a business, and I'm going to be taking care of this other side of our lives, which is our family and kids, and being in that season, I don't know it's a lot of communication, a lot of grace all the time, because it's very easy to feel like you're not good enough in one of these areas at one point, or many points in your day, depending on when you're talking.

Dr.William Attaway: 14:31

That's so good and I hope that the listeners keyed in on really everything you just said. I mean I hear people all the time. I hear clients, people that I'm working with, talk about well, it's just a season. It's just a season, and I love how Kerry Newhoff puts this. He says, if your season has no end, that's not a season. That's called your life and so many people. There's no end. I love the intentionality you have of putting a back end on it and say, okay, we're going to sprint for this particular period of time, but then that's going to stop.

Dr.William Attaway: 15:04

And the open communication and the transparency that you have together is so absolutely critical and in my experience, it is so absolutely critical and, in my experience, so often lacking. I believe this is one of the superpowers that people can lean into. You can begin to communicate. This is a choice. Communication is a choice at the end of the outside, and I'm curious. A lot of people look at you and they think, oh wow, you know, I mean her journey has just been up and to the right, like she doesn't have to deal with the same challenges I've dealt with. She never has to worry about, you know, the stuff that I have to deal with in my business, like if somebody were to tell you that, if they were to sit across the table and tell you that, what would your response be?

Karen Hite: 17:21

I would say, probably go and watch the 30 days of failures that we just did. You know Instagram account that. That is actually one of the things in one of the reasons why we open up TCS with failures all the time. It's very easy to lose sight of the things that happen in the journey for an entrepreneur, and I was actually. We're launching this event. As you know, we're doing a new event in Searcy next year and I was thinking, you know what if we actually document this for everybody and like, kind of like, share the obstacles and we're adding some new components to this on, you know, being a faith-based event, which is, you know, in today's days, you know, this might not be like the cup of tea for everybody, which is totally fine, but there's challenges, right, like you're not only adding that component of like already having an event is very difficult, right, but also like, having that kind of like component of like face space can be challenging too, and understanding how this is the first time that we're really exposing ourselves to something like that, although, you know, like, we bring, you know, our values into anything that we do, but just very, very clear about it, right, and so that I think, a lot of people. You know, I want to motivate others to do the things, not because they look easy, but because there's a bigger impact and because they can see that, oh, like, it's okay if, like, things are not working out as you think that they're going to be, and it's okay, like, being flexible, flexible, right, and being able to say I'm going to do this and I'm going to give it my a hundred percent, and that's going to be my definition of success. Like in having a different definition of success than everybody else as well.

Karen Hite: 19:00

I think it's just something that, if, if somebody were to ask me like, oh, you know, like, or say that my life is perfect, it depends, right, like I may be leaving my definition of success, um, I can. I can tell you that you know, there are seasons in my life, even where we have been winning, you know, quite a bit in the eyes of everybody, and in the back end, we're experiencing depression and anxiety and we're very open about it. So that's, I think that's why we're so outspoken. Or, you know, we just bring that concept of like, what success means, and then also the things that we have failed at, and we're proud of the things that we have failed at, because it has taught us to like redirection, reposition, where our focus has been um and where it needs to be. So I don't know I would. I would probably just send them to the instagram account, I guess, like our failures there, that's awesome.

Dr.William Attaway: 19:55

yeah, I love that you are so transparent with your faith, with your values and I get, with the new conference Scale of Stability. I'm super excited about that, by the way. I think that's going to be so fantastic. I believe that when people are looking at you and they attend one of your events or they watch one of your videos, they see very clearly how important your faith is to you. They see clearly that you don't try to compartmentalize or segment that part of your life and wall it off. That it's a part of everything you do, that it's who you are, and I believe that authenticity draws people in.

Dr.William Attaway: 20:37

You know I teach often that you know you've got to have in the presentation that you give of yourself and even down to the business that you lead and the offers that you make. You need to have both magnets and scarecrows and magnets that are going to draw the right people and scarecrows that are going to scare off the people who they're not going to be a good fit. And watching you first at TCS and then since, and being a part of what I've watched you building, you're so clear about this. Clarity is such kindness and I believe that is such a powerful example, like if you were talking to people who were still reticent. You know entrepreneurs, business owners, who are still reticent about yeah, but can I really be that authentic?

Karen Hite: 21:27

Can I really bring that part of myself out? How would you encourage them in that For me? I went through a season of trying to understand and we all go through this as we're maturing as business owners and even our brands are maturing, as we feel more comfortable in what we're doing and realize the things that actually matter for me. I guess, like I would just share, like my, my example, or like how I went through this process of navigating um sharing my own journey of faith. Um, I think it was, we were. It was the first time that we had gone in the 5,000. It was we.

Karen Hite: 22:02

It was our first year for tcs. Um, we had speakers like damon john and kevin herrington and cory and willie robertson all those amazing people, um 250 people in an event in costa rica, um over 100 and something. Team members. First year we literally found out about the award at tcs. So, like I think, day two and we just like put it on the like, the team put it on the screen and it was like such an excitement, right, and two weeks before that I found JC in the bathroom floor of my shower in fetal position, crying, not able to get up from the floor, and I literally thought I was going to do TCS by myself. I literally thought that.

Karen Hite: 22:49

I have. Like. This was my thought process going into Costa Rica. I was like I need to be able to mold myself. By the way, I had never spoken in front of like 250 people, ever before much less hosted an event, spoken in front of like 250 people, ever before much less hosted an event. Um, and we were doing all of that, right? And so, and I went into the event thinking I need to be able to talk about any topic, because I don't know if he's going to be able to.

Karen Hite: 23:11

You know anxiety and depression, right, and so, like I don't know if he's going to be able to, you don't plan those things, you don't plan those anxiety attacks, right? So, like, like, if it happens, it happens and somebody needs to like go into that stage. People have to pay money. There's a lot of responsibility through that, the only thing that has helped us in being able to get out of that season of depression and anxiety. And I said all those things about like the 250 and like the award because, like, in the eyes of everybody, we were very successful in the eyes of everybody, like we were shaking hands with all this, like Damon John, you know, like everybody was like taking pictures, like we were having. It was like one of the highlights of our career, right, and I look back at those times with a lot of um grace and you know it's just like it's. It's it's great times and all of that. But I think I always think about what was really happening in the back of our minds and in the in our interpersonal story, and the only reason how we were able to get out of that was we started reading our Bible every day. We started focusing on priorities and it hasn't been an easy journey, right. I didn't just start reading my Bible and then all of a sudden, oh, like, we're not, we're done with that chapter of our life. It continued to exist, but I will tell you, three years later, today, you know, we're in a much better place in our family life, in our marriage life, in our personal lives, just as a whole mentally, spiritually. And then it's all. It all started from making that decision of like, how do I start my day? Where am I starting my day with?

Karen Hite: 24:51

I don't go into social media unless I have read my Bible. This is what I do. I don't go into social media if I haven't read my Bible and if I, in order to use social media, my first thing to do is actually post whatever from my daily. I do my Bible daily reading and I select something that speaks to me, right, and so, like I don't go into social media without like making a post of my in my story on Instagram, of the thing that, just like it resonated with me or I thought it was interesting or I thought this might be helpful to somebody.

Karen Hite: 25:17

There's a reason why I pick that every day and that's the only way that I go in. If I don't go into, if I don't do that, I don't go into social media. Right, it's just like I don't do it. And since we have been doing that because JC actually started that and he has been reading the Bible like twice or three times in a year, like he's overachiever. I don't go that far, I don't do that every day, but it has made such a difference and so for me, it's not something necessarily about oh, I want other people to see my values and I want to connect, cause I know that there's even a strategy behind it.

Karen Hite: 25:52

You know there's people that, and that's why some people are actually not very trusting of like some people that aren't spreading the faith, you know, because they think like, oh, that's just a tactic for thin death and like, oh, they just want to, like that's a way to like target the audience type of thing. Um, for me I would say which I have totally, I understand, I haven't experienced that, thank goodness. But a there's a there's a bible verse, and there's a bible verse that says, like at least they're spreading the gospel Right. So, like, I always think about it, like maybe it's not the right way or whatever, but for me it's more of like that has helped me in my journey and I know my story and how it has helped me, like navigate some of the things that I know. A lot of people struggle in private and they're not able to like share this with anybody that understands them. So for me has been more of like I know the impact that this verse this, you know, just reading the Bible has done in my life. So like, why not share it with everybody else? Why not share the thing that I felt saves us from like I literally thought that I wouldn't have my husband for a long time or that something would happen, right, just when you're in such a hole where you don't see the light. Um, you would think that right and so, and a lot of people go through that and so like.

Karen Hite: 27:14

For me it's that. So I would say, like you don't have to. You don't have to post a bible verse, you know, and say like, hey, like this, but share the things that have helped you, because if they helped you, then probably can help somebody else and you never know whose life you're saving, whose family you're saving, the impact that it's going to have in somebody else's life. Um, you talking about a situation doesn't have to be a religious or belief system based, but it can be.

Karen Hite: 27:40

That's why we do value driven posts, right, just to make sure that we're sharing with other people. I think that will help you connect a lot more than you saying that you're the best at something you know and just like how many clients you have created great results for, I don't know. And for me it's like I feel like there's a bigger mission for us than just making money, right, and so that has been more of the driver to live the life that we want to live. And just, I don't know. There's multiple, I guess, answers to that, but that's just the one that I can probably just share right now.

Dr.William Attaway: 28:18

I think that's fantastic. You know your team, your business, your client they need you to lead at a higher level today than you did three, four, five years ago, and that same thing is going to be true three, four, five years from now. You're going to have to lead at a higher level. They're going to need that from you. What are you doing to stay on top of your game and level up with the new leadership skills that your team, your clients, your business are going to need you to have?

Karen Hite: 28:48

A couple of things. We have definitely invested in having mentors. That allows us to understand, understand and have a bigger picture. You know, like at the end of the day, you don't know what you don't know right, so like there's a reason why you have reached these levels and what you sometimes feel stuck, or you know why you have this like imposter syndrome, like you have never done this before. So it makes sense that you're doubting yourself right to like do things. And you know, like one of the things that we say all the time, like how can you lead others if you cannot lead yourself? The first thing that you have to do is like understand, like where you're at, what are the things that you need, and building environments that allow you to be that. So I think, investing in people, investing in being in places where you can grow and I you know we're very fond, obviously, of masterminds, we host masterminds and I think that's an amazing way to be able to connect even with people that aren't in your same spot, right, but people that have the same desires I think that's very important. We have been really blessed to sort of create this environment for ourselves through our events and through sharing, kind of like the things that we're interested on and our message to connect with people that also can relate to that and that has allowed us to create this.

Karen Hite: 30:06

Opportunities for like conversations that, oh, like. I'm struggling with this and being very vulnerable One of the things that you know with our teammates, we're the first ones to say if we did something wrong, right, like. I am like the first one to say I do not know how we're going to pull this event, um, but we're going to do it. You know, we're going to like try it and we're going to like accomplish this and we're probably going to fail. We we really talk so much about failing. It's not even funny. And for those that you know are not used to that concept of failing, I never had my parents talk to me about failing. I only had my parents talk to me about succeeding. And it's very interesting to me that, as I was getting into those moments of like success, I never knew what to do with the counterpart of that, right, like with the other part of life, there's only two ways to deal with it. It's either success or failure. But once you're succeeding like, then the failure becomes more clear. Of like this is what can go wrong and what happens? I'm not prepared for that. So the more we talk about these things, I think, the more the easier it is, even for our teammates, to be able to say there is a plan if this fails. There is a reaction that I understand, the reaction that we will get from our leaders If this doesn't work out early from our business.

Karen Hite: 31:23

When we started the business, we talked about safe to fail experiments, this concept of anything that we do. We obviously are not going to jump into something if it can like completely destroy families and like we would never do that. We will try to be cautious but understanding that the business at the end of the day is the safety fail experiment. We can always go and find a job, we can always restart this business. We can understand this, this relationship with failure.

Karen Hite: 31:45

I think it's so key in you being able to lead others because if you can give them that opportunity to, hey, it's okay If you don't do this a hundred percent, like having that grace for them as well allows people to say you know what, maybe I can do it. Have somebody that believes in you enough to allow you fail. That's one of the key elements of delegating right. That's why people don't delegate, because they don't believe that this other person can do something. They don't give that room for failure.

Karen Hite: 32:16

So I think for me we're talking a lot about failure in this podcast, but it's so key in being able to give yourself the opportunities to try things that you have never done before, in a way that you can see what happens. Like the worst thing you can ask yourself at the end of the day or at the end. I don't want to ask, can ask yourself at the end of the day or at the end. I want to ask myself this question at the end of my life, like what if I had done this? I want to do it and I want to make sure that I said you know, I tried it, I was scared about it, I did it. Did I like it? Maybe not, but at least I know for sure the end result of that and I'm not going to have that question at the end of my life.

Dr.William Attaway: 32:54

Yes, so good. By virtue of my work through the local church, I've spent a lot of time with people at the end of their lives and so often, you know, I hear regrets. I've never once heard anybody say I wish I had spent more time at the office. Yeah.

Dr.William Attaway: 33:14

Never once right. But I've heard a whole lot of people talk about exactly what you said. I wish I had. I wish I had, you know, I wish I had tried it, I wish I had done it. So many relational regrets. I wish I had mended that relationship, I wish I had not been so stubborn, you know, and I love how you frame that here and that, this idea of saying I don't want to get to the end of my life, so now we're going to try it. We're going to try it and we may fail, that's okay. Failure is something that has to be talked about because it's part of the journey. Anybody who thinks that failure is not part of the journey hasn't tried much, you know. I think you need to be failing regularly because that means that you're trying new things. I love how you frame that.

Karen Hite: 33:58

Well, it's out of experience and also I feel like it gives me a little bit of like. It's okay if you fail, karen, you know at least you've tried something. You know that most people probably wouldn't you know like, at least you did that and yeah 100%, 100%.

Dr.William Attaway: 34:15

You are a continual learner and that's come up a couple of times in our conversations. Is there a book that has made a really big difference in your journey that you would recommend to the other leaders who are listening?

Karen Hite: 34:27

Oh my gosh. Yes, I wish I had read this book sooner. And once you read it it's like, yeah, no, no brainer, but having this concept kind of like come together, like it's. It's one of those books where I felt like, oh, this all connected into this and if I had this I would have understood all the species and the importance of it. For me it was the e-myth, the entrepreneur myth, by a michael gerber michael gerber yeah.

Karen Hite: 34:53

Amazing book it's. I don't know how many years ago he he did it, but for me that was the book that in that it was actually funny enough. I think it was like the first TCS or second TCS. Um, I was reading it and I was like I think it was the first, second. I don't remember which one it was, but I was reading. I was like it had it made such an impact that I actually messaged him. I'm like hopefully he sees it one day.

Karen Hite: 35:16

Funny enough, we ended up jumping on a call with him, stacy, and I and we talked through our whole model for the franchise and we actually ended up shifting that model or changing that model because of that phone call with him and that's how impactful this book was in our lives. And so if you haven't read this, you don't need to be a franchise, by the way, because I know it talks a lot about franchises there. You don't have to be a franchise to read this book. In fact, I feel like every business owner has to read this book. It was an entrepreneurial myth, right, so it just allows you to bring concepts together and ideas and, like, really create a path that I don't, I have not seen in another book or it hasn't impacted me like this podcast.

Dr.William Attaway: 35:58

So good, karen. Often people walk away from an episode like this, a conversation like this, with one big idea. If you could define what you want people to walk away with, what you want their takeaway to be, what would you want that to be?

Karen Hite: 36:12

I'm in a season right now where I am, I'm seeing a picture very clear of something that I want to accomplish, and I feel like that happens quite a bit in our lives. But I'm also experiencing this feeling of like, but I have all this stuff already, or I have all this things to do, so I cannot move into that yet. Um, and I have prayed about it and I have asked for a direction to see if this is actually something that I should be focusing on. So, like, that's number one. I would say, like, anytime that you feel that you're in a business decision, a life decision where you're like, what? Like should I go into that, um or not? First, like, if you're a person of of belief obviously a faith I would say, like pray, like talk about it with God and like just say, hey, like is this, is this where you want me to be? I've I've experienced so many things where I first went to a person before I went to God. I first went into like trying to get answers from a human before I actually asked for divine intervention and since I've shifted that I feel so much better about the decisions that I'm making, even if I do have to talk to somebody and get counsel, because it's biblical too that we have to ask for advice from others and that there's wisdom in that. But knowing where do I give my intention and priority? If you're a person of faith, I would say that's number one. If you can shift that to ask God first, what does he want from your life? Is this aligned with the purpose that he's brought you in? Because, no matter what, he's going to be able to make it work right, he makes things happen. But how much easier would it be if we were actually looking to connect with that source? But how much easier would it be if we were actually looking to connect with that source?

Karen Hite: 37:57

And for those that are maybe like not into a belief system, I would say you know, like being able to create those like safe to fail experiments, like I was mentioning, and testing things out and being quick to say you know, hey, like how is this going? Like just make decisions based on data. I think that's the one thing that most people have a hard time dealing with and like you will never know unless you do it and you see if it actually worked or it didn't. And if it didn't work, then move, move quick into the next thing. Right, and and just, but make sure that you're making the decisions based on actual data. If you're making decisions based on where you're at today, how you're feeling, maybe like you had a tough conversation with your spouse that morning, those things are gonna set you off the wrong path, right?

Karen Hite: 38:40

So being able to track data and understand it and making decisions based on that, I think that has been something that has allowed us to really grow in our business and our life, and when you have that type of clarity, it's a lot easier to say what's happening. What it's what's happening right now Is it? Is it something normal? Is it not normal? What are the key points that we need to be looking into before we make a decision and next step?

Karen Hite: 39:08

So, yeah, like, if you're a person of faith, like I would say like that has been a key thing for me and I would love for you to like just remember that anytime that something major happens in your life, that you have to make a decision, and also remembering that at the end of the day, like there is a root to every pain. Right, like every obstacle, there is a root. We talked about this in the COO mentorship. Sometimes it's not the dish that wasn't washed. It was the lack of communication that we've had for the last week that sets me off to not have a great day with my spouse right Like it's not. The problem is the root that causes the problem and understanding where that root's coming from. In business, I think it's only data.

Dr.William Attaway: 39:47

So well said, karen, I could talk to you for another hour. Every time I talk, I leave encouraged and having learned something new, and today has been no exception. Thank you for your generosity in sharing so freely from what you've learned so far in your journey, and I know your best days are still to come.

Karen Hite: 40:05

I hope so. I hope so too. Thank you so much.

Karen Hite: 40:08

William. No, it's always a pleasure and I love what you're doing. I love how you're so invested in seeing other people just grow and succeed, and you can see that with any content piece that you put out there. I've actually been tracking, you know, some of the stuff that you put on, especially since you mentioned that you wanted to like go more into like Facebook. Now I'm like, okay, what is he putting on there? I'm like keeping an eye, but I'm still watching. I just love your heart and just like every interaction, anybody that I talk, you know that we talk about you. It's like everybody has such a great um just experience with you and conversations and and with everything that you offer through your services. So I'm really excited to be part of this podcast and very honored to be in this conversation with you.

Dr.William Attaway: 40:52

Well, I know our listeners are going to want to stay connected to you and continue to learn more about you and what you do. What is the best way for them to do that, Karen?

Karen Hite: 41:01

I would say probably Facebook. That's the number one. I'm very active there. So, if you can go to the Karen Height, I'm very active there. Or you can go to our website, theheightscom, and that's where we talk a lot about the different things that we're doing, because we have multiple businesses so it's kind of hard to keep track probably of which one you do focus on. But that will give you a lot of resources and information and next steps on how we can maybe connect and, yeah, more information about us.

Dr.William Attaway: 41:29

I love it. Thank you, Karen.

Karen Hite: 41:32

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Dr.William Attaway: 41:34

Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Dr.William Attaway: 42:12

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.

Intro/Outro: 42:54

Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway. Choose to be catalytic.