Strengths On Fire

Sarah Collins (00:01.356)
Mr. Bill Dippel how are you doing today?

Bill Dippel (00:03.134)
Fantastic, fantastic. More important, how are you? How are you today?

Sarah Collins (00:08.141)
I am just feeling good. I'm feeling good. I am. I am wearing red. People say I look good in red, not to like toot my own horn, but thank you. know, red's my color. We've got the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the Kansas City Chiefs. We've got Christmas, we've got love. We've got, you know.

Bill Dippel (00:10.526)
You're wearing red. You are wearing red today. I got you look good. You do. You look spectacular in red. That is absolutely true.

Bill Dippel (00:24.359)
How?

Bill Dippel (00:27.814)
What, what has we got to Kansas city chiefs you live in, you live in Nebraska. he's okay. sorry. I didn't realize it was just the entire Midwest has taken on the Kansas city chiefs. Okay. Got it.

Sarah Collins (00:30.87)
We, I live in the Midwest, so I don't know which one for me.

Sarah Collins (00:41.878)
Listen, we love a good read, you know?

Bill Dippel (00:45.19)
Well, you look, it is true, you look spectacular in red.

Sarah Collins (00:47.768)
Well, thank you. You sound spectacular always as people love to tell me over and over and over again.

Bill Dippel (00:51.775)
well, I put on green today so that my voice was extra green and in tune. So yeah, let's go with that. Sure.

Sarah Collins (00:58.818)
Sure, sure. Okay, here's this question is really fitting for our pre podcast banter. So I just want everyone to know who's listening. We were talking about Boss's Day just a second ago. And this is my question I have for you today, Mr. Dippel. If you had to create a holiday, what would it celebrate and what would be the key traditions?

Bill Dippel (01:05.298)
Ooh, I love it.

Bill Dippel (01:14.007)
Yes.

Bill Dippel (01:21.628)
Hmm. Creating a holiday. What kind of fun holiday would I do and what would the traditions be? Could I instill a holiday? Gosh darn it. That's a really good question. Where would I? Where would I go with a holiday? I mean all the good ones are kind of taken. You the ones that come to mind. I might say if I was going to start a holiday it would be.

it would be treat, treat your assistant to, and I know there's an assistant's day, but I would say treat your assistant like the boss day so that essentially the assistant gets to step in, be the, know, whoever your right-hand person is gets to come in, live the life, work it, and then truly appreciate, and then you get to be the assistant for the day and see how

Sarah Collins (02:02.19)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (02:04.015)
Mm-mm.

Sarah Collins (02:07.597)
Mmm.

Bill Dippel (02:21.821)
It's Assistant Swap Holiday Day.

Sarah Collins (02:21.87)
See, I feel like that's what I already do with my assistant. I'm like, I really need a boss. Could you just tell me what to do today because I really work better in that way.

Anne George (02:24.483)
Ha ha ha.

Bill Dippel (02:26.468)
Hahaha!

Bill Dippel (02:32.638)
Could you just give me some pressure? I need a moment of pressure to step in and yeah.

Sarah Collins (02:37.208)
Could you tell me if you think I'm doing a good job here? Do you think like the work I do is good? Do you think it makes an impact? Like, do you think if you were giving out grades that you would you give me an A plus or?

Bill Dippel (02:47.035)
Yeah, you know, Sarah, is one thing I have come to really appreciate about you is you do like your accolades. You if I can give you an accolade or two, you are in here and you deserve them. Yeah, it is.

Sarah Collins (02:57.346)
That's right. Words of affirmation is my love language and I know myself well enough to know that yes, I like to be told I'm the soft, cute, little, kitty and that I'm doing a really good job and trying hard and everyone knows it.

Bill Dippel (03:11.75)
And what is great about that is I happen to know that yes, I, the soft kitty is great. Here come the claws. When, when she wants to here, here comes that, that one house cat you don't want to deal with, right? The one that's mad jumping on you got the claws and I, and I respect that. I mean, your work ethic, the things you do, the people that reach out to you, the amount of speaking that you're doing, the amount of coaching that you're doing. That's not cute kitty. That's that's.

Anne George (03:27.663)
Mm.

Anne George (03:39.951)
You

Bill Dippel (03:41.329)
Right? Women taking work. Yep. And speaking of lionesses, speaking of powerful women doing great work, our guest today has a special place in my heart, but also needs to be given the full accolade on assistance slash boss trading day. That needs to be taken full place because we are working today with Ann George.

Sarah Collins (03:47.967)
Hmm?

Bill Dippel (04:11.166)
coach extraordinaire, but also a coach that works for Bill Dippel Strengths Coaching, one of our people, and keeps me in line and straight. and welcome to the show.

Anne George (04:23.427)
Thanks for having me. Yeah, I think it honestly would take a whole team to keep you straight, but I keep you like in the perimeters roughly.

Bill Dippel (04:29.704)
Hmm. Yes, yes, yes. As I reached out to put this one together, I knew I'd be outnumbered today. I realized I'm in trouble. The two of you again have a have a certain age range of you. know, you're I'm the lone male on the I don't know. I just I feel like today's going to be rocky for

Sarah Collins (04:31.47)
Mmm, this makes sense, this tracks.

Sarah Collins (04:38.254)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (04:42.255)
Yeah.

Anne George (04:50.965)
Yeah, probably.

Sarah Collins (04:51.68)
It might be, yeah, no, there's no denying that from here. So I'm just gonna take the lead because I wanna know from Ann. Ann, how did you get here? Tell us a little bit about your story. Tell us about your journey to strengths, you know, helping this guy keep his ducks in a row and give us your top 10.

Bill Dippel (04:58.493)
I beg of you.

Anne George (05:09.731)
Hahaha!

So my top 10 is analytical number one, learner, relator, strategic, empathy, developer, intellectual, responsibility, individualization, and arranger. So a lot of strategic in the top paired with some relationship building and then just a pinch of executing on the tail end there. Yeah.

Sarah Collins (05:36.526)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (05:40.419)
whole lot of baggage there. We'll talk about it as we get to the question. There's a reason why I keep Bill on track, right?

Bill Dippel (05:41.983)
yeah. Yeah. We're, going to get there. We're going to break down that stuff. So how did you. Yeah. There, you know, in our coaching, we talked about dynamic partnerships and how you might surround yourself or need to surround yourself with people with very different themes and fits that bill to a T that high strategy, that ability to see forward and help me understand what's coming up or about to happen is phenomenal for her. So.

Anne George (05:53.647)
You

Anne George (06:00.975)
Yeah

Bill Dippel (06:11.794)
Thank you for that part. And how did you get here? How on earth did we end up working together? How did that happen?

Anne George (06:18.233)
So it's such a fun story. So I started off just in the workforce, right? Graduated high school, jumped right into the workforce and food and beverage industry specifically. Saw a lot of issues with management and just miscommunication, all sorts of things like that. Decided, I'm gonna go back to school because I don't wanna be in these lower level jobs for my whole life because it's driving me crazy. And start my degree for business, take my first psychology class and immediately.

Bill Dippel (06:19.761)
Mmm.

Anne George (06:47.716)
Immediately switch my degree to psychology because I'm like, no, this is where it's at. I love business. love companies and corporations and how they function. And I want to improve that function, but like the human need is so important as well. So I switched to psychology, finished that degree. And I'm still, you know, paying my bills and working in, the food industry. And I'm at a country club that Mr. Bill Dippel is a member at. Yes.

Bill Dippel (07:13.726)
A golf country club. Hmm, weird.

Sarah Collins (07:17.217)
Weird

Anne George (07:17.631)
and weird who who likes golf more than mr bill diple

Sarah Collins (07:24.256)
Not many, I don't think.

Bill Dippel (07:24.68)
Trust me, this came up on a previous podcast. Our guest notified me she was a seven handicap, which now I took it personally. So yes, good, go on.

Anne George (07:35.631)
I tell you that I worked in a country golf country club for four years and I still have no idea what a seven handicap means. So.

Bill Dippel (07:42.686)
Sarah's right there with it. Wow. Wow. I apologize to all the golfers listening out there. So, yes, four years. Yeah.

Sarah Collins (07:46.222)
Mm-hmm. I was like, why are we talking about this? This is so boring. Can we change the subject?

Anne George (07:55.77)
So Bill comes in multiple times during the summer, especially when golf is really high during the week. And I serve him one of those days and we have this fun banter. And the more I talk to him, the more I serve him as the supervisor of the bar and restaurant.

Bill Dippel (08:02.61)
multiple times during the week. Yes. Yes.

Sarah Collins (08:06.11)
often frequently.

Anne George (08:20.399)
I'm like, this guy's funny. And so we start talking more and then he tells me what he does. And I start asking more questions about it. He tells me about strengths and coaching and what it focuses on. And I'm like, I like that. I'm like, hey, let's get coffee outside of the club. One time I'd like to hear more about what you do. And then we had that conversation and I was just like, well, I work for you now. And that was kind of just how it went. And then I started working for him and.

Bill Dippel (08:46.43)
Yeah,

Anne George (08:49.999)
Then I got my coaching credentials and I'm still working for him. What, three years now?

Bill Dippel (08:55.463)
Yeah, yeah, I think we're on our third year coming together. And yeah, she absolutely she just basically told me you're I'm your employee now and let's let's make this. And I was like, wow, OK. And the beauty was instantly some of the stuff I needed. I was like, well, and I was working with another group that another virtual group that we know. We've met them. We've talked about them a little bit and we meet them in Charlotte's event.

Sarah Collins (09:09.804)
That's right.

Bill Dippel (09:24.914)
And they were fantastic, wonderful to work with. But the beauty of having Anne come on board and do a lot of the stuff on the backend that we do the distribution of codes and the, my God, Sarah's just tearing apart her studio over there. Wow. And distribution of codes, the follow-up emails, that doing all of the stuff that I don't really have time for, because I'm trying to get in front of other people and make that happen. She came right in and just glommed onto that and just really ran with it. It's a, it's a really good comment.

Sarah Collins (09:35.224)
Sorry, my first time podcasting.

Bill Dippel (09:55.113)
to also, coach and talk about this sometimes for other people. If you're going to bring an assistant on, give them everything. Don't bring somebody in and just give them, I'm going to give you just one piece of my email or just a little of my calendar and everything else is too private or whatever it is. There is nothing in my world Ann doesn't see. And that

Yeah. Well, it has its moments for sure. Yeah. and, it has, it, leads to just a wonderful working relationship, but it also leads to now I can do everything that I know I can do. And Anne has taken over so many of the, of the, of the other finer points and then take the flip side of it. She went and got fully certified and she wanted to be on the coaching end. And then if it comes down to us, co-coaching or working a group, Anne's all about it.

Anne George (10:27.183)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (10:51.177)
She's there, she's ready. She has segments that we do in some of our slide decks that she's responsible for and she really resonates with and is comfortable with. So in all of those ways, the transition from, hey, I'm going to run this country club to I now work for you turned out to be just a really, really blessed event for buildable strength coaching. So yeah, and I would also say,

I apologize for all of the other stuff that goes on in our world. So I don't know that I don't know that, I don't know that I can apologize enough for the times that, I've asked you to do something and then it went weird or, know, we had to go some other direction or where it went. So, how do you find keeping me online? What have your strengths are you using where you think that's happened?

Anne George (11:42.82)
I think that it's helpful having all the strategic to combat some of your relationship because you, yeah, you want to be in front of people. And in order to do that, you need somebody handling the follow-up emails, the little details that those balls need to be picked up, right? You can't drop them. But if you're staring at a computer all day for you and your particular strengths, you're going to go crazy.

Right? You're going to be miserable. Right? We talk about it all the time with coaching of like, use your strengths and focus in on what you're doing. If you're a high relationship builder, if you're in a, in a cubicle for your job, you're going to be miserable. Even if you're getting paid a lot, even if you're really good at it, you're going to be miserable because your relationship building strengths demand that you have that personal connection. So I'm able to.

Bill Dippel (12:34.184)
Yeah.

Anne George (12:36.888)
lean on my relationship and really communicate with you effectively and understand that about you while picking up all the tiny little details that need to get hit that is more like computer work or just needlessly hammering on emails to get things done. And you get to go and be in front of the client while I'm emailing the same client while you're talking.

Bill Dippel (12:58.427)
Yeah, absolutely. Which was happening yesterday during a half day event I had, she was sending out some other reminders and goodies. So, yeah. And, just having, having somebody to help you in the coaching world, you know, Sarah, you have Sierra, correct? Is that right? And she helps you on that. So how amazing is it to have somebody that's doing stuff when you're otherwise occupied that you know, is stuff that needs to get done. Just that small blessing.

Sarah Collins (13:13.77)
Mm-hmm. That's right.

Bill Dippel (13:25.704)
propels the coaching world and the entrepreneurship through the roof.

Sarah Collins (13:29.102)
Well, and I think what Anne said is so true and worth reiterating. You need to lean into your talents. That's what we preach all the time, right? You have to lead, you have to feed them, which means you have to be able to use them. You have to lean into them. And if you're an entrepreneur, you know, these businesses of one, essentially, you know, these, these coaches out there trying to make it, we will not be good at everything here because that's not how humans work.

we are not going to be well-rounded. It is a myth that you can be really great at everything. If you try, you'll be pretty terrible at everything. And so you're better off honing in on your area of talent and going hard in the paint on that. That's the whole CliftonStrengths philosophy is going hard on the things that you're good at. And that's what's so great about what you've done here, Bill, by having Anne on your team.

is that she can pick up those areas where you do not have the talent. And if you had to sit and spend time doing those things, not only would you still not be good at it, it would drain you from the things that you are good at because you wouldn't have as much energy or effort, right? And so it sort of brings the whole ship down when you're forced to do a lot of things in your non-talent zone. So it's really a dynamic partnership that you have created here that allows you both to sit in your areas of talent.

and be the best you can be.

Bill Dippel (14:49.959)
Yeah. Yeah. I would also say, one of our clients recently contacted me and said, Hey, can you provide one of your other coaches to an event rather than you come and do it. And up until then, all I'd ever heard from them was we need you, we need you don't pawn us off on somebody else. And they swapped it. They changed and said, we want to, we want to work with another coach.

Sarah Collins (15:06.946)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (15:14.562)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (15:14.974)
And the beauty of this is, know, I've coached with Renee for years. So having her and having her ability to come in as a strategist provides another wrinkle for people to look at and say, I really bind to that type of, of, of coaching. But what it also does is it allows you to know, Hey, this particular group, they may want a different view than what Bill Dippel is putting out than what Sarah Collins is, has normally run with them.

Sarah Collins (15:40.195)
Right.

Bill Dippel (15:43.785)
Let's get a different view in that. And just having the ability to have someone there that can provide that opens doors, right? It is a, it is a selling point that we use regularly at BDSC around, Hey, you get to pick, know, pick your coach. Who do you want to work with? and you know, I work with everyone at some level, but it doesn't mean if you pick me, you can't work with Ann at some level or Renee, or you want to work with Ann. doesn't mean you won't work with me, right? You can write we, and there will be instances where Ann will feel.

Sarah Collins (15:50.294)
Absolutely.

Sarah Collins (15:58.434)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (16:06.668)
Right.

Bill Dippel (16:13.724)
Hey, I think Bill should be part of this discussion and she can make that call. another place that Ann has been incredibly helpful has been when we do a blended, hyper, both virtual and in real life events. Yeah. Hi. Hi. Bird events. Ann is our online coach. So we will split. And then when we break to do, some of the workshop stuff, she will be running the online side of it. And then.

Sarah Collins (16:28.258)
Mm-hmm. Hybrid. Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (16:42.414)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (16:43.037)
she will come back and know who should contribute and who should do other things. And your ability and your strategic in that really shine, your ability to know where they are and how they do that. But you also have high empathy and high relator. How does that drive from a coaching point of view and your online coaching with them? How do those roles come into play for you? How do those themes affect your coaching acumen and what you do?

Anne George (17:10.959)
Yeah, I think the high empathy actually is what drove the hybrid pivot. I think when I first started coaching with you and I went to the workshops and the events, the first couple of times we had hybrids and there was people on the screen, we would get feedback that they didn't feel connected. They felt ignored. didn't, or even I'm just sitting in the room, like, how do we engage these people? Right? They look bored or they're

They just have their screen off. So who even knows what they're doing, right? We're getting a couple seconds where we have them answer the question, but even where the camera is positioned in the room, like our backs are to them. And I'm like, we can't keep doing this. We have to give them something, right? The workforce is changing. The workforce has adapted where hybrid and completely virtual are becoming more and more commonplace, more and more acceptable.

So how do we as coaches pivot our coaching style from a fully in-person to a hybrid? And to Bill's point, the fact that we have multiple coaches allows for that, right? Now Bill can be in-person with the in-person people. I can be online with the online people. And when we do a breakout where we pass out a worksheet and everybody fills it out, I can now go into a breakout room on Zoom with those virtual people.

Sarah Collins (18:31.982)
Hmm

Anne George (18:32.278)
and engage with them directly, answer their questions while Bill's answering the in-person people's questions. And then we come back as a group. Now the online virtual staff feels like they had their questions answered, feels like they're engaged with the content, feels like they actually have a say. The first time we did a virtual component, we had a virtual coach myself and did that. I think we only had like five people virtually.

It wasn't a whole lot versus like the 30 people in person. And every feedback from those five people that came in was like, thank you so much for, like, I felt like I was not ignored, right? I think a lot of virtual staff, when they have group meetings, they feel like they're just in, they're just sitting there. They don't really get engaged with the same way. And so my empathy, even just sitting in the in-persons the first couple of times, the client asked, Hey, we have some people online.

Sarah Collins (19:14.221)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (19:30.543)
I was like, these people are just getting ignored. What are we doing here? So I think my empathy played a huge role in how do we adapt as coaches to include those people.

Bill Dippel (19:34.846)
you

Sarah Collins (19:34.926)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (19:44.158)
Hmm.

Sarah Collins (19:44.214)
Yeah, and I feel like you hear that empathy, the strategic and probably the arranger to get it done, to orchestrate it, because that can be one of the challenges with the hybrid is the logistics of it all, right? And so, so smart to have two coaches, one in person, one online to engage those people and for you to see, hey, there's a need here. And this is something that can set us apart because we're going to engage those people who are inevitably.

online, whether they work remotely or they're just gone that day, right? Because now we let anybody call in from anywhere. And so what a great way to use your themes to make sure the engagements are still engaging.

Bill Dippel (20:23.115)
Yeah. And I would also, you know, as I know you and I hear you talking about it, you're an election is number seven, right? It tends to be when we talk, you are very precise about what you say. When I watch you coach or have the, have the ability to sit back and watch you lean into your coaching. You're very exacting about what you want to, about what you want to get across, but also how you present it.

Anne George (20:23.633)
Exactly.

Bill Dippel (20:49.017)
I truly appreciate that component. you, do you find that's true for you in intellectual? Are other people pointing that out in the way you see it? Or do you see yourself from that intellectual side?

Anne George (21:00.589)
Yeah, I think it's a lot of my strategic themes. It's not just the election, it's the combination and it's the combination with the empathy. It's really funny. My partner Everett, who we've talked about before, says that I would make a really scary supervillain because I'm very exact with my words and the way that I can present things in like layman terms can be

perceived as kind of like, don't use that for evil, right? One of my detailed boxes for strategic, which is my number four, is that I'm really good with language. I know how to present language in the way that other people are going to understand it. I can take a concept or a thing and present it in layman terms, but not just layman terms in general, but if I know the person well enough, I can communicate to them.

Sarah Collins (21:33.703)
Mmm.

Bill Dippel (21:34.664)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Anne George (21:59.3)
the exact way that I know they receive information versus just how I think about things because I know that not everybody thinks the same way, right? That's kind of why I was drawn to CliftonStrengths because of that concept.

Sarah Collins (22:15.168)
Ooh, you can hear that learner learning about people, right? The strategic. And then you couple these strategic thinking themes with empathy, developer, individualization, or later. And I can see Everett's point about the supervillain. It could be used, like with great power comes great responsibility.

Anne George (22:36.111)
You

Sarah Collins (22:39.032)
How are you manipulating us? Because you're thinking so strategically, but you have the touch and the pulse on the human in front of you. You can see exactly what they need to hear to understand this concept. And your strategic brain is thinking about it so quickly that you're able to do it. And I bet when you walk away from the situation, you even think of new ideas for next time, because that intellection loves to noodle on stuff. And it only gets better with some time to think about it more.

Anne George (22:41.647)
You

Sarah Collins (23:06.86)
So if you're gonna re-engage with people, you probably have even more insight on how to get them to do the things you want them to do.

Anne George (23:15.255)
Yes. Yep. And when I first took the test and the assessment and read through it, it's all things that I knew about myself, but I kind of read it and I was like, am I the villain? Like, am I manipulating people? Like, for real, right? And that's the, I could be a scary super villain thing of I am pivoting how I talk to get my point across more efficiently. So I'm currently using it for good, but there's a component of it of like,

Sarah Collins (23:39.821)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (23:44.799)
I could manipulate people, like I could be scary.

Bill Dippel (23:48.849)
Yes, yeah. And that perception can be there, opposing those skills. Even if you're just trying to help, the possibility of being seen as a manipulator can absolutely, you know, be there and rise its head for you. And I, I would also say, Sarah, you said it really well with having your finger on the pulse of the people with those relationship skills. it's very,

Sarah Collins (23:49.004)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (24:13.104)
our Monday mornings together with my, my Monday mornings together with Ann going over our business and what we're inevitably always starts with a bitch fest. Inevitably always starts with a, you know, a, you know, gosh, darn it that, you know, that client didn't get that done or, you know, Gallup, is, is having a problem with the website and we, you know, we're having this issue or something like that. So inevitably.

It starts there, but the journey I love in that and the reason I actually appreciate that is one again with high in election, but also with good strategy themes and having a good people basis around her. I know what she's going to bitch about one probably matters. There's something to it that we will need to address and two takes in the emotion about other people. So there's going to be that. when

She does, and we're human, we're human as coaches. So when she goes, Hey, that client, you know, crap the bed right there because they didn't, they're not keeping up with this or that. she is aware that of, of what that looks like for them and what it feels like to me. That's where I really appreciate in, gosh darn it. Now I got to call the CEO or the COO and we got to make the next move. And, you know, and having that strategy so helpful for me.

Sarah Collins (25:13.09)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (25:35.875)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (25:40.369)
in your coaching or even in your personal life. mentioned Everett. Where else is strategy like super important for you? Like your job transition, your ability to be with Everett and do the, he's got a couple of jobs he does and how do you guys strategize that together? Where does that play for you?

Anne George (26:00.048)
So I strategize everything. So it plays for me everywhere. You're right. It's in my, it's everywhere, right? It doesn't end at work. Our strengths are who we are every day outside of work and our relationships and our friendships, you know, in our hobbies, right? Even in golf, I'm sure you talk a lot, right?

Bill Dippel (26:03.238)
Good, yes.

Bill Dippel (26:21.682)
No, never. Never.

Sarah Collins (26:22.004)
Well, I'm sure.

Sarah Collins (26:26.158)
Probably making friends with that beer cart girl. That's one thing I know about golf.

Anne George (26:27.495)
Hehehehehe

Bill Dippel (26:29.276)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They know me now because they have the regular beer, beer, card girls. So now they're just like, hey, how are you? You know, so yeah, I'm known as the tipper, I think, apparently. So.

Sarah Collins (26:35.719)
Yeah.

Anne George (26:40.528)
Yeah, no, it's everywhere. I think it's good for people to take the CliftonStrengths assessment, even just within your relationships, to recognize how different you are from your partner and how you manage your life, your household, everything, right? We have jobs to deal with. have pets. We have kids. We have whatever, right, to manage. And if you're both leaning into the things that fuel you,

Sarah Collins (26:42.542)
but I think that's a thing.

Anne George (27:09.807)
It's going to make things more successful, but it also helps so much with communication. I think a big thing I try to portray when we're with clients is I think we all know on some level that we think and process information differently, but we don't have the language to communicate it. So it's just this ethereal belief that we think differently, but we have no way to communicate that to each other. I think a fun example of mine and Everett's

Sarah Collins (27:34.126)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (27:39.696)
communication differences and I'm very high strategic and he is also like Bill very high relationship. And so we've had struggles with communicating and we both take the assessment and like, oh, I knew 90 % about of this about you, but I didn't have the terminology to explain it after 10 years of being together. I knew these things about you, but I could never put it to words.

Sarah Collins (28:01.326)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (28:08.717)
Right. think I guessed eight of his top 10 before he took the assessment. Right. I.

Sarah Collins (28:11.363)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (28:13.426)
Yeah, as coaches, we never do that. No, no.

Sarah Collins (28:13.88)
Well, and if you're anything like me, I would say I couldn't put it into nice words. I could say what my husband was doing. I don't know that I could have said it in a positive way, but like I could have told you what those traits look like to me.

Anne George (28:21.871)
Hahaha!

Bill Dippel (28:23.752)
Ahahaha!

Bill Dippel (28:29.118)
I'm just...

Anne George (28:29.337)
Hahaha!

Bill Dippel (28:32.552)
You know, Sarah loves saying this, this system allows you to turn criticism into recognition. And now I know where that basis comes from. Corey, Corey, if you're listening, kudos, kudos. You got there guys. It was good. So yeah.

Sarah Collins (28:38.582)
recognition.

Anne George (28:40.035)
Yes.

Sarah Collins (28:42.094)
Ehh!

Anne George (28:48.112)
Well, yeah, I agree completely. There was probably a of complaint list of like, why don't you think about these things the way that I do? And it would frustrate us, right? We would butt heads. We would grind against each other's strengths without knowing we were doing it because we weren't strengths aware at the time. One example after we both became strengths aware is we were on the way to go out of town.

Sarah Collins (28:55.566)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (28:55.806)
Ha

Anne George (29:15.139)
gas is cheaper in the area, in the rural area that we live in. And I told him, Hey, let's stop at the trucker gas station on the way out to fill up. So we don't have to fill up in California because the gas is expensive there. And we get in the car and my strategic brain has a map of the area. And I immediately am like, okay, we'll stop at the first gas station we come across because it's in route. And we're driving and he drives right past it. And I'm like,

Sarah Collins (29:40.267)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (29:45.283)
We're by the gas station.

Bill Dippel (29:48.83)
That one? Right there? Yeah.

Anne George (29:51.664)
And before strengths away, I probably would have gotten angry and been like, what are you doing? Right? What the heck? Right? I told you, I told you that's where we're going to stop. So he keeps driving. He gets on the freeway, gets back off and goes to a different trucker gas station. And I'm like, what, what are we doing? And he's like, you said we're going to the trucker gas station. And I was like, that one, the other one, but for him, right.

Sarah Collins (29:57.548)
Why didn't you stop? That's where we were going to stop. Where are you going?

Sarah Collins (30:11.246)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (30:17.832)
The one we were right next to, yeah.

Anne George (30:20.451)
But for him, he has high context. And for him, with the way that he has the areas he's lived in and the route that he's always taken, that specific one that we did go to in his brain was the trucker gas station. So when I said this blank term, right, trucker gas station, and didn't specify, he went to the one his brain thought I meant, and I went to this other one.

Sarah Collins (30:40.45)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (30:45.517)
Yeah.

Anne George (30:48.129)
And before strengths, that might've been an argument. That might've been a fight.

Sarah Collins (30:51.661)
Right?

Bill Dippel (30:53.34)
Yeah, yeah, that's a long car ride.

Sarah Collins (30:54.337)
Absolutely.

Anne George (30:56.098)
Right. it's over, A, it's over something stupid, right? Who cares which gas station we get gas from, right? But then it, now we're strengths aware and we go, this is why we ended up at two different answers to the same statement.

Sarah Collins (31:01.356)
Right, that doesn't matter.

Bill Dippel (31:02.878)
And wow, it's just very nice hearing you, both you women say that, it doesn't matter. Go on, yes.

Sarah Collins (31:20.802)
Right. And they're both right answers in your mind, right? Your strength led you to what was your right answer. And you're absolutely right. Beforehand, it's like, why would you think that? That's so dumb. Not that you would have said that, but you know, like that sentiment of like, that's obviously not what I meant. And to have the wherewithal with strengths awareness to say, in my strategic mind, I saw a map, which also I'm so jealous of. That's never happened to me once in my life. I would love an internal map.

Anne George (31:25.473)
Exactly.

Anne George (31:36.527)
Yeah.

Anne George (31:47.415)
Hahaha!

Sarah Collins (31:50.03)
Whereas he's thinking like, she said trucker gas station. I know exactly which one that is because in my mind I have previous experience going to this one. And so the way that we anchor and think about this for the listeners, you can do this in your marriage. You can do it with your adult children. You can do it at work. You can do it with your own parents. You are in relationship everywhere you go. You want to be in relationship. Even the most introverted people out there.

need connection and relationship and the way you can just smooth out and bring empathy. know, and you have high empathy, but even people who don't have empathy as the strength, we need empathy in the way that we interact. So we can say, you were using your context. That's why you picked this gas station. Now I'm not gonna be annoyed or think that your decision is somehow making my decision wrong. I'm gonna say, I understand the way you're thinking about that now.

Bill Dippel (32:45.267)
Yeah, yeah, really good. And I get to I actually coach Everett as part of a part of a relationship with Anne because I know it means a lot to her. So I get to work with him and his context comes up in so many ways. I hear your version of it. And I I love the thought. I'm guessing he probably stops at that gas station regularly. And so for him, contextually, that is the gas station. Right. That is his normal.

Sarah Collins (33:12.738)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (33:14.642)
Contextually, that is it. That's where I go. I, yeah, that's such a really clever breakdown of, Hey, this could have been a moment, right? This, this might've happened, but, I can let you off the hook and I know why you did it. And I just, have two women that are big in my life say it didn't really matter. just warms my heart. I feel so, I feel vindicated in some subtle way for the men that listen. I'll just put that out there. So.

Anne George (33:34.826)
Hahaha!

Anne George (33:42.649)
you

Bill Dippel (33:44.528)
No, no, Sarah's shaking her head. She's she's not having any of it. All right.

Sarah Collins (33:47.886)
I don't know why you're taking this up as a man issue.

Anne George (33:51.428)
You

Bill Dippel (33:52.479)
I heard a woman say it didn't matter. That's all.

Sarah Collins (33:55.65)
Well, I don't know what you think doesn't matter. I'm so confused. What are we talking about? I feel like we're not on the same page right now.

Bill Dippel (34:02.232)
my God, it's so funny. All right, so let's talk about another man in your life. And I love talking about Everett, I think it's good. When you deal with me, right? When you have to work and think about, my God. No, not at all. It is, it is. But listen to this, when you deal with me, it's very different than when you're dealing with other people, other coaches, Renee, how we get together.

Sarah Collins (34:13.698)
This episode's not about you, Mr. Nipple! This episode's about Anne! What you keep bringing it back to you for?

Anne George (34:17.175)
He thinks it is.

Bill Dippel (34:29.02)
Where are your strengths in play at that? Because it does bring up a difference in how you relate with the people that you have to deal with quite frequently.

Anne George (34:39.812)
Yeah, it's, it's my superpower again, right? I, strengths just makes me be able to lean into it a lot faster. So I, you know, read Bill's assessment, he's high relationship building. So when we have those Monday morning meetings that start off as a bitch fest, we're relating, right? We're asking how our weekends were. We talk about these things. We talk about relational things.

Bill Dippel (35:00.573)
Yes.

Sarah Collins (35:03.362)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (35:09.039)
Then we get to the meat of, okay, XYZ needs to happen this week. And then the meeting's over. Whereas when I deal with a coach like Renee, who also leads with strategic, it's like, okay, here's what we're talking about today. Bam, bam, bam. Oh, by the way, I hope you had a good weekend. Have a nice day. Conversation's over. So I'm using that same superpower that I described earlier of I am...

Sarah Collins (35:34.594)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (35:38.028)
interacting with other coaches and adapting the way that I communicate within meetings or within sessions differently based on the coach that's sitting across from me. And that is just heightened and it's expedited because I have their report and I know what's going to fuel them. I can lean into that better very quickly just from having their report instead of having to take, you know, two, three years to get to know the person and then use that superpower to

Sarah Collins (35:54.903)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (36:07.895)
lean into what they need and how they receive information.

Sarah Collins (36:12.054)
Yeah, so it's like a social shortcut, you're able to sort of short circuit the process of getting to know someone.

Bill Dippel (36:19.752)
The S is social shortcuts, short circuit. You did that far better than I could have. That was really impressive. But yeah, I agree. She has that shortcut that she can take in order to know, hey, this is what I bring to each of these, right? Yeah.

Sarah Collins (36:21.826)
Social short at the short circuit. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Anne George (36:24.079)
you

Sarah Collins (36:40.59)
Mm hmm. I want to ask you more about your intellectual. I think intellectual is such a fascinating theme. You know, it is a superpower. I work with a lot of people who have it and it shows up in different ways of, you know, noodling on things. Sometimes it can slow them down.

Because they want to be able to take the time to think about things sometimes they want that extra preparation like I've heard people with high Intellections say like I like an agenda for a meeting because I want to know what's gonna be talked about so I can Pre-think about it. Even if I don't need to pre-think about it. I just want to know I'm prepared So in what ways do you see your? Intellections show up, especially I'm thinking like you work with bill you work with Renee they lead with different strengths. How does Intellections

and where is it maybe strong and where does it struggle?

Anne George (37:30.307)
I think your description from what some of your clients say is 100 % accurate. think there is moments where it does bog me down. do feel extra levels of anxiety if I don't have prep. If I don't have the time to just think about what you're going to ask me, I think even just getting ready to set up this podcast and me and Bill talking about is like, you should send people a list of what's going to be talked about.

Sarah Collins (37:44.663)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (37:58.156)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (37:59.246)
because for my high intellectual buddies, if we go on here and we have no idea what you're going to ask us, it's going to be really hard for us to answer on the fly because we want to give answers that have been thought about, right? Questions and things that we're discussing, we want to take the time and put in the energy to give it a fully vetted answer.

Sarah Collins (38:15.214)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (38:25.795)
Whereas if I'm put on the fly, I can still answer it, but I'm going to go home. I'm going to think about it for two hours and think about how I should have answered it differently. And it's going to drive me crazy. And that's the bogged down portion of in-election. Something that Bill does that I really appreciate because he knows I have that high in-election. Okay. Is he'll just.

Sarah Collins (38:31.33)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (38:39.234)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (38:44.92)
thank God she said, appreciate. was looking for that something Bill does that drives me nuts. Yeah.

Sarah Collins (38:47.998)
I'm sorry.

Anne George (38:55.684)
give me the task of, hey, think about this. And that's it, that's the whole task. Hey, we're thinking about doing this, think about it. That's the task. Yeah, exactly. So the task isn't, hey, get this done. Hey, I need this by this date. The task is, hey, think about this and let's talk about it again next week.

Sarah Collins (39:00.174)
Mmm.

Sarah Collins (39:08.204)
Yeah, it's like put your superpower on it. Put your superpower. Your superpower is thinking.

Sarah Collins (39:22.958)
Ooh, I think that if you are a leader or a manager and you work with someone with high intellectual, look at how much you can fill their bucket by giving them the task of no task, but just to think about it. And how often do you come back in and say, hey, I've been thinking about this and I have these ideas or I've got this plan or whatever it is.

Anne George (39:33.933)
just to think about it.

Anne George (39:43.501)
Yes, it's X.

Bill Dippel (39:43.751)
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm taking that as Sarah called me a good boss. I'm just taking it as a win for the moment. Right. Yeah. I'll take it. And, and I would point out to, and when I give you that ability and I ask you to do that, what ends up happening is fantastic in that I get an email and the email is long and it is thought out and it has multiple options. Whereas if I put you on the spot and said, Hey, we're thinking of doing this. What do you think right now?

Anne George (39:47.971)
Hahaha

Sarah Collins (39:49.784)
Take it, absolutely.

Anne George (39:52.399)
Ahem.

Sarah Collins (40:03.276)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (40:12.144)
Right. And we'll make, we'll, make some plans. I'm not going to get all that great, wonderful data. I'm just going to get a, I don't, yeah, it seems okay. Right. You know, we're, we're there. Whereas when I say, about this, I don't even have to follow up with a, Hey, what did you think? What's going to happen is three days later and email is going to arrive. And that email will highlight every possible scenario.

Sarah Collins (40:17.048)
Right.

Sarah Collins (40:28.631)
Right.

Sarah Collins (40:36.568)
Well, and I imagine with your learner and your analytical, you've been doing research on it too. So you're not just thinking, but you've got your sources are cited. You've got, know, other, you know, whatever it is, websites to reference things to do in the email that is like, Hey, I thought about this. did some research. Here's what we know. Here's a planet of attack.

Anne George (40:56.238)
Yes. Yeah. Here's XYZ. Here's all the downfalls. Here's and there's your email. That's two books long.

Bill Dippel (41:05.17)
Yeah, yeah.

Sarah Collins (41:05.292)
And we talk about like not when we think about like managers and leaders, not micromanaging people, not just spoon feeding them every little thing you need them to do, but empowering them to come up with it on their own and have their own plan. If you have a high-intellection person and you've been struggling because you've been trying to spoon feed them things to do and you're not getting it, maybe it's this issue. Maybe you need to say, take the power, babe. You go think about this. See what you can come up with. Get back to me by next Monday.

and see what they create, see what happens, see what magic they can, because in there, because of your other strengths, you've got the research, you've got the tasks, you've got a plan thought out, and then you can still collaborate on it and talk to Bill about it and have those relationship building themes come out, because I'm sure sometimes he might read stuff and go, this is interesting, what about this? And then you can use your relationship building themes to explain it the way that you were thinking about it.

Anne George (42:03.481)
Yes, exactly. And I think a big thing that I've noticed from my previous workforce is I think a lot of problem with people with high intellectual struggling in the workforce, either with micromanagement or with it's almost perceived as like laziness because I'm not like immediate, right? I don't have that activator. I'm not immediately jumping on a task. And so my, my thought work, my, my noodling is

Sarah Collins (42:21.966)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (42:33.1)
invisible labor that nobody else is seeing before I take the action. They're just seeing that I'm not taking action, right? Bill's getting the email three days later. why did it take you three days to come up with a plan? It's like, well, to your point, I was doing research. was, we tried to implement a different calendar system. I had to see what it looked like. I had to create the account and then I had to see what it looked like from the user.

Sarah Collins (42:34.807)
Right.

Sarah Collins (42:40.974)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (43:01.527)
side instead of the back of the house of the website, right? Like I was doing all these things, but because we didn't immediately jump into it, it might be perceived as, you know, laziness in the workforce. And so, yeah, I think in election, it is one of those invisible labor tasks that is under recognized in the workforce.

Sarah Collins (43:01.725)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (43:05.452)
Right.

Sarah Collins (43:22.71)
Yeah, but so powerful if we can give it its space and let it run. What a powerhouse, right? I think sometimes it is easy to let our influencing themes, relationship building themes run out in front. And a lot of times those people get the kudos, right? A high activator, like, yes, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it. I totally am like the little golden retriever of strengths. And that is great in some aspects.

But there are times where we need deeper work, more thought, more strategy, more research, and to tap into the people who can do that and give them the shine that they deserve. This is making me think if we circle back to the beginning, if I could create any holiday, I think it would be National Recognition Day, where we just shined recognition and kudos onto people for their talents.

Bill Dippel (44:10.106)
Ooh, wow, National Recognition Day. That's a good day. I love, well, you ran with it. That's really good. Let's talk about recognition in another way for Ann, and that's, I love getting those emails after multiple days. I know they're well thought out, well researched. But when I get them, I also feel like your developer has kicked in because you're making me better, right?

Sarah Collins (44:15.744)
I know, you guys just inspired it!

Sarah Collins (44:35.47)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (44:38.419)
Let's go back to when I first met you and you were managing a pretty good group of people and, there's a lot going on in that environment. There's food service and there's running a bar and there's, you know, angry golfers and there's happy golfers and there's, whatever. how, how, in election and or developer, when I hear those two together, you know, they don't naturally fit always to me, but you just did such a bang up job.

Anne George (44:54.553)
Ha ha ha!

Bill Dippel (45:07.912)
kind of meshing them and talking about how I have to think about it. But in my ears, I kept hearing developer, how do those two play for you when you're managing a pretty good group of people? So you have that going on. Do you have to think deeply about everything you're going to do? Or does the developer jump right in and get you in motion?

Anne George (45:28.451)
There, yeah, so developer, yeah, that industry is very on the fly. So it took, right, years of experience to be able to pivot on the fly to a lot of tasks, a lot of dealing with staff, but there was almost always a lot of circle back, right? That exact scenario of, all right, here's what I said in the moment. Now I've had two days to think about it. I'm going to circle back and have this conversation with the staff member again, now that I've had.

Sarah Collins (45:46.956)
Hmm.

Anne George (45:57.168)
time to reflect on what happened, why it may have happened. One example that I love to give people when it comes to training new people to the workforce, working at a country club, it's a seasonal job. So I had a lot of high school kids and early college students. And for a few of them, this was their first job ever. And I had previously only ever managed and supervised and trained people who had done this type of work before.

Sarah Collins (45:57.91)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (46:18.434)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (46:27.023)
And I remember one of the young staff members, his first job ever, I sent him to do a task and I gave him basic instructions that I probably would have given to anyone that I was training with enough details that if you had been in food and beverage at any point in your life, you would have understood what I meant. And then I get over there and I look at the task and I'm like, this is not right. This is so wrong. Everything about this is wrong.

Bill Dippel (46:55.385)
Anne George (46:55.928)
And I'm looking at it and I'm taking a beat and I'm like, I understand how you got here. I understand how my instructions resulted in this, but this is not what I meant. And so I correct, obviously corrected, show them how to do it correctly. And then I had to go home and I had to think about it. And I had to adapt my management style to deal with staff that

Sarah Collins (47:15.768)
Mm.

Anne George (47:23.651)
This is their first job ever, right? There's a whole different ball game training someone from scratch versus training someone how a new job is when they've already been in the workforce. And so I obviously I did the developer part in the moment showed him how to do it correctly. But then I had to go home and I had to say, okay, how would I communicate that task differently in the future to support a staff member like him who doesn't

Sarah Collins (47:25.506)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (47:52.61)
innately know what I mean by this language. How do I now change? Right. So then I noodled, then I noodled. How do I adapt my management style to accommodate this younger staff, these new people to the workforce? So that is how it really helped me as a manager with that specific niche of workforce. Right. You're dealing with young kids that have never been in the workforce before. All right. Develop you in the moment.

go home, adjust my management style for the next moment, and now I can handle it differently in the future.

Bill Dippel (48:32.043)
Got it. I hear him. You hear him weaving. Right?

Sarah Collins (48:34.638)
And the empathy to like have the awareness when you see that he did it wrong to be able to look at self and say, I explain this in a way that made sense to me in the moment, but was not what this person needed. And so instead of being like, why did you do that? That's that's totally wrong. You're, know, like that sort of like dismissiveness of it. You're able to say like, OK, let's correct in the moment. We have to think on our feet here.

But then think about it and come back. And it just really shows that empathy coming through with that developer, that intellection, and really that strategic too. How can you strategically do this better? Now I have to think probably now and in your previous role that arranger served you well. Arranger's an executing theme. She's usually pretty good at thinking on her feet. I always call her the coordinator of chaos.

not necessarily organized, can show up as organized. I have it though, and I clearly am not organized. But really, like I think of the Tetris game. The pieces are coming down and the faster they go, the better a ranger gets at doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. Tell us about how that shows up for you.

Anne George (49:35.574)
Hahaha!

Anne George (49:50.916)
Yes, although my intellectual wants time to noodle, a lot of times, especially when I was in that industry as my main focus, is, intellectual takes a backseat. We're gonna think about it later when I get off work. And right now I need to pivot. And arranger is so important in that. It's, all right, you're...

Sarah Collins (50:07.415)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (50:16.171)
Here's my plan. Here's my map for the day. And now chaos over here. This breaks over here. And you can even say that for doing a virtual assistant work, right? now Gallup's website is down for, you know, X amount of time. This client isn't responding. How do I move forward without the response? What, you know, and just that pivoting of, all right, move it in here. Tetris is a wonderful analogy of.

Sarah Collins (50:27.297)
Absolutely.

Sarah Collins (50:37.741)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (50:45.375)
I would like time to think about it, but when I don't have it, I can move on my feet and Arranger has helped me do that. It helped me thrive in food and beverage to the point where I was, you know, managing the bar and restaurant. It's helped me in the virtual assistant work for Bill of just being able to adapt and change course when all the pieces don't line up the way I wanted it.

Bill Dippel (51:08.754)
Yeah, yeah. And that happens, right? How often things aren't just perfectly aligned and almost feels, it feels like she has super high harmony to me often because so many people aren't following or doing that exact thing and so good at wrangling it and making it happen. But instead of harmony, she's more strategic about it, right? The harmony doesn't.

Sarah Collins (51:09.495)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (51:23.31)
Mmm.

Bill Dippel (51:36.635)
And she's not frustrated by the process other than our bitch fest at the beginning and we'll get it out. But she doesn't she knows what the stakes are. She's willing to put the muscle behind getting the particular thing done and then and then following up with it, making sure it's correct. I can't tell you how often I will call an out on something and say, well, this wasn't quite right. Right. The way we were going to do this wasn't it.

Sarah Collins (51:41.815)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (52:06.344)
We talked about it and this was done slightly. You know, I would do, I would change, I would have changed this and Anne always has a perfect response. The reason it was done that way was because I tried that and that didn't work. Right. She has always thought about and deeply thought about whatever it was we were doing, or I tried it. It did work, but then this backfired because of that. And she went down a whole path to get there. And then I'm like,

Anne George (52:19.951)
You

Sarah Collins (52:33.474)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (52:35.932)
That makes total sense, thanks. Glad you did that.

Sarah Collins (52:38.946)
The other thing I want to point out, and I want to make this point for the audience, because I think it's a question we get all the time, and it sounds like to me that you are a superb communicator. It sounds like, right, Bill said it right at the top, the way that you're able to use, very thoughtful in the words you use, you do a lot of the communicating for Bill and his business and the emails that you're sending, the way you're talking to people, and I love to make this point because

People, I think, get confused because communication is a strength, right? A Clifton strength. And people will say, well, I'm a good communicator and I don't have communication. Or I know someone who has communication in their top 10 and they're really not a good communicator. And I think communication gets confusing to people because you can have a skill in the world.

and it may not align directly with the word that the strength is associated with, right? So communication is an influencing theme. A lot of times it's getting what's in your head out. These are usually people who wanna talk or write or it could be music or art, but they are me, word vomiting in many cases. It can look a little different for everybody, but it's a little bit of that.

But I love to see how you are a superb communicator and it's not coming from a communication theme, right? It's coming from, I would say, correct me if I'm wrong, strategic, empathy, developer, intellection, right? That individualization. You pull on those themes to make yourself a thoughtful, considerate communicator. And I think that is just so good to clear up that you can have a skill in the world.

and it may not directly align with a word that seems the same or similar on the CliftonStrengths assessment.

Anne George (54:27.785)
Exactly. Definitions are important, right? Context of the word that you're using is important. When we get to the myth busting area, that's actually what I was going to talk about, right? It's not communication specifically, but the definition of a word societally versus the definition of a CliftonStrengths theme are different. And we have to take the time to pay heed to that as coaches.

Sarah Collins (54:30.443)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (54:56.269)
when we're trying to teach a new person CliftonStrengths, because we have definitions in our brain already from the societal aspect, and some of them don't match the definition within CliftonStrengths.

Sarah Collins (54:56.29)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (55:11.52)
Exactly.

Bill Dippel (55:11.804)
Yeah. Yeah. And, it's funny, Sarah and I both just labeled you with two different themes that you don't possess. You will have them, but there are 23 and 27 on your report. So I mentioned Harmony and I feel like you, you exhibit it, but you do it in a different way. Sarah's pointing out communication and how you're doing it. And it's low for you. It's in the, it's in the, think that's 23 and that how you're getting there. It's so fascinating that

You know, we may have some ideas around how you got to where you are, but you're doing it in really unique ways. And I truly appreciate that. And in speaking of unique ways, when is there a dumpster fire for you? What strength is it that you think lights the fire and it turns into a dumpster fire might get in your way sometimes.

Anne George (56:03.343)
So it's a combo. It is my analytical and my empathy. So the funnest part about getting certified and understanding strengths more was learning that one of the least likely combinations in your top five is analytical and empathy. It's like 3.4 % of people have it. Like it's such a small percentage. And the reason for it

Bill Dippel (56:05.52)
Yes.

Sarah Collins (56:08.846)
you

Anne George (56:32.843)
and it just shined a light on my whole existence is it's that constant tug between head and heart. That constant tug between facts and logic and emotion. And it's so hard approaching situations because almost every single situation involves people, right? It involves human capital. You can't just baseline everything on facts.

Sarah Collins (56:40.814)
Mmm.

Anne George (57:03.277)
because humans emotions and their feelings about a situation are valuable in and of themselves. So it's so even as a manager, I find that fight between the two of my staff messed up. I now need to, you know, reprimand them or whatever I need to have. There needs to be a consequence to this action. But at the same time, I like what they had a bad day.

Sarah Collins (57:30.39)
Mmmmm

Bill Dippel (57:30.59)
hahahaha

Anne George (57:32.784)
So maybe they did it because it's a bad day. And so my dumpster fire is almost always the fight between those two of when to go hard into the logic and when to go hard into the empathy and finding that balance and not driving myself crazy over it. Thinking about it. Right. Was I too hard? Was I too soft?

Bill Dippel (57:35.624)
Right, right.

Sarah Collins (57:41.144)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (57:52.418)
thinking about it with your intellection. should I have done this different? Should I have done that different?

Bill Dippel (57:57.084)
Yeah.

Anne George (58:01.901)
Those two, that battle, that empathy and analytical battle has always been my dumpster fire. But it's also part of the superpower. It's also the reason why I'm able to communicate so effectively because I do take time to consider both angles. But it is my dumpster fire. gets in my way all the time. I'm constantly over analyzing which path to take, where the middle ground is.

Sarah Collins (58:04.494)
Yeah.

Anne George (58:31.289)
So yeah, sorry.

Bill Dippel (58:31.31)
the strengths dog, the strengths dog just showed up. How good is that? So yeah, that's.

Sarah Collins (58:37.538)
I love how you put the head in the heart, the battle between the head and the heart. That's so wonderfully articulated. Another thing I love that you said there is when you took this assessment, it shined a light on it. And I think that's exactly right. Like, you know these things about yourself, but then when you see the words on the page, you're like, that is putting into words this thing I've been feeling, which is really powerful.

And then to be able to explain that to people that you're in relationship with, that listen, I am gonna think of things in both ways, right? The analytical, the head, the heart, the empathy, and that might make me slower to come back with like exactly what I'm thinking or what I want from you. But no, that's because I'm putting like thoughtful time and energy in kind of smoothing out the edges of those two to find a happy middle ground.

Bill Dippel (59:32.159)
Perfect. Well, we got the dumpster fire out of you. Let's have some fun. I don't want our guests to get used to this, but I actually got to customize today's special question only because I know her well. not it's not a it's not a game I know well. Sarah, I'm guessing it's not something you know a lot about. So I'm just I'm I don't know you, but I'm guessing maybe this what let's go with let's go with today's special question.

Sarah Collins (59:38.094)
Kuh-uh.

Sarah Collins (59:42.537)
my gosh.

Sarah Collins (59:52.874)
Don't make judgments about me, you don't know me.

Bill Dippel (01:00:02.078)
for Anne. So you've been appointed the official strengths coach for two Dungeons and Dragons characters who are based on your strengths. What are the characters and how do you get them to work better as a team?

Anne George (01:00:18.415)
All right. So first off, excellent question. Totally inside baseball here, knowing that I'm a D &D player. So the two that come to mind immediately, the first one would be the cleric. The cleric in D &D, the class is typically like the healer of the group. They patch everybody up. They bring that magical healing power to the party so that you can, you know,

Bill Dippel (01:00:24.424)
Excellent. Excellent.

Bill Dippel (01:00:29.182)
Perfect.

Sarah Collins (01:00:40.75)
Mm-hmm.

Anne George (01:00:46.553)
have battles and all that stuff and you have somebody to heal your party when they take hits or they go down. And as far as the strengths that that cleric is going to have, it's probably going to be, you know, empathy, responsibility, right? They have this drive, they have this responsibility to their party, they have this responsibility to their deity that they follow within the game rules. And they have that relator where they, you know, they connect to their party, they got to take care of their people.

whether that's their deity or their congregation or the party that they're currently traveling with. And then the other, the flip side actually is going to be the rogue. The rogue is kind of almost the polar opposite of the cleric in that they're more, they have that strategic, they have that stealth and that stinkiness and they are kind of puzzle solving behind the scenes and they typically get a really bad rap.

and tend to be viewed more negatively because they're not as open with like their responsibility that the cleric is. So for these two specifically, which kind of seem to clash, which I feel in myself, right? The head and the heart, the clash of the two, the clash of the two different characters within me.

Bill Dippel (01:01:57.759)
Yes, the analytical in the empathy. Yes.

Sarah Collins (01:01:58.279)
Mm-hmm. The head and the heart.

Anne George (01:02:10.467)
They, there's the biggest clash between them is that clerics tend to be very open on their position on things, right? They are, they're open to their deity. Everybody knows their stance on things, whereas the rogues get the bad rap of being untrustworthy because they're a little more sneaky and stealthy. I think getting them to work together as a coach starts with looking at the strengths that they share in common.

Sarah Collins (01:02:36.974)
Mmm.

Anne George (01:02:38.487)
which for the two would be the hybrid later.

Clerics are very dedicated to their deity, to their congregation, and they have that intense loyalty of her later. And rogues are the same way. They have their intense loyalty to their party and their group that they've associated with themselves. So I think getting those two to work together starts with similar to the Clifton strengths is focusing on the good, focusing on the connection, focusing on the things you have in common.

Bill Dippel (01:03:05.288)
Right.

Anne George (01:03:12.983)
And then we can now start from a baseline of commonality to work on the differences.

Bill Dippel (01:03:22.162)
Gotcha. Wow.

Sarah Collins (01:03:23.455)
Ooh, I've never wanted to play D &D so much in my life. This sounds fun. I'm like, are we inside a fantasy novel right now? Like, I wanna be here, this sounds great.

Bill Dippel (01:03:26.328)
hahahaha

Anne George (01:03:30.895)
You

Bill Dippel (01:03:31.518)
The minute Anne said rogue, Sarah perked up. She's like, I like those rogues. Those rogues are fun. Those are those are fun ones. So Sarah solved the mystery. Are you a D &D player? Have you? OK, so I was all right. I got it right. I was curious. So no.

Sarah Collins (01:03:37.865)
Hmm

Anne George (01:03:38.712)
you

Sarah Collins (01:03:43.662)
Cool.

Anne George (01:03:44.569)
Hahaha!

Sarah Collins (01:03:48.514)
I love that you entertain the idea that I was.

Anne George (01:03:51.247)
You

Bill Dippel (01:03:52.103)
Well, you threw it out there as I don't know yet. I, you know, defending it, I I it's good point. I do not know. I didn't know it about any there until she brought it up. We were out doing a, an event, I think to celebrate her one year with us or something like that. And she was talking about D and D and the night just turned into a merciless heckle fest around D and D. So

Sarah Collins (01:03:57.058)
I know. You don't.

Sarah Collins (01:04:13.518)
I will tell you my husband was a big player of Magic the Gathering. So he was a real huge magic player in high school and then has made some reassurance of it and we have some, a bunch of cards in our basement, magic cards. So I know that that is different, but I feel like in the same realm of gaming. Is that right? Do we know? Am I talking out of my butt?

Anne George (01:04:40.589)
It's a hop and a skip to D &D. Yeah, yeah. He's almost there.

Sarah Collins (01:04:42.186)
Hop and skip, Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I feel like he would like it.

Bill Dippel (01:04:44.158)
It's a hop and a skip. It's good. I'm glad I know you're not asking me because I'm like, I've heard of them both. I just don't know. Yeah, right. Yeah, no, clearly.

Sarah Collins (01:04:50.114)
Yeah, no, I wasn't asking you. You couldn't see who I was looking at, but I was only looking at Ann.

Bill Dippel (01:04:56.614)
It was hard. Yeah, it's hard on the screen, but. wow. Wow. Very impressive.

Anne George (01:04:56.697)
think magic is the gateway drug.

Sarah Collins (01:04:58.922)
It's the gateway drug. That seems right. That seems right. And I'm sure if we had more time and not children, he would have already gotten to the D &D route. He just had to like, you know, take a detour from gaming as we raise all these people in our house.

Anne George (01:05:12.239)
Yeah, I think all the card games from us growing up, Pokemon, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, those are all gateway drugs to D &D. Yeah, yeah.

Sarah Collins (01:05:23.35)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bill Dippel (01:05:23.806)
Nice. Yeah. Nice. Very nice.

Sarah Collins (01:05:27.438)
I support it. would be happy if someday my husband and my son were playing D &D. I think that is great creativity, logic. I think there's a lot of great skills there.

Anne George (01:05:28.577)
You

Bill Dippel (01:05:33.342)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (01:05:37.683)
not in front of a screen, actually having to think and talk and work it out. Yeah, I love it. I love it. I'll say I love it now until Anne and I have to talk on Monday and then I'll be like, my God, D &D, unbelievable. And she'll tell me we had a party this weekend. Yeah, she'll be like, we had a party this weekend. Like eight of us got together and we had to do it. And then it went until like midnight. I'll just be like, I, and it's, yeah, it does. It does.

Sarah Collins (01:05:39.84)
Absolutely, absolutely. I know.

Anne George (01:05:42.968)
out.

Anne George (01:05:50.549)
It's going to be part of our bitchfest.

Sarah Collins (01:06:03.534)
I it sounds great. I think it sounds great. I want to be a part of it. Oh, and it is just such a pleasure to have you on the podcast. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for sharing with us about your strengths and giving us a little insight on how Bill actually makes this business function.

Bill Dippel (01:06:07.582)
See you soon.

Bill Dippel (01:06:20.028)
Not not inside. I think you've just met how it how it happens. Period. It can't be me. It's it's Renee. It's Anne. It's the it's the culmination of all the other stuff I need. So, yeah. All right. Well, Anne, thanks. Thank you, Sarah. Says it well. Thank you very much. I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing before this. I'm sure it was mission critical for Bill Dippelstrand's coaching. So get back on that. And thank you for coming on, being honest, having some insight on it and.

Sarah Collins (01:06:31.768)
That's right, it takes those great minds.

Bill Dippel (01:06:50.154)
you know, side note for our listeners, she was our test bed. actually tried to do this, tried to do this and thought let's have Ann on and just try it. So this is actually a second go round for Ann. This one actually gets posted. We actually do that. So I love, I love that you came back on and you were brave enough, Ann. Very, very impressive.

Sarah Collins (01:06:54.606)
That's right.

Sarah Collins (01:07:03.394)
this.

Anne George (01:07:10.999)
It's only because you gave me a cheat sheet of what to prep for.

Bill Dippel (01:07:13.502)
And all of the cheat sheets that all of our guests get you can thank Anne for it because Anne after the test bed said if you don't send cheat sheets The people will not be on and so all of our guests can thank you Anna now

Sarah Collins (01:07:14.83)
Mm-hmm. That's right.

Anne George (01:07:18.67)
Yeah.

Anne George (01:07:25.537)
you

Sarah Collins (01:07:26.252)
Yes. So, Anne, we would like to know on a scale of one to 10, how much have we improved since your first episode with us? You don't have to answer now. You go think about it and you email us in two to three business days. Okay. And you can just include any research you have with it. We would appreciate that.

Bill Dippel (01:07:31.548)
Ooh, very meta. Very meta, but good.

Anne George (01:07:38.969)
I'll send you an email.

Bill Dippel (01:07:42.111)
And the good news is she'll send it directly to you. She'll bypass me. She does that a lot. She's like, I know how to deal with it. Yeah, it's great. So awesome. Thank you, Anne. Thank you very much. we, we love having you on. We will talk to our arsonists on the next episode. Thanks for listening and we will talk soon.

Anne George (01:07:45.721)
You

Sarah Collins (01:07:46.765)
I love that.

Sarah Collins (01:08:00.558)
Bye.