Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Terri Broussard Williams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Terri, appreciate you joining us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

It may sound a bit counterintuitive, but the best investment I’ve made in myself is taking the time away to be still. Resting my mind, body, and spirit has done more than just provide space for recovery and rejuvenation. When I can achieve a still mind space, the answers to problems I’ve been navigating seem to come to me with ease. This is the power of what I call “The Great Me-Set.”

The Me-Set is a philosophy and way of life I have uncovered for myself to be tremendously powerful and rewarding. When we are busy – consumed by the demands of daily life, whether that is work, our relationships, caregiving, or even hobbies – it can be easy to deprioritize rest. However, if we stay too busy with the things that make us feel productive, we become less productive in the long term. There is also a risk if we wait too long to take a needed rest that the rest time becomes less rejuvenating and more of a recovery.

Resting strategically – or taking frequent and periodic mindful moments – helps to recover from the demands of the activities while also creating space for our imagination and ingenuity to flourish. When we are still, we can become generative and find the answers within us and around us. And that results in both more efficient problem solving and a sustainable life balance.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I have been passionate about community service my entire life. Regardless of the roles I’ve held professionally or the leadership opportunities I’ve taken on, I’ve always focused on service. And that has resulted in the honor of catalyzing several movements – much bigger than me – that have helped to shatter stereotypes, shake up institutions, and change the course of human lives.

I am a Movement Maker and Firestarter. I am a servant leader and advocate for social good. I am a lobbyist who has witnessed the power that public policy can have on a movement’s mission and momentum. I’m an author and speaker and have been inspired by more than a few movement moments over the course of my life.

My mission in life is to inspire others to create change – to inspire other Firestarters – across organizations, governments, neighborhoods, and communities. I aspire to be both an example and a force for others to ignite the change within them so we can all make the world a better, more inclusive, and empowering place to thrive.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Throughout my career, I have been guilty of trying to be everything to everyone else but nothing to myself. And I measured my success on how busy I was. This trap exhausted me over time. I understood that I needed to move slowly to have the balance that I wanted.

A lot of times we look for solutions to find balance and that becomes a fad. It doesn’t become something that we use to have maintenance in our life or consistency. So, for me, I was able to finally have something that allowed me to be consistent and do the same for people that I was supporting, both coworkers and friends, through their work. The best result I have is that a year later, I am still following this practice – even amidst the busiest time that I’ve had in my current role.

This practice of balance that I’ve implemented for myself, and others, looks like this: always start each morning with breathwork and a mindful moment to visualize what exactly needs to get done that day. You know, exactly what it is with the most detail possible. Then, I prioritize that list from most important to least important and I begin to track the things I need to accomplish. Then, I transform and transition my mind to do the work.

On the weekend, it looks very different. The same as I do during the week, I start each day with breathwork and mindfulness to slow down. And then I take a bit more time to restore some of the energy that I lost throughout the week. Once I’m centered, I visualize something that I want to do for myself; a goal that I have. And then, I begin to attract the energy and the things around me that are needed to accomplish that goal. And similar to my closing practice during the week, I then transform to make sure it happens. Sometimes the greatest movements we can cultivate are the ones within.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

TL;DR – You have to let your team lead. There is no parallel to the Firestarter.

As a leader, you do want to visualize the work that you want to do together. The next step is to attract the people who want to do that work with you. Building a team in this capacity is critical as it ensures engagement and authentic motivation are shared by all.

Oftentimes we as leaders want to lead. However, if a leader is busy and they don’t have the bandwidth to do something, they can pass the line on to someone on their team. This allows other team members to do the tasks that maybe they haven’t done before or do the tasks that they may think they’re not ready for. As a result, they might emerge in a new way and bring new strength and levity to the team. This also allows the leader to have more time in their day to do something else. So sometimes just leaning on each other and letting people do what they do best brings a different, and more constructive, vibe to the team. It also creates a dynamic that builds trust and all team members, regardless of level within the organization, can lean on each other to accomplish their goals. This collaboration can be formative and influential; it can accomplish incredible and unbelievable things.

Many times, as leaders, we think we must be perfect too. But really, there’s innovation in failure. So, I always encourage people to stop with “after-action” reviews and reframe them to “failure festivals.” Because, when we celebrate what we’ve learned, we are creating an environment where we’re beginning to innovate and generate how things can be done differently, and better next time. We begin to celebrate growth, not just success. Then, something happens – failure no longer becomes intimidating. Instead, failure becomes fun and then the team is reenergized by recreating from failure into things we never dreamed we could do together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://terribwilliams.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/terribwilliams
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/movementmakertribe
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/terrirbroussard
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/terribwilliams