We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lea Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lea below.

Hi Lea , thanks for joining us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

Financial Legacy with Lea, inspires dynamic innovative, creative professionals and entrepreneurs to be themselves and excel at their passion! Freedom is desired by many but most aren’t willing to do the work to achieve maximum results. I’m not saying you are not working hard or dedicated to your life and goals. Most people dream of living a better life, making more money and living life with no worries but are afraid of failures. I often hear “I can’t do this, what if it don’t work?” The disappointment of not being able to fulfill your desires because it might not work the first fifty times is your opportunity to improve. Failures are experiences you must have to change from old to new to build your legacy. Positive thoughts, emotional stability and connection to yourself is essential to innovation. Your thoughts, ideas and actions matters the most to those who admire you near or far. You might never get “Job Well Done,” but it doesn’t mean your contribution was not enough. When God, my creator has called me home for my final resting place I pray that people will say I lived my life in pure bliss of love, failures, laughs, no regrets and creativity. I want my family, children, friends and constituents to always feel the warmth of my heart, beauty of my internal passions and understand firmness in life decisions. Honestly speaking I’d like to be a fly on the wall when my name is mentioned in private spaces because everyone does not get the same version of me. The greatest gift in my life is being myself all the time and competent in my abilities to achieve all things. I wear many hats to impact lives daily and all interactions are not favorable but life lessons for me and those involved. I hope to be remembered as “Being Weird is Beautiful.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In a generation of “Being Seen & Not Heard” was a common family dysfunction for families in the 90’s. The Legacy of Lea is a drama filled, laughing, crying, emotional, healing entrepreneurial journey that began at age of 12. Struggling to master math class in 6th grade became a huge challenge for this bossy girl. Teachers, tutoring, copying classmates and punishments were not effective strategies for learning the concept of numbers for me. Through trial-and-error I, discovered numbers tell a story and only the true meaning and perspective of that number could reveal the Legend on the roadmap for my path. I’m an Accomplished Operations Business Manager with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management as of 2015. With 19 years of experience in managing operations and cross-functional teams. A Progressive leader with strong strategic planning skills, effective in training, development, team building, problem solver, astute communicator, and analytical thinker. With the ability to identify areas of strength and weaknesses to implement standards and changes in operations, processes, and procedures that optimize productivity, bottom line, cycle time, cost, and overall stability. I’m the proud owner of Living Matters LLC, Arshaun’s Safe Haven and Founder of Alea’s Helping Hand Inc., branding is not my face but my dedication to the process to improve my legacy with a logo to display to the world there are many great people working behind the scenes. I would not have accomplished my dreams without people who believed in my vision and corrected me when I was wrong. As a Business Manager Expert, I help business owners and entrepreneurs build wealth. Building wealth consist of more than increasing your profits and begins with a strategic business plan. Confidence in my abilities to achieve all things is what sets me apart from others. There is valuable information and details extracted through my free consultation process in business planning. Helping others identify their strengths and opportunities is what I am proud of most because clients fall in love with themselves and idea through leadership.

Any advice for managing a team?

I believe the key to managing a team consist of respect, communication, planning, resilience and consistently connecting to yourself. You must always be in control of your mind, body and soul to never take business matters personal. When circumstances occur that are unforeseen your discipline within allows you to become proactive and not reactive. Effective leaders must possess the following characteristics such as being flexible, patience, self- awareness, understanding, making difficult decisions that are beneficial for the team and active listening skills. A clear state of mind and resources are necessary when you do not have the answers. Building a rapport and knowing your team members will guide you to the person or people with the competencies that’ll provide results. Your leadership skills will have an impact on people and it’ll be evident you’re concerned about their well being that’ll the team will not want to let you down. Maintaining high morale is critical in building trust because every manager does not make a good leader but every leader makes a good manager. People want to feel security, safety and understood all the time no matter how tough the circumstances appear.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As a teenager I understood that I’d be responsible for breaking a plethora of generational curse, barriers in society as a black woman and living my life with purpose. My childhood experiences taught me change would occur in life even if I wasn’t prepared for it. Everyday I experience change to a different magnitude and life is constantly pivoting! There are no two days that are the same and complacency is not allowed in my world, Each day God, grants me the privilege to wake up in my right mind with activities of all my limbs and inspire others I’m closer to another change in life. The moment I realized my children were a reflection of me I became conscious of my attitude towards others, Having children became the center of my attention and I never wanted my children to be embarrassed by my actions. We’ve all experienced heart break, pain and life changing moments to beginning a new path in life. For so long I’ve maintained a balanced career, life and endure changes that I embraced to create a better me. The challenges in the pivot has led me to opportunities that are building blocks for business, career and life!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aleashelpinghand.vision
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/financial_legacy_lea
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/financiallegacylea

Image Credits
Credits: Greg Williams Philip Ingram Randy Moss Dennis Cash Neesie Dee Diane Devine Comedian CJStar