We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lynn Abaté-Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lynn below.

Lynn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a fun one – what’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

I believe that business is personal.
This is often contradictory to more traditional approaches to building businesses.
Because of my values (love, freedom, integrity) and my purpose (like the ocean, i am a force of nature that reveals new horizons), I have an unconventional perspective and since I shifted this mindset, it’s paid off in many ways.

My family and I went to a psychologist for a couple years, who was also a family friend. In the profession of psychology and psychiatry, this is called “dual relationships”, where a client may also be a friend who you’d see at social occasions, like parties and events around town. This particular psychologist has become a mentor and teacher of other psychologists, and he has written many articles and created curriculum on the subject, for the purpose of training others. Two of his online courses, in fact, are called: “Dual Relationships: The Ethical Way” and “Managing Multiple Relationships in Psychotherapy and Counseling”.

I bring this up because of my philosophy that each individual is a whole person, with hopes, dreams, family they may or may not be close with, friendships, and members of their local, and perhaps global communities. When I was younger, just starting out in business, I tried to compartmentalize, keeping my personal life separate from my professional life. Over time, this led to me becoming unhealthy, from the inside-out. I was not only physically out of shape, carrying 60 additional pounds on my body, I was also mentally crushed. My nervous system was shot. It was only when I started to realize that people in or outside of my business life could relate to me better when I showed up as me. I have since created curriculum called #ShowUpYOU, wherein I teach, train, and consult with brands, entrepreneurs, and collaborative teams on how to show up exactly as you are, and exactly as you are not.

In the realm of business consulting and community building, there are nuances that many of us are too close to see, in terms of looking at our own lifestyles and professions. We all have blind spots. I include myself, which is why I started working with my intuitive life coach in 2020.

Lynn, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello, dear reader – it’s nice to e-meet you.
I’m Lynn Abaté-Johnson. I’m a fiery Leo, my pronouns are she/her/hers, I value love, freedom, and integrity in my top three. And I will always stand on the side of love, unapologetically. I have gotten to the point in my personal and professional life where I care more about standing in the integrity of my own leadership journey than I do about being “liked” or popular.
This generates much more freedom in my life than I’ve ever experienced before, especially during the years when I carried around that “dis-ease to please”. Today, I attract loving, fun, and fabulous humans who I have the privilege of working and playing with. Clients become friends and friends become clients. In that sense (and more), I believe that business is personal and that, as the Ram Dass quote goes, “we are all just walking each other home”.

I’ve been working since I was nine years old, born in Detroit, Michigan, to an immigrant family, who put me to work at the family business as soon as I could see over the counter, waiting on customers. Today, I exist to assist others in business, large and small, in building loyal and raving communities, locally and globally. For me, building businesses through what I call “True Community” is like breathing. I specialize in doing this online and off. I have learned ways to “humanize” otherwise “stale” and boring social platforms that can be fraught with negativity. My approach is to “speak human”, nurturing communities, continually welcoming new members, and converting them to returning and referring customers.

One of my proudest professional achievements, while working for nearly 5 years at a global leadership development and coach training organization, was that I organically and single-handedly grew their global online community by 160%, from 50,000 members to over 130,000. No ad spend.

One of my most valuable super powers for my clients and teams who I work with is that I understand the nuances of building relationships at scale, over time, through the keypad and screen. I can see/identify things that business leaders often miss, because they are too close to the work themselves.

And, of course, I practice what I teach & preach, so I show up authentically, and I have my own coach, who helps me do the same for my life and business.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In 2011, while I was working on the marketing team of a Silicon Valley internet startup, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Because at the time, I didn’t understand that I was harming myself (my physical health and my nervous system) by keeping the secret (compartmentalizing) about what was happening at home with my mom, I didn’t confide in the “bosses”. I was fearful that they would judge me or my performance based on assumptions of theirs, and also, they didn’t know me very well, so they’d have no idea that I could juggle it all effectively.

I was the one who suffered. I wasn’t eating, sleeping or functioning on all “cylinders”, and yet, I showed up as a rock star at work, and as one of my mom’s main caregivers.

My bosses never caught wind of what was happening in my personal life, and eventually, I realized that the cost to my health was too great. Not coincidentally, the marketing team was shut down when the startup lost it’s Series B funding, so my decision was made for me, which freed me up to be more present with my mom and family.

Out of this experience, I wrote an International bestselling book – “Out Of Love: A Daughter’s Journey With Her Mom To The End”. I want other family caregivers to know they are not alone, and that there are resources that you don’t often think of when you are “in the weeds” as an unpaid, full-time caregiver.

Since my first book came out, I’ve also contributed to another International bestseller. I wrote a chapter called: “You Are Worthy Of Love”, wherein I shared about a time in my past life when I did not feel worthy of love, which led to me making some destructive choices. Out of guilt and shame, I’ve never told that story to anyone, let alone publicly. Looking at me today, one would never know that was the same person back in my younger days. This book is a global collaboration with 44 other women from many diverse walks of life and cultures. It’s called – “Voices Of The 21st Century: Women Empowered Through Passion And Purpose”.

Both of these books tap into the resilience and leadership journey that I never thought was possible when I was younger, struggling to find my identity and my “place” in the world. I invite you to order signed copies from me directly, as I love the experience of personally inscribing copies of both books and shipping them off to others who may receive encouragement and inspiration, knowing YOU are not alone and that YOU are worthy of love as well.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is a tool for building community, plain and simple.
Some use social media for nefarious purposes. I view it as a tool that can be used to draw people closer, allowing us to get to know each other over time.
Everything I have built using this tool has been done 100% organically, over time.

While most brands, entrepreneurs, social/marketing teams struggle to build authentic and loyal communities at scale, over time, I have discovered strategies that don’t appear to be strategies at all. I’ve developed systems and structures that draw human beings closer to brands, which creates that old marketing term KLT (Know, Like, Trust). When humans feel seen and held, warmly welcomed, even through the screen and keypad, they respond in kind. And they eventually become customers/clients. Not only do they often purchase your goods and services, they return again and again, and using social media (if you are using it correctly), you make it EASY for them to refer you to their friends, family, colleagues. It’s simple, and yet it’s very nuanced. Social media is word-of-mouth on steroids. In fact, because I often work globally, I call it “World-Of-Mouth”.

The key? #ShowUpYOU! Easy? No. Simple? Hell yes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://LynnAbateJohnson.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/lajbiz
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/lajbiz
• Linkedin: https://LinkedIn.com/in/lajbiz
• X: https://twitter.com/lajbiz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LynnAbateJohnson
• Other: LynnAbateJohnsonBook.com/media
  LynnAbateJohnson.com/offerings

Image Credits

all mine.