In this inspiring episode of The One Small Change Podcast, host Yvonne McCoy is joined by Michela Quilici, a business navigator and leadership expert who shares how embracing alignment, self-leadership, and intentional small shifts can spark remarkable transformation in both business and life. The conversation dives deep into the importance of bringing your whole self to your entrepreneurial journey, leading teams with empowerment rather than micromanagement, and redefining success on your own terms. Listeners will leave with actionable steps for integrating vision and values into their day-to-day, and discover how to build sustainable momentum by leading beyond limits.

Guest Bio:

Michela Quilici is a seasoned business growth and leadership coach with 15 years of experience helping entrepreneurs and business leaders turn their visions into reality, accelerate growth, and evolve from chief firefighting officers to true CEOs. She’s the founder of Ladies Who Lead Global, a movement committed to empowering women around the world to step into leadership and live beyond conventional boundaries. Her approach uniquely blends strategic systems with core values and self-leadership, making her a sought-after navigator for business transformation.

Chapters:

00:00 "Business Navigation for Leaders"

04:21 Unified Living: Business & Life

08:01 "Building Capacity for Growth"

12:39 Empowering Teams Through Leadership

16:34 Business Success: Systems & Vision

19:56 "Leading Beyond Limits"

22:18 "Leading with Confident Boundaries"

25:26 "Subscribe, Share, Grow Together"

Quote from the Guest:

"Leading beyond limits is really all about protecting your priorities and protecting your energy and giving yourself permission to say no with love, with confidence, knowing that you've got a path and being clear and confident on that pathway at whatever stage of business you're in."

Link:

Grab your free guide, 10 Ways to Lead Beyond Limits, at: ladieswholeadglobal.com

Welcome to the One Small Change. I'm thrilled as always that

you've taken time out of your busy schedule to join me and

listening to this podcast. This is about a journey of

exploration and transformation. And I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy,

and I bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience, and

I have a passion for discovering growth through the power of seemingly

small change. And again, thank you. And every week I try to bring

you somebody who's interesting, who's going to add to your journey

and help you to explore and inspire you, and

they're going to share some small, unexpected or insignificant decision

that sparked a remarkable transformation and growth in their

life, their, you know, personal life, their professional life, or both.

And today I bring to you the amazing

Michela Quilici . Did. Did I kill it?

No, that's perfect. Yvonne, hello. Thank you for having

me. So, Michela, tell us

about yourself. Tell us what you do and how,

you know, this thing made you better at what you do than anybody else.

Great question. Okay, so I'm a business

growth and leadership coach. I'm actually just celebrating 15

years of doing this on my

own this last month. So 15 year anniversary.

Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. I can't believe it's been

15 years already. And I

primarily work with business owners and

leaders, and they come to me asking kind of a couple of

key questions. One is, how do I

turn my vision into a.

Into traction? So how do I turn my idea into

reality? The second question for some folks

is, yeah, so I've got a business, but how do I

accelerate my path to growth? And the third

question that some folks ask is,

you know, how do I go from being that chief

firefighting officer to the true

leader and CEO of a scalable and

sustainable business? So I bring

strategy and systems and clarity and

confidence to my work with

business owners and leaders and teams. And Ivonne, I

call myself a business navigator because I feel

as though actually some of my clients have mentioned that, you

know, I'm like a strategic guide, but I've got this roadmap and

this compass and I help them navigate those business

plateaus with just a little bit more easier ease and grace.

And. And so that's really what. What I do.

And the other piece of it that's super important,

though, is bringing who you are into the business

so, you know, we can be successful as, you know,

and do all, you know, all the

things. But if we are leaving ourselves behind, if

we're not building a business that's in alignment with who. Who

we are, our values, our vision,

our purpose and mapping that

to our own self leadership and then marrying

that to strategy, then we're not bringing our whole self

into the business and into our,

you know, our work and the impact that we want to make.

So I recently also founded what

I call a movement called Ladies who Lead

Global. And it's a community, and

it is. I've been leading communities of women in business since

2015, but this is kind of a newer

venture, and I'm calling it a movement because we are

women who choose to lead beyond limits.

So the, the one change is related

to leading beyond limits. So that's, that's what I want to

talk about and share a little bit more today with my one change.

So. So I have to say I think this is why we connected

so well. You have said so many things that I absolutely agree with you on.

You know, one of the things that I think is so important is, you

know, we are not a divided human being. You know, it, you know,

as much as those who have had nine to five jobs, had their nine

to five personalities, and then they're like, if you're an entrepreneur,

you're, you know, you're on 24 7,

and you don't get 24 hours to be an entrepreneur or 24

hour and 24 hours to be a person. You've got, you know, so you,

you know, you need to live your life, your best life in your business

as well as your best life in your personal life. And so

having two personalities just, you know, or

missions and stuff doesn't work. The other thing you said that I

think is so important that people need to really think

about is how much time are you

spending putting out the fires and not building

your business. And in order to do that,

you need to have a team that you can lead. Whether that team is

actual people that, you know, work, you know, that are. That

you are paying, or whether they're the subcontractors or whatever.

So that is so important because when I

started coaching, the. The sentence that I gave was,

do you get to the end of the day and all the things that only

you can do are still on your desk?

Do you know? So I, I didn't want to take away from what you're saying,

but all those questions that you have, people need to listen to those and

know that part of that, this is kind of the natural part,

the journey. Yes. That we all go. That

we all go through. We, you know, go ahead. Absolutely.

Absolutely, Yvonne. And I'm so glad that you brought

to light those points, because our I've said,

I say this all the time. I've learned this myself. I see this over and

over again, that our business only grows to the level of

our own personal capacity, our own personal

leadership, self leadership, ability to lead ourselves.

Because if we can't lead ourselves, we'll have a really hard time leading others.

And, and so it's, it's not a luxury

to have this two personalities. I mean, it's not,

it just, it's unsustainable and it doesn't, it doesn't work in

the long run. And so the more we can bring ourselves

into the business and really think of it like it is a

business strategy, you know, we cannot leave the

self out of, of the business. It just doesn't, doesn't

work. I. This sounds terrible. I'm gonna have such a hard

time letting you go, letting you talk, because you're hitting on so many points

that I, I'm passionate about. And so, you know, a lot of times

when people start with coaches, they're like, why are we doing this mindset

stuff? Why are we doing this? You know, but what I find

is when I think about, you know, in my own head, the four levels of

leadership, there's kind of like self leadership, there's leadership of a project,

kind of, there's leadership of a team, and then there's leadership of

organization. And as entrepreneurs, we step in the leadership of

the project. We have learned, we have not learned

the self leadership that actually is going to help our business

grow. And so even though, you know, people are talking about

mindsets and stuff like that, why am I doing that when I, I just want

to do the thing do you know? But that

so, so important. Yeah, because

the mindset piece is, is another way to say that

I think mindset is, that term is over, overrated. It's a

buzzword. As you know, people are throwing that around a lot these days. But what

does that actually mean? Let's break it down. To me, it means building

your capacity, your capacity to do more, hold

more, be, be more. And so

if you're looking to grow a business, if you're looking to

expand your team, if you're looking to scale a business beyond yourself,

that is the single thing that will get in the way from

where you are to where you want to go. And so I love that you

work on that with clients as well, because in that way, you're helping

them build capacity. You're helping them grow their wings. If they

don't have those wings, they can't fly. And I Know, everyone wants to

fly and they just, you know, especially the visionaries, right?

And I work with a lot of visionaries, and they just want to fly and

they just want to go. And that's amazing because you need

that. And do you know that you can fly

faster and you can really go further if you work on

these. If you have these foundational pieces of,

you know, building that capacity and having the right strategy

and having the right structure and people to support your vision.

It's counterintuitive. Right? So. So

let me, Let me just. One of the

challenges that I see for entrepreneurs in terms of

making that shift into leadership is that you have

to go from I'm one of them to, you know,

them and us kind of do. You know, it's like,

it's. Particularly with women, I find. I call it. I call it the quilting

bee mentality. We want to be in the quilting. Be, you know, we're.

The action is happening, right? And

leadership requires, not that you are different so

much, but you have to have a different perspective and you have to be the

leader. And my husband said to me once when I was, like, kind of struggling

with part of this, he said, think of yourself as the engine on the

train. You. You are ahead of

everybody else, but you're still with the rest of the cars.

They can't come along unless you do what you need to do. And I was

like, whoa.

I love that. Yeah, yeah, you're out front. You've

gotta. You've gotta provide the vision and the energy and the

whatever so that you can bring everybody else with you. Absolutely.

And at the end of the day, I mean, you've, you know, if you want

to have influence over people, you've gotta hold the microphone,

so to speak, right? And. And people

need, you know, they need to

follow. They need somebody to follow. They need somebody to say, hey,

everybody, we're going this way. You know, that's where

we're going, and shine the light for them. And then you can say, and this

is how we're, you know, this, these are the sort of the guard rails, right?

Vision, values, etc, that we're going to use to

light the pathway. But this is where we're going. This is why

we're going. And, you know, this is what we're about,

you know, all about and what we're going to be doing. So let's now

figure out how we're going to do that, and let's all jump on this path

together and go together. But somebody needs to lead.

Teams, have captains yeah, ships have captains.

Somebody's got to be in charge. And the other thing

about what you just said that I think is so important

and is missing is when you delegate. You

know, to me, delegation is training. You're training

somebody to step into the kind of role you would, you know, you

want, want to be kind of. And it is not about just

do this, do this, do this. And so when you

delegate and everybody knows what the mission is and what

the journey is and where you're headed, then they can,

they can give you better feedback about different ways to do

it. They, they do it with much more gusto as opposed to just

being a drone. Do this. Exactly.

It's called empowerment. Right? I

mean, that's what we're doing. We're empowering our team

to take responsibility. You know, that needs, you know,

we need to get the buy in. We need to have that shared vision. And

this is where we're going. And like you said, this is where we're headed. And

you know, transfer that ownership onto them so that they feel

empowered and so that they feel supported to

be able to come forward with ideas, innovate,

you know, the solutions, be

creative with, you know,

thinking about things differently. But if we

just tell them what to do, right, that

is not going to motivate anybody to do anything.

And I think that's, that's one of the big ones for, for

newer leaders or, you know, leaders who are having a hard time

getting my team what they, you know, to do, what they need to do.

That's about, again, building that leadership

capacity to step into more of that mentor coach

position, right, so that you are being able to

really empower your people to,

to grab, you know, to, to grab hold of, of whatever

it is that you want them to own and run with it with

your support. And, and I think the

other part, there are two, two other parts of that. The one part is,

has to do with not over micromanaging

people because that will knock the innovation out of

them that will make them, you know, just be like, I'm not doing

anything until you tell me to do it. But the

downside is if you are really good

at this, you will empower

your, your people enough that they will leave you.

Perhaps there's a, it depends on what you're

doing. But I, I, I used to work as season, you know, a seasonal

business, and I used to work really hard at bringing people

through the ranks. You know, they started, you know, jobs that, you know, required,

let's say no skills. And then they got training and then they moved up, and

then they moved up. And it was in the tax business. Right.

And I dreaded every November because every

November people that I had really been working on would come

in and go, I hate to tell you this,

but I think I'm ready for a real full time

job. And I, you

know, you have to kind of look at that as a badge. I did my

job, you know, I did my job and I'm happy. And you know, I used

to jokingly say, you can leave, but you have to find a replacement in the

pipeline. You have to find me somebody, somebody

that you like that you would benefit, you know, but, you know,

absolutely, yes, it's, you know, entrepreneur is an

ecosystem. I mean, it is not just about the end

product. I mean, it is very much about the client and the

service, but it's also about a way of being

and your values and what you, you know, and, and so,

you know, some of the mini shifts is going from sales to

service, going from, you know, I'm looking for a client to how

I can support you or can we work together, be more collaborative?

And that's not something that, that, that's definitely a

shift, I think, from like decades ago.

Right. And the idea that,

you know, you can go further with more, you know, I,

when the first tagline I had for my business is

life is a journey, learn to navigate. Because

I was very much in the model of I did what I'm supposed to do,

I did this, I did this, I did this. And I did not get the

results right, you know, following blindly

kind of. And so, you know, I think entrepreneurship is

definitely a journey. I mean, there, everybody does it differently,

but there are certain landmarks that are the same, I think.

Absolutely. It's, you know, we each have our own

style and personality and

vision and values and business model and, and

what we offer and the kind of culture we want to create and all of

that. But the underpinnings of the business, the engine of the business,

that's not up to chance, you know, that is,

it's a system, it's an ecosystem, like you said. And so

I think if we can get good at,

you know, understanding the underpinnings of the business

and what are those levers and what are those foundational

pieces that need to be in place in order for this machine

to move and to operate and then overlay that other

piece around, you know, who you are and

what you're looking to create and the people you have, I mean, that is,

that's the recipe for success. Right there. When you

can really hone those two, you

know, pieces and really get them, get them humming and working

together. I think the challenge that a lot of

new entrepreneurs make who

perhaps don't have the business

background in terms of understanding business models and, you

know, like you and I do, is they wing it, right?

And there's a lot of winging it that's happening and a

lot of, you know, just kind of

throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks kind of

thing. And I think that that

can be quite dangerous, to be honest, because, you know,

it can. I've seen it lead to business closures. I've seen

it lead to loss of confidence, you know, people

going, you know, losing all their money before they can, you know,

make the business, you know, viable.

So as a new entrepreneur or as a new business owner

without that business background, that's

where I think it's super important to partner with

somebody such as yourself or myself, who have that,

you know, experience and that knowledge

to really, like, partner, right, and be that

strategic guy or that co pilot in the business.

It's. It's really, really important.

I mean, for me personally, when I left

my 9 to 5 and started my own

journey into entrepreneurship, I was flailing around

for a couple of years until I

hired my first business coach. And it was,

it was very clear to her what was missing in the business,

you know, and, and she was like, you don't have a business model.

I'm like, yeah, but I'm selling this and I'm doing this. She's like, no, that's

not what you need to do. I'm like,

okay, you know, and so you don't know what you

don't know when you. And you can go much further when you follow

somebody who does know what that path involves.

So before we run out of time, I need to ask you what are three

things that you would suggest that our, you know, the listeners

do? Okay,

so there's so many things I could

say, but what I

wanted to touch on today, which we got off on a

completely other different conversation, which is totally fine and

totally great. But the one thing that I wanted to lead it back to

was this notion around

leading beyond limits. Okay? And how

this is the self leadership piece, this is about you

as a business owner, as a leader, really

doing a couple of things. Right? One is owning your

vision, right? What is it that you're building? What

is it that you're looking to do? What is that? North

Star. And really declare it, define it,

and then begin imperfectly. With that,

because you will, it will get shaped and molded

by the external environment, by your

customers, by your team, by your, you know,

by the feedback that you get from the market.

The other thing that comes to mind around the leading beyond limits

mindset is align and don't

hustle. So this is really about

creating flow from alignment,

not from forcing. And it's really about checking

in around your values, your energy, your

calling, your

vision, your

strengths, and putting those all into

alignment so that you have more flow, more

fulfillment, more, more abundance, more success

and, you know, continuing to

calibrate to get into that alignment. Even when

there's shiny objects, there's opportunities, especially for the

visionaries and the high achievers. I work with a lot of super successful,

high achieving women in particular. There's no shortage

of opportunities. The key for those folks is to

get more into alignment and to say no more

often. Yes. Right. That could be the third thing, right? Say

no like a leader. Because not every yes is

aligned. And leading beyond limits is

really all about also about protecting your priorities and

protecting your energy and giving yourself permission to

say no with love, with confidence,

knowing that you've got a path and being clear

and confident on that pathway

at whatever stage of business you're in. Whether you're

that corporate escapee with an idea

and you need, you want to, you know, start a business or whether you're

that, you know, business owner who's trying to scale

and develop a more sustainable business model.

So those would be the three things that I would offer.

Yeah. So I've got 10 of these. They all are in

my free guide, which is my gift. The lead

beyond limits. 10 Ways to Lead beyond

limits. And so people can grab

that@ladiesholeadglobal.com

and just pop an email in there and get the guide. And you'll see

that in the notes as well. All right, so

here's the question. When was the last time you did something new for the first

time?

Oh, gosh. There's so many things that I like to try,

but I would say, okay, just kind of a random thing.

I. Last month I started a new

morning ritual which includes

drinking hot water with lemon and honey as

the first thing that I put in my body. And

I'm loving it. I'm loving it because it

just kind of sets, I don't know, it's like I love rituals.

Yeah. Like sets the tone. Right. And then to the rest of the

rituals I have in the morning. But that one change that I brought in

has just been really. Yeah, there's like sitting and drinking

a warm cup of lemon water and honey, you know, in the morning,

as you're settling in and getting grounded, it's kind of like a

grounding thing. I think. Mine was

turmeric tea. You know, like turmeric hot drink in the

morning was like amazing. I'm also going to say one other

thing about too is, you know.

You. Have this incredible presence and confidence that

she does flamingo dancing. Oh, yes,

flamenco dancing. That's your wild side, right? That's my wild

side. So here's the thing. Yeah. Like, I was never

confident as a child, so, you know, that flamenco really

was another one change that allowed me to really

step into who I am. Confidence on stage, off

the stage, and it transferred into my business big time. So. All

right, we're running out of time. I gotta do the commercial.

I want to make sure that everybody's taking a minute to subscribe and share

and engage on social media about the podcast. And the reason

I do it is I want to bring you interesting people

that will supercharge your business through connections and insight

and make this a vibrant community and fuel your quest for growth

and a bigger growth and bigger impact. So I hope you'll

continue to join me on the one small change. And if you

haven't heard the first episode about why I did it, you might want

to do that. But also there are the quarterly clarity check

ins that I do that, talk about business and trends

and so take a minute and do that. So what are the last words you

want to leave us with?

I encourage everybody who is listening and watching

to redefine success on your own terms

and to really step into leading

yourself forward. Leading beyond limits.

Stop tolerating what you've got and start creating.

Creating what it is that you want.

And however that looks like for you in your

life and in your business, oh my God.

Stick a pin in that.

This has been amazing. I wish we had more time, but we'll

do this. We'll talk again, I'm sure. So, guys,

remember, change is simple, but it's not always easy. It requires

courage and resilience and a willingness to step out of your comfort zone.

If you are comfortable, you are not growing. And

you may think that you're in a good place, but the world is changing

around you. And if you are not changing as well, you're getting left behind

and you're stagnating. So think about

that. My mantra is, I've never been this uncomfortable

before. I must be making a great change. So join me

again on the one small change as we embark on this journey

and make a bolder vision and look for more innovative

possibilities. And until the next time, I hope that you

will stay curious. Thank you so much for your time.

I'm so glad you came. Thank you. Thank you.