How Authentic Leadership & Clear Communication Actually Scale Your Business | Kim Miller-Hershon

What makes a truly great leader today?

In this powerful episode of the Unstoppable Success Podcast, Jaclyn Strominger sits down with leadership coach and communication expert Kim Miller-Hershon for a deeply honest conversation about modern leadership, authentic communication, scaling businesses, imposter syndrome, and building thriving teams.

Kim shares her journey from corporate layoffs during the 2008 recession to becoming a trusted leadership coach helping ambitious leaders create stronger teams and healthier workplace cultures.

Together, Jaclyn and Kim discuss:

• Why authentic leadership matters more than ever
• The communication mistakes hurting businesses today
• How leaders can create clarity and trust
• Why great CEOs do not need all the answers
• The hidden dangers of servant leadership taken too far
• Scaling a company without losing your vision
• How imposter syndrome affects high achievers
• Why leadership starts with self-awareness
• Using AI as a tool without losing the human connection
• Building businesses through strengths instead of burnout

This episode is packed with practical leadership insights for CEOs, entrepreneurs, executives, managers, founders, and high achievers who want to lead with confidence while building strong, empowered teams.

If you want to become a more effective communicator, a stronger leader, and create a thriving culture inside your business, this conversation is a must-listen.

Connect with Kim Miller-Hershon on LinkedIn.

Transcript

Authentic Leadership Today

Jaclyn Strominger 0:02

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Success. I'm your host, Jaclyn Strominger. And as you know, on this podcast, we hear from amazing leaders and influential people who share their tips, their tricks, and their insights so that you can have unstoppable success. And today I had the absolute pleasure of introducing you to Kim Miller-Hershon . And let me just tell you a little bit about Kim. First of all, she helps leaders build a thriving team, which is so important. And she likes getting extraordinary results and she loves witnessing the ripple effect it has on their businesses, individual lives, because obviously that truly fulfills her. And as a pass passionate coach for ambitious leaders, she shares her frustrations and possesses the expertise to help you overcome the specific challenges leaders face in modern day leadership, which I'm going to add to have unstoppable success.

Speaker 1:02

Welcome, Kim. Thank you. Jaclyn, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about this conversation.

Jaclyn Strominger 1:10

You know, so you know, Kim, we don't wake up every day, you know, and come out of the womb deciding that we want to be a leadership coach. So, how did you come into this

Kim’s Journey Into Leadership Coaching

Jaclyn Strominger 1:20

profession?

Speaker 1:23

You know, I glibly always answer that question. I think I've been coaching my entire life, right? I just sort of finally figured out a way to get paid for it. Yeah. I think that I do have a natural affinity. It's for picking up on subtleties around communication. I think I have maybe a little bit of natural ability, but also I think honed in. I think I naturally see things differently. But I think the coaching part is really honing in on how do you help not just anybody, but the individual that you're working with? How do you help them get the results that they are looking for? Right.

Jaclyn Strominger 2:15

So I'm curious. So was there like an aha moment for you where you decided I want to, I want to step into coaching? I like I'm I'm seeing something in the marketplace. And like lying in the sand, Uncle.

Speaker 2:33

Right. I wish that I could tell you that it was something. I wish I would. It was like a watershed moment that was like, yes, I am just made for this. As a lot of people have, I think, a similar story. I got laid off of a job. And here's the funny thing. I did in fact get laid off. But the reality really is, is that I was really being fired, right? So

Losing a Job and Finding Purpose

Speaker 3:00

there had been a change in leadership. They clearly did not like me or see my value. And so when the layoffs came, shockingly I was on that list. Um the thing was that it was I had been in business development and marketing in the engineering space that was on the design side of very large capital projects. And this was in 2008, 2009 when the real estate market crashed. Yeah. So there were layoffs across the board. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was so thrilled. I think for a very long time that I had kept my job for so long. Here's the reality: like, once you get laid off, you realize that the market is just glutted with biz dev and marketing people that had already been laid off, right? So I was like, oh, I've got to figure something else out here, right? And I think in a little bit more serious way, I thought about what did I love the most about the job that I had been doing, because there were a lot of things where it was really misaligned. But the thing that I loved the best was engineers don't have a natural propensity, most of them, a natural propensity to want to do business development, right? And so helping, but but they really had to, right? And especially in a down market, you don't have a choice, right? And you're wearing they have to wear multiple hats too. Right. So it was getting really clever about how to get them to do biz dev, like the activities of biz dev without calling it biz dev and helping them

Leadership, Business Development & Communication

Speaker 5:00

figure out a way to do it that was, if not enjoyable, at least acceptable to them. And I was actually really good at that, right? And so when it came time to do my own thing, I was like, well, I love doing that. And the thing is, is that I want to be really clear here because I don't want you to think or anybody to think that I was trying to be deceptive. I think here's the reality: those engineers keep their jobs if they meet their billable hours. The only way they meet their billable hours is if they bring the business in, right? So, and frankly, I wasn't on commission. So it wasn't like, you know, I was getting anything from that, right? Right. So it really truly was in service to them, right? As opposed to some ulterior motive. So I just think that's important. And when I had to go out and do my own thing, I was like, there's no better thing for me to be doing than that.

Jaclyn Strominger 6:08

Right. And so I actually I find it fascinating because, you know, I feel like so many times when we when it again, when the door closes, something else opens, and it might not not might not be something that we thought about. Right. Yeah. Right.

Speaker 6:26

Not only that, I am gonna confess to having a little bit of imposter syndrome. So I I have a like a really sort of, I think, interesting background and also sort of story I told myself about this. So whereas I can say to you, listen, Jaclyn, I I'm naturally pretty good at this, right? And I'm a natural propensity to doing this. I've I've kind of honed how I do it. So I think I do it very well, and I have a very unique point of view. But I made

Imposter Syndrome in High Achievers

Speaker 7:00

a really conscious decision in the beginning not to get certified as a coach. Okay, so that was it, wasn't that I just didn't do it. I have a double major as an undergrad. I have two master's degrees. I was like, you know, and also too, I have a little bit of a rebellious streak, right? And I kind of want to do things how I want to do things. And I was like, I'm just not gonna spend thousands and thousands of dollars and a lot of time to get certified in something that actually is just uh initials and not really serving, I think, me or my clients. But I will tell you that making that decision is also you're like, oh wait, can I really like call my like can I really be a coach? Can I call myself a coach? Like, am I legitimately a coach? So I think there's sort of that, you know, feeling like you're stepping into your like absolute right place to be, and also being like, wait, should I be here? Should I not be here?

Jaclyn Strominger 8:11

Right. Right. Yeah. You know, it's so first of all, I'm so glad that you brought that up. First of all, because I, you know, I think for a lot of times, right? Or and and I'm gonna say this with like many, many, many, many professions, right? Right, what does the degree get you? Right? That's right, right? And I just read a story about somebody, I cannot tell you who what her name is, but she is a self-made billionaire. She dropped out of high school, and she ended up somehow in the fashion industry. I mean, she's made oodles, right? Right. What what did she? She didn't need a college education. What you need is gumption, and you need to have your mission and your vision,

Lessons From Bad Leadership

Jaclyn Strominger 9:00

and you need to have it dialed in. So, you know, I would agree with you. I don't always necessarily think getting the degree or getting the certification is going to make the change. It's whether or not you actually can speak to leaders and in your case, obviously help them make the change change. And I'm not to be putting words in your mouth, but you you basically from you know being let go of something. And I think most of us, if we are of a higher and know of higher education, not to be just of snobbiness, but like if we've been let go of something due to poor leadership, and you it happens even once, twice, whatever, you then go you start to see the patterns and how to make it how other leaders can not do that, right?

Speaker 9:54

That's right. Absolutely. And I would say too, I can even look at myself as an employee and think about how I conducted myself because I will tell you that one of my one of my big things is let's spend energy on the things that are about us, right? So I could tell you tons of stories about how they failed as leaders, right? At the end of the day, that doesn't get me anywhere. What really gets me somewhere is thinking about okay, well, what was my part in that, right? How did I show up in that situation? And what do I need to learn from that? Right. And I think that has served me very well. And I think, you know, the other reason, listen, you may like me or you may not like me, but two things. First of all, I am authentically who I am, right? Which you

Authenticity and Self-Awareness

Speaker 11:00

are authentically who you are, right? Number one, we stand in that, we stand in that lane, we stand in that space, and I and I think you can choose that like I'm your person or not your person, and it's okay either way, but I I'm going to be me, right? Um, and then the second thing is that I am constantly doing the work, right? So I am not somebody who feels like I've arrived or I feel like, okay, I'm going to stand up high and I'm going to dispel my wisdom on the masses, right? It's sort of like, yeah, like we're all this is a journey. We're all on the journey, right?

Jaclyn Strominger 11:40

Right. And we're it's an it's it's basically we're always going like this and this on the playing field, right? You know, no one's higher or lower than anybody. So I tr I truly love that. Uh you know, um, you and I have so many cool things in common. So a couple of things I want to ask you. Leadership today, because I have

The Biggest Leadership Problem Today

Jaclyn Strominger 12:00

my own personal opinion. What is the biggest thing that you are seeing right now, you know, in leadership that if you could, you know, wiggle your nose easily, what would that be to help make leadership or lead, and I'm gonna say leadershipping better? Because that's my new my new word, leadershipping. Yeah.

Speaker 12:24

It's interesting. I think the first thing that that I would say is clear communication. And write amen to that. And I know that it sounds uh potentially a little cliche, but I cannot tell you. I mean, listen, what did uh I think uh recently 30,000 employees were let go from Oracle by email.

Jaclyn Strominger 12:54

That's like the post-it no breakup.

Speaker 12:56

That's right. Yeah, let me text you, right? I'm gonna text you, you know, we are not okay. Like that is just mind-blowing to me, right? So I think being clear about the good stuff, the hard stuff, like where you're at as a leader. And then I would say that what goes along with that is then you really have to, you really also have to show up authentically. Yeah. Right? You really have to show up. Like I think that there's a thought often, leaders feel like they have to have all the answers and they have to know everything. And I think that is a big mistake.

Jaclyn Strominger 13:52

So a couple points I want to. So, number one, first of all, listeners, as you're listening to this right now, I I want you to take what what Kim just said.

Clear Communication in Teams

Jaclyn Strominger 14:00

Because to have unstoppable success, you have to own the fact that you do not have all the answers. Unstoppable success is using what your strengths are and then finding the other ones. Use not, I shouldn't say use, but empower your people and empower others around you. And I feel like empower is an overused word. I have to kind of maybe make a new one, but that's so important. And then the other thing that you said, you know, obviously, you know, clear communication. Listeners, hone in on your communication, hone your communication. And I would almost say you're better off overcommunicating than under-communicating. Yeah. Right now, here's my funniest thing about that Oracle who 30,000 people who lost their job via email. Okay, so can I just pretend I didn't get it? Because email delivery is like crap sometimes, and I'm gonna just keep showing up. There you go. Yeah. I didn't get the email. It went into my spam. I don't know.

Speaker 15:10

Like well, and here is the so other, I think, little tip around this. I don't might be going off a little on a tangent, but here's I think the other thing that I'm gonna say about clear communication. So it may be clear to you until you have somebody else repeat back to you what their understanding is. Do not think that yes means I understand it the same way you do.

Jaclyn Strominger 15:46

100%. So, so how do you what would be your tip for somebody to like almost like verify clarity on the communication? How does somebody do that?

Speaker 15:58

So you want

How Leaders Create Clarity

Speaker 16:00

to say, first of all, you never right, you have to soften it, right? You want to say things like, just to make sure that we're both on the same page, can you tell me like what you heard or what your assignment is, or you know, whatever the, you know, whatever you need to hear, right? Right. Or you would say, Listen, I want to make sure that you're successful here. So tell me what you heard, and let's make sure we got this, we got this. That's right. You know, so that you are, you don't obviously, you know, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people say, Well, I'm the adult in the room. Because I just think it is right, it is just the grossest, most disrespectful thing that people can do. So you got to make sure that you're not patronizing. Right. Right.

Jaclyn Strominger 16:59

You know, and the

Why CEOs Must Still Lead

Jaclyn Strominger 17:00

idea of not patronizing, I think this is where, you know, again, as you said, authenticity, being humble, like, you know, just because you have a different title than I have, or you know, my title might say CEO, and yours might say VP or might say whatever it says. Doesn't matter what it says. At the end of the day, we are also one of the same, and that is human. Right now, we're all human. I don't have any robot chips in me, and I am not bionic, and I don't pretend to ever have one on TV. So, right, right. So we have to always, I think, just because you're a maybe you have a bigger position doesn't mean that you're any bigger.

Speaker 17:49

Well, right. And I mean, I guess the thing is is that if you could have done it all by yourself, then you'd be a solopreneur. So, you know, your if if your success is about the totality of all the people that are working on whatever, you know, product or service you have.

Jaclyn Strominger 18:11

Right. And I I and I'm curious what you think about this. Like somebody said this the other day on the podcast, and I think you know, a CEO could start out leading from the front, but then they should almost like lead from behind, in the sense of like help helping helping your people be empowered so that they know what your mission and vision is, but I don't know what's your take on that.

Speaker 18:37

Yeah, I have actually I I maybe have a different take on that. I want to hear it. So I don't necessarily disagree. Okay. Here's the caveat though somebody's got to be steering the ship. That's it. And and if you take such a backseat

Scaling Leadership and Business Growth

Speaker 19:00

that people and you your only role seems to be support people, then who's there to make the hard decisions? Who's there to not just not just have the vision, but to reinforce the vision, right? To to uh update the vision, right? So updating that vision, right? Right. So I I think this idea of servant leadership, as in I'm like people need somebody to like lead, right? So this I don't so it's you don't have to be autocratic, right? But this idea of sitting back and just supporting, I'm gonna say to you, I know I'm getting a little heated here. I I'm gonna say to you, I actually I I think you're not doing your job. I think you're yeah, I think it's a disservice to some extent.

Jaclyn Strominger 20:11

You know, and I was thinking about this from this standpoint, and I'd love your take on it. It's almost like somewhere along the line, the leader is, you know, it's there's that ebb and flow, right? Or shifting, right? So he's, you know, you're in the front, then you kind of go back to the you go to the back for a little bit, and then you go to the side and you're walking side by side with everybody. Then you go back to the front because you want to make sure, right? And it's almost like you're kind of like doing this little bit of a a loop, right?

Speaker 20:41

Right. Although here's Jaclyn, here's another, here's another sort of way to think about this. That there is a point at which I believe that the leader of the company, you should your your job description needs to change, right? Like what got you there is not gonna get you into the future, right? Like the the same things that you did. And so if you think about your role differently, right, that you are now need to be in the your unique, the things that only you can bring to the business, right? You know, your unique gift, and you've got other people doing the other leadership, that's how you have exponential growth, right? And I think that when when you think of yourself as a leader who is just supporting everybody else, how do you get how do you grow? How do you innovate? How do you bring in your unique talent, right?

Strength-Based Leadership

Jaclyn Strominger 22:00

Okay. And and at the end of the day, so basically, you know, and I think this is really, really important. You have to play to your strengths. And again, as we said, bring in the other people to fill in the gap of your strengths. And again, as you said, like when anybody starts a company, you're doing, you're wearing every hat. Right. But but all those hats don't fit you well. Right. So you have to find the hat that fits you the best. And then bring in and put hats on other people, right? Right. Because that's how you're going to scale. And at some point, you know, I always feel the leader has to go from being the company to and in it to being, and I don't say up, but being and running, you know, being on the business, not being in the business. That's right.

Speaker 22:49

Right. And so that idea of servant leadership, that idea of support is being in the business. Right. And I think, you know, that might be a perfect role for your COO, right? Exactly.

Jaclyn Strominger 23:03

Perfect role for a COO. And listeners, there's a huge reason to have a COO. Who was I just looking? I was just reading, actually, on actually it was on LinkedIn, the woman it which is baked by Melissa. I just read a post. I don't know if anybody else saw this, but she just she's been baking. I don't, I have never tried her cupcakes or baked goods or anything like that. I actually really don't really eat that stuff that much. Anyway, but she just brought on a COO to so for scalability.

Speaker 23:36

That's right. Yeah. Because you just can't, you know, if if I'm sitting there and I'm in everybody's business, how am I gonna innovate? How am I gonna grow? How am I gonna strategize? How am I going to see what else is out there? How am I gonna bring my unique gift into the business? So there you go. I mean, and listen, I'm not saying that the other person is wrong. This is just a different

AI, Communication & Human Connection

Speaker 24:00

point of view.

Jaclyn Strominger 24:00

It's no, it's totally different. But I love I love your take on this. And you know, and I'm curious, you know, you know, uh, I think one of the things that I that I that we hear a lot about right now in the marketplace and and what people are talking about is so much negativity heading around and and whether it's good, the bad, the ugly, the politics. So how what are you seeing right now working with your clients on on, I guess like sort of lack of better word, people's political differences in the workplace.

Speaker 24:40

Yeah, not to be political, but yeah, I would say that I don't see it, I don't see it much. Oh, that's good. Yeah, I think you know, the bigger discussion clearly is I that I see being very active in businesses is the the conversation around AI and what the future of work looks like. I think there are a lot of people who have kids that are just entering college or, you know, right, like thinking about what do entry-level jobs look like in the future, right? So I think that in the communities that I'm in, that's a very active, those are very active conversations. The businesses that I have that I work with so far, I haven't, I think people are I haven't seen anybody firing anybody because of AI, but everybody that I'm working with is trying to figure out how do I optimize AI. Right. How do I optimize AI and what is that, what does that look like? And and honestly, you one thing that I do that I do see that I actually think is helpful, as long as you don't lose yourself in it, is people putting scripts into AI and asking for a better way, right? Describing the client and asking for a better way to say something or respond to something. And I think there's a lot of value in that. Right.

Jaclyn Strominger 26:20

I I think the big thing is is that you know, is is helping clients, not to put words in your mouth, but helping clients use AI as the tool versus letting it take over. We still need to add the human element to it, right?

Speaker 26:36

To 100%. Yeah. The it's really interesting that you ask about the political stuff because I really do have clients all over the world. But I think maybe because I am not, I would certainly, if there were conflicts in the workplace around politics, certainly help people deal with that.

Jaclyn Strominger 26:57

Yeah.

Speaker 26:58

I I definitely have been consulted before about some blurred lines around like some social media posting. Yeah. But I would say it's not really a common, it's not a common thing that I deal with. That's actually really nice. Yeah.

Jaclyn Strominger 27:15

Um I think that's actually really fantastic, actually. You know, because you know, it's almost like one thing that is being said in the media, and then there's the actuality, right? You know, things that we hear out there versus really what we're people's seeing. So that's actually really great because I'm not really seeing it myself either. But, you know, I it's not like, you know, there's lots of companies that are out there, right? So, you know, Kim, I I can talk to you for hours. What is one of the biggest things that you are doing right now working with your clients? And I know you mentioned that you have a a course coming up, something that you offer every every month. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Speaker 27:53

Yeah, so it's shitting on yourself in a lot of ways, Jaclyn. It's really talking a lot about what

Breaking Negative Thought Patterns

Speaker 28:00

we talked about today. How do you show up? I'm a real big, which I think you are too, like somebody who I want to give value. I want to give practical things that you can do. And also, I want to help you even identify some of the patterns that you don't even see because you just always react that way or always think that way or always believe that thing. So it's really trying to get at some of those, some of those things and give folks some ideas around how you might reframe things, some things that you might think about doing. So that's really what it is.

Jaclyn Strominger 28:47

I love that. You know, a lot of people should on themselves all the time. Exactly. And and it's it to stop doing that is great. So, listeners, please do me the favor.

Final Leadership Advice

Jaclyn Strominger 29:00

You need to connect with Kim. And you need to sign up for her course. We will put that in the show notes because I think it is really, really important. How can our listeners connect with you? The easiest, what's the best way? The easiest, best way is find me on LinkedIn.

Speaker 29:19

Okay. I post every single day and we can we can chat there.

Jaclyn Strominger 29:25

Okay, awesome. I love it. So connect with Kim, please, on on LinkedIn. She is a wealth of knowledge, she is so amazing, awesome energy. You got to bring her into your company. So please, again, make sure that you're connecting with Kim. And listeners, please do me a favor because I know there is somebody out there who you are connected with that needs to hear this message today. So please share it with your business associates, your friends, your colleagues, and make sure that you've already hit subscribe so that you can also come back to here to keep keep hearing great episodes of other influential people and their tips and insights on having unstoppable success. And lastly, please go to our brand new Unstoppable Success School community. We launched it just recently, and it is free right now. So get in while you can. Go to Unstoppable Success on School. I'm Jaclyn Stromingerr, your host, Kim. Thank you so much for being an amazing guest. I literally could talk to you for hours.

Speaker 30:34

Thank you.

Jaclyn Strominger 30:34

This was so much fun.

Speaker 30:36

I really appreciate it.

Jaclyn Strominger 30:37

Thank you. And listeners, thank you so much for listening. This is Unstoppable Success. And until next time, keep leaping to your greatest success.