Jill Wright – Leading with Love: A Journey from Shoe Shining to Heart-Centered Leadership

SUMMARY

In this episode of the Maker Manager Money podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jill Wright, the founder of Executive Shine, a company that has transformed the art of shoeshining into a meaningful service experience. With over 38 years of experience, Jill operates locations in both the Denver and Charlotte International Airports, but her story goes far beyond just shining shoes.

Jill’s approach to business is deeply rooted in love and connection. She emphasizes the importance of asking, “What does love look like here for the person in front of me right now?” This guiding principle has shaped her leadership style and the culture at Executive Shine. From her ranch in Colorado, where she raises horses and chickens, Jill has developed an innovative training program called the Shine Experience, which focuses on creating high-functioning teams through a service-oriented culture.

During our conversation, Jill shared her personal journey, including her early experiences with horses and how they taught her about energy and connection. She recounted a pivotal moment with her trainer, who advised her to be mindful of how her energy impacts those around her. This lesson has been instrumental in her approach to leadership and service.

We delved into the concept of HeartMath, a practice that emphasizes heart-brain coherence and the importance of connecting with others from a place of love rather than fear. Jill explained how this practice has influenced her interactions, both personally and professionally, and how it can help individuals navigate stress and build authentic connections.

The episode took a poignant turn as I opened up about my own journey of grief following the loss of my son, Jake. Jill offered insights on how to channel grief into love and connection, emphasizing that unexpressed love is often what we carry in our hearts after a loss. Her perspective on using personal experiences to foster deeper connections with others resonated deeply with me.

Jill also shared her entrepreneurial journey, highlighting her rebellious spirit and desire to create something meaningful. She discussed the importance of hiring individuals who align with her core values and the significance of developing a diverse team that can bring unique perspectives to the table.

Throughout our conversation, Jill’s passion for serving others and creating a culture of love and connection was evident. She reminded me that true leadership involves vulnerability and the willingness to honor the unique gifts of each team member.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon by Malcolm Gladwell

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins

TIME STAMPS

00:00:00 – Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:01:53 – Jill’s Life on the Ranch
00:02:23 – Jill’s Passion for Horses and Dressage
00:03:11 – The Connection Between Humans and Horses
00:05:22 – Energy Awareness and Its Impact
00:09:00 – Channeling Energy Through the Heart
00:10:53 – Understanding HeartMath
00:14:02 – The Importance of Heart-Brain Coherence
00:19:04 – Navigating Grief and Loss
00:20:55 – Finding Purpose Through Pain
00:31:05 – Jill’s Early Life and Entrepreneurial Spirit
00:33:05 – The Birth of Executive Shine
00:39:00 – Building a Team and Delegation
00:43:07 – The Importance of Authenticity in Leadership
00:55:02 – The Power of Connection Over Perfection
00:58:18 – Hiring for Love and Impact
01:00:07 – Expansion of Executive Shine Locations
01:01:45 – The Journey to Washington, D.C.

Kyle Knowles:
Hello there! Welcome to the Maker Manger Money Podcast, a podcast about entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, founders, business owners, and business partnerships…from startups to stay-ups…to inspire entrepreneurs to keep going and future entrepreneurs to JUST START!

My name is Kyle Knowles, and today’s guest is Jill Wright, founder of Executive Shine, a company that has redefined what it means to deliver exceptional service in the most unexpected places. Jill has been running Executive Shine for over 38 years, with locations in the Denver and Charlotte International Airports. But this isn’t just a story about shining shoes – it’s about leading with love and transforming everyday moments into meaningful connections.

As Jill puts it, ‘What does love look like here for the person in front of me right now?’ This simple yet profound question has guided her approach to business, leadership, and life. From her ranch in Colorado where she raises horses and chickens, to her innovative training program called The Shine Experience, Jill has mentored hundreds of leaders on implementing a service culture that drives engagement and creates high-functioning teams.

Her unconventional approach to business and leadership has earned recognition from Forbes and Harvard Business Review. One of my favorite quotes from Jill is, ‘There is no connection in perfection.’ Her story reminds us that sometimes our greatest challenges become our greatest gifts in serving others.”

Jill, where are you calling from?

Jill Wright:
I’m in Colorado. I’m in Elizabeth, Colorado, so I have a little ranch out here outside of Denver and I have a bunch of horses, dogs, chickens, all kinds of animals.

Kyle Knowles:
That’s great. And how many horses do you have? 10. 10 horses. That’s amazing. Is that for riding for use on the farm or ranch or what do you do with the

Jill Wright:
Horse riding?

Kyle Knowles:
Okay.

Jill Wright:
I ride English and I do dressage, which is kind of like, it’s kind of horse developmental gymnastics. It’s building up their body and teaching them how to carry in a way that supports their structure and it’s also beautiful. It’s kind of like horse dancing and I’m kind of a chicken, so I like to stay on the ground and I like the mental aspect and I like the focus of really connecting with them as an animal and just becoming one and working together with them. It’s really fun. It’s a welcome break from other life, so it’s what I do for fun.

Kyle Knowles:
It’s a welcome break from your business and staying so busy. I’ve heard that there is something about being magical about being around horses for long periods of time and you really become, like you said, one with the horses or they really get to know you Well, they’re dogs are man’s best friend, but horses are definitely our best friends as well. Is that

Jill Wright:
Absolutely, they’re very grounding because they have four legs on the ground and not just two. Same with dogs. All of my horses have different personalities. All of them have taught me different things about life and different, I remember when I first started riding many 20 some years ago because it was a dream I had, I rode as a child with my grandfather and it was a dream I had that when I was able to afford it, I would able to have a place where I could have horses. And my trainer, who was an older German strict woman, she said, you need to calm down before you go to your barn. And she said, because you need to be aware of how your energy impacts the horses and people because you have big energy and it arrives in the room. And so that was something that really taught me about paying attention to who’s in front of me and mirroring that energy and being sensitive to how I impact people. So they’ve just taught me so many things.

Kyle Knowles:
That’s wonderful. I love that. How many years ago was that when your trainer said this to you?

Jill Wright:
I think 2001.

Kyle Knowles:
Okay. So almost 25 years ago.

Jill Wright:
It was a long time ago.

Kyle Knowles:
And had anyone told you that you had that big energy before this?

Jill Wright:
Not in that way. I was maybe told I was too much, you’re too big, too much, too excited. Can you be a little less excited? And I think I’ve learned how to not close that energy down, but to modify it and channel it in ways that are a softer impact for some people. And then sometimes I just can’t help it. I’m just excited. I love life and I love people. Something happens to me. I think when I’m in front of people before I go enter a room or when I’m coming into the airport to go to work when I’m coming up the escalator, I try to bring my energy into my heart and I think that’s a distinction that has made greater impact with me. And I try just to be in love and I try to just then wherever I go, then I’m tuned into what is my intuition telling me?
What does the person in front of me need? How can I serve one of the things that we say in our businesses? What does love look like here for the person in front of me right now? So I try to keep that front of mind and I find that when I do that, I’m able to touch people in a more impactful way. And we also are using that within the new workshops we’re doing called The Shine Experience, where we’re teaching people where is your energy in your body? And just to have awareness about that. And I try and make it light and funny because they don’t always know and I don’t want ’em to feel scared, but I tell them to bring it into their heart and then to send it down through their arms into the person in front of them that they’re working on if they’re conditioning their shoes or working on them.
And then I want the person in front of them to reflect back to them. If they can feel that and when they experience somebody giving them feedback about coming from their heart and how that impacts the connection that they’re making, then they embody that, then they can learn it for themselves. And it’s not me in front of the room telling them that they can make a bigger impact in the world if they come from a place of love and if they come from their heart, all of the things that happen to you teach you better ways of connecting with people. And so that’s been a powerful lesson that I’ve learned from them and then kind of incorporated in my business.

Kyle Knowles:
I love it because I think I’ve never heard of that concept of channeling your energy through your heart because I feel like a lot of times it’s very easy for us to have our energy channeled between our ears and the thinking part. And when mine’s channeled between my ears and from the head, it usually results in very self-centeredness and ideas about myself and what are other people going to think about me or fear? Fear.

Kyle Knowles:
Fear

Kyle Knowles:
Is in your head a lot. And these ideas and that we get that never come to pass, never come true and are false ideas comes from the head. And I think of the heart, bringing it down to your heart allows you to look outside yourself more. Is that fair to say?

Jill Wright:
Well, and build real connection because you’re absolutely right. I also took heart math certification to be a heart math coach. And when I did that I was like, wow, that’s exactly what we do at the airport. That’s where fear lives. If whenever you’re in a stressful situation and you ask yourself, where is my energy? And pretend you’re driving and you’re like, someone’s cut you up and you’re just irritated and you recognize, wow, this is where my energy is. Or when you’re going on stage and you’re speaking in front of people and you’re like, oh, I hope I do okay and I am afraid to screw up and I don’t want to do all those things. If you can just take that moment and bring that energy down to your heart and understand that you are there to touch the hearts of everyone in the room.
And it also, I think it’s powerful to have that as an intention. So when you pull that down and you say, I’m here to serve, I’m here to love. How can I love you today? How many people are really afraid of loving? That takes a lot of the fear out of it. And it’s also important, I think to ask myself, what does love look like for me right now? If I’m in a situation where I am overwhelmed and I’m stressed out about, I’ve got 10,000 things to do and I’m beating up on myself, you should be better, Jill, you should be on top of everything. Where is that? I think, am I loving myself right now? What do I need to do? And just bring that down here and you say, you know what? It doesn’t matter. I’m going to do the best I can as much as I can today.
And I’m also going to do things that bring me joy. Because when you shift into that energy in love and when you do things that bring you joy, it’s like a magnetic genetic force that happens and it’s just unbelievable. Someone will call you that was on your list and you needed to talk to them and they’re like, Hey, I was just thinking about you and I know we needed to get together and whatever. So then I can check those things off my list or someone will say, Hey, I took care of that. I know you hate to do paperwork and all of that stuff. It’s amazing how much spirit will take care of the things that were stressing you out if you’re shifting your energy and coming from that right place.

Kyle Knowles:
Yeah, I totally agree. And I feel like when I’m not in the right place, I don’t reach out as much to people. And sometimes when you don’t hear from people for a while, you think, oh, they must be in a place that’s hard right now and hard for them to reach out. And so when you develop that sense of coming from a space of love and energy, you do, you start reaching out, synchronicity starts happening left and right, reach out to you, you reach out to them, and whatever you put out in the universe is coming back to you. So I love that idea. Can we talk a little bit about HeartMath? What exactly is HeartMath?

Jill Wright:
That is an institute where they do a lot of research on heart brain coherence. It, it’s a fascinating work of study. They’ve done so much work to understand that you have neurons from, you actually have a heart, brain, that the brain actually is the servant of the heart and that the heart really does have neurons that can direct your work and direct your connection with other people and that you feel more in your heart. And that then when you build coherence in your heart, then it drives all of the synchronicities. It brings your brain into serving your heart. And it also is something that they teach that also helps with first responders, people that are dealing with stress. Because think about your decisions that you make when you’re in a place of heart coherence versus when you’re in a place of stress in your mind and can you actually touch people brain to brain versus heart to heart? So that’s where the real human connection begins, and that’s the part, ironically, I think that’s the part that people protect the most because in many, many businesses and groups, it’s not safe to speak your truth. Where does your truth live? It lives here.
The stories is what your mind creates and that tells you, oh, Jill, you’re not good enough. All of these things, all of these limiting beliefs and stories, they’re all created in your mind. So if you can just have that as a practice and come back and center yourself and say, what does my heart really say about that right now? Is that really true? Is that what my heart says? And it’s just, it’s not. And I’m a really spiritual person too, so I call that kind of my me and God place, and that’s where we come together and work as a team. And I feel like that’s where my divine guidance lives and my intuition lives is here. And I know when I speak from here and when I listen from here that I make a bigger impact on the people around me and it feels good at the end of the day.

Kyle Knowles:
I love that. I love that sentiment. And can we do a little heart math work right now? Can you help me a little bit? Just talk through a couple of things for me. Because as you know, we met what, over a year ago or so, and I think when we met doing some executive workshops and things like that, I had a lot of confidence I think at that time and was doing this podcast and had done it for several months. I had a lot of opportunity to talk to people, entrepreneurs and learn about their stories and share those with others. And I was so excited about it. I felt like it was coming from my heart. And then as you know, my son Jake passed away in February and I kind of lost a lot of that mojo and confidence and of course, grief, something you have to carry.
I guess first of all, I just want to say if you can talk through maybe some of the things that happened to my heart and moving everything to my head and then having a lot of fears about getting back into the podcast. And even though I really enjoyed it logically, I can look back and go, that was some of the most creative fun times that I had in a short period of nine months. I interviewed 33 entrepreneurs and some of them I had known for a while, but most of them I had met recently. Thankfully, you’ve been very generous in letting me cancel and finally put this podcast recording on your schedule. But maybe you can talk through with me maybe what happened from the heart mind situation and maybe explain HeartMath a little bit more just for my situation and my experience.

Jill Wright:
First of all, I really want to honor the way that you’ve dealt with this because I think that’s one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult thing that can happen to a person. And one of the people that I think I sent you a podcast of us was Mo Gade, and he also lost his son. And as a process of healing, he’s done so much work to honor his son’s legacy by doing all this happiness work that he’s doing, which has been therapy for him. So for me, I’ll take you back a little bit for when I was 15. I graduated high school early and I had saved up a bunch of money and I wanted to surprise my dad. He didn’t know I was graduating early and my stepmom and I, she ruined my surprise and we got in a big blowout about that and he came to me and said, I have to choose between you and his wife, my stepmother, and which had just been a year that they’d been married and I choose her.
So that was deeply, deeply painful for me. Nowhere near the pain that you’ve experienced. However, what I went through in that experience was really my relationship with God was much stronger and I was like, okay, God, it’s just me and you. And I moved out, went back with my mom when I was 15, and basically it was kind of on my own after that. My mom was very supportive. But what I learned when I started my business is that I loved people because I needed love and because of those things that happened to me, I have been able to impact millions of people around the country through a very simple service where really, I mean Executive Shine is a shoe shine service company. But what I realized is that I had that hole in my heart that because I served then by loving people, I recognized that wow, it wasn’t only me that everyone has a story and everyone, I mean it didn’t matter.
CEOs, supreme justices, senators, congressmen, oil field workers, it didn’t matter. They all had a hole in their heart. They all wanted to be seen and heard and loved. And because of the pain that I went through as a 15-year-old girl when I started my business when I was 20, I had the focus of loving people because I needed to heal. But because I served people in that way, that’s what taught me about coming from the heart. So as that business has developed now, I see it almost like it was a divine contract. If he wouldn’t have told me, I would never make it without him. If I hadn’t experienced that pain as a child, then I wouldn’t have developed this business, which really focuses on loving people through the doorway of Executive Shine and then built the Shine experience after that because I want to take touching people to the next level. I want people to build cultures where they’re at work, where this is where I come, this is my safe place, this is where I can be developed as a human. I can also learn work skills, I can build relationships, I can build community. We can start to do great things to together and all coming from that place of love. But if I wouldn’t have had that experience, I don’t think that I would’ve had the impact. Because think about it, if you have a perfect life and you have no difficult things, you don’t grow.
And so I think when I look at my life, I think that was one of the biggest gifts that really broke my heart open so that God could come together with me and I could really live my divine purpose. And so what I see for you is that this is an opportunity for you to really, it broke you open and I think the impact that you can have now really embodying the things that you’ve gone through and feeling and looking for the gifts within each interview, each connection to touch the hearts of people because there’s a lot of people out there, there’s a lot of parents out there, there’s a lot of people that have gone through what you’ve gone through and your capacity to heal through loving, I think has been magnified a thousand percent. I think obviously I knew you before I, you’ve always been a really loving person, but it feels to me like your heart when you showed up on this call, it’s your heart that showed up.
And so I really feel like having embodying that love and learning all of the lessons that are, the gifts within this tragedy are going to make your impact in the world really significantly amplified. And I can feel how you can also embody the love that you’ve had for your son and the love that your son was, who he was also I think lives in your heart. And if you can just continue to feel him there and to share and do your divine purpose work in the world from that place that you can touch people in a really powerful way that other people who have not experienced that would not be able to. How do you feel about that?

Kyle Knowles:
No, I feel that it’s spot on. It’s a lot of what I’ve been feeling, a lot of what I’ve been thinking. I saw a clip this past week of Andrew Garfield, the actor. He was in social network. He was Spider-Man talking about the loss of his mother and saying how when we grieve and the tears come easily. And this week’s been a week of for some reason thinking about Jake a lot and a lot of hard crying. But Andrew Garfield said that that grief that you carry the rest of your life, it’s simply unexpressed love.
And the way that we connect with the person that we’ve lost is to express that grief through crying and emotion, and that’s how we stay connected. And so he doesn’t fear carrying that grief the rest of his life. And I just thought he said it so well, and it helped a lot. I needed to hear that this week and I needed to hear what you said too because believe me, I’ve been living in my head going back and forth between heart and head and having a lot of fear and sadness and questions and doubt that fear, uncertainty and doubt fud from this tragedy. I’m really grateful that I’m able to talk to you and that you were able to share some insights from your heart math work and the work that you do. And this podcast has been a bigger deal than I ever thought it would be, and now getting a chance to reconnect with you and get insights from you has just been very helpful.
So thank you for sharing that, Jill. I really appreciate that. And I want to go back to your growing up years and you said at 15 this experience happened to you, there was a hole in your heart, but before you went into business at 20. So let’s talk about your first 20 years, and we know at 15 this happened to you where there was a break between your father and you, him choosing someone else and saying that you couldn’t make it without him, those kinds of things. And you moving back in with your mom. But were there any instances throughout your first 20 years of your life before you started Executive Shine that maybe helped move you towards entrepreneurship instead of going and working for someone else?

Jill Wright:
I had a coffee cup when I was 13 that said, conform and be dull. So I think from, I don’t know how I got that rebel, but I’m such a rebel and any of the jobs that I had, I used to manage health clubs. I worked at a clothing store, which is one of my favorite jobs I ever had. I love clothes and I just knew that I wasn’t going to be able to fit in a box there. I wanted to create and build something myself. And when my friend asked me if I wanted just to learn about shining shoes, she needed someone to work with her. And I thought you, I was 19, she was 40, and I thought you are having one of those midlife crisises that I’ve heard about. And I went to see her and I worked with her for a day and I thought, this is fabulous.
You meet amazing people and you create art, you take something ugly and you look for the beauty within it, and you bring the beauty out in it. And then the people are so happy and shocked that you turn something dirty into something beautiful and then after they get done, they pay you. And I thought, this is fabulous. So for me, it’s, I’ve always had a really accidentally divinely guided life. And I think there was no accident that that happened because somehow God knew that that was a business that wouldn’t require, I couldn’t be an entrepreneur, maybe a tech entrepreneur or an accounting entrepreneur or any of those kinds of things. I had to do something that involved people and serving people. And so just being that type of rebellious kind of doesn’t fit in the box kind of person. I think that when you live that way, that things come to you if you’re in tune with it. And if you’re paying attention and it feels really right to you, this feels great. At the end of the day, I serve people, I do all of these things. I make their day, I listen to them, I listen to them laugh, I listen to them cry, all of these different things and then I get paid. So that’s kind of how that evolved. But I tell people that I’m a little bit Sarah Blakely a little bit, Laura Ingles Wilder, and I’m definitely unemployable.
I just don’t, don’t respond well to other people telling me what to do. So I think I was destined to be an entrepreneur just because I had those personality traits. I’m also a Gemini, so I just love being with people and learning about them. I’m just insatiable learning. And I think that’s also, I think something that’s important is that I always want to be better. And I learned at a very, I remember my uncle out on the porch saying to me, Jill, you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. You just have to surround yourself with smart people. And so find the people that are really good and they love to do the things that you don’t love to do. And so I think that’s another piece of entrepreneurship that’s really important. But often entrepreneurs are really workaholics, and I tell people, don’t get into your own business if you want to have an easy life and not work.
Because the first year I was in Washington, I think I worked 361 consecutive, 1820 hour days was really difficult. And I had to learn the process of hiring the right people, of asking the right questions of, in the beginning I just hired anybody with a pulse and then I had to learn, I need to hire people like that. Sincerely love people. So when I’m interviewing, I’m like, what is the impact that you’ve had on the people around you in your life this week and how important is that to you? So I think that entrepreneurs often hire people that are like them. In building a big company, you have to hire people that have your core beliefs, but different skill sets because I think so many entrepreneurs don’t want to relinquish control to other people. So if you hire based on values and you trust them, then you can feel safe delegating those things to them so that they can do what they love and you can do what you love and you can all come together as unique pieces of the puzzle. And I think that’s a really powerful way to build a successful organization. But I think that if it’s not fun, hire it done is a good rule for me. And because trying to sort through things that I’m not good at, what it does actually is it takes me out of my heart and it puts me in my head,
And that’s where my stress lives and my negative judgment. And Jill, you are terrible at this and all that. So I think that’s an important piece for entrepreneurs to stay in that creative place in their heart. And I think all business is a vehicle to love people, really to serve people. And the more, and I don’t care if it’s making Apple computers and phones and because their focus was always service serving, creating something that would really make life easier for people, serve people at the highest level. But if you can have that focus, what we’re creating is making an impact in the world, and I’m going to build a team of unique individuals and I’m going to honor each one of them and we’re going to grow together. And that doesn’t always work. I mean, you get all kinds of different people sometimes, but I have, for me, I’ve been very blessed and I have people that work.
I don’t have anybody that works for me that’s been working for me longer than 10 years. And my manager in the airport here in Denver has been working for me since he was 14 and he’s going to be 41. So unique individuals without, and to put them in a box and to hold them back. If you can give them, empower them with the freedom to create and come together, then this creation and this creation comes together to create something even bigger, then I think that’s your secret sauce and that that’s where you can really build a business for impact. And that makes everybody feel good at the end of the day when you’re making big impact with this podcast. And I want you to really own that. And you are giving permission not only for people to learn about these different things, about being an entrepreneur, but also being a human. These really difficult tragedies in our life that open our hearts up even bigger. And for me, I feel people’s spirits. And so I really feel like that it’s part of your son’s legacy to express that love through you.

Kyle Knowles:
I love that. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. There were a couple of things that you’ve said on the podcast so far I just love, and the first one was conforming is dull

Jill Wright:
Conform and be dull, conform

Kyle Knowles:
And be dull. Okay.

Jill Wright:
I remember my, and it’s just so funny. I mean, I don’t remember very many things. I’m old now, I can’t remember, but that’s just that coffee cup was so that was my battle cry. I was not going to conform. I was not, that was boring.
Even when we had dinner, we had to say prayers before dinner and one night my brother would say it next night, me and my prayers would always be funny. And my mother would be like, why do you always have to be so different? And I was like, well, think about it. If God’s sitting up there and people are only praying like, God, please help me, God, get me out of this situation. God do this. Thank you God. God needs a little entertainment. So I was always said like funny prayers because I thought, well, I’m not going to just bother God all the time. I’m going to make it fun and I’m going to make him excited when he gets to hear my dinner prayers because they’re going to be fun and funny. And so I think that’s part of non-conforming.

Kyle Knowles:
Yeah, I love that. And I’ve heard before something to the effect of, would you rather be in the Navy or be a pirate? It’s kind of a similar situation. If you join the Navy, you’re going to conform to all these different rules that have someone telling you what to do. But if you’re a pirate, you get to go out and conquer the world and

Jill Wright:
Yeah,

Kyle Knowles:
Floor,

Jill Wright:
And you get to be free. I respect people that can follow rules and systems and all of those things. And I do make some of my own systems, and I do think that they can serve you as a non-conformist, but I want people to be free.
I want their heart to do what it came to do. And for me, I want my heart to touch people wherever they need it, like a heat seeking missile and like, God, just please let me touch people in a way where they can see you and they can see spirit in what they do, and they can see beauty in who they are, and they can learn to love themselves and love the people around them and really see the beauty in the people around them and to look for it and to look for the gift within everything that they do because there’s always learning, there’s always expansion. There’s always the opportunity to love bigger.

Kyle Knowles:
Yeah, I agree. The other thing that you said that’s going to stick with me is if it’s not fun, hire it, done. That delegation I think is from talking to other entrepreneurs, that’s kind of a hard thing to hand that over, especially when you’re a team of one. When you first start out and you’re doing it all and you have certain ways of doing it, how did you overcome and decide that I’m going to let go? Was it working 361 days straight, 18 hour days or

Jill Wright:
Yeah, I think fatigue also getting the right people around me that I felt were really in alignment with what my core mission was when I learned to hire people based on their capacity to love and if they had accounting skills, then working with the skills and developing those people and seeing and feeling them and feeling their loyalty. One of the interesting things, I think it’s very hard to let go, and if you can build a team, I call leadership, it’s like you have a bunch of vanilla ice cream in these different people in front of you, and it’s our job as leaders to develop them and give them, if they want to be chocolate, help them be the best that they can be if they want to be butter brickle. So it’s my job as a leader to pour into them to develop their flavor.
And when you build a team that has Baskin Robbins like 31 flavors, then nobody’s competing with each other because all flavors are good and they can take from the different pieces and the different combinations of flavors. So one of the things I notice is that people are really loyal when you develop gifts in them that they didn’t see before. So when the people at the airport, they’ll say to me, how do you have no turnover? How do you do that? And I said in a word honor, because I honor who they are and I develop who they are because I want my customers and I’m front facing serving the public. So this might be different in different businesses, but I want my people to be, I want there to be something for everyone. So I want to develop the unique abilities and personalities of each of my unique people because that way when the customer comes to connect with us, they can find what feels best to them. They can connect with what matches and what they’re interested in, if it’s cars or sports or financial markets or family or animals or dogs or race, car driving or whatever it is. And I find that people who have never been really seen or honored for who they are, like, wow, you actually think that me talking about cars is a good thing?
They’ve never had leadership that developed them as human beings, that they start to believe in themselves. So I also have a saying that love rolls downhill within an organization. So if I see them and I love what they’re good at, and I continue to develop that in them, then as they grow, then they feel like, wow, I’m actually kind of an expert in this and I’m actually really good. But it’s the first time maybe in their life that someone has honored them for just being them. And I think that that’s really, really important. And to understand that people have different types of, you appreciate people differently, that people have different appreciation languages, just like they have love languages.
So if you develop honor and love your people in that way, then number one, you can delegate to them and you can build trust because you know that they’re loyal and they’re in alignment with your mission. They care about your business. And so that takes a little bit of stress and responsibility off of you. And I think it’s fun to develop people. I think it’s fun to learn about them, and I think it’s fun to water the garden. I think it’s fun to see them grow and see them build their self-confidence and their self-image, but it’s directly proportionate to the amount of growth that I’m willing to do and the amount of vulnerability and truth I’m willing to tell myself and trust I’m willing to build with myself to listen to my intuition about developing this person. Is this person really? Are we in alignment? And to be able to let those things go and then let me do what I do, and they do what they do and they love, then I think that’s a more powerful unifying team. And then I think you can accomplish amazing things together.

Kyle Knowles:
I agree. And I love the idea that it takes a vulnerable leader to allow their employees to be authentic.

Jill Wright:
Absolutely.

Kyle Knowles:
I think the initial reaction to who you want on your team and how you want your team to be is like you. And so to celebrate and welcome diverse personality types and then look at their strengths, look at what they’re into, and allow them those things to flourish and develop those strengths in them, I think you have a lot better chance of retaining the employee a lot better chance of success in your business if you allow people to be their authentic selves.

Jill Wright:
Absolutely. And I have a saying that there is no connection in perfection because that lives in your head first of all. And even in nature, they cut seeds in halves and graph them together to create new trees and all these different things. So to connect with people, I mean, just imagine if I said, hi, I am perfect. How are you? Thanks. Not interested. But yet it’s the biggest thing that people are afraid of is, am I good enough? Am I going to be perfect? And it’s the imperfection that gives you the opportunity to connect. It’s the same thing with your heart. If your heart wasn’t broken open, I mean, I’m not saying you wouldn’t have been able to, but the capacity you have to connect with people now, and I know this is true because I’ve lived it for the last 38 years. The capacity that you have to connect with people from an open heart is 10000% greater than it was before.
And I think that’s what the world really needs right now is where are we similar? Where can we come together and build on your idea? And you have part of an idea. I have another part of an idea and how we build that together, honoring each other as diverse people, as diverse perspectives. And I think that’s how we grow. I mean, I, I mean, I have don’t know 20 different countries of people working. For me, one of my favorite things about that is that I like food and they share their food. And I think that sharing food together and learning about unique ceremonies that they have within there, I love different El Salvadorian food and Peruvian food and Hispanic food and Ethiopian food and the Ethiopian coffee ceremony and the way that they make everything so special. And when you get to know people that way, I think you can love them on a different level and you can build relationship in common areas. And then just continue to add to that.

Kyle Knowles:
So

Jill Wright:
I love diversity. I mean,
It’s my favorite thing, sorry, I don’t want to interrupt you, but one of the things I think about a lot of the DEI work is it separates people. And I want to, we do a lot with the DEI, with the Shine experience, like looking beyond the surface or for really training yourself to look for the beauty in the person across from you. What can you teach me about Ethiopia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, all of these different, Venezuela, all these different places, and what can I teach you and how can we build then a culture where we respect and honor each other versus everything has to be fair. Yeah, you got to be fair, but you got to just feel your way through that and have leadership that looks at that to begin with, and this piece connects with this piece and honoring all of those different perspectives.

Kyle Knowles:
Yeah, it reminds me of what you said, love trickles down. So you have to have leadership that have that love and that capacity for love. Executive Shines mission statement emphasizes being powered by love. When you interview employees for a job, how do determine whether they have the capacity for love?

Jill Wright:
I ask them, tell me the positive impact you’ve had on the people around you this week, and what does love mean to you? Tell me about a situation where you love people. Tell me a situation where you felt loved. I want to know how they feel loved also because it’s important to understand how they receive it, but just to ask those kind of questions in the beginning. And if they look at you like you have three heads, that person is not a match for your team.

Kyle Knowles:
I love it. Yeah, those are great questions to ask. And I know you’re in the service industry, but I agree with you that this can apply to any business, and I love that you have the Shine experience so that you can offer that kind of, if you want to call it touchy Philly experience or soft skills, because soft skills always win. You can train someone on the hard skills, but soft skills, developing soft skills and having that capacity to love I think makes such a big difference. You went and worked with someone who was already doing shoe shining. You decided to help them. You did some shoe shining, then you decided to start a business. Where did you start that business? How did it become Executive Shine and where are you today? Where can someone go get a shoe shine from Executive Shine? I know you have five locations in the Denver International Airport. You also have two locations. I believe in Charlotte.

Jill Wright:
I started working. I started working with another woman that had worked with my friend and she needed someone to go open a location in Santa Clara. So actually I went to Santa Clara right away. And then I recognized I need to do this for myself because I have better systems. I understand people better. I can make improvements in this. And I have the focus on people and not just the focus on just shoes only. How many can I do people fast and not the focus on volume. I had the focus on relationships, and I actually, I met a gentleman from the airport in Washington, DC when I was working. I had the contract to do here at the Hyatt downtown, and he said, would you be interested in coming to Washington? So I can’t take credit. I think God helps me out way more than I deserve sometimes.
And he said, would you be interested in coming to Washington? And I said, yeah, my brother goes to Johns Hopkins. I could be out near Baltimore. And he said, we’re building a concept called Innovative Air Courts, and we would really like you to join us. And we went through the contract, the request for proposal process. Then he sent me a document that was this thick, and as I mentioned, I’m allergic to two pieces of paper sticking together, much less a hundred. And so I went to the small business council and administration, and they helped me respond to the proposal because I didn’t learn any of that in college. And so I submitted my proposal to Washington DC and they selected me. And so that’s how that got started. And then the Denver airport, then it came up that the Denver airport needed, they opened the airport without shoeshine.
And so that opportunity came up. There’s some funny stories around that. And then the Charlotte Airport called and said, we’re interested in having you come here. And so I think if you operate at the highest level that people will see, and I’ve never advertised. I’ve never sought after contracts. They’ve always come to me. And the people have always wanted to work for me at the airport. They’ve come up and said, I want a job. And so I feel very blessed. But I think the main focus of our conversation is really to come from your heart. And part of that I also wanted to mention is I was intimidated by my father, and he was very smart in his head, very articulate, could speak, he could talk words around anyone. And I think that’s another thing that caused me to be heart-focused instead of head focused, because actually I felt more secure in my heart. And when you operate from there, and it’s funny how things happen in your life that tragedies connect you to divine purpose. And I see that in story after story after story with people, and that the reason that they have the capacity to do what it is that they do is because of something that happened in their life earlier.
And it’s hard in your situation. It’s hard, but hard things are what really show you what you’re made of. You show you when you overcome something like you’re doing right now, the feeling, even though you have to work at it every day, the satisfaction of knowing that you’re, you are making a difference. You’re doing the right thing that you got through the day, okay today, and that you chose to look for something that would lift you out of the difficult feeling that you might be feeling, because it’s always a choice. And you can go down a rabbit hole. And that’s okay too, because it’s duality. There’s always both. And the days that I have that are really difficult, I always have a breakthrough in the next day. And because I know that, that, wow, I’m really down today and this sucks. But I know that after I go through this, and if I come through this and I make it through this, I know that’s where my breakthrough is. On the other side of it, I feel like that you’re starting to recognize some of your breakthroughs.

Kyle Knowles:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of almost like reentering the atmosphere, right? Yeah. It’s been a little painful, but you’ve really helped me in this conversation. I really appreciate you taking time today to speak with me. I think we talked about the most important things. I really do. I just have a few more lightning round questions. These are easy.

Jill Wright:
Oh, good.

Kyle Knowles:
First question is, are you a musician?

Jill Wright:
No.

Kyle Knowles:
Do you like to sing? You don’t play any instruments. Do you like music?

Jill Wright:
I am really not a music person. I was growing up, I was in the eighties. I’m a eighties girl, so I was like an if songs come on, like RO Speedwagon or Old Journey songs or things that I rush or things that I grew up with, I am. But I like to listen to the music and nature. I like to be outside. I like to listen to the birds. I love birds. So for me, at this point in my life, that’s my music. Unless of course I run into a good REO Speedwagon song.

Kyle Knowles:
I love it.

Jill Wright:
Or John Denver. That’s another good one. I

Kyle Knowles:
I love John Denver. Yeah. Okay, so favorite candy bar.

Jill Wright:
Oh geez. Probably Almond Joy. I love coconut and I love dark chocolate, and I love moments

Kyle Knowles:
Favorite musical artist. Then REO Speedwagon. It sounds like

Jill Wright:
R Speed. Well, I don’t know. Then I came up with John Denver at the end, and that was really good. And then I just recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s book called Miracle and Wonder, and that was about Paul Simon and all of that older music and the things that, the creativity that he put into that music was incredible. And when I want to go to my happy place, I listened to that book. I swear I’ve listened to it 20 times.

Kyle Knowles:
Wow.

Jill Wright:
It’s just the energy of the creativity of Paul Simon. So he’s really gained my respect, I think, as an artist. And also Rick Rubin wrote a book called The Creative Act and his creative Mind, the minds of those artists and John Denver, the way he created, and even this is going to date me, but even the carpenters and some of these people I know I gave you more than one. See, I’m a non-conformist.

Kyle Knowles:
I love all of those answers. I

Jill Wright:
Love

Kyle Knowles:
That. I love that. And I’m going to check out both those books.

Jill Wright:
Oh my God, they’re so good.

Kyle Knowles:
Can’t wait. Favorite cereal.

Jill Wright:
When I was a kid, my mom made homemade granola, and she would go to the feed store and get oats and bran and all of that. My mom made everything from scratch when we were little. That was part of my rebellion. When I went to live with my dad, I could eat junk food and white bread. Oh my God. We had homemade bread made in coffee cans part as a rock cut in half, peanut butter and honey ground made peanut butter fresh honey. And so her homemade granola. So I have a soft spot granola, but when I was a rebel, I used to love Frosted Flakes because that was never, never was that allowed in our house. And if I went to a sleepover at somebody’s house when I was a kid, they had Frosted Flakes. That was my favorite.

Kyle Knowles:
Nice. Mac or pc?

Jill Wright:
Mac,

Kyle Knowles:
Google or Microsoft

Jill Wright:
Google

Kyle Knowles:
Dogs or cats.

Jill Wright:
Oh, wow. That’s hard. I guess dogs would edge out. I have seven dogs, and I think dogs would edge out cats just slightly because they’re a little more interactive. But I love them both dogs, cats, and horses and chickens. I have chickens.

Kyle Knowles:
That’s awesome.

Jill Wright:
I give eggs to everyone. That’s my favorite thing. I was just telling my friend last night, I raised baby chickens this spring, and the rest of my chickens were pretty old. So now they’re just starting to lay eggs. And I told her it is the most orgasmic treasure hunt experience to look to find where the chickens are hiding the eggs in the chicken coop. It makes me so happy. And last night I found 26 eggs and I was on top of the world. So chickens too.

Kyle Knowles:
So cool. Yeah. Chickens Phantom or Les Mis.

Jill Wright:
Oh, Phantom. I love Phantom.

Kyle Knowles:
What’s something that most people don’t know about you?

Jill Wright:
I think they don’t know how, I mean, I think they get an idea, but they don’t know how deeply I love them. And they don’t know I’m a farmer. They don’t know. I take care of my garden and I plant flowers and I mow my own yard. It’s like vacuuming. So I think they don’t know how much. I had to do a refurbishment project for the airport. Shoe shines this year at the airport, and I had kind of a tight budget for that, so I had to do it myself and me and my friend Sheila, who helps me here around the ranch and in my house a couple times a week or once a week, it was her and I and the satisfaction that comes from learning things that nobody thought you could do. I installed door handles and I had to drill through marbles, and I had to figure out how everything worked and when you get done challenging yourself in ways that you didn’t expect. And oh, and the best thing is I used rubber mats that are in horse trailers because they wanted me to build an engineered flooring system
At the airport. Oh, this is another rebellious thing. And so they wanted me to build the engineered floor. So when are you going to shut down to do that? And I said, I’m not shutting down. We’re not closing. I’m not putting my people out of work. Are you kidding me? And I said, so if I present some other options that work, is that okay? And I said, I don’t want ’em to completely throw me out. So what I did was I got five by seven rubber thick rubber mats that they put in horse trailers and installs, and I routed the edge of them. So it had a slant to it because we have to make it accessible for customers with their baggage. But I wanted it to be comfortable for my staff to stand on all day long compared to the hard terrazzo floors. So we did that, and then I took a belt sander and I made it even a more smooth bevel so that it would be really easy for customers suitcases to roll up.
And then we put a little trim piece, a transition, rubber transition strip around the edge, because then they said I had to have a rug on top of that. So then we figured out how to put that all together, and we made it work, and it looks fabulous. And my staff is so grateful because their feet are not sore, because now they’re standing on a half inch of rubber all day long. And so that’s just a little example of when we pulled that rubber floor off and I had to figure out, okay, I got to bevel this side and this side, but this side is going to connect with that side, so that needs to be flat, and I need to do the layout of all this. So it all works. When that crazy stuff gets done, you just feel like superwoman.

Kyle Knowles:
Yeah. That’s amazing.

Jill Wright:
I would recommend that. I like doing hard things. I like overcoming. I like figuring things out and doing hard things. I know that I’m a better person on the other end of hard things.

Kyle Knowles:
Yeah, I love that. I love that idea and that grit that you have to figure it out and make it work no matter what. And your non-conformist attitude,

Jill Wright:
The city of Denver just kind of is like, oh God, here she comes again. But we figure it out, make it work.

Kyle Knowles:
Well, just one last question. What’s the book that you recommend the most to people? I know you’ve mentioned a couple books, Rick Rubins and Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book. What’s a book that you recommend the most?

Jill Wright:
Oh, wow. Wow. I have a lot of those too. I actually, I’m reading right now, unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guera, which is about being extraordinary. I love Tom Peters as an author. I love Good To Great, I love Simon Sinek. I love books that encourage you to explore what being the best you can be is. And there’s so many, but I am just in love with the book I mentioned earlier with that. There is no book I have listened to 20 times.

Kyle Knowles:
And so that’s a Malcolm Gladwell book about Simon, what’s it called?

Jill Wright:
Yeah, it’s called Miracle and Wonder.
And just to listen to, because Malcolm Gladwell captured the creative process. And in the audible book of that book, I would recommend Audible because Paul Simon sings and talks, and he really captures the energy of creation, and he captures the wonder of it and being in that state of, I wonder how this is going to turn out, and I don’t know. And being in the joy of sound of putting that together. You can feel him in that book. And there’s so many books that I love. I listen constantly. One of my closest friends is Dr. Clarissa Pinole Es, who wrote Women Who Run With Wolves and many other absolutely extraordinary books. So as a personal friend, she’s changed the world for women honoring their process and giving them courage. So that would be another one of my favorite books. But for lighthearted inspiration and fun, CPE has got a bunch of how to be an elder, the wisdom of the Crone, all different. Mother Night, she tells these enchanting stories, which I fall asleep to almost every night. But between those two, I think those are my favorites.

Kyle Knowles:
I love it. I love that you’re a reader. I’ve heard that leaders are readers, so I appreciate you sharing so many different ideas from these books, and I’m excited to put them in my queue. Jill, I just want to thank you so much for taking some time today to be on the podcast. I’m looking forward to getting all of your ideas and the story and this whole episode published so that people can learn from all the wisdom you’ve gained after 38 years of being an entrepreneur and all the life lessons you’ve learned along the way. Thank you so much for being on here today.

Jill Wright:
You’re welcome. You’re welcome. And I love you.

Kyle Knowles:
I love you, Jill. Thank you so much.

Jill Wright:
I hope you feel that.

Kyle Knowles:
Thank you.