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Dominate Your Day Podcast

We are so excited to share the eighth episode of the Dominate Your Day Podcast! This podcast is for any professional or business owner who wants to live intentionally and dominate their day. Dana Williams and her guests will bring you practical advice about how to create a productive life through tools and experiences from guests who have designed the life they love.

At Dana Williams Consulting, we teach you everything you need to know about how to live intentionally and Dominate your Day based on your unique talents.  We have also created some great tools like The Strengths Journal™, a daily companion guide to the CliftonStrengths assessment.

Episode 9 ft. Carol Anne McGuire 

Carol Anne McGuire is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, author, educator, and Professional Development Specialist. She specializes in education and faith-based organizations. Her favorite part of her role is teaching middle school students to value their strengths. Her philosophy is it is better to build up a child than to repair a man. 

Carol Anne's top 5 strengths are:

1. Achiever
2. Learner
3. Focus 
4. Positivity 
5. Woo 

Below is a full transcript of the conversation, including timestamps. To subscribe to Dominate Your Day on Apple Podcasts, click here.

Podcast Transcript 

Narrator: [00:00:00] Welcome to Dominate Your Day where Dana Williams shares real conversations with leaders, coaches, and visionaries from all facets of life. She talks about all that goes into leading a life with intention and dominating your day today. Dana speaks with Carol Anne McGuire, a Gallup certified strengths, coach, author, educator, and professional development specialist,

along with her eighth-grade students Bradley, Iris, Sage, Claire, and Claire's mother Bonnie about how they harness knowledge about their unique strengths to enhance their education, interpersonal experience, and family life.

Dana Williams: [00:00:45] I'd like to welcome everyone to Dominate Your Day podcast. I am thrilled today to have Carol Anne, her students, and a mom from middle school

who've been actively using strengths to dominate their day. And as you know, this podcast is about people who have decided to make a difference in the life of others through their strengths. So Carol Anne, welcome to the show. I'd like for you to introduce your students and parents here with us today.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:01:14] All right. Perfect. So I am super excited to introduce you to my students. I have Claire, then her mom, Bonnie, and then we have Bradley,  and Iris, and Sage. They are all teacher's assistants for me. They work with me in the library, and we have been working on strengths all year long.

Dana Williams: [00:01:38] That's great. And Carol Anne, I bet our audience is wondering what school is she in? Who is Carol Anne? And how did this all start? So can you start at the beginning and talk about your strength story, how you got started in CliftonStrengths, and then how you're now applying in your life to make a difference in the life of others?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:01:56] Sure. From the very beginning, I taught blind children for about 25 years. And in that jaunt of teaching blind children, I started teaching them to make movies, and that's a whole other story in itself, but they were exceptional movie makers. And they should not have been, obviously, they couldn't see the screen, but they got the attention of Apple computers, and Apple put their movies on the Apple website for five years straight.

That got the attention of an actor named Will Smith, who asked me to come teach movie-making to his kids, which I thought was interesting. He could ask Steven Spielberg to come teach movie-making to his kids. I was just a teacher. I was nobody. And he asked me for a while, I eventually said yes and went to go work with him.

I taught his kids and a bunch of other celebrity kids how to make movies and create music on their computers. Then I started working for Apple Discovery and Google and traveling the world doing professional development. The principal at my school went to one of those sessions and said, "what do we need to do to get you to come to our school?"

And at that time, I was done, I was done traveling. I had been in living in a suitcase for a while and I was ready to be done. And this school happens to be less than a mile from my house. And I said, "well, I am a strengths coach. And I would love to do strengths with middle school students." I had written two books, and I really wanted to write a book on middle school students because I felt that if kids really knew who they were at a young age, would they have to go find themselves later on?

And so that's kinda my hypothesis in this book that I'm writing. And it has been an amazing journey of working with strengths with the kids. So I do strengths with the students, the staff, and parents at El Rancho Charter Middle School in Anaheim, California.

Dana Williams: [00:03:47] Yeah. Okay. That's great. And do you know of very many other schools doing this?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:03:52] There are a lot of colleges that do this. There are several high schools that I know, but I don't know, a lot of middle schools that do this with StrengthsFinder. I don't use Quest. I do not use Explorer. We use the same assessment that CEOs take. So I don't do not dumb anything down for these kids.

Dana Williams: [00:04:13] Wow. Let's talk with the kids. I want you to tell us how you brought this into your school. What was the first thing you did? And then I'd love to hear from the kids, how they have been using it with their parents, with their teachers. So if you want to get that conversation started, we'd love to hear that.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:04:35] They're amazing. We start strengths in the very, very beginning of the year, but we don't start with StrengthsFinder because- here's the deal when you're in school and you take a test, I mean, you're thinking your entire life of taking tests, really the purpose of that test is for you to crawl into the teacher's brain, figure out what the right answer is, and then regurgitate that on a page because that's what the teachers like.

They like for you to get the answer that's in their brain. Well, this is not that kind of assessment. So it takes us several assessments to untrain our brain that it's about me because this is a hundred percent about them has nothing to do with me. And so we take several assessments before we get to StrengthsFinder.

They do a Myers Briggs. They do several assessments before they get to me and then we get to StrengthsFinder and then they all take StrengthsFinder. And then we spend the rest of the year talking and focusing on their strengths, and I can't wait for them to tell you about their experiences and maybe they can just kind of share what their top five is with everyone.

Dana Williams: [00:05:38] And Carol Anne, would you tell your top five too, before we get started? Just because I'm thinking you're pioneering a lot right here. So I'm wondering where that's coming from.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:05:48] Achiever, Learner, Focus, Positivity, and Woo.

Dana Williams: [00:05:52] Okay, there we go. I love how you have Focus and Achiever and Positivity altogether with your Woo.

That's incredible.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:06:00] It does make for an interesting mind. I mean, don't we all, everybody has this great mind. So I want the kids to tell you about their strengths.

Dana Williams: [00:06:10] Sure. Who wants to start first? Bradley? Do you want to go first?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:06:17] Sure. Why not?

Dana Williams: [00:06:18] And tell what grade you're in too. That will be helpful. 

Bradley: [00:06:21] We're currently in eighth grade.

Dana Williams: [00:06:22] Eighth grade.

Okay. And what are your top five strengths?

Bradley: [00:06:26] My top five are Achiever, Deliberative, Competition, Intellectual and Analytical.

Dana Williams: [00:06:32] So tell us how you've used your strengths to now navigate life with parents, teachers. What have you found through this opportunity that Ms. McGuire has brought?

Bradley: [00:06:42] Well, knowing your strengths definitely gives you a better understanding of yourself and how you function in your daily life.

And especially like with your teachers, you're able to relate to them a little bit better. You can know how to be in their class and how they function because they're obviously in the real world, they're the ones that are teaching everything and knowing how their strengths are, and how they use them in their teaching, and in their way of teaching other students. It gives you a better understanding of their strengths as well.

 What was the question again? I'm sorry.

Dana Williams: [00:07:07] Yeah. It sounds interesting. I have a question for you. So you're learning your teacher's strengths. So Carol Anne, talk about how they learn their teacher strengths. How does that happen?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:07:15] All of the staff have taken their assessment.

And so the part of after we learn our strengths and the kids really know who they are, we focus on the teachers, and they spend an entire week looking at each one of their teachers' strengths. So they focus on their teachers, number one, and for a whole week, we just observe and see, can you see it?

 Is there evidence of that strength in that teacher? And at the end of the week, they write their teacher a letter telling them how they see their strengths. It's empowering for two reasons. One, the kids are learning to spot strengths in others. But for the teachers, it helps them to see, "wow,

somebody sees this in me. This isn't hidden. I am who I am. Okay."

Dana Williams: [00:07:58] So back to you, Bradley, how have you used your strengths in your schoolwork and your life now that you know your strengths?

Bradley: [00:08:09] Okay. So with schoolwork, obviously there's a lot of homework. There's a lot of big problems that we need to do.

I have honors classes, so math class was somewhat difficult, but having analytical and other strengths that are very much in my head and make it easier to tackle those bigger problems. And it also makes it easier just to be in class and to learn because you can grasp information a lot better and knowing how I learn properly, that way knowing that I know how I can learn.

I know the way that I can take notes. I know the way that these strengths helped me in class. I know when to use them. And I know the essence of each strength and how they affect me and benefit me, and then I can grow upon those things with experience in school and at home. 

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:08:49] Yeah.

Dana Williams: [00:08:49] Have you seen your grades change or anything change since you learned your strengths?

Bradley: [00:08:53] So before my strengths, I was just doing school just to do school because it was just school for me. But now that I do know my strengths, I feel more of a need to do better.

I feel more of a need to achieve even more than I already have. And my grades have definitely improved because I've learned about myself and how I can learn properly. And knowing that my grades have also improved because I know how to do everything for myself without just doing it for a matter of getting done with assignments.

Dana Williams: [00:09:19] Love that. Wow. That's exciting. We see the same thing with people in the workplace that y'all are talking about. It's amazing that you got that, and one of the main things we see is even adults have a hard time with their confidence and you're getting that confidence, now. Once they get their strengths, it gives you more confidence, right?

Set your superpower. So who else wants to share?

Claire: [00:09:43] I can share.

Dana Williams: [00:09:44] Thank you, Claire.

Claire: [00:09:46] Okay. So should I share my top five first?

Dana Williams: [00:09:48] Yes, that'd be great.

Claire: [00:09:50] Okay. So my top five are Strategic, Achiever, Learner, Competition, and Deliberative. So should I answer the question now?

Dana Williams: [00:10:01] Yeah, that would be great.

Yeah. Tell us, and then since your mom's here too, we'll kind of talk about that, how that all works together. So, yeah.

Claire: [00:10:08] Having a more clear idea of myself after taking the StrengthsFinder test, I think I'm able to see how different people kind of work together and are compatible with each other, including my teachers, my parents, and I, and seeing them more clearly and seeing everyone more clearly, I think makes it easier to understand everybody.

And now whenever I meet somebody, I'm instantly thinking, "oh, I wonder what they are. I wonder what their strengths are like." It goes from people to movie characters. It's kind of crazy how this has affected me. And so my number one is Strategic. Although, I can commonly see myself using Competition paired with Achiever and Deliberative as well daily.

And I think my parents see kind of this ambition in me, this need to kind of work my way to the best and stuff. So I think that they can also see me as a bit cautious as well because I take a long time to make decisions often and I kind of go back and forth between options. That's kind of a Strategic, Deliberative theme. And, I think it's a big advantage in your strengths over

people whose parents might not entirely know them because it kind of gives us and our parents a way to understand us better and kind of see where this is all coming from.

Dana Williams: [00:11:44] Absolutely. I mean, you guys could go probably teach strengths now that Carol Anne has taught start you so well.

So Bonnie, as the parent of Claire, what do you see since she has learned her strengths and been intentionally using them at school and outside of school?

Bonnie: [00:12:03] She talks about it a lot,

and absolutely, it gives us a better understanding of her.

We were kind of in tune with her. I think we knew some of this even before she took them.

One of her biggest strengths, which I think can also be somewhat of a weakness too, is her competitiveness.

She's not competitive necessarily with, it's not a sports thing where she's competitive against other people, she's competitive with herself. And that is knowing that it helps us understand her.

But it's hard too because say she doesn't get a hundred on a test it's only a 97 or something she's furious with herself. And it has nothing to do with the other students. It has to do with her, she's a very high achiever, and she just has to do the best that she can. So we definitely see that in her.

Yeah, I mean, I think she pretty much hit it. We understand her better. And it was funny. I took the test last Friday and she was like, "let me guess what you were." And she guessed what, two or three, I think.

Dana Williams: [00:13:10] That's great, Claire.

Bonnie: [00:13:12] Of mine, which was kind of interesting.

Dana Williams: [00:13:14] Did y'all share any of the same?

Bonnie: [00:13:18] I don't think so.

Claire: [00:13:18] My number six was in her top five, but none of our top five overlapped.

Bonnie: [00:13:23] Which one was that Claire?

Claire: [00:13:24] Discipline.

Bonnie: [00:13:25] Oh, okay. Yeah, she gets that from me.

Dana Williams: [00:13:29] It's kind of fun when you start doing the families and you put them in a grid and then you kind of see how the family shows up too. Carol Anne is shaking her head, I guess you've probably done that with a few families or your own is great.

So Claire, is there a favorite strength that you have that you kind of lean on?

Claire: [00:13:45] So when I first took the test and after I first saw my results, I was just, I thought strategic was absolutely fantastic. It was a great strength. I liked that it gave me the ability to be a meticulous and intuitive person with kind of an extra bit of insight on things.

And I still think that that's clearly my number one, and I kind of think of it as my mastermind strength. I love that I feel like I kind of get control over a lot of things because of it. But as I've learned more about my top five, I would say that deliberative is actually a pretty unique strength.

And it's one that I'm fascinated with because- pretty much any of the strategic thinking themes. I don't think this is one of them, but it's kind of similar in which you can't see somebody using it. They're thinking through things with it kind of similar to intellection and analytical and maybe focus, which I also have quite high.

I think that they're very interesting as yeah, you can have, can't see them, but they're constantly at work and you might not know it, but you're constantly using deliberative if you have it. So I would say that strategic and deliberative are probably my favorites and my top five.

Dana Williams: [00:15:13] I love how well you guys all know your strengths, and we're able to talk about them. It's incredible. Carol Anne, that's incredible. Incredible.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:15:20] I'm so proud. My heart right now is so proud of these kids, and you haven't heard from all of them.

Dana Williams: [00:15:26] I know, okay. Let's hear from Iris. Iris, share with us your top five and how you've used these in school and at home.

Iris: [00:15:37] So my top five are Adaptability, Restorative, Empathy, Developer, and Includer.

So I guess that at home, I use a lot of adaptability because whatever, I'm told to do, I can just go with the flow and do it. And if things change it's okay, and I can just do it. But, it also helps me to tell my parents, why I'm just the way I am. I don't exactly

talk about my strengths much though. And for School and stuff, it definitely helps me know what I need from teachers and how I work in general to do homework and tests. And it helps me, improve myself better.

Dana Williams: [00:16:35] That's great. Is there one that's a favorite for you?

Iris: [00:16:38] I would say adaptability because it just helps me go with the flow and not be bothered by too many of the changes and kind of also find a solution if something does go wrong.

Dana Williams: [00:16:53] Wow. And are you in eighth grade as well? Is everybody in eighth grade? Okay, great. I love that. Okay. Sage, tell us your top five strengths and how you use them at home and school. And then a favorite one you have.

Sage: [00:17:11] Okay. So my top five are Woo, Positivity, Communication, Consistency, and Adaptability.

I use all my strengths at home. If there is someone in the neighborhood, then Woo that comes out, I can talk to them immediately, find things about them, know something about them quickly to talk to them. My positivity, I use it all the time at home. I'm always cheerful, happy at home. I'm very uplifting. My communication can talk to anyone, talk to my family all the time.

They're like, "why are you talking so much?" I'm like, "that's my communication, mom, and dad." I use that all the time. I'm a talkative person. I'm like consistency. I'm always on a routine, all the time.

I have a routine. My adaptability, I can adapt very easily. So when COVID hit, I adapted really fast and helped my family adapt to it.

I feel like with my adaptability, I help people adapt. I can adapt easily, but I helped my family adapt. At school, I use all of them, but my favorite is to use Positivity. So if I see someone down, I go and uplift them because it's just, I hate someone seeing someone down. I hate seeing someone down, so I have to uplift them.

I love being in a positive environment. So when I see someone down, I uplift them.

Dana Williams: [00:18:26] Love that. Carol Anne, talk to us about how you talk about career paths with your strengths and how does that, how do they start beginning to think about their careers and where they're going?

I know they're all in junior high right now but to the next level high school and beyond.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:18:44] Yeah. They still have a ways to go, right? I mean, there's a lot of school left. Right. But in high school, they kind of choose a path. Our high school has pathways that the kids can choose.

And really one of the things that I want the kids to know is to follow your passion because if you love something, you'll do it for a long time and money will follow you instead of looking at a career path on what's the dollar sign that is attached to it because you might hate it. It might not be something you're good at.

And if you're following it just for money,  you might like it, but you might not. And so many people choose careers and then halfway through, give it up because they just decided, you know what? I don't like this. So follow what you love and really what you love is found in those top five.

Right? So if you can find a career that fits those top five, that kind of converges, and all of them mix, they can find something that will make, will support them financially, but then they'll love it. And really that's what I want. I want them to never work. I want them to go and have a career and feel like they've never worked a day in their life because they love something so much.

Dana Williams: [00:19:58] How will they use this when they go to high school, as far as if there's not somebody there that implements strengths and just getting them empowered to do that? And because you'll be in different careers where not everybody's using strengths, right? And they will have different leaders, so what's your recommendation as you're building this plan for them as you go forward?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:20:16] I mean, obviously I like to keep in touch with my students, so I keep it. I've kept in contact with students for over 25 years. It's nice to be able to come back and hear them talk about how they got their first job,

Or "I did my first interview," and I get a lot of letters from my students saying "I got my first job and they asked me what my strengths and my weaknesses were And I had an answer." And I was like, yes, that's exactly what you need. I want them to come in so strong with an answer of what are my strengths and my weaknesses, that the employer can't help but say yes. You have to have this kid because they know themselves so well.

Dana Williams: [00:21:04] Do you have a favorite story from one of your graduates that you could share? It sounds like you're getting a lot of different letters from them.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:21:15] Yeah, so many, so many students that have come back and it has really made a difference. And what's fun is when they go to college and the college does strengths and they just know going in it's,

I mean, and you can see, as you talk to the students, they know what they're talking about. Some of my students have felt like the professor that was teaching the class on strengths, they could have done a better job. And me knowing my students, I believe them, I believe because they know them. They know these strengths.

Dana Williams: [00:21:50] I love the fact that you were in a corporate environment and then came into the education environment and brought this tool and brought your talents to work in the, in middle school, when you came in and you were asked to come in as a librarian, and that's probably something you had never done before.

Right. So how did you, how did you design this program?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:22:13] I've been writing books and I was a coach for a long time. So I have things that I've used for clients for a long time. So I just implemented the things that I was using with my clients, with my kids. So they do some of the exact activities that I do with adult clients.

Just same things. I also teach a university class at the University of Fresno, Pacific University. And these kids do the same activities that I use in my, in my master's level class with students.

Dana Williams: [00:22:49] I love that. Tell us about the books that you've written.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:22:53] I have two books. One is called Draw on Your Strengths.

This was my first one. And I like to doodle and I always tell the kids, in class, in school, I was always in trouble for doodling on my papers. And now I get paid to doodle. I get paid to sit in people's board meetings and doodle their board meetings. Which is fascinating to me because it's kind of silly in my head, but I kind of doodled each one of the strengths I have.

So I did competition. Okay. And then within the doodle, I just put all little- for me, I needed to visualize what those strengths were and so within the picture, I put ideas and concepts and comparisons within each one of the images. And so for me, when I think of a strength, I first think of a picture.

And so for me, it was a learning tool when I first started teaching strengths. It was for me personally first and now it's for coaches and people that strengthen enthusiasts. And then the next book I have is Heroes of the Faith, and I took 34 different biblical characters and kind of studied their lives to see which of the 34 they would be.

And then kind of doodled kind of the same thing with doodles. I drew a picture in the background and then doodled words all over it. And so those are the two that I have right now. And then I'm working on a middle school book specifically for education and specifically for kids and educators that are in this field that are trying to navigate, we're navigating our future without knowing what our future is.

And so I feel like if I can actually touch my future by investing in a kid, sign me up for that.  I'm totally on board with that.

Dana Williams: [00:24:43] If somebody had told you 10 years ago that you would be a middle school librarian teaching strengths to kids, would you have done it?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:24:53] I would have.

Dana Williams: [00:24:54] That's because it's probably from your core purpose, right.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:24:57] Would be totally happy with it.  I could never have written my resume. I had done so many crazy things. Cool things. I could have never written it. When I was their age, I would have never known what was ahead of me. But when I look back, I would sign up for all of those all over again.

There's nothing that I didn't really like. I liked everything. Cause I got to use my strengths in literally every single job I've had. Just along the way, I didn't know it in the beginning, I didn't know that was a strength now. All of a sudden I have a word that I can use that, oh, that was achiever. I have something to attach it to.

Dana Williams: [00:25:37] Now we bring strengths into corporate environments. You have to get the buy-in from the top. Right. So how did you get your buy-in because your principal is the one that asked you to bring it in?  What would be your recommendation? I think from your perspective as a coach, to these kids and later within the education room and, and then also Bonnie, for you as a parent,  what is the advice you give these other educators and parents if they're thinking about this for their school?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:26:05] For me, it's invest in a relationship, invest in a relationship with that principal or whoever the administration is, and then give them an assessment.

Yes. You're going to have to pay for it. It's okay. Because you're an investment. Think of it as an investment, invest in that person, let them get the aha moment that these kids are going to get. These kids, later on, are going to be like, "what? That totally makes sense."

If you can have that aha moment with that administrator, then they will see the value it brings to their school, to their staff, to their parents, to their students. But they have to experience it themselves first.

Dana Williams: [00:26:47] And then finding those parents that are gonna get engaged in it too.

Right. And making sure they understand. How did you all do that?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:26:56] Made it available. If parents want to take the assessment, I'm willing to give it. It's simple as that. For me, it's an investment. It's an investment in my community. It's an investment in my school. It's an investment. My street, my house is one mile from the school.

If this is the best school in America, that's good for me on a lot of levels. Right? Right. So it's my, it's my investment in my community. 

Dana Williams: [00:27:22] I love that. So, Bonnie, as a parent, what would be your advice to other parents and administrators, if they're looking at this or your thoughts?

Bonnie: [00:27:31] I think this is just so awesome.

I, if people have the availability to do it, if they can get their hands on it, they absolutely should do it. I have a fifth-grader, and I can't wait for him to take it in the future. I've already told him you have to be a library TA in eighth grade because I feel like these kids that get to go through Mrs. McGuire's library, TA class. They're being given such a leg up on life, not just school and jobs and whatever, but just understanding themselves. And I feel like junior highs are really,

really brutal stages in kids' lives. And this just is just one more thing to kind of help them through it.

Yeah, I've actually, I've already talked to friends. I was on the podcast or whatever it was last Thursday. And I went to dinner with my friends afterward and they all have girls that are all also fifth graders. And I told them, I'm like, "okay when they're in junior high, they have to be library TAs."

I'm just telling you right now, you know? It's just, it's so cool. And I guess just getting the word out there and I don't know how available it is to just somebody off the street. If you can just log onto the website and pay for a test.

Dana Williams: [00:28:48] Yeah. You can. Yeah. So it's really about being aware of it and learning about it.

I was just talking to some high school counselors yesterday from Columbine, and they've been through the whole thing and they were talking about bullying, and I was telling her about Carol Anne and about what you've been doing. And they were like, "oh, we want to talk to her. We want to hear about this because I think I see this as another opportunity to help kids really feel good about themselves in the midst of many challenges."

Right. So I don't know kids how would other students that haven't done strengths. How do you talk about this? Do any of y'all have any thoughts on that or if they ask about it?

Claire: [00:29:27] I would say that other kids, it depends on the kid really. 

I really haven't talked to many of my friends about this, but the ones that I have, some are very confused.

Like what, what is this? And then some have taken other personality tests and can kind of relate that over to StrengthsFinder. I have a friend who took Myers-Briggs and I was telling her about all of the different StrengthsFinder themes. And she was going, "oh, I kind of recognize that in me.

I kind of see all of this." So it kind of depends on who I'm explaining it to, but if I'm explaining it to somebody who doesn't have any idea about it, I just kind of tell them that it shows you who you are more and points out. What are your most strong trait and stuff? What helps you in life the most?

And I kind of explained myself going," oh, I'm strategic and then achiever." And then they kind of go, "oh, okay. I can see that." So I would say that's how I kind of guide them overall in the StrengthsFinder test.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:30:39] The fact that I have eighth graders explaining to other students, the difference between StrengthsFinder and Myers Briggs is astounding. Holy cow, look at these kids.

They're amazing!

Dana Williams: [00:30:50] You're growing this whole HR department for the future.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:30:53] I'm so proud

of them.

Dana Williams: [00:30:55] It's amazing. I know. I'm like, wow. I don't even think we knew any of those assessments when we were young. That is incredible. Well, thank you, Claire. Iris, Sage, or Bradley, what other thoughts would you guys have to share with other students or with other schools that are maybe thinking about bringing something like strengths then?

Iris: [00:31:16] I have some friends, and I've told them all about how I do strengths and they're like, "wow, this is so cool. I would love to do it." I'm in another class, and they took it and I was so happy. I was like, I get to know other people's strengths cause then we have to do a project with it.

And I was like, oh my goodness. And we get to present it, and, I get to know all these other people's strengths and I can kind of connect them from

that strengths one and put it to StrengthsFinder, and I can figure out what people have because that's so cool. I love to know people's strengths. I can see some in my parents and I'm like, my parents need to take it because I can.

And I'm like, do you need to take it because I want to know what yours are.

Dana Williams: [00:31:55] I love that we have so many people at work that take it that want to get their spouses to take it kind of what you're saying. Everyone's like, "well, I need my husband or my daughter to take this," so, yeah. Okay. Bradley, share with us what you were thinking.

Bradley: [00:32:10] Yeah. So funny thing is that my niece in Germany, her class is also taking something similar. It's definitely not the same test or anything, but the thing about her class was that they really said control C control V because they all have the same results. Pretty much the same.

And I think that's because we got the buffer where we got to have the less significant tests before when we took the big StrengthsFinder test, which was very beneficial because that way we can actually figure out about ourselves, but they never did that.

So they just did one test and it's not beneficial at all for them, because they're not learning anything about themselves because it's not their genuine self. And I mean, I don't know really how to help them, but I'm just very happy that we actually got to figure out how to answer them correctly because they don't really understand that it's not about the teacher.

It's not like, does the teacher want to see that you're hardworking? No, it's like, are you hardworking though? Is this, does this apply to you? And it doesn't apply to them because they didn't take a genuinely. So, yeah. But they will be doing some other stuff in the future or something. And I just say that if you think that your teacher is going to want to have these specific traits in her class, that doesn't matter.

It's just as long as it's genuine to yourself so that you can actually learn upon it and use it in the future and be able to elaborate on it already now and learn about it now, instead of later, where it's not going to be helpful. But you should have something you should be able to leave this class with some sort of substance that you can take into the future of your life, which they didn't unfortunately.

Dana Williams: [00:33:40] Bradley, what I really spotted there, where you're talking about just your genuine self. And I think that's one of the things we talk about- confidence. We talk about strengths is being able to, it gives you that confidence to be you and not try to be- we all even adults try to compare ourselves to other people and think there's something wrong with us.

But when we realize what our strengths are and how unique we are, and for you to say that in eighth grade, it's just huge. So thank you. Thank you for that insight that you're sharing. That's great. Iris, di d you have anything to share? A thought on that, about what you've learned or what you would tell other students.

Iris: [00:34:17] Well, I don't really talk about strengths with other students or my friends, because I was just not a topic that they really bring up. But if I were to talk to them about it, I guess I just say, if you're struggling with knowing who you are, or you're constantly wondering why you do this or do that, you should definitely take the test and see why these things happen.

And I guess another thing is to not try and take the test five times to get something that you think you are, but you're really not.

Dana Williams: [00:34:59] Yep. Good point. You've got them so well-trained. Your future coaches of America.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:35:05] They are there. I literally work with the best kids.

Dana Williams: [00:35:10] Oh my goodness. So, Carol Anne, is there anything else that we haven't asked them or talk to you about that you think is important for parents?

For educators?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:35:22] Yes. There is one and it, it kind of relates to a conversation of you guys, that we had on Tuesday. And I had asked you which one of your strengths do you think is misunderstood? What strengths do you have that you wish your teacher would understand. And you guys gave me some really fabulous answers.

Would you share some of those answers?

Bradley: [00:35:47] So one of the most obvious is competition. This was even said in one of the videos that we watched while we were taking notes on it. And a lot of people see that competition is something bad. It's something about you that. It's okay.

You don't have to be competitive all the time. It's not something bad, it's something that they want. And if you use it correctly and that's a great motivator and a great secondary drive that you can use to do better, it's all about self-improvement and always trying to work ahead and be better, or just be on par with other people and just be great.

It's not something that's holding you back. If anything, it's something that's pushing you forward because it's actually a really beneficial trait to have because when you have competition, when you're comparing yourself with other people, that's not something that's hurting me.

That's something that can make me understand that these people are really good and I want to be just like them, or I want to be better than them. And I can use other people as a slingshot to go ahead of them or something like that. It's something beneficial to have. There's nothing bad about it.

Sometimes it can be, but we're learning about all of our strengths and we know how to use them properly and how they affect us in our daily life. So I'm very happy that I have competition and it's always pretty prominent in other people. And it's just a great strength that happens to be misunderstood, but it's fine. There's nothing bad about it.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:36:58] Anybody else, cause you guys had really good answers for this.

Sage: [00:37:01] I would say that mine that are misunderstood is my consistency in my adaptability. Only because people say when consistency, they think you're on a routine 24 /7, but

no, my consistency, I use it as a balance. I balance myself of what I'm doing in my adaptability. If I were to go on a routine and then something were to happen, my adaptability would come in and help me. I would adapt to what I'm doing and where I'm going or what I'm doing. So I would say those are because that's people just think, "oh, you have to be on routine all the time." No, not always.

Dana Williams: [00:37:45] That's good that you know that about yourself. That's right.

Claire: [00:37:48] Could I share? I also have competition like Bradley, and I totally agree with him that it is often seen as negative as you're kind of using people as stepping stones to kind of get ahead. But for me, I kind of also see it because I am a very independently driven person.

I don't really use other people to motivate me to do better. I use myself, so say, I, I don't know when something, before I have to win the next thing, because I set a standard already and it's more of this setting my goals instead of thinking, "oh, this kid got a better score than me last time, so I need to do better than him this time."

And sometimes it can be that, but I would say that the independent side isn't really thought of very much. And often people use the kind of metaphor of sports and I don't play sports. I play golf and that's not really a person versus person sport. So I don't really think of the strength as a sports strength.

I think it can be applied in different ways. And also this one, I'm just going to say really quickly. Mrs. McGuire also asked us in the question, which one do you think is the most misunderstood? And I would also say deliberative for that because I feel like teachers and parents often expect you to make decisions pretty quickly.

Like, "we're going to dinner or you need to choose right now." And I need to think about it. So I think that it's often regarded as kind of slow thinking and kind of doubtful, like going back and forth, which I do. But I feel like it is very much a positive theme as well. It can be kind of said like, "oh, you're very slow.

You don't think of things quick enough," but that's only because I'm weighing all of the other options.

Dana Williams: [00:39:51] Yeah, the neat thing about deliberative is I had worked with somebody with deliberative and what I would use is his gift of deliberative to help me think through problems that I hadn't thought of. And, I knew that he needed time to think so I would say, "I know you need time to think," but I used the opportunity that he had deliberative.

And I love how you use it for yourself and tell your family about that. It's awesome. Awesome.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:40:18] educators need to know too, because we as teachers- and I'm going to kind of dis my own profession right here right now- is as educators, we want the kids, like, "I have a question who can answer it fast, come on, let's go.

Let's go. Let's go." We're keeping the class going cause we got a lesson plan and we got all these things to do. And we're forgetting that we have students in our classroom with high deliberative and analytical skills that just need a minute. Just, can I, let me think about it a second and then I'm going to give you an even better answer.

It's not that they can't give you a quick answer, but they're looking for a better answer. And so sometimes educators do need to pause for a minute and give our kids the opportunity to think of that better answer because you're going to get a much better answer if you give them time.

Dana Williams: [00:41:11] Absolutely. And I remember you telling us last week on Clubhouse, how you guys have brought in people to speak that had this talent.

Can you talk about that? Cause that was pretty powerful.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:41:22] Yeah. I'm going to have Claire. This is really a Claire story again, but Claire got her top five and was a little concerned because there were no relationship-building themes in her top five. And we had Claire and Iris work together and Iris is very high relationship-building themes.

So when we're comparing and contrasting the two girls, one is high relationship and one is high executing and we will kind of talk back and forth. And so Claire was concerned. Claire, you tell the story, it's better coming from the kid anyways. 

Claire: [00:41:56] So when I kind of was researching the strengths at first, I kind of noticed that, well, I'm mostly strategic thinking and executing, which I looked up the most frequent strengths and people.

And I saw that none of mine appeared in girls and women, which I was like, "okay, that's a little strange." And then I started thinking of myself, like, "am I really that cold?" Because you think of a stereotypical girl or woman and you think very nice and stuff. And I never really saw myself as this warm kind of welcoming person.

So I began to get the idea that I was cold, that I wasn't the most friendly, and that I mainly revolve around competition and just strategic thinking when I truly am not. I do consider other people's feelings. Although I think that logic is more important, it doesn't mean that I don't consider the other thing.

So I was a little worried that I come off as a cold person. So I asked Mrs. McGuire, if she could find any strengths coaches that were women that didn't have any relationship-building themes in their top five either. And she came back with I think there are three or four different coaches and some of them didn't have any relationship-building themes in their top five.

Some of them not in their top 10 and think there are even one or two without any in their top 20. And so after I realized, now that I'm in my top 20, I only actually have one relationship theme and it's like number 17 or something. And, but listening to these women talk about their like competitive and learner and stuff I could see,

oh yeah. Those can work too in a more relationship-building way, just because they're strategic doesn't mean they have to stay all thinking. You can consider other people's feelings, learn about other people, and kind of push yourself against others for competition. So it really helped me realize that just because I have strategic and competition and achieve, or all of these very person-versus-person kind of

hard thinking themes. That doesn't mean I'm a mean person. It just means that I consider thinking over other people's feelings, which I think I really benefited from.

Dana Williams: [00:44:37] Such intelligence so young. I know you need to start a whole new group called future coaches of America.

I mean, this is incredible.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:44:48] But it was amazing because, after our conversations of talking to these coaches, talking to Claire afterward, that's what leveraging your strengths is about. It's I don't have a relationship-building theme, but I have learner. So let's learn about people. Let's leverage what we have to mask it, to make it look like something else.

And these kids are becoming experts at doing that. It is you have to come see what's happening in California.

Dana Williams: [00:45:21] I'm going to come see you guys. And I love it because even when we launched this in a big company, some people like it. I was hearing some of my friends, I don't really understand it, so I just don't talk to them about it, but that's life.

Right. And so the fact that you've got each other to share and strengthen your strengths language around, and right now, you're in this amazing time with Ms. McGuire. I just, I think it's incredible. Futuristic is my number three. So I'm always thinking about the future.

So curious what you guys think you want to do with your talents now that you kinda know them in eighth grade is have any of you thought about that? 

Iris: [00:46:04] I have thought of what I wanted to do with my strengths. I've always had a heart for kids. I wanted to be a teacher.

So I think putting my strengths into being a teacher will help me because my strengths are very relationship helping strengths.

People's strengths too, which is with teaching. You have new people, new kids every year. So I think that's what I would use my strengths for in the future is to become a teacher.

Dana Williams: [00:46:37] That's great. Great. Okay. Claire, did you have,

Claire: [00:46:40] Okay, so with mine I think a lot of people expect with strategic and competition and stuff that I would be more of a math-science kind of numbers person. And while I am pretty good at math and science, I don't really show any interest in pursuing a career in either of those fields.

And I do think that if I had to, I would work well in either of those workplaces. But pretty much I would like to do something that I can take time to make my decisions, making clear paths and judgments before I make my choices. So I have a more overall success. I have more success overall, and I am very fascinated in English and different literature topics and literary devices.

I'm a writer and that's my most, that's the thing that I have learner that I am constantly learning new things about, so I can definitely see myself, maybe teaching stem, some literary devices and different things like that. I do write, but as I've been told, I can't only do writing cause I might not

be able to make a living off of just writing books. So I think that I would probably have something else to do with English in which I can use more planning and stuff. So, yeah, that's what I have to say.

Dana Williams: [00:48:23] It's fun. It's just like Ms. McGuire, you guys will probably have three or four different careers.

You're so talented. You will, you will bet just to know what areas give you energy and get you excited and get you. And your passion is, as you were talking about earlier, I think that's exciting. Bradley. Any thoughts for you?

Bradley: [00:48:41] Yeah, so I have intellectual as my number four strength, and people with intellectual are very keen on learning deeply about different topics.

So I've made the conscious decision in high school to not be taken an AP class and instead take two career pathway classes. I'm taking law and order and computer science. And I just I want to look into those pathways and see if they really apply it to me. That's why I'm taking two because I have a passion for both of those, but I'm just not entirely sure which one I want to do yet.

Knowing my strengths has made it pretty easy to narrow it down. There are a lot of jobs that I know I will absolutely not be doing.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:49:13] Tell her, tell her about your, with a job that you don't want to have for your first job,

Bradley: [00:49:18] Yeah. So I use the example of a tour guide.

If I were a tour guide, I would not. I don't care about other people's interests that much, like, "okay, do you want to go onto this ride?" Yeah. That's, that's all fun for you, but not for me. I don't really want to talk about people or things. It's not interest or anything. So I've decided to go more into numbers. Analytical is all about statistics and looking at numbers and stuff.

That's what I was thinking. Computer science or a lawyer is you have to look at a lot of things. I was thinking more like looking at taxes and stuff. Because my parents were also accountants.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:49:50] Sage, what would be your perfect first job?

Sage: [00:49:54] A tour guide.

Dana Williams: [00:49:58] There you go. I love it. I love how unique, right? You're all one in 34 million.

Right. So you're going to be unique.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:50:05] Iris, how do you look at your strengths in your, in your future?

Iris: [00:50:09] I suppose since my dad is a college advisor, we've talked about it a lot and I guess right now, as about which could change in two or four days, but I'm looking into business and medical and I don't want to be a doctor, I guess, but I want to be more like a psychiatrist or therapist talk about people's feelings and stuff like that.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:50:40] You would be fantastic, Iris, really, really good at that.

Dana Williams: [00:50:45] Really cool. I can't wait to come back in about. Six or seven years and see what y'all are up to as you're getting into college and starting your degree programs. And we can play this tape back. This is exactly what we do when we're coaching. We asked.

Okay. When were you were in junior high? Did you, were you a writer? Did you enjoy math? Did you? And they'll say yes. And now I'm an analyst or yes, I loved psychiatry. So now I'm a psychiatrist. So it's, it's, y'all are proving that out right now by even thinking about what you're interested in. So it's incredible.

Any last words of wisdom or anything you all would like to share that you didn't get to share today? With our amazing audience, I always like to ask the question of how you dominate your day to make a difference in the life of others. So love to hear just any last minute words of how, what you do to, to dominate your day each day.

I mean, you've been into strengths for a while. Ms. McGuire. So you have, you've been doing strengths for a long time, right? So what, how do you, how do you get up each day and say, okay, this is what I'm about today. And I'm going to make sure I'm using my strengths to dominate my day and help others. And what, what do you see with your achiever, learner, focus, positivity,

woo?

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:52:05] I think every day has the potential to be an amazing day and we get to choose. We choose whether we want circumstances to let us down or lift us up. We really do have that choice because I think my joy is my joy. It's mine to give away if I want to give it away and I choose to not give it away.

I choose to find the potential in every day and be grateful for it. And if I had to narrow it down to how do I dominate my day is just that find the potential in every day and be thankful for it.

Dana Williams: [00:52:43] Amazing. That's that's a great tip. Great. And being in your strengths every day, because you get that energy.

Yeah. So tell the listeners how they can find you, how they can get your books. What, where to, where to find that stuff.

Carol Anne McGuire: [00:52:59] They can find my website is rockyourstrengths.com they can contact me there. So I'm [email protected], but I have books, swag, and chotchkies for mugs.

I dunno, I have all kinds of stuff. I do. I will say one of the things that I have that are really special to me is dog tags. And I've made them for all of the kids. And I put, I put your top five on a dog tag and, and here's the thing is for my family before I even gave them their dog tag, I kept it on a key chain for me.

And every day I wrote something of one of those strengths in a journal for each one, for my husband, for my kids. And then at Christmas time I gave them their dog tag and the journal of how I saw it. And it was just reminder for me, a simple, lightweight reminder of how awesome. These people are and how precious they are to me.

And I have the same with my students. I see their strengths every single day on a sticky that I keep next to my next to my computer, because I want to be reminded of how amazing these people are. And I, and I am reminded, I literally, when I look up my, from my desk, the first thing that I have to see before I see is who's at my who's at the front counter

is these kids and how amazing they are. Wow.

Dana Williams: [00:54:24] Well, y'all have blessed my day today, and I know you're going to bless all the people that get to listen to you over the weeks and months to come. And I want to stay in contact with each of you cause you're pretty special. And I think you have a lot of, of a great value to bring to the world and to make a difference in the world.

So thank you for each of you for taking time today to be with us on Dominate Your Day podcast. We spend time every month with people like you that are out in this world, making a difference. And without you, we wouldn't all get to keep moving forward. So thank you for bringing that positivity. And for those that don't know, we have the strengths journal, which is a daily way of keeping up with your strengths and intentionally leading in your strengths

every day. I created it when I was using in the corporate world using strengths and I wanted to apply my strengths every day. And that is if you're interested in that we have at thestrengthsjournal.com and feel free to like us on your favorite podcast and share this with your friends. So we wish you guys the best come back and see us.

And I can't wait to keep in contact. So thank you again.