I am back for this week’s Transform You! Women’s History Month Series, which features women business owners. You will hear their stories, triumphs, struggles, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. Today in the guest chair is Lettie Jo Bailey-Johnson, and she’s sharing how her love for community led to The John Maxwell Team.
Who is Lettie Jo Bailey-Johnson?
Lettie Jo Bailey-Johnson is the CEO/Founder of Gifted By Design Leadership & Consulting, LLC. GBD is a holistic personal and professional development practice in connecting, consulting, counseling, and coaching people and organizations. Lettie holds over 20+ years of experience in transforming organizations and people across sectors.
As a John Maxwell Certified Coach, Teacher, Trainer, and Speaker, she offers workshops, team building, seminars, keynote speaking, and coaching, aiding your personal and professional growth. Also being a licensed diversity, equity, and inclusion facilitator, she uses her skills in leadership development, strategic planning, and communication methods to assist people and organizations in maximizing their capacity and reaching their full potential.
Lettie also voluntarily serves on several Boards, both locally and nationally. To name a few, NAWBO, National SCORE, LSHRM, and recently been named to the Bingham Fellowship with Leadership Louisville.
Lettie’s “why” is her Community and she believes in the potential and gifts of people and organizations. Lettie is most proud of marriage to her Husband, Robert of 18 years.
Today, we are going to talk about some of the lessons she’s learned along her journey, along with her triumphs. Plus, this interview is extra special because she is my godsister. Now, let’s get to it!
1. DN: Tell us about the teenage Lettie. What was she like?
LJ: Teenage Lettie has always been very business minded, very focused, and leader-driven. God created me to be a leader and it shows up on every personality assessment that I’ve ever taken. It shows up in my PI (Predictive Index). I am a leader and I think, in my early years growing up, people just thought I was bossy. Really, I am a strategic thinker. I have always been about outcome.
Growing up, I thought that I was going to become a criminal attorney and God had other plans. When I got to the University of Louisville, I was an administrator for U of L’s Black Diamond Choir, which is a gospel choir. My faith is what I stand on and it’s the foundation of who I am. I’ve been routed and reared in that.
For me, going through that discovery process in terms of my college and teenage years, it really helped me to understand who I was in God. I knew I wanted to help people but just didn’t really know how. I thought maybe it was through the legal system. I’m not really sure. You know we grew up watching Matlock and Perry Mason, so honestly I think that was my inspiration, and just really leaning into my skill set and later supervising my peers. Then as a student, I ended up being a full time employee for the University of Louisville. I realized that was my skill set, you know, leadership, administration, and organization. I think I was reared in a way that really helped me to understand who I was in God and then later did the flesh of my skill set really hone in and begin to excel.
It’s interesting to me because I thought I was going to be a criminal attorney and I think it’s important to state that your grandmother was my godmother, and when I think about the root of who I am and the core of who I am in terms of community and my faith, my grandmother, and your grandmother both played a major piece in shaping and forming that. I remember early on when I shared with your grandmother that I was going to be a criminal attorney, to which she said, “absolutely, if that’s what you desire, you will be that, however though, you will be rooted in your faith.”
So for me to move from my teenage years, being developed and being concentrated on what I “thought” I knew about me and what I “thought” I was going to do, I will never forget the day I took that turn and decided I was not going to go to law school and I was going to pursue an additional degree. I thought that additional degree was going to lead me into this awakening, which it did. My first degree is in justice administration and my second degree is in communications.
The reason why I think I went after a second bachelor’s degree was because I just wasn’t ready to commit to becoming a criminal attorney and the exposure of my skill set at the university through Black Diamond as an administrator. So again, the reaffirmation of my faith, which naturally graduated me into this perspective of my role, serving for 18 years at a megachurch.
2. DN: Tell us a little about the journey to Becoming Gifted By Design. What inspired your concept and idea of it all coming together in it’s beginning stages?
LJ: God inspired my concept. I have a lot of defining moments. I will never forget, I was serving as the Human Resource Director for St. Stephen Church and people would call the church all the time and say, “you guys are growing and you’re doing some amazing innovative things, so how can we learn from you all?” So our church administrator would always send people to me. She would tell them, “you need to talk to Lettie because she’s our secret sauce. She’s our doer.” They used to call me those two things because they knew I was going to get it done.
I’ll never forget, I came home one day and asked my husband, “what do you think about me doing consulting work for churches?” Then he said, “tell me more!” He was very intrigued immediately and that is one thing I can appreciate because Rob has always been very supportive. I told him that it’s interesting that so many people ask me about church growth, administration, how to clean up their departments, or grow their church so I really felt like it was something I could do.
Shortly after that I was invited to a conference and I ended up speaking at that conference about church growth and discipleship. When I finished, so many people came up to me asking questions and asking if they could reach out to me so of course I said, “sure!” So I went back to my role as Human Resource Director at St. Stephen and was just doing my work. Shortly after that I ended up being invited to a private meeting with John Maxwell. This is how God works. I went and heard him speak.
Then afterward, there were a group of church leaders that were invited specifically to sit around the conference room table to meet with and talk to him. So, he started talking about how he was building his legacy and wanted to make an impact. He talked about Louisville, and how although he never Pastored here, he did Pastor in Southern Indiana at one point and how he really wanted to take his curriculum and really help grow individuals and businesses.
At this time, he already had the John Maxwell Company. He had foundations, he’s a prolific author and his number one best seller was The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. He started talking about this concept of wanting to really pass on his legacy and his name and empower people. He was kind of just vetting the room around this concept of starting a coaching company. As he was talking about it, I said, “Oooo I want to do that.”
At the time, I was in a national leadership program, I was doing work for the University of Louisville and doing research for them. I was knee deep doing the work for St. Stephen and work in our community so I didn’t really have the capacity at the time. I remember getting up from the table and asking John Maxwell to sign my bible, then when I was walking out of the room I asked my church administrator what she thought about me doing that and she said, “Yeah I can see you doing that but when would you have time because you just don’t have a lot of time nor capacity.” Which I agreed with her, so I just kind of let it go.
Then, shortly afterward I ended up doing some additional leadership work with this national leadership program I was in called Future Leaders of America and in that program I really began to discover how passionate I was about leadership. Within the course of that, I decided I really wanted to work with and empower leaders because I was already doing it.
Not long after, a close friend of mine who is a Pastor in Lexington, called me and asked me if I would be willing to come and help him with his church. At the time, he was serving a church in Mississippi. I said yes to the offer so he flew me in, I started teaching, training, and working with the staff. I started building people up and it was a success. I came back and told my husband, “I can do this. It’s going to be fun. This will be good. We’re gonna do this! I don’t know when I’m going to have time to do this but I’m going to do it.”
Then slowly but surely, as I was getting more confident in who I was, as a speaker, trainer, and consultant, plus still getting work from the place I worked for, they would send everybody to me. So I got to work with Southeast Christian and some really impactful churches doing great work that I was honored to be able to go and ask them, “how can I add value to what you’re doing?” That really built my confidence, however I wasn’t quite ready yet to do it full time. I was still in this training ground of training, learning, and developing.
So, Dr. Kevin Cosby at St. Stephen Church (also the President of Simmons College) asked me to come help him build over at Simmons College and that’s where the journey really began to take off and I realized I had a skillset that was very unique and it was my gift of administration and being able to help people see their gaps and then helping them to fill those gaps. That’s what really pushed me and helped me blossom into what you now know as Gifted By Design.
3. DN: What would you consider to be your top 3 strengths?
LJ: Communication, curiosity, maximizer. I’m very resourceful. When I think about my top 5 in terms of Strengths Finder, I think of me maximizing my capacity and really being able to help other people maximize their capacity too. I coach hundreds of people and the beauty of my design in terms of being a coach and consultant is that organizations and people may not necessarily see their full potential and capacity and I can see a whole dream for an individual. I believe in them and it is certainly a gift. It’s a gift to say, “Oh you don’t know what to do? I can help you!” Then I’m able to bring them to this level of awareness and really help them explore their full potential so yes it’s a gift and sometimes it gets me in trouble.
4. DN: Do you find a thin line working with people you already know? Like do you feel it’s sometimes just too close of a person to work with or are you willing to work with them regardless?
LJ: I’m willing to do it regardless. I’m so much about values-based leadership. What that means is, what you see is what you get and what you get, is what you see. You and I have a very close relationship and just how I show up with you is also how I show up in the marketplace. That’s the gift. For me, I can’t be anybody else but me. That’s the authenticity and I feel like that’s the design and that’s what people are attracted to. I show up in my faith in that way, but I also show up in my relationships.
I actually like being able to add value to people who are in close proximity to me because it reaffirms that I am a person of integrity. I see them for who they are and I’m going to treat our relationship as such. There is this boundary as such that I’m not “on” 24 hours a day. What you have to know is that when I challenge you or push you, that’s who I am because I care. I’m very passionate about us all growing into what God has designed us to be and to become, not only in our roles, but at the very essence of who we are. So, that doesn’t phase me not one bit. I can coach you today and then tomorrow we can be out celebrating and having a good time.
5. DN: What would you consider to be the main difference between people who have failed in your field and those who have succeeded?
LJ: The main difference is chasing the dollar. This work, my work, is about people. Specifically, becoming an entrepreneur, you can’t focus on the money because you will do more harm to yourself chasing a dollar rather than chasing the work. It’s about understanding and knowing who you are in this process. Entrepreneurship is a journey and it does not happen overnight. You have to be willing and open to learn and grow. Oftentimes I use the hashtag #giftedtogrow because growth is the difference maker between the haves and the have nots.
If you’re not willing to grow then that means you have paralyzed yourself, your momentum, and the people you are meant to pour into. Entrepreneurship is about growth.
Lettie Jo Bailey-Johnson
If I didn’t say yes and commit to the John Maxwell Team when I did, we wouldn’t be sitting here today. Me showing up was based off somebody else’s significance. I had been doing work for Dr. Cosby at Simmon’s College and was preparing to either transition back over to the church side of things, and just didn’t really know what was next. I knew there were some gaps in our community that needed to be filled but didn’t really know how. Rooted in my faith, I knew God was up to something but I did not know what it was.
Sheri Riley had written a book called Exponential Living, and she came to Louisville KY because Sadiqa Reynolds of the Louisville Urban League invited her for a book signing. I showed up to the book signing at the U Club on U of L’s campus. I had went to campus that day for something I had to do for Simmons. I was kind of tired and didn’t know if I felt like going but for some reason, the Holy Spirit was drawing on me. Rob and I were supposed to go to dinner with a couple that night and I literally had 45 minutes. I pulled up to the U club and walked in. She starts telling her testimony and started talking about the John Maxwell Team.
There was another mentor sitting in front of me, Rev. Dianne Brown and she turned around and looked at me and said, “I’m not sure what your next is but your next is now!” I looked at her and I hadn’t shared anything with her about what I had been thinking.
They had taken a break, so I got up and went and introduced myself to Sheri Riley. I told her I wanted to learn more about her. She had shared her testimony about how at one point she lived in Louisville, went to St. Stephen, knows Dr. Cosby and come to find out, my other godsister is her sorority sister. So, in that ten minutes, we had an immediate connection. She told me to give her a call because she wanted to talk to me a little more. Next thing you know, I had bought into the John Maxwell Team and here I sit.
If I wasn’t alert and if I wasn’t aware, I could have very well missed what now has become not only a gift to me, but a gift to the masses.
6. DN: What has been your most important experience as a Coach and Consultant, and the impact that you had as a result of that experience?
LJ: What pops in my head are the aha’s. What I mean by that is, as a Coach, people reach out to me. Let me preface this by saying, my influence was already lifted in our community but I had to really catch up to that. We have not arrived. We are still working toward becoming a household name, but I will say that because I have been on the front lines of our community, literally since we were children, all the way until now, I had to learn a lot in terms of my acceleration and what it really means to be a coach, and a woman, all while still maintaining my influence, my brand, who I am, and who I’ve been raised to be, because I have so many various impacts through community.
When I think about experiences, I think about when we decided we were going to expand and I was going to become a full time entrepreneur and we needed office space. Initially I was really hesitant. With my personality, I am an influencer, I’m fast-paced, but there are some things that I am just slow footed on and that’s because the dominant personality in me is wondering what this outcome is really going to look like.
I remember my husband, who is my COO, saying, “Listen, you’ve got to be consistent. We’ve got to have an office space, we have to increase the budget and if we build it, they will come.” I was already doing work and my capacity transitioned when I bought into the John Maxwell Team because I realized that not only am I taking on church clients, I’m taking on community, all of the sectors. We are literally in all of the sectors doing major work. For me, the first thing that I wanted to do was make sure that I was grounded in the work that I was doing. So, the coaching component was really important for me. We put it out there and I was getting clients out the woodwork. It was going so fast that I could not keep up.
It was going fast because of those aha moments our clients were having. The impactful moments that were happening, by bringing them into our space and helping them feel comfortable while being real casual, yet asking challenging questions that led them to great impact. We’ve had people to start businesses, non-profits, write books, and go global. When you have that type of impact in people’s lives, that’s serious business. That’s stewardship for me and I don’t take that for granted nor lightly.
So grounding myself and applying the discipline along with the consistency of understanding that our clients need me to grow, means I’ve got to make space for that. Every day, in my practices and what I do on a day-to-day basis. I had to scale back on doing so many meetings. When your influence and skillset is out there, people will come. They would come and ask me to do all types of things like plan events but I had to realize I didn’t have the capacity to do all those things.
Understanding what is my well house and understanding what is my responsibility to create access for somebody else is important. Because if I continue to do that work, the person who is really pursuing that work will never have the opportunity if I’m standing in the way. That even goes for people that are in the same field as me. I bought into the John Maxwell Team and there are 45,000 members around the world so when you think about that, you may wonder, “Is there space for me?” Absolutely, there is space for you.
“Your experience is not my experience and my experience is not your experience.” We have to be mindful of that. I have never had a crabs in a bucket mentality. If I win, you best believe that I’m going to pull you up with me because that is what it’s truly about in terms of building a life of significance.
7. DN: What has been your biggest mistake in what you do and what did you learn from it?
LJ: Not trusting my intuition. It’s so interesting because I feel like everything is spiritually connected for me. I remember back when I decided to go full time and really pursue what I felt like my skill set was and what I was supposed to be doing. After losing My great Aunt, who was my best friend after my godmother, in 2016, it really caused me to do some reflection. She used to say to me all the time, “Trust your intuition. God’s got you and you don’t have to worry about your greatness or your destiny. You are destined to be gifted. You are destined to be great.”
When you start pursuing entrepreneurship, it’s hard. That self doubt settles in and you begin to ask yourself if people believe in you or if you have anything to offer. I have had a successful career my entire life and even after running and transforming organizations, still the greatest bug I like to say is the A.N.T (Any Negative Thought). There are times where I may get too far into the trenches of doing the work and I have to pull myself out and remind myself to condition myself around my faith and my practices and trust that I’m doing the work so therefore I can trust my intuition. I think that many women, because of systemic racism and systemic oppression, struggle with understanding that they are the secret sauce, they do provide value, and if we don’t manage our thinking, it can really stink.
For example, in our office space, we joined forces with a co-working space and I’m one of those people that will say in a heartbeat, “my husband was right.” I’m glad I was wise enough to say, trust him and trust the process. As a result, great things have definitely arisen from it.
We’ve got to fail forward. Every opportunity is a growth opportunity, whether it negatively impacts you or not, but what can you learn from that and how has that shifted your mindset? How has that really helped you change your perspective? Gifted by Design is our name but if I have to come up with another organization it would be Gifted to Grow because it really is about growth.
8. DN: If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out on their journey of entrepreneurship, what would it be?
LJ: Grow! Get a coach, grow, get a book, and study. Work on getting good and don’t expect the goods to automatically come to you. Discover yourself in your growth. Discover your gifts in your growth. A lot of people say, “I want to help people.” Then I’ll say, “Okay, how do you want to help people? What do you have to offer people?”
You’ve got to grow and trust the process. When you do that, the process will work itself out.
Lettie jo bailey-johnson
9. DN: Who has been your biggest inspiration?
LJ: My grandmother, because of the totality of who I am and my association with community. My grandmother is my greatest influence. Whoever would have thought that her volunteering for the foster grandparent’s association many many many years ago would have impacted me in a way where I know without a shadow of a doubt, the reason why we exist to this day, unapologetically, is because of community. She modeled that. She served, and had an open door. I often talk about her living smack in the middle of 34th and Broadway and having an open door and always having food on the stove and inviting all people in, and having a heart to serve people.
10. DN: Tell us about the work you do with The John Maxwell Team.
LJ: Our company, Gifted by Design, we connect, consult, coach, and counsel. There are four pillars to us and we do it through those two buckets of leadership (justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion). That puts us in spaces with people but it also puts us in a lot of spaces with organizations and businesses. I have built a team now. We started an affiliate program so I now have business partners who do this work alongside me. Each of us has our areas of expertise. I sit as the leadership coach, the behavioral coach, and I’m licensed in diversity, equity, and inclusion. So, I’m coaching and counseling organizations around that.
We also have a lead Strategic Consultant who sits on our team, who really helps in terms of strategic planning and capacity building. She’s our technologist and she’s really helping to lay out the plans for individuals or organizations.
The other two people on our team, one being a therapist name Tomeika, who counsels people from racial traumas, all the way to grief. She’s a holistic therapist. We also have a licensed social worker who is on our team. The reason why we have those four positions particularly is because we take a holistic approach. Gifted by Design by itself is me, coaching, training, and all of that. But then we also have the capacity to support individuals in terms of community connections. For example, if you haven’t had any food, we’re going to link you with some organizations that are a food pantry. If you need a job, we are going to connect you to organizations who are hiring. That is the beauty about what we do. We’re very hands on, whether you come to us as an individual or as a company.
Our goal is to support and serve you through coaching, counseling, connecting, and consulting and we do that so that you can reach your full potential. When you have access to all of those services, we know you’ll enter into a growth journey and you’ll discover your gifts, you’ll discover your capacity, and your value-add to the greater community.
Transform You! Round
DN: What book are you currently reading?
LJ: Change Your World by John Maxwell and I’m hosting “Transformational Tables” which is free of charge, for anyone interested. This is about values-based leadership and it’s really about looking at your values and really lifting them up and talking about them, and creating an accountability group to have conversations.
DN: What has been your best business purchase?
LJ: My laptop.
DN: What is your go-to entrepreneurial resource?
LJ: All of my John Maxwell curriculum.
DN: What are you working on now and what’s coming up next for you?
LJ: Right now, I’m working on going on vacation because I’ve got to take care of me. From a business perspective, we are leading so many organizations through equity audits, coaching one on one, DISC personality assessments, which I feel like I’ve done a number of those today. When we get back from vacation, we are completely thrown into strategic planning and equity audits which takes a lot of our time because we’re auditing organizations but we’re also training and developing leaders of that organization. So that process can sometimes be eight weeks.
DN: Where can people find you and your company online?
LJ:
Online: Gifted By Design
Facebook: Gifted By Design or Lettie Johnson
Instagram: Gifted By Design
Twitter: Gifted By Design
Thank you so much Lettie for chatting with me today. It has been a pleasure talking to you!
To my readers, I wanted to include some quick takeaways from today’s conversation and some lessons you can even tweet out or share on Facebook.
Takeaway #1 – Embrace your journey. Learn from it so you can tap into your gifts and skillsets.
Takeaway #2 – Always listen to your intuition.
Takeaway #3 – Grow! Get a coach, get a book, and study. Work on getting good and discover yourself in your growth.
Do you know a woman in business that you would like to see in one of my upcoming Transform You! Series Interviews? Nominate them here.
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