Episode #1085: In this episode of the Arete Coach Podcast, gain a new perspective on ‘choosing your cloud’ with guest Klyn Elsbury, a Motivational Keynote Speaker, Best-Selling Author, Executive Coach, and Sales Team Coach. During the conversation, we discuss Klyn's early years as a promising award-winning professional recruiter who then received the life-changing diagnosis of cystic fibrosis. Although Klyn has spent 70+ extended stays in the hospital, she has not let a dark cloud get in the way of her zest for life and love for learning about physical science, neuroscience, and ‘sales team management and motivation.' This episode and its powerful content proves that when life gives you lemons, you can make lemonade.
About Klyn Elsbury
Klyn Elsbury is a Motivational Keynote Speaker, Best-Selling Author, Executive Coach, and Sales Team Coach. She is also the Founder of MK Foundation, a consultancy dedicated to empowering teams to overcome adversity, respond to change, and maximize performance, all while discovering their own unique sense of purpose and greatness. Klyn has published two bestselling books titled I Am: The Untold Story of Success and Unstuck Yourself.
Using a blend of Klyn’s experience with cystic fibrosis and neuroscience research, she helps motivate others by increasing their mindfulness, happiness, and resilience—and improve their workplace recruitment, sales, staffing, and wellness efforts. Through her coaching, workshops, and keynotes on mindful leadership, improving focus, increasing creativity, and re-engaging teams, Klyn helps her clients achieve their full potential.
She has given keynotes and workshops for Entrepreneurs' Organization and Vistage. Her work has appeared in over 150 publications, including a primetime debut on the NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Along with her coaching, speaking, and writing, Klyn also serves on the board of directors for the Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation. With her powerful story and insight, Klyn’s journey battling cystic fibrosis paired with her use of neuroscience to help others succeed has made her a high-impact difference-maker in the lives of many.
Key highlights
Choosing coaching as a way to help others
Timestamp 02:00
When asked how Klyn’s feet led her to a “life passion of coaching,” Klyn makes a wise statement: “I think sometimes we are working so hard at what we think our vision is and what we think our dreams are that we forget to realize what we’re already building naturally. I didn’t ever set out to be a coach.” However, Klyn shared that people would ask her “do you do coaching?” frequently, so through a great “moment of insight” she decided to say yes to coaching. She started coaching to “help others” and now it is “one of the passions that” she loves to help others through.
The fight of a Lifetime Learner
Timestamp 11:06
After being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, Klyn never stopped learning. When asked, “what did you learn about yourself, or what have you learned about yourself that said ‘This may be my diagnosis, but I can’t let this define me’?”
Klyn shares a story of when she experienced a potentially lethal case of “antibiotic resistance.” After asking an online cystic fibrosis support group what they do with their time, being 6 months to approximately a year in the hospital, Klyn was jarred into action when being recommended to play video games. She explains that this statement “was such a trigger and a panic because I did not watch my mom work third shift to visit me in the hospital to grow up and play video games… Just because I was born with a disease didn’t mean that was what I had to settle for.”
In response to this experience, she launched herself into learning as much as she could. She “enrolled in every single sales seminar, recruiting seminar, and mindset development course” that she could find. She did this in hopes that one day she could “pull it all together and get [herself] out.” These learnings and trainings helped her start her business and share her insight with other people today.
Rebuilding and continuing to grow
Timestamp 20:18
To hone her craft and become the best public speaker, Klyn keeps a list of things she can do better after every speaking event. She shares that she will “destroy” her own content so she can “constantly” rebuild her speaking to be even better. For Klyn, feedback is a gift, even if “it doesn’t always feel like that.” She is always looking to better her speaking via her own review and feedback from others.
The bird and the branch
Timestamp 25:31
One of the personal mantras that guides Klyn’s life is “a bird sitting on a branch is never afraid of the branch breaking, for its trust is not on the branch but in her own wings.” She shares that “the power of vision” is so important to her and that if you take away “the power of a man’s vision, you take away essentially his reason for living.”
Motivating and defeating contentment
Timestamp 33:03
When asked “have you ever been able to get a salesperson to make more than they wanna make?” Klyn shares several insights. She states that she tends to “attract those people who wanna know what is that potential and how close can they get to it.” She explains that if a client is content with their sales and has no desire to grow, she won’t often coach them. For those wanting to grow, she seeks to understand the reasoning behind their desired income asking, “what is the dream?” She will ask what their “ideal day is” and encourage them to aim higher because “many times they’re aiming so low because they’ve forgotten what their own potential is, or how to leverage it, or what that next step up on the ladder is.” By asking these questions, Klyn helps her clients motivate themselves further than they dreamed before and defeat contentment.
What brings you joy and what frustrates you
Timestamp 39:16
Klyn shares that for her, “the meaning of life is to give life meaning” and that can be done in two ways: “you ask yourself what brings you joy and what’s frustrating you” Klyn explains that “you’ll find that one of the two of those answers gives you that internal…click.” She shares that what frustrates her the most is “people who have potential and they waste it or people who… are content with making whatever they make and have no ambition outside of it…” She uses this frustration as a motivating force in her speaking, coaching, consulting, and writing to help people “experience all the richness of life.”
Picking your cloud
Timestamp 44:34
A life lesson that Klyn values is “the concept of picking your cloud.” She explains that humans have 30,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day, but they don’t realize their “thoughts are passing like clouds in the sky.” Because of this, they will allow negative thoughts to stay in their mind longer, essentially picking the wrong clouds to frame their perspective with. Klyn explains that people can “find another cloud” and pick a more positive cloud or thought to better their health, relationships, well-being, and career.
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