Stick To What You Know (Kid) - Crystal Washington

[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hey, everybody, and welcome to the worst advice I ever got. I'm your host, Sean Taylor, along with my producer, JB. And today, our guest is Crystal Washington. Crystal makes her living as a futurist who empowers everyday people to understand, embrace, and leverage the latest technology trends. She offers actionable insights to future proof your organization, ensuring you stay ahead of the curve. Crystal, thanks so much for talking with us today. [00:00:30] Speaker B: Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. [00:00:33] Speaker C: Well, on this show, we love to find out from people what's the worst advice they ever got. [00:00:39] Speaker B: Oh, man, I had so many pieces of bad advice over the years. I'll say that one that probably changed my life was when I was in corporate America, young, 20 something, and I said, hey, I have a feeling this social media thing is going to be big. Maybe you could let me set aside just a small amount of time just to figure out how we can leverage this with the marketing of the company. And my boss looked at me and he said, little kid, you're cute, and you make us a bleep load of money. And he didn't say bleep. He said, stick to what you know. [00:01:14] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness. There's three or four bad pieces of advice in that last sentence. Or two. First of all, calling you kid, but then stick to what you know what. [00:01:27] Speaker B: Dig to what you know. [00:01:30] Speaker C: How did you take that? [00:01:31] Speaker B: Oh, I was offended. I was super offended because I knew how he meant it. I think someone telling you, stick to what you know can mean different things depending on the person. But in this particular instance, he was basically saying, you're too stupid to figure out something else, or, you know, you obviously can do this thing. Don't complicate it, Ken. Keep it simple. You can't handle it. And so I kind of interpret that as him limiting my possibilities, because that's just a goofy piece of advice anyway. Stick to what you know. We should always be expanding. You can't have innovation if you stick to what you already know. [00:02:04] Speaker C: Did it have any lasting impact? Were you, like, set back for a while? I mean, talk about how that affected you in the days and weeks that. [00:02:13] Speaker B: Followed, something that marinated with me. And it ultimately changed the trajectory of my life because I knew that social media was going to be huge. Everything in me knew. And so I did something that was very unlike my character, but was very much like my generation. I'm a millennial, an old millennial, but I'm still a millennial. After stewing in my juices for a few weeks, I quit my job to start a digital marketing firm to show small business owners how they could leverage social media. So that advice just stuck in me because it was, if he had listened, I would have stayed the course in corporate and worked my way up. I was always going to be corporate vp of sales for a large hotel company, maybe Starwood Marionelle. And that one thing that he said set me off and it acted as this beautiful motivator. I'm someone who, I'm not an angry person. I'm actually pretty even keel, maybe even happy go lucky person. But when I do get angry, it motivates me to take positive action. Anger is probably one of the best motivators for me to get something done for myself on behalf of someone else. And so that bad piece of advice actually activated something in me, then boosted me into entrepreneurship. [00:03:32] Speaker C: Wow, that's, there's so much woven into that crystal. That's, that's amazing. So first of all, a couple of weeks to really just sort of be upset by it, but then it sets you into a course of action. But I want to revisit something you said. You said I was always going to be corporate America. Why is that? [00:03:53] Speaker B: That was just, you know, it's, I was kind of a strange kid, or I'm a different human, okay. I just, I'm built kind of certain way. So as a little kid, my parents, not that they didn't want to be involved, but I remember in elementary school telling them when it came to my schooling, lay off, let me control this. I've got this. So my whole childhood, I'd self directed my education. I'm the one who set up meetings with teachers. If I needed a parent to talk about something, I chose my classes. I made straight a's my whole life. And so my parents were like, well, I mean, she's doing fine, so I guess we give her freedom. I always knew I was going to go to college. I always knew I was going to be corporate business. And then when I got into college, I realized my affinity for sales and marketing. And my major was hotel and restaurant management because they're the ones that offered me a free scholarship. So that's how I chose them. And so I was going to be sales marketing, top vp of sales for one of the major hotel companies. I just, that was always a trajectory. I was right on the path for it. But that one piece of bad advice where I felt so limited, it kind of opened my eyes to so many other things around me that weren't working potentially. [00:05:05] Speaker D: You sort of knew right away that this was bad advice. Why do you think you knew that? [00:05:11] Speaker B: So I will say that as soon as I heard that advice from my boss, I did immediately know it was bad advice. And I think it's just because now the term growth mindset is a thing, and honestly, it's almost a corny thing. People overuse it. Right. But I knew sticking to what, you know was just dumb, like, viscerally. I knew it because it was devoid of learning. So I just. I knew that wasn't for me. [00:05:41] Speaker C: It's interesting. He said, stick to what you know, kid, kid, kid. Stick to what you know. JB's point that he just mentioned was, you knew right away it was bad advice, so you kind of did exactly what he said. I know that you're giving me horrible advice, and I know that I need to actually do the opposite. [00:06:03] Speaker B: Touche. And, you know, to be fair, while that was in the moment, I think horrible advice for me. And on that topic, there may be a few times in life where maybe that isn't bad advice. We all know people who are chronically bad decision makers. It's not a lot of the population, but all of us have that one family member, that if there's a bad decision to be made, they will find it and make it right and drag the rest of us with them. So I'm sure for those people, sticking to what you know and not venturing away from the rivers and the legs that you're used to might be a good idea. But I think for most people, it's limiting. And right now, and we live in a different world than when I was giving that bad advice. The rate of change is so quick that that is a recipe. That advice is a recipe for irrelevance. [00:06:54] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. [00:06:54] Speaker A: The rate of change will never be slower than it is right now. Right. [00:06:58] Speaker C: We've heard that said before, and if we don't actually pursue change, pursue some improvement to ourselves, like you said, seek learning. Seek to learn something maybe we don't know yet, we're going to miss out. The thing that really is different here from some of the other episodes that we've recorded on this is many people have gotten this bad advice, and it's actually slowed their timeline down to what they've become successful at. This bad advice actually was the impetus, the jumpstart. I needed to be bold and go forth and change and do something new. Why do you think for you, it was such a different impact than most people when they get bad advice, they just sort of spiral for a while? [00:07:49] Speaker B: Well, there might be a few things going on. Number one, I'm not really someone who takes unsolicited advice very much, period. Even as a kid. That's why my parents laid off on the school thing. Cause they know me. They knew. Okay, well, as long as she's making a's, we're just gonna let her do her thing. So, first off, that's. To be fair, I'm a little hard headed now, but ask for advice, I'm gonna tell you. So that's one. But two, I think that. I don't know, I just. It just struck a nerve. And I just instantly knew this was stupid. But also. And now that I'm thinking about it, it may have even represented something bigger. You know, here I was in corporate, which I still. I mean, I work with a lot of corporate companies. I have a lot of corporate clients that are amazing. But what I saw was what the rest of my life would be like with someone possibly telling me no to something that was amazing and could really help the company. Right? And I have some instances of that in the past, but I think it also represented. Wait. I'm always going to have someone that can slam a door in my face unnecessarily to the detriment of an organization. Right. It wasn't even just about my ego. It was just, no, this is going to be great. Wait, no. So it was bad advice. And it let me know that if I continued on the same course, I would keep running into this type of thing where someone said no because their vision was too small. [00:09:13] Speaker C: I think you were thinking of something very new, very innovative, very creative. That's not an environment to stick to what you know. That's an environment to dig deeper, try things. Trial and error. You've got to think about change all the time. You were smart enough to know the difference. I think a lot of people, though, get trapped there, don't you? [00:09:33] Speaker B: I do. But even in that example that you gave, where you have systems. Cause I'm a systems thinker, too. Even if you have a system, let's say, at a manufacturing plant, right? And working like, I mean, just. You've perfected it, right? Time breaks everything. So even that, at some point, there's gonna be a supply chain issue or materials issue or a labor issue. It's gonna have to be tweaked at some point in time. But humans, and maybe I know this now because this is my area of expertise. Humans are notoriously horrible at change because we hate it, we are afraid of it. And I think, you know, this is probably one of my better examples of coming face to face with it as an adult and me saying, whoa, wait a minute. This isn't gonna work. But I'm glad I didn't stick to what I know. [00:10:24] Speaker C: What's tried and true in the moment may not be tried and true weeks from now, months from now, or years from now. And sticking to what we know is got a shelf life. Let me ask you this. People probably seek advice from you now, right? And so what do you do when someone comes to you and says, crystal, can I get some advice from you on this topic? How do you approach that? [00:10:50] Speaker B: What's funny is I'm someone who notoriously doesn't give that much advice. Or when I do, I tend to present two sides. So, for instance, people that know my story are like, I'm thinking about quitting my job and starting a business. What's your advice, Crystal? I get bad a lot. And I'm, yeah, I bet these are people with kids and stuff. I was just me, you know? And I give this example. I say, well, there's a couple ways to look at this. I said, when I quit my job, I had about three months of savings before things were gonna go really left. Okay? So beat to the fire, I was thrown into the pool without knowing how to swim, and that's how I function well. My boyfriend, who's now my husband, he had quit his job as a banker to start his own business maybe six months before me. When I met him, he was living off of maybe 40% of his income. So the amount of money he had in savings without even touching 401k investments was insane. He could have been out of work for over a year, maybe even two, without it even causing stress. So I tell people these two, I'm like, it's a tale of two cities, okay? So, yeah, you might be tired of what's going on at work, and you might be thinking about doing it my way. Worked for me. But keep in mind, there's this other way that's less stressful. That worked really well for my husband. [00:12:06] Speaker C: I think you're wise to give people context to the advice, is what I think I hear you saying. For me, the environment and the context was a very easy path forward, a very easy decision. That's why I jumped so quickly. But a lot of people, when they're seeking advice, they may not necessarily yet have the complete grasp around the environment or around all the different contexts and the vantage points to look at. So I think it's very wise to help people dig into a better understanding of that. Okay, you're asking me for advice, but before I jump to conclusions, let's dig into some questions first. [00:12:46] Speaker B: I mean, what's your risk level? What's your risk tolerance level? Right. But I mean, there's, when it comes to a lot of things, or even my husband and I, we get along really great. Anyone who sees us for an extended period of time is like, oh, my gosh, y'all are magical. And this is how we are at home, too. It's not like in front of other people, like we. That's my guy. So when people ask for marriage advice, I tell them, you know, I only give one piece of marriage advice, and that is do not take marriage advice because people will just project onto you. I said, in fact, ignore me right now. I'm doing it to you. When it comes to advice, I'm kind. Unless it's literally a systems thing, what's the best way to get someone to respond to you on LinkedIn? What if I set up my email this way? I can give you that kind of technical, that kind of put things in order advice. But in terms of life advice in general, there's so few things they carry across the spectrum of individuals personalities, needs, and experiences. [00:13:42] Speaker D: Yeah, you're kind of saying that all advice, if it deals with anybody's personal life, is bad advice. [00:13:50] Speaker B: Here's what it is. It's not my advice to give. I'm not going to do it. Right. So I'm just saying I'm not going to touch it. You all figure out what works for you. I'm not touching that. [00:13:58] Speaker C: Yeah. There's an applicability. Right. That has to be considered. Right. This is an opinion which can be perceived as advice, but you've got to figure out how to apply it. And I'm not able to tell you how to apply it. I'm only able to give you my perspective. [00:14:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, at the end of the day, we know. I think we know. Hopefully, if we look at our situations, we're more likely to be able to draw the conclusions on where we should go than someone on the outside. I think we can't just necessarily think that because someone else believes something or does something a certain way that applies to us. [00:14:34] Speaker C: Well, I'm thankful that you received such horrible advice from your boss back in the day because it led you to the person you are today, which is an incredible leader in the business environment, somebody who thinks the way so few people think about the future and the change that's coming. And I just am so grateful to that person for giving you such horrible advice. [00:14:57] Speaker B: Well, thank you, and I'm honored, so honored to be on the show with you, JB. [00:15:02] Speaker A: Interestingly enough, the worst advice crystal got was immediately offensive, harmful. Like, she knew it right away. It's really one of the first examples, wasn't it? Most of our guests haven't known in the moment that it was terrible advice, but she knew right away. [00:15:21] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. It's actually back to one of our previous episodes with Lars Mins, who was talking about how things are either triggering or motivating. And she actually. It was kind of both. She, like, triggered, and that motivated her to. Right away. [00:15:35] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:15:35] Speaker A: She immediately shifted her behavior, and it changed the trajectory of her entire life. Like, I think she said, within a week or something. [00:15:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:41] Speaker D: She's like, well, I quit. [00:15:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny how, as bad as this advice was for her, she brings up that advice that she got kind of this stick to what you know, or stay in your lanes in some situations, it might not be a bad idea. [00:15:57] Speaker D: Yeah, I do actually really like when our guests do that, when they're like, look, this is me personally. Here's what I'm saying. Personally was so bad for me, and this is my personal story. And if you resonate with that, great. Um, that's what I think. It makes advice in general so tricky to give because you really have to know the person you're giving the advice to. And some people, that's great advice. Some people, this is bad advice. And that's why, you know, we've heard this over and over and over from our guests. Get to know the person before you give them advice, or you might end up on our podcast. The worst advice I ever got. [00:16:26] Speaker A: Yeah. It's probably the most common theme we're seeing in the learnings from all of this. [00:16:30] Speaker C: Worst advice. [00:16:31] Speaker A: One more thing that I. That I really wanted to emphasize from talking to her was she recognized that this was more than a just this moment matter for her. Like, she recognized this could be a continuing roadblock for her if she adopted this advice. And it was really unique for her to think of it in that perspective of, this isn't just a one moment in time thing. This could really hinder me for a long time. [00:16:55] Speaker D: Yeah. So important to think about. I always. I took away from it. The people don't quit jobs. They quit bosses. And that's really what ended up happening here is so if you're an employer, you know, watch how you talk to your people. They think they they remember it. [00:17:11] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. What you would hesitate to have is someone coming on the podcast and talking about how you were the worst advice they ever got. [00:17:21] Speaker D: Well, we'll probably have a nice little LinkedIn post about. Here's all the, here's the ten things to avoid of giving the worst advice. We have a lot of wisdom from season one here. [00:17:29] Speaker C: We do. We do. [00:17:30] Speaker A: And thanks to all of our listeners who have been faithful season one people to tune in if you like these episodes. You know, we bring this up every week, but please be sure to give us a five star rating. I know it can be hard sometimes in these podcast mediums to figure out how to give a five star rating, but when you do that, it just takes our podcast to another level. It attracts continued strong guests like Crystal, and we want to continue to bring that great material to you. So thanks again for listening to this week's episode. Tune in next week for another episode of the worst advice I ever got.