Audio Transcript
Brandon Miller (00:00.46)
Hello and welcome to season two of the Strengths Whisperer Coach to Coach. And today we are talking about woo. I want to welcome my special guest today, Sarah Collins of CollinsCareerCoaching .com. And she is all things woo. And you’re going to feel it. You’re going to know it. You’re going to sense it because you just can’t with this one. If you want to find Sarah, I’m going to put this out there right now. Instagram for all you grammar.
Sarah Collins (00:19.002)
You
Brandon Miller (00:28.748)
Folks, you like your gram at Sarah Coach Collins on Instagram. She and her team do development around strengths based approach to leadership for companies and teams, small to mid size. And her team does some individual coaching for people in the realm of career. Sarah, welcome to Coach to Coach.
Sarah Collins (00:50.866)
Thanks, Brandon. I’m so excited to be here today.
Brandon Miller (00:54.252)
All right, so let’s just dive right into woo. Like come on now, woo woo is like everybody’s like, what’s a woo? When you walk in the room, like what does that mean? So come on, tell us from the first hand, like you got woo on your CliftonStrengths and you were like, what does this mean about me? And how’d that go?
Sarah Collins (00:57.714)
Woo!
Sarah Collins (01:04.082)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (01:12.978)
What? Well, you know, woo is the winning others over. It’s funny because before I ever took this assessment, I met someone at a job and they called me the woo girl. And so I just thought it meant like woo! Because it sort of emanates from my personalities. It just, you can’t lock woo in a room. I will tell you though, I first took this assessment when I went to grad school. I went to grad school for higher education student affairs.
I had been working in admissions. I thought that’s why I wanted to do the rest of my life. I went to school at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where the Glyphton strengths started. And so they gave us the assessment. Yes, exactly. The first place, Don Clifton got his ideas there, right? And so when I took the assessment though, I was kind of embarrassed because woo, like many of my strengths are very relationship driven, influencing theme dominant.
Brandon Miller (01:50.796)
Like the birth, like the cradle. You were there at the cradle of CliftonStrengths.
Sarah Collins (02:10.226)
And I was in graduate school, you know, so everyone was like strategic thinking and executing. And I thought, my gosh, I am so embarrassed. I feel like I should be a kindergarten teacher or a party planner because I was always saying, hey, after class, you should come to my house and we should study over drinks. Or do you think we should have a Christmas party? I thought, my gosh, no one is ever going to take me seriously here in this ultra conservative, you know, academia world.
Brandon Miller (02:37.964)
The woo challenge, right? We can say the woo, the struggle is real. Like how much woo is enough? Like how much do I bring and show up with? So tell us about today’s version. Like here you are, you feel like someone who has embraced their woo. Like I am woo, hear me roar. Like here it is. So talk to us about it.
Sarah Collins (02:47.122)
You
Sarah Collins (02:55.89)
Yeah!
Well, it’s so funny because I feel like woo can be misleading. I meet a lot of people in this profession. I do a lot of coaching and I get people who initially say, I don’t trust woos, those woo people. And I think that’s because they have the image in their mind of the politician who’s just saying what everyone wants to hear, shaking hand, kissing babies, sort of like placating people to get what they want.
And while of course there is a version of woo that can look like that, my woo is much
It’s more comfortable in a situation where I know what’s happening. So for instance, I am an outgoing person, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel nervous walking into a room I’ve never met anyone before. Now, once I get in the room, my woo sort of takes over and I actually think about it almost as another personality. Like I’ll sit in my car before an event sometimes if I don’t know anyone and I’m a participant.
Now, if I’m a leader or I’m facilitating, that’s different. My woo says, okay, we’re here to play. But if I go to a networking event as a participant, I can sit in the car and go, I’m feeling a little nervous. And I just sort of have to pep talk myself like, don’t worry, your woo will take over. And I can get in there and I’m not going to come off though, super hot. I’m not going to walk in and say, Hey everybody, I’m going to walk in and read the room, right? Because I want to win others over being ultra social and very
Sarah Collins (04:30.532)
loud is not always the way to win people over. So I’m gonna kind of come in slow with people, get to know people, talk to them, ask questions, and then I see my openings.
It sounds a little bit more manipulative than it is. But it’s you know, it’s happy it’s taught it’s being able to find common ground with people. And I’m really good with people to say, what about this food? Where did you get those shoes? I find the easiest common denominator to get an opening to start to fill people out to see how can I talk to them? How can I learn about them? How can we bring this?
you know, woo from me to make them feel more comfortable so I have a friend here and that they have a friend here and we can work together in that way.
Brandon Miller (05:19.852)
Yeah, I want to talk about if we come to the bedrock of a woo, right? So let’s bedrock this for people as they’re listening today. So friendly, collects friendships, meets new people easily, comfortable with strangers, great conversation starter, warm. I would add excellent networker, has the ability to break the ice, has the ability to win.
Because you hear it in term, win others over. So this gravitas to pull people to their side. So highly persuasive strength. Some would say in the realm of cells, that woo has this ability to draw people over or draw people out. So when you hear some of that bedrock, when we say, what is a woo? And you start to hear some of those terms. I’m curious for someone with this as a strength and someone who’s learned to realize that strength, to develop that strength. And now,
You’re even getting into the intentional, hey, don’t worry, Sarah, woo’s about to show up. Like you’re counting on woo. You’re counting on what these essentially words represent, which are recurring patterns. The pattern that we think, feel or behave, often untaught and unlearned. So you’re saying, hey, I’m feeling nervous. No fear, Sarah, woo’s coming to play. You’re gonna be good. This is gonna go great. So let’s build on that bedrock. What do you hear there? How do you relate to those?
Sarah Collins (06:46.098)
Yeah, I mean, I think they’re all relatable. It is one of those strengths that it’s an influencing theme. So the other thing about Woo is it takes other people to turn on. And so when in a situation,
where you’re in, whether it’s people that you work with regularly or new situation networking, that woo is, it’s always listening and thinking about the other person. And it’s thinking, how can I connect with these people? How can I build a bridge? How can I make people more comfortable? It’s, it’s a really fascinating theme.
for people who have it. And it is one that when people don’t have it, they either say, I wish I did, or I’m glad I don’t.
Brandon Miller (07:41.612)
Okay, so here’s here’s where we uncover Brandon’s reality so my wife Is a number one woo, and so we are very early adopters of CliftonStrengths We learned it back in 03 so her very first CliftonStrengths assessment number one woo her last CliftonStrengths assessment 15 years later number one woo and anytime between I think three times she’s taken it now my wife is a real estate agent so some would say You know ta -da like did the
Did the strength find the career, the career find the strength? Either way, it’s like a perfect match. Like put her around people. And here are some things I would say about Annalyn, and I’m curious how you would relate to some of these as someone also high in the womb. So I mentioned the excellent networker. That is the core of her entire business is people who know people who know people. And she’s so good at meeting them, archiving them, remembering names.
Connecting who they knew with other people who they know like it’s amazing. Also, she Does a great job of being engaging with people like she doesn’t mind If we’re in a situation, she cracks the ice she breaks in she’ll she’ll help connect people she’s energized by others so being with people to my wife is like, I’m so like this brings me energy other strengths. They got a retreat or pull back or be right like to her
Let’s say we go on a vacation and we’re planning what we’re doing. My wife’s itineraries are kind of ridiculous. Like I’m like, are we seriously gonna do all these things? And she’s like, well, why wouldn’t we? Like we could be here, we could be here, we’re gonna see all these things, all these people. We get to culture, all of that. And then I would say my wife’s the life of the party. Like if we go somewhere, like the fun has arrived. Like that’s Anna Lynn. That’s who she is, it’s how she relates.
And I think you said it really well. It’s just knowing when, when, which version of that to bring out, like which version. So curious for you, you know, your version of it, what you might add to that list, take from that list. Talk to us about yours a little bit more.
Sarah Collins (09:49.714)
Yeah, you know, obviously a lot of similarities. I think one of the things that’s really interesting and really brought more awareness around my woo is during the pandemic, I had little kids. I’m talking, I had twins that were about a year old and I had a son that was 18 months older than them. And the world sort of shut down. And so I was already sort of locked in my house with all these babies.
Brandon Miller (10:11.308)
Ha ha.
Sarah Collins (10:17.906)
three kids under two, and we weren’t going anywhere anyways, because everyone was trying to figure out what was happening. And so I had two days a week where I was working on my business, because my business started part -time while I had all my children. And then at three days, I was home with the kids and then two weekend days. And so that’s my whole world was that. And I normally vibe high.
I have high positivity, high woo, high communication. I just am a happy -go -lucky person. And I was noticing, I was sleeping a lot, I was really grumpy, I just felt no energy. And it went on for a while, and I just had this epiphany one day where I said, I think I’m depressed.
And I told my husband the morning I was like, I think I am going through a bout of depression right now. I don’t know what to do. This is not an experience that I’ve had very much in my life. And he was great. He said, okay, what can we do? And I was like, I don’t see people. I don’t see friends. I’m not around anyone right now.
And so he said, you know, you can have Friday nights, every Friday night can be your night. Now for all you parents out there, I said, well, I can’t do that because of Saturday morning. I got to get up with these kids Saturday morning. And he said, don’t worry, I’ll take Saturday morning too. So, you know, bless him. I started going out on Friday nights, you know, at first it started as like Zoom book clubs, cause we’re like middle pandemic.
But it just as you know, things went on, I was able to have dinner with a friend and I was feeding my woo and I talked to clients about that all the time. Woo has to eat and for woo to eat, it has to be with people. Woo cannot eat at my house. All the people at my house, I know them too well. It does not.
Sarah Collins (12:02.61)
feed WOO. WOO has to go out and eat. And so I realized if I am not using that strength, if I’m not allowed to be with, whether it’s my friends or new people, social situations, even being in a restaurant with a bunch of people I don’t know, I actually will tell people if I am having a low day, I sometimes will go to the mall and walk around.
because I’m alone, but I’m with people. Like just the vibrations of other people brings me back to life a little bit. And so it was that experience during the pandemic of feeling the lack of woo that really made me realize how important it was to be able to engage with that strength because it…
It literally like creates who I am. And I feel if I am in now, you know, so much of my work is facilitating for groups or talking to groups of people. It feeds that woo so much being able to be in a front of a group of strangers. I know from so many people that public speaking is like their worst fear.
It makes me feel alive and I tell people, I don’t do drugs, but I think that this is what it’s like to be high because if I am up there wooing a group of people and I can tell they’re laughing and they’re engaged and the jokes are hitting, it’s like I’ve blacked out and I feel so high. I can’t sleep at night, even if it was a 10 a engagement, because I just feel like, wow, something has activated in me that just is this constant buzz.
Brandon Miller (13:34.284)
That’s great. So woo has to eat friends. If you’re listening today and you are a woo, gotta be fed. If you’re coaching a woo, there you go. That’s something that can really help you bring some understanding or if you have a woo on the team and you’re finding that that woo might be a little bit much, it simply might be hungry. It needs a space. It needs an outlet. Today we’re talking to Sarah Collins, CollinsCareerCoaching .com at
Sarah Coach Collins on Instagram. And we’re here today talking about woo. Sometimes we feel the need to win others over as we describe this. Woo in and of itself though is a word that has a definition of persuasion, bringing people over to our side. And so I’d be really interested to hear a little bit about the power of woo because you mentioned it kind of at the start, like woo can get a bad rap because it is powerful.
It can move people to a position. It can quickly bring people to like us, trust us, want to work with us. Certainly someone in politics listening today, woo on. It’s a great tool to have if you’re in politics, but it’s also a great tool to have if you’re working in sales or you’re working on a team or you’re in a space where you’re teaching or speaking for a living.
Sarah Collins (14:32.978)
Mm -hmm.
Sarah Collins (14:46.354)
Hehehehe
Brandon Miller (15:00.844)
Woo has some really cool outlets. So Sarah, when you found out you had this, you know, maybe when you were young and maybe as you’ve grown and started to develop it. And I love that you said this. I don’t do drugs, but essentially public speaking, that’s like your, you know, that’s like, that’s where the dopamine hits come for you. That’s when you walk away feeling that like, I’m on top of the world, you know, that, that, that, that emotion, that feeling. So can you tell us a little more about the.
Sarah Collins (15:25.586)
Great.
Brandon Miller (15:29.804)
power of woo. I want to do it from this perspective. Let’s give woo the best version of itself. The best version, like the peak of woo and why we all want to value it, respect it, want more of it in our space.
Sarah Collins (15:46.834)
Yeah, I mean, I just think there are no strangers to a woo. So a woo can walk in the room. And again, I think it gets a bad rap because people think if you have woo, you’re outgoing. Now I have met people who are not outgoing who have woo. You can be introverted and have woo.
Okay, so it is this there is a misconception now are most people with WOO extroverts sure but that doesn’t mean it. In fact, the reason I love CliftonStrengths is because it does not put people in a box. People are very complex and so we get to be complex with the different dynamics of our strengths. But WOO in its best form is interested in other people.
It’s curious. It wants to know, hey, who are you? What do you like? And how can I sort of engage with you with that?
And the truth of it is, if we think about psychology, is people like to talk about themselves. People like to have people who like the same things that they do. And I don’t think, at least for me, my woo isn’t disingenuous. I’m not lying about things, but I want to find commonality with people. I want people to talk about themselves because yes, there’s a part of me, like I want people to like me. That’s sort of also the downfall is if I think someone doesn’t like me, I will obsess over that.
Brandon Miller (17:10.54)
Well, and it’s one of the needs of a woo, right? A woo has a need to be liked. And we would say all 34 of these types have needs. And for woo, I’ve watched my wife with this. Why do you think that person spoke that way? Why did they act that way? What did I do? What did I say? And I’ve heard that. I’ve heard that come through. And then the self -reflection around, what could I have done different?
Sarah Collins (17:10.578)
Even if there’s a good reason for it! Right! Exactly!
Brandon Miller (17:36.428)
Or should I? Or do I just need to let that person be that person and not let their vibe touch my vibe? Like it’s okay if that’s, maybe they just had a bad day and had nothing to do with me.
Sarah Collins (17:47.378)
Exactly. I’m always talking to my clients about searching for the second story and I have to tell myself all the time to search for the second story of what also might be true, that the person might not have been short with me because they don’t like me, but they might have been having a bad day. But when I tell you, there are probably five people out there in this world that I think don’t like me and I could rattle off their names to you right now because I still harbor a little place in my heart that is hurt.
that I wasn’t able to actually win them over in the way that I wanted to.
Brandon Miller (18:17.676)
I so appreciate you saying that because I remind people with coaching and on teams, the first word is win. And it matters. This strength scoreboards as close to competition of any strength I’ve seen. And it knows whether it’s one. And I find it hilarious. And I almost think my wife could tell me the same thing. Three, there’s only three of them.
Sarah Collins (18:34.45)
Mm -hmm.
Brandon Miller (18:44.94)
that I know didn’t like me. Here’s why they didn’t like me. Because that scoreboard is so real and it literally is. I’m collecting your smile. I’m collecting your trust. I’m collecting your willingness to work with me. In a business setting, I’m collecting you as a client. All these things matter to a woo. And here’s what I want to ask you. I have found mature woo is very helpful in its orientation.
Sarah Collins (19:00.85)
Right.
Brandon Miller (19:13.612)
Meaning it has a service orientation because quickly I learned that you’ll probably like and trust me if you see that I’m for you as much as I want you for me. Is that something you’ve noted as you’ve seen Woo, you’re developing it yourself, you’re seeing it in teams? Have you picked up on some of those nuances?
Sarah Collins (19:32.69)
Absolutely, I think especially when working with leaders, with, you know, CEOs, vice presidents, when I’m working with their teams, they are, every time I’m talking to someone,
You know, people, other coaches will ask me, well, how do you sell this thing or how do you talk about this? And I always say, well, I just ask them, what do you want? Like, what do you want? Everything I do, I customize to the client because I’m when we, I always say like, we need to sit down to talk about why you want to do this. And then I say, what is the outcome? If we go through this whole process at the end for you to say, my gosh, this is such a success. We’re so happy we did it. What has happened and changed?
and then I walk backwards with them of how do we get there? And I build the program specifically for them. And not to be too conceited and I don’t wanna, you know, I’m gonna knock on wood when I say this, most people don’t say no when we’re talking and making a proposal together because I’m building it for them. And I love that because the woo in a business where you have to sell and you’re giving people proposals, your woo is so…
fragile and delicate up in the air because this is a great opportunity for someone to say, no, I don’t want to work with you, which feels like, no, I don’t like you. You didn’t win me over. And so it’s a really delicate place to be as a woo. And so you have to be really strategic to try to make sure you’re getting that win.
Brandon Miller (21:02.124)
That’s good. I’ve watched my wife’s woo develop as a negotiator and separate when she doesn’t win or when someone chooses to not work with her. And it’s what you were saying. What’s the second story or is it possible we, I just wasn’t the right fit.
Sarah Collins (21:20.114)
Mm -hmm.
Brandon Miller (21:25.036)
and accepting that not everyone is a fit for me in the work that I do and this this maturing and seasoning of woo and understanding. And so I want to tilt this for a moment to teams because you work with teams, you work with companies, again, listeners, Collins Career Coaching dot com. And you have a soon coming shift, right? You want to you want to break that news here or you want to hold that to yourself?
Sarah Collins (21:25.106)
Right.
Sarah Collins (21:47.826)
Yes. Yeah, I think we can. I’m not one to keep a secret because of all of these, you know, influencing things, but we are rebranding to Collins Collective soon. When I started this business, I come from higher ed where I was a career coach. The business was career coaching. Now being a University of Nebraska alum and career coach, I use CliftonStrengths in all my career coaching.
And then over time I had groups and, and teens asked me, can you do a workshop for us? Can you do this? So the business has really evolved over the years where I primarily work with teens and leaders now utilizing CliftonStrengths. And I have a few other coaches who help clients with career coaching, resumes, cover letters, interview prep, or job search coaching. And we utilize CliftonStrengths still in that too. So we’re branching out to Collins Collective, which will be.
able to be more encompassing of all of the work that we do, which will still include careers, but will lead us a little bit more open to keep working with teams and leaders.
Brandon Miller (22:55.372)
Love it. So CollinsCollective .com.
Sarah Collins (22:59.026)
It will be wearecollinsco .com. Coming soon.
Brandon Miller (23:02.636)
We are colinsco .com coming soon and given today is a recording day. So this episode might line up. We’ll see, but you can either find Sarah on colinscareercoaching .com at Sarah Coach Collins, and you can learn all things, CliftonStrengths, how to work with your team, how to work with your company, how to build a strengths -based company for you small, mid -sized business owners. She is happy to support you with that effort.
Sarah Collins (23:08.902)
You
Sarah Collins (23:12.69)
Exactly.
Brandon Miller (23:32.236)
Sarah, anything else for someone leading a team of woos or have woos that they support or work with? What’s the way that they can get the best out of those team members with woos, especially if they themselves don’t share it?
Sarah Collins (23:45.65)
Yeah, I think one it’s focus on what’s strong, right? That’s one of the key things about all the strengths coaches and in my business, we talk about it all the time. Focus on what’s strong. And so always look at that positive lens first and looking at the woo for what it can do.
and put people in a situation to do it. If we think about who’s need to eat, depending on the role, think about how can we leverage this strength for this person? I really truly believe that the way we get anyone to do anything well is through our strengths.
And so if it’s a sales role, well, that’s easy to see how Woo can be effective, right? They love to go out and meet new people and have those conversations. But if it’s not, think about are there opportunities for them to network? Are there opportunities for them to be even an internal advocate? You know, sometimes we see teams inside of a big corporation where there’s not a lot of influencing themes.
but there might be that one or two people who have woo. And so thinking how do we leverage them to be our internal advocate? Because if we’re all heads down working, we might not be sharing with other teams or leadership the success that we’re having. So how can we put our woos in those rooms to say, look at what we’re doing, see what we’re doing, right? Give them the opportunity to influence.
Brandon Miller (25:06.956)
That’s great.
That’s great. So you hear that today leaders giving woos the chance to influence, putting them in a position where that energy, that emotion, that gravitas that woos have leverage it for your good, the good of your team, the good of your organization. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today. And I feel like we have given a really good push start to knowing woo listeners. If you’d like to learn more.
We do have a resource for you. We call it how to be a good teammate to me. And you can find this by emailing me at Brandon at 34strong .com. Our sponsor for the season is 34strong .com. And we’re happy to send you a resource where you can learn all about what Woo contributes, what it needs to be successful, and then a resource of how to get the best out of that Woo. How do you get the best from them and how do they engage with others? Sarah, thank you so much.
for bringing us through woo and sharing with us your new launch coming soon.
Sarah Collins (26:13.234)
Well, it’s been a pleasure, Brandon. Thank you for having me and thanks to everyone else. We’re, well, I guess I won’t say, I don’t know if this is coming out before or after summit, but if it’s before summit, I’ll see you there.
Brandon Miller (26:27.308)
Yeah, and if not, great to see you there. Right, everybody? OK.
Sarah Collins (26:30.482)
Great to see you there. It was lovely. Let’s connect on Instagram.
Brandon Miller (26:34.444)
Well, you made it through another episode of Coach to Coach. We look forward to seeing you again next time. And as always, stay strong, build those strengths, have a great day.
