E70: Innovation22 Speaker Highlight - Dawnyel Smink

In this episode of Agency Freedom Podcast, James talks with Dawnyel Smink, Founder, and CEO of CLI Select Agencies, an alliance of independent agencies.

Episode Highlights:

• Dawnyel shares her background and discusses her transition from being an elementary school teacher to owning her own business. (3:32)
• Dawnyel explains that CLI Select Agencies is there to be of service to agencies and take care of agencies and one way of doing that is making sure they are a good fit. (9:19)
• Dawnyel shares that part of what they do at CLI Select Agencies is discussing how agency owners can teach their team not to lie about leadership and what it really means to be a leader. (11:57)  
• James mentions that leadership is apologizing quickly when a wrong is pointed out to you, as humility speeds up reconciliation and recovery. (14:49)
• Dawnyel explains that communicating clearly with people means being able to take accountability on both sides. (19:12)
• Dawnyel shares that there is no perfect leader, and we have all made mistakes at some point in our careers. (21:59)
• Dawnyel explains that when she is about to say something that she might regret, she creates a moment for herself to think and figure things out. (26:52)

Key Quotes:

• "There is sometimes a disconnect between what we think we should do as a leader, and what we should say as a leader, and really how to be honest with ourselves." - Dawnyel Smink
• "I think the biggest message and takeaway that you would get from coming in to hear me talk about leadership and the lies that we tell ourselves and the truths that we need to embrace are really that we all do it. We've all done it, someplace in time, there is no leader that is perfect." - Dawnyel Smink
• "Don't be too quick to rush to judgement. Because once something comes out of your mouth, it's impossible to put it back in. Like, words put out into the universe never come back. They always have some kind of impact." - James Jenkins

Resources Mentioned:

Learn more about CLI Select Agencies here: https://www.canyonlandsinsurance.com/

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