In today's episode, Kevin Bees interviews Alyson Van Hooser.

Alyson Van Hooser is not your typical business speaker.
Alyson brings a fresh, relevant perspective to the new challenges that leaders face today, teaching her audiences how to engage, motivate, and retain a multi-generational workforce. The bonus is that along with her expertise, Alyson makes a one-of-a-kind connection with the audience that never fails to delight and inspire.

With a life resume that includes tough early years that taught her how to turn challenges into opportunities, Alyson achieved rapid success working her way up in the food, retail, and finance industries. 

She was a City Councilwoman by the age of 30; she works with a wide range of organizations as a keynote speaker, and, as if that weren’t enough, Alyson tops it off by being a mother of four.

Alyson’s unique life and business experiences led her to discover the immense power that comes when leaders own the responsibility of truly understanding and intentionally connecting with the people they serve.

Her books LEVEL UP, ACCELERATE YOUR SUCCESS, and soon-to-be-released INFINITE INFLUENCE, unveil powerful stories of lessons learned through struggles, and provide practical strategies needed to create and sustain success in life and at work.

As a speaker, Alyson Van Hooser is the real deal, and her heartfelt connection with people is a key to her effectiveness on stage. Her distinctive combination of wisdom, energy, humor, and practical strategies inspire and motivate audiences to take action on ideas that drive both organizational and personal success.

In today’s episode Alyson shares:

• How her life changed at aged 13, when she came home one day and her parents were not there, and never came back (her father struggled with drugs, and her mother left before Alyson can remember).
• How she was prompted at the aged 16 by her future father-in-law to share her experiences to help others, and she ignored his suggestions because she could just not imagine that she could help in that way.
• How she was the youngest person ever to represent her community as a city councilwoman.
• Why she was torn when someone proposed to her to become Mayor of the city, there was a tough choice between remaining a professional in her career or going all in on politics.
• Her father-in-law Phil reminded her that he thought she should do neither of those and instead, should share her experiences for the benefit of others through writing a book and helping leaders develop.
• How she became a keynote speaker in 2019.
• Her life-changing question is - ‘What do I want?’.  Alyson wanted something different than the experience her parents were creating, so she defined that clearly, and over the years has been able to move towards that and bring the vision into reality.  Alyson chose to pursue a life that is radically different and started figuring out what others were doing and working out who to emulate and who not to emulate.
• Her second life-changing question from her book ‘Infinite Influence’. “What do they need from me?”.  This is so important because there is no self-made success; you have to build relationships and connect with people.  
• The two questions tie together since if Alyson can help them unlock what they want, it makes it more likely she will be able to receive what she wants.
• Why it is important for business owners to know EXACTLY what their team needs from them (if they want to get the best out of them).
• This question is important personally, professionally, and in the community.
• Her future-proof leadership strategy: Stories not statistics.  If you can get to know someone’s story, you will uncover their need, and when you understand the need you can serve that need.  This is more important than ever since leadership is more difficult than ever and people are more diverse than ever.  You must understand the people that report to you.
• The importance of empathy and why most people are getting empathy wrong, and what to do about it.
• How to begin to think like someone else, so you can lead them on how they would like to be led, not on the way you want to lead them.
• Stories build a bond - so it is important for a leader to seek out people's stories. There are 3 stories every leader needs to know about their team members

1. Key events: what was happening in the world when you were coming of age?

2. Parenting: 80% of what we do as adults came from the way we were parented.  Older generations were left alone more and ha