Lisa Zeeveld:
Welcome back, Kim, to the One Next Step. And thank you so much for agreeing to answer this bonus question for our listeners. I really appreciate your time today —especially since you’re four days into a new job. I still can’t believe that, so thank you.
Kim Stone:
It is my pleasure. I’ve enjoyed it.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Oh, great. Well, one of the things I admire most about you is your ability to never stay stagnant in your career. During the podcast, we talked a lot about all the phenomenal things that you’ve done not only changing organizations, but changing roles within those organizations, and even getting out of your comfort zone when you didn’t think you had the right skill set for a job. So I’d love it if you could share with our listeners perhaps when do you know — was there something in your life or a gut feeling that told you that it was time to take a new challenge, time to kind of step out? You know, I picture in my mind stepping off of that cliff and going, “I don’t know where this is going to go, but I’m feeling a little stagnant and I think I need to change.” Any recommendations on what that might feel like?
Kim Stone:
So for me, it was really simple. It was as soon as I got bored. So when I got bored at my job I was like, “It’s time for a challenge.” So that is probably not the way it happens for everybody. You know, I was fortunate to — I’ve got a wonderful son. He’s 11 now, and sometimes you have life circumstances and situations that don’t afford you that ability to, when you get bored, just pivot and go for a new job. Right? But I would say that what I like is every day being different. I like challenges, I like building things. I like building them and then handing them off and let somebody else … I’m not somebody that sustains things as as well because I like to tinker. I like to try.
Kim Stone:
So I am much better suited for launching, establishing, creating, evolving, innovating. I am like your typical maintainer. That is not my description of me and the world needs a lot of everybody, not too many of me. So it was if I got bored and thought that I had done everything I could do in the job and I didn’t see additional opportunities, that was it. So I’ve always had this habit of raising my hand and saying, “Hey, I’ll try that.” Or, “Hey, I can help out here, I’ll do this.” So I would say, that for me is when I would get bored. The other interesting insights that I got about this was my boss at Golden State, Rick Weltz, he is in the basketball hall of fame as a sports executive, because he’s so good, he was the Chief Marketing Officer for the NBA for years.
Kim Stone:
He’s the one who came up with a creative idea to have an all-star game. So this is how creative he is. So Rick’s philosophy on life, just because you asked me that philosophy, so I’ll borrow from him. He told me once — because he stepped down. That was another reason I left the Warriors is Rick left. He retired during Covid and then I was just like, “Yeah, you know.” All of these things together. But I said to him, I said, “How do you know it’s time?” And he said, “For me, it’s 10 years”. He said, “I figured my leadership runs out in about 10 years anywhere I’ve been.” So that was sort of, that was how he thought about when it was time to move on.
Kim Stone:
He said after about 10 years, he’s done everything, he feels like that’s for him was the sweet spot. So, you know, it’s probably a little personal about what is the right time for you. But I would say to people, there’s a great quote that, “The best things in life happen on the other side of your comfort zone.” And so that has been so true for me, what is hard is the start is hard, right? Day four is really hard for me right now. Just in everything both personally, professionally — it’s just really a big lift. But if you hang in there and if you have a view of what you want and, and if you go for it and you lean in and you have the patience and you give yourself a break, you’re not gonna be perfect coming out of the, at the beginning. You may see what things can manifest in a year or two. We should have the, we should do a podcast in a year out and we can do this question, and we’ll answer it, right? We’ll see where things land because who knows.
Kim Stone:
So I would just say to your listeners that I’ve enjoyed this podcast, so thank you so much. The questions are, I love the questions they’re so thought-provoking, but you know, you don’t have to change a career and move like I do. But just getting outside of your comfort zone, if that is going on vacation to Europe, if you’ve never been like. Go experience different cultures, go, You don’t have to, you don’t have to do this in your career like, I’ve done it. You can try new things and, you know, try that new exercise class at the gym. Just get out of your comfort zone and try new things because you never, and if you’re open your mind, you never know where that’s gonna take you.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Yeah, no, I, I always feel like it’s sort of like a muscle, you have to work on it. And so if you’re not comfortable with change, start with something small and then it makes the bigger changes a lot easier because you know that you’ve got a pretty good success rate, right? Yes. Like, hey, that didn’t go too bad, so maybe I should try something else too.
Kim Stone:
Yeah. And give yourself — people set goals and you should have both. Like you should have those goals, but give yourself the grace that if it doesn’t work out exactly the way you envisioned it, like, but still give yourself the grace that you did it. And here’s a quick example of that. So I’ve always had these goals that I wanted to achieve in life. And one of my goals, and these happened when I was a little kid. I wanted to go to the Olympics, right? So most people, when you say that, in my mind, I was thinking that was my stated goal. I wanna go to the Olympics. In my mind I was gonna go as an athlete, right? And I am mediocre as best
Kim Stone:
What I ended up going to the Olympics, working for the NBA at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics working for them, right? Working the entire basketball side. And so I got to see the dream team gold medal match in 1996. Like, I got to do these things. And so I did go to the Olympics. I didn’t go the way I thought I was gonna go, but I went. And so I look at that and put a big check mark on that because it’s not how I thought it was gonna manifest, but it did. So I didn’t beat myself up because, oh, I didn’t get to go as an athlete. No. I was like, I made it, I just made it through the back door instead of coming through the front door. And by the way, I got paid for it, so it was great. Just have that grace to give yourself the freedom that it might not be exactly as you want it. I see people a lot think things have to be exactly this way. Give yourself the grace to look at it and say, I got to my goal. It was just, who knew there was a backdoor to it? And that’s okay.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Oh, I love that. Well, this has been, again, another phenomenal conversation. Kim, thank you so much for coming back and helping me record this bonus content. I absolutely loved it. And again, just so appreciate your time and congratulations on the new role. And I’m gonna hold you to that. We’re gonna follow up in a year. Listeners, you heard it. We’re gonna follow up and see how everything is going. Hey, guys, thank you so much again for joining us for our bonus next step. Be sure to join us next for more practical tips and actionable tools to advance your business one step at a time. Start by making today count.
