With her mission to reintegrate the human touch into HR, Sonya Atkins-Goodman tirelessly serves her community by cultivating positive cultures and empowerment with servant leadership and a big heart. And can she SING!
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Bringing Heart Into HR With Sonya Atkins-Goodman
I am the collector and connector of fascinating people. Everyone is fascinating, especially you and this amazing guest I have, Sonya Atkins-Goodman. We are going to get to know her and learn something about HR and also about forgiveness. I cannot wait to introduce you to her, but first, we’re going to do our little breathing exercise. We’re going to take this little 22-second mini vacation. We’re going to breathe in calm for 7 seconds, hold for 4, and then breathe out gratitude. We probably should do that multiple times a day to bring in that be-still-and-know, some quiet into our moments.
Let’s take seven seconds of calm coming in. Hold and then release. Say, “Thank you.” Let’s get grounded a little bit. In our crazy world, we’re so techie-connected but we’re not necessarily connecting to ourselves enough perhaps. I love to do that little exercise to get me centered, and maybe you too.
Looking Back
My guest, Sonya, is from the south of Houston. I was born and raised in Houston, so I’m familiar with Alvin. Sonya Atkins-Goodman, thank you for being my guest. I’m so excited. We have a mutual friend in common, Alan Mikolaj. We’ll probably talk about him a little bit. Please tell us a little bit about who you are in this world, and then we’ll talk about what you do.
Thank you so very much for having me on your show. I’m an HR professional of over 30-plus years. I’m a wife. I’m a mother. I’m like many women in this world who are juggling their careers and their personal lives. I have a lot of different circumstances that have occurred in my life that make it a little bit easier for me to maybe relate to other women who may have found themselves in some of those similar circumstances. I am also a very proud sister. I have a little sister I’m proud of. That’s who I am. I’m a singer-songwriter as well in addition to being an HR professional of over 30 years. I own my own business after spending a lot of time in the corporate world.
Forgiveness
I don’t know anybody who doesn’t have a lot of plates spinning and wearing a lot of different hats. You’ve got a lot of them. The forgiveness message is one of my biggest messages. How do you relate that to HR? That’s Human Resources for people who may not know that term. That career is interesting and has a lot of facets. How do you integrate this forgiveness message into HR? Then, maybe we’ll talk about how you found your forgiveness.
When I look at it in terms of forgiveness professionally, we talk about leadership and leading with empathy. Empathy is, in a lot of ways, understanding and putting yourself into an aspect of being able to relate to others. When I think about my story of holding on to unforgiveness for a good number of years personally and how I’ve translated that over into the HR profession, my job is often to help managers and people leaders navigate that relationship with their teams.
People disappoint us. People disappoint us personally. They disappoint us professionally. How do we handle that? When we hold on to that unforgiveness, whether it’s personally or professionally, I have found that it really hurts the clarity of mind. It’s very important as a leader or a professional, and this is how I do it in human resources when I’m having these conversations, to say that even as HR professionals, we need to learn not to hold onto those grudges. We have to learn how to push forward.
Something disappointed us. Something happened. Maybe we didn’t get the promotion that we wanted. Maybe an employee disappointed us with not meeting the expectations and that affected the entire team. There may be some things that we have to do as a consequence of that, but when you harbor the hurt part of it, you can’t move forward. We have to deal with the fact that we’ve got to push forward or move forward with that forgiveness so that we can regain that clarity of mind and focus on what matters with the situation.
I really like how you asked me the question earlier about how we take and apply forgiveness professionally and how I apply that to my HR profession. Throughout my many years of working in corporate, I could see the demise of where leaders would hold onto that and they didn’t lead with empathy. Since they didn’t lead with empathy, that created such a toxic work environment for the employees.
With that, when we live in a day and age where we need top talent, and it’s harder to hold onto top talent because the quit rate is so high and people quit quietly without giving you those indications, it’s very important as leaders to take a look at ourselves and manage our emotions. It’s important as a leader to make sure that we have that emotional intelligence. Emotional well-being is not only important for ourselves but also important for all of those that are around us, both in the personal and the professional space.
Emotional well-being is not only important for ourselves but also to those around us both in our personal and professional spaces. Share on XI do believe that our world has changed enough that this top-down management doesn’t fly anymore. If you don’t have compassion and empathy or if you are the big stick that’s like, “Do it my way or the highway,” I don’t believe that’s working at all anymore or very seldom. You’re never going to have happy people if you do that, right?
Exactly. I look at it from the standpoint of being an overcomer. How can you be a business that also overcomes? You have to take a look internally first. I often say to businesses, “How can you expect someone else to meet your expectations when you yourself cannot even identify who you are and if there are things that you are expecting of others that you don’t even expect for yourselves?”
That’s very true. As leaders, we have to lead by example. We are in a position. What is the term of a leader? You’re an influencer. You can either influence on the negative or you can influence on the positive. Do I want to influence others by showing how I harbor bad feelings and harbor this emotional and unforgiveness that becomes such a toxic trait that it creates the toxicity of the work landscape?
It is the same thing in our lives as well. With the people that we love, our spouses, our children, or our friends, it’s the same thing. There are certain things in life that unfortunately happen, but we can either play the victim or we can play the victor. In a situation where something has disappointed you, how can you be the victor in that?
I often say that the windshield that we look out of is a much broader view than the rearview mirror that we’re looking in. What is the rearview mirror designed to do? We occasionally glance back, but that’s so that we can see if there’s any danger or anything coming up. We’re not going to keep our focus on that because if we do, we won’t see what’s right out in front of us. Harboring that unforgiveness keeps us from seeing the things that are right in front of us and the good things in life that we can reach out and achieve.
Enforcer
Focusing on what’s behind us is not going to get us very far. I have something that you brought up that reminds me. There are two types of customer service people. I observed this as a flight attendant all those years ago. You’re in the line and you go, “Not that one, please.” You can feel it. It’s the empathy. It’s like, “I’m so sorry. How can I make a difference? My hands are tied,” or, “There are no flights,” or whatever it is with, “I’m so sorry. I wish I could help or do more. Let me give you a hug.” It is empathy. The other side is called the enforcer. I feel like they’re not happy people. The only power they have in their life at that moment is over you. You remind them of their ex, so you’re out of luck. Does that relate to some of the things you’re trying to promote in your space?
Absolutely. I’m so glad you brought up the word enforcer because that is a perfect analogy or definition of how the general population views human resources. We are trying so very hard in the global essence of human resources to change that by leading with empathy. One of the larger things that we’re talking about in human resources is civility in the workspace. The president of SHRM, Johnny Taylor, this is something that he’s talking about.
Where do we start with civility in the workspace? We start with that empathy. Many times, HR is looked at as being the enforcer. I think about all of the negative terms that maybe people have used or the slang terms that they’ve used for human resources. When you look at what human resources are supposed to be, it’s strength. What do you do with the collaboration of strength of the humans? How can you be that resource?
We have a saying here at my company. It’s called, “Bringing the Human Back to Human Resources.” We do live in such a day and age where everything is technical. We’re moving forward with digital or AI. It’s very important that we do not forget the aspect and the essence of what we’re doing, and that is to be a resource for humans and also be an engaging HR professional. It’s not so that people see you as the enforcer. I would rather for it to be as people see us as influencers of doing the right thing.
Sometimes, doing the right thing is very tough. Sometimes, we have to have, as HR professionals, tough conversations with employees, but we also have to have them with managers. We as HR professionals sometimes have to realize we’re not the ones that get to make the final decision. That’s why it’s so important for us to engage with our department leaders and the people so that they don’t see us as the enforcers but see us as influencers in a positive manner.
HR leaders must engage with the people within the team so they will not be seen as enforcers but as influencers. Share on XHumanEdge
That’s so needed. It’s great that you personally have chosen your path. The name of your company, I don’t think we’ve said that. How can people find you and get in touch with you? What’s your company name?
Thank you. It is HumanEdge Resource Solutions. We are based out of the Greater Houston area. Our clientele spans from everything from healthcare to retail, manufacturing, and oil and gas. Our experience here combined with the team is over 50 years of HR experience in multiple industries. That experience is what makes us very strong. We have the ability to understand the needs that our clients have and help them and their employees to get to the goals that they want to do. We also help individuals as well as career coaches. It is HumanEdge Resource Solutions. You can go to our website. You’ll get to read a little bit about the company and some of the things that we do. We’re very actively involved in our community as well.
I noticed that you’re in a lot of chambers. You do a lot of networking. It’s HumanEdgeResourceSolutions.com, right?
Yes.
Employee Relationship And Vision Building
I’m a Zig Ziglar legacy certified trainer. I got to know Zig Ziglar. I know his family. Tom, Cindy, and Julie Ziglar are incredible people. They wanted to pass on his legacy, so I went and became a legacy certified trainer. One of the pieces that they promote and the Ziglar philosophy is helping companies maintain or retain good employees and have good employee relationships.
There’s a zombie talk. The zombies are showing up to get the paycheck. He’s got a ten-passenger bicycle. The first 3 people are pedaling, the next 4 people are coasting, and the last 3 people are pedaling backward with a parachute. It’s identifying that type of environment. I feel like they were good at figuring out that if you as a manager or a leader can find out what their dreams are, go find out every single person’s dream and then help them reach that dream. You might lose that employee ultimately, but you’ll never lose the loyalty factor. You will be a sought-after place to work.
I’d like to connect you with one of my friends, Staci Wright. She has created a business up here. She’s got a manufacturing business. She has a nonprofit called HeartProfit. She believes in exactly what you’re trying to do. They’ve got people on a waiting list to come to work for them up in this little town because they’ve got onsite childcare. She knows that mental health is a huge topic and a huge issue. They have weekly times that people get together and can share and open up. She’s made it a very friendly environment and workspace. I’d love for you to get to know her.
I would love to get to know anyone that you know. That’s what this is about. It’s about getting out. It’s so much more than networking. It’s really about building those relationships and coming together even if you don’t physically live in that sense of business community. How can we make life better for the people who show up and give of themselves to help support our dreams? That’s very important.
How can those employers figure those things out? First of all, be transparent and ask the question. Take a look at the landscape in your company and what are the problems. If you need to do an anonymous survey, there are plenty of tools and resources out there to be able to do that as well. Hopefully, as a leader, you are engaged enough to have that sense. It depends on your size because sometimes, it’s a little bit harder to do that. How can you bring in those resources that will help your employees feel more connected to the vision that you have for your company?
A lot of times, that is what leaders are truly seeking. Even though they don’t necessarily verbalize it that way, that is what they’re seeking. They’re like, “How can I get others to invest in my vision?” First of all, understand that they have their own vision. Have you asked them what their vision is for their own future? How can that vision they have marry up with the vision that you have?
What we’re seeing with the Gen Z workforce, which is anyone that you’re looking for from the age of 10 to the age of 27, is they are the ones that are coming in and have a different set of expectations. It’s not bad. They are more vocal. They’re more of an activist in their expectations. At the same time, they are shown to be statistically the quiet quitters. What they’re looking for in those workspaces, I believe, are all the things that other generations have wanted but didn’t vocalize for whatever reasons. The Gen X-ers from Boomers, it’s a little bit of a different mentality. For Gen X-ers, it was all about achievement. For the Boomers, it was a matter of survival. Every generation has had its thing.
Where we are in this landscape of the workforce is with all of those generations in there. It’s very important to understand the visions that your employees have. I say to employers, “How can you as an employer expect something from your employees when you do not even know who you are and you do not know where your values are? Let’s first take a look at where your values are and where your employees’ values are, how those align, and what the resources, tools, and things that we can bring in that are going to help everyone to feel like they’re working towards a mutual goal for your vision together.”
Values And Generations
Values is a huge word. I had four 30-somethings living with me for a while. It dawned on me again. It’s been revisited to me. I reminded myself. Get your top 3, 5, or 10 values. As a pre-teen or going into the teen years, if you get clear on your values, then who do you want to be in this world? Get very clear on your values.
What I’ve noticed, and this is probably something in the workplace as well and I don’t know how to integrate it so much in the corporate world, is that entertainment seems to have risen to the top value. You can tell somebody’s values by their time and their money. We used to say checkbook and calendar. Where do they spend their time? There are a lot of these little thumb movements on these screens. Their gaming, podcasting, or entertainment has risen to, “What am I going to watch? What am I going to eat? What am I going to listen to? What am I going to play?” Is that something you’ve noticed as well?
It’s about that when we look at it in terms of what it is that they’re seeking. Millennials remember flip phones. I want to make sure that I speak from leaders who may be a generation or two or three generations ahead of that. In making that relational to that unforgiveness and how you can overcome that, you need to understand the generation.
We’re talking about this new generation that’s coming in and the different values that they have. They’ve never lived in a world where they didn’t know it without a smartphone. They’ve always had information available at their fingertips. In my generation, we had to go to the library and do a book report on an outdated encyclopedia. That’s no longer the case for this generation. It doesn’t make them bad or a generation similar bad. It makes it different.
It’s very important to understand for your employees what is important to them. That way, you can see, “This is what’s important to me as a leader. I want to have a viable business. I want it to succeed. I want to leave a legacy.” When you’re looking at leaving that legacy, you have to take into consideration the people who are going to help you to create that legacy in consideration of their values and making sure that they marry up to that.
I can get into the minutia of things with that and how we help different companies to figure all of that out, everything from the beginning of the process from the talent acquisition standpoint all the way through the entire tenure from hire to retire and how you can do that. It is very important no matter the generation and no matter the circumstances that in order to be able to effectively communicate, you have to be able to effectively listen.
I’m guessing the larger the corporation, the harder that tends to be.
I was the chief human resource officer for a healthcare system. What I found in my role, because we had multiple locations versus the location of the corporate office, was that I felt more separated the further up the ladder that I went. As I look back on that, I have to remember, “That’s not where I want to be again.” If I’m in that type of situation, what can I do to make sure that I always stay connected to all of that workforce? How can I stay connected and informed? How can I inform them? How can they inform me?
I did a study on the Gen Z workforce. I studied several individuals. One of them works for a very major brand in Waco, Texas. Another one works for a well-known marketing company here in the Houston area. When I asked both of them, “What are you looking for in an employer?” Their answers were almost verbatim. They said, “Transparency. Communication. I want to feel valued. I want to know that you have good training programs. You tell me exactly what it is that you expect of me and let me know how I can progress.” The fact that they want effective communication also insights that as employers, we have to understand that their communication is different from our communication. How can we make sure that we do training and teaching effective communications?
Employees must concentrate on providing training and teaching effective communication. Share on XMy job is interesting. It always keeps me on my toes. Instead of being a leader that’s like, “I can’t believe I’ve got all these generations that I’m having to deal with. How can I do this? There are so many bad things or negative things about this,” it’s not that. It’s different. Get rid of the negativity or the negative thoughts and frame it differently so that way, you can move forward.
When you focus so much on the things that are negative aspects, it keeps you from seeing all of the good things. Some of these other generations are excellent with technology whereas maybe there may be some gaps in some of the other generations. What can we do to have them come in and help us understand that technology piece a little bit better? This is the world that they’ve always known. It’s in the way that you frame things. That’s the same way when we talk about unforgiveness and forgiveness in the workplace or professionally. It’s going to be framing your mind to be able to move forward. What are some of the things that you need to do so you can have that clarity?
A-ha Moment
Every word matters. You can change your world and your life in 1 split second with 1 different word. What you say after, “I am,” is who you are. Say who you want to be. Speak what you want, not what you don’t want and all of those easy things roll off your tongue, but it’s not as easy to do. You said you had an a-ha moment a few years ago when you had been walking around. I had one as well, a split-second transformation from bitterness to joy. You had one about forgiveness. Let’s get into that. How did you learn that?
If anyone knows me, they know that I’m a faith-based individual. Every way that I live my life, especially at this point in my life, is based on my spiritual connection and relationship that I have with my God. I’ve been a faithful person for many years, a good portion of my life since I was sixteen. At the age of 30, I found myself being divorced and being a single mom. I was living over 1,000 miles away from my home in northeast Texas. My life turned upside down. The divorce itself was hurtful because this person was someone who had been a part of my life for fifteen years.
It wasn’t how I had always envisioned my life to be, so it was a huge disappointment in the hurt that I felt to the core of my heart. I held onto that unforgiveness and bitterness for so many years. It was eighteen years later, and there are a lot of stories between that eighteen years. I don’t think we have enough time for that part of it. Regardless of all the things that I thought were okay that I was doing in those eighteen years with the way I was living my life, my career was going great but my personal life, not so much. I thought, “I’m making my own decisions. I’m an independent woman. I’m doing this. I’m doing that.”
Eighteen years later, in February of 2018, I was getting ready to pull out of my subdivision. I had the radio on and a song came on. Have you ever had that song that takes you back to a moment in time? Being that I’m a musician, a vocalist, and a songwriter, that’s how I connect a lot of times emotionally. When that song came on the radio, that song reminded me of that person. I was like, “I could sit here and go over the nostalgia.”
Sometimes, we want to resonate with the pain. This is what unforgiveness does to a person. It makes you think that it’s okay to live in that moment of that pain instead of detaching ourselves from it. I was like, “This voice in my spirit says, “You can either reach up there, turn that song off, and give forgiveness or you can continue to leave that song on. I have a life so much better planned for you, but I need you to do this one thing. It’s as easy as reaching up there and turning the dial in that split second or that moment.”
I’m going to be honest with you. I sat there probably for about a good minute thinking about that because I knew if I made that decision, that meant that there would be no turning back. It means I’m only going forward. I cannot say that I’m going to forgive someone and keep hanging on to it. I decided to turn it off. It was like my mind opened this clarity. I looked back on my life and was like, “I can’t believe that I was that person. That’s not who I was raised to be. That’s not who I wanted to be.”
Many other things opened up in my life, which were the good things that I believe God has planned for me. At that point in time, I didn’t know I would become a business owner, but I sit here with you and look at that. In that one split second in time of that decision, had I made a different decision, would my life be different in this moment? Probably. I was able to move forward, truly give forgiveness, and find myself even wanting happiness for that person, which is an amazing, joyous thing.
What a gift to yourself. We like our pain. I wouldn’t say that we like it. I say we’re comfortable in that place. We don’t love it, but we are most familiar and most comfortable in the place of the pain. This little vindictiveness or little revenge, we’re carrying around this stuff. They’re oblivious about it, right?
Correct.
They don’t know you’re furious, angry, mad, and sending them daggers. Split-Second Transformation Change Your Words, Change Your Life. What if you shift it to, “May you be blessed.” I say this a lot. Send blessings instead of daggers. Send blessings and say, “May you be blessed.” You don’t have to love what they’re doing. In my tiny little book we were talking about, I’ve got a forgiveness release that I have. I did what I did. I didn’t do what I didn’t do. I did all that I knew to do with what I knew at the time like you did and are doing in your life. Say, “I love you,” and release it.
Thank you.
Another little saying I have in here is unconditional love, unconditional forgiveness. It’s not unconditional boundaries. It doesn’t mean you have to engage or be engaged with someone who is not a good fit for you. What if we are like, “Be blessed. Go have a good life,” and let it go? What freedom you would experience.
It was an amazing freedom. I felt so much lighter. It’s the joy that you have in your heart. Looking back on that, I was like, “I can’t believe I allowed that to take up so much space in my life.” Here I am, this person who, for so many years, harbored this unforgiveness. I look back on the things that maybe even I did in myself throughout those eighteen years. You have this lack of clarity in your life. For whatever reason, it’s like, “There are things you’ve done in your life that aren’t so great either. Who am I to hold on to that?”
I decided that I could either remain as a victim of pain, heartbreak, and loss and what I thought was this dream that I had or I could become a victor and experience something that was so much more amazing than what I could have ever imagined. It was so much easier. I look back and I go, “That was a lot harder to hold onto than it was to let go of.” It’s such an odd thing that we humans do. It’s almost like a security blanket. We want to hold onto it.
It becomes our identity in a way. We identify as the ex and we were harmed, wronged, and all of these things. I’m like, “Get over it. Nobody cares.”
Exactly. Especially not the person that you’re harboring unforgiveness. Whether it’s a person or a situation, it’s really important to understand that you can learn from that experience, but take what it is that you learned in a positive way so that you can move your life forward instead of holding yourself there in that one space. It’s amazing how unforgiveness is so deceitful. It is one of the most deceitful things that we can do to ourselves. It deceives you into thinking, “It’s okay to be this way.”
Unforgiveness is one of the most deceitful things we can do to ourselves. Share on XGratitude
A helpful first step is gratitude. I do believe they go hand in hand. I don’t think you can have a happy life if you don’t live in gratitude. I do believe that that is the key to the first step of getting into releasing the bitterness, the anger, the forgiveness, and the issues. Gratitude is what you are thankful for. It starts with that. It has to start with that. Then, forgiveness is required.
I agree with that. It is waking up and being grateful for the experiences. Even though sometimes those experiences did produce some pain to them, what was something that you can take from it that you can be grateful for in the here and now that you can move forward with? I agree with you on that.
It’s a very common thread. I seem to attract heartfelt, great people. Alan Mikolaj is in The Change book series that I’m in as well. We’ve got a mastermind going on. It’s an amazing book with Les Brown on the cover. It came out not long ago, my version. His was a few months ago. He’s a common friend. That’s how I know you. As a man in this world, his message is of love and unconditional love. In the business world, it is so refreshing, and it all seems to tie in here together with what we’re talking about.
When I think about that professionally, can you show love in the workplace? As HR, I must say there are different kinds of love. Love can come in the form of gratitude towards your staff, your employees, your colleagues, your business community, and your community in general. It’s what we do to be a positive influence and a positive effect on those lives. How can we make an impact positively? That is a form of love in itself when you are looking to make things better.
Alan is amazing because he has this ability to always be positive and think about others before thinking of self. When you think about loving unconditionally, that’s what that is. It is the love for others instead of, “I’m always thinking about me.” No matter what you have going on for that day, what is it that you can do to have an outpouring of that love that you can show others? He is a great example of that. I am very fortunate to have him as a business colleague and friend.
It’s unconditional love and unconditional forgiveness, not unconditional boundaries. The harder people are to love, the more they need it. When I walk out, my message is I wear this attitude of love, generosity, and caring. People are very attracted to that. I make new friends at the grocery store.
That’s great.
They’re attracted to it. What you said about thinking of others first before self, it was Ziglar who said, “ Everybody wears a sign. What’s in it for me?” When you’re always positive and happy, people do think you have an agenda. I don’t have an agenda. There is no agenda. I’m happy. I want to share the love, the brightness, the smiles, and the hugs if possible. I don’t like elbow bumps. I don’t like self-checkouts.
There’s a little bit of a joke in our business community here that I’m the HR that hugs. I always have a disclaimer before I do. I always ask if it’s okay.
I offer a candy bar to the checkout clerks. This was back in 2014 or ‘15. This book, Candy Bar Hugs: It Doesn’t Take Much to Make a Difference!, came out in ‘17. I ask, “What’s your favorite candy bar? Do you mind if I give you a hug?” The stories come out about that. Some couldn’t receive it. Some cried. It’s a small thing that we can do.
I love that you do that because you never know what a person might be going through. That’s what I say to our entrepreneurs or our clients. I say, “Like you have things going on in your life and your mind, you never know what your employees may have going on in their lives or people in general.” We have so much. We’re stressed. Anxiety and depression are on the rise. It’s hard. Why not have that outpouring of love and generosity?
The key to overcoming depression is action or doing something for someone else. When you’re in that, you don’t feel like it. If you know it, maybe you can perhaps practice it. One of the people in my book had a tiny little story in the tiny little book with a big message. I bought her a candy bar. She said, “That’s the nicest thing anybody has ever done for me.” I was like, “A candy bar? Do you mind if I give you a hug?” My friend was with us. We gave her hugs. She said, “You have no idea. I found out my mom was terminal today.”
Sometimes, it’s the smallest of things. All it took was a few minutes. Can you imagine that a few minutes of kindness can last a lifetime?
Singing
Absolutely. A candy bar doesn’t cost much. When I was in dire straits too financially, I still could do that. It’s something small. It’s not about the candy bar. It’s about the conversation, saying their name, or things like that. I do believe we’re so connected to our devices that we don’t have as much human contact. Maybe some of the younger folks don’t even know how to smile, say hello, and open the door. Common courtesies and manners are getting out the window.
When I make this statement, I know that it’s a general statement. In HR, we have to stay abreast of all the laws and all the trends. We study everything that has to do with people, culture, and compliance in the workplace. In this study of the Gen Z workforce, statistically, what we’re seeing is they don’t know how to ask for help. Yet, they’re not afraid to circumvent their managers to go ask that.
That’s why it’s so important on the human level as managers or as people to make sure that we are offering that connection and trying to understand how we can help mentoring by setting an example of the way that we should be in that workplace. That’s very important. There are a lot of people out there who don’t know how to ask for that.
That is what we’re seeing in HR with what I do. One of the reasons why I’m so passionate about doing what I do is to be able to help educate other business leaders with that because we want to make it a great work environment. This is the future that we’re talking about. These are the folks who are going to be taking care of us when we’re older and can’t take care of ourselves, so I want others to know what empathy, kindness, and showing love is. I have to do that myself and show a little bit of something.
I want to encourage business leaders as well as people in general. When something has been put in front of you as a passion or someone is like, “You’ve started a business,” don’t be afraid to say yes. We all start out with our vision of what we want. This is the idea of what we see. There’s a lot of power in saying yes. There’s a lot of power in saying yes to forgiveness. There’s a lot of power in saying yes to help someone.
When you asked that cashier if she wanted that candy bar, in a way, you were saying, “I’m saying yes to choosing kindness.” There’s so much power in the Yes, because, but we always want to box ourselves in. We want to keep ourselves like, “I’ve got this idea of who I am, what I’m supposed to be, and what my company is supposed to be.” That’s great because you have to have a vision. Don’t be afraid of the yes to positivity or of something that’s going to produce something positive.
I love that. The number one saying that I have is when intriguing opportunities present themselves and you say yes, things show up. It’s a little bit of a different context. I’m a yes girl too. In fact, The YES Lady, Your Essential Saying, I had it saved at one time for one business. I had a TV show called The YES Lady with Charla for a while. Yes is a big word to me. We still have boundaries. We’re ending the time. It’s going really fast. It’s crazy how fast it goes. I get so enmeshed in the conversation. I want to touch on one other thing. I clicked on a song you were singing. You have a voice that could be professional. You have a beautiful voice.
Thank you so much.
That is a talent that you carry with you. You don’t have to put it in your pockets.
I’ve always loved singing. My dad started me singing when I was around two years old or when I could form a full sentence. My earliest memories are of being 2 to 3 years old and singing with him. It’s not really what I do. It’s part of who I am. This is where I tell people, “You can wear multiple hats. You can have multiple ambitions.” That was an ambition in my life to be able to write music and have it produced and available out there.
I have a story to tell. I believe everyone has a story to tell. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to do that professionally. It was because I said yes to it that I was able to do some things in my life vocally professionally as a singer-songwriter that I never thought that this little small-town girl from northeast Texas would ever get to do, but I did. I’m so eternally grateful and humbled by it.
That’s amazing. Are you published? Do you have an album? Do you have a way people can find your music?
Yes. You can find our music. My co-writer, Darren Kelley, and I do have some music that is out there. Our latest single is called Like Water (Home). You can find it on all of your downloads. I tell everyone, “If you listen to that song, it’s the story of my life.” If you want to know who Sonya Atkins-Goodman is, you can listen to that song. It will pretty much tell you. My husband was my muse for that song. When you’re writing music, it becomes this evolution. One thing you started out to be can evolve into something so much bigger than that.
This song is not just a love song. It’s a song of spirituality. It’s a song about a person who was lost and then finally found their way. They’re relating it to the things in their life that brought them that comfort. We often say home is not necessarily a physical place. Home is in your heart. If you had to name a place where home was, then where would that be? How does that relate to the people in your life or the things in your life? That’s what that song is really about.
There’s some other stuff out there, but I would probably say that one is the one that I’m most proud of. A little fun fact about that particular song, we wrote and produced that in 2020, so the year of COVID. We were supposed to go to Nashville to do some things and the recording studio, but because of COVID, we couldn’t. We were remotely able to do some things in the studio.
For those of you who are ‘80s babies like myself, you’ll know the band Toto. The drummer, Shannon Forrest, is the drummer on that song. There’s also Justin Ostrander who played a lot of the guitar and mandolin. He is a Grammy award-winning studio musician. When Darren told me these were the individuals that were going to be playing on this song, I couldn’t believe it. I was going, “How did I get here? How did this happen?”
Congrats on that.
Thank you.
Episode Wrap-up
You never know. I hate to do it, but we got to go. It’s the top of the hour. We have enjoyed our time.
I had so much fun.
Say yes to intriguing opportunities. Is it HumanEdge?
It’s HumanEdgeResourceSolutions.com. You can find us on all of the social media platforms. We’re on Facebook, YouTube, and even on TikTok. We’re out there on multiple platforms where you can find us.
Blessings to you. Thank you so much. I had a great time.
Thank you so much.
We’ll be in touch, I’m sure. You’re a beautiful spirit. It’s not just for humans. It’s for humanity. Thank you for doing all you’re doing in this world. I’m very grateful for that.
Thank you. I’m very grateful for you. Thank you for doing this and trying to share it with others so that we can also get that heart of goodness out there to everyone. Thank you so much for having me on your show. It’s been a lot of fun.
Everyone, we’ll see you on the next episode of the show. Remember to always choose joy.
Important Links
- Sonya Atkins-Goodman
- Split-Second Transformation Change Your Words, Change Your Life
- Candy Bar Hugs: It Doesn’t Take Much to Make a Difference!
- The Change
- Facebook – HumanEdge Resource Solutions
- YouTube – HumanEdge Resource Solutions, LLC
- TikTok – HumanEdge Resource Solutions
- Sonya Atkins Goodman – Facebook
- Sonya Atkins Goodman – LinkedIn
About Sonya Atkins Goodman
With over 30 years of diverse HR experience across industries such as healthcare, automotive, and non-profits, Sonya Atkins-Goodman is the Founder of HumanEdge Resource Solutions. Her mission is to reintegrate the human touch into HR, creating safe and empowering spaces for entrepreneurs and professionals. Passionate about supporting women, Sonya is dedicated to fostering a community where they can find encouragement and empowerment through shared experiences. As an HR consultant, trainer, and coach, she focuses on cultivating positive cultures and driving organizational success with a commitment to servant leadership, inclusion, and diversity. Sonya is a trusted partner for businesses seeking to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.
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I’m Charla Anderson, host of The Charla Anderson Show, Collector & Connector of Fascinating People (and EVERYONE is Fascinating!) on live TV, streaming, and podcasts. As a Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer, a retired award-winning flight attendant, Olympic Torchbearer, a personal development junkie, Inspired Speaker, a Published Author, and Your Courageous Coach, I want to share my passion for living life full-out, saying YES to intriguing opportunities, and encouraging YOU to do the same. Let’s jump on a discovery call and get to know each other. Find all things Charla at CharlaAnderson.com/links.
On The Charla Anderson Show, We discuss Mindset, How much Your WORDS matter, princess-to-queen energy, mantras, HOPE, Faith, Miracles, Overcoming, and much, much more, including learning from amazing guests.
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