Today we’d like to introduce you to Margaret Graziano.
Hi Margaret, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hello well when I was 36 years old and already having spent over 12 years in the recruiting field, which includes Executive Search management search staffing for entire Enterprises and was very successful. I participated in a three day large group self-awareness training in that training on the third day, they took us to an intuitive meditation and this was after 2 3/4 days working deeply on who we were and what our life is about and somehow somewhere inside of me that was brought to fruition during this final visualization was me living in California leading retreats where CEOs executive teams, business leaders and entrepreneurs were funding their way back home and what that meant is they were tapping into their in a motivations and desires of why they started their business in the first place, and they were aligning their business to their values and the kind of life that they wanted, and I was leading these retreats I don’t know why California came up. I have some idea why the visualization came up because I had just gone through that process and had a lot of insights and a lot of hope for a powerful future.
It took me a decade to build my search firm up to the point where I could sell it and where my kids were old enough to wear I could leave the primary home in Illinois and move to California and so in 2010 did that I sold everything I had in 2008 and by 2011 I was driving across the country and a 4 x 6 U-Haul with only a few personal articles and belongings, and I set out to embark on turning the intellectual property that I created, while owning my search firm into a workflow software, and the only reason I was doing that is because I thought the only way I could lead alignment, retreats, and work with CEOs is to already have a Nesta in the bank big enough in case I failed because I didn’t know if people would pay for the service I wanted to provide
So for 18 months , we built a software with a company that we thought we were partners with, and in the end two weeks before we were going public with the software, the partner company terminated the relationship with a woman who had worked with me for 10 years when I questioned him, he said we have your intellectual property. We have your son and we have a board you put together if you don’t like it here or leave.
Then the night before we were to launch the software, they changed my ownership from 50-50 to 9010 and I was on the losing end of the bargain
I didn’t know what to do. It was hard to get out of bed. My son who was working for the company, challenged me and said that the woman who raised him would never lay in bed and be a victim to this kind of thing so I did what all enlightened people do and I called Keizer and said I needed an emergency therapy session
After the emergency therapy session, therapist said honey you don’t need therapy. You don’t need shock treatment and you don’t need drugs. This is Silicon Valley and you need a lawyer..
It took me 18 months to get the intellectual property back and in the meantime, I was on a noncompete and couldn’t work. There was a variety of experiences that. I went through including standing in line for unemployment for the first time in my life and meeting with a coach who had me realize that I was stuck in a linear way of thinking, and that if I really wanted to help people breakthrough barriers I needed to break through mine.
I took another three day large Group self-awareness training, but this time it was body intelligence based it was all about the heart connection after those three days I knew I had everything inside me to create the kind of business. I wanted to create now.
My coach challenged me to do something that if I believed that I was on the right track I would do and I said OK I’ll write an article about employee recruitment retention and engagement and how the only way to have Culture is to refine those three things to the culture you want that article was so popular. It got picked up in a national publication and weeks later. I got an email from somebody who said everything you say in your article to do I’m doing wrong. I’d like to talk to you. I spoke to him, and after an hour conversation that I met with the head of Harr and before I knew it I was flying myself to Iowa on my own dime to present to the entire leadership team about how my solution could help them
Mind you I did not have a solution at the time. I only had the knowledge that I had from leading self-awareness breakthrough seminars for the 10 years as a volunteer from 36 to 46 and then in my early 50s. I took the large group self-awareness body intelligence training and bought that intellectual properties so I had content, but I had no program so I sold that client on a three day retreat. They all attended and said we want you to do this for our entire company and that was how KeenAlignment was born.
We built it as we flew the plane we developed our first three day retreat called deep alignment, which people have an opportunity to level set as a team until the truth about what’s in the way what’s not working and what they want and what they’re committed to then we built the second retreat called compelling future where they do just that they invent a compelling future, and they strategically advance their enterprise. After that, we developed our momentum coaching program so that now that these people have created a future that was inspiring to them, they would be coached as a team as they were executing from strategy to fulfillment of that vision.
Then overtime we created our thriving through change program or train the Trainer course so that we can train other consultants to do what we do and we’ve recently launched to public programs. One is evolved the leader within which is a 13 session seminar series 90 minutes a week over three month. Period. Where people learn to upgrade their internal operating system so that they can face any challenge or change and lead themselves in others through it.
We’ve also released Ignite your power. This is a three day deep dive retreat for women and incorporates all the development that I have formally only brought into organizations for people till the soil on their life what’s important to them they learn how to upgrade their internal operating system and they invent a future that is so inspiring to them and then they developed a plan of action to make that happen
The public programs are led on the central coast of California or online on Zoom when we bring clients in for retreats, we do them along the central coast of California, so that they have the power of the ocean, the power of a rope course and the power of nature as there working through the inquiries of what they want for their business and what they want for their life and how they’re gonna make that happen
Our courses and and programs integrate with experiential learning, Nuerosciemce, peak performance and self actualization.
We have an outstanding that promoter score of 9.8 out of 10.
My website is margaretgraziano.com
And my company website is keanealignment.com
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Well, I shared that in the overview, but there was a lawsuit. There was two years of not being able to earn any money because I was on a noncompete. There was bringing my entire business community into a software company that turned out to be run by a crook.
There was working with a few clients down the road who actually did the work for transformation, but then didn’t wanna keep it up so their company backslid Yoon employees were very upset and I was getting personal phone calls that they didn’t know if they could stay with those companies anymore because they had built so much hope and they had empowered themselves and now they were actually too good for the company they were working for
Challenges with 1099s and contractors, trying to come in and steal our material
Those are the big ones
We’ve been impressed with KeenAlignment, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
KeenAlignment works at the intersection of human potential and organizational performance. We are about elevating organizational cultures, teaching them how to become emergent so they are operating a healthy intentional high-performance organization, where people thrive in the face of change
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I think with the advent of AI and the more and more items being automated people skills will be more and more important communication skills relating to others developing people as leaders so that they’re making ethical healthy good decisions not just for their company, but for society overall
Pricing:
- Our public program, Ignite, your power which is held in August and January in Pismo Beach 2500 for the retreat. This does not include lodging.
- Our public program evolved the leader within his remote and it’s $1200 and that covers 1390 minute sessions of training and every other week coaching as well as membership to a community and an online learning lab with over 50 courses
- Are corporate deep alignment three day level set for executive teams and high-level management teams is $50,000 and it is an offsite recruit and it is guaranteed to empower business leaders to breakthrough barriers and get their organization out of any Rough they may be in
- Compelling future, which is a three day strategic advance is 65,000 and it is guaranteed to align the companies overall intent operating behaviors and values and execution strategy in one cohesive plan where people walk out of the room, not just clear but empowered and eager to implement and take ownership for the plan
- Momentum coaching this is individual or group coaching. It cost $3000 a month with a $10,000 deposit and that $10,000 everyone on the team gets leadership assessment so they know what they’re working towards.
Contact Info:
- Website: KeenAlignment.com, MargaretGraziano.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/margaretgraziano.11?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570812380929&mibextid=wwXIfr
- Twitter: Keenmargo
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@magigrazi?si=iFfyMZTQ1rrApvKQ
