The Underdog Story of Sharon and Wayne As They Climb Their Way To The Top

Pamela Bardhi
All righty. Welcome, everyone to another episode of the underdog. We have two amazing guests here with us, Wayne and Sharon Gill.

Wayne
Hey, Pamela.

Pamela Bardhi
Oh, hey, how are you doing?

Wayne
Doing great, doing awesome today.

Pamela Bardhi
So we’ve got these two rock stars here. Can’t wait to hear their story, their Underdog Story, both of them are pretty amazingly very much enjoyed the conversation so far with the both of you, and I can’t wait for you to share it with the listeners. So if you could give me a little bit of background on sort of your story and sort of how, where you’re at now, where you’ve been, give us the whole synopsis in a nutshell.

Sharon
Okay. All right. So where we’re at right now? Well, let me tell you where we’re at right now. We are fully transitioned to an online business. I say that because this was a big decision for us because we had been running a brick-and-mortar business for over 20 something years, a law firm, and a charity. And at the end of last year, we decided that for our next season in life, we wanted to transition to a fully online business, we’re going to be doing speaking, writing, coaching, just motivation. We’re from Florida. I mean, that’s where we were living for 27 years, and I remember our family and friends thinking we’re gone crazy. How we packed up everything to move to Charlotte, North Carolina. We know no one. But we really felt called to this particular area only having visited it one time. 24 hours.

That’s it. It is one time. It was a drive-by we were after heading home. And I said what is that over? It’s Charlotte. Let’s drive in there. Four hours. we spent in the city, and I said, I’m gonna live here because I want to be living. And so we decided to transition to Charlotte where we had no relatives, no friends. No one. But we felt cards here. I’m so glad we did because it was right before that pandemic hit.

And all those people who were doubting or not applauding the movement, they appreciate it, it was because if we had a brick and mortar business right now, with staff, it would have been just horrendous. So yes, where we are right now, we’re online, we’re coaching. We’re trying to inspire to motivate, try to lead both from the leadership aspect, spiritual aspect, business aspect, but it’s a bit of a backstory. We’re both from Jamaica, right? You can hear my accent. Here. Wayne’s accent.

Wayne
We can. Okay, I grew up in Connecticut. Connecticut flattens every accent.

Sharon
I wasn’t that. I didn’t flatten at all.

Wayne
You’re from Boston. So you can’t say that.

Pamela Bardhi
Yeah. Boston, we just exaggerate everything. No R’s exist around. Yeah.

Wayne
Only for Connecticut. I actually live right between Boston and New York. Yeah. So like growing up, weekends are either Yeah, we’re going either North up to up to Boston or south to New York. Both of those places have defining accents. We didn’t even have any

Sharon
This accent superseded his Jamaican accent. Yeah, I was not lucky. I came to Brooklyn.

Wayne
I love your Jamaican accent. Oh, never lose that.

Sharon
Here but we were both from Jamaica. And we actually lived not too far apart about a mile apart. Never met in Jamaica. Yeah. But he came here when he was seven or eight. I came here when I was 20-21. We met a year after I got here. We married up six months after we met. Crazy but…

Wayne
She found the man of her dreams, obviously. All right, see, that’s another thing for your viewers, Pamela, persistence pays. Don’t give up, don’t give up.

Sharon
But I am glad I met him when I did. Because as an immigrant from a smaller, third world country. Wayne taught me a lot about what American norms and culture are. Because he grew up here. he was in the system. We met when he was in his last year of college. So even though we know what you can spell certain words, we’re on the British system. He said don’t spell that word that way here, it won’t work, you know, that was that color and just the way we spelled in the islands. And even as I began my career with American Express, they taught me how to navigate the review process, the corporate norms of culture. So, I mean, he was an asset in my life at a very early age, even though I’m a year older than him. He likes older women.

Wayne
Hey, I’m telling you, Mama didn’t raise anything.

Sharon
He likes older women. So he has attracted this older lady, me. But he taught me a lot in our journeys in my 20s. But yeah, you know, when I came from Jamaica, my first role in here was the role of, you know, a nanny. I did it for two years in New York, because I wasn’t able to get a job because I had no US experience. So every door I knocked on, it was like, nope, US experience and I was a travel agent back home. I was trying to get into the same field that I like, as experienced, whereas the US experience ended up working for two or three different families in New York as a nanny. And that is a whole story that I want to write a book on but that’s the future.

But there were some defining moments for me there. I learned how to treat people and how not to treat people. You can make lemonade out of lemons, right? I chose to make lemonade out of my lemons. Everybody experienced, I had, really empowered me to think and dream of how this could be better. Because after all, I came here for the American dream, right? And I wasn’t experiencing it. But I knew it was here because I saw other people experiencing and the people I lived with. I worked for it, so everybody experienced me, just empowered me to dream more of what my life could be.

Wayne
That’s so powerful. if I can just jump in there. And I think, you know, to kind of bridge it to now. Now, in our coaching business, we have the ability to transfer that knowledge to people who are going through a similar struggle, right? To say, Look, you’re trying to reach your dream. It’s different than ours, but it’s yours. Right? And it’s possible because we did it, other people have done it. It’s kind of like what you’re trying to do, Pam, and highlighting those people who have come from such adverse backgrounds and situations that whatever is out there that’s in front of you, it’s overcome. So we tried to make that point to the people who we inspire each day, that it’s possible what’s that famous? saying? The word impossible actually spells I’m possible.

Pamela Bardhi
Yeah. What I find amazing. Sharon too, you mentioned you came here with $56 in your pocket? Yes. That’s some fearlessness right there. I know people like I was saying, when my parents came to the US, they also didn’t have a plan for it. They just either just kind of did it. Wayne was speaking earlier, when we’re getting ready, you have to just stick your toe in. There’s no like, right at you just keep going like you came here and you’re just like, Alright, what am I gonna do? No US experience. Okay. All right. If I can’t be a travel agent, what else am I gonna do? And you started knocking on those doors? Sometimes people are like, well, you don’t have a plan. You don’t have it ready? You don’t have this? And it’s like, No, you just go.

Sharon
Yes. Yeah.

Pamela Bardhi
So I think innately you’ve always had that. And that’s like, kind of your entrepreneurial bugging you. It kept it going with I find amazing. I just want to comment on that. One.

Sharon
I appreciate that. You know, my dad was an entrepreneur, and he was a contractor. So from five years old, I was going on construction sites with him writing rent receipts for him, he had properties. He taught me a lot early. And he taught me to be very independent. And I think sometimes we shouldn’t have hardships, right? I know, as a mom, I tried to cushion my kids from hardship, which is a mistake now in retrospect, because we came from hardship. So you try to cushion your kids from hardship, and they don’t get that instinct to survive.

When I came to New York, it really was a concrete jungle, right? I had to survive. I had to do six bucks. That was because in leaving the island, that’s all you were allowed to take. That was the limit because US dollars were scarce. You were only allowed to leave the country with $56. And I had some relatives here that I was staying with and God bless them. I’m glad they were here. But we know that after a while, you just have to kind of go on your own because you don’t want that family member who overstayed. And not that I ever felt unwelcomed but it is like being a bird in a nest and it’s time to get out.

So we’re going to more than one center kind of get going. And so my options were limited. But I had to survive. So I did what I had to do and I have no regrets. You know, simple things like the way how you set a formal table. I was 22 years old, right? I didn’t know how to set a formal table from Jamaica, knife, and fork. With these families I was working with, it was knives and forks and dessert spoon and wine glasses and all those lessons I used when I got into my home.

And I was doing galas for my charity, and I was doing for my dinners from my home. All of those lessons came rushing back, how to cook. You know, one time they had me cook, everything was from scratch. So I had to make barbecue sauce from scratch, but for the minute tomato sauce from scratch him at the bar, I mean, and I thought it was hard then because again, I was 22 years old. Yeah. Then I became a great cook, right?

Wayne
I would say, those hardships are the things that you see as a hardship at the moment. Most of the time, they end up being the biggest blessings. And it’s hard to see that at the moment. I know your listeners are going through something right now. They’re up against something hard, it could be a financial issue, it could be a health issue, maybe a relationship, whatever business but just to go through the hardship with the idea or with the perspective that, what am I going to learn from this? What is this teaching me? You know, in a gym, you’ve got to lift weights, you got to push against resistance to build those muscles. And a lot of times I say more to push away the resistance. But the resistance is how we really develop as people, as business owners, entrepreneurs, whatever the difficulties in life.

Sharon
You know, when talks about coaching, and it’s true, it makes me an optimist. Right. So when people come to me, I don’t care what their problems are. I’m able to see what it could be, how good it can be. Good to me. I’ve been an underdog as you would say. But I’m not an underdog right now. You know, I’m a victor. I’m not a victim. And so when people come to me, a lot of times they feel like victims, and I’m not discounting what they’re going through, right. I understand where they’re at. I really do I understand where they’re at.

But then I said this, redesign your life then. How do you want it? And I always point to my strong point. Design your life, you have the power, you have the choice to redesign your life. A lot of it is your life. It’s your life. I could have said, Oh my god, I’m gonna go back to Jamaica, because mine is worse here. No one gonna give me a job. But I’m gonna start somewhere. Let me start here. And so I dreamt, I had my dreams with me. When I was cleaning toilets, I had my dream with me. When I was taking the kids out for a walk with my managers, I had my dream with me. I dreamed when I was passing by Bloomingdale’s in New York. I dreamed I was going to be new shopping crazily.

Wayne
And that dream can true, by the way.

Pamela Bardhi
Love that.

Sharon
It did. You have your dreams, Right? No one can take that away from you, Viktor Frankl says. Even when he was in the concentration camp. They couldn’t get into his mind. Right? That was his story. And no matter how bad things are, we’re not Viktor Frankl in a concentration camp. Yes. Our dreams may not be working right now. Our goals may be unclear right now. But we’re okay. We’re walking around freely. So dream if you’re gonna dream, you might as well just dream and design what you want. So let’s design something that you want that you don’t like, where things are, let’s redesign it.

Wayne
Yeah. That’s so important, Sharon. If I could jump in there. You know, I was just thinking as you’re talking about that. It’s in the mind and your mind can be that prison. Or your mind can be the open door of freedom. It can be it’s here. You know, it’s your mind.

Pamela Bardhi
Yeah, really. Absolutely. And the thing that I love is like you took the past experiences that you had been a nanny, which some people would be like. Oh, it’s just like a nanny job, right? Like, it’s whatever, but you, you use those skills that you learn there, and it had you in the future. And it was like, I tell people all the time, who is he? Just because you’re not in your dream career right now, at this very moment, whatever it is that you could be working on, just take some sort of job on because you’re going to learn something, that’s cool.

When I used to be a waitress way back and a lot of people are ashamed of being a waitress or a bartender ever. And I’m like, listen, that means you can handle pressure. That means you can multitask. You can do all of these things. And like in your case, when you’re a nanny, you learned how to cook from scratch you learned all this etiquette, you learned all these things, but at the time, you didn’t realize how impactful it was. But then you’re like, oh, what I learned there, there’s always a lesson in something.

And that’s right. We’ll just go no matter what, even if you’re not at your dream career yet, start something. it’s at least a stepping stone to the next level. Which I love. So I’m just adoring everything that you’re saying. So I have a question for you. What are what was like, what was your biggest turning point? I guess you would say that sort of made you be like, Alright, I’m doing my own thing now. You know, I’m starting my own business career, that kind of thing. I think you mentioned it was the law firm. Initially.

Sharon
So after that nanny job for a couple of years, I finally got a job with a Fortune 500 company. But American Express work that for eight years, and then started in New York, and then transferred to DC then I transferred to Florida, because when I’d gotten a job he had finished last August, and when is going to school on my dime, just kidding.

Wayne
I’m paying it back every single day.

Sharon
All of this work. Wayne went to law school, and he became an attorney and worked for a couple of years with a good firm. And then we just felt like it was time to do our own law firm. And, you know, when you were talking Pamela about being a waitress and having fun with people to take whatever job is available right now. What came to my mind was the word transferable skills, right? these skills are transferable if you look at them that way. I had now the nanny skills. I had American Express, which was a phenomenal company, which I did pretty well with that company. We had those skills. So we thought, rather than working for other people, it’s time to work ourselves. So we launched into the deep open up our law firm.

Wayne went first and went for about six months by himself, then I joined. And I said, Okay, I’m gonna take all of the skills, I learned American express how to treat customers, how to just be customer center, really. Take on that and we’re going to do a law firm differently. Because Wayne said to me that lawyers are notoriously bad at treating customers well. So I thought we’re going to be different. So I came over to join Wayne, and we just created a culture of excellence and customer service and empathy and community. And that was our turning point moment really. You know, you were working for a boss who wasn’t?

Wayne
Well, you know, I was working for a big corporate law firm. So it was the typical big corporate law firm. Great, great firm. But I think really more than anything else, which I want to focus on. A couple of things Sharon talked about. The first one is self-awareness. And I think if you really got a shovel and dug down to the bottom of what made us make the switch from I was working for the big law firm and Sharon’s working for American express the Big Corporation. And going on our own, I think it’s a matter of self-awareness. It’s like what Sharon said her father was a contractor. He was a builder, he was an entrepreneur. She grew up getting rent receipts for him and running errands and whatnot with him and I was the same way.

In my case, it was my grandparents who were trucking and they were store owners, they had a bus company. They had many different things, so I grew up with that entrepreneurial spirit just in me. I remember being in that big law firm and having a conversation once with my mentor at the time. He was a great guy who was on the senior track. He’s now a partner in that same firm, 20 odd years later. But at the time, he wasn’t a partner yet.

I remember we were having this conversation. And he was we’re sitting back, like on a Friday afternoon after work was done. We’re just chilling out talking about our work, he looks at me, he goes, Yo, I would never do anything else in my life, I just love this. I love the environment, I love the way I can just have all this great support staff in this team and everything. I just love it and would never go on my own. He’s like, I could never do that. And I remember the kind of nodding along with him and smiling. But I remember thinking in my own mind at a time, like, gee, I don’t really agree with that. Like, I can’t wait for the day when I can kind of go on my own.

It was the first time it kind of dawned on me that I was probably going to go on my own. Not for anything, not because the firm was bad or because the boss was tough or anything. Just because that’s just the way God wired me, to be an entrepreneur. And that’s the way God wired Sharon and so at some point, that wiring was gonna come together, and we were gonna explore that and I think our family background, the influence like you, your parents we’re entrepreneurs. They own the restaurant and you grew up in that environment. I think that just came to shape our ultimate decision that we’re going to take a chance, we’re going to bet on ourselves. And we’re going to go for it.

Sharon
I’ll just jump in. You know, when we talked about that, that lawyer who said he can…

Wayne
He is still there. Yes. right.

Sharon
It just reminded me of people, you know, potential clients. There’s no right or wrong. If you want to be an entrepreneur, wonderful, that’s not your wired. And if you want to be what I call an entrepreneur, wonderful. If you just want a corporate person, that’s fine. You have to know you’ve got that, Not everyone’s wired to be an entrepreneur. That’s a whole different mindset. Right? And so in Wayne’s mindset was no, I want to be independent, I want to call my own shots.

That guy’s mindset was no, I want to have support. I want to have community, I don’t want to be your risk. And so there’s no right or wrong. Not everyone has to be not just right, or you just have to know who you are. And that’s why so many businesses fail. That’s right because you’re trying to be someone else, not you, you’re not cut out to be an entrepreneur, so, as you were talking about it, I just think about all the people I do discover cars with and I’m like, are you sure you want to be an entrepreneur? Because the mindset has to be there to be an entrepreneur.

Pamela Bardhi
Yeah, right. And you got to keep going. You got to get all the struggle. I mean, I’m sure you both when you started the firm. You started with nothing and built at a time, right. I’m starting my own law firm, like, here’s 100 clients. Ohhhhhh, we wish. You had to build it little by little.

Wayne
Absolutely. Pamela, my first client was a guy with a $250 retainer and met me around my kitchen table. I didn’t even have an office, he came to my house, outside of my kitchen table, wrote me a check for 250 bucks to help him on a case. That’s how we started. We had a Hewlett Packard back in the day, there was actually a company called Hewlett Packard, computer, refurbished computer that we bought. And that’s the time without a tax return. Because we didn’t have any money to start. That’s how we started 250 bucks and within I’m gonna say 30 months, we were over a million dollars in revenue.

Pamela Bardhi
Bless you. That is awesome. And I just got chills. That’s God working right there. Yeah.

Wayne
And that that gentleman passed away. And I’ll always remember him as the first guy who believed in me showed up at my house and wrote me a check for us to get started.

Pamela Bardhi
I love that. Oh, my God. Oh, with all that being said, sort of. So you’ve talked a little bit about where you’re at now. So what’s the future looking like?

Wayne
Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.

Sharon
Well, one of the things that I’d love to see, on the purpose center, leadership center, what we do is, I call it the profit center. Leadership Institute where I want to really marry nonprofits and corporations. I want to train nonprofits to be better leaders. You know, I have a big background in that. And I want to encourage corporations to continue to support nonprofits, your work. I think it’s a win-win. Yes, corporations get to do something that’s purposeful, and nonprofits deliver to the community. So everyone’s happened to the community to win.

So that’s one of my dreams down the line. Right now, what is dubbing down with coaching? I’m loving that we have some masterminds coming up. And I just love to see people grow. I feel like you owe it to yourself to invest in yourself, you owe it to yourself to grow, you know, as long as you have breath you have right when I get up in the morning, I say this is a bit of the Lord has made, I am going to rejoice and be glad in it.

It’s a choice. Yes, it’s a choice. I could choose not to. The world is still having a pandemic currently, the news is horrible. The economy is kind of weird, but I will rejoice and be glad in it. And how am I gonna spend today and it’s all based on what I value, all based on our belief system, but it’s still all based on your choice. You’re gonna make a decision you’re gonna, yeah, amen.

Wayne
Yeah. It’s always coming back to you always. One of my favorite things, we talked earlier about was my avocation as a preacher. One of the things I always say to people is like, look, man, we got to draw a circle around ourselves, like, let’s draw it around me first. Then if I can draw a circle around me, I might not be able to change the economy. I might not be able to change my neighbor across the street, or even my wife sitting right beside me, right? But I can change me; my attitude, my response, how joyful I’m gonna be, my reaction to that adversity or to, I don’t know, maybe even some that’s undeserved, right, that comes my direction. I’m in charge of myself. And so I could always make those choices.

Their Biggest Piece Of Advice Based On Their Journey And Experience 

Pamela Bardhi
Right. Absolutely. And that’s gonna lead me to my last question. Yes, we’ll do it. I can’t wait to hear what would be your biggest piece of advice based on your journey and your experience?

Wayne
Yeah, I’ll let you go first, though.

Sharon
Well, my biggest piece of advice is that I believe in making lemonade out of lemons. Life throws you these curves, I don’t care who you are, you’re going to get to a place. Even if you’re doing well, right now, there’s going to come a time when you’re going to get to a place of the heart. Push through the heart, keep a clear vision for yourself, you know, really what you’re aiming for, and push through the heart.

A lot of times, you know, we give up too soon. I always think about that story. I’ve heard about an Eskimo who died right near his igloo pushing through so hard. And then right, you know, three feet from gold gave up. So don’t give up, it sounds cliche, but I have to get if I make a decision every morning, I’m going to do I’m going to win today, I’m going to be in gratitude today.

I’m just making that choice for myself today. And don’t live too far out into the future. You know, and I always say this to people, right? Thinking about the past creates depression. Thinking about the future too much creates anxiety, don’t live too far out into the future. You know, we can’t control that, we can only control what we have now. Our thoughts now, our decisions now, we can only control them now. So why do we want to plan and design life? Don’t get anxious about how it’s going to turn out? Because we have no idea.

Pamela Bardhi
Right?

Sharon
A phone call today could change my life.

Pamela Bardhi
Yep.

Sharon
In either direction.Right. And I have no control over that phone call.

Pamela Bardhi
Right.

Wayne
So let’s just stay in the now make lemonade out of lemons, push through standing out. Don’t get too anxious.

Pamela Bardhi
That’s why they call the president the president. Right?

Sharon
Yeah, that’s right.

Wayne
Sorry about that. Oh, yeah. And I would say, Pam, my word of advice to your listeners would be, bet on yourself. Just three words, bet on yourself. Just bet on yourself. Believe you can make it you know, each and every one of us, I believe was born with at least one gets at least one thing to offer to the world. And we tend to look at everyone else and worry about their gifts or what we don’t have, you know, we spent a lot of time thinking about what we’re missing. Like, I was born in a third-world country. So I’m missing, maybe healthcare and maybe better roads, and I’m missing this and that.

But let’s look at what you do have. And I believe each and every person was gifted something. So bet on that gift, find out what that gift is. And give it and it could just be the gift of kindness. It could just be like empathy, to care, but whatever that gift is, you don’t have to be a genius in business or, the biggest politician or the biggest artist or musician or whatever. You may have what people would call a small gift. But just bet on that gift, bet on yourself.

A lot of your listeners right now are probably fearful about maybe taking a step because it requires, they’re gonna have to believe in themselves or you’re gonna have to do something they’ve never done before. You’re up against something they’ve never seen before. I would just encourage them to just believe in themselves because even if you fail, even if you take a step, and you fail, a couple of things is gonna happen. One, you’re gonna learn something. And most likely, you’re gonna figure it out. Like we said earlier, Maria Forleo always says it’s figure-outable. It whatever it is figure-outable when it’s overcomable. So just believe in yourself. Bet on yourself. It’s the best bet you will ever make.

Pamela Bardhi
I love that. I love that now for the listeners. Thank you so much. Where can they find both of you? Social media, LinkedIn? Yeah, I anything.

Sharon
We’re both on LinkedIn. We’re at sharongill.com. LinkedIn, we’re active there and but my website is sharongill.com.

Wayne
From the website, you can find all the social media links.

Pamela Bardhi
So Sharon, sharongill.com, right? So make sure nobody gets it twisted everybody gets. Because they got to find you.

Wayne
Clarity is very important. Clarity

Pamela Bardhi
So it’s been such a blessing to talk to you both. And I love your story and I can’t wait to see what you do with the Institute. I’m sure there’ll be a part two to this. And where you’ll be telling me it’s launched. I know you’re dreaming it all up there. Thank you both so, so much.