Episode 1577: Interview with Diana Fritz About Her Book Uniquely Imperfect, Uniquely Qualified

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining us on episode 1,577 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Diana Fritz: I'm Diana Fritz. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time and your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to focus on God's guidance and not get stuck in what's not right for you is key.

And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

If I think back through the leaders that have impacted me the most in my life, they have been authentic and admitted where when they've met. Step and have been transparent to that as [00:01:00] much as they can be, and then work with their team to improve and navigate forward. And

Scott Maderer: welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be. Then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's podcast episode, I interview Diana Fritz. I asked Anna about her book, uniquely imperfect, uniquely Qualified. I also ask her to share how overcoming adversity can be a strong leadership advantage, and she also shares. How o she overcame self-doubt in the face [00:02:00] of life's toughest moments. I have a great book that's been out for a while now called Inspired Living.

Assemble the puzzle of your calling by mastering your time, your talent, and your treasures. You can find out more about that book over an inspired living book.com. It'll take you to a page where there's information and you can sign up to get some mailings about it, as well as purchase a copy there. I'd love to see you get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world.

Diana Fritz is a dynamic executive leader, a cancer thriver, and a passionate advocate for authenticity, resilience, and positive impact. With over 25 years of experience spanning executive leadership, operations, human resources, business planning, and technology, Diana has built a reputation for fostering teamwork, driving organizational health and leading with influence, not just a little.

She's a member of the Maxwell Leadership Executive [00:03:00] Program. A corporate facilitator and a certified disc consultant. Diana is dedicated to empowering individuals and organizations through open, engaging, and values driven leadership. Her mission is to create a meaningful impact and ensure every person she encounters fills valued beyond her professional achievements.

Diana is a devoted wife, mother, and committed volunteer. She thrives on sharing insights about leadership, resilience, and navigating challenges with authenticity. Her book uniquely imperfect, uniquely qualified, is available now. Welcome to the show, Diana.

Diana Fritz: Thank you, Scott. Happy to be here.

Scott Maderer: Absolutely. I talked a lot in the intro about some of the things you've done, some of the work you've done Maxwell teams, disc.

We have a lot of things that we overlap on in some ways, but I also think of intros. They never really tell the whole story of how [00:04:00] we got somewhere. It's kinda like the Instagram photos. It just we frame everything exactly right. If you don't mind, take us back a little bit and share a little bit about your journey and what has brought you to the point of putting out the message that you put out and doing the work that you do.

Diana Fritz: Happy to do that, Scott. I, i, 15 years ago, I would not have, I had two eyes still. So those listening, I have one eye, so I have a skin patch that covers up my left eye. But 15 years ago I had two eyes. I would not have had the confidence to get up on stage and talk, or to be on a podcast or any type of scenario.

And I was pushed by my manager to be willing to do that. And then I learned to love it because I was reminded of, it's not about me, it's about the people that I get to talk to and I get to share my story to. [00:05:00] That was good preparation because never did I imagine, that my story would lead to where it, it has.

And 11 years ago I was a new single mom, an executive, and had two little boys to care for and I got my cancer diagnosis that I was not, of course, expecting nobody has. And which led to a journey of multiple surgeries. Then a period of being cancer free and then back to multiple surgeries.

And then you know the call from my doctor of nine years, Diana, we've been fighting for your eye and we need to shift to fight for your life. The tumor is grown beyond the eye and is resting on the lining of the brain. That was a pause moment. I was a president of a company at the time and I was thankful.

I locked my door that day so that I could pause and just really listen to the [00:06:00] doctor, but with tears I mentioned to him I can be thankful that I had two eyes for nine extra years and that I can live past 50 with one. During that timeframe of having my eye removed in a very extensive surgery as they had to go in through my skull to remove the tumor, and then a series of seven weeks of radiation, I had a lot of time to reflect and realize that there was lots of things I had wanted to do in life, write a book and share my story more.

And that was my time and that was my opportunity. And yes, it a cancer journey is not an easy journey, but it is a journey that has been full of blessings. That has given me an opportunity to get to talk to you today, Scott, as well as to get to share my story and what God has what God's story is in my life.

Scott Maderer: And speaking of the God story in your life [00:07:00] one of the things that I like to highlight on the show is the idea of how our faith journey and our life journey intersects. So share a little bit as you went through this challenge and had the cancer diagnosis. Obviously that's always one of those things that I think.

Even if you haven't had it yourself, you've probably had someone in your family. So many people are touched by cancer directly or indirectly, and it's always it's always interesting to hear how that sort of experience affects our faith and challenges that and reframes that, and then how that feeds back on our life as well.

So share a little bit about how your faith journey was affected as you went through these challenges.

Diana Fritz: I am, I'm very thankful, as I was writing my book around lessons from my cancer journey. It caused me to reflect. I grew up going to [00:08:00] church but a lot of times, at least for me you end up going through the motions, right?

Because you're in it, you're in church, you're in Christian schools like it, it's a different faith journey. But my grandmother was like the example for me of Jesus on earth. And so when I look back of she's no longer with us, but many people look at me like, Diana, you have her smile, you have her grace, you have her love.

And so that is. Something that I hold to and go, okay, that's a bar that I'm not worthy of. And I need to earn, I need to earn that. But I think with when I look through my. Being a shifting from being married to being a single mom, that wasn't an easy journey either. And I learned in that season how to be a part of a church and let the church [00:09:00] be the church to me, help a single mom out, help me with childcare, help me with those different things, and.

God knew I needed to learn how to let people help me because little did I know right, that my cancer journey would lead to timeframes where I was away from home and having surgeries and I needed help for my boys. And I through the journey with the church, I can't tell you how many people will look at me and say, but Diana, you're a good person.

How? Why do bad things happen to good people? And I'll just listen and smile and remind them that God never promised that it would be easy, but he promised that he would be there and good would come out of the bad. And I have seen, so many [00:10:00] opportunities to minister to people, the patients beside me, the doctors, the nurses that I'm in, that I wouldn't have had if I was focused on poor me.

But because I was focused on the others around me, God was able to use me and my journey.

Even though cancer is what brought me in those doors, God was still able to use me.

Scott Maderer: You've mentioned a couple of times the book uniquely imperfect, uniquely Qualified, it's the title. Talk a little bit about the book and why was that something that you felt called to, to put out?

Diana Fritz: The, I felt called to put out I am, I'm a journaler and, I go back and look and remember I was looking and saying, okay, I wrote in my journal when I was first diagnosed that I wanted to write a book someday. And so [00:11:00] here I am nine to almost 10 years later, and I haven't written the book yet, and.

God used so many people to prompt me to write a book. I would speak at church to share my story or to share my message, and people would come after me afterwards and say, Diana, I so wish my friend could hear this, or my sister in Michigan or that type of thing. You really need to write a book.

And so it took multiple people reminding me, Diana, you really need to write a book that, led me to go, okay, I need to write a book. And then I saw an ad on LinkedIn for. A book in a Weekend collaborative led by Tim Elmore and Sangram. And I saw it and I went, okay, God's been telling me to write a book.

I'm gonna apply. And I did, and I was a part of the first group of that book in a weekend scenario, a group of 25. And so that pushed me to [00:12:00] write the book. And my goal in doing that. It was to just be as transparent and as authentic as possible. Because you mentioned earlier, right? Many people are impacted by cancer, either personally they have it.

Or they know somebody that has it. And at some point in our lifetime, everybody's gonna be impacted by cancer, either personally having it or somebody they know. And I just wanted them to understand that cancer. Doesn't have to define us. It can refine us, but it doesn't have to define who we are.

Scott Maderer: So with the book, what uniquely imperfect, uniquely qualified what is the message of the book and who did you write it for?

Diana Fritz: Some people think I wrote the book just for somebody that has cancer, but I wrote the book with the intention of it applying to anybody because we [00:13:00] all have some type of cancer or adversity that is preventing us from moving forward.

And I love when people come up to me and say, Diana, I read it. And at first I thought, I don't need to read it. I don't have cancer. And then at the end of each chapter, you have these reflection and application questions, and I did need to read the book. I was able to learn something from it, the title.

I was debating on the title and uniquely imperfect, uniquely qualified rung true to me, because I have this. Uniquely imperfect. Look, very few people, I've never met somebody that has quite the look. I do. But because I've been able to move past poor me, to how can I help somebody else?

I am uniquely qualified to help somebody else to move forward in their respective adversity. And that's [00:14:00] what I believe the opportunity for all of us that are, have some type of unique challenge we've navigated through. If we can navigate through it, we are uniquely qualified to help somebody else.

Scott Maderer: So you see these imperfections as really a strength, not a weakness. Reflecting on that, how do you see that for leaders, for folks that are out there in whether it's in the business world, whether it's in church nonprofit, just their family often most people are in some form of leadership, whether they know it or not, that's right.

Diana Fritz: Amen.

Scott Maderer: So when you reflect on that, how do you see that that idea playing out for leaders?

Diana Fritz: I, one of the, if I, if you think back through, or if I think back through the leaders that have impacted me the most in my life, they have [00:15:00] been authentic and admitted where when they've messed up and have been transparent to that as much as they can be, and then work with their team to improve right. And navigate forward. And that is, an element of application for people in leadership. I think many times I know I have been afraid to admit that I was wrong, but my team already knows I was wrong.

So if I admit to it then we can move forward together. If I don't admit to it and be transparent, then they start to lose respect for me over time. And so that's, that's where I think the application to leadership is to remember that the respect and trust is earned every day, in every moment, and being authentic and real is so key to being [00:16:00] a true leader.

Scott Maderer: And when you think about the other message that you shared earlier, this idea of not becoming self-focused but other focused even in the midst of challenges, adversity. I think it's really easy when we have a challenge. To personalize it, to make it why me?

Why why did this have to happen to me? What did I do wrong to deserve this? How do you see that shifting, that view playing out for leaders?

Diana Fritz: Yeah. It's an interesting lesson that I feel like I learned when I was in college and. Started to learn it, right? We refine it as we get older with new challenges.

But Victor Frankl's book, A Man's [00:17:00] Search for Meaning has been so impactful to me when I read it as a college freshman. Chose to go to college to play basketball. That's why I went to college so I could play basketball and I tore my ACL. It didn't work out so well. That's a season ending injury.

But I was reading that book and his challenge he was in prison and he was still positive and hopeful and caring to the people that beat him and starved him. And his quote, no matter what happens to me, nobody can steal my freedom to choose how I respond. And that. Lesson has carried with me throughout my life, whether it's on a cancer journey or all the tough things that happen to us in leadership, right?

Whether it's a crisis, it's customers cancel, it's COVID, right? It's all these things, right? As a leader, we set the tone of how we respond to that is how our people are going to see they need to respond, right? [00:18:00] You set the bar, you set the tone. So how you respond to adversity is so key for the rest of your team and how they follow.

Scott Maderer: What are some of the biggest challenges that you see for people and leaders dealing with this? When you work with people when you're delivering your message what are some of the challenges that leaders face? When it comes to really reframing how they look at adversity, reframing how they find value in, in what they're doing.

Diana Fritz: That's a loaded question, Scott. I think yes, it was. No. And I was, I think through it, like in, in reality, I really kinda taking this a little bit to my, what, my passion around disc and communication. I think at some level, it depends [00:19:00] on the type of business and people that you have, but a lot of times when the adversity comes.

Your how you communicate and connect with your people is so critical. A lot of times leaders choose not to communicate, which makes it even feel worse, right? Because where a lack of communication negativity fills the gap and that becomes like so important, right? In terms of navigating through challenges and helping people to know how to reframe or to respond because.

You have the opportunity as a leader to have the tough conversations to frame what's happening, to give the people the right thing to say or how to respond. But if you say nothing, then you allow all the negativity in the back chatter to happen and you miss your opportunity to lead and help people to understand how they're, how you, or how the company is going to navigate through.

Scott Maderer: [00:20:00] With leaders too. I think a lot of times they're challenged by feelings of self-doubt of imposter syndrome. They're gonna figure out, I really don't know what I'm doing. All of these things. Sometimes that's because it's true. Sometimes it's not because it's true.

It doesn't matter. We still feel it. So what would you say to that leader that is, is struggling right now with. With realizing they know they're not necessarily doing the best job that they could as a leader, but at the same time they're doing it, they're doing the best they can.

What message would you share with them?

Diana Fritz: I can relate to those moments. I think one of the key things I learned is to make sure that I have people around me that compliment my blind spot. So I have a literal blind spot that Scott can see. I don't have an eye right, but to have the supporting team around me [00:21:00] that.

Compliments where I'm weak, so where my weak points are, have people around me that are strong and to have a team around me that I trust. Because if I'm too far ahead of my team, I don't have a team and I don't have people that can support me where I do have blind spots or weaknesses go through and to just.

Remember, right? That's the opportunity of being a leader is you have a team around you, don't take it all on yourself. 'cause you're gonna, you can't do it all. You are gonna fail.

Scott Maderer: Yeah. But at the same time a lot of times that's the message that people are given in leadership is you can't you can't ask questions, you can't share the challenge with your team because your.

You are the responsible one. You're the one in charge. You have to make all the decisions. The buck stops with you all of those different messages that we get shared. What would you say to [00:22:00] the leader that was their knee jerk response when they heard you Just saying that

Diana Fritz: I look at that and say, okay, as the leader I'm charged with yes.

Leading the organization, but I am not charged with doing all the work. I am charged with bringing in the right people to do the work. So I am charged to lead. Lead does not mean that I need to get in the nitty gritty and do all the work. I need to empower the people and bring the right people in to do the work.

Scott Maderer: So I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but before I go there and ask those, is there anything else about the work you do or your book that you'd like to share with the listener?

Diana Fritz: I think in terms of, my book is a theme in terms of the work I do. My passion is around adding value to people and helping them move forward.

I absolutely cringe at obstacles, right? There's always a way, right? And [00:23:00] there's always a way through. And so that would be just my encouragement is to there's gonna be super tough moments, whether you're a leader or personally and. Don't give in pause. And there's always a way forward and don't give up hope.

Scott Maderer: So my brand has inspired stewardship and I have a tendency to run things through that lens of stewardship. And yet I've discovered over the years that's one of those words that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So for you, when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you?

Diana Fritz: I think when I was a youth, it meant to me that I needed to tithe as I've gotten older, right? It means to me that I'm making the most of what God has blessed me with. And so that could include tithing, it does, but it also means I'm using my talents to honor him, and I'm using the gifts that I've been [00:24:00] given to honor him.

And, a love like one Peter four 10 as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God and that I think so many times I see people, they show up, right? They're in church every Sunday, or they apply their talents, right? But they forget the opportunity to serve. And that is such a key component of stewardship from my perspective, like using the talents to help a mother.

That's,

Scott Maderer: so for me, this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. Imagine for a moment that I invented this magic machine. And with this machine, I could take you from where you are today and transport you into the future, maybe 150, maybe 250 years. But through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life.

See all of the connections. See all of the [00:25:00] ripples. See all of the impacts you've left. What impact do you hope you've left in the world?

Diana Fritz: Scott, I think the most important impact would be that I look back at my two boys and that that they found me faithful and they found me a good example of salt and light and somebody that overcame and that wasn't a victim. That's what stands out the most to me on that question is because. I could be successful outside my home, but if I am not successful in my home, I have not done what God's asked me to do.

Scott Maderer: So what's on the roadmap? What's coming next for you as you continue on your journey?

Diana Fritz: I have some more books in me that I am working through.

Scott Maderer: Any anyone who I tell people too, I'm working on my second book already. I yeah. Still promoting the first one and I'm already working on another one.

Diana Fritz: [00:26:00] I have I have too many in my head but one that is really important to me is actually a children's version of Oh, cool. The book I have written because I am my look is unique, people can't help but look, but children ask questions and a love that they ask questions. And it's a unique opportunity for me to connect with them.

And so that is important to me because I feel like our youth need to know it's okay to talk to people that are different and that people that are different are good people too. And so that is like next to my roadmap as well as just looking for opportunities to share my story and impact lives.

Scott Maderer: Awesome. So you can find out more about Diana Fritz over at Grit, UIUQ. That's for uniquely imperfect, uniquely qualified, and Grit is the name of her business. So over there.com Of course, I'll have a link to that in the [00:27:00] show notes if you're driving right now and can't go over there to take a look.

Diana, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

Diana Fritz: I would just like to thank for the opportunity to be on and for them listening today, and just encourage them to be a good steward of their time and their talents and the gifts that they've been given.

Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode. Please. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes.

Rate all one word iTunes rate. [00:28:00] It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review, and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.