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Maryann Karinch | Control the Conversation

218: Maryann Karinch: Cancer helped save my relationship

Maryann Karinch Show Notes Page

Maryann Karinch had a mountain climbing experience that was beautiful and satisfying. Not a real mountain climbing experience, but a figurative one. Along with her partner Jim they fought a common enemy in Maryann’s cancer. It was life and relationship saving experience.

Maryann was born and raised in a place called Karinchville—no kidding. Her dad’s older brother bought cheap land during World War II and built a town on it. It grew, house by house, in the post-war years.

Her Dad was a Marine and mom was a nurse. At 94, her mom is still alive and telling Maryann what to do. Little brother was also a Marine and he is back in Karinchville making sure Mom has enough groceries.

Her neighborhood was filled with boys—her best friends growing up—so the concept of this being a “man’s world” sounded like a place where she felt comfortable. Combined with dad telling her that she could be anything but a pro football player, she didn’t see a glass ceiling. She saw an elevator. That set her up for successful ventures into professional theater, corporate marketing, business consulting, and ultimately a focus on the interpersonal skills that business people need to thrive. She writes about them and teaches them.

After earning a master’s degree in theater arts, she managed a professional theater and did some independent producing. Writing kept grabbing her attention, however, so she published a series of articles about her personal adventures, including having surgery under hypnosis instead of anesthesia and getting certified for open-water SCUBA diving. Hi-tech companies, including Apple, then snagged her to write marketing copy, press releases, white papers and other things they hoped would be provocative. From there, it was a short hop to writing full-time—mostly about human behavior. When her literary agent had a baby, that meant it was time to add a new dimension to the career and she became an agent herself. That was 15 years ago.

Maryann’s most current release is titled Control the Conversation: How to Charm, Deflect and defend Your Position.

Her current home is Estes Park, Colorado. She has four gorgeous cats and a partner named Jim McCormick, who is one of her favorite co-authors as well as a business consultant and holder of a dozen world records in skydiving.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen to @MaryannKarinch to get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow – Click to Tweet

“It improves our quality of life to learn and have an exchange with people.” – Click to Tweet

“A response gives you dimensions of information rather than just answering a question.” – Click to Tweet

“The other person will feel closer to you if they know more about you.” – Click to Tweet

“When you volunteer a little more depth, you open the door for the other person to tell you more as well.” – Click to Tweet

“We’re so accustomed, because of our devises, to push information that we forget that we need to receive it.” – Click to Tweet

“Just assume the best, take it from there and see what happens.” – Click to Tweet

“There’s a great shift in the non-verbal because we have a lot of cultures coming together.” – Click to Tweet

“A desire to succeed can strengthen you, but fear of failure can immobilize you.” – Click to Tweet

“All people of all types have something to share.” – Click to Tweet

Hump to Get Over

Maryann Karinch had a mountain climbing experience that was beautiful and satisfying. Not a real mountain climbing experience, but a figurative one. Along with her partner Jim they fought a common enemy in Maryann’s cancer. It was life and relationship saving experience.

Advice for others

All people of all types have something to share.

Holding her back from being an even better leader

I don’t feel held back. What is holding me back is time.

Best Leadership Advice

Servant leadership. Pay attention to other people.

Secret to Success

I’m happy.

Best tools in business or life

I take big risks. I’m not afraid of big risks.

Recommended Reading

Control the Conversation: How to Charm, Deflect and Defend Your Position

Business Lessons from the Edge: Learn How Extreme Athletes Use Intelligent Risk Taking to Succeed in Business

Contacting Maryann Karinch

Website: http://karinch.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/maryannkarinch

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryannkarinch/

Resources and Show Mentions

Call Center Coach

An Even Better Place to Work

Show Transcript: 

Click to access edited transcript

218: Maryann Karinch: Cancer helped save my relationship

 

 

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader podcast, where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

 

Call center coach develops and unites the next generation of call center leaders. Through our e-learning and community individuals gain knowledge and skills in the six core competencies that is the blueprint that develops high-performing call center leaders. Successful supervisors do not just happen so go to callcentercoach.com to learn more about enrollment and download your copy of the Supervisor Success Path e-book now.

 

Okay Fast Leader legion today I’m excited because we had somebody on the show today who’s going to help us really was something that is most critical to every single one of us. MaryAnn Karinch was born and raised in a place called Karinchville, no kidding. Her dad’s older brother bought cheap land during World War two and built a town on it. It grew house by house in the post-war years. Her dad was a marine and mom was a nurse. At 94, her mom is still alive and telling MaryAnn what to do. Little brother was also a marine and he is back in Karinchville making sure mom has enough groceries. Her neighborhood was filled with boys and her best friends growing up so that her concept at being in a man’s world sounded like a place where she felt comfortable. Combined with dad telling her that she could do anything but be a pro football player she didn’t see a glass ceiling she saw an elevator. That set her up for successful adventures into professional theater, corporate marketing, business consulting, and ultimately a focus on the interpersonal skills that business people need to thrive. She writes about them and teaches them. After earning a master’s degree in theater arts she managed a professional theater and did some independent producing, writing kip grabbing her attention however. So she published a series of articles about her personal adventures including having surgery under hypnosis instead of any anesthesia and getting certified for open water scuba diving. Her high-tech companies including Apple then snagged her to write marketing company, press releases, white papers, and other things they hoped would be provocative. From there it was a short stop the writing full-time mostly about human behavior. When her literary agent had a baby that meant that it was time to add a new dimension to her career and she became an agent herself. That was 15 years ago. MaryAnn’s most current release titled, Throw the Conversation: How to Charm, Deflect and Defend your Position. Her current home is Estes Park, Colorado and she has four gorgeous cats and a partner named Jim McCormack who is one of her favorite co-author as well as a business consultant and holder of a dozen World Records and skydiving. MaryAnn Karinch, are you ready to help us get over the hump?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     You bet. It’s great to be with you Jim.

 

Jim Rembach:    Well, thanks I’m glad you’re here. Now I’ve given my Legion a little bit about you but can you tell us what your current passion is so that we get to know you even better?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Oh, okay, my current passion is what I do—which is writing. I have a constant adventure—I always loved school and writing allows me to go way deep into all kinds of subjects and learn and keep learning and that excites me to no end.

 

Jim Rembach:    I know you have several books that have been published. Really for you when you start thinking about all of those different titles and all those different subjects, where does this one lie in the realm of all of those that you have as far as importance and passion?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     What I did with Jim Pyle is at the heart of what excites me most which is understanding people and helping people do what they do better. You will ask questions and hopefully we give a complete response to those questions. What that does is that helps people get together it helps communication on every level it helps us understand each other professionally and socially and it just I think improves our quality of life to be able to have an exchange like that to learn about people and what their priorities are so that’s why we enjoy doing this so much. We think it benefits people on lots of levels.

 

Jim Rembach:    You’ve mentioned something right there that I would like to actually kind of dig into a little bit. You talked about responding, so we’re not talking about answering questions you’re talking about responding to questions. What’s the difference? 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     The difference is if I respond, if I answered your question, I would have said yes and stop there but a response gives you much more. It gives you dimensions of information even if you just ask a yes-or-no question, I would respond with all kinds of different things. 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     You talked about the four areas of disclosure when you’re responding. What are those four areas? 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     People, places, things, and time. If you ask me a question that’s a thing question, how’s the weather? The weather is cold and the mountains are beautiful I was out with a friend this morning it was chilly at 6:30, that kind of thing. I’d add other kinds of information in there that would give you a bigger picture than just, well it’s cold. 

 

Jim Rembach:    I think that actually gives a better opportunity. I think the subtitle of the book is, how to charm, deflect, defend your position through any line of questioning and one of those important components that we have to be able to build when we’re going through that type of engagement or interaction is rapport and unless you learn how to respond appropriately, and with that color that you’re referring to, people can’t really get an understanding of you and the type of person you are.

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Right. Especially if you’re involved in something like a sales situation or an interview and the other person will feel closer to you if they know more about you. Not only that but when you volunteer a little bit more depth, you open the door for the other person to tell you more as well. You enliven the conversation and you make it much more possible to bond.

 

Jim Rembach:    I think one of the things that was important to me that I discovered through your book is you talked about responding and the types of responders. You mentioned something about four different types of responder, what does that really mean?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     We have a predisposition to respond to questions in a particular way it’s how the brain works. Let’s go to an easy one right off the bat. Of the fourth, the easiest to understand is probably dictator. I’m saying this without judgment but a great example of somebody who is a dictator in answering questions is Donald Trump, President Trump. That should immediately give you a sense of what a dictator is. A dictator tells you what he wants you to hear. Rather than make it a two-way street, which is what we’re mostly used to in a conversation, this would be pushing information toward you. Regardless of what you ask me I’m going to give you an answer that I want to give you. Another is handler. Handler will drip, drip, drip the information,  manage the flow of the information, and that’s typical for people who want to kind of control the agenda, it’s not an not control in a bad sense, it’s more like giving you the flow of the information to whatever extent is necessary to get a point

Across. Another one is evader. Again I’m not being judgmental or pejorative by using the term evader. If a person doesn’t really answer the question or respond to the question that you ask sometimes it’s because he or she hears it differently or is focused on something that is completely, like aside like peripheral information, so the evader would have to steer back toward what you really want to know as a questioner. The fourth one is the commentator.  I’m not being gender specific with this but women tend to be commentators more than men we’ll add the floral aspect of whatever we’re telling you, will tell you more than you want, that’s just kind of how a lot of us communicate and we have to throttle back on that sometimes, but commentator will give you the full story.

 

Jim Rembach:    As you were talking I started thinking about several people in my head and I started

saying, okay, well for me sometimes I’m all of those people. 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Oh, sure, sure. And as I said there’s no judgment associated with any of them. there’s inherently negative about any of them. And we will go in and out depending on who we’re talking to. If somebody in a store asks you a question about a product you probably going to be a dictator, you’ll tell them what you want them to hear. 

 

Jim Rembach:    I began to think when you are referring to a lot of the things that we have in our society today where there is a lot of snap judgment, people easily going and saying whatever they want about people or stonewalling and not saying anything at all. All these different dynamics of conversation that has now happened within the past decade with the explosion of smart devices and mobile devices and how this multimodal communication comes into play, how much are we relying on the conversation component of an interaction to now be a situation of recovery?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:    If you go back and focus on the person and try to understand the intent of whatever was said to you that’s a good way to start the recovery process. Focus on the other person. What we do sometimes is we’re so accustomed because of our devices to push information that we forget that we need to receive it. We need to pay attention to all aspects of the person. It’s very difficult to do that if you’re doing texting or email but it’s still necessary, it’s vital, you’re communicating with the human being. Try to step back and not assume, meaning not set expectations on the interaction, but just let it let it come to you and be open-minded. One of the advantages obviously if we have the visual of each other is we can read body language. We can get a few signs and signals. Because there are so many times, I’m sure it’s happened to you and it certainly happened to me, where you get an email and you think this person is so rude. Why would they say that? If you actually saw their face you’d realize they’re being sarcastic or funny there’s some quirky thing going on and there was no intention to be rude. So I am constantly telling myself don’t assume that. Just assume the best and take it from there and see what happens. Either you’re affirmed or you’re denied at that point.

 

Jim Rembach:    I think what you were talking about a moment ago is really important component about the whole  asking the questions that need to be asked for clarity being able to seek that commonality which is when you start talking about the areas that we need to talk about from a discovery perspective. So, when you when you start looking at the components that we often hear about that are non-verbal, talking about some of the tone components, the facial expressions and the mannerisms and the body language pieces and all of that, have you seen that there’s actually been a shift of the importance of those things to the overall conversation? Or is it a situation to where they’re just kind of, icing on the cake, so to speak?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     I think that there’s a great shift in the nonverbal because we have cultures coming together in a way that we didn’t use to. And so there are considerations that we have to have in interaction that are based in culture. Whether or not somebody makes eye contact with you for example could well have to do with the culture that the person grew up in it could be gender specific. There are ways that other cultures deal with each other in terms of two men should face each other straight on. Whereas in other cultures, in our culture in United States, that straight on is a confrontational, it’s not friendly, it’s not invitational, it’s much more confrontational. S we have to be aware of that and try to read knowing what the context is and knowing what the culture is all of those things not to make assumptions. Again, just pay attention to the combination of factors not just how somebody moves but what’s coming out of their mouth whether or not they seem tense and so on.

 

Jim Rembach:    I think for me when you started talking about that I have to continually remind myself the whole nonjudgment piece. Having three young kids, man, that’s something I’m actually reminding them of all the time because—it’s funny to me how they will talk about inclusiveness and not judging others but yet they’re the first to do the judging. And I’m like, how are you even jumping to that conclusion? You know how to make self judgements in order to determine that that person was upset with you or that person was, like the word to my daughter used last night, a country-club kid. And It’s like, how do you even know that? You’ve never engaged and had discussion and maybe they’re just shy and reserved and don’t have a lot of self-confidence and now you’re misinterpreting it as arrogance? You can’t judge. So how often do you find that from a conversational component and teaching and working with folks that whole judgment piece is where you spend a lot of your time as a starting point?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Well, interestingly enough I spend a lot of time doing that and I try to get people to be more like little kids with open eyes. But again what’s interesting is that little kids are just sponges for what their parents are doing but also what’s coming into them from the media. They have all kinds of media input. Whatever they’re streaming, whatever they’re listening to for music, and all of those things that stuff is going to affect them. They start out being very open minded and big open eyes but that’s the advantage and the problem. Because the input is coming from so many sources and some of those sources are really corrupt. They’re kind of contaminating their perception of other people. So it’s really, really important with little kids like that that they have daddy to talk to. And that daddy reminds them that making a judgment like that is not going to be a good thing, stay open-minded. It is a concern as people get a little bit older and they try to enter the workforce too. A lot of young people who are exposed to the media they’re having their perceptions of certain types of people corrupted. 

 

Jim Rembach:    I think that’s a really interesting point that you bring up. It used to be that we would not have to worry about teaching some of these core fundamental basic skills as they enter into the workforce but now we have to do that because of the exposure and that corrupt influence that you had talked about.  I remember many years ago we had to actually stop our daughter from watching something on Disney because she started getting this smart sassy mouth. And I’m like, where is that coming from? From that Disney TV show. 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Yeah, it’s tough because it’s not as though we weren’t exposed to it when we were kids but there’s just more of it. There are more options at this point. And it’s hard to control those  options, we can’t not completely but—you’re right we’re affected by it too, the entire population is affected by it and we can’t ignore that and just say, oh, let’s just all love each other uh-uh. Because there’s so much stuff coming at us that’s real, it’s harsh, and we just have to try to balance that with our relationships. And again to go back to your first question, this is why I believe that understanding human behavior and human communication will only help people more because they’ll pay more attention to the individual that they’re speaking wit and not try to cut it short. That’s the difficulty, my best friend and I were on the phone last night for a long time. A lot of kids get bored with being on the phone for a long time but that’s part of talking to somebody that you miss. That’s part of communicating it’s part of getting into the heart of the relationship you have to take that time. 

 

Jim Rembach:    That’s so true. Now when we’re talking about all this and fighting some of the social norms, staying strong because we know what the right thing to do is it can be tough. One of the things that we look at on the show in order to be able to help us do that are quotes. Is there a quote or two that you like that you can share?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Yes. I have to turn around and grab it, may I? A desire to succeed can strengthen you but a fear of failure can immobilize you

 

Jim Rembach:    Why do you like that quote?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Because I wrote it. No, because it reminds me of where I need to be. It helps me remind other people to stay strong and to not be immobilized by things that are really horrible. There are a lot of things that we will encounter whether their career setbacks or health setbacks and we have to rely on the people around us to get through them and to not be paralyzed by those real fears of failure or death. And this reminds me to stay connected with not only myself but with other people.

 

Jim Rembach:    I can only think that what went into you writing that quote and how you even shared why it’s important to you. There’s humps that we have to get over in our life and you’ve probably thought about many of those. But can you share one of those times where had to get over the hump? 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Sure, I can make this personal. I had cancer. Cancer helped save my relationship. Because I felt that, Jim and I were fighting together and that we had a unified focused. A lot of times this

will happen in a company too. If you have a common enemy you can get very, very strong with your team and you can do things that you didn’t realize we’re possible. Sometimes that is the most potent thing in a professional or personal relationship, that common enemy that we’re going to win. I think of it as a Star Trek mentality. It’s like, all the good guys just go shoulder to shoulder we’re going to get those Borg no matter how big and fierce they are. Yeah, that was a hump that turned into a mountain climbing experience that was beautiful and satisfying and victorious. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Wow, we’re glad you’ve survived. 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Yeah, me too. 

 

Jim Rembach:    You and Jim finds it that way are important. 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Great, exactly. 

 

Jim Rembach:    I’m sure you have a lot of things going on—you’re helping other folks with their books, your own career with this, you’re trying to make a big impact, talked about your relationship with Jim, you have a lot of things that you’re focusing in on but if you had one goal, what would it be? 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     To be the best teacher possible, that is my primary goal. I feel like even when I was a child people would say, what do you want to be when you grow up? I’d say, I want to be a teacher. That is my single, most important goal—is to convey all of the stuff that I have learned from all of these genius caring people through the years. And to give that to more people so that they have better quality

of life. 

 

Jim Rembach Jim Rembach:    And the Fast Leader Legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on let’s get a quick word from our sponsor.

 

An even better place to work is an easy-to-use solution that gives you a continuous diagnostic on employee engagement along with integrated activities that will improve employee engagement and leadership skills in everyone. Using this award winning solutions guaranteed to create motivated, productive and loyal employees who have great work relationships with their colleagues and your customers. To learn more about an even better place to work visit beyondmorale.com/better. 

 

Alright, here we go Fast Leader legion, it’s time for the Hump day Hoedown. Okay MaryAnn, the Hump day Hoedown is a part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us a robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. MaryAnn Karinch, are you ready to hoedown?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Sure, sure. Do I have to think fast, really? 

 

Jim Rembach:    Yes, you do. 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Oh, no. Okay I’ll try. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Good. What is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     I don’t feel held back, what’s holding me back? Time. 

 

Jim Rembach:    What is the best leadership advice you have ever received? 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Servant leadership. Pay attention to other people.

 

Jim Rembach:    What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     I’m happy. 

 

Jim Rembach:    What is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     I take big risks. I am not afraid of big risks. 

 

Jim Rembach:    What is one book that you’d recommend to our legion, it could be from any genre, of course we’ll put a link to, Control the Conversation, on your show notes page as well.

MaryAnn Karinch:     Okay, Lessons from the Edge. It happens to be another one of my books. But the reason I picked it is because it’s about extreme sports. It’s fun to read and their lessons from people who do all kinds of things on the edge. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader legion you can find links to that and other bonus information from today’s show by going to fastleader.net/maryannkarinch. Okay, Maryann, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age of 25. And you’ve been given the opportunity to take all the knowledge and skills that you have and take them back with you, but you can’t take everything back you can only choose one. So what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     I would take back the knowledge that people of all different orientation and types and all of that, all have something to share with me. I guess that’s the main thing, it’s all about people. 

 

Jim Rembach:    MaryAnn, it was an honor to spend time with you today, can you please share with the Fast Leader legion how they can connect with you? 

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     People can connect with me on my website, they can connect with me on my agency website which is rudyagency.com, karinch.com is my personal website. And my email is my name, it’s pretty simple and it’s really readily available, it’s maryannkarinch.com, there you go. 

 

Jim Rembach:    MaryAnn Karinch, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom the fast leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot!

 

MaryAnn Karinch:     Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links, from every show special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already. Head on over the fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster. 

 

END OF AUDIO 

 

Erik Seversen Ordinary to Extraordinary

149: Erik Seversen: I realized part of the problem was myself

Erik Seversen Show Notes Page

Erik Seversen had a horrible string of hiring the wrong person. That’s when he needed to do something different. He decided to totally change the interview process and his leadership style. Erik started focusing more on using emotional intelligence to move forward and applying it to his new English as a second language startup.

Erik grew up in Parkland, Washington, which was a quasi-meeting ground between really rural and the “big” city of Tacoma. He was the third of three children from a middle-class family, and Erik’s biggest decision every morning was whether to take the bus or walk to school.

It wasn’t a bad childhood, but Erik struggled with math and spelling, and although he had a loving and supportive family, he often felt out-of-place. However, Erik had a very large imagination and very large dreams, and he focused hard working toward them.

When things began to click, Erik decided to go to UCLA. He applied and was rejected, but Erik didn’t let this stop him, so studied at a community college and got into UCLA two years later. Erik had been to over 30 countries by the time he re-applied to UCLA. After graduating near the top of his class, Erik went on to get a Master’s Degree in Anthropology at University of Virginia, and he followed more opportunities teaching English as a Second Language in France, Thailand, and universities within the USA.

While teaching, Erik started a Motorcycle Touring Company and went into business for ten years. Erik is currently Director of International Business Development at EagleRider, a company he helped grow from a valuation of $7MM to over $100,000,000, but he is also applying the success formulas, motivational leadership, and entrepreneurial strategies he learned in business to Language Linq a company Erik created which aims to make lives better for English as a seconds language professionals who need to improve English for their career.

Erik lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two kids of eleven and thirteen, and he’s now learned from people in over 80 countries.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen to @ErikSeversen to get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow Click to Tweet 

“If you’re helping somebody, you’re not afraid of anything.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet

“Fear goes away if you’re helping somebody.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet 

“Doing things for employees, that made them give back more.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet

“You don’t have to be confident, but appearing confident goes a long way.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet 

“Knowledge is awesome and action is way better.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet 

“Pull the trigger before you’re absolutely ready.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet 

“The time is never, ever going to be perfect.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet 

“We need to create our own paths, often.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet 

“Give more and it comes back to you.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet 

“Getting past fear leads to really good things.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet 

“Turn fear into positive motivated energy.” -Erik Seversen Click to Tweet 

Hump to Get Over

Erik Seversen had a horrible string of hiring the wrong person. That’s when he needed to do something different. He decided to totally change the interview process and his leadership style. Erik started focusing more on using emotional intelligence to move forward and applying it to his new English as a second language startup.

Advice for others

Getting past fear leads to really good things.

Holding him back from being an even better leader

Time, not time management, but time.

Best Leadership Advice

Give more and it comes back to you.

Secret to Success

Praying every single day and meditating everyday.

Best tools that helps in Business or Life

Loving, compassion, and gratitude.

Recommended Reading

Ordinary to Extraordinary: http://erikseversen.com/fastleader/

The Power of Meaning: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed with Happiness

The Magic of Thinking Big

Contacting Erik Seversen

website: http://erikseversen.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-seversen-56ab9b10/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErikSeversen

Resources and Show Mentions

Erik Severson’s Fast Leader Legion Resources: http://erikseversen.com/fastleader/

Developing a Better Place to Work

Increase Employee Engagement and Workplace Culture

Empathy Mapping

54 Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Competencies List: Emotional Intelligence has proven to be the right kind of intelligence to have if you want to move onward and upward faster. Get your free list today.

 

Show Transcript: 

Click to access edited transcript

49: Erik Seversen: I realized part of the problem was myself

 

Intro:  Welcome to the Fast Leader podcast where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

The number one thing that contributes to customer loyalty is emotions so move onward and upward faster by gaining significantly deeper insight and understanding of your customer journey and personas with emotional intelligence. With your empathy mapping workshop you’ll learn how to evoke and influence the right customer emotions that generate improve customer loyalty and reduce your cost to operate. Get over your emotional hump now by going to empathymapping.com to learn more. 

Jim Rembach:   Okay, Fast Leader Legion today I’m excited because I have the opportunity to talk to somebody who has a really interesting perspective on the customer experience, the human experience and really globalization as a whole. Eric Seversen grew up in Parkland, Washington which was a quasi-meeting ground between really rural and the big city of Tacoma. He was the third of three children from a middle-class family and Eric’s biggest decision every morning was whether to take the bus or to walk to school. It wasn’t a bad childhood but Eric struggled with math and spelling and although he had a loving and supportive family he often felt out of place. However, Eric had a very large imagination and very large dreams and he focused on working hard towards them. When things began to click Eric decided to go to UCLA he applied and was rejected but Eric didn’t let that stop him so he studied at a community college and got into UCLA two years later.

 

Eric had been to over 30 countries by the time he reapplied to UCLA. After graduating near the top of his class Eric went on to get a Master’s Degree in Anthropology at the University of Virginia and he followed more opportunities teaching English as a Second Language in France Thailand and universities within the USA. While teaching, Eric started a motorcycle touring company and went into business for ten years. Eric is currently director of International Business Development at Eagle Rider a company he helped grow from a valuation of seven million to over a hundred million dollars. He’s also applying the successful formulas of motivational leadership and entrepreneurial strategies that he learned in business to Language Link a company Eric created which aims to make lives better for English-as-a-second-language professionals who need to improve English for their careers. Eric currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two kids of 11 and 13 and he’s now learned from people in over 80 countries. Erik Seversen are you ready to help us get over the hump?

 

Erick Seversen:   I am absolutely excited to go over the hump Jim. How are you doing?

 

Jim Rembach:   I’m doing great. I’m glad you’re here. I’ve given our Legion a little bit about you but can you tell us what your current passion is so that we can get to know you even better? 

 

Erick Seversen:   Yeah, definitely. My work passion is just that, you mentioned a little bit about taking business strategies. For the for the last 10 years I’ve been reading every business book there is from Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill to the more contemporary ones Brendon Burchard and I’m using these in business and its really been successful and I realized not a lot of people are using these same strategies that are successful in language. So, I created Language Link and my goal is to take these students mostly ESL English as a second language students coming to the United States. They’re smart people but they struggled and because they know more English in their head then they think they do so their confidence is broken a little bit so I’m taking these business success strategies applying it to language and allowing them to speak confidently and better and their lives really improve by it. It’s just exciting for me to see their lives improve. 

 

Jim Rembach:   You talked about you talk about these concepts and people not really applying them to English as a second language or language learning but there’s companies like Rosetta Stone huge company grown like crazy, what do you mean by—you don’t see these models? What’s the difference?

 

Erick Seversen:   Oh, yeah. Rosetta Stone is actually great, I really enjoy it. And it’s got a very nice formula for how to learn a second language independently on a computer, what I’m going for is the student who’s coming over from a different country maybe an intermediate level, advanced level even some high intermediate but they don’t know how to connect with the language. On Rosetta Stone I can learn how to conjugate a verb all day long I can learn the pronunciation all day long but what I don’t know is that there’s a difference in teaching styles in Japan and the United States for example. In Japan the difference between a teacher’s level and a student’s level is a lot wider there’s not supposed to be as much direct engagement it might even seem rude in classes in Japan. Whereas in the United States you’ve got a really smart student who doesn’t say a word in class because they don’t want to act impolite towards the teacher the teacher gives them a bad participation grade because they’re not engaging in class. So, there’s a little thing to do to just understand the difference, making friends with people in a different country so a strategy—the best way to learn language often is just familiarity and speaking it with people. 

 

But you get so many students who come to United States or Australia or the UK to learn English and they find a little bubble of either aloneness which is a problem in itself, I address homesick on being alone or they get a small group of people from their country and have a good time together but they’re still speaking their native language and they don’t know how to break out and meet another student who speaks English only. One strategy for example is to know exactly where your class is about 10 minutes before your class get across campus and start walking towards your class and then just look for somebody who’s walking alone who look walking the same direction and he looks like a person you’d be interested in speaking with and say, “Excuse me, do you know where this classroom is? Chances are they’re already walking in that direction they’re going to hear your accent they’re going to want to speak to a foreigner as well they’re going to walk with you and talk with you as they get you to your class and by the end of the eight minutes it takes to get to class there’s a good chance that you have a meeting for a coffee and become friends after that. 

 

Jim Rembach:   Gosh. Thanks for sharing that, that perspective was really vital. I also started thinking as you were talking about the growth that you’ve had at Eagle Rider and that to me listening to you talk and whether or not it’s intentional per se it sounds to me like you’ve got to focus on the customer that others just fail to possess.

 

Erick Seversen:   Oh, my Gosh. One of the models of the company is we provide dreams, we rent dreams, we rent motorcycles as the pith of the company and we sure do. We provide experiences that change people’s lives. I literally can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard somebody say, “This trip changed my life or best trip of my life” and about 50-60 percent of our customers are people who come from Australia from Europe from Japan, Germany to come ride in the United States on a motorcycle, they’re on a Harley-Davidson riding up Route 66.  I’ve seen big huge bikers, tattooed bikers, almost weeping at the end of the trip talking about what a great life-changing experience they had because they’ve been dreaming about it since they were kids, it really is a beautiful thing. So, for the customer service directly we have that and also we have somebody in accounting or somebody in IT who’s having a bad day sometimes we say, Hey, walk out front on the Saturday don’t go to your desk until 11:30 on a Saturday or Friday morning I want you to go back and see the customers for a little bit just go interact with the customers. Always it gives them that revived life to get to work and just really enjoy what they’re doing knowing that they’re doing an accounting spreadsheet but what they’re doing is they’re providing dreams for people, real people.

 

Jim Rembach:   That’s a great lesson that I think many organizations can learn from a customer focus, customer centricity. Knowing that people have to have that connection with the consumer, our customer even when they’re in the back office and don’t necessarily interact with them daily. They do need to understand where their purpose is and how they’re making a difference to the overall health and wealth and viability of the organization.

 

Erick Seversen:    Absolutely.

 

Jim Rembach:   When you start thinking about all of the things that you’ve been working on for the past couple years and where you’re headed right now, I think we also talked off mic and you have a new book coming out which is, Ordinary to Extraordinary, what is that all about? The title seems easy but what’s inside?

 

Erick Seversen:   Yeah. In the bio you read at the start I was an average kid in an average neighborhood and my favorite quote is Elon Musk and is this, I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary, and simply I did that myself. I’m an average kid don’t know big support I ended up mowing lawns when I was 19 years old. Flying to London and hitchhiking down to Africa, because I wanted to see elephants and giraffes basically really I wanted to see what Africa was about as a 19 year old, and nobody helped me do that but I had a big dream big goal I worked hard to make that happen. I don’t really consider myself extraordinary but in the end I’ve been to over 80 countries lived in five, I’ve done some great things in business as well. But my actions are extraordinary because I didn’t let people say things that they thought were impossible weren’t possible, I didn’t listen to them. So that’s where the title of the book came from and the funny thing is I ended up writing 42 first-person true narratives about things that have happened,. I’ve had a machine gun in my mouth in Nigeria. I lived with the Indians in South America for a while. I’ve climb some mountains around the world. I’ve had a girlfriend in Paris and that was a great story, and so I wrote these stories and my editor said, “You know what Erik, you’re ten friends are going to love this. And I go, “That’s not a compliment is it?” He said, “No.” So, I had to restructure it with what do we get out of this? And what the book does is it groups all of those stories and some of them deal with  being in an outlaw bike Clubhouse with tattooed monsters of AK47 sets tattooed on their necks and what life is like with these people and it was engaging I learned so much from them and there’s a section in there on that. But I just had the stories as they were which was neat but what I did is I added a component of, what can we get from this? And there’s a book called The Power of Meaning by Emily Isfahani Smith, which is genius, it came out this year. It talks about four pillars of meaning—they are belonging, our purpose, transcendence, and storytelling. I grouped all of those 42 narratives into one of those four pillars and I kind of show the reader how that influenced my life, how it gave meaning to my life and it will let the reader recognize where they’re lacking. Are they lacking in belonging? Are they lacking in purpose? Are they lacking in storytelling? It’s been really fun to create a narrative throughout this book of a bunch of narratives. 

 

Jim Rembach:   Okay, so for me listening to you chat about your escapades and your travels I started thinking to myself—and you start talking about having some struggles as kid in school, applying to UCLA not getting in but not stopping, for you it seems like there’s no fear that you’ve got this  resiliency. But I when I start looking at the majority of people is that fear handcuffs them it keeps them from sticking their neck out it keeps them from doing that trouble because—you know what? I might get a gun stuck in my mouth. So, how do you push yourself past the fear or is it that—you know what? That’s just something that doesn’t fire in my head. 

 

Erick Seversen:   No. I was actually quite nervous growing up. I was nervous during my travels but I learned I’m going to say two things about fear, the first one is I definitely felt fear. Every time I walked huge sections in Africa, sometimes 60 miles in a row, and when I’m getting into evening sometime  I’ve been walking all day alone out in in the desert and all of a sudden I’m approaching some small village, I don’t know if they’re going to like me. I don’t know where I’m going to stay this night I don’t—so this nervousness is there but I overcame it and I realized that by just asking people and helping people smiling I consider to be even some helping somebody. Adam Flores he’s a guy who does business seminars down in San Diego, he says I just learned this two weeks ago from him he said, “If you’re helping somebody you’re not afraid of anything.” Fear goes away if you’re helping somebody. The quick example of this was he said, Hey would anybody—if I say, can you go give a dollar to the homeless guy out in front of the hotel? Who would not be afraid of doing that? Everybody raised the hand then he said, “Hey, who would like to go up to the man in a business suit standing in line checking in and ask for a dollar from him?” And everybody was feared they don’t want to go there and be embarrassed. The point is when you’re doing something good for somebody the fear goes away.

 

Jim Rembach:   Now that’s a really good point and I never really thought about. I know now for me talked about having kids is that maybe I need to do more of that because one of the things I do and I’ve shared with this before on the show you can call it brainwashing or whatever you want—yes it is and it you don’t like it send me an email and I’ll delete it. When I ask my kids, why did God put you on earth? To help others. 

 

Erick Seversen:   Oh, great, that’s beautiful. Jim, that is so awesome. 

 

Jim Rembach:   If you just focus on that, it kind of removes you and your fear and your ego and you’re—you talked about kids and there are people that are saying and speaking up in a classroom here in the States is there’s a lot of reasons because they don’t to look stupid.

 

Erick Seversen:   Exactly. 

 

Jim Rembach:   –so I just keep my mouth shut that way I don’t look stupid. I think that’ll allow you to bring a lot of those humps down and you’ll be able to get over a lot easier, so thank you for sharing that. 

 

Erick Seversen:   In business one of my “aha” moments was realizing that doing things for people who work below me, for employees, that made them give back more. I wasn’t being nice to them and I wasn’t giving—when I say giving sometimes it’s teaching them something highlighting an interesting quote that I think will make this particular person’s life better that day, bringing in a small module to make them think about something different that might be better that way, focusing on the why so they can understand the big picture, so I consider giving them these things and they give back tenfold. I’m not doing it to get the bigger return but it always happens. 

 

Jim Rembach:   That’s a good point. For me it’s trying to make sure that I’m not trying to do that intentionally because I want the return it’s just doing it just to do it. 

 

Erick Seversen:   Exactly right. 

 

Jim Rembach:   You talked about quotes. You talked about quote that’s important to you and we always asked for those, and thanks for sharing that, you got to that point before I did. I know you shared a lot of stories talking about your travels and things like that talking about work but can you focus in and give us some details on one particular time where you had to get over the hump and it made a difference for you? 

 

Erick Seversen:   Let me think of a time—this is when I was trying to hire somebody and the role was–I’m kind of an assistant role they had a reporting role and I had a horrible string of three people in a row didn’t make it past their 90-day probation, in fact, they didn’t make it past three weeks. And so something was wrong and so two things happen, the first that thing happened was I decided to have a working interview where I’d choose the one I liked out of the fifty people are who applied and I’d say, Okay, you’re not hired but I like you I want to pay you for a full day’s work on Monday and you’re going to come in and you’re going to get paid for this day no matter what but you’re not hired at the end of the day we’re going to have a discussion and either you’re hired or here’s your money have a great life and it helps so much. The first guy I hop in an hour half into it I walked by he was in a cube I walked by his cubicle and he’s on his phone that just didn’t fly if you’re on your phone an hour and a half into a job that you’re going to have I don’t think that’s going to work very well. 

 

I actually did a probing question just to make sure it was an emergency, it wasn’t. And then the next the next one, full day working interview, he had great Excel sheet all over his resume how good he was at Excel. I had a very basic Excel work that I wanted him to create and it wasn’t nearly as polish—he was a nice guy and I thanked him very much I paid him at the end of the day and that was it. The third one she came in she was good with the people her Excel skills were adequate and I saw her work and she did really good and so she was hired and that’s when I mentioned giving that it was her that I actually started working on to really be intentional about—I realized part of the problem was myself. I was trying to lead a millennial by giving a directive and expecting it be done in a certain amount of time and I realized that wasn’t right. The way I proposed something to get done changed, I didn’t talked about why I talked about how this report, that somebody was creating, is going to benefit some of the people that I’m going to show it. So my leadership style changed a lot—yes she’s still with the company eight years later which is awesome.

 

Jim Rembach:   That’s a great perspective of the differentiating and treating people differently it’s also as giving people an opportunity and kind of debunking some of the things that you would actually perceive when you’re going through an interview process as well, just to find out that those Excel skills were what you said.

Exactly right. So when you start thinking about her and her development I would dare to say she’s not doing the same things that she doing when you first—what is she doing now? 

 

Erick Seversen:   Now she’s got into—we have about 4,000 motorcycles and now it’s about 2,500 we become more efficient with them, and she’s titling. She has to be the intermediary between the B and B to make sure all those bikes are titled. She worked at the fleet department to make sure bikes all over the country get—can you imagine how hard it is to get your little slip in DMV and check if you have a smog check or not and get it paid and get a sticker on your license plate? She does that to 2500 vehicles at a time.

 

Jim Rembach:   Oh, my goodness. 

 

Erick Seversen:   That’s pretty impressive. 

 

Jim Rembach:   It is pretty impressive. Okay, so when you start thinking about this current work that you’re doing in regards to English is a second language and you start talking about the differences in how people learn the cultural differences and all of those things, how do you separate the learning or focus in on the learning piece and the individual piece? Because you even mentioned it with the young lady who said, hey, your Excel skills weren’t that great but it’s these other things that were important and we’ll teach her the technical Excel stuff, how are you actually focusing in on developing and getting people to gain some competencies in the language speaking piece but then also gain some competencies and skills and their emotional intelligence and becoming a more effective person?

 

Erick Seversen:   Actually, I focus more on the latter on the emotional intelligence of the language learning there are a lot of good schools out there. The community college I went to was Green River Community College now it’s Green River College so that’s a four-year things up in Washington State, they actually have a huge international program and they really work on cultivating the student and acclimatizing them and helping them build friendships and bonds and teaching them some of the differences between culture and how language and culture are the same but a lot of other schools don’t. There are a lot of very, very good skills taught at different universities at different community colleges at different language skills but not many are focusing on the integration the emotional intelligence of the speaking and a lot of the students they have things in their mind but they can’t release it because they’re scared to speak and make mistakes. So, I try and eliminate that fear. I take some things from certain books and one of them talks about—you don’t have to be confident but appearing confident goes a long way and you can do that by looking somebody in the eye, you can do that by a good handshake, you can do that by walking 25% faster than you normally would. Those little things I would focus on more than the actual language skills. I do focus on—I know the language skills I’ve taught it for ten years and I do that as well but that’s not the biggest focus. I try and get into things like meditating in English. I’ve got a 15-minute meditation I’ve created where somebody can listen to it. It’s a guided meditation and it basically says, your English will be easy today and it allows them to be relaxed in their own head and have a conversation with a fictitious character in their own head in English and they’re always shocked about how good they speak to themselves in their head they can speak better to themselves on their head than they can to somebody on the sidewalk. They can translate that into real English because they now they know what’s inside of them.

 

Jim Rembach:   So, as you are talking and explaining that to me I started thinking definitely about the whole Napoleon Hill influence and having your affirmations and being able to really shape your mind. And you start talking about choosing now it’s coming full circle for me and I appreciate it we’re having this conversation long enough you know how people can choose to be extraordinary.

 

Erick Seversen:   Exactly.

 

Jim Rembach:   Okay, so when you start talking about building a particular organization, you’ve done it with the motorcycle ride share company, you’re trying to do it with the current company, if you were to say, I am trying to do the same thing either within my own organization as an entrepreneur or do my own gig, where do people really need to focus their efforts and activity?

 

Erick Seversen:   Oh, yeah, so I’ve got a great answer I’m going to clarify something. I started a company called Ride Free Motorcycle Tours, that was my company I owned it and I ended up selling it and then and I worked for Eagle Rider, I wasn’t one of the founders Eagle Rider but I was instrumental in helping it grow and I’m still with Eagle Rider as well. For starting up entrepreneur it’s this—knowledge is awesome and action is way better. I’ve seen so many people who have read the Brendon Burchard stuff who’ve read Tony Robbins they know it inside it out they’ve listened to Napoleon Hill stuff and but they’ve got all of this knowledge and they’re not really doing as much with it because learning it is exciting in itself and I think a lot of people get caught up in to the learning aspect of it but it doesn’t mean anything until you absolutely start to apply it. So the one thing is always keep learning but know when it’s more important than to take action towards beer business on something it’s scares you maybe which is making a call to a potential partner rather than reading the next chapter of a self-help or a motivational book.

 

Jim Rembach:   For me as you were talking I started even going back to that whole fear thing. I don’t want to look like a fool, I don’t want to make a mistake, I don’t want to—and so therefore it’s got to be perfect and I’ve got to study it to the nth degree  before I take a chance.

 

Erick Seversen:   Yes. 

 

Jim Rembach:   Are you saying to me, as I was listening to you, that I just have to practice execution?

 

Erick Seversen:   Absolutely. I’m kind of laughing to myself because we had an IT guy once who in a boardroom he was in a high-level meeting he was a little bit nervous and he said everything’s going great but I’m having a hard time executing myself. Every time I hear that I think of that—absolutely I say pull the trigger before you’re absolutely ready. So many people want all of the stars to be aligned perfectly they want to know of everything in the book, they want to have the plan mapped out. I used to be more guilty about myself too and what I’ve started doing is I’ve started going when I was totally scared when I felt half prepared and I figure things out as I go and that’s really made a big, big, big difference because the time is never ever going to be perfect. At some point you need a little base but you got to go.

 

Jim Rembach:   Yeah, I think that’s a good point. Also too when you start talking about an organization, if you’re in a particular organization where you don’t feel safe enough to be able to move forward you never will move forward. 

 

Erick Seversen:   Right. It was a professor in grad school who said this to me once, she said, good classes aren’t given they’re created. If somebody has a good idea they have an idea that I’m going to propose to teach this class that doesn’t exist yet same thing with jobs even at Eagle Rider there are few jobs that I’ve had it wasn’t a position that I moved into it was a created position because it made a lot of sense. I think we need to create our own paths often don’t wait for somebody to do it for you.

 

Jim Rembach:   Very true. Okay, so talking about creating that own path—you have a book that’s going to be released, will actually put a link on your show notes page to get more information on that, I even get a discount and some other resources and tools we’ll do that—

 

Erick Seversen:   I have a landing page also that ericseversen.com/fast leader and some of the things we’ve talked about, some pictures of the places I’ve traveled, like you said the book will be up there for 50% off for you nation and so that’s good. 

 

Jim Rembach:   That’s awesome and that’ll also be on a link line of show notes page, so you can always come to Eric’s episode on show notes page and get a direct link to that if you can’t remember the URL—you got the kids, the business you’re starting, the business you’re working for, the book you release, you’ve got a lot of things going on.

 

Erick Seversen:   Oh, yes I do. 

 

Jim Rembach:   Okay, we have to narrow and focus because we know that’s an important—Napoleon Hill too as well as many of those other guys to come up focus, right? What’s one goal that you’re focused on? 

 

Erick Seversen:   The first thing that pops to mind is one-third of a triangle. The first thing that popped to mind is is climbing Mount Elbrus, it’s the highest mountain in Russia and climbing mountain is my passion outside of work. I conquered Gowen South America’s another big one, so that’s the self in this triangle. I need to take care of myself even if it’s selfish away from—my kids are too young to climb Everest, my wife in not going to go to Russia with me for two weeks so that’s one. The other side of the triangle is my work. I’m balancing the Eagle Rider and my language link and that’s just been a blast working hard. I wake up really early in the morning so that I have time to do both and I love it. I can’t wait to wake up every single morning when I’m going to bed. The other part is family. If my kids have a soccer game I’m going to make a choice, do I miss this Wednesday afternoon soccer game and work, because I know I need to? Or do I take work off and go to the soccer game? Whatever I choose to do I don’t focus and dwell on the other one. My kids not going to cry if I miss his soccer game and I’m not going to cry about missing it if I chose to work and if I go to the soccer game I’m not going to be worried about those three phones that I might miss. 

 

Jim Rembach:   That’s good perspective.

 

Erick Seversen:   So balancing that triangle of self-life and family is my biggest goal right now. 

 

Jim Rembach:   The Fast Leader legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on let’s get a quick word from our sponsor.

 

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Jim Rembach:   Alright here we go Fast Leader legion it’s time for the Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, Erik, the hump day hoedown is a part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us a robust get rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Erik Serversen, are you ready to hoedown?

 

Erick Seversen:   Yes I am. 

 

Jim Rembach:   Alright. What do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

 

Erik Seversen:   Time. Not time management because I’m pretty good at it, it’s time. I try like Jockey Will Nick does and wake up early but I can’t do this—4:30 in the morning, so I do the best I can, but it is time. 

 

Jim Rembach:   What is the best leadership advice you have ever received?  

 

Erick Seversen:   Give more and it comes back to you.

 

Jim Rembach:   What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

 

Erick Seversen:   Praying every single day and I also meditate every single day. I pray multiple times throughout the day and I meditate and that time really I think helps me get more done in my 24-hours of a day.

 

Jim Rembach:   What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

 

Erick Seversen:   Loving and compassion and gratitude. Loving and gratitude—

 

Jim Rembach:   What would be one book that you’d recommend to our listeners it could be from any genre, of course we’ll put that the link that we had mentioned to your upcoming book Ordinary to Extraordinary, and the landing page as well.

 

Erick Seversen:   It’s going to be, The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. This book is written in 1959, every single time I read it I get more out of it and it just has so many gems on how we can be more successful with small changes in our life and thinking absolutely huge with big tall goals. 

 

Jim Rembach:   Okay, Fast Leader legion you can find links to that and other bonus information for today’s show by going to fastleader.net/ Erik Seversen. Okay, Erik, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity go back to the age 25 and you’ve been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skill that you have now back with you. But you can’t take everything back you can only choose one. What skill or a piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

Erick Seversen:   I would take back the piece of advice that—getting past fear leads to really good things. I was pretty good about it when I was 25 but I was still experimenting and I was fearful of what’s going to happen in my future and so now seeing where it’s come and that strategy has paid off, so work through fears turn fear into positive energy, motivated energy. 

 

Jim Rembach:   Erik, it was an honor to spend time with you today can you please share with the Fast Leader Legion how they can connect with you? 

 

Erick Seversen:   Erik at erikseversen.com, the website has links to all that and the easiest way to get to me is just through there.

 

Jim Rembach:   Erik Seversen, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom the Fast Leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot! 

 

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show, special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster.

 

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078: Bob Anderson: It meant bigger changes than I was up for

Bob Anderson Show Notes

Bob Anderson started his career in the family business making hog food and dog food. One evening, while cleaning out a rail car full of feed ingredients, Bob said something out loud that sent him on a life long journey. Listen to Bob tell his story of how he got over the hump.

Bob was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio where he was born into a leadership context.  His grandfather, uncles, one aunt, and father started a business—The Andersons (now a Fortune 500 company) with interests in grain, plant nutrients, ethanol, rail, and retail.

On Bob’s other side of the family, his maternal grandfather was President of the American Medical Association and his uncle was a renowned Jesuit Moral Theologian.  Bob often reflects and marvels at the perfection of the family into which he was born.

Throughout his life, Bob has been passionate about one thing—the deep ground of being from which human greatness springs and from which great leadership emerges.  This passion led him to study leadership, and his book Mastering Leadership is an integration and summary of his life’s work.

For Bob, authenticity is the most influential human quality.  He believes that the hardest thing to do is to tell the truth blamelessly and compassionately. This same challenge is one that he also knows can be very rewarding.

Bob is the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Development Officer of The Leadership Circle. He is also the Co-founder and Chairman of Full Circle Group. Additionally, he is the creator of The Leadership Circle Profile, an integrated and innovative leadership assessment tool.

Bob also serves as adjunct faculty for the Executive Education Center at the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business. There he assists diverse groups of leaders in navigating their own leadership transformations. In 2005, Bob received the Partner in Innovation faculty award.

Bob still resides in Toledo with his wife of 33 years, with whom he loves to travel the globe. He has three grown children.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen to @LeadershipCir and get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow Click to Tweet

“The inner game runs the outer game.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet

“We tend to ignore the inner work that’s required to mature into great leadership.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“Go into yourself and search for the reason that bids you right.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“What must I be about with my life in order for it to be the life I came to live.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“If you’re on purpose, all of the doors will open.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“There’s no safe way to be great.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“Our natural tendency is we want to find a safe path and there isn’t one.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“Do you love more than you fear?” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“The basic hidden deal we make when we go to work is patriarchal.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“Fear and caution in organizations is very high.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“Greatness isn’t great unless you’re rowing against the stream.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“If we’re waiting for circumstances to line up to be great, it’s a long wait.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“What matters enough to risk for, you have to be clear about that.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“You have to get under the illusion underneath your fear.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“I’m making up most of the fear I feel.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“It’s a house of cards when you’re in a play not to lose game.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“What’s underneath how I get in my own way?” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“How do I engage with both challenge and support?” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“Leadership and development is at every level.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“This question of purpose and vision never let’s go of you.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“The leadership challenges in the world are going to take highly conscious leaders.” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

“How do we evolve conscious leadership to steward the planet?” -Bob Anderson Click to Tweet 

Hump to Get Over

Bob Anderson started his career in the family business making hog food and dog food. One evening, while cleaning out a rail car full of feed ingredients, Bob said something out loud that sent him on a life long journey. Listen to Bob tell his story of how he got over the hump.

Advice for others

See through the illusion of trying to be liked and thought highly of.

Holding him back from being an even better leader

My own fear.

Best Leadership Advice Received

Jump

Secret to Success

Courage to move forward in the face of not knowing how.

Best tools that helps in business or Life

Heart

Recommended Reading

The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work

Contacting Bob

Website: https://leadershipcircle.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-anderson-a6b1673

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeadershipCir

Resources

Empathy Mapping

54 Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Competencies List: Emotional Intelligence has proven to be the right kind of intelligence to have if you want to move onward and upward faster. Get your free list today.

Show Transcript: 

Click to access edited transcript

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast, where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

 

Need a powerful and entertaining way to ignite your next conference, retreat or team-building session? My keynote don’t include magic but they do have the power to help your attendees take a leap forward by putting emotional intelligence into their employee engagement, customer engagement and customer centric leadership practices. So bring the infotainment creativity the Fast Leader show to your next event and I’ll help your attendees get over the hump now. Go to beyondmorale.com/speaking to learn more.

 

Okay, Fast Leader Legion today I have excitement and anxiety for the guest that I have on the show today because their skill and knowledge about leadership is so wide and deep that I almost feel like I’m not worthy, but I’m ready to get over that hump. Robert Anderson was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio where he was born into a leadership context. His grandfather, uncles, one aunt, and father started the business, the Anderson’s, now Fortune 500 companies with interesting grain, plant nutrients, ethanol, rail and retail. On Bob’s other side of the family his maternal grandfather was the president of the American Medical Association and his uncle was a renowned Jesuit Moral Theologian. Bob often reflects and marvels at the perfection of the family into which he was born. Throughout his life Bob has been passionate about one thing, the deep ground of being from which human greatness springs and from which great leadership emerges. 

 

This passion led him to study leadership and his book Mastering Leadership is an integration and summary of his life’s work. For Bob authenticity is the most influential human quality, he believes that the hardest thing to do is to tell the truth blamelessly and compassionately this same challenge is one that he also knows can be very rewarding. Bob is the founder chairman and chief development officer of the Leadership Circle. He is also the co-founder and chairman of full Circle group. Additionally he is the creator of the leadership circle profile and integrated and innovative leadership assessment tool. Bob also serves as adjunct faculty for the Executive Education Center at the University Of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business. 

 

In 2005, Bob received the partner in innovation faculty award. Bob’s still reside in Toledo, Ohio with his wife of 33 years with whom he loves to travel the globe and has three grown children. Bob Anderson are you ready to help us get over the hump?

 

Bob Anderson:    Gladly. 

 

Jim Rembach:    I’m glad you’re here. I’ve given our listeners a little bit about you, but can you tell us what your current passion is so that we can get to know you even better.

 

Bob Anderson:    Well, my current passion is helping leaders develop from the inside out. The book we just wrote is really about the tendency—when we think about developing leaders to focus on the outer game, skills, competencies, knowledge, experience and so that’s all very important and it’s only half the game or maybe even less  than half the game. So the inner game runs the outer game and we tend to ignore the inner work that’s required to really mature into great leadership. So, my passion is helping people with that.

 

Jim Rembach:    You bring up some very interesting points for me. As I was going through and I can tell you that—the book Mastering Leadership that we’re talking about mostly today is that—man, the depth, the knowledge I started going through and I was like, whoa this is heavy material. When it’s mastery in the cover, mastery is absolutely inside. But there’s something that stood out very much for me and it was called the predictable stages of consciousness. What does that mean?

 

Jim Rembach:    First of all, the book is dense it’s just the way building that right. Somebody wants, just like this week said, “It’s all meat no fat” and he put that away. The field of adult development were started with childhood development, PIJ you said, here the various stages. And when we see children we watch them just more from one level of mind to the next level of mind to the next level of mind, turns out adults can do the same thing and they do so if they evolve, and that’s a big if, predictably. They move out of adolescence into what Bob Kegan at Harvard called socialized mind, where you take on the surround and the surrounding expectations and so on and you’ve make yourself successful within them. And then most of the adults would live then you can move into what we call creative mind or self-authoring mind which is where leadership, all the big descriptions of great leadership or what it takes to be effective leader describing creative mind not very many adults are operating from that operating system. 

 

Creative minds is focused on your own vision, your own values, your own deep sense of purpose and you’re about trying to create your life and your leadership as an expression of that. And then it can go further on and very few are operating from what we call integral or self-transforming minds but Kegan call it (inaudible 5:12). And these stages develop progressively, you can’t skip steps and you’ll develop in one and then if you evolve further you differentiate from that and develop into the next stage and our data suggest that development is highly correlated to effectiveness in leadership. 

 

Jim Rembach:   One of the  things that we talk about on the fast leader show is really learning from others so that we can do some of that next stage development faster. Somebody once said that the experiences that we have are much greater teachers than anything we may read or sessions or training that we may take, it’s those experiences, now the beauty about stories that we can use the experience of others to help with our development. So, if you think about today and that many organizations, they’re running so lean and when you look at even the peripherian, and outer bands of an organizations we need everybody to improve their leadership skills regardless of their age and we don’t have entire lifetime to get these people to move up to that next level. So, when I start thinking about predictable stages of consciousness I needed to move faster, how can I do that?

 

Bob Anderson:    Well, it’s very interesting. We’ve outlined the book 6 practices that we think will reliably boot up creative mind from reactive mind. One of them is discerned purpose. You talk about getting over the hump as focus that was getting over the hump experience. For me, when I started my career I was working in a family business I was on a feed manufacturing plant. So I started my career making some hog food and dog food and one night the plant was down, it was a new plant so we’re in start-ups which means nothing works, so the plant was down and we needed to get it back on that means customers to fill in the morning and so in the middle of the night I’m out there unloading railroad cars full of feed ingredients and I get inside the car to sweep it out at one point about 2:30 in the morning when I’m exhausted and I just prop my feet up inside the half bottom of that car when I’m done catch my breath and I got my dust mask on and I’m just sitting there for just a few seconds and out of my mouth out loud said, I’m not becoming  who I am, out loud. And literally I’ll be shock, I’m like who said that word? Where did that came from? I knew it was true and I knew I had to pay attention to it. And so I just noticed that and then within a couple of week somebody gave me a book called, Letters to a Young Poet, by Rilke a great poet German poet, and in that the aspiring poet is saying to Rilke, “Hey take a look at my work what do you think should I be a poet? Am I good enough? And Rilke writes back and says wrong questions, you’re looking outward and above all you should not do that now, go in to yourself and search for the reason that bids you right find out if it’s spreading out the truth in the deepest places of your heart. And then at one point he says, ask you yourselves in the stillest out of the night, must I write? Ahhh, that’s the question. What must I be about with my life in order for it to be the life I came here to live and not someone else’s.

 

And I took that really seriously. I went home that night, working late and started a list, not a bucket list, a must list, this is who I think I am and what I’m here to do with this life. And I wrote about 30 pages progressively over a period of time on that and then I put it away and I realized, six months later, I hadn’t done anything with it and when I drop into that I realized I was scared. Has it meant bigger change than I felt I was up for at that time? And I didn’t know how to do it I have no idea where this is going to take me. So I went on made a retreat, made an eight day retreat, silent retreat, I came back and started making notes. Fifteen years later I pull that journal that I’d written, that must journal out of the closet I read it and I wept because everything I’d written there, which I had no idea how to do was actually happening in ways that I never could’ve imagined. I didn’t even know about this profession that I’m in at the time wrote that stuff, I was running a feed plant just come out of business school, so, that was a hump getting over and really taking seriously. Who am I? What am I here for? And moving through the fear of stepping out not knowing how not having a clue, actually. And things have unfolded in ways that Joseph Campbell says, follow your bliss, and then he says, “If you do that all the doors open, if you’re un-purpose all the doors open, if you’re not they all remain close. So, my experience of life was spend a lot of opening doors that looking back it’s kind of (inaudible 10:40) 

 

Jim Rembach:    Definitely is, and  thanks for sharing that story. When you start thinking about the Fast Leader show, I think you just summed up a lot of the things that we try to have come out with the guest that we interview and hopefully that when people are done listening they have now had the opportunity to reflect and hopefully make some adjustments and changes so that they can move onward and upward faster. And looking through Mastering Leadership book I see there’s just so much research that’s been done on the different principles, philosophies, it just runs this huge gambit and I know that you had some very significant influences in a lot of different ways throughout the course of your life including your own family. And we look at leadership quotes as one of the things that causes us to do some mindfulness, some energy building and the whole reflection. So, is there a quote or two that you can share with us that helps ground you, energize you that you can share?

 

Bob Anderson:    One of my early mentors was Peter Black. Peter had written a number of books, he’s an astounding human being, and I got this from him I’m not sure he originated it but—there’s  no say for you’ll be great, and that actually is a huge quote, because it gets that tension between the desire for greatness or the desire to really live into who you are or what’s really matters to you, create what matters and a natural the tendency in all us as we want to find the safe path and there isn’t one.  So, the search for safety is always in tension with the search for purpose, vision, creating what matters. Fear comes up and so, no say for you to be great and do you love more than you fear. 

 

Jim Rembach:    As you been talking there’s something that has come to my mind especially in today’s society when you start talking about how we view others, it could be perceived that—and people decide that that word greatness is something that were trying to get other people to bestow upon us. But listening to you talk it doesn’t sound like that’s really the meaning of it. 

 

Bob Anderson:    That’s part of the wish for safety. And in some ways and that what we call reactive or structured mind where most adults are, the basic deal we make when we go to work, hidden deal is patriarchal. So, I’ll submit if you take care of me and provide me a future. And as soon as we make that exchange were into a play not to lose game or trying to not fall from grace with higher-ups because they hold the key to our future and so on and so on. And so you see fear and caution in organizations very, very high. If you start to talk you mention my favorite value is authenticity. If you start to really work with people in the middle of the pyramid around telling the truth, especially telling the truth to the power, if I do that I get shot. That’s the first, there’s no way I can do that and survive, and so you run right into caution. So much of the work of really becoming great, I’m not sure I really the word ‘great’ in a sense of that can be a very egotistical thing I’m trying to talk about it in a different way. The thing about greatness is it isn’t great unless you’re rowing against the stream.

 

And so, if waiting for circumstances to line up, right boss, right organizational culture, mixed messages to go away, political risk and so on, if we’re waiting for that to line up to give us permission to be great, it’s a long way and the courage required is to do it anyway and run the inherent risk that is leadership. There’s no safe way to be great and so what matters enough to risk for you have to be clear about that and then that’s your work and then you have to get underneath your fear. Generally,q more often than not the illusion that’s underneath my fear, I’m making up most of the fear that I feel and it’s a house of cards and until you see that you act as if it’s true when you’re playing not to lose game. So, that work, what do I want? And what’s underneath how I get in my own way? Is actually how you create the life you came here to live, I think that is the kind of transformative term that evolves us, and nobody can do that for you, you can’t be bestowed. 

 

Jim Rembach:    As you were talking, I started thinking about many people may take what we’re talking about here and flip it into that, “Hey, I need to be a rebel.” And I don’t think that that’s the positive path that we would want people to take.

 

Bob Anderson:    No it isn’t rebellion at all.  The rebel is a childlike response it’s counter dependent I’m angry at you because of not generally my own lack of power and so I rebel. And so, there’s two options, you can play the victim or you can play the rebel, neither one work neither was constructed but they come out of the same powerlessness they’re just different reactions. So, the more mature responses, how do I engage with both challenge and support? How do I support what’s trying to happen here and the value of what’s in the current culture? And how do I stay and dialogue to evolve it. 

 

Jim Rembach:    That’s one thing that I read in a book and it was talking about how—and it really referred to senior leaders, how senior leaders need to invest in themselves to improve their skills and knowledge associated with leading and I really talked about that being a commitment from the top. But for me I see that really needing would be a commitment regardless of where you are in the organization. 

 

Bob Anderson:    Yes. Leadership at every level and development is at every level, and frankly to be an empowered follower you need everything we’ve just been talking about, you need (inaudible 17:48). I don’t distinguish it by level, argument we’re making in the book is, if your strength could create a cultural transformation in the organization and it’s not and leadership is at the core of that, how you individually and collectively especially collectively are showing up as a leadership team in the organization that defines a culture, that defines a lot, everything really. And so our book is written to create an argument for here’s the kind of depth, strategic and systemic focus it takes to really develop leadership in the organization and if you don’t do that your change efforts are in jeopardy. So we are making a very specific argument but not to suggest that this kind of leadership isn’t needed all the way through in the development agenda is the same at every level. 

 

Jim Rembach:    And I think from a an individual perspective, and even if you start looking at how much companies or organizations will invest in their folks in regards to developing them as leaders I don’t think you can rely or wait on that to happen, nor going back that rebellion and complain and whine about is that you need to build your own pathway to doing it.

 

Bob Anderson:    Yes. Nobody is going to do it for you. And waiting is a long way so get on with it. 

 

Jim Rembach:    When you start looking at a lot of things that you’re doing, of course writing, speaking, assessments, wife traveling, grown kids—we didn’t talk about any grandkids there, not yet? I know that’s a joy for many, but when you start thinking about all these things, what are some of your goals?

 

Bob Anderson:    That’s a very interesting question, I’m  60 now , just worse of your goals but that’s a very interesting question at 16 now just published a book 30 years of lifework poured into that book so  worth of lifework so I’m actually in a transition and it’s a, what do I want to do with my career life? When you’re 60 you start to go, okay if not now when? And so, I’m actually working that right now. This question of purpose and vision never lets go of you. What would I say is my personal goals? This work is a passion for me and it’s my creative response to what a world I think in need. Our world is in pretty serious trouble, you look at some of the population trends, climate trends, and water and so on and so on, oceans and we don’t have a lot of time to really make a difference on the trajectory or some of those trends. 

 

So, the leadership challenges not only in corporate that where it’s becoming more and more complex but especially when you look at the leadership challenges in the world, our going to take very highly conscious leaders if not enlightened leadership, servant leadership and so on, various names we put on. And so our work on how we evolve conscious leadership to steward the planet that’s our mission statement. We exist to evolve, the conscious practice of leadership to steward the planet and to awaken us all to our inherent unity. So, what happens if leader starts to function from the truth of we are all one family, there’s an inherent unity here and our job is to steward the planet. That kind of conscious leadership that’s going to take to do that is what we as an organization are trying impact. My goal for the next 10 years would be how to make consciousness best practice in business. 

 

Jim Rembach:    And the Fast Leader legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on let’s get a quick word from our sponsor.

 

The number one thing that contributes to customer loyalty is emotions, so move onward and upward faster by gaining significantly deeper insight and understanding of your customer journey and personas with emotional intelligence. With your entity mapping workshop you learn how to evoke and influence the right customer emotions that generate improve customer loyalty and reduce your cost to operate. Get over your emotional hump now by going to empathymapping.com to learn more.

 

All right, here we go Fast Leader legion it’s time for the Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, Bob, the Hump Day Hoedown is the part of our show where you give us good insights fast. I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Bob Anderson, are you ready to hoedown? 

 

Bob Anderson:    I didn’t know this was coming, here we go. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Okay, Bob, what you think is@ holding you back from being even better leader today?

 

Bob Anderson:    My own fear.

 

Jim Rembach:    What is the best leadership advice you have ever received?

 

Bob Anderson:    Jump.

 

Jim Rembach:    What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

 

Bob Anderson:    Courage. Courage to move forward in the face of not knowing how and fear.

 

Jim Rembach:    What you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

 

Bob Anderson:    Heart.

 

Jim Rembach:    What would be one book that you’d recommend to our listeners, it could be from any genre?

 

Bob Anderson:    Peter Black wrote a book called, The Empowered Manager, it’s one of my all-time favorites.

 

Jim Rembach:    Okay Fast Leader listeners you can find links to that and other bonus information from today’s show by going to fastleader.net/Bob Anderson. Okay, Bob this my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity go back to the age of 25 and you’ve been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you but you can’t take everything you can only choose one, so what skills or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

Bob Anderson:    At 25 I didn’t know that much of me was run on autopilot. My need to be liked, to be always thought highly of was running me in ways I didn’t know and it cost me a lot, I’d like to take that back and see what would unfold, saw through the through the illusion of that fear.

 

Jim Rembach:    Bob was an honor to spend time with you today, can you please share with Fast Leader listeners how they can connect with you?

 

Bob Anderson:    theleadershipcircle.com all, one word. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Bob Anderson, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom, Fast Leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot! 

 

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show, special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster.

 

END OF AUDIO 

 

 

 

055: Justin Robbins: I got there and I immediately felt lost

Justin Robbins Show Notes

Justin Robbins graduated from High School with honors and was on his way to become a music teacher. But in his first semester in college he immediately felt lost. Justin then made a big decision to drop out which sent him on a three year journey to find his way. Listen to Justin tell his story of finding his passion and getting over the hump.

Justin Robbins spent much of his youth in Bloomsburg, PA, a small town in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley. During his teenage years, Justin’s family moved to the suburbs of Washington, DC where he was actively involved in his school’s music and theatre arts programs.

Through Justin’s late teens and early 20’s, he lived in a variety of locations and experienced an assortment of educational and professional opportunities. By the age of 22, Justin had been a hotel general manager, a US Navy recruit, and the booking agent for a Grammy award winner. He gained exposure to unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and used these experiences to develop a well-rounded world perspective, as his career gained momentum.

Along the way, he also earned money by working in numerous frontline customer service roles from paperboy to call center agent to cashier. Eventually, Justin’s career brought him to Hershey, PA where he spent five years in the contact center for the “Sweetest Place on Earth”. While at Hershey, he became responsible for many of their hiring, training, and customer experience initiatives.

Justin is currently employed as the Community Director for United Business Media where he leads both the Incoming Calls Management Institute’s and Help Desk Institute’s brands in bringing research, best practices, and impactful content to the contact center, customer service, and IT support professional’s communities.

Justin volunteers as the Newsletter Editor of AGAPE, a mission serving his local community, as well as a high school youth leader at his church. He is a husband and father to three children and enjoys taking his family on adventures across the country and currently lives in Danville, PA.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen to @justinmrobbins and get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow Click to Tweet

“The way to really build the skill is to practice it.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet

“I don’t know that it’s a matter of overcoming the fear…it’s bridling it.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“It’s a matter of using it to motivate me rather than let it get the best of me.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“I had this choice to let fear get the best of me…or I could own these fears.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“Internally, we know what ignites our passion.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“Be true to you.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“You’re not going to do your best work until you recognize what is true to you.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“Who are you really and what are you meant to do?” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“Focus on who you are internally.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“Too many of us settle for something because we’re afraid.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“Always be a student.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“Seek and pursue people who are doing really great things.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“Dream bigger, dream bigger, dream bigger.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

“Never give up, sometimes we fail…get over it, move on.” -Justin Robbins Click to Tweet 

Hump to Get Over

Justin Robbins graduated from High School with honors and was on his way to become a music teacher. But in his first semester in college he immediately felt lost. Justin then made a big decision to drop out which sent him on a three year journey to find his way. Listen to Justin tell his story of finding his passion and getting over the hump.

Advice for others

Be true to you. You’re not going to do your best work until you recognize what is true to you. Focus on you and who you are internally.

Holding him back from being an even better leader

Setting the bar too low. I don’t dream big enough. Dream bigger.

Best Leadership Advice Received

Never give up. Sometimes we fail, it’s going to be a failure, get over it, and move on.

Secret to Success

Personal drive. Being genuinely excited, enthusiastic and wanting to constantly get better.

Best tools that helps in business or Life

The insight of really great authors who are really wise and provide excellent advice and ideas for just thinking outside of my norm.

Recommended Reading

The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change

Contacting Justin

LinkedIn: https://twitter.com/justinmrobbins

Twitter: https://twitter.com/justinmrobbins

Resources

54 Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Competencies List: Emotional Intelligence has proven to be the right kind of intelligence to have if you want to move onward and upward faster. Get your free list today.

Show Transcript: 

Click to access edited transcript

055: Justin Robbins: I got there and I immediately felt lost

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast, where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

How do you get higher contact center agent performance? It’s when customers grade the call and the ratings and comments are used to motivate and coach agents. Uncover hidden secrets and replicate your best agents with the real-time insights from the award-winning External Quality Monitoring program Customer Relationship Metrics. Move onward and upward by going to www.customersgradethecall.com/fast and getting a $7,500 rapid result package for free.

 

Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader Legion, today I am so excited because I have somebody on the show that we get to tap in to their knowledge and their energy in order to help us get over the hump. Justin Robbins spent much of his youth in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania a small town in Pennsylvania, Susquehanna Valley. During his teenage years Justin’s family moved to the suburbs of Washington DC where he was actively involved in the school’s music and theater arts program. Through Justin’s late teens and early 20’s he lived in a variety of locations and experience an assortment of educational and professional opportunities. By the age of 22, Justin had been a hotel manager, a U.S. Navy recruit and a booking agent for Grammy award-winning artist Kevin Max of DC Talk. He gained exposure to unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and use these experiences to develop a well-rounded, world perspective as his career gain momentum. 

 

Along the way he also earn money by working in numerous frontline customer service roles from paper boy to call-center agent to cashier. Eventually Justin’s career bottom to Hershey Pennsylvania where he spent five years in the contact letter of the sweetest place on earth. While at Hershey, he became responsible for many of their hiring, training and customer experience initiatives. Justin is currently employed as the community director for United Business media were he leads both the Incoming Calls Management Institutes and Help Desk Institute branch in bringing research, best practices and impactful content to the contact center, customer service, and IT support professionals communities. Justin volunteers as the newsletter editor for Agape, a mission, serving his local community as well as a high school youth leader at his church. He is a husband and father of three children and enjoys taking his family on adventures across the country and currently lives in Danville, Pennsylvania. Justin Robbins are you ready to help us get over the hump?

 

Justin Robbins:     Oh, Jim, you know, I’m so excited to be here. 

 

Jim Rembach:     And I’m glad to have you. I’ve given our listeners a little bit about you but can you tell us what your current passion is so that we can get to know you better.

 

Justin Robbins:     I think the best way to put is building community. What are the things that really got me  through all of my experiences along my career is just having that sense of belonging and knowing that there are others just like me pursuing the same types of things, experience the same types of problems that I’m experiencing, and so for me that’s my passion. It’s finding those people, helping them get connected and just kind of getting forward momentum, building relationships, gaining experiences, again it comes down to building community.

 

Jim Rembach:    I really admire that in you because I had the opportunity to meet you several years ago and it seems like just in a very short period of time we rapidly found a connection with one another. And it seems like you’re just one of those folks that of course is, gifted with that but you also nurture that in yourself and continue to grow that. What are some the things that you do in order to help you enrich and build that inherent skill that you already have?

 

Justin Robbins:     For me it’s always been a matter of immersing myself in those types of situations. My wife and I, we are polar opposites, it’s probably something really important to know about us, and my wife is—you tell her let’s go meet a bunch of strangers and spent a night with them, they’re probably a million things that she could think of that she would rather do, but for me those types of situations is actually where I get to sharpen my blade, that’s really where I get to hone this skill and figure these things out. It’s one of those things that it’s hard for me to teach someone and to tell someone how to something if I’m not able to, I don’t have the experience and the exposure to do it myself. So, for me the enriching opportunities, the way to really build this skill, is to practice it in as many opportunities and as many chances that I can get.

 

Jim Rembach:    That’s such a great point and even for myself, I know there’s certain things that I would like to get better at, kind of set the goal, but however I let fear stop me from doing that very thing. So, how do you overcome that fear?

 

Justin Robbins:     I don’t know that it’s a matter of overcoming the fear as much it is maybe bridling it and really understanding how to use it to gain momentum and just have that forward inertia in propelling you and motivating you. Taking back to high school when I got into theatre and gone into singing, I had this terrible stage fright. If I ever get in front of people, it just terrified me. And kind of got to this place internally where I realized that two choices, I could let fear get the best of me and I’d still have to get in front of people and they would see that kind of trepidation and they’d see me, I’d stumble, I’d be shaking and so I could let that fear get the best of me or I could use that fear to really drive me and say, “I have this opportunity to be in front of these people and I can give them my best, I’m going to be scared regardless.” People still say that me today, I’ll get up in front of—whether it’s 15 people 1,500 people they’re like, “Do you get nervous? Do you get…? Absolutely, every single time but it’s a matter of using it to motivate me rather than let it get the best of me. 

 

Jim Rembach:    I think a great way of putting it, don’t focus in on trying to get over that hump of that fear but bridle it and use it in order to propel you forward and thanks for sharing that. I have to share with everybody since we’re on audio and you don’t get to see us, Justin is also one of those folks that I look up to by being one of the most best dressed folks that I’ve ever seen in an event, and I’m like, “What’s Justin going to wear?” and I’m a guy, right? But the feminine side has to come out because I need to see what Justin’s wearing. Great dresser and also great person, great personality, if you haven’t had the opportunity to see Justin speak you definitely want to look out for that. Talking about your background in theater and everything that we share as far as the different experiences that you had and those are the things that can add so much to our own life and where we’re is those experiences. But we need inspiration, you’re an inspirational person, and we focus on quotes on the show to help give us that. Is there a quote or two that kind of stands out for you that provide you with that energy, that you can share?

 

Justin Robbins:    Yeah. For me, there’s one quote that, and I share this at every opportunity that I can when I’m with a group people, it’s actually by Maya Angelou and it says, “Remember, people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.” That really does resonated with me that we so often say, “Oh, I wish I could do this, I wish I could have this change in my organization, I’d really like to see this happen differently or I wish, I wish—and we have all of this ideas and all of this intentions but really it’s a matter of what are we going to do with that? How are we going to put it into action? That’s really going to define us, nobody’s going to know a spire of wish list, and they’re going to know by what we actually made happen, and so for me that’s just kind of a personal drive and a personal motivator.

 

Jim Rembach:    One of the things that you said in there, and thanks for sharing that quote, that kind of stands out for me and what I’ve tried to do as part of a personal practice is try to share what my intent is before I start talking about a thought or an idea or trying to encourage people to have some dialogue because I don’t want them to unfortunately get a wrong perception of what I intend. If you don’t tell people your intention they’re going to make up what they perceive to be your intention and it may not be what you want so, I try to incorporate that in my dialogue.

 

Justin Robbins:    That’s a very good point, Jim.

 

Jim Rembach:    And you kind of made that stand out for me, so thanks. When you start thinking about all of the things that you’ve had experience doing and really helping you be where you are today, I know there’s been a lot of humps and not that it’s a negative in any way but doing and shifting and getting all those different experiences are from many different reasons and some of them are humps that we just can’t get over so we just divert our path and just go somewhere else but were still moving forward, that’s the intent, right?  Is there a time that there was a hump that you had to get over and it defined you to take a better path? Can you share that story? 

 

Justin Robbins:    This is actually not a commonly shared story that I’m telling, it’s probably something that a lot of people don’t know about me. When I graduate from high school I was in the National Honor Society in the program, I was kind of all through high school set that I was going to be a music teacher. And so I went in to my freshmen year of college, went in at the honors program, I was really excited about music education at a school that at that time had a really great music ed program, and I got there and I immediately felt lost like I didn’t belong not  in the sense that college wasn’t necessarily right for me, but I realize that the degree I went out for wasn’t what I wanted to do. There were variety of factors impacting my life at that time but I realize that I was kind of lost, I personally lost, I was just mentally lost, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. But I did feel that right there at that time that I was just like spinning and making no forward progress. 

 

So, I made the decision at that point after part of my freshman semester of college, to dropout. And so I dropped out of college in my freshman year and for a number of years I talk about all of those things I did before I turn 22 and it was just me just trying to see what would stood out, some of there were really great, really exciting but there were also some really miserable, terrible jobs, horrible bosses, making not much money at all, and honestly for probably a period of at least three years it was not good. I mentally was kind of in a bad place at times, I would spend the little money that I had on things that I really didn’t needed and honestly Jim for the bigger part of it, I was lost. And I didn’t really know where I wanted to be and what I want to do. 

 

I was thankful to a number of mentors who are externally in my life. Externally feeding in to me who really help me regain my focus, regain my charge and step back to this place where I realize, I do have a choice. It went back to that place of fear and I had this choice to let fear get that best of me and to play this victim of circumstance where I could all this fears, all this anxieties and aligned with, what was I ultimately passionate about? What did I feel that I was really good at? And just pursue that and invest my efforts and invest my time and energy and honing myself into a very specific skill sets that would really allow me to pursue my passions, allow me to pursue the things that I thought and that I had received recognition for being good at. And so, for me that hump was, this was just a period of insecurity not really knowing who I was or what I was meant to be doing with my life over that three-year time when I decided to drop out of college.

 

Jim Rembach:    Thanks for sharing that story. For me,  I had a similar scenario where I was in between a job and what I wanted to do some of the things that you said just resonated with me so much because it was a scenario were the anxiety just started overwhelmingly me. And being able to try to figure out a way out was—it was so dark, it was so difficult. The thing for me that helped too was the thing it sounds like it helped for you—yes, some good mentors but, also really focusing on one thing. I think for me I was trying to focus in on so many things that’s part of what was driving me nuts.

 

Justin Robbins:    Exactly, absolutely.

 

Jim Rembach:    Thanks for sharing that story. For me, I also think about, you had a heck of a lot of strengthens and some good support because mine was a couple months, years was a little bit longer than that. But definitely both of us have come out on the other side at this point and I’m so glad that you’re part of the Legion. When you thinking about all of those experiences and that time and even where you are today, all of that, if there was a piece of advice that you would give to the fast leader legion, what would it be?

 

Justin Robbins:    I thought long and hard about this one, really what I think it comes down to is, internally we know what ignites our passion, and we know what that one thing is that if we can do for the rest of our lives and not get paid a cent for it that’s the thing that we would pursue. I feel that this could be a hard advice to get, sometimes at least it was maybe hard for me to process but really my best piece of advice for the nation is to be true to you. And that might mean having to turn down some things that maybe you like, maybe they made you feel good, maybe they have make you feel good but you did them because you’ve got something out it. Whether that money, whether that was prestige, whatever that was, ultimately you not going to be satisfied, you’re not going to your best work until you recognize what is true to you, who are you really? What are your design? And what do you meant to do? 

 

That come to some people easily, they might be doing that right now. For some people they might have been trying to figure it out but still aren’t there yet. Honestly, what I just say is really focus on who you are internally? What do you feel? What your pulse racing about? Where do you get that excitement over? And pursue it, pursue it, if you do you’re going to find the satisfaction that go beyond any paycheck you could ever get. They’ll going to go beyond any level of procedure, every trials you could ever receive because ultimately you’re doing what you’re meant to do. I think to many of us settle for something because where afraid of what that might mean if we ultimately pursue what we thought called to do. 

 

Jim Rembach:    Thanks for sharing that. Another thing that stood out that as you were saying that is I started thinking about control. Oftentimes we try to control so many things and I had the opportunity to speak with this one coach as part of their marketing for their services it said something  along the lines of, “Take control of your life.” And I said, “You know what, we all want to hear that and as a concept we embrace that, we attracted that, we want that but in fact that’s the thing that harms us when we try to control so much because when you try to control and the more you try to control, you in fact, control nothing. It’s one of those oxymoron in regards to trying to thrive and find happiness, you can’t control it you just have to do what you said, focus. Think about the things you enjoy and release, that’s where the value will come from in your life. So I know for you—gosh! You have so many things in your plate including helping youth at your church being a father, raising a family, a husband, managing these communities and these brands, speaking, writing there just so many things that just so many things that you have going on right now, if you were to say you have some goals what would they be?

 

Justin Robbins:    Yeah, that’s a great question, Jim. For me, one of the biggest goals that I think is never going to change is to never, never settle for what I know about my craft and about my community and my industry. Today I think it’s really easy, particularly people leverage you as an expert in the field and people secured, I think it can really easy to fall in the trap of—“Yeah, I really know what I’m talking about. Man, I’m good, I think I’m good at where I’m as, as far as how good I am.” For me one of the goals is to never get to that point and to never be that person but to really always be a student of my craft and really always be a student of the industry and the works that I’m doing, so that’s a big goal for me. Always look for opportunities, always find somebody who’s smarter that I and find a way to surround myself with those types of people. 

 

I mean, one of my tactics for most of my career is to find people who are really great at what they do and surround myself with them, and so that’s a continuous goal for me, to seek and pursue people who are doing really great things and make them part of network of friends and my network of community. Another goal for me is to continue to figure out the whole work life balance. I think for a lot of us that’s something that we say is important to us. I been saying it’s important to me but putting a goal on making sure that—we talk about family, we talk about friends and recognizing that it’s their support, their ability to carry us through is what enables us to be successful in our careers. So, that’s a goal for me. Another goal, just rounded out with three is, I love being outdoors and a goal for 2016 is to spend a weekends doing subzero camping. That’s a goal to make it through three days in a really, really cold weather with a bunch of guys that are just awesome friends, so I don’t want to chicken out—that’s a problem with my goals right now.

 

Jim Rembach:    And the Fast Leader Legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on let’s get a quick word from our sponsor. 

 

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Jim Rembach:     Alright here we go Fast Leader Legion it’ time for the Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, Justin, the Hump Day Hoedown is the part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So, I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Justin Robbin are you ready to hoedown? 

 

Justin Robbins:     I’m ready to hoedown, Jim. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Alright. What do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

 

Justin Robbins:     Honestly, setting the bar too low. I think I just kind of set a goal and I settle for that and I don’t dream big enough. So, dream bigger, dream bigger, dream bigger.

 

Jim Rembach:     What is the best leadership advice you have received?

 

Justin Robbins:     In line with that is just never give up. Sometimes we fail it’s going to be a failure, get over it move on. 

 

Jim Rembach:     What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

 

Justin Robbins:     Just personal drive. Just really being genuinely excited, enthusiastic and wanting to constantly get better.

 

Jim Rembach:     What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps to lead in business or life?

 

Justin Robbins:     The insight of really great authors who are really wise and provide excellent advice and ideas for just thinking outside of my norm.

 

Jim Rembach:     What would be one book that you’d recommend to our listeners, it could be from any genre?

 

Justin Robbins:     It’s “The promise of a pencil” by Adam Braun.

 

Jim Rembach:     Okay, Fast Leader Legion you can find links to that and other bonus information from today show by going to fastleader.net/Justin Robbins. Okay, Justin this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age of 25 and you have been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you but you can’t take everything you can only choose one, what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why? 

 

Justin Robbins:     I can’t make a decision, Jim, this is so hard. I would say I would take back the knowledge of where I’m going to be in the amount of years, it wasn’t far ago so I’m not going to say the number of years, but just what’s going to happen in the next series of years for me, I would just take the knowledge of where I’m going to end up and really just kind of say, “Look you know you have somethings in front of you right now but just continue to work hard and continue to stay true to you and everything’s going to work out okay. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Justin, it was an honor to spend time with you today can you please share with the fast leader legion how they can connect with you?

 

Justin Robbins:     Absolutely. If you go on Twitter I’m @JustinMRobbins, also LinkedIn/JustinMRobbins, if you look on the Internet for Justin M. Robbins you’ll probably going to find me, Jim. 

 

Jim Rembach:     Justin Robbins, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom the fast leader legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot Woot!

 

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader Show today. For recaps, links from every show, special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the www.fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster. 

 

END OF AUDIO

 

 

046: Yvonne Nomizu: I kept pushing and getting frustrated

Yvonne Nomizu Show Notes

Yvonne Nomizu set a new vision for her organization with new measures and new strategy. But her team did not seem to be accepting her new direction. So Yvonne kept pushing and getting frustrated. Then she received some valuable feedback that help her change her approach. Listen to Yvonne tell her story of how she got over the hump and moved onward and upward.

Yvonne Nomizu was raised in New England the daughter of a mathematics professor, but migrated and found a true home amongst the San Francisco Bay Area’s sunny skies, natural resources, progressive thinking and envelope-pushing business endeavors.

She is most proud of raising two daughters who live today with a work hard-play hard attitude and who believe that an individual can shape the future. Because Yvonne is curious about a lot of things and enjoys just about every business challenge, she has worked in industries as diverse as hotels, investment banking, high-tech startups and pharmaceuticals.

Some of Yvonne’s most notable projects include taking inventory of food supplies at the Plaza Hotel in New York and having the executive chef surprise with a deer head hanging in a freezer, developing the Holiday Inn Express brand, designing and installing specialized ATM machines for opening day at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, and redesigning the taxpayer experience for the IRS.

Yvonne is currently CEO and Managing Director of Pacific Consulting Group where all her diverse experiences come together into helping client organizations understand what drives customer value and to forward-design products and services based on where the puck will be.

Yvonne lives in Atherton, California and is an active alumna of the Stanford Business School. She and her family enjoy downhill skiing, hiking and international travel. Combining her love of customer experience with her Japanese heritage, Yvonne has started a blog, cx-omotenashi.com, which encourages CX professionals to learn from the unique form of Japanese hospitality.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen to @YvonneNomizu and get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow Click to Tweet

“Are you kind of following the trends…because everyone else is?” Click to Tweet

“Stop and ask the right questions.” Click to Tweet 

“Sometimes that very thing that makes you a good leader…stops you from asking the right questions.” Click to Tweet 

“If you do original thinking and ask the basic questions you can see the truth.” Click to Tweet 

“What am I going to do about it-is a personal leadership challenge.” Click to Tweet 

“A leader is someone who people follow.” Click to Tweet 

“How you get people to follow has a lot of elements to it.” Click to Tweet 

“It’s really no point unless I have the rest of my team behind me.” Click to Tweet 

“My goal is to be more in the moment.” Click to Tweet 

“I may not achieve a 100%, but I will get there.” Click to Tweet 

“You get more fuel, speed and power if you are in the moment.” Click to Tweet 

“Slow down, take it all in.” Click to Tweet 

“Stop worrying so much, have a level of faith.” Click to Tweet 

“Have the faith and you’ll be fine.” Click to Tweet 

Hump to Get Over

Yvonne Nomizu set a new vision for her organization with new measures and new strategy. But her team did not seem to be accepting her new direction. So Yvonne kept pushing and getting frustrated. Then she received some valuable feedback that help her change her approach. Listen to Yvonne tell her story of how she got over the hump and moved onward and upward.

Advice for others

Be more in the moment.

Holding her back from being an even better leader

Not enough sleep.

Best Leadership Advice Received

Slow down, take it all in.

Secret to Success

Work hard, play hard.

Best tools that helps in business or Life

My executive team

Recommended Reading

Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

Contacting Yvonne

Blog: http://cx-omotenashi.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonnenomizu

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yvonnenomizu

Resources

54 Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Competencies List: Emotional Intelligence has proven to be the right kind of intelligence to have if you want to move onward and upward faster. Get your free list today.

Show Transcript: 

Click to access edited transcript

046: Yvonne Nomizu: I kept pushing and getting frustrated

 

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast, where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

 

“Whether in the office or on the road work with your community or coach to practice great behaviour and produce great organization results. Capture real-time behaviour practice from competency-based development plans and invite feedback in an elegant and simple application. Take top performance mobile by going to Resultpal.com/fast and getting a $750 performance package for free”.

 

Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader Legion, I am thrilled to have the guest that I have on the show today because she is just so intelligent and it’s matched by her humour but I love meeting with her because oftentimes she hides that humor and I love trying to get it out. Yvonne Nomizu, was raised in New England. The daughter of a mathematics professor but migrated and found a true home amongst the San Francisco Bay area sunny skies natural resources progressive thinking and envelope pushing business endeavours. She is most proud of raising two daughters who live today with a work-hard play-hard attitude and who believe that an individual can shape the future. 

 

Because Yvonne is curious about a lot of things and enjoys just about every business challenge she has worked in industries as diverse as hotels, investment banking, tech start-ups, and pharmaceuticals. Some of Yvonne’s most notable projects include taking inventory of food supplies at the Plaza Hotel in New York and having the executive chef surprise her with a deer head in the freezer, developing the Holiday Inn express brand, designing and installing specialized ATMs for the opening day at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, and redesigning the taxpayer experience for the IRS. 

 

Yvonne is currently CEO and managing director of Pacific Consulting Group where all her diverse experiences come together into helping client organizations understanding what drives customer value and to forward design products and services based on where the pack will be. Yvonne lives Atherton, California and is an active alumna of the Stanford Business School. She and her family enjoys downhill skiing, hiking, and international travel. Combining her love of customer experience and her Japanese heritage, Yvonne has started a blog at cxomotenashi.com which encourages CX professionals to learn from the unique form of Japanese hospitality. Yvonne Nomizu, are you ready to help us get over the hump?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    Jim, I am. Here I am.

 

Jim Rembach:    Alright. So I’ve given our listeners a little bit about you but can you tell us which your current passionate is, so that we get to know you better.

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    My passion is building a business that moves the needle on customer experience. It is such a ripe, wonderful area. I think there’s been unbelievable progress but I don’t think we’re there yet, so I’m so driven by that, it’s been infused in my career for the last 35 years and I’m going to keep going.

 

Jim Rembach:     Well you, here’s the reserve part of Yvonne kicking in. You are feisty, and you and I have had some really good conversations in regards to, how you do get not just moving needle but, how do you get people to shove that thing in the right direction.

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    Wow! You’re painting me as pretty aggressive here.

 

Jim Rembach:    No you’re not. You see that’s what I love, is that you have this depth and this strength. Okay, so being and doing what you’ve done and accomplishing what you’ve accomplished and being considered a CX expert that’s no small fee, but you are so reserved that oftentimes I just enjoy being with you, spending time with you. So when you talk about helping and assisting and supporting people to move, what do you see some of the things that kind of block people from doing that?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    Okay, I’ve got three things that I think I naturally look at. One is original thinking, are you just following the trends? Are you just jumping on the train because everyone else is? What is really going on? And I’ve been known to say stop, stop the conversation let’s go backwards put the pause on. I think some of the reason why people don’t migrate there, it’s not that they’re not intelligent, it’s that they may not know what the questions are and so I feel I can be valuable in saying “Well, here are the questions” and people say, “ Those are so basic.” And I go, “Yeah. So basic but if you layer, sort of assumption upon assumption upon assumption and then jump on that bandwagon, you’re kind of off the train is pointing to the wrong direction. So, stop, ask the right questions. And Jim I talked about this, why don’t people ask the right questions, it’s not just an intellectual thing, I think there’s some kind of lenses that people bring on, and frankly the more senior you go the more you are moving towards being a leader in terms of seniority and experience the more you think you know it, you’re actually paid well for making the assumptions and cutting to the chase and have being wise. 

 

And so sometimes that very thing that makes you a good leader it was the thing that stops you from starting from scratch and asking questions, so one is original thing. The other one that you know I have talked a lot about is, courage. Because at some point if you do that original thinking and ask those basic questions you kind of see the truth and you’re like “Oops! I don’t really want to see that truth, I think I’ll go over here.” And so just saying now that I see that truth what am I going to do about it is a very personal kind of leadership challenge and it’s inside you, it’s inside your heart, it’s inside your head, you have allies and so on but someone’s going to take first step. And the third thing is for a lack of a better words, its innovation. That’s just, “I don’t care if I look  [6:00 inaudible] I don’t care if I look stupid, I’m not really here as a leader to be liked, if I expect everyone else to be creative then how come I’m not in front to of everyone coming up with a creative idea that turns out to be stupid. So I think what it is, is how do you feel good with those three things? How do you have fun with those three things? Because I think If you’ve got the original thinking, you’ve got the courage and you’ve got that “I think I’ll be wild and crazy right now” there’s always a time to assess, evaluate, filter, shut-down, you always can do that but why not have is this face where you can go for it. So, I think when you put those three things together people, it’s the journey, that’s the journey for leadership.

 

Jim Rembach:    And as you were talking I started thinking too about innovation, self-limiting beliefs, courage, all of those things really lend itself well to one of the things that we like to focus on the show and that’s leadership quotes. For me, I need to refer to something to help me pick myself back up again a lot of times and quotes to that just well. Are there some that kind of stand out for you, that do that for you and that you recommend others?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    Yeah. The first one that makes me be self-reflective is the leader that someone people follow. I like that one because it’s not about your charisma, it’s not per se about you communication, your strategic thinking and all that, it’s sort of says that the reason you would want to be a leader is that people are following you in a certain direction. Now, how do you get people to follow, that has a lot of elements to it from setting vision and strategy and communicating, who you are and authenticity and all of that so then a lot of things follow from that but I think that’s the first one that says why would you want to be that anyway. And that’s what success looks like this, I can run that race and I can get to the finish line it’s really no point if the rest of the team is behind me. So that one is always level setting and great power.

 

Jim Rembach:    On the Fast Leader show we focus on learning and change that really works and for leaders to change it’s really a vital component to their career and personal success and it really doesn’t matter, if you’re part of an organization, you run your own business, you’re male or female, in government, it really doesn’t matter but we have to make choices and we have to ebb and flow and navigate and be resilient but, can you think about a time when you had a hump to get over in your journey and it really is something that will impact others, can you share that?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    Yeah. It’s a recent story, and here was the situation, I was really pushing hard on getting my organization to understand the shift that we needed to take and I set a vision, I set some measurers, I did the strategy thing, I did some staff meetings and I kept pushing and I kept getting frustrated and I kept pushing and I kept getting frustrated. The new person I hired is best among experience came in and within a couple of weeks we have a very good relationship and said “Let’s try to communicate in a different way.” And I said, “well here’s what I care about, I care about the people, I care about the employees I want them to be, to really be hopeful about this new future, not afraid of it.” And when he goes, “Yvonne I need you, I need the rest of the staff to know you the way I know you because what you’re not sharing with the staff is how much you care about them, I know you that way now and you need to get that across.” And I said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course I care about them, I just decided to put this much in the 401k policy and I just decided to do this and everyone’s getting this vacation and these benefits.” He said “No” so I said “Okay, I’m going to be brave here” and at the next staff meeting instead of talking about the strategy and the measures, and the vision, and the client value, what we’re going to do and the innovation what we’re going to do, one person on the staff who’s been around for a long time asked a question, and I actually changed my tone, my voice went down and people afterwards said, “You sounded so completely different. “And I took a big deep breath and I said, “I’m very interested in hearing what you have to say about this, you guys are amazing, you are what this company needs to keep going.”
And actually once I started I couldn’t stop, so it was a little bit embarrassing for me because I had been so buttoned up in everything that I was saying on which I thought was very compelling. I just actually had a very awkward ends to my little speech and it was all like, “Wow! That was diarrhea of the mouth.” And then I stopped and then I quickly changed the topic and went on a little less to the agenda. And something shifted because I think they said, “We have never heard” maybe this was what you were telling me Jim “We had never heard that layer underneath.” My thing is that I think there’s a layer underneath, I process it pretty quickly and then I translate it to something that is sort of the charge for the troops but now what I’m committed to is revealing a little bit more of the layer underneath because frankly, that run of the mouth thing that I had probably had more impact than the previous five staff meetings where I was going on and on. So yeah I think it’s like where you’re coming from. 

Jim Rembach:    And that’s a great point Yvonne, and I appreciate you sharing that story because it was also so fresh and I can even tell a change in your voice as you were sharing that with us. And also that’s one reason why I kind of wanted you on the show because I do see you as one of those folks that a lot of times it is button up but there’s this underneath that has such a wealth of humor, intelligence, fun, fun-loving, and that’s one reason why I enjoy being with you so much, so thank you for sharing that.

 

So when you start thinking about so many things that you have on your plate, and I know that you with your volunteer work, with you doing work back with University, with your daughter, and of course your spouse all of those things, when you start thinking about all of that I mean what are some of your goals?

Yvonne Nomizu:    You know what it’s funny because now in my old age here, my goal is to be more in the moment. And here’s why I’m comfortable with that, because in the past I wasn’t that way and I was always working to where I was going because I was nervous about what I was going to get very much. So part of it is at some point you go “Don’t worry, you’ll get there” I start to have a confidence level about I may not achieve a hundred percent but I will get there. So, if I can relieve myself of that concern then it gives me more space to be in the moment and my story that I just told is actually how you in fact get more fuel and speed and power and influence if you want more in the moment. 

Some of my days are insane with my daughter applying for college and ranting and raving about the prom and then this and the boyfriend and I don’t have enough time with my spouse, and then I’ve got the business and then I just travel twice a month to the East coast to go to clients and I’m trying to help the clients too much as possible and it is crazy but I think I’m okay in the moment because there’s a trust that, “Am I going to focus on the right thing? I’m going to get it all done, in the long run I am okay but that helps me do is that it sorts of clears out half of the brain, the half the brain that was worried about the future and half the brain that was very goal focused and it freeze that up to actually be a little bit more high quality, more inclusive, more open, more absorbing of right now what’s going on and then actually I think I make better decisions. 

 

Jim Rembach:    And the Fast Leader Legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on, let’s get a quick word from our sponsor. 

 

“A dried leadership pipeline shouldn’t clog your business from moving onward and upward. Get over the hump by filling the gap between leadership developments and top performance with result pal. Rocket to success by going to Resultpal.com/fast and getting a $750 performance package for free.”

 

Alright, here we go Fast Leader Legion, it’s time for the—Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, Yvonne, the Hump Day Hoedown is the part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So, I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Yvonne Nomizu, are you ready to hoedown?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    I’m ready.

 

Jim Rembach:    Alright. So what do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today? 

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    *Lot* of sleep

 

Jim Rembach:    What is the best leadership advice you have received?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    Slow down, take it all in.

 

Jim Rembach:    What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    Work hard, play hard.

 

Jim Rembach:    What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    My team. My executive team.

 

Jim Rembach:    So what would be one book you’d recommend to our listener?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    “Up in life”

 

Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader listeners you can find links to that and other bonus information from our show today by going to Fastleader.net/Yvonnenomizu. 

 

Okay Yvonne, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age 25 and you were given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you, but you can’t take everything you can only choose one, so what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    I would tell my twenty-five year old self to stop worrying so much, to have a level of faith and start your life whether it’s religious faith, faith in yourself, faith in people, faith in humanity. Ask the *faith* and you’ll be fine.

 

Jim Rembach:    Yvonne it was an honour to spend time with you today. Can you please share with the Fast Leader legion how they can connect with you?

 

Yvonne Nomizu:    You can reach me at Ynomizu (Y-N-O-M-I-Z-U) ynomizu@pcgfirm.com or people can call me on my cellphone 650 three zerp three five seven zero five

 

Jim Rembach:    Yvonne Nomizu, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom. The Fast Leader Legion honours you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot!

 

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show, special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the Fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster.

 

END OF AUDIO

 

 

040: Jack Mackey: Sometimes fear brings out the best in you

Jack Mackey Show Notes

Jack Mackey challenged a group of volunteers for an annual conference to get 300 people to come to their annual conference. That was 3-times more than they had ever had before. Listen to how Jack moved onward and upward after a key volunteer tried to quit before they even started.

From an early age, Jack Mackey had a pathological aversion to authority.  Think James Bond – his childhood hero – minus the tough guy good looks and luxury lifestyle.  He might have some of Bond’s independent streak and initiative though.  Most folks like their bios to flatter them, but Jack learned it is best to lower expectations.

That way, when you learn he’s taken on a second marriage, or a job turning around a failing operation or starting a new business, you sort of expect him to fail – and he may surprise you.  Jack’s failures and successes all taught him the same lesson:  The human condition is to struggle.  Once you accept that, he says, the key to happiness is to love the battle!

Jack is currently the Chief Evangelist and Vice President of Sales at Service Management Group, also known as SMG, which is a Top 50 market research firm in the US, with offices in London and Tokyo that Jack was instrumental in launching.  When he joined the company, SMG had 38 clients and $8 million in revenues.  Under his sales leadership the company has grown to $50 million in revenues and serves more than 325 brands around the world from Shell Oil to McDonald’s to Kroger and JC Penny.

Prior Jack’s life in sales, he founded and operated 4 restaurants, was a teacher and student of Tae Kwon Do for 20 years.  From that experience, Jack developed “Love the Battle” as the most powerful concept for business owners and managers to excel under adversity.

Jack currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri with his with Betsy.

Tweetable Quotes and Mentions

Listen and @jmackey5000 will help you get over the hump on the @FastLeaderShow Click to Tweet

“I know I can’t stave off death, but I’ll be dammed if I’ll go out with a whimper.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“Sometimes you learn the best lessons from the worst examples.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“If it can’t be done, it interests me.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“You’ve got to embrace challenges” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“Impossible is just a big word for small-minded men.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“It’s no disgrace to fail, make a mistake or lose…it’s going to happen.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“The balance is not to accept losing, but to understand.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“If you gave it your best effort you can’t turn on yourself.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“Sometimes adversity or fear brings the best out of you.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“You actually have to believe in the people on your team.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“People rise to the expectation of the leader.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“Leadership needs to be much more collegial now.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“A lot of times, the best thing you add is asking the right questions.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

“You have to find a way to make people to want to work together.” -Jack Mackey Click to Tweet

Hump to Get Over

Jack Mackey challenged a group of volunteers for an annual conference to get 300 people to come to their annual conference. That was 3-times more than they had ever had before. Listen to how Jack moved onward and upward after a key volunteer tried to quit before they even started.

Advice for others

(Leadership) It’s not about you.

Holding him back from being an even better leader

I don’t have the energy of a 21-year old.

Best Leadership Advice Received

Take people with you.

Secret to Success

Start what you finish. Put things back in the same place. Stay organized. Don’t get in your own way.

Best tools that helps in business or Life

The Seinfeld Strategy.

Recommended Reading

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Contacting Jack

Email: jmackey [at] smg.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmackey5000

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackmackey

Resources

54 Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Competencies List: Emotional Intelligence has proven to be the right kind of intelligence to have if you want to move onward and upward faster. Get your free list today.

Show Transcript:

Click to access edited transcript

040: Jack Mackey: Sometimes Fear Brings Out The Best in You

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast, where we uncover the leadership like hat that help you to experience, break out performance faster and rocket to success. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

Jim Rembach: “Contributing to the annual $150 billion loss in training and development investments is downright demoralizing, so raise your spirits and training ROI by increasing learning transfer with ResultPal. Get over the Hump now by going to Resultpal.com/fast and getting a $750 performance package for free.”

 

Okay, Fast leader legion make sure you share this episode because it’s going to be fun. I have somebody today who is both witty and full of wisdom. From an early age Jack Mackey had a pathological aversion to authority, think James Bond his childhood hero minus the tough guy looks and luxury lifestyle. He might have some of Bond’s independent stricken initiative though. Most folks like their bios to flatter them but Jack learned it’s best to lower expectations that way when you learn he’s taken on a second marriage or a job turning around a failing operation or starting a new business you sort of expecting him to fail and he may surprise you.

 

Jack’s failures and successes all taught him the same lesson, the human condition is to struggle, once you accept that he says the key to happiness is to love the battle. Jack is currently the Chief evangelist and Vice-President of Sales at Service Management Group also known as SMG which is a top 50 market research firm in the US with offices in London and Tokyo that Jack was instrumental in launching. When he joined the company SMG had 38 client and $8 million revenues. Under his sales leadership the company has grown to $50 million in revenues and serves more than 325 brands around world from Shell Oil to McDonald’s to Kroger to JC Penney. 

 

Prior to Jack’s life in sales he founded an operated four restaurants, was a teacher and student of Taekwondo for 20 years. From that experience Jack developed, loved the battle, as the most powerful concept for business owners and managers to excel under adversity. Jack currently reside in Kansas City with his wife Betsy. Jack Mackey are you ready to help us get over the Hump?

 

Jack Mackey:    I am halfway over the Hump already man.

 

Jim Rembach:    I hear you. Alright, so I’ve given our legion a little bit about you but can you share what your current passion is so that we can get to know you better?

 

Jack Mackey:    Well my current passion is, I am training for a triathlon to celebrate my 55th birthday. I know I can’t stave off death but I’ll be damned if I’ll go out with a whimper. And my passion at work is, as you know Jim is we’ve met is, I’m just passionate about creating five star experiences for people whether they’re customers or employees or, hey how about, even my family, my wife, and kids and the people I work with.

 

Jim Rembach:    You know, I think that’s a great point Jack. One of the reasons why I definitely wanted to have you on my show is that you’re one of those folks that—you seem like you’re always there for people. Even when we’ve had just casual passing’s at a member insight exchange for the CXPA, or even being on a leader call, being both the CX leaders for the association is that, you take the time and you listen well and you give some darn good advice and that’s really appreciated. And doing it both for the business side as well as your family is something that I think we really need to separate the line between the two. I think you’ve probably emulated that in a lot of ways. Even though I haven’t seen the family side, I just kind of know it’s there, where does that come from?

 

Jack Mackey:    I’ve got to say that it comes from my parents. I have an unusual heritage. My mom was a frustrated actress and my dad was a lawyer but he found that he didn’t like the confrontational side of loss so he ended up using his talents in the real estate appraisal but both of my parents were great hosts and entertainers. People would love to come to the parties at our house, and so I was exposed at an early age to what it was like to make people feel welcome and comfortable and to greet people and to go to some effort to listen to them and remember their names and what they cared about, my parents are just masters at that.

 

Jim Rembach:    Well you know, it’s interesting that you say that cause I know you and I have had several discussions around hospitality in restaurants and you had a long history in that even as an executive chef I think you were for a while, and so you’ve had some good discussions about that. Do you think that even that influenced you, that being with them and seeing all of that and to go into the restaurant space?

 

Jack Mackey:    No. I totally fell in love with the craft of cooking, that’s how I got there. Once I got into the restaurant business it really helped that I loved food, I discovered it kind of late in life cause even though my parents are great entertainers they weren’t great cooks. The first time I was exposed to great cooking, it was like an epiphany, I fell in love with it. And back in those days too, Jim this was in the 70’s, and being a cook there was no such thing as a celebrity chef, being a cook was a big no-no in my family. I think the Department of Labor classified cooks along with sort of maids and household staff, so it was a very low esteemed job in the viewpoint of all my peers. And when I fell in love with cooking they were shocked, my friends, my parents, everybody was. But my attitude was, if I go and learn to this and it turns out this isn’t the way I want to make my living, how can I go wrong? I’m going to be a great cook for the rest of my life and that worked out so well. And of course, I don’t cook for a living but I never regretted getting into that.

 

But I think I got off track of your question which was—how did this attitude towards people get in to me? And how did it influence my restaurant industry? I think what is was,  in a way I saw some negative examples in the kitchens, the behind the scenes stuff, there’s a lot of stereotypes about chefs throwing things and cussing and things, a lot of that was true back in the 70’s. Sometimes, you learn the best lessons from the worst examples, and you say to yourself, “I’m never going to be that way.” And as a result of that you go all the way in the opposite way so that you become not a bad example but maybe you become a little bit of an example about how it should be done the way you should talk to people. A great example to that, Jim is when wait staff would come back to the kitchen they would order something and the customer had said that they wanted something special about it, no salt or extra this or whatever and a lot of times the cooks, they saw themselves as artist would get almost offended and they take it out on the servers that the customer wanted something special, so I had to intervene all the time and set the example that we were here for what the customers wanted, the servers were simply communicating what the customers wanted and that it was very important to me that we made the customers happy and the process were very respectful of the servers who requested these unusual things.

 

Jim Rembach:    I think what you’re talking about are some really—and we were on a call yesterday with the CXPA’s part of leader group. I think we all started talking about fundamentals. What you’re talking about is very fundamental in regards to being able to deliver a customer experience that will render prosperity. It just makes a lot of things easier and they flow much better when you reduce that whole need to create conflict. And I think that’s great example that you just shared right there about the whole transformation of what has occurred within the kitchen. 

 

Now, I know for you talking about even who your parents influence and just interacting with you that you do find things that are very inspirational and you share them quite often your great storyteller. On the show we focus on quotes because they do just that, they can inspire and tell great stories and oftentimes just a few words. Is there a quote for you the kind of stands out as one that has that depth and meaning and gives you drive?

 

Jack Mackey:    Yes. I learned it at an early age with a fellow who was interviewing with me. He was telling me about his career and I asked him what’s the best advice he had ever gotten, and he said: “If it can’t be done, it interests me. If it can’t be done, it interests me” and I have used that over and over again in my career as a way of challenging sales people, challenging leaders, and even in volunteer organization when I wanted people to do things beyond what we’re going to accomplish in the past. In fact, I used to use it as byline under my name for a while, “If it can’t be done, it interests me” and I think there’s a lot to that. Because it really speaks to this idea of loving the battle, you’ve got to embrace challenges. And, in fact, I bet everybody or lot of people have seen that poster of Mohammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston and that first round knockout and it basically said nothing is impossible. Then there was this great copy about how impossible is just a big work for small minded men that think more about the problems they face than how to change the world that’s been given to them. And at the end of the quote it turns around to from “Nothing is impossible to impossible is nothing.”

 

Jim Rembach:    Oh, that’s some great wisdom there, Jack. I know that when you start talking about looking at things that are supposedly impossible and it does actually have interest is that when we go down the path to pursue those things that we have humps to get over and there were so many different learnings that we can have within those homes because there’s failures as there’s wisdom that we capture for others. Can you think of a hump that you had to get over that added to you and to others?

 

Jack Mackey:    Well first of all, just a comment about failures. I was with a group of people once, where somebody started the conversation and said, “So, everybody’s always talking about their biggest successes tell me about your biggest failure? And everybody was dead silent and about ten things came to my mind and I said, “I can dominate this whole conversation, my life is littered with failures.” And I think, if you’re going to have a career that is challenging at all it’s going to be checked with disappointments and failures and even the occasional humiliation. I like what you said the other day, you just have to get back up, it’s no disgrace to fail or make mistake or lose, and in fact it’s going to happen. The balance is not to accept losing but to understand when you’re unable to succeed in spite of your best efforts. If you gave it your best effort you can’t turn on yourselves and beat yourself up, you got to get up and get back in the ring as you would say.

 

Jim Rembach:    Absolutely. I mean one of those things that I like is, until you’re dead you’re not done. I mean that to me the ultimate losing, so to speak. And for those of us that are of faith we know that’s not the end either so you always have chance to get back up.

 

Jack Mackey:     So true, but back to your question, I wanted to think of a story that involved me in a leadership role, cause there’s lots of personal challenges but that’s a little bit of a different set of skills to overcome personal challenges. In a leadership situation, I’ll never forget I was a member of a group called Toastmasters, in fact I still am a member. I founded a club here at SMG, I’ve been a member for a long time, I love public speaking. And I also like seeing people gain the confidence that comes with, not just speaking in public, but leading. And so, in the Toastmasters organization I ended up becoming the district governor out here in my part of country and one of things we do is put on an annual conference and that takes a lot of volunteers and you got to get people to volunteer to do things outside their comfort zone. I especially made it a challenge for everybody because the history in my district was we never got more than 100 people come to the conference no matter what we did. There was 1800 people get invited and 100 would come and that was a lot of work for 100 people. 

 

So I went to a national or regional conference of other district leaders and I heard about this one opted up in Wisconsin and they got 300 people to come to their conference. They did it by having the individual clubs pay one small fee and anybody as many people as where the club could attend versus having the individual members have to pony up extra money beyond their dues, and I thought that was brilliant. So, I challenge everybody, we’re going to have 300 people come to our conference, if it can’t be done it interests me, that’s how I introduced it. And so, a lot of people were skeptical but one fellow particular was in my eyesight as a guy who would be a great organizer of the event in terms of planning, I would handle the marketing but I need somebody that I could rely on in the planning and execution make sure the rooms were set up and 300 people is a big organizing challenge, and this guy’s name was Charlie Frost, I’m sure Charlie Frost won’t mind me using his name. 

 

So, Charlie and I went out one Saturday morning and our challenge was, we had to first of all go and vat a couple of hotels and figure out which one we would choose. Charlie picked me up and the first thing he said when I got in the car he says, “Jack, the more I think about this, I don’t still think I’m going to be able to do this.” and I said “Well, good morning to you too Charlie, thanks for picking me up.” I said, “Okay, I get it you’re a little bit nervous, I was scared to death the first time I did this, as long as we’re up and we’re out let’s go ahead and go out to one of these hotels and just see what happens.” So, he tells the story that I just acted like I didn’t hear him say I quit before I start. 

 

So, we went out to one of the hotels and once we got in there and we started talking to the meeting planner and she took us into the room and saw the layout, he was very detail oriented, and when he starts to talk about the details he starts to organize and he got that and by the end of our visiting 3 hotels there was no talk about how he couldn’t do it or anything, and that was the most successful conference we ever had and I’ve been so proud of that and so proud of him. It just shows that sometimes adversity or fear brings the best out in you and I think that was a case for Charlie and I know it happened for me 

 

Jim Rembach:    I think there’s another thing for me that kind of stood out as you were saying that. And it wasn’t necessarily ignoring what Charlie was saying it was more so that you chunked it down for him. And then, you made it something that he didn’t have to feel like he was drinking from a firehose, it was something that he felt that he could take this one little incremental step at a time. And then, throughout the course of the days you were saying he was pulling and putting all of the other minor pieces together to make a major outcome, I think that was fantastic.

 

Jack Mackey:    Yeah, it’s kind of like swimming lessons, you don’t throw somebody and then ask them to swim the length of the pool. You stand in the pool and just ask him to take your hand and put their foot in the water. In that case that was a good leadership lesson for me.

 

 Jim Rembach:    Well I think that’s a good leadership lesson for all of us. Because I think too many times especially in today’s world where we just have so many things that we need to get done that we often don’t slowdown in order to get more accomplished.

 

Jack Mackey:    I agree with you, Jim. I also think that one of the requirements of being an effective leader is you not only have to believe in whatever it is you’re leading, you actually have to believe in the people that are on your team. So the fact that I actually, I picked Charlie, I hand-picked him, I believed he could do it I was ready to trust my reputation with him, I felt that way, so when he didn’t feel that way I think it was my beliefs that helped reset his belief about what he could do. And I think people rise to the level of expectations of the leader, that’s not a new idea that’s an old idea, and the reason it’s old is it sticks around because it’s true.

 

Jim Rembach:    Very much so, very much so. Okay, so if you started thinking about the experiences that you had not just as a leader but also as a follower because I don’t also see the situation Jack were you’re the person who has to grab the limelight, I don’t see that I mean you actually fall in with the group to help carry the group as a group member just as much as you are comfortable with standing in front and leading the way, so If you were to think about all of those experiences, if there was one piece of advice you’d give to the Legion what would it be ?

 

Jack Mackey:    I think it was advice about leadership, it would be: “it’s not about you.” It took me a while to come to that perspective because in my first career I was the typical leader in as much as I actually did know more about the topic than anyone else that worked for me. In fact, they came to work for me because they wanted to learn from me. And then, when I change and evolve my career in to the areas that I’ve been in since, which is mid-management training and consulting and customer experience management and leadership, once I got into that there was people there that knew a lot more than I did about a lot of different areas. So, this is where I’ve found that leadership needs to be much more collegial now because no one is looking to you for all the answers, in fact, a lot of times the best thing you add is asking the right questions and as you said, not insisting that you step in the limelight or that it always be your answer. 

 

So I learned that over time, it’s not like I’ve been that way my whole life just like you like everybody we all have to evolve. If you’ve ever been in a job where you actually wear the smartest, fastest, most knowledgeable in that area and people looked to you for leadership, that is a whole different kind of leadership than where you’re on cross functional team with a whole bunch of people with advanced degrees and areas that know ten times more than you and those specific areas and you have to pull them all together to deliver a result you need to find a way to make people want to work together, and you get that by respecting them, listening to them and a lot of times that means asking good questions.

 

Jim Rembach:    Thanks for sharing that wisdom. We talked about a lot of different things that you have going on, everything from your volunteer work to your actual work and being in that serial entrepreneur in regards to that type of energy and as well as some the creative things that were talking about, but if you are think about one thing right now the kind of gives you that energy and excitement, what is it?

 

Jack Mackey:    Gosh! I feel like I’m 21 years old from an emotional point of view. I don’t know where that comes from. I think I mentioned I’m turning 65 and so all my peers are that age too, and all of us whenever we get together for reunions or anything everybody says that the mind does not feel old the body feels sometimes old but the mind does not feel old so I’m blessed at there isn’t any secret that I’ve discovered it feels like it’s in my DNA, but I don’t feel like it’s exclusive to Jack Mackey, because everybody else I talk to that’s my age sort of feels, still feels young. Now, to keep that young feeling when you’re in a career situation where it’s not just a passion, people are relying on you so they need you to be energetic and focused and committed. What continues to turn me in is on, is I always find new things to try to learn and get better at, I guess that’s the key. 

 

Do you remember when you had your first job or a first job in a new career? You think back on those days when you’re first starting a job and you are learning so much so quickly that you can almost feel your mind expanding and you can almost feel yourself getting better, it’s just a matter of weeks and months of this massive growth. And when you think back about how great it feels early on a job like that, that is really what I try to recapture by taking on new challenges all the time and trying to learn new things and throw myself into situations where sometimes I’m actually nervous and scared, I try not to show that cause it makes my teammates nervous, but sometimes if I’m not nervous or scared for a couple weeks I just don’t feel like I’m challenging myself enough.

 

Jim Rembach:    Well, the Fast leader Legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on, let’s get a quick word from our sponsor. 

 

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Alright! Now here we go Fast leader listeners, it’s time for the—Hump Day Hoedown. Okay Jack, the Hump day Hoedown is the part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So, I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us a robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster.  Jack Mackey are you ready to Hoedown? 

 

Jack Mackey:    I’ll give it a shot man. If it can’t be done it interests me.

 

Jim Rembach:    Alright. So what do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

 

Jack Mackey:    I don’t have the energy of a 21 year old. [Laugh]

 

Jim Rembach:    What is the best leadership advice you have ever received?

 

Jack Mackey:    Take people with you.

 

Jim Rembach:    What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

 

Jack Mackey:    Start what you finish. Put things back in the same place. Stay organized. Just basic simple stuff, don’t get in front in your own way.

 

Jim Rembach:    What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life?

 

Jack Mackey:    I just learned this tool three years ago, it’s called the Seinfeld strategy, want to hear it?

 

Jim Rembach:    Yes we do.

 

Jack Mackey:    Alright the Seinfeld strategy was somebody asked Jerry Seinfeld how did he make a billion dollars being funnyman, and he said that, the only way to tell better jokes is to write better jokes and the only way to write better jokes is to write a lot them and so he said I made a commitment that every day I was going to write jokes whether they were good bad ugly that was a secondary thing, I was going to write jokes every day. So I got myself a big yearly calendar and every day that I wrote jokes for an hour I put an X on the calendar and my challenge was to not break that chain of X’s and he said that, that strategy of committing to a daily activity that would cumulatively get you where you wanted to go and not break in the chain was the best reason why he is so successful. Ever since I heard that, I always use a calendar but I never use the X on each day to get myself a pat on the back for that activity, so I love that strategy.

 

Jim Rembach:    Good strategy. What would be one book you would recommend to our listeners?

 

Jack Mackey:    Good strategy, Bad strategy by a guy name Richard Rumelt. He’s a UCLA Professor of Strategy. Strategy is such a highfalutin word and everybody uses multisyllabic words to discuss it and he was really good at boiling it down. So, that’s the one I’d recommend for your leadership. But just for fun, I listen to audio books all the time. You got to listen to The Big Short by Michael Lewis who also did Money Ball that explains the whole financial crisis that we just went through again in a story format, fantastic audio book.

 

Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader legion, you can find links to that and other bonus information from our show by going to the show notes page for Jack and you’ll find that at fastleader.net/JackMackey. Okay Jack, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age of 25 and you have been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have back with you but you can’t take everything back you can only choose one, so what one piece of skill or knowledge would you take back with you and why?

 

Jack Mackey:    I would’ve never guessed, and therefore I would’ve taken this back with me. I would’ve never guessed when I was a young man that keyboard skills would matter so much. I passed up the opportunity in high school and college, I never ever got good at typing cause I never thought typing was going to matter and now everybody needs to communicate and you’re constantly typing, they don’t call it that anymore, so if I could do it all over again I would go back, I would learn to type a 120 or 130 words a minute and that would have advance my career a lot faster.

 

Jim Rembach:    I think I’m right there with you. Jack it was an honor to spend time with you today can you please share with the Fast leader Legion how they can connect with you?

 

Jack Mackey:    Oh! I’d love to. I’m on LinkedIn as Jack Mackey, easy to find and you can reach me at SMG JMackey@SMG.com, and my Twitter handle is JMakey5000.

 

Jim Rembach:    Jack Mackey thank you for sharing of knowledge and wisdom. The Fast Leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the Hump. Woot! Woot!

 

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show, special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the Fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster.

 

END OF AUDIO