Orchestrating Success

In this episode of our podcast, we dive into Chapter Four of "Leaders Transform," focusing on the crucial theme of empowering and delegating to orchestrate high-performing teams. We explore the idea that true leadership is not about doing more ourselves but about empowering others to take the lead. I share insights on how effective delegation can transform your role from a controller to a catalyst, using a practical five-step delegation framework. This framework emphasizes the importance of clarity, autonomy, and support, allowing team members to thrive and innovate. We discuss the significant benefits of empowerment, including increased engagement, creativity, and resilience within teams. Through real-life examples, such as a case study involving a CTO in a tech firm, we illustrate how trust in delegation can lead to remarkable productivity increases and more time for strategic innovation. I also highlight the dangers of micromanagement, which stifles growth and creativity, and contrast it with the empowering culture that effective delegation fosters. We delve into the virtuous cycle of trust in delegation, emphasizing the need for leaders to resist the urge to micromanage and instead embrace healthy struggles and open communication. Additionally, I provide practical tools and activities, such as a delegation map and development plans, to help leaders redistribute responsibilities and foster growth within their teams. As we wrap up, I encourage listeners to reflect on their own delegation practices and consider how they can cultivate a culture of empowerment. Remember, leadership is about equipping others to lead and thrive, setting the stage for motivation and engagement in the next chapter. Join me as we continue this journey of transformational leadership! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of "Leaders Transform," we dive into Chapter 3 of our book, "Orchestrating High-Performing Teams," focusing on the critical role of communication and collaboration in team dynamics. We explore the idea that great teams don't just communicate; they resonate, much like a well-conducted orchestra. I discuss how leaders can act as conductors, aligning diverse voices into a shared rhythm of purpose and productivity. Effective communication is the lifeblood of connection, enabling trust and transforming ideas into action. We identify common barriers to effective communication, such as lack of clarity, unheard voices, and defensive cultures, and emphasize the importance of fostering an open and respectful dialogue. Introducing the Affirm, Engage, Invite framework, I outline how leaders can transform conversations from transactional to transformative. This model encourages acknowledgment of contributions, deepening understanding through open-ended questions, and inviting team members to co-create solutions. We also cover the significance of delivering feedback that builds rather than breaks relationships, highlighting principles such as using inclusive language, balancing affirmation with challenge, and inviting dialogue. To create a collaborative communication culture, I share strategies like regular check-ins, establishing clear communication protocols, and celebrating collaborative wins. We also address how to communicate effectively under pressure and navigate conflicts using the Affirm-Engage-Invite framework. Finally, I encourage listeners to reflect on their communication practices, especially in diverse teams, and to sustain a collaborative culture by regularly revisiting communication agreements. Join me next time as we explore empowering and delegating, expanding our influence through ownership, and how effective communication lays the groundwork for fostering accountability in teams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Leaders Transform podcast, we dive into Chapter Two of our book, which focuses on the critical theme of building trust and safety within high-performance teams. Trust is the cornerstone of collaboration and innovation, and without it, teams struggle to thrive. We explore how to cultivate psychological safety and mutual trust, empowering team members to speak up, take risks, and grow. Through real-world stories, practical tools, and leadership reflections, we provide insights on creating a culture of openness, vulnerability, and accountability. I share a personal story from my early days as a conductor, illustrating how I learned that connection and safety are essential for team success. We discuss the conditions that flourish in a trusting environment, such as open communication, constructive conflict resolution, and shared accountability, contrasting them with the detrimental effects of a lack of trust. Key behaviors for leaders to foster trust include transparency, consistency, humility, and inclusivity. We also introduce practical tools like the Trust Pulse Team Survey and the Trust Wall activity to assess and strengthen the trust climate within teams. Additionally, we emphasize the importance of ongoing commitment to trust-building, especially in diverse teams, and provide reflection questions and case studies to illustrate these concepts in action. As we wrap up, I highlight that trust is not a one-time achievement but requires continuous effort and reflection. In our next episode, we will explore how building trust lays the groundwork for effective communication and collaboration, setting the stage for exceptional team culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I delve into the transformative shift from being a traditional boss to becoming a conductor in leadership. I explore the importance of reaffirming goals, welcoming feedback, and embracing mistakes as opportunities for learning. The rehearsal flow I present emphasizes a continuous loop of vision, listening, adjustment, and feedback, which is crucial for effective teamwork. I introduce practical tools, such as crafting a concise vision statement that focuses on purpose and impact, rather than just process. I encourage listeners to assess their leadership style by reflecting on key questions that reveal whether they lead with influence or cling to authority. Key takeaways include the idea that effective leaders create conditions for others to excel, define a clear vision, and trust their teams to co-create the path forward. I highlight the importance of asking better questions and relinquishing micromanagement to empower team members. Additionally, I share an inspiring story from Benjamin Zander that illustrates the power of adapting based on team input, leading to improved performance and engagement. As we transition to the next chapter, we will focus on building trust and safety within teams, which is essential for fostering bold teamwork and exceptional results. Join me as we continue to explore how to cultivate an environment where team members feel empowered to take risks and share ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I introduce my book, "Leaders Transform the Art of Influence: Orchestrating High-Performance Teams." This book serves as a guide for team leadership, framed through my music conductor analogy, emphasizing that effective leadership is about influence rather than power or authority. I outline the seven chapters of the book, starting with the transition from a command-and-control mindset to a facilitator approach, where leaders define the vision and invite team input. We explore the importance of building trust and safety within teams, effective communication, and collaboration through my Affirm, Engage, Invite framework. The discussion continues with strategies for empowering team members, understanding individual motivators, and handling common team challenges. The final chapter provides practical tools for team leadership, including templates for vision statements and team norms. Throughout the episode, I share insights from my experience as a conductor, illustrating how leadership should focus on creating an environment where high performance can thrive. I emphasize that people respond to inspiration and connection, not control, and invite listeners to embrace a collaborative approach to leadership. Join me as we explore how to align teams around a shared vision, foster a culture of trust and empowerment, and ultimately transform the way we lead. Let the transformation begin! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we delve into the essence of transformational leadership, emphasizing the importance of leading from within. We explore the foundational elements of authentic leadership, which include self-awareness, integrity, and intention. I remind listeners that true leadership starts with self-reflection and is a continuous journey rather than a one-time event. I introduce my four key leadership principles from the Center Vision Leadership Model: 1.     Foundations - Stay grounded in your purpose and vision. 2.     Relationships - Build trust and foster meaningful connections. 3.     Systems - Align your actions with your mission and eliminate distractions. 4.     Balance - Protect your energy and honor your boundaries. As we conclude this first volume focused on the inner journey of self-leadership, I encourage listeners to celebrate their progress and the clarity they've gained. The next installment will shift our focus to leading teams and shaping organizational culture. I remind everyone that a leader who embodies integrity, clarity, and courage has the power to transform lives, and I believe that's the kind of leader each of you is becoming. Stay committed, stay courageous, and stay unbound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of "Leaders Transform," we dive into Chapter Seven, focusing on the action plan for becoming an unbound leader. I emphasize that transformation requires action; inspiration alone is not enough. We've explored key dimensions of leadership in previous chapters—authenticity, vision, mindset, self-awareness, habits, and balance—and now it's time to implement what we've learned. I introduce the concept of the unbound leader, someone who leads with freedom, clarity, and purpose, unencumbered by ego or outdated control models. This leader is committed to continuous learning and growth, guided by core principles. I present the Center Vision Leadership Model, a framework I've shared with thousands of leaders worldwide, built on four core principles: 1.     Foundations: Understanding our core identity and vision as leaders. 2.     Relationships: Building trust and communication with the right people. 3.     Systems: Establishing effective processes and habits that lead to success. 4.     Balance: Maintaining personal practices that sustain energy and integrity. I encourage listeners to create a personal leadership roadmap, revisiting their vision, assessing balance, and mapping out daily practices. Reflection questions are provided to help identify insights and define success. Finally, I introduce the Unbound Leadership Blueprint, a tool for defining personal transformation, and share resources like the Unbound Leader Template and a 30-day self-leadership challenge. I remind everyone that transformation is a rhythm, not a switch, and encourage them to start leading their lives intentionally. The journey of leadership is ongoing—keep practicing, reflecting, and growing. Thank you for joining me on this transformative path! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of "Leaders Transform," we dive into Chapter Six, focusing on the crucial themes of balance and self-care in leadership. I emphasize that sustainable leadership is not about doing more but about doing what truly matters with presence, purpose, and peace. Throughout my experience coaching a diverse range of leaders, I've observed a concerning trend: many high-performing individuals operate on empty, mistaking exhaustion for excellence and burnout for hard work. I want to challenge the notion that burnout is a badge of honor; instead, it serves as a warning sign that we are out of alignment. We explore the concept of balance, reframing it from a rigid distribution of time to an alignment of energy with our values. It's essential to learn to say no without guilt and to create margin in our calendars for reflection, rest, and recalibration. I share how self-care is not selfish but a strategic leadership tool that enhances our presence and effectiveness. Strong leaders set boundaries that create freedom, allowing them to protect their focus and model a healthy pace for their teams. I encourage listeners to reflect on what drains and restores their energy, and to consider their own warning signs of burnout. To help you better understand your energy patterns, I suggest creating a personal energy map over the next week, tracking your energy levels and the activities that influence them. Just as pauses in music are vital for impact, so too are pauses in leadership for clarity and power. Ultimately, true leadership does not demand burnout; it requires our well-being. Join me in the next chapter as we develop an action plan to become unbound leaders, guided by four essential leadership principles. I look forward to our continued journey together! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we dive into Chapter 5, "Leading Transformation," focusing on the essential theme of continuous learning habits in leadership. I emphasize that excellence in leadership is not a one-time achievement but a journey of ongoing growth. The best leaders are those who ask insightful questions and remain curious about themselves, their teams, and the world around them. I draw a parallel between leadership and conducting music, highlighting how a skilled conductor, like Robert Shaw, continually seeks deeper understanding and clarity, even after performing pieces numerous times. This mindset of lifelong learning is crucial for leaders, as it fosters humility and a culture of innovation and trust within their teams. We discuss the importance of establishing consistent habits that support leadership growth. Just as a violinist practices daily, leaders must integrate small, repeatable actions into their routines to build resilience and clarity. I encourage listeners to reflect on their current habits and consider what small changes they can make to elevate their leadership. Neglecting personal growth can lead to stagnation, limiting a leader's ability to inspire and innovate. By modeling continuous learning, leaders empower their teams to grow alongside them, creating a culture where excellence is the norm. To help listeners take actionable steps, I propose an exercise to design a leadership growth rhythm, incorporating daily journaling, weekly reviews, and monthly learning activities. I conclude with a powerful reminder that leadership is about staying in motion and evolving, not just staying ahead of others. The next chapter will focus on "Balance and Self-Care," emphasizing the importance of maintaining energy and boundaries for sustainable leadership. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of "Leaders Transform the Art of Influence," we delve into the crucial theme of mindset and confidence as part of our ongoing series on self-transformation. I emphasize that transformation and leadership begin in the mind. Our thoughts shape our beliefs, which in turn influence our behaviors. If we harbor limiting beliefs about our capabilities, we will lead from a place of limitation. However, by cultivating a growth mindset, we can unlock our potential to lead with boldness and resilience. I discuss the concept of invisible barriers—those unspoken doubts and inherited narratives that can hold us back. Drawing from my own journey from conductor to leadership coach, I share how I learned that the principles of leadership remain constant, regardless of the stage. We explore some research on fixed versus growth mindsets, highlighting how a growth mindset allows leaders to view challenges as opportunities for growth. Confidence, I assert, is not something that magically appears; it is earned through purpose, consistency, and preparation. I recount a powerful moment from my conducting days, illustrating that true confidence comes from clarity of intention and presence, rather than from a title. I encourage listeners to reflect on their own limiting beliefs and to engage in a practical exercise to counter those beliefs with empowering statements. In closing, I remind everyone that our mindset sets the ceiling for our leadership potential, but by choosing to grow, we can break through those ceilings. I look forward to our next episode, where we will explore the importance of continuous learning and building routines for growth and excellence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of "Leaders Transform," we delve into the critical relationship between vision and self-awareness in leadership. I emphasize that a leader without a vision is akin to a conductor without a score—both lack direction and clarity. A compelling vision is not just a statement for others to follow; it serves as a personal compass that guides how we live and lead every day. I share insights from my journey, highlighting that true leadership identity stems from a personal vision that resides in our hearts and spirits, rather than just on a wall. This vision shapes our internal identity and informs our presence, tone, and priorities, ultimately giving our leadership depth and resilience. We explore essential questions for creating a personal vision, such as the kind of leader one aspires to be, the values that guide decisions, and how one wants others to experience their presence. I stress that self-awareness is the mirror of leadership; without it, our vision can become obscured, making it difficult to lead effectively. Throughout the episode, I draw parallels between my experiences as a musical conductor and leadership, illustrating how our energy and presence can significantly impact those we lead. When our vision aligns with self-awareness, we achieve congruence in our leadership, fostering trust and transforming not only ourselves but also those around us. I encourage listeners to reflect on their personal leadership vision and consider the gaps between self-perception and how others experience them. As a practical exercise, I suggest writing a one-page personal leadership vision that articulates who you want to be, your core values, guiding principles, and the legacy you wish to leave. In the next episode, we will explore the themes of mindset and confidence, discussing how a growth mindset and internal confidence can enhance our influence as leaders. I look forward to continuing this journey of transformation with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of "Leaders Transform Self Transformation," we delve into the crucial themes of authenticity and integrity in leadership. I discuss how authentic leadership is not about donning a mask to fit a certain role but rather about shedding those masks to reveal our true selves. Many leaders feel pressured to act in ways they believe will earn respect and authority, but this often leads to disconnection. I share my personal journey, highlighting how I initially thought I needed to project confidence and authority, only to discover that true leadership stems from being grounded in our core values and leading with clarity and transparency. Authenticity is our greatest asset, as it fosters trust—the essential currency of effective leadership. We explore the concept of integrity, which serves as the structure supporting our authenticity. Just as a conductor maintains rhythm in music, leaders must ensure their values, words, and actions are in sync. Inconsistencies can erode trust, while a consistent presence builds stability, especially in uncertain times. I emphasize that being authentic doesn't mean oversharing; it means being anchored in who we are and leading without pretense. I encourage listeners to reflect on their own leadership authenticity, identify areas where they may be wearing masks, and consider how they can align their actions with their core values. Ultimately, I remind us that authenticity and integrity are not mere tactics but the essence of effective leadership. As we tune into these qualities, we set the stage for transformative leadership that inspires others. Join me in the next episode as we explore crafting a personal vision and enhancing emotional intelligence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this inaugural episode of my new series, "Leaders Transform," I delve into the essence of transformational leadership, a concept I've championed throughout my career as a conductor and leadership coach. I emphasize that true leadership begins not in the boardroom or on the podium, but within ourselves. Transformation starts from the inside, and it's crucial to manage ourselves before we can effectively lead others. Over the years, I've worked with a diverse range of leaders—from corporate executives to nonprofit visionaries—and I've learned that our attitudes and inner world significantly influence our teams and organizational culture. In this episode, I introduce the foundational truths of effective leadership, focusing on self-transformation as the first step. I encourage listeners to reflect on their core beliefs about leadership, assess whether their daily habits align with their leadership aspirations, and consider how they influence others. I invite you to write a one-paragraph vision statement about the leader you aspire to be, framing it in the present tense. This exercise will serve as your target as we embark on this journey together. In the next chapter, we will explore the critical themes of authenticity and integrity, which are essential for becoming a transformational leader. As I conclude, I share a powerful quote from Father Richard Rohr: "Transformed people, transform people." I look forward to continuing this journey with you in the next session. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dealing with Workplace Conflict Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict (with 17 years of nonprofit leadership experience, I can speak to how conflict is often not addressed well in NPO settings and how to do it well for more collaboration) Too often, team members don't have the meaningful, collaborative conflict that builds better results, creates innovation, and helps you serve your clients and communities. Often, people think of conflict as strictly destructive and avoid it altogether. But the right tools, you can easily help your teams move from destructive or avoided conflict to meaningful collaboration in pursuit of your mission. David Dye helps leaders and teams achieve transformational results without sacrificing their humanity. As a former nonprofit executive and elected official, he is known for practical leadership techniques you can use right away. He's President of Let's Grow Leaders, a global leadership development firm known for practical tools and techniques for human-centered leaders. David is also an award-winning author of six books including: Courageous Cultures – How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers and Customer Advocates and Powerful Phrases for Dealing With Workplace Conflict: What to Say Next to Destress the Workday, Build Collaboration and Calm Difficult Customers. He also hosts the popular podcast: Leadership without Losing Your Soul. Website - https://letsgrowleaders.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brainpower with Nina Sunday Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to marry creativity and business acumen and turn them into superpowers We creatives often get in our own way because of the stories we tell ourselves So our creative juices sometimes can become our worst nightmares that lead to overwhelm, burnout, and jeopardize our well-being and relationships But it doesn't have to be that way. Let me show you how. Yiqing (yee-ching) is an award-winning actor/filmmaker and a creativity coach for artists and entrepreneurs.  She is the CEO of Fearless Cutie Pie Productions - an all-female production company dedicated to telling cathartic stories with strong Asian female leads. She found her calling in helping people with their minds and souls through storytelling, after a miserable failure in a depression study when she was a medical student in China.  She helps heart-driven multi-hyphenates get unstuck, overcome burnout, and create more balanced, meaningful, and fulfilling lives.  She can be found here https://linktr.ee/yiqingzhao Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OS 122 Super Charge Your Profits with No Bid Federal Contracts! Federal Contracts are not just for the BIG COMPANIES, federal contracting is for small companies. Small Businesses are leaving SO MUCH money on the table. If you've never thought about federal contracting because there's too much red tape, no-bid contracts will open up this door of opportunity for you. Ron Imbach is the president of the Center for Business Innovation and the Executive Director of the International Association of US Government Contractors.  He and his partner, Chip Ellis, lead a talented team that provides coaching, consulting, and training to small businesses that want to thrive with federal contracts. Ron has spent the past 30+ years assisting small businesses, high-net-worth individuals, non-profits, and large companies.  With an undergraduate degree in accounting and economics and an MBA in marketing and public policy, Ron is very comfortable with the numbers, but thrives the most in relationship-building, including assisting his clients now in building relationships with federal government decision-makers. Since 2008, the IAUSGC has assisted over 2000 clients to secure federal no-bid contracts with the federal government, millions of dollars for their clients, without any of the mind-numbing red tape, complicated contracts, and expensive consultants.  CBI and IAUSGC serve clients in their Top 40 Industries.  Those industries are in the greatest demand for federal government contracts for goods and services.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OS 121: Scale Your Business by Following Evan's C.A.S.T.LE. Methodology   Evan Tzivanakis is an Accredited Executive Coach (www.ExecutiveCoachAsia.com) and a Ph.D. candidate in Organizational Behaviour. Throughout his career, has managed more than 500 employees across 8 countries and led companies to expand across the Asia Pacific region by successfully crafting the right company culture and leading people from the front. With that experience, he helps executive leaders and organizations to enhance their leadership presence, have more engaged teams, increase profits, and live happier. He does that by offering some of the most educational, transformational, and impactful coaching & training solutions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OS 120: Ed Krow on Leadership With a proven track record in HR, Ed Krow is a people expert who uses his unique talent transformation process to leverage existing talent and align employees with organizational strategy to create change, drive sustainable growth, and maintain overall happiness. “I help solve people's problems and I write books about solving people's problems, but I'm also a business owner. It's not only experience, it's living with the same problems my clients do and sharing how to overcome them that people value the most.”     Ed Krow. Ed Krow is ambitious, educated, and dedicated when it comes to getting everyone on the same page. He values people at the heart of everything, so he became a talent transformation expert. As a regular contributor to Forbes.com, Ed Krow is a sought-after, down-to-earth leader in his field. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OS 119: Know, Like and Trust and Other Sales Lies with Sara Phillips Website: superiorperformancecoaching.biz Free Ebook for listeners:  https://www.hotsalestips.com/habitsofsuccessfulsalespeople Sign Up for a Free 30 Minute Consultation to get personal tips to up your sales game:  https://calendly.com/saraphillipssolutions/complimentary-30-minute-advisory-session Bio: Sara Phillips is a person who has sales running through her veins. She paid her way through college by buying candy and reselling it to other kids beginning in elementary school. She has spent a lifetime building a highly successful sales career. Now living in Clayton, NC, she is single and has one four-legged fur baby named Coby. From her home there she continues to grow her health insurance business but is now using her additional career as a school teacher to help others learn a different way to view sales. As a sales coach, she frames sales in a different light that allows the sales professional to build a predictable stream of high income while, at the same time, removing the stress from the process. In short, she helps sales professionals put the life back in their life.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

5 Leadership Myths That Kill Entrepreneurial Ventures Hugh Ballou The Law of the Lid Your leadership is like a lid or a ceiling on your organization. Your church or business will not rise beyond the level your leadership allows. That's why, when a corporation or team needs to be fixed, they fire the leader. - John Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Starting and maintaining a profitable enterprise as an entrepreneur is very difficult, at best. However, research shows that 90% of businesses that fail do so because of a lack of leadership skills. Fortunately, leadership is a skill many people can learn. In my opinion, however, learning great leadership means that many of us must unlearn most of what we've previously been taught or observed. Best practice for building and sustaining a profitable business is often a reverse paradigm from the things business schools and prevailing leadership experts teach. Leadership best practice, from my perspective, requires the same skills a conductor uses to build the high-performance cultures we call “ensembles” in the musical world. “Ensembles,” in the non-music context, are high-synergy teams. These teams develop only with the intentionality of the leader. The entrepreneur who operates as a “solopreneur” might not perceive that synergistic teams are important. Wrong! If you are talking to at least one other person, such as a salesperson, consultant, alliance or venture partner, advisor or board member, then you have a team. It is important for entrepreneurs to surround themselves with capable people. It is also important to learn from other businesses you admire. Being an entrepreneur is a choice to stay out of corporate systems, so why do things in the same way as a company you don't want to work for? Team effectiveness starts with the leader and branches from there. First, you equip yourself, then you empower others. With this in mind, here are the 5 top leadership myths that kill entrepreneurial ventures: 1.     I Must Be in Command 2.     Always be Right 3.     Improper Language or Behavior 4.     Pretend to Know What You are Doing Even If You Don't Know 5.     Delegation is a Weakness of Leadership Are you ready to go to the next step? As you study these myths, I suggest you share your personal and organizational goals with at least three people you respect and with whom you have a valued connection. Check with them every 30 days to let them know how things are progressing. Being accountable to others is frightening at first until you realize that the people you are accountable to are the people who will bring the highest value to you because they understand where you're going. But most important of all, for your venture's success, when you hit the leadership lid, raise the ceiling! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Challenges for Today’s Leader Leadership is a general topic that people understand in different ways; in fact people have contrasting and conflicting perceptions of how leaders should behave and what leaders should do. Therefore, there are many gaps between theory and effective performance for leaders. Over the past 31 years in working with leadership in many types of organizations doing different kinds of work and leading different sizes of groups, I have observed these 5 things that are my vision of why many leaders don't make the progress that they are capable of and don't’ get into a stride of continuous improvement that propels them into the place they deserve. So, consequently leaders are over stressed with too many demands on their time, have lower performing teams than expected, and earn less income than possible. Here are my thoughts as to why these leadership gaps and ways to address each one: 1) Not Understanding True Leadership: We have had leadership bad models and have been taught things that aren’t working today, and may have never worked. The “Boss” or autocratic leader is a thing of the past. Many people in positions of authority use power of position as the leverage to get people to perform. If we truly have a team of competent people, then it’s crucial to let them perform, as they are capable. Telling people what to do isn’t the answer to getting the best results, unless the leader only wants to be around to boss people all the time and do nothing else. This doesn’t develop capacity for anyone and wastes the energy, time and talent of the leader. True leadership in my world is Transformational Leadership where the leader is the influencer, visionary, and empowering agent for others to perform. Leaders lead. Others do. Whoever taught us that we should be willing to do anything we ask others do to most likely didn’t mean that we had to actually do it. If so, why have others anyway? 2) Not Being Vulnerable: Fear of being wrong comes from the misconception that leaders must have all the right answers. It’s more important for leaders to ask good questions and empower others to have the right answers. Saying, “I don’t have the answer” is a true way of being vulnerable. One strength of leadership is being vulnerable by letting other know we don’t have the answers and that we don’t have all the skills. We lead by example and not by bluffing. When we bluff, then people intuitively know it, so we lose credibility. Being authentic is a top trait of the Transformational Leader. In face, we should have a team of people with contrasting skills to ours and people who fill in the gaps of our competencies. What a novel thought, eh? 3) Not Understanding the Value of Relationships: Leadership is based on relationship. Always work on relationships with those in your charge. This is misunderstood by many as having to be “friends” with employees. No, that not the only choice. And it does not mean that the leader must make decisions so that people will like them. The inverse is true. Make principle based decisions so people will respect you. Value and respect people over results, then they become more focused on results along with you. Leadership is relationships. Communication is also enhanced through good relationships. 4) Not Understanding How to Manage Self: Writer Richard Rohr says that, “Transformed people transform people.” He also says, “Wounded people wound people.” Not managing self is a start of building a dysfunctional team. If the leader is anxious, then the team is anxious. If the leader is dishonest, then the team is dishonest. You get the idea. Having a value driven, principle-based personal practice is key to high functioning as a leader of others. The team is a reflection of the leader. Not having a high level of self-awareness and self-control is going to drive results that are not desirable. Murray Bowen’s theory of leadership is based on “Differentiation of Self.”  It’s critical to manage self to be a high functioning leader. 5) Not Having a Plan:Chasing the “shiny object” is what entrepreneurs are accused of doing. That scenario is not limited to entrepreneurs, however. I’m surprised as to how many leaders are leading without a plan. This is a form of control due to insecurity. If others are dependent on the leader for action directions, then the leader is always in control. This is a system that greatly limits activity and is dependent on one person. With a written plan, everyone knows what to do and when to do it and can function at an optimum level. The leader then guides the process. Reversing these dysfunctions is moving from “Push” leadership to “Pull” leadership. The musical conductor pulls music out of the ensemble by letting others perform up to their highest standard. This is no different in the workplace.

Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler.- Albert Einstein There are at least 200 working days a year. If you commit to doing a simple marketing item just once each day, at the end of the year you've built a mountain.- Seth Godin* Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.- Steve Jobs Complexity to Simplicity: The Transformational Leader Creates Clarity Our world already has too many choices. I can remember when we only had the telephone to contact people. In fact, when we needed to call long distance, we needed to have the operator place the call. It was a big deal when we could dial 1 to make a long distance call. Then we got FAX machines. We could send documents over phone lines. This saved sending packages by special delivery mail. Then, the next big deal was email! This was an amazing breakthrough allowing us to communicate with people around the globe. Then came pagers. Then we got cell phones. Then came texting. We kept adding things and not taking away anything. More is not better. We are bombarded each day with so many messages that it's difficult to discern what's important. We live in a mostly over-stimulated world. In music masterworks, some of the most profound moments are those with complete silence or a passage that's pianissimo, following a loud, dramatic passage. There's unique power in the quiet times and the times of silence. It's in silent, quiet times that the presence of God is most felt, not in noisy praise sessions. It’s the leader’s duty and delight to pay attention to what’s happening and how it happens and separate the noise from the essential messages. It’s the leader's job to make the complex simple. This is not a simple task. Cutting through the noise and confusion takes focus, concentration, and a lot of effort. Like the Jobs quote above points out, it’s hard work making things simple. When I was a young piano student, I heard Van Cliburn play a solo concert in Atlanta, Georgia. I was so impressed that he made playing the piano seem easy. It appeared easy because he had practiced. He had done the hard work. He had prepared in order to release his creative energy in performance. Mozart’s music is seemly simple, however it’s so transparent that every note is exposed. It’s delicacy in motion. It’s difficult, not in playing lots of notes, but in precision. Paderewski was known to have said that playing Mozart was simple for the student and very difficult for the teacher. In other words, the simple is difficult. We want to hide behind complexity as leaders to protect our deficiencies, our insecurities, and our lack of knowledge. Leadership is identifying our gaps. Leadership is asking questions and not knowing all the answers. Leadership is about integrity, honesty, and open communications. We get things done and we know how things get done. If we don’t know, we find out how. When the musical conductor prepares for a rehearsal, they spend 2 to 3 hours preparing for each hour of rehearsal. There’s no substitute for preparation. To get to simple takes work. It takes lots of work. The complexity of leadership is in being able to make things simple so others can follow. We want stimulation. * http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/09/the-simple-power-of-one-a-day.html

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” ― Robert Frost Choices are very important in leadership. Making the wrong choice costs money and potentially damages the organization. The burden is on the leader for making effective and wise choices. Not making a decision is a choice. Sometimes, paralyzed by the gravity of the choice, leaders stall and can’t decide. Not making a choice is certainly a choice. What’s the impact of the decision on the organization? What’s the impact of the decision on relationships? What’s the impact of the decision on revenue…customer satisfaction…client engagement…stakeholder involvement…? Asking these questions before making a decision helps leaders recognize the consequences of the decision. Maybe asking those questions before not making a choice would be good, as well. Making wise, informed choices is the duty and delight of the leader. Making poor choices can cost a lot more and, certainly, waiting to make a decision increases the cost or impact of the problem to the culture or to profit as the situation gets worse. The most difficult of choices typically centers on people issues, such as when to terminate the employee, when to give a salary increase, when to correct their behavior, when to challenge a nonparticipating board member, etc. Each of these scenarios causes leaders to shy away from confronting controversial issues. Pay the upfront cost and deal with the situation as soon as practical. That might be before you get the chance to confront someone on an issue. Waiting only complicates things and provides an opportunity for the conflict, if that’s the issue, to get worse. A small matter becomes nuclear over time. Delegate action items so you can free up your schedule and your mind to think effectively about complex leadership decisions. To decide or not…that’s the question.

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause. - Gustav Mahler   Thinking versus Feeling is Transformational Leadership Leaders lead. The question is…do we lead with our brains or with our hearts? In my studies in Bowen Family Systems, a profound paradigm for leadership by managing and differentiating self, I have discovered a better way to make difficult decisions. The way is to define guiding principles for self and for the organization we lead, and utilize those principles for making good decisions. This leadership perspective is crucial. Bowen defines “Basic Self” as following those principles. When the leader makes decisions for other reasons, like to please others, Bowen defines that as “Pseudo Self.” The bottom line for me is that when I make a decision to please someone else, I’m not serving myself or my vision. Ultimately, the person whom we attempt to please will lose respect for us and completely negate the reason we thought was good for making that decision in the first place. Many leaders lead with their heart and are considered compassionate and caring. Principled leaders who utilize rational thinking and think in systems, are sometimes regarded by feelers as uncaring and insensitive. The latter is not generally true. Making effective decisions in line with principles brings value to everyone and, ultimately, those critics will respect the leader once the results are self-evident. Leadership perspective is the key. To counter the feelings of being uncaring and insensitive and maybe inflexible, here are some tactics to consider that are Transformational Leadership basics: Define Your Ultimate Vision: Know exactly where you want to end up, and write it in compelling language expressed in present tense. Define it as having already happened. Share the vision with anyone in your space who cares about you or your organization, and with those who will benefit from accomplishing that vision. Check for alignment with the vision with key stakeholders and collaborators. Write Down Core Values: Yes, I have blogged about values being useless. That’s true if the values are the final product. Values are the first step in defining the cultural norms. Values are static statements. That’s fine. Just don’t think that these static statements are going to create value just because they have been created. Moving forward, use these values to create Guiding Principles, and build out the goals without violating those values. Create Guiding Principles: Guiding Principles are statements that provide guidelines for making effective decisions, both for the leader individually and for the organization as a culture. When you go to a Disney park, it’s very clear that each employee you come across is operating within the company principles…you are the guest and they entertain you. Write separate principles for yourself on how to manage self and how to make thinking decisions. Create a separate, but compatible, set of principles for the organization in collaboration with those in the organization who will support, protect, and teach them to others. Check my post on Guiding Principlesfor more information. Review and Update Principles Regularly: Once written, the principles must then be activated and applied in every decision. To ensure that this happens, develop a routine for evaluating the principles and revising them as necessary. If you hold weekly meetings, review one principle each week and evaluate how effectively the group is following that principle, and review if the principle still reflects the culture, values, and goals of the organization. Revise and recommit, if necessary, but not for convenience. Holding to principles might be difficult for a previously undisciplined culture. Keep the culture active by constantly keeping the principles in everybody’s mind. A high-performing culture is a culture of discipline led by a leader of discipline. The transformational leader models what they want reflected in the culture.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. - Steve Jobs As a musical conductor, I understand that concert goers want excellence every time we perform…every time. We are only as good as our last performance. Performance is a skill, as well as an art. It’s not striving for perfection. It’s maintaining excellence in standards. Musicians do what business teams don’t do. We rehearse for every performance. The best musical groups constantly rehearse creating what’s called “ensemble.” That’s a higher level of functioning that only the best performers can achieve. It can’t be directed. The conductor inspires excellence. The ensemble is a reflection of the skill and influence of the conductor. The leader of a business or social-benefit organization inspires excellence and creates a culture of high performance that reflects the passion and skill of the leader. It a synergy reflected and a new Architecture of Engagement TM. All of these strategies are based on the leader seeking excellence in all systems and outcomes and not accepting mediocrity. Unfortunately, the standard is not high in many organizations. The leader blames the existing system and the people, when, in fact, the leader is in a place to change those systems and influence how systems and people work. Excellence is a habit that needs cultivation and inspiration. If we want to change others in the culture we lead, then it’s important to change ourselves. When we change, others in the group adapt. If we don’t accept mediocrity, then we have set the new standard. Here are a few resources for you to explore how excellence is reflected through visionary leadership: Berny Dohrmann, Redemption: The Cooperation Revolution. Berny is the founder of CEO Space where Cooperative Capitalism is taught and practiced. It’s the new standard that will replace the Competitive Capitalism of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller era. Seth Godin, This is Seth’s Blog. Seth talks about why labor unions were formed and goes on to challenge unions to work for excellence in performance by not stressing the mediocre. Marva Dawn, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down. This was written several years ago about how churches were dumbing down worship to attract the “Young.” After thirty years, those mainland denominations have lost many members due to this dumbing down. Her first chapter is about how education has also dumbed down over the decades. Alfie Kohn, The Schools Our Children Deserve. This is another challenge to the traditions of dumbing down education through standardized testing. Alfie classifies standardized testing as a form of ethnic cleansing of the culture. The U.S. leads the world in prisons and prisoners incarcerated. Could this be one result of our systems? Today, we are growing a new breed of leader with integrity in their DNA and excellence as their passion. I’m a Boomer and my generation has created this mess. I’m seeing that Millennials are changing the game. Is your passion excellence or do you settle for mediocrity? Hugh Ballou The Transformational Leadership Strategist TM Subscribe to The Transformational Leadership Strategist by Email (c) 2019 Hugh Ballou. All rights reserved.

“I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.” ― Mahatma Gandhi We hear lots of noise in conversations and in the media about striving for equality of gender, nationality, and race - equal opportunity - equal rights - equal pay, etc. Recently in Blacksburg, Virginia, in a session called “Dialogue on Race,” a young African-American presenter used the phrase “Diversity of Excellence” in his presentation. That phrase made so much sense to me. I have adopted the idea and reversed the words to get “Excellence of Diversity.” The media make up sound bites and promote phrases to get attention and ultimately to get ratings and make money. We all get sucked into this diatribe of mediocrity. We are driven to the bottom…the lowest common denominator…the drivel of sameness. I say to women leaders, “Why do you want to be equal with men when, in fact, you are better? You offer a different paradigm for leadership and a fresh perspective. You have a skill set that is different. Why not claim your excellence and move to the top rather than attempting to be equal?” Most agree and react as if they feel empowered. I repeat this question to minority groups and get the same response. In a society where we have dumbed down our educational system with standardized testing and set the bar to the lowest point in striving for equality, we are teaching each other that mediocrity is the norm. In an address to educators, I heard Alfie Kohn* describe standardized testing as an “Ethnic cleansing of the society.” In Marva Dawn’s book, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, the first chapter is the history of how education has been dumbed down over the years. She then describes how churches have dumbed down to attract new members when, in fact, the mainline denominations are now losing members at an alarming rate. We have clergy working as consultants, teaching pastors what to do as a simple formula for success, rather than reaching out of the broken paradigm and getting wisdom from a different source. We have no clearly written guiding principles for personal empowerment in leadership for our organizations. My guiding principle is to strive for excellence through diversity and let the best people do the best work. Do we get stuck because we are threatened by the excellence of someone who doesn’t look like us? What’s your opinion? * The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools, Alfie Kohn

Leaders, Set Your Standard of Excellence You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny. The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand. - Irene C. Kassorla One of the most common problems I encounter, when working with leaders to build results and create effective teams, is described in the statement, "My people just don't do what I need them to do." I suggest that this problem comes from the leader, not from the team. Leadership is defining the desired outcomes, and then making those outcomes become reality. Leadership is a skill and a system. When a leader defines the vision and then sets specific goals to achieve that vision, it's important to leave a place for team members to create their strategies for their work. It is limiting for team members when a leader not only defines the outcomes, but also defines all the steps to get there. You have a worthy vision and have created powerful goals that will drive processes toward achieving that vision. Create systems where team members can create the steps to success - the action plan. Once each team member can contribute a process step, they move from being interested in the vision to owning the vision. When developing the action plan, encourage the team to define the standards of excellence - the critical success factors. Define what success looks like and how it will be measured. If you create a sloppy procedure for this process, then you are creating a less-than-excellent organization. Inspire excellence. Define the goal, move forward by creating a process to define all the steps to achieve that goal, put the steps into a sequence, and then let the team members divide up the responsibility for managing those process steps. Be focused in your process. Allow each member to contribute. Assign responsibilities and deadlines. Shift the accountability from you, the leader, to the team, in a culture of peer-to-peer accountability. The biggest killer of excellence is the boring, unproductive meeting! Rehearse excellence by creating effective systems. Effective meetings empower and encourage high functioning in team performance. The finest musical ensembles rehearse for every performance. Change the misquoted phrase, "Practice makes perfect," to the correct quote, "Perfect practice makes perfect performance." Rehearse for success. Build the DNA of high performance into every system in the organization you lead. TIP: Plan the outcomes at the planning meeting. Plan the process to get to the outcomes. Define the process and outcomes at the beginning of the meeting. Keep the group on task. Excellence in planning leads to excellent results. Hugh BallouThe Transformational Leadership Strategist Subscribe to The Transformational Leadership Strategist by Email (c) 2018 Hugh Ballou. All rights reserved.

Hidden Goals Don't Work 5th of 5 Set your goal.   Share your goal.   Accountability is energy. We think that being accountable to someone might bring us criticism if we fail. We don't want to look bad. We don't want anyone to judge us poorly. When we set a goal and share that goal with someone, it might be frightening. What if the person laughs at our goal? This is a statement of our intentions. This is typically a bold statement of accomplishment. How will we feel if we get push-back from someone we respect and someone we want to see us in a favorable light? There are two sides to accountability: We commit to someone and become vulnerable to that person. If we fall short of our stated goal, then we risk criticism. This is the risk side of accountability that motivates us to succeed. We commit to someone and they become our partner in accomplishing our plan. We don't need to ask. We can't expect this cooperation. They know what we intend, so they know how to provide support. Accountability is a major component to leadership success. Accountability is a major component to running success. No person can help me reach my running goals. Everyone can help me reach my business and life goals. Write your goals. Share your goals. Start taking action immediately. Keep a journal. Share your success. Let the world bring you energy. Celebrate! (My running goal for this month is 40 miles - posted on my social sites.)

Focus on the Outcome 4th of 5 Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas Edison     You want to quit. Focus on success. Do not quit. This simple concept is very difficult. Along the trail, there are many opportunities to quit - don't quit. On the pathway to success, there are many opportunities to quit - don't quit. Focus on the benefit, and not on the problem.  

If I miss a day of practice, I know it. If I miss two days, my manager knows it. If I miss three days, my audience knows it. - André Previn   Running to Be Fit 3rd of 5   The first rule is to set your goal. Then begin at once preparing for success. Rehearse for success in everything you do - you are forming good habits that will influence your success and your life. I set my goal on finishing a half marathon. My mind believes it. My body is not capable of achieving it, so I must train daily to be able to succeed. Goals are worthless without an plan of action. Actions are consistent activities moving toward your goal. Fitness happens one day at a time over time. Start now. Don't give up until you succeed. What you become on the way to achieving the goal is better than the goal itself. Start now.

Setting Goals is the Key to Success 2nd of 5 At the root of all success is a vision and intention. We must learn to set achievable goals. I lead teams. I lead meetings. I teach leaders to lead. I can see the end result, because I have defined it clearly. I set a goal to be in shape. I have expressed the goal in terms of running a certain distance in a certain amount of time. I can't accomplish that goal without the following: The belief that I will succeed... A description of what it looks like when I have succeeded... A long-term vision... Short-term goals... A weekly schedule... A daily plan of action... That works for my work, as well as for my running. What about your work? What about your life? Goals are SMART! S = Specific M = Measurable A = Accountable R = Realistic T = Timed Note to the frantic and weary: The "A" for accountable provides the traction that makes goals work. Check out my Podcast 32: Setting Powerful Goals That Work Hugh Ballou The Transformational Leadership Strategist TM Subscribe to The Transformational Leadership Strategist by Email (c) 2018 Hugh Ballou. All rights reserved.

Commitment is everything. I decided to begin training for a 5K road race when I was 48 years old. I had trouble running from one driveway to the next one. This was a major change in my life, however, I was committed to succeed. Two years later, I had finished over 50 5K races and was training for a half marathon. My commitment was to, #1 not finish last, and #2 to finish without stopping. I accomplished that goal with every race. I am really bad at this, however, running is a discipline in my life that is important. When I run, I feel better, have more energy, and get more accomplished each day. Running is also my quiet time when I can think and work out problems. Yesterday, while running, I decided to relaunch this series about the connection between running and leadership. For the next 5 days, I will post 5 blogs with ideas for leadership. First, you do not need to have a big team to feel that you are a leader. My simple qualifying points to be considered a leader are as follows: You are a leader if... ...you get things done ...you know how things get done ...you influence other people Here are some thoughts that work for running (or any type of exercise) and leadership. Commit to a goal, make a schedule and follow it Follow the plan, even on days when you don't want to Starting is the key to finishing, but not the whole answer - you have to finish Don't quit - you can make it You don't have to be first If you keep it up, eventually you will get a second wind and finish with a flare When you finish, the sense of accomplishment will empower your day Set your own pace and don't let others tell you that it's not good When I ran my last half marathon, I was almost 65, so I came up with the list below about being an older runner. Being older is no longer an excuse to not try. You can tell that you are an older runner when: In the first mile, your body tells you that you should be home in bed. Your excuse for not being in the lead of the race is that being behind the pace car will make you feel “exhausted.” In the second mile, your body tells you that you should be home in bed. You think you won the race, because you ran longer than anyone else. In the sixth mile, your body tells you that you should be home in bed. The race walkers pass you by, saying “Good job, sir.” (sir is the clue) A runner passes by, saying that he would be running faster, except for the knee transplants. In the eighth mile, your body tells you that you should be home in bed. Your running doesn’t really make you live longer – it just makes life seem longer. Everyone shouts your name, cheering you on, and you think it’s because you are famous in your old age – until you realize that your name is printed on your racing bib. It’s the cheapest form of entertainment you can think of. You run because it’s your only chance to hear heavy breathing again. In the last mile of the race, your body tells you that you should be home in bed. Many of the excuses I hear for not trying are dumber than the list above, but people tell them to me as if the reasons make good sense. What's your reason for not trying?

I have been traveling around the country presenting Nonprofit Leadership Excellence Workshops. In many instances, I’m asked what to do when a board, or members in general, are resistant to change. The phrase, “We’ve never done it that way before!” is often repeated. Change is a fearful thought if other changes in life are too stressful. Change is not an option when there is no understanding of the value of the change. Change for the sake of change is a generator of confusion. However, the only constant in life is that there is change. We are all getting older every day. We change without even trying. Having said those things about change, let me point out that understanding history and tradition are important to the continuity of work within any organization. When working with lay leaders in the church, I find that many of them are not aware of the denominational traditions and theology that have shaped our worship, our programs, and our work in the community. We are informed by learning about the past. We don’t, however, need to live in the past. It is the leader’s duty and delight to observe what’s happening and how it happens, and to respond in a thoughtful way by engaging members in conversation about desired results. Have we defined the desired outcomes from our work and programs, or are we just running on autopilot without thinking about what or why? In Seth Godin's blog post, “Because it has always been this way," he points out that making a change means that we are responsible for the results. I’d like to point out that if we don’t make a change, we are likewise responsible for the results as the leader. Not making a decision is a choice. Leaders ask good questions and listen carefully to the answers. Here are some to ask yourself and your team: Are we (Am I) bound by tradition? What are the consequences of staying with the status quo? What are the different results we desire and what changes will lead us in the appropriate direction? What are the risks on both sides - making a change and not making any change? Sleep on the answers. Hugh Ballou The Transformational Leadership Strategist TM Subscribe to The Transformational Leadership Strategist by Email (c) 2018 Hugh Ballou. All rights reserved.  

Reverse Paradigms - Script vs. Story   CEO Space SNAP: Super Networking Accelerated Potential The SNAP is a great networking tool created by Berny Dohrman and Bob Proctor 25 years ago to empower people to connect with more people in less time. It's basically a modified elevator speech, in that it's short, precise, to the point, and powerful. Within the highly refined and specific culture of CEO Space, it's a way for other participants to know how to help you, refer you, or respond in some other way to filling the gaps in your process of developing your enterprise. Presenting the SNAP is also rehearsal. It's an opportunity to rehearse a presentation over and over and test the response in real time. The desired response is for others to give you a "See Me" card with their contact information and a note on how they can help with your request. The system is good, although the skill of the participants is not always consistent. A SNAP is a presentation. Leaders are influencers. Presenting is influence. We influence others to respond to our call-to-action. We MUST define WHAT we want people to do with highly specific and compelling language. The basic flaw is that we recite a script rather than tell a story. People respond to a story if they see themselves as involved in the story or its emotion. Storytelling is an art as well as a skill. The skill improves with rehearsal. The story improves with the artistry of presentation. A leader is first and foremost a person of influence. We must first define the following in order to be a successful influencer: Who We Want to Influence: Define your target market or you risk not having any market. El Mondo is everybody which equates to nobody. Pick your niche and pitch that niche. What We Want Them To Do: The weakest part of the SNAPs that I hear is the call-to-action. We MUST tell the listener what we want them to do. It's that simple, however simple is complex to create. Have your coach help with this one. Why They Should Care: As Simon Sinek shares in his book, Start with Why, nobody will care about the what until they know why. This is a critical paradigm to master and, again, a complex one to create.Our Passion: Be in touch with your passion for what you are presenting. Keep the image of your passion in your spirit and it will be present in your story. Words don't fully influence without injection of your passion. The Relationship: Communication is facilitated by relationship. Be aware that you have and are in relationship with the person to whom you are presenting. If you don't care about them, then why should they care about you? If you aren't getting the desired response, then look at yourself. Are you reciting an ineffective script or are you skillfully presenting by using the artistry of storytelling? By the way, the best stories are short. Hugh Ballou The Transformational Leadership Strategist TM Subscribe to The Transformational Leadership Strategist by Email (c) 2018 Hugh Ballou. All rights reserved.

I constantly hear leaders complaining about others in the culture that they lead and focusing on how to change the behaviors of others in order to change the outcomes. The leadership methodologies that I support and champion are Transformational Leadership and Bowen Family Systems. The synergy in those two separate methodologies is about the leader changing self. In Bowen Systems, when the leader changes, others in the culture respond. In Transformational Leadership, the leader sets the bar and models what they want to see in others. When the musical conductor does not get the intended results, he or she looks into the mirror for the answer. If the orchestra or choir respects the conductor, then they perform as the conductor intends. If the conductor is not respected, the ensemble performs exactly as the conductor directs. In the military, if the platoon does not respect the platoon leader, that leader is likely to get shot in the back in combat. How many leaders in organizations get shot in the back on a regular basis…and they don’t even realize that it’s happened? The first priority for the Transformational Leader is to transform themselves. Organizational transformation then follows. By the way, it's time to start that transformation if it’s not already underway.

Leadership Skill of Discernment The culture of compromise is often accepted as the price of mass. But in fact, this is the crowded road to popular acceptance, and it works far less often than the compromisers believe it will. - Seth Godin* Ours is a world where we are saturated with information, which we are expected to absorb and respond to, often instantly. Not only must we respond, but the expectation is that we will make decisions with wisdom, with justice, with compassion and with a whole array of other values. - Loretto Gettemeier, D.C.** Making the Best Decisions A big part of leadership is decision making. I advocate for not making decisions in a vacuum. Leadership is establishing a culture of excellence. Leadership is building a team of leaders. Leadership is a collaboration building synergy. Despite all of those things I've said about leadership and collaboration, the leader is ultimately responsible for the decisions. Discernment is a key leadership skill. Having written guiding principles is essential for the leader to have discernment in making effective decisions. There should be guiding principles for the leader personally and guiding principles for the organization, the team, the board, for any group or person working and making decisions. These principles provide a lens for viewing the issues and for guiding the decisions. As the second quote above points out, we have lots of data coming at us rapidly. This only complicates our decision making process. Therefore, I have created these 3 principles for anchoring myself for making the best decisions: 1. Perspective: This is the most difficult of the three. We have so many things coming at us, it’s important to get away from the tyranny of the urgent to understand the consequences of each decision. One great tool is the 4 quadrants taught by Stephen Covey. The 4 quadrants are: Urgent and Critical; Urgent and Not Critical; Not Urgent and Critical; and Not Urgent and Not Critical. Planning our work helps to keep us in the Not Urgent and Critical quadrant. Unfortunately, we spend too much time in the Urgent and Critical quadrant wasting time and energy by losing the choice of the best timing to make the decision. There are sliding priorities that are not predictable, so careful planning allows us to accommodate those sliding priorities. Otherwise, we are so driven by the urgent that was left until the last minute, we compromise both the new priority and that which was left undone. This creates stress. 2. Emotion: Managing stress is so critical for leaders. Moving from principle #1 above to this one shows how connected our work is. When one element is out of balance, the entire body of work is influenced…usually in a negative way. Managing self is the principal leadership mandate. Managing self means managing anxiety. There are various ways to manage anxiety, so learn and apply the method that works for you. If the leader is anxious, then the team is anxious. Being anxious puts our thinking into feeling. Making emotional decisions typically blocks rational thinking. Have a process for making decisions that points to rational thinking by you and your team. 3. Process: Having perspective and being balanced emotionally means that you can follow the process you have created for growing the enterprise you lead. Thinking in systems means establishing a process for yourself and your team. Here are my process steps: o Create and Utilize Guiding Principles: We define core values and feel good about them, and then they are simply a memory. Take those values and create guiding principles for yourself and the organization you lead. Use them for every decision. o Define Group Process: Define the level of decision making for each team member. Learn to delegate and create follow-up methods for accountability. Don’t delegate and forget until the deadline. Set up check-in points for mentoring and course correcting. o Ask for Team Input for Decisions: You will discover that you might have missed some detail that will create a problem. You might find that someone has a useful suggestion that you had not considered. Getting input does not mean that the leader must do what others say. It’s a way for getting buy-in and clarity. Set boundaries for what you will and will not accept. Make decisions based on principles rather than wanting people to like you. It’s better to be respected than liked. o Be Flexible: Sometimes we choose a pathway that doesn’t work, even with all the work to be sure that it’s the best choice. Stop when it’s evident that the decision is not good and address it with your team. Being transparent is a good leadership trait. Being human is better than being perfect. Define a process and continually work on self. Leadership and communication are both based on relationship. * Seth Godin's blog post, The Difference Between Mass and Banality ** From “Vincentian Discernment and Decision making”

Good leadership consists of doing less and being more. - John Heider* I constantly hear from leaders that they are doing too much. I respond by asking how they contributed to the situation. The first response to that question is a puzzled look. It’s a revelation that we actually cause problems as leaders. It is a very sobering fact that we set up problems. Many of those problems are set up by the leader’s over-activity - talking too much, over functioning, defining all the solutions, and telling others what to do. We have learned from others that these are things leaders do. We have been taught the wrong things. I specialize in reverse paradigms. John Heider (quoted above) talks about reverse polarities in his book. Here are some reverse strategies to consider: Talk less and listen more - Over-talking is easy to do. After all, the leader owns the vision and knows more than anyone else, right? Wrong! Once a leader said to me that they were always right. I responded, suggesting that it was more important that the members of the team be right. Too much talking is a sign that the leader is anxious and blocks input from others who might have the right ideas. Observing and listening are primary leadership skills. Doing less and getting more done is empowered by not talking, and listening more. Ask good questions and listen to the answers - Many leaders perceive that they must have all the answers. I disagree. Leaders must ask good questions. That’s the first part. The second part is to listen carefully to the answers. It’s amazing what you can learn by listening if you take away the need to be right and the need to respond to those answers. Listen. Leave some silence. Then respond, if appropriate. Doing less and getting more done is empowered with good questions and intentional, active listening. Observe and respond - Leaders listen to the words from others. Watching how people respond is very informative. Research tells us that only 7% of a communication is in the words. Observe what’s happening and observe how things happen. The musical conductor guides the music making and does not make the music. Reacting is a negative energy. Responding comes with discernment. Watch, think, listen, and then respond. Many times a response is actually not necessary. Having good people and getting out of their way is a good leadership skill. Doing less and getting more done mostly happens when the leader observes. Function less and empower others to function more – Over functioning is a leadership disease. More leaders have it than not. The reciprocity to over functioning is under functioning. The musical conductor draws out the music from the ensemble. Leaders let others function. Doing things for others, making all the decisions, planning all the action steps, and telling others how to think, bring negative energy and animosity. Doing less and getting more done means doing less. Really! This is also a barrier to income. Coach others to solve problems - This is the same theme. Don’t solve the problems. Ask others what they would do to solve the problem. This is not giving up leadership authority. This is inviting others to think. This is giving team members the permission to participate. Micromanaging is telling others how to do things. Coaching is leading others in learning how to do things better. This includes learning to solve problems. If the leader solves all the problems, then the team is dependent on the leader. Effective leaders lead others into higher functioning. Doing less and getting more done is facilitated by coaching others to be better leaders. A good routine for leaders is the daily assessment. Schedule a time at the end of each day to reflect on the day’s activities. Take notes on what went well and what needs changing. Learn from yourself. If others are not producing up to expectations, then look in the mirror and see what to change about yourself. Organizational transformation begins with the leader’s transformation.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. - Henry Ford So, it’s not going as you planned? You are doing too much and your team is accomplishing too little. The work is more intense and the income is down. It’s difficult to see anything but obstacles. It might be time to reframe those obstacles and attempt to define a way forward. Those obstacles can become opportunities if you can rethink strategy. It’s also time to rethink your own skill set, as well. To transform an organization or to transform a team, it’s important to begin that transformation with yourself. Basically, none of us can see our own blind spots - hence, that name. Let’s do a situation analysis... Analysis: Are the perceived obstacles really obstacles, or it is your mindset? Are you defining the problem accurately? Are you attempting to solve a problem before understanding what caused the problem? Is the market telling you that your concept needs to change? Are you too tied up with your own idea to admit that it’s flawed? Is the obstacle the idea or the strategy (the vision or the tactics)? Is the obstacle defining the limit to your ability? Is it time to work on your own self-awareness and team management? Let’s look at a basic problem-solving model. It works as follows: 1. Clearly define the problem (obstacle) and get feedback from your team - be very sure that you have defined the correct problem. Many times, leaders solve problems that are not problems. What is the obstacle keeping you from success, and is it clearly and accurately defined? 2. Identify ALL the parts of the problem setting up or causing the obstacle. Make a comprehensive list of everything that impacts the situation. This is the largest set of data. It’s important to do this activity with the team members - after everyone has agreed on #1 to ensure that everyone sees the problem the same way. If the group is not comfortable with the word “Problem,” consider using the topic header of “Pieces of the Puzzle.” 3. Group the items created in #2. (I use storyboards and half sheets of letter-sized paper to create separate idea cards to place on a board sprayed with repositionable spray mount.) If you can, group (cluster) the cards together by topic or subject to get an idea of what you are really dealing with. This sets up defining a way forward and helps to gain clarity of the accuracy of your perceptions. 4. List all potential solutions. Just list them without priority. Next, see if some of these ideas can be combined for strength or create a sequence of steps. In this process, you will gain perspective and be able to see opportunities emerge. 5. Create the final solution or sequence of steps to the solution. Get consensus from the group and set accountability mechanisms for the process going forward. What I have defined is a process for separating feelings/emotions and moving to thinking. Many times, our emotions color our decisions and we can’t make accurate judgments. Approach problems calmly and directly. Look at the facts and leave emotions aside. Anxiety spreads to everyone in any group. As identified in the quote from Henry Ford, we see obstacles when we take our eyes off our goals. However, ignoring problems creates obstacles that can be threatening to our success. As the leader, you set the standard…obstacles are really opportunities in disguise.

One of the biggest traps I experience with clients is that leadership is a term not universally understood and that leaders don’t know how to lead. We have been taught that leaders must have all the right answers and know what to do. That paradigm sets leaders up for problems. No one person knows every right answer or every right tactic. We have teams to fill in our gaps. The trick is to know how to create and sustain a collaborative culture. This defines Transformational Leadership. In order to define the culture, it’s important to define ourselves as leaders and note how we function. Below is a list comparing controlling leaders with collaborative leaders. Controlling Leader: Uses power of position Keeps control of information Top-down decision making Is “always right” Dictates Solves problems at executive level and informs others Creates “silos” of independent work Depends on a “rules”-based culture for limiting activities Attacks and blames people Uses the annual review to criticize Collaborating Leader: Uses power of influence Shares information openly with team Co-creation of decisions Ensures that others are right Listens to input Uses collective wisdom of team in problem-solving process Allows and promotes independent and interdependent work Promotes a principles-based culture for expanding effective cooperation Addresses the facts and issues directly Creates ongoing evaluations with opportunities for coaching and mentoring The principles and behaviors of the leader define the culture and set the standard for the team. Here are positive steps in creating a collaborative culture: 1. Claim Your Leadership Style: If you claim Transformational Leadership as your style of leadership, then your work is to create and empower leaders on teams and to create a culture of high performance. This means learning how the behavior of the leader impacts the behavior of the culture. 2. Create Collaborative Systems: Be good at defining the vision, goals, and specific outcomes in time. Be specific. Create the goal, and then create the action plan with the team. You still get to modify and approve it. If the team collaborates on creating the action plan, then they own it and they will create an accountability process within the team as peer-to-peer accountability. 3. Establish an Evaluation Process: Create the action plan with the team with tasks, responsible person, and the deadline. Set up weekly team sessions as “flash meetings” to check on the week’s deliverables and to define the next week’s deliverables. This is your opportunity to coach members of the team and to define where individuals need extra coaching from you. 4. Ask for Input: Effective leaders ask good questions and listen carefully to the responses. This does not give away the power of making decisions or define weakness in leadership. This defines strength in leadership. 5. Hire a Leadership Coach: I do this myself and I provide this service for others. In order to function on a high level, I have coaches who challenge me. I hold myself accountable by committing to others and creating collaborative action plans. I continue to work on myself and grow skills and my growing awareness of myself. Leaders change the behavior of others in any group emotional system by changing themselves. Organizational transformation begins with the leader.

Responding vs. Reacting We want to identify and solve problems instantly, when, in fact, we are not really sure what the problem really is. Our reaction is to solve problems and to move ahead, rather than creating a process to respond. Responding is a thinking state, while reacting is an emotional state. Making emotional decisions is the default of an ineffective leader. Making thoughtful decisions is the decision of an effective leader. As responsible leaders, we get to choose. What’s your choice?   Yes, there is a difference. Is been said that the difference in reacting and responding is about 10 seconds. Our normal animal behavior is to react to defend ourselves. The learned response is from our developed cortex brain. We must learn to override our instincts to react by thoughtful and intentional strategies for responding to whatever comment or situation that has prompted our attention. Reacting is following another person’s lead, it’s not leading. Taking charge of the situation is leading. The leader defines the culture, the terms of engagement and the anxiety level by their thinking. Reacting is typically not a thinking interaction. Leaders often make a situation worse by reacting. Here’s a short list of the reverse paradigms: Reacting Reptilian Brain Emotional Defensive Instinct Conditioned Immediate Irresponsible Walls Fear Based Victim Mentality Competitive Avoidance Wounded Responding Cortex Brain Thoughtful Engaging Conscious Choice Choice Delayed Responsible Boundaries Relationship Based Self Control Mentality Cooperative Encounter Healthy Being an enlightened and effective leader is not what we are born with. We learn leadership skills. Much of what we have learned is causing us problems and its time unlearn those things and replace them with what works.

Leadership Perspective: Reverse Paradigms, Intervening vs. Observing Podcast Transcript Your job is to facilitate and illuminate what is happening. Interfere as little as possible. Interference, however brilliant, creates a dependency on the leader. - John Heider*   Managing self is the leader’s first responsibility. Managing group process is next. Setting the example is a primary foundation for defining the transformational leader. In Bowen Systems, the leader changes the behavior of others in any group emotional system by changing self. Leading an ongoing business, ministry, or nonprofit requires a high functioning culture with leaders on teams aligned with the organization’s values and guiding principles. I facilitate meetings. That’s one of my primary skills and passions. I have rehearsed managing group process for 40+ years in a career as musical conductor. What I’ve learned is that the leader can’t make anybody do anything - if they can, it doesn’t last very long and the outcome is typically compromised. The relationships are also compromised and many times damaged beyond repair. Many leaders work in groups - teams, of various sorts, which are group emotional systems. We impact everyone else in that system with our actions, both good and bad. More often than not, when group members are not performing up to the expectations of the leader, it’s a direct result of the leaders actions or inactions. The first principle of Transformational Leadership in my world is being able to let go of things that someone else can do and in mastering the art of delegation. Micromanaging is deadly by taking power assigned to others. Coaching is empowering by enabling others. Leadership is a system in which the leader builds and equips leaders in teams. Sometimes the leader needs to intervene. Sometimes the leader should observe and comment later. Knowing the difference is the wisdom of leading. In their book, Facilitative Leadership in Social Work Practice, Breshears and Volker provide a helpful sequence of steps in managing group process. 1. Observing and diagnosing what is happening in the group. 2. Hypothesizing what you would like to have happen in light of the group’s task or development phase. 3. Do something that encourages change. Here's the routine - observe, think, and then act. We all learn from our mistakes if we pay attention and apply the principles to the next situation. It’s the leader’s duty and delight to assist others on the team to grow their skills. This can be accomplished in several ways: Affirming: Encourage boldness and the spirit of attempting to meet the challenge. Affirming is honest feedback and not trumped up artificial verbiage. Be sincere. Be direct. Be factual. Informing: Provide information needed to accomplish the assignment. Set a time-line for progress. Define “check-in” times for coaching and correcting. Provide information and check for understanding. Directing: The musical conductor directs and shapes the music. The musical score it similar to the strategy in that it provides directions for each person. The overall experience and the attention to details and the development of the culture depend on the direction of the leader. Don’t be AWOL when the team needs direction. Correcting: Speak to what’s working, what’s not working, and what needs to change. Thia is mentoring and not micromanaging. When the musical director stops the rehearsal and tells the trumpets that they are too loud, they are not upset. The culture expects the director to make corrections with specific details. The conductor continues with the information that the trumpets need to reduce the volume by one dynamic level. Not making corrections gives the impression that the leader is not capable. Don’t focus on pleasing people. Focus on doing the right thing and people will respect you. Rehearse for excellence by observing first and then acting. The reverse can be dangerous. *Heider, John (1986-04-19). Tao Leadership: Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching Adapted for a New Age **Breshears, Elizabeth M. and Volker, Roger (2013) Facilitative Leadership in Social Work Practice

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” ― Ernest Hemingway Recently, I created a post about listening. As a musician, I have learned to listen, however there is listening, and there is listening with intention. We often listen without really listening for intent. We listen to form our response, or prejudge the content, or prejudge the context, reason, or content of the person talking. For the musical conductor, there are many layers of listening. What we listen for includes the following: Balance Correct notes Intonation Blend (especially in choral music) Phrasing Articulation Emotion relevant to the score Dynamics Tempo consistency Tone quality And that’s not the full list. Conductors listen to multiple layers simultaneously. Some choral conductors sing along with the choir. I’m not sure what their logic is, but it’s not possible for me to sing and listen at the same time. My singing blocks my ability to listen. I remember talking to someone and thinking that they were not really listening. They were formulating their response while I was talking. Therefore, they could not fully respond to the content or context of what I was saying. I have also experienced the overtaking leader. Sometimes overtaking is a sign of anxiety, if the leader is afraid of the comments they anticipate will be critical, rather than listening for a perspective that they might not have considered. In this instance, and many others, the leader actually blocks receiving information that could be helpful. Gathering information, gaining perspective, and testing assumptions are all a part of an effective decision making process. Making good decisions requires having good information. Overtaking, not listening, multi-tasking, and cutting people off before they are finished, are all barriers to effective leadership. Listening is essential to being an effective leader. We are all guilty of underperforming by compromised listening. By the way, silence after listening to the other person indicates that you were listening with intention and gives you time to process the information. Leadership begins with changing self. Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. - James Allen   Hugh Ballou The Transformational Leadership Strategist TM Subscribe to The Transformational Leadership Strategist by Email (c) 2015 Hugh Ballou. All rights reserved.

Reverse Paradigms,Mindset of BOSS versus Influencer The notion of being a boss as an effective leader is far gone. Once when I had a team, they gave me an official “BOSS" card. I was a card-carrying boss. The card pointed out that boss spelled backwards is “Double S O B.” Funny! But it’s not funny. Pressuring team members and dictating what to do is not effective in today’s work environment. Here are some polarities: Got the idea? The leader is first and foremost a person of influence. Hugh Ballou The Transformational Leadership Strategist TM Subscribe to The Transformational Leadership Strategist by Email (c) 2017 Hugh Ballou. All rights reserved.

Abe is a husband, father, business owner, business professor, and financial services provider.  He is the owner of The White Hart Cafe in Historic Downtown Lynchburg, Blackwater Coffee inside River Ridge Mall, City Place Food & Co. in Wyndhurst, and teaches Nonprofit Management at Liberty University.  He works full-time for Northwestern Mutual helping his clients plan for retirement and manage risk. Abe coaches his son's tee-ball team and plays in a recreational softball league.

Secret vs. Confidential “Don’t confuse “strict confidentiality” with “keeping employees in the dark.” Private is useful. Secretive is deceptive.” ― Stacy Feiner   The Difference in Secret and Confidential Secret is withholding information for power.   Confidential is privileged information.   Knowing the difference separates good leadership from bad.   In my ebook, Creatingg Healthy Teams: Preventing and Managing Conflict, I define the elements of conflict and provide descriptions, preventions, and prescriptions for conflict. It's really evident how much the element of keeping secrets impacts the culture. In human emotional systems, everyone is connected - formally or informally. How we interact defines the outcomes of our work together. Secrets are like gossip. The secret discussions get distorted and nobody in the group feels that they have the right or permission to intervene until the situation becomes toxic. And then, most likely it's too late and relationship have been damaged. There's a game that people play where a person whispers a secret to the next person who relays the secret to the next person in line. The others pass the secret down the line with the final person shares what they heard with the group. After hearing what the first person shared, the group is amazed at how the message got distorted in the process of relaying the message secretly. This shows how information is distorted when sharing secretly. Secrets are toxic and are about holding and using power. Confidential information is privileged information help closely to the leadership. There is an emphatic difference in the two. Knowing the difference is a leadership skill. Teaching the difference to those whom you lead impacts the health of the group and the organization. Develop a Standard for Excellence Here are 4 tips for dealing with secrets: Assumption - Do not assume or let others assume that the conversation is confidential unless there is an express agreement ahead of time. Many times those wielding power relay a message and then say that it is "confidential." To agree to those terms after the fact means that the person sharing the secret has just held you hostage by providing you with negative information with no way to deal with it or attempt to resolve it. Do not buy into assumptions. Be clear and have clear guiding principles about how to respond to this situation. Not being held hostage by insisting on accountability and transparency, is the best way to diffuse this toxic behavior. Buy-In - By listening to the entire message when it is clear that the person delivering the message is just complaining and spreading negative energy, you are, in fact and perception, buying in to their message. Listening is a form of loving and relationship building, but only when the message is appropriate and is not creating a negative triangle. Once you determine the negative nature of the message, declare that you will not keep it secret and attempt to connect this person to someone that is appropriate for the message. Undo this triangle by connecting the three people in the triangle so a meaningful conversation can take place. Model - People whom you lead will follow your example. If you spread secrets, then you are saying it's alright to do it. Model excellence. Model high functioning. Model transparency and honesty. Model directness. The leader impacts the behavior and functioning of everyone in the system with their functioning. If something is wrong with the culture, then look in the mirror to see if you can find the cause. Act - At the first indication of conflict because of the spreading of secrets, intervene with the process gently. Ask for transparency. Connect the parts of the triangle - or overlapping triangles. Stay calm and speak directly to the issues. Stay away from accusations. Use "I" language rather that what seems accusatory by using "you." Use information you have observed and do not interpret for others who are not present. This modeling impacts the functioning of others. Act at the first appropriate opportunity. If you wait, the situation gets worse. A minor problem can create a nuclear disturbance if left untended. Do it now - later might be too late. Transparency is a leadership skill. Create transparency in your culture by being transparent.

You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership. - Dwight D. Eisenhower The Musical Conductor as Leader The musical conductor is my example of an effective leader, especially when it comes to this topic of push vs. pull leadership. The conductor is perceived by some as a dictator. That’s not true. It’s not possible to make anyone do anything with a little white stick. The conductor is a person of influence who brings the music out of the participants. As musicians develop a higher functioning, they attain what’s called “ensemble.” Instead of giving up individual skills, the musicians attain an extra level of excellence in becoming an ensemble. This is an example of “pull” leadership. Push Leadership Here are some examples of push leadership: Ordering people to do things Using the power of position Leveraging compensation Criticizing through performance reviews Micromanaging Push leaders make people do things and create negative feelings, damaging the culture of collaboration. They manage by fear, creating relationships that are not amicable. Pull Leadership By contrast, here are some examples of pull leadership: Creating mutually shared values and guiding principles together Appreciating the work and the individual Mentoring Cheerleading Modeling Pull leaders create a culture of cooperation, inspiring individual initiative and collaboration, and creating an “ensemble of excellence” in a higher-functioning team. We have been taught that the leader is the expert and knows what to do, and that delegation is a weakness in leadership rather than recognizing that it’s a strength in leadership. We don’t need to have all the right answers; we need to have good questions that inspire and motive the team to think, solve problems, and grow. Facilitating meetings is somewhat like conducting a musical rehearsal. The leader guides the process, makes adjustments in the process and performance, and drives to previously defined outcomes. The leader creates the space for others to function upward. Rather than striving to always be right, it’s important for the leader to ensure that others are always right. Creating the space and the process for others to grow is a primary goal of pull leadership. Mentor, teach, encourage, and inspire others, and everyone wins. Leadership is influence!

Creating Balance with Time In previous posts, I have encouraged you to plan your day by planning your work. In order to accomplish the most, it is important to put everything into logical order; however, do not get so focused on the order of your day that you don't notice the big experiences that come into your life. There are two Greek words for time that apply here: Chronos (Χρόνος) - Chronological or sequential time; and Kairos (καιρός) - The right or opportune moment. Imagine that a good friend has come to visit you. Your friend says that he or she would like to fix you a gourmet meal but, before preparing the dinner, a trip to the grocery store is in order. So, you get in the car and go to the store. Once you arrive at the store, you go to the produce area to get a bell pepper. Next, you go to the dairy section for some heavy cream. Then, you realize that there are some additional vegetables that are needed, so you go back to the produce area - at the far side of the store! Next, you remember that you need orange juice for the next morning. The next item is beef for the dinner - a totally new section of the store. Finally, you go to the center of the store to get rice and spices. In this process, you have visited every section of the store multiple times! Since there was no order to your shopping, you have spent far too much time and energy shopping for the necessary items. If you had taken a few minutes to make a list and group the items by sections of the store, you could have saved a lot of time and possibly a lot of frustration. Does this remind you of an unorganized day at work? Do you know people who live like this every day and plan each workday this way? How much more effective could you be if you just spent a small amount of time planning your schedule and grouping similar activities? A small investment in planning nets big results in effectiveness! This is an example of chronos - chronological time: planning activities in sequence and in chronological order. Very important. However, you can focus so much on being efficient in your use of time and other resources, that you are not aware of how God brings opportunities into your day. This reminds me of the old saying about a person in the church: "He (she) is so heavenly minded that he (she) is no earthly good!" This means that an idealistic view of life sometimes interferes with the spontaneous. Balance as a Paradigm Shift God brings us unmerited favor with opportunities and options that we least expect. Be open to these surprises in your life. If we are so busy in God's work, we sometimes are not aware of God's working in our life. Be efficient in planning the best use of your time. Be attentive to God's work in your day.  

Life is divided into three terms - that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future. - William Wordsworth Here's what I found online when I asked for a definition of "profit": Simple Definition of Profit : to get an advantage or benefit from something : to be an advantage to (someone) : to help (someone) : to earn or get money by or from something Are You Focused on Money or Results? Traditionally, leaders, especially social entrepreneurs running a business, charity, or religious institution, are driven by passion and purpose. Many want to "save the dolphins" without building an infrastructure to accomplish their worthy mission…that's focusing on passion. Many entrepreneurs are in business to achieve financial gain…that's focusing on money. Successful leaders have a balanced approach to success. They provide value to others and receive income as a result of the value given. Looking through this lens of balance allows a leader to review the classics, such as Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" and learn something very different...it's not about money. Even Hill stated that financial wealth is at the bottom of his list of the attributes of wealth, because it was the least important of the traits. In James Allen's classic, "As a Man Thinketh," he noted that we don't attract what we need, we attract what we are. How do you define success? Does your team reflect your philosophy? Your culture is a reflection of your leadership.

Kurt Francom currently lives in Woods Cross, Utah with his lovely wife Alanna. They are blessed to have two children (girl and boy). He enjoys drawing caricatures and editorial cartoons, basketball, reading, and college football. Kurt has served as a full-time missionary (California Sacramento), an elders quorum president, executive secretary, bishopric counselor, high priest group leader, bishop and 1st counselor in a stake presidency. More Information at https://leadinglds.org Interview Transcript Hugh Ballou: This is another version of Orchestrating Success. I have Kurt Francom on here. Kurt and I are passionate about leadership, and we discovered each other on LinkedIn. We went back and forth and had a conversation, and we decided we wanted to share information with our mutual audiences. Kurt, welcome to Orchestrating Success. Kurt Francom: Hey Hugh, it’s a pleasure to be here. I love talking with other podcasters because people just don’t understand the struggle. I celebrate your success with the podcast. Hugh: People find me, and I don’t know how they find me but they do. You and I come from a similar background. I served mainline Protestant churches for 40 years and rallied people in music ministry, creating ensembles. In my church in Atlanta, Georgia, I was a staff person. You do leadership in the LDS church. In big Presbyterian Methodist churches, it’s a paid position. I discovered that 90% of my job as music director was music, and the rest of it made music possible. I learned to create systems and influence people. I’d love to swap stories with you, but before we go on to the questions and digging into your knowledge base, tell our listeners about yourself. I prefer for my guests to speak about themselves rather than me trying to read a boring bio. Talk a little bit about your background and why you’re doing this. Kurt: Sure. At the end of the day, I’m just a typical Mormon boy from Salt Lake City. I grew up in a city just outside Salt Lake City called West Valley City. Born and raised in the LDS church. Jumped through the typical Mormon hoops. Served a mission in Sacramento, California. I had the opportunity of learning Spanish because it feels like Northern Mexico there some days. I had the great pleasure of serving among the Spanish-speaking population there and sharing our message. After my mission of two years, I came home and a few years later got married. I was dumped in church leadership. I don’t mean that in a negative sense. In the LDS church, in the Mormon faith, it’s all lay ministry. Whether you are a Ph.D., plumber, or mechanic, anybody in the local congregation or ward can be called as the bishop or the presiding priest of that area. I moved into an area that was in the inner city of Salt Lake and had no inclination or desire to necessarily lead the congregation. But a few years into that, I was called in at the age of 28, which most bishops serve when they are in their late 30’s, early 40’s. They asked me to be the bishop at 28 years old and to preside over about 500 people in the Salt Lake area in our ward. I knew nothing about leadership. I had served with other bishops. I had been an elder’s quorum president over a smaller group of some of the priesthood men. There I was expected to stand and be a dynamic leader and meet with individuals and counsel with them and recommend professional therapy or counsel them on maybe a difficult marriage they are in, the typical things maybe a clergy is found doing. That is when I realized that maybe there could be some more resources out there that could help LDS leaders. I would go into a Barnes and Noble and see bookshelves filled with incredible, dynamic books that would help people in the business world who were striving to lead. I wanted to take some of those principles like Stephen Covey, another famous Mormon leader. Stephen Covey, Liz Wiseman, a lot of these who have written great books, take these principles and apply them to LDS church leadership. That spurred on a podcast I produce around leadership in the context of the Mormon faith. Then we turned it into a nonprofit called Leading LDS, where we are striving to help lay leaders in the church enhance their ability and capacity as they face these difficult situations. Hugh: That’s pretty profound. I understand that from my many years serving in church. You call it a ward. It’s like a parish for a Catholic or an Episcopal church. And it is run by volunteers basically, right? Kurt: Yeah, absolutely. The neat thing is wherever you move, you are assigned to a ward. I can’t just shop and find a pastor or bishop that resonates with me or likes me. If you are in a geographical area, the church determines what parish or ward you will attend. You go there and everybody takes their turn. I served as bishop for about five years, and then somebody else served. After him, somebody else will serve for about five to six years, which is the average. It creates this unique leadership dynamic. Nobody is paid. Nobody really wants to serve. But if they are asked, we believe these callings and assignments come from inspiration and revelation. We feel as we are called by God and step up and serve as we are asked to do. It is interesting to see that responsibility passed around. We are all volunteers that work a 40-50 hour week in our day job, and in the weekends and evenings, we are acting as clergy and doing our best at it. Hugh: That’s amazing. You got called into a leadership position. Did I hear you say you didn’t know leadership? Kurt: Well, I had just graduated college with a marketing degree. I had served as a bishop counselor, as an assistant to the bishop before that and on different smaller auxiliaries within the local ward. This was a whole new experience of being the go-to guy when it comes to life problems or collecting tithing funds and standing and delivering sermons that are going to impact individuals in a positive way and help them progress through the gospel. Hugh: When people ask the famous question, “Are you a born leader, or did you learn leadership?” what is your answer to that? Kurt: I definitely learned leadership. There are certain experiences that were put in my life that helped me develop and catch on to some of these skills. After being bishop, I then served in what is called a stake presidency. A stake is a group of wards. I was over a handful of about seven or eight bishops and their wards, helping mentor those bishops and helping them serve. It is remarkable to see those new bishops come in. The vast majority would claim they were definitely not born leaders, and they are really looking for help in developing that. In my experience, it was something through experience. I made a lot of mistakes. I don’t claim to be the Mormon leadership guru by any means. There are people much more fit for that title. I am grateful for these experiences, that other leaders took a chance on me when I had very little experience. But it has helped me develop personally in a way that is remarkable and has really blessed my life. Hugh: We are talking to business leaders on this particular podcast. When I talk to business leaders, I tell them I developed my methodology in a mega-church. They say, “Hey, why is that relevant to business?” My response is, “If you can do it in a church, you can certainly do it in business because it’s harder when you are working with volunteers.” You can respond to that paradigm, but what can business leaders learn from your LDS model? Kurt: I would encourage people, regardless if you have a connection to the LDS or Mormon faith, to maybe go visit a church and just admire what is happening there. We are a leadership laboratory. Imagine that you’re in your position as a manager, as a CEO, or an executive, but imagine you are limited to a certain geographical area or neighborhood. You can only hire people within that area. As a bishop, if I need a new organist or relief society president, who is the female leader over the women’s organization, I couldn’t send out a plea for resumes. I could only go to a handful of selected streets in an area and say, “What do I got? Who can step up to this and really lead?” Oftentimes, there isn’t obvious choices for a lot of these positions. As a secular leader, these are interesting paradigms to put yourself in and say, “If I couldn’t fire anybody,” because we can’t fire anybody. We can change their calling maybe, but we can’t say, “Hey, listen, this isn’t working out. Go away.” We have to put them somewhere else in our organization to serve. Of course, people get offended, but we want them to love attending church, not feel like, “Oh man, they fired me from this calling.” Imagine in your leadership if you could not only fire anybody, if you could only select from a very small demographic, how would you lead differently? Pondering that and visiting an LDS church and seeing how that works and trading those responsibilities around. I was a leader for five years. Now it’s your turn. Now I sit in the pews and look at this person who was maybe my assistant, and now I consider him my leader. Just these small leadership dynamics in the LDS faith and the lay ministry that will really cause a leader to pause and reevaluate maybe how they lead and how they can excel with these limitations and even outside that, recognize the limitations you have in your organization and see them as strengths and how you can apply them as better strengths. Hugh: We do have a lot of listeners that run small businesses. They are economically limited as well as geographically limited many, many times. That paradigm works really well. Your business is outside of the Mormon Church. You do this as a volunteer. But Leading LDS is your nonprofit that you teach leadership with? Kurt: Exactly. Leading LDS is a separate third-party organization that is supplementing the resources of leadership development for the LDS church. When I was called as a bishop, I was given a handbook and a pat on the back and was told good luck, and away I went. We are trying to connect some of these resources to those lay leaders that are treading water and just need some ideas and thoughts. A bishop in Maine may be doing something different than a bishop in Texas, and I help share those ideas by interviewing them on the podcast or sharing resources and tools they are using within those local wards. Hugh: I will put a link in, but tell us what your podcast is called. Kurt: It’s called Leading LDS. Hugh: It’s the same. I do have lots of Mormon friends. I would say they all are high performers. They are very serious about what they are doing. I also find that my Mormon friends are very astute businesspeople. There are attributes of the Mormon culture that are kind, focused, and serious about what I’m doing. It’s important work. Is that all tied to your spiritual calling? Kurt: You know, I would hate to take away their grit and hard work of going through schooling and developing that. But in the LDS faith, when I was 19 years old, it’s cultural norm for these young men and women to go on missions. I was dropped in Sacramento, and I had never experienced homesickness like I did at that time. I really had to step up and look at myself and say, I can either flourish or shrink in this situation. There is a great book called The Mormon Way of Doing Business, which came out 10 years ago. It talks about David Neeleman, who started JetBlue, and David Checketts, who was the president of the New York Knicks, and some of these other LDS Mormon individuals who have had great business success. A lot of that is attributed to not only their Mormon mission as young men and women when they really had to step up and define themselves as an individual. Also, when you return, you are still asked to lead in various capacities. If you are a manager, CEO, or other executive and you happen to know that somebody is LDS, you should ask them, “Have you ever been an elder president? What sort of leadership have you held in your local ward? How has that developed you?” You may find out characteristics about that individual that can maybe help you better utilize them in the capacities in their secular job. Hugh: Fascinating. I was remembering my work at a 12,000-member church in Atlanta, Georgia. I worked with 750 people in music ministry, all of whom were volunteers. Multiple events to plug into every week. We were on national TV and local TV, etc. The pressure was pretty high to motivate people to show up. When I got there, somebody told me they had lost 200 members in the adult choir. That was like your Mormon Tabernacle Choir losing your core singers and having a handful left. Your choir is bigger, but still. The critical mass, and having 35 people to build from. You have this big cavernous place to make sound. It was an uphill battle. I worked with executives, CEOs from major companies, who were in the choirs, who were in the committees, who were in the leadership of the church. I earned their respect because I could motivate people to follow a track and get things done. I’m curious when I hear people in the MLM industry, whether they have contract labor, people who aren’t really in their employ, say, “Oh, I can’t tell them what to do because it’s their own business.” I had a whole bunch of people that weren’t in business that did the directive we inspired. We created the compelling reason for what we’re doing. So I got a lot of respect from CEOs because I could motivate people by influence, not by power of position, which, to me, is one of the attributes of transformational leadership. You might be familiar with the works of Burns and Bass who in the ‘80s developed this concept of transformational leadership, which is like an orchestra or choir. It’s building a culture and influencing that culture to function at a higher level. I say back to you that I influence business leaders because of methodology and influence. From your side, business leaders coming into the laboratory that you suggested, is that kind of a learning experience that business leaders could expect? Kurt: As I was preparing for this interview with you, Hugh, I put down four principles that maybe a secular leader or a manager in their everyday life can learn from LDS leaders and the challenges that we face. One of those is your limitations and strengths. Another one I would say is what would you do if you didn’t have classic leveraging tools of motivation? You couldn’t demote someone, you couldn’t take their salary away, and you couldn’t fire them. They are all volunteers. How do you approach that? We have a fantastic scripture in our doctrine of covenance, which is a fantastic scripture just like the Bible. It says, “No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the leadership, only by persuasion, long suffering, by gentleness, meekness, and by love unfeigned.” It gives you a whole new approach to motivating individuals when you can’t just yank their salary away or give them these harsh consequences that will impact their family life. It’s through this meekness and long suffering, really connecting and getting to know these individuals. Just like servant leadership or transformational leadership, these are all different ways of saying this, but really leading in a way that connects with the individual so they do want to have influence and realize they are a leader themselves. They can have remarkable impact on their local ward or even at work where they have important responsibilities. Hugh: I’ll tell you a funny story. I had a volunteer who was in one of my programs at one of my churches, and it just wasn’t working. I asked them to come in and have an interview. I said, “Let me get somebody else to do this for a while so you can regain control of your life, and then we’ll come back and find another place for you to show your talents.” It was a painful conversation. It was like they were relieved. They said, “Okay.” We had a hug and a parting, and they left. I said, “Now I gotta put my new leaders in place.” I looked at my window, and the first person they met, they were skipping, jumping, and smiling saying, “I got fired from our job!” Kurt: Yep, we have the same dynamic. Hugh: If it ain’t workin’, either in a business context or a volunteer context, everybody knows it. We don’t address it. One of the conflict management pieces I encourage people to embrace is you move toward conflict as soon as it’s there because it doesn’t get better if you don’t address it. Remain calm and address the facts. What is your advice when you have somebody either in business or a volunteer in a charity that it just isn’t working out? From your perspective, what’s your advice on how to deal with changing their job or moving them out of the space? Kurt: Obviously, every leader wants to establish a really healthy culture in their organization. There is nothing more damaging to that organization than a passive-aggressive attitude of, “We appreciate your time serving in this position, but man, do we need you over here passing out the hymn books as people enter. There is nobody else that can do it; you must do it.” This is one thing I preach a lot on Leading LDS. There is nothing more valuable to a leader in my opinion than this ability to effectively communicate on a one-to-one basis. I get questions and situations emailed to me all the time, “I have this difficult person that is in my ward or my primary relief society. What should I do with them?” 90% of the time, you need to have a conversation with them. And if you don’t know how to do that, you need to develop those skills to have that conversation. That is one thing in our culture, a very religious culture, where we feel like, “I am called of God; therefore, I should have these abilities given to me in the moment that I need them to handle these leadership positions.” But it really is up to that leader to take the time to listen to podcasts like Orchestrating Success to develop these skills so that you are an effective leader. It’s not just going to come because they call you a leader. Hugh: Absolutely. What you just described is a triangle relationship. You have that local leader calling you about a third person. There are three people in a relationship, which is neutral. There are triangles that are the basic blocks of human relationships. What that person may have wanted to do is triangle the other person, which is another way of looking at passive aggressive. They want to dump all their energy on you and have you do something about it, which happens in the life of the church. That is the culture that people sometimes unload on a third person about that other person, which doesn’t solve the problem. What you did was undo the triangle and say, “Go face to face. Address the situation. Develop the skills to do that. No, God didn’t download these skills to your hard drive. You need to think about it and faith, God is giving you certain abilities, but He is also giving you the ability to think and speak the truth. Hall said, “Speak the truth in love.” We dodge around it. We hint around it instead of saying, “This isn’t working out. How can we remedy it?” Sometimes, a person will want to upgrade their skills, and we can mentor them in that. Sometimes they are going to say, “This isn’t working for me either.” They know it, and they may not know how to tell you that they want out of it. I think a direct one-to-one conversation. You want to respond to that paradigm? Kurt: That’s the beauty of it. When you learn how to have these conversations, it’s not like this person is struggling in this calling or assignment and is oblivious to their lack of ability. By having that conversation with love, again, going back to meekness and connecting with that person, they are more likely to say, “I hate failing at this thing, too. Do you have any suggestions of a way I can be better? Or maybe there is a better place for me to be.” Then you don’t have this weird passive-aggressive relationship of, “Remember that time you fired me but we never talked about it?” They move onto the next position where they can maybe flourish, and they still love you as their leader because you took the time to have that interaction and express love to them in a way that will help them flourish elsewhere. Hugh: We’re talking to a business audience in this podcast. There is a lot to learn from being able to manage self and speak clearly in this culture. That question I asked you a while ago, how can business leaders learn, all of this, leadership is leadership. Good leadership is good leadership, no matter where you are. In the context you’re working, it’s more difficult. By the way, in my methodology, when I was inside the church, I developed this paradigm of we’re called to ministry, so why are we calling people volunteers? I don’t know if you call them volunteers or not. I started this initiative in the last church I served where we outlawed the word “volunteer” because we are teaching everybody in our theology that God calls you to Christian service. It’s in conflict to say, “I want to volunteer stuff” rather than saying, “I was called to leadership.” You mentioned servant leadership; that is certainly a title. We adopted the title of “members in ministry,” which worked for the church. It was us in a leadership position. It changed the paradigm of performance. People saw themselves as leaders. We had lots of people doing lots of stuff joyfully because they had a leadership track. It wasn’t the volunteer mentality of showing up and doing the least I can because I am a volunteer. It was a paradigm shift. My bias is we have to let go of some words to be able to let go of the old paradigm and shift to a new one. What is your response to that methodology? Kurt: In the Mormon faith, the nomenclature of these volunteer assignments is it’s my calling. What is your calling? I was just called to this position. I think we have gone too far with it to where we have used it for so long for so many years that it has the same connotation as if we just said volunteer. This goes to when I started Leading LDS; our slogan that I say at the end of each episode is, “Be a leader, not a calling.” Insert whatever word there. “Be a leader, not a volunteer, manager, executive” because in my opinion, leadership is something that you step up to. You’re not always dragged there and told to wear your crown, enjoy it, and be effective. Leadership is something we need to find in each one of our selves and say, “I can have some influence somewhere in the world. Where is it going to be?” For me as a young 28-year-old, I was asked to be a bishop and I thought, Well, I can either flounder or flourish. Not that I was the most successful bishop and there are statues of me anywhere by any means. Nonetheless, I saw it as a calling that is a great opportunity to lead. Leadership is no better than when it’s self-called. Hugh: What is the biggest challenge you see in leadership anywhere? Inside the church, inside a business. What is the biggest challenge in today’s convoluted toxic world today? Kurt: That’s a great question. Many books have been written on that. I would probably change my answer month to month, but most recently, I have been very struck with this topic of the role of shame in organizations, especially more highlighted in religious situations because we go to our chapel every Sunday. There is always this undertone of, You’re not doing enough. You need to be better. Keep the commandments. Be more. Be more. Of course, I want to be part of an organization that is constantly encouraging me to be better. It’s so easy for the adversary we would have in our doctrine to twist that and say, “You know what? You’re just not good enough. Because you’re just not good enough, you’re broken. If you’re broken, you don’t belong here.” That person internalizes that message of, “This system broke me. This church broke me. This organization broke me. I don’t want to work there because they shame me and make me feel less than myself.” There is this subtle balance for a leader to be encouraging and motivating without being shaming. I have been doing lots of research and interviews around this topic of how we can better lead without shaming. It’s valuable. Brene Brown has done some remarkable research on it. Her TED Talk, which is one of the most listened-to, about this concept of vulnerability and shame and recognizing it and getting it out of your life. Nothing that comes from God is laced in shame, and there is no place for it in the church nor is there any place for it in any organization. Hugh: When we are demeaning ourselves, we are demeaning God, because we are a creation of God. In this series of podcasts, #42 is my colleague Dr. David Gruder, who is an organizational psychologist. He talks about the shadow. That is part of what you’re talking about: the negative scripts that we have that limit our ability. Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy, no matter where we are leading. Kurt: Yeah, it’s too bad. Hugh: I’m glad you referred to that. It’s a hidden liability for leaders. It’s really a problem. This podcast is called Orchestrating Success obviously. I picked up when you said you prepared for this podcast. Thank you. That honors what I’m doing. You checked me out, and you obviously know I am a musical conductor. Orchestrating is how you define the instruments that play, but it’s also adding energy to that idea that is notes on paper become sounds, glorious sounds. The subtitle is “Converting Passion to Profit.” I am a champion for profit in all of its forms. The scripture says, “What does a man profit if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?” That is a different element of profit. We can be a prophet, for profit, and profit from the synergy of the community. What I want people to do is to profit in their leadership methodology, their vision for empowering themselves and their teams through this series of interviews. Speaking to that paradigm, what’s the most important takeaway that you’ve had? You were a bishop at 28. You don’t look a whole lot older than that. Kurt: I’m 35, so it’s been a few years. Hugh: I’m 71. You’re not a whole lot older than that. Kurt: I still got a lot to learn, for sure. Hugh: I can remember 35. It’s kind of fuzzy. What would you like people to take away? I think we’ve covered our topics really well. If there is something else you want to cover here, I’m happy to do that. Back to my question. What are the takeaways you would like to emphasize for leaders who need to up their game in any space, in an entrepreneurial space, charity space, church space, wherever? What are some empowerment pieces that you’d like to leave people with? Kurt: Pleasure to do so. Again, I thank you, Hugh, for giving me a stage here to talk about what I have learned as a developing leader. My overall message that I would love for people to take away is be a leader and not a calling. Wherever it is that you lead, are you leading because you are called to that or asked to lead or hired as a leader, or are you leading because you find it a passion in your life to step up and have an influence for good in your world and surroundings? You mentioned my age of 35. One of the principles I wanted to mention is for leaders out there, even in the secular world that maybe are managers or executives, somebody took a chance on the 28-year-old young kid to be a bishop. It impacted me as a person and hopefully I had positive influence in that role. Don’t underestimate. Speaking as one of the older Millennials in the world, don’t underestimate the power of those Millennials. Don’t wait on them to lead. That doesn’t mean you have to fire your older executive staff and put a bunch of young guys in Levi’s in there. Look for opportunities for them to lead and to flourish so that by the time that you do need them to step up, they are ready to go and to be a leader, not a calling. Hugh: That’s huge. We’re not engaging Millennials as a sector. I’m a boomer, you’re a millennial—we have similar values. We value core principles, and we value a lot of things that we see in common, but we have a different way of approaching it. Neither one is bad or good; it’s just understanding and celebrating the difference and creating a diverse board, a diverse cadre of people who are servant leaders in any organization. That’s a great final thought. Kurt, I see why you’ve been called into leadership positions. You’re on top of your game, sir. Kurt: Thank you. I appreciate that. It means a lot. Hugh: Thank you for being on this podcast, and thank you for sharing your message with so many people that tune in.

Todd Tresidder’s background includes: B.A. in Economics from University of California at Davis Member of Economics Honors Society and Deans List A serial entrepreneur since childhood building many businesses and retiring at age 35 from his position as a Hedge Fund Investment Manager responsible for a 20+ million dollar portfolio. Todd’s portfolio management for the Hedge Fund produced 100% winning years except one which was less than a 5% loss. Raised net worth from less than zero at age 23 to self-made millionaire 12 years later by “walking the talk” using the same personal finance and investment strategies taught on this web site. An early pioneer and expert in statistical and mathematical risk management systems for investing. Financially independent from age 35 through investing – not marketing – unlike many other financial gurus who made their money through marketing courses and books. Still an active investor who earns consistent investment returns in both up and down markets. The point of these factoids is to demonstrate that I teach personal finance and investing based on real experience. I walk the talk and have the results to prove it. I do not teach ivory tower theories or inaccurate conventional wisdom: instead, I show you what works, what doesn’t, and why – all based on actual, provable, experience. With that said, there is a serious limitation to the financial and professional data cited above. It tells you about my financial and investment expertise, but it doesn’t tell you anything about me as a person. In other words, there are many self-proclaimed financial experts with impressive resumes so what is different about Todd?   The most obvious difference is I made my money investing in publicly traded markets just like you can do; whereas, many financial experts made their money through becoming best-selling authors and marketing financial advice to you. Unless you plan on writing a best-selling book and building a marketing empire you may find difficulty duplicating their success. More at https://financialmentor.com   Here's the Transcript Hugh: Hey, this is Hugh Ballou. Welcome to this episode of Orchestrating Success. I got a guy today that I’m going to interview that knows how to convert passion to profit. Todd, tell us a little bit about you. How do you say your last name? Todd: Tresidder. Hugh: I have a Southern focus on pronunciation, so I want to make sure I got it right. Todd, I’ve read a little bit about you and I’m really impressed. We’re talking about how to get more clients than you really need today. Talk about your background and what brought you to being able to do this for yourself and for others. Todd: My background is in hedge fund investing. That’s where I learned the investment skills that ultimately I market through my coaching services and books and courses and things like that. That’s where I learned it: practical school hard knocks. I spent about 12 years doing research in computerized trading algorithms and risk management systems, things like that. I ran the fund for all those years. We had only one losing year for the investors. The portfolio actually won money, even in that losing year, but it was such a small win that with the net of expenses and fees, investors lost a little bit. We now have 100% winning years. I went on to build this financial education company. I sold the hedge fund back when I was 35, which anybody looking at this feed can see that was a long time ago. I’ve been building out a financial education business, trying to give back the knowledge I created. It’s different; my viewpoints are sometimes unorthodox, but they are always supported by math and research and proof. They violate a lot of commonly held ideas in the financial planning area. Hugh: Love it. I like to violate all the standard leadership rules because they don’t work. Todd: Make hamburger out of sacred cows. Hugh: That’s right. One of the people I interviewed was Gary Gunderson, who wrote the book Killing Sacred Cows. For your business, who’s your ideal client? Todd: Depends on what part of the business you’re talking about. There is various parts of the business: online advertising, the books, the courses, and the coaching services. I think what you’re referring to is the coaching services. When you look at the ideal target client, there is several. The reason for that is there is several problems that the coaching service solves. One of the keys in getting more clients than you can handle is you have to be clear on what problem you solve. People pay for solutions to problems. You have to look at what the high value solution you have that other people will gladly pay for. That’s your starting point. It’s not so much like, women over 35 with a net worth of blah blah blah. It doesn’t work that way. It’s a psychographic, not a demographic. Hugh: Say a little more about that. That’s fascinating. What problem do you solve? Let’s go after it that way. Todd: One of the problems that I solve is people who achieve very-near financial independence. A lot of people don’t understand this, but as you approach financial independence, it’s a very unleveling experience, if you will. It typically takes people by surprise. The reason for that is as you approach financial independence, what happens is your life up to that point was very well prescribed. It’s standard stuff. You go to work five days a week. You have your job. Your focus is making more money. Your focus is spending less, saving money, trying to achieve some modicum of financial security. Everything is pretty well set. Once you achieve financial independence, all that grounding is removed because you no longer have to report to the man, you no longer have a daily routine that is required of you. Everything is up to you. You can choose. You no longer have any excuses for your unhappiness. Before when you were unhappy, you could always blame it on your crappy boss or your lousy job or the fact that you work all day when you really want to be doing X or Y. Once you’re financially independent, you have no excuses. Your happiness is entirely up to you. Your day is entirely up to you. That is what I call a burden of responsibility. Most people sitting on the other side of this will be like, “Yeah, Todd, gee, big burden. I’ll take it any day.” It’s true. For most people, it’s a privilege to get to that position in life. But don’t kid yourself. It’s very disconcerting. When people experience it, they’re thrown off. They seek out guidance, and I’m one of the only people who has been through it and is willing to mentor others through it. I have been through it a lot, both with myself and clients. That’s one target profile client. They have a lot of money, they are very concerned, they are right at the edge of financial independence but don’t know if they are financially independent or not. They’re not sure. The numbers are marginal. Right when you hit that point, your whole life changes. Before that, everything was pre-prescribed. After that, you’re going according to what your values are. All kinds of stuff that you could tolerate before, like going to work and putting up with people’s crap and all kinds of things like that, you won’t tolerate it anymore. It’s very unsettling. It’s a huge change in a person’s life. That’s one target client. Another target client is somebody who wants to build wealth. For example, an entrepreneur who has success, but he is not converting it into wealth. He is building a successful business. It’s not translating over into wealth into his personal balance sheet. He’s not sure what he’s doing wrong. He needs help. That’s another target client where I help them solve a problem. There is a variety of target clients. Hugh: Those are the people listening to this podcast. That’s how we position ourselves. There are people- 31 years working with solopreneurs and early-stage businesses. People are stuck. They are on a treadmill, and they are too busy. They don’t have a life. They haven’t done this kind of planning or reframing. Let’s go back to the expertise. Todd: Most people I see are too busy making a living to develop wealth. Hugh: Absolutely. Sometimes they’re too busy making a living to make a living. Todd: To live. Hugh: Amen. To the bottom line. We’re talking about how to have more clients than you can handle. I’m at a place in my career where, like you are, I screen clients and I don’t want to work with everybody. I only take a certain number. I try to automate the others or put them into groups. What are the problems? I’m in a service business. A lot of people I work with are in a service business. We are selling what might be called invisible at some point. Leadership is invisible until you’re bad at it. Financial planning is invisible until you’re bad at it. Service businesses - Todd: I call it selling pink fog. Hugh: Pink fog. I love that. What are some of the problems in approaching marketing for this kind of business? Todd: First of all, as I said, you have to be clear on what problem you solve that people will pay for. A lot of people have a lot of problems. For example, early on in the business, I used to help people get out of debt. I don’t do that anymore. That’s a problem people won’t pay for a solution for; they don’t have the money. They may really need help. They have a huge problem. But they don’t have money and they can’t really pay for a solution. You have to find problems that you are the single best solution to that people will gladly pay for that solution. Then you have to position yourself in their buying process. You have to understand where they look and what they’re looking for in order to solve that problem. It’s got to be a burning enough problem that they wake up in the morning and it bothers them. They care about it enough to research it. Those I call money key words. You’re looking for those money key words, or finding a buying process. The buying process might exist somewhere else other than the Internet, but you have to identify their buying process. Then you have to map yourself right into that buying process. You have to show up at the point they’re looking for that solution. As an example, on my site, if you look up terms like “money coach,” “financial coach,” “investment coach,” all those terms with coaching and finance, I will rank pretty highly. The way a buying process works for a coaching service is people will look for those money terms like “money coach” or “financial coach” or “financial coaching.” It’s a trust relationship. The buying process is you don’t have to be number one. It’s like a retirement calculator where somebody comes in, they will use the top result, they have their answer, and they’re out. With coaching, it’s a personal service, it’s a trusted relationship. People will go through the first couple pages of results, at least the first page. They will try to find somebody that they resonate with. They are trying to find somebody they can trust and connect with, somebody whose message they resonate with. They will go through the first couple pages of coaches in search of a coach. If you are looking for a financial coach, you have a financial problem you are trying to solve. You don’t want a traditional financial advisor; otherwise you would search for those terms. The site then has to position itself as a trusted authority in that field to where they feel compelled to connect with you. You also want to write your message in a way that it’s unique and stands for what you provide and only you can provide. For example, my message connects a lot of personal growth issues with wealth-building. In other words, the way I like to say it is that building wealth is the ultimate path to personal growth because of everything you have to go through in order to get there. The real gold is in who you become on the journey, not in the destination itself. That’s a very different positioning statement, but it’s true. It’s been true in my life and in my clients’ lives. It’s not some cutesy thing; it’s what I truly believe. But that’s unique in my message. Everybody else is about the money. They will all position themselves next to a Lamborghini or a fancy mansion. I’m sitting by a stream and talking about how life is about experiences, not stuff. Nobody wants more money; they want what they think money will get them. For the most part, people don’t want more stuff; they want a more fulfilling life. People connect with that. My target client does. That’s the point. Your message won’t relate to everybody, but it will relate to your target client, who you will want to attract. It will stand out from the crowd. If you go through the first couple pages of search results for things like “money coach” or “financial coaching” and look at those, I’m clearly a trusted authority in the field. That’s where I rank. People then contact you because that’s the buying process for a coach. Nearly every coach gives away a free strategy session. That’s where you get to know the client. You talk over stuff with them. All you have to do, the whole purpose of that content marketing is to get you to the strategy session. The strategy session is where the close takes place. Again, it’s just positioning yourself in the buying process. You have to have enough flow in clients in that buying process to have a full practice or a full business. In my case, back when I did it, I have grown since then. I don’t know what the numbers are now, but there was something like 25,000 searches for “money coach” if I am recalling right. You apply the 1% rule to it on the Internet. Of 25,000 searches, 1% of those click through, that is 250. 1% of that is 2.5 clients that will actually contact you and possibly convert. That’s 2.5 clients. That is only one term, right? There are a whole bunch of these terms I would rank for. If you take 2.5 clients for the one term and you say, “Okay, my average retention on a client is two years,” that would mean you could carry a constant practice of roughly 50 people, which is way more than I could ever fulfill. Just that one strategy alone right there more than filled my practice. One other thing we want to go through is one more step that I want to make sure we get in before we move. That is the actual conversion process. It’s traffic times conversion equals profit. That’s the formula. Hugh: Traffic x conversion = profit. Really good formula. Thank you. Todd: Very straightforward. That’s the way business works. So far, I have been showing the traffic, and I have been showing the first step to conversion. The actual conversion to a coaching relationship is a trust relationship. It’s going to be different for your business. You have to relate what I am saying to your business. The key is understanding the buying process of a client. I am relating the buying process of a coaching client to illustrate the point. You’re going to have to figure out the buying process for your clients. In my case, they all get a free strategy session. You have two conversions that have to take place. You have to convert them from cold traffic to somebody who wants a strategy session. You then have to convert the strategy session to a paying client. In the strategy session, I had a system set up where the person would have to first prequalify themselves. A prequalification is genuine, yet it also creates the bit of exclusivity. What I found in doing coaching was that it’s really a selection process. It’s not a marketing or sales process. For the right client, coaching was a no-brainer thing. It would definitely put more money in their pocket than it costs them. The key was finding the right client. So I gave away an article that everybody had to pre-read to qualify themselves. They had to say where they fit into the process when they applied for a strategy session. They would have to read the article to tell me where they fit in as a target client who is going to get more value than they paid for. In that essay, if you will, or article, it would go through and explain everybody that shouldn’t do coaching; they should instead learn the stuff over here and over here because it has a higher value relative to their need. It’s a more efficient way to get the information. The coaching is properly used in a very specific way for a very specific client, and either they qualify or they don’t. I just laid it out right up front, right? Those are the clients that are going to be great clients for me. Then they would write in and say, “I qualified under blah blah blah,” and they would pre-qualify themselves. That sorts out the strategy session. Very high percentages of the strategy sessions would close. It would be like 70-80% of the strategy sessions would actually result in a paying client. What it is is a prequalification system that keeps me from wasting my time on my phone. It sorts people. The key to that is the top of the funnel. We are explaining a funnel here. The top of the funnel has to be large enough that you can afford to be picky like that. You have to get that traffic coming in, and then you have to have the conversion process. By the time they come to me, they are definitely pre-sold. They have read my material. Most of my coaching clients would come to me and say, “Todd, I listened to all your podcasts.” One guy told me that he and his wife listened to each one of my podcasts three times before they called me. Three times. He and his wife. This guy made $600,000 a year. His time is very valuable. That is how much time he put into researching me: he researched my name, my business. He read a bunch of my articles, and then he contacted me. By the time he contacted me, he was pre-sold. That is the beauty. Once you go into a strategy session with this much pre-qual, the only thing you have to do is help him. Hugh: You have given us a whole lot of data here. It is a brilliant process. There is a couple of places I want to go back and clarify. I sound like I cut you off. This guy made $600,000 because he has the due diligence to do research before he jumps into something, like before he talked to you. Todd: Very high-quality clients. You are not dealing with college kids kicking the tires or people who can’t pay your bills or wannabes. You are only paying for people who are serious. Hugh: Your website is financialmentor.com. You got at least five books. How Much Money Do I Need to Retire? Those can be found on financialmentor.com? Todd: Yeah, and also on Amazon. Look up my name, or look up Financial Mentor on Amazon or Todd Tresidder. Go to my website, and you will see the books in the sidebar. Hugh: How long have you been doing this particular program? Todd: I got the website back in 1998 after I sold the hedge fund. I really didn’t do anything with it. I made tons of mistakes. It was a brochureware website. It was good enough back then because there wasn’t much competition on the Internet. It was good enough back then to bring clients into the coaching practice. But it was basically brochureware. It had tons of mistakes in it. We went into the top of the real estate market, so around 2006 or 2007, I got really uncomfortable. I was mostly focused on my real estate business back then. By real estate business, I mean personal ownership of a bunch of apartment buildings. I got uncomfortable with the financial leverage in real estate as the credit bubble bloomed. I sold everything, and I finished selling by 2007. At that point, all I had left was the house I live in. Once the downturn had really developed in full force and I saw how the government was going with it, I really wasn’t comfortable bringing financial leverage back in, and I am still not comfortable with it. I think things are too unstable. I decided to pursue time leverage, knowledge leverage, and technology leverage to build out this business finally. Also, along that time, I was introduced to Wordpress around 2008/2009. To make a short story long, I got the URL back in 1998, developed a junkie site that sat there for about ten years, got ahold of Wordpress, and the site has been through about three evolutions since then to the form you see now. I have only really taken it seriously since about 2009 or so. Hugh: You spoke early on in this interview about you not looking at a demographic, but a psychographic. There may be people listening to this that aren’t really familiar with that term. How do you sort out your psychographic? What does that mean? Todd: Let’s use my course as an example. What I’m doing in the business right now, we’ll get to it or not, is I am moving from coaching services. as you directly alluded to, those more than sold out. Couldn’t take new clients. I have been sold out for years. If you go on my website now, you will see I am not accepting new clients. I am moving the whole business to putting Todd in a box through courses. I coached for fifteen years. More than that now because I am still coaching, just the old clients that are still with me. I guess it’s 20 years I have been coaching now. I am dating myself here. I have been coaching 20 years. What I learned is what people go through to achieve financial freedom. The big solution I provide is financial freedom, like serious education for financial freedom, not get-rich-quick garbage, like serious education. How do you engineer your life to develop financial freedom with reliability and security? That is the solution I provide on the website. The moniker is Financial Freedom for Smart People. I am moving everything to courses because what I learned through coaching over those years is my clients slowly showed me it’s a step-by-step math they follow. Everybody comes to me at a different step in the process, but they all follow the same seven steps. I am formulating Seven Steps to Seven Figures. All the courses are already formulated. They are in drawers; I am just making them manifest if you will by formally putting them in courses. The first one available now is Step 3. That is how to design your life to result in wealth. It’s a wealth-planning course, but it is totally different from traditional financial planning or investment planning. We can go into that if you want. The point being, there is a psychographic for that course. It took me a while to figure that out. I was very confused. At first, I was like, It’s going to be people over 50, and thy are trying to retire. This, that, and the other thing. I was wrong. People who were college kids who were just getting out of school and getting started with a career. I had stay-at-home moms. I had men at 70 who were multi-millionaires. I couldn’t figure it out. It took me forever. I was interviewing my clients in the course trying to find out a commonality. It was obvious, but I didn’t get it at first. It was anybody who was serious enough about their financial freedom to study the subject and do something about it. That was the common psychographic. It was people who were serious about it. They weren’t just wannabes. They weren’t thinking it would be nice to have it. They were actively doing something about it. That’s why they were willing to pay some money for a course that gave them a complete soup-to-nuts solution. My target client is hanging out on other financial independence blogs. They are reading this stuff. Most of what you find on the subject is somewhat limited; it’s mostly about extreme frugality and how you achieve financial independence at an early age. My target client is studying it, and they say, “I want more.” They run across my course and buy it. Does that make sense to you, Hugh? Hugh: It makes a huge amount of sense. Todd, it’s probably 3% of the population that has been able to figure that out for their own benefit. Todd: I am just following standard business practices. When a course is new and the size of the people coming in is small enough that you can have personal interaction, I am having it. I am calling them up. I am getting on the phone with them. I am talking about the course. I am asking them how it’s working for them. What are their interests? What are their dreams? Where do they come from? How did they find me? How did they buy the course? How often do you get to talk to the course creator? Who cares enough to do that? You go in there and start seeing it. They will hand it to you if you ask the right questions. Hugh: Thank you for that. That is so helpful. It is so helpful. You did a lot of trial and error. I don’t call those mistakes; I call them learning opportunities. Todd: The way I approach it is everything is figure-out-able. You have to apply good business practices and step forward and apply risk management every step of the way. Eventually you will get there. I never knew courses when I started, and the course came out great. I didn’t know Internet marketing when I started. I was the first financial coach on the Internet when I started. Didn’t even exist as a business model. I had this harebrained crazy idea that I wanted to separate financial advice and financial education from investment product sales. Back in the 1990s, where did you get your financial information? It was from a broker, which is inherent conflict of interest. Now it doesn’t sound so revolutionary, but it is 20 years later. Hugh: I had a broker once. I kept getting broker and broker. We won’t go there. You figured out who needs you. You talk about getting the funnel. Here is the funnel. You need enough people in the funnel to be able to sort out those numbers you were talking about. How do you get people into that funnel? Todd: That’s what I was explaining earlier. I gave that content marketing example. I’m sorry, I didn’t explain in detail though. If you go on my site, you will see an entire area under Financial Coaching. There is a library of articles in there that are all connected into a silo of content. Hugh: Back up from that. How do you get them to come there? How do you drive traffic there? Todd: I am not driving traffic. They are searching for a solution, and I am becoming the authority in it. The key is you have to find out their buying process. It goes back to the beginning of the conversation. It’s about their buying process; it’s not about me. This is the thing that almost everybody misses in marketing. Nobody gives a damn about you. All they care about is themselves and their problems and what solution you can provide. The only thing they want from you is the solution. That may sound harsh, but isn’t it real? You’re laughing because it’s real. Hugh: I’m laughing because so few people have been able to figure that out. Here I am. Just being on social media, people hit me all the time, “Here I am, I’m great, buy my stuff.” Wait a minute. We haven’t had a conversation. I don’t know you. How do you know what I need? Todd: People think it’s about building up- You need to be authoritative, but you need to be authoritative in the way you give. When you’re giving to your customer, you have to come from the customer’s viewpoint. What are they looking for? What will convert them? They will convert when you give them so much value for free. The beauty of the Internet and content marketing is you can give unbelievable amounts of value for free, and it still makes good business sense because you can deliver videos and e-books and audio downloads and podcasts. You can deliver unbelievable solutions at almost no cost to yourself, just the cost of time of producing the media. When you do an authoritative body of work, Google will figure it out. If you structure it properly, Google will see that you’re an authority. But you have to build that authoritative body of work. I built an authoritative body of work in financial coaching quite a few years ago. It’s been top-ranked in Google ever since. Hugh: That’s the secret there. When I work with clients that are solopreneurs, we work on creating their position of influence. That is precisely what you are describing. Why do people need you? Who do you want to influence first? How do you want to influence them? What do you want them to do about it? There is figuring that dynamic out. You have given us a whole lot of data. I am just trying to go back and capture some of the significant sound bites here and some of the steps in the process because you figured out a very good process. People can go to your website and learn some things or buy some of your books. In the front end, creating that position of influence, you’re an expert at things. That is so key. You created the body of information. Go back to that part again. How did you start creating this expert position? Todd: For the terms “financial coaching,” all that, I did curated research around those terms. I saw all the searches people were using. How do you become a money coach? What is a money coach? How is financial coaching different from financial advice? Then what I did was I turned it into- I am very much about the consumer. I am a consumer advocate. That is how I got into this business. I got tired of all the- Where there is money, there is power. If you are in the money business, there are a lot of corrupt people who are trying to exploit people. If you read my book Don’t Hire a Financial Coach… Until After You Read This Book, that book was directly targeted at all the clients who were coming to me from the back-end coaching programs off of New York Times best-selling authors. What they were doing was they were getting a book that establishes them as an authority. Most people don’t know this, but there are floors of coaches off in Utah in high-rise buildings with headsets on in cubicles. They market these back-end coaching services to New York Times bestsellers. They create this curriculum. But it’s not real coaching. It’s not how coaching is best applied. It is very expensive content delivery, and it’s overpriced. But because it’s labeled as coaching, people can upsell it as a back-end sell off of their NYT bestselling books. So I’m not going to name names, but you can probably guess the people in my business who did this. I wrote a book as a consumer protection device so that consumers could recognize a genuine financial coach who is genuinely providing coaching in the way that it works and adds value versus somebody who is using it as a renaming metaphor for content delivery done in a very expensive, lazy way. That is an example of a consumer advocate book. The books are another thing, though. What they do is establish authority. They are another source of what you call high-relationship conversions. After people read my books or listen to my podcasts, they have an experience of me. There is trust involved. When they come over to the site, they are a different class of client than somebody who just did a Google search. I should say prospect, not client, a whole different class of prospect because you have to convert people from prospect to client. There is a consistent conversion process. Hugh: Absolutely. A lot of people that I know and that I talk to and that I see some dialogue on social media have a lot of traffic. A lot of people come to their website. They are not really converting. Is part of it that they haven’t really established the value and relationship with the client? Or is there some other secret for conversion? Todd: Let me put it this way. Hugh, do you like to be converted? Hugh: No. Todd: No, of course not. None of us do. That is why “Subscribe to my newsletter” is a losing proposition. Nobody wants another newsletter. Nobody needs more information. As I said before, they need solutions. They need value. You have to figure out how you can deliver value as part of the conversion. What is it that you can give that people will want enough to convert? I.e. become a subscriber on your list. It’s always about giving. That is the beauty of content marketing. That is what makes it fun. It’s a giving business. I don’t like to pitch, but I am more than happy to give and in the process have a smart business model behind it. Then my profits become a measure of how many people I’ve helped as opposed to how much I extracted from people or something. As long as you are always giving more value than you take, it’s a fun business. It’s hard work, but it’s fun. Hugh: Well, I do detect a bit of passion in your voice. You have excitement when you talk about what you do and a passion for it. That is underlying. You really have to want to do what you’re doing. What did you say about this is a giving business? Would you go back to that? You slipped that one in there. Todd: Think about it. If you go on my website, what do you get when you subscribe? You can get a free e-book and a free course called 52 Weeks to Financial Freedom. I am changing that up by the way, but the course as it exists right now as we record this is 52 Weeks to Financial Freedom. It maps up the entire financial freedom process step by step. You can see all the steps. It gives you the overview framework. If that is your goal, which is my target client again, if that is your goal, then that is a high value proposition. The free book I give away is 18 Essential Lessons of a Self-Made Millionaire. That goes through and shares all kinds of valuable ideas I learned along the journey. I give away transcripts to podcasts for opting in. I give away a free PDF of any article. I am known for extremely long-body content. I write articles that are almost as long as e-books. I did a whole expose on Whole Life insurance and how it is sold incorrectly and how it should be sold correctly and who is in it for and who gets ripped off by it. I give common business sense principles around Whole Life. 12,000 words. It’s almost an e-book length article. A lot of people don’t want to read that much online so I give away a free PDF of every article. There is no ads on it. It’s all beautifully formatted. All you have to do is opt in. You can get a free PDF of any article on the site. Also, my calculators. I have one of the largest collections of financial calculators on the Internet. I give them away for free. You can use them all you want, no opt-in required. However, if you would like a screen print of all your calculated results with all the tables and charts and everything cool with it, then when you opt in, I will send it to you. What I am pointing out is there is giving at every step. I will give you the article, and if you want the PDF, just opt in. I will give you the calculator for free, and if you want the printed results sent to you in a nice format, opt in and I will send it to you for free. I will give you the free book and the free course. I give, give, give. Always a value. Something that is relevant and valuable to where you are anywhere on my site at that point. The giveaways are so consistent throughout the site that I actually tested what most marketers do, which is pop-up boxes, or interstitials in the business. In the old advertising business, it was called interruption marketing, where you just interrupt them personally over their screen until you irritate them so much they opt in, or some crazy idea. I actually tried them one time. I did an experiment for a month, and my opt-in rate dropped. My time on my site dropped. All the quality standards of the site dropped. Like time on site, page views per visitor, all those numbers dropped, and my opt-in dropped. That stuff only works when your site doesn’t have proper opt-in bonuses. If you have proper incentives for people to opt in, they will opt in. If you chase them around with all these interstitials, you will chase them away. Let people choose to opt in. That’s your quality subscriber. Give them something worth subscribing for. Hugh: If you have a big list, it’s actually meaningless. The free e-book that they get, would you give us that title again? Todd: 18 Essential Lessons of a Self-Made Millionaire. Hugh: That is worth going right there. Wow. Todd: It’s free, and it’s a short read that is packed with value. If you delivered a junk e-book on the back end of it, what did you accomplish? It’s got to be good. If they come in and trusted you enough to give you their name, and you deliver a piece of junk e-book that is two pages long and says nothing or is a bullet point list, that didn’t build trust or relationship. The whole point of this is to build trust and relationship for the high-value conversion. In a dating analogy, it’s the equivalent of saying, “Do you want to go for a cup of coffee?” That is the opt-in. If you immediately say, “Come home with me. Let’s have sex,” it’s not going to be a conversion. There has to be trust and relationship built. The desire has to exist before the conversion takes place. Hugh: Such wise words. We’ve had a lot of information in the last 30-40 minutes here. This will be transcribed, and it will be on the podcast and on my website. Your links will be there. I would encourage people- What is the name of your podcast by the way? Todd: Financial Mentor. Very original. Everything is Financial Mentor. Facebook, Twitter. It’s Financial Mentor everywhere. I have the branding across the board. Hugh: That explains itself. It explains itself. Todd: Yeah. Again, I was lucky. I got it back in ’98. I started the business early on that you could get a decent URL that matches the business. It’s a financial education business. I am mentoring people on how to build wealth. Hugh: You make it sound easy, but you have worked hard to make it sound easy. Todd: Very much so. That is the mark of- You know somebody understands it when they can explain it in a way that simplifies it and makes it actionable. You only get to that point by walking the talk. If you had asked me ten years ago, I would have fumbled this thing left and right. It’s only because I have now done it. Once you really know it at a deep level, it’s pretty simple stuff. It’s not complex. But it’s a lot of work to do. To do well, it takes some effort. You don’t just throw it up there. Hugh: I find a lot of people make it harder than it already is. It’s already hard. When I try to simplify it, I liked- Todd: Let’s clarify. I want to clarify something. It’s not hard; it’s a lot of work. It’s relatively simple to do. You just have to be committed to do the work to create all the value for people. If you’re willing to do the work to create value because you care enough to give that value, it’s not hard. It’s just a lot of work. Hugh: If people are tired of their subsistence, getting along with what they’re making, they can go to http://FinancialMentor.com or listen to your podcast. It’s on iTunes, I’m sure. Financial Mentor. And your Facebook page is Financial Mentor. Going to your website, there is a lot of free stuff. Todd, you’ve given us a huge amount. Todd: I guess I wasn’t lying, huh? Hugh: That doesn’t do any good, does it? It’s the antithesis of those people saying, “Come to my webinar, and you will make a lot of money.” They give you a couple of tips and they tell you you should buy something to get the rest. What you are doing is giving people a large body of information and saying, “If you like that, there’s more.” You have really given people something of value. That is so key today because there are so many people trying to trick us. You’re giving people really solid information. We found each other on LinkedIn, and I was looking for credible people to do an interview for my podcast and vice versa to exchange with credible people and grow my network and help you grow your network. I am really glad that you and your team responded. You have a high-functioning team that responded on your behalf. My area is leadership and organizational development. Our work is very similar. Somewhere in here, you had a quote that was very similar to what Jim Rohn used to teach. It’s not making your goal that is the most important thing; it’s what happens to you and your business in achieving the goal. I wanted to highlight that. Todd: Think about it. Business is just one of the stages on which you play out your stuff in life. You have various stages you play out on. You have relationship, money, business, spirituality. There are all these different stages on which you are playing out your stuff. This is just one of them. Ultimately, what is life? I like to think of life as becoming the best version of yourself. Treading a path of personal growth. You are growing and moving into whatever you can become. It’s a never-ending journey, and that’s what makes it fun and exciting. Hugh: It is. We have had some interesting people. I like to record these live on Facebook and see who shows up. It is totally unannounced. We randomly picked up some interesting people. As we do the wrap here, Todd, this is incredibly important information. People will get to track it by looking at the transcript. What would you leave us with? What closing thought or challenge would you like to leave the listener with today? Todd: Just do the work. To quote Steven Pressfield, Do the work. Overcome your resistance, and move your life forward.” Guess what? This isn’t a trial run. You can look at Hugh and me here. We are older dudes now. We’ve been down the road. You’re going to get to our spot really fast. Surprisingly fast. It’s not a trial run. Don’t waste your days. Get out there and make it happen. Just do it, to quote Nike. Why else would you live? What else is the point of your day? Don’t waste time. Get out and make it happen. Hugh: Todd Tresidder, you made my day. This was certainly not a waste of time. It was very important. Thank you for giving such value to me and my listeners. Todd: Thanks, Hugh for having me on your show.