Business Innovators Radio - Ep. #24 – Ian Woodhouse – The Big Success Podcast with Brad Sugars

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Over 30 years he has developed a strong reputation on the international corporate speakers’ circuit for his work on thought leadership and for delivering personally moving interventions with long lasting effect. His intimate, uplifting and humorous messaging relates powerfully to our lives both in and out of work.His overriding purpose is to help us generate ever increasing levels of virtue, optimism, courage and generosity. This helps us realize even greater spirit as we navigate change, serve others, overcome challenges and carry out our everyday interactions with a warmer tone, greater awareness and stronger conviction for achieving excellence.He chairs and presents at numerous conferences for organizations including: Aviva, AXA, British Gas, British Telecomm, BSKYB, British Navy Training, BUPA, Cancer Research UK, Centrica, Dropbox, E.on, EE, Expedia Group, The FSCS, Hewlett Packard, HSBC, IBM, Microsoft, MoreTh>n, NBCUniversal, Network Rail, Npower, O2, RSA, The AA, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The FCA, The NHS, VirginMedia…Please click here to learn more about Ian Woodhouse.About Brad Sugars Internationally known as one of the most influential entrepreneurs, Brad Sugars is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the #1 business coach in the world. Over the course of his 30-year career as an entrepreneur, Brad has become the CEO of 9+ companies and is the owner of the multimillion-dollar franchise ActionCOACH®. As a husband and father of five, Brad is equally as passionate about his family as he is about business. That’s why, Brad is a strong advocate for building a business that works without you – so you can spend more time doing what really matters to you. Over the years of starting, scaling and selling many businesses, Brad has earned his fair share of scars. Being an entrepreneur is not an easy road. But if you can learn from those who have gone before you, it becomes a lot easier than going at it alone. That’s why Brad has created 90 Days To Revolutionize Your Life – It’s 30 minutes a day for 90 days, teaching you his 30 years experience on investing, business and life.Please click here to learn more about Brad Sugars.Learn the Fundamentals of Success for free: The Big Success Starter: https://results.bradsugars.com/thebigsuccess-starter Join Brad’s programs here: 30X Life: https://results.bradsugars.com/30xlifechallenge 30X Business: https://results.bradsugars.com/30xbusinesschallenge 30X Wealth: https://results.bradsugars.com/30xwealthchallenge 90X – Revolutionize Your Life: https://30xbusiness.com/90daystorevolutionize Brad Sugars’ Entrepreneur University: https://results.bradsugars.com/entrepreneuruniversity For more information, visit Brad Sugars’ website: www.bradsugars.comFollow Brad on Social Media:YouTube: @bradleysugars Instagram: @bradleysugars Facebook: Bradley J SugarsLinkedIn: Brad SugarsTikTok: @bradleysugarsTwitter: BradSugars The Big Success Podcast https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-big-success-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/ep-24-ian-woodhouse-the-big-success-podcast-with-brad-sugars

Welcome to the Big Success Podcast, cutting edge conversations on business and personal success, as well as how to level up. Here's your host, number one business coach in the world, Brad Sugar's. And we are here with Ian Woody Woodhouse. How are you, buddy? I'm pretty good, very good, very good. That is good to know. So I want to go backwards a little way.

At some point, everyone defines success in their life. How do you define success? What is success to you? Ultimately, it's Nina, my wife, when she's old, looking in the mirror and thinking, I married the right guy. Because she won't think that if I don't age well. I've got to age well. Or she'll think something else.

So it's that. It's that experience that I've lifted feelings, moods, emotions, and I'm making a difference. It used to be a certain. sum of money. But fortunately, I've made enough. I'm not wealthy, but I've made enough. So I've noticed that that driver is getting less. And now the driver that's coming through much stronger is, are my values driving me or am I being selfish in my motive? So for me, success is that. It's knowing that someone's life, even momentarily, has been lifted by something I did or a way that I was with them.

That's what it's become more and more. Do you think, was it a gradual shift away from that financial sort of thing? Or was it a, did an event happen? What was the change? Was it a gradual thing? I think I was so schooled by my parents to work hard and study hard and that sort of stuff because, you know, failure in the third world is, it doesn't look good. And there's no safety net to catch you when you grow up in the third world.

You have to make it. And if you don't make it, well, I saw. So I would say that a lot of my ambition in the first part of my life without realizing it was actually driven more by fear of failure than desire for success. And there are two very different things. It's, did that gradually change? Well, gradually, I'm learning more about how to have intention without being a tantam. matched the outcome. So I don't have to be burdened by my goals to get out of bed and chase them. But I'm aware that when I chase things, the universe might have something better in store for me than I had planned for myself.

So was there a gradual change, I guess? Because if your heart's open, you get affected by everyone you meet. Everyone leaves a little bit of them in you and you get less and less and more and more of them. You become more of them as you age, if your heart's open. So I guess I've been influenced by some very soulful people. Yeah. And they're leaving their mark on me. And I'm becoming less recognizable to myself as I'm getting older. Or more recognizing.

Hey, it's interesting. It brings up the question of then, you know, a lot of people at some stage in their life talk about they chose success. There was an event where they chose they were going to be successful. Was there a thing? Did you ever choose success? Or was it just because that's what you. you had to do to get along or what's your thoughts on that? Brad, to be honest, I don't actually think I'm successful. Most successful people are like that, though, Woody. Okay. Well, thank you for

saying that. But do I feel that my life has had meaning, significant meaning? I think, yes. I've been very, very lucky. What has been the thing that has done that? again, I go back to the heroes that just happened upon my path. And this wasn't a plan. I didn't set up with an objective and then I achieved the objective. My sort of philosophy in life is go through the open doors and see where you end up. But sometimes going through the open doors is not as easy as I'm making out. Sometimes you're going through the door before you know what's on the other side.

And you have to just have faith that you'll be able to grow from what's on the other side. Don't be too attached to outcomes, you know. When we did the BizX conference, I was amazed at the conference, by the way, just to give you some feedback, I thought it was absolutely amazing. And, in fact, so positive, a little part of my sort of, the small part of me that can do cynicism is thinking, hang on a minute, this is almost bordering on a cult. It's so positive. But I've met some amazing people since, and every single one has been consistently extraordinary. And I'm getting, okay, so that thing of believing in abundance, you know, having life been experiment in abundance, being driven by your values, and being in service to something

greater than yourself, that's where your power probably truly lies. Everyone has in their own way expressed that to me over and over again. And just to give you some feedback, you have, you've catalyzed, facilitate, brought together an extraordinary community that it's an honor to ever spend time in. I thought I'd let you know that because you don't often see that to this extent. You know, I think that when you create a vision that is strong and powerful, the right people do show up in your life and in your team. And that's one of the reasons why I love chatting with you.

and learning from you. What are your thoughts, Woody, on how does success happen? Like, how do people actually create success? I think, what's that thing that they do many years ago? The marshmallow test with small kids. You tell them, it's one of the first signs to see if toddlers are going to be successful later. The marshmallow test, I think, something like this. You can have a marshmallow now, or if you wait half an hour, you can have two.

or something like that. And some kids just can't, but the marshmallow is there. They're looking at the marshmallow. Some can't resist it, and they'll just have the marshmallow now. And then others will go, no, I want to wait for a half an hour

because then I can have two. And all the tests that they do in this small toddler, which ones will be successful, the only test that was consistent when they looked further down the road as which ones were successful were the ones that passed the marshmallow test. And it's basically, are you up?

Are you up for, for putting off gratification now for something better in the future. Every time we go to the gym, that's what we're doing. I'm feeling pain today for a better tomorrow. It's basically, and for me, I think, that's one of the major things for success. Are you willing to actually put a little bit of graft in for a better tomorrow? That's one.

I also would say surrounding yourself with, with friends that see you in a better light than you see yourself. I think that's really key. So that they're shining a light in you, there's brighter than the one you shine on yourself. And then you do the same back to them. I think the company we keep is critical. It's probably the most significant thing you can do

is to surround yourself with caring, loving, ambitious and generous people. You'll end up being an average of them, I think the saying is. So let's go the other way then. How does failure teach success or can failure teach success even? Well, that's going to be deeper of what actually is failure. Because on a spiritual front, they do say, you know, there's nothing is good or bad. It's just thinking that makes it so.

Failure for me is when I don't draw significant meaning. from a situation. Then I think it was a waste of time or a failure. If there's no learning to be had, then I think I've failed. My ego doesn't like it. I'll be honest. I like being light and I like being successful. It's nice to have a trophy, you know.

We all like that. And I think celebration is absolutely key. But failure, I suppose for me failure would be walking away with regret and and it's not a habit I've got into. Yeah. Because one of my mantras in life is you're only ever in the present going forward.

So everything else is just a mental construct. So you don't have to stab yourself with that arrow. It's already gone. So you, and that's why, I don't know, failure, even doing this podcast, I've not done one of these before. This is the first time I've done this. And instead of thinking, right, I've got to do this, Brad, it's got to be good. I think, no, right now I get to do this,

I get to do this with Brad and we get to talk about some things that mean a lot to us and we get to actually get closer to each other. And so for me, if I live out of the get to frame in life, failure isn't a thing. It just doesn't turn up as a thing because I get to do this spreadsheet. I get to do this proposal. I get to do this presentation. No, I've got to do anything. When I go into Got to Land, I feel a bit frightened and a bit fatigued and it's got to work. I go, we get to see if it works.

But that doesn't reduce my intention for it working. It just reduces the tension I have about it not working. Because I think many of people struggle with the difference between intention and being detached. You want to have strong intention. But what was I saying in life? You want a small ego and a massive desire. You don't want to have a big ego and not much desire. That's not a good look.

I love it. I love that. Get to us has got to. Brilliant stuff. We're here with Ian Woody Woodhouse. We're going to be back in just a minute. We're going to get into things about positivity and optimism and how to feel good forever. Regardless of how successful your business currently is, there's always room to increase profits. Brad Sugar's book, Instant Profit, will go over the proven strategies countless other successful business owners have used to develop flourishing companies. You can turn your company into a profit-generating machine and substantially grow your company's bottom line. And we're back on the Big Success podcast. We're going to look at positivity. Woody, how do people succeed at being positive?

I think there's some hacks that you can use now that will guarantee that you will grow in positivity as weeks and months roll by. One of them that I think is the most powerful experiment that we can do is to experiment with letting go of winging or complaining or making negative comments about things. I think people often confuse that with being aloof or not caring. It's just not making negative sound bites and giving it to someone else to consume.

And I'm a great believer in an experimentality. It's the mentality of doing experiments. So instead of thinking, you know, I don't like olives, I think, well, hang on, let's do an experiment to see if I could like olives. And one of the experiments I've been playing with over the last of eight years is letting go, intentionally letting go of winging to see what it does to the human psyche. So last year, for example, I did a winge for a year. So I didn't winch for a year just to see, would I become an axe murderer? Would I go crazy? I'd be just shouting at everyone.

And I can report back to you, as Nina told me, it's further enhanced the fellow she married. And I did it. I'll tell you why I did it, Bradd. It's because my mom, her health was falling, and we could see that. And I worked out that if she stays on the path, she's on. last year would be the year. And I knew I had to be strong, not just for myself,

but for our family, because we're quite a matriarchal family. And so I embarked in that journey. I've done one in 2018. And I would say one of the things about being positive is the universe is positive. You want to get to the point where you need a reason not to be positive

rather than you need a reason to be positive. And so the first things to do is to stop importing negativity. Yeah. But don't look for a switch. to flick and then all of a sudden it's gone, it's, for me, everything in life is moving. So the question I ask myself, is am I positive or not? It's what's happening to it?

Am I becoming more positive or am I becoming more negative? That's what matters more than anything else. So for me, one of the first things to do is that, is to start to play around with that and do little experiments with it. I talked about it at your conference a little bit and a lot of people sort of really latched stone to it. It's also one of those things where it's a no pain, pure gain thing. But isn't it weird? If you say to someone, how about you give up negativity? They really struggle with letting go of it. It's not weird. It's not weird. That is weird. That is weird. So one of the things you talked about

also at the conference was cynicism out, optimism in. Take us through a bit more on that thinking. Well, I mean, a neuroscientist might argue with me, but my thing is you're always thinking. You're always thinking something. And so if I'm not thinking something that's a bit debilitating or negative, then I'm thinking something that's more empowering and positive, because I'm always thinking. So if I can desinicize myself, then it means more optimism will just simply fill the vacuum.

And I thought when I was younger that optimists were sort of, it was a genetic thing you were born optimistic, but I actually come to believe that it's a skill that can be taught. You wouldn't have created what you've created without the belief that it could be done before it could even be done. So I'd much rather be thinking things are going to work out. And then in the end they didn't, which means I had years of enjoying the thought that they would,

rather than any all along, don't try because it never will. And I think it's also for me the difference between, effort and struggle. They're quite subtle, aren't they? An optimist will put effort in, and it feels like you're putting the effort in, but if you lose your optimism, that same amount of energy feels like struggle. You see two boxes doing it. Once one loses the optimism, it starts to look like they're struggling. And I'd rather have a life of effort than a life of struggle. I also don't get, I'm struggling with this, what the payoff is with cynicism. It's not like you get a problem.

prize at the end or you get a trophy or I just don't get it. When you really look at it, what is the upside? Apart from being right, you get a chance to be right. So if things don't work out, I knew they weren't going to. Okay, great. But there's another law in the universe, which is attention energizes. So the fact that you're having these negative thoughts and stuff, you're more likely to pull that stuff towards you or at least make them bigger.

Yeah. So I'm a cynical war. I think I said at the conference. I'm not a warrior who's cynical. I'm just a war with it. I'm just, and the reason I am is because I can feel it in me. It's not because I've mastered it or any,

all this stuff I'm talking about. I am living with every day. This is what I'm doing to try and be a source of light in the tunnel, especially if it looks like there's none at the end of it. So let's talk then about no light at the end. Overcoming challenges. You teach some really cool stuff. stuff around that. Take us through your thinking on how that's a, the woody thoughts on overcoming

challenges. I guess that's probably the best thing I'd like to hear from. I think if, if I think that I'm here to discover and to learn, then I don't get the fear of failure that comes through. And I also think having a decent spiritual side really helps. So you, you think of yourself. more as a channel for something to come through than a big ego. And so I find when the going gets tough, the tough reach for their values. It's why there's certain people that I will follow in life to do things that I know they've never done before, but I know the values and principles they'll use to make up the journey, even though I know they've never been there before.

There's leaders. I will follow. And I know people follow. They know they've never dealt with this situation before, but they trust them. And so for me, overcoming values, it's about the same as living above tip of tat. You've got to know who you are. But sometimes when we talk about that, people think to go and find themselves. I actually don't like that language.

I don't like people thinking they have to go and find themselves. I don't think it's something you find. I think it's something you define. It's something you create. I think who I am is much more in. I have more agents. over who I am that I think some of the idiom out there is suggesting.

So it's not find, people that find your purpose, I wouldn't go about finding it. I create purpose. And if you can't, if you can't come up with one, find someone with one that you really admire and then going to service around them,

and you will learn. It's, it's what I've done. I've sort of hijacked and some other folk who have amazing sense of purpose in certain areas. And whilst I'm making, mind up, at least I'm making a difference, and I'm learning from real masters.

Love that. Love that thinking. So let's go to the positive side then, the enthusiasm, the enthusiasm. How do you maintain that? How do you keep that? Oh, I wish I knew that. I'm sitting in class when you're speaking and I'm learning it from you. And I think that there's some amazing thoughts that that you brought out about, you know, well, I'll hand it back to you because you brought out some amazing things when you spoke to us. I think for me, how do I, how do I keep that going? I think routine is really important. You know, the first thought you have when you get to wake up in the morning,

when your alarm goes off and you think, yeah, now I get to get up. And you go and brush your teeth and think, right, I get to brush my teeth now. You know, rather, I think that I also think gratitude is really important. saying thank you. And I think love, these are things that really matter to people. And if you're leading people in business, they want to know that you love them.

They don't want to know that. And I think now with a remote working and hybrid working at all, we're not connecting as much as we used to. And I think there's a, it's like a vitamin D deficiency. You don't realize you've got one. but it's slowly growing on you.

And yeah, for me, positivity is linked to connection, to connectivity. When I'm with people and I'm in rapport, I feel happier. And I know that's not true for everyone, but it's true for a lot of us. Watching comedy in a tight little room with a good comedian is just amazing. Watching the same comedian on your TV at home, it's sort of funny. You don't laugh out loud when you're watching it on TV. but you definitely laugh out loud when you're in that room, huh? There's something else that happens.

And I think also we're designed that way. That's how we survived on the Savannah. Being successful and on your own is not successful. Being mediocre in a large crowd of people laughing but feels more successful than being on your own behind gates in a mansion. Love it, love it. We're here with Ian Woody Woodhouse. going to talk about being good to great and dive into a couple more subjects when we come back

on the big success podcast. For over 30 years, Ian Woodhouse has developed a strong reputation on the international corporate speaker circuit for his work on thought leadership and for delivering personally moving interventions with long-lasting effects. His intimate, uplifting, and humorous messaging relates powerfully to our lives both in and out of work. His overriding purpose is to help us generate ever-increasing levels of virtue, optimism, courage, and generosity. To learn more about Ian Woodhouse, please visit Ian Woodhouse Enthuse on LinkedIn.com. So Woody, let's talk about going from good to great, not just like when you chose to do a cynicism or a negative or a whinge-free, you didn't say I'm going to do a winch-free week. You went for the entire year.

What's the difference between setting like the small goal and going for the real big one, do you think? There's no difference. They're actually the same thing because when I did the year, I didn't just go, okay, I'm going to run a marathon. I'll sign up for one. In fact, I'll do a practice one tomorrow. No, that's not how you run a marathon. I started small and tiny steps get you there. I'm learning Italian at the moment

and every day I do about an hour of it and I'll be able to speak Italian in a few years. Right now, the evidence would suggest that I'm not very good. But I know I will get there. So I would say the difference between good to gray is just how far down the continuum you take good. I would say, but I also say this, tiny little steps are much easier.

to make than massive big leaps. And one of the things I'm trying to put into my life is to be more sensitive to how are things moving. Am I fitter than I was yesterday or am I fatter than I was yesterday? It's not it's not did I put on weight. Is that my pudding on weight. You know, those four vanilla slices might have something to do with how fat I am tomorrow. So the issue isn't, the problem isn't what's happened.

The problem is what is happening right now. And the more I can make it about what's happening right now, the more everything seems to be my sphere of influence and my sphere of control, the more I'm able to actually engage with being present. Yeah. I think a big part of the success and failure stuff is viewing things in the past and judging them in the past when actually the horse is already bolted. Yeah.

As opposed to, okay, where are we right now and where are we going? I think that's very important. You made a great statement earlier on in the podcast where you said, you know, I don't have to stab myself with that arrow. It's already gone. I like the old saying, you know, I've already ridden that bus. Tickets are already gone, so you can't ride that bus again type thing. I want to get your thoughts then on leadership.

How do you succeed at leadership? What's your thoughts on that? The most successful leaders, I've had a chance to be influenced by, have all been driven by something that's greater than themselves. They're all in service to something to making a contribution in society, to building something so it can make a difference. They haven't been just driven to hit a number so that we can punch the air and say we hit the number.

They go to the why are we hitting that number? What does that say? By the way, I think Prof is brilliant, because Prof is the demonstration that you're making a difference. but let's go to that point let's let the narrative go to what is this meaning and the best leaders I've been around

are those they're the ones who will speak last when they enter a room they're the ones who will lie at night and gaze at the ceiling because they're worried about the experience that someone in their team's having

they're the ones care. And I know that's me looking at it through my lens, but that's the lens that I look through. I think when people feel loved, they feel safe. And when they feel safe, they're willing to be imaginative. And right now we need to be imaginative because everything's changing so quickly. We need people to be free to experiment, free to make mistakes, free to let go. So I think those leaders that are best able to let people know, that they genuinely care about them are going to be the most successful. And I don't mean to do a dance that looks like you care.

I mean to genuinely care. Because when you genuinely care, you don't have to do a dance. It shows it happens. And it's weird because as people get further and further up, the rest of us associate more ego and more power with them. So it gets harder for you to be able to have, people feel relaxed and comfortable because it's what I call the principal syndrome. When you're at school, the principal walks in the room. We all get tense because that's the

principal. And it takes a lot for that principle to get the point where they can walk in the room and we're all just as relaxed as we were before he walked in the room because there's love associated with that person. But I think that that's possible for leaders. Also, being a nice guy and the organization failing does more harm than good. So if you're gave me a choice, the guy who's not that great to be around, but we're all being successful, or the guy who's lovely to be around, I'm all failing, I'll take the first one. However, now that we have too much choice, I wouldn't take either. I would take the guy that's lovely to be around, and we are winning.

That's the one had go for. And the real winners, that's who they'll seek to work for. I think a big shift has happened in leadership, which is over the years, practices have happened where we leave people as if the person doesn't have the option to leave. Whereas now, you have to leave people knowing they have the option to go. In fact, they're being offered more than you're paying them continually. So what's the glue? Yeah. Love it.

Woody, let's just do a quick fire round. How do we succeed at these things? Short shop to the point. How do you succeed at self-development? First thing is to recognize you're on a journey and to see it as a journey. And to see life as a dance, not a destination. And for me, self-development is deciding I want to dance in a certain arena. I want to get fitter. So I want to dance. I'm going to experiment that stuff. self-love, I think is important.

Really, really talking to yourself with the right tone. So when you talk to yourself, it's morning, morning, woods, it's not all get up now. I think it starts there. It's the belief that you can learn. And I think sometimes when we're small and kids, we get, boxed. You know, this one's good at sport, that one's good at math, but that's lovely when you get told what you're good at. It's not so good when you get classed quite earlier on and not being very good at stuff, yet you've never really trying them. So most people think they can't sing,

for example, but they've never had a singing list. So I think just optimism about being curious about, well, could I learn to cook? Yeah. I tell you a simple one, being black, I thought I wouldn't make a good swimmer because there aren't any black swimming Olympians too often I've noticed. But there's no evidence to back that up whatsoever is there. There's no... Not at all. It's just this belief that I'm living out of. Anyway, how to go of doing it.

It turns out I can actually swim. Just as well as if I was white, it's made no difference whatsoever. So a lot of that self-development stuff is the belief that you can and also surround yourself with folk who believe you can. Neaysayers are tough. And just to say on their front as well, a naysayer is doing it to protect you. They're doing it out of love.

They don't want to see you fail. They don't want to see you. But it's very easy to inadvertently become a dream stealer. You protect the people. You teach them not to dream just in case the dream doesn't happen. But the motive is positive. So they're not bad folk. It's just it's one of those human things to watch.

out for, I think. Woody, I want to finish up with what was the best advice you ever got on success or maybe there's a great quote you've had on success? What's the best one in your mind? Attention energizes. Choose what you put your focus on. Intentionally. You'll get more of it.

If you compliment people, they do more of what you compliment them about. Nina tells me I'm romantic. I think she haven't seen anything yet, hon. But if she tells me, I need to, you know, the romance has gone a bit flat. I start dragging my feet even more. So I think what you put your attention on makes a massive difference. I don't understand why someone who's struggling with energy and optimism will sit and watch horror movies, binge watch horror series, thinking, what are you doing?

you're watching people dying, being shot, being killed, being stabbed, and then wondering why you feel a bit down. So that's like me pinging out on candy and then wondering why I feel a bit bloated. I do think the best advice someone ever gave me or has given me, and I've seen it in many different forms, is intentionally choose your mental diet. Intentionally choose it.

Spend time in nature. Make sure you get a nature hit every day. day, you know, stop and only watch a bird fly past. Do those things because that stuff feeds your imagination and feeds you at a very deep level. That would be the thing that makes the biggest difference to me. He's Ian Woody Woodhouse. Phenomenal.

Love it. Thank you, Woody, for being on the podcast today. You're on the big success podcast. Connect with Woody. Go follow his stuff. Keep learning. Keep growing. Keep attracting more success.

And that's the big success podcast for today. Hopefully you took a lot of notes. Hopefully you learned a bunch. And hopefully you're going to take action on it. B.S. Brad Sugars, Big Success, take action. Check all the show notes for all of the links. I make sure that you have links to every single thing that every speaker has in our show notes.

Check them now. Click the links. Take advantage of it. And I'll speak to you again next time on the Big Success podcast. You've been listening to the Big Success podcast with the number one business coach in the world, Brad Suggers. To learn more about how to achieve business and personal success, as well as how to level up or listen to past episodes, visit www.bradshuggers.com.