EntreLeadership - #161: Jon Gordon—Become a Better Version of You

Episode Date: August 22, 2016

What makes some people prosper while others struggle simply trying to get through the day? Jon Gordon, multi-best-selling author, joins us to discuss the keys to long-term sustainable growth at business and home. He discusses the simple factors of success that anyone can easily put into practice. Start loving your life again by listening in to this episode today! entreleadership.com/podcast E1D LiveStream Team Communication Field Guide Infusionsoft's Guide to Repeat Sales Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Now, here is your host, Ken Coleman. We are broadcasting from the Music City, and this is the podcast of leaders, by leaders, four leaders. Thank you so much for joining the conversation. Our feature interview is with John Gordon, who's a multi-best-selling author. You're really going to love that, as we just break down winners, success, and success. so much more. And then I'm going to give you three questions, just three questions, that you

need to ask to become a better communicator. So that and so much more free stuff coming your way. But we're going to get started with a powerful email from Ken's Electronic Mail. Ken's Electronic Mail. You've got mail. Our email comes to us from Dr. Bill Davis, a chiropractor. And he begins by saying on November 26, 2011, I was mountain biking with some friends when I flipped over and landed on my head. I broke my neck and was paralyzed from the chest down. As a result of this spinal cord injury, I am unable to walk or stand, one of my hands does not work, and my other hand is partially paralyzed as well.

I've also had severe damage to my internal organs, and I have nerve pain every day. After nearly three months in the hospital, I came home and 80% of my business was gone. Although my friends stepped up to help see my patients while I was in the hospital, without my drive and passion, the practice dwindled. After two years, the practice closed completely. In February 2013, which is almost two years later after the injury, a friend of mine asked me to write some articles for his website, so I began blogging for him and eventually started blogging for other doctors as well.

I realized that one of the best things I had going for me was my network, and soon I began doing more and more online marketing activities for doctors and hiring other team members who knew things that I did not know about online marketing. This is really cool, folks. Over the past three years, my team and I have built a successful online marketing agency serving a niche called Upper Serbical Chiropractors. That was his specific niche as well. Upper cervical marketing, which is the name of the organization, serves 77 doctors and is growing each month. We have been blessed and now have an even better business that is generating more revenue than my chiropractic practice.

Every week, I look forward to the podcast. and have never listened to a show that didn't help me grow individually and as a leader. Thank you so much for what you do and for helping encourage me through the dark times. Although my body is still paralyzed, and I have many struggles. My mind still works. And as long as it does, I will continue to strive to glorify God in my personal life and my business every day. Well, Dr. Bill, we appreciate the email. And as usual, when somebody writes a note like this and essentially thanks us and says that we are a blessing to him,

this becomes a, this is the blessing. You are the blessing, sir, because you are modeling what it means to be an entree leader. You didn't quit. You rebounded. And, you know, we've been talking a lot about this. We've gotten a lot of, I've gotten a lot of personal tweets. Eric, the producer's gotten several emails when I shared my story of rejection and how to turn it into a redirection.

And here is another example. This is what makes leaders tick. They get knocked down and they don't stay down. They get back up. And Dr. Bill Davis, you, sir, have gotten back up and you are doing an amazing job despite being physically handicapped. Your spirit has risen up. Your heart has risen up.

You are helping people, and that is so encouraging. So again, thank you, sir, for the email. And folks, we'd love to hear these stories. Why do we share that email? It is not to pat ourselves on the back. It is to remind you, folks, that you aren't the only ones in the struggle. You aren't the only ones that have faced and are facing dark days. This is a community.

A community that is defined by a digital space where many of you will never meet. But when we share these stories, we share them to encourage you to stay the course. What you're doing matters and when life knocks you off the path because it will and it certainly did to Dr. Bill Davis. But he recovered to the best of his ability. not the same man physically, but he's the same man mentally, spiritually, emotionally, much stronger, and he's back on the path. That's why we want to share your stories. So that means you've got to share them with us.

Email, podcast at entreleadership.com. Podcast at entreleadership.com, and while I'm at it, we share these stories so that you will share this podcast. We believe we can help more Dr. Bill Davis is in the way we do that. is when you, A, tell people about it, and B, you subscribe and share it on your social media platforms via iTunes, make comments, however you can help us spread the word. We want to continue to be a blessing to you and more new listeners. Speaking of the digital space and connecting in new ways, Antre leadership one day, we've been

telling you about this. We have a live stream. First time we've ever done it. And it's October the 19th. It's less than two months away. And so if you've always heard us talk about these E1Ds, we call them, Entry Leadership one day, and you wonder what it's like to hear Dave and Chris Hogan and Christy Wright speak. And really, we take the playbook of Entree leadership and we teach it.

And it's an incredible energy because we're talking about thousands of leaders together in one room learning together. And you see community happen. So you can do this now via your chair, your office, your living room. We don't care. put it in your church, wherever you want to do it. It's very, very easy to do. All you've got to do is go to entreleadership.com slash e1D to learn all the details.

Now, before you go there, know that we've got a special offer for you podcast listeners. I've been telling you about this. It's only $24. If you use the code, E-L podcast, that's one word, E-L podcast. That will get you the live stream for $24. Again, October the 19th, everything you need to know to sign up, learn more about the event,

Entreeleadership.com slash E1D. Incidentally, I'll be hosting that event, so I'd love to see you online, and certainly for those of you that will join us in Dallas, that's going to be fun. October the 19th, Entreeleadership.com slash E1D. Well, folks, John Gordon is no stranger to this podcast, and if you're unfamiliar with his work, you really need to just look him up. J-O-N Gordon. John Gordon is the guy, and he writes these books that are simple parables, and he's had wild success after years of just kind of faithfully putting in his time, and these books are really encouraging.

They'll equip you as well, and I really recommend John Gordon. But it's always fun when he comes into town. He was in town recently, and he was speaking to our NFL franchise, the Tennessee Titans. He has been given tremendous influence to influencers, and he and I share a love of sport. and the parallels between sports and life, certainly the parallels between sports and leadership, sports and business. So you're going to hear a lot of that come out. You don't have to be a sports fan to enjoy this.

Don't be alarmed. I mean, you could never, ever play a game of sport in your life and enjoy this conversation. We really get into the insights here of what makes great teams, what makes winners. And don't forget, after the conversation, we're going to tell you how you can win one of John's books. So get out your pen and paper, get ready to learn right now with John Gordon.

You and I both love sports so very much. And over the time of your career, you have gotten these opportunities with these books being out there that coaches, they fall in their hands, these books. And they start calling you. So I met you years ago when you came to Atlanta to speak at training camp for the Atlanta Falcons. Mike Smith at the time was the head coach. And they were coming off the Bobby Petrino mess. If you don't know football, you don't know the story, suffice it to say it was just a leadership disaster. he leaves in the middle of the night after Mike Vic, you know, obviously he doesn't get Mike Vic and all this kind of stuff.

Mike goes to prison. And so here comes Bobby Petrino. Terrible season. Then he says, I'm out. Not even at the end of the season. No, in the middle of the season. Right. 13 games in. 13 games in. He says, I'm going Arkansas. I'm out. So Mike Smith, a career coordinator comes in. Nobody's ever heard of Mike Smith. And he gets the job and does a great job with it. He gets involved with Energy Bus, your book. And so let's start there. because we have a bunch of personal growth junkies that listen to this podcast. So give us the idea behind the energy bus. There's this positive energy

and how it helps us every day. Well, it's about a guy who's miserable and negative. His team at work is in disarray. He has problems at home. So his personal life is literally falling apart. It's spilling over to his professional life. And so he has to take the bus to work because his car has a flat tire.

Gets on the bus, he meets Joy, the bus driver. She calls him sugar. And she and cast a character's teach George the 10 rules for the ride of his life that not only help him become a more positive person, but a better father, a better husband. And it's about getting his team on the bus and moving in the right direction with a shared vision, focus, and purpose. And that book is really a crossover book of business life, but also, you know, personal life. So a lot of publishers actually rejected it first. Over 30 publishers rejected this book because to them, at that time, this was 10 years ago, you had one. book or the other. You had self-help or you had business. No one really had brought the two together before.

Now it's very common, but at the time, that was sort of a new genre of bringing that in. And so it's, as George learns these ten rules, he tries to develop his own personal life, he tries to lead his team in the right direction and tries to save his marriage. And it was really many ways biographical. Sure. It was based on me, my own struggles with negativity, adversity in my own life. My daughter recently wrote her college essay. She was a senior last year. And I said, when I was young, my mom struggled with her health and my dad struggled with himself.

She said, but I saw him work to become more positive. And then he started writing and speaking on that very thing and started sharing that message with others. And now I see people change because of his work. And I saw him change, so I know the world can change. And so it's amazing how I look back how my decision to really try to become a better version of me and to work on my own positivity,

how that made everyone around me better, me better. Yeah. And that's the whole thing. Being positive doesn't just make you better. It makes everyone around you better. Right. And let's talk about that for a second.

Because when we hear people talk about being positive, this is not Pollyanna, you know, I'll just walk around smiling, saying nice things everybody all the time. It's a mindset. It's a mindset that, hey, I'm going to persevere. And so I want to talk about long-term sustained growth. We were talking about this before we started to record. The book now has been a bestseller for a long time. and that in its own way is a great metaphor.

The message of how do you sustain that lifestyle of sustained success, even when you have the roller coaster. You're just going to go through the roller coasters, but how do you maintain a mindset that allows you to have a positive perspective? The number one predictor and factor of success is grit. The ability to work hard for a long period of time towards a goal, to persevere, to overcome, to keep moving forward in the face of adversity, failure, rejection, and obstacle, you just keep moving forward.

It's not talent, it's not title, it's not wealth, it's not good looks, sorry, Ken. Oh, thank you very much. It is grit. I love that. Yeah, it's grit, and so what drives grit? So if we know that grit causes us to have sustained success and growth over time, right, what powers grit? Been thinking a lot about that.

Yeah. I believe first and foremost, it's a vision for your life. It's a vision of what you want to create personally, professionally. What does your family look like when you are at your best and they are at their best? What does your job look like? What does your family look like as you're working to try to create your success? I knew that I didn't want to be gone all the time. I knew I wanted to have a strong family.

I knew that I would literally ruin my family if I was not there at home. I remember writing this book, right? And my son was young at the time he comes in and he says, Hey, Dad, do you want to play ping pong? I'm like, no, I'm too busy. I'm writing this book on Engage Relationships. Yeah. So I'm writing about engaged relationships,

and I'm not making time for the most important ones at all. That was not part of my vision. I realized that. So having that vision is key. And then this optimism and this belief and this positivity is a huge part of grit. I've talked to Angela Duckworth, who just wrote the book, Grit. She's the foremost researcher on Grit, University of Pennsylvania.

you and share with her my ideas like, hey, am I on track? She said, oh, yeah, this is all part of what the research shows. So the optimism, the belief, the positivity, it's resilience, it's the ability to keep moving forward, it's believing in a brighter and better future. Duke University did research, and Duke University found that optimistic people, they work harder, they get paid more, they are more successful over time, they're more likely to win in sports and politics, which will be interesting to see with this election coming up. These optimistic people, what happens is they found through the research is that they actually believe that things are going to be better.

They believe it's possible. So what happens? They actually delude themselves into taking actions necessary to then create it. Because they believe it, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They then take the actions necessary to move forward and create the very thing that they want to or believe in. See, I love breaking this down. So we're talking about, right, positivity and what fuels that is grit. So then the next question is what fuels grit.

Right. And I think it's that, it's almost like a little ping pong thing. Yeah, it's back to that clear vision. I think the metaphor would be a Mount Everest, right? This crazy pinnacle that just seems nuts. It's got death involved. You know, if you don't die, you could be severely, severely injured. I mean, there's all these things, yet it's a very clear vision.

I want to scale that peak. I want to get to that peak. And that's what fuels the grit. That's what fuels the positivity because you've got to be positive to have the grit to be able to get to the top. It's like this beautiful little cycle, isn't it? There's two other components. One is love. If you don't love it, you'll never be great at it.

Okay, so let's stop it. It's great. You love the process. You love all of it. Yeah, but I mean, you got to love climbing. Yes. If you don't love climbing, you're never even going to get to that goal, right? That goal is, it's like the love propels the goal.

I love doing this, so what's the ultimate expression of this? It's climbing to the top of Mount Everest, right? So every day you're doing something. Right. Something that you love. Like you're doing this. That's passion. You're in your element.

Yeah. Right? Well, passion flows from the love that you have for something. So you continue to do it. Then because you love it, you get better at it. Right. Because you love it when the challenges hit, the adversity hit, the setback hits. You keep moving forward.

You don't let that stop you. So I had so much rejection, so much. failures, so many obstacles, people telling me to just give up even as a writer and speaker. When the energy bus first came out, you look at the Amazon reviews. The first, like, 10 reviews were horrible. I mean, like, horrible. It was like someone was saying, like, give up now. Right. Like, you're on the wrong path. But I couldn't give up because I said, you know what, this is my purpose, which is another part of grit we'll get to. But it's the love that drove me to it and the love that said, keep doing this. If I didn't love it, I would have given up.

So there's a difference between a carpenter and a craftsman. Okay. A carpenter builds things, but a craftsman, they put their love into it. Yes. They create a work of art. They put their heart, their soul, their spirit, their passion into whatever it is their building. That's good. And so you have to see your work as a craft.

You have to see your family as a craft. If you don't love your family, you don't put it into it, you don't invest in it. They're not going to grow. So there's a great term called Maraki. I learned about this term recently. M-E-R-A-K-I. Maraki. Sounds like a, it's a Japanese word, but it's actually a Greek word.

It means to do something with love, with soul. To leave a piece of yourself, your love, in your work, and to leave something behind. So to me, when you are a craftsman and you're building greatness and you're building your craft, to me, that is what Maraki's all about. So are you loving what you're doing? Are you caring about it? Are you willing to put everything you have into it? with the Pittsburgh Pirates at their training camp

asked every player in that locker room, all these major leaguers, how many of you believe you can work harder than you already are? Every guy raised their hand. Clint Hurdle and the coaches are like, what? We're paying you millions of dollars

and you can work harder. Every locker I've been in, I've asked that question. Everyone raises their hand. To work harder, you have to care more. And if you care more and you love it, you'll do more. Again, if you don't love it,

you're not going to stay in it when all the failure and all the obstacles happen. I think love is a big driver of grit, the love of what we're building, whether it's our team, the love of our product, the love of our service, love of our craft. That's really good. All right, so I want to switch gears because our audience loves the idea of communicating better. They did a big survey to our podcast audience. They want to be better communicators.

And so you're a guy who goes into these professional locker rooms in college division one locker rooms. You know, you've gotten very close with Davos Sweeney, the head coach of Clems. playing the national championship game last year, preseason, they're right up there again, favorites to be in the mix. What have you observed? Let's start with a couple of quick things. What have you observed that works in the locker room

and what have you observed that doesn't? So look at both sides of the spec, just some things you've seen and work with these coaches. Well, Mike Smith and I wrote this book called You Win in the Lockroom First, seven Cs to build a winning team. And one of those Cs is communication. So I was speaking to Doc Rivers, and I said, Doc, what's the most important thing you do as a coach? Head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers.

One of the best communicators in the business. Great communicators. People are saying this guy is off the charts. He said, I communicate to my team, not just collectively. A lot of coaches will speak to their team in groups. One-on-one. I have to know where each person is in order to lead them where I need them to be. I know who needs a little shove.

I know who needs some encouragement. I know who's dealing with problems of their personal. Help them deal with that so they can be better on the court. Again, it's all about communication. And most teams, most organizations, most marriages, most families break down because of poor communication. This is so important. Because if you want a great organization,

if you want a great team, you have to make sure that you start with communication. Communication builds trust. Trust generates commitment. Commitment fosters teamwork, and teamwork delivers results. But it all starts with great communication. And again, marriages, you want to strengthen your marriage, make sure you're communicating.

Your leadership team needs to come together because teams that are not connected to the top crumble at the bottom. So you need to make sure that you're communicating with your team at that level. So in the locker room, it starts with great communication. Ron Rivera, Carolina Panthers, he put his office in the locker room. Just moved his desk? He moved his office. Literally, he moved in office. There was a room within the locker room to that locker room to spend more time with the players to communicate with them.

Mike Smith will tell you it was one of his keys to his success as a coach with the Falcons those first five years. The last two didn't communicate as well. It became all about the outcome, all about the wins and losses. If you focus on the fruit and you ignore the root, what happens? The tree dies. But if you invest in that route, which communication is a big part of that route, which develops those relationships are the foundation upon which winning teams are built. So if you invest in that route, you didn't get a great supply of fruit.

work with the Miami Heat and our expulsion and his staff this year. And Eric said, we want to communicate better so that we can better serve our players. But we know that we have to communicate more. Why do we communicate? Why is it important? So it builds connection. And a connected team then becomes a committed team. But you will not have commitment without connection. You will not have connection without communication. Boy, that's good. So would you sit down

because we have leaders and people listen in here and you sit down with a coach and for the first time they go, okay, John, we need to communicate better. Okay, duh. You understand that. And you just rattled off some things and some principles that really do make sense. But practically speaking, when somebody just, they don't have a really good foundation of healthy communication, that's everything from the process to the actual, you know, technique. What do you start with? I'm a big believer in just one-on-one meetings. You start with just sitting down with each one of your players or team members or your kids.

And what's your vision? what are your goals and then how can I help you achieve them so what are your goals what is your vision how can I help you achieve like what can I do to help you get to where you want to go so now you're working together and then the next question is

how would you like me to hold you accountable as well and so now you're actually getting their permission to hold them accountable to help them be their best but you're also now letting them know that you're here working with them but you're also communicating so when we're working together towards something, you start to communicating towards that process of building something.

But you're right, it does require process and it requires someone to say, okay, I'm going to be intentional about this. Mike Smith, when he took the job with the Atlanta Falcons, met with everyone in the building. Not just the players. He met with the marketing people. He met with the people in operations.

He met with the janitors. He met with the food service people and said, listen, I need you to be a big part of our organization. You will help us win on Sunday. Like you are a part of that. So I need your help and what do you need for me? They're like, what? The head coach of this team says that I am important.

What do you need for me? They became a powerful organization in doing that. It's why no one won more games in the NFL than him those first five years except Bill Belichick. So he right away started to build his team. Then I love this. He would take the temperature of the building every day. What does that mean? He would walk around and talk to the team.

to all of the trainers, the athletic trainers, the equipment people who had touch points with the guys. Right. Hey, what's going on? Tell me what's happening. What's the temperature to build? Oh, coach, it's hot today. Right.

It's hot today. Oh, so-and-so's upset. So he would actually go address it with that person. Hey, what's going on? Right. And he would literally, how are you doing today? And then next to you know, that person would start to share with coach some of his challenges.

So he made sure that crisis didn't happen. He actually headed them off before they became a problem. And think about Doc Rivers, right? He communicates so well to his team that Donald Sterling thing happens, right? Most teams would fall apart during that. But because he was such a great communicator, they had such a strong foundation. They actually became stronger because of it. And the storm did not cause that tree to fall.

So I love the book, you know, how do you win the locker room? And so you've got a former NFL coach who writes this with. He's now the defensive coordinator for the tabby bucks. He will be a head coach again. Oh, definitely. So before we get into some of the other things, I think are so great for our audience, you've just shared a lot of the things that we do write. But here, again, and you write about this in the book,

so it's not like uncovering something we don't want to talk about. But Mike and the Atlanta Falcons were winning, and they were communicating very well. Then things fell apart and eventually led to him being fired. Now, how do we head that off? So based on you writing the book with Mike, you were a very close advisor to him, you watch the whole thing happen,

how do we head this off as leaders? Okay, things are going really well, we're communicating and we're winning, but then when we start to not win, injuries happen. There are several things that happened with the Falcon. Oh, yeah. But it began a downward spiral. How do you head that off and what role does communication, I guess, play in that? Well, winning is a great deodorant.

It often covers up what stinks about your team and organization before it actually happens. Right. So those injuries just basically revealed the problems and the cracks that already existed. And Mike is very honest in this book, which is great. He's so professionally honest saying what he did wrong. How many coaches would actually do that? Very few. But we can learn from that.

And says what he learned from it. I've had so many coaches call me. I think they're embracing this book. I'm getting invited to speak to all these teams now because they realize what Mike did wrong and they're learning from it and they're looking at their other coaches and other GMs and other people within the building and saying, all right, we can't let this happen. So how do you head that off? You make sure you continue to focus on the process.

You make sure that you focus on the culture. The minute you get focused on the fruit and the outcome, you're in trouble. So your kid, you want your kids to go to college. If you are so focused on the college and getting them to college and having them have great SATs and be the next Mickey Mantle, the next Derek Jeter baseball player, or the next Tim Tebow from a college temple. Sure, sure. And you are so focused on that that you forget to invest in them and love them

and spend time with them. I was thinking about to say that I have two teenagers. My daughter starts Clemson, right, in about three weeks. We spend so much time. We spend 17, 18 years, right, worried so much about where our kids are going to go for only four years out of their life. Right. So we have to be relationship focused, process focus, not outcome focused and everything that we do. And if we build the right culture and we make sure that our culture is our priority and we make sure we focus on that, then that's going to sustain us through the tough times. Well, we also do wrong as leaders, and I'm guilty to this.

We all are. We allow busyness and stress to affect our communication. So we get so busy in stress that when you do, communication goes out the window. Why is that? When you're busy in stress, what do you do? You activate the reptile part of your brain. It's the reptilian part of your brain. If you know anything about reptiles, never love you.

Yeah. They want to eat you. A reptile is all about survival. That's right. When you're busy and stress, you're all about survival, right? So that's why people when they leave church, they hear a great message, they get stuck in traffic. They all start getting upset right away. So what happens is when we are activating the reptile, we're not thinking about communicating.

We're not thinking about investing in our relationships. We're just trying to get through the day. So we get to slow down. Okay, so that's huge. I want to stop for a second because you just said something I think is a great formula. When we stay focused on relationships, that's the people side of everything we do. And then the process, then that allows us to maintain. that success even when we have dips.

Right. Means we stay, at least we stay here, we don't fall apart. And so what happened with the Falcons? And you talk about this in the book. Right. So all of a sudden, pressure from the top, they get close. Expectations. They sniff the Super Bowl in the NFC championship game.

And all of a sudden, expectations are ramped up, ownership, leadership. We got to win. And we forgot about the process and we forgot about the relationship. That's what happened. Is that correct? Yes. That's what happened. So outcome became everything.

Yep. The world is outside. in outside expectations pressure we create a world inside out so as a father as a mom as a business owner as someone who's leading your family always focus on creating the relationships and life inside out from love from purpose from passion from relationship not pressure expectation because we can allow all that pressure to get to us mike said you know what he had so much pressure and so much expectation that he said you know what if i just win then everyone will leave me alone Right.

But now he was focused just on winning and stepped away and got away from all the little things that he did. Right. To help his team win. All the little things and all the relationship building and all the steps along the way that helped them become successful. I was just with another coach, Division I soccer program, one of the top programs in the country, had a bad year this year. Same thing. You know what? I just thought our culture was there.

I thought we had it. We had such a great year last year. The minute you let it go, the minute you let it go. the minute you stop focusing on it, next thing you know, you're in trouble. Because negativity, outside forces, pressure, the enemies of this world

want to come in and seek from the outside to sabotage you on the inside. The key is to be so strong on the inside and continue to build that that you continue to create that on the outside. So I'm always looking at that too. Like, okay, what's next? Yeah.

You know, what's next? What's the problem? What's the obstacle? What's happening? And how can I continue to make sure I continue to relentlessly. The pirates are known for this. Kyle Stark.

He's obsessed with culture. And one time I said that in a speech and he was in the room and I said, I'm sorry that I called you obsessed. He goes, no, no, I am obsessed because they are relentlessly focused on it. So relentlessly communicate in your organization. Relentlessly connect almost to the point of where you're annoying in a way. Relentlessly invest in those relationships and relentlessly build it on a daily basis. and the process, that is your number one thing.

Like, okay, love the process, and you'll love what the process produces. Right. Oh, that's good. Okay, so you got to love our people, and we've got to love the process, because if you love people and you love the process, you're going to produce. Now, here's what, it's almost, it's what allows you the staying power. Right. You're going to have some dips and dives.

It's going to be a roller coaster. Oh, yeah. Certainly when you're competing at a high level. This is great for business. This is great in your personal life. This is huge. Like, you're going to have. some years where maybe medical,

unforeseen medical things knock you out, your health, right? You're going to have some down years in your business. Southwest Airlines. You're going to have a glitch in your computer system, which just happened, right? Yeah, but you've got to stay focused on your people and the process, and it'll allow you to get back on track. Stay on the path.

Expect problems. Yeah. But then if you focus on those things and then fuel your team with an expectation that you will overcome them. Right. That's the key. Yeah.

Versus becoming so obsessive with winning when things are just happening and they're causing you to lose and you get so focused on just we got to do anything and everything and then you forsake the people you forsake the process that's really strong it's good it's really strong here's the key telescope and microscope telescope and microscope I was talking to dabbo there a day and I had written this article I said hey how about I come speak to the team on telescope and microscope he goes well no I just did already that's funny I said awesome all right but telescope and microscope is this Telescope is your big picture vision of where you're going.

You got to keep sharing that with your kids, with your team, with your work. All right, here's where we're going. Help them aspire to that North Star, to that vision. And then the purpose is why we're going there. So you got to keep that alive. But then you get the microscope. That's the zoom focus actions each day that you take on the grind that help you realize the picture in the telescope. If you just have a telescope, no microscope, what happens?

You just dream it all the time. That's right. It's just all vision. But if you just have a microscope, no telescope. So what happens? That grind, the setback, the adversity will knock you down. You will just give up. You will quit because you're just so frustrated because you've lost sight of the vision and the purpose.

So you have to have both. Bring both on your journey because the daily action and grind each day, as long as you have the big picture vision, you move towards it. And that's the key for an organization, a family. My son's a tennis player, right? Facing some struggles right now. Having a little glitch with his forehand coming up, just issues in his matches. He goes to IMG, really struggling.

So it's my job right now. You're going to get better. We're going to move through this. It's okay. You'll get back to it. We see where you're headed. We see the potential. You have to keep on sharing that belief in their optimism.

Think about Dabo Sweeney. I go to their training camp. On his shirt for the training camp last year, it had dream the dream on the front. On the back, it had 15 for 15, January 11th, 2016. The date of the national championship game. I said, what's that? He said, well, our goal is to our vision and our dream. 15 wins out of 15 games on our national championships January 11th.

I'm like, who does that? Right. Who creates a bold vision like that with his team? He said he woke up one morning with the vision to do it. Right. And he did it. Well, the same guy who does that also says that if we go to the college football playoffs, we're having a pizza party in Death Valley.

Yeah. 30,000 people showed up. That's a lot of pizza. 30,000. That's a lot of pizza. I told that when I said, Jesus said, even greater things than I, shall you do? Fend 5,000 with fish.

You fed 30,000 with pizza with just saying we're going to do it. Somehow all the pizza companies just came together. But that's not happenstance. No. You don't believe that. I don't believe that. He believed that. He put it out there to those players and it became a singular focus, which is that

telescope. They were very clear. We started to talk about this. He gave them Mount Everest. This is where we're going. And yet, then there's a process to be able to make it to, you can't just. people who are spinning in life, let's just be, can we be honest with some people right now who are listening? They're frustrated. I was there. They feel like they've been spinning their wheels

for a decade, five years, whatever it is. It's because you've got this telescope mentality, but no microscope. You're not thinking about the little steps, the baby steps, the process that allows you to get there. It's not enough. You can dream. Listen, I love dreams. I really do. Yeah, me too. But if you don't have a process and you don't have a step-by-step plan, I got to get here, I got to get here, I get to here before I ever get a chance to even see the mountaintop. And let's talk about what he did. Nobody talks about that. No, let's talk about what he did.

There's just one thing that everyone needs to know about because we talk about communication, connection, so powerful. They were more connected team this year than last year, the year before. They actually had more talent the year before but did not go to the national championship. This year they did. That was when he gets a fishing stool from one of his friends brings back this. fishing stool from a remote fishing village. Okay. It's the kind of fishing stool

that guys will sit around in a circle and talk about fishing and family and life while they're talking to each other and connect it. Dad had an idea. He puts his fishing stool in the middle of the team meeting room and after every practice, a different guy sits in that stool. And he calls it a safe seat.

It's a safe seat because it's a safe place to share, safe place to be yourself and be vulnerable. And dab will ask that player questions about his life, about who he was. With all the team watching? With the whole team there. And then the team got to ask questions as well. Hardship, defining moment, family, you name it.

They found out so many things about each other. Some guys brought the tears, sharing. But as each guy got into that seat and shared, the walls of pride and ego, selfishness came crumbling down, vulnerability, authenticity, paved the way for these meaningful relationships and strong connections. They became a team that loved each other, danced together, but then also fought together. People think, oh, that's weak, come on, doing that kind of stuff. No, when you love each other, you actually become tougher and strong, right?

And so Davo truly believes that that safety was a big part of their winning formula. So he didn't just say, hey, we're going to have a dream. He said, what are we going to do to be a connected team? What actions will we take? What are we going to do to focus on excellence every day to be our best? And that's where he's a hard driver as well, focusing on those little things and those little details, which we all have to do in our business, right? So we got our business, we get these little things we have to focus on.

We have to be in the grind each day, but we have to have the big picture vision of where we're going, but we also have to make sure we're developing the relationships and the connections. And so he has a process that he has followed, and he has focus on that process. Sabin, same thing, right? Process. And that is what ultimately lead to that success that we want. Crazy stuff. All right, so a little insight before we let you go. You're in town to talk to my beloved Tennessee Titans.

Right. You've got to go speak to a team that won two games last year. They've got some young talent. They've had two top picks, right, the last couple of years. A lot of turmoil. This is a team that was once proud. Now they're in the dull drums. A lot of expectation, I guess, when you have a Marcus Marietta.

What do you say to that team? What's unique about that organization? Because I think a lot of people can get some parallels here. They need to win. What are you going to go say to them? I root for people. I root for the people who are listening to this. I root for teams that are the underdog.

I love speaking to teams that are struggling. I don't want to go speak to the winners. I don't want to hop on the bandwagon. I want to help the team build the bandwagon. And so what I'm going to share is what they need to do to be successful. I'm going to share the winning formula for success with a team. I'm going to talk about the seven Cs. And then if they implement these seven Cs themselves, right,

if they win in the locker room first, if they incorporate the principles of the energy bus with vision and positivity, if they keep the energy vampires off the bus and do not allow negativity to sabotage their team. Because so often as leaders, right, we feed the positive, but we have to remember to weed the negative. You've got to confront the negativity

that exists in a team and an organization. I remember sharing the story about, you know, Mark Rick, who put up a huge picture of an energy vampire on the wall. And any time one of the players were being a vampire, they took the player's picture. They put it on the wall. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Lost the first two games, but then won the next 10, making into the SEC championship that year. I tell that story to Tennessee and Butch Jones's team. Butch Jones afterwards says, all right, all you guys take off, calls out 10 names. I said, coach, who are those guys?

Oh, those are energy vampires. I said, you're going to deal with it right now? He said, yeah, why wait? Confronted the negativity right then and there, and literally two of the guys got off the bus. The rest said, coach, yeah, I've been negative and I'm going to really be a more positive influence. Sure enough, that team started slow,

faced some tests. Next thing you know, started to steamroll towards the end of the season, crush the opponent in the ball game, a lot of momentum going into the last couple of years. So first and foremost, I'm going to talk about these kind of examples and building this positive team,

and it doesn't matter where you are. What matters is where you're going. And I'm going to talk about grit, which every team has to have. And then I'm going to talk about commitments versus goals. I love having a team talk about their goals or even write down their goals, and then I have them rip it up.

And at first they're really upset. Right. I did this with the Falcons a few years ago, they were not happy. I said, just bear with me. Just hold on. Then I said, why don't I have you rip them up? I said, how many other teams have the same things written down? Same goals. Win a championship, win a conference. Every guy in the NFL in every meeting room in that building is writing down the same goals. I said, are the goals going to get you where you want to go? I believe you have to have goals, but are the goals going to get you where you need to go?

They said, no. I said, now write down your commitments. What are your commitments to achieve the goal. And next to you know, we had a conversation. Guys were raising their hand. I'm going to commit to recovery more. I'm going to make sure my body doesn't break down mid-season like it does so often. Another guy said, yeah, last year I was eating too much fast food. I'm going to commit to my nutrition this year.

Again, process. Focusing on my process, that will help me create the goals. And so I'm going to talk about that. Okay, so that's good. So, for I let you, one more. So for each of us listening in here personally, it's good to write some goals down. every category of your life. But then momentarily, rip them up and then write out the commitment.

Same exercise. Yeah. Write them down and then say, okay, what's my commitment to the goals? Don't rip them up. Per se. Yeah, per se. But now say, okay, what's my commitment's going to be? What's my telescope?

What's my microscope? Action and commitments. I love that. The commitments are what allow us to achieve the goals. Yeah. And where do you want to do it? Again, work, your business, at home. Let me tell you something.

I know a lot of people listening, we want to be successful. But here's when I became a success, when I actually started to serve at home. My family at home was struggling. My daughter was struggling at school. My son was struggling. I made a commitment at that point to serve more at home. It was my word for the year, serve. So I started to spend more time at home.

Only took three engagements that month instead of 10 or 15. Hardest year in my life because I'm doing laundry. I'm helping out around the house. I'm taking my daughter to school every day. I wanted a different team. I was so frustrated. I often asked, have you ever wanted a different team?

But at the end of that year, you know what I realized? I didn't need a different team. I needed to become a better leader. And what happened was in serving my team and making my team at home a priority, I grew as a person. I grew as a leader.

When you help others improve, you improve. When you help others grow, you grow. When you serve others, you actually are serving your own growth. And so in doing that, that's when my career actually took off was after that time. Well, it's amazing.

You speak all over the country to corporations and nonprofit organizations, but what has fascinated me most by following your influence is the sports organizations. From every sport. When I never wanted to speak to sports, it was never my goal. That's the weirdest thing is that. I mean, you're a lacrosse guy. Yeah, I play lacrosse. What's a lacrosse guy doing talking to major league baseball players and college football players?

Exactly. I'm just kidding. I'm giving you lacrosse is a, it's an elite sport. The average person can't connect with lacrosse. Fastest growing sport. I know. Fastest growing sport in the country. That's because we have so far to go.

That's right. That is true. Your numbers are so low. It's the fastest growing. It's a percentage game. It is. But if you watch it on TV on ESPN, it's actually an incredible sport. It is a lot of fun.

Yeah. It's fast. It's speed. It's skill. It's hitting too. We should do that. Sometimes we should get me in the full equipment and have you give me a lacrosse lesson. It'll be hilarious.

Oh, let's do it. I don't think I could look through the face mask and catch the ball in the little net. I'll have Rob Pinell do it, who's actually one of the best players in the world. that you want, see me to go fly it. He is John Gordon. He is our friend at Entree Leadership, and he is an entree leader. It's always good to have you in studio, buddy. Great to be with you. You're the best. Well, folks, I hope you enjoy that. John's been a friend for a long time, and I love what he's doing. He's an encourager. I got to tell you, you know, it's interesting to get to know

people like John, like I get to do. And I know that's a rare situation, and it's a blessing. But here's a guy that has encouraged me more than you could possibly imagine over the last decade. And he's the real deal. This is not a guy who writes about positivity. and all the stuff, and then he's a complete, you know, buffoon and charlatan. The guy is the real deal. And that's why, frankly, that you've got head coach's calling him. Think about folks in that leadership role. They're always under the microscope.

You heard John and I talk about a microscope. They're under a microscope, more so than most leaders. The average business leader never has the kind of eyeballs and attention and negativity coming their way like these professional and college coaches. And secondly, we know this. about leadership. It can be very lonely if you're not careful. And so to have somebody like a John Gordon that they can call and talk to privately and confidentially and be encouraged, it really is a tremendous influential access that he has with some leaders that we all look up to and admire.

Now here's the thing. I love to give you a takeaway. What did I learn? What did I learn from that particular conversation? I was reminded of something that is so very important. And that is, if you remember, we were laying it out and he said it's about the people and the private. process. If you can keep your eyes focused on the people in the process, and I tended to look at this from a personal standpoint, the people that matter most to me in my life or my family. I have been given the responsibility to parent three kids and to be a husband to Stacy. Those are the most important people in my life. And then I think about the people on my team here at Ranch Dislutions that I work with every day. Those people I am blessed to work with and I play a role. I'm a teammate. And then it's the process. It's all about the process of getting better as a husband, getting better as a father getting better as a man as a teammate as a professional it's that it's not the outcome the outcome while I can dream about the outcome I can make steps towards achieving the outcome if I'm not focused on the people and the process getting better with the people that I'm working with and living with and getting better at the process then the outcome will never ever take

place. I say this a lot. I've tweeted this out, and so I'll remind you, it's a great thought. And this is absolutely aimed right at me. And this is based on this thought, this idea of it's about the people in the process. Don't worry about the outcome. The outcome will take care of itself. Here it is. We as human beings, especially those that are wired like us personal growth junkies. We tend to obsess about the next, and we miss what we need in the now. And when we do that, we ultimately sacrifice the next. Let me say it again for you. When we obsess about the next, We miss what we need in the now. That means who we need to serve, who we need to learn from, who we need to lead.

When we miss that in the now, we sacrifice the very thing that we've been obsessing about the next. If you don't win in the now where you are planted right now, this is the thought that John Gordon gave me years ago, you have to prosper where you're planted now or there will be no next. You've got to win the now. If you win in the now, you're going to have tons of opportunity for success in the next. That's what I took away from my conversation with John Gordon. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. All right, folks, it is now time for the free books.

That's right. John Gordon is going to give away 25 books. The actual book is The Carpenter. This is a fantastic story. I told you about these parables. You'll love this book. Here's how you enter to win. He's given away 25, so it's very simple.

Go to Entree Leadership. com slash podcast. This is episode 161. So go to entreleadership.com slash podcast. Get in there on the show notes of episode 161. Very simple. Only take you just a second or two to enter to win. And you might get a free copy of John Gordon's book, The Carpenter.

Speaking of free stuff, we have been offering you the team communication field guide from our Entree Leadership team. That's our free resource this month. How do you keep your team engaged and productive? And again, I've been telling you. telling you several different things about it. Some of the great stuff in here is how do you improve staff meetings? This can be an absolute gigantic waste of time and be counterproductive if you don't know how to do it. And so we actually give away the playbook for our staff meetings.

We share good and bad news from departmental leaders, always introduce new hires, how do we recognize team members such as their work anniversary or accomplishments and so forth and so on, always giving updates on profit and sales, always reflecting on core values, so much more. And you can use this as a great checklist if you want to revive and make sure that your staff meetings are hitting the target. So that's just one of the many benefits that I've been telling you about. Again, this is our free resource. If you're new to the podcast, we give you a free resource each month from Ontario

leadership designed to help you, practical stuff that you can implement. That's what it's about. It's absolutely free. This is our team communication field. guide, you can text the word communication to 33444. Text communication to 33444. Or again, you can go to entreleadership.com slash podcast. This is episode 161.

And the link will be in the show notes. So take advantage of that great resource. Well, folks, I'm passionate about helping people improve. And I think one of the key areas as individuals is that we can improve upon is how we communicate. And that's been a theme this month of communication. And so I want to give you very simple three questions that you can use to become a better communicator. Specifically, how do you use these three questions to communicate better in your next meeting, your next speech, a presentation, whatever it is where you have to get up and communicate ideas to a group of people?

Whether it's one-on-one, 10,000, 10,000, these are three simple questions that over time I have used. this is just my little system. I get asked this kind of question all the time. How do you prepare for interviews? How do you do something like a live panel in front of an audience? Whatever. How do you prepare for speech, Ken? These are three questions that will help you. So let me give you the questions and we'll break them down. What do you want your audience to know? What do you want your audience to feel? What do you want your audience to do? Let me repeat those again. These are the three questions you need to ask every time before you communicate publicly. What do you want your audience to know? what do you want your audience to feel?

What do you want your audience to do? Let's look at that. What do you want your audience to know? The answer to this question gives you your big message, right? Before you even think about what you're going to communicate and how and how you break it down, what do you want your audience to know? What's the main thing? And so when you answer that, that becomes the important message of what you're about ready

to prepare to deliver. So nail that down before you do anything else. This is what I call the North Star of Communication. You got to know where you're pointing people. What's the main thing you want them to know? Secondly, what do you want your audience to feel? Now, I feel like this gets overlooked a lot. Certainly when you're communicating publicly,

if you're communicating to your team, you're communicating to potential clients, existing clients, a room full of people. What do you want your audience to feel? I think this is 101. This is Sales 101. I think that the way people feel is fundamental to how they act. So make sure that you are creating and connecting the right emotion to inspire action, right?

You got to make them feel something. You change the way somebody feels. They begin to change the way they think. You change the way they think. you got a chance of changing the way they act. And that leads into the final question. What do you want your audience to do? So you've already been very clear with the main message.

You have created a feeling and emotion to set that all up to hit them with, here's what I'm challenging you to do. So what do you want your audience to do? This is the clear, practical, and maybe the most important word here is immediate call to action. That's how do you apply the most important message, which is the first question. What do I want my audience to know? Well, they got to know this.

Now I've got to tell them what they need to do. So if you ask and answer these three questions, what do you want your audience to know? What do you want your audience to feel? What do you want your audience to do? You ask and answer these three questions before you ever speak. This will help you in your planning, and you'll see tremendous impact on your communication ability. and most importantly, you'll see impact on your audience. Don't forget InfusionSoft has got an amazing giveaway this month.

It is a tool on how to automate repeat sales. Automate repeat sales. Are you kidding me? How good is your customer retention? Are you excelling in that area? Download Infusionsoft's guide so you can help hold yourself and your team accountable. Infusionsoft.com slash repeat sales. infusionsoft.com slash repeat sales.

Jump on it. This is a game changer. Big thanks to John Gordon for his time and the 25 free books. Don't forget if you miss that. You want to get a chance to win his book, The Carpenter, Entreeleadership.com slash podcast. Episode 161, all the details are there. On behalf of Eric the producer and the entire Entree Leadership team,

thank you so much for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon.