EntreLeadership - #320: Are You in the Right Place for Growth? from EntreLeadership Summit 2019

Episode Date: May 3, 2019

We’re wrapping up our special bonus content from EntreLeadership Summit and sharing a proven strategy from Ramsey Solutions’ own Ken Coleman to help lead you to a career you love. Tune in to hear Ken explain why the places you put yourself in dramatically affect the trajectory of your career. Pick the right ones and you’ll likely find yourself closing in on your dream job. If you are part of the 70% of Americans who are unhappy at work, you can’t afford to miss this! Also joining us are Daniel Tardy (Ramsey Solutions Executive Vice President of Business and Leadership) and Sarah Sloyan (EntreLeadership Senior Vice President) with an exclusive event wrap-up and one final lesson on growing your leadership.   entreleadership.com/podcast EntreLeadership Summit 2020   Want expert help with your business question? Call 844-944-1070 and leave a message or send an email to [e-mail]. You could be featured on a future podcast episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Am I intentionally every day, every week, every month, every year, am I thinking, who do I need to be around? And what places do I need to be in? This is huge for leadership momentum. Helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is Entree Leadership. Now, here's your host, Ken Coleman. Coming to you from the Entree Leadership Summit in San Diego, this is the broadcast of leaders by leaders for leaders. you so much for joining the conversation. Well, 2019 summit is over, but we still got one more

jam-packed episode for you. On today's episode, you're going to hear a portion of my keynote on the proximity principle. You're going to hear specifically me talking about places that I challenge these leaders to get in. Then you're going to hear from Daniel Tarty, our executive vice president of business and leadership, and Sarah Sloan, our senior vice president of Montre leadership as they finish out the episode with a recap of the week and a preview of what's coming up next year with Summit 2020, including a special discount. So you don't want to miss that. Let's get started taking you to the stage, hearing a portion of my keynote. Here it is. I want to talk to you about something today that is a simple but powerful principle. It's not new

to any of you. In fact, I could go through seat by seat by seat in this room. and in just a couple of questions illustrate how you men and women have used this powerful principle. On the Ken Coleman show, I am helping men and women discover who they are and then how do they get there. And this principle came alive as a result of doing live radio, caller after caller, helping them figure out how to get where they want to go to actually advance. So how many of you sitting in this room right now have absolutely arrived and you're just here because you want to be entertained? exactly. So how do you as leaders that have so much on you? So much responsibility is Chris Hogan is so powerfully represented. You carry so much weight. You move at a fast pace. You're dealing

with all kinds of things coming at you all the time. And you have tremendous responsibility, the greatest of which is, hey, it is ultimately on me. I am the lid to my organization. And so how do you handle all of that stuff coming at you and then still be on purpose to be able to grow, knowing that you are the lid? I'm going to unpack it through the powerful little principle called the proximity principle. The proximity principle, let me define it in order to do what you want to do or be where you want to be. You've got to be around people that are doing it and in places where it is happening. It's very simple. The equation for creating waves, the tide that comes in and lifts.

You want to create waves of opportunity. It's very simple. The right people plus the right places equals opportunity. The right people plus the right places in your life and in your profession will bring you opportunities to learn, to grow, to connect. It's always going to be the case. And you know this simple idea, yet with everything that's going on, sometimes it becomes a blind spot for us. Am I intentionally, every day, every week, every month, every year, am I thinking, who do I need to be around and what places do I need to be in?

This is huge for leadership momentum. Great leaders intentionally put themselves in places where they can learn and grow. Great leaders. I'm not talking about average leaders. I'm talking about the leaders that you look up to, the leaders that you admire. They are intentional to put themselves in places where they can learn. This is knowledge and they can grow. This is, I'm going to take what I've learned and I'm going to begin to apply it. I'm going to push myself. I'm going to get, as Henry said, out over my skis. You can't ask your people to get out over their skis if you aren't willing to get out over your skis. So let's talk about the first place, a place to learn. You've heard this said eight billion different ways, but I'm going to say it my way. Leaders who stop learning are no

longer leading. Leaders who stop learning are no longer leading. There's an Irish poet that I learned about and doing some research, so I just got into a couple of rabbit holes. And I saw this quote, and I want to share it with you. Irish poet William Butler Yates said, education, this is learning, that's what we're talking about, a place to learn. Education is not the filling of a pot, but the lighting of a fire. I'm going to say it again, write it down. Education is not the filling of a pot, it is the lighting of a fire. I didn't plan to say this one. I'm going to say it real quick. Because I'm dealing with people every day that are calling me and they're absolutely not on purpose like you leaders.

But this is a leadership thing you need to get coming off this quote. You are hiring and leading people. I hear you complain about millennials a lot. Gen Z's coming behind them. You are hiring and leading people in the American education system. And I'm not anti-education, but I'm just going to stand on this box for one second. You are hiring and leading people. young people who have been conditioned by the American education system to become test takers,

not pathfinders. Now, I'm not here to give an educational talk. What I'm trying to get you to understand is, welcome to leadership. You're going to have to retrain them. They're walking into you, and they want the answers, they want time to study for it, and then nail it. Hey, by the way, I got an A on that last test. at what point when we talk about a promotion? Am I right?

Can I get an amen? Amen. So you better get this for leading people. You better help them learn how to become pathfinders. And proximity will reveal the path. Places to learn. Get them in places to learn. Get yourself in places to learn.

You're here this week to learn. Congratulations. This is an example of a place to learn. But you are going to have to continue to stretch yourself. I don't care if it's hobby level learning to where you put yourself in an uncomfortable place I've got to learn something new and then I'm going to get some leadership stuff out of this.

You need to make sure leaders that you're intentional every year to put yourself at a place to learn. Webinars, podcasts, books. What is your rhythm for learning? Are you continually in places to learn so that you are growing? Because here's what's going on.

Your team is watching you. And if they don't see you growing, you could tell them all day long, grow, grow, grow, and they're going to go, well, you aren't growing. Model the way. Let them see an insatiable appetite for growing. And they'll go, I want that. If nothing else, the ones that really want to impress you will just start growing just to

get your favor, and that works too. So find continually places to learn. My favorite story of this is Coach K, the legendary Hall of Fame coach for Duke University. He's got more wins than anybody else. He's got five national championships. And as fate would have it, the very first time I ever did an interview, it was him. Can you imagine your first interview being Coach K? But I was the backup plan.

It's kind of my life story, the backup plan. I've learned to own it. It's great. You've got to be ready. So was John Maxwell Sop. Final cast, long story, very short. He had a very personal situation where he had to cancel the speaking engagement. So he said, what I'll do is an interview.

We had somebody lined up to do the interview. He was a Major League Baseball play-by-play guy. Major League Baseball rescheduled something on him. He couldn't do it. I was the guy that wrote the interview. And I was going to get to go sit there and watch it because I'm a big Duke fan and love Coach Kay. And then I get the call to do the interview.

Coleman, you're up. You've got to do the interview. So did the interview. It was a great experience for me. It's what confirmed my love of doing interviews. which is one of my great passions professionally. But I'll never forget, he told me in that interview that every off-season, one of the greatest coaches alive,

always calls a couple of young basketball coaches that he has watched or noticed earlier in the season. He liked their pressure defense, he liked how they ran their two-minute offense or how they're managing timeouts, whatever. He saw something and he said, I'm going to make a note of that, and I want to pick their brain. Can you imagine being a young basketball coach and you get a call and your assistant says, hey, Coach K's on the line? You're thinking, oh, maybe he's going to give me a job. Hey, listen, can I come hang out with you next week and watch your practice? I laughed and I said, does it always blow them away? He says it does. He says, but I always get way more out of it than they do.

even the greats are constantly finding places to learn. Now let's transition to a place I don't think you're expecting me to share. And I thought long and hard about this because I'm hearing it, I'm seeing it in the news, the data's out there, and I realize that it's not something you hear a lot at leadership conferences. But I want you to keep your heart open right now because this is a massive issue and it's facing every one of you. The final place I want to talk to you about that you need to get in proximity to very purposefully is a place to rest. A place to rest.

And I'm not talking about vacation exclusively. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about the afternoon power nap, although there's nothing wrong with vacation or the power nap. What I'm talking about is the unbelievable amount of stuff coming at you. And this is what your brain and heart sounds like all the time. Am I right? A good friend of my, Clay Scroggins, who's a pastor in Atlanta, Georgia, gave our team a talk about this very thing that's all about shutting down the light noise as leaders. I'm talking about a place to rest.

If you as leaders are giving everything you have to your people and you are not being poured into and you are not having some rhythm of rest for you. your head and your heart, because that's what rest is. Write this down. Rest for the leader is intentional quieting of the head and heart. Intentional quieting of your head and your heart. This is what keeps you in the game. You can go to conference after conference, read book after book about sustainability of success, and those are all good things, and there's a million different principles, a million different

thoughts, but I'm telling you right now, leaders, if you don't get this, it will take you out. You don't believe me? Washington Post, a paper I don't read often, had an article out just a few weeks ago. I went on Fox and friends and talked about it, that there is an explosion of burnout in America. Burnout. It's so big that Johnson and Johnson, a well-known brand, has created a camp, a burnout camp for CEOs. I'm not making fun of that, but I'm not kidding you. I'm sitting at my desk reading that, and I went into my head for a second.

So let me give you something. There's no such thing as burnout. Burnout is a myth. How many of you felt burned out? Raise your hand. Come on. Keep them up. How many felt it?

How many of you, let's be realized, how many of you feel it right now? Raise it up. There's no shame in this. We're going to unpack this real quick. There's no such thing as burnout. Can I give those of you that are feeling it right now some hope? Listen to me. There's no such thing as burnout.

Burnout occurs the day we die. When the flame is actually extinguished and we move into eternity, the flame is gone. You have burned out. Congratulations. But until you do. die, there's no burnout. Let me tell you what's happening, leaders, build up. Build up is real. Write it down. Build up is what's making you feel burned out. You can't feel the flame. You can't feel the heat. You can't see the flicker of the flame because there's so much buildup on your heart, you feel at times,

I'm done. I can't do this anymore. This is what your team is feeling, leaders. Your team is feeling. burned out. And when you hear that, can I give you five quick things to examine so that we can find out what is the build-up on their heart, and then we can deal with that. Here we go, real quick. Five reasons for build-up. They have no true passion for the job. Art talked about this so eloquently yesterday. There's no meaningful connection to their work. They're good at it, but they don't love to do it. You keep doing that every day. You're going to hate Monday mornings, like 70% of Americans. according to Gallup. Second reason for buildup.

Toxic workplace. Oh boy, you're going to step on some toes here. Some of you are the reason, you don't even know it yet, but you're the reason for some of the toxicity. Are you causing it? I don't know. But are you allowing someone else to get away with it and create toxicity in your workplace

that is affecting your team? And when you're working with difficult people, jerks, you're not going to want to come into the office, yes? Can I get an amen? Come on. Number three, reason for buildup. You and your team are overwhelmed. This is just, could be a season.

And by the way, I think this is the biggest one affecting you all. So just a real quick camp out here. If you're feeling overwhelmed, hey, sit down with a team and go, listen, I've taken on too much. I'm trying to be supergirl, super guy. I'm trying to be the bionic leader, and I'm trying to drink out of a fire hydrant. How many know that image? You know, hey, I need a drink.

You know, hey, I'm drowning. What's going on? You're overwhelmed. Don't buy the lie of Satan that you're not supposed to be leading. What you're supposed to be doing is leading well. Very big difference. So if you leaders are feeling overwhelmed,

You've got to step back and say, whoa, what are the things that only I should be doing? And understand that it's a season. If you're overwhelmed right now, it's a season. It is not a sentence. You can get out of it. Number four, people feel underappreciated. So if some of you are leaders in this room that have leaders above you, and you're here because you're sick of them. I know there's people in the room like that.

Come on. And you feel burned out. I came to Entree Leadership Summit to get a spark because my leader above me is awful. And they're sucking the life out of me and I don't see any kind of ladder. You feel underappreciated because they overlook you. They're not doing what they said they were going to do. They're not given you the opportunity. And you feel burned out.

You're not burned out. You've got to build up on your heart. You've got to say, hey, look, I'm going to communicate clearly on this issue and say, you said you're going to do this. It hasn't happened. Can we revisit? What's the growth plan look like? What can I do better?

how can I learn and grow that would give me an opportunity, have more responsibility, more influence, and ultimately more pay. And once you've done that with your leader, and it's not happy, it's time for you to look somewhere else. You're doing the right thing in the wrong place. That's how we deal with being underappreciating, and finally bored. I don't think many people in this room are bored, but let's just address it,

because a lot of the feeling of burnout for high performers is you've already handled that challenge. You ate it for breakfast. It's 11.30, you're starving for more. Now, leaders, I'm trying to translate this, not just to you, to your team. Some of you are leading people, and you think they got a bad attitude, and they probably do. But what could be going on is buildup, and one big reason for high performers having a bad attitude is, they're bored. Human beings want progress.

We want challenges, yes? So you've got to look at these five indicators of buildup. There is no such thing as burnout. out. So, back to the rhythm of rest. Here's my challenge. I'm going to ask you this. You answer it later. What's your daily rhythm of rest? Is it quiet time in the morning? Are you truly quiet? Is it a mid-afternoon where you go to the lake? I don't care where it is. And I don't really even care what you're doing, but the idea of rest is you are getting alone and it is quiet. How many of you're uncomfortable right now. We're not used to this. There are times where I just go sit near this little

body of water near my neighborhood under a weeping willow tree and nobody sees me and I just sit and it's quiet. And I'm able to get perspective on what matters most, what I need to be doing. Am I out of rhythm somewhere? But that ability to daily, weekly, monthly and yearly create a place of quiet, a place of of rest where your soul, your heart, and your mind can get aligned. Figure out how to do this, leaders. It's the key to longevity. Well, I hope you enjoyed some of that. What a great crowd.

It has been all week. I know each of the speakers have said that the crowd was absolutely hungry and on fire, and I could attest to that. All right, let's move on, Daniel Tarty and Sarah Sloan, two of my favorite people, got together to wrap up this amazing week. And as I told you earlier, you don't want to miss as they preview next year's event in sunny Orlando, Florida, and how to get the discount for this event that will sell out. So let's take you right to Daniel and Sarah, as they sat outside the ballroom to talk about Summit 2019 and look ahead.

Sarah, what a great week. I can't believe it. I can't believe it either. I feel like it always goes so quickly. You know how when you're at camp and you have all your favorite people and it's so fun all week and you share all these memories and it's time to go and it's terrible. I know. So I can't wait to do it again.

But the good news is we do them every year and gosh, we do not mess around when it comes to the best speakers in the world. We've heard from Pat Lanchone, Marcus Buckingham. We've had Jesse Itzler, the guy that wrote Living with a Seal, Sarah Blakely, his wife, who founded Spinks, of course, Henry Cloud and our team, Dave, Chris Hogan, Christy Wright, Ken Coleman. It's just been amazing. So we don't ever settle when it comes to speakers.

We have had the best of the best for years, and we are committed to no matter what it takes and how much we pay them and how hard they are to get to bringing the very best because Entree leadership stands for excellence. And, of course, we've even had people showing up that aren't speakers that you guys would know. Kim Blanchard's been running around here. It's awesome. Brian Buffini, Amy Porterfield. And so this event has become the destination for any influencer in this space. And we love it when you guys show up and hang out with us every year. get to see all our friends out there in the business community, and we're hoping we can see you

next year. We're going to talk to you a little bit about that. But first, we want to put a bow on this week, and we want to give you guys some really good practical things you can do to really go back and put some things into action that you're going to be able to get results with yourself, with your leadership, and, of course, with your team and your business and your customers. I had this realization that the leader that my team needs me to be in a year, I'm not qualified for it. It was a very uncomfortable moment where I was thinking about how quickly, have grown. I mean, think about when I joined the team six and a half years ago, what we were doing. This event hadn't even been dreamed of yet. And just so how rapidly our team has grown,

now we have 60 people. And it's just wild. And so I was thinking about like, okay, what do I need to do to make sure that I'm continuing to grow? And that's when I had that realization that, oh my gosh, the person that I need to be in a year from now, I've really got to hit the pavement and make sure that I start working on my qualifications. You know, as you say that, I think back to a year ago. And if I think about the version of me that was leading this area a year ago, if that's where I stayed, I'd probably not be working here anymore. I wouldn't be qualified. I wouldn't be relevant. And so many businesses that plateau and they stay in the same spot, it's because the leader doesn't reinvent themselves and grow. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

And if you're not growing, you're dying, there's no way around this. It's just a principle in life that you can't just kind of lock it in and cruise. You're either moving forward, you're growing yourself, it's a law in nature. When you look at, you know, trees, you're either growing or dying. It's the same is true for us as leaders and as personal development. We've got to be pouring into ourselves all the time. Definitely. So tell us, what are some of the things that you do to keep fresh? Well, you know, I think there's really three things. When we're thinking about where we headed as leaders and what's important, you got to start out with where am I going, right? What do I want to be in a year from now? And this is a little cliche because we talk so much

in the personal development space about the importance of goals, but you would be shocked. how many leaders, how many business owners, don't stop and think, where do I want to be in a year from now? Now, we do that with our teams, and we do it with our company, and we go, where does the company need to be? What is my revenue hopefully going to be in a year from now? And a lot of people get really good at goal setting outside of themselves, but we don't ever stop and go, what kind of leader do I need to be in a year from now? And putting that on paper. There's something that goes from just kind of mentally thinking about it.

Maybe you go out for a run. Maybe you're sitting at the lake, and you're thinking about it. But there's something that really, when you put it on paper and you write it down, it becomes real, real. You start looking at that and you're like, okay, this is going to happen. We talk about all the time with our team a plan on paper. I call it the pop. If you don't have your pop, I don't really want to listen to your opinions because I don't want to put a lot of energy and something you haven't said that I've thought about enough to say, I'm going to put the plan on paper

and actually start thinking about, is this something I'm going to commit to? Am I excited about where I'm going? What's my desired future for where I want to be? be and now I got a plan. And so it starts with just the plan. Where are you going to be as a leader? What kind of emotional intelligence things do you need to grow in? To be the kind of leader your team wants to follow. What kind of relationships? A lot of times people miss that part. If we focus so much on results that we don't think about the relationships that are key in getting there, one of my written goals is I need to spend more time with this person. I need to create a better relationship

with this person. And I think we forget that sometimes. Oh, absolutely. And as leaders, a lot of times, we're focused on the business and all the metrics and driving sales. If we don't, focus on those relationships, we're going to look up and we're not going to have a team. And it all starts with relationships. So you've got to set goals around it. It can feel a little bit funny like, wait, set relational goals. But really, I like what you're saying. It's, you're setting time to make sure that you're going to be intentional with people. Yeah, you're saying this is important to me. This is just as important as me growing my head knowledge is growing my relational equity with people. Yeah. Think about what else is holding you back from being the

leader you need to be in a year from now. How's your physical game? How's your family life? Think about that 360 leader for you to be an emotional. and physical and mental intellectual leader on all those fronts, you've got to be investing in all those areas consistently, your daily habits, your weekly rhythms, your monthly goals, your quarterly check-ins, and you've got to have a plan for all that stuff. If we don't do that, intentionally, we stop growing. And we're not qualified to be the leader. We need to be in a year from now. So that's the first step. Set the goals. Get the plan on paper. I was looking at the second step. This is our favorite topic. You guys have heard us talk about this before. It's feedback. So let's talk about

Feedback. Like, how do you do it? Why do we care about it? Well, you know, a lot of people either don't think feedback matters much or when they think about feedback, they kind of have a negative feeling about it. Like, I don't want to know how bad I'm doing. I don't want to be exposed. I'm worried with, you know, people are going to tell me the truth. I'd rather live in this kind of utopian little butterfly world over here. But the reality is we tend to see ourselves a certain way and our team experiences a completely different version of what we have in our own head about what our leadership really looks like. And so when you stop and you go, hey, what's it like to work with me, really? These are my goals. This is the kind of leader I want to be in a year from now. There's a gap. What are the things you think I could be doing that will help close that gap? And let's be honest. A lot of our team isn't quick to go, well, I've got a list.

Let me pull it out. Here's all the things that. So one of the tricks that you taught me that I love is saying, hey, on a scale of one to ten, how do you feel about me in this area? And they'll say, oh, you're doing really great. Okay, but on a scale of one to ten. I say, oh, well, you're seven. And you're like, okay, so what would make that a 10 for you?

And that's when you get that great feedback and you're pulling that feedback out of them. Because everyone at first pass is going to say, no, you're a great leader. Yeah, it changes the whole conversation. So take something that's important like being present in meetings. Instead of being distracted and aloof, being on your phone, half listening, we all know that's not a good thing if we want to value people and make sure that they feel valued and that we care about their opinion. So if you came into somebody and you said, hey, um, I'm pretty good at being present in meetings, right? I mean, what is anyone that works for you generally going to say,

unless they just don't really care about their personal brand with you? They're going to go, yeah, yeah, in general. Sure. And if you take that and you go, okay, I guess I'm good, you're never really going to get to what we call the last 10% of truth. Most people on your team are walking around saying a lot of things that are true, but the last 10% is where the gold is at. And so when you fly that.

If you really want improvement, that is what you need to know. That's right. You got to know it. But the only way to make it. safe for people to really feel disarmed and give you, as they're superior, the real last 10% of truth is you go, okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, if 10 is, I'm perfectly engaged in meetings all the time. I'm always paying attention to you. I'm great at asking clarifying questions. I'm making really good eye contact. My laptop and my phone are nowhere to be seen. I'm very convicted right now. I'm making notes to myself like, oh gosh, okay. And then I listen,

and then I follow up later and I ask about the conversation. And then I go take action on the blockers that I can remove for you. If that was a 10, and one is I don't even show up to the meeting and I, if I ever do, I cuss you out and I make you feel like dirt. Where am I at? Well, most your people are going to say, oh, oh, well, you're not a one and you're definitely not even a five. You're a seven. Then you go, okay, thank you. Because they're able to say you're doing some things well, but what you know they're really saying is you're not a 10 yet. And so you get to say, what would it look like for me to grow from a 7 to a 10? So getting that feedback and then taking that feedback, and building it into your plan on paper where you've got your goals,

now you're putting together your action plan based on the feedback from your team. Right. Let's talk about making space for this. I looked up the other day and I realized I had gotten in this bad habit. I was during the day helping all of my team members with stuff that they were hitting pain points on, which is part of my job. But then I was doing all of my real work from 8 to 10 at night when my kids were in bed. You know, that's when I would start working on like my strategy or my own leadership challenges or whatever.

And I just like, gosh, that's not, this is my, if I don't do this stuff, who's going to do that? So let's talk a little bit about, like, how do you make space? Because you're really great at doing this. How do you make space to be intentional about this? Well, I think oftentimes the fires in the business are so consuming that we just, we turn into professional firefighters. And if we're not careful, we'll do that at the expense of our own souls and our own intellectual development. And as leaders, we get paid to think. We get paid to know things.

We get paid to communicate. we don't get paid to just run around and put out all the fires. Now, sometimes that's our role. We've got to do that. But if we don't guard the time to get away from all the operations, you know, Michael Gerber, who wrote the E-Mith, he talks about working in the business versus working on the business. If we're always in the business, and we're never on the business,

we don't get to do this stuff. We don't get to grow in all these things we've been talking about. But in my experience, I physically sometimes have to get out of the business. I mean, if I'm just in my office and people say, hey, do you have a minute and pop in, I don't really have the heart to say, nope, I'm busy, because I don't want to come off. No, no minutes. I don't have a minute.

When I'm in the office, I want to be all in. I want to be walking around, checking in with people, giving high fives, asking questions. If I'm reading a low point on the weekly report, I want to be asking about if there's anything I can help with. I want to be fully relationally present. And it's really difficult for me to do strategic time or intentional thinking about where am I going and how am I growing myself as a leader if I'm just in the office. So I think this is true for most people.

I don't think it's just a personality style. If you want to do this really well, you need to create a physical space where you can get away. Now, maybe for you, it's your back deck. You get up early in the morning and you've got a quiet time and you do your reading and goal setting and journaling. That's great. Maybe you're more of an afternoon person and after your morning meetings, you want to get away and just go to a coffee shop and take a yellow pad and do the brain dump kind of thing. I do that all the time. And you've got to realize that your time, you're worth this.

And it feels a little lazy sometimes because you're like, wait, I'm just in a meeting. with myself. You know, we get addicted to meetings and projects and stuff getting pushed forward. And so I think we've really had to work and learn that meeting with yourself, where you're working on the strategic planning for how you're going to grow as a leader, it really matters over time. And turn off those devices. You know, it's very distracting. You'll be reactive to every email and every text that comes in. And the reality is you're not paid to answer emails. You're paid to do this kind of work. And if you are just continuing to react and check things off your list in a reactive way, you're not.

never going to get where you're going. Yes, I couldn't agree more. The thing that I had to realize, I got to this point where what I was doing wasn't working and I wasn't growing and my organization was starting to plateau. And I was telling Sarah the story the other day. My wife went out of town for the weekend and so I missed her mom and I'm thinking, okay, we got to feed the kids and there was some stuff in the refrigerator, open the refrigerator, feed the kids. The next meal comes, the refrigerator's empty. And all day, Saturday afternoon, I go to the refrigerator and I start thinking about what are we going to do for dinner. and I look and there's nothing that feels exciting.

Right. And I'm like, okay, I'll close the fridge. And we go off and get distracted. And I think, okay, what are we going to do for dinner? And I would go look in the fridge and nothing looks exciting. And I close it. I probably like six times on a Saturday afternoon, like open the fridge and just look in there. And I'm sure if somebody was on the other side, like living in the fridge and be like,

what is this guy's problem? You know? Why does he keep looking in here? Nothing was new in the refrigerator. But for some reason, I just kept expecting a different result. And I think we've all done, especially when a snack, you're like, okay. And our standard's kind of lower. Still no chips.

You start with still no chips, but maybe I'll eat that carrot that has a little bit of brown stuff. I don't know. And you, like, close it and come back. And eventually you get desperate enough. You eat whatever's in the fridge. But guys, if you don't go to the grocery store and put new things in the fridge, you don't get anything new for dinner. And that's true for leadership.

If you don't put new stuff in your mind, if you don't read books, if you don't get out of your environment, if you don't go to conferences and events and meet other business leaders in your community to get new stuff into your mental fridge, you don't get anything new for dinner in your business. You get stagnant, you get stuck, you get stale. And unfortunately, a lot of times, that's the beginning of the end for a lot of businesses. Right. And they don't realize it until they start seeing those lagging indicators. The numbers start to change and they're already behind. Well, you didn't do the work back here that you needed to do to get there. That's right. Yeah. So if you

want to get something you've never had, you've got to do something that you've never done. And so the third step is creating a physical space to work on your goals, look at the feedback your team has given you, and know where you're going in a year from now, but also know if you're on track. So if you're doing this systematically each week, you're going to get a sense each week in that space that you create to get above it all, am I on pace? And guess what? If you're like me, a lot of weeks, you're not. A lot of weeks you're like, I didn't do any of this this week. But that's okay, because that prompt, if you don't just get all down on yourself and feel all the shame, you just kind of go, okay, good. I've got a plan now. How do I get back on? Right. Right. Good. Well, those are good

solid three steps. So recap them for you. Step one. Yeah, so set great goals. Not just goals for your business and your team, but goals for your personal development as a leader. On paper. On purpose. That's right. All right. Step two, feedback. Scale of one to ten. Ask your team, how are we doing? How can you grow as a leader? Step three, let's make some space for this. Let's be intentional. Let's prioritize this over some of that reactive work that we've been doing. That's right. Guys, we believe so much in creating a space to do this. That is the driving reason why we do the entree leadership events that we put together. We believe so much in this for us as leaders. Dave has done this for years. All of our leadership team is consistently creating spaces. And I don't think there's a better

space to create and commit to growing in your leadership, growing your team, growing your business, then go into a conference where a lot of other leaders that are fired up about life and about leadership and about business are going to be a one spot together. It's like camp. We just talked about it. And that's what we've been doing this week, guys. We have talked to thousands of people who are going back now, not just inspired and kind of rah-rah, but with practical tools, with new relationships, and things are going to absolutely transform the trajectory of the business. And accountability partners. I love a lot of people walk out of here and they have made a new friend who then checks in with them and said, you said you were going to do that thing. Did you go home and do that thing?

And so the accountability, not just the inspiration, not just the applicable steps, but then also the accountability partners. And I think that's fantastic. Yeah. It is just such a big deal to get to the right events. Now, I think it'd be a stretch to say there's one event that changed my entire life. But when I look at all the growth that I've had, I can look back at turning points in my career, new things where I really leveled up and got a whole new experience in my leadership and a whole new level of responsibility in the season that followed. but I can look back and go, it was that event. It was that teaching.

It was that lesson. It was those relationships that I made at, that conference. And so that's why we do this entree leadership summit every year. And that's why we're committed to not only getting the best speakers in the world, but to attracting the best business leaders in our country. And that's who you guys are. That's who's been here this week. That's what an entree leader is all about.

So we want to tell you guys about the event that we're launching just for you guys today. Now, we launched yesterday on site to our 3,000 people here at summit. and about 80% of them usually within the next week, sign up for the next year. And we haven't even put it in front of our 15 million Dave Ramsey listeners yet and gone loud with all of our channels and megaphones. And this thing sells out early every time. So I would highly encourage you, if you're thinking about it, make your decision now and do it. Guys, make a commitment. Choose to get out of your environment.

If you're not going to make that kind of commitment, then you really need to evaluate. What are you going to do for your business? What are you going to do to get it to this next level that you want it to be at? And if it's not this, you've got to have a plan. We want it to be this. We're going to be full whether you're there or not, but we want you to be there. We think it would be amazing for you to come and join us if you haven't been to one of these summit events. So let's hit some dates and locations.

So May 17th through the 20th next year, we're going to be in sunny Orlando. Orlando. Yes, we like sunny location. So that's going to be fun. And we're going to be at the Gaylord Hotel. Yes, that's right. Gorgeous facility. And our team has been there a few times for some site visits.

and we're always like, hey, can I go on the site visit? Because we pick the very best hotels on the planet. And that's how you know when your whole team wants to go down on the site visit, we're picking a really, really cool spot. So we are going to get this thing going. It's going to be three days, Sunday night through Wednesday afternoon. And guys, look, here's the thing, three days out of your entire world. You get there, you get the answers, you get back, you put it into action.

And the next 30 days, the next 300 days, you're on a completely different trajectory. So let's talk about the speakers that are. going to be at this next event. Damon John from Shark Take. And this guy has an incredible, like, grassroots to multibillionaire story that we're really excited to meet and hang out with Damon and have you teach our audience that week. That's a big, big fit. Kat Cole.

Yeah. So if you don't know Kat Cole, she's the CEO of some of my favorite brands, focus brands, which is, well, some of my favorite at the mall, to be honest with you, Auntie Hans, Cinebon. Yes, it gets to be in trouble. you know, those, the treat factor. The kids know if worth them all and I'm with them, that we're stopping by. Oh, and Jomba Juice. Yes.

Amazing. Yes. So, very excited to hear her learnings from her time as C-O-O of those businesses. That would be great. Our next one. Benjamin Zander. Guys, if you've ever been to Entree leadership, where Dave is talking about the power of helping your players enjoy the work.

We play this clip from this guy, Benjamin Zander. He's the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. and you would think, oh, a conductor, he's a music guy, but he's taking all this stuff that works in leading a symphony and to all be on the same page, and he's got this talk about how the leadership parallels in business and in life, and he says the conductor doesn't play an instrument. Think about that.

As leaders, we don't actually play an instrument. We're just making sure all the instruments come together, and there's sheet music, and everyone's playing at the right time and the right intensity, and I love this guy. He's an elderly man, and he comes alive. You wouldn't think, like when you're looking at him, And then he starts talking, you're like, oh my gosh, where does this energy come from? It's going to be awesome.

I'm very excited. And he talks about, you know, when you're hitting it right off with a team member, when their eyes are shining. And that's my favorite. And so looking for those shining eyes. Very cool. Really cool. All right, next up. All right, Craig Rochelle.

Craig Rochelle. If you don't know who Craig Rochelle is, he's the pastor of Lifechurch.tv, the largest church in our country. Now, they do a lot of simulcast, but last I heard, they've got about 40,000 active members in their church. This guy's an innovator. He's an entrepreneur who happens to be a pastor. The way he thinks about technology, the way he thinks about being relevant today in kind of a post-church world where our country's out today. This guy's an incredible speaker.

And I think he's one of the best leaders out there. It happens to be a pastor. But it's going to be really great to hear from Craig. All right. Let's go to the next one. Carly Fiorina. Carly Guys was the former president CEO of Hewlett Packard. Incredible story as a female CEO of a major,

Fortune 100 company. Talk about some lessons learned. in that leadership time period. Oh yeah. Incredible. All kinds of changes. All right. Here's our last one for now.

It's Mike Rowe. I love this guy. I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but he may be my favorite. He's a lot of fun. Have you seen his show Dirty Jobs? Oh, yeah. It's amazing. I love it.

What you may not know about Mike is he's not just the actor on Dirty Jobs hosting the shows like that, but he has a passion for entrepreneurship. He has a passion for the trade jobs and really the value of work, the importance of work, the dignity of work. and he's a blast. He's lots of fun. And check out his podcast, too. It's really funny. So we just announced, to recap, we got Damon John, Mike Roe, Cat Cole, Carly Fiorena, Craig Groschelle, Benjamin Zander. We might surprise you with someone else. We've been talking about that. Of course, our team, Dave Ramsey, the leader of leaders. Guys, I got to tell you, a lot of people know is the money guy on the radio, but he's one of the best leaders in the world.

And he teaches our playbook. Of course, Chris Hogan. Everyone in our tribe loves Chris Hogan. Christy Wright, Ken Coleman. You guys have heard Ken on our podcast for years now, and he's teaching his own content these days, and it's amazing. This lineup, I don't know if we've ever had one this good. Well, we do say it's like drinking from a fire hose. So that fire hose is just getting lots and lots and lots more speakers.

I feel like compared to our first summit where I think we had five speakers. Yeah. It's come a long ways. It's awesome. And you guys have continued to show up, and we've continued to push it to a new level every single year. So we're looking forward to seeing you guys in order. Orlando next year. Let's talk about the offer real quick. So just for our podcast listeners,

we're always trying to hook you guys up because you subscribe to the podcast. And you know, you're part of the Entree Leadership Tribe. And so you shouldn't have to pay retail if you're always listening to our podcast. Normally, it's $3,900 to come to this event. But for you guys, if you'll click the link in your show notes, we're going to take off $200 if you guys get in right away. It's going to sell out quick. We don't want you to miss it. Don't think, oh, I got $200 off and then come back in August. We're going to have to say, sorry, we know that you love listen to the podcast, but you can't come to the Entree Leadership event because we're full, and we hate that because it happens every year. So if you're driving, pull over. If you're on the

treadmill, get off, get on this thing because the train is leaving the station and you need to be there. Yes, can't wait to see you in Orlando. Okay, big thanks to Daniel and Sarah for that wrap up. Now, you just heard to mention that you can get $200 off if you register now. The offer is only good until Tuesday, May 7 at 5 p.m. Central. That's Tuesday, May 7, 5 p.m. Central. So click the link in the show notes or text the phrase, Summit 2020. That's Summit 2020. No spaces. Text that phrase to 33444. That's 33444 to get your seat today. Well, it's hard to believe that we are wrapping up Summit 2019, already looking forward to Summit 2020. On behalf of the entire Entree leadership team,

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