EntreLeadership - The Lies You Believe About Success with Tim Schurrer

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

Join us as our host, George Kamel, talks to Tim Schurrer. Tim is an author, speaker, podcast host and the former COO of StoryBrand. He shares some of the concepts from his new book, The Secret Society of Success. These include: why we often look for success in the wrong places and where to find the fulfillment we want. Later in the episode, George chats with Jeremy Breland, the executive vice president of Ramsey Personalities here at Ramsey Solutions. Jeremy talks about how to lead when you’re in a supportive role and how to keep your ego from getting in the way.   You’ll learn: Why fame shouldn’t be your goal If climbing the ladder leads to a dead end Why you don’t need to be on a stage to be successful The key to maximizing your career   Support our sponsors: BELAY: https://bit.ly/351P9AE Hite Digital: https://bit.ly/HiteDigital Kyro Digital: https://bit.ly/KyroDigital Trainual: https://bit.ly/TrainualEntre   Links mentioned in this episode: The EntreLeadership Podcast: https://bit.ly/TheEntreLeadershipPodcast The Secret Society of Success by Tim Schurrer: https://amzn.to/39HFLVp Build a Winning Team with Tim Schurrer: https://apple.co/3MVikq0 Download the Team Communication Field Guide: https://bit.ly/39uTPBo Share your feedback with Tim, our producer: https://bit.ly/3bJOSmi   Learn more about EntreLeadership Events: EntreLeadership Summit: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipSummit EntreLeadership Master Series: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipMasterSeries   Learn more about EntreLeadership Coaching: Elite: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipElite Advisory Groups: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipAdvisoryGroups Executive Coaching: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipExecutiveCoaching Workshops: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipWorkshops   Listen to all the Ramsey Network podcasts anytime, anywhere in our app. Download the Ramsey Network app: https://apple.co/3eN8jNq Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode, we're talking about a lie you've been told about having a fulfilling life and career. And then how to build trust, develop vision, and get the best out of your team. From the Ramsey Network, I'm George Camel, and this is the Entree Leadership podcast, where we help business leaders like you grow themselves, their teams, and their profits. Thanks for joining me today. We're going to kick it off with Tim Scher. He was the right-hand man to Donald Miller for almost a decade, serving as C-O-O of Storybrand. More recently, he's branched out as an author and speaker

with a new book called The Secret Society of Success. We're going to get into some of the concepts in the book, namely why we often look for success in the wrong places and a better place to find the fulfillment we're looking for. Let's jump into it. Here's my conversation with Tim. Tim, it's great to have you on the podcast. I'm so fun to be here. This is so fun.

I can tell by your face you're very excited. I love it. You're one of the happiest guys I know. We're excited to have you. And you're on a new journey here as an author in the spotlight, which, you know, plays perfectly into your book. So here's my question. As a guy who was behind the scenes for many years, I've known you for many years as Donald Miller's right-hand guy, C-O, helping Donald Miller build this amazing business that everyone knows and loves. And here you are writing a book about how you don't have to be in the spotlight as you step out into the spotlight.

What's going on there? It's a fair question. It's a very fair question. So, you know, I wrote this book, and then I'll actually kind of start with the story, and I'll get around to what you're saying. So there's this beautiful story of Apollo 11. A lot of people are familiar with it. You know, you have Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. But what a lot of people don't know, there was actually a third astronaut on that mission, and his name was Michael Collins. So after Michael, Uber's Neil and Buzz to the Moon, he drops them off so they can do these various tasks.

on the moon surface, and then he actually orbits the moon something like 26 times until these guys are ready to be picked up and everybody make their way back to Earth. So what would make this a pretty miserable story is if Michael gets with the press, you know, says something like, you know, it sure would have been nice to actually walk on the moon and, you know, acted like a victim and felt really resentful. It would have been such a human response. I feel like people would have understood. But what's beautiful about is he did not respond that way. He actually talked about how content he was to have had one of those three seats. He was happy to be part of the mission.

What I think is so interesting is that it seems as though this cultural narrative that we are all being told is that to be successful, we have to step in the spotlight, climb the ladder, be the boss. And, you know, what I've found in my time with dawn, and really over the last 15 years of my career is I've actually experienced a ton of fulfillment and contentment playing the role that I had on that team. So it is a little bit ironic that now I'm coming out in releasing a book, but for me, it just felt like I couldn't not. I had to really talk about these themes and actually show people there's another way to define success that is not everything that we're hearing

these days. It doesn't have to be money, fame power. There's a lot of ways to define success. So I'm on this journey to help people find more of that meaning and fulfillment in their lives by just thinking a little bit differently about some of the stuff that we're up against as a culture. Man, that's awesome. And that's, I mean, our leaders need to hear that message because there's this toxic leadership culture out there that says, it's not enough. You got to get to the top. You've got to be C-suite. You've got to be CEO. You've got to start your own thing. And that can be just, that can crush you if you're not careful. So in your personal and professional journey that you've been on, what's your experience been with money, fame, and power as you've been around these types

of people. Yeah. So I really wanted to be John Mayer. That was my goal whenever I was, you know, this is 15 years ago. I just thought I was going to be the guy in the lights. And, you know, I think that the way that we are all seeing this is because the one message that we are hearing is that this is the way to, you know, find that success. So if you think about it, though, and I want to make this is a very important point, these things, money, fame, power, the spotlight, that is not the problem, actually. The problem is often our intention. And so what I talk about in the book is we're up against what I call the spotlight mindset,

this unhealthy desire for tension and recognition. So when I wanted to be John Mayer, I wasn't actually trying to do all of that to make people's lives better. I just wanted to be famous. I wanted people to know my name. And so what I've learned, though, is that there's a group of people who I call the Secret Society of Success that are just showing me a new way to live and a new way to define success. And so some of these people that I've been really inspired by, it doesn't seem like they're really trying to, you know, make themselves more known.

And one of my favorite stories, you have Tim Cook, right? So Tim Cook is now the CEO of Apple, but before that, he was CEO-O-O under Steve Jobs. So Steve Jobs passes away, and Tim actually becomes the next CEO. He was the one that Steve had been grooming for that. position. So here we are at the Apple Watch launch, which is the first new product release since Steve's passing. And they had released other iPhones and computers since that time, but this is the first new product and new category. So here Tim is being interviewed on national television, and, you know, he's asked, is this the moment for you, the moment of your career at Apple?

And what would you expect Tim to say? If you were Tim in that moment, how do you respond? Well, you're probably thinking back on the journey that you've been on and wanting to use this as an opportunity to show everyone why you're the man for the job, why you now are the one that we all should be looking to. What's amazing is he doesn't respond that way. So when asked, is this the moment for you, the moment of your career at Apple?

He says, it's a moment for Apple. I don't really think about myself that much. Wow. Getting to hear these stories of these people, in the secret society that are actually given opportunities like that to revel in the spotlight. And in fact, they choose another path. That's so inspiring to me. So I've been on this journey from wanting to be the next John Mayer, wanting to be famous to, oh my goodness, maybe there's another way.

And this is very important here. The people at the top, the CEO, these people can be in the secret society just as every other kind of supporting role and supporting player. So what separates those in the secret society, it's not a position on the org chart, is actually the posture in which they do their work. And so here you have the CEO of one of the largest companies in the world modeling the way of the secret society by not needing the credit. So I've been on this path of redefining success, and I'm actually trying to head more towards the Michael Collins' of the world, the Tim Cooks of the world, and defining success and doing my work

a little bit more in alignment with what they have modeled for me. Wow, that's incredible. Yeah, when you can take the ego out of the picture and focus on the impact and the influence that you can have, that's when you become a world changer instead of just a household name,

which is what most people are going after. Yes. It's just that fame. So people think when they get to this mountain top, when they get there, they're going to have everything. They're going to have happiness and fulfillment. And yet a lot of the times

we see this with celebrities all the time, it's not there. Why do you think that is? I think for a lot of us, we just need to ask, like, what is it that makes me happy? You know, there's this study that was done at Harvard, and what they did is they studied people, you know, through their adulthood, from the time they were in college all the way up until, you know, some of these people who were in this original study that launched, like, the 1930s, they've been studying these people their whole lives, and they've been tracking crazy amounts of metrics, looking for trends. And really, it's the world's longest study on happiness. And because of the fact that it's been going on for as long as it has, they have so much data to really show what is it that does make people happy. And what they found is regardless of these people's financial position, the jobs that they had, what they discovered through this study was that relationships keep us happier and healthier.

So we might think that it's money, fame, power, but actually, it's relationships. So one of the ways that we can live in the way of the secret society is through this idea of helping others win. What if instead of thinking about things through the what's in it for me perspective, constantly be asking like, okay, what am I going to get out of this? What if we ask a different question? And I learned this different question when I heard Andy Stanley, who's an amazing communicator and leader, speak at a conference in Atlanta.

And he said, you know, when we're trying to find our purpose, when we're trying to find meaning, we shouldn't be asking questions like what's in it for me. We should actually ask this instead, who am I here for? So that simple shift from what's in it for me to who am I here for still allows us to live into our skill set, the gifts that we have to do our thing in our life and our work,

but it just puts a totally different perspective on how and why we do that work. Who am I here for is others focused, right? And so I actually at my office at Storybrand, I had an eight and a half by 11 piece of paper that I made after I heard Andy Stanley say all this. And right at the top, I put who am I here for? And I actually put pictures of each of our employees

and their families and their names. So on those days when you feel so busy, you have a full day of meetings, you just want to walk in the door and just beeline at your desk and get cranking. And there's a time for that, of course. In those moments when I felt that pressure, I really wanted to go from the, you know,

what's in it for me mindset to a who am I here for mindset. And I would just even take that walk to my desk and be like, all right, Tim, who is showing up for today? You know, who am I here for? And that to me is one of the ways that I've, I just found more fulfillment and contentment, the stuff that is longer lasting, asking who am I here for, helping others win, being servant-minded,

that is the stuff that I feel like is really going to last. Yeah, it reminds me of, you know, Ken Coleman, one of our Ramsey personalities, at the end of his clear path to doing work you love is to give yourself away. And at the end of Dave Ramsey's baby steps, it's outrageous generosity. It's all about giving to others and others focused. And that creates so much more meaning than more revenue, more money, more fame, more power, more success. So I love what you're saying. That's a great reminder for leaders listening to make that eight and a half by 11 for themselves.

Of who's your team? Who are you serving? Who are their families? That's what keeps you showing up. Great reminders there. So in the book, you talk about the spotlight mindset. What was the moment you realized that climbing this ladder was a dead end? Yeah.

So in this journey to become the next John Mayer, I was actually on this tour with a friend of my name, Steve Mocler. And this was early on when I was just trying to figure out what it was that I wanted to do with my life, chase this dream. And, you know, he and I are on this tour. And what I was experiencing during this was Steve was not even trying. And the people in the audience were singing his songs. He was selling three to four times as much merchandise as I was every night. And the spotlight mindset in those moments just had me caught in a comparison trap. You know, I felt like my success was how I was doing in relation to him. When you're in your early 20s, it's a pretty difficult situation.

You're trying to figure out who you are and you're looking to others to help define success and your own value. So, you know, the spotlight minds has us, you know, comparing ourselves to others. But what I've learned over the last, you know, 15 years as I've navigated this journey is it's not so much about, you know, comparing ourselves to others as much as it is kind of focusing on what it is that defines success for us. And, you know, what is it that really lights us up and gives us passion? And so what actually I've learned over this time is I started to do more work behind the scenes. I realized in that tour, I got as much enjoyment and fulfillment out of organizing the logistics of the tour than I did singing songs and performing on a stage. And so this journey has led me to start to see, okay, you know, there's this verse in Psalms. Psalm 374 says, delight in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart.

So I started to look at that verse through the lens of, okay, if God is the one giving me these desires, then I should be paying attention to how my desires change over time. So this desire to be in the spotlight, all of a sudden started to shift, and I realized, oh, my gosh, I'm passionate about the logistics and the details and all of that. And now fast forward to, you know, 10 years from that moment, here I am as a behind-the-scenes guy running operations for a business like Storybrand and working with Dawn. And I just found so much fulfillment and enjoyment playing that role, not comparing myself to others and trying to be something that I really didn't want to be necessarily. So it's that path that we all kind of navigate and go

through. But for me, that pivotal moment started to happen when I just started to see my desire shifting and I'm experiencing this tension of this comparison. And you just start to pay attention to these things. And I think it can help us navigate that path a little bit easier. Yeah, you kind of rise above it and go, okay, what is actually happening? Yeah. Because what's funny is as you were talking, I was like, there's a guy out there who would give anything to go on tour with Steve Mocler. And Steve Mocler's probably thinking, I would give anything to be that next guy in the arenas, and it never ends, right? So that's a great reminder there. So as a leader, they're already in this elevated position, if you're leading a team. There's already

an elevation there. It can be easy to fall into these traps that you're talking about. How do we go from being power-driven to problem-focused like you're talking about? In 2020, so here's the sports, you know, for all the sports people, there. Here's a little sports story. Feels like a personal attack thing. Thank you. I didn't want to say, Georgia, are we into sports? I didn't want to. Sure. I can go there with you. Okay, okay. So, 2020, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers win the NBA finals.

And so there's another trophy that's given out in the NBA at the end of every season to the scoring leader. And it's a big deal to be the scoring leader. Michael Jordan won this award 10 times, record setting 10 times. So you have a guy like LeBron James. He has all the skill and talent in the world to be the scoring leader. But what I think is interesting is in 2020, the year they win the finals, LeBron didn't win the scoring title. In fact, he wasn't in the top five even. But what LeBron James did win, he was the assist leader. So what that says to me is the way he chose to play the game

and ultimately how he and his team won was because he focused on the assist. So as a leader, you know, we talked a little bit about this, the what's in it for me mindset can just shape us so much. But what if we started to think about how do we operate and live in the assist? How do we actually see leadership, not as a power play and a place that allows us to be served by more people, but actually what if leadership and these positions of influence give us the opportunity to serve more people, not less? So this shift, I think, for us is to go from that, this is all about me to a

What if success is in the assist, right? So every day we are up against decisions where we have to choose how we're going to live. So what I talk about in the book is we're operating in this tension between the spotlight mindset and living in the way of the secret society. And it's exactly that. It's not a problem to solve. It's a tension to manage. And so tensions to manage, you know, another way to think about this is there's not a problem.

a day that we wake up and say, you know, guys, I'm like, Jesus, I did it. You've made it. I did it. That point never happens. We have to make decisions along the way to help us navigate. Are we going to live one way or the other? And I think this tension between the spotlight mindset and living the way of the secret society is exactly that.

So you're going to be up today, you know, anyone listening, you're going to be up against a decision today where you're going to be tempted to make it about you. Are you going to do that? or are you going to maybe take that elevated road and say, how can I be about the assist today? How can I help somebody else win? How can I have this who am I here for mentality, right? How can I be like a Michael Collins and just see that there is power

and meaning being a part of the team, not necessarily worrying about how you're perceived by others or if you're seen as a leader who is, quote, successful, right? So it's these decisions that I think that we make every day that really just start to shape this path that ultimately I hope we head towards, you know, that side of living in the way of the secret society. Yeah, that was powerful.

So, Tim, on this podcast, we're all about helping leaders grow themselves, their teams, and their profits. So how do we keep ourselves in check as we become more successful and money, fame, and power maybe become a byproduct of our leadership? Yeah.

So you have Blake Mike Koski started Tom's shoes, right? And so here is the guy who founded this, you know, idea of one-for-one. You know, that one-for-one business model has shaped so many people. Warby Parker, so many people have copied since then. And it's been wildly successful. The guy sold, you know, in the company, they sold 95 million pairs of shoes. Wow.

What's so beautiful to me about that story, though, is he didn't get there by trying to get there. He never got there by saying, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to create a revolutionary business idea here and sell 95 million pairs of shoes. Like, here we go. That's just not the intention. In fact, Tom started because he went to Argentina and met some kids in a village that didn't

have shoes. And if they didn't have shoes, they couldn't go to school. So his goal as just a philanthropic experiment was to help get 250 pairs of shoes for these kids in a village. So he gets back to L.A. after spending a little bit of time in Argentina and not only sells that $250,000. 50 pair, but this idea kind of starts to spread like wildfire. On their first giving trip, what they call a shoe drop, they gave away 10,000 pairs of shoes. And so I think for a lot of us,

when we're trying to have an impact on our teams, when we're trying to have an impact with the work that we do, it's really easy to believe this lie that we need a stage or a platform or be more known to really do something. And, you know, the people that I've been really inspired by in the Secret Society are people like Blake who actually just kind of live in this idea of what is what if one life was enough like would that be enough for you you know would one life be enough or do you feel like you have to influence hundreds or thousands to actually have a successful life in a career and so as we think about the work that we want to do you know if we focus on that one life is enough kind of, you know, a guiding light.

Who knows what can happen. But let's be more focused on the process than the result. And I think that these things, not really worrying so much about how others are perceiving us or the success through everyone else's eyes, but kind of fall in love with the work, focusing on one life at a time, being others focused, serving others.

I think these are the things that are going to bring about kind of that true success in a way that we might not get if we're focused on, you know, some of these other things that culture is trying to scream at us is, you know, success. Man, some incredible reminders there. I hope every leader listening shares this with their team to listen because it may be important for those team members who are maybe thinking about climbing that ladder and getting to that next phase versus, hey, how can I make an impact?

Who can I serve today? Having a posture of that intentionality. That's incredible stuff, man. I'm so excited for your new book. I hope we have many more members join the Secret Society of Success, and I appreciate you being on the podcast today. It's my pleasure. So fun. Thank you, Tim, for a great conversation, super pumped about your new book, The Secret Society of Success. If you all want to check it out and grab a copy for yourself, you can use the link in the show notes.

Now, Tim talked about how you don't have to be in the spotlight to be successful. But being in a supportive role has its fair share of challenges. We're going to have a conversation about that right after this. All right, coming up, I talk with Jeremy Breeland, our executive vice president of personalities. Now, he leads the Ramsey personalities team, who are the front-facing team members like myself, Ken Coleman, Dr. John Deloney, that teach the Ramsey principles on our shows

and at our live events. And we're going to talk about how to lead in a supportive role and not let your ego get in the way. Here's my conversation with Jeremy. Jeremy, it is so great to have you on the podcast. Good to be here, George. So you are my fearless leader, and it is an honor to get to grill you for once.

This is going to be good. We'll see. TBD. you're the executive vice president over the personalities team, which means you are definitely in a supportive role for people who are in the spotlight. And I imagine that's had its challenges over the years. And I know your heart, you're an incredible guy, but there's got to have been times where this has been kind of a difficult thing to grapple with, dealing with people in the spotlight

and supporting them. What have you found to be the biggest challenge? Well, you know, for me, the biggest challenge I think was finding what's my role in all of this because I never felt like I was called to be a personality. I was never called to be on stage. I was never created to do that. So I think a lot of people look at it and go, man, that must be tough to be in a supportive role where, you know, maybe you want to be up there. But that's not really ever what I felt like I was supposed to do. I feel like I'm in my sweet spot doing the thing that I'm supposed to do. So that's never really been a challenge for me. Probably one of the

bigger challenges for me because I've had the opportunity to lead our personalities now, really, since we started this 10 years ago. And for probably five years, six years of that, I was the only brand leader. I was the only brand manager for all of our personalities. So the harder thing for me, I think, was handing off the role of brand leading to other folks because I really loved what I did.

And so, you know, when you begin to delegate something that you love, that can be a challenge. If you don't like it, like that's easy to hand that over and say, oh, I want somebody else to do this. But for me, the challenge really was because I love to be, in this role, do what I'm doing, work on their personalities. When I brought on brand leaders that began working with them day to day, that was a little bit of challenge for me. I had to, I had to check myself and go, no, this thing doesn't scale with me brand leading all these folks. I've got to be

able to hand this off so that this can grow and really become a succession plan that works. And that involved a lot of delegation, it involved a lot of trust, and probably some grappling of ego going, oh, I wouldn't have done it that way. I probably could have done that better. was there a piece of that where you had to let go of some things? I don't really think I ever saw it that way. I mean, for me, I always viewed my role working with personalities. Like, I got the best of both worlds because I was in a seat that I felt really comfortable and really confident in, something that I felt like I was created to do.

But I also got a front row seat to the life change that was happening out there in the marketplace. I got to see what was happening with our personalities interacting with people out there. The challenge for me, I think, it took me a little while to realize an important aspect of my role was to get out there into the marketplace with our personalities. So when Entree Leadership Summit happens or when our smart conference happens, I go to those events. I spend a lot of time in meetings and I spend a lot of time doing email. So for me to get out in the marketplace and actually begin to see the eyes of the people that this content is impacting, I can see light bulbs start to go on. I can see eyes start to shine. For me, that's fuel to keep going.

So I did realize that I had to get out there and, in my own way, interact with the audience, but not from stage. But when I'm there talking to people at intermission before the event or after the event, that's a really important part of the role for me. And it's kind of fuel to come back and sit in the meetings and do all of the emails and work with their personalities. But I think because I was never confused about what my role was, I never really had to battle some ego thing where I was like,

oh, I want to be up there. That isn't really how it felt. And I think folks that are created to do the work that I'm doing don't really feel that way, but it would be a struggle for somebody that was created to be on stage to sit in the role that I'm in. Yeah. That's so good, not to be confused. Yeah.

And that's where, you know, KRA's coming to play and you're calling and your mission and understanding those things, being self-aware, are so important. I love that reminder for people who might be in those roles to still stay connected to the impact to the people who are on the front lines. And, you know, whether it's a stage or not, if you're on. a sales call, you're still talking to the customers. And so staying plugged into that to remember, oh, yeah, that's why I'm doing this. We're making real impact. Yep, it's huge. So when you're in a role that's in the spotlight, you tend to get all of the accolades, the credit, the applause, the praise,

the appreciation. You rarely get that in a supportive role. What have you cultivated inside of you to be able to lead through service in that way? I mean, for me, again, it was just, it probably took me, you know, 10 years in my career to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. But, When I got to Ramsey, I realized the work that I had done up to that point in my life, I really felt like led to this point where I had had a lot of different positions, different roles that put me in a position to be able to lead our personalities in every area of their life, not just in the speaking aspect or publishing or media, one of those. And so for me, it really was beginning to understand what I'm supposed to do.

Like, what do I feel like I'm called to do? You know, Collins talks about being in the right seat on the bus. Ken Coleman talks about the intersection of talent, mission, and passion. And for me, it took me some time, probably until I was in my late 30s to figure that out. But I think the same kind of reward or satisfaction that you get when you come off stage or when you finish a radio show or something like that, I get that same kind of satisfaction in the role that I'm in. It's just doing something different.

It's just knowing what you're supposed to do and then just going after that with everything you got. So there's a piece of this where you have to check yourself and go, Why am I feeling this way? Okay, that's what that is. Now I can go look in the mirror and deal with that guy and not put it on someone else and have that resentment that can bubble up in some of these situations. So that's what I want to get into. A lot of this can lead to resentment. You've got to grapple with ego. Obviously, you haven't had to grapple with that a lot because, like you mentioned, you're not confused and you're in your sweet spot. But for those that are in the supportive role and they're feeling like, man, I got to climb the ladder. If I was just in that role and people could see me, I would be what I want to be. What would you encourage that person with? I would say just focus on where you're at. Like if you kill it where you're at, the rest of that stuff's going to take care of itself. You know, for me, I never here at Ramsey or elsewhere, I never really sought out the next thing, the next promotion, the next role. My mission was in whatever role I was in to bring everything I had to that and be excellent at it. And when I did that, the next thing just happened.

And like that opportunity found me. I didn't have to go jockey for it. I think a lot of people spent so much time, wasting time, trying to jockey and position themselves and put themselves in a position to be able to get the next interview or have the right conversation with the right person. They get distracted from the thing that they should actually be focused on doing and killing it at. And so that for me was just the key is to be focused where I was at, doing my best there,

and then waiting for that opportunity to come. And then when it did, I was ready. and I wasn't confused. Yeah, I've seen that happen time and time again here at Ramsey. The people who have moved on, moved up in their roles and in new positions, it always happens because they're crushing it in their current KRA, not because they're distracted over here with something they want to do. They're crushing in the KRA.

People notice that, leaders notice that, and they give them more opportunity. Right, exactly. And I think it's also about understanding what the opportunities are around you. So for me, I saw things that were maybe not directly in my KRA that were, but that were closely connected to what I was doing, where I could solve a problem or I could bring value. And I didn't look at it and go, well, that's not exactly right here. So I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to stay in my little sandbox.

When you're looking for opportunities to solve problems for an organization like Ramsey, people are going to notice that. And so by doing that, you put yourself in a position, too, to become more valuable to the organization. And so that's another thing that I would do is just go, you know, here's an area that I could help Ramsey Global. it may not be directly in the personalities area, but there's a need over here, and this is something that I may be uniquely qualified to do,

I'm going to go help with this thing. And doing things like that inevitably helps your cause and you become more valuable and create more opportunities for yourself. Yeah, when you see a problem out there and you're on mission of that organization, everyone's going to notice. It's amazing how that works.

Okay, so as we wrap here, a lot of people out there may be feeling underappreciated or unseen in their work, if they're kind of behind the scenes, what would you say to someone who's feeling that way to encourage them? I think we've all felt that at times. I know I felt that way.

I think for me, what I've tried to do in my career is when I have felt that way, maybe unseen, underappreciated or whatever, I would take something that mattered to me. So, like, for example, if I really enjoy getting, it means a lot to me to get a handwritten note. And maybe I could sit back and be thinking,

man, I'm not getting any handwritten notes from anybody. one thing I could do is just sit down and write some handwritten notes to some people. What matters to you? What's something that's important to you? You know, I would know when somebody would come up to me after a staff meeting announcement or something to go, hey, great job and staff meeting today. That would mean a lot to me. So like if I can go replicate that behavior for other people, it does a couple of things.

Number one, it takes my focus off of me. It causes me to go, you know, to stop thinking about what I'm not getting. But the other thing it does that I think is more important is it helps to create a culture, of seeing people and appreciating people. So you're actually beginning to create the culture that you want. Inevitably, that ends up coming back to you. And so I think it's just important not to get focused on me and what I'm missing and what others aren't doing from me.

Just go out there and do that for other people. And it's interesting how once you take your eye off of yourself and you begin creating that culture, you end up seeing it come back. man these are some great reminders some great encouragement for the listeners out there i uh have had the pleasure of working with you now for nine years which is amazing and i've gotten to see how this plays out you're 14 you got here i know it feels like i was just a child and here we are today which is amazing and i've just loved seeing you grow as a leader as a mentor as a champion for our personalities team for this organization and i'm just so grateful to have you on the podcast today i appreciate it

George has been fun to watch your journey here too and see what you're doing today. Thank you. Thank you so much, Jeremy, for sharing some wisdom. You all can see why I love this guy as my leader. No matter what your role is, a big part of leading is communication. And we've all got room for improvement in that area. So to kickstart your growth, our team has put together the communication field guide. This is going to help you and your team have better conversations, build trust, and lead with clarity.

We've got a link to this free guide for you in the show notes. Hope you enjoyed today's episode of the show. If you did, I want to challenge you to share this with three people on your team or in your circle. And if you really enjoyed it, leave us a review and tell us what you love about it. And there's one guy in particular who would love to hear what you think about this podcast. And his name is Tim, and he's the producer. He wants to know what you like, what you don't like, and what improvements we should make. If you want to help us make this podcast even better, you can use the link in the show notes to connect with our producer, Tim.

If you want to keep up with us on social media, you can follow us at Entra. Leadership. This episode was produced by Tim Hull, edited by Jacob Harrison, and mixed and mastered by Will Rudder. I'm your host, George Camel, and on behalf of the entire Entree Leadership team, thanks for listening. Until next time, keep learning and keep leading. If you enjoy this podcast, you should check out other great podcasts from the Ramsey Network, like the Rachel Cruz show. Money should be fun, not stressful. I'm Rachel Cruz, and I'll show you practical tips on how to save money in your everyday life and get out of debt even fast. on The Rachel Cruz Show. I'll show you that you can take control of your money and create a life you love. Listen to the Rachel Cruz show wherever you listen to podcasts.