No Broke Months For Salespeople - How Great Leaders Build High-Performance Teams With Clear Expectations- Stop Trying to be a Good Leader (Mat Lewczenko)

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

What you’ll learn in this episode: ● Why leadership starts with keeping promises to yourself ● The difference between being kind and being a good leader ● Why great leaders teach people how to think instead of telling them what to do ● How clear expectations simplify leadership conversations ● The role of vision and mission when building an organization ● Why accountability and candor are essential for high-performing teams 👉 Don’t miss out! Sign up here:https://link.cpi-crm.com/widget/form/bJZ4NbRp6ZpSVgGoNb4j?notrack=truehttps://link.cpi-crm.com/widget/form/bJZ4NbRp6ZpSVgGoNb4j?notrack=truehttps://link.cpi-crm.com/widget/form/bJZ4NbRp6ZpSVgGoNb4j?notrack=true Shadow Hour Updates to get the latest updates and reminders for our Shadow Hour sessions. Stay informed, stay ahead! To find out more about Dan Rochon and the CPI Community, you can check these links:Website: No Broke MonthsPodcast: No Broke Months for Salespeople PodcastInstagram: @donrochonxFacebook: Dan RochonLinkedIn: Dan RochonTeach to Sell Preorder: Teach to Sell: Why Top Performers Never Sell – And What They Do Instead

You're listening to No Broke Months for Salespeople Podcast. He is the EXP Regional Director of Growth. I'm going to say probably Midwest. Yeah, they have me covering all the flyover states from Arkansas and Oklahoma all the way up to North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. So all the beautiful Midwest states. All right. I was going to say Midwest because I wasn't sure.

So I was just saying Midwest. Yeah. So Matt is going to talk to us about leadership. And my definition of leadership that I go through in the book is that you teach somebody else how to think so they can get what they want. That's my definition of leadership. Matt, how do you relate to that? And what would you like to share with us about leadership? You know, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to come in here and, you know, had an opportunity to sneak peek on the book.

And I love everything that you put in there and put together. And, you know, what's fun about leadership is interestingly enough, even though I've worn a lot of different hats in a lot of capacities at several different companies, leadership's one of those funny things where you either are striving for the title or you never feel like it, right? Or you don't even know you're doing it. And I think that's probably one of the things that I think stands out with great leaders is they never see themselves as leaders. They see themselves as more of like partners. And great leadership is, well, great leadership stands out in the sense that you can really identify bad leadership. And I think a lot of times the bad leadership that stands out is management. And like, we think everyone on the call has an example of a time that they were led poorly.

And when I think about, you know, your quote. specifically, right, teaching people how to think so they can get what they want, especially when they want it. It's the way that leadership was presented to me. And, you know, one of the models of leadership that I love most, and I mean, if you could go into any of John Maxwell's 37 books and all the levels and all the lids and all the laws. And yet, the leaders that I follow the most are leaders of authenticity, leaders of results, people that I follow through, vulnerability and transparency. And the best leadership that I've seen is leaders of self who lead by example,

not necessarily having to do exactly what you've done. And yet you see, you see their systems and processes in action on the daily. Those leaders have also great boundaries. They have high emotional intelligence and EQ. They can handle difficult conversations and situations with grace and candor at the same time. Right. And so, you know, I think oftentimes people raise themselves in the positions of leadership a little ahead of when they've earned the opportunity.

And that can create some challenges. And yeah, so I love this topic. And there's a reason why there's an entire industry around this topic. And so I want to give you the opportunity to kind of dig deep. And let's let's tackle specifically how we can bring this conversation to a life for your people. What's the, is leadership something that you can learn or is there something that you're born with? What do you think? I instantly immediately start like thinking about my daughters.

And I think like what, nature versus nurture, right? I think interestingly enough, like environment plays a huge role. I would say though that like I have a desire to serve and help others. That doesn't necessarily make me a leader. Definitely I think there were some leadership principles and I'm learning on how. how to be a better leader every single day. So I think there are very specific qualities, tactics, and strategies that you can implement to be a better leader. And yet I think at the core of it, for me, leadership and strong leadership really comes from service and elevating

others and helping others at the highest level. So that, I believe, has helped me at my core. However, I mean, there's some great leaders that maybe they're going to say that that's not necessarily their like intrinsic motivation or thread. And yet they do a good, job at it, but maybe that's not natural. Maybe they had to learn how to be a better servant leader as opposed to other qualities. So my leadership, like the way my leadership leads is through service. And then I definitely had had to bring on some skills along the way too. So you talk about nurturing nature. I mentioned to the audience earlier today that my daughter's adopted. and when I think about my job,

like my mission in life, my mission in business is to help a million business owners to have consistent predictable income. My business in life is to have love. My mission with my daughter is to open up the doorways so that she can step through them, encourage and prod and gently, you know, appropriately for her to walk.

through that door and make sure that the pathway is cleared in front of her. So when I think about my daughter, because she has zero nature from me, so as a leader, leader as a dad, right, I'm leading my daughter. My perception is that I want my daughter to be able to reach the threshold, the highest level that our nature will allow for her to have. So there is this piece in my perception. I go through in the book and I talk about this about how. as a leader, you may have a certain level, a ceiling of achievement.

Yet, are you obtaining that level of achievement and then becomes the paradox? How would you know? Right? Like, how would you know that you're stretching the furthest you could possibly stretch if there's another level to be able to stretch? Right. You never know that. So what I'm going to encourage the audience today is just to believe whatever it is,

whether it's leadership, which is a skill, if it's organization building, which is a skill or general belief in yourself, that there is another level and there is something to learn. The last thing I want to say about leadership that I talk about in the book, and then I want to bring Matt back into this is leadership doesn't necessarily mean good intention. There are leaders who have been horrific in history that have led civilizations to destroy each other from bad intention.

So understand that leadership is really teaching somebody else. You know, it's what a lot of people think is getting people to follow you. That's one description of a leader. And now I did that because I don't think it's healthy. So I've seen something that I've learned and I know that Matt had learned as well. And I know where we learned this is to teach somebody else how to think so they get what they want when they want it, as Matt would say. And so what are your thoughts about what I'm sharing with you, you know, I know I just threw a whole jumble of words at you, Matt.

But what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, comes to mind and going back to, you know, I think as parents, we always want what's best for our kids. And sometimes we mess up in that capacity as leaders by removing the resistance that caused us to have to level up in order to overcome what we needed to, to where we are today, right? There's a statement. There was a quote. I can't recall who said it.

I think I heard it for Jordan Peterson at one. one point. And he talked about, um, hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create, create, create hard times. Right. And, um, well, thanks a lot for that paradox, Matt. So all I'm simply saying is that some, like for my kids, I think, you know, one of my responsibilities as their leader is to be the level of resistance at times when they need it here with support so that they can overcome the natural resistance. it's going to hit them in the world, right? And it's through a level of accountability.

And it's through that, that partnership with them as their parent to say. And you talk about like good versus kind, right? Like, I'm not like, I'm a good person, but I'm not always kind, right? And so like kindness sometimes misses that level of candor and accountability conversation that someone needs to succeed. And kind people love people out of the business. I'm a good leader, which means not I'm not always going to be kind.

However, that kindness is going to be with that that look of kindness, if you will, is going to be done with permission through expectations. So whenever anyone gets into a relationship with me as a leader, I think one of the biggest opportunities we have as leaders is have we set clear expectations with our organization. And what does that mean? It's like, okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, when these things happen, how candid would you like me to be?

How direct would you like me to be? like, and here's what I would also expect a need from you. And so knowing who our people are, what level of candor and accountability that they're prepared for can really digest or process is important. And same thing with, with, you know, my, my, my, is at the same time is that, but then there's sometimes where I'm just like, hey, you know what? I have to put that hat off for a second. I just got to be that.

Yeah. And just. And say, hey, who do you need right now? Do you just want somebody to talk to? Do you need a vent? And then let it happen. And then I invite them to say, hey, when you're ready and you want to talk through options and strategies, I'm here.

You know who I am. You know what I do. Or do you want me to get you with somebody that can give you a third party opinion because it's not for me? Because like it doesn't matter if I say it or somebody else. Somebody else says the exact same thing I said. They're genius. And so just knowing when to step in and out of that as well. Right.

So going back to care versus candor, kindness versus being nice. or being good versus kind. All of those, that's part of that EQ that's required of high level leaders. And it's not simply enough to just say, well, this is my behavioral style. AM AM, you flex to me. No, that's crap. Crap that's lazy and that's really low EQ as a leader. That's a limited leader conversation.

No one can, like, the only behavior you control is me. And so if I want to be super effective as a leader, I really need to understand how best to lead the people in my world. And so I have to flex my behavior, right? Like my like for instance, as as a creator, as a fast start, I have to be surrounded by integrators and executioners. Right. I can't have the same conversation. I'm going to have in a room full of salespeople as a room full of hunters as I need to with everybody in my world who are skinners, processes, and packages. Like that's a different conversation.

I've got to have a different lead time and also expectations and also expectations and And also making sure that they understand I will be here for support and adjustments as needed. So you let me know, right? Like I can't just go and be like, everything sucks. We got to fix everything now and go and do it. And they go, ah, we quit. So. So, yeah.

One of the things that I've learned in leadership, and it goes back to the organization building. So when you look at the pieces that are taught and teach to sell, they all go like in the order. It's a linear order, right? So you first believe in yourself, then you have to go. find business, then you have to go to get the support around your business. And now we're talking about leadership. But leadership applies to getting, you know, to getting business. It applies to your leading clients to hire your prospects to become clients, rather.

You're leading clients to be able to do what they need to do so that you can get to the finish line, et cetera. What I've learned in leading is that it goes back into building the organization and having a clarity on who you are, who you need to be in business with and be able to support you. And then do you have a vision to be able to there? So before you even hire the right people, you need to know where you're going. That's your vision. Because great leaders, they don't just hire employees.

They recruit believers in a bigger mission. So your vision is a foundation that attracts, that aligns, that retains the best talent. and having that vision is critical of knowing where you're going to go. So vision, the word vision in business means where are you going? Mission. The word mission and business means how are you going to get there? Okay. So you have to understand where am I going and how am I going to get there.

And now I'm going to align myself with the right people. And then Matt, you said about now set expectations with them. So now the conversation becomes very, very easy. If you're running a business and you set expectations and we agreed on the expectations, then you're either fulfilling the expectations or you're not. If you're not, I'm going to look this way first. Am I giving you all the tools, all the resources, all the training, all the development that you need to succeed? And if the answer to that is yes, and you're still not succeeding, I'm still going to look this way.

And I'm going to say, I made a mistake. I put the wrong person in that position. And then my intuition is going to say, is there another seat on the bus for this person to be in? And if the answer to that is no, then I'm still going to look in this direction. I'm going to say, I put the wrong person on the wrong seat of the bus. I don't have another seat on the bus.

Who do I know that may be looking for somebody for this person that may have the right seat on their bus? okay and now i may or may not have that that connection and if i don't then we just have to part ways but it's very very because we agreed on what we're what person's going to do they either do it or they don't do it now we've got a very clear objective model to be able to follow and that's the model that i go through and teach to self you've got a clear pathway of what to do and how to do it so now your job becomes easy so now you're with your people on a weekly basis you say well we said you do we do three widgets and you've done zero

what do you need? I need this boss. Okay, great. Next week, we said you've done three and you said you needed this. I gave it to you. Where are we? I've done zero. And you keep having that conversation.

And at one point, you're just going to look at them with what I call the hairy eyeball. You're going to be like, all right, well, what are we going to do here? And it allows for you to improve performance and allows for you to not be set up so that you are in a position to struggle. Matt, I threw a whole bunch at you again that time. What you got for that? And then we'll introduce the deal out, Curtis. You know, going back to the beginning, just like you said, is leadership starts with self first. It's lead yourself to do the things that you know you should do when the feeling of it is now gone, right?

And so are you able to lead yourself? Are you able to hold the promises and commitments that you made to yourself first? Because no one's going to follow you if you can't keep your own commitments to yourself by saying, I'm going to show up every day. I'm going to do this by this day. I'm going to follow my calendar. I'm going to make sure that I'm, you know, following my, my productive activities first. Create your own results.

Then you've earned the opportunity to help others produce their results, right? And then so, and then once you start showing proof of getting other people results, then you start to turn those people into leaders of other people's results. And then all of a sudden you start getting a track record for that. You start attracting high level talent from all over because now your reputation is someone who delivers results and helps other people grow into their results as well. So it all starts with self. And the thing is, is that I think one of the biggest obstacles and challenges for leadership for, for some of the people on this call, myself included, is you let yourself off the hook for seemingly

insignificant promises you make for yourself. However, those are the, around the way you lack like commitment to your own promises leaks into your leadership. People. see it. High performers can know when you're full of it. Top performers can identify when you're just a rhetoric and you're just a leader who quotes versus a leader who performs, period. If you have challenges with that, it starts, are you keeping your promises first? I think you realize that on the last break I was debating with myself because we're going to four o'clock Eastern time. My gym class starts at 4.30 and it's a 20-minute, commute from here to there.

So I was debating with myself whether if I should keep that small commitment to myself or not. And then Matt, through his extraordinary leadership, thank you, Dorothy, for the fist up. Through Matt's extraordinary leadership, just gave me the answer to my own question. So thank you for demonstrating that leadership to remind me that the small commitments make big differences. I'm on a mission to help one million people to sell without sell. by teaching them how to think through teach to sell. Thank you for being a part of that mission.

And to be able to spread the word, I'm going to have a very simple request of you. Give me a five-star review because that's going to help us to be able to reach more salespeople, more entrepreneurs, more business people who are looking for consistent, predictable income so that they can start building their faith in their selves today. So just take a second.

Five-star review, cost you nothing. Thanks so much. Love you to death.