The Ryan Leak Podcast - Mamba Mentality

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

Season 2 is us going through Ryan Leak's book Chasing Failure and giving insights on how followers can embrace risk-taking in their work environments. In this episode, we talk about what Ryan learned from his time with late great Kobe Bryant.

Welcome to followership with Ryan Leak, a podcast designed to equip followers with the tools they need to succeed in the workplace. You might be following or working for a good, a bad, or a mediocre leader. But the good news is the type of leader you have doesn't have to determine a type of follower. You can become. Ladies and gentlemen, we certainly did take a hiatus. I had a book come out called Chasing Failure. I have another book coming out. I can't tell you all the details about that.

But stay tuned. We got some really great content. I'm excited about next year and been speaking a lot, been coaching a lot, been doing a lot. And you know what? Maybe you're like me and you're one of those individuals who thought the pandemic was over, except it wasn't. So I've been a long year for a lot of people, and I am in the business of doing my very best to add value to the lives of other people. And so we did take a little bit of a hiatus from this particular podcast. I have another one called Lifecast that we have done some pre-recording for.

And so we have been in the booth going, we've got to fire up the grill. again on followership. And this is season two of followership, helping followers figure out what to do in their environments, regardless of the kind of leader that they have. And this is a podcast all about ownership and you really owning your part in an organization. And so this particular season, my dear friend Lacey Stenson has interviewed me based off of my book chasing failure and has asked, I'm really, really great. questions each chapter. And so today, we're going to look at chapter two and Lacey asked some

fantastic questions. Ryan, you have a whole chapter in your book dedicated to Kobe, which I think is so beautiful. I didn't realize so much of that story. But for context, before we get into it, can you talk about why Kobe is such a big influence in your life and why? Yeah. Yeah. You know, whenever it's funny as a, as a, I've never been a, like a team fan in terms of like sport. Like I love players. Like I love Peyton Manning. I love Tim Duncan. I love Michael Jordan.

But I could never, you know, say I was a Colts fan or a Broncos fan or a Spurs fan, you know. Sure. I just, I would, I would find something. I remember the first time I. became a Peyton Manning fan. It was fourth and two, and the special teams comes out to kick a field gold or to punt, and he waved them off. And I went, yeah.

And like, I just, I'm like, that's my guy. Like, he, like, I just went like, hey, I'm, we're good. I just, and I used to be against Kobe and Shaq, because I didn't like Shaq. So I hated the Lakers at one point. But when Shaq left, I just felt like I could relate to Kobe in that like, hey, it's me versus the world. Let's go.

It's just like, like. And so I became a Kobe fan actually in college right when I started playing college basketball. And just, you know, I remember where I was sitting. when he scored 81 points and, you know, just became a big fan of his whole career and just, you know, this is way before the age of super teams or anything like that, where it was just, you know, every night, you know, if that team had a superstar, you know, it could be a very, very entertaining, entertaining night. And so, so I just, I started following his career specifically, probably around 2005, 2006.

And up until he retired, you know, I was a Kobe fan. So when my wife surprised me from the surprise wedding, you know, for context, if this is the first time someone is new to me as an individual, my wife and I got engaged and married on the same day in 2013. I had planned a wedding for her over the course of two years. And so the surprise weddings on YouTube. And it went viral. We got to go on the Queen Latifah show.

And then my wife surprises me with the queen by getting me connected with Kobe Bryant. So Kobe Bryant comes on this screen and he says, hey, Ryan, I heard about this wedding you pulled off for your wife. And we wanted to return the favor by formally inviting you out to start. FAPL Center to come hang out with me and the fellas. And I was just like, oh my gosh, I can't. I can't believe that I get to go meet Kobe, Brian. And I've met a lot of people, you know. But Kobe was like, it's Kobe.

You know, it's like it's Kobe. So, so. It's a big deal. Yeah. So getting to meet him was special. And it's a big deal because it's like his invitation to you, right? Not a lot of us when you meet somebody. who's so significant is it at their invitation.

Normally we all have to like manipulate our strings or purchase something, right? To be the vicinity of them. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. As you think about your time with Kobe, you know,

what's, one of some of the things that he taught you during your time together or, you know, as you think about what he's taught you over his career, where do you pull some of your lessons from? You know, meeting him,

I saw him in a completely different light. than I did before. I've met my fair share of famous, if you will, and important people, you know, whatever. Most of the time I meet those types of people, and I wouldn't say I'm disappointed, but I would just say, man, they're very human. They're not as super as I thought that they,

would be. They're often shorter than I thought that they would be. I used to think that all these Hollywood superstars are like six, five, you know, they're in all these action movies. They're like five, seven. Like they're just, I'm six three. So I'm always like, oh, like, you're, you know, I always just think, oh, we got in the fight, you know what I'm saying? Like, it'd be over. But it's like, you know, I might be able to take this guy. And so. At least a swing, right? At least a swing. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like, you know, so it's not like it's a disappointing thing, but it's like, you just realize they're a person just like, just like

anybody else, and they're, they're, they're a lot more normal than, than I would have thought they would be. And whereas Kobe, it was the opposite. It was the complete opposite. I walked away from Kobe going, yeah, he's, he's very normal, but at the same

time, he lives. And now, lived on a different planet. He lives on a different planet and I don't, I don't think people fully understood or fully understand what it takes to be him. And I didn't fully understand it until I'm standing in this VIP room waiting for him to show up. Like I know he's in Staple Center.

the game is still going on, by the way. So me and my wife, we go to this game. He's hurt. So I know he's in the building somewhere. And this humongous security guard walks up to us, middle of the fourth quarter and says, come with me. And we're like, oh, God, like, where are we going? And, like, where is he taking us?

And this is too good to be true. Yeah, I was like, yeah. Yeah, like, this is like, did we do something? Did we do? Like, it's just so, you're like, well, the PR guy said it would be different than that. I'm trying to figure out like, what in the world is happening? And so he goes, go in this room.

And so you just go in this room and they just shut the door. And there's a bathroom in there and it's kind of like a dressing room, I guess. And you're like, okay. And I'm like, well, there's, you know, they told us that there would be some like camera people here. Or we, you know, you're just kind of looking around. And all of a sudden, he just walks in. his walks in the room. And he was like, what's up, man?

And I was like, hey, hey, what, what's up, man? You know, and I'm thinking, this isn't how I was supposed to be. Yeah, that's right. But he's like, he walked in, no security, no cameras. Like, we're just, we're just chilling. And then after about 10 minutes, you started to see other people waiting at the door. And so he had like a whole

list of people make a wish kids, you know, all of these different VIPs for the evening that he was set to to engage with. So watching him like engage with me was cool, but watching him engage with other people

was masterful. And I thought to me, myself, he's not just good at basketball. Yeah. And then you're like, oh, wait, mastering how to talk to the media is its own skill set. And thinking about, this is a guy who played two decades, 100 nights a year. A hundred nights a year, he's playing NBA basketball. that doesn't include Olympics

that doesn't include practices that doesn't include workouts shoot around like that's someone that has to be on and you're playing for the Lakers it's not like you played 20 years you know for the Hornets like you're the most hell of eyes

you're the I mean it's championship or bust every single year all lies on you and whether you win lose overtime, play back, go for 50, have the worst game or you're not. You still have to be on for these kids at the end of the game.

Yeah. And address the media a hundred times. And so I think some people think when they think of greatness, they think of just one craft. Like, oh, Kobe just worked harder than all y'all. Well, yeah. But it wasn't just a basketball. the people's skills required to be elite is something that I think people,

people underestimate. One of my buddies was telling me a story about Devin Booker. They said Devin Booker is historically, has often been late to like team stuff because he says, I just, I have to sign every autograph. I just, and I think he tells me. tells the story of a time where, you know, he met an NBA player and he didn't sign something for him. And he just kind of dismissed him. And he said, if I'm ever in the NBA, I want to be

different. And so you just, you just think about the skills require, so what, what I often encourage people with when I talk to them about Kobe is I'm just going, you don't just think about being good at your thing. Think about the people skills that go along with it, that you should also be great at because if you're really good at sales, if you're really good in IT or with technology or, you know, science or the medical, whatever, whatever your industry is, you can be really, really good at that, really good at speaking or writing. But if you don't have the people skills to go along with it, it may get wasted. I think the best books ever written are self-published.

They could write a great book, but what it takes to build relationships and to work with other people, they didn't have that. I actually think the most brilliant people in the world are the worst speakers. and part of that is some people are too smart. They're so smart that they don't get to spend time with people enough to make it relatable.

So they live out in the stars. Right. But they can't put it in bite-sized pieces for other people to be able to take and apply to their life. And so sometimes I find myself even translating for other people's brilliant statements. Like I'm like,

let me explain to you what they said because it was, it even went over my head. And I had to listen to it three times just to understand it. And so I think what really impressed me the most about my time with Kobe was the amount of work he's had to put in at a post-game presser media table. Totally. And being Kobe, like even if you lost, the kid doesn't care that you, you lost, they care that you're Kobe.

And I think sometimes we can lose out of that. What were you going to say? Yeah, I think you're absolutely right in the sense that it's, you know, it's not even just about failure, but it's about who you're becoming, right?

More than what you're achieving, which I've heard you say a couple of times or you're so clear to remind us is that if we're just growing our craft in our role, we're falling short of our potential. But if we're changing and growing who we are and being well-rounded in our authentic relationships and in these habits of discipline or in some of these extraordinary habits that we're

building, there should almost be like a two-fer or a three-fer, right? If we're living in the land of one for us, we're doing one thing and getting better only only one thing and we're not, you know, quantifying that exponentially to become a better husband or wife or coworker or if we're just eating to eat better, but we're not thinking about the applications of living a healthier life and what that actually means. I'm not sure the chase after failure was actually worth it. Yeah. No, I completely agree.

And I think it's important that people continue to think about on a practical level, how am I getting better with my people skills, introverted or extroverted? How well am I listening? How much am I sweeping things under the rug versus having good conflict resolution skills? How's my attitude? Do I solve problems or do I just create problems or just point out the problems in other people? How well am I communicating one-on-one? Do I have emotional intelligence?

Can I read the room? Ownership, self-control, empathy, confidence, time management. I would say common sense, except common sense isn't all that common. Right. But I think all of us, when we walk into a room, people get a feeling about the kind of person we are. And so I think thinking through, man, how do people feel when I walk in the room? And once again, you know, last episode we talked about a Doc River story and being agendulous. Kobe Bryant can walk into any room and it should be about Kobe Bryant.

but I've only been in a room with him once and he wasn't about him at all. Not once. He, the guy with rings and accolades made it about other people in that room. And people can feel that. And I think that that's important. Gosh, and that's so true.

Just think about like the legacy, right? And how that challenges us all to think about our legacy. And I was on a call the other day. And we were talking about just aging, actually, longevity. And we forget that at the end of this life, so much of our legacy, it actually isn't written down, right? Our social accounts will in some way either end, right, or be shut down or a new social account will pop up, right? I actually was just thinking about this either. I don't even know if my AOL or my hotmail, like chat username is out there from seventh grade.

I got to imagine they've like shut that down. But your legacy is what you're saying, right? It's your grandchildren stories about grandma and grandpa and who they were when they walked into the room and who they were at Christmas and the dollar bills, right, that were sent in cards. And we spend so much of the short term forgetting about the long term. And I think that's, it's just hearing you talk about Kobe and his legacy well after he's here is a pretty powerful reminder of that. The other thing I liked about Kobe was just his, he just wasn't very moved by what people thought about. I mean, just that, you know, that's a very difficult place to get to because, you know, especially when you're a team mate, you're a follower in an organization, you're almost constantly aware or constantly thinking about what are. other people thinking about me

where Kobe just didn't have that. He was very much a hey, I'm here to win and what you think about me is not going to keep me from working on my craft and getting better every single day.

And so I think what I often see happen with a lot of people is they will often stall their own development because of what somebody else thinks. And I don't want to appear to look this way.

And I don't, so I'm just going to, it's not going to do anything. And, you know, Kobe wasn't afraid to take a shot, you know. Or miss a shot, right? Or miss a shot. And that's the, and I think that there just has to be that confidence, I think, that we all walk with, that we all gain, that isn't arrogant. but it's confident. It's, hey, if I'm put in a position,

Kobe right used to say all the time, I'm the shooting guard. Shooters, shoot. I'm paid millions of dollars to shoot the ball. And so, I mean, you might be listening to this today. You may not have to pay millions to do anything, but you are paid thousands to do something. So don't be shy.

about what you're paid to do. I'm a big proponent of just doing your job well. Yeah. Doing your mentality. If you are an administrative assistant, you should be the best administrative. There's nothing else that you have to do. You're the administrative assistant.

So assist at the highest level. if you're in marketing, you should be the best at what you do. If you're a graphic designer, you should be the best at what you do. And you're giving your best every single day. You are showing up to work as best as you possibly can. And I think people just have to embrace their job. And, you know, sometimes that means that you're going to make mistakes. There's no question about it.

There's, you're going to make mistakes. Make the right ones. But the mistake you don't want to make is doing nothing or being apathetic. That's so good. I think too, it's like when you give yourself the permission to stay in your lane, it's okay to fail, right? In your lane, it's less embarrassing than crossing over into somebody else's lane and trying to give it, give it a go.

You told me this story once and I'm probably going to botch it, but it's so true for you because I don't think people know that you like to sing. You're actually pretty good at singing, but you- That's funny. You told me once, like, nobody, you know, because you do have a tendency to burst out in song, Ryan. I know that about you and I've heard it. Heard it a few times and I normally really enjoy it. But you told me once, like, people, people after I get done singing never tell me like,

you should be a singer. But like every time you get done speaking off a stage, you're reaffirmed that you're in your passion zone. And I think that's, it's so true. But it's just a good reflection, I think, of all of us when we're in our zone. I love your language. Just be good at the thing you're being asked and paid to do while also taking risks. Absolutely.

Well, maybe just to close it down on specifically this episode with Kobe, we talk a lot about the Mamba mentality. So as you think about maybe one philosophy that followers can think about that relates back to this mamba mentality, what would it be? You could sum it up. If I could describe the mamba mentality, I think it's one of grit.

It is one that really sees challenges as opportunities to grow. If for Kobe, it was a, if you want to double team me, great. It just is going to make me a better basketball player. is I will get better being guarded by two people than I will by one. Most people think, oh no, I got double teamed. I better pass.

And so I think the mentality of seeing challenges as opportunities is very, very important, especially in the 21st century workplace because we have more challenges than we've ever had before. We're going virtual, everybody. Everyone's going to work from home. We're sending laptops out, okay? just wait for UPS, FedEx or drop off your stuff. Just kidding, guys, we're coming back. Oh, you don't want to come back?

Wait, half of you want to come back, but the other half don't? Okay. Well, guys, we're going to come back as long as you wear masks. Actually, no, we're just kidding. You can come back as long as you're vaccinated. Then you can come away. Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's too much. We're going to sue you.

Just kidding, guys. Vaccinated people can come on Tuesdays, not vaccinated. people come on Thursdays. And the rest of you stay home. Wait, you can't stay home because you just, I mean, there is a constant shift. And, oh, wait, you quit? Oh, he don't work her anymore. So who's my boss?

We're still trying to figure that one out. And so there's so much change happening right now. And every single one of us has an opportunity when we're faced with the challenges that we face today. We can A, complain about it, which is typically what most people fall for the trap of doing. I'm just complain about it. I'm just going to complain my way out of this, which has said no one ever, okay? I've never heard anyone say, I complained enough, and you know what? Guess what? We're all doing better now. I've just not heard of that story. Or we can see it as an opportunity. We can see it as an opportunity because I believe the leaders of the future are the people that right now,

are taking notes. They're incredibly empathetic. They're listening to their employees and they're trying to make really, really brave decisions. Says, you know what? We are constantly learning in a society that typically rewards people

that always know what they're doing except I actually think that the last two years has been good in the sense of it's made all of us flip our paradigms of what works and what doesn't. And it's it kind of leveled the playing field of saying no one can say they've mastered a pandemic because it's not over. So we're all in that same boat.

And I think that the leaders of the future are the ones that right now are taking notes to say, okay, we have figured out how to engage our employees remotely, virtually in a digital age. And we've figured out hybrid models. we've figured out how to make sure our customers and clients are satisfied more than they've ever been before and that, you know, the people that work for us, our employees are that way too. It's either an obstacle or you could see those as opportunities. Hey, guys, we've got an opportunity to grow to figure some things out with a client earlier today. And I said, hey, how has the last year and a half been for you guys?

and she said, you know what? It forced our team to get more creative than they've ever been before. So now you've got a creative team that wasn't very creative. If I told you their industry, you'd be like, that's a pretty boring industry that doesn't require a whole lot of creativity. Well, it's different now. And so I think that there are going to be lots of organizations that come out of this, either worse than they were pre-COVID,

BC before COVID. And I think there's going to be lots of organizations that said, you know what? They took advantage of the times in a positive way. Says, you know what? Okay. How can we leverage this and keep moving forward? And so I think every single listener should be going,

all right, how can I play my part in being in that positive group that says, you know what? I realize that they're challenging times. It requires no skill, not one skill to point out a problem or to point out a challenge. You don't have to go to school for that. All of us can naturally do that. But for you to be the type of person that in a meeting goes, this is tough, but is there an opportunity here for us?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's a brave soul to say that in a meeting where everything is home drum and everything's horrible and country's horrible and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sometimes bravery means just being the one person in the room that isn't overtly positive for optimism's sake. But to say, you know what? Hey, chips are down, but this is an opportunity for us. Yeah. And these times show our customers, our investors, our colleagues, what we're made up.

So let's find out what we're made up. So I think that encompasses, truly encompasses the Mamba mentality. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of followership with Ryan Leak. I wanted you to know that I got a new number just to connect with you. And this is a number that I use to be able to answer people's questions and I send out weekly encouragements every single week. I send some sort of thought, something that I've been chewing on that really can help someone get through their week. If you'd like to subscribe to that, you can text 469-809-1201. Again, that's 469-801. You can text, hey, you could text subscribe,

you could text followership and you will get an automated message from the service. But trust me, it is coming to my phone. And if you ask me a question, I most likely will answer to prove to you that it is me and that it is coming to my cell phone. Now, if today's episode added value to your life, I would encourage you to rate it five stars as preferred. I would also encourage you to perhaps leave a. comment. I would also encourage you to buy chasing failure on Amazon or wherever you purchase books.

You can even get it on Audible. It's me reading the book. There's even some extra bonus material with Audible as well. And of course, if this added value to your life, I would encourage you to share it with a friend. Until next time, we'll see you.