Today I’m excited to launch the inaugural episode of the LeaderQuest Podcast Season 4!
It’s crazy to think that just over a year ago, this project started. Since then, we’ve talked about leadership health (Season One), the Building With Purpose Conference (Season 2), and spoken with thriving business owners in the midst of COVID (Season 3).
Now, it’s time to help you with real, practical steps to start (and grow) your business.
LeaderQuest Podcast Season 4 is designed to help you, wherever you are at, start and grow your business.
I’ll have interviews with experts in the fields of HR, human performance, finance, and operations.
We’ll also talk shop on what you can do to
Start a business
Manage Employees
Create a viable product
Find mentors
Establish your niche
And much, much more
Introductory Episode
This introductory episode of the LeaderQuest Podcast Season 4 lays it all out and tells you in detail where we’re going, what’s next, and some advice and guidance if you’re facing burnout. (Because who isn’t tired and frustrated right now).
Give it a listen. Subscribe. Then leave a review.
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As a leader, one of the things you’re responsible for is increasing the creativity for you and your team.
Settling on Solutions
As leaders, our natural disposition can be to settle on solutions. That’s leadership, right? We know the problem, tackle the solution, and keep pushing forward.
Not necessarily.
In fact, quite the opposite is true.
Leaders who are expected to know and have all the answers create two primary problems.
First, they limit the effectiveness and full potential of their teams.
Second, they are subject to burnout.
Because of this, a large part of great leadership is not just about providing answers but creating an environment where our team can come up with better ones. Increacsing creativity happens thorugh an intentional delay.
Instead of seeking answers to questions like, “What’s probable?” as a question like, “What’s possible?”
Creativity is about “What’s Possible”
One of the necessary shifts in leadership thinking is to encourage and facilitate questions around what’s possible.
Instead of moving to solution-oriented ideas and tasks, entertain possibilities of the wild and extravagant.
Imagine a customer writing your business praising you for your new product that helped them. What did they say, feel, or experience? Once you know what that end destination is, then you can work backwards to create the product you just visualized.
Pretend a new company pops up and exploits your weaknesses, what would they do? Now that you know your biggest weaknesses, you can discover new ways to beat them.
Plan how you would operate your business if you were operating at ten times your current profit margin. Once you are aware of that, continue the discovery processes by dreaming up those new products and services. Start testing those and implement big change.
Increasing Creativity
Implementing a creative making process for your team or organization benefits everyone.
The team will be more productive.
Your customers will have a better experience.
The community will experience greater blessing.
You will have less stress and more productivity.
However the process looks for you, take time to implement that creative process time
Bring together multiple disciplines.
Research seemingly unrelated fields or areas of interest.
Study the competition.
Hire a coach.
Want to work with me to increase your teams productivity? Contact me here.
Whatever you do, don’t be too quick to settle on solutions. Look for what’s possible, not just what’s probable. Listen to those around you and look for new ways of doing things.
One of the greatest contributing factors to unmet goals and failure is what I call, “The Rosecrans Principle.”
William S. Rosecrans
William S. Rosecrans was a major general during the American Civil War. A highly decorated strategist, he often failed to translate an idea into action.
He’s the one that gave me the idea for The Rosecrans Principle.
His superior, Ulysses S. Grant, when writing in his personal memoirs after the war, summed up one meeting this way:
We held a brief interview, in which he described very clearly the situation at Chattanooga, and made some excellent suggestions as to what should be done. My only wonder was that he had not carried them out. (emphasis mine)
What was Rosecrans’ problem? He had a lot of great ideas but failed to take the appropriate action.
As an entrepreneur, business owner, high-achiever, parent, spouse, child, community member, or any other title you carry …. can you relate?
We know we should get out that marketing email, but it’s getting late, we’re a little tired, and it’s easy to push it to another day.
Another scenario: It’s time for some sales calls…except the kids kept you up, you’re hungry, and don’t feel like being rejected should someone say ‘no.’ What do you do? Will you push through anyway, or suffer from The Rosecrans Principle?
Throughout our day, we are confronted with a variety of scenarios, and our outlook determines our destination.
Now that we’re through Christmas, and with 2021 firmly in our sights, I wanted to reveal my guiding phrase for the new year: Week In, Weak Out.
A Quick Year in Review
For many of us, 2020 has provided some tremendous growth opportunities. The changing world of remote work has given us commute time back while adding the stress of working around children.
The political discord in our country has given us the opportunity to listen and empathize with others.
The ongoing quarantine has revealed just how much we were wired for community, social gatherings, and physical contact.
Along the way of each of these national and global issues, have been the individual issues of our own stories.
Some of my personal notes from this year include:
Helping business owners transition to the quickly changing world of HR needs in the midst of a pandemic and forced shutdowns.
The selling of one house and the purchase of another.
Home renovation projects (here’s looking at you broken water pipes!).
Cancelled vacations, family visits, and social gatherings.
Kids entering puberty and leaving toddlerhood.
Elise starting a new job and her master’s program
All of this has revealed to me some of my next growth opportunities. As a success-oriented high achiever, I need my life to be at peak performance.
My guiding phrase for 2021 to help me achieve that is to get better: Day In, Day Out, Week, Weak Out.
Future Growth Opportunities
2021 presents the next great growth opportunity.
Already, my coaching schedule is filling up. The new year always brings new challenges, HR laws, marketing campaigns, and growth strategies. Business owners are looking to turn the page on 2020 and start fresh in 2021. To help them (and all success-oriented leaders) I need to be at my best.
Leaders are hurting. Many are hurting. Most are facing burnout. All are tired.
Helping leaders stay healthy is why I started coaching in the first place, for me to do that well, I need to be healthy myself.
Here are some of my next growth opportunities in the new year:
Read and implement the knowledge from 100 books.
Take an extended work-free family vacation.
Help 100 business owners grow and expand their businesses.
Take Elise on a date at least once a month.
Some of these goals are continued extensions of daily habits, some are drastic increases in my thinking and mindset.
One personal project, however, is consuming a large portion of my time and mental space. It is the main thrust of my idea to grow Week In and Weak Out.
Parenting Well
One of the biggest failures American society has done for men is to provide significant and meaningful markers for manhood. We’ve largely left our boys to figure out puberty, manhood, emotional maturity, and personal development to themselves.
I decided to do something about it, starting with my own kids.
Starting at age 8, and continuing every three years until age 21, each of my boys will take a trip with me where we talk about growing into responsible manhood.
For my oldest son, that starts this year. We’re taking a trip to talk about his coming puberty, self-care and hygiene, service towards others, mindset, and selfless love.
Each and every trip will build on the last. We will spend time in the wilderness, examining what it means to be a well-rounded man.
The only way I can help him do that (and any others that join our journey) is to first work on myself.
Habits, routines, and discipline are built in the daily execution of small, repeatable, success steps.
Day In. Day Out. Week In. Weak out.
That’s how we grow. Every day, do something to get better. The next day, repeat that task and do something else. Next week, you’ll notice a small improvement. Soon, you’ll notice your weaknesses leaving.
Mindset improves.
Grit is stronger.
Compassion is amplified.
Love fostered.
Maturity achieved.
But only through consistent and deliberate attention. Done every day.
Day In. Day Out. Weak In. Weak Out.
I’ll be posting about this journey constantly. To keep up to date, find out more, and be a part of the journey, click any of the links below.
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Today’s interview is with John Vuong of Local SEO Search.
Welcome to season three of the LeaderQuest Podcast! This season we are focusing on small business leaders who have had to pivot or transition during the 2020 Covid Economy.
Each interview was structured around three main questions:
How did your business pivot during 2020?
What does the future (2021) look like for your business?
What is a current problem or question that your facing?
During each interview, you’ll hear real stories from real business owners. They will share their highs and lows, along with important lessons learned along the way. You’ll be able to take their knowledge and turn it into wisdom.
Today is John Vuong of Local SEO Search based in Toronto, Canada.
About John
John’s assistant reached out to me about being on the podcast, and I instantly said yes. Our dramatic rise in work from home and the quick transition to digital interaction made this interview a no brainer.
John works extensively with businesses and brands to help them navigate the ever-changing rules around online engagement. With extensive experience in marketing, sales, and customer experience, John brings a wealth of knowledge to the podcast.
As Toronto based business (my first international interview), John still spends time with each client helping them understand their local environment. He and his team will create a custom package for you to help your business succeed.
