Candid Conversation with Alan Willett, Leadership Consultant and Author of Lead with Speed.

Beach, Florida. Yay! Yep. So hi everyone, I'm so excited here today. I'm turning off my phone. Everyone be quiet. I also have to make sure that my dog Pickles doesn't poop, because if Pickles poops— he's 15, Alan— I have to leave you and pick it up before he steps all over it. But other than that, I am all ears. So today we're talking to Alan Willett. The founder and president of Alan Willett Construction. Now Alan has a book that he's written, a few books, which I can't wait to talk about, but one is Lead with Speed. Now Alan, it's funny, in the promotional products industry where I grew up in with logo merchandise, the faster you sometimes went, the more mistakes you would make. I am guilty as charged. I was the one, and some of the employees we had were almost painfully slow, but yet their mistakes are really not, not like that high. So like, I always wondered about this in the back of my mind. I've always wondered about the whole concept of lead with speed. So tell us who you are, where you are, a little bit about your background, please.

Okay. Who I am, where I am. I'm Alan Willett. That's Alan Willett Consulting. I don't do construction.

It's construction.

You did, and it's fine.

And you build leaders, so you really kind of construct a business and help them go.

Yes, I construct leaders. That's good. I'm located currently in Ithaca, New York, in the valley. Cornell is across the way. We can see it in the distance. So, uh, and I grew up on a dairy farm in Western New York, and, uh, one that actually was— you know, you talked about speed— it really was— my dad led with data and thinking and was the, was the most successful dairy farmer in the area, won Dairy Farmer of the Year many years. And it wasn't about You know, going fast, it was about getting things done. So I agree with— your people that were going quote-unquote slow and not making mistakes were probably much faster because it's not how fast you go, it's where you're going to and how you get there. So Leading with Speed is all about—

you're milking a cow. Is it milking a cow though? Isn't it about speed when you're milking a cow?

Um, gosh, I never thought about it that way, but I think it's more about how healthy the cows are. You know, it's not— you know, you're looking at just one little part of the whole dairyman thing. You got to make sure your fields are plowed on time, you got the crops in on time, you harvest, you feed the cows well. You treat them well, then they'll treat you well.

So, well, Alan, you're bringing up such a great point. And I think this is honestly, to me, this is why someone needs an Alan Willett in consulting, because we ourselves, when we look at something, we think of just that one thing. So you say speed, I'm thinking, oh, you got to milk the cow. I'm not thinking, does the cow have enough liquid and drink enough water to even produce the milk? And everything you're saying. But you know what's funny? You're right. I'm glad you talked about the dairy. So how does that— because obviously you brought up your growing up— that does go and lead right into business too. So share more because I'm finding this fascinating.

Oh, absolutely. You know, one of the stories I tell is about— it was great. I just remember one Sunday, sunny Sunday afternoon, My dad and I were in the house watching TV. Okay, you might not get this, but a sunny day in the summer, a farmer's not inside the house watching TV. Why were we in the house? Well, another farmer dropped by and wondered the same thing. He goes, Fritz, you must be one lucky farmer. Here you are watching TV and the sun's shining. And my dad said, yeah, yeah, I'm one hell of a lucky farmer. The guy left, he goes, you know, you know, Al, why, why we're lucky? He goes, it's because— and he listed all the things we have been doing. You know, we stayed up late making sure the tractors were repaired and the equipment was repaired, um, because we, we knew which fields produced what because I have a computer and we've been tracking that and nobody else has computers around us. They think they're too expensive. They listed all the things and he goes, yep, we're one lucky farmer.

And I love that.

And I was shocked when I went into the business world, really. I was really shocked when I went into these high-tech organizations where they had no data. They, they weren't, and they weren't repairing their the things that needed to be done at night to make sure that things went well the next day. It was all about what you said— let's go fast and make a lot of mistakes.

And wait, isn't this going to the whole concept right now of working, uh, are you working in your business or on your business?

Oh, that's a different thing, but it's close. Yes.

Oh, okay, okay.

I, I consider it a little bit different, but, uh Just here, I often, one of the things that is new for me is we teach something called the exceptional engineer or the exceptional leader in engineering because we're really trying to get sort of that farmer ethic into the engineering world. One of the big debates I have is between the responsibilities of engineering, the responsibilities of the business. And when I'm talking about engineering, I believe they have a responsibility ability to absolutely focus on value for the customers, the organization, etc. But also they must be absolutely focused on quality because there's a huge economics of quality. The more mistakes you make, guess what, the slower you're going. If you're not managing, uh, the level of rework compared to your construction, you're going to spend more time reworking stuff than constructing stuff. Law of gravity. It's a law of physics. Boom, that's it. So engineers got to know that. The business side, when they're working on the business, uh, one of the things you hear in the business world is fail forward fast. Absolutely. Now that implies we want to do a lot of rework, but that's not what that really means. It means if you want to explore a new marketplace, you get into it and you figure out be willing to fail quickly so you can figure out what works and doesn't work. That's different than engineering. That's exploring the marketplace to figure out what resonates with the people that you want to sell to, what value you want to bring to them. And then you can start to do the engineering process of how to build the best product the fastest way, which is getting rid of rework. Making sure you construct it well. There's the difference. Now, I don't have any analogy for farming for that. Maybe I could. Does this crop grow in this field? You know, okay, that makes sense.

But you're right, because this is not taught. And I happen to be a facilitator for the Fast Track program, part of the Kauffman Foundation, and it's a 10-week entrepreneur program. I love teaching it. And the idea is that you really walk away with a business plan. Oh, thank you. I'm doing my second second one. It's lovely. I actually donate my time. So I, uh, yeah, that's, uh, you know, I need to figure out a process with that. But anyways, my point is, is that we're not really teaching this, but growing up in a family business, I, I want to dig more because I feel like I, I really do understand the whole concept. But before we dig further, so you, you— so what did you do after you left? When did you leave the dairy farm? I'm curious about like the steps that took you from the dairy farm, growing up milking the cow, if that was your responsibility, to what you actually are doing today. So what were the steps? And did you go to college?

Wow, yes. I was the youngest of 6, so baby, they sent me to college. They sent me to college, and I really— I, I wasn't a good farmer compared to everybody else, so they did the right thing.

Did any of your brothers and sisters go to college?

Um, yeah, yes, yes. But, but the fun Farm has been in the family for 200 years now, and, uh, so it's still in the family. Um, my dad passed 10, 15 years ago, so, uh, it's, uh, now being run by my brother, my sister, um, and they're doing great. So it's, uh, where was I? So yeah, I went to college, um, A little-known fact, I— my cross-country team I was in, we ran across the country, ocean to ocean. We built the, uh, we built— we beat the Pony Express. We were in the Guinness Book of World Records for a while until some upstart team beat us. So, uh, yeah, it was fun. Uh, and from college, I went for computer stuff, and I thought I was going to be able to write programs. But within, I graduated from college, and within less than a year, I was leading a group of people of 10, 10+ people. And I said to my manager, I said, hey, you know, I'm enjoying the work I'm doing, but I don't have any time to write code because, you know, I'm having to lead all these people. And he goes, you know, it turns out you're really good at solving people problems. So once you solve all those people problems, you can write code. I haven't finished yet on solving all those people problems. I got some more work to do.

Wow, this is so interesting. So let's, let's talk about that. So what the people problems at work, are you talking about someone's mindset? The, like, so what does that look like?

Okay, you know, That was shorthand for, you know, just being a good leader. So, I have some natural instincts for it. And I also, I've worked really hard at it. But to me, being a good leader means a few things. One is purpose. And I talked about this in Leading the Unleadable. I talk about it in Lead with Speed as well. But in Leading the Unleadable, I say there's a need for mountains. More than once, I found groups that are just sniping at each other, but for no value. And what I say is, if you're going to climb a mountain together and everybody live, sure, there can be fights. But it's more about not sniping at each other. It's about what's the safest route? What's the quote unquote fastest route? Keep in mind, speed in those cases may mean safe and fast. And there's an escape route, etc. So people that have a purpose together, they still will have arguments, but they're constructive. They're headed somewhere. So you must have a really clear purpose for your team. And the other thing you must have is clear expectations of excellence. What's acceptable, not acceptable? And to me, like I said, for engineering teams, I really try to instill a clear Sense of expectations of excellence. One is where you're going. We're going to build this amazing application that's going to give these people this great value. Here's my expectations of excellence. When you're doing engineering work, you're always making decisions based on what's the best thing for your customers, the people, and they're using it not just short-term but long-term. Let's make sure we're building for the future. Two, quality, quality, quality. If you create rework, you're creating slowness. So make sure that you understand your economics of quality and are always working at it, manage that. And all people make mistakes. I've taught lots of courses where we actually track everything in detail. And lo and behold, everybody— we have data for this, for like in engineering, we know that everybody injects 30 to 60 defects per 1,000 lines of code. If people are writing requirements, they're going to inject one major defect for every 2 hours of writing requirements. We have the data to show this. It's universal. So, so here's my expectation: you understand this and you master it, you manage it. 3, you turn over every rock for speed. And what I mean by that is when you make a plan, you look for the best way to get there and Even things that are outrageous. I want people to bring me an idea that's going to cost $1 million and it'll gain 2 weeks. Because sometimes that 2 weeks is worth $10 million. I'll pay that $1 million if it's going to gain $10 million. So don't— you gotta not constrain yourself to the box you're in. But finally, you do have to make a commitment you can keep. You have to make a realistic schedule that achieves all these. Great value. We're managing for the best quality. We turned over a rock for speed. And now, based on what we've negotiated, we can make this commitment given the resources we have, the talents we have, the time we have. We will make this commitment. There's expectations of excellence, and you have to follow through and manage to that. You can't just come in and all of a sudden beat people up if, you know, why aren't you doing this when they already made a commitment for that. So these are my expectations of excellence with a noble purpose. And I believe even in my young, young age of 20s, I kind of got that. And that's why I was leading groups of that size. I've just gotten better since then.

I love that. Good morning, Natalie, by the way. Natalie said good morning. So I— so this is interesting to me. I'm assuming— let me make some assumptions here and correct me if I'm wrong. One is, okay, so, so, so growing up, I am what's considered a forward thinker. So I, I'm actually going to be thinking the way you're thinking And growing up, I didn't realize why I was thinking that way. So talk about being an annoying person. So when you take everything that you're doing, that can be very annoying to someone. That's like, wait, I don't want to have to turn over every stone. I don't want to have to look. But for instance, I remember in the promotional products industry, I, at one point I was like, we need to track the errors, not that we were making, but the vendors were making, because that way we could say to the vendor, hey, you know, you've been making quite a lot of mistakes. What is it that you're doing and how can we help on our end to make it better for you. Maybe it's something we're doing in the process of ordering, but maybe you don't know what's happening at your end of it. And you're, you're brilliant.

I gotta say, you're brilliant because that's one of the things.

Wait, what'd you say?

You're brilliant. I can put it on the radio. So that's awesome. Keep going. Keep going.

So my question really goes to this is is how do you teach? So because if you're not a forward thinker, or maybe that's a difference between a leader and not a leader, and if you— and how tough it is if you have a leader that is not a forward thinker or is not looking under the rocks. Is your book going to help that leader? Is it more of a workbook? I'd like to learn more about your, your book. And so if I was to buy your book, what would that look like?

Okay. Well, in the book you'll learn of one of the things I talk about is the cucumber in the pickle barrel.

Okay, I love that already.

Because the problem you were facing wasn't that people aren't forward thinkers, they're pickled. And here's what I mean. The cucumber looks at the pickle barrel and looks in the pickle barrel and sees all the pickles. And the cucumber says, I'll never look like you guys. But he gets thrown in the pickle barrel. What happens? Gets pickled. What pickles him? The brine. The brine is culture. The brine is the mindset. So what you're talking about is, uh, really people want to do good work, but if they're in a culture that says, "Hurry up and, you know, hurry up and we'll fix it later." They don't have the mindset to do good work the first time. When you give them the opportunity to do that, they're so proud. When you give them these tools to like tell vendors these things in a nonjudgmental way, which is, the vendors are appreciative and they learn from it. People are so afraid to go against the culture they're brought up in, even though it looks better. Uh, I think it's Virginia Satir said this. Uh, she said people often choose the comfort, the familiar, over the better, or the comfortable. They choose what they know over what's better, right?

But you're not growing if you are So your philosophy with Lead to Speed also to me seems to be one of a servant leader, because you're not only helping your business, but you're also helping that employee with thinking skills and ways to really look at a problem for really for the rest of their life, whether they move on or you keep them. And I love that idea of it, that you could be a servant leader. So to add on to those that are servant leaders that really do care, I am a servant leader innately. That's who I am. I care about the employees. So when I hear something like this, I think I want as many leaders out there to read your book and to consult with you because they're going to grow. Not everyone stays with you forever, and especially this day and age, right? They tend to change. So why not grow someone to have this kind of thinking?

Exactly. And a lot of people get servant leadership wrong. Because a lot of people think it means, you know, going to the employees' whims or the people that work with you' whims. And to me, the best servant leader really sets a high bar. And that's where I talked about, you know, the purpose, the expectations of excellence, and then let people free to achieve those expectations and coach them and help them meet those expectations. And yes, Lead with Speed is jammed full with how to do that. It's, uh, there's, uh, each chapter ends with, what can I do right now? Because there's some pretty big concepts in there. And then I say, here's the thing you could do right now that's easy that makes a difference.

Oh, oh, I love that. I love that. I think it's, it's funny because people, you are going to have, you know, we talked about construction because I made a mistake and I said Consultant, but I think you should change it to construction because your building business is a huge—

but anyway, you just stumbled down on that.

All right, but I do think I, I— so I think I just lost my train of thought. It's really— so when you hear lead with speed, so my husband who works, he's more of a construction laborer. What do they want? Let's go, let's go get that lawn done, let's get that, that ground, get that seal coating done. Hurry up, hurry up. So I just want everyone to know, when you see Lead with Speed, that's the most— that's the coolest part about that, that the word speed. So tell me about the word speed again, because when we were talking beforehand, you said the word speed, and I love what you said.

You said something about Lead with Speed. It must mean I have to get this interview done quick. And I said, it's not how fast you go, it's where you go and how you get there.

Uh, it's nice to write that. Hold on, I love that. It's not how fast— it's not how fast you go, but how you get there.

Oh, where you're going and how you get there. Because look, look, where you go, speed doesn't matter if you crash.

Wait, what was that again? I have to write that. Speed doesn't—

what? Speed doesn't matter if you crash.

You're right, that's true.

Talked about it, the people just going so fast, they're crashing. There might be many crashes. They're putting, uh, big dents in their car. They're getting flat tires and they have to stop to get the dents out, to get the flat tires out, and then they push down the pedal again and hit something else and they have to stop again. Look, one of my clients I went to, they called me in, "Alan, you got to come help us." And they had on this whiteboard this list of problems. And I went up to the whiteboard and I wrote next to it, "WWW, O, maybe F." And what the Ws were, were whiny. And the Os were observation and the Fs were facts. I said, "I don't know what your problem is. What are you trying to do?" Long story, but it took a couple hours. What I finally got was what they were worried about is they felt their competitors were innovating faster than them. So their, their need for speed was to be able to put some features in their applications before their competitors did. So, okay, there's where— okay, that's what speed is. I said, how often do they do that compared to how often do you beat them? Alan, we don't know. We never, we never measured that. Could you measure that? Yes. Yeah, we could. But it turned out they weren't doing as bad as they thought. They were actually doing pretty well in comparison to the competitors. But changing this mindset, the whole list they had on the wall, there was, they put up an I next to many things which was irrelevant to the real problem. They were lost in the weeds. They knew they had to go faster, but my question was, faster to where? So speed isn't about how fast you're going, it's how fast you're going to where you want to go. And that's what the book is all about.

Alan, yeah, you know what, you know what, this is This is really a very common issue with a lot of businesses where you're right, they're either putting things up too quickly without testing it and without really understanding it. I, I mean, I'm thinking about in my mind just like how, how businesses really should be looking at your book and also how their business is being run, because that, that idea to be the first to come out could actually be one of the worst things that can happen because you could be the first to come out with something that actually fails. And like 3 days later, the other competitors just came out with something that didn't have that problem because they waited 2 days to test it a little bit more. Am I on the right path?

Oh, absolutely. One of my chapters is called the Portfolio for Speed because a lot of times organizations do have a customer-facing roadmap, but there's 2 problems with it. One is oftentimes They have one customer that's an extraordinarily squeaky wheel, and they divert a lot of engineers to work on that problem, even though it represents like 1% of their profit share. And they neglected the rest of their product line and the roadmap, and there's major impacts to it without thinking about it. So you, you've got to manage your portfolio be focused on what value you're trying to provide. Now, the other thing is most organizations have a customer-facing one, but they don't look at— let's call it the engines of speed, which is what are the major— what are the things we could do to improve the engine of our organization to give it more power, to give it more speed? And this is the parts you talked about your husband in the getting the yard done fast. Well, you're not going to get it done fast if the equipment's broken. There is so much about speed that doesn't have to do with that— the milk and the cow, or the, the, uh, whole— I'm not sure exactly what it does, but the whole lawn, etc., service. There's the training of the people. Do you know what a clean lawn is? Do you know, uh, what the limits of the equipment you're using is? Do you know what the problems are? What? So these are the training that has to be done. Do you know how to handle a disgruntled customer so they leave like thinking you're the best thing on earth because you helped them solve their problem even though they came at you with fury? How do you transform the troublesome into the terrific? How do you take a complaint and change it into a gift? These are trainings that need to happen, but you have to consciously make it part of your portfolio part of your investment strategy. That's where real speed comes from. It's not just pushing the pedal to the metal, it's making sure you know what your pit stops are, making sure all these other things are working in harmony to get to where you want to go. That's lead with speed.

Alan, I, I, I, I— okay, so I just want to make a little pitch right now. Listen, if you're a company, even if you're so successful in your business, you really should have Alan come in and take a look because this is a part of the business that you're processing. I mean, like Alan, his way of thinking really is going to be very unusual and you may not be— maybe difficult for you to, to really get what Alan's trying to do. But I really understand how important this is. And I think that every business really should have Alan come in to really look at it to see, because you're going to uncover what the— at the end of it, it's all about that you are going to be able to make the money because your processes are going to be so much better and you're going to help your employees. And you know what, Alan, the first time I think I ever actually kind of had an inkling to this is I worked for Muscular Dystrophy Association, which was honestly the best time of my life. Yes, I did meet Jerry Lewis. I love everything about MDA. But the difference which made me very successful, it was that I didn't necessarily care about how many balloons I had up. I didn't care about some of the smaller issues. I really went to getting it done. And not— I don't think if I was thinking speed, but to me, you know, you have a timeline. I want to meet my timeline. And I just knew the things that weren't that important. And to me, they were, you know, if I had enough balloons or did I have enough linen or all those little things that, you know, I'm not talking about some big event, a formal event. But, you know, if I was just doing a run or a race, I— more important to me was to have enough water for everyone and bananas and Goldfish, because I like Goldfish. Yeah, but Pepperidge Farmers was a really great donor. But I, I didn't care about the little things. But the other girl, who really was absolutely lovely— I mean, I loved her, but she wasn't as successful as raising funds as I was because she was slowed down by her, her brain wanting to do every little thing. She would spend hours calling a helium company to get helium and then to get the balloons donated. I'm like, girl, that's crazy. But I didn't, you know, kind of like, that is kind of in a weird way similar to this, is like you have to find the processes that will get you where you need to be to be successful, to make the profits at the right time. So who do you like to work with, Alan? Who are the clients that you like? I, I want to hear who you really Because, I mean, you can't say every business. So what's your niche market?

Oh, empowering elite engineers and elite, uh, leaders in engineering to become fantastic, to become exceptional. And that's my niche marketing. I love working in, uh, high-pressure, high-tech kind of areas. I've been doing this in Did we freeze?

Oh, we did. We— internet connection is sorry. The Daytona Beach is okay. We're okay now. It's restored. Sorry about that.

Okay. Yeah, what I was saying is, uh, oh, my niche market. I work mostly in—

oh no, I did lose you. Oh no, isn't this an enjoyable conversation? Hope he comes back. And engineering. I'm wondering if engineering is like, um, machines, machine tool and die, um, anyone that builds machines, you know, or engineering construction. Come back, Alan. So I'd like to just say, give a little promotion to Professional Global Etiquette, which is corporate etiquette training along with customer service. Along with dining, dine like a diplomat. I am a graduate of the Protocol School of Washington. I am professional global etiquette, and I am here to help you. And Alan is back, so thank you for listening to my commercial. Hi, Alan, I'm gonna put you back here, and I am going to— let me get you up here. Oops, let me get you in. There we are.

That was strange, I could hear you every step of the way.

So, oh, you heard my commercial then?

Yes.

I did a commercial. This looks a little funny. I'm going to go like this. All right. So Alan, um, we were talking about, oh, can you just, not to be stupid, but you know what? There is one thing that I have to admit that I'm confused when I hear engineer, do I, am I thinking engineer in construction engineer in like, oh, that's great.

Mostly it's in the, uh, system engineering, which is computers, hardware, software, all the combination. Although we have been doing some, we are looking at how to help civil engineering as well, which is you're talking about bridges, buildings, etc., because with the trillion-dollar infrastructure plan coming and there is a shortage of civil engineers, that is a market that really needs to be served.

I didn't know that. And if you were going to have, what would be your most, um, what would be the group that you would love to speak to? And that, don't say engineers, But if you're— there was like, if you were going to be speaking, who would that be to?

Really, business owners anywhere, business owners especially of growing like $30+ million revenue a year, because believe it or not, almost any business has a lot of technology that they really need to understand, to master, etc. It's like you said, with the vendors providing all the problems. How many system companies are vulnerable to cyberattacks because they're purchasing really inferior protected applications, et cetera? I won't go deep on this, but a lot of the cyberattacks are enabled by poor engineering practices. So I also like to talk to the consumer side of this, which is the businesses that run on all this stuff, what they need to do to protect themselves and how— what they need to know about engineering to do this. Because currently any business is a high-tech business.

I love it. Would you, um, a question putting you on the spot, 32 minutes and 57 seconds, I'm putting you on the spot. Would you, would you be interested in, um, in speaking with our SCORE group on Zoom? We do a SCORE workshop because I would love to host you. So I'm Volusia Flagler, Daytona Beach, but we have like regional, so the other, um, locations in our area. And we'd like 3 to 5 takeaways. The topic I think would be amazing, your lead to speed, and, and share some of this information that you can in 45 minutes. We do it live similar to this, but it would be on Zoom where you would see everyone and they could ask you questions. Would that, would that be okay? Would you be interested in that?

I would love doing that. Obviously, I love doing this, so I love talking to people. I love talking about this stuff. Let's do it. Get it done.

Okay, I'm gonna send you the information. I really feel like this is important. I will. Thank you. The minute I get off, I— and you're, you're so pleasant and lovely to talk to, and thank you for dealing with my, uh, my misplacement of words. Do you have a podcast?

No, I don't, but I do have a blog. Alan Willett. Oh, very good. Thank you.

Oh, let me just say, first of all, the website is incredible. Go on the website. Um, it's, it's on here so you could see. Very easy. Alan Willett, 2 L's, 2 T's. That's all you have to do. Will and then E-T-T. Very easy. Once you get that in your mind, you'll never forget. I'll be like dreaming tonight going, Alan Willett. Okay, W-I-L-L-E-T-T.com. And then what the other thing I would say to everyone is to, to go through the whole thing, get the book. The book is on Amazon. You just have to Google— actually, just Google Alan's name and the book will pop up like crazy. But I do think that, um, again, I lost my train of thought. This is like nuts. Oh, I know. I do think that you— so the reason I'm thinking a podcast for you would be amazing because you could interview your clients who then could share, and I, I think that that would really make sense. And I do— if you're interested, let me know. I have someone that really can help you to get your podcast up and running. But I, I, I just have this interest because I love what you're teaching. Because again, we were talking about servant leader. To me, I just think that you and I— and we are a little older, so I'm sure if I say we're over 45, you would say yes.

I am over—

maybe would you say yes, over 49?

Oh, come on, I'll even confess I'm 61.

All right. Oh my God, 59. So we do have to think about our future. We do have to think about those that are coming up in there. There's just no teaching of this. There's no teaching of how you can not only help a business, but to me what you're doing is also helping these employees to stop. It is easy to think out of the box. Alan, do you get— because I could think of myself like, oh, I'm so creative and this and that, but sometimes I'm all— I listen and someone will say something to me and I'm like, I was thinking so closed off. I needed them to like knock on my box and open it up for me because all of us do that. Do you ever have that happen where someone says anything and you're like, oh, I didn't think of that?

One of my friends calls it a BFO, a blinding flash of the obvious. So absolutely, I have many times where I've been hit in the head by a tube, but metaphorically 2x4 of something I should have noticed all along. And it still happens, it will happen, you just got to pay attention.

I love that. Alan, it was so nice to talk to you today. I— oh wait, do you have a copy of your book?

Yes, you want me to send you one?

Oh my gosh, I will buy the book. I just, I love the way— I love the lead with speed. How long did it take you when you wrote the book?

We're talking about milking the cow again. Oh, you're right. It took about 3 months to write the book, and then it took, uh, you know, I also had many people— if you want to write a great book, a good book, go ahead and write. You want to write a great book, get great inspectors. I lined up a number of people that I knew would make me cry, and they did. And I had to do multiple iterations to make sure, you know, one of the parts I— you said you liked where I end each chapter That's because they said— somebody said, Alan, this is great, but the idea is so big, what can I do now? I said, oh, obviously that's missing. So I added that. So anyways, yes.

Well, you just said something that I actually believe in. You surrounded yourself with others that— and I'm not trying to be, you know, but maybe that were smarter than you in this particular, uh, you know, field of writing a book. And a lot of times I used to say that all the time, surround yourself with someone smarter. Because if you don't, you don't have anyone to rise to, right? Besides all the advice, that is, that's true, right?

And smarter, smarter than you in some aspects, or have a different skill set. And, uh, when you're the fish in the water, you don't see the water, that will point out the things that are missing that are obvious to you but you haven't said. All these things. You know what, it's so true. You know what, somebody that says yes, Alan, you want somebody to say yes, but Alan, or Alan, you're really missing the boat on this one. So absolutely, you need people.

The only thing, Alan, I just have to say this because I didn't realize it until I actually saw a movie with Brad Pitt. And, um, oh, you went to a movie with Brad Pitt?

Nice.

World War Z. It was World War Z. And he got into a car and he, the guy said, I'm the 10th man. And I think Brad said, what does that mean? It says, I'm the one that makes you think differently. But growing up in the family business, actually, I would do that, but it made me look very negative. And so it is tough to be that person when you're sitting in a boardroom and everyone wants everyone to say yes, and you're saying something to like, wait a second, let's think about a little more. Let's look at it a different way. You can become— I wrote an art blog about this, like, I am not Debbie Downer, but I am that 10th man. I am going to think a little differently And so, make sure you honor your 10th man at the table. Just know because it's never easy to be that person that has to— to me, it never came easy because I was always nervous and uncomfortable. On the other hand, if I didn't say it, I wouldn't say it at all.

I'm with you. I'm going to give a last plug for the book, and leave us be. One of the things I talk about, to be exceptional, you need to be able to tell the truth that leads to a positive difference. Telling the truth is not sufficient. You have to be able to tell it in a way that it's received and acted upon.

I'm gonna buy the book because I need to hone in. I feel like I've got the skills, but I've got to hone in on it more. And so yeah, you're never— and you're never too old, everyone, and you're never too young to get the book. So please, and if you have the book— oh, so Alan, some people love a book with signed. So I'm just curious about that. So if you get the book, is there a way to get the book that you could sign it to, or is it just that you have to get the book Sure, people are welcome to write to me at alan@oxseeker.net.

Can I type that in here?

Oh yeah, go ahead. Here, I'll do it right now.

Alan@oxseeker.net. O-X-S-E-E-K-E-R dot net.

O-X seek.

S-E-E-K-E. Oh, okay.

O-X seek. Er.net. Oh, I don't know. So, uh, oh, is that part of the dairy farm? Ox? Ox?

No, it actually— it became, uh, in, uh, in Zen, ox is a symbol of enlightenment. So, you know, it's seeking enlightenment.

Oh my God, I'm learning so much this morning. Thank you so much for your time. I really, really enjoyed meeting you.

I'm gonna send you this before— write to me. I'll I'll send you a signed copy. There you go.

I love that. And I'll send you, um, I'll send you the score workshop because I think that this is really important. It's different. I love the way you're thinking. You're a pleasant man. You're so kind. I love your smile. You're a wonderful guest, and thank you for everything. Thank you. I think you really— I can't explain it, but you've given— I feel good. I feel good understanding this, but knowing that I, I want to learn so much more. So Lead with speed, everyone. And speed again, Alan, one more time on the speed.

Speed, speed is where you're going and how you get there. And you've been a delightful host. I really enjoyed this immensely. Thank you.

You know, Captain Joe Sacchetti said to me— no, Sacchetti said to me that I am the HSN of podcast hosts.

All right, that's quite an honor.

Okay, good. And he said his mom and dad really liked me, which was like really amazing.

Well, thank you. Great.

Okay, all right, have a great rest of the day. I'm gonna end this now. And thank you everyone for watching, and enjoy. Have a great rest of the day in Ithaca, New York. Bye-bye. Bye. Thank you.