S4:E117🎙️LIVE with Coach Astrid Meyer🇨🇭 (Multi Tracks Video)

Hi, I'm John Maxwell. When the top companies in the world are looking for trainers, speakers, and coaches, there's one name that stands above the rest, and that's Maxwell Leadership. Our certified team members have gotten proven results for companies all over the globe, and our reputation, I'm proud to say, is second to none. Some of our members have risen to the top of their profession, including the one you're going to meet today. I proudly introduce you to my friend Bob Fabien Zinga.

Welcome to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your host, Coach BZ, where we help you lead with purpose and succeed with impact. If you're ready to grow into the kind of leader others want to follow, this podcast is for you. If you're determined to elevate your success and leave a lasting legacy, this podcast is for you. As my mentor, Dr. John C. Maxwell, reminds us, everything rises and falls on leadership. Our goal is simple: to inspire you, challenge you, and equip you with insights that can transform the trajectory of your leadership journey. Welcome aboard to another episode of the Leadership and Success The Leadership Podcast with Coach BZ.

Hi, I'm Astrid Maier, Executive Director from the John Maxwell Team. I'm an agent of change in Europe, living in Switzerland, passionate about growth, leadership, and transformation. Growth means never stop learning and become the best the best you, you can be. Leadership means how can we work together in a better way to become a better place to live. Transformation starts with you, with us. We want to become the change we want to see. I have been to our annual conference with the John Maxwell Team. What a great team! Over 20,000 coaches, speakers, and trainers from the entire world. One of our great quotes is: "The most important leadership is to lead ourselves, and the highest value of leadership is add value to others." Thank you for watching this video. With our team, we would be pleased to support you as a coach, speaker, or trainer. In your professional or personal life. And if you want to become an agent of change, please join us. We wanna become the change we want to see.

Being a certified speaker, coach, and trainer for the John Maxwell Team means that she is part of a team of elite coaches, teachers, and speakers, professionals taking leadership training, talents, skills, and adding value to people all over the world. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

All right everyone, this is Coach Bizzy and welcome to the Leadership and Success Podcast. I have a very, very special guest for you today. All right, without any further ado, let's get started with our moment of gratitude, especially this week in the US. It's Thanksgiving week and we want to just take a moment to think about one thing every day that we are grateful for. And for those who've been following this podcast for a while, you know the reason why we do that here every single day is because in the military, it's about 21, 22 veterans commit suicide every single day. And this really is our chance to be grateful for life, be grateful for something every day, because it's not possible, right, to be suicidal and grateful at the very same time. So if you would close your eyes, this only takes a moment, put yourself in your happy place and maybe take a deep breath and think, what am I grateful for right now? Today I think I'm really grateful for technology, right? It really breaks a lot of barriers. What we are doing right now in 2025, it couldn't have been done 50 years ago, right? I am here in the San Francisco Bay Area and I'm able to talk to an amazing outstanding coach all the way in Switzerland, somebody who speaks French, German, and English. And I didn't know her 3 months ago, but today we are connected by our values and by our desire to really help develop the next generations of leaders. And all of this is because of the technology. And also because of technology, I do speak French, but I don't have time to translate my podcast from English to French. I will use artificial intelligence to do the translation. And because my guests also speak German, so I'm going to translate the podcast in German as well. So I'm able to reach more people and a lot of barriers are being broken because of the power of technology. So I am really, really grateful for that. So let me see if I can do a proper introduction for our guest today. Today we are going to be speaking with Coach Astrid Meyer. So she's an executive director of the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team, and she is a certified facilitator, facilitator, speaker, trainer and coach. She coaches individuals and groups alike. So she's trained and been trained and mentored by John Maxwell, who is my primary mentor as well, into, you know, this world class of faculty. So she's equipped with the tools, the resources, and to help you and your team improve your productivity, performance, and profitability. All right, so Without any further ado, let me bring to the Leadership Success Podcast Coach Astrid Meyer. Hey, salut Astrid, comment ça va?

Bonjour, bienvenue. Hello, what a pleasure to be here. Nice to be here with you, Coach BC.

It's wonderful. What time is it there in Switzerland? Is it like 3:45?

Yeah, it's 3:45 PM exactly. We are in the snow and we have—

Wow, that's pretty early. Yeah, it's only 6:45 AM here in California. I'm so glad to see you. I've been waiting for this moment for a very long time. Maybe to get started, what are you grateful for today?

Today I'm grateful to be in a home where we have heating because outside it's really, really cold and a lot of snow. And then I don't have to go out. So I'm just happy and I'm so happy to be here and to share about values.

Wow. That is really wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing that. Is there something about you that most people may not know?

Well, I, what people would not know, I am living in the mountains and yesterday it took me 3 hours to go down the mountain. To the valley. But, and I'm facing the Matterhorn, so if it's nice weather, it looks really, really nice here in Switzerland.

I've been to Europe, never to Switzerland. I think I need to go there. And I'm assuming many people do skiing this time of year, right?

Oh yeah, it starts. Absolutely.

That is beautiful. Okay. Maybe you can, to get started, kind of let us know about your leadership journey. How you came to become a certified Maxwell Leadership Coach and also having now your own ministry and business where you coach and train and develop other leaders?

Yeah, well, I think since a long time I had this profound search for good in human beings, but also disappointment and incomprehension of human behavior. But I was fascinated by different educational approaches that brought out the best in children. And I like to quote Charlie Chaplin, who said, there is genius in every child. You just have to bring it out. And I would add that there is value in every human being. So let's learn to align ourselves with these human values.

Wow, that is really powerful. And one thing I do love with the Maxwell Leadership DNA, we really focus on values a lot, right? Papa John like to say, I have great value, right? I value people, and then I want to add value to people. That's really the essence of leadership, isn't it? So your journey then from Switzerland to global transformation leadership is quite extraordinary. What inspired you to dedicate your life to developing people for value?

Um, I'm, I'm— I would say I had an aha moment before I really was aware. I studied business at the College for Girls, and our female principal told us, this is not a school for training secretaries. I want to see women leaders emerge who will bring something good to this world.

Wow.

And at that time, I didn't really understand what that meant. And it has taken me quite a journey to bring it together, serve, add value, and be in leadership position. Wow.

That is really something. Can you take us back to one of your aha moments, the turning point when you realize that leadership begins with self-leadership?

Well, maybe it's sometimes in crisis, in hard times, we realize it most. We had already a company, everything was good. But at my 50s, I just was stopped by a cancer final state. I had 2 or 3 months left to live. And there I had to find this personal, intentional understanding. What's next? What is life all about? So I had personal coaching. I'm a person of faith, so Jesus really, really gave me coaching because I needed to understand more how to go through this journey.

Wow. I am so glad you overcame that. Thank you for sharing it. Wow. Because you've really built an organization, you've coached leaders and transformed teams across 5 continents, not just in Europe, but really all around the world. What early experience shaped your philosophy on servant leadership?

Well, I had an interesting discovery. Beside of our— we had a Christian bookshop with event management and did concert organization. I had hard for difficult places in our town where young children had not a lot of hope to do something in a different way. So I start to invest time to coach them, to add value to them, to rise them. And we created an organization called Quartier Libre. And for 20 years we went in these places to rise leaders, young people, to bring them to values and then to to disciple them to really understand how to become leaders. So that was one of things I did before Maxwell, before I knew about John Maxwell, but kind of the same alignment on values and leadership.

That is so powerful because really children are our future, right? Because in the early days of your work with like Clé de Sol and Ressources de Vie, what were some key lessons you learned about resilience, creativity, and faith in leadership?

Well, just to make sure, my husband and I, we were engaged as business people in a huge company here in Vevey in Switzerland. So our goal was not all this part, but I think we had aha moments together when we said, well, what is our purpose? Is it just success? We were just newborn Christians, so we just became really engaged and we want to change the world. So we started at that moment this company, uh, with more mission-oriented, uh, to bring help to people and I think since 40 years, it's now 40 years we started this first company, it is still running, it's still having success. And it already showed us there is a beyond success, there is a life of significance.

Yes, yes. I know Papa John says, you know, once you test significance, success will no longer satisfy. Man, I am really amazed all of the work you do, you're putting out into the next generation. Like Papa John's, You say, right, everything rises and falls on leadership, and leadership rises and falls on character. So how does that truth play out in modern organization today?

Oh, it's so true. And I even would add, and character rises and falls on values. That's true.

Yeah.

If you don't start working on values, change is very difficult to achieve. So after years of trainings about leadership, teamwork, I just found the habits or the bad habits of character level side are so difficult. So it was kind one side I did all these trainings, but on the other side, bad behavior were most of the times the difficult part. And people don't know how to work along with this. So, um, to strengthen sustainable performance, team cohesion, and leadership, it needs values. So I became engaged more and more in values.

Did this kind of lead you to, uh, found the Human Values Global?

Um, it was different circumstances. Sometimes it's funny how, how, uh, God brings it all together. We would not imagine how it comes. Um, It was mostly, um, about COVID We could not work anymore. We had all these coaches. I was trainer on the French platform and then shut down. We could not go do anything anymore and people were not ready, um, to have their online platforms. They all this business, they were just stopping. So I wanted to help all these coaches. And so I created this platform. But then, well, there's a lot coming together, but we will come, I think, in the discussion.

Wow.

It is really amazing because you are really impacting the entire globe with coaches. Wow. That is really wonderful. So how do you help teams identify and align around shared values? Especially in multicultural or multinational environment?

Well, to begin, we work with the organization to identify the values they would like to improve. For example, attitude, motivation, respect. We have listed 48 fundamental values.

Hmm.

Wow.

That is so wonderful. And let me ask you this. In your experience, what are some of the most common leadership blind spots that prevent transformation?

We are not aware of what we do not know. I think when I talk about values, very few people know what I'm talking about. People quickly think it's a moral judgment, or what— or I think religion or dominant systems have abused about this morality or these values. But today we are lacking so much values, and we don't know anymore how to transmit them. So I think When I go to companies, the first thing I try to ask questions about awareness of values. A lot of people tell me, well, we have on our wall all these values. And I say, well, how do you train them? And they just go, well, we really announce them and we have them in a paper. And you don't know how to really work and train them.

Wow, that is so powerful. Yeah, I have seen that also even here in Silicon Valley where a lot of people, they have those core values on the wall of what they think their company stands for. But many times you're right, they don't live by those values. They don't hire and fire by those values. It's like, it's just, and even sometimes when I do leadership training or I'm a keynote speaker, many times I will ask, hey, Who among you guys know what your core values are for your company? And less than 1% know what those values are. Most of them, they have to go to their website or because they have no idea. Whereas in the US military, it doesn't matter which branch of the military you are in, it's pretty much ingrained into you. For example, in the Navy, we have 3 core values: honor, courage, commitment. Even when I was a seaman recruit, a low-level enlisted sailor, I knew what my 3 core values were. You can wake me up at 5 o'clock in the morning, "Hey, what are your core values?" Honor, courage, commitment. But in the business, in the industry, they usually say nice things, but they don't really live those out. Well, thank you for sharing that. That is so important because it should really help the way you develop your strategy and the way you accomplish the mission for your organization. Can you share maybe a story where a leader or an organization experienced a breakthrough after rediscovering their core values?

Well, how can I say? We have core values we love because that seems good, that's on our walls, and we think we have them. But sometimes it's more interesting to go just to all these values we are not aware and we are not using really. So maybe we are not only about core values, we are about awareness. How a value does function. Every value has a system and we have misunderstanding about the system. So when I went to, it was in Costa Rica, we went to a company and I already observed when I go in a room, you just can read. There were a young bunch of people and they were the leader and they were not together. So there were a huge separation. Now, We trained the team. We did two values. The first, attitude. So everybody was kind of going around. It was easy, a good attitude, awareness, and all this. And then the second value was forgiveness. And then it fall down. The leader, he just was aware, I did never have this awareness. I have no I have no idea why I did not understand forgiveness and all what we went through the program. So we have a methodology. We can do 5 different moves around. It's a kind of group coaching in a secure way. So everybody is not to say everything, but just certain things they need to answer. And then he had just to give an evaluation. So he gave himself a 0. And you don't say anything. We just say, thank you. Thank you. And then we go to the next. So it went around, but then the next tour we have to say, what could you do better in this evaluation? And he got just, I have no idea. I'm so wrong in that. So long story short, at the end there were no judgment, there were no condemnation, they were just awareness. And that was enough that the whole team were just coming back and to say, we want to make a photo. And then suddenly it happened. He was in the middle, everybody had arms around, and he was part of the team. So you see, in just one session, by awareness, what is it about forgiveness, he captured the aha moment. I was so wrong. He still had not responded, but he was open now to become a change. That he wanted to see.

That is really powerful. When you talk about transformation, table, and values, probably one of the best resources I've ever read is Change Your World, the book that Papa John says he was born to, to read. It goes through a lot of the values and how to apply them and study them. But really, when you lead from your core values, you are really authentic and you can really make a huge, huge, huge impact. So thank you so much for sharing that. But so you've helped translate and localize Maxwell Leadership material across Europe and Africa. Why is it so important to make leadership accessible in multiple languages and cultures?

I think on one side, John brought down all the growth principles, how he called them laws, the 15 Laws of Growth, or the leadership principles, the 21 Laws of Leadership. And then through the values, we brought it down to the basic human values. Now, John, he worked together with another team. It's called GPS. And he created these wonderful roundtables about Change Your World. And these are the values. These are the basic human values. So when you bring it down to basic things, I think language, it's another multilingual way of being different. But on the other side, when we bring it down to some same level, we need to have it in all these languages because the base is the same. So for me in Switzerland, we grow up in 4 languages. We have Romansh, German, Italian, and French.

Wow.

We have to learn that language, it's not a barrier. It's more value on another level because every language has words we don't have in other language. So it's rich and so much value. So for me, it began really early in my life. I had to translate all the time in other languages and that became a passion, not only literally or how can I say in a grammatical way, but in Understanding way. So when I did all the help to translate in French, it was about adaptation more than just, um, because we have Google Translator now, today it's easy. And I think the understanding, we often miss the right understanding of the words. And that's what I'm passionate about.

That's really wonderful. Yeah, I guess the difference between translation and interpretation, right? And let me ask you this, with the, I guess, the disruptive deployment of artificial intelligence, are you using artificial intelligence at all these days to help with translation too, or no?

Oh, it's just the, how can I say, the easy beginning.

Yes, yes.

But then you really work on it on different levels. So I'm involved in translation company as well. So I really love to understand how with artificial intelligence, we can add value to this. It's a huge work.

Yes.

But then still we have to give, to nurture the artificial intelligence with the right vocabulary, with the right understanding. And that's, that's still a big challenge.

That is quite powerful. I know artificial intelligence definitely helping a lot. And for the most part, it gets better and better. Every day. But I also remember when I was growing up in Africa, we sang a lot of songs in my church in French, but most of the songs were really, I think the great majority of them were composed in English, right? In the United Kingdom, Youth With A Mission. But then they were able to take the song, translate them in French. And the beautiful thing about that is they would kind of the improse, the poetry, and all of that in your own native language, which is pretty amazing. And then years later, I found out, no, this wasn't composed in French originally, it was in English. Somebody made the translation and then we were able to sing it. So it's really powerful technology when it comes to translating a song and the art. And it's not just a science, right? So there is an art to to it as well. But it's really wonderful how it kind of brings the world together where language is no longer a barrier. So tell us a little bit about Global Human Values. What inspired you to create it and how is it transforming organizations and communities around the world today?

Well, I think, how to say, I did trainings before on psychology And I found it was so interesting to understand human being, to understand sociology as well. But still, I couldn't find a way to bring the change. And so coaching brought me this awareness by asking questions. We cannot change other people. As a quote of John Watts says, change, how was it, how is that in English? Change is imposed by pain. 'Through learning that takes place by receiving.' That was the most amazing quote in the beginning. I discovered John Maxwell. So what does that mean? We cannot— if, if sickness brings us to change something because we need, it's not a sustainable change. So how does change work? I did some research about change as well, but finally what I found, we have to bring it down to the most easy and simple understanding. So you can imagine when I got trained by John Maxwell about leadership, about coaching, I was just, wow, that's wonderful. But when I came to the point of the values, when we did this country transformations, I said, that's the thing, that's the most powerful basic human thing. So right here in Europe to do something because we had not yet changed the world, we had not beyond success and all these value roundtables. So in fact, I started something that did not exist yet.

Wow.

And that was human values. That was before the official. And on the other side, I think it was guided this way. So we have identity for Europe and Africa. And sometimes it helps, sometimes not. But I think for Europe, it was kind of good in Switzerland place it might help as well, an organization based on all the teachings of John Maxwell, the values based on GPS. And that brought it together on something basic. So when I go now to companies, it's values, that's easy. And then they build trust and then they see the alignment on values. So you can imagine I and our coaches, they have this credibility of aligned value people, so trusted people. And then they discover, oh, you have personal development growth programs and you have leadership programs, you have teamwork programs, you have corporate world programs, DiSC programs, all the rest for sure. Just come in on the most basic and simplest way. And where everybody want to have a better teamwork, want to have just a culture environment who has more values. You see all these new words coming up, but maybe I will show you some example of trainings.

Why?

It responds. It's such an answer to the world. Wow. And maybe I want to just tell you, today we are facing problems. Of course, there are a lot of problems. And for a long time, I personally did think we just have to find solution. I was a solution founder. But then I understood, no, no, no, there's something wrong. Sometimes they are not solution anymore. The problem is too— it just went out of alignment. And then I had this new understanding. In fact, we are just in front of consequences of this alignment. So if we have consequences of non-alignment, we just need to learn how to go back to alignment, and then we will have benefits. Of aligning on values. So that would bring it together, what we are doing in Global Human Values.

No, that is very, very powerful. Thanks so much for all of the work you are doing because your work is really global. I remember I went with Papa John and the team in the Dominican Republic where they speak Spanish a couple of years back, but you've been in Costa Rica, in Paraguay, all around. The world watching.

I think we were going to Dominican Republic as well.

Oh, okay. So we probably were. We have a pretty big team. I think maybe 50 of us. I think it was quite a lot because when I went there, I focused on elementary school teacher and businessmen and entrepreneur. Those were the people I was leading. But man, it's a life-changing event. So what leadership principle then transcends culture, languages, and it works no matter where you are around the world in your experience?

Yeah, I think when you bring leadership down to human values, it just, as we say in leadership, you add value. You are not taking the value. Or like John has in his last book, High Road Leadership, what is difference from some kind of leadership, dominant, positional, or leadership as a leader of brings motivation, where is the level of leadership just so different. So mostly I think we can go there, up there, and kind, there are not a lot of people. For example, politics. I don't say names. Political guidance, but they are just fighting each other. They are not having a relation, no respect, and no adding value anymore. So if there is a problem up there, sometimes we cannot reach there anymore, so we just go down, down, down, down here. And on this level, okay, how can you live a life of respect? What does it mean? What is the benefit? Or how can your attitude change? Is it vulnerability or is it not being powerful? Why do we have so many bad understanding of values and human behavior? So when we go there and people become aware, oh, I don't have to be dominant to be respected. No, not at all. How works respect? And then they learn it and they improve it. And that's when they come back next week, we have always an action step to do. So it's really, um, in the, the being. It's not just the training or the doing, it's the being, the human being, and being, the doing. Yeah.

Yes. And thank you so much for mentioning this book I wrote, Leadership, Right? Bringing People Together in a World That Divides. I think we need it now more than ever before. I've really never lived in a world where people at the highest level of leadership sometimes act like children, and it really makes me, you know, leadership sad. I think I've heard Papa John say that too. And we, I think more than ever before, today, right now, we really people to be coached to live by their values, respect one another, treat everybody with respect and dignity, and really focus on the problem, right? Not be like children and attacking each other. Wow. So, man, we, we have so much to talk about, but let me ask you this: for leaders in crisis or in transition right now, whether they are in the military, in the corporate world or high tech, what are the first steps toward regaining clarity and confidence?

Become a friend with crisis and change. And, and that was— I learned by my study about change, and John Maxwell learned a lot about crisis as well. Change is the most stressful and difficult thing to go through. But change opens new ways of seeing. And as John says, a leader is not only somebody who knows things to do, but he sees more and before. And I think today we just need— how did you ask the question? Yes, I guess Yes, please give me just the end of the question so I can direct to your question.

So going from crisis to clarity and confidence. Yeah.

To become clarity, we need to know what happens in a change journey. And there is surprise, there is non-confort, there is learning. You see, we have a wonderful tool in the corporate side of John Maxwell, where we learn to go through crisis. Now that's one thing change. Then we have to find out what are the values we would never change them again. Values, where are the non— this, how do you say it in English? Non-discutable, um, values. Even in crisis, we still be honest, we still will respect We still— so I think crisis, we don't manage crisis because we have the powerful money or whatever, but because in crisis we know how to stay solid on our values.

Yes.

And be— even if it looks not right thing to do, um, but if it's on our value side, we, we don't discuss about these values, we still stay honest Integrity and all these things. So even I think in times of crisis, just be fidèle. How do you say this?

Faithful.

Faithful. And your basic profound values.

Wow. So that's why they are core values. So you have to stand on your values, especially in times of crisis.

Yeah.

Not be looking for shortcuts or trying to look for a small, ephemeral advantage with being who you are. And so powerful. I think we really need this now more than ever before. Let's talk a little bit about, uh, women and leadership, because unfortunately today, even in America, I feel like there is still no equity, right, between male and female. Like, in America, still, women, even if they have the same experience, background, and education, they still make about 80 cents on the dollar. Now, there's been a lot of improvement, but I don't think we are still where we need to be. And in many other countries in the world, it's the same thing. So you've been a role model for women in leadership for decades now. What unique challenges do women face when leading through value and service?

Maybe I, I might just connect with when we have our meetings with John Maxwell once a year or even twice a year. We call it the IMC, International Meetings. John invites always really interesting people to learn us more. So I learned so much. And I think I want to quote you, Malcolm Gladwell, Blink. It's thinking without thinking. And why has this influence about women? About inclusive or exclusive, about color, about— you see all these problems. I think in a culture, how we treat women is the first evidence of how we treat children, how we treat different cultures, how we treat different colors. You see what I mean? So if as a woman we have differences, it's because we have sometimes blink attitudes we are not aware and we think without thinking. And suddenly it looks like a woman is less powerful than a man. So it's always more important to have a powerful man leading a company. You see this kind of things. I see— may I say it this way? I see it even more in the United States. There, the men's— I so much—

whoa—

hard. In Europe, we have a more, um, large spectrum of, um, yeah, the political side is more dominant, so there are more women. But still, it's difficult. But the first thing is our mindset of women. We think— and, and they have, uh, Malcolm Gladwell, he has a lot of statistics. He explained Why a woman, if she is not 100% sure she has the full potential of doing something, she will not offer her service for a job.

Yes.

A man, he has 40% of understanding of the situation. He just, I'm the man.

True.

I think even that's culturally and that's educational. We still need a generation of new understanding. We are so complementary. We are not the same, and that's— our Creator wanted this way, but we are still learning how to, to have the right thing. So in our team on Global Human Values, we are a lot of women. I see there are a lot of women rising in Africa too. They say we have to bring another leadership to our children, to our community. I love these women. I support them so much. They have now a community in Belgium and they are politically and in university so much engaged. And I just, wow, you are so powerful women. So I love to work with women, but as I said, it's not the difference. We are just complementary. So we need both, man.

And so this is going to be the last question for, for this segment, because you often said, and you also said it at the beginning of this podcast, you know, you need to become the change you wish to see. And so what's your message for young women who are listening right now and emerging leaders who want to make an impact?

Um, be faithful on, on what you are believing in the most profound inside of you, if it's aligned with add value and values there, I think the new generation has answers to questions we don't even can imagine, our generation. So I think be faithful what you understand and what you see and what you search, but ask questions, search for better understanding. And I see it already, you search for beyond success, you search for significance. Because if there is no sense, you will not do it for money anymore. Our generation did things for money or for success. No, the new generation, they want to find sense. Now there there is such a discouragement and there is missing so much hope that sometimes it falls in— we just enjoy every day and we just try to make the best of our own life and, and to be kind of joy and easy life. That will not bring you significance. So I think still there is hope. And like John says it in the Change Your World Roundtable, um, hope is, um, there are two things in hope. There is, uh, current— no, there is, um, oh, I try— there is anger about things we are not agreeing.

Yes, hope.

There's anger because we are don't agreeing, but there is courage to see the potential to change. Change it.

Wow, that's powerful.

I would say please renew your hope. And we have one value is hope. So we train how to be a person full of hope and see things possible, how to work with our emotions and to have even anger, but not the anger of breaking down, but anger to change things. And then you will find this courage to change the things.

That is powerful. I guess that's really where change starts, right? You have to be dissatisfied with where you are so you can find a way to get to where you should be. All right, so, um, the first question I want to ask you for the second segment is, what do you think is the greatest lesson you have learned so far? Lesson in leadership, in life in general?

Oh, I think I don't quote John. It's is personal experience. The hardest leadership, it's about ourselves. It's to, to how can I lead myself? I had to learn to become much more active, to get in charge of my life. In all these cancer questions, I had to get in charge. It's not the others, they know. It's not How should they know? I had to learn, well, how does this work in my body? So I think the greatest leadership is become the leader of yourself and learn how you act and why, and why things are not aligned and all these things. Yeah.

That's really powerful because like Papa John teaches, right? Leadership is not about a title or a position, but it's really influence. And the first person you need to influence is yourself. That is so powerful. Thank you. And what do you think is the greatest leadership advice you've received so far?

I would say believe or dare. In French, we say ose.

Dare.

Yes. Go.

And I call it even, I have a kind of connection where I ask the Lord, well, well, red carpet or red light. So during COVID I had just red carpet to go to the United States, but that was not possible because Europe could not go to the United States during COVID Well, guess what? I was the only European woman, and even there were no men coming to EMC to Orlando. Yes, because I dare to go, because I believed there could be a red carpet. You just have to first step, and then step by step there is a way to open.

Wow, that's powerful. Dare to live. So powerful. Yeah, I remember during COVID is when my mother passed away in, in France, and French had closed their borders. They wouldn't allow people from the US or from anywhere to come to the country, so So we had to get a special permission from the Prime Minister of France and we went through the embassy in San Francisco. But yeah, my brother and I, we were able to travel there for her funeral. You are— so many times in the world they have rules where they say, no, you can't do this, these are our rules. But usually there is a waiver or there is a way for some type of exception if you dare to believe and dare to lead. So powerful. Wow, okay, so what do you think is the secret of your success? Why are you so successful going all around the world and impacting leaders and developing leaders with your ministry and your work? What do you think is the secret?

Well, I'm laughing because I have to share my vulnerability and then you will understand how I think God brought it to something. Something really different. I'm IS person. So when you understand this human evaluation.

Yes.

So I kind of go all over different things and I could just go there and there and I see there something.

Yes.

And I love people. So I would just stay all the time with my things, what I think priority, but I would lose the goal. I would not be efficient. So one of the mentors of the Maxwell Leadership Team, I was asking him, I get so much lost because I take attention to somebody who I would love to help, and then I lose time because I do several things at the same time. How can I get a better person and be more organized and have better priority? Yes, he gave me the best, best answer. Because until there, people say you have to get disciplined, you have to be more patient, and all these things. And I did it for 40 years and did not work. So he gave me this answer: your dream is not big enough.

Wow.

You're not connected yet with what is in your potential. And if you would say it in a way for a person of faith, you are not connected yet with the call God put in your life. And you see, there I had to come back to my young age. I wanted to change the world, and everybody told me, you cannot change the world. And I thought, I want to change my school. You cannot. So all this other voices telling me, you cannot, you cannot. At one level, my age, I said, why not?

Why not?

That's right.

Wow. Why not brought me to the place. If that's really dream to change the world, I have to get organized. I have priorities and I I cannot lose any more time with doing just not with things where prioritized. So I became much more disciplined and much more goal-oriented, but still with this wonderful side of me, influence and social understanding. So that's kind of my secret sauce.

That is so cool. Powerful. Thank you so much for sharing that. So what are you learning these days?

Wow.

These days I'm still working with Malcolm Gladwell. I just found his last book about— it's The Tipping Point.

Yeah.

What brings this change? What has this influence worldwide? So you can imagine I'm I'm so passionate about. But still, I have Carolyn Leaf, Switch on Your Brain. I think all the neuroscientific things are coming more and more aware. I see even connections to the values about how values working. And that brings me to the emotions. So at the moment, I'm studying about a connection That's another understanding of how bringing emotion in the system of like the values, how does that work? Why we are so not good and our generation was not good at all in emotions. And today new generation has better understanding. You see, we keep on learning. We never arrive. Like John says, we are never learner, and that's, I think, the most big secret.

Wow, thank you so much. So we are going towards the end, but let me ask you this, uh, success and failures, I believe, are two sides of the same exact coin. How has failure shaped your life?

Um, I, I love it. I had this side of, I invested a lot in other people. And I always had this belief that others know better than I do. That's women or whatever my DISC side. So my biggest failure was when I put in more confidence and more belief in others that they would know. And when there were failures in my life, it was just because I did not listen to my leadership understanding. And I think that was a consequence. So since I'm now concentrated on global human values, because somewhere I had different failures of not achieving what I would have loved to bring it to the place. And today I said, I have to take my leadership now. And really, if there is something I have to change in this world, well, just create it. So that's part of really investing now my main time in global human values.

That is so wonderful. So who are some of your mentors, your thought leaders, people you follow that we should know about and follow as well?

Well, I think our people, if they haven't yet heard that John Maxwell Bob Fabien Zinga. Somebody we really— and I would say he not only— well, I love to say he is my friend, so he knows so much, but most of all he's my friend and he puts in word what is deep down in my soul. So I would not say I just follow a guru, like in English, but we don't love it in French. It's not the kind of thing I would say, but I would say he He says this in deep, what is deep down in me. So that's why we just love. But then Valerie Burton, yeah, she is a wonderful coach, positive thinking coach. So she's our coach. Then we have, um, Galbraith, um, he learns us to speak and not only to speak, to how to bring my message over, out there. And I had to learn a lot. I was a timid introvert person. You see what it looks like now. So he learned me so much. And sure, Mark Cole, our CEO, he takes over now. And Chris Robinson, I love his heart. So that's our team of leaders at the Maxwell Leadership Team. But then John brings in, like I told you, Malcolm Gladwell. We had Karen Leaf, and we had Cialdini. We had, uh, well, there were so many names. Every time I just go so much.

It's wonderful.

Yeah, it's beautiful. So we keep on growing. If you heard sometimes, pardon, Live to Lead, that's one. And every year it's a meeting about all these wonderful people coming up in the John brings them together and like Simon Sinek we had. So all these names, they keep adding value to me and they really inspire me so much.

That is really, really wonderful, man. That's really what I love, right? I think you're going to mention the 15 Laws of Growth. So we are always growing, always learning, and it's so wonderful. So if you could have dinner with 3 people, It doesn't matter who they are, alive, dead, or even mythical figure. Who would you choose to have dinner with and why?

3 people. Well, I can— let's reconnecting. Yes.

No, I can hear you.

Yeah.

We have a lot of snow, so I don't hope there is some problem.

You are good.

Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, I'm— well, I, I don't know if some of you are, uh, you know about The Chosen, this new, uh, story about life of Jesus. So if you see The Chosen and you see this representation of Jesus, I still would love to spend just time. And well, a person of faith, we know there is this time we can share these moments with, with Jesus. So first of all, that's real life. So I'm still practicing every day. I have some moments with Jesus. That's first. And then sure, um, um, I have some crazy thought. When I came back from my cancer and all, all this journey I asked the Lord a strange prayer. I said, let me meet important people of this world to really have influence.

Wow.

And I said, BC, Coach BC, you are important. Wow, thank you. They are strategic people in the world. So sometimes I would love to meet some strategic people. But sometimes it's not the ones we would think, like the presidents, because that sometimes there is somebody behind. So I have some names in my head. It's about politic, it's about people of influence, or we call them people of peace in the country. So I'm looking now to be connected to people of peace who have influence in, in in a good way and to connect to these people and then to share dinner, to just to share, okay, what strategy should we now understand with this eternal seeing? Wow, thank you so much.

Yes. So give me one more name, one of those people, just one. Well, um, what about the president of the US? Would you like to have dinner with Donald Trump?

I, I would say I would do the prayer red carpet or red light.

Yes, very good, very good.

Thank you. Not be so sure, but on the other side, sure, there is a need of people. They, they are to go there and to have, as we had, for example, in Costa Rica, we had the opportunity to meet the Minister of Education of this, this country. So I would sure love to meet, I think, I think on our Switzerland direction as well. So I would love to meet, uh, this, these people.

Yeah, but Wonderful.

Trump is red carpet or red lights, I think there would be some bigger intervention.

Fantastic. So we almost out of time. Can you give me 5 more minutes before we close? Okay. So some of the books that you've read that we should read, we've kind of talked about this. You mentioned earlier the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, right? The 16 Indeniable Laws of communication. We've mentioned Change Your World and also I Wrote Leadership, which is one of the latest books Papa John just wrote. And then when we spoke, you talked about The Tipping Point by Michael Gladwell and also Blank. And then we also talked about Dr. Carol Ann Leaf. Can you tell us more about Switch On Your Brain, why people should buy this book and read it?

Well, I would even add another one because I think I told about Carol Ann Leaf. I You would need to add Tim Elmore. Yes, absolutely.

I interviewed him about 3 years ago.

Yes. So good. So if our listener here, we can come back to Tim Elmore. Why is he, he makes such a difference because he brings it to the new generation understanding. We are the first generation where we have 5 generations working together. That never happened.

Before.

So we are so disconnected. We are not speaking the same language anymore, not only in language side, but on the cultural side. We are not having the same understanding. We are not having the same base of technical issues. So we need to connect with this new generation. So his book about habits or the new training we have now about huge and training in school. Absolutely interesting. Have a look on podcast of Tim Elmore as well. He brings such a difference. Yes.

And this is his latest book, The Future Begins with Z. Yeah.

And I would add Jeff Henderson.

Yes.

Jeff Henderson, he brings it to the place. All the companies on this world are here to help the world becoming a better world. That's the goal of every company. Every company has an answer to a need of the world. That's commerce. That's exchange of good things. That's the human being purpose. So Chief Anderson brings it, why does it not work and what for our companies should be here. And he helps so much this understanding for companies, for organizations, how to bring it on the right place, what for we are here. If it's just to make money, it will end. It's no worth. There must be purpose. There must be intention. There must be understanding of how to bring it to the world.

And there's—

it's not a marketing side. So I'm kind of allergic to all the kind— a certain kind of marketing where it's just about you have to buy it, we have to answer, and it's just about, uh, that way of bringing marketing in. Yes, Charlene is, is a good, um, other author Speaking about this, so Jeff Henderson, he brings a right understanding of marketing. I learned so much about how to get connected. Well, I'm not at your level, Coach BC, but I'm kind of connected to quite a lot of influential people. And that brings me to a place where we can have influence to change things. So really, Tim Elmore and Jeff Henderson, two other names to—

Absolutely. Actually, Jeff Henderson, we are connected. He needs to be on my podcast next. So thank you for reminding me. But this is powerful, powerful, powerful. So, man, I could be speaking with you for hours and hours and hours, but let me ask you this. We are running out of time, but I need to know, is there maybe a song or a book or a movie that would be your life's theme? Or your NFAM? Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Well, let's say Casting Crowns. It's a music group.

Yeah.

He does powerful songs about humanness and about empathy and about change. So he is one of the ones I love to listen.

Do you know what's the name of the song from Casting Crowns? Oh, so many.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's—

wow.

Well, when I was in my cancer journey and it— oh, I don't remember the song.

Yeah, they have so many. Just a few. Praise You in the Storm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's absolutely the one. Praise You in the Storm.

Okay.

It just brings you Aspirational.

Wow.

Oh yeah, yeah. Then, um, I have a friend actually, she, uh, did— she's now at her 5th series of Fragrance of Faith.

Wow.

And it's just a story, uh, different stories. She goes to different places where She brings up understanding of human beings and how this fragrance of faith brings the turning point. And as John says a lot at our IMC event, I don't bother you about my— it's not about a religion. It's just in case you want to hear something more about this side, please come to my service. But everybody comes, but he does not, um, push on it. So I would say the same. If there is somebody asking more about what is it about faith, what is this behind— it's not a religious thing, it's just a relational thing. So I would look for fragranceoffaith.org and you will have access to this wonderful series of bring this fragrance of faith appear in the world. That brings hope and that brings understanding. And even to somebody who, who has just no connection about religion or faith, and it brings understanding. And it, it's just a wonderful— she does wonderful in, in this. Now she's just doing the fifth series, the same in The Chosen. The fifth series just came out, so it's, it's another powerful thing. But there is a lot out there. So I'm still loving the music of John Maxwell as well. He put leadership lessons in music. The same, you can find, um, wonderful encouragements.

Wow. And this is the Fragrance of Faith website, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you so much for sharing.

And you will find wonderful appearance of this.

Wow. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing. Yes, I've listened, I think at least 2 or 3 songs now John Maxwell did about leadership, and I would have link on the article I'm gonna write. Thank you. Okay. So we are coming toward the very end. Thanks for giving me a little bit more time. I think this is important. If you had one day and only one day to live, what would you have liked your final contribution to be?

That I decided when I had just 2 or 3 months left to live. I said, well, intentional every day, be intentional every day. And I would even start a new values roundtable. I do every week. I have groups with these values roundtables. Table. So I stay in, in the movement. And, and we need to be intentional and, and still believe change is possible. And values, we can bring these values roundtables all over the world. And I would say, well, I'm not enough. We need a team. So if you are here, you listen to our podcast, just please have a look either Global Human Values, our platform, or you just go to maxwellleadership.com as well. You have a lot of podcasts as well from the Maxwell Leadership side. Just so wonderful. Just, I think there is hope and we need other people to join us because we need more people to multiply. True.

Wow. So if you had a magic wand, you could solve any problem at all. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, what is one problem you would like to solve?

Oh, well, now you, you, you see my brain is going the other way around. I would just come back to the values because I would say, well, I just have to learn even better a new value. And I give you an example. I just trained a group for generosity, but I still couldn't figure out how to manage all the abusive world that gets on your generosity and makes you keep your heart is not soft anymore. So I still had to figure out how does it work. I did research, I did look for answers. And I just wrote a newsletter about generosity and what other factors have to learn us how to be free to be generosity and not to be manipulated in generosity. So I would every day learn even more and more about values and how to get aligned on this value. And by the way, if you like to get involved in our newsletters, you just subscribe. And just let you know, it looks like it is in French, but our platform is a multilingual platform. So you just double-click, right? And then you choose your language. You have to choose 130 languages.

Yes.

And you will find it in your language. So even our newsletter, you can find it in English, in Italian, in Russian. In Spanish, in whatever language you speak.

Wow. And, uh, that is the one at humanvalues.global, right?

Yeah, there's a, there's a LinkedIn one, so they are close. In LinkedIn it's shorter, but on Globally on Values we have, it's always longer newsletter, but it's the same theme we, we, we treat. So we just came out with the last one about, uh, you go on News, just click on News on the menu.

Yeah, yeah, here we are.

And then you just find our latest and news newsletter. You see, you changed language, so you, you click. And we do a lot of different values. Then we have, when we go to countries, we had a conference just lately. You can listen to the record I think there is a lot to discover.

That's so wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. So I want everybody to please go to humanvalues.global and sign up for the newsletter under news. And I also would like for everybody to follow you on LinkedIn. Here you are. Is there anything else the audience can do to add value back to you, Astrid?

Be the change you want to see.

Yes, that is powerful. Yeah, I think Mahatma Gandhi said that too. Be the change you want to see. That is so powerful. Wow. Okay, so we are coming toward the end, but let me ask you, is there a question I should have asked that I have not asked yet? Anything you wanted to say before we close out?

Oh, just let me know if I can add value to you. Just reach out to me. I would love to support you all over the world. You see, I'm not about success anymore. It's about beyond success, a life of significance.

Wow.

So if you would like to discover more or understand more, just please, I'm here to serve you.

Outstanding. Okay, so let me ask you this. If you could go back and give a piece of advice to your 17-year-old 17-year-old self. Standing at the edge of this incredible career you've had with global coaching and training and speaking, what would you say to 17-year-old Astrid?

I did already create things. I did a lot. Just it did not exist, so I had to create it. But I was not daring to make companies with it. So I would say to my young— and that would I say to you if you are young person or even less, just start, create. There are still answers we haven't on this world, and we need be creative, and, and we need invention, and we need— but all this covered with this, um, like Joel Mambi says, with love. So Caring leadership. Just, yeah, have this caring leadership and create.

Wow.

This is what you need in this world.

Thank you so much. Okay, we are coming towards the end. It's gonna take less than 2 minutes, lightning round. So you have to think really fast, okay? One word that defines leadership, one word.

Oh, I would say love, but it looks like— Yeah.

That's wonderful.

Okay. A morning routine or practice that keeps you grounded?

Start intentionally within me and that connected me to him.

That's powerful. Okay. A book or a quote that changed your life?

Um, leaders see more and before others see. Yeah.

Yes, that's a powerful quote by Papa Maxwell. Okay, who inspires you the most today?

Well, still John Maxwell. In between, that comes down to the Bible. Yes, the word of God.

Very good. So what did you want to be when you were a kid?

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher.

Oh, you are a teacher today. You are a global teacher, like a speaker, a trainer. Wonderful.

Absolutely.

Bravo. So, 3 adjectives describing you as a child?

I couldn't catch you.

Uh, 3 adjectives describing you as a child?

Um, I would say loving, smiling, and curious.

Okay. As an adult?

Loving, smiling, and curious.

Very good. This is consistent. Good job. This is the last question and the podcast is over. Thank you so much for giving us a little extra time. I feel like we really needed this. You have so much to teach us. We need to have you back on the show. So the last question is, what is one word that comes to mind that represents our shared experience on this podcast right now? One word?

Multiplication.

Multiplication. Thank you. For me, I'm always, always grateful. Thanks so much for taking your time all the way from Switzerland, Astrid. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you for being one of our master teachers today. Leading, we value everyone. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Coach Bisson.

Au revoir et merci, merci beaucoup.

C'était un honneur pour moi d'être avec vous.

Great, great love and, uh, affection.

Bye-bye.

All right, bye. Well, everybody, that was our coach Astrid Meyer. Wow, what a powerful time we've had. Sorry we went over by almost 20 minutes, but she has so much to teach us. So again, I want to remind everyone to follow her on LinkedIn. Let me get the caption here. Uh, hold on a second. Yeah, here we go. So follow her on LinkedIn, Astrid Meier RDV Coaching 100, and then her website, humanvalues.global. Sign up for her newsletter. She really has so much to teach. So this week, tomorrow, I have a very, very special presentation. One of my mentors is really a legend, is going to be here, is General David H. Petraeus. And if you remember, he's the one who really saved from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror in the United States. He's a 4-star general, he's a soldier, a scholar, legendary strategist, and the New York Times bestselling author of Conflict. So we're going to be talking about leading at the highest level. That's going to be tomorrow morning, I believe, 6:00 AM California time, 9:00 AM Eastern time. So you don't want to miss this. All right. Until tomorrow, have a wonderful, wonderful day. And thanks so much for joining me on the Leadership and Success Podcast. Bye for now.

Thank you for tuning in to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your host, Coach BZ. If today's episode added value to your leadership journey, be sure to subscribe, share, and join us again for more wisdom nuggets on how to lead better and achieve greater success. Remember, leadership is the most critical skill of our time. The world will always need leaders to inspire others, drive innovation, and execute meaningful strategy. So why not count yourself among the bold leaders shaping the 21st century? Until next time, stay inspired, stay committed, and keep leading with excellence.