Andy Ellis Recap: Leadership Highlights from the Interview

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Leaders A massive welcome back to the Lead On Purpose podcast. It's that time when I drop the key leadership highlights from our previous episode where I with Andy Ellis. Andy is a professional athlete and formerly played with the All Blacks from New Zealand and Canterbury Crusaders. He's also a serial entrepreneur and is living currently in New York with his family. I want to share with you the three key takeaways. So grab a pen and paper and try and implement some of these into your own leadership and your own life. And hey, please don't forget to leave me a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And if you feel so inclined, please share the podcast with a friend. So first takeaway one don't be a Shoulda, coulda, Woulda it was great talking to Andy, who is clearly a high performer. He's played with one of the world's finest rugby teams, arguably the world's best ever rugby team, the New Zealand All Blacks. And it was great talking to him about making commitments and following through and avoiding procrastination. And he said, look, I don't want to be one of those old boys down at the club rooms, you know, as a retiree going, I could have done that, I should have done that, I would have done that. He wants to be that guy who did it, who went the extra mile and pushed through the adversity. And guys, the way I look at that, when I'm coaching clients and I hear the word should, I should do that. And sometimes it comes up three or four times when a client's trying to commit to something but has been delaying on it, say, hey, there's a lot of shoes there, it sounds like you're shooting all over yourself. Do you really want to be a shoot head? You know, the old client will definitely chuckle, but it makes them to sit up and listen and go, oh, I see what you mean. So you're telling your subconscious mind that, hey, I think that's what I want to do. And let me tell you, your subconscious mind wants Commands. It's waiting for a command like, hey, go get it. Hey, we're doing this. Hey, I know I got this. But when you use words like, I think I'm going to do it, hey, I'm going to try and achieve that this week. Your subconscious mind goes, cool, not a priority. Push it down the list. I'll find other things to procrastinate upon and delay upon that action because it's not a priority. So don't be a shoulda, coulda, woulda. The second big takeaway was be authentically you. And what Andy was saying is like, this is how your team, whether this is your family, your corporate team, your sports team, this is how your team builds respect for you because you show up as you. And if you show up as a person who's black and white, who's blunt, yes, sometimes that's not received well, but it's you, you're being honest. So I want you to think about who really are you? What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What things really get on your nerves? That's something I want you to think about. What angers you in the world? Are there certain things in the world that really get under your skin? Well, hey, when you stand up and you talk about those and you draw boundaries around those things, that's you being authentically you. If standing at the water cooler gossiping about your other peers is you, well, that's you. Just be you. Is that going to help you become the greatest leader you can be? Well, definitely not. But just think about who you want to be, who you truly are, and then continue to act in that manner and you will gain the respect of those around you. Now look, the third, but definitely not the least important, this is one of the most important, is building resilience is non negotiable. Right? So write that one down. Building resilience, non negotiable. Now, that doesn't go just for leaders of Fortune 200 companies. That doesn't go just for captains of rugby teams. It goes for life. We got to be thinking about building resilience when the next GFC arrives, when the next pandemic arrives, when the next family ambush arrives, which it will, we're ready, we're ready to bounce back in resilience. To me, it's getting back to neutrality and, and then let's take it to the next level. How do we get back to neutrality but then actually grow stronger? That's the true challenge. So resilience is, hey, I've dropped. Now I'm Bouncing back to neutral. But hey, I don't want to go back to neutral. I want to just grow a little bit of thicker skin. I want to grow a bit more perspective, a little bit more courage. So think about what you're doing right now to build resilience. Here's a good one, a simple one. When's the last time you had a cold shower? Right? Some of you guys might be thinking, I'm not doing that, switching this podcast off, no way. But think about the act of taking a cold shower. It's uncomfortable, it's way outside your comfort zone. That builds resilience. And guys, I started doing this with Wim Hof. If you haven't got his app, go and check out the Wim Hof app. It's awesome. But I did this like a 20 day challenge where I did a cold shower every morning. So start just a normal old warm shower followed by 15 seconds of cold for a week and then 30 seconds and then 45 seconds, then a minute. So every morning I'm in the habit of a minute of cold shower at the end. Now it builds resilience. You start your day off with building resilience because you drop, you know, your body goes into shock, you start to breathe more intensely. Oxygen and blood flows to those key organs, those vital organs. A great way to start your day. So there's simple ways to build resilience. You know, take the hill. Instead of taking the flat route, take the hill, go walk it, run it. So think about ways you can build that. And Andy said something, he said, you know, pushing through the tough times will get you to that next level. Shying away from fear, shying away from challenge will not ever get you to that next level. So if you're a leader and you're trying to go to the next level and grow your company, or if you're the leader of a family and you're trying to build better connection and develop memorable experiences and push through the tough times, push through the challenges, and that will help you get to the next level. And more importantly, you're modeling for people who are looking onwards. You're modeling to those people like, this is how we act. This is who we are. So I want to just say, get out there and lead your life on purpose. And if you've got a moment, please do leave a little rating and review. This is obviously our recap and highlights from our previous episode. So if you could leave a rating and review, it would be amazing. And if you want to copy the link for this podcast and share it with a friend. Please do. My mission is to help transform humanity one leader at a time. So get out there and have fun. Enjoy the day ahead. And take those highlights, write them down somewhere and ask yourself, where could I apply those this week in my life of leadership? Have the most epic day.

Sam.