Neuroscience of Leadership: Why Mindset Shapes Performance | Dianna Kokoszka

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book, Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life, nail your goals. I'll see you there. Welcome to the Lead On Purpose podcast. I'm James Laughlin, former seven time world champion and now coach to entrepreneurs, CEOs, professional athletes all over the world. This show is for people who refuse to settle, people who are driven, people who want to grow, who know that there's so much more to learn and want to learn from the world's best. Each week I bring you insights from a special guest who's at the top of their game with whether they're in Formula one, whether they're a billionaire, whether they've started a company from scratch and take it to the top. I bring them to you so that you can rewire your mindset, take action and lead a life of purpose. Let's get started. Today's special guest is Diana Kokoska and we're going to talk about how you can rewire your mind under stress to thrive and succeed. Enjoy the show. The Lead On Purpose podcast is sponsored by NZ Mortgages. Learn more at nzmortgages.co nz. Diana, a huge welcome to the Lead Lead On Purpose podcast.

Thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity. I'm excited to be on your podcast.

Oh, it's just an honor to have you here. When I look at your career, the influence you've had on others, how you've built and grown people for decades now, it just, it's so inspiring. And you sit right alongside the best of the best, you know, John Maxwell and you, you're right up there together. You actually collaborate and do work together like, like I'm talking to the who's who of leadership. So thank you for making the space.

You're very, very kind. I've been blessed to have John as my mentor for 29 years now. And yes, we are doing some mentorship for other people, a very small group and having a great time doing it.

I bet those lucky people, well, the people that are listening right now, they're the lucky ones because they're going to get to go inside how you think, how you operate, how you inspire and equip other people. So I'd love to chat about Keller Williams. What took you to Keller Williams and what unfolded when you were there?

What's interesting, I started real estate back when I couldn't afford a babysitter. So I put my kids in a little red wagon going door to door. And I really didn't have much, and yet I had great aspirations, I had a lot of grit and I kept going. I was with a company when I first started. It was a man's world. Went to 12 offices before they would hire a woman. I found the one company that would take me, though. So there I went and I was very loyal to them. And then they sold to someone else. So I went to that company, from there to ReMax and from RE MAX to my own company and then on to Keller Williams, which was very interesting. As Keller Williams. I was almost a year with them as a salesperson, Ben as a team leader over one of their offices. And then International called me and asked me to come to work for them. And I thought, oh, I would love to add value to hundreds of thousands of people. Of course, back in the day, there were about 40 to 50,000. When I stepped down as CEO, we were around 185,000. So it's a great, great organization. It's helped a lot of people. And I was over the coaching and training division as CEO. And with that being able to coach people and to help them not only in their journey of their professionalism and in sales, more importantly in their leadership. Because everything rises and falls on leadership, like John tells us. Right?

So true. I love that quote, and I live by that quote. I think countries, companies, organizations, communities, families, everything rises and falls on leadership. So when we go into Keller Williams, you're doing the great work that you're doing. How important is it that we coach and train and equip our people? Because I know companies sometimes think that it's a nice to have, but how important is it?

I think it's imperative. Because, see, there's a difference between a mentor, a coach, a consultant, and an instructor or teacher. The coach is the only one that has accountability. A teacher can come in, they can instruct you, you go to the class, they leave. So you may or may not implement anything. A mentor can instruct you and teach you, yet you can do or not do something. And as far as a consultant, well, they get paid to tell you what to do. You still get to choose if you're going to do it or not. A coach you're paying them and they're accountable, just like you are to your performance and how well you do. See, I believe in coaching. There are four cornerstones of coaching. Number one is we've got to believe that the client is creative, resourceful and whole. If we don't believe that about our clients, we should not be coaching them. We shouldn't even be leading them. Because, see, it's not about our agenda. It's about developing our people. As a leader. And a coaching leader, which is the next book I'm working on, I believe everybody should be a coaching leader. Now the second thing that we have to know is that business, when we're coaching them or leading them, business and personal life come together. You can't have one without the other. If they're having struggles and issues in their personal life, they're going to have struggles and issue in their business. If they have issues in their business, well, they take them home with them as well. So the third thing is we have to coach and lead to the whole person. Now the fourth thing is the thing that I think is the most important and that is that we are one as partners, that we've got to look at each other as though we're in a partnership. If I'm leading you, I've got to care about you, not just what you can do to help me make more money. See, there's leaders that use people and love things or money, and then there's people that love people and use things and money. And I suggest you're the latter, whether you're a coaching leader or. Well, I don't want to say dictator because I don't really see them as leaders, even though a lot of people do. They have a title, but they're no more a leader than fly to the moon. They just have a bunch of people that are following them because they have to. Right?

Yeah, I'm with you on this 100%. And I feel like as the world moves forward, there's less and less room and space for those dictators, those high ego driven leaders. I'm with you.

Well, you know, I think in leadership, when we talk about that, I like to say in leadership you have standards and then you have relationships. So if you have low standards and low relationship with your people, well, you're not much of a leader at all. You just have a title. And if you have low standards and high or high standards and low relationships, that's the dictator. You're telling everybody what to do. If you have low standards and high relationship, well, you just want to be their friend. I mean, you're going to just love them right out of the business because whatever they do, you're going to say is great. Instead of giving them a good swift kick or a hug, whichever one they need, right? It's the one that has the high standards and the high relationships. Now, to me, that's the greatest leader ever.

I love that you say it and you paint it so clearly like that. And I feel like people have, you know, wrote 700 page books on that. You were able to distill it into its essence and say, this is the key. So how does a leader become that high standards and a high connection point with relationships? And then the second part of that question is, how do they develop others to have that?

First of all, it's a fabulous question that you gave to me. And I think we look at our agenda each and every day. Look at the agenda and check it repeatedly. Is what I'm doing developing my people or is it just helping me? Right. See, because see, we can impact other people or we can influence other people. When we impact people, we talk about all of our successes and we keep telling our people about the goals and how we're going to achieve them and what it's going to mean when the company achieves them. Yet when we influence them, we talk about our failures, we talk about how we learn from our failures. We also talk about the goals, we talk about the things that aren't quite getting us there and what we can do to improve, to make the goal. More importantly though, we talk about that goal and what it means to the people. What does it actually? How does it affect them? Not just the company, because when we truly care about our people, when we find out what they desire and we help them get it, then to me, you're being a great leader. And as Zig Ziglar says, you help enough other people get what they want, you'll get what you want. And so that's what leadership is about, helping people obtain what they desire. And you hired them on your team. So certainly they're the type of people that have the same values as you and they want to go in the same direction as you. So when you help them get what they want, they automatically help you get what you want.

I love it. And leadership is influence is what I'm hearing you say. The ability to influence other people wholeheartedly, authentically. Doing it from a place of true care. That's what we need in leadership.

We do have to care about our people because they Tell. They can tell. I tell people that we have an energetic calling card and it actually reaches people before you could actually hand them a business card. And that energy, it's like we're this satellite system that's just beeping out our energy, sending out signals all over the place. And so when we have an energy of caring, an energy of finding out what it is that they need, what it is that they desire, and getting that in alignment so it helps them as well as the company, then everybody wins. And after all, isn't a leader supposed to develop and multiply leaders? Because if you think about a company, okay, let's say that I hire five people, and all of these people are tens on a scale from 1 to 10. And so we have 10 plus 10 plus 10 plus 10 plus 10, we got 50, right? And then let's say, though, that another person hires five, they got five plus five plus five plus five pl five plus five, they got half of what I've got. But now let's say that I'm going to develop and multiply leaders. Well, if you have five, even if you had four tens and one five, you got 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times 5,50,000. Did I do that right? Or you do 10 times 10 times 10 times 10times 10,100,000. You just went from a very small amount being done to multiplying it in a massive amount. And I think people ask themselves, am I adding value to others so they multiply our success, or am I decreasing the value of others, just adding success? And when we're a multiplier, that means that we're developing more than us. We're developing them so they could actually take our place. And after all, when you go into a company, that's one of the first things we're supposed to be doing is looking for who is our replacement, right? But a lot of people, they want to hang tight. They want to go, no, no, no, no. I can't develop anybody bigger than me. I can't make them greater than me. I'm going, why not? Because if you're a leader and you're not taking a stand for people's greatness more than they're standing for their limitations, then why are you leading? And that's a great question right there. If we just stop and say, why do I desire to be a leader? And it's for. If it's for the prestige and the glory, you're focusing on the wrong thing. And it's going to come through to your people. And that's where the dictatorship comes in. You're doing this for me on my behalf, so I look good. Don't ever make me look bad. I only want, yes. People around me. No great leaders like Lincoln. If you've ever read the book Team of Rivals he talks about. Isn't that a great book?

It's a brilliant book. In fact, I think Barack Obama, it was on his, like, one of his most recommended list on a few Christmases ago. So I thought, I'll get that.

Hey, James here. I wanted to take a quick moment to let you know about something. Look, I get asked to deliver keynotes and workshops for teams and companies all over the world, from London to Antarctica, from America to Australasia, from armies to small businesses to large corporates to sports teams. But I go in and deliver keynotes around the mindset of high performers, around the habits of high performers, about how we navigate change. If you would like me to come and speak to your team or speak at your conference or deliver a bespoke workshop, please get in touch with my team. Carolinejlochlin.com will be able to help. I'll also make sure that we put that in the show notes.

So good. Doris Kearns Goodwin. I had an opportunity to go to Paris and Normandy with her and John Maxwell. Of course, there were about 20 other people, couples on the trip and on the bus ride from Paris, well, in Paris, you know, we learned about Napoleon and all of the history and the leadership lessons that he gave. And then on the bus ride from Paris to Normandy, Doris Kearns Goodwin gave lesson after lesson after lesson. And we talked about the Team of Rivals and how Lincoln brought people into his cabinet that no more agreed with him than fly to the moon. Yet he wanted every perspective out there. And so many leaders, they just want, yes, people like, hey, you're the best. You know everything. I'm never going to argue with you. No, I want to collaborate with people. I want them to say things to me that maybe I don't want to hear, but I need to hear, right? And the other part, the greatest question that I think a leader can ask at the end of every meeting is, what am I missing? Is there something here I'm missing that you can see and be willing to admit that maybe there is something that I'm missing? Because after all, I don't know it all. You don't know it all. And yet if we start thinking we know it all with that fixed mindset, we're actually going to have people leading us versus wanting to stay with us.

100%. You've put that so beautifully. And it's interesting. I've seen both in high performance sport the top teams on the planet, right through to large companies where leaders focus on results right now, quarterly returns, making sure that their shareholders are happy. But actually I see the greatest leaders, the ones who step down and the company thrives and continues to grow without them at the helm. I think that's the true test of a leader. It's once you've actually stepped away. And for me personally, I was a young guy, I was leading a team and they won national title six years in a row. They'd never won it in their 90 year history before that. And for me as a young 20 something year old, my ego was so full and I was thinking this was great and I helped them win. And I thought when I step away, I was in my mid-20s when I stepped away. When I get away from it, I want them to succeed after me. So I had spent two or three years developing young leaders so that when I stepped away, I hope that this team will thrive. Now I stepped away and part of me was like, if they don't succeed, you know, it's probably going to look good and I help them win, but actually if they don't succeed, it's going to look terrible because what have I done all this time? It's been me, the ego guy. It's not good. So I was really invested in these young leaders and I'm happy to say that they have won way more without me than they did with me. And that brings me more excitement and joy because they're doing it on their terms.

Yes. And if you put the systems in place and they don't change the systems. Right. Because when you put those systems in place, one of my greatest joys is I did step down as CEO and after about 14 and a half years and there were 23 people that were within the company that, well, they decided to leave for whatever reason, yet 22 of them went on to get leadership positions. That thrilled me to know that those people had enough leadership inside of them, those young people. And I don't know if you've ever coached, you said sports. I think coaching sports really teaches us a lot as the leader because we can't be out there on the field. I mean, I coached volleyball, basketball and baseball for our church at one point. And they were the teenagers, right. And so most of the teenage girls, it was very interesting yet to watch them out on the field or on the court that they desired to win and There was this one little gal. Oh, she wasn't a very good volleyball player yet. I knew in my mind every kid was going to play. Win or lose, they were going to play. And we went on to the state championship. And of course, I was really into the game and I was watching everything. And one of the kids tapped me and they said, so and so hasn't played yet. And I went, oh, now we're down to the wire. We're tied. You know, you see this in movies and you never quite know what's going to happen. And yet there I was with the decision because all the girls wanted to win. Do I take the chance on the kid that isn't the best yet? I told everybody they would always play in every game.

Do I hold true to what I say, or do I go for the results? And I went ahead and I played her nice, and she made a few mistakes, and all of the girls were going, I can't believe it. Why did you put her in? I mean, the parents were the worst, to be real honest with you. And yet she came through at the very end, and I was so happy. And you know what? We ended up winning. Yes, it would have been a great movie. And at the same time, I really came to the realization, I don't care if we win or not. Her being in that game, her knowing that I cared about her, her knowing that I was willing to take a stand for her greatness, it taught me probably more than her.

Yeah, that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that, Diana.

That's.

I can really relate to that. And I often was coaching young kids, and it was phenomenal to see these kids who were underdogs step up and step up to the plate and when you probably shouldn't have given them a chance in terms of winning and losing, but you do invest in them and do the right thing. And if you keep your word, and I agree with you.

So important.

And I think whether you're in leadership in a company or you're a coach or teacher, it really doesn't matter. We've got to learn, and I know you already know this, that you lead everyone a little bit different, because everyone's brain is different. Everyone's perspective is different. Everyone mindset is different. And mindset being different than attitude, we can get into that later. Yet understanding who this person is, what is it that they desire? What can you do to help them? Whether they're going through something personally, do you really care? Are you willing to give them a little bit of time off because they have something going in on their life that means a lot to them. And you say, hey, take the afternoon and go do something towards getting that done. That goes a long ways in today's world especially. And people say that people have changed. Yeah, generations have changed. I get it. In my generation, it was, hey, you're lucky to have a job. And today a lot of the kids are, hey, you're lucky to have me working for you. Right. It doesn't make one good and one bad. It just means different. And understanding those people, do you truly know who they are? Do you truly know their values? Do we understand what's important to them? And if they don't have the same values, we shouldn't be hiring them in the first place. Because you and I can work together and not have the same beliefs yet without those same values, it makes it really challenging. And how do you develop somebody when you don't even know who they are really deep down? Because the internal world is so much more important than the external world.

I agree. What happens inside dictates and determines what happens outside that mindset that you talk about. And you said about mindset and attitude, what's your thoughts on those two and how they differentiate?

So attitude is in our conscious mind. We can change our attitude like that fast. Right. And attitude has a lot to do and works with our mindset, yet our mindset is in our subconscious mind. We don't even know. We think we have an abundant mindset and yet we do things out of scarcity or we even speak out of scarcity. Meaning that in our subconscious mind, we really have a scarcity mindset versus an abundant one. Let me give you an example. See, if you have a judgmental mindset, your attitude will determine how you express that judgment. If you have a positive attitude, you'll express the judgment in somewhat of a positive, caring.

Way that would help the person. If you have a negative attitude with a judgmental mindset, hey, you're just going to come after them. You say, that's wrong. Very judgmental, making them wrong. And it's that combination of the two. Let's say you have a curious mindset. Your attitude will determine the type of questions that you ask. So they go hand in hand. And I know in business a lot of times we go, oh, hire for attitude. Well, I can fake a positive attitude, yet I can't fake a positive mindset because I'll be in there sabotaging and sometimes sabotaging my own self with that type of a mindset. See, when I was writing My book, I actually looked, and they said there were over 150 mindsets that we can have. And Carol Dweck did a great job on fixed versus an open mindset. And because she did that, people think that's what mindset means. Yet it means much more. I narrowed it down to seven that liberate us and seven that limit us and what we can do to go from a limiting mindset to a liberating mindset. And I think it's really important that we think about this because we can keep a positive attitude. And some people say, well, just fake it till you make it. And I love what Dr. Henry Cloud said. He said, no, you don't fake it till you make it. You face it till you make it. So our awareness, our observation is what really matters, because awareness is the first step to change. And once we're aware of that, we can start changing our own mind, changing our own mindset to where it actually helps us become the greatest version of ourselves.

That's beautiful. It's interesting. When I think of the word mindset and I think of, like I said, dictionary definition, for me, it's a set of beliefs that make sense of the world around you. Those set of beliefs are shaping how you make sense of that world around you. But what I hear you saying is that it's not set in stone, but you actually get to set it. It's something you can reset. And so you're saying that book that you've written will help people to move in a direction?

Yes, I actually have a model, and the model is from being to becoming. And see, I believe that every single person out there is living a story, the story called their life. The question is, are they writing their own story? Are they holding the pen? Are they having a life by design, or is it a life by default because they'd given the pen to somebody else? And in every story you already know, there's a victim, a villain, a hero. Some of them have coaches and mentors. I certainly hope that all of our people out there have a coach and a mentor. Yet when we're living in that victim place, we have a different story, a different mindset than we do if we're the hero and we can become the hero of our own story. So let's look at mindset, kind of wrap all this together. My model says, you start with the story, then it's your thoughts, which after you have a thought over and over and over again, becomes a belief. Your thoughts and beliefs make up your values. All three of those Go with your emotions, and your emotions come back to your thoughts, and those feed each other mind and body, body, mind. If you have insecure thoughts, you're going to feel insecure. And if you feel insecure, you have more insecure thoughts and you keep going in this loop. The interesting part is all four of those thoughts, beliefs, values, emotions, lead to your mindset. So how do you change a mindset? You start with how you think, changing those thoughts from the thoughts that you have right now, becoming aware of what it desires to change, and then start changing them. And all of a sudden, all those other things start changing as well, leading to a better mindset.

It's incredible. And when we boil it down, better leaders think in a certain way. They challenge their thinking. They read to be challenged. I read a book a few years ago, and it's a very old book, but it's an amazing book around thinking, and you probably have read it called the Master Key System.

Well, isn't it great? What did you like the best out of that book?

Oh, it was just incredible. Obviously, we've got the Secret, the movie the Secret, and we've got Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And when I look back, my favorite. Oh, it's so good. I keep rereading it, but I go back to the Master Key System. I'm like, whoa. Charles Hahnel was almost like the front runner in how the mind dictates everything else that comes in our life. So I just find it fascinating that we have such control over a very malleable mindset through thinking and planting new thoughts in. So for me, I was spending a lot more time visualizing after that book what I wanted out of my day, my life, being a dad, really powerful.

What did you find through your visualization? Did you not find that your mind started shifting towards that? Because what we focus on expands 100%.

Yeah. What we. I guess that saying of where your. Your focus goes, your energy flows. And it's like, I can really feel that. So when I was starting to focus on the one thing, my actions started to direct that and started to draw things in and pull it towards that outcome.

It really does because all of your energy now is flowing in that direction. Your thoughts are flowing in that direction. Therefore, everything just follows along your feelings, everything. And it does that with our people as well, that we're leading, because, see, if we believe in them. And I have a saying that people grow into the conversations we create around them. Therefore, by talking to everybody, just a little bit better than where they actually are, you Know, it's amazing how they just rise to the occasion. And then you talk a little bit better and a little bit better. And if anybody could do that, I know you're the one that can do it. And you've got to truly believe it. You just got to. You don't say it to be saying it. Yet. When you believe in your people, that comes before you can ever see them doing greatness, before you can ever acknowledge them being great. You've got to believe that they have it in them first. And I think that's something that as leaders, sometimes we don't think about the people. I used to sit and write down, what do I believe is the potential of this person? Because if I don't believe they have great potential, I don't know that I'll ever be able to lead them to the greatest version of themselves. And sometimes when I would get upset with the people, oh, believe me, I would pull out their file and I would look at what I had written down that I truly believed in them before I met with them. Otherwise, I know how I wanted to speak with them. I mean, I could probably rip something apart if I wanted to. I'm Italian, for heaven's sakes. I grew up with all of that. Hey, you know, I love it. And so I really. It comes to mind for me, as an Italian or as a person, that's really great. I'm not sure, actually.

What I'd love to know is who comes to mind for you when you think of going back to your younger years, you're starting out in your career, who had belief in you, who spoke to you above that level of maybe where you were at and inspired you?

What a great comment there and a great question. My mom and dad, I think I won the lottery when it came to parents, I really do. They were both fabulous. And they weren't this, oh, you're so great. No, it was about the effort we put forward. It was about who we were, respecting other people, respecting their property, doing the best that we could, getting outside our comfort zone constantly. My dad sold tickets for the American Motivational Society. And so with that, we had people like Zig Ziglar at our home, Norman Vincent Hill Cabot Roberts. People that most of our listeners don't even know who they are because they have since passed Art Link letter. Great, great people. And learning from these people, not only listening to them on stage because my dad would take me from time to time, but like my 9th grade graduation gift was the Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale. That long Playing record. Right. Most of the people listening to this, I don't know if they know what a record player is or a long playing record yet. I actually wore it out. And him talking about the seeds that we plant in our mind, and not only the seeds that we plant, which ones do we water? Right.

He talked about whatever we put in our mind will grow when we focus. And he said, water it. I say focus on it. And that's what we're talking about before, is what you focus on expands. It's. You got to put that seed in. Now, the interesting part, when we plant a seed, a lot of people go, oh, I put it in my head. I'm going to focus on it and it's going to grow. No, when you put a seed and you plant it.

You put it way down in the dirt, you put a lot of dirt over it, and that's what happens. We forget that we have to have dirt 100%.

And it's. It's crucial that it is messy and it. It can be overwhelming and where do we begin? But in fact, there's got to be there for it to work.

Sometimes there has to be fertilizer. Yeah, sometimes there has to be fertilizer, which some people call crack. Right.

And I think there are days that I know I'm about ready to sprout because I've had a lot of fertilizer today. Right. I know something's going to grow because you got to have a breakdown to have a breakthrough.

I wholeheartedly agree. And I don't know about you, but for me, I want to become more. And I want my family to become more. I want my clients that I work with, the people that I speak to from stage, I want them all to become more. Not because I don't think that they're incomplete, but because I believe that we all have more to learn, more to give, more to understand. And your book becoming more. What inspired you to write that book?

Interesting enough, I wrote a program for Keller Williams. It was called Bold Business Objective, A Life by Design. And it was written in a very bad time of real estate. A lot of people said that we were in a recession. Some people said a depression. Yet many people were dropping out of the real estate industry. It was back in 2009 through 11.

And the President of the company called me in and I kept telling her, looking at the numbers, it's going to get bad. It's going to get real bad. She called me and she said, well, here's your chance. I want you to write A program. Don't tell anybody you're writing it. I know you've been through markets like this before. We need something to train our people with. This eight week program at the time, later taken to seven weeks, was mostly about mindset and it was about teaching people that you have to be the person that can do what needs to be done in order to have what you want to have in order to give what you want to give. Because a lot of people have that backwards. I mean, victims believe that if I have what you have, I can do what you do and then I can be like you eventually maybe give something. A villain believes you gotta do more, do more, do more. Because the more you do, then the more you'll have. And the more you have, the more you're a great being. Right? Well, the hero absolutely knows that you've got to be it to do it, to have it, to eventually give it. Now, the interesting part about all of this is people were grabbing hold of it. At one point, I had over 80,000 notes and letters saying, you changed my life. Now I know I did not change their lives because if I took credit for all the people that had success, I'd have to take credit for all the people that didn't have success. Right. They were the ones that made the decision to change their lives. Yes, I gave them some words and yes, provide help, provide the environment and had coaches go out teaching it yet. They had to make the decision to follow and implement. And right now I think that we have.

A world that is absolutely addicted to information and allergic to implementation. And so this was not only about teaching, instructing, it was about coaching and holding the people accountable. Because every week we would go back and they would have to report numbers, they would have to report what they did. They had chants, they had.

A flag that they had made for their little team. I mean, we had everything we could think of to really get these people focused on who they were becoming and what they were doing so they could stay in the business. Well, times went good again. People started calling me, though, when things started changing around, saying, please write a book, please write a book. And I'd go, oh, no, it's not in the cards, I don't think. I'm an author. And they'd say, thank you for changing my life, please write a book. And I'd go, you changed your own life. Thank you for the compliment. And I'll think about it. Well, one night I'm down on the dock, we live on a lake and I'm reading a book. And I get one of those texts. And it, of course, said, thank you for changing my life. And they went on to tell me what all they had accomplished, which was fabulous. And at the end, they said, please write a book to help others. And I thanked them for their kind words and just disregarded the book altogether. I went back to the book I was reading, and it was John F. Kennedy's quote, if not us, who if not now, when? And I went. I think I just got my answer. So that's how I ended up writing the book and knowing that I had written everything for and with Keller Williams, well, then they own everything, because I was under their employment. So I started in a different arena, going back through all the things I knew about the brain and how it worked. See, my brother and sister both had brain tumors, James and I. I wanted to learn more about how I could help them. And so I did start studying the brain when I was in eighth grade. And there wasn't a whole lot out back then yet. Through the years, I've literally been able to talk with doctors, look at brain scans, of course, mostly my brothers and sisters, and learning a lot about how the brain works. I've devoured books. I've read neural clients books, which are pretty boring, I got to tell you. Yet I really desired to learn and doing research to put this book together. So whatever I said, it would add value. And then I gave it to three doctors to please read and tell me, did I say anything out of context, because it's got to be right. I don't ever want to harm anybody. And getting their blessing on it. That's how the book came about. And of course, John Maxwell wrote the foreword for me and actually ended up helping me publish it. So it just all came together, and I trust it's helping a lot of people. I'm getting quite good feedback and a lot of letters even from that.

I'm so excited that you finally decided to do it and listen to those different whisperings that were coming to say, write the book. Because this is a transformational book, and I'm very excited for the viewer or the listener to take action for their own lives, for their people. Right now. Get into the show notes and order that book today. And if you can, order a second one and give it to someone that you love. Diana, this is a transformational book, and you should be very, very proud of it. And I just think that more companies, more organizations need to adopt this way of thinking. And it comes down to who do I want to be? And become. And we all want to become more, because the more we have, the more we have to give. And by reading and learning, I think it's the best thing we can do as leaders. So thank you for taking the time to write it and share it with the world.

Thank you so much. And a lot of companies have made it part of their mandatory reading for their people. I think as leaders, it helps us to understand that everybody's brain is different. And I think it's one way that we can help them still and to help them become the best version of themselves, because there's massive amounts of people out there just awaiting people's greatness. And I just really need to say to the people listening to this, you have a gift. You have a gift that's been given to you because you're unique. And the question is, have you opened that gift up? And if you've opened it up, then multiply it by giving it to other people so they can pass on what you know. And if you haven't opened it up, maybe this podcast will help you realize that it's time to do so and to use that gift that you've been given in a way to add value to other people.

So beautifully said, Diana. Thank you. And I'd like to ask you this question. I feel like you might have already answered it. You might have preempted the fact that you knew I was going to ask you this. This is quite amazing. So I. I always ask this one question at the end to every guest, and that is if we were to fast forward many years into the future, you are highly aware that it's your last day here on Earth, and someone young came into the room who you just love dearly. And they said, diana, how do I go about leading my life on purpose? What would you say to them?

I would say, always work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Add value to other people desiring to make a difference every day, and you'll be a success because it's always about serving others.

So beautifully said, Diana. I just want to say a heartfelt thank you for being here today and for sharing your work. I'm excited to buy multiple copies and share them with others, and best of luck with it over the next year or so.

Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure being on your show and I still could listen to you forever because I love the accent.

Thank you so much. We'll talk soon, Diana.

See you. Bye. Bye.

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