Strategies for Building a Thriving Corporate Culture with a Visionary CEO

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.

The amount of detail that goes into any event is truly amazing. When you're bringing, you know, two or three organizations in together at a time, that can be hard. What are you trying to deliver? A lot of times meetings are just, let's face it, boring. That kind of toxic atmosphere, what are.

They going through and suffering through before they reach out?

It's a very, very tough job for them. There are those unicorns out there that do it all. You can really take the air out of an organization. If it's not done correctly, it is extremely expensive to onboard a new employee. It can definitely impact the bottom line. We're here for a reason. We kind of eject what doesn't work. If you're serving others and not serving yourself, you're serving yourself.

Welcome to Lead On Purpose. Hi, I'm James Laughlin, former seven time world champion and now international keynote speaker and high performance leadership trainer. Each week I bring you an inspiring leader or expert to help you lead your life and business on purpose. Thanks for helping us be a consistently number one ranked show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I hope you enjoy today's show.

Well, as you know, I spend a lot of time on stages delivering keynotes all around the world and I love it. But it doesn't just happen. You know what we need professional conference organizers, meeting planners, and people who supply all the bells and whistles that go with it. So today I'm so excited to welcome on the founder and CEO of AMI American Meetings Inc. It's one of the largest meeting planners on the planet. Why am I excited to bring that to you? Well, he goes deep on how important it is to build high performing culture, how he has achieved that at the highest levels. This guy, Andy McNeil works with the Fortune 500 companies in North America and his view on how we create togetherness, hospitality, connection through events is really unique. So please sit back and enjoy the show. Andy, a huge welcome to the Lead On Purpose podcast.

Thank you James. So happy to be here. And thanks for your time to talk to your audience.

Absolute pleasure. Look, we're all about high performance, and I bring in people who really value the opposite of mediocrity. And I know in the work that you and your company does that you guys shoot for the stars. And what I'd love to talk about to get the ball rolling is all around corporate culture. This word culture is here, there, and everywhere right now. So I work with professional athletes and teams from time to time, and if their culture is humming and it's just on fire, we know that the results over the long term will be awesome. However, when the culture is toxic or there's disconnection and silos, the revenue reflects that, the results reflect that. What's your experience around corporate culture and how we elevate that?

Well, you know, here at ami, we're so lucky to work with some of the world's top brands and see all different types of cultures within these large organizations. And we've over the years, been able to really glean some great lessons from our clients. And what we really focus here on, ami, is building that culture of inclusivity as well as really having the core tenets that we place upon ourselves and our staff and talk about them every day and kind of build everyone up around those pillars. When you have those in place and they become part of your culture, I think what you're referring to, that kind of toxic atmosphere is really kind of hard to take hold, but you have to work at it. It's every day, it's repeating, and it's also living the mantra that you've set for your organization. If you can do that and do it successfully and then bring your team along with you.

You can be nowhere but successful. I firmly believe that if you have those tenets and you truly believe in them, because a lot of people have value statements and pillars and, you know, all different things that they call it. But you really want to focus on what's most important to you as an entrepreneur and as an owner, because you're the one conveying the message. And if you're not conveying it, and if you're not talking the talk and walking the walk, then you're certainly not going to have a team that's going to follow you and do the same thing 100%.

And you talk about some of those clients you work with. So for the listener that's listening in, who are some of the. The clients in recent years that you've loved working with?

You know, we've been so blessed with the Team. The type of companies that have become great partners of ours. We currently, you know, work with CVS Health, you know, it's the largest retailer and pharmacy in the United States, and they focus and have a wonderful culture of, you know, providing healthcare to the world. And they just merged with Aetna as well. And that's one of the country's largest insurers here in the United States. So those are two great examples of clients that I work with. But we also work with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. We were a big part of their rollout during COVID 19 of their vaccine, and we're very proud of that. And a very decentralized organization that does an incredible job building a positive culture throughout the world. I mean, they're In, I think, 100 countries and they have to do it in different languages and in different places, and they do an amazing job of it. So, you know, we work with all different types of companies, mainly the Fortune 500 in the United States here, to develop their meeting and event strategy and how they can best connect with their, with their best customer through in person and live events.

That's incredible. And I listened to. When you're talking about inclusivity and how important that is, how do you help teams and large organizations actually harness inclusivity through hospitality and events?

Well, we firmly believe first and foremost, listen to your client, listen to what their goals are, but it's all about the conversation and what's most important to that client. And with inclusivity and making sure that they include everyone in the process, you know, it's really creating that big Ten atmosphere as an organization when you're trying to convey a message, whether that's at your national sales meeting or an internal training with your human resources department. Maybe it's just an internal training or, you know, a client engagement. You know, all those areas. You want to be inclusive and bring in as many people as you can to hear the message, to repeat the message, and to make sure that it's adopted. And when you do that, you can really build that culture that you're looking, that you're looking to achieve at ami. Our culture is really having a service heart in everything that you do. Hospitality is about service and really having.

That natural process inside yourself to actually make people feel welcome and happy. And so we really tried to build that as part of our, our strategy and our culture.

Incredible. Look, I speak at lots of events on high performance leadership all around the world, but I'll tell you what, sometimes I step onto a stage and even before I step on the stage, I feel the energy in the room. Some companies create these incredible, like, atmospheres and energy when they bring their team together and maybe clients as well. And others just miss the mark. Totally. What's your thoughts around how do we create if we're going to bring people together in an event setting or a travel setting, how do we create a euphoric, epic atmosphere for people to engage and learn and interact?

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, in the show notes.

Well, you know, that's our jam here at ami. That's what we do. I said a second ago, and I'll say it again. You know, you listen to your client. What are they trying to convey? Because every, every event's different. You know, if you have a room of a thousand people versus a room of ten people, what message are you trying to convey, what type of atmosphere? But it has to be very, very well planned. And we have some of the best meeting and event managers and technology professionals working at AMI to help our clients achieve that. And really how you do that is you get to what the core, the core goals of the event are and then build out from there. And then how can you really repeat and make sure that whatever that message is, is consistently being there? It can be everything from what type of giveaways you give to what type of speakers you have, what type of atmosphere you're building in the general session room versus what you do in the breakout. All those things are extremely important. And when you put them all together and make sure you have that mantra and that you're following that all the way through, it's really what we try to guide our clients to do. Because when you do that, you create that sense of that. There's something more here than just the content or more than just us all being in a room. We're here for a reason. And when you establish that, that, that reason, that's really, where you see a very special event take place.

100. And you can just tell when something special is unfolding.

Absolutely.

In front of you.

Now, when's the last time you spoke? I mean, and what type of atmosphere was there? I'd love to hear that.

Yeah. So there's a couple of examples. So a recent experience was in Fiji. So South Pacific.

Fiji. I want to go to Fiji. Can you invite me next time?

Come along. Let's make the event great. Yeah. Speaking for a corporate, they were having, essentially, they were celebrating their high performers, and they flew all of their high performers in, plus their significant others, their partners. And for four or five days in Fiji, flights were covered for them, all of their hotels, food, experiences out on beautiful yachts. And it probably cost them quarter of a million dollars.

Oh, easily. Yeah, easily.

Yeah, easily. Right. So I step into the room and the energy is electric. Like, these folks are having a great time. They're bonding, they're getting to know people they haven't seen and haven't met. It's just phenomenal. So for me, that was easy as a keynote speaker stepping in and engaging with an audience like that. Phenomenal. And I came back after that. I was speaking with a friend around, you know, what were you doing last week? I was like, I was speaking in Fiji. Here's what was happening. They said, how much do you think that cost the company? I said, roughly a quarter of a million. And they said, that's madness. What a waste of money. And I said, really? Why do you think it's a waste of money? I said, let's just for a moment talk about the ROI on that quarter of a million over the next just a year. If we take it over a year, what's the return on that? So we started doing the math, and within about three or four minutes, my friend was going, oh, that was such a good investment. I can see now with retention and engagement and culture. And they had some clients there, James, as well. The clients will be loving them. They'll do even more business with them. I said, yeah, it was a little splash in the pond, that little quarter of a million for them. For others, that's huge. But I think there's a big ROI in an event that's been well organized. That's thoughtful. That has culture at its core. What do you think? For the person that's listening right now going, we're thinking of throwing something like a conference this year. I'm not sure about the budget. What's in it for them? Positively, from an ROI perspective, if they actually do it.

So the reason I asked you to explain your last event is because everyone has a different experience and it's always based on one of the last few events that can either be great or I'm sure you've walked on some stages where the lighting was bad and it was hot in the room and they threw up their last minute. I'm sure you get a lot of that as well. And look at the difference.

I've had smoke alarms going off. I've had drunk people late at night screaming and shouting like I've had it all.

That was just your biggest fan, man. So, so yeah, I mean when you do so the ROI on, on that. So when you're an outsider coming in and you notice it, imagine how proud those individuals are that their company, their organization has taken, taken the time. Because it's a lot of time and effort to do. This is why we're in business to establish event like that, to set the goals for it, to, to, to, to plan for it, to make those people feel special. You know, people will follow you till the end of the earth if you tr. You know, really make them feel special and that you. And that it's authentic and that you really, really mean it. And as an entrepreneur and an owner, I thank God every day for my team and what they're. They're doing, they're doing the hard work. I've got it easy. These, these guys travel all over the world and put on fantastic events. But really when you're doing that, you can't pay for that. You know, it is extremely expensive to onboard a new employee. So, you know, someone that's been with you five or seven years and you're providing them a great experience. That roi, you can't even measure that. I mean, you know, it can cost tens of thousands of dollars for each new employee that you need to bring on. So keep the good ones, make them feel special. Events is a great way to do it. But you know, creating that atmosphere that you are and making them have a once in a lifetime experience in Fiji, listen, those people are going to follow you to the end of the earth and they're going to sell whatever you're selling 100%.

And I could see it, you know, I met, I like when I'm doing keynote, I like to meet people before. So I went the evening before and had dinner with the entire crew and all the team members. Getting to understand why do you work here? What do you love about it? How long have you worked here? Tell me what you like what you don't like, which really informs what I speak about the next night is right. And then after the event, having a drink with them, understanding like how they feel, where they're headed. The people that were there were so passionate about this company and their faces like grinning ear to ear. Why? Because they got taken away with their wives and husbands and family to a beautiful place to celebrate high performance. Yeah, they were being celebrated.

Celebrate them as individuals. Right. And, and you're not only celebrating them, but the sacrifice of the significant other has made for that person need to either be on the road or have to be at a training or you know, getting up at five in the morning to make sure that they're on the next sales call. A lot of times that's why we include spouses, because they're part of the team and that that high performing individual is nothing without that significant other who is doing something equally as important. Whether it is, you know, keeping the home or raising the kids or having their own career, but still taking time to support their spouse. You know, those are incredibly important relationships that any organization should build. And I should say, you know, we're talking about, you know, a very high end experience going to Fiji, but you can do it locally. You know, you can do it by bringing your team into the office and having an appreciation. I know during COVID we spent a lot of time developing online ways to, to make people feel special and create those relationships that we do so well here at ami. And the reason we did that was because people didn't know how to do it, you know, with the technology. But you know, what we did notice is that people actually appreciated it just as much and it cost a fraction of the cost. It really is about creating value through your team members by having a service heart and appreciating them, appreciating your customers. All those things are really, really, really, really important. One of the things we do here, we love sending holiday gifts in December and we're really, really focused on making them very, very special and fun. And when we can personalize and we do that for all of our clients and we get so much goodwill out of it. But it's from our heart. We love doing it. We love, you know, oh, you know, Bob was trying this new cigar when we were on site with him and he, and he thought it was the best. And so we go out and find that special cigar and make sure that's part of his gift package. So all those things make people feel special. Leading with that service heart is really how you can extend hospitality into your business.

It's incredible, and it's interesting when people sometimes think of the word hospitality, right away they think of a restaurant, but actually being hospitable, it's a function of being human and being welcoming and letting people know they are valued here. And so I love that you're actually guiding small, medium and large corporations. How do we build that feeling of hospitality within our own industry, within our own community itself? So let's talk about online. So how do you do that with an online meeting? We all went through Covid. It was tough for some. It was disastrous for many. How do you create an event that's digital, that makes someone feel like they are valued and that they do matter?

So I think you have to take it to the individual level. So first and foremost, you know, we're back into kind of the normal world now where about 80% of the meetings and events we run are in person and about 20% are live. And that's kind of what it was in 2019, before.

Everything happened with COVID But what we did learn is we weren't really great. We were doing lots of great work. But when we, when push came to shove and we had to do 100% of our events, which is thousands of events a year, online, we really had to push ourselves to how to creatively do that and make people feel valued. And you really do it in two ways. First of all, is you kind of thread through your education and your content, what you're doing, a message that is appreciative and grateful for whoever's in the room, whether it's your clients that you're online with or whether it's your employees. And when you do that and you make it part of the conversation upfront and all the way through, the next thing is, is giveaways. I'm not going to say people love giveaways. You know, it's okay, you know, in the proper context, of course, you certainly don't want to do it in some situations. But overall, you know, having giveaways and allowing. Allowing people to be recognized is really important. And then most importantly, and this gets missed so much is providing fee getting. Allowing people to provide feedback. It's okay to get bad feedback. It's great to get good feedback, but it's more important to get bad feedback. And giving them the opportunity to respond to how the experience was will only make your next online event better. And so, and I should say that's for online or in person, but for online events, it's really, really Special because a lot of times you don't have the, the in room knowledge of what you know of how you felt with them or if they were having a good day or a bad day. You can mask a lot of things online, right. We're all sitting at a desk staring at a box and so it's very easy for us to put on that face for, you know, an hour or half a day. But giving them the chance to provide feedback is probably the most important way to really know if it was worthwhile and how you can make it better the next time.

Incredible. And I think that is a really great way for smaller companies with smaller budgets to actually get started as go, hey, we don't need to spend a fortune.

Absolutely.

We don't need to fly to exotic islands to have great experiences. Well, you know, can this also be. Go ahead. Sorry.

I was going to say that to that point, you know, we're a much flatter organization than we were in 2019. You know, like a lot of companies, we've been able to hire in different countries in different parts of the United States and that has allowed us to go and hire better people, which has been fantastic. However, now everyone's far away from us, they're not in there. So we do a lot of online. And so we're about to have our first quarterly kickoff meeting in a few weeks. And really where we're focus our time now is how to make that special. What giveaways can we do? What, what's the conversation? What's the messaging and having thinking that all the way through before you just throw up a PowerPoint and go through a bunch of slides, how can you make that a very, very special experience?

And when you think about it, there's millions of companies creating events for their staff and customers every year. But probably a very, very small percent are thinking about the experience itself. At the level you're speaking of. Most of them are like, we need some PowerPoints, we need a couple speakers, we need an agenda, we need to organize some lunch and some morning tea. But there's not that next level. All that stuff is non negotiable. You got to have all those things. But actually you're talking about giveaways and messaging and theme. Is there a framework, is there a certain thing like James, here's the recipe that I would suggest you need to tick off to make sure you've got an epic event.

So I think what's most important is whoever, we call them the meeting champion here on ami. So if you and I, James were working together and you were our meeting champion. We'd really spend the first couple of meetings talking about, you know, what are you trying to deliver? Not the content, but what are you trying to deliver from a feeling, from an experience, from relationship building, all these key things, and then build, build backwards from that, the content and how you're going to present the content. So it's different. It really is different. I mean, we've, our, our event planners are pros in creating those experiences, but they really start with asking a ton of questions and making sure that whatever goals are attempting to be made, how can we support those goals and how can we make them more exciting and more valuable? Because a lot of times meetings are just, let's face it, boring business meetings. You know, you're, you're, you're educating content in some purpose. It can be, you know, you know, it can be for education, it can be for sales. It can be to gain information from your audience because you have a new drug coming out and you need to get feedback from the physicians, whatever it is. You just need to understand what those goals are of that end user because they're the ones that are going to be able to tell you. And then you build back from there.

I love it. And have you had any, let's say, repeat clients over a number of years where you're like, wow, look at what they've done with their culture. Look at these, how these conferences annually have built. And look at the momentum. Have you seen that unfold over the last number of years?

So I'll give a direct example of one of our incredible clients, Bristol Myers Squibb, which is a large pharmaceutical organization here in the United States. They have a very special way you feel when you go into their offices, you feel when they're an event, that they are intentional about everything that they do. And what I mean by intentional is they plan. You know, that's why they work with us. That's why they do strategic planning. That's why they educate their staff through human resources. But they're intentional about everything that they do. And so what I've seen them, and we've been working them since 2015, I believe, is grow through acquisition, which is a very hard thing to get into meld cultures. And they just really have it down about being able to do that successfully and to grow their organization and bringing people in for the same, having the same, you know, root goals as an organization. And when you're bringing, you know, two or three organizations in together at a time, that can be hard but they seem to do it very, very well. I've just been always impressed with their leadership and their ability to make that happen.

It's incredible. And they must be reaping the rewards. When you think about it, they're quarterly reportings, but also culture, engagement, happy clients. People love to work there.

Yeah, people love to work there. People love to work with them. We love working with them. I think.

The end goal for any corporation or one of the end goals is obviously, as a company is profitability and making sure you can provide that. But they go past that. They really focus on extending healthcare and health care solutions to the broader world. And they do an incredible job doing it.

Amazing. And there's going to be a lot of companies out there that go, you know what, we're going to have someone in house just organize our conferences and we'll just. They'll do it. They're good at organizing things and we'll just tough it out. Now, we all know that that is possible, and sometimes it ends well. But often I have seen when someone internally is doing it, they're burnt out, they're exhausted. They're still doing their current role, which has nothing to do with meeting and event planning. They're organizing this massive conference and flights and hotels and speakers, and they're burnt out. And it's exhausting that they're not enjoying the process. And the event ends up being good, but all of us want to take good and make it great and then greater. So what do you see from companies who are trying to do it themselves? And then they reach out to you guys, going, enough's enough. We need to engage you. What are the things that they're experiencing from a pain point? What are they going through and suffering through before they reach out?

So I think the biggest difference is I'm a big proponent, or we're a big proponent, I should say, of building teams around an event. And that is very hard to do internally. There are some fantastic clients of ours who do plan it, and then we're kind of adjunct support and we help build that team with them. And I think that that's a good model. But when you're trying to put it on one person or one or two, depending on the size or scope, and it usually falls onto someone who does have another job, unfortunately. And that can be very, very hard. And the amount of detail that goes into any event is truly amazing. I mean, you just rattled off, you know, travel and production. But let's. Let's talk about sourcing the property. Let's Talk about giveaways, let's talk about insurance, let's talk about food and beverage menus, let's talk, you know, let's talk about the content provided, let's the AV company that you're having to work with, let's talk about the ground transportation. It just goes on and on and on. So to expect one person to do that. So we really divide and conquer and build teams around any event that, that we do and that makes a huge difference. So I would agree, yes, it's possible, but it can be very, very difficult. And there are those unicorns out there that, that do it all. But you know, it's a very, very tough job for them, but it's also very rewarding. But I highly suggest, anybody, even if you do it internally, that you're able to segment it out to a team that can each take responsibility. Because if you're so focused on just the logistics, you're going to miss the messaging, you're going to miss delivering the content in a way that's impactful. So just think about that before you throw it on to your admin or the intern, which we see very helpful always.

And let's think about an event and the company goes, look, we have to have a conference and annual get together every year. We just have to, we've got to tick the box. So let's say they've ticked the box, they're organizing themselves and the event runs very poorly. What's the potential consequence? Yes, you've ticked the box and people got to go along to the conference. But if you do it poorly and the logistics don't work and the hotel was terrible and the keynote speaker was flat, what's the potential consequence of doing that?

Yeah, well, first and foremost, one or just a few of those can ruin an entire experience. Right? So, you know, I think there's a lot to be said. So we have a saying around here is we're only as good as our last event. And it's so, so true. I mean, you can really take the air out of an organization if it's not done correctly. And so, you know, being thoughtful about how you're going to, you know, produce any type of event, it can be a small one, it can be an online one, has, has to be very, very well thought out. And when you do that, you can make a real impact. When, when, when you don't do that, the effects on ROI or on morale or, or on your culture can be significant. And those are things that are impossible to measure. You know, if someone's not excited from leaving a national sales meeting to sell that next product, you might be in a world of hurt come your next quarter. So, you know, if you're going to use meetings and events to drive your education, your marketing, your content, it's highly recommended that you have a team in place that knows what they're doing because it can definitely impact the bottom line. No question about that.

Yeah, I can imagine that. And Andy, what got you into this? Like, you're so passionate about it. It's clearly something you want to do at world class level. How did you step into this industry?

You know, I thought about that a lot over the years because I think people like me and people that are in our industry.

When I say industry, I'm talking about hospitality in the greater sense. It just comes natural to some of us. And I go back to probably when I was like in ninth grade and I was entering high school and I got to join the student council and we were in charge of putting on events for the high school. Boy, I just really enjoyed that. And I just found a natural way to want to please others. And we talk about having a service heart and here at ami, and that's really what I felt. And so for me it comes natural. And so our goal here at AMI is to hire and then retain the best people that have that type of philosophy in their heart. And when you do that and build that, we were talking about, you know, building a culture earlier. And when you do that and you find the right people because you can have a great employee, but they don't have that kind of natural inclination to please others. Probably we're not the, probably the right fit for you. It's fine. But what we really want to do is find individuals who really have that because having that conveys so much more. So I've been doing it since I was as long as I can remember, 30 plus years. And I've just had a great experience doing it. But it's because I found something that becomes natural is natural to me. And so it makes me, it makes me happy every day to do it.

It's incredible. And at ami, you guys are the legends in creating events and conferences. What does a conference or event look like for you guys when you're going to celebrate your team? Who organizes it and what does it look like?

Well, we definitely put a team together. You have to. And we try to take a cross section of the organization because every department and every age group has different things that they want to achieve. So we put a team together I don't know if you're familiar with design thinking, which is a philosophy. It's work utilized in technology a lot. But design thinking is kind of listening to the audience ahead of time, hearing what they want, kind of doing a prototype and understanding. And a prototype can be as simple as a piece of paper you're writing ideas on. All the way to actually producing a mini event to test, you know, some of your concepts out. But doing it and then getting feedback from the audience and then reinventing that event over and over. So for years we've honed that here at ami and we've been able to grow that. So we keep what works, we kind of eject what doesn't work, and we've been able to build stuff. So we have things that culturally are things that we always do. We have something called the Amy Awards, which are kind of like our Emmys, which is a huge hit. People really enjoy it and it's everything from, you know, best customer service, but it's also, you know, best dressed at the office. So it's really fun and helps build that culture of community that we're striving for. And so again, creating great experiences, you know, it's hard to do when you're doing it every day for everybody else, but, you know, it's even more important that we do it right for our own team, 100%.

And I think just you mentioned Covid and Pfizer, which was interesting because Pfizer was one of the main providers of the vaccine here in New Zealand and many other countries. But that really knocked a lot of companies for six. It was a tough time going essentially offline, straight online and having events, having weekly meetings. It was a challenge. It was really a lot of people pushed back. For you guys, one, how did it affect your company and what did you do to pivot use design thinking to pivot iterate. So you survived it and now you're at the other end.

Well, like most organizations, you know, it was wild and it hit our industry very, very hard because we were lucky that we already provided virtual meeting services to our clients. We did it at, like I said, about the 20% range. But we already had the software, we already had the technology professionals on staff, but we had to, you know, do a complete 180 and teach a bunch of people that are used to running in person events all over the world to produce online events all over the world in a matter of weeks. And so it was one of our biggest years ever because we were able to make that pivot and really the first thing we did as a leadership team is said, guys, we've got your back. There was so much unknown in our industry at that time. We knew we were going to have to invest, maybe not make a dime that year, but what we were going to do is to make sure that every one of our employees and team members understood that they had a job and they were going to be taken care of. Because having that unknown on the backside and when unemployment initially was going up to 14, 15%, it was incredible to see. But we knew that if we invested in our staff, they would take us through the end. And they did. And they did it with flying colors. And they really did it by listening to the client and focusing intently, focusing on what the mission at hand was, which was producing great online events. And it made us a stronger company. We were able to offer more services. We were able to gain new clients from organizations like ours that had to go out of business because they didn't have a strategy. But I can't thank enough, can't thank my leadership team enough for leading the charge and making that happen. 2020 was an incredible, crazy, crazy ride, to say the least.

Well done on navigating it, being here, stronger than ever. And you talk about your leadership team, so what do you do to continue to develop your own leadership, to be able to lead them?

Well, I'm an avid podcaster and also a podcast listener, and so I'm constantly just absorbing information. I read the Elon Musk book that just came out, which was really fascinating to me to understand how someone that operates at that level has seven, you know, $100 million companies, billion dollar companies, and how he does it. Now, his. His work ethic, I don't think anybody can be, you know, next to him on his work ethic, but there's lots of great things to learn about how he approached staff and how he challenged his staff to be successful. And so I, you know, learning from different leaders and how they do it, you know, there's no one way to go through this. This crazy journey called life. You know, I'm amazed every day of the different leadership styles, the different ways you can have a career, the different ways you can build culture in your. And I've seen so much over my career, but just learning, learning, learning and listening to others who probably are doing it better than you are, just taking those tidbits. And I'm an idea.

Machine. I just constantly have ideas for my team. A lot of them come from listening to other experts and other entrepreneurs and not all of them stick. About 90% of them don't stick. But I challenge my team to listen, to come up with ideas. How can we do it better? How can we be more efficient? How can we create a better culture? And the cream definitely rises to the top and we take the best ideas and we implement them.

Incredible. I love it. And the teams and organizations that are in America, clearly it's going to be very easy for them to engage with you. But what about listeners in the United Arab Emirates or London or here in New Zealand and Australia? Can they utilize your services?

Absolutely. Our head of sales absolutely sits in London. By the way.

We have people all over the world and so we operate in over 70 countries. At AMI, we're US based, but we have satellite offices all over. And then we have an incredible contract staff to help us expand when we need to expand. And they're all trained on a regular basis. One of the greatest things we ever did talking about culture about 10 years ago was, you know, formalize our HR process and our training process and consistently, you know, building, building on that and conveying our key pillars and our messages to our staff has made them stronger than ever. And that's really how we're able to expand and grow the organization.

It's incredible. I'll be sure to put in the show notes for the listeners now to be able to through and connect with your team. So I'll put in the website and anything else you'd like me to put in, just get your team to send it through. But I think there'll be a lot of listeners who have events coming up who want to grow that culture and develop it within their teams. But I've got one last question for you, if you don't mind.

Yeah.

So we were to fast forward, you and I, many, many years into the future, and you're highly aware that it's your last day here on earth and a very young person that you care dearly about, maybe a family member, a grandchild, great grandchild, they come into the room and they say, andy, how do I lead my life on purpose? What would you say to them?

I'm going to go back with leading, you know, leading your, your, your life with service in mind. Whether that is at work like we talked about today, or whether it's helping your local community or a, an initiative that you have a real passion about, you know, serving others. If you're serving others and not serving yourself, you're serving yourself. You're creating a better individual in yourself. You're creating a better community that you're going to be able to benefit from and you're going to have a sense of accomplishment that very few things can.

Compare to. So serving others and serving with hospitality in your heart I think are just great examples and I hope I get that opportunity to talk to my grandson or my great granddaughter would be fantastic and be able to convey that.

That's beautiful. Well Andy, thank you so much and I really look forward to further conversations and crossing paths in person there in North America.

Absolutely James. When I'm in New Zealand I'll definitely come and say hi.

Do, please do.

Thanks for tuning in today and investing in your own personal leadership. Please hit that subscribe button and I'd love if you'd leave me a rating and review. I've got some amazing guests lined up for you in the coming weeks and leaders. It's that time to get out there and lead your life on purpose.

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