Impact Driven Leadership: Be The Change w/ Tyler Dickerhoof

Hey everybody, it is your host, Jim Johnson. And super excited about this particular episode because about a year ago I got invited to go to a special event called High Capacity Leaders. And I didn't really know what it was about. I knew it was kind of a John Maxwell thing. My first instinct was like, how much does somebody want to charge me for that? And come to find out, it was like they were looking for guys like me and the guy I'm going to bring on that they wanted to be with and hang out with. And we're going to talk about impact driven leadership. And this guy not only lives it does it and all that other good stuff, he's going to be doing an event about it that hang out towards the end of the show. He'll share a link and everything on that. That if you are looking to make an impact as a leader and be intimate with other leaders that are of the upper echelon, this might be just the place for you. But I want to talk about what making an impact as a leader means and why we might be driven by it. So I'm super excited to bring in one of the top network marketers in the world. And I love those guys. They build these groups that have to follow them and they choose to follow them because of the impact they're making. And so welcome to the show. My man, Tyler Dickerhoof. Welcome aboard, man.

And so good to be here. As you were sharing that in the open and in fact, it was almost a year ago. A year ago now. We met each other, dude. I just think back to the fun and, you know, the, the, the relationships that are made in those moments that you don't know what you're stepping into. But then you realize over the year, I think about everyone that was in that room and then the event that we were at in March and man, how imperative people like yourself and and I can go through the list of others are in each of our lives to help us continue to grow. So, man, I'm excited we get to do this.

Yeah, like we've stayed in contact for a year. Like we walked into a room and we went, hey, there's a bunch of valuable, valuable information. And not only do they have valuable information, they're actually likable. They're cool. I like them. And so it's great to have you on the show. We've been wanting to do this for a little while. We both run pretty busy schedules. So when I say the word impact driven leader, like put them all together like that, what does it mean to you, Tyler?

Well, I mean, it's a purpose. It's a purpose that's been put on my heart. So, you know, you mentioned John Maxwell. John's been an absolute catalyst in my life to help bring out kind of the purpose of my life. And several years ago, I was searching for a mentor, and my wife and I just kind of randomly found an advertisement for a program that he had. It was called the Executive Circle. And that was for corporate executives, CEO, COOs. You name a seed, something. Oh, and it fit in there. Our business was network marketing, but I'd come from a background of being a nutritionist for dairy cows. I'd been in consulting. I had had that. And I didn't want to be around other network marketers because they're either cool or they're weird. And there's more weird than there are cool sometimes. And it's like, I want to go just be around other business people, because you mentioned it in the. In the open, and I appreciate that. It's like network marketing is a. Is a leadership catalyst. It is a crucible of building leadership. Because how can you get people to follow you that don't have to? It's one thing, you know, you're a contractor, right? You hire somebody or maybe you're a foreman, and they're like, dude, if you want to work here, you have to follow that guy. Network marketing, kind of like churches, volunteer organizations. You don't have to. You get to pick and choose. So we go to this event, and quickly I realized this was the most unique and different environment that I'd ever been in. I had worked in the corporate world. I'd worked for Cargill for five years, had had my own business. We had kind of been in network marketing. We'd had success. And, you know, in some of those rooms, you know, you felt, oh, empowered and welcomed. Other rooms, you felt like, they don't care. They just want to make money off your back. And when I first stepped into that room with John and understood him and the we're at Chick fil a headquarters and how they went about things, it was like, oh, no, they're here to serve me. They're here to help me be better. They're here to help me make an impact. And that's what really kind of started this idea of being impact driven. It's not about success. It's not about what can I gain. It's not about what accolade or promotion or rank or whatever else. It's how can I help others and serve others. How can I help them reach their purpose or live out their, you know, giftings? And that is really this idea of being impact driven, of being more significant, you know, aligned rather than, hey, how can I get success? So that's kind of where it started.

Yeah, that's, it's, it's really awesome. You sent me, you know, a message the other day, hey, I'm going to do this event, you mind sharing it? I'm like, absolutely, man. I looked at him like, okay, that's in alignment with me because I hear so much about this concept of legacy. I hear that a lot. Legacy leadership, you see a lot of things about that. And those two things are different to me. Legacy and impact. Legacy always seems a bit self serving. Like my legacy, people tend to have that kind of connotation to it where impact to me isn't me looking for any accolades. It's this thing. I'm going to go do this thing, I'm going to do this thing well, serve you well, provide value to you. And whether it comes back that hey, Jim Johnson did that or not is inconsequential. Don't care. I'm not looking for any kind of accolades like that. And I always look at that as impact. So a thousand years from now, something that I shared to somebody today has got to this guy and that guy and this guy and that guy and this gal and this girl like all down the line. And somehow or another, a thousand years in the future, I may have had a little impact on somebody that's cool to me.

Let me give you, as you're sharing that and yes, absolutely. And I think back several years ago, we had a bit of a staff, we had a couple different businesses. We had our gym, we were kind of managing some real estate. All those things. The gym has gone by and the real estate has evolved into not needing us being involved in it. And one of the things I realized is we had an employee and she left our business to go start her own coaching business. And there was this little bit of tension. I'm like, but no, I'm excited for you. Like, I'm excited for you. No different coming back to network marketing. I've, you know, people that have grown in the business and either gotten healthier, done whatever they've done and then take those principles and go place them somewhere else. That excites me. And part of that's being impact driven. It's being an incubator rather than an incinerator. And I stop and think about you and we think about your, you Know your contracting business and in having the business of people, would you be more upset? And you stop and think about it and you know, you could have evolved over times. But if you think your key person, your number one guy, your number one, you know, salesperson, whoever he or she is, right? And if they all of a sudden decide, hey, Jim, man, I'm going to go launch maybe a competitive business, maybe a parallel business, maybe something different, are you upset about that or are you excited about that?

So that's great that you mentioned that. So I was contractor for several years, many, many years, did very, very well, had lots of great people that we didn't look at ourselves as a contracting company. We looked at ourselves as a leadership growth organization that just happened to do roofing and siding and windows and fun stuff like that. And people would rise up, learn, gain information, grow personally achieve things, reach potential they hadn't before. And when I was young and, and first into the business, that would happen, right? Somebody would like, hey, I'm going to go start my own. I've learned what I need to learn better, you know, or like, I was super mad about it. I was like, oh, my goodness. I just invested all this time and energy. And that's actually something that happens in the contracting industry quite a bit. How most of them start, they're either really good at the work they do and they get referral on the side work, and then they become an entrepreneur and then they, like, they start their business that way, or they're really good at the sales side of things, and so they know how to actually generate revenue. They tend to miss a very important piece, which is like, how to run a business and that kind of stuff. But I used to get really mad about it, but I had a breakthrough in my life about 25 years ago and kind of broke into this world of, hey, how do I serve people better? How do I provide value to people? Better be more selfless than selfish. And I announced everybody, you want to go start your own, you come to me and I will walk you through and help you get there. If that's what you want to do. I want to help you get there. And, and today, super proud of it. There's over 70 companies that had worked through me or had been a part of my organization. It's kind of like downline type situation. And now I get to coach a whole bunch of people, helping them build that as well. And they're going through the same thing. They're going through the same thing, like, oh my God, my top sales Guy's leaving and all this other stuff, I'm like, you should be high fiving that guy. That means you did a great job as a leader.

Absolutely. Well, you know that to me is impact. You know that to me, if you think about a legacy, if you go, if you try to pursue legacy like you mentioned earlier, it becomes very selfish. But if you go pursue impact, that leaves a legacy. And you know, it's. Yeah, it's this idea. If I help people, if I support people, if I serve people in a way that is not selfish, but is serving them, it's going to serve me ultimately because it's going to fulfill my purpose, but it's going to encourage them to do amazing things. And that idea of being an incubator, if you help people grow, that means people in your organization are growing and some of them may want to go do their own thing, do something different. A lot of them are going to stay. But if you actively work to burn people out and put a lid on them and kind of put them under your thumb, they're going to leave and they're going to do so begrudgingly. And that is going to be toxic to everyone else. And then it's going to be, it's going to be internally toxic, but it's going to be external toxic. Because then all of a sudden people are like, well, I don't going to want to go work with him. Or it comes to referral clients. It's like, well, you know, I don't know if you want to work with Jim. You know, he's all about himself. And it's like, that doesn't help anyone. And I think, and again, embracing that idea of being an incubator and one of the biggest, I think one of the biggest challenges that we face in organizations, you talk about this business coaching and, and having this sales or this, you know, actually doing the, the work, right? Those separate those two. And some are intertwined or whatever in the competition. And where people struggle as business leaders is they compete with people within their business.

Oh, that's good.

If I all of a sudden say, I'm working for you, right? And I'm one of your lead coaches now, however that may be. And all of a sudden, you know, I am growing my business and say, maybe I'm growing in a new and different way that you can recognize is going to take me out of the role that you have for me. And you're looking at this saying, this is not good, this is not good. I need to steer him back into the Ways that I need him because I need it. And then all of a sudden you start competing with me for my time.

What does that. What you said I a lot. It was all about you.

Yeah. What does that do in the business? It creates toxicity. And so all of a sudden all of that competition is, you know, internalized between the two of us. Instead of saying, hey man, you know, if you were to turn around, say, Tyler, you're growing an area that we haven't really grown in. Dude, go chase it. Because I realize that supports everyone else in our business. How can I support you? I don't need to compete with your time. How can either kick you out of the nest? How can I make sure that you grow in an area where obviously you're being fulfilled or two is fulfilling people around you. That's good for everyone. And again that. That competition now all of a sudden turns external in. How can we serve people in a bigger and better way? And that's always beneficial.

That's so good. You see that hold a lot of. Lot of businesses back that the leader doesn't want anybody to be better than them. They actually like do things competitive to. To keep them down. Hold a man down. Right. But I do see here's.

Here's something though. I want is. And think about yourself as you've seen that most people don't realize that's what they're doing. I'm just. I'm protecting my business. I'm making sure my business is focused. I'm making sure that our system is just dialed in. Because if we add that tweak to the system, then I just listen to your system podcast. So that's why I'm talking about system is if I'm thinking this is the system that I've devoted so much time and it's dialed in. And if he thinks there's a better way, well, I spent so much time instead of thinking, oh, you have a better way? Well, let's figure out. If it's better, that's great. If it's better than add it to the system.

That's so good. I think so much of it is driven by ego and pride that somebody else might have the light shined on them that you were successful and you're like, well, that wasn't me, that was him. So I have to do it all in order for me to get the accolades or the recognition where the real recognition comes from building amazing leaders that take your company to places you would have never been able to get to without them. That's my Favorite part of what? It's like a competition for me, except in reverse. I am competing to see how many leaders I can build that are better than me because I don't think I'm all that great, to be honest with you. But I want them to surpass wherever I am so that they can move on and make an impact throughout the world in a very special way that fits their talents and skills. And it's so weird for them. Like they're not used to it. Whenever they come into my world and we're talking about what that looks like, they're like, what do you mean you want to make me the star of the platform, the star of the thing? I'm like, yeah, it's about you guys. I want you guys to have a lot of success and it's just very uncomfortable for people a lot of times. And I think it's. I do think it's a fear and ego and pride thing that somebody else.

Is going to get the recognition you think you deserve. Let's dig in there.

Okay.

Why do I do what I do? Why is it impact driven? Because there's days that it wasn't. There were days that it was. It was very much the, the fear based. It was very much of the what value do I have? So when you talk about that ego, when you talk about that pride, when you talk about some of the, the arrogance, when you talk about some of those things, to me, those are all symptoms, outward simples identified symptoms of our insecurities.

Showing your true character and your desire of your heart. What, like what your heart truly desires.

I wouldn't go that far. I think sometimes our heart has one thing in line but our, the, the, the. You know, from a spiritual basis. All right. I'm a person of faith. I know you are as well. And kind of incorporate this if you're listening or not. That's fine. That's okay. Just this is a, is a if a thought basis that we can go from where. But if you think about you were made for a purpose. And I just came up with it. Just thought about this. If you're made for a purpose, right, and you want to pursue that purpose, what's the way to get you off of that purpose? To tell you lies that you're not made for that purpose. And so what are those lies those lies are attaching to your insecurity. Hey, Jim, you can't help people grow a business because you barely grow to grew a business yourself. Oh, you got lucky because of the right timing. Whatever else I'M just making stuff up. But those are insecurity lies. Those are lies. And we all. There is one universal truth that I have figured out in life. One absolute truth. Every single person walking this earth that is taking a breath. One truth. We all have insecurities. You, me, everyone listening has an insecurity or more.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

That'S true.

Like sitting there like I was listening to what you're saying. Like, there were certainly things that, you know, when I decided to do this coaching thing that I could go, hey, I actually built a really big contracting business. So I have that, like, as a credential. Right. I helped build some software for the industry. So I understand process and system and stuff like that. So I had that as credential. But there was all these doubts of, like, well, maybe that was just my way. Maybe there's a different way out there that I. I don't know. And I haven't ever been a business or leadership coach before, so what makes me think I can be one now? And I had my own problems in my business and things like that that I wish I could have done better. Like, you had all that, like that negative self talk. And then you have the worldly negative talk.

Well, you're talking about, you know, the people that are maybe not in your inner circle, but people a little bit. I was like, jim, how can you go coach somebody? I know you're screwing it up. I know that you've had these or those problems.

I know you had a bookkeeper steal 585 grand.

How can you go advise me? How can you go coach people?

Because I know what not to do now.

That is what the truth insecurity tells you. But it takes that belief and it takes others. But one of the things for me is I had to recognize and understand how my insecurities were showing up because that kept me from making an impact. That kept me from building relationships with people. And so often my. My barrier to my insecurity was being intense. That was the one that I went to. First and foremost, I will put my head down and push. Oh, you don't think I can do it? Watch me put my head down and just push. And, you know, a lot of times when that came with, you know, working with others, that was really hard because all of a sudden, you know, hear these high. I grew up on a farm, man. I grew up where it was working long hours and there was no lunch break. It was. It was not an eight hour. It wasn't a, you know, four tens. It wasn't where you're given times a break. It was like, oh, you're up at five in the morning and then you're done when you're done. Maybe when it's dark or it's nine o' clock at night.

Yeah.

Where was your break? That there's breaks here. Like, how does this work? Like, I got to, you know, bailing, hey, I got to have a break in between wagons. And that was anywhere from a minute to. If there was a breakdown. Yeah, I got a little bit more. But then there's something else to do because it broke down. All right, so how did I pursue life in my worth? And my value is I just put my head down a push. And I realized then in through this kind of journey is, oh, this is the problem when you use intensity as an armor, meaning, oh, you don't think I can do it? Watch me, right? And just push. Oh, we need to get more. You know, how many roofs can we do this month? I bet we can do a lot more. So let's push, right? That intensity, that drive and you push everyone away. You become a bulldozer. That just leaves carnage. Sure. You push through a mountain. You. You took down a 150 foot, 10 foot wide redwood.

Sure.

Great. And guess what? You look around and all there are are bodies and there are people that are burnout. You're incinerated.

That's an incubator versus incinerator.

Absolutely. And so I had to learn that. It's like, oh, that doesn't work. That can't work. I had to take a step back. And you know what the reality was, is my insecurity was showing in those intense moments because my insecurities said, you're not valuable enough.

You don't have leaders not knowing what they want. It's one of the discussions we have whenever we're coaching is like, what do you want out of this person in this role? Let's define what is acceptable. Now, once we get to there, everything should be about them and their personal growth and where they want to go and where they want to achieve, helping them achieve their potential. But whenever you say, hey, here's the barrier, right? Like, here's the number or the thing or the achievement, whatever it may be, and then you move the line. This is. Contractors are famous for this. I want you to sell this much this month. And any sales organizations like this.

I was gonna say contractors, fine. But I think it applies everywhere.

Yeah, you sell, you sell a certain amount in a month or quarter or a year, depending on your Sales organization and you nail it. What do they do to you the next year?

Great. Now go do 10% more.

10% more. Like, I thought that's what you wanted. Let's just hire another person that can do that. And awesome. Now I got two people and twice as much. Instead of squeez the last little juice out of the guy and burning them out and not having to be in a place where they get to enjoy a lifestyle that is provided by the vehicle that you provide them. I made that mistake a lot.

Yeah, A lot of leaders do. Well, a lot of leaders do because they don't know. They don't know a different way. They. They haven't been led, maybe. Why do they do that? We come back to Jack Welch. What did he do? Jack Welch is like, hey, bottom 10. We call you off, you're done. Top 10%, you get promoted. Well, then all of a sudden this, this idea in sales organization. See a lot of medical sales, you can see any sales. It's like, you know, your quota, your monthly quota, and like your. Your annual budget quota. And then all of a sudden, you know, people start playing the game. Oh, you know, I. If I sell 120%, oh, if I make that sale, that's going to put me over on, you know, June 30th. We have June 30th coming, you know, say I think the last Friday, right? 27. Okay. It's the last day of the month before the weekend. Before the first. How many people. Right. As we're recording this, I understand releases. How many people are going to have this in organizations? Friday, you have somebody make a sale. Hey, hey, hey, hey. We're going to put this for the first. Because if I put it on today, it's going to make my sales go over. So I'm going to load it on the first. First. So that way it helps my July members. Because July is tough because you got 4th of July the middle of the week, and you got to play that game. And you just start playing games and all of a sudden this. Whatever you did six months ago when you told Bob, hey, Bob, you did great, I'm going to raise your 10%. And on. All of a sudden, everyone else in the organization starts playing the quota game. And you can watch it the end of the month, the last day of the month, like, hey, man, we're a little slow today. First the Monday of the month, like, man, we are kicking it. You have a culture problem where you're focused on the results and not the person.

Oh, man, that's so good. So it's funny we're talking about this because I was and I can't mention a name. So I was at a client and that client has a former manufacturer's rep working for him and the manufacturer's rep was taking over for the guy that was retiring. The guy that was retiring said, look, here's the deal. You're gonna hit your quota. There is no doubt about that. You need to turn it off so that you don't get an extreme set on you the next year. And you're probably gonna hit your quota in the first four to five months, then you can just coast it out. Pam, you don't have to do it. I'm like, what kind of culture did they just create? Right? There's no culture of achieve competition or striving to reach one's potential and having understanding that market conditions can change. And so yeah, we had a killer year this year and maybe you had a little bit of a backslide the next year. Is that okay? Like it can be okay, right?

Well, the reality is like, that's life. And I've been through that. And like it kills me that again when you're so short sighted.

Right?

We talked about this. The difference between being legacy driven, hey man, I gotta have a legacy. We gotta just pour and pour and pour. Or hey, I have this easy legacy where I just have year after year after year growth. It's like, but that's not reality unless it's manufactured.

Yeah, it was already in place.

It doesn't work like that. I mean, even if you look at it like we can go body weight, you can jump on a scale and someone losing weight, gaining weight, it isn't a straight line. It just. Nature doesn't work like that in this idea of if we're so finite, focused. And Simon Sinek and his, you know, book, you know, Infinite Infinite Games has this, you know, great, great focus on. It's like if you're finite, man, you're losing. But infinite is we're just going to roll on. So it's knowing, it's like, hey, yeah, you may hit your quote in the fourth, four or five months, but let's look at the bigger deal. Like, this is what's going on. This is the macro side of things. Continue to push because if we help drive those profits, that's going to help us next year. And we have no idea what's going to happen. We have a new election, we don't know what's going to happen to Federal Reserve. We don't Know what's going to happen in banking. We don't know what's going to happen to all of these things. And if we can help, you know, serve people and capture profits and deliver a good result, now that's going to give us a longer Runway next year that's being big picture focused instead of being short term. And yet we've created that culture in organizations because our leadership is broken, because people are operating in. In. In protection of their insecurities.

Well, here's the. Here's the beauty of the end of that story. This new manufacturer's rep went, I don't care what you did before, I'm gonna go blow it out of the water. And he did. He just crushed it. Became one of the top reps for that manufacturer, set new goals, records for everybody. And. And, like, he was way. He wasn't encouraged that way. And it's kind of one of those things you almost got lucky, right, to have somebody wired that way. And then they started to realize, like, hey, maybe we've been going about this the wrong way. And so that he actually had an impact by shifting the whole organization to think differently about those numbers. And, and so, like, I want to ask you some key questions about impact driven. I had a couple of, like, we've had some really good stories, actually have.

Some questions to talk about, not just talk.

And if you guys can hear a train. Can you hear a train? It's good.

Yeah.

Can you hear the train?

I can hear the train. Train's coming.

Okay. Sorry, guys. Like, I didn't know a train was gonna go by. Hey, this is one of the things I get to live a certain type of lifestyle because I've designed it to be so. And I. I don't want to be in my office every day. I want to go and see things and do things and be with the people that I love and care about and see this beautiful planet that God's created for us. And so it allows me to travel. And so when I travel, I'm actually in an RV right now, hanging out at a campground, doing this podcast. Because when I get done with this podcast, I'm gonna go fly fishing tonight. And I can't fly fish where I live. I want to go do that and enjoy that.

And so here's something I want to pour into you for a moment, Jim.

I teach that to my people, and I teach that to our clients. Like, your business should be a vehicle to create the lifestyle that you're desiring or why do it all in the first place?

Can I pour into you for a moment? And it is something I've had to learn and learn. There's so often when you think of production quality, right? Oh, man. I want the sound to be perfect. I don't want anything.

Oh, no, I'm cool.

And you've had those at times because, like, man, the listener deserves it to be just printing premium. The client deserves it to be premium. Right? But here's the reality of that.

I'd rather be authentic and real.

That doesn't happen, you know, you.

Let's.

Let's go. I'm the studio. I'm in, right? And I framed it out. Okay. I'm not a framer. And this is coming back to you. I'm serving you. I'm not a framer. Have I. Have I put in some frame? Yes, I have. And so there a. In. In this, there's a. It's a 16 by 20. And there is a false wall that I put in two closets in some barn doors. If I turn around the camera, you can see it. And so on one side, if you were to look at the framing, you'd be like, dude, what were you doing? Because I unfortunately, the measuring, whatever, I was off by a inch and three quarters. So I had to put in an extra two by four. The other side looks perfect, right? It's just perfect. And here's the reality is being able to own that on the outside, it's. Right now it's holding. It does not matter. The same as if you're building and knowing those things are going to happen. That's just life. It's. How do you fix it? And it's more important if you were saying, hey, I want you guys, I want you to embrace creating a lifestyle where you can spend time with family, where you can go travel. And all of a sudden, we weren't hearing the train and you were in this perfect studio all the time. It's like, is he real or is he just telling me a story?

No, I actually have. Like, I thought the train was. I thought the train was a great addition. I really did. And here, yes, it was like he blew the horn because he knew we were talking about some pretty awesome stuff.

Perfect. Yes.

Yeah.

So, I mean, in that it is just this further evidence to people that are listening. It's like, hey, more importantly, in our world right now is choose to be authentic.

Oh, yeah.

If you want to make an impact, I mean, you got to be authentic and you got to be vulnerable. Coming back to insecurity, the. The solution to your Insecurity. All of us have this. The. The solution that I understood and I figured out is being empathetic. And that can. People can get confused because, like, well, I've heard this. Does that mean I got to put on their work boots? But they got stinky feet. I don't want to put those on.

There's a difference between empathy and sympathy.

Well, but here's how I defined it, and it's helped me the most. And I joke if somebody says, oh, empathy is putting yourself in someone else's shoes. And I'm like, yeah, that's going to hurt for one of us. I wear a size 13. I don't know where what you wear, Jim, but if I put my feet in yours, if say you got a size 10 or my brother size 10, that's gonna hurt. Yeah, that's gonna hurt. That's gonna hurt one of it. It doesn't work. But here's what does work. If I come alongside you and I lift my arm up and I put my arm around you. Now let's go walk. I don't. If you're 76 and I gotta put my arm like this, that works. And if you got to put your networks and see empathy, when you put your arm around someone, there's also one other key component that has to be. I can't put my arm around you and not be genuine. So I got to be authentic and genuine. But I also have to be vulnerable. I just expose myself. If you wanted to just whack around and crack me in the ribs, that hurt. I have to be vulnerable and I have to accept that. And the only way to be empathetic and walk with someone and expose your insecurities are be authentic and empath. Be vulnerable and know that, hey, yeah, I struggle with it. Guess what? We all do. It's okay. I have to. You know, if we're talking again about a contractor and you think about it, I have to struggle with if someone leaves my business, that they're going to go do it better than I. Yeah, I got to struggle with that. I have to own that because I'm afraid that they go do better than I, then it's going to look bad on me. But what they don't stop and realize, when someone goes and does it better than you and you help them do it better than you, they're going to look back and they'll say, jim, thank you so much. Thank you so much for helping me get to where I'm at. And all of a sudden someone comes along and Said, hey, you know, again, Bob, I want to do what you did. It's like, hey, go work for Jim. He's going to help you. Because he's who helped me. But it takes that vulnerability and that authenticity to embrace your insecurities and say, hey, excuse me, my insecurities are showing. Just. Just don't mind me. My insecurities are showing. I just. I'm sorry. It did. It's okay. And all of a sudden, that authentic authenticity and vulnerability, people are like, hey, I like that.

He's a real person. Yeah, Like a real human being. Yeah.

Hey, Sometimes our crew, we put the wrong color shingles on. It happens. I am sorry. We'll fix it. We'll make it right. It happens. I'm sorry. Two houses, we have a 6018 and a 6081 in the 6018 was a black shingle and the 6081 was a gray shingle. And we sent them to the wrong spot. I am sorry. We're going to fix happens and the customer is going to be like, yeah, that sounds pretty. I can get that. You're going to fix it and you're going to make it a party. Great. Thank you so much. Hey, you know what? Let me tell you about Jim's roofing company. This is what happened to them, and they came and made it right. Dude. I will work with them forever because that's what people really do. I don't know why we got off on that topic, but that was.

No, no, that was awesome. So I've been listening to the conversation and it feels like you're sharing some characteristics of an impact driven leader. They're vulnerable, they're. They're authentic, they're genuine, they're service oriented. They celebrate the success of others. Am I on the right track?

Yeah, yeah.

Any other characteristics?

Well, I think part of that is there.

Oh, I forgot. Empathy. Got to have that one, too.

Empathy, it's key. They're not afraid to not embrace. I think a part of it in this is embracing your fears and insecurities because you're never going to be able to remove them. You just have to embrace them and then understand there's a lot of ownership. Own how they show up and then the next piece to that, and this is what I teach my course, awaken the leader within the next step. So it is recognizing your fears and insecurities that we all have them. Own how they show up, how they affect people, and then you're never going to remove them, but you're going to be able to change your mindset and beliefs about them. Hey, my insecurity is that I don't have value. My insecurity is that I don't have value for people. So what will I do? I will try to get into conversations and I will just tell them about everything I know and everything that I can, can do. And I've had to recognize, oh, hey, that's what makes it uncomfortable. And that's when my insecurity is showing. And so it comes back to, you know, as you mentioned earlier, when you're willing to recognize that, hey, my job is to help you do your job better. It isn't about what I know or what I can do. It's how I can serve you. That's been the biggest evolution and journey that I've made in letting go of that intensity, being the armor of what I need to. How I need to pursue myself. For some people, I've realized it's inactivity. It's the, ooh, I don't want to make the hard phone call. I shared about earlier, the house, you know, you put the wrong color shingles on. It's like, hey, Jim, can you handle that? Because I don't want to handle. I don't want to make that call because then they're going to be upset or maybe they just won't know. Right.

And it. You're mentioning another characteristic, another. This is like, this is one of the big ones, not having fear of conflict. Like something didn't go right.

Well, have you read the book Crucial Conversations? I think it was Joseph, Granny. I may be wrong on that. I don't think it was Patrick. Crucial Conversations. Great book. And one of the things that I've come to realize in life, there are two great outcomes from every difficult conversation. There's two great outcomes. You either grow in relationship, you grow together, or you go, oh, I like that. Or you go, that's it. Difficult conversation. Let's have it. We're either gonna grow together, man. I'm being empathetic. We're growing together, or you give me that punch in the ribs. I'm like, you're done. We're gone. Good. Difficult. Some conversation. Handle. Okay.

That used to be one of my insecurities is handling conflict. This, you know, there's conflict throughout. Like, especially if you own a contracting business. Like, there's going to be conflict on a daily basis every day, and you try to avoid it.

Why do you think, why do you. Why do you think you, you, you feared that?

Oh, because I didn't think. I was up to the challenge.

I didn't.

I didn't think I could navigate the conversation in a productive and valuable way for the other person. And so instead of just going out there and going school of hard knocks about it, I actually went and did some study on it. I actually started reading and studying and learning and going to those other leaders that were really good at conflict resolution and learning from them so that I could understand better what somebody else was going through and have those hard conversations. And I also had a bit of me that's like, I'm up for any challenge. I suck at this thing. I'm gonna go get great at this thing. And now, you know, I. I'm just waiting for the next conflict resolution moment. Like, when is there a problem?

You went out and you, you, you found the tools.

Yeah.

You found the tools to help you. You know, if I stop as you're thinking about that. And I was thinking, in those challenges that I've had where I don't want to handle those, it's. Then I don't know if I know how to solve it right. And part of that is like, you managing that conversation is having the right tools is leading to a solution.

Well, sometimes I think you know how to solve it. You don't want to solve it that way. For example, you put. You put the shingles on the wrong house. You know, you just have a big loss. You have to tear that off, buy new materials, pay the crew, like the whole bit again. It's going to be 7, $8,000 out of your pocket. That's not what I want to do.

Minimum. Right? Minimum.

What's the right thing to do and you know the right thing. So make the phone call. Mrs. Jones, we screwed up. We're going to make it right. I'm going to have my crew out there tomorrow. We're going to put it exactly the way it was supposed to. I own the problem, but I'm going to still make sure you have a great experience. How do you think that phone call goes? It's like, great. The homeowner loves it. They're like, yeah, because you took. People make mistakes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's in that, to me, is when you know that's the solution and you're empowered to do it. That's easy, right? It's the. I'm not empowered to make that. Hey, try to sell the customer on the gray shingle. Hey, we'll give them a 25 discount. Like, that's not the right thing to do. But when you're in that situation, those are really, really hard conversations. And I've been in that boat. I've been told that it's like, oh, we screwed up. Try to sell it to them, you know, try to get them to accept, like, that's not the right thing to do. Those are the hard times. And I think part of it is. Is one. How do you go about finding that, leading in a better way? Just say that's not the right thing to do and having that strength to do it.

Even if that was the solution that you would like, you should give the solution that's also right and say, hey, Mr. Jones, we can go either way. We can tear the whole thing off and redo it all on our dime and put it exactly the way you wanted, or we can save you 25% on this. Great. Like, give them both options.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's. It's. Having been in some of those situations, it's amazing how people, when they're part of the solution, they embrace it. And I think that all comes back to. That's having empathy. Because when you called that homeowner, what did you do when you gave them solutions and you said, hey, you put your arm around them. So let's walk through this together.

I'm gonna have to walk through with my crew. Some other people, too, but we're gonna have some fun walks.

Yeah.

And it's.

Yeah, go ahead.

Well, I was gonna ask you, like, the way we met was by being in a room with a bunch of other people. I don't know about you, but I was a little bit uncomfortable. I'm used to being in a room where not to be egotistical or anything, but people are looking to me for answers, Right. And now I'm in this room and going, hey, I got some questions. I would love to ask those questions. I was a bit insecure. I caught it right away, mindful of, like, I don't care. I'm going to talk to everybody, get to know everybody, see if I can add value to them. That was my first thing. Like, how can I provide value to you? And then if it came back around, awesome. If it didn't, don't care one way or the other. My job is to give value to you and to have it not only be so welcoming, like, that was the crazy part. Everybody was in it, right? Like, did you notice that about the thing? Like, everybody was doing the same thing I was doing? Like, how do I help you with your thing? And even, like, the Maxwell organization was, we're here to Help you with your thing. That was such a weird place. And so when I, when I.

It's a different world, isn't it?

How do I get into more rooms like that and how do I create that type of environment? It sounds like, like that's what you're doing with this impact driven leader thing. Is that, is that a fair assessment?

100. Because that's what John's done for me. Yeah, I've had the app I mentioned earlier, the executive circle, being at Chick Fil A and being in that room. And Mark Miller, who was the executive vice president of leadership serving me, he took my tray, he asked me, hey, do you need anything? You took my job dead serious in the room. And he's like, oh, this is different. And it wasn't that, hey, what can you get for me? Or justify your existence? It was, you're here, You're a person of value. We value you. So glad you're here. How can we serve you? And that came from John, that came from Mark Cole, that came from everyone in the organization that I've known now for, you know, going on seven years. And so that room that you talked about last March, that wasn't the first time I've been in that room. And so I. What was fun for me is Chad Johnson, who put on that room. And if you're listening, you're. You're interested in a couple of the rooms. I'll talk about one of the rooms I'm putting together. But there's also another room here in August that the Maxwell organization is putting together. We'll have those links, right, Jim? But it wasn't the first time I'd been in that room. And so knowing Chad had put that room together, it was fun for me to sit back and watch. And just as my insecurities over the years have kind of melted away and all of a sudden is, I don't need to. I don't need to prove to John that I'm worthy to be here. Because he's already said, tyler, you deserve to be here.