LZ Flannard, who helps businesses launch podcasts, says leading well means learning to follow first. He built his career on two things: sales and caring about customers. His first job at 15 in a shipping department taught him that excellence comes from hard work.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
My name is LZ Flannard. I am the mayor of Podcast Town, and we help businesses and subject matter experts broadcast their voice to bring in more leads and drive revenue to their business.
Well, LZ, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
Well, the thing that makes me smile is just how many things can go wrong during a podcast interview, and, uh, it's amazing to me how You know, I teach these things on a daily basis, and it's just strange to, to experience one of them. So it's unpredictable, but that's what makes it fun. You know, podcasting is, it's a very connected industry and medium, and I love that about it.
Me too. Me too. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
I saw this question and I, and I wanted to break the rules a little bit. Can I have two chapters?
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, so the number one chapter that you, you would read as a business leader is sales, because no matter if you're the owner of the business or you're an employee of the business, you're always selling. Whether that's selling internally to your team to, to buy into a project, or you're selling to your supervisor to give you funding for a project, or if you're selling as an organization. So you have to know how to sell. The second chapter that I would read is caring. If you're in business, you have to care. More and more business is relationship-driven. People want to know, do you care about me? And then and only then will they follow.
I really like that, especially the do you care about me, because so often, you know, companies, they'll go ahead and they'll advertise, they'll put their marketing out there, and it's all about the company and not about the customer prospect. So I totally get that. And I think that that's really, really wise. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
I would say lead well. And part of leading well is following well. Even though we're leaders, we're followers. If you don't know how to follow, you'll never be a great leader. And really putting the, the people that you lead first. What do they need? What do they want? How can they get better? I always use the, the example of fire yourself. When you get to the point where your team no longer needs you, that means you've done a great job. And a lot of leaders aren't mature enough to, to get to that point, but it forces you to continue to grow because it'll push you to the next phase of your leadership.
I like that, and I really like the terminology of fire yourself too. That really grabs you and makes you want to listen to. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
So this gentleman that I'm about to name is a firecracker. He is A wonderful leader, a wonderful human being, Mr. Paul Neuberger. He is known as the Cold Call Coach. He will talk as many minutes and hours as you need him to, but he's a great leader, fantastic entrepreneur, and I know that you and your audience would get a ton of value out of having a conversation with him.
Perfect. I appreciate that referral. I look forward to talking to him. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
So my first job, I was 15 years old, and I remember this distinctly because I was— I'm a singer-songwriter, have been since I was a little, little boy. And there was a karaoke machine that I wanted to get because I wanted to record music, and— but my mom wouldn't buy it for me. She said that I had to get a job and pay for it myself. And so that's what I did. She— I was— she was kind enough to, to put in a good word for me at where she worked, and I did that for, for a summer, worked with my mom. It was a a drug distribution company, the legal kind. And so I would work in the shipping department, shipping things up and shipping them out. It was a really great job. I got an opportunity to watch my mother in action. And she is a robot. Like, she would go through, and she was just excellent and really good at her job. And so right out of the gate, I got a good example of what hard work, dedication, and excellence looked like.
Mm, I love that. And a plug to your mom too for, for helping you with that as well.
Yeah, I like to say that she did a good job with it. Yeah, I like to think that.
I'm sure she does. So, Elzie, thank you so much for being on the show. How could people find you?
Uh, the best way is, um, either on my website podcasttown.net or shoot me an email mayor@podcasttown.net.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Get hundreds of amazing business insights from previous guest episodes on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening.
