Episode 308: Do you cultivate leaders at all levels of your organization?

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.

Hey, Professor Pete, this is Michael Lane from Success Resources. We have a business where we change people's lives. We love to educate and inspired the next round of entrepreneurs.

Well, Michael, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you laugh and/or smile about working in your industry?

I love the idea of planning out an event or a workshop and then seeing it come to life. I think there's nothing more amazing than being backstage of a 10,000-person event, peeking behind the curtain and going, wow, this was an idea on my whiteboard or in my head or on my paper, and now it's here, it's live. That's what makes me smile.

Oh, I love it, and I can hear the passion in your voice. It's great. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

Wow, great question. I would say leadership. I think leadership is, is such an important factor in the success of a business. Everything rises and falls on leadership, as per Dr. John C. Maxwell. It's everything from the leader who runs the business, who created the business, down to the leaders who are at the bottom level. We're all leaders. We all need to continue to develop the leaders within our team. We do that, we tend to have successful businesses.

I think that's very wise. You're right, because when you continue to grow leaders throughout the organization, it just gives the organization the opportunity to expand. And I assume that's what, what you've experienced as well.

Absolutely. If you continue to increase the knowledge and the learning in your team and raise leaders within your team, they flourish. And then you'll, as a, as an entrepreneur, you'll be able to have a successful business on the back about.

That's great. Before we continue with the questions, I want to remind our listeners that if you can share this episode with just one of your peers, the positive impact can be exponential. And now, 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?

Look, I, I grew my whole business on, uh, learning and giving back. I think it's really important to have a learning plan I think daily leaders need to be spending at least 45 minutes on themselves. The other component to that is giving back. What are you doing in your business, in your life, to pass the baton on to other people? Um, learning, giving back, it's a, it's a great combination.

I love that. And when you're learning, you give back, there's— at least for me, when I've done that, I always have this extra sense of satisfaction. Is that something that you find?

Absolutely. There's nothing better than getting up and building yourself. But then the same ROI I get is seeing the look in someone else's eyes when I give and without getting any kind of return back, right? So learning yourself and continuing to grow and then passing that on and helping others both give me similar ROIs.

Mm-hmm. And you're having this impact on the world that I'm sure can be exponential as well. I love it.

Absolutely.

Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

Wow, that's a, that's a great question. There's, there's so many, right? And I know you've had some amazing, uh, friends of mine on, on here before. Um, you know what, Dr. Professor Pete, I'm going to have to have a think about that. And to make sure I'm doing my part, I want to, I want to nominate 3. Uh, I like to give above and beyond, so I'm going to come back to you with 3 killer people who I think would be amazing.

Perfect. I look forward to that. And our final question, question number 6: Please tell me about your first job.

Look, my first job, I was working for my father at a motor dealership. I mean, I started in the fleet department where we were selling cars to different companies. It was a whirlwind. It was, it was odd because my father was the boss. He didn't own it, but he was the boss. And it gave me a few extra perks. But here's what I realized is that once you're in there and doing the job, you know, there's no shortcuts, there's no my daddy runs this. It's like you have to figure out how you add value, how you share value. So I was working in the finance— the fleet department of a car dealership. And yeah, what an interesting journey it was.

Well, and I can imagine too that as, you know, work— working with your dad being the, the boss, that actually is extra pressure on you as well, wouldn't it be? Because you're held to a different standard than everybody else.

100%. And the other employees used to look at me differently and go, well, he's got an easy ride. He came in, he can do this. So I had to work extra hard. I had to show up early, stay late, play full out. If not, I wouldn't get the respect.

Absolutely. So it's not, not what everybody thinks when you're, when you're the boss's son, because I, I— oh yep, exactly. And so Michael, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?

Yeah, fantastic. Thanks for inviting me on the show. Look, I'm on all the usual stuff, but to be honest, LinkedIn is my favorite. I'm @itsmichaellane, and yeah, come along and send me a message and say hello.

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.