Kevin Ward left construction in the late 1990s to teach and became a speaker and consultant. He argues that leadership requires training beyond management, and his advice to his younger self is to take risks sooner. He defines happiness as faith and gratitude, and recommends the Bible and Jim Collins' Good to Great.
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Thank you for listening to the Business Blast podcast. So for all my listeners out there that have been wanting to do your own podcast, I'd like to introduce to you Anchor. Anchor is a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, distributing, and monetizing your podcast. So before I found Anchor, I had never actually done a podcast because all the research that I had gathered made it seem very complex. Then I found Anchor, and Anchor makes podcasting extremely simple. So if you want to do your own podcast, go to anchor.fm/start. I can't wait to hear your podcast. Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Kevin Ward with us. He's a passionate speaker, trainer, and messenger. So welcome to the show, Kevin.
How are you, Tyler Wagner? Glad to be here.
Doing great, man. Glad to have you here. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Kevin Wagner, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, I would say a real defining moment for me was a career change back in the late '90s. And I went from being a construction professional to being a teacher. I never thought of myself as a teacher, but people around me, family, friends, said, hey, you can teach and be a good way for you to help both the industry and also help young people. And I was rather skeptical, but went ahead and a brief moment of clarity, listened to folks, and it launched me into teaching and found a real passion and love that I have and has affected all that I do going forward to the point that I do many things now, but the one that I continue to be passionate about is teaching. People of all ages.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, my background, leadership, and I've been in a role of leadership most of my career. And the thing that's interesting is I now teach leadership to others and speak on it. And one of the unique qualities I bring is that I am able to engage my audience like most others are not, something that's attested by other people.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Oh, it has to be about leadership, and that is that anyone that is in leadership or might be in leadership, they need to be trained to be effective leaders and not managers only. And the, uh, in particular in regards to leadership is having a vision that they can communicate clearly to everyone involved.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Oh, wow. Be willing to take risks sooner.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
For me, it's a solid faith and an attitude of gratitude.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Oh, wow. That's a good one. Well, the best book overall, and I don't mean sound preachy, is the Bible. There's so much wisdom there, whether you ascribe to the religious or faith in it. And I recommend that anyone, a non-Christian, Bible book I think that I would suggest to people would be, uh, Jim Collins' Good to Great.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Let's see, um, I guess one of the, uh, favorite quotes that I use with a lot of people is, "A failure to plan is a plan to fail." And the reason why is, as a leader, if you're not planning, you're always going to be in a reactive mode than— rather than a responsive mode.
Love it, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find you online?
My information is on my profile on LinkedIn. And including my email address, my website, everything. So LinkedIn, or if they want to go directly to my website, wkwconsultingllc.com.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for joining us. We really appreciate it.
Thanks for the opportunity, Tyler Wagner. I really appreciate it.
