How Our Team Pivots Through Earthquakes, Crushes Goals, and Builds Unstoppable Trust with Will Humphreys and Virtual Rockstar

Today's episode of the willpowered podcast comes to you from a live team meeting.

All right, guys, well, let's kick off the meeting. So I have just a few minutes here. I wanted to spend some training time with you guys regarding leadership. I'm going to share screen again. This time what I'm going to do is a share screen regarding. I want you guys to see the overview of where we are. We're over halfway into our 90 day leadership challenge, which is totally taking months because we're doing 90. Workday challenge. We're doing it. So it's five days out of every six, seven is when we're doing this. So as of right now, we are at.

Week 11, the test, but we've done 50 of the 90 days. We're just barely over halfway. Bye, Andre. Rock and roll, man. Thanks. Bye, everyone. Thanks for letting me know. You brought up a really good point of me conserving my battery for emergency purposes. Yes, please. You're with you.

Thanks, guys.

See ya.

Okay, so I want you guys to see the flow of how this was built. I obviously worked with AI, but I did not use AI to build this. I worked with AI. Big difference. So I want to distribute week by week the themes the first week, building trust. So first and foremost, why do you guys think out of a 90 day challenge, we spent the first week working on trust? That wasn't accidental. That's me telling you that is the most important part of any leadership development is learning about trust. Why do you guys think trust was the very first thing we started learning about?

Denise, it's the foundation that we start on to make it so we can build everything else.

Love that, Toni.

Mine was similar. It's the number one thing that we need for us to be able to grow so that alone without trust, there's no way we can go into any other step close culturally, growth within productivity, anything, any of it.

Yes. A leader first and foremost develop trust. Right. Like in the reason and there's in that whole training that might be a book that we actually spend time reading more in detail. But you know, when we talk about trust, we talk about results, we talk about faith. You know, we talk faith about like we really, we hope and we believe in each other and then we verify with statistics and results. Like there's. It's kind of the thing that connects all the other outcomes that we care about as a company. But when you think about trust, there's this emotional connection that exists. Like the best leader I know in the world is my mom, hands down. Lynn Humphries isn't perfect by a far by large margin. Lynn Humphreys is, is an imperfect person who loves greatly. And, and I trust her. I trust them. I trust the fact that she loves me so much that whatever she says, even when she's wrong, comes from a place of intending to do what's best for me.

And so that's the connection between trust and leadership. If you feel like the person.

Loves who you are, again, love might feel like a strong word, right, because we use it romantically. We're not talking about Eros. We're talking about a different type of love that's, that's more familial and like sibling based. That type of love is what sets that stage for us to be able to let our guards down, to show who we really are, to make mistakes. The trust that will be held accountable for things that we do in error and success. So when we have that trust, everything is built. We're not going to spend this much time in every week. But I wanted to really highlight to you guys why we focus so heavily on trust. Trust feeds into everything that we're doing here. And if you guys lead this program with any other lesson, this is the one is that we develop trust through our actions and by being our word and by knowing that we matter. And so we build. Second week we talked about healthy conflict, right? This is where when we trust each other, we can disagree, we can hold each other accountable. That was a great week to have that. I was held accountable myself as a demonstration. And once we feel trusted and once we can have those hard conversations, it's an organic result that we commit to the group of people that we're in. That's where we feel like that R isn't just a symbol of our brand, but becomes a representation of what we stand for.

That's when that shifts, is when we commit to each other. That's what makes the R a real representation of what we stand for is because it represents us. That's why we put it on our clothing, because it becomes who we collectively create.

After that, accountability continues to hold that commitment tight. Once we are committed, we continue to hold accountable so that it's like the insurance policy that keeps that commitment tight. Because the second we get loose and just say, oh, we love each other, we're always going to do fine. Is the second that we start falling apart, especially in marriage when that happens, then we get more tactical, results driven leadership. Now that we have that, how can we look at results as a style of leadership? We talked about growth and outward mindset, how we're looking at results in the tactical, but we're keeping a big open mind so that we can grow. It's a weird balance of looking at results but also keeping a bigger picture in place for ourselves.

And then we talked more so the rest of the week started talking about styles of leadership. Right? Servant leadership, how do we communicate as leaders, how do we influence as leaders? And then lastly as leaders, vision and innovation. Every good leader has a vision and innovates and changes. So that is a brief overview of our training as a whole. What I'd like to spend a little bit of time on is.

Let'S just do five minutes. I could go for hours on this. And I think what I want to do is just spend the last five minutes. I'd like for you guys now that I kind of recap this. I would like to share with you guys what I want to know from you. What's changed for you as a leader? If not much has changed, you can share that. There's no judgment. It's more of a reflection of the program than it is on you. But can some. Can you. A few of you. We only have five minutes, but I really like to hear from as many of you as possible. And so, like, can you think of something that's happened during this program that shifted for you, whether the way that you think or was there something that you did when you applied some of this stuff, whether it's in your personal world or at work that you've learned from? And so I'll turn the time over for you guys to share.

Kim.

I think what changed for me is I've noticed ever since doing that because I'm just. I have my walls built up. But then that leadership training just like, oh, I can just be like myself and be open and like trusting everyone would understand where. Why I'm like this, where I'm coming from. And then it's just like, oh, it's like. It's like I'm just seeing the another side or another perspective of life in personally and like in work. So I'm so. I'm. I noticed that I'm so much more open now, even though I'm not really good with words like in speaking but. But I feel like I'm more comfortable talking about stuff that I can speak about before doing the training.

I think that's what I noticed ever since doing the training.

Love that. Kim. You know, I want to thank you for that share because you have grown so much.

In the, in the Company. And it's the biggest thing I've noticed is that you. You are just more yourself. I think this is true for a lot of people in the Philippines when they're becoming virtual assistants, is they have this really professional protective layer. And what you guys are learning here at Virtual Rockstar is that that's great to a point. But in the end, we need the silly. We need the mistakes. We need the tears. We need the celebration. We need all of you.

We.

Every last part of each of you, even your imperfections are needed. And with Kim, like, who she's become is. Is this leader who's just born that way. I will say this before I pass it to Tony, and I want you guys to remember this for the rest of your lives, is that becoming a better leader has a lot less to do with learning new skills and a lot more about you just being you.

The greatest leader, the greatest power, comes from you just being authentically you. Isn't that interesting, Tony?

So for me, I've actually. I feel like I've gotten a lot out of this, you guys. I've. I've seen myself push, like, things that I've been putting off, you know, like, just like, as little as tasks to being uncomfortable giving people delegation at times. Being a leader, being to, you know, having conversations or whatever that may be, like, those types of things has. It has pushed me to, like, move forward with those, and they all turned out great. The other thing is, oh, did we miss somebody sad left or okay. The other thing is I've really, like, began to appreciate, acknowledge, and accept. Accept myself for who I am and who my strength, where my strengths are, and also accept and acknowledge where my. Where I can get better. Right. And the crazy thing is, is we have the right people on a team where we're. I'm not as strong. There are people on the team. That's the strongest part. And then I'm like, it's okay for that to be. For that. Like, it's okay for me to lean on them. And then the other thing is just I feel like him so much closer. I thought we were close before, but I feel so much closer to each and every one of you guys because I'm going through and I'm reading your impacts in this, and I'm like, crap. And then I can see it on their side, right? And it's so. It's so wonderful to me to be able to feel even that much closer going through this process with you guys. I didn't know or anticipate that this was going to do that. So it's been for me, I feel like I've grown a lot.

I love that Tony. By a show of hands, who here feels like Tony loves them?

Like legitimately loves them? Yeah. So Tony, Tony is a beautiful representation of the concept that the person who loves the most is the most influential leader. And so I am in awe of her leadership and so grateful for, for her beautifully imperfect and powerful person. And I say imperfect for a reason. I want to, I wouldn't want people do this where like they over glorify. There's, there's no more glory that we could possibly do than look at every possible aspect of who we are, especially the imperfections. And I don't even know if I could count. I can't even tell if I could. Her, her weakness comes from loving too much. Like, if someone asks her, that would be her weakness.

Hope.

Hope. And then Denise. Hope.

Yeah. Hi. So first I'd like to apologize because I'm not always checking my WhatsApp, but I promise I'm reading it. So like, like him, probably. Yeah. Here in the Philippines, I really don't like to share things I'm used to have, like training with international, like bosses before when I worked with, with like Wells Fargo and PayPal, but it's not like this. It's just like work, work, work. So whenever they ask you just numbers, show your numbers and that's it. There's no, like, I cannot barely see them, like, sorry, smiling at me, something like that. So I used to like, just answer their question by yes, no, and show them the report. But when I, when I opened my WhatsApp, I, I was actually surprised. I'm reading all the messages from other vas, like, from other Filipino vas, and of course from, for international, like, like Tony, you will. And Kayla, of course. And Denise. I was actually surprised at first and I, I, I, I want to be promised. My first thought was, why am I reading this? That's actually my first thought. Why am I reading this? I need to take care of my son and I cannot check my phone. And then, and then I just read and read and I realize, oh, this is for my own sake. I need this. And then, and then one day, or not really one day, my, my husband told me, you know what, you have such a good team, so you really need to like, spend time, even just the time to read it and reflect. So in Filipino way. Of course, I'm not going to say it in Visaya because we're talking in Visaya. I'm Sharing actually all the. All the experience whenever I read it, because I explained it to him in Visaya and Tagalog because she's really not good in speaking in English. So he always ask me, are you happy? Of course I'm happy. But why are you not checking your WhatsApp? Because our son. I always have that excuses. And he asked me, you can go to the restroom, go out and just spend five minutes and read. And that's when I realized. When I back read, I. I realized that I'm in a good team. So. Because after I reading all, I realized that I let my guard down. So I was actually smiling when I. When I submit my, like, the 50th day. Sorry, the. The day 50 challenge, when I add up the rice. Sorry, it was just out of me saying, okay, then I need to stop eating rice much, because I really love rice, so. And yeah, and then I was just laughing and telling myself, oh, my God, I'm telling everything to them now.

So because of this training, I feel that I'm confident enough to tell Kayla. I need this to tell Denise. I need help. So unlike before, I was always hesitant to ask help with Kim. Also, when Kim reached out in regards to. I, sorry, Kim, like, the mistake, I realized Kim opened up to me, so she trusts me. So I feel like, oh, I can trust other people, too. So because of this training, I really say, want to thank you first. To Kim, of course to Will, because I know you're the head of all this. All of this. Sorry, I'm not really good in words, but because of this, I'm happy I learned how to trust, even virtually. And of course, I'm. Now I don't. I'm not afraid anymore if I make mistake and I commit. And yeah, for me now, conflict is just normal thing, and I just need to accept and learn from it. So, yeah, that's what I learned from this. Thank you.

Hope rocks. Hope, you're our newest team member. I honestly don't know what we would do without you, man. Like, you are so important. I agree. And your energy and your love. You know, it's hard because, like, there's different personality types, right? Like Hope. Hope is a little bit like Tony, right? In terms of, like, just energy and so forth. But then there's, like, Kayla, right? Kayla's not like Tony. I'd say like Abby and Kayla and maybe even Liz a little bit are in that same boat, right? And it's beautiful because leadership expresses itself powerfully through our individuality. So even though Hope and Tony are Similar. They're still very different people. Just like Kayla and Abby and Liz are similar people. They're very different people. But it's that connection around leadership, so we don't need to worry on how we come across. I love hearing Hope because she's verbal like me and she'll kind of express it all out there, and that's great. But I love the quiet dignity as well. There's no wrong way to be a leader. As long as we're leading from love and being authentic, there's no wrong way to be a leader unless we're leading. As long as we're leading from love and being authentic, that's it. Isn't that cool? So because, like, the comparison game is out there, it's real. You know, our happiness in life is equal. It's a formula. Our happiness is equal to the quality of your life, minus our envy. That's it.

So loving who we are. I love that. Denise.

What I appreciate is the way that the prompts are in this leadership training is that it brings out different life experiences that we have either encountered or are looking to encounter. And we get to show a vulnerable side that then empowers all of us. I think all of us giving our vulnerable side is letting it be known that we are powerful people and that we're just the strengthening force as we're continuing each new day. And I'm loving that because I came in feeling very weak in the team just because I didn't know where I can contribute or where I can contribute, but knowing that I have different life experiences and other people, that that's something I can share and I'm learning from all of you guys so beautifully. So thank you for the shares and thank you for the growth. I love doing this with you guys.

Yeah. Denise is another one of those whose love and service, just like I would say, I think people don't because she's so kind. I think they would mistake her strength as weakness because we confuse weak kindness as weakness all the time. But there is very few people as powerful as Denise on this earth that I've met and I know lots of people. I am so grateful for Denise. So I'm going to wrap things up by telling you guys a couple things maybe you didn't know. Number one, do you guys know where this training came from? Like, where did we pull this off? The Internet? I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last 15 years on coaches, on books, on. I mean, the hours I've put into these things. I am a student of Students. One of my strengths is being a student. I love learning, and I have absorbed these things and have been applying them in business for decades now. And I would say pretty well just acknowledging the fact that, like, there isn't. There's one thing to learn, it's another thing to apply. And so where this came from is the top 2% of the most important things that I think any leader should know. And so when I programmed ChatGPT, it was like, here are the 30 people and here are the topics and here's the general ideas and here's the concepts and the outcomes I want and all these things.

So even though this kind of feels week to week, a little like, oh, yeah, that was good, that was good. There's a bigger story here. The second thing I need to ask you guys, I don't want you to answer. Just think about it in your heads and I'll tell you. Why are we doing this? Why are we spending time on WhatsApp when we could be working with our kids? Right? Or when we're on the weekend or whatever? Why are we spending time? Does it better the business? For sure.

If you guys become stronger leaders. Thank you, Tony. What I care about more than anything goes back to our purpose to build and strengthen families. My first priority as your chief rock star is your family.

That's my priority. These lessons and rules are gravity. When learned, you'll become a more effective mother, sister, daughter, brother, husband, wife. You will be more powerful at that family level. You'll be so much. That is the greatest gift of my professional career. Do you guys know why I work as hard as I do? Do you guys think I have to work this hard? I could be on some beaches, places. I could be doing a lot of other things, but all of it would be sad for me because number one, the more I spend time with you guys, the better leader I become.