Optimizing People-First Leadership: From Zero to $24M | Bart Paden

WEBVTT
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Welcome to the Optimizing Beyond podcast. I'm
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Josh Negron, and this show is all about sharing
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lessons, ideas, and strategies that sharpen your
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thinking, strengthen your habits, and push you
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to grow beyond comfort zones. Let's dive in.
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Welcome back to the Optimizing Beyond podcast.
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I'm Josh Negron, and today I've got a guest who's
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a longtime friend, local entrepreneur, and the
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author of the book I recently reviewed in episode
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35 called Remaining Human. He's a founder, builder,
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leadership consultant, but before we get into
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his 20 -plus years of scaling companies, I have
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to introduce him, I feel like, with his real
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credentials. According to his LinkedIn profile,
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he possesses top tier executive skills, including
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and not limited to expert level choco wearing,
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professional marshmallow burning, advanced staring
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up and to the left, and a very crucial lifestyle
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metric, changing clothes without help. Bart Payton,
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welcome to the show. Thank you for having me.
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Absolutely. Absolutely. I spotted those. One
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of them was even endorsed. And I was like, this
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is this is great. I love this. I'm never that
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serious. No, that's good. I was looking through
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as I was prepping for this, and I was thinking
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about the early days, like in Precious Moments
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and co -founding Midwestern Interactive and growing
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it. Have you always had like the grand vision
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for growing and building, or was that something
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that you found yourself in just doing on repeat?
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That's a fantastic question to start this. I
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don't want to sit here and say that my journey
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was predestined or planned or completely organized
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from the beginning to even where I sit today.
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Like, I'm not that guy. Now, I was very fortunate
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early on in my college career. I had parents
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that really supported me and I was able to focus
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on my education and not have a required job.
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So what I did is I went out and got jobs that
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helped me learn skills that I wanted to possess.
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So I would spend time... each one of these career
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stops and learn the things that I wanted to learn
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and these were transient type jobs working in
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retail or I was a pool guy for a while tested
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pool chemicals and things like that great way
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to learn customer service by the way so I just
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had these opportunities kind of choose my adventure
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when it came to becoming what I thought I wanted
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to become now the plan to start a web and software
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based company that had some purpose in it. I
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started very early. I had a professor. I think
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I talk about this in my kind of my memoir and
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the story of my life. I had a college professor
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who introduced me to this concept of the Internet.
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Now that's dating me quite a bit. But back in
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those days, there weren't books. There wasn't
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YouTube. You know, I was working for Precious
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Moments at the time that eBay was coming up.
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So I was in the collectibles industry watching
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the market crash because now everybody had access
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to all. all of those collectibles that had been
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sitting around shelves. So it's just a very interesting
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timeline in my life. But I was able to kind of,
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after I learned about this thing called the internet,
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I was able to put together a plan when like,
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this is fun. I really enjoyed doing this kind
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of stuff and started piecing together this idea
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that I could start a web or software based company
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out of Southwest Missouri where I lived. I was
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able to kind of put that plan together. I had
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a grand vision. I didn't know if I could execute
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it. I've got a neat little story. Early on in
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my career at Precious Moments, I was sent to
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a conference in Orlando, Florida, which back
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in those days, that's where conferences were.
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And it was about email marketing. Nobody does
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conferences on email marketing anymore. And one
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of the guys that was a keynote speaker there
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took a real liking to me. And I really appreciated
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some of the things he was communicating. And
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we went out to dinner one night and he kind of
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laid out what he had done with his career a little
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bit more in depth than what he had shared with
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us during his meeting. I shared with him my vision
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for what became Midwestern Interactive. Now,
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you got to remember, this is 1998, 1999. So this
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was way before I really started doing the thing.
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And I shared with him the vision that became
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Midwestern Interactive. And he literally looked
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at me and he said, Bart, the only difference
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between you and me is I had a vision and I executed
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on it. Right. You haven't executed yet. And that
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kind of set something firm for me. Like, okay,
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so this is a guy that I'm talking to that has
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been there and done that. He, in his case, he
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built a piece of web -based software early, early
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on and turned around and sold it for seven plus
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figures, which was really cool. And that wasn't
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happening in those times. I mean, that kind of
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stuff really didn't exist. It was before the
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dot -com bubble and all that fun stuff. So it
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was cool to kind of see this guy that had said,
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look, I've done this before. You just need to
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execute on your vision and you're going to get
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there. So that really kind of put some wheels
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in motion for me. And I started to be a little
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bit more focused in my approach to taking on
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projects. I can do this. I can build something
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like this. And that's kind of where it started.
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It wasn't totally planned or organized, but I
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had a vision. And as soon as that vision was
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affirmed, it was all fast forward, move as quickly
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as I can through the steps that I needed to get
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through to build it right and begin. That's going
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to be my career path. How did you attract people
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and get them in your orbit for this? Because
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I find that some people, they have the vision,
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but they're not always good at bringing people
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on board and growing it that way. How did you
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scale it with people? I have tried to live my
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life, and this was very cognitive. I have tried
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to live my life carrying respect for those around
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me. So every interaction becomes a positive one,
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even if it's a hard conversation. And I talk
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a lot about that in some of the stuff I'm doing
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now. But I never burned bridges. I never created
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environments that caused people to stumble. My
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hope is that I was operating in that way. So
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I had relationships. And when I had a relationship
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with somebody, it stuck. And it was for the long
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haul. So for me, the resources there were pretty
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wide. It was just an ask. And at that point in
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time, people were just starting to discover what
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the internet really was. So there was high demand
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for it. So people were asking. Even when I was
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figuring it out, I wasn't afraid to try to do
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the work. So it wasn't like... get perfect at
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what I'm doing and then execute, right? I fumbled
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and stumbled my way through it, but I made sure
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I was clearly communicating with the people I
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was working for, right? We're kind of dealing
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with brand new technology and that really stuck
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even through the software company because the
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stuff that we were building was not, it didn't
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exist before in a lot of ways. It wasn't rocket
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science, but it was pretty unclose to it as far
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as I was concerned. So for me, it's a constant
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state of figuring it out, a constant state of
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learning something new, a constant state of pushing
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past what I thought I could do and grabbing the
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next thing. And getting access to the people,
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they were there. I can't really tell you. I mean,
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I can tell you the big reason why. I think God
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put me in the place that he put me in for a reason.
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And I try to say that as humbly as I can because
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I have had success, right? But it's nothing I've
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done has been outside of his will. Nothing I've
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accomplished has been outside of his directing
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me as much as I would allow him to, right? I'm
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human. But I really feel like I got through what
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I got through and got to the place that I wanted
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to get to, not on my own doing, right? So I think
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people were brought into my life. I did a project
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early on for a lady by the name of Kate Paley.
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Paley is a name that a lot of people know. William
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Paley is the guy that founded CBS Radio and Television.
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I happen to be working for some studios in L
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.A. from my upstairs office in my bedroom in
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Webb City, Missouri, and was introduced to her.
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She's flying into meetings in a private jet and
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I'm flying coach in the backseat between two
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very large men. Right. It was just a different
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world. But those doors just open. And Josh, I
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can't tell you that I pried them open. I didn't.
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They were open for me and I just tried to do
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my best to walk through them with honor and respect
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for everybody around me. And I've tried to lead
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that way throughout my whole career. So walk
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me through, honestly, I didn't know that you
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had started Restore Joplin after the Joplin tornado
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disaster. How did you, I mean, what prompted
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you to get into that nonprofit space to have
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that impact? Those who know me. know that I don't
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exist well in the physical world when it comes
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to things like mechanics and construction. So
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for me, it was never a decision about, am I going
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to get out there and help people rebuild? I'm
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going to use the skills that I have, right? And
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I have been designing t -shirts and brands and
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logos and all sorts of stuff for years. I was
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doing it in high school. So for me, it was easy
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to design that shirt that became the Restored
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Joplin. I don't know if it's on there somewhere.
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Yeah, anyway. Took about an hour and a half to
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design it. I did it on Monday morning after the
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tornado on Sunday. I think by Thursday of that
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week, I had announced that the shirt was available.
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It got picked up by a couple of media outlets
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and they started sharing it. And by the time
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that project was done, we had raised over $250
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,000 and given it all away. And we had orders
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from people as far as Denmark, Germany, every
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state in the United States. It was such a cool
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process. Yeah. A local screen printer, Binky
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Guy Textiles, it's still open today. They stepped
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in and gave us, I didn't even ask for it. I'm
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one of those guys that if I'm in a nonprofit,
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I want to pay retail. I'm not weirdo. I'm not
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looking for the handout. And he came to us and
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said, look, I don't want to charge you retail
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for this. I'm going to give you the shirts at
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my cost. So he burdened that throughout the entire
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process. So we were, he wasn't making any money
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on the work that we were doing. We weren't making
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any money on the work that we were doing, but
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we created awareness for what was going on in
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Joplin way outside of this market. And then we
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were helping, this is the coolest part of it
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for me. Like we were helping people in our community
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who were falling through the cracks because insurance
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didn't show up in a timely way for a lot of these
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people. They needed windows in their cars. They
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needed tires that had gotten shredded by shrapnel.
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They, you know, windows in their house, simple
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little things that were just. Maybe helping them
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get a little bit of normalcy back in spite of
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the horrific thing that they had just gone through.
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So we would sit with these people and we'd have
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these conversations and we'd see the pictures
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of the devastation and hear how their lives were
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affected. And then we were able to write a check
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without a lot of accountability. I was fortunate
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enough to be connected to a church that was willing
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to let us use their 501c3 for this. So we ran
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it all through them and they let me run with
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a lot of autonomy. I was very accountable to
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them and just because that's who I am. We were
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writing checks for windshields. We were writing
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checks for tires. We were helping kids get clothes.
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I mean, it was crazy some of the things that
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we got pulled into and I'm so proud of it. Like
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I can look at all the big things that I've done
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in my career and that's probably one of my happiest
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moments because it was unintentional. The goal
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was never financial. It was always to help people
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out. And again, $250 ,000 and we gave it all
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away. How cool is that? Man, that is that is
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intense. I love that. Wow. And again, I can't
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take credit for it. It just happened, right?
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Yeah, yeah. The door just opened. So all right.
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I noticed that you mentioned in your material
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how important your family time was throughout
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your career. A young person listening to this,
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they hear, you know, you just have to gain the
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confidence to act. You can iterate later, you
00:11:22.090 --> 00:11:25.029
know, just just. grind get it done you know you'll
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you'll get success and then you know i'm all
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sleep and spend time with my family later right
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and so yeah yeah it seemed like that was a priority
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for you early on more uniquely than than some
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people how do you what do you say to someone
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that that's ready to just run hard and ignore
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all the personal stuff until until they can spend
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time oh good one you know for me the family was
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the reason that that why do you have a job right
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it's to provide So if I'm going to have a job
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that's going to provide, I got to follow through
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with the rest of that provision. And that's time
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spent being present with the family, right? I
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was fortunate. Not everybody has this. I was
00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:04.899
fortunate. I owned the business. I was not clocking
00:12:04.899 --> 00:12:07.620
in and clocking out. So for me, it was get the
00:12:07.620 --> 00:12:10.419
kids up, get them to school, go to work. Three
00:12:10.419 --> 00:12:13.179
o 'clock, shut it down, get the kids home, right?
00:12:13.299 --> 00:12:15.720
We'd spend time until it was bedtime. And then
00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:19.080
for me, 8 .30, 9 o 'clock at night, I'd get Carrie
00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:22.080
to bed and I would get back to work till 2, 3,
00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:24.500
4 in the morning. So for me, the grind still
00:12:24.500 --> 00:12:27.860
happened. I was still working in some cases 60
00:12:27.860 --> 00:12:30.500
plus hours a week. But it was happening during
00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:32.480
those windows of time when the kids and even
00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:34.639
my wife didn't necessarily need me to be physically
00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:37.399
present. And I was pretty diligent with that
00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:41.620
until 2012 when we opened up the doors of Midwestern
00:12:41.620 --> 00:12:44.539
Interactive. At that point, having staff. Having
00:12:44.539 --> 00:12:47.019
an office, going through those steps, it was
00:12:47.019 --> 00:12:50.600
challenging to keep that focus. But Carrie helped
00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:53.549
me fight for that, too. She was present. Both
00:12:53.549 --> 00:12:55.710
the boys, I was involved in their sports until
00:12:55.710 --> 00:12:58.049
they got into high school. So we definitely still
00:12:58.049 --> 00:13:00.429
carved out the time. But I just used the hours
00:13:00.429 --> 00:13:02.710
of the day when I wasn't physically needed by
00:13:02.710 --> 00:13:04.909
my family to accomplish all those tasks. And
00:13:04.909 --> 00:13:07.309
the good news is a lot of the work I was doing
00:13:07.309 --> 00:13:09.809
was production work. It didn't have to be sitting
00:13:09.809 --> 00:13:12.629
in front of someone talking to them. So it can
00:13:12.629 --> 00:13:14.710
be me and a computer sitting in a dark corner
00:13:14.710 --> 00:13:17.429
of a bedroom. Literally, that's how it all started.
00:13:17.570 --> 00:13:19.210
And I was working until two or three in the morning.
00:13:19.250 --> 00:13:20.929
I was sleeping for a few hours and I was doing
00:13:20.929 --> 00:13:23.590
it again. Yeah, so the provision was the anchor
00:13:23.590 --> 00:13:26.649
and the extension. If they're your why, then
00:13:26.649 --> 00:13:29.889
they also need you. Yeah, absolutely. They were
00:13:29.889 --> 00:13:32.210
always my why. They're still my why. And why
00:13:32.210 --> 00:13:33.889
I'm doing this again. Because I could unplug
00:13:33.889 --> 00:13:35.929
and go a different direction, right? But the
00:13:35.929 --> 00:13:37.750
whole reason I'm diving back into the world that
00:13:37.750 --> 00:13:39.570
I'm digging into is I want to leave something
00:13:39.570 --> 00:13:42.269
behind. I want to leave a legacy behind. I want
00:13:42.269 --> 00:13:44.529
to create an environment where my kids can see
00:13:44.529 --> 00:13:47.110
what their dad did and not just see it through
00:13:47.110 --> 00:13:50.759
a glass window as if they're observing it. in
00:13:50.759 --> 00:13:52.740
a way that they've been able to participate in
00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:54.700
it. You know, when we talk about Restore Joplin,
00:13:54.779 --> 00:13:56.679
my wife and kids were the packing and shipping
00:13:56.679 --> 00:13:58.860
department. So we brought them into that environment.
00:13:58.940 --> 00:14:00.799
When we were standing at an event in Joplin during
00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:02.480
that window of time, they were right there beside
00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:06.659
us, participating in it. Eli works for the Midwestern
00:14:06.659 --> 00:14:09.259
Interactive still as a designer. bringing him
00:14:09.259 --> 00:14:12.100
up through all of the skills necessary to get
00:14:12.100 --> 00:14:14.840
where he's at. That was participation through
00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:18.480
me. Noah got my left brain. He's my middle child,
00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:20.580
and he's the guy that's got the math degree.
00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:22.600
And walking with him through his journey, even
00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:24.639
through college, it's just important. And it
00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:26.879
always superseded the work. The work never took
00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:29.100
over it. Yeah, that's huge. And that kind of
00:14:29.100 --> 00:14:31.500
dovetails with, you have a quote that you say
00:14:31.500 --> 00:14:33.980
often, I've heard you say it a lot, is your organization
00:14:33.980 --> 00:14:36.659
cannot be healthier than you are. And on this
00:14:36.659 --> 00:14:38.759
podcast, I try to emphasize that change starts
00:14:38.759 --> 00:14:41.419
with you. And so was that something that you
00:14:41.419 --> 00:14:43.799
knew innately early on, or is that something
00:14:43.799 --> 00:14:46.500
you had to learn way later in the process? Golden
00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:48.720
rule, treat others the way you want to be treated.
00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:51.000
That is something that my parents instilled in
00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.759
me in a young age. So for me, leadership starts
00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:56.389
there. So when you look at how I operated, I
00:14:56.389 --> 00:14:59.429
tried to look at everything I was doing through
00:14:59.429 --> 00:15:01.570
the lens of those that I was interacting with.
00:15:01.710 --> 00:15:03.690
So what was the impact of my words? What was
00:15:03.690 --> 00:15:05.789
the impact of my actions? What is the impact
00:15:05.789 --> 00:15:08.690
of what I'm doing on those around me? So from
00:15:08.690 --> 00:15:11.379
that perspective, that's... kind of the center.
00:15:11.500 --> 00:15:13.340
It's the center of everything I'm doing now.
00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:15.220
If you really dive into everything I'm doing
00:15:15.220 --> 00:15:17.879
with my company, Archetype Original, it all comes
00:15:17.879 --> 00:15:20.879
from that center place. I'm going to create environments
00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:23.200
where I treat people the way I would want to
00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:25.080
be treated, whether they're the brand new person
00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:28.039
on my staff or whether the old grizzled dog that's
00:15:28.039 --> 00:15:30.000
been there for years and years, right? I treat
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:32.559
them the same way. And what I found, especially
00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:35.960
during the software company timeline, that investment
00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:38.720
in people is what changed the outcome. That level
00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:40.799
of care, that level of... understanding. And
00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:43.179
I say this today. Yes, you're only as good as
00:15:43.179 --> 00:15:45.860
the people in your company, right? That's for
00:15:45.860 --> 00:15:48.399
real. And the way I say it today is the people
00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:50.580
matter much more than the tasks. If you invest
00:15:50.580 --> 00:15:52.460
in your people, we proved it with Midwestern
00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:55.500
Interactive. We started with a $0 valuation in
00:15:55.500 --> 00:15:58.720
2012. When I sold my half of that company to
00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:01.500
my partner, I believe the valuation was close
00:16:01.500 --> 00:16:05.259
to $24 million. 10 years from zero to that point.
00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:08.240
Now, the 20 years that led up to that 10 year
00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:10.169
window, that was a lot of grinding by myself
00:16:10.169 --> 00:16:13.129
that was a lot of failing and still state is
00:16:13.129 --> 00:16:17.509
moving forward but that that 2012 to 2022 that
00:16:17.509 --> 00:16:20.529
window of time was where the things that i didn't
00:16:20.529 --> 00:16:22.750
even know the names for that i believed were
00:16:22.750 --> 00:16:24.789
how you were supposed to treat your people and
00:16:24.789 --> 00:16:26.970
treat your team that's when those things were
00:16:26.970 --> 00:16:30.029
put into action and from the very first hire
00:16:30.029 --> 00:16:33.470
through when i left there was 104 people under
00:16:33.470 --> 00:16:36.029
my care i believe was the count right i wanted
00:16:36.029 --> 00:16:39.799
them to know that i cared about them as the person,
00:16:39.919 --> 00:16:45.000
not the employee, not the engineer, not the designer,
00:16:45.019 --> 00:16:47.500
not the project manager, right? I wanted them
00:16:47.500 --> 00:16:50.399
to know that I cared for them as a person. And
00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:52.899
I think that matters. Now, you get a company
00:16:52.899 --> 00:16:54.820
of a thousand people, that's very challenging
00:16:54.820 --> 00:16:58.700
for a single leader to do. At 104, I was stretched
00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:00.559
pretty thin and there were some people that I
00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:03.279
didn't know as well as I wanted to. But I still
00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:06.559
worked hard every day to have contact with as
00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:08.759
many people as I could. And my questions were
00:17:08.759 --> 00:17:10.500
not always business. They were like, how are
00:17:10.500 --> 00:17:15.119
you doing today? But I meant it. Or, hey, I know
00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:16.880
you were having this issue with a sick child,
00:17:16.940 --> 00:17:18.599
or I know you were having this issue with your
00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:21.279
husband being out of work or whatever it was,
00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:23.339
right? It mattered to me because it had an impact
00:17:23.339 --> 00:17:25.640
on their performance, but it also had an impact
00:17:25.640 --> 00:17:28.900
on who they were. And I needed a team. The only
00:17:28.900 --> 00:17:30.599
way we accomplished what we accomplished was
00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:33.000
the team, was the people. Like, I don't build
00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:36.759
a zero to $24 million company by myself. Exactly
00:17:36.759 --> 00:18:07.779
what leadership should be. curiosity to go deeper
00:18:07.779 --> 00:18:10.579
into the why are these metrics low for this person?
00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:12.819
You know, like, maybe I should ask them or so
00:18:12.819 --> 00:18:15.460
tell me a little bit about what the role of curiosity
00:18:15.460 --> 00:18:17.569
is for you in leadership. I mean, it started
00:18:17.569 --> 00:18:19.609
at the beginning. I used to tell this joke, and
00:18:19.609 --> 00:18:21.170
it may not land with your audience, but I'll
00:18:21.170 --> 00:18:23.069
tell it again. It was me and Al Gore at the very
00:18:23.069 --> 00:18:24.869
beginning of this. He invented the internet,
00:18:24.990 --> 00:18:26.970
and I was just going along for the ride. We now
00:18:26.970 --> 00:18:29.089
know that's not true, but it was funny back in
00:18:29.089 --> 00:18:31.289
the day. But curiosity is where it started. Nobody
00:18:31.289 --> 00:18:32.950
knew what the internet was. I didn't know what
00:18:32.950 --> 00:18:34.849
it was. I had a professor that spoke up and said,
00:18:34.890 --> 00:18:36.529
you might be good at this. So then I started
00:18:36.529 --> 00:18:38.470
digging into it. There weren't books that taught
00:18:38.470 --> 00:18:41.359
me how to code. downloaded websites that I found
00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:44.000
on the internet and dissected the code to figure
00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.980
out how it worked. So for me, it's always been
00:18:46.980 --> 00:18:49.680
curiosity. It's always been trying to figure
00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:52.460
it out. You go talk to the people that work for
00:18:52.460 --> 00:18:53.900
me. That was one of the phrases. We even put
00:18:53.900 --> 00:18:55.940
it on a t -shirt. We'll figure it out. That's
00:18:55.940 --> 00:18:58.660
just how it worked in those days. But it carried
00:18:58.660 --> 00:19:01.099
through to the very end. Like still to this day,
00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:04.259
I'm still figuring it out. I spent most of 2025,
00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:07.980
a little bit of 2024 digging into how AI works.
00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:10.319
It's fascinating. I wouldn't be where I'm at
00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:12.619
with my understanding of it without a lot of
00:19:12.619 --> 00:19:14.940
curiosity. It's just, it's got to be part of
00:19:14.940 --> 00:19:16.720
the journey. I think for anybody, I don't think
00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:18.940
it matters what industry you're in. I think if
00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:20.779
we look at the car business that you're in, right?
00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:22.740
Like there are things that you have to figure
00:19:22.740 --> 00:19:24.960
out. that are not well established. It's not
00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:27.200
a well -worn path. You've got a new type of person
00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:29.039
that's working for you and they've got a different
00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:31.279
set of struggles. Like even in that moment, you've
00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:33.480
got to figure some way to relate to them out.
00:19:33.619 --> 00:19:35.460
Well, how do you ask those questions? How do
00:19:35.460 --> 00:19:37.359
you get to that place? You have to ask. You have
00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:40.119
to be curious. You have to care. So for me, curiosity
00:19:40.119 --> 00:19:43.640
is critical for everything that I have done.
00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:46.500
I say in my book, Accidental CEO, this is not
00:19:46.500 --> 00:19:48.740
a journey that I really organized and planned.
00:19:48.859 --> 00:19:50.180
We kind of talked about that at the beginning
00:19:50.180 --> 00:19:52.140
of the show. But everything that came at me,
00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:55.230
I... took the time to try to understand it, to
00:19:55.230 --> 00:19:57.890
try to connect with it any way that I could,
00:19:57.990 --> 00:20:00.009
and then built the things that were necessary
00:20:00.009 --> 00:20:03.329
to accommodate for it or to plan for it in the
00:20:03.329 --> 00:20:07.269
future or to detour around it if we had to, right?
00:20:07.430 --> 00:20:09.690
But it was all coming from that point of figuring
00:20:09.690 --> 00:20:12.269
it out, asking questions, being curious. How
00:20:12.269 --> 00:20:15.170
did curiosity factor in the hard conversations
00:20:15.170 --> 00:20:18.710
for you? Like discipline, correction, and I mean,
00:20:18.710 --> 00:20:21.430
even... even making the decision whether you
00:20:21.430 --> 00:20:24.450
needed to part ways with somebody. Yeah, I needed
00:20:24.450 --> 00:20:27.230
to understand. Again, I start from a position
00:20:27.230 --> 00:20:29.180
of... Treat people the way you want to be treated.
00:20:29.299 --> 00:20:30.960
So if I was going to have to have a hard conversation
00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.339
with a person, I think for me it started with,
00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:35.039
one, letting them know this is going to be a
00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:37.000
hard conversation. I never let them walk into
00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:38.940
a conversation like that blind. That's not fair.
00:20:39.099 --> 00:20:41.279
And I'm not about power. I'm the opposite of
00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:44.079
power. That's a power play if you leave somebody
00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:46.380
hanging and surprise them. I'm not a fan there.
00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:48.839
But the reality is you have to ask them questions.
00:20:48.940 --> 00:20:50.940
You have to have a conversation with them. And
00:20:50.940 --> 00:20:53.279
more often than not, they know that they're not
00:20:53.279 --> 00:20:55.839
performing well. They know that a hard conversation
00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:58.380
is necessary. why beat him over the head with
00:20:58.380 --> 00:21:00.960
it. Two human beings, we care about each other.
00:21:01.059 --> 00:21:03.019
We have built a relationship because I took the
00:21:03.019 --> 00:21:04.680
time as a leader and you took the time as one
00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:07.000
of my team members to invest in each other and
00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:09.240
understand who we are, how we operate. And for
00:21:09.240 --> 00:21:11.940
me, the questions, even in the moment of dealing
00:21:11.940 --> 00:21:13.640
with the hardship, helped me understand their
00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:16.019
perspective. I only had a few situations in my
00:21:16.019 --> 00:21:19.359
33 years of doing any of this where there was
00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:22.019
malicious intent that was uncovered. Most of
00:21:22.019 --> 00:21:23.900
the time it's, I didn't know. was the time I
00:21:23.900 --> 00:21:25.900
had other influences on my life that were affecting
00:21:25.900 --> 00:21:28.000
it and weren't to let me focus the way I wanted
00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:30.180
to focus. So for me, it was that conversation.
00:21:30.220 --> 00:21:32.539
It was that relationship. It was that curiosity
00:21:32.539 --> 00:21:35.380
in those moments, understanding the full situation.
00:21:35.700 --> 00:21:38.400
And I'll tell you, I've had more than one situation,
00:21:38.500 --> 00:21:42.319
probably four or five specifically, where I was
00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:45.039
put in a position necessarily, like it wasn't
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:47.619
just I stumbled into this. I was put in a position
00:21:47.619 --> 00:21:50.039
where I was having to take a look at somebody
00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:52.700
and their performance and decide whether they
00:21:52.700 --> 00:21:55.200
were staying a part of our team or not. And in
00:21:55.200 --> 00:21:57.660
all but two or three of those situations that
00:21:57.660 --> 00:22:00.259
were really extreme, we were able to salvage
00:22:00.259 --> 00:22:02.660
the person because we gained understanding about
00:22:02.660 --> 00:22:04.539
what was impacting their performance and it had
00:22:04.539 --> 00:22:07.220
nothing to do with work. You're never going to
00:22:07.220 --> 00:22:09.559
understand that as a leader unless you ask those
00:22:09.559 --> 00:22:11.200
questions because it just doesn't come up. If
00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:13.380
you're talking to, let's say, Susie about project
00:22:13.380 --> 00:22:15.460
management, you're not going to talk to her about
00:22:15.460 --> 00:22:17.440
the fact that she just had a baby and you know
00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:19.200
her baby's been in the hospital a little bit
00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:21.039
over the last few months, right? You don't know
00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:22.750
that unless you ask. Because she's probably not
00:22:22.750 --> 00:22:24.710
going to share it. Right. Ask, how's it going?
00:22:24.809 --> 00:22:26.789
Right. Now, you know, now you have context for
00:22:26.789 --> 00:22:29.089
she's got a child that's not well. That means
00:22:29.089 --> 00:22:31.430
her performance could probably going to be affected.
00:22:31.609 --> 00:22:33.910
So let's connect her some people within the business
00:22:33.910 --> 00:22:36.710
and help her navigate this. We had other moms
00:22:36.710 --> 00:22:38.730
in the business. There was a support team that
00:22:38.730 --> 00:22:41.650
we had built called MWI serves or MWI cares.
00:22:41.869 --> 00:22:44.690
Sorry. And the whole purpose of that was. other
00:22:44.690 --> 00:22:47.150
people on the team that were available to sit
00:22:47.150 --> 00:22:49.049
in the gap for some of these people who needed
00:22:49.049 --> 00:22:51.470
help, right? So it always came from care. Even
00:22:51.470 --> 00:22:53.190
when I was sitting down talking to somebody,
00:22:53.349 --> 00:22:56.029
having a hard conversation, it came from a position
00:22:56.029 --> 00:22:58.569
of care. That's amazing. You correlate a lot
00:22:58.569 --> 00:23:01.500
leadership with stewardship. You mentioned it
00:23:01.500 --> 00:23:04.660
earlier on when we started that you're not about
00:23:04.660 --> 00:23:07.000
the authority or performance, but responsibility
00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:09.440
is what leadership needs to be. What does viewing
00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:11.660
leadership through the lens of stewardship mean
00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:13.819
to you practically? Leadership for me is not
00:23:13.819 --> 00:23:17.000
a position of power. Leadership for me is not
00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:19.960
a position where I am standing above everyone
00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:23.119
else. In my world, there is no ivory tower. So
00:23:23.119 --> 00:23:27.200
for me, that posture of being with my people,
00:23:27.319 --> 00:23:29.299
like I even had conversations with employees
00:23:29.299 --> 00:23:31.289
where I'm introduced. them. And I would say,
00:23:31.289 --> 00:23:33.250
these are the people that I work with. I own
00:23:33.250 --> 00:23:36.109
the company. I was their boss, but my posture
00:23:36.109 --> 00:23:38.029
was standing shoulder to shoulder with these
00:23:38.029 --> 00:23:40.769
people. And I had a team of 104 people without
00:23:40.769 --> 00:23:42.650
exception that would run through a brick wall
00:23:42.650 --> 00:23:45.470
with me. And I say with me purposefully. We had
00:23:45.470 --> 00:23:47.950
that kind of culture. We had that kind of community
00:23:47.950 --> 00:23:51.049
where we had each other's back. We knew that
00:23:51.049 --> 00:23:53.609
the effort was trying to move the whole thing
00:23:53.609 --> 00:23:56.430
forward, not just the thing I wanted as the owner
00:23:56.430 --> 00:23:58.670
of the business, right? And it was never for
00:23:58.670 --> 00:24:01.529
me about the profits. The profits were the result
00:24:01.529 --> 00:24:04.410
of the effort. And I focused all of my attention
00:24:04.410 --> 00:24:06.890
on the effort. And my effort in that was what
00:24:06.890 --> 00:24:08.930
burden as a... leader. I mean, I think that's
00:24:08.930 --> 00:24:10.789
leadership more than anything. What burden do
00:24:10.789 --> 00:24:14.009
I need to carry for my people? It's not what
00:24:14.009 --> 00:24:16.890
can I get them to do for me? My posture was more
00:24:16.890 --> 00:24:20.390
a posture of service. My posture was one of taking
00:24:20.390 --> 00:24:23.029
care of my team. What guardrails needed to be
00:24:23.029 --> 00:24:26.140
put up to keep them on the road? Not Roadblocks,
00:24:26.140 --> 00:24:28.400
not bumps that they had to slow down and bump
00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:30.720
over because I needed a data point. But what
00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:32.559
are the guardrails that we need on the side of
00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:34.380
the road that keep everything flowing smoothly?
00:24:34.619 --> 00:24:37.279
That was more my investment of time. And if there
00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:39.700
was a roadblock, most often it wasn't inside
00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:41.519
the company. It was from outside influences.
00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:44.240
So how do I bulldoze those and get those out
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:46.000
of the way so our team can operate efficiently?
00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:48.700
That's more the posture that I take. And it is
00:24:48.700 --> 00:24:50.839
stewardship. It is. You're taking care of your
00:24:50.839 --> 00:24:53.839
people. My leadership role was not to be the
00:24:53.839 --> 00:25:01.160
guy sitting on top. Well, and that philosophy
00:25:01.160 --> 00:25:03.640
also, I feel like is really enabling, like John
00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:06.740
Maxwell talks about 360 degree leadership, you
00:25:06.740 --> 00:25:08.279
know, that someone doesn't have to have a position
00:25:08.279 --> 00:25:11.470
or a title to lead. People in every organization
00:25:11.470 --> 00:25:14.349
that are leaders, but don't necessarily have
00:25:14.349 --> 00:25:17.109
the title because they adopt that kind of stewardship
00:25:17.109 --> 00:25:21.089
mindset. And so I can only imagine being a leader
00:25:21.089 --> 00:25:23.369
at the top of an organization operating that
00:25:23.369 --> 00:25:26.009
way, how empowering it would be to others watching
00:25:26.009 --> 00:25:28.250
that and going, well, I can do that. I can lead
00:25:28.250 --> 00:25:30.589
too in my little influence. And isn't that what
00:25:30.589 --> 00:25:33.269
you want as a leader? Like I use the phrase cloning.
00:25:33.660 --> 00:25:35.900
a lot. Like if I believe that I'm doing good
00:25:35.900 --> 00:25:38.740
work, there's some idea that I want to take what
00:25:38.740 --> 00:25:41.940
I have and I want to plant that in someone else
00:25:41.940 --> 00:25:44.740
and help develop them and their skill set as
00:25:44.740 --> 00:25:47.920
a leader in that way. My investment in leadership
00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:50.920
is not protecting my authority, protecting my
00:25:50.920 --> 00:25:53.480
role. My job is to kind of work myself out of
00:25:53.480 --> 00:25:55.839
a job. I want to elevate everybody around me
00:25:55.839 --> 00:25:58.779
so much that I'm unnecessary. And then I shift
00:25:58.779 --> 00:26:01.140
my perspective. Like now I'm leading in a different
00:26:01.140 --> 00:26:03.240
way. Now I'm taking on other challenges. Now
00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:05.000
I'm focused on growing the business or whatever
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:08.049
it was. But for me, it was always about elevating
00:26:08.049 --> 00:26:10.390
people. And I wanted teams that elevated each
00:26:10.390 --> 00:26:12.569
other. In Scrum, in project management, we talk
00:26:12.569 --> 00:26:14.950
about self -organizing teams, right? That's one
00:26:14.950 --> 00:26:16.609
of the phrases that they use in that methodology.
00:26:16.950 --> 00:26:19.910
It's a project management, agile -based framework
00:26:19.910 --> 00:26:23.130
that we used. And self -organizing teams is what
00:26:23.130 --> 00:26:24.849
you want as a business. It means you don't have
00:26:24.849 --> 00:26:27.250
to be on top of them all the time and telling
00:26:27.250 --> 00:26:29.069
them exactly what you need to do. You develop
00:26:29.069 --> 00:26:30.930
them, you build them up, you give them the skill
00:26:30.930 --> 00:26:32.769
sets, you give them the authority, you give them
00:26:32.769 --> 00:26:35.759
the responsibility, and you let them run. me
00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:37.980
that's much more where i like to sit in those
00:26:37.980 --> 00:26:40.099
situations i hire great people they're not only
00:26:40.099 --> 00:26:41.940
good character people they're high performers
00:26:41.940 --> 00:26:44.799
or they're at a minimum very capable of becoming
00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:47.079
a high performer once we got them trained up
00:26:47.079 --> 00:26:49.880
the way we wanted them trained so why do i need
00:26:49.880 --> 00:26:53.559
to be on them all the time so for me i i would
00:26:53.559 --> 00:26:55.359
rather stand beside them let's figure out this
00:26:55.359 --> 00:26:57.180
problem together let's go through this together
00:26:57.180 --> 00:27:00.230
let's figure this out as a team more than I'm
00:27:00.230 --> 00:27:02.009
the boss, do what I say, because this is what
00:27:02.009 --> 00:27:04.690
I want. It's also, it takes you out of potentially
00:27:04.690 --> 00:27:06.730
being the bottleneck. So many businesses out
00:27:06.730 --> 00:27:09.650
there, even if we're not, let's assume we're
00:27:09.650 --> 00:27:12.109
not dealing with a power hungry leader or one
00:27:12.109 --> 00:27:14.049
that wants to keep their people down. They want
00:27:14.049 --> 00:27:15.869
to run fast. They want to do great things. They
00:27:15.869 --> 00:27:17.609
invest in their people. But if they're the one
00:27:17.609 --> 00:27:19.809
that's most capable or understands the most,
00:27:19.869 --> 00:27:22.049
they want to like audit all the output, right?
00:27:22.170 --> 00:27:24.150
They want to be the decision maker. They want
00:27:24.150 --> 00:27:25.990
to analyze everything. And at some point with
00:27:25.990 --> 00:27:28.920
scale, You can't do that. And so, you know, what
00:27:28.920 --> 00:27:31.240
do they say? If delegate, if someone can do something
00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:34.339
and like close to 80 % of what you can ship it,
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:36.440
like, don't be a perfectionist. Like, how do
00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:38.700
you do that? So yeah, I mean, by, by doing that,
00:27:38.759 --> 00:27:40.559
I think that's one of the reasons why you were
00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:43.019
able to scale because you enabled your people.
00:27:43.420 --> 00:27:45.339
to run. Bart, you said earlier that obviously
00:27:45.339 --> 00:27:47.400
you're a man of faith. You're not shy about that.
00:27:47.559 --> 00:27:50.200
It's kind of everywhere. How, you know, especially
00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:53.460
now in being a coach and consultant and getting
00:27:53.460 --> 00:27:56.059
into that world, how do you navigate using your
00:27:56.059 --> 00:27:58.279
faith and the principles of your faith while...
00:27:58.509 --> 00:28:00.630
also potentially sitting across the table from
00:28:00.630 --> 00:28:02.869
someone who doesn't subscribe to it. My faith
00:28:02.869 --> 00:28:05.589
is everywhere. You know it how I relate to you.
00:28:05.650 --> 00:28:07.630
You know it how I communicate with you. You know
00:28:07.630 --> 00:28:09.730
based on the actions that I take, or at least
00:28:09.730 --> 00:28:12.210
I hope, right? Nobody's perfect, but I try. If
00:28:12.210 --> 00:28:14.390
you look at me without knowing me, without saying
00:28:14.390 --> 00:28:16.190
a word to me, you should see somebody that has
00:28:16.190 --> 00:28:18.990
respect for the humanity around him. He has a
00:28:18.990 --> 00:28:20.890
good understanding of right and wrong, right?
00:28:21.029 --> 00:28:23.630
These are things that I want people to know me
00:28:23.630 --> 00:28:25.970
for. My legacy should be things just like that.
00:28:26.089 --> 00:28:28.470
He built me up. He didn't tear me. down. Or if
00:28:28.470 --> 00:28:30.630
I did tear you down, I built you back up after
00:28:30.630 --> 00:28:32.849
because you needed to be torn down. So for me,
00:28:32.869 --> 00:28:35.329
faith becomes part of every action because I
00:28:35.329 --> 00:28:37.809
want people to get better. I want them to grow.
00:28:37.970 --> 00:28:40.029
I want them to progress. And if they happen to
00:28:40.029 --> 00:28:42.490
progress towards Jesus, great. It's not my job
00:28:42.490 --> 00:28:45.190
to convert them. It's not my job to force them
00:28:45.190 --> 00:28:47.890
down any path, but I can present it. And it may
00:28:47.890 --> 00:28:49.930
just come across as, man, this guy is supposed
00:28:49.930 --> 00:28:52.349
to be my boss. And I just see someone who cares
00:28:52.349 --> 00:28:54.809
about me as a human. It's amazing what that will
00:28:54.809 --> 00:28:57.230
do to people. And I try to live my life in that
00:28:57.230 --> 00:28:59.509
way where the impact is not just because I said
00:28:59.509 --> 00:29:01.849
the words, but I did the thing that they're like,
00:29:01.950 --> 00:29:04.380
oh, he's really living it out. And I hope. When
00:29:04.380 --> 00:29:06.579
they put me in the ground, I hope that's something
00:29:06.579 --> 00:29:08.700
that is right there that said, yeah, he lived
00:29:08.700 --> 00:29:10.660
it out. He did the things that he said he was
00:29:10.660 --> 00:29:12.519
going to do. He took care of the people that
00:29:12.519 --> 00:29:15.000
were in his care. You said something earlier
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:17.380
about John Maxwell. And there's a quote that's
00:29:17.380 --> 00:29:19.500
similar that Simon Sinek said about leadership.
00:29:19.700 --> 00:29:22.099
And I love it. Basically, leadership is not a
00:29:22.099 --> 00:29:24.339
title. It's taking care of the people to your
00:29:24.339 --> 00:29:26.500
left and to your right. And it doesn't matter
00:29:26.500 --> 00:29:28.420
to me where you are in the hierarchy. If you
00:29:28.420 --> 00:29:30.900
take that posture, you will create a winning
00:29:30.900 --> 00:29:33.480
team. And I've got people that I have been connected.
00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:35.980
to since stepping away from the software company
00:29:35.980 --> 00:29:38.319
that are in environments where it's very difficult
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:41.079
for them to find leadership above them it just
00:29:41.079 --> 00:29:43.339
doesn't exist so the only thing that they have
00:29:43.339 --> 00:29:45.500
is looking to their left and their right they're
00:29:45.500 --> 00:29:47.059
looking to their left for help they're reaching
00:29:47.059 --> 00:29:48.900
out to their right to help someone like that's
00:29:48.900 --> 00:29:51.380
just naturally how a lot of companies have to
00:29:51.380 --> 00:29:54.160
work these days and my hope is that I can inspire
00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:57.579
people that even in those small roles those lower
00:29:57.579 --> 00:29:59.980
level roles you can still be a leader because
00:29:59.980 --> 00:30:01.779
you can look to your left and to your right and
00:30:01.779 --> 00:30:03.829
you can see the people that need care and they're
00:30:03.829 --> 00:30:05.930
the same people that are willing to help you.
00:30:06.009 --> 00:30:08.130
So build that culture in your business and you
00:30:08.130 --> 00:30:12.089
will thrive. 100%. So you recently launched Archetype
00:30:12.089 --> 00:30:14.069
Original. You talked about it earlier. Out of
00:30:14.069 --> 00:30:16.390
all the things that you're working on with that
00:30:16.390 --> 00:30:19.930
whole hub and spoke situation, what are the things
00:30:19.930 --> 00:30:21.609
that you're most excited about right now that
00:30:21.609 --> 00:30:23.289
you're working on? I'm a writer. I never thought
00:30:23.289 --> 00:30:26.349
I would be on any podcast saying I'm a writer
00:30:26.349 --> 00:30:28.910
and I am having so much fun writing. That wasn't
00:30:28.910 --> 00:30:31.289
part of my journey. Like I could write. I had
00:30:31.289 --> 00:30:34.109
to write. proposals. I had to write emails. But
00:30:34.109 --> 00:30:36.289
the idea of writing for the sake of exploring
00:30:36.289 --> 00:30:38.950
an idea or writing the book that I wrote, I mean,
00:30:38.970 --> 00:30:42.089
I took 33 years, 32 years of my life and distilled
00:30:42.089 --> 00:30:45.309
them down to 178 pages, which is weird. 32 years,
00:30:45.369 --> 00:30:47.529
178 pages. I thought there was going to be more
00:30:47.529 --> 00:30:51.089
there. There just wasn't. And that was a really
00:30:51.089 --> 00:30:53.009
fun book to write. And it was very cathartic
00:30:53.009 --> 00:30:55.410
in it. And some of these journeys that I'm on
00:30:55.410 --> 00:30:58.230
in research and understanding topics, it is cathartic.
00:30:58.490 --> 00:31:01.029
I've experienced these things, so why did I experience
00:31:01.029 --> 00:31:04.289
them? And that is a fun exploration for me. So
00:31:04.289 --> 00:31:07.690
writing is a big one. The next piece that I'm
00:31:07.690 --> 00:31:09.890
finding I'm more and more excited about is I've
00:31:09.890 --> 00:31:12.309
built some applications that I think are going
00:31:12.309 --> 00:31:15.670
to allow me to test leadership. It's not live
00:31:15.670 --> 00:31:18.960
yet, but... I built this system that I call ALI,
00:31:18.980 --> 00:31:21.240
and it's the Archetype Leadership Index. And
00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:23.380
the whole point of this particular platform,
00:31:23.640 --> 00:31:25.839
and it's mentioned on my website, there's seven
00:31:25.839 --> 00:31:27.920
conditions of leadership that I believe I can
00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:30.019
test for. The first being clarity, the second
00:31:30.019 --> 00:31:32.859
being communication, third, consistency, trust,
00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:35.839
alignment, stability, and drift. Those are the
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:38.059
seven conditions of leadership that I have come
00:31:38.059 --> 00:31:41.200
up with that I believe give a great baseline
00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:43.980
for how leadership is being perceived in a company.
00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:46.849
This little platform, living in the software
00:31:46.849 --> 00:31:49.849
world that I lived in for so long. I'm really
00:31:49.849 --> 00:31:52.410
proud of what I've come up with. So one, the
00:31:52.410 --> 00:31:54.750
idea of building it for myself, like I'm building
00:31:54.750 --> 00:31:58.089
software, this whole new era of vibe coding and
00:31:58.089 --> 00:32:01.910
working with AI to build applications. It's changing
00:32:01.910 --> 00:32:04.529
the landscape of software development. It's making
00:32:04.529 --> 00:32:06.849
it more reachable for so many more people. But
00:32:06.849 --> 00:32:09.170
the fact that I have 30 years living in that
00:32:09.170 --> 00:32:12.160
space, I'm having a lot of fun. building these
00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:14.099
applications and i think they can have a real
00:32:14.099 --> 00:32:16.440
purpose in what i'm doing going forward so i'm
00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:18.319
really excited about the writing i'm really excited
00:32:18.319 --> 00:32:20.140
about the software that i built but then the
00:32:20.140 --> 00:32:23.339
last one that that is it's my heartbeat i want
00:32:23.339 --> 00:32:25.839
to help business leaders do better i want to
00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:28.670
help business owners do better. My heart is with
00:32:28.670 --> 00:32:32.529
small business. So five to 250 people, those
00:32:32.529 --> 00:32:34.910
businesses where with a small team of people,
00:32:34.990 --> 00:32:37.210
you can really have an impact not only on the
00:32:37.210 --> 00:32:39.289
business, but you can have an impact on a community.
00:32:39.430 --> 00:32:41.730
Like those are the things that I think are the
00:32:41.730 --> 00:32:43.589
three things that I'm most excited about this
00:32:43.589 --> 00:32:46.369
journey. And I look forward to those days when
00:32:46.369 --> 00:32:48.430
I get to sit down across the table from somebody
00:32:48.430 --> 00:32:51.210
and help them navigate growth or help them navigate
00:32:51.210 --> 00:32:53.309
an issue that they're experiencing in their business.
00:32:53.450 --> 00:32:55.750
Or, you know, I've got three or four mentorship
00:32:55.750 --> 00:32:58.529
clients that I talk to on a very regular basis.
00:32:58.630 --> 00:33:01.009
And it's just being a sounding board for these
00:33:01.009 --> 00:33:03.410
people. I've been there. I've sat in those seats.
00:33:03.529 --> 00:33:07.289
I've walked in those shoes. So why not use what
00:33:07.289 --> 00:33:09.950
I've learned over 33 years of being in business
00:33:09.950 --> 00:33:12.450
to help others? Those are the three things I'm
00:33:12.450 --> 00:33:14.089
most passionate about and excited about what
00:33:14.089 --> 00:33:16.269
I'm doing. You're like curating everything to
00:33:16.269 --> 00:33:19.130
give back. Like what a life -giving thing. Yeah.
00:33:19.609 --> 00:33:21.430
And, you know, it comes down to legacy, Josh.
00:33:21.609 --> 00:33:23.930
It does. It comes down to what am I leaving behind?
00:33:24.250 --> 00:33:26.490
Am I leaving something behind that has an impact
00:33:26.490 --> 00:33:29.369
or am I just taking as much as I can and it's
00:33:29.369 --> 00:33:31.170
all going to disappear with me? I'm the other
00:33:31.170 --> 00:33:33.369
guy. What I what I'm doing right now, there's
00:33:33.369 --> 00:33:36.349
there's I want to leave more than just he was
00:33:36.349 --> 00:33:38.819
here. I want people to look at the work that
00:33:38.819 --> 00:33:40.880
I've done and say, he had an impact. He changed
00:33:40.880 --> 00:33:43.700
my life as an individual. Or he helped us fix
00:33:43.700 --> 00:33:45.900
our culture and our business, and now we're thriving.
00:33:46.019 --> 00:33:48.019
Whatever that is. That's the play right now.
00:33:48.099 --> 00:33:49.980
It's about legacy. It's about what I can leave
00:33:49.980 --> 00:33:52.519
behind for future generations. And not just my
00:33:52.519 --> 00:33:54.599
family, but the broader community that's around
00:33:54.599 --> 00:33:57.660
me. What an aspirational, worthwhile goal, my
00:33:57.660 --> 00:34:01.359
friend. I'm crazy. Good crazy. Good crazy. I
00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:03.339
hope so. Awesome, Bart. Well, thanks for joining
00:34:03.339 --> 00:34:06.160
us today. Guys, if you're a business owner, executive,
00:34:06.460 --> 00:34:09.280
or aspiring leader who wants to build your culture
00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:12.280
where your people can actually breathe and operate,
00:34:12.500 --> 00:34:14.679
you need to check out Bart's work. And he said
00:34:14.679 --> 00:34:17.239
it. He's an author. So check out his book. I
00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:20.519
just read Remaining Human, which is a great leadership
00:34:20.519 --> 00:34:23.980
book on the emerging AI world that's upon us.
00:34:24.119 --> 00:34:26.539
So if you want to grab a copy, I'll have it linked
00:34:26.539 --> 00:34:28.760
in the description. He's got an incredible array
00:34:28.760 --> 00:34:31.320
of leadership services, diagnostics, and tools
00:34:31.320 --> 00:34:34.199
on his website as well. And also because Bart's
00:34:34.199 --> 00:34:36.719
a friend of the show, he is giving our Optimizing
00:34:36.719 --> 00:34:39.440
Beyond family a discount. So use the code JOSH10
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:41.599
at checkout and you'll get 10 bucks off your
00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:45.219
book. I have linked it below. So as always. Thanks
00:34:45.219 --> 00:34:47.219
for listening to the Optimizing Beyond podcast.
00:34:47.360 --> 00:34:49.519
Remember, growth happens when you take action.
00:34:49.619 --> 00:34:51.940
So subscribe, share this with a friend, but most
00:34:51.940 --> 00:34:53.880
importantly, put what you learned into practice.
00:34:53.960 --> 00:34:57.460
Because as we know, daily anything changes everything.