From humble beginnings on an orange farm, Kyle Gillette has cultivated a wealth of knowledge in leadership that has grown into his life's work. Imagine the scent of citrus in the air as we trace Kyle's journey to becoming a sought-after leadership coach and author, all while unpacking the profound influence mentorship and relationships have had on his development. His story is a testament to the power of nurturing courage, establishing confidence, and embracing the freedom that comes with both in business leadership.
Our latest episode reveals the transformative 'BLUE shirt framework' that has been Kyle's cornerstone for guiding business owners toward overcoming their fears and achieving new heights. This unique approach intertwines self-awareness, accountability, a growth mindset, and the empowerment of others into a cycle that doesn't just change lives—it revolutionizes entire organizations. As Kyle shares his vision for legacy through leadership, we delve into the wisdom encapsulated in his book "Right Now Leadership" and the impact of mentorship on the next generation's business movers and shakers.
Rounding out our conversation, Kyle discusses the influence of social media as a tool for connecting and mentoring upcoming leaders. His platform presence resonates with a generation eager for change, showing the importance of accessible leadership guidance in today's digital world. We celebrate the anticipated release of his book and the indelible mark Kyle is making through BlueShirtCoaching. Join us for an episode that doesn't just celebrate leadership—it empowers you to be the leader you were meant to be.
Coaching is something that can't be understood until it is experienced.
https://blueshirtcoaching.com/
With 4Freedom, all your communications, internet activity, and app usage are encrypted using multiple layers of robust, military-grade encryption algorithms that surpass the standards used by the NSA.
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From humble beginnings on an orange farm, Kyle Gillette has cultivated a wealth of knowledge in leadership that has grown into his life's work. Imagine the scent of citrus in the air as we trace Kyle's journey to becoming a sought-after leadership coach and author, all while unpacking the profound influence mentorship and relationships have had on his development. His story is a testament to the power of nurturing courage, establishing confidence, and embracing the freedom that comes with both in business leadership.
Our latest episode reveals the transformative 'BLUE shirt framework' that has been Kyle's cornerstone for guiding business owners toward overcoming their fears and achieving new heights. This unique approach intertwines self-awareness, accountability, a growth mindset, and the empowerment of others into a cycle that doesn't just change lives—it revolutionizes entire organizations. As Kyle shares his vision for legacy through leadership, we delve into the wisdom encapsulated in his book "Right Now Leadership" and the impact of mentorship on the next generation's business movers and shakers.
Rounding out our conversation, Kyle discusses the influence of social media as a tool for connecting and mentoring upcoming leaders. His platform presence resonates with a generation eager for change, showing the importance of accessible leadership guidance in today's digital world. We celebrate the anticipated release of his book and the indelible mark Kyle is making through BlueShirtCoaching. Join us for an episode that doesn't just celebrate leadership—it empowers you to be the leader you were meant to be.
Coaching is something that can't be understood until it is experienced.
https://blueshirtcoaching.com/
With 4Freedom, all your communications, internet activity, and app usage are encrypted using multiple layers of robust, military-grade encryption algorithms that surpass the standards used by the NSA.
You can start your secure account today:
https://www.4freedommobile.com?ref=bridgebuilders
My guest today is Kyle Gillette. Kyle helps business owners who feel like they're on an island in the state of SOS stressed out, overwhelmed and stuck shift to having more courage, confidence and freedom than ever. Kyle has diverse experience running four businesses and a non-profit doing his career. He has multiple coaching and behavioral assessment certifications and is the creator of Blue Shirt Leadership Framework, where his clients learn to be self-aware leaders, lead with accountability, use a growth mindset and empower others. Kyle is the author of Right Now Leadership, a four-part framework for today's leader. He regularly speaks at businesses interviews, on podcasts and provides leadership training. Kyle loves doing crossfit hiking, mountain biking or cross-country skiing with family and friends when he's not working. We welcome Kyle to the podcast. We welcome Kyle to the show today. How are you doing today, kyle?
Speaker 2:I'm great, keith, thanks for having me on your show. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Good to have you on this end of the 2023 season as we see what happens in 2024. Should be an interesting year.
Speaker 2:I hope so, hopefully interesting. Not any more interesting than this year, because this year was real interesting. Let's mellow it out a little bit, at least for me.
Speaker 1:I would love to yes, I love to ask my guests a question to kind of get to know you better. So what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Speaker 2:Best piece of advice I've ever received. The short answer is make friends and make a lot of them. This wise personally just make a ton of friends, because that's what matters in life at least to me, that's what matters in life. And when you surround yourself with the right people. A lot of people say the five people represent who you are, that kind of thing. But regardless, if I need help or if I want to help someone, or if I'm in a bad place or I'm in a great place, I want someone to talk to, to connect with, especially men in my life. So that was really good, a good tip, a life-changing tip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it makes sense. I mean more people you surround yourself with is easier I always say that easier to spread the burden out among friends versus carrying it out your own.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like those. You know those people pyramids where there's like 30 people on the bottom and there's like 500 on the top. It's amazing what happens when you can spread the weight out. Yeah, exactly, love it.
Speaker 1:I'm always curious of people like yourself who've achieved great things in life. Who are some people who serve to inspire you or even be a mentor to you on your journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say, first was my dad, so my dad's an entrepreneur. He actually just sold his business he runs. He ran with his, with my uncle, a orange packing business, and so they recently were bought out by another business. That's kind of local and he started that one in 1983, I believe, yeah, 1983, with my grandpa and my sister was three and I was zero years old.
Speaker 2:And so to start something at that age with like hardly any money in your pocket and to just go after it and there's so much dependence on how the weather goes and whatever God decides to do for that year, it's really inspiring to me. And plus, he was always, you know, always been in my life and available to me for whatever I needed. Especially as I've gotten older there's been a deeper connection. So him first, and then second, growing up or not growing up, but growing up in my adulthood as a guy by the name of Jack that I worked with for about 10 years, nine years, at a men's mentoring program, and so he was instrumental in kind of my growth from separating from my parents to finding a mentor in my life as I became an adult. So those, those two gentlemen, were fundamental for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those people are always special. To kind of be able to stop and thank thank God for those people and how they impacted the journey that we are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and Jack was, was one of those guys that didn't mince words and my, my dad's pretty nice and he's he's he'll tell it straight but he's pretty nice about it, or Jack, is this like in your face and and I needed that. You know I needed both, especially from it. You know I needed both cause? Cause I had my mom. It was kind of a softy and so needing both of those angles was was important, and in retrospect I only realized it that how powerful it was to have both of those in my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, true, very true. I love to have people tell their stories. You want to share with us your personal journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh. So, born and raised in a little town called Dainuba, washington it looks like Danuba but it's Dainuba, not Washington, excuse me. Dainuba, california and Washington now and Orange Farm until I was 18 and then moved off to a small, another small town called San Luis Obispo and went to college there for four years, lived there a total of 12 years, and after college I worked for a mentoring program where I helped guys that are 18 and 25 for stuck and off track in life, typically some sort of kind of broken home, abuse, drug or alcohol struggles, that kind of thing. So I lived there for a year and then worked in the program another eight plus years in various roles and I cut my teeth in the business world in that role ironically, because you wouldn't think a mentoring program would give you that opportunity, but we were self sustained. So I got my work ethic from the farmer up farming upgrade bringing. But then I got my business acumen from the self sustained part of the nonprofit. We ran a pet resort that housed a hundred plus dogs a night and then 50 plus dogs a day, and so I got the opportunity to grow that business and then I ran the nonprofit for three years after I grew the peppers art and then often to HR.
Speaker 2:Once I moved up to Washington with my family and got into desk assessments, did a. I did an assessment workshop for a petroleum engineering company and it was a disaster. I remember sitting in the boardroom meeting with the admin lady to a VP and then to like the sales director guys, and then there was another guy on the phone in Alaska, another guy on the phone in Arizona, another guy on the phone down the hall because he was sick so he couldn't be in the room. So imagine trying to lead a workshop where three people are on the phone and and you've got different levels and positions and you're just you're trying to lead this workshop.
Speaker 2:Well, long story short, I'm covered in sweat within five minutes of the interview and I I barely survived it because finally the admin spoke up and then we spent the next hour kind of limping through the workshop and I left and the VP said, hey, good job, and I'm like BS, but you know, anyway I hop in my car and I'm like this was a really, really crappy experience and I loved it, and so that workshop and some of the coaching I had done prior to the workshop just went. This is it, this is what I want to do, and so from there ultimately came blue shirt coaching. So that's the short version of my journey.
Speaker 1:So how did from the worst experience in your life give you the idea that I want to do this more? I'm just curious.
Speaker 2:Well, the thing is I, the people that I was working with to do the one-to-one coaching prior to the workshop they had a great experience with me and I felt like I was really helpful to them and I was told that I was really helpful to them and even though the the workshop was a dumpster fire, I knew that they got something out of it anyway and if I could do a great job, or even just a good job, then people will be getting really good value and benefit from my work. And from then I knew it was just up. There was no down, it was just up for me and it was true, it's been true.
Speaker 1:So that's good. I'm just curious because people are hearing that going how did that inspire you to say this is what I want to do more?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So what did you learn on your journey? I mean, I know that that one moment helped you to kind of crystallize in your mind this is what I want to do. What other lessons did you learn on this journey? Helped you get where you are today?
Speaker 2:You know, I think one of the biggest ones is having a mission and sticking with it. I was, uh, let's see, it's probably a a roughly a year into my business and I was kind of floundering in terms of who to work with and what's the intention behind what I'm doing and how, how do I go about doing it. And I remember driving home from from a networking event, I think it was, and I was on the on this road is about 15 minutes until I was going to be home and I was listening to the book by Jim Quick called what is it Limitless? And in there he talks about having a vision. And I had been working on a mission slash vision for for months at that time and I was praying about it, journaling about it, thinking about it, asking people about it, but nothing was coming.
Speaker 2:I was getting really, really frustrated and so I turned off the, the audio, and I and I just prayed. I said God, what's the vision you have for my business? And I waited and it took like five seconds because I'd been waiting for a long time. But this was the moment for me and God said I want you to help thousands of business owners shift their mindsets and habits so I can transform their hearts. And I went okay and then cried Because even if someone isn't a believer, someone doesn't believe in God or whatever, there's still transformation that matters and still really important. And I knew that this was a universal mission for me and for the people that I get to coach and that was one of those life shifting and business shifting moments for me. And there's a lot of other lessons, but that was kind of a big catalytic moment for me.
Speaker 1:So you would probably say that that mission is what drives you every day. I'm guessing.
Speaker 2:Yes, 100% yeah, and more so the longer I'm in business, the more I see that that really is what's been driving me. I've kind of tried to deny it or something. I don't know what I was doing, but this year has made that very clear that I'm not here to help you like, yes, I want your business to grow, yes, I want you to make more money, yes, I want you to be, have all those things. But more importantly, I want to help the individual transform who they are, become the best version of themselves. And recently I've had two, three clients wow, yeah, three clients where I've done some deep dives.
Speaker 2:I do a deep dive, which is two roughly four hour sessions with people where, ultimately, their bigger problem was they're afraid to be the best version of themselves. And I'm like, oh my gosh, that's why people don't transform. They're afraid to be a better version of themselves, because it's scary, it's. You're in a rut, you're used to who you are and I am too in certain areas. I'm used to it and I don't want to shift. And so when I dive in with them and three of the five I've worked with in that deep of a capacity, that's what their thing is I'm like, wow, this is a bigger deal. 60% of the people so far that's been their thing and I'm like okay, this mission is very clear, this is the work for me to be doing, and if you transform your life and who you are and how you see yourself, your business is going to grow, period. It's just going to happen, and so that's why I love what I'm doing so much. Is it all just ties together so perfectly?
Speaker 1:So let's dive in a little bit deeper to what the blue shirt framework is, because I think that will help us to kind of help you, help our audience figure out. How do you help people figure out the best version of themselves from your blue shirt framework? So explain that to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. So I mean, leadership has a cycle to it, and I spent a lot of time at the very beginning of my business studying, you know, books and people and reading things and watching videos, and then studying my own clients. And one morning it was it was 3am in the morning and I woke up and I'd been working on an acronym. I love acronyms, and I've been working on an acronym for what my leadership framework was going to be, my own intellectual property that I could do whatever I wanted to with. And I heard. I heard the words self awareness or the word self awareness, and that's not that mind shattering or groundbreaking or anything. People heard that word before, but for me it brought everything together. And so I jumped out of bed, ran into the kitchen while my kids were sleeping and sat at the kitchen table and I went Okay, what is, where does this take me?
Speaker 2:And for the next three hours I went from self awareness to then going to this blue framework, which is to be a self aware leader, lead with accountability, use a growth mindset and empower others. And ultimately, that is the cycle of leadership we become more aware of ourselves and who we are and our limitations or strengths, and then we use accountability to stick with those things and to grow and to increase our abilities. And if you put those two together, of course growth is going to follow. But once you grow, you need other people to help you. If you don't have those other people, then you're going to start to struggle with your accountability and you're going to start to struggle in a lot of ways. So then you empower others. What happens when you empower others? You go back to self-awareness, because now you have this new burden, this new challenge of leading people, and so then you got to become more self-aware, and then the cycle continues from there.
Speaker 1:I want to focus on that last, because I think a lot of people struggle with how do you empower other people? I've worked a lot in churches and I think one of the downfalls that the church has is leaders have a hard time empowering other people and so you end up not I like that you work yourself out of a job. But if we don't empower people, we don't do that well. So give me an example of what steps you have for empowering other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I teach my clients a five-step process and I have those steps in my right now leadership book. But since writing that book I've had an even deeper dive into it, like even more realizations from it. So the steps are we have to expect and then study, listen, then create that accountability and then celebrate. So I'm going to dive into each of them, but the first one is expect. So, keith, what was the last really good movie or TV show that you watched?
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a good one. It's hard to find good movies that I've tried to think what it was, it's true. So many of them are bad I can't think of one off hand.
Speaker 2:Do you have a old favorite or a TV show favorite or a book favorite or anything like?
Speaker 1:that I do have an old favorite, but one of my old favorites is because it's the Christmas season, is I love. It's a wonderful life.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool. So when you watch a wonderful life, do you find yourself fussing around with your phone or doing something on the computer or having a conversation with people over here? In other words, do you find yourself really distracted?
Speaker 1:Not typically no.
Speaker 2:No, so you're engaged in that movie. So for some people maybe you instantly came something came to mind for a great movie or great TV show you recently watched. We're at the edge of our seat, right, we're expecting the movie to be great, otherwise we're we don't want to watch it or we don't want to read it if it's not going to be great. And if it isn't great, then we kind of move on, right. But here's the here's the deal about empowering people. We need to start with the expectation that they are amazing, that they are beautiful, they're wonderfully made, right, and that they have fascinating and amazing insights to share their skills, their talents, whatever they are, whatever they have is amazing, and it's an expecting that to be true. So when we do that, we're setting our unconscious mind to a different angle. One of the things that I've been teaching lately is that every, every second, there's 2 million bits of information your brain has to filter, and if you picture, those bits of information are like little toothpicks and those toothpicks have something written on them. 2 million toothpicks fit in a refrigerator. So picture your refrigerator dumping 2 million toothpicks on you every second. You can't take them all in. It's not possible, right. So. So the way it works is you're grabbing some of that information, and for most people to around 126 bits. So you grab that and you and that's the information we take it. So if I decide up front that this employee that I'm, that I've hired, or this person that I'm leading, or this kid that I have is a jerk, annoying, frustrating, whatever, every time 2 million bits of information come at me every second, I'm going to grab the ones that prove me to be right, prove me, prove to me that that employee is annoying, that that child is frustrating, that this situation sucks, whatever. Or when you start with an expectation of excellence, I'm going to grab 126 bits that prove that to be true. And then that's going to rub off or play forward into those people's lives. So that is foundational and you got to start there with that expectation. Sometimes you can write it down, sometimes we can pray about it, sometimes we can have conversations, but, regardless, start there.
Speaker 2:Second, you study. So step 2 is study, not books. I see you have awesome books behind you, fantastic numbers of books, and I'm sure you've read all of them or most of them. But I'm talking about studying people. How do they communicate? Are they inferential speaker or listener? Are they a literal speaker or listener? Are they more visual? They more auditory kinesthetic? Where are they on the disk? Or the Myers-Briggs spectrum? What do I know about this person so I can understand them better, so I can do the third step, which is to be able to listen to them and ask great questions, and great questions is the heart of it. So if the foundation is expectations, high expectations, the heart of it is great questions, and those questions are open questions.
Speaker 2:So a quick story. I'm working with this lady that runs a couple of private schools and when we first started a couple of years ago, she had bad employees, or some some of them were bad employees and she was having a hard time with taking on way too much. She was becoming the bottleneck, didn't have a lot of clarity on goals, all that kind of stuff. Well, over the course of time we started to develop some strategies get things in place, get her business in a better position, get rid of some of the bad apples, bring in some good apples. When it comes to teachers, no pun intended and then she still was getting a little bit hung up on things and it turned out that she wasn't doing a great job of asking open ended questions. So I suggested to her a forward question which is simply, instead of being Wonder Woman when someone comes in the room and solving all the problems, or Superman and solving all the problems just when they bring you a problem, ask a forward question which is what do you think that's it? And then you shut up and you listen. You just stand there or sit there and listen.
Speaker 2:And she told me a story a couple of months ago. The teacher came in, brought this convoluted issue with a parent to her, and so my client said well, what do you think that was it? She said those four words and then the teacher blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She's talking to herself while my client's sitting there at her desk. Five, ten minutes later, the teacher's like thank you, you're such a good listen. I really appreciate it walked out with a solution.
Speaker 2:My client said nothing but that forward question. And get this, she's from New York, she's a dominant style personality and this spectrum, which is aggressive, assertive, gets right to the point, but she's learned how to just ask questions. So once you do that, once you've studied the mass questions, then it's easy to keep them accountable Because they come up with the solutions. So ultimately they're keeping themselves accountable and that's all we can really do. Anyway, I can't hold you accountable, keith, and you can't hold me accountable. We can support each other, but Ultimately it's up to me to stay accountable, and so when I make the decision as the employee, it's more likely that I'm gonna fall through.
Speaker 2:Lastly, we celebrate. We celebrate the successes and the setbacks, and it's really important to celebrate the setbacks, because when Susie comes in and comes up with a solution and then the solution doesn't work out, if we knock her down because of that, she won't continue to come to you with solutions. She's gonna come to you and farm out her thinking and you're gonna have to come up with the solutions, which isn't what we want. So we celebrate the effort and the person none. And we also celebrate the effort and the person in the setback to. It's not about the result, ultimately, and to really build people up and empower them, it's not about the results, about the effort they put in and how they went about it. So long, long story short. Those are the five, five components.
Speaker 1:They just need some explanation, otherwise it's too, too little to Sure no, I love that and I love your story because I am a high D or was a high D. I think what you did, kind of, was helping that high D person become a higher I, because now you're not they're trying to solve everybody's problem, but you're now influencing them to make choices for themselves and I've actually shifted more to why I'm an I, so I don't try to solve everybody's problems. I could do. I ask good questions and so now they begin to solve their problems and I can sit back and watch them solve their problem, to celebrate with them as they solve those problems or Support them, like you said, when those problems don't get solved and say, ok, well, that didn't work. What else could you think of to try? Yep, exactly.
Speaker 2:And it's. It's actually such a less, a lesser burden that the leader has to carry, and and it's not abdicating it's it's actually being really responsible and giving people the opportunity to do what you hired them to do, which is to make decisions. Right, that's why we hired these people are at least I hope so they're not robots. Ai hasn't made it that far yet, right, exactly.
Speaker 1:So let's circle back, because you talk about empowering others, but let's get back to the first part of your, your B, which is becoming self aware. So what are some steps to help a person who's just starting out to become more self aware? Yeah, I have a client that I'm working with right now.
Speaker 2:That had this extremely powerful breakthrough for him. He even he wrote me an email to I think it was the day I was working with him, an email to I think it was the day before Christmas and it was about how grateful he was for the things, the support that I've given, the coaching, and how his life has changed so much. And I didn't like I knew I was helping him but I didn't realize how much until he wrote that, that letter, and so that was really encouraging to me. But the point of sharing that with you is one of the more recent exercises we've done is is establishing his values for his career. Now, I know people talk about you, know, know your values, but I totally agree. But this method is unique and different because it's it's establishing your values from an unconscious place. Because if you were to ask me what are my values, I would tell you like excellence, family, these, this list, learning, etc. I mean I have them up on my wall right here. But the first things that come to mind are our only surface level values and when I'm working with people, we get into the unconscious levels, like what motivated you when you were the most motivated in your career. What was the feeling behind that? And when you think about that, you're like what was the feeling behind that? Well, whatever that feeling is, that's a value, right.
Speaker 2:And when you think about all these things being present in your life, all these values, if there is, if you had all those, would you still stay in your career, yes or no? And some people say they would and some people say they don't. Well, what would you need to stay in your career path? Or, if you choose a different area of life, what would you need to to continue down your path and your family relationships, whatever it is? And that answer is a really deep, unconscious layer of what motivates you, and values are a filter.
Speaker 2:And so the more clearly you know your filters in life, the more clearly you're going to know yourself and whether the decision you want to make is the right one, because it's a deep layered filter of who you are and when they're not, when values aren't lined up, that's where you have internal conflict. And so if I, if I'm all about you, know gratitude, and then I'm all about service, but I don't have, but I feel like there's a conflict between service and gratitude, because I'm not very happy about the fact that when I serve people, there's not much that comes back to me. There's a conflict there and there's some baggage I need to deal with, and that's wonderful to know. But if I didn't know my values at a deeper, unconscious level, that wouldn't have been dredged up. So it's very important to you don't have to start with values, but it's really important to at some point get there.
Speaker 1:Sure, we talk about leading with accountability, which I don't see a lot of in the world. So what does that look like for those who want that to be part of their business or part of their life?
Speaker 2:Well, I want to first highlight that you just made, like the understatement of the year A lot of people don't lead with accountability.
Speaker 2:I'm guessing that you and I and your listeners aren't in that boat. We are on the boat of that. We do lead with accountability, and so this will ring true and make a lot of sense. In my book I talk about a four step process and I'll make sure this is shorter than the five step process, but I call it the accountability pass. And, keith, when you think of 2024, what is the big, hairy, audacious goal, the big goal you want to accomplish in 2024?
Speaker 1:For me it's finishing up my doctorate. I'm at the very tail end of it, and so I really want to get that done in 2024.
Speaker 2:Awesome, okay. So what is the reason or the purpose behind completing that doctorate?
Speaker 1:You know, for me, I always love I love learning. I love learning new things, I love taking notes and being able to apply those to what I do. So for me, it's an opportunity to add more things to my tool. Chess of Knowledge and research is a big piece I never did before, so for me, I'm looking forward to be able to implement that and helping organizations learn how to manage change. That's what my doctorate said.
Speaker 2:Okay. So helping organizations manage change is the purpose, but one of the purposes, behind this goal. So, in the first letter of the accountability pass, it's passive, passive accountability and it's the idea that you're sharing with the listeners on the show, sharing with friends, family, acquaintances. That's your goal, that you're going to get this PhD to help organizations make changes. That's a big deal, that's important. And so some of the people that you tell are going to be interested. It's around 10%. Let's say you tell 30 people, three people will actually care. Let's just be honest Most people don't care or don't remember. So three of them will care and some of those will follow up with you and say, hey, how's it going with your PhD? How's the studying going? What do you have as your? It's a dissertation, right?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what's going on with your dissertation, whatever, right? So now they're keeping you passively accountable because you know they're going to ask you about it. Then you choose one of them and you say hey, tony, would it be cool if we connect on a weekly basis to talk about the goals you're trying to achieve and the goals I'm trying to achieve, and just bounce ideas off each other and keep each other accountable? Tony's going to say heck, yeah, I've been looking for someone like that, because most people don't have someone like that.
Speaker 2:So that's the A, which is active accountability, and then the first S is stuff or structures. So the structures would be your to-do list in your calendar, and this is really simple, but we need it in place. The calendar is the people that's going to help you accomplish your goals, and then the to-do list are the things that are going to help you accomplish your goals. Now there is some intermixing, but for the most part it's the people and the things calendar and to-do list and the last S is self-accountability. So have you ever ziplined or skydived or bungee jumped before, keith?
Speaker 1:Anything that involves jumping off a high thing, no Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we'll assume that people understand one of those three concepts and I'm going to stick with the ziplining, because that's the most common thing people could have done in their life. So when my wife and I had our honeymoon a long time ago now we went to Costa Rica and we did the zipline, where my wife actually decided that on the thousand foot zipline that's above the tree canopy where you're zipping along for a thousand feet that she was going to strap herself to the dude and hang underneath him while they slid across the canopy. And then they asked me if I wanted to do that and I said, no, it's okay, I think I'll just go by myself. But the thing about that is, when I went off the platform, and when she especially went off the platform, there was no turning back. She was committed.
Speaker 2:You can't crawl back up that zipline, it's not going to happen. You are going down period. And it's the same thing with our self-accountability. We have to find that point of no return. Once you step off that platform, once you lean into it, it's over. You're not getting back to that old way. And if you want to have great accountability this is the personal part of it that's so important to do so. For me and my business, it was my wife quitting her nursing job. That was the point of no return for us as a family, and I don't know what it is for anybody else when you're thinking about your goal, keith, or anybody else's, but whatever that is, that will help you stay accountable to following through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I wrote my first book, I had people I set up as my accountability partners and they all had different roles. One of them I said I just need you to pray for me. I know you're going to do it. I don't have to check in and make sure you're doing it, I just need you to do that. Then I had someone who was going to be the encourager, because there's going to be points in time that I knew where it got too difficult and I'm just going to want to quit.
Speaker 1:I need someone to just kind of pat me on the back and say you can do this. And then I had the kick in the pants person who I needed someone, just like the encouragement thing isn't working. I need someone to just kick me really hard to make sure I keep going. And it worked because all those people at some point served an important role in that process. And the same thing happened with administration. I need these people in my life to do certain things and I call them and say I need you to do this and they've been there, so it's been really kind of cool.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I mean you followed the process Right. That's awesome, Love it.
Speaker 1:So we got one more and I'm going to give you, give us a name in your book too. I forgot to do that, but the growth mindset tells about the growth mindset.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the growth mindset is one of those weird ones. When I wrote that section it was kind of hard for me to write because in my mind it's just a output of being self-aware and being accountable. And it is. It really is. But so then I came up with a metaphor in the book that I called the growth SUV, and even to this day I still kind of have a hard time remembering each component of it. So I'm going to cheat a little bit and look, but the first the way that I describe it is, it's one of those SUVs that four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, that it's real smooth on the road, no problem on the streets or whatever, but then it can get on the dirt road, it can get on the muddy road and it can get on the rocky road. And this is growth for us.
Speaker 2:We go through those experiences, and in the growth SUV there's five different mindsets, and the first one is in the back left, sitting by the window, kicking its feet on the seat, annoying the crap out of the driver, saying let's go, let's do it, we can do it, and it's called the risk mindset, right, so it sits back there kicking the driver and the driver. It's kind of hard for the driver to see it, but it knows it's there and it's getting annoyed by it. And everyone small takes the risk and other times tells us the risk mindset to shut up because they're tired of getting the seat kicked. And then in the middle is the learner mindset. So they're sitting in the middle with their feet up on a hump I don't know if you know that comedic routine or not, but right in the middle and so the driver can see them in the rear of the mirror. Every time they look back, they get to see them in the mirror and they see what they learned from the risks that they took or not taking the risks, or the experiences that they had. And the learner is always reminding us to continue learning, regardless of the outcomes that we experience.
Speaker 2:And then the next one is the persistent mindset. So that's the right side. And so they're whispering across the way to the driver saying, hey, keep going, keep going. This is kind of hard, I know we're taking a risk here, but you're learning from it. Keep going, keep going. You got this. We're going to persist, without exception, to quote Andy Andrews.
Speaker 2:And then the fourth is in the shotgun, and that is, I'm sorry, the fourth is in shotgun and that's the sales mindset. And it sits there going let's do this. It's not about risk, it's about we can do anything and they're going to influence and pitch. That mindset inside of us is going to be pitching and trying to encourage you and move you forward. We can do anything. Let's go for it, always having the ideas and trying to move you forward with the ideas.
Speaker 2:And then finally, in the driver seat, the mindset of abundance, because it doesn't matter how good of a salesman you are, how much risk you take, if you don't have an abundant mindset, it's going to be difficult to even lean into those other mindsets. If I fail and I don't have abundance, I'm not going to learn from it. If I'm experiencing the push of risk, if I don't have an abundant mindset, I don't think it's going to work out to take the risk right, and so on and so forth. So those mindsets combine together to create a forward momentum and growth in our lives and they can handle any circumstances.
Speaker 1:Great. So give us a title of your book, and where can I find it?
Speaker 2:Yep, it's right now leadership, a four-part framework for today's leader, and you can find it on Amazon I think it's bookstorenowcom, barnes, noble, just any of those retailers and then also on my website blushercoachingcomcomcom is there as well.
Speaker 1:Great. I'd love to ask my guest this question what do you want your legacy to be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my legacy. I actually have that a little bit written out, so let me see if I can conjure it in my mind. For me, my legacy is about my kids having a bigger impact than I get to have right. But it's also about the impact that I'm making on the clients that I have, impacting the people that they work with right. So for me, transforming thousands of business owners means I'm transforming tens of thousands of business owners' lives, or people's lives, because in my experience, growing up in a small business context, my dad's had hundreds of employees over the course of his career and usually 50 or 60 at a time, and he's helped those people raise a family, send their kids to college and be an example to them a solid, high integrity, high accountability example for decades.
Speaker 2:That's what I want to be able to do as I'm helping my clients get to a better place. That's going to impact generations going forward. And if they're in a bad place especially as men broken men break things, and so if I can help these men that are feeling a little broken, like everyone does men and women and help them get to a better place, we're not going to be breaking things Maybe at all right when we get to that transformational spot and that makes a difference. That's a legacy, shifting experience for people and families and generations. So for me that's a big motivator for doing what I do.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Anything, I haven't asked you that. I should have asked you.
Speaker 2:No, no, we're good. I love the interview. I really appreciate it, keith. Great questions, thank you.
Speaker 1:Great, if you had one message to tell a young entrepreneur, what would that be?
Speaker 2:Ask questions like crazy, and when I say questions I don't mean how do you do ABC more, who are you and what are you about? Learn people's stories. Stories are amazing and it endears you to other people and grows your network. And, most importantly, there's so much wisdom in people's stories. So ask the stories of people's experiences, why they do what they do.
Speaker 1:Great. So, kyle, what can we just find you on social media?
Speaker 2:Yeah, anywhere on social, if you type in BlueShirtCoaching, you'll find me Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and then go to blueshirtcoachingcom to connect with me Directly, set up a free conversation or learn more about what I do on there as well.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for you investing in the lives of young entrepreneurs, young business people because, like you said, as you impact the leader, you impact thousands of those who follow the leader. So thank you for what you do and blessings on the sale of your book. May people pick it up and please leave with accountability. It would be my call.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you, keith.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it and I wish you a blessed new year.