Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another Hacking Leadership Leadership Authors
Speaker 1: podcast here. This new series that we've been doing this
Speaker 1: year is something we're really excited about. And you know,
Speaker 1: Chris and I have done a lot of work in
Speaker 1: kind of combing through requests, doing some research here, vetting
Speaker 1: some amazing leadership authors, and we have another one today.
Speaker 1: I want to introduce you to Mark Meers. He's a
Speaker 1: number one best selling author, keynote speaker, consultant, visionary, business leader.
Speaker 1: You know, he serves as the founder and the chief
Speaker 1: growth Officer for Leaf Growth Ventures LLC, which is a
Speaker 1: consulting firm, and he's got some amazing content here that
Speaker 1: we have really become fans of. A lot of overlap
Speaker 1: in the dialogue that we have around leadership, a lot
Speaker 1: of approaches. So first and foremost, Mark, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Say hi to the audience.
Speaker 2: Hey Lorenzo, and hello to your audience. I'm looking forward
Speaker 2: to our conversation today.
Speaker 1: Definitely, Yes, I want to jump right into it. You've
Speaker 1: got a book, The Purposeful Growth Revolution and four Ways
Speaker 1: to Grow from Leader to Legacy Builder Number one. I
Speaker 1: love the title. I'm a sucker for like, tell me
Speaker 1: what's going on here and give me some numbers on
Speaker 1: ways that I can kind of grow acronyms. I'm all
Speaker 1: for that type of stuff like that. So I love
Speaker 1: the title, but I do want to start off right
Speaker 1: off the bat like, talk to me about what got
Speaker 1: you to this point about writing about this. What were
Speaker 1: the things that let you down this path to kind
Speaker 1: of have this moment of sharing this content with the world.
Speaker 2: Well, I never started off thinking I was going to
Speaker 2: write a book. And you know, while I do have
Speaker 2: a journalism background, I fancy myself a decent writer. I
Speaker 2: love to communicate ideas and so years ago, I think
Speaker 2: it was February twenty first, twenty thirteen, I got an
Speaker 2: epiphany and it came to me the morning after a
Speaker 2: significant life event, and I had just been let go
Speaker 2: from a president's role for half a billion dollar casual
Speaker 2: restaurant concept that was owned by a publicly traded entity,
Speaker 2: and brought in as the president from the Cheesecake Factory,
Speaker 2: where I served as a senior BP and chief marketing
Speaker 2: officer with three different objectives, turned the brand around it
Speaker 2: was down double digit negative in sales research and establish
Speaker 2: a new contemporary and relevant brand positioning and created kind
Speaker 2: of a new concept or concept extension that could earn
Speaker 2: the right to capital, and I took on the challenge,
Speaker 2: and my team and I we put together a wonderful
Speaker 2: plan that we faithfully executed and sacrificed and did a
Speaker 2: lot of early mornings, late nights traveling here and there,
Speaker 2: but we accomplished all three of those objectives within two years.
Speaker 2: Instead of getting the capital that we earned the right
Speaker 2: to receive to grow, I heard we've decided to move
Speaker 2: in a different dread. The board wants to put the
Speaker 2: brand up for sale, But don't worry. You're going to
Speaker 2: lead the sale process and we'll give you a stay
Speaker 2: on bonus and a sale bonus if it happens, and
Speaker 2: if it doesn't happen, you go back to doing what
Speaker 2: you normally do. But you can't tell anybody confidential like,
Speaker 2: oh my goodness, so that just happened. Well, we worked
Speaker 2: through all of that process and we had a lot
Speaker 2: of tire kickers, a lot of private equity firms. We
Speaker 2: found a strategic play that we thought was going to
Speaker 2: be our rightful owner. For a lot of reasons, we
Speaker 2: don't have time to go into The deal closed on
Speaker 2: a Friday, and we're drinking champagne, celebrating over the weekend.
Speaker 2: And on Monday morning, I had a meeting scheduled with
Speaker 2: the new CEO at eight o'clock. And this meeting was
Speaker 2: scheduled for two weeks out, so we were going to
Speaker 2: plot our new future together. At eight oh five, I'm
Speaker 2: out the door. We've decided to move in a different direction,
Speaker 2: and I'm like what Over the weekend? So I learned
Speaker 2: a valuable lesson of the world of corporate America. And
Speaker 2: so I'm living in southern California at the time, and
Speaker 2: that February twenty first date I mentioned is about the
Speaker 2: time we start to see the first signs of spring,
Speaker 2: not here in Kansas City, but in southern California. And
Speaker 2: after a fitful night of sleep, I took the dog
Speaker 2: out the next morning early. And you've always heard the
Speaker 2: term as the darkest, always darkest before the dawn, And
Speaker 2: that was very apropos and dark in many ways, not
Speaker 2: just light, but in how I viewed myself and what
Speaker 2: happened and what could I have done different. Oh, by
Speaker 2: the way, all of our executive team was let go
Speaker 2: within two weeks, and they moved the corporate office from
Speaker 2: Orange County to their US headquarters in Dallas. So all
Speaker 2: things they said they wouldn't do, they did. And so
Speaker 2: I was frustrated that it wasn't smarter or wasn't able
Speaker 2: to see beyond the corner of what could have happened.
Speaker 2: And so I take the dog outside and we had
Speaker 2: a fig tree in our backyard that was barren from
Speaker 2: the five or six weeks of winter. We do get,
Speaker 2: but Lorenzo as God as my witness, as the sun
Speaker 2: was coming up over the wall in our backyard, It's
Speaker 2: shone on that fig tree and there on the end
Speaker 2: of just one branch with this tiny little green sprig
Speaker 2: of a leaf just starting to bud. And there I
Speaker 2: got this epiphany that a leaf is a symbol of
Speaker 2: growth and rebirth. Here I was going through this dark
Speaker 2: woe is Me moment, and I'm getting this sign that
Speaker 2: says it's going to be okay. Spring is coming and
Speaker 2: a leaf is not only a symbol of growth and rebirth.
Speaker 2: I used to lead with the rule of threes. You know,
Speaker 2: if you focus on three things, you know people can't
Speaker 2: deal with more than that, you'll be more productive and
Speaker 2: ultimately more successful. So my three things is part of
Speaker 2: that turnaround or leadership, engagement, and accountability powerful three things, right.
Speaker 2: We need strong leadership up and down the ranks. We
Speaker 2: need to engage people's heart, head, hands, and habits in
Speaker 2: this process. And we need to ourselves and our team
Speaker 2: members accountable for results, because after all, we're a publicly
Speaker 2: traded company and now here we are going through a
Speaker 2: sales process which no one really knew until the last minute.
Speaker 2: And so I use that in all my weekly communications
Speaker 2: reward and recognition. I'd say, Lorenzo's leading his team and
Speaker 2: they're doing this, and they're doing that where he's engaging
Speaker 2: them on a deeper level and they're getting these kinds
Speaker 2: of results, or he's holding them accountable for results. And
Speaker 2: now look what you sales are coming out of it.
Speaker 2: And everybody knew it, and it wasn't until that morning
Speaker 2: after I said something's missing. That approach should have worked.
Speaker 2: And that's one I believe now in the higher power
Speaker 2: of force. Now I think about that leaf in spring, right,
Speaker 2: there are four directions. There are four seasons, not three. Therefore,
Speaker 2: chambers to the human heart not three. There are four
Speaker 2: elements to an atom, the source of all life, not three.
Speaker 2: I could go on and on with this for play,
Speaker 2: but you get the idea. And it hit me that
Speaker 2: what was missing for me was fulfillment. We were burning
Speaker 2: the candle at both ends. We were doing this kind
Speaker 2: of heroic career altering project that we all could look
Speaker 2: back and be proud of, and yet we were not
Speaker 2: being fulfilled. We had the rug taken out from under us.
Speaker 2: And that's when I got this notion of this four
Speaker 2: circle event diagram, like the four seasons overlap, and it
Speaker 2: came to me that, yeah, we need strong leadership, we
Speaker 2: need an engagement of one's heart, head, hands, and habits.
Speaker 2: We need accountability up and down the ranks, but we
Speaker 2: also need fulfillment. And so I came up with this
Speaker 2: model where that fig tree serves as my kind of
Speaker 2: idea around purposeful growth. It only knows how to be
Speaker 2: a fig tree. Its purpose is to grow fig leaves,
Speaker 2: where all growth happens in a plant or a tree
Speaker 2: through the magic of photosynthesis, right, But leadership represents the roots,
Speaker 2: the seed roots, and you have to have a strong,
Speaker 2: solid root system to grow any plant or tree. Just
Speaker 2: like in business, you have to have strong leadership and
Speaker 2: that leads to alignment and then engagement is the trunk,
Speaker 2: the branches and the system of nourishment, which is called savia.
Speaker 2: I learned that it translates into lifeblood. What's the life
Speaker 2: blood of any organization, It's people. So the way engaging
Speaker 2: their hearthead, hands, and habits, you're giving them the result
Speaker 2: of empowerment. And we know that empowered team members will
Speaker 2: give you more discretionary effort, they'll give you better and
Speaker 2: higher quality work, they'll have a stake of ownership in
Speaker 2: the outcome, and they'll be more loyal, whether it's staying
Speaker 2: in the firm themselves or recommending you to others. Right,
Speaker 2: But then we say, what's that plant or tree designed
Speaker 2: to do. That's where accountability comes in. And that's the
Speaker 2: leaf and the fruit of the tree. And the cool
Speaker 2: thing about that fig tree is not only is it
Speaker 2: to go, oh, you know, fig leafs, but to bear
Speaker 2: fig fruit. And within that fig fruit come the achievement.
Speaker 2: And we'll get to later the fact that it also
Speaker 2: has seeds in it that can be scattered for future growth.
Speaker 2: That then leads to the idea the foundation of all
Speaker 2: of it is, you know, fulfillment, and that's the environment
Speaker 2: that that nurturing environment, that has the soil, the sun,
Speaker 2: the rain that provides the balance necessary for photosynthesis to occur.
Speaker 2: And it's like the culture of any organization or we're
Speaker 2: going to get to the fact that I prefer the
Speaker 2: word community, and that really is where people feel like
Speaker 2: they belong and can do their best work. So the
Speaker 2: notion of Leaf and why I call it a revolution,
Speaker 2: is it's all revolving around purposeful growth. It's revolving around
Speaker 2: being the best fig tree it can be in the
Speaker 2: environment it's in. It's being the best team member we
Speaker 2: can be within the environment we're in. And it's being
Speaker 2: not just a manager, but a leader and ultimately a
Speaker 2: living legacy builder, which we'll talk more about. But I
Speaker 2: got that epiphany several years ago and I started working
Speaker 2: on it, and then it became a book idea, and
Speaker 2: I kept putting it off and taking another C level
Speaker 2: job and progressing in my career. But finally it caught
Speaker 2: up to me a couple of years ago. I said,
Speaker 2: if I'm going to do this, I've got to kind
Speaker 2: of put my W two corporate world by the side
Speaker 2: and really focus on this thing I felt called to do.
Speaker 2: And so I finished the book and now I'm using
Speaker 2: it as a foundation for speaking and consulting, and I'm
Speaker 2: working on an e learning platform that will help people
Speaker 2: meld their purpose in both life and work. And it's
Speaker 2: led me to believe it or not write a second book,
Speaker 2: which we'll talk about.
Speaker 1: That's awesome that I appreciate that there's so much to
Speaker 1: unpack there, but so very easy to understand and consume
Speaker 1: kind of like you know, and and I love the
Speaker 1: you know, kind of the genesis story of these things
Speaker 1: because I think that when it's when it's really great, relevant,
Speaker 1: authentic content, it comes from the things that you talk to,
Speaker 1: there's a personal testimony to it of an experience that
Speaker 1: happened to them having to sit back and kind of
Speaker 1: reflect and just like think through where am I today,
Speaker 1: Where am I going? How did I get here? What
Speaker 1: makes sense? And then all these dots kind of start
Speaker 1: to connect themselves naturally. And I think when that happens,
Speaker 1: it's just and I've had that moment in my life
Speaker 1: where then just like the creative juice is just flow,
Speaker 1: like it all makes sense now, everything has a place.
Speaker 1: Everything kind of calls back to things that I've experienced
Speaker 1: and things that I've seen in my leadership and things
Speaker 1: that I've seen in great mentors. So I love that,
Speaker 1: and I know you know. I want to ask a
Speaker 1: couple of questions. We are going to take a break
Speaker 1: for just a second for some of our sponsors, but
Speaker 1: when we get back, Mark, I want to ask you
Speaker 1: about that the difference between a leader and a leg builder.
Speaker 1: I love that you use that language, and I love
Speaker 1: that there is a difference. And I talk about legacy
Speaker 1: a lot, so I can't wait to hear about this.
Speaker 1: But we will be right back after a few works
Speaker 1: from our sponsors. All right, Mark, leader and a legacy builder.
Speaker 1: So walk me through what's the difference between these two things.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a great question. I get asked a lot,
Speaker 2: but we have to kind of rewind a bit further.
Speaker 2: Think about those of us who were junior in our careers.
Speaker 2: We were doers and it was functional, right. We need
Speaker 2: a job, we got bills to pay, right, and we
Speaker 2: had to start somewhere right. But if you're a good doer,
Speaker 2: oftentimes you'll get elevated to become a manager, right. And
Speaker 2: if you're a manager, that can be more transactional. If
Speaker 2: you think about business schools, some of them are called
Speaker 2: schools of management. We learned how to be a manager.
Speaker 2: But when I say that's transactional, it's like we're managing projects.
Speaker 2: We're managing timelines and budgets and resources and metrics of
Speaker 2: performance and people to get the job done right. Well,
Speaker 2: that might create a sense where if someone works for you,
Speaker 2: And by the way, my career, I've never said anyone
Speaker 2: works for me. I say they work with me. Right,
Speaker 2: But in this hierarchical command and control style that I'm
Speaker 2: trying to transform, it makes someone say, if I'm working
Speaker 2: for you, I must obey you because you're a manager
Speaker 2: with a title that's bigger than mine and a voice
Speaker 2: that's bigger than mine. And so that becomes transactional. Now
Speaker 2: you have an opportunity as a manager to grow into
Speaker 2: a leader, and a leader is more relational someone I
Speaker 2: want to follow. Right, But if I'm a legacy builder,
Speaker 2: it's more than just your Lorenzo the person I want
Speaker 2: to follow. Well, you're such a great leader, and I
Speaker 2: enjoy working with you so much that I want to
Speaker 2: lead like you when it's my turn to lead. And
Speaker 2: that's the living legacy that you bequeath to your team members. Right,
Speaker 2: it's not legacy. That means something you bequeath after you're
Speaker 2: dead and buried, something of value that you give to
Speaker 2: a loved one. It's how do you treat your team
Speaker 2: members and lead them in a way that they not
Speaker 2: only want to follow you willingly, not just obey you,
Speaker 2: but they want to lead like you. And when I
Speaker 2: work for Pizza Hut in the PepsiCo world, back when
Speaker 2: they still owned us, we refer to that as your
Speaker 2: leadership shadow. So how are you casting your leadership shadow? Right?
Speaker 2: And I think that's really what people understand more and
Speaker 2: better today because I did you use the word mentors.
Speaker 2: I had some wonderful mentors who walked alongside me, from
Speaker 2: my professor in advertising and marketing at the University of Kansas,
Speaker 2: doctor Tim Bankston, who taught me out of going to
Speaker 2: law school and into going to graduate school at Northwestern
Speaker 2: where I learned the feat of doctor Don Schultz, who
Speaker 2: came up with the whole concept of integrated Marketing Communications
Speaker 2: or IMC, which there are curriculums all over the world.
Speaker 2: Now I was on the early stages of that. I
Speaker 2: was IMC before IMC was cool. Well, that then served
Speaker 2: as the bedrock or foundation for my marketing communications strategies
Speaker 2: going forward with all the brands that I work with.
Speaker 2: And then one brand I worked for easily the most
Speaker 2: inspirational leader, a guy named David Novak when I was
Speaker 2: at Pizza Hut, and he was ahead of marketing, and
Speaker 2: so then he later rose up the ranks within PepsiCo
Speaker 2: and then you know, became the co founder and CEO
Speaker 2: of Young Brands, which was the new organization that was
Speaker 2: banded together after PepsiCo divested the restaurant brands. And I
Speaker 2: learned so much from him that I wanted to lead
Speaker 2: like him. And then I had another mentor, David Overton
Speaker 2: at the Cheesecake Factory, the founder and dynamic CEO and chairman,
Speaker 2: and just learned a lot of how to work and
Speaker 2: how to always strive for excellence. So if I learned
Speaker 2: about inspiration, reward and recognition and the idea that the
Speaker 2: idea that big ideas moved business from David Novak, I
Speaker 2: learned about casting a vision and then organizing an organization
Speaker 2: around it. And we think about almost three hundred menu items,
Speaker 2: almost all made fresh from scratch, and it's been going
Speaker 2: on for over forty some years now, and I think
Speaker 2: that those are people that impacted my life to where
Speaker 2: I now want to pay it backward. And that's why
Speaker 2: I ended up writing this book, was to take all
Speaker 2: of these key experiences and observation of those I admire,
Speaker 2: along with the curation of research that supports my thesis
Speaker 2: and subject matter experts that can go deeper than I
Speaker 2: can go, and I'm crafting what I call a curated
Speaker 2: reading experience that isn't just something you'll pick up in
Speaker 2: an airport and finish when you land. It's a pretty
Speaker 2: lengthy tome, but it's been written carefully and thoughtfully and
Speaker 2: planfully to carry the reader through a journey with four
Speaker 2: key sections. You know, how do you cultivate your field
Speaker 2: for purposeful growth? And it's the you know, the reason
Speaker 2: why you know growth matters, the reason why purposeful growth
Speaker 2: matters even more. And then it's planting your seed for
Speaker 2: purposeful self and that's all about the self reflective part
Speaker 2: of who am I, where do I want to go?
Speaker 2: And how do I get there? And then there's the
Speaker 2: third section, which is the medior section with the leaf
Speaker 2: growth model, and that's you know, kind of driving you
Speaker 2: forward for purposeful work, right, and then finally it's scattering
Speaker 2: your seeds for purposeful life. And so if you think
Speaker 2: about that four circle band diagram, all of that is
Speaker 2: revolving around purposeful growth, and it's different for all of us.
Speaker 2: I created my own purpose statement a few years ago,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to drink my own kool aid, and
Speaker 2: I said, Lorenzo, I don't want to just make money
Speaker 2: and retire. I want to make a difference and inspire.
Speaker 2: And that means making a difference in the lives of
Speaker 2: others and inspiring them to want to do likewise. So
Speaker 2: it creates this virtuous cycle of reciprocity. And that's what
Speaker 2: I call paying it backward because it's not paying it forward.
Speaker 2: Because when I go to Starbucks, and I'm a big
Speaker 2: coffee junkie and I'm also a growth junkie, so a
Speaker 2: little both one hand washes the other. I'll pay for
Speaker 2: the car behind me in an intentional active kindness, not
Speaker 2: some random active kindness if the spirit moves me. But
Speaker 2: I kind of made that my thing because it fits
Speaker 2: perfectly with my purpose statement because when I do that,
Speaker 2: I go to the to carry out or drive through
Speaker 2: a counter and tell the person just tell them God
Speaker 2: bless you your debt has been paid, and they say, oh,
Speaker 2: that's so nice, And then I drive off and I
Speaker 2: say a silent prayer for them. I don't know them,
Speaker 2: they don't know me, and I have no idea what
Speaker 2: they're going through in their life, but I'm merely praying
Speaker 2: for them to be blessed in some way by that
Speaker 2: intentional act of kindness. And there's a law of reciprocity,
Speaker 2: and it's truly a law proven by research. It says,
Speaker 2: when someone does something nice for you, you feel a
Speaker 2: deep urge to do something nice for somebody else, and
Speaker 2: oftentimes in greater measure. So now imagine that person feeling
Speaker 2: blessed at someone in the car ahead of them cared
Speaker 2: enough about them to not only bless them with a
Speaker 2: cup of copy or two, depending on how many people
Speaker 2: are in the car, but an actual blessing. And don't
Speaker 2: you think they might want to do likewise for the
Speaker 2: car behind them, and the car behind them, and the
Speaker 2: car behind them. I'm told it happens. So imagine the
Speaker 2: ripple of fact of just one active kindness or talking
Speaker 2: to and dealing with and loving on one team member
Speaker 2: who might be in your direct report. Once step Pebble
Speaker 2: goes in the pond, you don't see the pebble anymore,
Speaker 2: but you see the ripple on top of the water. Now,
Speaker 2: imagine if you have four or five direct reports, you
Speaker 2: have the opportunity for four or five pebbles, and now
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, exponentially you're reaching more people and
Speaker 2: more lives. And so for me, that's what it's all about. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: There's there's a lot of things you spoke about that
Speaker 1: that really resonated with me. And I think the kind
Speaker 1: of you know, doing something with no expectation of return,
Speaker 1: you know, doing the right thing, kind of being that
Speaker 1: pebble to make the positive ripple the cross. I think
Speaker 1: it's such an important thing and just in life in general,
Speaker 1: but especially when you are responsible for the development and
Speaker 1: the success of kind of people under your leadership or
Speaker 1: you know a month you with the work that you
Speaker 1: do every single day. I also think, you know, you
Speaker 1: brought this up around the power and the time you
Speaker 1: have to spend figuring out who you are. And I
Speaker 1: love kind of the questions that you ask and how
Speaker 1: you talk about that. Because I was having this conversation
Speaker 1: not too long ago with Elizabeth Biennik who's also another
Speaker 1: leadership author around. Sometimes we look in the mirror and
Speaker 1: we see the aspirational version of ourselves, who we want
Speaker 1: to be, who we think we should be, how we
Speaker 1: think we show up, and if we really want to
Speaker 1: be able to pour into others, we also have to
Speaker 1: pour into ourselves with an with with with an element
Speaker 1: of self accountability and and and a realization of that
Speaker 1: how we think we show up may not actually be
Speaker 1: how we show up. And we have to do that
Speaker 1: work to ask those around us and bring them on
Speaker 1: the journey and be open enough to take that in.
Speaker 1: That's a critical piece.
Speaker 2: Yeah, amen, brother, I tell you there's this chapter in
Speaker 2: the book that says, you know, who are you? And
Speaker 2: there's four dimensional four dimensions of you As I see
Speaker 2: it again, they're all intertwined like that four circle vent
Speaker 2: diagram that I use as a model throughout the book.
Speaker 2: It's not the model for everything, but I found it
Speaker 2: to be pretty darn good for a lot of things.
Speaker 2: And you're right, there is who you think you are,
Speaker 2: there's who you actually are, there's who others see you
Speaker 2: as being to your point about you know, getting feedback,
Speaker 2: and then there's who you ideally want to be, and
Speaker 2: so you have to understand each of those four circles,
Speaker 2: and there are diagnostic tools that are out there that
Speaker 2: can help you understand. You know, not only who you
Speaker 2: think you are, but who you actually are. And that
Speaker 2: doesn't mean it's bad. It's like when you take disc
Speaker 2: or Myers Briggs or things like that, you're basically saying,
Speaker 2: here's who I am. Right. But if you just stop
Speaker 2: there and you don't get the feedback from people around you,
Speaker 2: because you know, perception is reality. It's not what you think,
Speaker 2: it's what they're seeing you as being, and they could
Speaker 2: help coach you and show you some blind spots that
Speaker 2: maybe you didn't know you had. And then finally it's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: who do you ideally want to be? And then the
Speaker 2: next chapter tells you how you get there? Right, so
Speaker 2: the four dimensions of you? But I like what you
Speaker 2: said about yourself and so in this you know world
Speaker 2: of Simon Sinek start with why I love the model
Speaker 2: and I've admired it for a long time that I
Speaker 2: got to thinking, when I had the time to think,
Speaker 2: that we should actually start with who and specifically who
Speaker 2: we serve. And so if you think about it, there's
Speaker 2: a four circle then diagram. We serve personally ourselves, mentally, physically, emotionally,
Speaker 2: and maybe financially. We serve you know, relationally, those we
Speaker 2: love and those who love us in our life, and
Speaker 2: we serve professionally in our workplace. You know, who do
Speaker 2: we serve? It could be our team members, be our superiors,
Speaker 2: it could be our clients or customers or you know,
Speaker 2: business partners. And then it's spiritually what do we believe
Speaker 2: and what binds all that together? And so for circle
Speaker 2: bend diagram, we serve personally, relationally, professionally, and spiritually. That
Speaker 2: leads us to our why, which is our motivation or
Speaker 2: purpose are raised on to today. I'm sure I'm saying
Speaker 2: it wrong. I'm not French. That then leads us to
Speaker 2: our how. How are we uniquely gifted to help do
Speaker 2: something you know, positive in the world, and how are
Speaker 2: we going to invest ourselves and our gifts to do that?
Speaker 2: And then ultimately what do we do with the time
Speaker 2: that we're given? And I don't know, Lorenzo about you,
Speaker 2: but for me, I know one thing. I don't know much,
Speaker 2: but we won't all have twenty four hours in a
Speaker 2: given day, not one of us has a minute more
Speaker 2: or a minute less, and so the what should be
Speaker 2: this collection of what do we stand for and what
Speaker 2: will we do to achieve whatever purpose we feel on
Speaker 2: our heart we should be working toward. And that's why
Speaker 2: I like the word purpose full more than just purpose,
Speaker 2: because purposeful is an action word. Purpose is down and
Speaker 2: it might seem like people are, you know, well, where's
Speaker 2: my purpose? But if you're purposeful, you're working toward what
Speaker 2: it could ultimately and it could change multiple times during
Speaker 2: seasons of your life, and you don't have to get
Speaker 2: wrapped up into well, I'm age forty whatever, and I
Speaker 2: don't feel I have my purpose yet? How can I find?
Speaker 2: Where is it? You know, like it's some piece of
Speaker 2: loss luggage. But you have to be not just open minded,
Speaker 2: but open hearted to receive the signals that may be
Speaker 2: around you, the dots that if you were to be
Speaker 2: open minded and open hearted, you could start connecting and
Speaker 2: see there's a red thread woven throughout things. For me,
Speaker 2: my career spanned restaurant, retail, hospitality, and entertainment. The red
Speaker 2: thread woven through all of it is servant leadership and
Speaker 2: feeling like hospitality of helping someone have their best day
Speaker 2: or best moment. When I was Senior VP of Marketing
Speaker 2: and Sales at Universal Studios, Hollywood, I would be able
Speaker 2: to walk the park and I'd see people enjoying their
Speaker 2: best day, or at the cheesecake factory and seeing people
Speaker 2: celebrating a birthday and anniversary, or having just a wonderful
Speaker 2: time together over a meal in an over the top
Speaker 2: immersive dining experience. Those are things that lit me and
Speaker 2: continue to light me up. What is it for you?
Speaker 2: And so that's what led me to my purpose statement.
Speaker 2: I said, I got to put this in writing because
Speaker 2: I want this to be the foundation for how I
Speaker 2: want to live the back half of my life and career.
Speaker 1: No, I love that mark. I think it's so powerful.
Speaker 1: And having that intention, being able to document it, taking
Speaker 1: the time to reflect on it, and then thinking around, like,
Speaker 1: how how does this kind of this this purposeful statement,
Speaker 1: how does this theory play itself out in actionable steps
Speaker 1: and things that everyone can do? I think is absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 1: You know, I I definitely appreciate the time of the
Speaker 1: dialogue to day around the book. You know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna continue this dialogue in our in our Pillars
Speaker 1: and pitfallse new kind of section of the podcast here
Speaker 1: over onlines guide dot com. But first I want to say, please,
Speaker 1: if you have a checond go check out the Purposeful
Speaker 1: Growth Revolution Four Ways to Grow from Leader to Legacy
Speaker 1: Builder and check that out. We fully endorse it. We
Speaker 1: love the content, we think is extremely powerful and actionable.
Speaker 1: But where else, Mark, Where else can people find you?
Speaker 1: How can they see more of your content? Where can
Speaker 1: they subscribe?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And the books available on Amazon and you can
Speaker 2: get it as Kinderley book or paperback or hardcover if
Speaker 2: that's your jam. Also as an audiobook. I know there's more,
Speaker 2: more and more people that are to me, so many. Yeah,
Speaker 2: check out the audiobook. You can listen to a five
Speaker 2: minute little summary at the very very beginning, and if
Speaker 2: that float your boat, go ahead and make the purchase
Speaker 2: and link in with me. I want you to follow
Speaker 2: and connect with me so we can continue this conversation
Speaker 2: so that I can learn from you. And I know
Speaker 2: your listeners have a ton of experiences and ideas to
Speaker 2: share and I would love to listen to them and
Speaker 2: see if it can help continue along my growth journey.
Speaker 2: So hit me up on LinkedIn and then if you
Speaker 2: would go to my website at Mark A. Mears m
Speaker 2: E A R. S. Markamears dot com and there you'll
Speaker 2: find a very brief and free purposeful growth self assessment
Speaker 2: that you can take. It's about five six seven minutes long,
Speaker 2: and it will help provide a benchmark of where you
Speaker 2: are in this whole concept of purposeful growth in your
Speaker 2: life and in your work. And I'll send you a
Speaker 2: report customized with your scores along with some tips for myself,
Speaker 2: and that would really help give me an understanding of
Speaker 2: who is where in this kind of journey of purposeful growth.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Mark once again, and everybody, thank
Speaker 1: you for listening, and we'll talk to you all next time.
Speaker 2: Thank you.