#38: Jon Gordon (Bestselling Author) — On Staying Positive, Self-Belief, and the Comparison Trap

May 24, 2020 by Cal Walters in Intentional Living, Leadership

Jon Gordon's best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous Fortune 500 companies, professional and college sports teams, school districts, hospitals, and non-profits. He is the author of 20 books including 8 best-sellers: The Energy Bus, The Carpenter, Training Camp, You Win in the Locker Room First, The Power of Positive Leadership, The Power of a Positive Team, The Coffee Bean and his latest Stay Positive.

Jon and his tips have been featured on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, The Golf Channel, Fox and Friends and in numerous magazines and newspapers. His clients include The Los Angeles Dodgers, Campbell’s Soup, Dell, Publix, Southwest Airlines, Miami Heat, The Los Angeles Rams, Snapchat, BB&T Bank, Clemson Football, Northwestern Mutual, West Point Academy and more. Jon is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters in Teaching from Emory University. He and his training/consulting company are passionate about developing positive leaders, organizations and teams.

Jon has two new books coming out this year, The Garden and Relationship Grit. The Garden is an enlightening and encouraging spiritual fable that reveals the 5 D’s that can sabotage us and a proven plan to help us overcome and win the battle in our mind. Rooted in Jon Gordon’s faith tradition, this fable is a different kind of book than his previous business fables. However, in his familiar trademark style, he takes a complex subject and simplifies it to help people take action and improve their lives.

Everyone will struggle with fear, anxiety, or stress at some point in their lives, and everyone will have to overcome these challenges to create the life they were meant to live. Given that there are many contributing factors that influence how we think and feel, Jon wrote this book to share how the power of love, encouragement, truth, faith, and belief can be part of the solution.

In Relationship Grit, Jon and his wife, Kathryn, reveal what brought them together, what kept them together through difficult times, and what continues to sustain their love and passion for one another to this day. They candidly share their mistakes, decisions that almost destroyed their marriage, and successes so you can learn from their experiences and make your relationship stronger.

Connect with Jon on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Youtube.

Episode Transcript

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#37: Juliet Funt (CEO of WhiteSpace at Work) — How to Combat Overload and Overwhelm

May 13, 2020 by Cal Walters in Intentional Living, Leadership

Juliet Funt is the CEO of WhiteSpace at Work, a training and consulting firm that helps organizations, their leaders and employees flip the norms of business in order to reclaim their creativity, productivity and engagement. With thought-provoking content and immediately actionable tools, she has become a nationally recognized expert in coping with the Age of Overload in which we all live and work.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and overloaded with what seems like busy work? Ever wonder whether there is a smarter, healthier, and more sustainable way to work? If so, you are going to love my guest on the podcast this week.

Juliet Funt is the CEO of WhiteSpace at Work, a training and consulting firm that helps organizations, their leaders and employees flip the norms of business in order to reclaim their creativity, productivity and engagement. With thought-provoking content and immediately actionable tools, she has become a nationally recognized expert in coping with the Age of Overload in which we all live and work.

Juliet helps professionals learn the pivotal difference between activity and productivity. She teaches them a streamlined method for personal process improvement – leading to more creativity and engagement. She helps executives, managers and teams answer the critical question “What thoughts deserve my full attention today?”

Juliet regularly wows audiences as a high-impact, high-energy speaker, including multiple speeches at the Global Leadership Summit. Yet her deeper mission is to show organizations how WhiteSpace® can change the negative patterns and behaviors that prevent them from achieving optimum results. Her clients include a number of Fortune 100 companies and span a wide array of industries, from financial services to technology, manufacturing to the military, and executive workshops to audiences as large as 7,000.

Incredibly intuitive, Juliet successfully blends highly customized content with a keen understanding of clients’ needs in her programs and consulting work. With a unique blend of charisma, humor and tough love, she has the uncanny ability to connect with people at all levels, compelling them to make real, lasting change. Yet beneath her powerful assets, she is both authentic and accessible. As a busy corporate speaker and consultant, business owner, wife, and mother of three young boys, she practices on a daily basis the WhiteSpace® concept she shares with clients. Juliet Funt is a force for change in organizations around the world, helping them find their WhiteSpace, recharge their people and reclaim their passion for work. Juliet is a graduate of Northwestern University.

On this episode we discuss [time is from audio version]:

Her journey and how this concept of WhiteSpace was conceived [4:00]
- “We have a very passionate belief that there is an element called white space that is missing from work, and white space is the time—the open, thoughtful time that used to exist in between things.”
Discovering the beauty of white space late at night when her children were very young [5:45]
- “What I found was that trapped in that really dark, white space, all sorts of interesting things started happening because I couldn’t use a fix of any kind of activity to get my brain distracted. I felt feelings. I designed products. And I clarified things in my marriage, and I gave myself executive feedback.”
Even though people agree that busy work is a problem, why are we not making more progress in this area? [7:25]
- “There is a worship of busyness and a fear of openness. The fear is that openness equals nothingness. The fear is that when you are not being active you are not being productive.”
- “That all speaks to an enormous lack of trust in the value of thinking.”
Quantifying the negative impact of busy work on organizations [10:30]
- “We usually see about one million dollars of annual waste for every fifty people in a group.”
- “It exhausts people. It keeps them farther away from the meaningful work that inspires them.”
- “Strategically, it creates enormous amounts of re-work and wasted time.”
- “A Bloomberg article just came out that said that 45% of workers are burned out 6-8 weeks into COVID, and the work day is 3 hours longer.”
How to begin shifting to a more productive way of working [15:15]
- “A mindset shift if more important than a tactical shift.”
- “Common sense and common practice are two different things.”
- “The most important mindset that you are going to want to start talking about is called a reductive mindset.”
- “A reductive mindset is mathematical. This sense of removing items. Most companies and organizations have an additive sense. They just add and add and add.”
- “Where can you cut? Where can you strip? Where can you delegate . . . postpone? Where can you consolidate? Where can you take reporting that was weekly and make it monthly? Can you take monthly and make it quarterly?”
Thoughts on a reductive or additive mindset in the military [20:00]
Distrust vs. trust of white space in leaders [22:30]
- “What if my mind knows where it is heading? What if my mind is chewing on something, cooking something, that is eventually going to pop into a relevant business contribution?”
Whether white space is urgent [24:00]
- “White space can be recuperative or constructive . . . that recuperative white space is pretty urgent.”
How to make emails and meetings more productive [24:30]
- “90% of the time email is a request for action and not a request for observation.”
2D vs. 3D communication and communication mediums [28:15]

During the interview, Juliet offered the opportunity for your team to take the following survey to assess how each member is doing.

Watch this video to learn more about the great work WhiteSpace at Work is doing:

Visit WhiteSpaceatWork.com to learn more about the great work Juliet and her team are doing.

Connect with Juliet by sending her an email at juliet@whitespaceatwork.com or follow her on LinkedIn or Twitter. Juliet tweets @whitespaceatwrk.

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#36: Chevy Cook (Co-Founder of Military Mentors) — On Adversity, Self-Belief, and the Power of Mentors

May 11, 2020 by Cal Walters in Intentional Living, Leadership

I'm really excited to bring you the inspiring story of Chaveso "Chevy" Cook! On this episode, you will hear Chevy share his powerful story of overcoming adversity as a child and finding mentors that helped him believe in himself and chart the course that led to where he is today.

I’m really excited to bring you the inspiring story of Chaveso “Chevy” Cook!

On this episode, you will hear Chevy share his powerful story of overcoming adversity as a child and finding mentors that helped him believe in himself and chart a course of achievement, purpose, and contribution. Chevy is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Military Mentors, a registered 501(c)(3) with a mission to elevate, educate, and facilitate mentoring for the military and beyond.

Chevy graduated from West Point in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He also has a M.A. in Leadership Development from the University of Texas El Paso, and an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. He currently lives in Boston, MA and is pursuing doctoral studies at Tufts University. He is also a visiting researcher at Harvard Kennedy School.

A long serving member of the special operations community, he started his Army career in the historic 82nd Airborne Division and has served the majority of his career at Fort Bragg, NC. He also served as both a Tactical Officer and a Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership instructor at West Point.

Chevy is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, Team Red, White, & Blue, the Council on Foreign Relations, and an Advisory Board Member at the Positivity Project. Chevy's work has been published in the International Mentoring Association, the Journal of the Adjutant General’s Corp Regimental Association, Armor Magazine, Journal of Character and Leadership Development, Military Review, Association of the United States Army, Infantry Journal, Joint Forces Quarterly, Small Wars Journal, Strategy Bridge, IO Sphere, White House Studies, and has a pending book under review with Texas A&M Press.

His military education includes the Command and General Staff Officer Course, Air Defense Artillery Captain’s Career and Basic Courses, PSYOP Qualification Course, Arabic Special Operations Language Training, SERE-C (High Risk), Basic and Advanced Airborne School, Air Assault School, MC-6/T-11 Jumpmaster Instructor Course, Gryphon Group Mobile Force Protection Course, Anti-Terrorism Basic Officer Course, Military Deception Planners Course, Anti-Terrorism Evasive Driver’s Course, Information Operations Capabilities and Applications Course, Contracting Officers Representative Course, Air Force Combat Airmen Skills Training/Joint Air Functional Course, and Combatives Level I.

Some of his awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (4th award), Joint Service Commendation Medal (2nd award), Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal (2nd award), German Armed Forces Proficiency Badge (Gold), German Parachutist Wings, Egyptian Parachutist Wings, Air Assault Badge, Master Parachutist Badge, the Major General Robert McClure Medal (Bronze), and the 2016 Secretary of the Army Diversity and Leadership Award.

Chevy is married to his high school sweetheart Ashley, and their beautiful daughters are London and Lola.

On this episode, we discuss:

Chevy’s story of overcoming childhood adversity [4:40]
- He and his brother moved houses when his father went to prison [6:00]
How he coped with all of the transition during his childhood [7:00]
The powerful relationship he has with his adoptive mother, Mama J [11:00]
- “She is evidence to me of a higher power because she embodies what I would think an angel would be in human form.”
Two teachers that mentored Chevy at a pivotal moment in his life [13:00]
- They asked Chevy where he wanted to be in 5 years.
How mentors helped him believe in himself in a way he never did before [16:45]
- “I was a broken little man.”
The power of questions between a mentor and mentee [18:15]
- “The answer is somewhere inside of you.”
The importance of follow-up, consistency, and resourcing in mentoring [19:45]
- A crucible moment has three components: (1) assess; (2) challenge; and (3) support.
- “The support piece is super important.”
How he processed his dad’s incarceration [23:00]
Processing anger from his childhood [28:00]
- “These stories are not my stories.”
- “I’ve come to believe that I’m not here to judge anybody.”
The biggest things he’s learned about character development during his PhD studies [32:30]
- Nature vs. nurture in character development
Practical takeaways for how to develop character [35:00]
How the leader can reinforce character development in the culture [37:30]
- “The leader has to become a student in organizational culture and organizational behavior.”
- The three layers of organizational culture: artifacts, espoused values, and shared basic assumptions.
The leader working in the organization vs. working on the organization [41:00]
A discussion about his top two book recommendations [45:00]

Learn more about Military Mentors at MilitaryMentors.org and by following them on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Connect with Chevy on LinkedIn or Facebook.

During this episode, Chevy recommends the following books:

The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal

By Loehr, Jim, Schwartz, Tony

Expect Nothing: A Zen Guide

By Bryan, Clarice

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#35: Ryan Hawk (The Learning Leader Show) — Leadership Lessons from 350+ Interviews

April 19, 2020 by Cal Walters in Leadership

Today, I'm really excited to bring you an interview with Ryan Hawk! Ryan Hawk is a keynote speaker, author, advisor, and the host of The Learning Leader Show, which Forbes called "the most dynamic leadership podcast out there" and Inc. Magazine recognized on its list of "5 Podcasts to Make You a Smarter Leader."

Today, I’m really excited to bring you an interview with Ryan Hawk! Ryan Hawk is a keynote speaker, author, advisor, and the host of The Learning Leader Show, which Forbes called "the most dynamic leadership podcast out there" and Inc. Magazine recognized on its list of "5 Podcasts to Make You a Smarter Leader." Featuring interviews with hundreds of best-selling authors and world-renowned corporate, athletic, and military leaders, the show has millions of listeners in more than 150 countries. He is the author of Welcome To Management: How To Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader.

Welcome to Management has received a lot of praise, and for good reason. #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Pink called Welcome to Management “the ultimate all-in-one guide to becoming a great leader.” New York Times bestselling author General (Ret.) Stanley McChrystal said, “Ryan’s work provides nuanced and articulate insights into the best way to begin developing a plan to bring to light how we should lead—and it starts with reexamining ourselves.” Additionally, New York Times bestselling author Liz Wiseman said, “Ryan has uncovered the secrets of what the best leaders do and how they think. If you are a new manager transitioning from player to coach, do yourself and your team a favor and read this book.”

As head of Brixey & Meyer's leadership advisory practice, Ryan speaks regularly at Fortune 500 companies, works with teams and players in the NFL, NBA, and NCAA, and facilitates "Leadership Circles" that offer structured guidance and collaborative feedback to new and experienced leaders.

A lifelong student of leadership, Ryan was a high school, college, and professional quarterback and captain who advanced professionally from award-winning individual contributor to VP of Sales for a multibillion-dollar company.

Ryan draws upon his experiences, empirical evidence, and expert insights to strive for continuous improvement in his own life and to inspire other leaders to achieve and sustain excellence. He is passionate about helping others to become humble servant leaders who build committed organizations, as intentionally and painlessly as possible.

On this episode, we discuss:

His “why” for teaching [4:30]
- “When you’ve been given a lot, I feel this responsibility to give a lot.”
- “I chose to create my own form of a leadership PhD program by going directly to the professors I wanted to speak with, and those are the guests of my show, The Learning Leader Show.”
How it feels to have his book published [8:30]
For whom Welcome to Management was written [11:00]
The story behind the title of his book [13:00]
After over 350 interviews, what he says are the commonalities between those who sustain excellence over time [15:00]
- “It is important to define excellence. I think excellence is the gradual pursuit . . . the gradual actions of getting just a bit better everyday. . . that the trajectory is going up . . . as James Clear would say, “the aggregation of marginal gains.”
- “If there are two behaviors of people that I’ve found . . . when it comes to excellence is first they are very thoughtful individuals. They take time to reflect, to gain a true understanding of what’s real, what’s not, what is happening. . . . The second, and it stems from them being very thoughtful, is that they are intentional. . . . Once they’ve reflected, they go.”
His 4-part learning framework — learn, test, reflect, and teach [18:00]
The difference between a mentor and a coach [22:00]
Seeking and receiving feedback from a coach [24:30]
If you get feedback, do you have to take it? [28:00]
Leaders creating compliance vs. commitment [34:00]
Your “Say-Do Gap” [36:45]
Creating a positive culture [37:30]
- “It’s what you do more so than what you say.”
- “People are looking to you. . . . They are watching you more than you even realize. They are watching everything.”
Tips from an interview with GEN (ret.) McChrystal on leading in uncertain times and crisis [42:00]
- Communicate relentlessly
- Match your internal operating pace with that of your external environment.
- Continue to reiterate what winning looks like for your organization.
What Ryan has learned about asking good questions from over 350 interviews on The Learning Leader Show. [45:30]
- “I’ve learned that the best questions, the ones that really get us somewhere, are the follow up questions.”
Taking risks and getting started [48:00]
- “We’re all going to be pretty average or below average the first time we do something. You just can’t worry about that. Keep striving to get better.”

Find out more about Ryan and his work at LearningLeader.com and connect with him on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Check out Ryan’s new book, which is receiving rave reviews:

Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader

By Hawk, Ryan

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#34: LTG (Ret.) Bob Caslen (West Point Legend/USC President) — On Service, Character, & Failure

April 18, 2020 by Cal Walters in Intentional Living, Leadership

Today, I am so privileged and honored to bring you insights from a true hero of mine, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Robert Caslen, who currently serves as the 29th President of the University of South Carolina.  Go Gamecocks!  General Caslen served 43 years in the United States Army.  His military career culminated in 2018 as the 59th Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Today, I am so privileged and honored to bring you insights from a true hero of mine, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Robert Caslen, who currently serves as the 29th President of the University of South Carolina. Go Gamecocks!

General Caslen served 43 years in the United States Army. His military career culminated in 2018 as the 59th Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Under his direction as Superintendent, West Point was recognized as the number one public college in the Nation by Forbes Magazine and the number one public college by U.S. News and World Report. Through the establishment of Centers of Excellence at West Point, General Caslen connected the operational Army with West Point research and intellectual capital. He refined West Point’s leadership program by making professional ethics a priority and essential part of leadership and character development. He worked tirelessly to expand the diversity of cadets and faculty alike, and he dramatically expanded West Point’s minority and women populations to reflect the demographics of the Army that West Point’s graduates help lead.

Working with the Director of Athletics, he revamped the athletic program, made it self-sustaining, and fielded 25 competitive intercollegiate teams. He created partnerships with the NCAA and Department of Defense to conduct research into preventing and treating concussions and traumatic brain injury that have led to significant improvements in prevention and care. He stood up the Army Cyber Institute to build expertise and Army leaders prepared for the new cyber fight. And, fulfilling a pledge he made soon after becoming Superintendent, he led a sweeping reversal of Army’s football program and developed a culture of excellence through winning with character, culminating in Army defeating Navy in 2016 for the first time in 14 years, and beating both Air Force and Navy in 2017 to win the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy for the first time in 21 years.

Before becoming the West Point Superintendent, General Caslen served as the Chief of the Office of Security Cooperation in Iraq, where he served as the senior military commander in Iraq after the drawdown of U.S. and allied forces in 2011. Caslen held several other notable positions including commanding general of Multi National Division-North during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Chief of Staff of both the 101st Airborne Division (AASLT) and the 10th Mountain Division, where he also served as the Division’s Chief of Staff during Operation Enduring Freedom. He also has served in combat and overseas deployments in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Joint Task Force Bravo in Honduras, and Operation Uphold Democracy and the United Nations Mission in Haiti.

He is a graduate of West Point and he holds an MBA from Long Island University and a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Kansas State University. He was also recognized with an honorary Doctorate from Long Island University. He is a member of the Kansas State Engineering College Hall of Fame, received a Life Time of Service Award from the American Red Cross, was recognized with the Honorary Rock of the Year Award for his efforts in diversity as the Superintendent of West Point.

He also received the 2018 Gerald R. Ford Legends Award for lifetime service, and was the 2019 recipient of the NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award, joining the ranks of Tony Dungy, John Wooden, and Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan, Ford, and George H.W. Bush. Caslen also serves as the Special Advisor on Executive Leadership and Character Development at Higher Echelon. He is a nationally recognized authority on leader development and author of The Character Edge: Leading and Winning with Integrity, which is scheduled to be published in October 2020.

On this episode, we discuss [time marks for audio version]:

His favorite things about living in South Carolina [7:00]
His “Why” for Serving [9:30]
- “The greatest among you is the servant among you.”
- “People talk about legacy and wanting to see their name on a building as a legacy. I’d rather see my legacy as the people I had the ability to influence and to improve their life and give them great opportunities for hope in the future.”
How his view of service has changed over time [11:30]
What is means to be a caring leader [13:15]
- “Caring is not coddling them and babying them. It is developing them.”
Leadership as helping people achieve excellence [15:20]
- “Leadership is enabling people to live a life of excellence. To me, excellence is living to the upper level of your potential.”
- “When you make mistakes, that’s how you grow.”
Developing leaders [17:20]
- “Instead of leadership by attrition, I believe in leadership by development.”
The leader taking ownership over development of team [18:20]
- “When they succeed, the leader never takes credit. When they fail, the leader takes all responsibility. If I’m developing a subordinate and they don’t meet the standard, it’s my fault . . . I look internally and say how did I mess this up.”
- “Development is not just giving someone a job description.”
- “It takes mental and morale courage to sit down with someone, look them in the eye, and tell them they are not meeting the standard.”
Self-leadership [20:40]
- “The most effective leaders are leaders that lead from the front and share hardships.”
- “If you fail on character, you fail on leadership.”
- “Character is the internalization of values. . . Those values are a result of your upbringing . . . the people you hang around with . . . the books you read . . . what you read on the computer screen.”
- “What comes out of us is the true manifestation of what we’ve internalized.”
His morning routine [25:30]
His gym workouts and one way he recognizes excellence at the University of South Carolina [27:00]
Maintaining a calm, composed demeanor [29:00]
- “It’s easy to lose your temper, and it accomplishes nothing.”
- “As a leader, everyone starts to reflect the personality of the leader.”
Leadership advice for high stress, uncertain environments like COVID-19 [32:30]
- “The most important part about leadership in a crisis is to create and maintain hope because people in a crisis must have hope . . . The best way to get hope is to be a leader that they trust.”
- “You build trust through competence . . . character . . . caring . . . and communication.”
His decision-making framework [35:25]
How failure and adversity have shaped him [37:15]
Marriage advice and parenting advice [42:00]
His upcoming book, The Character Edge: Leading and Winning with Integrity [46:20]

Connect with President Caslen on his website or follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter

Below is President’s Caslen’s upcoming book and another book he recommended on marriage:

The Character Edge: Leading and Winning with Integrity

By Jr., Robert L. Caslen, Matthews, Michael D.

His Needs, Her Needs: Building a Marriage That Lasts

By Harley, Willard F. Jr.

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