“It’s also a RISK. Why? Because every action is an investment. Every action. Every action moves some kind of initiative forward, indicates your interest, builds something, creates something. So what are you investing in? Is it meaningful? Is it building the future, culture, and relationships that you truly want in all spheres of your influence? What is your ongoing investment returning?”

“Every act of leadership and creation you successfully execute follows the same pattern.  And I know that you are doing very challenging things, so you need to find those reserves of energy, belief, commitment, and resourcefulness from a deep, purposeful place to see you through and move on to your next challenge.  And I believe that you will.”

“Get it? We have the opportunity for leadership all the time, and we often shrink away.  It would have been easy to throw that food away, but also deeply dissatisfying to the team.  This was a real task born of frustration and aspiration, as all leadership is.  It required marketing, sales, agreements made with many parties, significant energy and vulnerability to step out and make it happen, and vulnerability on the part of the interested to investigate the too-good-to-be-true offer and navigate the agreement as well.  This act of persuading the right people, in the right volume, to take the right actions, at the right time was leadership, and I accepted the call.  People saw it, and it left a positive impression on them, as all successful acts of leadership do.  There was a collective sense of increase.”

“Yesterday I was given a leadership challenge.  You may not immediately think of it that way, but the story includes every single component in my definition of success, which is:

Persuading the…

…right PEOPLE

…in the right VOLUME

…to take the right ACTIONS

…at the right TIME

If you think about it you will find that everything you consider to be a success in your life is a result of that formula.  You need to get enough people who are right for your offering and culture to agree to your terms on a certain timeline.  Then you do it again.  If you can keep doing it you’ll stay in demand.  Lose the edge and you’ll stagnate, eventually shrink.  It’s a perpetual challenge to keep doing it, and that’s how we grow.

So, how does this relate to free pizza?  Here’s Part 1…”

“We don’t know the first step to take.  We don’t know which strategic pieces to put in place, or in what order.

There are INFINITE actions we could take.  There always are, and always will be.  Because reality is combinatorially explosive.

How do we pick the right words?  Simple.  We intend the meaning and the grammar rises to support it, deftly cutting through the combinatorial explosion.

If you are paralyzed by possibility in your leadership journey, you need to tap into the intention of your purpose so that the grammar of strategy can rise to support it.”

“Ultimately I believe that people seek agreement.  We all agree on many things.  Life is hard.  Human life is strange.  None of us asked for it, we’re all in it together, and we all want to grow ourselves and others in the process.  We all agree on all of these things, and if you can tap into this empathy you can channel this deep agreement into growth and improvement in so many ways in your life.

How’s your organization?  Is it flowing, with people harmoniously interacting, and acting to realize the better world you all see?

Or is it beset with endless gridlock, inertia, resentment, infighting, frustration, and defensiveness, cynicism, and belligerence?  It’s SO tiring!  There’s a better way.”

“The world didn’t need you.  It still doesn’t.  If (actually when) you leave, the world will continue without you.

It doesn’t need you.  You need it.  And so you will do what it asks, even if you don’t desire to much of the time.

If we resign ourselves to this pattern we die a spiritual death, and this is frustrating.  And growing as a leader often starts with frustration.  Because a leader takes stock of what they see, decides what they don’t like, reframes it to what they desire, and pursues that.

It’s a calling born of desire.

And to get what you desire, what do you need to do?”

“There’s a lot of ways to not like the future, and some of them are deeply paradoxical.  We may feel like failures.  Or we may not like the way that we are successful.  This is ironic, because it is likely some level of success we once craved.  Or we may realize that no success will bring us the happiness and fulfillment we ultimately seek because the human condition is imperfectible.”

“Your path of transformation forges you into a leader of charity, integrity and vision who shows up to shape the world with profound and positive impact at every point of contact.

But it doesn’t happen without growth.

And growth, my friend, is a hero’s journey, in all times and all places.  Look that up if it’s a new concept for you, because it is an incredibly important one.

My quick definition: enduring the very challenges and struggles you fear leads to triumph and creates a story worth telling.

It is heroes who shape the world on all the levels you dream of.  It is heroes who fill the volumes of our histories, myths, legends (even the tragic ones).  We don’t tell stories of ease.  Listen closely.  Doesn’t happen.”

“Every effective leader, without any exception I can name, who has been allowed by the world to continue to work, has awareness of these opposing impulses of ALIENATION and AGREEMENT within each human heart, and comprehends this contradiction with deep empathy.

So, if you wish to build and cultivate a culture of harmony and productivity, full of effortless creation, you must constantly practice the art of overcoming alienation and forming agreement in 100% of your communication.  This will attract the action you seek, and build the culture you envision.”

“We exist, we see, we aspire.

We communicate, we persuade, we create.

That's the game.”

“One of the things that keeps me hooked on conversations with my coaching clients is the feeling of wonder.  It’s reliable that we experience some of that in every session.  And there’s hardly anything better.

Like creativity, I see wonder as one of those qualities that is sadly conditioned out of so many of us.  Aristotle is saying that there is no way to begin to contemplate existence or our place here without the quality of wonder, and that we ought always be working from this understanding as we make our choices.”

“If you are reading this you likely play some significant part in shaping a company culture of some kind.  This audience includes small business owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, executive directors, professors, department heads, board members, and more.  The fact is, we all have a part to play in developing company culture, and we are all leaders in many spheres of influence.  Todd and my ongoing conversation is designed to help give you insight, perspective, tools, and motivation to help you in that process.

Plus, we have a GREAT TIME!  Todd's friendly, unassuming levity is the perfect foil to my cerebral introspection and we both benefit from the dynamic.  Todd helps me to take myself less seriously (and I need it!) and I help him think more deeply and systematically.  We're a good team, and it never ceases to amaze me how easily and frequently we go back and forth between deep, philosophical speculation and delighted laughter.”

“Our brains are these crazily complex, imperfectly-operating outcome-optimizing organic computers.  And we have self-awareness of all this.  Of course we’re anxious! Absurd.  But magical.  Here we are, against our will, but responsible for our outcomes, and owning it.  That’s why we’re leaders. It can really be as simple as that.”

“Life is absurd.  The past is so full of trauma it makes my heart weep.  People are so beautiful.  And the world is so hard.  Still.  And I honor that.  It makes leadership the most worthwhile challenge.  And the most worthwhile leaders see this trauma, which gives them compassion for the people they guide through each moment.

The rich, complex, traumatic, and awe-inspiring past continues to course through our veins and souls.  We can’t escape it or stop creating it.  Each moment brings a new action.

History is full of people like you and me, making choices in the present, endlessly generating the past.  You CAN'T just leave it there. It’s still here, echoing through each moment.

That’s why I’ll never tell you to leave the past in the past.

Not only is it shallow and short-sighted.  It’s quite impossible.”

“The common theme I see: attention.  All senses of “audience” indicate that we win the precious and scarce commodity of attention in some way, shape or form.  And with attention comes opportunity.  It’s ALWAYS how it starts.  The opportunity to influence or persuade (which is what ALL opportunity is).

All success comes from persuading the right people to take the right actions at the right time.  100% of it.”

“Now I talk ONLY to leaders, within the space of a uniquely intentional, insightful, and inspiring conversation that examines all their frustrations and aspirations, quickly processes them, and delivers highly focused and customized strategic solutions to guide each and every action going forward.

Who is a leader?  Simple.  You are.  If you have a vision for improving the cultures you touch, you’re a leader.  Let’s articulate your vision and get you acting on it.  There is no time like the present, because it’s ALL the present.  The future just became the present, and the present became the past.  Did you catch it?  It just happened again.”

“People have been telling me lately that I have a way of bringing history to life.  I think history is the most mystical of disciplines.  It’s the study of the manner by which the vast expanse of moments that were once the present becomes the past, the narratives we spin, and the patterns we see.  It’s really the whole thing, isn’t it?  Because the present is perpetually becoming the past, and 100% of the meaning we make, as far as I can tell, is spinning those narratives and discerning those patterns in order to optimize our use of the moments yet to come.  I think that’s what wisdom is…”

“The Realm of Purpose is vast, beautiful, rich, and deep. It takes stock of all of human history, trauma, and striving. It asks what it means to be human in every way, and shows what it looks like for you at this entirely irreproducible moment and location in time, space, and the human condition.

It’s the only moment you’ll ever have. Is the action you are currently taking connected to your purpose? Every action creates history. Your story. What story are you telling?”

“Did you know there is only ONE thing you ever create? 

No matter what you THINK you’re creating, it all comes down to this.  And EVERYONE is creating this on multiple levels, whether they realize it or not.

It’s…”