Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes and to listen to all episodes of The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk

Lawrence Yeo is a storytelling teacher and the founder and writer at MoreToThat.com. He writes stories about the nuances of the human condition. He’s become one of my favorite writers over the past few years and regularly makes me rethink what I believe.

Notes

• Envy: Envy is inversely correlated with self-examination. The less you know yourself, the more you look to others to get an idea of your worth. But the more you delve into who you are, the less you seek from others, and the dissolution of envy begins.
• Curiosity is gratitude for the unknown – “The key to cultivating curiosity is to have a healthy relationship with uncertainty.”
  • Lawrence is called the L.S.E. by his wife. The Life Story Extractor.
• Ask More Questions to Those You Love - It’s quite shocking how few questions you ask when you’re with people you’re comfortable with. If you’re no longer curious to know about the person in front of you (friend, wife, parent), then that relationship is devoid of life.
• Your Values: Your values are as unique as your genes because no one shares the exact set of experiences and insights that were required to form them. They are the fingerprints of your being, and they are the invisible forces that guide everything you touch. Integrity is the ability to navigate the outer world without discounting your inner values. There is an anchor of authenticity that you’re unwilling to budge, no matter how fervently people want you to.”
• Confidence is a commitment to trusting your inner compass, despite how strong the outer winds are. If you do the work to know yourself, then you’ll realize that no external voice can convey the inner complexities you embody. And through that awareness, you’ll reliably choose your intuition above all else.
• The Problem with Following Your Passion - Ultimately, you can’t live off your love for something. It doesn’t matter how powerful your inner engine of expression is; without the fuel of money, you will stall out and be left on the side of the road. And like it or not, the only way for this fuel to be provided to you is to create something valuable enough to warrant that exchange.
• Ambition - Ambition is critical to the development of a healthy mind. Not only does it allow you to know who you truly are, but it also acts as a gateway to humility. Since ambition is about putting the bar ahead of you, you’ll understand your shortcomings in a visceral way."
  • Ambition breeds humility. Always setting the bar ahead of where you are. "I'm not quite there yet."
• “This email brought me to tears.” -"Hi Lawrence, I just came across your site and love what I am reading. Great insights and reflects a lot of my thoughts lately, like the last 20 years. I'm 72, stage four cancer, and the happiest I've ever been because I have the luxury of being able to examine my life. Best self-help ever. I'm looking forward to reading more of your writing."
• Writing:
  • 2 types of writing:
    • Writing to think.
    • Writing to present.
  • Journal vs. Diary. Journal is asking why you feel the way you do. A diary is a catalog of what happened.
• Have a job that acts as a patron for your creative work.
• Moretothat.com -- There's always something deeper.
• Advice - Learn storytelling. Consistency is the driving force of your curiosity.

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk

Codie Sanchez is an entrepreneur and investor known for founding Contrarian Thinking, a media and business education company. She has a diverse background, including entrepreneurship, finance, and journalism. Through her book "Main Street Millionaire," she advocates for wealth-building by acquiring small businesses and shares her insights on financial independence and business success. Codie emphasizes practical, contrarian approaches to wealth and leadership.

Notes:

• Her dad always said to her: ‘You’re not going to be a princess, you’re going to be the president’ – It’s a great reminder of the power we have as leaders to believe in someone and raise their level of expectations because you see something special in them. Codie was glowing while talking about her dad.
• How Codie earned a job at Vanguard. She went to conferences. She met people. She got IN THE ROOM and took action. And then when she got her opportunity, she led with her curiosity, asked questions from the woman she met with, learned, read the books she told her to read, and followed up. Showing up, doing extra, and following up are a great way to earn a job that you might not be qualified for.
• How you start and end your meetings. What type of energy do you bring to the space? Remember, you no longer get to be energy-neutral as a leader. You’re either lifting the room up or taking it away. We want to add energy additives to the rooms we enter.
• One of Codie's favorite books – Letters to a Young Contrarian by Cristopher Hitchins. “What I like about Christopher Hitchens, he pushed back against the common narrative in a time where to be an activist was really frowned upon”
  • “He was what the people these days that say they're activists actually are. He really had no loyalty to any type of thought; he was simply trying to find the truth. He was the inspiration for contrarian thinking”
• Career Path – “I don’t believe that humans have linear paths ever. Anyone who has had an interesting career in my opinion has had a completely divergent set of experiences.
• High Performers:
  • They hate small talk.
  • Are not okay with wasting your time.
  • Do what they say they’re going to do.
  • Do it with urgency.
  • Are obsessed, not just interested.
• Goal Setting: “If you want to be a person who hits your goals: Skip setting goals and set sacrifices. What are you willing to give up to get what you want? That is the missing piece to winning. Every one of your goals has a price."
  • Codie's Anti-Goals: Being an employee/work for others, Selling other people's products, Speaking for free, Coffee meetings.
• The richest self-made woman in the US is… Diane Hendricks (co-founded the largest wholesale roofing, siding, and window distribution company). There are billions in the boring.
• Writing = Clarifying Your Thinking
  • Writing helps Codie think clearly and organize her thoughts.
  • The process of writing demands coherence and structure, unlike verbal communication.
• 4 Parts to buy a business - Cover debt, Cash to have an operator, Money to make a salary, Operating cash.
• 3, 9, 12 method - Learn the 10 steps in the first 3 months. Get in on a deal. Stabilize.
• Boring Businesses - Laundromats, car washes, and port-a-potty services can be very profitable. They are less glamorous but have a higher success rate compared to sexier industries.
• Advice - Meet with a small business owner. Ask to shadow them. Get curious. 42% of the population works for or in a small business.

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes.

Books: The Score That Matters, The Pursuit of Excellence, Welcome to Management

Notes:

• The Commitment Continuum
  • Resistant
  • Reluctant
  • Existent - Stealing scholarships (sandwich eaters)
  • Compliant - Box checkers
  • Committed - Heart is into it. They do extra. They are bought in.
  • Compelled (Obsessed) - On a mission.
• Do an audit first of yourself. Where am I on that continuum? And then each member of your team. The goal is to get each member closer to becoming committed and compelled.
  • Team audit - Where is everyone? People can drift down if their needs aren't met.
  • For existent and compliant - Shift mindset to "I get to be here!"
  • For committed and compelled - Keep them challenged. Put them in leadership roles.
• The art of leadership - Make it easier to move up on the commitment continuum.
• Walt Disney - The little things are the big things. Jeff experienced this firsthand when he went on a Disney cruise and saw the workers polishing the railings on the cruise ship early in the morning. The same is true for the janitor mopping the floor at NASA. There’s a story about President John F Kennedy in 1962. He was at NASA and he asked the janitor what he was doing. The janitor replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.” The leader should be praising everyone involved in the mission and celebrate their role and its importance.
• Holding your teammates accountable - “We’re not calling you out, we’re calling you up.” The encourager and the enforcer help raise the standards and encourage others to aim higher. That’s the role of the leaders on great teams. “We’re not calling you out, we’re calling you up.”
  • What's our vision?
  • Am I embodying the standards myself?
  • Have we clearly set the standards and got buy-in? "These are the expectations and standards of our program."
    • Performance and behavior metrics
  • Praise people when they meet the standard
• The best teams practice so much that they can't get it wrong.
• Team Captain's Leadership Manual. Mike Fox. Can you lead yourself first? Commitment. Composure. When it hits the fan, can you stay poised? Character: Can I trust you?
• How do we get people excited to be part of the leadership development program? Make it a privilege. They have to apply and get accepted into the program. They "get" to do it. Make it relevant to their lives. Give real-world strategies.
• The encourager - Calls out great work
• The enforcer - "We need more from you."
• The servant - It's not about you or your stats. It's about serving others.
• The Seven Secrets of Successful Coaches
  • Character-based people. They do the right thing. People trust them.
  • Extremely committed to the mission and the team.
  • Competent
  • Care
  • Confidence Builder
  • Communicator (great listener)
  • Consistent