website. And what it's evolved to, and as I worked through with them, what it's evolved to is more sales leadership and the
principles to lead a winning team. But what they, what they, what the way they work and the way that they help you
clearly identify your brand and your brand messaging, and the work that they do and the people on their team are
absolutely fantastic. And I, you know, I went through a couple years of individualized coaching with, with people on
their team. And I've been to, been to a couple of events. And, and it's two things. One, it's the people that they have on
their team that you work with. And then the other piece of it is, is that the community that they've built. So you talk
about, you know, they've done some work with Lewis Howes and Ed Milat. I haven't met them personally, Lewis and Ed
personally, but I've, you know, they have been benefited from having some access to some of their content and working
through, working through that. And then the, my highlight reel on my website came as a result of having access to one of
their brand partners. And so I was able to go to an event and, and share the stage with some people from their group. That
was fantastic. And it was also an opportunity to get, to get the highlight reel from my speaking piece. So yeah, great,
great group of people and, and highly recommend, you know, everything that they're doing.
I love that. And we're talking about those of you who are listening, we're talking about brand builders. And I've been
very impressed. I was just featured as a, as a guest on Rodman Schlays new show, The Outlier Mindset, and what they've
created is absolutely world-class. So I was telling Lon about it. I said, what a small world, you know, they use where
they're working with, he's working with the same group that Lewis Howes was. And Lon's like, oh, I was a client too. And
I'm like, whoa, the world just got even smaller. Well, you, you represent them super well Lon. So I'm, I'm grateful to
have you on the show. We, now we've talked about one resource already that's phenomenal and brand builders one and two,
and, and what Rodman's up to, but more visionaries who are listening in, what are some other resources, maybe two or
three other resources you recommend they pick up?
Well, for me, you know, you know, certainly being the ability to learn from others and learn from the experience of
others. And we've talked about this, Jackson, through books. One of the, one of the things that I've been really focused
on over the last couple of years is mindset and the thought process and how, how we think about things and how I think
about, you know, certainly how I think about myself and my ability. And we all, we all have some level of limitation to
our capacity, right? And it's just, you know, how much can we elevate that? So one of the books that I read was John
Aikoff's book, Soundtracks, and it's how do you talk to yourself and how do you, you know, how do you talk through
some things? That's a book, a book that I'm reading right now that is actually, you know, bringing it back to
brand builders group. Jen Gottlieb is a client of theirs, and she recently released a book, Be Seen. And that's a
book that I'm reading right now. And it's a book about, you know, how do you talk through, you know, just how, like, how
do you talk to yourself into things? And how do you talk through things? And how do you create space for your, for yourself
to be able to see you in the world that you want to live in? And so that's a book that I'm about halfway through. So I
mean, I recommend it, I certainly have enjoyed it. And then the last book that I would recommend, I recommend one more book, and it's a book that I use as part of an opening story for one of my
keynotes. And it's a book called Silver Goldfish, and it was written by Stan Phelps. And Stan Phelps has the Goldfish series of books. And this is a book that talks about, you know, loud and clear, and how do you use messaging, and how do you craft
messaging and speeches to be clear so that people can understand the message that you're trying to share? And it's a, I use a story from Stan's book, an example that he used, in my experience in reading through that book and that example, as part, as one of my opening, as an opening story in one of my leadership keynotes.
That's amazing. I get to drink from fire hoses like this every single episode. And it is so awesome to be able to hear about these resources that can exist, that I can consume, that I can also turn to my team members and say, you know, hey, the summit that I saw that they're, they're putting on over brand
builders, I sent it to my team. And I said, I said, read it, study it, you know, model it. Let's just look at how much we can learn from the resources that exist. So thanks for being a wealth of knowledge on that lawn. We're gonna come right back, Vision Pros, right after the intro, we're gonna dive right into lawns vision.
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live with Jackson Calame. I'm your show host, we'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building fantastic visions out there.
All right, what is up Vision Pros? My name is Jackson Calame, and I'm the host of Vision Pros Live founder and CEO of First Class Business. I'm excited to have Lon Graham on the stage today. He is absolutely awesome. We've had a couple of meetings prior to getting him to the show. We had a couple of rescheduling inconveniences on the show.
And what I love about Lon is that he made space for that on both occasions. It could be so easy to just move on with life. We've got lots of things to do and lots of opportunities and, you know, he appreciates us and we appreciate him and we're gonna be talking about developing winners and the leadership mission for sales teams. He's got an incredible team and a lot of opportunities to do that.
He's got an incredible background in terms of what he's done to lead and guide from stage as a keynote speaker. He's worked some incredible with some incredible brands himself. And he's also got a sports background and has learned a lot about teamwork in that process. And he's learned from some amazing coaches, we might even get the chance to dive into that. I'm going to speed through the rest of the show.
I want to honor as much time as I can with Lon while honoring who they are and why we support them. But Sean LeChuga of the Wellness Shop 365, since he's going to do your best to keep up with me, but they have a 365 will of life assessment and they dive deeper than any naturopath I've ever seen in terms of what they're doing.
How much they care about everything that's going on in your life, for your health, from your career to your joy and spirituality and the basics that you would normally expect. And then there's Melissa Gray with theLawSpot.com. Both of these leaders, by the way, they are the top three leaders in the business, and they're the top three leaders in the business.
They have been on our shows. You can go back and hear their episodes as well. But what Melissa is doing to bring legal counsel to small, medium businesses in a way that it doesn't have to be complicated. Her nurturing power combined with her power to help her grow is going to be a key to her success.
And so if you don't have legal representation, I highly recommend including her in your assessments. And then there's the water project, which I will say is a great opportunity to do a little bit of research on the water and the water.
And as the typical type of attorney you might think of, she's got the best of both. She's a unicorn who has both skill sets. And so if you don't have legal representation, I highly recommend including her in your assessments. And then there's the water project, which I will slow down for because the water project is all about helping people find access to this.
We are so blessed and fortunate, I am, to have access to water everywhere I go. You know, I can walk 10 steps and get access to clean filtered water, but there's millions of people in this world who don't have access to it.
And we have the opportunity to donate a little bit, or if you don't have the ability to donate, then you can share this with somebody you never know. You might be the cause of somebody driving $10,000 and funding five of these projects, two of these projects.
And you can see on here which community is going to benefit, and then they actually show you through the water project what the community outcome looks like. You get to see the impact that you were able to help drive and make.
So if there's another cause that you'd rather see a support, my request of you would be to drop that cause, drop a link of it in the comments. You never know. We might bring that on the show too and talk about it. We might contribute to it ourselves.
But we have 8 billion people in this world to help, and those of us who have a microphone, you know, I just, I know the importance of using this to help others do good in the world. So I hope you join me in that cause.
Then there's Lon Graham. Let's go take a look at Lon's Gram, Lon Graham's website real quick, because he's put a lot of heart and soul into simplifying his message and showcasing to people what he's able to do as a speaker, coach, and leader.
Most of us don't even realize that the core of what we do is selling, you know, and in my case, I believe in doing what's best for those that I serve, and that's my sell, is find tools, find resources that help people move their lives forward.
And I've seen Lon also lead with his heart, as you see in the background of one of his charts here. He's got a great sizzle reel. We're not going to make time for the sizzle reel because he's going to sizzle enough on stage with me, but you can see that, you know, he's no stranger to being in front of large audiences and helping people understand how to win.
You have to meet the client in their story before they're going to join you in yours. That takes an incredible amount of listening. So we're going to talk about listening skills a little bit today as well.
But without further ado, I'll move on from the brand identity that you can see digitally at any time, and let's pick Lon's brand. Lon, it is an honor to have you on Vision Pros Live.
Yeah, Jackson, thanks so much. It's good to be here. And you talked about, we've tried to do this a couple of times, and I'll own my part of that. So thanks for being willing to reschedule and make time for us to do this. So it's good to see you again.
Likewise, my friend. Okay, I got to point out that there's this document behind you, over your shoulder. I loved hearing that story originally. I want to hear it again before we dive into the vision for those that you serve. What is that on your wall?
Yeah, 100%. So we're talking about this side here. And it's, when I, when I graduated from college, and I was in my, you know, early 30s, I wanted to get into college coaching, coaching college basketball. And one of the things that I did, this was before, really before emails became what they are today, is I did this letter writing campaign to famous coaches, coaches that I admired in college basketball around the country. And the letter behind me, is this a letter?
Is this a letter I wrote to Roy Williams when he was at Kansas? And Roy Williams was, had gone to, this was when he was at Kansas. And one of the guys that I grew up with in high school, and played ball with in the summer in a summer league, went and played basketball at Kansas. So I wrote Roy Williams and just said, Hey, look, I, you know, I respect what you're doing. One of my buddies from high school played ball at Kansas. I like what you're doing. I like the way your team show up and play. And I want to get into coaching.
I want to get into coaching. Will you, you know, what, can you recommend a way to do that? And he had written me back. And so the letter here is, on one side is the letter I wrote to him, and on the other side is the letter he, he wrote back. And, you know, it was a, it wasn't a form, it was a letter he dictated that somebody, you know, typed up, and then he had some handwritten notes on it as well below. And what's cool is I've got that. I've got one that I wrote Dean Smith.
When Dean Smith was alive at North Carolina, and he was gracious enough to write back and also did that with Billy Donovan, who's now coaching, I think he's coaching the Chicago Bulls. But he at the time he was at Florida, and this was before he had won two national championships at Florida. So I wrote some, some coaches that were, you know, huge, huge names in college basketball. And then because I started my college career at the University of Georgia, I wrote Vince Dooley.
And, you know, we lost him a couple of years ago. But he also wrote back and it was really about, you know, coaching and how do you get into coaching and appreciating some of the things that, that he did and some of the things I saw on campus when I was on campus about how his players handled themselves. So yeah, so I wrote some pretty big time people and they were gracious enough to, to respond, which is, which is a big deal for me.
That's amazing. Visionaries who are out there, you know, if I don't care if you're young or old, if you think that the traditional snail mail of letter system is worthless now and not that is it couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, I've seen certain brands resurrect their brand by doing snail mail campaigns in the digital age because so many companies have abandoned doing it. Your mail actually gets, can get received with greater, greater
focus. I had a, I had a restaurant who did that. They did a premium magazine of their restaurant and it was an, it was a game changer out of everything they had done that completely brought everybody back and reminded everybody of how great quality the restaurant was. They didn't just send some, you know, like posted note though. They actually invested in the quality of that campaign. There's also a system called lumpy mail. Lumpy mail is an interesting marketing objective and it, it, because it's lumpy, it gets put on top.
Of the mail.
But within that, you've got your marketing message. Um, and so you're far more likely to get the marketing piece open. And really what this comes back to Lon is to me, it's a great reflection of what you mentioned about stories. Right. And how that person's story matters to you. And therefore they, they were inspired enough, admired you enough to also reciprocate and respond and understand your story. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
Well, yeah. And I'll, and I'll use one more example in person. Um, when I was this, when I was graduating from college, I ended up graduating from George Mason University, which is in Fairfax, Virginia. And at the time, Paul Westhead was the head coach, head basketball coach. And for those of you who don't know, Paul Westhead is he was, he was the head coach of Los Angeles Lakers when they won a national championship or when they won the NBA championship with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
And Magic Johnson, and he had had some tough times in his career. And so he ended up at Mason and I was in the San Francisco airport. Uh, and I walked up to him. It was, it was in the summertime and he, we were both in the San Francisco airport at the same time. And I was walking out of the bathroom and he was walking by me. I was like, oh my gosh, that's Paul Westhead turned around and he went into the bathroom and I decided to let him go and wait until he came out.
But when he came out, I walked up to him and I said, Hey coach, you know, I go to Mason, a couple of your players in my class, um, and connected with them that way is like, Hey, these, you know, these people in your classes show up. Well, um, I'm trying to get into coaching or, you know, would you be willing to talk to me about your perspective on that and what you think?
He goes, I'll tell you what, and this was a Saturday. So he goes, I'll tell you what I'll call on Monday, call my scheduler and her name was Carolyn. And he said, call her and get on my calendar and we'll, we'll talk. It was like, okay. So I was like, yeah, all right. I'll call on Monday. Well, I figured I'd just call and she'd be like, yeah, okay. Well, coach is busy. I called on Monday and she goes, yeah, coach told me you'd probably call. So let's look at getting in. I was supposed to go in.
Later that week on Wednesday. So I called Monday and he was willing to get me in on Wednesday. Wednesday morning, she calls me and she said, Lon, coach asked me to call you. There's a issue that he's got to get involved with, with the AD. So, and I'm thinking, okay. So now I'm thinking, all right, well, this is, this is the nice way to let me down.
He's busy. He's not going to be able to see what, see me. So the, she goes, but he wants to know if you can come in at 3.30 this afternoon. I'm like, well, I'll make it work. Yeah, absolutely. So I go in at 3.30 and I coach goes, hey, it's good to see you. So you want to coach? Well, tell me what you're doing. I was like, oh, I'd written some coaches. They recommended me.
Recommended, you know, working summer camps. He goes, well, I don't run my summer camp. My lead assistant does. But if I can get you in my camp, you want to work it? I was like, well, of course I do. So he goes, come on. So we walked next door to his assistant, the lead assistant who ran camps. And he goes, hey, coach, we got a guy who wants to coach in camps. You got room for him? He goes, yep, we'll figure it out.
So a couple of weeks later on a Friday afternoon, I get a call from Mike Cooney, who was his assistant, his lead assistant that ran camps. He goes, hey, I had a coach call out next week and you work camp. And so I did. And then, and I'll wrap it up by saying this. And then I'll tell you the power of this, the whole point of the story is, but at the end, about halfway through the week, I'm at the far end of the field house coaching like 12 year olds and we're coaching a game.
And, and this guy walks up behind me and he goes, so you having fun? And I turned around and it was, it was Coach Westhead. It was Paul Westhead. And so we talked for a couple of minutes and he goes, you know, glad we could get you in. And, and, but he remembered me, made a point to come say hi. And my point in telling that story is this, is every coach that I wrote to connect with them, I said, Hey, I really like what you're doing. I like how the, how your players show up. I like their things that
the people that are, that represent you and your school and all of that. I started with, I like who you are and how you show up and what you're doing. I want to do what you're doing. Can you recommend a step to take? And by being willing to take that step, they were willing to, to offer some advice and they were willing to offer some, some ways to help.
And so my point in saying all that is in going back to the power of the story, this power of the story is if you connect first and then communicate, and this is where sales comes in, you got to connect first. And to connect with somebody, you've got to meet them and their story.
And, or you've got, and in order to meet them and their story, you got to find common ground and common ground always, always, always starts in their yard. You've got to start with them before you start talking about what you're doing.
And so if you want to connect with somebody, you connect first. And that's that whole thing. You got to connect first and you start with them. And so the point of the telling that story is, is you're telling people what you like about them, why you want to talk to them, why what they're doing matters to you.
And then you can start to talk about the rest of it. Does that make sense?
A hundred percent, a thousand percent. And those who can go back and, and associate the, what took place with the principles that Lon used mostly is gratitude.
When we express sincere gratitude for the mentors in our life, you can do so by being wordy. You can do so in small capacities. I'm shocked that this, this experience comes to mind, but
when I was in the mission training center, a lady named Janice Kat Perry came and spoke and she had written this primary song for our church called I am a child of God.
It's one of the most, I mean, it's every person who's LDS knows this song by heart and it has a pretty big impact. So she spoke and I'm in a line of like 10,000 missionaries, you know, to go through, I don't remember, probably more around 5,000 missionaries.
As I walked by and get to, you know, shake her hand.
I don't remember exactly what I said. I think I said, you are my hero.
You know, and I just, we just locked eyes and I was very intentional. I wanted her to know from my heart, how much is mine. And she started crying.
You know, she started crying and I moved on. I didn't want to, you know, I know she got a long line of people to meet.
And, but that, that little bitty moment, that opportunity right there to just express gratitude to that person. Like, you know, I highly doubt she will forget that moment in that experience.
That same personal touch that you know, you're, you're making with these people through letters. It's, it's not a lost art, but it's an art that hasn't been found by enough people who are seeking leadership.
And if they can learn to center in on appreciating people for who they are, where they're at, what they've done, the impact can be dramatic. So I appreciate your story a lot.
Yeah, thanks for letting me tell it. It's a lot of fun and it brings back a good memory for me.
Absolutely. Let's dive into your vision for those that you serve. So what is your vision for the people that you're serving now?
So the people that, that I'm, that I'm serving now are sales leaders and the people that, the sales leaders that I, that I can have the most impact with based on my background are, are sales leaders that lead remote sales teams or lead outside sales teams.
And my vision for them is to, is to win, right? Is to lead a winning team. And, and sales is hard and leadership is hard and sales leadership is, is doubly hard because it's, you know, it's a game where you lose more than you win.
And in order to win, you got to keep going. And so the people that I, that I've had the most impact with and that my message resonates the most with are sales leaders and people who lead outside sales teams.
Love that. I love that you, you help people realize that, because then you can embrace the reality of, okay, I'm not designed to win every single sale that comes my way. That's not necessarily what drives a winner.
And so helping people catch the vision of that is, is super helpful. What's your vision for you, Lon? What do you see for yourself?
Well, a couple of things. One is I, you know, I've got a long background in healthcare sales and sales leadership in healthcare and a couple of different formats.
And I'm currently, the one vision I have right now that's directly in front of me is I'm working with, I'm representing a specialty pharmacy and we provide infusion services.
And my vision for that is, is to reach as many doctors offices as I can to create an opportunity for them to offer this option for their patients that need, you know, that need an option to be able to, to get infusion in home.
And so that's part of it. The other piece of it is, is that I still work with sales leaders and I speak to sales leaders and I give talks to groups of sales leaders about how to lead a winning team.
And I like to be able to share the message and talk about my experiences, because I learned a lot. And, and, you know, I go back to these letters that I wrote to coaches.
The reason I wrote to them is because they were where I wanted to be. They had done the things that I wanted to do. And so I was asking to learn from their experience.
Now it's my turn to be able to share my experience and I can assure you, Jackson, the majority of the messages that I share, I say standing firmly on the ground in front of a mirror because I'm either talking to myself too, or I'm sharing a message that because it's something that I've either done and learned from.
I've learned not to do it or I've learned to do more of it. So it's, you know, it's an opportunity to do things that people did for me to do for others as they're growing up and developing.
That's awesome. So let's dive into some of those, those not to do scenarios. We're going to dive into the darkest of the dark. What's your worst leadership experience ever? This can be one that you've experienced. This could be one of your own. It's your pick.
Yeah, look, I think, I think this question presupposes that there's only that there's only one worst experience as a sales leader. But, you know, but I'll pick one and and look, I was working in, in a leadership role in surgical sales.
And I grew a territory from the ground up. And because of the success that we had in that in that region, I turned a territory into a region because of the sex we had in that region, the owner of the company said, Hey, look, we're taking over some new business.
Really would. It's really yours if you want it, because I've seen what you did with the region that you have now. I want you to do it if you want to do it. And so I went into a new region. And I think the challenge that I that I created for myself and the mistake that I made was I went in with all the answers, right.
And the reason that we took over this region is because the company that we represented was wasn't happy with the current performance of that of the people that were in that region. And so they changed leadership, our company got that. And I got to go on and do it.
Well, I went in with the attitude. Well, we did it over here. Here's how we got to do it in this new area. And I and I and I didn't give credit to the work that the people did that were in that area. And they'd had success before and their success stalled. And that's why we came in.
And one of the things that I've learned and I talk about now when I talk about employee development to leaders is the people that are on your team and I'm going to turn this into a lesson. So if you'll let me do that. Yeah, appreciate it. But one of the things that I learned is is the people on your team want to learn how to get better, especially in sales, salespeople are highly competitive. And it's hard enough that if people don't want to get better, they're going to they're going to self deselect, they're going to get out of sales.
So if they're on your team, and they're there, they want to get better. And they want to learn from you how to get better. One of the things that they want you to do, though, before they're willing to listen to you coach them is they want you to give them credit. Because they had to work to get to the point where they are.
Now, you may want them to go further, and they want to go further, too. But they want you to give them credit for the work that they did to get to where they are right now. And when you do that, then they'll listen to you about how to get better. And I use this concept, I call it like and learn.
Talk about what you like about what they did first. It's always like first, because when you use this like component, it allows you to reinforce the things that they're doing that you want them to keep doing. And then you can talk about what what they can learn about how to get better. So like first, what are you doing well, and then learn is what can you do to get better? Does that make sense?
100% very, very similar. The nice thing about that, too, the ease of it is it's very similar to what you're also using to attract prospects. Right is the what I like about what this person is doing and the backtrack gratitude concept, and then moving right into and then be not moving right into appreciating that. I want to I want to make that clear. This is about full appreciation. People know when we're just saying something to say that the but, you know, yes, I really like that.
You did this, but it's like, oh, man, you know, that's not that's not many people's favorite leadership style. To double down on your story, you reminded me of when Lifetime Fitness ran a similar experience, they had created a SWAT sales team, and that SWAT team would go in and fix the clubs that were not performing as well. It didn't last longer than I think three months. You know, they ended up killing the program.
And I don't know if they learned some of the similar realities, but you've gifted me something big because someday I've imagined creating a SWAT team for software, customer software development, where you go in and you help them fix their UX, UI, etc. But if you come in as that SWAT team with that ego, like you said, and you end up, you know, steamrolling the people who exist, you you create an unnecessary civil war in the process.
And so you can't have to come in with with too heavy of a of a authority play. So very, very powerful lesson. Thank you for that. Go ahead and hit it. You got something else?
Well, I was just gonna say, you know, the the hard part about coming in, you know, you talk about the SWAT team or coming in as a new leader, you're brought in because of your expertise, I was brought in because of the success that I'd had and things that I'd done well. And, and, and that's why we're there is to make it better. But you can't start by making it better. You got to connect with the people that are there first. And you've got to really get to understand
what they've done and what they're doing and some of the things that that they're dealing with. And, you know, we talked about, you know, in leadership, we talk about all problems or, you know, problems or problems everywhere, challenges or challenges everywhere, knows or knows everywhere.
But the reality of it is, there's still a person behind that. And so going in, if you come in telling them why you're there, then they're going to be resistant because they're like, well, well, you know, I don't need your hammer, it hurts. So give them give them an opportunity to feel good about themselves first. And, and this is a quote that I think and we talked about this before, and I've modified it a little bit, because I think it I think it resonates a little bit better. But people remember how you made them feel. And they do. And they take it and they put it in their head. And they don't even know what they're doing.
If you and that feeling is contagious. And what I mean by that is, is that they'll remember how you made them feel. Stories create emotion, stories create feelings in us, they draw those up. And when we tell our stories to other people, they catch the feeling that we have. So if we made somebody feel good, and they're telling a story about how they feel good, if I'm telling you, Jackson, you're going to feel good, too. If it's icky, you're going to catch it too. So it's contagious.
In that you're going to catch the feeling that I have when I tell that story. And so that's the same thing. That makes sense.
Huge. That's awesome. And that's, you know, it that it's getting it takes me back to another reality for you visionaries, that we're going to make mistakes as visionaries, you know, we're sometimes they're going to remember how we made them feel it might not be good. It's it's
hard to make mistakes and Brahm Krati CEO of Lifetime Fitness, right? I'm not going to say that was his mistake. Nor do I think that when he fired me from Lifetime Fitness, little Jackson, who was like a nobody in San Antonio, I got fired by the CEO of Lifetime Fitness. He didn't make a mistake in that occasion. Can we look back and learn some things both of us on how we handled it and what we did? Yeah, absolutely. And I think he would. He thinks a phenomenal leader.
And that SWAT team experience. Now I can look at that from my perspective. Thank goodness he did it. I can look back on that and say, man, I wonder what it felt like to be the to be the store that was chosen.
Right. What would that have done to the morale of the people? I go great. We're the ones that suck. You know, like that versus, you know, a team coming in with perhaps not the name SWAT team, you know,
that's there to, you know, to amplify, but with something a little more politically correct, driven towards driving a good feeling.
So, again, I want to pick on him too much. But I think it's just again, it's so it's why we asked this question about worse leadership is because there's just so much profound depths of learning about what we can do and what might not be in our best interest to do.
And let's drive to the exact opposite end of the equation, Lon. What is your best leadership experience ever? Well, and again, you know, it presupposes that there's only one best, right? And the reality of it for me is the things that
I enjoyed the most. There were two parts of being in leadership roles and working with leaders. Now there are two parts that I really, really enjoy.
One is as a leader, leading salespeople, you know, we're, we're recognition driven and award and reward, not sometimes reward driven, but recognition driven for sure.
And for me, one of the best experiences is seeing people on my team get recognized for being the best in their category or the best among their peers or having the most successful year.
And, and so the best leadership experience is the collection of all of the opportunities that I've had to see people
be recognized for being the best in their category or the best in class or the best among their peers. And I've benefited from the opportunity to see them do that a number of different times.
And then the other, the second part of that, that, that's equally as, as enjoyable and great for me is, is to work with people to develop them so that they can also become leaders.
And work with salespeople that want to get into leadership roles or want to develop teams that want to lead teams and to work with them and talk through with them about how to be a successful leader.
And I've enjoyed the opportunity to see salespeople and people, other leaders that I've worked with get promoted either from a salesperson to a sales role or leaders to get promoted through the leadership evolution from
a sales team leader to a regional leader to an executive vice president role. And that's, that's satisfying as well. So seeing, contributing to the other people's success is, is, is a great experience as well.
Absolutely. So anybody who, who's had one of those experiences, you know what that feels like. But to be able to, to be able to see people that you're serving succeed, you know, is, is something that I hope drives you.
If you, if it doesn't drive you, you know, if it makes you feel like, oh my goodness, like, are they going to get, become better than me?
My hope is I would invite you to realize that that's the greatest sign of your value as a leader is when the people that you have, I guess, dominion over or that you preside over begin to flourish beyond your own capabilities.
It should be a good feeling. So if you were to, if you would have one, if this is the last chance you had to share one powerful lesson with Visionary is they can learn from your experience.
What would the last lesson be? Yeah, I look, there's lots of things that, that we could say, I think from a leadership standpoint, whether it's, whether it's leading people on your team or whether it's leading clients, you know, this, this is going to work, going to work for both, both scenarios.
And, and it's, I say this by developing when you're developing people, if you're teaching people what to say and what to do, then you're teaching them to be a semi good version of you.
And you're teaching them limits. And if you teach them how to think for themselves and how to develop themselves, you're teaching them to become the best version of themselves.
And you're teaching them possibilities. And here's the reality of it. If you don't like the outcomes you're getting, you will reach what you teach. So if you're teaching limits, you're going to get limits. If you're teaching the people on your team limits, you're going to get their limit.
If you're teaching possibilities, you're going to get unlimited possibilities. So that would be what the one message that I would leave is, is, is this is, like I said, for leaders of, of teams or salespeople that are working with clients.
Teach them how to think for themselves and how to develop for themselves. And you're going to get the best version of them. And that goes back to what you said, Jackson, is that you're going to get the best version of yourself.
And that goes back to what you said, Jackson is, is the best version of them is going to be different than you when you want it to be different than you, because it brings a different experience. Does that make sense?
I love that. I'm hoping that every visionary out there listening, listens to it, rewinds it, writes the notes, you know, about how you can apply this into your lives. I am, I'm thinking of the processes that I'm working with my team members on right now to be able to expand our podcast right now to be able to make sure that the YouTube aspects are taken care of well.
But I'm also thinking, okay, um, is the last activity that I did with them, one that helped them think through that process so they can further develop the process on their own, or is it something where they're going to come back to me and say, Jackson, what next Jackson went next Jackson?
What do we do next? Right. That's, that's usually a sign that we haven't harnessed that power of teaching people how to think for themselves.
Right. So if you're getting a lot of people coming back to you saying, well, what do I do next? It's not because they're bad people. It's not because they're not capable. Um, it, maybe they have other people in their life who have, you know, controlled them and told them how to do what they need to do.
And maybe you just need to have a conversation with them about, Hey, here, it's okay to make mistakes here. You know, we look forward to seeing you, you know, have your first failures, you know, go ahead, go and do without fear.
Um, you know, when we, there's a lot of things we can do to inspire people to think for themselves. And I can absolutely always hone better my skills to do that with my team. The leadership mission. What is the leadership mission, Lon?
Well, I think, you know, I mean, the leadership mission is, is to develop.
Sorry, I'm totally derailing, but back to it for those who are listening. The leadership mission for sales teams. Go ahead. What is it?
Well, I think the leadership mission is, is, it's the same for everything. If you're a leader, it's to develop the best in the people that you're leading.
And the way to, the way to give them the best opportunity to be successful is to clearly define your success, clearly define success for your team, for the people that you're leading.
And, you know, you talk about, we, we go back to, we talked about brand builders group earlier. And one of the things that they really do is they clearly define success by developing the personal brand, right?
What is your message? Who do you, how, and the process that they go through? Same thing with, with leaders. I think one of the biggest things that leaders struggle with is the, the number one barrier to success for a team and for a leader's team,
whether it be a team of salespeople, a team of other leaders, or if you're the CEO of an organization, is to not clearly define success. You have to clearly define success so that people can come to you with solutions to get closer to where you're going.
And, and I say this, if you don't define success, you don't, you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're going nowhere.
So I think the leadership is in order to get the best out of the people on your team is to encourage them and support them and get them to come with you for solutions, but solutions for what? Solutions for the success and the way that you've defined it.
Does that make sense?
Yes, sir. I love it. And it's, you know, it's, if there's interest, I'm going to stack something on there, something kind of dangerous, if that's okay.
So you said the one that we've got the opportunity to develop people, you know, and help people with their development. And then you said we, you know, if we, as leaders define success for the team that we lead, and I'm going to, I'm actually going to maybe optimize or refine it.
But again, I do think there's some danger in this in that, well, what if we didn't define success for them and put that limitation on it that you talked about earlier?
Right.
What if we inspire the team to define what success looks like for them? Right. And, and at the same time, you're on the spot, you're answering, you know, quickly for the sake of the time of the podcast, all that too.
And there's, there's, that's like, this goes back to me for the concept of healthy boundaries is great book boundaries as a series of books, I read the boundaries and marriage one, when I was going through my first divorce, and trying to learn, man, how can I be a better leader in my home?
Right. So boundaries is two different individuals coming to coming to a understanding that this is my vision of success.
Right.
And what's your vision of success? Right. So we don't want to, we don't want to necessarily tell our employees tomorrow, you know, could you imagine that 10,000 employees are like, everybody defined their own term of success, and we'll see you tomorrow.
That could go very poorly. But how do you go about making sure that you guide people appropriately related to the success that you hope they buy into while incubating a safe space for them to, and, you know, empower them to bring their own definition of the table?
Yeah, I think it depends on what you're doing, Jackson. And look, nothing, nothing happens in a vacuum. And, and, you know, the world, there's different, there's different things that we're dealing with, I think from an, from an organ. So I'll, I'll quote, I'll semi quote it, but I'll describe the concept.
Jim Collins wrote the books Good to Greg, Great by Joyce, and How the Mighty Fall. Fantastic books, and I recommend them for anybody that's in business and in leadership, because they're super, super books. And I forget which book it is, because I've read all three of them multiple times.
But there's a concept where he says, Get the right people on the bus, and then decide where you're going. Well, my thought is this, there's two, there's two directions that my thought is, is decide where you're, where the bus is going to get the people on the bus that want to go to.
There with you, and then figure out how you're going to get there together. So I think, to your point, giving people an opportunity to define success, I think that there's a lot of benefit to that in certain situations, when you're trying to figure out what success looks like, when you figure out where you want to go, what you're trying to accomplish.
But I think if you're in a business segment, or if you're a leader, and you've, I think for your team, you want to define success for your team, and then give them the ability to develop how you get there. Where we struggle, and this is where I talk about, you know, limits, is when you tell them how they have to get there.
And again, I stand firmly on the ground in front of a mirror when I say that, because I've done it. But wait, when we're defining success for the team, we say, Okay, here's what success looks like. What's the best way for you to get there? And if you want guidance along the way, I'll work with you to do that. But I'm not going to tell you how to do it. I'm going to tell you where we're going. Sometimes we run into detours, right? And detours are designed to protect us. But we got to find
a way to figure our way around a detour. And by getting ideas from them and input from them and understanding what their thoughts are, and what's going to work best for them and their personality type and their work habits and their approach, you know, that's where I think the benefit comes from, is giving them the ability to decide how we're going to, how they're going to get there. Because somebody else on your team is going to get there another way.
Right, absolutely. So these, these principles and the underlying principle for me, how I received this as a leader of my own life, trying to be my best self, is remembering that there's no wrong way to eat a Reese's basically, right? There's no wrong way to live life, right? We're gonna go or go, we're gonna go about things. And when I find leaders who, you know, they have their concept, and you know, if Jim Collins wants to argue with Stephen
Covey, and you know, Stephen Covey says, begin with the end in mind. You know, Jim Collins like, No, get on the bus with the right people. You know, you can worry about that later. They don't argue like that. You know, these are these are parts of mathematical formulas, if you will, that actually harmonically come into play at different times in different places for different reasons. And when we can stack with an open mind, the reality that man, there's so much more we can learn to add to
the complexity of life, right? But we can also simplify our process that simple is hard and simple fits in with complex. And how do these things come together? Like, I stopped looking for the get rich quick answers a long, long time ago. And I'm glad I did. You've given some profound depth on this show, Lon. I'm super grateful for it. All of you who are listening in, we'll have a landing page with the action steps and the show links for
Lon and an invitation for all of you visionaries out there. We'd love to hear your vision on the show. At the top of the page, you'll see a button that says be our guest. You can click on that button, you can apply to be on the show. And we'd love to hear your holistic vision. As we wrap up, Lon, is there any final thoughts you want to share?
You know, look, I'll say thank you, Jackson. This has been great. And I know, like I said, we talked about it, we tried to do this a couple of times. And thanks for sticking with us too, you know, for being one to do this. I've enjoyed talking with you before we got to today. And today just continues to add to the enjoyment of getting to know you better. And I look forward to continuing to do this. So thank you. And for anybody listening, you know, if you've got something to share, Jackson's, you know, have a conversation with Jackson, because he's got a lot to share, too.
And, and you'll you'll your life will be enriched for it. So thanks, buddy. Appreciate it.
Appreciate you, Lon. I'll, I'll be around. I won't be going anywhere. I'll bother you every once in a while. I need my coaching. Just like just like you needed coaching from from those coaches that you reached out to. So appreciate you every visionary out there. Have a fantastic day. And we'll see on the next show.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a visionary.