Michael Thomas, tell me about your vision.
Yeah, so my vision is that every executive
or business owner is able to make the most impact
for their organizations or their businesses.
Because I find that a lot of leaders,
they do a lot of firefighting
and that's a fantastic skill to have.
But I think on the other side,
there needs to be a little bit of
what we would call fire marshaling.
So not only taking care of the issues that come up
from a day-to-day standpoint,
but be able to get them into more strategic thinking.
So my vision is to have more of the leaders
do more of the things that can impact their business
or their organization on a wide scale.
And that allows their teams to feel like they're more in line
or they can have more say in what that vision is
because they know the context of what's happening
and what that vision is for the future.
Wow.
Tell me more about that.
Yeah, so I know in my own experience,
when I became a leader in different organizations,
I was very focused on getting my teams
to do the things that I was doing.
And I failed to realize that everyone has
their own motivations, their own skillset,
and not communicating the context effectively
hindered not only my own progress,
but the progress of my team.
So I had to take a step back
and certainly getting mentors and coaches
are extremely valuable for myself,
is setting that proper context.
So being able to tell not only the story of,
hey, I need you to do this thing or that thing.
So not just at a task level,
but being able to connect the task to that larger vision.
So we know, okay, if we get this thing done today
or this month, we know what's gonna happen
for the next year or five years
because everyone can see where that story is going to end
rather than just focusing on the scene, so to speak.
Wow.
Well, thank you for sharing that.
That goes directly into my life for you, Michael.
What is a why you get out of bed every morning?
Yeah, so for me, I mean, there's many whys.
One of them would be to make an impact in my own way.
Everybody has their part to play
and as Shakespeare says, all the world is a stage
and we're merely players.
And for me, I want to maximize the role that I think I have.
And what I've come to realize in the course of my career
is that for me, one of the greatest skillsets that I have
is being able to connect dots,
to take something that's abstract
and bring it into something that's more concrete.
And I found that has been a very valuable skill in my career
because it allows people to understand
what a larger vision is.
And so for me, my why is being able to connect the dots
for others, help them realize their dreams
and in the process, it'll help me realize my own dreams.
What is so far is your dream?
Is it the same as your vision of where you're going
or if there's something else?
Yeah, so a dream of mine,
so an end game for me would be to have a beautiful house
in a tropical climate, being able to pick mangoes
off of trees and just live a very peaceful life.
Now in the process, of course,
we all need to sustain ourselves.
So for me, part of that day,
would require reaching out with clients or with teams
and helping them organize the work that they need to do,
communicating strategic narratives,
organizing resources and helping them realize
the goals that they want.
So for me, that would be an end game.
Now, how I get there is being very deliberate
about the types of relationships that I build,
the types of people that I interact with,
the types of work that I do,
so that to a degree ties into the vision and to the why.
So for me, it's being my best self.
So not being a second rate version of someone else,
but being a first rate version of myself.
Thank you for sharing all that, Michael.
I think that was very impactful.
And the mangoes on the trees,
I feel like you wanna go to Brazil.
Could be Brazil, Jamaica is also a place that has mangoes.
My parents are from there and they have,
so talking about them a bit,
they immigrated to the US in search for better opportunities
for themselves and for the family that they formed.
And having that mentality, going into new territories,
not really knowing what the future might bring,
but knowing that you have a mission to make it happen.
Knowing that you have a mission to make yourself,
put yourself in a better situation for yourself,
for your family and for your friends.
And so I take that with me everywhere that I go.
And I've moved to different cities across my career
and across my life.
And everywhere I go, I have a bit of a pilgrim mentality.
So you go where the soil is fertile
and you can maximize those opportunities.
And so for me, I've always taken that with me.
Now, of course, mangoes don't grow everywhere.
So it'd have to be in certain places,
going back to your question,
but those lessons have stayed with me very much so.
Awesome.
According to you, according to the experience you've had,
what defines a great leader?
A great leader is able to not only communicate
a very strong vision and enroll people
into what that vision is,
but they're also able to connect that vision
into the work that needs to be done on a day-to-day basis.
So some people will call it,
could be a charismatic leader or a motivational leader.
And there's aspects of that, right?
Especially when there's challenging times.
But I think one of the most important aspects
is understanding where you feel the strongest
and knowing that you cannot take everything on yourself,
you must get help in order to succeed.
So business and life is a team sport.
Nobody wins on their own, nobody loses on their own.
And so it's very important as a leader
to understand where you're strong at
and then getting help from others
in either areas that you're not as concerned with
or areas that you may not be as strong at
and organizing the forces around
what that vision is as a leader
and marshaling the forces to the future.
Now that could manifest in a number of ways.
So some people may be more analytical,
some people may be more strategic, visionary,
some people may be getting, you know,
like a program management style and getting things done.
So everyone has their strong suits.
So focusing in on what that is for that individual person,
maximizing that, and then for the areas
that they may not be as strong at is organizing teams around.
So being able to connect vision to task,
formulating that strategy around your strong suits
and the strong suits of others as well.
Wow, they do use strengths
and build systems for your weaknesses.
I think that's a pretty good strategy
that you just defined here.
And a lot of entrepreneurs, the one I've experienced,
they're focusing too much on things they're not doing right,
essentially focusing on things they are doing right
and expanding on that and then bringing someone in
and helping with the other part.
It's more so we see with solar panel routes per se
than entrepreneurial routes
because they're stuck in their own way.
It's hard to get them out of their mentality.
So yeah, that's pretty hard on point.
So thank you for sharing that, Michael.
Yeah, and I'll mention something that you talked about
from a solopreneur standpoint,
and it's understandable, right?
Depending on how much revenue is coming in
for that solopreneur or even an entrepreneur,
it may not be as advantageous early on to take on
hiring new people or having assistance.
So every situation will have its unique aspects to it.
But at the end of the day for us,
as people, we have a certain time period in every day.
So there are no 25 hour days, there are no eight day weeks.
And so for us to maximize the things
that we would like to do,
there are certain things that eventually
we have to let go of and allow others to help us
to reach those goals that we would like.
So the time constraint is always gonna be there.
And if we want to spend most of the time of that time
doing the things that we enjoy,
then it requires certain aspects,
whether you mentioned processes and systems,
that always helps.
Getting help from others could be people.
And it can manifest in a number of ways.
It doesn't always require hiring someone,
it could be relationships.
You know, some people do joint partnerships
where somebody has an asset or a resource
that could be used in exchange for skill or expertise.
So there's many ways to get creative about it.
And so not limiting the thought process either,
I think is also important because as a creator,
as a leader, as an entrepreneur,
there's a creativity that exists.
So just using that creativity in a different context
can open up a world of possibilities.
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 gonna 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 Vision Pro yourself.