So Don, tell me about your vision.
My vision for entrepreneurs and CEOs
is to lead their organizations and the product or service
that they deliver to their customers and clients
with a lot more ease.
And what I mean by that is, in my experience as both CEO
and serial founder is we can often
succumb to forcing our agenda and our priorities in ways
that can really grind us down as leaders
and also take a toll within our own organizations.
And that's why I emphasize to develop really three things
in particular to fulfill this vision of leading
with more ease.
And that is clarity, presence, and resilience.
Those three elements in particular,
and they sound very simple, but they're multifaceted.
And in my experience, when there's
emphasis put on those three elements, clarity, presence,
and resilience, we can really lead with a lot more ease
and deliver more value, both as leaders,
but then also in our business.
Wow.
What a choice of words.
I really love it.
And leading with ease.
That's amazing.
Where did this vision come from, Don?
I'll have to say it came from the school of hard knocks
in my own experience of early in my career as an entrepreneur
succumbing to leading forcefully and not leading with ease.
And from the pain of my experience,
hitting a very, very low moment, my rock bottom moment
at that point in my life, five years
after I founded my first company,
I recognized that I was gripping the steering wheel,
so to speak, of my leadership far too firmly.
And I needed to take a different approach because what I was
doing wasn't working.
Well, it was a successful business.
I could see the toll it was taking on me personally
when I hit that rock bottom moment,
and likewise for the team that I was leading.
So that's where it came from.
My own personal experience and the impacts
of that forceful way of leading that I saw
was backfiring in big ways.
Tell me more about that.
Yes, I think that my emphasis on driving as a leader forcefully
led to my burning out and being overly consumed
with the ways in which I felt like we weren't progressing
as fast as I would have liked.
We were missing expectations.
And in leaving from that sort of forceful place,
I just overlooked so much that was so good about all the work
that our team was doing.
And also, I was too attached to those expectations.
And it led to me being less present.
Why?
Because I was constantly measuring
against where I thought we should have been rather than
where we actually were and acknowledging
and appreciating all the good that we were doing.
Not to say I wanted us to rest on our laurels,
but without accepting exactly where we were,
I was too often in my mind's eye jumping ahead
and then looking back and being disappointed at where
we missed those expectations.
So it really came down to just accepting
where things were 100%.
And from there, really leaning in on serving
from a different place.
And what I mean by that is that instead of just sort of chasing
more for the sake of more and these expectations
that I had out there, it was serving from a place of let's
show up at our best, both for clients and customers,
but importantly for ourselves.
And in that way, it led to such a much more easeful way
of both leading and operating as a business in ways
that I saw very quickly started to have positive impacts,
both in just my experience of the business
and also the team enjoying their work more.
And lo and behold, it started to become much more productive
as an entire team.
Wow.
I bet that was a great transition.
Like, oh my gosh, I've been trying so hard.
It's not working.
And that's what it takes.
I know.
It seems so slight.
But I think for many hard charging CEOs and entrepreneurs
that are used to really driving to step back and accept
exactly where things are and lead from a different place,
as I've described, it's a small shift
that has very big implications.
And in my experience, no better way
to lead and to operate as a business.
That's awesome.
Don, what would you say is now the why of what you do?
Why is such an important question.
And for me, it's answered by the experience
I had going through very difficult times as a CEO
and entrepreneur and receiving support in so many ways
from others who had gone before me, who shared their lessons
that benefited me.
And that very much is my why, is to do the same,
turn to those that are perhaps a little bit behind me
on that entrepreneurial journey and offer the same support
that I received from others.
It feels so gratifying.
It's a cliche to say, pay it forward.
But I had the experience of, as I described,
chasing more for the sake of more
and recognizing that it just didn't deliver
what I expected it to.
Even hitting milestones like achieving a big exit,
which I'm blessed I've experienced,
it's not nearly as gratifying.
As sharing my experiences and insights and lessons
learned in the same way that others shared them with me
and benefited me in the moments that I needed the most.
That's awesome.
Do you have a story that relates to your why?
My story behind my why is coming to my senses
at 5 AM on the floor of a hotel bathroom, November 3, 2012,
after a bender that I'd been on the night before.
And my life hit rock bottom.
And I was CEO of a tech startup, 42 years old,
a distinguished lawyer.
And yet here I was in a crumpled mess on the floor.
And I recognized in that moment that so much of the way
I was leading in my business and my lifestyle
was out of balance in the biggest possible way.
And so much of it was tied to that forceful way of leading
and being disgruntled by missed expectations
and not satisfying all the things
that I was attached to in terms of outcomes.
That had led me to that rock bottom moment.
And my why comes from that moment,
the promise I made to myself that I would discontinue chasing
more for the sake of more and instead really
seek to serve in a way that was beyond my own betterment,
in a way, right, a certain mission and a purpose that
was just beyond my own expectations.
And that's led over the years to serving other CEOs
and business owners in shifting their perspective
on their leadership and the way to really sustainably
grow a very, very profitable business that's
more enjoyable to operate and lead.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned into 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 Vision Pro yourself.