Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode
of Vision Pros Live. I'm your host and coach,
Fletcher Ellingson. So glad you're here. So glad
you're in this conversation. I think these conversations
are a lot of fun and I love learning and I hope
you get something out of it as well. Today on
the show, we have Dusty Holcomb and Dusty is
a leader, a speaker. He's got his own podcast
and his specialty. unlocking the potential of
leaders. And I love the conversation of leadership,
so let's dive into it. Dusty, welcome. Thank
you, Fletcher. It's an absolute pleasure and
delight to be here. I obviously love talking
about leadership too, so this will be a lot of
fun. Yeah, yeah. So I always like to start off
with a win, right? Because there's a lot of suffering
going on in the world, a lot of discontent, a
lot of uncertainty, and it's easy to get sucked
into that. It's easy to begin to focus on what's
not going well. So my first question for you,
is what's a win for you, either professionally
or personally? Yeah, I love that question. In
fact, I start every week. I start every day with
that question, but I start every week with some
of the groups I lead with that exact same question.
What's a win, personal or professional? You know,
my win and. It's an unsolicited video that one
of our leadership cohort members sent me yesterday,
just thanking me and thanking the group for the
impact that we've had in his life. And like when
somebody says, hey, man, this has changed my
life. Like everything else is great. That's as
good as it gets. Yeah, that feels really good,
right? It does, man. How about you? What's your
win? Oh, gosh, my win, you know, I'm gonna use
this for my win. Just before this call, I got
back from hanging out with my dog at the park,
at the lake, watching my dog swim, throwing the
stick for him. That's one of my favorite things
to do, is just throw the stick for the dog, watch
him go in the water, come back out. And we live
about four blocks from this glacier fed lake.
It's called Lake Cheyenne. Yeah, it's a 50 mile
long beautiful crystal clear lake and The win
is my lifestyle allows for that. So I'm grateful
Yeah, man, that sounds awesome when you can recharge
the batteries in a way that you're getting some
sunshine You're getting some some furry love.
It's pretty good. Yeah You got it, man. It doesn't
take much to make me happy. I think the dogs
the real winner though He's got somebody giving
him some exercise. That's right. That's right
So hey, we're talking about leadership and specifically
unlocking the potential of leaders. Now our audience
is made up of leaders. Our audience is made up
of entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, startups and
well -established businesses as well. So this
is a topic that we're all familiar with and some
more than others. We're at different stages in
the game of leadership. But let's get clear about
one thing first, okay? Everybody's a leader in
some capacity. Would you agree with that? 100
% agree. John Maxwell wrote that leadership is
influence. Nothing more, nothing less. And so
when you have influence, you're a leader. And
that's what leadership is. It has nothing to
do with title. It has nothing to do with role.
It has nothing to do with size of organization.
It has everything. to do with being a person
of influence. So that's the way I think about
leadership. Thank you for saying that. And I
love that you put those words to it. Leadership
has nothing to do with title or role. Now, and
that may surprise some people. Yeah. But that's
because they may think of leaders as they have
a very small box about leadership. Right. So,
Dusty, expound on that for me and help educate
us. Where else are we leaders in our life? I
like to think about it this way. If you have
a leader, a person who is telling someone else
to do, you are doing or amending your behavior
because someone has directed you. A real leader
has the opportunity to change how you behave
based on how they show up. follow, one of the
things I preach, one of the things I really study
is in order to have impact and influence on others,
you have to be able to lead yourself first. So
when you're becoming a person of influence for
yourself, Then there's a trickle out effect a
ripple effect that creates influence and I don't
care, you know like one of the most influential
people that I've ever had the privilege to serve
was the person who by title worked for me was
my EA at a prior company for 17 years, but man
when she whispered the entire Organization took
notice and like I changed my behavior because
of how she showed up. She was a leader Yeah,
yeah, that's that's so cool And I want to encourage
people listening right now. We're watching this
to answer this question Where am I a leader?
What area of life am I perceived as a leader?
What area and I like do I want to be perceived
as a leader, right? and What area of my life
are others expecting me to be a leader? And really
when we break it down, using some of the stuff
you said, we can rephrase that question and say,
where am I expected to influence the thinking
of other people? Where am I expected or where
can I help enroll people into a vision of what's
possible? I love that you went there like into
a vision of what's possible Because as I said
a minute ago like you have to lead yourself first
How you talk to others how you think about influencing
others that same language that same philosophy
that same approach? Applies to yourself. So like
I love the way you reframe this. Hey, where am
I supposed to lead others to a vision? Am I clear
on that vision for myself and of myself? Where
does my behavior need to change and amend in
order to make that vision a reality? Because
I can't cast a vision out for others if I haven't
codified and defined it and I'm not following
to it. I've got to make sure I really have that.
Yeah, you've got to have that. If you don't,
it's hard, right? You're just going through the
motions and that's not leadership. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, when we think of the leaders that we
respect the most, at least for me, these are
people who are walking the talk, right? Yes.
Yes. They are not armchair philosophers. They
are, you know, the pavement where the rubber
meets the road, right? They are walking the talk.
They are doing the stuff themselves. And that's
really what we're talking about is personal integrity,
right? It really is and you know they not only
do they walk the talk they know and recognize
that they will have off days and they invite
someone to call them out when they're not behaving
the way they have said they want to behave and
they'll be the first of a minute like I know
I've screwed up a lot in life but you know the
the leaders that I respect the leaders that we
want to emulate and we want to be like are the
ones who have high personal integrity like they
show up the way they say they're going to and
when they fail and we all do they invite the
friction they invite the feedback because they
know that that's how they get better okay yeah
so let's let's go to this next Topic you just
you just prepped the conversation for invite
the friction. Tell me more You know one of my
favorite Proverbs is iron sharpens iron and you
have to be intentional in how you curate that
Friction like you ask for the friction like we're
not supposed to be comfortable We're not supposed
to be you know going along and saying I've arrived
we have that have someone who is challenging
us, who is helping us be better. I think one
of the great fallacies about leadership is that
the leader has all the answers. The leader doesn't.
The leader has the opportunity to ask the questions
that allow you to triangulate on the truth. So
when I think about the friction, I think about
intentionally asking for someone to challenge
my position. Based on what I know, this is what
I believe. What am I missing? Where could I be
wrong? How am I missing out on what a different
perspective may bring to the table? And one of
the things that we work with when working with
leadership teams is we build cohorts where we
intentionally create accountability. You know,
people, human nature, they'll let themselves
down first, right? You know, I will choose to
sleep in and miss the workout or whatever it
is. But the minute I have committed to another
person, the minute I have told someone else,
this is who I am. This is what I believe. This
is what you can't expect. and give them permission
to call me out when I do it, I won't let them
down. Like I had that accountability and like
some of the fiercest conversations that I've
ever been part of is when someone was following
through and giving me the hard friction I needed.
I'm really enjoying this concept about invite
to friction. I really appreciate this language.
It's not language that I've used in the past,
but this is a concept I'm really gonna incorporate.
Because we all know what friction is. And friction
is abrasive. Oh, it's just like, ouch. But I
really invite you who are listening or watching
this right now, man, really take this to heart.
Take what does he's saying to heart invite the
friction now. This is going to be a practice
because if you are not someone who is used to
Taking ownership and saying oh, that was me.
I messed up. Oh, that was me I got that wrong
or or if you're not used to people saying you
were wrong or pointing out your Where you could
have improved? That's going to be something that
massively impedes your growth accomplishment
and success in life. So I'm gonna Again, listen
to what he's saying and I want to invite you
to really assess yourself. Am I that person who
invites the friction or do I recoil? Do I deny?
Do I defend? Do I divert? Do I avoid? Because
I'll tell you what, when I, and I'm going to
use your term, when I decided to invite the friction
into my life, whoa, things started to change
radically. I'm the person in the room who now,
oh that was me, I'll raise my hand, I messed
up. Like I used to before I'd lie about it. Hmm.
No, no, no, that wasn't me. It must been someone
else No, no, that was me my mistake Yeah, I would
I'm gonna jump in there. I'm guessing I can't
speak for you, but I can speak for myself. There
are times and seasons in our lives we are way
more worried about what other people are going
to think about us. So we lie, we don't raise
the hand, whatever it is we do. But the minute
we say, hey, I screwed up, I'm the one that,
like we're leading, we're setting the example,
we own the consequences of our behavior. Invite
the friction, iron sharpens iron. The knife does
not get sharper without friction. The car does
not go faster without friction on the highway.
Everything we do, everything we do in growth
in life has a friction. And there are things
that work against us. We have to break through.
We have to break through. And so there's a wonderful
book, The War of Art, where he talks about pressing
through the resistance. That's friction. Like
the world does not conspire to give you a tailwind
the world conspires to give you a headwind and
it's through the perseverance that you get the
strength to meet the Next level I got I like
to think in metaphors and one of the metaphors
that we talk about a lot with leadership is you're
just climbing a mountain and when you get to
the top There's gonna be another one and you
go down a little bit you go up again And you're
always going through this cycle and there's always
friction and that's okay. It's how you grow that's
important and And then when you do it for yourself
and you invite it, man, I'm not saying it's easy.
It's powerful. It's uncomfortable. Sometimes
it's very disturbing, but yes, it's powerful.
Again, I'm a big fan of language, words matter,
and I like what you just said a few sentences
ago. One of the things I always say is life was
always working out for my greatest evolution,
right? But I want to put it in the words you
just said, life is not, you said life is not
something but a tailwind. Say that again, please.
Yeah, life does not conspire to give you tailwinds.
Yes. If you have headwinds, you must press through.
Yes, exactly. That is so beautiful. Because when
we get that headwind, it doesn't feel like life
is working out for me. Doesn't look like it doesn't
sound like it may not taste like it, right? No,
no, no. But it is. That's the opportunity. And
yeah, so life as it's conspiring for you is actually
maybe giving you a huge headwind so that you
can expand. Yeah, it really is. And so again,
mental model that I like to think about the imagery
is if you're familiar with the art of judo. And
judo is a Japanese grappling art, martial art.
And the way a great judo fighter wins is he redirects
energy. He redirects the energy away. And so
when we think about life and these challenges
that come up for us in our leadership, in our
business growth, in whatever it is, instead of
trying to absorb it, and take the pain, take
the hit. We find a way to redirect that energy
and then seek what we learn from it. What I love
so much about the judo metaphor is you can have
a white belt get on the mat with a black belt
and the white belt can kick the black belt's
tail because he happens to have studied a lot
of arts. He happens to be very experienced. You
bow when you get on. You go at it hard. You bow
when you leave and you have learned. That's embracing
the friction, the opportunity to learn. What
does this have to do with business? What does
it have to do with leadership? It's a mental
model. It's a mindset shift that you say, this
is what's happened for me. I get to do this.
Let me embrace this opportunity to be better
and have higher degrees of impact and influence.
Yeah, well articulated. So good. Gosh, I hope
you all are listening and paying attention to
this good stuff he's laying down. I'm feeling
inspired right now. So thank you for this time.
Dusty, we're coming up towards the end of our
conversation here. But I want to know, and for
those listening, maybe I want to work with Skye.
I want to find out more about this. How do they
reach you? And before you say that, what is it
that you can offer people that do want to work
with you? Like, what's the package or what do
you help companies, do you help individuals enlighten
us? Yeah, principally, we work with high performance,
high functioning leaders who are trying to break
through that friction point, that transition
period from where they are to where they're going.
three core pain points that leaders always feel.
They feel isolated and alone. They feel like
they're just stuck. They can't get the traction
they want. Or they feel like they're the bottleneck.
Everything ends up on their desk. They just like,
why is this all saddling me? So as we work with
leaders, we help build a system, a leadership
operating system that they can install. in their
system, in their business, in their life, we
surround them with a cohort of like -minded leaders
and we enable them to break through. It goes
back to when you work on yourself, when you lead
yourself, you can lead a team and you can influence
and impact an organization. So we start from
the inside to work out and we really follow the
mantra of slow is smooth, smooth is fast. But
when you do that, Man, you can create real change.
So that's what we do. We do leadership group
and leadership impact accelerators, put together
cohorts of 12 like minded leaders, give them
a system, the time and space to install it and
help each other be accountable to that. One of
the things is that those pain points resonate
for folks. We have a wonderful quick assessment
that you can take that will just give you as
a quiz, hey, which one of those pain points is
choking me out the most right now, and it's just,
you know, clarity, excuse me, leadershipgapassessment
.com. You can just go there, leadershipgapassessment
.com, and take that non -question quiz, or you
can just go to Arcus Group, A -R -C -Q -U -S,
group .com, and we have tons of resources there.
So, like, whether you engage with us or not,
you know, our purpose and mission in life is
to enable the success of others. And that's why
I started this firm is I want to impact the lives
of 10 million leaders. And so go find resources,
go check us out, and lead better by leaving yourself.
Right on. Well said. Thank you so much for your
time today. My notebook here is full of notes
and things you've said, so I love this. Things
I haven't heard before. Invite the friction.
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Iron sharpens
iron. All this is gold. Thank you so much for
your inspiration and contribution today. You're
welcome, Pleasure. It's great. I love talking
about this stuff, as you can tell. It's always
nice to be able to talk with someone who it resonates
with, so thank you for that. Yeah, you bet. Alright,
we'll have you back again for the long form.
Ladies and gentlemen, Dusty Holcomb, thanks for
being on Vision Pros, and now it's time for you
to get out there. Be a source of kindness, be
a source of contribution. You do have something
to offer this world, and I believe in you. 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 Vision Pro yourself.