What's up, everybody? Welcome into another episode
of Vision Pros Live. Today, we're going to do
a quick hit and at bat with Dr. Alan Mueller,
who's an expert on leadership. He's been in the
game for several decades, and anybody who's been
in the game for several decades has wisdom, but
especially a doctor who's placed his heart and
soul around the ideas of emotional intelligence,
compassion, empathy. Wasn't one of the words
he used, compassion wasn't, but I got to see
that firsthand as I got to know him right before
the show. He had a great interview as well with
Ryan Westfall of 537bd .com. Ryan and I are not
currently working together, but he is an operations
guru that I do recommend checking out if you're
in the need for infrastructure and growth. And
he brings a unique level of knowledge. from his
experience helping multi -billion dollar companies
with their operations. So definitely say hi to
Ryan if you talk to him for me. Then there's
these sponsors up here. These are other resources.
I just love connecting visionaries with potential
assets so that you guys can do the best that
you can with your own visions. And so Journey
to Wellness up here, we're actually rebranding
Journey to Wellness right now to Dr. Shannon.
Dr. Shannon and Dr. Justin Pierce help people
with their wellness. And I've sent several friends
and family members to them who had what were
considered chronic illnesses that were almost
uncurable. Things like Crohn's disease. Now,
I'm not a doctor, but I know that everybody that
I've sent to Shannon has raved about what they've
learned and about how much she's been able to
help them. And they've never been able to find
help in other areas of the market. So definitely
check that out if you've got health issues. She
specifically specializes in helping women, by
the way. Then there's Jennifer Reed. Practice
makes permanent. Jennifer Reed has worked at
one of the most notorious companies in the world
for a very long time. And she's a leader and
she helps with emotional intelligence and spiritual
intelligence. And she specifically helps corporations
through facilitating workshops for that cultural
development. What is that notorious company?
the iris um she's she's worked at the irs for
a very long time and helped the executives there
and so it's not her words she didn't say it i
said it by the way um but i think a lot of you
understand that wow like how much emotional intelligence
would it take and how much care and leadership
would it take to actually make a positive difference
in that massive government environment and how
much diplomacy skills would you have to have
to be able to lead and guide executives there
and so she's been actually a joy to work with
i've worked with her now for about four months
um and it has been awesome to see her unlock
um how to help brands with practice um by leaning
to practice and ultimately developing skills
that will help them permanently improve their
success another thing that's up here covered
by the light a little bit the water project the
water project is something that we support um
every month and uh that what they do is they
help remote villages in africa gain access to
clean water and when i heard about that i didn't
really relate i've never been thirsty in my life
um and so when i started to look at the projects
and see how they developed them and realized
like dang my kids don't have to deal with this
i don't have to deal with this I realized how
neat it was that they show you when you contribute.
If you pay even $10 for a project, you actually
get told when the project gets completed and
you get to see the proof of it through the pictures
that they take and you get to learn more about
the community. It's a really neat opportunity.
So if you're inspired to help out with that,
please do. And if you've got something else in
your heart and mind that you need help with,
if you've got a crowdfunding project for a friend
or if there's some other cause out there that
you want to mention, just drop it in the comments
and give me a chance because I would love to
see it. I will personally take a look and see
what the cause is. I might even bring it up on
the show if it inspires me. So without further
ado, let's bring Dr. Alan Mueller back on. Dr.
Alan, thank you for being here. And I know you
said only with the robe, could I call you that?
But it just comes out naturally. So Alan, it's
great to have you on the show. It's all good.
And I love that you mentioned Tim Duncan because
he actually went to college about 20 minutes
from me. Wake Forest. And I was a band nerd in
high school. And I got to play in the Wake Forest
pep band when Tim Duncan was playing in college.
And so got to see him live at Lawrence Joel Coliseum,
do his thing. And you're right. Fundamentals,
right? And it's, I love, and I'm going to be
very nonpartisan here. I love Mike Krzyzewski
and Roy Williams. This is Duke and UNC's head
coaches. And if you're not from the East Coast
and you don't know how serious the rivalry is.
Just imagine. I'm not going to tell you who I
pull for. But just imagine Yankees, Red Sox or
Michigan, Ohio State or, you know, big, big,
serious rivalry that tears families apart. Right.
But both of those coaches understand that teaching
the fundamentals is critical. And something else
they understand is that no one loss. is the end
of the world. Losing a game is not the end of
the world. It's a learning opportunity. And so
that's what I love about those coaches like Roy
Williams, like Mike Krzyzewski, who they understand
that we're all going to mess up. We're all going
to mess up. So let's normalize that. Instead
of shaming it, blaming it, doing a little happy
dance when someone at work messes up. What if
we turned it into every time it's a learning
opportunity? And so the best organizations that
I work with understand at the fundamental level
that mistakes are going to happen. And outside
of the life -threatening ones, outside of those,
mistakes should be embraced as part of learning
and growing and getting better. Huge. Huge. I
love that you mentioned it. And that will actually
lean into my tip. And so I'll lead the way on
this, give you a little bit of time to think
through what's your advanced tip that's there.
And the neat thing is this advanced tip can be
used by all of you newbies as well. When it comes
to the world of sports. The world of sports is
one of the best business organizations or industries
in the world. And you have so much transparent
access. I can see win records. I can see loss
records. I can see contracts that were canceled.
I get to hear about the gossip. You can't see
everything. I would love to see, I would love
to be in a film session of an NBA team. That
would be like the coolest thing ever to see the
conflict and see how much, how passionate they
are. But you mentioned coach Mike K and I remember
seeing him in the Netflix documentary on. the
redeemed team and him working with LeBron James
and Carmelo and the rest of the athletes who
were part of that process and the team that did
not win gold and all the things you go in there.
And then JJ Redick, I absolutely love him as
a coach. And what he's up to. And he went to
Duke. I'm a North Carolina fan through and through.
So that was a pill to swallow. But then he came
out with the Mind the Game podcast with LeBron
James. They started to reveal all sorts of cool
secrets and stuff. But all of you leaders out
there, just as Alan talked about, we can gleam
so much by watching those organizations. Seeing
how they interact with their teams, seeing how
their team members interact with them. Again,
looking at contracts, there's so many elements
you can learn from. And, you know, I think the
best leadership comes from just continuing to
do our best to learn what else can I do to up
my game and to be of better service to those
that I love and those that I serve. So, Alan,
how about you? How about on your side? To me,
the number one thing for advanced leaders is
curiosity. And this can fare you well, even if
you're a newer leader. But we're in the information
age, and we're also in the misinformation age,
all at the same time. And that's tricky, right?
I think that several years from now, and I hope
it's soon, we will be in what I'm calling the
discernment age. And the discernment age isn't
necessarily what's factual or not, but what's
the most important fact. And curiosity, as someone
who grew up Gen X, I'm going to tell you that
there were times I'd be sitting at a restaurant
with people and we'd be arguing about who an
actress was in a movie or an actor was in a movie.
And there was no way for us to check it. In other
words, all of us know the Internet now and I
can pull up the Internet and I can tell you if
Kevin Bacon was or was not in that movie. Right.
But in the in the 70s, 80s, 90s, as I was coming
up, we had I think curiosity was more alive because
you didn't have. The answer is in your pocket
in the form of a smartphone. And so I think that
as more quote unquote information is more available
to us, I think it's hurt our ability to be curious.
And when I say curious, I mean curious about
your own culture, curious about others' cultures,
curious about processes and how things work.
There's a company called Gore -Tex that I think
made refined plastics. And in their business
model. They cross -trained as many people as
they could. So they had people who were in HR
getting on the factory floor and people who were
in research and development getting into other
aspects. They called it the Gore -Tex model.
And so it was this idea that we should foster
curiosity between departments because that helps
us. So many organizations I work with, they're
departmental rivalries. One department doesn't
like this department or that one's more well
-funded or whatever. And trust me when I say,
if you can do the experiment of sort of moonlighting
in a second department and learning some of what
they go through and get curious about that part
of the operation, it does so much for your leadership
culture. It really does. Yeah. It's huge. I love
that you mentioned it. I'll give a shout out
to coach Fletcher Ellingson as well, who's been
a co -host of the show and is also my personal
coach. He is huge on curiosity and creativity.
And so his, the formula that he taught me about
that was when, you know, before getting upset.
Before reacting to things, follow this thing
called POC. That's to pause, be present, get
open, get curious, and be confident that all
things will work out. Curiosity is so critical
to that component. If I get open and I still
feel angry or upset or frustrated about something,
I'm not allowing myself to get curious. If I
get curious, I can find out. what was their real
intention? Um, and what were they really trying
to accomplish? Well, what is the, what is the
positive that comes out of this challenge? There's
so many great opportunities there. So Alan, I
absolutely love what you just put down vision
pros. Those of you listening in, there were so
many golden nuggets spread up in this. Um, and
we've got, we're going to keep it to a shorter
episode today, but I want to double down one
more time on what Dr. Allen's theory is. I hadn't,
I hadn't coined this or put this on. I'm glad
you coined it because you deserve it. And you've
now unlocked my mind to it. Yes, there is a filtration
that's taking place, kind of. There's a transition
that I think we're on the cusp of, and that is
that transition from information age to discernment
age. And what a positive way to look at what's
taking place right now. I think that AI, at least
in my experience, has restored a ton of my curiosity.
And part of it is the development of the answers
that it gives. it's so easy to think outside
the box now and to think in new ways. And so
I see what you're getting at there. I'm going
to leave some intrigue on that. If those of you
are interested in finding out more about what
Alan has to say about this, like me, then reach
out to him. Like I'm going to find out we can't,
we can't dissect all of the value that comes
from any author, any leader in one session. And
so the key for all of us is how do we build profound
and transformational relationships with great
leaders like Dr. Mueller? So thank you for being
here. I'd love to ask you one last fortune cookie.
If this is your last opportunity to speak to
our audience, Dr. Mueller, what message would
you have for the visionaries out there that are
working on pulling their visions together? I
would say, number one, be patient with yourself
and give yourself grace. If you're listening
to this right now, we've all... survived 2020.
And so if nothing else, that reminded me that
everybody that you work with, everybody that's
a potential client, a current client, everybody
that works in your organization, they're traversing
things and give grace, friends, give grace and
be patient, be patient with others and yourself.
I love it. We hope you subscribe. We hope you
give us grace as we continue to learn. Vision
pros have an awesome time building your vision,
make it a great year. And we'll see you in the
next episode. Take care, everybody. Thank you,
Alan. 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.