Manders Mindset
Hosted by Amanda Russo, The Breathing Goddess, who is a Breathwork Detox Facilitator, Transformative Mindset Coach, and Divorce Paralegal.
Amanda's journey into mindset and empowerment began by working with children in group homes and daycares. She later transitioned to family law, helping people navigate the challenging emotions of divorce. During this time, Amanda also overcame her own weight and health challenges through strength training, meditation, yoga, reiki, and plant medicine.
Amanda also shares her personal journey, detailing how she transformed obstacles into opportunities by adopting a healthier, holistic lifestyle.
Discover practical strategies and inspiring stories that will empower you to break free from limitations and cultivate a mindset geared towards growth and positivity.
Tune in for a fun, friendly, and empowering experience that will help you become the best version of yourself.
Manders Mindset
88: Becoming An Improver: How to Escape Average and Unleash Greatness with Justin Winstead
In this episode of Manders Mindset, We’re joined by the inspiring Justin Winstead, author of Become an Improver: A Challenge to Escape Average and Unleash Greatness. Justin shares his incredible journey from overcoming childhood hardships and surviving cancer to becoming a successful entrepreneur and executive coach. We dive into how mindset shifts shaped his path, from his early life lessons about financial literacy to his pivot from ministry to the business world. Justin’s personal growth story is a powerful testament to the impact of intentional change, and he shares practical advice on developing healthy habits, goal-setting, and staying accountable.
Justin shares his incredible journey from overcoming childhood hardships and surviving cancer to becoming a successful entrepreneur and executive coach. We dive into how mindset shifts shaped his path, from his early life lessons about financial literacy to his pivot from ministry to the business world. Justin’s personal growth story is a powerful testament to the impact of intentional change, and he shares practical advice on developing healthy habits, goal-setting, and staying accountable.
This episode is packed with actionable insights, from replacing bad habits with good ones to maintaining productivity without falling into the trap of “busyness.” We also explore Justin’s unique perspective on the differences between being an improver and a leader, and how to make a lasting impact by constantly striving to better yourself and your surroundings. If you’re looking to level up in your personal and professional life, you won’t want to miss this conversation!
Main Topics:
•[2:55] Justin’s roots: From country boy to entrepreneur
•[5:36] Transformative childhood and mindset on money
•[12:24] A tough love moment that sparked financial literacy
•[19:54] Replacing bad habits with good habits
•[23:18] Time audits: Measuring true productivity
•[39:50] Becoming an improver: Escaping average and unleashing greatness
•[53:44] Leadership vs. Improver: What’s the difference?
To Connect with Amanda:
linktree.com/thebreathinggoddess
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Join the Manders Mindset Facebook Community HERE!
Follow Manders Mindset on Instagram HERE!
To Connect With Justin & His Resources:
•Check out Justin’s book, Become an Improver Order HERE
•Take the Peace Index quiz at Improver Group
•Connect with Justin on Instagram and Linkedin
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to rate, follow, and share the podcast. Let’s improve together!
Are you ready to improve your life? If you're listening to me on Mando's Mindset, I know you are, because here at Mando's Mindset, we believe in the power of improving our lives through shifts, and sometimes it's the smallest shifts that have the biggest impact. I am joined in this episode with such an inspiring, powerful and passionate individual who is the author of the recently released book titled Become an Improver a challenge to escape average and unleash greatness. So sit back, grab your pens and notebooks. Greatness. So sit back, grab your pens and notebooks and let's level up and improve our lives. I am so excited for you guys to hear my conversation with Justin. I hope you enjoy the episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Manders Mindset Podcast. Here you'll find both monologue and interviews of entrepreneurs, coaches, healers and a variety of other people where your host, Amanda Russo, will discuss her own mindset and perspective and her guest's mindset and perspective on the world around us. Amanda's and her guests will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Amanda's Mindset, where we explore the power of shifting your mindset to shift your life. I'm your host, amanda Russo, and I am here today with an awesome guest. I am here today with Justin Winstead. Justin has transformed adversity into a springboard for success. After graduating from college, he worked in student ministry and church planting before launching into his business endeavors including oil and gas, real estate and a multi-million dollar insurance agency. With over 20 years in business and leadership as a cancer survivor, justin's journey epitomizes the power of faith, purpose and vision. Justin is passionate about personal growth with the goal of serving others. He's committed to enriching people through his insights. As an executive coach, workshop facilitator, keynote speaker and the founder of Improver Group, justin aims to make the world a better place by helping leaders, entrepreneurs, their teams improve personally and professionally. He resides in Texas with his wife, catherine, and his four children, jesse, brooklyn, abigail and Trent, and I am here with Justin today. Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3:Hey, thanks so much, Mandy, for having me on. Looking forward to our discussion. It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 1:That's an awesome bio, but who would you say Justin is at the core?
Speaker 3:Some people are already trying to identify this accent, and so I'm originally from Louisiana. I live in Texas now. So if you take a country boy with a little Cajun and mix in some Texas twang, this is what you get. So, at my core, that's who I really am. I am a country boy from the middle of nowhere that has had a life trajectory that's been altered and now live in Dallas, fort Worth. I'm just a cleaner-shaven version of one of those Duck Dynasty guys. That's the town I'm from and that's who I am. I love family, love faith, love food, love outdoors. That's my world.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that is hilarious. I didn't expect that. I didn't expect that. I would never have guessed that was what you were going to say. Can you take us down memory lane a little bit? Can you take us down memory lane a little bit? Tell us about your childhood, upbringing, family dynamic.
Speaker 3:However deep you want to go with that, one of my earliest childhood memories is being a young child and looking through the floor of our trailer house we could see the ground underneath our mobile home because our flooring wasn't even solid. I remember a snake coming into the house and it got in a laundry basket and it was like, okay, we've got to fix our floor and we just had to get plywood to cover up the holes in the floor. When it would rain we'd get buckets and bowls to catch the raindrops from the ceiling so our house didn't flood. My dad was a high school dropout, hardworking person, did manual labor All of his life still does to this day. My mom's a public school teacher. But I had siblings and financial literacy really wasn't too strong in our own. We made up for it with love and compassion in a strong family and we looked out for one another. So we lacked in financial literacy. We made up for it in hard work and grit. But that would shape my worldview and my life journey in a significant way, like all of our childhoods do, and a part of that was somewhere along the way. I developed an idea that money is bad, rich people are evil and if you are successful in business, you must have cheated your way to get there. I don't exactly know where that idea came from, but I think part of it was a coping mechanism, because I always felt like I was on the outside looking in. There were the haves and the have-nots in the world. I was on the have-nots side of the equation. I wanted to get an understanding for that. The way I framed that understanding was well, we're the good people because we sweat, we struggle, we strive through life and it's a hardship and that makes us good, and these people on Easy Street, that makes them bad. And so that was a really weird way of viewing the world.
Speaker 3:As I grew up into middle school and high school, one of the transformative things that happened was I had an experience after getting in a fight with a friend at school. That happened was I had an experience, after getting in a fight with a friend at school, getting invited to a pizza party by another friend where I became convinced that Jesus was a real person who lived on this planet and that his way of life was what I wanted to emulate and that I needed him and I wanted to follow him, and so I became a Christian during that time. At that point in our life I wasn't involved in church. If you combine that transformative event with my background of money being bad, rich people being evil, all this work together end up going into the Christian ministry as a teenager. And so, as 14, 15 years old, I'm on stages, I'm speaking at youth events, sharing things about faith, life and leadership, and that's really where the journey that I'm at today to me, really started in earnest was all those years ago. I ended up graduating high school, going to college. That's when I was diagnosed with cancer, 20 years old. That had a significant part to play in my life. We talk about mindset, and there were some mindset shifts that happened during the cancer journey. I was still doing ministry during that time. I thought my whole life was going to be working in the nonprofit ministry world.
Speaker 3:I moved to Texas to finish my seminary degree almost 15 years ago. I told my family I'll be back next year. My plan was to go back, do ministry, charity, work, whatever. I got out here and felt this pull to go into the business world. This arena that I had looked down on seemed intimidating and frightening, but also beneath me in a weird way, that's where I was drawn to. So I ran straight into my fears and inadequacies and weaknesses and decided I would learn entrepreneurship, I would learn business, I would commit to learning real leadership, did that for several years, ended up launching my own business. Of course, everybody usually has deals with some type of direct sales or multi-level marketing campaign. I did that.
Speaker 3:The thing where I really found my footing was an insurance agency Built a property and casualty primarily agency, had a team of producers.
Speaker 3:It was an awesome experience because I had my team and we were like a mom and pop shop, but we were located in our corporate office.
Speaker 3:We were there during the time they went public. I got to see both sides of business being in a huge organization going to be publicly traded, but also seeing the entrepreneur's journey mom and pop shop, and so, as I round out my story to where I am today, it is really taking all of that and I've smashed it together. What my life is now is all the things I loved about my childhood family, working hard, being together, focusing on the right things combined with the things I loved about doing ministry, which is having faith, integrity and being moral and thinking of the big picture and the eternal purpose of life, combined with all the things I love about business and leadership of being productive and creating profit and increasing performance. You smash all that together. That's what I get to do with executive coaching, team training and leadership development. I felt like that would be super helpful for you to have that foundation and your listeners so we can build off of that.
Speaker 1:Now I am so curious how that big of a mindset shift happened. You really seemed to embody being against the business, against that financial type of career. Did something happen?
Speaker 3:There were a couple of seeds that got planted and they came to fruition during the time of my transition and finishing out my master's. The seeds started when I went through cancer and of course I'm thinking about is this really what my life was supposed to be about? Was my true calling and my understanding of life? There was a gentleman in his 70s or 80s who did chemo beside me. I remember him giving me old phrases like if you manage your pennies, your dollars will take care of themselves. He would talk to me about these words of wisdom that made me think differently about managing money, time, work and habits. That was helpful.
Speaker 3:The other thing that's kind of a fun story and I'll try to keep it as succinct as I can, but here I am. I'm working at this church as a student pastor and I'm going to school at the same time and I'm sitting in the office of a missions pastor at a completely different church. As I'm talking with this pastor, the reason I'm there is I'm asking them for money because my utilities had been disconnected in the trailer house that I was renting. And he says well, justin, do you not have a job Like you know? Why were your utilities disconnected? And I said, oh no, I've got a job. I work at another church. And the guy was really confused and why are you here asking us? It was just a weird. I had blind spots, needless to say. But he said well, what did you spend your paycheck on? Well, I had to pay off the payday loan people. He said, why does somebody your age have a payday loan and you're paying all this interest? And so I had maxed out my credit card and the company was harassing me about paying off my debt and they told me they would run my credit under the ground and I wouldn't be able to buy a house and I wouldn't be able to buy a car and they were going to ruin my life before it even began. So I took out the payday loan to pay off the credit card. He said why did you have a credit card? I said, well, it was there for emergencies. He says what was your emergency? I said, well, I broke up with my girlfriend, bought a flat screen TV with surround sound and got Pearl Harbor on DVD. That was my coping during that time. This was a significant thing that happened.
Speaker 3:He said, justin, the scripture tells us to speak truth and love. And what I'm about to tell. You may not feel loving and you may not even think that it's truth, but just know that's my heart. He says it's Christians like you who give Christians like us a really bad name. He said you're supposed to be living a life of service, of generosity, of helping others, of giving to others. You're supposed to steward your life in a way that creates margins so you can support people and bless them. But you've been so immature and so foolish and so selfish you're in here taking. He said our fund is here for people who are victims of their circumstances, not the primary creators of them. And he said our church loves you too much to enable your bad behavior and bail you out of this situation, so we're not going to give you any money. But he gave me a book about budgeting and finance. It was the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. He said this will help you with budgeting and getting out of debt. He said if you need support or guidance, reach out. I'll share wisdom. He said you need to rebound from this.
Speaker 3:I went and sat in my truck. I was mad. First of all, I had my pride insulted and my ego put in check. I'm looking at this book. I'm frustrated, I'm confused, but then it hits me and I realized how much of an idiot I had been. I began to cry in the truck and I made a decision in that moment that I would never again be in that spot because of my foolishness, because of my selfishness that I'm going to take from people who are truly in need. I decided that I would live a life that would manage money and time well, and that I would have extra to share and extra to fall back on if needed. Well, and that I would have extra to share and extra to fall back on if needed. That changed the trajectory of my life that day and that's part of what led me into the business world. Tough love.
Speaker 1:Approximately how old were you?
Speaker 3:21 years old when that happened and I remember reading a book, a line in that book that said if you can save $100 a month for 40 years, at the end of that 40 years that the idea of having a million dollars in the bank seemed so outrageous, but also so reasonable the way he explained it. So I began to get out of debt, manage my money. It was all because I wanted to save up to be a millionaire one day, and it didn't take me until I was 61 to achieve that status. I'm grateful for that book. I don't agree with everything that he's got in the book, but that was really powerful.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. Okay, and now, when you had this conversation, you had been diagnosed with cancer at 20.
Speaker 3:I did six months of chemo, six weeks of radiation and I'd kind of started moving beyond that. I was healthy as far as that was concerned, but I'd made a lot of excuses during my cancer journey. I keep using the word coping, but it was like what are my escapes, what are my guilty pleasures to get through it? And they got out of hand.
Speaker 1:Like what.
Speaker 3:Well, for instance, the eat whatever I want to eat. You know, because nausea is a part of chemotherapy and people who've gone through cancer are noticing when it comes. You know your food, and so during cancer, it made sense for me to whatever food that I could get that would settle my stomach and that I could hold down was good. Well, whenever I got through cancer, I just ate whatever I wanted to eat and it was just kind of still continue to justify it like well, it's all right, well, I'm making Taco Bell runs at one o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3:It really led to bad health. I'm actually about 80 pounds lighter now than I was during that time. Not only was I lacking self-control with money, but I was lacking self-control with food. There was no exercise. My relationships is evidenced by the fact that I went and bought a flat screen TV after a breakup. I didn't have healthy relationships and so I was just really in a mess, which was sad, considering I was trying to guide the next generation in youth ministry. I was teaching them good stuff about the Bible, but I was not being the type of leader and example I needed to be.
Speaker 1:You mentioned you lacked self-control and it showed up in multiple areas. I've had people say that to me, like how you do one thing is how you do everything, or, even if not, that like your behaviors, your patterns, your beliefs, they're going to show up at least in one other area. It's not like a one and done type of thing.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you get this book, and where do you go from here?
Speaker 3:Well, just started saving and getting some self-control, some self-discipline, and it's amazing that when your mindset does begin to shift, it compounds on itself, whether positive or negative. If you start taking on bad habits, the bad habits compound. If you take on good habits, the good habits compound. One of the things we coach on today is that the fastest way to success is to replace a bad habit with a good habit. If you want an easy takeaway, it would be. If I want success in an area, the fastest way is to look at my habits and say how could I get rid of a bad habit and replace it with a good habit? That'll get you there. So I started doing that. To begin to exercise and eat healthier, began to actually sit down and put a budget together and spend my money on paper before the month began. That way, I would know where things were going. One of my favorite phrases that I picked up during that process was a budget tells your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Up until that point, I kept going where is my money going? When I started working within a budget, I knew where it was going. Same thing with my time. It took a little bit later on. But I had to learn how to start budgeting my time and actually time blocking and setting appointments for things that were important, not just urgent.
Speaker 3:But as I developed those healthier habits, I ended up getting connected with my now wife. She had graduated college, had moved out of state, then we kind of reconnected. That really excited me because basically I fell in love and that lit the fire under me too. So I was already building momentum and then it was like I really need to get my act together because this is my opportunity to be with this lovely person. It took me four and a half years to get 63 hours of my college degree. It took me a year and a half to get the other 62. I was flying on that last year and a half to get the other 62. I was flying on that last year and a half of college getting my classes knocked out. Graduated we got married and a year later we had our first child. We've got four kiddos now, two bio, two adopted. That's how that came to be.
Speaker 1:Okay, I like how you mentioned replacing it. I talk a lot about habits, about shifting and changing. I'm either emphasizing starting it small or replacing it and switching it out with something, because our minds are wired to want whatever we're depriving ourselves of, regardless of what it is. You know, even back to when you were a kid and your mom said you can't have whatever it is, you want that even more so because quote unquote can't have it. You know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but if you could get something in lieu of it. It's not maybe what you wanted, but it at least kind of satisfies temporarily. You know, if you're craving a snack, you can sit there and try to resist the temptation to go get a cookie, or you can get up and choose to get a carrot. Okay, it's not as good as the cookie necessarily, but it satisfies the craving At least. You got something that replacing the bad habit with the good habit, one of the things I was doing for a while and still do, but just not as strictly.
Speaker 3:I get to think about like I want to spend less time on social media and more time reading, but what do I do with my books? My books, I leave them off to the side out of the way, and my phone I was carrying with me everywhere. So one way of replacing a bad habit with a good habit was to do the opposite. I'm going to leave my phone on the nightstand and grab the book, take it into the living room and just have it with me. Making it convenient was a simple swap, but it wasn't just spend less time on social media. It was spend less time on social media. It was spend less time on social media, spend more time reading, and then it was almost a habit within a habit, by choosing to leave the phone in one room and take the book into the other.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I love that. I talk a lot about these little shifts, even different foods, even if it's like mashed potatoes, for example, you could have cauliflower or like, even if it's not every day of the week, a couple of times making that shift. It'll be a difference.
Speaker 3:You know, baby steps is definitely one of the most undervalued and overlooked parts of being successful in life. Baby steps is a part of that debt book, the total money makeover. He calls them baby steps in there. A lot of times we want to take these gigantic leaps on baby steps in there. A lot of times we want to take these gigantic leaps. If we would just take it a small step at a time and let it compound, that really has so much value to us. We overestimate our ability to move forward long-term without celebrating wins, and we need the small steps because we need the wins to keep us motivated. We need the small things that help us go along the path. A lot of times we don't think we need that, the small things that help us go along the path. A lot of times we don't think we need that.
Speaker 3:As I coach executives, one of the biggest challenges is when they set goals. A lot of times they feel like the reward and the goal are one in the same and so if we can reach this revenue number as a company, that's the goal and that's also the reward. Now we've got more revenue. That's not really the way our brain is wired. We actually have three levels. One is we set a goal. What is the thing that you want to accomplish that's in line with your ultimate vision? The second thing we do is we want to set a reward. What is that superficial incentive? What's that gain that you get that if you accomplish X? This is your fun kind of part. And then the other one is that inner wine. It's that deeper motive. You also need to know what is your win there.
Speaker 3:So an example might be I want to set a revenue goal for my company. My goal is to increase sales by 10% this year. Of 10%, that's my goal, and I've put a time on it by the end of the year Now. It's time-bound, it's specific and measurable. Because you've got that 10%, now the goal is good. My reward, once I reach that goal, might be that I go celebrate with a really nice steak dinner, or maybe I buy myself a new shirt, something that marks that occasion, but it's some fun way of recognizing that achievement.
Speaker 3:That's my outer why. My inner why, though, is well, I want to do that because this will increase our family revenue by X. If I'm more profitable now, we have more take home, and that's going to allow me to save more for my kids' college, and so that's my inner. Why compared to my outer? Why compared to the goal? The reason I'm bringing this up in this term of mindset is we need to celebrate our wins because they keep us motivated to continue to have more goals and continue to push hard. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Even showing ourselves that we can do it and follow through. We can accomplish the goal, you know. Yes, do it and follow through. We can accomplish the goal, you know.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Well, that makes a lot of sense. I want to backtrack a tad. I really like how you mentioned budgeting time. I did something called a time audit. We have an episode on the podcast about it where I audited my time every 15 minutes, exactly what I was doing. I did it a day I was working and a day I wasn't working, to see the full difference and you'll be amazed at where your time is going. So many people think they know, but I did not realize until I did something like that.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's super important. We use the phrase multitasking and the body can multitask in one sense because we have a subconscious that is doing things that we're not aware of. But with our conscious, we really don't multitask in the true sense. What we're really doing is task switching. A lot of people don't realize unless they track not really being productive because of all the wasted time rather than focusing on one thing at a time, being fully present in that. Then, moving on to those things, we are in a world riddled with distractions and interruptions. We spend so much time starting and stopping our task and a lot of us are working hard, but we're not working that smart, and this multitasking slash, task switching is costing us a lot of productivity, and so doing a time audit is a great idea for people to do, and we're usually in denial about how much we're working, how fast we're working, when I interview people to come on our team one of the things that catches people by surprise because it does feel a little bit strong based on the personality. But we tell them here we don't hire for availability and activity, we're hiring for productivity. Availability and activity, we're hiring for productivity.
Speaker 3:There are a lot of jobs in the world that people get that as long as they show up and they're available. So they're on the clock and in the building or behind the desk and if they're being somewhat active, shuffling papers and filing, there's a lot of wasted time in meetings and so they're available and they're moving. Therefore they get paid and that is one way of doing work, especially if you want to go work in the government. But for me and my team, that's not the way we operate. We say look, we're not paying you to just be here and to be active, we're paying you to be productive and you have to be mindful of how are you spending your focus, your time, your energy, because we need it to help us move the ball down the field. We need to make progress and that's what we're paying for here.
Speaker 1:How did you ensure that they're productive?
Speaker 3:What you have to do is look at inputs but focus on the outputs as far as evaluation. So as the worker, whatever your job is, you really need to be focusing on your inputs and like let me plant the seeds, water the seeds, cultivate the seeds. The harvest will come. But as a supervisor, manager, leader, you look at the inputs but also measure the outputs. I love the phrasing of having a key performance indicator or a key results area, kpis or KRAs. They're much better than job descriptions, because a job description says what kind of work I want you doing and that work is sometimes productive, sometimes it's just active. But if you say, well, I'm not worried about a job description as much as I am a key results area. You're focusing on the outcome. You're saying here's the outcome I want you to be responsible for, and your way of getting that might vary based on your personality or skill set, but we're focusing on the results.
Speaker 3:The way you make sure you're doing that is you're evaluating the results. You put it in perspective with the inputs, because if they're hustling and getting stuff done, you don't fire them or demote them, but you really want to say what are they producing? There's got to be some measurable outcome of what they're doing, and we find a way of measuring everything. One of the tools that we use in our coaching it's called the peace index, and the peace index measures how much peace you have in your life. So if I'm training a leader and one of his job is to help create a good culture and to help look at the well-being of our team members, one of his tools might be is well, is their peace index increasing or is it decreasing? And so things you think can't be measured actually can be measured, and so that's what you got to do is you got to find some way of measuring it, setting the goal and holding people accountable to that.
Speaker 1:A peace index.
Speaker 3:You can do that on my website at improvergroupcom. Just go to resources, click that tab and you can do the peace index for free and it'll give you a score on how much peace you have in your life. Because it's not a switch, it's a slider scale. Right, it's a dimmer switch, not a on-off switch, and it's not like we have peace or don't. Our peace fluctuates as the day goes on. You want to increase sales, confidence, leadership, influence, increase your peace and that will come out. There's never been a good salesperson who didn't have peace in his life, because it's hard to sell to others when you're with inner turmoil. You're conflicted and you need clarity for sales. So you need inner peace to create that clarity. So, yeah, things like that Team culture, measuring how healthy is that? How well is your team performing? Beyond just the production metrics Using tools like that are helpful to focusing on the results and the outputs rather than just, you know, sitting around doing busy work. Busyness and business is not always the same thing.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tons of people. Their days are filled with busyness, but that's not business.
Speaker 1:I like that. I'm very into these quotes, analogies, little things. I've never heard that before.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like it. So busyness is not business and activity doesn't equal productivity. So just because you're moving things around, we got better things to do than sit around here tinkering with things. And this happens in corporations and in government entities. It's harder in a mom and pop shop because there's more accountability and usually more skin in the game. People realize what needs to get done. But the larger the organization gets, the easier it is to piddle around. But if you want to figure out how to add more income to your life, you need to ask yourself this question how do I add more value to the people that I serve, whether that's your team internally or whether that's your customers and clients externally? If you can add more value, your income will follow. But a lot of people are stagnant in their income because they're stagnant in their value that they're adding because they're not producing. They're sitting around there looking like they're working, but they're not really working, and so they tap out and plateau Is there a suggestion for people to avoid that.
Speaker 3:Well, it really is a lot of just reflection. They can step back and ask themselves what could I do to add more value? And part of how we add more value is we learn how to work smarter. How can I accomplish the same task with less time? How can I accomplish the same task with less energy? How can I keep my focus? How can I make this more affordable? So, as we do those things and we work more effectively and efficiently, that helps us have more margin to add value. So this is easily understood in our personal budget, right? If we look at our home and we go, how can I operate in my house more efficiently? What can I do to save money? What can I do to save time? What can I do to add value to the home, add more equity into it? We can ask those questions and it leads us naturally to a project or a task. We'll do that same thing in the marketplace.
Speaker 3:In my book coming out October 1st, I have a section and they're about serving others and we all have different ways that we can choose to serve and we might just want to pick. I call them hats of service. So it's like what hat do you want to put on in serving others, and maybe it's being an insightful advisor. So you say one way I can add value is to offer advice and insights to people. Well, in order for me to do that, I need to up my game and read books. I need to listen to podcasts like this one. I need to hone my mental capacity and by improving myself, I can help others because I've got better ideas. I've got experiences to draw from that maybe weren't even my own. I can pull from someone else's experience. So that's just one way is being an advisor.
Speaker 3:Another way might be being a collaborative partner. So in this one, you're not really giving advice and letting them do it. You may be linking arms with someone and saying, hey, let's join together on this venture and do it with one another, and so you're adding value by way of your partnership. It could just be that you decide to be a joyous giver. So you say you know what the way I'm going to add value today is? I'm just going to go give money to this thing, I'm going to go volunteer at this place, and there's not really collaboration. You're not idea generating or charting the future. You're not really advising them, but you're just giving of your time and your presence and your effort. So as we do this and add value to people, it eventually comes back around. The famous Zig Ziglar said if you help enough other people in life, get what they want. You eventually get what you want. And that's what we have to do add value to others and it'll come back.
Speaker 1:Okay, hats of services. I like that. I like the way you phrased it. Why hats?
Speaker 3:The hat to me has a connotation of service, of work. The other part of it is there was actually a movie about Winston Churchill called the Darkest Hour. There's a scene where Winston has not yet become prime minister, but he's getting ready to give a big speech to British Parliament. And so he's getting ready for the day, fighting some discouragement, stress, and his wife is helping him get dressed. As he gets dressed he goes over to this wall full of different hats, different colors, shapes and sizes. He's looking at this wall and his wife tells him as a way of encouragement Winston, just go be yourself today. And he says ah, yes, that is the question which self shall I be today? It was just kind of a neat moment because it's the advice of be yourself sounds so great. But he's looking at this variety of hats and he says which self shall I be? And it's a reminder that we're complicated people, that we kind of shift in and out of different selves. One day we're more this way, one day we're more this way, the other day we're more that way. Some days I wake up feeling like a stud and I'm ready to charge the day. Here we go. Some days I wake up feeling like a dud. I'm like I don't know what I'm doing when we think about that picture of what hat am I going to choose today? Which version of me am I going to put out into the world? I want people to think about that in terms of serving others. What hat am I going to wear today? Is this my advisor hat? Is it my friend hat? Is it my partner hat? But I'm going to be intentional and it's going to be a part of what I wear and do, so that's a part of it.
Speaker 3:The only other picture that came to mind was for business owners in business with their family. It's difficult If you are in business with a spouse or a significant other if you've got a child. If it's a family-run business, those lines get really blurry and conflict can happen. One of my favorite things is these leaders who realize you have to know what hat you're wearing when you're visiting with your team. You have to know what hat you're wearing when you're visiting with your team If they're a spouse or family member.
Speaker 3:Like am I wearing my dad hat in this moment, or am I wearing my CEO hat in this moment? And you may have to shift hats. I actually knew a guy who physically did that. He had a hat that he would wear and say okay, I'm talking to you as your boss, this is unacceptable, you didn't do this job right, you don't get your bonus. He held him to account. He got done with that as his boss. Then he put on his dad hat and said look, son, you know I realize things at home have not been right and he talked to him like a father. We have to choose. What is that identity that we're walking in at any given moment?
Speaker 1:No, that makes a lot of sense. You know, I think we all have so many different identities or beliefs that we identify with, but it doesn't have to be just one way. You know what I mean. Right, I really like how you mentioned the family business. I don't have my own family business, but people in my family do and I definitely related to when you said that, because I found myself even saying to my mom listen, right now you are an employee. You need to realize that you are not. You are at work like this is the work mindset you need to have. I know he's related to you, but then I even said to her at times if he wasn't related to you, would you have said this to any other boss? And at times she's been like no, so then why is your mind not to say it to this? Like that, it kind of shows you and it's easier to almost picture it literally like okay, right now I'm the boss, even for the boss and dad to then see the shift.
Speaker 3:Basically, Definitely right on. No, that's it. Well, that was the idea behind that chapter. It's called Serve Others and it's those hats of service.
Speaker 1:Now I'd love to delve into the book more. Become an improver, so what's an improver to you?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the basic premise of an improver is someone who tries to grow themselves. They want to improve themselves in a way that improves their environment and surroundings. I mentioned earlier about my faith testimony, and one of the things the scripture tells us to do is be salt and light Her words. Salt makes things better, it makes it taste better, it preserves, helps you, but it also helps the people around you, and so the idea of becoming an improver is that you take on that identity, that you shift your mindset and say this is what I am.
Speaker 3:We compare the word in the book improver against two other words exister and diminisher, and so basically what we posit in the book is that in the world there are people who are diminishers, who make this world worse. They have a negative impact on it or they also diminish themselves. They have unhealthy habits, they do self-harm and they have a negative impact on themselves and their world. Then you have the existers impact on themselves and their world. Then you have the Existers. Diminishers make things worse. Existers have a neutral impact. It's kind of they give some, they take some, but overall it balances out and they're not really adding a lot to the company. They're not really adding a lot to the family. They're just kind of there, but they're not taking away anything either. They're just drifting and having a neutral impact.
Speaker 3:Then you have improvers who intentionally and proactively say I'm going to have a positive impact and influence on my environment and I'm going to positively grow, challenge myself and continue to level up. That's what I challenge people to do in the book. The title is Become an Improver. The subtitle is A Challenge to Escape Average and Unleash Greatness. The average is exister and then lumped into that would be diminisher, that's the average person in the world is either just getting by and existing or they're making things worse. They're having a negative impact. To unleash greatness means you escape that and choose to be the best version of yourself and make the biggest, most positive impact you can.
Speaker 1:You think it's possible to make the shift.
Speaker 3:I think everybody can, because really, more than anything, it's an identity shift, it is a mindset shift. The book was written on two planes. The two levels are one is personal, one is professional, and I believe that anyone, in any environment, no matter where you are in the world, any stage of life, you can apply the principles in this book, personally and professionally, and become an improver. So the core of it are some mindsets that you choose to take on and some habits that you choose to live out. I think anyone, regardless of circumstance, can immediately take on those mindsets and habits and begin to build. And in fact, the vision of me, this is my.
Speaker 3:Have you ever heard of BHAG? Big, hairy, audacious Goal? Does that mean anything to you? Yes, actually I identify with that idea of being an improver and I want to commit to being positive in my own growth and development and I also want to make a positive and healthy impact on my world. And so, whatever your world is, it may just be your home, the nonprofit you serve in, the church or the community you engage with, it may be a team that you're on and maybe your business, but you say I'm going to grow myself and make the world better, that's an improver. We've got a website launching soon called improverchallengecom, where people can enter their name and email and say I'm an improver.
Speaker 1:Where did you come up with the word improver?
Speaker 3:Why improver? Yeah, that's a great question. There's a personality assessment tool called the Enneagram. Have you ever heard of the Enneagram? Yep, yep, it's an ancient personality typing system and it's kind of made a little bit of a comeback in recent years. And for those who don't know, the Enneagram basically says there's nine primary personality types and it really has to do with how we interpret the world around us, how we internalize and view it and create meaning out of it, and how we choose, as a result, to interact with the world. And so out of these nine types, some stick out would be things like some people are more challengers they just love to, you know, to go against the grain. Some are more enthusiasts they just love to have fun grain. Some are more enthusiasts, they just love to have fun and that's what drives them. Some are peacemakers, so they just don't want to rock the boat, and so they have these primary engines of how they choose to run. And for me, when I did the assessment and my wife and some friends they were all doing it, so I was like, okay, I'll figure out what mine is.
Speaker 3:Mine came back to be ones on the Enneagram and the title at that time for ones were perfectionist and I did not like that term because I'd always heard that term being used in a negative connotation. Perfectionism was always something like oh, it's got to be your way, it's got to be just perfect, you're just a perfectionist. I didn't like that. I had some negative tendencies in the past where I was a perfectionist and I felt like I was moving beyond that. I like the Enneagram tool, but I didn't like that term.
Speaker 3:While I was attending a conference in 2019, ian Krohn, who wrote the Road Back to you on the Enneagram, was speaking. He said we've been having discussions in the Enneagram community and we feel like we have mislabeled ones. Ones really would be better called improvers, not perfectionists, because they're not trying to make things perfect, they're trying to help things reach their potential. They're trying to help things reach their potential. If the potential is 90%, that's okay, because that's what an improver just like meet your potential, don't be perfect. As he began to unpack the mentality and the mindset of an improver, I realized that was me. It was like this heavens opened up. I was like improver, that's what I'm going to do. I came back home and relabeled my coaching practice to be improver coach. I ended up launching the Improver Network and then, out of all this, I had Improver Investments and now we have the Improver Group, which is the culmination of all of those categories. So that's where Improver the label came from. That, but the heartbeat had always been there since my childhood.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, I like that. Reaching the potential. That even has a different connotation to it. I've been referred to as a perfectionist many times throughout my life and it just has this negative feeling to it. Like it sounds like, oh, you've got to have everything just as it's supposed to be, but reaching potential even feels better inside me just hearing you say reach your potential versus perfectionist.
Speaker 3:I've got four kiddos. If I'm a perfectionist parent, if my kiddo comes to me and had a 95A on his exam, my gut reaction is to say why didn't you get the other five? Whereas an improver would look at the 95 and ascertain was this the very best that he or she could do? And if they met their potential and they maxed out on effort and it was their best, the improver is okay with the 95. And they're going to celebrate the gains of look how well you did. You did the best that you could.
Speaker 3:It's not escapism or making excuses. You're just choosing to focus on gratitude first. You're choosing to focus on the wins and the gains and you're choosing contentment over trying to only focus on the gaps or focus on what could be better. We still do that. I still might go oh well, what could we have done next time to get the 100? But I'm not going to focus on that. I'm going to focus on the good. That's why my tagline in my company is good and getting better, because we always start with the good, we always start with the gratitude, we always start with what's working and where we're winning. Then we move on to well, what can we work on next?
Speaker 1:I like that and I really like how you mentioned that. I think that's so important with literally every area of life starting with the positive before going into the negative. Even your internal feeling like how does it feel bringing up the positive before the negative, before what it could have been? I like how you compared that to the kiddos, because math was always my worst subject. I have this envisioned in my head.
Speaker 1:I got an 85 on one math test and I remember my mom putting it on the fridge when I was younger and my aunt was like why would you ever put an 85 on the fridge? And she was like she struggled with math her whole life. She spent so much time trying to do well on this test. She spent days reviewing. I'll never forget this. My mom was like I'm more impressed with her 85 on the math test than her 95 in English because she didn't try for the 95. English was easy to me. I put in a lot of work for the 85. I could have reached a higher potential in the English even though the outcome kind of seemed better, but I put in more effort for the 85.
Speaker 3:The other thing is a perfectionist is always just looking at the ultimate end result, whereas the improver is looking at trajectory. But you probably can't tell it on this image of the book cover behind me, but if you go to improvergroupcom you can see. But our little arrow that we use when we say improvement, it's not a straight arrow up and to the right, like people think growth and improvement is. It's a zigzaggy arrow because improvement and growth is not a straight line. It's not always upward trajectory, and so what you're looking for is you're looking for trend lines and you're grateful for the ups and the downs. You're grateful for you know, okay, this is what you accomplished, but here's what you can do better, and so you're going to have those in there. And the improver looks at how are we trending?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that, the trends, and to see, I love the arrow, because nothing I don't really think anything is a straight line. It flows, you might progress, but then there might be a little backwards and then keep going. Nothing in life is just a straight linear line.
Speaker 3:Yep, it's true.
Speaker 1:Now this improver group. What is the improver group?
Speaker 3:So the improver group is the culmination of several different improver ambitions that we've had and initiatives. So one was improver coach and so some of my social media. You'll find me under the Improver Coach where I work one-on-one with people and coach them on executive coaching. I do a lot of entrepreneur boot camps. That's the coaching side. The Improver Network is the affiliation of several different people. I know our improvers. We've done in-person networking events in the past and we were running a membership for a while and we kind of phased that out, but that was the Improver Network. Investments is where I've invested in certain businesses I was coaching. So if you take all of that together, the Improver Group is our umbrella company for these different initiatives. Mostly I spend a lot of my time doing keynotes, workshops or one-on-one coaching and those are in-on-one coaching and those are in person and virtual.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's awesome how would you say oh, I would think it's different. Would you say an improver is different than a leader? And how? Oh, great question. Yes, I actually address that in the book.
Speaker 3:One of the goals in writing this book is to create a new category of understanding for people, called improvers. Because if you go into companies right now, it's kind of like you have the leaders and then there's everybody else, those followers, and that's just the only two categories, and so the leaders get all the attention. I mean, we've got leadership books, we have leadership conferences, you have leadership coaches, so leadership is there and it presupposes the idea that if you want to go from being a follower, your next step up is to be a leader. That's your two stages. But I think there are lots of people probably a lot of people listen to this podcast even who say you know what? I don't want to just be a follower, but I don't necessarily want to hire and fire, I don't want to manage people, I don't want to be in charge of a team. That's just not my giftedness, but I wish there was more for me to help me grow as an individual. And that's what an improver is and I envision for the future there'll be improver conferences, just like there are leader conferences. I envision there'll be improver books, just like there are leader books. I want to encourage anyone out there who goes.
Speaker 3:You know, I've always felt this desire to grow, but not necessarily to oversee or to lead. Now, if you do grow and have a positive impact, there is a certain amount of that that can be considered. You're being a leader, but when I think of a leader, I think of someone who is serving people under their charge. They're fighting for the good of those that they are entrusted with, and not everybody wants that In the business world.
Speaker 3:I think one of the things that's so clear and all the research is showing this that 1099 and the gig economy is just skyrocketing and I think we're going to see more workers that are 1099s than we are W2s in the future, because people want to work on their own and I think solopreneurs can relate to this idea of I'm driven and I have hopes and ambitions, but they aren't necessarily around leadership. I just want to grow myself and I'm okay with being a one person shop, so that person would be an improver. Now, that being said, all leaders are improvers. So not all improvers are leaders, but all leaders are improvers. So if you want to lead, you've got to be willing to grow yourself and have a positive impact. All healthy leaders are improvers, but not all improvers are necessarily leaders or overseeing people. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Because the improvers are trying to level up themselves in their lives, and not necessarily other people's.
Speaker 3:I love food. I'm a big foodie, originally from Louisiana. I love my Cajun food. The improver is basically saying how do I feed myself in a healthy way, and then I might also even feed others, but I don't necessarily teach people how to feed themselves and feed others. So I help me and I help others, but I don't necessarily teach people how to do that. That's what a leader does. A leader is going to teach you how to take care of yourself, but also how to take care of others.
Speaker 3:Another, maybe better, analogy would be the Sherpa. The Sherpa are at Mount Everest and the Sherpa not only knows how to go up the mountain himself, but the Sherpa takes other people up Mount Everest and looks out to help them reach the summit. An improver is saying I just want to know how to climb the mountain myself, but I'm not necessarily trying to guide other people up the mountain. They just are on that journey for themselves. So that's an improver versus a leader. But you can't be a Sherpa if you don't know how to get there yourself. Okay, but you can't be a chirp if you don't know how to get there yourself.
Speaker 1:To me, the progression would be I'm a follower, then I'm an improver and then I'm a leader I think I'm kind of taking it like the improvers are gonna have leadership qualities about them, but they're not going to be actively leading. If you're improving your life, even unintentionally, I feel like you are going to be having leadership qualities just because you have the growth mindset, but you're not necessarily purposefully leading.
Speaker 3:Sure, leadership has built into it personal growth, but personal growth does not necessarily have to have leadership built into it. You can't be a leader without having the mindset of an improver. But you could be an improver and not necessarily be a leader. I'm running my company. If I have a sales leader, I want them to have an improver mindset and be growing themselves, having a positive environment. They may help the company by increasing our sales by 20%. Yay, sales team leader, you oversaw 10 salespeople. Help to set a new goal. All right, shift it over.
Speaker 3:I've got a guy in our coding and software and he doesn't have any team members under him. He doesn't have any team members under him. He isn't supervising anyone, but he's chosen to say I'm an improver and I want to grow myself and work more efficiently, more effectively. As a way of doing that, he redevelops our software. He saves us millions of dollars on our bottom line. We overlook that person today and go well, that was just their job, but no, that's an improver there, just because he didn't have a team. But that doesn't make him a leader. You know one of the things that sometimes happens like oh, you did such a great job, let's put you in leadership. Well, maybe that person is skilled at just being an improver in his or her area of work. They're not meant to be placed over people from a supervisory position. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:It does.
Speaker 3:Yep, now I will say this leadership involves self-leadership. So when I'm using the word leader in this, I'm talking about people leadership other than you. But as an improver, you are having to learn leadership from the sense of you're leading yourself.
Speaker 1:I gotcha. Now you mentioned Improval Conference. What do you think those would look like?
Speaker 3:I think it would look a lot like a leadership conference, but instead of people coming there to figure out how to influence and guide others, how to manage, how to hire, how to fire, how to deal with vision for the team, instead of those topics, the topics are more along how do you change your own personal mindset? How do you create better individual habits? How do you work more efficiently and effectively as an individual?
Speaker 1:So it's those personalized mindset and skill set areas okay, so you would say it's more personal as opposed to professional well, it could be.
Speaker 3:It would be professional as well, but it just wouldn't be professional in the sense of focus on oversight or focus on leadership. It would be individual growth develops. So I'm going to tell you about managing your time, but it's not telling you how to manage your time so that you lead others on managing theirs. It's just focused on your individual time management. How do you focus? Instead of talking about vision casting for the leader, I'm going to talk about goal casting for you as the individual. So does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no it does. Would you do you think that any, any leadership skills come along the way while improving yourself?
Speaker 3:Yeah, certainly yeah, cause. So you're again, think about the Sherpa in training. He's learning how to climb the mountain so that later he could show others how to climb the mountain, but it doesn't mean he's showing them now. And so basically, if you were to think about it right now, a lot of our conferences are how do you help other people get up the mountain? I want to say how do you get up the mountain first for yourself and just focus on those? And if you never want to lead a group, how do you get up the mountain and back safely? So that's kind of the idea.
Speaker 3:I love John Maxwell's leadership quote where he says a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way, goes the way and shows the way. So a leader knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Well, if I were to tweak it a little bit for the improver, I would say an improver is someone who knows the way, who goes the way but who's not necessarily focused on showing the way. So they're developing some of the characteristics of a leader, but they're not trying to influence others in that way. They're just trying to go that way and I want to know where to go and go it myself, and then, later on, I may or may not learn how to show other people.
Speaker 1:Almost like it's even unintentional and they could be leading people, but not purposefully doing that, because they're throwing themselves and that's going to show outwardly, even if they aren't directly like here's what you do, what I mean Like leading, but there are other people who are seeing it.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly. Yeah, they're so focused on their internal personal growth that they have a positive impact externally, but that has zero to do with trying to get somebody else to have a positive impact. They're just saying, hey, I'm just trying to let my light shine and that's my way of improving the world, and maybe later on or maybe not, I may talk to you about your light or I may help you with your life. I'm not worried about your light, I'm just trying to shine mine brightly.
Speaker 1:Would you so? They're shining just their own light bright. Now, do you think there's any selfishness in that that they're not trying to help others?
Speaker 3:well, if it does start out, it could be part of it could be self selfish. So the heartbeat of an improver is I'm going to grow myself as a way of growing others and helping make the world better, and so, but I do think there there is a sense that contribution in any way can always return back good to us. So there can be a little bit of selfishness, even the idea of I want to reach my own potential. Well, when you reach your own potential, that can be selfless, because the world needs you to reach your fullest potential, but it also does benefit you in that, and so there is a little bit of a quandary there to where your selflessness can always still have a little bit of selfishness embedded in it as well, and there's actually a lot of discussion around that.
Speaker 3:Does anyone truly love that doesn't benefit themselves? Does anybody truly give that it doesn't have some type of benefit? Who really gives freely, and even the ones who do give with no strings attached do they get enjoyment out of that? And if so, then that's their selfish gain. But does anybody truly do it in a way that is only sacrificial and they don't feel any pleasure from it? And I think the answer is probably probably no, you know yeah, no, that's fair.
Speaker 1:now I'd love to dive back into the book a little bit, and if you don't want to share all five, you don't have to, but we talked previously about the daily high five and I'd love if you share even one of them. I'm very in to habits, daily habits improving Even in little ways. I make my bed every single day. I have for like three years, so I'm very big into the little daily habits your personal trajectory.
Speaker 3:So, as I mentioned earlier, these habits that I've put in the book are five habits that anyone can do anywhere. In my view, the first habit is to show thanks. So you wake up with an attitude of gratitude, but you don't just feel that internally, you express it externally, you show it somehow, you tell somebody, you write a card, you send a message, you send a video message, you post something, but you express your gratitude, you don't just hold it in, so you show it. The second one is that you intentionally grow healthy. So you choose some type of healthy level up that you can do. What is the goal that you're working towards today? To be a healthier version of yourself. The third one is to be on purpose, which is a little bit like grow healthy, but it's different, because be on purpose is being in line with your ultimate purpose in life and living according to vision. So the grow healthy is more of a short-term goal that you're focused on in that moment, but the be on purpose is I'm going to live generally with intentionality and make sure that I'm living in the purpose that I was created for.
Speaker 3:Be accountable you need to have accountability. People will never realize their full potential without having. Yes, self-accountability is important, but you got to have other people that hold you accountable as well. Otherwise we'll just do what's easy and comfortable, and so you got to have some accountability. Then, lastly, is to serve others. So, every day, make it a habit to find some way of serving someone else again. All these things can be done personally or professionally, and so you can do them wherever you are. Anybody can choose to show gratitude. Anybody can choose to serve others. Anybody can choose to enlist some accountability to grow healthy, to make sure that they're living, that they know their purpose and that they're living within that.
Speaker 1:Now, how did you come up with these five?
Speaker 3:Chat GBT, I'm just kidding with you. I didn't do that, didn't cheat on AI. No, what I really did was analyze it was actually 13 core areas of my own life and what I've observed and just through what I picked up through my own personal growth and leadership development journey, and I really looked to see, well, what are the common denominators that these core values all have in common with each other. And so these were the five things that I thought that I came up with out of those values. I thought, well, this is a way of living out these values that I think are so important and they're backed by data and really these aren't new. Look, if anybody wants to go and pick up books on personal growth, habit development, you're going to see things like gratitude. You're going to see things like setting goals. You're going to see things like helping others and being a giver. So there's really not anything in those five that should necessarily be mind-blowing.
Speaker 3:I think the power is realizing that these can be done by anyone, anywhere, and that these specific habits are the ones that, if you do them, you grow and you make a positive impact. So other people may talk about gratitude. That's not new, but that only helps the individual is to have gratitude. To show thanks helps you and it helps whoever you're showing it to. You're doing it on there. If you serve others, that helps you and it helps the other person. Accountability helps you, but it's also going to be a benefit to whoever you're accountable to. You're helping them because they're giving to you.
Speaker 3:So these habits, to me, are unique in that regard and I love that there's five of them and it's easy to remember, and what I encourage people to do is to try to. When you are, if you're on a team, if you see somebody living out one of these habits, you give them a high five. You know, if you've got your accountability partner and you live this out, you give them a high five. And so you know. Mel Robbins wrote a book called the High Five Habit and she talked about the power of giving high fives, and so to me, this is like give the high five whenever you're doing the daily high five. So to me, this is like give the high five whenever you're doing the daily high five.
Speaker 1:I love how you mentioned Mel Robbins. She is one of my favorites. I think that is so true. Even like the physical celebration of it, like our bodies, there was something different. When you like, even if you physically jump up and down when you get excited over something like your body can sense that celebration of something happening, of a different, of a different shift, of accomplishing something. However you want to word it, you know film and I.
Speaker 1:I like how you mentioned, like they're probably things we've all heard, but at the same time, it it impacts somebody else. When you were mentioning gratitude, like I've done daily gratitude for I can't even remember how long, but it's like even if I'm grateful for somebody in my life am I telling them that? Not necessarily, so like, is it impacting them, even if it's a person that you're grateful for, you're grateful they did. This specific thing, like something I started more recently. Past couple months is my five daily gratitude are things that happened within the last 24 hours. So it's not these big overarching things. Obviously, I'm grateful for my mom. It helped me be a little more focused, more present. But even if it is, oh, I'm grateful, my mom did. It helped me be a little more focused, more present. But even if it is, oh, I'm grateful my mom did F. Am I telling her? If I'm not, it's not impacting her. So it's lifting me up. But even though I'm kind of thinking it's lifting her up, it's not if I don't say it.
Speaker 3:Yes, that is the point, and that's the heartbeat of an improver is I'm going to do the things that help me, but they also help the world.
Speaker 1:I love that and even outside of the whole world, even like that small aspect, I'm thinking. When you were talking gratitude, I was thinking, oh, I'm grateful for this person and I list that even small instances, I'm grateful she helped me with this. But it's like okay, maybe you said thank you, but did you show thanks? I think there's a difference with that too.
Speaker 3:That's right? Yep, well, that's what I'm. Those are the light bulb moments that I hope people have as they work through the book, and then we'll have courses and events later as well, and so that's the journey we're on.
Speaker 1:I'm loving all of this, and now is the book available for pre-order.
Speaker 3:yet yeah, it's on Amazon and Barnes, Noble and Hope Books the publisher and walmartcom anywhere books are sold. If you go in pre-order, it'll be releasing on October 1st. So, yeah, go ahead and get it. And then you can go to improverbookcom and sign up for updates, but it'll be releasing on October 1, 2024. And so, yeah, get your copy. We'll have paperback art back. It'll be on ebook and Kindle and all that as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, awesome, and I will link that in the show notes for you guys to get that directly. And I will link that in the show notes for you guys to get that directly. And I will definitely have to do another episode because I'm definitely going to read the book. But thank you so much for speaking with me. I really appreciate all of your insights.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, thank you for having me on and, you know, letting me chat about it. I'm a verbal processor and I love to chat and I love that you ask some great questions in there, and I always think about if there's just one person out there on the other end of this microphone that ends up hearing this and it goes ah, you know what? That just made my day better? It made my life better. But that's what I want to do, is I want to make my own difference in the world, just one person at a time. So, no, I love that. Improve anybody's life that you can, I love it. That's right. You may have heard no, I love that. Improve anybody's life that you can, I love it.
Speaker 3:The beach, instead of being in the water, where they needed to be, this man was out there and he was throwing them in one at a time, but there was just hundreds, and so somebody said dude, what are you doing? You know you're not going to make a dent in this big thing, you're not going to make a difference. And he threw another one in and said I made a difference for that one, you know. And it's like, yeah, mine may not make the best sellers list or may not impact millions per se, but you know what? I'm going to help this one and I'm going to help that, one and one at a time. It may not change the world, but it will change their world.
Speaker 1:So I love that. No, I love that mindset so much, I think that's beautiful. Yeah, thanks again for letting me be with you. Oh, of course, have you heard of a man named Jay Shetty?
Speaker 3:Yes, I have, but I'm trying to place of where. Why would I know that name?
Speaker 1:He's got a podcast. Motivational speaker, he wrote some books, meditation guru guy yes that's right yeah. He, he's pretty well known, so his podcast on purpose. He ends it with two segments and I've incorporated them to mine because I love them. And there's two segments. The first one is the many sides to us five questions that need to be answered in one word each. Okay, okay, like five questions that need to be answered in one word each.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, wait. Five questions that need to be answered in one, so I got to limit it to one word.
Speaker 1:My response Each question is one word Yep.
Speaker 3:Okay, let's try.
Speaker 1:What is one word someone who was meeting you for the first time would use to describe you as?
Speaker 3:That is a great question. So one word that someone meeting me for the first time would end they would like. After the fact they would say, oh, he's whatever, I don't know. The first one that comes to my mind is just ambitious. I think maybe people sense that when they first meet me as ambition.
Speaker 1:Number two what is one word that someone who knows you extremely well would use to describe you?
Speaker 3:Driven.
Speaker 1:Number three what is one word you'd use to describe yourself?
Speaker 3:Purposeful.
Speaker 1:You got an answer for that quickly. That's usually the one that stumps people. Everybody says no one ever helped me describe myself. Number four what is one word that if someone who didn't like you or agree with your mindset would use to describe you?
Speaker 3:Arrogant.
Speaker 1:What is one word you're embodying right now? Contemplative. Okay, then the second segment is the final five, and these can be answered in a sentence each Okay. What is the best advice you've heard or received?
Speaker 3:The best advice that I have heard or received. Man, that one is really, really tough. The thing that's surfacing in my mind right now and this could change if you asked me on a different day, but I don't know how to do it in one sentence. Can I go more than one sentence?
Speaker 1:It can be a run on sentence.
Speaker 3:I'll try to keep it short. I went to a conference and somebody asked Dan Cathy at the time the CEO of Chick-fil-A. He said hey, what's one piece of advice you would give a young entrepreneur like me who's trying to win at family and win at business? And so the biggest piece of advice is what he gave, which was he was holding a phone as he was reading the question. It was a text message. He reached into his jacket pocket, he pulled out a pocket New Testament and he told us in the crowd.
Speaker 3:He said you need this phone because this symbolizes connectivity, relevance. You know, using tools and systems to work better, connection with others. So you need to have this in life. But this right here represents morals and it represents faith and integrity and goodness and keeping the big picture in mind and realizing that there is a God and he's like if you want to win in life, you got to balance both of these. And so I think that's probably the biggest piece of advice I've ever received is yes, it's possible to win at both and you do need to have them both in balance.
Speaker 1:It's possible to win at both, and you do need to have them both in balance. Number two what is the worst?
Speaker 3:advice you've heard or received. Sleep is for suckers. There was a coach who told me that when I first got in business and he said it's hustle, it's grit, it's work hard all hours and I was sleeping and not resting and that was dumb. You need to get your rest, Sleep, need that sleep is not for suckers, it's for winners. True.
Speaker 1:What is something that you used to value that you no longer value?
Speaker 3:I'm transitioning from success to significance. I'm transitioning from success to significance. So I used to value success and like accomplishing big things, making big money and feeling like the bigness of success was fulfilling. And now I'm caring more about making a difference in people and feeling significant and feeling like I changed someone's life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay, number four if you could describe what you would want your legacy to be, as if someone was reading it, what would you want it to say?
Speaker 3:Just an escaped average and unleashed greatness.
Speaker 1:Okay, number five if you could create one law in the world everyone had to follow, what would it be? And I want to know why.
Speaker 3:One law that everyone had to follow. What would it be? And why, man, I am such a believer in freedom. My brain doesn't work in the way of creating another law. So I think and it's hard for me to say a law on that like that's so, that's so strong against me, but I think, I think, if I could institute more personal growth and leadership training into the school systems and the education system, I think it would be. I think we spend a lot of time in academics and thinking of terms of passing a multiple choice exam or memorizing facts, and there's just a lot of real life stuff that I think that education could help people with that. It doesn't. So that's the first thing that comes to mind on that.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I really agree, because you know you have education. They send you to school for many of these things that you're not going to use again, which I get. You've got to learn algebra, you've got to learn the things, but it's like, if you're not going to school to pursue being a teacher or something that's specifically going to use it, the time could be utilized better, I think.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:I agree with that. Okay, well, thank you so much for speaking with me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I appreciate you. Thanks again.
Speaker 1:Of course. Now where can the listeners connect with you?
Speaker 3:So improvergroupcom to find out about our coaching and other services. Improverbookcom to pre-order or to sign up for updates and special offers on the book. And then I'm on Facebook, linkedin. You can look up Improver Group, improver Coach or Justin Winstead and find me on those platforms.
Speaker 1:Okay, awesome, and I will link all of that in the show notes for you guys to connect with Justin directly and no pressure whatsoever. But do you have any final words of wisdom for the listeners?
Speaker 3:Yeah, one of my favorite quotes.
Speaker 3:I read it in a Stephen Covey book on the seven habits of highly effective people, but I think he sourced it from somewhere else.
Speaker 3:But the quote was, or is, that most people spend their entire lives trying to climb the ladder of success as quickly as they can, only to get to the top and realize it was leaned against the wrong building. And the final thought I have for people is to get your ladder in hand and look at where do you want to end up, where is your desired destination, and you go, lean your ladder against that building, regardless of what everybody else is doing, and then you climb that ladder at the speed that you feel like is the right speed for you, and don't worry about how everybody else is climbing their ladder or where their ladder is leaned against. You do you and climb your ladder and ultimately I think that God is the best place to look for that Like where does he want you to put your ladder? Because, to me, he created you, but ultimately you got to figure out where your ladder needs to be and you climb it and live your life.
Speaker 1:OK, awesome, thank you so much, I really appreciate it. Yes, yes, thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, thank you.
Speaker 1:Of course, and thank you guys. As Justin mentioned, the first takeaway is to think about how you can ditch a bad habit and swap it for something better. It's all about making small, meaningful changes, because those small steps add up over time. Just like budgeting helps you track where your money goes, time blocking helps you budget where your time is going, so you can stay focused on what truly matters and not only on what's urgent and not only on what's urgent. The idea of a place that happens with no one is so powerful and it works for any kind of change. Start small Baby steps are so crucial. Set a goal and celebrate the wins along the way, and always keep your deeper why in mind to stay motivated. Justin also talked about the peace index, and without inner peace, you can't truly level up in any area of your life, whether it's in your relationships, health, mindset, business, anything. Peace is the foundation. Busyness doesn't equal productivity and to really grow in any area of life, peace is essential. When it comes to setting goals, start with your ultimate vision in mind and then break it down. Number one what is the goal? What are you aiming to achieve? How are you going to measure it? And it needs to be specific. Number two what is your reward? Your fun reward that you are going to give yourself and allow yourself once you achieve the goal, and this reward can be anything. It could be a dinner, it could be a night with your best friend, for when I was going through my fitness journey, this was buying myself my first bikini. I had never felt comfortable enough to wear a bikini before I lost all the weight that I had, and that was one fun goal that I had in mind. Number three is what's your deeper why? This will help you push through the hard times. I had a hard time getting three flights of stairs with nothing in my hands. I didn't want that to be my life. I want to be around for a long time, and that's a deep why for me. So ask yourself what's your deeper why? That, when shit gets really hard, will help you push through.
Speaker 1:Then Justin introduced us to his daily high five, and these were so powerful because these steps will not only help improve your life, they'll have a ripple effect on others too. The first one is to show thanks or show gratitude. The second daily high five is to choose a healthier version of yourself today Short-term, healthy goals to help you be the healthiest version of yourself. The third daily high five is to live intentionally and be mindful and purposeful in your actions. The fourth one is to have accountability, not from yourself, but from others who will help keep you on track, because otherwise there will be times when we will get off track and not focus on what is most important.
Speaker 1:And the fifth daily high five is to find a way to serve someone today, whether that's personally or professionally. To serve someone today, whether that's personally or professionally. And the best thing about these daily high fives is they are not only going to benefit you. They are going to benefit and improve your life and everyone else's life that is involved in your daily high five. These five simple steps will help you improve your life and other people's lives. That's all I have for you guys today, and I hope you go out there and be an improver. Thanks for listening to me and tuning in to another episode of Mander's Mindset. In case no one told you today, I'm proud of you, I'm booting for you and you got this, as always. If you enjoyed the show, I would really appreciate it if you would leave me a five star rating, leave a review and share it with anyone you think would benefit from this. And don't forget you are only one mindset. Shift away from shifting your life. Thanks, guys, until next time.
