Ep93 Chad E. Foster - Building Resiliency and What to Do With It

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Speaker 1
Today, the show strategy plus action equals building resiliency and what to do with it.

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Speaker 1
Great coaches and consultants like you have the ability to change people's

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lives and transform entire organizations, and your impact can often go far beyond the clients you work with.

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One of the reasons

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I love working with coaches and consultants is because of that ripple effect.

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Speaker 1
This show is here to highlight your expertise and empower you with resources and new ideas to grow your business. Welcome to Strategy and Action.

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Speaker 1
Chad Foster's on the show today and I wanted him here to talk about this idea of resiliency because he is absolutely not only the the epitome of being resilient, but that's what he specializes in, whether it's teaching a company, speaking on their stage, a workshop around it, consulting folks. In his book, Blind Ambition. He tells his story of resiliency and really gives us some some actionable steps to build that in our own lives.

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Speaker 1
You see, Chad had a condition that was diagnosed about age three. And by age 21, he was blind

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Speaker 1
And so he had to really come to a decision whether or not to sit in the fact that, I'm unlucky and this is horrible and why me or do something with it?

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Speaker 1
And he's continue to make that that choice. To this day, you 20 something years later and it first started when he chose his career path and going on to Harvard Business School and then making an additional shift in realizing he had more of a story to tell more than just being an example of success and inspiring people that way, but also being purposeful with it.

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Speaker 1
Writing a book, speaking on stages now and teaching and guiding people how they can be more resilient in their life. We go through not only his story, but how he's helping folks in some practical, tangible ways during this interview that we can apply this to our own lives, because we we hear that a lot. You know, go be resilient.

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Speaker 1
Sure. We don't we don't disagree that we should be. But why exactly And in what way? Not just in, you know, when tremendous hardship falls on us, but even a little small ways that we need to kind of push ourselves. And as Chad teaches, you know, to get out of our comfort zones a little bit at a time so that we can really progress and move forward in life.

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Speaker 1
All right. A quick note here. I hope for those watching especially you're going to notice we lose Chad's video for like half the second half of the interview.

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Speaker 1
The audio sounds different. So even for you podcast listeners, you can hear a little bit of a difference there. But we got the recording, which is great. We just had some issues that day. I think it's just a combo of a lot of stuff, just Internet connectivity, you know, stuff that we deal with. But I was ecstatic that we do have the full interview.

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Speaker 1
So if you're watching again, you'll see, you know, a still image of Chad come in for kind of the second half of the interview. But we've got the audio captured and I'm so glad we did. And I wanted to make sure we still pieced this together and got this out because Chad story is so powerful. His message, everything.

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Speaker 1
So I'm really grateful that we at least, you know, captured all of that. So I just want to make a quick note of that. As you notice that difference on the second half of this interview. All right. Let's talk a bit.

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Speaker 2
Jed Foster.

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Speaker 1
Welcome to the show.

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Speaker 2
know.

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Speaker 1
Hey, thanks for having me. Great to be here.

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Speaker 1
Man, This is this is going to be.

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Speaker 2
Going to be awesome. My big shout out to Juergen Strauss for.

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Speaker 1
The introduction as he is great at doing insuring amazing folks and with his.

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Speaker 2
Great show over there. And I'm just been really impressed.

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Speaker 1
So I'm glad he connected us. We got to jump in and connect last week.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. I really enjoyed the conversation, but we could follow it up.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, definitely. I appreciate you being on here.

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Speaker 1
This is it's.

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Speaker 2
Going to be great.

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Speaker 1
We're sort of mean, you know, topic we want to dig into here and you know really get into is is definitely your wheelhouse. Right.

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Speaker 2
This idea of.

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Speaker 1
Resilience and see and.

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Speaker 2
I'm really excited to talk to you about this because the.

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Speaker 1
It's it's what you train people on and you help people with in your keynote speaking and coaching consulting like it's it's all in there so well and it's one of those things that nobody you know nobody disagrees. Nobody's like no you don't need to be resilient, you know? But I think it's one of those things that, you know, it can it can get in, get vague, really fast.

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Speaker 1
And that's why I really want to have you on it, really going to hash out some of not only.

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Speaker 2
The.

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Speaker 1
Practical.

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Side of it.

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Speaker 1
Okay, great. I believe in this idea. How do.

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Speaker 2
I do it.

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Speaker 1
And become resilient, but also. Okay, okay, what do I do with it? You know, once I sort of.

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Speaker 2
Develop that skill and, you know, so I I'm excited to dig.

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Into.

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Speaker 2
To that topic with you. But I want folks to have, you know, this geography of.

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Speaker 1
Of your story a bit. And, you know, if they haven't read your.

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Speaker 2
Fantastic book.

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Speaker 1
Your Blind Ambush Vision book, not so shameless plug right there. I'll just do it for you right at the beginning. If you just pause the recording, go to Amazon right now, just just buy it. You're going to want it by the end of this interview. So just go out and get it.

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Speaker 1
But yeah, give us give us, you know, frame your story on on, you know, what's legit at this point. And, you know, really, you know, leaned in to your own resiliency and on one hand being forced.

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Speaker 2
Into that a bit, but also.

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Really making a choice to.

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Embrace it and thrive.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, you're spot on. I don't really have much of a choice in my situation. I guess I could have rolled over and played dead, you know, as I went blind in college. I went totally blind to college, 21 years old and been diagnosed when I was younger with an inherited retinal condition. They told me at a young age that in Babylon, you know, imagine what they were driving home due to medical spare when I was almost four years old and they heard that there a toddler in the basket at some point could go blind, you know, And the doctor had told in that they could they should put me in a special school

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Speaker 1
for blind. But they sent me for soccer. So they didn't really listen to everything the doctors had to say. They wanted me to live as the life while I could. But, you know, they they obviously were, you know, alarmed with the news and as I was growing up, I was learning the limitations of my eyesight and I would find out the limitations of my eyesight as I bounced off of things.

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Speaker 1
So I ended up going to the hospital a lot, you know, had a lot of injuries in back. I was so much that they questioned both me and my parents in separate rooms to find out they were beating the The truth is, you know, they weren't beating me no more than I needed, you know, and

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you know, I, I was learning the of mystery and, you know, whether it was, you know, dark or at dusk or whatever, I couldn't see that.

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Speaker 1
Well. And so there were some limitations and then as I got older, late high school, early college, my eyesight really began to fade even more. So 21 years old, that was it. I realized I wasn't going to be able to see anymore. And it was a really tough time. You it was a really hard time for me because it's not really what I aspired to.

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Speaker 1
You know, everybody in college was trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up. And, you know, none of them were raising their hands to be a blind guy. Right. That was not what everybody really signed up for, not what people had hoped for. And so that was a really difficult time for me. But I guess the irony of all of that is that today, you know, 26 years removed from that, I'm happier today and I'm full today than when I could see.

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Speaker 1
And a lot of that is a lot of the resolve inside. And then they know a whole lot about resilience at that point in time. But now looking back, studying my own experiences, trying to figure out how did I get from that point of despair to this point of thriving where I'm at today, How did I get from there to here and navigate such dark?

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Speaker 1
I'm in the life both figuratively and metaphorically. You know what? Allow me to from from that that valley, if you will, and get over that hump. And a lot of that's what I talk about in Blind Ambition. The book, the keynote and and the concepts are what I help people with coaching. So that's just a little thumbnail. I don't know if you want to click into any of that, just to give the listeners a little bit of context for what sort of resilience, what sort of journey I've been on to cultivate that resilience.

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Speaker 2
there's both positive and negative with the the.

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Speaker 1
Slow transition.

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Speaker 2
To to this onset. You know, there's a margin. There's some.

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Speaker 1
You know, mental.

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Speaker 2
Dealing with it like along the way. But at the same time it's there's dread in that as well. And it sounds like, you know.

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Speaker 1
Listening to.

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Speaker 2
The podcast you did with.

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Speaker 1
With Juergen, we were mentioning.

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Speaker 2
Earlier the in a Nova Buzz podcast there.

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Speaker 1
It sounds like you had some some good guidance and words of wisdom from from.

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Speaker 2
Your dad at different times and you share some of that and that sort of help during that time in that in that shift.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, I got it. I got definitely got some, some straight talk, I guess you would say, growing up, because the natural human reaction and this was true for me, too. What it was drawn out over such a period of time that you're talking about, you know, there's a lot of room for pity and sorrow and self-loathing is like, why me?

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Speaker 1
You know? And that really did start to affect me. I started to feel bad for myself. None of my friends had to deal with the issues that I was dealing with. You know, they were off, you know, driving in in, you know, playing sports at night, which I wanted to do. And, you know, living a quote unquote, normal life.

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Speaker 1
And here I was I was dealing with this curveball and I felt like I was really this victim, this this poor me mindset. And my dad definitely sat me down and gave me some straight talk. And he told me point blank, look, nobody really cares. Will turn on. You can see, you can feel sorry for yourself all you want.

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Speaker 1
But at the end of the day, you know, nobody really cares. This is your your thing. You're going to have to deal with this. And you know what? He's right. And one on one in a conversation. That's not to say that people don't care. You you talk to somebody one on one and you have a conversation. Sure. There's empathy.

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Speaker 1
Sure there's understanding. Sure. There's, you know, genuine human connection. But then when you walk off and they go do their thing and you go do your thing, hey, that's you know, they're off in their world. They're living their life. And so it really was my my thing to deal with. And he told me that. And I didn't really want to hear that for a number of years.

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Speaker 1
You know, my brother told me, you know, a time or two as well, my friends were you. They were they were pretty understanding. But I remember one time when I was in college, I was feeling pretty bad for myself. At this point. I'm living in a house and my friends there, it was a little bit of a part.

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Speaker 1
And it's, you know, people weren't really too interested in doing well academically. And I wasn't at the time interested in doing that well academically. I just realized I'm going blind and I'm feeling bad for myself. And my cousin came in from Houston and he's an older cousin. He's 26 years old at the time. And big guy, if you see him, you know what I'm talking about.

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Speaker 1
He's like six, four, six, five, £260. And, you know, I'm I'm not that big. I'm maybe six feet 190. So he's a pretty pretty big guy. Had his stuff together, you know, was doing well professionally looks over at me. We'd gone to a football game at the University of Tennessee to watch the Tennessee volunteers play. Looks over me, says, Chad, come on, let's go talk outside.

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Speaker 1
So I go outside with Mark sitting there, the parking lot, leaning up on a car. He turns to me point blank, says, You know, those are your friends in there, All those guys? Yeah, most of those guys will end up being losers. And if I were them to be a loser, too. And man, that those words were sharp, right?

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Speaker 1
They stung. So, like, I didn't want to hear it, but I needed to hear it. I desperately needed to hear it. And so I wrote. What did you tell you that was like the instant push button fix that I needed? But those words echoed in my mind for years to come. And to this day, you know, and that was true.

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Speaker 1
And that's been, you know, 20 something years ago. So sometimes, you know, after you're in need to hear not what we want to hear. And and a lot of times it matters who it's coming from, too. So hearing it from Mark, someone I really looked up to at that time, give me that straight talk that I needed, had a big impression on me and certainly helped to course correct me and put me on a better path.

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Speaker 2
yeah.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. You know, I think I think, you know, in the movies it's it's it's one line, it's one conversation and everything changes. Right. But but that's, that's the real life version right.

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Speaker 2
There is that you.

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Speaker 1
Get you get these pieces and you know, sometimes you'll, you'll keep getting them until you finally get it, you know, and it and it does it it makes a big difference who.

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Speaker 2
It comes from, you know?

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Speaker 1
And, you know, I like those words from your dad, too, because it is like that. And I think I don't know. I just think that's such a such a better mindset with whatever we're dealing with. There's there's the shoulds like, yeah, maybe the the world, the entire world should change so.

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Speaker 2
That.

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Speaker 1
The the.

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Speaker 2
Way I want it to be is, is their right.

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Speaker 1
You can sit in that for your entire life and, and see about zero change in the world or you can dig in and go.

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Speaker 2
Like, okay, how do I operate.

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Speaker 1
In that? And I think that's one of the that beginning phase of resiliency, right?

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Speaker 2
Like you're you know, I've heard you talk about is this idea that.

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Speaker 1
You know, it's not we can't control everything that happens to us, but we can control how we react to it. And that's that's that first step. And where did where did this kind of shift for you when you're like, I.

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Speaker 2
Here's something I've really developed this idea.

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Speaker 1
Of resiliency and this is something that I can.

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Speaker 2
I can help people with.

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Speaker 1
Yeah that didn't develop for a while honestly because I never really saw myself as resilient at first. Yeah, I went blind in college and yeah, I had to flush 85 credit hours down the tubes and start all over, had to relearn how to learn. And I was a visual learner, which obviously wasn't very useful after I went find.

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Speaker 1
So I literally had to relearn how to learn and it turns out I was a better blind student than sighted student. I ended up I made straight A's, made the Dean's list after I went blind and so didn't really see myself as all that resilient. You know, I just did what I had to do to get by. Graduated, got a consulting job at one of the U.S. consulting firms, ended up, you know, moving up the corporate ladder.

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Speaker 1
And it wasn't until I was a senior director for a company that does for all government, I.T., mission services, all kinds of related services. So between my job at the time, I was a senior director overpricing strategy and solutions there, and I'd done really well for that company had brought in it my decisions and strategies that generated, you know, billions of dollars in revenue for the company.

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Speaker 1
In my my former alma mater, the University of Tennessee, had featured me as an accomplished alumni, and I called them. I wanted to get my mom some recognition. They ended up recognizing her, but also recognizing me, too. And my manager there at this company, Joe Brady, of he's like, you know, trade. You got a store here. Maybe you need to do something with it.

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Speaker 1
Let's see how we can help you with it. And I thought about it for a little while and had done some of these classes, like the Bill, whatever, you know, I'm going to win a little bit. So I said, Joe, why don't you go to Harvard? And I thought, Well, I don't I don't know, like guarantee that, but I can guarantee I'll try it.

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Speaker 1
Next thing I know, he gets the CEO to sign off on sending me to Harvard. And so they agreed to stroke the check for me to go to Harvard. And I'm there studying with, you know, all my classmates there at Harvard Business School. And I was studying under Bill George, who is an executive fellow there. He's the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, which is one of the world's largest medical supply companies.

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Speaker 1
And he'd been there for a while. And he's talking about often leadership and in particular true North, how to discover your true north. That's Bill's leadership model. And the methodology revolves around how do you discover what your true North is, what what inspires you? And a lot of my classmates are looking around, but trying to figure out what their is is in mind just kind of reached up and smacked me in the face.

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Speaker 1
You know, I'd never really tried to do anything with my story at all. Definitely saw my situation is all unique. I mean, it's not unique to me. It's my reality. So it's not extraordinary. In fact, it's the very definition of ordinary because it's my story. And so I wasn't really looking at it from other people's point of view.

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Speaker 1
But so for the first time, I started thinking about maybe I should do more with my story. And I had this premonition that I was going to be elected as the graduating speaker of my class. So before we even nominated or elected speakers, I sought out a keynote speaker. Fluted axes, pounded out a 15 minute talk with this guy.

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Speaker 1
I know if insulting arrangement flew back to Boston and then it was there. I was elected as our graduating speaker. Of course, you know, I was prepared because I had already written a talk for something I hadn't even been nominated for. And, you know, honestly, the results of that was really profound. It was profound for the audience. It was really profound for me because I didn't think I honestly didn't know that I could help people as much as I can.

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Speaker 1
And I saw that firsthand. One guy decided he was going to commission an opera based on what I said that night. Another guy I'll never forget, he comes up to me afterward and, you know, come to find out this particular gentleman had lost the daughter the year before to cancer and something I said had helped. I'm sure it didn't make his situation good, but something I said really helped and

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Speaker 1
I've always been kind of a tough

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Speaker 1
Having having other folks pointed out to us and reflecting.

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Speaker 2
Back both.

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Speaker 1
It really.

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Speaker 2
Takes that for us.

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Speaker 1
To let in.

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Speaker 2
The fact that.

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Speaker 1
you know what, Maybe, maybe my story is something that can help. Maybe it is something.

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Speaker 2
Powerful, There's some skill set.

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Speaker 1
And on an everyday level, I think, you know, it's coaches and consultants even who have who have chosen.

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Speaker 2
The path of.

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Speaker 1
Helping folks.

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Speaker 1
Even then, it's still it's hard to realize that it's.

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Speaker 2
Not just our everyday life, like everyone's not just going through whatever you're going through, you know.

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Speaker 1
Even if you know it logically, you don't easily kind of put it. Yeah, you don't easily like put it into that category of like, this.

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Speaker 2
This is something here, you know.

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Speaker 1
And I think that's.

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Speaker 2
You know, it's a.

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Speaker 1
Different tangent a little bit, but it's such a powerful point to, to be reminded.

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Speaker 2
Of this idea that we all have something to give right to.

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Speaker 1
Bigger or lesser degrees and doesn't mean we have to go off and, you know, be a speaker or coach or consult or anything like that. You know, we still have a full time job and, you know, helping people in different ways. But it's such a great reminder that we have these unique gifts and, you know, it comes.

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Speaker 2
Down to, again, what I've heard you talk about is, you know, that idea of choice.

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Speaker 1
And how you choose to take what's handed to you and.

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Speaker 2
It really.

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Speaker 1
Is it's powerful because, you know, we get into, okay, what is what does this mean? And I think that's a different kind of spiral that you can go down, that some people can get lost. What does this mean? Is it just.

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Speaker 2
From the side of like.

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Speaker 1
Bigger picture, someone else is designing this or does this mean that I'm going through this? But I think a more practical version, what I think you've done in it is, is, well, what am I going to make it mean? Right? Like it's up to me. Like maybe there's some force that.

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Speaker 2
I don't know about that's making all this out, but.

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Speaker 1
What am I going to do in my life to move me.

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Speaker 2
Forward and be productive.

00:24:18:23 - 00:24:21:09
Speaker 1
In this? And it seems like you've you've embraced.

00:24:21:09 - 00:24:25:11
Speaker 2
That side of it, on that proactive side.

00:24:25:15 - 00:24:47:24
Speaker 1
Yeah. It boils down to the question, why me? And I think any time we have something terrible happen to us, we all we all ask that question. Why me? But when we first asked that question, most of us ask that question what the tone of the victim, why this happened to me and of all people, why did this happen to me?

00:24:47:27 - 00:25:09:04
Speaker 1
And until we shift the tone, we can ask the same question. It's fine to ask the question, why me? But when we have the tone of a victim never really looking for an answer and we're not going to find the answer, we have to shift the intention behind the question so that the tone takes on a curious nature.

00:25:09:07 - 00:25:31:25
Speaker 1
Why did this happen to me? I wonder why this happened to me. Maybe this happened to me. Maybe I went blind because I'm one of the few people on the planet who has the strength and the toughness to overcome it. And maybe I could use it to help other people. Now, that's one story that I could tell myself about my blindness.

00:25:31:27 - 00:26:07:27
Speaker 1
Another story is I went blind because I'm really bad luck. Write one story paid me as the victim, and the other story is a Jedi mind trick that transforms my disability into my strength. I choose to tell myself a better story about my circumstances because I have the flexibility, the I have the agency in the situation to determine the meaning I want to attach to my circumstances that I have.

00:26:07:27 - 00:26:36:14
Speaker 1
I could choose to sit around and tell myself these negative stories about my circumstances, or I could choose to attach meaning to these circumstances that instead of keeping me trapped like a victim, actually power me forward and give my my circumstances new meaning. It's, you know, it's like now I think of the blindness as this beautiful gift that came disguised in some really ugly wrapping paper.

00:26:36:17 - 00:26:58:05
Speaker 1
And I think all of us for all so have these opportunities. Are these gifts that we have these beautiful gifts all around us disguised in really ugly wrapping paper? If we could only figure out how to how to receive them and open them up and share them with people. But it's hard, you know, it's really hard to have that curiosity.

00:26:58:05 - 00:27:25:16
Speaker 1
And if that mindset and the tone from being the victim to having that curiosity, it begs it takes a lot of takes a lot of acceptance with the situation. Right. You have to really that, okay, look, I'm going to be blind like I'm I'm 21 years old. I know that for the rest of my life, according to these doctors, I'm never going to be able to see again.

00:27:25:18 - 00:27:44:29
Speaker 1
I could sit around and feel sorry for myself for the rest of my life, assuming I lived a 77 years old. That's like 50 years of feeling sorry for myself. That's that's a lot of sorry. You know, I can't do that. That's way too much. Sorry. So what am I going to do instead? Right. I'm. I can't sit around, feel sorry for the next 50 something years.

00:27:44:29 - 00:28:09:16
Speaker 1
So let me figure out a different. Okay? Now I look good. Let's talk about that. How could I make it better for me? And I know this sounds a little paradoxical and it's meant to be a little tongue in cheek, but if you can't ever figure out how to make your adverse circumstances work for you instead of against you, how could you ever be expected to move towards acceptance?

00:28:09:16 - 00:28:25:21
Speaker 1
You know, I move towards acceptance with my blindness because I could visualize how I can make it look good. I could visualize how I can make it work for me instead of against me. I knew that, you know, I could be a role model for people if I did well in the business world. And then that evolved. I knew that.

00:28:25:21 - 00:28:53:13
Speaker 1
Okay, well, maybe I could also go beyond that and help people with the lessons I've learned through speaking and coaching and as an author and all those things help give me this inspiring vision for myself that take my unpalatable circumstances and kind of flip them into something that I can get behind, something that that gives me a purpose and a mission and that inspiration to get up and keep keep pushing.

00:28:53:13 - 00:29:14:04
Speaker 1
And, you know, that sort of gets into, you know, one of the things that I think is has really helped me is my ability to take action. And I think it's easy to sit around and talk about, you know, people who end up getting what they want out of life, aren't afraid of the work that it takes to get there and take nerves and really bite sized steps.

00:29:14:04 - 00:29:50:24
Speaker 1
Well, we need a, you know, a bold vision of greatness that's inspiring motivates us to take action. We have to take on actions in a mental way, otherwise it can be a bit overwhelming. So let's figure it out. We we create an action plan that breaks down our vision into a step so that we can progress, demonstrate to ourselves that we can achieve whatever it is that we need to achieve and create habits that sustain us throughout that, that the basket of actions that we want to take to get to our our bold vision of greatness.

00:29:50:24 - 00:30:26:27
Speaker 1
So it really boils down to, you know, the right mindset, but then obviously having the actions that go behind the effort and the resilience obviously fundamentally gets back to the stories that tell ourselves about the story and how can we make them look good. Having the ultimate choice of how we're going to respond to certain circumstances, not being a victim of the circumstances and really figuring out how we can, you know, in essence, take advantage of our disadvantage is how can you you make your situation work for you instead of against you.

00:30:26:28 - 00:30:27:09
Speaker 1
Would you say.

00:30:27:09 - 00:30:36:28
Speaker 2
That's, that's kind of that first big step towards, you know, somebody going cool like how do I actually.

00:30:36:28 - 00:30:45:01
Speaker 1
Build this in. Especially when it comes to these seemingly smaller things.

00:30:45:01 - 00:30:51:00
Speaker 2
In life, the small little beat downs that we allow is maybe, you know.

00:30:51:00 - 00:30:55:10
Speaker 1
The the, the, the little thing here and the decision here to go.

00:30:55:12 - 00:30:58:25
Speaker 2
Okay, Well, I guess I just have to deal with that. I guess I just have to.

00:30:58:27 - 00:31:09:06
Speaker 1
This little thing that happens at work, this little thing that happens at home and build up that resiliency, how to how do we first kind of.

00:31:09:08 - 00:31:11:10
Speaker 2
Develop this muscle at.

00:31:11:10 - 00:31:12:29
Speaker 1
The very beginning? How do you how do you start.

00:31:12:29 - 00:31:15:14
Speaker 2
People off with that?

00:31:15:14 - 00:31:47:10
Speaker 1
think it starts with getting comfortable with discomfort. I think you have to be if you're the kind of person who always likes to feel comfortable, the first place I would start is getting you uncomfortable. And I don't mean like profoundly uncomfortable at first. I mean, get a little outside of your comfort zone and keep going outside. It becomes so and the more you get outside your comfort zone.

00:31:47:10 - 00:31:48:27
Speaker 1
I just going to say like like.

00:31:48:27 - 00:31:54:17
Speaker 2
Give us an example of that. Like what does that what could that mean for someone to kind of look at that and go.

00:31:54:19 - 00:31:55:21
Speaker 1
Okay, instead of just.

00:31:55:21 - 00:32:05:03
Speaker 2
Sitting on the couch tonight, you know, I'm going to do something that I've been kind of I've been putting off or something? What's what are those, like practical ideas for that?

00:32:05:03 - 00:35:37:03
Speaker 2
Wow, Wow. yeah.

00:35:37:03 - 00:36:07:10
Speaker 1
the more our comfort zone expands, you know, the less fearful it is, the more accustomed we get to that. So I think for me, that's one of the key things that I believe has helped me in my journey, is just being able to get really comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable because I think ultimately if people are living in their comfort zone, if people are living in their comfort zones, that that's where complacency is, right?

00:36:07:10 - 00:36:08:26
Speaker 1
Life and growth

00:36:08:25 - 00:36:11:12
Speaker 2
yeah.

00:36:11:14 - 00:36:15:03
Speaker 1
And I love this this idea, this nuance in it, too.

00:36:15:03 - 00:36:17:00
Speaker 2
Of.

00:36:17:02 - 00:36:19:10
Speaker 1
This idea of preparing.

00:36:19:13 - 00:36:22:10
Speaker 2
To be resilient. Right? Like you.

00:36:22:15 - 00:36:27:08
Speaker 1
Everything may be hunky dory, you know, for you right now.

00:36:27:10 - 00:36:32:23
Speaker 2
But to build that muscle like you just described. Yeah. I mean.

00:36:32:26 - 00:36:34:25
Speaker 1
Who doesn't want.

00:36:34:27 - 00:36:38:20
Speaker 2
That person in the boardroom in a crisis situation.

00:36:38:20 - 00:36:39:02
Speaker 1
Who can.

00:36:39:02 - 00:36:44:14
Speaker 2
Stop everything in the middle of chaos? Take a breath.

00:36:44:16 - 00:36:44:23
Speaker 1
And.

00:36:44:23 - 00:36:50:26
Speaker 2
Calmly find the direction to take a step forward instead of just.

00:36:50:29 - 00:36:51:28
Speaker 1
You know, losing.

00:36:51:28 - 00:36:58:18
Speaker 2
Their head and in spinning out of control. And that's that's really powerful. That's a that's an idea about.

00:36:58:18 - 00:37:00:19
Speaker 1
This concept of resiliency that I really.

00:37:00:19 - 00:37:02:22
Speaker 2
Hadn't thought about before, of.

00:37:02:24 - 00:37:07:00
Speaker 1
Not just getting through something you're currently in, but how do you how do you.

00:37:07:00 - 00:37:10:00
Speaker 2
Prepare that, you know, that muscle for.

00:37:10:00 - 00:37:11:24
Speaker 1
For when the time comes?

00:37:11:29 - 00:37:39:14
Speaker 1
Yeah. And it can be trained. It absolutely can be trained. I think it just and you know, every person has to start with an area that fits them. It's ship. It shouldn't be comfortable though. That's kind of the point. But it should be it should be uncomfortable. Something that they may if through there didn't do it. But the consequences shouldn't be, you know, too far out.

00:37:39:14 - 00:38:21:19
Speaker 1
Right. You don't want to go with higher risk consequences at first. The point here is not to go out and demonstrate that you're capable of these big crazy ideas. The point here is demonstrate incrementally to yourself, to your brain, to your being, that you can get some small wins in this thing. And and these small wins start to add up and you start to crave the feeling of discomfort and you start to enjoy it because you're expanding and you're stepping into a deeper self and you're growing and you're moving towards a goal and I think that's very empowering and making sure like, you know, for example, I didn't start off on a black diamond, right?

00:38:21:19 - 00:38:41:02
Speaker 1
If I'd started off on a black diamond the first time a skeet, I probably wouldn't have lived. I started off the consequences were very limited, right? I was on a bunny slope or agree or a carpet ride or whatever you want to call it. So if I fell, I wouldn't get that hurt. And so I kept working on that skill.

00:38:41:05 - 00:39:05:20
Speaker 1
It's still evaluating enough over the next inch of of Cerruti. And so that's it's you know it's a new skill you're trying to work on whether it's in or, you know, taking building relationship work or whatever it is. Right. You want to start in a way that's incremental, that is uncomfortable but not crazy consequences, right? You don't want to go want to put yourself out.

00:39:05:20 - 00:39:10:00
Speaker 1
There's so much that the repercussions far outweigh the benefit.

00:39:10:05 - 00:39:10:13
Speaker 2
yeah.

00:39:10:16 - 00:39:13:04
Speaker 1
And that's a good place to start too, is, you know.

00:39:13:06 - 00:39:16:20
Speaker 2
If you want to take action on the stuff that we're talking about, it's.

00:39:16:22 - 00:39:21:08
Speaker 1
It's fine. Those areas that you've you've been curious about, because so many of us.

00:39:21:08 - 00:39:23:01
Speaker 2
Have that right. We have that.

00:39:23:01 - 00:39:23:23
Speaker 1
Little.

00:39:23:26 - 00:39:25:11
Speaker 2
Little scratch that.

00:39:25:14 - 00:39:29:19
Speaker 1
You know, I should I should be doing that. It's it is a little scary, but it's it's.

00:39:29:19 - 00:39:30:29
Speaker 2
Also.

00:39:31:02 - 00:39:31:16
Speaker 1
It also.

00:39:31:16 - 00:39:33:21
Speaker 2
Like you are, you know, in.

00:39:33:21 - 00:39:41:19
Speaker 1
Those can go hand in hand. You know like you just know there's something to this. I don't know what I don't know why.

00:39:41:19 - 00:39:41:26
Speaker 2
I'm.

00:39:41:26 - 00:39:45:26
Speaker 1
Fascinated with this. One thing. But when you lean into.

00:39:45:26 - 00:39:46:15
Speaker 2
That and start.

00:39:46:15 - 00:39:51:26
Speaker 1
Taking steps towards it, it is it's amazing how quickly you can look up.

00:39:51:26 - 00:39:56:01
Speaker 2
And, my gosh, look what I've accomplished. And now when the.

00:39:56:01 - 00:39:58:19
Speaker 1
Big thing comes.

00:39:58:22 - 00:40:00:26
Speaker 2
You ready for it? And you're you're thriving in.

00:40:00:26 - 00:40:01:22
Speaker 1
It, you know?

00:40:01:21 - 00:40:04:22
Speaker 1
Yeah. It actually gets a little addictive. Truthfully, if I'm

00:40:04:23 - 00:40:17:18
Speaker 1
like the discomfort, right? It becomes a little addictive. Like, wow. Like, I'm to the point now where I just I, I love the discomfort. I think that's. I ended up in Brazil and India. Is it? There are plenty of opportunities to be uncomfortable there.

00:40:17:26 - 00:40:20:25
Speaker 2
yeah. I love the wrap up here with.

00:40:20:25 - 00:40:26:01
Speaker 1
With how you're you're going into organizations when you when you speak.

00:40:26:03 - 00:40:27:23
Speaker 2
It in train.

00:40:27:23 - 00:40:35:24
Speaker 1
And stand on stage and help people through this stuff. What are you doing right now? Because I know a big one is resiliency. What do you what are you helping companies.

00:40:35:24 - 00:40:38:09
Speaker 2
With in your keynote speaking?

00:40:38:09 - 00:41:11:02
Speaker 1
Yeah I help leaders organizations teams learn how to break free from the circumstances that are preventing them from reaching their full potential. And so a lot of people can tend to get defined by their circumstances and not really understand how they can break free from those circumstances so that they can be in control of their own destiny. They don't have to let their circumstances define their outcomes in life.

00:41:11:02 - 00:41:37:04
Speaker 1
And so that's a lot of what I talk about when I go in and address an organization or a team or a leadership team, sales team, whatever the case may be, really help them understand how to thrive in change, how to deal with transformation and disruption in a way that not only allows them to survive, but even bounce back better than before or be better off because of the change, not in spite of the change.

00:41:37:04 - 00:41:39:12
Speaker 2
Know that's great.

00:41:39:14 - 00:41:42:28
Speaker 1
And something a nuance with with with what you do.

00:41:43:00 - 00:41:45:01
Speaker 2
As well which.

00:41:45:03 - 00:41:46:08
Speaker 1
I found interesting I heard.

00:41:46:08 - 00:41:50:10
Speaker 2
You talking about was not just you.

00:41:50:10 - 00:41:52:15
Speaker 1
Know, someone brings you in to speak.

00:41:52:21 - 00:41:54:10
Speaker 2
Go in, you speak, you do.

00:41:54:10 - 00:41:57:17
Speaker 1
Thing. But there is there's actually some seems like in your.

00:41:57:17 - 00:42:00:24
Speaker 2
Process, you're actually.

00:42:00:27 - 00:42:01:15
Speaker 1
You're doing more.

00:42:01:15 - 00:42:04:10
Speaker 2
Than that as a speaker, like guiding.

00:42:04:13 - 00:42:07:02
Speaker 1
You know, whoever brings you in. There's there's a little bit.

00:42:07:02 - 00:42:08:15
Speaker 2
Of back and forth of.

00:42:08:17 - 00:42:09:03
Speaker 1
Hey, let's.

00:42:09:03 - 00:42:10:22
Speaker 2
Let's talk about yes, I understand what.

00:42:10:22 - 00:42:15:05
Speaker 1
You need or what you want from a speaker. How do we make this better?

00:42:15:05 - 00:42:23:05
Speaker 2
And you actually will kind of guide them through that, that process to make the whole event a little bit bit better.

00:42:23:05 - 00:42:49:02
Speaker 1
yeah it depends on what the themes are and what the challenges facing the organization are. So I have a lot of content, a lot of thoughts on a program, whether that's my standard, you know, entry point for an organization, which is my blind ambition program, it's all about resilience. It's how to go from victim to visionary or whether it's a diversity program or resilience workshop, whatever the case may be.

00:42:49:05 - 00:43:13:07
Speaker 1
But I'll talk with the event planners and leaders to understand what are the significant challenges facing people in the audience, the organization, what have they tried? What are successful people doing and others not doing? What are the themes of the event? And then I'll take all that and then customize a program so that we can help them achieve the outcomes that they want based on unique basket of circumstances.

00:43:13:09 - 00:43:21:21
Speaker 1
And so that the message of resilience in this case can have its intended impact, but obviously tailored to the audience and the.

00:43:22:18 - 00:43:30:14
Speaker 2
No, it's powerful. Yeah, I love that. I don't hear that. I don't hear that too much either of I don't know that that ownership and that like, hey.

00:43:30:14 - 00:43:33:10
Speaker 1
Let's let's make this bigger and better than you.

00:43:33:15 - 00:43:34:29
Speaker 2
Do you ever thought it would be.

00:43:35:01 - 00:43:35:20
Speaker 1
By bringing a.

00:43:35:20 - 00:43:36:05
Speaker 2
Speaker?

00:43:36:07 - 00:44:12:26
Speaker 1
Yeah I think you know a lot of people honestly you said this at the beginning a lot of people talk about resilience. I don't think they really talk about how to be more resilient, you know, And so because I've lived it, I think I can really click down into tangible steps that people can take, whether that's, you know, telling yourself better stories or visualizing your greatness or leaning into the discomfort or taking advantage of your disadvantages, you know, the power of choice, really being able to anchor yourself in gratitude.

00:44:12:29 - 00:44:32:16
Speaker 1
It's really important. You know, there's so many things that people can do to cultivate that resilience. And I just I feel, you know, I feel really passionate about this because obviously without it, I wouldn't be where I'm at and my life is being able to pass that on to other people, other organizations and leaders is really, really rewarding for me.

00:44:32:16 - 00:44:46:13
Speaker 1
I don't I don't do this like a lot of speakers, you know, it's their job and that's what they do for me. I don't even really consider it a job. It's just I think it's the reason that I'm on the planet. I think it's the reason that I went blind, which obviously I'm deeply passionate about it because of that.

00:44:46:13 - 00:44:56:19
Speaker 1
It's just I'm connected to it. It's such a such a deep issue as, you know, such a deep level that it's more than just the job for me, it's more than just a project

00:44:56:19 - 00:45:01:02
Speaker 2
yeah, I can imagine. And it comes through. You know it.

00:45:01:05 - 00:45:02:22
Speaker 1
In your content. You have a in there.

00:45:02:22 - 00:45:05:26
Speaker 2
And having conversations with you. It definitely definitely comes through

00:45:05:28 - 00:45:14:08
Speaker 1
Let people know how to how to find your book, kind of bring you on as a speaker. What's the best way to for people to start connecting and who should connect with you?

00:45:14:08 - 00:45:54:12
Speaker 1
Well, I guess anybody who is interested in having a keynote speaker come in and talk about either change or disruption or transformation, accountability, leadership, maybe there's the sales conference, all industries really do a lot in technology. And obviously I've been in technology myself my whole career health care, financial services, manufacturing, education and pretty much all sectors. But I think, you know, what people can do either from a from a keynote standpoint, yeah, they can go to my website, Chad ethos.

00:45:54:12 - 00:46:16:20
Speaker 1
STRATCOM And from there I have a speaking section. There's a coaching section of the website, There's a book section as well. My book, Blind Ambition can be bought anywhere. Books are sold. Essentially, there's an audible version, there's a Kindle version, it's on Amazon, it's at Barnes and Noble, it's at Books-a-million, It's wherever people buy books. And so the book is there.

00:46:16:22 - 00:46:29:25
Speaker 1
And then, yeah, they can just reach me at my website at WW W chad ethos. STRATCOM And from there they'll see all my social media handles and I'm on Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube.

00:46:29:27 - 00:46:31:04
Speaker 2
Etc.

00:46:31:04 - 00:46:34:29
Speaker 1
Perfect man. Thank you so much for being on in sharing this.

00:46:34:29 - 00:46:37:23
Speaker 2
I love that we were able to kind of dig in and.

00:46:37:25 - 00:46:42:21
Speaker 1
And kind of bring bring this idea idea of resiliency.

00:46:42:23 - 00:46:43:02
Speaker 2
Into.

00:46:43:02 - 00:46:44:14
Speaker 1
A little bit more tangible.

00:46:44:14 - 00:46:45:07
Speaker 2
Space.

00:46:45:07 - 00:46:45:27
Speaker 1
And give people.

00:46:45:27 - 00:46:47:11
Speaker 2
Some ideas of what to do with it.

00:46:47:10 - 00:46:51:12
Speaker 1
Yeah me too. Enjoyed it Matt and do it. Thanks for having me.

00:46:51:13 - 00:46:53:29
Speaker 1
And we'll see you all next time.

00:46:56:00 - 00:47:10:08
Speaker 1
Thanks so much for tuning in and being a part of this show. If you want to help creating authority, building video content, or even a client generating show of your own, go to media Leeds CO dot com and let's connect.

00:47:10:11 - 00:47:13:28
Speaker 1
I'll talk to you soon on the next strategy and action.

00:47:21:08 - 00:47:22:10
Speaker 1
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00:47:22:10 - 00:47:28:14
Speaker 1
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