Learning from Leaders: Because Leaders are Learners (Patrick Veroneau)

The level of isolation has been created because of Covid coupled with the idleness people experienced because of idleness limited our exposure to different people and views. There are behaviors that can reverse the curse of isolation.

Knowing what causes you to act the way you do is essential, whether you're a leader or an employee. When you understand the nature of human behavior, you can make informed decisions better because you get to know why you do things that are not so good for you. Join your host Patrick Veroneau as he sits down for a conversation with Luca Dellanna about the nature of human behavior. Luca shares comprehensive, in-depth insights on the link between brain science and the practical things we do every day. He emphasizes how much your actions depend on what you want to achieve in life. Tune in to learn how you can motivate yourself to take action for positive outcomes and fight the resistance to change.

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Volunteers, Olga Kovtun and Olga Schmidt, from ALLATRA International Public Movement is a worldwide association of socially active people united by a common initiative of building a creative society. It is a global community of like-minded people who implement informational, creative, scientific and socially meaningful projects in different countries of the world. To find out more: https://allatraunites.com/

Dealing with your reports can be tricky, especially when you don’t know who you are. How do you become a better leader? In this episode, Patrick Veroneau, author of The Leadership Bridge: How to engage your employees and drive organizational excellence, shares the four models that could guide you to become a better leader. The discussion encompasses self-development to build a better relationship with your employees and strive for excellence. He also talks about resistance and why it exists within your team. To avoid that resistance and gain more insights from Patrick, tune in to this episode with pen and paper, and remember, fill your bucket with his wisdom because leaders are learners!

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Unlike desires or dreams, our thoughts and feelings don’t reside in our minds alone. The body holds your physical health and your ability to function. But the mind houses your spirit and your motivation to function. On today’s show, Dr. Krishna Bhatta is with host Patrick Veroneau to talk about how the mind and body are closely connected to improving one’s mood and overall health. Dr. Krishna shares his journey on how intermittent silence changed him and how this had been a useful practice in his daily life. He shares how slowly practicing, same time (for 10 mins), same place for certain weeks or months, you will start to open new doors and work from the inside out. 

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Mary Barra's journey to becoming the first female CEO of General Motors is a story of perseverance, leadership, and breaking barriers. In this episode, David Welch explores the impact she's had on GM and the automotive industry as a whole. David discusses insights and information based on his book, Charging Ahead: GM, Mary Barra, and the Reinvention of an American Icon. It goes into the challenges she faced as a woman in a male-dominated industry, the lessons she's learned along the way, and the strategies she used to overcome them. David also talks about the big impact she has made on General Motors. He shows how the future of the GM industry has changed because of her. Join us as we explore Mary Barra's remarkable journey to the top of General Motors and how her leadership is changing the car industry for the better. Whether you're an aspiring leader or simply interested in the story of a trailblazing CEO, this episode is not to be missed.

You won't get stronger reading about doing push-ups. Too often people and organizations rely on the intellectual understanding of leadership development but neglect exercising the muscle that creates leadership.

The long-term impact of training could be improved if organizations do a better job of understanding the needs of those being trained, stick with the training over a long period of time, and abandon the strategy of providing one-off workshops. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Email patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com

As the employment world experiences challenges such as the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, and quick quitting to name a few,  the leaders and organizations that understand the root causes of these challenges and develop effective solutions will be the ones that win the war on talent retention.  This episode explores the fundamental social needs employees need to be satisfied as well as the behaviors that it will take to satisfy those needs.

Our past is all we have to use as a guide for making better decisions in the future. This episode explores how we all have the ability to make our past our power. There is a better way!!

With the highest level of unemployment in our history, organizations are at a greater risk of having employees quit than at any other time in history too. The difference is that these employees are not going to actually leave the organization after they "quit". Leaders and organizations that don't recognize how isolation and stress have impacted the workforce and have not identified the behaviors needed to engage employees will experience many more losses than those that they formally let go. This episode the behaviors that will effectively address this crisis. Please contact me at patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com

Rosalie Puiman speaks about her new book, The Mindful Guide to Conflict Resolution. It is a powerful way to approach conflict and effectively deal with those involved in a variety of scenarios. You can order her book here. https://rosaliepuiman.com/book

Many leaders are struggling or are unaware of how their behaviors and expectations are not aligned with the new realities facing those the follow them. This is a vital time to identify and develop the behaviors necessary to inspire, empower, and compel others to want to follow your lead. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Email me at patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com

Author Tom Dahlborg speaks about his journey coaching his son in sports and the parallels between poor behaviors by sports coaches and poor behaviors in healthcare. He discusses the journey in his new book, The Big Kid...And Basketball.

This episode discusses Patrick Lencioni's model around the 5 dysfunctions of a team and explores what it takes to develop a cohesive team. Learn the behaviors that will give your team the competitive advantage.

Luke Mickelson, his family and his (Sleep In Heavenly Peace) chapters are on a mission to prevent children from having to sleep on the floor.

You can vote for him to be CNN Hero for 2018 here.

Vote Here for CNN Top 10 Heroes 2018  

Luke.:               We're just humans helping humans and these are little humans and they need our help.

Pat V.:              Hey everybody. I'm Pat V. and you're listening to the Rise Above Your Best podcast where I'm normally obsessed with interviewing those that have achieved success in their own pursuits, but also in uncovering the research that demonstrates that great success is available to all of us. And it all starts when we believe in the power of rising above our best. Today's episode is incredible in terms of the guest that's on it. His name is Luke Mickelson and he's such a humble guy in terms of all the publicity he has right now, yet in honesty, when we started this interview, I was so focused on one of the interviews he had with Mike Lee that I introduced him to Mike and he had to stop me and say, “Patrick, you just introduced me as Mike.” He didn't even skip a beat. Fortunately you won't hear me call him Mike in this interview, so thank you for that, Luke.

Pat V.:              His story is so inspiring though, talking about how he started this and the power of, as he says, getting up off the couch and what that does for you in terms of inspiring your ability to want to help others and to have a purpose. And this is a guy that I certainly don't think spends too much time sitting on the couch. He talks about the growth that they've had and the incredible experiences that he says you'll never forget when you bring a bed to a child and watch the magic that happens when that happens. So rather than me ramble on, why don't we get started.

Pat V.:              Luke, I want to thank you again for taking the time to speak with me on The Rise Above Your Best podcast. I first came across your story over the summer, I believe with your company Sleep in Heavily Peace and it was so inspiring. I think I first reached out to you on Instagram and I followed you just periodically through there. So I was wondering if you could just start off the conversation by going into what really inspired you to start the company in the first place in terms of what you're doing in the mission.

Luke:                Sure, absolutely. When I reflect it back, I keep telling people I had no intention of starting some big national thing. I'm just a farm kid from Idaho, that I like helping people and if I saw a need that I could be a part of, I always tried to do my best to jump in. And at the time I was a leader over basically a boy scouts troop ages from 12 to 16 and I was in charge of activities for them. We'd go on camp outs and there was just events that we tried to do together. Anyways, one thing that we found out at one thing that was brought to my attention is there was a member of the community. I didn't know who they were, but I had heard that they had kids sleep on the floor and someone asked if we could help.

Luke:                We got with these boys and some of the other leaders and we discussed how we can help and where could we go get bedding and we could go down to the store and buy these by some beds form. No problem, we could fundraise. And I don't know Patrick, just something, a thought came in my head. I said, why don't we just build them? It'd be a fun activity for the kids. And I'm like, yeah, no problem. And I think we could do that. And so everybody was excited about it. I'd never built a bunk bed before in my life, so why not? I had to borrow a lot of my wife's tools. I wasn't a woodworker by any means, but I wasn't afraid of picking up a saw or a drill.

Luke:                But the funny thing was this, I went home, my daughter had a bunk bed and I just measured it, copied it. Was going to say, okay, here's kind of the design. And we went to the store and bought the wood, came back and the next couple of days, with just so much fun. I mean it was fun to kind of figure out how to do it and it was fun to see the kids do it, and these 12 year old kids, they were drilling and sanding and staining and doing all this and it was just fun. The funny thing was when we went to deliver it, I didn't go. Some of the other leaders went. I stayed behind and cleaned up my garage. I just had fun doing the bed building, but the next day when the leaders came back and the boys came back and they talked about what an amazing experience it was and to see the kids, how excited they were and in the parents how grateful. Man, I felt jealous. I missed that.

Luke:                I just remember it was Christmas time. I was sitting on the couch, it was the next week. And as a parent you always want the best for your kids. But I think for me, I always kind of struggled with, okay, what do I do provide versus what are these kids need to struggle with so they understand what they have. My kids were complaining about the presents they knew I wasn't going to get for them. We're not getting another Xbox. We're not going to spend $60 on another Xbox game. And I was depressed in my own life. Just said, you know what, you got to make it to out there. Let's go build the beds. And I thought, you know what I want? That's exactly what I'm going to do. I want my kids to have that same experience, that same joy. It's Christmas time, we're going to show them how good they have it. I want them to have the same experience of giving back to someone else.

Luke:                So we went out as a family for a couple of nights and built another bunk bed and so now what do you do with it? You got this bunk bed you built and I didn't know anybody that had kids sleeping on the floor. I didn't know that was a problem. So we throw it up on this Facebook page as buy sell trade Facebook page and said, hey, does anybody know of a family that has kids sleeping on the floor? This is going to be a Christmas present from us to you. And I fully expected to have every Tom, Dick and Harry asking for these beds. It's pretty bad, everybody's going to want one. And I was just blown away that it couldn't be further from the truth.

Luke:                It was totally opposite. I had more people say, what a great idea. Here's a pillow, here's blankets, here's mattresses, here's food, here's toys. It was just crazy. The next thing you knew, I knew I had my wife's salon was floor to ceiling mattresses, sheets, pillows. We had everything that you can think of far more than the wood I had to build more. I remember looking at my wife, I said, this is incredible. There's so many people that want to help. They wish they'd helped. I said, why don't we do more? So we took our Christmas fund that year and we bought nine more, so we ended up making 11 bunk beds that year in my garage.

Pat V.:              Isn't it amazing. Here you are, we hear all these stories of people not caring and being selfish and all of a sudden you do something like this and people come out of the woodwork. I mentioned to you before we started this was that my wife does a winter coat drive appear and literally I'll come home and there'll be a bag of winter coats on our porch [crosstalk 00:07:31] left a note knowing that she's doing that.

Luke:                Isn't that the inspiring part? For me, it was like, hey, I did this. This is great. It was fun, but I don't think that it would have gone past that had I not recognized you know what? There's other people that were just as crazy and passionate than I was for helping a kid get off the floor. How can you not say that or how can you not follow that? I tell all these chapter presidents that come on now, we really stress with them what we call a balanced chapter because it gets away from you. It was very fast. It becomes addicting. It becomes consuming because of that exact thing. There are so many good things that happen and so many great people with great hearts and willingness to help that you can't help but not want to do more. And equal to the people that are helping you, you want to help more. It's just a big snowball. We always talk about how's that ball rolling for you? And they just laugh because it takes off.

Pat V.:              What was it like for you growing up? When you look back on your childhood, was this something that your family did or?

Luke:                Not really. I had great parents. I have the best mom in the world. I was always a mama's boy and not ashamed to say that. I grew up in my small town of Kimberley, Idaho, only about 3,700 people. I went to high school here. I played all the sports. I was student body president, my whole family was very involved. I was raised by a single mom. I had two older sisters, a younger sister. I was the best dressed kid in town, I was always involved. I was very good at sports and I always helped out with scouts and my church, I went to church and ... We had a great life. It was fun because it was a single mom with a single income. We didn't sleep on the floor by any means, but we didn't have things like other friends did, but I would never consider myself we were poor. We weren't like some of these families we deal with, but I always had my mom ingrained in us that we need to always look out for other people.

Luke:                And even my dad was one of those guys that he had his own challenges in life, but one thing, probably to his dismay really is he's one of these guys that would give his shirt off his back if you needed it. He just was that type of guy and I always felt that there's anything I got from my dad it was that sense of no judgment and if I can help, I certainly will try. And so we had a good childhood. We had a good childhood.

Pat V.:              I can see why you must have been the best dressed, with sisters. I'm the youngest of 10 with others. So my clothes were always a little bit bigger fitting into ...

Luke:                Well you were top, that's a good value, right?

Pat V.:              Yeah. I ate quickly or we didn't get a second chance at the table. Did you ever think this would get this big?

Luke:                Oh, no. Like I said, we didn't start this with any inclination of this is going to be some big thing. I always wanted to do more. My wife always bugs me I'm one of those guys that if I start a project, I can't think about anything else until I finish it and of course it goes from one small project to a big project. But we just wanted to do a Christmas activity. That's all this was going to be and there was people that are involved, friends that came in and helped. That's all they want it to be. They just wanted it to be our family little Christmas thing. But the more we realized, the more I realized that there's more kids out there.

Luke:                I remember the second year that we did this, we ran out of beds, we were done and there were still people coming in, hey, I know about this guy and I know about this family and I know, but this kid. And I remember telling my wife, I said, “This is killing me.” I said, “I want these people to come and I'll teach them how to build a bed. Let's build a bed together.” And I had kids to come over and we built one for themselves, for the child of their own child right there in my garage. And so I just couldn't stop. We always want to do more and then the process became easier and then it was like, then it was a challenge. Then it was like, hey, we did 15 bunk beds and in eight hours last year, let's do 25 this year and the same amount of time. So we ended up doing that, and then it went from hey, if we change this and do this, we'll speed it up and get even more people involved and guess what, we have more volunteers get involved.

Luke:                So instead of five people the first year, just a few friends and then we had family. The next year we had about 20 people. Then it went to 60 people that wanted to come in and then we actually had people that were almost upset because they missed out on the one build day that we had. “We were out of town you got to do that again?” We're like, “No, we do this once a year.” It was about 2016 is when we said, okay, what if we actually did this more than just around Christmas time. What if we, instead of freezing our tushes off at Christmas, what if we built them in the summer, heaven forbid. Right.

Luke:                And so we started doing more eagle scout projects, little five bunk builds here. We did a big a youth conference, they call it. We were the service project. And so we had about 60 or 80 youth come by and we built that. It just got easier and more fun. We have more volunteers, we have more community involvement. We got more exposures, which means we got more applications coming in. You just couldn't stop. You do a bill and you have 60 people there. There was always two or three people that hadn't been to a build before that said, oh my gosh, I think my company would love to do this. Two weeks later you get a call and someone says, “Here's $5,000, can you come and do a build at our location?” How can you say no? That really was kind of how we grew it, then in 2017, all of a sudden we had people say, “Hey, what if we did this in our town?”

Luke:                And we're like, “Well great, we'll teach you how to do it. It'd be awesome.” “Well let's set you up as a chapter.” And so we started putting on chapters about one every other month in 2017. And so by the end of 2017 when we were actually filming for the returning the favor, I told Mike, we have, I think I said we had nine chapters. Actually we had 12 chapters, but there was only eight or nine that were active, that actually had tools and we're working for stuff. And that was November to ... actually that was all the way to February of this year we only had nine active chapters.

Pat V.:              And for those that are listening, I'll have in the show notes, the actual link to return the favor with Mike Rowe and if you don't cry at some point during that, I'm going to check for a pulse on you because I couldn't watch that thing without that [crosstalk 00:15:15]. It was amazing. So well done.

Luke:                They did a great job. They had 13 or 14 people, producers and stuff showing up. When they showed up I was like, what the heck is going on?

Pat V.:              It was awesome.

Luke:                What was funny when they called me, I had done a few interviews because we were putting on more chapters and so I'd have a newspaper once in a while call me or from like Minnesota or from Texas and they want to do ... So you started this and your buddy down here starting this. And so I do these little interviews and then all of a sudden this lady called me. Well, even before that, I was getting a little bit more busy at work and I needed to focus in on that. And then we had these other chapters. I wanted to help them. I couldn't be a chapter president for the local area, for the Twin Falls chapter anymore, so I asked a good friend of mine if you want to be it, and he's like absolutely no question there and they put [inaudible 00:16:11] says she's fabulous.

Luke:                But about two months after we did that, he said something funny to me that I know now what he meant, but he's like, “You're about to blow up.” And I was like, what are you talking about? We're doing good right now. Well, what happened was, is they had actually contacted him and said, hey, we're returning the favor. This is what it is. We want to surprise Luke, blah blah, blah. How do I get ahold of him? So this lady calls me and nice girl. She's like, “Hey, do you mind if I do this little video interview with you?” And I'm like, “Video interview with you? That's weird.” Okay. So it was at lunchtime and we jumped on and just did this little video chat and she's like, “Great. Well, thank you for your time.” And I thought, I didn't even think to ask, “Hey, what's this for by the way?” I did them, a few of them and I'm like, okay, this must just be some other deal.

Luke:                Well I of forgot about it and went hunting and I was coming down off the mountain and I just happened to get this phone call and it said New York. And I was like, ooh, okay. It's one of those ... do I answer this or not? And we actually were getting applications from all over the country at this time because we have chapters all over and we had more Facebook pages. So more people are seeing it. So I'd get a call once in a while, “Hey, my kid needs a bad, how do I get that?” But I kind of thought that's what it was when I answered it. It was this girl from this media center, she didn't tell me what the name of it was, but what they'd like to do is come out and film me.

Luke:                And I'm like, “Oh, you want to come out and film me? Okay. Well, that's cool. Where's this coming out from?” “Oh, it's New York?” I'm like, wait a minute, you're going to fly ... And she used the word “we.” I'm like, you going to fly “we” out from New York? What is this? And they did a pretty good job of hiding it. And the other thing was, is they're like I said, tell you what ... they wanted to come out at a certain time.

Pat V.:              So wait a minute. Literally you had no idea when he showed up. That was it.

Luke:                That was it.

Pat V.:              Priceless.

Luke:                Oh yeah. I knew they weren't telling me the whole story, but I mean you turn around this mic we're all looking at you, right? And I thought it was really funny because when I was talking to her on the phone, I said, tell you what, instead of coming out that week, why don't you come up the next weekend and we have a bill going on in Utah so you can actually see what a bill looks like.

Luke:                And they were adamant, “No, we want to come and see where it started.” I was like, “Oh, okay, well I don't have anything going on that week and it's in the middle of the week. I've got work, we'll figure it out.” And they were like, “Oh yeah, we'll just take a couple of minutes of your time here and there.” And at that time I remember my good friend Jordan Allan he was the Boise Chapter President and chairman of the board at that time. He says, “You probably should take Thursday, Friday off of that week.” And I'm like, “What do you mean?” Because I kind of told them about it and he was like, “Well, let me find out, let me make a phone call.” And he calls back. He was like, “Yeah, you probably should take Thursday, Friday off that week.” And I'm like, “Okay, if I need to.”

Luke:                It was the last two days of my vacation. I didn't have any more. So I did that, and at that point, my employer, it was clear that I was going to have to make a decision whether I was going to stay trying to get SHP going or I was going to have to really back off and focusing on work. And that just wasn't gonna work. I could see the writing on the wall that this was my passion, this is what I wanted to do. So I ended up quitting, which then I had all the time in the world. So that's when our RTF came and there was, I remember they walked in, I'm like, “Holy crap, there's like six of us, there's three cameras, what is this?”

Luke:                And it was funny that they never said ... I can read people pretty good. I was like, okay, obviously they're lying to me and they don't want me to know. So this whole two or three days that they filmed me, we had this kind of silent agreement that I didn't ask why they were there because I knew they were going to lie to me. But then you turn around and Sarah asked me, “Hey, can I steal you for a minute?" And I turned around there's [inaudible 00:20:50] and I'm like holy cow. What do you do? What do you say?

Pat V.:              And you had just given notice that you done?

Luke:                Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, like about 10 days. Maybe it was a week before that. It was November first and they came out November 14th. So it was about two weeks before that. And the crazy thing, here's the funny thing. I quit, I was excited because I'm going to do this full time and we're going to get this rolling, and this is going to be great. But everybody knew about returning the favor and Scott and Jordan told everybody, “Don't talk to Luke because we don't want anybody to know.” So think about it here. I just quit my job, I'm excited and then no one would talk to me. No one emailed me, no one responded my texts, I just sit there going, what have I done? It's funny looking back at it, but it was kind of nerve wrecking there for a while. I won't lie to you.

Pat V.:              But there must be, just watching you on that show, the passion that you see. There must have been the thing that said ... and I know your family obviously must've been behind you when you decided to go in that direction and you just, you have faith, right? You just know that this is the way it's meant to be.

Luke:                Well, I came home from work after I was told that I need to make a decision here. I came home and told my wife and I ... and I knew this was coming. It wasn't a surprise, and I said, “It's time.” My biggest problem Patrick was, this was a sacrifice that didn't just affect me or else that would have been easy. For me I was like, I can live in a shade, I don't care. That money and that kind of stuff, I don't care about that kind of stuff. But, I got three kids, I've got a wife, I've got a mortgage [inaudible 00:22:45] of the world. I got health insurance, there's all that stuff. And my partner in life looks at me and she says, “No question, you have to do this.” And I just broke down and I just said, “Thank you.” And I tell you what, it was really funny. I was stressed to the max, I was worried to the max, but I was never more happy.

Pat V.:              Can you imagine, you almost in a completely different area, but going off on my own and having that same support, you wish everybody could feel that. That sense of it's just a calling. You just know that you're going in the right direction.

Luke:                Well, and that's what makes it easy. I look back and for those who haven't experienced yet and I call it the “get off the couch.” For those that haven't experienced getting off the couch yet, these decisions, they're tough. That decision to get out of the couch is tough, but once you make it like you and the other entrepreneurs and all of these, once you make that decision, you're like the best thing I've ever done in my life. And then the decision seemed like it was easy.

Pat V.:              And as you're now, things just, you do the work, you've got the faith, the expectation, and it just falls into place. Not without struggle certainly, but it just falls into place.

Luke:                Yeah.

Pat V.:              How did you decide to do the chapters?

Luke:                When Jordan came down that first year and helped me build that bed, he wanted to do it in his own hometown of Boise, which is about two hours from us. And I said, “Well, great. Yeah, I've got the tools. Why don't you set up a build day? I'll come up.” And actually we didn't call them build days at that time. I said, “Why don't you just set up a day and I'll come up with the tools and we'll build beds up there.” And I can't remember when we decided to call it the Boise Chapter, it hadn't been the third year because the third year we built Christmas 2012. We built Christmas 2013 and we decided, hey, let's stop trying to finance this all on our own because we've had people that were starting to bring in donations right?

Luke:                Someone said, "Hey, if you were a fiber one through three, you could have corporations donate to you and you wouldn't have to pay for yourself." And we're like, "Oh, that's a great idea." So that was the only reason why we became a nonprofit is just so we could get donations locally so we didn't have to pay for ourselves. And in doing so if I recall, that's when we said, hey, you know what, why don't we just call yours a chapter. We got the Twin Falls chapter, and you're the Boise chapter. And so we did that to then the next year we did a build outside of Boise and Twin. We did it in a town called Pocatello, which is about an hour and a half, two hours the opposite direction. And a friend of mine wanted to start a chapter there and so we started one, but it kind of fell through. He got busy and anyways we ended up not doing a chapter. We did a build and it was a great build, but we didn't do a chapter.

Luke:                So we kind of have this, I'm not going to say a bad taste in our mouth. We just had a bad first go at as expanding to another city. So that was about 2014 and then 2015/16 all came along and we started doing more builds and got the process more under our belt and then we start getting a little bit more donations. Now we are up into the teens, the almost $20,000 a year of donations, which was just, it just blew us away. I remember thinking, what if we got up to $25,000? We would build, we'd take all world.

Pat V.:              In bunk beds.

Luke:                In bunk beds. We'd take over the world. It was just really fun, but then we had more people. I don't know what it was, it was just something quick. We were just ready for it. And that's happened a lot with SHP. It was just the right time. And we had a chapter that wanted to start. We started it, and then as soon as people saw that we went to San Diego and started a chapter, I didn't get home that weekend before I had calls. “Hey, you're starting to chapter? I want to talk to you about starting one.” And next thing you know, we had Minnesota, we had Maryland, we had Texas, we had Utah, Washington. I mean it was all over.

Pat V.:              And if someone wants to become a chapter, what do they need to do?

Luke:                So when RCF hit this year, February 13th, we had over 2000 chapter requests. And so we actually had to pull the link off of the website because it was too much. But now if anybody wants to start a chapter, they just go to ... you have to type it in. You can't find on the website anymore, But it's shpbeds.org/start-a-chapter. And when you click on that or when you select that and click on it, you're entering just a little bit information. Name, email address, but it'll prompt you to watch a webinar. And that webinar is about a 5,000 foot view of what a chapter president does, what SHP does, how we do it, the whole nine yards. And then after you watch that, if you still want to be a chapter president, then it'll prompt you to fill out of a new chapter request application.

Luke:                That application is more just so we get to know you and you get to know a lot of what goes into being a chapter president. For example, rate yourself on how you think you will do raising money. How do you feel like you are handling a group of people or talking in front of the media, that kind of stuff because all that stuff's going to happen. And then once they fill that out and they submit it, then they get placed into a region. And we have the country broken up and regions and each region has a regional director. And that regional director holds other webinars like every other week or so, and people are invited to those zoom meetings and that's where they learn the 500 foot view of what a chapter is and blah, blah blah. And we teach them how to raise money. So the ultimate goal is they need to come to Twin Falls and that's where they get their formal physical training.

Pat V.:              What's the farthest call you've had so far?

Luke:                Japan. We have a lot of requests right now coming out of Canada. I bet you were over 100 of chapters request in Canada. We've had ... I mean all over Germany, London, Japan, of course, Mexico. And there's probably way more than we know. When people can go to the website, they fill out a general inquiry email and those get sent to my assistant and she'll filter those through and she knows that a lot of times we just can't handle that right now. We're trying to just get our baseline and the country secured. And once we get that and we got some really cool stuff coming up overseas that are gonna really help us springboard into globally setting up chapters. We've got some IRS things that we need to make sure we're covered on before we dive into that pool.

Pat V.:              Got it. Now I noticed, I looked on the map, the one that that was available. It looked like Massachusetts was the closest that I saw, because you know I'm up in Maine.

Luke:                Yeah, come on Maine.

Pat V.:              I was going to say, I mean-

Luke:                I think we had one inquiry from Maine of being a chapter president, but yeah, that whole far northeast area, yeah. We're in 40 states now. There's four or five of them that are up there.

Pat V.:              So it was Massachusetts, is that the closest?

Luke:                Correct, that's the closest. Plus Boston, what else we got up there? Middlesex, Massachusetts.

Pat V.:              What do you recommend for somebody that says, look, I want to be involved in this thing, but I don't think I could do a chapter.

Luke:                And we get a lot of that and that's great. I tell everybody, if you want it the quickest way, you can either go to our website, find out which chapters close to you, you can hit the contact page on our website and email that chapter president directly, or you can go to the Facebook page and type in sleepinheavenlypeace/ whatever chapters closest to you and you can message them. There you can see their activity, what's going on. But I'll warn you, I'll warn you right now and these chapters need help. The best chapters that we have, the ones that build the most beds are the ones that have the biggest team and the reason why it's because it is addicting and it is fun. And Patrick, when you go and deliver a bunk bed to a kid that doesn't have one that I promise you will change. Will change who you are. It changed me. I just was a different person afterwards and I couldn't build beds fast enough.

Pat V.:              So along with the beds is there anything next? Dressers or anything to go along with that are just strictly beds.

Luke:                No, strictly beds. That first year we got toys and we got food and we made a whole build for Christmas. I remember the next year where we going to do the same thing. We kind of did it. We didn't do it as much of the other stuff, but I remember I went to another nonprofit because we started kind of talking about this nonprofit thing and how do we do it. So I went to a nonprofit here locally that was kind of ... They were well known. They supply pretty much anything for family, whether it's coats and shoes and socks and clothes and everything. I walked into this house and I was so overwhelmed with all of the stuff. It looked like a garage sale. There as volunteers and they're trying to sort stuff and I just, I went back and talked to Jordan and my wife and I was like, you know what? I think it's probably best that we stick to one thing and we do it the best.

Pat V.:              Stay in your lane.

Luke:                Stay in your lane. We use that phrase a lot and look what happened. So now, we encourage people, if you need a desk or you need something else or whatnot, here are some agencies that you can go. But you know what, it's very clear and we want everybody to know. It's very clear that we provide beds for kids. That's what we do and we feel like we do it the best.

Pat V.:              So last question for you. The logo, it's a great logo.

Luke:                Isn't it?

Pat V.:              It really is. It's a great logo. I'm getting one of those hats. I love it.

Luke:                Absolutely, I'll give you one. The funny thing about the logo, where it came from when we first delivered that is actually the second year we delivered the beds. No, think about this, it was the first year. My sisters pretty is artsy [inaudible 00:34:21]. She's kind of an artist and she made this tag that we're going to put on all the beds. Because hey, this is an SHP. At that time it was SIHP. So here's what looks like to be a misspelled word ship. It was SIHP. And we were like, that isn't going to work. The next year my buddy's shows up and he actually made a brandy iron of SHP. And so we start branding these beds with SHP, and I'm like, “Oh, we need to make a logo, and SHP would be a great one. What do you think?” And my wife was like, “Yeah, that's great.” And I said, “And you know what? We have a perfect opportunity to make the H a bunk bed.” And Patrick, no one loved it. No one liked the idea. They hated it.

Pat V.:              Yeah?

Luke:                Yeah, I'm serious. I'm like, man, if there's one hill I was going to die on, it was going to say, “Guys, you can do anything you want, but that H is going to be a freaking bunk bed.” And so one of my friends, his wife, she's kind of a graphic designer. She was a photographer but she liked to play with it and I kind of gave her assignments said “Hey, why don't you and I work on this?” And so she'd say, “What do you want?” I said, “Well, I want the SHP but I want the H to be bigger than the S and P, and I want it to look like a bunk bed.” So she put that together and then she put a little star on it because [crosstalk 00:35:50] the peace. The original logo, the sleep and the peace was kind of a smiley face around the SHP and so that's what our logo was.

Luke:                That's where it came from. And then when RTF came around or when they start filming that, my buddy that came on board was an actual graphic designer is what he did for a living. And he's like, “Yeah, we need to tweak a few things." And I'm like, “Well, you can tweak one or two but you're not touching anything else.” So yeah, it was fun. That's a good logo. And we're really big on branding. We want to make our message very clear. So people that see it, they recognize that they know what we're about. And it helps our chapter presidents that are struggling to try to raise money. We can cross brand from chapter to chapter because it's done the exact same way.

Pat V.:              The recipe is there.

Luke:                Yeah. And we wanted to make the onboarding process for these chapters as easy as possible, as simple as possible. They don't have to worry about registering with the IRS or doing CPA work or insurance or any of that. We do all of that for them. All they need to do, we tell chapter presidents, you have three main focuses. Raise money so you can build beds and deliver beds. That's it. Don't worry about anything else. It's the reason why we can onboard chapter so fast. It's a reason why they're successful so quickly. We're going to reach 13,000 volunteers here in a couple of weeks and that's done because we've got chapters all across the country with great people that want help.

Pat V.:              Wow, you're doing great stuff. My final question now, I know one of your favorite quotes must be "no kid sleeps on the floor." Is there another one that inspires you?

Luke:                I think I get asked a lot, why do we do what we do? Or why did you do what you did? And I simply say, "I do it because you know what? We are a group of people. We're just humans helping humans and these are little humans and they need our help." So I think my second most favorite saying I guess is what I share. When I tell people that I say, "Look, if you want real joy, stop looking at yourself and help someone else out." And that really is exactly how I feel. True joy comes from helping other people through service. I would encourage anybody, if you're down in the dumps, if you want more of life, take some time to see how you can help someone else out. And I promise you it'll put a smile on your face.

Pat V.:              Yeah. So a lot of the stuff that I do on the leadership side, it speaks to a lot of the research that backs up that the happiest people are the people that have a purpose not for themselves, but for somebody else.

Luke:                Well said. Well said.

Pat V.:              Luke, I got to tell you. I was looking forward to this ever since you said yes, and I really with everything you have going on right now, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time for this and you're an inspiration. So thank you.

Luke:                Well, thank you. Thank you for your time and appreciate the willingness to help SHP spread a little word out there so we can help others.

Pat V.:              And good luck with the voting. I know I've voted several times and put it out on Facebook too. And that's tomorrow. Does it close tomorrow?

Luke:                Closes tomorrow at I think midnight eastern, something like that. Yeah. So tomorrow's the last day.

Pat V.:              Okay.

Luke:                Yeah, please vote. Please vote for us.

Pat V.:              I'm going to. I'm going to go back on again.

Luke:                Alright buddy.

Pat V.:              Hey, thanks a lot.

Luke:                Thanks Patrick.

Pat V.:              I hope you really enjoyed this episode. As you can see, Luke, his company, what they do, Sleep in Heavily Peace, they're doing such great work and it's such a niched concept of what they're doing. As he said, stay in your lane. They're doing three things; raise money, build beds, deliver beds. And that's allowed them to really stay focused and fill a need that is so great everywhere. You can see how much it's continued to grow, so maybe you'll be making the next bed. And that's how you'll rise above your best. Again, if you have enjoyed this episode, I'll ask you go on, leave a rating. And certainly subscribe if you haven't by this point or forward this on to somebody that you know that may be interested in getting involved. And until then, I hope you're able to go out there and rise above your best.

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This episode speaks about using the SET Model for achieving your goals and make you aware of the part of the brain that wants to hold you back. Email me at patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com.

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Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.emeryleadershipgroup.com

How listening in four different ways is the key to being the most effective listener you can be. The ability to listen effectively is your superpower. Listen to understand not to undermine. We can do better. Contact me at patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com.

Alan Lazaros discusses the 5 pillars of health and how they impact so many aspects of our life. He breaks down each pillar and how we can benefit by understanding its importance. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/
https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

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Gratitude has numerous benefits both personally and professionally. This episode explores the benefit that practicing gratitude can have on the positive behaviors of individuals in the workplace. Gratitude works. Here is the study: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-69971-001

Email me with your thoughts at patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com

The recent pandemic has certainly changed our perspective, making us reflect on how we lived our lives, our goals, and what is important to us. If you are going through transitions in life and are in pursuit of financial freedom, you cannot miss this episode of Learning from Leaders! 

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Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.emeryleadershipgroup.com

When you read a phrase like “bossy girl” on a company name, you probably won’t know what to make of it. This was how our host Patrick Veroneau felt when he heard about Bossy Girl Leadership, whose founder graces today’s episode. Kristal Murren will tell us today exactly why her business’ name makes sense despite all the negative connotations of the phrase. For too long, society has equated the “bossy girl” archetype to women who have a purpose, a mission, and a voice. But is it really a bad thing? A big, resounding NO, Kristal says, and you’re about to find out why. After listening to this episode, you will understand why when somebody calls you “bossy”, you might as well say, “Thank you.”

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.emeryleadershipgroup.com

My guest today is Pete Atherton, who is the owner of ActionsProve, which helps high achieving individuals win at work and life. He's also the author of the book, Reversing Burnout: How to Immediately Engage Top Talent and Grow. Pete had been a hard charging, successful engineer and partner of a hugely successful engineering firm.It was late into his ascent to the top of his field that Pete began to sense that something was missing for his own growth. It was at this point that Pete engineered his own exit as an engineer and partner, and began to focus on helping individuals and organizations design better strategies for maintaining engagement and eliminating burnout.

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Matt’s site: https://matthewsnewman.com/speaking

Everyone has a goal, but not everyone can reach it. What is the difference between those who succeed from those who do not? In this episode, Jennings Smith, a real estate investor, provides insight on breaking the mental barrier to success with mindset and accountability. He dives into the support you get from people may have a different impact on your success depending on the level of respect you have for them. Even the little things have a huge impact on your success. Tune in to this episode and ignite the spark to unlock your life!

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NOAH ST. JOHN is known as “The Power Habits Mentor” and is famous for helping entrepreneurs get rid of their head trash and make more money.

Noah is the ONLY author in history to have works published by Hay House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Mindvalley, Nightingale-Conant, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher.

He also appears frequently in the news worldwide, including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Parade Magazine, Entrepreneur.com and The Huffington Post.

You can get Noah's new book Get Rid of Your Head Trash About Money FREE at www.FreeHeadTrashBook.com

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Are leaders born or made? It's both. You have to have to have been born to get here. Once here, you have to develop the behaviors to "make" you a leader. Based on that, we all have the ability to lead. This episode will discuss why most don't lead and what is needed for anyone to be able to be a leader. It's about beliefs and behaviors.

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Jessica Ireland speaks about the approaches she takes with kids and families to help them overcome challenges they may be faced with when learning. Her company, Learning with Fun takes a personalized approach to each child's needs.

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Learn how unconscious biases are actually creating many of the problems and divisions that we say we don't want to experience. When we understand these biases, we can use them to create better communication and behaviors with those we might initially disagree with. There is a better way. Be better!

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Susan Ibitz from the Human Behavior Lab, humanbehaviorlab.com, discusses how to read your own and others body language signals to better communicate and influence.

Is your vision clear (20/20) for what you want to achieve in 2020? This episode discusses 5 keys to succeeding on a higher level. It is discussed in an acronym called EDGES, which takes a deeper look at how expectations, the 3P's model of goal setting, gratitude, empathy, and generosity impact success. Life is lived best at the EDGES!

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https://www.amazon.com/s?k=operation+clusterpuck&crid=17QG3EVZQN0WF&sprefix=operation+clu%2Caps%2C168&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_13

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She lists 10 components and a free quiz you can take to explore them. www.sabrinarunbeck.com

Tom Dahlborg wrote The Big Kid and Basketball to tell the world how his son Tommy endured child bullying and what must be done to end such an attitude. Now, he releases a second edition to include brand new advice after learning that his son tried to commit suicide years ago because of being bullied. He joins Patrick Veroneau to discuss his new insights about addressing bullying, particularly the things parents must avoid doing and the best approach from the lens of healthcare. He also talks about the needed work to put bully coaches in check and revamp workplaces that value incentives more than compassion.

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An amazing conversation about personal leadership with Becky Halstead. She is a retired Brigadier General, founded her own leader consultancy company, STEADFAST Leadership, following 27 years of service in the U.S. Army and one year as the Executive Director for Leader Development with Praevius Group, Inc. Becky specializes in inspirational and motivational speaking, developing leader training programs, leader coaching, and mentoring. To Reach Becky: https://www.beckyhalstead.com/about-becky/

When it comes to unconscious biases, what we don't know often times is the root cause for our relationship challenges in both a personal and professional setting. This is the first in a series to help people identify and overcome damaging biases.

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Live Life in Crescendo is the inspirational, encouraging final book from the legendary leadership expert Stephen R. Covey, internationally bestselling author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Stephen Covey spent his long and storied career inspiring millions of individuals to make their lives more effective, compassionate, and meaningful. Near the end of his life, Covey felt a final component to his work: How to live your best life no matter your age? How to best respond to life-challenging experiences? How to approach the challenges and opportunities of middle to later life—like raising children, caring for your parents, leading and inspiring others, staying on top of your career, contributing to your community, and what follows next?

Live Life in Crescendo is Covey’s answer to these questions, outlining his vision for those in the prime of life, whatever age you may be. Covey urges all to “live life in crescendo,” continually growing in contribution, learning, and influence. In the same way that music builds on the previous notes, life, too, builds on the past and unfolds in the future. This crescendo mentality urges you to use whatever you have—your time, talents, resources, gifts, passion, money, and influence—to enrich the lives of people around you, including your family, neighborhood, community, and the world.

Co-written with his daughter, Cynthia Covey Haller, and published posthumously, Live Life in Crescendo is a life-changing and life-affirming book that befits the generosity and wisdom of the late Stephen R. Covey.

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Get the FREE POWER JOURNAL at www.emeryleadershipgroup.com

The ability to read others provides and incredible benefit to both personal and professional relationships. Yes it can be learned. Listen to how you can strengthen your skill in reading others.

The April US Labor Report showed more people quit their jobs than at any point since 2001. There is more to this that needs to be addressed if companies want to protect against losing their talent. This episode explores the leadership behaviors that will encourage employees to quit and those that will encourage them to stay.

Tommy Dahlborg talks about how speaking about his own struggles and vulnerability made him stronger. His podcast is Strength Thru Vulnerability and is worth being on your regular playlist. Sign up here: https://anchor.fm/tommy-dahlborg/episodes/The-Power-of-Your-Voice-feat--Kristin-Walker-ee425j

What is your leadership formula? Former AstraZeneca executive, Larry Freedman, has recently developed a success strategy for leaders of different organizations; the Leadership Success Sequence. Larry talks to Patrick Veroneau about how this special sequence allows leaders to perform effectively and contribute greatly to their companies. Larry discusses why it’s important to tap into employee engagement and enhance the employee experience that each person is having. Listen in as Larry takes us in on his knowledge of the pharmaceutical world and sets out on the next phase of his journey to help others become better leaders.

In today’s episode, we talk about a concrete and hands-on method for making wise decisions every day.

Every fifteen minutes, each of us can make ten or more small decisions. Some of them are relatively inconsequential, while others can change the course of our lives. What if you could improve all of your decisions, across the board, and start to build a healthier, more productive, and meaningful life?

In Wise Decisions: A Science-Based Approach to Making Better Choices, a team of accomplished industry experts delivers an evidence- and research-based blueprint for making the best decisions you can with the information you have. You'll learn to make the targeted, repeated investment of energy required to turn your decision-making process into one informed by reason, emotion, intuition, and science.

In the book, you'll discover: how to put the decision-making process under a microscope and learn what makes a decision truly wise; ways to help children, teens, and families make wise decisions; and how to train yourself to make wise decisions with voice training and other strategies.

Tune in to this episode as Dr. Jim Loehr and Dr. Sheila Ohlsson talk about their book and how you can make better decisions both at work and in life.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.emeryleadershipgroup.com

The Drama Triangle is the cause of a great deal of organizational dysfunction. When individuals assume the roles of Victim, Rescuer and Persecutor the organization and the individual suffer. Find out how to avoid the Triangle in this episode. www.emeryleadershipgroup.com

Our unconscious expectations of others often have the power of playing out in reality. Whether you are a teacher, manager, parent or anyone else that places expectations on others in a relationship. This episode will help uncover your unconscious biases

A powerful conversation with Jim Bouchard where he discusses how his resume of struggles early in his life provided him with best experiences to help others lead most effectively. Please contact Jim at https://www.thatblackbeltguy.com/.

How can you leverage your past and make it your power? This episode will present simple objects that will guide you on how to make your past your power. There is a better way. Lead Like No Other!!

It is often a common human condition to sell ourselves short. We think we are not capable enough to achieve the things we want in our lives. That is why when the going gets tough, we retreat into a victim mentality. It is time to acknowledge that we are way more capable than we think we are. In this episode, Patrick Veroneau sits down with a guest who brings inspiration to all of us with the book, Thriving in the Storm: Nine Principles to Help You Overcome Any Adversity. Its author, Bill Murphy, talks about the struggles and challenges he faced growing up, reflecting on how they shaped him into the person he is today. He lends wisdom on making peace with your past, finding your purpose, building stress muscles, and implementing a morning routine. All of these things are geared to help you overcome the adversities in life. Find out more about what it takes to thrive in the storm as Bill helps you build a fortress where you make things happen.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.emeryleadershipgroup.com

Thirty years ago, Tim Alison left a multiple six-figure job in Toronto to move to a small community in Nova Scotia and start a software company that enjoyed sales of over $10 million. This wouldn't have happened if he listened to the naysayers. He now hosts an incredible podcast called, Screw the Naysayers, helping people to succeed and ignore the naysayers. To reach him: https://screwthenaysayers.com/

Join Patrick Veroneau as he brings us the fascinating story of how entrepreneur John St. Pierre navigated the path to a $100 million success. Gain valuable insights into the world of entrepreneurship, with key takeaways including the importance of learning from failures, building capital, and the strategic steps to achieve high-performance business. Discover the power of patience, consistent behaviors, and maintaining a true north mindset. John St. Pierre shares personal experiences, including the concept of "Jekyll and Hyde Entrepreneurship," and offers practical advice for accessing resources on your own entrepreneurial journey. Don't miss this captivating episode full of wisdom and inspiration! Tune in now!

Whether personally or professionally, the research continues to expand and reinforce the benefit that emotionally intelligent behaviors provide to an individual's and organizations success. More importantly, they are behaviors that can be learned.

Too much focus is placed on the resume and the cover letter for getting your next job and not enough on the skills and science that will be more beneficial to your efforts of getting the job you deserve! Learn the power of understanding how to prepare, persuade and progress in your next interview. This will maximize your chances of hearing the phrase, "you're hired".

How do you lead and inspire employees when working from home? Increase the quantity of face-to-face to help compensate for the lack of physical experience of working together. Patrick Veroneau's guest in this episode is Rich Salon, the Employee Relations Consultant at HR Sanity.

Rich talks with Patrick about how you should never underestimate the power of a little chat. Spend more time one-on-one with direct reports. Brainstorm together! These little communications boost the efficiency of the company. If you want more tips on leading employees during these trying times, this episode's for you.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

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Corey Poirier discusses his best selling book, The Book of Why and How and the impact it has had on many who have read it. We discussed the six secrets to success, how to find your passion and purpose as well as many other pearls. He is a modern-day Napoleon Hill and has taken a modern-day approach to drawing lessons from many successful people to help others become successful. Reach out to Corey here: http://thatspeakerguy.com/

Daniel Stein is a personal trainer and founder of Special Strong.  He describes how his own challenges as a child and his faith in God led him to a place of incredible service in working with those with special needs to maximize their physical and mental possibilities.

https://www.specialstrong.com/

Understanding the power of unconscious biases on our effectiveness with others is critical for leadership. Listen to the discussion about, Set Up to Fail Syndrome(Harvard Business Review 2009), Diagnosis Bias and Fundamental Attribution Error. The more you know the more you will learn to Lead Like No Other!

Elizabeth Ross Holmstrom, founder of Break Together speaks to the power of mindfulness and her journey from managing a large corporate wellness program to going out on her own to fill a larger need. 

Leading Like No Other (LLNO) is not reserved for one person or only for those with titles. LLNO is about creating an environment where others are Inspired, Empowered and Compelled to say yes to a leader's request. Whether at home, at work, or in the community we all have the opportunity to act in ways that inspire others. This episode discussed the research and real-world experiences needed to LLNO. Give me a shout: patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com
Peace!

If you want to start a podcast, you have to start it right. So many podcasts don't even make it past their 10th episode because they don't know what they're doing. You need to know your "why" and your values so that you can find your audience. Build that foundation first instead of rushing out into the game. Join Patrick Veroneau as he talks to the founder of The Podcast Factory®, Jonathan Rivera. Learn how to create a successful podcast that can be a part of your business model so you can find more clients and earn more money. Start your podcasting career today!

Psychological safety is important especially in the environment that we're in. Even if the workplace has experienced seismic shifts in terms of what is going on, employees should still feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of the team. To shed some light on this topic, Patrick Veroneau is joined by the Co-founder of Aristotle Performance and Managing Partner for North America for System 2, Neil Pretty. Neil collaborates with leaders to create high-performance learning environments. If you've ever wondered what psychological safety is or why it is important within organizations, communities, or homes, for that matter, then this is an episode you're going to want to stick around for.

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John Lee Dumas(JLD) talks about how Expectation, Discipline and Gratitude have played into his success. JLD is the host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, an award-winning podcast where he interviews inspiring Entrepreneurs who are truly ON FIRE. With over 2000 episodes, 1 million + listens a month, and seven-figures of annual revenue, JLD is just getting started. His site is www.eofire.com

Whether in an office, working remotely, or even in personal relationships in a family or community, there are three vital ingredients that the most successful teams share. Those teams that are most effective are able to Support, Challenge, and Celebrate each other. The CABLES approach outlines how to be effective in all three areas. Email me at patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com

Unless you have never held a job, you have inevitably worked for a bad boss. The good news is that there are effective ways to navigate a "bad boss" trip and make it work in our favor. The choice is your and this episode will discuss the strategies to benefit from a bad boss.

Depression has its way of convincing you that there is no way out of the darkness you are in. Tracey Maxfield was able to overcome that, escaping the rabbit hole of depression and, now, helping others do the same. She joins Patrick Veroneau to share with us her journey of coming out of that in this honest, raw, and hopeful episode. Bringing her book, Escaping the Rabbit Hole: My Journey Through Depression, Tracey talks about what it was like experiencing an acute depressive episode, how she battled through it, and recognized that there is hope. She shows others that there will always be a way out, even when it feels like all hope is gone. This conversation is particularly for those who have struggled and are struggling with difficult moments in their lives. Allow Tracey to remind you that tomorrow could be better. Join her as she shares the kind of mindset we need to have, as well as how we can impart that to our children as they grow up and face the realities of the world.

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Elizabeth Ross Holmstrom, the founder of Mindful Employer, discusses to power a positive connection to mission, to leaders and to self has has on an individual and the organization. https://mindfulemployer-us.com/

There are 12 questions based on 6 behaviors that build the best teams and relationships. We can do better.

To maximize our development as a leader, the most important tool we can use is the mirror. Being able to honestly look at ourselves and question how we behave is a critical exercise in one's leadership development

Author and leadership coach Phil Giordano discusses how "going all in" in everything we do provides the greatest opportunity for us to rise above our best. Listen to how he chronicles his journey of discovering significance in a conversation between him

To navigate today's challenges successfully, the ability to activate resilience is critical. This episode references a Harvard Business Review article on resilience and identifies three characteristics that will help individuals maximize their opportunity to develop bullet-proof resilience. Contact me at patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com. Get the free POWER Journal at www.emeryleadershipgroup.com

Great leadership involves leveraging "the little things". While skills such as critical thinking and decisiveness are important, identifying and modeling the little things is what really inspires people to follow your lead. This episode explores several behaviors that inspire others to follow your lead. You aren't a leader if you don't have followers and you don't have followers if your behaviors don't inspire others to go where you want them to go. Let me know what you think. Email me at patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com. Follow me on Twitter: @coachpatrickv Instagram: coachpatrickv

Resilience is not just something that’s nice to have. In this day and age, it is a requirement to thrive, especially for leaders. Resilience is a muscle, and adversity is what builds it. How do we gain mastery over our circumstances and emerge victorious every time? In this episode, Patrick Veroneau sits down with Anne Grady, author of Mind Over Moment, a book that talks precisely about these things. Join the conversation and learn how Anne’s mindset-skillset-reset model can set you up for success as a resilient leader. Learn how resilience works from a neuroscientific and biochemical standpoint and how you can help put your body and mind in the optimal state for resilience. Tune in and start building that resilience muscle now!

When managers lose sight of connecting with their teams, their employees go AWOL, and the future of the business start to dim. How should leaders keep the hearth of the business burning to keep their team warm? In this episode, JC Bernstein, a management coach and founder of The Management Mentor, reveals that the match in igniting your team is the 5-step SPARK Method to lead, inspire, and build a team that shows up and cares. JC also brings us the Curiosity Question and the importance of the information you gather from it. It is important to build connections because that connection ignites motivation for your team in a climate of high burnout and low retention. So, join JC Bernstein in this episode and grab the flames of wisdom from her torch to Ignite Your Team with it.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.emeryleadershipgroup.com

Listen to how harnessing the power of a mastermind group can propel you to greater levels of success by surrounding yourself with people that are in harmony with the goals and values that you share. You will reach higher than on your own. Guaranteed

A great interview with Renee Thompson where she discusses how her company, Healthy Workforce Institute, is on a mission to eradicate bullying and incivility in healthcare. There are serious implications when a healthcare workplace tolerates poor behaviors and the patients are the ones most at risk. To reach Renee Thompson: https://healthyworkforceinstitute.com/

To reach Patrick V. : patrick@emeryleadershipgroup.com
Instagram: coachpatrickv

A great conversation with FORBES coach, Peter Jansen, about the role of emotional intelligence in developing effective skills that can transform our lives and our organizations in a positive way. It starts with self-awareness! https://https://www.linkedin.com/in/petejansen/?originalSubdomain=hk

While we are hearing so much about quiet quitting, I believe the greater damage occurs when people have quietly quit on themselves. This episode will explore where quiet quitting has shown up in many people's personal and professional lives and what they can do to help get them back on track

The power of diagnosis bias can undermine the best of working relationships. We can often create the person we don't want to see.
Here I discuss how diagnosis bias may take hold and how to avoid it. I also discuss the change in the podcast name from Rise Above Your Best to Lead Like No Other: Actions That Inspire

Understanding the science of influence is critical to so many areas of our life. We all depend on our ability to get others to say yes to our requests. The more you understand the science behind influence the more effective you will become and the less you will be taken advantage of by those who understand influence. Robert Cialdini https://www.amazon.com/s?k=influence+robert+cialdini&crid=XFOYPCJNH2ZM&sprefix=influe%2Caps%2C168&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_6
The book Influencer, https://www.amazon.com/s?k=influencer+the+new+science+of+leading+change%2C+second+edition&crid=573BJC4ERC84&sprefix=influencer%2Caps%2C174&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_10

Leah Hurley discusses how her company, Craft, helps her clients focus on a values based approach to marketing. Her approaches challenge owners and entrepreneurs to ask the "why" on a number of different topics such as core values, beliefs, mission and vision.

Thank you to Tanner Campbell and Portland Pod for the recording and editing of this episode.

Patrick:            Hey everybody, Pat V. here, and you're listening to the Rise Above Your Best podcast, where I'm not only obsessed with identifying and understanding the habits, strategies, techniques, secrets that have made other people successful, but also in uncovering and identifying the research that demonstrates that great success is available to anyone. And it all starts when we believe in the power of rising above our best.

Patrick:            This is a really special episode for me. A lot of the work that I've done over the years has obviously been in leadership and team development, and recently I had put together a workshop series called Lead Like No Other. And the reason it's like no other, or that I've phrased it that way, is because there's so much more to leadership than just skills and techniques and strategies and understanding how to delegate.

Patrick:            One of the foundational components to it is finding out how to be comfortable with yourself, and be happy with who you are. And that's why this episode, the title of it really is about living life on the EDGE, and how to successfully live life on the EDGE, and we're gonna talk about four behaviors that really is foundational for a lot of the work that I do in terms of leadership that help leaders, or aspiring leaders, to feel good about who they are.

Patrick:            Because if you don't feel good about who you are as an individual, if you're not content or happy with yourself, then it's gonna be very difficult for you to be there for somebody else, whether it's a loved one or somebody in the office or somebody in the community, it doesn't matter.

Patrick:            So these four behaviors that I'll speak to I think are foundationally four of the most important things that you can do to live a great life, and when you do that, especially if I'm developing as a leader, these will provide the things that I need to be a better leader, again, at home, in the community, or at work. So let's get going.

Patrick:            As I thought about putting this podcast together and the acronym for the model that I'm gonna talk about around EDGE, I thought, “You know what, when we think of living on the edge there's some excitement to that, that we're right there.” And to me, this model really is just that, it's how do we maximize everything we can out of life? These four behaviors that I'm gonna talk to I think do that.

Patrick:            Now, even though the acronym is EDGE, I'm gonna talk to you about expectancy, and discipline, and gratitude, and empathy, which spells EDGE, the order of these that I'm gonna speak to you in is a little different. Because we're gonna start out with gratitude.

Patrick:            Gratitude is so important for living, I think, a fulfilled life. I'll start off with one of the quotes that I'd come across that I think speaks to this. This was by a woman, Melody Beattie, she said, “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” And I think that is so true in terms of gratitude.

Patrick:            And I think we have to practice it every day, and that's part of the model that I put together and part of what certainly I live myself, and I know it's made a huge difference that every morning I will write down three things that I'm grateful for, to start the day out. They might be just getting up, was, “I have another day today.” It could be, “I'm grateful for my family,” or, “for the opportunities to help other people.”

Patrick:            One of them is usually more simple though. Could be, “I'm thankful for a great cup of coffee this morning,” or, “for a sunrise”. Whatever that might be. So it's not always I've gotta completely outdo myself every time I'm thinking grateful every morning.

Patrick:            But there's a lot of research behind the benefit that gratitude provides us in terms of wellbeing. And if we think about it, it's very difficult to be grateful and sad at the same time. It's just hard to do, it's almost like they're binary, that either one or the other has to be taking place at one time, they both can't happen at the same time.

Patrick:            And I think it's really important to think about gratitude as focusing on the challenges that we face within our lives too, not just the good stuff, but the challenges. That when we can look at those things that have created struggle and think, “I'm grateful for that happening,” that it gives us the power over those things that we can look and say, “Yeah, this was terrible, this sucked, but there's something that's gonna come out of this that I'm grateful for, that I'm gonna grow somehow because of this.” And if you listened to the episode that I did, Your Past is Your Power, that's really where I speak more in depth about that. But it's so important.

Patrick:            Along those lines of gratitude, if you've ever seen the musical Dear Evan Hansen, I chuckle when I think of it because it starts out, one of the lines is, “Today's gonna be a great day, and here's why.” And as corny and hokey as that sounds, that's often the way our brains operate, is that we give ourselves that “why”. “Why is this gonna be a good day for us?” That we start to position ourselves as to why things are gonna work out for us.

Patrick:            Too often what do we do? We take the opposite approach, and we look at the negative of why things aren't gonna work out for us. The importance here is to go from that place of gratitude, we're saying, “This is why things will work out for me today.” From a scientific standpoint, what starts to happen is we can activate what's called the confirmation bias. The confirmation bias basically says that, whatever we put out there, we find evidence to back up why we're right.

Patrick:            So if I'm gonna take that approach and leverage that research, then why not make it work in my favor? “Why will things work out for me today?” And when I can do that, when I can have that focus, generally only good things are gonna come of that.

Patrick:            I'll end our gratitude piece with a quote from Dennis Wheatley. He said, “Happiness can't be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” I think that's so true. When we can really be in that space, it's not about what we own, the title we have, it's about living. And gratitude certainly is how we start this out.

Patrick:            So when we move on from gratitude, the next one is expectancy. This is a practice every morning as well. I expect to get where I'm going. That's sort of the, not the glass is half full, that my glass is full. And it dovetails off of the gratitude piece.

Patrick:            Oftentimes when we're dealing with expectancy, though, we get in our own heads. We start to talk ourselves out of it. One of the quotes that I think of often comes from a woman, Mary Morrissey, she said, “Feed your faith and your fears will starve.” And I think about that often, this idea of what is faith, and that when we feed our faith, our belief in ourselves or something else or someone else, a higher power, that our fears really will starve when we do that.

Patrick:            And when we go back to thinking about gratitude, we can think in this space of, “Why will I be successful?” We start to, again, activate the confirmation bias piece here, that it's thinking of all the reasons why we're gonna be successful and not why we can't.

Patrick:            This is not a pollyana approach, or like it's roses all the time, I don't believe that. I can recognize that there are challenges, and I can have crappy days. But I know in the end that things are gonna work out. That's just the way it is.

Patrick:            There's a model that I use in coaching, and it's called GAIL. It really deals with four ways that really we try and protect ourselves, or our brain tries to protect us, and the first is gremlins. It's this space of we say we're gonna do something, but then that voice gets in our head of saying, “What are you, crazy? You can't do that. Don't even try.”

Patrick:            The next one is around assumptions, it says, “Well, if this was the way it was last time, this is the way it's gonna be this time. I wasn't able to pull it off last time, and chances are I'm not gonna be able to pull it off this time.” So we talk ourselves out of it.

Patrick:            The next is around interpretations, that it says, “I see it a certain way, and that's the only way it is. It can't be a different way than it is.” And the last one is around limiting beliefs, and it says, “I'm too short, I'm too tall, I don't have enough education, I don't have enough money, I don't have enough time,” whatever it might be, that we put that roadblock in front of ourselves.

Patrick:            And in coaching we often talk about resources and resourcefulness, and really limiting beliefs is about resources. We're always gonna lack something, whatever that might be, but what we always have equal opportunity to is resourcefulness. And when we think of those two things, we start off with gratitude, what am I grateful for every day, we move on to expectancy, I expect that I'm gonna get where I wanna go, that oftentimes revolves around making sure that we set good goals.

Patrick:            Before we transition into our next behavior around discipline, I'll leave you with a quote from Mark Twain, who said, “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” That is so true, that if I look back to when I started my own business now, if I knew everything that was involved and really how naïve I was in some regards, I don't know that I would have done it. But having that ignorance, but also the expectation, the confidence that I was gonna succeed, it really did provide success.

Patrick:            Which leads us into the next behavior that we talk about, and that is around discipline. If anybody had any questions about thinking, “Gratitude, expectancy, where's the beef” so to speak, here's where it comes in. The discipline component of this is to set up, “How am I gonna get there? What do I want, and how am I gonna get there?”

Patrick:            Episode one we talked about set goals. Specific, emotional, and timebound, an easy way to set goals and really set their trajectory. There's a quote that I love by a gentleman, Dwight Newell Hillis, and he said, “A person must take their choice between ease and wealth. Either is available, but not both.”

Patrick:            And I believe that in my own life, certainly, is that I've had those opportunities to choose ease and to choose wealth. It really has seemed to be more binary, that I get one or the other. If I get ease, I don't get a lot of the good stuff that goes along with it. And if I want wealth, it's not gonna be with ease. There's gonna be work, and that's okay.

Patrick:            So the discipline comes down to, “What are my goals? What do I want? Are they specific? Are they emotional?” Meaning, what's the “why”? “How strongly do I want this? Are they timebound? Am I gonna have this done by a certain amount of time?” It's looking at being grateful for what I have, but also expecting that I'm gonna get there. I can't just put it out there, “It's gonna work out, I'm just gonna keep hoping for it,” without doing what needs to be done. I've gotta put the work in.

Patrick:            And when I do that, it also helps to keep me focused when things aren't going well, that I'm like, “Okay, I know why I'm doing this. I know what the end result is gonna be, and I know how I need to get there.” So gratitude and expectancy is certainly needed to put me in that place, but discipline is what's gonna pull me through and allow me to really get where I need to go. And it's not always gonna be easy, I know that.

Patrick:            Another quote when I think in this area, and it's on the signature of a lot of my emails that goes out, is by Galatians, and the quote says, “Do not grow weary by doing good, for in good season we will reap if we don't give up.” And that's the hardest part, if we don't give up. And when we're thinking about this from the standpoint of living on the EDGE, I've talked about three behaviors that really do make a difference.

Patrick:            One is I'm grateful for what I have. In the morning I'm grateful for it, when I go to bed I'm grateful for what happened during the day. But I have also trained myself to expect that things are gonna work out. That faith, I've activated that faith. And then I've employed discipline in terms of making sure that I'm doing what I need to do on my end to make that happen. When we think about that from a standpoint of being in a place of wellbeing, you can see where that can create that space for us, especially as leaders.

Patrick:            But there's one last component to this, and this is around the other E. That's empathy. If you look at a lot of the research out there in regards to wellbeing and happiness, you'll often hear it suggested that having a purpose is one of the most important things somebody can have in terms of creating wellbeing or happiness in their lives. It really is about feeling as though there's something more than just yourself that you're involved with, that you're making a purpose.

Patrick:            Dan Pink talks about it in his book Drive, purpose is one of the three motivators that he's found in the research that he looked at, this idea of, “What am I doing? Who am I serving beside myself if I really wanna be happy?” Again, the research would suggest that those that are able to do that, that they find a way to have purpose for other people, they're happier.

Patrick:            The term that I've used here around that is about empathy. One of the first quotes that I think about when I think of empathy and to me this idea of being for others, is by a quote by Napoleon Hill, who said, “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”

Patrick:            Again, I can use what I've got to get a bigger house, better car, better vacation, all about myself, and I think oftentimes when people aren't happy with who they are that's what they try and live through first. “What can I feed myself that will take away from the other stuff that's lacking? Is it a new suit, or a bigger trip?” Whatever it might be, we realize that that doesn't last long.

Patrick:            From a research or a scientific standpoint, we call that hedonic adaptation, which really means that after a certain period of time the luster wears off. The car is just a car, the suit's just another suit, the house is just a house again. Because what we really needed to feed is not that, because we're doing it for ourselves, not for other people.

Patrick:            Gary Vaynerchuk will talk oftentimes about the 51% rule, and I would agree with that, this idea of trying to provide 51% of the value in any relationship that I go into. And when we do that, it really does activate that piece of being for others that our sense of purpose, when it's for others as opposed to ourselves, puts us in a place of wellbeing and happiness.

Patrick:            The last quote that I'll speak to in this area is by Samantha Power. She said, “All advocacy is, at its core, an exercise in empathy.” Again, when we can live from a place that we're thinking of other people and what our actions have on them, and how we can impact them, and we're able to say, “Yes, we're doing that positively,” it creates a sense of positive wellbeing in us and happiness.

Patrick:            And from a leadership perspective, that is such a critical component of being there for others. Inspiring others by our actions to wanna follow wherever we go. And again, whether that's at home or in the community or in your organization.

Patrick:            So we recap here, again, living life on the EDGE can really be the most powerful place to live it. When we're practicing those things, when we expect to get where we wanna go, when we apply the discipline needed to get there, when we're grateful for what we have and where we are in the moment, and when we're able to exercise and demonstrate empathy for others in a way that says, “I'm more interested in making a difference for other people than I am about what's in it for me.”

Patrick:            I hope you've found this podcast helpful. As I read each one of these things, I know in my own life and in those people that I work with that I've seen them exercise these, it can create such a difference in terms of who you are and how you live your life. I hope you were able to take something away from this that helps you to rise above your best, if you know somebody that could benefit from this as well, that you forward it on to them, and if you hadn't already, please subscribe to this podcast.

Patrick:            Leave me a rating. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that when that happens because I know that the message is continuing to get out there. And I hope you'll continue to listen to me as I bring on more guests and more research and more strategies to helping not only you but those around you to rise above their best. Till the next episode. Take care.

Thanks For Listening!

Increasing emotional intelligence: (How) is it possible?

Can emotional intelligence be trained? A meta analytical investigation.

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A great conversation with Larry Barker, CEO of Machias Savings Bank, around his company's commitment to employee engagement at all levels of the organization. A lesson that many organizations can benefit from applying.