Leadership and Business Growth

Rule 1 of the Energy Bus is you are the driver!

This means you alone have the duty, obligation and responsibility to lead your own bus.

In other words..

You are responsible to lead you. No one else holds this responsibility.

This is a simple concept to understand but hard to own.

But that is exactly what’s required..

OWNERSHIP!

As when you break it down, leadership is ownership of the outcome.

This is rule number 1. 

Without this rule, none of the others matter.

So just like I sign off my podcast, Ill sign off today with this which accurately sums up Jon’s rule #1.

“Remember, that no one is coming to save you. You must save yourself. And the time is NOW.”

PS podcast with Jon was amazing. Episode drops on March 13 so stay tuned!

The title is from the best selling leadership book “The Energy Bus” by Jon Gordon.

Jon and his leadership teachings are top of mind today as I have an interview scheduled with him on our Fitness CEO podcast this Saturday that will be released in mid March.

He’s been a big mentor from afar and excited to share his ideas which have impacted my personal leadership.

Specific to today’s headline.. 

The Energy Bus is 1 of his best sellers that teaches readers how to cultivate positive energy and mindset to overcome life’s challenges.

Why is this important?

When you break it down, leadership is about creating and transferring energy and emotion.

The end result is to inspire your team to take action to help your clients, team and organization win.

In fact, cultivating energy is everything specific to your ability to inspire and execute. 

Simple outcome but not easy to attain which is why leadership is important but hard.

Looking ahead and over the next 10 weeks, we will break down each of the 10 key concepts in this leadership masterpiece.

10 Rules of the Energy Bus

1. You are the Driver
2. Move Your Bus in the Right Direction
3. Fuel Your Ride with Positive Energy
4. Invite People on Your Bus and Share Your Vision for the Road Ahead
5. Don’t Waste Your Energy on Those Who Do Not Get on Your Bus.
6. Post a Sign that Says’ No Energy Vampires Allowed’ on Your Bus
7. Enthusiasm Attracts More Passengers and Energises Them During the Ride
8. Love Your Passengers
9. Drive With Purpose
10. Have Fun and Enjoy the Ride

I was just interviewed on a guest podcast and asked for my best leadership advice.

Gulp.

Why?

Well, there’s been lots of learning lessons over the years around how to lead yourself, family and empire.

The truth?

Most things I learned around leadership have been through making mistakes.

But when I break it down.. 

There’s 1 piece of advice that is my guiding principle and the best way I know how to lead.

You see I’ve never been the biggest, strongest, fastest, or most capable leader.

In fact, I fall short in many ways.

But my biggest guiding light around the topic of leadership is to lead by example.

John Maxwell refers to this as “Morale Authority”.

In layman’s terms “To walk your talk”.

Ultimately, to be the model for others.

The value?

By being the model you want your team to follow, it creates a clear example and is very effective in leading others.

The problem?

It’s hard. Real hard.

Yes, I pride myself on committing to this.

Most times I execute well.

Sometimes I fall short.

But I keep it front and mind as a focus of my leadership.

And this is my message for you today.

If you want to gain influence (aka lead others)…

Be the model.

As a leader does not provide the message.

A leader IS the message.

Onward.

Consistency is the ally of strong leadership.

In other words…

The more consistent you are, the better leader you are.

This thought is front and center after both my HQ and Mission Viejo Fit Body teams executed our EOS Annual 2 Day Planning meetings last week.

While very valuable..

The truth is that it can be hard to execute.

With all the hustle and bustle in life and business, it’s difficult to stay consistent. 

You have to be proactive and pull yourself away from all the things on the plate to follow the process.

While tough to do, this my friend is where the magic lies.

As doing 1 Annual planning meeting provides value.

But 1 alone won’t move the needle long term.

It’s the act of quarter in, quarter out, executing the process. 

Another example closer to our world is your fitness. 

Pushing through a 2 hour gut wrenching workout could be a positive thing for your life. 

But doing 1 alone will not get you fit or leave you with 6 pack abs.

Instead, consistently working out even 20 minutes a day will actually get you fit long term.

So while difficult, I promise you this..

When you stay consistent, you look up after a few years and see how far you have come.

As I leave you today, here are some quotes to leave you inspired to be more consistent in 2024.

–

“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” ~ Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.  ~ Robert Collier 

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Aristotle

“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” ~ Tony Robbins

“Trust is built with consistency.” ~ Lincoln Chafee

Leaders Bear Their Burden Well.

Let me explain.

My mother Donna called my brother Barrett last week.

She shared the news that our Uncle Ed who is 84 will have open heart surgery this coming week.

The kicker?

He just told his children and siblings last week after knowing for 4 months.

Now for some backstory..

My Uncle Ed is the patriarch of our family.

High owl, secondary eagle and a man of very few words.

But he’s the guy when poop hits the fan and you need help for something important…

You call.

He’s been the backbone of our family for decades and someone Donna, Barrett and I admire.

Now you might be asking yourself why he chose to wait to disclose this information to his family for nearly ½ a year.

The answer..

He didn’t want to burden his family during the holidays.

It was apparent to him that there was nothing that could have been done aside from creating worry.

Stoic Leadership as its finest.

This also presents the dichotomy to leadership and why it’s difficult.

Most times, strong and proactive communication is the best strategy for your following.

Default to this.

However, there’s times that you need to bear the burden alone as a leader.

This is why it’s called “The burden of leadership”.

To my Uncle’s credit, he’s an incredible leader of himself and family.

Most of his leadership lessons have been caught and not taught.

This is yet another.

So please learn this value lesson from Barrett and my Uncle Ed.. 

As a leader you must bear your burden well.

PS Please send good vibes this week for a successful surgery.

In the last few weeks, we learned the 3 pillars of leadership.

• Lead yourself.

• Lead your family.

• Lead your empire.

Once you can lead yourself and family..

This is where things challenging. 

So buckle up as it’s time to lead your empire.

Now first, let’s define “your empire.”

Your empire can show up in many ways.

It could be leading your country, state or city.

It could be leading your entire company.

It could be leading your department.

It could be leading your team.

1 thing is for certain in whatever it is for you..

The ability to lead any empire requires a strong foundation in the first 2 pillars.

As the stronger your foundation, the larger potential empire you can lead.

Now I wish I could give you a magic trick to allow you to lead your empire instantly. 

I cannot.

The truth is that leading an empire especially at scale is complex.

It requires many skill sets.

It also requires time.

Leadership is a process.

I’ve been studying it for 15 years.

One could argue I’m fluent.

Some one else could argue that there is still so much for me to learn.

I would argue that both perspectives are true.

And by staying in touch with my weekly lessons..

We will improve our leadership ability together as a lifelong pursuit..

This will equip you to lead your empire.

My friend, Happy New Year.

Let’s lead into 2024 to make it the best yet..

Last week we learned that the #1 skill of an entrepreneur is leadership.

When you learn to LEAD..

You liberate yourself from needing to learn every task in the business.

That’s impossible.

Instead, you can then bring on a team of subject matter experts that will explode your business.

This is the power of leadership.

This in mind, I wanted to share my 3 pillars of leadership framework which I use as a guiding principle to expand your leadership ability..

• Lead yourself.

• Lead your family.

• Lead your empire.

Why does the framework start with you?

Well, before you can lead anyone else..

You must lead yourself.

I know this because I used to be a poor leader of myself.

I slept in, wasn’t fit, ate junk food, consumed excessive sugar, hit the snooze button, was disorganized, had little impulse control and suffered from a cocaine addiction & alcoholism in my early 20’s that made me unaccountable to myself.

Think about that for a second…

When you cannot hold yourself accountable.

How can you hold others accountable?

You couldn’t.And I sure didn’t.

Major leadership failure.

Then something happened.

I decided to change.

I hired a fitness coach.

I committed myself for 90 days.

It was hard.

I felt like quitting.

But I kept pushing forward.

That 90 days turned into 17 years and counting of consistent action. 

It created discipline, increased my impulse control, and allowed me to lead me.

That was and is the first step in leadership.

Lead yourself.

The morale of today’s story:

Taking control of your health & fitness is one of the best places to start in the pursuit of leading yourself. 

I had my semi-annual ½ day with Bedros last Monday to discuss big picture strategy for Fit Body growth. 

We talk about sales, marketing and scaling as a primary focus as the norm.

This time, we also talked about my personal branding. 

And how it is used as a marketing strategy to continue to grow our Franchise System.

We then discussed my passion for leadership. That parlayed into a follow up marketing meeting with Lauren and Trevor..  

In that meeting, it dawned on me why I enjoy the study of it so much.

You see, when I first started out my entrepreneurship journey..

I knew that if I launched a successful business.. 

I could then provide myself freedom, income, impact and legacy.

The target was clear:

To become a strong entrepreneur and grow a successful fitness business to accomplish the above goals. 

And while I knew the concept of Leadership was important.

I didn’t understand the GRAVITY of it until about 2 years into my entrepreneurial journey when I realized my leadership was broken.

You see..

I focused on how to be better in these categories:

Sales, Marketing, Operations, Recruiting, HR and all other skill sets an “entrepreneur” needs to be successful in launching a business. 

It overwhelmed me.

Then about 2 years in the journey, I attended a workshop Bedros put on about his 6 Pillars of Leadership.

He went into great detail not only teaching the content, but showcasing his leadership of oversights as a young entrepreneur. 

I had many of the same. 

It was then I had my big ah-hah around the #1 skill in business and life success..

And why my team wasn’t buying into my vision and why my business was good but not great..

What was it?

You guessed..

It was my lack of LEADERSHIP skills.

You see, to run a business there are so many skills needed in the team.

So many!!

It’s overwhelming and impossible for 1 person to acquire them all which was my previous belief.

The challenge is if you attempt to learn every skill set that a business needs, it is a recipe for overwhelm and failure.

What I realized is that if I could acquire and get good at the #1 skill of leadership. 

I then could assemble a team of subject matter experts way better than me at their given zone of genius. 

I could lead an all star team and build a company that creates more income, impact and legacy more than I even thought was possible.

Turns out, I was right.

This is the value of LEADERSHIP.

It’s the #1 skill.

It’s is always the problem. It’s always the SOLUTION to an entrepreneur’s goals of income, impact and legacy.

Next week I will share my 3 guiding principles around leadership so stay tuned..

This week we will finish out the mini leadership series on character.

In the past few, we learned that a strong character is needed for strong leadership.

That telling the truth is the quickest way to improve it.

But what happens when your character is questioned or even attacked?

Here’s the tough truth. 

As a leader, it will.

There’s no way around it.

Even though you are a good person, a strong leader with strong character, there will be times it’s called into question.

Why?

Leadership is not easy.

It requires you..

To go against the grain.

To stand up for what’s right and not what’s easy or popular.

To stay the course in the face of criticism and adversity.

To defend people in private.

When this happens, human nature can be combative.

Human nature can resist.

As a result, you & your character will be attacked.

Why do I share this?

Not to scare you.

Rather to empower you.

This way you can expect it and overcome it.

The best way?

Take a deep breath, shrug it off, and keep developing your character so you can lead your team forward. 

Bryce & Barrett

Elite Mastermind

Before jumping in today’s lesson..

I wanted to close the loop from last week on why I find my buddy Stefan to be 1 of the most interesting people I know..

He was born in LA.

This makes him American.

Although, he is European by culture. 

His parents moved to Paris for 10 years after being born, being that his dad is French.

He then spent the next 10 years in London as his mom’s English.

He speaks both languages natively.

He holds 4 passports and has lived in 3 countries for more than a decade a piece. 

Yes, I know what you might be thinking..

This dude sounds like Matt Damon in the “Bourne Identity” Hollywood Blockbusters.

Exactly. 

As a result, I found deep intrigue, connection and we made quick friends back in 2005. 

Since then, he’s inspired me..

To travel the world. 

To gain fluency in Brazilian Portuguese.

To attain citizenship from Portugal.

To gain more perspective than I would have otherwise.

And this perspective has helped me with my leadership ability. 

Ok, I digress.

But his follow-up question around developing leadership was how to develop character.

Well, there are many ways to do this.

1 of the best ways is, to tell the truth at all times.

Simple yet powerful.

Although, not easy to do. 

As a leader, your word has to be impeccable. 

It must be flawless.

This can be 1 of the hardest parts.

Why?

Your primitive brain wants its selfish desires at any cost.

It tempts you if left unchecked. 

You must combat that by working on growing yourself to a higher level.

A more evolved version of you.

This is why attending my 12-step program has been so powerful for me in helping me stay sober from alcohol and to become a better leader.

It helps me tell the truth and develop my character.

These are requirements for strong leadership. 

In fact, most times people are very surprised to find out the main focus of the 12-step program isn’t toward a focus on talking about alcohol.

Instead, the focus is on telling the truth to develop character.

In fact, the motto is it is “a program of rigorous honesty”.

But more on that next week.

For now, remember that your ability to tell the truth shapes your character, and your character shapes your leadership.