What could you do if you were able to generate your own value?
Would you know how to leverage that personal value into greater business and personal success?
Andy McDowell is a strategic coach who understands how small business owners and executives can generate their value to take ownership of their lives and position themselves to take advantage of opportunities.
Listen in to get Andy’s 3 Tools for Generating Your Value. And don’t miss a 4th Bonus Tool from Nicole!
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Andrew McDowell: Two very simple words we use in almost every sentence that has tremendous power in your life and that’s and, and or. There’s nothing in this world that says you can’t be rich and successful and humble.
Voiceover: You’re listening to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast with professional speaker, coach and consultant Nicole Greer.
Nicole Greer: Welcome to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. Look, everybody. Hi, I’m Nicole Greer. And I am absolutely delighted to be here today with Andy McDowell. And listen, this guy knows how to make things fly. I’ll explain. Andy is an engineer by trade and a creative by nature. He spent 22 years with the Boeing company where he always felt more like a life coach than a boss. I totally get that. In 2022, he began his journey into entrepreneurship within a corporation when he was asked to develop an airspace design consulting business, from scratch that would serve the global government market.
We have a little something in common, we’re gonna talk about that. And Andy has a bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State. Naturally, his aviation work took him around the world. Oh, I want to talk about that, too. And enabled him to work on high profile projects such as preparing the Beijing and Sochi. Sochi did I say that right? Give me a thumbs up, thumbs down.
Andrew: Sochi. C is more like an S.
Nicole: Oh, that’s so good. I’ve not been there. So I need to be educated. And for the respective Olympic Games, and Andy would love to have a conversation with me and you the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast listeners about how he might be able to use his strategic skills developed from his years with the Boeing company to generate your value in your personal and professional life. He has a keen sense for applying business concepts into life coaching, and life coaching concepts in to business. So please welcome to the podcast. Andy, how are you?
Andrew: Good, good. Great to be with you, Nicole.
Nicole: Yeah, thank you so much. And you’re just down the road in Hotlanta. Is that right?
Andrew: Yeah, I’m in the northern suburb of Atlanta.
Nicole: Okay, fantastic. Fantastic. Well, I’m so glad you’re on the show. And as I had shared with you earlier, and as all of my listeners know, we talk about the first thing right out of the gate. I am collecting definitions of leadership. So would you talk a little bit about leadership? What you believe about it? What do you think it might be? What we need to know?
Andrew: So as we were talking, leadership is a complex topic. There’s probably 12 different answers to this that all make sense, but I’ll go with per our time together, leadership is the ability to influence a person, a group, a company any kind of entity to move itself from position A to position B. With the idea that position B puts you in a better place for whatever the current conditions, or the near future conditions are.
Nicole: Fantastic. Yeah, you know, the word influence comes back around and back around and back around. And I think that’s huge. So how does a leader influence? What do you, what are your thoughts on that? How does a leader be a great influence?
Andrew: The thing that I’ve always told folks through the years is that you have to answer the question, why? If you want serious engagement from your team, and to get buy in and influence them, to move with you, instead of leaving them behind, you’ve got to answer the question why. We’re putting this new strategy together to move our organization to this position in the marketplace. Okay, why? Why are we taking this strategy? Why do we need to move to this place? Why now? Why not later?
You know, so the more that you can answer the question why, for your team members, or those that are parallel or at the same level that you are, or something of that nature, the more buy in you’re, you’re going to get from because they can see the reasons behind it. And then jump in line with you and help you move the organization to that place. If you’ve come across as a no it all, or just say because I said so you know, kind of attitude. You know, you might get 25% or some percentage of folks, but you won’t get everybody because they need to see the reasoning behind it. If I want to spend my time working on these activities, I want to know why. What value do I bring to the table?
Nicole: Yeah, I think the why helps people say yes, get motivated and get behind the process. Absolutely. So don’t don’t miss this. I don’t know if you caught what you just did Andy, but, let me tell you what you just did. He said, it’s influence in helping people move from a position from A to B and B is better. B is for better people. Move from A to B better. Okay? So I love that. We were you know, and before we got on the on the show here, we were talking a little bit about this idea of kaizen. And he’s oh, I just talked to somebody this week about the idea of kaizen and it’s about continuous quality improvement. So, so everybody go out there and look up k a i z e n. It is a Japanese word that I do know how to pronounce unlike Sochi. Did I say it right that time? Help me oh my gosh.
Andrew: Sochi, yeah. Sochi.
Nicole: Okay. All right. Okay, so, so it is a word I do know how to pronounce. So how are you helping people with Kaizen right now. I know, you can’t tell us all the details of your client work, but what are you guys doing around Kaizen right now?
Andrew: While so my clientele is mostly small business owners that really don’t have exposure to these kinds of concepts? Right? They’re they’re all concentrated on do I have enough revenues and expenses? And can I make payroll and all these type of things. So they just don’t, either aren’t aware that it even exists, or B don’t have the time to go investigate it or even see go take a class on it. So right now, I’m just trying to give them some exposure to what it is. And just as you said, it’s not only continuous improvement, it’s also asking a question about everything that you’re doing. Does this part of the process add value to the product or the service I’m offering to the customer? Does the customer see value in what we’re doing in this particular part of the process?
Nicole: Yeah, and so value, that’s like your word, right? Like I’m vibrant? You’re value.
Andrew: Yeah, Mr. Value.
Nicole: Mr. Value. Okay. So Mr. Value well tell me a little bit about value and why you’d like that, like the laser beam focused on that. Tell us a little bit about that. That’d be, awesome.
Andrew: Well, for me, it’s, it’s a, it’s a high enough word, if you will, instead of using money or currency or gold or things that we know in society has some value, it’s, or some worth, to people in this world value is a generic enough term that you can apply it to all facets of your life or your business. Right. So in your relationship with your spouse, what kind of value are you offering, contributing to, in your relationship with your spouse. With your children, with your neighbors, with people you do hobbies with.
I mean, the list goes on and on all the different roles that you play in life. But we find joy and happiness and success in life, when we get ourselves to a point, this is Andy’s philosophy, to a point where we’re living a life of service. Where we’re more outwardly focused than inwardly focused, because we’ve already done all the internal work. So you then have the ability to start then generating, the reasoning behind the name of my company, Generate your Value, start generating your value in other areas of your life, and then the different roles that you play within society.
Nicole: That’s fantastic. So so everybody, go to www.generateyourvalue.com. Did I get it right, Andy?
Andrew: Yes, yep.
Nicole: Yeah. Okay. Fantastic. Yeah. And, and, and I agree, I think a life of service leaves a life that has a legacy of what I call a vibrant life, right? Like, so I’ve got all this energy inside me, and I’m putting it out, I’m lighting things up, I’m helping people move forward illuminating a path for them. So I totally love that. Well, one of the questions I have for you is where does value live in our world? I mean, you gave us a couple of examples. But where does it live in our world? How do we find it?
Andrew: It lives every where. It lives every where and it has to be either inherent or created, right? So we, we as human beings put an inherent value on a bar of gold. But when you get outside of sort of the physical world, your value has to be created, created, right? So creativity, by nature, all of us human beings have creativity in ourselves. It’s just a question of whether we unleash it on the world or not. And that gets into the internal work. But value has to be be created and it’s looking for generally speaking, it’s looking for a problem to solve.
And you’re you’re mentioning in the bio about the part of the platform that I bring is talking about the overlap between life and business. So, in this world are full of human beings and human beings have needs. I need to have a roof over my head, I need to have food on the table and in my belly, I need to feel like I’m bigger than myself, I’m part of something that’s bigger than myself, I need to feel fulfilled, that my work, my time has value and so forth. And it’s the reason why we I like to look at business strategy tools be able to use since a business primarily is there to fulfill needs in the world, both for individuals as well as other businesses.
So that being said, there’s that linkage, that’s the overlap between the two. And therefore, you can start using or doing minor tweaks to business strategy tools to start building life strategies for people. Because of that common, that common piece of looking for a problem or looking for needs that I want to solve and generate some value in this thing and they go solve those needs or provide those needs that human beings are looking for. I can give you a good example, if you want.
Nicole: I would love a great example. Lay it on us.
Andrew: So common starting point in discussion, whenever somebody is doing business strategy planning his SWOT analysis. S W O T, stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Typically take a rectangle and divide it into four smaller rectangles, you write each one of those words in a rectangle, start putting bullets in each one about what your strengths are in the business, what your weaknesses are, what are you thinking of opportunities for growth in the business world? And then what threats do you have either from competitors, known competitors, or unknown competitors, or regulatory or different categories you can have in there. But what if you took the words opportunity and threats and changed it to love and fear for an individual.
So your opportunities are where your loves and your passions are, where that creativity can come out of yourself to go, generate value in people’s lives that you surround yourself with. And then threats are your fears, what inhibits you what’s going to disrupt you from living a life that brings joy and happiness and success into your life. And that’s generally where your fears are. Fears of abandonment, self esteem issues, fear of jumping out of an airplane. I mean, it is all categories of different fears out there. But if you’ve done enough introspection in your life, to understand where those fears exist for you, and how can you minimize or eliminate them from your life so that they won’t be a disruption in your efforts in the execution of your life strategy to go after the life that you want for yourself.
Nicole: That’s fantastic. So you’re kind of answering my second question with one idea, which is this idea of a SWOT and I just want to encourage everybody to go out and Google SWOT. There will be 4000 opportunities out there to help you figure out how to do it. You know, there’s all sorts of recipes and instructions and things like that, but everything Andy just told you will do the trick as well. So doing a SWOT is fantastic. And here we are. Today is is January 10. The actual publication of this podcast will be a little bit later. But here at the beginning of the year, what a great time to do a SWOT analysis and and I actually have in my toolbox a SWOT, that’s for personal and I have some powerful questions.
And then I have a SWOT for business. And it has some more professional questions. So email me at Nicole@vibrantcoaching, and I’ll send you both of those. I love I love SWOT. And you know, Andy, one thing that I think is so interesting, I’ll ask people, you know, tell me about yourself. They’re like, you mean, professional or personal? Okay, and so you’re laughing? And I know why you’re laughing. Tell me I’m a mind reader. I think I know why you’re laughing. But I think that is the most interesting question. Or the answer on the planet, you mean, personal or professional? Why are you laughing at that question? And why is that so poignant?
Andrew: Well, I’ll tell you how I answer. I answer it in one of two ways. Either say, I build people in businesses or I say I changed people’s lives. There’s no title in that. There’s no, no nothing. And it’s a conversation starter. It’s like, oh, I wasn’t expecting that. I was expecting a lawyer, doctor, an accountant, a CPA, marketing manager or something of that nature, because we usually go to our professions when we say that. But that’s a small sliver of your of your life. So unless they specifically asked you what do you do for a living, where they’re really trying to get after your career, if they just say, tell me about yourself, why? Why go to the career you’re so much more than just your career. So why would you go go that route in answering that question? That’s why I’m laughing.
Nicole: Yeah, and, and the reason why I thought you were laughing is that is exactly that. I mean, there’s no dichotomy. You’ve only got one life and involves your business or your career, um, it’s all totally intertwined. And if people are like, oh, no, I keep it separate. And I’m like, no, you don’t. Because, you know, here’s the thing, if Andy has a bad day, you know, working and he’s on the Build a Vibrant Culture, podcast, and he’s unhappy, which he won’t be. When he gets off the phone, he’s gonna go back into his world and take his unhappy with him. If he’s up the feelings scale, feeling good about life, he’s gonna get off the podcast, he’s gonna walk away, which is exactly what’s going to happen to him, and he’s gonna walk away, he’s gonna bring that it back into his personal life, you know, so it’s all interwoven. And so I love what you said, you said, your life is much bigger than that.
Andrew: Yeah, when I was mentoring people inside the Boeing Company, I always told them, you need to be prepared for a 30 second elevator speech or who you are in this world. When you get in an elevator and the CEO walks in, and looks at you and doesn’t recognize you and says, who are you, you need to be prepared to in 30 seconds. Not only state your name, but your role in the company and what value you offer him, he who he or she who is in charge of all the financial resources in the company.
If for nothing else to shock him or her that they got an answer like that. And it brings attention to you and next time they see you then opens up a conversation or B, they’re passing it on to your supervisor, I had a great interaction with Sally. You know, yesterday I didn’t know who she was but one of your people and I was really impressed with it. You know, all of a sudden, you get a great comment to your supervisor, from the CEO, because the way you were prepared answer that in 30 seconds, you’re going from the first floor to the eighth floor.
Nicole: That is great advice so don’t miss this right. That’s tool number two, he just put in your toolbox. We need to have a SWOT. And then number two, we have to have a 30 second elevator speech. So very, very important. Okay, well, I’m down one after another, give us another one. What are some business tools individuals can use to better guide their lives? So I can use this professionally? And personally do you have a couple more for us?
Andrew: I got one, I got one more. Program management.
Nicole: Okay, talk about that.
Andrew: So having worked for the Boeing company, we deal with very complex objects, right, you have an airplane, millions of parts, 1000s of miles of wire and very complex objects that you not only have to design, you have to build, you have to flight test, you have to have it certified, you have to maintain it. You know, list goes on and on of all the things that you have to do to successfully build and sell a product that’s going to be used for 25, 30 years for the customer. So they heavily use a concept called program management, which is like project management on steroids. In an effort to figure out how to eat an elephant, right, you know, the running joke how to eat an elephant, it’s, well, one bite at a time, try and do in small chunks.
So you’re trying to take a complex problem and build it into smaller chunks that a group of people can tackle a smaller chunk and then provide their value to the bigger problems. So within Boeing, you had design team that would hand you a design. You had a production team with hand you a plan on how to produce the actual aircraft. You had supplier management that contributed to here’s the plan to get all the parts that we need, etc, etc. It all it all was like a mini organizational chart, they got up to an executive vice president who is in charge of the product.
The overall success of the product from beginning to end. Well, you can do the same thing in life. Life is very complex and you have you know, how do you how do you eat an elephant in regards to life. Well start chopping your life up into different little parts, right? So you have a physical life, you have a spiritual life, you have an emotional life, you have a business life, you have a family life, you have a relational life with your spouse, you have a relational life with the church you belong to. I mean, that list can go on and on this very wide listing of all the different areas.
And going along with your SWOT analysis of a life strategy, could you build a project management chart or concept for your life that you’re constantly scanning every day or every week or every month, whether in your life and putting some goals down in those areas of your life, then building many strategies on how to I want to build a spiritual life that’s more fulfilling to myself. Or are a physical life am I going to get in the gym every day? What am I doing for exercise? How am I eating? All those type things, you can do it for each of those categories. It’s in your program management chart. At the very top of your chart, you write joy, happiness and success.
Nicole: I love it. And everybody is saying thank you out there. You just can’t hear him right now, Andy. Okay, so we got three tools. They are. They’re gonna write it in the comments. So a SWOT analysis, the elevator speech, and then a program management on steroids. Project management on steroids. Program management.
Andrew: All these are going into a book I’m presently writing with all these wonderful tools.
Nicole: When it gets done, let’s do this again. Do you promise? Let’s do this again.
Andrew: Sure.
Nicole: Okay, let’s do it again. Awesome. Awesome.
Andrew: And you don’t have to send me another box.
Nicole: Oh, well, hey, everybody. I don’t know if anybody knows what I do when they’re a guest on the podcast. But Andy went out to his mailbox and he fell down. He was so floored that I sent him a little goodie box in the mail with a present to be on my podcast. Are you kidding that you bring in my genius, your genius to my program. I’m so excited. That’s awesome. All right. Well, I got another question for you. What are some important words in this world that individuals should focus on in their lives? The three you threw at us just a second ago.
Andrew: So add some more. Intention. Mindset, intention, and a self brand. The mindset with brand management for yourself. Personal brand. And people say well, what the heck are you talking about with regards to that Andy? Yeah, basically, basically a brand is an experience, a trust level and experience that you have with a company, right? And what do you think of the company, if you were going to throw 10 words at a company that would describe that company. It’d be about your experiences your trust level with them. Same thing for a person whether you know it or not, you as a human being, my belief, you have a personal brand. People have experiences with you, there’s a certain trust level when you’re around. Are you a loyal friend? Are you somebody that is out to love and support me? Or are you just an acquaintance who likes to go out to the bar and you know, drink a couple? You know, what is it? What?
Nicole: Are those possible, Andy? Sure. But anyways, keep going. Alright, trust, loyal friend. Are you out? My favorite one you put in there. Y’all don’t miss this. He said, are you out to love and support me? That’s what every leader needs to ask themselves in the morning when they get up. You know, the flip your little feet out of the bed, you pad your way into the potty. You looked in the mirror and you say, how can I love and support others today?
Andrew: That’s why had I had a mentality that I was a life coach rather than a boss, you know.
Nicole: Well, how a boss being a life coach is important. Like, let’s go down that bunny trail real quick, since you said it.
Andrew: Well, every one of your team members is a human being and the human being wants to be known to be seen. Do you see me? Do you see the true me? Are you spending enough time with me? To see me and what I have to offer to my fellow colleagues, to you as my supervisor, to this company and so forth? And do you value me and are you investing in me? You know, I value you as a company because of the culture whatever else you’ve set up, you’ve sold me on. And I’m bringing, I’m bringing the value of my time, you know, 40 plus hours a week, which is a huge chunk of my time. Now I know I’m going to get salary benefits out of it. But I want to be with a company that goes beyond that. Right? And so I have ambitions, I have goals have desires.
You know, this is coming out in a major way after the pandemic. You know, not not that we’re done with this pandemic, but the great resignation and those type things are all built off of this premise is I want to work for a company that knows me, sees me, and wants to invest in me like I’m turning it around and, and investing in you and my time from that perspective. And if you can approach it that way with some servant leadership styles, then you’re being much more of a life coach than just, you know, what is typically known to be a boss. You know, a boss is all about accountability authority, you know, you have to respect my title. I’m just I’m just here to make sure you get your goals done for the year and that’s about it. What goes on the rest of your life, that’s your problem.
Nicole: Yeah, you know, a lot of leaders kind of sometimes dare I say this complain to me. Oh, why don’t people get it? Why don’t we get more done? Why don’t they see what needs to be done. And I’m like, because they don’t see what you see. You’re the leader, you’re the one with the, you’re the one that has the most experience, typically, until an organization gets huge, and then you have the luxury of hiring people smarter than you, that will eventually happen to your company. But until that happens, you’ve got to do what Andy is saying. And so I’m taking notes, if you see me looking down, I’m not doing my checkbook, which nobody does anymore. But he said, to be known, to be seen, and that you are investing in me. And I don’t know about you, Andy. But I have the story about a woman named Nancy Freeman. I tell it all the time when I give speeches, and when I’m talking in front of groups and training.
But Nancy Freeman really cared about me, and she taught me how to be a businesswoman. When I was like 24 years old. She just insisted that I grow up and learn stuff, I didn’t have a college degree. And she’s like, this is how you do this. And this is how you do that. Don’t do it this way, again, do it this way. But she did it in such a way that it didn’t feel as you’re saying like bossy or I had to respect who she was, she was just like, you got to learn this so you can do better. And you can excel and you can do more with your life. You know, she was a total life coach, how did you figure this out? Other than working at Boeing, and it sounds like it kind of just evolved or manifested or something? Did you have somebody that loved on you big time?
Andrew: Well, there was two major things. So coming out of high school and college, I had some major self esteem issues that I had to stare at myself in the mirror and say, this is not the way I want to lead my life, you know, over the next 50, 60, 70 years. So I went and got a bunch of therapy and developed the growth mindset, we talked about read a lot of self help books, just just was working on myself. And so I learned a lot through that experience. And I was able to then flip it around, right? Make it now a life of service. I learned a lot of lessons through that process. And I wanted to give it back to the world. So that’s one reason. Number two was, that process only got me so far.
Helped helped a lot for the personal me. But for the business me, I still had some low confidence issues or whatnot. And Boeing gave me an executive coach that worked with me on much more the business side. And in the pure leadership side of things, they helped me tremendously. And then once again, is able to take those lessons learned and flipped around and started using it when my team and those I’ve mentored and so forth. So those were two major milestones in my life journey. For those in the spiritual world, that’s my sort of life destiny. Why my soul is here on this earth, so to speak, was to go through that journey. And, you know, the best way to learn about these things is to teach it as they say. So, it’s why I do what I do today.
Nicole: Yeah. And so Andy said this a couple times, so I’m going to highlight it, you know, so obviously, Andy you you must be a God guy. Can I say that? You’re God guy? Would that be right?
Andrew: Yes.
Nicole: Okay. Yeah. And so he and I have a basic belief that we share. And so I’m going to segue from this to one of your words, which was mindset, but a lot of times you have to kind of finally sit down in life and go, what do I believe about life? You know, like, you got to go ahead and decide. You can’t be wishy washy until the end, or it’ll just kind of be confusing till the end. Right. And so one of the things I heard Andy just say is that every person who pops on the planet has a meaning or purpose, a particular value, I’m going to use your word that you need to bring, bring it. And so gosh, what a what a loss. If somebody pops on the planet, and doesn’t figure out that purpose and doesn’t get on with it. I mean, that I think that’s why the world is hurting is because so many people aren’t bringing their value or their energy or their purpose to the world. What do you think about that?
Andrew: It goes back to Nicole to, you know, very beginning of our conversation about the word why. Although a lot of people won’t talk about it or sit or say it or whatever. But one of the big questions that’s rattling around in their head of theirs is why am I here? Right? Am I just a biological animal? You know, two biological animals got together and made me and I’m just a biological animal. Or am I something bigger than that? Through my intelligence and everything else, there’s an actual reason why I was created. Outside of my parents just wanted a good time one night.
Nicole: That’s yeah, well, you know, I mean, I think love can bring about love, right? So it’s like, and the thing is, too is like, once you figure out your purpose, it’s oftentimes you love it. That’s what I tell people too it’s like, why would you pursue getting after what your your purpose or your mission or what value you can bring, oftentimes, you know, the Creator set it up so that you absolutely stinking love it. Which is so fantastic.
Andrew: Well, it’s like, we’re all we’re all here to find love. So the biggest need that we as human beings need is love. You know, we talked a little bit in the beginning of the conversation, but I am a huge love versus fear guy. It’s in my conversations all the time. And I don’t care how simple of a decision you have to make or as big or complex one. Love and fear is built into it in and are you bringing it to the forefront and you thinking in your head and your heart about the decision that you make or not. And I encourage everyone to always lean towards the love side. Because it’s it’s that side that brings you to joy, happiness and success. I mean, just just think of what’s going on in our world right now with the word fear and the divisiveness that we have in our world.
That we’re fear. We’re fearing the other side, so to speak, you know, we’re pigeonholing people. They’re on the other side. And I’m fearful of what that side’s going to bring to the world. Without even listening to them. Yeah, if if anybody’s out there is a 60 minutes fan should watch last night Sunday. What it today the 10th? Yeah, January, January 9, 2022. Go listen to the middle story, they really do three in three, in an episode, the middle story that talks about the power of story. And this gentleman that’s working to bring a Democrat and a Republican together on the other side of the table and talk about their life stories. And the power, the connectedness that you get between the two people without even really talking about the Democrat or Republican agenda from that aspect.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you just lead into something really cool. So Nicole Greer is gonna give you a fourth tool for your personal business toolbox. And it’s this little exercise called vibrant identity. I just did it last Thursday and Friday, I was sharing with Andy before we got on, we’re just chatting it up. And I was telling him I was working with a group that in the room that average tenure was like, I don’t know, 22 years or something like that. These people have been working together a terribly long time, a wonderfully long time. And we did this little exercise where there are three circles on a piece of paper. So just like his SWOT analysis, you can write this down right now.
On the outer circle, and it says, you know, when you popped on the planet, what were you given, so the outside circle is given. You know, because we don’t get to choose, you know, and people like to use all the stuff they got either, like as an excuse or something, you know, for not doing well in this life, right. And so you put all the stuff you’ve been given. And then the next thing, the next circle, is everything you’ve chosen so far, you know, like the big choices, right? And then finally, at the core is, you know who you are at the core. Right, like, so my core. So there’s core, chosen, and given. And to your point about Republicans and Democrats. And by the way, I’m a possibilitarian. I think it’s just possible we could have somebody great in office, I still believe I’m a total optimist.
But anyway. So there’s these three circles, right? And undoubtedly, Andy, when people fill in those three rings, you know, what I was, given what I’ve chosen and who I am at the core, they always find some common ground, or they hear a story to your point where they’re like, I didn’t know that about you. And then the respect level goes through the roof. So so I’ll add the vibrant identity. If you want to email me Nicole@vibrantcoaching, I’ll send it to you and Andy will send you stuff too. So email him. He is Andy@generateyourvalue.com So what do you think of my little vibrant identity? It’s a wonderful team building exercise.
Andrew: Yeah, absolutely. Any, anytime you can find, connect the dots, you know, in a team there, you’re going to get success out of it. You know, the example I always do for my Boeing career was the FAA had been trying in this in the Denver airspace to bring in these new GPS concepts. Two or three times and weren’t successful in it, and we came in help facilitate a meeting, where we brought our airline customers into the meeting along with the FAA folks and decided on the common enemy. Even though both sides have had different definitions of a win with that category, people were telling their stories and got to know and understand each other.
We got to a point where air traffic controllers were sitting in the simulators with the pilots getting to understand what a pilot goes through and flying in a procedure that they never had spent the time for, or just doing their own thing, not taking into account when a pilot or a flight crew had to go through a flight procedure. And flight crews had no idea what air traffic control people had to go through in building the procedures. So now all of a sudden, Democrat and the Republican on the other side of the table there in Denver, working on a common enemy, common desire, finding the win win, and we were very successful in that project. And oh, by the way, the FAA took that as a model and went worked on other cities.
Nicole: Don’t miss that. Andy left a legacy there.
Andrew: Anytime that you can find that common purpose, the common goal, formally identify it and then get connectedness on alright, what is your the win win? What is your win on this side? This is my win. Okay? Now we can take that into account in our thinking about it. Here’s our win. But how we get their win too and you start working together as a team to achieving it. But I think your tool is, a great tool to help people find the common ground in the common enemy that you’re trying to fight, so to speak, to get a win win for everybody.
Nicole: Yeah, that’s awesome. And so don’t miss that y’all. You can call Andy, he can help you do that. Okay, he can help you get the win win with a silo in your business that won’t listen and cooperate, all that good stuff. So let’s get that. All right. So we talked about self brand, a little bit about mindset, figure out what you believe. And then your other word was intention. So I don’t want to leave it just hanging out there. Talk a little bit about intention. Right now, a lot of people are making new year’s resolutions and all this kind of jazz. So what what’s your what’s your take on intention? It’s so important.
Andrew: So the analogy I use with this concept is you’re in the middle of the ocean, and you’re on a vessel of some sort, are you in a in a dinghy, without any paddles, or maybe one little tiny paddle, and you’re just sitting in that and the ocean is pushing you around? Right? So if you have a fixed mindset, or some would even say, a victim mindset, you’re just going along with life, and life is just pushing around, you don’t really have any goals. You’re not being introspective. You’re not trying to really achieve much in your life, other than just just make it through life. Right? I got to the next day. There’s money in the bank, I got food on the table, I’m good, you know.
Nicole: Turn on Netflix. Here we go.
Andrew: There we go. Or do you want something you know, something more out of life where you’re not in a dinghy? You’re on a sailboat or motorboat with a rudder, and you’ve got a port, port of call that you’re trying to get to. And you’ve got a means to get there. Now you just got to point yourself in the right direction. And oh, by the way, you can change your mind on a different as you’re going along. Oh, I found a better port of call in life. And I just have to change the rudder a little bit and on my way to the better port of call. Because I’ve already got the the intentional mindset. I’m being introspective on developing life strategies and trying to get somewhere and after more research, I found out that, oh, I don’t know Venice is a much better place than Rome. So I was heading for Rome. And now I’m heading for Venice. And I’m going to get myself there. And I’m going to have a life full of joy, happiness and success that I want for myself. Let me repeat those words. I want for myself.
Nicole: Yeah. But you know, I have a little TED Talk, Andy and is called What Do You Really Want? And you know what, people are like shouldn’t I be content? Well, so answer that question for me. What do you say when people say, shouldn’t I be content? Shouldn’t I be happy? I have food on the table and a roof over my head and a dinghy under my behind? Shouldn’t I be happy?
Andrew: I don’t know. It just depends. You know, people ask me what is the definition of success? I would say my definition of success is living my why out loud. So you can be content. That’s fine, it’s your life. You’re the CEO of it, as I say all the time. So what do you want out of it? Do you think you have a mindset of abundance and you’re always going after something bigger. Because you’re either going to be able to generate more value in the world because you’ve got something bigger going on, or are you just happy to put your feet up on the table, watch Netflix and chill? If that’s your definition of success, so be it.
You know, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not the life I want to live for myself, but you know, it’s okay. It’s okay. Just, you know, depends on what you want to do. That’s what I do as a life coach, I would go right after the very beginning. What’s your definition of success? What do you want out of your life? You’re the CEO. Where are we going? I’m here to cheer you on and help you develop your strategies to get there. But I’m not going to decide that for you.
Nicole: No, we can’t. Yeah, and you know, and I think another response that that I often get is, you know, I don’t know. And that’s why you need a coach. Why you need somebody in your life who’s going to help you go ahead and explore it. So you don’t just get set in that default. I don’t know what I want. And you know, a lot of folks, especially here in the South know, like I said, me and Andy, we’re both you’re from from the South. You know, we might.
Andrew: Yes, ma’am.
Nicole: We might have been raised by people who told us things like this, don’t get too big for your britches, you shouldn’t think too much of yourself. Speak when you’re spoken to.
Andrew: Be humble.
Nicole: Yeah, be humble, that’s right. And those were all, that’s all great advice, until you have to go out and make a life for yourself. Right? Like once it becomes your 100% responsibility the day your parents, you know, set you free or you set yourself free. Well, that’s good for you. But I don’t think for adulthood, what do you think?
Andrew: Yeah, so 15 seconds, another concept for your listeners, Nicole. Two very simple words we use in almost every sentence that has tremendous power in your life, and that’s and, and or. There’s nothing in this world that says you can’t be rich and successful. And humble.
Nicole: I love it.
Andrew: Too many times we go after the or, when we should be going after the and.
Nicole: Go after the and everybody. That’s tweetable, hashtag, Andrew McDowell generate your value. Okay? Everybody tweet that out, that’s fantastic. Alright, so very, two very simple words to live by. Or two very simple words, live by and, lose the or. Did I get it right?
Andrew: Well, there’s a place for or, you know?
Nicole: Okay. Talk about that.
Andrew: Well, are we going to eat Chinese or Italian? Sorry.
Nicole: You know, this fusion thing is hot. You can get, probably go find both.
Andrew: Fusion is the and! Fusion is the answer to the and for restaurants, right?
Nicole: If you live in Atlanta, GA, that restaurant exists. All you got to go do is look it up on Yelp.
Andrew: They’re around, they just decided to go after the and instead of the or.
Nicole: Oh, that’s a beautiful example. I love it. That’s so fun. Okay, all right. So we covered your important words. Okay, so so I’ve got another question. I’m gonna I’m gonna kind of dovetail back into leadership a little bit. And don’t forget his definition was influence. Moving people from position A to position B, and B stands for better. People moving people to a better place making. And he also said, don’t miss this. He said, and the people are following you. Okay, when you get there? So how do we learn to be leaders? How do we do that?
Andrew: So I’m under the philosophy and this is why I do my coaching is that we learn to be leaders by first being a leader of ourselves. So I harp a lot on the fact that when you are a leader, you’re making decisions that affect other people. And, therefore, you need the practice and the experience to make the best decisions given you know, you were just talking about it earlier in our conversation about leaders tend to be a little bit older, a little bit more experienced, and that’s why we’re leaders. But the way or the way, I believe the path to the best leadership is to be a leader of yourself first, which gets into my, you know, tools and strategies we were talking about earlier in the conversation.
So when you’re making decisions, or being a leader of yourself, it’s only affecting your life, for the most part. You know, sure you’re affecting some others that are right around you and your inner circle and so forth to certain extent, but for the most part, the majority of the impacts only on yourself. You’re going to fall down, going to get yourself back up and you’re going to fall down again, you’re gonna get yourself back up, you’re gonna have all these lessons that you learned and gain experience in leadership through yourself. Then when you get pretty good at that you can then turn it around and start being a leader of others.
Making those decisions that are going to impact other people’s lives and hopefully take that love and fear thing into account and some other things that we’ve talked about in this podcast so far. And be a leader that people are actually going to make a choice to follow you. Because you’ve seen or heard their values, you invest in them. And they want to get out of bed in the morning and come spend 40 to 60 hours a week with you. Because they know that they’re going to contribute to the problems that the company is trying to solve in the marketplace, and they’re going to walk away with a great experience. And oh, by the way, if you’re really good at it, and you jump companies, they might just jump ship with you.
Nicole: That’s right. And and that has happened actually, in my life. Has that happened in your life? Or you’ve just witnessed it many times?
Andrew: No. Because I went from a rather large corporation to just me, myself and I, so nobody, nobody’s jumped ship yet.
Nicole: Oh, well I’m glad you took myself and I with you. So I think it technically, I’m just saying, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I’ve had that happen, you know, you leave a company go somewhere new and the people that loved and adored you, you know, they they give you a call, and they’re like, hey, how’s it going over there? You know, because, you know, in many of you have heard this before, I know you’ve heard it, Andy, is that we don’t quit the company. We quit the boss, we quit the leader, or the lack of all that stuff.
Andrew: Number one reason why people leave is there is their manager.
Nicole: 100%. 100%. Now, I got one more question. It’s one of the ones on our prepared list. And we may have already touched on this, but maybe we need to go back. I’m not sure surprise me maybe. What are the two most fundamental qualities which drive our lives? You’ve talked about love and fear.
Andrew: How we, how we make decisions and what values do we embrace and believe in about ourselves?
Nicole: All right. Well, talk to me about decisions. I think you’re exactly right. Like, and don’t miss everybody that totally dovetails with that vibrant identity. You know, when people sit down, and they actually write down some of the choices that they’ve made in life. This is a huge reflection area. So decisions are pivotal. And I want to say this one thing, well, two, real quickly, Andy, you know, three times on this podcast, if you’re watching the video here on YouTube, did you notice Andy did this thing? You looked at yourself, you figure things out, and one day you flip it? You do this thing? You’ve done it three times. I don’t know if you know you do that. But like that’s the decision, right? Like, that’s a major decision that this thing, right? So so talk about decisions.
Andrew: Well, decisions are then that inflection point that, you know, we’re we’re going down a path, a life journey. And we reached a point where we have to decide are we going left? Are we going right? We’re going out the middle? What do we what are we doing? And we’re we’re traveling into the unknown. So how much research and input, introspection and so forth? Are you doing before you do the actual act of making a decision? Have you understood the pros and cons of each decision? Have you understood the risks involved in each? Are you doing a little bit of risk management to say, I’m going to make a decision to turn left here, but if I get a mile down the road, and it doesn’t feel right, I can go to plan B and already have a plan B already figured out.
Or are you just willy nilly, you know, I’m traveling, I mean, that dinghy again, going down the river, and life is just going to take me wherever I want to go. And it’s going to decide when we turn left and turn right, and, and so forth. So how serious do you take decision making? And how much forethought do you do and research in it? And the biggest one of all is, are you following your gut? Oh, okay. If you’re a God, person, universe person, then intuition, is the way in which the universe communicates with you. So how much are you paying attention to that?
Nicole: Yeah, and that requires an exercise as well.
Andrew: Yes. I mean, if you’re not a God, person, that’s fine. I’m just saying, you just take that last little bit out, you can still do all those other things. And have a good process for making decisions.
Nicole: Yes. But I’m saying you could do like an exercise. You know, one of these tools, we’re going to add another tool. How do people follow their gut? Do you have a little tool for that, Andy? To know how to follow your gut?
Andrew: I’m, I’m a meditator. So, quiet time, quiet, quiet time of some sort. You don’t necessarily meditate you can just turn the TV off, turn the cell phone off and just spend 10 minutes of quiet time with yourself. Go go to your go to your mountain cabin on a weekend with your cup of coffee and just sit out on the rocker on the front porch or your cup of coffee and just be with yourself for 10 minutes. You know, there’s all kinds of flavors of it.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I’ll just share a quickie. Everybody write this down. E x a m e n. Examen is spelled funny is almost like it should be spelled examine. But it’s examen. E x a m e n. And this is a wonderfully valuable thing to learn to follow your gut, or follow God or whatever, however you want to say it. But you sit down at the end of the day, and have a little notebook, maybe on your bedside table. And then on one page, you open up your little journal and one page you say, I’m going to use your words. Hold on, let me use let me use Andy’s words. Hold on, let me find your words. Joy. What are they? Joy.
Andrew: Joy, happiness and success.
Nicole: Okay, I love it. Okay, on one side of the page, write joy, happiness success. On the other side, what would you write on? What’s the opposite of that to you, Andy? What would you write on the opposite side?
Andrew: Well, it’s all going to be fear based. Right? So it’s going to be hopelessness, anxiety.
Nicole: Icky.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s fine. That’s fine.
Nicole: Yeah, so you sit down at the end of the day, and you you just say to yourself, what today in my life brought me joy, happiness and success. And just notice, notice, notice. Okay, so I did a podcast with Andy. And we laughed, and we had a good time, and talked about fusion restaurants and other sundry things, right. And then another thing that brought you joy, I walked the dog for an hour, I love walking my dog. You know, I ate a beautiful salad that my, you know, my assistant made for me and surprised me with whatever it is. And that’s actually true of my day. Right? Then on the other side, where it’s got icky, angst, fear, blah, blah, all that stuff in there, then you write down what are the things that did that to my life? Right? And you notice, and you say, oh, okay, so there’s, there’s the place where I can make some choices and decisions, right, you know, to move away from those things or address so things. I think your intuition brings it to you.
Andrew: Yeah, you’re not born with fear. Fears developed in the mind as part of the ego. And it’s, you know, from traumas or bad experiences, or whatever that you had along along your path once you’re born.
Nicole: And so taking a look at that mess is good, I think. So you can move towards the right side of the page, right? That’s a good place for choices and decisions. Absolutely.
Andrew: Well I wrote a blog post called Warrior vs Fighter. A warrior lives their life based off of love, and a fighter is based off of fear. You know, they’re constantly fighting their way, way from life, because they’re constantly dealing with things that are fearful in their life. Whereas, you know, warriors, not afraid to fight. You know, the appropriate time to fight, I’ll fight. But for the most part, I’m living a life based off of love. Find the win, win. All those type things.
Nicole: Right. And also, that leaves us right at values, I would assume the warrior is not fighting everything, he’s only raising the sword or whatever, when the values, maybe. We’re going to lose our values or something.
Andrew: His power comes from influence and leadership, right? You know, whereas over on the fighter side otherwise, I’m going to do something to right. I’m fearful of not being at the top. I’m fearful of X, Y and Z. And I need to control things that are around me so that I don’t have to be afraid of these things, because it’s all under control. And so I’ve got to coerce, bully and all these other type of activities to control my environment because it’s based off of fear. I’m fearful of what might happen to me if I don’t do these things. You know, so your your power comes from something other than influence, it comes from a sword or gun or manipulation or all these other other tools of fear that are out there.
Nicole: Yeah, I love it. Okay, so if you want to read this, it’s name the name of the blog again, you’re gonna find it at www.generateyourvalue.com.
Andrew: Yeah, so there’s a there’s a blog section and it’s A Warrior vs. Fighter blog title.
Nicole: Okay, fantastic.
Andrew: And I have a, I think we did a podcast episode on it too, if remember right.
Nicole: Okay. And that’s also we can get right to that at your website as well. Correct?
Andrew: Yeah, you can get to all the episodes through my website or they’re all you know, Generate you Value is the name of the podcast and I do it with a co host who’s a business owner. I wanted that coach versus business owner dynamic in it. It’s out on all the major platforms, you know, Spotify, Apple, etc. or you can find the episodes out on my website.
Nicole: Fantastic. Okay. All right. Well, I got one last question for you. I’m keeping you overtime. Sorry. I’m just having a good time. That’s what happens Andy when you’re having a good time. Keep the good times rolling.
Andrew: That’s why I’m not doing this, like Nicole.
Nicole: I am partying over here. It’s 6:35. Hello. Okay. So let me let me just ask you this last final question. Let’s say that there is one special listener out there. And they’re like, okay, oh, it’s almost over. And don’t forget, we’re gonna have another podcast when he gets his book done. So you know, what’s the one special thing that you would leave with that special listener? Like one more nugget. Give us another nugget for the road, put something in our bellies before you put something in yours.
Andrew: I just keep going. I just keep going back to ownership.
Nicole: Oh, alright. Everybody write that down. Ownership, go ahead and tell us about that.
Andrew: Ownership. Do you own your life? Who’s responsible? Do you own your life? And who’s responsible for it? Are you waiting for everybody else to do things for you and fix things for you and so forth? Or have you truly taken? You know, because it’s this nebulous thing, right? You don’t get an owner’s manual. You don’t get a certificate of title or something like you would for a vehicle, you were just born. But do you own your life? And are you responsible for it? Have you taken responsibility just like you do with a car? Have you taken responsibility for it and been introspective enough and intentional enough to take it somewhere? Or are you okay, where you’re at? Only you can answer that question. No. Andy’s not going to answer it. Nicole’s not going to answer it. So have you thought about it? Have you asked yourself that question? Have you come up with a decision, or are you just too afraid to even look at it? Too afraid to even look in the mirror?
Nicole: That is a powerful nugget. It’s what we call in the coaching biz, a powerful question. So I totally love it. That’s a beautiful, beautiful question to leave people with and don’t forget, we’re gonna have the amazing and talented Andy McDowell back on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast when he’s got his book done. He’s gonna send me a copy of his book. I’m gonna hold it up and show it to you. I’m gonna read it. I’m gonna be so ready. I’ll be ready for you, man. You know, you got some writing to do. I’ll be I’ll be calling you up. How’s the book coming? Yeah, so that’s so important. I know he’s working on it. Because he’s a man of integrity. He wants to generate the value that’s inside of him. And don’t miss this. So that all y’all that’s how we talk in Atlanta and Charlotte, all y’all can get your value figured out. So Andrew McDowell, go ahead.
Andrew: Everybody’s different, right? Some people are visionaries, or like to be visual in nature, some like to be auditory. So some people podcasts are great, you know, a lot of what’s in the book is out on the podcast or others are now I want to do this on my own time. And I like to see it and want like to read books and whatnot. So I’m just trying to hit all the different channels with the ideas and concepts to try and generate as much value as I can in the world. That’s what I was created for.
Nicole: Fantastic. And if you want to try to figure out what you were created for, I bet you Andrew McDowell with love, Andrew McDowell. Let me say that again. He would love to coach you and help you and here’s how you can find him at www.generateyourvalue.com. He’s also on Facebook, gen your value. He’s on Twitter gen your value. At gen your value. And he’s also on Instagram at Generate your Value LLC. And most importantly, LinkedIn for all you professional leaders out there. He’s going to be generate-your-value-LLC, but it’ll all be in the show notes. So don’t worry about it. Check out Andy. Go see what he has to offer. Read some of his blog posts. listen to his podcast. Andy, I’m so grateful for your time, your energy and your genius.
Andrew: Grateful for you, as well, Nicole, and as I say to every person whose podcast I go into, I greatly appreciate the value that you are generating in this world.
Nicole: Thank you. Thank you. It’s one of my port of call is to be here with you right now.
Andrew: Let’s go! Put up the sail. Let’s go.
Nicole: That’s right. That’s right. All right, everybody. This is the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast until the next time. We’ll see you later.
Voiceover: Ready to build your vibrant culture? Bring Nicole Greer to speak to your leadership team, conference or organization to help them with her strategies, systems and smarts to increase clarity, accountability, energy and results. Your organization will get lit from within. Email Nicole@nicolegreer.com. And be sure to check out Nicole’s TEDx talk at nicolegreer.com.
