Vision. Action. Momentum.
If you can market your ideas, you can lead your team to success.
Mr. Do It, David Newman, joins the show this week to show you how to create an environment for collaboration, set the tone, and charge up your team to bring their best to the table. David is a certified professional speaker and member of the NSA Million Dollar Speakers Group. He is also the creator of the Do It! MBA Mentoring Program and an author of multiple books to help leaders and marketers succeed.
David is a man of action, and our conversation will leave you with plenty of actions you can start implementing today for greater results, including:
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How to go on a listening campaign
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How to avoid blind spots when hiring and promoting
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Which leadership characteristics you should be working on now
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And so much more
The best leaders at the top companies are the ones who engage the most outside consultants, coaches, and trainers. Study, practice, and move forward. Start by listening to the full episode!
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
David Newman: You know, I think the leader that cares the most, like genuinely cares the most, about their team, about their people, about their well being, about their collaboration, about their future. The leader that cares the most is going to come out on top.
Voiceover: You’re listening to the Vibrant Leadership podcast with leadership speaker and consultant Nicole Greer.
Nicole Greer: Welcome to the Vibrant Leadership podcast. My name is Nicole Greer. They call me the Vibrant Coach and I am here today with none other than Mr. Do It, David Newman. He is a certified speaking professional and a member of the NSA Million Dollar Speakers Group and he is the author of the business bestsellers Do It! Marketing and Do It! Speaking. Do It! Speaking is 77 instant action ideas to market, monetize and maximize your expertise. David is also the creator of the Do It! MBA mentoring program where you help solo consultants market their smarts and make a bigger dent in the universe. He has free training tools and downloads just waiting for you at www.doitmarketing.com. So David, let’s do it.
David: Excellent. Thank you, Nicole, it’s great to be here. This will be fun.
Nicole: Yeah, it’s great to be with you too. And so right out of the gate, we always ask everybody, what is your definition of leadership? Let’s get your take on it.
David: Well, as you mentioned, my company name is Do It! Marketing, I wrote this book called Do It! Marketing. So clearly, it has to be about action. But I’m going to add two more ingredients to my definition of leadership. It is vision plus action plus momentum. So I think that a great leader has to see the future and crystallize that vision for his or her team. Take action that is congruent and in line with that vision, and then build up some momentum and some traction and some excitement and some motivation in the people that she or he is leading so that they willingly and enthusiastically and energetically want to follow.
Nicole: Yeah, I totally agree. You know, there’s, there’s this character trait that I think your Do It name that you’re using is so important, because it’s this character trait I like to call willingness. I have a little talk about it called willingness, the ultimate character trait. I mean, it’s like, are you going to get out of bed and get it done today? That is ultimately what we’re trying to do here. So you know, you talk about just doing it? How do you motivate people to do it? What’s the key to motivating people?
David: Well, I think I think you have to tap in, you know, I think leaders and certainly entrepreneurs and executives and even global leaders, political leaders, religious leaders, they have to tap in to a vision that is larger than themselves. And they have to specifically create what I call a container for collaboration. So you might think that you’re leading a company, you might think that you are running a networking group, you might think that you are running an entrepreneurial business, but you’re actually not doing any of those things. We are truly in the business of building containers for collaboration. So someone who is the leader of that container of collaboration, A needs to set the environment where collaboration can occur, and also needs to set a tone of excitement and energy and positivity to really charge up and energize people to collaborate and bring their best and highest efforts to that endeavor.
Nicole: Yeah, I love what you’re saying. So if I was a leader, which I am, and I am trying to, to make my container for collaboration, what are the factors that set all that in place?
David: Boy, what a great question. I think the first factor is being an excellent listener. So you know, most leaders, and especially most new leaders, and Nicole, this is your area of expertise, when they are in a new position or get hired into a new company. The most effective ones go on a listening campaign, they don’t go on a talking campaign. They go on a listening campaign.
Nicole: I love that.
David: And they really put they put their finger on the pulse of what’s going on inside that department inside that organization inside that business unit. And they really want to hear from everybody. So no one’s opinion, no one’s title, no one’s position is more important than anybody else. Ideally, there’ll be talking to people from the boardroom, down to the break room, and from the front line all the way up to the C suite. And that listening campaign is going to simply give them the same sort of tools and assets and resources that will say, okay, now I know what’s important to these folks. I know where they are, I know where they want to get to, I can probably help them, remove some obstacles, process some issues, do things better, faster, smarter, make their life easier, make their work more fun, make them feel more part of something and more engaged. And that, to me is one of the key factors of leadership success is mobilizing others, not because they have to, but because they want to.
Nicole: Yeah, I love it. You tapped on something I think is so essential whenever I work with leaders is I tell them, your main job is to remove the obstacles so the people with the job descriptions can get those things done. So I love what you said there and then mobilizing people to get it done. So don’t miss what he said, everybody. He said go on a listening campaign. I’ve never heard it said like that. So I love that. And he said everybody is talked to from the boardroom to the break room. Okay, so that’s awesome. Yeah. So you go out, you get all this information, David, and maybe you get a lot of different information. How does the leader discern next right steps or what things should be included in the vision?
David: Well, it’s funny, you know, we we talked about this a lot with marketing. So as far as entrepreneurs or business owners, part of doing their listening campaign is like you say, we gather all kinds of data, we gather all kinds of interviews, and we talk to people, different opinions, different perspectives. I think one of the key skills of how to process that information is pattern recognition. Pattern recognition, like what are the themes? What are the threads? What are the things that I kept hearing over and over and over again. And Nicole, I’ll give you an example from my entrepreneurial journey as a marketing consultant.
I was having breakfast with a prospect, and we’re literally sitting down, there’s bacon and eggs, and he finally just throws his fork down. There’s like three bites into the meal, three bites, he throws his fork down. He goes, David, I got to tell you, I hate marketing. To me, marketing is like throwing money into a marketing black hole. You never know what works. You never know what doesn’t. And you never know what to fix. And I am so frustrated right now. So luckily, I have my listening ears on. And for years, on the main website, on one of our service pages on the website, the headline was, do you hate marketing? Do you feel like you’re throwing money into marketing black hole that you never know what works? You never know what doesn’t and you don’t know what to fix?
I cannot tell you how many times people said to me, David, I went to that page on your website. I felt like you were talking to me, because I did pattern recognition. And I said, man, I have heard 100 different flavors of that. And this person just I was having I happen to have breakfast with him. He just crystallized that in this perfect phrase that resonated with 90% of my audience and my clients. So same thing with a leader going on a listening campaign. It’s sorting the wheat from the chaff, doing some of that pattern recognition and pulling out those golden threads that you see in common.
Nicole: Hmm, I love it. I love it. So pattern recognition. And so did you buy the guy breakfast?
David: I did end up picking up the check. Yes, I did.
Nicole: Okay, well, we’re just checking. That’s also a leadership tip right there. Buy somebody breakfast people.
David: Always pick up the check, always pick up the check.
Nicole: Exactly right. Well, I got to keep going down this path we’re on. So these leaders hate marketing. Why should they appreciate it? Or dare I say it love it. But you know, I find that most leaders don’t, you know, have a ton of marketing background. If they’re running a department. That’s not the marketing department.
David: Sure. Well, so obviously, I look at marketing in a much bigger box, right? I put marketing in a much larger frame, because we’re constantly we’re marketing our ideas. We’re marketing our initiatives, we’re marketing our plans. And part of this part of the marketing process is overcoming resistance. But that’s even a sort of a negative thing. You know, sometimes in sales that people think that’s objection handling or these kind of things. I looked at it as enrollment. I want to enroll people in the vision of their better future. I want to enroll people and excite people not in where I want to take them but in where they want to go.
So this is another kind of marketing and sales mantra that we teach our clients all the time, but it’s really applicable to leadership. Forget about what you want to sell. Forget about what you want to sell. And focus 100% on what your prospects want to buy. So this the leadership analogy would be forget about where you want to take people figure out where they want to go. And then you get in the head of that line. Now a skilled leader will navigate and will will shape that path, in line with their goals, the company goals, the department goals, the entire kind of macro level goals, but people need to feel heard.
And the best way for people to feel heard is that you actually listen to them. And people need to feel important. And what’s the best way of doing that? Make them important. So none of this is fakery, none of this is inauthentic. None of this is play acting or, or manipulation. You know, I think the leader that cares the most, like genuinely cares the most, about their team, about their people, about their well being, about their collaboration, about their future, the leader that cares the most is going to come out on top.
Nicole: Hmm, I love that. And I totally agree. So he just said help people enroll in the vision of their better future. We can’t let that just roll by without repeating it, because it was really good. So I’m going to say it a third time, enroll people in the vision of their better future. Now, I’m all about getting a vision statement. And you know, dreaming about what’s possible. But you know, David, so many people, they like probability, instead of possibility. And it’s a it’s a challenging thing to get people to, like, maybe just release a little bit, you know, get comfortable and like, think about what could be, and then we’ll take, we’ll talk about probability later when we figure out the strategies. So when you talk to people about like, just do this? And they’re like, I don’t know, I don’t know if I should do that. How do you move people from what’s possible or out of probability into possibility? How do we do that?
David: Well, you know, this is this is so perfect. And there’s so many parallels between leadership and marketing, because really, leadership is the marketing of ideas, right? I tell people, that it is impossible to change direction, when you’re not moving. It is impossible to change direction when you’re not moving. So a lot of people are waiting for the perfect leadership decision, or the perfect marketing tactic or the perfect sales strategy. But they’re sitting in their office, they’re isolated, they have no outside data. When you start getting into action, action creates data. So how do I know Nicole? Should I go left? Or should I go right? I am stuck at the crossroads. I’m stuck at the crossroads. I’m not moving, I will never make a good decision because I’m going to be stuck in analysis paralysis.
So I’m going to say you know what, go left, go right. It doesn’t matter. If you go right, and you hit a wall. That’s data. And you can always redirect and re decide make a different decision make a better decision based on data. But if you don’t get into action, you never collect any data. And then you can’t make any good decisions. So people that are in isolation that are sitting in this inertia, indecision state, there’s no bad decision. Make a decision, the decision will give you data, the data will help you read aside undecide or decide in a better way. But now you’re basing it on data. You’re not basing it on drama, or or catastrophizing, what might happen if you make a wrong move?
Nicole: I absolutely love that. Okay, so let me repeat what he said it is impossible to change direction if you’re not moving, which I love, right? So you know, get a dartboard. Get a dart, you know, spin yourself around blindfolded three times, and take a step, and you will get the data you need to make your next decision. I totally, totally love it. That’s fantastic. And you’re right, there are so many cool, you know, similarities between the marketing and what a leader is trying to do with getting his folks or her folks to go the right direction. So we’ve talked about a few skills that leaders have that make them successful, one is listening. One is getting into action, and helping people see that better future. Tell me a little bit more about what you think a great leader does some other skills.
David: I think a great leader has to have humility. And you know, this is this is the age old battle. Do you have to be an egomaniac to be a great leader? Do you have to have a big personality? So you know, you and I are fairly dynamic people and so people might look at you, Nicole and go, oh, well, I’m not like Nicole, I’m not vibrant. I’m not you know, I’m not a great communicator. I don’t have all this energy. So I must not be leadership material. There is 1000 different flavors of leadership material quote, unquote, whatever that means, by the way. But but there’s 1000 different flavors. So I think the best leaders have a sense of humility. And they also have a strong sense of self, meaning that they know who they are, and they know who they are not.
And they do not try to be like this other leader or you know, I oh I saw him on TV, or I’ve always admired Steve Jobs, or you know what I want to lead, like Oprah or no. You don’t want to lead like Oprah because guess what, you’re not Oprah. And you don’t want to lead like Steve Jobs because newsflash, you’re not Steve Jobs. So the real trick here is how do you lead like you? What are your innate personality strengths, preferences, and and modalities where you’re comfortable, where you can be comfortable, you can be authentic, and you can be real with people, because real leadership is the only kind of leadership that lasts.
Nicole: Yeah, I agree. And before we started talking, David held up one of the cards that I sent him in a little kit, before he came on the show. And a lot of you know, that work with me. Yeah, he’s holding it up right now, a lot of the people that work with me know that I work with the earth, water, wind and fire. And you know, David, a lot of people are like, what kind of Voodoo do you do? What are you talking about? That sounds crazy, but I will tell you, when people understand the value of those different leadership styles, it really empowers them to be authentic. So David claims that he’s a fire, just by looking at the little cards, I sent him in the mail. So you know, when you read about fire, it’s passionate, it’s hot, it’s pioneering, it is totally about action. So when you look at the other elements, you have water, you have wind, you have earth, you know, they’re all very valuable. So how has your leadership style of fire really served you and the people around you?
David: Well, it has served me great, however, big however, I have, I’ve needed to learn how to modify my fiery tendencies, because of course, we have the other styles on our team. And so for people not to feel bulldozed over for people not to feel like there’s the bull in the china shop that’s constantly breaking things and running wild, I’ve had to moderate, not not change, but flex, right, we have to flex. So when you’re talking to a water, you got to be a little bit more like water. When you’re talking to earth. And by the way, earth, earth, people make me nuts. Earth, people just make your earth and fire because you know, very analytical, very stable, very, you know, and I’m like, woohoo let’s go.
Nicole: Right. Those are the analysis, paralysis people, David.
David: Those are that analysis paralysis, hashtag, let’s overthink this. So let’s not overthink this, let’s go. But it’s also really important for a leader to learn from the team. And that’s been a really recent breakthrough for me in the last couple of years, that I’ve had to learn how other people are wired. And what works for me is not going to work for them. And sometimes what works for them is totally not going to work for me. So we have come to an agreement and an understanding that I can now moderate my behavior to connect better with all the folks on my team. And of course, I think a leadership blind spot. And again, Nicole, this is your expertise, you know, any one of these personality styles, when they look to hire, when they look to promote when they look to collaborate with people, they’re most comfortable with people of the same style.
But that’s not going to help you, you need a diversity of thought and a diversity of skills and a diversity of processing power. Imagine if a computer you know all these fantastic computers that we now use, if they only had one chip. If the computers only had one chip, they would be slow, they would be there’d be no parallel processing, there would be no input output, there’d be no amazing blazing fast hard drives and graphics and everything, because they need to work together. So there’s about 100 chips in your average computer. And so all of those chips need to work together, just like if there’s 100 people in a group or a department, the leader of that group, or the leaders of that group, need to understand all the connections and all of the different ways that those folks can and want to be working together.
Nicole: Yeah. And so that makes what you said earlier, that container for collaboration, like I asked you one of the factors and it’s figuring out these personalities and how you’re hardwired and all that kind of stuff so you can be authentic. And, you know, I think too, when you can label your leadership style a little bit, you know, like if David claims to his team, I’m a fire. And so that means I’m going to constantly be passionate driving, doing all these things, but let me know if I’m burning you, right? You know, so if you’re you’re experiencing burnout from all of my energy, you know, that’s the moment where it’s like, it’s not gonna hurt anybody’s feelings, and you can be authentic and go, David, you need to rest man, we got 16 things on our plate this week. That’s enough for this week. Make a list. Okay.
David: 100 miles an hour. 100 ideas a minute.
Nicole: Yeah, my, my brother used to kill me. I was Mach five with my hair on fire. And I’m like, well, you know, that’s that gets things done? That’s right. Awesome. What, you know, you use this word, humility, a little while back and said that that was like a skill. But you know, I also see that as like a character trait. Like the quality of you know, what it’s like to experience you. So when you think about people in leadership, and you know, I think you do have to market yourself as a leader. I mean, you gotta have a good reputation. You got to have credibility. What other character traits do you think help people market themselves and even the people that you know, you help that have, that are solopreneurs that are do professional services and things like that? What do you think the best character traits are for us to work on so that people will buy something from us?
David: I think a big one is self awareness. And the opposite of self awareness is self soothing delusion. So self soothing delusion is, oh, I already have this figured out, I know the answer. I know where I’m going. This is all working great. My team loves me, it’s like, none of those things are true, none of those things are true. So being able to hold the mirror up not only to others, because like that’s another leadership trait is really being able to hold the mirror up to others. First, we have to hold the mirror up to ourselves. And we have to have a somewhat profound sense of self awareness. So that we can adjust, we can self correct we can moderate our moderate our weaknesses, and really amplify our own strengths, so that we create a safe environment for others to bring their best selves to the table. And they don’t feel steamrollered and they don’t feel unappreciated, and they don’t feel not listened to. That self awareness is really critical on all those levels.
Nicole: Yeah, I totally agree. It’s almost like you’re reading my tea leaves, you know, I have a coaching methodology. And the first thing in it is called shine. And so the first thing is self self self assessment, which brings self awareness, obviously. Then there’s habits, integrity, which is where my question about character comes from. Because I think people do have. I love that you, what did you call it? I didn’t write down. I couldn’t get fast enough delusional.
David: Self soothing delusions.
Nicole: Because, you know, I say this thing when I talk in front of groups, David, I say, how many of you don’t answer this question, because I’m setting you up. But how many of you would raise your hand and say that you are men and women of integrity? And like, how many hands go what would go up if I let them go up David? 100%. Right. And it’s like, I tell them no, you know, integrity comes and it goes. Like with every thought word and deed, we’re either in or out of integrity, and we waffle all day long. So I think that delusion that you’re talking about is absolutely for real. And you got to put the mirror up to yourself and to the others. I love what you were talking about. That is fantastic. Okay, so um, tell me a little bit about why you think leaders in general never get off the struggle bus and why others seem to just continue to be successful. You know, what’s the difference between these two?
David: I would say that leaders who are on that struggle bus suffer from three conditions. Some combination and some have more of one than the other but some combination of ego. Meaning me first, right ego, arrogance or complacency. So arrogance is I I know it all I don’t need to study I don’t need a coach. I don’t need a mentor. I never go to training. I never hire consultants. I have this figured out. And the opposite of that, in my mind is a saying that I I constantly say to our clients and I constantly say to our team, the master is always the student.
The master is always the student. If you want to master something, you need to study. You need to hire a mentor. You need to hire a coach, you need to improve your skills. You need to improve your performance. The best companies and the best leaders at the best companies are the number one consumer of outside consultants, coaches and trainers. Because the best are always committed to getting better. It’s it’s the laggards and it’s the strugglers who think they have it all figured out, they don’t need help, etc. So lesson for our coaching and consulting colleagues, the folks who need you the most will never hire you. It’s the folks that want to hire you that will hire you.
And it’s the folks that want to do better not the folks that need to do better, that they’re struggling. They’re on the ropes. Oh my god, nothing is working, the sky is falling. What do I do? Those clients are impossible to sell. They will never buy. And even when they do buy, it’s the worst possible thing, because they’ve become nightmare clients. They are the neediest. They are the most complaining the most nitpicking, they’re the ones that will tire kick your fees, and just ugh, be horrible to work with. So ego, complacency and arrogance are the big three killers of leadership success.
Nicole: Yeah, I love what you’re saying, I think you’re absolutely dead on. And I will never forget, I was in a meeting one time, and I had this senior team around a table. David, you love this. And we were doing strategy. And so I said to him, well, what you need to do is x. And he looked at me and he said, who are you to tell me what to do? And I said, I’m your coach. Right? In front of the whole room. You know, it didn’t last much longer after that, but and that’s okay. But I had an email come from one of the women that was in that room and she sent me an email and she said, I just want to thank you so much for telling him the truth and standing up to that you know. So his ego was right there and arrogance was hot and heavy in the room. I can tell you that much.
David: One of my favorite Facebook memes is one of these internet memes, your ego is not your amigo.
Nicole: Definitely tweetable I love it. I absolutely love it. Okay, so let’s look out into the future, you’re good with the future you like to make those bigger futures happen. So when you look out into 2021, the rest of the year here and into 2022. What do you think the biggest challenges are going to be for leaders and what what strategy should they be putting in place?
David: I think the biggest challenge is leading and engaging others in crazy turbulent times, you know, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of turbulence. Are we going back to work? Are we not going back to work? Are we hybrid? Are we remote? Are we doing this? Are we doing that? You know, are markets, collapsing, imploding, zooming and exploding doing better than ever before. You know, locked down shut down, restart, reboot, recovery, who knows, right? It’s changing by the day, it’s not even changing by the week or by the month, it’s literally the landscape is changing by the day, whether we, you know, come out the other side in a week or a month or a year or five years, there’s still going to be a lot of shock waves and a lot of after effects of what we’ve just been through around the globe. So global leaders are scratching their heads going, ah, what’s really going on.
So I think we have to learn to lead in times of what the heck is going on. And so when there’s no certainty in the outside world, leaders become the certainty leaders become the safety belt leaders become the buffer between the outside uncertainty and what we’re really here to accomplish. And what that company is really here to create and to build and to make happen in the world. So I think the leaders for this next little bit of time, they need to be a little bit more resilient on behalf of their team on behalf of their people.
They need to be more of a buffer, little tougher skin a little bit more of a protective layer between the outside world or outside forces and the people that they lead. And they need to be a source of objective rational reassurance. So we’re not doing pie in the sky. Hey, kids, everything will be fine. Everything is not gonna be fine, but we’re gonna be okay. Right. So there is it’s not looking at the world through rose colored glasses. It’s looking at the world through optimistic positivity and a sincere desire to make people feel more comfortable even during uncertainty.
Nicole: And I love what you just said. So leaders need to be the certainty resilient a buffer, the protective layer, and objective rational reassurance. I adore that. That’s wonderful, great advice. David, thank you so much. Well, let’s think about who might be listening in right now. If you were mentoring a single special listener right now, that wanted one piece of leadership advice, what would you leave them with? What’s your little nugget you want to leave them with?
David: I would say it comes down to three things. If we were to put this on a fortune cookie soundbite. Help people, care more, and do more. If you focus on those three things, really genuinely helping people within your organization within your team outside your team. It could be vendors, suppliers, collaborators, partners, you know, help people. Help one person a day, improve the life or the business of one person a day, even if it’s make them smile, make them feel heard, make them feel special. Help people care more, and then do more. Because good intentions as a leader will not get you anywhere. You have to act on those intentions. And we have to do more to externalize those intentions.
Nicole: Yeah, I love it. I have a mentor myself talk about wanting to get better. I think having a mentor is fantastic. And she’s a 70 pounds soaking wet, seventy year old. She’s awesome. And she says, well, that’s a great intention, Nicole, but she’s got to give it some attention. So you’re right there in the category of Ann Starrette, which makes you epic on a lot of levels, David. So that’s fantastic advice. So thank you so much for that. I want to tell people a little bit more about how they could find you work with you. You have books. Will you please share with us, you know shamelessly about all the good things that you can provide for people?
David: Sure. Absolutely. And thank you for asking. So the global headquarters of every freebie, every goodie online is our main website, which is doitmarketing.com. We also have two special things for folks. One is a 37 page manifesto, which is part sales part marketing part business growth. And that’s it, doitmarketing.com/manifesto. And then the second thing we have is some free online training. That is that doitmarketing.com/webinar.
Nicole: All right. Well, I had signed up for everything. I bought the books today. And you have two books one is Do It! Speaking and one is Do It! Marketing. Do I have that correct?
David: Yes, that’s exactly right. And there’s also some companion tools and free resources and downloads. So for the Do It! Marketing book, it’s doitmarketing.com/book. And for the Do It! Speaking book. It is doitmarketing.com/speak.
Nicole: Okay, fantastic. We’ll get all those letters and things in the show notes. totally easy for everybody to do. David, thank you so much for your time and energy and your genius today. I have absolutely been delighted and I laughed so much, which is fantastic. Thank you, you. Let’s see what did you do? You helped me. You made me feel like you cared about me. And I’m going to do more as a result of this. So you are an awesome leader David Newman. Thank you so much.
David: Thank you, Nicole. Great to be here.
Voiceover: Ready to up your leadership game? Bring Nicole Greer to speak to your leadership team, conference or organization to help them with her unique SHINE method to increase clarity, accountability, energy and results. Email speaking@vibrantculture.com and be sure to check out Nicole’s TEDx talk at vibrantculture.com/TEDTalk.
