Hot Mess Hotline

There is a critical difference between managing complexity and micromanaging that all leaders need to know about. Our Hot Mess Hotline guest, Bill Murphy, breaks down how to know when you've reached a ceiling of complexity that requires you to step back into the details of the work.

This is different from micromanaging, however. And if you're seeing the same mistakes over and over, yet your team is supposed to have a process in place, you need to lead in a new way.

Hear about Bill's inflection point as a CEO while in a hospital bed and how he became fearless.

Bill founded RedZone Technologies in 2001 with the vision of deploying an elite team of experts, rigorous assessments, and dependable solutions to thrive in the “red zone.” Then with his team of experts, managing the most challenging IT security projects, and unlike many, consistently closing the gap on the final 20% of project deliverables.

He has recruited and trained an elite team of IT security specialists and has developed the CIO Scoreboard and Security Assessment Methodology to work in unison with clients. The success of this vision has meant consistently delivering on promises and earning customers’ lifelong loyalty. As a result, Bill has guided the company to a top position in Enterprise Cybersecurity and IT Managed Services marketplace. Responsible for the vision and direction of the company, he has kept a concentrated focus on “Delivering on Promises” and earning “Customers for Life.”

Leveraging the CIO Innovation Group that he championed starting in 1999, RedZone is continually testing and experimenting with technologies that can be used to solve the toughest IT security challenges; those that survive are recommended to customers. In this quickly evolving environment, his leadership has made RedZone Technologies an avenue for innovation solutions, while remaining a dependable and reliable partner in the face of rapidly changing technologies and threats.

A prolific thinker and communicator, Bill publishes educational articles, podcasts, and innovative ideas regularly in the RedZone Technologies blog, podcast and hosts the long-running CIO Innovation Group, which gives Information Technology executives the chance to share expertise with peers, build professional relationships, and learn about new innovations while expanding their leadership skills.

Founded in 2001, RedZone Technologies provides comprehensive Risk Assessments, Security Solutions, Integration, Professional Services, Managed Services, and more. “Delivering on Promises and Customers for Life,” this is our vision. They're successful because their clients can always count on them. We live in a quickly evolving cyber-security environment. In response to ever-changing industry standards, government regulations and worldwide threats, RedZone continuously innovates solutions and assessment methodologies.

At RedZone it’s not just about making a living. It’s about making a life and sharing it with others. Their people are passionate about learning, growing, supporting one another, and supporting the important missions of our local community.

Their team and their passions are the reason why they help those in need, encourage growth of knowledge and career, and regularly recognize the team for the amazing people they are.

What's the Difference Between Orientation and Onboarding? And why does it matter?

With turnover and retention being very painful and expensive problems (especially right now!), leaders need every tool at their disposal to help the right people stay. Onboarding is an incredibly powerful tool and we have the stats to back it up!!

Plus it's not really about the expense, it's about welcoming people into your culture, showing them a good time, giving them the tools and information to be successful, connecting them to their colleagues, and demonstrating that you want them to be successful in their role.

If you've ever wondered what you can do past the first 90 days to make it more like your people seen seen, heard, and equipped for the work ahead, this podcast episode is for you! Listen in for these lessons and so much more:

• Orientation is like inviting a dinner guest over but not serving them dinner
• Build an onboarding plan for much longer than you think
• It takes years before an employee is actually capable of being fully competent in their role
• The right onboarding plan keeps your employees for longer than the right orientation plan

Lead Kick Ass Meetings: Complimentary Resource

Meetings are a really expensive use of your time. It only makes sense that they need to be more productive and valuable. Instead of running meetings that could have been an email, lead powerful meetings that have purpose, participation, and problem solving.

Stronger leaders are made through multiple hot messes. Jerry Jones, former president of Cannon IV, shares his decisionmaking, sleepless nights, and strategy pivots during some tumultuous times. In this Hot Mess Hotline episode, he shares how 50% of their revenue evaporated in 90 days because of a supplier's switch in sales strategy.

This episode is powerful for those leaders who feel fatigued by change or have teams who are complaining about too much change. "Why can't things just go back to normal?" When change is forced upon your team because of external factors, there is no going back to normal. There's a new reality which forces new ways of working and new needed results.

Listen in for these lessons and so much more:

• It's not a matter of IF a hot mess happens...it's a matter of WHEN
• External factors that you have no control over will disrupt your business
• Even if you're good at your game of business, it may not be your game to play
• During a Hot Mess, you must answer the question, "Who are we?" and go back to basics
• Bigger isn't better
• Worrying about what could go wrong stops you from celebrating what's going well
• Culture eats strategy for breakfast: the CannonIV story is how
• Your past tells the story of today's success
• Signs that your people are with you through tough times
• Quit on people faster
• Be willing to share the workload and the stress
• Get a mentor to be success
• Build a culture of communication
• Care, concern, and accountability is a two-way street
• Define your successful exit

In 2017, Jerry Jones retired as the President and CEO of Cannon IV, Inc., one of the strongest independent Hewlett-Packard printer dealers in the United States, as well as one of the leading MPS dealers in the U.S.

Cannon IV is headquartered in Indianapolis, IN, with additional locations in Ohio and Texas. Cannon IV sales are nationwide. Cannon IV was founded by Richard Jones in 1974. Upon Richard’s death, Jerry became president in 1978 and his 3 brothers eventually joined him to lead the company.

Cannon IV’s business and civic awards include:

• Indiana Small Business of the Year
• Indiana Business Ethics Award
• Spirit of Service Award presented by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis
• One of the “Best Places to Work in Indiana” in 2009, 2013 & 2014

Jerry’s business and civic awards include:

• 1997 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award
• Legatus National President of the Year – 2017

Lead Kick Ass Meetings: Complimentary Resource

Meetings are a really expensive use of your time. It only makes sense that they need to be more productive and valuable. Instead of running meetings that could have been an email, lead powerful meetings that have purpose, participation, and problem solving.

What do you do when you lose your job and it's your whole identity? Steve Spiro has been there and has some words of advice! Almost every successful leader I know has been fired from a job and/or had a crisis of conscious. They often go hand-in-hand because we over invest our happiness in the role we play at work, the title, the salary, the perks.

It's great to find purpose in our jobs. Our work can be the place where we make a difference and impact on the world. And at the end of the day, I hope you'll see that your humanity comes from just being the amazing, awesome, fully human person that you are. That's what Steve discovered too.

During this episode of the Hot Mess Hotline, Steve shares with us the power of mentorship, foresight, and what to rely on instead of your job for your identity. I also share what I went through when I lost my identity. If you're going through this time, please know I feel and see your pain. If someone you love is going through this too and/or just lost their job, won't you share this episode?

About Steve Spiro

Steve Spiro started his first company right out of college in advertising. Additionally, he holds a 4th degree black belt in Karate & 1st degree in Jujitsu, including having his own Karate studio. Steve contributes much of his successes to a strong work ethic, a can-do, never-quit attitude, discipline, integrity and fearlessness that he cultivated in the martial arts. 

Steve is a master connector with over 35,000 contacts. He does a LinkedIn Live broadcast every week called the Master Connector Show.  He eventually pivoted from advertising into technology and now is a business automation consultant.

Steve is big on self-development and loves to inspire people to get out of their comfort zone too, through speaking engagements or coaching and mentoring.

Lead Kick Ass Meetings: Complimentary Resource

Meetings are a really expensive use of your time. It only makes sense that they need to be more productive and valuable. Instead of running meetings that could have been an email, lead powerful meetings that have purpose, participation, and problem solving.

You've probably spent your entire life believing that you should do what you're good at. Surely, if you're a natural at something, then it's your life's calling, right? But what if you've been wrong all along? Gary Hobbs, electrical engineer turned entrepreneur, believes it's the challenges you face, doing what you love, and doing what you're GREAT at will drive your success.

In this episode of the Hot Mess Hotline, you will hear how important it is to weigh the risks of doing what you're good at when you're feeling unfulfilled. Can you find freedom by facing challenges and being fulfilled by chasing your passion? Gary took a leap that changed the course of his career. Although initially he felt like he made a big Hot Mess, what he really uncovered was his passion, his calling, and more success than he could have ever dreamed of. Exploring the tension of leaving a successful business for the unknown was a leap of faith, but it's usually the biggest leaps that have largest rewards.

Join Gary and myself as we talk all things risk, reward, failure, success, and overcoming challenges on this interview. You will laugh along side us, learn several lessons listed below, but most of all, you will be challenged to ask yourself if you're comfortable enough to step out from behind the ease of success to embrace the risk of facing challenges to uncover your greatest passions.

Here are a few lessons that Gary learned the hard way so we don't have to :

• More focus equals more success
• Not all skills are transferable
• Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you should stick with it
• Success is more than just money
• If you can let go of what isn't your work to do, you'll see greater blessings
• Increased confidence comes from overcoming challenges
• Humility comes from understanding there are some external factors that could shut down your business or career
• Use your faith and spirituality to stay grounded
• Empathy is the ultimate leadership skill

Gary Hobbs is an entrepreneur and former corporate executive with extensive experience in real estate, technology, education, and healthcare. He started his career as an electrical design engineer and has successfully migrated through the corporate ranks of companies like AT&T, Eli Lilly, and Roche Diagnostics. As an engineer, project manager, business executive, developer, and entrepreneur he has led organizations of up to four hundred people and budget responsibilities spanning well over $100M.

Currently, he is CEO for Black and White Investments, LLC. Gary founded BWI in 2005 as a development and construction management company. BWI’s target market is urban development within Indiana and their primary focus is multi-family and mixed-use tax credit developments.

BWI, LLC is a construction, real estate development, property management, consulting and electrical firm in the greater Indianapolis area that focuses on not only construction management of general, large development projects, but also niche, energy-efficient urban revitalization projects. BWI has extensive capabilities helping clients design, develop and manage their projects with a special emphasis in electrical and eco-friendly, sustainable development. Their development and construction services can be accomplished under a consultative or design-build basis. BWI, founded in 2005, is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Their number one aspiration is to bring hope to under-served urban communities via economic development that align with their Quality of Life aspirations and initiating in collaborative partnerships.

Lead Kick Ass Meetings: Compl

There's a balance in leadership success between being nimble and controlling the right kind of controllables. Karen Mangia is that leader who has found personal and professional success because she decided to prioritize — and control — what that looks like on a daily basis for her.

You'll hear in this interview how Karen was letting other people's definitions of contribution, meaning, and boundaries drive her. And it wrecked her body, mind, and spirit. Lucky for us she found her way out and even used the pandemic as her reset time. She has changed her relationship with her career and invites you to do the same.

Our episode brought tears to my eyes and I hope it touches you in a similar way with these lessons:

• Saboteurs will hold you back if you keep listening to them.
• Success doesn't mean more, more, more.
• Commitment to success can be toxic.
• Blending in to fit in will cause you to lose yourself.
• It's not other people's responsibility to meet your needs.
• Do you have an addiction to activity? Do you know your body's warning signals when it's time to slow down?
• The difference between dopamine happiness and joy
• Set priorities to do your best work and communicate to those you work with.
• Divest before you invest.
• You always have choices.
• Why you need to stop asking others for approval
• Busy is a belief
• You only need 10 minutes a day to define success for yourself.

Karen Mangia is a WSJ Best Selling Author and one of the most sought after thought leaders in the world, sharing her thought  leadership with over 15,000 organizations during the course of her career. She is the author of four books: Success from Anywhere:
Create Your Own Future of Work From the Inside Out (Wiley), Working from Home: Making the New Normal Work for You (Wiley), Listen Up! How to Tune in to Customers and Turn Down the Noise (Wiley) and also Success With Less (Marie Street Press).

A prolific blogger and sought-after media interview, she has been featured in Forbes and regularly contributes to Thrive Global, Authority Magazine and ZDNet. Thinkers 360 named her as #9 on their List of Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Health & Wellness, #12 for Mental Health and one of the top 150 B2B Thought Leaders to Follow.

As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she engages current and future customers around the world to discover new ways of creating success and growth together. She leads the company’s Work from Home Taskforce and is shaping the strategy for the workplace of the future globally. Passionate about diversity and inclusion, she also serves on the company’s Racial Equality and Justice Taskforce. Prior to Salesforce, she spearheaded Customer Experience at Cisco Systems.

Lead Kick Ass Meetings: Complimentary Resource

Meetings are a really expensive use of your time. It only makes sense that they need to be more productive and valuable. Instead of running meetings that could have been an email, lead powerful meetings that have purpose, participation, and problem solving.

High-performing teams are built when individuals go through challenges together. Sean Murray and Doug Beal bring us the real-life story of a gold metal Olympic team from the 80s who could barely work together in the beginning. In today's episode you'll learn that you actually don't need the smartest, most talented, highly skilled players for your business team to be high performing.

During much of the 2010s (and still today), there was a fixation on hiring "the best talent." We think if we just hire the Lebron James of business intelligence, or the Peyton Manning of sales leadership, then we'll have a high performing team. Yes a team can be better because of one superstar, but that superstar alone doesn't create a high-performing team.

For my fellow Hoosiers, you'll remember the Colts won 2 games in the season Peyton had to sit out. They had no back up plan or strength on the team without him and the ENTIRE team failed because of it.

The same is true for your team at work. Listen in to this episode with leadership coach Sean Murray and volleyball coach and executive Doug Beal for timeless lessons on creating innovative, successful teams — in sports, business, and life:

• To move from a group of rock stars to a cohesive team, you need a shared challenging experience
• You can't ignore the lack of success indicators and expect to win
• Shifts in strategy require new leaders to step up in new ways
• When you're too close to a problem, you can't see it objectively
• Team culture is differentiator from your competitors
• Team goals require individual players to put their own goals second to team goals
• You have to be willing to risk failure if you want to win
• Getting uncomfortable creates dramatic shifts in cultures and new leaders
• As a leader you must have a range of opinions around you
• Bonds of trust are created through serving each other
• Copying others will only get you so far, but it won't make you successful
• Be willing to look foolish
• Sometimes you have to fire the best player

About Sean Murray

Sean Murray, the founder and CEO of RealTime Performance. Sean has over twenty years of experience in leadership and organization development. Sean helps organizations unleash the human factors that drive business success.  He has facilitated programs in leadership, inclusion, decision making, team building and innovation for clients including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, and Nordstrom.  Sean is also the author of “If Gold Is Our Destiny: How a Team of Mavericks Came Together for Olympic Glory”, about the 1984 U.S. men’s national volleyball team and their improbable journey to a gold medal.

About Doug Beal

Doug Beal is the former Executive Director of USA Volleyball, serving in that role from 2005 - 2016. Prior to that, Doug served various roles for USA Volleyball, including two stints as the head coach for the men's national team. First, from 1976 - 1984, he coached the team to its first gold medal at the 1984 Olympics and again from 1997 to 2004.

Read more about the book here and purchase your copy now on Amazon.

Lead Kick Ass Meetings: Complimentary Resource

Meetings are a really expensive use of your time. It only makes sense that they need to be more productive and valuable. Instead of running meetings that could have been an email, lead powerful meetings that have purpose, partici

Chris Clews, speaker and author, bring us rules to live by for good and bad leaders straight from the 80s! Again! He has such a valuable perspective to share (and we have laugh so much when we're together), I just had to have him back.

This time we're talking about Road House and other 80s favorites. Plus if you're thinking about pivoting your career or there's a creative idea you keep thinking and dreaming about, Chris has some great advice on how to take action on it.

Here's just a snippet of all the lightbulb moments you'll get from this fun and insightful conversation:

• Don't underestimate your opponent.
• Continue to expect the unexpected.
• Take it outside...to have the tough conversation.
• You don't always have to be nice.
• Be the Cooler as a leader.
• Time will pass regardless. How you use it is what makes the difference.
• It's always the right time to reinvent yourself.
• A new tattoo suggestion
• Do what's right for you...not what's expected of you
• No one knows what they're doing
• Act on those little ideas that you keep thinking about
• You have to put in the work to make your dreams come true
• We're all weird. Don't hide it.
• Start small and keep going.

Chris Clews is a speaker and author of the book series “What 80s Pop Culture Teaches Us About Today’s Workplace.” Growing up in the 80s and with over 20 years of experience in corporate marketing he knew 2 things very well: 80s pop culture and business. So he combined the two and created “What 80s Pop Culture Teaches Us About Today’s Workplace”.

He’s spoken to a diverse set of organizations and companies including Visa, DHL, University of Florida, UPenn Medicine, WIFS (Women in Insurance and Financial Services), DisruptHR and more. He’s a frequent guest on podcasts with topics ranging from workplace culture to 80s pop culture and he has been referenced or interviewed in numerous publications such as Entrepreneur.com and Esquire UK magazine.

A graduate of Elon University in North Carolina, Chris has held marketing leadership positions in a variety of companies ranging from Planet Hollywood to DHL. He’s passionate about animal rescue and donates a portion of the proceeds from his book and speaking engagements to the SPCA International. He lives by the quote from the poet laureate Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Lead Kick Ass Meetings: Complimentary Resource

Meetings are a really expensive use of your time. It only makes sense that they need to be more productive and valuable. Instead of running meetings that could have been an email, lead powerful meetings that have purpose, participation, and problem solving.

Some teams use 2-week sprints to get the right work done at the right time. I've taught 90-day sprints to my clients. Tony uses 6-week sprints. And it's working  for them!

Here is just a snippet of all the insights you'll get from this humble leader who creates massive change:

• The highest need of any leader is to drive change
• Growth requires re-thinking alignment
• Your largest flaw is that your human; there's no escaping that
• Why a roadmap will connect functions and departments are your company
• Set the vision and outcome before ever taking any action steps
• Everyone wants to do a good job: how you can make that happen as their leader
• Powerful self coaching question: how can I and we create more value in this world?
• Why it's a privilege to be able to think long term
• Just because you're paying attention to the details doesn't mean you're not delegating
• Don't chase status updates
• Have a process to kill process
• It's a must for you to delegate so that your company can grow
• How to be a leader who improves the team, not tears it apart
• Don't overestimate your impact
• You can't lead if you can't see the possibilities

About Tony Newcome

Tony Newcome is the Chief Technology Officer of ActiveCampaign, where he leads technology and product and works to set the vision for those teams.

Previously, Tony was a Senior Vice President of Engineering at Salesforce, where he was responsible for building products in the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Tony joined Salesforce through its acquisition of ExactTarget, where he spent several years building a number of products.

Tony has been nominated for and won several awards, including an INITA Million Dollar Award for Key Technical Achievement, an Outstanding Technical Contributor award, and both a Compass and Leading Orange award for leadership accomplishments while at Salesforce.

In 2019, Tony co-founded INpact Indy with a mission to connect technologists throughout Central Indiana to strengthen Indiana’s vibrant technology ecosystem. He holds a BS in Computer Technology from Purdue University.

About ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign's category-defining Customer Experience Automation Platform (CXA) helps over 150,000 businesses in 170 countries meaningfully engage with their customers. The platform gives businesses of all sizes access to 750+ pre-built automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation and CRM for powerful segmentation and personalization across social, email, messaging, chat and text. Over 70% of ActiveCampaign's customers use its 870+ integrations including Microsoft, Shopify, Square, Facebook and Salesforce. ActiveCampaign scores higher in customer satisfaction than any other solution in Marketing Automation, 

Charlie Garcia, president of C Garcia and Associates, has learned that every project management problem really needs a people-focused solution. He grew up in the construction industry and learned early on to take responsibility for what's broken AND what's going right. In this episode, you'll hear Charlie describe a problem completely caused by other people but making him look bad. Like losing millions of dollars bad. He lost a lot of sleep fixing this hot mess, but didn't waste a second trying to blame others. He simply got to work. During this episode listen to Charlie tell how he solved an expensive problem by working with people, not against them. Plus many more insights like these:

• If you're growing and leading, hot messes are unavoidable
• If you can't figure out what's going on, go watch the problem in action
• A plan isn't the only thing you need to be successful
• Don't circumvent the process; running your ideas up the chain of command is essential
• Take responsibility for solving problems...not fixing people.
• Being stuck in emotion stops you solving problems
• The curse of the overachiever: you think you're failing; others think you're a rock star
• There is great wisdom in a multitude of experiences.
• You don't need others' permission to lead.
• Success comes from taking risks.
• Instead of saying, "What don't I have?" Ask, "What do I have?
• To be successful, be more selfish. Selfishness means taking the responsibility AND the rewards.
• Don't be Teflon Pete.
• What overachievers get wrong about outpacing other people
• If you have a hard time asking for help, at least seek counsel
• Simple solutions have big impact
• Powerful self coaching questions you can use to feel successful

About Charlie Garcia

Charlie J. Garcia is the owner and President of C Garcia Associates consulting firm and has won numerous awards including the 1994 Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young, and Small Businessman of the Year in 2000 by the SBA.

He has proudly called Indianapolis his home since the late 1980s. Born in San Francisco, California, Garcia attended the College of San Mateo, and graduated from the Way College of Biblical Research. Garcia attended Butler University, and has also graduated from Dartmouth University, and University of California, Los Angeles Executive Programs.

Charlie has served the business and nonprofit community extensively on boards such as Butler University, Bank One (Indiana) Federal Reserve Bank, the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Eiteljorg Museum, Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, Indiana Progress Industry Committee, Crossroads of America Boy Scouts, and the Challenge School Academy Charter School.

Garcia’s greatest contributions in many ways are his efforts to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs. The mentoring program he developed has been adopted by the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce to assist minority and women-owned businesses to grow at rates of 20 to 60 percent.

Lead Kick Ass Meetings: Complimentary Resource

Meetings are a really expensive use of your time. It only makes sense that they need to be more productive and valuable. Instead of running meetings that could have been an email, lead powerful meetings that have purpose, participation, and problem solving.