My Quest for the Best with Bill Ringle - the podcast for ambitious business owners.

Bill Ringle and Jeffrey Shaw discuss the importance of having a skilled external observer in your business life to help you “see the label when you are inside the bottle” for small business leaders.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com  for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

• Self-employed people are invested in their businesses at a closer level than employees and find again and again that to grow your business, you must grow yourself.
  
• Being self-employed does not give you total control over your business. Some circumstances will be liable to change whether we like it or not.
  
• Taking an impartial view of ourselves is not easy. Sometimes we shy away from acknowledging how good we are and how better we can be because we are taught to stay humble. This is why it is good to have other people in our lives to give us an objective view of our potential.

• While he did not realize it at first, Jeffrey’s mother was his biggest inspiration growing up. [01:25]
• Paralyzing shyness was a struggle for Jeffrey as a child, but the path to overcoming this weakness led him to a very successful career in photography. [02:44]
• How other people can see more in us than we do ourselves? [05:07]
• CASE: Deb, a corporate executive turned self-employed who leaned to give her business the air to breathe to get positive results. [06:12]
• An introduction to the self-employed ecosystem and the reality of being self-employed. [09:54]
• The realizations that led Jeffrey to start his coaching business. [11:28]
• The value of having a solid clientele. [MM:SS]
• Due to being self-employed his entire career, Jeffrey truly has an edge in coaching his self-employed clients. [14:55]
• Applying the ’ From-To’ format to articulating the change you want in your business or life.[17:52]
• Motivation comes second to momentum. [21:24]
• Jeffrey shared what led him to start his podcast, The Self-Employed Life. [24:15]
• Jeffrey describes the audience avatar for The Self-Employed Life. [28:16]
• My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [29:06]

How many people can say they’ve never worked for anyone else? Selling eggs door-to-door at 14 years old began a lifetime of self-employment. As a speaker and small business coach, Jeffrey Shaw helps self-employed and small business owners gain control of their business in what seems like otherwise uncontrollable circumstances.

Drawing on his experience as a renowned portrait photographer, Jeffrey shows business owners how to see business through a different lens and strategies to compose the often-chaotic pieces of life and business into sustainable success.

Jeffrey’s TEDx Lincoln Square talk is featured on TED.com, he’s the host of the top-rated podcast, The Self-Employed Life, author of The Self-Employed Life and LINGO, an in-demand keynote speaker at conferences, events and universities, a LinkedIn Learning instructor and contributing writer to Entrepreneur magazine.

• Primary website

• Travels from: MIAMI, FL

• Connect on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites and other resources that we discussed, so you can explore further.

• The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World by Lynne McTaggart

• Sally Hogshead

• Michael Port

Bill Ringle and Whitney Johnson discuss how to apply the S-curve to the growth of your career, your team, and your company for business leaders, managers, and rising stars.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com  for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

• Ask yourself, and ask your people about where you are in your growth.

• If employees feel like they can learn, grow, and develop, they will stay as long as possible. Making your people feel that they have purpose and are valued has a higher probability of retention than a salary increase or incentives.

• When you grow yourself, you grow your business. Having personal development gives us control over emotion, allowing us to think clearer and therefore control our career better.

• Whitney found the lead character Samantha from the hit TV series Bewitched to be a source of inspiration growing up. [01:51]
• Just like the main character in the show, Whitney does not shy away from solving problems, no matter how challenging. [01:54]
• Whitney shared her experience working on Wall Street and meeting one of the people she admired, author Clayton Christiansen.[03:33]
• The book Innovator’s Dilemma, authored by Clayton Christiansen, sparked Whitney to think differently when she felt stuck on a career plateau. The ideas in the book clarified and solidified her decision to disrupt herself to advance her career. [06:50].
• Some managers are so good and effective with their leadership that their employees follow them wherever they go. Sumeet Shetty is an example of such a leader, and Whitney shares some of his best traits and practices. [08:41]
• The three stages of the tall S to maintain your people: The launch point, the sweet spot, and mastery. [11:24]
• CASE: Patrick Pichette and Eric Schmidt at Google. How to keep a talented employee from getting bored or burned out. [13:25]
• Egon Zehnder’s 2018 study about personal growth and how the pandemic drastically changed the result. [17:46]
• Who is the peak performer? What defines a high-performing individual? What defines a high-performing team?[19:27]
• Whitney shares tangible recommendations to keep your growth trajectory moving positively. [23:24]
• My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [27:30]

Whitney Johnson is the CEO of Disruption Advisors, a tech-enabled talent development company, and an expert on smart growth leadership: growing your people to grow your company.

Thinkers50 ranked her among the top ten management thinkers in the world in 2021, and in 2020 she was a Top Voice on LinkedIn, where she has 1.8 million followers.

Johnson is an award-winning author, world-class keynote speaker, frequent lecturer for Harvard Business Publishing’s Corporate Learning division, and an award-winning executive coach and adviser to CEOs.

She is the author of several bestselling books, including Disrupt Yourself and Build an A-Team, and hosts the weekly Disrupt Yourself podcast.

• Primary website

• Travels from: Lexington, VA

• Connect on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites, and other resources that we discussed, so you can explore further.

My Quest for the Best Interview: 387: You must ascend any mountain of challenges yourself, but you succeed when you bring others along with guest expert Whitney Johnson

• The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change)

• Patrick Pichette

• Eric Schmidt

• Egon Zehnder

Bill Ringle and Rachel Pacheco discuss research-backed, counterintuitive insights to help you become a better manager, team leader, and rising star in your business.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com  for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

• Observation is a potent way to know what motivates your people, which lets you figure out how to best reward them.

• An actual team is not a collective of self-serving individuals who are just there to contribute their skills. Instead, it functions as a whole, driven to achieve a common goal, and thinks about what’s best for the entire organization and benefits everyone in the group.

• Highly efficient teams have explicit, agreed-upon norms like how they operate and behave. When members know what is expected of them, there is accountability and trust.

• Rachel’s mom inspired her through her example as Rachel was growing up.[01:23]
• How does her mother’s work ethic applies to her professional career? [02:50]
• Attributes of a highly effective manager. [04:47]
• The false notions of putting an effort and managing towards the wrong direction. [07:48]
• Obstacles are caused when managers and team members do see eye-to-eye about what motivated them. [10:26]
• Why being an observant leader can make all the difference. [12:17]
• CASE: Mark’s interview where he shared what motivates him. [13:56]
• A fine distinction between an actual team vs. what Rachel calls a ’TINO’ or team in name only. [16:37]
• What makes an incredible team? Contributions from Patrick Lencioni and Google’s Re: Work project define a great team. [18:00]
• Psychological safety is also a critical common ingredient present shared by top-performing teams. Psychological safety musts: conversational turn-taking and empathy. [21:56]
• The Abilene Paradox — why it is not always ideal for a team to decide as a collective. [23:41]
• My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [26:23

Rachel Pacheco, PhD is a management author, lecturer and researcher at The Wharton School. She is passionate about teaching people what it takes to be great managers and coaching executives and leaders on how to build thriving teams and organizations.

At Wharton, Rachel conducts research on management—specifically on power and conflict—and is a member of the teaching faculty. She is also a founding faculty member of the Entrepreneurship in Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches multiple courses for budding entrepreneurs that focus on the practical side of working in a small organization.

Rachel serves on the board of advisors for numerous start-ups, primarily in the digital health and wellness space. A former chief people officer, she was on the executive teams of start-ups in the healthcare and big data space. Rachel has also lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan, and thus has experienced the joy (and pain!) of leading and managing organizations across many distinct cultures.

She holds a PhD and MBA from The Wharton School and a BS from Georgetown University.

• Primary website

• Travels from: Washington, DC

• Connect on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites and other resources that we discussed, so you can explore further.

• Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and other excellent business books on trust and team effectiveness

• The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael Singer
  
• Google’s Aristotle Project (now called “Re:Work”) on Teams

Bill Ringle and Thomas Zweifel discuss every individual can take more responsibility for their own achievement as well as the overall success of the business without a title change.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com  for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

• A well-defined vision is a north star that leaders follow. It gives us direction to where we should lead our organization, lets us prioritize goals, and keep things on track.

• leadership is not a one way conversation with the person on top just issuing orders. Great leaders knows when to listen and when to start talking.

• The series of actions we do daily impacts the outcomes we earn.

• Political ethicist and leader Mahatma Gandhi was a massive influence on Thomas growing up. [01:29]
• 9/11 impacted many lives across the globe, Thomas being one of them. He shares that being an unfortunate witness to the terrible event that shook the world made him value his authentic self. [02:54]
• Zusha of Hanipol and the essence of identity. [04:09]
• The requirements of being a great leader. [05:05]
• How rituals enable successful leadership and achievement of goals. [07:36]
• Thomas talks about his student in Columbia and how an open-ended question in class helped him shape his vision. [09:50]
• The five levels of the global leadership pyramid scheme – awareness, relationships, vision, strategy, and action. [11:40]
• Why trust is paramount. [12:46]
• Thomas talks about why Martin Luther King is a great leader. [15:02]
• Thomas shares a story about an airline company who sadly lost their vision, thinking that their best days are behind them. [16:49]

In a VUCA world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), business-as-usual is still necessary, but no longer sufficient. A real partner from outside the system can help ask the right questions, confront taboos, stand in the future, build strategy alignment, and boost productivity.

Thomas is a trusted sparring partner for CEOs & C-level executives, board member and expert on strategy & performance. Since 1984, the ex-CEO of Swiss Consulting Group, named “Fast Company” by Fast Company magazine and featured on ABC, Bloomberg, CNN & The Financial Times, has coached leaders on four continents to open new strategic frontiers and meet business imperatives.

On average Thomas’ clients have realized 40X ROI in management results from working with him. An authority on integrating planning, people and performance, ultimately his specialty is unleashing the human spirit in organizations—without bla-bla, impractical training programs, or false dependencies on high-priced consultants.

He is an award-winning author of 8 books, e.g. Communicate or Die; Culture Clash 2.0; iCoach; Leadership in 100 Days; The Rabbi and the CEO (with Aaron Raskin); & Strategy-In-Action (with Ed Borey).

Thomas has been featured on ABC, Bloomberg, CNN, SRF, Fast Company & Financial Times, & “Top 100 Excellent Speakers” 2016-17 and a board member of Paramount Business Jets, JAFI Board of Governors, Keren Hayesod World Executive, Giordano Bruno Institute, International Journal of Communication Research.

His selected corporate clients include ABB, Airbus, Banana Republic, Citibank, ConocoPhillips, Credit Suisse, Danone, Dell, Deutsche Bank, DHL, Faurecia, Fiat, GE, GM, Goldman Sachs, Google, J&J, JPMorgan Chase, Medtronic, Nestlé, Novartis, P&G, Prudential, Roche, Sanofi, Siemens, Starbucks, Swiss Re, UBS, Unilever, Zurich.

Selected other clients: Kazakhstan prime minister & cabinet, Swiss government agencies, UNDP, US State Department, US Air Force Academy, USMA West Point.

Actor & director at age 17-22, learnt key leadership skills: authenticity on stage, empathy, charisma, public speaking, co-leadership & improvisation. Ph.D. international political economy 2001, New York University. Since 2001 adjunct professor Columbia University, since 2004 visiting professor HSG (St. Gallen University).

In 1996 Thomas realized his dream of breaking 3 hours in the NYC Marathon, and in 1997 was recognized as “fastest CEO in the NYC Marathon.” Today he lives with his family in Zurich.

• Primary website

• Travels from: Zumikon, Zurich

• Connect on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites and other resources that we discussed, so you can explore further.

• Mahatma Gandhi

• Zusha of Hanipol

• General Pershing

• Winston Churchill

• Martin Luther King

• Jürgen Schrempp

Bill Ringle and Ken Honda discuss how to improve your attitude toward money for the sake of your business, your staff, and your personal wealth for small business leaders.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com  for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

• If we focus too much on not wasting our money and our time, we may not enjoy life. We can be cost conscious at work but not hesitate to spend money and be generous at home.
• Managers should be in the same boat regarding how money should be allocated.
• Money becomes what we want it to be. It is an ingredient, not the chef.

• Ken’s father, a successful tax accountant, is a massive inspiration to him growing up. [01:19]
• Because he was actively observing his father’s work, Ken already has a strong understanding of the power of money at a young age.[02:01]
• His eagerness to learn the ins and outs of the business, from hiring people to firing people as a young boy, didn’t go unnoticed. [03:07]
• A negative behavior by one employee can have a ripple effect in the workplace. [04:42]
• Ken defines money. [05:50]
• A helpful attitude to have towards money. [07:40]
• The skill sets we can embrace to earn more.[09:55]
• How our priorities influence our business and how we earn money. [11:06]
• Ken proudly talks about his mentor, Dr. John Gray who authored Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, and how he taught him that money is abundant everywhere. [12:33]
• Managers can fix it. [14:16]
• How our relationship with money improves our relations at work and at home. [16:00]
• My Quest for the Best lightning round. [22:35]

Money and happiness expert Ken Honda is a best-selling self-development author in Japan, with book sales surpassing eight million copies since 2001. His latest book is called “Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace With Your Money” (June 4, 2019, Simon & Schuster). Ken studied law at Waseda University in Tokyo and entered the Japanese workforce as a business consultant and investor. Ken’s financial expertise comes from owning and managing several businesses, including an accounting company, a management consulting firm, and a venture capital corporation. His writings bridge the topics of finance and self-help, focusing on creating and generating personal wealth and happiness through deeper self-honesty. Ken provides ongoing support through mentoring programs, business seminars, therapeutic workshops, and correspondence courses.

Ken is the first person from Japan to be voted into the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of personal and professional development leaders. He is fluent in Japanese and English; lived in Boston, Massachusetts for two years; and currently resides in Tokyo, Japan. Learn more at KenHonda.com.

• Primary website

• Travels from: Saluda, NC

• Connect on: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites and other resources that we discussed, so you can explore further.

• Sam Silverstein, author of I Am Accountable– Check our interview.
• Dr. Jon Gray
• Arigato Living Community
• Wealth Code Breaker Seminar
• Free Abundance Mini Course
• 8 Steps to Happiness and Prosperity
• Money EQ Program
• The Japanese Art of Happy Money (with OM)

Bill Ringle and Ray Frohnhoefer discuss how to avoid the delays and cost overruns in projects by understanding the 7 phases of project management.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com  for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

• Managers should create an environment where people don’t feel sanctioned for asking questions or raising concerns.

• Avoid discouraging negative topics as it may deter open and transparent communication.

• Start from a position of trust, and from that foundation we can build a high performing team.

• He’s very organized mother was a massive inspiration to Ray when he was growing up. [01:31]
• Ray explains why he rarely says no and how this enables effective management. [02:19]
• Balance and why we should work with people as individuals. [04:10]
• A tip on being a manager on a team consisting of people older than you. [06:14]
• Ray emphasizes the importance of open, honest, and transparent communication. [08:01]
• How open-ended questions help teams, project stakeholders, and clients. [09:40]
• Project managers can all learn from the Death Star and the Suez Canal. [10:30]
• Ray talks about his former manager, Norman, and what he learned from him regarding micromanagement. [12:50]
• Why managers should not shy away from negative topics. [14:52]
• The importance of making and maintaining good relationships with the people you work with. [15:52]
• Ray shares best practices for setting the right environment with a new team. [18:02]
• Clarifying projects versus processes. [21:29]
• My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [23:35]

Ray W. Frohnhoefer is the Managing Partner of PPC Group, LLC, specializing in helping aspiring, new, and accidental project managers and their organizations improve their project management practice. Products and services include three Amazon international bestsellers in business project management, corporate training, and consulting.

Ray has led engagements in multiple industries of all sizes and many areas globally over his nearly 40-year project management career. Notable projects include rolling out a UNIX development environment to over 400 developers in 16 locations, testing electronic voting equipment with a team of 30 for San Diego County, and patenting an estimating tool that was put into use by a global PMO. No stranger to virtual, international teams, he has been working with and leading them his entire career.

Ray has had a dual career in training and education concurrent with his project management engagements. He was an author, editor, and lecturer for the Edison Engineering Advanced Course in Computers for over eight years, and has been teaching project management and business analysis classes both in-person and online at UC San Diego Extension for 18 years.

A long-time PMI volunteer, Ray, served as president of the PMI San Diego Chapter. He has supported several global PMI committees and member advisory groups over the past 15 years, including serving as the first official PMI Region Mentor for Southwest North America and as a member of the PMI Ethics Review Committee. He is also a long-time supporter of the PMI Educational Foundation and helped establish one of their first professional development scholarships.

Ray holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics with a concentration in Computer Science and an MBA degree in Technology Management. He is also a PMI Leadership Institute Masters Class graduate.

• Primary website

• Travels from: San Diego, CA

• Connect on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook
  

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites and other resources that we discussed, so you can explore further.

• Luke Skywalker
• Suez Canal
• Ronald Regan

Bill Ringle and Ruth Gotian discuss the four pillars of the success formula (intrinsic motivation, perseverance, a strong foundation, and ongoing learning) and how to apply them for small business leaders.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com  for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

• High achievers always strive for peak performance, not just fulfilling the bare minimum. They work on excelling, not just fulfilling.

• Make your success a part of your life, not your entire life. Always create a new aim and a new venture in which to succeed.

• Knowing the key factors of success does not make us successful. Having the discipline to implement them into our daily lives will.

• Ruth’s Grandma Esther — a woman who filled the room with her presence disproportionate to her physical size — was a bold trailblazer in her own academic and professional career who always encouraged Ruth to have her voice heard. [01:27]
• Ruth shares how her grandmother’s appreciation of her writing fueled Ruth’s courage and determination to pursue her doctorate degree in her 40s and write her first book in her 50s. [03:09]
• Ruth talks about her responsibilities as Chief Learning Officer at Weill Cornell Medicine. [04:46]
• The four pillars of The Success Factor: Intrinsic motivation, perseverance, building a strong foundation, ongoing learning, and growth. [08:10]
• Ruth describes her qualitative study on the common denominators of success by interviewing Olympians. [09:22]
• While knowing the key ingredients of success is essential, Ruth knows that taking actionable steps to implement them into our daily lives, is what results in success. [11:54]
• How to spot the early markers of a high achiever and a high-performing team. [15:16]
• The common denominator of all high achievers. [17:59]
• Saying ‘no’ helps keep us stay laser-focused on our goals. [19:54]
• Having a mentor gives us an edge. [22:05]
• Why high achievers have mentors and how they in turn become mentors. [23:34]
• Ruth gives her advice to people who want a mentor’s perspective. [24:56]
• My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [25:39]

Ruth Gotian is the Chief Learning Officer and Assistant Professor of Education in Anesthesiology and former Assistant Dean of Mentoring and Executive Director of the Mentoring Academy at Weill Cornell Medicine. She has been hailed by the Journal Nature and Columbia University as an expert in mentorship and leadership development.

In 2021, she was selected as one of 30 people worldwide to be named to the Thinkers50 Radar List, dubbed the Oscars of management thinking. Recently, she won the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement – Radar Award given to a “thinker with the potential to change the world of theory and practice” and cemented her place as the #1 emerging management thinker in the world. She is also a semi-finalist for the Forbes 50 Over 50 list.

In addition to publishing in academic journals, she is a contributor to Forbes and Psychology Today where she writes about ‘optimizing success’. Her research is about the mindset and skill set of peak performers, including Nobel Prize winners, astronauts, and Olympic champions. Her forthcoming book, The Success Factor, will be out in January and now available for pre-sale.

• Primary website

• Travels from: New Rochelle, NY

• Connect on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites, and other resources that we discussed, so you can explore further.

• Dr. Burt Shapiro
• Michiel Bartman
• Apolo Anton Ono
• Scott Hamilton
• Dr. Bob Lefkowitz
• Dr. Charlie Camarda

Bill Ringle and Jon Rennie discuss how to build a company culture where each person cares about the client’s success for small business leaders.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com  for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

• When failure is not an option, the only other reasonable choice is to move forward and find a way to make things work.

• You are the manager of your career. You don’t want to be a non-useful body. You want to be the most valuable person in the company.

• Short-term managers see their employees as expenses, but successful leaders and companies see them as assets.

• Two heavy influences to Jon while growing up were his grandfathers, who served in the army and the Navy. [01:06]
• Jon shares a valuable lesson from his grandfathers that they learned while serving the country, which helped establish him as a person and how he does work. [02:05]
• His first experience leading his team while in the Navy and the fear, doubt, and trust that came with leadership. [02:49]
• How do you lead when the people in your team are older and more experienced than you? Jon addresses this common problem felt by young leaders by sharing his own experience. [04:21]
• A discussion about getting qualified and being a valuable and valuable body in any workplace. [07:37]
• How volunteering can give us more experience. [09:55]
• What is skill stacking, and how can it help your retention. [11:32]
• One of the great things about small businesses is that leaders can give experiences and opportunities to their employees that are not ordinarily available when working on a big company. [13:17]
• As shared by Jon, the story of Tom highlights the importance of delegating authority but not responsibility. [15:42]
• Jon shares how he still has to gain the people who already knew him when he first started his company. [17:50]
• The pandemic did not deter Jon and his team from reaching out to their clients. [23:09]
• My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [25:10]

Jon is the Co-Founder, President & CEO of Peak Demand Inc., a premier manufacturer of critical components for electrical utilities. He is a former U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine Officer who made seven deployments during the end of the Cold War.

Prior to starting Peak Demand, he led eight manufacturing businesses for three global companies. He is the author of the best-selling leadership books, I Have the Watch: Becoming a Leader Worth Following and All in the Same Boat: Lead Your Organization Like a Nuclear Submariner.

He is the host of the Deep Leadership podcast.

• Primary website

• Travels from: Wake Forest, NC

• Connect on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites and other resources that we discussed, so you can explore further.

• Deep Leadership Podcast

• Vishal Garg

• First Break All The Rules

Bill Ringle and Mark LaChance discuss how taking responsibility for your own luck changes the trajectory of your success in every area of your life and business.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com  for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

• Luck is not random; rather, it is something we can craft and control through the way we think and the actions we do.

• Showing gratitude can cause a domino effect of a lot of good opportunities and useful relationships.

• Bring in people that can help you get to your goals rather than people think on a lower level.

• Mark talks about his dad, who taught him and his brothers personal development. [01:23]
• The advantages of writing down goals. [03:56]
• The meaning of his last name and an exciting input about luck are things we can control. [04:41]
• How Mark develops his team with a positive focus. [05:53]
• Why hiring is critical and how to sift out applicants. [06:51]
• Mark shares his thoughts about the importance of gratitude. [09:36]
• What is a financial fortress? Mark shares one of the lessons he learned from the most transformative event he attended. [11:40]
• Taking accountability for your goals and business. [14:42]
• Take an inventory of your inner circle and other relationships and how these ties impact the probability of success. [16:30]
• My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [18:28]

Mark Lachance is a serial entrepreneur, strategic thinker, and investor. He is a renowned figure in the business world, one who possesses a deep understanding of blitzscaling companies. Having owned and operated several businesses that have experienced hypergrowth through creative business development and lead generation, he is a master of sales and marketing and continues to apply and grow his expertise through current projects. Mark is the CEO and lead investor of Maxy Media Inc., one of the largest TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Google Display Network performance marketing agencies in the world. Currently, Maxy Media is the number one advertiser in terms of monthly spend on the TikTok platform in Canada and top ten in North America. In 2016, Mark successfully sold EVO Payments International Canada, an end-to-end payment solutions provider and merchant acquirer which he founded in 2009. He guided the company from its inception with one employee to over 200 employees across Canada. Prior to founding EVO, Mark was one of the founding members and president of VersaPay Inc, a payments solutions provider, which was taken public in 2010. Before joining VersaPay, Mark was a founding member of Pivotal Payments, which is now a multi-billion-dollar public company. He helped set the foundation and drive the company’s sales and revenues before his successful exit from the company in 2006. Mark has made several other highly successful investments in various industries such as payments, cryptocurrencies, marketing, nutrition, fitness, and sports. Over the past twenty-five years, he has invested in and consulted for dozens of other ventures, which have resulted in highly positive returns. He speaks and travels the world with his wife, Sonya, and their two boys.

• Primary website

• Travels from: Montreal, Quebec

• Connect on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook
  
  

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites and other resources that we discussed, so you can explore further.

• New York Islanders
• New Jersey Devils
• St. Louis Blues
• T. Boone Pickens
• Eric Sprott
• Tony Robbins
• Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies Reid Hoffman
• The Science Behind The Law of Attraction by Dr. Srinivasan Pillay
• Ray Dalio
• The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy
• Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
• Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To Book by Jack Welch

Bill Ringle and Darren Reinke discuss finding the courage to become a leader who has done the inner work no matter what your job title.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these 

• Make employees truly feel that they are part of the company and inspire them to have a sense of ownership and the opportunity to be a leader. [
• Leadership is a life-long responsibility that we all have and continue to learn and improve.
• Peel and look through the different layers of your business to gain insights.

• Darren’s dad, who he described as a self-made guy with a deep passion for lifelong learning and growth, is his biggest inspiration growing up. [00:50]
• How his father’s influence gave him a strong urge to help others throughout his career. [02:16]
• When and why he decided to want to make coaching his career. [3:28]
• Darren on building our businesses as extensions of ourselves. [5:25]
• Developing leadership and the challenge of reaching people who don’t have it yet. [07:52]
• David is a client of Darren’s who needed help improving his executive presence. [09:11]
• How we learn leadership through reading books. [12:59]
• The importance of identifying our values and enriching them. [16:19]
• Meditation and journaling and how they can help us focus. [17:54]
• Darren shares his experience and learning doing volunteer work at The Focus Foundation. [21:36]
• The importance of inspiring employees to have a sense of ownership. [24:23]
• My Quest for the Best lightning round begins. [25:49]

Darren is the founder of Group Sixty, an executive coaching and training company focused on building great leaders from the inside out. Group Sixty works with leaders and teams at Fortune 500’s, mid-market companies, fast-growing startups, and visionary non-profits. Darren is also the author of “The Savage Leader”, a new leadership book that provides a blueprint for becoming a great leader through the adoption of the 13 Savage Principles.

• Primary Website
• Travels from: Encinitas, California
• Connect on LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites and other resources that we discussed so you can explore further.

• Accenture
• Granicus
• Tim Ferriss
• The Honor Foundation