Systematic Leader

Jeff Sanders is the creator of the Five Day Miracle book and podcast. In this interview he shares how early mornings changed made his life remarkable. He lost his routine of waking up early and going to bed on time as a habit his father taught him as a kid. When he began implementing his system as an adult it changed his life.

In this interview we talk about how Jeff went from a structured life as a kid to an unstructured one in his twenties back to a structured life and why this structure is so important to a productive and healthy life. You can build this structure in your life to help you be more efficient.

Highlights from the interview:

• How his 5am miracle started as a side hustle.
• Move the puzzle around so everything fits together.
• Why waking up tired was the straw that broke his back.
• Shifting his morning routine to help himself achieve more.
• Building systems that help him achieve his goal.
• How you can improve your life systems to help yourself improve your productivity.
• Lack of structure hinders most people’s productivity.
• Being intentional about your schedule. 
• Learning from his father’s systems.
• Understanding your preferences that you need to accomplish your goals.
• The biggest challenge is trying new things to see what sticks.
• How much sleep does a body need?
• Being aware of what your body is telling you what you need.
• The best way to track your progress.
• Creating more focused goals. 
• The best goals energize you.
• Understanding the principles that are true about yourself.
• Eat that Frog - Book by Brian Tracy.
• Preventing distractions before they interrupt your workflow.
• 10% Happier - Book by Dan Harris.
• Improving our mental muscles to help us stay focused on the task at hand.
• Reviewing your habits will help you figure out what works best for you.
• How fitness logs has helped him get back on track with his workouts.
• Using a journal as a life map.
• Looking back on the seasons of your life.
• Data is so important to improving our decision making process.
• How to take a fear headon.
• How to be aware of your actions so you can break bad habits.
• Creating boundaries around blocks of time to make big progress.

You can learn more about Jeff Sanders over at his website. He also has a podcast 5am Miracle Podast.

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.

John Griffin is the VP of design for First Citizens Bank. A large bank that has started incorporating more design methodology into its processes. He came from USAA and moved to First Citizens Bank and it was a culture clash for him. You’ll learn how he navigated this big shift in his career. 

In this interview you’ll learn how to keep your team engaged as well as building a career that matches your goals. It’s not easy to get people to notice and stand out from the crowd. You’ll see what advice has for his employees and how they get promoted at work.

One of my favorite parts of this episode is how John talks about having candid conversations with his employees and how feedback has played a huge role to him developing as a leader.

Highlights:

• The difference between two large companies that John has worked for.
• His biggest struggle during Covid.
• How do you combine cultures?
• How do you keep a team engaged?
• Getting good at categorizing and boxing these struggles.
• Improving his ability to stay present.
• Utilizing transition periods at work.
• Know what to do when a moment of distraction occurs.
• The benefit of trial and error around habits.
• How do get methodical about crossing off your to do list.
• Why getting up and moving around is built into his schedule.
• How to expand your job role and become more valuable.
• Candid conversations are vital to good communication.
• Book - Radical Candor
• Understanding the career you want to build.
• Trying different things to see what sticks.

You can learn more about John Griffin over at his website Think Griff.

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.

Stu Heinecke is a Hall of Fame marketer and with his career as a Wall Street Journal cartoons and his widely popular book How to Get a Meeting with Anyone, you’ll learn how to stand out from the crowd. That’s the core component of the marketing game. How do you grab people’s attention and get them to respond to you?

In this interview you’ll learn a lot about how to build connections and reach out to people that you previously thought was our of your reach.

One of my favorite moments in this interview is when he explains how we gets people’s attention with his cartoons. It’s such a wonderful way of connecting and showing them that you can bring value to the relationship.

Highlights:

• Direct mail marketing is far from dead.
• How do get 100% response rate with your direct marketing.
• How to reach CEO’s and VP’s of companies.
• Created personalized marketing outreach campaigns is the key part of making them work.
• Two types of direct mail pieces that are very effective.
• Where do you go to find information about people that you want to reach out to.
• Understanding what your goal is when trying to get someone’s attention.
• Growth strategies from common weeds.
• How our emotions are getting in the way of us doing what we really want to do with our careers.
• Rewiring your brain is easier than you think it is.
• What to do when you are ready to start reaching out to people that you want to connect with.

You can learn more about Stu Heinecke on his website. You can also check out his book How to Get a Meeting with Anyone on Amazon. Check him out on Twitter as well.

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.

As you figure out your purpose, you begin to deepen your spiritual connection to something greater than yourself. This took Art Costello a prayer to God to figure it out, but once he understood his mission he was all in. 

Art is the creator of Expectations Therapy. This method is a wonderful way to help you dig a little deeper. He wrote a book and spoke at Harvard about his method. He also coaches and gives training to help individuals and businesses.

This podcast interview is inspiring and deep. I hope you are ready to take action when you are done listening to this episode.

Highlights:

• Learned about expectations at nine years old.
• Moved into a junky run down house.
• Dealing with depression as a kid.
• How his talk with God on a mountain top changed his life.
• The importance of doing the right thing.
• How the Marine Core influenced his life.
• When he went away for two weeks and his parents didn’t notice.
• Learning to adjust to life after his wife passed away from ovarian cancer.
• Learning how to surrender to God.
• Digging deep helped him understand that he was a positive person even when going through depression.
• His three step process.
• Learning how to be a doer.
• Planning for success is vital to be successful.
• The effort that it takes to be successful.
• Expectations need to be shattered.
• The power of asking himself, “What do you really want to do?”
• Soul searching is an important part of life.
• How to overcome fear.
• The blessings of his crazy life.
• Passion meets opportunities
• Turning failures into learning experiences.
• How to enjoy each moment to the fullest.
• What anxiety is masking.
• Finding truth in yourself.
• Finding a safe place where you can reflect on your thoughts and feelings is so vital to getting what you want out of life.

You can learn more about Art Costello over at Expectations Therapy. You can also check out his podcast, Expectations Therapy, and go a little deeper in this work.

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.

Telling good stories is vital to growing your career. If you can tell a gripping story quickly at work, in a presentation or in a sales meeting you will have an easier time connecting with people. This will help you build trust with them much quicker.

Mike Pacchione shares his wisdom and insight over his 20 year career that will help you use stories to improve your business and career. 

Highlights:

• As a kid Mike would cut out weekly current events and then help craft his own story around him.
• How his terrible attention span created who he is today.
• How to craft a story that doesn’t drag on too long.
• Building awareness to break habits.
• The core components of storytelling.
• How to keep people’s attention when you are giving a keynote, presentation, etc.
• Building a story around a hero.
• Why sharing real lessons learned helps you build rapport.
• Why telling stories from our childhood helps us build connection with an audience.
• How to drop an audience into a scene of a story.
• The importance of sharing particular types of details in your stories.
• Why starting at the end of a story can be really powerful.
• The power of adding how you overcame personal struggles to your stories.

You can learn more about Mike Pacchione over at MikeTalks.co. You can also get his breakdown of Sir Ken Robinson popular Ted talk here.

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.

Pamela Wilson is a smart and caring business woman. She has been in business for herself for over 20 years. She knows the ins and outs of creating a successful online business. If you are looking to start a side hustle then this episode is the perfect one for you.

I love how she talked about her failures in this episode. Pamela made an offer to her audience that bombed. She barely remembers the offer that she made to her audience because she let it go and moved on into another direction that was more successful. This is an important mindset shift that all business owners must use to build resilience and reach their goals.

Highlights:

• Why she was pushed to be the leader in groups when she was a kid.
• The importance of doing work that you love.
• Building a business that works for your lifestyle.
• How Pamela overcame her most recent failure.
• Doing little experiments to figure out what works well in our business and careers.
• Deep diving into the Dig to Fly business with Pamela.
• Why I take time to process my thoughts and emotions in my life.
• Expertise that delivers can have a business be built around it.
• The importance of having a hypothesis to test out your idea.
• Finding customers that are willing to pay you.
• Understand what tools you need to deliver your product and service.
• When creating a service based business you need to test it first.
• Turning a service based business into a digital product business.
• Putting together a business so it works for your lifestyle.
• Getting to know your customer so you are more likely to hit the mark and create a successful business.
• What’s the best way to reach more people over the next six month?
• Pausing and appreciating what we have done.
• Celebrating our wins.
• Online and offline events are vital to building a business.
• Seeing patterns in our businesses.
• When she lost a big client she noticed something amazing.
• What you can do to grow your business in just seven days.

You can learn more about Pamela Wilson over at Big Brand System and The Offer Accelerator. You can also learn more about Pamela over on Instagram.

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.

JD Roth is the founder of the Get Rich Slowly website. He has been writing about personal finance from a mindset perspective for the past 15 years. He is an accidental expert and it’s what makes him such a humble and willing teacher.

In this interview you’ll learn how to improve your mindset around money. You’ll also learn how valuable it can be to craft a personal mission statement. It will help you improve your spending habits as well as create focus in your career.

Highlights:

• Karl embarrasses JD with his intro.
• How he became a financial advice expert.
• Depression struggles from being a kid to now.
• How he uses writing to process his thoughts.
• When he stopped drinking and how it helped him feel like his old self again.
• How Get Rich Slowly got started.
• How his mindset has shifted around money.
• The importance of having a purpose that helps clarify your actions around money.
• Writing a personal mission statement can help define your purpose.
• The power of gratitude.
• Why he eliminated the negative Subreddits from his phone.
• Improving his attention span.
• How balancing his reading habits with gaming time is not easy, but worth the effort.
• Decreasing your debt.
• Making sacrifices in your spending.
• How to track your spending and what it helps show you.

You can learn more about J.D. Roth over on his site Get Rich Slowly and his Twitter account. He is a great person to connect with if you want to learn more about the psychology around finances.

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.

Chris Gaskill is an amazing entrepreneur who built a thriving website development business and is pivoting into coaching professional gamers. This is a fascinating conversation because Chris is in the middle of this pivot and talks through how he navigates these uncharted waters in his career.

As we do a dive deep into his difficult childhood, improving his inner voice and how he looks at life from a unique perspective, you’ll see how he has used these experiences to grow and help others.

Highlights:

• Pivoting his current business from website development into game coaching.
• Dealing with a difficult childhood as an introverted child.
• Finding an outlet as a kid.
• Understanding how to define and utilize your purpose.
• What helped him process his anxiety and depression.
• The power of a gratitude practice.
• Improving his inner voice and how it’s a direct line to God.
• How Steve Jobs followed his heart.
• Everything you do matters.
• Understanding our purpose a little better.
• Going through the Dig to Fly Method with him.
• Creating a plan to help him move forward.
• Making the difficult years worth it.
• Why it’s important that we understand how our work affects other people.
• How Dave Portnoy of Barstool sports has used his platform to help restaurants owners in these difficult times.
• Dealing with business anxiety.
• How to make a pivot in your career.

You can learn more about Chris Gaskill over at his website. You’ll see where he is currently at and you’ll be able to follow how he is pivoting into his new role as a gaming coach.

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.

John Livesay is the Pitch Whisperer. He helps people improve how they connect with people at an event, sales meeting or in their marketing outreach. 

When you figure out which of your stories resonate with people you can use these to help you connect with them. That’s why being able to tell a good story in a short amount of time is so valuable. You create a lasting impression.

John gives many tips and tricks to help you with your storytelling. One of my favorite parts of this interview is his five step process to have a great elevator pitch. When you apply this in your business you’ll catch their attention and encourage them to want to learn more about you and what you are selling.

Show highlights:

• How John got started helping people improve their ability to connect with others.
• Being fearless as a kid.
• Pulling out stories to help people in business.
• Five step process to have a great elevator pitch.
• Creating a picture inside of their heads will help create a clear benefit to what you offer.
• Craft a narrative so your audience sees themselves in the story.
• Creating a more engaging Zoom meeting.
• When trying to sell something to a client or stakeholders try using this storytelling system.
• Meeting Michael Phelps when working with Speedo.
• How Michael Phelps was willing to dig deeper to become an olympic athlete.
• The best question to ask in an interview.
• The power of asking people their story about how they got to where they were. 
• The importance of doing research before a client meeting or a job interview.
• How customizing your outreach can help you get a reply back.
• Three powerful questions you can ask someone to help your career.
• Practice your stories where stakes aren’t that high.

You can learn more about John Livesay at his website. He has wonderful resources to help you improve your storytelling in your business.

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.

Brett Kelly is a fascinating man who has found many unique ways of building his career and business. I really enjoyed how he talked about how he is not at his end goal. If something better comes along he wouldn’t be afraid to pivot in this direction.

I love how honest Brett is throughout this interview. Too often experts try to be things they are not. Brett explains how being broke and not being able to buy groceries for his kids has affected how he looks at life and his business.

You will learn a lot about what you can do to reduce your low hum of anxiety and find habits that will help you stay productive and happy.

Highlights from the interview:

• How to measure the benefit of a new project and how to determine if it’s worth the time to pursue.
• Why we shouldn’t over value happiness.
• Triggers that help him slow down and take care of yourself.
• The hard part of working from home all the time.
• Dealing with burnout.
• Low hum of anxiety and how to deal with it.
• The usefulness of stress.
• How to build confidence with a night time routine.

You can learn more about Brett Kelly over at his website Your Robot Army. You can also find out more about Brett and his company over on LinkedIn. 

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on.