In this episode of the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast, Dr. John Dentico hosts Ryan House, a seasoned business development executive with 17 years of experience in growing marketing agencies. Currently heading business development at Digital Amplification, Ryan shares his ambitious vision of elevating the company into the upper echelon of agencies while simultaneously working on creating the first citizen-owned smart city and a bird sanctuary for rare birds. The discussion covers Ryan's unique upbringing, his unconventional approach to leadership inspired by his grandfather, and his mission-driven strategies for fostering a productive and meaningful work environment. Ryan also delves into the integration of AI in digital marketing and his perspective on using time more efficiently to achieve significant life goals. The conversation highlights the importance of reflective thinking, mission-driven work, and innovative leadership in today's fast-paced world.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Overview
01:13 Early Life and Influences
03:23 Mission Statement and Smart City Vision
08:23 Leadership Philosophy
11:31 Digital Amplification and Unconventional Strategies
17:01 AI Integration in Marketing
21:54 Magic Wand Question and Final Thoughts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr John Dentico (00:05):
Welcome to the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
Our theme for 2025 is The Futureof Work: Meaning is the New Money!
In a world shaped by rapid innovation andconstant change the pursuit of purpose
and impact has never been more important.
I'm Dr John Dentico your host,bringing over 30 years of experience
(00:28):
in leadership, strategic thinkingand purpose-driven innovation.
Here we tackle the pressing challengesof our time-from the rise of
artificial intelligence to the growingneed for meaning in the workplace.
Together we'll uncover how leaderscan ethically integrate AI to enhance
decision-making and keep humanityat the heart of their organizations.
(00:51):
Remember amidst all thetechnological advancements in the
end, it's always about the people.
This podcast is your resource foractionable tools, thought provoking
discussions and inspiring stories.
It's time to go beyond leadershipdevelopment and focus on leadership
(01:11):
impact-creating workplaces where peoplethrive, innovation flourishes and
meaning truly becomes the new currency.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Now, let's Throttle Up anddive into today's episode.
Hello and welcome to theThrottle Up Leadership Podcast.
I am your host, Dr John Dentico.
(01:33):
With me today is Ryan House.
A business development executive with17 years of experience specializing
in growing marketing agencies.
He's currently the head of businessdevelopment for Digital Amplification.
He's a public speaker and formerindependent business consultant.
(01:54):
Ryan is on a mission to grow DigitalAmplification into the upper 10%
of agencies documenting everystep to share actionable insights.
Outside of work, Ryan is pursuinga lifelong mission to build the
first people owned smart city.
And yes, he is 100% serious.
(02:15):
Ryan is also working towardscreating a bird sanctuary for
rare birds in the near future.
I am pleased to have him herewith me today on the podcast.
Good morning, Ryan.
How are you?
Ryan House (02:27):
I'm great.
Thank you.
Dr Dentico It's an honor to be here.
I think what you're doing is great.
Love the guests you have,and I'm looking to contribute
Dr John Dentico (02:34):
I appreciate it.
Just call me John, okay?
Ryan House (02:36):
Alright.
, Dr John Dentico (02:36):
Just call me John.
I appreciate that.
So, Ryan, let's start off like this.
, Tell me a bit about yourself.
Where did you grow up and whatin your mind were some of the
fundamental influences in your life?
Ryan House (02:49):
I grew up in Baltimore for the first five years of my life.
In the inner city on the south side there.
It's kind of rough and tumble.
Then I moved over to, vancouver,British Columbia, on the east side
which wasn't a whole lot better.
A lot of people don't know about that.
Thanks to YouTube, there'sdocumentaries an endless amount of them.
I grew up on, infamous East Hastings, thatif you were to type it in on, YouTube,
(03:11):
a documentary every week about it.
It's probably one of the.
They call it Canada's Worst Street.
I grew up, fairly tough conditions.
And I would say that the biggest influencethough, kinda had a weird dynamic.
My grandfather, he was the, presidentof MCI a lot of people don't know what
that is, but back in their heyday, theywere competitors with, Verizon, and ATT
(03:34):
who famously ended up joining together.
Joining forces, they were hit witha lawsuit to split it up because
they considered that a monopoly.
But he created one of the mostpowerful, business development
programs, and basically just tookover the telecommunication space.
I would fly in the summersto meet him, basically spend
the entire summer with him.
(03:55):
So I was under his leadershipand he lived in Scottsdale.
It's two different worlds.
You have one that's cold and rainy likeSeattle, the doom and gloom then he'd go
to, sunny Scottsdale with the palm treeshe would take me in the office a lot.
Then I'd go back, to school.
So I had two worlds,competing with each other.
He hammered the importance of education,which plays a big part in my story
(04:16):
about staying on the right path, notbeing influenced by my surroundings.
That's the high level overview.
Dr John Dentico (04:23):
great.
Yeah, I know that, grandparentscan have an amazing effect.
I remember the gentleman I was namedafter, John, my father's father.
I still think of him today.
He was a little man, maybe about fivefeet, two or three inches tall but he
had a very calming influence on thefamily and nobody messed with him.
When he got serious, they knewthis was, this is not the guy
you wanted to tangle with.
(04:44):
So I can appreciate, the, the influencethat grandfathers have in a child's life.
Ryan House (04:50):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (04:51):
Ryan, let me ask you this so you have a mission statement?
Can you tell me and mylisteners and viewers what it
is and how you arrived at it?
Ryan House (04:59):
My mission statement, is to create the first, citizen owned
or first people owned smart city.
Then also to build a bird sanctuary.
So everything in my life, I'm afather, but everything in my life
is guided around that principleof working towards that goal.
Every day is meaningful in that sense.
Keeping it simple with having thatin mind, everything that I do is
(05:21):
building up into that mission.
Dr John Dentico (05:24):
Yeah.
Interesting.
Let's peel the onion back onthe smart city tell me about it.
Tell me what your vision is, whatyou're trying to do and how you
might bring that to fruition?
Ryan House (05:35):
Yeah.
It sounds lofty, right?
And it sounds like one ofthose people that just had
these, delusions of grandeur.
Know the optics of everything,but it's very practical.
The reason it came about was duringthe pandemic, being out in Scottsdale.
The scariest thing was when I went tothe store I was told there's no water
here and that I'd have to come back therewas, we're limiting two cases per person.
(05:57):
Hearing that you're like, wateris the very first fundamental
right, every living organism atleast has access to air and water.
And so, when I was looking up whatcould be done about a sustainable
lifestyle, to where you would haveaccess to something like that, I
did a lot of research, and outreach.
I'm a cold caller by nature,thanks to my granddad.
(06:19):
I connected with some people workingon something called Smart City.
There was one in Bullhead, actuallyowned by Bill Gates, that was
talking about this concept of itsown ecosystem and all of that.
But when I read the fine print, I don'tknow how this would be good for the
citizens that were actually living there,they're giving you promises of free homes
and everything was pretty much data track.
(06:41):
The concept is beautiful,that humans are pack animals.
A long time ago, we would move in packsand, knew your next door neighbor.
That's why they said it takesa village to raise a child.
If you look and trace backhuman DNA and how we evolve
as a species we were in packs.
And that's when, we were ableto flourish the way we are.
We're in a very, globalized society, 75%of, the United States is now urbanized.
(07:05):
Those predictions made, 10 years ago thatsaid we're at 60%, ended up becoming true.
We're all in coastal cities we feel.
The most disconnected, that we ever have.
It's very rare, unless you go to reallysmall towns that we know our neighbor,
that we know them by first name.
I don't even know my neighbors.
Everybody kind of just minds theirbusiness, which can be a great thing
(07:25):
for some people, a child's developmentor, your wellbeing, a person.
I think having that kind ofcommunity based lifestyle like
the Amish do this, that's anotherreason why it's not so farfetched.
They do something to a similar degree,but my idea was something more, robust
in terms of how we craft the city itself.
(07:46):
So I actually did meet some peoplelater on a couple years ago that
were very close, but there's alot of, governmental restrictions.
So I was this close to actuallyachieving this dream, a fellow who,
worked with the FBI for about 20 years.
It fell through just because thesigning wasn't able to happen.
It was supposed to happen in Georgia.
So I started looking into things whatis preventing this outside of Georgia?
(08:09):
And it's just land.
That's really what it is.
But you can do things thesedays, whether it's crowdsourced
everybody chips in the pot,
you have these different types ofcommunities that do this for other things.
If you've got enough people to buyin a pot like parcels and parcels
of land, it's not so far fetched.
They have algorithms that build apartmentcomplexes that we see across the entire
(08:29):
United States, like in Austin, Texas.
You can see that there's apartmentbuildings that are modeled
the exact same as in Arizona.
When I dug into that, I did findout there is AI that will tell you
how to build the cheapest possible,apartment complex with these materials.
They'll model it out for you.
So there is a way to do thisvery efficiently and streamlined.
(08:50):
It got me thinking, whatwould be the total cost?
It could be something that is done,building the plane while you fly.
So really what it is just finding.
Plot of land and getting buy-infrom multiple people where it
would be approved and the logisticsof it could feasibly be done.
As I mentioned, we were veryclose to getting that done.
Dr John Dentico (09:07):
I wish you the best.
Creativity's a beautiful thing.
I'm a big believer that the single mostpowerful force on earth is imagination.
If you can imagine it, you can put thedifferent pieces together and work it.
At the very least, you're gonnalearn some things that work
and some things that don't.
And bringing a group of peopletogether in a collaborative
(09:29):
spirit will take some doing.
People have different perspectiveson how things should run.
In the end, forming a smart city, butforming the government that oversees
it and runs it could be a horse ofa different color, so we'll see.
I wish you the best andsee how it all turns out.
Ryan House (09:48):
Thanks
Dr John Dentico (09:48):
and, let me ask you this, Ryan, we'll
switch gears a little bit here.
If someone were to walk up to you and askyou for your definition or perspective
on leadership, what would you tell 'em?
Ryan House (09:59):
It's a show me game a hundred percent.
There's a lot of people that,have different leadership styles.
Mine is frontline, and I found thatto be the most effective throughout
my career, I was employee numbernine of a company called Zog Digital.
We ended up growing into about 82people before we were purchased,
and that was the goal, my teamwas built entirely on misfits.
They were people that were notsalespeople, from other departments
(10:21):
that, were wrongfully on the choppingblock and it was not their fault.
I saw promise in them.
I had decisions to makein a split amount of time.
I can go on the hunt and try to findthis superstar, or I can, say, you
have high k nowledge in your craft.
How would you like to, join my team.
I know it's a little outside of yourcomfort zone, but we can do this.
(10:41):
There was no formal onboarding.
We had to get going.
I just led by example.
I did everything.
I said, just watch this.
Follow me and, it worked.
And so it was from the front line.
I was head of business development.
So I could have easily at that pointwith the budget that I had, I could have
got a manager and sat back in the officeand said, guys, just make me look good.
My grandfather, famously at MCI aspresident would walk down among people
(11:07):
that were cold calling and he wouldtake the phone from their hand and do
it right there on the spot with them.
He would go person to person.
This is thousands of people on the phones.
Oftentimes they were young.
They were maybe college grads.
Maybe they didn't go to college, butthey were not seasoned you have the
president snatching the phone from you.
There's a reason he was remembered.
When I did a college paper,I had to put it online.
(11:29):
I had people pouring in saying, I rememberBZ, and they would tell their war stories.
He would sit beside me for, 20minutes, coaching me personally.
So I learned from him that hidingin the back is not really the best.
So leadership to me is a show me game.
Show me, and don't recommend thingsthat you, yourself wouldn't do.
And, that's to me what it's all about.
Dr John Dentico (11:50):
Interesting.
Very, very interesting.
I just couldn't help but think of theline from the movie Moneyball, where Jonah
Hill tells, Brad Pitt's character, we'regonna create an island of misfit toys.
Ryan House (12:04):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (12:04):
I thought that, that's such a great one line.
People come in, they havedifferent wants, different desires.
The unifying theme for everyoneis this sense of meaning in life.
The idea that we're all lookingto do something meaningful,
impactful, make a difference, ifyou will, because that brings life.
(12:26):
It raises your spirit and quiets yoursoul, and I think that's a unifying thing.
Many times when I'm doing talks orpresentations or talking to other people
on the podcast, we always talk aboutthis sense of meaning in that many
organizations don't understand that.
They don't understandhow important that is.
And if they focus many times theirrecruiting efforts on that, they're
(12:47):
recruiting and they're managerial and.
Leadership efforts on that.
They could go a long waywith just that one thing.
How do we create meaning foreverybody that's part of this company.
So I appreciate that very much.
Tell me a little bit moreabout Digital Amplification.
Let's peel that onion back a little bit.
What's going on there?
Ryan House (13:05):
Digital Amplification, to me was a part two of Zog, if I
was to talk about mission and vision,and I said with my mission statement,
everything leads to that end goal.
My goal is to do the same thing that Idid back in the 2010's which is to grow
the company to where we are a force again.
And have that team I was talking about.
(13:25):
It doesn't have to necessarilybe a team of misfits, it's a team
guided by what you just said.
A mission and something biggerthan just showing up, every day.
Millions of people have a job, but howmany actually have a purpose, right?
What you said was key about establishinga mission and what we said was, we wanna
make sure that this company is purchased.
That was the end goal.
It ended up coming 10 years earlierbecause we got really lucky.
(13:48):
We hit some major home runs that were,
This is the same thing I'm lookingto do here just grow this agency.
There's 14,000 marketingagencies, in the United States.
So the biggest challengeis how do you stand out?
Well, it's going to be what you just said.
It's gonna be a mission.
When we attract young talent,that's another part of it.
It's not just an agency.
I want young talent to come in and they'reproperly trained because now we're in an
(14:12):
exact fit market where people expect youto just, and especially the youth just
come in and be superstars immediately.
We, kind of.
Stop investing in our youth,developing them the right way.
I would love to have something like aschool inside digital amplification where
people know if you come here, you gothrough the program, you apply yourself.
(14:32):
It doesn't matter if you stay atthe company, if you go else, you
go outside somewhere, you're gonnabe successful no matter what.
Because, and that's how Zog was, itwas a development agency as well.
Everybody that worked there,especially from the beginning, you
look at their LinkedIn profiles,their heads of, digital marketing,
their directors of SEO for majorcompanies, they're working on movies.
(14:54):
A lot of those people went onto, to do really great things.
I want people to comethere and see them grow.
That's what we're looking to dodifferently at digital amplification, it
should be university, post grad, wherethey have, establish outlines for them,
their mission, what is their mission?
It should be to grow and bethe best they can possibly be.
(15:15):
And that's gonna serve the collective,that's gonna be good for everybody.
When you have a great, department of SEO,when you have great department of, social
media, well, it's just collective andeverybody gets better just by being there.
That's really what I'm looking to do.
Just excellence there.
Dr John Dentico (15:28):
What kind of services does Digital Amplification offer?
Ryan House (15:33):
So, it's full service in the sense that, things that
worked a hundred years ago.
Billboards, direct mail even aclient doing a Super Bowl commercial,
that level of production, SEO andsocial media, display programmatics,
basically, what you see on YouTubewhen those ads interrupt you.
We do everything from there.
(15:54):
So all, next gen type of, digitalmarketing, but plus the old school
stuff too, we haven't forgot about that.
Dr John Dentico (16:00):
Okay, great.
You talked about in our workup todayabout unconventional strategies
that challenged the status quo.
How about peeling that onion back fora few minutes what do you mean by that?
Ryan House (16:14):
Yeah, so unconventional, when I look at it as, how do we stand out?
We know that AI is the buzzword, right?
There seems to be an issue, and Isaw a funny posts on, on LinkedIn the
other day about AI Is, has someonebuilt an AI tool that tells me how to
use AI or what I need to do with AI?
I thought that was clever.
It's true.
There's a lot of tools coming to market.
(16:35):
How many of them are efficient?
I would say incorporating that into,how we operate, making it natural we're
not just trying to use it as a buzzword,but actually to use it efficiently
to allow people to do a better job.
I think a lot of people, especiallycoming through the system today,
they've grown up a spell check.
They consume more visual media, soyou're kind of lacking a little bit on.
(16:57):
They said 92% of Gen Z doesn'tknow how to hand write.
There are a lot of intelligent peoplehow do we adapt that to where, AI
is the new handwriting for them,where it's second nature to them.
So they're super efficient.
That's what I'd like to do.
I'd like to have that as anunconventional, approach.
But I would say the other thing is, Ithink that outreach and cold calling is
a spectator sport, and it shouldn't be.
(17:18):
One of the things I tried to do before wewere sold was to have a cold call coliseum
a team A versus team B type setting.
Competition is very ingrained in USso if we were to have, two sites,
like Team West and Team East they'reputting points on the board, there's a
top leader and everybody can see that.
Then they're rewarded off merit,based on their performance I think
(17:41):
that's gonna be a powerful thing.
I think cold calling itself is an amazingskill that can open up a lot of doors.
I grew up, in, the United Statesand then I went to Canada.
I was always the new kid, so I'vehad to approach people and strangers.
Mom's advice is alwaysdon't talk to strangers.
If I would've listened to that, I don'tthink I'd be, anywhere near where I am.
So I think, getting people comfortablewith opening doors, in a healthy way
(18:04):
where we're competitive and almosttreating it like a video game,
would be very unorthodox comparedto the average job description.
It's here, here's the outboundspecialist, you're gonna make this much
money and you better hit your quota.
You're not really adding meaning into yourday, you're gonna, naturally be scared.
You shouldn't be scared coming to work.
So that's probably the holisticview of the unconventional
(18:27):
side of what I'm looking to do.
Dr John Dentico (18:28):
In fact, you kind of opened the door for
me on the next question, andthat is the integration of AI.
In your business and in life in general.
I have an account on ChatGPTI have the $20 a month.
I'm paying my $20 a I have you know, andI have used it already, still learning it.
I've completed my certification asan artificial intelligence management
(18:52):
professional, which is reallyconcerned with the ethics side of the
house, explainable AI transparencyand how AI crunches numbers and what
it's using to create the output,
that's the concern of the ethical side.
But as a tool, I've come to understandhow powerful and helpful it can be I've
used it to, do presentation proposals,write a biography, and work with it.
(19:17):
It'll give me an output and I'll goback and say, no, I don't want that.
I want this, add this piece.
Boom.
It redoes it, it's just incrediblyhelpful tool so I'd like to ask you a
bit more, How do you see your work inDigital Amplification and AI merging
and helping each other if you will?
Ryan House (19:40):
So I think that the key is, understanding the clients
and what they're asking for.
The objective view is that they'relooking for strong reporting.
There's just been a lack of, strongreporting in the industry, and
that's always comes in at number one.
It has like Forrester research mentioned.
We want better reporting.
That could streamline thatprocess very easily if you have
the right systems in place.
We're already doing that.
(20:00):
The founder, Jim Thompson, he'sa very analytical guy, so he
was working at American Eagle.
And implementing those systemslike ahead of his time, unheard of.
But he's built a lot of models.
So that's where the foundation is.
That was manual still, but now we havethe tools to create robust reporting,
in the sense of, the details that giveyou you look at marketing as maybe a
(20:23):
car, well, it's gonna give you the hoodno matter what, no matter what you're
looking to an x-ray view, of how acar is and how it's running, and, help
you, make adjustments in real time.
It's very dynamic these days.
If you're making a mistake, you don'thave to wait a month to find out if
the results are not gonna be great.
You can catch those early signs to say.
Hey, you keep going down thispath, you're gonna be losing money.
(20:45):
That's huge.
There's been a joke in marketing sincethe eighties, which is, I spent, a
lot of marketing but I don't knowwhere, the other half went, it's
saying marketing has been hit or miss.
I don't know what's performing welland what isn't, but we're doing great
with our numbers, or we're not wedon't know which part is working I
think that is gonna solve a key pieceand also allow creatives to do better.
(21:05):
Because if you're saying, lasttime when we tried this, it wasn't
really a hit with the market.
That's who tells you, if it's good or not.
It's the market.
But if you have a data drivenapproach that is accurate, it'll help
influence what you create later on.
So it's gonna be smarter marketing in thatsense where, the guessing game is done.
I know this is the formula.
We've done this before.
This is our style.
(21:27):
It's time tested.
It's proven, it's a proof of concept.
And that's great for the clientbecause then they say, okay, yeah, I
see why there's a huge track recordsaying that this is the way to do it.
People, especially startups, they're veryguarded about their dollars in, how they
spend it with marketing they know it's acrucial part of their business if you have
a great product or service that the worldneeds to know about, it shouldn't be, the
(21:49):
so much heavily on the element of luck.
There should be some sortof predictability with it.
I would say that's the main focus youcan create great autobiographies, create
great content, but the engine is goingto be, truth and integrity in marketing.
Dr John Dentico (22:04):
Right, and where I think what I use it for.
In my, subscription to ChatGPT,I've uploaded a number of
different kinds of documents.
I've uploaded my book.
PDF and different things like that.
A lot of times the way I'll useit is I'll say, I wanna do this,
and I want to come at it from thisperspective so it lays out options.
(22:25):
That's one of the best things thatit does, it says, okay, here's
some things that you could do.
Here's a list of different thingsyou could do based on this.
And all of a sudden nowyou've developed that.
Okay, here's an option list.
I like this.
I like number two.
I'm gonna take number two.
I'm gonna follow that one for awhile and see where that takes me.
And that's the beauty of it.
It's like having an assistant that knowsyou real well, sitting next to you, it's
(22:51):
not a human by any stretch, just knowswhat, it's been programmed to know.
But it's like having this assistantthat sits next to you and says,
here's several options and then it maykey you in certain different areas.
So far, it's been really helpfulfor me in terms of, you get writer's
block, you've heard of Writer'sBlock, or you get Creative Block too.
(23:12):
I'm trying to go down this road, butI just can't figure out which way
yet, and it will help you do that.
So I think that's really great.
So Ryan, we're getting close to the endhere, so I'd like to ask you my favorite
question, and that is simply this.
If you had a magic wand and you couldwave it at any issue or problem in your
world, what would that problem be and why
Ryan House (23:33):
Yeah.
If I had a magic wand, I would say it'sprobably the efficiency of our time.
If we could pause time, not justelongating the day but our ability
to focus on a singular task.
If we could shut out all distractions.
That's what I would use it for.
Let me give you an example.
A lot of today's problems, not sayingthat mental health isn't a real thing.
(23:54):
It most certainly is, we are in themost medicated, time period where
depression and anxieties run rampant.
So it is a very real thing.
It's our chemicals, but it comes downto, our day to day w hen you talk
about mission, a lot of our problemscould be solved in a dark room.
Where the lights are off, it's us ina chair just thinking through things.
(24:15):
It's important not to overthink,but reflection, I think is a lost
art, we look at our ancestors andthroughout time we look at the
nineties and the creative spurt thathappened with music and books and the
introduction of genres like cyberpunk.
It was one of the most creative,time periods a lot of it was we had
a lot of time to dwell on things.
So did our ancestors 2000,3,000, 4,000 years ago.
(24:38):
They're very smart.
That's why there's somany philosophical books.
That's why some of the greatest thinkersof our time came through those periods
because they had a lot of time to sitthere ponder and think about things.
But what's going on?
Why don't we do that now?
Well, we have endless amounts,distraction in some cases I would
say phone addiction is huge, right?
It's preventing a lot of peoplefrom maximizing their potential.
(25:01):
So what would that magic wand do?
It would allow people todisregard those feelings.
The urge to reach for a phone, the urgeto consume media and to just solely focus
on whatever the task is, even if it wasjust three hours, if that one only had a,
solar powered and it only gave me threehours at a time, those three hours, a
(25:22):
meaningful, deep, concentrated work wouldbe life changes for a lot of people.
I believe that, a lot of productivityissues comes from a distracted
mind, and it's like, who's to blame?
We have to take accountability, reallyis that the case when, I look at my email
inbox and there's 900 emails that come in.
Not all of them good, most of 'em not.
I go on LinkedIn for prospecting.
(25:43):
Well, now there's an article about sometechnology, and then you click that.
So no matter where you go,every corner of society.
Is meant to distract you.
How can we shut that noise away?
I think a magic wand that could dothat, would be excellent for so many
people and maybe they would decide,I don't need the magic wand anymore.
I didn't know I could do somethingaccomplish something in such short amount
(26:04):
of time, I would say that my answer.
Dr John Dentico (26:08):
I think it's a great answer.
Thinking, just stopping tothink, I don't think is as well
used today as it should be.
Observing people, for example, inthe supermarket they're so keen about
responding to the latest text message ifthey don't instantly respond somehow that
(26:32):
shows you don't care or don't matter.
You gotta be able to shut that stuff off.
There's a time for it if you want toget involved in those kinds of things.
But you see people texting over and overat stoplights, on the highway, which now
many respects is illegal, thank God.,And you know, those kinds of things.
(26:54):
It's like if you don't, if I can'trespond instantaneously to you, somehow
I'm not part of the conversation anymore.
And I think people need totake more time to reflect.
To sit down, with your favorite beverage,and be still and call it meditation
if you'd like, but just to be stilland not try to think about things.
(27:18):
Just try to be open to the thingsthat come is such a vital part of
understanding where you are and beingable to develop, quote unquote foresight.
Knowing where you are and thenbeing able to say, well, This is
where I think I should go now basedon who I am, what I want to do.
(27:38):
Like you say, finding yourparticular mission, I don't
think you can find a mission.
If you don't take time to think aboutit, you're just reacting, it's a reaction
rather than a thoughtful response.
So I truly appreciate that.
I'll let you close out Anyother thoughts you have there?
Ryan House (27:56):
I just wanna thank you again, John, for having me on here.
What you said leads me to other things.
I feel like I could talk to you all day,but what I would close out to say is,
be more thoughtful, everybody listening.
It doesn't have to be meditation, butone of the most powerful things you
could do, and something that I do myselfevery day is to just shut down the phone.
The world won't stop spinning.
You don't have to go in adark room, but just reflect on
(28:18):
things it will change your life.
It sounds dramatic, but that'sbecause it is, you'll have more peace
and inner peace when you can thinkabout things, thoroughly when you
don't feel like you're being pulled.
Stop time for a second and justreally think about yourself.
You know, when people say that theday got away from them, or how did
these years just fly by like this?
I feel like a lot of that isbecause we are stuck in routine.
(28:41):
That's why time feels like it goesso fast you wanna stop time, get more
of yourself back and, ask yourselftough questions maybe not the most
comfortable, but you need to address.
A lot of that can be done, rehearseconversations in your head that
you want to have with somebody.
Maybe people that you haven'ttalked to in a long time.
When you think about thosereflect on a past time in your
life, maybe you'll call somebody.
(29:03):
You'll pick up the phone give 'em a calland it might be the greatest conversation,
it's more about just, don'tlose sight of what happened.
The people in your past thingsthat used to make you, happy.
You might come across those and go,i've always wanted to learn guitar.
I'm gonna do it.
Those are the types of, insightsthat come out when you just stop
just listen to your inner monologue.
(29:23):
That voice in your head.
Be friends with it.
That's what I would say.
Dr John Dentico (29:27):
Yep.
Yeah, and try not to run away from yourpast because eventually it'll catch you.
Let me tell you, it's the truth.
Listen, Ryan, I can't thank youenough for being here on the
Throttle of Leadership Podcast today.
I wish you all the successin the very happy life.
Ryan House (29:43):
You as well.
Honored.
Welcome to the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
Our theme for 2025 is The Futureof Work: Meaning is the New Money!
In a world shaped by rapid innovation andconstant change the pursuit of purpose
and impact has never been more important.
I'm Dr John Dentico your host,bringing over 30 years of experience
(00:28):
in leadership, strategic thinkingand purpose-driven innovation.
Here we tackle the pressing challengesof our time-from the rise of
artificial intelligence to the growingneed for meaning in the workplace.
Together we'll uncover how leaderscan ethically integrate AI to enhance
decision-making and keep humanityat the heart of their organizations.
(00:51):
Remember amidst all thetechnological advancements in the
end, it's always about the people.
This podcast is your resource foractionable tools, thought provoking
discussions and inspiring stories.
It's time to go beyond leadershipdevelopment and focus on leadership
(01:11):
impact-creating workplaces where peoplethrive, innovation flourishes and
meaning truly becomes the new currency.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Now, let's Throttle Up anddive into today's episode.
Hello and welcome to theThrottle Up Leadership Podcast.
I am your host, Dr John Dentico.
(01:33):
With me today is Ryan House.
A business development executive with17 years of experience specializing
in growing marketing agencies.
He's currently the head of businessdevelopment for Digital Amplification.
He's a public speaker and formerindependent business consultant.
(01:54):
Ryan is on a mission to grow DigitalAmplification into the upper 10%
of agencies documenting everystep to share actionable insights.
Outside of work, Ryan is pursuinga lifelong mission to build the
first people owned smart city.
And yes, he is 100% serious.
(02:15):
Ryan is also working towardscreating a bird sanctuary for
rare birds in the near future.
I am pleased to have him herewith me today on the podcast.
Good morning, Ryan.
How are you?
Ryan House (02:27):
I'm great.
Thank you.
Dr Dentico It's an honor to be here.
I think what you're doing is great.
Love the guests you have,and I'm looking to contribute
Dr John Dentico (02:34):
I appreciate it.
Just call me John, okay?
Ryan House (02:36):
Alright.
, Dr John Dentico (02:36):
Just call me John.
I appreciate that.
So, Ryan, let's start off like this.
, Tell me a bit about yourself.
Where did you grow up and whatin your mind were some of the
fundamental influences in your life?
Ryan House (02:49):
I grew up in Baltimore for the first five years of my life.
In the inner city on the south side there.
It's kind of rough and tumble.
Then I moved over to, vancouver,British Columbia, on the east side
which wasn't a whole lot better.
A lot of people don't know about that.
Thanks to YouTube, there'sdocumentaries an endless amount of them.
I grew up on, infamous East Hastings, thatif you were to type it in on, YouTube,
(03:11):
a documentary every week about it.
It's probably one of the.
They call it Canada's Worst Street.
I grew up, fairly tough conditions.
And I would say that the biggest influencethough, kinda had a weird dynamic.
My grandfather, he was the, presidentof MCI a lot of people don't know what
that is, but back in their heyday, theywere competitors with, Verizon, and ATT
(03:34):
who famously ended up joining together.
Joining forces, they were hit witha lawsuit to split it up because
they considered that a monopoly.
But he created one of the mostpowerful, business development
programs, and basically just tookover the telecommunication space.
I would fly in the summersto meet him, basically spend
the entire summer with him.
(03:55):
So I was under his leadershipand he lived in Scottsdale.
It's two different worlds.
You have one that's cold and rainy likeSeattle, the doom and gloom then he'd go
to, sunny Scottsdale with the palm treeshe would take me in the office a lot.
Then I'd go back, to school.
So I had two worlds,competing with each other.
He hammered the importance of education,which plays a big part in my story
(04:16):
about staying on the right path, notbeing influenced by my surroundings.
That's the high level overview.
Dr John Dentico (04:23):
great.
Yeah, I know that, grandparentscan have an amazing effect.
I remember the gentleman I was namedafter, John, my father's father.
I still think of him today.
He was a little man, maybe about fivefeet, two or three inches tall but he
had a very calming influence on thefamily and nobody messed with him.
When he got serious, they knewthis was, this is not the guy
you wanted to tangle with.
(04:44):
So I can appreciate, the, the influencethat grandfathers have in a child's life.
Ryan House (04:50):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (04:51):
Ryan, let me ask you this so you have a mission statement?
Can you tell me and mylisteners and viewers what it
is and how you arrived at it?
Ryan House (04:59):
My mission statement, is to create the first, citizen owned
or first people owned smart city.
Then also to build a bird sanctuary.
So everything in my life, I'm afather, but everything in my life
is guided around that principleof working towards that goal.
Every day is meaningful in that sense.
Keeping it simple with having thatin mind, everything that I do is
(05:21):
building up into that mission.
Dr John Dentico (05:24):
Yeah.
Interesting.
Let's peel the onion back onthe smart city tell me about it.
Tell me what your vision is, whatyou're trying to do and how you
might bring that to fruition?
Ryan House (05:35):
Yeah.
It sounds lofty, right?
And it sounds like one ofthose people that just had
these, delusions of grandeur.
Know the optics of everything,but it's very practical.
The reason it came about was duringthe pandemic, being out in Scottsdale.
The scariest thing was when I went tothe store I was told there's no water
here and that I'd have to come back therewas, we're limiting two cases per person.
(05:57):
Hearing that you're like, wateris the very first fundamental
right, every living organism atleast has access to air and water.
And so, when I was looking up whatcould be done about a sustainable
lifestyle, to where you would haveaccess to something like that, I
did a lot of research, and outreach.
I'm a cold caller by nature,thanks to my granddad.
(06:19):
I connected with some people workingon something called Smart City.
There was one in Bullhead, actuallyowned by Bill Gates, that was
talking about this concept of itsown ecosystem and all of that.
But when I read the fine print, I don'tknow how this would be good for the
citizens that were actually living there,they're giving you promises of free homes
and everything was pretty much data track.
(06:41):
The concept is beautiful,that humans are pack animals.
A long time ago, we would move in packsand, knew your next door neighbor.
That's why they said it takesa village to raise a child.
If you look and trace backhuman DNA and how we evolve
as a species we were in packs.
And that's when, we were ableto flourish the way we are.
We're in a very, globalized society, 75%of, the United States is now urbanized.
(07:05):
Those predictions made, 10 years ago thatsaid we're at 60%, ended up becoming true.
We're all in coastal cities we feel.
The most disconnected, that we ever have.
It's very rare, unless you go to reallysmall towns that we know our neighbor,
that we know them by first name.
I don't even know my neighbors.
Everybody kind of just minds theirbusiness, which can be a great thing
(07:25):
for some people, a child's developmentor, your wellbeing, a person.
I think having that kind ofcommunity based lifestyle like
the Amish do this, that's anotherreason why it's not so farfetched.
They do something to a similar degree,but my idea was something more, robust
in terms of how we craft the city itself.
(07:46):
So I actually did meet some peoplelater on a couple years ago that
were very close, but there's alot of, governmental restrictions.
So I was this close to actuallyachieving this dream, a fellow who,
worked with the FBI for about 20 years.
It fell through just because thesigning wasn't able to happen.
It was supposed to happen in Georgia.
So I started looking into things whatis preventing this outside of Georgia?
(08:09):
And it's just land.
That's really what it is.
But you can do things thesedays, whether it's crowdsourced
everybody chips in the pot,
you have these different types ofcommunities that do this for other things.
If you've got enough people to buyin a pot like parcels and parcels
of land, it's not so far fetched.
They have algorithms that build apartmentcomplexes that we see across the entire
(08:29):
United States, like in Austin, Texas.
You can see that there's apartmentbuildings that are modeled
the exact same as in Arizona.
When I dug into that, I did findout there is AI that will tell you
how to build the cheapest possible,apartment complex with these materials.
They'll model it out for you.
So there is a way to do thisvery efficiently and streamlined.
(08:50):
It got me thinking, whatwould be the total cost?
It could be something that is done,building the plane while you fly.
So really what it is just finding.
Plot of land and getting buy-infrom multiple people where it
would be approved and the logisticsof it could feasibly be done.
As I mentioned, we were veryclose to getting that done.
Dr John Dentico (09:07):
I wish you the best.
Creativity's a beautiful thing.
I'm a big believer that the single mostpowerful force on earth is imagination.
If you can imagine it, you can put thedifferent pieces together and work it.
At the very least, you're gonnalearn some things that work
and some things that don't.
And bringing a group of peopletogether in a collaborative
(09:29):
spirit will take some doing.
People have different perspectiveson how things should run.
In the end, forming a smart city, butforming the government that oversees
it and runs it could be a horse ofa different color, so we'll see.
I wish you the best andsee how it all turns out.
Ryan House (09:48):
Thanks
Dr John Dentico (09:48):
and, let me ask you this, Ryan, we'll
switch gears a little bit here.
If someone were to walk up to you and askyou for your definition or perspective
on leadership, what would you tell 'em?
Ryan House (09:59):
It's a show me game a hundred percent.
There's a lot of people that,have different leadership styles.
Mine is frontline, and I found thatto be the most effective throughout
my career, I was employee numbernine of a company called Zog Digital.
We ended up growing into about 82people before we were purchased,
and that was the goal, my teamwas built entirely on misfits.
They were people that were notsalespeople, from other departments
(10:21):
that, were wrongfully on the choppingblock and it was not their fault.
I saw promise in them.
I had decisions to makein a split amount of time.
I can go on the hunt and try to findthis superstar, or I can, say, you
have high k nowledge in your craft.
How would you like to, join my team.
I know it's a little outside of yourcomfort zone, but we can do this.
(10:41):
There was no formal onboarding.
We had to get going.
I just led by example.
I did everything.
I said, just watch this.
Follow me and, it worked.
And so it was from the front line.
I was head of business development.
So I could have easily at that pointwith the budget that I had, I could have
got a manager and sat back in the officeand said, guys, just make me look good.
My grandfather, famously at MCI aspresident would walk down among people
(11:07):
that were cold calling and he wouldtake the phone from their hand and do
it right there on the spot with them.
He would go person to person.
This is thousands of people on the phones.
Oftentimes they were young.
They were maybe college grads.
Maybe they didn't go to college, butthey were not seasoned you have the
president snatching the phone from you.
There's a reason he was remembered.
When I did a college paper,I had to put it online.
(11:29):
I had people pouring in saying, I rememberBZ, and they would tell their war stories.
He would sit beside me for, 20minutes, coaching me personally.
So I learned from him that hidingin the back is not really the best.
So leadership to me is a show me game.
Show me, and don't recommend thingsthat you, yourself wouldn't do.
And, that's to me what it's all about.
Dr John Dentico (11:50):
Interesting.
Very, very interesting.
I just couldn't help but think of theline from the movie Moneyball, where Jonah
Hill tells, Brad Pitt's character, we'regonna create an island of misfit toys.
Ryan House (12:04):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (12:04):
I thought that, that's such a great one line.
People come in, they havedifferent wants, different desires.
The unifying theme for everyoneis this sense of meaning in life.
The idea that we're all lookingto do something meaningful,
impactful, make a difference, ifyou will, because that brings life.
(12:26):
It raises your spirit and quiets yoursoul, and I think that's a unifying thing.
Many times when I'm doing talks orpresentations or talking to other people
on the podcast, we always talk aboutthis sense of meaning in that many
organizations don't understand that.
They don't understandhow important that is.
And if they focus many times theirrecruiting efforts on that, they're
(12:47):
recruiting and they're managerial and.
Leadership efforts on that.
They could go a long waywith just that one thing.
How do we create meaning foreverybody that's part of this company.
So I appreciate that very much.
Tell me a little bit moreabout Digital Amplification.
Let's peel that onion back a little bit.
What's going on there?
Ryan House (13:05):
Digital Amplification, to me was a part two of Zog, if I
was to talk about mission and vision,and I said with my mission statement,
everything leads to that end goal.
My goal is to do the same thing that Idid back in the 2010's which is to grow
the company to where we are a force again.
And have that team I was talking about.
(13:25):
It doesn't have to necessarilybe a team of misfits, it's a team
guided by what you just said.
A mission and something biggerthan just showing up, every day.
Millions of people have a job, but howmany actually have a purpose, right?
What you said was key about establishinga mission and what we said was, we wanna
make sure that this company is purchased.
That was the end goal.
It ended up coming 10 years earlierbecause we got really lucky.
(13:48):
We hit some major home runs that were,
This is the same thing I'm lookingto do here just grow this agency.
There's 14,000 marketingagencies, in the United States.
So the biggest challengeis how do you stand out?
Well, it's going to be what you just said.
It's gonna be a mission.
When we attract young talent,that's another part of it.
It's not just an agency.
I want young talent to come in and they'reproperly trained because now we're in an
(14:12):
exact fit market where people expect youto just, and especially the youth just
come in and be superstars immediately.
We, kind of.
Stop investing in our youth,developing them the right way.
I would love to have something like aschool inside digital amplification where
people know if you come here, you gothrough the program, you apply yourself.
(14:32):
It doesn't matter if you stay atthe company, if you go else, you
go outside somewhere, you're gonnabe successful no matter what.
Because, and that's how Zog was, itwas a development agency as well.
Everybody that worked there,especially from the beginning, you
look at their LinkedIn profiles,their heads of, digital marketing,
their directors of SEO for majorcompanies, they're working on movies.
(14:54):
A lot of those people went onto, to do really great things.
I want people to comethere and see them grow.
That's what we're looking to dodifferently at digital amplification, it
should be university, post grad, wherethey have, establish outlines for them,
their mission, what is their mission?
It should be to grow and bethe best they can possibly be.
(15:15):
And that's gonna serve the collective,that's gonna be good for everybody.
When you have a great, department of SEO,when you have great department of, social
media, well, it's just collective andeverybody gets better just by being there.
That's really what I'm looking to do.
Just excellence there.
Dr John Dentico (15:28):
What kind of services does Digital Amplification offer?
Ryan House (15:33):
So, it's full service in the sense that, things that
worked a hundred years ago.
Billboards, direct mail even aclient doing a Super Bowl commercial,
that level of production, SEO andsocial media, display programmatics,
basically, what you see on YouTubewhen those ads interrupt you.
We do everything from there.
(15:54):
So all, next gen type of, digitalmarketing, but plus the old school
stuff too, we haven't forgot about that.
Dr John Dentico (16:00):
Okay, great.
You talked about in our workup todayabout unconventional strategies
that challenged the status quo.
How about peeling that onion back fora few minutes what do you mean by that?
Ryan House (16:14):
Yeah, so unconventional, when I look at it as, how do we stand out?
We know that AI is the buzzword, right?
There seems to be an issue, and Isaw a funny posts on, on LinkedIn the
other day about AI Is, has someonebuilt an AI tool that tells me how to
use AI or what I need to do with AI?
I thought that was clever.
It's true.
There's a lot of tools coming to market.
(16:35):
How many of them are efficient?
I would say incorporating that into,how we operate, making it natural we're
not just trying to use it as a buzzword,but actually to use it efficiently
to allow people to do a better job.
I think a lot of people, especiallycoming through the system today,
they've grown up a spell check.
They consume more visual media, soyou're kind of lacking a little bit on.
(16:57):
They said 92% of Gen Z doesn'tknow how to hand write.
There are a lot of intelligent peoplehow do we adapt that to where, AI
is the new handwriting for them,where it's second nature to them.
So they're super efficient.
That's what I'd like to do.
I'd like to have that as anunconventional, approach.
But I would say the other thing is, Ithink that outreach and cold calling is
a spectator sport, and it shouldn't be.
(17:18):
One of the things I tried to do before wewere sold was to have a cold call coliseum
a team A versus team B type setting.
Competition is very ingrained in USso if we were to have, two sites,
like Team West and Team East they'reputting points on the board, there's a
top leader and everybody can see that.
Then they're rewarded off merit,based on their performance I think
(17:41):
that's gonna be a powerful thing.
I think cold calling itself is an amazingskill that can open up a lot of doors.
I grew up, in, the United Statesand then I went to Canada.
I was always the new kid, so I'vehad to approach people and strangers.
Mom's advice is alwaysdon't talk to strangers.
If I would've listened to that, I don'tthink I'd be, anywhere near where I am.
So I think, getting people comfortablewith opening doors, in a healthy way
(18:04):
where we're competitive and almosttreating it like a video game,
would be very unorthodox comparedto the average job description.
It's here, here's the outboundspecialist, you're gonna make this much
money and you better hit your quota.
You're not really adding meaning into yourday, you're gonna, naturally be scared.
You shouldn't be scared coming to work.
So that's probably the holisticview of the unconventional
(18:27):
side of what I'm looking to do.
Dr John Dentico (18:28):
In fact, you kind of opened the door for
me on the next question, andthat is the integration of AI.
In your business and in life in general.
I have an account on ChatGPTI have the $20 a month.
I'm paying my $20 a I have you know, andI have used it already, still learning it.
I've completed my certification asan artificial intelligence management
(18:52):
professional, which is reallyconcerned with the ethics side of the
house, explainable AI transparencyand how AI crunches numbers and what
it's using to create the output,
that's the concern of the ethical side.
But as a tool, I've come to understandhow powerful and helpful it can be I've
used it to, do presentation proposals,write a biography, and work with it.
(19:17):
It'll give me an output and I'll goback and say, no, I don't want that.
I want this, add this piece.
Boom.
It redoes it, it's just incrediblyhelpful tool so I'd like to ask you a
bit more, How do you see your work inDigital Amplification and AI merging
and helping each other if you will?
Ryan House (19:40):
So I think that the key is, understanding the clients
and what they're asking for.
The objective view is that they'relooking for strong reporting.
There's just been a lack of, strongreporting in the industry, and
that's always comes in at number one.
It has like Forrester research mentioned.
We want better reporting.
That could streamline thatprocess very easily if you have
the right systems in place.
We're already doing that.
(20:00):
The founder, Jim Thompson, he'sa very analytical guy, so he
was working at American Eagle.
And implementing those systemslike ahead of his time, unheard of.
But he's built a lot of models.
So that's where the foundation is.
That was manual still, but now we havethe tools to create robust reporting,
in the sense of, the details that giveyou you look at marketing as maybe a
(20:23):
car, well, it's gonna give you the hoodno matter what, no matter what you're
looking to an x-ray view, of how acar is and how it's running, and, help
you, make adjustments in real time.
It's very dynamic these days.
If you're making a mistake, you don'thave to wait a month to find out if
the results are not gonna be great.
You can catch those early signs to say.
Hey, you keep going down thispath, you're gonna be losing money.
(20:45):
That's huge.
There's been a joke in marketing sincethe eighties, which is, I spent, a
lot of marketing but I don't knowwhere, the other half went, it's
saying marketing has been hit or miss.
I don't know what's performing welland what isn't, but we're doing great
with our numbers, or we're not wedon't know which part is working I
think that is gonna solve a key pieceand also allow creatives to do better.
(21:05):
Because if you're saying, lasttime when we tried this, it wasn't
really a hit with the market.
That's who tells you, if it's good or not.
It's the market.
But if you have a data drivenapproach that is accurate, it'll help
influence what you create later on.
So it's gonna be smarter marketing in thatsense where, the guessing game is done.
I know this is the formula.
We've done this before.
This is our style.
(21:27):
It's time tested.
It's proven, it's a proof of concept.
And that's great for the clientbecause then they say, okay, yeah, I
see why there's a huge track recordsaying that this is the way to do it.
People, especially startups, they're veryguarded about their dollars in, how they
spend it with marketing they know it's acrucial part of their business if you have
a great product or service that the worldneeds to know about, it shouldn't be, the
(21:49):
so much heavily on the element of luck.
There should be some sortof predictability with it.
I would say that's the main focus youcan create great autobiographies, create
great content, but the engine is goingto be, truth and integrity in marketing.
Dr John Dentico (22:04):
Right, and where I think what I use it for.
In my, subscription to ChatGPT,I've uploaded a number of
different kinds of documents.
I've uploaded my book.
PDF and different things like that.
A lot of times the way I'll useit is I'll say, I wanna do this,
and I want to come at it from thisperspective so it lays out options.
(22:25):
That's one of the best things thatit does, it says, okay, here's
some things that you could do.
Here's a list of different thingsyou could do based on this.
And all of a sudden nowyou've developed that.
Okay, here's an option list.
I like this.
I like number two.
I'm gonna take number two.
I'm gonna follow that one for awhile and see where that takes me.
And that's the beauty of it.
It's like having an assistant that knowsyou real well, sitting next to you, it's
(22:51):
not a human by any stretch, just knowswhat, it's been programmed to know.
But it's like having this assistantthat sits next to you and says,
here's several options and then it maykey you in certain different areas.
So far, it's been really helpfulfor me in terms of, you get writer's
block, you've heard of Writer'sBlock, or you get Creative Block too.
(23:12):
I'm trying to go down this road, butI just can't figure out which way
yet, and it will help you do that.
So I think that's really great.
So Ryan, we're getting close to the endhere, so I'd like to ask you my favorite
question, and that is simply this.
If you had a magic wand and you couldwave it at any issue or problem in your
world, what would that problem be and why
Ryan House (23:33):
Yeah.
If I had a magic wand, I would say it'sprobably the efficiency of our time.
If we could pause time, not justelongating the day but our ability
to focus on a singular task.
If we could shut out all distractions.
That's what I would use it for.
Let me give you an example.
A lot of today's problems, not sayingthat mental health isn't a real thing.
(23:54):
It most certainly is, we are in themost medicated, time period where
depression and anxieties run rampant.
So it is a very real thing.
It's our chemicals, but it comes downto, our day to day w hen you talk
about mission, a lot of our problemscould be solved in a dark room.
Where the lights are off, it's us ina chair just thinking through things.
(24:15):
It's important not to overthink,but reflection, I think is a lost
art, we look at our ancestors andthroughout time we look at the
nineties and the creative spurt thathappened with music and books and the
introduction of genres like cyberpunk.
It was one of the most creative,time periods a lot of it was we had
a lot of time to dwell on things.
So did our ancestors 2000,3,000, 4,000 years ago.
(24:38):
They're very smart.
That's why there's somany philosophical books.
That's why some of the greatest thinkersof our time came through those periods
because they had a lot of time to sitthere ponder and think about things.
But what's going on?
Why don't we do that now?
Well, we have endless amounts,distraction in some cases I would
say phone addiction is huge, right?
It's preventing a lot of peoplefrom maximizing their potential.
(25:01):
So what would that magic wand do?
It would allow people todisregard those feelings.
The urge to reach for a phone, the urgeto consume media and to just solely focus
on whatever the task is, even if it wasjust three hours, if that one only had a,
solar powered and it only gave me threehours at a time, those three hours, a
(25:22):
meaningful, deep, concentrated work wouldbe life changes for a lot of people.
I believe that, a lot of productivityissues comes from a distracted
mind, and it's like, who's to blame?
We have to take accountability, reallyis that the case when, I look at my email
inbox and there's 900 emails that come in.
Not all of them good, most of 'em not.
I go on LinkedIn for prospecting.
(25:43):
Well, now there's an article about sometechnology, and then you click that.
So no matter where you go,every corner of society.
Is meant to distract you.
How can we shut that noise away?
I think a magic wand that could dothat, would be excellent for so many
people and maybe they would decide,I don't need the magic wand anymore.
I didn't know I could do somethingaccomplish something in such short amount
(26:04):
of time, I would say that my answer.
Dr John Dentico (26:08):
I think it's a great answer.
Thinking, just stopping tothink, I don't think is as well
used today as it should be.
Observing people, for example, inthe supermarket they're so keen about
responding to the latest text message ifthey don't instantly respond somehow that
(26:32):
shows you don't care or don't matter.
You gotta be able to shut that stuff off.
There's a time for it if you want toget involved in those kinds of things.
But you see people texting over and overat stoplights, on the highway, which now
many respects is illegal, thank God.,And you know, those kinds of things.
(26:54):
It's like if you don't, if I can'trespond instantaneously to you, somehow
I'm not part of the conversation anymore.
And I think people need totake more time to reflect.
To sit down, with your favorite beverage,and be still and call it meditation
if you'd like, but just to be stilland not try to think about things.
(27:18):
Just try to be open to the thingsthat come is such a vital part of
understanding where you are and beingable to develop, quote unquote foresight.
Knowing where you are and thenbeing able to say, well, This is
where I think I should go now basedon who I am, what I want to do.
(27:38):
Like you say, finding yourparticular mission, I don't
think you can find a mission.
If you don't take time to think aboutit, you're just reacting, it's a reaction
rather than a thoughtful response.
So I truly appreciate that.
I'll let you close out Anyother thoughts you have there?
Ryan House (27:56):
I just wanna thank you again, John, for having me on here.
What you said leads me to other things.
I feel like I could talk to you all day,but what I would close out to say is,
be more thoughtful, everybody listening.
It doesn't have to be meditation, butone of the most powerful things you
could do, and something that I do myselfevery day is to just shut down the phone.
The world won't stop spinning.
You don't have to go in adark room, but just reflect on
(28:18):
things it will change your life.
It sounds dramatic, but that'sbecause it is, you'll have more peace
and inner peace when you can thinkabout things, thoroughly when you
don't feel like you're being pulled.
Stop time for a second and justreally think about yourself.
You know, when people say that theday got away from them, or how did
these years just fly by like this?
I feel like a lot of that isbecause we are stuck in routine.
(28:41):
That's why time feels like it goesso fast you wanna stop time, get more
of yourself back and, ask yourselftough questions maybe not the most
comfortable, but you need to address.
A lot of that can be done, rehearseconversations in your head that
you want to have with somebody.
Maybe people that you haven'ttalked to in a long time.
When you think about thosereflect on a past time in your
life, maybe you'll call somebody.
(29:03):
You'll pick up the phone give 'em a calland it might be the greatest conversation,
it's more about just, don'tlose sight of what happened.
The people in your past thingsthat used to make you, happy.
You might come across those and go,i've always wanted to learn guitar.
I'm gonna do it.
Those are the types of, insightsthat come out when you just stop
just listen to your inner monologue.
(29:23):
That voice in your head.
Be friends with it.
That's what I would say.
Dr John Dentico (29:27):
Yep.
Yeah, and try not to run away from yourpast because eventually it'll catch you.
Let me tell you, it's the truth.
Listen, Ryan, I can't thank youenough for being here on the
Throttle of Leadership Podcast today.
I wish you all the successin the very happy life.
Ryan House (29:43):
You as well.
Honored.
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