Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
From high atop his
secret broadcasting Shangri-La,
overlooking New York, Miami,Austin, Seattle, and all points
in between, this is America'snumber one life coach, Daryl
Mobley.
UNKNOWN (00:17):
No!
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Hello, friends.
You are listening to The DarylMobley Show, your life coach on
the radio.
The Daryl Mobley Show is thedrama-free, success-focused,
excuses.
They are not welcome.
Forget the whining.
Make progress.
No negativity allowed.
Work your plan and zero, zilch,nada, psychobabble show.
(01:16):
Here's why.
so you can achieve your goalsand live your best life.
I'm Darrell Mobley, and I'vebeen called son, brother,
husband, dad, friend, CoachMobley, and one of the best life
coaches on the planet.
Today, right here, right now,Coach Mobley is all yours.
SPEAKER_00 (01:44):
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SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
Today is one in a
series of episodes focused on
those who have reinventedthemselves and are living the
life they dreamed of.
Reinvention is the intentionalprocess of redefining or
reshaping who you are, what youdo, or how you live.
It's all about making a boldshift in your career, identity,
(02:29):
habits, goals, or relationshipsso that your outer life better
reflects your inner values,dreams, or potential.
It's not just about change.
It's It's deeper than that.
Reinvention means becoming theperson you were meant to be or
choosing to evolve into someonewho fits your next chapter.
(02:53):
Today, I'm speaking with JohnHall.
John is the founder and CEO ofSpencer Hall, one of the
country's leading independentconsumer research and innovation
consultancies.
Spencer Hall works with Fortune500 clients, sharing their
trademarked disciplined radicalthinking to drive brand
(03:16):
reinvention.
John is a patented inventor withan amazing record creating
innovative new concepts andbranding strategies.
Prior to Spencer Hall, John hada very successful career in
brand management at Procter&Gamble.
He graduated from PrincetonUniversity and lives in
Cincinnati with his wife, Theyhave two adult children and a
(03:39):
five-month-old granddaughter whohe is already spoiling.
Let's find out why he took theleap and left a very successful
career in order to reinventhimself.
Listen as he shares the picturehe saw that made him change the
arc of his destiny.
How, why, and when he decided tocraft his own future, mistakes
(04:04):
he made, and lots more.
Oh, and you'll hear me sharewhat many do that makes them
idiots.
There'll be lots in this for youand not the idiot part.
Let's get started.
So John, how are you?
It's great to see you.
SPEAKER_03 (04:24):
Doing really well.
Awesome to see you as well.
SPEAKER_01 (04:27):
The only thing
that's changed in us maybe is
the gray in our hair.
Other than that, I think we'regood.
A little
SPEAKER_03 (04:34):
wider too.
I've got gray and a littlewidth.
SPEAKER_01 (04:36):
A little wider.
Well, you need that if you'regoing to switch positions.
That's what you're doing.
There you go.
You know, I've known you for agood amount of time as we
chatted.
And, you know, you've always,even when I wasn't saying it way
back, man, you've always beentop of the line.
for me when it comes to kind ofinsights and kind of the
reinvention of brands.
I would listen to your talk backin the day, and I always
(04:58):
thought, oh, that guy's prettygood.
He's pretty good, right?
But today I want to talk aboutthe reinvention of you, right?
You've made a number of what Ilike to call twists and turns
and pivots in your professionallife, and that's what gives
lives its spice.
Let me ask you a question.
What was your major in college?
Philosophy of religion.
Perfect.
See, I didn't know that, butthat's going to fit in what I'm
(05:20):
going to ask you.
From there, you pivoted, I'mgoing to call it a pivot, to
brand management at Procter&Gamble, which is a real
commitment, right?
And then fast forward to now,and you've invented things.
You're an inventor, which isgreat.
And you're a founder and CEO ofSpencer Hall, right?
Well, you spent, obviously, anumber of years now building
(05:40):
that up and elevating what Icall the art of consumer
research.
So I've got questions, and areyou ready?
SPEAKER_03 (05:47):
I'm ready.
I've got answers, hopefully.
SPEAKER_01 (05:49):
There you go, my
friend.
So my first question to you is,what was the defining moment
when you realized that you hadto or you simply wanted to
reinvent yourself and go in adifferent direction?
SPEAKER_03 (06:02):
You know, I don't
know that it was a singular
moment as it was sort of almosttwo pathways intersecting.
One was...
When I was, the last coupleyears that I was at Proctor, I
was running the new venturesgroup for beauty care.
And I just really loved insight,discovery, and innovation.
So I kind of said, I've got areal passion for that.
So that was on the professionalside.
On the personal side, I had ason that was 18 months old and I
(06:25):
had a daughter about to be born.
And I was really struggling withleaving my son at the office,
you know, leaving him home whileI went to the office.
And There was one moment inparticular I remember where my
wife brought him down to havelunch with me.
And actually, we have a picturein our scrapbook of him sitting
on my lap.
I'm in my corner office.
It's mid-90s, so I've got thesebeautiful leather suspenders on
(06:45):
with my dress shirt and all thatkind of thing.
And I just remember looking atthat picture going, I'd rather
be home than at the office.
And so it really was a sense of,you know, if I can kind of craft
my own destiny here, Create asituation where I can be doing
the kind of work I love, whichis insights and innovation, but
do it in a way that I can stillhave family kind of central for
(07:05):
me.
That combination of forces wouldmaybe kind of say there's got to
be something I can do different.
SPEAKER_01 (07:12):
I got to follow up
on that.
Were your parents like that?
Did you come from a home wherethat was going on?
SPEAKER_03 (07:18):
Yeah, you know, you
say that my parents are college
professors, and they actuallytaught on alternating days.
So my dad taught Tuesday andThursdays, my mom taught Monday,
Wednesday, Friday, they had mostsummers off and my dad taught
summer school a few times.
But we always had very strongparental involvement.
We had six kids.
So it was it was a houseful.
But I do think that was part ofit was that maybe it was part of
(07:39):
my DNA, was that I needed tohave family be central.
SPEAKER_01 (07:43):
What was, it sounds
wonderfully positive, glorious,
and a straight shot to heaven,got that, but here's, what was
the scariest part of making yourcareer leaps, and how did you
overcome it?
SPEAKER_03 (07:57):
Yeah.
And there were a few, I mean,the first one was obviously
walking away from a steadypaycheck and that, you know, a
nice career path at Proctor.
I mean, that was a big deal.
The second thing was, you know,thinking about going from the
client side to the supplierside, you know, and, you know,
at Proctor, we, you know, thething we loved was we got to,
you know, see things all the waythrough inception to
(08:17):
marketplace.
And I was like, am I going tomiss that execution level?
And I'm going to miss seeingthings in market along with
missing that paycheck.
And so those were the kinds ofthings that were kind of
weighing on my mind as you know,concerns, the way I overcame
them really was, it was a coupleof things.
One was, I did launch SpencerHall with my now retired
business partner, Nancy Spencer.
(08:38):
That's how we very cleverlycombined our two last names to
come up with.
SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
Very creative.
Yes, that
SPEAKER_03 (08:42):
was one of our first
innovations.
And we had complimentary skillsets.
And so I felt that that wasgoing to be helpful in terms of,
you know, not feeling like I wasjust jumping in by myself.
The other thing I think that wedid that helped us both feel
more confident was before wejumped, We had spent time kind
of laying out what our sort ofphilosophy as a company was
going to be and had sent thatout to some former colleagues
(09:04):
and had gotten feedback that wasvery, very positive.
In fact, a couple said, you quittomorrow, we'll hire you.
So we kind of knew as we madethe leap that we had a
differentiated positioning forus as a company, something that
was offering a value, and we hadsome potential clients that were
interested.
So that really helped mitigatesome of the risk of that jump.
But I still had that naggingconcern about, am I going to
(09:25):
miss seeing things all the waythrough the market.
And what I found over time was Iget such joy in delivering a
great idea, you know, eitheruncovering that nugget of
insight that the client's like,wow, that's great.
We can do a lot with that or anew product idea.
I honestly didn't miss theexecutional parts of it.
You know, you did not.
You did not.
I ended up not missing that.
SPEAKER_01 (09:45):
Yeah.
You didn't miss those meetingsand sitting in there?
SPEAKER_03 (09:49):
No.
Worrying about cost of goods andprocess throughputs and all
that?
No.
SPEAKER_01 (09:54):
Let me ask you a
question about that because it's
something that I know many ofthe people who hear this might
be taken aback by it, but again,you know me, here we are.
I think there's a big differencein leading your life when you
head into meetings and yourconcern is getting promoted as
(10:18):
compared to heading in meetingsand you really are oriented on,
I got to make a difference,right?
I mean, I think there's, and themindset is different because I
deal, most people I deal withThey're concerned.
Am I getting promoted?
What does my boss think?
You walked away from that.
Did you think about thatreality?
Did you have to deal with that?
SPEAKER_03 (10:37):
The equivalent of
getting promoted was getting
paid, making sure that we weregoing to continue to have work.
The nature of our company is wework on a project basis.
Early on, I was always joking,I'm unemployed three months out.
That was our project horizon.
You have to continually bebringing in the new business.
It really It really was morenow, not worrying about
(10:59):
promotions and accolades andthat kind of thing.
It was more creating really coolideas or finding that really
interesting nugget of insightthat really got us fired up.
I can remember times when wewere just starting the company.
We were busy.
We had done some research with aclient all day one day, and we
had to do some work the next daywith another client.
We're driving late at night.
(11:20):
I'm driving.
Nancy was next to me on thecomputer.
We're creating concepts as wego.
You know, just get that kind ofenergizing kind of a feel.
So it wasn't worried aboutpromotion.
It was worried about and itwasn't really worried.
It was focused on doing reallyfun, interesting work.
SPEAKER_01 (11:36):
Yeah, that's good.
What would you say is thebiggest mistake you made while
reinventing yourself?
And what did you learn fromthat?
SPEAKER_03 (11:44):
You know, when we
started, it was just the two of
us.
And as we decided to grow, thefirst area we wanted to kind of
expand our capabilities washaving our own research
moderators.
When we first started, we werekind of using our clients'
moderators.
And what we found was thatlimited our effectiveness to how
good the moderator was.
We could develop a discussionguide, but if the moderator, you
know, didn't have that abilityto know what was worth probing
(12:06):
off the page and that kind ofthing, you might not get the
kind of insights you wanted tohave.
So we said, we need to hire ourown and start, you know, create
a division of research services.
And so when we started to hiremoderators, we kind of put a
premium on interpersonal skills.
We really wanna make sure we hadpeople that we could felt like
we could see them really engagewith consumers and get them to
(12:27):
dialogue.
What we got wrong on that wasyes, that interpersonal
engagement was important, Butprobably as important, if not
more important, was having abusiness background to really
understand what was worthchasing down, especially in
qualitative research, you know,because you do set up that
discussion guide, but it is, youknow, the magic comes when a
moderator knows to ask aquestion that wasn't on the
(12:49):
guide, you know, to ask afollow-up probe, and we were
missing that.
So we had some mishires as wegot started that, you know, and
that was always painful to haveto tell people, it's not going
to work out.
But what we basically were ableto do is say, our model for an
effective moderator is somebodythat's coming to to us with
decades of experience i meanwe're talking people that have
20 plus years of experience onthe client side whether in the
(13:11):
marketing side or the researchside or the product development
side was it was people that knewwhat to do with what they were
hearing knew what to chase downand then knew how to make what
we heard actionable so that wasour biggest mistake was just
saying figuring out what wasthat right skill set that we
needed for research
SPEAKER_01 (13:29):
And then the pain of
telling people it's not going to
work out.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's one thing you don'tface sitting in the meetings,
many of the meetings atpractice.
If you could go back now,thinking back, because we have
perfect hindsight as perfection,what would you do differently in
your reinvention journey?
(13:49):
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SPEAKER_03 (14:27):
I think I would have
pushed us to maybe scale up
faster than we did.
And it's a balancing act becauseone of the things, again, that I
did want to do was create a bigorganization and have a
bureaucracy be made of people.
I mean, I love rolling mysleeves up and getting into the
work.
And the other thing was webasically have been profitable
since we started.
So we never didn't take on debt,didn't work with partners.
(14:50):
In hindsight, I might havelooked at ways to do that more
proactively to maybe build up abigger company that would allow
us to have um differentcapabilities you know we're
primarily a qualitative firmthere might be an opportunity to
build more of a quantitativeside that kind of a thing but it
like i said i mean i balancethat with i don't know how much
i would have wanted to change inhow i got to do the work that
(15:11):
i've been able to do
SPEAKER_01 (15:14):
So you've enjoyed
the journey.
It's been fun.
It's been enlightening.
It's been all these wonderful,great things.
If you tweak that, I've alwayssaid, you pull one domino out,
maybe they don't fall the sameway, right?
You think if we just do this,it'll make everything so much
better.
And sometimes different is notbetter.
Sometimes different is justdifferent.
And sometimes different ishorrible.
So that's there.
(15:35):
Yeah, this is, that's veryinteresting.
Yeah.
All right.
So what habits did you developum that helped you succeed in
this new journey's new careerpath that you took
SPEAKER_03 (15:48):
well you know the
first thing was i had to learn
how to use a computer because imean you know all right mid 90s
so that's some partial defensebut also you know proctor way
you know you had an administadministrative assistant i
dictated email was just startingi would have the secretary print
them out and bring me the emailsand write my response back so i
had to learn that But beyondthat, I think one of the biggest
habits was really having thissense of self-determination and
(16:12):
proactivity to really be able tosay, you know, here's where we
are.
Where do I want to go?
What are some, you know, needsor opportunities we've
identified that we want to beable to develop new capabilities
for new services for and havingthat ability to just continually
be looking ahead?
I mean, we've, you know, wepioneered.
a number of differentinnovations in the research and
(16:33):
innovation space.
We came up with this idea ofthese, we call them sounding
boards, but they're digitalplatforms for research that we
started probably 15 to 18 yearsago.
It allowed us to recruitrespondents and interact with
them multiple times.
The way we developed this onlineprocess for idea generation,
what we call discipline radicalthinking, was another example of
being able to see an opportunityto do a better job for
(16:56):
brainstorming and we developedthat so i mean that ability to
kind of push out and say youknow sort of a healthy
dissatisfaction that was a habiti learned i think the third
thing i learned was um reallykind of the importance of
compartmentalization you knowbeing able to working from home
which our company is virtual umso i've been you know remote for
(17:17):
29 years now and our folks areyou know we've got some folks
where i'm here in cincinnati butothers around the country but
having the ability to kind ofmake sure when I'm home and I'm
busy or need to work that I canwork.
And that was especiallychallenging when I had little
kids in the house, you know,they've now grown, but having
that ability to kind of be ableto hone in on what I need to do,
get that taken care of, youknow, take the breaks when
(17:37):
needed, but being able to reallyhave the focus in the midst of,
some joyful chaos, if you will,during
SPEAKER_01 (17:46):
the year.
Now, you mentioned disciplined,radical thinking.
Is that correct?
Could you explain that to melike I'm an eight-year-old?
Because I'm ready.
SPEAKER_03 (17:54):
Yeah.
So, I mean, the genesis of thiswas when we started, we would do
the typical kind of ideageneration sessions.
You bring people into a site.
We typically tried to do thingsat a really cool off-site venue.
You know, you'd have someinteresting exercises to get
people to be really stimulated,but we kind of felt like we
weren't getting consistently thekind of breakthrough ideas that
(18:14):
we wanted to have.
And so the thought was, can webring in fresh perspective?
And we started bringing in intothese idea generation sessions,
two to three outsiders, youknow, people that were, whether
they're trend experts or theywere, you know, had some
interesting background that wasin a, you know, a skill set
adjacent to what our clientshad.
And I just saw the value thatthat fresh perspective had
coming in, kind of challengingconventional wisdom.
(18:36):
So I started to say, how can Ido that on a bigger scale?
How can I get, instead of two tothree people, a dozen folks that
come at it from all sorts ofdifferent angles?
That's the radical part of it.
And then the thought was, wecreated this brain trust.
So over the years, I've beenbuilding a network of folks that
I can bring in on assignmentsthat will help create ideas with
the client team.
The other part of our processwas, rather than trying to lock
(18:58):
everybody in a room for a coupleof days and pound the creativity
out of them, we developed adigital platform that allows for
asynchronous idea generationover multiple days.
And what we found, it's reallywhat I call the power of pause.
It lets people get on the site.
We typically would say, if asession's running over three
days, block out three times eachday for about an hour at a time
that you're on the site,creating ideas, seeing other
people's ideas, building onthose.
(19:20):
So you get that sort ofcollaborative energy if you're
all together.
This power of pause and beingable to log off and disengage,
think, let your mind kind ofwander.
That we found was really freeingand helping people think more
creatively.
Because I'll do my best creativethinking drive and I may go for
a drive, others will go for arun.
It just lets you tap into howyou can find the creative
cadence that's best for you.
That combination of radicaloutsiders using this digital
(19:44):
platform asynchronously we foundgenerates a lot better ideas in
locking people in a room wherethere's a tendency to fall to
more status quo thinking, tryingto come up with ideas on the
spot.
We also found challenges withkind of group think where the
loudest voice in the room, andthat can be literally the
loudest voice or figurativelysenior voices could dominate
that got in the way of peoplebeing as creative as they could
(20:05):
be, because they kind of fall inlockstep behind those leaders.
All of that allowed us to do abetter job of innovation.
And that was just an example,like I said, of seeing an
opportunity And knowing, hey, itwas up to us, we could create
whatever solution we thought wasbest for it.
That was the genesis ofdisciplined radical thinking.
SPEAKER_01 (20:22):
Wow.
I was thinking about it.
As you were going through it, Iwas thinking about application
of that in a lot of other areasof life, right?
And this is very good.
I remember back when theystarted the whole...
dealing with COVID, I rememberwe heard quite frequently the
all of government or the wholeof government approach.
(20:43):
They bring all these people fromall these areas, which they
never do.
They're in their silos.
Bring them in.
How do we solve this problem?
How do we address it?
I know in the military, thathappens a lot.
You bring in people.
How do we address this challengeover here?
How do we deal with it?
You're right.
The radical part is people whoare not connected, at least from
(21:03):
my perspective.
People who are not connected tothe answer, providing
perspective on the answer.
Because, you know, once you'reconnected, and again, maybe
you're trying, as you say, youget in a group and you're trying
to fall in line or you're tryingto, you know, be one big happy
kumbaya as opposed to forget allthat.
Here's what I think.
Here's how this works.
When did you start that?
And that still is going to thisday?
SPEAKER_03 (21:24):
Yeah, yeah.
We started probably about 15years ago.
And like I said, we built upthis database of experts I can
draw on.
If I need other specificexpertise we don't have, we've
got resources I can find it.
And that's another benefit of itbeing virtual is people can
participate anywhere in theworld.
The other thing that's kind offun and interesting about what
we do with the platform is whenpeople are on it, they're
(21:44):
actually participatinganonymously.
So your first creative exerciseis come up with a fun secret
identity screen name Okay.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
(22:08):
Maybe your idea is an idea thatthe world's not ready for, but
by posting it, somebody thatwouldn't have thought of
anything otherwise might seethat, and that'll trigger a new
thought for them that becomessomething that really is cool.
So really, it is allowing thatblend of different perspectives
to kind of work together, asyou're saying, to really come up
with inventive thinking.
SPEAKER_01 (22:26):
Okay, so now you've
got my mind blown and spinning
in circles.
I'm going to ask a question.
Maybe you've never been askedthis question before, but I
think there's something here,even beyond your business, Is
there a way that we can think ofright now that that way of
thinking that you're talkingabout can apply to someone
trying to understand a careermove they might make or a family
(22:49):
situation they might want todeal with or whatever?
Can you think of, you're theexpert, you created this son of
a gun, so any applicationsbeyond business?
SPEAKER_03 (22:59):
Absolutely.
And I think the key is, and thisis what I always tell clients
too when we're looking atdifferent industries, The key is
what is that mix of perspectivesI'm going to bring in that's
most helpful to you?
So, you know, if it's the kindof thing where it's, you know,
how do I deal with a toughpersonal situation?
Maybe it is bringing in peoplethat are, you know, experts of
whether it's a wellness thing,family relationship dynamics,
you know, consumer psychology,whatever.
(23:20):
We figure out what is that rightmix of perspective and really
emphasizing the diversionperspectives.
I mean, I think it's...
Because if you had a marketingproblem, you brought all
marketing people in there,you're not gonna get the kind of
breakthrough thinking if you haddifferent backgrounds.
Same thing with these thingsoutside the business world, but
it would be a matter of saying,what kind of perspective would
be most helpful for me inthinking through a particular
(23:41):
challenge or opportunity um andyou know we've used we did it we
did a project actually for anindependent school where they
wanted to more strategize abouthow education needs to change in
the 21st century and so it was amix of it was actually a mix of
faculty and parents and thensome other thought leaders that
were part of this session andagain the anonymity was helpful
because it allowed parents andfaculty to be very you know
(24:03):
forthcoming on yeah and thatkind of a thing so
SPEAKER_01 (24:07):
That had to be, and
now I'm thinking about what
could have come out in such ameeting, that had to be very
interesting.
SPEAKER_03 (24:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:13):
Yeah, that would be,
we need more of that.
I'll just say that.
I'll leave that over in thecorner.
We need more of that.
So, you know, I know this fromalso a life lived that all
meaningful endeavors, includingbusiness success, and you guys
have been very successful, youare successful.
are very challenging.
So did you ever think aboutdoing one of those challenging
(24:34):
moments, giving up or goingback?
Or did somebody offer yousomething?
Hey, you know, we could take youin our company.
Did you ever have to deal withthat?
And if so, what kept you goingin the direction you've gone?
SPEAKER_03 (24:44):
You know, I really
haven't.
I mean, I think we've been luckyin having a continued, you know,
pace of business, you know,clients that we get repeat work
with.
And like I said, the work is somuch fun.
And the way I kind of look at itis I'm being intellectually
challenged and stimulated on aregular basis.
And so that's made it fun to do.
So I haven't had any sense of, Iwanna go back to the corporate
(25:08):
side, on the client side oranything like that.
I mean, I've loved theflexibility that I have now.
So I've been very, very lucky inthat regard.
SPEAKER_01 (25:14):
All these babies,
they're nice, but if I go back
to the corporate side, I wantedto deal with their loving chaos.
You didn't say that is whatyou're saying.
For the record.
Okay, just want to make sure.
What unexpected challenges haveyou faced that no one warned you
about?
SPEAKER_03 (25:32):
You know, I think
the biggest one that continues
to be a challenge today is justmanaging cash flow.
You know, I mean, we're still arelatively small company.
what i found now more and moreis clients are extending their
payment terms and we have someclients that won't pay for 120
days and we're advancing youknow tens of thousands of
dollars on their behalf onprojects right and having to
manage that cycle um that'salways been a challenge for us
(25:55):
is just kind of how do you howdo you deal with that most
effectively and you know in somecases we're able to tell the
clients that's an unacceptablelength of time and get some you
know provisions made in othercases we just have to kind of
ride it out and say You know,that's our reality.
We're going to be having tofront this money for a while and
deal with it.
So that's been kind of a bit ofa challenge.
(26:17):
I've been lucky in that from aworkforce standpoint, we've been
able to get people that staywith us for a long time.
So I haven't had to deal withthe employee turnover or that
kind of a thing.
I mean, like I said, we had someissues up front when we had
researchers that weren't theright fit.
Sometimes we've had people thatweren't comfortable with working
remotely at all times and thatkind of thing.
But for me personally, it's beena great ride.
(26:39):
I mean, it's hard for me tobelieve it's been almost 29
years now, but I've been very,very lucky.
SPEAKER_01 (26:43):
29 years of success.
Yes.
All right.
Very good.
Very good.
Any unexpected challenges?
Anything jumping out at youthat, and like scared you, like
came out of nowhere other than,other than the, you know,
getting paid?
SPEAKER_03 (27:00):
No.
SPEAKER_01 (27:03):
The management of
people, the recessions or
whatever they have been through.
I mean, when you, you've been inbusiness 29 years, you've seen
everything.
Think of what you've seen.
You've seen war, famine, you'veseen, up and down sideways
you've seen society changeanything unexpected that you
said oh my god
SPEAKER_03 (27:23):
no you know we've
had ebbs and flows like anybody
being you know as you mentioned2008 2009 we're we're
challenging years um but we'vegot sort of the way we organize
our our people it gives us theability to flex as we need to
we've been lucky in that regardum I think the thing that now
that's an interesting dynamic inour industry is a lot more DIY.
There's a lot more researchtools that companies can use and
(27:46):
do themselves.
A lot of people still say, I canjust do an idea generation
session.
I'll bring in pizza and bringpeople in.
And so really managing againstthat dynamic, because I think
while there is someopportunities where that kind of
thing makes sense, I do think ina lot of cases, it's going to be
short-sighted.
I think a lot of the DIY toolson the research side are really
(28:08):
good at telling you the what.
They don't really tell you thewhy, and that's where you need
to do more work.
And then the innovation side,like I said, I think a lot of
times when people are trying todo idea generation sessions
themselves, they end up withmore incremental ideas.
But that's a dynamic where, andI think part of it's driven by
some of the cost pressures thatcompanies are feeling right now,
that there's been more of a pushto do things themselves.
(28:28):
And I think we're trying to kindof have to go against those
headwinds a little bit.
So I think that's going to be achallenging environment, I
think, in the near term.
SPEAKER_01 (28:36):
Let me say this for
those at the back of the room,
John.
If you are a businessentrepreneur, and you really
want to grow, you're an idiot ifyou think that you can just pull
guys together with pizza andyou're going to get the very
best ideas.
I'll say it.
Let me say it.
(28:56):
This is not John saying it toanybody.
This is me saying that becausefor all the reasons we talked
about, all the pressures and thedirections and the angles that
come with internal stuff, whichis great.
It has its purpose.
But man, if you want toreally...
leap forward there's it's youhave to have somebody in that
group who doesn't care iremember when i learned about it
(29:18):
let me offend everyone out therewho's listening right now i
remember when he should talkabout the uh intrapreneurship as
if it was like entrepreneurshipin the corporate world we got an
entrepreneur we got this andthat they're so different as
It's just now, after a bunch ofyears like you doing this, you
(29:39):
realize, yeah, no, there's notthe same.
There's nowhere near the same.
As I said, the things you wantto get right and why are
different to me, and that leadsto a different outcome and also
a different process.
Okay, so enough of me hammeringbusinesses that are being
foolish.
You've been successful.
You were successful when I metyou.
(29:59):
You were successful before I metyou.
wonderful family.
That's all developed.
All this is great.
Having said that, if I said,you're going to snap your
fingers or you're going to wakeup the next morning and you need
to have reinvented yourself onemore time, what would you do?
Where would you go next?
SPEAKER_03 (30:20):
You know, I would
probably go into something
related to education.
You know, I think part of thatcoming from the, you know,
college parents upbringing, I'vedone guest lecturing.
I love, you know, helping peoplegrow, you know, develop their
skills and their talents.
So I could see doing somethinglike that.
You know, I've been involved ina lot with our kids' education.
(30:43):
I was, you know, on the board attheir school and all that, and
really, you know, enjoyedhelping develop the school and
its curriculum and that kind ofthing.
So I could see that as beingsomething that would be of
interest to me.
SPEAKER_01 (30:53):
Okay.
Okay.
Yep.
I can see you doing it.
I can see you standing in frontof the class and me sitting in
the class, my hand on my fistthinking, When is he going to
get to the point?
It wouldn't be you, but I'mthinking about professors.
SPEAKER_03 (31:05):
I did a guest
lecture at an unnamed university
a couple years ago, and I hadthe opportunity.
I was brought in halfway throughthe lecture, so I was standing
in the back of the room so Icould see the laptops of the
students as the professor wastalking.
Well, more than half of themwere shopping, social media, and
(31:25):
all that kind of stuff.
It looks like they're typing,but the reality was they were
not.
So I can see it from thatviewpoint.
Now, hopefully when I went inthe front of them, they were
more attentive, but I think thatis a dynamic.
SPEAKER_01 (31:35):
Yeah, we can dream,
can't we?
Exactly.
So now let me twist intosomething most people don't
bring up publicly, but I get toask it.
Who is it that never doubtedyou?
Who you know, they will ride ordie with you.
They were in that foxhole withyou.
From beginning through now, theynever blinked.
(31:58):
Let's take a quick break.
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(32:22):
freebies.
SPEAKER_03 (32:26):
I'd have to say my
wife.
I give her a ton of credit.
Again, working from home, Iwould bounce things off of her.
Both of her parents, I mean,we're in Cincinnati, so both of
her parents retired from Procter& Gamble.
She'd worked at Procter& Gamblebefore we had her son.
And for her to even let me makethat jump with an 18-month-old
and a daughter about to be bornto say, yeah, you can walk away
(32:48):
from a company that I knowtreated my parents well for
their entire careers.
I gave her a ton of credit forthat.
And then she has stood by me thewhole way.
It really is, you know, acounsel to me.
And I will tell you, I mean, shehas been, she has served various
roles.
She's been my chief technicalofficer, you know, when I didn't
know how to fix a laptop or whatI should get to plug it, my
(33:09):
chief financial officer and allthat.
But she's been, she has been arock.
I mean, I give her all thecredit in the world for not
pulling her hair out when I saidI wanted to leave P&G.
SPEAKER_01 (33:19):
I was at a meeting
and the question came up about
love.
Versus when you got marriedyears ago, most of the people in
the room, if they were marriedor had been married, they would
have been married like 20 years.
I mean, long enough to be intoit.
And in typical, maybe I shouldkeep my mouth shut fashion,
(33:43):
people were saying things,saying things, saying things
about his love, the same asever, blah, blah, blah.
And so I raised my hands and mywife was beside me and said, no,
it's completely different thanhim.
I mean...
because we built thingstogether.
I mean, we're not what we werewhen we were, we hadn't built
it.
We were just together, but wehadn't built anything together.
We hadn't had kids and seen themgrow and taken them through
(34:05):
school and sports and this andacademics and this and that and
girlfriends and boyfriends andnow professional.
I said, when you're buildingsomething with someone and
they're with you, I said, lovehas a whole different angle to
it.
Now, I'm sure you didn't thinkyou'd get on this podcast with
me today and talk about love andthat sort of thing.
But what are your thoughts abouthow your relationships, your key
(34:29):
relationships that you broughtup, you might have evolved
through this process of growingthis company?
SPEAKER_03 (34:36):
Yeah, I mean, I
think what you said is well said
in terms of it being a realpartnership on building
relationships.
not only in business, but howyou're gonna live, how you raise
your kids.
I think we're at the point now,we've got the benefit of saying,
we did all right.
Our kids are both doing reallywell.
We have a very closerelationship with them.
Now I'm excited about the newgranddaughter and that whole
(34:59):
generation happening and all.
I think that's really key.
On the work side, similar kindof a thing in terms of really
valuing the people that I workwith.
As I mentioned, we've been verylucky that people have been with
us for 15, 20 plus years.
We all share that sameenthusiasm for the work we do,
but I think it is also a senseof we band together to make this
(35:21):
thing work?
SPEAKER_01 (35:23):
Most of the people
who are listening to us and
watching us, they'reprofessionals.
They have careers.
They're pursuing careers mostlyin corporations.
A lot of entrepreneurs took mostof corporations.
I've never heard you call thatrelationship guru.
That has nothing to do with you.
I've never heard you call it.
What I'm going to ask you now isputting you in that space.
(35:45):
If you had one piece of advice,that you provide to the people
listening.
Let me say one other thing.
One thing that I believe, andI've always believed, going back
to the time when you and I wereyounger together in the
corporate world, professionalsuccess without personal success
is no deal.
It's no deal.
(36:06):
So it sounds to me like that'swhere you are and have been.
Okay, great.
Having said that now, is thereany advice, tip, Anything you
might give to people listening,say, listen, here's, you know,
I'm not, I may not be the legitguru, but here's what has worked
for me or us.
Any advice you want to givepeople?
SPEAKER_03 (36:24):
You know, I, I would
say to be truly forthcoming and
honest.
I mean, I think there is atendency to hold back, you know,
to hold back, whether it's fearsto hold back insecurities, you
know, or apprehensions, youknow, And I think to voice
those, you know, I mean, on apersonal level, my wife and I
are very, very different.
I mean, she is very extrovertedand all that.
(36:45):
I have my work persona where I'mvery extroverted, but
personally, I tend to bequieter.
And, you know, and I've sharedthat with her.
And, you know, so we, you know,make sure we accommodate, you
know, both our interests whenwe're out with friends or what
we're doing as activities,whether it's just as a couple.
But in the workspace, samething.
I think really being willing toadmit you're not sure this is
the best path forward or, youYou know, I'm not sure how I
(37:07):
want to handle this.
I think that's a part ofbuilding relationship, part of
building trust.
SPEAKER_01 (37:13):
Wow.
So now I'm going to slide you onthat scale toward relationship
guru.
You can now wear that band.
Do I get a
SPEAKER_03 (37:20):
hat?
SPEAKER_01 (37:22):
You will get a hat.
Yes, we must get you a hat.
If you promise you'll wear it.
I don't think the introvert willwant to wear the hat, but if you
promise you'll wear it, I'll behappy to get you a hat.
SPEAKER_04 (37:33):
Sure.
SPEAKER_01 (37:33):
Oh, shit.
Absolutely.
All right, then.
So here we are.
You have been fantastic.
Let me get this out right now.
How can people contact you?
They want to grow theirbusiness.
They want to have breakthroughs.
They want to do all thewonderful things.
How can they contact you if theyhave a business need, you know,
or maybe they want to haverelationship advice?
I don't know.
SPEAKER_03 (37:52):
Well, the easiest
way is our website is
spencerhall.com.
So there's a contact us buttonthere.
I'm on LinkedIn, John Hall,J-O-N, no H, John Hall.
And I can be reached that way aswell.
And I'd be more than happy toengage with any kind of
conversations and makeconnections.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (38:09):
Let me tell everyone
who's hearing this, watching
this, that this is the John Hallthat I knew a long time ago.
And I find that Impressive.
It's wonderful.
Sometimes life takes people andtwists them and bends them and
the person you knew is not theperson that you know.
(38:30):
And I just want to say, I'mreally impressed that those
people can keep that positiveenergy that I saw when we were
young.
John, thank you so much forthat.
You've been wonderful to speakwith.
I appreciate you, and I thinkour audience will take lots from
your journey professionally andall those kind of wonderful
things, but also the personalside, because that comes out of
what you do.
(38:51):
Best of fortune to you, yourwonderful wife, your kids, the
grands, I'm being presumptive,the grands, and I just want to
thank you for the time you giveme, okay?
SPEAKER_03 (39:02):
I really enjoy it.
Thank you, Darrell.
Appreciate
SPEAKER_01 (39:07):
it.
Friends, thank you for joiningme on The Darrell Mobley Show.
your life coach, on the radio.
Today we covered John Hall's onepiece of advice to others on
what has worked for him in hisrelationships.
Why he struggled with combiningcorporate success with the
(39:27):
family life he wanted.
How to reinvent yourself tomatch the life you want to live.
The power of a differentiatedpositioning and a strong
relationship.
value proposition, the magic inself-determination, the value of
Spencer Hall's disciplinedradical thinking, and lots more.
(39:54):
Good stuff there.
Let's do it again next week.
Same bat-time, same bat-channel.
Remember this, my friends.
In life, You don't get what'sfair.
You don't get what's good.
You don't get what's nice.
(40:16):
You don't get what you deserve.
You don't get what you wish for.
And you do not get what youneed.
In life, my friends, you getwhat you do.
Period.
Make the person in the mirror,that's you.
(40:39):
Do the right things and you willwin at the game of life.
One more thing.
Your life will not get better bychance.
Your life will get better fromchange.
A reminder.
If you'd like to have me as yourcoach or make suggestions for an
(40:59):
upcoming podcast, please go tocoachmobley.com and send me a
message.
Believe.
Think, act, win, and say it withme, enjoy life.
Why?
Because the best is yet to come.
(41:24):
Hey, wife, I love you and thekids.
See you soon.
Bye-bye now.
By the way, share this podcastwith your friends.
Also, be sure and like andsubscribe to this podcast.
wherever you get your podcast.
SPEAKER_02 (41:42):
They don't teach
this stuff in school.
And who do you propose teachthis class?
You're on the air with DarylMobley, your life coach on the
radio.