What if everything you thought you knew about personal change was wrong? Michael Lopez, author of the Amazon bestselling book "Change: Six Science-Backed Strategies to Transform Your Brain, Body and Behavior," shatters conventional wisdom with science-backed insights that revolutionize how we approach transformation.
Drawing from his diverse background as a consultant, intelligence officer, athlete, and youth coach, Lopez reveals why most change efforts fail despite our best intentions. The problem isn't lack of motivation—it's that we're working against our brain's natural mechanisms rather than with them.
The conversation explores fascinating neuroscience concepts in accessible terms. Lopez explains that after age 25, our brains stop creating new neurons but can repurpose existing neural pathways—like deer creating trails through a forest by walking the same paths repeatedly. This means successful change requires not just adding new behaviors but consciously identifying what we'll give up to create space.
Most surprising is Lopez's perspective on stress. While chronic stress harms us, intentionally exposing ourselves to short-term, managed discomfort actually strengthens our anterior cingulate cortex—the brain region responsible for doing hard things. This explains why athletes often demonstrate exceptional mental toughness and why challenging ourselves regularly builds our capacity for change.
Whether you're a leader guiding organizational transformation, an athlete pushing performance boundaries, or simply someone wanting to break stubborn habits, Lopez offers practical strategies that work with your brain's natural processes. His approach isn't about willpower or motivation tricks—it's about understanding the biological foundations of change and leveraging them for lasting transformation.
Ready to develop change as a lifelong skill? This episode illuminates the path forward with the profound question: "Who might you be on the other side of what you're afraid of?"
Connect with Michael:
Personal Website
Book
LinkedIn
Thanks for listening in to the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Please take just a minute to share this podcast with that someone you know that you thought of when you heard this episode. One of the most valuable things you can do is to rate the podcast and leave a review. You can do that on Apple podcasts, or rate the podcast on Spotify or any other platform you listen.
Did you know that many of the things that I discuss on the Uncommon Leader Podcast are subjects that I coach other leaders and organizations ? If you would be interested in having me discuss 1:1 or group coaching with you, or know someone who is looking to move from Underperforming to Uncommon in their business or life, I would love to chat with you. Click this link to set up a FREE CALL to discuss how coaching might benefit you and your team)
Until next time, Go and Grow Champions!!
actually also the emotionalrelease of giving something up
that you might experience as aloss, Whether it's time, whether
it's a pattern of belief thathas been holding you back.
(00:21):
You've got to make space forsomething new.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey, uncommon Leaders
, welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast.
I'm your host, john Gallagher,and I've got a great guest for
you today.
Diverse guest for you authorMichael Lopez, who's written the
Amazon bestselling book ChangeSix Science-Backed Strategies to
Transform your Brain, body andBehavior.
Looking forward to having aconversation with him about that
today.
A little bit about him, thoughHis career spans something that
(00:56):
I think is really cool, from aconsulting background at KPMG
and at Booz Allen Hamilton, butalso as an intelligence officer
in the US intelligence.
So maybe we can learn some coolstuff beyond that as well.
And then certainly even totoday, as a high school and
youth coach, we'll learn alittle bit about his athletic
(01:17):
background and how he hasinfluence on the young youth in
our communities today as well.
So, michael Lopez, welcome tothe Uncommon Leader Podcast.
Great to have you on the show.
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Thanks for having me,
john.
I'm great.
I'm excited to talk about itand share some time with you,
and certainly your podcast hasjust been inspiring to me, so
I'm happy to contribute to it.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Excellent.
Well, I'm fascinated by some ofthe topics we're going to talk
about today, but I'll stillstart you out with the first
question I always ask myfirst-time guests, and that's to
tell me a story from yourchildhood that still impacts who
you are today, as a person oras a leader.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, you know, I
would say it was actually at my
later high school time.
You know, I played high schoolfootball.
You mentioned this.
I played college football andone of my high school head coach
I played quarterback.
I'm not very big, I'm like five, seven, 150 pounds in high
school and uh, he told me I'dnever played college football
and uh, I just remember a coupleof things.
(02:15):
A that was incredibly, um, youknow, hard to hear from someone
who's supposed to be guiding youand encouraging you and lifting
you up, but it also becameincredibly motivating.
And I remember just thinking tomyself I'm never going to let
someone else tell me what I canand can't do.
And so for me, it just became aplace to lean into.
And you know, when I coachathletes, when I work with young
(02:39):
people, when I work with otherleaders, you know the story that
you'll never do something, youcan't do something.
You know the story that you'llnever do something, you can't do
something.
You know those are the wordsthat hold us back.
And so for me, you know, mywhole life's been about doing a
lot of things that people said Icouldn't, and not to prove
anyone else wrong, but to provemyself right.
And you know, I think for meit's just been an ethos that I
(03:00):
live by and you know, myresponsibility as a parent is to
demonstrate that to my kids.
As a leader, that todemonstrate that to my teams and
, you know, as a consultant, toto demonstrate that to my
clients and everywhere inbetween.
So, yeah, that's that's kind ofthe big one for me.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, and it sounds
like you've studied it pretty
deep when we think about thebook and I love you know, I love
the word uh, as you get into itneuroscience, that component of
it.
So there are not a lot of folksthat start to write about that.
But let's start there with thebook.
Even before, neuroscience iswho did?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
you write this book
and why did you write it?
Who did you write it for andwhy did you write it?
Yeah, yeah, it really is.
I started writing it becauseyou mentioned my consulting
career.
I've been in and around theworld of change for a long time,
helping clients with a numberof issues, whether it's culture
or strategy or operations, orthey bought something, they sold
something that you know all ofthe reasons why you help
organizations try to change insome way and I became aware of
(03:59):
that kind of keenly that thestrategies we were using to try
to help companies change weren'treally working.
And that's the first insight.
The second one was that youknow, the only person you can
change is yourself, and so wewere doing things that I think
felt good organizationallybecause it approximated momentum
(04:20):
, but it wasn't really changingpeople.
And so I really the lastseveral years, have kind of been
on a crusade to change thatconversation.
You know, as a coach, as anathlete, we know so much about
the body and how to driveadaptation, we show up to work
and we forget all those things.
Right, we forget how to changebehavior because the same
strategies apply.
So that's why I started writingit.
(04:40):
I actually started writingabout organizations first and
realized about a third of theway through I needed to go back
to the basic principles of theindividual right.
What's happening to us at themicroscopic level when we try to
change?
What stops us from changing?
And then, how do I leveragethose systems to actually
accomplish my goals?
So you know, that's what it'sall about, and it's really for
(05:03):
anyone the CEO all the way downto the, to the parent, to the
child, anyone in between who isstruggling to accomplish their
goals, and that's, that's.
That's really what it's allabout.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I love the strategies
, how they to your point, how
they go across.
If you will, it's not justabout change in your work.
It's about changing your homeas well, in terms of some of
your personal behaviors that goalong with that.
So many different things thatgo on your relationships that
you have outside of your home,your faith, your finances all
those things come into play andchange is the primary constant,
(05:37):
if you will, that exists insideof that space.
Now you talk about some of thebad habits within your book that
exists.
So, as you've studied that, asyou brought it about, what are
some of the big barriers thatyou see that people run into
that prevent them from changing?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Uh, you know it, we're, we're,we're.
Just, we're into March already,which is kind of crazy to think
, but we all did the new year'sresolution thing and you know,
to some degree.
Um, you know, one of the thingsthat drives us into change
struggles, uh, a, we try tochange too many things at once,
right?
So we, I want to be a betterparent, I want to make more
(06:16):
money, I want to get a differentjob, I want to be a better
spouse, I want to be morepatient, I want to read more.
You know, pick your list ofstuff, and what I tell people is
uh, at the beginning of theyear, pick four goals and do one
a quarter, and, and you know,we just try to do too many
things at once.
And uh, and that's primarily,if you read the book, we can
(06:37):
talk about it.
The way we learn as adults isvery different than the way we
learn as kids.
It requires focus, it requiresrepetition, it requires
unlearning some things, which isan interesting concept.
So that's the first thing I'dsay.
B, change, by definition,requires effort, right, habits
are things that we do withoutthinking about them, and that's
(07:01):
efficient, right?
We like efficiency in all sortsof ways.
People like it, companies likeit, teams like it.
But in order to change something, I've got to deliver effort,
and effort requires motivationand effort requires stress and
struggle, and you know, most ofus don't really have a strong
relationship with those twoconcepts.
When things get difficult, wetend to tap out kind of early
(07:23):
and I'd say that's you know.
See, there's others.
But just to keep it to three,we give up on our goals way too
soon.
We always overestimate how longit will take to get to where we
want to go and for most of us,having a better understanding of
the time horizon that'sactually going to happen and how
to keep my motivation goingthrough that right, because life
(07:43):
is just a series of start-stopexperiences.
And so those are three bigthings that I think most people
tend to get wrong when theystart on their path to goal
pursuit.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I love that,
especially that first one.
Again, we have a tendencycertainly to overestimate what
we can do in the short term.
Again, four goals for a year,that seems pretty reasonable.
But to your point about takingone of those goals per quarter,
I love that as approach.
Start small and work your waythrough it, and that way maybe
it will help you.
Your point number three keepgoing so that you don't, in
(08:14):
essence stop just before you'reabout to have a breakthrough and
see some things happen,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah, there's
actually a fourth one, as you
said that, about starting small.
That I think is worth noting.
Actually a fourth one, as yousaid that, about starting small,
and I think it's worth noting.
Most people, when they set agoal, we tend to pick the things
in our life that are sort ofmost negatively salient right.
We tend to pick the things thathave the greatest source of
friction in our lives right, thething that we stare at every
day and whatever way thatmanifests, whether it's a
(08:40):
relationship challenge or job.
I'm sick of my job.
I need a new one, whatever itmay be.
The challenge with those thingsis those are the most
negatively salient becausethey're the hardest things to
change.
And so I encourage people tosay it's not that you don't want
to make that a goal, but maybenot make that the first goal
right, because change is a skill.
(09:02):
You can learn how to change,and that's what the book is all
about.
And so I'd rather have someoneget a couple of base hits in
places where they feel like I'vegot an achievable goal that I
just maybe need to stick with ita little bit longer before you
start working on the big stuff.
So don't pick the hardest thingto do right out of the gate.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Love that.
You know.
You think about that, the, thecomponents of change.
You know we get to where we areand we feel pretty comfortable,
and you gotta, you gotta expandyourself through that as well A
lot of times, even whether it'son our health.
You know, one of the thingsthat you say is that willpower
alone often fails, and you know,if we try to use willpower as a
solution, that we're probablynot going to succeed.
(09:44):
Tell me more about that andagain, the neuroscience behind
that.
Well, I just won't eatchocolate cake anymore.
I mean, I'll have willpower.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Right, right.
Well, let's just use thatexample, right?
Hey, John, don't eat the cake.
What are you thinking aboutright now?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I'm thinking about
cake.
I can see it it's a doublelayer.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's right, that'sright.
So, so, um, there's two thingsabout the willpower equation
that I think are reallyimportant.
The first one is the, themindset that you have going into
this conversation of willpower,and then the second one is kind
of the science of motivation.
So there's a couple of studiesI referenced in the book, the,
the really groundbreaking workof Carol Dweck, uh who, who is
(10:21):
really the pioneer of the termgrowth mindset.
There are studies done thatthat we know that there's two
dimensions of of this idea.
One is called growth mindset,which is the idea that I am a
growth oriented person and Ibelieve that I'm someone who can
and will grow.
That's an important first, uh,mental, uh, you know orientation
(10:42):
to adopt.
The second one is what's calleda stress is enhancing mindset,
which is this idea that this maynot feel good but it's good.
For me, Stress is positive, andI talk a lot about our
relationship with stress.
It is essential you will notgrow unless you have a more
productive relationship withstress, and so there's been
(11:03):
really some incredible studiesdone about, particularly in
teens, that with some prettysimple training around adopting
these two mindsets, theirperformance actually increases
quite a bit on, you know, testsand other cognitive things of
that nature.
The second thing aroundmotivation is that, you know,
motivation has some uniqueattributes to it.
(11:25):
Most people think dopamine isthe, the, the, the hormone of
reward.
Right, it's not.
It's the hormone of pursuit,it's about striving right.
Striving is a big part of oursort of, you know, neuroscience
foundation in terms of goalpursuit, and so one of the
things I tell people is that ifwe can understand how to harness
this experience of you know twodimensions of where we're most
(11:48):
motivated when we startsomething and when we finish
right, the closer we get to agoal, the more motivated we get
right.
If you were, you're going torun four laps on a track for a
mile, right you.
You get out of the gate prettyhot with the first lap.
Laps two and three are reallytough, but when you get to lap
four, you feel this burst ofenergy in terms of moving
(12:08):
forward right, and so there'sways to rebuild your goals and
your habits and your structuresto leverage that experience
right.
So, instead of just biting downon the idea of avoiding
something, if I use this idea ofI'm approaching a sequence of
wins, then I become much moremotivated.
So those are the two big piecesof kind of how to rebuild your
(12:30):
orientation around motivation.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
But I love that
second piece, that rewarding of
stress success and I use theword stress because it was part
of the question too you talkabout.
One of the strategies is toembrace stress as a change
factor, but around a lot andthere's levels to it, right?
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And so it's important
to understand and acknowledge
that.
You know, long-term emotional,physical stress is absolutely
100% bad for us, and we knowthat.
And that's not really whatwe're talking about.
What we're talking about isreally short-term, acute,
particularly self-induced stress, and what that means is can I
put myself in hard situationsand withstand the physiological
(13:24):
response of what comes nextright?
Stress is designed at its mostbasic level to get us to move
right.
It's sort of the fight or flightresponse to the fight or flight
response, but a lot of us, whenwe approach that experience,
tend to stop instead of moveright, and movement is a big
part of what keeps us motivated.
And so what I talk a lot aboutin the book and I do this in my
(13:46):
own life is finding ways toself-induce and harness stress
for learning, and so you knowwhether it's a cold shower, I do
that every day.
Right, it's, it's, it sucks.
I'm not going amazing studiesthat have come out in the last
maybe 15 years.
It's an area of the brain thatwhen you do hard things actually
(14:23):
gets bigger, meaning more realestate is dedicated to this, and
people who live a long timehave a big AMCC.
Athletes tend to have thelargest because they have a
relationship with understandinghow to do hard things, and so so
you will not change unless youare able to put yourself in
situations that areuncomfortable and difficult and
(14:45):
work through those.
That is, by definition, whatchange is all about.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Hey listeners, I want
to take a quick moment to share
something special with you.
Many of the topics anddiscussions we have on this
podcast are areas where Iprovide coaching and consulting
services for individuals andorganizations.
If you've been inspired by ourconversation and are seeking a
catalyst for change in your ownlife or within your team, I
invite you to visitcoachjohngallaghercom forward
(15:10):
slash free call to sign up for afree coaching call with me.
It's an opportunity for us toconnect, discuss your unique
challenges and explore howcoaching or consulting can
benefit you and your team.
Okay, let's get back to theshow Putting yourself into those
situations.
So that was one of thequestions that I had too, in
terms of you mentioned turningchange into a habit.
(15:34):
You've got a lot of thesedichotomies that exist inside of
some of those, and I canunderstand the neurotransmission
side.
So we have to turn change intoa habit.
Tell me more about that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Well, I think, at its
most simple level, it's about
what can I do that's new on aregular basis, right?
I sort of have a belief.
This has happened to me,probably more in the career side
.
But once I become comfortablewith my job and I'm on autopilot
, it's time to do something else.
Right, it's time to pick a newthing, whatever that new thing
(16:06):
might be, and then rinse andrepeat this process of identify
a new goal.
Design that goal in a waythat's motivating.
Try it, practice it, fail,struggle, have setbacks, start
again.
Right, that experience oflearning and iterating and
failing and I don't use failurein the kind of cliched way that
(16:28):
I mean.
What I mean is failure.
Mistakes are the single largestcontributor to your opportunity
for neuroplasticity and I usethat phrase intentionally, which
means a mistake is a signal tothe brain that something needs
to change.
What happens after that is upto you, right?
If you go and make anadjustment, then you're building
(16:50):
the skill of testing, learning,restarting, failing,
reorienting and that's the skillof change, right?
The skill of change is theinvestigation of new behaviors
and then the practice of thosenew behaviors until they become
habitual.
Well, once I've learned to dosomething, what's the next thing
to go do and you know I tellpeople I hope you learn
(17:12):
something new the day beforethey close the casket right.
Like we, we have the ability tolearn new things our whole life
.
We just don't like theexperience of learning new
things right, because it'suncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I love that.
It reminds me of a country song.
When was the last time you didsomething for the first time?
I know there's a song, there'sa song that's in that, but it is
.
It's trying to find somethingnew, choosing something that's
hard that keeps you on that pathof continuous improvement
knowing that you're going tofail, especially at the start of
that journey.
Yeah, I love you.
Using the word likeneuroplasticity, it goes over my
(17:45):
head pretty quickly.
No pun intended with regards tohow that works, but when did
you kind of find this interest,or and uh, and the neuroscience
side of that?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yeah, you know, it
really, um, right around the
COVID experience, I think,started for me this under this,
this questioning of like there'ssome things I had always been
doing it, like I said, as anathlete, as a coach, as a
consultant that I just sort ofhad intuitively adopted, but I
didn't really understand whythey work.
And there was an interestingangle around this in terms of
you know the competitive worldof big consulting, you have to
(18:28):
have a hook.
You know why am I differentthan company A, b or C?
Because there's a lot ofsimilar solutions and frameworks
and you know, everyone's tryingto build a better mousetrap.
And what I found was you knowwhat I was applying on the field
as a coach, with teams and withathletes?
I was, I was using those samestrategies in the boardroom or,
(18:49):
you know, in the team room, andand yet I didn't really have a
language for understanding whyit was working.
I was just kind of doing thething I knew how to do, and so
you know, of course, then, rightaround the COVID experience and
I talk about this in the book,you know it was such a
transformative shift on so manylevels and and so it started the
(19:09):
refinement of me of some ofthese pieces that I knew were
happening that I just againdidn't have a language for, so I
dove into the research.
Um, places like the Hubermanlab podcast were groundbreaking
in terms of giving you know.
It was like going to med schooland just listening to a three
hour lecture from somebody whoyou know knows this stuff inside
and out.
And so that led to the nextreading, the next study or
(19:32):
reading the next book, and Ijust started building this
framework around what I had beendoing for years and then had a
language for it, and so that'skind of how I got here.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
One of my favorites
on that one is Jim Quick's
Limitless.
I've gone through that a coupleof years ago and it's just
really fascinating when youstart to dive into some of that
neuroscience there.
So you've mentioned, and I hada coach.
Rory Vaden from Brand BuildersGroup would say you're most
powerfully positioned to helpthe person that you used to be.
So you were an athlete that wasovercoming, specifically, you
(20:05):
were overcoming what would beseen as a size deficiency, let's
call it in terms of 5'7 andbeing a quarterback in a sport
where 5'7 is just not there.
And now you're teaching that atthe high school football level
and you're teaching that withyour consulting.
Where do you find it moredifficult to be successful with
(20:27):
these strategies?
Is it with the high school kidsthat you're coaching?
Is it with those in industrythat you're coaching?
Or, frankly, is it continuouslywith yourself as you continue
to grow?
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, I mean, each
one has its uh, you know, um,
ups and downs, right.
I mean I think you know Icoaching athletes, uh, is just
still the among the mostrewarding experiences for me as
a, as a father now, as a, as a,as a, you know, over 50 guy who
remembers his moments and has anopportunity to give back.
(21:00):
Um, you know, this is going tobe my last year as a coach for a
while.
My son will be 17 and he'sgraduating and I need a break.
I've got a small baby too.
So, uh, you know that it's justthat window of time in the
young mind, in the youngexperience.
You know, the opportunity tosend some of these lessons in
ways that I think are really,really powerful, you know, for
(21:23):
me is kind of really what it'sall about.
The challenge, of course, withyoung athletes they don't have
the emotional wisdom orregulation that maybe a more
seasoned adult has, right, theirbrain is still forming.
So it's a great window to plantsome of these seeds.
But you're definitely plantingseeds, right.
These are things that will comeabout maybe 10, 15 years later.
You know, with the executivefolks you have kind of the
(21:48):
opposite problem, right, youhave really ingrained behaviors,
and I don't mean that in a badway, right.
But we've got habits andpatterns and standards, and so
the idea of breaking thosethings and and going through the
repetition of learning it'sreally tough for folks, but they
have the wisdom and experienceof understanding maybe how to
get through it a little bitbetter.
(22:10):
Uh, so it's kind of you know,where do you want your pain
right?
Do you want it on theinexperienced side?
Do you want it on the emotionalside?
Do you want it on thefrustration side?
And there's joy in both ofthose things.
For myself, my poor family Isay this to them way that I have
these kind of patterns.
I'm a human being.
I get frustrated, I getdisenfranchised, I get
(22:41):
disappointed, but I'm able toreally start again.
And I think that's the biggestthing of learning from what just
happened to you and startingover.
And that experience for me, youknow, is kind of the one that I
try to just lean into as muchas I can.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, and I think
about this and I'm honoring our
time just watching the clock.
I want to make sure we actuallyget to some of the strategies
as well.
We haven't gone deep into that.
I love the backstory into someof those things and the
different areas that you're ableto use, as you said, in the
home, with youth sports thatyou're working with or high
school age sports, and in theworkplace.
(23:18):
In fact, I think on theconsulting side, what I've
learned is that it is much likeparenting an older child that's
getting ready.
They don't have to listen toanything that you say and
complacency can be the biggestthing that gets in the way of
change.
Everything's okay now why do Ineed to get better?
I mean, I'm doing okay and soovercoming that.
Your six strategies,science-backed strategies to
(23:41):
transform Is there one in there?
Or tell me one of those thatkind of is your favorite to talk
about and maybe give an exampleof a success story you helping
somebody implement that strategy?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah, you know, I
think one of the strategies is
around creating focus, and whatthat means is when we learn as
adults we talked about this, soI'll get geeky for a second your
brain.
People use the word rewiringyour brain.
That's not really how it works.
So, you know, over the age ofabout 25, we don't create any
(24:16):
new neurons.
What we actually do is werepurpose the pathways in our
brain that we already have.
It's kind of like deer in theforest.
You know how deer, they trackpatterns and that's how trails
happen, because they walk thesame pattern.
Our brains are much like that.
What we have to do is repurposethat pattern for something else,
and so, for me, one of thethings we talk about, you learn
(24:37):
by repetition, something calledlong-term potentiation and or by
not repeating something,long-term depression, not the
emotional version of depression,but depressing behavior.
In order to do that, I have togive something up, and the
biggest thing that, for me, Ispend time using, for example,
(24:57):
the leader's conversation is inorder to learn something new.
What are you going to give up?
And that has to be a consciouschoice, and so much of that is
not just a physical release of abehavior or an action, but it's
actually also the emotionalrelease of giving something up
that you might experience as aloss, right?
Whether it's time, whether it's, you know, a pattern of belief
(25:22):
that has been holding you back,right, all of those things.
And so, for me, the linchpin ofof all of this we've talked
about a lot, we stress and thosesorts of things and repetition,
but what are you going to giveup?
And, being conscious andintentional about that
conversation, you've got to makespace for something new.
And we try to stack things andstacking doesn't work.
(25:45):
And so, for me, when I and maybeI'll tell a story about a woman
I'm coaching with one of myclients she is a kind of middle
manager and she had applied fora promotion a year and a half
ago and she didn't get it andshe was told this was an
internal role that she tried toto work on.
She was told that she bombedthe interview because she
(26:08):
thought, oh, I don't need toexplain anything, you all know
me.
I can just say you guys know me, right.
Well, I've been she.
She applied for the job again.
It's been a bunch of changes andwe had maybe seven or eight
sessions to prepare and the workthat was required to allow her
to let go of the person that wasthe one who bombed the
(26:29):
interview and believe in herselfgrowth mindset, stresses,
enhancing mindset to be able tosay I'm someone who is capable
of doing this job, who canexplain the job I need to do.
You know it.
It wasn't about practicingquestions.
It was about breaking down thebelief system that had become an
anchor keeping her fromchanging, and so you know that
(26:52):
kind of stuff.
To me, it's so rewarding to seeshe got the job, by the way,
excellent and and and.
So you know that's the kind ofthing.
At the center of all this iswho am I and why am I holding on
to something, and who might Ibe on the other side of what I'm
afraid of?
And you know that's what thisis all about.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Love that and that
really identifies.
You know, as folks read yourbook, I often talk about that
book test.
Your book's been out for acouple of months now as we make
this recording.
It'll be out here soon andfolks are going to have it on a
bookshelf, just like those booksbehind me.
You've got yours kind of facingout, but if they had a lot of
books there, they're going toset it up on a shelf and a year
(27:40):
later they're going to see thatbinding, if you will, with your
title on the side and your name.
That's going to be in thebinding.
What do you after that year,when they see your book, what do
you want them to feel?
What do you want them to andwhat do you want them to do
after reading your book?
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I actually talk about
this, somebody.
I had a young man helping mewith some pieces of the book and
that I was turning into somelearning after that, and we were
working together and he askedme a question that was really
profound.
I actually talk about this inthe book.
Who do you want the reader tobe when they're done?
And my hope is I want you to besomeone who believes that change
(28:14):
isn't just possible, it'snecessary, and that for this
thing we call life, that we allhave in different ways, that you
have the ability to learn thisskill, and when you learn it and
when you apply it, theopportunities for your life
really become limitless.
(28:35):
And so that's my hope.
And for the folks that mayberead it a year ago, I hope they
look at it and think, hey, thisreally helped me get to where I
want to go.
And for the folks that maybehave it on the shelf and haven't
picked it up, you know I hopethat they start.
You know there's no time likethe present, and so for me I
would say, pick it up and, youknow, take some of those
(28:57):
strategies and just try them on.
Just try them on in differentways and you'll be really amazed
at where you end up.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Love that, Michael.
That is so cool, and I actuallywhen I think about that in
terms of that change.
It's not optional, it'ssomething we have to do, it's
necessary and we will change orI believe we will be changed.
Not enough time to even reallytalk about what artificial
intelligence is going to do withregards to some of that mindset
and our ability to thinkdifferently and things like that
, but just so powerful.
(29:30):
Michael, I think folks are goingto really find value in your
book and I am curious where doyou want them to connect with
you specifically?
Where can they find you andwhere can they get more
information about your book?
Speaker 1 (29:41):
A good place to start
is my website,
michaeljlopezcoach, and it's gotall of my socials on there.
I'm most active on LinkedIn.
I'm a LinkedIn top voice and Ido a weekly LinkedIn live series
with other top voices and wetalk about a range of issues and
all of those get put on myYouTube channel, michaeljlopez9.
(30:01):
If you see the picture behindme, that was my number, so it's
a little homage to that momentof my life that was so awesome.
And then on Instagram and X andall those places.
So the website's a great placeto start.
There's a link to purchase thebook right there.
You can find it on Amazon,barnes, noble Ingram all those
places, so pretty easy to find.
(30:22):
And yeah, I love talking aboutthis.
I literally could do this allday.
So anytime people want to reachout and connect, have me talk
to their teams, theirorganization, I'm happy to do so
.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Michael J Lopez dot
coach.
Love that ending there, dotcoach.
I've heard another interview Idid today.
It was a dot life.
I'm like there's so manydifferent things incom.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
mean once a coach, always a
coach.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
So yeah, I think
you're right, absolutely as you.
As you think through that.
I've coached my sons as wellwhen they were small and I and I
hope that you've cherished thattime.
Cause old, so you've got ayoung one as well, and that time
, that time will go just as fastalso.
So, michael, you've been, Ibelieve, a great guest.
(31:08):
I think the folks who listeninto this podcast are going to
come find great value, and I'llput you the link to your website
in the show notes to make surethey can get to you.
I want to give you the lastword on the interview.
I have so, so appreciated thetime that you've invested today
and I I on the interview.
I have so, so appreciated thetime that you've invested today
and I'm going to give you abillboard, mike, when you can
put a message on that billboardand you can place it anywhere
you want to.
What's the message you're goingto put on that billboard and
(31:31):
why do you put that message onthere?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Yeah, it's simple,
it's two words and it's keep
changing.
You know, I think it's.
There's a simple elegance ofthis idea that we choose to
continue down this path ofgrowth or we don't.
The only person you'll everchange is yourself.
You cannot change any otherhuman being, it's impossible.
But you can change yourself,and orienting around this idea
(31:56):
that I can and I will keepchanging for my whole life is my
hope for everyone.
So that's what I'd put there.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Excellent, michael.
Thank you so much for beingsuch a gracious guest on the
Uncommon Leader Podcast.
I wish you the best with yourbook and all of the work that's
going to come out of it as well.
Thanks, john, I appreciate it,and that wraps up another
episode of the Uncommon LeaderPodcast.
Thanks for tuning in today.
If you found value in thisepisode, I encourage you to
(32:23):
share it with your friends,colleagues or anyone else who
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Until next time, go and growchampions.