Derek Girard shares his journey from military kid to tech entrepreneur, highlighting the power of the "Figure It Out" mindset that helped him overcome three simultaneous lawsuits while building a successful tech company with no technical background.
• Growing up as an army brat, moving frequently created resilience and problem-solving skills
• Built a technology company despite having no tech background to solve an industry-wide problem
• Faced a perfect storm of challenges: business partner dispute, investor conflict, and competitor lawsuit
• Developed and applied the "Figure It Out" mindset to navigate complex legal battles
• Won all three lawsuits over a seven-year period before successfully selling his company in 2023
• Leadership philosophy: "Don't be the boss, be the example"
• Approaches feedback by asking questions rather than making statements
• Believes success should be defined internally rather than by external validation
• Uses "So what? Now what?" to move past complaints and focus on solutions
• Teaches the difference between self-confidence and self-awareness
You can find Derek's book "Put to the Test" on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, or through his website at Derrick Girard: Inspiring Public Speaker.
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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Unpacked Podcast with your host
leadership consultant, ronHarvey of GlobalCore Strategies
and Consulting.
Ron believes that leadership isthe fundamental driver towards
making a difference.
So now to find out more of whatit means to unpack leadership,
here's your host, ron Harvey.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning everyone .
This is Ron Harvey, the VicePresident, chief Operating
Officer for Global CourseStrategies and Consulting.
We're a leadership firm.
We're based out of Columbia,south Carolina, and our whole
role for the company itself ishow do we help leaders be better
equipped to lead the workforceof tomorrow?
And that's through trust andcommunication and empowering,
and the list goes on.
But we do know that you knowleadership has changed,
(00:41):
workforce has changed andeverything around us has changed
.
We do know that you knowleadership has changed,
workforce has changed andeverything around us has changed
.
What is it that we do asleaders to make sure that we
have the next version of what ittakes for us to be successful
in today's world ever changing,and not where my parents led at
Totally different?
That command and control isover.
You can try it if you want togo for it, but it's over.
And so helping leadersunderstand what's the new way of
(01:03):
leading.
But what do you need to know?
But we pause every single time.
We record podcasts and we beginto bring guests off from around
the world with all differentbackgrounds, and so today our
podcast is really going to be.
You know, derek is going toshare some stuff.
I'll give him a chance.
You know, when we come in, I'mgoing to hand him the microphone
as I always do, I guess and lethim introduce himself and what
(01:23):
he wants you to know about himas I always do it, I guess.
And let him introduce himselfand what he wants you to know
about him, and then we'll driveit, we'll dive into some content
.
So, derek, I'm going to pass itover to you, man, and let you
introduce yourself where you are.
Whatever you want to share withus, I'm totally OK with that
and the audience loves it.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So whatever you want to share, Well, first of all,
thank so, thank you for theopportunity.
Well, a little bit about myself.
I'll sort of start from thebeginning, because I think from
the very beginning it sort oflays the foundation for why
Derek is the way he is.
As my wife always says, why areyou wired the way you're wired?
(01:56):
So I'm an army brat.
I grew up an army brat all overthe world, spent six years in
the Air Force myself, and when Igot into the professional
industry, I got into thefinancial services industry Long
, crazy, interesting, windingcareer in that space.
But ultimately I found myselfin a position where I had a
problem that nobody else hadsolved yet and I knew this
(02:18):
problem was faced by everybodyin the industry.
And so I don't excuses, don'tsolve problems in my mind,
they're just not an option.
And so I set out to build atechnology company with
absolutely no background intechnology, and it was crazy.
It was a difficult thing to do,is challenging, start, but
ultimately we started gettingsome success, and not only some
(02:39):
success like working with thetop financial services firms in
the country.
Success and right.
When that started happening,that's when everything fell
apart.
That's when dispute with mybusiness partner, who happened
to be my uncle happened.
That's when dispute with aninvestor and that's when a
surprise lawsuit was dropped onmy lap from a competitor, all at
(02:59):
the same time.
So I found myself in a position, right when things started
going well, that I was sittingthere with two federal lawsuits
and a state lawsuit on my handsand it was just me and I had to
figure it out.
And so I use this term, the FIOmindset.
I've said it since I wasyounger, but it's, it's.
I really believe in thismindset, this figure it out
(03:19):
mindset, and that's what I hadto do.
So I couldn't, I couldn't crushthe company, I couldn't fold
the company, I wasn't going tolet that happen.
And I fought and fought andfought and managed you know my
family and my, my business andthe lawsuits and growing and
ultimately, at the end of theday, I won all three of the
lawsuits.
One of them went to trial infederal court, which was an
(03:41):
interesting experience.
And after all that was said anddone, six and a half, seven
years later, I sold the companyat the end of 2023.
And the crazy thing was I keptgetting asked the question.
Everybody would ask me Derek,how in the world did you do that
?
How in the world did you nothave a background in tech and
you did this?
You didn't have a sales team.
How did you do this?
(04:02):
How is that possible?
And I wanted to write this bookput to the test, because I
wanted to be able to answer thequestion for people and make
sure they understand that thereisn't a single thing about me
that's special.
There isn't a thing about methat's unique.
Because I think a lot of timespeople think like I've been to
conferences and I've seen thatguy with no legs talk about how
(04:22):
he climbed to the top of MountEverest and you're like that's
amazing, I can't relate.
And I want people to hear in mystory and what I've been
through that it's 100% relatable.
There's nothing unique about it, I just figured it out.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I love it.
I love it.
So you gave us a lot to unpackand I'm excited.
I know the audience would bereally excited.
You know you have the book andso we'll dive in a little bit.
But as we go through, I love topromote when people have
something out there that helpspeople and so put to the test.
You know you wrote it becauseyou found yourself in a
situation you kept getting askedthe question how did you do it?
How did you do it?
(04:55):
And you finally put it outthere, put to the test First,
where do people find the book?
And then, if you could share alittle bit about what do you
want people to walk away fromthat?
Looking at entrepreneurs orbusiness owners or CEOs or team
leaders or new leader, what's init for people with a very, very
wide net, if you will?
What do they get out of it?
Or do you hope they get out ofreading your book?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Well, you can find it .
Basically, in most places youcan find books.
Normally, people buy it onAmazon or Barnes, noble, walmart
, places like that.
You can find the book there.
So in most channels somebodymight find their books.
Normally it's available there,which is fantastic and,
ultimately, what I want to getout of it.
I got a text message this lastweekend actually, from a
(05:37):
gentleman that read the book orwas reading the book, and he
said I'm going through somechallenges right now and
everything you're saying isreally resonating with me,
because one of the things Italked about in the book is I
try to have people think about achallenge they're facing not a
crisis, right, it's not about amidlife crisis, because that's
more of an identity thing and sothink about a challenge you're
(05:59):
facing, whether it's personal orprofessional, and to me, the
figure it out mindset and that'swhat I always call it it's not
a checklist, it's not like stepone, step two, step three.
It's not a checklist, it's amindset, and so a lot of it has
to do with are you being honestwith yourself?
Right, are you?
Are you actually being honestwith yourself?
(06:19):
Did you really try everythingand really give it your all and
again, personally orprofessionally.
You know I talked in thereabout my examples of where I use
self-confidence as areplacement for self-awareness.
That's a terrible replacementfor self-awareness.
You will get yourself in somuch trouble, like I did when I
use self-confidence as areplacement for self-awareness.
(06:41):
So, realistically and really,what I want people to take away
from the book is if you readthrough it and you read the
different chapters and you readthe different things that I talk
about and the examples I givepersonally and professionally
from my life and others it's.
Am I doing this right?
Am I really approaching themindset the correct way or am I
giving up too quick?
Am I blaming other people tooquick?
(07:02):
You know how am I approachingthis?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Wow, I love it.
I mean, you talk about the bookand you ask how you've been
honest with yourself.
At what point, when you werewalking through the lawsuit,
showing up dealing with a familymember that you're in business
with you know federal and state,you know in the business you
still got to run it?
At what point did you reallysettle down and realize you had
(07:26):
to figure it out?
What happened that made yourealize you're not going to
throw it in.
You got a family to support,because that's reality for
people that are listening tothis show.
When did it click that you gotto dig in and you got to make it
work?
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Well, I think it's sort of interesting as I think
back to it, because the firstlawsuit was I was dealing with
the investor and then my uncle.
Those weren't lawsuits yet,they were just sort of disputes.
And then I wake up one day andthe first lawsuit was this
competitor who hit us with apatent infringement lawsuit that
came out of nowhere.
(08:00):
So when that first hit, myfirst response, like most people
, is like oh my goodness, whatdo I do?
How in the world do I getmyself out of this?
I don't want to deal withlawyers.
The first thing you want to dois run as far away as you can.
But then what happened next wasreally interesting, because my
(08:21):
uncle's attorney and then thisinvestor both filed a lawsuit
almost immediately after, and itwas clear to me that they were
thinking let's put maximumpressure on Derek because
there's no way he can do thisRight.
It was almost like nobody'sgoing to deal with three
lawsuits on their own.
There's just no way.
So let's push him as hard as wecan.
And that was really when I dugmy heels and I'm like no right
(08:41):
is right, wrong is wrong.
This is 100% wrong.
I am not going to be pushedaround, and so from that point
on, like I tell a lot of times,I talk to people, I explain to
them.
From that point on I becamebasically a law student.
I needed to know everythingabout what was going on, so
there were no surprises to meand I just dug in my heels and
(09:03):
went right is right, wrong iswrong.
I'm not going to let thishappen.
And if I got to go downswinging, because this is what I
firmly believe in, that's whatI'm going to do.
And I listened to the advice ofthe attorneys as we were going
along and I really understood itmyself and so I felt confident
during the process that I wasthree and a half years, I was
doing what I felt was right andI was comfortable with that.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
What did you learn there, derek, that you still use
today?
So I know you have the book andyou put things in the book.
What did you learn about you?
Because I truly believe leadersget evaluated in the worst
times, not the best times.
I think the best time you showup when your back is against the
wall and you don't have any.
What did you learn about youfrom a leadership perspective?
People that are listening,where you know, people are
(09:44):
challenged.
Today, as we're having thisrecording, people are challenged
with everyday life things,businesses, lawsuits, you know,
whatever you may want to call it.
What did you find out about youthat gave you the desire to
keep going forward?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Well, the first thing I found out I learned a lot in
failure, and I think failure isfantastic.
I think for a lot of people,when you fail or you struggle,
it can crush some people morallyand again their confidence.
That's where thatself-confidence being replaced
with your self-awareness.
And so I had failures earlieron in my career, different
(10:21):
things that I tried doing, and Inever viewed them as failure
really.
They were just tremendouslearning opportunities.
And so, for me, one of thethings that I took into building
this tech company was this ideaof don't be the boss, be the
example.
And so I didn't want to walkaround and say I'm the boss, and
here's why you should listen tome.
Because I'm the boss, because Ihave a fancy title that doesn't
(10:42):
work.
People don't respect that theboss.
Because I have a fancy titlethat doesn't work, people don't
respect that.
And so, for me, I was willing todo everything.
I asked my staff to doeverything.
I asked my team to do.
If we had to work on theweekends, I was the one working.
If support needed more help, Iwas the one taking phone calls.
If we needed to go present tosomebody, I was the one doing it
, and so everybody knew that itwasn't just Derek telling us
(11:05):
what to do and Derek making usdo things.
He was going to do every singlething with us, and to me that
made a difference, because whenI needed to call on somebody to
do something or to take an extrastep, they always would do it
because they knew I would.
And so that, to me, was a bigthing, and I think it's a really
important key for leaders,especially as you become a
(11:26):
leader early in your career oryour first time leadership.
Don't let your title fool you.
Right?
Don't be the boss.
Be the example, like literallyset the example you want the
team to follow.
And then the other thing isexcuses don't solve problems.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Right, you said it earlier.
I love that.
Can you unpack for us, though,derek?
I mean because you know whenyou think about you know, be the
don't be the boss.
Be the example where you wouldstep in and you fill in there.
There's another side of thatthat I would love for you to
unpack.
You're doing it because youneed it.
There's another side of thatthat I would love for you to
unpack.
You're doing it because youneed it, they need to help, and
you want to make sure that it'sall you're doing it.
How do you speak to the leaderthat's doing it?
(12:02):
Because they don't believe thatthe person that really should
be doing it is going to do agood job, or they're too far in
and they got to do everything,they got to be attached to it
all.
They don't know how to get outof the way, basically when
you're an ego.
But then there's the other sideof the coin, where some of
these leaders that are listeningdon't know how to get out of
the way and they feel likethey're the one that has to do
it, because they do it the best.
They don't delegate, they don'tempower well enough, so they
keep getting in the way.
(12:22):
How do you separate thatdistinction for people that are
listening?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, well, I think a lot of it comes down to your
ego one and your training right,your mindset for training.
And so for me, I'll give you anexample of support my staff
knew from a tech support.
You know people would call inand they would be frustrated
from time to time, and theyalways knew if somebody got
really frustrated.
Here's how you handle thatCause we went through the
training and I led all thetraining.
(12:46):
But if you can't handle thatand if you get to the point
where you feel like you knowthey're just being abusive and
they're just being rude, you getme on the phone immediately,
because I take that, you don'ttake that Somebody's going to
yell, they're going to yell atme.
But the other thing that I didwas I always told my staff you
need to be on the phone with us,so anytime I step in, you're
there with me and I'm on yourside.
(13:06):
And so every single time, thethings that they heard was I was
never going to throw them underthe bus, I was never going to
talk down, I was never going tosay they got it wrong.
It was just asking a lot ofquestions to uncover where we're
going and what we've alreadydone.
We guide, the answer and thesolution almost always user
error, which was always funny.
And then we just debriefed, andthat was the other part of it.
(13:28):
The debrief was really, reallyimportant.
So when we were done doing that, I was done stepping in on
their behalf, we would sit downand have a conversation about
that.
Let's talk about that.
What did you pick up from whatI did?
How did that, you know, relateto what you did?
Do you want to listen to therecording of the phone call of
yours?
And so every bit of it was justa massive learning opportunity
(13:48):
and it wasn't about me.
And so one of the things that Iused to tell people all the
time is when you bring me in,you may have to tell them it's
me.
You can make up a name.
I don't have to be Derek, I canbe John Doe, and I will never
tell them my name, so they don'tthink that my title matters.
I will just be anybody, justthere to help you.
I don't care if it's me, Idon't care if people see me or
(14:08):
know it's me at all.
It's about doing it right andhelping.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Wow, I love it and, for those of you listening, I
think that it works with them.
I want to go back and unpackthis.
Figure it out, mindset.
What are the characteristics ofthat?
So, when you think of it, Imean I think I've heard it, but
I don't think I've heard someoneput it like here's literally
what I had to do, wrong.
Yeah, can you unpack?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
that a little bit to help us understand what is the
FIO, the figured out mindset.
You know, I have the book here.
I'll read through a couple,just sort of the chapters, right
.
One it's sort of look insideyourself, right?
One of the things that I thinkis really important is how
people define success, and Ithink a lot of people define
success externally right, it'swhat other people see, it's what
other people think.
One you have to look insideyourself.
I think that's by far the mostimportant thing, and in the
(15:01):
social media world we're intoday, that's really difficult.
So are you allowing somebodyelse to dictate what your
version of success is externally, or are you doing it internally
for yourself?
And so that, to me, I think, isa big part of this.
Again, this is why it's aprocess, not a checklist
Self-awareness, see things inblack and white.
One of the things that I stressall the time is get out of the
gray, get absolutely out of thegray.
So many people want to live inthe gray, of the kind of sort of
maybe it's either yes or no andthat's it.
(15:24):
And so did you do what you setout to do or did you not?
And what did you learn fromthat and so I think so many
people set goals or set thingsthey want to accomplish and
they're okay with getting sortof there and in my mind, sort of
doesn't work.
It's either yes or it's no.
I think not taking no for ananswer is important.
(15:45):
I think so many people,especially in a sales role, a no
is crushing If you don't getthe job you want or you don't
get the sale you want.
It's crushing.
Don't take it like that.
For me, it was just everysingle company that told us no,
that told me no, and these werehuge companies, came back and
became a client of mine and itwas because I just I had this
(16:06):
professional perseverance whereI stayed in touch.
I was very professional, verycourteous, but I didn't let it
go and I didn't give up and Igot every single one of them.
So it's just a lot of littlethings along the way, I think,
mentally, that shape people andone of the things I talk about
in the book is how do you teachyour kids this mentality?
Because I've got two kids I'vegot a 15 year old and a 12 year
(16:27):
old and my goodness, it'samazing they can't.
If you leave it up to them,they will never solve a problem
in their entire life.
They're looking for somebodyelse to do it for them, and I
think there's a lot of timesthat's a failure in terms of how
we lead as parents.
Sometimes is we're not teachingkids to you.
Figure it out, I bet you youcan, and it's amazing what you
see when you push kids to thatsort of mindset.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I love it.
I mean, how do you, if you're aleader in an organization and
your title, your name and yourevaluation evaluations on the
line, how do you create spacefor what you said to happen for
real, in real time, when thepressures and it's the game
winning shot?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
How do you create space as a leader to make it
safe enough for people to figureit out?
Well, I think one of the andthis is my opinion now I think
one of the mistakes is trying tosolve that at the end.
Right, it's like take yousports as an example.
If I'm trying to teach you howto handle it, right at the end
of the game, that means I faileda long time ago.
Right, it's like coachsheshefsky used to always say
with duke like I don't coachwhile they're on the floor
playing the game because it'stoo late.
(17:31):
The game's going on, and so forme, if, if I have to wait till
that moment to teach how tohandle it, I failed, I did it
wrong, and so for me, it's allin the preparation that leads up
to it.
And I think, if you were to lookat and some of the consulting
that I do now with businesses,when you see the results aren't
there and you see the leaderfocus on the result, it just
(17:52):
makes me scratch my head.
Why are we so focused on theresult?
Where did it fail?
Is it failed a long time beforeit hit the spreadsheet?
And so that, I think, is a bigpart for a lot of leaders and
you get into again, whetheryou're leading in business or
your sports or family.
It's like where in the worlddid I actually fall down?
Where did I fail this person?
(18:14):
Because it's generally not whenthe result is desire yeah, I
love it.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Can you unpack that some for us?
When you look at it there, Ilove it.
Upstreams, it happens waybefore it hits the spreadsheet,
but most of us, quite honestly,don't ask those questions until
we get to the spreadsheet or theend of the game or all of a
sudden it all has fell apart.
How do you train or how did youget to the place where you
start looking upstream, wherethe logs are getting thrown in
(18:40):
the water, versus downstream,where you see it floating by you
?
By that time it's floating byyou.
It's too late to stop.
You got to get upstream.
How did you train yourself tolook upstream?
Your processes, your training,your development?
What do you actually do to get?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
upstream.
Well, there's a couple ofthings.
So, first of all, one of thethings is again, it comes back
to a mentality.
I don't see failure as as allencompassing right.
I think there's.
If you ever heard this sayinglike one step forward, two steps
back, right.
That makes it seem like you'regoing backwards.
And, in my opinion, failingfailing in any capacity or
missing out on something is astep forward, as long as you
(19:14):
learn from it, and I think for alot of people that was.
For me, the biggest aha momentwas when I failed or when I got
a no.
I was like a bulldog to findout what the no was for.
Why did you say no?
What about the product waswrong?
What about me was wrong?
What about the pitch was wrong?
What is it that led to the no?
(19:35):
And I was so focused on thatbecause I needed to make sure
that that log never hit thewater again.
So I never wanted to hear nofor the same reason ever again,
and I just was so focused on itand I'd move forward.
And then I'd do it again.
If somebody said no, I'dfocused again and I'd keep
moving forward.
I never let it be a stepbackwards.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Wow, I love it that I don't want to hear no.
For the same reason again, whenyou think about the work that
you're doing, that requires acertain degree of receiving
feedback that doesn't feel good.
How do you get there?
Because feedback is needed andeven if it's delivered wrong,
it's still needed, because I'msure all the feedback you got
(20:18):
didn't feel good and some of itwasn't actually accurate or true
, them being too kind about it.
But feedback is a challengewith leaders.
I either do it or I don't do it.
If I do it, I do it well or Ido it horrible.
I avoid it completely.
What advice would you givepeople that are listening how to
do feedback first, as a personthat's given it in a way that
(20:38):
people it lands well, but how doyou?
Also the other question I'llask at the end, but the first
question if you're the persongiving feedback, how do you give
it where it's truthful, it'shonest, but it also takes care
of the person that's receivingit?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Well, I think the important thing when it comes to
giving feedback or receivingfeedback is I heard this so long
ago, I've said this a thousandtimes is this idea that the
problem with people that don'thave self-awareness is they
don't know it right.
And so when you're the persongiving feedback or the person
receiving feedback, it'simportant to understand the
(21:08):
other side of that equation andself-awareness, and it's also
important to understand yourside of that equation of
self-awareness, right.
If I come across as a leaderwho is just completely
self-centered and focused on myego, if I'm the person receiving
it, I have to understand theperson giving it to me, right,
and so that's important, tounderstand both sides of that.
(21:29):
So, for me, I think the biggestthing for me, the biggest
advantage for me over the courseof my career in leadership, is
I will ask 25 questions before Imake a statement.
I'm so focused and people inall the coaching that I do now
is still I'm like all youranswers are in your questions.
If I just ask really goodquestions, there's a really good
(21:50):
chance the person I'm givingfeedback to is going to trip and
fall right over the answerbefore I give it to them.
Yes, so let's talk through this.
Let's talk about how thisworked.
Do you think we could have donebetter?
If you could go back and do itagain, would you do it the same
way?
Let's talk about how we canimprove that.
What do you think could bedifferent?
I let them answer all thosequestions and then, at the very
end, all I'm doing issummarizing their words to give
(22:12):
my feedback.
Yes, yes, it makes it so mucheasier because they're figuring
it out for themselves, and thegoal is, if you do it that way,
most of the time the feedbackisn't received harshly because
they're realizing it along theway that yep, I probably could
have been better.
Self-awareness starts to becomea little bit more present and,
hopefully, the feedback isreceived better.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yes, yes, I love it and it ties back to FIO figure
it out, and you ask questionsfor them to figure it out,
versus giving them the answer.
So you help when people developtheir their skillset as well
and thinking critical thinking.
If you do really really wellwith questions, how do you help
someone that that I'm workingfor me, I report to you and and
you give us a feedback that youknow may be accurate, but you
(22:54):
didn't deliver it well?
How do you help me receivefeedback that's not delivered
well, but how do you help mereceive that and do something
with it and make it useful?
So how?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
do I help the person receiving it.
Who doesn't?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, so if you're my supervisor and you give it to
me, you're just kind of candidand straightforward and it is
what it is and it's accurate,but the delivery of it is not
really.
I kind of go tone deaf becauseof the way you communicated with
me.
How do you help me get pastthat bad way of delivery and
still make good use of what yougave me?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Well, again, I think there's so many pieces to this
that what led to this?
Right?
How has my relationship beenwith you before?
Right?
Do you see me as somebody whomassages information or somebody
that just delivers astraightforward?
I'm a fairly straightforwardguy when I have to get feedback.
That's sort of the military inme, and so I think the other
thing, too, is the follow up tothat right.
(23:47):
So if I'm smart enough as aleader to see that you're not
receiving this, well, I canprobably tell in your body
language, your tone, whatever itmight be, that comes from that.
The first thing I need to do ishave a follow-up meeting with
you, and if you don't receive it, well, I think the one thing a
lot of people who get feedbackthat they don't want to hear is
that they walk away with it andthey just stew on it all by
(24:08):
themselves.
Well, don't Give it some time.
Let the emotion of thesituation pass, right, because
you don't want to make a lot ofemotional decisions and have
emotional responses.
Start thinking clearly and thenschedule a follow-up meeting
with your leader.
Here's what I heard you say.
Right, can we talk about thefeedback you gave me?
I want to make sure I heard itcorrectly.
(24:29):
Okay, right, it's seeking tounderstand without being overly
sensitive emotionally.
So I think, letting there's theold saying right, the fast
response sacrifices accuracy forspeed.
Right, I don't want tonecessarily respond emotionally,
I think a lot of people thesedays do they just, I mean, look
at the way our world works today, everyone responds emotionally.
Don't slow down, take your time.
(24:51):
So, as a leader, hopefully Ican sense that, but as somebody
receiving that circle backaround once the emotion is
dissipated a little bit.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Wow, I love it.
Love it On your journey.
When you look at it there againand as we talk to business
owners, corporate Americaleaders, people that are
entrepreneurs, people that aremiddle level management, what is
the single factor that helpedyou grow into who you are now?
If you had to put it on likeyou know, having that, you're
showing up pretty confident,you're pretty thought-provoking,
(25:21):
you're pretty patient andyou're methodical and you're
thinking what?
What if you think ofself-awareness for you, when did
you develop the ability to tobe who you are today?
And I know there's work inprogress.
You have a military background.
You went through a lot of stuffthat had to sharpen who you are
today.
What was it that contributed towho you are today?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Honestly, it's as I think through that question as a
whole.
Yeah, surprises don't bother me, twists and turns don't bother
me.
I mean, I went to 12 differentschools before I graduated high
school and they were never inthe same city or they're never
even the same state.
Sometimes I'm in the samecountry, and so when you get
(26:03):
yanked out of a school and youhave to move your stuff across
the country, complaining doesn'thelp.
I could sit there and complainthat I don't want to move from
Alaska to Texas or Texas toPanama.
I can complain I still have topack, right, and we're still
leaving on Tuesday, right, itdoesn't matter what you do.
And so at the end of the day,it's like my, my opinion on the
(26:26):
situation may not matter, it'sstill happening, it's still
occurring, I still have to dosomething about it.
And so I say to my son all thetime so what now, what?
I get it.
So what Now?
What Now, what do you do withit?
And so to me, that is sort ofthe mindset that has led me
through a lot of things.
Is that so what?
I still have to do somethingabout it.
(26:48):
Inaction or inactivity is notthe answer to this, and it
almost never is, and so for me,I think that's just sort of the
baseline for me is that's what Ilearned growing up.
That's the same thing I dealwith now is whatever comes up,
okay, now what?
Let's just let's, let's moveforward.
We're still moving forward oneway or the other.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
I love it.
You gave the answer to, towhere you got the mindset of
figure it out, because you'reright even if you didn't.
I'm're right Even if you didn't, I'm a veteran.
So even if you didn't pack,packers will show up and pack
for you.
Yeah, you just jump in the backseat because that car is
leaving.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
And it's interesting because, you know, I have two
older sisters I'm the youngestand I'm the only boy, and so it
was a lot harder for me.
The discipline for me growingup was change is way different
than mine, so for them theycan't handle it the same way I
can.
Right, emotionally, it reallyit impacts them very different
(27:42):
than it does me, and we grew upin the same house.
We went through the exact sameexperiences.
We had the same things, butthey just view it very
differently.
So anytime there's a disruptionit has a very different impact
on them and they sort of freezeand they're like what do I do?
And they have the emotionalresponse and to me it's like I
can't freeze, we're movingforward, let's just do this, and
(28:03):
so it's that.
That growing up that way reallybenefited me, but the exact
same environment actuallyimpacted them a little bit
different, which is interesting.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yeah, I love it.
Probably another book too, likeyou know, as a leader,
understanding who's showing upand what are they showing up
with, because two, three people,same household, total, same
incident happening, totaldifferent responses, yep.
So what did the title put it tothe test?
(28:32):
What made that the title foryou?
Because it fits your life.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
But where did it come from?
What made you say?
You know there was a lot ofdifferent.
We worked through a lot ofdifferent titles when, when I
was writing the book, um, thefirst title I ever thought was
the power of perseverance.
Um, and then I wanted, you know, figure it out.
And you know there were somethat were sort of using the
swear words, cut the crap right.
You know market very well.
Yeah, your excuses, but maybewith a slightly different word
(28:56):
on the front end.
And really, as we kept, as Ikept going through this and I
was working with the publishers,it was like this whole book is
about getting put to the testand what do you do?
And everybody gets put to thetest, personally, professionally
, doesn't matter, everyone getsput to the test.
What do you do?
And that was we just landed onthat title and I thought you
know what I really like it yeah,it's solid, I mean it.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
It literally speaks for itself.
It's just a matter of notgetting into the pages, um, you
know, when you get ready to read.
So, and our time remaining, acouple things I want to be able
to do with you.
Um, you know, tell us wherethey can find the book at again,
and then I'll go into your,your contact information.
Then we'll close out.
What do you lead with?
So I'll give you the last wordat the end, like, what do you
share with the audience that youhaven't shared yet?
So where do we find the book?
(29:39):
And then tell us how to get incontact with you.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, so the book, my website, DerekGirardcom.
There's links there to find thebook on different places, but
again, Amazon, Barnes, Noble,Walmart, there, Um, there's a
few other places out there, sortof obscure book places like
that, um, that you can get thebook from, but again all that
stuff is on the website or youcan just go to those locations
and find it.
Uh, and again, the the websiteis just my name, Derek Girardcom
(30:03):
.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, awesome, awesome.
So at the end of the, whatwould you leave the audience
with as we close out?
You know everyone.
Thank y all for joining us andI'm going to hand the microphone
over to Derek and let him closeus out and I won't come back
because I'm going to let himclose us out.
Thank you all for joining us.
It's been phenomenal.
Hope you enjoyed everything wetalked about.
So, derek, close us out.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
You know I said a lot of things here that hopefully
you know, help people andresonate with people and got
people interested in the bookand what I had to say and what I
had to say.
One of the things that was saidto me many years ago and it
didn't really resonate with meuntil I went through this
journey is this guy said to methe difference between the
person you are today is thepeople you meet, or the person
(30:44):
you are today and the person youare in the future is the people
you meet and the books you read.
And that just absolutely madesuch an impact to me as I kept
thinking through that statement.
And my hope is for the peoplethat I have the ability to meet
and the people that I've metover the years that I can
somehow that that's somethingthat they find was worthwhile
than meeting and having thoseinteractions and discussions.
(31:05):
And my hope is for people thatchoose to read the book that the
book actually has the sameimpact, and so I love hearing
from people that they love whatI'm talking about in the book,
and it's not just about me, it'snot about my journey.
There's a lot of examples inthere, so I'm hoping that the
book can also make an impact forthose people that choose to
read.
That and to me that statementholds true for the books I've
read, the people I've met.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Awesome, good closing .
Everyone, have a great one.
We will catch you on the nextpodcast.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Thank you again.
Welcome to Unpacked Podcast with your host
leadership consultant, ronHarvey of GlobalCore Strategies
and Consulting.
Ron believes that leadership isthe fundamental driver towards
making a difference.
So now to find out more of whatit means to unpack leadership,
here's your host, ron Harvey.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning everyone .
This is Ron Harvey, the VicePresident, chief Operating
Officer for Global CourseStrategies and Consulting.
We're a leadership firm.
We're based out of Columbia,south Carolina, and our whole
role for the company itself ishow do we help leaders be better
equipped to lead the workforceof tomorrow?
And that's through trust andcommunication and empowering,
and the list goes on.
But we do know that you knowleadership has changed,
(00:41):
workforce has changed andeverything around us has changed
.
We do know that you knowleadership has changed,
workforce has changed andeverything around us has changed
.
What is it that we do asleaders to make sure that we
have the next version of what ittakes for us to be successful
in today's world ever changing,and not where my parents led at
Totally different?
That command and control isover.
You can try it if you want togo for it, but it's over.
And so helping leadersunderstand what's the new way of
(01:03):
leading.
But what do you need to know?
But we pause every single time.
We record podcasts and we beginto bring guests off from around
the world with all differentbackgrounds, and so today our
podcast is really going to be.
You know, derek is going toshare some stuff.
I'll give him a chance.
You know, when we come in, I'mgoing to hand him the microphone
as I always do, I guess and lethim introduce himself and what
(01:23):
he wants you to know about himas I always do it, I guess.
And let him introduce himselfand what he wants you to know
about him, and then we'll driveit, we'll dive into some content
.
So, derek, I'm going to pass itover to you, man, and let you
introduce yourself where you are.
Whatever you want to share withus, I'm totally OK with that
and the audience loves it.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So whatever you want to share, Well, first of all,
thank so, thank you for theopportunity.
Well, a little bit about myself.
I'll sort of start from thebeginning, because I think from
the very beginning it sort oflays the foundation for why
Derek is the way he is.
As my wife always says, why areyou wired the way you're wired?
(01:56):
So I'm an army brat.
I grew up an army brat all overthe world, spent six years in
the Air Force myself, and when Igot into the professional
industry, I got into thefinancial services industry Long
, crazy, interesting, windingcareer in that space.
But ultimately I found myselfin a position where I had a
problem that nobody else hadsolved yet and I knew this
(02:18):
problem was faced by everybodyin the industry.
And so I don't excuses, don'tsolve problems in my mind,
they're just not an option.
And so I set out to build atechnology company with
absolutely no background intechnology, and it was crazy.
It was a difficult thing to do,is challenging, start, but
ultimately we started gettingsome success, and not only some
(02:39):
success like working with thetop financial services firms in
the country.
Success and right.
When that started happening,that's when everything fell
apart.
That's when dispute with mybusiness partner, who happened
to be my uncle happened.
That's when dispute with aninvestor and that's when a
surprise lawsuit was dropped onmy lap from a competitor, all at
(02:59):
the same time.
So I found myself in a position, right when things started
going well, that I was sittingthere with two federal lawsuits
and a state lawsuit on my handsand it was just me and I had to
figure it out.
And so I use this term, the FIOmindset.
I've said it since I wasyounger, but it's, it's.
I really believe in thismindset, this figure it out
(03:19):
mindset, and that's what I hadto do.
So I couldn't, I couldn't crushthe company, I couldn't fold
the company, I wasn't going tolet that happen.
And I fought and fought andfought and managed you know my
family and my, my business andthe lawsuits and growing and
ultimately, at the end of theday, I won all three of the
lawsuits.
One of them went to trial infederal court, which was an
(03:41):
interesting experience.
And after all that was said anddone, six and a half, seven
years later, I sold the companyat the end of 2023.
And the crazy thing was I keptgetting asked the question.
Everybody would ask me Derek,how in the world did you do that
?
How in the world did you nothave a background in tech and
you did this?
You didn't have a sales team.
How did you do this?
(04:02):
How is that possible?
And I wanted to write this bookput to the test, because I
wanted to be able to answer thequestion for people and make
sure they understand that thereisn't a single thing about me
that's special.
There isn't a thing about methat's unique.
Because I think a lot of timespeople think like I've been to
conferences and I've seen thatguy with no legs talk about how
(04:22):
he climbed to the top of MountEverest and you're like that's
amazing, I can't relate.
And I want people to hear in mystory and what I've been
through that it's 100% relatable.
There's nothing unique about it, I just figured it out.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I love it.
I love it.
So you gave us a lot to unpackand I'm excited.
I know the audience would bereally excited.
You know you have the book andso we'll dive in a little bit.
But as we go through, I love topromote when people have
something out there that helpspeople and so put to the test.
You know you wrote it becauseyou found yourself in a
situation you kept getting askedthe question how did you do it?
How did you do it?
(04:55):
And you finally put it outthere, put to the test First,
where do people find the book?
And then, if you could share alittle bit about what do you
want people to walk away fromthat?
Looking at entrepreneurs orbusiness owners or CEOs or team
leaders or new leader, what's init for people with a very, very
wide net, if you will?
What do they get out of it?
Or do you hope they get out ofreading your book?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Well, you can find it .
Basically, in most places youcan find books.
Normally, people buy it onAmazon or Barnes, noble, walmart
, places like that.
You can find the book there.
So in most channels somebodymight find their books.
Normally it's available there,which is fantastic and,
ultimately, what I want to getout of it.
I got a text message this lastweekend actually, from a
(05:37):
gentleman that read the book orwas reading the book, and he
said I'm going through somechallenges right now and
everything you're saying isreally resonating with me,
because one of the things Italked about in the book is I
try to have people think about achallenge they're facing not a
crisis, right, it's not about amidlife crisis, because that's
more of an identity thing and sothink about a challenge you're
(05:59):
facing, whether it's personal orprofessional, and to me, the
figure it out mindset and that'swhat I always call it it's not
a checklist, it's not like stepone, step two, step three.
It's not a checklist, it's amindset, and so a lot of it has
to do with are you being honestwith yourself?
Right, are you?
Are you actually being honestwith yourself?
(06:19):
Did you really try everythingand really give it your all and
again, personally orprofessionally.
You know I talked in thereabout my examples of where I use
self-confidence as areplacement for self-awareness.
That's a terrible replacementfor self-awareness.
You will get yourself in somuch trouble, like I did when I
use self-confidence as areplacement for self-awareness.
(06:41):
So, realistically and really,what I want people to take away
from the book is if you readthrough it and you read the
different chapters and you readthe different things that I talk
about and the examples I givepersonally and professionally
from my life and others it's.
Am I doing this right?
Am I really approaching themindset the correct way or am I
giving up too quick?
Am I blaming other people tooquick?
(07:02):
You know how am I approachingthis?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Wow, I love it.
I mean, you talk about the bookand you ask how you've been
honest with yourself.
At what point, when you werewalking through the lawsuit,
showing up dealing with a familymember that you're in business
with you know federal and state,you know in the business you
still got to run it?
At what point did you reallysettle down and realize you had
(07:26):
to figure it out?
What happened that made yourealize you're not going to
throw it in.
You got a family to support,because that's reality for
people that are listening tothis show.
When did it click that you gotto dig in and you got to make it
work?
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Well, I think it's sort of interesting as I think
back to it, because the firstlawsuit was I was dealing with
the investor and then my uncle.
Those weren't lawsuits yet,they were just sort of disputes.
And then I wake up one day andthe first lawsuit was this
competitor who hit us with apatent infringement lawsuit that
came out of nowhere.
(08:00):
So when that first hit, myfirst response, like most people
, is like oh my goodness, whatdo I do?
How in the world do I getmyself out of this?
I don't want to deal withlawyers.
The first thing you want to dois run as far away as you can.
But then what happened next wasreally interesting, because my
(08:21):
uncle's attorney and then thisinvestor both filed a lawsuit
almost immediately after, and itwas clear to me that they were
thinking let's put maximumpressure on Derek because
there's no way he can do thisRight.
It was almost like nobody'sgoing to deal with three
lawsuits on their own.
There's just no way.
So let's push him as hard as wecan.
And that was really when I dugmy heels and I'm like no right
(08:41):
is right, wrong is wrong.
This is 100% wrong.
I am not going to be pushedaround, and so from that point
on, like I tell a lot of times,I talk to people, I explain to
them.
From that point on I becamebasically a law student.
I needed to know everythingabout what was going on, so
there were no surprises to meand I just dug in my heels and
(09:03):
went right is right, wrong iswrong.
I'm not going to let thishappen.
And if I got to go downswinging, because this is what I
firmly believe in, that's whatI'm going to do.
And I listened to the advice ofthe attorneys as we were going
along and I really understood itmyself and so I felt confident
during the process that I wasthree and a half years, I was
doing what I felt was right andI was comfortable with that.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
What did you learn there, derek, that you still use
today?
So I know you have the book andyou put things in the book.
What did you learn about you?
Because I truly believe leadersget evaluated in the worst
times, not the best times.
I think the best time you showup when your back is against the
wall and you don't have any.
What did you learn about youfrom a leadership perspective?
People that are listening,where you know, people are
(09:44):
challenged.
Today, as we're having thisrecording, people are challenged
with everyday life things,businesses, lawsuits, you know,
whatever you may want to call it.
What did you find out about youthat gave you the desire to
keep going forward?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Well, the first thing I found out I learned a lot in
failure, and I think failure isfantastic.
I think for a lot of people,when you fail or you struggle,
it can crush some people morallyand again their confidence.
That's where thatself-confidence being replaced
with your self-awareness.
And so I had failures earlieron in my career, different
(10:21):
things that I tried doing, and Inever viewed them as failure
really.
They were just tremendouslearning opportunities.
And so, for me, one of thethings that I took into building
this tech company was this ideaof don't be the boss, be the
example.
And so I didn't want to walkaround and say I'm the boss, and
here's why you should listen tome.
Because I'm the boss, because Ihave a fancy title that doesn't
(10:42):
work.
People don't respect that theboss.
Because I have a fancy titlethat doesn't work, people don't
respect that.
And so, for me, I was willing todo everything.
I asked my staff to doeverything.
I asked my team to do.
If we had to work on theweekends, I was the one working.
If support needed more help, Iwas the one taking phone calls.
If we needed to go present tosomebody, I was the one doing it
, and so everybody knew that itwasn't just Derek telling us
(11:05):
what to do and Derek making usdo things.
He was going to do every singlething with us, and to me that
made a difference, because whenI needed to call on somebody to
do something or to take an extrastep, they always would do it
because they knew I would.
And so that, to me, was a bigthing, and I think it's a really
important key for leaders,especially as you become a
(11:26):
leader early in your career oryour first time leadership.
Don't let your title fool you.
Right?
Don't be the boss.
Be the example, like literallyset the example you want the
team to follow.
And then the other thing isexcuses don't solve problems.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Right, you said it earlier.
I love that.
Can you unpack for us, though,derek?
I mean because you know whenyou think about you know, be the
don't be the boss.
Be the example where you wouldstep in and you fill in there.
There's another side of thatthat I would love for you to
unpack.
You're doing it because youneed it.
There's another side of thatthat I would love for you to
unpack.
You're doing it because youneed it, they need to help, and
you want to make sure that it'sall you're doing it.
How do you speak to the leaderthat's doing it?
(12:02):
Because they don't believe thatthe person that really should
be doing it is going to do agood job, or they're too far in
and they got to do everything,they got to be attached to it
all.
They don't know how to get outof the way, basically when
you're an ego.
But then there's the other sideof the coin, where some of
these leaders that are listeningdon't know how to get out of
the way and they feel likethey're the one that has to do
it, because they do it the best.
They don't delegate, they don'tempower well enough, so they
keep getting in the way.
(12:22):
How do you separate thatdistinction for people that are
listening?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, well, I think a lot of it comes down to your
ego one and your training right,your mindset for training.
And so for me, I'll give you anexample of support my staff
knew from a tech support.
You know people would call inand they would be frustrated
from time to time, and theyalways knew if somebody got
really frustrated.
Here's how you handle thatCause we went through the
training and I led all thetraining.
(12:46):
But if you can't handle thatand if you get to the point
where you feel like you knowthey're just being abusive and
they're just being rude, you getme on the phone immediately,
because I take that, you don'ttake that Somebody's going to
yell, they're going to yell atme.
But the other thing that I didwas I always told my staff you
need to be on the phone with us,so anytime I step in, you're
there with me and I'm on yourside.
(13:06):
And so every single time, thethings that they heard was I was
never going to throw them underthe bus, I was never going to
talk down, I was never going tosay they got it wrong.
It was just asking a lot ofquestions to uncover where we're
going and what we've alreadydone.
We guide, the answer and thesolution almost always user
error, which was always funny.
And then we just debriefed, andthat was the other part of it.
(13:28):
The debrief was really, reallyimportant.
So when we were done doing that, I was done stepping in on
their behalf, we would sit downand have a conversation about
that.
Let's talk about that.
What did you pick up from whatI did?
How did that, you know, relateto what you did?
Do you want to listen to therecording of the phone call of
yours?
And so every bit of it was justa massive learning opportunity
(13:48):
and it wasn't about me.
And so one of the things that Iused to tell people all the
time is when you bring me in,you may have to tell them it's
me.
You can make up a name.
I don't have to be Derek, I canbe John Doe, and I will never
tell them my name, so they don'tthink that my title matters.
I will just be anybody, justthere to help you.
I don't care if it's me, Idon't care if people see me or
(14:08):
know it's me at all.
It's about doing it right andhelping.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Wow, I love it and, for those of you listening, I
think that it works with them.
I want to go back and unpackthis.
Figure it out, mindset.
What are the characteristics ofthat?
So, when you think of it, Imean I think I've heard it, but
I don't think I've heard someoneput it like here's literally
what I had to do, wrong.
Yeah, can you unpack?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
that a little bit to help us understand what is the
FIO, the figured out mindset.
You know, I have the book here.
I'll read through a couple,just sort of the chapters, right
.
One it's sort of look insideyourself, right?
One of the things that I thinkis really important is how
people define success, and Ithink a lot of people define
success externally right, it'swhat other people see, it's what
other people think.
One you have to look insideyourself.
I think that's by far the mostimportant thing, and in the
(15:01):
social media world we're intoday, that's really difficult.
So are you allowing somebodyelse to dictate what your
version of success is externally, or are you doing it internally
for yourself?
And so that, to me, I think, isa big part of this.
Again, this is why it's aprocess, not a checklist
Self-awareness, see things inblack and white.
One of the things that I stressall the time is get out of the
gray, get absolutely out of thegray.
So many people want to live inthe gray, of the kind of sort of
maybe it's either yes or no andthat's it.
(15:24):
And so did you do what you setout to do or did you not?
And what did you learn fromthat and so I think so many
people set goals or set thingsthey want to accomplish and
they're okay with getting sortof there and in my mind, sort of
doesn't work.
It's either yes or it's no.
I think not taking no for ananswer is important.
(15:45):
I think so many people,especially in a sales role, a no
is crushing If you don't getthe job you want or you don't
get the sale you want.
It's crushing.
Don't take it like that.
For me, it was just everysingle company that told us no,
that told me no, and these werehuge companies, came back and
became a client of mine and itwas because I just I had this
(16:06):
professional perseverance whereI stayed in touch.
I was very professional, verycourteous, but I didn't let it
go and I didn't give up and Igot every single one of them.
So it's just a lot of littlethings along the way, I think,
mentally, that shape people andone of the things I talk about
in the book is how do you teachyour kids this mentality?
Because I've got two kids I'vegot a 15 year old and a 12 year
(16:27):
old and my goodness, it'samazing they can't.
If you leave it up to them,they will never solve a problem
in their entire life.
They're looking for somebodyelse to do it for them, and I
think there's a lot of timesthat's a failure in terms of how
we lead as parents.
Sometimes is we're not teachingkids to you.
Figure it out, I bet you youcan, and it's amazing what you
see when you push kids to thatsort of mindset.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I love it.
I mean, how do you, if you're aleader in an organization and
your title, your name and yourevaluation evaluations on the
line, how do you create spacefor what you said to happen for
real, in real time, when thepressures and it's the game
winning shot?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
How do you create space as a leader to make it
safe enough for people to figureit out?
Well, I think one of the andthis is my opinion now I think
one of the mistakes is trying tosolve that at the end.
Right, it's like take yousports as an example.
If I'm trying to teach you howto handle it, right at the end
of the game, that means I faileda long time ago.
Right, it's like coachsheshefsky used to always say
with duke like I don't coachwhile they're on the floor
playing the game because it'stoo late.
(17:31):
The game's going on, and so forme, if, if I have to wait till
that moment to teach how tohandle it, I failed, I did it
wrong, and so for me, it's allin the preparation that leads up
to it.
And I think, if you were to lookat and some of the consulting
that I do now with businesses,when you see the results aren't
there and you see the leaderfocus on the result, it just
(17:52):
makes me scratch my head.
Why are we so focused on theresult?
Where did it fail?
Is it failed a long time beforeit hit the spreadsheet?
And so that, I think, is a bigpart for a lot of leaders and
you get into again, whetheryou're leading in business or
your sports or family.
It's like where in the worlddid I actually fall down?
Where did I fail this person?
(18:14):
Because it's generally not whenthe result is desire yeah, I
love it.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Can you unpack that some for us?
When you look at it there, Ilove it.
Upstreams, it happens waybefore it hits the spreadsheet,
but most of us, quite honestly,don't ask those questions until
we get to the spreadsheet or theend of the game or all of a
sudden it all has fell apart.
How do you train or how did youget to the place where you
start looking upstream, wherethe logs are getting thrown in
(18:40):
the water, versus downstream,where you see it floating by you
?
By that time it's floating byyou.
It's too late to stop.
You got to get upstream.
How did you train yourself tolook upstream?
Your processes, your training,your development?
What do you actually do to get?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
upstream.
Well, there's a couple ofthings.
So, first of all, one of thethings is again, it comes back
to a mentality.
I don't see failure as as allencompassing right.
I think there's.
If you ever heard this sayinglike one step forward, two steps
back, right.
That makes it seem like you'regoing backwards.
And, in my opinion, failingfailing in any capacity or
missing out on something is astep forward, as long as you
(19:14):
learn from it, and I think for alot of people that was.
For me, the biggest aha momentwas when I failed or when I got
a no.
I was like a bulldog to findout what the no was for.
Why did you say no?
What about the product waswrong?
What about me was wrong?
What about the pitch was wrong?
What is it that led to the no?
(19:35):
And I was so focused on thatbecause I needed to make sure
that that log never hit thewater again.
So I never wanted to hear nofor the same reason ever again,
and I just was so focused on itand I'd move forward.
And then I'd do it again.
If somebody said no, I'dfocused again and I'd keep
moving forward.
I never let it be a stepbackwards.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Wow, I love it that I don't want to hear no.
For the same reason again, whenyou think about the work that
you're doing, that requires acertain degree of receiving
feedback that doesn't feel good.
How do you get there?
Because feedback is needed andeven if it's delivered wrong,
it's still needed, because I'msure all the feedback you got
(20:18):
didn't feel good and some of itwasn't actually accurate or true
, them being too kind about it.
But feedback is a challengewith leaders.
I either do it or I don't do it.
If I do it, I do it well or Ido it horrible.
I avoid it completely.
What advice would you givepeople that are listening how to
do feedback first, as a personthat's given it in a way that
(20:38):
people it lands well, but how doyou?
Also the other question I'llask at the end, but the first
question if you're the persongiving feedback, how do you give
it where it's truthful, it'shonest, but it also takes care
of the person that's receivingit?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Well, I think the important thing when it comes to
giving feedback or receivingfeedback is I heard this so long
ago, I've said this a thousandtimes is this idea that the
problem with people that don'thave self-awareness is they
don't know it right.
And so when you're the persongiving feedback or the person
receiving feedback, it'simportant to understand the
(21:08):
other side of that equation andself-awareness, and it's also
important to understand yourside of that equation of
self-awareness, right.
If I come across as a leaderwho is just completely
self-centered and focused on myego, if I'm the person receiving
it, I have to understand theperson giving it to me, right,
and so that's important, tounderstand both sides of that.
(21:29):
So, for me, I think the biggestthing for me, the biggest
advantage for me over the courseof my career in leadership, is
I will ask 25 questions before Imake a statement.
I'm so focused and people inall the coaching that I do now
is still I'm like all youranswers are in your questions.
If I just ask really goodquestions, there's a really good
(21:50):
chance the person I'm givingfeedback to is going to trip and
fall right over the answerbefore I give it to them.
Yes, so let's talk through this.
Let's talk about how thisworked.
Do you think we could have donebetter?
If you could go back and do itagain, would you do it the same
way?
Let's talk about how we canimprove that.
What do you think could bedifferent?
I let them answer all thosequestions and then, at the very
end, all I'm doing issummarizing their words to give
(22:12):
my feedback.
Yes, yes, it makes it so mucheasier because they're figuring
it out for themselves, and thegoal is, if you do it that way,
most of the time the feedbackisn't received harshly because
they're realizing it along theway that yep, I probably could
have been better.
Self-awareness starts to becomea little bit more present and,
hopefully, the feedback isreceived better.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yes, yes, I love it and it ties back to FIO figure
it out, and you ask questionsfor them to figure it out,
versus giving them the answer.
So you help when people developtheir their skillset as well
and thinking critical thinking.
If you do really really wellwith questions, how do you help
someone that that I'm workingfor me, I report to you and and
you give us a feedback that youknow may be accurate, but you
(22:54):
didn't deliver it well?
How do you help me receivefeedback that's not delivered
well, but how do you help mereceive that and do something
with it and make it useful?
So how?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
do I help the person receiving it.
Who doesn't?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, so if you're my supervisor and you give it to
me, you're just kind of candidand straightforward and it is
what it is and it's accurate,but the delivery of it is not
really.
I kind of go tone deaf becauseof the way you communicated with
me.
How do you help me get pastthat bad way of delivery and
still make good use of what yougave me?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Well, again, I think there's so many pieces to this
that what led to this?
Right?
How has my relationship beenwith you before?
Right?
Do you see me as somebody whomassages information or somebody
that just delivers astraightforward?
I'm a fairly straightforwardguy when I have to get feedback.
That's sort of the military inme, and so I think the other
thing, too, is the follow up tothat right.
(23:47):
So if I'm smart enough as aleader to see that you're not
receiving this, well, I canprobably tell in your body
language, your tone, whatever itmight be, that comes from that.
The first thing I need to do ishave a follow-up meeting with
you, and if you don't receive it, well, I think the one thing a
lot of people who get feedbackthat they don't want to hear is
that they walk away with it andthey just stew on it all by
(24:08):
themselves.
Well, don't Give it some time.
Let the emotion of thesituation pass, right, because
you don't want to make a lot ofemotional decisions and have
emotional responses.
Start thinking clearly and thenschedule a follow-up meeting
with your leader.
Here's what I heard you say.
Right, can we talk about thefeedback you gave me?
I want to make sure I heard itcorrectly.
(24:29):
Okay, right, it's seeking tounderstand without being overly
sensitive emotionally.
So I think, letting there's theold saying right, the fast
response sacrifices accuracy forspeed.
Right, I don't want tonecessarily respond emotionally,
I think a lot of people thesedays do they just, I mean, look
at the way our world works today, everyone responds emotionally.
Don't slow down, take your time.
(24:51):
So, as a leader, hopefully Ican sense that, but as somebody
receiving that circle backaround once the emotion is
dissipated a little bit.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Wow, I love it.
Love it On your journey.
When you look at it there againand as we talk to business
owners, corporate Americaleaders, people that are
entrepreneurs, people that aremiddle level management, what is
the single factor that helpedyou grow into who you are now?
If you had to put it on likeyou know, having that, you're
showing up pretty confident,you're pretty thought-provoking,
(25:21):
you're pretty patient andyou're methodical and you're
thinking what?
What if you think ofself-awareness for you, when did
you develop the ability to tobe who you are today?
And I know there's work inprogress.
You have a military background.
You went through a lot of stuffthat had to sharpen who you are
today.
What was it that contributed towho you are today?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Honestly, it's as I think through that question as a
whole.
Yeah, surprises don't bother me, twists and turns don't bother
me.
I mean, I went to 12 differentschools before I graduated high
school and they were never inthe same city or they're never
even the same state.
Sometimes I'm in the samecountry, and so when you get
(26:03):
yanked out of a school and youhave to move your stuff across
the country, complaining doesn'thelp.
I could sit there and complainthat I don't want to move from
Alaska to Texas or Texas toPanama.
I can complain I still have topack, right, and we're still
leaving on Tuesday, right, itdoesn't matter what you do.
And so at the end of the day,it's like my, my opinion on the
(26:26):
situation may not matter, it'sstill happening, it's still
occurring, I still have to dosomething about it.
And so I say to my son all thetime so what now, what?
I get it.
So what Now?
What Now, what do you do withit?
And so to me, that is sort ofthe mindset that has led me
through a lot of things.
Is that so what?
I still have to do somethingabout it.
(26:48):
Inaction or inactivity is notthe answer to this, and it
almost never is, and so for me,I think that's just sort of the
baseline for me is that's what Ilearned growing up.
That's the same thing I dealwith now is whatever comes up,
okay, now what?
Let's just let's, let's moveforward.
We're still moving forward oneway or the other.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
I love it.
You gave the answer to, towhere you got the mindset of
figure it out, because you'reright even if you didn't.
I'm're right Even if you didn't, I'm a veteran.
So even if you didn't pack,packers will show up and pack
for you.
Yeah, you just jump in the backseat because that car is
leaving.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
And it's interesting because, you know, I have two
older sisters I'm the youngestand I'm the only boy, and so it
was a lot harder for me.
The discipline for me growingup was change is way different
than mine, so for them theycan't handle it the same way I
can.
Right, emotionally, it reallyit impacts them very different
(27:42):
than it does me, and we grew upin the same house.
We went through the exact sameexperiences.
We had the same things, butthey just view it very
differently.
So anytime there's a disruptionit has a very different impact
on them and they sort of freezeand they're like what do I do?
And they have the emotionalresponse and to me it's like I
can't freeze, we're movingforward, let's just do this, and
(28:03):
so it's that.
That growing up that way reallybenefited me, but the exact
same environment actuallyimpacted them a little bit
different, which is interesting.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yeah, I love it.
Probably another book too, likeyou know, as a leader,
understanding who's showing upand what are they showing up
with, because two, three people,same household, total, same
incident happening, totaldifferent responses, yep.
So what did the title put it tothe test?
(28:32):
What made that the title foryou?
Because it fits your life.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
But where did it come from?
What made you say?
You know there was a lot ofdifferent.
We worked through a lot ofdifferent titles when, when I
was writing the book, um, thefirst title I ever thought was
the power of perseverance.
Um, and then I wanted, you know, figure it out.
And you know there were somethat were sort of using the
swear words, cut the crap right.
You know market very well.
Yeah, your excuses, but maybewith a slightly different word
(28:56):
on the front end.
And really, as we kept, as Ikept going through this and I
was working with the publishers,it was like this whole book is
about getting put to the testand what do you do?
And everybody gets put to thetest, personally, professionally
, doesn't matter, everyone getsput to the test.
What do you do?
And that was we just landed onthat title and I thought you
know what I really like it yeah,it's solid, I mean it.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
It literally speaks for itself.
It's just a matter of notgetting into the pages, um, you
know, when you get ready to read.
So, and our time remaining, acouple things I want to be able
to do with you.
Um, you know, tell us wherethey can find the book at again,
and then I'll go into your,your contact information.
Then we'll close out.
What do you lead with?
So I'll give you the last wordat the end, like, what do you
share with the audience that youhaven't shared yet?
So where do we find the book?
(29:39):
And then tell us how to get incontact with you.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, so the book, my website, DerekGirardcom.
There's links there to find thebook on different places, but
again, Amazon, Barnes, Noble,Walmart, there, Um, there's a
few other places out there, sortof obscure book places like
that, um, that you can get thebook from, but again all that
stuff is on the website or youcan just go to those locations
and find it.
Uh, and again, the the websiteis just my name, Derek Girardcom
(30:03):
.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, awesome, awesome.
So at the end of the, whatwould you leave the audience
with as we close out?
You know everyone.
Thank y all for joining us andI'm going to hand the microphone
over to Derek and let him closeus out and I won't come back
because I'm going to let himclose us out.
Thank you all for joining us.
It's been phenomenal.
Hope you enjoyed everything wetalked about.
So, derek, close us out.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
You know I said a lot of things here that hopefully
you know, help people andresonate with people and got
people interested in the bookand what I had to say and what I
had to say.
One of the things that was saidto me many years ago and it
didn't really resonate with meuntil I went through this
journey is this guy said to methe difference between the
person you are today is thepeople you meet, or the person
(30:44):
you are today and the person youare in the future is the people
you meet and the books you read.
And that just absolutely madesuch an impact to me as I kept
thinking through that statement.
And my hope is for the peoplethat I have the ability to meet
and the people that I've metover the years that I can
somehow that that's somethingthat they find was worthwhile
than meeting and having thoseinteractions and discussions.
(31:05):
And my hope is for people thatchoose to read the book that the
book actually has the sameimpact, and so I love hearing
from people that they love whatI'm talking about in the book,
and it's not just about me, it'snot about my journey.
There's a lot of examples inthere, so I'm hoping that the
book can also make an impact forthose people that choose to
read.
That and to me that statementholds true for the books I've
read, the people I've met.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Awesome, good closing .
Everyone, have a great one.
We will catch you on the nextpodcast.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Thank you again.
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