November 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Today, we dive into the inspiring journey of Steve Doyle, a seasoned executive in the wine and spirits industry. With over 30 years of experience, Steve has not only driven transformational growth but has also made a significant impact by mentoring over 400 individuals into leadership roles. His belief in the value of learning from those you lead is a key takeaway, as it highlights the importance of open dialogue and mutual respect in any organization. We also chat about the emotional intelligence that underpins successful leadership and how treating people with respect can create a thriving workplace culture. Join us as we explore Steve's insights and stories that can guide us all toward unstoppable success.
Today, we dive into the inspiring journey of Steve Doyle, a seasoned executive in the wine and spirits industry. With over 30 years of experience, Steve has not only driven transformational growth but has also made a significant impact by mentoring over 400 individuals into leadership roles. His belief in the value of learning from those you lead is a key takeaway, as it highlights the importance of open dialogue and mutual respect in any organization. We also chat about the emotional intelligence that underpins successful leadership and how treating people with respect can create a thriving workplace culture. Join us as we explore Steve's insights and stories that can guide us all toward unstoppable success.
Joining us today is Steve Doyle, a powerhouse in the wine and spirits industry with over thirty years of experience. Steve's journey began unexpectedly when he stumbled into the Gallo Wine Company during a job search. His openness to opportunity set the stage for a remarkable career marked by leadership in high-performance teams and transforming organizations. We dive deep into Steve's philosophy of leadership, emphasizing the importance of listening to those you lead. He shares his insights on mentorship, having guided over 400 individuals into leadership roles, and the mutual learning that occurs in these relationships. Our discussion also touches on the emotional intelligence required to foster strong team dynamics and how treating people with respect can create a positive work environment. Steve's unique perspective on leadership will inspire you to rethink your approach to success and the importance of cultivating relationships in your professional journey.
Takeaways:
- Effective mentorship can create a lasting impact, as it develops future leaders and fosters growth.
- Listening actively to your team can provide valuable insights and enhance collaboration significantly.
- Emotional intelligence is key in leadership; treating people with respect and understanding goes a long way.
- Starting your day with intention and positive energy can drastically influence your overall success.
- Creating rapport with your team leads to better communication and a stronger work environment.
- Adapting and being open to change can be a vital part of thriving in any industry.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- VinMotion Wine Company
- Gallo Wine Company
- Diageo
- Kmart
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:41):
Well, hello everybody, andwelcome to another amazing episode
of Unstoppable Success. I amyour host, Jaclyn Strominger. And
you know, on this podcast wehear from amazing humans who have
done great things in theworld, who not only have had success
themselves, but have also donethings that we know you want to hear
(01:03):
about because their life hasbeen an unstoppable success. And
so today I get to bring to youSteve Doyle. And let me tell you
a little bit about Steve. Heis another remarkable human. Steve
is a seasoned senior executivewith over three decades of leadership
in the wine and spiritsindustry. He has been recognized
(01:24):
for driving transformationalgrowth, building powerhouse brands
and leading high performancesales and marketing teams across
global markets, creating aworld class culture. His expertise
has led to an involvement inseveral mergers and acquisitions,
including the successful saleof VinMotion Wine Company. He is
(01:45):
also incredibly proud of hismentorship, his coaching and fellowship,
which has developed over 400people moving into leadership roles,
many of who he continues tomentor. Still, today, there is so
much I could tell you a lotabout. Still, Steve, he's had a great
career and he's also hadchallenges. So without further ado,
(02:07):
I want to introduce you toSteve. So, Steve, welcome to Unstoppable
Success.
Jaclyn, thank you so much forthat intro. That was fantastic. So
I, I, I'm blushing actually,so I appreciate that. But it has
been an amazing career for me.I've been very, very fortunate and
very lucky. And, and I thinkagain, to your point, as you mentioned,
(02:30):
I'm most proud of myfellowship and the, and the teams
that continue to still call metoday. And we have wonderful conversations.
And I tell you a lot, a lot oftimes I learn more from them than
I think they actually learnedfrom me. But it's been really terrific.
And how could it not be goodin the wine and spirits industry?
I was going to say, well,first of all, you're starting off
(02:50):
in an industry that isabsolutely fantastic. But something
you just said, Steve, I haveto point out you just said something
that again, listeners, it isso quintessential to being unstoppable
and having unstoppablesuccess. And that is you learn from
those you lead.
(03:12):
Oh, totally. I think a lot oftimes Jaclyn and I read an article,
it was a gentleman wrote it,about the Celtic folks coming from
Ireland into this country inthe 20s and 30s. And this article
was really interesting. It wasbased on how did these people from
(03:32):
essentially an island, 3.5million of them, came through New
York, Ellis island and Bostonprimarily. How did they come here?
And come to maybe the toughestcity in America and succeed. And
so they have. This article hadthe Irish mindset and it was very
(03:53):
interesting. I'm Irish andfourth generation and. And one of
the things, the very firstthing it talked about was always
having an openness to learnand having a kind of an appetite,
if you will, to listen toothers as much as you want them to
listen to you. And so manytimes I've had sales reps or region
(04:14):
managers or division vicepresidents that we would start down
the road of a key topic and.And I just tried to listen as much
as I could. And many times Igot great feedback from them about
that particular topic orstrategy or tactic and I was able
(04:34):
to turn around and actuallyshare it again. So, you know, the
listening part and having goodconversational rapport with your
team, both colleagues as wellas people report to you is. Has been
tremendous for me.
You know what you just saidagain, again, that whole listen to
(04:55):
learn and be able to have thatrapport with colleagues and be able
to. And then also being ableto take what you learned and whatever
that story was that came fromhere, you know, from A, and you can
then share it with B, is.
Yeah.
Is so incredibly powerful.
Yeah.
(05:16):
Well, I. Absolutely. I justthe other day I had a gentleman call
me and he was a regionalmanager for me when I was working
at Jaylore, and we had a greatconversation and he brought up working
with his distributor partnersand etc. And he mentioned that he's
been working really hard andputting into their emotional bank
(05:37):
account with him and he feltlike you get what you give, so to
speak. And again, it was agreat statement from him to me about
the emotional bank account andjust again, engaging with people
intently and as Stephen Coveysays, with the intent to understand
(06:00):
before you're understood, soto speak. So again, I have so many
examples of that in my careerand I like to think that I've used
that in the right way.
For sure.
I'm sure you have. I love thatemotional bank account. So remember,
people, it is about theemotional intelligence as well.
(06:21):
Totally.
And being that success. So Iwant to go back because you've had
great success. You rose up inthe wine industry. So I want to go
back to. Did you know you weregoing to go into the wine business?
Did you even like wine?
No. No. Great question. I'lltell you, it was an interesting quick
(06:44):
story, but I was on campusinterviewing. I was 22 years old,
looking for my first job, andI just interviewed and some of your
listeners May remember thisretail company, but it was called
Kmart. And I interviewed withKmart and with a couple of gentlemen
who were, they were terrificto me. They, we had a wonderful conversation
(07:07):
that I remember. They wereprobably my age now. And when I left
there again, it was good, butit wasn't high energy. It wasn't.
I remember leaving there alittle disappointed, I guess, in
the sense of, about thatorganization. And lo and behold,
the organization obviouslydidn't make it essentially. But,
(07:29):
but walking down the hallway,I know walking down the hallway,
there was an office door openand in sitting in that office were
two young guys, probably notmuch older than me. And so I just
knocked on the door and Iintroduced myself and asked them
who they were with. And theywere with Gallo Wine Company. And
(07:51):
so I told him.
Wait, so you didn't, so you'reinterviewing, but you didn't have
an interview scheduled with.
I did not, No, I did not. AndI just saw that as an opportunity.
It was literally andfiguratively an open door. An open
door, yeah.
So, okay, I just had a picture.
Yeah, absolutely. And I thinkone thing too that I have always
(08:11):
told my team is confidence isso important. You know, if you don't
know, if you don't look likeyou know what the hell you're doing,
people aren't going tonecessarily trust you and they may
not follow you in that sense.So I walked in with complete confidence,
felt good about myself forsure and what I accomplished from
school. And they said, well,why don't you sit down right now?
(08:34):
And so we did and we had agreat conversation. And I got back,
called back for a secondinterview and the next thing I know,
I'm in Indianapolis, Indianaand I, I have a grocery route and
I'm calling on Kroger storesand Marsh, and I'm getting up at
4:30 in the morning and movingpallets of tomatoes so I can get
to my wine to build displaysand that kind of thing. So, so again,
(08:56):
it really was happenstance,you know, maybe fate if you choose
to go that way, but from mystandpoint, I, it couldn't have been
better opportunity for me.And, and the reason is because Gallo
is an organization. I have somuch respect for them. They are still
a family owned organizationtoday. They're, I believe they're
(09:18):
the largest wine company inthe business. They're, they're out
of Modesto, California and amarketing juggernaut and they have
high standards, they havesales process, they have mentoring,
they have curbside coaching.All those things that I got a chance
to experience as a young salesrep got embedded in me. And so that
(09:44):
became, again, a catalyst forme as I went forward to who I was
going to be as a. As a manageror a leader or ultimately, hopefully,
an executive. So, again,that's. Most people in the wine and
spirits business, you findthey almost fall into it accidentally.
No one. No one goes to collegeand says, man, you know what? I am
(10:06):
going to be maybe at UC Davis.Perhaps you want to be a winemaker.
Maybe.
But nobody really walks intoit thinking.
This is a career.
But. So I have a question. Soyou're at university and you're looking
at the list of people that arecoming in to who you'd want to interview
with.
(10:26):
Yeah.
Had you seen that gala wascoming and you just said, I wouldn't
want to work for a winecompany, or was it.
No, I had not.
Yeah.
You know, to be honest withyou, I had not seen them. And I don't
think I probably knew whoreally Gallo was, to be honest with
you, at 22 years old, I wasprobably drinking beer more so than
anything else.
So.
Yeah. So I probably reallydidn't know them, to be honest with
(10:48):
you. But I think, again, whatattracted me was this young talent
that was interviewing me. Andthe comparison, it's not an age thing,
per se, it's more of an energything. And the comparison of that
energy level. And when Iwalked in, they were so accepting.
Absolutely.
(11:08):
We got an hour sit down, andit was fantastic. So, you know, again,
I think I got a little lucky,and at the same time, I feel like
I made my luck as well.
Yeah, that's. Actually, Iabsolutely love that, you know, so
I think it's just so great,actually. I just think that's so,
so cool if you kind of likewalked into an open door and people
(11:30):
are sitting there. But. Butagain, listeners, this is something
that is really quintessential.Yeah, goes back to it. Goes back
to. It starts at values. Youknow, as a company, when you are
bringing people in.
Yes.
Your fold, you have to knowyour value. The values that you.
(11:54):
That. That you want to instillin your. Your people. And.
That's right.
And if you don't know thosevalues, those core values, then you
really need to define thosebecause you will attract the right
people if you know the rightvalues. And yeah, the energy that
you have really does matter.You know, I will say, you know, hundreds
(12:16):
of times, you know, you canwalk into a room and you can either
be radiating great energy, oryou could not be. Right.
That's right.
That's right.
And whatever baggage you'vehad for that day, leave it. Leave
it.
That's right.
Yeah.
But that energy that you'remanifesting really does matter. And
(12:38):
obviously you. You saw that. Imean, you know, Kmart kind of old
and exactly right. VersusGallo, who has always evolved and
changed. And with the times,as I look.
At them, no question. Noquestion. I think that's one of the
things about that organizationand a couple others I've worked for
(13:00):
is that the willingness,again, for an organization to learn
and the willingness for anorganization to, you know, not hold
the proverbial sacred cow andbe okay when your organization brings
to you new ideas and beingokay to take a look at those. And
I always felt that way from aGallo aspect if, if I came back in
(13:24):
from the field for a meetingon Friday, and Dan Heller, it was
a district manager at thetime, he always listened. So I think
that's really important for anorganization to understand that being
able to have goodcommunication with your team is important.
(13:47):
And I also think Simon Sinektalks about this, Jaclyn.
And I also think that not to.
Be so, not to be cliches aboutit, but you have to treat your people
well. And that's not aboutsalary. That's not about insurance.
It's about treating them withrespect, treating them with 100%
(14:08):
attention. If you're out on awork with and you've got a young
sales rep or a young managerwith you, don't put your phone on
the table because you'resending a message to them already
that if this phone rings, weare interrupting our conversation.
And instead keep the phone inyour briefcase or keep the phone
(14:28):
in your pocket and be engagedwith them when you have that opportunity.
And you'll get again back what you.
Give relative to that, for sure.
And that that's been proven tome over and over again with the folks
that I've been fortunateenough to touch as well.
You know, that there's a lot,there's a lot that you just said
(14:50):
that.
I think a lot of stuff inthere. I know.
Sorry.
No, but there's so many goodlittle nuggets. But one of the things
that I think that is reallylike to encompass the whole thing
that. And that as you'retalking, that was just coming out
in my brain. And you saidtreat people with respect. And what
I the as you're saying thatand as you're speaking, the things
that are coming up in my, myemotions are we are, as a leader,
(15:15):
you are not better thananybody in your Team. And just because
you have evp, svp, coo, CEO, Idon't give a rat's ass what letters
you have before or after yourname. Do not think that you are better
than anybody else.
Yeah.
I will be honest and tell you,when I became my first role as a
(15:37):
manager. I hate the word manager.
Yeah.
I was. I was like. I had thesnobby nose. I was like, I'm so much
better. I'm a manager.
Right, Right. Yeah. Look atthis business.
That's right. Yeah.
Hell, no. Does not work.
Yeah, that's right.
And I wish I had somebody thathad said, hey, Jaclyn. Right. I learned.
Right. Because you saw and.But. But it's so great for you to
(15:59):
be able to say that and alsoto be able to have that experience
from the get go.
Yeah.
Understand that.
That's right.
Heard and listened to and thatideas could flow. And it doesn't
seem like you ever had anybodysort of put a book over you, like
(16:21):
to keep you down.
Yeah. I mean, certainly youwould run into some managers in that
regards. Not everyone wasmaybe in that same mode, but again,
you. You touch on a reallyimportant thing. Early on in my career,
I got opportunities at 24 and25 years old to lead a sales organization
(16:41):
of 50 people. And they werecoming out of college and so forth,
so they were young inthemselves. But because I left Galo
and went to a company calledDiageo, and they were another leader
in the spirits business.Primarily they have brands like Johnnie
Walker and Bailey's, IrishCream and Smirnoff and Jose Cuervo
at the time. And they had anexcellent training program. And what
(17:05):
happened for me is I met sometremendous mentors, and some of them
were executives. Fred Ledreux,for example, some of them senior
DVP's, Don Reichstorf, HenryWeaver, those.
People I still talk to today.
And you mentioned I had somechallenges. I have a chance to touch
(17:27):
on that in a few minutes. Butin these challenges I had this past
year and a half, some of thosefolks I hadn't talked to for a while,
they called me out of theblue. And one gentleman, Marty Malinsky,
said to me, hey, when one ofmy guys is down, I want to know what's
going on. And it wastremendous. And so for me, Hugh Blind.
(17:51):
Excuse me. Diageo was anotheropportunity early in my career to
see what true mentorship was.
To see what true leadershipwas from these gentlemen and. And
learn from that. And. And oneof them said to me.
Once you're mentored, you havethe Responsibility to return the
(18:13):
favor. And so that happenedwhen I was 26, when I was 27, and,
and so again when I got in my30s and I suddenly found myself in
a national role, sales andmarketing or working on a merger,
working on the sale of acompany, those things framed again
(18:34):
who I became. So the mentoringpart of that is so key.
For sure it is, it's reallyimportant. And I think if I could
instill something in any ofthe listeners, you know, for you
to have that unstoppablesuccess and for you to actually rise
up, you know, be a mentor andbe a mentee.
(18:56):
That's right.
Out. Look for those people.Don't be afraid to reach out to somebody,
whether it's on LinkedIn or,you know, go to your local library
and look up different. That'sright, that might be.
That's right.
And reach out and connect.
That's right.
That's right.
No question. The power ofnetworking. I know, you know, John
(19:18):
Scott from the wonderful placethat I live right.
Now, he's a general managerhere at the club here.
And he asked me what I wantedto do in my retirement. And I told
him, I said, John, you know,one of the things I love doing was
teaching, so to speak, notfrom an academic perspective, but
teaching, you know, my teamsand so forth. And he said, well,
(19:42):
let me introduce you to BrianSandoval, the president of University
of Nevada, and perhaps there'ssomething you can do there. And so
he did. I had a wonderfulconversation. I met the dean of the
business school, Greg, and thenext thing I.
Know, I'm involved with UNRfrom a.
Speaking perspective andsitting in MBA classes and, and being
able to share and I'm doing itall for a hamburger, basically, you
(20:05):
know, but for me it was soenergizing in that sense. So it goes
back to the why.
Yeah.
Often overused because ofSimon's book. But it's true.
If you really understand whatyour why.
Is, you can, you can search that.
Out and find it for sure. AndI've found that in that sense that's
(20:25):
truly great.
And I love that. And it'strue. Like the word why is, I think,
overused. And I, I almost liketo say it's, it's, it's not really
the, the why. It's, it's, it'sthe reason.
Right, right, that's right.
It's the reason.
Yeah.
You know, and what's, what doyou feel in your heart and where,
you know, you know, the long,the long term passion, goal. Like
(20:50):
yourself. Yeah, like how am Igoing to get there? This is the reason
I am here.
That's right. That's right.
Yeah, exactly. No question.And I think that's really important
because I, I do thinkcertainly in my entire career, there
were times I wasn't.
Sure what my why was, to behonest with you.
So I think it's not an easy.
Question to answer, to behonest with you.
(21:10):
So searching that out andthinking about.
That, I think is as importantas communicating and engaging. For
sure.
Yeah.
To touch on that as, as weshared, you know, you, you've had
some recent challenges, butyou're, you're not stopping.
(21:33):
No, I, I, again, for your listeners.
I, I just had a major health.
Issue where I, I had a braintumor, actually. And, and I second.
Oh, yeah, of course.
No, Sorry. My dog. Guys.Listeners, I have a dog who's a Portuguese.
(21:54):
She started to go aftersomething. So I'm sorry that I had
to stop there.
I've always been upstaged.
I was like, what is going onin here? I'm hearing something. Sorry.
So anyway, no, all good.
All good. And I.
No, it's good.
It's good, actually. A littlehumor, when in a serious note is
always good. Listen, I had abrain tumor.
And, and the wonderful peopleat Renown and terrific doctors.
(22:17):
Dr. Strominger, I don'tembarrass you, but.
I'm a huge fan.
Dr. Moore, who was myneurosurgeon, Dr. Patel, my radiologist.
You know, I, I realized that I.
Was not going to let this,this define who I was.
And I did lose about 60 of myeyesight, but I'm, it sounds crazy,
(22:40):
but I'm playing golf and I'm going.
Fly fishing and I'm stillhiking and.
I'm concentrating on thethings I can do. And you know, Jaclyn,
I said to.
Myself, I wrote this downabout two.
Months after I got out of thehospital. What are the five things
that I.
Feel like have really helped me?
And those five things, numberone, first.
(23:02):
Of all, was mindset. And, andyou, you are what you believe. And
I just refuse to believe thatmy life is going to be that altered.
And number two is your tribe.And again, sometimes often over word
used, but, you know, you'repart of my tribe now. My yoga instructor,
(23:23):
Lisa is part of my tribe. My,in my strength training, my family,
of course. So your tribe isreally critical vulnerability. And
I mentioned to you when wefirst met, you know, vulnerability,
I think allows authenticity.And when you're authentic, people
lean in and will trust you.And I've had strangers in an airport
(23:47):
help me find my luggage out ofthe blue, a wonderful 80 year old
woman named Pearl and ChicagoO'. Hare. And then the last two pieces
of gratitude. And thegratitude piece and being able to
think about the things to bethankful for is incredibly powerful.
(24:08):
And then the last one is havesome faith, especially in yourself.
And so I've leaned on thosefive things and I've shared those
things with other friends andmentorees that have had some challenges
in their life. And hopefullyit helps, but it certainly helped
me. And I miss the industry. Imiss all the guys and gals that I
(24:30):
worked with and had argumentswith, the debates, but they've been
tremendous in reaching backout to me when they found that I
had some issues. So I reallyappreciate it.
You know, I mean, first ofall, you'd never know, right? Like,
you don't, you don't.
That's right.
(24:50):
You would never know. Right.And so the mindfulness and the mindset
is so important and I think,you know, the, I would say. And I
would love the tip on this.
Sorry, right.
(25:12):
The, the tip is like themindset of being able to, to control
how you think each day.
Yeah.
Because we can wake up in themorning and you can, and you can
think, oh my God, this isgoing to be an amazing day. Or you
can think, oh my God, likethat's right. Or like I was. Oh shit.
(25:35):
Right. Whatever that is. Likethat feeling of like. Or the pit
in your stomach. So what tipwould you give to the listeners to
say, here's what you could doeach day to help with your mindset?
Yeah, I'll tell you exactly. Ihad a good friend of mine, he's a
CEO of a pharmaceuticalcompany and they are working on trying
(25:59):
to find a prostate cancercure. And he's a tremendous, tremendous
man.
He could do that faster.
He's so humble and I love him.And when this happened, we had a
great conversation. And hesaid, Steve, he said, what I do every
day is I decide how this dayis going to go. And he said, I wake
(26:20):
up and I have a cup of coffeeand I'll see he has a place in Capitola
that they live now. And hesaid, I sit out and I look at the
ocean and I just determine.And he said, I don't mean your agenda.
I don't mean you got to go tothe doctor, you got whatever. I mean,
how are you going to treatpeople today? How are you going to
(26:42):
treat your wife, how you cantreat your spouse? And how are you
going to choose to treat otherpeople. And again, what I found is
that when you treat folks asyour equal, they want to help and
(27:02):
it makes it for a much betterday than if you're miserating about
luck of the job, you know,kind of thing. And so every morning,
that is what it looks like tome. And I've been doing that now
for 80 weeks and I'll continueto do it. And I certainly don't mean
to minimize anyone else'schallenges, whether it be health
(27:24):
or otherwise. And I don't.It's not as simple as I'm maybe making
it sound because believe me,there are days that I get up and
I really have to work hard atand talk about how I'm going to make
this a positive day, so tospeak. But. But again, it's how you
(27:44):
start the day yourself alonethat's going to make a difference.
And so that. That's what Iwould suggest for folks in that sense.
And again, there's five thingsI talked about, really. You know,
your family, your tribe. It'sso, so very important to lean on
(28:04):
the people that love you andthey're around you.
Yeah, I, I really like that. Ilike being able to start your day
that way and then with themindset and actually one thing that
I would. What I, what I likeis. And in a little tip that, that
I, I haven't done it morerecently, but it's something that
(28:25):
is. Is part of that tribe ishaving those few people that you
could have on a group textthat might say in the morning, hey,
good morning. Let's start ourday strong or whatever.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, you're all settingthe intention and, you know, if you
wake up in the morning andyou're having a shit day or you just
(28:46):
don't feel that power in you,you just. Where's the power going
to come from?
That's right.
And somebody sends you likesomebody in the message, you know,
maybe it's. Maybe you're notthe one that's starting it that day
or somebody starts it and allof a sudden it can start to radiate
something within you thatbrings out, you know, like, hey,
you know what? Like, hey,remember, we're all badass or yeah,
(29:08):
whatever. Whatever that is. Right?
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Theenergy level is so important, you
know, and, and again, I'm, I'mreally proud of this. Not from an
ego perspective, but my J Loresales team, I've been gone now, as
I mentioned, 80 weeks. Theystill reach out to me to see how
(29:31):
I'm doing. And, and I wouldsay, number one, they're just, they're
just good humans.
Yeah.
Number one. I would say numbertwo, though I try not to be grouchy
when they call me. I'm like, Itry to have as good of energy as
I possibly can have becausethey're going to want to call you
(29:51):
again. And getting those phonecalls has been so good for me that
you want to stimulate that aspositively as you possibly can. I.
I used to tell my team this,Jaclyn. We would be in a meeting.
It's a tough, maybe a toughmonth or a tough quarter, maybe financial.
We're not trying to, we're notquite making the targets. And the
(30:13):
one rule I always have forthem is do not be an energy vampire.
Don't do it. If you're goingto be an energy vampire in this meeting
today, then go ahead, you'reexcused. Take a hike. Go, go outside,
get some pressure, whatever,but please don't be an energy vampire
and drag the rest of us downwith you. And I think it's, whether
(30:35):
it's business or life, not toget too deep, but I think it's, it's
really critical. And when Iwalk in, whether it's, you know,
meetings with buying a houseor a car or whatever, let's have
some good energy with theStarbucks guy, because they got there
at five o' clock in themorning. So to speak. So to speak.
(30:57):
Yeah. So it's.
And that's, and I would say, Ithink that is so important because
again, you know, we started onthe topic, you know, we, you know,
part of your success reallydoes to be unstoppable. It takes
energy, but you have to. Itstarts, it starts here, and it goes
to your heart.
That's right.
Be able to walk in.
That's right.
And with the right energy. AndI love what you just said. You know,
(31:21):
if you, if you see somebodywhose energy has waned.
Yeah.
You might want to either say,hey, are you okay? Right.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.That's right. And. And change the
environment up that you're in.Yeah, for sure. And you can do that.
You just have to be selfaware, you know. And that again,
(31:43):
a mentor of mine told me atone time, I said, we were, I was
interviewing him actually, tocome into the organization. And I
said, how do you handle toughconversations with the people that
you're managing and whenthey're not quite working out on
the objectives or whateverthat you've got them aligned for?
(32:04):
And he said, you know, thefirst thing I think about is what's
going on at home, what's goingon outside of work that might be
affecting work. And, and I,again, that was one of those learning
moments for me and neversometimes I never really quite thought
about it that way. And not toget too personal in a work environment,
(32:25):
but certainly you need to beaware that if somebody's going through,
you know, their father sick orwhatever, you need to be aware of
that and put that in your, inyour back of your mind as you're
dealing with them to have someempathy sometimes when they need
it. And of course, at the sametime, you know, at the end of the
day, you got to make theobjectives as well. So you got to
(32:47):
really balance that for sure.
Right, but it's true, butthat's also where that emotional
intelligence comes in.
That's right. That's exactly.Again, you said that before. It's,
it's so important. You know,several books written on that. I've
read a couple. And theemotional intelligence side of that
is the part that you don't getquite taught in school. You can be
an engineer or an economistand, you know, in high powered school,
(33:14):
but if you don't know how torelate to people, you don't understand,
you know, again, how to, howto have good conversational rapport
with them, how to, how toprobe them and then align with them
and then hopefully raise them,you know.
Right.
And.
Right.
That's, that's an ongoingconversational process. For sure.
(33:36):
It is, it's something, it issomething that. It's an ongoing thing.
And it's, and I, and I, Itruly believe that, that our success
comes from. And it's, and itgoes back to your very first conversation
you had, I would bet, with thepeople at Gallo when you walked into
that open door, which isbasically they were, they, they got
(33:57):
to know and what were probablyasking questions about you.
Yeah.
And to see if you're the rightfit and knowing. And then when you
go into that organization,people don't just look at you as,
as a number, as in, oh,Steve's number. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. He's
Steve. And we need to, we needto know what Steve likes, what he
(34:21):
wants, his values. How can wehelp Steve get to where he wants
to go?
That's right.
Yeah. They want to cultivateyou for sure. And g. Like I said,
Gallo was like that. And sowas Diageo, Very much so. And, and,
and again, it was a wonderfulthing that happened that early on
in my career. And sometimesthat doesn't happen for folks until
(34:41):
much later. So, no, you're.You're spot on. You're spot on.
You know, that's. That iswhat. So, Steve, I could talk to
you for hours about this.
Yeah, me too. I love talking.You know that.
Yeah. Well, how can peopleconnect with you, learn more about
you, learn more about thethings that you're doing? Where can
they find you?
Yeah, they can find me onLinkedIn. Just that I took all my
(35:01):
filters off, so it's wide openand you can go, it's Stephen S T
E P H E N Doyle D O I L E andjust jump in there and send me a
note. And I've connected witha lot of people here recently, and
I've actually connected youwith some folks as well from the
Kellogg School and School ofBusiness and Northwestern and so
(35:23):
forth. So LinkedIn has been areally great tool that I never probably
maximize, to be honest withyou. You're always so busy, and now
I have an opportunity to dothat and pull it up on my big screen
and actually see it. And so,so that's, that's probably the best
way, the easiest way. And, andI can circle back around on any kind
(35:44):
of message and I'll get backto folks within the day for sure.
So I'd love to hear frompeople. And again, as we talked about
already, I'm still learning aswell. So folks have something to
share that might be good. Ihave in my iPhone, and I've been
doing this since probablyabout 1993. And you know, you have
(36:08):
your notes app and your iPhoneand I, I hear things and, and it
just resonates with me and,and I put it in there. And so even
preparing for thisconversation, I just reflected back
on some of my notes of fiveyears ago, 10, 12 years ago. Kind
of like talking about theIrish mindset. And so I have lots
(36:32):
of things to share, but alsoI'm more than willing to steal an
idea or two from you as well.So. But thank you.
No, you're welcome. So,listeners, I want you to do me the
favor. I want you to go ontoLinkedIn and I want you to connect
with Steve and learn moreabout him, learn what he's doing,
(36:53):
and then do me the other favorbesides hitting subscribe. Please
share this episode with yourfriends and your colleagues because
our goal is to help everybodyhave unstoppable success. I'm Jaclyn
Strominger, your host. Thankyou, Steve, for being an amazing
guest.
Thank you, Jaclyn. Thank you.I appreciate it.
Love having you on. So manygreat bits of wisdom and tips and
(37:15):
insights and listeners. Thankyou so much for listening without
you. We just so appreciate itfor everybody who listens and share
the episode. So again, I'mJaclyn Schoenbringer, your host unstoppable
success. Thank you so much.
Well, hello everybody, andwelcome to another amazing episode
of Unstoppable Success. I amyour host, Jaclyn Strominger. And
you know, on this podcast wehear from amazing humans who have
done great things in theworld, who not only have had success
themselves, but have also donethings that we know you want to hear
(01:03):
about because their life hasbeen an unstoppable success. And
so today I get to bring to youSteve Doyle. And let me tell you
a little bit about Steve. Heis another remarkable human. Steve
is a seasoned senior executivewith over three decades of leadership
in the wine and spiritsindustry. He has been recognized
(01:24):
for driving transformationalgrowth, building powerhouse brands
and leading high performancesales and marketing teams across
global markets, creating aworld class culture. His expertise
has led to an involvement inseveral mergers and acquisitions,
including the successful saleof VinMotion Wine Company. He is
(01:45):
also incredibly proud of hismentorship, his coaching and fellowship,
which has developed over 400people moving into leadership roles,
many of who he continues tomentor. Still, today, there is so
much I could tell you a lotabout. Still, Steve, he's had a great
career and he's also hadchallenges. So without further ado,
(02:07):
I want to introduce you toSteve. So, Steve, welcome to Unstoppable
Success.
Jaclyn, thank you so much forthat intro. That was fantastic. So
I, I, I'm blushing actually,so I appreciate that. But it has
been an amazing career for me.I've been very, very fortunate and
very lucky. And, and I thinkagain, to your point, as you mentioned,
(02:30):
I'm most proud of myfellowship and the, and the teams
that continue to still call metoday. And we have wonderful conversations.
And I tell you a lot, a lot oftimes I learn more from them than
I think they actually learnedfrom me. But it's been really terrific.
And how could it not be goodin the wine and spirits industry?
I was going to say, well,first of all, you're starting off
(02:50):
in an industry that isabsolutely fantastic. But something
you just said, Steve, I haveto point out you just said something
that again, listeners, it isso quintessential to being unstoppable
and having unstoppablesuccess. And that is you learn from
those you lead.
(03:12):
Oh, totally. I think a lot oftimes Jaclyn and I read an article,
it was a gentleman wrote it,about the Celtic folks coming from
Ireland into this country inthe 20s and 30s. And this article
was really interesting. It wasbased on how did these people from
(03:32):
essentially an island, 3.5million of them, came through New
York, Ellis island and Bostonprimarily. How did they come here?
And come to maybe the toughestcity in America and succeed. And
so they have. This article hadthe Irish mindset and it was very
(03:53):
interesting. I'm Irish andfourth generation and. And one of
the things, the very firstthing it talked about was always
having an openness to learnand having a kind of an appetite,
if you will, to listen toothers as much as you want them to
listen to you. And so manytimes I've had sales reps or region
(04:14):
managers or division vicepresidents that we would start down
the road of a key topic and.And I just tried to listen as much
as I could. And many times Igot great feedback from them about
that particular topic orstrategy or tactic and I was able
(04:34):
to turn around and actuallyshare it again. So, you know, the
listening part and having goodconversational rapport with your
team, both colleagues as wellas people report to you is. Has been
tremendous for me.
You know what you just saidagain, again, that whole listen to
(04:55):
learn and be able to have thatrapport with colleagues and be able
to. And then also being ableto take what you learned and whatever
that story was that came fromhere, you know, from A, and you can
then share it with B, is.
Yeah.
Is so incredibly powerful.
Yeah.
(05:16):
Well, I. Absolutely. I justthe other day I had a gentleman call
me and he was a regionalmanager for me when I was working
at Jaylore, and we had a greatconversation and he brought up working
with his distributor partnersand etc. And he mentioned that he's
been working really hard andputting into their emotional bank
(05:37):
account with him and he feltlike you get what you give, so to
speak. And again, it was agreat statement from him to me about
the emotional bank account andjust again, engaging with people
intently and as Stephen Coveysays, with the intent to understand
(06:00):
before you're understood, soto speak. So again, I have so many
examples of that in my careerand I like to think that I've used
that in the right way.
For sure.
I'm sure you have. I love thatemotional bank account. So remember,
people, it is about theemotional intelligence as well.
(06:21):
Totally.
And being that success. So Iwant to go back because you've had
great success. You rose up inthe wine industry. So I want to go
back to. Did you know you weregoing to go into the wine business?
Did you even like wine?
No. No. Great question. I'lltell you, it was an interesting quick
(06:44):
story, but I was on campusinterviewing. I was 22 years old,
looking for my first job, andI just interviewed and some of your
listeners May remember thisretail company, but it was called
Kmart. And I interviewed withKmart and with a couple of gentlemen
who were, they were terrificto me. They, we had a wonderful conversation
(07:07):
that I remember. They wereprobably my age now. And when I left
there again, it was good, butit wasn't high energy. It wasn't.
I remember leaving there alittle disappointed, I guess, in
the sense of, about thatorganization. And lo and behold,
the organization obviouslydidn't make it essentially. But,
(07:29):
but walking down the hallway,I know walking down the hallway,
there was an office door openand in sitting in that office were
two young guys, probably notmuch older than me. And so I just
knocked on the door and Iintroduced myself and asked them
who they were with. And theywere with Gallo Wine Company. And
(07:51):
so I told him.
Wait, so you didn't, so you'reinterviewing, but you didn't have
an interview scheduled with.
I did not, No, I did not. AndI just saw that as an opportunity.
It was literally andfiguratively an open door. An open
door, yeah.
So, okay, I just had a picture.
Yeah, absolutely. And I thinkone thing too that I have always
(08:11):
told my team is confidence isso important. You know, if you don't
know, if you don't look likeyou know what the hell you're doing,
people aren't going tonecessarily trust you and they may
not follow you in that sense.So I walked in with complete confidence,
felt good about myself forsure and what I accomplished from
school. And they said, well,why don't you sit down right now?
(08:34):
And so we did and we had agreat conversation. And I got back,
called back for a secondinterview and the next thing I know,
I'm in Indianapolis, Indianaand I, I have a grocery route and
I'm calling on Kroger storesand Marsh, and I'm getting up at
4:30 in the morning and movingpallets of tomatoes so I can get
to my wine to build displaysand that kind of thing. So, so again,
(08:56):
it really was happenstance,you know, maybe fate if you choose
to go that way, but from mystandpoint, I, it couldn't have been
better opportunity for me.And, and the reason is because Gallo
is an organization. I have somuch respect for them. They are still
a family owned organizationtoday. They're, I believe they're
(09:18):
the largest wine company inthe business. They're, they're out
of Modesto, California and amarketing juggernaut and they have
high standards, they havesales process, they have mentoring,
they have curbside coaching.All those things that I got a chance
to experience as a young salesrep got embedded in me. And so that
(09:44):
became, again, a catalyst forme as I went forward to who I was
going to be as a. As a manageror a leader or ultimately, hopefully,
an executive. So, again,that's. Most people in the wine and
spirits business, you findthey almost fall into it accidentally.
No one. No one goes to collegeand says, man, you know what? I am
(10:06):
going to be maybe at UC Davis.Perhaps you want to be a winemaker.
Maybe.
But nobody really walks intoit thinking.
This is a career.
But. So I have a question. Soyou're at university and you're looking
at the list of people that arecoming in to who you'd want to interview
with.
(10:26):
Yeah.
Had you seen that gala wascoming and you just said, I wouldn't
want to work for a winecompany, or was it.
No, I had not.
Yeah.
You know, to be honest withyou, I had not seen them. And I don't
think I probably knew whoreally Gallo was, to be honest with
you, at 22 years old, I wasprobably drinking beer more so than
anything else.
So.
Yeah. So I probably reallydidn't know them, to be honest with
(10:48):
you. But I think, again, whatattracted me was this young talent
that was interviewing me. Andthe comparison, it's not an age thing,
per se, it's more of an energything. And the comparison of that
energy level. And when Iwalked in, they were so accepting.
Absolutely.
(11:08):
We got an hour sit down, andit was fantastic. So, you know, again,
I think I got a little lucky,and at the same time, I feel like
I made my luck as well.
Yeah, that's. Actually, Iabsolutely love that, you know, so
I think it's just so great,actually. I just think that's so,
so cool if you kind of likewalked into an open door and people
(11:30):
are sitting there. But. Butagain, listeners, this is something
that is really quintessential.Yeah, goes back to it. Goes back
to. It starts at values. Youknow, as a company, when you are
bringing people in.
Yes.
Your fold, you have to knowyour value. The values that you.
(11:54):
That. That you want to instillin your. Your people. And.
That's right.
And if you don't know thosevalues, those core values, then you
really need to define thosebecause you will attract the right
people if you know the rightvalues. And yeah, the energy that
you have really does matter.You know, I will say, you know, hundreds
(12:16):
of times, you know, you canwalk into a room and you can either
be radiating great energy, oryou could not be. Right.
That's right.
That's right.
And whatever baggage you'vehad for that day, leave it. Leave
it.
That's right.
Yeah.
But that energy that you'remanifesting really does matter. And
(12:38):
obviously you. You saw that. Imean, you know, Kmart kind of old
and exactly right. VersusGallo, who has always evolved and
changed. And with the times,as I look.
At them, no question. Noquestion. I think that's one of the
things about that organizationand a couple others I've worked for
(13:00):
is that the willingness,again, for an organization to learn
and the willingness for anorganization to, you know, not hold
the proverbial sacred cow andbe okay when your organization brings
to you new ideas and beingokay to take a look at those. And
I always felt that way from aGallo aspect if, if I came back in
(13:24):
from the field for a meetingon Friday, and Dan Heller, it was
a district manager at thetime, he always listened. So I think
that's really important for anorganization to understand that being
able to have goodcommunication with your team is important.
(13:47):
And I also think Simon Sinektalks about this, Jaclyn.
And I also think that not to.
Be so, not to be cliches aboutit, but you have to treat your people
well. And that's not aboutsalary. That's not about insurance.
It's about treating them withrespect, treating them with 100%
(14:08):
attention. If you're out on awork with and you've got a young
sales rep or a young managerwith you, don't put your phone on
the table because you'resending a message to them already
that if this phone rings, weare interrupting our conversation.
And instead keep the phone inyour briefcase or keep the phone
(14:28):
in your pocket and be engagedwith them when you have that opportunity.
And you'll get again back what you.
Give relative to that, for sure.
And that that's been proven tome over and over again with the folks
that I've been fortunateenough to touch as well.
You know, that there's a lot,there's a lot that you just said
(14:50):
that.
I think a lot of stuff inthere. I know.
Sorry.
No, but there's so many goodlittle nuggets. But one of the things
that I think that is reallylike to encompass the whole thing
that. And that as you'retalking, that was just coming out
in my brain. And you saidtreat people with respect. And what
I the as you're saying thatand as you're speaking, the things
that are coming up in my, myemotions are we are, as a leader,
(15:15):
you are not better thananybody in your Team. And just because
you have evp, svp, coo, CEO, Idon't give a rat's ass what letters
you have before or after yourname. Do not think that you are better
than anybody else.
Yeah.
I will be honest and tell you,when I became my first role as a
(15:37):
manager. I hate the word manager.
Yeah.
I was. I was like. I had thesnobby nose. I was like, I'm so much
better. I'm a manager.
Right, Right. Yeah. Look atthis business.
That's right. Yeah.
Hell, no. Does not work.
Yeah, that's right.
And I wish I had somebody thathad said, hey, Jaclyn. Right. I learned.
Right. Because you saw and.But. But it's so great for you to
(15:59):
be able to say that and alsoto be able to have that experience
from the get go.
Yeah.
Understand that.
That's right.
Heard and listened to and thatideas could flow. And it doesn't
seem like you ever had anybodysort of put a book over you, like
(16:21):
to keep you down.
Yeah. I mean, certainly youwould run into some managers in that
regards. Not everyone wasmaybe in that same mode, but again,
you. You touch on a reallyimportant thing. Early on in my career,
I got opportunities at 24 and25 years old to lead a sales organization
(16:41):
of 50 people. And they werecoming out of college and so forth,
so they were young inthemselves. But because I left Galo
and went to a company calledDiageo, and they were another leader
in the spirits business.Primarily they have brands like Johnnie
Walker and Bailey's, IrishCream and Smirnoff and Jose Cuervo
at the time. And they had anexcellent training program. And what
(17:05):
happened for me is I met sometremendous mentors, and some of them
were executives. Fred Ledreux,for example, some of them senior
DVP's, Don Reichstorf, HenryWeaver, those.
People I still talk to today.
And you mentioned I had somechallenges. I have a chance to touch
(17:27):
on that in a few minutes. Butin these challenges I had this past
year and a half, some of thosefolks I hadn't talked to for a while,
they called me out of theblue. And one gentleman, Marty Malinsky,
said to me, hey, when one ofmy guys is down, I want to know what's
going on. And it wastremendous. And so for me, Hugh Blind.
(17:51):
Excuse me. Diageo was anotheropportunity early in my career to
see what true mentorship was.
To see what true leadershipwas from these gentlemen and. And
learn from that. And. And oneof them said to me.
Once you're mentored, you havethe Responsibility to return the
(18:13):
favor. And so that happenedwhen I was 26, when I was 27, and,
and so again when I got in my30s and I suddenly found myself in
a national role, sales andmarketing or working on a merger,
working on the sale of acompany, those things framed again
(18:34):
who I became. So the mentoringpart of that is so key.
For sure it is, it's reallyimportant. And I think if I could
instill something in any ofthe listeners, you know, for you
to have that unstoppablesuccess and for you to actually rise
up, you know, be a mentor andbe a mentee.
(18:56):
That's right.
Out. Look for those people.Don't be afraid to reach out to somebody,
whether it's on LinkedIn or,you know, go to your local library
and look up different. That'sright, that might be.
That's right.
And reach out and connect.
That's right.
That's right.
No question. The power ofnetworking. I know, you know, John
(19:18):
Scott from the wonderful placethat I live right.
Now, he's a general managerhere at the club here.
And he asked me what I wantedto do in my retirement. And I told
him, I said, John, you know,one of the things I love doing was
teaching, so to speak, notfrom an academic perspective, but
teaching, you know, my teamsand so forth. And he said, well,
(19:42):
let me introduce you to BrianSandoval, the president of University
of Nevada, and perhaps there'ssomething you can do there. And so
he did. I had a wonderfulconversation. I met the dean of the
business school, Greg, and thenext thing I.
Know, I'm involved with UNRfrom a.
Speaking perspective andsitting in MBA classes and, and being
able to share and I'm doing itall for a hamburger, basically, you
(20:05):
know, but for me it was soenergizing in that sense. So it goes
back to the why.
Yeah.
Often overused because ofSimon's book. But it's true.
If you really understand whatyour why.
Is, you can, you can search that.
Out and find it for sure. AndI've found that in that sense that's
(20:25):
truly great.
And I love that. And it'strue. Like the word why is, I think,
overused. And I, I almost liketo say it's, it's, it's not really
the, the why. It's, it's, it'sthe reason.
Right, right, that's right.
It's the reason.
Yeah.
You know, and what's, what doyou feel in your heart and where,
you know, you know, the long,the long term passion, goal. Like
(20:50):
yourself. Yeah, like how am Igoing to get there? This is the reason
I am here.
That's right. That's right.
Yeah, exactly. No question.And I think that's really important
because I, I do thinkcertainly in my entire career, there
were times I wasn't.
Sure what my why was, to behonest with you.
So I think it's not an easy.
Question to answer, to behonest with you.
(21:10):
So searching that out andthinking about.
That, I think is as importantas communicating and engaging. For
sure.
Yeah.
To touch on that as, as weshared, you know, you, you've had
some recent challenges, butyou're, you're not stopping.
(21:33):
No, I, I, again, for your listeners.
I, I just had a major health.
Issue where I, I had a braintumor, actually. And, and I second.
Oh, yeah, of course.
No, Sorry. My dog. Guys.Listeners, I have a dog who's a Portuguese.
(21:54):
She started to go aftersomething. So I'm sorry that I had
to stop there.
I've always been upstaged.
I was like, what is going onin here? I'm hearing something. Sorry.
So anyway, no, all good.
All good. And I.
No, it's good.
It's good, actually. A littlehumor, when in a serious note is
always good. Listen, I had abrain tumor.
And, and the wonderful peopleat Renown and terrific doctors.
(22:17):
Dr. Strominger, I don'tembarrass you, but.
I'm a huge fan.
Dr. Moore, who was myneurosurgeon, Dr. Patel, my radiologist.
You know, I, I realized that I.
Was not going to let this,this define who I was.
And I did lose about 60 of myeyesight, but I'm, it sounds crazy,
(22:40):
but I'm playing golf and I'm going.
Fly fishing and I'm stillhiking and.
I'm concentrating on thethings I can do. And you know, Jaclyn,
I said to.
Myself, I wrote this downabout two.
Months after I got out of thehospital. What are the five things
that I.
Feel like have really helped me?
And those five things, numberone, first.
(23:02):
Of all, was mindset. And, andyou, you are what you believe. And
I just refuse to believe thatmy life is going to be that altered.
And number two is your tribe.And again, sometimes often over word
used, but, you know, you'repart of my tribe now. My yoga instructor,
(23:23):
Lisa is part of my tribe. My,in my strength training, my family,
of course. So your tribe isreally critical vulnerability. And
I mentioned to you when wefirst met, you know, vulnerability,
I think allows authenticity.And when you're authentic, people
lean in and will trust you.And I've had strangers in an airport
(23:47):
help me find my luggage out ofthe blue, a wonderful 80 year old
woman named Pearl and ChicagoO'. Hare. And then the last two pieces
of gratitude. And thegratitude piece and being able to
think about the things to bethankful for is incredibly powerful.
(24:08):
And then the last one is havesome faith, especially in yourself.
And so I've leaned on thosefive things and I've shared those
things with other friends andmentorees that have had some challenges
in their life. And hopefullyit helps, but it certainly helped
me. And I miss the industry. Imiss all the guys and gals that I
(24:30):
worked with and had argumentswith, the debates, but they've been
tremendous in reaching backout to me when they found that I
had some issues. So I reallyappreciate it.
You know, I mean, first ofall, you'd never know, right? Like,
you don't, you don't.
That's right.
(24:50):
You would never know. Right.And so the mindfulness and the mindset
is so important and I think,you know, the, I would say. And I
would love the tip on this.
Sorry, right.
(25:12):
The, the tip is like themindset of being able to, to control
how you think each day.
Yeah.
Because we can wake up in themorning and you can, and you can
think, oh my God, this isgoing to be an amazing day. Or you
can think, oh my God, likethat's right. Or like I was. Oh shit.
(25:35):
Right. Whatever that is. Likethat feeling of like. Or the pit
in your stomach. So what tipwould you give to the listeners to
say, here's what you could doeach day to help with your mindset?
Yeah, I'll tell you exactly. Ihad a good friend of mine, he's a
CEO of a pharmaceuticalcompany and they are working on trying
(25:59):
to find a prostate cancercure. And he's a tremendous, tremendous
man.
He could do that faster.
He's so humble and I love him.And when this happened, we had a
great conversation. And hesaid, Steve, he said, what I do every
day is I decide how this dayis going to go. And he said, I wake
(26:20):
up and I have a cup of coffeeand I'll see he has a place in Capitola
that they live now. And hesaid, I sit out and I look at the
ocean and I just determine.And he said, I don't mean your agenda.
I don't mean you got to go tothe doctor, you got whatever. I mean,
how are you going to treatpeople today? How are you going to
(26:42):
treat your wife, how you cantreat your spouse? And how are you
going to choose to treat otherpeople. And again, what I found is
that when you treat folks asyour equal, they want to help and
(27:02):
it makes it for a much betterday than if you're miserating about
luck of the job, you know,kind of thing. And so every morning,
that is what it looks like tome. And I've been doing that now
for 80 weeks and I'll continueto do it. And I certainly don't mean
to minimize anyone else'schallenges, whether it be health
(27:24):
or otherwise. And I don't.It's not as simple as I'm maybe making
it sound because believe me,there are days that I get up and
I really have to work hard atand talk about how I'm going to make
this a positive day, so tospeak. But. But again, it's how you
(27:44):
start the day yourself alonethat's going to make a difference.
And so that. That's what Iwould suggest for folks in that sense.
And again, there's five thingsI talked about, really. You know,
your family, your tribe. It'sso, so very important to lean on
(28:04):
the people that love you andthey're around you.
Yeah, I, I really like that. Ilike being able to start your day
that way and then with themindset and actually one thing that
I would. What I, what I likeis. And in a little tip that, that
I, I haven't done it morerecently, but it's something that
(28:25):
is. Is part of that tribe ishaving those few people that you
could have on a group textthat might say in the morning, hey,
good morning. Let's start ourday strong or whatever.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, you're all settingthe intention and, you know, if you
wake up in the morning andyou're having a shit day or you just
(28:46):
don't feel that power in you,you just. Where's the power going
to come from?
That's right.
And somebody sends you likesomebody in the message, you know,
maybe it's. Maybe you're notthe one that's starting it that day
or somebody starts it and allof a sudden it can start to radiate
something within you thatbrings out, you know, like, hey,
you know what? Like, hey,remember, we're all badass or yeah,
(29:08):
whatever. Whatever that is. Right?
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Theenergy level is so important, you
know, and, and again, I'm, I'mreally proud of this. Not from an
ego perspective, but my J Loresales team, I've been gone now, as
I mentioned, 80 weeks. Theystill reach out to me to see how
(29:31):
I'm doing. And, and I wouldsay, number one, they're just, they're
just good humans.
Yeah.
Number one. I would say numbertwo, though I try not to be grouchy
when they call me. I'm like, Itry to have as good of energy as
I possibly can have becausethey're going to want to call you
(29:51):
again. And getting those phonecalls has been so good for me that
you want to stimulate that aspositively as you possibly can. I.
I used to tell my team this,Jaclyn. We would be in a meeting.
It's a tough, maybe a toughmonth or a tough quarter, maybe financial.
We're not trying to, we're notquite making the targets. And the
(30:13):
one rule I always have forthem is do not be an energy vampire.
Don't do it. If you're goingto be an energy vampire in this meeting
today, then go ahead, you'reexcused. Take a hike. Go, go outside,
get some pressure, whatever,but please don't be an energy vampire
and drag the rest of us downwith you. And I think it's, whether
(30:35):
it's business or life, not toget too deep, but I think it's, it's
really critical. And when Iwalk in, whether it's, you know,
meetings with buying a houseor a car or whatever, let's have
some good energy with theStarbucks guy, because they got there
at five o' clock in themorning. So to speak. So to speak.
(30:57):
Yeah. So it's.
And that's, and I would say, Ithink that is so important because
again, you know, we started onthe topic, you know, we, you know,
part of your success reallydoes to be unstoppable. It takes
energy, but you have to. Itstarts, it starts here, and it goes
to your heart.
That's right.
Be able to walk in.
That's right.
And with the right energy. AndI love what you just said. You know,
(31:21):
if you, if you see somebodywhose energy has waned.
Yeah.
You might want to either say,hey, are you okay? Right.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.That's right. And. And change the
environment up that you're in.Yeah, for sure. And you can do that.
You just have to be selfaware, you know. And that again,
(31:43):
a mentor of mine told me atone time, I said, we were, I was
interviewing him actually, tocome into the organization. And I
said, how do you handle toughconversations with the people that
you're managing and whenthey're not quite working out on
the objectives or whateverthat you've got them aligned for?
(32:04):
And he said, you know, thefirst thing I think about is what's
going on at home, what's goingon outside of work that might be
affecting work. And, and I,again, that was one of those learning
moments for me and neversometimes I never really quite thought
about it that way. And not toget too personal in a work environment,
(32:25):
but certainly you need to beaware that if somebody's going through,
you know, their father sick orwhatever, you need to be aware of
that and put that in your, inyour back of your mind as you're
dealing with them to have someempathy sometimes when they need
it. And of course, at the sametime, you know, at the end of the
day, you got to make theobjectives as well. So you got to
(32:47):
really balance that for sure.
Right, but it's true, butthat's also where that emotional
intelligence comes in.
That's right. That's exactly.Again, you said that before. It's,
it's so important. You know,several books written on that. I've
read a couple. And theemotional intelligence side of that
is the part that you don't getquite taught in school. You can be
an engineer or an economistand, you know, in high powered school,
(33:14):
but if you don't know how torelate to people, you don't understand,
you know, again, how to, howto have good conversational rapport
with them, how to, how toprobe them and then align with them
and then hopefully raise them,you know.
Right.
And.
Right.
That's, that's an ongoingconversational process. For sure.
(33:36):
It is, it's something, it issomething that. It's an ongoing thing.
And it's, and I, and I, Itruly believe that, that our success
comes from. And it's, and itgoes back to your very first conversation
you had, I would bet, with thepeople at Gallo when you walked into
that open door, which isbasically they were, they, they got
(33:57):
to know and what were probablyasking questions about you.
Yeah.
And to see if you're the rightfit and knowing. And then when you
go into that organization,people don't just look at you as,
as a number, as in, oh,Steve's number. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. He's
Steve. And we need to, we needto know what Steve likes, what he
(34:21):
wants, his values. How can wehelp Steve get to where he wants
to go?
That's right.
Yeah. They want to cultivateyou for sure. And g. Like I said,
Gallo was like that. And sowas Diageo, Very much so. And, and,
and again, it was a wonderfulthing that happened that early on
in my career. And sometimesthat doesn't happen for folks until
(34:41):
much later. So, no, you're.You're spot on. You're spot on.
You know, that's. That iswhat. So, Steve, I could talk to
you for hours about this.
Yeah, me too. I love talking.You know that.
Yeah. Well, how can peopleconnect with you, learn more about
you, learn more about thethings that you're doing? Where can
they find you?
Yeah, they can find me onLinkedIn. Just that I took all my
(35:01):
filters off, so it's wide openand you can go, it's Stephen S T
E P H E N Doyle D O I L E andjust jump in there and send me a
note. And I've connected witha lot of people here recently, and
I've actually connected youwith some folks as well from the
Kellogg School and School ofBusiness and Northwestern and so
(35:23):
forth. So LinkedIn has been areally great tool that I never probably
maximize, to be honest withyou. You're always so busy, and now
I have an opportunity to dothat and pull it up on my big screen
and actually see it. And so,so that's, that's probably the best
way, the easiest way. And, andI can circle back around on any kind
(35:44):
of message and I'll get backto folks within the day for sure.
So I'd love to hear frompeople. And again, as we talked about
already, I'm still learning aswell. So folks have something to
share that might be good. Ihave in my iPhone, and I've been
doing this since probablyabout 1993. And you know, you have
(36:08):
your notes app and your iPhoneand I, I hear things and, and it
just resonates with me and,and I put it in there. And so even
preparing for thisconversation, I just reflected back
on some of my notes of fiveyears ago, 10, 12 years ago. Kind
of like talking about theIrish mindset. And so I have lots
(36:32):
of things to share, but alsoI'm more than willing to steal an
idea or two from you as well.So. But thank you.
No, you're welcome. So,listeners, I want you to do me the
favor. I want you to go ontoLinkedIn and I want you to connect
with Steve and learn moreabout him, learn what he's doing,
(36:53):
and then do me the other favorbesides hitting subscribe. Please
share this episode with yourfriends and your colleagues because
our goal is to help everybodyhave unstoppable success. I'm Jaclyn
Strominger, your host. Thankyou, Steve, for being an amazing
guest.
Thank you, Jaclyn. Thank you.I appreciate it.
Love having you on. So manygreat bits of wisdom and tips and
(37:15):
insights and listeners. Thankyou so much for listening without
you. We just so appreciate itfor everybody who listens and share
the episode. So again, I'mJaclyn Schoenbringer, your host unstoppable
success. Thank you so much.
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