Making “Balance” and Entrepreneurship Harmoniously Co-Exist

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W Forcy Radio, it's employees their affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W Forcy Radio, its employees or affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FORCY Radio. What's Working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential.

0:45 Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want Working on Purpose. Now here's your host, Doctor Release Quartez, Welcome back to Working on Purpose program. Thanks for tuning it again this week. Great to have you. I'm your host, Doctor Las Cortez and I've been hosting the show since February of twenty fifteen. If we have not met yet and you don't know me, I'm a management consultant, organizational logotherapists, speaker and author. My team and I, at least Cortez and Associates help companies to enliven and fortify their operations by articulating their purpose and building inspirational leaders and cultures activated by meaning and purpose to turn those companies from a flatline EKG to a vibrant destination workplace. There people are intrinsically motivated to perform at their best, growner their floor potential in our community, to stay and help deliver on the company's mission. You can learn more about us and how when work together at Elis Cortez dot com. Today's program we have with us Alex Bruckman. He is a strategy facilitator, speaker, and author. He talks about the power of strategy and identity, transformation, leadership, purpose, impact and legacy. He is the author of Secrets of Next Level Entrepreneurs, eleven powerful lessons to thrive in business and lead a balanced life, which will be discussing today. You join to day from Vancouver, British Columbia and Alex.

2:04 Welcome to Working on Purpose. Thank you for having me at your show. Thank You're welcome. You're welcome. This is a gorgeous book. I have to tell you. I thank you very much for finding your way onto my show and letting and so that I get to read this because I do read the books cover to cover of my guests. I needed this book, Thank you, Alex. This a little bit about right, this a little bit about balanced life as an entrepreneur. What's that? So here we are. We're releasing this show on the fourth of July. Its supposed to be the Day of Freedom. So I think it's very very timely that you and are here on area talking about your book. So welcome. Thank you very much. That topic about balance in life and in business, it's a funny one because he would typically not necessarily find it in a business book. So there's a lot of people who actually tell me that's the term I stumbled across when I're at the title, and that made me actually interested in the book.

2:57 I was just sharing it with the man that I've been seeing who's also an entrepreneur, and I said, hey, we need to read that. You need to read this book too. I just finished it now I'm going to give it to you. So thank you for trying to inject some sanity into the world here. So so as we get started here, Alex, first I have to ask where are you originally? Fun with that fantastic accent, I'm German. I moved to Vancouver, Canada three not even three and a half years ago. Love brought me there. As it is always is, either love or work. In my case, it was the first. Oh I love it, absolutely love it. While I'm from the Northwest originally, so I feel connected to Canada as well. So all right, well let's get into the topic. One of the things I also appreciated it is you helped me. Helped helped me to recognize and remember why I'm an entrepreneur.

3:40 So if we start by looking at you, say, becoming an entrepreneur happens for many different reasons. For some, it's a way to get out of the pitfalls of corporate America. For others, it's to take control of their time and schedule. Supposedly, the fulfillment that comes out of bringing something into the world through their zone or spiral of genius that can be the thing that jazz is. Of course for me, that is what's why I'm doing this. I'm doing this because I have something specific that I want to bring to the world through my consulting in the way that I see the world of work. And so it's wonderful to be able to situate that this is what this show is about. This is about entrepreneurship, and you have given us eleven powerful lessons to do it better and with more sanity. So I want to start first by celebrating entrepreneurship. If that's not a great cause to celebrate, what else it's, right, Yeah, you know it's not for everybody, right, So so you know some of the things that you say, here's what I'm doing is I'm pulling out some of the things in your book that really spoke to me and that we've kind of curried the content that that we've already built already on the show. So you then provide us with three mission critical pillars that contribute to building future proof businesses, which, of course you being the strategic I never want is strategy, two is leadership, and then three is this amazing thing called self care. So I just want to give you a chance to speak briefly to those those three things, and then I'll I'll delve into the different themes. Yeah, the first theme is really around heart skills that every business leader needs to master, whether you run your own business or whether you're a leader climbing the letter in a larger organization at

5:15 one point or another. If you want to see that the next table, you will have to understand those three heart skills in that first team strategy, strategic pricing of his services, and what does that mega trend that will never leave us again of sustainability actually mean for our business. The second theme is around leading self and leading teams through challenging times. When you imagine that book, the idea behind the book the summit that I ran, a three day business summit with more than forty speakers that happened at the height of the COVID nineteen pandemic. So when we actually then distilled the essence out of that event and poured it into the book, we realized is that challenging times and the conflicts that arise through these challenging, challenging times, that's where leadership is front and center and more necessary than ever. So when when you are able to lead a company and lead your people through these times and get rid of the negativity that comes with the changes and the conflicts that arise, and use that as a force to create something powerful for the future. That is the essence of leadership to me. And the third, the third theme that comes with that is you can only do that if you take care of your own sanity, of your own mind. And that's why this third piece is called This

6:46 third theme is called self care. And we talk about topics that are deeper than just the regular items that you would find in a business book. It's really about understanding who you are, why you want to lead, why you are an entrepreneur, and how can you actually make sure that you live a life by design not by default. M I really appreciate an applaud that that third theme. I don't know too many business books or books on archpreneership that I've seen that really treat the importance of self care. So and I got a lot out of that at that section too. So it would be nice to be able to work not seven days a week, It would be nice not to do that. So I'll learn from you all, I promise I will. So let me say one thing at least, Yes, if you if you take that last theme like literally, you can actually work seven days a week by design because that's what you love and that's what's happening now.

7:49 That is what now. Yes, if it energizes you, it's the right thing for you, at least for that point in your life. Yes, thank you for that. And that is where I'm at right now. I mean, I'm creating all kinds of things, but I don't want to do that forever. Yeah. And when I say forever, I mean not like that for the next I mean I'm happy to just say the next six months and then after that, let's need good of six and in five days. So one of the things too, that you that you wrote, and I like, I'm going to read it because it's just so compellingtly written. You say, there are there are exceptional organizations that combine strategy and purpose into something impactful, providing meaning and direction to employees, suppliers, customers, and shareholders. To avoid falling into the marketing trap of purpose statements without anchoring purpose needs a strategy and vice versa. So I appreciate very much how you really marry because this show is very much anchored in meaning and purpose, but you bring the strategy piece to that, and I like how you really distilled those two and how they work together. Let me put it that way. Purpose without strategy is a good intent, yea, if you're lucky, you can do something with that. And on the other hand, strategy without purpose is mainly about profit maximization, which does not give anything to this world. Actually, But if you bring those two together, if you understand how they are connected, and then obviously this whole conversation around culture comes into play. How do

9:20 you create an organization that is purpose driven and take that purpose, weave it into your business strategy so that it can actually create tangible impact and use leadership to create a culture that is linked to the strategy. So strategic leadership in this case, in this sense only then does having a purpose actually matter. If you have a purpose and you don't weave it into a business strategy, it's just it's something for the posters on the walls. People become cynical about it very very quickly, and so that's within the business and people outside of the business. If you don't combine the two, they're like, yeah, well, you're not doing that why do you even claim you're doing that.

10:03 So I had a recent conversation where the gist of it is, before you actually write down your purpose statement, own it, earn your right to write it down. Then people can be like, yeah, yeah, that's them, that makes sense, that's that's how they show up. But if you do the other way around, these purpose statements get weaponized. So if you weave it into your strategy, if you're creating that visible, tangible impact for the world for your stakeholder groups, I think this is the most powerful thing you can do with purpose. I would agree absolutely. And the other thing, of course that and you just mentioned it earlier, that I really think we have to talk about. And this is so interesting because it's increasingly showing up, you know, as as as an imperative. Is this notion on creating a sustainable impact through your business and you talk about a three E model for impact. Want to talk about each one of those those things you know at first, this whole notion here you say, the model provides business as a structured approach to leverage and communicate their good work and create transformational impact in growth, which is fantastic. And what I've added my last book, The Great Revialization is you know today we have to do that in today's business in order to be taken seriously. So excuse me, would you take us through the three pieces of that model so that model is actually not my model?

11:28 Credit where credit is due. This chapter was written and contributed by Shita Kular. Shita is a sustainability expert. She lives in in Singapore and she has created that model and describes in that chapter how we can actually educate and engage clients customers in different ways using our sustainability efforts. So let me give you a specific example because I think it needs to be tangible for people that listen to us right now. When you are doing good with your business through how you do your business, you should actually talk about it. Otherwise people first of all don't realize it, and second of all, you leave a massive source of revenue untapped. A great example which is really well known is Unilever.

12:22 While Unilever does a lot of things that I don't agree with and they could be done differently, they're also on the forefront when it comes to creating more sustainable supply chains. For example, for their big well known product Clipton team that's a few years back where they actually sat down and said, Okay, how can we reverse engineer a supply chain that does less harm to the planet, that provides better working conditions for the tea farmers, and less harmful ways of doing business overall. And what they did was they basically didn't leave any stone turned and then they were like, yeah, well, what do we do with what we've achieved right now? And then they used their existing marketing budget and just shifted the messages from this is the most delicious tea in the world too, Hey, if you drink lipt and tea, that's what you actually support. And by doing that, by using their existing marketing budgets, they made a business case out of their sustainability efforts. They tapped into the potential of an entirely new target group. Not only was this target group willing to pay a bit more for their tea once they know that it is sustain sustainably sourced, but also the wider public realized that wait a minute, sustainability is not necessarily cost factor. You can actually make money with that, and that is something really really powerful, and that three emodal basically is about

13:54 understanding how you can educate your customers around the topic of sustainable, engage them in your sustainability efforts, and create new touch points with them, new talking points, and help them see you in a new light, in a different light. Beautiful. And so what I also appreciate about that too is especially in the work that I do around meaning and purpose is especially the younger generations, the wise and disease. Of course, they want to be part, they want to actually work conversation that they feel like they can align around their purpose, the work is meaningful and that they are supporting something that they value. So I really appreciate how tight that that model is. And I think you also say this in the book too, about how if sustainable doesn't have to cost money, you can actually create money, make money for you as you as you were saying. And then the circular piece of it as well.

14:43 I like how you addressed and treated the circular aspects of sustainability is really interesting, compelling stuff Alex you and your team. I think what you bring up here with the generational question that is something that we've we've heard a lot about. If we take a clue also look at what the differences between let's say the Boomers, the gen Xers, the Wise and the Zets and whoever comes afterwards. I don't even think that it's a generational thing. I believe they are just more outspoken. I'm a gen Xer and I don't think that my values around sustainability are a generational question. And also I know a lot of Boomers and other gen Xers that think the same way. It's less a question of generation. It's more a question of do I align what I value with how I operate and how I lead a business. And I believe that these generations have more They are just more outspoken about it, and that's why we often associate this trade with their generations rather than with what we actually value as human beings. If that makes m it does. I think maybe part of it, though, is that the they have Maybe we just didn't question it the way that they do. Right, So they are they Whereas the Boomers, and I'm also an X or two um, you know, would

16:15 be like, oh, I've got to get a job, I've got to take care of things. I think some of these other generations are like, well, I don't actually have to work right now. I can be on my parents, so far, I can do whatever and choose to opt out of something that rather than just go along with it. So I think that aligns of what you're saying about being more vocal about it. Very interesting. I love talking about things like this though. All right, let's grab our first break. We've been on the air with Alex Brookman. He is the author of Secrets of Next Level Entrepreneurs eleven and Powerful Lessons to Thrive in business and lead a ballanced life. I'm your host, doctoral at least Cortez. After the rake, we're going to get into some of the aspects of his book around disruption and leadership. Stayed with us, We'll be right back.

17:07 Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at Elise Cortez dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with doctor Elise Cortez. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise al i se at Elise Cortez dot com.

17:52 Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks for sting with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. Before we get back into the program, I do want to share with you something that we're up to here at least Courtezan Associates, we are joining an organization called joy Lee for a purpose and Joy Tour. This is a collaboration between the two of us and they teach mindful prodnesses to build a happy, healthy, resilient world. And of course we at at least Courtezan Associates are out to be able to activate meaning and purpose in company culture and leadership to increase fulfillment, performance and retention. What we're doing together is we're going to various cities across the United States. We started in Dallas in March. We're finishing Virginia Beach in October to find our tribe and build a community of people who seek to elevate their lives and businesses by cultivating meaning, purpose and joy. The next stops are Seattle and Portland in July. You can find more about the cities and on our agenda at Gusto dashdown dot com. If you're just joining the program. My guest is Alex Brookman. He is a strategy facilitator, speaker, and author. He needs the author of Secrets of Next Level Entrepreneurs Eleven Powerful Lessons to Thrive in Business Lead to Bounce Life. I'm your host, Doctoralis Cortez. Okay, So next thing I want to talk about here, Alex, this is this little thing called disruption. And you have this whole section about mastering disruption, and so I wanted to have you speak a little bit about first, you know, this notion of what's the opportunity when it comes to to change and

19:22 disruption. Yeah. The chapter about disruption in the book was contributed by New York Times bestselling author Sharlene Lee. She is probably the most prominent name when it comes to how do I actually use disruption for good in a business. Her book, The Disruption Mindset talks talks of volumes about this and in her chapter what what she describes in this book is that there is just no way around being honest when it comes to disruption. So telling you people, hey, everything's going to be all right, right is not cutting it right.

20:02 So people don't believe that anyway anymore after what we've been through in the past three years. So first of all, you cannot predict the future as a leader, So don't stand there and pretend that you know the way. You don't. No one does. The world has become way too complex, and there is disruption happening on a constant basis right now that we've seen in the business world. Like if you go twenty thirty years back, you would have seen this type of disruption maybe once or twice in your lifetime. Now we've seen it like every year, big events that disrupt how we operate, for example COVID nineteen business disruptions through supply chain issues. Then we have the entire topic of tech just I mean the conversations around chat GPT over the past six months, which is just that tiny fraction of the AI landscape as such, I mean, just this little piece has caused tremendous disruption in how people operate their businesses. I personally know an entrepreneur who went out of business because they realize that what they are actually doing their core value contribution, is actually easier and more cheaper done with a tool like chat GPT, So they realize very early that there is little future if you are in that particular space. So there is disruption happening all around us every day, and the question is how

21:36 do you actually use it as a force for good in your business? How do you approach disruption in your business? And when we talk about how we are actually talking about how do you lead through disruption? And how can you create that mindset of disruption in an organization? And what I mean with that is not how do you deal with disruption that's happening around you? But what I actually mean is how can you create a culture that is driving disruption in a good way for you and your business? What does disruption actually mean? How can you disrupt your own business in ways that are in line with who we are as human beings. As human beings, we hate disruption, We hate change. We just love to stay where we are in our cost little bubble in our bed with the blankets over our heads, and just you know, energy savers, that's just how we're wired as human beings. We want to preserve as much energy as we can and use it when we are chased by the saber tooth tigre. That's just how it is. Right when we have to run away when they're danger around us, that's when we need our energy. But we're not really good at change and inflicting change or disruption upon ourselves. So the question is, how can you create a culture that can deal with external disruption on the one hand in a way where you're like, yeah, that's just the normal, that's just how we operate. But also

23:10 internally, how can you align your people around a mindset of disruption that enables them to not be the victim of disruption but the force behind the disruption within your own business. And if you're able to do that, that's nothing that happens by itself. That is something that needs strong leadership, and that takes time. But there is no better time to start doing these things than now, because honestly speaking, I have almost spent my entire adult life in one crisis or another. When you go back, like twenty twenty five years ago, dot Com bubble burst first crisis, then comes the economic crisis, then comes the refugee crisis, then comes housing mark bubble, and that that bursts and we are into thousand and eight two thousand and nine. There is just one thing after the next, and disruption is happening all around us all the time. So it's the illusion of working in a business where you are separate from what's happening around you or protected from what's happening in the industry, and that's just something you need to get rid of in your organization and understanding that is important for equipping your business for survival. If you are the only one driving your business toward that desired state in the future, you're fighting a losing battle. You need everyone on that ship to understand what their role is in

24:41 steering the company and being able to understand when the tide shifts, when the wind shifts, that there are things that need to be done differently. But if you have people rowing against the tide all the time because that's what they've always done, they've rowed in that direction, then yeah, I'm not a sailor, but I think you get the gist of it. It's very, very dangerous for an organization to be to have a culture that is not clear on how to interact with the topic of disruption, how to drive it. I think that's really powerful, Alex, really really powerful. Another is not just normalizing disruption, but embracing it and activating the organization to run with it.

25:29 I think that's really powerful. So thank you for being able to really speaking to that so deeply. So then the next thing we have to talk about, because this is definitely an area of mind that I'm really fascinated with, and as a social scientist, I'm very interested in what the pandemic has done to the world and joined the workplace and to the people that are actually powering at the employees. So you say in your book, there is no doubt that business and the workplace have shifted forever due to the pandemic. But change doesn't have to have a negative connotation, even if it's uncomfortable. It's important to be adaptable. It means you need to change how you think about work and employees. Instead of counting how many hours or people are in the office and equating that to their work ethic or efficiency, you need to start measuring results. Yes, sir, yesterday, please. And you say that may sound out ludicrous, but perhaps that's how it always should have been.

26:22 I'm very fascinated with this, Alex because I see that there is a there's been a very strong focus on presenteeism. If I see you, then I think you're working. If I can't see you, I'm not sure you're working. It's the wrong measurement. It's the wrong way to look at the whole thing. And I'm very interested in being part of the conversation that stewards the workplace of the future. Would you speak a little bit to this notion here of how the world is and workplace is changed. I have from my business partly remotely for the past decade, and the reason is just in the nature of what I do for a living. I am with my clients a lot, but my team works in the office. So wherever that team sits, I had to do my job as a leader as well, not only as someone who helps his clients. So for me, this has become normal to see the results that my team produces, rather than seeing them while they are producing those results. Yes, and I actually don't care where my people sit and work. That it's I mean, that's totally up to them. Why would I want them to sit in an office when I'm not even there.

27:41 I mean, there are obviously reasons why it could make sense to come together from time to time, but there should be a specific purpose behind that. If I bring people together just to sit in an office and everyone goes about their own stuff, they can do that from anywhere. But if I bring them together to collaborate on a specific topic, there is a purpose behind that, and then it makes sense. So when I see all these C level executives from I don't know, you know, I don't want to name any particular companies, but you've you've listened to these C suite executives, especially in the tech world, that are now demanding their people to come back to the offices. Yes, I'm just stunned by how stupid this is. This is just they they they're missing out on a unique opportunity to shape the future of work. Here, I completely agree. And what they're actually doing is they're driving away talent who is not willing to go back to these outdated old principles of command and control. If you are not able to produce results and achieve results through your team leading them remotely, that is not the problem of these people. That's a problem of your leadership. But it's really difficult to change the way you lead once you've have a certain way of leadership ingrained in your

29:11 system. For a decade or maybe even longer. It's very easy to command and control and ask people to go back to the office and threaten them to get fired if they don't. I mean, it's twenty twenty three. That's just so ninety nineties. It's ridiculous how outdated it is, and still it's happening. I bet that we will anyway see a shift. There are so many companies that embrace it. Big companies that I'm working with that are like, we have a hybrid work model now, and it is a privilege to work with us, for example, because we do celebrate a results driven remote work culture where everyone knows how they contribute to the greater good and to the bigger success. So they are not demanding their people to shift the way they operate. They are demanding their leaders to shift the way they lead. Yes, so there is an opportunity in it, and some people will take it.

30:12 Other organizations will just fail to embrace that opportunity. They're fighting against that. And I just finished reading this book here. It's it's by Heather McGowan and Chris Shipley. It's called The Empathy Advantage Leading the Empowered Workforce, and they very much This is a great book. I can't wait to have them on. Really, it's very very smart, very very well done, and they are very much saying that, you know, this is the work is in the hands of workers today and that they are becoming really the most important stakeholder. And then of course last week we had on Tiffany Bova, who wrote the Experience Mindset, and she's putting forth that now today you must actually satisfy and fulfill at the same time equally the employees and the customers. So you were definitely seeing a trend and towards this here. So I'm looking at these companies that are going wanting to go back to like, you know, prior to twenty nineteen sort of sort of policies, and they're fighting this, and I'm thinking, you're gonna lose. You're gonna lose on this deal.

31:12 So I like what you said in your book too, you say, try to find ways to give your employees goals and base your performance measurements on how well they deliver on those goals. And then you also talked in the book too about just these old, dated, you know, job descriptions that are that are actually they're really based more on the past performance, et cetera. And anyway, the point is, I, like you very much, am out to help create and steward the workplace of the future, and that is not the future now. But you know, not everyone is able to see the future and shape the future. And I don't want to judge. I mean, I say they are stupid. Yeah, they are stupid in this way, but they are very smart in other ways. And we only we only look at them from the outside, and there must be very very good reasons to do that, to order people back to the offices. But honestly speaking, if I take a look at the leadership culture in North America, and I can say it because I'm not North American. I just came here three years ago, it is so different how the companies are being led in the US versus how they are being led in Europe. The mindset around command and control and the whole corporate culture is so different that it's that it just it has its own pace. And I believe, as you said, in the end, we will see who wins this race. But I guess we all know who will win this race. It's just a question when leaders will

32:45 embrace what's coming their way. But if you just stick your head into the sand and hope that the storm will pass, that's just not going to happen. There are enough examples out there, companies in North America that that work with companies in Europe that have successfully shifted within a very short time frame from a presence to a results led organization and they are delivering results like crazy. It's really about making that leap from command and control to enabling and empowering your employees to help them understand how do they contribute to the bigger picture, what is their role in bringing the strategy of an organization to life and to create tangible impact. And I don't have to sit in a darned cubicle next to a fifty other people to do that. Like, I'm not a hen in a cage that lays eggs. Why should I work like that? Beautifully said Alex, And I'm completely aligned on that note. Let's take our next break.

33:50 I'm your host, doctor Elis Cortez. We've been on earth. Alex Brookman, who is the author of Secrets of Next Low Entrepreneurs eleven powerful lessons to thrive in business and lead a balance life. This will be right back, doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at Elise Cortez dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortez. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to elease a l I se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thank you for staying with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. I mentioned in the first break about the Purpose Enjoy Tour. I want to share with you that the two of my latest books that are part of that tour. They book came out in March of twenty twenty three. One is called The Great Revitalization.

35:21 How activating meeting and purpose can radically enliven your business. This is for leaders to help them understand and build elevating at high performing leadership and cultures. The other book that just came out is called Coloring Life, How Loss Advices to Live More Vibrant Life, which helps people navigating loss transformed to growth and Vitality. You can find them both on Amazon as well. If you're just joining the guests Just joining the program now. My guest is Alex Bruckman. He is he is a strategy facilitator, speaker, and author. He's the author of Secrets of Next Level Entrepreneurs Eleve Them powerful lessons to thriving business and leading balanced life. I'm your host, doctor Leis Cortez. So for this next last session here or section here, Alex, I wanted to cover a few things that again, and there's so much I could pull out of you, but I do want to have you speak a little bit about the notion of creating an impact culture. Doing good within and with your culture includes things, like you say, contributing to your employees and customers well being. You have a few things there that are part of this impact culture. Can you speak a little bit to that. It goes back to the conversation we head around how do you align your purpose and your business strategy? To create tangible impact and with that obviously comes the need for leadership that can drive such processes.

36:37 And the reason you need leadership is because it just won't happen by itself. And when I say that, even if you have the best leaders in a sense that they have all the subject matter expertise that's needed to achieve results, it's not their subject matter expertise that will create the culture that you need in order to create an impact. So knowledge and capabilities, hard skills will only get you to a certain point. Beyond that, it needs understanding of what is it that this business wants to build it we're talking about legacy in the end, and as leaders work their way into strategy, into creating culture, building something bigger than themselves. And this is true for entrepreneurs solopreneurs, and this is also true if you lead a larger organization. There is something that drives you towards leading. There are a lot of people that realize at one point or another in their life that they're not meant to lead, that they don't find any joy and fulfillment in it, and they step away from it.

37:54 And then there are people who stay with it because what they personally get out of leading is way way bigger than just the paycheck that comes with it. It's fulfillment, it's joy, its pride, and when you dig into these feelings for them, it's around helping the people around them thrive, helping them lead more fulfilling lives, helping them see how they attribute to something that is worth contributing to. So creating that impact culture basically means is to lead conversations around what the purpose and desired impact of an organization is. That's the bigger picture when you bring it closer to the people, it is about how they contribute, how every individual contributes to achieving those results, and it is about helping them grow into the best version of themselves that they can possibly be.

38:54 And that requires a individual approach for everyone because everyone a different starting point, everyone has a different history, everyone has different goals for their own lives. So when we talk about legacy, we're basically talking about three levels of legacy. The legacy you work toward as a leader individually. So when you move on or when you leave a business, what do people actually say about you? Do they look at you and be like, created amazing results, but was a terrible people leader? Or is it might not have been the best strategist in the world, but man that person developed talent in our organization like no one else. Then we have a second layer of legacy that you work toward. That's the legacy basically for the team that you lead. Does the way you lead create a ripple effect through the organization because other people see how you lead, see the results to you achieve, and therefore start to emulate the way you and thereby leading by example, create more than just a handful of potential future leaders, but actually start shaping the leadership culture in your business. And then the third layer of legacy is the legacy that you create for the organization that you lead. Is your business seen in society as a contributor to the greater good? Or is your company just seen as a business

40:31 that destroys nature to extract precious metals from Mother Earth, for example. So there are conscious choices that you can make as a leader on those three levels. You can pick an organization whose values and business resonates with the legacy you want to create as an individual as a leader, or you can just continue working as you've always done without thinking about these things. It's your choice. Well, and that speaks so beautiful and now it's so beautiful articulated at because I could listen to you, We'll talk about that forever, and in many ways I could probably chime in and say almost exactly the same things, because I very much aligned with your message. But it really also speaks to one of the things you pointed out in the book is what it comes to pivotal changes, is this notion of conscious business and social responsibility and conscious business.

41:19 I see this everywhere, and not just because I serve on the board of Conscious Capitalism here in Dallas, and two of my books are very much threaded with the notion of conscious business and conscious capitalism. But I run in so many different circles where that is. That is so that surround sound is just everywhere where it seems today, which is good, which is good. I think it's great. I think I feel like, yes, we have so what I'm going to call the episode when next when I talk with Heather and Chris about the empathy advantages. Leaders have been kicked upstairs and they maybe they don't like it, but they have been kicked upstairs, and they are being asked to write, being asked to perform on a whole other level. And I know what's uncomfortable, ladies and gentlemen. That's why we're here with you or here to help you. But it's you know, we are being asked, all of us as business people, to do more than just make a nice profit. We are being asked to be more gentle to the planet, to do things from through a purpose lens. We are asked now to be able to lead our teams in a more enlightened, evolved way than we did last year, the year before, etc. And that's just part of It's back to that whole disruption thing you were talking about before. And I find it extremely exciting, occasionally very exhausting, and really really enervating to get to help other organizations to come along with this, with this stride. And so that's why I keep posting the show, Alex is because I get to meet people like you who continue to elevate my thinking expand the way that I look

42:50 at how it is that I consult, how it is that i'm speaking so and I love being part of this world, so that I get to speak with a strategist like you two on this topic is really exciting for me. So and for sharing all these these perspectives my pleasure. You also spoke one thing two that that was interesting about just the notion of how the workplace is changing. We already we talked about the Great Resignation. I talk about that. That's why my book is called the Great Revitalization because it speaks to the resignation. You wrote about that in your book as part of this the effort here, But you also talked about the aging and emerging workforce. A large population of baby runers are preparing for retirement, and we've got this new generation coming in and that's causing some changes in some mix in the workplace. Can you speak a bit to that that change? The change comes with people that are more conscious about what they value. They are more outspoken about what they value, yes, and they are less willing to compromise on what they value.

43:50 Then let's say previous generations might have been and they have the example of how life can look like which is dominated by work, and they don't want that. Very clear example, my father passed away when he reached his legal retirement age and he has worked his bomb off his entire life. A typical boomer that has just driven himself into supporting his family the best way he could, and in that whole process probably has left a few of the things that he truly cared about or valued. He just traded them in. And there are I don't want to in any shape or form judge about generations here.

44:49 It's just that we've seen what this can lead to if we do not bring our values to work, if we leave them at the front door, we're not showing up as the human beings that we are, and that can lead to taking decisions as part of a business that are not necessarily sustainable, decisions that are not humane decisions. And therefore we need to bring our values to work and not lead them at the front door. The generational impact that we're seeing is that more and more people are more outspoken about what they value, and I believe in that is a tremendous opportunity for businesses, for society to build businesses that are more than just profit generators or more than just a provider of let's say, a stable work environment, and the whole illusion of stability or security. We need to get rid of that anyway, because I mean, you can lose your job tomorrow for whichever reason. So there is no job security, there is no stability, So why not if that's not there anyway, why act in ways that aren't in line with who you are to keep that illusion alive? And I believe the more we see younger generations come

46:22 into work, the more prominent that topic just becomes in our conversations. And I have a three and a half year old child. If I remember, if I imagine him in let's say the work environment we're in today, I'm just like, yeah, no, I don't want that for him. So when once he will be in a working age that's probably somewhere in around fifteen years, I'm so curious to see what we can do within those fifteen years to create workspaces and value work spaces that are aligned with who we are as human beings, with values that are deeply humane and how fulfilling that might be and feel when that generation then joins the workforce, that's incredibly compelling and inspiring.

47:15 And yes, it should continue to evolves. That's the whole notion of my life continued to evolve. So as to me, when I see those younger generations coming up, I get really inspired and excited because they're elevating us it's expanding our humanity. It is allowing us to be able to pull more deeply and richly across our humanity, to be able to contribute and work and create through business. And I find that really compelling. So we've done it, Alex, We've gotten the end of the show already. It goes by so very fast, I know it goes So this shows listened to why people around the world who really care about creating workplaces where they can thrite just the things you're saying. They're led by inspiration leaders that bring them to their greatness, and we do business that betters the world. What would like to leave them with today? The deeply human desire to be part of something that is worth to be part of is something that I feel should drive us as entrepreneurs and as corporate leaders to build these workplaces. And I mean, even if you've been around for a while and you've learned a certain way to lead and to create results, if you're not happy with it, change it. Dare to make that first little step and you might be surprised of what's on the other side of the line for you. What a beautiful way to finish, Alex, very very grateful that we cross pass and I got to read your book and learn from you and now share with my listeners and viewers around the world. Thank you for being on working on purpose. Thanks so much at

48:46 least for having me. Welcome, listeners, viewers. If you'll learn more about Alex Brookman, his work or his book, Secrets of Next Level Entrepreneurs, you can start by visiting Alex the Strategist dot com. Last weeks the Line Show, you can always catch it if your recorded podcast. We were on the er with Tiffany Bova talking about her new book, The Experienced Mindset, which puts forth the central idea for companies to succeed in today's economy that they must equally nurture the customer and the employee experience. What makes her point so compelling, though, is that she's not an organizational psychologist and local therapists like me. She's a business growth strategist and innovation extort, a numbers person, and she's talking about this stuff, so pay attention to that. She's got some really amazing numbers in the book to go along with it. Next week we'll be on the Aero. Doctor Pelee a delightful man. I've known him for several years talking about his new book called Profitable Happiness, the Five Key Habits of a High Performance Organization. See you there, and remember that work as an integral and important part of our lives, and it can be one of the best adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the impact we crave. So let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortez, each week on W four CY. Together we'll create a world where business operates conscientiously, Leadership inspires and passion performance, and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.