Something Extra

Episode 318: Best of 2024 - Part 2

• Technology Partners • Episode 318

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Join us for a special highlight reel in this episode of Something Extra. We’ve handpicked standout moments and compelling insights from our incredible guests throughout 2024. Reflect on the stories that inspired us, the lessons that shaped us, and the wisdom that continues to light the way forward. Let their advice and vision pave the way for your journey into what we hope will be your most impactful and remarkable year yet. Don’t miss this chance to recharge and set the stage for success in the year ahead!

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Credits: 
Host: Lisa Nichols
Executive Producer: Jenny Heal
Marketing Support: Landon Burke and Joe Szynkowski
Podcast Engineer: Portside Media

Lisa Nichols  00:02
Chromosomes, little strands of nucleic acids and proteins are the fundamental genetic instructions that tell us who we are. At birth, most people are born with 46 chromosomes, but each year in the United States, about 6000 people are born with an extra chromosome, making them a person with Down syndrome. If you've ever encountered someone with Down syndrome, you know that they are some of the kindest, most joyful people you will ever meet. They truly have something extra. 

Lisa Nichols  00:30
My name is Lisa Nichols and for 30 years, I have been both the CEO of Technology Partners and the mother to Ally. Ally has something extra in every sense of the word. I have been blessed to be by her side as she impacts everyone she meets. Through these two important roles as CEO and mother to Ally, I have witnessed countless life lessons that have fundamentally changed the way I look at the world. While you may not have an extra chromosome, every leader has something extra that defines who you are. 

Lisa Nichols  01:00
Join me as I explore the something extra in leaders from all walks of life and discover how that difference in each of them has made a difference in their companies, their families, their communities and in themselves. If you liked this episode today, please go to Apple Podcast or wherever you listen and leave us a five-star rating. 

Lisa Nichols  01:19
Welcome to part two of our best of 2024 episodes. The first clip is with Sean Copeland, CEO and chairman of Regent bank, and 94x Movement co-founder. And I think I even read, or maybe I made it up. You can tell me, if I made it up. I think I read where you said, I want to what are my top three to five priorities for the day. I mean, you don't have 20 of them. Sean, I think that's a really good leadership lesson as well, because if you have 20, the chances of you really, I mean, what are your highest value priorities for the day? Which I really love that. And then you have a two-hour living rule. And then I'd love for you talk about the 6:30 rule, which I think is really good. 

Sean Copeland  02:02
These are both very simple, but have been really game changers for me. So, the two-hour living, I read a book once by some Harvard professor that said that if you'll take a break every two hours for 10 or 15 minutes, it really expands your stamina, and you're not so tired at night when you go home. And so, I started doing that, but during that, every two hours I stop and have 15 minutes of prayer. And so, it's hard, you know, it's pretty easy to get derailed in a day. But if you're doing it in two hours, okay, and you're going, Okay, Lord, thank you for the last two hours. Thank you for that meeting. Thank you for, let me pray for that person now for the next two hours, let me pray for you know, this and this and this, you stay pretty close to him. So, I literally, you know, at 10, and then, of course, at lunch, and then at two, and then at four I stop and have, it's on my calendar. I have, I call it two hours living, and I have 15-minute breaks where I just grab a snack, I'll walk around and I just pray. And it's been wonderful. 

Sean Copeland  03:15
The 6:30 rule came from almost losing my marriage, unfortunately, I was overworking. I was always had something going on in the evening. It was all out of fear. I wanted to be so important. And, you know, Mr. Everything in my hometown thinking that, well, I won't get fired if I'm everything to everybody, you know. And, and I was just never home, and my wife, who is the most amazing human on the planet, would, would every bet, every 90 days. Go, hold on now, this hidden, this isn't really what I signed up for, you know. I'm not the housekeeper and the maid and the nanny, you know? And so, I would do better. I'd apologize. I'd feel terrible. I'd do better for a couple of weeks. And finally, one day, I came home and she was packed up and getting ready to leave, and it scared me so much. I thought, what are what am I doing? What am I it just, it was a it was kind of scared me straight, so to speak, and so now for the rest of my life. At 6:30 I turn off my phone, plug it in, put it away. Focus on the Family. Do not do work in the evenings. Try to be present with my kids and my wife. Probably one of the best things I've ever done.

Lisa Nichols  04:40
Our next clip is with best-selling author, speaker and president of The Table Group, Patrick Lencioni. 

Lisa Nichols  04:45
Well, you know, and you've probably done studies on this. I have not, but I have often heard people say that what you do as a little boy or a little girl. It goes for full circle, and sometimes that's what you do as an adult. So, if you are a little boy that builds with Legos all the time, then you might end up being an architect or something like that. And I just, I think that'd be a really interesting study to do. 

Patrick Lencioni  05:11
You know, we, just about three and a half years ago, we launched a new product called The Six Types of Working Genius, which was an accident by the grace of God. We discovered around understanding what kind of work people love to do. And the thing about it is, is you can trace it back to when you were a kid, when we figure out there's these six different kinds of work, and two of them are what we call your working genius, where you get joy and energy. And, and the thing is, people always say, does it change over time? And we trace it all the way back, like the things I love to do I loved doing as a child. And so, one of the things is we like to help pair. We just came out with a student assessment, because the earlier you can help your kids understand what their geniuses are. The more you can encourage them to, to pursue those because I think God put us on this earth for a reason, and he gave us gifts, and we're supposed to unwrap those gifts and use them. And sometimes people go through life and they never get to know what those gifts are.

Lisa Nichols  06:07
Amen. I love that you're doing that, because I've always said that even when I talk to younger people, I'm when I said, when I was going through school. There were no assessments. There was not Strength Finders. There was not DISC, there was not Myers Briggs. There was none of that when I was going through school. But I said, if you have the opportunity to do assessments, do it. Because the more you understand yourself, I think the more to your point that you can get on the path that you that was purposed for you from before the time you were born. So, I just love that. 

Patrick Lencioni  06:37
And I love all those assessments, and I've done them all. We've used them in my in my work. This, this new one that we call The Six Types of Working Genius is the one that's most clearly applicable to the tasks you do every day. So, like the Myers Briggs, I love it and Strengths Finder all these different things, but we, we had never really found one that that could just say, this is why you go about your job this way. And whether, you're a whether you're a mom and you're working at home, or whether you're a CEO, or whether you're a student, or whether you're retiring, and trying to figure out what the next thing is. It kind of comes down to which, which tasks do you like to do every day? And so that's we discovered this. Because I was getting kind of grumpy at work one day, and somebody said, Why do you get grumpy? And I said, I don't know. Let's figure this out. And that's how this came about. 

Lisa Nichols  07:23
That's so funny. That's so funny. Well, you know, how many times is something developed because you see a gap, or you see something like that, a challenge that you're going through, right? I totally, I totally love that. Well, I know that you grew up in Bakersfield, California. You've already talked about your mom and dad, and I know that you grew up with a really strong sense of faith and family, Pat. And you say that that really those factors are two of the biggest factors that you believe have contributed to your success.

Patrick Lencioni  07:56
Well, absolutely. I mean, and faith is one of those things you get, hopefully you can get it when you're young, but then you rehab to develop it on your own. Like they said, God has no grandchildren, you know. It's just his children, and you have to become his child. And so, I'm, I've been very blessed that I got that foundation from my parents, and then throughout my life I've, I've been able to stay close to God wandering we as we all do, and so that is the foundation of my life. I mean it to say anything else would be silly. I've learned that, that nothing matters without him, I'm done. And so that's my that's I'm convinced of that. And as far as family goes. You know, early in my career, before I had children, my wife and I, when we got married, somebody said to me one day, Hey, Pat, when you have children, an executive said, I have a 16-year-old child, and I don't know him. So, he said, Don't do that. And I remember, early on in my career, I had a lot of opportunities to travel and do things, and I would say no, because I wanted to be part of my family. And so, I was very blessed not to lose sight of that in my career. And so, so, faith and family without those. I mean, anything else I do doesn't seem to have any meaning.

Lisa Nichols  09:07
Up next is Kristin Johnson, Chief Transformation Officer at Edward Jones. 
Lisa Nichols  09:12
How did these roles come about? Did you raise your hand? Did somebody tap you on the shoulder and say, Kristin, I think we need you over here. Would you be interested? How did those come about? Because I just think about people as they are looking at their career ascent, Kristin, I think it's good for them to hear, how you've moved through the organization.

Kristin Johnson  09:32
Absolutely. So, going back to that first leader, I mentioned he when I was a junior, you know, an internal audit juniorist colleague, and he said, you know, What? What do you want to do on five years? And I said, Oh, I want to be a general partner at Edward Jones. And he kind of, you know, stood up straight and was like, you can't say that. I'm like, Well, why not? Like, why wouldn't, you know, I was 25 years old? Why wouldn't you want to do that? And he said, No, you know, like, you want to grow your impact on the organization. You want to work hard. You want to form well, and then opportunities will come to you. And I, as I just repeated that you can tell it's been in my brain for 29 years, and I firmly believe that. And Edward Jones is such a great opportunity factory for that as a growing organization. So, as I moved into these roles, I was asked to move into the roles through my career. Of course, I really took the initiative to learn. I wanted to keep moving around the organization so that I could put the pieces together. I felt like I could contribute more to the organization if I knew how the pieces fit together, if I just. And so, I liked being more of that generalist, and I liked learning about the different parts of our business and what we were doing. So, I did get, I think, because I would seek out the learning opportunities. And then I every opportunity I got, I did the best I could with it. And that turned into the next opportunity. 

Kristin Johnson  10:51
That happened, until when Penny Pennington became managing partner in 2019, she did ask me to move over to HR in an interim role initially, and lead, co-lead the division for a period of time and help her search for a new CHRO. And which was great, and it wasn't expected. Again, I was, I was always the one that said, you know, people would ask me what I want to do, and I said, whatever you want me to do, whatever you need me to do. And I think a lot of people are like that. And so, I, you know, we're putting together the job profile for the CHRO, and she really wanted to elevate human capital at Edward Jones to really be weighed as much, if not more, than financial capital. Prior to her leadership, our HR division would be was responsible to our CFO, our Chief Administrative Officer, and did not have a seat around the executive table, and so I led the search, and I was looking at the job profile one night, and I thought, you know, I want to do this. I want to I like this work like I'm really inspired. And Penny, it's, you know, set this bold vision for us that we're still pursuing. And I just got really excited about the opportunity to really contribute in a different way. 

Kristin Johnson  12:05
So, I'm sure people have had those fearless moments at times. And so, I remember I sent her a note, and I said, Hey, I'd like to share something with you. Well, this was on a Thursday, and she was traveling and I was traveling, and so we didn't connect. And then, you know, those fearless moments subside. Well, then Monday, we were at a meeting together, and she said, Oh, did you have something you wanted to, to share with me? Come in my office. And so, I went in and, and then I was trying, as I'm walking, I remember that feeling of, how do I get that fearless moment back of what I wanted to say? And I did, and I stood, and she just, she said, thank you. And I felt like that was a moment I'll remember, because I raised my hand and I had more confidence in myself than I think I ever had to really put myself out there. And then I didn't hear anything for a couple months, and then entered the process and was grateful to get the opportunity officially in November of '19 so but I would just encourage everyone, don't wait 24 years to raise your hand. You know, if there's something that you want to do, it's okay to say what you want to do. I don't know why it took me as long as it did to really voice that, but just something learned.

Lisa Nichols  13:19
Our next clip is with ocean navigator, explorer, adventurer, and two-time Guinness World Record holder, Cyril Derreumaux. 

Lisa Nichols  13:27
So, but in 2022 you took another adventure, and this time you did a solo kayaking adventure. And I laughingly, we were kind of talking to the sidebar conversation, because we're going to talk about something you're doing the future. I said, Well, how, you know, how long do you think it'll take you? And you told me, and I said, Wow. I mean, you're going to finish it, you know, in last time you go but just think I got the first one wrong. So, you did, you could solo kayak across the Pacific Ocean, and it took you 91 days. I gotta know. I mean, Cyril, how in the world did you mentally and physically prepare for that? I got lots of questions around this, because I know you sat in that kayak for 91 days. I mean, how did you mentally and physically prepare for this?

Cyril Derreumaux  14:20
Right. So just, just to give a perspective to your listeners, there's been the rowing crossing that I did. It's part of 800 there's been 800 crossings of oceans in rowing boats, of which 230 solo in kayak. The boat is much smaller, because you have to be able to paddle on each side, right? The cabin is much smaller. The boat is narrower. It rocks and roll all the time. So, not a lot of people have done that before. There were only three people before me, I was number four to do it fully human powered. So, what I thought is, first, when I finished my rowing crossing, I said, never again like this. Is too hard. This is ridiculous, because you wrote two hours, you stopped two hours, you wrote to all day, all night, right? So, going from a team of four to solo, that's a big, big jump as well, because there's nobody to rest to tell you when to rest, or the mental side, the emotional side, right? So, I did 91 days from California to Hawaii, the same exact crossing I did, but that time alone on this little kayak. And I think the alone part is the hardest. And your question to how do you train mentally was probably the biggest hurdle before I left. I'm an extrovert person. I love people. I charge my batteries by meeting people. So, I'm not going to see land in three months. I'm not going to see human being. I'm not going to walk for three months. How am I going to do with this? And that was really all the questions I had to prepare, like, Okay, what's physically how do you do to prepare for kayaking 12 hours a day every day for three months, and not sleeping more than an hour at a time, because I had to wake up to look for container ships on the plotter and see my GPS if the container ship was coming, look at the weather and the stress level.

Cyril Derreumaux  16:09
And I think we're the mental side. That's where the philosophy kind of starts to come. What is your outlook on life in general, that makes it bearable, you know, and, and I think it's very linked to your personality. Everybody could cross an ocean. And I really believe this any personality, if you're extrovert, very emotional, like me, or if you're like a warrior, or you want to go to war against the ocean, you could, you could do that too. All you have to know is really, what are your positive attributes that could also be defects? You know, for instance, I'm very emotional, and that's my strength, right? When I see the rain, I could say, this is beautiful. The rain is coming, I love it. Thank you for refreshing me. I feel so salty. I love this. So, it's a way the mental side. I use my emotions to change the reality so that it's bearable, it's actually enjoyable, while the emotion could all be a detriment where I don't see land, you know, I started things about my loved one, and then I started crying. Maybe every day I was crying, because, you know, this is so emotional to be alone. So, I had to pilot that same strength and weakness so that it would be my strength to cross and self-awareness is the key.

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Lisa Nichols  18:00
Next, we have Tommy Martin, the CEO of the Tebow Group. 

Lisa Nichols  18:04
I love reading your LinkedIn posts. And you're, you're, you're very active on LinkedIn, and I read one about overcoming imposter syndrome and embracing success. You were really vulnerable in this post. I would, I would highly encourage our listeners to go out and following you on LinkedIn. Go read that post. But here are just a few quotes that I really love, that you wrote, you said, and you just really kind of said this right before, you know, I talked about this. But imposter syndrome isn't about forgetting the past. It's about recognizing how it's prepared you for the ongoing work that you're called to do. And then this one I really love. Our struggles don't define us, they refine us. So how do you believe that some, how have you seen some of those struggles, Tommy, even in those early days, how have you seen those refine who you are today and how you lead today?

Tommy Martin  19:11
I think one of the most important lessons I've learned along the way in leadership is that sometimes people actually need you to lead, and I spent a lot of time in my early days as an executive, as a CEO, trying to be diplomatic. And sometimes there's a time and a place for that, but there's also a time and a place where people just need you to be decisive. And, you know, I think I cared too much about being liked and not enough about making the hard decisions and being just completely honest and candid with our team, I've learned one of the best ways we can be kind to our team is just to be fully candid, not hold back. We don't have to do it in meanness. We can still be kind, but to just be open and honest and share what the reality is. Instead of trying to fluff it over and make it tactful, it just isn't helpful. 

Tommy Martin  20:16
And so, you know, my the leadership team I would have had a decade ago would be shocked by my level of candor today. That's been the biggest development for me as a leader, to go from completely holding back, always just being diplomatic and tactful in how I said everything, never getting giving a full answer. You know, is always a fluff answer to today, I'm just, I try to be very direct, very candid, to let people know exactly where they stand, what my expectations are, and it's just a much smoother way to exist as a leader. But it also required me to get comfortable that not everybody's gonna like me, and that's okay. I think one of the one of the best lessons I learned in my leadership training in business school was that most good leaders. If you don't have about 30% of the people that aren't very happy with your decisions, you're probably not leading. You're probably just existing. And so, you know, I'm comfortable now making decisions that aren't always popular with the entire team. It's, it's not about diplomacy or leadership by consensus, somebody ultimately has to make the hard decisions, and I'm much more comfortable being in that position today in my 40’s than I certainly was in my 30’s or my 20’s.

Lisa Nichols  21:49
To round out our Best of 2024, episodes, we have former principal of Columbine High School, Frank De Angelis, to talk about his harrowing experience during the April 20, 1999 tragedy at Columbine High School. 

Lisa Nichols  22:03
You know, April 20, 1999 I know that's going to be forever etched in everyone's minds, but you know what went through your mind when all of that the shooting started, you know, there? I mean, I think at first you thought that there was, like, some firecrackers or something, or, you know, didn't really realize what was happening, as nobody did.

Frank DeAngelis  22:24
Well, a senior prank. And I do need to share this with you, Lisa, because there's a strong message, I want to share with the people that are listening. Mr. Sanders and I, he was my mentor, and he came to Columbine in '77, I came in '79 we coached together. We were at each other's weddings. Our kids went to school together, and it was the day before it was April 19, and we're playing one of our arch rivals, Chatfield, in baseball, so we're both at the game. We're just laid back, sitting on the bleachers, and we have this conversation. And at the point, it didn't mean a whole lot, but he was we were talking about our lives, and, you know, the 20 plus years we had been together, and he said, Do you have any regrets? You know, there's times we're at school, we're away from our families, and, you know, different types of things. And how do you balance professional and personal? And this deep, deep conversation goes on and, and he's talked, we're talking about our kids and, you know, and then we talked about all the things that we've been involved and I can remember him saying so vividly. He said, you know, though, moving forward, I can't wait to spend more time with my grandkids. And he said, that's one of the things that is so important. I want to be there for my kids now that their parents and their grandkids. And he asked me, and he said, Frank, do you have any regrets? Would you do it all? And I said, No, I would not. 

Frank DeAngelis  23:53
Well, every morning before school started, Mr. Sanders and I he would come by my office, he'd have a cup of coffee. Well, the following morning because, and I'll explain where I was prior, I wasn't at Columbine, and if I would have known the last conversation, I had with Dave was in those bleachers, I would have hugged him and told him how much I loved him. And that's a lesson for all of us that you know, with my wife and others, we try not to go to bed mad or leave mad, because you don't know. And one of the things that the parents say to me that lost their loved ones, they said, If I do when they left for school that morning, that was the last time I was going to see them, I would have hugged them and told them how much I loved them and we learned from that day on, there's no guarantees. 

Frank DeAngelis  24:41
And so, getting back to your question, as I stated, I was at Columbine almost every morning. Well, we had some students, Our Future Business Leaders of America, that were being recognized by the Chamber of Commerce. So, they said, Mr. D, will you come and be with us? So, I'm there, and as a result of that, I'm. Late getting back to Columbine, and the reason I'm sharing this is out of 175 days, 170 days, I was usually down in the cafeteria for our A lunch. We had two lunches, A lunch, B lunch, and I was down there to greet the kids and welcome them back or send them off to class. Well, that day, I'm looking for Kiki Leyba. And Kiki was a young man who taught at Columbine. He was on a one-year contract, interviewed him, and I was going to welcome to the Columbine family. Well, I couldn't find him, and all of a sudden, I'm getting ready to go downstairs, and he comes into my office and he said, what's up D, what's up? And to this day, we have this conversation, I'm not sure if I ever offered him the contract. He's still working at Columbine, but before I offered him the contract, my secretary comes running towards the door, and the door was shut, and she face planted this little window, and I knew something was wrong. And as she opened the door, she said, Frank, Mr. D, there's been a reported gunfire. And the first thing that crossed my mind, this has to be a senior prank. I could count on two hands a number of fist fights, and we're about a month away from graduation. And then all of a sudden, I come out of my office, and I said, Call 911, and Kiki goes one way, and I go the other. 

Frank DeAngelis  26:15
And I went through something later I learned was fight, flight and freeze, and everything slowed down for me, and all I could remember thinking is what it was going to feel like to have a bullet pierce my body. Because as I'm looking down the hallway, there's a gunman coming towards me, and I remember so vividly what he was wearing, with the baseball cap turned sideways, a black vest, white t-shirt, Army boots on and the barrel of the gun looked about the size of the cannon, and shots were being fired over my head. And I kept thinking, Did I tell my family I love them? Will I not see it my parents again? And it was so difficult, is that is happening? And I thought I walked out very calmly, and Kiki Leyba said, I sprinted towards the gunman, and people said, Why? One reason and one reason only, I had about 25 girls that were coming out of the locker room to go to a physical education class, and this was before all the drills the kids are doing now and grandkids, you know. All these lockdown drills, but I knew if I got the girls in the gymnasium, I would be able, there was an egress outside. Everything was going as planned. The girls were unaware. I get them in this little hallway, I pull on the door and it's locked, and the girl starts crying, papa, papa, save us. They start praying. I literally had 30 keys on a key ring in the first key I stuck in the door. It opened it on the first try. I wouldn't be having this conversation. 

Frank DeAngelis  27:46
And people asked me, and I said I had very little to do in finding that key because 15 years after, I continued to stick that try to reach in my pocket, I couldn't do it. It's a couple of things I want to share that really still gets to me is a couple of years ago, I had a young lady, Katie was her name, and she was one of the girls with me, and we're at a Columbine softball game. They're playing in the state championship, and she's there, and she comes up and we embrace and we're hugging and crying, and all of a sudden, she spins me around, said, Mr. D, I am so glad you found that key, because if you didn't, my daughter wouldn't be playing right field, and we just start crying. And with this past year being the 25-year remembrance, the kids, my kids, those girls that were with me, sent me pictures of their family, saying, Mr. D, thank you. You found that key, and I had very little to do with it. God had a plan.

Announcer  28:43
Thank you for listening to today's show. Something extra with Lisa Nichols as a Technology Partners Production Copyright Technology Partners Inc. 2019. For show notes, or to reach Lisa, visit tpi.co/podcast. Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or wherever you listen.

*Please note, the preceding transcription has been automatically generated and should be used for informational purposes only.