S1E11 - The Biz Dojo Season 1 Finale & Recap

Subscriber-only episode

In the Season 1 finale, Seth and JP recap the incredible guests that have taken time to join them and share their stories with our listeners. We discuss plans for our upcoming second season, and the many great leadership lessons we took away from this season. 

We also take the time to answer some questions from our fan-mail, and dive a little deeper into some of our experiences with leadership, mental health, development, coaching, as we share our tips & tricks for becoming a great leader. 

Thanks for listening to season 1 - and don't forget to rate and review our podcast in your favourite podcast apps. Stay connected with Seth and JP through social media over the break, as we continue to release exclusive content even while the podcast is retooling for the new season.  

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Transcript

Voiceover: 0:03

Welcome to the season one finale of The Biz Dojo. In this episode, Seth and JP will discuss some of the learnings from this season. They'll also answer questions from our fans. And talk a little bit about the upcoming season two. So for the final podcast of the season, here they are. Seth Anderson, and JP Gaston

Seth Anderson: 0:31

Welcome to the season one recap of The Biz Dojo with Seth and JP, what a what a ride. It's been JP feels like just yesterday, we were putting on our first episode. And here we are wrapping up Season One

JP Gaston: 0:44

is like yesterday, you were calling me to say, hey, got this idea. You've got some skills, let's do a thing.

Seth Anderson: 0:50

Let's do a thing. And I was very nervous that you were going to be like, Nah, I'm good. Why? Why? Because I had no backup plan. I don't know. We hadn't really talked in a while. And I don't know, I just I wasn't sure if you're gonna be down and you didn't even hesitate. You were all in I love this stuff.

JP Gaston: 1:07

And everything about it. I love the editing. I love the recording. I love the mixing and. And then on the flip side, I love the leadership. And it's a it's a good combination and the hanging out with me

Seth Anderson: 1:19

every week. That's

JP Gaston: 1:21

sometimes okay to you. Yeah,

Seth Anderson: 1:22

that's all right. Sorry. I know, I've really enjoyed the season, I think didn't necessarily ended up being what I thought it would be. I don't know what I thought it was gonna be. But you know, I think it's, it's been a lot of fun. All in all, like, every week, I look forward to doing this. We've met some cool people just sort of organically either through others, people reaching out. Just reading and researching and looking for potential guests. I would say that's probably been my favorite part. I mean, in a time where it's pretty tough right now to see or meet or get to know or network with other people. We've used this as sort of a tool to do that. And we made a joke at the very beginning, if people rewind a little bit and go back and listen to early episodes, hopefully after they listened to this full one.

JP Gaston: 2:13

But if they go back, we made a joke that you know, we'd only have 1213 friends listening. And we might only have 12 or 13 friends listening. But we also have dozens of people listening from all over the world. Like I did not I thought we would have there be 25 people from Calgary listening, but we've got hundreds of listeners, we've got, I think we're up to 13 or 14 different countries now on four continents, like it's

Seth Anderson: 2:40

awesome. It's been pretty cool. I, like I said, I had no idea what to expect heading into this, I knew I wanted to, you know, do something real, do something fun. Give some people, hopefully a few leadership lessons along the way and a platform for folks who were interested to kind of share what they were doing and their journey. And, you know, for me, I feel like we've really accomplished that. And I think, you know, if I were to say the second thing that I've enjoyed most about this this season, the diversity of the guests we've had, you know, like, just about every walk of life, from a from a leadership perspective, a lot of journeys and you know, different ways in which people got to where they are, but a lot of common, you know, tangible things that we were, you know, you could pull out and pull in, put into whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish. And I think that was sort of the best case scenario, what I was hoping we'd be able to dry out this season.

JP Gaston: 3:38

Yeah, I thought every single episode, I took something away, that's for sure. And even the ones where I kind of knew, you know, this is this is what the episode is, and this is where it's probably going to go. And then we get into the interview, and we start to hear different stories that we weren't expecting. And we start to hear different leadership tails, and, and, and pointers and all sorts of stuff. It was, it was a lot more than I expected. I expected that it would be pretty good. But it was even better than good.

Seth Anderson: 4:04

Yeah. And I think it was reinforcing even for us doing this. I mean, this this from day one has been a passion project. And if I were to take sort of one key theme from every episode, is anybody that we had on that's having any sort of success is doing something that they're passionate about, whether that's their full time day job or not. You know, sometimes it is sometimes it isn't, but you know, where people's abilities and skills and everything sort of flourish the most, at least from what I can see is when you're doing something you're passionate about.

JP Gaston: 4:38

Yeah. And we and we had, like you said off the top there. We had such diversity and guests, between entrepreneurs and coaches and athletes and executive coaches and filmmakers and like just the gamut. I mean, there's more out there don't get me wrong, that's not you know, I don't want to box us into those I have six different titles, but for 10 episodes to have that kind of diversity in our first attempt, and season two, like we, you know, we've already been talking our listeners would know this, but you and I have already been talking about the list. And we've got people from around the planet now, who are who are scheduled to be on episode two who have quite diverse backgrounds, diverse industries. They've got, I mean, we've got some people who have worked with some major companies, we've got some people who are kind of working for themselves. It's, it is, it is growing fast.

Seth Anderson: 5:37

Yeah, I mean, we've already got a half dozen The Biz Dojo release forms, I guess they're called fine, ready to go. So, you know, season two, I'm super excited about it. And like it, like I said, you know, we started out, predominantly, we've been in sort of the Calgary area, give or take with most of our guests have Carolyn, I think, from Ontario, but you know, for the most part, we've been in the Alberta for sure. And this next season, you know, we're again, we're gonna have a lot of local guests, we've got that lined up, but we're also going around the world, we've got guests lined up, you know, across North America and into Europe. So you know, pretty excited to kind of see how that all comes together. And, and who knows what else will be on deck as this thing starts to hopefully, you know, continue to organically grow as it has to this point. You know, I

JP Gaston: 6:22

think when I'm thinking about this season, we were talking a little bit before we started recording this episode about some of the challenges and stuff I think one of the challenges in in having this type of show is in scheduling these interviews. And as we're moving into this worldwide scheduling, one of the reasons we didn't have a couple of interviews on the first season was just because schedules didn't pan out, or they you know, they were in time zones that are 14 hours away from our so it's a little difficult to find a really good time. So I'm glad that a few of those have panned out for season two, we've got a timeline in place, we got a schedule, we've got plans, but that is definitely one of the things that that I've taken away from this season is trying to try and to get those sorts of things in line.

Seth Anderson: 7:08

Yeah, no, it can become unwieldy really quick, when you know, you got to kind of do all we have day jobs, right? Like this is this is passion project and, you know, something we do in the evenings and weekends. So to kind of start to juggle people's schedules. And

JP Gaston: 7:23

until we sell out, right, like, we talked about shopping it up, sell out, then, once we sell out, we're good. I

Seth Anderson: 7:30

think one of the other things that I you know, I don't know, if it's a challenge, or if I just underestimated it was, you know, social media is a is a beast to its own, like I, I just kind of thought you throw it up there. And, you know, we get it, you know, 500 likes, or, you know, whatever, like we get established a following pretty quickly. But that that has not been true. But, you know, whatever, like it, podcasts aren't for everyone. And I think that's one of the things we're we're iterating or adjusting on as we head into season two is, you know, how do we get more digestible, meaningful content for people that can be sort of quickly consumed, and, you know, anchor on the podcast, being sort of the core of what we do like that was the whole point was to, you know, provide a platform for people and share these great stories. And, you know, I have a passion for interviewing and putting this together. But also, you know, how do we, you know, how do we kind of use the content that we're getting from those interviews, you know, there's probably multiple ways in which we can use it and start to kind of crack the nut there and maybe get a little more social media engagement, and build our following that way.

JP Gaston: 8:38

Yeah, I'm excited about some of the stuff we're going to be doing. And one of those things is going to be featuring some, some of those small businesses and little little clips. I'll call them for now until we officially introduce it. But I'm excited for that. So you know, anyone who's out there who has a small business, who's interested who has a bit of a story, you don't have to have a full podcast length story for us to want to share what you do and and get it out in front of people. And whether that's in Alberta or around the world, like we're talking about, like just hit us up. We're we're interested in all of it.

Seth Anderson: 9:09

Did you? Sorry, just to to totally shift gears and I was thinking this while you were talking about the episodes that we had this year, what was your favorite one? And that's not to say, you know what, I honestly like Oh, man, I have fond memories. And I could say great things about all of them. But like if you had to pick one, maybe not favorite, but one that sort of stands out from the seat.

JP Gaston: 9:31

If you're asking me who my favorite person was, that's a dangerous question my friend. No, from a surprising level of interest. I thought I would be interested. I thought, our interview with Nate Okay, I there was a lot of behind the scenes and I've worked behind the scenes on on radio and a little bit in film and TV stuff in the past and maybe that's where my interest came from but I thought that that was that was really surprising and really good. The other one that comes to mind and you know, not, not just because I know her quite well, but Val, like just talking, talking the mental health, behind sport, I thought, I think it's important for people to understand, you know, walking through that mental prep and being able to get in the zone. And you know, you're not necessarily ignoring people when you walk by them when they're not not signing your baseball or whatever. You're actually in the zone, and you're trying to get yourself mentally ready for what's a very difficult job. Frankly, I thought that that was a fun interview, from start to finish. But I thought it was really good for us to touch on that kind of mental piece, which is something we talked about touching on, before we even started the show was getting into getting into those sorts of things and common social issues and whatnot.

Seth Anderson: 10:55

Yeah, no, those are, those are both great episodes. I think the one, you know, just to touch on the neat one, to me, that one unlocked my mind, I guess, are a bit of a paradigm shift. And how important, you know, storytelling was to this whole thing. I think, up to that point, we've done a lot of sort of question and answer. And really, you know, I thought we had some good conversations. But you know, when the Nate and the Nate episode is almost like a bit of a shift, where he just did a good job of like, storytelling, and really getting into what he did. And I found that was the first episode where I got a lot of feedback, like, hey, this was I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed getting that look behind the scenes. And I do think it helped us sort of pivot our style a little bit. In the later episodes,

JP Gaston: 11:41

it was a turning point for the show, for sure. Yeah.

Seth Anderson: 11:43

So thanks, Nate.

JP Gaston: 11:46

Thank you, Nate.

Seth Anderson: 11:49

Or should we say uncle Seth is? No. No. So you know, that was a good one. I think I'm gonna do a little bit of recency bias here for sure. But the episode with Rebecca, I thought, I think it was just the whole process that we went through, you know, when she even reached out in the first place, and just, I don't know, she, it was sort of like the first one where we weren't like, asking someone to do it for us. And, and she kind of the prep that she put in, and she was really excited. And that energy, I think I just kind of needed that at that time. And then the interview was just really professional. It felt like, you know, we were, we were doing what we kind of set out to do and,

JP Gaston: 12:36

and that was our first real interview that we also did over over zoom video, we usually do it without and I mean, so listeners understand, we usually do it without just so that we can ensure the audio quality, because video takes a lot of bandwidth. But with with three people who had sort of good bandwidth, and we didn't really have the video concerns, we decided, hey, this is a good time to flick that switch and, and start doing it with video and I felt like that was really good to you is just being able to read those sorts of visual cues between one another was, was nice.

Seth Anderson: 13:09

And just building off of that, you know, last week with Steve, that was definitely the most excited I've been prior to an interview, you know, just kind of going through the the catalogue of things that he had done and, you know, touring with a lot of the bands that I grew up, you know, listening to you and kind of going back and listening to a bunch of old punk music and stuff. So I was just super jacked to do that interview. And, and it just felt, again, you know, nothing against the early episodes we did, I think, you know, we were doing the best we could with what we knew it just, it just had a feeling of a real interview and just a different vibe. And I don't know, it just reinforced I think that we're on the right path. And, and we've had, I think, a lot of growth in the last couple months. So we were those first. I mean, this season was a baby giraffe season those first few episodes were us just figuring out what these giant legs do. And wobbling around and falling all over. And like Nate showed us how to stand up.

JP Gaston: 14:11

And not purposefully but

Seth Anderson: 14:14

as any uncle that is Yeah,

JP Gaston: 14:16

it but that episode was one where I think we took a lot away from it and from a lot of different perspectives, right from the storytelling perspective, from the interview styles, even for doing the editing and all the post stuff after I think we did a lot better job there. It really I felt like that was the season where things are the season though. Hopefully this was the season where things started to click that episode was the episode where things started to click for us. And we've I still think we've grown since then. But certainly there was a large leap there. But Rebecca for me, like I felt the same way like it's hard for me to narrow down in this season. Like Varun was fantastic. Our very first our very first episode with Vern is still quite far out in front On my most downloaded

Seth Anderson: 15:01

yet most listened to which is which is tremendous considering he has zero social media presence so that's just like the man the myth the legend. Burn Scott is leading the way And honestly, I'm with you like I love the Lauren episode I I really enjoyed recording remember when we got done recording that and just being like, man that was that was awesome like I had a lot of fun. And you know, I could go on and on Carolyn, you know I really loved having Carolyn on and I do think, you know some of these people are people I'd love to have back on and you know, we've talked about doing things like leadership roundtables or having Lauren come on and do like a live tarot card reading. Like, I think there's some cool stuff that we can do. And it's just been, like I said, a blessing to get to get to know some of these some of these people and work with some of these people again, who we've worked with in the past.

JP Gaston: 15:50

Some of those first ones, you know, Gord Gord Aker, I think was the first one where we actually, we went out actively look for someone who is outside of our social circle, because we wanted to get someone on the show that was amila, somewhat connected to the military. And he's very connected to the military, and in what he does with the military, museums, foundations, and like, that was another one like I felt. I felt really good after that one. And it, it took away a lot of the nerves, I think, I think we're just having conversations with people we either know, or are friends of friends, those sorts of things. It made me a little too comfortable in the interviews and having that nervousness before the interview, and, and during, through that first one with gore just made me so much more comfortable with everybody.

Seth Anderson: 16:38

Well, and even, you know, just since we've kind of hit on every episode, now, even the Daniel episode, I mean, I knew that they're doing some cool stuff at tradespace, just because I had been there, I didn't know that they were going to be named to the top 40, under 40. But, you know, I was clearly because of us.

JP Gaston: 16:54

That Avenue magazine is clearly listening to this show. They're like that Daniel Dell guy and trades?

Seth Anderson: 17:01

Well, I just I do think, you know, we're on the lookout for cool stuff and stuff that resonates with us that, you know, from a leadership or business or, you know, life perspective, whatever you want to call it. And you know that one, again, I think Daniel is a super cool story. And it was it was a fun interview. So, you know, all in all, I had a ton of fun. And, you know, I'm looking forward to kind of sitting back now and not necessarily sitting back, I actually think we're going to do quite a bit of work over the holidays here, because

JP Gaston: 17:31

what else we can do.

Seth Anderson: 17:34

But, you know, just, we've we're kind of mapping out our plan and just, you know, methodically going at it and couldn't be more excited. So, you know, with that pivoting, we actually have some listener emails. So we do Yeah, we do. We

JP Gaston: 17:56

have listeners, one. We have listeners, too. Those listeners actually sent us emails and questions.

Seth Anderson: 18:02

Yeah, it's a mailbag, if you will.

JP Gaston: 18:06

Who I should come up with a little. A little mailbag. Diego,

Seth Anderson: 18:10

maybe mailbag. We can do a season, mailbag per season, I don't know that we'll get many more questions.

JP Gaston: 18:17

Hey, maybe this will encourage people. Maybe it Hey, man,

Seth Anderson: 18:21

like, you know, I don't I think it's, you know, maybe not something we've totally, you know, what gives us the background to even give advice. But I mean, I do think maybe maybe that accompanies some of these questions, we can give a little bit of context to that. But, you know, let's, let's go through and we've got five questions. So JP, do you want to read the first one?

JP Gaston: 18:42

I do. So the question is, Seth, how have all of the major events of 2020 affected your climb up the corporate ladder? And what have you done to make the best of things in both work and your personal life?

Seth Anderson: 18:56

It's a loaded question. So, you know, I think one thing that we've done on this show is sort of, you know, keep our day job separate from from this, but, you know, we do, you know, just I think most of the people who are listening know that, you know, you and I work at TELUS and we've been here for, you know, I just had my 10 year anniversary of TELUS couldn't say enough great things about all the opportunities that I've had over those 10 years. And I think, you know, what Matt is getting at is, I had a fairly rapid ascent up the corporate ladder when I first got here. For my first day as a being a technician in the field, to being my first day of as a director, it took four years. So I think a lot of that happened because I didn't I've never really been in a corporation, a large corporation. I had no concept of what a corporate ladder was. I wasn't trying to climb any corporate ladder. And

JP Gaston: 19:49

it got to the 18th floor and you were like, Hey,

Seth Anderson: 19:51

I get Yeah, honestly, like, you know, when I had my job interview to become a director, I didn't even own a suit jacket. On my way to the interview, I stopped at Moore's and fitted, check it, like an hour before the interview. You know, so, to that question, I've never really been, well, it may appear from the outside looking in, that I've gone up the corporate ladder, and maybe that was my desire intended, it honestly wasn't. I've always just, you know, where can I make a difference? Where can I? Where can I? Where can I help? Where can I solve problems? Where can I, you know, learn more about the business has been my approach right from day one. And that has led me down a path to some different opportunities. And I honestly feel like I've been really blessed to to get the chance to do some of the things I've done. I've run very large teams up to 200 team members across Canada, I've transformed businesses, I've ran multimillion dollar projects, you know, a lot of stuff that I never would have expected that I would have been doing in my life. So it's, it's been pretty cool. And I'm, you know, just looking forward to the next problem that I get to solve and next team that I get to be a part of, I really, really, really love the leadership side of things. That's my passion. That's, you know, if you think about whether it's coaching, or I don't know, if that's the right term, maybe maybe it is develop, you know, supporting people in their development, helping people get to where I think the coolest part is working with people who don't even know, you know, what they're capable of, or where they could go to, and, you know, working with them and giving them opportunities and a little boost of confidence and supporting them to just go down their journey. I don't know, I really love that I really love being a part of people's journeys, and just, you know, basically paying it back, you know, I would not be where I am today, had certain people not seen that potential in me that I had no idea I didn't even know what a director was, I didn't, I had no concept of corporate structure or career path. Like I honestly,

JP Gaston: 22:04

like I don't say that I'm surprised where you knew where Moore's was,

Seth Anderson: 22:08

honestly, like, just wasn't me, I didn't grow up in a family that came from that, like, my dad was a dairy farmer milking cows for the better part of his life. And I just wasn't exposed anything like that. What I was exposed to, though, is, you know, I had a lot of entrepreneurs in my family, a lot of people that, you know, did their own thing, and we've had a couple of them on the show, but I just was never really exposed to corporate, you know, life and didn't really have any concept of what that was. So I'm just really thankful for some of the people who've given me opportunities, and I want to pay that back to others. And, you know, the other thing I would say, you know, I don't know if I'm answering Matt's question totally, but like, I love building teams, and, you know, in sports, I had, you know, I'm gonna say some success in the, the junior hockey ranks for a couple years and building teams, I really love bringing people together, you know, I think I understand and know the key components of what it takes to make a great team and, and that can be in business that can be in sports, you know, the, the pillars or the intangibles, or, I don't know, whatever buzzword you want to use that that are required to build a great team are the same. And so when I learned that it unlocked a lot of doors for me professionally, because, you know, I was able to just sort of open up parts of my brain I wasn't even thinking about to be like, oh, building a business team is a lot of the same principles as building a hockey team. And it just, it came more naturally. And I think I, you know, became better at it once I kind of became cognizant of that. So, you know, we think about 2020 it's been a crazy year, but you know, man, I've just kept my head down and been working and supporting the team as best I can, I don't really know why on the personal ambition side. I want to keep getting better, I want to keep learning more. And you know, COVID hasn't really prohibited me from doing that. So I'm going to that's what I've been doing and trying to become a better leader every day and and drive the business forward. And on the you know, what have I been doing to make the best of it in my personal life? I really you know, I think there's a couple of ways you could have went with this you could have you know, oh, I can sleep in no longer because I don't have to drive to work. And you know, it's easy to just binge watch every you know, the entire universe of TV that exists You know, I've got Netflix and Amazon and all that stuff. I didn't take that approach. I you know, I started actually getting up earlier. You know, I'm getting up at five o'clock in the morning. Constantly, you know, I'm trying to get my 510 K and a day of walking or running or the last two days, that's been a, I don't love the cold, so much. Yoga, working out, running, eating better, like I've been just trying to push myself all the time to get better. And also to spend more quality time with my family and and those are the things that I've done to get through and if anybody out there struggling or needs a tip Or needs to talk to someone, you know, especially heading into this time of the year. I'm more than happy anytime to share the things that have worked for me. And I don't think Thanks for the question. Question number two.

JP Gaston: 25:12

Question number two,

Seth Anderson: 25:13

JP, how do you define success? And what does it take for a company to get from good to great, from Derrick?

JP Gaston: 25:22

Love, Derek, love. That's a, that's something I feel like we actually talked about a little bit on different episodes this season. And one of the things that came out, it was actually in the Rebecca interview, was really setting your path early, and figuring out what your vision and your goals are. And at that point is when you define what what success will look like for you. What what are we? What are we going to actually accomplish? Over the course of, you know, for us, you know, over the course of a season, what do we want to do for we know when we first started talking about podcasting, for example, we talked about hitting that 10 episode, Mark, he said, This is Episode 11. We were successful. Yes, sir. Start banking, those checks.

Seth Anderson: 26:17

Were in the 20 per the 80 percentile?

JP Gaston: 26:20

Yeah, we've made it. But no, I really think it's important, you know, from, I do a lot of project management stuff. And it's really, really important that you define what your goals and outcomes are going to be very, very early. And that tells you before you even start what success is going to look like. And if you're a company who's sitting there to, you know, to kind of answer the Good to Great portion. And then I know, Seth, we've talked about this in the past, I'm sure you probably have some input as well. But taking company from good to great is being able to constantly redefine what success looks like. So if you're on your path to that, you know, successful thing that you outlined early, change it, don't just sit and say, Oh, you know, I'm gonna, I said that I was gonna make 100k. This year, I'm at 150, I'm calling that successful. Change it, make make your goal for the year 200k. If you're sitting in October, and you've already surpassed what you what your definition was. And at the end of the year, if you don't make 200k fine, still call it successful still say that, hey, we set out for 100, we hit 150. But don't limit yourself, by leaving that goal in place constantly reset your goals. I think it's you know, Seth, I know you've been on a journey for, you know, getting yourself in shape and spending more time with family and those sorts of things I have as well. And, you know, my first my first goal was five pounds. And when I hit six pounds, I didn't say, hey, my goal is five pounds. Sweet success. I said, Hey, you know what I'm, my goal was five pounds in a month, and I'm at three weeks, and I'm at six pounds, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna try and hit eight pounds this month. And I just kept going from there. And I still had a long way to go, there's still you know, a lot more success to define. But that's, that's kind of how I would define it. And what I would do to take a company from good to great, the companies that I find, sit in that good category for a long time, are the ones who define success. And keep that yardstick in that same spot until the year end. And then say, we had a great year and then redefine success for the next year, plant that yardstick and never move it.

Seth Anderson: 28:23

Yeah, and there's a lot of good literature on this. I don't think there's one set in stone way to do this. I mean, obviously, the book the book, good to great, and I haven't read that in a while, that's got some great principles in it in terms of, like, if you you know, I know, in Derek's case, he's he's sort of starting out a business where he has a small business. So you know, there's some good things you can pull out of there to help sort of map your road, if you will, that to see if you're on the right track. I think another good one for that is traction. That's another book I've dabbled in, if you want to sort of put a little bit of structure to what you're doing. I know, we use that for Caitlin's business a little bit just kind of mapping out, you know, are we on the right track, and there's a lot of great resources out there. For you, if you if you want to go down that path. You know, the other thing, I think his metrics are important, you need to you need to know the the outcome that you're going for, right? But often times some of the things that you're looking to do may not be measurable or may not be fully, I would say no outcome has ever fully met, captured by one metric. So you have to take it for what it's worth, which is usually it's an indicator, it's a snapshot in time, I think the best metrics are usually leading indicators, right? You're always gonna want to have some sort of lagging indicators and leading versus lagging is, you know, leading is telling you something that is going to happen or is likely to happen, whereas lagging is it's already happened. So you know, as much as you can sort of say a step in front of things of wherever it is your business is going and have some sort of way of being able to recognize that and then Do something about it. But you know, I think simply put any successful team that I've ever been on it, it comes down to execution, right? Like, if you want to be great, you just you got to do it, you got to do it well, and you got to do it consistently, Dan day out. And those things sounds simple. And I'm not here professing to know everything that there is to know about, you know, what it takes to go from good to great, but I've been on some pretty great teams, I've you know, accomplished some pretty, you know, some things I would have never thought possible probably in the business world. And 95% of it, if not more comes down to just executing I mean, having a good plan in the first place. Again, great tools to use. Yeah, like smart goals. Specific, Measurable, realistic.

JP Gaston: 30:47

I'm bound pack,

Seth Anderson: 30:49

yeah, time bound, like we missed an A, and they're achievable. achievable. Yeah. So you know, you, there's great templates that exists, you know, to kind of get you on the road if you struggle with creating the goal in the first place. But once you got that, man, just

JP Gaston: 31:02

execute. And don't be afraid, like, you'll hear this a million times, but don't be afraid to fail. Because you just need to know that when you do fail, how to pick yourself up and, and keep going. Because a lot of a lot of people, especially entrepreneurs, you're just starting out, get a little too caught up in the, in the early stages of trying to get all those metrics in place and get all the measures and, and they and they end up not executing, or just because they're so afraid of failing to just go Just do it.

Seth Anderson: 31:31

Yeah, and this is an analogy I use with my team all the time. Again, you know, sort of, I've always been around or watching or playing sports. You know, if you're out there and you're holding the stick real tight, you know, you're more prone to make mistakes, right, like when you're afraid of making a mistake is when you're most likely to make a mistake versus when you're loose, and you're, you know, sort of going with the flow and you know, sort of setting the pace of the game, whatever, whatever that is, you're far more likely to be successful. So the same thing in the business world. If you're worried about making a mistake, and You're overthinking things, odds are, you're going to make a mistake that said, you're gonna make a mistake anyway, again, akin to sports, the best hitters in the world, what do they bat 300? Like they missed seven out of 10 times. So it's the same thing in a leadership position, you're not always going to get everything right. Because you're not always going to have all the information to be able to get everything right. So you have to make the best decision you can with the information that you have, you have to be able to trust your people. Right. So that's where having a great team is, I think, critical to any success that you're going to have. Because if you can't trust the people to execute, which we just touched on, it's gonna be real tough time. Cool.

JP Gaston: 32:43

Let's jump into question number three, which is actually for both of us. But I'm going to read it and you're going to answer first. Alright, so JP, and Seth, who are your top heroes? And what's one moment in life you wish you could have a redo on? And that's from Mama Seth. Mama said,

Seth Anderson: 33:00

I feel like we should defer top heroes to a podium.

JP Gaston: 33:06

I mean, I've got two that came to mind. As soon as I read this, I don't have three, so he could defer to podium and I can take some time to think about who that third one is.

Seth Anderson: 33:17

I, this is such a tough one. Because like, you know, you could go so many different ways with it. I think there's a lot of personal mentors that I've had on the way. You know, there's a lot of, maybe I'll maybe I'll narrow it in a little bit. You know, what particularly inspired me to do this podcast, I guess, as something I was gonna go sort of more the, you know, like, celebrity sort of road that was sort of where my head went initially. And I was actually thinking of Steve Nash for a few different reasons, but I'll park that park that I love Steve, but I'm gonna park that. But I actually think, you know, my mom and my wife actually really inspired me because, you know, my mom doesn't have like, she grew up dropped out in grade 10 to have me and, you know, she went through a lot. And five kids, Romeo, the RAM, you know, a multitude of challenging situations over the years, you know, some people know my brother and his situation of going deaf when he was, you know, two years old, and just all the stuff that came with that. And, you know, when I look back on it now, and I think about, you know, her being 17 years old and having me and then 24 years old, and having five kids and the town we lived in the mind got shut down and, you know, a lot of stuff happened. And, you know, she's, she's, you know, kept going. And, you know, in particular, what inspired me to do the podcast was, you know, she had a, she's always been sort of a An artist. And she's now she's she's followed that passion, she's got a business that, you know, I think is really great beyond the beaten path, they do a lot of great work. And, you know, for her to kind of come from where she came from, and overcome all the things that she did, to start her own business and do her own thing. And, you know, to be able to be pretty successful I that was very inspiring to me. And, you know, sort of same thing with Caitlin, where, you know, we, we, you know, she didn't necessarily have a lot of a big dream or, you know, a career path or, you know, anything like that. She just, you know, we had kids and, and I think she went through some time when she was trying to figure out, you know, who am I? What am I, you know, she didn't have any of that. And, you know, what she's done in the last year with curvy bridges, that sort of incorporate that and get like a sales plan and build a website. And it's just all the cheese done is, again, from nothing and super inspiring to me. So, you know, when I think heroes and who's inspired me to kind of go branch out and get uncomfortable and do my own thing. It was it was really them. And, and, you know, so that's, those are my heroes for the day. And if I could go back and have a redo? I don't know. I don't know. I, I,

JP Gaston: 36:25

you know what, I can start with that one. Because I've had an opportunity that you had to answer right away, I've had an opportunity to sit and think about it. And I honestly wouldn't. There are lots of moments in my life where I know that I made poor choices, undoubtedly poor choices. And there are some things that are in the moment, I, I would definitely say I would change you know, I, I, I worked in broadcasting for five years before I decided to go to college for broadcasting, I was not allowed to skip any courses, I had to take like, very basic broadcasting courses, I had taken Oh, AC English in high school, which you know, for people outside of Ontario, that's grade 13, advanced English. And they were forcing me to take a basic college writing course. And for all of these reasons in my head, I just I had no desire to be there. And so after my first year in broadcasting, I dropped out continued to work and in broadcasting for five years. And I've always thought it, especially in the moment, man, I really wish I would have finished that I really wish I would. But all of those things are what led me to where I'm at right now. And there's certainly a lot of can take away from those moments, and have taken away from those moments, and probably more that I could take away from from a lot of those moments and continue to work on. But I don't think I would change any of them. I don't think I would redo any of them because it would it would likely change where I'm at now. And I'm I like where I'm at now.

Seth Anderson: 37:46

Amen. And not to cop out on your question, mother. But yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat, you know, there's things I've maybe wish would have been different or that, you know, maybe I wouldn't have done but at the end of the day, where I'm at now, I feel really good about and I wouldn't change any

JP Gaston: 38:03

boils down to I've never shot a dude. Or like,

Seth Anderson: 38:07

anything crazy. Like I never I never murked anyone so

JP Gaston: 38:14

for me heroes, since she asked both of us, certainly same vein, as you my family, you know, my my parents have instilled in us from a very young age to get involved in charities to help one another, all those sorts of things, and I wouldn't be out here. If it wasn't for that my parents have moved out here to actually help out with with my sister's kids and, and live out here. So there's a lot of that in the family. And they're certainly an inspiration for me, my sister going away to university and getting an English degree and traveling the world and getting her law degree in international law and now being a you know, it's a very sought after litigator. And Mike, my brother pursuing his pet, like all of all of my family has, has been inspirational in one way or another. I'm actually gonna go the opposite route of view and actually go with celebrities. Just because, like you They were the first ones that popped into my head. But there's there's two that I think, for me, speak to me a lot. The first one, I'm going to go in reverse order. So number two on my list of my podium of two Novak Djokovic, just somebody who has that level of fun in his sport as long after he started as he did, he's been in tennis, like, you know, 30 some years now. He is an incredible athlete who still takes the time to have fun. He still takes the time to go over and you know, shake the hands of the ball boys and you know, sign everything. He'll stand out on the court for hours after signing autographs. And That's the type of person that I want to be. That's the character that I want to have. And I am never, I don't know if anyone's ever seen me play tennis before, first of all, but it's horrible. It's just horrendous. So I will never be a famous tennis player. But I want to have that sort of demeanor. And that sort of fun with the things that I'm doing when I've been doing them for 2030 years. The second person is probably a lot of people known for his movies, Ryan Reynolds. Again, someone who has a lot of fun if you've ever followed his twitter and his little stuff with Hugh Jackman, that he does, it's not just a publicity stunt, he actually, you know, quite enjoys his friendship with Hugh Jackman. But he does a lot of and I guess my theme is giving, but he does a lot of giving. He was one of the first people to very specifically ensure diversity and inclusiveness in his films that he's doing a film right now, or is just wrapping up a film where he actually brought indigenous people and people from different backgrounds paid for their flights, their hotels, everything to bring them down, to help them learn how to film, to learn how to operate the cameras to do the audio, did you everything so that they could go back and start themselves a career and do their thing. He also just for I guess for Christmas, he hand wrote the six to 700 people, I can't remember exactly the number, but it was in that range. He hand wrote them all letters, and gave them all gifts for Christmas, individual gifts. And he actually did it himself. It wasn't like he got his assistant to do everything and you know, rubber stamp his name at the bottom, like he actually did it himself, because he felt that it was important, especially during these times to have that connection. And, and again, that's that's the type of person I want to be beautiful.

Seth Anderson: 41:53

I think just quickly, a couple people that, you know, in that vein of what you were thinking, I'll maybe I'll just touch on Steve Nash, like, I just listened to a podcast he was on the other day. And he talked about, you know, sort of how he stepped away from the game to spend time with his family. And he's got, you know, he's got a bunch of kids. And that was just the most important thing for him in his life at that point when he was done like an exhaustive Playing career. And, you know, for him to be sort of a, you know, my size, like a six, three, white kid from Canada. You know, he didn't exactly have scouts banging down his door. So his path to the NBA was tough, and then overcoming some of the injuries that he overcame, and just battling through and having the career that he did two time MVP, award winner, and just beloved teammate by all accounts, and then you know, to go back and really, you know, spend time with his family because he knew that was the most important thing for him to do. And then now to jump right into the coaching hotseat, I don't know, I just got so much respect for him and, and what he's done. And, you know, just in listening to him talk on that podcast the other day, I just think we think similarly in terms of leadership and stuff. So a lot of respect for him. And, you know, just quickly in that, you know, sort of same category of Nick nurse, you know, having just read his book, The route he took to get to where he is, is the scenic route to the nth degree. And I just, you know, I just really appreciate, again, his leadership style and how he's been able to have some of the success. And I just did a two day coaching leadership seminar that Toronto Raptors put on, you know, didn't have much going on this weekend. So sat in on that. And, you know, just to see the whole leadership of that organization, I have so much respect for Messiah and him. And that would be my other key takeaway. But great question, mother. Thank you. for sharing JP, I think that was good. Let's, let's dive into the next question. As leaders, when you see an employee struggling to perform, when is it okay to ask about mental health? And that comes from Danielle,

JP Gaston: 43:52

this is a tricky one. A little a little tricky. It's, it's important that you're able to help identify those sorts of situations. But you don't necessarily want to ask, certainly not directly. It can, it can be a very tricky thing to navigate, I've done I've done a lot of courses, I have a lot of certificates in different workplace mental health stuff, one of the things that you want to do is really, you know, start out by focusing on the person and the hard facts of what they're doing. And let them get to a point where they're willing and able to share those things. Because as a leader, really all you can do unless they come to you is let them know how they're doing at work and what you can do to help them and what they can do to help themselves. And if at that point, they come to you and they say hey, you know, I'm really struggling, I'm having some mental health issues. That's when you can start to provide them some supports. And usually that means directing them to some supports that are available to them. Because in most cases, you're not a mental health expert, but being there for them and being able to answer their questions and direct them towards That person. Otherwise, really all you can do is try and encourage them, you know, if you recognize something might be there, in certain situations, there are some things you can do. But it's really situation dependent. So it's hard for me to say, you know, in, in, in general, what, what you what you can or should do, but I would say, you know, for sure that the thing that you're always able to do is work with them on addressing the problem at work, that is the best thing that you can do for them, and the best thing that you can do for yourself and, and understand that I know, we talked about metrics a little bit earlier, understand that you know, the metrics or the outcome, there's everyone's coming from a different place, and they're going to get there at a different rate. And not everyone on your team, when you're a leader, you got to understand that everyone, this is what I always tell, you know, leaders that I coach, you're not gonna have a team full of Sidney Crosby. And you should never expect to have a team full of Sidney Crosby. So you need those second, and third, and fourth liners, they have a job too, they might not do things as well as Sidney Crosby, but damn it, they're gonna try hard. And and they're gonna, they're gonna help you bring home the cup. And so don't expect you know, your, your third line person to suddenly be able to go from, you know, a metric, that's there's hitting 50%, where the targets 90, don't expect them to go from 50 to 90, work with them, help them develop, help them to get there. And if part of that might be that they're encumbered by a mental health issue. And it's something that you recognize, work with them on the work side until they're willing to share and then help them through that as best you can. But keep yourself focused on the work.

Seth Anderson: 46:34

Yeah, the only top ups that I might have, again, it's it's very situation, it's always gonna be very situational. And where what I've learned in my life is you can't help someone who doesn't want help, right? Like, there's there's not you can direct people you can, you can, you know, sort of give people suggestions and ideas, I would generally, you know, say like, if you can give someone a positive idea or positive feedback and sort of funnel them to, you know, that can be such a tough conversation, even broach because like, Oh, hey, do you know, these mental health resources exists? Like that's a, that's a tough place to jump into any conversation? You know, so, and and let's be honest, some companies don't have mental health resources at their disposal to help people and, you know, I would suggest, if you're in that situation, it's, it's well worth probably doing some research and seeing because it because I think there's a lot of third party companies and apps and things that exist that could potentially help your company. So I think if you don't have any sort of mental health resources for your employees, that it feels like a thing that, you know, it'd be worth investigating for sure. But at the end of the day, you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. And I think for me, what I try to do is create an environment that is safe, and and people, you know, they feel safe enough to maybe not discuss their mental health issues. But to get help, right? Like, it's not like feeling alone and boxed in and like, I can't get help, I want to create an environment where people feel like they can ask for help. And I think as a leader, that's probably the most effective thing you can do is have a clear path to resources for people who want them, but to create an environment in which someone isn't terrified or afraid to ask for help. And so I guess I would just encourage, you know, if you if you can do that, and that all comes down to trust, I think, right people trusting that you have their best interests at heart, and you care about them as a human being more than you care about, let's say the bottom line. And you can't fake that. I don't think like that's that's managed,

JP Gaston: 48:50

managed the person not the metric, right? Like, that's in any business. That's what you need. Yeah,

Seth Anderson: 48:56

I mean, it's still a business, there's still things that need to be done, and you were hired to do a job. And I think what sometimes people struggle with too is the job you were hired to do at one point may not be the job of what's expected from you five years later, and people have a tough time adjusting to that. And I think, you know, part of some of the mental health issues that occur, you know, people don't know what's expected of them, or it's, it's not super clear. So as a leader, another thing you can do is sort of take a step back and be like, maybe it's clear to you what you want, but is it clear to them what what you're expecting from them. And, you know, I don't think we can communicate enough especially when you have organizational change or a disruption to your industry or whatever. Just really taking time to listen and talk to your people and create that safe environment can make all the difference on that front. And

JP Gaston: 49:47

that's where I'd focus my effort. And as a leader, I'd say there's a lot of, of mental health training available out there. through either you know, Ted Talks or There's different master classes, if you want to go that route, there's a whole bunch of free courses from a bunch of universities and, and, and whatnot, take the time to take them. There's, there's a lot of learning that you will do as a leader, one of the most important things that that I think you can do is really understanding the psychology behind why people tend to do the things they do, and how you can address them. And a good portion of that is mental and physical health challenges. And knowing how to work with someone who finds themselves in those spaces, and we all do at some point in our lives, it's important to understand that too, we will all find ourselves in those challenging situations. And for some of us, they happen at a time and in a in a space where they affect work, and some of us they don't, and getting yourself as educated as possible so that you can be the best leader that you can be the best thing that you can do. Five, what is something, Seth, that you have accomplished this year that you are most proud of? And maybe this is for both of us, but I'm gonna make it about Seth. So what is something you've accomplished this year that you are most proud of? And do you have any new traditions planned for Christmas?

Unknown: 51:14

Margaret

Seth Anderson: 51:14

this year has been full of, I think, personal accomplishments. But I think one of the things I'm definitely both profits is The Biz Dojo, I love this thing. And I've had a lot of fun doing it. And I'm not going to belabor it, because we talked about it off the top, but I'm super proud of what we've built in a short amount of time and really excited to see where it goes. You know, and then the other thing I think I'm most proud of is just how much more time and effort I've put into my family and you know, just seeing how quickly Linden adjusted to school. how, you know, smart, the biased obviously, you know Jovi is, I don't know, smart, smart doesn't even begin to capture it. But just, you know, see my kids grow and develop and being able to invest more meaningful time with them is Yeah, that's, that's everything right there. And Christmas. We started this thing last year. This is like a really little thing. But we did our big grocery shop this last weekend, and one of the things he wanted to get was stuff to make a homemade ramen. So last year for for Boxing Day, we made homemade ramen, and we're going to do that again this year.

JP Gaston: 52:34

So that's kind of nice. Yeah, we? I'm going to answer this question too. But I'll start with the Christmas thing, just because we're on it. By actually, I think I talked about this on chopping it up a little bit, but I have never really put up lights. They've kind of been on my house. Right, right. Like every rental that I've had, for some reason I you know, I rented the house and even we rented a house that didn't have them at one point. And then the owner actually came and had put them on. So I've never really had to do it myself. And I'm no Clark Griswold. Like, you're not seeing our house from space or anything. But I did put up lights this year, we went and got some who went we went online and got some some lights. And, and yeah, we put them up and I think they they look great. And I'm kind of excited to do that. Again. We're we're slowly accumulating more and more especially now that we have a little guy, we're accumulating more and more sort of Christmas knickknacks and starting to put them up so that'll be that'll be good over the next you know, few years as we get more and more stuff, hopefully never to the point where it's too much, but it's nice to see our house getting I would say more festive. Oh, welcome

Seth Anderson: 53:55

to the club. I guess I don't know. I haven't put Christmas lights for years. So

JP Gaston: 53:59

you've got it. You've got a Yoda and you're right, Lonnie. Man, that

Seth Anderson: 54:02

is a that is an excellent Christmas

JP Gaston: 54:05

is one thing that makes me think Christmas. Baby Yoda, Yoda. Oh, the accomplishments. I guess I should address that as well. A number So likewise, The Biz Dojo not gonna dig into it, but like this. I mean, it started out as a quick phone conversation and, uh, we'll see where this goes to, hey, we've got a second season already planned and, you know, not even finished the first season yet. So that's, that's a big one for sure. I started really focusing on my health this year. You know, I've got this Health app, I went I think I ended up going 60 straight days working out every single day, which is probably you need some rest days to I've learned, but it was a it was a solid start. And it's continued. So I'm pretty proud of that. And I also from a from a, I guess, professional growth perspective. I've accomplished a number of things this year. I got certified as a personal coach, life coach, I got certified in mental health wellness, I got my PMP designation, those all kind of happened. I would say as a result of it, I certainly I wasn't going out anywhere, some some courses became available online that I could, you know, do from the comfort of my home. And so I decided to go for it. And I'm really glad that I did. I haven't, you know, done a lot with, I'm in program management. So project manager, I've kind of been using that certification. But the other ones I haven't done a ton with other than I just want to develop myself. And I feel like that's a good, good space to be in. So I've done those things. And I've, you know, I've started down the path into sustainability as well. And so, yeah, I'm really happy about kind of those steps that I've taken this year to develop myself into something more

Seth Anderson: 55:53

awesome by your headunit. On, on all cylinders, personal professional, good for you. Good for you. We had a late entrant. One final question from good friend of the show. Kelly, did you have fun?

JP Gaston: 56:07

Did I have fun? Well, I would say by the number of times, I had to edit out us laughing cry, laugh relentlessly. At the like some of the silliest things. You know, we've we've shared a couple of things back and forth outside of the show that are just you know, little clips of our banter before and after chopping it up or before and after this show. And I still to this day, listen to those randomly, and we'll just start laughing about how loud my eyeballs are, or the sorts of things The Biz Dojo, The Biz Dojo from this week's chocolate.

Seth Anderson: 56:49

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I actually remember saying, Well, I don't know that I thought that this was going to be the thing. But I remember saying before we started doing this, that I didn't laugh as much in my life anymore. And I don't know, whatever, you get older, and, you know, I'm not going out on Friday night and laughing

JP Gaston: 57:07

pandemic hits.

Seth Anderson: 57:08

So, you know, I, it was like a real thing. But man, I feel like I've laughed more in the last three months, then, probably the last three years combined before that. So thank you for that. It has been a tremendous amount of fun. And I like you know, you can view this as being like work, you know, you got to come in, and we got to think of an episode, we got to find a guest, we got to put it all together like it, but it hasn't ever felt like work to me, like, honestly, it's so much fun. And I look forward to it. And honestly, I just want to do more of it. So yeah, it's been fun,

JP Gaston: 57:41

but good news. After the holidays, there'll be more of it. And actually, during the holidays, there'll probably be some more of it, but also

Seth Anderson: 57:51

holidays. So with that, really appreciate all the questions and you know, I think something we'd like to do more of I don't know, it was kind of fun. And you know, I think Thank you just

JP Gaston: 58:03

keep keep the questions coming because there's a lot of podcasts, I listened to that in the middle of the season, and at the end of the season, they'll do a mailbag episode. I don't know if we'll get that many questions. But if we do, I'm more than happy to do that or to make it a regular segment on our show whatever you got fire him our way

Seth Anderson: 58:19

you'll get something you'll get no

JP Gaston: 58:21

promises on our answers, but you know, keep the questions.

Seth Anderson: 58:24

All right. Well, I think that wraps it that's that season one of The Biz Dojo season one in the book, so we'll put it out on a cassette disc at some point.

JP Gaston: 58:36

set this up it'll be available on vinyl because

Seth Anderson: 58:41

I'm in I'm in I'm in compact this but anyway, it'll be on every all the all the things all the discs this thanks for tuning in. Again, you know, thank you for all your support and really look forward to bringing you a great season two.

JP Gaston: 58:59

Yeah, don't forget to Like comment, share subscribe, do all those things right?

Seth Anderson: 59:05

We have we have zero ratings on Facebook maybe we'll throw in one of them

JP Gaston: 59:10

i don't i don't know that we do on Apple either. Right now like we've got we've got I don't know if we have reviews, we have ratings. I don't know if we have reviews

Seth Anderson: 59:17

anyway, like anything you can do. Positive I hope these negative whatever just, you know, whatever you feel put it in there.

JP Gaston: 59:26

Yeah. Hopefully, hopefully positive though. I don't know if you know, I don't know if you know how this rating system works, Seth, but hopefully positive.

Seth Anderson: 59:40

And if you have any ideas for the show any feedback, we are all ears and hey, if you want to be a guest or you know someone who would be a great guest, let us know.

JP Gaston: 59:48

Yeah, fired our way. We're looking forward to season two. Keep your I was gonna say ears. But keep your eyes peeled, I guess to our Instagram if you're not already signed up there. Facebook, Twitter, everywhere. Just look for us The Biz Dojo comm check it out. And yeah, we'll stay connected over the next few weeks and look forward to bringing you a new season in 2021

Seth Anderson: 1:00:15

Indeed, we will indeed indeed. Thanks, everyone.

Voiceover: 1:00:23

That's a wrap on Season One of The Biz Dojo. Thanks for joining us. We look forward to season two in the new year. In the meantime, connect with us on social media for exclusive content. You can check us out on Instagram and Twitter at The Biz Dojo podcast or on facebook@facebook.com slash The Biz Dojo. You can also visit our website at triple W dot The Biz dojo.com. Thanks for listening to The Biz Dojo