Cultivating Bravery. The Art of Authentic Leadership with Andrew Almazan

Elevate Your Leadership: Insights from an Executive Coach

Are you ready to elevate your leadership skills and drive business growth? In this episode, we explore the power of leveraging strengths for professional fulfillment and effective leadership.

Join me as I sit down with Andrew Almazan, an executive coach with 15 years of experience in driving growth across hospitality, digital media, and craft brewing industries. Andrew shares his journey from creative contributor to people operations specialist, and how he discovered his passion for empowering emerging leaders.

Key Insights You'll Gain:

• The importance of integrity and balancing humility with confidence in leadership
• Strategies for overcoming common challenges when scaling businesses
• How to break down intimidating goals into manageable tasks
• Techniques for coaching leaders resistant to change or lacking confidence
• The value of doubling down on your strengths for career fulfillment

Founder, Executive Coach, Org-Change Consultant
Brave Leadership Guild
http://www.BraveLeadershipGuild.com

Want to be a guest on Business Chop? Send Audrey Wiggins a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/audreywiggins

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Transcript

[00:00:00 - 00:01:52]
Welcome to the business Chop where challenges, success, rewards and solutions to entrepreneurship collide. Let's chop it up. Hello, Chop Squad. Audrey Wiggins here, your host and as always, I am excited to be with you today and introduce you to another wonderful guest. Our guest today is Andrew almazan. He has 15 years driving growth in hospitality, digital media and craft brewing. He he is an expert in scaling businesses, building high performance teams and optimizing company culture. From transforming a top automotive media company to leading operations at one of Southern Cal's original craft breweries, Andrew helps leaders and organizations thrive as an executive coach. He specializes in empowering emerging leaders to unlock their full potential. We'll hear more from Andrew on the other side of this message. Hello all. What are you struggling with? Digital marketing. Selling your products and services. Goal setting, leadership issues. Maintaining too many social channels. Struggling with organizing your finances, Trying to scale your business. Learning AI, starting a podcast. Sitting on top of it all, Shifting your mindset. Well, we've been there. I'm Audrey Wiggins, your tech diva. Join me at night of my colleagues Getting Together on April 24th through the 26th on Zoom to tackle all these and more. We're tired of seeing our friends struggle and we want to help them spring into action. Visit bit Lee spring into action 2025. Let's tackle the struggle together. Welcome Andrew Amazon, how are you?

[00:01:52 - 00:01:59]
I'm doing amazing. Happy Friday to you, Audrey. Happy Friday to your audience. I hope everyone's doing awesome this week.

[00:01:59 - 00:02:09]
Yes, absolutely. So let's talk leadership growth and actionable strategies to elevate businesses. That's what we want to chop it up about. Are you ready?

[00:02:10 - 00:02:17]
Let's do it. Let's do it. You know, hopefully my 15 years will, will lend itself to the discussion and I hope to do it justice.

[00:02:17 - 00:02:29]
Oh, I'm sure if you know, 15 years. Yeah, yeah, you're probably in there, we can learn something from you. So anyway, I gave a brief introduction. Andrew, give us some more, you know, fill in the gaps for us. You know. Who is Andrew Amazon?

[00:02:29 - 00:06:20]
Yeah, absolutely. Audre intro was, was pretty comprehensive in terms of my professional background to just add a little bit of additional detail outside of that, as you mentioned, I spent a majority of my career, that 15 year track record within automotive media and I've really built my, my brand of helping other professionals around what I was most passionate about, starting from the bottom at that organization as a staff writer for one of the 12 magazines at the time to eventually work my way over a decade of time to become its VP of people, operations and What I was most passionate about, what I found ironically was, you know, I'm a creative at heart. That's how I express myself. It's where I get the most joy in terms of work related processes. But I also found that I had an equal passion for helping other individuals who were running into obstacles, whether that was technical or whether that was character moral or in terms of development. And I actually found that I enjoyed employing that collaborative and creative process that I enjoyed as a sole contributor to really helping others find their own path. So that's how I kind of took that hard left from being a contributor and a creative to leveraging that skill to help others through people operations. And yeah, that's a little bit of a more in depth kind of look at what that 10 years look like at that media company. And I supplemented my passion for people operations by returning back to school. In 2021 I went to Pepperdine University to receive my master's in Management and leadership. So I have an Ms. In Management and leadership and I chose that path over an MBA specifically for the concentration by all accounts for anybody that is going through that journey or appreciates kind of formal education, you know that sometimes that's one of those questions Google knows as well because when you start to search what sort of program it pings, what's the pros and cons of an Ms. Versus an mba? You know, there I think this is just my personal opinion, so take that for what it is. I think that there is a, an allure that works to the benefit of the MBA title. Right. And when we're looking at it from a curriculum approach, it's a, it's a broad, it is a broad educational program. Whereas an Ms. Allows you to focus on an aspect of pillar that might fall within the MBA program. So for me, you know, financial and business acumen is very important. You know, creating the ability to raise capital to leverage resources courses and business economics is extremely important. I think that that's what a lot of people who maximize MBAs are, become very good at and very adept at. I wanted to further my discipline and hone my passion for helping people integrate people operations and org design theory to help apply my creative passions at a larger scale with the mind of enterprise style businesses, small to mid sized businesses. So that's really kind of the educational component too. So.

[00:06:20 - 00:06:35]
Okay, all right, well that's fantastic. That sets, sets the stage in the foundation and we all need a great strong foundation. So appreciate that. So what inspired you though to become a leadership coach? Where did that come From I've talked.

[00:06:35 - 00:09:06]
About this in the past with people and as I get further away from that point where I made the jump, it, it always becomes more clear. As you talk about things a little more, I think it starts to make a little more sense hindsight being 20 20. But what I generally say is I'd love to tell people that it was extremely intentional and it was a decision that happened through intentional planning and an intentional jump where all the pieces were aligned. But it really happened through a combo of it was a dream that I started to take small incremental actions developing what my philosophy was going to be, choosing to go back to school, starting to cultivate my network that I developed in the media industry and starting to share this growing passion and also finding a way to candidly start to have those crucial conversations with my stakeholders to let them know that hey, we're doing meaningful work in the now. But as partners that I'm in the trenches with, as business partners and stakeholders, I owe you the candor of understanding where my long term vision is. So you know, those weren't easy conversations. Some stakeholders, that was very easy. They're very supportive in other regards that that raised a conflict and a genuine conflict that we have to be sensitive to. Especially if you're a people people operations specialist, you're going to understand that that's part of it. You know, that's part of the change management theory. You know, people cope with change and that's huge change for a lot of these people that I've been doing business with and frankly going through struggles, business struggles with to to hear that my long term direction really didn't involve that company, that bottom line, that can hurt to hear that. So courting people through that process was very important in a lot of ways. That process for me lays the groundwork for how I also using those real world experiences, coach people to rise to that occasion with respect for human dignity, with respect for the human condition if they're going to lead people through a time of tumultuous change.

[00:09:06 - 00:09:09]
So is that why you named your business Brave Leadership Guild?

[00:09:09 - 00:10:19]
It really does lie at the, at the core of it. You know, if we're talking about an example that I've gone through one of my philosophies, my pillars on how I believe the best leaders show up and what trait that they possess that allows them to do uncapped things with within their sphere of influence is cultivating and growing that sense of bravery. And we've, we've heard it, you know, a lot of influencers who have better marketing and reach more people than I have talked about it in terms of bravery and, and courage not being the, the absence of fear, but doing, doing the thing in spite of it. I think that that sort of philosophy lends itself very well, especially in your professional life, in your business life, let alone, let's not talk about your personal life even, you know, so it's, it's a total life benefit sort of trait to cultivate is this sense of bravery. And then if you can mix that with a sense of integrity and purpose, there's something amazing is happening there. And, well, I think the word that I guess I could attribute to is, you know, potential.

[00:10:19 - 00:10:30]
As an executive coach, do you cater to one particular industry or do you coach in different industries or businesses? And if so, how do you tailor that coaching long term?

[00:10:30 - 00:11:39]
I'd love to build a, a deeper track record that allows me to enjoy a little bit of flexibility in terms of the industry. But you know, at this juncture, I'm very focused, I'm very focused on the three areas, the three industries that I have 15 years of experience within and that being the hospitality industry, restaurant and hospitality, as well as media. Just because a lot of those experiences, I can speak genuinely to them. But it is also my belief that at the end of the day, over time, as you coach, if you are a coach, if you're interested in launching your own private practice, the quality of the outcomes of the clients that you produce are going to become the track record that will allow you to take those experiences and those consulting journeys and apply them to different industries. I just think that the one thing that you have going for you when you focus on a niche is you're just leveraging real and authentic life experience. So that gives you a leg up to genuinely and authentically coach.

[00:11:39 - 00:11:41]
Absolutely. So what are the key qualities you.

[00:11:41 - 00:14:01]
Believe every leader should have outside of bravery? I think integrity. Operating with integrity in everything that we do. Because sometimes the stakes are high and there's a lot of people in your charge. When you're a leader, even if you're, you know, I always say this. Managers and leaders, though, they're two different terms. You know, a leader can live and, and be and exist anywhere within the organization. Managers are appointed, but not all managers have honed leadership qualities. So when you can take that appointed position and then you can adopt practice, hone the discipline of leadership and marry the two, I think amazing things happen there. An ability to balance humility and confidence is also another quality. And that might translate or that might Manifest when I'm speaking with people into the terms of don't fear admitting that you're wrong in a leadership or position of authority. A lot of powerful things actually happen for your organization and for the potential of your team. When you, I hate to say it this way, but when you capitalize on a mistake and you choose to be honest about it and flip it and reframe it as a learning moment when you can demonstrate how you handle vulnerability in a position of power, people spend a lot of money and on consultants and operational schemes and programs and processes to create a high performing team. In my opinion, it's subtle fundamentals like that that doesn't cost a team anything. But the amount of performance potentiation that a leader catching and taking advantage of that moment where they make a mistake and everybody's watching and what they do with that vulnerable moment, that is what's worth five figures in a consulting contract. Those are my beliefs. It's, it actually comes down to the fundamentals of human behavior and not these extremely intricate systems. So that's really what I do is we uncover that and we talk about that. Ad nause with my clients is the, the human condition and getting people to pay attention and prioritize the power of these smaller sort of actions that aren't maybe as attractive or you know, wrapped in a bow, so to speak, in terms of a consulting program.

[00:14:01 - 00:14:12]
Over the years you've, you've worked with clients and you, you've, you've come across a lot of different challenges. So what are some of the common leadership challenges that you help clients overcome?

[00:14:12 - 00:17:37]
I think the biggest right now what I'm seeing with clients is the desire to scale and there's, there's that almost overanalyzation that creates like that fight, a fight or flight response where the desire to scale, the ambition of growing the business creates and puts either a small business owner or a midsize executive in a position of, of a fight or freeze situation where oh my gosh, the stakes are so high, getting it right matters so much. I don't know which area, which facet of the business receive the resources to scale and what we end up seeing, it's, it's just again, it's like the human condition when you're faced and with a, with a mounting sort of goal and vision and you focus on the grandeur of that vision. I think we tend to overanalyze how we get there and then what we do is we spend a lot of time not moving. What I do just personally based on my style of coaching and my life experience in business is being a people leader, but then also an operations leader. We draw from organization prioritization at scale. These task management and organization high level project management theories that allow us to sort of, what I say is objectify and almost make a soft, ambiguous, large goal like that. Let's objectify it into smaller, more digestible parts and create a short, mid and long term roadmap that basically dissects this large, intimidating goal into maybe a hundred very small tasks that when you look at those tasks on their individual, you appraise them for the weight and the intimidation factor. It's something that you, it's as easy as tying your shoe. So you just have to do a hundred things that are of that level of energy output. And for some people that might be still overwhelming, right? Like someone might be like, wow, 100 tasks is still overwhelming to get to the goal. But for me, in terms of the, the facet and the perspective, the world that I come from, that's tended to help. It's helped editors go from the bottom 10 within their market to becoming that within the top five, if not the top three. One of those things also the reality is when you can size down and dissect a grand goal into even if it's 100, but it's a, it's smaller tasks, smaller effort, lower energy output things. Understanding that you're gonna have to give yourself some grace of time to execute. Because we're not AI, we're not machines, humans pulse in terms of our energy, our motivation. Your ability to do a full day's worth of high level work is gonna just wax and wane on a day to day basis. So we explore that as well. And I help clients kind of give themselves a little grace and when they kind of appraise how long something's going to take and we talk about goal setting, you know, one of those exercises is you have to kind of challenge your client sometimes or challenge your stakeholder. If you're a collaborator for a company, ask them how long is this going to take? And at the level of an executive, executives are trained, right? We're conditioned to put a timeline on things because we know that that's, you know, action orientation is number one. But you have to challenge that initial appraisal sometimes. Because sometimes a CEO might say, we're going to get it done in a week.

[00:17:37 - 00:17:40]
And everyone starts screaming, how are we going to do that?

[00:17:40 - 00:17:58]
Yeah, right. And so it's our job as stakeholders. You know, if you're an executive in that senior leadership team room or if you're an executive coach helping guide a CEO or an executive to make better decisions, you kind of have to operationalize it and say let's look at that, let's look at the realist, the reality of that appraisal.

[00:17:58 - 00:18:08]
So I wanted to ask you about some emotional side for your clients. So how do you approach coaching for leaders who may be resistant to change or lack confidence?

[00:18:08 - 00:19:57]
I am a big proponent of the consultant Peter Block and his philosophy of flawless Consulting. And one of the principles there is as a, as a coach and as even as a stakeholder and executive partner collaborator. Your job is not to force somebody through the door. Your job as a stakeholder and someone, you know, a trusted business partner is to from your vantage point with the resources and the know how and the intellect that you have and the, you know, all that is open the door. And at the end of the day the person that you're collaborating with or that you're consulting, they'll have to step through the door on their own volition. This is really the premise of flawless consulting is that not putting what we're, we're applying the responsibility at the right phase of the consulting journey. Right. And, and from if you're a subscriber of that philosophy where what it means to me is you do everything within your power to provide high level guidance, advisement, answer every question, hold a mirror up to people and be extremely candid with what you're observing. But you, but if somebody ultimately doesn't chooses to not take the advice or follow through on the advice, you've not, not done your job as, as a consultant in that moment. Right. Like we consult every day in our personal lives, people with people we love and care for to our work life. We're always trying to advise and at the end of the day in business, the decision making power is going to rest with someone specifically on whatever experience we're talking about in that moment. So flawless consulting encourages that we do everything in our power to help equip that decision maker with the power to make the best decision for that moment.

[00:19:57 - 00:20:01]
Where do we find Andrew and the Brave Leadership Guild?

[00:20:02 - 00:20:28]
You can find me at my website, www.braveleadershipguild.com. i'm also on Instagram, you can search Brave Leadership Guild share just you know, shorter kind of tidbits, carousel posts and just to engage with that audience. And then I'm also on LinkedIn under personal name Andrew Almazan. Yeah, those are all the ways that you can reach me.

[00:20:28 - 00:20:34]
Thanks Andrew for Your website and how we can find you. Is there anything else that you have for the Chop Squad today?

[00:20:34 - 00:21:40]
Yeah, Audrey. So I absolutely just finished a Freebie for the 2025 year and for anybody that's interested, it's called the Executives Playbook for Better Business Execution. It's just a free PDF e guide for anyone who would like it. And essentially what it is is it takes my 15 years in these three industries and I've handpicked real case studies of change management initiatives that I've either led or been a significant stakeholder in leading. If it's been a cross functional, cross departmental initiative and what I did was with respect to those organizations, we didn't, we didn't name any names but we did break down the change initiative, what was at stake and then what the outcomes were. I create basically a step by step process that any change agent or executive with decision making capability can take. If you're going through a similar multi department change process.

[00:21:40 - 00:22:55]
Awesome. That's fantastic. So Chop Squad that your your freebie here sounds like something great to dig into. Get your brim on. Since 19 since 1972, American hat makers has been dedicated to the art of fine hat making. Their diverse selection caters to outdoor adventurers, style conscious individuals and hat enthusiasts just like me. With a focus on meticulous detail and quality materials. I love wearing their hats. Embrace your own spirit of adventure and individuality. Visit Bit Lee Hats Now, Bit Lee Hats now or use our affiliate link in the show notes to view their vast selection of men's and women's styles. Knock out your competition with all together Marketing. We elevate your brand. Take a stance with your business name, logo, the tagline, your colors, even the fonts for your business. And then jab left with your website. Jab right with core values, back up with product experience and bring it on with you. It all together that is. And let us help you create a knockout brand. So Andrew, as we come to a close, will you leave us with a nugget of wisdom that we could take to be able to move forward as leaders?

[00:22:55 - 00:24:16]
Absolutely. There's one thing that's served me well and served people that I've had the opportunity to collaborate with in business and in life is to double down on your strengths. I'm a big believer in Gallup's strength based approach and if you can take the time to hone a life and cultivate and curate professional situations where you're advocating for putting yourself in a situation that's going to leverage your strengths really truly Amazing things happen from an outcome standpoint and then from a fulfillment standpoint. To me, that's one of the core fundamentals, living a life that's. That feels more in alignment. So for anyone that feels like they're at work in their current, current career and it's just been a couple months and it's not feeling like that same fulfillment doesn't feel like it's the right place. You can do a lot to clean that up by taking account of what projects are you leaning into? What's your. What does your position ask of you? And sometimes that might mean a lateral move into a different position within your company. Sometimes it's not just a total company move. Right. It's not the company that might have done you wrong or it's over for that arc in your career. It's aligning yourself with the areas that your instinct knows that you could be most valuable.

[00:24:16 - 00:24:32]
Well, Andrew, thanks for taking the time to come chop it up with us and give us the insight on leadership and the ability to find you and possibly work with you. So chop squad, you have your marching orders. With that being said, we're gonna end it for today, but we'll see you again next week.