Insurgence in Action: Rondo Moses on Building Bold Futures Episode

In this episode of What’s Next? With The Chief Librarian, Tiffany sits down with Rondo Moses, the forward-thinking founder of Insurgence Group, to explore how disruptive strategies and bold leadership can reshape industries, empower communities, and ignite lasting change.

Rondo shares his journey of building Insurgence Group, the lessons learned along the way, and why embracing innovation is key for anyone navigating today’s evolving business landscape. From entrepreneurship and leadership to culture and resilience, this conversation is packed with insights for dreamers, doers, and difference-makers alike.

Tune in to hear how Rondo is answering the question of What’s Next? — and how you can apply these strategies to your own path toward excellence.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to What's the Next, the podcast where we explore life's pivotal moments and the decisions that shape our next chapters. I'm your host, the Chief Librarian, and each week I sit down with inspiring individuals who dare to shift gears, whether it's in their careers, relationships, or personal growth. Together, we'll uncover their stories, challenges, and lessons to inspire your own journey. So are you ready to find out what's next? Come on now, let's go dive in. Okay, welcome back to What's Next with the Chief Librarian, where we dig deep into bold leaders and transforming their organizations to thrive in an age of constant disruption. I'm the Chief Librarian, and today I'm thrilled to have Rondo Moses, a senior strategist with the Insurgents group. Insurgents sits at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and leadership, helping incumbents become insurgents and helping teams mobilize, disrupt, and lead. So Rondo has worked with clients globally to reimagine what it means to compete in unstable and fast-changing environments. Today, we'll explore how leaders can build strategic resilience, reshape innovation, and lead differently. Okay, and turn disruption into a competitive advantage. So let's get into it. Rondo, welcome and thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Thank you, Tiffany. I'm glad to be here with you. It's a pleasure. Thank you. I've been following you.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. I'm humbled. Rondo, how did you first get into strategy consultant innovation and leadership? And what's your story with insurgents?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Okay. So I actually started in this space probably almost 30 years now. So in business school, I started in consulting. I did my internship between first and second year for AT Kearney and did a sourcing engagement in the pharma industry. And then I did a strategy engagement in the pharma industry. And then in your second year, I went to Darden, University of Virginia Darden School. And we had what we call a consultant superday. So the consultants would come on campus and they would have their information sessions and you go to the various sessions. And so I went to this session that was hosted by Renaissance Solutions. And Renaissance Solutions at the time was a company founded by these two Harvard professors, Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dave Norton. And they are the creators of a concept called the balance scorecard. People may have heard of that concept of framework measurement. And I went to their overview session and I was just blown away about hearing about organizations aligning everyone in the organization to the strategy. And so that's an organization I wanted to work for. I went back to my apartment, put my resume and cover letter in the mail, and the rest is history. And so I worked with Drs. Kaplan and Norton for about 20 years, helping organizations, as you mentioned, globally to implement strategy management systems with the balance scorecard and this framework at the centerpiece of those systems. So thinking about what's the direction for the organization and clear priorities for the organization, how are we going to measure success? You know, because one of the things that we've found is that organizations will set goals but not measure progress. And then not even set targets for the measure. So how do you know how much change you need to make? And then lastly, what are the investments that we need to make to drive the change, to build the capabilities that we need to be that future version of ourselves that we're trying to get to? And so did that, and then once you have that, how do you help organization be more dynamic with this new system, right? So it's not about, you know, the traditional way was you do a plan at the beginning of the year and then you put it down and you dust it off at the end of the year to see what you've accomplished. You know, as you mentioned in your intro, this environment is uncertain and rapidly changing. And so strategy has to be a lot more agile and nimble. And, you know, I just had a conversation with a potential client that was saying to them, you know, strategy is a hypothesis. And so you have a hypothesis about what the future is going to look like and how you're going to compete in it, but then you go out and you execute and you get feedback from the market. And so now you have to adjust based on whether what your the assumptions that you made when you defined that strategy are holding true or not. Right. So you have to really go out and test. You get it's a learning process. Yes. Yeah. So help organizations do that. And then I joined insurgents group about 10 years ago because really just sort of leaning into that part about doing things differently. Because what we were finding is that organizations are say they're developing strategy, but when you really look at those plans, they're really not that much different from year to year. You know, the resource allocation is sort of the way that organizations typically think about strategy. Where they're allocating their dollars to, that's the strategy. Yes. But strategy is really about a set of integrated set of choices that organizations make to uniquely position themselves in the market so as to create value for customers, superior value for customers, better than the other alternatives that are out there. And not enough organizations are leaning into how are you different? How are you differentiating? Are you really creating more value, maybe faster than the market, or more value than the market, than what's through your position in the market? And so that's what we help organizations do. Think about can you get to your aspirations, your vision doing the things that you're doing today? And if not, what do you need to change? Well, first of all, where do you want to go? And then how are you gonna get there? And then what do you need to change in order to get there?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Oh, I love that. You really answered the next question that I have for you. So we already um so I'm gonna go like we hear terms like disruption, volatility, VUCA all the time, right? What aspects of the current environment are most challenging for organizations right now?

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah. We tend to think of disruption in six big buckets. One is shifting and changing customer needs and expectations. So a lot of times organizations are building products and services based on old customer needs and behavior. They're not recognizing that those needs are evolving and markets are evolving and shifting. And so, how are you anticipating what those future needs are and developing products and services to address those future needs as well? You know, you may find that this market that you're in today is going to be tapped out over time, and you see that your sales are flat, you haven't grown revenue in a couple of years. That's the time to really think about is this market sort of saturated, at its peak? Where are the new growth opportunities that we can leverage our capabilities into to keep growing? So that's one. The another one is technology, in particular, you know, advanced technology and all we know, AI, right? Huge. AI is everybody's talking about AI and what what that means in terms of disruptive businesses that can come up. What does that mean in terms of how you can serve customers, new products, et cetera? So that's another very disruptive force. And technology is usually disruptive. I mean, the internet gave us all these different platform businesses. We're watching why we're on Zoom, you know, doing what we're doing, right? So disruptive technologies can also be a huge thing that organizations have to take into consideration as they're developing their strategy. The third one is around the competitive dynamics in the market, whether that is increasing pricing pressure or consolidation in your industry or new types of players who are coming into your industry with different ways of competing. Those all change the competitive dynamics in your space. The fourth one is a big one. A lot of people talk about it. It's all about talent. But I like to think of it as you know, talent and mobility and demography. So you think about it this way you know, with the internet, with globalization, companies can contract with talent all over the place. Employees can find opportunities, not necessarily in their local space. So that creates a different dynamic, as well as the fact that we have four different age cohorts in the workforce now. So leaders and organizations need to think about creating an employer value proposition that speaks to these different age cohorts. The millennials want something totally different than my age cohort wants, right? So what they need to motivate them is different than what was needed to motivate us. And so an organization's incentive systems, reward systems, recognition systems need to take that into consideration if you want to make sure that you're attracting and retaining the right talent to support your strategy going forward. The other one is I would say is around regulatory and policy changes depending on your industries. For example, in the pharma, you know, highly regulated industry. There's a lot, for example, on the RD side that had to go through regulation FDA, for example, when you have our manufacturing had to be tested and adhere to certain regulations. So you have to understand what and how will your industry and even your company be affected as regulations either increase or decrease or change. And what does that mean in terms of what you can do and where potential opportunities might be for your organization's future growth or potential pressure on your organization's business model going forward? And then I the last one I created, you know, based on the pandemic and everything, I just it's really just around this macro environment. So when you think about the uncertainty a cause around the US tariffs with Trump's tariffs, for example, creates a lot of uncertainty. And so people are really slow to plan in some cases because they feel like they don't know what the future is gonna hold. And so for them, they're hesitating to make strategic choices. And I would say to them, I don't know if that's a good move, because you know, you still have to decide are you gonna be the one in a better position when things do become more certain, or your competitors who are saying, hey, this is a prime time for me to make some strategic moves and I'm gonna make them. That's one thing inflation, interest rates, all those macro conditions can have an impact on how an organization thinks about its business and how it makes money, et cetera.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

No, it does. I'm appreciative of the six steps that you named. And I think one of the ones where a lot of people, the number one place where people get stuck, is the first one you started with. It's planning for our past practices and not really looking into the future a bit so that we can be imaginative, right? So a part of this is I like to be able to put a I'm a fun play person. And I think putting it into the creativity of going back into your imagination like we're children, sometimes you have to kind of go back in that way to imagine what you would like to see and where you would like to see it. And if you put do that imaginative play, I think that would help strategy a little bit more than trying to just base it on the data and you know, numbers and what is currently happening. So I like how you kind of rounded it out with what's happening, you know, what can you do now? So sometimes a part of strategy is not being able to move in a moment, but knowing that in the future, maybe in the next few years, that things will boom again.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah. I mean, strategy, I would say the starting point is trying to figure out what is the North Star that you're shooting for. And I love your point about imagination because that is the challenge, I think, for organizations and people in organizations is thinking about they're so constrained by the present and the past, yes, that they forget that strategy, as I said, is a hypothesis. And you need your imagination to envision something that you haven't experienced yet. Right. You know, none of us know what the future is really gonna hold. Really, we don't. But if you could use your imagination and say, where would I like to in an ideal world, where would I like this organization to be in three to five years? And you set that as an anchor, and then you start to ask the questions about okay, what will it take to get us from where we are today to that future state? And that starts to open you up to ideas about how you can do that. That's where the imagination comes in.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

I agree. And then the second thing I want to say is I had the opportunity to go to the National Conference on Citizenship on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. at the at Planet Word Museum. It was an amazing conference. But the most amazing part about it, I'm a teen librarian by trade. I'm an administrator, but why I got into the work at the library is because I loved the youth and I saw that they weren't being engaged as much as they should have been. And so what's interesting about that and why I laid that seed is because on Tuesday we I went to a session about with youth, and I think the organization was the Carnegie, I'm gonna get it wrong, Carnegie Youth Institute, I believe. And they had a dynamic group of young people, Gen Z, asked this question. You're like, what's the first thing you think about with Gen Z? I said Wi-Fi, because I mean if there's not Wi-Fi, I feel like they're gonna pass out. But so Wi-Fi. But we went around the room and we all said different words, and we had two young men at my table. And when I tell you, they were so profound at 17 years old, one from Arizona, one from New York, and they said they want intergenerational connections. They just don't think that we want to connect with them. So when you speak about the four generations across the work, you know, like we're currently in workplaces, we have to remember another part of a strategy is listening to those who are on the younger end of the spectrum because they view and see a lot that we may not see.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Right. And they're coming in, they're coming, at least from a business perspective, they're coming into it with fresh eyes. Yes. Which is what you need to innovate, right? So, you know, when people, when organizations want to move in a new direction, they look to maybe go outside and bring in different ideas and new things. Same thing with young people. They're coming in with fresh new ideas. And a lot of, I would say, older team members may want to dismiss their ideas and say, Oh, we've done that, we've tried that. But that is to me, sort of business as usual thinking. As opposed to if you're really thinking imaginatively and out of the box, you are supposed to, you should create an organization where you're always trying to experiment and learn and try new things and say, hey, what did we learn from that? It didn't work out, but what did we learn? Right. And how do we take that and use that to continue to advance, you know, where we're trying to go as an organization. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

And I, but I but you know, the reality is that is hard for a lot of organizations, big and small, because we value. Well, I'm a Gen X, I'm like at the end, I'm close to millennials, so I'm on that borderline. Right. But boomers, I work with boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z. And I know that the so I think the values are similar. I think how it's communicated, articulated, and maybe felt are different. And so we sometimes in our Gen X and our in the baby boomer, like when we have leadership there, the value isn't in the youth, like in younger. The value is in like the most established, the most experienced. The hierarchy. The high it is the hierarchy. So how do you or have you ever come across this in the work? And how did you help them kind of come along?

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Yes. So the way I tend to work with teams, the people, teams that maybe in the past have reported to me or client teams, is I am open to all voices on the team. We're all one. Everybody's ideas carry the same weight in the conversation. I believe in seeking ideas from everyone who is a part of the process or the project that we're working on. And so I think the more that we can show young people that we are listening to them and engaging and not just jumping to conclusions that we have all the answers and being hierarchical, I think they will engage more. I think, and you know, we're talking about strategy and you know, I work for insurgents group, insurgent organizations, they're not about hierarchy. They are because they're so focused on the customer or client problem and solving that. And they want to make sure that the best ideas get in front of the client or are focused on to support the client. So when you can start focusing on client and how you create value for client, it doesn't matter where that idea comes from. And in fact, the person who's closest to the client probably has the better idea. And that's why the other differentiator, I think, in terms of how we think about strategy, is we don't see strategy as being left to the senior leadership team or the boardroom. We believe that you have to engage a broader cross-section of the organization in bring their ideas into the development of strategy. And certainly as you're executing it, they've got to be critical to that execution to make sure that it happens.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Oh, I so agree. And I love this. I love this. So, like often, strategy fails, not because it's bad, but because execution lags. So were you in my meeting?

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Were you in my meeting, Tiffany? No.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

I mean, I just made that exact same point in my meeting. Right. Okay, listen. That means alignment. I love the word alignment. You'll hear me say it a lot. But for me, it's like, how do you close that gap, right? We just want to know. We want to hear from you. I love that this is at the top of mind for you.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Yeah, I think that the best way to get alignment is to engage a broader cross-section of people because again, you can develop a strategy, but the strategy falls down in execution. So you want to engage a broader cross-section of people in the process, your strategy making process and your execution process. And you want to have a systematic way, a disciplined way to follow up on strategy. So a lot of people think they set the strategy and then it should get just automatically get done. No, you have to make sure that people have the resources that they need to support their part of the strategy, that you sort of identify what are the issues to making progress, that you actually are surfacing those issues and addressing those issues, because there is a tendency in organizations who implement reporting processes around strategy for people to say everything is green. We say red, yellow, green, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Because nobody wants to see have a red or the reality is reds are good because what reds do is they surface the issues that need to be addressed. And that's a part of creating a learning organization as opposed to a fear-based organization where people are, you know, penalized for identifying problems. You want people to identify the problems. Now, the challenge or the risk comes in is if every time you meet, that problem is the same and you're not making any progress on the problem, then you have to start to ask why. Right. Is it that we don't have enough resources there, or do we have the wrong person who's driving that? Are we missing capabilities that we need to drive that? It should surface questions on everybody should be focused on how do we solve this problem as a team. Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Okay. I love it. I love it. So can you share a story about like maybe of a company that you worked with where the shift to insurgent thinking really, really paid off for them?

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

So I want to then on the flip side, a time where aiming for insurgent transformation ran into resistance. And what did you learn?

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Well, I'll take the last part first because you always run into resistance in when you're trying to drive change. People want to be comfortable. Yes. So strategy is change, and that can be uncomfortable because it means some people may need to get retrained, some people may need to build new capabilities, or it may mean that you have to bring in people from the outside that creates tension because they have a capability or skill set that allow you to make progress against that strategy faster because they're already up to speed on the skills that you need. I would say I've worked with companies, for example, in manufacturing companies of large appliances in their international division. And I started to, I've worked with them in the past, but maybe seven years ago, I really introduced the concept of insurgents versus incumbents to them. And now, you know, they really are very keen and focused on their what we call the where to play. You know, do we have the right where to play? They're asking in the right questions of each other. It's not just, okay, this is how we operate today and how are we doing against that? They're saying, do we have the right product mix? This organization, because of not just because of the work that we did with them, but also just because they've been probing their business very intensely. They implemented a digital transformation effort about six years ago. They've been on that digital journey. They're continuing to transform this, you know, 100-plus-year-old company into a digitally transformed company. They also implemented a revenue optimization model that sort of helped them to standardize pricing based on real data in their various markets that they operate in, as opposed to having individual salespeople in the markets determine pricing, you know, or say, oh, well, you know, we got to lower the price because it's not selling. No, they get a price based on the guidelines, the the tool will tell them what's the optimal price for their market based on what's been selling, you know, in that market, in that space. That was revolutionary for them. So they took away some of that guesswork from the what this allowed them to do is increase their profits in the organization, drive revenue higher, and increase profit. That's one example. But I think the resistance one is just a standard. Anytime you go in and you want to try to drive change, you're gonna get pushback because people don't want that's work.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

That is true.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

You gotta change some things. That is true, but people get comfortable, you know, and this works, and strategy is about driving change.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

It is. So for some leaders who are listening in, or for people who are thinking about leadership, what are two the first two or three things that they should do tomorrow or this week? Well, tomorrow's Saturday, let's say Monday or you know, this week to start embedding insurgent thinking.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

That's a great question. So I would say the first thing is ask yourself are we really optimizing our capabilities as an organization? If no, where are your biggest gaps? So, you know, could most people want to focus on continuous improvement. Let's do that, right? First thing is where could you be, you know, really optimizing your performance as an organization by identifying those gaps. But a bigger picture is think of ask yourself the question where is the value potential in your market going to be coming from three to five years from now? And how well are you positioned to take advantage of those new value pools? And what can you do today to start positioning yourself to be able to take advantage of it if you're not well positioned today? I think that that's because people have to start to look ahead, they have to try to anticipate where they think the market is going and then drive the organization and then you know, maybe test. Maybe it's just it's a matter of make some assumptions and go out and test the assumptions about whether that makes sense, whether other people feel that's where the market's going. Just understand, don't just look at the current state and the present, really be looking ahead.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Looking ahead. And that kind of connects to like what signals or indicators should leaders monitor to know if their strategy is breaking down or they may need to pivot.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

That's uh so interesting that you said that we'll be releasing our latest podcast uh Monday, Tuesday, with Professor Rita McGrath of Columbia Business School. She's a strategy and innovation professor and thought leader. She wrote a book called Seeing Around Corners, okay, which speaks to just this issue. And also the other book that she wrote, the first one was The End of Competitive Competitive Edge. But the seeing around corners speaks to trying to identify what are the key signals in the market that tell you that a potential disruption is on the way. And what she suggests, and I agree, is that organizations need to have some assumptions about what would be some early indicators that a disruption is uh potentially on the way. These are assumptions. Yes, right. And so you make these assumptions about what you think would be those early indicators, and then you monitor the environment. So if you don't get any signals around, then you see should be okay. But the problem is that no one thinks about that until they're actually being disrupted. They think about what those early signals could be. So try to identify a list of the early signals that you think would indicate a disruption is on the way, and what uh what are the sort of the assumptions that are underlying those signals, and then try to validate whether you're seeing that in the market, monitor those and validate it.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Oh, so I mean, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Like you said, just I think it's funny how people use assumptions in the world. We should use them in this way that you're describing, but it's often used in a negative connotation. So I think, you know, even when we talk about assumptions, people, if you reset yourself, you'll probably elevate yourself differently. Yeah right if you uh if you reset the thinking of what an assumption is.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

If you're basing your strategy on an assumption, you then have to say, How will I know that that assumption is true?

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Because it is an assumption, and it is, it is so you have to be able to test whether that assumption is valid or not. No, and I think people miss that. They don't do that step.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

So that's the step that's missing, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Like, okay, yeah, and that's what we we used to say all the time, you know. I said at the beginning that strategy is a hypothesis. So when you're having these strategy review meetings, you should be testing whether this hypothesis is bearing out. And you do that through your progress against your strategy, what kind of signals you're getting back from the market, your ability to achieve these targets. Maybe the assumptions weren't right. Maybe you don't have the right metrics. So don't get hung up on being precise. Strategy is about being directionally correct, right? Because it it's not you can't be precise. You can be precise with the operations, right? But you can't be precise with strategy because you don't know what's gonna happen in the future. You have some assumptions that you gotta test.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

I love it. Um, so what trends are you watching now that are likely to shape how organizations compete in the next three to five years?

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Well, there's so much, you know, going on with AI and how people are using AI to improve their organization's performance in the market, both in terms of you know, customer experience, revenue growth. So I would say AI, because I was just talking to um a client, and one of the things that we've agreed on is that companies are implementing AI, but they're not seeing the results. They're not seeing the business results from AI. So I think that there's going to be a large focus on really understanding how do we use AI for real impact. tag in the organization, value creation, not just, you know, okay, it can write an email for me and things like that. No, no, no, no. How do you actually use it to support you with client development, you know, client engagement, the client experience, all those things that add value to product improve your productivity for the organization. There are a lot of different ways that I think organizations are going to be focused on that.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

You know, it's interesting that you say that because I was talking to a colleague earlier this week who actually does consulting about AI. He did because um our organization it blocks it, we can't use it at work. And he took the opportunity to create a space for himself to be a consultant and teach his courses about you know how you can utilize AI. So to your point, it's not just use for the basic or like something easy or just to get through right if if we're using it correctly it really can be life changing. Right. It can never replace people but it can replace some systems.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Right. But also the people can think more right so if AI can do some of the routine things that I I'm doing what else could I be doing that adds value more make making room. That's right. You create create new roles how can you be a support to AI so that it's more powerful inside the organization. I mean I think it's thinking that way will create opportunities for people for sure. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

So I have a couple of rapid fire questions. Oh rapid fire. If you'll indulge me I'll indulge you okay so favorite book or resource that shaped your thinking recently I think you mentioned one but if you have another that shaped my thinking recently I thought you were going to ask about my favorite book period.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Well I'm actually that too I'm actually reading a book now called Decisions. It's about sort of how we we're talking now right how people make decisions and what frameworks they do and don't use most people using their guts some people just using the basic pros and cons, which has you know flaws in it as well but I'm so I'm reading that and it's really really interesting. I read a lot of books. I read a lot I read a lot I can imagine and I love to hear it. Yeah I'm trying to think what else did I read recently that's really good but seeing around corners is a good book. Okay. The other one that's on my to-do list to read is called the infinite game by Simon Sinek okay Simon Sinek he wrote the uh starting with why he has this thing he talks about the golden circle yes so next up is the infinite game okay I love that list one myth about strategy or innovation that you love to bust I love to bust the myth that to your earlier point that the value isn't having the perfect strategy. You know I mean I've been in this space as I said for almost 30 years now and it's not just about having a perfect strategy or great strategy it's about do you have great execution? Can you be agile and adjust as you get feedback from the market about what's working and not working can you drive the change and the transformation in an organization because it is about getting people you know a lot of this work is about getting people on board you know with the change. So how do you do that effectively? How do you engage them, get buy-in, get them to see themselves in the strategy and want to own their part of the strategy and contribute to it. That's really important. You know so I think that's the myth that people think that you just have this perfect strategy and it gets done. No as they say the rubber meets the road when you talk about execution.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Yeah no absolutely I love that and a quote or a mantra that you live by let's see I have this quote oh man this is my Angelou.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Okay if you don't like something change it if you can't change it change your attitude oh that's a good one I love that yeah so I'm a part of this brothers group and when we first formed we all sort of identified quotes that we wanted to identify with the group and we we have this list. So I have it here I'm always pointing to these quotes yeah but I thought you know one of the books that I wanted to mention to you is um my favorite book over the the years that I've been reading is Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun by Reginald Lewis. Oh Reginald I have to read that founder creator of TLC Beatrice yes and coincidentally I had a um conversation with someone a networking conversation with someone earlier this week who happened to gone to school elementary school with Reginald yeah I'm like this man was my mentor my idol and that that book got me through business school my early career yeah why should white guys have all the fun you know it's it's interesting when you talk about what got you through and like your favorite book and the fact that you mentioned ah Dr.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Maya Angelou one of my favorite people in the whole world and my quote from her that I love the most is when someone shows you who they are the first time believe them.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

I could have used that one too because I do use that when I've given a couple of commencement speeches I've used that I think that is so important.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Yeah yeah believe them that and I think with that is follow your gut discernment is real you don't just believe in yourself right so when you hear it or you feel it if the hair stand up on your arms or whatever you you get triggers you get indicators whether something is right or wrong so I love that and I have to ask you the question of the podcast what's next Mr.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Rondo Moses so as you know we have insurgents group we have this podcast the insurgent mindset so really focused on we've been releasing podcasts for over a little over a year now I think congratulations yeah thank you thank you it's been great so and so with the podcast we have a companion blog that's on our website so people can if they don't like to listen to a podcast or watch it on YouTube they can read you know sort of the key takeaways from the each episode in these blog posts. But I think the next for us is to figure out how to continue to expand our awareness and engagement around the podcast. And from a business perspective I just need to figure out how to continue to find that next growth lane for insurgents group in North America. So that's what I'm sort of focused on next is like what's that next growth lane look like yeah I love it.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

That's amazing well I wish you all the best thank you and and Rondo for the folks who want to learn more about your work with insurgents how can they reach you?

SPEAKER_00 37:27

So you can follow us on YouTube with the insurgent mindset or you can check us out on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or you can go to our website at insurgentsgroup.com that's I-n-s-ur-g-en-c e group dot com where you'll find a whole host of information about who we are our capabilities you'll also see links to the podcast and articles we have a whole insights page with articles and videos etc on our website and LinkedIn of course you know I was gonna say I LinkedIn I'm on LinkedIn as well you can find me on LinkedIn Rondo Moses on LinkedIn thank you so much for joining us thank you it's been my pleasure this has been such a wonderful discussion I think it's an important part of the work and you gave me some things to think about for myself and for for the podcast and the work and what strategy I want to really sit down and think about.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

One of the books that I read that has been most impactful for me over the last few years is The Artist Way. I can't remember the author or offhand right now but it has helped me to prioritize my life in quarters okay as we come to the last quarter of the calendar year you've given me something to think about as far as thinking about my strategy for this podcast and moving forward and what I want to see. So I just want to thank you for not only coming on but just leaving your gems here with us and that I am personally excited and some of the the book recommendations I'm going to ensure that I get on you know in print but I just thank you for taking the time for your energy for your experience and just sharing it with the audience these are interesting times and this is very much needed.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

So thank you for joining me in my space and I'm just we're gonna take it out for the before you're welcome Tiffany and you know it was a privilege and an honor to be with you.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Thank you. So thank you so much Rondo for sharing these powerful insights from mindset shifts to methods and real stories. I think what comes through is that insurgent thinking isn't about radical change overnight. It's about getting clear on what matters and leaning into uncertainty aligning to leadership and innovation and strategy so that we can respond instead of react. So if you're a leader who's out there listening I hope that you take away at least one action that you can try this week maybe questioning assumptions maybe shifting your leadership style maybe experimenting with faster cycles of strategy execution think about it. So all the listeners thanks for joining us and if you enjoyed this episode please share subscribe and make a review it keeps me bringing wonderful conversations like this until next time stay curious stay nimble and stay insurgent cheers friends bye thanks for tuning in to What's Next with the Chief Librarian I hope today's conversation sparked new ideas and gave you a fresh perspective on life's transition if you enjoyed the episode please subscribe leave a review or share it with someone who might need a little inspiration for more stories and updates follow me on Instagram TikTok and LinkedIn at the chief librarian and until next time keep exploring what's next for you. Bye