Step Up to the Mic! #36 - "The Golden Principles." with Dr. Andy Neillie!!!

Business owner, best-selling leadership author, and award-winning speaker, Andy Neillie knows what it takes to become a high-performing leader.  Speaking, training and leading teams have characterized the past 20 years of Andy's career. In addition to owning a $3M local retail business, he currently serves as a keynote speaker, corporate trainer, coach and consultant, presenting workshops on leadership topics for numerous Fortune 500 firms as well as small and mid-sized companies, trade groups and associations. By combining his background in management and sales with strong speaking and training abilities, he is able to motivate clients and audiences to take actions that benefit them and their organizations.  Perhaps just as importantly, he's passionate about the personal side of leading well, and writes and speaks regularly about building trust as a leader. In addition to teaching leadership principles for Concordia University’s MBA program, he published his first book, The Golden Principles: Life and Leadership Lessons from a Rescued Dog, which uses simple lessons learned from a Golden Retriever about living well and leading well. In 2015, The Golden Principles was honored by Amazon.com with a “Top 100 Best Books of the Year” award.

His website:  http://neillieleadership.com/

Welcome to Step Up the Mic!  The podcast for aspiring and current speakers to help you get on stage and get paid to speak!  This is a unique opportunity to actually PERFORM YOUR SIGNATURE SPEECH!!! 
I am your emcee for this event!  I will introduce you, set you up for a spectacular presentation and provide you with a link to share with speaker bureaus, potential booking agents and event planners!  
The best part... This is a totally free promotion for YOU! 
Are you ready?  Then it's time...

To Step Up to the MIC!!!

stepuptothemicpod@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Step Up to the Mic. This is the place for aspiring and established speakers to take the stage, deliver their talks, and bring them directly to you. Today's featured speaker, he is a business owner, he is a best-selling leadership author, and he is an award-winning speaker. Folks, please welcome to our stage Dr. Andy Nully.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Thanks, Rory. Glad to be on with uh you and your uh guests today. Um, and we're going to talk about dogs. In fact, the little book that has become an Amazon Don, Amazon.com bestseller is Leadership Lessons from the Life of Our Dogs, The Golden Principles, Life and Leadership Lessons from a Rescued Dog. My wife and I have been rescuing dogs for almost our entire marriage. We're on rescue number 14 and 15 right now. We typically have a couple of dogs. And despite my 5 million frequent flyer miles from flying around the world doing leadership development stuff, despite my dissertation topic on leadership, despite my interview of scores and scores of business and organizational leaders, I think I've learned more about being a good leader from the simple lessons some of these dogs have taught us. Redford is the first one that comes to mind. Redford wasn't our first rescue, but he might have been our neediest rescue. Redford came uh to us from a puppy mill in Arkansas. 65 dogs were rescued from this puppy mill many years ago and distributed all across the country. Redford ended up in Houston. My wife and I live in Austin, and we're connected with the local Golden Retriever rescue groups across the state. And we heard of the need to distribute these dogs that had been puppy mill uh dogs. As we kind of pieced the story together, the best we could understand is Redford uh was a little bit more than a year old. He probably spent the first year of life in a crate being let out to eat and urinate and and breed more golden retriever puppies. It could be sold at a couple thousand dollars each. And we drove down to Houston from Austin and and uh made the long trek down to see if Redford would become one of our replacement dogs. We'd lost a dog shortly uh prior to that. And uh and the first time I looked at Redford, he squatted and urinated. In fact, he wouldn't he wouldn't make eye contact with with me for weeks, uh maybe even months. He was a little bit better with uh my wife and my daughter, but we decided then and there that Redford needed a home. Uh here was a challenge for us. Uh the house we were living in at that time, the the backyard was off to the side of the garage. And so to get through the doggy door to the backyard, you actually had to go into the garage through the one doggy door, and then out the side of the garage to our to our backyard. And the problem with that is uh if I came home and hit the button to open the garage door and was pulling in with my car, Redford would be heading out, running away. In fact, Redford, no, became a recurring cadence. It was just so frustrating. That the best thing that ever happened to Redford is the day we rescued him, and he kept trying to run away. Uh ultimately, in fact, my wife and I were so frustrated. We we hired a local dog psychologist to come and help us try to figure out how do we how do we meet Redford where we are at. And and this woman was worth her her weight in gold. She she just let me know, Andy, your your problem is you need to replace your reactive no with a proactive yes. In fact, Andy, when you click that button and start opening the garage door, you got to put your window down, you got to go open the door to your cart really fast and celebrate Redford running toward you instead of running past you. Get rid of the reactive no and find a proactive yes. And so for several weeks, probably even into a couple of months, Rory, it it just had to look comical to our neighbors because I would roll the Jeep down the driveway, I'd roll the window down, I'd crack the door, I'd hit the button, and I'd be saying, Redford, and I would just be calling his name. And slowly over time, Redford got to the point where he realized, I'm excited to see my master when the door opens rather than I'm trying to get out of this house. And and Rory, I just recognize that's a that's a leadership lesson as well, right? All of us who aspire to be leaders and not just managers in our organizations. Man, this truism that Redford taught us a a proactive yes is always better than a reactive no. That that's not just a rescued dog lesson. That that's like leadership 101. Um that's kind of the first lesson. In fact, that that was part of the keynote that I was delivering more than 20 years ago when a publisher was at the meeting in the back of the room and he said, Hey, you got any other dog stories like that? And and a year later, uh the golden principles was published with stories like that. Another one that that comes to mind is is uh I've I've traveled a great deal. I've I've got five million frequent flyer miles, as I mentioned. Uh I typically catch the the last flight into a client's city the night before an engagement and the last flight out after my speech or my workshop. And regularly for years and years and years, I'd be getting home after dark. I'd be getting home after midnight, oftentimes. And and you know, I was out there working hard, making a living, keeping my family with a roof over our head and food on the table. And and I just decided that, you know, people need to appreciate the work that I'm doing. I'd walk in the house and I would drop my backpack and my suitcase, I'm home, and I would shout out at the top of my lung and expect everybody to come running to uh thank me for my hard work at midnight or one in the morning. And and when I would walk in the house and yell, I'm home, Redford would run the other direction. Uh, he would just take off. And he had a few places we called them the caves in our house, underneath the desk and in the in the den. Uh, we had a little kitchen cutout, he would hide under there, or or he would curl up against the back door and try to make himself as small as possible. And once again, that just frustrated me. I I I'm doing all the right things, Redford. You will never not be safe another day in your life. Why aren't you happy to come and see me? And then I just recognized in talking with this dog psychologist, I was doing exactly the wrong behavior if I wanted to lead Redford well. And now, Rory, you and and the rest of your audience that uh that know dogs, you you've seen dogs when they're in a playful mood at the park or with their with their playmates, they they do what's called a play bow where they put their tail up in the air and their their front paws are stretched out and their tail is wagging. My friend, the dog psychologist, told me, Andy, you you you got to do a play bow when you walk in the door. You you need to drop your stuff, you need to get down on your hands and knees and and get down to Redford's level. Let him know you're safe. And and so, grown man, five million miles under my belt, I'd walk in the door and drop to the ground and do a play bow. And it didn't happen overnight, Rory, but but over time, Redford quit running the other direction and started coming toward me. And once again, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but it didn't take me very long to realize the analogy is really a people leadership analogy. Any leader worth their weight in leadership knows that they got to get down to their people's level. They're the the best leaders are at the bottom of the pyramid, not at the top of the pyramid. You you've got to meet your people where they're at if you want to take them where they need to go. Um if you're gonna lead well, you've got to get down to their level. And then the final story that I think fits well for what we're talking about. Um we we lost a dog. Uh Redford needed a companion dog. My wife and I always have at least two dogs. We find they they do better, particularly rescued dogs that typically have baggage. Um, Sammy, we rescued Sammy. She came to us. Um, she had been turned in because she had cancer, and the owners didn't want to deal with her having cancer. She was an older dog. We rescued her, and indeed we we had to clear up some cancer. Uh, and at first everything seemed to go fine after the operations, and the doctors were encouraged, and then we noticed a uh lump on uh on Sammy's uh front leg and and it was um getting larger and larger. We we took her into the vet and and um indeed she had a slow-growing bone cancer. And and we were able to get it removed, but it came back and it grew, uh continued to grow. Um and and we just had a heartfelt conversation with our uh with our vet and and uh and our vet was this wonderful, wonderful kind lady. She said, you know, there is a chance we're gonna need to turn your dog into what's called a tripod dog. We if if the cancer comes back one more time, we're gonna need to amputate her leg. And my wife and I were devastated. Part of the joy of having uh multiple dogs, you just saw one jump up on the day bed in our home, our home office. That's Traveler, one of our most recent rescues. Um my wife and I were devastated when we learned we might need to amputate Sammy's leg. How would she get along with the other dogs in our backyard? What's she gonna do in the in the park when we're throwing the ball? And and our and our vet, just this kind of wise, um animal-loving vet, said, Andy, part of what you've got to realize is dogs, dogs live in the moment. And she's she's not gonna regret not having a fourth leg, but she's just going to adapt to the reality she's dealing with, and she'll be just fine. And indeed, Rory, I've noticed a bunch of uh tripod dogs in the local park when we take our dogs there, and they look like they're having just as much fun as a dog without an amputated limb. Dogs live in the moment and they they deal with the reality in front of them. And that that really screamed into focus for me uh during the time of COVID. Uh, my wife and I own some local businesses here in central Texas, and we had to shut our doors. We were just told we had to shut our doors. And none of us knew what we were doing. If we all think back on those days and weeks and months, we we all were wondering from day to day what's the next step we need to take? What's the next mandate that's going to come out? What's the next action we're gonna have to take? And we didn't really know. And so my leadership team and I, we just we tried to live in the moment. In fact, we coined a phrase at that time. We called it confident uncertainty. We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, or the day after that, or the new rules that are coming out next week, or the the issues we're gonna have to deal with. But here's what we know today. And based on what we know today, we're gonna lean into what we can do today. And so we called it confident uncertainty. Put your hand to the plow and lean forward to do a as good a job as you can. And if the rules change tomorrow, then we'll figure out the rules tomorrow. Confident uncertainty. Sammy, the dog that was gonna lose her leg, would have been just fine. Now, fortunately for us, the the second time we did the surgery seemed to take care of it. And we had Sammy for a number of years, and the cancer didn't come back, and we never had to take that step. But you know what? Sammy would have been just fine. She she would have just lived in the moment. And once again, I I just find the leadership analogy there. We those of us that aspire to be leaders in the 2020s, we we lead in a time of volatility. And and you you can't know what tomorrow is going to bring. And so we we need to to lead with confident uncertainty, live in the moment we're in and put our best face forward, put our best foot forward, even if we've only got three feet. So, Roy, those are the types of stories that that I ended up capturing in the book. Those are the types of stories that I end up sharing in my keynote. These are not, this is not rocket science, but but I tell you, I think, I think beautiful stories that we can learn from our pets can teach us as much about leadership as a as a dissertation, as a best-selling book, as as 5 million frequent flyer miles of interviewing leaders globally. I I think all I need to do is is spend some time with Traveler and Lake and Sawyer, our current dogs. So, Rory, that that's what I talk about when I have the opportunity to share with audiences how do we how do we grow as people? How do we grow as leaders? Um, I I think there's a lot of lessons we can learn from the rescued pets around us.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

And Dr. Andy Neely, everybody. Um Doc, I gotta tell you, that was uh that was incredibly interesting and uh and also entertaining. It was I like the way you drew all those uh uh those you know analogies went together. Um I I gotta ask, the the dog rescue thing obviously is a huge part of what you and your wife do. Uh and you talked a little bit about how it got started. But is this something that came from uh like a previous life of either you or your wife? Were you doing this first, you know, before you met each other, or is it just something that you started doing? No, actually it was just a couple.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Yeah. Four years into our marriage, we we bought a house. And if you have a house, you got a backyard, you need a dog. And my wife's family was best friend with somebody who was a vet. We were living in Phoenix at the time, and they reached out to the vet, and the vet said, Hey, I know somebody that just found a dog out in the in the desert, probably left over from a construction crew that had to move on. And so we rescued Alex. And Alex was a big, beautiful golden retriever who was probably better trained than I am. Somebody who left him in the desert left a really good dog. And he taught us what a wonderful thing a rescued dog can be. But he also taught us that every dog needs a dog. And about six months after we rescued Alex, he was tearing our backyard apart because we were both working long hours away from home. And so we got a second dog, and that just kind of snowballed. And and Traveler is actually he's rescue number 14. Another one that just trotted into the room for a minute, Lake is rescue number 15. Traveler, uh, Rory, we don't know Traveler's story. He was out found running near a freeway here in Austin about a year and a half ago, um, kind of ragged. And so we named him Traveler. We thought we were just going to have him for a couple of days until we could find him a home. And then my wife and Traveler gave one look to each other, and and we became what in in the industry is affectionately called a foster failure, which means we're not turning the dog yet. We kept Traveler, and it's interesting, Rory. He is our first non-golden or lab rescue. He's primarily cattle dog with German Shepherd, which means he's smarter than the rest of us and he needs a job. And and all of a sudden, we're having to work harder with Traveler. We've got to keep him busy or he gets himself in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

That's quite the undertaking. So is it is 15 the total number of dogs, or are those just the couple that you were named?

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Well, over the years, over the years, we had Alex and and and Kaibab became his partner, and then we lost Alex, and we got another dog for KaiBab. We typically have two. Right now we have three dogs, and and uh it's just what what are the dogs that God brings to you when you need a dog? And there's a divine appointment that takes place. Our our most recent rescue and traveler's cohort in crime is a field golden that the just the sad news, it wasn't a horrible rescue. The a family in in South Texas went through divorce and and and the mom got the preteen daughter a puppy to try to make her less sad, and they didn't know how to take care of this puppy. And the dog lived in a crate in the girl's bedroom for a year and and just grew into a 75-pound field golden who needed to be running a couple of miles every day. And so they realized they couldn't handle him. And and so once again, the Golden Retriever Rescue Group reached out to us and said, Hey, can you hold on to this dog for a few weeks until we can find a home? And and and my wife and I, Foster failed on Lake as well. So, um, so he's he's Traveler's uh partner in crime.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Nice, nice. Now, as you're starting to kind of realize some of these things you're learning about the dogs, um, at what point are you are you connecting the dots for the book and saying, you know, I'm learning these things for the dogs, but these these actually are great for kids or for leadership in a business and you know for raising all sorts of you know uh different beings.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

You know, I I think that that that first story, oh, there's Lake right there. Um that that first story about Redford and and the the proactive yes instead of a reactive no. Right. Somehow at some point I kind of connected the dots when I was talking to this dog psychologist sitting in our backyard, and I realized, man, that that sounds like a phrase I ought to use in one of my leadership presentations. And and then I began to realize there's a lot of dots that can be connected here. And and and Rory, I mean, the whole irony of it is that was 15 years ago at this point, and the golden principles is still the keynote that is the one that's most requested. I just shared shared that story of Redford a month ago for a large privately held construction firm in the southeast at their at their biannual leadership meetings. Uh, we all love our pets, and you know, it's kind of a chicken soup for the soul reality. There's there's nothing overly profound, but not being profound doesn't mean it's not wise. I I think the lessons from our pets can can teach us how to be better people, and ultimately my passion around leadership means, you know, you'll never be a better leader than you are a person. So let's get the person thing right, and that'll transform into your leadership as well.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Nice. Now, uh, some of these points, just the ones that you gave me. I know there's a lot more in the book and stuff like that, but just the ones you touched on today, especially the get down to the the dogs level. And you have to get down to the level of the people that you're managing or coaching, you know, and that sort of thing. Uh, my own experience, I've been around the block a few times, got a few gray hairs here, you know, on the windowsill.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

And I laughed about that a few minutes before we started the interview.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

That's right. So, you know, I from what I've seen from uh you know management, that seems to be one of the biggest hurdles is uh, you know, getting them down on the same level as a lot of their employees. Does it help to enact that change that you're telling stories about dogs, you know, and that type of thing? Does it make it easier for them to maybe swallow?

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah, yeah. In fact, it it kind of lets me sneak in with a soft glove so that I can have sometimes the iron fist inside the soft glove because everybody loves their cats, everybody loves their dogs, um, you know, all their pets. Uh and Rory, like you, I'm an old guy now, and sometimes it is hard for me to find ways to relate to some of our younger employees. Um, but we all can relate around the dogs, so it becomes a natural point of connection. My problem is at times I write about these, I speak about these. I they they're in they're in the front of my head. Sometimes I don't get them to the back of my mind, though. And I expect people to meet me where I'm at because I'm the boss, and that never works. That never works.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yeah, no, I I it seems like a really good way to bridge, you know, uh the connection. So um, you know, I guess as we kind of wrap this up here, I the confident um uncertainty I thought was very well spoken, very well said. Um, I'm wondering, uh especially with since we're talking about the younger you know group, um, when you're a little bit older, you confident uncertainty, you know, I think you you can take it pre-COVID because you can look back at your life before that happened, that you had other instances where you may have been able to do it. Yeah, but with so many young people, it's almost like their adulthood sort of started there. And people can't quite get past that, I think. Um is it different talking to the different age groups, you know, especially where I'm not?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

I you know, there was a study that Gallup or Forster put out 18 months ago, Rory, that that captured um Alpha and the younger generation Y, they would rather quit their job than have a hard conversation with their boss. And part of that I think is they don't know how to deal with uncertainty and hard things because their whole life's been thrown in a quagmire for the last however many years now, five or six years. And so I I think you know, part of the challenge for leaders is man, we've got to make sure that. We are celebrating successes all along the way. That the the analogy that that Stephen Covey the younger talks about in terms of trust deposits and trust taxes. You got to make the deposits ahead of time because withdrawals are coming. Well, once again, the same is true with these dogs. Lake, the one that's right next to me right now, he lived in a crate his first year. And we have a crate in our house. We crate our dogs at times when we're out and about. Um, we had to leave the door of the crate open for weeks when we first got Lake because he naturally would just go in the crate and just lie there. And it's like, no, Lake, you're the whole house is yours now, the backyard is yours. We're we're family. Um, but it took him a while to really believe. He had to see those deposits of yeah, I'm walking by your crate 10 times and the door's open and I'm leaning in and cutting you. He had to see that. Even today, Rory, there was some loud noises outside. My wife and I've been gone for the last couple of weeks on a on a out-of-the-country trip, and and I noticed he went back into the crate, right? Because that's his habit for the first year. Well, the nice thing is it's a safe place for him, but he also just needs to know man, the whole house is safe for you, Lake. That's you're you're not gonna be yelled at by family members anymore. It's this is your place. Gotta be making those deposits because um withdrawals will come.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

So many parallels.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Wow, yeah, so many parallels.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

All right. Love that you pointed that out. Um, the so how uh how do folks reach you, uh uh doc? And how do they uh find out about the book? Um, you know, and that type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Yeah, well, the golden principles is available on Amazon.com. And if if your listeners are Kindle Prime uh subscribers, the book's free, so you can download the Kindle version of it. And Neely Leadership, N-E-I-L-L-I-E, leadership.com is my website. And somebody wants to reach out, there's a link on the top of my homepage for a 15-minute phone call where we can we can talk about some of these kind of personal life leadership principles. Where I really do think it comes back to something you and I nodded our heads on together five minutes ago. I'm absolutely convinced you'll never be a better leader than you are a person. And while my calling, if you would, is to work with organizational leaders, I'm really working with people. And animals can teach all of us wonderful lessons if we'll just slow down and listen to them.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Well said. Very well said. All right. Uh, author of The Golden Principles, uh, Life and Leadership Lessons from a Rescued Dog, Dr. Andy Neely. Uh, thank you so much, sir, for coming on, for uh putting that talk out there. It was it was really great, uh, really intriguing. And I hope everybody goes and buys the book. Appreciate your time. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

You good bad, Roy. Thanks for the platform. You're doing a great job.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Thank you so much. All right, folks, it's been another spectacular episode of Step Up to the Mic. If you're an aspiring or current speaker and you want to bring your talk to the masses, message us today. Never stop talking, and let us help you to step up to the mic.