Jeff "Coach Lev" Leverton- Leadership/Entreprenuership

Jeff Leverton is an accomplished Executive with a strong business background.  Jeff is a Certified FocalPoint Business & Executive Coach and has a passion for helping leaders develop healthy organizations by creating a culture of Clarity, Communication, Community and Caring.  His purpose is to transform businesses one leader at a time.  As your business coach, Jeff has a wide range of solid business skills that he will draw upon to assist you in growing yourself and your business.   

Website - www.ocachlev.com
Facebook/Instagram - @thecoachlev
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-leverton-4a926092

Your hosts: Colton Cockerell & Trisha Stetzel
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Colton Cockerell
Trisha Stetzel

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Transcript

Colton Cockerell: 0:05

Hello and welcome to another exciting

episode of Bridge the Gap: 0:07

Connecting Business Perspectives with your hosts myself, Colton Cockerell and Trisha Stetzel. Our goal is to bridge the generational, gender, and life experience gap in business through our unique styles of gathering information from our guests. now let's get it started. All right, it is Wednesday. And you know what that means? That means it's time for another exciting episode of Bridge the Gap where we're connecting business perspectives. My name is Colton Cockerell. I'm a Certified Financial Fiduciary, and an independent financial planner with Sharer McKinley Group. And as always, I have with me my lovely co host, the one that keeps me on track all the time, Miss Trisha Stetzel,

Trisha Stetzel: 0:49

oh, boy, do I try. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it just doesn't work. Colton. Thank you very much for remembering to introduce me today. I'd welcome very much appreciate that. Hey, everyone, Trisha Stetzel here Results Xtreme Business Solutions. And I am super excited about our guest today. Mr. Jeff Leverton. He's a Focal Point Business and Executive Coach in Illinois. And we may get to get around to that on the show. So Jeff is an accomplished executive with a strong business background. He's a Certified Focal Point Business and Executive Coach and has a passion for helping leaders develop healthy organizations by creating a culture of clarity, communication, community and caring. His purpose is to transform business, one leader at a time, as your business coach, Jeff has a wide range of solid business skills that he can draw upon to assist you in growing yourself in your business. And you're all probably wondering why in the world, I would have someone from the same organization on this show. But I have a surprise for you, Jeff. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.

Jeff Leverton: 1:56

Thanks for having me. This is awesome. And I love the name Colton. I said that earlier. Colt was just a cool name. You know, I like this.

Colton Cockerell: 2:04

I like this guy, Trisha. Thanks for bringing them with you. I

Trisha Stetzel: 2:07

know you do. So listen, for our listeners. The reason why I asked Jeff to come on the show with us today is because he has a program called Leaders Are Readers. And yes, it is a book club. So let's jump in Colton, what kind of questions do you have?

Colton Cockerell: 2:24

I mean, I'm familiar with a country club, but a book club. All right. I mean, so the funny thing is, real quick before we really jump into questions, and I want to make sure we get as many questions as possible as a Coach Lev real quick, kind of tell our listeners your backstory of not liking to read and then now being where you're at today.

Jeff Leverton: 2:41

Yeah, I was mentioning earlier. I've got some high school and college buddies that I played sports with a tease me all the time thinking and saying, you are in a book club. But you know, like Oprah Winfrey type book club, what in the world is going on? You never you never read a book in, in junior high high school and all the way to college? And what in the world are you doing? Which is absolutely true. I didn't read a whole lot of books at that time. So it's, it's kind of funny how it came about. Absolutely.

Colton Cockerell: 3:10

And that was a reading junkie. So I guess the first question is, where was that that paradigm shift? What went from not reading to loving to read?

Jeff Leverton: 3:19

You know, I caught and I think a lot of it was when I became a president and CEO of one of our couple of our local health clubs here in Central Illinois. And I was 29 years old, when I fell into the position. I got lucky, and had an opportunity to to run these health clubs. And I didn't know what in the world I was doing. So I really didn't have any mentors at the time, I had a couple of friends that were in similar roles, but not at that level. And I started reading. Now I started reading, reading, reading and back then, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of podcasts or ebooks or anything like that. And so leadership books I just fell in love with and I became a leadership junkie, from from some old school leadership books. And that's, that's how it kind of started.

Trisha Stetzel: 4:07

Well, and you were telling us to Jeff, before we started this show that you had a program in your business, for the people in your business. So talk a little bit about that program, kind of where that started.

Jeff Leverton: 4:19

Yeah, I did. A lot of my staff knew how much I loved to read leadership books. So they kept saying, Man, you're reading two or three books a month, it seems like, Where's all this knowledge going? What are you doing? Are you actually applying it to anything in the business? And I thought, well, I think I am but maybe I'm really not. So from that point on. We started I had some mandatory book readings and leadership book readings for our leadership team and our executive team. And we would read books quarterly, and almost have like book reports. We'd have sessions on it, talk about it, and then we would actually apply it. And the cool thing of I think about it Trisha was You have to dumb these books down, I hate to say that word, but almost a second, third, fourth grade level so I can understand them. Right? We all went through the higher education, part of it, and theories and graphs and everything else. But I was really looking for books that I could apply the next day, and really put into effect, grow our business grow our staff and our employees. So we had a lot of fun with it over the years. And, boy, we read a lot of different books throughout the years. And then I kind of stopped doing it for a while. And last year, I kind of got back into it. When I got into the coaching business and training business. I had people asking me again, he's still reading a lot of books. And I said, Yep. And they said, let's do something with it. So I kind of threw it out there on Facebook or Instagram and said, Hey, I'm starting a Leaders Are Readers book club who's interested thinking I get, you know, maybe two people, some family members or something. And then today, I've got about four, almost five book clubs that I'm doing with, you know, between six and eight people. With that, and I'm having a blast.

Colton Cockerell: 6:05

Now. And I think that's awesome. And, and really, I want to go back to this because I really want because I think there's a lot of people who understand the importance of reading, especially personal development, leadership books. So what was it I get that you were, you know, working, and you were high up in a health club? But really, what was it that got you to say, you know what, I'm going to do this, I'm going to start reading X amount of books a month, what how did you What changed?

Jeff Leverton: 6:30

Yeah, I just think I put a challenge out to myself to do it. And like I said, I didn't really have a mentor or anybody to go to I didn't, you know, coaching back then was probably around, but I didn't know much about it. So I never had an executive business coach, at least in my earlier years. So I really just kind of felt like, you know, there's a lot of us and me in particular, at that age, in a role. I'm at the top of the mountain, I really have nobody to turn to, right. I'm looking down and all this stuff going on. I'm like, Yeah, I reported to on a nine member board of directors and stuff, but that's different. But so I use those books to really help and guide me throughout my leadership. Time at my health clubs.

Colton Cockerell: 7:13

Well, that's impressive.

Trisha Stetzel: 7:15

Genius. Oh, go ahead, Colton. I was gonna say how genius is it? I'm talking to our listeners right now, to have a book club where you're able to reach out and share with your exact target market, right? I mean, that those are the people that you want to work with. And they're showing up for these book clubs. Alright, so Jeff, tell me what you're reading right now.

Jeff Leverton: 7:45

reading right now, actually, I'm rereading for about the, I think the 10th time, the Energy Bus book by John Gordon. That's we're finishing up the book club with that right now. But my go to book is called The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni. That's one of my favorites. And it talks about being healthy organization versus a smarter organization. You guys may have read that book before. It's it's pretty popular book and not too old. Right. So I think that is important to have a healthy organization and, and core values. And culture is so important, especially today with all the virtual, remote employees and staff. And we don't have that human connection like we did last year, year before at this time. So those are kind of my to go to books. And that's what I'm finishing up right now. With that, but I tend to reread a lot of the old ones that I read a long time ago, just because they're so simple, they're so easy, and they're so easy to apply. And I think that's what's happening in our book clubs right now is, you know, they've really become mastermind groups. For the most part, right? Yeah, we're reading the book, we're talking about chapters in it and in different themes and stuff, but it leads in different directions, right? And then it turns into sometimes I don't want to, it's probably the wrong word to say but counseling sessions sometimes with that as far as problems in the workplace and, and to problems with team and time management and sales and revenue and strategy and everything else. So it's, it's a pretty cool transition. Out of that sometimes

Colton Cockerell: 9:26

in Coach Lev what I'm really getting from that, I think the most important thing is that it acts as a accountability group where you're actually reading these books and applying them. I think that's super important. So let me ask you this for for individuals who who like to read or who really don't like to read, but like I have to and they want to start a book club. What would you What advice would you give them what would you recommend?

Jeff Leverton: 9:49

I would say it's just as simple as gathering up a group of people and not only did I do with my employees, I did it in the community were back in the day when we could actually meet face to face right, the good old days, we would have meet and have coffee first thing in the morning six or seven of us and discuss a book. So I think it's just simply putting the word out there that you either want to facilitate one, which there's not much to it other than have given us some thought questions ahead of time and then just open up the floor. Two, if you want to participate, just ask around. I mean, there's really, it's it's not that difficult, not that hard to start. But it's a lot of fun. And it really it really is we do three one hour sessions per book, we typically would do it over the lunch hour where people are a little more freer than others that we do it first thing in the morning, seven 637 o'clock. With that, but there's plenty of them out there all around and, and just just, I would say social media, throw that thing out there and see what happens. I love it.

Trisha Stetzel: 10:52

It's so old school, right? We're talking about book club, book club, book club. And I'm thinking, you know, a bunch of ladies sitting around the library, right? or reading a novel. Man, what an amazing idea. So I want to go back to I don't know which of you said it, but it's similar to mastermind. I think, Jeff, that was something that you said similar to mastermind. So can you talk through what exactly a mastermind is, because a lot of our listeners may not even know what that means. To give people an idea of what that looks like. So you've read part of the book, you get into the session, what does it look like inside that session?

Jeff Leverton: 11:29

Yeah, so so that's really about it, I prepare maybe three or four different questions. And then we pick, you know, a third of the book or a couple of chapters, and we discuss it that way. And, you know, keeping the groups small, you know, that six to eight, you don't want to, I don't really think you want to get much bigger than at least virtually for an hour timeframe. Because not everybody is able to participate. So the engagement is there with a little bit of a smaller group. And we just throw things out to each other as far as how we feel about that part of the book, and how you know, how it applies to their business. And then like I said before, and it leads into all kinds of good conversations, and built a lot of friendships. And it's not just, you know, my 50 year old, 31 year old friends, this, you know, I've got some 23 year old students that are in it that are a little bit out of college now and first time jobs and careers. And I've got some retirees in my book club too. So talking about bridging the gap, right? That, Hey, that was good when bridging the gap between all ages. It's really cool to see. And some of the retirees or some of the ones that are more a little more well established in their businesses have been in their career a little longer, have become mentors for the younger group, too. And vice versa. Man, we can learn a lot from these from these mid 20s to late 2018, your volume and what they're called anymore. They're not millennials, but I don't know what next is, but

Trisha Stetzel: 13:08

call them you keep trying. You're not you're definitely not 20 anymore.

Colton Cockerell: 13:12

I said what he said late 20s. Yes, just say, Well, you know what's so interesting coach love, because, you know, just again, going back to the bridging, bridging the gap, you know, this is it. You know, Trisha is mom's book club. And it's also not, you know, someone my age, you know, we're not going to get into book club. So people my age, who are, you know, people live and die by personal development leadership. So what you're doing that I never even thought of when I think of a book club, I'm thinking like, you're reading the tortoise and the hare, but to actually get together with other professionals in reading, you know, I'm just trying to think of a, you know, cybernet or not cybernetics. You're just Rich Dad, Poor Dad, whatever. It may be some book like that. I think that's incredible. You're getting perspectives from other professionals in different industries. I mean, I think that is such a good idea. I love it. And so I think you're doing is really incredible.

Jeff Leverton: 13:59

Yeah, it's really, it's really cool. And, you know, it's a lot of fun. And it's a networking opportunity for a lot of different people. We I've got one group, that is all buddies from high school, right, but the rest of the groups are a good mix of people, some that I haven't even met before. And the cool thing is, they don't all have to be locally here in my town. I've got one in California. I've got one in New York. I've got one in the Missouri, St. Louis area. So it's all across the board. And I think, I think the biggest key to these and at least the way that I do it with these simple books is we tend to overthink leadership way too much. And these are almost leadership. Maybe not even one on one leadership 100 books where we're getting back to basics of simple stuff about culture and caring about your staff and how you treat them and, you know, we tend to overthink things way too much. So we get back into that In these sessions, which is really cool.

Trisha Stetzel: 15:03

Like, oh, sorry, Colton, it sounds like Jeff it even people like Colton, who doesn't want to pick up a paper book could actually listen to the book on audio and still participate in the book club.

Jeff Leverton: 15:16

Yeah, absolutely. I've got some audio, I got some audio listeners, within my book clubs, I'd still rather than see them open up that book and smell it, and really get a good feel for it. But some people really don't know what a book is. Because that's all they've done is his his ebooks and E reading, which is perfectly fine. But it's it's funny to me. So I joke about that. But yeah,

Colton Cockerell: 15:39

I can, I can just see Coach Lev part of his rituals, opening a book smelling it and just getting into Well, you know, it's an if I was a part of something like that. I mean, I think I would be more encouraged to open up of actual physical book and read it versus listening to an audiobook of it. Just because, you know, when you're listening to an audiobook, you're really not taking it all in. You're just it's kind of playing right. So I understand that. I think that's awesome. And it's really encouraging someone that hated books, I guess I can probably say that you hated books back in high school, junior high, and you just turn to love them. Because you found the right kind of book to read. I think that's really neat. So Trisha, I want to ask another question before I give him the totally off the wall random.

Trisha Stetzel: 16:17

So I was you said, you know, he hated books. And he found a way to like books, but he also married the right lady.

Jeff Leverton: 16:25

Right?

Trisha Stetzel: 16:25

Do I understand the school teacher?

Jeff Leverton: 16:29

That probably had a lot to do with it. You know, 25 years ago, our 25th wedding anniversary is next Tuesday. So yeah, she's had a major influence on on books and reading in my household, especially with me and my three daughters.

Colton Cockerell: 16:45

Okay, well, here's what here's the random question. What's the special metal for the 25th wedding anniversary? I'm totally kidding. totally kidding. Oh, no. Coach, I'm kid you guys.

Jeff Leverton: 17:01

I want to answer this in case he hears it. But I'm probably gonna have to work on that this weekend. That sounds really bad that

Colton Cockerell: 17:10

for the record, teacher Lev, if you're listening here, he already talked about what he's getting you and the right thing before the show. Just so you know. But the real right the wall question here. Coach Lev. If today was your last day on earth? What would be your going out meal, you could have whatever you want. Give me Give me the food the drink and give me the dessert?

Jeff Leverton: 17:32

Boy, what a good question. You know, I would try to think of something really creative. But I am a steak and potato guy. And a little bit of asparagus on top of that. I could eat that every day. My family eats a lot of chicken and and Mexican food and I'm okay with that. But I'm the only dude in the house and when I can get my steak and potatoes all over it. Okay, that would be that would be my choice.

Colton Cockerell: 18:02

Okay, what about dessert?

Jeff Leverton: 18:04

dessert would be a little bit of apple pie with some ice cream and maybe throw a little whipped cream on it. Maybe too.

Colton Cockerell: 18:11

And I would ask you about bluebell. I don't know if you know about that up in Illinois. So.

Jeff Leverton: 18:17

And it's good. It's good.

Colton Cockerell: 18:20

Oh, coach, Coach, thank you so much. I mean, great. Great. Yeah. It's so funny. You can have a 20 minute podcast over a book club. Yeah, but it just what you're doing what you're doing is so interesting and fascinating. So I'm glad our listeners were able to hear about it.

Trisha Stetzel: 18:34

See, you guys may have been scared, but I was confident. I knew this was gonna be an amazing podcast. Alright. So Jeff, I've got one more serious question for you if you're willing to divulge and I think that you are what generation are you part of?

Jeff Leverton: 18:50

Geez, what what am I I'm not quite sure what I knew. You're gonna ask me that for some reason. I'm not a baby boomer. I'll be 50. Well, I got By the way, I got married on my birthday. So my 25th wedding anniversary and my 51st birthday is on Tuesday. And

Trisha Stetzel: 19:06

how was that? You can not forget your anniversary. That's right.

Unknown: 19:10

Colton. Now that's smart. Colton. I'm

Colton Cockerell: 19:12

actually making a note right now. Okay. Who needs a book club when you got Coach Lev ? Right.

Jeff Leverton: 19:18

Take notes on that one. I did my Gen X. I don't know. Yeah. Okay, there we go.

Trisha Stetzel: 19:26

Absolutely. So do you feel like you identify with your own generation or do you tend to identify more with an older or younger generation? Sure. Have

Colton Cockerell: 19:37

you seen how this guy's acted? He's definitely millennial like me for sure. He's a young he's, he acts like a young buck. He's a millennial.

Jeff Leverton: 19:43

Well, tell ya I my last 20 years was at the health clubs. We had a 15 year old first time employees all the way up to retirees. So I was very blessed to be able to work with all age groups. And I think my three daughters who are soon to be 21, 18, and 16 have have kept me in the loop of that age group just by friends and at our house all the time and that kind of stuff. So I've tried to stay as is hip still word? I don't know if hips still forward or not. Hold on. I

Colton Cockerell: 20:21

don't Okay, Trisha, he's not he's not a millennial. Take it. Yeah, I

Trisha Stetzel: 20:26

know. It hip me. So we're good guy.

Jeff Leverton: 20:30

So I've been kept up on a much social media can I'm not a Snapchat or chatter, but I am. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I've been on a few tik tok videos, but I don't I do have a tick tock account, I will admit, Oh, my goodness. Well, so anyway,

Colton Cockerell: 20:54

while you do, then you kind of fall into the chameleon category where you go into any? So let me let me ask you, let me ask you this. So we want to just because you know, you did a great job today. And if anyone's interested in learning more about your book club, we would love to free to share your information. So I remember this is audio only. So if you could, you know, spell the company with email address, and then give a phone number if you're willing to our listener so that they can contact you if they have any questions. And just for the record, this guide is more than just a book club. He also does a lot of business coaching, which is totally separate than what Trisha does. So you might even briefly share about that as well.

Jeff Leverton: 21:32

Yeah, yeah. So, website is www.Coachlev.com mail is J Leverton. l e v e r t n at Focal Point Coaching C m. Instagram, Facebook is The Co ch Lev. I don't know. I've alw ys I'm, I'm a big tennis fan I'm a University of Ill nois fan. But when Ohio Sta e gets on there and says, you know, it's the Ohio State. I always love that even though I don't like the Buckey s. I'm sorry if anybody listen ng is a Buckeye fan. But that's where the coach lev came from. don't know. Phone Number 309-605-0911. I don't know w at else did you ask the Colton

Colton Cockerell: 22:30

Knights? You kind of nailed it all. Gotcha. Yeah. And then Coach Lev is E V. This right L E V. Y p. Perfect. Absolutely. Tris a, anything el

Trisha Stetzel: 22:40

No, Jeff, thank you for coming on the show today. This has been awesome. It made my day and I'm it was just a ton of fun. So thank you for being here with us today.

Jeff Leverton: 22:51

Well, thanks for having me. It was nice to meet you, Colton. And Trisha, it's always good to talk to you again.

Trisha Stetzel: 22:58

And that concludes this week's podcast Tune in next week for another exciting episode of Bridge the

Gap: 23:03

Connecting Busines Perspectives

Colton Cockerell: 23:07

Thank you again for tuning in to this week's episode of Bridge the Gap: Connecting Business Perspectives. If there's a certain professional or profession that you want to hear from leave a comment in this week's Facebook posts. Please subscribe and share this podcast. Colton Cockerell with Sharer McKinley Group, LLC is located at 820 South Friendswood Drive Suite 207 Friendswood, Texas 77546 phone number to 281-992-5698. Securities and investment advisory services offered through NEXT Financial Group, Inc. member FINRA/SIPC Sharer McKinley Group is not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group, Inc.