The Learn-It-All Leader with Damon Lembi

WEBVTT

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Go for it.

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Anyways, you know, just go apply.

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What's the worst thing that can happen?

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Um, again, I've, I've coached a lot of people and I've, you know, even hired people who didn't meet all the requirements, but a lot of people don't give themselves a chance to fail.

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So I guess that's my thing of saying, learn how to get comfortable with failure.

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Um, earlier on in my, uh, in your, in your career, I wish I would have done that earlier instead of being a little too safe at, at some times.

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Welcome to The Wayfinder Show with Luis Hernandez, where guests discuss the why and how of making changes that lead them down a more authentic path or allow them to level up in some area of their life.

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Our goal is to dig deep and provide not only knowledge, but actionable advice to help you get from where you are to where you want to be.

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Come join us and find the way to your dream life.

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Welcome back to The Wayfinder Show.

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I'm your host, Luis Hernandez.

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And today I'm here with Damon Lembe.

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Damon is the CEO of Learn It, a global training company that has empowered over 2 million individuals through workplace learning.

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He's the author of the Learn It All Leader and the host of the Learn It All podcast.

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Damian champions curiosity and continuous growth as keys to effective leadership and he's here to talk about that today.

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Damon, welcome to the Wayfinder show.

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Thanks for having me, buddy.

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I'm honored to be here.

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Yeah, thank you.

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It's an honor to have you.

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I understand you had a pretty successful baseball career, uh, early in life.

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So let's get to know you a little bit.

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Tell us about that.

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So, the short version is, I, I grew up, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and uh, growing up was all about sports, baseball, football, basketball.

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By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I realized that if I was going to play college or pro sports, my ticket was baseball.

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Um, I enjoyed basketball, but I was a little, you know, a little too short, didn't have a great jump shot.

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And so I went All in in baseball.

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Worked, worked out pretty well for me.

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I was a high school all american, and I had my first really big decision, uh, my senior year, I was drafted by the Atlanta Braves, this was back in 1995, so I'm, I'm kind of dating myself here, and um, I had a full ride to Pepperdine University down in Malibu, which unfortunately is going through all those terrible fires, and um, It was one of my first big leadership lessons.

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I really bought into what the coach at Arizona, at Pepperdine, Andy Lopez, you know, he had this moonshot goal that we're going to win the college world series, even though Pepperdine is this little 2, 500 person school.

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So I went that direction and I played at Pepperdine.

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I ended up getting hurt there left.

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And then I ended up at Arizona state and my wife likes to say my glory day.

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I hit a homerun in the, uh, College World Series.

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Now, Louie, the funny thing is, the year I left, Pepperdine won the College World Series.

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So it shows you, you can set moonshot goals and, um, and, and make them happen.

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Even, you know, when you get your team together and everybody Pulls in the same direction.

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So, uh, it was a great learning opportunity all my, uh, baseball career.

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Yeah, wow.

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So it ended in college then?

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Yeah.

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Because of the injury?

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No, it didn't.

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I mean, I, I got hurt at Pepperdine.

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Really, and we could talk about this, I, I, I kind of had imposter syndrome, you know, and limiting beliefs and, and doubted myself.

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And it took me a while to get through it.

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But I got to Arizona State.

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I had a great year there.

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And, uh, I was getting ready to get drafted again.

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I was projected to be picked up in the 8th, through the 8th to the 12th round, most likely by the Philadelphia Phillies.

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But you know, things happen.

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I didn't get drafted, for whatever reason.

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And here I was, 22 years old.

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My whole life, my identity, was to be a baseball player.

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That's all I thought about.

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And so, it was basically over with for me.

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So, I didn't, I was kind of unsure, are my skills even transferable in the business world?

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I was lucky that I came from a family, um, a big real estate company in, in the Bay Area, and we had multiple different businesses, but one of the businesses was this, uh, computer training company that was just getting started, called Learnit, and I started there, um, June of 1995 as the receptionist and I did it for a couple of reasons.

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One, I, like I said, I was intimidated, didn't know if I had the skills and number two, it was a family business and I didn't want it to be this guy that, you know, my dad put me in as like a senior level position.

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I wanted to roll up my sleeves and show people that I could actually contribute and do the work.

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So I started off as a receptionist, worked my way through and here we are.

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I've been the CEO for going on about 26 years.

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Wow.

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Wow.

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Um, let's backtrack a little bit.

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The, you said you had imposter syndrome when you were in college.

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Yeah.

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What was that like?

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So, I always played with, you know, the best of the best everywhere, right?

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You know, in summer leagues and everything.

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But when I got to Pepperdine, for whatever reason, everybody was as good as me.

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And, you know, I was 17 years old and I wasn't sure, uh, if I was good enough or if I belonged.

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And what am I Favorite stories to tell is I went into my first player coach meeting, you know, like a performance review with Andy Lopez, the head coach.

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And, you know, before I, right when I sat down, he said to me, you know, Damon, he sat forward and said, when we recruited you, we thought it was that you would be a middle.

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A lineup hitter, a great third baseman and, you know, have an opportunity to be a, a strong D one professional baseball player.

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And he crossed his arms, he looked at me and he is like, son, we made a mistake.

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You just don't have the talent to play D one baseball.

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And then he just shut up.

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And sat back and you know, Louis, I thought to myself, Oh my gosh, I mean, how do I get out of here?

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Right?

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You know, how do I just go home, you know, get on a bus and go home?

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And before I even had a chance to respond, he sat forward again.

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He pointed at me and he said, that is not what we think of you.

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The problem is, yeah.

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That's what's in your head.

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That's what you think of yourself.

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We see, our hitting coach sees your ability.

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He sees your talent.

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But you need to get out of your own head because we can't do that for you.

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You have to overcome whatever it is that's bugging you.

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And, and, and limiting you.

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And make it happen.

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Otherwise, you're not going to be successful here.

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I would like to say I immediately left his office and, and turned things around.

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I didn't.

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I, like I said, I had some kind of freak accident, um, and a collision.

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Uh, and I left Pepperdine, and then I went to Arizona State.

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And, uh, Louis, a lot of my friends said, Look, don't go to Arizona State.

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They're gonna have 17 guys trying out for first base.

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You know, why don't you go to a small school, finish your baseball career, and, you know, move on with your life.

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And I said to myself, This is my last chance and I kind of built up like a, a framework that I've used for my whole life, you know, when it comes to, you know, overcoming imposter syndrome and it's really, you know, step number one is looking at like, okay, I call it purposeful awfulizing.

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What is it that I'm really afraid of?

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Right?

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You know, I mean, so am I afraid that if I go to Arizona state and I, and I fail and I don't make the team, Okay, well, I could overcome that.

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So once you realize you could overcome it, the next step is, like, there's no replacement for working hard.

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You got to work hard.

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You know, you got to put in the effort, be the first guy on the field, last one to leave.

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Number three, really, is deliberate practice.

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And so, for instance, if you're, if you struggle with public speaking, maybe really focus in on something and get better at it.

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You know, it's really easy to procrastinate or try different things, but really deliberate practice.

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And number four, step number four is, you know, whether you're stepping into the batter's box, or you're going up and giving that speech, stop thinking about, you know, all the technical, you know, work behind it, you know, just know that you put in the effort.

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And step number four is just learn and let go, you know, just go there, do your best.

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See what happens, you know, you might knock it out of the park, you might, you know, fall flat on your face, but I think that we need to give ourselves a pat on the back, you know, for getting out of our comfort zone and trying things, because some people don't do that, and use everything as a learning opportunity, and, and that's kind of my whole deal around imposter syndrome, self doubt.

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Interesting.

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So, I'm assuming, you know, coaches often see in us things that we don't see in ourselves, right?

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That's what makes a good coach.

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So, I'm assuming when that coach had you in that room and broke your heart, he's, he was talking about step number one.

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You were afraid of something, right?

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What was it?

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Absolutely.

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I think I was afraid of failing.

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You know, it probably, I mean, probably maybe it was letting my dad down or embarrassing myself.

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I don't know.

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I don't know exactly what it was at the time, um, but I was definitely afraid.

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And you know how, like when you're afraid, you're, you're, you're kind of like you can't get out of it.

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Your comfort zone and you're like almost even paralyzed to do things like I dreaded going to practice back then I don't know why but I was I was just afraid of failing really.

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Okay, so But you then you chose to go to Arizona State and, and try again.

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Do you think you were just afraid of the coach or what?

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Why, why did that happen?

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What, what was well in be in between Arizona State?

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I, I spent two years at a junior college.

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Ah.

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Um, because it wasn't the NIL back.

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You can't just go from one, they don't have the transfer portal.

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So I think I grew up a little bit.

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One, I was a really young.

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you know, so when my kids are old enough, I'd probably want them to be a little bit older going into college.

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So I grew up, I was more mature, and I had a couple pretty good years in junior college, and I still love baseball.

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For whatever reason, when I got to Arizona State, or when I took this scholarship to Arizona State, I said to myself, you know, screw it, this is my last chance.

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I don't want to live the rest of my life not thinking that I, I, I gave it my best shot for playing baseball.

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And I think that's what helped me put aside.

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And, um, like I said in step number two, just working hard.

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I just try to work my way through it.

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I figured that if I just keep working really hard, then it's going to turn out for me, uh, well, which it did.

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Yeah, that's great.

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So what, um, what, how did you come up with this framework?

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I don't know.

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I just, I just, I just kind of, um, I just said to myself, look, I'm going to be the first guy on the field, I'm going to be the last one to leave.

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Nice.

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And, I, I, I struggle with a couple things.

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I struggle with, uh, fielding ground balls, and I struggle with hitting curve balls.

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So I just practiced that until I, I just couldn't do it anymore.

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I just, I mean, when I mean can't do it anymore, I, until I exhausted myself with it.

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And then, when it, when it got to the game time, you know, we also learned how to, you know, Visualize success, you know, they taught us that at Arizona State.

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So I would say to myself, okay, you know, I'm playing, I'm at first base, I'm the starting first baseman.

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I'm going to visualize myself, if the ball's hit to me, fielding it successfully and getting the guy out, or whatever, right?

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And so, um, and I said, I'm going to be okay with that, because I put in so much work and effort, that my reactions or whatever, it's going to work out for me.

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And so, I mean, that's kind of like how I built this framework that I didn't even think about for several years, but I used it in the business world too, you know, whether it's through public speaking or running a sales team.

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And then I, I, I, You know, when I came out with my book a couple of years ago, I just kind of put it all together.

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Like this is actually a framework that I had for it.

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And it's something that I've shared with the people I coach or mentor and, you know, at least for me and some other people, I think it's been helpful.

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Yeah.

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You know, I, I think, um, there, there's no doubt, right?

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Like these are, are, are, it's a great framework.

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Right.

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And working hard and practicing and learning to let go are really important.

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I, you know, I'm curious going back to the first one though, about being afraid of something.

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I think, uh, I know we talked a little bit before we started that I like to run marathons.

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Right.

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And I, I actually, Yeah.

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Now, I realized that I ran one last year.

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I had my, my fastest result, which I was really proud of.

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But there's always something I go through when I get, when I, when I run the marathon, that I, I almost like mourn a loss.

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Right?

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And, um, and whether or not I am successful, I don't feel very different.

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Um, if I achieve my goal or not, right?

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Like, the result I've noticed, uh, as I've gotten older and all that, I, I, I don't feel too, um, too excited if I do great or, or, or not if I don't, well, I, maybe if I, if I don't hit the goal, I, I think about it more for sure.

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But um, What I do notice is, I mourn the loss because I, I miss the practice part of it, right?

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Like I, I've learned to love the training.

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And I notice, you know, along the way, just going through it all, the, the practice every day, getting out, running, doing drills, you know, running with the team, you know, doing different kinds of runs, all that.

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There's just something about it.

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You build a discipline and it spreads to all the other areas of your life.

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And before you know it.

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You're getting great results in every area of your life as well, right?

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Isn't it funny how that works?

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Yeah, no, I mean, I think you bring up a great point.

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Well, first of all, I commend you on doing marathons Cuz I I hate running, you know Maybe you know, but uh, so did I by the way But, but, but I, so I think that's awesome and that kind of goes to what I, what I like to call about like athletic education, because all those things that you mentioned right there, the discipline, collaboration, you know, focusing on, I know growth mindset really is, you know, you're focusing on the process instead of the end goal, you know, as far as to get, to get things done.

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And um, I think it's important what you said right there too, Louie, is that not get too up or down.

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Yeah, you know like not get too excited when you win something But don't beat yourself up too much If you don't if you do fail, you know, try to keep it even keel And again, I just go back to rewarding yourself for putting in the effort a quick little story I have a i've a I think I mentioned to you I have a seven year old daughter and a couple months ago.

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We're walking up the hill to come home and she's got This little bike race and she's like, daddy, I don't know if I want to do it because what if I don't win on?

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And I said, look, I don't care if you win.

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What I care about is that you practice and you try hard, and you do, and you put in your best effort.

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That's all I care about.

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You know, I mean, and, and you do your best.

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And so I'm not a fan of participation trophies at all, but I do love, you know, she, she participated, she went in this race and she finished in like fourth place and they gave her, you know, and she has this picture of her arms raised, like she won the fricking Olympics, you know, but I was proud of her for putting in the effort and doing her, her, her best.

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I'm sure she felt great about it, too.

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She felt great about it.

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I mean, I gotta work with her.

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I don't, I don't want her to settle for fourth place, but you know, at least she put in the, at least she put in the effort to, um, and, and, and stopped worrying about, you know, the end results.

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Focused on the practice like you were just talking about.

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Yeah, what are the mindsets I've adapted around that?

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Adopted around that is, um, to treat like the race itself, you know, the actual marathon or whatever race I do as the reward, right?

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For all of the training and, you know, the practice and the working hard to get there.

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So then, uh, you know, you get to the starting line and I'm like, all right, well, there's nothing I can do at this point, right?

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The work is in, you know, the haze in the barn, as we like to say.

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And, um.

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So I might as well just enjoy this.

00:16:47.328 --> 00:16:48.339
This is my reward.

00:16:48.869 --> 00:16:58.778
you know But then I still mourned the loss of that whole pro, you know I got to go into the offseason kind of like uh to relate it to baseball It's it's the offseason there's something tough about the offseason, right?

00:16:59.109 --> 00:17:14.358
You start developing bad habits and you know little by little they creep in and you just start changing You're not feeling good about yourself and you know before you know, you got to get back out there Well, I think what you said About the reward is same as my step four, learn and let it go.

00:17:14.388 --> 00:17:14.689
Right.

00:17:14.699 --> 00:17:18.798
Cause you know, you, you just, I don't necessarily look at it.

00:17:19.243 --> 00:17:31.523
As a reward, but maybe I should, you know, because I'm, I'm here and I get to give this presentation or I'm, you know, I've made it to this point, but it's exactly the same thing, you know, stop thinking about it and go for it.

00:17:31.973 --> 00:17:33.064
And then you have to go back.

00:17:33.503 --> 00:17:35.683
I manage our sales team here at learn it.

00:17:36.253 --> 00:17:43.443
And I'm big on the fundamentals and foundation because yeah, you get in the bad habits, you know, and you need to, you need to do that work.

00:17:43.483 --> 00:17:54.723
So I, I think that, uh, whether or not you love it, I think, I think it's so important to be able to, um, focus on the fundamentals and, and get yourself back in shape, get, get back in that mindset too.

00:17:55.108 --> 00:17:55.459
Yeah.

00:17:55.509 --> 00:17:58.398
So let's talk a little bit about learning.

00:17:58.429 --> 00:18:02.838
First of all, I got to commend you man to be a CEO of any company for 26 years.

00:18:03.278 --> 00:18:05.469
That says a lot for a company to survive that long.

00:18:05.848 --> 00:18:20.243
And also I think it's a, I commend you on how you've gone about it to start from, you know, the front desk as a receptionist and work your way up when, you know, Your, your father started the company, which is another commendable thing, right?

00:18:20.243 --> 00:18:25.044
As a father, we all kind of dream of building a multi generational company.

00:18:25.044 --> 00:18:26.443
So that, that's pretty awesome.

00:18:26.443 --> 00:18:31.294
And I'm sure you probably dream about passing it on to, or maybe not, but I'll let you answer that.

00:18:31.294 --> 00:18:38.923
But, uh, yeah, I just want to commend you on all that, but also ask you to share a little bit about what it is and what you do.

00:18:39.513 --> 00:18:41.864
So learn it is a live learning platform.

00:18:41.943 --> 00:19:03.753
So essentially we're instructor led training company and we really focus all B to B and we focus on mostly soft skills, which I don't like that term soft skills, human skills, you know, everything on, uh, having difficult conversations, collaboration, coaching, you know, developing new managers, companies turn to us when they're, they're upscaling new managers and people are going from individual contributors.

00:19:04.469 --> 00:19:10.259
There's two new managers and they need to a new skill set or, you know, just building stronger teams.

00:19:10.659 --> 00:19:12.838
And yeah, I do think it's great.

00:19:12.848 --> 00:19:14.719
You know that I've, I love learn it.

00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:20.929
I've, and I think what I love most about it is the, the team I've been able to develop over the years.

00:19:20.929 --> 00:19:24.479
I have great talent who, um, you know, come and go.

00:19:24.548 --> 00:19:26.278
Some people have been here for a long time.

00:19:26.278 --> 00:19:27.759
Some people are here for three or four years.

00:19:27.939 --> 00:19:31.249
That's what kind of keeps it exciting and always trying to evolve and change.

00:19:31.868 --> 00:19:32.818
You know, it is kind of.

00:19:33.183 --> 00:19:34.064
It is different.

00:19:34.064 --> 00:20:01.874
I, in some sense, I wish I would be more involved in other organizations, you know, because that people have different experiences, but what's fun for me is I get to see behind the curtains, Louis, of all these phenomenal companies, you know, small, medium and large about how they lead teams, how they lead organizations, and it's been a great experience overall, and I'm involved in real estate and other things too, but Yeah, a lot of people are always like, well, how, how do you, how have you been there so long?

00:20:02.304 --> 00:20:05.733
And as far as my dad, he never really worked at LearnIt.

00:20:05.743 --> 00:20:09.473
He came up with this idea, like a lot of great entrepreneurs.

00:20:09.693 --> 00:20:14.644
He went and took a class somewhere in the 90s, was trying to figure out how to digitize our portfolio for real estate.

00:20:14.943 --> 00:20:16.523
He hated the class he took.

00:20:16.644 --> 00:20:18.713
He said, there's gotta be a better way to do it.

00:20:18.784 --> 00:20:20.503
That's where he came up with the idea of LearnIt.

00:20:20.973 --> 00:20:23.354
And I just didn't want to let him down.

00:20:23.364 --> 00:20:25.433
You know, my parents, mom and dad gave me a great life.

00:20:25.959 --> 00:20:38.318
And I, I wanted to prove to him that I can contribute and I, uh, just happened to fall in love with LearnIt and the learning and development world, which I never even considered, you know, things happen for a reason, I guess.

00:20:38.318 --> 00:20:39.128
And here I am.

00:20:41.013 --> 00:20:41.453
Interesting.

00:20:41.453 --> 00:20:44.794
And you, so you, you wrote a book about it.

00:20:44.794 --> 00:20:46.384
You have a podcast now about it.

00:20:46.403 --> 00:20:54.094
How, how, uh, you sharing basically the services you provide through that or explaining your frameworks or.

00:20:54.503 --> 00:20:54.794
Yeah.

00:20:54.804 --> 00:20:57.253
In my book, uh, the learn it all leader.

00:20:57.854 --> 00:20:59.023
I, I was lucky.

00:20:59.023 --> 00:21:04.114
I played for three Hall of Fame baseball coaches, you know, at Pepperdine, Junior College, and Arizona State.

00:21:04.124 --> 00:21:15.023
And, and funny enough, the, the fourth coach, which I don't talk about as much, just won, uh, my senior year at Arizona State, I played for Pat Murphy, who just won National League Manager of the Year.

00:21:15.354 --> 00:21:15.594
Oh, wow.

00:21:15.604 --> 00:21:16.564
You know, so.

00:21:17.969 --> 00:21:28.078
Fortunately, I, I, I've taken a lot of these lessons that I learned on the field through also from my father, and it's helped really mold my leadership style.

00:21:29.269 --> 00:21:32.038
And so I talk about a learn it all mentality, you know, doing and being.

00:21:32.038 --> 00:21:37.378
The first half of the book is about, you know, the mindset, you know, traits that I think you need.

00:21:38.028 --> 00:21:51.028
The second half of the book is actually doing, you know, how to implement some of those traits and, um, you know, to be a successful leader and, and I share a lot of stories, you know, whether it's around decision making.

00:21:51.028 --> 00:21:52.909
I threw a party for Guns and Roses one time.

00:21:52.909 --> 00:21:55.808
And so I talk about, you know, some decision making there.

00:21:56.128 --> 00:22:05.923
Uh, and also some of the, you know, um, Great stories of some of the employees that I've had and what I've learned leading teams over the years and that's, that's pretty much it.

00:22:05.923 --> 00:22:09.953
I mean, I didn't get a MBA from Harvard or anything like that.

00:22:09.973 --> 00:22:14.923
Those are great, but, uh, I guess my story is really, it's like, if I can do it, you can do it too.

00:22:15.294 --> 00:22:22.693
I just think that you need to be, uh, constantly wanting to grow and evolve and improve, which I'm sure a lot of your listeners are.

00:22:22.693 --> 00:22:24.933
That's why they're listening to a podcast like this.

00:22:25.269 --> 00:22:29.378
Yeah, so what it how would exactly would you define?

00:22:29.388 --> 00:22:43.778
I mean you've kind of explained it But I'm wondering if you have Like you like you outlined a nice framework for overcoming your pasta syndrome the same for the learn it all mindset So what I look at we talked about this at the beginning, you know a know it all You know somebody who comes to the game.

00:22:43.939 --> 00:22:44.808
You got it all figured out.

00:22:44.818 --> 00:22:46.358
You have all the answers, right?

00:22:46.358 --> 00:22:47.568
You're not open to changing.

00:22:47.568 --> 00:22:59.548
It's my way or the highway and I think All of us could be know it alls in certain aspects, like I'm a dad, sometimes I'm very much a know it all, like it's time to go to bed, there's no discussion around that, right?

00:22:59.558 --> 00:23:00.239
Yeah, yeah.

00:23:00.328 --> 00:23:08.489
Now, you take the learn it all mentality, and I wanna, look, learn it all mentality doesn't mean you're just constantly learning all the time.

00:23:08.769 --> 00:23:10.949
I mean, you have to implement some of the work that you do.

00:23:11.368 --> 00:23:17.628
Uh, this guy that I had on my show, David Katz, had a great saying, you know, learning without doing is treason, right?

00:23:17.659 --> 00:23:20.848
But, um, So you have to learn it all mentality.

00:23:20.848 --> 00:23:23.778
I think those traits are, you know, you've got to be humble.

00:23:23.788 --> 00:23:31.828
You gotta, you gotta know that you don't have all the answers and be able to not, not be afraid to reach out to people, to, to get help.

00:23:32.219 --> 00:23:33.078
You gotta have integrity.

00:23:33.078 --> 00:23:34.189
I think it's important to lead.

00:23:34.219 --> 00:23:38.628
You think it would go on unheard of, but, uh, it's super important.

00:23:38.679 --> 00:23:39.558
You lead with integrity.

00:23:39.868 --> 00:23:44.118
You know, you have to have the courage to, you know, make bold decisions and try different things.

00:23:44.499 --> 00:23:47.128
And I think you also have to be curious.

00:23:47.459 --> 00:23:53.028
Um, Yeah, I think you could learn something from everybody and there's always room for improvement again.

00:23:53.028 --> 00:23:58.628
And so I think great leaders are just curious and when I refer to leaders, Louie.

00:23:59.148 --> 00:24:02.368
You don't need to run a hundred, there's a hundred people that learn it, right?

00:24:02.368 --> 00:24:04.499
So you don't have to run a hundred person team.

00:24:04.618 --> 00:24:09.898
You don't even, you know, you could be a great leader as a parent, individual contributor or as a coach.

00:24:10.118 --> 00:24:14.298
I think leadership starts with leading yourself first and then leading others.

00:24:14.298 --> 00:24:19.898
So, I mean, that's basically my whole thing about, um, having a learn it all mentality.

00:24:20.814 --> 00:24:22.263
Yeah, that's good.

00:24:22.263 --> 00:24:25.124
How do, how do you, uh, with, with, like, curiosity?

00:24:25.913 --> 00:24:27.453
Uh, I'm curious.

00:24:28.814 --> 00:24:29.784
There you go, you're curious.

00:24:29.983 --> 00:24:32.834
Yeah, you know, this is something I try to really focus on.

00:24:32.943 --> 00:24:35.354
We, we have a lot of biases, right?

00:24:35.604 --> 00:24:35.753
Absolutely.

00:24:35.763 --> 00:24:37.614
And that can affect our curiosity, right?

00:24:37.614 --> 00:25:00.394
We see it with, uh, I mean, we just You know, with elections, for example, politics, you know, what have you, we, we, we have this, um, this bias that doesn't allow us to see the other side and, and, and, you know, so how, how can we use curiosity to intentionally help us, um, you know, see our biases and maybe, uh, overcome them.

00:25:00.423 --> 00:25:03.884
So I think it's a good, I think that's a good question.

00:25:03.894 --> 00:25:10.784
I mean, one of the things that I've done and don't challenge me too much on this, cause I don't know all the names of them, but, but I've studied a lot of biases.

00:25:11.334 --> 00:25:14.983
Yeah, you know, I've, I've, I've studied whether it's unconscious bias or, or anchoring.

00:25:15.294 --> 00:25:19.923
I'm just very fascinated by, uh, the behavioral science around biases.

00:25:20.273 --> 00:25:38.864
And, and I think one way to get better at it is to just be intentional and thinking about, um, Confirmation, like for instance, confirmation bias is something that I would, I would struggle with a lot earlier on in my career where I would go to people who I knew would agree with me, right?

00:25:38.894 --> 00:25:40.534
I'd ask them, what do you think about this?

00:25:40.574 --> 00:25:45.243
And I knew they agree with me as I've gotten older, more mature and better.

00:25:46.233 --> 00:25:55.903
I've, you know, over the last 15 years, I've really made sure I've built up a diverse team and bring in people with different opinions and different strengths.

00:25:57.364 --> 00:26:07.423
When I ask them questions, like, what do you think about this, and, or if they bring ideas to me, because you know sometimes in your head you think to yourself, okay, this just, this is just not going to work.

00:26:07.423 --> 00:26:08.733
I'll just shut this off right away.

00:26:08.943 --> 00:26:09.644
This is stupid.

00:26:10.124 --> 00:26:14.624
Now I'm kind of like, I'll sit back and say, okay, well, maybe there's something to this.

00:26:14.983 --> 00:26:27.213
And I'll be surprised at how many times that just by being open and listening and more adaptable, I've actually implemented, you know, things that maybe I would have never thought of.

00:26:27.243 --> 00:26:40.993
And I think when you do that, especially leading an organization, people will come to you with more ideas because they feel like you're open, um, to hear, bring out what the, now I don't go forward with all of them, but that's, but that's just kind of what I've done.

00:26:40.993 --> 00:26:48.554
I, I've been intentional on, on learning more about biases and, and trying to get better at them, um, whenever possible.

00:26:48.614 --> 00:26:53.753
Yeah, yeah, that's something I've been fascinated by a lot lately, too.

00:26:53.753 --> 00:26:57.763
I remember, um, I don't know if you ever listened to The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish.

00:26:57.763 --> 00:26:58.713
It's pretty popular.

00:26:58.773 --> 00:26:59.314
Love it.

00:26:59.693 --> 00:27:00.903
Yeah, isn't it a great podcast?

00:27:00.933 --> 00:27:01.473
I think it's great.

00:27:01.884 --> 00:27:02.104
He's amazing.

00:27:02.104 --> 00:27:02.584
Oh, man, it's awesome.

00:27:03.054 --> 00:27:08.854
And, uh, he had one on biases, I think he even wrote a book about it, uh, on like mental models and biases.

00:27:08.864 --> 00:27:10.433
I, I've read those too, yeah.

00:27:10.614 --> 00:27:11.294
Oh, yeah.

00:27:11.923 --> 00:27:20.483
So, uh, I'm, I'm, with, with your studies and, uh, on it, you know, are there, are there others that you really see are just incredibly dangerous?

00:27:20.483 --> 00:27:25.913
You've already mentioned, you know, confirmation bias, you know, others, and, and what else do you do?

00:27:26.723 --> 00:27:29.463
I would say, I think confirmation bias is a big one.

00:27:29.463 --> 00:27:29.733
Yeah.

00:27:29.733 --> 00:27:29.953
Yeah.

00:27:29.993 --> 00:27:33.213
Um, I, I love the book.

00:27:34.163 --> 00:27:35.604
Influenced by Robert Cini.

00:27:35.753 --> 00:27:36.923
If you, if you Yeah.

00:27:36.929 --> 00:27:36.969
To me.

00:27:36.969 --> 00:27:38.034
And that's like one of the Yeah.

00:27:38.124 --> 00:27:39.324
Oh, you did?

00:27:39.594 --> 00:27:39.864
Yeah.

00:27:39.868 --> 00:27:41.124
We'll have to talk about that more time.

00:27:41.183 --> 00:27:41.364
Yeah.

00:27:41.648 --> 00:27:42.804
I, I lo he, yeah.

00:27:42.804 --> 00:27:45.913
So, um, there's all kinds of, of different ones.

00:27:45.913 --> 00:27:46.409
I th I think.

00:27:47.009 --> 00:27:50.578
Ageism is a, is a big bias to be, to be totally honest.

00:27:50.578 --> 00:27:50.778
Right.

00:27:50.778 --> 00:27:53.739
I mean, I, I, I was coaching this guy the other day.

00:27:54.169 --> 00:27:56.318
Um, he's, he's awesome.

00:27:56.318 --> 00:28:29.723
He's the sales leader, you know, he's probably 32 and he was talking about, you know, hiring, bringing on some new people and he's like, well, this one guy, he's, he looks good on paper, but he's probably, Close to six years old and I'm like, don't judge a book by a cover, you know, also you need to be open to have to bring in different perspectives and different, you know, whether it's a Gen Z or somebody maybe close to 60 don't let those biases affect your decision making, you know, so I think that I think that that that is a really big, big one as well.

00:28:30.144 --> 00:28:36.203
Yeah, you know, one that I've been, uh, Affected by half my life.

00:28:36.203 --> 00:28:39.683
Now it feels like uh, is recency bias, right?

00:28:39.713 --> 00:28:39.743
Okay.

00:28:39.743 --> 00:28:40.374
I mean, so many times.

00:28:40.489 --> 00:28:41.304
Totally, totally.

00:28:41.304 --> 00:28:41.483
Yeah.

00:28:41.513 --> 00:28:43.223
God and I, I really struggle with that.

00:28:43.223 --> 00:28:45.473
I mean, I am still so affected.

00:28:45.528 --> 00:28:48.233
I I still have so many limiting beliefs around 2008.

00:28:48.233 --> 00:28:49.374
As you know, I'm a real estate guy.

00:28:49.374 --> 00:28:50.933
You come from a real estate family too.

00:28:51.314 --> 00:28:58.963
I mean, anybody who's in real estate in 2008 has to, that will be ingrained in the And, uh, and I wonder if you know of any good.

00:28:59.104 --> 00:29:04.443
Strategies for helping to overcome some of that because every time I see something that goes wrong.

00:29:04.463 --> 00:29:06.903
I'm like, all right, here we go again Oh shit in that.

00:29:06.933 --> 00:29:10.044
Yeah, it you miss opportunity because of it, right?

00:29:10.413 --> 00:29:18.183
Yeah, and I think that I think that that's why i'm glad you brought that up because I think that that's why I brought up Robert Cialdini because he talks about the recency bias, right?

00:29:18.183 --> 00:29:22.219
You know, you buy a bmw and then everything you see is Yeah.

00:29:22.219 --> 00:29:22.558
Right?

00:29:22.949 --> 00:29:33.499
And I, I, I mean, I don't have any specific hacks and I, I do feel for you, uh, my family lost, I mean, a lot in 2008.

00:29:33.548 --> 00:29:38.538
I mean, our, I mean, if you Google Lembe family and you look at it, but hey, it's all learning experience, right?

00:29:38.538 --> 00:29:38.828
Right, right, right.

00:29:38.828 --> 00:29:39.999
It's all learning experience.

00:29:40.499 --> 00:29:55.054
And I think that, um, I think that what's important to try to maybe get through the uh, recency bias is maybe look at the whole picture, you know, try to recognize that you're doing that.

00:29:55.064 --> 00:30:06.354
You're, you're just focusing on, okay, well, maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions because this has happened now, you know, so maybe look at the whole picture and what things are like, um, because yeah, they talk about it.

00:30:06.354 --> 00:30:07.193
Robert Chaldean talks about it.

00:30:08.273 --> 00:30:11.973
You talk, you, you hear about an airplane crash and you think all the planes are going to crash.

00:30:12.403 --> 00:30:15.483
But if you look at, uh, or not all the planes, but you know it's going to happen more often.

00:30:15.693 --> 00:30:21.483
But if you look at the statistics, you know, maybe in this case flying is more safe than, than driving.

00:30:21.784 --> 00:30:33.519
And maybe even though what happened in 2009, 2008 with the real estate market, um, do some studying and seeing that Maybe real estate investing is still fantastic, right?

00:30:33.528 --> 00:30:37.068
You know, and the way to go, but maybe also learn to diversify.

00:30:37.068 --> 00:30:39.388
So you don't put all your eggs in one, in one basket.

00:30:39.398 --> 00:30:50.888
So, um, the other one I like is, is kind of like the anchoring bias, you know, um, where you, you, you, a dollar amount comes out and you, and you really think, okay, it's worth this.

00:30:51.298 --> 00:30:55.259
But, um, you know, uh, that, that's one I've always struggled with as well.

00:30:55.439 --> 00:30:55.909
I'm like, okay.

00:30:56.618 --> 00:31:06.669
You know, somebody will say, well, don't worry, Damon, this isn't going to cost you 100, 000, you know, and they give you a proposal that we, uh, at like 25, 000, you automatically think, Oh, that's much better.

00:31:07.038 --> 00:31:10.068
But that's kind of a trick with the anchoring at the hundred thousand, right?

00:31:10.078 --> 00:31:22.058
You know, so I think it's pretty cool, you know, whether it's a knowledge project or Dan RLE, if that's how you pronounce his name or Robert Cialdini, there's just a lot of research out there that's really fascinating.

00:31:22.453 --> 00:31:29.673
Yeah, yeah, I mean, we all, we all suffered from anchoring biases with, with the recent inflation, right?

00:31:29.713 --> 00:31:39.163
I mean, we're all, I think as a country, as a collective, we got pissed off when we're going and paying, every time we go into the grocery store, we're paying more and more for a dozen eggs, right?

00:31:39.193 --> 00:31:40.324
For a dozen eggs, yeah.

00:31:40.374 --> 00:31:41.084
Like, whoa.

00:31:41.693 --> 00:31:43.403
That won the election, probably this year.

00:31:43.794 --> 00:31:45.094
Very likely, right?

00:31:45.134 --> 00:31:51.273
And you get, you get used to one price, the next time you go in it's higher and the next time you, you know, you're finally giving in to that and it's even more.

00:31:51.273 --> 00:31:51.973
It's like, whoa.

00:31:52.544 --> 00:31:52.963
Crazy.

00:31:53.433 --> 00:31:56.554
Yeah, so that's a good education on anchoring right there.

00:31:57.084 --> 00:31:57.423
Yeah.

00:31:57.753 --> 00:32:09.894
Um, Damian, let me ask you one more, uh, about, with, with that growth mindset, the learn it all mindset, I'm curious what your thoughts are on tech and AI.

00:32:12.179 --> 00:32:24.189
I'm a huge fan of it and, um, I, I think that, uh, when it comes to AI, you have, I guess you really have two choices.

00:32:24.189 --> 00:32:34.318
You could put your head in the sand and just think it's going to go away and then you're going to get left behind or you can, you know, go all in and I don't.

00:32:34.898 --> 00:32:38.398
You know, I, I don't think people will necessarily lose their jobs.

00:32:39.058 --> 00:32:58.449
Some people will to AI, but I think for the most partly, I think you're going to lose your job to people who are power users when it comes to AI, you know, whether, and so my recommendation for your listeners and I preach at learn at all time, I probably drive my staff nuts with, uh, I'm not, I'm not a super technical guy.

00:32:58.723 --> 00:33:10.463
But I'm super into learning about AI and leveraging AI, whether it's chat, GPT or superhuman or any, some of these different platforms or apps.

00:33:11.104 --> 00:33:15.953
Um, and I just think you should roll up your sleeves again and just get heavily involved.

00:33:16.284 --> 00:33:18.753
It's never going to, that's what's great about learning.

00:33:18.753 --> 00:33:27.638
It's never going to replace some of the skills like empathy, um, um, Communication, you know, I think you're always going to need some of these human skills.

00:33:28.628 --> 00:33:37.858
But AI is also going to give some of these smaller businesses like Learnit an opportunity to compete with these massive companies.

00:33:38.249 --> 00:33:49.269
You know, I can't afford to hire 30 marketing people, but I can learn how to use, uh, ChatGPT or Claude and say, and create personas and say, help me develop X or help me develop Y.

00:33:49.838 --> 00:33:52.558
So I think you really need to get immersed into AI.

00:33:53.608 --> 00:33:57.778
And I also think that you can't rely on it solely, meaning don't go in.

00:33:58.499 --> 00:34:01.729
Create something in chat GPT and just send it out.

00:34:01.729 --> 00:34:18.509
I think you need to make sure it's correct and you need to, you need to, you need to add a human element to it, but I think you're, uh, you're going to miss the boat if you're not, um, if you're not If you're resistant to it, I think you need to adapt and evolve.

00:34:19.309 --> 00:34:20.068
What do you think?

00:34:21.478 --> 00:34:26.949
Yeah, I, um, I'm, I'm so curious about this right now.

00:34:26.949 --> 00:34:32.838
And I spent a lot of time learning about AI, using it now, uh, and everything.

00:34:32.898 --> 00:34:36.719
I, I think about how can I do things with AI?

00:34:37.228 --> 00:34:40.409
Because I, I do think if we don't Adopt it.

00:34:40.608 --> 00:34:53.099
Yeah, that's where the real danger lies, but it also the more I use it the more scared I get Because it is amazing what it can do, right?

00:34:53.108 --> 00:35:14.418
It's crazy I mean it is and I forgot what I was listening to I think it was an interview with Mark Zuckerberg Where he said that there was some AI I don't know if it was meta AI or something where it was writing code to prevent coders from, like, hacking it or something.

00:35:15.068 --> 00:35:16.329
So like, you know what I mean?

00:35:16.329 --> 00:35:17.498
That's some scary stuff.

00:35:17.748 --> 00:35:18.068
Yeah.

00:35:18.559 --> 00:35:24.748
So, it's one I have a lot of mixed feelings about, but yet I'm using and I will be a power user.

00:35:25.148 --> 00:35:28.358
Um, so I agree with you there, you know?

00:35:28.608 --> 00:35:31.708
I'm also reading now a great book called The AI Leader.

00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:33.588
I'm only about halfway through it.

00:35:33.599 --> 00:35:34.588
Have you heard of this book yet?

00:35:35.403 --> 00:35:36.143
Who wrote it?

00:35:36.244 --> 00:35:37.934
Jeff Woods, I believe.

00:35:38.153 --> 00:35:39.764
You just stole my answer.

00:35:40.253 --> 00:35:44.574
That's what I was gonna His episode on my podcast came out today.

00:35:44.833 --> 00:35:45.704
Oh, you had him.

00:35:45.804 --> 00:35:50.914
It's funny cuz I'm gonna I was just thinking I'm gonna reach out to him and see if I can get him on.

00:35:50.954 --> 00:35:52.889
Oh, excellent I'll introduce you to him.

00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:53.688
Excellent.

00:35:53.688 --> 00:35:54.119
Thank you.

00:35:54.179 --> 00:35:56.469
Oh, great book.

00:35:56.739 --> 00:35:56.949
Okay.

00:35:56.949 --> 00:35:59.539
And what I, and what I like, that's amazing, by the way.

00:35:59.838 --> 00:36:03.489
Um, well, I know he spoke at GoBundance maybe, I think, right?

00:36:03.818 --> 00:36:04.199
Okay.

00:36:04.898 --> 00:36:10.039
But anyways, um, what he talks about is don't use it just for writing emails.

00:36:10.418 --> 00:36:14.449
Um, I have AI as your thought partner, which I totally agree with.

00:36:14.969 --> 00:36:16.809
I've used AI to help me build.

00:36:16.829 --> 00:36:25.809
So, I think that that's a great book.

00:36:25.849 --> 00:36:28.188
I'll have to come up with a new one for when you ask me about favorite book.

00:36:28.768 --> 00:36:29.929
And, uh, which I will.

00:36:30.239 --> 00:36:33.239
And, um, I just think it's a great book.

00:36:33.509 --> 00:36:33.699
Okay.

00:36:33.699 --> 00:36:38.429
And it's great for somebody who's not super technical too, you know, a senior business leader.

00:36:38.429 --> 00:36:42.688
So make AI your thought partner and you be the thought leader and make it the thought partner.

00:36:42.998 --> 00:36:44.009
How funny is that?

00:36:44.539 --> 00:36:44.778
Yeah.

00:36:44.778 --> 00:36:45.818
AI driven leader it's called.

00:36:46.313 --> 00:36:47.384
The AI driven literature.

00:36:47.384 --> 00:36:47.853
That's right.

00:36:48.083 --> 00:36:48.384
Yep.

00:36:48.474 --> 00:36:49.253
I just started it.

00:36:49.423 --> 00:36:50.824
I'm probably a quarter of the way through.

00:36:50.853 --> 00:36:52.333
It's uh, yeah, it's funny.

00:36:52.364 --> 00:36:56.873
It's awesome Um, and it definitely gives you a different perspective altogether.

00:36:57.284 --> 00:36:57.954
There you go Jeff.

00:36:57.954 --> 00:37:16.934
There's another plug for you So yeah, and you know the other time along those Lines, I, I spend a lot of time thinking about the opportunity in, um, it with AI, like where will, you know, I think there will be a lot of job displacement at first, but we will evolve and it'll probably create even more jobs and more opportunity, right?

00:37:17.313 --> 00:37:24.164
Um, and as we figure it out, because it's not the first breaking technology.

00:37:24.483 --> 00:37:28.003
Look, it's, uh, we, we've had three other industrial revolutions, right?

00:37:28.034 --> 00:37:30.864
And, and they've all, they've all created jobs somehow.

00:37:31.103 --> 00:37:31.423
That's right.

00:37:31.463 --> 00:37:37.333
And, um, But people are saying that AI is bigger than electricity.

00:37:38.134 --> 00:37:39.384
It's bigger than printing press.

00:37:39.963 --> 00:37:42.403
Hopefully it goes in the same direction.

00:37:42.813 --> 00:37:48.003
And hopefully it helps cure cancer or self driving cars or whatever it is.

00:37:49.523 --> 00:37:49.943
I don't know.

00:37:49.954 --> 00:37:51.393
There needs to be governance.

00:37:52.224 --> 00:38:10.608
But again, I just think us as individuals I, you know, and leaders, I think we need to embrace it and incorporate it into our organization if we don't want to become irrelevant, you, I think you need to know AI and we're beating the drum here, but to be relevant, I think you have to immerse yourself in it.

00:38:11.009 --> 00:38:11.719
Yeah, totally.

00:38:12.179 --> 00:38:17.998
You know, um, I think one of the other great opportunities with it is connectivity, human connectivity.

00:38:18.489 --> 00:38:20.628
Um, that, that will not be replaced.

00:38:20.648 --> 00:38:25.889
And I hear a lot of talk about what you were saying before around empathy and such, uh, communications.

00:38:25.889 --> 00:38:32.793
But I, I think at the end of the day, you know, there, Like we've hit bottom with the work from home.

00:38:33.273 --> 00:38:35.494
People do go, are going back to the office.

00:38:35.514 --> 00:38:40.353
People are going to events, you know, uh, and maybe not at the same level as before, right?

00:38:40.393 --> 00:38:44.204
Maybe hybrid will be the case, but you know, I'm a, I'm personally looking for an office again.

00:38:44.204 --> 00:38:47.393
I gave up my office about a year and a half ago and I'm hating it.

00:38:48.443 --> 00:38:49.063
I want to get back.

00:38:49.304 --> 00:38:51.943
So I, I think that human connectivity is big.

00:38:51.983 --> 00:38:55.753
I go to a lot more events now than I did before, just to connect with new people.

00:38:56.054 --> 00:38:58.344
And I think that that keeps is going to keep growing.

00:38:58.344 --> 00:39:00.253
So anything around connectivity.

00:39:00.699 --> 00:39:07.898
You know, connecting humans, uh, will be a major, major opportunity that AI can't disrupt, really, so.

00:39:08.318 --> 00:39:09.728
Yeah, I, I totally agree.

00:39:09.728 --> 00:39:18.628
I mean, uh, this young woman who worked for me, um, you know, she, she was so excited for work from home, work from home, you know, and, and.

00:39:18.639 --> 00:39:18.938
Yeah.

00:39:20.028 --> 00:39:22.378
And, uh, she ended up moving to New York.

00:39:22.898 --> 00:39:31.159
And she took a four or five day in the in office job and because we just had lunch and she said I'm just tired of working from home and being by myself all the time.

00:39:31.349 --> 00:39:45.099
Yeah, you know, I appreciated the flexibility But I want to be around people I want to go to happy hour and go to events and do things So for a real estate guy who owns an office building in San Francisco Unfortunately that right before Cove it we purchased it.

00:39:45.099 --> 00:39:49.119
I'd like to see People come back into the office a little bit more often as well.

00:39:49.728 --> 00:39:53.338
I think I think I think I think the human connection is is good.

00:39:53.338 --> 00:39:55.239
That's never going to be replaced by AI.

00:39:55.579 --> 00:40:21.224
Um, I just released a We're just coming out with a series on our for free on our podcast the 11 essentials 11 essential skills and it's all about listening empathy self awareness human decision making all the skills that you're going to have to have you know, you know in um, That will make you uh irreplaceable Yeah, I'm gonna check that out for sure.

00:40:21.514 --> 00:40:25.967
Um, and if you, I'll put links in the show notes when we get, when we air this as well.

00:40:25.967 --> 00:40:27.389
I'll send it to you, yeah.

00:40:27.389 --> 00:40:33.213
So, uh, well, we're actually around that time where we should probably get into our world famous Wayfinder 4.

00:40:33.213 --> 00:40:35.324
It's alright if you want to use one of them again.

00:40:36.153 --> 00:40:37.193
No, I got a new one now.

00:40:37.454 --> 00:40:38.184
Okay, good.

00:40:38.503 --> 00:40:40.284
So, uh, so give us a favorite.

00:40:41.614 --> 00:40:43.599
Favorite book that we already started?

00:40:43.599 --> 00:40:44.262
Favorite anything.

00:40:44.262 --> 00:40:48.693
Activity, book, um, uh, show, you know, whatever.

00:40:48.704 --> 00:40:59.181
I would say, I would say I've been, I love reading books, but I just started listening to Al Pacino's, um, autobiography on, uh, and it's awesome.

00:40:59.181 --> 00:41:00.090
Is it?

00:41:00.090 --> 00:41:02.367
Oh my gosh, it's awesome.

00:41:02.367 --> 00:41:09.719
So, if you are even slightly a fan of Al Pacino, go pick up, go pick up, I think it's called Sunny Boy.

00:41:10.159 --> 00:41:12.648
So, um, that's, that's a great one.

00:41:12.898 --> 00:41:15.768
Great sales book that I love is called The Jolt Effect.

00:41:15.768 --> 00:41:16.884
I actually had Matt Dixon on it.

00:41:17.213 --> 00:41:34.873
On my show, he wrote the challenger sales as well, but it's all about why, um, people end up at indecision, which kind of goes back to some of those biases we talked about, but the jolt effects a great, um, book if you're in sales or you lead a sales team, but if you're looking for a great autobiography, please check out Al Pacino.

00:41:34.873 --> 00:41:35.403
It's awesome.

00:41:35.873 --> 00:41:36.664
Okay, cool.

00:41:36.684 --> 00:41:37.543
Does he narrate?

00:41:38.423 --> 00:41:39.594
That's the best part about it.

00:41:39.724 --> 00:41:40.273
Oh, I love that.

00:41:40.304 --> 00:41:44.184
He narrates it, his voice, he chuckles when he tells his stories.

00:41:44.463 --> 00:41:47.664
I can't, I can't even do it justice, Louis.

00:41:47.673 --> 00:41:48.063
Okay.

00:41:48.233 --> 00:41:55.643
You know, it's one of those things where if you're out walking the dog or, you know, you just get, you just get absorbed in listening to him talk, you know.

00:41:55.643 --> 00:41:55.853
Yeah.

00:41:55.853 --> 00:41:57.423
And he's just frickin awesome.

00:41:57.804 --> 00:42:07.579
I love listening to autobiographies when the Person reads it and they're good and engaging like Matthew McConaughey's green lights.

00:42:07.708 --> 00:42:10.079
Yeah, I'm sure you've heard listen to oh my god Fantastic.

00:42:10.079 --> 00:42:10.289
Yeah.

00:42:10.289 --> 00:42:15.659
No, I've seen him on a bunch of podcasts Talking about his book, but he's got the voice like Al Pacino, right?

00:42:15.659 --> 00:42:17.358
Yeah, very distinctive.

00:42:18.278 --> 00:42:21.949
I Listened to a couple books written by Kevin Hart and he's hilarious.

00:42:21.949 --> 00:42:22.518
Oh, yeah.

00:42:22.539 --> 00:42:22.728
Yeah.

00:42:22.789 --> 00:42:23.059
Yeah.

00:42:23.099 --> 00:42:23.389
Yeah.

00:42:23.398 --> 00:42:31.784
Yeah, so yeah, I was listening to Kevin Hart book and I was like laughing out loud and Walk, walk in that, people thought there's been wrong with me.

00:42:31.813 --> 00:42:32.364
Yeah.

00:42:32.364 --> 00:42:32.494
But.

00:42:32.914 --> 00:42:34.284
But check out the Al Pacino book.

00:42:34.434 --> 00:42:35.753
Okay, okay, I got it.

00:42:35.753 --> 00:42:37.123
I'm gonna, I'm excited actually.

00:42:37.123 --> 00:42:38.903
I'm gonna probably download it right after this.

00:42:38.963 --> 00:42:39.284
Yeah.

00:42:39.523 --> 00:42:42.503
Alright, how about a hack, like a life hack that you use all the time?

00:42:42.744 --> 00:42:47.594
So what I would say, you know, I want to combine a routine with a, um, with an app.

00:42:47.753 --> 00:42:59.103
You know, so I, I, I'm a big believer in, in reading, you know, a lot of times people will say, well, I don't have time to read, but yet they could, they could list off like 15 shows that they're, they're watching on Netflix.

00:42:59.114 --> 00:42:59.423
Right.

00:42:59.833 --> 00:43:05.083
So I, I just think get in the habit of, I read 20 minutes every morning, 20, 25.

00:43:05.864 --> 00:43:13.603
But it's every morning, uh, different books, and if you do that, you end up with like 20, 30 books a year.

00:43:13.833 --> 00:43:17.423
You know, having a 7 year old and a 3 year old, I don't have a lot of time, but from 5.

00:43:17.423 --> 00:43:22.063
30 to 6, I can knock out, you know, and it doesn't matter how many pages I read, I just read it.

00:43:23.543 --> 00:43:28.744
Now, the, the hack that I do with it to try to retain more is I use an app called ReadWise.

00:43:28.744 --> 00:43:29.264
Are you familiar with that?

00:43:29.264 --> 00:43:30.293
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:43:31.273 --> 00:43:31.963
I haven't used it.

00:43:32.014 --> 00:43:40.063
And I, I read on the, yeah, I, I, I, cause you know, when I use physical books, I highlight it and I'll never go back and look at it again.

00:43:40.889 --> 00:43:58.798
So a lot of business books I read on, uh, Kindle and I highlight it, import it into Readwise, which, and it then pings me, uh, once or twice a day and it just, it's like, and I'll just read the, the five, um, highlights, you know, it helps reinforce what It helps reinforce the learning.

00:43:58.798 --> 00:44:01.318
So that's, that's kind of my hack, because again, Oh, nice.

00:44:01.418 --> 00:44:12.518
You know, if, if you read a bunch of books, you know, for your listeners out there, you gotta, you gotta connect it to, to, if it's a business book, connect it like, how is it gonna be relevant for my particular work or life, you know?

00:44:13.048 --> 00:44:17.438
And I think Readwise helps me do that because it brings back some of the highlights.

00:44:17.878 --> 00:44:18.559
Oh, that's cool.

00:44:18.849 --> 00:44:19.918
I've heard that one before.

00:44:19.918 --> 00:44:21.048
I haven't used it yet.

00:44:21.099 --> 00:44:21.969
I, I need to.

00:44:22.509 --> 00:44:23.349
Yeah, it's good.

00:44:23.778 --> 00:44:26.119
What about a piece of advice for your younger self?

00:44:27.139 --> 00:44:34.809
I think a piece of advice, you know, we kind of talked about this with the, um, you know, around the imposter syndrome and everything like that.

00:44:34.809 --> 00:44:48.009
But I think a piece of advice, uh, for, from my young, what I would tell my younger self is, let's say that, uh, you're somebody and, and you really want to apply for a job, but you look at the job description and maybe.

00:44:48.708 --> 00:44:51.389
We don't meet all the requirements on it.

00:44:51.668 --> 00:44:54.608
Go for it anyways, you know, just go apply.

00:44:54.789 --> 00:44:56.289
What's the worst thing that can happen?

00:44:56.759 --> 00:45:07.599
Um, again, I've, I've coached a lot of people and I've, you know, even hired people who didn't meet all the requirements, but a lot of people don't give themselves a chance to fail.

00:45:07.608 --> 00:45:12.759
So I guess that's my thing of saying, learn how to get comfortable with failure.

00:45:12.989 --> 00:45:15.458
Um, earlier on in my, in your, in your.

00:45:16.063 --> 00:45:16.373
Career.

00:45:16.393 --> 00:45:19.983
I wish I would have done that earlier instead of being a little too safe at at some times.

00:45:20.443 --> 00:45:22.523
Yeah, you know, I'm wondering about that.

00:45:22.534 --> 00:45:23.643
That's good advice, right?

00:45:23.673 --> 00:45:25.123
And I've tried that.

00:45:26.054 --> 00:45:29.333
I'm wondering on the other side of that as a hiring manager, right?

00:45:30.434 --> 00:45:38.983
What what do you see in a person's resume or application that will that will still grab your attention?

00:45:38.983 --> 00:45:40.884
Even if they don't have all the qualifications?

00:45:44.603 --> 00:46:06.673
Maybe some of the activities that they've done, you know, maybe, um, if they've been involved in different groups, I, I know, I mean, I'm not a big fan and maybe this is bad, but you know, if somebody is job hopping every eight to 12 months and, you know, not saying I want somebody to be there, uh, 10 years at companies, but I'm also biased.

00:46:06.693 --> 00:46:07.373
Let's be honest.

00:46:07.664 --> 00:46:09.063
I'm biased towards sports.

00:46:09.764 --> 00:46:14.373
So if, if somebody played college sports, if you look at my sales team, I got eight sales reps.

00:46:14.949 --> 00:46:21.449
Six of them are D1 athletes, you know, uh, swimmers, baseball, uh, uh, one in tennis.

00:46:21.818 --> 00:46:25.018
So, uh, that, that's something that grabs me when it comes to resumes.

00:46:25.048 --> 00:46:33.639
If somebody is, uh, you know, is a musician or they played sports or they've done some, some interesting things, right?

00:46:33.639 --> 00:46:36.018
So, I've always been a big believer.

00:46:36.719 --> 00:46:48.878
Louis, when possible, hire for aptitude and attitude over experience, you know, not for a COO position, but bring people in early in their career or who have the kind of mindset where they could learn and grow.

00:46:48.898 --> 00:46:55.748
So that, that's why I brought that up where it's like, get in there and apply and see what happens.

00:46:56.469 --> 00:46:56.768
Yeah.

00:46:57.219 --> 00:46:57.588
Okay.

00:46:58.309 --> 00:47:03.208
What about, um, uh, a big opportunity or a limiting belief?

00:47:03.918 --> 00:47:06.099
Just pick one and run with it.

00:47:07.914 --> 00:47:18.003
I was going to say AI, and I think the big opportunity, uh, for my business, for your business is leveraging AI.

00:47:18.003 --> 00:47:27.204
And at LearnIt, we're building out some really cool things, uh, from AI habit coaches to, um, Ways to help us build better content.

00:47:27.244 --> 00:47:37.634
And so I think that there's uh, It's really still early enough to be a a front runner in your Industry and in leveraging AI.

00:47:38.063 --> 00:47:51.304
Yeah, you know, uh as you mentioned that I'm thinking like with your company I would imagine There's a really big opportunity If you're teaching, you know, I know you don't like the term, but we're going to use it anyway, soft skills, right?

00:47:52.213 --> 00:47:55.623
And a lot of that revolves around dealing with other humans.

00:47:56.273 --> 00:48:01.583
We essentially now have to learn how to interact with AI as well, the AI bots, right?

00:48:01.594 --> 00:48:04.054
So I would imagine there's a huge opportunity there.

00:48:05.014 --> 00:48:10.943
Yeah, I mean, we have, uh, uh, we, we have, uh, different, uh, workshops, classes, AI for leaders.

00:48:11.353 --> 00:48:17.134
Cause essentially we're telling people you need to look, say you're managing a team of.

00:48:18.829 --> 00:48:24.469
Well, of 13, now you're managing a team of 14, you have 13 humans and you have ai, you know?

00:48:24.469 --> 00:48:24.648
Yeah.

00:48:24.858 --> 00:48:35.588
And so you have the, the, so how do you, how, how do you collaborate and, and how do you, uh, get your team members to adopt and, and leverage ai?

00:48:35.648 --> 00:48:38.949
That, that's a big thing, which all starts at the senior leadership level.

00:48:38.949 --> 00:48:42.159
We don't have time to talk about all that, but No, a absolutely.

00:48:42.159 --> 00:48:44.318
I think it's a, I think it's a, a big, not only.

00:48:44.739 --> 00:48:59.518
Does it help us on the soft skills side, because that, that's very important, but also the workshops that we do on how to incorporate AI into your team and deal with some of those fears that people have and adopt it in your organization.

00:48:59.748 --> 00:49:00.108
Yeah.

00:49:00.438 --> 00:49:00.829
Yeah.

00:49:01.568 --> 00:49:09.793
The, uh, you know, the, um, I, I think, uh, I have a good friend who's an AI engineer.

00:49:09.793 --> 00:49:10.153
Actually.

00:49:10.153 --> 00:49:15.014
He does those voice recording, you know, the, the, the telephone programs.

00:49:15.014 --> 00:49:15.463
You know what I mean?

00:49:15.463 --> 00:49:19.514
You press one for this and he's been work, he's been an engineer on that stuff for.

00:49:19.554 --> 00:49:23.664
20, 30, 40 years, you know, he's probably 10 years older than me.

00:49:23.664 --> 00:49:27.914
So I'm guessing like 40 and he's one of the leaders in, in this space in the world, really.

00:49:28.244 --> 00:49:32.833
And now with AI, he's got a full staff that works for him, right?

00:49:32.833 --> 00:49:36.474
He's a product guy and, and, but they're all AI, right?

00:49:36.474 --> 00:49:38.103
It's really only like two humans.

00:49:38.293 --> 00:49:43.443
And what he does, he's got all these different AI bots that he manages, right?

00:49:43.483 --> 00:49:44.543
I mean, it must be a hundred.

00:49:44.563 --> 00:49:50.914
Cause he says basically for every time you press one, that's an instruction from one AI bot.

00:49:51.088 --> 00:49:52.179
to talk to another one.

00:49:52.599 --> 00:49:56.199
So you got AI talking to another AI to talk to another.

00:49:56.248 --> 00:50:00.059
So you, you now have a hierarchy of, of AI.

00:50:00.378 --> 00:50:00.778
Yeah.

00:50:00.818 --> 00:50:03.248
It, which is just kind of blows the mind.

00:50:03.248 --> 00:50:03.449
Right.

00:50:03.458 --> 00:50:12.159
So I, it may be more that 13 people that you're meeting with, uh, may not just be 14 with the one AI, but it may end up being, you know, 26.

00:50:12.168 --> 00:50:12.478
Right.

00:50:12.518 --> 00:50:15.199
And well, it's, it's, it's probably.

00:50:16.273 --> 00:50:21.454
Still 14, but that taking on a gigantic role in, in, in, well, you can call it 26.

00:50:21.474 --> 00:50:23.934
What I'm saying is, yeah, that's what, that's what I'm saying.

00:50:23.943 --> 00:50:34.123
That's why I think, you know, the guy downstairs in the office downstairs has a plumbing company and I, and I call him cause I live around here and his frigging phone service is awesome.

00:50:34.123 --> 00:50:35.554
And it was all AI.

00:50:35.554 --> 00:50:37.034
It was all, it was, it was all AI.

00:50:37.173 --> 00:50:38.193
And I told him that.

00:50:38.313 --> 00:50:38.603
Yeah.

00:50:38.643 --> 00:50:41.273
And he was like, this is how I get, I'm able to compete with.

00:50:41.574 --> 00:50:56.704
Some of these large companies because I can't afford 10 people anymore, but, um, and again, yes, so that could hurt with, you know, jobs for other people, but it gives him an opportunity to compete because he's leveraging, he's leveraging AI.

00:50:58.364 --> 00:51:02.994
And quite frankly, for some people, they wouldn't even realize that they were talking to AI.

00:51:03.434 --> 00:51:03.873
Yeah.

00:51:04.233 --> 00:51:04.824
Yeah, I know.

00:51:04.844 --> 00:51:06.153
It's, it's that good now.

00:51:06.233 --> 00:51:06.563
Yeah.

00:51:07.893 --> 00:51:09.534
Well, Damon, this has been a lot of fun.

00:51:09.534 --> 00:51:18.164
If, uh, people want to learn more about you, about LearnIt, uh, perhaps, you know, hire you and your, uh, your team to come in and help them with their business.

00:51:18.164 --> 00:51:19.659
How can they go about doing this?

00:51:20.268 --> 00:51:22.938
I would say first connect with me on LinkedIn, uh, Damon.

00:51:22.938 --> 00:51:23.809
Let me on LinkedIn.

00:51:24.918 --> 00:51:26.418
Uh, please check out my podcast.

00:51:26.449 --> 00:51:27.798
The, the Learn it All podcast.

00:51:27.798 --> 00:51:30.018
Louis probably should get you on there if you're in interested.

00:51:30.023 --> 00:51:30.528
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

00:51:31.088 --> 00:51:42.188
Uh, go to learn it.com and if you find a class that you like, whether it's emotional intelligence, Excel, or I don't know, whatever's on there, uh, send me a message on LinkedIn.

00:51:42.248 --> 00:51:43.059
I'll give you a free class.

00:51:43.463 --> 00:51:44.673
You know, a free live class.

00:51:44.673 --> 00:51:47.773
They're worth 250 bucks, but, uh, come check it out.

00:51:47.804 --> 00:51:49.393
And so those are really the best places.

00:51:49.483 --> 00:51:52.864
I would just say, start with, uh, Damon on, on LinkedIn.

00:51:52.873 --> 00:51:55.114
And, uh, Please check out the Learn It All podcast.

00:51:56.014 --> 00:51:56.333
Yeah.

00:51:56.364 --> 00:51:58.153
I'm definitely going to check out your podcast.

00:51:58.673 --> 00:52:02.393
Uh, it sounds like you've had a lot of great guests and, uh, it's right up my alley.

00:52:02.474 --> 00:52:03.373
So, um, thank you.

00:52:03.503 --> 00:52:03.614
Yeah.

00:52:04.184 --> 00:52:04.454
Yeah.

00:52:04.594 --> 00:52:05.443
Well, thanks for having me.

00:52:05.443 --> 00:52:08.423
I really enjoyed the, I really enjoyed the, the questions and conversation.

00:52:08.884 --> 00:52:09.474
Likewise.

00:52:10.483 --> 00:52:10.813
Thank you.

00:52:15.583 --> 00:52:17.344
We hope you've enjoyed The Wayfinder Show.

00:52:17.494 --> 00:52:21.713
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00:52:22.003 --> 00:52:26.253
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