The Uncommon Leader Podcast

Transforming Leadership through Purpose with Eric Pfeiffer

• John Gallagher • Episode 133

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Can rediscovering your purpose transform your leadership and life? Join our conversation with Eric Pfeiffer, a and author of "Transform Your Trajectory," as he recounts a life-altering event from his infancy that instilled in him a profound sense of purpose. Eric's father's desperate prayers and his unexpected recovery have shaped his unique approach to leadership, infusing it with a deep sense of mission. Listen as we discuss practical strategies that can help you reconnect with your purpose and elevate your personal and professional life to new heights.

In this episode, we examine the underlying role of faith and service in nurturing a purposeful life. Eric shares personal stories that illustrate how losing touch with our inner purpose can lead to complacency, while reconnecting with it can unlock hidden potential. Learn about the delicate balance between self-care and serving others, and how these elements can harmonize to create a fulfilling life. Through Eric’s insights, discover how faith and a commitment to service can provide satisfaction and fulfillment across family, business, and personal endeavors.

From churches to corporate boardrooms, universal principles of leadership find their place. Eric discusses the broader applicability of faith-based principles, emphasizing the importance of community and partnership in achieving significant accomplishments. We explore the creation of personal operating systems for leadership—frameworks that utilize life experiences and emotional intelligence to foster better leaders. Eric also introduces the coaching resources available at mpwrcoaching.com, including a free one-hour call that has transformed many lives. Don't miss this enriching episode packed with valuable insights and practical tools to enhance your leadership journey.

Thanks for listening in to the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Please take just a minute to share this podcast with that someone you know that you thought of when you heard this episode. One of the most valuable things you can do is to rate the podcast and leave a review. You can do that on Apple podcasts, or rate the podcast on Spotify or any other platform you listen.

Did you know that many of the things that I discuss on the Uncommon Leader Podcast are subjects that I coach other leaders and organizations ? If you would be interested in having me discuss 1:1 or group coaching with you, or know someone who is looking to move from Underperforming to Uncommon in their business or life, I would love to chat with you. Click this link to set up a FREE CALL to discuss how coaching might benefit you and your team)

Until next time, Go and Grow Champions!!

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Speaker 1:

The more that I connect to the fact that I exist and that my life has significance and purpose, and that part of that significance and purpose is to invest in and to influence and to usher in in whatever way that I am skilled and talented for some benefit to the world around me, I directly experience a greater sense of satisfaction and fulfillment a greater sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

Speaker 2:

Hey, uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast and I'm your host, john Gallagher. Today I have a great conversation lined up with Eric Pfeiffer. Eric is an accomplished coach and author of Transform your Trajectory, and he joins the show to dive deeply into the principles of leadership and personal development that have shaped his life and career. In this conversation, eric shares compelling stories from his childhood that continue to influence his approach to leadership, including a powerful tale of a life-threatening incident as an infant, which instilled a lifelong commitment to purpose and significance. Tune in to discover how reconnecting with your purpose can transform your life and leadership, and learn practical strategies to turn your trajectory toward greater significance and impact. Let's get started. Eric Pfeiffer, welcome to the Uncommon Leader podcast. It is fantastic having you on the show. How are you doing?

Speaker 1:

I'm doing great, john. Thank you for having us and you're listening to. Don't Know this. Maybe we've just talked for like 30 minutes.

Speaker 2:

I wish we had pushed the record button.

Speaker 1:

Probably 10 times.

Speaker 2:

I really I look back on that sometimes and they often say that's kind of the B-roll, is what I should be doing and I just, I just should have had record. But I'm looking forward to it. We'll dig it back up in terms of some of the great things that we talked about, but I'm looking forward today to really getting a chance to learn about your most recent book transform your trajectory and learning a little bit about you and the coaching model that you have. But let's just start you off with the same first ask that I have of any of my first time guests, and that's to tell me a story from your childhood that still impacts who you are today, as a person or as a leader.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's quite a few. I'll give you one I'll never forget. I grew up in a family of five kids. I was the second oldest and I'd heard a story about an incident that had happened that involved me when I was just a baby. Incident that had happened that involved me when I was just a baby. And so one night we're at the dinner table and my dad, you know, cracked a joke, because we were very kind of fun family and like to kid around with each other. And my dad cracked a joke about something, about a grade that I got on a report card. And, trying to joke back, I said well, dad, if you hadn't dropped me on my head when I was a kid, then maybe I wouldn't be like this. And I thought it was funny and it was the first time I'd ever seen my dad shed a tear. He put his head down and I saw tears just flood from his eyes and he got up from the table dinner table and he walked upstairs and I just looked at my mom like what happened? What did I say? What did it? What just?

Speaker 1:

I had been told the story many a times by my mother never by my father that when I was X number of months old, I don't know. I don't remember how many months old my dad came home, would come home from work. My mom would come out to greet him and you know he would take me in his arms and he would kind of toss me up like this, you know, just for fun. And at one point his tie got caught over me and when he tossed me up it whipped the tie, whipped him in the eye and he lost visual and went to grab me and turned me upside down and I went straight down into the concrete driveway and they rushed me to the hospital, my mom trying my eyes are rolling to the back of my head, apparently and my mom's trying to keep me awake and frantic and he's speeding through traffic signs to get to the hospital. And they get me to the hospital.

Speaker 1:

Long story short, the doctors come out to my parents in the waiting room and they say we don't think he's going to make it and if he does, he's going to have significant brain damage. Because what had happened was, you know, when you get a brain injury, there's swelling inside and the the skull, you know, holds that swelling. So the swelling actually pushes back in on the brain and causes significant damage. And my dad, who had no religious background to speak of, went to. Nor did we as a family in our upbringing practice any religious beliefs. My dad went and found a chapel in the hospital and didn't know what to do. Just got down on his knees and said God, I don't know who you are and if you exist and where you are, but if you save my son's life, I will give my life to you, I will devote my life to you.

Speaker 1:

And it was a number of days later that they walked in. My parents were doing 24-hour shifts, swapping, waiting for any, any word, and the doctors came in one day and said we can't explain it, we have no medical explanation, but your son is fine, you can take him home. And my parents were like what are you talking about? And the doctor said all we can explain is and we, and he's too, really probably too old for him. But you know, the brain isn't completely fused. The skull on top, you know, isn't completely fused when you're born. It's what allows the mushiness of the skull, when the baby comes out, to come out of the, out of the womb. And and what had happened was my skull split open on top and allowed for the swelling to push out. And they said I had, like a mohawk of, you know, two inch, three inch skin across top of my head where the fluid swelled, and so it didn't put any pressure on on the on the brain, didn't put any pressure on on the on the brain, and um, and they said we can't explain it like that, that should not have happened. It did happen, fine.

Speaker 1:

So now fast forward, years later, um, I had a powerful like we did not grow up in a christian house or any of that stuff and um, and I, I had a. I had my own powerful spiritual experience where I had an encounter with what I would refer to as God and became a Christian. And it would be about two years later that I would sit in the backyard with my own dad and share with him about my faith journey. And I had that vague memory of when I was a young kid saying making that comment, but it never got discussed after that, my mom wouldn't talk about it. It was like, and that was the first time my dad shared that story with me and he said, son, I, I was desperate and I asked for God's help, and I feel like he helped me with you when you were just a baby and I feel like I've been running from him for all these years. And tonight I'm done running and I want to commit my life to this faith journey as well.

Speaker 1:

And it was just this kind of unbelievable moment, for for me at it you know, I was in my early 20s at that point it was this unbelievable moment of recognizing that whatever, whatever people believe about the world and about how it came into existence and their religious and faith beliefs, um, I, it was a moment where, a pivoting point where I could no longer deny that there are forces at work there's so much bigger than any of us as individuals. You know, for me, I have my own particular belief system, that I operate within, but that somehow we're all connected and somehow there's there is something more significant going on than just all the daily problems that we're all wrestling with. And and from that moment forward, I I remember just kind of committing my life to this pursuit of searching that out and and determining that this experience that my dad had when I was a baby, that how it came full circle, you know, whatever 20 years later, and how oftentimes we run from the very things we're longing for, whether you know we're looking for it through faith or in relationships, or in our health or finances, whatever it is. You know, we desperately are longing to be connected to something bigger than ourselves, and so that's when I started, and I made my life pursuit to figure out what that is for me and to help other people do that for themselves that every human being has a sense of purpose and significance and belonging in the world. But we experience so many points of pain and frustration and disappointment that I think we start to kind of just settle for whatever life has dealt us and rather than recognizing that we can actually, I think, invest energy into pursuing the meaning of life, the significance of life, the purpose of life. And I think the more we find ourselves connecting with that, we find that we have a role to play in life. It may be not significant as we would want it to be, we may not be remembered in the history books, but that for each one of us we have incredible significance and purpose, and the more we connect to that, the more of a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment we find. And so, whether it was through my faith journey or through the coaching business that I referred to earlier, or my current coaching business.

Speaker 1:

I think, as human beings, when we lose touch with the sense of internal significance and purpose, I think we start to default and settle for what life has dealt us rather than to fight for something greater.

Speaker 1:

And I love to partner people and leaders and leaders because they have influence over other people but to partner with those people and reconnecting with their significance and purpose, which is a part of our coaching process, and when people do that, it's amazing. It's amazing what they this is the way I like to frame it is. I feel like when we reconnect with our significance and purpose, we begin to reconnect with how much potential is within us that we're not accessing. You know, a friend of mine would say that a forest is found in a seed. A single seed becomes a tree, a huge tree, and you go, wow, that's amazing. But then that tree gives birth to, you know, through seeds, to more trees and we forget that so much of what we dream about and envision in our lives is actually found within us. But we have to nurture and cultivate that and, as it were, unlock that potential. And when we do, it doesn't just benefit us, it benefits the people that we have influence and impact over as well.

Speaker 2:

So I just want to sit with that for a minute. Eric, I mean, that was big. I've had some pretty good starts with regards to childhood stories.

Speaker 1:

That I wasn't trying to outdo anybody.

Speaker 2:

No, it wasn't, it wasn't an outdo, but sometimes I got to pause and just kind of recollect, uh, with regards to some of the impact and they are those uh oftentimes those traumatic uh experiences, one that you don't even remember from the experience actually that it happened, but the impact that it had on so many lives, okay, going forward, and how it shaped you, how likely shaped your family and what you're going through, that those things that happen when we're young, they do, and when we can find our purpose inside of some of that pain in terms of the work that we have. I mean, you mentioned that it was then that you committed your life to finding out more with regards to what that meant. It's pretty powerful and I think you know again what you've done in your work. I mean, I think we'll talk about your book here in a little bit as well but what you've done in terms of taking your faith and brought that into the work that you have, whether it's overt or not.

Speaker 2:

But what I sense about it is that your modeling of those specific behaviors that you've learned has an impact on others. So we'll talk about that. But let me, let me ask, I mean, when you think about that and you pull it right into your coaching. How has your faith played a role in those organizations that you either started ran or started again, kind of thing. How has it played a role?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, wow, gosh. In so many ways it's hard to know where to start. I'll pick up. I'll pick up just a couple of things that come to mind immediately.

Speaker 1:

One is that in every endeavor that I've pursued marriage, family, building a family, being a part of a business, whatever role and responsibility I might have had, starting businesses, working with clients I learned early on in part the overflow of the story I just shared that that every endeavor is an endeavor to become a better version of myself and to find a greater sense of personal satisfaction and fulfillment, but that that's actually found in the service of others. That's found in leveraging, at any stage of my life, whatever I have accumulated or inherited, whatever I've got at my disposal, to serve the interest of others. So, whether that was when we were working in churches, when we were working with churches in my previous coaching business, whether that's in our own household, you know and it doesn't mean that I don't forget that at times, it doesn't mean that I don't fail, it doesn't mean that I don't drop the ball often, but the more that I connect to the fact that I exist and that my life has significance and purpose, and that part of that significance and purpose is to invest in and to influence and to to usher in in whatever way that I am skilled and talented for some benefit to the world around me. I directly experience a greater sense of satisfaction and fulfillment when I chase after money, which I can. At times I lose my sense of satisfaction and commitment.

Speaker 1:

When I'm pursuing my health for my own reasons of vanity, I think health is important, but then I start to lose a connection to a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. So learning at an early age that those two are directly connected has held me accountable, held me in check directly connected has held me accountable, held me in check that sometimes I can be overly preoccupied with myself and to the exclusion of the people around me and I and I lose that connection and sometimes I forget about myself, quite frankly, and I and I'm serving other people and forgetting the fact that in serving other people the byproduct should be a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. And when there's an imbalance, I've learned to discern or to be able to become aware of the indicators and I've been in a lot, you know, 23 year partnership with my wife, and so we've helped each other do that over the years. But staying in that tension, learning to live in that tension. It has, I think, been incredibly valuable and important.

Speaker 2:

Hey listeners, I want to take a quick moment to share something special with you. Many of the topics and discussions we have on this podcast are areas where I provide coaching and consulting services for individuals and organizations. If you've been inspired by our conversation and are seeking a catalyst for change in your own life or within your team, I invite you to visit coachjohngallaghercom. Forward slash free call to sign up for a free coaching call with me. It's an opportunity for us to connect, discuss your unique challenges and explore how coaching or consulting can benefit you and your team. Okay, let's get back to the show. Attention needs to exist, erica and listeners.

Speaker 2:

As we record this episode, our country is in the midst of an election cycle which is very interesting and maybe more relevant.

Speaker 2:

Specifically, time-wise has just experienced an assassination attempt on a former president, and I think about the leadership sadness that exists in our country.

Speaker 2:

So let's see if we can kind of reproduce a little bit of a conversation we had prior to hitting the record button is that you had talked about starting in ministry, coaching in the church and learning that those concepts that you were teaching there actually worked in the marketplace as well, and one of the things that I've been working on as well. On the other side of that is that many of the business concepts that I've learned over the past 25 years the Toyota production system, leadership development, personal development are influenced, no doubt, by my faith, not having known it for so long. But here's the thing Inside of our communities, our homes, our churches, we get to really go to church maybe an hour or two hours per week. We're in our workplaces 40 hours a week at least. Where the influence is going to occur is in that workplace. So you're bringing those things in. How have you brought that in? Tell me the story about how you realized that it works in both places.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I learned from a principal perspective and I shared this earlier when I was working with church leaders, because some church leaders were very keen to adapt to and adopt the leadership principles that were being produced in all the different leadership books that you can find in any Barnes, noble, per se or now on Amazon, and some church leaders were very skeptical, like, well, I don't know what these people have to say about the church. They don't have any faith. What can they speak to the leadership in the church world if they're not Christians or whatever? The case is right, and one of the things that I'd have to remind pastors all the time is hey, before there were Christians and before there were the chosen people or the Jews of the Old Testament, there were human beings. We have to go back to the very beginning.

Speaker 1:

God created human beings. God has a design and a plan and a purpose for humanity on earth that he has never, to my understanding, reneged on or changed his mind. There's no plan B or C or D or E. He set a plan in motion and he said this is why you guys are here. This is the responsibility I'm giving to you. So what I have to remind myself at times and these other pastors was God is first and foremost for humanity. And then I have to remind people, whatever version of God you believe in because I know everybody's on their own spiritual journey For the most part, most religions believe that God is for humanity. And so when we understand that, it means that at a principle level, there are certain things that will work for human beings, whether you are a Christian or Buddhist or a Muslim or a Hindu or a whatever that human beings are designed. We know this biologically and scientifically, that human beings are designed in such ways. That's why medicine has been so effective over the years. There are certain medicines that really are helpful to a large scope or swath of human beings because we're all biologically wired very similarly and in the same way. There are principles of health and relationship and communication that, regardless of the language you speak or the culture you come from, work for all human beings and help humans to function and flourish more effectively. And then, when you remember that human beings in all of history are tribal in nature, we're not designed to do life alone. If we want to accomplish anything worth accomplishing in life even marriage and family is an amazing accomplishment it requires that we partner with other human beings and so that very quickly in my younger years became a kind of fundamental philosophy that I lived by.

Speaker 1:

And so what happened was is I, you know, I spent time, obviously, with Christians and around the church, but I really gravitated toward people from a variety of backgrounds and enjoyed the kind of conversations and exploring each other's belief systems and ways of living and value systems. I was always very curious and what I realized is the things that I was learning that were not rooted in a church or a particular religious construct, but principles that were genuinely born from my reading of Scripture and that I believed were principles for human beings, long before they were principles for the Jews or Christians. I realized those are the principles that are causing me, my marriage, my family, to flourish. They're the principles that are also causing anybody I work with or talk to or process life with to flourish. And so, even though my primary context of vocation at that time was coaching church leaders, these large churches and their staffs, and which is where I learned how to navigate the complexity of large organizations and multiple different divisions and large budgets and boards and executive teams, because most of these large churches nowadays they operate more like a corporation, your kind of local parish per se. And so I learned all that with working with these large churches. But, you know, at one point I remember I was saying to you that, you know, when you work with these large churches, board members of those churches are oftentimes executives at large corporations and they would often come to our training and say this is amazing, this is better than this stuff. We're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know, for these people to come through and and they run all these assessments and spit all these, you know these ideas. And they said do you think this would translate into, you know, outside of the church? And I said you know what? There's going to come a day when I would love to figure that out, because I do believe it would, because these principles really are for human beings. And so I had that opportunity.

Speaker 1:

That coaching business came like I told you really came to a sad ending, different story for different time, and that kind of put me in a position to explore what's next. And so I started talking to people I knew who were involved in different corporate organizations, or what we call the marketplace from a Christian perspective, and just said Okay, would you let me, would you be a guinea pig? Would you let me try some of this stuff out with you? And instantaneously, like, without any like, it was no time lapse, it was like the first session I did with the group of executives. They immediately responded with where has this been? And you're talking about stuff that we don't normally talk about but we know subconsciously is so incredibly important within our organizations and even for us personally. And here you are talking about it in a way that is simple and accessible and makes sense.

Speaker 1:

And what I did was I basically just took the principles, stripped those principles of the kind of what I would call cultural language of the church world and and just simply spoke to principles straight up. And you and I talked about John Maxwell and Blanchard and one of my favorite former mentors, dr Bobby Clinton, who was a professor at Fuller Seminary out of Pasadena for a long time, the best stuff that we read in all leadership books. These principles, every single one of them, I tell people I can identify, not just one time in the Bible's biblical narrative. I can identify those principles, you know, just littered through a biblical narrative. And so, you know, when I started, I just kind of you know, took one step in front of another and, before you knew it, I realized, wow, human beings are desperate for what works. And if you can, if you can bring these principles what I call these life principles to them in a way that, without all the offensive or triggering or potentially conflicting packaging, what would happen and what I've discovered is that people have been radically transformed, teams, organizations have been radically transformed.

Speaker 1:

And now when people ask me, where'd you get? I mean I'm pretty, I'm an open book, I'm very transparent. So I'll tell them hey, this is my background, this is where I learned this stuff. And you know, and never once has anybody ever said oh, I came from a Christian, it came from this, what you're understanding that the Bible? Oh, I don't want it anymore. They just kind of go. Here's what I've heard, actually more often than not. You know I went to church as a kid. You know I was in Sunday school for a lot of years. You know I went to church with my spouse for a lot of years. Why didn't I hear any of this stuff there?

Speaker 2:

I'm not here to make a case for what I didn't hear, but I'm sorry. Oh, so it's when the student is ready, the teacher will arrive in some of those spaces, but let's draw a connection right. So you've done that through coaching. You've made that move. If you will move probably not the right word transition from the ministry to the marketplace, and then again there's still overlap. You're still doing work in ministry as well, from the keyword, but you're also now doing that by writing as well, from the key word, but you're also now doing that by writing as well. So you've written these two books one, leadership, gravitas, and then, ultimately, how we Were Connected was your most recent book Transform your Trajectory, how to Turn your Most Challenging Moments into Life-Changing Breakthroughs. Given all that we discussed in terms of that journey you've been on, who are you writing that book for and why did you write that book?

Speaker 1:

So everything that I utilize within my coaching business. There's that old saying there's nothing new under the sun. It all just gets repackaged, everything. I'm standing on the shoulders of giants from history. You know we've mentioned the Maxwells and the Kim Blanchards, and my former mentor, a guy named Mike Breen, and so many others, and so Well, here's what I realized in my 30s.

Speaker 1:

I spent about 13 years as an apprentice to a former mentor, because I was desperate to figure out what does it mean to be a great leader and what are the basic components, or where can I find a framework for what that looks like and how to practice it, because I had, by that point, I had, you know, read every leadership book I get my hands on. I had been to lots of different conferences this is pre-podcast, so I'm dating myself but I was consuming as much as I could to answer these questions, and when I met this former mentor, he not only provided a really clear framework for understanding what great leadership was, but also how can we train others to be great leaders. That was a huge catch, because, to me, I heard a lot about leadership, but not a lot about leadership reproduction, and so when I talk about the word discipling or disciple making. That's what I think Jesus meant he was like how do I train these people to do?

Speaker 2:

what.

Speaker 1:

I can do when I'm no longer around and so. But also this mentor though far from perfect, because there's gonna be someone who listens to your podcast, who knows who I'm referring to is gonna be like I can't believe. You brought him up. It's a little bit of a sore subject. But for all of his foibles, he really did in many ways not only talk about this framework, he modeled it. He had committed himself to a life of living according to these principles, and so I learned from him and many others through my 30s and early 40s and eventually realized, you know, I've read a lot of great books, but where's the system, where's the framework? Books, but where's the system, where's the framework? Where's, in contemporary language, where's the operating system? Like, I love my phone and I love all the apps that I can use, and each app represents a particular problem I'm going to solve.

Speaker 1:

But the genius of these smartphones is the operating system that is running everything from behind the scenes, and I kind of use that as an analogy to say I had, from my youngest years, through my parents and upbringing, I had in many ways developed my own personal operating system, the way that I understood myself, the world and how I was going to engage with the world and I realized my operating system is pretty dysfunctional, pretty broken. It needs to get changed. That journey, through that apprenticeship, radically transformed my own personal operating system, which transformed not only the way that I see myself and lead other people, and so I committed myself to say what I have learned. I have to, I have to figure out a way to put it into a box, as it were I know it sounds a little cheap, but to put it into the hands of as many people as humanly possible, because I'm absolutely convinced that, no matter who, what role or responsibility or what level of leadership somebody is, I believe, first of all, everyone is a leader because everyone has influence and impact. We lead our friends, our friends lead us. From our youngest years we're influencing and impacting each other, our teachers, our parents. We're leading up down beside us. We have influence and impact Every time we're on the freeway interacting with other drivers. There's leadership involved because it's influence and impact.

Speaker 1:

And the problem in our culture is that we don't even start thinking about leadership until we're now finding ourselves in a quote-unquote positional role of leadership and at that point we're behind the eight ball. We need to start thinking about leadership far earlier in our academic timeline, I think, and I think it's a journey for all human beings because, at the end of the day, the most important form of leadership, in my estimation, is self-leadership, and for so often, for so many of us, the reason why people are not able to unlock more of their personal potential is because of their lack of self-leadership. That was absolutely true for me and it's been true for every human being I've ever worked with and we're talking probably tens of thousands at this point over the years when I wrote these books, I uh the the these books. Literally I've been writing them to um, release and unpack each of the core tools that comprise our leadership operating system, um, which is are the toolkit that we take through our clients, through or the organizations that we're working through, um.

Speaker 1:

I wish there was a faster mode than writing books, because they take forever to do and publish, but nonetheless, the first book releases or reveals what we call the kind of DNA or blueprint tool that we utilize to give people a clear vision or framework for what does it mean for me, regardless of my background, position, life, station in life, what does it mean for me to be a great leader.

Speaker 1:

So it provides a vision and a clear picture for what great leadership is, whether it's for an individual or within an organization, or in the family or any social context, and it's all under the umbrella of what we call emotional intelligence, which is probably a bit more of an expanded version than most people talk about.

Speaker 1:

And then the book we just released is the next tool in the toolkit that reveals to people a very simple, practical tool that empowers us to leverage any experience in our life with the purpose of learning from that experience the insights, the wisdom that we need to gather so that we can actually experience personal transformation for ourselves and for the context that we operate in.

Speaker 1:

In other words, a simple way to say, it is too often we find ourselves operating as if life is happening to us rather than for us, and this book teaches people how to make sure that life is happening for us and how to leverage life experiences the best and the worst of our life experiences, past and present so that we can continually become a better version of ourselves.

Speaker 1:

So, really, these books are being read by top level executives across the country right now and they're being trained in it, and I also put these books into the hands of 17 year old kids If they say you know, I'm a part of a local golf club, and then what do you do for work and how did you get to where you are? And I'm like, if you really want to know how I as a human being, you may not have my particular career path, but if you want to know how I have become the human being I am today, even with all my foibles and and and still areas that need to be grown and matured, start reading these books. These are the tools that transform my life and they will transform your life.

Speaker 2:

And I love, I love the, the, the who behind that that we got a chance to really be introduced to. Eric, I'd love to be able to dive deeper into the books, possibly on another call as well, to learn a little bit more about the roadmap that you're talking about going through, because I like the idea of the vision casting on the front end.

Speaker 1:

Send me your address and I will have both of these books sent to you, I promise.

Speaker 2:

You'll have it, brother, and then tell others who are listening in where they can learn a little bit more about you and about your books as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, our website is the easiest. I mean, obviously, all of our materials. You know we have online courses, that that you know parallel these books and and we're pumping them out as fast as we can. I'm in the process right now of trying to build our team so that we can produce cause. It's all there. There's need to get produced and it's a lot harder than most people realize.

Speaker 1:

Um, go to our website. It's M-P-W-R, which is the word empower without the vowels, mpwrcoachingcom, and they can get access to all of our resources through our website. And, most importantly, we offer a free one hour coaching call to anybody who would sign up. You don't need to be a high level executive or have a leadership position If you want one free hour of coaching, and I have heard from so many people and people are always shocked when I'm the one that gets on the coaching.

Speaker 1:

I can't do all of them, but I get on a lot of them because it's one of my favorite things to meet somebody where they are, to hear what they're wrestling with and to potentially share some perspective or ask some questions. That helps them unlock a perspective or a paradigm that literally transforms their trajectory, and I mean it. I've had so many people say, eric, that one hour call with you changed my life. Sometimes they turn into clients Fabulous that's not what we're doing that for. Sometimes it just unlocks a new career path or a new level of insight or perspective that gives them the courage to do something that they thought they couldn't do before.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. Love that, eric. I want to finish you off and again, I know that the folks that are listening in are going to find value in the words that you shared over the last half hour. So I want to finish you off with the same question that I ask all the first time guests and I think there's, there's something here that just folks need to hear and I'm looking for. But I'm going to give you a billboard. You can put it anywhere you want to, out in Southern Cal, if you want to bring it back to Pauley's Island, south Carolina, and put it up there for a lot of people to go by on route 17. And you and those of you locals of the area know exactly what I'm talking about here, but you can put any message you want to on that billboard. What's?

Speaker 1:

the message About the Piggly Wiggly. Right, that's right, that's right. There you go, right there at Surfside.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, you're exactly right. You can put it right there on the billboard, right outside Piggly, wiggly. What's the message you put on there and why?

Speaker 1:

Oh, gosh, gosh. You sent me this question ahead of time and I I'm gonna be honest, I had so much fun just wrestling with that. What would I put on the billboard? And I'll tell you what I've, what I've landed on so far, because I've been through a thousand iterations. That's a good question. It's kind of like that what do you want it said on your tombstone?

Speaker 1:

But this is this one's even, I think, better and more relevant to people today. I would put something like this the life that you're looking for is found in taking 100% responsibility for your attitudes and behaviors. The life you're looking for is found in taking 100% responsibility for your attitudes and behaviors. And I have got friends who could take that and make it really pithy, but that's the learning, that's the insight that transformed much of my life and my leadership. It's the insight that continues to transform leaders at the highest level today. You'd think at our age we'd have figured that out and nailed it and that'd be a no brainer. But I find that when most people, the challenges that most people or leaders are facing, usually it usually goes back to an area internally for them where they're struggling to take responsibility.

Speaker 2:

I agree 100% with that statement as well, in terms of making that choice to take responsibility for our own actions, behaviors, our thoughts, all those things that exist inside of that space. This has been a lot of fun. I really I have enjoyed every minute talking on the record button, and before that as well. Eric, I look forward to seeing what happens for you, okay, and if you, get back to this area and Polly's Island.

Speaker 2:

please look, please let me know by email and we'll be sure to connect over there in Polly's Island somewhere. But I wish you the best and what you have going forward and thank you for adding value to the listeners of the Uncommon Leader podcast.

Speaker 1:

Likewise, thank you for adding value to the listeners of the.

Speaker 2:

Uncommon Leader Podcast Likewise, Thank you for having me. And that wraps up another episode of the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. If you found value in this episode, I encourage you to share it with your friends, colleagues or anyone else who could benefit from the insights and inspiration we've shared. Also, if you have a moment, I'd greatly appreciate if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback not only helps us to improve, but it also helps others discover the podcast and join our growing community of uncommon leaders. Until next time, go and grow champions.