IDL11 Season 1: Be More Like You and Lean Into Purpose with Tyler Lafferty
What are the qualities of a good leader? Why is introspection a critical piece in finding your purpose? What does it mean, and why is it better, to lose with your hands open?
We continue the conversation about what we are here to do and my guest Tyler Lafferty shares his Ideas Framework for answering the ultimate question about what you want to do with your life.
Meet Tyler Lafferty
Tyler is the co-founder of Seven2, 14Four and Strategy Labs, three nationally recognized digital creative and media buying agencies with clients including Amazon, AT&T, MTV, Uber, Mountain Dew, Adidas, Toyota and others.
For more than twenty years, he's also been following his own passion helping students dream big and discover new career opportunities through mentorship, speaking in classrooms and developing an online platform connecting professionals and educators called Access2Experience.
He's an active member of his community through leadership and philanthropy and lives with his family in the Pacific Northwest.
Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn and Instagram. Find out more his book here and download his Ideas Framework workbook.
In this episode we discuss:
The Ideas Framework
You can make an impactful shift at any time
Be an incubator, not an incinerator
THE IDEAS FRAMEWORK
Introspection
Design
Exploration
Adaptability
Service
YOU CAN MAKE AN IMPACTFUL SHIFT AT ANY TIME
“[For me, it was about] over time [becoming] introspective and realizing what it was that I seemed to be good at and being honest with myself, not even who I wanted to be per se, but realistic about looking at my own unique skills and interests: what am I good at? ”
There is no need to continue living in the set patterns that we find ourselves in. This Ideas Framework can be practiced at any stage in your life, be it in your early 20’s or mid 50’s, either way, it helps you unlock the door to the version of yourself that you have been trying to reach.
There is a lot of mentorship in leadership and as much as there is teaching in one direction from mentor to student, there is a lot of wisdom to be gained from being a mentor.
As a mentor and teacher, there lies a sweet spot between being headstrong, motivated, and encouraging and then being a bull in a china shop. A part of being a mentor and teacher is not necessarily having all the answers, but being aware of the lessons you have learned and sharing them when possible with your employees or followers with vulnerability and humility.
“Leaders are still very proactive … sometimes you’re the one carrying the flag and moving up the hill and sometimes you’re the one in the back supporting and screaming ‘let’s go let’s go, you’re doing good!’ … you have to recognize when you’re mentoring, what is needed at this moment?”
BE AN INCUBATOR NOT AN INCINERATOR
“If you help people grow, and grow out of their position they’re going to provide more to your organization than if you try to burn them up … be an incubator and not an incinerator. When you’re an incubator you never know what they grow into but if you are an incinerator you know what’s going to happen.”
As a leader, if you focus on what is best for that person and if it aligns with the principles behind the business then that is great. But if not, then letting them go and move onto other opportunities provides a space for someone new to enter your business and allows your previous employee to move into a space that feels more suited to them. A win on both fronts.
Resources, books, and links mentioned in this episode:
Visit Tyler’s website. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Download Tyler’s Ideas Framework workbook.
The Impact Driven Leader YouTube Channel
Join the Impact Driven Leader Community
About the Impact Driven Leader Podcast
The Impact Driven Leader Podcast, hosted by Tyler Dickerhoof, is for Xillennial leaders who have felt alone and ill-equipped to lead in today's world. Through inspiring interviews with authors from around the world, Tyler uncovers how unique leadership strengths can empower others to achieve so much more, with real impact.
Rate, review and subscribe here on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Stitcher and Spotify.
Podcast Transcription
[TYLER DICKERHOOF]: Welcome back to the Impact Driven Leader podcast. This is Tyler Dickerhoof. Glad you guys are here today to listen to this episode with my good friend, Tyler. Yes, it's another Tyler, but that's all right. Our voice is distinctly different. You're going to get a lot of value out of this episode, but before we get there, make sure you hit subscribe. Somebody shared this with you, maybe it's not in your weekly list coming at you, hit subscribe. At the same point, I'd love for you to leave a review. How do people find out about this stuff? By you leaving a review? If you get value out of this content, you've got value out of other episodes, if you've gotten value, what Tyler has to share today, at some point, click subscribe, give me a rating, give it a review so other people can find this. I'm doing this because I'm trying to grow as a person. I'm hoping other people are growing. And how do we grow? By feedback, by getting critiqued, by sharing with others. That's how we all grow together and that's what I'm all about.
So today's episode kind of follows along this path` here this month, about purpose and about calling and about understanding what are we here to do? Tyler Lafferty is the founder of Seven2, 14Four, and Strategy Labs, three nationally recognized digital creative agencies. They work with clients such as Amazon, 18T, MTV, Adidas, Toyota. I mean, they've done some really amazing stuff at their companies and I'm glad to call him a friend. He has poured into my life, mentoring me over last couple of years, really kind of in that peer mentorship role and he recently wrote a book. It's the book Be More Like You. I got a little choked up there trying to say, just bear with me. And this book is a guide to answering the question, what do I want to do with my life? I'm 42, almost 42 and Tyler's a couple years older and I know this is stuff that we got to think about, but this book was written for someone maybe in high school, maybe in college, maybe just into the workplace.
And I think it's so funny, because we can look back and say, man if I would've had that guy and this is a fable written, and I'm glad to be able to chat with him about it. You're going to hear a lot in this episode, I'll come back in the end and we'll wrap it up and it really give you some great pieces of information to walk away with to where you can help other people. I'm glad you're here listening to the Impact Driven Leader. We're about helping people become better leaders, to be impact focused, and that's what we talk about today from Tyler and how to help ourselves as well as others do exactly that; focus on impact and Be More Like You.
[TYLER]: Tyler welcome to the Impact Driven Leader podcast. Dude, I am so excited to chat with you. Our chats are always fun. I always learn a ton and I'm excited because the first time I ever did a podcast, I actually interviewed you and to have you back again, but to talk about this whole idea of purpose and talk about your book and everything you're doing, I'm super excited to talk about.
[TYLER LAFFERTY]: Well, thank you. It's good to see you, man. I really appreciate it. I'm excited to be here.
[TYLER]: Yes. So let's jump right in. Recently last year, 2020 you wrote the book Be More Like You and you launched a podcast with that. I would love to kind of, as you know, this entire month of March and the book club and everything I'm going through is about kind of this idea of purpose, how your book kind of fits into that. So why don't you start for the listeners, tell them about this book, Be More Like You.
[LAFFERTY]: Yes, absolutely. I mean, it really starts with kind of a cultivation of my own passions and purpose and what I've kind of come to understand over probably the last 20 years that, you know for the listeners, I'm a business guy. I own multiple companies kind of a serial entrepreneur. I have great partners, we do some really cool stuff, mostly in the digital marketing space. And so I love that. I love business and have a great platform that I go and have for years, I've been talking to students about technology and marketing and all of that. And I love getting in and telling students what we do and sharing that because I'm all about trying to get them to think big about different career opportunities. I say this story all the time, we bring students to our office and we let, we tell them kind of what we're up to and we build, not only do we do marketing campaigns for companies and whatnot, but we also build games. So we've built games for SpongeBob, a lot of Disney games, we've done iPad games, desktop games, things like that.
So when you tell kids that you build games, you design, you build games and their eyes just light up and they think like, "I love playing video games. I never thought of designing or writing or programming video games." So they kind of, their mind opens to this new opportunities. And I love that, like for me to be able to share those kinds of things and to see them kind of light up about, "Wow, like that would be cool." They just don't even think about that. I think that is typical with a lot of students in the sense that young people, they just don't open their eyes to like, what are the job opportunities that are out there?
So for me, that's, been speaking in classrooms for over 20 years. I love that, again, back to my own kind of purpose and what I care about is I love sharing that. So I have this innate, like just drive and love to want to share with students and young people about like, what are the possibilities? What could you potentially totally love [inaudible 00:05:45], because I'm a guy that wakes up every single day and goes to work. I love my job. I love what I do, I love management, I love our industry. You know, the internet is so interesting and cool to me. So I'm one of those people that absolutely love what I do. So it really came from, I had been speaking in these classrooms for a long time to do a lot of work in the educational field. I've been sitting on a lot of advisory boards, have been speaking into curriculum for different classes on entrepreneurship and things like that.
I've been helping support some experimental schools and they're just, again, things that I wanted to get and give to. And so I've been giving a presentation, pretty the last three or four years that was titled What I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me. And it was this idea of like speaking to these college kids and like, "Hey if you're about to get into the real world, there's some things I want to help you along the way and what that looks like what I've learned and what I do." And the reason being is I thought, well, if I could help them kind of connect some dots then hopefully it'll be a little less stressful, a little less crazy. Because I meet with students and mentor a lot of students all the time and I just hear this like fear of the future and, "I don't know what I want to do, or I'm scared of making the wrong step and like not getting the right internship to get the perfect job and like and basically by 20 to have it all figured out and lined up and all of that." And it's just all a bunch of kind of cool anyway.
And so that's really what I tried to dispel is this, in the book was if I could give these young people a little bit of a blueprint about how to go about this. And when you start to talk about purpose and you start to kind of figure that out, it's very daunting. So I wanted to kind of create this framework to go, which I did, and it's called the Ideas Framework and I'll get into that in a bit, but really when you do that, it's, you trying to help people uncover what it is that they're actually passionate about. What do you really want to lean into? And a lot of young people that I've talked to will totally dismiss things because they don't think it's real or, and they do it quickly. So you think about something like absolutely passionate about music. "Well, I'm never going to be this amazing artist or I'm never going to be the next, I always use Taylor Swift for some reason, be Taylor Swift. I'm not, I don't think I'm going to be Taylor Swift because I'm not going at singing or whatever."
And so then we just give up on the music industry. Like we just totally give up. And we probably listen to a ton of music and we're excited about that, but we just like, well, that's unrealistic. I got to go do something else. And it's like, the book is really about helping people stop and find out, "Well, what do you really like to lean into? What is it that you really, what do you get lost in? What do you, when you, oh, my gosh, time has just flown by or what do you just get engrossed to, what do you geek out on? Or what do you, what is it that really, you know, and then looking at that as an industry and going, "Huh. Okay, wow. I never thought about music as an industry."
And all the different jobs than music. And so in the book, the book is actually a story. It's a fable. I didn't write it as a business book. I wrote it as a fable. I just think it's easily digestible, it's a little, you kind of connect with the character. So the character's name is Rory. He's young man, goes to college, he's not really sure what he wants to do. He's studying engineering because his mom told him like, "Hey, I think you'd like engineering. You're mechanically minded. You would do this." And he's like, "Sure. Okay. Yes. why not?" You know, and again, let's be honest. When you tell your mom's friends that you're studying engineering, it sounds kind of good and like you get acceptance from adults, which when everyone's asking you, when you're starting to get close to graduation.
"What are you going to do? What are you going to study? What is that?" And so he's studying engineering and he's like, just, he kind of comes to the realization like he is so uninspired, like just not doing very good in his classes, doesn't really enjoy it. And so he tells his mom, he's just like, "Hey, I want to introduce you to somebody." So she introduces him to a mentor. And it's this woman named CJ Parker, she's a successful serial entrepreneur, she does, she loves helping students. And she's me. I literally wrote myself into a book as a woman. I wanted this strong female character that I was excited about. And so CJ has, and I share a lot of the same qualities, a lot of how we lean into students, how we want to help, and she shares with him what's called the Ideas Framework. So introspection, design, exploration, adaptability, and service.
And it's really the step-by-step to kind of walk through and learn about yourself. The introspection is a lot about yourself, and I do this thing called industry mapping to help you start to understand what is those industries that you are actually passionate about, that you if money was no object and I can guarantee a success, what is it that you would do? And start to really, before you start to look at the job type, which we all do really quickly, teacher, doctor, lawyer, we look at job types really fast and, "Well, how much money do they make? Can I, is that a good salary? Can I do something with that?" Just step back and be like, well, wait a minute. What's the industry that actually, that you are passionate about, that you would want to lean into?
So that's really, the book is all about taking people through this ideas framework, which I have a full workbook that I actually share with people that they can download and actually go along and do it with it. But they get to kind of see Rory's journey and how he navigates that. So once you start to kind of figure out what it is that you're kind of passionate about, and maybe hopefully uncover something that you didn't even think was possible, like, "I didn't even think about that industry as a possibility." And then actually try to, in the book, I show you how to actually break into that industry, start making connections. What does it look like to do informational interviews and then job shadows, then internships and apprenticeships. And how do you actually kind of put that together? So the book actually shows like Rory writing letters, so you have like an actual email that you can use that you write somebody and try to create a connection. I talk about LinkedIn etiquette. If you're using LinkedIn to reach out to people, what does that look like? So b and you reach out ---
[TYLER]: [crosstalk] right now.
[LAFFERTY]: It is. I mean, we talk about how many times have you been like barraged by somebody that just it's, "Hey, let me sell you this, or let me do this." Or let's be honest. Most of them have no context at all. They just make a connection.
[TYLER]: Totally.
[LAFFERTY]: And you're like, and some people are like, Hey, that's totally cool to me. I want to connect with as many people as I can, because you never know. I'm not that guy. I get those all the time. And if you would have given me a little bit of context, why you think there's value in a tool of us connecting, then I'd probably be like, "Oh, I'll consider that." Yes, maybe we can accept, but you know, nine out of 10 are, "Hey, let's just connect." And there's zero context. So I try to give kids like, "Hey, if you want to reach out to somebody and make that connection, build context. Say, Hey, I really love what you do. I'm interested in learning more about your industry. I'm wondering if you might take 20 minutes to talk with me over a Zoom or a phone call, or maybe over coffee in person," but just help them with that kind of what that looks like to navigate that, because that's, the other thing is a lot of these young people are just fearful to take that step, to move in that direction, to do that. And trying to give them a little bit of a blueprint to try, like, "Hey, I could follow that. I could do that." And start to hopefully move in a direction that you are excited about, that is purposeful, that you find fulfillment in, that gives you joy.
I mean, I think maybe, you've heard me say this, it's like, I joke that I should have called the book happy healthy humans. Because that's what I want. Like, that's it. If you read this book and I mean, the world needs more happy, healthy humans who are living into their purpose and moving in that direction.
[TYLER]: Well, and I think that's where I think about the book. And as we've discussed in and talked about, there's really a lot in our interactions or the time that we'll go for a walk and talk over the last couple of years. It's really, it's not, yes, you wrote this about a guy, Rory in college going on to that career, but it really could be done at any stage and point in life.
[LAFFERTY]: Absolutely.
[TYLER]: And as you, I know have seen in your different companies that you own, you'll find people that it's like, "Hey, why are you doing this? Let's go through this." And almost re-change their perspective and readjust their perspective to say, "Okay, do we need to maybe do this?" And you're 35 and you've kind of gone along this journey in this career and you're like, "Is this where I need to be?" So let's take that idea and thought. I want to get a little bit deeper. I want to know a little bit more about CJ, I want to know a little bit more about Tyler. What is your origin story based upon your experience to kind of how it got to the point where you see yourself as, the purpose, really, as I got to know, I've gotten to know you, is this mentor for other business leaders. So kind of weave into your story a little bit, because I think that can relate very much to all the listeners that are leaders at a certain point themselves.
[LAFFERTY]: Yes. I appreciate that Tyler. For me, it was really about over time trying to like be introspective and recognize what it was that I seem to be good at which, like, and being honest with myself, not even who I wanted to be per se, but being realistic about looking at my own unique skills and interests and like what am I good at? Well, at the end of the day, I've somewhat proven to be somewhat okay at building businesses. I've been, what are we at, five or six now, pretty successful. I've got great partners. Maybe I'm just good at picking good partners, but you know, been able to be a pretty good business person to recognize how do you create revenue? What does that look like to operate and run a company? And so from one of my own purposes is I have been introspective and recognize that wow, you know for whatever God's given gifts, I'm able to like be a good operator.
I kind of know what it takes to build a good company. And so I recognized that and said, "Wow I can do this and I I've done it well. Why not try to then use that to help others who are kind of going down the same path? You know, I'm 17 years in from an entrepreneurial standpoint. So like I started my first company, well, that's not even true, I started two companies before that. So I'm 25 years in actually from an entrepreneurial standpoint and having gone through certainly skin to my own knees, done dumb things as a manager, learned and learned and learned along the way, but recognize if you look at my track record, I'm kind of okay at it. And maybe I could share this with others.
And so that was big to me. I wanted to be able to give back to others who were kind of moving down that same path as I was and say, "Hey, I've kind of learned some of these things. I want to help you along the way. I'm going to share with you what I've done." And I just had this, like cup is overflowing type of thing where like, I want to be able to kind of share and give out. Whether people want to listen to me, it's probably a whole another story, but I want to be able to share with that and see that feel for me, that is something that is a God-given talent that I've been good at and that, "Hey, I think I can share this with others." So that's why I have mentored a lot, a lot of different business owners in a lot of different industries just because I want to help, I want to see them succeed.
[TYLER]: So let me ask you this, because I think it's a great encouraging those listening. As part of this as yourself and CJ is mentoring others. And as a part of leadership, in my opinion is there's a lot of mentorship in leadership, but there's also a lot of that comes back to you in that form. So I'd love to know one or two things that as you've mentored others, and even maybe CJ, as she was mentoring Rory, what have you learned? What things are like, "Oh, I didn't realize either I was really good that, or I can help people in this area."
[LAFFERTY]: Well, let's be honest. All of us are really good at giving advice, not always the best at taking it, or we can look at a situation where let's say it's with an employee or something like that, where you can, you really can lean into what you could have done better in that situation and then help somebody and use that and not be afraid to use that. I think sometimes we think as leaders that we don't want to, I don't want to show that I didn't know what I was doing at that moment. But what you're actually showing is that I learned in that moment and I want to share it with you and help you move in the right way. So I think about some of the things with helping other leaders with how they mentor their employees and how they work with them and how they help them and how they listen to them and that's been a big one for me because it doesn't mean that I've always been the best listener. It doesn't mean that I've always done the best at moving them down, that my own employees down that path.
But I've learned and I like to think that I've gotten better at it. And that's, I think there's a bit of a vulnerability with leadership that we have to kind of own and be, we don't have to have all the answers all the time. But we have to recognize what we have learned along the way, share that vulnerably with somebody and say, "Hey, this is where I screwed up. This is what ..." And so I think about that particularly when it comes to not just, oh, great building great revenue or this and that, but when it comes to real people and connecting with people, I'm, back in the day I used to be a real, like I literally just call it a bull in a China shop. I just kind of was like, "Let's get stuff done." And it didn't matter who I kind of affected and I'd just like, go, go, go. You know, and my business partner, Nick was really good about reminding me, "Hey, you can't do that all the time. You got to be careful about how that affects other people."
And I took that to heart. And so I think that's changed me along the way about, okay, how am I being open to what this person needs for me? Or how can I listen to them? How can I help them along in their journey and what that looks like? And that doesn't mean from a leadership standpoint, in my opinion, that you're completely always just listening and sitting back and being reactive. Leaders are still very proactive and you're still moving forward and you're still, sometimes you're the one carrying the flag and like moving up the hill and sometimes you're the one on the back supporting and like screaming, "Let's go, let's go. You're doing good," and you're pushing and helping up the hill. So you have to recognize and help when you're mentoring, help those understand, well what's needed at this moment in that situation?
And so I think as mentors and leaders, we have to be introspective. We have to step back and look at ourselves, where are we screwed up, where are we not, and how can we then use those times to share with who we're leading and say, "Hey, this is where I'd shoot up. This is what I'd have done." So for me, that's a big one. It's just being realistic about my own faults and where I've screwed up. And so, I mean, that's, I would say more than anything is just being, and that's hard. That's hard for so many leaders because we don't want to admit that we were wrong or that we weren't doing it right. And so I'm just trying to be more, as the older I get, the more vulnerable I think I'm getting and more, I'm like, I don't always have to be right or at least show that I'm right. And so just being very honest about that.
[TYLER]: You know, as I look at my own personal experience there, as I've shared with you at times and talk to you about the more that I've done exactly what you just mentioned; is the way that I'm actually better able to lead people. Because when I'm open to my own foibles, if I'm able to recognize where I fall short, I can be in a situation where talking to someone or mentoring is like, "Oh yes, I really screwed that one up." You know, I had that happen, last Friday, I was he was talking to someone who, she much to the same as I did, it was kind of had this idea, like you described, put my head down and just push to get that result. And that's how I just kind of dealt with a lot of life and now looking back and say, "Oh, that didn't work so well at times." As you mentioned, that bull in the China shop and you luckily had to be able to do that.
And I think the opportunity as leaders, you're leading people in your organization is to create that vulnerability in relationship to say, 'Hey, here's how I've screwed up." And sometimes we can leave a situation as I know you probably have. You know you're working with an employee, a coworker, a partner, whatever and you're like, "Oh, I wish this would just work." And to have someone to mentor, to have someone to share with, or to partner with to say, "I don't know why this isn't working for them to say, hey, dude, you just need a timeout, slow down." What are they trying to accomplish? What do they want to achieve? And I think that ties into exactly this, because you can come into a situation where someone is just, they're hard to work with. They're frustrating. They're may be not accomplishing, they're not reaching their potential and you can sit down with them like you've done in this, you know what I would describe in this book Be More Like You and they're like, "I hate this. I'm not fulfilled here."
And then you can start asking those questions. "Oh, okay. How can we go through that journey?" And you discover they're actually well-suited for something completely different. And you're like, "I never knew that. How can I help you get there?" And that's a ton of fulfillment from my point of view as a leader when that can happen.
[LAFFERTY]: Yes, and Tyler, I appreciate you saying that. A business owner reached out to me the other day and one of her children had worked for me. And when he decided to go on and do something else, we supported him and we were behind him 110%. We were like, he wanted to go and he wanted to kind of explore some other things, some other companies and we weren't like mad. We weren't upset that he was leaving us. We were super excited that he was living into who he was as a human being and what was good for him. So we talk about the idea of employee first, person first, company second. So we want what's best for humans. So we want what's best for him. And so she sent me a note. She's like, "Man, I just had somebody that I was kind of dealing with and they're like leaving and they want to kind of do their own thing."
And I'm like, and she goes, "But I thought about what you said, what you had told my son and then it was about what they wanted and what they needed." And I said, and so she and I kind of chatted about that and it's exactly right. And it's like what you said about, maybe they're doing something that's so unfulfilling. And we sometimes as, as leaders, like, or they're there in our organization or we're managing them. It's like, "What? You're unfulfilled in my organization? Like that's crazy. I'm a great leader. I shouldn't..." No, it's not a knock on the leader by any stretch. I mean, it can be, if you need to be, sometimes you need to be honest about that too, but what you do need to be is have enough humility and enough guts to be like, "Hey, at the end of the day, I want what's best for you. And maybe it's not here and I want you to be fulfilled in your work." And just being open to listen to that, talk with them. What does fulfillment look like? What does finding your purpose look like and move in that direction? And that takes, that's hard as well. That took me a little while to learn over the years.
[TYLER]: Well, I mean, I think about times that I have been in that situation and I quite honestly have been that as an employee and kind of that like [inaudible 00:17:01], you would go do something else. Well, this isn't good enough. It's like, "Well I want a different challenge maybe." And it's kind of that opportunity. And so I always took the opportunity since that experience to say, "I want to be an incubator for people. I want them to go and do something new." And as I've learned from this leadership point of view, if you help people grow and grow out of their position, they're going to provide more to your organization than if you try to burn them up.
[LAFFERTY]: Sure.
[TYLER]: And so I've modeled this as being an incubator, not incinerator. When you're an incubator, you never know what they grow into, but if you're an incinerator, you know what's going to happen, you're going to burn them out, you're going to burn them to zero. And I think it really is that element of learning as a organization, whatever business you're in. It doesn't matter if you're nonprofit, it doesn't matter if you're for-profit. Whatever that is is if you're looking to opportunities to say, "Hey, what's best for that person? And if I focus as a leader, if I focus as a business owner, if I focus as a mentor, what's best for that person?" Well, if it's meant to align where we walk together, then great. If not, I believe by doing that, you're going to see other things come in. That void always gets filled. You know, I even had someone mention, it's like, "Well, if we lose them though," but it's like, if you lose with your hands open, I believe God is always going to fill that, but it lose with your hands closed, dude, that's a bad on you.
[LAFFERTY]: Yes, that's totally true. The other thing that, just to answer your question, I would say what have I kind of, or things that I've learned along the way, and I kind of mentioned this a little bit was, and I just got this reinforced. I was just looking at a Donald Miller thing recently and he just said something about this as well. And it was the idea that he was talking particularly about coaching, but it was, and I think in many respects, leaders are coaches as well, but it's just this idea that you can't just be a cheerleader for somebody. You know, if you are in that leadership role you can't just be that cheerleader. And I'm all about coming alongside somebody and helping them and listening and all of that. Absolutely. And I think leaders need to do that, but you also do need to help with a bit of a roadmap and you need to help them kind of move things along and then help them.
That's what, you know you've hopefully as the leader, maybe you've had more experience than they have, or you've had that. And so I think we have to remember that as leaders is not just that cheerleader aspect, but we need to be a bit of a shaper and we be like, "Hey, let me help you along the way. Let me, I have this." Or if you will a caddy, a caddy still gives directions to their golfer and they're helping them along that way and they're giving them advice and they're moving them. So I think it has to be practical. Like we, as leaders, we need to lean into the practical side of what we need to do and remember that we're leaders and like, "Hey, there's a reason why you're leaders here. Lead this person, give them that and move in that direction."
And so I think that's incredible. And that's how you add more value as their leader, like, "Oh, that's what I appreciated that Tyler helped me along and he actually had some advice to give me that was practical steps to move forward. And it helped me be better at my job or whatever I was doing." And I like to think that that's from a mentorship standpoint with, whether it's other agency owners that I meet with that are maybe building their agency or coming along. I'll do things and give them very practical advice. I just went over a financial dashboard with multiple business with agency owners and I just wanted to make sure that I was giving true value to what we were doing.
So there was like, "Oh, that's really helpful," rather than just like, "Yes, just make sure your finances are all in good shape. Like, what does that look like? Show me." And so I wanted to be a little bit more proactive and I think that's what any good leader is. So I've learned that along the way as well that it's important to say, "Hey, let's make sure that we actually are moving down the road together and with valuable input, and like I said, a roadmap to make things happen."
[TYLER]: Would you say that your purpose is really that, is to help guide people in the process of, you know because I've seen that even in our relationship, and I know your interaction with others and you know, sitting here again to kind of wrap up this. Would you say your personal purpose is to help guide people through and maybe accomplish more than they thought they could?
[LAFFERTY]: Yes, absolutely. I mean, if utilizing what I've learned along the way and to kind of pour into others with, "Hey, this is what I've learned, this is what I did good. This is where I did bad," and then trying to multiply that, seeing them do that within their organizations, seeing them grow, see that. And that's what I want. And these are even on some weird level, some of these people that I mentor could be seen as competitors of us. I don't look at it that way. There's enough business to go around. There's enough out there. I want to see multiplying happening. I want to see people grow. I want to see them grow themselves, want to see their organizations grow, which means more jobs for the region and things like that. That's what I want. I want to see more of that. I think if we have that, like to your point, hands open, a bit of an abundance kind of mindset, and yes, I do believe that that's kind of what I, again, being introspective, recognizing my own God-given talents and what I believe to be over time I've been pretty, pretty good at, how can I then use that to give in and help others be their best?
[TYLER]: Well, I appreciate it because that's been part of our relationship and someone that I can go to and ask questions. And I hope there's some reciprocation there too.
[LAFFERTY]: Absolutely. Likewise.
[TYLER]: Yes. So dude, thank you so much. I will make sure that people check out your book Be More Like You. It really is a great book focusing again in this idea of purpose. And I look at as much as as my kids are getting that age, I know your kids are that age.
[LAFFERTY]: Absolutely.
[TYLER]: As your daughter is now in college and is following along. It's great to look back in either our own experiences or I think as we lead those that are maybe getting in their career or 10 years along, and it's like, why are they here? Hey, maybe here's a framework to go through, ask some of these questions, and so I appreciate that tremendously.
[LAFFERTY]: I appreciate that, Tyler. It's great to be here with you. Thank you.
[TYLER]: All right, dude. Have a good day. Thanks. Thank you guys for listening in. Hope you we will be back again.
I really loved the Ideas Framework. Again, from Tyler's, he shared about this. It really is about having a framework and if you have a framework you can walk through and you can help anyone. So it's being introspective, helping people design, explore, being adaptable service. Those are all areas that I think if we look and say, "Hey, where are we at in our life?" No matter where we're at in our career, that's a great framework. So maybe you know someone that's going through that process in life, they're trying to figure out, maybe they're new in their career,0 they're graduating high school, college. Maybe here in 2021 they're just expanding. What is life going to look like? Go the book Be More Like You from Tyler Lafferty. You're going to love it. Follow him on Instagram, go to The Real Tyler Lafferty, go to bemorelikeyou.com.
You'll be able to see more about Tyler. He's also got a workbook and I think that's what is a great compliment to this book; is the workbook that helps you go through and answer those questions. I really enjoyed the time and I as he shared with me and he shared with you guys, he shared with everyone, Tyler's heart is about service. And I love seeing someone so in prominent in our community. He's an advisor on different boards, he's on national boards, he's helped you know, really help people get started. And so when he's talking, I know that's what he's about. And it's really an example of me to hold up to as a leader; is to be like him and not worry about the competition. Just how can I serve people? And I hope that you guys got value out of that.
And thank you for listening to this episode of the Impact Driven Leader. I ask you to subscribe, leave a review, share this with someone. And if you're interested, join our book club where we read books. This month we're going through Called Out by Paula Faris. We're reading, we're interacting, we're asking questions, we're getting valued together. There's a book club, there's a round table where we get together each week on Zoom. We talk about what we're learning as leaders helping to support each other. So I'm excited to invite you to that. Go check it out, impactdrivenleader.com, tylerdickerhoof.com. Check out all that stuff. See the episode, websites, go back and listen to some of the other episodes. And thank you for being in the audience. Until the next time, this is Tyler. Have a great day.
