IDL35 Season 1: The Journey Principles with Stephen Scoggins
What are some valuable lessons to learn from bad leadership? Where do you find your leadership growth curve? Which life roadblocks are stopping you from being the best leader you can be?
Growing up, life was really difficult for Stephen Scoggins. When he was just 22, he found himself homeless and on the verge of suicide. He was angry, stuck, and completely empty inside. Stephen’s mentor gave him a second chance and from there he launched a multi-million dollar construction company and has gone on to launch 5 other successful businesses ranging from real estate to thought leadership with top-line revenue over $100 million.
We go through so many of life’s experiences and it really is about overcoming and just continuing to press forward, just like Stephen did.
Stephen Scoggins is an award-winning serial entrepreneur who owns seven businesses with their consolidated revenues approaching nine figures.
Most notably recognized for his journey from homelessness to owning multiple multi-million dollar producing businesses, Stephen uses the power of his past to help people discover who they are, why they are here, and what to do about it.
He is the founder of The Journey Principles Institute, host of the Stuck to Unstoppable podcast, and the creator of Transform U, a proprietary process to help people from all walks of life level up and catapult forward. He has been featured in notable media outlets including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, NBC, ABC, and more. Stephen and his wife, Karen, spend as much time as possible with their three children and grandchild, and reside in the greater Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina.
To learn more, visit his website.
Connect on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Subscribe to Stephen’s YouTube channel and listen to the podcast, Stuck to Unstoppable.
In this episode we discuss:
Lessons from being a bad leader
Finding your mentors
Hold your standard high
LESSONS FROM BEING A BAD LEADER
There is as much to learn from being a great leader as there is to learn from being a bad leader. It is easy to turn a blind eye to your bad behavior or the times that you did not handle a situation well, but it is worthwhile to observe them.
“I knew in those moments I was wrong. I already knew it, and then I would go home and beat myself up about it, but I wasn’t thinking about how that was responding to them, whether or it was creating a safe or not-safe environment [for the employees], and how they felt about it. ”
Those moments can teach you what not to do, and they are as valuable as the moment wherein you are taught what to do.
Be open, aware, and take the lessons that you find. Observe yourself. Imagine you were an employee being led by yourself in your company. Consider that perspective, and make the changes as you need to.
“For most of us, our blind spots are blind spots because other people see them, and we don’t. I think my leadership really started to take shape once I started getting poured into by other mentors. ”
FINDING YOUR MENTORS
It can help you a lot on your leadership journey to spend time with people who have made the same mistakes before you. You can learn from them, see how they handled situations, and take the valuable information away.
“This is why I think finding people along the way that you can resonate with and help out on a consistent basis is by far the easiest way to actually take advantage of a leadership growth curve. ”
Work with mentors and employees. Exist in the space in-between people that you are learning from and in-between the people that you are guiding. This middle ground is where you will learn most about yourself and what strengths you have as an individual that make you a great leader.
HOLD YOUR STANDARD HIGH
Hold the standard high for yourself. Your family, loved ones, and team members are all watching you and following in your footsteps. Embody yourself and your skills fully, instead of trying to be someone else. Your leadership suffers when you are not authentic.
“That’s the thing, everybody is always watching. Don’t try to be something you’re not, but don’t try to be less than you are. ”
By fully embodying who you are, your skills and your values are what will encourage the people around you to do the same. That is how you support your team, by supporting yourself.
Stop letting excuses hold you back from becoming the more educated, stronger, kinder, and humble version of yourself.
Do not be afraid of pain. Right behind the tough moments lie the lessons that you can grow from, so do not be afraid to push further.
Resources, books, and links mentioned in this episode:
To learn more, visit his website. Connect on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Subscribe to Stephen’s YouTube channel and listen to the podcast, Stuck to Unstoppable.
Sign up to join TRANSFORM U LIVE 2021: A 3-Day Fully Interactive LIVE Experience To Accelerate Your Future
BOOK | Stephen Scoggins - The Journey Principles
The Impact Driven Leader YouTube Channel
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Emai Tyler: tyler@tylerdickerhoof.com
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.
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That’s the thing, everybody is always watching. Don’t try to be something you’re not, but don’t try to be less than you are.
Stephen Scoggins
Podcast Transcription
[TYLER]
As you know, as you've heard, part of this podcast is also doing the Impact Driven Leader round table. I want you to listen to this quick message, this is an invitation. I want you to come sit at our table. You're going to learn, you're going to grow and you can't help, but have a great time with us. And I invite you. You're listening. There's a seat for you with your name on it. Come join us.
[MOLLY SLOAN]
Hey, this is Molly Sloan. The Impact Driven Leader book club and round table have been transformational for me. I've been involved for the past six months and it's taken me on a journey to be a better leader and a better person at work, at home, and really in every interaction with people. Tyler's done a great job of guiding us through the books. They're current, thought-provoking and they apply to all of us. The weekly round table has become an accountability team. I've done lots of leadership trainings in the past where you feel on top of the world, the week after the event, but ultimately it wears off over time. This group is better. We're on a leadership journey with each other through frequent, ongoing discussions and continual growth. I strongly recommend this group to anyone aiming to continually develop as a leader.
[TYLER]
Welcome. This is Tyler Dickerhoof, the host of the Impact Driven Leader podcast. Glad you guys are here. Glad you're listening in. However you came across this podcast, whether you're subscriber, somebody shared it with you, you found it because you're trying to listen to today's guest, I'm glad you're here. Today's guest, Stephen Scoggins definitely is worth listening to. One of the things that I loved about our conversation is not the fact that he's bald too, I mean, hey, bald is beautiful. But we go through so many of life's experiences and it really is about overcoming. It's about seeing your experience as your experience and saying, how can I just continue to press forward? You're going to hear about that probably in later podcasts, as I have a few guests where we talk about a lot of resilience and those factors and dealing with dark moments.
You're going to hear a lot about that today. You're going to hear about how Stephen has continued to take this idea of servanthood, of being a servant to help people where he can. It was really modeled to him by a mentor, Steve Myrick and I'm excited to be able to share that with you. Glad you're here and at the same point would love for you to review and rate this podcast. As well, if you want to learn more about me, Impact Driven Leader podcast check out my website, tylerdickerhoof.com. I'll be back at the end to share some wrap up thoughts, some notes that I took from my conversation with Stephen, as well as tell you where you can get all the information to learn more about him and what he is doing. Thanks for being here and enjoy this conversation.
[TYLER]
I have a little sister, my younger sister lives in Raleigh as well. I don't know if I've ever been to Raleigh, I think maybe years and years and years ago, but I was excited to learn that. Of course I've done some prep. I know that you've worked with brand builders. I think actually where we've kind of crossed paths there at times, seen you either in Facebook or something. So I knew who you were and the opportunity to have you as a guest was stoked and excited that Shannon mentioned it and she's been an absolute, she is a treasure. I have enjoyed working with her. She was representing Michael Hyatt. So I had him on the show and then pretty much everyone, I mean, there's been several people at icon that I've gotten to work with that, man, they're just first thought.
[STEPHEN SCOGGINS]
She did great for me. We started developing a platform and doing some other things and it was great and had a lot of breakthrough there, but she's starting to get to a whole nother level, which I'm pretty grateful for her.
[TYLER]
One of the things that I've appreciated about them is in my interactions with them, and they brought a handful of guests, some of them fit, some of them don't fit, but really it comes back to the heart of saying, "Hey, what are we trying to do? Who are we trying to serve? What are we trying to accomplish?" You know, connect good authors and presenters, speakers, whatever it may be with different podcasts hosts. And the funny thing about me is like, I'm a nobody and I had been connected to Michael through some of the people at John Maxwell and that's how I got connected with Shannon to have Michael on my show. So that's been the interaction.
[STEPHEN]
So you mentioned Brandon was a little bit, are you aware of the new program I just rolled out with them?
[TYLER]
I only am because in prep for this, I listened to your podcast with Rory. So therefore I was like, "Oh, okay. That's great. That's awesome." I absolutely will share this with you. That is the number one barrier for me right now. The number one barrier is having a studio that I can go to. And I have connections. I've done some video, recording everything, but as far as going to a dedicated studio, the person knows what they're trying to record. I've told my strategist, I've worked with Elise Archer in the past, and now I'm working with Jay Twining, I just want somebody to say, "Go into a room, you say what you got to say and off you go."
[STEPHEN]
You show up and make it look a million bucks.
[TYLER]
Yes. To hear about that, it was like, great and understandable that for me, honestly the hard part, isn't it, I saw this the other day from Carrie Newhoff and I'll butcher it, but this was the essence of it. It's if you're trying to make a presentation and you're memorizing everything everyone's going to know. But instead if you just tell your story and you just, and as I put live it, everyone's going to know. And I think the hard part of that is just live it. That's what people want to hear. They don't want to hear this curated, perfect. That's not life. And even more, I've gotten into this point, with so much social media and filters and everything is that we get into the point where if it's so curated, so perfect, people are like, "All right, where are they lying? Where are they trying to catch me? Why is it so perfect?"
[STEPHEN]
That is so true. I've been doing all the calls coming in. AJ sent out an email to some keynote craft folks and we almost filled up the speaker side of things almost literally what felt like overnight and then I've been filling in calls left and right. So my calendar has been more full. Shannon was like, "Ah, what happened to your calendar? It's full now." I'm like, "I told you. You can't wait for stuff." It was great. It looks like we're going to have a full boat. It's September 13th through the 17th with keynote day on 15th. So it's going to be great.
[TYLER]
Awesome. I mean, obviously, like I said, I heard the podcast with Rory, so got all that stuff, but it's cool to see, as I was dipping back into your path and some of the questions that I had, and maybe this is a good point to step off and thank you for joining me. I think, to me what's impactful isn't the fact of the journey that you've had in life, but what I think is really impactful is how you've used each of those situations to benefit others, or the fact that as Steve poured into you, whether you were appreciative of it or not, it's sometimes, and that's sometimes maturity, I think you were appreciative of what I've learned, but didn't always recognize it, how that is in turn to say, man, here's a guy that even when I did everything to have him, I don't want to say, turn his back on you.
[STEPHEN]
He should have.
[TYLER]
He gave you an opportunity. And then to know that's been a big part of your journey too. I mean, I can only imagine. And I'm saying all this and admiring, have read your book, listened to your podcasts, The Journey Principles and what I see there is you have this multi-state organization, 400 employees. Give or take?
[STEPHEN]
Yes.
[TYLER]
That only happens with tremendous leadership ability. So that's where I really kind of want to step in and what did you learn in that journey, that tough journey of life that helped you be the leader that you've become and are, to really mentor and serve people?
[STEPHEN]
Well, first of all, I just want to say thank you for number one, let me share some space with you, but secondly, so kind of things about leadership, the reason being is because leadership has never been, it was never easy for me. You know, what happens when you take a high school dropout, ADHD, dyslexic kid, and you throw them into business himself at some, you pull stuff out of the trash piles? So it's like, where did this go awry? My faith is a huge part of my own journey, but I think at the end of the day, I finally realized that I was building more than a job for myself, which I think a lot of entrepreneurs when they first start out, they're not sure if their thing's going to work, they're thinking, maybe they've got aspirations of driving the fancy cars and having the big house and all this kind of stuff.
That's what I call the wish list. But they don't necessarily take into account all the sacrifices and stuff along the way. Some of my biggest growth moments were realizing how poor I was doing as a leader. Here's what I mean by that. My first seven or eight years in business, I hired my first team and my first official team member. I might've been five years in business and he was my ride or die. At least he felt like my ride or die for a long time. Some other things happened down the road that maybe we'll get into, maybe we won't, but I did not know that everybody didn't think and act like me and know that everybody wasn't as driven as I was or no one else had, what was kind of like at the heart of what was driving me, the want, the overcoming limiting beliefs, the I've got to beat the Scoggins. Don't get ahead, get byline.
I got all this kind of stuff right there. No one knew about that stuff. And to be honest, one of the biggest mistakes I made as a leader was not actually telling people what the story was. I had been in business almost 12 years before I ever told a single team member that I used to be homeless, or I'd never been to college. I had people working for me that had MBAs, and they're listening to the homeless high school dropout. It's like, it made no logical sense. And then they would tell me all the time, "Well, I've just learned so much from you." And the only thing I can think of is that I finally had an aha moment that said, if I want to step out and do something amazing, if I want to do what Steve did for me, which has create a legacy that I wanted for myself, if I want to step out and do that, then I know at the end of the day that I'm holding myself back.
I knew in the moment when I would have those defensive conversations when somebody would push back on me and I would bark at them because I own the place, whatever, I knew with those moments I was wrong. I already knew it. And then I would go home and beat myself up about it. But I wasn't even actually thinking about how that was responding to them, whether or not it was creating a safe environment, non-safe environment, et cetera, how they felt about it. And lo and behold, I mean, I had people that fought and died for me. I mean, there were great team members and I would dare say, I probably pushed away about 20% of some of the best team members I've ever had by accident because I wasn't aware. I didn't know what, I didn't know.
Most of us are blind spots because other people see them and we don't. And I think my leadership really started to take shape once I started getting pooled into by other mentors. Steve Mark taught me a ton, Susan taught me a ton, Frank Weezer taught me. I had a lot of really good mentors, but I began to outpace their level of, success is not the right word, but outpaced their level of growth in business and finance and relationships. And if we're all honest with ourselves, most entrepreneurs, if they're honest with, would tell you that 90% of the time they actually don't really know what they're doing, meaning it's like instinct.
[TYLER]
Yes, yes, yes. Totally. I mean, it's ignorance on fire. I mean, the people that have been the most successful that I know are just, I've heard this saying is knowledge on ice, you're not going to get it. It's ignorance on fire that just has success.
[STEPHEN]
Yes. And I think it is part of every entrepreneur's growth. It's part of all of our journeys because we start a business, we have a dream, we have an ambition, maybe it's not like it was for me. It's like out of necessity. I had to eat. That's not, everybody's starting point. I was listening to a couple of new people that I'm following now that were talking about how they got out of college and then they went and saved a bunch of money, lived on some floors and just kind of waited it out and saved capital. That has its own hustle. But at the end of the day, all of us are going to have to overcome ourselves and all of us are going to have to become aware of ourselves.
And most people are not aware of this whole ignorance is bliss. You can be peaceful and happy thinking you're doing all the right things but if your team is scared to death to talk to you or scared to share their ideas with you, that can help you actually scale a company then you are the one holding your business back. I was that person. All the way up then that led me to having one business. Now there was a transformation that happened in the middle. I went to a conference with someone who I consider a friend, I might be more of an acquaintance on his side, but somebody I see two or three times a year, I went to a conference called Entreleadership and one of Ramsey's organizations and Dave was on stage. He started talking about all the different failures and stuff that he had made and dumb decisions he had made and they would, "Me too, me too, me too, me too."
Simultaneously, I'm kicking my face. I'm eating my feet, like, "I did that wrong. I did that wrong. I did that wrong. I did that." And I had to have someone that had had a similar journey to better understand my own, which is why I think finding people along the way that you can resonate with and help out on a consistent basis is by far the easiest way to actually take advantage of a leadership growth curve, if that makes any sense.
[TYLER]
So, I mean, that makes perfect sense. It's a journey that I've walked and continued to. Here's the thing of that. I'm guessing I know this about me, is those journeys still happen and that means I can still grow, which I'm thankful because if I'm not growing, I'm dying. I just might as well be dead. But there's a certain amount where I believe that perseverance, that you had to get through those growing points, that perseverance was really built upon a lot of ignorance at a certain point. Because if you know, then you're not willing to almost go because then your ego gets caught up. It's like, well, if I let them know how much I don't know, well then all of a sudden I'm not going anywhere, as opposed to I don't know what I don't know, so let's just go.
And I think there's, I'll share this with you. We grew up on a farm and there's certain amount of work ethic that I heard you share in growing up with your dad and framing and doing construction work. There's a part of me, is I was too, I don't want to say too dumb, but it was just, I didn't know any different. I just had to do. And I think when you learn that at every stage in life, whether it's construction, whether it's, it doesn't matter where, if you learn that there is no other option. I just have to do, I think there's two things that happen; is you can push people away if you don't handle it but you allow yourself to get to that point to where you can grow.
[STEPHEN]
Yes, totally, totally. I was thinking about that as you were mentioning that. My journey of, be it difficult, there's this image that we have to celebrate success. We celebrate entrepreneurs success all day long. What matters most to me is celebrating the entrepreneur's sacrifice. That's what matters to me because I know what a struggle it is to not just go through the motions of making payroll. And all that stuff is like a super important, brand and building out an organization and scaling it, like all that stuff is super important. But what I mean is the nights that you stay up in your closet crying or in your pillow crying or on your back deck on a phone call because the customer just said, "Hey, look, we're going to go a different direction," and you're like, "You're 70% of my business, dude. What are you talking though?" All of those crazy ---
[TYLER]
You've had those experiences too?
[STEPHEN]
Oh, hell yes. Yes. I mean, look, entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship. Those that are truly entrepreneurs are warriors at heart. They don't, maybe the ignorance of not knowing that it all could not work out is actually a good thing. I would dare say, as a person of faith that my experience has been, that if I could actually see where, again, my personal faith, where God was taking me, I never would have taken the steps. I never would have taken a step forward. I'm like traveling around, speaking, oh no, thank you. Writing a book. God, I'm a ADHD dyslexic. No, thank you. Instead what happens is the trial and error, I actually think created a certain level of wisdom, a certain level of experiential wisdom. And I think I'm a better leader because I was a bad leader before.
[TYLER]
Yes.
[STEPHEN]
I guess I think I can also see bad leadership in my own team. I can say, "Dude, that's not going to hit it. Well, don't do that. I hit that too.
[TYLER]
I got the scars to prove it.
[STEPHEN]
Exactly. You know, and when you're able to, it's like with anything else. It's funny, I can't tell if Rory came up with a quote or if I came with a quote first, it's like a signature piece that he and I fight about and joke around a little bit about, but I believe that the greatest purpose in life is serving the person you used to be. He says it basically the same, but differently about a different thing. Everything that makes me accessible today or someone who's worthy of sharing a voice, I mentioned that before about that, having this essence of being worthy to have a voice, I realized was earned spiritual revenue or earned mental revenue. It's my retained earnings of experience that allows me to now lead people. I'm able to go to my team and say, "Guys, we treat people how you want to be treated."
You can say it came from Ramsey. You could say it came from the Bible. I don't care where you say it came from, but we have it here. Which means if one of my team members, I've got a couple of team members that got some family things going on right now, this very moment that are very difficult in any family. People are dealing with illness, people are dealing with death, people are dealing with lots of different things. I'm able to go in and say, "Team, guess what? This is how we roll. How we roll is so-and-so over here is going through a difficult time. It's up to so-and-so to tell you what a difficult time is, but for the next 30 to 60 days, we are going to help them. We are going to pick up the boxes." They see me picking up boxes. In fact, I get a lot of flack because I do a lot of my own construction work in the building, which is kind of funny. But literally it looks like you're the highest paid, like anyway, moving on.
[TYLER]
We can come back to that. I want to come back to that, but keep going.
[STEPHEN]
Absolutely. Well, all all of that to say that when you create an environment of safety, you create an environment where everybody feels seen, heard, and valued. Then you tend to get the best out of people. And people don't like to leave that lifestyle. So one of my leaders, one of my executive leaders told me this week, he said, "I actually got a job offer a week ago." I'm like, "You did? He's like, "Yes. And it was for quite a bit more than what you're able to do right now." "You did? Okay, what do you think?" He's like, "I'm not going anywhere." "Okay, why?" "Because this is my home." Awesome. I also know that and now I've got somebody I can keep an eye on to see if I can promote to a higher level, because it's not just, there's this element of selfishness that has to come out of us al.
As an entrepreneur, I'm about iron the company. Everything's all mine. Look at my flashy stuff. Screw that. No, no, no, no. If you want to scale an organization and build a legacy-based organization, one that is in multiple states, maybe one day countries or whatever that looks like it can not be about you at all. You might be the face. You might be the, like in my case, I'm the guy that drove the very first nail, I have done every single position in each one of my companies, at least once, all because I'm looking for a place to understand what the role entails. So when something comes up, I'm able to go to that team member and say, "I understand what your role entails. I understand our metrics. I understand what's holding you back. I think you're doing an awesome job at X, Y, and Z. We got to focus on this one thing here. By the way, you're an awesome person. I can't wait to work with you some more. Let's make sure we knock out this thing in the middle, okay?"
In almost every case, it's not an attack. It's a mentor relationship. In fact, our production meeting is each week. We started live streaming on Instagram every so often. I literally get part of my team in a room and I'll just start talking to the team. And it's just me. Like this week, tomorrow, I'm going to be talking about problem solving, how to solve any problem. It actually, that message is predicated on solving, because I have problems to solve Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, you see what I'm saying? That's what real leadership is to me. It's the real leaders do it first, real leaders may do it messy, but real leaders also care.
[TYLER]
So I want to get back to what I call humility, active humility, but I want to touch on something right there. I've picked this up and I see this. The best leaders are sharing the problems they're solving right now, because everyone can see that from the outside and they're like, "Stephen, we know you're dealing with this and you're teaching them, "This is what I'm learning in the midst of it." It's not, "Hey, talk to me three years down the road when I'm an expert, because I've studied this." Like, no, let me tell you what I'm learning in the midst of it. And guess what? Tomorrow I may learn something different. To me that's, what's really powerful. That goes back to that vulnerability piece that you said you learned earlier, because to me, that's why that guy didn't want to leave. He's like, "I know that Stephen's not just somewhere different and there's these barriers between us. There's connectedness. There is authenticity. We're in it with him because he's sharing with me and so I don't feel like there's this separation," because you're teaching what you're learning in the moment. And I think that's so powerful for any leader.
[STEPHEN]
Well, I think all of it, we're surrounded all day long by little teachable moments. The stuff that would actually help people get breakthrough in their life, get breakthrough in her job, get regular business, the stuff that actually works, happens day in and day out. I did like a little rant earlier today on Stories, just for fun. I was like, "Everybody that's reaching out to me on LinkedIn wants to be my friend ---
[TYLER]
Thanks for connecting with me by the way.
[STEPHEN]
Yes, absolutely. Well, you didn't do this. So you're going in good shape. People that have done it previously have just been like, "Hey nice to connect with you. I want to sell you something." I'm like, "We have zero relationship. Like, I don't know anything about you and I don't want to be rude, but I like doing business with people I know and trust and I can't do business with people I don't know. I don't know I can trust if I don't know." So let's build a rapport, let's build a relationship. Don't come straight at me for what I can bring to you or what value I can bring to you. That kind of stuff it's like, that's a rant. That's ---
[TYLER]
To me, as someone has described this once, that's like walking up to somebody in a coffee shop and saying, "Hey, let's get married right now." Like you're bald, both of us, I'm not down with that, and it's just kind of like, no, I mean, you got to maybe, hey, they're beautiful, whatever. It may be great. But you have to develop that relationship. You have to build that trust because if not, the reality is the relationship will go sideways. I imagine you've had this situation, too. A client told me once. He goes, "Tyler, if somebody comes at you and it's a cold call and they hire you that day, guess what, they're going to hire somebody else on a cold call too." It's like, I don't want those customers. Not because they may not be amazing people and have amazing customers that come from cold calls, but it's like, I'd much rather have the person either as referral, or that we go through that relationship building, because it comes back to the guy that you mentioned. When somebody else offers something rosier, are they going to see the entire picture?
[STEPHEN]
Absolutely. The reality is we want to, I want to be of value and I don't want to be taken advantage of. And I think that whether it's in your business, it's your relationships or whatever, if you go at that entity and you're trying to solve what I refer to as the three needs, so to be seen, to be heard and to be validated, okay, if you apply those three principles right there to any marriage, any business, any customer, any personal brand, anything you're trying to do, and the focus is not on you, but it's on the other person feeling seen, heard, valued and validated, then you can create something really amazing.
Part of the reason I'm doing what I'm doing now, you know we just did it in full candor. I mean, one of the biggest struggles that we've had in my businesses is what do we do with Stephen? Like Stephen's our creator, our founder, he's our CEO, he's that? I had to leave here yesterday and drive to go to Boone North Carolina, which is three hours from here to have a 15 minute meeting with a customer because something went haywire. I came right back and then did a full fledged podcast hour for two hours. We can't put Stephen in a box. What do we do with Stephen? We like what he teaches. We like when he teaches us stuff on Fridays, but we're also a little uncomfortable with it. Now he's teaching it to the world. And I actually had a teachable moment with my team a few months back as somebody asked you a question based on what you just said is that selfish? Is that selfish?
Is it okay for me to teach you and not teach them when you both have the same struggles? You see what I'm saying? So there's been this internal conversation. What do we do with Stephen? Seven businesses, 400 plus team members, and yet Stephen is now on great shows like this. Stephen's now doing live events, Stephen's now, like what do we do with him? And they finally came down to, we have to let Stephen be Stephen. Stephen's not abandoning us all because he's doing this. He's not abandoning that all because he's spending time with us. Stephen is Stephen. My DNA, my greatest purpose is serving the person I used to be. And the person who I used to be was broken. And I'm sorry, but 67% of the population falls in that category. And that was before COVID. I've got experience. Let's go.
[TYLER]
And I think it comes back to, and one of the things that I've learned is part of that, the person is serving the person that used to be, or are serving the person that you couldn't save, serving the person that you're trying to, part of that is there's this insecurity in that. And as you relay that, to me, there's that insecurity and a lot of times the greatest fear that we have, and this comes from my wife, she's shared the greatest fear people have is rejection. So, as I'm relating to this story and from a leadership perspective, the worst thing that we can do is act in a way that others feel rejected. Even if we're empowering them. Even if we're saying, I believe in you, there has to be this hurdle to get over that you're not being rejected.
Actually, you're being kicked out of the nest because you can fly. And I want to see you fly because if you stay here in this nest, then that's where you're going to be stuck. If you go be you, I look at that and get excited. Then that means somebody else in your organization gets to rise up. They get to do things they used to do. And to me, that's, what's exciting. That's, what's fun. I think if you've had that motto, as you've learned that, that's why your businesses have grown to what they have?
[STEPHEN]
I was going to say that I had this this concept that I did some studying on. This might surprise you. So people that perform at the top 1%, all right, so people that make a million net income plus, okay, people that are in that boat, all of them have mastery level skills at certain things. Studies would say eight to 12 mastery level skills. Here's what surprises me. Only 32% of them take those skills and teach them to someone else. That means the vast majority of wealth, which is knowledge and wisdom and experience is being wasted generation after generation after generation, which is why your show is so important because you're talking about the concepts that keep those things alive. You talk about the master level things. They only thing that I've had to been really forced to try to begin to master is myself. How I respond, how I react, how I give, how I show up. Am I asking my team to do crap that I won't do? Or am I asking my team to do stuff they've already watched me? Do you see what I'm saying?
[TYLER]
Yep. We just come back to why you built the studio. So this is my belief. People listening to show know I have cows, I grew up on dairy farm. I had cows. I still have cows. Last week, I even drove 2100 miles in two days, one night for a 10 minute drop-off of cows because I do that. I did it to stay humble, to realize I can do that. You know, why do I get up twice a day, every day to take care of cows? One, it's cathartic time. I still work out. It is grounding. It's something I enjoy. Working with animals will teach you more about people than I've ever learned. Why are you building the studio? Because it's my belief it keeps you humble.
[STEPHEN]
Well, thank you. I'm definitely grateful for that. I mean, that's definitely the environment and what do I want to come across the world as humbly confident, but I would say it's in a roundabout ways there's a couple of different things. So first of all, there is an element of trying to stay grounded and humble, but it's also therapeutic. Because I'm the guy that literally built a business with my own two hands, the hammer, the nail and the pump jacks and whatever. And again we mentioned the organization that is close to my heart called Brand Builders at Rory and Vaden founded and one of the things that I've had the pleasure of discovering is how many amazing people have amazing brands that have yet to be discovered.
Meanwhile, there are brands that are established brands that are just really, really good at marketing. So when you uncover the Tupperware, you realize it might be moldy cheese in the contents. And one of my biggest frustrations that I had in trying to put this together is trying to be real with people and not be a marketing person. Nothing is wrong with marketing, as long as it's done correctly and when you're wrong, but in a situation where I had the access to create, so I'm a self doer, I'm a bootstrap guy. So I just kind of gave up and said, I'll just do it myself. I bought a 27,000 square foot facility, I put all of my businesses, most of my team members under one roof, and then I built out a stage.
Then I used the stage to service the local church on the nights and weekends. And in that relationship that I've been developing with brand owners, for example, the other thing that I've discovered, because I was a strategist for quite some time is all these people, these amazing messages have no way or no conduit to get the visual identity, the visual assets that they need to actually really catapult a brand? So I made a decision that I want to help people who are like me again, serving the person I used to be eliminate the frustration of not having a quality visual identity. And your iPhone is great, and don't get me wrong or your Samsung, whatever you're using. That's great, but it's not the same as graphics and lower thirds and slide ends. It's not the same as LED walls and elation lighting and intro music that makes you feel like a million bucks. When the speakers come through this organization, when they come through one of my businesses and we help them create that visual identity, their conduit, they get the experience of already being a million dollar brand even though they may not be that right now. And the reason I'm doing that is because I want to make sure that those people don't give up because building a personal brand is not easy.
[TYLER]
No. But I think at the same point, what I hear from you is you're not doing it for accolades. You're doing it because you want to serve that person you used to be because you're like, "Hey, I want to help them get through this. This is one of the beliefs I have." We get stuck into this, and you mentioned these, I love how you shared these brands that are just moldy cheese once you pop the lid. Because to me that is kind of almost like this cotton candy. It's like, where's the substance to it. Really what have you gone through? What are your values other than you're just really good at putting stuff on and marketing it? Like, how are you really helping people? What are you actually doing with your hands to help people?
And I look at this and I believe this, our greatest opportunities to generation, to help others is to be that bridge between the Steve's, your dad's, those people that have really served you in the next generation coming that's never had those experiences. But the only way to share that is to do it and tell it. Do it and tell it. You can't just put out videos, whatever else. It's like, no, I want to be able to feel is that really Stephen? Like if we're in a room and we're in a room together, is that really who he is? Or is that just a really, really good video that he had curated, but then you see the videos of them behind the scenes and he's berating the hotel staff, he's berating the people. It's like, we have such a world to where that's going to get exposed that if you're like that you may have success today, but you're not going to have success a long.
[STEPHEN]
You're one device away from being exposed. I'll look at it differently. One of the ways in which I look at, especially with what I'm trying to do now with Transform U and some other stuff is I have this desire to be sincere and to be authentic and to help as many people as possible. In doing so I know that I know that I know that every word that I say carries weight and has a responsibility to that word, which means if I'm focused on being a guru and solely marketing to make money, not marketing to make an impact, if I'm doing it that way, then I'm going to hurt people along the way. And I refuse to hurt anybody that I have anybody in my path, because I know what it's like to be broken. I know what it's like to be hurt by somebody else's words. I know what it's like to not be believed in. I know what it's like to be discouraged. I know what it's like to look at myself and feel all those things.
And what I want to do is I want to help people be set free from that and the only way you can do that is to just be real and transparent with people. In fact, one of the things that, I'll just share this with you, you haven't seen me present on stage yet, but in fact your audience would now know this and now I'm not sure you'd be looking for it. You will never see me on stage without a white pair of shoes on. The reason you won't do that is because I want to remind myself on a continual basis that I'm walking on holy ground. It's holy ground to walk on a stage and influence lives. It's holy ground to get on a microphone and talk for 45 minutes or an hour. It's holy ground to put out a YouTube video. It's holy ground to put out a mini series. It's holy ground. That is holy ground because someone is going to see it. Someone is going to listen to it. Someone is going to take action on it, based on what you've taught them.
And if you didn't teach them something correctly and they hurt themselves and they hurt somebody else as a result of your neglect, then I'm sorry there's a huge responsibility on that. So I'm a big proponent of putting things around you, reinforce them with routines, putting things in your circumference that remind you of who you are and where you came from. Because if you don't do that and all of a sudden, all the hard work starts to pay off, you start getting invited on this show and you're traveling around the country, you're doing all this stuff and it's going to be about the Ferrari and the Bentley and the whatever, which by the way, none of that stuff feeds people.
[TYLER]
It doesn't feed you.
[STEPHEN]
No, it makes you empty. I have some nice things, but you'll never see them on Instagram, or you'll never see them on Facebook because my wife and I have decided that our goal is to have our household, our household and have our impact be our impact, period.
[TYLER]
I appreciate it. I love it. It's something that I align with. And I think that's where to me, why do you build your set? Why do I take care of cows? To the same point, I know you have children. I got to be that example to my children too, because that's my first priority. It's what am I showing them? What's important in life? Is it showing that yes, dad got up at three o'clock and he didn't get home until the next night at nine or 10 o'clock and he was gone for two days and he drove 2000 miles. Why do he do that? Because he went and delivered cows and one, because it was time to get away and do it, but it's also like, there's never a question, "Hey, is my dad a hard worker?" Because I grew up with a dad who was a very hard worker and that's something that if I look at a core value, and I know this is something we share is work ethic. And I have to, as a dad, as a leader, as you've exemplified as well, if I'm not showing that, then all I am is a talking head.
[STEPHEN]
Yes. I heard that a boss is just another name for a doofus with a title or something like that. So it's like, I forgot where I heard that, but I heard that somewhere and ---
[TYLER]
It sounds like a Ramsey.
[STEPHEN]
It might be a Ramsey. It's funny. I was walking around my business one time and we had hired some new team members and I hadn't met them yet. So I walk up to one, I'm introduced to one person and they're like, "Hey, this is Stephen." Then one of my guys was, "He's one of our new field managers." I kind of chuckled to myself and I said, "Yes, it's nice to meet you." That team member went around for literally three weeks thinking, I was like one of the, and then he didn't, he was kind of like, why is the field manager teaching the team about running a business? I don't get that. You just have all these different things where people just want you to be real.
They don't want you to be faking it. They want you to respond to their needs just as much as you respond to yours and when it comes down to business leadership, family, all of that, we are communicating more by body language than we are by words on a day to day basis. My kid watches me wake up at five, like you were just talking about, every morning. Does he see me pray and meditate first thing in the morning? Probably not, but he hears me talk about it all the time so I guess he assumes it's true. Does he see me at the gym? Yes, because he's becoming in 30 minutes behind me to kind of like follow in his father's footsteps kind of stuff. I put my kid on a YouTube video. We do these things called face-to-face or Q&A videos that we do on YouTube and I put him in the chair one day and put him on camera. He started like, spouting off all these, whatever, I guess you would refer to a Stephen-isms. I was like, "Where'd you get, where'd you learn that?" "I've been watching you." Your kids, your team, that's the thing. Everybody's always watching. Don't try to be something you're not, but don't try to be less than you are.
[TYLER]
Yes, totally. It's don't be what you're not, but don't be afraid to be what you are, but don't be afraid of what you're not, but hold that higher standard for yourself.
[STEPHEN]
The higher the standard, the greater, the performance. The higher the standard, the more escalated the climb, the higher the standard, the greater the impact.
[TYLER]
Absolutely.
[STEPHEN]
God, I love this conversation. I can hang out with you all day.
[TYLER]
It's been, I was very much looking forward to this and again, there there's so many similarities, trials, and I kind of want to really tap into this one. I heard you say, and I don't know if there's a podcast, your book or whatever and to me, it was really good. It was something that I've actually experienced the last day or two. It's something you said, and this is paraphrased, do we discourage people from stretching, even though they could get hurt? I'll share this. I just found out that my brother who works for me, works with me, partners, he's going to be moving away. He's going to be moving a couple thousand miles away and that hurts. It hurts because I'm going to miss my brother.
There's some brother that I didn't live with for years, because it was just age difference for us. But while that hurts, at the same point, that's me and my emotion. I'm excited for him to go spread his wings and go do something and just experience and know, "Hey dude, you're going to learn something. And as a brother, I'm more excited about that than, hey, I can't just walk out of the garage and see you." You know, it's like, hey, I'll get over that. That's just my petty emotions that I got to go through. That's empathy, but yet I'm excited for the journey it's going to take. And you know what, dude, you may absolutely fall on your face, but you know what, there's people that love you that are going to be right there beside you and say, "I believe in you. Let's go." And I think what I heard when you shared that was exactly that for me.
[STEPHEN]
Well, and I learned that lesson from a pretty valuable place. That was the moment in which I had the decision to start my first company or not start my first company. I always say I was put in a situation where Steve Mark had just give me a second chance, one that I very clearly did not earn just to put that completely like total act of grace or whatever, to take a reframe of garage door of this house next door. I was literally listening to the guys that had taken over from me complaining about Steve and how they owed him money and all this kind of stuff. None of which was true by the way. And I had this moment where it fired me up. I got so mad that they were like talking bad about Steve. Of course I went, it was just how I was feeling. It wasn't as like coming out my mouth. I was walking back and I heard this whisper in my heart and said, "Isn't that what you did?" Which fired me up in a different way, so much so that when Steve came back around the corner, we were getting our checks or my dad was actually getting the check.
My dad walked over to me and handed me my check and then he walked in and I walked past him to go talk to Steve. I was like knocking on his window, he rolls down his window from his Jeep Grand Cherokee and, "What can I do for a boy?" I was like, "Well, these guys over here [inaudible 00:44:15] coming back Monday, whatever. Can I take over for him?" He laughed at me with, "With what tools or what equipment, what money, what credit? You ain't got squat." I had nothing. My biggest score was like 400. It was horrible. And I just said, "I'll figure it out. I don't really have any other. I'll figure it out." He was kind of stunned and just before we rolled up the window, he said, "I'll tell you what, if they don't come back Monday by 9:00 AM. I'll let you finish that house and we'll go from there." I said, "Okay, cool." When it comes up, he pulls off and this is where that story comes into power. My father come over to me and he was livid. "Dude, I just got you back on the frame recruit. What the heck are you thinking?
Are you out of your mind, kind of like coming at me with that whole Scoggins, don't get ahead, get by vibe. And it took me some time to realize that one of the reasons he was so hurt or so challenged by that particular moment wasn't necessarily because he wanted to challenge me or hurt me or hold me back. It was because he had had a business three years earlier that failed he was scared of me getting hurt. He was scared of me getting hurt. And maybe in your brother's example of whatever, maybe it's very similar as like, this is something I have to do. I'll figure it. It's going to be hard. I know that's going to be hard, but I'll figure it out. And, of course, the conversation, I was elevated, I was passionate. He was yelling at me. I was yelling back at him. I'm going to know it.
And lo and behold come Monday, my father turns around and shuts his mouth, never says another word, goes over to the old van, opens the door, pulls out the nail gun, these massive like nail guns back in the late nineties were like massive and heavy, pulled it out, he starts pulling the saw out and I'm like, "What are you doing?" He goes, "Do you remember what we used to build scaffolding out of?' I'm like, "Yes." "What wood? Pump jacks wood, walk boards wood, braces wood, ladders wood, cut horses wood, salvage wood?" All right, let's start pulling stuff out of the trash piles. First time in my life, the person who was most scared for me and terrified for me in that moment showed up.
Now, with the audience we haven't got into the, you know that my dad wasn't around a whole lot growing up. So that meant a lot more to me. I still talk about it this day. It was such an impactful thing. As a result, 9:00 AM, actually 9:02 AM on Monday morning I was sitting on the curb, Steve rolled down and said, "Boy, what you're waiting on?" I went to work and I never looked back. That was December 20th, 1998. And I just think sometimes how much we are either getting held back by somebody else who's scared for us, or how much are we holding people back because we're scared for them, not realizing that the whole journey of life is all about learning and adversity and sacrifice. That's what it's all about. It's okay for someone to fall on their face. It's okay for somebody to get bloody knuckles or skin up knees. It's okay. Because that person is going to be able to go back and help someone else at a younger age, preferably when they start their journey and say, "Hey, would you like to avoid that bloody knuckle? Great, awesome. Here's my life. All." You're really trying to help me, not, you're just trying to keep me from my dream.
[TYLER]
And I think there's, and that was part of the conversation when he said, I was like, "Hey, I've screwed up. Here are the things that I've learned. I'm not telling you what to do. I would feel bad if I didn't share this with you so you can learn it too. I've made those mistakes, you know losing business. I've gone through that, starting business, going to work for someone, whatever. I've been through that." And I think that's the great value in mentorship. And it's that great value of understanding, hey, your darkest hour is also what brought about the greatest transformation. I think you shared something to that point. And I believe that totally. You know, if I can look back, it took me 23 years to understand how from the day that my brother died till I understood about it, how I dealt with it, 23 years. It was a painful point in there, but it's also, I understand, hey, if that's our greatest opportunity. That's where for you saying, hey, I had to tuck my tail between my legs and I go over to Steve and say, I'll take care of it because I had this burning desire. And he believed in you enough to say, all right. And that belief is a super superpower. Go ahead.
[STEPHEN]
Yes. I mean, one of the things that made it even more powerful and probably again, this is hindsight, one of the reasons I may have been so driven is because I know that I chose to let him down the first time. I got into depression and some of the other things I was facing. I chose it. I knew I was capable of more and I know I didn't deliver it when he gave me generosity the first time around when he tried to help me the first time. As a result, I also understood a new principle, if you will, because principals govern promises. And that was that a mentor's words are only as good as the mentees ears.
[TYLER]
Another way to put that is, what I've heard is when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
[STEPHEN]
Yup.
[TYLER]
I mean, it's good stuff.
[STEPHEN]
Here's the thing. Most of the most pivotal moments in my life that have ultimately put me where I'm at today, now granted, God willing, I'm not finished, there's more for me to do and more for me to go and help and stuff. But I had this interesting epiphany that the most challenging moments in my life or the most innovative moments in my life, they were moments that created the ability to have unstoppable relentless focus and grit. They were the moments like, because I had no choice. There was no way, there wasn't a methodology for me to sit in fear. It wasn't a methodology for me to sit in my distractions and my excuses. And what holds most people back more than anything else, no matter what they're doing, isn't they are not capable of more. It's the fact that they'd rather have a distraction or excuse become their definition of their identity.
When you let that happen and you don't realize that adversity is there to make you not destroy you, once you get that, you are literally unstoppable because there's nothing that can stand in your way. I don't have enough money. Okay, I've got to get more creative. I don't have the right team members. Okay, I have to work a little harder while I find the right team members. I'm not being the best father I know I need to be. I need to get home earlier and put the phone away. I know that I'm not being the best husband I can be right now. Okay, great. I need to put the phone away. I need to do the right thing. It's all of that and then rolled up into some. And distractions and excuses are what's holding people back. Stop letting it hold you back.
[TYLER]
I think what's so great about that is it's not only a personal thing. When do all great businesses start in times of challenge, adversity, obstacles? We're in 10, 15 years away, maybe not long, we're going to look at all the great businesses that started in 2020, all the great businesses that evolved in 2020. Why? Because they had to. To me, I think there's this element coming. And I look at some of the things you've done and even people like Steven, you're running these organizations, you have these things. Why are you going out and working as a brand strategist? Why are you doing those things? Why? Because it's a challenge that's going to make me creative. It's something that I got to force myself into to where I can go learn and grow.
And I came up with this. One of our businesses, it was tough. We ran a gym for five years. It's worse than milking cows but I looked at that as education costs, periods. You can go to class, you can go to college, you can go to seminar or whatever. It costs. Or you could go get your hands dirty. You can go start a business. You can go do whatever and you may lose money. What education costs. But every time you learn and you apply it and you relearn it's worth it every single time.
[STEPHEN]
Absolutely. I've always said that there's really two ways to learn, by the experience of others and by the experience of your own. You're learning one or the other. I'm one of God's most stubborn children on the planet. Like I have to be hit with 4X4s for me to sometimes correct my path and open my ears and stuff like that. When I started working as a brand strategist with Rory and AJ, they were very surprised like, "What are you doing? I don't get it. You don't need like, no offense, we pay decent, but an hour of your time is worth more elsewhere." I'm like, "That may be true, but the impact is not the same. The impact is not the same. Me helping someone who's got a developing brand of their own, awakening what's inside of them is transformational. Me learning how the process works from the inside out is better for me because I understand it better from the inside out, rather than someone just someone [crosstalk] at me" And that comes from that level of self-awareness that we were kind of talking about at the very beginning of the show. It's like, you've got to be willing to be open up to discovering who you really are, how you really learn. Those are types of things that I'm trying to do consistently to help other people open their own journey.
[TYLER]
The reality is that we don't do that. If we're not willing to do those things, then we're never going to truly be able to serve those people that we're trying to help. Because to me, that comes to really being empathy lived out. It's in order to be, for me, in my opinion, to be empathetic, you have to understand your insecurities. But at the same point, you have to be curious enough to why you had those and/or curious about others. To me, that's how to be a great leader, as I hear from you in your heart, it just displays it. It is because there's this tremendous amount of compassion and empathy to say, I want better for people and I'm not going to get better from them, for me without getting better for them. If that all made, I kind of twisted there, but it's like, I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it for others. I'm just going to be along for the ride and it's going to be great for all of us.
[STEPHEN]
And the reality is there is no, I want everybody to just take a moment and pause your video, pause your audio, whatever. This is so important, so, so important. If you want to live a life of meaning and purpose, you have to understand this one concept. Without compassion there is no connection. You are not going to connect with anybody on this planet. You are not going to serve them, whether it's a business or relationship. You cannot do it unless you can connect with someone and you can't connect to someone if you can't have compassion for someone. Part of our biggest struggle that we see across the United States right now is there's no compassion. There's no desire to find understanding. There's little to no desire to see people for what they've been through and the things that they faced to better understand what it is that they're trying to overcome.
I'm going to be opposite of that. I'm going to let every interaction that I have with a human being, hopefully add value to their life and hopefully I gain value from their life by simply having a connection, simply having a, that the whole reason you and I kick it off so much is not just because of the similarities. It's because we started this entire conversation by wanting to add value to each other's lives. That's it. And as a result, we'll both leave this meeting at some point in time, and we'll both go tell our friends and family, "I had the most amazing conversation today." You see what I'm saying? That's how connections are built. You want to scale your organization? You're going to have to have a network. You're going to have to have a team members. You got to be able to scale the people just as much as you scale the business. It's not on a spreadsheet.
[TYLER]
Well, that's the thing. The business is the people. The business, not to get too deep into this because we'd go probably 30 more minutes about it, but as you recognized in your businesses, I heard this and I see it and I experienced this, your business isn't the product that it delivers. In your business, when it started, it wasn't about putting siding on the house as you learned. It was about how can I impact my customers and or the people doing the job in that process? That's what the business is all about. To me that's the great, exciting opportunity. Got to remember, like maybe don't understand, I used to be a nutritionist for cows. I talked to more cows every day than I ever talked to people and to understand, to get away from that, it's like, oh, it's all people. That's what's exciting; is to impact people.
[STEPHEN]
Yes, absolutely. I mean, the reality is you have to be able to scale your life and you can't scale your life if you can't scale how you connect with people. People that are isolated and alone are isolated and alone because they're scared to connect. They're scared to connect because they probably had some instances where it was really hurtful that somebody connected with them and it was just the wrong person. So that person just needs boundaries and a framework and standards. That's it. Then they can have confidence. Then they can build the networks and the connections and begin to have the opportunities that they're really just kind of so scared of.
I've discovered that nothing moves you further, quicker than pain. It's like you're okay in the comfort zone, if you will, until such a time that pain itself is what pushes you out of it. Every major growth I've ever had in my life, whether it be owning a business, being a leader, being a toddler, being a dad or being a husband, all of them came from doing it wrong the first time and wrong with zeros, wrong with frustration, wrong sleeping under the stars because I didn't have any fricking shelter because of my pride, my ignorance, in my excuses. Talk about roadblocks. You remove pride, ignorance and excuses, and you are unstoppable. When you wake up to that though, that's the question that people have to ask. Am I ready to wake up?
[TYLER]
Here's the thing I want to tie it in though, is we can't do that alone. We can't do that alone without, from a spiritual point of view, I believe God's a big part of that. Obviously, God puts people in our lives to expose that to us. The value of mentorship, that's what allows it. Those people that you link arms with to pull up Navy Seal terms like, hey, you're linking arms with the guy next to you to get through the and corner auto surf or you're going to die. It's not going to happen. And I think to me, that's the great value. It's who are you putting around you that are going to link arms with you to say, Steven, it's not working. Hey, maybe you don't see this. Tyler stop your X, Y, and Z. You're better than that. You have a bigger opportunity. And I think that's, what's powerful in leadership. It's when we can do that for others and they can do that for us. It doesn't matter about title, rank or whatever, because if we're all here to serve people, none of that matters.
[STEPHEN]
Exactly. And that's a maturity thing. That takes time. Most, if not all of us start off in the selfish category and through life experiences and through things that you work through, you figure out I actually get greater joy by making sure someone else's life is better. It's kind of a quasi selfish thing in a weird kind of backwards kind of way. But it's a maturity thing that I think elevates you to the standards in which you allow yourself to become. I don't know where my life's going to end up. I don't know how far I'll travel, how far I'll go. God knows, but I'm going to be faithful with my little right now so when the time comes, I can be made master over much. And once I made master over much, I'm going to cast more seed. You see what I'm saying? It's a valid perspective and people have to have the right perspective. Period.
[TYLER]
Oh man, I love it. We can keep going all day. I'm going to respect your time. I'm going to respect those listening to us. I'm so excited to share in the show notes, all of this stuff about you, transform you, all the stuff, everything Steven Scoggins. Man, thank you so much for making this opportunity available. I appreciate it. I come to these interviews and conversations to build a new friend, build new friendships, and I truly believe I've done that today. And I thank you for just being you and being that light to share and to help others, to help people grow from what you were and what you are now and as you continue to grow. So thanks so much, man.
[STEPHEN]
Dude, it's sincerely my honor. And yes, you succeeded today in making a new friend. And if you're listening right now and you're not really sure where your life is headed or where your business is headed and you need some help. Be my guest to Transform U live on October 21st to the 23rd. You can come live or you can come virtually. You'll have about 3,500, 4,000 people in attendance. I've got well-known thought leaders coming in from all over the world, or literally all over the world in some cases, and we're here to help you win. So if you're interested in that, head to transformulive.com. If you want to find me on social media hit Stephen_Scoggins. As a result, I want to connect with you. I want to connect with everybody. Tyler, again, thank you so much too.
[TYLER]
I appreciate it, man. Thank you.
I shared it and as Stephen and I talked about this experience where Steve gave him a second chance. He said, "Hey, you show up Monday morning. If they don't show up, you can do it." Then he had to scramble. He had to figure out how to do it. That happens to us a lot in life. That happens as leaders. And I love how really Steven took the example that Stephen and his dad presented for them and just tried to continue on with that. I think it's awesome how he, as well has tried to share that with his kids and just be that value of mentoring that is so important in life. You know, it's the value that we bring what we can share with others, and it's really our purpose that we find. So I loved when Stephen talked about serving the person you used to be, serving the person you used to love, and serving the person you couldn't save.
Those are all elements that when we're trying to do that. That's how we ended up finding a place that we can make a difference. It's through our adversity, that we're able to make an impact. To me, that's what leadership is. It is through that adversity impacting others. And that's why we have the Impact Driven Leader podcast, the book club, the round table, where we go through those discussions together. And I'd love for you to be a part of that. Check it out, finish up the year with us and look forward to 2022, I almost said 2021, 2022, as we take it to another level. I'd love for you to be on that journey with us. Find out more at theimpactdrivenleader.com. Find the show notes at tylerdickerhoof.com/podcast where you can go to the show notes. I think there's a link there for you as well.
Thanks for being here. At the same time, I want to remind you, give me a review and rating. We'll love for more people to find this value because people like Stephen need to be heard. They have a message that is making an impact just like you. And until next time, thanks for being here.
