LIVING AND LEADING WITH BLINDSPOTS

Show Notes

As a keynote speaker at the Blue Print for Business Conference, Ray challenges leaders to recognize how blindspots are hindering their ability to lead effectively.

What is Ray Sanders Leadership Podcast?

Each episode is hosted by Ray Sanders, an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years of experience in both print and broadcast media.

As a CEO, he has grown multi-million-dollar organizations, led an award-winning financial institution, served in a nonpartisan role with the United States Senate and pioneered international efforts to bring clean water to remote regions of the world.

Sanders is the founder of Coaching Leaders an executive coaching and business consulting firm that provides CEO’s with valuable input from a team of seasoned business leaders who have served at the highest level within successful multimillion-dollar organizations.

The Ray Sanders Leadership Podcast unpacks inspiring insights from inspiring people.

Audiences discover:

Powerful life-changing stories.

How to overcome adversity.

Ways to live a life full of meaning and purpose.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them.

What makes a purpose-driven business unique, different and successful?

What makes life at work fun, significant and satisfying?

What industry tips and tricks do listeners need to be aware of?

How cause-minded companies give back through Edify Leaders and other great causes?

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Ray: 00:10

Hello, everyone. I'm Ray Sanders, and you're listening to the Ray Sanders Leadership Podcast. Alright, guys. I just want you to know that you're my kind of people, you know? I hope you didn't need those notes.

Ray: 00:20

They're going bye bye. You're my kind of people. All day long, I've been sitting back here in the back and I've been watching and you guys have been really engaged. And you know, as a speaker, when you've drawn the short end of the stick, right, anytime you're on stage afternoon, you're on the short end of the stick. And not only am I after lunch, I'm after a break, and it's 2:30 and after the time change.

Ray: 00:45

So wish me luck, but I have good news. Alright? I have good news. I work with CEOs and leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners, and so I know what it's like to catch a guy in his afternoon nap. And so on your table, on your table in front of you, hey, if you're listening, raise your hand.

Ray: 01:02

If you're listening, if you see somebody that's talking, tell them, hey, you ought to be listening right now. You got it? Alright. Good deal. So on your table in front of you, part of my job this afternoon, it's late in the day.

Ray: 01:19

I know a lot of you all, this is kind of your nap time. So here's what I want you to do. I want everybody to stand up. Everybody stand up. I want you to open up your blindfold that I gave you.

Ray: 01:30

I gave everybody in the room a blindfold. All right, you ready? Now here's what I want you to know. Working with ceos, what I have learned is that we all have blind spots. I mean even Tiger Woods has blind spots, even Tiger Woods needs a coach.

Ray: 01:46

Now here's what I wanna do, I wanna prove something to you. Take take your blindfold and on on the count of 3, I want everybody to put on their blindfold and I got some instructions. Are you ready? 1, If you got a hat, you're sorry bro, you're gonna have to mess up your hair. I have no sympathy.

Ray: 02:03

No sympathy. At least you have hair. Alright? So, one, 2, 3. Everybody got their blindfold on?

Ray: 02:14

If you have your blindfold on, raise your hand. Alright. You've got your blindfold on. Over your eyes. Over your eyes.

Ray: 02:23

I know some of y'all are tricky. You can put your hand down. Alright. Now, what I want you to do is I want you with your blindfold on. Are you ready?

Ray: 02:33

I want you to shake hands and greet 2 people next to you. Leave your blindfold on. Reach reach over and say hello to your neighbor. Come on. Come on.

Ray: 02:47

Some of you all are enjoying this too much. You're enjoying this way too much. Alright. Good job. Now are there any single guys?

Ray: 03:02

Right. You can sit down and you can take off your blindfold. Are there any single guys or single women in the room? Any single guys? Where at?

Ray: 03:09

Where you at, bro? Right here. Single guys. Single ladies. All the single ladies.

Ray: 03:14

All the single ladies. Okay. Now, I just did all the singles in the room a favor. Did I not just do you a favor? You just got to lay hands on somebody and boy, that felt really good, didn't it?

Ray: 03:25

Alright. So now here's the thing. Here's here's the thing I want you to recognize. You came into this room today, you didn't know it, but you came into this room today and you already had a blindfold on. You did.

Ray: 03:40

And what you just experienced was temporary blindness. You had temporary blindness, but here's what I know, without vision we're lost. And the CEOs that I work with and the business owners that I work with, the longer I spend time with them, the more they begin to realize that they have blind spots and things about themselves that they didn't understand or know. And part of my job is to help them know what it's like. You ready for this?

Ray: 04:08

What it's like to be on the other side of them. Have you ever been around somebody and interacted with somebody and they said, if they had any idea of the way they make people feel, if they had any idea how people react the way they act, that's a blind spot. And here's the deal. If I were to talk to now I'll pick on the married people. If I were to go up to your wife or I were to go up to your husband and I'd say, tell me about his blind spot.

Ray: 04:34

I can promise you she knows and he knows what your blind spot is. But you see, even Tiger Woods has a blind spot. Now you notice anything about Tiger? He looks just like you guys. He has he has blind spots, but blind spots are real.

Ray: 04:54

And we don't even know the half of it. Let me let me just demonstrate what I'm talking about. Check this out. Did you have any idea that as human beings, our field of vision is only 150 degrees? We see less than half of what's going on at any given time.

Ray: 05:11

We have blind spots. A deer, check this out, man. That is funky. 280 degree field of vision. There's no wonder that we can't hit those dadgum things.

Ray: 05:22

I mean, they got a vision field of of 280 degrees, but we all have these blind spots. So have you ever thought to yourself, where am I going? Where am I going? How do I how do I get there from here? Where, where are we going from here?

Ray: 05:40

Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes I find myself in this position right here. Do you ever find yourself kind of, I'm on the edge right here. I'm kind of on the edge. Do you ever find yourself in business or in life? You're like, I don't, I don't know what to do next.

Ray: 05:55

I'm uncertain. And you're faced with all this uncertainty out there. Hey, we're at this blueprint for business and we're coming through this crazy election and we won't know anything for 2 weeks. And they're talking about inflation and we got wars around the world and we've got everything rising. And there's a lot of uncertainty in there.

Ray: 06:12

And there's a lot of us that are sitting there on that edge, and we're like, man, I got an idea. I have a dream. I heard that earlier. There's some things that I want to do, but I'm sitting here on the edge, but this is what I've learned. I raise up my blinder.

Ray: 06:26

Tell me this isn't true. Just a little bit of faith. Just a little bit of faith. Oh, maybe it's your mama. Maybe your mama calls you and reminds you how cute you are.

Ray: 06:38

Or maybe it's a friend. Or maybe you start to believe in yourself, but just a little bit of faith gives you a nudge. And you say, you know what? I don't know. That uncertainty, I'm going to dip my toe into this a little bit.

Ray: 06:51

And I'm going to get a little feel of that. And you look up and you look across the way and there's this little thing we call hope. Little bit of thing we called hope. And what's another word for hope? You see, I work around a lot of folks.

Ray: 07:06

And what they lack a lot of times is they lack hope. They lack hope in the future. And what's another word for hope? Is vision. If you have a vision, if you hope in the future, you have an idea what the future is going to bring, what are you doing?

Ray: 07:18

You're hoping beyond uncertainty. And when you start to hope, you begin to do what? Just like you guys did. Hey, that that looks pretty good over there. I'm start it's starting to come into focus.

Ray: 07:31

I can begin to see it. And then you're like, you know what? I got into this because I love it. It drives me. I work 60 hours a week.

Ray: 07:41

I work 80 hours a week. I do what I do. I I'm working all the time. I do and I love it, and I'm driving it. And love drives me.

Ray: 07:49

Love pushes me. My love for what I'm doing, I'm passionate about it. I wouldn't wanna do anything else in the world. I love it so much. I'm committed to it so much.

Ray: 07:57

It's gonna drive me. So when you put faith, hope, and love together, you know, I don't know where you come from. I come I'm a faith guy. And in 1 Corinthians 13:13, it says that this is the last thing that'll stand, faith, hope, and love. And that's what's driven me to think about uncertainty in this way.

Ray: 08:14

When it's all said and done, if I can get behind faith, hope, and love, guess what's gonna happen? I'm gonna make it through that uncertainty. But nice inspiration, right? Had a long week. You and your wife aren't necessarily getting along.

Ray: 08:30

And one of your kids, you find out smoking weed and it's not on the medical marijuana type. And you're starting to think maybe you ought to get your own card. And you're looking at them and you're thinking, what are we, what are we doing here? And you lay your head on your pillow and something happens. You're thinking, you know what?

Ray: 08:49

That idea, that dream, it's feeling pretty good right here. And comfort sets in. And I I don't really know that I want to be all that challenged. And as you're laying there in your bed, fear starts to set in. And you see, what starts to happen is faith pushes.

Ray: 09:02

Faith says, Get on out there and get you some of that. And Hope's on the other side, Come on boy, let's go. Let's go. And you remember, Yeah, that Rocky music starts to play and it's like, I love it, baby. I'm going for it.

Ray: 09:16

And then you lay your head on your pillow. That little voice, are you an idiot? Do you know what you're about to risk? You'd have, how many mortgages? You're going to have to sell that truck.

Ray: 09:27

You realize what you're about to risk? Let's just kind of stay right where we are. And that fear begins to whisper in your ear. And on the other side, doubt. Doubt comes in and you begin to doubt what you're doing.

Ray: 09:37

You begin to doubt your whole existence. You begin to doubt your business, your business model, and you doubt yourself. And so what happens is that faith pushes and hope pulls, and just a little bit of fear. See, I can be standing right here and I could put my pinky in your belt loop and you're about to jump off, but I put your pinky, my pinky in your belt loop and I start to pull you back, a little bit of fear goes a long way. Doesn't it?

Ray: 10:00

In business, you know, faith is risk. We get it. But a little bit of fear, it'll stop us. It'll stop a train. Just a little bit of fear.

Ray: 10:09

And then, see where he's at? He's just kinda laid down. You're laying there, and those lies just begin to whisper in your ear. And those lies deny us of where we wanted to go and what we wanna do. So here's the question.

Ray: 10:25

What's holding you back? When you look at this chart, there's a lot of things there that could hold you back. But what's holding you back? What is impeding your vision? Are you ready for this?

Ray: 10:41

What if it's you? What if it isn't all those other things? What if it's you? Have you ever been in that situation where you you get to be about my age or maybe a little older and you're like, you know, I'm out of college. I went to career tech.

Ray: 10:58

I've got 2 or 3 decades behind me. And it's like, you get home and you look at your wife and you're eating soup and you go, what are we doing? What in the heck? This isn't what I thought it would be. This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

Ray: 11:14

This is, is it really worth it? What am I doing? Where are we going? And the question begins to creep in, are life and work where you thought they'd be? Can I just tell you, I work a lot with CEOs and it may surprise you?

Ray: 11:30

I was just one with 1 last week. And you know, you get out of high school and you wonder where you're going. You get out of college or career tech or whatever. You wonder what you're doing. You have your I had 6 kids.

Ray: 11:40

My grandmother, here's a I have 6 kids. My grandmother always told me to find something I was good at and stick with it. I'm pretty good at making babies. I'll just let you know. And, and the, and the, and the idea is, is you get to a certain point and you ask yourself, what, what are we doing?

Ray: 11:55

What is this really all that it was cut out to be? And the question is, are life and work where you thought they'd be by now? And I have found there's a lot of CEOs, even at the age of 50 60 years old, they have some runway left. And you know what they're asking themselves? What am I doing?

Ray: 12:14

Where am I going? You see, they spent, they got out of high school, they got out of college, they started down this career ladder and they, and they, they burn it. You know, they burn up great relationships, friendships, family. They got the second and the third home. They've got the see do, they've got the second or the third spouse, and then begin to ask themselves, Hey man, is this really all worth it?

Ray: 12:36

Are my life and my work really lining up? Am I where I need to be? And so I don't care if you're 25 here today or you're 50 or you're 75. This is a question that you're going to be asking yourself for the rest of your life. If you're younger and you're thinking you've got it figured out, I'm just going to tell you in about 5 years to a decade, you're going to be asking yourself, where am I going?

Ray: 12:56

What am I doing? But you know what? It really is all centered on you. The question is, are you heading in the right direction? And we need to ask ourselves that question over and over and over again.

Ray: 13:08

It's okay to ask that question. Somehow we think, well, I got my degree in underwater basket weeding, so I'm going to weed baskets all my life and I'm allergic to grass. I mean, we somehow we get in these paths and we get in these these directions, but you may find out it has nothing to do with who you are and what you like. So are you heading in the right direction? Is your ladder against the right wall?

Ray: 13:29

You've heard that before? You know, you're climbing up this ladder and you're at the top of this ladder and you're looking at me. I don't even like the color of this paint. What are we doing over here? And the so the question is, are you and your vision in sync?

Ray: 13:44

Are you and your vision in sync? Clear vision starts with you. I believe that before you look out, you got to look in. You see, I think a lot of times what's impeding your vision is you. We often think about it as, oh, it's out there somewhere.

Ray: 14:02

It's over there. But we haven't taken the time to look in and ask ourselves some really basic questions, about ourselves. I call this process, if you work with me and we have that opportunity, we're going to go through what we call the envisioning process. And so I want to today, I just want to take you through that first little exercise. One of the things that we do and we're going to do it as a group.

Ray: 14:24

You okay with that? You still awake? I gave you your nap now. Come on. Alright.

Ray: 14:29

So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna do a little brief inventory. And once we go through this, if you decide you want this, there's a QR code up at the end. Just send it send me, your name and stuff, and I'll send you this so you don't have to worry about writing it all down. But I want us to take a little personal inventory.

Ray: 14:44

So are you ready? Here we go. Here's the first thing. I want you to think I want to take 30 seconds. I want you to think, how are you gifted?

Ray: 14:54

And you say, well, what does that mean? People will say things like this to you. How do you do that? Have you ever had anybody say, man, how do you do that? Well, that's a good sign of how you're gifted.

Ray: 15:06

And you know what I have found Is it somewhere along the way, we knew how we were gifted, but then we forgot. We don't think about it. And I think the enemy comes in and he likes to make us forget how we're gifted, so we won't do what we need to be doing. But when's the last time anybody's asked you how you're gifted? So what I want to do is I want to take 30 seconds.

Ray: 15:24

There's 7 slots there. I just want you to write down 1 or 2. And when we're here today, part of what I want you to do is I want you to do this inventory, but then I want you to go home and I want you to ask your spouse the same questions. How do you think I'm gifted? You want to talk about a blessing.

Ray: 15:39

You want to talk about an affirmation and beginning to realize who you are and what's holding you back. As you begin to realize how you're gifted, you start to have breakthrough. So let's take 30 seconds. How are you gifted? 1 or 2 ways.

Ray: 15:52

You might say, I'm a good communicator. I'm a I'm a good analytical mind. I'm a good dad. I'm a good mom. I'm funny.

Ray: 16:02

I know how to play the banjo. I can play the fiddle. I only have one arm. I mean, how are you gifted? 1 or 2 things.

Ray: 16:12

This is part of that looking in before you look out. How am I gifted? Okay. For the sake of time, we're gonna keep moving. This is called the 4 g model.

Ray: 16:29

It's a little bit of a stretch because there's an l and a g here, but there's a g on there. Right? The 4 g model, life giving. What do you do in your life that is life giving? What are the things that when you're doing them, you lose track of time?

Ray: 16:44

It's like I've been doing this. I'm having so much fun at it. I, maybe it's work. Maybe it's recreation and you forget. In fact, you can sometimes tell because it gets you in trouble because you missed dinner or you're late for an appointment.

Ray: 16:57

You just lost total track of time. What are some things that you do in your life that are life giving? It might be play with kids. It might be cycling. I like to cycle.

Ray: 17:12

You might, I mean, there's, it's endless. What are things that you like to do that are life giving? When's the last time you thought about these things? How am I gifted? What do I like to do that's life giving?

Ray: 17:24

Work related or fun related? I don't care. What's interesting is I've just looked around the room and what I am experiencing with you is what I experienced when I sit down with a CEO. This is what happens. I asked them that question and you ready?

Ray: 17:38

This is the body language. I asked them that question and this is what happens. And they stay like this, and then they write something down. You know what that tells me? We have forgotten who we are.

Ray: 17:54

We don't know how we're gifted and we don't even know how we'd like to have fun. We don't even know what's life giving to me. Okay? You ready? Next thing, grinding.

Ray: 18:04

Now this one's easier. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands and we're not going to do a poll here. But what are the things that you just bug you? They drain you. Can I just tell you mine?

Ray: 18:13

I hate traffic. I used to work for United States Senate. I drove in and out of Washington DC all the time. I hated the traffic. My daughter was 1 year old, 1 years old.

Ray: 18:22

It'd take me 1 hour to get into DC and give me another hour to get back in. And about the time I would get home, she'd be standing in the window of our townhouse and I'd feed her some baby food and then she'd go to bed. I said, no, I'm not doing that. That grinds. You know what else I hate?

Ray: 18:39

I hate paperwork. I hate any kind of paperwork. I hate it. I hate it. And I'll tell you something else that may surprise you.

Ray: 18:47

I really don't like shampoo. I don't need I I don't need shampoo. I saved a lot of money. I don't like to get haircuts. I just do it myself.

Ray: 18:57

But what grinds your gears? See, if you know what grinds your gears, some of you are doing things that grind your gears. And you're chasing money or other things, because you and I'm not saying you don't have to work hard, there's not times in life you just gotta buckle down, buttercup. But some of you been chasing stuff that you're just not gifted in. Michael Jordan thought he wanted to play baseball.

Ray: 19:20

And what did Michael Jordan need to be doing? Playing basketball. And some of you are doing things because mama thought you'd be good at it, or daddy had the business and you went into it. And it's just not your gift set. It's not life giving you in fact, it just grinds the crap out of you.

Ray: 19:36

But you just grind it out, baby. Because you gotta make that buck. And you know what? You get to be about my age and you look back off the top of that ladder and it's lonely at the top. There's only one place to go down, but down.

Ray: 19:48

And you look back over your life and you're top of that ladder and you go, what did I do with 2 decades? I had a situation last week. I totaled my pickup. I've got a, I had a lifted Chevy Silverado with a cattle guard on the front. I was bad dude, man.

Ray: 20:03

And I plowed through a guy downtown and I took out 5 cars. It was his fault. But I I cleared the intersection. And I hit a big 4 wheel drive Dodge. Yeah, baby.

Ray: 20:12

I'd knocked the toolbox off the back of that dude. Chevy. And and and and and I knocked I knocked I I ran into him, but my son came up to me last week and says, dad, what what are you going to buy? And he's like, I don't know what you're going to buy, but you need to buy another truck because I'm thinking about getting a car. He said, dad, I've known you to drive a truck all your life.

Ray: 20:34

You gotta buy another truck. I don't know, son. Your mom's it might be nice. Maybe she didn't have to step up and get a ladder just to get in. And maybe I want to buy a car.

Ray: 20:42

He says, no, dad. And then he said this. And, I'm telling you, this is a confession. He said to me, dad, you need to buy diesel. You need to buy a big truck, and it'll be the last one you ever buy.

Ray: 20:56

I said, what did you just say? It'll be the last one that I ever buy. I got I don't I have hair. It comes out. I mean, I I shave my head.

Ray: 21:05

I'm not as old as I look. The last you think I'm gonna drive a diesel for 40 years, 30 years? He says, dad, you took it all wrong. You took it all wrong. But here's my point.

Ray: 21:15

There comes a point when you have 6 kids and they're all out of the house. And let me tell you, this empty nest thing is a joke. Man, me and my wife, we love it. We're chasing each other around the house. I'm almost 60, man.

Ray: 21:25

I don't have to wear clothes. It is absolutely empty nest. Bring it on, baby. I am freed up. But you you get to be about my age and somebody mentioned finding somebody that's crusty like me and breathing life into you.

Ray: 21:41

I'm so hyper, guys. I'll wear you out. I'll wear you out. I don't, I felt like I'm 25 inside. But here's the deal.

Ray: 21:49

I've got some miles behind me and it goes fast. Ask anybody who's got a few more crow's feet than I do or my as many as I do. It goes so stinking fast. Don't waste your life chasing stupidity and operate out of your giftedness, and your and your life giving opportunities, and the grind. Ask yourselves, what am I doing?

Ray: 22:10

Your vision is being impeded probably by you because you've bought a lie, because somebody else thought you ought to be doing this or that, and you had to make this amount of money, and you haven't had to have this many garages, and you had to have this kind of car, baloney shmoony. That doesn't lead to happiness. Success plus significance equals satisfaction. Success plus significance equals satisfaction. In America, we define success as the almighty dollar.

Ray: 22:39

And yeah, we gotta make money and you gotta pay I have spent you wanna talk about money? I have spent $25,000 on diapers. I know you got to make money. I raised 6 kids, and I did the math. That tells you how much I know it takes money.

Ray: 22:56

So let's go to the last one. What are you grateful for? When's the last time you thought to yourself, what am I grateful for? Who and what? You could divide this one in half.

Ray: 23:10

Who and what are you grateful for? Can I just tell you? If you can begin to tell me who and what you're grateful for, the other 3 will start to line up. Because you don't want any of those other 3 to mess up this. That's why people aren't together.

Ray: 23:26

That's why people lose their families. They forgot what they're grateful for. If you can tell me what you're grateful for, it'll tell me what you value. Are you with me? I gave you this I gave you this life on the edge.

Ray: 23:39

Right? And we have all these components. But at the end of the day, it really does come down to us. And sometimes we just need to pause and we need to ask ourselves, who am I? That's not a bad question.

Ray: 23:49

I don't care how old you are. I'm probably at the upper end of the scale here. Some of you most of you all probably go to my funeral. So I can tell you, I'm still asking myself that question. It's okay.

Ray: 24:01

It's okay. So does your vision line up with how you're gifted? It's a good question. The other side of that chasm is where you're going and where you're heading. Does it line up with how you're gifted?

Ray: 24:17

If it doesn't, what are you doing? Doing? Is your vision life giving? Man, if it's a dread every day, think twice, bro. Think twice.

Ray: 24:27

Is your vision life giving? Is your vision a grind? It's not going to be worth it. Looking back 10, 15, 20 years, man, I just had to get through it. I can't wait so I can go collect seashells down by the seashore, get my RV and run around and find out how to go to poo poo on the road.

Ray: 24:46

I mean, I I I'm sorry. That's not what I'm living to do. I wanna live now. I don't want to wait till then someday. My wife and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in Hawaii.

Ray: 24:56

We celebrated our 25th in Italy. And when we were in Hawaii, we were, I think in our, somewhere in our forties and we said, we have got to burn up some life and have some experiences because we're seeing some people on the beach. They're lucky to be here. I mean, we got, we have to, we have to have some memories. You know what I want to be?

Ray: 25:15

I want to be the guy. Are you ready? This is worthy showing up for today. I want to be the guy at the nursing home that's sitting in his chair, drooling, babbling about all the places I've been in in the world and all the wonderful things that I've seen with about $15 in his bank account. I don't want to be that guy that's got a one point 5,000,000 in his bank account and never went anywhere and all he said is I just need to put it in another hour at the office.

Ray: 25:40

That's not me. Life's too short. Life's there's too much to see. I'm 60 years old. I've been on nearly every continent in the world.

Ray: 25:48

It's because one day I made up my mind, I'm going to go for it. And I'm a kid that grew up in a small town, one block from the wrong side of the tracks. My dad was an alcoholic. My mom was pregnant with me when she was 15. I was the 1st on my mom's side, 2nd on my dad's side to go to college.

Ray: 26:03

Went to work for United States Senate, worked with every senator you could name at the time, worked for the president of the United States. And you know what, baby? I'm so glad I did because somebody had me buy into this idea. Who are you? And go for it.

Ray: 26:17

Don't let somebody tell you who you are. So is your vision is your vision a grind? Does your vision bring value to what you're grateful for? If it's taken away from your family, if it's taken away from all those things all those things, then there's probably a problem. So so does it does it take away from what you're grateful for?

Ray: 26:41

What you are grateful for reveals what you value. Does your vision Are you ready for this? Does your vision violate or validate your values. When you do this evaluation that we're talking about, it's just begin to show up. My clicker is not working.

Ray: 27:06

Oh, here we go. Are you are your values and vision in sync? We've already asked that question. Look in before you look out. What you see inside determines what happens outside.

Ray: 27:26

Let's be honest. Is it time to remove the blinders? You thought you had it all figured out a while ago. We did a silly exercise and we had on blinders, and then we took them off. But you see, you had blinders on.

Ray: 27:37

And maybe this little 30 minute time that we spent together, maybe it's causing you to pause and reflect and look back on your life and go, where am I going? What am I doing? That crazy, bald headed guy that made a few points. He's a little bit down the road from me. Maybe I ought to listen to what he's saying.

Ray: 27:53

Do I sell everything and get an RV and become a hippie and live on the beach? I'm not suggesting that. You've got kids to feed, right? But maybe it's time to ask yourself, are you doing it in the way that you need to be doing it? Are you heading in the right direction?

Ray: 28:04

Is your ladder up against the right wall? You see, the first step starts with you. Doesn't start with somebody else. It didn't start out there. It's got to start with you.

Ray: 28:13

You've got to take the time to ask yourself, where am I going? So here's the deal. Tiger didn't have any blinders on here. Even Tiger Woods needs a coach. And that's what I do.

Ray: 28:26

Somebody else called it a mentor earlier. It didn't have to be me, but find somebody. If it's not me, find somebody else that you can trust and you believe in and you look at your life and you think, you know, I'm often asked, I ask people this time, what is the role of a leader? Are you ready? This is the second best thing of the day, right, not of the day of my speech.

Ray: 28:46

Here's here's the second best point. What is the role of the leader? When I ask leaders, when I first get with them, what is your role? I get 3 answers. And if I was with you 1 on 1, I would ask you what are the 3 answers that I get from most leaders, what their role is?

Ray: 28:59

I'm going to save us the time. I'm going to tell you what they tell me and I'm going to tell you they're all right, but I think it's not the real thing. The number one thing that people tell me is the role of the leader is to get it. You ready? Lead.

Ray: 29:16

Pretty good. But it's true. There's leaders who don't lead. They abdicate. You've got to lead.

Ray: 29:21

Number 2, you know what the other role of the leader is? We've talked about it today. Vision. You got to set the vision. The third thing, depending on your faith perspective, and we know, and Jesus, I believe, I'm sorry, is the greatest leader that ever lived.

Ray: 29:33

Put him up against anybody. I don't care about your faith background. It doesn't matter. If you can get 13 ragamuffins like that to change the world and people are still talking about you, you're doing something right. And by the way, I, you know who the greatest man that nobody knows is?

Ray: 29:47

A lot of times it is Jesus because a lot of us, we think this idea of Jesus and we put him in and we say, you know, he's that that Zig zag looking guy off the Zig zag papers. Don't tell me you don't know what they are. This is a young enough crowd. I know. My grandpa used Zig Zag papers and he was rolling his own.

Ray: 30:02

And it wasn't that wacky to backy. Let me tell you. But Jesus is the is the man that nobody really knows. And we put him in this pasty translucent dress and he's walking around with Chaco's on and and he's and and he looks real passive. But this is the dude that was a carpenter, had muscles and he could clear a place.

Ray: 30:19

He cleared a tip on everything else. You know what you need to do? You need to find you somebody that looks like the Zig zag Man. You need to Oh, look at you guys are so cute. Come on.

Ray: 30:30

Just stand up bro. Come on. Here he is right there. Right there he is. Yeah.

Ray: 30:36

Welcome. I'm not trying to make be religious. What I am trying to say is find somebody worth following. And the role of a leader are you ready? Here it is.

Ray: 30:46

You thought I forgot. You know what the role of the leader is? Is to duplicate himself. And here's you say, now what do you mean by that? Here's how I know it's that.

Ray: 30:58

If you aren't a leader worth following, then I don't want to duplicate you. You need to go find somebody that you're going, that dude's killing it. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's smoking. I don't know what he's drinking.

Ray: 31:11

I don't know how he got that hot a wife. I don't know how he's making that much money, but I'm gonna get me some of that. It's the coffee. We all knew that. Love it, bro.

Ray: 31:26

But find you somebody, this life is worth following. And here's the deal. You ready? You ready? I'm going to get you on this one.

Ray: 31:32

Maybe you need to be that to somebody else. I've written 2 books and the last one I wrote was about the people in my life that I wouldn't be standing here before you today. Mr. Brown, Coach Wilson, Mr. Ritchie, guys that took that little boy who was going nowhere and invested in him, and they became the leader I wanted to follow.

Ray: 31:51

So that's what we do. We come alongside people. And we just, we don't beat you up, knock you down, poke your eyes out and tell you how stupid you are. We do that every other session. Not on every session.

Ray: 32:03

But we come alongside you and we try to help you recognize what? Your blind spots. Because your blind spots are what holding you is what holding you back. And none of us got it all figured out. I had people in my life that helped me all the time.

Ray: 32:18

Let's look at it this way. I got a major blind spot. I think I look pretty good today. You know why? My wife dressed me.

Ray: 32:26

I don't dress myself. You ready for this? I'm color blind and I'm bold. I need all the help I can get. I got a few blind spots and bold spots.

Ray: 32:37

So here's the deal. Here's the deal. You wanna know more? You can get in touch with me. Let's get connected.

Ray: 32:43

This is what we do. We started off with blind spots, and we started it started off with, blindfolds. There's something else on your table. Did you notice? I gave you another gift.

Ray: 32:56

Do you see those? What I want to know is this, Roger, congratulations. Great job today. Roger is somebody who models generosity. And what he did is he gave you a gift.

Ray: 33:14

I'm giving you 2. He just gave you this. But but here's here's the young lady. The young lady stood up over here, and she talked about everything that she got today. You've been given a lot of content today.

Ray: 33:25

You've heard me wave my arms and walk around the stage for about 30 minutes. You've heard me. But have you been listening? And what I have found is the leaders I work with, they really have 2 issues. They have blind spots, but they also don't have ears to hear.

Ray: 33:46

What I want you to do today is when you go home, wherever you go, I want you to take that blindfold. I want you to set it on your desk. Set it where you want to. Those earplugs, I want you to set it on your desk, put it by your toothpaste, whatever you wanna do. And as a leader, I want you to remember what I say.

Ray: 33:59

You need to keep your eyes open and your ears open so that you can discover who you are and where you wanna go because you know who you were meant to be. Thank you, guys.