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Every day you have a choice. You can wake up and choose to give in to mediocrity and complacency, you can choose bad habits and poor choices, and you can do the bare minimum to get by and fly under the radar. Or you can choose to make today the day that sets you apart from the crowd, you can choose to start doing the right things, the things that will set you up for success. You can choose to create a life that is worth living, worth waking up to, and worth sharing with the world around you. Today You can choose to start with a win.
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Speaker 1
that we also send the wrong signals about risk? We know I have seen and witnessed leaders talk a big game about the importance of taking risks. And then what happens when someone takes a risk and they fail? That person gets hammered.
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Unknown
Welcome to start with a win where we unpack franchising, leadership and business growth. Let's go.
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Speaker 1
Coming to you from area 15 ventures and start with the Win headquarters. It's Adam Contos with start with a win.
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Speaker 1
Ever wondered how to harness mental strength to drive both personal and professional success? Today I'd start with a win. We're thrilled to welcome Scott Maltz, CEO and founder of Profound Performance, who's dedicated to transforming leaders into their most inspired selves. Scott brings a wealth of information from his time as a senior executive at Procter and Gamble, where he successfully led multibillion dollar businesses.
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Speaker 1
He's also an award winning author, a popular LinkedIn learning instructor, and a faculty member at Indiana University's School of Business for Executive Education.
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Speaker 1
His latest book, The Mentally Strong Leader, provides actionable insights for regulating your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to achieve more in life.
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Speaker 1
Known for his authentic and high energy approach, Scott is here to share his passion for helping others overcome challenges and reach their full potential. Let's dive in and learn from Scott. Scott. Welcome to start with the Wind.
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Speaker 2
Great to be here. I hope I could start with a win. Have a win in the middle. Maybe we end with a win. Just winners all around today. Out of. That's what's my goal today.
00:01:35:04 - 00:01:48:16
Speaker 1
I love it. It's about winning today. It's perfect. Hey, I want to dig right into your book. The mentally strong leader. Tell us a little bit how. Why did you write the book? Give us a little bit about your background that led up to that.
00:01:48:18 - 00:02:10:07
Speaker 2
Yeah, you bet I I'm a kind of. I left corporate about, 8 or 9 years ago. I spent 30 years in the corporate world. Adam, I grew up, I, you know, started in mortgage investment banking, and then I grew up in, Procter and Gamble. Spent almost two and a half decades there, was lucky enough to run some of the largest multibillion dollar businesses they had there.
00:02:10:09 - 00:02:34:05
Speaker 2
And about halfway through my journey, I started really becoming a student of leadership, much like you are, you know, really trying to discern what makes the difference between great leaders and leaders who just happen to be in leadership positions. And I became so interested in not only being a practitioner of it and a student of it, that I actually decided to write my own first, you know, my first book while I was in corporate.
00:02:34:07 - 00:03:00:13
Speaker 2
And it was at that point in time that two things happened, the intersection of two things. I realized that I was super more excited about broadening my platform for making a difference with the written in the spoken word. Then I wasn't even continuing to climb up the ladder in the corporate world that intersected with all that, I had started to learn about the power of mental strength in the workplace, which I know we're going to talk a lot about today.
00:03:00:15 - 00:03:20:17
Speaker 2
And once the intersection of those two things happened, I knew that, someday I'd have to leave corporate. And if anybody was paying attention, you know, a guy who publishes a book while they're in, while they're still in their job. It's probably a good signal of what, you know, what was coming next. And so I left corporate about 8 or 9 years ago to be with you here today.
00:03:20:19 - 00:03:24:09
Speaker 1
Awesome. And you mentioned the mentally strong leader.
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Speaker 2
Yeah.
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Speaker 1
Tell us what that you know, what does that look like? How do we discern somebody from, you know, mentally strong to let's say mentally weak. I mean, what separates those things.
00:03:34:09 - 00:04:01:07
Speaker 2
And yeah, you back up with that. You bet. Well, the opposite of mentally strong is not mentally weak. We all have a baseline of mental strength to build from. And you know, the thing I want listeners to understand first and foremost is mental strength is not just IQ or emotional intelligence, which has been the, you know, buzz term of the last decade, really emotional intelligence, which is, of course, the ability to get your emotions to work for you versus against you.
00:04:01:09 - 00:04:24:16
Speaker 2
Think about it this way. Mental strength is the broad umbrella that over arches EQ, EQ is a portion of mental strength, which means then that mental strength is actually, by definition, the ability to regulate not only your emotions, but your thoughts and your behaviors and your actions productively. Even in adversity. And I would argue, especially in adversity, is I like to shorthand it.
00:04:24:16 - 00:04:46:09
Speaker 2
Adam. It's how we manage internally so we can lead better externally at work and in life. And I think most listeners and I'm sure you too, Adam, I'm sure that it's intuitively obvious to you that if you want to succeed at work in life, you have to be able to regulate your emotions, your thoughts and your behaviors. Right?
00:04:46:13 - 00:05:02:18
Speaker 2
But this just in. Here's a clue. Ready? It's really hard to do that. It's really hard to do that. And that's what set me out on the journey to share all that I learned about mental strength. And, you know, to put into the book the mentally strong leader what I've done.
00:05:02:20 - 00:05:07:10
Speaker 1
Awesome. So you're telling me that we have to get ourselves right before we can get our company right?
00:05:07:13 - 00:05:32:09
Speaker 2
That's hard. Hard to believe, isn't it? It's hard to believe. And it's a very specific ways to, you know, by the way, Adam, you know, when I say mental strength, there's six core mental muscles that equate to mental strength. They are fortitude, boldness, confidence, goal, focus, the ability to stay focused on your own goals and keep your organization focused on their goals.
00:05:32:11 - 00:05:59:14
Speaker 2
Decision making, being both decisive and making high quality decisions, and the ability to message meaning staying positive even in the face of negativity. Staying engaged so that you send the right message to the troops as a leader that you're all in, that you're engaging, that you're positive minded. So yeah, not only is it important as a leader to start by, you know, with yourself, it's really important to flex and build those six core mental muscles in particular.
00:05:59:16 - 00:06:18:20
Speaker 1
All right. Well I want to talk about those mental muscles now because, you know, if we're not building our our core strength and our major muscles here, we're really missing out in life. I like a good workout, too. So, so let's start with fortitude. That one really. I mean, you know, you think about intestinal fortitude and you have the fortitude to handle this.
00:06:18:20 - 00:06:26:19
Speaker 1
And, you know, it's always it comes up in these in war movies and things like that. But truly, it's something that a leader needs to understand. Talk to us about that.
00:06:26:21 - 00:06:52:00
Speaker 2
Yeah. You bet. And you know, I'll, I'll also say you mentioned something, that I want to touch on first and I'll go right into fortitude. You had talked about, you know, hey, you enjoy a good workout that it is really, an apt metaphor here. You know, when you compare physical muscles to mental muscles, you know, if you were going to work out right physically and you went to the gym, you wouldn't go in and say, okay, I'm going to workout.
00:06:52:00 - 00:07:12:00
Speaker 2
Every single muscle in my body today is going to take me 19 hours. You'd be exhausted and I'd lasts for like two days and you'd be done, you know, Wednesday would be back day. Thursday is, I don't know, you know, stomach day and arm day. Friday is leg day. It's similar with your mental muscle. So the six core mental muscles that I was you know, I'm talking about fortitude, confidence, boldness, decision making, messaging.
00:07:12:04 - 00:07:31:13
Speaker 2
You build this ability to say goal focus. You determine. And I'll talk to you later where your strength lies in all of those, you level up accordingly by building yourself, a mental strength regiment to work on those muscles over time. Not all at once. So let's say that you want to work on your fortitude muscle to your question, you've just certain.
00:07:31:13 - 00:08:02:02
Speaker 2
Okay. Yeah, I feel like I'm pretty confident. I feel like I make good decisions. You know, man, I really break down in times of resilience. Fortitude, of course, is the ability for us to push through challenges onward to achievement. And in the mentally strong leader, you know, for every mental muscle I have a ton of, you know, tools, frameworks and systems that help you put, make get the repetitions in that we were talking about to build muscles, to build the habits, to actually build and strengthen whatever you're trying to strengthen.
00:08:02:02 - 00:08:28:14
Speaker 2
So, for example, if you're trying to strengthen fortitude, one of the tools in the book that I talk about are the four lenses of resilience, how important it is to be able, Adam, to reframe setbacks in the face of resilience. And I won't go through all of the lenses. I'll share just one. As an example. You know, I talk about the perspective lens, for example, in times of, you know, when you really need to show fortitude and resilience and grit.
00:08:28:16 - 00:08:41:15
Speaker 2
And what I mean by the perspective ones is this that we often forget and tell me that this is true of you, Adam. I know it's true of me. When when we face setbacks, we feel like we got to take it out alone. We go into an echo chamber and we feel like, all right, I'm going to handle this.
00:08:41:15 - 00:09:05:10
Speaker 2
This is up to me. I got to plow my way through. Grit is, you know, a solo sport. Well, it isn't. Fortitude is a team sport, in resilience is a team sport. And with the perspective lens tells you, is to remember that you don't have to go this alone. Understand what your specific your specific resilient needs are and then call on your network accordingly to get help on that front.
00:09:05:10 - 00:09:22:13
Speaker 2
For example, my resilience needs Adam or when I face a setback, a really tough one I need to get on the phone with, one of my brothers or my sister to have a laugh. They'll help me laugh at me. They'll help me reframe my setback. Because not being a big deal, I always hang up feeling better. Other people, they're resilient.
00:09:22:13 - 00:09:40:07
Speaker 2
Need is they need a shoulder to cry on. Other people need a wise old veteran to tell them what to do next. Other people just want somebody to listen. The point is, you got to broaden your perspective in times of resilience. It's classic psychology to know what you need in times of resilience, to then call on that network.
00:09:40:09 - 00:09:45:15
Speaker 2
And that's just one of the many tools to help you strengthen the fortitude muscle. In the book, the mentally strong leader.
00:09:45:17 - 00:09:53:06
Speaker 1
It it seems to me like that's when people start burning out is when they don't call on that, that network. Is that a correct statement?
00:09:53:08 - 00:10:10:08
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And if you think about yourself, you know, I know for me for sure, when you start to believe that, okay, mental strength, the definition of mental strength, you know, and being confident, it must be the absence of doubt. And, you know, if I have no doubt I could just take on things all by myself.
00:10:10:08 - 00:10:34:19
Speaker 2
It's not true. Confidence is not the absence of doubt. It's your ability to manage your relationship with doubt. And you know, of all the I interviewed thousands of people for the mentally strong leader, adamant even the most confident person that was incredibly resilient. They would not tell me, oh, I just doubt. Never appears to me. It just never shows up.
00:10:34:19 - 00:10:51:14
Speaker 2
That's not true. It's there for all of us. It's about how we manage it. And part of how you manage that doubt, especially in times of resilience, is you don't take it on by yourself. You're okay with knowing that you could bring in your network of people you need, as long as you know specifically what it is you're looking for.
00:10:51:15 - 00:10:54:01
Speaker 2
When you face a setback, what support do you need?
00:10:54:03 - 00:11:18:21
Speaker 1
I love that, I mean, we're you know, you talking about confidence here, obviously, which is, I think an incredible muscle for leaders. I, I rank it up there with competence. As you know, one of the key aspects that a leader as a leader needs. And I was in a meeting yesterday with a team from one of my, businesses that that we operate and we're making some big movements.
00:11:18:22 - 00:11:41:01
Speaker 1
And I brought up confidence and doubt and things of that nature and had a question from one of the leaders in the room and they said, you're making this. You're you're you're reassuring us so well with your confidence that we know we can do this instead of allowing that doubt to creep in, because I call it the beast in, in my book.
00:11:41:03 - 00:12:03:14
Speaker 1
And we have to go party with the beast. And, and, you know, you can either stand around and let it overcome you and lose your confidence. And like you said, you know that relationship with doubt is a horrible relationship, that it's super dysfunctional. But if you manage that properly, you can go party with the beast. And, and and that confidence comes right back.
00:12:03:14 - 00:12:14:14
Speaker 1
So this is an incredible, piece here. I love the confidence piece. Let's tell me about boldness that that seems like an interesting word to use for a mental muscle. What? Tell us about that.
00:12:14:17 - 00:12:34:00
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know, it's not necessarily the first word that everybody would pick up on, but, you know, boldness and truth. That boldness paves a direct pathway to growth. When you think about it, you know, if you say, I need to be bold in this job, in this role as a leader, it almost by definition, it forces you to push your thinking.
00:12:34:02 - 00:12:57:02
Speaker 2
It forces you to get out of ruts, to press past discomfort. It sparks innovation. It requires risk taking in, necessitates change. And yet so many of us aren't bold enough. And, you know, I share a lot of tools in again in the mental strong leader systems and frameworks and reps to help you become bolder. I'll share just one example.
00:12:57:02 - 00:13:02:21
Speaker 2
If I may let let me ask you a question, Adam. have you ever been to a casino before?
00:13:02:23 - 00:13:03:16
Speaker 1
Yes.
00:13:03:18 - 00:13:22:10
Speaker 2
Okay. Now, I don't mean during the workday when you were supposed to be doing your job. I'm talking for pleasure on the weekend. Well. And. Yes. And. Yeah. Okay. so I, I had an interesting dinner, some time ago with a casino company in Las Vegas. We'll leave it at that. I don't want to share the name.
00:13:22:16 - 00:13:50:19
Speaker 2
I was doing some leadership development work for them and, you know, some workshops or a keynote for them in their group. And we're having dinner the night before the event, and they were telling me about an interesting throughput problem they were having on the floor of the casino, meaning one of the games on the casino floor was causing the throughput issue, the ratio of people standing around watching the game, not spending money to the the number of people that were actually stepping up and spending their money out of the game.
00:13:50:23 - 00:14:07:01
Speaker 2
It was so out of whack it was causing an unproductive traffic flow problem on the floor and blocking revenue that they would have liked to have generated, you know, was that game let me pause for a second. Do you want to take a wild guess as to what that game was? And then I'll take you where I'm going with this.
00:14:07:01 - 00:14:07:23
Speaker 2
Any idea what.
00:14:08:01 - 00:14:09:16
Speaker 1
I'm going to say? Craps.
00:14:09:17 - 00:14:12:03
Speaker 2
you were right on it. Why did you say that, Adam?
00:14:12:05 - 00:14:16:00
Speaker 1
Because a lot of people are afraid of the dynamics in craps.
00:14:16:02 - 00:14:18:21
Speaker 2
And why? Why is that?
00:14:18:23 - 00:14:27:18
Speaker 1
there's a lot of activity. There's a lot of talking, and, you know, back and forth and things of that nature. I think it I think it probably intimidates some people.
00:14:27:20 - 00:14:46:02
Speaker 2
the last word is the key. One intimidates because of what you're talking about. And for those of you at home that don't know what a craps table looks like, go home and Google it. I play craps with friends from time to time, and I don't know how to play craps. If you've ever seen the table, it's really intimidating.
00:14:46:08 - 00:15:02:17
Speaker 2
It's a game, on a table you play, you roll dice into a pit and and, you know, you bet on the outcome of the dice roll. And it has all these incredibly confusing signs. And right every time I play, I have to tip the the person at the table a remind me, how do I bet here and do it in a right way?
00:15:02:19 - 00:15:22:16
Speaker 2
It's a really confusing game. So what they were learning is that people literally were not stepping up to risk their money to be bold with their money, because they didn't understand the rules of the game. It was just too intimidating. Meanwhile, back at the office, Adam, the same thing happens if you do not establish the rules of risk taking.
00:15:22:16 - 00:15:41:18
Speaker 2
As a leader, people are not going to step up and roll the dice. That's a term that comes from Vegas. They're not going to step up and be bolder. They're not going to take risks. So imagine if, as a leader, you simply put together a list. Simple. These are the rules of risk taking. This is what a good risk looks like.
00:15:41:21 - 00:16:03:17
Speaker 2
This is what a bad one looks like. This is who needs to approve what level of risk. This is what happens when you succeed or fail with a risk and so on. In the mentally strong leader, I have a suggested starting point of 20 rules that you can use to establish the rules of risk taking, because I've seen over and over again, Adam, when as a leader you establish them or as a follower or employee, you ask for clarification of the rules.
00:16:03:19 - 00:16:09:13
Speaker 2
It can have a step change and the boldness and risk taking spirit of an organization.
00:16:09:15 - 00:16:40:01
Speaker 1
This is incredibly powerful, folks. I hope you're listening to this and go reference this in Scott's book. I'll tell you what, the number one reason why decisions are not made within businesses, I believe, is that there is this averse feeling towards risk where people are absolutely afraid, particularly in founder led businesses, because a lot of times and founder led businesses, people will walk into the founders office and the founder will make a decision before the person can even finish their thought.
00:16:40:03 - 00:16:59:04
Speaker 1
They walk out. It's there. So we actually train people not to take risk in a lot of businesses. And that's not how you grow a business. You need to take calculated, very educated, but willingly taking risk in order to grow your business. So this is this is a great key I think that's right.
00:16:59:06 - 00:17:14:09
Speaker 2
Adam. And would you agree with us, have you seen in your experience too, that we also send the wrong signals about risk? We know I have seen and witnessed leaders talk a big game about the importance of taking risks, and then what happens when someone takes a risk and they fail? That person gets.
00:17:14:13 - 00:17:15:09
Speaker 1
Hammered.
00:17:15:11 - 00:17:19:20
Speaker 2
Why? Because the rules of risk taking weren't in place. Have you seen that dynamic happen before?
00:17:19:23 - 00:17:32:07
Speaker 1
Totally. Everybody's afraid of that conversation. right. That was not the right decision. And you're going to hold it against me in my review or whatever it might be. But the reality is we should be rewarding people for taking good risks.
00:17:32:07 - 00:17:50:23
Speaker 2
Yes, yes, I have seen clients that have failure parties where they will actually celebrate a risk taken and not in that, you know, achieved. And they don't say that's what we're looking for. We're looking for failure. But they celebrate what was learned in their failure to send the spirit of risk taking throughout to the organization.
00:17:51:01 - 00:17:58:01
Speaker 1
Yep. Exactly. That's great. Okay. Let's move on to, decision making. How's that for the next one?
00:17:58:03 - 00:18:17:00
Speaker 2
Well, you know, the thing about, you know, the reason why decision making is such an important mental model, you know? And of all the six mental muscles I talked about, by the way, you know that forward to confidence, boldness, decision making, goal focused messaging, the common denominator across all the medium is that they all require self-regulation, right? And they're all related.
00:18:17:00 - 00:18:39:13
Speaker 2
And I can talk about this later if you're interested. You know, through my research. And they all correlate more than any other leadership skill to achievement. Right. It's especially decision making when it comes to a leader. We as leaders, we make decisions all day long. That's like almost a definition of our job. But here's the thing emotion and bias and undisciplined thinking.
00:18:39:13 - 00:18:59:14
Speaker 2
They're all the enemies of good decision making. And all those things happen when you don't self-regulate. How you think and how you make decisions. One of the biggest ways, and I talk about this a lot in the middle is strong leader in decision making is when we don't regulate our own biases that can show up in decision making.
00:18:59:16 - 00:19:18:03
Speaker 2
And I talk about the 12 most common biases in decision making. And I'll give you just one. As an example, maybe the most common one that most of us know about is called the confirmation bias. This is where we have the tendency to search for the information we want to support, the decision that we want to make. And in many cases, I've seen leaders.
00:19:18:03 - 00:19:50:01
Speaker 2
Adam, I'm sure you have to. They've already made the decision. Now they're going off to find data to confirm the decision they've already made. That is called confirmation bias. It's extremely common, but you have to really be disciplined in aware of the biases and like anything else. Right. Much of of mental strength starts with self-awareness. And there's, you know, a major system and framework, a tool of the knowledge, strong leader that helps you become aware of the dozen most common decision making biases that you can not only be become aware of, but then what do you do to overcome them and avoid them?
00:19:50:03 - 00:19:54:09
Speaker 1
So this tool is at the 50 question mental strength self-assessment.
00:19:54:11 - 00:20:12:19
Speaker 2
Good good question. Now that's that's separate. So I'll explain that quickly and tell you the difference between the 50 tools. So we talked earlier Adam about how difficult it can be to become mentally stronger right than the thought of, you know, going into the gym and putting on 30 pounds of muscle weight is that's a daunting thought, right?
00:20:12:21 - 00:20:38:19
Speaker 2
Right. But here's the thing. It all starts with the baseline of understanding how mentally strong you are right now. In the book, the mentally strong Leader, there's a 50 question questionnaire that I simply call it the mental strength self-assessment. I work with data scientists took me about three years to validate and put this this, 50 question survey together to have the right 50 questions to correlate to mental strength.
00:20:38:21 - 00:20:55:07
Speaker 2
It takes about 15 minutes. When you take that questionnaire, you get an overall mental strength score. First of all, that tells you which tier of mental strength you fall on. There's four of them. There's no right tier. You're not the winner of the game if you fall in the top tier. Because guess what? Even if you do, you got to keep working those muscles.
00:20:55:12 - 00:21:17:23
Speaker 2
If you don't go back to the gym, your muscles get flabby. So there's no winner to that. But you understand where you lie was your starting point. You also get a score for each mental muscle, for fortitude, for confidence, for boldness, decision making, etc. so that you are then are equipped to be able to make your own customized mental strength training program.
00:21:18:04 - 00:21:34:18
Speaker 2
Now to the other part of the question, the 50 plus tools. Okay, so that sounds great. I took the mental strength self-assessment I see. Okay, wow. I'm, you know, I'm not as confident as I thought that I was, and it doesn't surprise me. I need to work on that, and I need to work on my ability to stay focused on my goals.
00:21:34:20 - 00:21:56:13
Speaker 2
You now know what you want to work on strengthening, and then you know what you want to work on maintaining. In the book, the mentally strong leader, there are over 50 plus habit building tools, meaning systems and frameworks based on habit building science to help you actually build those muscles. Because this is hard and that's what habits are.
00:21:56:13 - 00:22:15:20
Speaker 2
Habits are essentially repetition. You if you want bigger arm muscles and you want to do curls, you got to do reps. If you want a bigger goal focused muscle, you got to do reps. How do you do repetitions through systems and frameworks. And there's over 50 plus systems and frameworks in the book. The really strong leader to help you build whatever mental muscle you're looking to build.
00:22:15:22 - 00:22:18:18
Speaker 1
Wow. It sounds like this is more of a toolbox than a book.
00:22:18:20 - 00:22:33:14
Speaker 2
That's how I wrote it. You know, my dream, Adam, is, you know, it's not a beach summer beach read. You know my dream. I just happened to me recently. And, you know, people ask me, oh, Scott, you know, what's your goal? How many zillion books do you want to sell? Believe it or not, Adam and I mean this.
00:22:33:14 - 00:22:51:08
Speaker 2
This is true statement. That's not. That's never my goal. My goal is to have happened. What happened just a few weeks ago, where I go into the airport and I look at the person sitting next to me getting out of the plane. They have a copy of my book, and I look over and there's about 5000 sticky notes on it, because they are using it as a resource for the guide.
00:22:51:08 - 00:23:04:19
Speaker 2
And that really that happened. And that's the pinnacle for me. That's why I wrote the book the way I did. It's why Dan Pink called it an indispensable guide, if I may share that, because it's written that way. It's written to be a toolbox you can return to and use over and over again.
00:23:04:21 - 00:23:11:04
Speaker 1
I love that. Hey, let's jump into goal, focus, because I think this is one that a lot of people struggle with. So talk to us about that.
00:23:11:06 - 00:23:30:07
Speaker 2
Yeah, if you think about it for a second, when when you have when you're not self-regulating and you have wayward thoughts and emotions and actions distracting you from the goal at hand, that's like the opposite of goal focus. So it takes self-regulation skills to be able to stay focused on the goal at hand. Again, I have many tools in the book.
00:23:30:07 - 00:23:49:09
Speaker 2
I'll share just one very simple one. It's a very simple tool called the Control Check. And it's about controlling the controllable so you can stay focused on your goal. And the tool has two columns. In one column, you list all the setbacks setbacks you anticipate are going to come. They're going to get in the way of your goal.
00:23:49:13 - 00:24:17:18
Speaker 2
Right. And then guess what? In that column, after you've written down and brainstorm, these are all the things that could go wrong. You circle only the things you can do. Something about. Step one. Then in the other column, you know, next to the setbacks column is a column titled the Systems Column. That's where you write down, okay, so if this setback happens and I feel I can actually do something about this particular setback, what are the systems I can put in place to help me overcome them, overcome it?
00:24:17:18 - 00:24:28:03
Speaker 2
The frameworks, the policies, the procedures, the standing meetings, whatever we need to do to be able to overcome that. It's all about just controlling the controllable so you can stay focused on your goal.
00:24:28:05 - 00:24:49:16
Speaker 1
That's awesome. I mean, that's one of the biggest problems that we see is people, I mean, first of all, goals or just dreams that people write down most of the time. So it's incredibly important for everybody to, to pay attention to that. And, let's jump to the last one here, because this is really important. I think this helps us provide clarity.
00:24:49:16 - 00:25:03:00
Speaker 1
And this is really one of the key aspects that we're missing in a lot of business is people understanding, having clarity of what they're trying to accomplish, how to get there, the support they have, things of that nature because we do a horrible job of messaging. So talk to us about messaging.
00:25:03:06 - 00:25:18:22
Speaker 2
Yeah. Just so that we're all clear on the definition. You know, think about it this way, Adam. As leaders, we all live in a fishbowl right now, right? Everybody's watching us all the time, swimming around with direction that we swim in next. And and we send messages from the smallest of our actions, whether or not we realize it.
00:25:19:00 - 00:25:35:14
Speaker 2
you know, I remember a comment a leader made to me where we called. He called me out in front of a group of like, you know, 20 people for a mistake that I made. And he was way too harsh about it. I remember his exact sentence that he said to me, and the message he was sending to the troops.
00:25:35:16 - 00:25:56:01
Speaker 2
Side note it was 25 years ago. Adam and I still remember the exact sentence. This is the impact you can have on troops with your messaging. If you're not careful. So. So I come from a standpoint of it's really important to be positive minded, even in the face of negativity. With your messaging as a leader, the troops are looking to you for that.
00:25:56:06 - 00:26:12:10
Speaker 2
It's really, really important to do that. One simple tool I'll talk about. I have multiple tools to help you with, you know, to to have the right messaging to the troops. And I get this question all the time. Okay, I got you, Scott, but what do you what do I do when I'm feeling negative emotions in the moment and I'm ready to blow my top?
00:26:12:15 - 00:26:29:01
Speaker 2
Those are the moments when I show up to the organization in the way that I don't want to. I send the wrong message. What do I do about that? Well, there's a tool called the redirect Rhythm. I'm going to teach it to you now, Adam, I promise you, I promise you, I promise you, it really works. I've been teaching it for over almost 15 years now.
00:26:29:03 - 00:27:02:15
Speaker 2
Here's how it works A few simple steps. Step one when you feel that negative emotion kind of building up, you have to first of all take a breath. And I know everybody knows that. Oh, Scott, that's the insight you're bringing. We've heard that before a thousand times. You got to take a breath. Here's why. Though you might not know why it's so important physiologically, when when you feel your temperature mounting, you feel like your emotions are going to flow rate into something you're going to regret saying it's so important to take a breath because not only are the physical reaction that happens, your heart rate slows down, your stress level falls down.
00:27:02:17 - 00:27:23:08
Speaker 2
You can think more clearly, more importantly, what you're really doing. And a lot of people don't realize this neurologically. You are creating space. You are creating distance from the intensity of the emotion you're feeling. You are breaking the gravitational pull of where that emotion is taking you, which is not going to be someplace that you want to go.
00:27:23:10 - 00:27:46:11
Speaker 2
So as you take that breath. Then in that same instance, you name the emotion that you're feeling because it's a clever way to drive self-awareness of what you're feeling. And how you're about to react. And when you name the emotion, it begins to lose its power over you instantly. Let's say, Adam, you and I are talking, and, I'm getting I'm making this up than I could ever imagine this happening.
00:27:46:11 - 00:28:05:11
Speaker 2
But I'm getting frustrated with you because you're not listening to what I'm saying, right? And I can feel that coming. I take a breath. What am I feeling? I'm feeling frustrated. You go to those final steps which are kind of combine. Will you reassess and you redirect? And I say to myself, okay, I'm feeling frustrated. What's really happening here is I'm mad that Adam's not listening to me.
00:28:05:11 - 00:28:19:00
Speaker 2
I'm about to blow my stack. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to redirect, I reassess where I'm at, I'm going to redirect my action, and I'm going to ask him, call me to say hey. And I just I want to make sure that you really heard me on that one. It's three steps that really work cognitively.
00:28:19:01 - 00:28:36:04
Speaker 2
Hey, well, therapist will tell you it's very similar to the three C's that they teach. Catch it, check it, change it, catch what it is you're about to say. Check whether or not it's where you want to go. Change it. If it's not, it really works at him. And all it takes is, you know, a couple of practices, five reps under your belt.
00:28:36:04 - 00:28:38:01
Speaker 2
Before you know it, it becomes a habit.
00:28:38:03 - 00:28:41:05
Speaker 1
That's great. And it sounds a little bit like that de-escalation training I went through.
00:28:41:05 - 00:28:44:19
Speaker 2
It does enforcement. Yes. So it's key part of mental strength.
00:28:44:21 - 00:28:53:09
Speaker 1
Yeah. It's that's amazing. I'll tell you what. There's so much gold in this book. Where can people find the book and where can they find you online? Scott.
00:28:53:10 - 00:29:11:03
Speaker 2
Yeah, sure. Thanks for asking me. You can find me at Scott mounts.com. That's, Scott m a UT or Z, depending on where you're listening. Scott months.com. you can find out about the mentally strong leader, the workshops, the trainings I teach, the keynotes I give. And I put together a free gift for listeners today of your show.
00:29:11:03 - 00:29:32:19
Speaker 2
Adam, if they are interested, if they would like a free 60 page PDF that includes the mental strength self-assessment I was talking about earlier, as well as prompts to how to use the book in the best way. A series of questions. If you want that free 60 page PDF, just go to Scott now. TV.com slash mentally strong gift.
00:29:32:21 - 00:29:53:22
Speaker 1
Scott mounts.com/mentally strong gift. Make sure you everybody checks that out. also I tell you what Scott has a lot of great content online. So be sure to look that up and of course get the book. I mean this information and I've been teaching leadership for quite some time and a student of leadership for decades. Incredibly good toolbox here.
00:29:53:22 - 00:30:19:01
Speaker 1
I definitely would highly recommend it. So Scott, this has been a great conversation. We've learned a lot about these six aspects fortitude, confidence, boldness, decision making, goal focus, and messaging. This has been a masterclass, frankly, so thank you for having us on Earth. Let's edit that out Nate. So thank you for being on here today. Scott, I have a question.
00:30:19:01 - 00:30:25:02
Speaker 1
I ask all the great, people on the show. Scott, how do you start your day with a win?
00:30:25:04 - 00:30:53:13
Speaker 2
I practice what I call gratefulness, which is a combination of gratitude and mindfulness. And it's simply this. It's it reminds myself to find and appreciate pleasure and take joy in the small parts of my day that are the grind part. The part that would normally wear me down. It's not just gratitude showing appreciation. It's not just mindfulness. Being aware of my surroundings.
00:30:53:15 - 00:31:06:16
Speaker 2
It's combining the two grind fullness so that I can find. I remind myself to find joy in the small moments of the day that might not. I might not be looking forward to as much. And it changes my outlook on my perspective.
00:31:06:17 - 00:31:19:23
Speaker 1
Awesome. That's a great way to think about the day ahead. Grind fullness. It's amazing. Scott Maltz, author of The Mentally Strong Leader. Thank you so much for all you do, and thanks for being on start with a win.
00:31:20:01 - 00:31:21:06
Speaker 2
Thanks for having me here.