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July 2022

Episode #401: Aiming Higher — Fourth Interview with Chris "Elroy" Stricklin

Ed and Ron were delighted to welcome back, for the fourth time, Chris “Elroy” Stricklin to discuss his new book, Aiming Higher: A Journey Through Military Aviation Leadership, published earlier this year. What can the military teach us about leadership? A lot. Given the endemic failure of leadership in the business world, in spite of all the focus on the topic, why is excellence in leadership so rare? There’s no better person to talk about these issues than Chris.

A bit more about Chris

Chris “Elroy” Stricklin, Air Force Colonel (retired), is the award-winning, best-selling co-author of Survivor’s Obligation: Navigating an Intentional Life where he details his ongoing journey in life to survive and thrive through the trauma of an aircraft ejection as an Air Force Thunderbird. His latest book is Aiming Higher: A Journey Through Military Aviation Leadership. He is a highly sought-after motivational keynote speaker and combat-proven senior military leader, retiring after 23 years of service, which culminated with CEO-level leadership of a 7,000-person strong, $7B worldwide organization. His unique leadership style and skill have afforded him roles as a partner in a Forbes “25 Best Small Companies in America” leadership consulting firm with impact across multiple Fortune 500 businesses. He now serves as the founding president of a first-of-its kind talent development and management organization, with leadership presentations and publications before millions of business leaders. A combat-decorated Fighter Pilot, Chris is also a Certified Manager with degrees in Economics, Financial Planning, Management, Real Estate, Strategic Studies and Operational Art and Science. He authored a negotiation primer subsequently published and adopted as required Air Force Pentagon new action officer orientation. Chris and his wife, Terri, have been blessed with four amazing children. Visit www.ChrisStricklin.com.

Use these show notes while listening to the audio

  • Welcome Chris! The 4th time is a charm. You can visit TheSoulOfEnterprise.com slash episode number to see all of his appearances. They are episodes 166, 214, 262, and now…401!

  • “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” —Jim Rohn. This is one of Chris’ favorite quotes.

  • Aiming Higher is the book that Chris never meant to write. It came as a result of a group of peers working through leadership during COVID times. Here is the link on Amazon.

  • Leadership is defined by the people you are trying to lead at this very moment. You have to be the leader that your group needs on your project on this day.

  • Paraphrased from Chris today: The purpose of a high performing team is that any one at any time can be called up to lead on any given day. If each person on the team is prepared to do this then you will be more successful.

  • “I truly believe leadership is a universal skill. It’s just the actions of your company that change.” —Chris Stricklin

  • “In order to embrace failure we must leave ego by the wayside and absolutely learn to get over ourselves and get out of our way.” —Robert “Cujo” Teschner

  • “Failure isn’t all bad. In fact, it’s mostly good.” —Robert “Cujo” Teschner

  • Play to win cultures do exactly that. They play to win. They DO NOT play not to lose. See the difference?

  • Businesses that put making money as the purpose of the organization tend to go sideways. Making money is a result but you need to define your purpose separately. “Money is a second order effect.” —Chris Stricklin

  • One of the chapters in “Aiming Higher” is called Purposeful Peers. Leading up to this chapter, Chris had people around him aligned on purpose, passion, drive, and determination.

  • Commercial free AND bonus episodes are available at Patreon.com/TSOE which is sponsored by @90Minds. Find a mind at 90Minds.com!

  • Many know that Ron has been teaching ethics for about 15 years. He always talks about the Air Force core values: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence In All We Do

  • There is a relatively famous movie in the theaters right now (hint: Top Gun) that talks about the wingman. Skip the fluff and go straight to the source: “Aiming Higher” by Chris Stricklin and Cujo tackles wingmen culture through a dedicated chapter in the book.

  • “Anything that ends in -ing means we haven’t gotten to it and it’s on a to do list.” —Chris Stricklin

  • Chris does not make any money off of the book, Aiming Higher. All profits go to charities that have been selected by the authors. Books sales are not how they make their livelihood. It is a way to give back based on what they have learned.

  • “The purpose of leadership is to motivate individuals to the common purpose and common good.” —Chris Stricklin

  • Paraphrasing from Chris today: When you do fail and you do let people down, you need to admit it and move forward. It’s about accountability. The best thing to do is own up to it and tell your team what you plan is to better tomorrow. #FailForward

  • A big THANK YOU to Chris Stricklin for being such a great guest today. Check out “Aiming Higher” for one of the best leadership books Ron has ever read. Yep….Ron! The man that doesn’t read leadership books.

 
 

Episode #400: Tackling Objections to the Subscription Model for Professionals

Recently, two noted consultants wrote up a list of their objections to using the subscription model for professional firms. In this episode, Ron and Ed take these arguments point by point and deliver their refutation of the ideas. Hang on! This one is a rollicking good time. Before we get to the show, let’s take this time to remind everyone that Ron has a new book coming out! If you want to get in early and join the pre-order book club (with special membership benefits including time with Ron) just click here and follow the easy instructions.

Did you miss this show live?

Don’t worry about it! You can always subscribe to the podcast here or listen to the embedded audio on this very page. Either way, you do NOT want to miss this show.

Here is a GREAT CLIP from the show. Check this out and then listen to the full show for even more.

Episode #399: Interview with David Bahnsen

Ron and Ed welcome David Bahnsen, private wealth manager and author of There's No Free Lunch: 250 Economic Truths. In the book What David Bahnsen pulls from the masters—the great economic voices of the past and the present—to remind readers of the basic economic truths that must serve as our foundation in understanding the challenges of today.

A Bit More About David Bahnsen

David L. Bahnsen is the founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of The Bahnsen Group, a bi-coastal private wealth management firm with offices in Newport Beach, CA, and New York City, managing over $3 billion in client assets. David is consistently named as one of the top financial advisors in America by Barron’s, Forbes, and the Financial Times. He is a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Fox Business and is a regular contributor to National Review and Forbes. He has written his own political viewpoint blog at www.bahnsenviewpoint.com for over a decade. David is passionate about opposition to crony capitalism and has lectured and written for years about the need for pro-growth economic policy. Every part of his political worldview stems from a desire to see greater freedom as a catalyst to greater human flourishing.

Did you miss this interview live?

Don’t worry about it! You can always subscribe to the podcast here or listen to the embedded audio on this very page. Either way, you do NOT want to miss this interview with David Bahnsen.

 
 
 

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention. 

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits. 

Episode #398: Potpourri

potpourri - po-poo-re' - noun

A combination of incongruous things. A miscellaneous anthology or collection. A mixture of dried flower petals and spices used to scent the air. A dish of different kinds of meat and vegetables cooked together; a stew. Hence a miscellaneous collection; a medley. A ragout composed of different sorts of meats, vegetables, etc., cooked together. A jar or packet of flower leaves, perfumes, and spices, used to scent a room. A piece of music made up of different airs strung together; a medley. A podcast production composed of parts brought together without order or bond of connection.

Here are the show notes. Use these to follow along with the podcast:

  • What’s on the docket for today? It’s a potpourri of stuff starting with a great question, “Does Ron get nervous during the show?”

  • Exciting news! We have a new sponsorship on the show. Please say hello to @MelioPayments! Give them a retweet or a like for us?

  • For those in the accounting space check out https://go.melio.com/TSOE. Welcome again folks! Happy to have you here :) @MelioPayments

  • What did Ed talk about at Scaling New Heights? He did a session called “Innovation beyond technology.” He had a chance to talk about the Shreddies commercial which is always great fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bccNH82DIo0

  • Chunking is the strategy of breaking up information into shorter, bite-sized pieces that are more manageable and easier to remember. More here https://wiobyrne.com/content-chunking/#:~:text=Chunking%20is%20the%20strategy%20of,or%20unit%20of%20our%20memory.

  • What did Ron talk about at Scaling New Heights? His new book! Time’s Up. Here is a link for more information about the upcoming book launch party. https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/timesup

  • Ed had the opportunity to talk to the audience at Scaling New Heights about the value conversation. He spent half the session talking about moving off the solution and towards the value conversation. It was a light bulb moment for everyone in attendance which is always great.

  • Ed mentioned the 5 golden questions today. It comes from this great book https://www.amazon.com/Lets-Get-Real-Not-Play/dp/1596592060

  • What are the business decisions that your company needs to make in the next 6 months (or some other extended period)? This is a GREAT value conversation starter question.

  • DYK that bonus episodes and commercial free episodes are available at Patreon.com/TSOE ? Every week you get even more value and we have a few fun things planned for Ron’s upcoming book launch as well.

  • The business side of the New York Times has a rule. No decisions are made after lunch. They are always made in morning meetings. Why? They believe you are more likely to make a poor decision as the day gets longer.

  • Ron is convinced we are designed to sleep after we eat. Here, here! I’m in strong agreement on this one.

  • Ron noticed that people POUNCE on the pricing when thinking through subscription. Just like they did when thinking through value pricing 1.0. Folks….strategy and positioning comes first. Pricing is last.

  • Walt Disney’s idea of “plussing” is really resonating with Ron and Ed’s audiences when thinking about moving to subscription.

  • Shameless plug! Visit RateThisPodcast.com/TSOE where you can rate this podcast and we will read your review LIVE on the air.

  • Our guest next week will be David Bahnsen, author of “There's No Free Lunch: 250 Economic Truths”. Just 10 bucks on Kindle if you want to get ahead! @davidbahnsen https://www.amazon.com/Theres-No-Free-Lunch-Economic-ebook/dp/B09F3SRTHL/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

  • We also have some GREAT upcoming guests! Chris Strickland for the FOURTH TIME, Andrew Stuttaford from National Review, Kevin Smoot (accountant who moved his entire firm to value pricing). Subscribe here and never miss an episode. https://link.chtbl.com/TSOE

  • Ron has a new book coming out in November! Go to TheSoulofEnterprise.com/timesup where you can pre-order the book and get invited to an exclusive book launch club! Patreon members at the Bonus Me level or higher are already included.

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention. 

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits. 

Episode #397: Interview with Yashwanth Madhusudan

Ron and Ed welcomed Yashwanth Madhusudan, co-founder and CEO of Fyle, the next-generation spend management platform for small and medium businesses. They talked about entrepreneurship and technology especially as it relates to accounting professionals and SMBs.

About Yashwanth Madhusudan

Yash loves building and connecting things that don't seem connected to everyone. He is passionate about developing Products / Markets and has been fortunate to have been doing so for over 17+ years. He is crazy about Customer / user experience and particularly interested in working on 3 areas - Analytics, SaaS & Big data. He has excelled in Enterprise sales and Solution sales working for Global MNCs and early stage to mid stage venture backed Start-ups. He is also a keen networker and love making professional acquaintances.

Here are the show notes. Use these to follow along with the podcast:

  • How did Yash end up as the head of Fyle? He jumped into sales just after an engineering background in college. Submitting expense reports was something that really frustrated him as a sales person.

  • Yash and his co-founder have known each other for more than a decade. In conversation they kept coming back to why it takes a Saturday afternoon to file expenses when you should be spending time with family and friends. Then Fyle was born…

  • What are the first few words that come out of your mouth when you think of expense management? They are probably: boring, frustrating and I’d rather not do it. That was part of the founding journey for Fyle.

  • A sales persons primary job is selling. Nobody pats you on the back for filing your expense reports on time. It’s not the primary focus for the accounting team either. It’s draining work to chase this stuff down. Yash could relate to this and wanted to fix it with Fyle.

  • We can’t expect people to learn new apps every few years. With SMBs and mid-market companies, the training is expensive. Fyle thought about a great user experience as the starting point for their product development.

  • You have the burden of explaining how simple something is when taking on incumbents in the market that have forced customers to accept complexity. Well said Yash!

  • People start believing they should not be spending time doing something. That’s the connection between the simplicity of a product and realizing that there is a better solution out there.

  • What is Machine Learning? ML is a way to automate a set of repetitive tasks based on it learning from past examples. It’s very contextual with a focus on a specific task and data from past learning experiences.

  • In the context of expense reports, machine learning can be used because employees are given company credit cards in exchange for a set of expectations like receipts and categorization. But you get much more data. It’s not completely structured but you can make sense from it.

  • There are various machine learning frameworks now that are capable of things like writing a book. We have casually mentioned GPT-3 from OpenAI before. Here’s more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI

  • Our Patreon channel at Patreon.com/TSOE has bonus episodes, commercial free episodes, and additional perks. Join us! It is sponsored by @90Minds. Get ahead. Hire a mind at 90Minds.com.

  • By the time a tech acronym like AI or ML reaches customers/consumers, what they really care about is, “How is it going to make my life easier?” Great point Yash and probably something that the Fyle team thinks about constantly.

  • No amount of AI will make customers change their mind. What will make a customer change their mind is saving time, adding value to their customers, and having time to be an expert. That should be the REAL impact of AI and machine learning on our business lives.

  • Golden words to live by for product teams: “The closer we are to the customers understanding of the problem, the better chance we have at not failing.”

  • What’s next for Yash and Fyle? There are very few products that can be called “generational” products (or category creators). Today, it is things like real time visibility into transactions on all of the company credit cards.

  • TIL that it only takes 15 seconds to rate The Soul of Enterprise. Every review — good, bad, or indifferent — is read LIVE on the air. Just click or tap RateThisPodcast.com/TSOE

  • As a remote first company, how does FyleHQ handle the leadership challenges? It starts with CULTURE. How do employees feel when they start working each day?

  • If you take care of the culture you can be confident that the entire team is 100% focused on the customer. An environment that makes people feel that they are achieving something constantly is a path to success.

  • A big THANK YOU to the Fyle team for making Yash available today. Check them out at FyleHQ.com if your employees HATE filing expense reports.

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention. 

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits.