Setting Intentions feat. Dr. Ian Brooks

Speaker A: So I went to the booth, and, um, I'd never done an audiobook before, but when I got into that booth, reading what I had actually written was scary. I actually listened to those 52 clips, and I was like, oh. Oh, no, I can't send this out.

Speaker B: Welcome to another episode of the Big Picture Business Podcast. Thank you so much for being here with us. Cannot wait to introduce you to the guy that we've got on the show today. This very brave soul was the first. First gentleman to come on my other podcast, the Tuesday T Podcast. And, I mean, it was just such an incredible response from those listeners. And so I know that you all are Gonna love this. Dr. Ian Brooks is here. Hi. Hello.

Speaker A: And happy 2022.

Speaker B: Yeah, 2022.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: We made it. Kind of. We're here. We are here.

Speaker A: I don't know if anything's really changed, but guess what? We are here.

Speaker B: I know. It's a way to date things differently. I don't know. Rory, how you doing?

Speaker C: Good. I am hopeful for, uh, this year moving forward.

Speaker B: I like the optimistic outlook. I think we need it, right?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: I mean, you really only get me not being optimistic when it comes to the metaverse, apparently.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's a whole other deal that is fair. Dr. Ian Brooks is here, everybody. Let me tell you a little bit about this guy, and then we're going to jump into some serious questions, because he is so full of just brilliant knowledge. Dr. Ian Brooks is the CEO and founder of Road Smith Consulting, which is a professional and personal development firm specializing in behavioral transformations. He is the author of Intelligence Building Capabilities to Transform your Story. And for over 24 years, Dr. Brooks's career has taken him from working in a clinical ward to working with organizations and people with the goal of helping individuals build skills toward achieving new heights. His clients include Netflix, Shondaland. Shondaland?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Uh, what is Shondaland?

Speaker A: Have you ever watched Granny's, uh, Anatomy?

Speaker B: Really? Oh, my gosh.

Speaker A: Yeah. So her. Her organization.

Speaker B: No way.

Speaker A: Yeah, just some really, really neat, neat people. And.

Speaker B: Okay, so aside from Shonda Ross.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: That's her name, you've also worked with bank of America, Guitar Center, Nike, Sony, and Warner Brothers. Dang, dude.

Speaker A: Yes. Some really great people there. I tell you what, it's, uh. As we think about business and people just doing all kinds of cool things, it's like, man. And then seeing their products, and then you see behind the covers, it's like, okay, let's go.

Speaker C: Do you only work with large companies, or do you work with individuals? As well.

Speaker A: I work with individuals as well and that's really where my specialty came early on in my career. From a therapeutic standpoint, obviously from a clinical side. I really like that one on one connection you rattled off all wonderful organizations of which I've really supported. I'm working with individuals. So as you think about M. Shondaland, I was working with um, at the time, the CEO, helping him develop and helping him work with his team and evolving. And so it's really these, while they seem like big and large companies, it's really also working with them one on one to make sure that they're evolving and really helping them out, which is kind of cool.

Speaker C: Nice. So how did you get into becoming a doctor and your specialty within that?

Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's been a long road. But to really kind of summarize it, it was really started off when I was 13 when I decided I had a fear of J judgment, just wanted to be in the background. But I was always curious around why people did what they did. And from that very essence of a question, it led me down a path of, uh, getting into psychology and really understand the way people think and how they operate and had the opportunity to work with adults as well as all the way down to adolescents and kids, as you think about that from a therapy standpoint, as well as doing intelligence testing and all that kind of good stuff. But it was actually one day that, you know, really when I made the transition from clinical psychology to working with organizations and people who are higher functioning, that really took shape after one day of leaving the clinical ward. And I was thinking to myself, I have to work with some higher functioning people coming in here and just seeing the evolution of the door of people coming in, just trying to be normal, you know, that just wore on me and it's not something I was able to release. It's like, hey, you know what? I love psychology. And now let's go down my own path of now moving forward to working with higher functioning people. Result, as you described from my background there, had a chance to really work with a number of different great organizations and great people to really shape my thinking, my perspective, as well as leveraging my education and skills. One, being a clinician early on and then getting my doctorate working with. With organizations and people one on one. It really created a journey for me where I can learn about them. But probably even more importantly, I'm learning about myself. And uh, some of it's been pretty straightforward. Other parts are, uh, as you might imagine with any change backwards and forward. And it enabled me to write my book, best, uh, self help book of uh, 2021 intention. But it also allowed me to start my own business of road Smith and uh, create new journeys for myself. That's awesome.

Speaker C: Before we hopped on here, you were talking about like your specialty within the psychology field and how you really focus helping coaches. How did that come about where you made this transition to like, I just want to help people who are coaching other people?

Speaker A: Yeah. You know, it's really interesting and as we think about it from an organizational standpoint, those coaches are our leaders. You know, who are the leaders in the organizations of which they're now giving back and having to demonstrate those soft skills. As we think about the last two years plus of now being in Covid, one of the things that is highlighted is how are leaders showing up? They have to show up in a lot different way. And that's a lot more between the mind and what we see and what we feel versus an roi. Right. Or a button seat or an org chart. And as such, I enjoy helping leaders become better versions of themselves, knowing that they're already successful. Right. You know, they know what they know on what to do. It's now enabling new behaviors and skills on how they go about doing that. And we can impart those skills on leaders, number one, on what they're impacting to their employees. But even more importantly, just taking upon themselves to be better on how do I communicate, how do I engage, how do I show empathy, how do I build trust? By the way, those skills are transferable to the work environment and damn sure transferable to the home. Because I bet you if they're bad at it at work, guess what, it's probably no better at home. And so it's an opportunity to really give back and helping set a foundation for people of, uh, moving forward in ways that they're really impacting themselves, but also others. So it's really a passion of mine. I really enjoy seeing that growth in people in ways that we normally don't necessarily see it.

Speaker C: Hmm.

Speaker B: I got a question. You started out by saying that when you were younger you had a fear of judgment. I'm curious now with working with these high functioning, high level leaders, do you find that that's a common theme?

Speaker A: Yeah, it is. Um, but it shows up a little bit different for them. Right. But also it shows up differently for me as well. So I'll start off with my clients in certain respects. When you think about judgment, we're now having to expand beyond where they are. So As I mentioned, they're already successful. They don't do anything else about their behavior. Probably going to be okay because they're transforming based out of a want, not necessarily out of a need. Because when you need, you're going to just do anything you want. And it's a lot harder integration. And now it's about survival. And damn it, if there's not one thing that we must have at that's foundation before we start to do any transform personally or professionally, is that we have to feel like we're safe. And so for the people of whom I'm working with, they already have that. But now that we're starting to change their box now I'm starting to change what their comfort zone is, right. Being defined in a certain area. It's now saying, crap, I'm gonna have to let go of certain things in my life or the things that have made me successful previously aren't necessarily applicable now as I move forward. And now that opens me up to judgment. Now that opens me up to potential failure or not being as good as I once was. Now it's uh, a balance of uh, being comfortable knowing that one, you're still safe, but secondly, that you're more than what you're showing up in the moment impacts me as well. Right. As I, as I started off, as you mentioned, fear of judgment, and as a result I'm in the background. So it's no surprise that you become a psychologist, right? Because one, you're asking other people questions, right. You're not telling much about yourself, so you're just in hiding. You can't hide when you write a book, right. This is your opinion. So now everyone can judge it. Prior to my writing the book, I didn't have much of a social media presence surprise because that's just not how I operate. That's just not my comfort zone. But I had to press myself out of it. Knowing it was about the expansion of not only myself, but also showing up to help others as well. That judgment, it's true for everybody. But knowing that one, I'm safe, but secondly, how do my clients balance that as we move forward is extremely important.

Speaker C: Yeah. What's the biggest struggle that you're seeing with coaches and leaders like right now at this point in time?

Speaker A: I think it's um, several things that I think are really establishing us challenge. I think the first thing that I'm realizing, realizing with the individuals I'm coaching, being able to let go over the last two years, uh, especially with COVID you know, a lot of time to spend. I need to be able to see you, I now need to measure your performance, et cetera. Now, when I'm seeing the struggle, being organizations and leaders trying to bring people back into a world of which was previously defined, and they haven't grown, they haven't set up their processes, they haven't changed their thinking of saying, okay, now I need to open up in different ways. How well am I being transparent? How am I showing empathy? How am I redefining success based off of retention or based off of engagement? How well am I actually hearing? Probably more importantly, how am I listening? Because we can hear a lot, but we're not necessarily listening. It's those skills that I think they were forced to start, you know, the last two years, but now, as we're starting in this. This gray area, right, where some people are going into the office and some people aren't, and are we, Covid locked down or are we not? Are we 100% remote? Or what's the convenience factor, right, of bringing people back in, you're seeing that struggle and how do I leave in this world? And that's just on Covid. Let's not also think about, you know, what pronouns do we use, right? Or what's the level of diversity, inclus inclusion that's included within the organizations and how is that showing up? It's all these now areas of which we're asking leaders to now think through that how equipped are they? And you start to see that balance. And sometimes that can be daunting. And I think that's one of the bigger challenges that I've seen just over the, you know, over the last year, uh, or so, as we, you know, start to. I hate to use the word pivot, but as we start to transition to a new world, especially when it's not known.

Speaker B: You've mentioned the word empathy a few times, and I feel like that's not necessarily a word that has been associated with leadership with previous generations. Can you talk. Talk a little bit about leadership skills for success and what that has looked like across various generations.

Speaker A: You know, there's several things that are. That I come immediately to mind that has hit all generations. Clearly, the word empathy is not associated with that. And even particular. When you think about. You want someone to be empathic or, you know, showing empathy. What gender do you typically look at as men? Well, yeah, I've yet to meet anyone who closes their eyes and thinks of a woman. They don't show any empathy now. Not to say there aren't, but is Typically men. So you think about the skills of that have been really have resonated that are consistent agnostic of time and place that are pretty consistent. The first is transparency. Now I'm going to give you my list. That doesn't mean people are good at it, it's just the consistency around it. So the first is transparency. Leaders who are transparent really are able to set a tone and strategy and perspective of which others can get behind or at least can understand. The second piece aligned to that is their ability to communicate. How well do they and how often do they communicate? Oftentimes, which you know, you think about what a good looks like and feels like and hell, this could just be a significant other as well is your ability to communicate in a very consistent and clear way. The third piece is that you understand who your employees are. You understand who they are as people in that respect. And agnostic, uh, of any generation. The reasons people stayed was because they loved what they did for those 25 years or those 50 years they stayed there. They loved their bosses. Not necessarily they always loved them. Right. That's not to say that, but there was a consistency of they know who I am, they know what they're putting me in position to be safe. And that's very consistent to this day as well. And I think the other thing that's been very consistent around leaders is their ability to develop. They're able to give back in ways that, you know, it's ebbs and flows because it's so easy, you know, especially for bigger companies, just to get stuck in our own paths. Because obviously the higher you climb that corporate ladder, the less rungs there are, so there's less places to go. But what is very consistent around strong leaders are ah, those people who are able to develop their teams. You start to see a level of pride in people staying as a result. And a lot of that's wrapped up in words like engagement. It's wrapped up in words like empathy. It's wrapped up in words, you know, again, transparency and that's how it's seen in organizations and that's pretty time agnostic.

Speaker C: You had mentioned, you know, about people staying in their jobs because they loved it. But a lot of times, especially when talking people of older generations, a lot of times it seems like they stayed in that job for the security and the guarantee that there was going to be a pension. Today we don't have either of those. How are you helping people deal with, with that possibility? What strategies are you giving them when it's like, well, your job is not guaranteed and neither is your retirement. So how are you helping them prepare for that?

Speaker A: A lot of the individuals who are, you know, I'm going to take this from a business standpoint side and corporation and also the individual side. You know, I'll start with the individual piece first. If you think about over the last two years, we've gone down a journey of people, you know, obviously the great resignation, right, where people are seeing themselves more as the commodity and really aligning what they do and how they do it with who they are. And there's a certain level of passion. Even prior to the great resignation, there was a huge wave and huge influx of, uh, the gig economy, especially the younger generation, seeing the workforce want to do work that they're passionate about as well as picking up pieces of information. No different than consultants, right? That you're just jumping from one company to another and just picking up skills and experiences that resonate with you and not being dictated on what you should be doing. That's all well and good, but to your very acknowledgment and statement now recognizing what it means to run a business, one of the bigger challenges of being in that world, in life of that gig economy and hopping from role to role and resigning or even thinking about starting your business is now how do you invest? When you have a job, as you mentioned, you have the pension, you have the 401ks, you have some level of stability that if you stay long enough, you have that level of safety. But when you have your own business now, you're taking that money and you have to reinvest. If you make, uh, a $100, recognize that, guess what? At least 50 or 60 of those dollars are going to go to taxes. That means another $10 also are for your bills. And then guess what? You need to put another $20 into a SA account, a Roth IRA or something that's going to build money over time. Yet we're not taught to think that way right from an investment standpoint. And safety, we have to create the safety ourselves instead of relying upon the organizations in and of themselves to take care of that for us. And so I think that's one of the things that I talk to, especially younger generations, relative to that capacity. Not only is it just about what you do, it's how you do it, but also it goes beyond what you're good at. It goes into now you're gonna have to be better money managers, understand. How are you going to scale this? Because guess what, A lot of people invol, uh, I talk to as I think about starting their business, heck, they're just trying to scale off a hustle. And you can't scale off a hustle. You can hustle to get going, right? But if you try to scale off that, you're going to run yourself ragged and you're going to burn yourself out. Quite frankly. You're going to be back in the workforce before you know it. Now that's at the individual level. Conversely, when I'm talking to organization and I wrote a piece about this for a magazine recently, I said when they're looking at employees from a hiring perspective, they're going to have to look at it from the lens of college athletic. One of the biggest things with college athletics is coaches are out there recruiting all the time. They got to recruit their current players that are there so they don't leave, recruit people who are might get in a transfer portal, right, Who've left other schools. They've got to recruit brand new kids who are in high school. They've got to be constantly recruiting and guess what? People's temperaments are what they are not getting enough playing time. I'm m not getting enough visibility, I'm not getting enough money, whatever it might be. I'm too far from home, I don't like to coach, whatever. Organizations are going to have to start being very similar and operating a very similar path of uh, they're going to have to constantly recover, recruit their employees that are currently there. They're going to constantly recruit and have networking with potential people, potential kids who might hot in your potential employees who hop in the transfer portal. I uh, e quit a job or looking for a new job and then we got to go to new people coming straight out of school because you have new, new ideas, new thoughts. Organizations are going to have to change to match that too. They're also going to have to match it knowing that the experiences that people that are coming into the organization it isn't going to be I stayed in the organization 10 years, right? Or two years. I stayed for this project for six months and that's it. Now I'm gone because that's what I want. So there's an EVOL evolution on both sides. One from a business standpoint of an individual and how they're running that business and the challenges that comes with that. But also let's not forget organizations in and of themselves also need to really rethink how they're actually going after new talent and how they're actually having to pitch themselves as well.

Speaker B: I keep thinking Back to what you just said about how you can't scale off a hustle. I mean, there's no truer words, honestly, because, yeah, it'll lead to quick burnout or you get bored, or you get yourself put in a position where you're like, this is great. This is my dream. You're like, actually, I hate this. You know, uh, this was temporary. Yeah. And I. I see that a lot, but I never had the words for it. I'm totally going to steal that from you.

Speaker A: But it's true, though, right? It's like one of the biggest challenges, it's like, what are people passionate about versus what are you good at? Is just because you're good at, that's not going to last. It's got to be. If you're building a business, it's got to be something that you're passionate about. Because when that valley hits, because it all hits us, your passion will get you through it. If you just happen to be good at it, you just might be like, well, I'm going to punt on this and do something else. And then now you're hustling all the time. Yeah.

Speaker C: And I would say it has to be a combination of both. You can start something that you're not good at and you're passionate about, but you've got become good at it if you want to, like, actually grow the business and become recognized. And the flip side is that when you're starting a business, you can start it based on, you know, something you're good at, but then you have to become passionate about it if you want to grow it.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Because that passion is going to carry you. But also, we're talking about this in a very singular way. Right.

Speaker B: I want to know all about intentions. It's intentions or intention?

Speaker A: Intention. No, intention. Building capabilities to, uh, transform your story. I was working with a number of clients and as is one right people, over the course of six months to a year, they're asking questions and kind of ebbing and flowing and asking the same questions, which is just natural. So what I started to do was just jot down the questions that they're having to come back to, or answers that I'm constantly having to reinforce. And I just started just writing down notes around it so that one I can just give them something so that they don't wait for me in that hour or to text me or otherwise. It's something that they can just thoughtfully remind themselves as they're going through their journey. That led my first version of the book. Like, I Looked at him like, oh, wow, I got a lot of stuff here. How do I synthesize this? And I have a potential book as a result. And so that first version was actually an audiobook. My editor at the time was like, hey, I like the way you sound more than, um, some of the things that you've been writing, because more authentic and otherwise. So why don't you do an audiobook? So I said, okay, great, turn this into an audiobook. So went to the booth and, um, I'd never done an audiobook before. And going back to that 13 year old whose fear of judgment. So that means I didn't really tell anybody. Well, I told people I was writing a book, but never really shared my thoughts. It was that ongoing thing of like, I'm just working on a book, never to be seen by the world or even heard in this case. But when I got into that booth, reading what I had actually written was scary. I mean, it was just like, oh, shit. Um, and it was. And it was scary on a couple levels. Number one, just hearing my voice and saying my words out loud and having other people in mind, you, it's just a production team actually hearing me what I was saying. And I was like, they're gonna have judgment, right? And that fear just came up. And then after I got through those two days, which were a long two days, emotionally draining days, I actually listened to those 52 clip and I was like, oh, oh, no, I can't send this out. And I said that because I was listening to myself as a coach. What are you trying to say here? What are you doing? And so my analysis went into it. And so I had a decision to make. I said, okay, one, you did the recording check. If someone were to ask you if you wrote the book, the answer is yes, but it doesn't have to be shared with anybody. And we can move on, move on with our life. But if you really want to be impactful, if you really want to meet this goal of what you originally set out, and that was just to create a guide and help people without seeing you once a week, being on a call once a week. If you really want this to be impactful for others, you have an opportunity to actually exercise and live what you're expecting other people to do within themselves. That audiobook experience allowed me to become the author the book needed me to be. It allowed me to. Once I said yes, that I was going to do it, because now it was a challenge. Right now it's, you know, just challenging myself, like, ooh, I got this maybe, but I got this, right? I was like, you know what? Let's go. And so I scrapped everything and started from scratch. Now when I say scrap everything, using notes that I'd taken over the course of four years and everything else, and said, okay, what makes sense? And now being authentic, now telling a better story, now getting into details, now sharing about myself, even sharing about the. My experience doing the audiobook, it's being authentic in a way that I hadn't allowed myself to be. And to hell to put it and to memorialize it in a book, which will always be scary, but yet not only am I the author, but I'm also the client of this because it really enabled me to expand beyond the current box I was in. And so that was the justification, number one, to write the book in its current format, but secondly, to live to the principles of which I don't necessarily had allowed myself in a professional standpoint anyway, to do. And so, uh, that's how I came up with, uh, the book intention. Because we do have to be purposeful, and it is about building capabilities because they're transferable to anywhere we go in transforming your story.

Speaker C: Amazing.

Speaker B: That's incredible. Thank you for sharing.

Speaker A: You're welcome.

Speaker C: Yeah. And, you know, you. You hit on so many different things here. I want to break down a few things. First is that you recognized that barrier that almost every author goes through of getting done with your content and fearful of putting it out into the world. You recognize that maybe that message needed some refinement. But a lot of times what I found is that people just have that fear and let it stop them from putting their book out. And we see this getting so nitpicky about every single detail and focusing on that instead of, I need to get my book out. And the reason you need to get your book out is because two reasons. One, it helps you grow your business. But two, there's a world of people that need to hear your message and they need to learn from you. And you're doing a disservice to them by not putting that information out there. And every time you delay that, I always look at it like this. What if my book saves someone's life? How many lives are getting lost by my. Me not putting that book out and delaying it, you know, months or years? I'm glad that you found a way around that and were willing to work through that and find your way to get it out. That. I mean, that's very commendable.

Speaker A: I appreciate that. And, you know, it's and it's a journey, right? So it's in. While for me, it's about being. It shows up as being as a theme. Fear, judgment, not being out front and present. In this case, the tactical way was like, okay, no, I don't like what I'm saying. And I need to get clear and get that clarity for others that fear might be something else. Because to your very statement, meet a lot of individuals. What's their biggest challenge? And I talk about this in a book, and that is you can't sustain it because we're looking at milestones. We're looking. We're treating our lives as though the things we're looking to transform and change our events. In this case, it's just getting the book out, right? I just wrote the book done. Um, I don't need to send it out. They haven't sustained it. They haven't, one mastered their capabilities of moving past that fear because the book is nothing more than an event. There's something else behind that that's keeping you where you are. And for me, I recognize that even just listening to my own words and the things that I was seeing and feeling in here, right, that mind's eye, I was like, oh, shit. I got an opportunity to do something about this, and I got a choice. So it's just not only writing the book, it could be just about anything in life where we are forced to reconcile any fears before we move forward. And until we can do that, we're going to find our. I was getting into analysis paralysis. Because I was there. I was like, hey, I'm working on the book. Oh, Ian, are you done? Heck, I was done three months ago, but, heck, I'm making changes like perfection. Uh, not progress, right. I'm saying, no, it's got to be perfect. And that just gives me an excuse not to send it out or write it or to send it to anyone. Like, oh, I'm still working on. Oh, I'm still working on it. Thanks. I'm still. I'm still working on it. I've got a couple more pages. I'll be done in the next month. And next month turns into another year. I get it. And that's extended to other people's lives and other things that they're working on. So it's, um. It was definitely an interesting journey, one that I'm happy that I experienced and continue to reconcile even as I move forward in other areas of my life.

Speaker C: I've got two more other things. I said I wanted to, um, unpack a few things. About what you were talking about there. The other thing that you mentioned around writing your book is it gave you clarity.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker C: And that was one of the things I realized from writing my books is that you write it out and then you read it back and you're like, well, now I've got the exact answer for anytime someone asks me this and it's there, and I can always go back and reference it, and I don't have to make it up on the spot every single time or try and find the right words. It's just there, and I've already taken the time to clarify it in the right way. And then the other thing is, we were talking about scaling your business. I'm going to say that based on what you did, what you were talking about was taking common things that came up over and over again in your business. And you wanted a way to reduce the time you having to say that over and over again.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker C: So a book is a great way to start. Start scaling because it takes that burden off of you of always having to answer over and over the same questions. And so you can just be like, here's my book.

Speaker A: That's. That's, that's it.

Speaker B: Yeah. That's quite literally how Rory helped me write my book. Your book is a tool. If you're sick of repeating yourself, write everything down in your book that you would tell, you know, clients that would first come to you, what do you want to tell them? And now it's just this phenomenal thing where I can just say, oh, yeah, here's. Here's my book. Read it. And then I know that if someone is going to take the time to read it, it's not that long. Then I know they're serious, and then they become a client. And it's. Now we're talking the same language. Right. You're on. You're on the same page. Absolutely.

Speaker A: Um, sure.

Speaker B: It's the same with your book. Right? It's like now. Now they have more insight as to who you are as a leader and a coach and, and a doctor professional, and all that changes the conversation. Like it's just a better context. Yay, books.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I'm just so. I'm so impressed and I really admire your story and your fans Follow through. There's not a lot of people that will take the time to tell their story about the follow through. Wow.

Speaker A: We just see the.

Speaker B: Oh.

Speaker A: Uh, and thank you. But, you know, I think one of the things that in our social media age, and if we were talking about this uh, earlier offline, you know, everything is an immediacy. Right. We see end results a lot quicker because of social media and what people have done. And now we're in a comparison point. And so we don't necessarily give ourselves the patience to follow through, to integrate the things of, uh, which we're challenged with. Because I, even as the I talk about in the book, as well as one of the quotes is, you can't judge the book based on the chapter you walked in on. And yet how often do we do that? And then when we do it, that is just one of many off ramps of the reasons why you won't be able to sustain and one of the many off ramps of why you won't follow through. We treat everything like we're Wiley Coyote, never to use the same contraption ever to catch that roadrunner, because there's more joy in the care creation than it is in correcting and following through, because that's where the work happens. And unfortunately, it's a direct result of not having that right foundation.

Speaker C: Yeah. Like you're saying, people get bored with what they're doing. It may be working and maybe getting them results, but they're bored with it. And they're like, I'm gonna try something new. And it's like, well, then their business stops growing because they're not doing the things that actually work or they're not recognizing it even in the first place. If they're just starting out.

Speaker A: Absolutely. We're just moving so fast that we're just looking for end results of how many sales did I get and how much money do I have, and what's my calendar look like from a busyness standpoint? Or hell, it could be even, what kind of vacations am I going on to keep up with the Joneses? Whatever that external mark is. And that's why I was very clear when I put this title together. And it's around capabilities, because capabilities is about behaviors. It's not about an end result. End results are nothing more than a milestone at that point and gives us an opportunity, both from a success standpoint of which to build and expand. Because just because you did it once doesn't mean you're an expert, doesn't mean you do it twice and you're expert. That means time and different scenarios. But it also gives us a chance to say, look at our failures, using it as a place of reference and not of resonance. But we're actually learning. So in both areas, we're learning and expanding. And that's what I really Enjoy about my clients that I work with because they have that fabric, or guess what I'm reminding them they have that fabric and we have choices around that. But that's the excitement.

Speaker B: Well, speaking of working with clients, I know that you have a very special offer for our listeners and just a really cool opportunity. Can you tell them a bit about that?

Speaker A: Yeah. So as we um, have just kicked off uh, 2022 and as you know that's the obviously a resol solution right. Of what we're going to resolve to do. And it's right time for everyone to start working on their intentions and really embarking upon who they want to be and what capabilities do they want to have established for 2022. And we don't need to wait to the end of the year to do that. That said, one of the programs that I do run is a group coaching class where we meet for six weeks and we go to the foundational pieces. Not only one from this book, but secondly we're doing in a communal group of five people who are going through their own experiences and we're sharing out but also we're learning from each other around what are feeling and look like and getting people to rethink. So in that context, I do have another group coaching session that is uh, kicking off in two weeks. You'll see some of the promotional materials that will be posted on Instagram and Twitter and even Facebook. But there's an opportunity, should you want that group setting to really get that support to move forward in your journey. And again, here we are in January of 2022. There's no better time than now. Say, you know what, let's see. I'm going to hold to my resolutions, but also I'm going to build a cash capabilities to sustain it. And so this group coaching is available as well as individual coaching is offered as well.

Speaker C: And is this something that is kind of ongoing that you're offering every, you know, two weeks or every month or something like that?

Speaker A: Yes, I do um, offer group coaching every two months. That way it gives an opportunity to go through six weeks. But in that six weeks, uh, with the coaches, I'm uh, meeting with them one on one even outside of that group setting to help build them so allows that fluidity so that one they feel engaged but also important, doesn't burn me out as well as looking at being very intentional, hearing and listening to what people are saying so we can move forward. So yes, group coaching is offered on a two month rotating basis with no, uh, more than five people within Each session and I run typically about two classes or start two new classes in that two month period. Again to make sure that uh, people are getting the attention for their intentions. Nice.

Speaker C: And you have a special offer around that for our students, is that correct?

Speaker A: Yeah, for students there is a cheaper discounted rate of which that I do offer for my group clients. So there is a, there is a discount in that respect as well. Recognizing everyone's kind of starting off in a different place. And so in that respect it offers an opportunity for where they started. Just like from a group setting a lot different. And I try to actually marry people within the right group in that context because not everyone's from the same place. I'm trying to put a student next to someone who's in their, you know, I uh, say student, I'm going to say in their twenties assumptive comparing them to and putting them to a group with someone who's in their 30s or 40s. They're not. They're going to be talking about different things. So what's resonating trying to get people aligned on similar topics to the extent possible. So there is some synergy in that respect.

Speaker B: And then if people want to pick up your book, what's the best way for them to do that?

Speaker A: You can go to my website, that's Rhodes Smith.com that's R H O D E S Smith M dot com. On that site you'll find um, a tab a little bit more about me as well as I describe um, these offers around individual and group coaching as well as a tab specifically towards the book and where you can pick up intention building capabilities to transform your story. There's links to Amazon as well as to Barnes and Noble as well as you'll see this podcast as well as other areas where I provided thought leadership around who I am from a coach standpoint and what my thoughts are just around life in general. Both the good, bad as well as indifferent. If you need to reach out to me more specifically as well, I can be reached on Instagram and Twitter under the handle Dr. B. Underscore intention.

Speaker B: Yay. And as always we will be sure to have all of those links in the show notes for this episode. Dr. Ian Brooks, you are amazing. Thank you for taking this time with us. Truly. It's. I feel just honored that you've been able to chat twice now with me.

Speaker A: So honor's truly mine. Definitely love having the conversation and talking about expansion because each time I have this conversation I learned something new or something was reinforced or I'm thinking about things in different ways. This offers me an opportunity to, uh, really create my own expansion, um, and building new capabilities. So definitely appreciate being here today.

Speaker B: Well, I know we've learned a heck of a lot. Aren't Rory?

Speaker C: Absolutely.

Speaker B: All right, guys, that is it for this one. We'll see you next week. Bye.