100 Leadership Conversations All Led to One Place | Ep. 100

Welcome to the Let's Think About It podcast, where high achievers stop performing and start transforming. I'm Coach Mo, certified core energy leadership coach, founder of the Inner Arena, and creator of the SWAT framework. Self-awareness, high power, aligned action, and grit. Around here, we train your mindset, challenge your limits, and turn pressure into purpose.

Subscribe now and join me on YouTube at Swag Coaching. So let's get your reps in. We're going big, going big. We're going big, going big.

It's here. Episode 100. The C note. I've made it.

I've arrived. 100. This is a big deal for me. I'm extremely excited about this.

I was thinking, what should I do for episode 100? Right? My first thought was to celebrate it. But you know what?

I'm not feeling that. I think it's more about reflecting a little bit back on the 100 different conversations I've had. I think that's powerful because within those hundred conversations, I've learned so much. Curiosity and judgment.

Okay. And this ties to my hundred episodes of what I've been doing over the past three years. So let me read that just to start today off. Curiosity or judgment.

Every person we meet is carrying a sort of a story we cannot see, a lifetime of experiences, successes and setbacks, confidence and uncertainty, strength and blind spots. Yet, too often, we meet the story we've created about them instead of the person standing in front of us. Judgment is quick. It fills in the blanks.

It takes a single moment and writes an entire chapter. Curiosity is different. Curiosity slows us down. It asks questions before making conclusions.

It listens a little longer. It wonders what might be true that we don't yet understand. But judgment says, I already know. Curiosity says, help me understand.

Judgment builds distance. Curiosity builds connection. Judgment closes the conversation. Curiosity opens the door.

As we leave today, remember this. Every interaction offers a choice. We can react to the story we've created, or we can become curious enough to discover the real one. Because the strongest teams aren't built by people who like, who think alike.

They're built by people who choose to understand one another before deciding they already do. Every guess that has come onto my show really points back to helping clients understand the difference between curiosity and judgment. Now we all have, they've all had their different pathways in how we arrive, but at the end of the day, it's about helping clients, helping people, helping leaders, helping high performers, helping people just like you, listener, understand the stories that we're carrying and coming from a place of curiosity rather than judgment.

I was expecting a lot of different answers from various guests that we bring on. But as we got in depth into a lot of our different conversations, everything was pretty mirrored. Everything, regardless of their framework, right? Regardless of their philosophy, regardless of their successes, the premise of our conversation has always been how do we work inward to get the results outward?

At the end of the day, that's what it's been about. Most of my guests that came onto this show, we talked about burnout, we talked about confidence, we talked about executive presence, we talked about the neuroscience, we've talked about emotional intelligence, mindset, habits, identity, performance, resilience. Yet every conversation eventually asked what's happening inside. And that goes back to what I was just reading about the stories that we carry.

And that's one of the problems that we're trying to help you listeners solve. That's what it was about. Because this stuff isn't taught in your regular leadership training class. It's not, it's not one thing that's for sure consistent across every conversation that we've had on this show.

And we all have it. It's that voice, man. That element of thought that is so flawed, that's so believable. It makes it feel like it's reasoning with you.

And we just carry it to the point where it's we're on autopilot and belief that whatever it's telling us is true. And my guests that come on this show, they collaborate with me in discussion to help people solve how to tame the punk ass inner critic. And I think that's what I love about this work that I do and the guests that's come on this show, because we know how real that inner critic is. Because we carry it too.

We carry it and we speak from conviction about how to tame it. As you navigate through your life, as you navigate up through your leadership ranks, it doesn't matter, right? There's no class in college, there's no training, leadership training handbook that says how to deal with your punk ass inner critic. It comes back to the inner arena.

Yes, the inner arena. And I would not have discovered the inner arena without my 100 conversations. I think that's one area that helped me evolve. These 100 conversations really helped me take a look inward, and that's where my framework of the inner arena was really developed.

Because it's not another leadership model. It isn't about positive thinking, it isn't about motivation. It's the space, it's the space up here where decisions get made, confidence gets questioned, fear shows up, self-trust gets built, executive presence begins, all of that, it's all internal. And it starts long before burnout even happens because it goes back to the story that we're carrying.

What is that story saying? Is it a positive narrative or is it a negative narrative? And so as different guests come on with have come on with different ideas, different methodologies, it's one thing that mirrors what I do. And they talk about the self-awareness, they talk about purpose, they talk about different types of the aligned actions, and they talk about maintaining your stamina and never quitting on yourself.

That mirrors everything that I talk about on this show. And through these 100 different conversations, the guests just naturally mirrored everything that I talk about from that strategy, from that framework, which is swag, self-awareness, why power, aligned action, and grit. Executive presence is you are the executive of self first. That's it.

That's what it is, and that's what I've learned over these hundred conversations. We carry this judgment in how we see our version of ourselves, and it fluctuates in real time. Those moments when it doesn't feel the best. What's your strategy to move past it?

See, that's executive presence. And we're on autopilot and how we carry some of the stuff. I love this show because this is a space to peel back the onion so that we can get to the root cause of what we're carrying and just drop enough seeds of awareness so that you can start to navigate more effectively. We're teaching leaders how to lead under pressure.

And that's where it starts. It starts there. Because leadership isn't built in meetings, it's not built on the stage, it's not built when everyone is watching, it's built internally in how you see self, how you regulate self. How when things isn't going right, what's the dialogue in your head?

That's what we're talking about. When an undesired outcome shows up and you feel pressed, how do you regulate self then? When you were brought up in a household where people just worry, and now you're in a leadership role, how do you show up? Are you a warrior?

How do I tame the narrative in my head when pressure is up, when the outcomes I feel are not landing the way that I want them to land? When so many people around me need my input and decision, and dependent on my income, how do I regulate self then? And I think the power of what my guest has been able to do coming on this show is to help me dissect it in one way or another. And it's been powerful.

I am so thankful. Thank you for being a great listener. Thank you for following me. Thank you for subscribing.

Thank you. I appreciate you. And stay with me. We only get better, we continue to grow.

That's another rep in the inner arena. You didn't just listen, you leveled up your swag. Self-awareness, why power, aligned action, and grit. If this hit home, share it, subscribe to the Let's Think About It podcast, and log in with me on YouTube at Swag Coaching.

Until next time, stay aware, lead with your why, act in alignment, and keep your grit strong.