Building Legacy, Embracing Adventure with Bill Carmody

Speaker A: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Talent Talk and Strategy Stroll. I'm your host, Mary Stockwell, founder and CEO of Meritas Advisory Group, where I'm a business strategist, leadership advisor, and PQ coach. Each week we dive deep with bold leaders, innovators and change makers about transformation, leadership and leaving a legacy. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome my friend Bill Carmody to the show. Bill is a marketing pioneer, TEDx speaker, bestselling author, and chief coaching officer at Positive Intelligence. He has, um, helped transform over 55,000 coaches globally, continues to create lasting impact through programs like the PQ Wealth Builder, and is the creator of the innovative AskBill, uh, US platform. Bill's mission is to elevate leaders and inspire bold action. Welcome to the show, Bill. I'm so happy you're joining me today.

Speaker B: Thanks for having me on this show. I'm so excited to be with you today. Thank you.

Speaker A: You're welcome. I'm excited that you're here. I'm honored. So we'll go ahead and dig right in. We'll have a lot of fun. And, uh, so, Bill, you've worked really closely with some incredible leaders like Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Shirzad Shamin. What's one standout lesson you've learned from those experiences about building teams and creating lasting impact?

Speaker B: You know, for me, I love that question. Uh, for me, one of the things that I have found is that there's a huge difference between command and control, leadership style and trust and inspire. And so I think through all of these leaders, what I found consistently to create lasting impact. We want to trust and inspire everyone we work with. And so to me, that's the lasting thing. I've done it the right way and the wrong way. You know, in my first two businesses, uh, I was very much a command and control leader. And I definitely was going to get to the outcome. Whether you were part of it or you were the roadkill. Cause I ran right over you. Because if you were in my way, I wasn't going to stop. And, uh, and I got to the outcome. And I always assumed that because I got to the goal that everyone would celebrate that. But instead I lost a lot of carnage and, and the relationships that I could have had for my entire life, I ended up destroying and eroding in the name of success and growth. And it was terrible. Absolutely terrible. And I feel really like it's been a process for me to unpack all of that. And I've had the opposite experience is I've looked at how do you use trust and inspire to really everyone around you to be the best version of themselves and love even the mistakes that are made, even the failures that occur inevitably. All of that allows people to bring their whole selves into an organization. To me, that's transformative and the best relationships I've ever built came from that trust and inspire leadership style and working with someone, not over them or through them, if that makes sense.

Speaker A: Percentage how do you think emerging leaders can practice that earlier in their career?

Speaker B: Yeah. To really see that the people around them are not a means to an end, that was my big mistake. Really. I thought everybody was there. Even as the CEO of an organization, I thought everyone was there because of my vision, my leadership style, all of those things. Instead of understanding triple purpose, triple purpose is that I genuinely would like for you to, to become the best version of yourself. I want you to self actualize. And if you're doing that, then our group will also be the best version of itself. Right. So our little team will become the best version of itself. And if we do that, then we will have the best outcome for the customers we choose to serve. And so we'll have the biggest impact on the planet. So if you see triple purpose, it's like not a means to an end. Right. We start to see the North Star, the vision for what we all hold together. And by me supporting you, and I'm actually supporting myself, my team and the world that I wish to live in,

Speaker A: that's just, uh, awesome. Uh, how, how would leaders learn the triple purpose today? That's not something that's inherent. So how would they set themselves up for success with the triple purpose model?

Speaker B: Sure. So there's a couple of different ways. Um, you know, there's, there's the 20% insight version. If you want to read books, there are a lot of good books on this topic. Right. You could go out and read the 8th Habit by Stephen Covey. Awesome. About finding your voice and helping others to do the same. What I find though in these intellectually interesting approaches is it doesn't build the mental muscle that's necessary to walk the walk. And so the example that I've used here is actually from six years of walking the walk and I've had the privilege of working at positive intelligence alongside Shirzad Shamin and this incredible team of human beings that we've all brought together. And that has been my best experience. And I would say for any leader that wants that experience of walking the walk programs like what mental fitness training is provided by you and other Incredible coaches out there in the world is the best process to actually hire a coach and have them work with you individually or collectively with your team, that is. There's no better way of doing that because now it's no longer theory, it's actual practice. And the actual mistakes along the way are invaluable learning experiences that you can directly apply to become better over time.

Speaker A: You know, that's so true. I mean I've gone through PQ now two, two plus years ago, and I've just finished Wealth Builders. So I have a little bit of experience behind my belt and, and have had coached many pods. So um, you know, as a result of that, I personally have felt the transformation of positive intelligence. I mean my hyper rational kicked me in my butt my whole life until I knew what it was. Yes, right. And now I can know what it is. I know when it shows up and I know how to deal with it. But I've transformation right before my eyes, you know, with my clients.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: So, you know, I think that there is, this is the way, I mean, positive intelligence, those things get the saboteurs out of your way so that you can grow and come into your full self actualized self.

Speaker B: Mary, I just want to add one little thing on this too, which is to say that because this is such a beautiful universal operating system, a mental fitness operating system, it works with all other platforms. Because I know a lot of times you might be talking to an HR leader or chief people people officer or even a CEO or C suite executive saying, yeah, Mary, that sounds great, but we already have vested so much into Six Sigma or you know, uh, Strength Finders or Enneagram M whatever, like all these different platforms that exist out there. It's like, I don't want to like add uh, yet another system. And so this is the difference. It's like when you have such a foundational operating system that works with everything, it doesn't matter what the basic DNA of the actual culture already is today. It can be improved by seeing the negative, devastating, negative impact of our saboteurs and the strength of our sage powers as they continue to be developed in business. So I would uh, encourage anyone listening to lean in and actually reach out to you Mary, and talk to about like what could be done. How might you help them? Because that would be a great place for them to start.

Speaker A: Well, thank you for that endorsement. I appreciate it and I'll take it.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Okay. We're going to move on. So audience centered storytelling has been a cornerstone of your work. How can leaders Use this not only to attract top talent, but also inspire their teams to grow and thrive.

Speaker B: Yeah, audience centered storytelling was uh, my very first TED Talk and I loved it because what I was able to do is show the power of storytelling to move people to action with their words. And so when I think about like audience centered storytelling, when I think about like how leaders use it to attract top talent, we, what they're doing is they're telling their vision and their story. And there's only five different, different story archetypes, which makes it really easy. Like we're either going to be in the rags to riches camp, the Holy Grail. This is what we're up to in the world. Stranger in a Strange Land, Love story or revenge. And I don't recommend revenge if you're trying to attract talent, but it sometimes works. You know, you got the Microsoft, ah, you know, Apple tensions, you know, Samsung, all that stuff. So sometimes revenge can be a good story. But for the most part when people come to an organization, they want to see a vision of how the world will be changed by their efforts. And so if you can help them see that in themselves in that story, whether it's a startup that is actually trying to build rags to riches or whether it's like you've come to an entirely new space like we're in right now with artificial intelligence, it's Stranger in a strange land. Like what is my part in this new world order that is slowly uh, unveiling itself into ways that we never had imagined before? Or Holy Grail, like what's the largest impact we can make by shifting, shifting the entire worldview on things that are happening right now in this space? Like all of those things are powerful ways to attract talent and motivate them to lean into the best version of themselves because everything matters.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's so impactful really what you said there. And have you, who might be your favorite example of a leader who's really nailed kind of the audience centered storytelling and how did that, how is that showing up and helping others?

Speaker B: So many. But my favorite story is Nedra Mooney, who's the first female CEO of PepsiCo and one of the first female CEOs in the world. And one of the things that, that she did was she demonstrated how powerful telling stories could be to motivate her entire executive team. Now imagine, you know, you're coming in and you want to basically motivate your team. She was, after she was hired as the CEO of PepsiCo, she uh, was, she took a trip to her see her family. And her family was being, you know, we're taking her around all the different places. She grew up in India. And you know, what she noticed was that everyone was coming up and congratulating her mom and dad. They weren't saying anything to her. They were like, oh, my God, you raised such an incredible daughter. Look at what she's accomplished. And she was like, hey, you know, what about me? But then she stopped. After she let that egoic knee jerk reaction happen. She thought, you know what? There's some brilliance here. I need to pay attention to this. And so when she got back to, uh, her office, she blocked off time on her calendar so that she could write handwritten letters to every single member of her executive team's family, up and down to their children. To their children. She would say, thank you for allowing mommy to be with us at work. I know she's, uh, spending more time with me than. Than you'd like to have her spend. To have her spend it more with you. But because she's doing that, she's changing the world. And I hope you can forgive me for taking so much of her time away from you. Right. Like that. Right. All the way to the parents. You must be so proud. Your, your son or daughter has done such an incredible job to make it as the C suite executive that they are in this organization. They've had to work their butts off, and you should be so proud of them because they're one of the top Fortune 100 companies in the world, and they're there like they're the leaders of the elite. Can you imagine? Well, she didn't tell her executive team she was doing this, but all of a sudden they started hearing the buzz from their kids, from their parents, from their spouses. Oh, my God. You want to talk about loyalty? Like, there's nothing like it. There's nothing like it. And so when I say trust and inspire, leadership and storytelling, this is what I mean. Like, there's a way of leaning in that is allowing the humanity of the relationship that to grow at exponential levels.

Speaker A: I wasn't familiar with that story, but it's given me goosebumps and really excitement. Right. Of wow, that's really empowering people to go well above and beyond in their totally.

Speaker B: It's beautiful.

Speaker A: How do you recommend that leaders get started in storytelling if it's not really a natural, you know, habit for them or skill?

Speaker B: Yeah, you know, it's funny, like, anytime we do something new, we find the edges of our comfort zone, and it's about pushing through and going beyond. And so for those people who are really struggling with storytelling, the best ways to start is, like, where it's most comfortable to begin. So, for example, it could be with your immediate family members. It could be with your immediate team members. Or if you feel like even that is too uncomfortable, you could actually volunteer. Whether it's to a volunteer organization, a nonprofit organization, or you could volunteer to speak at an industry conference. There's lots of places where you can get started. But the thing is, is that the world needs your expertise. This is the thing in, uh, my TED Talk I talked about is, like, you have the power to change lives just by opening your mouth. Literally. What we're doing right now in this podcast has the potential to land with someone in such a powerful way that if they just show up differently and they use your voice, maybe for the first time, they can move mountains. So this is the idea is it's more about just getting started. It's like, you know, start with the sage, easy step. What's the smallest action that someone could take? Maybe it's this. Maybe it's to call you up and ask to be on your podcast. Maybe it's to find another podcast that they admire and they want to be a guest on the show. Like, it doesn't matter. But start. Start somewhere because your voice has power. And when people can experience that power coming through, they're inspired to action. And those actions are the things that change the world. Not thinking, not reading, not just being in our heads, but being in our hearts and following through with taking action.

Speaker A: That's really profound. I hope I do get a few calls from some inspiring leaders who would like to join the pod.

Speaker B: Beautiful.

Speaker A: Beautiful. I've just come out of your PQ Wealth Builder program, so really focuses on creating financial freedom and impactful, um, legacies. How can leaders and coaches adopt this kind of mindset to transform their lives and amplify their impact?

Speaker B: So, first of all, thank you for taking the Wealth Builder program. I want to give some context, because probably most people who are listening don't know what that is.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Is an advanced program that I created based on seeing how coaches typically struggle financially. Um, and I say that because most coaching schools are an amazing resource for teaching people how to be powerful coaches, but they really fall short on teaching coaches how to build their own businesses. So Wealth Builder was built just to help with the entrepreneurial side of building any business, but specifically with a bend and focus on coaches. I share that with you because the end. There's a fundamental approach that we all want to take to be able to grow a business of any size. And the first thing is to really understand your niche, then come up with your irresistible offer, then generate appointments or opportunities and then convert those appointments or opportunities. Any business can benefit from this, but the wealth builder program was a way to go deep. And we started look at some core principles like, uh, you know, what is essentialism when it comes to a business? Most business owners are paying way too much attention to the trivial many and not nearly as much attention to the essential few. So the things like I just talked about the core four of any business, that's essential, right? Knowing your niche, their irresistible offer, generating, converting appointments, that's essential. But posting on social media every day is not. It's part of the trivial many, but it's a distraction and it feels like you're doing something. And therein lies the reason that so many coaches and so many entrepreneurs struggle is they listen to the advice of so many, but they don't realize for themselves what is truly essential in their business. And if you can't separate out the 20% effort that gets you 80% of the result, you're going to spend all your time in the 80% effort that only gets you 20% of the result and you will eventually go out of business. That's why I started the wealth builder program to support so many coaches who need to be able to grow expansively. And to go from like what the industry average is a is a paltry sum of 50 to $75,000 a year as a salary is not sustainable for most coaches, especially if you're the primary breadwinner, if you're the one supporting the household, you can't do it on those salaries. And so the idea is to shift it and to be able to create six and seven figure incomes that will create not only financial stability, but also to create the impact that we want to make in the world. So to answer your question, it's like I wanted to give that context because it's like if you don't understand what the program is, it's like, wait, what are we talking about? Right? But essentially like when you're asking specifically about financial freedom and how leaders and coaches can adopt this mindset to transform their lives and amplify their impact. The amplification comes from the success. Success begets more success. As a coach, I want to be able to be successful so that I can have longevity in my business. I know I went into coaching because I want to have a huge impact in the world. If I'm not able to create a financially stable business and I can't create that long Runway, then I'm going to be forced to go do something else. And that's a tragedy, because I think coaching is one of the most noble professions in the world. And the people who come are amazing givers. And if they can't build a business, they can't do it for very long. I'll just use one quick analogy. Like when people who are givers show up, I try to show them the analogy of the hose, right? If you are a massive giver and you turn on the garden hose full blast, you can only go so big if you're not willing to receive. But as you receive more, your hose grows from a garden hose to a fire hose to a pipeline to the ocean. So it's just like, expansive. So that's what abundance is, is how do I actually learn to receive more so that I can give more? How can I actually use that as a way to be fully abundant in everything that I do?

Speaker A: And it's so, so worthy, so profound, really, to go through the program. I mean, I worked my booty off really hard every single day. I worked. I followed every step. I did them at, uh, medsrx. I still do them. And I think that was everything about it for me personally and professionally was just really transformative.

Speaker B: Well, thank you, Mary. And you mentioned medsrx. I'd love to break that down just so people know what that is. It's. That actually comes from Brendan Burchard, who's a high performance coach. And. And I learned it, I picked it up, and I wanted to share with as many coaches as I could. Stands for meditation. So we want to do meditation at least five minutes every single day. The E comes from exercise. We want to get our heart rate up every single day. D is diet, the fuel we put into our bodies so we can be healthy and really vibrant into the work that we do. The S is for sleep, right? So if we get enough sleep, we'll be rested for the next day. The R is for relationships. If you do the first couple ones with the meditation and exercise and diet and sleep, those four will get you to really powerful relationships because it allows you to be fully present. And the X factor is whatever domain of your life you're looking to shift or change. So in this case, we were working on your own financial freedom and growing your coaching business. That's your X factor. And so what I had you do every day was generate appointments, because if we focus on the Money, the money is very elusive. But if we focus on generating appointments, we can see how everything we do is essential to getting more appointments on our calendar and then converting those appointments into opportunities. That consistency is the 1% improvement we take every single day to transform ourselves and our coaching business. And I'm so glad you had this experience, Mary, because it is really my gift to the world. It is my magnum opus. It's what I want to be able to put out there so that everyone can have that experience.

Speaker A: Yes. I mean, it's just incredible. As I said in my testimonial, I think everybody should, you know, loosen their purse strings and get involved because it's really that transformative and impactful. And I think the rigor and the discipline, um, that it provided to me was something I really didn't have to that degree. And now I have it. I have the systems to really work, to really work hard on, um, what's important, which is generating appointments and landing

Speaker B: clients and for the rest of your life. See, that's the thing. The thing is you did more in 12 weeks than most people will do all year. So we taught you the power of the 12 week year so that you treat every week like a month and you experience that. Because we didn't focus on everything, we focused on the essential and we did the essential in an effortless way that could be sustained for 12 weeks. Look at what that produced. Isn't that amazing?

Speaker A: It really is amazing. Yes, it is. Uh, yeah, and the 12 week year, I think is an uh, interesting way you could break that down four times a year if you wanted to, or a year to completely focus on what's important. And I think that's etched in my mind and I've created systems around it.

Speaker B: Beautiful. Love it, love it, love it, love it. So good.

Speaker A: Alrighty, we are going to move on here. So I just love this and I really want to give you your flowers on this bill. So you've designed, uh, askbill us as an innovative tool to extend your work. So what gap were you looking to fill and how do you see it enhancing how people engage with your expertise and resources? Let me premise that with what, what is Ask buildup?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, so, so it's my artificial intelligence. It's ChatGPT. If ChatGPT only focused on my content, that was the difference is that, uh, what I saw was, is that there's nothing wrong with Chat gtp, Chat, uh, Chat GPT or other artificial intelligence agents. The issue that I found though was that it's using the Entire Internet, which is basically hit or miss. Sometimes they have the right answers, sometimes they have the wrong answers. And none of it replies directly to coaches, the coaching industry, or our own lived experiences. So what I did is I took my content from my 30 years of building and exiting multimillion dollar marketing agencies and businesses. I've actually built and exited three multimillion dollar companies, all on the Inc. 5000 fastest growing company list. The latest being positive intelligence number 5 67, which is amazing, right? So we have all these really great things. I took all that content and I created a walled garden so that Ask Bill Us would only look to the information that I fed it. So instead of looking to the Internet, it just looked to the content that I had created. So what that does is it actually feels like talking to me. So anyone who's listening to this episode and wants to have a deeper dive experience on me helping you build your business for free, go to Ask Bill Us. And what will happen is once you've logged in so we can keep track of all your questions and information, it'll help you organize a space just for you. You can ask questions like how do I refine my niche? Or how do I generate an irresistible offer? Or what's the best way to generate appointments? Or how do I convert those appointments once I have them? You can do role playing exercises. You can say, here's a problem in my business that I'm really struggling with and get real time advice and insights along with all of this. 30 years of business building multimillion dollar marketing experience. And that's what's so powerful about this engine, is that it's basically taking real life scenarios and breaking them down in mass. So what we just talked about was the wealth builder program, which is where we're helping one on one with individual coaches. Now we're going to the other extreme where it's basically you can go on demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, ask questions, get feedback, apply that feedback and start building your business using this platform. So cool.

Speaker A: I used it myself. I've loved it. I've done a couple deep dives on it. One of the deep dives I did on it was I asked Bill Us, um, what five questions should I ask Bill for my podcast talent talk and strategy stroll. And the information that came back was pure gold, really. I think the questions were amazing. I had two of the questions kind of already sorted out, but the rest came and, um, you know, really, they were just incredible. And not only did they give me what questions to Ask. But why I should ask them? Yes. And why they would be important to us.

Speaker B: Because context matters, right? That's the thing. It's like you can ask any how, what, why question. You're already super powerful at that. Because you're a coach by nature, you know how to ask open ended questions. And yet having something like this strategically give you guidance provides context and says, here's why. This question could be useful not just to talking with Bill, but also with the audience you're here to support. Right. And it's like, great, I love that. And then if it's off, you know why it's off and you can tweak your question. So good, so good, so good.

Speaker A: What, what's the most surprising feedback you've received so far?

Speaker B: Just how powerful the answers have been for coaches and how much they've struggled prior to using it. So I'll give you one example. I had a who said, no exaggeration. I have struggled with my niche for five years. For five years I've questioned myself, is this the right people that I should be talking to? Why? Then I spent one hour with Ask Bill Us at no cost and got every single one of my questions answered in a way I finally understand exactly who my niche is. I have zero doubt that who I'm working with now, focusing on that niche, will forever be who I want to work with for the rest of my life. I mean, amazing, right? Five years to one hour, Boom. Then she said, I didn't stop there. I then used that information to feed in to Ask Bill us around the irresistible offer and came up with five powerful offers. I get to test and see which one's the one that's going to most resonate. But now I know exactly what to look for, whether it's going to be effective or not. And then I'll know whether it works by going into the different ways I can generate appointments. Brilliant, right? Like this is the feedback we're getting and it's like, yes. And the thing that I've done is I actually added a feedback link. So what? So when people go and they play with Ask Bill Us, they can give feedback. So they can tell me, how did you like it? Was this something you'd share with other coaches? But I also did something really creative as part of that feedback. I said, would you be interested in buying me a coffee? And this is a platform called Buy me a coffee. And what it does, is it for basically the cost of coffee, you can help find, fund the platform. And the reason I share that is is that within one week of sharing this little feedback link, this thing had paid for itself, which means all I wanted to do is cover the cost of the technology, the platform, the hosting itself, because every time someone asks a question, there's an API call to Amazon web servers and there's expense for that. So I didn't want to charge anything. But this is what's so beautiful about coaches. They're so fricking generous. They saw the value that they got and they were like, yes, yes, I will do that. And suddenly, the whole system was paid for. So for as long as I can, my intention is to keep Ask Bill us totally free for as long as I possibly can. And so far, it's been going strong. I love it.

Speaker A: That's right. And I love coffee. So it's right up my alley. So it's great. I think it's fantastic. I encourage all of our listeners, whether you're a coach or not, you know, give it a test drive. I think you'll find some very interesting answers. Thank you. So now we're going to shift a little bit, um, from the professional side, maybe a little bit to the personal side. So you have an upcoming trip. It sounds fascinating to me. So what inspired the journey and how does it align with your vision of living purposefully and creating global impact?

Speaker B: Yeah. So let me say. So the listeners know, I have decided to take my transgender daughter around the world for an entire year. So if you go to Bill Carmody.com, you can actually follow exactly where I'm starting, how long I'm staying in each space. So we're going to 52 locations in as many weeks. It's insane. Right. So we start off in Dublin, Ireland, and we get to do a keynote speech at Google headquarters, and coaches are invited to come join us if they're. If they want to join us live inside of Dublin, Ireland, we're totally happy to do that. But why I'm sharing that is because this will be the first time my daughter gets to be, uh, do a keynote speech. She's 18 years old. This is her gap year. So she doesn't she. Before she goes on to college, I wanted to get the most important education of her life, which is to see other cultures and meet with other people all around the world. Now, here's what's beautiful about that. I basically, this is like crowdsourcing this great travel trip I put on my website. If you want to meet me in real life, around the world. I gave three different options, and I'm sure Other people can come up with creative versions, but the first thing I said, you can host a meal. Like, you know, we're going to be like traveling all over the world. If you want to like take us into your home and cook us a meal. Wow. Home cooked meals in different countries with different types of food things. That would be amazing. Right. So lots of people signed up for that. Others I said, you know, if you want to do a slumber party, it's like, I would love to get out of these dry hotel rooms. If I'm going to be spending 365 nights of our lives out in the world, I would love to spend it with actual families and real human beings as opposed to these beige hotel rooms. Right. And the third thing I offered up was VIP days. So for some coaches, they want to change the trajectory of their entire coaching business and so I'll spend an entire day with the coach to actually build their chain. So think about the wealth builder program we just did, but in a 24 hour period instead. Right. Like very intense. Write in on it. Right. All that good stuff. The, the, the response has been amazing. The coaches have been reaching out, uh, for the last six months and we've got an incredible jam packed trip which is going to give us opportunities to see hundreds of coaches all over the world, which is really, really incredible. And the latest thing I'll add is, uh, I'm a huge, uh, advocate of, um, audible.com and so I listen to, I listen to books, uh, on Audible all the time. And one of the books that I was listening to is called the Finnish Guide to Happiness. Basically, why is Finland one of the happiest places on the planet? And the author, Melanie, she had basically had lived there. She moved from New Zealand to Finland and then wrote a book about her experience. So what did I do after listing that book? I decided I was going to go to Finland. It wasn't on our list originally, so we've changed up our travel so we can go to Finland. I reached out to her on LinkedIn yesterday and she just responded to me today saying she'd love to meet up while we're there. So not only did you get to go meet her, but she's also a co active coach so I get to see her in person. We're going to grab a meal together, introduce, introduce her to my daughter Violet. And this is the serendipity we get to do all over the world. That was 24 hours ago. How cool is that?

Speaker A: That is amazing and it sounds so exciting. So you know you'll be traveling with your daughter. So how does she. How, uh, do you think this experience is going to shape her vision or

Speaker B: how she sees the totally transformative. So, so here in the United States, we've had so much anti transgender legislation. There's over 840 bills that are currently being enacted across all 49 out of 50 states. Right. So it's ridiculous just how much anti transgender legislation is going into effect right now. So we're leaving at that time, and we're going to go see how the world is outside. Right. So Ireland, for example, is one of the most LGBTQ friendly places on the planet. And same thing with a lot of these other places we're going to be going to. So she's going to get to see how other people live and how transgender people. People are treated, you know, um, and very favorably in a lot of different places in the world. We may end up finding where we're going to live. So it's like, I can imagine that if we just don't feel like we're safe and comfortable to live in the United States anymore, fine, let's go find where we want to go live elsewhere in the world. So we'll be looking and scouting for different. Different options we could be considering in our next phase of our life. But, I mean, there's no better education I could possibly have for my daughter than taking around the world and letting her actually meet with all these incredible human beings. I mean, you know, the coaching industry, so I'm in the same space. It's like I get to introduce her to some of the most powerful coaches in the world and get to her to experience what it's like outside in these different parts of the world. So I just. I can't imagine a better education for my daughter.

Speaker A: What do you hope she takes away from the adventure?

Speaker B: I hope she really grows exponentially as a human being, sees her own value and worth, dignity and respect, and be able to sort of continue to grow in those ways. This, The. The. The keynote speech at Google will be the first time she's speaking publicly on a stage, which is cool. She's been doing it on Bill Carmody.com as part of our planning process, like, gearing up for it. She's actually going to be part of one of the VIP days that we're doing for one of the coaches, so she'll get to observe what that's like. And how do you. How do you actually change somebody's life in a single day? So there's, like, all kinds of really formative experiences that most 18 year olds don't get a chance to have. So I think it's going to be incredible for her to share her experiences with her peers and with others when she comes back and tells her story.

Speaker A: That's just really beautiful. I'm going to be following along on your journey. So if you had to pick one country that you're most excited to visit.

Speaker B: If you'd asked me a week ago, it would be a different answer, but today it's Finland. I mean, seriously, like, one of the reasons I reached out to was because, like, it was great to see how much of my life has changed toward being finished. I didn't realize that I was really deep, uh, down I'm, I've been a fan of Finland even though I didn't know it, and now I get to go see the experiences that have been written up about. So I'm super excited to go to Helsinki to, to, uh, to meet up to, to speak with another fellow offer author and coach talking about happiness in the world and how we can promote more happiness in the world, what it means, how I can bring some of those insights back. I'm excited. I'm going to try to do a podcast episode with her before we leave. So there's like all kinds of fun stuff. Like it's all brewing and it literally just started happening 24 hours ago.

Speaker A: That's, that's awesome. Uh, you know, that's the power of connection, right? I mean, it's things that we work on every day.

Speaker B: Yes, exactly right. Exactly right.

Speaker A: Well, thank you for sharing with me and our audience about your trip. We'll all be cheering you on and watching for updates.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: So as we close, I like to ask all of our guests near at the end here is what's on your heart that you would really like to share and what the world needs to hear.

Speaker B: Today I'm closing my eyes because I did not prepare anything for this question because I wanted to feel it. I wanted to feel the answer as opposed to just intellectualize it. And in truth, what's on my heart is how to express love and take love out into the world. I think that at the end of the day, everything we do comes from one of two places. It either comes from fear or it comes from love. Fear stops us from being the best version of ourselves and love encourages us to be of service to others. I believe this is what it's all about. What's on my heart is for others to share their heart, to be able to be in a place of love and connection, opening up to the possibilities that are always right there in front front of us. To see it is only we who shut down those possibilities and live in our fear. When we are in our heads, when we are in our hearts, we are always a best version of ourselves. And when we are in service, we always have the biggest impact in the world. To me, that's what the whole game is about. And I look forward to doing that as I take my daughter around the world and continue to grow, Ask, build up.

Speaker A: That is just so profound and beautifully said. I couldn't agree more. And, uh, it's. I don't think we can end on a, uh, on a, uh, better note than love.

Speaker B: Thank you, Mary. And thank you again for having me on your show. I really appreciate you.

Speaker A: You're welcome. So thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, your stories, and your heart. Today, I know our listeners are walking away inspired and ready to take bold steps in their own journeys. For everyone turning in, be sure to follow Bill's incredible world tour with his daughter. You won't want to miss the adventures and the insights they'll be sharing across the globe. Bill, do you want to remind us as to where to find you again?

Speaker B: Bill carmody.com for everything, everything I've shared on today's episode, including our entire world tour. Ask Bill us. All of it. You can be found on Bill Carmody.com

Speaker A: and you can also connect with Bill on LinkedIn. And don't forget, I already have this here, so don't forget to ask about Ask Bill us Innovative, um, leadership resources and tools. And I can promise you you will not be disappointed while you're here. I'd love you to stay connected with you, too. Follow me. Mary Stockwell, Meritas Advisory Group for more conversations, insights, leadership resources on all social channels. If something from today's episode resonated with you, let's connect. Find me on LinkedIn or send me a direct message. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who's ready to step boldly into their own leadership journey. As we wrap things up, this strategy stroll. Just like walking along the shoreline, which I do every day, every step you take, even the smallest ones, is shaping your path forward. Thanks for strolling with us today and thanks for having us. Bill, thanks for joining.

Speaker B: Thanks, Mary.