Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Read our book, The Score That Matters https://amzn.to/3NszPAg

Jack Carr is a former Navy SEAL who for 20 years led special operations teams as a Team Leader, Platoon Commander, Troop Commander, and Task Unit Commander. Jack is also the #1 New York Times Best Selling author of 8 books and his debut novel, The Terminal List, was adapted into the #1 Amazon Prime Video series starring Chris Pratt.

Notes

• When Jack was little, he hoped to grow up and do two things. Be a Navy SEAL and become an author.
• Jack's grandfather died at war. "It's in my blood."
  • "You have to prove that you can add value to your tribe."
• "Great warriors run to the sound of the guns to be with their fellow service members."
• Commonality of the best SEAL Leaders:
  • Trust, up and down the chain of command
  • High character
  • Good decision-maker: The decisions you’ve made in the past are your currency.
  • Do things you don’t have to do. Run with the squad, put rounds down range. You don’t have to be the best at it, but you should be very good at all of the things the people you’re leading are doing.
• Reading novels: "When I was young, I was reading for the magic in those pages."
• PUT IN THE WORK… Jack has been putting in the work since he was little. He read books for the magic in those pages. All of that reading has helped inform him of what great storytelling looks like. And then he PUT IN THE WORK. If you want to be a published author, you need to WRITE. It’s that simple. Do the work, and get the manuscript done. And then take the next step. A lot of people want to be published authors. Not everyone wants to write. Like Ronnie Coleman said, “A lot of people want to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift these heavy weights every day.”
• Mentor, Brad Thor: “Brad told me that the only difference between a published and unpublished author is that the published author doesn’t quit.”
• Writers Block – One thing I’ll share from Steven Pressfield is that he said “Hey, you never hear of a trucker getting trucker’s block”. Writer’s block does not exist - you just have to go do it.
• Books to recommend: ONCE AN EAGLE by Anton Myrer.
  • It is advice that a wise Sam Damon shares: “You can’t help what you were born and you may not have much to say about where you die, but you can and you should try to pass the days in between as a good man.” In the end that really says it all.
• Advice:
  • Never miss an opportunity to make someone’s day… Make that your default setting. Work to add value to others' lives. Make their day. Help them. Make introductions, LISTEN to them, offer ideas to help solve their issues

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

My books:

Welcome to Management - https://amzn.to/3XWyZAH

The Pursuit of Excellence - https://amzn.to/4eX9vtP

The Score That Matters - https://amzn.to/3zPub7Z

Seth Godin is the author of 21 international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about work and art. They have been translated into 38 languages. His breakthrough books include Purple Cow, Tribes, The Dip, Linchpin, and his latest book is called This is Strategy. He writes one of the most popular daily blogs in the world and has given 5 TED talks. He is the founder of the altMBA, and the former VP of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!

Notes:

• "If you want word of mouth, you have to create something remarkable, and that means it’s worthy of remark."
• The elegant path is the most useful way forward. “My neighbor is a barefoot runner. He glides without apparent effort.” Elegance is simplicity, efficiency, and effectiveness.
• Dorothy and Her Crew. How did Dorothy persuade the Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow to join her on the trip to see the Wizard? Did she make a case about how much she missed home? No. She created the conditions where the others could get what they wanted by joining her.
• Seeing Strategy Clearly. Strategy is a flexible plan that guides us as we seek to create a change. It helps us make decisions over time while working within a system.
• Low-Hanging Fruit Isn’t. It’s all been picked. The easy, direct, obvious paths are unlikely to get you the results you’re working so hard to obtain. In fact, these paths are probably a trap.
• Seth, at one point, got 800 rejection letters. Have to keep going...
• "I wouldn't call Steve Ballmer a good leader."
• An example of Seth making a difference... He went to Kenya and talked with 60 people who started a book club based on his book Linchpin. "They decided to be leaders."
• Make decisions in the moment:
  • Examine the issue
  • Get feedback
  • Look for patterns
• "Taste is knowing what the market wants before it knows it."
• Rick Rubin
  • Reality distortion field
  • Johnny Cash
  • "What do you think?"
• "Objections are your friends."
• What are the commonalities among leaders with whom Seth has worked and who have sustained excellence? They are all different, but the one thing they have in common is they all have chosen to be leaders. And that means that they are here to make a change happen.
• Management doesn’t just exist. It was invented. When you race to the bottom, You see people as resources, not as people.
• Questions That Lead To Strategies. 84 questions. They’ll force you to think through your strategy. By answering them, you’ll be better prepared to make a difference… And make a ruckus. Some of them: Who is this project for? What is my timeline? What systems would need to change for my project to succeed? Where will I cause tension? What resistance should I anticipate? Where is the empathy? What asset would transform my project? What can I learn from comparable projects? Is the change I’m making contagious? Can I make it easier for others to decide? How can I design for network effects? What are common objections I expect to encounter?

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

My books:

Welcome to Management - https://amzn.to/3XWyZAH

The Pursuit of Excellence - https://amzn.to/4eX9vtP

The Score That Matters - https://amzn.to/3zPub7Z

My guest: After years of serving as a high school government and law teacher, Sharon McMahon took her passion for education to Instagram, where more than a million people rely on her for nonpartisan, fact-based information as “America's Government Teacher.” In a time where flashy headlines and false information often take the spotlight, Sharon is a reliable source for truth and logic. Sharon is the author of: The Small and The Mighty – Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, From the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement.

Notes:

• What did Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and FDR have in common? The ability to articulate a vision that others wanted to follow. They were great communicators. If you want to lead people, it helps to become a fantastic storyteller. It helps to be able to stand up in front of a group of people and share the vision in an entertaining and informative way. And then execute on that vision.
• Be a doer. “The best Americans are not the critics, they are the doers. They are the people who went for broke when everyone else yelled to turn back. They are those who know that one becomes great because of who they lift up, not who they put down.” I’ve never observed anyone, regardless of field, achieve lasting prominence while voicing rancor or focusing much on the failings of others. Create and share, support others, and enjoy. Givers and creators always prevail. - Andrew Huberman
• Door-to-door sales helps you deal with rejection. It's good for you.
• When you see a new person at the gym, celebrate them. Help them get acclimated.
• The Hello Girls -- AT&T -- Pioneer of telephones. They were doing their jobs wearing gasmasks with bombs exploding around them.
• Echo Chambers – As a leader, what you don’t know, can hurt you. Do not surround yourself with “yes men” or “yes women.” You need a diversity of viewpoints. You should feel uncomfortable on a regular basis. You should told you’re wrong from the people you surround yourself with. If you’re not, then you’re living in an echo chamber. Also, pay attention to a broad spectrum of media. If you only watch one news channel or read one newspaper, you will probably end up in an echo chamber. Then develop friendships with people who think differently than you. They’re not wrong because they think the way they do. Instead of judging them, why not be curious and learn more about their viewpoint.
• Gouverneur Morris – One of Alexander Hamilton’s best friends and one of our founding fathers. He contributed as much or more to the early republic than Ben Franklin or John Adams. He conceived America’s great statement of purpose, the one still recited by schoolchildren. He’s the author of the Preamble of the new United States Constitution.
• “The best Americans are not the critics, they are the doers. They are the people who went for broke when everyone else yelled to turn back. They are those who know that one becomes great because of who they lift up, not who they put down.” I have learned that no one reaches their final moments of mortal existence and whispers to their loved ones, “I wish I had gotten in some more sick burns in the comments section on Facebook.”
• Advice:
  • "Be the "can-do" person. Have the best attitude in the room. Be amazing at whatever you choose to do. Be the person that others love to work with."

Read our book, The Score That Matters https://amzn.to/3XxHi7p

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Michael Easter’s investigations have taken him to meet with monks in ancient monasteries in Bhutan, lost tribes in the jungles of Bolivia, US Special Forces soldiers in undisclosed locations, gene scientists in Iceland, CEOs in Fortune-500 boardrooms, and more. He’s a professor at UNLV and he’s the best-selling author of The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain.

• “The modern world is designed for short-term survival and pleasure. It is not set up to help us thrive in the long term.” “Have fun, don’t die, read books, and do strange things.”
• Be a 2 percenter. 98% of people do the easy thing. We are programmed to do the easy thing.
• The world was uncomfortable a while ago...
• It makes sense to do the easy thing. You get the short-term reward for it.
• Handle adversity, adapt, do the slightly harder thing
• Some ideas: do walking meetings, work in silence, embrace hunger, don't cut corners, pick up the trash, call people on the phone. Ruck the airport. Don't sit down, walk. Read while exercising. Workout outside. Sprint. Lift weights. The ability to move a limb quickly is what helps old people not fall. Need to be powerful and springy to move quickly (and not fall).
• Diet - One ingredient foods. Tribe in Bolivia with the healthiest hearts in the world. Be outside, eat one ingredient foods.
• Scarcity brain - We all suck at moderation. We overconsume... Casinos, slot machines. Quick, repeatable, predictable. The speed makes it powerful.
• Silicon Valley learned this from casinos and it's how they build their apps.
• The smartphone withdrawal effect. Worse in short term. Better in the long term.
• Break bad habits - Slow down. Respond, don't react. Wait 72 hours to buy the thing in your online cart.
• Junk food is super easy to eat fast. It was designed that way. Your body doesn't know it's full because of the speed.
• What did Michael learn from a tribe in a Bolivian jungle?
  
  • They seemed very happy. What did they do? They ate single-ingredient food. They spent a lot of time outside. And they spent a lot of time together. What can we learn from that? Eat healthy, go outside, and spend time with people you love.
• “A lot of problems are not our fault, but they are our problems to solve.” Remember, we are wired to choose the escalator, fast food or to cut the corner. We need to be intentional in taking the stairs, slowing down, and responding instead of reacting.
• How the scarcity loop works: It has three parts: opportunity, unpredictable rewards, and quick repeatability. Becoming aware of it can help you fall into it less often.
• Michael has been sober for 9 years. His drinking addiction stemmed from having a boring life (job he didn't like). Needed to explore the edges. Booze did that for him.
• Iraq - Sandstorm. We don't read books here. We don't have that luxury. We have too many problems to deal with.
  • In America, we live in a country where we can read books.

Read more about our team at: https://learningleader.com/team/

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of Mindful Monday

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

• “Have I ever mentioned how much I f’n love these Phase 2 calls?!? Free cocaine. Straight outta the Dope Factory.” – Geron Stokes
• "Another thing that I found is an intense interest of the subject is indispensable if you are really going to excel. I could force myself to be fairly good in a lot of things, but I couldn’t be really good in anything where I didn’t have an intense interest." – Charlie Munger
• Our Team Values & Behaviors:
  • Curious: practice invested listening
  • Honest: give direct feedback
  • Intentional: provide purposeful action
• What is our edge as a TEAM? Our purpose, our values, and our behaviors. We are ACTIVELY doing it.
  • Raw and Simple: We cut through the noise and address the fundamental issues leaders face. Our straightforward approach helps teams confront what they’re not doing and empowers them to take actionable steps toward improvement.
  • In The Arena: We don’t just talk about leadership principles—we live them. Every member of our team actively practices the strategies we coach, ensuring real-world insights and practical solutions.
  • Take Risks: We’re unafraid to push boundaries and challenge conventional thinking. We help leaders take bold actions, even if it means stepping out of their comfort zones or facing tough consequences.
• Love being on a team that "makes the water rise." We all are better for being together on the same team.
• Gratitude – You can’t roll up your sleeves and clench your fists at the same time. Living with gratitude is about recognizing and appreciating what you have. This will change the lens in which you view the world. Geron (overheard from Coach Mike Gundy): “I can’t believe they pay us to do this.” It is so much fun working with this team and the reward is that we get to keep doing it. So grateful.
• The makeup of a great team… They are tough, they have fun together, they care about each other, and they have that gritty humility about them. “Humble enough to listen, gritty enough to apply."
• Our prep calls – The calls before the calls. We learn so much from our preparation together. It's an open forum to share ideas, disagree, talk through stories, and figure out how to make people better. Some of my favorite times.
• How to work with the employee who just won’t fully buy-in. Be curious, not judgemental. Ask questions. LISTEN. Care. As Sherri said, “Nobody wants to sleepwalk through life.” We need to figure out what makes them come alive and help them bring that to the team.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of The Learning Leader Community

This is Episode #601 with the CEO of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg

Notes:

• What is your creed?
  • I will never stop learning. I won’t just work on things that are assigned to me. I know there’s no such thing as a status quo. I will build our business sustainably through passionate and loyal customers. I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I’ll remember the days before I knew everything. I am more motivated by impact than money, and I know that Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation. I will communicate as much as possible because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company. I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day. Given time, there is no problem that’s insurmountable.
    • "People need something to believe in." -- That's what draws talent to the company.
• What do you look for when hiring a leader? "The four qualities that you can't train..."
  • Work ethic
  • Taste
  • Integrity
  • Curiosity
• Coaching -- Expose your leaders to coaches.
  • Mirror
  • Ask questions
  • Reflect
• Commonalities of leaders who sustain excellence:
  • Optimism in dark times
  • Player coaches -- They can do the work AND lead others
  • Hire well -- They spot talent, hire, train, develop, and retain them
• Commencement speech -- Encourage others to think bigger. Raise their ambition. From Tyler Cowen -- The high-return activity of raising others’ aspirations - (PhD instead of Masters) At critical moments in time, you can raise the aspirations of other people significantly, simply by suggesting they do something better or more ambitious than what they might have in mind. It costs you relatively little to do this, but the benefit to them, and to the broader world, may be enormous.
• Matt's Twitter Bio -- I can think. I can wait. I can fast– This comes from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. Siddartha said “if you can think, wait, and fast, you can do just about anything.”
• Don’t constrain your mentors by their availability, engage with their work! Jim Simons was a mentor for Matt. Be guided by beauty.
• Will Durant - Health lies in action, and so it graces youth. To be busy is the secret of grace and half the secret of content. Let us ask the gods not for possessions, but for things to do; happiness is in making things rather than in consuming them.”
• Matt's goals -- My goals in life are to democratize publishing, commerce, and messaging. I travel a lot. In 2023 I visited 63 cities, and 18 countries, and my average velocity was 41.9 miles per hour. I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. I write code, poetry, prose, and music, often in support of those three goals, but sometimes just to make the world a more beautiful place. I love taking photos and have posted over 30,000 to this site, hence my common username photomatt.

Read our book, The Score That Matters - https://amzn.to/4ggpYdW

Full shownotes at www.LearningLeader.com

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

We are celebrating episode #600 with Keith Hawk and AJ Hawk

• Tell a story about an awesome leader you worked with...
  • Ron Ullery – I’m a firm believer that people either live up to or down to your expectations. And most people set their expectations for themselves too low. So it’s on you as a leader to raise those expectations for them. Demand more because you know they can do more.
  • Tyler Cowen – The high return activity of raising others’ aspirations. Encouraged someone who was going for an MBA to get a Phd. At critical moments in time, you can raise the aspirations of other people significantly, especially when they are relatively young, simply by suggesting they do something better or more ambitious than what they might have in mind. It costs you relatively little to do this, but the benefit to them, and to the broader world, may be enormous.
• What helps you give a great speech? How do you prepare?
  • Ask, "What do I want my audience to do after seeing my speech?" Interview members of their team. Learn their terminology, challenges, what's going well, what's not, what are their goals, etc...
  • Practice, practice, practice. Say it out loud. Rehearse so that once you're on stage, you can let it rip.
• What did the best teams you’ve been on do differently than the average teams?
  • The best players on the best teams always practiced the hardest. They set the tone for the work ethic of the team. They chose extra work. They set high standards and they demanded others raise their level of performance.
  • The best teams hung out together outside of work. AJ was a Captain of the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl-winning team in 2010-2011... That team regularly hung out together outside of working hours, shared lots of meals, and knew each other extremely well. They trusted each other.
• Tell a story about how you’ve shown resilience… Failed and what did you do next?
  • The Miami/Ben Roethlisberger story - The world doesn't care what you think you deserve. The primary goal is focused on adding value to others' lives.
  • AJ shared a story from his sophomore year at Ohio State. His defensive coordinator, Coach Mark Dantonio sat with him 1 on 1 watching each play of the Michigan game. A day he’ll never forget for how hard it was, how upset he was, and how determined he was to respond. AJ never lost to Michigan again in his career after that.
  • Pistol shared a story about the time when the new CEO wanted to bring in his own head of sales (which was Pistol's job). Instead of complaining and leaving the company, he got creative and offered a new idea and a great way to leverage all the skills and knowledge he developed from being at the company for so long. It is amazingly rare for the head of sales to stay at a company after he’s been replaced. But he thrived in the role and made the company better.
• Front line obsession – Pistol’s story of the legendary Mert McGill going to the Supreme Court to demo LexisNexis and earning the most important sale in the company's history. I love stories about leaders proactively taking action and not being afraid to do the work.
• Update since Episode #500:
  • Built the Learning Leader Team -- Officially working full-time with Sherri Coale, Brook Cupps, Geron Stokes, and Eli Leiker. We are working with leaders from a wide variety of companies throughout the U.S.
• The magic of the Pat McAfee Show -- They are unafraid. They say what others are thinking but are too afraid to say. They are authentic and fully themselves. They have great role clarity. Everyone knows and embraces their roles and excels at them.
• The End of the Podcast Draft – You’re stranded on a deserted island. You have one iPad. On that iPad has 5 TV shows (and nothing else). Which shows do you choose? This is a competition with a clear winner and losers. The object is to win the draft.

Read our book, The Score That Matters https://amzn.to/3XxHi7p

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

• Sustaining Excellence
  • Good get at getting stuff done
  • Make a change from an expert to a learning machine
• Apply to be in my Learning Leader Circle
• Leadership is:
  • Teaching – sharing with others what they need to know, how to do something
  • Mentoring - Help them see the world from our eyes
  • Coaching - Help them see the world through their eyes. To do that, we must be good listeners, ask questions, and challenge them
• Follow what’s interesting to you… To figure out your passion, you have to do stuff. That’s the only way to fully learn what you’re good at and what you want to do. Have to be willing to try, fail, keep going, and figure out where you excel and what you’re curious about. That’s how you find your passion and do it for a living.
• They set up leadership dyads and triads at the Mayo Clinic. Group up a doctor, a nurse, and an administrator to help make decisions. This way you gain the perspective from different angles, people, and experiences.
• You have to context-shift radically, from an ER to a boardroom to a coaching session. Not everybody can wear all those hats, and yet Rick does it really well (with grace and humility).
• What’s the difference between a coach and a mentor?
  • When you mentor: You share your experience & subject-matter expertise. You help a colleague see the world & its potential—through your eyes.
  • When you coach: You help your colleague make sense of their world—from their perspective.
• Effective leaders:
  • seek diverse perspectives
  • recognize the bias of individual opinion
  • make decisions methodically
• Ineffective leaders:
  • make reflexive decisions
  • amplify the thoughts of a few
  • see alternate perspectives as obstacles
• Hiring -- What are the must-haves for a leadership role?
  • Knowledge
  • Fit with the team
  • Collaborate
  • Align with the values
• How to run 1:1s
  • Consent to an agenda
  • Ask useful questions
  • LISTEN
• Career and Life Advice:
  • Ask Who, How, What, Why
  • Seek multiple perspectives
• Atul Gawande's Checklist Manifesto is useful.