Aligning Values and Behaviors: Insights on Cultivating a Strong Organizational Culture with David Campbell

Speaker 1: 0:00

Uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader podcast and I'm your host, john Gallagher. I've got a great episode lined up for you today. My longtime friend, david Campbell, senior Director of Continuous Improvement for TE Connectivity, a multi-billion dollar global manufacturer of connectivity solutions, is back for his third visit to the Uncommon Leader podcast. Now he's not only well versed in what he does in his organizational role, but he's also got the ability to simplify complex leadership concepts like culture, habits and behaviors, and to bite-size thoughts and make you stop and think how you need to do things differently. So, however you consume your podcast, take a few minutes and follow Dave's lead in exploring how little change in our daily habits can shake up our health, wellness, leadership and organizational culture. This is one conversation you will not want to miss. Let's get started, david Campbell. Welcome back to the Uncommon Leader podcast. My friend, this is time number three. We had a one-on-one and I can't believe that's been two years ago and then we had an opportunity where there were three of us just chatting about what it was like to have a mastermind. The third time, when you get to five, I send you a robe to be a part of the Five Timers Club. This is number three. How you doing, my friend.

Speaker 2: 1:11

I'm doing a fantastic job. Thanks for calling and thanks for asking me to be on your podcast again. This is an absolute honor. I'm humbled.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Absolutely Well. I appreciate that. I'm looking forward to our conversation. As always, we get a chance pretty regularly to chat, but I know the listeners should be excited to hear what's really been going on in your life, both personally and professionally, the past couple of years and how you've grown in many areas. So let's just start there. I'll let you go wherever you want to and say how you're different from two years ago when we had a conversation.

Speaker 2: 1:40

Yeah, so wow. It really is hard to believe it's been two years, I guess. Professionally, I did change roles as well. I stayed with the same company, but I moved from a business unit quality director role into a continuous improvement role globally. Now I have a lot more breadth and responsibility that I'm really enjoying, I think. For a personal level gosh, from the growth standpoint, it really is coming down to me learning how much consistency is really paying off. I've been very focused over the last couple of years to make sure that I am working on my mindset all the time, working on my physical health and body and then just working on the mindfulness and connecting with myself and understanding what's going on. It's been a lot of growth. I've made a personal commitment to be a lot more bold over the last year. For instance, I started out with getting out on LinkedIn a little bit more and being more consistent. John, you certainly influenced me to do that with the consistency of getting out on some of the social platforms. I do a monthly. What are you reading? I'm reading right now about two books a month, which is a pretty good increase over the last few years. Now in the last two years I've read about 50 books. I'm really enjoying that. Then I took it to another level a few months ago and I said you know what? I've got this nudge that I need to do something at work to help everyone else with their mindset as well On consistency, but then also on continuous improvement. That's a personal and professional respect. I started recording myself every day and doing videos that I'm posting online, internal to our company, of course. Then I'm sharing that once a week. One of my favorite videos on Wednesday is calling that a Wednesday wake-up call on LinkedIn, so people can see some of that. Yeah, it's been quite a couple of years, dave, it's been.

Speaker 1: 3:42

As I've watched it, I've been so excited about that journey and I find myself learning so much from you now as well in terms of the discipline that you've had to instill to make some of those things happen. And when folks see the photo of you on the artwork they're going to notice, certainly, that health transition for you You've done a phenomenal job and to understand, as we go through this conversation, what that's meant for you from mindset, mindfulness, boldness, all those things are really cool and you just give me a plethora of things to kind of ask you. So let's just stay on that professional development side and really go. 50 books over the past couple of years phenomenal and I think one or two probably an unfair question that have really impacted you dramatically and you might suggest for the listeners of the Uncommon Leader podcast.

Speaker 2: 4:30

A little bit of recency on that one, john. It's a great question. I just finished Extreme Ownership, which is a fantastic book by Jocko Willink and Leaf Babin. Wow, I think everyone should read this. It's almost a must read, right? I think it really gives you that true battle tested theory on how to be a better leader. And then they talk about how it applies to business and then how you can actually implement it on your daily life. So that one's been a recent game changer, I would say maybe even Ed Milet, the power of one more that I hear myself saying that all the time in the morning when I'm exercising and just think, gosh, I could do one more, or in anything else that I do on a daily basis, do one more. The beginning of this year I did read some of Ryan Holiday's book. So it's tough to really pick one or two, and I get that question pretty often what's your favorite book? Or I don't know that I have one, right. I do get the question a lot of. If I was gonna read one book, where would you have me start? And I usually go back to a Maxwell classic on that one Developing a leader within YouTube. I know for me it's the foundational book that I use and read over and over again now, because I use it for a lot of the workshops that I facilitate and then if I start mentoring someone, that's one of the first books I have them read.

Speaker 1: 5:54

I think it's for both. That one is good. I'm gonna have to look up Extreme Ownership you have talked about that one and the Ryan Holiday books that you mentioned Again. I've been getting some of those suggestions from you that have been pretty powerful for me over the past couple of years, so I kind of been lagging behind you. Once I see you suggest them on LinkedIn and I'm gonna put a link to Dave's LinkedIn page and the show notes. Be sure to follow him, because he does talk about the books that he reads, as well as bringing out that Wednesday motivational video that he shares as well. That can be really cool and use the term boldness with what you've done there. I appreciate you taking the courage to step out and do some of those things as well. Sometimes, for us, the hardest thing to do is just hit the record button and just or just hit the you know whatever it is that the reading and getting it done. But you're seeing some impact and you're starting to see that folks with some of the things that he's sharing on LinkedIn, I gotta say I've learned a bunch and I've been sharing a bunch of his stuff recently. Okay, so it's an unfair question to narrow it down to one. Let me go even a more unfair question, because you've made a dramatic change with regards to habits and discipline. So, of those books that you've read, what's one of the crazy disciplines that you've started as a result of what you've read that has made an impact on you, whether it's in your fitness journey, your faith journey or your professional journey?

Speaker 2: 7:16

Wow. So it won't be this year, but from a couple of years back, reading Robin Sharma's the 5 am Club, that one has changed everything about my beginning of my day, which you know. You hear people talk about their morning routines and it can get a little bit cliche, but if you can actually get disciplined about your morning routine and stick with it and understand why you're sticking with it, the impact's incredible, right. So you know now we're looking at a few years of the daily routine and then I modify it. You know, I can shift it around because the consistency's there. It allows me to work with the model even when I travel because I travel quite a bit. There's no issue there, you know. So I can still do the exercise, the meditation, the reading every day. Get that done. It really sets you up for a great day. So I would say that's probably been one of the most impactful books. And then you stack that on top of atomic habits and you just have a winning recipe there, right? So you know everything our habits really define us. And once you understand that, what you do every day really starts predicting your future, right? You have so many times you wanna look back and go. Gosh, I wish I had done that. Well, if you would just do it every day, in a year you're gonna be really happy that you stuck with it, right? So now I'm looking back. I remember when I first started the daily routine of exercising, seeing pictures of people that were my age or so, and I'd say, wow, I don't know if I'll ever look like that. And then now I can look back and go. I'm so glad I stuck with this for this many years, because I, you know, I'm very, very much fitting to what my personal image and what I want to be now, or I wanna be viewed of and feel like, viewed as excuse me, as an athlete, right, you know, I'm 54 years old. I would never have considered myself really an athlete before because of my little venture into cycling, but not consistently, right? So this is the consistency that's really starting to pay off. So, yeah, so I know you asked for one book. I think I gave you three, but no, that's okay, I'm okay with three books.

Speaker 1: 9:20

But let's even steer there. So you've made a dramatic change in your physical health as well. With regards to what's happening, you talked about the 5 am club and getting up and exercising. Well, it's easy to tell folks to exercise right, but there's been things mindset-wise, there's been things that you've been reading about that listening and changes there. What's been different in those two years? Because and brag on yourself a little bit here, dave some of the things that have improved in your life because of how you've taken out it, taken it.

Speaker 2: 9:51

Yeah. So you know, I really like to set this image of and a lot of times people think about this from a technology standpoint input and output diagrams, right From a computer standpoint, and I like to think of us as living, breathing input output diagrams. So, from a growth standpoint and a progression standpoint, it really comes down to, hey, what are you watching, what are you listening to, what are you reading right, and what are you doing as an activity? And so much of what we hear and see, we take for granted and don't pay attention to it. So I think the intentionality on a daily basis of making sure, hey, instead of turning on something in the car and I still do it, I still love country music, or, you know, I listen to a little bit of hard rock here and there I'll throw on podcasts most of the time, right, not all the time, I'm not maniacal about any of this. And then TV, gosh, we watch very little TV anymore. Maybe pick a couple of series and it's dedicated time, things like that. So really, gosh, I'm just trying to think, john, what else I could talk about. But you know, if you think about the consistency paying off from a health standpoint, yeah, in two years I think I'm down and you said brag on yourself so it's probably more than 35 pounds. I don't actually look at my weight, but I look more at the leading measures of what am I doing every day, how many calories am I burning, how many calories am I taking in and what are the macronutrients that I'm taking in, now, of course, with what's the protein level that I'm taking in? How's that all coming out? And then I look at other metrics like body fat percentage and things like that. So the weight is not my ultimate goal, it's really about health. And then my doctor's actually impressed as well, because now my cholesterol dropped, I think in the last what six months. It was 65 points, right. So you know, when you start putting that kind of muscle activation consistently into your lifestyle, the other metrics that come out of your blood work are just pretty much amazing, right, dave? I think it's powerful.

Speaker 1: 11:47

I mean no doubt, because one of what's one of observed is that it isn't just about weight loss anymore, a it's about health. But secondly, it's about you understanding those disciplines required to make an impact in that space. You go from just exercising three days a week to saying no, I'm going to burn this many calories per day. And your Monday motivation let's just say what is your Monday motivation and your big calorie burn day and sharing that and understanding that has made a big difference. And then you're certainly your nutrition level, your diet, different things that exist. I just I have found again, if you follow him folks, you're going to learn more about this stuff with regards to how he did it, because I think what you've done is create the potential for success, for a longer, the longevity that we've been reading about a little bit as well as we get older and those average ages of people dying. You don't want to be in that space. You want to live longer. You want to be healthier as you go forward. So you've made some of those changes from a habit standpoint that have been pretty powerful. So I appreciate that and I want to recognize you in front of the listeners as to the success you've had and I think it's bled over into your professional life as well Some of the things that you've changed.

Speaker 2: 12:59

So you're talking about, because I was. I was going to jump in and take over your podcast.

Speaker 1: 13:03

Oh yeah, so you could do that too.

Speaker 2: 13:05

I. I was actually thinking that the motivation some of the motivations actually started in a few years ago. Well, there were some health issues, for sure, but the biggest piece was I'm standing in front of crowds or I'm standing in front of a group of people leading a workshop and I wasn't feeling confident that I was actually doing what I was saying needed to be done Right. And so I took a personal challenge to say if I'm going to ask people to work on their mind, body and soul on a daily basis, I need to actually make sure I'm doing it. So a lot of the daily inspiration or motivation for me comes from being an example, and one of the things that I talk about in my workshop is that you know you really have to make sure you are the example, because that is the main way that you influence people. People are watching what you do. They will listen to you at times, but you're not really going to change someone's mind. You know that has to come from within someone else, but if they're inspired by your action and say, hey, I think I could do that, then you've just influenced them right Without telling them what to do, because none of us like to be told what to do. I mean, we can all look at our kids right and say, hey, we didn't like when our parents told us what to do, and our kids certainly don't like when we tell them what to do. It just doesn't work.

Speaker 1: 14:19

Right, Absolutely. It goes back to Montre over a year ago. No one solicited advice, right, In terms of what goes on. If we'll just model, you know people will catch it, I believe. I believe that as well, If we'll model the behaviors that folks are looking for and I think that's a tremendous way to look at it, because telling people I mean it's fun to share it on the podcast and say here's the three things you need to do, but really to your point, it's modeling it and you've done that really well. Let's shift that even into your work as well. So you went from a quality role it was more, a little more operational to a senior director role, promotion of the organization over a large number of people from an influential standpoint. So what's going on in that new role? Tell me a little bit about that and how you've really grown inside of that role as well.

Speaker 2: 15:04

Yeah, so you know our group. I have a pretty small team, but we we have a pretty big reach within our company and we work with the business units and the segments on their continuous improvement efforts. We own the process and the procedures, but it really gets down to more than that, because so many of the people in our space are also influential leaders. So, you know, one of the things I've done is worked with a lot of the leadership within our company to start working on how they become a better leader, to better influence others, to want to be better leaders and grow and understand just that continuous improvement mindset. And it's a challenge, right, because these are some of the things that are simple, not easy. You know, a lot of us know how to do things. We just maybe choose not to do them, or we think that leading and changing people's minds is going to be through direction. And you know, I love going back to John Maxwell's five levels of leadership and that is an eye-opening experience that I've also, on a personal, developed an engagement model that I work with my teams on in the workshop that really walks them through how leadership is the foundation and what's inside there, right? What's the influence and the values. How are you building relationships? How do you cast a vision? What are your strategy and what's the priorities? Right, and that's for you. And then I also talk about how it affects their team. And so it goes from that foundation of leadership up to the growth, right Back to the mind, body and soul and the growth every day. And then what are we doing from a daily perspective as far as developing as people, right? And then it all builds up to this engagement model. And there's so much statistics out there, so much data that really shows that having an engaged workforce is worth dollars, right, I mean, it's worth money. And if you have people inside a company excited about working there, the innovation comes, the teamwork comes, the ideas happen, the revenue comes in right, the margin improves. Everything just starts to move in your favor and it feels like a little bit of luck, but when you really dig into it, it really is, because people love what they're doing, right? So you've got to create that culture where you've got true engagement, you've got people that are really excited about what they're doing and they understand their impact on other people as leaders and everyone is a leader, right. So you can ask that question of who do you influence? And if somebody doesn't influence anybody, I don't know what room they're locked in, right? But everybody influences someone and most of the time, or much of the time, they don't realize, right? That's what I try to increase awareness about is that, even if you're not interacting with someone directly, they're watching. Somebody's watching you, right? Somebody's going to change their behavior because of you, for the good or bad, right. That's right for the good or the bad. Right could be either way right and you may actually say something, do something that changes a person's trajectory and you may never remember it. You might not remember it, but you may change their life. So you have to be really consistently cognizant of how you can change someone's life just by your behavior.

Speaker 1: 18:11

You may never know that exactly right, as you say, whether it's good or bad. And again, we could talk about the debate of our athletes professional athletes or professionals role models per se, but the fact is they do influence others and their behaviors, the activities that they perform and are going to influence others, and the fact that then they have that platform can make it pretty different. So having an engaged workforce, no doubt, is going to return dollars, it's going to return success to the organization. You talked about your engagement model, from the foundation of leadership up to the daily tasks that we do, the daily behaviors that we have daily, weekly and monthly to be successful. And you use this keyword culture inside of it, because my guess is the engaged workforce that you're talking about is not this traditional engagement survey question of an engaged workforce. So when you use that word culture, what does that mean to you in terms of how you talk about that in organizations?

Speaker 2: 19:09

Yeah, so it's a great question. So when I think about culture surveys right now they are there's something that's very needed in companies, but what I always try to remind folks is that a culture survey is not going to build culture for you. Right, it might give you some feedback, but I love to cast that vision that ultimately, what we'd like to see is that we've got such a strong positive culture in the company that we don't even need a survey anymore to find out what's going on because there's so much open communication. But your question really about the culture and how I talk about it, I go back probably a little bit over a year ago. I started thinking, you know, with us being engineers, I think a lot of times in math and equations, right.

Speaker 1: 19:45

And I was thinking about hey what is culture?

Speaker 2: 19:47

It really is kind of your behaviors and your values, right, and I like to think of values as at least being a constant in that equation. Not that everyone has the same values, but as a company you have to have core set of values and then you can have your personal values and there's got to be congruence there so you can pull values out of the equation. Just look at your culture as the behaviors, right, and then if you look at an individual level, your behaviors are defined by your habits. It's like, wow, we just went full circle, didn't we? So we take the sum of all your habits creates you right, defines you. So if you change your habits, you ultimately can change your culture. And I think a lot of times people don't draw that link. You'll hear sometimes, hey, we want this kind of culture, or go make this culture, but they don't really tell you how. And the how is really through understanding what your daily habits and behaviors are and are they aligned with the vision and the values that you have as a company. So I'm not going to say it's easy, but it's definitely something that's very feasible to adjust and once you have people understanding that, the culture that they want in the company is completely dependent on them and not some other group that's out there that's going to help develop a culture. It's like the accountability has got to be at the personal level. You know that's a game changer.

Speaker 1: 21:10

Hey listeners, I want to take a quick moment to share something special with you. Many of the topics and discussions we have on this podcast are areas where I provide coaching and consulting services for individuals and organizations. If you've been inspired by our conversation and are seeking a catalyst for change in your own life or within your team, I invite you to visit coachjohngallaghercom forward slash free call to sign up for a free coaching call with me. It's an opportunity for us to connect, discuss your unique challenges and explore how coaching or consulting can benefit you and your team. Okay, let's get back to the show. You and I have talked about that with regards to culture. When the culture seems to be going wrong, the engagement services are bad, then we'll bring in a consultant to help us answer that question. And while consultants may be able to do some evaluation, some assessment that goes along with that. I love the idea of the equation. That's the engineering geekiness inside of us. So the rate of change of your culture is going to be directly in proportion to the rate of change of the behaviors and the habits that the leaders in your organization, the individuals, put together. The values are given, but if you tolerate bad behaviors, then that's what you're going to get that rate of change going to be negative, and we can go and be sure that the culture is not going to go where we want it to go. So I'm curious, as you've tried to bring that message along. Maybe you have a story of a leader who's really kind of grabbed onto it and said, yeah, I want to keep going there. Do you have a winning story that you would want to share with regards to how that's going, because you're traveling the world to tell this story in your organization. Where are you winning?

Speaker 2: 22:48

Yeah, so, and without getting too specific, there are several right where I've gone to an organization and I work outside of just operations sometimes right, Get into some of the functions and it's transformational for people and I hear great feedback how impactful it's been. Or I'm going to go do this and now I'm going to change my behavior. I have now I mentor quite a few people that have come out of those workshops. Like I said, not going to get too specific on it, but I've got folks that is so interesting that are starting to read now every day, or they're exercising every day, or they're interacting with their families in a different way or at work. They actually start to see the value in how their behaviors affect others. And I have this expression out there where I say what are you leaving in your wake? And that really tries to get that story out there that you need to be aware of. After any interaction, how does that person feel? Right? We've all heard that expression around. People will remember how you have made them feel, but I always think, hey, when you leave that conversation, are they thinking I want to work harder or I'm going to look at LinkedIn and find another job, right? So you got to really be cognizant of that. So yeah, I've gotten some really great feedback and I think from your guidance I did so I'm started doing actually kind of solicited feedback after the workshops. Yes, I think it's transformational for a lot of people.

Speaker 1: 24:15

Yeah, I think about the. You know again, without getting too specific, real, actually can't share a lot of those specifics individuals or the organizations. The part that I heard that's really cool is the pool that you're creating as a result of it. That it's not just that you present it, you leave and you don't hear anything else. That you have people that are contacting you, that are following you, that are asking, hey, I want more. And that's that's what's really good. And what I truly appreciate, dave, about what you've done is you've taken you know what is this continuous improvement role and said this is really not about tools and techniques of lean transformation, but it's about behavioral change and it's about culture change inside the organization. How do we teach leaders the importance of making that change? So I know you're making a difference. I think it's really cool the way that you're approaching that and when you think about that personally. And again, you're still modeling that. So I'm going to shift it back to you again from the organization. You know what are some of the challenges personal challenges that you're having to overcome in that role right now in the role or just personally. No, both. I mean it can be. It can be out of one certainly. The role is probably. There's some overlapping circle with the role and what you're overcoming personally right now. What's going on?

Speaker 2: 25:28

Well, I think you know, one of the things that I always I like to share with folks is that you know I talk about a lot of these behaviors and changes, and I'll bring it back to my own personal challenges. This stuff's not easy, right? You know people go. Oh well, you're a morning person. That's why you get up at 430 in the morning. I'm going. No, my alarm goes off and I go. It's so not, I don't want to get out of bed, right, but I know that I'm going to feel in about two hours, I'm going to feel amazing, right, so the decision is not made when the alarm goes off, right, so that's still a challenge, though, or even from a health standpoint, you get around different types of things, and it's just tough to not eat these particular things, and we still do indulge. So, don't you know I don't starve myself by any stretch of that imagination. I think, from a work role or professional role, when you look at this kind of approach, okay, it sometimes is not viewed as direct enough, and it's so. It's a tough situation, right? You get into a big company and you know you're always looking for and I get it the business performance right, because you've got customers and shareholders and our employees right, which they're all equally important. But at the end of the day, you got to take care of the shareholders and take care of the company, right, but you've also got to take care of the employees, because they will take care of the shareholders and the customers, right? That's the main thing there. So the challenge is getting people to understand that we can have as many systems and processes and things in place. We can have documentation I like to use the analogy of its legislation right, you can have as many laws on the books as you want, it doesn't change behaviors. So you have to actually get that documentation in place, get the systems and processes in place and then work with people on alignment with their values and their behaviors. And how does that actually create? Whatever that output is, for the day or for the hour? Pick a timeframe right, could be by the minute. What decisions are you making based on your values and how are you behaving on a daily basis? How are you treating other people? How are you encouraging them? So I think that's a big challenge because, as humans, we think everything should just be direct, and I'll go back to the Maxwell levels of leadership. It's, hey, level one, leadership. I'm your boss, you have to do what I tell you or you're fired, right? And that's kind of where a lot of things start. And I'm not talking about my company specifically. You and I both have been working for 30 plus years, right, so I've seen it in all companies, and I started in the automotive industry, and it's there too. It's everywhere when people just don't understand that next level of the importance of building relationships with people in order to help influence them to be better people. Right, because better people make better employees, better people make better companies. Mike, sorry about that, it's just kind of another math equation, right. If you have people that are excited, they're constantly growing, they're constantly learning, the company can't do anything but get better, right, and so it seems simple, but that's probably one of the biggest challenges, and many people in kind of leadership roles probably run into similar things, I would imagine. Right, where the accountability maybe is not quite at the right level, and if you do go back and read extreme ownership, you get a great dose of that. And what I put on LinkedIn is I love books that pop you right in the face and wake you up and go okay, everything that happens within my organization or within my reach is my responsibility. And even if I didn't actually cause something to happen, it's my responsibility, right, there are no bad teams, just bad leaders. That's a tough pill, right. That's a tough pill to swallow, absolutely, because we want to initially say, oh, this person maybe is not performing or we're not getting the output that we desire. But as a leader, you have to go. What am I not doing, right? What's not happening, what am I missing and what can I do with this person? Now, you're always going to run into situations where, hey, somebody just doesn't have the desire to be a great employee, and you know, we all know how that ends up. But someone who just needs coaching or needs some education or needs an experience or some exposure, you know, as a leader, that's really your, that falls into your accountability, right?

Speaker 1: 29:46

Yeah, even a little encouragement, just say, hey, come on, you got this. I mean, it's something that really gets there. And you know, the quote that came to my mind is from another CEO that I used to work with, so, and friends of whether you'd say what part of the problem am I as the leader? If we can sit down and say what part of the problem am I in this, we can probably make an improvement all the way through. Dave, I would suspect that this is again focusing on you here. Maybe one more question. We're coming up on some time in terms of wanting your time when you're in a role of influence, like you are, and don't have direct responsibility, and that's probably in that book as well. You just talked through. You mentioned some of the things you've done in terms of mindset or mindfulness as well, and it's got to be times. I'm going to make this up. I don't want to put words in your mouth that you feel like am I really making the impact? Am I making the difference that I want to make? And there's some self doubt that creeps in. It's a natural thing. What are some let me call it disciplines maybe you use a different word, but what are some ways that you are able to exercise that mindset muscle, that mindfulness muscle that you would tell folks, when they get that feeling they can make a difference.

Speaker 2: 30:49

Well, let me. Let me reassure all the audience that that feeling happens all the time. I started incorporating a leadership session into our monthly network calls and every time before I do that, I'm like gosh, are people really listening or they really want to hear this? And I have to start having that self doubt and I get feedback, thankfully right, that says, hey, this was a great message. Thanks for sharing that, because I think part of it is because it's so unusual that we are talking about, you know, a leadership aspect or something that they can implement and be better employees or better people. So what do I do? It's a lot of. It is catching myself. It's the making sure that what I'm telling myself, what I'm letting myself listen to inside my mind, is positive. You know, and there's a great expression out there. It says don't believe everything you think right. So you have to catch yourself and not get into that downward spiral of letting the self doubt get the best of you. But it's there. I mean there's no way you can say, hey, you can't have self doubt or it'll never work. It doesn't work like that, right, the self doubts going to be there. And I heard a podcast last week where someone would say, hey, you just have to have to have a conversation with that self doubt and say I'm not going to listen to you right now and it's, that's maybe a little bit oversimplified, but it takes practice, right, it takes consistency, because we're never going to be in situations where everything is positive, everything is great. There's always going to be stress, there's always going to be challenges. We just have to make sure we keep that mindset to where, hey, I'm going to come up with a solution or we are going to come up with a solution. We're going to get through this and keep moving forward. So you know, for me, I love your question about the self doubt, because some people say, oh, imposter syndrome or things like that. We always hear Edmai Led talking about it and different folks. It's so reassuring to hear others saying it happens every day. Right, you know, I question everything. I do. I release those minute videos every morning and I just go what are people going to think? And then I just at some point have made the decision hey, my commitment was I was going to record a video every day. My commitment wasn't that I was going to worry about what other people thought about it. Right Doesn't mean I'm not worried about what other people think about it, but I might committed to do it. And I hear I have people go how do you do a video every day? I don't know it's a minute right. They're like, yeah, but then you have to come up with a topic. Yes, but I come up with topics all the time and I just keep notes in a, in a one note, or I'll text myself. You know, I have little habits where I'll come up with an idea and idea pops up ahead and I'll just text my other phone, because I have two phones. You know, use that quiet time to kind of come up with ideas. For me, mowing the grass is kind of my If you call it quiet time, right, where I do a lot of thinking and you'll see, my neighbors probably think I'm crazy. They'll see me stop and start texting something. I'm not texting someone else, I'm texting my other phone. An idea, right?

Speaker 1: 33:55

So You're not texting what you're texting yourself. You're like this guy we're in these big weights on his body while he's.

Speaker 2: 34:07

Ideas are fleeting right, so when you hear them in your head, you got to write them down or recorder or something.

Speaker 1: 34:13

So I here's what I heard anyway, because it's not easy, you're right. But first of all, well, I'll change the order decision. You got to make a choice, you know, because it's gonna happen. So you got to make a choice you're gonna do something about. And the decision is you said this earlier in the podcast the decision is not made when it pops up. You make the decision early on that you're not gonna be like that. The second point that I heard is awareness, that you've got to be aware when it's actually happening, when that negative Self-talk is creeping back in, but you've already made a decision to make it, to make you know, make those taught that self talk, bad self talk, go away and you're gonna tell us. And then the third is systems. So to be able to manage that, you Got to have the systems in place to help you to manage it on a daily basis. Those things are are Uber critical. I was reading you mentioned reading. I was reading a devotional recently. It's you know ways to handle adversity. And number four was don't be self-critical. He's you're said than done. I mean it's. It's easier said than done in terms of that self critical. We are really our best and worst enemies when it comes to talking to myself, so I appreciate you sharing that. I think the folks can really learn from that, because you know you got it together, dave. You've been successful as you continue to grow in a lot of different areas of your life and you got a ways to go that you're not perfect, so let's let's talk about that kind of finish up with that. Two years from now hopefully it's not two years from now we have you on the podcast again. What are we gonna talk? What will be able to talk about David Campbell two years?

Speaker 2: 35:41

Yeah, you know, john, I don't know the exact answer, right, because the the growth journey for me is daily and I get new ideas and new things pop up in front of me. I'm always looking for different opportunities at work and my you know, my current bosses know that I I love interacting with people and having as much of an impact on Others to understand their, their potential impact and how they can develop others. So I'm always looking for opportunities to maybe expand there. But yeah, I don't know exactly where I'm gonna end up. I just know that every day I'm gonna work on making myself better and and I have kind of this philosophy that I want to have as much impact as possible as I can positively on others that I interact with personally or the ones that see me on social media or just see me out somewhere. So I just keep that in my head, in front of me, and Just know that as I continue to grow, I'm setting an example, hopefully, and somebody's gonna see it and somebody's gonna be impacted by it. But you know, john, it's this. This is all about surrounding yourself with those kind of people as well, right, you know, and we can do that through reading we do through podcasts. We have our accountability group with your spouse. You know I look at what like, for example. You know Susan. You've known Susan for almost as long as I have, probably within minutes. You know she's a great influence on me as well because she, I say, be bold. She's, she's the brave bold one in our family, believe it or not, right, that is so willing to put herself out there and do things like that. And I just watch her and tell her almost every day how courageous she is and she's like what do you mean? I'm like you just don't understand how much you are influencing me, because you are bold and courageous in ways that I'm not Right. You know what. She will talk to people that I would never talk to, or say something to somebody who I wouldn't say that you know. So we all have our strengths and weaknesses and we have to balance it and then understand where we can learn how to grow. And when you watch someone else be bold, it makes it so much easier to be bold yourself, right, and kind of go hey, they didn't, they didn't worry about what that person thought and they just did it and it happened. And then boom, it's done, it's, it's fantastic, right?

Speaker 1: 37:49

So she got to do it, you got to take action. Yep, and you may. You may have just answered my last question, dave, as I appreciate you invest in the time with the listeners young common leader podcast today. I think there's gonna be significant value Once folks listen all the way through. But I'll give you one more chance. The same chance ahead last time two years ago, and you get a chance really to. I'm gonna give you the billboard again two years from now. You get a chance to give advice you know to the groups that you're saying what and I give you that billboard. You can put it wherever you want to.

Speaker 2: 38:16

What does it?

Speaker 1: 38:16

say on that billboard right now, and why? What are you telling folks?

Speaker 2: 38:19

Yeah, you know it's funny, John is. Two years ago, I think I told you step on the gas, right. This this time I don't know if I could get it all on billboard around. Keep it like four words. It's you know. It's be bold and take action. Right, it's. You know, you're always gonna second guess yourself, you're always gonna be worried about what other people think, but you just have to do it right and just try something and then you're gonna learn, right. You're either gonna you know you're gonna learn something great or you're gonna learn a lesson, right, maybe gain some wisdom out of it. It's a direction, but yeah, so, just yeah, be bold and take action. Be bold and take action. It may be not even big action, right, you know? I think that's one of the things we've learned from atomic habits is that so many people look for the big, huge vision and try to take it on in one day or a week or a month, and a lot of times, the, the delayed Response where that, you know it's the, the well, what's the word I'm trying to think of with the compound effect, right? So it's basically that delayed. It could take years, right? But you have to understand and believe in yourself that if I'm doing the right things in a year, two years, three years, I'm gonna be really happy with what I did, and that's where we, we finally fall short with patience, right.

Speaker 1: 39:36

Yeah, we want it now. We want that. I want that pill that's gonna fix it for us. Now it's not, doesn't work that way.

Speaker 2: 39:41

So does not work that way and you see that a lot in Advertising of things that are happening out there in different industries where instead of making a disciplined decision, people would Take a pill right. You know it happens. It happens, David.

Speaker 1: 39:55

Campbell, I appreciate you, your friendship, I appreciate your modeling, what you're doing right now to Grow and make a difference, and what you're doing and you are making a difference. And thank you for sharing with the listeners of the uncommon leader podcast. I hope you do well, brother.

Speaker 2: 40:10

John always enjoy conversations with you. Thank you so much. And that wraps up another episode of the uncommon leader podcast.

Speaker 1: 40:16

Thanks for tuning in today. If you found value in this episode, I encourage you to share it with your friends, colleagues or anyone else who could benefit from the insights and inspiration We've shared. Also, if you have a moment, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback not only helps us to improve, but it also helps others discover the podcast and join our growing community of uncommon leaders. Until next time, go with. Grow champions.